Jessica Watkins, a political prisoner in the United States, has recently come to light after being sentenced to 8½ years in federal prison for her participation in the protest at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
What follows is an account of the injustice she has faced since her arrest and imprisonment.
Watkins was arrested following the events of January 6th amidst claims that she had threatened people or vandalized property during the rally. However, those who witnessed her participation say otherwise: that she did not threaten anyone and instead encouraged others not to damage property; that she spoke with police officers inside the Capitol and followed their orders.
Despite this evidence, U.S District Judge Amit Mehta still sentenced Watkins – alongside other prominent J6 defendants – on May 26th of this year with harsh punishments ranging from 8 ½ years to 18 years in federal prison.
The activist federal judge would not allow Watkins or her co-defendants to cross-examine the fraudulent fed informants who lied about her during the trial.
In addition to receiving an unjust sentence, reports indicate that Jessica Watkins has been subjected to horrific treatment while imprisoned at DC Central Detention Facility’s female maximum security jail.
Upon her arrest, Watkins was reportedly stripped naked and left in a cell with lights on 24 hours a day for four days straight – an experience that can only be described as torture.
This mistreatment continues today as correctional officers harass and mentally torture Watkins to such an extent that she is inflicting self-harm out of desperation.
It is worth noting that last week The Biden Department of Justice announced their intention to appeal several prominent J6 defendants’ sentences including Jessica Watkins’ – though whether or not this will actually succeed remains unclear at present time.
Baker wrote the following article after talking with Watkins:
Jessica Watkins, DC GULAG POLITICAL PRISONER, called me today telling me that she is tired of the abuses she has been going through since being moved to Maximum Security at the DC CTF.
“I am furious! LIVID! Purple with Wrath!” she said. “Everyone needs to know that this is happening”.
We have been told about many tactics that the DOC staff seem to use on these prisoners. Everything from the Diesel Therapy, ridiculous amounts of solitary confinement, 100*+ heat while in the hole, no visits for 2 years, to tainting of food or just plain not providing proper nutrition.
Jessica is in the women’s maximum security and has no J6 support like the guys in the C3A pod. She is being housed with the worst of the worst and most days stays inside her cell by herself. The only other inmates that she has been able to become friends with have alternate schedules, so she no longer sees them.
What Jessica has told me might seem silly or frivolous to us out here, as we stand free in our comfy homes. However, to be in a concrete cell day after day with no freedom, we could only imagine things through her eyes and know that people have their breaking points.
Currently, Jessica is going through not just dealing with being moved to Maximum security after being found guilty of Seditious Conspiracy, but now the prosecutors are appealing her sentencing to try and get an 18 yr sentence handed down from the judge. On top of all of this already stressful and heartbreaking news, there is a Correctional Officer, CPL. Pryor whom Jessica feels especially harassed by. She “accidentally” calls Jessica by male pronouns. Jessica is in the women’s jail and to look at or talk to her you would not make that mistake.
On June 13, Cpl. Pryor came into Jessica’s cell and decided to “turn it over” and search her cell without her body cam on. Pryor went through her things and settled on a picture that Jessica has of her pet fish. Pryor ripped the picture down and put it in her jacket then left the cell. After Jessica made noise about getting her picture back, she finally got it back damaged, as can be seen on surveillance video.
On July 6, another CO CPL Warren locked Jessica out of her cell. Telling her she had to stay out until she was done with her rounds. Jessica is on medication that acts like a water pill and she needs to use the restroom often. There is no communal bathroom in the POD. Warren let Jessica know she would need to “Hold it” if she needed to use the bathroom. When Jessica sent in a written grievance about this incident their response to the grievance was to return her grievance paperwork.
Jessica’s anxiety has become increasingly worse. One such instance is last week on the 10th of July. Monday is laundry day and the CO refused to take Jessica’s laundry for cleaning. After the CO acted like it was no big deal that she would have no clean clothes for another week, Jesica lost her cool and cussed out the CO. The CO then locked her in her cell recording Jessica from her body cam as she dumped out her laundry bags to show this officer how much laundry she had. She begged for her stuff to be cleaned. She admittedly started to freak out. Her breaking point of so many times she’s been mistreated and the solitary confinement all came to a head. She was having a Mental Health Emergency. She began to inflict self-harm as she screamed “Fuck You!”.
Lt. Hines came to Jessica’s cell and caught her on body cam inflicting the self-harm. The Lt. ultimately took the laundry and dismissed Jessica’s anxiety and attack on herself.
“I was never taken to Mental Health or a doctor for my grievous self-inflicted injuries,” Watkins said. “They just kept me locked in my cell and left me like that”.
On Saturday, 5 days later a CO sees Jessica’s bruises and sends her to Medical where the doctor puts her in an isolation cell for half the day and tells her that she, ‘Needs Jesus, before sending her back to her unit.’
Last night was all Jessica could take, which is why I am writing this article today. At 2:30 a.m. CPL Pryor kicked Jessica’s cell door making the bright overhead light come on in her cell. Jessica could hear Pryor laughing when she did this. Jessica yelled and banged on her door for at least a half hour before the light was finally turned off. Her mental strength is being tried at every level. She doesn’t know what can be done or know what the answer is to get through this, but she does want people to be aware of her struggle. She has written numerous grievance reports to which nothing is done.
So, yes, this seems on the surface like silly things to have breakdowns over, if you were in your home. But ask yourself, “If I were living in a concrete box every day, how would I handle this?”
Before I hung up with Jessica this afternoon she expressed to me that she didn’t want me to worry about her. “How can I not, Jess?” I asked, “This shit is not ok! You are hurting yourself and they are driving you to that point!”
I get emotional as I write this because the mere thought of enjoying a picture of my pet, the ability to simply use the bathroom, do my laundry, or get a restful night’s sleep is something so minuscule, and yet Jessica is denied these things.
These things, plus too many other things to mention, are what help these people at the DC Gulag and other DOC facilities break down our brothers and sisters.
***Please pray for Watkins and support her here if you can**
Why the hell has not our “Hero” spineless Republican Congress and Senate made on site visits to this communist Democrat gulag run by evil lunatics?
Why has our Republican Speaker of the House and our slug in the senate, Mitch McConnell not looked into this and convened one of their “for show only” Congressional Investigations.
Joe Biden needs to be in prison now!
each of these officers? need to be charged and put in prison. America is not suppose to have “political” prisoners but these people are that
Pay attention America. This IS the democrat’s justice system. They are worse than the Nazis and make Putin look like a saint.
I hurt for these people every day. This kind of treatment has no place in the United States, in Cuba, North Korea, Russia, China, and some other 3rd world countries but not in the U.S.A. I understand that the D.C. prison can get away with this inhumane treatment because they are not a state and do not fall under the same rules. Well, if that is true, why don’t a group, or all, of the Republicans do something about what is going on at the prison? Someone has to do something and they are the only group with the power to change things.
Things will get dramatically worse if the democraps continue in power, and you could be next.
In contrast to the brutal way our government is treating the conservative prisoners, illegal are being housed in luxury hotels.
PRAYING FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF RACIST DC GUARDS AND DC GOV !!
[…] come under fire from civil liberties advocates who argue that peaceful protesters are being over-criminalized while violent actors are being let off with minimal punishments due to their political […]