Amerika denies prisoners education; 
MIM creates the University BARS Serve the People Program

University BARS is
a new Serve the People Program offering education opportunities to
prisoners within the context of revolutionary struggle. University BARS stands for Boston Activists for Revolutionary Schooling. Initial
UBARS classes, created by the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist
League (RAIL) and Life After Framingham (LAF), started March 2000.

Despite prisoners having given their lives to fight for
educational programs, these and other basic needs are continually
denied throughout Amerika. MIM and RAIL fight for better prison
conditions within revolutionary struggle. We have long provided
prisoners a means to educate themselves and to publish ideas
through MIM Notes and the Serve the People Free Books for
Prisoners Program. UBARS demonstrates that a few comrades working
with the masses can build an independent and proletarian
institution and serve the masses' needs better than the current
imperialist system.

Current and former prisoners of MCI-Framingham formed Life After
Framingham. LAF serves wimmin's needs during and after their
imprisonment at Framingham. LAF also serves as an advocacy group
for the wimmin, including lobbying the state legislature. MIM and
RAIL are working together with LAF to offer both men and wimmin
access to educational programs in prison. We welcome other similar
progressive organizations with disagreements on basic ideology to
help build proletarian institutions to serve the people.

UBARS addresses the need for positive activities in prison to
assist prisoners in developing skills needed while incarcerated
and after release. Education is necessary for survival, to end
oppression and to seize power. The state's trend to cut access to
education must be fought.

We urge those sympathetic to prisoners' struggles and those who
believe that everyone should have access to education to help
build this program. In particular, UBARS needs facilitators to
teach useful job-training courses that are needed to curb
recidivism. To emphasize that reforms and re-integration into the
workforce will not end the exponential growth in U$ incarceration,
all materials will be supplemented with revolutionary literature.

University BARS has the long-term goal of offering college credit
to prisoners. As a first step in offering greater access to
education, we offer correspondence courses. Initially, courses
will be limited as we try out the first semester.

All kinds of people on both sides of the prison walls can join UBARS.

Prisoners, 
Contact us and indicate your interest. Outside of "enrolling" in a
course, help avoid administrative blockades by informing us of
potential problems and ways to avoid censorship. The more
successes we build, the more facilitators will join in.

Prisoners working with MIM already organize revolutionary study
groups regularly. If you would like to organize a class for UBARS,
outside of the regular study groups, contact MIM. The turn around
time for prisoners organizing a course will be longer and need
extra preparation compared to courses prepared by outside
facilitators.

Teachers, grad students & academics. 
Help by signing up to facilitate a course. The courses will cover
12 weeks worth of material in 18 weeks to avoid mailing and
administrative problems. UBARS is interested in offering all types
of courses from writing to biology and marketing.

Students, activists& advocates:
Help by raising funds, publicizing and doing the leg-work for
UBARS. We need to contact more potential course facilitators,
distribute flyers, write grants, make photocopies and other such
tasks.



In a few moments we will bring you a commentary by Mumia Abu 
Jamal. Mumia is a Black Nation revolutionary fighting for his life 
on Pennsylvania's death row. Mumia was framed for the murder of a police officer because 
he is an outspoken opponent of Amerikan imperialism.  This Mumia Abu Jamal commentary was recorded by Bruderhof Radio. Bruderhof Radio can be contacted at www.freespeech.org SLASH bruderhof, or via the phone numbers 1 800 778 8361 or area code 914 658-8351.


[All Things Censored CD, Track 23 Martin Sheen :24]

["The reality of death row" Bruderhof CD made from www.radio4all.net, track 1, 5:02 to 8:08, 3:06 length]

Repression and consciousness in Minnesota

I am writing concerning your organization. I was referred to you
by another prisoner and I'm very interested in knowing how I can
share my horror stories of maltreatment. More importantly I want
information on your group and want to be brought to more awareness
about this barbaric modern day plantation system.

The prison system is geared toward creating negative
personalities, violations of fundamental guarantees,
constitutionality's, poverty schemes of passing secret laws that
punish further. They use psychological warfare of pitting one
racial group against another which is a part of their control
movement mechanics, while they make billions of dollars with these
sweat shops which pay only twenty-five cents an hour. At the same
time prison authorities charge well over normal retail price for
prison store bought items, plus taxes. I thought prisoners were
not suppose to be taxed because they can't get tax returns.

Did you know in the Minnesota State Constitution they have an
article which legalize slavery and slave labor when a person is
thrown in jail/prison? In Minnesota a prisoner does 100% of his or
her time, parole time is considered "good-time" and MN DOC has the
authorities to take away as much good-time as they want with
fabricated incident-reports.

There is a policy here that DOC workers must support each others
decisions and reports (even if its found to be fabricated) so
prisoners may be written up about 99.9% of the time all are
convicted. The system is fabricated by factions who breaks up
families, violate rights, human and civil. Point the finger at the
judicially found guilty persons while they violate and still
proclaim to be innocent.

