Chapter 18

The Ralph Steele Murder

I was convinced, as I still am today that Warden James Meko is a
decent man of integrity and I was sure that I could take my mail
problems to him. But getting to see the warden one on one proved
next to impossible. The BOP has one of the best bureaucracies in
the U.S. government based on a strictly enforced chain of command.
I could not even write a confidential letter to the man without three
other people reading it and sending it back to my unit manager
without the warden ever seeing it. It seems the warden is ostensibly
too busy to be bothered with letters from inmates so, all letters to him
must be submitted to a unit team member comprised of the
unit manager, and a counselor.

When someone like Blackwell is

one of those people, your chances of seeing the warden are almost
nil. Hell read your letter or request and arbitrarily decide that your
issue is petty and does not merit the attention of the warden,
especially if its about misconduct of a staff member. I must have
tried writing to Warden Meko about a dozen times, and each time
my correspondence took unintended detours.
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Occasionally the warden would walk around the compound making

inspections or hed drop in the cafeteria for lunch. But he was never
alone probably for security reasons. He was always accompanied
by one of two deputy wardens or Lt. Foster and they were excellent at
making sure the warden wasn't bothered with the trivial problems of
inmates.

So, even though he told me to come see him when I got

out of the hole, the word was out to keep me away from Mr. Meko.
My efforts to talk or correspond privately with the man were
effectively stifled.

This left only one resort which often did more

harm than good filing a BP-10 form.

The BP-10 was the formal complaint form used by inmates to

make a grievance.
warden.

This blue form would have to be seen by the

The problem is that filing one puts the prison staff on the

defensive and could easily get one flagged as a troublemaker and

alienate the warden from helping you. But for me, it turned out to be
the only way to communicate with the warden.

In retrospect, I feel

that over half of the BP-10s I filed would never have been filed if I
had only been allowed to speak privately with warden Meko. As it
turned out, the some two dozen complaints I filed over 38 months

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only served to aggravate the warden and my unit management

team.

Less than half of my BP-10s received replies even though BOP policy
says that every one must receive a written response. The response of
the prison staff was to turn up their harassment which took many
forms, like spreading rumors that I was still a federal agent working
undercover to set up other inmates. Another favorite was giving me
my mail with its contents missing just envelopes!

My commissary

account suddenly suffered incredible accounting deficiencies, and

for over two months I was unable to buy anything from the
prison store until my account was finally reconciled. Cutting of my
phone calls in mid conversation was happening quite
frequently, and what few visits I received were always cut short for a
variety of bogus reasons. But one of the most creative tricks they
played on me is one I can laugh at today, but was anything but funny
back then.

One particular prisoner named Butch had a horrible temper, a very

short fuse, and a very beautiful wife who visited him on a regular basis.
One night as I left the library to return to my unit for the nightly
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lockdown, I was knocked flat on my ass by a fist that seemingly came

out of nowhere. It was soon joined by its brother and only after I
dragged myself up off the ground did I realize the one throwing the
brutal punches was Butch. Whats that for!?! I shouted as my head
throbbed in pain and felt to see if I still had a face. Theres plenty
more where that came from if you so much as look at my wife! he
retorted. What the fuck are you talking about Butch? The fire in his
eyes could melt steel as he just threw a letter at me.

It was a

cheesy but raunchy love letter addressed to his wife, and lo and
behold, it was supposedly from me! Butch said one of the guards
tipped him off that I was writing and calling his wife! I picked up one
of my papers which were now scattered all over the ground and
handed it to Butch. Whats this asshole? he demanded. Its my
handwriting Butch. If you compare it to that stupid letter, youll see I
didnt write it! After a brief inspection, Butch realized he had been
taken in by the guard. Im sorry man is all he could mumble. Yeah,
so am I I replied as I realized my lip had been split open by his fury.
It was only a few minutes til lockdown so we parted ways and headed
for our respective units. I was determined to find out which guard
orchestrated that little gem, but it would have to wait until morning.

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A migraine kept me awake most of the night and when I did finally
fall asleep, it was only two hours later that Id have to report for
work in the kitchen. I was the pot and pan man in the kitchen and
during the course of a eight hour day, Id soak, scrub, and wash some
300 pots, pans, and bakery trays.

