Struggling for signatures in Texas

[This prisoner has been collecting signatures on MIM's campaign to stop Texas prisons from forcing prisoners to work even when they are sick or injured, and punishing them with loss of good-time if they can't or won't work. Contact MIM for copies of the petition or to submit
signatures. -ed]

I just received your letter, MIM Notes, and some other info on the revolution. You stressed the fact that I need to help in the struggle. Damn right! But I had not heard from you nor received any MIM Notes. Thank you though. I got as many signatures [on the Texas labor
petition] as I could. I was just released from Ad Seg and placed in a high security unit in closed custody. We are in the house 22 hours a day and recreate for 2 hours. We have no way to pass things around and if we're caught doing so it's a disciplinary case. More of my good time/money I had doesn't help me at all taken away. But I had as many as I could.

MIM I have a personal experience with this reactionary policy TDCJ has. I injured my shoulder lifting weights. The Dr. X-rayed me and said it was fractured. Still I had to go to third shift broom squad. When the pain was too much I quit. I was made to stand for 4 hours at night at line control before I was stripped naked and put in a cold cell, which is to cool you off. After 2 hours in there I was written a major case for refusing to work. But my doctor later made my bond and the case was then thrown out, that was in '98.

In 2000, I was assaulted by an officer and my shoulder was reinjured. I've been on pain medication for it because I have constant pain. At times it hurts to write. It hurts when I wake up and when I go to sleep. It's so bad I can't sleep on my right side. I get more pain medication and sent back to work. I've been like this since 2000, still TDC makes me work their fields. If I quit I get a case! When will the madness stop? I asked the doctor that question, he said, "I gotta work, and sometimes I get sick," and put me back to work. No relief!

--A Texas Prisoner, May 2002


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