Under Lock and Key
RAIL Radio Program
Dec. 12, 1998

Kalifornia prison guards shoot prisoners

State governments take money from colleges to fund prisons.
RAIL calls for a prisoner-student alliance.

Escaped death row prisoner found dead

Letters from prisoners

Welcome to Under Lock and Key, news and commentary about
prisons from the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. The
U.$. incarcerates a greater percentage of its population
than any other country. The rate for imprisonment of Blacks
is 4 times that of apartheid South Africa, and the U.$.
sends more Black men to prison than college. The purpose of
this program is to educate about, and inspire activism
against, the Amerikan lockdown.

Kalifornia prison guards shoot prisoners

In a practice unheard of in every other U.$. state,
Kalifornia prison guards shoot prisoners with assault rifles
to stop fights. This policy has resulted in 12 deaths and 32
seriously injured inmates since 1994. In all other states
six inmates were fatally shot by guards during the same
period.

A report published in the Los Angeles Times revealed that
only one of the 44 murdered or seriously injured inmates was
armed with a weapon or inflicting serious injury to another
inmate at the time. No korrections officers were being
threatened, nor were any inmates trying to escape during any
of the shootings.

More than three-quarters of the shootings were deemed proper
by the department of korrections review board and only three
Department of Corrections thugs were given any sort of
discipline. Two were given reprimands and one was given an
180-day suspension. "It's just the way they've been
trained," said Lanson Newsome. Newsome is a former deputy
commissioner of Georgia state corrections and now a
consultant who has reviewed dozens of Kalifornia prison
shootings. Training guards to simply kill inmates is an
explicit sign that the system intends to kill.

While the shootings occurred at prisons up and down the
coast, none of the recent shootings occurred at Corcoran State
Prison, where seven prisoners were shot dead between 1989
and 1994. During those five years Corcoran was the deadliest
prison in the u.$.

Prisoncrats tried to paint Corcoran as an aberration.
However during the same time period Kalifornia DOC thugs
murdered 24 inmates and wounded 175 statewide. A majority of
the shootings occurred during fist-fights and other
altercations in which inmates were unarmed.

Because the number of deaths had dropped from 24 between
1989 and 1994 to 12 from 1994 to 1998, state (in)corrections
director Cal Terhune said, QUOTE "I am very pleased in the
direction that it has gone." "We're going to continue to
push...to really make the use of lethal force the absolute
minimum, as a last resort." But, he also said,
"Unfortunately, we are doing it at absolutely the worst
time, we've had an upturn in gang activities, [and]
skirmishes." In other words, because there are fights in
prison the pigs should be allowed to continue blasting away
until they are quelled.

Kalifornia has 33 prisons with 159,000 inmates, and many of
the prisoners are rival gang members. DOC thugs have no
qualms about placing gang rivals in situations where
hostilities can easily explode into violence. The pigs are
notorious for instigating brawls they know will end with
state sanctioned brutality.

The state's prison guard union contends that guns are a
necessary equalizer because Kalifornia has the lowest
prisoner to guard ratio. They are basically asking for more
prison guards and free license to brutalize prisoners, in
what amounts to more money and political power for the
guard's union.

Some other states have found ways around deadly force to
stop inmate fights. They just use brutality instead.
Emergency response teams armed with pepper spray and wood
bullets are used by many states. One Ohio incorrections pig
said, "We've never had an officer killed, and I can't recall
any [officers] who were severely injured while breaking up a
fight." The Ohio corrections department houses 50,000
inmates, the fifth-largest number in the u.$.

Even in Texas, a prison system notorious for its brutal
treatment of inmates, only one prisoner was shot and killed
in the last four years. And this was in response to an
escape attempt.

All of Kalifornia's 26 maximum security lockups are supposed
to follow the same policy that allows deadly force only as a
"last resort." But, the Los Angeles Times' investigation
found that the policy only exists on paper and most
Kalifornia prisons make up their own policy. For example,
despite state policy, some of the pig's gunners didn't fire
a warning shot before firing the fatal shot.

State policy also says that officers must have a "clear
shot," however gunners routinely fire into a tangle of
combatants. The LA Times found that in at least 10 cases
over the past decade gunners have missed the intended target
and killed or injured the wrong inmate. None of the 24 fatal
shootings from 1989 to 1994 were found improper by
department review boards. And, though four of the 12 fatal
shootings and six of the injuries since 1994 have been found
"not in compliance," discipline has amounted to two
reprimands and one suspension. This goes to show that we
can't count on the system to police itself.

Kalifornia guards added fire power after the rise of
militant Black inmates and prison gangs in the 1960s and
70s. The guards' union that built up around this policy of
brutal repression has become one of the most powerful
political forces in the state. Around that time an
integration policy designed to make rival prison inmates get
along was developed at Tehachapi security housing unit.
Guards began mixing rival gang members into the same small
exercise yards. The policy backfired.

Or did it? Exacerbating divisions between prisoners
justifies the prison systems bloated budget and ability to
crack heads. The policy baited gang members into fights,
which the guards put down with deadly force. The Times said
this policy created a "siege mentality" amongst the guards.
Even though the guards' role in the policy is to exploit
prisoner divisions and bust heads as much as possible.

