Will we keep paying and working for our own oppression?

Here in Washington state, there are deductions from any funds received (other than the result of state/federal litigation, a government check or tribal check). 20% is automatically deducted for costs of incarceration, 5% is deducted for crime victims compensation fund (whether ordered by the court or not), 10% is deducted for the prisoner's savings account (if doing life without parole there is no 10% deduction), 20% for any debts a prisoner may owe the Dept. of Corruption (for things such as indigent postage, indigent hygiene items, medical co-pays, prison property damage, etc.), 20% is deducted for any court ordered costs (fines, restitution, attorney fees, court costs and any ordered crime victim's compensation fund) and another 20% for any money owed under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), as well as a certain percentage if child support is owed. I'm doing life without parole, so 65% of all funds received are automatically deducted. I will be filing a federal suit (42 USC Section1983) soon, after which, 85% of all money received will be automatically deducted for me.

We are charged up to 20% extra for each store item, in order to pay for store staff, etc. Of course, our family and friends are overcharged for collect calls, as is the case in most states.

On the first of last year they banned smoking at all Washington prisons.

However, we do little to nothing about it and I cannot find any legitimate reason for our lack of response. Without our helping hands, the clock doesn't tick, without them having to pay big money for outside help and causing them in most cases more work. Yeah, at first they always act like they couldn't care less, but long-term, prisoners have a lot more control than they seem to realize, or they just fear to use it. The major reason we have that power is because prisoners ultimately control the amount of the state budget or federal BOP [Bureau Of Prisons] budget for the cost of incarceration through our contributions of free labor.

Many prisoners (not all) seem to have forgotten what took place, not only at one state facility (Attica in NY), but the many other events that took place at several other facilities across the US. Well what we gained is being taken away from the prisoners of this nation at an alarming rate. And when a fire starts spreading in such a way people are called to action. Some show enormous courage and strength.

Prisoners across this nation need to man up. As for Washington State prisoners; the destiny of this state's prison system is in your hands so if you don't like how things are, look in the mirror and at your fellow prisoners. The Washington State Penitentiary was once rated as the most violent prison in the nation and was in the top ten several times, but no more. Now I don't want to see an increase of prisoners hurting other prisoners over stupid shit. One of the major problems among prisoners in the u$ is focusing so much energy on each other, not the cancer that's attacking us and our family and friends.

I just don't understand the mentality of a large portion of this country's prison population. I strongly believe in the need for United Struggle from Within (USW). But as a whole we are not putting up much of a struggle.

- a WA prisoner, April 2006

MIM adds: It is perhaps an understatement to say that the gains of the struggles of the 70's are being taken away. Not only have those gains been gone for a long time, but in many ways things have gotten worse, particularly with the rampant spread of Control Units throughout the united $tates.

The struggles this comrade mentions did, in fact, occur all over, including in Washington State. In 1977 the prisoner's in the isolation unit, named "Big Red", in Walla Walla, Washington united in a struggle against the conditions of isolation and abuse by guards. A group of comrades, calling themselves the Walla Walla Brothers, were able to mobilize the whole prison in a 47 day work strike that won their 14 demands, effectively transforming the abusive conditions in Big Red.

Of course, the state learned from the struggles in Attica and Walla Walla and further isolated the segregation units, targeted potential leaders for isolation and encouraged gangs that promoted fighting between oppressed nations, usually along national lines. This reaction helps to explain the lack of action on behalf of prisoners that this comrade writes about. And it is through understanding this history and our current strengths and weaknesses that we can build modern day United Front work to defend the rights of prisoners.

Aside from social control, there are also local economic drives behind the expanding prison system. As crackers vie for high paying prison jobs in their decaying towns, the state squeezes what it can from the prison population in the form of labor and the fees this comrade describes. Washington is leading the game of making people pay for their own imprisonment. But many states have a majority of people being released, coming out of prison in debt, and of course with no job or means to pay for their own needs. The same parasitic crackers making $80,000 a year for sitting in a tower with a shotgun, overseeing u$ concentration camps, will vote to deny former prisoners public assistance and access to certain jobs or even to live in certain neighborhoods. This is the thanks they get, when often times it is the prisoners that are doing the work to keep the prison running and even doing productive labor for the state.

One last note to comrades like this who write to us about how no one in their state or facility are conscious or willing to stand up for their rights. MIM gets these same letters every day. We know that the imperialists go to great lengths to create a violent, alienating society within their prisons. So it is common to feel alone in the struggle. But we also know that there are enough people in u$ prisons to build a strong movement, if everyone that wrote us to complain about others stepped up to lead United Struggle from Within (USW). Despite the many problems with organizing prisoners, it is one of perhaps a few sectors within u$ borders where we can speak of the "masses" as a potentially revolutionary force to be organized. Leaders need to step up first, and put in years of hard consistent work, before they can complain that the masses aren't following.