Death Row inmates housed at Union Correctional Institution and Florida State Prison are confined to 9x6 foot cages, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Permitted recreation twice a week as well as three showers a week.  Other than that, we are confined to this 9x6 foot sweatbox.  There is no air conditioning or fans, and the ventilation system does little more than pull in the hot air coming off the concrete outside the windows.  In the summer, the cell temperature rises into the high 90’s.  This, along with the Florida humidity, makes these cells quite unbearable.

In these 9x6 foot cages, we have steel shelves, bunk, locker, a TV stand, as well as a 12 inch black & white TV which contains metal, plastic and glass.  Therefore showing that an 8 inch plastic fan is in no way a security threat, which the F.D.O.C. claims.  Yet the above mentioned items demonstrate that the only logical reason to deny fans is to cause misery and suffering.

More abuse is taking place here in the F.D.O.C.  In facilities such as F.S.P., Gulf Correctional, Columbia CI,  Washington Correctional and Santa Rosa, inmates are being abused with chemical agents.  Officers are burning inmates with chemical agents over little more than a verbal confrontation.  This as well as physical assaults are common in the F.D.O.C.

1. For the F.D.O.C. to sell an 8 inch plastic fan. Other state institutions throughout this country sell to their inmates, states such as TX, CA, VA, OH, PA, AZ, etc., or mount a 14 inch oscillating fan on the walls outside the cell.

2. Before the use of any chemical agent of an inmate confined in a secure cell, a video camera is to be used to document the application of the chemical agent. The video will then be reviewed by a committee outside of the F.D.O.C. The committee will send its finding to the Attorney General for a final analysis.

3. Any physical assault will call for a polygraph examination on both inmates and officers. Officers, upon failing, will be removed from their position.

The relief sought is quite reasonable and will start guiding the F.D.O.C. in the right direction of human decency, which is surely lacking throughout the F.D.O.C.

This Hunger Strike is apparently the only way to bring attention and a resolution to these problems.  These are problems that I have brought to the attention of James V. Crosby, Jr.  This is the man that was Warden as F.S.P. in the late 90’s when officer-on-inmate assaults were at their all-time high.  Until that fatal day on July 17, 1999, when 9 of Crosby’s officers entered the cell of restrained (handcuffed behind back) Death Row inmate Frank Valdez, where they beat, kicked and stomped him to death.

So it is quite obvious Crosby has no compassion or regard for the lives of the 77,000 inmates in the F.D.O.C., thanks to Governor Jeb Bush, who placed this unworthy man in such a position.

But again, I say, welcome to the ass-backward world of the Florida Dept. of Corrections, where tyrants abuse their authority as well as the inmates in their care.

We are pleading for your support in this matter in order to bring humanitarianism and human decency back to the F.D.O.C. We are Hungry For Air!!

Thank You.
Ronald W. Clark, Jr. #812974
Florida State Prison
7819 N.W. 228
Raiford, FL  32026-1160