Under Lock and Key

Fight the real enemy

Dear Brotherz and Sisterz,

We are so filled with hate. We hate oppression, yet the Bloods 
hate the Crips. We hate this government, yet we succumb to push 
dope to our young. We hate the pigs, yet we stand in silence or 
march in fear, every time one of our Geez get shot dead in the 
streets. Its absurd that we'll ban and show force if a drug dealer 
moves to one of our hoods and lays claim to a corner owned by the 
city. His head is popped. But gangsta, where were you when the 
streets of New York ran hot with '41' shots?

Were you lying when you sang along with Biggie on "Ready to Die?" 
Is it merely that you fear crossing enemy lines and making your 
impression felt? My people, I accuse you of the worst crime ever 
committed by any real Gee, cowardice!

We are willing to fill master moe's house, build his industrial 
plants, but we are unwilling to burn his house down and build on 
its ashes. My people, oh my beloved people, it is in no way my 
intention to beat you down with words. I love and you are all I 
have left. I believe in you, my people, but I feel let down, I 
feel abandoned by you.

Why can't you hear me? I'm the voice of those who died on 
September 13th in the Attica prison uprising. Can you not hear my 
screams when I shouted "Free at last!" with my dying breath as 
armed pigs stormed the prison and ruthlessly massacred unarmed 
prisoners who merely wanted to be heard. We only wanted them to 
realize that we too were human! I am the soul of George, the 
tongue of Malcolm, the heart of King!

Run but you can't hide because now the hunt's on for you. How 
could you betray our struggles, let our blood spill in vain? How 
could you be my brother without feeling my pain?

-- A New York prisoner.

MIM responds: Thank you for a creative essay that emphasizes 
organizing against oppression and refusing to feed into the 
oppressor's strategy. We obviously agree that the masses' energies 
should be spent fighting imperialism and not one another. However, 
the explicit reason that MIM publishes this newspaper is to build 
public opinion for Maoist revolution. Many prisoner invoke the 
name of Martin Luther King Jr., but MIM urges you to study history 
and political economy. Through study, you'll find that true 
revolutionary examples were Huey Newton and Mao Zedong who led the 
proletarian internationalist struggles of their times. King was an 
integrationist, a middle force who sometime moved with the 
revolutionary forces, but often moved against them. Rise up, but 
do it right!

Work against imperialism 100%



I came to jail for murder in 1988. I was 17 at the time. At that 
time, I really wanted to be a gangster and I was doing it for a 
while. But now, I've took all my left over energy and invested in 
my Afrikan history and the revolution. ... I'll be doing a lot of 
political [work] on the outside. I believe in working against 
imperialism 100%.

-- another New York prisoner.

Lowdown on Youngstown

Let me give you "The Lowdown on Youngstown", I've been here for 
less than a month (and the prison has been open for less than a 
year) and already the COs killed a prisoner (4 February 1999). Of 
course, they claim it was suicide. This prison is situated in a 
circle, or a circle inside of a square, and I'm in X cell which 
holds sixteen hostages (eight on the top range and eight on the 
bottom range). Now, we are not supposed to have contact with other 
prisoners. But we can holler at [a few cells] by yelling out the 
window in the rec pod and we can talk to prisoners in one cell 
through the air vents, plus we can pass around MIM Notes by 
shooting a line under our doors on one shift.

The COs have a tendency of putting prisoners in the shower and 
leaving them there for two or three hours. So one day last week, a 
prisoners kicked out the shower window (this is not the first time 
this has happened) and the COs reacted by taking all the 
prisoner's property, everything from the TV that the institution 
issues to his sheets and blankets. Since there is no hold at the 
supermaximum political prison (the whole thing is a control unit). 
Plus, they moved all the prisoners out of that cell block to 
somewhere over in C-unit, except the prisoner who kicked out the 
window for the next couple of days. I could hear him banging on 
the door demanding his sheets and blankets, which is very 
understandable being that this is the depth of winter. 

From the (little strip of a) window in my cell, I could see the 
parking lot of the prison. And one morning, I happened to see the 
local news team out in the parking lot. This was also the first 
morning since the incident that I didn't hear any banging coming 
from up there. On the news that night, live from OSP, the prison 
officials explained how this prisoner was supposed to have hung 
himself. Nowhere in the explanation was there mention that they 
were going through some changes with this prisoner or the fact 
that he was in a cell block all by himself. But the lawyer for his 
family has already said that there seems to be some foul play. 
(You wouldn't say.)

-- an Ohio prisoner.

Pigs stall as prisoner burns himself

Peace my beloved Comrades, 

Power to the people of the civilized struggle. Sit, listen, 
observe, and understand, I'm a righteous man held captive in the 
belly of Jonah's whale "hole" at S.C.I.P. 

I was pacing back and forth in my 6" by 9" contemplating on my 
physical freedom as well as all my fallen comrades who have been 
enslaved by the slave master "Tom Ridge" and his diabolical 
overseers "Police." [Then] I heard a brother request to see a 
mental health adviser because he was indeed from the medical unit 
for housing troubled inmates that are mentally unstable and are in 
need of medical care in order to survive their daily oppression by 
the pigs.

