The First Grievance I Ever Filed Came Back Non-Grievable. Nobody Signed It.

The first grievance in my log is dated November 7, 2021.

The answer came back fifteen days later. Two words.

NON GRIEVABLE.

The signature line says UNKNOWN.

Read that again. The first time I used the only paperwork channel that building gives a man, the answer was not yes and it was not no. The answer was that what I was complaining about was not the kind of thing you are allowed to complain about. And nobody put a name on saying it.

The plain English version

I kept a log of every grievance I filed inside the D.C. Department of Corrections. Twenty nine filings in the detailed sheet, from November 2021 through July 2022.

Most of what I have published off that log so far is about silence. Grievances that got no number. Grievances that got no answer at all. Twelve of the twenty nine got no response.

This one is different. This one got an answer, and it got it fast.

Fifteen days. Filed November 7. Answered November 22.

The answer did not say the complaint was false. It did not say it was investigated and unfounded. It said the complaint did not qualify.

Why it matters

A grievance process is supposed to be the pressure valve. It is the thing a court points at when a man says nobody would listen to him. Did you exhaust your administrative remedies? Did you file?

I filed. On the first try. And the process answered by telling me the door I had just walked through was not for me.

If the first complaint a man files is ruled out of bounds, every number after that is a number about a system that had already decided what it would not hear.

The receipt

Every field below is transcribed from my own compiled grievance log, read against the source file. The signed DOC forms behind these IGP numbers are not posted yet. Until they are, treat these as my log, not as certified records.

Field	What the log says
Date filed	2021-11-07
IGP number	2011223-829
Complaint type	OFFICIER VIOLENCE / DISCRIMINATION
Concern	STAFF TREATMENT
Step	1
Response received	Y
Resolved	N
Date of response	2021-11-22
Signed by	UNKNOWN
DOC response	NON GRIEVABLE

The argument column on that row records what the complaint was about: a named officer, and four words for what I said he did. Discrimination. Mental punishment. Explicit language. Intimidation.

FACT (as recorded in my log): the row exists, with that date, that number, that response, and that signature line.

RYAN STATEMENT: the conduct described in that row is what I experienced and what I wrote down at the time.

NEEDS AUTHENTICATION: the signed DOC form behind IGP 2011223-829. I want it produced.

The word shows up three times

Once would be a ruling. Three times on three unrelated subjects is a habit.

Filed	Subject	DOC response	Signed by
2021-11-07	Staff treatment	NON GRIEVABLE	UNKNOWN
2022-03-19	The grievance process itself	NON- GRIEVABLE	NO SIGNATURE
2022-05-20	Access to my own discovery	NON GRIEVABLE	COVID 19

Look at the middle row for a second.

That one was filed because the grievance process was broken. My log records that the U.S. Marshals Office had made a determination about that process, and that there was an internal affairs report.

The answer to a complaint that the complaint system was broken was that the complaint was not grievable.

And look at the right column on all three. Not one of those three answers carries a human name. UNKNOWN. NO SIGNATURE. COVID 19.

Three complaints closed by the word non-grievable, and nobody who closed them is identified.

What the record shows

Across the whole log: twenty nine rows, two marked resolved, twelve with no response at all, eight that never got an IGP number assigned, and all eight of those also got no response.

I have written about the silence already. Eight grievances never got a number. Seven times I asked to see the evidence against me.

What I had not written about is the other failure mode. The one where they do answer you, quickly, and the answer is a category.

Silence and non-grievable are not opposites. They are two ways to get to the same place.

What I say

I am not asking anybody to take my word for the conduct.

I am asking for the form. IGP 2011223-829. Filed November 7, 2021. Answered November 22, 2021.

Produce the signed original. Produce the name of whoever wrote NON GRIEVABLE on it and left the signature line blank. Produce the policy that says a complaint about staff treatment by a named officer is outside the grievance process, because if that policy exists it should be public, and if it does not exist then somebody wrote two words that had no authority behind them.

The form settles it. The form does not change its story.

What still needs authentication

The signed DOC forms behind all three IGP numbers in the table above. The policy defining what qualifies as grievable. The internal affairs report referenced in the March 19, 2022 row. Any record of who reviewed IGP 2011223-829.

Until those are produced, everything here is my log and my account, labeled as such.

What this does not prove

It does not prove the underlying conduct. A grievance is an allegation, not a finding, and no court has ruled on this one.

It does not prove a policy of rejecting complaints. Three rows out of twenty nine is a pattern worth naming, not a conclusion.

It does not prove who wrote the words, because the record I have does not say.

What it does prove

It proves the first complaint I filed was answered in fifteen days and the answer addressed no fact in it.

It proves the same two words closed complaints about three unrelated subjects.

It proves that on all three, the line where a responsible human being signs their name is empty, or says UNKNOWN, or says COVID 19.

That is not my opinion. That is what the log says, field by field.

What I need

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

Read it. Share it.

If you are a J6 defendant, a family member, or an attorney and you kept a grievance log of your own, look at your rows and tell me how many of yours came back non-grievable and how many of those were signed. I am building the pattern and I need the other logs.

If you have records requests, forms, policies, or the DOC grievance manual from that period, send them.

If you have a case you are trying to organize and no way to organize it, that is the work I do. Start here. Or call the line, (903) 500-8898.

The record does not lie. It just sits there until somebody reads it out loud.