Please make these calls and emails to tell Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) that you demand Melvin Perez be returned to general population and the phony investigation against him be dropped.

[Names collected in this petition will also be send to FDOC administration periodically. See petition text below.]

Sample script:

"Hello, I'm calling to speak to ___________ regarding prisoner Melvin Perez, DC# X11781, who is currently held in confinement under false allegations of involvement with a Security Threat Group. He should be moved back to general population, where he can continue being a mentor and advocate for other prisoners."

BACKGROUND:

Melvin Perez is a victim of FDOC's effort to curb prisoner rights organizing in the state. Melvin has been in prison for 20 years, since he was 18 years old, and during that time has earned the highest level of paralegal education that a prisoner may reach. He has used his legal skills inside to help others get out of prison and to fight the daily abuse incarcerated people experience. He has also written for several legal and advocacy newsletters that Florida prisoners use to fight their cases.

Melvin has been in confinement for over a month now pending what appears to be a bogus investigation into "gang activity." He was told by officers that he's being set up for Close Management. While in confinement he has no access to his legal work, communication with his family or other prisoners, which is exactly how the administration wants it.

Incidentally, FDOC has labelled several activist and advocacy groups as gangs and any association with them earns a prisoner a gang label and a higher security status. What is happening to Melvin is blatant retaliation for trying to improve conditions and representing incarcerated peoples' rights.

While FDOC has steadily denied any strike activity in their prisons, they have simultaneously been locking prisoners in confinement and sending people to Close Management (long-term solitary) for organizing or accusations of inciting riots. Prisoners are left in confinement for months under phony investigations and then sentenced to years in solitary on bogus charges.

Melvin with parents, soon after incarceration

Melvin with parents, recent

High School graduation

Young Melvin with sister

Young Melvin at family birthday gathering