www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, July 2004Beating covered upParchman, Miss.--In the early hours of Nov. 24, 2003, inmate Christopher Smiley, a psychiatric patient who suffered from many illnesses, threw urine on a female officer named Bertha Rimpson. Afterwards, he was removed from his cell and taken to a suicide management cell where he was beaten for ten minutes by officers Rimpson, Morgan, Forrest, Deer, Williams and Little. He was badly bruised all over his back, shoulders, and one of his arms. Two days later, while he was stripped and in the management cell, he hanged himself. The day before he had mailed a letter to his aunt telling her, as best he could, what happened. He told her he was in fear for his life. She contacted the NAACP. When they confronted Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps, he denied that Smiley was beaten and said that he sustained the injuries because he fell down while he was in restraint gear. He also told this lie to the biggest newspaper in Mississippi, THE CLARION-LEDGER. One morning about two months ago, officer Rimpson threatened my whole tier by saying, "I'm going to start pissing in ya'll's food." Also, since the incident, she has been walking around telling other inmates in this building, "Hang yourself,""Kill yourself," and "You'll be next." She seems proud of the incident. When officer Little saw Smiley's body after he hanged himself, he laughed out loud. I complained to officials in the prison about officer Rimpson's threats. (I couldn't complain to officials about the beating and hanging because I was not on the same tier he was when it happened. Everything that I just said about the beating was told to me by officers and inmates.) I also wrote the Mississippi Ethics Commission. They referred my letter to the Internal Affairs department here. The head of I.A. and the woman who investigated Smiley's beating and death talked to me. They would not discuss officer Rimpson's threats; all they did was try to convince me that Smiley was never beaten. When I told her that everyone knows what happened (which is true; all the guards readily admit what happened and have had conversations with me and with other inmates about it), she told me that it didn't happen. I asked her to tell me what really happened and she gave me no response. The prison staff is supposed to be here to make sure that inmates don't escape or cause themselves or others any harm; they aren't here to beat and threaten them. Prison officials are aware of everything that happened, but there is still no justice for Mr. Smiley, his family, and inmates who have to live with threats and the fear that they, as Rimpson said, will "be next." --Parchman inmate |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
