Prisoners Report on Conditions in

California Prisons

Got legal skills? Help out with writing letters to appeal censorship of MIM Distributors by prison staff. help out

www.prisoncensorship.info is a media institution run by the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons. Here we collect and publicize reports of conditions behind the bars in U.$. prisons. Information about these incidents rarely makes it out of the prison, and when it does it is extremely rare that the reports are taken seriously and published. This historical record is important for documenting patterns of abuse, and also for informing people on the streets about what goes on behind the bars.

We hope this information will inspire people to take action and join the fight against the criminal injustice system. While we may not be able to immediately impact this particular instance of abuse, we can work to fundamentally change the system that permits and perpetuates it. The criminal injustice system is intimately tied up with imperialism, and serves as a tool of social control on the homeland, particularly targeting oppressed nations.

[National Oppression] [California] [ULK Issue 14]
expand

Solidarity in the fight against Arizona immigration law

First and foremost, I would like to salute all the comrades around the world that stood up and protested against Arizona’s Jim Crow laws of segregation. Amerikkka’s up to its dirty tricks once again. All was fine when they rode the backs of Latinos for cheap labor, but now that individuals are using their minds and starting their own small businesses, they (the U.S. or Arizona) want them out because they can’t use (exploit) them any more. Never turn your back on a snake! Amerika was built upon corporate capitalism. If Latinos are all illegal then Christopher Columbus was illegal when he “came” to Amerikkka.

The Columbus anniversary is a celebration of mass murder, slavery, and conquest. He used religion and guns (after he was welcomed as a guest) against the Blacks and the indigenous in the Americas, mistakenly called Indians. All this was done in the name of white supremacy based upon the concept of “chosen people” and manifest destiny, and was designed to further cultural genocide and maintain mental slavery. Arizona is trying to put this back in full swing. They are capitalist parasites; blood-thirsty opportunists. People who would sell their own grandmother’s burial plot. Amerikkka is a region of political injustice and great suffering. Columbus didn’t discover shit, he came to America and exploited America with his illegal ass!!!

I’m a powerful Black conscious man, so I yell out Black Power and I fully support my Latino comrades in struggle and solidarity. And we demand justice or there will be no peace!

In struggle

This article referenced in:
chain
[Theory] [California]
expand

On Paper Tigers

Not long after the end of World War II, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward his famous thesis, “All reactionaries are paper tigers.”(1) This thesis armed the people of China ideologically, strengthened their confidence in victory and played an exceedingly great role in the People’s War of Liberation. This thesis is still relevant today and we would be wise to heed its message.

Comrade Mao Zedong regarded imperialism and all reactionaries as paper tigers. This thesis is a fundamental strategic concept for the revolutionary people. Since the Second Revolutionary War, Mao Zedong repeatedly pointed out: “Strategically, with regard to the whole, revolutionaries must despise the enemy, dare to struggle against him and dare to seize victory, at the same time tactically with regard to each part, each specific struggle, they must take the enemy seriously, be prudent, carefully study and perfect the art of struggle and adopt forms of struggle suited to different times, places and conditions in order to isolate and wipe out the enemy, step-by-step.”(1)

Year’s later, comrade Mao stated that: “Just as there is not a single thing in the world without a dual nature (this is the law of the unity of opposites), so imperialism and all reactionaries have a dual nature - they are real tigers and paper tigers at the same time. In past history, before they won state power and for some time afterwards, the slave owning class the feudal landlord class and the bourgeoisie were vigorous, revolutionary and progressive, they were real tigers. But with the lapse of time, because their opposites - the slave class, the peasant class and the proletariat - grew in strength step-by-step struggled against them more and more fiercely these ruling classes changed step-by-step into the reverse, changed into reactionaries, changed into backward people, changed into paper tigers. And eventually they were overthrown or will be overthrown by the people. Even in the face of the last decisive struggles waged by the people, the reactionary, backward, decaying classes retained this dual nature. On the one hand they were real tigers, they devoured people by the millions and tens of millions. The cause of the peoples struggle went thru a period of difficulties and hardships and along the path there were many twists and turns. To destroy the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism in China took the Chinese people more than a hundred years and cost them tens of millions of lives before the victory of 1949. Look! Were these not living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers? But in the end they changed into paper tigers, dead tigers, bean curd tigers. These are historical facts.”(2)

