(Caveat: IOA publishes articles written by those locked up in the Durham County Jail whether or not those articles align with IOA values and politics. The following article expresses an individual’s concerns, not IOA’s)

Dear friends,

As far as we know, you are trying to protect black inmates in the Durham Detention facility. Would you like to protect white ones tooo? We want to tell you about discrimination against white female inmates in this jail…

On of us speaks. “Everything started a long time ago. I had an opportunity to observe this from the beginning. My white cellmate asked the black CO to give her some toilet paper and got denied because she is white.” The IOA newsletter already published this fact – thanks! Then a lot of unpleasant things happened and I asked my black social worker what she thinks about racism against whites. She said: many many complaints.

Did you see a white member of rugbee team female?

Our black inmates use unlimited freedom even in jail: they can speak with teh CO from 1pm to 4pm while other women are locked up. They are doing each others hair, screaming, dancing, singing, and such 24-7 – always ! They don’t care if some white idiots (name for us) by them want to sleep – enjoy! I wanted to talk about this problem with many officers here, but they are always busy for this conversation.

Today, a group of white inmates was trying to watch TV but couldn’t. Black girls were especially demonstratively rude and loud. If girls of white colour would behave like that they would be locked up immediately for sure and not for 1 day.

So it was the last drop that made our cup overfull and we decided to write you.