Dear MIM Notes: No one can say that Governor Fob  James has not kept his promise that chain gangs  will decrease the prison population and curb  overcrowding. It is simple and guaranteed to work.  Just arm prisoners with deadly weapons and chain  them together, and if they don't kill each other  fast enough, not to worry, the guards will simply  shoot them down where they stand.

On Wednesday, May 15,1996, one of the chain gang  prisoners here in Alabama was shot and killed by  one of the guards. This shooting took place at  Staton Correctional Facility near Montgomery,  Alabama. The DOC has already "determined" that the  murder of this prisoner was "justified".

No one will ever know what actually happened, but  the official story is pretty straight forward. Two  prisoners began fighting. One of the prisoners had  a bush ax. The prisoner with the bush ax went after  another prisoner who was unarmed at the time. The  guard fired a warning shot, but the prisoner with  the bush ax kept going at the unarmed prisoner. The  guard then shot the prisoner with the bush ax  supposedly to protect the other unarmed prisoner.

A bush ax is a tool with a handle similar to, and  about the same length as a shovel handle. There is  a curved knife-like steel blade on the end of the  handle. However, the steel blade is about eighteen  inches long and five inches wide. You could easily  slice a person's head off with one swing of it.  Each prisoner on the chain gang is usually given a  bush ax or some other weapon just as deadly.

Common sense leads to the conclusion that it was  unnecessary to shoot to kill this prisoner. The  guard was armed with a piston and a shotgun, and  was at close range, within ten or fifteen feet of  the prisoners. The guard could have just as easily  shot the prisoner in the lower body to wound him  instead of just murdering him. They have  "justified" this murder but the real reason for it  was a sadistic desire to kill.

This will not be the last murder to take place on  the chain gang. Fights are routine on the chain  gang between the prisoners there. Whoever heard of  giving prisoners deadly weapons and chaining them  together, and then thinking everything is alright?  Things are not alright. Will the guard simply gun  down both prisoners the next time there is a fight  and both prisoners are armed instead of just one of  them being armed? It sounds like something from the  days of the Romans and the reign of Caesar. This  practice is medieval in the worst way.

The DOC had previously been considering extending  the time that a prisoner spends on the chain gang  to one year from its present, six months. However,  a couple of week before this recent murder they  were already considering reducing the time spent on  the chain gang to three months.

If the DOC does decrease the amount of time a  prisoner must spend on the chain gang, it will not  stop these kind of murders from happening. It will  only increase each prisoner's individual chance of  not being murdered on the chain gang because he  will be there a shorter period of time.  Nevertheless, someone will be on the chain gang and  someone will be murdered again and again, for just  as long as the chain gang continues, for just as  long as prisoners are chained together and given  deadly weapons in such a medieval practice.

Ironically, the name of the mascot for the  Limestone Correctional Facility's sports teams is  the Gladiators. The DOC is making this pretty  realistic by arming these prisoners with deadly  weapons and chaining them together. They are  Gladiators in every sense of the word and they will  continue to be murdered in one way or another until  the chain gangs are stopped.

By condoning the murder of prisoners on the chain  gangs in Alabama, Governor Fob James tells us that  it is a time to kill. This summer in Alabama is the  season for killing young Black men on the chain  gangs. We are left to wonder: When will be a time  to heal.

-an Alabama prisoner, May 20, 1996

 VICTORY OVER CENSORSHIP IN CALIFORNIA

 From: Inmate Appeals, PBSP (Pelican Bay State  Prison)

Subject: The enclosed publication has been GRANTED  by Second Level decision. Please return the  publication to the inmate.

"MIM NOTES" (Sep. 95)

Please return the enclosed memorandum with the  inmates signature to the Appeals Office. Thank You.

-J. Briddle, CCII, Appeals Coordinator, June 11,  1996 Greetings- I wrote you a couple of letters over a  year ago offering some debate on several issues  such as National Socialist Revolution, "anti- racist" contractions of National Liberation, etc. I  don't know if you received my letters or publish  any replies. The pigs were prohibiting your papers,  but I just received the September 1995 issue with  the enclosed notice [printed above - MIM].

