Last night at around 10pm correctional officers approach the cell that I’m held captive in solitary confinement in and said I needed to pack up my stuff because I am being shipped out to Old Colony Correctional Center. I told them that I am refusing this unlawful move do to the fact that I have underlying medical issues, The prison they want to transfer me to has had a Covid-19 and coronavirus outbreak. There are no cases here in Gardner, so due to my health, I will respectfully refuse to move to that unsafe place.
They came back to my cell with riot gear on and gassed me.
Yesterday, my brother Adrian went to the State prison in Garder Massachusetts to do a wellness check on me, (his younger brother) seeing that I had already been in solitary confinement for more than 30 days for feeding other prisoners during this pandemic. He was told by on duty sergeant in the lobby that he was trespassing and needed to leave the property immediately as he radioed in some call over his walkie. Adrian then began leaving the property and was immediately approach by another officer with a Gun on his person. Adrian told that officer that he was here for a wellness check on his brother, that officer also told Adrian to leave the property. The officer with the gun, drove a vehicle to follow Adrian off the property.
I finally experienced this new chemical that they’ve developed to spray us with. it’s pretty excruciating. it completely shuts your lungs down and it feels like there’s a hole being burned straight through the middle of your chest. i’ve never coughed so hard in my life. imagine inhaling maybe a half cup of black pepper straight into the lungs, not swallowing but breathing it in through the mouth. the burn and the continuous increase of the pain… that on top of coughing, choking, and spitting up all of the mucus you can handle. the cough is so hard and loud — it’s the hardest cough you’ll ever push out because your body rejects the stuff so violently — and at the end of each violent cough, you’re forced to take a breath in, which causes you to take in another round of gas. your eyes are glued shut because it feels like your eyeballs are being melted into your skull with a torch, so your body doesn’t allow you to open them. on top of all the pain and suffering your body’s going through on the inside, your skin feels like someone doused you with gas and lit a match. that’s what i went through last night.
I don’t understand how that kind of pain works within the so-called rehabilitative environment. it didn’t rehabilitate me or make me respect authority, it just made me angry to see how they wanted to do me harm. i didn’t like the white men in riot gear standing over me, having fun at my expense. but my head’s up, i’m okay and i’m strong. i’m just pissed off.
— Wayland Coleman
