MIM Notes 227                   February 1, 2001

Under Lock & Key

Uhuru Sasa*

Subjugated and oppressed. Still strong. Still proud. Comprehension always in a 
state of quiescence knowing many things without seeing. Standing in this cold 
world forever more humiliated. And back in the day Jim Crowed. But now ambitious 
and seeking for what is mine.

Inhumane. Cruel and muhtafuckin barbarous, and heart still filled with hate, 
from racism till this very day. Brown skinned, yes all my brothers and sisters 
the time has come for operation Uhuru Sasa.* Stand by for the true emancipation 
proclamation. But remember the 13th Amendment ain't bout shit.

So get ready strong brown arm. Scimitar at hand arcs though the air... revenge 
... revolution ... Brownman ... Brownwoman ... Brownchild the Brown nation rose 
to the top and with a clenched fist salute. All power to the people who don't 
fear freedom

* Liberation now

-- a Michigan prisoner, 6 July 2000.

MIM responds: We salute this comrade for raising the issue of the 13th Amendment 
to the u.$. Constitution. In discussions since writing this poem, the author has 
stated that s/he means to draw attention to the continuing slavery of prisoners 
in Amerika's criminal injustice system. MIM must point out the historically 
progressive character of this law. The Amendment stated that "neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any 
place subject to their jurisdiction." Importantly, the amendment also gave the 
congress the power to pass laws enforcing the end of slavery. MIM acknowledges 
that the time of the 13th Amendment is past, but we cherish the history of 
slaveowners being suppressed by the state. Such repression was necessary to get 
to this point, where humyn slavery is widely disdained. Today all anti-
imperialists working against Amerika's prison system can appeal to this disdain 
for humyn slavery in our efforts to galvanize support for prisoners' struggles 
against this continued form of exploitation.

Guards brutalize Florida prisoners

I received your newsletter but it took a while for me to receive it. It was 
being scanned; on the envelope it has impound crossed out, questioned crossed 
out, then it was finally approved but pages 6-10 were taken completely out. So 
you see they scan and read every word they can, trying to find something so they 
can deny it. D. O. C. doesn't want us learning anything that's going to benefit 
us in any way.

The same conditions that are described in Under Lock & Key, cruel conditions at 
Montana State Prison, are happening right here in Florida's many prisons. These 
people can keep you on so-called strip status for up to seven days and sometimes 
they keep you even longer whether it's cold or hot they don't care as long as 
they can torture you any way they can. Here in Florida a person can be held in 
lock-up up to six months just under investigation without any type of hearing 
whatsoever. Prisoners can state witnesses on the Disciplinary Report (DR) but 
seldom are those witnesses allowed to appear at the D. R. hearing. Prisoners are 
found guilty just by the officer's statement or the extent of the D. R. 
Prisoners seldom beat violent DRs. The officers have many ways of getting a 
person they don't like, in any way they can.

In the newsletter a writer speaks of the close-management status we have in 
Florida but we also have a lock down called CMX, that's only at probably two 
prisons in Florida, where you're locked down five years at the least before you 
see a review board. CMX is the strictest lock down that Florida has. I myself 
just got off of CM after 22 months. I worked myself down from CM1 and 2, finally 
made it on the compound in July. So you see we go through pure hell in Florida 
as well.

Now I'm out here trying to open up some of my brother's eyes, at least those who 
want to see. Continue to keep the newsletter coming and I will continue my 
studies and try to broaden my mind in my studies and daily life. Peace to the 
people.

--a Florida prisoner, 7October 2000.

MIM adds: MIM encourages prisoners to fight censorship. To facilitate the 
beginning of this process, MIM distributes an Anti-Censorship Packet to 
prisoners. This packet was written both by comrades inside and outside the 
prisons. It addresses some of the basic things that prisoners must do to start 
the grievance process. We strongly encourage prisoners to write and update us on 
the progress of your struggles against censorship. Your summaries provide 
positive examples and leadership to others in similar situations.

Victory against censorship in Indiana

Here recently I was given all of the old MIM newspapers that were previously 
confiscated. I think we have a victory against this kamp for now. I'm still 
filing grievances and pursuing litigation and will keep you informed as things 
unfold. Do keep me on the mailing list and inform all the comrades of this small 
but meaningful victory today!!!

-- an Indiana prisoner.

Peace, peace

Peace, peace, how can there be peace; when the Ku Klux Klan won't take off their 
sheets! Peace, peace, how can there be peace; when domestic violence, in your 
very bedroom won't cease! Peace, peace, how can there be peace; When radioactive 
nuclear bombs are just waiting to unleash! Peace, peace, how can there be peace; 
When discrimination, superexploitation, unjustified annihilation of Third World 
nations just won't cease! Peace, peace, how can there be peace; When Amerika's 
Black Nation can't get conversation on compensation, on the uplifting of this 
racist nation, that was built on sweat and blood for all nations! Peace, peace, 
how can there be peace; When the police can shoot you dead in the Amerikan 
streets, police brutality just won't cease, while democrats, republicans applaud 
in their white house seats! So please tell me how in the hell can there be 
peace!

