Protect whistleblowers in carceral settings

Prisons are censorship. Imprisonment limits the expression and communication of incarcerated people. As recent reports on book bans in prisons demonstrate, people inside are limited in what information gets inside prison walls. But, prisons also limit the information that comes out of carceral institutions by preventing incarcerated people from writing about their experiences–either legally or through extra-legal intimidation and harassment. This censorship prevents people outside from knowing what the conditions are like in the most expansive prison system the world has ever seen. Jason Walker has been reporting from inside Texas prisons for the last seven years. His whistleblowing journalism has exposed the mundane brutality of incarceration, as well as several other issues at the forefront of carceral conversations. One of his articles describes a white supremacist gang dealing K2 and the group’s connection to guards as the primary conduit for drugs entering the prison. While states and the federal government are hastily banning mail in the erroneous claim that correspondence and reading materials are the vector for drugs, Walker’s reportage demonstrates how underpaid employees, in collusion with gangs inside, are the principal way drugs are getting into prisons. This article led to Walker being violently assaulted by the gang. Walker’s safety became even more of a problem when his exposé of grievance procedure irregularities by prison staff was picked up by the Houston Chronicle and led to multiple firings. As a result of his reportage, Walker has been attacked by gang members at five separate Texas prisons. In his last facility, Walker was intentionally placed in a cell with a white supremacist gang member in a prisoner-death-match strategy encouraging the gang to kill him. This proxy state violence shifts the blame for an incarcerated person’s death on another incarcerated person, instead of the guards that placed them together and the prison system enabling these entrapments. As a last-ditch effort to obtain temporary safety, Walker attempted suicide which, per protocol, forced him to be moved to Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (TDCJ) mental health unit. Without intervention from the state, he will be transferred back into the general population–perhaps as soon as this week. In order to avoid being killed by white supremacists and colluding officers, Walker has applied for what’s called safe keeping status. This classification is normally reserved for people who have experienced sexual assault or were state’s witness–and therefore at risk of being attacked by others in general population. Since Walker has been attacked at 5 facilities–all by the same white supremacist gang–this designation would make sense as well as saving his life. However, it is ultimately up to the Texas Classification Committee where Walker will be imprisoned. This Committee decision is made without public input and the criteria for their selection are murky. Safe keeping status is incredibly restrictive, and Walker’s decision to voluntarily seek this designation is indicative of his level of concern for his life. This designation limits how much people can be outside their cells drastically, as well as the educational and recreational opportunities that help keep incarcerated people sane as they spend years of their lives isolated from family, friends, and community. Walker is eligible for parole in December 2023. With less than a year left on his Texas state sentence to serve, it is deliberate negligence to put his life in danger by returning him to the general population. To do so would be a direct violation of the mission for Texas Corrections to “provide safe and appropriate” housing for its incarcerated population. If Walker gets paroled, he will be transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons because he also has federal charges to serve. Walker has asked that if Texas is unwilling to grant him safe keeping status, he be transferred to the federal system, away from the Texas gangs and guards targeting him. Walker recognizes that he’s taken risks in exposing the degeneracy at the heart of Texas’ carceral system. His book, Reports from within the Belly of the Beast, documents how these issues are not aberrations but constitutive of imprisonment. For this, he’s been targeted and his life is at risk. Despite the threats on his life, and the horrifying conditions, Walker continues to defy the censorship of Texas prisons. People outside have a right to know about the conditions we pay to keep people in. We also have a right to know the actual origins of contraband. Support freedom of speech by supporting incarcerated whistleblower Jason Walker’s request for safe keeping status. Sign the petition below which asks the Texas Classification Committee to grant Walker’s request. You can amplify your support by sharing this petition on social media.