Georgia Prisons

I am being held at GA State Prison in G bld Tier 2 hell. They are only washing clothes once a week, our meals in Styrofoam trays prepared in another prison across the street, the trays are cold and maybe 1/2 the quantity we should receive. I haven't been able to use the phone in over a month or the kiosk computer. They do not shave or give haircuts in the 4 months I have been back here, they run the yard-outside cage -1-2 times per week if we are lucky.

They are doing our seg cell charts as 'gang signatures' where they collect-up all the charts + bring them to the control booth + use a cheat sheet + sign all charts to 'show' that they did their 30 min. walk through. Especially night shift. I have seizures and laid on floor for 3 hrs before c/o Prestonback came through, and he didn't look in on me. I wasn't able to talk to anyone until 6:00 AM shift-change and they thought I was lying about the seizure . I take medication for it.

I purchased a computer tablet from Jpay, the tracking says it was delivered Feb. 18, but I've not received it! And they denied my grievance! It cost $106.00 Ms. Black and or the mail lady have signed for it. They did the same thing with a food package I was supposed to get 2 months ago for $130.00. It took 3 months to get the money back on my folks’ credit card and I never received it. They have some sort of scam going on with things that are sent to the prison especially tennis shoes.

Oh yes and finally, here is a copy of my oms schedule... As you can see it states that I am on "inside orderly" activity location "dorm." Also from 9-11 the O.U.T./Self Discovery program on Thursday. Well I am in a 2 man cell 24/7 with barely 1-2 hrs out of it a week, I am not an inside orderly and I've been on Tier 2 over 4 months and have not had 1 class/program. I've written the program office 'Mr. Flowers' he does not respond and I have only seen him in here 1 time in 4 months. I wrote Washington about this. I am sure we are supposed to be having classes and be let out of these boxes, its mental torture in here 24/7. I'm 51 on Chronic care for seizures and have been beaten by several cellmates. I just went for a skull MRI for it!

The Amerikkkan government views our power of enlightenment as immeasurably more dangerous than their wars, and will stop at nothing to try and suppress it. Just a point to ponder as I kick off this letter and something most of us already know but can never be overstated enough.

Back in the horrific segregation unit (that I was housed in for almost 6 months) I had the pleasure of witnessing this: I ended the year by composing a 30-page letter to you and also by putting every copy of ULK in my possession into circulation. Overnight the other captives' conversation transformed from mostly useless chatter into inspired pro-active resistance-fueled talk. They would approach my cell door, timidly, in hopes of receiving more. I'll never forget the hungry look in their eyes and the lesson I learned in this.

Perhaps I've overextended my assumption of the-ones-inside's awareness of the inner-workings to the Prison Industrial Complex. It baffles me how blind so many remain to it even while stationed in the very center of it. So I understand better now the need, in most cases, of beginning at square one, then perhaps setting a slower pace than I've practiced in the past in the goal of enlightenment. Although the combined effort of my methods and your printed words did seem to move things along rather quickly.

Maybe you recall how, as I was composing the year-end letter to you, I had the pleasure to overhear prisoners discussing if it's realistic and possible to succeed in fighting back against the system. With 2-against-1 deciding that it is. Then the one who didn't believe so shouting for grievance forms. While the sadistic and beyond-lazy unit manager looked on and listened in with a pained and disappointed look on his face. This was only days after I'd passed ULK 65 along.

After this I quickly distributed everything anti-establishment in my possession. By New Years Day everything I had was passed along. Throwing shit on prisoners by other prisoners was a common and daily occurrence, but by the 3rd a loud-mouthed and worthless nurse was covered and the next day a C.O. While I don't endorse the act of propelling excrement missiles, if it must be done then at least let pigs roll in it!

That same day I received a note from a prisoner terrified he would suffer a seizure and die while in the seg unit due to the criminally inadequate medical staff and the deliberate indifference displayed by the C.O.s. While writing my response to him, a mail clerk delivered to me a brand new Jailhouse Lawyer's Handbook so I sent him my used one along with my response and of course your address. The next morning a prisoner in seg is found dead. A month to the day of my relaunch of medical grievances which had been postponed by my having to document 6 months worth of obvious retaliation from the pigs.

