Federal Prisons

A supporter assembled the above video, adding some visuals to an interview conducted with one of the prisoners in the MIM(Prisons) study group that put together the book Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán. We hope that supporters on the outside will find this video useful in events and discussion or study groups around the book. We are encouraging the organizing of such events as part of the campaign to Commemorate the Plan de San Diego this August, initiated by Chican@ prisoners.

In the first ULK I read (ULK 49 - Survival and Stamina), I read "Shun TV, Be Humble, and Check Security," by a California comrade. It was great to know there were others with my same thoughts about the stupid box. There are multiple reasons the "babysitter" is encouraged by authorities, likewise why you should be more than cautious about getting attached to one. Let's go straight to the pros (not for us captives) for authorities and administrators of DOCs everywhere.

Babysitters are "incentives," but not in the normal sense. Instead of being incentives (read: prizes) to earn through excellent behavior, it's used as an incentive to lose through defiance. Pay attention, this is more than just a simple play on words. In the former, you may by your own will (read: volition or choice) decide it in your best interests to excel as a "model" prisoner in order to earn the incentive. This would be a choice exercised through your own judgment. In the second predicament is where 95% of prisoners find themselves.

In the latter, babysitters are used as coercion. Here's the reality: the authorities establish rules and norms of expected behaviors. Break any rule, or fail to meet an expected norm, and the babysitter won't be there when you get "home." Their message is clear: do as we say, behave as we say, or sit in a cell with your thoughts and yourself (if you don't have a celly). To me it doesn't seem like much of a threat, but I'm the odd man out. I've been in and out of Ad-Seg, or whatever is the en vogue term now, since 2012, and have always preferred to read, study and grow. The majority of us are so caught up in consumerism and what I call "reality avoidance," that the threat of no canteen (commissary, special packages) or no babysitter (TV) is effective to smother defiance (outside of extreme circumstances) and gain compliance.

Over decades prison officials have figured out how to condition prisoners to cherish things of no importance. A lot of hombres just want to watch Castle, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, or whatever, eat their food, exercise when they have homies on their case, and be left to themselves. This is the overwhelming majority mentality here in RH-Max (formerly Ad-Seg). Why is this? Simply because nobody's taken the time to explain the dynamics. In theory we all know what babysitters are used for. In practice, how many internalize this knowledge?

As long as authorities can say "here's a TV, sit down, shut up and don't make us do our job" then we've failed, because the authorities have rocked us to sleep with something stronger than a lullaby. With TV and being "left alone," we are content enough to fight amongst ourselves instead of the puercos. As long as a babysitter can sedate us, the puercos are complacent and can run their program as they see fit. I don't know about you, but I'm not down for catering to the puercos' agenda.

MIM(Prisons) responds: You don't have to sit in your cell alone with your thoughts and nothing to do. Pushing this comrade's observations further, we call on everyone to get involved in the MIM(Prisons) political study group. Or trade some labor for books to study. Make use of your time, like this writer, to read, study and grow. Write to us today to join the next introductory study group.

Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are experiencing issues with the grievance procedure. Send them extra copies to share! For more info on this campaign, click here.

Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the addresses below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.

John Baldwin, Acting Director, 1301 Concordia Court, PO Box 19277, Springfield, IL 62794-9277

US Dept of Justice, Civil Rights Div, 950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, PHB, Washington, DC 20530

And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!

MIM(Prisons), USW
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

Recently I was front driver on a battle for education for another inmate. The prison industrial complex had him in a kitchen job at 17 cents an hour. He has been begging for GED for some time now, only to be told no and continue to work for private corporation Aramark in the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC).

I recently wrote the commissioner for the Department of Education in Tennessee, which has zero to do with TDOC. I told her how many are being denied programming and education. How is one supposed to better him/herself without an education? I said "what social interest is served by prisoners who remain illiterate? What social benefit is there in ignorance? How are people corrected while imprisoned if their education is outlawed? Who profits other than the prison industrial complex itself from stupid prisoners?" The recidivism rate for Tennessee is 55% for/in 3 years. 55% will return to prison. That's fact. And at $64.21 per day, you tell me who profits! Not the innocent women and children who the burden falls on when you get arrested and locked up again.

MIM(Prisons) responds: These are the right questions to raise: who really is benefiting from locking up so many people and then offering no services to help these people gain education and work skills, or address problems that make it hard for them to live outside of prison?

