A letter to WW from Miley Fletcher

On Aug. 10, 2023, I was transferred out of [State Correctional Institution] Forest to SCI Greene. Before I left, my counselor Ms. Benson came to my door and said, “If you wouldn’t have written for that newspaper, you wouldn’t be getting transferred.” I guess I was supposed to just let them abuse prisoners in that special needs unit at SCI Forest. When she walked away she said, “Let that be a lesson to you.”

I thought to myself: No matter what! I will never allow anyone in authority to abuse inmates in a prison.

I will see the Pennsylvania parole board in January 2024. For 32 years straight, I’ve been incarcerated. Once I’m on the outside, I will contact Workers World to let you all know that I am still going to expose the wrongdoing of Pennsylvania’s state correctional facilities.

Even before I started transitioning, I’ve seen so much abuse towards prisoners. We are people, not dogs. Even though some on the outside may believe we deserve to be here, we do change and we do regret what we’ve done in our past. Even before I was transgender, the abuse others and I have endured by guards, lieutenants, captains and staff is a real shame on them. I’ll never understand what they got out of it.

The kind of people who work in Pennsylvania prisons are criminals. The abuse and even murder that they’ve gotten away with is sickening. They’ve even transferred prisoners from one prison to the next due to our complaints. Others who are incarcerated would agree with me.

We’re retaliated against for doing what’s right. None of us prisoners lie about what’s going on behind these walls and fences. Let us have recording devices — we will show what is really going on and being said to us  — just like on the outside. But they won’t because they know we’ll be able to prove what they do to us.

It’s not about being transgender. It’s all of us prisoners as a whole. Just being transgender makes it harder on us because of who we are and with other prisoners joining in with the guards and staff. The same guards who use the n-word or abuse prisoners — they join in with them. So many years I’ve seen prisoners who do this. Then that same guard or staff member writes them up later, down the line.

I will be in contact, Workers World, to help push the movement forward.

In solidarity,

Miley S. Fletcher

SCI Greene