Kyle Major was released from prison in April 2018. He has written to FRFI with to share this horrific account of the treatment he has received:
Since 2012 I have been seriously harassed by the ministry of justice. It all started when I was accepted into the Close Supervision Centre (CSC) system within the high security prison estate for an alleged assault for which I was later exonerated. I was not in prison for a violent crime; I was in prison for blackmail and had received nine years reduced to six on appeal. I spent over 19 months within this system and, believe me, I have never experienced so much abuse, corruption, sick and evil treatment of people in my whole life. I can assure you now that system is another way for the prison service to extort the British tax payers and the government of money. They breed violence and encourage it; they target prisoners and inflict psychological abuse upon them, in some circumstances leading to self-mutilation, also warehousing mentally ill patients to increase the budgets from the government.
In May 2011 a prison officer attacked me. It was unprovoked and on camera with three other officers and they subjected me to a brutal assault.
Since 2013 I have been suffering from a very bad injury to my foot and ankle. I have constantly been denied medical care and cannot walk on my foot.
In March 2017 at HMP Doncaster I was again subject to an unprovoked attack by a prison officer, who was subsequently dismissed from the Prison Service. I was then sent to HMP Lindholme where eight days after my arrival I was assaulted again. The police’s prison investigation team for South Yorkshire investigated, but failed to submit the evidence to the CPS for a charging decision. They basically covered up a crime to protect the officer. Whilst that investigation was on going I was transferred to HMP Wealstun, where six officers, including two senior managers, greeted me upon arrival. It needs to be noted I arrived in a wheelchair due to my foot being so bad.
I was told by the officers to get out of the wheelchair as I was going to the segregation unit. I explained I could only walk a short distance aided with a crutch, and that long term I had to use a wheelchair. I was told ‘No, you can walk and you’re going to segregation.’ I asked if I could please speak to health care as I could point them in the direction of the information which would outline my injuries. I was told ‘No you can’t.’ Before I could say another word, six officers attacked me, dragging me out of the wheelchair, smashing my head off the floor and kneeing me and punching me. At no point was I resisting. I was then picked up in mid-air above their heads and carried to the segregation unit, and put in a cell.
Around ten minutes later four different officers came into the cell – not small guys – they surrounded me and said we want your trainers. I explained I needed to see health care as I had just been assaulted, and also that my trainers were prescribed medically I was told ‘Give us your trainers!’ Before I could finish asking for health care again, they assaulted me again, punching and kneeing. One officer tried to break my back with some body slam. I was then stripped naked and they left the cell.
I was in a cell with no toilet, sink or bed; just four walls and a floor it. I went to the corner of the cell to empty my bowels. Whilst in the corner naked and knelt down, the officers tried to come back into the cell again so I threatened them so they would leave the cell. I was in fear for my life genuinely. After ten minutes or so five officers came running through the cell door without warning with a shield and helmets – into an empty cell with no moveable objects and just a naked man. They rammed me into the corner and beat me severely, fracturing my ribs and smashing my head off the floor. I was dragged around into another cell and then had some six foot, 18-stone meathead kneel down on my back and try his hardest to snap my shoulder blade off my body by prising it out and pushing my shoulder in. He then started to push his fingers into the back of my ear with real force, trying to stop me breathing.
They then ran out of the cell and left me naked with no food or medical assistance or pain relief. That’s three assaults in one hour – a human body is not designed to take that much trauma. Five days later, when all the bruising and swelling went down, I was taken to Harrogate hospital, where I was told my ribs were fractured and my rotator cuff in my shoulder was broken, as well as there being further trauma to my back, foot and ankle, leaving me unable to walk and in a lot of pain. All the prison staff did was provoke and abuse me.
A few weeks later I was transferred to HMP Moorland in early December 2017, with six outstanding hospital appointments. I was kept there until my release on 20 April 2018. I was not allowed to attend one hospital appointment. Then I was told I no longer fitted the criteria for those appointments. I am wheelchair bound cannot stand and suffer in agony with my shoulder as well as a lump on my spine. How is it that this treatment of a human being is allowed to happen in a country that values humanity and human rights?
The week before my release the prison told me a special van would pick me up to take me to the hostel probation had put me in, due to me being wheelchair bound. On the day of my release I was pushed to reception. Whilst being processed I was asked how I would be getting to the hostel; I said the prison had sorted it out, as far as I was aware. They told me nobody had arranged this and I had to make my own way. I said: ‘How is that possible? I cannot walk and I am awaiting a social care assessment.’ They said: ‘It’s not our problem. Once you go out of those gates we don’t care.’ I said ‘Can you ring me a taxi?’ They told me: ‘No, you can go round the corner to the shop. It is only five minutes down the road’. I said: ‘You know I can’t walk; you’ve just provided a carer for the last three months’. ‘It’s not our problem. I’ve been told by the governor to push you out and leave you’.
That’s exactly what they did. How evil. I had to with one leg and one arm push myself up a little hill and then down the road suffering in pain. They had the cheek to laugh at me struggling until a maintenance man working on the road helped me. I then got in a wheelchair-friendly taxi to the train station where train staff really helped me – very nice and decent people.
I then got a taxi at the other end to the probation hostel. Once I got to the hostel, I had the same reception as when leaving prison. They gave me no help and told me ‘We are not here to push you around; you will have to get residents to help you’.
I’m basically being isolated and left to suffer with no help; it’s just corruption and abuse of somebody who’s vulnerable and disabled. Everything I’m stating can be checked factually against paperwork which I have copies of. Please spread this story and article to spread awareness and expose these corrupt and criminal animals so they cannot carry on targeting and abusing people such as me. Thank you for taking your time to read this. It’s very much appreciated.
Write to Kyle at:
or
30 Albion Street
Dewsbury.
West Yorkshire
WF13 2AJ
