> Forwarded by Ben Markeson, moderator, from the Amnesty International
> Florida list.
>
> From: LarryACLU at aol.com
> Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 09:15:06 EST
> Subject: AMNESTY-FL: Florida Department of Corrections
> To: LarryACLU at aol.com
>
> Racist clique of guards alleged
>
> Inmates and guards say knotted cords worn by some prison
> officers signify those willing to "straighten out'' minorities.
>
> By Adam C. Smith
> St. Petersburg Times, published December 16, 1999
>
> Dangling from the pants pockets of some Florida prison officers, they look
> like innocuous sailor-knot key chains, the sort of thing kids might make at
> summer camp.
>
> But some correctional officers and inmates describe them as something more
> sinister: a secret symbol of solidarity for rogue officers willing to step
> over the line when using force on inmates, especially black inmates.
>
> The significance of the cords is said to be a well-kept secret.
> "I've heard them called "N----r Knots.' Only certain people get them, and if
> you're in that group, they'll protect you, whatever you get into," said Capt.
> Willie Hogan, a 21-year veteran officer from Lancaster Correctional
> Institution west of Gainesville.
>
> Hogan, who is black, declined to comment further, saying the Department of
> Corrections frowns on officers talking to the media.
>
> The knotted cords, one of which was given to the Times, are relatively
> common, especially in North Florida prisons. But inmates and officers say
> their significance is a well-kept secret. Three officers and three inmates
> confirmed that the cords represent a secret clique of guards.
>
> The Times contacted the Corrections Department about the knotted cords
> Tuesday afternoon, and department Secretary Michael Moore immediately ordered
> an investigation.
>
> A dozen investigators dispatched to Lancaster on Wednesday began interviewing
> all employees there and inspecting key chains. Department spokesman C.J.
> Drake said that 200 of the prison's 359 employees were interviewed by
> Wednesday evening and that 30 people on annual leave were ordered back for
> interviews.
>
> "We take the allegations seriously and encourage employees to report
> allegations of this kind of conduct to the (department's) inspector general's
> office," Drake said. "We're going to get to the bottom of whatever
> allegations have been made. If the allegations are substantiated, then we'll
> take appropriate action."
>
> Drake said an FBI agent in June interviewed Capt. Hogan about charges with
> "racial overtones" and could not substantiate the allegations. Drake did not
> know if those allegations specifically related to the knotted cords.
>
> The agent who interviewed Hogan declined to comment, and the FBI office in
> Jacksonville did not return phone calls Wednesday.
>
> James E. Wiggins, a burly former captain at Cross City Correctional
> Institution, said he used to have his own knotted cord key chain until he
> retired in 1995. He suggested that proving the meaning of the cords will be
> difficult at best.
>
> "Certain officers have them, but they're not issued by the department. You
> ask people, and they'll tell you, "Oh, this is just a key chain. It's
> nothing,"' said a chuckling Wiggins, a 15-year veteran of the prison system.
>
> Wiggins, who is white, said guards know that if they see a fellow officer
> with a knotted cord that person will back them up if they want to "straighten
> out" an inmate. He cheerfully demonstrated on a reporter how the cords,
> though usually only about 6 inches long, can make an effective tool for
> inflicting pain.
>
> One way is to wrap them around one or two of the inmate's fingers and then
> bend his hand backward against his chest. Another method is to stand behind
> an inmate and, with both hands, pull the cord hard up against the bottom of
> the inmate's nose until the pain forces him into submission.
>
> "They usually have keys on them so they can also make a good slap-jack, if
> you have to have one," Wiggins said. "Ingenuity, my friend, ingenuity."
>
> Several inmates told the Times that they think the cords signify officers who
> belong to a racist hate group, an allegation repeated by two current
> correctional officers who refused to be publicly identified.
>
> "They call them "two n----rs in a knot," said 20-year-old Chester Hart, a
> former gang member who has done time in several of Florida's correctional
> facilities for burglary and grand theft.
>
> "You see those things all throughout the prison system. I saw them at Sumter,
> South Florida, (Lake) Butler and Indian River. In all the institutions I went
> to I saw officers carry those knots, and it was always the racist ones, the
> ones always picking on the black guys, never the white guys," said Hart, who
> was released from Lancaster a year ago and now lives in Pinellas County.
>
> Hart said that once in 1998, he was ordered into an officer's room at
> Lancaster where several sergeants and a captain shouted at him for filing too
> many grievances about his treatment in the prison for young offenders. Hart
> said that a captain was waving his knotted cord key chain in Hart's face
> while scolding him.
>
> "I said, "What are those things, anyway?' He said, "It's two n----rs in a
> knot. You're in a gang, and we're in a gang too -- the KKK,' " recounted
> Hart, who is white but said he was frequently chastised for being friends
> with black inmates.
>
> At Florida State Prison, inmate Nebuchadnezzar Wrisper said that he has
> overheard officers talk about the knots and that they are worn by members of
> a white supremacist group. He noted that guards have varying numbers of knots
> on their cords.
>
> "The number of knots symbolize a step or degree, but the knotted cord key
> chain is only an option at the member's discretion, not a requirement,"
> according to Wrisper, a 21-year-old African-American inmate serving 22 years
> for murder.
>
> David M. Locke, an inmate at Apalachee Correctional Institution, said he
> remembers the knotted cords at Lancaster. In a letter, Locke, who is white,
> said he knew the cords are related to racist Klan organizations because he
> was familiar with such groups from when he lived in Alabama.
>
> "I asked an officer there (at Lancaster) one day what they stood for, but he
> said it was a Boy Scout knot and laughed," Locke wrote. "They wear different
> colors, for like different places in the Klan."
>
> Allegations of Klan activities have surfaced before in the prison system,
> including reports of Klan-related graffiti, KKK tattoos on officers and Klan
> rallies attended by officers. Still, corrections officials say those are rare
> cases.
>
> "We have zero tolerance for any kind of racist or bigoted behavior," said
> Drake, the corrections spokesman.
>
> Barbara Hodge, a sergeant at Lancaster, has seen plenty of the knots on
> officers passing through security checks, but she never could find out what,
> if any, meaning they had.
>
> "They called themselves the "posse' something -- I can't remember what. It
> was sort of a clique. They all wanted to keep it a big secret. They wouldn't
> tell you what it was about," said Hodge.
>
> James Sapp, a Lancaster officer who has a knotted cord key chain, said the
> knots have no meaning whatsoever, though inmates often think they represent a
> racist organization.
>
> "The inmates all think that, and we just laugh at them and don't tell them
> anything different," Sapp said.
>
> Another Lancaster officer, Eric Wooten, initially told the Times he had never
> heard of such a thing. When pressed, though, he said he has one -- colored
> garnet and black for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.
>
> "There may be some who know of some significance to it, but I don't. . . .
> And if there was some kind of secret organization to it, everybody that had
> one wouldn't tell you," Wooten said. "You're probably best just to forget
> about it."
>
> -- Times researcher Kitty Bennett and Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
> Times staff writer Adam C. Smith can be reached at (727) 893-8241 or
> adam at sptimes.com.
> -------------------------------------------------
> Larry Helm Spalding
> ACLU Legislative Counsel
> Tallahassee, Florida