* * The Maoist Internationalist Movement * * - MIM Notes 106, November 1995 - MARCH AGAINST PRISONS: MASSES REJECT BRUTALIZING "CORRECTIONS" September 30--A RAIL contingent joined in a march of over 100 people initiated by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) against prisons in Massachusetts. The march started at Norfolk Prison and ended at Walpole, covering 2 miles and passing plenty of cops on the way. The march was to protest the conditions in Massachusetts prisons, detailed in the article on this page which was distributed as a flier to everyone at the march. The demands of the march were stated in a flier drawn up by the Coalition of prisoner Families and Friends, a committee of the AFSC and one of the principal organizers of the march. The organizing flier stated: The Coalition of prisoner Families and Friends calls on the Department of "correction," the Legislature, and Governor Weld to: * End the lockdown at Walpole Prison for ALL Walpole prisoners * End the lockdown at Shirley Prison * End arbitrary segregation and abuse of Latino prisoners * Restore contact visits at Walpole * Restore programs and training in all Massachusetts prisons * Provide adequate health care for prisoners, especially those who are HIV positive * Close the Departmental Disciplinary Unit * Provide adequate programs and medical care to female prisoners A musical group called Vida Urbana in Springfield provided the marchers with songs along the way. In between songs people chanted enthusiastically and waved signs condemning the criminal injustice system. None of the participants thought that being at the rally would make a sudden change in the prisons. But by bringing people out for a march that targeted the prisons MIM and the masses oppose, we showed the state that we are watching every time the pigs abuse a prisoner, and that we know they are working to remove all semblance of civility from the prisons. We will make sure that the people know this is happening. MIM and RAIL work to build public opinion in opposition to pig institutions. Only through many such actions and educational events can we hope to win small battles for better conditions in the prisons while we work to overthrow the capitalist system that necessitates repressive prisons as institutions of social control. The police and FBI were out in full force with cameras and video equipment all along this march. Demonstrating what they see as a real threat, there were more cops and agents at this march than at many of the larger rallies with less radical demands and a less threatening target. RAIL is working on a campaign against prisons in Massachusetts and is organizing a prisons awareness week in Amherst and a series of educational events about prisons in Boston. We are also planning a rally against the Department of Corrections and NYNEX, the New England phone company that works with the DOC to severely restrict prisoners access to people on the outside. The DOC and NYNEX conveniently have offices across the street from one another in downtown Boston. Contact RAIL to get involved in this campaign. ***RAIL distributed the following flyer at the anti-prisons march described in the article March against prisons: masses reject brutalizing "corrections" on this page. The information in the flyer was taken from an interview with an anti- prisons activist in Massachusetts.*** Over the last few years the state of Massachusetts has increased the repression and abuse in its prisons leading up to the implementation of unprecedented repressive policies and practices in 1995. This should be no surprise considering that the Commissioner of Corrections is Larry Dubois, infamous for his participation in the administration of the control units at Marion, Illinois and Lexington, Kentucky where prisoners, particularly those who were politically active, were abused and humiliated. This year's repressive measures include cutting back on the very limited access to education, training, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation, limiting medical care, cutting off prisoner's ability to write letters to other prisoners, and requiring all prisons to convert part of their space into segregation units which in reality are control units, or prisons within prisons. The conditions for women, held in the Framingham women's prison, are among the worst in the system, with women not even having the very limited rights and access given to male prisoners. In addition to these reactionary policies, two prisons in Massachusetts, Shirley and Walpole, are currently locked down, meaning that no one can come into the prison, the prisoners are not allowed contact with other prisoners, they are only allowed out of their cells a few times a week and then only for a shower, and they do not get out to exercise. The lockdown in Walpole began on March 21st after a prisoner was stabbed. During the first 10 days of the lockdown prisoners were violently beaten by guards on B-4 cellblock and on April 3rd a B-4 guard was stabbed. Shortly after the institution of the lockdown, the DOC designated Walpole a Supermax, upgrading it from a Level 5 Maximum Security Prison. In a Supermax prisoners can only leave their cells twice a week, just for a shower, they get no exercise and are allowed no visitors. The designation as a Supermax allowed Walpole to build non-contact visiting rooms. After the construction of these was completed, on August 7th, the prison officially ended the lockdown. But this is just an official smokescreen: many prisoners remain in isolation and lockdown, only the label has changed. To add to the repressive conditions in Walpole, the Plymouth High Security Unit was created as a part of this Supermax. Prisoners who are labeled "dangerous" are now pulled out of other prisons and moved to this unit. These prisoners are usually identified as gang members and upwards of 90% of them are Latinos. The majority of these prisoners in Plymouth were the most vocal advocates for themselves and other prisoners and so of course considered dangerous. In addition to the Plymouth unit, Walpole also has the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). This is a unit of total deprivation that is entirely sound proof. There are also Blocks 8, 9 and 10 which are segregated but not totally isolated: prisoners can yell to one another from their cells. More than half of the prisoners in Walpole are held in one of these prisons within the prison and they are all required to wear uniforms. The internal level of the prisoners is matched by clothing colors with Plymouth seen as the worst, wearing bright orange. The lockdown in Shirley is in its fourth week. After a guard sat on the bed of a Latino prisoner, counter to prison policies, the prisoner and the guard got into a fight. The guards then started beating every Latino they found on the ward. The harassment continued the next day and the prisoners rioted and took over a room. Shirley has been on lockdown ever since. 40 of the Latino prisoners were shipped immediately to the Plymouth High Security Unit. The lockdowns and repressive measures implemented in prisons across Massachusetts must be fought. The prisoners are fighting from behind the bars and we must support their struggles and make use of the freedom we have to organize outside the prisons. People must be made aware of the conditions in prisons and of the real use for prisons as tools of social control by the rich and powerful in Amerika. The Amerikan injustice system does not intend to "rehabilitate" anyone, it is used to keep people in their place, punishing political activists for crimes they did not commit, and taking off the streets the "dangerous" Blacks and Latinos who do not even get a trial of their peers, while allowing the worst murderers and thieves to operate freely as a part of the Amerikan government and Amerikan imperialist corporations. Join the campaign against Amerika's social control. We are working to expose and oppose Amerika's use of social control against the people that the imperialists see as a threat, principally Blacks, Latinos and Indigenous peoples. For more info contact your local RAIL branch. MIM Notes is not copyrighted. Please credit MIM when redistributing or referring to this material. 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