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Top Some Real Criminals Do get Caught
...For crying out loud, the warden is under investigation for embezzling three million dollars. Now, just imagine how POW's are feeling the bulk of this sadistic administration's malevolence. I see a lot of damage control being conducted to minimize the effects of their latest scandal. But with Bill Clinton's mishap they can suppress it in the media frenzy to get Bill.
-- A Michigan Prisoner, 3 February 1998
Top Warden Transferred and Demoted
...As a result of result of the brutal beatings inflicted upon prisoners (back here in the hole at SCI Greene) by guards, the grand wizard warden, Ben Varner had been terminated from his prestigious and luxurious position. Unfortunately the same people who removed him from office decided to relocate him to another prison within Pennsylvania. So now he's on the eastern side of the state implementing the same dirty tactics. Only now he's been demoted back to Deputy Superintendent.
Whether the ex-warden removal is a change for the better or worse is uncertain. Whatever happens, conditions will still remain repressive. At least he'll be making less money off our misery as well as the other guards who were fired....
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 23 April 1998
Top Inhumane Practices Exposed
Dear Comrades,
This is an update on our fellow comrades, and POW's here at Snake Corruption Institution [SCI] Greene. Well the shit has finally hit the ceiling somewhat. These demons have been exposed for their corruption and inhumane tactics. After an investigation and overwhelming evidence the superintendent, Ben Varner, had been transferred and demoted. Plus, according to the television news, 40 guards/predators are supposed to be FIRED! They have recovered videotapes of inmates being beaten down while NAKED! The inmates/POW's never did anything to cause these pernicious predators to assault them.
...The sad thing is, out of nine so-called comrades that were interviewed by Green County's District Attorney, only one comrade was willing to press charges against the Demons who assaulted him. The other eight were afraid they would not be paroled if they pressed charges against the Demons who assaulted them....
[Here's a list of some of] the toy-ass cops/predators who were caught treating prisoners here inhumanely: Ben Varner, Ben D. Ansell, Captain Muccino, Captain Lantis, Captain Kingston, Lieutenant Grainy, Lieutenant Tustin, Lieutenant Mathus, Sergeant Buckeye Grady, and CO [Correctional Officer] Clovis....
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 30 April 1998
Top Officers Fired but Repression Remains
Dear MIM,
I am writing to ...give you a brief update on what has been happening here at SCI Greene. So far several pigs have been fired, suspended or demoted. The head pig, Superintendent, Ben Varner was transferred to another facility. I don't know if he was demoted to a deputy or not. Major Sparbanie was demoted back down to a Captain. Lieutenants Kingston and Tustin were fired. Lieutenant Grainey was suspended. Two CO's were fired; one of their names was Powel. A lot of others officers are either on suspension or still being investigated.
Although this may seem to be a victory to those on the outside, my comrades and I know it to be a farce given to the media only to appease society. There should be a lot more officers fired and brought up on criminal charges....
-- A Pennsylvania Prisoner, 18 May 1998
Top College Classes Denied to SHU Prisoners
...I am a prisoner here at the Secured Housing Unit (SHU) at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. I always thought that prison, whether it was level 1 or supermax, was to reform a prisoner. This theory was proved to be false to me a few days ago. In the SHU, we have long-term and short-term sentences for disciplinary means. The long-term prisoners are allowed to get a TV and get their GED. That's good for those prisoners who have not gotten their GED yet. However, those who do have a GED or a High School Diploma have no access to better their education. What's wrong with wanting to better one's education? It's not against any law or DOC [Department of Corrections] policy?
I just recently spoke with the head ass, who is in charge of the SHU, Mr. Bonner. He told me that in population college instructors come from ISU [Indiana State University] and teach classes. The prisoners in population can get grants and federal/state funds to help pay their way. So I asked him if there was some type of program we could set up for the SHU. He replied that SHU could take correspondence classes at their own expense. The downfall is that some classes require hardback textbooks, which are not allowed in the SHU. Due to too much legal actions, the prison will not allow officials to take off the hardcover backing, so materials are very limited.
The second downfall is money. On the average college one course costs $250.00. Not everyone had the funds for this. Why should SHU prisoners pay and not population prisoners? What happened to reform and right to an education? Wouldn't it make sense to see us prisoners learning, instead of sitting around all the time gambling, causing trouble?
