Federal Prisons

I'm writing your organization in hopes of raising awareness of my situation. On the date of 9-3-15, I was a inmate at Smith State Prison, where I was assaulted viciously by Derrius Attical; a member of the Cert Team. Somewhere in between the hours of 3 & 5' oclock pm the Cert Team came to H-2, a lock down-segregation unit, with new arrivals. Somehow or another, Cert Team member D. Attical found reason to obtain the keys from the dormitory floor officer to gain access to my room. When the door came open, I was closer to the door than my bunkmate, who was sitting up-right on his bottom bunk. We were both sprayed with pepper spray none the less, but I was beat badly. I think he hit me with the bottom of the pepper spray can, but can not be certain. I & my room mate were temporarily blinded by pepper spray.

When all was said & done, I was covered in my own blood from head to toe, literally. I was escorted to medical by the Cert Team, & sent to the free world hospital, where I received stitches on my right eye brawl, & eye lid; & the left top corner of my upper lip. In total, I received what I think was 8 stitches. But it didn't stop there. As expected I filed my grievance, & awaited disciplinary court, but on the date 9-11-15, exactly 8 days later, I was assaulted again!

On 9-11-15, about 4 something in the early morning, Lieutenant Witfield came to my new cell with a few others & a paint ball gun. They woke me out of my sleep, instructing me to cuff up, & I complied. I was then instructed to get on my knees, & I complied. From there I was pushed on my stomach. I laid there & listened, though the Lieutenant was being very unprofessional and belligerent. As he insulted me, he poked me in the face with the pepper ball gun. Still I remained silent. Some how the lieutenant felt disrespected. He quickly stood from where he once squatted & stomped on the back of my head, causing my chin to slam into the floor & split on contact.

The entire time, a female officer held the camera. I doubt that it was actually recording because of the conduct that the Lieutenant displayed, & the fact that once he was done she causally placed the camera to her side without stopping it from recording. I know this because I was waiting for her to. (Note that I received more stitches 9-11-15)

As I did the first time, I filed my grievance, & awaited to go to disciplinary court, although I did not receive a disciplinary report that time, I had still not been to D.R. Court for the incident on 9-3-15. The day I went to disciplinary investigation, I was acquitted of all charges. But for some strange reason I was forced into a program called Tier II & denied parole, which was set for 9-30-15. I was submitted into the Tier II program for "Assaultive History," which is 1 of 13 reasons a inmate can be subjected to such a thing. This is ironic because I have never been convicted of such a thing. I have been accuse of 4 or 5 different occasions, but I have never been convicted of a violent D.R.

Due to the presumption of innocence, every man is considered innocent until proven guilty in the court of law, & to violate such a thing is to violate a man's Due Process rights. I have hired an attorney on a contingency basis to represent me & my claims against the state, but America needs to be aware of the adversity the prison population endures.

I am just one of many. Throughout my 8 year prison term I have been a witness to many atrocious acts committed by those in authority of me. Many prisoners are not fortunate enough to have outside help and still, many are under educated, & lack the literacy skill to address such dynamic ploys. In conclusion, I hope that your org. is willing to help my raise awareness. I honestly believe that bringing attention to such evil & tyrannical people will halt such violence. Thank you for your time.

First I would like to thank the comrades willing to study and struggle with Abolitionists From Within (AFW) here on C yard for having the heart to step out and shake hands with the different ethinc groups and put an end to the hosttiliites with peace on their tongue during Black August. Our study group has been growing throughout the cells here at High Desert C yard, despite many setbacks of harassment from the pigs here and there. As I continue to share literature with the comrades and this year's study group, I introduce them to MIM(Prisons) and United Struggle from Within (USW). I remind every comrade that everyone's struggles are different (state of mind). If you know what the problem is our job as comrades is to help come up with solutions to combat the problem for our comrades. But in order to do anything to advance the struggle we must be organized in order to help one another, we must set triablism to the side! And set aside all of our differences as well as our past beef and come together collectively in an effort to accomplish our goals: Peace, Unity and Growth among the oppressed masses.