-- an Ohio prisoner, 12 May 2000.

Missouri prisoners pay out of pocket for oppression

I am writing this article for all the prisoners that are locked up in the 
dungeons and human warehouses in the state of Missouri. This is the only prison 
that you are forced to pay the state of Missouri for coming to prison. Every 
inmate is forced to give the state money after being sentenced to a prison term. 
The state of Missouri robs the prisoners by taking the money out of our accounts 
without our consent. This is theft - a crime.

The prisoners in Missouri need to come together and start organizing to combat 
these slave laws which Missouri was allowed to enforce during the Missouri 
Compromise. Missouri is using their prison system to enforce slavery and all 
it's cruelties. But now, the slaves consist of all poor people. This issue needs 
to be addressed for the sake of bringing the prisoners and their families 
together, because it is our families who the state are robbing, exploiting and 
oppressing through Missouri's kkkriminal injustice system.

The telephone system robs our mothers, wives and family members by charging them 
TEN times more to accept our phone calls as the call would be charges for 
accepting a call from one who lives in a private residence. The prisons in 
Missouri are using the phone system to take our people's money. We need to need 
to bring this issue to the round table and design a strategy to attack this 
injustice.

The Missouri prison system also knows the science of keeping Blacks and whites 
separated. This is how the prison system weakens us - by playing us against the 
other ones. We are all dealing with a common enemy, the prisonkkkrats.

The enemy has captured us and has no intention of releasing us. Many of us will 
die in prison of old age, whole others will die of disease, medical difficulties 
and related cases of inhumane treatment.

We have a few among us who are political organizers such as prison unionists. 
These are the prisoners that we need to support. And we need to organize around 
the issues affecting us as prisoners. The [oppressed] nationals and different 
races are of one class when we enter the Missouri prison system. We are the 
class of those who must live in these conditions.

We must speak out against everything which makes our families hurt and suffer. 
And we must protest every cruelty and inhumane treatment. We are forced to build 
our own political parties in this prison which meet the demands of our needs as 
civilized human beings.

I want to make a point of the seven dollars and fifty cents which the state 
gives us as a tip every month. This money is nothing compared to its value 50 
years ago. The money is taking the place of our parole eligibility dates. We 
need to ask for shorter prison release dates instead of letting the 
prisonkkkrats give us this small price for our labor. We all can come together 
on some of these issues and change some of these slave codes, because we are the 
ones who perform all the work tasks in these prisons. 

With a clenched fist salute I close this letter Rekindle the spirit of 
Revolution, -- a Missouri prisoner, 17 October 2000.

MIM adds:  We have previously published accounts written by prisoners or 
researched by comrades on the outside that detail specific labor situations in 
various prisons. Essays like the above are helpful to educate readers on the 
outside about conditions. But we encourage prisoners to write essays including 
more detailed arguments regarding slave labor in Amerikkka's prisons. During the 
month of May, MIM's Under Lock & Key Campaign focus is on slave labor. We hold 
events, publish articles etc that focus on prison labor. Details that help 
agitate should include what work is done, how much prisoners are paid and which 
corporations, states or businesses are profiting from the prison labor. Please 
send articles, art and poetry submissions on this topic by April 1st to be 
submitted for publication in MIM Notes.

Oppressed nation recidivism

Why do blackmen, after completing long sentences, return to society and re-
involve themselves in criminal activity? In order to answer this question it 
must be understood, what makes many of them criminals in the first place. We can 
logically conclude that in a capitalist society, a society that constantly 
propagates the concept that the possession of material substance signifies 
success, is likely to have a negative effect on the poor and uneducated. The 
possession of material possessions becomes primary and urgent;  the poor and 
uneducated individual now becomes motivated in the direction of accumulating 
material substance and is willing to put himself at risk to accomplish his 
objective, his well being now becomes secondary.

The main reason that many young black men succumb to recidivism is to fulfill 
the materialistic desire that the capitalist corporations have created by 
placing the materialistic seed into poor minds of black youth, selling them 
images through the medium of advertisement which young black men sell their 
souls to achieve. From this standpoint it can be clearly understood that causing 
a poor man to chase a materialistic dream can in turn cause him to become 
reckless and self destructive; this appears to be the exact psychological 
condition many young black men are in today.

The common criminal or drug dealer creates vast amounts of economic activity in 
a capitalistic society; a majority of the money that these common criminals 
accumulate is spent in capitalist businesses. Now these common criminals are 
poor people trying to achieve the material images that the capitalist businesses 
have placed before them. The reality is, that in a capitalist society the poor 
will always be victimized and exploited. The poor suffer long prison sentences 
and short lives, while those who are in the position to exploit their condition 
prosper, creating a heavenly condition for themselves while the poor people's 
condition continues to deteriorate.

This same condition and cycle of recidivism can be observed in the Latino 
community as well. We who are conscious of this reality must return to society 
not to succumb to recidivism but rather to continue the mission that the MIM is 
preparing us for; let not our studies be in vain.

