Last year on May 24, 2019, Charlton Edward Lachase was arrested and placed in federal prison due to an email he sent to his sister during his stay at FCI Jessup in Georgia. Lachase was charged for violating 18 USC 875(c):

“Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.” 18 U.S.C. § 875

Lachase shared that he accepted a plea offer on September 24, 2020 for a served term of 15-21 months, followed by three years of “supervised release.” Because Lachase had already been in prison for 16 months, he was eligible to be released that same day. In a public September 25 vlog Lachase made to the community, he stated that COVID-19 clearly played a part in his immediate release.

According to Lachase, his three-year probation began already and he will be submitting his registration on September 28, 2020. During his recent stay in prison, Lachase successfully obtained access to video phones and other accommodations he needed. Lachase said that when he entered prison, the TTY was available for him to use anytime he wanted but it was 25 years old and it was so outdated that he knew he needed to ask for updated accessible devices. 

“The federal prison system has a four step process to request accommodations while the state has only three.” Lachase said, as he recounted his experience with filing against the prison system. “I filed many different times and had two greviances left before I got out of prison!” Lachase wants people to know that they should be fighting for their rights in prison. 

“Because I fought for my rights, it was so much better in federal prison but it took six months for the process. At the end, I got all the things I needed to be able to have equal access like other inmates.” (Lachase)

The United States v. Lachase case shows that Lachase spent four months at the Federal Medical Center [FMC] in Butner to go through therapy and to help him become competent to stand trial. Lachase went through a final mental evaluation for competency and his time at FMC was limited to four months only.

United States v. Lachase, Case No. 19-14040-CR-MOORE/MAYNARD (S.D. Fla. Aug. 28, 2019): “Federal Medical Center, Butner, by order of the District Court, and provided in person American Sign Language translators during therapy sessions and other appropriate accommodations due to his hearing loss.”

Lachase recalled that he met another Deaf person (who is still incarcerated) during his stay at Butner, and his name is Dennis Salois. Salois was placed at Butner because the judge for his case required that he be placed in a federal prison that was able to accommodate incarcerated Deaf people (Billings Gazette). 

One of Lachase’s final messages to the community is that he is not a dangerous person: “My sister and I don’t get along.” Lachase considers this a sibling spat that went bad and led him to go into federal prison for a second time. “Let’s stay positive!” Lachase said as he finished up his vlog.