I want you to know, I would like to continue  receiving MIM Notes and MIM Theory, and I am open  to further correspondence and debate with MIM.

Nationalist Revolution is the only solution! Our  race is our nation! Self-Determination for all!  -A California Prisoner, June 25, 1996.
 
 

WASHINGTON STATE PRISONERS, ACLU SUE OVER  CENSORSHIP

 Dear MIM, I hope this finds you well. As you know,  the pigs continue to reject MIM Notes. I did  recently receive the latest MT [MIM Theory] though.  Anyways, the ACLU is going to litigate the matter.  They just sent the snout director a six page letter  on the censorship of PLN [Prison Legal News] and  MIM Notes, with a February 29, 1996 deadline to  resolve the problem....

I think it's unlikely the pigs will back down at  this point. So litigation is pretty much  assured....PLN's publisher will be a plaintiff.  With me as a party to the MIM censorship we should  do just fine. I have litigated and won the  communist literature issue twice before in this  state. So it looks like the snouts just want to  give me more money. On the last one I settled for  $300 and expungement of the infraction. I donated  $50 of it to the PFLP [Popular Front for the  Liberation of Palestine] in Damascus, which really  got the snouts going. (smile) Anyways, we will  eventually make Washington safe for communism. So  far no political publications other than MIM Notes  and Black Autonomy have been affected....

Needless to say, keep sending me MIM Notes and  we'll see what happens. I am sending the rejected  issues on to the ACLU after the snouts deny my  appeals....

In struggle, -a Washington state prisoner, Feb. 11, 1996

 SOUTH CAROLINA CENSORS MIM NOTES

 Dear MIM, Please remove may name from your mailing  list. This institution has a "S.T.G. Policy" All  mail is open and read- both outgoing and incoming.  I attempted to return all the newspapers and the  MIM Theory and the book by John Reed, but they have  all been confiscated.

Thank you for understanding.

-a South Carolina prisoner, May 31, 1996 Letters of  protest can be sent to: SCDC, PO BOX 2951202,  Bennettsville, SC 29512.

 MIM Adds: In addition the K.C.I./M.S.U. (Kirkland  Correctional Institution / Maximum Security Unit)  in Columbia, South Carolina has been rejecting all  MIM correspondence in recent weeks, claiming they  are unauthorized items. This includes MIM Notes,  Maoist Sojourner, Notas Rojas, MIM Theory,  censorship letters and political books.

 Letters of protest can be sent to: K.C.I./M.S.U.,  4344 Broad River Rd, Columbia, SC 29210.
 
 

THREE ILLINOIS MAXIMUM PRISONS ON INDEFINITE  LOCKDOWN

 Comrade, Received June issues of MIM Notes today.  Still on lockdown, since January 12. All three max  joints (Pontiac, Stateville and Menard) in Illinois  are on indefinite lockdown under direct order of  Illinois Governor faggot-ass Jim Edgar. The  elections are November 2 and his coward-ass know  what time it is when ever they roll these doors.

Keep them comin' (MIM Notes).

In Struggle  -An Illinois Prisoner, July 16, 1996.

 MIM adds: MIM agrees with the thrust of the  prisoner's letter, but disagrees with the  prisoner's use of faggot as an epithet. There is  nothing wrong with being gay. In contrast, there is  something wrong with being a fascist pig and making  prisoners' lives more hellish in exchange for more  political power.
 
 

EFFECTIVE GRIEVANCE SYSTEM "TEXAS TERROR"

 As an inmate here in the Texas Prison System.  Living in oppression each and everyday after I was  ordered by Co III Officer Barry Goins to come with  him to the unit infirmary to sign a refusal for  medical care, all in the wee hours of April 13,  1995. As the officer and I were walking toward the  infirmary on said date, my life took a drastic  change. Within the next thirty to forty-five  minutes, it was conspiracy, deception and "terror"  because my use of the Prison Grievance Procedure  her in "Texas". I was brutally beaten, kicked and  smashed by Sargent Kirkendall, Sargent Tomlin,  Officer Goins, Officer L. Asher, and Officer  Bearden. I was beaten for utilizing the Greievance  on Sargent Kirkendall on the 7th day of April 1995.  All said officers retaliated with a major use of  force that was totally unneccessary. All above  stated pigs were white. After they depensed the  physical pain, the mental torture was seeing a  Black female (reject) official with the video  camera and she didn't even bother to turn it on to  witness the beating. Her name is officer Shaawanna  Allison. I never got a chance to sign a refusal,  but I did make it to the infirmary, after  experienceing Texas Terror. Revolution is the only  Solution.

