Federal Prisons

I am a Canadian citizen incarcerated in a prison of the Illinois Department of Corrections since December 1999. I am trying to get transferred to a Canadian prison but the transfer coordinator of the IDDL denied my requests for the last six years. They don't even tell me how long I have to stay in the U.S. The only hint I got is that I have too much time left to do to be transferred right now, and I know this only because I wrote to former Governor of Illinois Mr. Rod Blagojevich. I even wrote to President Barack Obama on his inauguration day about my transfer to a Canadian prison but he didn't even bother to answer, much less to do something. I also wrote to some Illinois state and federal officials but they didn't do anything either.

This is just another example of American imperialism. The U.S. likes to swing its weight with citizens of other countries incarcerated in this country by not allowing them to return to their home country, while the U.S. wants to have its citizens incarcerated abroad return home. There is a treaty of prisoner exchange and transfer between the U.S. and Canada, but the U.S. usually does not honor it.

There is nothing left for me to do but stay and suffer in U.S prisons among foreigners. Where is the day of equality among nations with mutual respect? Canada is more humane to its prisoners. The U.S. is far behind for human rights that it claims to promote around the world.

We're told when we can eat,
We're told when we can sleep,
We're treated like animals,
We're treated like the sheep.

No one really cares,
As long as it's not them,
Prisons treat us like animals,
Instead of grown-up men.

They open our doors to chow,
We race for it like cattle,
They may have won this round,
But they haven't won the battle.

We all must stay strong,
Surrender is not a choice,
We will rise up,
We will use our voice!

So let's be animals,
But not the one's they think,
Roar like lions,
Let them know their policies stink.

Don't give up,
Don't be blue,
Cause' even though we prisoners,
We're humans too.

In my quest for freedom I continue to struggle
spitting conscious thoughts, so I'm flexing my muscle
overdosin on oppression on this modern day plantation
with knowledge. I rebel to improve my situation.
I strive for the greatness that our people once displayed.
No longer influenced by the beast, disgusted by his wicked ways.
I'm militant like Huey
Ready to lead like Marcus
I come in peace like Martin.
But like Jonathan I'll spark shit
Like Malcolm by any means necessary
For my people I'll go there,
might get assassinated like George
with the Black Power fist in the air
I'm a conquerer like Hannibal
A warrior like Shaka
lead you to freedom like Harriet
might break out like Assata
I ride for the cause
and stay on point like a needle.
What more can I say
Power to the People.

Let me tell you how these pigs run this system. We are locked down 23 hours a day, no programs, this prison holds about 1,800 prisoners, 60% are white, 35% Black and the rest "hispanic." Racism is really bad here, some pigs are really racist. Every time something happens at another unit we will get locked down and punished for it.

Recently they came to my cell and conducted a shakedown. I was the first to cuff and get ready for the shakedown, but my celly refused. After about 5 or 6 minutes he decided to cuff up. They came in and found an empty trash bag with beer residue in it, so they took my TV and wrote me and my celly up. My celly admitted that that was his. Well about 3 weeks ago they did the shakedown and found something that my celly flushed down the toilet. They wrote him up and they dropped him to a level one.

I'm on level 2, and I'm coming up for parole in 2 months. I don't have control over what another prisoner is doing. I've been trying to move to another cell but they refuse to move me. What I'm getting at is that they punished me for something my celly did. They do that to make me and my celly kill each other. They do it like that a lot, and most of the time prisoners do stab each other.

Sometimes these pigs pay or tell other prisoners to beat each other up. Just a while back a couple prisoners got into it with these pigs. They beat them up and put them in a cell with a rival gang to get them stabbed. Their own Lt brought in dope and got busted. And if you say something bad to the pigs they will go tell a lie about you to other prisoners. Just another way the police control things.

United Struggle from Within is potentially the most potent prisoner’s organization. USW is intended to take the vanguard position in the overall prison liberation movement, by tackling the multiple battles which we face as prisoners in this injustice system. Such battles are, but not limited to: instituting the national minimum wage to prisoners, fighting censorship, fighting the isolation cell-blocks which are a form of psychological warfare, doing away with the capitalist “death penalty,” promoting peace between street-organizations and guiding these sisters and brothers to a more purposeful meaning of existence (operation), obtaining proper educational programs and courses to enable the prisoner to make a successful re-entry back into society.

Many more can be stated, as our USW movement has a lot of work to tend to. Which ultimately comes to the doing away with the capitalist-imperialist injustice system – without the causes of crime and recidivism what’s the use of having this major system of confinement?

Yes, the program of USW is intended to impact the individual’s life and community to the point we decrease the drug/alcohol use and abuse, recidivism, violent crime and youth crime. The penal system hasn’t tackled these problems of the people, so the people must tend to these issues. I must admit, I am grateful to be a part of such a movement and organization.