Ultimately we don't see any profit coming out of the actual locking up of people: it's a net money-losing enterprise paid for by the government (i.e. by U.$. taxpayers). But certainly there are lots of businesses and individuals working in the criminal injustice system who are making lots of money off this system and who have a material interest in perpetuating it. However, these people aren't the main ones driving the creation, expansion or continuation of prisons, which we've analyzed in depth in past articles. The government, who is allotting so much money to prisons, is using them for the goal of social control, particularly targeting oppressed nations within U.$. borders.

Clearly the whole criminal injustice system needs to be dismantled. But in the short term it is folks like this writer, helping out fellow prisoners, who are doing the ground work to build a united movement strong enough to win the smaller battles today and the bigger battle tomorrow.

I am writing to let you all know that at Eastham unit there are episodes of the K-2 epidemic. One person falls out we get locked down for 24 hours. Just one line. Its not in the rule book or disciplinary books, they lock you up for nothing, especially if you can't snitch on someone.

A Lt beat me up last year, I wrote it up and my step 1 disappeared so I could not write a step 2. Also I sent my copies of everything to Huntsville, TX they sent my stuff back saying they don't want any problems or complaints sent to them, when I got the paperwork back I was missing my medical report.

They wrote me an attempted assault on officer. When I got my time sheet they changed it to an assault on officer said it was the same thing, I still have the original case. I'm writing to ask for a Texas Pack. They took mine when they shook me down. My legal work was scattered all around and only my legal folder was gone through. I had my other papers in another folder. I get tired of retaliation and can't do nothing about it.

Eastham is out of control, cussing us out all day long. We report it or write it up. Comes back with no proof and that we lie. The guards and rank work together.

We are not correcting bad or criminal behavior, we are not reforming lives or serving justice. We are struggling to get public attention drawn to this torture. I've witnessed a guard provoke a prisoner verbally, and taunt him until he had a reaction, which was then used as an excuse to assault the prisoner, claiming the prisoner acted aggressively. Implicit in nearly every interaction with the guards is the potential, the threat, of violence; every breath is a potential disciplinary infraction, or write-up. Many rules are either unknown or go unenforced, making for a milieu where a guard could enter, quite literally, any cell and find a reason to write up its inhabitant. If you have more than three books at any given time, it could be a write-up, or you put a picture of your family on or in your locker, or hang wet clothes up to dry. Almost anything can be considered non-dangerous contraband. Any guard has the power to keep a prisoners from seeing or talking to his family, a power frequently abused.

This kind of control is maddening. For the individuals who live under its influence; any refusal to comply with these instruments of violence – any lack of submission – can be met with a can of mace followed by beatings, while in restraints, and time in segregation. Meeting violent offenders with more violence, along with mental and physical torture is not an effective method of reform. It will only make the prisoners more fluent in the language of violence. And they are frequently angry, bitter and full of resentment.

I have filed grievances challenging this violation of the First Amendment and also the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments due to these prisoncrats stripping me and others of all personal property, denying access to the law library or outside recreation, and deliberately abusing grievance procedure by refusing to process any grievance that is submitted. So we ask that eyes and ears be placed upon this place because there are those offenders ready to force these prisoncrats to remove us from these cruel and inhuman conditions.

These deplorable conditions create an environment that often feels helpless and insurmountable to the prisoners who live through it. We are being oppressed and controlled, mistreated and abused on a daily basis. Some offenders have no means of addressing these abuses – even the grievance procedure is hopelessly flawed, not permitting the offenders to grieve the conduct of the guards, or any procedure whatsoever. They recognize that they are being subjected to conditions that surpass more punishment for their crimes. The parole board isn't actually there to help us obtain our freedom, it's there to give the illusion that it is possible, so that we may be controlled. The few that are successful will emerge as scarred, changed men, living with the knowledge and pain of what they were forced to endure, and the daily suffering that continues by the people they left behind.

On May 28 of this year a fellow inmate as well as myself were brutally beaten in handcuffs and sprayed multiple times with chemical agents off of the camera by officers, sergeants, and a Lt on this Gib Lewis Unit in Woodville, TX. Here on this unit these beatings by officers are the norm for us inmates. Most of us have little to no family support to help us voice these cruel acts of injustice to the public. We are here for rehabilitation and transformation not to be beaten to the point of traumatization. We need the public to know that the real criminals are working amongst criminal and breaking laws, rules, etc on the daily and hiding behind their uniform and rank. Assist us in this struggle for justice.

