Neglected Maryland prisoner dies

I call out from an atmosphere of unforgivable pain. The 
officers and staff [here] can be looked on as to blame for 
prisoner Darren Brown's death. This prisoner was sick for 
about three days. He was continuously ignored in the 
abdominal pain he was having. Just like the little boy that 
cried wolf, they thought that Mr. Brown was faking.

That goes to show that officers don't take prisoners 
seriously. The prisoners don't abide by the code of not 
fraternizing with the pigs anymore. However, that was not 
the case with Mr. Brown, cause he was more of an anti-
police than anything.

Now after Mr. Brown was ignored, he just sat back in his 
cell and withered away. ... I had the opportunity to look 
in the cell and see Mr. Brown's body. And the way that Mr. 
Brown was laying on his floor, there shouldn't have been no 
way his body was ignored for so long.

So when the paramedics arrived to pronounce Mr. Brown dead, 
they were very upset to see that Mr. Brown had been dead 
for some time, cause the stiffness had already set in, 
which caused them to ask questions like, "when did y'all 
first notice Mr. Brown like this and who's in charge?"

Now all of a sudden they come up with a rule (DCD 10-31) 
Inmate Security Counts) IB#01-27. That each evening at 7 
p.m. each prisoner will stand at his door during count 
time. Myself and other convicts find that to be very 
senseless.
From numerous institutions I've been in, a security count 
is conducted, however each prisoner must display his ID 
card. But at this prison, we aren't allowed to keep our 
ID's. So the sole purpose for prisoners to come to their 
doors is for mere humiliation and harassment, but because 
of these mishaps they're trying to make our lives 
miserable. It's bad enough that we're locked down in a 23-
hour situation.

-- a Maryland prisoner, June 2001.

MIM adds: Or so they say that they thought Mr. Brown was 
faking. What better way to cover up neglect than blame the 
prisoner? Prisoncrats and kkkops claim this or that lie or 
fabricate various stories to cover up their own disregard 
for human life. Plain fact is that prisoncrats and kkkops 
are not held accountable for the lives that they take and 
for the part that they play in this society based upon 
oppression.

Nevada prisoner contributes to struggle

Dear MIM: I don't have much, but I recall an article in my 
first MIM Notes about how the paper and other things could 
be expanded if the comrades inside would give at least $1 a 
month. I believe I'll try to do better than that. Matter of 
fact, I'll do like Christians and give 10% of what I come 
up on or buy books. . . .
Brief catchy leaflets would be ideal for those without any 
theoretical or political consciousness or a lack of it. 
I'll put something together. Then they could be distributed 
on the outside and shipped to the prison comrades in their 
correspondence to distribute in the joints and hopefully 
the practice will catch on. This may also draw the less 
interested to read MIM Notes.

In time I'll also draw up some study guides and/or 
questions like you requested and recommended. I appreciate 
the study group pamphlet comrade Royal Rage hooked and 
understand we all need to make similar contributions. 
However, you are already aware I'm still progressing 
theoretically and politically.

I agree that all children should be educated on sex and 
drugs by 11 or before entering junior high. However, I 
don't agree with the consensual age being 13. I'll say 16 
at the least and anything less would be at the parents' 
discretion. Some kids mature physically, emotionally and 
mentally faster than others. Then there's the age of the 
sexual partner to consider.

I respect a person's sexual orientation, but do believe 
it's a social illness and definitely not the same as 
opposite sex sex or else there would be same sex breeding. 
It may be more appropriate to say all love is the same. As 
a Black man, I must reflect on the cultures of the 
Motherland and nowhere have I come across homosexuality as 
existing before the slave trade. Even today, though AIDS is 
the most widespread there, the disease is hetero as opposed 
to in the United States, which has 1 of 3 gay Black men as 
being infected, and this isn't to exclude the infected 
heteros. Huey and the Black Panthers spoke out against 
birth control, so this tells me they were pro-creation and 
pro-family. I'm for family and freedom, but I just think 
homosexuality found its way in our culture after we lost 
our freedom. As for all sex being rape, I'll have to hold 
my opinion until I have learned more for the feminist 
revolution.

In my June set of MIM Notes, there was an article called 
Prisoner Suggests Amnesty Platform Plank which I thought 
was brilliant. Clenched fist salute to the comrade in Cali 
who wrote that. As an ex-gangbanger and Crip, he manifested 
and articulated an idea that has been forming in my mind 
for some time. However, the only way the theory could be 
practiced before revolution is if we first get the pigs out 
of the ghetto and take responsible control ourselves. This 
is possible.