So there you have it. Comrade Mao all those many years ago held that the Chinese people would be victorious in their war of liberation. This wasn’t hopeful idealism on Mao’s behalf, it wasn’t that the Chinese people and Mao really, really, really wanted liberation for themselves, that they just knew if only they kept on struggling they’d someday achieve liberation. No! It was through the correct practice of dialectical materialism that the Chinese people were able to finally cast the yoke of imperialism off into the sea. This is something that many bourgeois scholars just can’t grasp. Dialectical materialism is something the bourgeoisie either doesn’t correctly understand or they don’t want to understand exactly how Mao and the CCP were able to lead the Chinese people to victory against insurmountable odds or how comrade Mao was able to become such a brilliant military strategist.

However, for us to really get the full understanding of the “paper tiger” thesis put forward by Mao, and in order to see how it is still relevant today, we must dive head first into the subject of dialectical materialism.

When comrade Mao stated “just as there is not a single thing in the world without a dual nature,”(3) he was referring to the law of the unity of opposites. The law of the unity of opposites, that is the law of contradiction in things, is the basic law of materialist dialectics. Dialectics in the proper sense is the study of contradiction in the very essence of objects. Dialectical materialists hold that a thing is made up of its being and of its opposite, this means that no contradictory aspect can exist in isolation. The basic meaning of this would be, for example, that from its very inception and all through its existence where there is light there is also darkness, because without the darkness there can be no light, because they are both mutually dependent, and in order for one to exist its opposite must also be.

So the persyn who is “good” or who does what is morally right can also be “bad” and do what is considered morally wrong. This is another example of the unity of opposites, nothing in this world is immutable.

So now that we know what the basic meaning of the law of the unity of opposites is we know exactly what Mao was talking about when he said, “Just as there is not a single thing in the world without a dual nature, so imperialism and all reactionaries have a dual nature.” What he meant by this is that even though the imperialists, and the reactionaries were strong and terrible looking at one point in hystory, they were also weak and vacillated in another point in hystory, and furthermore it was our job (the people’s) by our will and our struggle to form the correct strategic point of view to see the imperialists and reactionaries as paper tigers and know that we can defeat them in the end. However, because of this paper tiger’s dual nature, we must also be aware that this tiger can also be a real tiger and can defeat us if we don’t respect him tactically.

Now some of you who are familiar and experienced with materialist dialectics will right away say, “wait a minute, the law of contradiction says that the motive force of a thing is internal and not external.” Yes, this certainly is true. The condition of change is internal and not external, however the law of contradiction also shows us that there is antagonism inherent in things, which basically means that from its very inception antagonism exists as the struggle of opposites, as contradiction, but not until the contradiction develops into open antagonism in a thing does it push development forward and resolve itself. So first however we must find the principal contradiction, and only by finding the fundamental contradiction can we find the principal contradiction and get along with the business of resolving it.

We already know that the fundamental contradiction on a global scale is the bourgeoisie vs. the proletariat, and that the principal contradiction on the international level is imperialism vs. the Third World. In Amerika the principal contradiction is the oppressor vs. oppressed nations. So how do we resolve the principal contradiction in the united $tates? Once again, this is possible by a things dual nature (society), and if society has a dual nature then it has to have two opposing, yet equally dependent, aspects. In this case it would be the oppressor nation (euro-Amerikkkans) vs. the oppressed nations (Brown, Black, etc). So how do we resolve the principal contradictions in the united $tates? Just as the imperialists and the oppressor nation has their tiger, we too can have a tiger and defeat theirs. However, this is once again only possible when the struggle of opposites reaches its point of open antagonism, and to know when this happens we must take careful watch of the situation and always keep the concrete analysis of concrete conditions acutely in mind.