Wake up young Afrikan! Put an end to this madness. September 9th Day of Solidarity is just around the corner. Abolitionists From Within (AFW) is back on the move for the second year here at High Desert State Prison (HDSP), bringing together a cohesive front in reflecting, fasting and uniting to honor those nameless and faceless men of Black August and Attica (1971) by coming together in solidarity. This year we put the issues of today on the table:

1. Who is your neighbor? Always remember racism is an idea that is the product of imperialism. And AFW, USW and MIM(Prisons) are all in agreement with anti-imperialism!
2. What will help us improve our material condition? First we must start off with our neighbor, each one teach one no matter the color.
3. Understand the prison system. The system operates through criminal justice institutions, but functions more like a caste system than a system of crime control.

Comrades, wake up! Understand the racial caste system; they don't require racial hostility or overt biogtry to thrive, they need only racial indifference. Wake up young Afrikan! Mass incarceration in the U.S. is a comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social system. Cormades, help me help us organize and advance our struggle forward for peace throughout C yard.

The Estelle Unit operates a constitutionally deficient “cite only” method of providing prisoners access to courts. The only way a prisoner can present this issue to a federal court is, pursuant to the PLRA, show actual harm. Basically, this means a prisoner must have presented a claim in court that was defeated due to the insufficient cite only method of providing access to courts. I'm lying in wait. Per the cite only method, it can take 72 hours or more to receive the requested research material cited – if it is ever to be obtained at all. Consequently, what would normally take weeks at the most to research, due to the cite only access, takes months.

The 14th day of August, one officer L. Bowers confiscated two affidavits sworn to by prisoners that had witnessed disciplinary incidents that was to accompany a 2254 petition. Bowers claimed the documents weren't mine though my name was all over them. So after posting this correspondence, I will be drafting a motion to preserve documents to be submitted to the court – for all the good it's gonna do me, but the motion will become part of the permanent record.

As I was waiting to get back inside of my barracks after breakfast I witnessed an officer assault an inmate in the hallway. The inmate had asked the other officer to shake him down and the one officer got mad so he tried to put the inmates face through a glass window that has security wire running through it. After the officer initiated the aggression the inmate fought back in self-defense. An "all rovers" went out over the radio and the inmate was placed in isolation while the officer who attacked him went right back to work.

This type of abuse against inmates is a normal occurrence at the East Arkansas Regional Unit because the inmates who does stand up against this type gets punished. This unit is not ran by any warden but by the classification officer because whatever she says goes and she will take up for these officers due to the fact that she hates inmates.

This article is to announce the short-term success of our recent campaign to keep our website alive. After proposing that our limited comrade time might be better spent on pushing forward our prisoner support work, we launched a campaign to engage our online readers. With minimal effort, we have received a substantive response indicating that we were incorrect to hypothesize that we could not mobilize our online readers to contribute to this project as our prison-based readers have from the beginning.

In just five months we've seen our volunteer base and collaborative work grow enough to convince us that web development is a good use of our limited comrade time. But as we pointed out in that article, regular contributions are much more useful than sporadic ones, so we must keep up this trend. We have gained at least one regular financial contributor, which more than covers the cost of keeping our website online. We encourage our other volunteers to stick to it.

A note to potential financial contributors, we had been soliciting postage stamps, however we are approaching our limits on how many we can use, especially since this is the main way that prisoners send donations. So new contributors should consider sending cash, blank money orders or bitcoin.

Those watching our website may have noticed us taking down some requests for help as volunteers have stepped up. While not all have proven themselves yet, we have received responses to diverse needs. By offering up more specific tasks, we've inspired our readers into action, proving they are more than just web traffic statistics. This also proved that lack of focused leadership on our part was part of the problem.

It was not just online readers who responded to our call. One United Struggle from Within leader put forth a proposal to our annual congress to up the enrollment fees for our correspondence study groups and to only provide hard-to-find books to those who pay for them. Another USW comrade proposed that we remove people from the ULK mailing list faster to cut costs. We adopted new policies incorporating both proposals, which should help on the postage side of things. One comrade even spoke of the impact the website had on em from prison, demonstrating that the website directly contributes to our prison-based work.

In addition to the new contributors we've gained in recent months, we've seen an increase in comradely projects putting out good material. This can help us directly by providing material for our newsletter and study groups. But it also helps the movement in general. Supporting MIM(Prisons) is a great way to contribute as we have a proven track record. But we need more projects than the Prison Ministry. So don't let the scope of our work limit you if you can contribute in bigger and better ways.