As I take up the struggle in Ohio and in forming a committee of the USW (where we will study socialism, organizational tactics, law, and past socialist movements in history), I have been met with many obstacles ranging from prison officials to even comrades of our struggle. One of the main obstacles that weighs heavy on my mind and heart is the barriers we have amongst us (prisoners, proletariat at large….). I’m trying to penetrate the walls of ignorance that pervade the prison system and the community.

This police state (Amerikkka) has given birth to a criminal culture/prison culture. USW must battle for the minds of potential revolutionaries. Our battle also goes against gangsterism, gang-banging, race-hate, and illiteracy. Bringing together opposite street organizations and race/culture oriented groups to the round table in a common striving for self-determination, liberation, and protection is a feat we USW comrades are instructed to accomplish. Bringing peace and a mutual understanding through organizational cooperation and aid is a prioritized objective of USW.

We all face the same problems coming from disenfranchised and socioeconomic oppressed communities, enduring the turmoil of being snatched away from our families and thrown into cages, stripped of our dignity and denied the adequate opportunity to reconstruct our lives in a proper way with education and assistance. Hence, we must educate ourselves. We must organize ourselves in cells/collectives that go beyond the prison fence and wires by establishing ourselves in the communities we come from and work together for the common good of each member. Our common goal is to get back to society. The system won’t provide us with the essentials to ensure our success so we must provide it ourselves. But, our course of action should be in a peaceful mode. And, as we engage and advance we must recognize and respect those who strive in the same way.

Oppresion en el SMU de Pennsylvania esta a lo más alto que nunca. Aquí es donde los peores de los peores son mandados, pero no es ninguna forma de rehabilitación, en vez es para que sean abusados. Muchos de nuestros hermanos fuertes están haciendo abusados fisica y mentalmente en un atento de quebrar y de acabar con su espirito guerillero. Nota: los oppresores temen a lo que no pueden controlar.

Es dicho que todos de nosotros que tenemos la abilidad mental para organizar la mayoría y estructrar cualquier tipo de movimiento para el mejoramiento de nuestra gente "necesitamos" ser encerrados.

El abuso en SCI Camp Hill corre muy adentro, hasta el punto en donde los debiles serán quebrados. El otro día un hermano (recien llegado) se abrió su propia cabeza en un atento para que lo cambien se lo llevaron al medico por 3 dias y lo regresaron para tras al SMU. Yo personalmente he visto mucho abuso. Yo soy considerado por la oficina central y bajo el Security Threat Group como un Blood de Nueva York de alto riesgo, y con eso me quitan mi literatura, correo, fotos y material legal (todo lo consideran "gang related").

No podemos comprar jabón, desodorante, pasta ni loción de la cantina aunque tengamos feria en nuestra cuenta. Cada vez que pidemos copias de estas reglas nos dicen que no podemos tener eso en el SMU. Todo es considerado un riesgo a la seguridad de este campamento de concentración.

Cualquier otro lugar me ha dejado tener Notas de MIM menos aquí los oficiales no obedecen sus propias reglas y lo toman en sus manos para determinar que podemos o no tener. Yo he escrito un grievance sobre esto y un numero de violaciones aquí incluyendo riesgo de salud y estoy planiando meter un Class Action lawsuit con otros camaradas. Nuestra meta es para que cierren este lugar.

Estamos ahorita trabajando con un numero de organizationes que nos han ayudado mucho, yo escribo para que todos sepan lo serio de esta situación. Los oficiales nos golpean aunque tengamos esposas y estemos amarrados. Esto no es rehabilitación en ninguna manera pero es oppresión a lo peor! Pero de todas maneras nos mantendrémos fuerte y concentrados en cerrando este pinche lugar!!

I'm writing in regard to the Unlock the Box research. I myself am in administrative segregation, where we are confined to a cell for 23 hours a day, seven days a week. We're said to be allowed one hour a day recreation, in a day room with only a pull-up bar, toilet, and in some pods a table. It is only one person per dayroom. Twice a week we're allowed outside recreation in which we are locked inside a cage with four walls. On this recreation area there is one urinal, basketball, basketball goal, and pull-up bar. The "outside" part of it is conceived through the small amount of daylight we receive from the top of the cage that has no wall. Showers are given afterwards. In some situations or institutions rather, such as the one that I am in, we are escorted to the shower which is a tiny little space and locked in for a given time. On other units showers are built into the cell to assure the prisoner never has to come out, or that he comes out as little as possible.

Food is brought on a meal cart and received through a tray slot built into our cell door. Necessities are brought to us also, as is our mail. For any movement we are escorted by two officers and handcuffed behind our back. In some cases we're required to be shackled from ankle to waist to wrists.

