High tech boom -- powered by prisoner labor Texas has only one unit that pays inmates -- the Lockhart work release unit. It's a Wackenhut unit. Before you can go to this unit you have to sign a contract saying you will pay things like restitution. I have no problem with that. OK the deductions work like this: Your gross check for say 95 hours is $490. After the feds take money you have $445. Then the pardons and parole department takes Quartered, 20%. Then Crime Victims 5%. After the first set of deductions you have a little more than $300. Then you pay restitution 10%, Quartered again 10%, the Department of Corrections takes 15% for supervision, etc. That leaves you with $145. That may sound a lot but they make it up by charging more. Commissary items you can get for $2 on all the units of the system will cost you $3.90 here. The items that I built were Tiger game boards, IBM and Dell computer boards, high end boards that are used for concert lights, caller ID boxes for a company in Mexico. Little key chains that have animals you have to feed. Boards they put in blood pressure machines. I can't remember all the names. I was there for about four months. I got sent to the unit I am at now because I was speaking out about prisoners' rights. --A Texas prisoner, 11 June 2001. 2000 Lockdown Experience in the New York State Maximum Secured Prisons The 2000 lockdown experience (2LE) in the New York State (NYS) maximum secured prisons was the result of prisoners (who turned political) recognizing and acknowledging the fact that prior to 1967, rehabilitation and other NYS prison programs served as viable instruments for behavioral modifications of prisoners. During these same years good time (the reduction in the amount of time a prisoner had to serve for good behavior) availed as an incentive to prisoners. That is rehabilitation and good time served its purpose: it alleviated overcrowding, motivated prisoners to change deviant behaviors to those behaviors that were socially acceptable, and it facilitated their return to society. (Yet, it is important to keep in mind that the prison population was predominantly white; and hence, rehabilitation was a plausible solution for white prisoners who would return to the general, or white, society upon release.) Rehabilitation provided prisoners with the basic skills, trade or education that would enable them to become functional elements of the general society. These prisoners (who turned political) also recognized and acknowledged that within the last 34 years, however, the complexion of NYS prisons has changed from white to Black and Latino, but rehabilitation and other obsolete prison programs have not changed to accommodate the racial and ethnic transformation of these prisons. The only changes that have occurred are the demise of good time as an incentive for positive prison adjustment, harsher sentences for the same crimes that whites committed, the denial of parole, the denial of higher education, the denial of Prisoners' Legal Services, not being recognized in the courts, etc. Prisoners (who turned political) recognized and acknowledged that most Blacks and Latino prisoners come from specific racial communities that are infested with crime, drugs, homelessness, welfare, and other social ills. The same rehabilitation that was designed to give prisoners the basic skill, trade or education to function as an element of society did not hold true in prison before 2000 nor today in 2001. The conditions have not been improved and degenerates each day as Black and Latino prisoners are constantly being snatched from their neighborhoods and housed in these warehouses. Therefore, prisoners (who turned political) recognized and acknowledged alternatives for the 2LE, which were: (1) to accept the conditions that existed, (2) to remain neutral about the conditions that existed, or (3) develop unity among the prisoners (of all colors and nationalities) to bring a change in these Prison Industrial Complexes. The latter was (and still is) an imperative option for many prisoners, in that more and more evidence was starting to reveal that prisoners from Black and Latino communities were (and still are) nothing more than commodities to provide employment for the expansion of prison enterprise. Evidence was also (and still is) revealing that precincts and courts in Black and Latino communities were (and still are) conveyer belts for the criminal (in)justice assembly line. Indeed there was (and still is) a direct relationship between Black and Latino communities and the NYS prisons. The prisoners (who turned political) recognized and acknowledged then that the numbers alone, (85% Black/Latino in state prisons; 75% from seven neighborhoods in New York City), established the direct connection between the communities of these seven neighborhoods and the prisons. Each feeds off the other and was (and still is) affected culturally, socially, economically and in many other ways by one another. This influx was (and still is) 25,000 per year, going and coming. The seven New York City neighborhoods that produced and still produce 75% of the state's total prison population includes Harlem, South Jamaica, South Bronx, Crown Heights, East New York, Brownsville, and Bedfordstuyvesant. The