 -A Texas Prisoner, June 10, 1996.
 
 

CALIFORNIA VISITING RIGHTS REPEAL

 The California State Legislature has repealed large  portions of Penal Code section 2601, removing  statutory protections afforded prisoners. The  provisions deleted include rights to workers  compensation, to make a will, and to receive  personal visits.

Workers compensation has proven to be an important  protection. It has provided at least some measure  of relief for prisoners who are seriously injured  on prison work assignments. However, the biggest  impact of the bill is the deletion of the right to  visit. Visitation has never been recognized as a  constitutional right. However, California law has  long-protected it. Under former law, visits could  only be restricted as required by prison security  or public safety needs -- and the prison had to use  the least restrictive alternative. (This  alternative could include full body searches or  noncontact visiting as less restrictive than  complete suspensions.) The new law will reduce  visiting to a privilege. The Department will be  free to restrict visits as long as it is not done  in an arbitrary fashion. This could have enormous  impact on friends and families of prisoners  throughout the state.

SB 1221 is now before Governor Wilson, who is  expected to sign it.  -Prison Law Page, http://www.wco.com/~aerick/ July  1, 1996

 MICHIGAN DIVIDE AND CONQUER

 Recently the administrators within the death kkkamp  at the Charles Egeler Correctional Facility, placed  a fellow comrade in a perilous situation by  attempting to have him "labeled" as a "snitch"  among the prisoner class. These  administrators/officials made a claim that a  comrade made a statement accusing another prisoner  of giving him drugs. However, the comrade who have  been accused NEVER made such a claim. The pig who  created this "lie" made this statement in writing  and the prisoner ended up receiving a copy of this  pig's statement, thus placing this innocent  comrade's life in (possible) danger and ruining his  name and reputation.

PPWVC (Political Prisoners of War Vanguard  Coalition) condemns this type of cowardly act of  "divide and conquer" tactics being employed by pig- shit administrators.

Not long ago we recall when the FBI and their  COINTELPRO acted in such a manner to destroy the  Black Panther Party and other  revolutionary/progressive liberating, militant  groups, organizations, and individual comrades from  speaking out against the government. Some of the  acts regarding COINTELPRO were/are: (1) Prevent a  coalition of political groups, especially those of  black nationalist; (2) Prevent the rise of a  powerful spokesman who could unify and electrify a  coalition of groups/movements; (3) Prevent violence  on the part of coalition groups, black nationalist  and other political movements.

(4) Prevent coalition groups, black nationalist and  movement leaders from gaining respectability by  discrediting them; (5) Prevent the long-range  growth of coalition groups, black nationalist, an  other movements, especially among the youth; The  national COINTELPRO program adapted various tactics  to destroy/neutralize the BBP and discredit them  among the "liberal" whites, and among Afrikans, as  well. (This is still going on today with mostly, if  not all, revolutionary groups and individuals on  political paths. I should be mentioned that many  people fell for this type of intelligence attack  and are still falling for it, as one of our  comrades have been targeted by the administrators  of the Michigan Department of KKKortuptions at the  Egeler KKKroruptional Facility in Jackson,  Michigan.

Comrades, we need to be careful of this and not  allow pigs to put out lies on another so that "you"  will act upon their lies and do their dirty work,  i.e. "assassinate". Be mindful that the tricks of  government (whether state or federal) are always  trying to disrupt, confuse and destroy.

 -a Michigan Prisoner, May 21, 1996.
 
