These are notes from the meeting we had following our march on the DOC. We will send copies of these to hundreds of incarcerated people today via Corrlinks.
The meeting attendees included Secretary Carr, his assistant Shannon Carpenter and the head of Division of Adult Institutions Makda Fessahaye on the DOC side. Myself, Rachel Kincade from Moses and Linda Rose from Soul Sessions. The meeting was supposed to be 30 minutes, but it went on for more than an hour, making Secretary Carr late for his next meeting.
We definitely appreciate their willingness to take time and meet with us. We came away with the impression that Secretary Carr and his newer heads of staff believe they are doing their best, but we remain impatient. We were over-all disappointed with the lack of detail, transparency, and commitment in this meeting and the lack of progress in DOC reforms.
Demand #1 Fire or discipline Warden Novak and other staff
Secretary Carr said that he meets with Warden Novak regularly and had a meeting with her recently. He said he doesn't think she broke any rules or did anything fireable, but would not hesitate to fire her if she did. When we asked him about specific issues that include what we understand to be violations, though, he was evasive.
