Thursday and Friday March 7th and 8th are call-in days for Soja, who is back on hunger strike.
Cornelius
"Soja" Harris (prisoner reg number 525-945) has refused all food on
78 out of the last 83 days. He suspended his initial 38 day hunger strike for 5
days in mid February. When he came off the first strike, $300 worth of property
had been stolen or destroyed from his cell. Warden David Bobby said he would
make sure all the property was returned or replaced. Five days later, on
February 20th, his property was still not returned, and Soja resumed his hunger
strike. Warden Bobby refuses to discuss Mr Harris' situation with supporters.
Soja is demanding inspectors from central office come to interview him at Ohio State Penitentiary
(OSP). He is asking supporters to call Central Office at 614-752-1159 and
request that they send someone to OSP to do this interview.
Staff at OSP have
resumed harassment of Soja since he returned from trial. Officers Austin,
Burns and Kishh have threatened to destroy more of Soja's property while he was
on a visit. Thanks in part to supporter phone calls, these COs were properly
supervised, and while they did toss Soja's cell, they didn't destroy any of his
property. They did bring him down an hour late for his visit, and intentionally
put him in a booth with a broken light and dirty glass so his visitor could
hardly see him. Supporters are als encouraged to call OSP and ask Warden Bobby
why his staff is allowed to engage in this campaign of targeted harassment.
The number there is 330-743-0700.
In the midst of
January's hunger strike, Mr Harris went to court on multiple criminal charges,
including aggravated attempted murder, stemming from incidents of fights with
prison staff. The jury found him not guilty of the more serious offenses, and
only convicted him of assault and weapons possession, which he admitted to
committing, out of self defense. The jury beleived the incidents were initiated
by prison staff, and did not believe the guards and prison officials the
prosecution put on the stand. In spite of these factors, the judge sentenced Mr
Harris to thirty-two years, nearly the maximum possible sentence.
Mr Harris wrote the
following statement to supporters via institutional email on March 5th:
"It's been thumbs down on me since the conclusion of my trial. These
cowards are not satisfied with the fact that I received an extra 32 years on my
sentence, they're not satisfied until they have crushed you to dust and blew
you away. They want you crawling on your knees, weak and broken, they don't
want you standing strong, head up with no fear. They only plan is to control and
punish, they never intend to compromise, violence is the only language they
understand." He has also sent a longer statement via regular mail,
which will be forthcoming.
.jpg)
