Missouri Prisons

Let The Memory of Marcellus Khaliifah Williams, A New Afrikan Poet and Revolutionary, Reaffirm Our Commitment to the Struggle

Marcellus Williams, also known as Khaliifah ibn Rayford Daniel, was murdered by the amerikkkan state on 24 September 2024. He was a proud Muslim New Afrikan, a poet, an advocate for Palestinian children, and a prison imam at Potosi Correctional Center. Despite a vast quantity of evidence showing that Williams did not commit the crime of which he was convicted -

“Williams was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and burglary in 2001 for the 1998 killing of Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a 42-year-old reporter stabbed 43 times in her home. His conviction relied on two witnesses who later said they were paid for their testimony, according to the Midwest Innocence Project, and 2016 DNA testing conducted on the murder weapon “definitively excluded” Williams.”

The state nevertheless passed the decision, with the approval of the Supreme Court, to murder him in cold blood.

Williams was convicted in 2001, by a jury consisting of 11 white men and one New Afrikan. According to Al Jazeera, a New Afrikan juror was improperly dismissed from the jury, with the justification that they would not be objective.

Prosecutor Keith Larner said that he had excluded a potential Black juror because of how similar they were, saying “They looked like they were brothers.”

In a country that supposedly grants everyone the right to a “trial by their peers”, the fact that a New Afrikan on trial for the murder of a white woman was not allowed a jury of his peers – of New Afrikans – makes it clear that amerikkka cannot be “reformed” into “accepting” the New Afrikan nation, no matter how much surface-level anti-racist rhetoric is in the media nor how many bourgeois New Afrikans are elected to positions of power. For skewing Williams’s jury towards white men the judge would owe blood debts to the oppressed nations and the proletariat far greater than any average criminal under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Ey was right about one thing – a jury of New Afrikans, of Williams’s peers, would have been more likely than a jury of white men to consider his innocence. That is why more than half of the people with death sentences in the United $tates are Black or Latin@ according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Williams’s conviction, for the murder of a white woman, shines clarity on why it is necessary to have a proper analysis of the gender hierarchy in the First World. The trope of a New Afrikan man murdering or “raping” a white woman has been used to stir up the most vile representations of national oppression ever since New Afrikans were imported as a permanent underclass and oppressed nation, from Emmett Till to Marcellus Williams. The rapidity at which the criminal injustice system will commit atrocities against New Afrikans accused of violence against white women makes it clear that the question of “gender oppression” is far more tied up in national and class oppression than pseudo-feminists would have one believe. Since time immemorial, the oppressor-nation men and women both have been spurred into action by the suggestion of a New Afrikan acting violently towards a white woman; Williams’s case is no different.

“From 1930 to 1985, the white courts not only executed Black murder and rape convicts at a rate several times that of white murder and rape convicts, it executed more Black people than white people in total.”(2)

Hours before ey was executed, the Supreme Court reviewed Williams’s case, and denied the request to halt or delay his execution. This is despite millions of signatures on a petition, and a great deal of social media activism around the case. The righteous anger of millions was not enough to save Williams’s life. True radicals, not reformists nor revisionists, need to look past the idea of incremental reforms, of politely asking the amerikkkan state to consider the humanities of those it has deemed worthless. If the time and energy that had been put into the (nevertheless righteous) cause of petitioning for Marcellus Williams had been put into studying, organizing, and building towards a movement of New Afrikan liberation, or towards an overturn of the amerikkkan empire and its justice system, not only would Williams’s life have likely been saved (as he would have been granted a true trial by his peers), but the lives of many others convicted (wrongfully or not) of crimes that pale in comparison to the crimes against humanity committed by the First World bourgeoisie and its lackeys would have been saved as well. Any justice for Williams can only be attained when we feed this righteous outrage into such systematic solutions.

