Alabama and Massachusetts make you ask: Is this the 1999 or 
the slavery days of 1849?

Mumia Abu Jamal talks about the brutality of prison guards

Prisoners in New Jersey describe their 
inhumane conditions


VOICE 1

On June 14, the Alabama Department of Corrections was back 
in Federal Court asking for permission to handcuff prisoners 
to hitching posts in the sun. Used against prisoners who 
refuse to work in demeaning jobs and for slave wages, the 
practice was halted last year because prisoners were left 
for hours without water or restroom breaks. (The prisoners 
must remain standing in the sun and can not sit while 
handcuffed to the post.)(1)

The DOC was ordered to come up with a way to make the 
hitching posts constitutional. Their answer? Videotape the 
posts, to ensure that the breaks are given.(1)

June 14 was the first day of the hearing, but Judge Myron 
Thompson said he was inclined to let the DOC try the "new" 
method out for a few months. The Judge, while ruling in 
favor of a prisoners last year, didn't "want to be a 
supercommissioner determining what's good policy for the 
future." That job, apparently, is going to be left to the 
Department of Corruptions.(1)

That prison labor is slave labor when work is a mandate and 
not a choice should be clear from stories like the above. 
But it's not that clear to everyone, especially some 
politicians in Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts in June, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas 
Hodgson
instituted chain-gangs in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts joined nine other states --
most of them in the South or West. 

Hodgson ran for Sheriff on a pro-death penalty
platform. The Sheriff has no legal control over
the death penalty, but he can and has instituted
a long series of changes increasing repression
of prisoners. A currently pending lawsuit argues
that conditions are so bad as to encourage
prisoners to plead guilty just to get out of
Hodgson's jail.

Hodgson is trying to claim that his chain gang is comprised 
only of volunteers. Even the conservative Boston Globe 
wasn't convinced of that, pointing out that the prisoners 
get extra food and better cells for participating. 

Not everything is smooth sailing for Pig Hodgson, however. 
The town of New Bedford refused the free labor of the chain 
gangs. The town of Dartmouth scheduled a public debate 
between the Sheriff and Amnesty International on the 
subject. Some legislators are talking of outlawing the 
practice as inhumane.

While Hodgson successfully ran for office on an anti-
prisoner platform, it wouldn't fly politically in 
Massachusetts to openly claim that the purpose of chain 
gangs was public humiliation. Instead Hodgson talks about 
building teamwork and the members being volunteers. Amnesty 
International's Joshua Robenstein tore down this facade with 
one comment in the Boston Globe: "If the sheriff is looking 
to nurture a sense of teamwork, why doesn't he teach them 
synchronized swimming."

A throwback to the slave era, chain gangs fell
out of favor in the 1940s. But in 1995, the
middle-class was ready to see prisoners used to
do the manual work it doesn't want to do. In the
past, organized labor opposed prison labor
because it undercut union wages. Now the white
labor aristocracy overwhelmingly supports the
anti-crime fervor. It legitimizes the
incarceration of the oppressed who otherwise
would be available for organizing against the
settler nation parasitic existence. Moreover,
profits from slave labor in prisons make
increased costs of imprisonment easier to
swallow for the settler nation.

Particularly in the South, the so-called justice
system has a history of throwing people in
prison just to get free labor out of them on the
chain gangs. Now prison construction companies
and prison guard unions have an interest in
throwing people in prison not for the crimes they committ, 
but to ensure more jobs for priviledged white workers. These 
lobbies are
joined by politicians eager to please the
increasingly parasitic workers who can't
remember the days when they were manual laborers
threatened by prison labor.

Making a spectacle out of punishment is not
rehabilitative. It's yet another sign that
Amerika -- and the majority of its voting masses
-- are interested only in the violent economic
and political repression of the Black, Latino
and First Nations.

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League can predict that 
eventually the tables will be turned on the slave masters in 
Alabama and Massachusetts and across Amerika. The same week 
as these stories broke in the Boston Globe, there was a 
story about slave labor under the Nazi regime in Germany 50 
years ago. The article said that "After months of 
negotiations, 16 German companies that profited from Nazi-
era slave labor announced details of a promised compensation 
fund."(3) 

Careful readers and listeners will ask: Who ended up in the 
Nazi's prisons and concentration camps? The answer is People 
who by identity and action violated the Nazi view of the 
world. That sounds an awful lot like the prison policy of 
the United Snakes of Amerik-k-k-a.

Music break 

[Track 28 MAJ CD. No Law No Rights 3:21]

music break

VOICE 2

This is a letter from a new jersey prisoner.

