Secretary Carr told lies and exaggerated his accomplishments in this video and in responses to our calls and emails.
1. Reducing the prison population. He’s fudging some numbers, but more importantly the population continued gradually rising under his watch until March of 2020 when it began a slow decline in response to the COVID19 emergency. That response has not met the emergency.
More than 1/3 of Kevin’s captives (8,458) have tested positive. The prisons are still overcrowded, making social distancing impossible, and at least one prison, in Racine (RCI) ran out of isolation beds. Kevin downplays by counting 7,222 people who tested positive as “inactive” because time has passed since the test. Scientists do not know the true length of COVID19 infections, many people’s symptoms recur or last longer. Given horrific prison healthcare standards, some people still experiencing symptoms likely fall into the 7,222 labelled “inactive.”
We suspect the population reduction will not last past COVID. It is important to note that in late July, the DOC population rose again for a few weeks. That is, in the middle of the pandemic and following the George Floyd rebellion, while the country was experiencing a national reckoning about racial injustice, Kevin was unable to maintain his meagre decarceration efforts.
2. Revocation policy. Kevin is referring to the fact that 40% of prison admissions are initiated by his community supervision (DCC) staff through crimeless revocations. DCC agents work for Kevin Carr. Their revocation practices have been his to change since January of 2019. Advocates meet with him, the Governor, and various DCC officials repeatedly, since their first months in office, but it’s not until November 2020 that Kevin proposes (doesn’t enact, just talks about) the first steps to change it. Those first steps do not include stopping all crimeless revocations. They do not include counting vested street time to prevent DCC agents from extending people’s sentences. They do not include a commitment to closing MSDF, a prison built to accommodate the revocation zeal of Milwaukee DCC agents. They do not include clemency for people unjustly revocated under the previous policy. Those are all things that Carr and Evers can do, but aren’t.
3. Make 1000 more people eligible for earned release. This program is supposed to let some people out early if they meet certain criteria. The changes were first announced at a September virtual townhall, but will not be implemented until 2021, if at all. Again, these are changes he could have made long ago. He also makes it sound like this is 1000 releases, but expanding eligibility for this program also does not garauntee expanded releases. The DOC staff in the Bureau of [slur removed] Classification and Movement (BOCM) and Program Review Committees (PRC) get to choose who of the eligible people are also considered “suitable.” Many BOCM and PRC staff are deeply committed to and financially benefitting from Wisconsin’s high prison population. Guards also have the ability to interfere with a captive’s eligibility for release.
Advocates for people sentenced under the old law (who need BOCM, PRC, and clean incident records when they go before the parole board) are familiar with their obstruction. The PRC denies access to programming, BOCM blocks security classification changes, and guards increase harassment to provoke or fabricate incident reports. Every mechanism that involves the considerations of DOC bureaucrats should be met with skepticism.
4. Kevin also repeatedly shouted “we’re doing everything we can.” Which is definitely not true. There are mechanisms that bypass this obstructive bureaucracy: clemency and sentence commutation. Governors of other states have used these mechanisms, aggressively, in response to the pandemic, and even before it.
Kevin Carr cannot grant clemencies, but Governor Evers can, and Kevin can publicly urge him to do so.
Here’s how you you can help:
-Contact Secretary Carr’s office 608-240-5065 kevin.carr@wisconsin.gov
– use the suggested script in the video, or feel free to improvise. There is no requirement to be polite with Kevin, he is killing people.
-Share this video and encourage others to make the call.
-Learn more about the prison system. It is a part of all of our lives, most of us don’t even know it. Get a penpal, find an advocacy organization to join, or just do some research and take informal direct action. Embrace and explore abolition!
Thank you,
some abolitionists.
Please post! Thanks!
Shared email!
Check this out! An employee whom read my email to you (in passing) sarcastically informed me that the time line I gave you regarding these two brothers (Tony Winston & Clarence Givins) death was incorrect. Instead of it being 3 weeks ago it was actually over this past weekend they died. Not that it matters what day it was because its still not going to change the reality that they are no longer amongst the living. If the focus was more on SCI Officials preventing from bringing the virus in the institution than being concern about what I’m telling you about what’s going on in here that’s causing people to die, then the virus wouldn’t be in here in the first place. I politely thanked her for her information anyway and kept it moving.