While things will roll out slowly as usual, we will be continuing to improve and add content to our website in coming months. We also want to put a call out there for supporters who want to contribute as part of a cyber promotion campaign. This is something that you can easily do on your own, and there is no limit to how many can help promote our work and MIM line in whatever forums you are active. Or get in touch for ideas of outlets for promotion.

There is no doubt that setting up secure, reliable institutions on the internet is a needed task. While platforms owned by transnational corporations may have tactical use for promotion, with proper precautions in place, they cannot be our base of operations. Prisoncensorship.info has contributed in this regard and with your support we will continue to work to strengthen it as an independent institution of the oppressed.

I just read an article in ULK (Jul./Aug. 2016). On page #14 Overcome Censorship on TIER Program. I am currently housed at one of the prisons that has this so-called "program." We have nearly 800 inmates locked away there now. Some have been there for years. I myself transferred to court recently, & upon coming back here, they placed me in “TIER I” for 2 weeks before I went back to general Pop. For "security purposes"... It's torture!

The toilets are flushed by the C.O.s outside, & often times the stagnant waste sits in the bowl for hours. The food portions are never what they're supposed to be. The C.O.s are often nowhere to be found, & don't do their rounds consistently. If I had suffered a real life-threatening emergency, I wouldn't be here now & I was only in there for 2 weeks! I shudder to think of all the inmates struggling to survive in those conditions

With that written, I'd like to get pro-active & do all I can. Even in general pop., we're having issues with not receiving our mail in its entirety. Books must be approved by the institution in order to be received by prisoners (according to S.O.P.). However, completed forms never get returned, & so we're denied the opportunity for new books. We hardly get the chance to visit the prison "library" due to "lack of staff" or "security purposes".

Our grievance system is a joke. They must be handed personally to a counselor within a 10 day span of writing it, but the counselors do not visit the dorms regularly. When the grievances do get filed, it takes months for a response & the responses are ridiculous. So, I'm interested in the Censorship Pack, if you could possible send it. But what I REALLY need from you is the petition for the unanswered grievances (for the State of Georgia). I'd appreciate as many copies a you can offer, as this facility does not make personal copies for inmates. I will most definitely update the campaign of any progress I can make.

As a New Afrikan man (and prisoner), I've witnessed the advancement within Amerika towards the road of liberation, revealing the goal of autonomy attainable. Nonetheless, she continues to hold the death grip known as oppression. The fictitious characteristic of "racism" and the color caste system isn't predominant as opposed to the pre-21st century. From an empirical perspective, the Chican@s and those of Islamic traditions and beliefs have been targeted the most. Imperialism remains our number one enemy, as we all are together in the struggle, the fight towards freedom for we are not free until all are free!

As Anti-imperialists, there is an issue often overlooked which can reverse the corruption of our communities. There is an identity crisis amongst minorities (the majority) in the United $tates of Amerikkka. Our brothers and sisters continue to fall victim to statistics. Fellow comrades, it is our duty to show them they are better. We must show that they can do better. We as a people must shine the light where there is darkness. We are repeatedly stereotyped to the point we accept it. I often see sisters believe they're bitches, hoes and sluts. These uncivilized behaviors have become defense mechanisms. I hear young intelligent brothers state "this is all I can be". There are many issues reflecting the lack of self-worth, it's not hard to notice, all we must do is open our ears and eyes. We must understand we cannot force our beliefs, for the unenlightened will reject.

The transition from a reactionary to a revolutionary nationalist was an arduous journey in itself. As an adolescent, gang-banger, and victim of various forms of abuse, I thought of myself as an element of destruction. I would boast "I'm young, black and bangin', I'm going to die or go to prison" or "my father's doing 15 (fifteen) years, that ain't shit." This narrow-mindedness was a sickness that plagued the majority of my friends and associates. I cannot speak for all, only myself and the couple hundred of individuals I've interviewed.

The lack of identity is a primary cause of youth joining these mass organizations and street-lumpen organizations. Repeatedly being rejected from mainstream society, combating white supremacy, police brutality, and criminalization, the gang lifestyle provided a sense of purpose. The street gang gave an alternative to standing for something, even if it was justifiable and righteous. Practicing parasitism, you were praised for illegal activities such as robberies, assaults and even murder. It was wrong, but I was giving an alternative to channel the idle aggression towards Amerika. After a series of imprisonments and juvenile detentions, I realized who our enemies really are.

