June 26, 2018

Mr. John Palmer, Assistant Regional Director:
Need to address some serious issue with you, for which I hope and pray you will take immediate action on. Some of which you and I spoke about last year, and is currently being ignored. Here we go.

1.) As you know, UCI P-Dorm Death Row Housing is a dorm that is EXTREMELY HOT! It is in all reality a sweat box during the summer months! Due to the metal roof and concrete outside the windows, combined with 90 and 100 degree temperatures, these cells are over 100 degrees. That in of itself is unsafe.

Then we have improper heating ventilation, which is constitutional deprivation, for which they were designed. These vents in P-Dorm are not functioning in the manner for which they were designed. For instance, the blower vents located over the bed is stuck in the on position on three wing, but is not on any other wings. The big exhaust vents located in the center of the back wall doesn't pull air like it was designed to do and once did back in 1992 when death row was moved into this building. The exhaust vent over the toilet doesn't work at all.

We're dealing with extremely high temperatures and inadequate ventilation.

2.) In July 2017, you and I went into the col. office and spoke about these regional on-sight cell inspections, and the Class A and C uniforms. and how we should only have to go into Class A once ya'll come on to the wing.

On Tuesday, June 12, 2018, cell inspection was announced by Sgt. Baily at 8:22 am. We were ordered into our Class A uniform, where we sat for three hours and twenty-two minutes. At 11:44 am, they walked by. This was repeated again on Thursday, June 21, 2018, for three hours and twenty-four minutes. This shuts down our daily routine. No legal work can be accomplished, no writing, no printing, no exercising. No, we have to sit here in the heat in Class A waiting on a facade of an inspection that may or may not happen. On several occasions we've sat here from 8 am till 3 pm before staff called it off.

You know as well as I do that death row is the most laid back, well-behaved inmates in the FDOC. We are a status like no other. We're confined in a 9'x7', 63 square foot cage indefinitely with the threat of being murdered looming over us daily. This cage is our world, our daily existence, with the exception of recreation twice a week—if we're lucky.

These cages are BRUTAL. They tear us down mentally and physically! Most of us maintain our sanity—what little we still have—by trying to keep to a daily routine. Doing legal work on our case, writing letters or poetry, painting, and exercising in this cage since we don't get enough out-of-cell recreation. All we're doing is trying to maintain our sanity yet we have administrators coming back here throwing our lives and daily routines into chaos with these fraudulent inspections. From what I see, they're trying to incite inmates to revolt over verbal and written orders that aren't governed by 33-Fla. Admin Codes.

We have to stay on point or face disciplinary action, which is hard to do when you have your earbuds listening to music or TV (see attached June 22, 2018 memo threatening disciplinary action, when 33-601.301 states disciplinary measures will be a last resort). This uncalled for directive resulted in what i'm hearing is ten disciplinary reports on June 21, 2018 and one strip cell.

Think about a zoo. You go by and stare at the animals in their cages. Well, that's what these inspections feel like. See if you can make us do tricks in our tiny cages. There's no real inspection taking place. If there was, the following issues would have been addressed:

A.) Excessive heat and inadequate ventilation.
B.) Mold and mildew in the vents, showers, and cells.
C.) Structural damage to P-Dorm where the walls and floors are separating from each other, leaving large gaps in between cell walls and floors. Ceilings cracking and sinking in. See 4 Wing, right side, bottom floor, in front of the shower; 4 left, bottom floor, outer wall; the concrete blocks aren't even sitting on the foundation. And it's like that in parts all over P-Dorm.
D.) Toilets not having backup valves and spewing urine, feces, and raw sewage into cells. This is a very serious biohazard issue that has been an ongoing problem since this building opened in 1992. You may wake up in the middle of the night to use the toilet and step in someone's sewage from upstairs. Or come in from the rec yard to find raw sewage all over your floor.
E.) Ant infestations, roach infestations, spiders (some of which are poisonous), and mosquitoes (which carry West Nile and other deadly viruses).
F.) Bunks, shelves, lockers, vents, and cell bars that are covered in rust, which can result in tetanus, a seriously infectious disease that is often fatal.
G.) Issues with a black oily substance that appears from time to time in our sink water. Could it be the culprit behind the high cancer rate in P-Dorm?

When we look at these issues, which are serious and can be easily verified, the only conclusion that can be reached is that our current regional on-sight inspections are a facade that causes chaos and tension between staff and inmates. It makes us look and feel like an observed trick animals in cages while serious health and safety issues continue to be ignored. A. through G. need to be dealt with.

I also hope you can and will assist us with the following issues:

3.) Recreation. As stated above, continuous confinement is mentally and physically detrimental to our wellbeing. 33-601.830 Sec(7)(j) guarantees us a minimum of six hours a week of recreation. It's being jammed into two three-hour sessions, which can and has resulted in us being locked down for four, five, and even six days straight without a break from this cell. We need the exercise. We need rec time to be divided throughout the week to eliminate longterm confinement.

Secondly, we need to be given showers after recreation, which used to be the protocol here and still is at FSP due to your directive. If you go to rec on a non-shower day, you get a shower at FSP which is a hygiene issue. I pray you help us out with this.

4.) We have an issue with sleep deprivation and lighting that needs to be addressed. Every 30 minutes throughout the night, the hall lights are turned on when the officers do their 30 minute checks. This was not due to your directive. FSP staff used flashlights, which has been the protocol for decades, and flashlights are sufficient for wing checks. When the control room officer turns the hall lights on, he often forgets to turn them off, which results in an inmate screaming for them to turn them off. Blah, blah, blah. So if the light didn't wake up, the inmate did.

Furthermore, UCI P-Dorm uses lights as punishment for disciplinary confinement cells. P-4102 through 4114 has had the light switches removed, and the inmates have to endure bright fluorescent lights in this heat from 5 am till 11:30 pm, 18 1/2 hours a day. It makes you psychologically hotter in these cells when you're already dealing with hight temperatures and humidity. On top of that, they don't have their fans so it's even hotter. That's pure torture!

We need these things addressed here:
A.) Hall lights no longer used for wing checks.
B.) Light switches to be put back in the DC cells, cells 4102 through 4114,
C.) CD to be allowed fans due the extreme heat back here in P-Dorm.

I hope you can and will assist me with this, and improve the conditions here. There are other issues but, to cover all the problems, it would be 10 pages. So I tried to break it down to the most serious. I thank you very much for your time and help.

Sincerely,
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Ronald W. Clark Jr. 812974
Union Correctional Insitution
P.O. Box 1000
Raiford, FL 32083