Many of the narratives from supporters surrounding his death would have the reader believe that the only reason he was undeserving of death was his lack of culpability. Undoubtedly, the murder of an innocent man is something that will tug at the heartstrings of many, and can be used as an agitational opportunity. But as communists, we recognize that the use of the death penalty by the bourgeois state, and especially a jury of euro-amerikans deciding the fate of a New Afrikan, is always murder. So too are the deaths of New Afrikans at the hands of the police; so too are the deaths of the Third World proletariat by starvation, natural disaster, or oppression by paramilitaries serving as U.$. attack-dogs. Whether or not Williams was guilty of his crime, whether or not the hundreds of others on death row are innocent, the system will never prosecute those who uphold the world order that leads the oppressed into a life of crime, will never order the lethal injection of those with the blood of millions of oppressed-nation proletarians on their hands.

Williams was a devout Muslim and served as an imam for those in prison. The topic of religion has been covered many times before in Under Lock and Key, but this case serves as an example of how religion serves as a liberatory force for many in prison – helping them to transform themselves, and to find allies among all those fighting against amerikkka and the capitalist system throughout the First and the Third World alike. Williams’s last words were “All praise be to Allah in every situation!!!”; the author sees this as an example of why, rather than condemning religion as some pseudo-“Maoists” and chauvinists will do, we recognize religion to be, as Marx explained, the sigh of the oppressed people. Islam brought Williams a sense of comfort and cosmic justice as he headed to his death, without keeping him from organizing and speaking out against the moribund and oppressive priSSon sySStem.

Let Marcellus Williams’s death remind all of us that this country’s injustice system doesn’t care how much people protest, or petition. Ultimately, polite pleas to higher authority will go ignored. The only thing that will keep such high-profile injustices like this, as well as the more covert violence against New Afrikans and other oppressed nations, from happening again, is freedom from the amerikkkan state, won through struggle and revolution. And we must remember, unlike so many of the liberal activists who took up this cause, that we fight for Marcellus not only because the evidence shows he has a higher chance of being innocent than most people on death row, but because the oppressive and racist amerikkkan empire should not have the right to decide whether a single New Afrikan lives or dies.

Williams’s poetry is a beautiful and striking example of proletarian-internationalist art, in how it captures the revolutionary consciousness of New Afrikans in the United $tates, and in how it draws the link between New Afrika and Palestine.

^Note: 1. Elizabeth Melimopoulos, 25 September 2024, Why was Marcellus Williams executed? What to know about the Missouri case, Al Jazeera.
2. see MIM Theory 2/3:Gender and Revolutionary Feminism for more on the intersections of nation and gender*^

Missouri now has the strictest paper literature policy ever implemented in a state prison system. People can ONLY obtain paper literature by purchasing it themselves, in consultation with their prison caseworker, with money drawn from their own commissary account from a small selection of “approved vendors.” We’re finding that many of our subscribers in Missouri cannot receive Under Lock & Key because they have not paid for it.

Missouri is now contracting with Securus to serve all mail digitally on tablets. Their contract includes a 1% administrative fee on “all payments received by the contractor for all products and services provided under the contract.” However, not all prisoners have tablets, and some are anxious to get the privilege of paying $0.25 to send emails to family.

Below are reports from Missouri prisoners in August 2024.

Censorship is real here at Crossroads Correctional Center. They are trying to find ways to stop Under Lock & Key newspapers from coming to Crossroads any way they can. Most of the time they have no real reason to stop it. It’s hit or miss. And me and the brothers really really need the info and good news that you bring knowing that the fight is still on.

They stop our catalogs, they stop our books. It’s hard with this K2 taking our young minds and no one really there to push the fight. Most of us find our fight to be few in numbers.

Here in the hole, they keep our tablets from us. Every prison except for Crossroads Correctional Center has tablets. They charge us $0.79 a stamp and really force us to buy them knowing that’s the only way to reach our families seeing that they won’t give us our tablets in Ad-Seg. Emails only cost $0.25 on tablets.

They won’t let us order reading books or magazines in Ad-Seg either, saying we have to be on the yard to order books/magazines.

MIM(Prisons) adds: It is criminally absurd that people being tortured in isolation are deprived of some of the few things that can keep them sane in such conditions like reading material.