According to official reports, four inmates were
subsequently shot by guards from 1989 to 1993. One prisoner
who witnessed a shooting said, "It was like that guard took
aim on an animal. Just like he was hunting. Aimed at his
head, his temple, and fired."

In 1992, a few Corcoran staffers decided to try an approach
similar to the Ohio emergency teams. They managed to
successfully break up fights without firing a shot. "The
higher ups in Sacramento heard about it and said, "You will
not do that again.' You will not put staff in jeopardy,"
said Steve Rigg, a former lieutenant who revealed abuses at
Corcoran to the FBI.

The liberal reformism contained in the L.A. Times article
doesn't get around the fact that prisons themselves are a
form of violence. Though the Times doesn't say what
percentage of murdered prisoners were oppressed nationals,
Amerika mainly makes use of prisons in its war on its
internal colonies. Only by solving the broader problems of
national oppression can the problem of brutality in Amerikan
prisons be solved. Until then, the status quo will always be
brutality in prisons.

---

State governments take money from colleges to fund prisons.
RAIL calls for a prisoner-student alliance.

Credit is due to Boston Globe Columnist Derrick Jackson for
writing on the trade-off between prisons and education. His
article was just on New York State. QUOTE "Since 1988, state
funding for colleges has plummeted by $615 million. Spending
for prisons has gone up by $761 million."
"By 1996, annual spending for incarceration, $1.6 billion,
surpassed the
$1.3 billion in the budget for colleges."

In a typical state budget, the two biggest items are
education and prisons. Already successive University of
Michigan presidents have spoken out. It is time for
university presidents and students everywhere to speak out.

There is also a link to the drug problem, a vicious cycle.
QUOTE "In New York, harsh mandatory sentences have pushed
the cost of keeping nonviolent drug offenders locked up to
$680 million a year, a haunting contrast to the $615 million
drop since 1988 in college spending." White people are 75
percent of New Yorkers, but they get caught for only 5
percent of drug offenses.

The proletariat is opposed to the U$ penal regime, because
the ruling class simply uses it to keep the oppressed
classes and nations in discipline. The United $tates has the
world's highest imprisonment per capita, contrary to
rhetoric about a "free country." That is proof of the
imperialist government's hatred of the masses.

Nonetheless, some people will side with us on this question
for less than politically pure reasons. Tuition has risen in
SUNY colleges from $6,303 in 1988 to $11,478. There are
material reasons for New York students and their parents and
also SUNY researchers to ally with the prisoners.

People going to college are generally petty-bourgeoisie, not
proletarian. At this time though, RAIL believes it would be
better for the petty-bourgeoisie to go to college than to
let the ruling class implement its hatred of the Amerikan
people.

In 1988 it was only 13.5 percent of white median family
income to put a student in SUNY. Today it is 25 percent and
that number is 42 percent for Blacks and Latinos.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this is that the
Rockefeller Foundation is behind the funding of the study
these figures came out of. It appears that the ruling class
itself is already afraid of feeling the heat: QUOTE
"'Unfortunately, the politicians' pandering to people's
worst emotions about crime and fear-mongering has won the
day.'"

RAIL has been saying this for years. The movement against
the prison craze now has a firm basis in alliance amongst
the proletariat, lumpenproletariat and students, their
parents and researchers. Although some in the oppressed
nations would like to see their communities rid of the
people that are now in prison, we believe the majority of
the oppressed nations support our struggle.

RAIL gladly supports the student petty-bourgeoisie to get a
cheaper college education, because in exchange we cut into
the state's repression. In contrast, most money struggles in
the imperialist countries do not produce any gain for the
oppressed and exploited.

----


Escaped death row prisoner found dead

For the first time in 64 years, a prisoner on death row,
Martin Gurule escaped from a Texas prison on November 26.
One week later, Gurule's body was found. The Harris County
medical examiner stated that Gurule had died from
accidentally drowning in a swollen river. Despite the 500-
person hunt for Gurule, it was two corrections officers --
allegedly off-duty on a fishing trip -- who accidentally
found Gurule.

RAIL says that Gurule was found dead as a result of an
accident only to report what the mainstream press has
stated. We do not take what the imperialists, pigs and the
imperialist mouth piece media say for granted. However,
regardless of the manner in which Gurule was found, we know
that prisoners are beaten and killed by their slave masters
throughout Amerikkka, and Texas is the biggest prison state
in the United Snakes. Later in this program we will read a
letter from a Texas prisoner about the brutality there.

One result of the escape is increased justification for
making Texas an even more draconian prison state. Governor
George Bush has mandated an investigation into the escape.
Such investigations by the state typically result in forcing
prisoners to endure harsher conditions.

Following the discovery of Gurule's body, prison
spokesperson, Larry Fitzgerald stated "We have a clean
record of all our escapes now. We have all our people back
in custody." Of course the pigs don't care about the death
of Gurule as it will save the state money in one of its
executions.