To the comrades in the joints, we can't allow our political 
beliefs to be pushed into the closet by the pigs, 
reactionary idiots and white supremacists. How can the 
revolution be accepted if the revolutionaries aren't 
respected? We must stand firm and progressive and look 
towards the comrades who set examples and were persecuted 
before us and for us and then set examples and be willing 
to accept the consequences if that's what's in store. Are 
we going to compromise the struggle and raising 
revolutionary consciousness for fear of solitary 
confinement or the opinion of those who don't know any 
better? Revolutionaries are born in solitary--this one was-
-and those peers you fear could be the same ones to be 
turned--I was. Revolution isn't weak so we shouldn't be.

P.S. What is MIM/RAIL's take on Malcolm X, his last year I 
mean? -- Comrade Strike July, 2001

MIM replies: We agree with most of the comrades' points. 
Let's just struggle over a few.

We follow Huey Newton of the Black Panthers on Malcolm X 
and so we see Malcolm X as an inspiration, gun-in-hand to 
defend his nation, but we do not say we are his followers, 
because we are Marxist-Leninist-Maoist scientists. Would 
MIM exist within U.$. borders if there had been no Black 
Panthers and would the Black Panthers have existed if 
Malcolm X had not been spreading ideas about national 
liberation and armed self-defense? Every struggle is 
influenced by the history before it.

With regard to homosexuality, The Journal of the American 
Medical Association (Vol. 283, no. 16) reviewed a book 
giving details of how dolphins exhibit same-sex sexual 
behavior. In recent months, these reports have also 
appeared in the Metro. While female dolphins poke their 
snouts into genital slits of other female dolphins, the 
male walrus averages five sexual contacts with other males 
each hour. MIM suspects that in the same way we discover 
that animals have a natural percentage dedicated to same-
sex sex, we will find if we dig hard enough that all humyn 
cultures had same-sex sex, not just after slavery.
The problem with delaying the age of consent is that there 
is no real way to "protect" children into not having 
oppressive sexual relations. That can only be done in a 
more social way, a thorough revolution affecting both the 
underlying social relations and the culture.

Having the right to consent does not mean a persyn has to 
have sex and there are plenty of 70-year-olds who never 
did, just as there are plenty of people who had sex, had 
immature relations and fouled up sex way beyond the age of 
20. Children who foul up in sex should learn how to change 
and not be stigmatized. Otherwise, we fear that a child 
will not take real self-control of his or her sexual 
education process and that adults with whatever backward 
ideas may interfere if nothing real is at stake. Adults 
need to realize that sex is going on amongst children even 
before the age of 10 in some cases, and this is one more 
reason to push back the line between childhood and 
adulthood as far as possible. This is just one part of our 
overall line that children should be treated less like 
property and more like responsible people. Although it 
appears that babies and young children will always require 
extreme protection, a child who can think and talk is his 
or her own best defender.

Note: For a web review of the book causing a lot of 
discussion, see 
http://www.southernvoice.com/southernvoice/news/record.html
?record=9480

What's next, book burnings?

The prison where I am at tried to place me on STG (Security 
Threat Group) status and lockup again but I guess they 
failed to find what they were looking for. They did however 
take a list of revolutionary and communist books and 
various papers I had copied out of different books.

-- a prisoner in South Carolina, 25 July 2001.

Fruit from MIM's Free Books for Prisoners Program

I'm writing to request two books from your Free Books for 
Prisoners Program, but before I do, I want to let you know 
I've been getting MIM Notes for a bout a year now and in 
that time I've mostly been interested in Under Lock and 
Key, because it dealt with prisoner issues. I didn't care 
about Republicans, Democrats, Communists. I thought it was 
all the same, that they didn't care about the poor people, 
that all of them just wanted to be the ones in control.
My mistake was never taking the time to read and understand 
communist ideology. I recently got a hold of the book "Red 
Star Over China" by Edgar Snow and loved it. I feel as 
though I'm starting to get my first tastes of communism and 
it left me eager to get a hold of some kind of communist 
literature. The book left me in great admiration of Mao 
Zedong and all of the brave Chinese communists who fought 
against the imperialism of Japan and imperialism in 
general.
My immediate goals are to learn everything I can about 
communism and then teach it to others. I would pay for 
these books but my funds are low...

-- a Virginia prisoner, 2 July 01.

Oregon Corruptions Exposed

Dear MIM, Greetings comrades. I send you my support and 
well-wishes from this ce$$pool of poverty and corruption. A 
fellow comrade here in the $RCI'$ IMU let me read the June 
1 and June 15 issues of MIM Notes. I found them both 
informative and in line with my own beliefs and plans. I 
would very much appreciate it if you would start sending me 
MIM Notes and any other materials that will help me be a 
good soldier when the time comes. Myself and some other 
comrades have been trying to get some subliminal self-
hypnosis tapes, to help train our minds, but we are having 
problems. 1)	The capitalist regime of $RCI does not 
allow tapes and tape players. 2)	The capitalist regime 
of $RCI says it is not in their budget to make these tapes 
and tape players available.
Now, if the budget is the problem, maybe MIM can do a 
fundraising drive, or circulate a petition to allow inmates 
to possess tapes and tape players. This institution used to 
allow tapes and tape players, but have taken them away, as 
they do with most things. In fact, the way the Oregon 
Department of Corruption is set up, there is very little we 
may have.