At this point in hystory our so-called “tiger” is non-existent – it is neither a real tiger nor a paper tiger. It is a dead tiger. What is meant by this is that we as a collective (Brown, Black, etc.) have been continuously colonized and oppressed by capitalism/imperialism and we are almost helpless to stop it from destroying us and our cultures. Yet, hystory teaches us that imperialism and the ruling classes have never been able to completely wipe out all traces of a nation or its people, even though it has come pretty damn close and continues to advance.

Therefore our only choice, if we are to survive the anarchy and destruction of capitalist construction, is to get to constructing ourselves. We must build this “People’s Tiger”, and the first step to building this internal force which will push development forward will be in the unification of the people. This means building a united front for a united struggle against the oppressors.

Unity evolves from the inside out. This begins with the revolutionization of our consciousness, our minds. First we change the way we think, then we apply this to our material conditions and in the way we interact with others, this is how we change our surroundings. This applies to all peoples of all societies, especially that society within a society, that society separated by the rest of the people, separated by concrete and steel - This is unity from the inside out in all its glory.

Power to the People!
Long live the Maoist Internationalist Movement!
Long live the United Soldiers from Within!

Notes:
1. “Talk with the American Correspondent Anna Louise Strong” August, 1946, Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tsetung, Foreign Language Press: Peking, 1971, p.345.
2. Ibid. p. 346.
3. Mao Zedong. On Contradiction.

chain
[Rhymes/Poetry] [California] [ULK Issue 15]
expand

The Animal Factory


The gaping jaw of the
prison industrial complex beckons,
grinding away basic human decency

Men forced into a blast furnace
of warehoused existence,
the ore of humanity smelted away
until only the dross remains

Kindness…compassion…love…
…all that defines one as human…obliterated.

Anger…resentment…despair…
…the remains of a once caring human.

Treated worse than rabid animals,
for are they not graced with a peaceful
death?
Animals are not stripped, forced to
parade around naked, mocked and
humiliated, flashlights beamed into
every orifice.

Animals are not caged in a
claustrophobic atmosphere, living
amidst a breeding ground of hatred
and rage.
Animals are not forced to survive
lives of mind-numbing tedium,
interspersed with moments of
chaotic violence.

Corrections & rehabilitation?
Corruption & retribution…
… closer to truth
human-form enters one end,
animal-form expelled out the other.

Take heed society, for these animals,
these human animals, shall one day
walk amongst you.
They are your creation,
created by societal apathy and
political fear-mongering,
created at your factories…

…the animal factories

chain
[Organizing] [Legal] [Campaigns] [California] [ULK Issue 14]
expand

Address Our Grievances! Campaign Spreads

In Under Lock & Key issue 13, we published an article announcing a campaign about the improper handling of grievances by prison staff. Below is an update from the California comrade who originally turned us on to the campaign.

I initially mailed out my own petition to the CDCR Director Level back in Nov./Dec. of ’09 as part of the first wave of petitions. This was done under the auspice of its originator. However some time after the first wave went out, the persyn who devised this plan was subsequently taken to the hole. It was rumored that it was exactly because of this persyn’s legal maneuvering that he was sent to the hole. Anyway, back in January ’10 I received a response. As it turns out, these petitions were never investigated or even looked into as we requested. The Appeals Coordinator at the Director Level simply re-routed my petition back to the Warden’s office here at this institution, at which time the warden here implied that the appeals which I had pending were screened back to me because I basically failed to comply with inmate appeal regulations. This is of course total bullshit! The “W.” pretty much just issued me a de facto “695 Screen Out Form” without ever really looking into the matter, thereby sweeping the matter back under the rug.

I then decided that someone needed to step up to the plate and pick up where this petition’s originator left off. I began by tracking down as many people as I could find who’d participate in the legal action. I tracked down about eighteen people, of which only three others besides myself received responses. As it turned out, we all got the same document with seemingly no other action taken.

I then proceeded to make as many copies of the original petition as I could obtain. I was only able to make 20. Of these 20 I only had twelve more people agree to mail the petitions out. As of today nobody’s received any responses.

