|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top Why we take all the trouble to get MIM Notes to prisoners
I recieved your letter... The message was new to me, but this is why I wrote you, to learn how this oppression began and how it's still being orchestrated today!
-- a California prisoner
Top Political Prison in Ohio
[A major issue dominating Ohio's prison system] is the new super maximum political prison that just opened in Youngstown. This prison has 500 cells but has not yet started receiving prisoners. All prisoner activists are being targeted for 23-hour/day lockdown at the supermax.
-- An Ohio prisoner, 8 May, 1998
Top Fought Censorship and Won
I am writing you this letter to inform you of the ways and actions of these New York State Incorrectional Pigs and as you might already know,when I was in Attica Incorrectional Facility I was being lied to about the incoming mail. I was being told MIM Notes was not sending me any literature. (I was told this because of the complaints I made about MIM Notes being censored.) Since then I've been transferred to the present facility and all my back issues of MIM Notes followed me. So now I've been caught up since February to May.
I would like to thank you for the information you sent me on how to fight censorship. Not only have I been given my back issues of MIM Notes, but I've also been moved out of what's undisputedly the worst Incorrectional facility in New York.
In Struggle, --A New York State Prisoner, 31 May 1998
Top New York Prisoner Driven to Suicide
To Whom It May Concern:
Last night about 1:30 in the SHU, Daniel Horn, committed suicide by hanging himself. He and I had gotten close during the time he was here. Below is a list of the facts surrounding his death: Sometime in January or early February of 1998 Horn had a disciplinary hearing which was conducted by Captain Kahaifa. During which Kahaifa stated on tape that he was certain that Horn had a serious mental condition. Horn was taken to the mental hygiene unit [MHU] directly from the hearing without returning to his cell. Then MHU transferred him to Marcy's Central New York Psychiatric Center.
Horn returned from Marcy about the second week of March. He was my neighbor. Horn was informed that he was being deprived of all out of cell activities and on full restraints (i.e. handcuffs and shackles).
Horn only had the clothes he came in with. He was without the state issue pants, shirt, undershirt, or T-shirts. Nor did he have a sheet or blankets. It was two weeks before he received another pair of underclothes, pants and shirt. He had to wait 24 hours to receive sheets and blankets.
From the day Horn got hereon this company, he was constantly asking for his property that was packed up the day he was taken to MHU from the hearing. He was given the run around for three weeks before sergeant Roxanne Arnone informed him that his property had been thrown in the garbage. Horn became very stressed because he said his property contained his eyeglasses, 2,000 pages of trial transcripts, family photos, history books, etc.
Throughout his time next door, Horn was continuously harassed and tormented by officers from the third floor who would mock him and stand in front of his cell mimicking his pleas for help. They would verbally repeat his accounts of delusions and tell him how pathetic and worthless he was as a human being. He would become very disturbed by this and the officers would laugh.
Horn expressed deep sadness about his prison sentence, which he said was 35 years. Horn repeatedly sought counseling from Dr. Melendez, but they would just keep putting him on hold without giving him an appointment to speak with her in private. Horn became more and more depressed as the days went on and began constantly asking to be transferred from this jail because of this mistreatment. He asked the counselor, Mr. Waiter, Deputy Conway and Mental Health Staff. He insisted that he could not continue to put up with the harassment of the officers or the medical staff's indifference to his medical needs.
On occasion, Horn's sister called the facility to speak with Daniel Horn's counselor, Mr. Waiter, about Horn's well-being. Mr. Waiter was very familiar with the problems that Horn was experiencing but instead of sharing this information with her, Mr. Waiter told her that everything was fine. Mr. Waiter's statement to her was very misleading.
In late March or early April, Daniel Horn went to a hearing conducted by Housing Officer Schellkopff. At the hearing Horn repeated yelled and screamed on tape about the harassment he was being subjected to. During this time, Horn made approximately three unsuccessful attempts to kill himself. Each time Horn would be removed from his cell and taken to MHU [Mental Housing Unit] and then placed in the SHU [Segregated Housing Unit] strip cell for a few days before putting him back in the same cell. Each time he would be brought back wearing only undershorts and full restraints.