This corrupt capitalist regime holds myself and other 
comrades in poorer conditions than a sweatshop. We only 
make anywhere from $8.00 to $84.00 a month. Then if you get 
a misconduct report, these cowards take anywhere from 20% 
to 100% of your paycheck. Then when you go to your hearing 
you get a fine from $1 to $200 and from 1 day to 28 days 
loss of privileges. You can't watch TV, go to card room, 
yard, the library, etc. . . You sit in your cell all day, 
every day. To make matters worse, 1) you are not supposed 
to get loss of privileges unless you actually abuse a 
privilege. 2) Say you get a $200 fine. Well, your 
girlfriend sends you $200; you get $30. If she sends 
anything under $60 all you get is half. As if this isn't 
bad enough it gets worse. Let's say you owe $200 in fines 
and a $200 court fee and your girl sends you $400, you get 
$0. How can this get any worse? Well, when you have less 
than $2 in a month period you are considered indigent and 
you get 5 envelopes from the $RCI capitalist regime. But, 
if you get, let's say $40, and half goes towards your fine 
and half towards your court fees, leaving you with $0, 
you're indigent and get 5 envelopes right? Wrong, you get 
jackshit. Not only do you not have any money, you won't be 
outta debt anytime soon, you see, because these capitalist 
gold diggin' pukes like to harass you and push you into a 
corner until you react. Then the cycle begins anew.

To add insult to injury, when you sit in "the hole" for 
your sanction you get no radio, shitty books, little 
property, and sometimes no recreation (exercise in a box). 
If you happen to be like me and respond by knocking the 
pig's teeth out that fucks with you, then you get to go to 
the Intensive Management Unit (IMU). You can stay in there 
for 6 months to eternity. And unlike other states, we get 
no TVs, no telephone calls, 1 newspaper, 10 photos, 10 
books, between 1 and 3 library books, personal magazines 
and a radio after 60 days. Canteen is almost nonexistent 
and if you are on level 1 (highest security), you don't get 
to go to the recreation yard.

We have filed a class action on the sensory deprivation 
conditions of IMU, but have had little success. We filed 
for preliminary injunction about 3-4 months ago and had no 
response and the capitalist attorney they appointed is no 
help. Even if we win, the DOC will still do whatever they 
want. To give you some examples I will share some of the 
violations perpetrated against me.
1) On [X date] I was sent to the hole by [one guard] for 
exercising my right to be free from officers reading my 
legal materials. When I went to the hole she read and 
confiscated my legal materials. 
2) On the same date I received another misconduct report 
from V. Watson for having witchcraft literature (this was 
later dropped).
3) On [Y date] during a cell-extraction I was shocked and 
struck repeatedly by C. Pease and also choked. Then my 
clothes were removed by [another guard]. After my clothes 
were off [the guard] pulled down my underwear and fondled 
my penis and testicles and then proceeded to spread my butt 
cheeks. At that time he was ordered to put my underwear 
back on. I was left in my cell without any clothes, 
bedding, etc for several hours. 
4) On [later date, same year] I was placed in full 
restraints (belly chain and shackles) and had my property, 
bedding and hygiene items confiscated. I was kept in full 
restraints from about 9:30pm on 10-29 to 2:30pm on 10-30 a 
total of 16 hours or so. I didn't receive any bedding or 
hygiene supplies until 11pm on 10-30, over 24 hours. 
5) On [another day] [a different guard] ordered my cell 
door open (breaching security). [He] then charged at me and 
demanded me to give him my tray, instead I threw it on the 
floor. When I turned to see [his] response he slugged me 
and I hit him back and backed away. He continued to advance 
swinging and exchanged blows. From his unprovoked assault I 
received a bruised and cut right eye, 2 cuts on my 
forehead, a bruised left cheek and a cut in my left ear. I 
was denied a right to attend the hearing for this incident. 
6) On [a date this year] I lost a court decision that cost 
me my appeal rights because the DSU library coordinator 
denied me an envelope to write my attorney and form a 
defense.