I contacted the Ca. Prison Law Office, useless. The Ombudsman, useless, no response, and a few other organizations claiming to offer inmates assistance (Critical Resistance? critically useless). I didn’t bother with Internal Affairs or the Inspector General as they are both connected to CDCR and seemingly cover their asses. The DOJ is a different story. However, they will only take action if it can be proven that civil rights abuses are taking place en masse. Since only four of us received responses, the DOJ will not take action.

So it hasn’t turned out as we hoped [with an investigation into the failed CDCR grievance system]. I suppose it wasn’t a total failure, though, as we have proved yet again that the inmate appeals procedure in the Ca. Dept. of Corruption is nothing but an obstacle placed in front of prisoners’ path to the U.$. judicial system.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade’s initiative to pick up a worthwhile project, after state repression stopped the original leader, is commendable. Others who have this kind of initiative should be working with the United Struggle from Within, the MIM(Prisons)-led anti-imperialist prisoner organization. Comrades have been working diligently to expand the scope of the campaign and we now have petitions prepared for CA, MO, OK and TX. If you are filing grievances about any issue and they aren’t being handled properly by staff, consider becoming a part of this campaign and spread it to your people inside.

This comrade’s analysis of the success of the campaign is completely accurate. We can hope for an investigation into the corrupt grievance system, but if it doesn’t happen, then we have instead successfully exposed yet another flaw in the Amerikkkan “justice” system. It is important to not give up even if we feel like nothing will happen because these exposures are agitational points that we can rally people around. Also, like this comrade pointed out, if we send in enough petitions to the DOJ s/he believes that they may respond. So continue to send in your grievance petitions and get with MIM(Prisons) to get involved!

chain
[National Oppression] [High Desert State Prison] [California] [ULK Issue 14]
expand

No access to law library in High Desert

I’m writing in regards to a letter I had read asking for us prisoners to provide art in order to convey the message of injustice in prison. As you know in prison there are many unjust actions that occur on a daily basis so there is a lot to draw on. However, one of the many recent hardships brought upon us Mexicans (specifically northerners) is a mass validation sweep in High Desert State Prison on 8/4/09. 58 northern hispanics were taken off the mainline without due process and stuck in Ad-Seg (Z unit). Now we are all diligently striving to appeal these false fabricated lies on our people but administration has found a new way to hinder our progress by preventing us ample time to go to the law library, making it difficult to get Title 15s, make copies, etc.

chain
[Campaigns] [Kern Valley State Prison] [California]
expand

Seeing Through the Bureaucratic Runaround Tactic

04/22/2010

The above memorandum is a response to a petition for the correct handling of grievances signed by dozens of prisoners held in the Kern Valley State Prison KVSP) Administrative Segregation Unit. In it the Appeals Coordinator does the job s/he was hired to do: ignores the complaints of the prisoners, baselessly denies any accusations of illegal activity, and employs the bureaucratic runaround tactic (in this case advising the prisoners to seek redress within the same system they are complaining about).

Shortly after receiving this memo, the USW leader of this campaign in KVSP did follow the advice given and filed a group appeal on a 602 form. To our knowledge, he has not yet received a response for this group appeal.

Regarding a complaint about the failed grievance system, we do not expect the Appeals Coordinator to admit guilt. But it can be valuable to go through their steps to seek remedy to create a clear example that their system does not work. The CDCR Office of Internal Affairs “concluded the issues can more likely be managed at the institution” rather than the state level. What? Obviously it can’t; that’s what the whole petition is about. And the Appeals Coordinator says to file a 602 regarding the corrupt 602 system.