I have passed MIM Notes around the phase I'm on, trying to 
wake up individuals, especially the young. I'm sorry to say 
but most at this kamp think that this is some sort of game. 
I try to reach out to them the most because that's the 
attitude I had when I first cam down. I'm only 25 but I've 
been locked up a little over a decade now. So I try to open 
the eyes of the young to the struggle, like some older 
comrades did to me. Each one, teach one.

The kamp that I'm in is named South Woods State Prison and 
the way these redneck pigs and house nigga officers run this 
spot you would think you were down South in the woods 
somewhere back in the 40s and 50s. This prison is the newest 
in New Jersey. It has only been open for 20 months.

They don't have any control units at this camp or an 
administration seg. They do have a detention unit, lock-up, 
that they hold you in until they send you to an ad-seg or to 
the Gang Unit in Northern State Prison.

This jail is so messed up most don't protest to get out of 
the hole. In fact, most go to the hold on purpose so they 
can be shipped out to another prison.

I can't say I blame them. I only been here for five months 
and three prisoners have been killed in two of the other 
phases. In the phase I'm on...I witnessed a pig named Brian 
Ambrose commit an aggravated assault on a prisoner for no 
reason. This was the second time he assaulted a prisoner in 
a two week span. Myself and other wrote letters to the 
commissioner, state senator, and newspapers and to the news. 
Others had their family call down to protest this treatment. 
I haven't seen this officer recently but it is rumored that 
they just moved him to another phase at this jail.

...The slave labor here is real. No matter where you work on 
the main compound, you only are paid $1.30 a day for 8 hours 
of work. Then if you get one of the Uncle Tom jobs in 
"Industrial" building you can make up to $3.00 a day for 8 
hours. But the catch is they have two jobs over there, meat 
packing and tailor shop. In meat packing, you package all 
the meat for the prison in Jersey. You're locked in a 
freezer all day standing on your feet. In the tailor shop, 
you make all the clothes for the prisons, and here's the 
icing on the cake, they bring in clothes from stores like JC 
Penny for you to do their cloths as well. They just has a 
special on the New Jersey news about sweatshops in South 
Woods.

There is no education here higher then getting a G.E.D. They 
have four vocational shops in each phase for 1,000. But it's 
no more then 10 people at a time in each shop. So you might 
be on the waiting list for well over a year.

e don't pay for living expenses, but we do pay a 10% tax on 
all items on the commissary, even federal stamps. They say 
it goes to pay court imposed fines, but even if you paid, or 
don't have fines, you are still charged for this.

The general conditions are next to nothing. General library 
is twice a month and they only have about 50 books out of 
date newspapers for the whole phase. The law library is open 
everyday, but only eight people are allowed in at a time. So 
if you don't get your work done in an hour, you have to put 
your name at the end of the list.

Medical care is a joke. You can go over to medical for an 
emergency; they will look you in the face and tell you to 
drop a sick call slip, that nothing is wrong with you. When 
you drop a sick call slip, it takes you about (3) day to see 
this same part- time nurse. They still won't give you any 
medication or treat your problem. They will have you sitting 
in the waiting groom for hours. When you finally get in, 
they tell you that they are scheduling you to see the 
doctor. Which will take at least (3) weeks. To get any real 
attention you have to act like you passed out.

The new phone system they have here is ridiculous. When you 
call your family to accept the call, its $4.50 and it a 
$1.10 for each additional minute and your call automatically 
hangs up in 10 minutes., so you will have to make a second 
call for more money.

No longer in New Jersey are we able to get packages of any 
kind. No books, clothes, cosmetic or food packages. The only 
way you can get literature is if it is copied and mailed to 
you.

Hopefully my time in this kamp will be up in July. That's 
when I go to parole. This will be my second time going up in 
front of the board. The first time they gave me a 32 month 
future eligibility date. I have my family support to help 
find work once I'm released. The last time I had (2) jobs 
set up for me after my release. Even though the prison psych 
and initial parole hearing officer recommended me a date, 
the parole panel gave me another 32 month hit, based on me 
doing a juvenile bid. I had got my G.E.D., been charge free 
for 28 months, had (3) certificate for programs for dealing 
with alternatives to violence and I still got the max on 
hit.

Another way they try to stop you from returning to the 
streets, even if you don't have a drug/alcohol charge or 
problem in the past or present. They will not give you 
status if you don't participate in these two programs and 
why will put a letter to parole in your file saying you 
refused to cooperate with institutional rules.

In struggle,

A New Jersey prisoner, 26 April 1999.