An Alabama man says he was retaliated against by state prison officials after speaking to the Montgomery Advertiser regarding conditions inside Fountain Correctional Facility.

Kenneth Traywick says he was taken from his Fountain bunk in a pre-dawn raid on Monday, Sept. 9, transferred to another prison, stripped and placed into a suicide crisis cell for 48 hours. The transfer, which occurred under what Traywick alleges were false pretenses, came days after he provided information to the Advertiser about conditions at Fountain, including a threat by the warden to withhold food from prisoners because of their haircuts.

Traywick told the Advertiser in a letter dated two days after the article was published that multiple prison employees had told him he would not remain in Fountain for long.

"Everybody was being condescending to me for allowing my name to be published," Traywick said in a Thursday phone interview. "But I told them I have a First Amendment right to speak out and have my name published."

The Advertiser this week sent two requests to the Alabama Department of Corrections this week inquiring about Traywick's location, neither of which were acknowledged, after Traywick missed a phone appointment with a reporter.

In the letter written on Saturday, Sept. 7, Traywick told the Advertiser "numerous" ADOC employees at Fountain told him his name was on a "hot list" for speaking to the media and previous advocacy efforts.

"I expect the administration of Fountain and the ADOC's commissioner's office to retaliate against me for exercising my constitutional right of free speech and access to the media," Traywick wrote. "ADOC has numerous ways that they retaliate against those who may disrupt their corruption or speak against them in any way. These tactics range from physical assaults, bogus disciplinary actions, transfers to other facilities, placing in segregation and held for long durations (labeled as an agitator or political prisoner.) The life of one who will not remain silent becomes even more challenging on both a mental level and physical level. One pays a steep price to exercise what is alleged a right."

Traywick surfaced on Thursday, Sept. 12, when he was able to call the Advertiser from Kilby Correctional Facility.

In the early hours of Monday, Sept. 9, a 300-person task force raided Fountain Correctional Facility. ADOC later released a media statement about the raid, citing the recovery of hundreds of contraband items in a 10-hour operation.

Traywick said he was awakened close to dawn as prisoners began yelling that K9 and riot units were entering the institution. A K9 unit officer and an Escambia County Sheriff's Department deputy came to the foot of his bed and asked his name. When he identified himself, Traywick said, they handcuffed him and led him to "lock-up," or a solitary confinement cell.

He was there for a few minutes before they took him to the infirmary, where he believed he would get an exam, or "body chart," which is standard procedure before being placed in solitary confinement, Traywick said.

But instead of a body chart, ADOC staff in the room told they'd heard he was suicidal or having suicidal thoughts, Traywick alleged.

"I said, 'I'm not having suicidal thoughts,' " Traywick said. "I refused to sign anything on a psychological evaluation. I didn't tell them I was suicidal. They placed me immediately on a transfer to Holman Correctional Facility. They placed me in a strip cell, a crisis cell is what they call it. I was naked. On Wednesday morning, they came to take me out of it on transfer."

The Advertiser on Friday asked ADOC if it had any documentation that Traywick had exhibited suicidal ideations.

"The Alabama Department of Corrections follows specific protocols for placing an inmate under suicide watch when they either exhibit suicidal ideation or (self-injurious) behavior," spokesperson Bob Horton said. "If a facility is unable to place an inmate in a suicide watch crisis area because of limited space, then the inmate may be transferred to another facility where a crisis area is available for placing the inmate on suicide watch."

Traywick is adamant that he was neither suicidal nor had he expressed any suicidal thoughts to anyone.

"Never in my life have I ever said I was suicidal," Traywick said. "I've never had mental health treatment. I believe that was a ploy to say they had a reason to transfer me out of the institution. That's what I believe."

Mei Azaad, an outside organizer with inmate advocacy group Unheard Voices OTCJ, said the group has tracked a "pattern of deliberately intimidating people and isolating them" by Alabama prison officials.

"He had just spoken to the press in an attempt to expose some corruption," Azaad said. "Correctional officers repeatedly told him he was on a hot list and that he was either going to be transferred or sent to isolation in order to silence him. Not only are they failing to address what he brought up in the first place, they tried to make an example of him by shipping him to an notoriously violent prison. ... Anyone who is trying to keep the peace or exercise their free speech rights are used as examples to silence other people, to intimidate other people."

Traywick and a second man, Cody, spoke to the Advertiser at length about Fountain conditions through August and September.

On Sept.1, a man incarcerated at Fountain collapsed, languished and eventually died inside a cell block as fellow prisoners shouted, banged on walls and splashed water into the hallway in an attempt to get a guard's attention. Cody, whose last name the Advertiser withheld, said prisoners did everything they could to get a guard's attention while Christopher Hurst died.

More:No guards on post when Alabama prisoner died, fellow inmates say

Alabama prison officials declined to answer the majority of the Advertiser's questions last week, including queries about the lack of officers on guard post.

Traywick told the Advertiser prior to Hurst's death that prison administration is focused more on micromanaging dorm dust levels than addressing the widespread, documented violence and drug use in Alabama prisons.

In an August prison newsletter, Warden Mary Cooks threatened to withhold food from any man whose haircut and facial hair was not in compliance with prison rules.

"Inmates who are found without an armband, haircut, and shave will receive disciplinary action and will not be entitled to any services (Feeding, Canteen, Snack-Line, etc.)," the newsletter states.

ADOC last week said the newsletter did not follow policy and it was following up with Fountain. The Advertiser asked Thursday if any disciplinary action had been taken against staff who had implemented the policy.

"It is not ADOC policy to discipline an inmate by denying them food," Horton said. "The Fountain Correctional Facility’s newsletter has been revised to be compliance with ADOC policy."

The Alabama Department of Corrections this spring was the subject of a damning Department of Justice report, which outlined barbaric conditions within prison walls and said the state "fails to protect" its prisoners.

More:DOJ rips Alabama in graphic report for 'failing to protect' prisoners

In April, the Montgomery Advertiser authenticated a cache of photos provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center illustrating the bloody brutality in St. Clair Correctional Facility. Dozens of interviews with current prisoners, formerly incarcerated men and their families reveal a pervasive culture of violence, blackmail and drug abuse which they say is dangerous for all involved and counterproductive for rehabilitating men who will re-enter society one day.

Their individual stories support the federal findings of ongoing extortion, a drug crisis and veritable war zones inside prison walls.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown at 334-240-0132 or mabrown@gannett.com.