I would like for you to print my story, so that the rest of my brothers and sisters who are a part of the movement will know how I have been treated this past year.

It all started in June and July of 2016 when prisoners started passing out from smoking spice. Well because we have prisoners here who are cool with the police my name was said to them, then they came and snatched me off mainline (messing up my programming that the parole board told me to complete, so I would be able to go home). I was ad-segged in DSU. This is not an ad-seg building like I was supposed to be, where I would be able to make phone calls, have the same clothes prisoners have on mainline canteen.

So, not only was I ad-segged in the hole, but my wife was removed from my visiting list, the STM officer asked that I be ad-segged for 180 days, but the superintendent signed the paper and clearly said I was to be in ad-seg for 60 days. Well the hearing officer who used to be an officer here gave me the 180 days, even though his boss said 60 days. The STM released all the other inmates back to mainline that was under the same investigation I was under, so I filled out a discrimination form against the STM, because he was showing a complete indifference with letting them back to mainline, and keeping me ad-segged. Well the STM tried to force me to talk to the state police by telling me that they had me on tape bringing in contraband, which I knew was a lie, because I told them from the jump I know nothing about what their talking about. The STM continued to try to force me to talk, but I told the state police, and the STM that I have nothing to say, and I plead the 5th amendment. Then he threatened me with going to my wife's house. Well, of course he never went to my wife house, because he knew that she had nothing to say to him, because she didn't know anything.

Around November I went on a hunger strike, because the Lt Kleier wouldn't let me use the phone, or move me to an ad-seg building. I have bi-polar, anxiety and I had to fight with mental health about putting on the right meds, so I started tripping out seeing things, thinking that people was out to harm me. I ended up writing a note to someone that I considered a friend, but remember I was hallucinating, because of my hunger strike. Well this person held on to the note where I was talking about me paying someone to hurt another person who I had no problem with, it was all of the craziness I had going on in my head. Somehow the STM ended up with the note, and because they couldn't get me on the spice they decided to write me up for the crazy note, and have me sent to the SHU Program.

So, it's almost been a 2 year, and after all my grievances, my tort, and my civil suit against them they come and tell me that they're sorry for placing me on ad-seg because of hearsay, and they're sorry for taking my wife off my visiting list, and they're going to put my wife back on my visiting list, and that they have no evidence against me, so I'm not going to receive a write up.

Well they still sent me to the SHU program which is going to mess up my parole board hearing, so just like I told my wife I'm going to make them pay for all of this mistreatment of me and my family by getting paid on my tort claim, and my civil suit that I have against them, because during the time I was ad-segged I lost a daughter to suicide, a brother who was killed, and found out my mom is dying from throat cancer, and the only time I was allowed near a phone was when they let my wife call in and tell me the bad news, then I had to get off the phone. I wasn't allowed to call none of my family to speak with them about how I was doing, so of course I mentally checked out, because that was too much for me to handle.

So instead of easing off me they tried to apply more pressure, but they had to admit that I had nothing to do with their bogus investigation, so now I'm fighting against them with the court system, so to all my brother and sisters that's going thru mistreatment behind bars I want you to grab your pen, and run the ink out of it by filing grievances, tort claims, and civil suits, because that's all that they understand and they hate for you to go over their heads, so just like they had me under investigation, now I have their bosses doing an investigation on how I was mistreated at the Oregon state prison.

I completed the drug survey from ULK 56. As the days passed I could not stop reflecting on the article "Drugs a Barrier to Organizing in Many Prisons." Here in West Virginia dope is God and those who supply them are Messiahs. I decided to put pen to paper and add my thoughts to the discourse.

I am currently incarcerated at Mount Olive, which is West Virginia's highest security prison. Recently the administration severely restricted our yard time. This was done to punish us for the rash of recent murders. Some of the more militant brothers started organizing a peaceful sitdown to protest. The shot-callers immediately vetoed the sitdown.

I was shocked. Then I decided to follow the money, or in this case dope. The gang leaders did not want to antagonize the prison administration out of fear that they would restrict the flow of dope. Drugs were more important than our outdoor recreation privileges.

This is not the only power that drugs have given the administration over us. To curtail the flow of K-2 into the prison we no longer receive our actual mail. We get poor quality photocopies of our mail. There is still K-2 on the compound, but the price has doubled. If prisoners cannot get K-2 through the mail how does it get in? Simple, our captors bring it in. Not only are we enriching our captors, we are increasing their control over us.