But when his cries went unanswered he started to physically ram 
his head from wall to wall but yet they, "the pigs," took his very 
actions for a joke. Around about a year later he still making 
verbal insane threats about his self and his well being. But at 
this time [one CO] began to pass out razors and mirrors to the 
block of a-100 pod 4 because we are entitled to them every 
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. He gave everyone a razor, and mirrors 
who requested they wanted them, even the brother in [that] cell 
who just came to the belly "hole" from the medical unit who been 
making threats out loud to harm himself for the last year or so.

For one, they already knew he was mentally unstable. And like he 
said he would do when he received the razor, he began to slash his 
face, and wrist yet they still paid him no mind and left the pod 
"cell unit." So as I'm still pacing my 6" by 9" with my heart 32 
degrees below zero for my oppressors I began to smell smoke, heavy 
amounts of it, so being wise I return to the door and am perplexed 
to see the self-threatening inmate cell is on fire. I mean 
blazing, and smoking very very heavy. So us "inmates" began to 
bang on the doors and yell "man down, man down," after about four 
minutes they, "the pigs," decide to come and with them they 
brought a very very small fire hose but would not open the door to 
get the burning man out or anything until he came to the door to 
put on handcuffs by sticking his hands out a food slot where we 
are fed from. So after about another two minutes or more he 
refused to say anything. They don't know weather he's dead or 
alive because you can see nothing in the cell but fire and smoke.

So after about another long minute passed the inmate come to the 
door on fire and stick his hands outside of the food slot and let 
them put handcuffs on his burning and bloodied body. So they start 
to put him out while the door yet remained locked for about 
another thirty seconds until another officer went and hit the cell 
from a switch board which is not even on the block. So now they 
take action to put the inmate out and led to the hospital so I 
believed. Yet his cell remained on fire for about another 15 
minutes. The cause of the fire: the brother burned his bed and 
sheets. If he was white would they have helped him from the 
beginning? 

Black salute, long live the black man.

--A prisoner in Pennsylvania.

Colorado prisoners denied MIM Notes

Every issue of MIM Notes that has been sent to me this year has 
been rejected. I've been sending these to the Colorado ACLU along 
with the rejection notices, as the ACLU will be filing a lawsuit 
on this soon.

I know the censorship is not justified and it will only take a law 
suit to stop it. I'll let you know if I ever do get any.

-- a Colorado Prisoner, 25 November, 1999.

MIM responds: Many prisoners face censorship of MIM Notes as well 
as other literature and even mail that is sent to them. MIM is 
working with a number of prisoners to fight this censorship battle 
but we need help. If you are a law student or lawyer and want to 
get involved in this fight against criminal injustice, contact us.

Michigan Ad Seg prisoner contributes

Revolutionary Greetings! I sincerely hope you don't mind me 
writing so often, however, you're the only real friends I have. 
... Enclosed is a four page article [on the importance of 
organizing and focusing on revolutionary politics]. May you have 
much love and peace always. Take care, and by all means, keep the 
faith. In revolutionary love,

--A Michigan prisoner, 6 January, 2000

MIM responds: Thank you for your letters and for the essay 
submissions, they show great leadership by example on your part. 
You should of course write as often as you have things to say. We 
only hope you do not mind that we don't always respond to each 
missive. We take your writings in the spirit that they seem to be 
intended: that of revolutionary unity and as contributions to our 
work. In this the best way we can fulfill our part of the 
organizing relationship is to focus ourselves on the tasks of 
leading in anti-imperialist and anti-militarist activism, building 
public opinion in favor of the just struggles of the oppressed, 
and building independent institutions of the oppressed -- like MIM 
Notes. These are tall orders, and the responsibility of any 
genuine communist party. Even though your conditions are isolating 
we encourage you to continue to lead by example, by taking up the 
pieces of the work that you can do from where you are.

Prison medical care mimics imperialist society

I am writing this for your November campaign dealing with the 
medical situation in prisons. Personally, I don't know too much 
about medical "policies" and such but I can tell you about medical 
"practices". Let me tell you what I witnessed on August 10th, 
2000.

Approximately around 2:45 a.m. I had heard an inmate yelling at 
the Sergeant and another C.O. for help. He was complaining that he 
was real dizzy and had groin and chest pains that were real 
severe. Both officers just sat around doing nothing to help the 
inmate even after he had yelled that he was laying on the floor.

Around 3:25 a.m., a nurse came in after the inmate was calling for 
help for 40 minutes. The nurse went up to the inmate's door and 
looked in his window. She asked him what was wrong and he told her 
about his pains and dizziness. Without even taking his pulse or 
any other vitals, she told the hurt inmate to turn in a sick call 
slip and walked away. Then around 4:00 a.m., the inmate's door 
slot was opened for his breakfast and he asked for help. I could 
see that this inmate was laying on the floor. This officer didn't 
help the inmate. A little while later, a Captain came in and went 
to talk to the inmate. I heard the inmate crying and pleading for 
help. The captain told the inmate that the nurse had already seen 
him and now they were refusing to give the inmate medical 
treatment until he made a sick call later that afternoon. After 
that, I heard the inmate plead for help until 5:30 a.m. when he 
suddenly became quiet. 