The youth are our future revolutionaries, we must teach them to love themselves and one another instead of hatred. There are many brothers and sisters who look at television and see themselves as worthless as they were portrayed. I chose to generalize this topic so we can analyze those around, so we'll know "how" to help. The late Tupac Shakur said "if you cannot find something to live for, then find something to die for." Peace and blessings.

It has been some time since we connected, 7 or 8 years I'd say. I was a regular subscriber and poetry/prose contributor over the years I was a fedz prisoner.

As I'm sure the question looms, "how does one find himself back inside?" Especially after having done 17 years fedz? Well, while one exited within a progressive state of mind; obtaining an AA in 15 months; doing 40 hours a week volunteering at a program benefiting those with felony backgrounds; rebuilding broken ties to my three adult children; getting into Junior University even!

What I did not get enough of was mental health treatment! All of those yard riots, overt violence and isolation took a toll it seems! After an all-out melee while attending a birthday party, i began suffering flashbacks, nightmares, and chronic insomnia. A professional diagnosed me with PTSD and recommended medication for sleep and anxiety. I refused out of ignorance, erroneously thinking it'd tamper with my brain. Shortly thereafter, an infrequent sexual partner spit on me. My response was to hit her repeatedly. An act i am ashamed of and totally out of character. While there were no bodily injuries (serious), i was convicted at a farce of a trial of multiple charges including burglary 1, assault 2, assault 4 x2, etc.

And given what is called "dangerous offender" enhancement "45 years"! More time than a murderer. My attorney deliberately aided state in suppressing my mental health files and permitted my past organizational ties/prison B.S. to be used as fear inciter. Thankfully, they were in such a rush to get the so-called "gang leader" they made a multitude of errors! Any one of which could/should get one a new trial. Picture a trial where three separate jurors have a connection to the DA or testifying witnesses. Or a defendant with documented PTSD being purposely misdiagnosed (via reading past fedz writeups) as having "personality disorder" so as to justify and legitimize the dangerous offender enhancement. The struggle continues.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We print this letter because it's a good example of what happens to comrades once they hit the streets. Even those with the best of intentions and solid connections and infrastructure on the outside can struggle to stay out of trouble after years of torture and abuse behind bars. This is something we are interested in hearing more about from released and re-admitted comrades alike: what can be done to address mental health issues, both before release and on the streets, to help people stay out of prison?

We understand this comrade's hesitation in participating with mental health programs even after eir diagnosis of PTSD. There is a long, long history of unethical medical experimentation on oppressed peoples, even those considered U.$. citizens. And the medical and psychology industries in the United $tates are so closely tied up with capitalist ventures, it's difficult to know if you're getting accurate or truthful information about treatment or drugs being prescribed.

This anecdote also paints a portrait of how prisons are used for social control even beyond the prison walls. Violent prison conditions lead to psychological traumas, there's no treatment, and then those psychological traumas carry on post-release and infect interpersynal relationships, ultimately landing people back in jail.

In general, bourgeois psychological treatment focuses on helping people adapt to the fucked up conditions of imperialism. If you are depressed about how unfair and disgusting humyn societies are, that's a valid and natural response. Bourgeois psychology would try to put you on anti-depressants and convince you it's your problem you're depressed — something wrong with your brain. MIM(Prisons) would highlight that this is a social problem, that your brain is in perfect working order, and try to rally you to channel that depression and frustration into working to change these conditions. 9 times out of 10 working on a political project you really believe in will help relieve psychological symptoms caused by the alienation of capitalism.

However, in some cases simply acting doesn't break one out of a mental health crisis. As much as we try to overcome it on our own, sometimes addressing the psychological challenge head-on is an important accompaniment to, or sometimes precursor of, political activism. We're not saying to just go along with whatever treatment plan some quack doctor recommends. But it's important to smartly tap into these resources in order to further one's ability to do political work on an as-needed basis. For example, if this comrade got treatment for their PTSD, ey may have been better able to control eir anger, and thus may have avoided catching another bid.

