Saturday’s snowstorm was just getting underway as two dozen people supporting DARE’s Behind the Walls Committee gathered in the parking lot of the Cranston DMV to advocate against cruel policies they say amount to human rights abuses inside the nearby Adult Correctional Facilities (ACI) overseen by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and Director Patricia Coyne-Fague.

“We’ve been protesting conditions at the ACI since the beginning of the Covid pandemic and nothing has really changed,” said Anusha, an organizer with Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE). “People are again in 23 hour lockdown, the buildings are still in state of neglect and toxic to the people inside. There have been hundreds of people getting sick with Covid in the last few months and there have been deaths at the ACI that have not been publicly announced or talked about.

“We’re here to make some demands and share some information about what’s happening inside.”

Edwin A., who is himself formerly incarcerated, listed some of the demands brought by the protesters:

• Increased time outside cells by re-arranging the recreation schedule;
• Restoration of educational programs and services;
• Improved sanitary conditions: Right now mold is a huge problem in the prison;
• Increased access to phones and visitation;
• Mandatory quarantines for correctional officers after contact with Covid positive inmates;
• Proper and decent PPE, not masks that are weeks old and dirty;
• Prioritizing mental health by allowing mental health workers to freely interact with inmates;
• Expediting early medical release, parole and other means of depopulating the prison; and,
• A better grievance policy that allows incarcerated people the ability to bring their issues directly to prison management rather than through prison guards who might retaliate.

The last speaker at the rally was Warren, who was released from the ACI three weeks ago.

“Living conditions at the ACI is not actually well, what-so-ever,” said Warren, who said he knows inmates who suffer from bed bugs, or whose skin is stained from exposure to mold in their cells.

“It’s a shame we have to go to the cafeteria and have sewage water fall on us,” said Warren. “It’s been like that for years.”

The Behind the Walls Committee has reached out to both the NAACP and the ACLU to examine conditions at the prison but “they are not allowed to go in,” said Warren.

“Me myself – my body got completely stained out,” said Warren. “There’s guards in there that wanted me to sleep inside moldy mattresses. The medical attention is horrible. Sometimes you apply and it takes weeks before you get any medication…

“The state doesn’t care about prisoners.”

Learn more about DARE’s Behind the Walls Committee here.