Kenneth Shaun Traywick is now on day 11 of a hunger strike at Bullock Correctional Facility. Traywick, a prison reform advocate also known as Swift Justice, began the strike on Thursday, November 20 after an ADOC correctional officer pepper sprayed him from behind, reportedly as retaliation for Traywick speaking out about the officer’s assault of a fellow inmate, Michael Rowser.
In a recorded phone conversation recently obtained by APR, Traywick describes to his wife how “Officer Glover” followed him into his cell and pepper sprayed him in the back of the head while Traywick was sitting on his bed. Traywick says that the officer then threatened him with multiple disciplinary charges.
“He’s attacked me because I am a witness of Michael Rowser,” Traywick tells his wife in the recording.
“They are assaulting people and they are retaliating against those who are reporting,” Traywick also states in a separate conversation recorded later that same day.
After the incident, Traywick was reportedly placed in restrictive housing, had his phone access restricted, and received two disciplinary charges and a citation.
Since Traywick’s hunger strike began, Unheard Voices of the Concrete Jungle, UVOTCJ–a nonprofit cofounded by Traywick in 2017–has actively called for ADOC to address the situation and provide clear and accurate information about Traywick’s condition to his family.
According to UVOTCJ, Traywick is demanding that he be transferred out of Bullock Correctional Facility; that he be granted a meeting with ADOC Commissioner John Hamm; that ADOC ends its “retaliatory and excessive force practices;” that he be granted the ability to send and receive written mail; and that ADOC conduct an investigation “into CERT Officers Glover and Bowen as well as any other officer accused of excessive force or retaliatory discipline/citation write ups.”
While ADOC officials told APR last week that Constituent Services had not received any requests for information or a welfare check from Traywick’s family, both UVOTCJ and Traywick’s wife are insistent that they have made multiple requests for updates on Traywick’s condition through several official channels and have yet to receive any confirmation regarding his health status.
Traywick’s wife recently provided APR with several additional audio recordings of phone conversations between herself and ADOC staff in which the staff members either decline to perform a welfare check on Traywick, fail to inform Traywick’s wife of his current condition, or tell her to call back at a later time.
In one of the recordings, an ADOC staff member tells Traywick’s wife that she won’t be able to receive much information on Traywick’s condition because “they don’t get locked up unless they’re doing something wrong.”
“You don’t really need to call us and talk to us ma’am, because we don’t need to get in trouble with you calling here recording phone calls and y’all might take it the wrong way,” the staff member later added, telling Traywick’s wife to try speaking with the warden. Traywick’s wife then responds to the staff member, saying that she has already tried contacting the warden multiple times regarding her husband’s condition, but to no avail.
Now, UVOTCJ and Traywick’s wife are demanding written confirmation of Traywick’s current health status from Commissioner Hamm and the ADOC by the end of the day Monday, December 1. They are asking for Traywick’s current vital signs, confirmation that he is under ongoing monitoring as his hunger strike continues, information on the frequency of welfare checks, any medical concerns noted by staff, and a “detailed plan for the reintroduction of nutrition in a safe manner to prevent fatal conditions” including refeeding syndrome.
“[Traywick] has a documented medical history involving chest pains, episodes of rapid heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and high cholesterol,” UVOTCJ notes in their official statement. “Ten days without food under these conditions presents significant risk of cardiac complications, organ distress, and other medical emergencies.”
The nonprofit also claims that Traywick has been held “naked in a suicide cell with no possessions or bedding” at some point during his hunger strike and that he has been “stripped of all writing materials, impacting communication with family and his legal cases.”
ADOC has yet to respond to APR’s request for further comment regarding Traywick’s ongoing hunger strike and the alleged lack of transparency between ADOC staff and Traywick’s family.
