Dear friends,

Last month on February 4th guards at FCI Memphis allowed our friend Patrick Rogers to die. Sources in here tell me that he had regularly medical emergencies, falling down unconscious frequently. The staff became agitated with having to respond to these emergencies and the new Captain here accused him of faking and spread the rumor that he was faking medical emergencies and gave instructions to not respond to these incidents. As a result his medical ailments went untreated for a long period of time. I have been told that he was hit by a truck before coming to this prison and had multiple medical conditions as a result. After falling down yet again he was taken to the Special Housing unit. Guards said this was because he “mouthed off to a guard” while witnesses claim he was taken away because he could not walk.

Shortly after being taken to the SHU the entire prison went on lockdown. On Friday the 4th of February, he died. His neighbors in Tennessee Unit A say that he was allowed to die by staff because they were concerned that he had a legitimate case for a lawsuit and they were legally vulnerable to legal action. Lt. King came into the unit after he died and callously remarked, “Well, I guess he wasn’t faking!” He was asked if he thought this was funny and unconvincingly replied no, that it was a potential lawsuit. Legal vulnerability and a fear of taking responsibility trumped this Lieutenant’s sense of what a human life is worth. I won’t speak of his sense of humor. Understandably this upset Big Pat’s friends, not to mention his family. I heard about this exchange from one of his friends in the chow hall today as the lockdown was lifted and lost my appetite. As fellow captives of the prison industrial complex we are all outraged within these walls.

Efforts to spread the word about this deadly medical negligence, deliberate indiference and fatal targeted harrassment have been hampered by staff refusing to sell us paper, stationary and stamps during this lockdown. Thanks to sympathetic guards and our constitutional right to contact family the word has already gotten out. My defense committee has been notified and asked to contact Mr. Rogers’ family while raising awareness on various social medias, spreading pamhplets, articles and writting essays. That ball is already rolling. The cops reading this message may try to censor it, but that would be a useless gesture as the cat is already out of the bag. Any attempt to censor journalism and destroy evidence leaves government employees vulnerable to civil action. As a community we have the resources, the solidarity and the ability to take legal action and win. We will. I request everyone reading this to look into the situation and #RememberPat. Contact the American Civil Liberties Union, Prison Legal News and any other groups who you think can be helpful. We need to spread the word about the conditions here before anyone else dies. This can happen to any of us at any time. The current political climate is such that the prison industrial complex wants to incarcerate everyone in the U.$. To be clear their goal is that all Amerikkkans go to jail or prison at some point in their lives. As more laws are invented more and more people’s existances are criminalized and subject to abduction and extortion at the hands of authoritatrian forces. On a long enough time frame more people will have been oppressed by unjust laws and dirty cops than people who have no criminal record. In this was the death of Patrick Rogers and people like him affect all of us. The political is personal. Don’t let them tell you that “that’s just how it is, that life is tough, that it’s just buisiness”.

Take it personally whenever any authority figure makes policies that harm you, your loved ones, your neighbors and your friends. Because it is personal. The gears of justice grind slowly and the creatures of power who have money and power are not ground under these machines, they slide out of under them with a laugh, waving to us as we are destroyed. This machine does not serve us, it serves them.

They say we are faking it when we tell them that they are killing us. They say we are faking it when we tell them to get off our necks. They say we are faking it when we tell them that climate change is genocide for those too poor to migrate. They say we are faking it when we tell them an old prisoner is dying of preventable conditions as prisons are converted into eugenic hospice centers for the elderly poor. Fuck that, fuck them. Please help us raise awareness about these conditions.

Thank you.
Dan Baker
aka Alishare
P.S. The following additional note was written by a friend of Patrick’s:

“Pat Injured himself around Oct-Nov 2021- was unsure what- lower spine (disc) or right hip. Asked to be taken out to see Hospital Doctors- *pain became unbearable over a few days period.
-He could no longer walk to the chow hall due to pain.
-He continued to ask health service for help and all they did was order him an x-ray sometime in the months ahead. As time went on he was in more and more pain. The C.O.’s on the unit would no longer call the food service and order him meals for one of us inmates to bring back for him.
Health service began to tell all the officers that Pat was “faking” and that he had been “seen” and was to await his x-ray appointment. I brought him food back from chow as there was no way Pat could go due to pain.
-Pat requested the use of a wheelchair just to go to get meals and was denied every time by the people at health service from the order of M. Law. He said Pat was “faking” and just being lazy. Pat filed a BP-8 and BP-9 and was working on the BP-10 just to get the use of a wheelchair.
He became very depressed and his health deteriorated quickly.
– A group of Lt.’s and Dr.’s came to the unit one day to tell him he was “faking” and if he called them again they would put him in the S.H.U.. This was spearheaded by M. Law and the Captain.
He eventually became incontinent and was placed in the S.H.U. where he died from an embolism. The FCI was grossly negligent and could have easily prevented Pat’s death.”

Write Daniel Baker:
Daniel Baker, 25765-509
FCI MEMPHIS 
P.O, BOX 34550
MEMPHIS, TN  38184