Crushing description of conditions that only have gotten worse in the 6 years since this was writen.Louis , the writer, was release and after surviving two years homeless he found a place to get treatment in MN and made friends with some members of the Black Lives Movement he was arrested for a rule violation which he contests, and now sites in Hennepin County Jail- ( of George Floyd fame)
Received November 9, 2018 (written in pencil and cannot be scanned)
Louis Keys 587473 CCI ( now at KMCI) not dated
On October 26 at 1:30-2:00 am Officer Goldsmith and Sgt Thompson came to DS 2 B Lower cell 42 with 18 year old Kyan Barnette and Goldsmith stated “ hit the lights” to Officer Woodruff who was in DS2 Central Booth/Bubble. The lights came on, Goldsmith stated to Kuan Barnette, ”We’re here to kill you.”All while Sgt Thompson’s body camera was recording and Picking up audio. Then the cell door opened and Goldsmith who had a huge shield, Thompson, 65-66. 387 lbs, behind him rushed into Kuan’s cell and began to beat him, all while he was on clinical observation and in a smock. Picked up and slammed him into metal bed frame with no mattress. This kid screamed and yelled and begged them to please stop. He’s 5’7”- 5’8”, 145 lbs. Then Lt Olsen, Sgt Reynolds, Sgt Sullivan all rushed into the cell, beat him all while yelling “stop resisting”, choking him to stop him from screaming, so he slammed his legs on the bed frame to make noise. They then put cuffs and leg irons on him, dragged him out of his cell in a choke hold, by c/o Goldsmith who shook him viciously like a pit bull hard and fast. C/o had his tongue out making menacing faces to inmates who yelled and beat on the Doors. Kuan Bleed , his face, eyes, head and body beaten and bruised while he made desperate attempts to breathe. It all started by Kuan spitting water on to Goldsmith’s arm the night before October25th and Goldsmith told him “ I’m going to rip your fucking heart out.”So he came to SD2 “unassigned” because c/o Woodruff phoned and told him that Barnett ,”Kuan” had popped open his trap box. So instead of calling the Capt, Goldsmith and Woodruff came and laid a white bed sheet on Kuan’s “trap box” which is a meal box 18-20 inches long and 14 inches wide for feeding high risk inmates.
Kuan, young and naive, thought it would be funny to take the sheet and pulled it into his cell which was actually a set up. I told Kuan “put that sheet back out your cell. They setting you up for a cell extraction .” He told me he couldn’t because a C/O had rushed down the tier to close his trap box. So he put it inside the trap box. So the plan was for them to claim that Kuan had took the sheet and attempted suicide so they would have a legit reason and way into his cell. But to their surprise, he was standing in his “door”, cells, windows, with no sign of a sheet inside the cell. Period. And they were so desperate that they went into his cell regardless. After he was dragged out of his cell and off our tier c/o Goldsmith went into his cell, closed the cell door half way, grabbed the sheet out of his trap box, tied it into a noose and took it out the cell up stairs to the DS2 dayroom , to Lt Olsen and began to ask Kuan why he tried to kill hisself.
At 8:30 -9 am that morning, officers came to allegedly take him to a hospital. When Kuan exited his cell, both his eyes were swollen shut, his head and face disfigured, finger broken. Body and feet bruised and he couldn’t stand or walk alone, or see, they emergency transferred him to another prison. Myself and inmate Quinn Link saw the entire incident/attempt murder. Thanks.
Please email this letter to Scott Walke , Cathy Jess, Lena Taylor , Gwendolyn Moore, Fox News. Wis State Journal and the NAACP in Milwaukee. Please. I’m doing all I can to help these inmates and myself while I still can. I’ve been on observation for nearly 3 weeks, I bled out several times and went for stitches and blood transfusions and was only pulled out of myself for a one on one with a psychologist because Dan Norge was trying to force me to talk to him on the tier cell side and violate my hippa rights. I was only offered a shower once this month and no hygiene at all, because in CCI suicide watch is a punitive status and they kept the heat off in my cell while I only had a bare mattress and smock.
Also, you could at least respond to a letter now and then so we know you’re getting this information and getting out to the REAL public, because I don’t want to keep writing you with the only stamps I have if you’re just going to ignore the issues and not respond. There’s real life horrible shit going on in here and no one’s trying to help!