The last time they took him to MHU, they had him in a cement floor room without a "sleeping mat" for several days. The metal health chief of staff told him he would not be given a "sleeping mat" unless he agreed to take a needle. Horn took the needle and was told that the drug would remain active in his system for 20 days. Horn returned back to his cell (SHU) and began complaining that the drug was making him restless and he could not seem to get any sleep, day or night. Horn asked the medical staff for something to counter the effects of the drug to make him sleep. They started giving him Benadryl to help him sleep but they also began trying to force him to take another pill along with the Benadryl. Horn repeatedly protested this other pill but the nurse would always tell him that if he didn't take the other pill then they would not give him the Benadryl.
On May 3, 1998, the nurse did not give Horn his medication at all. (See gallery videotape.) Horn kept asking for his medication all day. Monday morning about 1:00 to 1:30 am, I heard Horn making a very, very loud slamming noise about 3 to 4 times. I then heard a rapid frantic like banging against the gate. About five minutes later the CO [corrections officer] came and said, "Shit." He left and returned about ten to fifteen minutes later with another CO. They stood in front of Horn's cell a couple of minutes looking at the string and the way it was tied. Then they cut the string, had the cell opened and they dragged Horn out on the company by his arms, bumping his head on the floor and wall. They did not give him CPR!
...A corrections officer told me to mind my business. However, I spoke to officer X from the Inspector general's office about how Horn was being both tormented and neglected by staff prior to his death. But I noticed that the officer was not writing everything down that I was telling him. This officer said that the CO's took Horn out of his cell within six minutes. I disagree. I would like you to view the videotape of the gallery, the octagon, the dayroom, the kitchen, the elevator and the hospital as he was taken through these areas.
Horn's death was a wrongful death that could have been avoided had he NOT been tormented by officers and neglected by the staff and physicians.
...Additionally, as a result of a Federal Class Action brought before the United States Western District Court of New York by Prisoners Legal Services, Buffalo Office on behalf of inmates housed in Attica's SHU. The settlement agreement mandated that "seriously mentally ill inmates must not be housed in SHU." (See Eng v. Goord Civ. 80-3856) Daniel Horn was never even supposed to be held in SHU in the first place. He was trying to reach out and he did not really want to die but he just wanted to escape his problems. They could have helped. The SHU staff as well as the medical staff violated Daniel Horn's 8th Amendment Constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, as well as federal criminal codes.
It would be greatly appreciated if someone from your office would investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Daniel Horn. Thank you very much.
Sincerely, -- A New York Prisoner, 4 May 1998
Top Pigs Murder Prisoner
On April 28, 1998, the SCDC [South Carolina Department of Corruption's] Pigs and medical collaborators killed a comrade by the name of Born Messiah God Allah (slave name John Green). A medical collaborator by the name of Joe Attman came to Comrade Messiah's cell on April 24, 1998 at approximately 4:00 in the afternoon. He told a pig named CO Green that he [Attman] was coming back. Attman could see that Brother Messiah was dying from starvation but that medical collaborator never came back. Attman is supposed to be a nurse for SCDC but he's a cold-blooded killer.
That's how the SCDC works. The staff all witnessed this brother dying slowly and they never tried to get some help from a higher official. Their disregard and deliberate indifference was an act of murder. As such, those medical collaborators should pay for their heinous crime. They are trying to avoid this crime from being exposed to people so they can dodge persecution and the truth about life in behind the prison walls for Blacks and otheroppressed nationals.
That's what makes other comrades at Lee Correctional Institution Prison upset, is the way those pigs refused to call the news people. Those pigs and medical collaborators didn't put anything in the newspapers nor on television about the cold blooded murder of Comrade Messiah. That's why I know they are happy killing Comrade Born Messiah God Allah.
Comrade Born Messiah God Allah never asked the pigs for anything. He relied on self. They couldn't understand the brother just like other comrades in the US prison system who the pigs kill in cold- blood and try to keep from being known by the masses. I would like MIM to help me expose this brutal murder.
I could see the brother was dying slowly, and i was telling the pigs but they just didn't care. All they want is to see another comrade die in the hands of the unjust. On April 27, 1998 was the last time I saw Comrade Messiah. When I was being taken to the shower I stopped by his cell. He was lying on his bed, eyes popping out of his head. He had lost about 150 pounds. The brother was about 215 pounds, but when I when I saw him hew looked like he weighed about 110 pounds. So if I saw it, the pigs and medical collaborators saw it too. But they wanted the brother to die. ...I would like MIM to request an outside investigation regarding this cold-blooded killing of Comrade Born Messiah God Allah (Slave name John Green). You can contact Warden Benjamin Montgomery at Lee Correctional Institution, 1204 East Church St, Bishopville, SC 29010.