A comrade at Jefferson City Correctional Center wrote: I’ve ordered books with donation checks to free services. At first they denied them in May due to “No free books.” I fought that and paid a donation. Then their excuse was “wrong order month.” They proceeded to deny (in March, July, November) the free book services with donation payments. Then I sent $400 to a bona fide vendor on the precise month of orders. Now they’re saying we can’t have books in Ad-Seg and that I have to send them home and my people won’t be able to send them back to me once I’m out of seg (if I ever get out).

They’re making up arbitrary rules on the premise of punishment and denying educational and recreational books to long-term segregation people.

I had the check approved per from Functioning Unit Manager, approved with Business Office. Now I’m unable to get them cuz property denied them.

I’m on hunger strike now at 7 days, 21 meals. No medical has attempted to assess me, they’re denying legal access (property paperwork) and staff don’t do rounds. If possible, I need assistance with legal. I’m filing on medical for neglect/deliberate indifference. I’m working on the §1983 in the mail but if ya’ll can help or put me into contact or on a list of pro bono/after win lawyers it would be much appreciated.

Another Jefferson City prisoner wrote: This prison policy infringes on my right to receive free religious material, which is considered “special mail, and can never be censored.” Prison officials took the regular mail, now books, magazines, and newspapers that were free, saying that drugs are coming in through the mail! That is the worst lie I have ever heard. It is a fact that drugs are being brought in by the prison staff themselves, not the other way around. I am here to help fight this injustice, let me know what you need me to do.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Unfortunately, now that this new policy is already in place we will need a concerted campaign and likely a lawsuit to reverse course. As the comrade above says, if any lawyers want to get involved, we can help facilitate. It’s hard to give Missouri a grade until we get a clearer picture of how this new policy plays out, but we might have to give them an F.

I would like to make you aware of, and I seek your assistance, with what is transpiring here in the Missouri Department of Corrections (MO-DOC).

They have revised the mail policies again, and they are saying that the only postal mail accepted at correction centers are:

• Privileged/legal mail
• Certified mail
• Publications ordered by an offender sent directly from a publisher, distributor or other bona fide vendor
• Visitor applications

The problem is that they’re saying that if publications are not coming from a publishing company they need to be sent to the Digital Mail Center in Tampa, FL. And once sent there, the Digital Mail Center is not sending them and sending digital copies.

To sum this up, we are not receiving our free newsletters or digital copies of them. Unless we purchase something using a green check, they are not allowing it to enter the prison. This is a violation of our First Amendment rights, and the precedent set by Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89-90 (1987). This is clearly established law that is being violated by the MO-DOC’s restrictive mail policies which need to be challenged. I seek your assistance on this.

MIM(Prisons) responds: According to the new policy on the MO-DOC website, MIM Distributors should be able to send prisoner literature directly at their prison as we have in the past.(1) But according to this comrade’s report, Missouri has effectively banned free subscriptions and free books to prisoners.

Staff at Pendleton Correctional Facility in Indiana recently tried to claim a ban on donated books, but comrades in Indiana and the Midwest Books Project took the issue up to the Indiana DOC who confirmed this is not their policy.

A combination of confusion with new complicated digital mail systems and staff engaging in political repression with “new rules” as an excuse, continue to keep comrades busy.

According to our data, some comrades have still received recent issues of Under Lock & Key in Missouri, though the numbers so far are down from last year. The problem is we need more information from readers in Missouri about what you have and have not received, and what your prison has told you when they’ve rejected our mail. We are currently investigating this matter with MO-DOC in hopes of clearing this up.

Recently ULKs have been returned to us from Missouri with the following written on them:

“Return to Sender: Mail should be sent to the address specified at www.doc.mo.gov”

And an envelope of ULKs was returned and marked:

“RTS - Unauthorized”

As we go to press, we have not received any response from the MO-DOC to our March appeal of censorship of ULK 83. However, that same subscriber received ULK 84 fine.

<sup>Notes:
1. https://doc.mo.gov/media-center/newsroom/book-orders</sup>

The Missouri Department of Corrections has a lot of problems, and it is getting worse. Let me explain: I will go over four different topics.

