I N T E R N E T ' S M A O I S T BI-M O N T H L Y = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = XX XX XXX XX XX X X XXX XXX XXX XXX X X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X V X X X V X X X X X X X XX XXX X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X XXX X X X V XXX X XXX XXX = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT MIM Notes 127 DECEMBER 1, 1996 MASSACHUSETTS PRISONERS STILL STUCK IN TEXAS On the one year anniversary of the transfer of 299 Massachusetts prisoners to Texas, Governor Weld announced that he is extending their stay another 8 months. He said he saw no compelling reason to bring them back. This news came as a hard blow to the friends and families of these prisoners and those of us who have been fighting all year to bring them back. While we have been successful in bringing back the sick prisoners, 250 remain in Texas, far from their families, and in a prison system even more repressive than the one we have in Massachusetts. These prisoners were transferred to Texas in the middle of the night, as a part of Weld's prison overcrowding crisis hoax. He took these prisoners hostage and shipped them off to Texas in a budget stunt that successfully got him $500 million for prison expansion in Massachusetts. Weld got his money months ago, but still the prisoners in Texas remain there. It's become easier to pay Texas to house these men than to fly them back home where it will be exposed that the overcrowding crisis was really a DOC fabricated problem of overclassification of prisoners so that those who commit the slightest infraction of the rules (like looking at a guard wrong) are stuck in maximum security. MIM and RAIL held our regular monthly petitioning rally the weekend after Weld's announcement and continued to educate people about the injustice system and why these prisoners should be brought back to Massachusetts where their families live and where there can be some accountability for their lack of care. The number of people aware of these transfers is increasing and we will continue to keep this issue alive and keep the voice of opposition to the criminal injustice system loud. Bringing these prisoners back will be a victory, but this is only one battle and fundamental changes in the criminal injustice system will not be achieved until we overthrow the system. We must always keep that message clear while we are fighting for small reforms to improve the lives of our comrades behind bars and give them more room to carry out revolutionary organizing. To protest this anniversary and the extension of the prisoners' stay in Texas, the American Friends Service Committee held vigils outside of the Governor's house every night for a week. At one of these vigils MIM talked to a woman who said her phone bill was $600 last month from talking to her son. This is the expense that Weld forces many families to endure if they want to stay in contact with their family member in Texas. A man read a letter from his brother, one of the inmates transferred to Texas, which described the nightmare of a year this has been, from the roundup and transfer in the middle of the night, to being held as budget hostages in Weld's political game in a prison system in Texas that is devoted to profit and torture. We hope this article will let our comrades in Texas know that we have not forgotten about them and that we will continue the fight to bring them back while fighting the larger battle to overthrow the criminal injustice system. MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when redistributing or referring to this material. Subscriptions are $20 for 24 issues, U.S. mail or e-mail. Send cash, stamps or check made out to "MIM Distributors." Write: MIM Distributors, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor MI 48106-3576. E-mail: mim@mim.org. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext