Denied Medicine, Location Unknown: Urgent Update on Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

Rashid was transferred from Reception and Medical Center to Florida State Prison, we learned from a letter written on July 17 and received July 24.

Rashid was thrown in solitary, called Close Management (CM), accused of being a “gang leader,” in retaliation for his prison writings publicizing prison abuses in Virginia, Oregon, Texas, and Florida. (He details this, including an official memo admitting his writings are the reason he is being targeted, in a recent article on his website.) While waiting for a hearing on this classification at RMC on July 12, he collapsed, and was sent to hospital, dehydrated, with blood pressure problems.

A second hearing was scheduled for July 14, the main concerns of the prison hearing officers being Rashid’s articles about abuses posted on the website and the resulting complaints by the public.
The hearing was held with the officer Polk stating that Rashid had no rights and that public protests made his writings inflammatory! He was ordered to Close Management. He was transferred to Florida State Prison that same night. Rashid was not provided his prescribed medications despite being assured by the prison nurse Johnson that he would receive them. He was warned to stop requesting the meds and threatened for asking. From July 14 through July 17 he was not given his meds, nor was his blood pressure monitored as had been ordered.

We are once again asking supporters to take a few moments to make some phone calls, to inquire about Rashid’s wellbeing; is he receiving meds; and to demand to know why he is being classified as security risk solely on the basis of his writings:

Call the Barry Reddish, the Warden at Raiford: 904 368-8699
Call the Florida office in Tallahassee, Patrick Finan 850 7171-3222

Who Is Kevin “Rashid” Johnson?

Rashid is Minister of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (Prison Chapter); he is a Virginia prisoner organizer and revolutionary communist. As a result of his organizing he has been repeatedly transferred out of state, under a setup called the “Interstate Compact” which is used to remove rebellious prisoners and exile them to locations where they have no friends, support, etc. For the past four years Rashid was being held in Texas, where he was beaten, threatened, had his property confiscated,  was set up on bogus infractions, and more — nonetheless, he used his time there to forge connections with other prisoners and to write a series of powerful exposés about violence, medical neglect, abuse, and murder in the Texas prison system. (To see these articles: http://rashidmod.com/?tag=texas-prison-conditions)

As a direct result of his writings, he was transferred to Florida on June 23rd. To read his own account of this transfer, see his recent article “I’m Off to Florida and a New Phase of Reprisals for Publicizing Abuses in U.S. Prisons“.

Florida has been given the task of silencing Rashid: it is our task to make sure this does not happen!

Writing to Rashid

The Close Management (CM) classification means that Rashid doesn’t appear in the Florida inmate locator, although since he writes that he is in Raiford, we can write to him there.

Mr. Kevin Johnson #158039
P.O. Box 800
Florida State Prison
Raiford, FL 32083

We can also write him at the Florida office where they say they’ll forward his mail: A reason for also using the ICC Unit address is that the direct info from Rashid was sent on 7/17, whereas the FSP warden’s office stated on 7/24 that he had been sent to an undisclosed location.

Mr. Kevin Johnson #158039
ICC Unit
501 S. Calhoun St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500

As the situation remains in flux, we recommend sending a copy of letters to both places.