There are no religious, education, or other services or programs given to us. Ramadan however is revered. There are approximately five hundred and four cells for administrative segregation here. However, there are also solitary confinement cells used for disciplinary reasons that follow similar circumstances. Inside our cell there is one toilet with sink connected, one desk, one steel bed, and a big light fixture with enough light to illuminate the small cell completely for when they turn them on by a control panel in the picket. The cell is measured at around ten by seven feet; though no completely, considering angles of one wall imposing over those measurements.

Ad-Seg here is only one building. The unit is about a three thousand man unit, consisting of general population, close-custody and medium-custody. There are some units that are entirely for Ad-Seg prisoners only. Some units that I know to have Ad-Seg are Allred Unit in Iowa Park, TX, Beto Unit in Tennessee Colony TX, Clements Unit in Amarillo TX, Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony TX, Conally Unit in Kenedy TX, Darrington Unit in Rosharon TX, Ellis Unit and Estelle Unit in Huntsville TX, Ferguson Unit in Midway TX, Hughes Unit in Gatesville TX, Lewis Unit in Woodville TX, McConnell Unit in Beville TX, Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony TX , Robertson Unit in Abilene TX, Smith Unit in Lamesa TX, Stiles Unit in Beaumont TX, Polunsky Unit in Livingston TX, and here where I am at Telford Unit in New Boston TX.

I'm sure there are others I'm unaware of. The unit I'm on was built around 1994 or 95. I believe that all maximum security units built at that time are built the same as this unit, Ad-Seg and all. That year was when the state built a lot of new prisons at once.

Most people back here in seg are primarily Latino, with whites falling in second and Blacks last. If I had to guess percentages, I would have to say about 60% Latino, 30% white, and 10% Black. If someone is confirmed as a gang member, he is put in ad seg. If he is considered a "threat to security", he is placed here. Or if he is in protected custody he is sent here. I am here for being a so-called "threat to security" for unjustified causes.

There are some units that have another unit next to them (though considered the same unit) that are entirely for ad seg only. therefore, some units have two separate entities of ad seg unit housings.

I recently read MIM Theory 12 "Environment, Society and Revolution" and I got to say it was very educational. Being in prison "the environment" is not something prisoners discuss too often, much less study, debate or develop into a correct line so to be able to read the polemics, MIM's line on environment as well as the cops line, and how the comrades over in the Philippines put their theory into practice in struggling for the environment in a revolutionary way was a great help in getting me to understand not only how to fight environmental destruction but how to do so in a Maoist way.

What I have learned in the years of working with MIM and developing my line is all oppression whether it be patriarchy, environmental destruction which poisons the people, racism, fascism in Amerika, class oppression, etc. can all be tied together into one root cause. In order to find a solution or eradicate a problem you need to make a scientific analysis and find the root cause. What is causing these symptoms all comes back to imperialism. Imperialism is the root cause of all oppression whether that oppression is here in the U.S. or internationally. So rather than taking on individual issues in mass organizations and work for reform to alter these circumstances it is more logical to pull the whole weed out by the roots and truly solve the problem.

So as I read this MT12 thought of what environmental destruction does to prisoners here in Amerika. A historical materialist view will show that prisoners especially in Amerika get the uncut version of imperial fascism, we are given the worse processed foods, often times that which U.S. consumers would refuse to purchase, the worst water (any prisoner whose been through California's Tracy prison remembers the brown water coming out of the faucets) that anywhere else is U.S. society would be tagged for health hazards. The pollution and waste involved in building the many prisons that house the 2+ million prisoners in Amerika is all environmental destruction that is caused like any injustice in U.S. society by capitalism. The root cause is capitalism that puts profits in command and the people's interest comes last if at all.

The main thing that I learned from this MT12 was of the overwhelming toxic dump sites in and around oppressed nations areas. I wonder how much media attention and public outcry would occur had the city announced a new toxic dumpsite to be opened in Belair or the Malibu hills? Yet we hardly hear a murmur from the media when toxic dumps spring up in areas where the oppressed nations swell. Third World countries have become the imperialist dump site. I watched a news program around a month ago about how petty bourgeois here in the U.S. were setting up these scam "recycle" centers for computers and "e-trash." These "recycle" centers would turn around and ship off this toxic junk to Third World nations and turn a profit, even though there's supposed laws prohibiting this toxic dumping (for Petty Bourgeois and small time entrepreneurs) it is still continued with a nod and a wink. The bourgeois, big business, transnational corporations etc. are a whole different story. They continue to dump toxins on the Third World nations with only encouragement from imperialist economists.

