For the past twelve days, I have been subjected to what can only be described as a slow-motion form of torture inside the so-called “Special Housing Unit” at FCI Fairton.
The warden, Ms. Kelly, insists that this ordeal is for my own “safety.”
Yet, her method of keeping me safe was not to protect me with fairness, dignity, or common decency, but instead to strip me of all communication with the outside world, cut me off from my loved ones, and toss me into a cage like an animal. From August 28th through the evening of September 7th, I was confined in a concrete box measuring roughly 17 by 15 feet.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, I paced in circles like a restless ghost. The windows were frosted, allowing only a faint suggestion of daylight and nightfall, enough to remind me that time was passing, though I had little sense of how.
The shower water was always cold, and my only amenities were the steel toilet and sink fused together in the corner. It was a miserable existence. Yet, as I soon learned, misery can always be deepened.
On September 7th, the warden’s office saw fit to move me into something far worse, an even smaller cell, no more than seven by nine feet, coated in filth, reeking of neglect, and utterly devoid of natural light or ventilation.
In that suffocating shoebox, there is no room to walk, no hint of the sun, no trace of humanity. The silence is crushing.
The air feels stale. The walls themselves seem to close in. I keep asking myself: will this barbaric confinement ever end? Is this legal under our Constitution, or have I simply been erased from the protections of due process?
Most haunting of all, will I survive it? With no access to my family, no calls, no emails, and with letters that may never leave this building, I live in total darkness, cut off from the world I once fought to serve.
Let me be blunt: I find Warden Kelly’s so-called “protection” not only unpalatable, but cruel and unjustifiable. My time here has opened my eyes to a truth far too many ignore: America desperately needs prison reform.
No warden, no single unelected official, should wield such unchecked and unaccountable power over another human being’s life. I call on my former colleagues in Congress, Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tim Burchett, Cory Mills, Anna Paulina Luna, and Lauren Boebert, to investigate the conditions at FCI Fairton and the practices of Warden Kelly and her administration.
These actions cannot stand unchallenged. No person, no matter their crime, should be treated like a zoo exhibit locked away in isolation. Prolonged solitary confinement is not rehabilitation, it is degradation.
It breeds anger, despair, and hopelessness. It creates a cycle where men leave prison not reformed but embittered, fueling the very recidivism our justice system is supposed to prevent.
What I am enduring is not just my story, it is the story of countless others across this nation whose voices are silenced behind bars. We are a country that prides itself on liberty, fairness, and human dignity.
And yet, inside too many prisons, those very values are cast aside. If we allow this to continue, then we undermine the very principles that make America worth fighting for. This is not justice. This is cruelty, plain and simple. And it must end.