The Truth Staff
Gerald Rose, of the New Order National Human Rights Organization, put together a protest at the entrance of the Toledo Correctional Institution on Wednesday, July 15, to bring attention to the fact that a prisoner in state custody has apparently fallen ill and his family has been kept in the dark about his condition.
Aziz Greene, who has been serving time since 2023 on an aggravated burglary charge in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, is the son of south Toledo resident Zakiyyah Triplett. Triplett has not been able to speak with her son since June 22 and cannot obtain accurate, up-to-date information on her son’s condition, she says.
Greene, in fact, was suddenly transferred from the Toledo Correctional Institution to Warren Correctional after only a few days at TCI without an adequate explanation from prison officials about the reason, his mother feels.
“We are out here with a problem,” said Rose at the start of the protest in which about three dozen people turned out to lend support. “We know he’s not here but this is where he started. We just want to know the true facts. All of a sudden he’s acting kind of weird so we feel like something happened to him.”
“We could not get accurate information,” said Triplett describing her many attempts to discover what happened to her son. According to Triplett, she last spoke her son on June 22. At that time, he had been in solitary confinement and was soon to be released to general population. On June 24 she received a call from the prison telling her that her son “was non-responsive and non-verbal” and that it had been necessary to take him to the hospital.
“I was told my son just snapped,” she recalled. She was also told he had been moved to the Warren facility because they could not help in at Toledo.
Greene was transferred to Warren Correctional Institution in southern Ohio, which has a specialized unit to deliver mental health and crisis care.
She then called the Warren facility and “was told that he could not talk, could not shake his head.” Prison officials told her they suspected he had taken some drugs that rendered him non-responsive.
Eventually she was able to speak with her son but he was barely able to communicate – he kept telling her that he loved her but that was about all he could say. Several days later when she tried to call him, she was told by prison officials that he refused to either speak with her or see her.
Over the last couple weeks, Triplett has been relentlessly attempting to uncover more information about what happened, which she said has been difficult. She has contacted Toledo Correctional Institution and the state of Ohio.
“I m asking for responsibility, for accountability, for answers,” she says of her efforts. Her efforts have failed.
“They won’t answer questions. This is diabolical, they are treating people very inhumanely.”
Triplett is speaking occasionally with her son but he is not the same person and she still has no ideas what caused the sudden change – the
Rose, a Toledo native, currently an Atlanta resident and the son of long-time community activist Floyd Rose, has been involved in many issues in Toledo and around the country over the years, including the shooting of Terrell Carter, Jr., by Toledo police last summer.