remainder of the state prison population of [oppressed nationals --MIM] came from and still comes from Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Newburgh, Westchester County and Long Island. These were and still are the communities where 85% of NYS prisoners come from and will return, and these prisons continued and still continue to do nothing about the crime generative factors that account for the influx of Blacks and Latinos into the prison system. Prisoners (who turned political) recognized and acknowledged that most of the failure was (and still is) accurately attributed to the traditional approach by Eurocentric curatives that have proved inadequate and useless to the point of hopelessness. Similarly, the NYS prison system relied on and still relies on an old traditional model of rehabilitation that neglects to address racial and cultural realities of the Black and Latino prisoners. This model was workable forty years ago when the NYS prison system was predominately white. But before 2000, and even since then, nothing has been effectively devised to remedy the correlation among failing institutions, crime generative factors, and the increasingly growing population of Blacks and Latinos into the prison system. This indifference accounted for and still accounts for 47% recidivist rate subtracted from the 35,000-plus prisoners who return each year to specific communities they resided in prior to incarceration. Prisoners (who turned political) recognized and acknowledged (and still do) that there was (and still is) an urgent need for prisoners to put group interest before personal petty prejudices and preconceived notions and unite to bring about a struggle that would change the course of these prison industrial complexes. So it was realized (and still is realized) that we needed to confront those problems (then and now) and address the deprivations of good time, parole, etc. or these prisons will continue to be used as an extension of slavery. So the prisoners (who turned political) began to unite the prisoners in Coxsackie Correctional Prison and began to write prisoners in other prison in 1999 expressing the need for an economic lockdown in the year 2000. They began to point out the moneys being made off prisoners. Prison labor was (and still is) like a pot of gold. No strikes, no union organizers, no health benefits, unemployment benefits, or workers compensation to pay, no language barriers, as in foreign countries. It was pointed out that: 1. Corcraft - 1997- 1998 grossed $480 million Greenhaven - $100 million Auburn - 35 million Clinton - 40 million Elmira - 45 million Attica - 40 million Coxsackie - 25 million Wallkill - 35 million Eastern - 60 million (have 2 industries) Other industries make up the balance 2. Telephone - $10,000+ a month: Green Haven alone. 3. Commissary - $23,000+ a month: Green Haven alone. 4. Vending Machines - $96,000+ a month: Green Haven alone. 5. We lost the 10% off commissary purchase 6. We lost the five free stamps, totaling 43 million 7. Misbehavior reports (1998) $1.7 million 8. Misbehavior reports - grossed $12 million in revenue since the five dollar surcharge. (All facilities) 9. It cost $3 billion to run NYS prisons 10. UDC = Urban development corporation allocated $800 million for low income housing. The money was suddenly shifted to prison building. 11. Pataki has reinstated the death penalty. Out of the 36 states with the death penalty, New York is the only one that does not have "Good Time." 12. The Pataki administration has ordered the Parole Board not to release anyone with a violent felony. If you think this is a joke, check the stats (they don't lie!!!) 13. Lag Pay: It has been said that you will receive this money "ONLY" when you are released. (For some that's never) 14. Telephone - $25 million commission. Prisoners (who turned political) began to show the prisoners that slavery was back. They began to organize for a January 1, 2000 lockdown. Their aim was to hurt the prison system of NYS economically and resist all programs. So they established a United Front, and confronted every prisoner in Coxsackie and expressed the need for an economic lockdown that was to last for 6 months or better. The prisoners (who turned political) remained on the front line and addressed everything that needed to be addressed. From September 9, 1999 to September 13, 1999, all prisoners at Coxsackie wore state issued greens, ate silently in the mess halls, and fasted on September 13, 1999 in retrospect to all the prisoners who were murdered on September 13, 1971 in their struggle in Attica prison. Then in October and November and December of 1999, problems started developing. In October of 1999 the prisoners who worked in the mess hall, who have to get up at 5:00 AM didn't want to be on the front line in locking down. So it was agreed that the prison mess hall would go to work, and when they see no prisoners come into the mess hall, they are to return to their dormitory unit. Then in November the prison industry workers in Coxsackie started complaining that that puts them on the front line to lock down. They were finally convinced that everybody will be locked down in their cells except the mess hall, who will be the last to lockdown. Then