CCI Step Down Program is bogus

by Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa

I have taken the position to shut down this fake SDP (Step Down Program) crap. So all of Step 4, who have the most to lose – meaning some of them are a couple of weeks away from completing their Step 4, and for some they are one, two, three, four months away from being on a mainline, and for some of them it’s been 13, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 39 years since they’ve last been in general population, and for Step 3 it ranges from 4 to 31 years – we all agree that these latest types of 115s, or RVRs (CDCR Form 115, Rules Violation Reports), are just another way to keep us held in SHU or a means of bringing us back once we make it out to the General Population mainline, and we’d rather take our stance now!

So, you can start spreading this good news to Corcoran, New Folsom and Pelican Bay by radio, news articles and when family members travel to PBSP (Pelican Bay State Prison) and the other two SHUs.

We shall stop participating Monday, May 11, 2015, indefinitely. We won’t be attending any CC hearings directly dealing with Steps 3 and 4, nor shall we go to those group meetings or do any more of those journals. Now there are two groups for each Step 3 and 4, and that’s a total of 40 prisoners who would have been attending those group meetings weekly. This SDP cannot function without prisoners participating.

I need for you to share that Steps 3 and 4 prisoners will not continue to participate in the SDP, which is corrupt and discriminatory against all SDP prisoners and has been trying to provoke all of us to rebel, get angry and act out.

So, you can start spreading this good news to Corcoran, New Folsom and Pelican Bay by radio, news articles and when family members travel to PBSP (Pelican Bay State Prison) and the other two SHUs. We shall stop participating Monday, May 11, 2015, indefinitely.

Our problems come from Warden Kim Holland, Chief Deputy Warden J. Gutierrez, Chief Deputy Warden W. Sullivan, Capt. P. Metzers, IGI Lt. J. Tyree, Deputy Director of Division of Adult Institutions R. Diaz from the CDCR Sacramento office, former SDP Facilitator M. Tann, B. Snider, CC-II, and V. Ybarra, CC-I. All of these Tehachapi officials and the one Sacramento official have knowledge that we as SHU SDP prisoners have been denied our fundamental SHU rights.

As of two weeks ago, we are being denied the use of a razor, or should I say we have a choice to take a five-minute shower or a five-minute shave, but not both.

Now 90 percent of all SDP privileges have been denied us from January 2014 to May 2015. This is a failed program and all of the heads of CDCr know what is going on here at CCI (California Correctional Institution) in Tehachapi.

Send our brother some love and light: Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, s/n Ronnie Dewberry, C-35671, CCI SHU 4B-7C-209, P.O. Box 1906, Tehachapi CA 93581.