A clenched fist salute to all brothers and sisters.

--a Florida prisoner, October 2000.

MIM adds: MIM encourages all prisoners to continue working with MIM after being 
released. Regardless of where you may live, you can play an important role in 
helping MIM build public opinion and independent institutions for a revolution.

The fact that large numbers of Black and Latino men have no more desirable road 
through which to achieve material ITALsuccessEND is the result of national 
oppression. The white oppressor nation does not want to share more of its 
superprofits taken from the Third World than is absolutely necessary. Instead of 
risking the social unrest caused by economic inequality and oppression, the 
white nation locks up large numbers of potentially revolutionary men, leaving 
entire communities devastated. White nation people have all the options 
available to them to pursue wealth in ways that society deems socially 
acceptable. It's not that uneducated or poor people are affected differently by 
capitalism (because they are uneducated or poor), rather these groups, by 
design, do not have legal avenues readily available to them for attaining the 
wealth that is all around them.

MIM's Released Prisoner Program is the weakest of our independent institutions 
at this point. Nevertheless, MIM works to help released prisoners develop skills 
and make their lives productive in serving the international proletariat. We 
encourage prisoners recently released to not only maintain contact, but to work 
with MIM to build the necessary infrastructure to make this and other 
institutions capable of demonstrating to the oppressed why our methods are 
superior to capitalism.

Ultimately, the needs of released prisoners and oppressed nationals will only 
best be served by demolishing the capitalist system and replacing it with a 
dictatorship of the proletariat. While proletarian institutions serve some of 
our goals at this point, it is only through state power that the oppressed can 
truly shape the economic and political system to fulfill proletarian needs. In 
this situation, that means that only proletarian dictatorship can genuinely lead 
toward a society's individuals making the most of their lives.

Prepare for revolution

Here I am in a 9x12 cell, Hell, another brother who stumbled and fell over the 
foot of the capitalist--but here's the twist as winter approaches past another 
summer I am a slave, a number         but I won't get slumber On the weight pile 
expanding my chest I'll do my best         to learn of imperialistic murder and 
theft What's next for the oppressed is to obsess for true justice and not just 
us or we'll all be crushed Back to the future with a balled up hand I want this 
madness to cease and a brand new program Power to the People is more than a 
slogan a way to ride         get a grip                 now hold on

--an Oregon prisoner, 21 December 2000.

St. Louis Correctional Facility

St. Louis Correctional Facility opened in October '99. Five (5) guys have 
already died. Only one (1) of whom died by the hands of another. The four (4) 
others from lack of medical and dental health care. I've been here since 
December '99, all have died in those eight (8) months. Yet there is still no 
help in sight.

This joint was built to be a Level V. However they added another bunk and shelf 
and now call it Level IV. There is no ventilation and the windows don't open. 
Seven units all total. Six of which are general population, one seg. Only four 
of those  six go to the chow hall. The other two have their food crated to the 
units. The trays are poorly made up and are never warm (let alone hot) when you 
get your tray. You're forced to eat in the dayroom, which is unsanitary for food 
consumption.

We only receive one (1) hour of outside yard. The yard only consists of two 
basketball courts, a track and some pull-up dip bars. Oh! I almost forgot the 
ten (10) phones that don't work. (When they do work, it costs over $10 for a 15 
minute call.)

The chow hall can only feed about 162 people. Yet and still they somehow feed 
800 in an hour and a half. You get about seven to ten minutes to receive food, 
eat and get out. It goes without saying the food is crap!

There are no programs here. No N.A., no A.A., nothing to help a guy out. 
Education is the biggest joke in the world today. GED classes only for those 
with the money to afford correspondence courses.

The law library is as big as a walk-in closet. Lack of everything. Waiting list 
for months. The general library is even worse. There's only room for five 
prisoners and one worker. If there's more than 100 books in there I'll sing 
praises to the pigs. (Not gonna happen by me!)

There are 1200 prisoners here, and only 20% have work assignments. The rest are 
on a waiting list. To even shorten that list, they place prisoners on Security 
Threat Group (STG) status. STG prisoners are not allowed to work, nor are they 
allowed recreational time.

Which brings me to seg. This is the only joint in my ten years that double-bunks 
in seg. Seg. prisoners receive less than an hour out of cell time. Hell they 
only receive 45 minutes if year three times a week. Showers only twice a week. 
By the way, this is where three of the five prisoners died. Makes you wonder, 
huh?

--a Michigan prisoner, 21 August 2000.

MIM adds: If the library at the facility you are house in is lousy like this 
one, we may be able to help. Try talking to the librarian or prisoner library 
workers, find out if the library would be able to accept donations of books from 
MIM's Serve the People Free Books for Prisoners program.

Pigs prevent education in Indiana

I'd love some books but the way this place works on books? They limit each to 
only 10, they put our names and numbers inside and if another is caught with a 
book I have my name in? He'll get a write up and so will I. This will put a 
strangle hold on us having a lot of material to educate us from miseducation and 
from sharing our materials with others.

-- an Indiana prisoner, 17 July 2000.