(note; the above paragraph makes me fear that my mail is not getting to him. I wrote him, Jesse and Governor on October 18th after his last alert. He has been a good resource for information. He was transferred to KMCI after this letter was sent out. )
Letter from Louis Keys, dated November 2, 2018
I am in KMCI seg as you can see, which is horrible. I was forced off of Observation status which I had been on for the last 30 days. I had self harmed a few times and went for blood transfusions and stitches and a couple times I didn’t realize that I self harmed and bled out. I am not at all stable. I’ve lost so much blood that I still feel weak and off balance because last week they refused to send me to a hospital for blood because I was on observation each time and they feel that would make them look even worse seeing that I nearly died that first time and was on 5 minute checks and staff only check on obs every hour or so.
And the nurse told them she couldn’t do anything or stop the bleeding so they made me sit in seg law library for hours with a dry towel tied super tight around my cut to force this bleeding to stop, haven’t eaten in 5 days as of today which is November 2- 2018 and have been without water for 2 days now. These cells are like Ice boxes . Before I left CCI I was on obs and wouldn’t come off so they turned on the air conditioner to freeze me out in only a smock and torture me. Now here in KMCI they’re threatening to do the same if I self harm or go on observation.
Like Peggy , NO BS , these cells are freezing cold and these inmates are weak and cowards to not take a stand and demand some heat in these cells, I have on a jumpsuit and a blanket as I write to you with me vent covered up an I’m still shivering! They took all my legal mail. All my CCI seg property which reduced me to one small paper bag with shower shoes, no hygiene, no reading material, books or magazines , no photos , 5 personal letters. I’ve had mail that was withheld in CCI because I was on obs in CCI and now I can’t even get that mail here and don’t even know what it is or if the court responded to me since my screening. Its freezing cold with large gaps in the cell doors, and on top of the vents air, they have a huge fan on the tier turned on high! They claim this stay is temporary, but I refuse to eat until I can get somewhere with heat and real PSU Stuff and treatment. I’m so mad and freezing cold that I ready to go crazy, these inmates are literally programmed t be afraid and complain about this inhumane treatment. I’m so depressed I feel like ending my life. This shit is torture.
I need to find a way out of here, they don’t give us soap or deodorant, only a little bar of unscented state soap. I have no way of knowing where my lawsuit is since I have been screened in early September. Then, I’m trying- never mind. This will most likely be my last letter. I don’t (want?) my name or personal situation in any newsletter or all over. It’s no good fighting DOC because NO inmates in WDOC stick together or litigate.
Louis Keys 587473 KMCI , Nov 5,2018
On nov 3 t maybe 3 am I self harmed an KMCI rushed me to the ER by ambulance. Peg, I need you to pay close attention to what I’m about to say because your absolutely only person that I have to turn to. On October 4th when I first went on obs in CCI I was told by Nurse Gibbons that it was a black and white policy that observation patients’ medications had to be crushed prior to taking them. Now the medication that I’m speaking on specifically is a capsule called Dhyphenhidrimene ( or something like that).It’s supposed to be like Benadryl. Peg, I had taken one of these capsules months ago which had been partially open due to the way staff popped it out of its pack. There’s a thin, shiny, white powder inside the capsule and the smallest amount will have your entire mouth numb and painful burning. Now fast forward to today, for the last month, this lying bitch has been forcing me to take 4 capsules, crushed, every night, then come to find out from other nurses and a captain, there is no black and white policy and the nurse has been injuring me with this medication after I told her how excruciating the numbing and burning pain was form this med . I think that medication may have scarred or damaged my lungs, i can’t take 5 to 10 ten steps without feeling, and I’ve never in 38 nearly 39years had one single health issue or cardiac issue. I can play 10 games of basketball with 19 year olds. Now I don’t think I cold play 10 seconds and I’m scare t death, Peg. IN 2016 I met a guy here named Larry Sancher, 61y.o. who sleeps with a ccap machine and he old me he never had respiratory problems until he did 10 months in Portage jail with CRUSHED med. So now my mind’s going 100MPH in that direction and I don’t know what to do. I saw a nurse today who I believe waited and hour and a half after I reported shortness of breath and chest pain- to come and see me after my vitals would be calmed so she can play a mind game on me.
I just spent a weekend on obs so cold I tossed and turned and begged for heal. Peg, What the hell’s going on in DOC? I can’t wrap my mind around this madness, the insanity in order to have obs as a safety tool and risk management, you have to freeze them to death.
Complains there is no fight in these inmates, says I should quit trying an enjoy life. Says he feels he is dying, is lost, asks me to write-address the envelope ”Sally James “ if I have to, to get it through.
“I feel like the DOC killed me ad left me alive to suffer my own death in a way. But what do I do now, Peg? As a friend, what can I do? ….I don’t know a soul here and they keep these huge fans on 24/7 to stop people from talking anyhow. I need to get out of here. I left here in 2013. This seg is a shit hole, makes CCI seem pleasant.
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