For those trying to find a strategy to combat the injustices of the prison industrial complex, we recommend working in the Maoist framework toward a world without oppression. You can do this by contributing to MIM(Prisons), spreading the grievance campaign, or starting/joining a Maoist cell in your own area.

chain
[Spanish] [California]
expand

Inmigrantes, migrantes y ciudadanos estadunidenses

Los Estados Unidos es el crisol de culturas del mundo. Un poco de todo y de todos habita esta tierra. Mejor dicho, es la tierra de la oportunidad ¿pues qué más se puede esperar, no? De norte a sur, de este a oeste, gente está haciendo hasta lo imposible para llegar hasta esta tierra de lamento. Por supuesto que es la tierra de las oportunidades, claro, de la oportunidad de ser golpeado, derrotado, pisoteado y escupido por todos lados.

Mientras la gente del Tercer Mundo o de los países empobrecidos están bajo la falsa percepción de que este es el lugar idóneo para estar y progresar, haciendo cualquier intento necesario para llegar hasta aquí; la agencia militar del ICE se sienta desde arriba de la cerca de púas y espera el momento oportuno para brincar sobre sus espaldas y, o bien, permitir la explotación de su trabajo o enviarlos de regreso a su desastroso ambiente del cuál están huyendo.

Siendo un individuo nacido aquí en estos Estados (Des)unidos, viviendo entre los mismos imperialistas, mi opinión sobre el tema de la situación fronteriza o del encarcelamiento de otros camaradas de otros países—que desean mejorar su situación por tomar un poco de lo que estas serpientes imperialistas han tomado de ellos—puede ser tomada como la de una persona que está mirando desde afuera.

Pero confíe y créame, que soy un hermano mirando desde adentro. No soy ciudadano U$, tampoco soy amerikkkano. Mi padre es descendiente Samoano y mi madre es descendiente de África, punto. Soy inmigrante junto con todos los individuos en este país desunido que no es indígena. Colón y su escuadrón llegaron de Europa huyendo de malas condiciones y buscando una oportunidad para mejorar sus condiciones y escaparse del hambre capitalista de la reina. ¿Dónde estaba el ICE en ese entonces? En el mismo barco del Mayflower que trajo el primer cargamento de esclavos africanos, probablemente él era el hijo de puta que manejaba la nave. Cuando uno piensa sobre la fundación de los E.U. como un país desunido se debe pensar en los inmigrantes y salta-fronteras de esta tierra. Todo desde los ingleses, los alemanes, los franceses, hasta los holandeses y irlandeses fueron los que llegaron a esta tierra infringiendo a los nativos.

La única diferencia entre ellos y muchos inmigrantes del tercer mundo es que éstos no pueden permanecer mucho tiempo bajo el sol sin quemarse, ni tienen ojos rasgados ni pelo crespo ni saben lo mínimo acerca del comunismo. Ellos son blancos. Ellos nada más buscan el crecimiento y desarrollo imperialista de su raza blanca, y la destrucción de la gente del tercer mundo y el espíritu comunista. Ahora, no estoy jugando la carta racista aquí, así que no lo tomen como si, pero para poder tratar efectivamente este problema necesitamos dirigir el hecho subrayado de la ideología imperialista blanca y el concepto de supremacía blanca. Desde el principio de la expansión colonial, el hombre blanco a estado delegando una campaña en la cual él es el hombre superior del planeta tierra y todos deben arrodillarse frente a él y su semilla, alabándolos siempre. En su campaña le ha declarado guerra a todas las naciones que niegan reconocer esta supuesta superioridad y intentan no sólo suprimir estas naciones sino suspenderlos de su existencia (i.e. las primeras naciones de Norte América). Cuando los esclavos africanos empezaron a escaparse del rebaño de sus dueños y comenzaron a causarle tremendo dolor a la señorita libertada, los europeos pronto respondieron con la KKK, que al cambio intentaron de desanimar a los africanos a que huyeran por medio de ataques terroristas. No es muy diferente hoy en día excepto que dejan sus batas blancas y suásticas en casa. Cuando piensas en la agencia de ICE y a lo que se dedican, lo único que les falta son las batas blancas.

Permiten que la gente de países pobres entren al país saltando fronteras, les permiten que trabajen en los campos de algodón, o bodegas, y después en cuanto de pronto ya no necesitan de la mano de obra barata los mandan a un nuevo “campo de control social” o los mandan fuera de los Estados Unidos y de regreso a su país asolado por la guerra imperialista.

