Father's Day Death

On Father’s Day 2021, Adrian “Whisper” Dickson, was killed by his cellmate at the Wynne prison plantation in Texas. At about 2:30 PM, the cellblock boss walked by Whisper’s cage, located a few cages down the run from mine, and called in on his radio, reporting an unresponsive prisoner. Several more bosses rushed in and escorted Whisper’s cellmate out in restraints. A nurse came with a stretcher about 5 minutes later, but the guard had already reported on the radio that the prisoner had no pulse and had “bled out”.

When they carried Whisper’s body by my cage, I saw that he had suffered extreme trauma to the side of his head. 

 

The cellblock was subsequently locked down and a boss was stationed in front of the crime scene, where I noticed a large puddle of blood when I walked by.

 

Within an hour, every man that lived on the row was rudely interrogated by high-ranking prison administrators and forced to write a statement in a private office. No one had witnessed or even heard the incident because of the high volume of noise common to most prison cellblocks.

 

During my own interrogation, I reluctantly admitted to knowing the victim; reluctantly, because a prisoner is bullied as a matter of course, and admitting knowledge of anything invites more harassment. 

 

When asked, I sincerely told them that I had no personal knowledge of what had happened. Nor did I speculate about the specifics of the conflict, though everyone knew the two cellmates were having problems. The warden asked me and all the other interrogated prisoners if Prisoner Dickson used K2, (K2, AKA: Spice or Synthetic marijuana is a chemical sprayed on various dried herbs, and when smoked causes euphoria, violent hallucinations, panic attacks, and even death. K2 is wildly popular in prison because of its potency, cheap price, and unlike real marijuana, cannot be detected by prison drug testing. The guards smuggle it in regularly to supplement their paychecks. TDCJ now considers it the most dangerous contraband because of the continuing fatalities and epidemic of prisoners requiring emergency hospitalization.); it was common knowledge that Whisper smoked K2 constantly, but it wasn’t my business to say so.

 

After the interrogations, every man on the cellblock was drug tested, which was unusual and expensive. Why they would drug test approximately 179 prisoners after an isolated fight between a pair of cellmates, even if K2 was involved, is something only the administration can answer. It was a futile gesture in any case because as previously stated, their urinalysis is incapable of detecting K2, and no one tested positive, despite the numerous K2 smokers tested.

 

The next day, all of us were taken to the gym and forced to sit on the concrete floor in rows, back-to-back, no social distancing allowed, for several hours, while the personal property in our cages was torn up. It wasn’t searched, just ransacked; a common TDCJ retaliatory practice that occurs especially when a boss is assaulted, or a prisoner is seriously injured. Again, only TDCJ can explain why using mass punishment for the actions of one person is logical when it’s impossible for prisoners to exert any control over one another.

 

After speaking with prisoners familiar with the situation, I found out that Whisper’s K2 addiction was the main problem between his present and previous cellmates, as he was unreasonable and sometimes lost control of his bodily functions when high. Whisper’s previous cellmate had just gotten himself moved away from Whisper’s cage a few weeks before, but his last cellmate after asking several ranking staff was refused a move. (I believe it’s safe to say that they regret their inaction now.) Though Whisper’s cellmate had avoided any serious conflict with Whisper by staying out of the cage when Whisper smoked K2, on Father’s Day, he was forced to go in. Whether it was a fight or outright murder is unknown, but the motive seems clear.

 

Adrian Dickson was a black man known as “Whisper” because he had damaged vocal cords and couldn’t raise his voice above a whisper. He had been born into extreme poverty, and raised in a hopeless neighborhood, but he had an amazing smile and impetuous spurts of generosity. Like his ancestors, he spent most of his adult life as a slave, which remains legal under the 14^th amendment. He was a kitchen worker at the time of his death and redistributed state prison food to pay for K2. Like all people, he had good and bad traits. He smoked K2 for the same reason that every prisoner who smokes it does, he just wanted to ease the pain of a dehumanizing and painful reality created by the state.