Dear Comrades: Clinton Correctional
Dear Comrades,
Once I left Upstate box in November 2023 and got to Clinton Correctional Facility, I again had every intention of keeping a low profile. But seriously, who was I fooling? Clinton was only 45 minutes down the road from Upstate, and unbeknownst to me, there was already a rumor going around that I was New York State Senator Julia Salazar’s cousin. How else could I be getting done what needed to be done unless I was related to the chair of the Senate’s Committee on Crime Victims, Crime, and Correction, a woman who these COs hate and with a passion and would love to have a proxy to release their wrath upon? Of course, we (my wife Emily and me, and Unchained as an organization) were being minimized. But did I care? Absolutely not. I’m used to it and thought that maybe it could work to my advantage if they thought that I was related to someone important.
Within the first couple of days of being at Clinton, I caught the attention of a CO in a whole different way. The first out-of-the-ordinary occurrence transpired just after the chow run when a female officer walked past my cell, stopped, turned back around, and said, “You aren’t doing anything funky back there, are you, 34 cell?” I’ll never forget that choice of words. It was so weirdly put, and even though I knew that she had been eyeing me in the mess hall, I was still caught off guard by it because I wasn’t doing anything aside from watching her watch me. “No,” I kind of snapped as she walked back toward me. “Oh, because I didn’t see anything,” she replied, staring down below my waist, then turning around and walking away.
Now I don’t know what you get from that, but let’s just say that I would see her a lot during my stay at Clinton, and that single occurrence would set in motion a whole series of events that got me into a whole lot of trouble, even though nothing physical ever happened. Did I make mistakes? Absolutely. I was set up and lied about, but I should have known better from the jump.
See, even though I don’t use drugs, smoke cigarettes, or drink coffee, I still have vices. I’m not perfect. And I even recognize the fact that my purpose is much more important than the silly situations that I sometimes get myself into. I really do. I take full accountability for everything I’ve done, regardless of the level of temptation that comes with receiving attention after being behind bars for more than a decade. I have to be better for everyone who I represent. I have to be better for my wife. I can’t lie though, it’s definitely hard.
My question is: how can I possibly change all the characteristics that I picked up in the streets into positive attributes that I can use for my advancement and in my organization, particularly upon my release, when I’m constantly being goaded into remaining the same person that got me here? These trials and tribulations are nothing short of the greatest test that I’ve ever faced in life. But am I passing or failing? I have no idea.
Whether I knew it at the time or not, while at Clinton I was made the target of every CO’s ire, and it showed. I caught more disciplinary tickets in a two-year period at that jail than I probably did in the whole rest of my bid. There were several incidents where COs mentioned Senator Salazar by name, and one where they made a comment about her while searching my cell, confiscated my perfectly legal and allowed property, broke it, and then wrote me a ticket for it. Most of the time, I found no reprieve, and it angered me and I lashed out, although always verbally, not physically. I had long been so conditioned to be irate, dissatisfied, imbued with the spirit of a fighter and fed up, that everything that hadn’t already spilled, rushed forth and overflowed. I finally left Clinton in March 2026 but unfortunately not under favorable circumstances. More on that soon.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be dropping short Dear Comrade letters filling you in on the ways I’ve been targeted over the past several years and keeping you posted on my current journey as I approach my release in the fall of 2027. Please join me, get to know me, and give me your feedback. You can send messages to derek@weareunchained.org, and our team will make sure your notes get to me. Your thoughts matter.