Step 4. Emergency. Deputy Director. No Response.

By Ryan Nichols

I am not going to describe it.

I am going to show you the log.

Because the minute I describe what it is like to go without a shower, without a restroom, without a way to cut your own nails, somebody calls it a sob story. And they are allowed to. I cannot cross-examine a feeling and neither can you.

So here is the paper instead.

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The plain English version

While I was in pretrial detention out of January 6, I kept a log of every grievance I filed. The date, the grievance number, the step, whether anybody answered, and what they said.

Eight of those grievances sit in one category: hygiene, haircut, nails, shave. They run from October 17, 2021 to March 18, 2022. Five months.

One more sits right beside them: denied restroom access.

And one of the eight is not an ordinary grievance. It is an emergency grievance, escalated to Step 4, addressed to the Deputy Director.

The response column on that one reads: NO RESPONSE.

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Why this matters

There is a reason the grievance system has steps.

Step 1 is the unit. Step 2 goes up a level. Step 3 goes up again. Step 4 is the top of the building. You do not get to Step 4 by accident. You get there because Steps 1 through 3 did not answer, and the rules say that when they do not answer, you keep climbing.

An emergency grievance at Step 4 is a man who has followed every rule the policy gave him and is now standing at the last door there is.

The log says that door did not open.

That is not a conditions complaint. That is a process complaint. It is the same shape as the discovery grievances I wrote about last week, and the same shape as the seventeen grievances I filed about the grievance system itself. The pattern is the point.

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The receipts, from the log

Receipt one. Filed 2022-01-02. IGP #20220126-549.

Complaint type: DENIED RESTROOM ACCESS. Concern: personal hygiene, healthcare. Step 1.

The argument column: denied access to restroom and shower.

Response: yes. Response date: 2022-02-03.

Read those two dates again. Filed January 2. Answered February 3. Thirty two days for a grievance about a restroom and a shower. Resolved: N.

Receipt two. Filed 2022-01-15. IGP #22092746-049.

Complaint type: GRIEVANCES UNANSWERED. Concern: NAILS. Step: 4.

The argument column: emergency grievance to Deputy Director. Grievance process broken. Hygiene.

Response: N. Date of response: NO RESPONSE. Resolved: N.

Receipt three, and this one is the contrast. Filed 2022-01-08. IGP #20220126-550. Concern: mail. Denied access to mail. Step 1.

Response: yes. Response date: 2022-02-03. Resolved: Y.

That is one of exactly two grievances in my entire log of twenty nine that the jail marked resolved. Mail got fixed. It took twenty six days, but it got fixed.

The restroom did not. The emergency grievance at the top of the building did not get a word.

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The thing in the numbers that I did not notice for four years

Look at the grievance numbers on receipts one and three.

20220126-549. 20220126-550.

Those are consecutive. And the first eight digits are a date: January 26, 2022.

One grievance was filed January 2. The other was filed January 8. Both got their number on January 26. Both got their response on February 3.

DOCUMENTED INFERENCE: two grievances filed six days apart sat somewhere for two and a half to three and a half weeks before anybody logged them, then got numbered back to back on the same day and answered on the same day. That is not two grievances being worked. That is a stack being cleared.

I am labeling that an inference because it is one. The forms will say whether I am right.

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The timeline, hygiene category only

2021-10-17. First. 2021-12-31. Second. 2022-01-02. Restroom and shower. Numbered 24 days later. Answered 32 days later. Not resolved. 2022-01-15. Emergency grievance, Step 4, Deputy Director. No response. 2022-02-10. Fifth. 2022-02-25. Sixth. 2022-03-14. Seventh and eighth, same day. 2022-03-18. Ninth and tenth, same day.

Two grievances on the same day, twice, in one week. RYAN STATEMENT: you do not file two hygiene grievances in one day because things are fine.

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What I say

I say a restroom is not a privilege.

I say a man who is presumed innocent does not lose the right to wash because a case is pending.

I say an emergency grievance addressed to the Deputy Director is the loudest lawful thing a detainee can do, and the log says it got nothing back. Not a denial. Not a "non grievable." Nothing.

And I say the mail receipt matters more than it looks. It proves the system could resolve things. It resolved one. So when the same system left a restroom grievance unresolved and an emergency grievance unanswered, that was not a system that could not. It was a system that did not.

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What still needs authentication

NEEDS AUTHENTICATION. Every number and date above comes from my own compiled log. The signed DOC forms behind these IGP numbers are not posted on this site yet. Until they are, treat this as my log, not as a certified record. I am working on getting the forms up.

NEEDS AUTHENTICATION. IGP #22092746-049 does not follow the date pattern of the other numbers in the log. It may be a transcription error on my side. The form settles it.

PRIVATE / NOT PUBLIC. The name of any DOC employee who signed a response. Public employees, official capacity, lawful to name. I am not naming them until the form that carries the signature is posted alongside.

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What this does not prove

It does not prove what the cell looked like. I am not describing it, on purpose.

It does not prove that anyone chose to ignore the Step 4 grievance. A broken process can lose paper without anybody deciding to lose it.

It does not prove a court finding. No court has ruled on these grievances.

What it does prove

RYAN STATEMENT, supported by my own contemporaneous log: I filed eight hygiene grievances and one restroom grievance across five months, escalated one of them to an emergency grievance at Step 4, and got no response to it.

DOCUMENTED INFERENCE: a grievance system that resolved one mail complaint in the same window it left a restroom complaint unresolved and an emergency hygiene complaint unanswered was capable of resolving complaints and did not resolve these.

DOCUMENTED INFERENCE: consecutive grievance numbers stamped 24 days after filing, on two grievances filed six days apart, are consistent with a backlog being logged in a batch rather than grievances being logged when received.

That is enough to preserve and enough to demand the forms. It is not a finding, and I am not calling it one.

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The bottom line

I am not asking you to take my word for what it was like.

I am asking for the forms. The intake log on the facility side. The Step 4 routing record for an emergency grievance dated January 15, 2022. The response, if one exists anywhere, to IGP #22092746-049.

The paper settles it. It always does.

The record does not lie. It just has to be released.

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What I need next

If you were in that building, or you represent somebody who was, and you are sitting on grievance forms, intake logs, or Step 4 routing slips from that period, send them. Redacted is fine. Partial is fine. A photo on a kitchen table is fine.

Do not threaten anyone. Do not harass anyone. Do not contact anyone in my name.

Read it. Share it. Send receipts. Send evidence. Send witnesses. Put eyes on the record.

The discovery grievances are here: Inmate Will Be Put On Discovery List.

The 2022 habeas petition is posted here: Nichols v. Garland.

And if you are building something of your own and you need a place to keep your own record where nobody can take it down, that is what I do now: realryannichols.com/services. Call or text (903) 500-8898.

They wanted silence. I built a platform.