By January 7, previously apathetic prisoners are demanding grievances and statement forms while I'm circulating the grievance petition and the next morning I transfer to my current location. An extremely cushy prison set up which I'm thankful to be at. But at the same time I'm overwhelmed with feelings of survival guilt for the ones left behind there, and all of the fucked up prisons. I am rather stoked about how I'm not completely cut off from current events any longer since I'm free from the sensory deprivation torture chamber and will be able to prepare essays about recent news now. Like this border wall nonsense with the true purpose to provide a physical manifestation for the racial resentment found inside many of those in Trump's base. I'd advise the idiot in chief to remember the humpty dumpty nursery rhyme.

In the lengthy year-end letter I'd written how I planned to share my history with the grievance process to demonstrate how the petition arrived right on time and almost seemed pre-planned. It's definitely a game changer and I can never thank you enough. If you are interested in viewing that, I'll be more than glad to send it in the future. Right now I want to go over my history with ULK so far and also request any extra issues available to learn from and circulate.

This time last year I had the good fortune of coming across ULK 60. I signed up for a subscription and received 61. I got 62 and after fucking up the audit the next day an angered and cowardly unit manager removed it from my back pocket and destroyed it before placing me outdoors until medical had to treat me for dehydration. The next issue was covered in shit thrown by prisoners who were weak-minded enough to be enticed by the pigs in hopes of thwarting the continuation of my 1983 Civil Action claim. Fuck, the interruptions won't stop — it sure is easier to write in seg! I will come up with a way to remain better focused in the next one comrades. In the meantime I will continue on to service to others, defending the oppressed, and self-sacrifice geared towards meeting the goals towards greater good.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Thanks for sharing this great example of the potential impact of sharing political literature with others. Not only was this comrade engaged by coming across Under Lock & Key but then ey went on to engage others by sharing ULK. It's always inspiring when we get to see the positive results of our organizing work. Spreading around ULK is a great way to have an impact. If you want to get extra copies for distribution write in to let us know.

Let me begin by writing how it makes me very uncomfortable placing myself into the role of victim here. But what causes me much more discomfort is entertaining any idea of expressing apathy towards this situation of obvious sociopaths given free rein to live out all of their sickening fantasies inside of prison walls. Which is in turn worsening the lives of all outside of them! September 1st, 2017, I was injected against my will with methamphetamine by other prisoners with the intent to kill me. My claim and condition were ignored by G.D.C. staff and I spent the following 3 months mocked, tortured, and abused before placed on the mental heath caseload, then transferred to another prison. Even though I'd been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder a month prior to my arrest.

I don't believe it a coincidence how I was placed into the veterans dorm along with the head of the Aryan Brotherhood, who transferred there two days before me, being how I was labeled as an anarchist, anti-fascist, when passing through the diagnostic prison. I spent the next couple of months on alert and paranoid (or aware) before sent to segregation as punishment for having the audacity to exercise my First Amendment Right and criticize the judge who sentenced me to 5 years 11 months 20 days for my first ever shoplifting. The letter contained no threats or even profanity, however, an FBI investigation was launched and my mail confiscated and never returned.

A few months later, I expressed to a psychiatrist my fear I'm becoming homicidal due to placement into a kill or be killed environment and sent back into segregation. While awaiting a cell, I was put into a small and filthy shower stall and left for hours. Frustrated, I kicked open a stall door in view of the yearly audit inspectors who were present costing the prison a large sum of cash in safety fines. For this I was taken outside and left without food and water until escorted to medical after self-mutilating, and treated for dehydration, or "extreme thirst" as it is documented!

The following month I was transferred to my current location, a horrific and corrupt prison. Since arriving, I've been put into the position of having to choose between death or participation in a federal crime, something this facility is aware of and involved in. I had all of my personal belongings destroyed more than once. And on the one year anniversary of the failed murder attempt, prisoners were permitted to break free from the segregational cells and cover me with urine and feces several times. The cell only contained a non-functioning sink, so I again had to self-mutilate to shower. When word of this reached a psychologist, the prison went into an immediate institutional lockdown and inspectors arrived to begin writing fines. Afterwards, I was left without clothing, blankets or bed linens, hygiene care products, access to email or phones.

On November 8th, my mood stabilizer medication was discontinued without warning and the following day malicious and sadistic use of a chemical agent was used on me, resulting in a severe injury to my back, which was diagnosed with chronic pain a month prior to my arrest. December 12th I awoke to the overhead sprinklers covering me with black mold tainted water for no other purpose but to again destroy whatever personal property I've managed to re-accumulate. December 23rd I watched the prisoner who was housed in the neighboring cell be stabbed outside of my cell repeatedly. After which his condition was ignored by G.D.C. staff until he broke out of his cell once more to climb atop the "sally port" and attempt suicide by hanging himself. Only then was he transported to a hospital and given stitches and paperwork written concerning the stabbing.

