They Sprayed the Whole Pod. The Answer Came Back Not Permitted.

By Ryan Nichols

They sprayed the whole pod.

Men were locked in their cells and could not breathe.

I filed a grievance about it.

Seven days later the answer came back in writing.

"THIS IS A GROUP GRIEVANCE / NOT PERMITTED."

Read that again.

The plain English version

In November 2021, inside the D.C. Department of Corrections, I filed a grievance about OC spray being deployed on an entire housing unit while men were locked in.

The system did not say I was wrong.

The system did not say it never happened.

The system said the complaint was not permitted, because too many of us had the same complaint.

Why that matters

Sit with what that rule actually does.

One officer does something to one man. That is a grievance.

One officer does the same thing to a whole pod at once. That is a group grievance.

And a group grievance is not permitted.

So the bigger the incident, the harder it is to complain about it.

The more people you affect at one time, the more protected you are.

That is not somebody abusing a loophole. That is the rule doing exactly what it says.

The receipt

Classification: RYAN STATEMENT as my own filing log. NEEDS AUTHENTICATION as a certified record. The signed DOC forms behind these numbers are not posted yet. I am publishing the log entry as a log entry, not as a court finding.

Field	Entry
Date filed	November 15, 2021
IGP number	22111223-887
Complaint type	Officer violence / OC spray
Concern	Staff treatment
Step	Step 1
Response received	Yes
Date of response	November 22, 2021
Written DOC response	"THIS IS A GROUP GRIEVANCE / NOT PERMITTED"
Resolved	No

Seven days from filing to denial.

That is faster than almost anything else in my log. When the answer is no, that system can move.

The same week, a second answer

RYAN STATEMENT. Eight days before that one, on November 7, 2021, I filed a separate grievance about staff treatment.

It came back on the same date. November 22, 2021.

One word.

"NON GRIEVABLE."

Two grievances. Two different subjects. One answer date. Neither one resolved.

That is the shape of the whole file. I have 110 grievances logged across 27 categories. In the detailed log, 29 filings between November 2021 and July 2022, two are marked resolved. Twelve got no response of any kind. Nine were never even assigned a grievance number.

The largest single category in the file is not food and it is not officers.

It is the grievance process itself. Seventeen entries. I filed seventeen grievances about grievances not being answered.

What I say

RYAN STATEMENT.

I was not asking anybody to take my word then and I am not asking now.

I filed on paper. On their form. Through their process. With their numbers on it.

I did it the way you are supposed to do it.

The answer I got was not that I was lying. The answer was that the complaint was not the right shape.

That is a system telling you the door is there, and then telling you that you are not allowed to walk through it holding hands with anybody else.

What this does not prove

• It does not prove the spray was unlawful. No court has found that, and I am not saying one has.
• It does not prove who ordered it. My log names a lieutenant. That name stays out of this article until the signed form is posted with it. The document travels. The adjective does not.
• It does not prove injuries. My log records two men injured. That is my entry. It is not a medical record and it is not a finding. NEEDS AUTHENTICATION.
• It does not establish which building I was housed in on which date. That is a records request, not a claim, and it is still open.

What it does prove

The words on that response are not mine.

They are theirs. Dated. Numbered. Answered in seven days.

A use of force complaint was disposed of by ruling the complaint impermissible because other people had the same one.

That is on the record. That is not gossip and it is not a rumor.

The same question, a different year

Two days ago I published the seven times I had to file just to see my own discovery. Read that one here.

Different category. Same answer. Non grievable.

I am still asking the same thing I was asking in that cell.

Show me the evidence.

Release the record.

Let the document speak, and if the document says I am wrong, then it says I am wrong.

What I need

Do not threaten anyone.

Do not harass anyone.

Do not contact anyone in my name.

Here is what actually helps:

If you were in that pod in November 2021, I want your account. Not for a fight. For the record.

If you have a signed DOC grievance form from that period, yours or a family member's, send it.

If you are an attorney, a journalist, or a records researcher, the underlying petition is here: Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, Nichols v. Garland

The full case file, timeline, people, and documents are at the case archive.

You can send me evidence, receipts, or a witness statement here: Tell your story

Read it. Share it. Put eyes on the record.

The record does not lie.

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Ryan Nichols. United States Marine. Search and Rescue. Pardoned January 6 defendant. Father. East Texas.

I build the record for myself, and I build platforms, case files, and publishing systems for people who need one and do not have one. That work is here: Services.

The book is here: Fighting Shadows. Call or text (903) 500-8898.