It was a dreadful and boring job

assignment but it was one of the highest paying jobs at MCC Miami
for prisoners (about $52 a month) and my boss Joe Kuhn was a good
guy to work for. Hed let me leave as soon as I finished which was
usually about five hours. This would give me an extra three hours
every day to spend in the library, my unit, or to lift some weights or
read a book.

Joe was one guy who realized that prisoners were

already under enough stress and didnt need any more from prison
staff. The inmates respected him for this and those who worked for
him considered him a good friend.

As I was scrubbing some pots, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn

around to find none other than Lt. Foster. Where did you get those
shiners Gorcyca? With my two black eyes, lumpy head, and swollen
lip, I was surprised that he could even recognize me. If I answered
that question truthfully, I knew it would mean a trip to the hole for both
me and Butch, so I casually replied I tripped and fell down the stairs
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Sure you did. He knew better. Hands behind your back you know
the routine. Once again he marched me off to segregation. Once
there he told me Id stay in the hole until I told him who gave me the
facial.

Through my many visits to the hole, I realized that it had some

permanent residents that never seemed to get out into general
population. Some were the governments prosecution witnesses but
others were there for unusual reasons.

One guy from Guyana

named Udhistir Diciarian (phonetic) was there because he refused to

take medicines he claimed were against his religion. He would
occasionally talk to me in the exercise cage and he seemed like
such a passive and peaceful guy. I learned that he was married with
some toddlers at home. He missed his family badly and was growing
manic depressive. By keeping him in the hole, prison staff could
ensure that his unwanted medicines would be administered. Udhistir
never made it out of prison alive. By mistake, he received an
overdose of medicine and was found dead in his cell. I never did learn
why he was behind bars in the first place.

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Another segregation regular was Carlos Quesada, a member of

Miamis Cuban Mafia who was the trustee for the seg unit.

The

Trustee was allowed to be out of his cell because he would sweep,

mop, and wax the floor, collect and distribute the weekly laundry, etc.
It was rumored on the compound that Carlos was snitch, but he never
caused me any grief.

For his work, the guards let Carlos enjoy his

daily cigar out of sight in his cell.

Chris Simmons was another permanent resident of the hole and to me

he appeared to be perfectly harmless, but the staff insisted that without
his daily doses of Thorazine, Chris grew too agitated and aggressive
to be placed in general population.

I cant comment one way or

another whether that was true or not because he was forever doped
up and that was the only Chris I got to see and know.

Then there was a little guy named Jumper whose real name eludes
me. In his late 20s Jumper was a comedian and a very good escape
artist. When he wasnt telling jokes through the air vent, he was
plotting his next escape attempt. He had a track record of several
escape attempts including one that was successful, so he earned
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himself a permanent home in the only place that could keep him in
prison the hole.

Last but not least, there was Ralph. Ralph Steele was a white male
in his mid to late 20s who always made sure to provide some
commotion on a daily basis.

Ralph was very intelligent, quite

articulate, and very annoying. Ralph could not stand silence, a

treasured commodity in prison for those trying to read a Bible, write a
letter, or take a nap. So if there was a fifteen minute stretch of silence,
Ralph would be sure to interrupt it with anything from singing, to
drumming on his steel door, to shouting out for the guard or another
prisoner.

Anyone who answered his calls typically received a

meaningless greeting or dumb question like What time do you think it

is? The last people who care anything about the time of day are
prisoners in solitary confinement.

I sincerely believe Ralph suffered

from Attention Deficient syndrome because he could not help

himself and was restless during every waking minute.

He was

genuinely friendly and would readily take up conversation with anyone

willing to talk with him, even it was just to poke fun at him.

His

knowledge base surprised me. Ralph seemed to know quite a bit

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about very diverse subjects from the Bible to sports, to world politics.
He was anything but stupid.