Eventually we aim to run our own Serve the People medical programs, like the Black Panther Party was doing in their heyday, combining much-needed services with political education against imperialism. Until then we just try to use the few helpful resources available to us to better our ability to do political work, while we build toward that future.

I just read your TX Pack and I am currently incarcerated at the Stevenson unit. There were a lot of great sources and the whole sticking together united as a voice for prisoner's rights is very intriguing to me. I have 35 years and will probably spend most of it behind bars for I used to have a very horrible drinking problem. Reading your views and facts I look forward to being very much involved with this. I also believe that if things are handled in the right way, we will be able to do our time. Not have anyone dictate how we do this time.

I fully agree with you about the grievance process. I have no faith in this channel. In fact, every time I've used it I've only had one positive outcome, which brings me to my current problem. On July 25th, an officer was working the picket. They opened all the doors and was trying to do an in and out trying to get the convicts to close their own doors. Well, you know a lot of people wasn't going it. So out of spite she, the officer in the picket, says over the intercom, "Ok. Y'all want to play games?" Well, it's the end of July so you already know it's super hot. This officer turns the heaters on full blast. And continued to leave them on for over an hour. When a bunch of us started asking for a supervisor she said, "No".

Well, one of the men was able to slip out the door to go to the line bldg to call for a supervisor. When the sgt. came he went into the picket and spoke to her. The heaters were turned off and he came out of the picket he came to the door and said everything is off now, it should be ok, and left. The officer in the picket got the man's ID and wrote him up for being out of place. Well that did not go anywhere. Well about 20 people got somewhat together and there was some grievances written. But because I personally did not oversee to everybody's grievances, they were shut down because of their action requested was all wrong.

But I had my family call and talk to the warden. He told my mom that I was a liar and that there was no way the heaters were turned on because the gas had been turned off to the buildings two months ago. Well, after I talked to her again I told her that the gas could not be turned off because then we would not have hot water for showers which are also on the building. So I asked her to call and file a complaint with the ombudsman's office. She tried and the number that I gave her was wrong. So I checked my resources and I had indeed given her the right number that I had which was the same number you had in your packet, 936-437-6791. So I gave her a few other Huntsville numbers so that maybe one of them would help her to get the right number. I'm going to call her back this morning and I'll let you know how that goes. I even gave her the number to Executive Director Brad Livingston's office. But Brad Livingston has retired. Do you know who the new exec director is now?

I am very vocal and have a lot of people respect for me. You also mentioned in your pack about a correspondence study group. I want to become a part of that and gain more resources. There are a lot of people that don't have anyone in the world. But there are a lot of sharp people in here that will stand up for what's right. I ask you to sign me up for any newsletter, information and other things that will help me start a study group here. I believe that knowledge is power and I look forward to being a contributor to this and being an integral part also. I encourage you to continue in everything you believe in. You can stay in touch with me as I will stay in touch with you. I have people on the outside that need to be guided in the right direction that believe in me. I just have to have the right resources. My mom is disabled and is on a fixed income so every extra penny she has goes toward the phone so that she can make sure that I know that she is in my corner. She will do anything that I ask I just have to have the right knowledge to lead her in the right direction. So know that you have someone worthy of this. Thank you for your knowledge. I look forward to building onto this.

On the date of 12 June 2016 an offender by the name of Lawrence Goodeau committed suicide due to the confinement and heat issue being so harsh. Upon David Wade authorities doing their investigation they made multiple threats to offenders after their investigation about them letting investigators know about the confinement and heat issue that we are currently in court for. There have been other deaths here at David Wade at the hands of authority that have been swept under the rug multiple times.

At this point in time David Wade is under investigation for the cruel and unusual punishment by the Dept. of Corrections and other sources behind all of the violations by authority of David Wade. Right now offenders are at risk of a heatstroke because of the heat issue. The head Warden Jerry Goodwin, who is now the regional Warden, has totally disregarded these issues as well. We need a lot of help with these issues here at David Wade. We need everyone possible to get in touch with the governor John Bel Edwards at his office by phone at 225-342-9740 or by fax at 225-342-3095. Contact the advocate at 225-383-1111 or the Times at 504-826-3595 or go on the web-site at www.correctionstatela.com. Thank you for helping us protest these issues. Thank you for your time.