It amazes me how people take offense to the truth when they realize their doing something wrong, but that goes to show you the mentality of some people that have their own interest at heart. Anyone in their right mind knows that if you select to come to work anyway just to clock in while knowing you have symptoms of COVID and putting people at risk of dying, then your a direct contribution to everyone that die in this institution as a result of you being selfish. So to not require staff to be tested every day they walk in this institution to try to save money is putting the value of money over a human being life and indicates that you value inmates life less just because we’re in prison.
The whole point of them stopping our physical visits was to prevent the virus from coming in the institution, but then to not take a vigorous measure to prevent staff from bringing the virus in the institution by require daily testing of staff is an insincere effort to prevent the virus from coming in this institution and only appears to be addressing the virus issue at the inmates convenience and expense.
So bro. (Ben Turk), I commend you for standing up in our behalf and attempt to get these people to realize the risk and jeopardy they have us facing without any assurance of knowing that we are not going to be the next one rolled out of here to the hospital and into a body bag as a result of their failure to protect inmates from being exposed to this virus from staff.
Clearly their actions that are resulting in inmates death are no less than murder to know a threat to life exist but failing to take the necessary measures to avoid us from being exposed to the virus by requiring staff mandatory every day testing of
COVID 19 to prevent staff from bringing the virus in this prison environment. Thanks Ben Turk for your concern. Hopefully more people will help you join this fight against inhumane treatment. Fourteen people died who didn’t have to die but I haven’t seen the news report any of the prison deaths yet. Real Talk!
BY SHAKIR (Terry L. Jackson)
From an incarcerated friend who heard about the video and action…
Please post! Thanks!
Shared Email
BEN TURK V. KEVIN CARR FIND LINK TO VIDEO ON YOUTUBE OR AT ABOLISHMKE.NOBLOGS.ORG BY SEARCHING FOR “KEVIN CARR HIDING BODIES? (ABOLITIONISTS CONFRONT DOC SECRETARY)”
Ben Turk (Abolitionist) confronts Kevin Carr by holding him responsible and accountable for the death of inmates who died under his watch as the Department Of Corrections Secretary. You can look at the video of this confronting at “YouTube” or at “Abolishmke.noblogs.org” where it shows Mr. Carr being confronted with body bags and questioned for his and his boss (Mr. Evers) failure to reduce the prison population during the threat of this pandemic.
With such a deadly disease spreading throughout the united states and taking human lives by the thousands with inmates being entrapped in an excessive overcrowded prison that this type of disease thrive on, you would think common sense would provide DOC officials with the compassion to reduce the prison population by 50% (as was promise by Mr. Evers) to avoid and prevent as many human casualties as possible from this highly contagious disease.
Instead, DOC selects to do nothing about the excessive overcrowding that prevents inmates from social distancing and eventually causes inmates prison sentence to become a potential death sentence. Executed by staff bringing the virus inside an already isolated prison environment from public society where the virus is coming from and brought in the institution by staff.
As result inmates have died who anticipated going home sooner or later, but because of the overcrowding conditions of the prison environment put them at risk to the reality of potentially dying if contracted with COVID 19 that’s brought in the institution by staff.
EXAMPLE GIVEN: In July everyone in Stanley tested negative of COVID 19 then shortly within a few months after that staff brought the virus in this institution. As a result COVID spread throughout this institution like poison Ivy reaching up to 341 infected inmates in a matter of two weeks. Two brothers died from Stanley as a result of this exposure. Tony Winston loss his life with only about 8 months remaining before he was scheduled to go home. He had just been given minimum custody and never made it out of Stanley other than to go to the hospital and never returning. (RIP) Then another inmate name Clarence Givins lost his battle with COVID 19 also from Stanley. This is clearly inhumane. These brothers died about 3 weeks ago.
As result of people dying (some people believe) that didn’t have to die (with responsible decision making) I believe is what prompted Ben Turk to confront those who are in charge of DOC who could have easily prevent these unnecessary deaths.
Real Talk!
(Even though Allah knows best and I believe is in control of life and death)
By SHAKIR (Terry L. Jackson)