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 12 May 1998
Top Exposing Conditions in Florida
As always I write to thank you for the excellent coverage of our struggle to survive in this oppressive setting they call prison. Please know that though I can't support you financially, I do support you morally.
I continue to see the goals of Florida's Dept. of Corruptions turn more repressive. Here in this prison we have gain-time taken away for wearing our ID's wrong, not lining up our sheet straight enough, not shaving close enough (though we only get two low quality, throw away, razors a week), or even for not getting out of bed quick enough in the morning. We are even sent to "lock-up" for being late to a call-out (appointment with staff/medical) when another staff person held us up.
But worse yet is that we have no unity here. Everyone tries to say how terrible it is, but does nothing to change it. If we would fight back, by joining together, trying to reach a united goal, rather than fighting against each other, trying to reach a separate goal, we would see changes. The system can conquer one of us, and maybe two, but what about the 1.8 million of us? And how often do we hear from the other 4 million out on parole or probation? It's time to speak up and be heard!
In Struggle, but with hope! --A Florida State Prisoner, 11 May 1998
MIM Responds:
You are right on in calling for greater unity against continued oppression. The systematic torture, separation and the disproportionate imprisonment of oppressed nations has divided the masses. MIM and RAIL struggle continuously to unite against the principle oppressive force in the world today, imperialism, in efforts to build stronger ties amongst the people to build for revolution and an end to oppression.
We also recognize that right now one of the biggest obstacles we have to overcome is ignorance. Now is the time to unite the masses through education about the history and oppressive tools of imperialism in an effort to build a strong, mass based movement to bring a final end to oppression. For many prisoners, study groups have been one of the best ways to educate and organize, as well as publicizing prisoner struggles in Under Lock and Key.
MIM's books for prisoners program has many books to send to prisoners, and with further financial support from those on the outside, we can continue to send them to prisoners for free. MIM and RAIL encourage prisoners to know your enemy and unite to defeat imperialism through education, legal battles and revolutionary resistance.
Top The Truth of Injustice in New Jersey
My reasons for writing this letter is to share with you and the general public the many human injustices that has taken place within the adult prison facilities in the state of New Jersey.
I am a hostage in the New Jersey Prison System, locked presently at New Jersey State Prison, formerly called "Trenton State Prison".
The population in these New Jersey Prisons (human warehouses) are predominantly young Blacks, Hispanics, Jamaicans, Whites, Asians [who are] subjected to inhumane conditions, disrespect, dehumanization, harassment, ridicule, mental and spiritual abuse - all which are perpetuated by Custody (guards), Administrators, Staff members at every level.
I was handcuffed, shackled and kidnapped from Rahway in the morning of [month] 1997 and brought here to NJ State Prison, for reasons unknown. I had to wait three weeks before receiving my personal property from Rahway and upon it arriving most of it was stolen, lost and damaged, and no one here wants to address this problem which is forcing me and all the others to take it to a Small Claim Court.
Rahway like so many of the prisons here in the state of New Jersey has been making these randomly shipments, dating back two years ago. They are telling the news media and our families and loved ones that these transfers are the result of gang involvement (with not a thread of evidence to support their claim), jail overcrowding, time calculations, or one of their malicious rumors they concocted. All which is a bald face lie!!
The truth of the matter is, if you Black, or Hispanic or even White in some cases, and you are not running in the Chief Office after your duty of neighborhood watch and polishing his shoes, (boot licking) as you snitch and dime out the next fellow prisoners, you are a target of one of these mysterious transfers. They are quick to label you as a troublesome prisoners if you do not engage in their game of "tell me something". Many of those inmates there are walking around with Internal Affairs phone numbers in their pockets, and the numbers of various top ranking pigs in their stash, waiting to dial the hotline "giving up information". Their stool pigeon network runs that prison, and a stand up prisoners has not a chance of surviving in that atmosphere.