Respectfully, -- An Indiana Prisoner, 21 June 1998
MIM Responds:
We agree with you that the goal of prisons is not to reform prisoners but to control them. Often the most revolutionary prisoners are placed in Security Housing Units [SHU's], for no other reason than for continued repression. With this in mind, one can see how imperialists benefit from denying these prisoners higher education.
Prisoners can gain important information from bourgeois education classes. But unlike correspondence classes, MIM Notes, and MIM Theory are revolutionary sources of education. There are also many progressive texts that can provide one with a greater sense of the world, which may not be covered in more traditional education courses.
We encourage you to continue your struggle to educate yourself; and concur that prisoners should spend more time educating themselves and less time with escapist or destructive activities. We advocate that you use MIM Notes and MIM literature to form a study group. Let MIM help you educate and organize for revolution against imperialist oppression.
Top Prison is not a place of Rehabilitation
It is the one year anniversary of the uprising here at the Maryland House of Correction Annex, and one would think that many things have changed for the better. The Administration would have everyone on the outside think so, but actually the jail is at a standstill. They've sent money to build two new fences on the compound of the jail. They've added new officers who are poorly trained, and almost all of them work double shifts. They still have the same officers here, which was one of the reasons inmates started retaliating. They treat us like dogs. Well if you keep treating a dog badly, sooner or later he'll bite back. The population was cut from 1800 to 1200, and now it's 1500 and slowly rising back to where we started.
With the '98 summer coming around us, you can surely bet their will be more problems, because we are back to where things started. We are locked in our cell all hours a day, unless you have a job or are in school. Jail is not Jail anymore. Not that jail is a good place to be, but at one time a person could get locked up and better him or herself. But there are not enough jobs or means of education here. The administration will not allow us help from the outside to start self- help groups. Our complaints go unheard. If the administration really wanted to change things to make it better, they could -- but they keep putting us on promise street to better the jail. But that's a street we will never see. The Administration has learned nothing. What will it take, more officers to get hurt or killed? Who knows, but they must start with the renegade officers.
-- A Maryland Prisoner, 11 May 1998
Top Prison for Children
...The State of Wisconsin has completed the construction of a second penal institution to Warehouse prisoners who have been waved into the adult system, ages fourteen to twenty-three. Yes, the State of Wisconsin had passed laws to place fourteen-year-old children among adults [in prison]. Such a law went into effect in 1996; the first child was placed in Green Bay Correctional Institution in 1997.
There are two very significant things going down here in this dairy state. One, the people in the aforementioned age bracket are the meat, labors and fighter of this war. They are fearless and wild. If given the proper education as to whom, what and where to fight within the movement -- victory would be at hand!
Two, children in the aforementioned age bracket, are in a very impressionable stage. If they are educated by the enemy then they will be as the enemy and turned against the revolutionary struggle. This must be stopped if we are to prevail over this corrupt system.
If I were a parent of these children, I would camp out on the doorstep and force them to teach my child with the great minds of Malcolm, Martin, ... and the other great minds who are responsible for making education, economic, political and social developments for everyday folks like us.
...When Wisconsin split us from these youth, Wisconsin took control of cultivating the mind of those youths. Thus controlling the future as those youths carry on their shoulders the beacon of light, which illuminates the future of mankind.
-- A Wisconsin Prisoner, 28 April 1998
Top Thanks from South Carolina
...I would like for MIM Notes to know the news you send out in MIM Notes has really been a big help to our Culture Awareness and Revolutionary class we hold here at Evans Correctional Control Unit every Saturday and Sunday. All the Comrades here would just like to say, "Thanks" for the news you supply us with about the comrades in the control units throughout the world.
In Struggle, -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 18 June 1998
Top Restrictive Texas Parole Policy
...Upon my release my physical mobility will be limited. In September of 1997, the State of Texas passed a law stating that all violent offenders released from TDCJ [Texas Department of Criminal Injustice] on parole must wear a monitor for the remainder of their years on parole. So that means outside of church, home and work my mobility will be stipulated. But by all means, I will give assistance to the cause as best as I can. They may be able to limit my mobility but they have no control over my mentality!
A young brother in the struggle, -- A Texas Prisoner, 16 May 1998
Top South Carolina Shakedown
Dear MIM,
I received the May 1st and 15th issues two weeks ago. I would have written then but these pigs came through with a shakedown and took all my paper and writing material and just about everything else that I wasn't wearing or wasn't bolted to the floor or wall. Now, I actually have to submit a request form to get back what I'm supposed to have.
