The Forgotten

By D. Lamonica

One of the vilest institutions in the United States is its prison system. Mostly poor or minority citizens are sent away for years even decades not for the purpose of rehabilitation – but constant torture mentally and physically. The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) ranks at the top of the list when it comes to the cruel and unusual punishment of its inmate population behind the walls of its prison system. Read different inmate and eyewitness accounts of what punishment is really like behind the walls of a South Carolina prison. Read how inmates are exploited and used as money generators for Prison Industries, SCDC, and the state of South Carolina. Inmate David will explain how South Carolina laws are focused on its poor and minority populations. You be the judge whether this is rehabilitation or cruel and unusual punishment – even torture.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. Lamonica
• Release date: Dec 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386560128

Book preview

Introduction

Hello, my name is Deric Tyrrell. After my convenience store went under and I had to file for bankruptcy, I had to do the very thing I set out not to do when I retired from the navy – finding a job and working for someone else. I applied for a job online for a third shift supervisor at a company called Wahls Industries. Wahls Industries was in the business of manufacturing carpets and hardwood flooring when I looked it up online. I like working at night because I didn’t have to deal with anyone but my coworkers and no one from upper management. The job description that was given online required managing and monitoring the process for the manufacture of hardwood flooring as a production supervisor. I knew nothing about hardwood floors, but I did know how to lead. That was a job requirement I was very familiar with because of my time in the navy. I could learn the requirements for hardwood flooring as I went to work each day just like any new process I became involved with.

I received an email stating the company was interested in hiring me. I went to the first interview and found out the job location was at the Barry River Prison located in Woodruff, South Carolina. Another surprise was that I would be managing prisoners in the process of making hardwood floors as a production supervisor. I was asked if I would be comfortable in that environment. Lots of thoughts raced through my head about working inside a prison. I thought about the different prison shows I watched with violent prison fights and attacks on officers. The interviewers explained to me that this was a Level Two prison, meaning non-violent offenders. The interviewers said there had never been any incidents of employees of Wahls being attacked at the prison. It was said that all the inmates wanted to do was come to work to earn money to support themselves. I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to give it a try. The pay was good, and it was something new.

There was a second and then a final interview, where I visited the prison and the manufacturing area where I would be working. I couldn’t believe I was actually in prison. I did a walk around with the plant manager Paul. He showed me around, introducing me to inmates and explaining the different processes the manufacturing plant was involved in. I learned that this was the beginning process for most hardwood flooring in the U.S. The inmates were used as the muscle in this strenuous process of making hardwood floors manually. After the walkthrough was completed, I was taken to a room where I was asked if I was interested in employment with Wahls Industries at the prison. I said yes, I would be interested in working production for the company. About two weeks later, I was given a call and was offered employment with Wahls Industries. I accepted employment just like any other job I was hired to. This was my fifth job since retiring from the Navy.