...A few years ago "Rocky" and John Amos made part of the movies "lock up" there and last year Spike Lee brought Denzel Washington there to do the "He got Game" new block buster movie. NJ State Prison on the outside has always been on the map but what the public doesn't know, it has an ugly history. They are still beating inmates there at an alarming rate and covering the assaults up. They are letting inmates die from poor medical neglect and nothing is being done. Inmates are being set up with drugs and weapons by certain guards and if you don't fold your hand and become their stool pigeons, they will burn you. Administration Segregation is full of prisoners who refused to become their snitch and they were set-up with faulty urine tests, or re-used shanks, or bogus threatening charges. Their Internal Affairs Investigators are made up of former guards there who will not believe a prisoner over a guard or staff member They are cowards parading around in their J.C. Penny suits looking to nail another prisoners but turning a deaf ear and blind eye to all the misconduct prisoners are subjected to by custody and staff.
Now sitting here today in NJ State Prison which is the only prison in the state of New Jersey that has a death row and a room set up to administer the lethal injection, I feel the walls are about to come crumbling down throughout the entire NJ prison system. We have on our hand, a new jack guard, going under the name of a Correctional Officer, a new Jack Administrator dress in his/her suit, who underneath has the mind of a cruel, wicked demon, far worse than Hitler could have ever been, and of course we have a new jack inmate not prisoner but inmate who feels no shame that he told on his co-defendant, and is still telling in here and who will not stand up to nothing that the enemy, the oppressors, does to him.
He isn't mad at how poorly they feed him, or how they are constantly raising the prices on their out-dated commissary list. Or how they took away his right to make a decent collect call that is not going to be monitored or listened in on, or charge an outrageous rate, and don't have to use a nine name calling list that you can't change for ninety days. Or the fact that he hasn't seen a state-pay raise in years, and he can't get food packages on the weekend, or a better visiting program so his children, his families and friends wouldn't mind participating in, or better programs so one can better himself while incarcerated and be better prepared to go back into society as a contributor instead of a beggar, or the fact they took away his computers, college programs, and now his personal clothes are being taken away! I read once, that, "if a man has nothing to die for he has nothing to live for."
Those are just a few things everyone entering these warehouses in New Jersey should be mad and angry about and want to do something positive and collectively to bring about a change. If we're not careful, like down south, we too, will be on the chain gangs by the year of 2000.
I am asking the support of the communities to see that their family members, friends who are incarcerated receiving rehabilitation and treatment, training and education, and civilized punishment as they serve out their sentences. I need you to support the struggles of prisoners they oppose the unjust prison system in New Jersey.
Print this letter so that our families and the public at large can write their politicians, clergymen, and anyone that is concerned for human rights to tour East Jersey State Prison and New Jersey State Prison and investigate the steady stream of abusive treatment of prisoners and incidents of violence going on unchecked as "reports indicated". Come in and speak to us, the downtrodden, the despised, the condemned prisoners and you will learn, we're all not crazy as the newspaper and media tends to portray us!
Today I am in here, tomorrow I may be your next door neighbor. --A New Jersey State Prisoner, 30 March 1998
Top Oppressed Nation Guards
Dear MIM,
I'm still in the hole in this slave camp but that doesn't prevent me from being able to see what's taking place. My most recent observation has been how members of oppressed nations get jobs at so-called correctional facilities and immediately accept views and opinions that the settle nation pigs have toward prisoners.
These lost members of oppressed nations evidently do not see and are not aware of the origin of these oppressive and racist views and opinions. The origin being capitalism and imperialism.
These members of the oppressed nations who walk around so proudly in their correction officer uniforms with their copycat badges do not understand that the oppressed nations that they are members of are exploited, murdered, tortured and imprisoned in the very concentration camps where they are employed. [These individuals are employed] in order to contain and control those oppressed nationals who lash out at this criminal government. [Oppressed nationals] have had enough of being exploited and seeing their brothers and sisters murdered and their people tortured and imprisoned by this illegally formed government so that it can continue its capitalist and imperialist activities. The unconscious members of oppressed nations who work in the prison system have not come to the realization that the settler nation pigs who happen to be their coworkers, do not truly see a difference between them [oppressed nation guards] and their oppressed nation brothers and sisters who are imprisoned. The settler nation pigs and their government see all members of oppressed nations as being one and the same. They view us all as second class citizens who must be exploited, murdered, tortured and imprisoned in order for capitalism and imperialism to survive in this country. Because if capitalism and imperialism are wiped out in this country this government will fall into ruin and this country and the world will be rid of one of the most oppressive regimes the world has ever known.
In Revolutionary Love, -- A Missouri Prisoner, 20 March 1998