Drugs drain all the money off the compound. When prisoners are broke and dope sick they not only rob and extort weaker prisoners, they are grimey with their brothers. This increases the violence on the yard. Instead of working together to improve our situation we make it worse. No unity.

As an old head I lead by example. I abstain from all drugs and alcohol. I do my best to educate the young bloods. No, I do not have much success. As soon as I turn my back they chase the dopeman. I hate to paint such a dark picture, but the truth is not always bright. I look forward to reading the other discourses on this subject.

I am a pretrial detainee for over a year now, since May 2016. I can barely see because they took my glasses. Many laws are broken continuously here, and I am bringing a claim to challenge in the 11th Circuit. Below is a list of some conditions in this facility.

Locked down:
18-24 hours a day. No exercise equipment. Some outdoor yard time with no set schedule. Yard is the same size as a pod (minus 4 tables), about 40-50 paces in circumference. Church, hygiene, razors, free time, law library, are all incumbent of each other in time.

The loss and mishandling of my property:
Prescribed eye glasses, jewelry (very sentimental), my wallet (ID, financial cards, personal info), clothing and boots. I have not signed a receipt.

Defamation of my character:
The proliferation of pictures of me in a "turtle suit" (suicidal) with false information, damaging and harming, marring and scarring my character permanently professionally to career prospects, loved ones, community, publicly, socially on all media.

Attacks on freedom of speech:
Use of courts, protection of the laws, use of media, legal representation, support, networking, resources, by damaging and destroying outgoing mail and material.

Malevolent "medical care":
Mishandling records, medication, evil intent, calloused deliberate indifference causing permanent damage to my psyche, eyes, organs, nervous system, joint and back.

Denied meaningful use of courts:
Would not take a police report. Inadequate representation. The law library at this jail is insufficient.

Denied protection by the laws:
Law library. Tampers with evidence and statements. Denied redress or response to viable grievances.

Subjection to adverse conditions:
No maintenance or cleaning delegation schedule. Air system ducts, vents and filters are filthy, ever dropping debris and water on inmates and in our food and drink. Extremely hot in summer and cold in winter. Busted fixtures. Showers are slick with standing water, mold, mildew, never power washed or properly scrubbed.

Medical fees:
Charged at the will of staff, often for services NOT requested, NOT rendered. Taking my funds I need to medical, hygiene, cosmetic, coffee, legal postal.

Carelessness:
With pointing tazers at my face for amusement, randomly dropping them.

Failure to supply:
Indigent legal envelopes and postage. Proper law library. Legal defense.

Retaliation:
I have ad hygiene, medical, sanitary (toilet paper), religious books, legal books, writings, taken spitefully for grievances, complaints or asking for law library, copies, phone, legal.

Prejudice:
I have been passed over the whole time for work detail, I believe because I am considered a "yankee." I begged for better shoes for a year while everyone else got them. Everyone else gets to see their property and sign off for it. It takes weeks or months to get items.

Greetings comrades! I’m writing to report the events that have transpired through the middle of June. On June 17, 2017 at approximately 3:50pm eight correctional officers were witnessed jumping on a prisoner in handcuffs in the middle of the compound. Medical staff had to wheel that prisoner out on a stretcher. Turns out that prisoner was affiliated to the Bloods and on June 21 at first work call multiple members of the Bloods began attacking officers for their involvement in the beating.

As of now we are on a level 3 lockdown while administration tries to sort this mess out. Warden Blackwood knows his officers are responsible yet he continues to allow them to put hands on prisoners while administration covers up their dirty work. Grievances are a joke; no matter what level we file them to they will still be denied and beatings will continue.

Last year I wrote in about the brutal response on Gulf Annex to peaceful protesters. It was because of these same beatings that took place last year why prisoners at Gulf Annex had a sit down. Nothing has changed here but a calendar, until Warden Blackwood and his entire administration team are fired and replaced we will continue to suffer abuse from the hands of these pigs. We need help from the outside world by publishing these events to shed some light on what's really going on at Gulf Annex. Responding to violence with violence is not the answer. All the loved ones we have in the free world aren't making much a difference with they phone calls and their concerns for our well being. Maybe if the Feds looked into all these brutal attacks being swept under and start arresting these officers they'd think twice about jumping on prisoners.