There are a lot more than this, but these are the major 
violations. I have filed state tort claims and was denied. 
I haven't filed any civil suits because I don't know how 
and no one will help me. I wrote attorneys and never got 
any response. Something needs to be done about this corrupt 
system. I got screwed in court and now my rights are being 
violated in prison. Many people I know are in prison 
because of the corrupt Oregon injustice system. The Oregon 
injustice system manipulates you in court and the Oregon 
department of corruption manipulates you in prison. I don't 
know how much the comrades of MIM can help, but any help 
would definitely be helpful. We have tried and continue to 
try to fight this Oregon plague from the inside to no 
avail. Every time we get something the capitalist pigs just 
take it back.

I agree with MIM and the comrade in California that we 
definitely need to address the issue of "amnesty". I whole 
heartedly believe in the reintegration of all prisoners, 
both the physically and socially incarcerated. I also agree 
in the "ideological remolding" of prisoners so that we may 
"become staunch revolutionary fighters" in our cause 
against the capitalist regime. This is necessary to change 
the capitalist criminal thinking of our comrades now held 
as prisoners of the capitalist regime.

I believe a focus of our "amnesty" demands that we can 
demand now, is for the immediate review of the criminal 
convictions of these prisoners (like myself) who have 
repeatedly been denied a fair review of their convictions. 
Several of us prisoners have had our constitutional rights 
violated in order to secure our convictions. I myself have 
a case that should have been overturned, but instead the 
injustice system has dismissed all my attempts to appeal. I 
was coerced into pleading guilty by threats and 
manipulations. I was only 17 years old and in a poor state 
of mind due to my father's recent death, so they took 
advantage of that weakness and so here I sit with 17 years 
to do. I got screwed because of a mandatory minimum 
sentencing law called "Measure 11." I would have been 
released long ago if this law didn't make me get sentenced 
as an adult. Things like this and other controlling laws 
are what opened my eyes to the fact that all these 
capitalist pigs care about is their money. They don't care 
about how their plutocracy breeds poverty, all they care 
about is their own life.

To paraphrase Daniel Webster and to add to sink or swim, 
live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and heart to 
MIM's revolutionary service.
Your comrade, -- an Oregon prisoner, July 17 2001.

MIM responds: First a thank you to you for sending such a 
complete update on the conditions at Ontario. It is good to 
hear about our comrades organizing there. We have had a 
recent increase in interest in MIM Notes from prisoners 
there and we need folks like yourself to be organizing 
these people within the prison. So we would like to suggest 
that you try to put together a study group to meet an 
discuss MIM Notes and revolutionary theory. We can provide 
books and magazines in addition to the MIM Notes to help 
with your studies. And you can send us comments and ideas 
that come up from your discussions to which we will send 
responses and our thoughts.

Of course, this will require that the participants stay out 
of the hole as much as possible. In general this is a good 
idea because it facilitates your political organizing work. 
But we do recognize that you do not control what happens in 
the prison, you can only control your own actions. It is 
hard to tell a comrade behind bars who is being provoked 
and attacked by guards that he or she should stand in 
silence in the hopes that s/he won't be punished further. 
Ultimately the appropriate action in a given situation has 
to be your call based on immediate self-preservation as 
well as a longer term view, so all we can do is remind you 
that you will never win a physical fight against the prison 
pigs. The only victory from these fights is when your 
participation saves you from even more extreme brutality.

Many people on the outside believe that prisoners deserve 
the brutality they undergo in prison. They assume that 
prisoners are provoking violent responses and that they are 
shackled and locked down because they are dangerous. Some 
people believe that prisoners deserve any punishment they 
might get because they committed a crime. This letter 
provides a good example of why these people are wrong. This 
is a prisoner who clearly gets into some violent 
confrontations with prison guards, but in the context of 
daily brutality and abuse MIM asks our readers to consider 
how well they would hold up. And we also point out that the 
criminal injustice system claims to be rehabilitating 
prisoners. Locking them down 24 hours a day and denying 
them educational material certainly can't be serving this 
purpose. This exposes the lie that prisons hope to make 
criminals into better citizens.

This comrade's thoughts about a campaign around tape 
players and tapes to raise funds and get access in the 
prison are exactly the kind of ideas we are looking for 
from our comrades behind bars. We need to hear what 
immediate battles you are fighting and how people on the 
outside can help so that we can select the best focus for 
our work. MIM certainly supports prisoners having access to 
tape players and tapes, and we believe that the prisons 
should be financing purchase of educational materials for 
prisons (after all, they do claim to be rehabilitating 
prisoners even if we know what a lie that is). We would 
like to hear from others in Oregon about the battles that 
you are fighting and we will work with our United Struggle 
from Within leaders in the state to focus our work 
appropriately. (United Struggle from Within, USW, is the 
prisoner anti-imperialist mass organization led by MIM. It 
is for our comrades behind bars who are leaders in the 
struggle, and we welcome new members if you think this is 
an organization for you.)