Sean Swain

Sean Swain was a union organizer and army veteran who in 1993 killed the nephew of a local court official after the man broke Swains home and attacked him while looking for Swain's girlfriend whom the man had previously dated. Prosecutors concealed evidence of the break-in and the fact the victim was a career criminal and domestic abuser in order to convict Swain on murder charges. In prison Swain was a model inmate and was recognized in 2003 by Civil Rights hero Rosa Parks for his work in fostering non-violence in prisons. While in prison Swain published essays on Anarchism which were found by the FBI during the raid of the home of an environmental activist and federal agents told prison officials to prevent Swain from being able to publish his writings again. After searching his cell, prison officials discovered a draft of an article Swain had written criticizing the prison financial payment service "JPay" which Swain argued jeopardized the privacy of inmates families by creating a database of anyone trying to send money to inmates and by levying excessive fees on struggling families. Prison officials claimed the article ended with the phrase, "We have to burn the JPays to the ground.” Though Swain assets he never wrote that and that it was added to the article by the guards after confiscating his draft. For this he was charged with incitement to riot and later transferred to a supermax facility.