Also I see that y'all like to know about the wages being paid to prisoners. Well, South Carolina pays nothing to anyone who came to the kamp after January 28, 1998. If you were a prisoner before that date, they take your pay if you get written up.
-- A South Carolina Prisoner, 20 May 1998
Top Politically Conscious Prisoners Targeted
I was recently transferred from X repressive prison. Where I was held captive for five years, three of which were spent on (SMU) Special Management Unit, aka isolation. Only to be sent to the infamous (MSU) Maximum Security Unit, which is the highest security prison in the South Carolina Department of Correction. The state and its agents decided this clandestine move to heighten the level of their repressive Gestapo tactics against all of those whom they feel are the most conscious and politically active. As well as those of us who represent the highest expression of revolutionary consciousness and ideas in these prisons.
Upon arriving at the Maximum Security Unit in April 1998, I was immediately targeted as being a predator and the worst of the worst in South Carolina's Department of Corrections. However, those of us who have been targeted and placed in MSU, represent the highest expression of revolutionary consciousness. We are legitimate targets because of our unbreakable commitment to fight against their injustices. But even this has not broken our spirits, and the struggle continues.
In Solidarity, -- A South Carolina Prisoner, 7 May 1998
Top Deep in the Woods Where Looks are Silent
Deep in the woods where looks are silent Are the worst crimes committed which are more violent The worst punishments ever seen But you won't know nothing 'cause you can't hear a scream
I live my life in shambles and pain Oppressed by those who are truly insane Up in a tree where they think no one can see I see a 30-30 rifle pointed at me
I can see it in his eyes, the Devil wants to shoot 'cause I'm a handsome, strong, intelligent man in a dark green suit He says don't worry, I'm gonna kill you one day I say you can shoot me any time 'cause I'm not afraid.
So I keep teaching those to go about a Righteous path 'cause truly one day can be my last the skill to kill and the heart to love The love for the Revolutionary in the skies above
Late at night when all seems calm The Devils up to no good preparing to cause harm Ring, Ring, Ring their goes the alarm now I stick a piece of glass out my cell and I see my fellow man get beat down
He can't even defend himself 'cause he's all in chains The RAGE in my heart causes me internal pain Three days later they finally let us out Scared of what they presume is coming about
But I go back out to the same spot to teach Hoping I can reach the minds of each Today's subject is our Rights Even if we have to stand up and fight.
But what sounded like thunder hit me so fast That it wasn't 'till I was on the floor that I was blast I looked up in the sky and I saw a door I'm finally free, no problems no more
As my fellow men gathered around me in my final hour There was a smile on the face of the man in the tower I told my fellow men to unite and fight for their rights 'Cause what I see right now is a beautiful sight
Don't let this come to you as no surprise 'Cause Honorable men don't die they multiply I always knew my death would be violent 'Cause I was deep in the woods where looks are silent
Power to the people People are the power Even in the final hour
-- A New York Prisoner, 29 April 1998
Top The South Never Let Slavery Go
...[T]he South have never let slavery go in the first place. Take here in North Carolina for example. They have a thing called Community Road Squad. Before going out you are subjected to a strip search, where as you are told to bend over spread and cough. After that, you are loaded onto the slave bus that is the size of a matchbox big enough to carry six people, with eleven other prisoners. Then you are taken out in the woods to dig ditches in temperatures that reach 95 to 100 degrees daily, where the chances of being bitten by a snake is high. Refusal to this barbaric and inhumane treatment results in segregation in the second hole.
-- A North Carolina Prisoner, 18 June 1998
Top "Free Speech" gets you a beating and solitary
...I must inform you that I was sent to solitary confinement for writing to the President of this imperialist government. I filed charges against him and two former Presidents. The CIA came to see me, making threats. So I in turn stood up for what I believe in. The pigs here didn't like what I said. After the CIA pig left. The pigs here jumped on me while I was handcuffed. [During this assault] my tooth was knocked out. So they place me in confinement to hide what they had done.
-- A Maryland Prisoner, 21 May 1998
[In a previous letter from this prisoner, s/he crossed out the letter C every time s/he wrote a word with that letter in it. -- ULK Editor]
Top A Dialogue on Unity
...You were correct in your speculation. Crossing out the C does mean Crip Killa. However, I did it more out of habit then anything else. And as you can see, I've worked my way out of that habit. I don't deny it was a BAD habit. And I really don't have anything personal against Community Revolutionary Inter-Party of Soldiers [CRIPS]. As a matter of fact, I approve of that if they'll be "Bout it - Bout it". But not many are working with the same concern as I am, and are a bit misguided.
