Arbitrary and Systemic Abuse Of Power

By Pitt Panther

I’m a prisoner currently Incarcerated In the state of Maryland at Jessup Correction Institution(J.C.I),despite not being sentenced to any prison term by a Maryland Judge,My Incarceration at this state derives from being Interstate tra nsferred from neighbouring state of Virginia through Interstate Compact Transfer which Is where I was sentenced and serving time for.

Upon arriving at this facility,a Seargent named Njoku started harassing me not long after I arrived at this facility,which led me to Inquire to my peers about him.I’ve been Incarcerate,i long enough to decipher and ,iifferenciate correction Officers who come to Prison,conduct their duties with some type of Integrity,not abuse their power,do their shift and go back home to their famili es and I can also easily Identify those who come to work,lacking Integrity and abuse their power any chance they get,all In an attempt to climb up the chain of command.

Subsequent to countless conversations with my peers regarding Seargent Njoku, i quickly learned that he was most certainly one of those Officers thirsty for power and driven by his ego. I also learned that he was previously a Lietenant but was demoted back down to a seargent for disciplinary reasons. However similar to red onion prison, a notorious prison in rural Southwest Virginia known for it’s history of abusing prisoners where I was previously confined In and was placed In solitary confinement for a decade,It was a known pattern of practice of which the only officers who seemed to get promoted were those with history of abusing prisoners.

I suppose after harassing enough prisoners, Seargent Njoku was promoted back to Lieutenant and to further appease him, he was placed in charge of Housing unit Echo which houses over 200 prisoners. Typically, each housing unit has a L.T who oversee the building but the day to day operations are enforced by the bldg Sgt. In Echo bldg, Sgt. Yellitin who In my opinion Is a man of Integrity and actually uses his position to help prisoners was essentially stripped of his responsibilities by L.t Njoku, as his thirst for power wanted absolute control.

Part of the operating procedure In regards to Prisoners complaints at this facility, upon filing for Administrative Remedy only a L.T or higher rank are authorized, to sign prisoners request for Administrative remedy and it would then be forwarded to the Warden, managing official or designee of the facility.

10/10/24 I was walking back to my housing unit, I arrived at a gate which separates the prison; A,B,C housing units from D, E and F buildings. The gate is supposed to be closed if no movement is permitted. An officer named Ntul Moshe was assigned at this post on the aforementioned date. Upon arriving at this gate which was open, an indication that movement was permitted, said officer walked to the gate’s threshold and as I was about to walk through the gate, he instantly reached his arm out across the gate causing me to bump into him.

As a result of his actions, this constituted as an assault. The gate in which this officer was assigned at does in fact close, if no movement was permitted, all he had to do was simply close the gate. The standard policy and procedure does not support an office using his arm to physically stop anyone when theres a gate in place, simply put officer Ntul Moshe assaulted me to which I retain the right to file criminal charges against him. The day after this assault I returned the favor by calling him out of his name, but then instead of letting bygones be bygones, he escalated this situation further by filing a disciplinary report in which he alleged that I used Vulgar language towards him. Keep in mind he assaulted me. 

10/13/24 I filed a complaint on this matter and my request for Administrative Remedy was for officer Ntul Moshe be suspended for up to a month with no pay or terminated from the Division of correction. This complaint was signed by none other than L.T Njoku. Additionally I submitted a letter to the chief of security regarding this matter who responded and stated that this matter was being looked into and had been called into the Internal Investigative Division(IID). Officer Moshe was subsequently removed from the General Population and placed on Administrative Duties.

At this prison(J.C.I) inconsistency is the one sure consistent practice in addition to lack of accountability on officers part, and they won’t hesitate to file disciplinary infractions even outright commit perjury.

01/26/25 a disciplinary infraction was filed on me by SGT. Victor Mark, a known friend/co-worker of Ntul Moshe, however they failed to follow the proper procedure and a major procedural error was made which lead to the infringement of my 14th Amendment Due Process right. I declined to go to the hearing on this issue as my Due process was already violated so I refused to legitimize a process in which I knew and they too knew they dropped the ball instead of doing the right thing and dismiss the infraction as the Proper process, as not adhered to, they attempted to go through with his skewed process.