The document written by the Communist Party of the Philippines "on the issue of the environment in the world and in the Philippines" was an excellent example of how to deal with environmental destruction caused by capitalism, I learned a lot from this article. One of the things I learned was how a lot of the so-called "environmentalist groups" here in the U.S. or in other imperialist countries work to pass laws to "protect the environment" and stop things like logging or toxic dumping, but these so-called "green activists" are only acting in a chauvinistic way. I always looked at them as they were protecting the environment but their protection of the environment stopped at their backyard. These laws would stop these big businesses and transnational corporations from destruction in imperialist countries so these companies would simply go to Third World countries to conduct their dirty business.

What got me even angrier is I thought how here in the U.S. the majority of people get their living needs from the corner supermarket or have one of the many water companies deliver clean water jugs to their doorsteps or simply turn on their faucet whereas the people in the Third World countries often live off their local forests, grow their own vegetables in the soil and drink and catch the fish they eat in their rivers and lakes so the environmental destruction unleashed on the Third World people really is genocide on the people of Third World countries!

The most important environmental policy adopted by the CPP was their 25 year ban on logging for export. The comrades of the regional committees would enforce their many policies in the areas they controlled. Their actions had more impact then any kind of "green activists" collection of signatures or the voting in of "environmentally friendly" politicians in the U.$. When a people get down to the root problem of anything, only then can a true remedy be found, otherwise only the surface is scratched, imperialism is proven to infect all levels of society from the homeless, to trees, to prisoners; any form of oppression can be linked to imperialism.

I am writing about this unfair Wisconsin DOC racist system and how they are confining prisoners to "Super Max" solitary but dressing it up, saying it's a maximum security prison. See, the oppressor has found a way to use this maximum security prison, which was really supermax, by changed the name when people started protesting about the conditions of the people who they were holding.

Supermax was supposed to be for the worst of the worst, but by this system not having enough so-called "worst of the worst" prisoners to fill 600 and something beds, they had to do something to keep this prison running and generating revenue for their community. So they started sending any prisoner who receives 180 days in segregation or more to Supermax. They did that for a little while until the outside got wind of it, then the head people tried to change it up, by changing the name and making half of it a maximum prison and the other half a program prison, but all of it is still run like a supermax prison.

When supermax was running, a person had to be screened by the psychologist to see if they are stable enough to be placed there, and now they are using the same methods for the people they are sending to that same prison which is supposed to be a maximum prison now.

My question is, why are people being screened to see if they are fit to be placed in another maximum prison? Whereas, when a prisoner is being transferred to any other max prison they are not being screened, it's just when one is being transferred to this prison that they are screened.

This institution does not have all of the same privileges as the other maximum prisons in Wisconsin, which shows this institution is not run like other max's. Therefore, prisoners are being held there illegally because there are stipulations that a prisoner being confined in administrative confinement should only be held up to 7 years. No, by this not really being a max, but being run like a supermax, prisoners are not really in general population, but are in administrative confinement with a few more privileges.

Did you know that there are still thousands of non-violent men and women serving 25-years-to-life sentences in California's prison system? It's the only State that warehouses criminals for crimes like joyriding, petty theft, attempted burglary, receiving stolen property, making criminal threats, and petty drug possession.

These prisoners receive no type of work time or good time credits. But someone who commits murder does receive these credits and is eligible for parole in 17 years. A non-violent three-strike prisoner does not receive good time, work time behavior credits, and must serve the full 25 years before he or she is considered eligible for parole.

California continues to have enormous budget deficits, and a prison system that is extremely overcrowded, and draining State funds that would normally be used for education. However, the legislators continue to portray non-violent three strike prisoners as dangerous criminals who deserve to serve a life sentence for crimes that would have ordinarily carried 6 months to one year county jail sentences.

Most of these prisoners have already served over half their 25-to-life sentences, and are up in age. They will surely need the medical services that the Federal Receiver is asking for in order to bring the California Prison System into compliance with Constitutional requirements.

The majority of these offenders have never killed, molested, raped or committed violent acts against anyone. Most are drug abusers who have committed petty drug-related offenses, that with proper drug and alcohol treatment, could become productive tax paying citizens, instead of tax burdens.

California is being fleeced by politicians who want to build more prisons and continue warehousing non-violent three strike prisoners, all the while knowing that the expense of such a policy grows exponentially each and every year.

The California Prison System should not be allowed to continue draining the state's assets for political gain, while breaking the back of the state's education and other human resource organization and institutions.

Education and treatment, not prisons are the best investments for California's tax dollars.

MIM(Prisons) adds: At a time when California is facing a serious budget crisis and mandates to cut back the prison population it continues to deny prisoners access to even the basic educational material that MIM(Prisons) provides. It is not only the three-strikers who face significant injustice, it is the entire injustice system that needs to be overthrown.