Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Transferred Out of Estelle – Still Being Denied His Property Two Months After Leaving Oregon!
Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, Minister of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (Prison Chapter), has been transferred again.
As many of you may be aware, Rashid has been moved between six different prisons over the past two years. Although a Virginia prisoner, under something called the Interstate Compact Agreement, he has been sent across the country and back again – and has been mistreated at every stop along the way: threatened, targeted for beatings, denied needed medical attention, kept in various degrees of solitary confinement, etc.1 This is a direct result of his ongoing documentation of the abysmal prison conditions that exist across the United States, most of which can be read on his website rashidmod.com
In June, Rashid was transferred from Oregon to Texas, where he was assaulted by staff on three separate occasions, all within a day of his arrival. The violence Rashid experienced, and witnessed, at the Estelle Unit is documented in his article The Texas Department of Cowboy Justice: A Case of Lawless Law Enforcement. (The broader culture of violence and impunity that reigns at Estelle has been examined in a recent article on Truthout: Beatings and Threats: Odyssey of a Prisoner-Advocate, From Virginia to Texas.)
Outside supporters have been informed that Rashid has now been transferred once again, this time to the Clements Unit in Amarillo, Texas. Although this may seem like a victory, as Rashid is now out of reach of the guards and prison staff who abused him at Estelle, any such impression will likely prove unwarranted. Rashid himself has written in a recent letter to supporters, “To the extent that you all’s hassling them prompted this transfer, I’m thankful – although from what I’m told, conditions here are no better than at the Estelle Unit.”
While we wait to see what happens at Clements, our priority at this point is that Rashid regain access to his personal belongings.
When he was transferred from Oregon to Texas in June, some 41 boxes of personal belongings were supposed to follow. Any property that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was unwilling to allow Rashid to have, was supposed to be transferred to the Virginia Department of Corrections. Furthermore, Rashid was supposed to receive his legal documents that he requires for his lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Corrections. So far none of this has been done, and Rashid is increasingly concerned about what has happened to his property – literally, everything he owns in the world.
Please telephone Virginia Interstate Compact Coordinator Terry Glenn (804-887-7866) and ask why Kevin Johnson (VDOC #1007485) has not yet received any of his property. It has been two months since Rashid was transferred from Oregon, and if he does not get his property soon, this will directly impact his ability to conduct his lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Corrections.
For more information, see the website rashidmod.com
Write Rashid at his new address:
Kevin Johnson #1859887
Clements Unit
9601 Spur 591
Amarillo, TX 79107
[Make sure a first and last name are clearly printed in the return address section of the envelope or your mail will be returned.]
- The Interstate Compact Agreement is an accord between different states that allows them to transfer prisoners to one another. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s 2006 publication Interstate Transfer of Prison Inmates in the United States, this is generally done to alleviate overcrowding, but also to “reduce the risk [prisoners] pose to the safety and security of their facility operations,” to provide “post-incident or disturbance cool-down,” and “to manage cases of conflict between staff and inmates.” Some states make greater use of the ICA, for instance, in 2005 California had over 500 prisoners being held out-of-state. That same year, at the other extreme, Virginia had only 3 prisoners being held out-of-state – a figure that underscores the fact that Rashid’s transfer was a targeted political decision. [↩]
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