02/11/26 I was called to go to an adjustment hearing on this matter In which I hesitantly went against my Instincts.This hearing was conducted In the segregation unit by Jesse Palmer via audio.Mr.Palmer who Is supposed to be an Impartial and fair decision maker quickly let It be known that would not be the case. I argued and presented all factual and relevant facts In support of my defense to which as opposed for Palmer to go with the facts presented and reach a decision based on such, every word which spewed out of his mouth was “I feel like” to which I pleaded with him to not make a decision based on feelings but rather the facts and despite obvious procedural errors made which Infringed upon my due process right, it became quite obvious there was more at play beyond what the eye could see.

Jesse Palmer based on his feelings as opposed to facts opted to Issue a ruling of 20 days segregation time backdated to 01/26 /25 which implied I had to serve 5 days in segregation and 10 day loss of visitation. At the conclusion of this hearing, he demanded I get up and leave an offer I vehemently rejected and offered him a counter offer to use force If they wanted me in segregation. LT Gee, a guy with a cowboy complex who was In charge of the Seg bldg stormed Into the room which the hearing was being conducted with utter determination that I would be going to a seg cell and let It be known that he had no problem Implementing force,I met him with the same energy.

I know his type; he’s a black version of the kind of officers I dealt with at the infamous red Onion prison and I know precisely how to respond to his type, additionally, given that I was already handcuffed and he was surrounded by his co-workers/friends he was putting on a brave face but he’s the type if left to fight alone he’s a coward.

Phonecalls were made to higher ranks up the chain of command and the decision made by Jesse Palmer to put me in seg was rescinded and I was allowed to go back to my housing unit in general population.

After reflecting on this entire matter, Mr.Palmer’s decision to put me in seg was influenced by someone, which made sense to me as to why he overlooked every relevant fact, which I would not doubt that L.T Njoku in some capacity played a role in that, such tactics occur quite often in prison. What they didn’t anticipate was that I would be willing to go force them to use force if they were to place me in seg and had I went along with the program it would’ve allowed for officer Ntul Moshe be placed back to his normal duties in general population, making it even more difficult for me to file criminal complaint against corruption officer Moshe. Furthermore a complaint which I filed on L.T Njoku for threatening to use force on me would also be thrown out.

Systemic abuse of power Is something I see everyday and those who feel the outcome of It are prisoners who oftentimes are timid to respond or raise complaint on these types of officers as ultimately most prisoners do not want to be retaliated and risk losing their chance of parole,good time credit,release date pushback, work assignment etcetera therefore prisoners have much too great to lose and this utter silence merely encourages officers to continue abusing their power while trampling on prisoners protected constitution rights with no fear or thought of being held accountable. 

Very few officers come to work and conduct their duties with a sense of Integrity while far too many abuse their power.Silence an,i lack of accountability Is problematic In any environment In which people have power over people an<l I personally have always been Inclined to get disturbed over organized Injustice and/or Instances of abuse of power against any group of an oppressed class. 

For an alleged Incident which occurred Jan 26,a plea was subsequently offered which I kindly rejected and their next option was to Issue the maximum penalty and put me In segregation.If this alleged Incident was so serious that It was worth placing me In solitary why allow me to continue being housed In general population, continue to work and roam around the prison compound? The option to Isolate me only came up due to my rejection of the plea they offered.

Essentially,they placed a gun to my head;take the guilty plea or else.Isolating people Is an Inhumane practice which many States have begun abandoning such practice for It Is well known to exacerbate people’s mental health,yet In this case Jessee Lambert Palmer (JCI Adjustment officer) was quick to exercise this power to place    In solitary without a single thought of repercussion for his decision.

In conclusion, I find this quite Intriguing not only because It’s Black History month but overall historical perspective.This Is a Prison, like most prisons where the population Is composed of mostly Black Incarcerated People but the administration and the staff Is composed of people of Afrikan descent; Black Warden, Chief Of security, Major, Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants and a plethora of Afrikan descent officers however the one responsible of dishing out punishment, Mr.Jessee Palmer, the sole Caucasian Is the one responsible for such, who doesn’t even physically come to the facility but does so over audio. One can only wonder how many people are languishing In JCI seg unit simply because they refused to accept a plea offer? I believe this solidifies why I call these places Division Of Corruption!

All Power To The People 

Dare to struggle,

Dare to WIN !!!

Peter Kamau Mukuri 5194931 JCI

P.O. Box 53Lf Jessup, MD 2079Lf