O se ama o se odia, o se acepta o se niega. La única manera de eliminar el problema fronterizo es acabar con el imperialismo y su ideología que lo mantiene vivo.


MIM(prisiones) responde: Mientras sobre todo correcto, este camarada falla en distinguir entre la ciudadanía de un país y la nacionalidad. Estamos de acuerdo que, en este país, para estar al lado del opresor uno debe renunciar cualquier la pertenencia a la nación yanqui. También estamos de acuerdo que hay varias nacionales en Norte américa y muchos de ellos sufren de la opresión de las nacionales amerikanas y kanadiences. Esto es señalado en el rechazo de derechos propietarios, aprisionamiento masivo, guerra química por medio de narcóticos, el alto paso de muertos por enfermedades prevenibles y terrorismo policiaco de la policía estatal.

No obstante, siendo un miembro de una nación opresiva en Norte américa no significa que no seas ciudadano. La diferencia siendo en que, como ciudadano puedes trabajar legalmente y ganar mala paga, a pesar que ya es bastante más difícil conseguir el puesto para uno que para los blancos. Aunque migrantes a veces pueden ganar mucho más que otros en el tercer mundo, ellos enfrentan explotación aquí en los e$tado$ unido$, y otras formas de opresión que muchos ciudadanos legales no necesitan temer.

Estamos de acuerdo con la idea de que este compañero no es un ciudadanos de E.E.U.U. debido a la posición de prisionero del Estado.
Miramos hacia prisioneros y migrantes adentro del país como fuerzas revolucionarias potentes porque no disfrutan de plenos derechos de la ciudadanía. Aparte del hecho de que más y más presos son inmigrantes, esta es la conexión que hace que el tema de los migrantes sea muy importante para los presos de este país. La lucha de liberación nacional será dirigida por los que entre los oprimidos que tienen un gran interés frente al imperialismo.

La analogía entre I.C.E. y la KKK está sumamente a la medida, aunque diríamos que “los Minute Men” son el comparativo más directo. Pero ICE se diferencia en que sus agentes son muy bien pagados por lo que hacen, no solamente voluntarios de su nación. Los dos juegan una parte en el manejo de las naciones de esta gente explotada para el beneficio de su nación.

Una nota final sobre las definiciones, una pregunta que ha surgido en la discusión de este tema es cómo se utilizan los términos “migrante”, “inmigrante” y “no ciudadano”. Como se mencionó anteriormente, los no ciudadanos son personas sin derechos de ciudadanía legal, y en los prisioneros de E.E.U.U, mientras que por lo general legalmente a los ciudadanos, se le podría incluir en este grupo o al menos considerados ciudadanos parciales. Los inmigrantes y los migrantes no son ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, un inmigrante es alguien que se muda a otro lugar para vivir. Los migrantes son personas que viajan de un lugar a otro con el fin de encontrar trabajo. Puede que no tengan un hogar, pero a menudo no tienen una familia que envían dinero y prefiere estar con ella.

chain
[Abuse] [] [California]
expand

Jails just as bad as prisons

We talk a lot about what’s going on in the prison system but what about what’s going on in the county jails? The Los Angeles County Jail (MCJ) where the infamous headquarters is located is like CDCR’s notorious “green wall”. Operation Safe Jail (OSJ) is no more than a prison gang, more so than those who are validated and serving time in CDCR’s SHU facilities. Just like the green wall, they bet on human cock fights and beat you down to the point where you can’t even walk anymore. In prison I dropped out of a prison gang and have been doing my time in SNY facilities also know as PC (Protected Custody).