To the many guards who worked in the segregation unit, Ralph Steele
was their source of daily entertainment and break from the boredom.
Some guards like Bouchard and Williams routinely provoked Ralph to
set him off on one of his infamous shouting tirades that could easily
last an hour. Ralph and the guards would trade insults frequently and
it could grow comical or ugly. Ralph was not a racist but if a black or
Hispanic guard would provoke him, Ralph would use the only weapons
at his disposal to defend himself words. The bigger the reaction hed
evoke from the guard, the more hed go after them with racial slurs
just to get under their skin. He toyed with the guards like this every
time they made Ralph angry or the butt of one of their sick jokes. They
would routinely add unauthorized ingredients like urine, feces,
laxatives, acid, and insects to Ralphs food and drinks just to watch
him explode in a fit of rage when he discovered them. To the other
prisoners in the hole it was always interesting to see who grew angrier,
Ralph or the guard hed be verbally dueling with. But Ralphs worst
flaw was his gullibility. Hed believe almost anything and the guards
exploited this for their own amusement that often went too far.
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A case in point is an incident that involved one particular nurse, an

attractive and friendly young Cuban lady with blonde hair and bluegreen eyes who took pity on Ralph and would chat with him to calm
him down and cheer him up.

Im sure she did this out of the

goodness of her heart and not in any official capacity. The guards
noticed the rapport she built with Ralph and used it to drive him nuts.
They told Ralph that the young nurse had admitted that she was madly
in love with him and was asking around to find out when Ralph would
be released from prison. Of course, none of this was true but they had
Ralph convinced otherwise. As time passed, Ralphs conversation with
the nurse would grow more and more personal and he would recite
poetry to her and even asked the woman to marry him! The poor
nurse grew quite uncomfortable and finally had to tell Ralph that she
never had any romantic feelings for him. That was the only day that
silence filled Ralphs cell. He was devastated and the guards ridicule
rubbed salt into his wounds.

But the peace and quiet didnt last long and soon Ralph let his
rage be known to any guard who even spoke to him. The bad joke
had a lasting effect on Ralph who began throwing things around his
cell, or push his food tray out the door slot no quicker than it came in.
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Williams and Bouchard picked up on Ralphs anger and decided to fuel

it by telling Ralph the nurse lost interest in him after she found out he
was gay or that she was having an affair with the warden, or other
ridiculous things all of which Ralph truly believed. When the other
prisoners finally convinced Ralph that the guards fabricated the whole
thing as a joke, he was even angrier and his words for the guards
became more acidic and venomous. The racial slurs intensified and
soon Williams and the other guards would find themselves in heated
arguments with Ralph as they hollered insults at each other through
the door.

Only officers Black and Harrison tried to calm Ralph down. Everyone
else just antagonized and tormented the man as they laughed while
Ralphs face would grow red with anger. One of the guards even
convinced Ralph that his mother was gang raped by some black men
in the parking lot of a shopping mall, and that they heard about it on
the nightly news. You can just imagine the rage that filled Ralph when
he would not be allowed to make a telephone call after they gave him
the news about the phony rape. How he could believe all this stuff is
not so bizarre when you consider how isolated a person becomes after
a few months in solitary. Your mind is so hungry for news from the
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outside that it no longer functions logically.

Instead, you tend to

believe things that youd normally question. In their quest for laughs,
the seg guards were slowing pushing Ralph to his emotional limits with
their incessant mental abuse. But that abuse soon grew physical as
well.

Within two weeks Ralph had refined his insults to razor sharp arrows
that were released instantly upon being provoked.
arrows seldom missed their mark.

These verbal

Some guards simply couldnt

control themselves, and when they took Ralph out for a shower or to
the exercise cage, theyd smack him around a bit. Since prisoners in
seg were cuffed any time they are out of their cell, Ralph had no way
to defend himself from the assaults, and in frustration hed either kick
or spit at his attacker. To be clear, I want to emphasize that Ralph
never once instigated these confrontations but he sure as hell
reacted to them and seldom backed down when provoked. After a
while, Ralph began refusing to take a shower or go for exercise
because he knew any trip out of his cell might result in yet another
beating.

Once when I was returning to my cell after taking a shower I heard

sobbing coming from Ralphs cell so I slowed down long enough when
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passing his cell to peek through the open slot in his door. He was
naked and hog-tied with his hands and feet cuffed behind his back as
he layed on the floor belly down. There was a bowl of water placed
near his head and there was a pool of urine and feces beneath him.
Hang in there Ralph was all I could say before the guard pushed me
away and back towards my cell. It was a long three day holiday weekend, and it wasnt long before Ralph was screaming in pain as he
complained of cramps and began coughing badly. He was left tied up
like an animal for the entire weekend, and I could not imagine any
possible justification for such inhumane treatment. Before the year
would end, I too would know the same humiliation and pain of being
hog-tied for three days and sleeping in my own waste.

