Introduction by Oja Vincent

On April 28, 2020 a man named K.C. who is incarcerated at High Desert Prison, spoke to Mass Liberation member, Jagada Chambers, on the phone about his experience first hand inside and about a legal motion he has developed.

In regards to K.C., Chambers states, “Where Burner is our brother who tells us more about what is happening inside in general, K.C. has that legal mind…he is the one who gives us the legal perspective on top of that.”

With his writing of an exquisite legal motion, K.C. definitely proves how he left Jagada with that impression. The two spoke the day after the Sentencing Commission meeting on April 13th. The praise for the empowerment that K.C. gives us as human rights activists and the entire movement to hold the establishment accountable for its injustices is shared by Chambers during the call personally, but reflects the appreciation of all of us standing in solidarity.

High Desert is known as the largest institution in the Nevada Departments of Corrections and holds up to 4,176 people. K.C. explains that currently, amidst the pandemic, each day the population at High Desert fluctuates anywhere from 3,200 to 3,500 people, illustrating that people inside are being moved around, subjected to precarious circumstances despite their objection to a modus operandi that increases the risk of infection. As the establishment continues to celebrate the “good job” they are doing while facing the public, their lack of action and thick cloud of bureaucratic smoke and mirrors makes it hard to see the reality of the situation. Inside this particular facility, each person has a cellmate or “cellie.” Here, and many others around the country, people inside have no access to personal protective equipment, and in the rare cases that they do it is limited to one-time use items that are not renewed.

At the beginning of the call, K.C. tells us about how the administration did a short briefing about COVID-19 and the following day Director of Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC), Charles Daniels visited in person the day after (presumably this is the ‘prisoner town hall’ mentioned during the Parole Board Meeting on 4/29/20).

K.C. shows awareness around the monetary involvement in this predicament, citing the NDOC’s desire to save money in the budget by only getting masks for the correctional officers. At a certain point, K.C. mentions that things are confusing for people inside as they are not being given clear information. He specifically asks the question about how far the virus can travel in the air. Chambers replied, “It can travel up to 13 feet,” which he learned from ‘Freeway’ Ricky Ross, a fellow-panelist on one of the many webinars by inside advocates about COVID-19 in prisons, a fact that was shared on the CDC’s website earlier the same morning.

K.C. used some of his regular law library study time working on his own case recently to write up a legal motion which articulates the urgent needs and priorities of the people housed at High Desert. Displayed in this post are photos of the original handwritten motion and a transcription. K.C. took precautionary measures to get the motion outside of prison walls and into the hands of Chambers.

You can read K.C.’s motion here, and view the handwritten motion below.

K.C. used some of his regular law library study time working on his own case recently to write up a legal motion which articulates the urgent needs and priorities of the people housed at High Desert. Displayed in this post are photos of the original handwritten motion and a transcription. K.C. took precautionary measures to get the motion outside of prison walls and into the hands of Chambers.

Courtesy of K.C. Coulter, April 6, 2020.