In conclusion, this pattern of abuses I've suffered continues and seems to have come full circle involving another prisoner, and who knows how many others? I've documented each of these abuses through the Grievance Procedure Process, which has so far proved to be ineffective and fail to profile corrective action.

The prison's segregation unit at Calhoun State Prison (CSP) has a practical policy of delaying an insulin-dependent diabetic's finger-stick & insulin injection until several hours after meals have already been served and the empty meal trays collected back up. This is even though their medical orders call for them to receive finger-sticks & insulin before meals, not afterward. This is a textbook example (or, in this prison setting, a case-law example) of a prison policy of indifference which exists in violation of both the contemporary standards recognized by the medical profession (medical malpractice), and the federal constitution's 8th Amendment's proscription against cruel & unusual punishments.

A factor contributing to this policy is that at CSP's segregation (seg) unit breakfast is passed out anytime between 4:30 a.m. & 5 a.m. but CSP's administration doesn't have its medical staff clocking in for work until 6 a.m. every morning. By that time (1-1.5 hours after breakfast) the diabetics housed in seg are badly in need of relief from the dangerously high blood glucose/sugar level resulting from their having ate breakfast without any insulin. I know from my own experience as an insulin-dependent diabetic that if I eat without first taking insulin I develop a dangerously high glucose level in the 300s, 400s, 500s, or higher. This is a typical insulin-dependent's reaction to eating without first receiving the prescribed dosage of insulin he requires for the particular meal.

When nurses clock in at 6 a.m. all of the diabetics housed in prison general population have not ate yet. However, instead of first proceeding to seg to promptly attend to those diabetics who are in acute distress, nurses are instead choosing to administer insulin to the diabetics in general population. Next, they are choosing to perform pill call for the entire non-diabetic general population.

Depending on the efficiency of the particular nurses working on a given day, by the time it's all said and done nurses aren't arriving in seg with glucose meters & insulin until anywhere from 7-10 a.m. every morning, sometimes even later. Delays are also occurring at lunchtime & suppertime, even though nurses are already clocked in and on duty, and so there is really no explanation apparent to justify these additional delays. I kept a record of the delays between meals & insulin, and the nurses responsible for the worst delays are Nurse Williams, Nurse Deefe, Nurse Gilbert, Nurse Porter, and Nurse Mills.

To clear the air on how dangerous hours-long delays are, I am going to quote to you from page 54 of Dr. Jorge E. Rodriguez's book Diabetes Solution, where he explains the dangers of high blood sugar, also called hyperglycerin:

"Hyperglycemia, by definition, is a level of sugar in the blood above the accepted normal range... the normal range for a person's fasting blood sugar ("fasting" means after 8 or more hours without eating anything) level is below 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) of blood, and the normal range at any other time should be below 180 mg/dl)... Elevated blood sugar in and of itself causes tissue damage but having a blood sugar that is extremely elevated can cause life-threatening changes in the body in a matter of hours. An extremely high blood sugar level, and I mean at least 300 — remember, normal is under 100 (fasting) or 180 (any other time) — can cause an imbalance in the delicate acid-based structure in the tissues of the body. When the body can no longer use sugar as an energy source it starts breaking down fat and protein, one of the by-products of these two alternative sources of energy is ketones. A high level of circulating ketones not only damages tissues, but can cause confusion, unconsciousness, and coma."

The above medical expert's opinion sufficiently shows how diabetics housed in CSP's segregation unit are in imminent danger of serious physical injury and/or death. Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) will try to remedy a prisoner's medical complaints by transferring him to another prison. In just 3 years my complaints of improper diabetic care has caused my transfers to 8 different prisons (there is also a deficiency in the diabetic care at my present prison, Wheeler Correctional Facility).

These repeated failures are evidence which supports a civil complaint, not only against these individual prisons, but against the entire GDC, under the litigation theory that there's no prison in the GDC network it can transfer me to where I won't be in imminent danger of serious physical injury or death, due to a lack of adequate diabetic care. I will keep you informed of all the latest developments.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This is a followup to the articles "Insulin Indifference Endangers Prisoners", and "Fixing Insulin Indifference", which we published in 2017 on this same insulin problem in Georgia. These medical battles are literally life and death for some people. Just a further example of the indifference and negligence of the criminal injustice system.

