Saturday, 22 July 2023

D.C. Central detention facility officers harass and mentally torture J6 political prisoner

 An American political prisoner who got convicted and sentenced to 8.5 years in the federal "prison camp" is being harassed and mentally tortured by correctional officers in the female maximum-security jail of the DC Central Detention Facility after being found "guilty of Seditious Conspiracy."

For what crime, one may ask? Jessica Watkins peacefully protested the stolen election at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. She did not threaten anyone, did not vandalize anything, encouraged others not to vandalize, spoke with several police officers inside the Capitol, and followed their orders.

Calling from the gulag-style prison, Watkins told "Flip The Switch" podcast host Jennifer Baker her nightmare to raise public awareness about the torturous abuses.

"Jessica Watkins, a DC gulag political prisoner, called me today telling me that she is tired of the abuses she has been going through since being moved to maximum security at the DC Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF)," Baker wrote in an article. According to the host, Watkins said that they were told about many tactics the DOC staff use on these prisoners.

"Everything from the Diesel Therapy, ridiculous amounts of solitary confinement, 100*+ heat while in the hole, no visits for 2 years, to tainting of food or just plain not providing proper nutrition," the political convict told her.

Baker also revealed that Watkins is housed with the worst of the worst and stays inside her cell most days by herself. The staff also made sure she would no longer mingle with other inmates that she has been friends with.

What is worse is that Biden's Department of Justice announced last week they are appealing the sentences of several prominent J6 defendants including Watkins to add even more to their already harsh sentences.

A chronicle of prisoner maltreatment

According to Baker, a certain correctional officer, CPL. Pryor, makes Watkins feel especially harassed mentally and emotionally, given the "unfair" situation the prisoner is currently in.

"She 'accidentally' calls Jessica by male pronouns. Jessica is in the women's jail and to look at or talk to her you would not make that mistake," Baker pointed out, detailing how this particular officer came into her cell and search without a body camera on. A surveillance video was also available showing how Pryor settled on a picture of Watkins' pet fish, that the former ripped down, put it in her jacket then left the cell. She gave it back to Watkins after the latter protested noisily, but it was all damaged.

Pryor is not the only one mistreating Watkins, Baker disclosed. Another one named CO CPL Warren locked her out of her cell on July 6 and demanded she stay out until she finished doing her rounds. However, Watkins is on "water pill" medications. She needs to use the restroom often and there is no communal bathroom in the POD, so she had to "hold it" for a long time. When Watkins wrote a grievance letter about this, the facility management just returned her paperwork.

Because of everything she's been undergoing, her anxiety has become increasingly worse. On laundry day on July 10, the CO refused to take her laundry for cleaning and she would have no clean clothes for another week. She admittedly started to break down because of all the bad treatments and solitary confinement. She came to a point where she was inflicting self-harm, which a certain Lt. Hines recorded on a body cam. "I was never taken to mental health or a doctor for my grievous self-inflicted injuries. They just kept me locked in my cell and left me like that," Watkins further exposed.

As if all that was not enough, they sent her to a doctor, who put her in an isolation cell for half of the day and advised: "Needs Jesus, before sending her back to her unit."

But the real breaking point was the reason why Baker wrote an article to expose the abuses and torturous treatment of Watkins. "At 2:30 a.m. CPL Pryor kicked Jessica’s cell door making the bright overhead light come on in her cell. Jessica could hear Pryor laughing when she did this. Jessica yelled and banged on her door for at least a half hour before the light was finally turned off. Her mental strength is being tried at every level. She doesn't know what can be done or know what the answer is to get through this, but she does want people to be aware of her struggle. She has written numerous grievance reports to which nothing is done," the podcaster revealed.

On May 26, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Watkins, a day after he sentenced Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in federal prison and Florida Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs to 12 years. Metha would not allow Watkins or her co-defendants to cross-examine the fraudulent fed informants who lied about her during the trial.  

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