Texas is legally murdering prisoners through the death
penalty faster than any other state. The climate in Texas
and in the majority of Amerika is to increase the frequency
of death sentences and legal executions.

Historically, the death penalty has been used to legally
lynch Black nationals. Liberals generally agree that Blacks
were lynched in the south prior to the civil rights movement
even when a crime did not occur and even when a Black person
did not commit the crime. Liberals also generally agree that
pre-civil rights era, Black men were lynched for ficticous
rapes of white wimmin.

In 1998, 42% of the 3,300 people on death row in Amerikkka
are Black despite the fact that Black nationals are only 12%
of the population. In Philadelphia, where Mumia Abu Jamal is
being held as a prisoner in the war against the Black
nation, Black nationals have been sentenced to death eight
times more than whites since 1978.

The death penalty is used to protect the white nation and as
a tactic of genocide against oppressed nations. 82% of
prisoners executed since 1977 were sentenced because of a
death of a white person -- even though the number of murders
of whites and Blacks were about equal. RAIL doesn't support
increasing death sentences to even this out, but this aspect
of the death penalty shows how it is white justice which is
sought in Amerikkka.

The death penalty in Amerikkka serves the interests of the
settler nation goverment and majority. It is not used to put
to death the most vicious murderers. Bill Clinton, one of
the world's most vicious murderers, used the death penalty
to kill a mentally retarded man just prior to his election
to gain votes and dispell the "Democrats are soft" image.
Putting humans to death because of their crimes is perfectly
acceptable. Marie Antoinette, Tsar Nicholas, and Mussolini
all deserved to die at the hands of the people they
oppressed. Killing humans during a revolutionary war to stop
their continued oppression of masses are decisions which
should only be in the hands of the oppressed. Such decisions
should not be considered acceptable when made by the leaders
of countries that bomb Sudanese pharmaceutical factories for
publicity. Only when the oppressed are genuinely represented
in government can the government make a decision about human
life which sincerely protects society.


---

Letters from prisoners

A New York Prisoner writes:
Just so you'll know, I think Revolutionary in my decision
making, and I'm for Anti-Imperialism 100%!!!

A South Carolina prisoner writes"
I also would like to send a message out to my 5% brothers in
S.C. and nationwide:  keep your head up. Victory is in the
future but we must come together. So don't fall into the
trap of being racist because we know and understand that
that is only a manifestation of one of the four devils,
namely HATE.

Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips, B.G.D.s, Christians, Gods &
Earths: Yo, we gotta look at the big picture and put our
differences to the side. The Truth will make itself known in
due time. It is normal for the masses to hold different
views. Contention between different views is unavoidable,
necessary and beneficial. In the course of normal and full
debate, the masses will affirm what is right, correct, what
is wrong and gradually reach unanimity. My Man Mao said that
and the truth is recognized.


A Texas Prisoner wrote in July:


Revolutionary Greetings to one and all my Brothers in
the struggle, I  was attacked, assaulted, kicked, and
stomped. My head was rammed into  the chain link fence and
the concrete building. I was put in four  different head
locks, grabbed around the throat and choked until my eyes
rolled back into my head; until spit gushed out my mouth and
my nose  starting bleeding. All of this was done to me while
both of my hands  were handcuffed behind my back.

This was done at 3:25 in the morning in the dark
hallways. I was being  escorted to Pre-Hearing Detention by
Lt. Boyle a racist, Aryan, white  official who works here.
They pull a race hate crime on me behind their  prison
walls. As you all know, hate crimes against Black males in
prison  are going on all over the U. Snakes.

This racist Lt. Boyle is the same Lt. who was run out of
Administrative Segregation for excessive use of force, abuse
of  authority and abuse of power. Just like this Lt. Boyle,
89% of the the whole Allred  Unit located in Iowa Park, TX
is run and operated by  white Aryan Brotherhood employees.
This race hat crime against me was  done in July 1998. At
this time Lt. Boyle has charged me with  assault on an
officer. He wrote a ticket saying that I rammed my head
into him.

They have now placed me in Administrative Segregation.
I'm protesting the treatment I'm  receiving. I'm an innocent
man. I'm on a hunger strike. I have been on  this hunger
strike [for 6 days]. Racist guards here have attacked  four
other Black males. Each prisoner has been put in Ad Seg. The
same  racist guards deliberately go around provoking Black
males daily. All  the paperwork we file on these white
officers has no effect whatsoever  on this unit. Here is a
list of the racist guards on Allred Unit:  Lieutenant
Boyles, Lieutenant Gentry, Lieutenant Sperry, Captain Patty,
Captain Cooks, Captain Wilkenson and his wife, Sargent
Skelton, Sargent  Freeman, Sargent Bull, Officer Tolber,
Officer Saunders, and Officer  Bria.

I am unable to physically fight back but I'm never
giving up the  struggle!!...

--

This has been Under Lock and Key, a weekly Revolutionary
Anti-Imperialist League program about prisons. For more
information, contact: RAIL PO Box 712 Amherst MA 01004, or
email mim@mim.org.