Below is an update on Sean Swain, reporting from Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, OH. This past September, Sean was transferred from Virginia back to Ohio custody. After ODRC held a transfer hearing for Sean, it was decided that he would remain in Ohio. However, ODRC Interstate Compact Coordinator Earlena Shepherd overrode this decision and plans to transfer Sean to Maryland.
ODRC FUCKWEASEL EARLENA SHEPHERD, PODUNK POTATO PAGEANT QUEEN OF 1982, COMMITS CRIMINAL FRAUD TO TERRORIZE ANARCHIST PRISONER SEAN SWAIN… BREACHES SECURITY BY REVEALING IMMINENT TRANSFER TO MARYLAND
The fuckweasels are at it again.
Sean was illegally transferred to Virginia in 2019 without any pretense of legality, no hearing held despite the fact that statute requires a hearing whereby Sean would be informed of the reasons for his transfer. Rather than doing that, the fuckweasels just tossed Sean in a van and sent him to Virginia.
In October 2021, Virginia sent him back. Properly, Sean was supposed to go to the Corrections Reception Center for intake and processing to a parent institution. Instead, he was delivered to the super-duper-max. No reason was given.
At the super-duper max, he was provided an intake security review that determined Sean scored out as a Level 1 minimum security with an override to Level 2 medium security – according to their own instrument. So, the fuckweasels ignored it completely and placed him at the super-duper max. Sean, possibly the least-dangerous prisoner in Ohio penal history, is treated as the most-dangerous prisoner in Ohio penal history. No reason given.
Then, Interstate Compact Coordinator Earlena Shepherd, whose claim to fame is as the Podunk Potato Pageant Queen of 1982, decided that Sean would not remain in Ohio but would be sent out of state again. This seemed very peculiar to everyone who cares about Sean, given that he had not been accused of any misconduct in almost 4 years and had spent two and a half years at a low medium in Virginia, wearing personal jeans and boots rather than prison uniforms, watching ‘Game of Thrones’ on the in-house movie channel and eating pizza and ice cream for lunch. It seemed very peculiar that someone so un-dangerous suddenly had the Unabomber treatment as soon as he crossed state lines into Ohio.
So, the transfer process began with a hearing on December 23, 2021. In that hearing, prison staff at the super-duper-max weighed the facts and determined Sean did not need to be transferred out of state. That determination was sent to the Potato Queen. She had the last word. The Potato Queen remanded the decision, sending it back to local staffers and demanding that they recommend transfer.
To be clear, no grounds for remand were cited. It wasn’t a case where the facts were wrong, or the conclusion didn’t match the facts. It was just a case where the Podunk Potato Pageant Queen didn’t get the conclusion she wanted, so she bullied underlings to make a new decision that directly conflicts with the old one, and to do it without any kind of excuse or justification for the sudden about-face.
So much for due process. All decisions are predetermined.
In the meantime, supporters and family were seeking answers. They wanted to know why Sean was transferred to Virginia in the first place, and why he was again being transferred. The Potato Pageant Queen claimed these were confidential, and could only be revealed to Sean. Yet, at the sham re-hearing, all the local staffers were allowed to tell Sean was that he was being transferred for “the same reason previously given in 2019.”
There was no reason given in 2019. In fact, Sean has still received not a single piece of paper related to his transfer to Virginia or his transfer back. The Potato Queen won’t even answer Sean’s certified mail.
Not that it matters to fuckweasels, but this is patently illegal. The law requires a hearing on the record where reasons for the transfer are disclosed to Sean. This still hasn’t happened.
So, Lauren Swain contacted the office of Director Annette Chambers-Smith and was put in touch with the director’s assistant. When Lauren expressed concerns about all of this, the director’s assistant looked up the transfer records on Sean and then revealed that, in all of the paperwork and documentation generated, the reason for the transfer was not filled in. In other words, the ODRC has yet to formulate a reason for the 2019 transfer or the 2021 transfer.
It appears that the ODRC is transferring Sean for the same reason that a dog licks his own balls… because he can.
The director’s assistant admitted this in a recorded phone call and Lauren forwarded the recording to Sean’s counsel, Eric J. Allen, who has successfully sued the ODRC repeatedly. He has now filed a civil action, Swain v. Chambers-Smith, to get a declaration that transfer out of state violates the Ohio Constitution, which forbids out of state transfer in Article I, Section 12. If successful, this would mean the ODRC could never transfer prisoners out of state again, and would have to bring back all prisoners currently transferred against their will.
Also in that conversation, Lauren mentioned that Sean was being transferred to Maryland. Turns out, the Potato Pageant Queen wasn’t supposed to let Lauren know that. It is a serious breach of security to reveal the destination of an out of state transfer, because the prison van could be ambushed along the routes between Youngstown, OH, and Maryland’s Reception Center on Madison Street in Baltimore. The Potato Pageant Queen should get fired for that.
In the meantime, anyone concerned about this ongoing campaign of state terror waged against Sean for reporting Trevor Clark’s sexual assault of him in 2013 can contact the Potato Pageant Queen at earlena.shepherd@odrc.state.oh.us to urge an end to PREA retaliation; can urge the director to fire Earlena Shepherd by contacting annette.chambers-smith@odrc.state.oh.us; and urge Maryland NOT to accept Sean, NOT to participate in PREA retaliation, and NOT to permit a transfer that has already been breached, by contacting:
interstatecompactunit1@maryland.gov
lashonda.lee-campbell@maryland.gov
patuxent@dpscs.state.md.us
(410) 585-3511
(410) 585-3357