Once I was hired and began interacting with the inmates, I started learning and seeing a different side of the prison. The inmates I interacted with on the job were far different from what I saw on television. On television, they did show life behind bars in prison. However, the television show does not reveal or explain to the audience the deeper aspects of how the inmates were used and mistreated behind bars when it came to making money for the prison, for the state, and big business that used the inmates as cheap labor. Along with this came the mistreatment of incarcerated individuals who were punished in a court of law that was already against them from the start because most of the people incarcerated were poor, uneducated, and minority. Now, am I saying everyone was given a raw deal? Absolutely not. Some individuals deserved to be in prison for their crimes. Like the inmate that walked by me every morning. The inmates said he looked like a cross between an elf and Santa Claus. But I heard this old man took a young girl, raped her, and cut her breast off and ate them. This was one individual that should be behind bars. I know it’s a tough sell, but is it possible that over a thirty-year time frame, this incarcerated individual can change? I was told by Inmate Craig that once an individual had committed a crime and faced the harsh realities of SCDC prison life, the incarcerated inmate’s outlook on what they’ve done changed within the first year of torture. That’s how bad the prison system is in South Carolina. An individual was sent to prison for punishment. When that individual is placed behind bars, their punishment was the loss of contact with the outside world. During my time working at the prison, what I saw was more than confinement or punishment. What I saw was daily torture and the castration of manhood from individuals who committed a crime. What I saw was cruel and unusual punishment for men who used to be U.S. citizens and now they’re cheap labor for big business. All of you know what big business thought about its people – they’re expendable. This was no different from these inmates who worked in these facilities, who are employed through Prison Industries. The inmates are stripped of the many basic rights you as an employed citizen on the outside have and given the privilege of becoming a paid slave. This was Prison Industries South Carolina. It’s a section of the South Carolina Department of Corrections or SCDC, where inmates were used as cheap labor and a money maker for unseen entities behind the scene. Cheap labor without the added necessity to provide health care, retirement benefits, or care what happened to the inmate. I will take you on a journey where modern-day slavery does exist according to the Thirteenth Amendment. I will show you how inmates are stripped of their citizenship, humanity, and hope behind the bars of the Barry River Prison in Woodruff, South Carolina and in the South Carolina Department of Corrections system. I will show you the dark side of the South Carolina Department of Corrections I witnessed that caused me to think about the employment I had with Wahls Industries as a human being. I not only saw black men, but I also saw white men, suffering behind bars as well. Was suffering a part of being punished behind bars? It got me thinking, what’s punishment supposed to entail? Being sent to prison was punishment enough because you’re removed from the outside world and isolated away from friends, family, and a normal life. That should be punishment enough. But the punishment was taken to a level I call torture here at Barry River Prison and at some of the other institutions of SCDC. I thought prison was supposed to correct a wrong as in the name South Carolina Department of Corrections. There was no correction going on behind bars, as you will see as you read the different stories and experiences I have taken from inmates I interacted with while on the job. This was the first part of the book. The second part of the book was reserved for an inmate I met while working for Wahls Industries. I will call him David. His name, of course, cannot be revealed because reprisals by SCDC are common against inmates that speak out about the atrocities that go on within the prison. The state of South Carolina and SCDC want to keep what happens behind the walls of every prison a secret and away from the public eye. A prisoner may find himself transferred to a violent Level Three prison as a reprisal against him or her, where SCDC hopes he or she will be killed. What David will do is break down prison life according to the law of the U.S. and South Carolina. He will show you different aspects of the law that you probably didn’t know of that may affect you. David will also provide a chapter in which he will explain why South Carolina’s laws are focused on the mass incarceration of black men and women including the poor. This will show you that South Carolina is not a friendly state to the black community or the poor when it comes to the law.

As a human being, I began to feel for not only the black men locked up, but for the white men as well. I wondered to myself how all these correctional officers and prison staff members could come to work and leave every day with a clear conscience. I was unable to do that. I couldn’t sit back and watch as these citizens of the U.S. suffered in this prison. When I was in the military, I went overseas to defend people who didn’t even like us. Now that I’m retired, I felt obligated to put the word out about what’s going on behind these walls. I remember a well-known comedian said, ‘If you want to see the scum of the earth, go to a prison as shift change.’ I understand what he was saying now. The guys in prison would tell me, ‘somebody has to know what’s going on behind these walls. They’re killing us slowly physically and mentally.’ Citizens of the U.S. shouldn’t be treated this way if they’re required to be incarcerated. In my opinion, prison should reflect the society in which the offender came from. That way, the growth of an individual can continue behind bars and not be inhibited for years during incarceration. That is the best form of rehabilitation for an individual. Foreign countries do this with success. These foreign countries have less violence in their penitentiaries that actually rehabilitate their inmates’ and the chances of returning to prison are far lower than the U.S. However, it’s not that way in South Carolina and other prisons across the U.S. There is no rehabilitation. There is no correction. There is only constant torture and punishment for South Carolina and other state’s incarcerated individual men and women. There is manipulation and the means to milk each inmate of every bit of money the state and the prison can take from them while in prison and after. There is no hope in a South Carolina prison. Without rehabilitation and hope, and the reality of natural life behind bars, these inmates who were once normal U.S. citizens begin to change over time. Survival mode is activated in their minds. That’s what prison is – survival. If you don’t survive, you will be taken advantage of or worse killed. At the inmates’ lowest point while serving time in prison, these inmates focused on survival devolve into savagery to stay alive. You, the reader, have to ask yourself – Is this correction? Is this rehabilitation? No, this is not. Is this cruel and unusual punishment? Yes, this is. This is the failure of the government of South Carolina, SCDC and many prisons across the U.S. Normal men and women who had lives prior to prison are reduced to savagery to stay alive. If you’re one of those people out there who say, ‘they committed the crime, they have to do the time.’ I agree, they must do time, but being tortured daily as a human being is not right. And let’s not forget, there are innocent men and women behind bars. You see it all the time on television men and women being cleared of crimes because of DNA evidence or a corrupt prosecutor who has immunity from being sued or prosecuted. These innocent men and women are subjected to the daily tortures of SCDC and other prisons across the U.S. because of a failed and corrupt justice system here in South Carolina and many other states.

Most foreign countries natural life sentences are thirty to forty years max. Here in the United States, a life sentence means a person’s natural life. Within