Things came to a head a few days later at lunch time when Ralph
drank half a cup of lemonade before realizing it also contained urine.
You fucking people are sick! Which one of you assholes pissed in my
cup?! Bouchard and another guard whose face I could not see from
my cell just cracked up laughing as usual. But Ralph was dead serious.
I want to see the warden. When he received absolutely no response,
he must have repeated that line a dozen times before Bouchard just
shouted back Shut up and eat your lunch Ralph. Surprisingly, Ralph
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remained silent.

But when Bouchard went around to collect the

food trays after lunch, he got a dose of his own medicine when
he pulled Ralphs tray out through the door slot. Fuck! You crazy sonof-a-bitch Bouchard shrieked in surprise as he ran to his office to
retrieve some paper towels. Ralph had peeed in his cup and flung it
through the door slot at Bouchard.
laughing as he jokingly asked Bouchard

Now it was Ralph who was

Hey Bouchard, whats that

cologne youre wearing? Another shouting match ensued but was

cut short when the kitchen crew arrived to retrieve the food cart from
the seg unit.

As usual, most of the residents of solitary take naps after eating a

meal, myself included.

I have no idea how long I had been asleep

when I was awakened by the sound of a heavy duty scuffle lots of

thuds, grunts, and groans.
Okay! Okay! I give up!

Then I heard Ralphs familiar voice

I jumped up and went to my door to see

what was goiing on. My view was limited by the outline of a huge
guard standing in the doorway of Ralphs cell with his back to me.
Ralph was getting an ass-whooping but by who? I couldnt really see
but deduced it most probably was Bouchard considering the days
events. From what I could see, mostly just bits and pieces of uniforms
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and flesh as arms and legs flailed through the air. There were two
guards inside Ralphs cell, and the guard who stood outside the
doorway on warden watch. I could see both black and white skin in
those uniforms so I knew there were at least two guards beating on
Ralph. Ralph once made it half way out of his cell door in an effort
to flee his assailants, but was dragged back into his cell by his feet.
His face was bloodied and the expression on his face is one I will
never forget. They guy was absolutely horrified.

Ralph repeatedly shouted You win I give up! and please stop! but
they didnt.

Myself and another prisoner banged on the door and

shouted for them to stop. The goliath in front of Ralphs cell realized
we were watching. Get away from your door he commanded to me
and the other prisoner, but neither of us budged an inch. So he
decided to block our view of things.

He went into the office and came out with some tape and a few
sheet of legal size paper. He walked over to my cell first and taped
the paper over my cell door window, and I assume he did the same
to the other c e lls . But the audio continued uninterrupted and I felt
so badly for Ralph. From the sound of things, I figured they were
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using the phone books again. It went on for about fifteen minutes
which is an eternity when youre the one on the receiving end of
such a beating.

It was near the end of the melee when I heard

Ralphs desperate plea Please Williams stop already! Im sorry!.

Sorry for what? I wondered Did one of Ralphs slurs finally get to
Williams? Moments later the scufflling abruptly ended and all I could
hear was Ralph moaning, whimpering, and coughing in his cell. The
guards were talking and joking amongst themselves how they finally
taught the asshole a lesson. The only voice I could recognize among
the group was Williams. After I heard Ralphs cell door close, one of
the guards said to another. Youd better get that mess cleaned up
before meds get here or well all be writing reports. I bent down to
holler out my door slot Hey Ralph, are you okay? When he didnt
answer I tried twice more before realizing that he probably was not in
the mood for a conversation right now, so I sat down on my bunk and
just wondered how such brutality could be so common in America. The
scene that just transpired with Ralph is played out dozens of times
every day throughout jails and prisons across the nation. In the 38
months of my detention I must have seen at least fifty such
beatings and was on the receiving end of two of my own, one of
which was for reporting a guard for the way he treated my mother on
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her only visit to see me, along with the fact that he had been selling
drugs, cigars, and alcohol to the prisoners. The other beating was
because I peeed on the floor of a bus because after three hours of
telling guards I had to go and being ignored, I simply couldnt hold it
any longer. One of the beatings was very excessive and I was sore
and bruised for days for days. When I said I wanted to see a doctor
because I suspected one of my ribs might be cracked, they ignored me
and just extended my time on the bus long enough for the bruises to
fade away.