I wrote this piece because I was being irked by brothers talking to one another. I made a copy and posted it inside the dormitory as I always do. I also posted "Incarcerated Minds" by a California prisoner (March 2016).

Backbiting is a disease that is tearing the fabric of our brotherly threads of unity. Let's keep it all the way 100. When one possesses commissary, tennis shoes, cigarettes, drugs, cell phones or just a swagger that another desires and has no means to obtain it or lack a hustler's ambition to go and get it, one will begin to spread a venom in the community. This venom begins to seep into the heart and mind of the speaker until he becomes tainted, corrupted and eventually a hater. He hates himself foremost but will try to contaminate thy neighbor as though you are the culprit in his wicked heart.

He will attempt to turn people against you! He will "shake salt" on your name. He will snitch on you, do anything within his will power to aid in the destruction of you. One must be mindful of their thoughts, because they will become your words and eventually your actions! Get up off your punk ass and be your own man! Do for yourself and just maybe that fortunate comrade will aid you in your journey to become successful. A grown man talking about another man is weak! And the one who listens to and condones this trash talk is no better for not operating on the heart of that brother and extracting this cancer out of him.

You are fake if you smile in a man's face and then when he leaves you call him lame or a pussy or whatever terminology used to describe your emotional hatred. This is the William Lynch theory in full effect 300 years later, just as he predicted. Planting dissent within our brotherhood. Our duty is to contradict that theory by uniting amongst one another and doing the total opposite.

I know that it is an extremely arduous task because I'm a proactive man of unity in peace, but when all of us are dead or in jail from this contagious disease that will cause us to rob, kill and destroy one another.

We represent Gangsters, Bloods, Crips, Lords, Pirus, Aryans, Goodfellas, Muslim, Brown pride, even Christians, but everyone of us suffer from the same struggles: incarceration, homelessness, poverty, police brutality, poor education, addiction, etc. Before we can come against each other we need to come together and overcome these struggles of capitalistic imperialism.

Peace to the revolutionary voices of insight. We will combat this capitalist devil through peace and unity. Through camaraderie and communism. The power is vested in the people; We are the people.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This essay really highlights one of the five points of the United Front for Peace in Prisons: Unity. And the writer is not only criticizing those who backbite and gossip, but ey is also doing something about it. Posting articles is a great way to try to get people thinking about something new. It can be less confrontational than attacking these folks directly to their faces. Though sometimes calling out behavior when it happens is also very effective. We want to hear more about the things people are doing like this to build peace and unity behind bars. Follow this comrade's example and send in your reports for the next issue of ULK.

I am currently at Hays State Prison in Trion, GA. I for the record am white, am a Muslim by religion, and tired of seeing all these white trash pigz and klansmen that work here on this kkkompound treat all the inmates like modern day slaves.

There is this level style program called Tier II in GA (see Sop 209.08 Tier II/Administrative Segregation) and here at Hays it is beyond the norm of oppression. Unit managers, supervisors, and officers alike threaten and try to antagonize any prisoner they see as weak. There is an area known to all as simply "behind the glass" its supposed to be level 6 security and the wardens have at times said that level 6 status only will last 30 days, but people are kept in there up to 90 days, for no reason at all. The warden has personally told people, myself included, that "you get no legal library behind the glass."

The food service here is supervised by ARAMARK, a major imperialist conglomerate in the food service industry, and per the above SOP all Tier II inmates are to receive the same quality and quantity of food as GP. However we don't receive coffee at breakfast all other state run institutions in the GDC do, our portions are often inadequate and no way possible add up to 2000 calories per day, we only receive lunch Monday-Thursday except on state/federal holidays, meaning on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and any and all holidays we only eat twice, the trays arrive cold more often than not.

When officers are confronted with issues they, in some cases, lie and simply move on. Today, 25 December 2017 I watched a nurse refuse a man his mental health medication, I am unsure of this nurse's name, simply because he wouldn't go to the back of his cell even though he is no "behind the glass." When he asked the C.O. working pill pass why he had to step back the C.O. said "I don't trust you." When the inmate refused to move the nurse said "you have three seconds then you've refused your meds," and ultimately she refused his medication.

There are many other very cruel things I've heard about but until I see the actual use of "the involuntary hunger strike" or an inmate beat to death by staff, I cannot speak on them.