About 3 hours later, around 9:00 a.m., I watched several officers 
open up the inmate's cell where he was laying on the floor 
unconscious. I watched them carry him out on a stretched where he 
still appeared unconscious. Then they finally took him for medical 
help. He later came back and was ultimately alright, but it just 
goes to show that these prison staff don't really care about the 
well-being of inmates. Luckily this inmate was only unconscious 
but after seeing that I wonder if I might find myself in a similar 
situation needing help but instead of being found unconscious, I'm 
found dead.

-- a prisoner in Kansas, 14 August 2000.

Ohio shakedown: why do some forget?

The system has destroyed a lot of us mentally. In April 1997 we 
were subjugated to a major shakedown that led to all brothers 
being stripped of their clothing from head to toes. Under no 
circumstance had any rules or regulations been broken to warrant 
this. The water was turned off and we were locked down for close 
to two and a half weeks, eating out of brown bags and plastic 
plates for dinner.

Today is 11 April 2000 and I was rethinking the whole play, and 
how so many of us have forgotten what those people have done to 
us, and have befriended them and continue to exploit their own 
kinfolk for smokes, street food, and a little conversation with 
the women COs.

It has been forgotten that the pigs stripped us not only of our 
clothes, but of all of our rights and our dignity, beat us, 
chained us head to toe, while the medical staff looked on to see 
who had the biggest penis or the most tattoos. We were unable to 
wash for several weeks and when given the chance, the guards 
wanted to stand over you and make you wash without a rag and dry 
off by hand. 

The COs verbally raped us as they proceeded to come into the 
cells, make everyone lay down on the floor, and cuff their ankles 
and wrists. As we lay on the ground they looked up our asses with 
a flash light and made jokes. How the fuck can some of the 
brothers here reunite with these sadistic, make-believe paper 
soldiers? I'm in constant thought about all this stuff.

-- an Ohio Prisoner, 11 April 2000.

"Thanks" to UMichigan students

I received the newspapers and the book you sent me. That book is 
just what I was looking for. I'm still studying and reading it and 
I can't put it down. Please tell all the brothers and sisters at 
the University of Michigan to please stay in the struggle with us 
because comrades in here need them to be our voices out there and 
we will be their voices in here! Me and the rest of our comrades 
in here are studying every day and night, even when we are on 
lockdown, we still find ways to get our study in in our cages.

-- a Colorado Prisoner, 2 April 2000.

MIM responds: University of Michigan students organized a Books 
for Prisoners drive which provided the book to this prisoner. 
Students on many other campuses hold similar fund raisers, 
collecting books and money. We invite other students to get 
involved in this important work. Contact us for information and 
materials to hold your own book drive on your campus.

The Great Spitball investigation

Sometime in early September '99 four inmates were called off of 
the yard. Later on during lunch I asked them why. Somewhere down 
the gallery hundreds of spitballs were on a window and a wall, 
plus some on the floor. First people on a lower gallery were 
questioned because the guards only noticed the spitballs on the 
floor. They were threatened with segregation and asked to snitch 
if they knew who did it. Then when the spitballs on the windows 
and wall were noticed the lower gallery was cleared because the 
spitballs were about 15 to 20 feet up and an impossible angle from 
the lower gallery. Six people from the upper gallery were also 
questioned and threatened. As a scare tactic the first thing the 
guards did was to dead-lock their doors like they were in big 
trouble or something. The overpaid babysitters here have too much 
time on their hands and end up acting out in childish ways.

--an Illinois prisoner, 7 March 2000.

Study group and participation update

I have read the materials for the USW study group, most of this I 
was familiar with from reading the "Essential Works of Chinese 
Communism" but this material did stress the importance of having a 
correct analysis of the particular situation that the struggle is 
taking place in. [A]ttempting to organize inside of these prisons 
is like attempting to carry out armed struggle within an 
imperialist country. Once you are accused, you may have a few 
sympathizers, but there is nothing that ANY body can do for you. 
It is not surprising that people out there in society cannot 
understand what its like to be in a supermax prison. It's 
unimaginable to prisoners in lower security prisons and MOST of 
the prisoners in Ohio's supermax is are not handling it mentally.

Even in lower security prisons here in Ohio, any prisoner caught 
walking on the yard in a group of three or more will receive a 
conduct report, but I can write articles for any newspaper that 
USW can come up with because we must agitate and educate. Any 
material that is sent to me is subject to confiscation so I won't 
be able to do no editing because I wouldn't want nobody to lose 
their word, but the materials that we do get we can pass around 
without too much trouble.

-- an Ohio Prisoner