Daniel Gwynn Blog Update

Date: 3/6/15

Subject: "The Mentality of The Administration"

The mentality of the Administration/Unit Management we have to deal with boggles the mind. Every year or so, we are issued an Inmate Handbook that outlines the general rules/policy/operating procedures. In the section pertaining to Strip Searches it states, in part: "You MAY BE STRIP SEARCHED, WHEN NECESSARY, for the security and safe operation of the facility." It then goes on to list why & when an inmate shall be subjected to a strip search. No where does it state that an inmate shall be strip searched every time he exits his cell. When confronted with this policy, DC-ADM 203 D.12 Searches of Inmates and Cells, the staff counters by referring to a 6.5.8 policy that then refers to a 6.5.1 policy that we are not permitted to review due to security reasons. These non-public security policies utilized to control & thwart the Capital Case prisoners' legitimate grievances concerning the conditions of their confinement and the policy practices beg to be questioned. I'm being denied Due Process as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, for I have protected liberty interest in avoiding the hardships of being excessively stripped searched, and to challenge a policy practice that causes atypical & significant hardships. We are unable to effectively review & contest the nature, application & interpretation of this 6.5.1 policy to insure that it actually serves a legitimate penological interest. With each new administrator, unit manager or guard, history shows that they've all came to interpret policies applied to capital cases in their own fashion; often designed to their ill-will, causing atypical & significant hardships--some developed mental illness & physical illnesses. Our complaints & grievances fall upon deaf ears, and often the regurgitated response is, "It's policy, and there's nothing we can do to change it." They know that their actions are wrong but prove deliberately indifferent to our plight. How is it that ll of these officials up & down the chain of command are not able to see & correct the real problems we face and not some imagined scenario used to justify their actions? They're always claiming to be fixing things, so why don't they?

Daniel Gwynn