That night after dinner, a few of us I the cell block tried calling out to
Ralph again but he simply wouldnt answer. Let him sleep one
inmate shouted out. I fell asleep early that evening, but awoke at
about 1:00am to take a leak. I looked out my cell door window to see
if I could see the clock on the office wall. Instead I saw a guard with a
mop and a bottle of clorox bleach standing outside Ralphs door. How
unusual. I thought. Usually they make the prisoners do all the grunt
work like mopping. I stayed at the door for about ten minutes, which
was just long enough to see him squeeze out the mop a few times,
and then watched as he removed all the bedding from Ralphs cell. I
concluded that Ralph was either being transferred and was taken to
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R&D or was taken over to the medical unit because I could neither see
nor hear him in his cell. But my cell was positioned about 45 degrees
from Ralphs and did not provide me with the ability to actually look
inside his cell. I could only see about the first three feet of his cell
when the door was all the way open. I went back to bed in search of a
nice dream. Around 5:00am, I awoke to a lot of commotion outside. I
went to my door and saw at least a dozen guards, medical staff, and
white shirts (I presumed to be administrative people). Ralphs cell door
was open, and I could see the repeated flashes of a camera strobe
bouncing off the walls. By now most other prisoners were also
standing at their doors, some even so jaded as to demand their
breakfast. Whats going on? prisoners began shouting to one another.

About an hour or so later, Ralph was removed from his cell in a body
bag, and the deputy warden announced that Ralph had committed
suicide. He did not elaborate further but guards would later say that
Ralph hung himself. I didnt believe it for a minute and was personally
outraged at the ruse they chose to cover-up the beating that really
caused his death, probably from internal bleeding, punctured lungs or
a brain hemorrhage. I saw the guard remove all of Ralphs sheets and

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blanket around 1:00am. With what could Ralph hang himself? This
wasnt suicide. It was murder. And I was not the only one who knew it.
For the next few days I was stunned and could not believe I lived in
America.

The U.S. Department of Justice admits that 29% of prison deaths

are suicides but how many of these suicides are really murders?
Based on my own investigation while in custody for 38 months
and having interviewed almost 100 witnesses from segregation
units, my guesstimate is that half of all prison suicides are real.
Some person unknown attempted to suicide me and when the
camera video was requested I was told the camera for that area
was broken.

Approximately 1,000 federal prisoners die in

custody every year. At any given time there are about 200,000
people kept in solitary confinement in America. The United
Nations calls prolonged solitary confinement torture.

After

myself pending 9 months in Solitary, I agree.

These links below are just a sampling of the torture and abuse
prisoners are subjected to, and they have no way to call the police or

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file charges against the attackers. Warning, these videos are graphic
and disturbing.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm
http://prisonbooks.info/2013/12/11/wake-prosecutor-plays-graphic-video-of-fatal-beating-duringjail-guards-trial/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZUSvC3vY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=datvPqLiqnQ
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/11/prison-video-showsinmate-beating-as-guards-look-on/1#.Uvb6UIXwiv8
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/marion-corrections-officer-charged-with-beating-inmate//1637132/23423718/-/g7domsz/-/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a4eMIjabsNs
http://www.geocities.com/prisonmurder/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O5eOknaXgYU
http://sfbayview.com/2013/video-released-of-georgia-guards-beating-prisoners-with-hammer/
http://www.prisonplanet.com/video-captures-jasper-texas-police-officers-beating-woman.html
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bca5dae693
http://globalgrind.com/2012/03/15/tioga-jail-beating-shows-prison-officials-beating-inmatedavid-coffey-details/
http://www.wncn.com/story/23226072/us-judge-hears-claims-that-nc-inmates-beaten
http://www.geocities.com/prison_bloodbath
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Sheriff-releases-video-of-prisoner-beating-4348351.php

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