HRC Individual Complaints Procedure: Edgar Allen Stitzel

UNCLAS GENEVA 000440 DEPARTMENT FOR IO/RHS AND L/HRR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM UNHCR US SUBJECT: HRC Individual Complaints Procedure: Edgar Allen Stitzel ¶1. Mission has received a note from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)(G/SO 215/1 USA 47) transmitting in accordance with paragraph 94 of the annex of Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 of 18 June 2007 copies of a communication dated 30 May 2008 concerning human rights, which refers to the United States of America. The note indicates the communication will be examined by the Working Group on Communications of the Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure at its third session to be held October 20-24, 2008. This letter is #2 on Mission Geneva's 2008 Communications log. ¶2. The communication is from Mr. Edgar Allen Stitzel, who claims that he and fellow inmates at the Colorado State Penitentiary have undergone treatment that violates international laws against torture. ¶3. A transcribed copy of handwritten text appears below. A copy of the original handwritten letter will be sent by registered mail to IO/RHS, attention Amy Ostermeier. ¶4. Begin Text: Date: 2-4-08 From: Edgar Allen Stitzel, #89250 Colorado State Penitentiary Box 777 Canon City, Co. 81215 The Unite [sic] Nations Committee Against Torture 1st Ave. and 42nd Str. New York, N.Y. 10017 To Whom it concerns, I am here by praying to you, begging you to put a stop to the fact that inmates at the Colorado State Penitentiary here in Canon City, Colorado are being tortured by prison staff on a daily bases [sic]. [abusive language deleted] Prison staff love to intentionally make an inmate get mad and then they turn around and punish the inmate for getting mad. Staff her [sic] at CSP will make an inmate get mad, and then they will spray oleoresin capsicum gas (oc gas) into the inmates cell. They call this move "forced cell entry." When they gas the inmate that is mad at them for smashing his tv or ripping apart a picture of the inmates mother or a ton of other sick things staff love to do, there are 15 other inmates in that pod that do not deserve to be tortured by the effects/affects of the extremely nasty oc gas. Staff leave the other 15 inmates locked in thier [sic] cells and when they spray oc gas into the mad inmates cell and rush in and beat him down and drag him out, the oc gas spreads through out the entire pod, it even goes up into the air vents and gets the pods above the gased [sic] pod. Staff know how bad this nasty oc gas is. Staff will not enter a gased [sic] pod at count time or to deliver food trays without wearing gas-masks, but they always leave the other 15 inmates locked in their cells to be tortured by the oc gas. Staff here at CSP also have this nasty little thing that they call "special controls." This is when they intentionally make and [sic] inmate get angry and then staff punishes the inmate for getting angry by taking him down to the basement and taking all of his clothes off, usually with a female prison guard filming the strip search with a video camcorder, then after taking his clothes away they put him into a freezing cold cell for at least 12 hours. Cold celling [sic] inmates is a form of savage torture that is a violation of international laws against torture. OC gasing [sic] inmates is a form of savage torture that is a direct violation of international laws against torture, and chemical warfare of this nature is a "crime against humanity." Unfortunately that is not all of this grim story. Staff here at CSP also enjoy attacking, beating down, and torturing fully restrained in mates in a 6 on 1 gang style attack. Prison staff describe the torture holds they use during these attacks as "pain compliance holds" that are specifically designed to be extremely painful. When I was a victim of this type of gang style attack while I was wearing full restraints, I was tortured for 15 minutes with these "pain compliance holds." I filed a 1983 civil rights complaint. Then the named defendants had a member of the Colorado House of Representatives pull strings for them in a court of law. Representative Jennifer Viega got all of the ranked Defendants removed from the case. This encroachment on the Judiciary by legislative powers is a direct violation of article 3 of the constitution that seperates [sic] the powers of government to keep one branch of government from ursuping [sic] the powers of another branch of government. Then when the case went to a jury trail [sic] they had a hand picked, cop loving jury sitting there so that this stacked jury would guantee [sic] the Defendants a "not guilty" verdict. The Jury of Civil Action 00-N-2567 on 11-13-03 had a Jury form. The Jury checked the box for guilty on the jury form first and then they crossed that out and checked the box for "not guilty." This cop loving jury said yes the Defendants are "guilty" but no we are not going to let the inmate plaintiff win. All of the jury members said that they had police officers as acquaintances. Unfortunately, that is not all of this grim story. CSP staff also enjoy torturing inmates by intentionally leaving them locked in small shower stalls for long periods of time and when the inmate gets angry about it, staff punish the inmate for getting mad about it. On 9-11-03, CSP staff in E-Pod rigged a shower so that it would not shut off, then they turned the water temperature up. This shower stall has staneless steal [sic] walls. Then they had two other inmates take showers so that the shower stall had a chance to get really hot. Then they put me into this shower and left me locked in there for 48 minutes. I had a heat stroke and almost died. I see light flashes at the corners of my eyes now. When I filed a civil rights law-suit about this, CSP staff drew up fake and fraudulent court documents using a Judge Kenith Plotz's name to make me wrongly believe that the court did not except my case. The real judges names here in Fremont County Colorado are Thorson and Marshall with a magestrate [sic] Judge Freeman. Judge Thorson calls these fake court documents CSP make up to get out of civil rights law suites [sic], "A local custom" and Judge Thorson refuses to do anything about these crimes. The court judges in Colorado aid and abet Prison staff in Canon City when prison staff commit "crimes against humanity." Crooked politicians in Colorado also aid and abet Prison staff in Colorado concerning these "crimes against humanity" I have no other way to stop these "crimes against humanity" then to pray to you, begging you to help me stop CSP staff torturing people. These crimes against humanity need to be stopped. These segregated control-unit prisons like CSP are a direct violation of international laws against torture. Please help us stop these torture sessions at CSP. You are our only hope! Please help us! Sincerely, /s/ Edgar A. Stitzel P.S. On 1-27-08 I heard the inmate in B5-23 say that officer R. Martinez hit him in the nuts when his hands were cuffed behind his back. Officer R. Martinez still has his job. If CSP staff can hit a hand-cuffed man in the balls and not get into any trouble, then you know there is something seriously wrong going on here! P.S. again I almost forgot to tell you about the bright neon lights that are on inside our cells 24 hours a day. These so called "night lights" are so bright that I can sit at my table and read or write a letter. This does cause a sensory deprivation environment where a good nights sleep is impossible. End Text Tichenor NNNN