 

NAZI FOOD POLICY IN TEXAS

Dear MIM, Enclosed find the latest crock of  administrative bullshit being inflicted upon us  prisoners at the new wave bus'em in "state of  states prison" [printed below - MIM]. Down here in  the South the oppressors have appropriately named  its system to Texas department of criminal justice  -- institution division. Which means the criminal  acts carried out here are always justified no  matter what, at the institution divisions. The  latest is on your knees, hands locked behind your  head (Hitler assassination style) or no food will  be served to your been-slot, Plexiglass covered  cell (all administrative segregation cells).

My personal defiance against the oppressors have  resulted in delaying, tampering and intercepting my  personal mail. This doesn't faze me. It's a  compliment of accomplishment that can not be  stopped.

Staying down 4 Revolution  -A Texas Prisoner, Jun 26, 1996.

 Texas Department of Criminal Justice: Institutional  Division Inter-Office Communication May 28, 1996

To: Captain R. Tarver, Ad Seg Captain, Stiles Unit  Thru: Lt. B. Forrest From: Sgt. C. Perrio Re: In  Cell Feeding Revised: June 7, 1996 Effective June  1, 1996, During feeding procedures, all offenders  assigned to Level III status in Administrative  Segregation will be required to do as follows: 1)  Officer will instruct the offender to retrieve his  cup, face the back of his cell, back up to the cell  door, kneel down and cross his feet, place his cup  in front of him, and place his hands behind his  head, interlocking fingers and not to move.

2) Officer will open food tray slot and move back a  safe distance (3 feet minimum).

3) Officer will instruct the offender to place his  cup in the food tray slot (while still kneeling  down).

4) Officer will place the food tray in the food  tray slot and serve the beverage. The officer will  then step back a safe distance (3 feet minimum).

5) Officer will instruct offender to pick up his  tray and cup and place it on his table in the cell.

6) Officer will instruct offender to pick up his  tray and cup and place it on his table in the cell.

7) Once the offender is in the prior position,  Officer will then step up, close and secure the  food tray slot.

8) After slot is secured, the Officer will instruct  the offender to move as the Officer proceeds to the  next cell.

Retrieving the food tray: 1) Officer will instruct the offender to retrieve  his food tray, face the back of his cell and back  up to the cell door, kneel down and cross his feet,  place his tray in front of him, and place his hands  behind his head, inter-locking fingers and do not  move.

2) Officer will open the food tray slot and step  back a safe distance (3 feet minimum).

3) Officer will instruct offender to place his tray  in the food tray slot (While still kneeling down.)

4) Officer will instruct the offender to assume the  prior position (face the back of his cell and back  up to the cell door, kneel down, hands behind head,  inter-locking fingers.)

5) Officer will then step up and retrieve the food  tray, close and secure the food tray slot.

6) After the slot is secured the Officer will  instruct the offender to move as he proceeds to the  next cell.

Each offender who is to be served a meal the  Officer will repeat steps 1 thru 8. At any time an  offender fails to comply with any instruction of  the above steps given by an Officer during the  feeding procedure the offender will automatically  FFP-Failure to Follow Procedures, thus terminating  feeding and result in a disciplinary action, the  Officer will go to the next cell.

These procedures will be enforced, no exceptions.  Failure to adhere to will result in Disciplinary  action.
 
 

PRESSURE IN COLORADO PRISONS LEADS TO MURDER AND  SUICIDE

Revolutionary Greetings, ÉOn June 16th of this year, a fellow prisoner was  murdered. The circumstances surrounding this  incident is still being investigated. Also I've  just been informed that another prisoner committed  suicide in the seg. [segregation] unit. This  happened June 23, 1996. From what is being passed  on is that this individual could not take the  pressure of being locked in the seg. unit.