I ask my fellow inmates/convicts no matter your race, religion, gang affiliation, or sexual preference to stand as one at Hays State Prison without using any unwarranted violence so that us on lockdown get what we need. Please y'all come together and fight oppression and racism with me cause I cannot do it alone.

To all my Muslim brothers As-Salam Alaikum and to the Christians God Bless and to the ones I've left out be safe and hold your heads up.

It's more war against each other but if it comes down to it some camps will ride on those pigz because everyone ain't for it but the trick is we will not stop spending our money with these clowns. If we stop spending on shit they create then we may get the attention we stand for.

Me for example, on November 16, 2017 on breakfast trays there were maggots in the potatoes so I refused all my trays but I get a diet sack 3x7, which means 3 meals 7 times a week. Okay I must admit I did get my diet sack on November 18 but I heard an office say oh you refuse trays but don't refuse packets? So I thought maybe I need to refuse them as well. So I did. I only went to medical once, that was November 20. Said I was normal upon Nov 20 til Nov 30 I went without nothing. So upon December 1 I never spoke with noone and noone came to speak with me but this fake ass mental health counselor. I told her I haven't eaten she then said that's my choice. It's nothing she can do for me.

So on December 1, 2017 I went to the stone because I then notice they will not help me. I didn't intend for a hunger strike but I feel I had to act some way. Deputy Warden took pictures of the whole thing still bringing the same trays. These people have brothas living in strip cells who haven't did shit to be in there. Strip cell you can't flush your own toilet imagine you make the officer mad? Man these people done put these young dudes on strip cell for yelling out the door only to get attention of the warden to speak with him but they was put in a shower for numerous of hours like 10-6pm and then taken to a room and strip with no clothing no paper gown no socks, crazy shit, but this is how we want to live. Free every mentally power brotha and sista who fight for their cause. I stand and fall for you and with you.

Any help you can offer me to help me educate myself would be awesome. So I'm stuck on a lockdown program here in Georgia. We are locked down 24 hrs a day, with no library, no schooling, and most inmates here don't want to help themselves, much less anyone else. I have no family help. I'm a lil better off than some, i do have my GED. But I still want to better myself any way I can.

In 2012 at Wheeler Correctional Facility (a "Corrections Corporation of America" facility) the prison was following Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC)'s standard operating procedure (SOP) for it's grievance procedure. Step 1 was an informal grievance (with a 10-day response time). Writing space on the form was limited to just 3 lines. Responses were also limited to 3 lines. Step 2 was a formal grievance (with a 30-day response time). Writing space was a 2.5" by 6" box on the form. If required, the prisoner could attach 1 additional page to the grievance. For my formal grievance, I used the entire box and 1 attachment page. This was approximately 34 more additional lines of pertinent information to investigate than on my informal grievance.

However, the response I received was the same verbatim 3-sentence response I received to my informal. This was the practice at Wheeler Correctional Facility in 2012. At Step 3, the appeal to GDC's Central Office, I complained that merely repeating the same response to the informal grievance was ignoring the information/concerns contained in the 34 more additional lines of information in my formal grievance. I also pointed out this implied the prison wasn't investigating formal grievances and that this would constitute deliberate indifference.

Later the same month GDC's central office issued a statewide memorandum to both it's state facilities and the private facilities who's grievance procedure it oversees (Wheeler Correctional Facility is one of them), announcing statewide policy changes in the following manner: 1. The informal step of the grievance procedure is abolished, and; 2. an optional 10-day extension was added to the 30 day response time for formal grievances.

This is actually a decision in our favor. One reason is because now the facility-level grievance process requires less unnecessary writing. Another reason is because the optional 10-day extension is rarely, if ever, being taken and because of this it is now taking less time to receive responses to grievances which formerly would have initially lingered, unresolved, through the informal step of the process. This is true for the majority of all grievances filed.

I will now share one of the methods I've created for defeating one of the tactics which prison officials use to wrongfully deny grievances. A tactic frequently used by prison officials, to wrongfully reject or deny a prisoner's legitimate grievance, is to intentionally misinterpret pertinent information relevant to the grievance as being "multiple issues" or "more than one issue". This doesn't necessarily mean the grievance is complaining of more than one issue. It's often just information necessary to explain or understand your grievance, or to allow an effective investigation into your grievance, etc. Whatever the scenario in your particular case, you should emphasize this in the appeal of your rejected/denied grievance.