I can teach only those who have this in their hearts. If Brotherly Love Overrides Oppression and Destruction [BLOOD], then I'm going to live that. However, unfortunately, those with no sense of direction totally disregard what we are supposed to represent. If my nation turned their hostility on these pigs, then they (the pigs) would have serious problems. However, truth is a lot of us are still blind, but waking up nonetheless.
One of my lil' brothers was just inviting a Latin King to his dick and when I let the brother know that he was wrong [to say that] -- he took it like I was against him. It's situations like these that keep us under. And often make me wonder if I belong in this [BLOOD] nation. My desire to wage war on the oppressors is sincere. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one.
Stay Real -- A New York Prisoner, 25 June 1998
Top NJ Gang Units
I last wrote to inform on Affiliation Lock Down, which was printed in MIM Notes 160 - April 15th, 1998, page #10. Well the BEAST has put their plan into effect as reported. On March 13th, 1998, myself, and about 50 other prisoners at Rahway State Prison were taken out of our beds, and transferred here to Northern State Prison to the new so called Gang Unit, know as STG, security threat group. Once here we were all separated, and remain separated, in whatever group you are affiliated with. Latin Kings with Latin Kings, Five Percenters etc.
Now there are two parts of this so called Gang Unit. They have the part for those that are doing administrative segregation time, and the other part is for those that don't have no Ad-Seg time to do, but have been labeled STG. Once a brother is done doing his Ad-Seg time, he is placed in the second part of the unit, where they are asked to denounce their affiliation to the family they belong to, and they are made to sign paperwork stating this. He who does not do this will remain in the Gang Unit for the rest of their bids. They must stay in the unit for at least 9 months. Which by the way is locked down just as if they were in Ad-Seg, but even worse because they can't get food packages and the only visitor they can have is from immediate family. So all those brothers with girlfriends are hit, cause they won't be able to see them.
Now it is not hard to see what these PIGS are trying to do, which is to break the spirit of the prisoners, and I believe that many will brake, cause it is fact that pressure busts pipes and all that talk the talk will not walk the talk, which is shown through actions. This is why it is said that many will come, but only a few will be chosen. As a member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, I refuse to deny my family and I will die before I do. Any person who denies his, or her membership to this Nation is a coward, therefore not of my Nation. We will not bow down to the beast, not today, tomorrow or ever. Brothers it is time to stand up for what you believe and fight these PIGS whose abuse gets worse every day. It is not hard to see that they mean harm to our people, so why allow them to do as they please, and not serve them justice?
On April 14th, 1998, a member of the Neta organization died because these PIGS refused to give him Medical Assistance. I myself heard this man calling the PIGS because he was pissing blood. The pigs did nothing and let this man die, then tried to say that he died of drugs, which is a lie, cause he didn't die of an OD as the PIGS claimed he did. This is just a cover up for letting him die. What hurts the most is that his Neta brothers have not even retaliated for these PIG's actions, which tells a lot. We the Kings told them we would stand by them if they retaliated against the BEAST, but they haven't done nothing. What is it going to take to wake those who are asleep? Brothers, it is time to shed blood for the true cause and be heard. Let's come together and let the Revolution begin, for it is time.
Amor de rey, to my brothers and sisters and Peace to the Gods. Let us remember Unity is Power!!!! In us we trust.
La lucha Continua, --A New Jersey Prisoner, 1 May, 1998
MIM responds:
We agree with the call for unity and recognize recognize that this unity is essential to overcoming imperialist national oppression.However, as part of the letter points out, even among those oppressed most, ignorance and the threat of further U$ repression pacifies people. That is why MIM says that now is not the time for armed struggle.
The oppressors are militarily stronger than the revolutionaries. Thus premature armed struggle will almost always get more of us killed. So instead, MIM focuses on legal battles to build public support for revolution, while simultaneously winning material concessions for the oppressed. History has shown that focoist errors of armed struggle now have ended up decimating the revolutionary movement.
We encourage prisoners to put the idea of unity into practice by setting up study groups to teach the truth about the oppressive society. Also to continue writing to MIM Notes to expose the injustices that take place everyday behind bars.