Pressure is being placed on the inmate population  on all sides. There is no release an some units  take the pressure that is being placed on them by  this fascist establishment. Most inmates will not  strike out against those who are applying the  pressure, instead this is turned on other inmates  or themselves. Such is the case of the two deaths  that have occurred (my thoughts). We have a new  warden here who has turned this institution upside- down. I believe this guy supports the ideology of  Wisconsin's Governor and his prison reformation  system. Many of the things that he says are already  being instituted here in the Feds [Federal  Prisons]. If a weight is broken it is taken off the  yard, never to be replaced. In October, Prisoners  (we) will lose cable television. At one time the  inmate population had videos, no longer do we have  these here at FCI Florence [Federal Correctional  Institution at Florence, Colorado] And the  population is becoming more violent. Instead of  making this joint better it is becoming the worst.

I get into many debates with other prisoners over  the issue of what means a revolution should take  place in this country. Some of these Dudes profess  to have an understanding of this country and its  political system. Yet I don't think they know the  history of this country or how it became so  powerful because they say that change in this  country can not come about through the barrel of a  gun, yet that is what they use to keep the people  suppressed. I believe in what Malcolm X believes,  the ballot or the bullet, but in different word  usage, (the ballot and the bullet). I believe it is  going to take armed struggle as well as a  diplomatic process to bring about a true government  for the people by the people, that represents all  the people in this country....

-A Colorado Prisoner, June 24, 1996.

 RCG1 responds: Your letter clearly demonstrates how  prison is used as social control. The pressure  builds up and prisoners can become violent toward  others and themselves. It seems that political  study and the study of revolution has become a  positive outlet for you, instead of lifting weights  or watching television. We suggest you continue  your study of politics and start a study group to  help others deal with the pressure of prison. In  Struggle. July 27, 1996.
 
 

REAFFIRM, RECOMMITT, REDEDICATE, REVOLUTION: IN  REMEMBERANCE OF ZIYON YISRAYAH (TOMMIE SMITH)

 i'm getting letters this week from folks caged in  Indiana asking me how i was feeling last wed/thurs  during Ziyon's murder and i want to tell them that  it re-lit a dying flame - did it? will it? i cried  on wednesday night for Ziyon, but more for Our  collective inability to see him again on the  weekend. i was able to see Ziyon a few days before  they murdered him - he's alive and strong - his  hands were solid and firm as he clasped with mine  thru black-boxed cuffs behind his back.

i got a letter today that reads in part: "you know  man, We can never allow Ourselves to forget days +  times like these. Days like these are a time for  reflection, introspection and reaffirmation as well  as action (when one is in a position to engage in  such) As my days have been filled with Ziyon. i  have also been thinking about you and other folks  out there. Wondering what yall are thinking right  now, doing, feeling, etc. On one hand i feel  powerless and on the other i know i've got power.  why else would men with bombs, guns and clubs be so  freaked? Feel so threatened?...." REAFFIRM  RECOMMITT REDEDICATE REVOLUTION "don't stand by my  grave and cry, i'm not there i never died" ZIYON IS  IN THE AIR ABOUT YOU AJAMU IS IN THE AIR ABOUT YOU  rev love,  -a BCAC (Brew City Anti-Authoritarian Collective)  Activist, July 23, 1996.

 NEW NEWSLETTER FOR PRISONERS: DAILY MAIL

We have started a prison pen pal organization and  would like your help in spreading the word. We are  a pen pal service for prisoners. We are writing  organizations like yours to let you know we are a  new newsletter published quarterly, dedicated to  information and enrichment and to helping prisoners  help themselves receive daily mail. Seeking  prisoners who would like a copy of our newsletter  or prisoners who would like an application to place  a free ad in our newsletter. For a free newsletter  or an application for an ad in our newsletter,  please send us a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope,  (SASE) If you want both a newsletter and an  application to be in our newsletter send two  SASE's.

--Daily Mail, 8139 Sunset Avenue, Suite 190, Fair  Oaks, CA 85628.

MIM REPLIES: We are happy to print items like the  above which advertise services provided for the  benefit of prisoners. We occasionally get requests  to print similar-appearing items from organizations  which describe their work as a service for  prisoners, but which in fact are clearly aiming to  profit off of prisoners and their plight. The  difference between providing free or low-cost  services to prisoners like the above and selling  similar "services" to prisoners is the difference  between serving the people on the one hand and  being an "imprisonment pimp" or profiteer on the  other.