in December, all the prisoners (who turned political), were either keep-locked or put in SHU, after their cells were raided by prison guards, who were tipped off by informers. But this didn't negate the 2000 lockdown because it was reiterated over and over again. On January 1, 2000, Coxsackie Prison locked down 100%. The mess hall workers returned to their dormitory unit. Then the prison pigs started their game. Being that the mess hall workers lock in an open dormitory (no cells, just beds in a big open space), the pigs put them outside in keep-lock cages in the cold and rain and left them there for 4 hours. But they remained strong and held their ground. Then the New York AM radio stations (on January 2, 2000) began advocating that Coxsackie Prison was the only prison that lockdown; and that the protesters in society, in Albany, NY, were the only ones protesting in front of the NYS Capital building in Albany, NY for the prisoners. The pigs (on January 3) started snatching up prisoners in Coxsackie, professing them to be leaders and sending them to SHU. They would also tell prisoners that this housing unit went to the mess hall and program, and tell another housing unit that this housing unit went to the mess hall and program, and tell another housing unit that this housing unit went to the mess hall and program; and by January 4, 2000, Coxsackie prisoners were out of their cells, going to the mess hall and going to their programs and the 2000 lockdown ended with no accomplishment to our demands. The protesters in Albany, NY presented our demands to the officials at the NYS Capital building and were ignored. The 2000 Lockdown Experience accomplished one thing: it brought more unity among the prisoners. But we need to work more on our struggle efforts - to hurt the prison system economically and bring the officials to the negotiating table. If the policy is to wage the struggle non-antagonistically, in the form of political and ideological struggle within the context of maintaining a united front for the purpose of an economic lockdown and negotiation to achieve good time, parole, etc., then we must not fear repercussions, which are only countermoves to our collective struggle with the prisons. Sacrifice is part of our collective struggle. If we can't sacrifice by staying in our cells, or doing keep-lock time, or SHU(box) time, no matter how many days, weeks, months or years, then we have no effective struggle in opposition to the prison system's economic exploitation, political oppression and reactionary repression. Let's overcome our fear of repercussions and continue to unite, organize and struggle. We can accomplish anything if we struggle collectively within these prison industrial complexes. We must struggle collectively with the knowledge and understanding that we can win. What is prison without economic growth? It's like a factory where the workers refuse to work. Neither the boss and his high paid managers can achieve anything when the people refuse to work. When we were locked down, did not the prison pigs beg us to come out of our cells and continue working? A prison economic lockdown means nothing in that prison is being produced; all prison activities cease to exist in these prison industrial complexes; and the longer we stay locked down, the more money these imperialists (owners of Corcraft production) and their lackeys (bureaucrats or prison officials) lose. WE are the key to their economic growth. Recognizing and acknowledging this, prisoners of all colors and nationalities, in every state prison, unite and struggle against the imperialist and their lackeys. The United Struggle from Within (USW)- a MIM-led anti-imperialist organization for prisoners, is an organization that prisoners can join, unite, struggle and have their voices heard by the people who struggle collectively on the outside of these prison industrial complexes. Dare to struggle, dare to win. The United Struggle from Within is for all prisoners striving for political consciousness and revolutionary dedication. Let's continue to unite, organize and struggle. The 2000 lockdown experience was a lesson for all of us to learn from and build from. We Can Win!!! --Righteous, May 27 2001 Illinois prison delays mail Today I received your letter explaining your organization and its views and I am interested in learning more. Your letter was postmarked June 26, the mailroom claims to have gotten it July 6. They then sent it to the Publication Review Committee, and they sat on it until today. This is a common procedure here at Stateville C.C. It's a tactic used to break down relations between you and the people you correspond with by holding mail and books weeks -- even months -- before giving them to us but this same practice is not used when it comes to legal mail or material due to the obvious legal repercussions. They justify these practices by saying they are understaffed. So I want you to know should any censorship problems arise I will tackle them head-on. Also I have written the Publication Review Committee and requested the rules concerning publications and censorship. I thank you for your time and help and look forward to participating in your organization. -- an Illinois prisoner, 15 August 2001.