They are objective criminals and terrorist to an oppressed people,
under abstract laws. I struggle daily to be free from these
people.

In the face of my struggle I have filed claims in the federal
District Courts Parker v. Hanson and Dept. of Human Rights Pasha
v. MN DOC each time I have been retaliated on with reports of
threatening staff. The previous or latter case earned me 7 counts
of terroristic threats against staff with supported fabricated
statements from all 7 staff members get this a year from my
scheduled out date.

So there is no protection for people doing time in america's
prison system which is focused at locking down any and all so-
called African-American male young or old as well as Hispanics.
Don't get me wrong there are a population of caucasian-americans
locked down but the majority of these males are employed at the
prisons or work with the administration so they get favored
treatment compared to the rest. [...]

Through all this I have maintained my sanity educate myself!
Educate myself! Educate myself! Through higher education programs,
financial books and informational books to which I have found that
self-education and self-programming pisses off any DOC franchise,
because a person that does so professes to be catagorized as a
gangbanger or some other stereotype. Doing so only earns ones the
label of trouble-maker. I hope you will help further my education
of new horizon.

--A Minnesota prisoner, 5 December 1999.

Thrown in the hole for refusing to cut his hair

Currently I am serving an 18th month special housing unit term for failure to
comply with the revised hair grooming standards of the California
departmental rules and regulations, title 15, sec. 3062. Numerous
rule violations, for failure to comply, and continued harassment
eventually led to a physical altercation with one of these fascist
pigs (tho its never a fair fight), resulting in my being given the
18 month special housing unit term-special management placement.

Behind the walls of California maximum security prisons
(especially special housing unit placement), the treatment and conditions of
prisoners is barbaric and inhumane. A list of negligence includes,
but is not limited to, 
1) cold meals and inadequate portions; 
2) the issue of used and damaged clothing; 
3) unsanitary living conditions- inadequate supplies to clean cells; 4) exorbitant prices of canteen items; 
5) inadequate exercise time (yard), and sports equipment; 
6) excessive strip searches and cell searches;
7) inadequate library (i.e. educational material); 
8) inadequate access to legal books, material, and inadequate time; 9) verbal and physical abuse; 
10) handcuffed and escorted everywhere.

My disdain in regards to the treatment and conditions (depravation
and degradation) of prisoners grows, with daily occurrences as
constant reminders (slaps). I refused to be silenced, or hindered
in the endeavor to awake the conscience and consciousness of my
peers. We utilize the material/books that you send us to the
fullest. We share the material and have group discussions when
possible. There is subtle, but definite change in the general
mentality of some. With patience, study and discipline we are
beginning to learn the difference between the revolutionary,
seeking to dismantle and destroy the order and infrastructure, who
identifies with economic exploitation, political repression, and
social discrimination, and the reactionary, victimized by reform,
who mistakenly believes that capitalism and true democracy can
coexist in the same order. "Seeds are planted, the harvest is yet
to come." The struggle continues.

 -- A California Prisoner 3 October 1999.




Security Threat Group classification in Tennessee

At the prison that I'm currently confined in, four of six units
are maximum security and the majority of these are Security Threat
Group classifications.

Security Threat Group classification is based on the following:

A group of individual's possessing common characteristics which
serve to distinguish them from other individuals or groups who
have been determined to be acting in concert so as to pose a
threat or potential threat to staff, other inmates, the
institution or the community. To organize or promote, encourage,
or directly participate in a security threat group or its
activity.

...But there are folks that have been here four to five years
without a disciplinary infraction other than what they were placed
on max for and this prison (West Tennessee State Penitentiary) is
the worst concerning Security Threat Groups

First I am a Guidance Disciple with tattoos and other
certified information which established that. But I was placed on
max for strong-armed robbery, alleging vice lord involvement and
activities.

Second, at other prisons in Tennessee, an inmate may not be
labeled as Security Threat Group without an incident. Here they consider everybody
as being somebody and there isn't even an internal Affairs to
substantiate the allegations. An officer just says it and it
sticks.

Third, due process is compromised from disciplinary members, to
the Tennessee DOC commissioner. There is no regard to justice
here, especially when it comes to Security Threat Group labels.

 -- a Tennessee Prisoner, 19 October 1999.

Prisoners isolated from outside supporters

Here in Trenton State Prison we've lost food, clothing and
appliance packages. The administration also cut back on our
visitation privilege where only 60 inmates are allowed visits on
Sundays, Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings. These are at time
schedules that cause an inconvenience for the families of the
inmates, so therefore, most families who are willing to visit
their incarcerated loved ones, are now unable to visit prisoners.
I lost a visit about seven months ago because of this new visit
schedule. There have also been fights between visitors because of
the limitations placed on the visiting regulations.

 -- a New Jersey prisoner.