As a pre emptory strike to prevent prison officials from utilizing this "multiple issues" tactic, I will begin the 1st sentence of my formal grievance by writing "this is a grievance of...", then I state the single issue I am grieving. I follow this by writing "all other information contained in this grievance is necessary for explaining or understanding the grievance", etc.

Because I have already clarified this to prison officials in advance, they cannot rely on their supposed confusion, as to what issue you are grieving, to reject or deny your grievance for "multiple issues". If they do, then just point out this error in reasoning in your appeal. For example, "The grievance is not of multiple issues, as I have clearly identified the single issues I am grieving in the 1st sentence of my grievance". Your appeal of such a denial should also explain that prison officials allegation of "multiple issues" (when they already know better, because you'd already clarified this for them in the first sentence of your grievance), can only be construed as a retaliation against you for having utilized the grievance procedure. Be sure to explain your latter allegation, of retaliation, "information necessary for an understanding of the appropriateness for this appeal".

I have seen that when you are consistently being this specific and reasonable it renders prison officials unable to utilize this particular tactic without it becoming obvious that they are retaliating against you in violation of your 1st amendment rights. This makes a prima facie showing of retaliation so plain it would allow a court to side with you against prison officials' motion for dismissal of summary judgement (alleging that you failed to exhaust your administrative remedies), by ruling that you properly complied with the grievance procedure and therefore have exhausted your administrative remedies as required by the Prisoner's Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) §42 U.S.C. 1997(e)(a).

In addition, I encourage anyone who encounters this "multiple issues" tactic to report it by executing the grievance petition available from MIM's "We Demand Our Grievances Be Addressed" grievance campaign. Like the editor's have said, even if this initially fails, such failures can be used to show how the purportedly neutral criminal injustice system contrives against us.

[9 September 2017 marked the sixth annual Day of Peace and Solidarity in prisons across the United $tates. On this day we commemorated the anniversary of the Attica uprising, drawing attention to abuse of prisoners across the country through peaceful protests, unity events, and educational work. This demonstration was initiated in 2012 by an organization participating in United Struggle for Peace in Prisons and has been taken up as an annual UFPP event, with people participating in prisons across the country.

In ULK 58 we printed some reports about September 9 actions. While we were inspired by those who stood up and protested, educated, and organized around this annual commemoration, we saw relatively low participation this year. As a result we have asked the leadership council of United Struggle from Within to consider whether this is the right action to focus our energy on in coming years. There are many ways to organize and we should not get stuck in just one path because it is what we did in the past.

We call on all readers to submit your thoughts on the September 9 commemmoration. Should we continue next year, or if not, do you have an idea for a campaign or action we should take up instead? We will pass your comments on to the USW leadership council.

Below is one more report we received on September 9 organizing from Georgia. - MIM(Prisons)]

This history lesson was posted on the dorm wall for two weeks preceding September 9 in Macon State Prison in Georgia:

Fu@* Sept 11th, we got Sept 9th!

Sept 9th marks an important date in the history of mistreated prisoners across the U.S. It is the date of what is referred to as 'The Attica Rebellion.' Here's a synopsis of the event and I pray to the revolution gods that my recollection serves me correct. Unity in Peace.

Sept 9, 1971 prisoners at Attica Correctional Institution in the state of New York got tired of prison guards harassing them and abusing them mentally and physically, so they decided to take a stand. The prisoners negotiated with the prison commissioner and when he refused to meet requests, the prisoners, for the betterment, health care and food, then turned to a full scale riot and eventual takeover of the prison and staff. The men spoke over a land line to then-governor Nelson Rockefeller about the conditions of confinement and he too refused to meet demands. On Sept 13th after a four-day standoff governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered local law enforcement and the National Guard to take back the prison with deadly force. About 50 deaths in all from around 30 prisoners and 10 guards with hundreds more injured and disabled and disfigured to this date.

This is a tremendous day in our fight for justice and courage and a loss of many lives. Always remember Sept 9th as a sad but heroic sacrifice made for the betterment of you and me.

MIM(Prisons) adds: A beautiful aspect of the Attica Uprising was how the prisoners interacted with each other. They ran the facility themselves, and there was peace on the yard. They were able to feed themselves, deliver meds, and even did count, all without the overseers breathing down their necks. For more of the history on the Attica Uprising, send in $2 of work-trade for the September 9 study pack.