Support Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain- Flood the ODRC Records Office

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In the midst of the Army of the 12 Monkeys persecution, which got Sean sent to level 4B at Ohio State Penitentiary, Ohio’s supermax facility, there were a series of disciplinary hearings before the Rules Infraction Board (RIB). Sean says these hearings were completely absurd, blatantly unjust, and terribly embarrassing to the prison authorities. I don’t know about you, but I’d love to hear Sean run debate circles around the bumbling (and sometimes intoxicated) ManCI investigators and officials.

We haven’t had a good laugh in a while, so we’re trying to get access to the recordings, or at least transcripts of these hearings. It’d be awesome to get audio or video of fascist fuckweasels drunkenly informing Sean that he has no rights and they don’t care about how obviously manufactured and inane the “evidence” used against him is. We expect a good mix of tragedy and comedy for maximum entertainment value. Unfortunately, the Ohio Department of Retribution and Corruption is living up to Sean’s name for them, by giving us the run around and losing track of our requests for the last few months.

So, we’re asking ya’ll to help us out. They can “misplace” one public records request, they might even be able to overlook or ignore a half dozen more, but we’re betting they’ll have trouble slipping twenty, thirty, a hundred through their many bureaucratic cracks. You may have heard or read stories about angry prisoners plugging their sinks and toilets, setting off fire sprinklers and flooding the range. Well, now you can participate in the office paperwork equivalent. Filing a request is easy. Just copy the information below, put in your personal information, and send it to the ODRC at the address provided.

If you can send it certified mail, they’ll have a harder time denying that they received it. If you fax it you can save on postage and also get a record that they received your fax. If you don’t have free access to a fax machine, just google “free fax” and they’ll be a handful of sites that send faxes for you. The ODRC records fax number is: 614 752 1086

If you get a reply, please contact us at insurgent.ben@gmail.com to let us know.

Custodian of Records
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
770 West Broad Street
Columbus Ohio 43222

[DATE]

RE: RECORDS REQUEST

Dear Sir or Madam:

I make the following request for public records pursuant to Revised Code Section 119.032 and in accordance with Ohio Administrative Code Section 5120-9-49, which defines a record as “any item that is kept by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (Department) that: (1) is stored on a fixed medium, (2) is created, received or sent under the jurisdiction of a public office and (3) documents the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the department.” The records requested are not precluded by OAC 5120-9-49 subsection B:

The digital recording of disciplinary hearing identified as MANCI-12-007219, held 24 October 2012 at Mansfield Correctional Institution,

The digital recording of disciplinary hearing identified as MANCI-13-002794 held on 13 May 2013 at Mansfield Correctional Institution, and

The digital recording of disciplinary hearing identified as MANCI-13-002907 held on 09 May 2013 at Mansfield Correctional Institution.

Please be advised that, pursuant to Subsection E of OAC 5120-9-49, this constitutes a request for “specific, existing records,” requiring the department to provide a prompt inspection at no cost and that you may with hold or redact these public records only with “explanation and legal authority.” Be advised also that the requester of records is willing to provide the necessary medium for the requested records, such as a disc or flash drive at requester’s cost, and is willing to provide an email address or other such information for the direct transfer of the information requested.

The requester of records may be contacted for “negotiation” to help in identification, location, and delivery of the requested records at the information below.

Thank you for your time and kind consideration.

Respectfully

[YOUR NAME]

[street address]

[PHONE NUMBER]

[email address]

SeanSwain.org