In August 2009, as I was getting booked through the LA County Jail processes and being interviewed by officers. I informed them that I was put on the hit list by a [lumpen organization] member and was put in PC in State Prison and that I should be put into PC in the county jail as well since I still do fear for my life and safety. They housed me in high power fish roll 4500 for 3 weeks with no contact with anybody, no visit, no phone calls, nothing. After that I was interviewed by OSJ and I explained to them my situation and they promised to put me in PC. But to my surprise they lied to me because I was declassed to General Population. I did start to refuse but officers grabbed me, by twisting my arms they forced me to walk to another floor where I was to be housed in GP. I refused and pulled away from their torturing grasp. They took me down and beat me with unnecessary force. They tasered me while I was on the ground for a long, long time. After I passed out. I awoke to them still beating on me hand cuffed. They were even tasering my hand cuffs.

When it was all over they promised to put me in PC if I did not say anything to the lieutenant or anybody while they put me on camera where I was to be asked some questions that I was to answer “I don’t want to talk about it” to every question, or I would be put back into GP. So I did what I was told for fear of my safety. To my surprise I was medically cleared and they put me in a cell in Green Light Fish Roll for PC process. They also told me that if I had any complaints they would put me in GP.

I really needed to see a doctor again. But I couldn’t ask for fear that I would be put in GP so I did what they told me. Well, everybody else on Fish Roll heard my cries of pain and suffering and they called “man down” for me which I begged them not to for fear that they would think I’m still complaining. They finally came (officers and nurses) and took me to the MCJ’s clinic where they transported me to LCMC where they discovered that I have a collapsed lung. It it wasn’t for everybody calling man down for me I would have died that night.

Of course they lied on the report and submitted it to the DA for prosecution. They gave me 2 years with 1/2 for resisting. I am now in prison because LA County failed to serve and protect, as their motto says.

chain
[National Oppression] [High Desert State Prison] [California] [ULK Issue 14]
expand

False gang validations to repress Latinos

I am writing to you to seek advice, assistance or referral on how to get word out about biased racial profiling, mass validation, and their failure to follow their own policies and laws. Now let me just give a quick run down on what is going on here at High Desert State Prison (HDSP). In August 2009, the California Department of Corrections’ goon squad, Institutional Gang Investigators, took all personal property from all “northern Hispanic” inmates on C-facility and at this time removed between 40 to 50 “northern Hispanics” from the mainline and validated us as prison gang members. Several inmates were placed on potty watch. (This is where inmates are placed in a diaper taped up and handcuffed 24 hours a day and forced to use a plastic bag to relieve themselves.) The inmates were eventually validated as gang members and are retained in ASU and we are not being transferred to appropriate prisons. Most of the points used against us were either made up or do not meet guidelines of the law to validate us. There are a lot of violations of federal and state laws going on here but I’m going to keep this brief.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The U.$. imperialists have divided the Chicano Nation (and Latinos in general) in California by drawing a line across the middle of the state and labeling those who grew up north of that line “northern Hispanics.” They call the “northerners” and “southerners” gangs worthy of repression, yet countless comrades have been forced into these groups by the CDCR themselves. Early in the process, they assigned certain prisons and units to “northerners” and others to “southerners.” Then when they want to lock up all the Latinos they can do so and say they are dealing with a “gang.”

It is an absolute joke that this thinly veiled form of national oppression passes as legal in a bourgeois democracy. Of course, there are neo-colonial agents that have played into these divisions from the beginning. Just as the Amerikans divided Korea and Vietnam between north and south by setting up puppet leaderships, they have done the same in U.$.-occupied Aztlán. This is why the demand for the unification of oppressed nations and their territories is an inherently anti-imperialist demand.

chain
[Medical Care] [California State Prison, Sacramento] [California]
expand

Medical care is a sham

The medical and mental health services in here is bad news. Either by sham or lack of care, or none at all. I have bad allergies and a doctor here at CSP-SAC [California State Prison - Sacramento] took me off my allergy medication to treat it. And even worse, a guy who had cancer was taken off his meds that treats his cancer.

For a time, between 1997 and 2001, I was constantly cell extracted and beaten by prison officials just for filing grievances/litigation and standing up for yard, showers, store, mail, medical, law library access, etc.

At this current time I am back in the hole. I’ve been here a little over a year for not accepting a celly. As I stand up to oppression I stand high to death or victory.

chain