Mother of an incarcerated son: D.R. (Disciplinary Report)

As stated in a previous blog (Psalms 91) my son has been relocated to another prison due to what he labeled an inmate uprising but of course the prison system calls it a riot. This would be riot #2 that has caused my son to be relocated. Needless to say after the initial letter advising of the relocation there wasn't any more correspondence for over a week. Anyone who knows me knows that when I don't hear from my son for over a week I get a little beside myself. **MOVING FORWARD: I received another letter advising that a D.R. (disciplinary report) hearing had taken place for the inmates that the prison says took part in the "uprising" and they were given 60 days "in the box" also known as solitary confinement and loss of gain time. Gain time is the time they receive for good behavior, I believe it's 5 days per month that gets taken off of their original sentence that will allow them to come home earlier than expected. Unfortunately, this was not an unusual occurrence because my son has been in trouble before BUT what was unusual and set off the "MAMA" alarm was the fact he asked me to call Tallahassee. He said the accounts of the "uprising" were not accurately given by the guards and he was looking at some serious consequences to possibly include close management as a result. This caused an internal uprising of my own! I called Tallahassee for the Secretary of Appeals office (Kenneth Tucker contact) whose office passed me over to the Head of Classification at which point I was told to call Madison CI and speak to my son's Classification Officer (C.O.) and I did. I spoke with Dante's C.O., Ms. Tompkins and gave her the scoop. What my son explained in his letter was the same thing his C.O. explained - D.R.'s are generalized. The same report description is given for ALL inmates that take part in any incident and the guards just change the name and inmate number. So in other words the typed report is the same report for everyone, not an actual account of each inmates actions...

...which in my opinion is WRONG but who am I? Just the mother of an incarcerated son....moving along. I explained to Ms. Tompkins that my son said there were orders being given by more than one guard, one yelled get on the floor and another yelled get in your bunks. When one inmate attempted to get up he was wrestled to the ground with his face hitting the hard floor and handcuffed. The report also says my son got up and put his tennis shoes on when he indeed was shipped out AS IS in prison slides. Ms. Tompkins patiently and politely explained what my son needed to do to appeal. These things I'd never been a part of so it was a very different conversation for me. I learned something new today...the prison system grievance process. She made my troubled, wondering, anxious mind calm completely down. I so appreciate her for that and thanked her before ending the conversation. Everything she advised me to tell me son I put in a letter and mailed to him immediately and to make his trouble mind and heart ease up a little I sent him some gifts...ones that he will LOVE AND CHERISH more than anything.

Thank you all again for your prayers. God bless