I am writing to you from CCI Tehachapi SHU, or as I often refer to this place, the catacombs. The conditions are oppressive as usual, yet small minor improvements (if that's what I should call it) have been made. Such as the "norm" is that each inmate is issued only half a state bar of soap every week. This half bar is to last 7 days. So what they do is give 1 whole bar every 2 weeks. Now the COs are willing to sneak an inmate a bar when he runs out, but even this take a couple days due to supposedly non-existent supplies. Also with toilet paper, only one roll is to last you 7 days. It seems as if the CO is risking his/her own career should they have to bring you more toilet paper, and it's usually just a tenth of a roll.
They have discontinued giving us salt and pepper so the food is tasteless. The lunch meat is so disgusting that I'm thinking of going vegetarian. They are taking out real meat and replacing it with some factory manufactured meat that smells like rotten something. As a matter of fact a lot of inmates are going vegetarian in order to keep the poison or whatever they put in the meat out of their systems. The meat sticks offered on canteen are often outdated and look like rot is growing inside the package. They attempted to take coffee from us but did not go through with it. Any complaining or asking the COs to stop operating in violation of Rules and Regulations is met with the turning off of electricity for a couple days. Delayed yard release if any. Just this last week our entire building did not receive any yard due to what they say are rainy conditions. They just don't wish to sit outside and have to monitor us in our dog cages. When the COs are feeling grumpy they accuse inmates of violating rules and take away their yard, such as touching the fence or stepping on the toilet.
And asking for a book is like asking for a murder weapon. I remember asking a CO for a book and after a few days she brought me one while making a sneering comment. "Why the hell do you want to read for?" Obviously "corrections" should be omitted whenever speaking of the CDC. They have eliminated all educational programs in SHU facilities such as GED. You can read books and study but you can not take the test until you either parole to the streets or return to the mainline, which is tough for those serving life terms locked up indeterminately in the catacombs.
Not to mention the books are outdated and do not meet modern day requirements. I'm talking about books that are 15 to 20 years old. As far as the law library, the forms that are carried are outdated. There have been new federal filing fees implemented by the federal courts. It took me a lawsuit to find out it was changed from $150 to $250. I attempted to abreast the legal office and was met with a "I don't care" response. So I appealed and then they opted to operate by law.
It's amazing at the level of resistance offered by CDC to keep us from receiving basic human needs, let alone trying to get them to abide by the law. Any policy changes I hear are being fought against by the CDC regarding "validated" inmates serving indeterminate time in these catacombs.
I myself have been kept in segregation since 2002 for "associating" with alleged prison gangs. I am currently enrolled in paralegal school where I am learning a lot. Helping other inmates with their cases and teaching them what ever I can. All my MIM materials disappear from my cell. After I read books and essays I quickly pass them to other inmates yet the authority is quick to uncover any revolutionary thought material. It does not last quickly in our hands. Lately they have left me alone. I think it's due to the dusty Christian bible that sits on my locker. Its like a force field, keeps them from thinking I'm up to anything. I've recommended others to try this and it seems to be working. We've even received extra food trays with the extra food we bag it and distribute to all the inmates in our reach.
Teaching and showing these inmates how to conduct themselves so that they get out of these catacombs and prison is hard. They have that "anger quick" attitude. But advancements are being made. A lot of these inmates are starting to see that even though we are here and come from different prior associations, we are still in this together and still must struggle for complete social change. A lot of inmates are for the real struggle while others do not wish to engage in struggle anymore. Some do not understand what real struggle is. Some claim revolutionary status yet commit acts which serve contrary. Some wish to make that necessary leap yet are afraid of what present affiliates might think. They may even possibly be victimized.
A lot of groups have achieved a certain level of unity and organization such as the Southsiders, Northsiders, Bloods, Crips, whites and Asians. Yet there still remains a lot of needed advancement and change that these groups are not willing to make. Drugs, extortion, the gang banging mentality still exists and serve as a tool which continues to be utilized by prison administration and the government in order to continue its oppression on our youth. Divide and conquer is a tool continually being used by the capitalists, yet these groups continue in their ways.
The unity of struggle achieved recently in Oregon is a great accomplishment, yet more must be done if true revolutionary unity is to be made and maintained.
- a California prisoner, October 2005