Medical

There is no open sick call provided at the Jefferson City Correctional Center Prison. We are being denied adequate medical care by Centurion Health LLC. I have filed a grievance and medical staff never gave an answer, which denied me due process of law, then sent me the next form in the grievance process to fill out – never giving me a copy of my grievance or stating why no response was given. Prisoners are being treated with deliberate indifference on a daily basis by medical staff, by refusing to care for prisoners, without any concern of the prisoners’ well-being. Medical staff lie and say, “nothing is wrong with you”, while all the time medical staff knew that a prisoner had cancer or some disease. Medical staff fail to diagnose it, cause once they diagnose a medical problem then medical staff are required to treat that problem. We as prisoners in the Department of Corrections are being treated with cruel and unusual punishment by medical staff and prison officials allow it by not saying anything about it and turning a blind eye to it. I reach out seeking help on what to do in this current situation. I am only one voice out of 1800 prisoners, something needs to change within this prison.

Personal Mail

As of 15 June 2022, the Missouri Department of Corrections had all of the prisoners’ personal mail digitized, and all personal mail is sent to Tampa, FL. and sent to prisoners’ tablets, or friends and family can set up an account with Securus and email. D.O.C. lied, saying it “would stop contraband from entering the prison”. This violates every Missouri prisoner’s First Amendment rights to receive personal mail. Prison officials have made a blanket policy for the whole state of Missouri, instead Missouri D.O.C. should discipline those who broke the rules of prison, state, or federal.

As of September 2023, the Missouri Department of Corrections made a new policy concerning books, magazines, newspapers, religious materials, and other reading material. No family members or friends may order anything that enters into the prison. Inmates must order everything, such as: books, magazines, newspapers, religious material, and other reading material, etc… Also, prisoners are not allowed to receive mail order catalogs per new mail policy of 15 June 2022. But, prisoners must order everything themselves? I filed a grievance about the mail – “My religious magazine that is free from Truth For Today was sent back to Truth For Today”, telling them it must be sent to Tampa, FL, and digitally scanned to my tablet! I filed a grievance stating “I have a First Amendment right to receive whichever kind of religious material; books, magazines, newspaper, or any other kind of reading material I choose to receive. This needs to be stopped, and I seek help on how to put an end to this unconstitutional prison policy.

K2

In the Missouri Department of Corrections, the K2 epidemic is so bad that on 29 January 2024, prison officials closed down one wing in the honor house in H.U. #4, leaving 3 wings as honor wings, and used 4-C as a lockdown wing to house prisoners who receive violations for a Rule #11, which is either the prisoner was intoxicated or was in possession of drugs. Prison officials put these prisoners into their cells and to get into their bunk and lie down, if that prisoner is having reactions to K2, we prisoners call “having an episode.”

Prisoners walk around high in the housing unit open wing area; smoking in the wing; in their cells, this is a smoke free prison! Prisoners stumble around like they are drunk – and nothing is done to stop drugs from entering the prison system, and nothing is done to stop prisoners from using drugs in prison. Prison officials took all prisoners’ personal mail stating that drugs were coming in by mail, but it was a lie. Prisoners overdose daily here – one prisoner overdosed and died last Saturday on 16 March 2024 – his name was Billy Dyer. Prison officials also took the gift subscriptions from family and friends, saying drugs were the reason, a lot of good that did. The Missouri Department of Corrections needs to be investigated by the Feds.

Prison Custody Counts

The Missouri Department of Corrections, on a daily basis, messes up count so that prisoners cannot go to the law library, religious services, recreation, work assignment, or anything else prisoners need to do. This has been an ongoing issue in the Jefferson City Correctional Center for two years. It is not hard to count correctly, but every day prison officials re-count five and six times on the same count, when this prison only counts at 5:30AM, 11AM, 4PM, and 10PM. For one count, we, the prisoners, get counted more times than we should – we get hindered from doing normal prison activities on a daily basis. All prison officials have done is kept prisoners in their cells longer than they should. This really needs to change and to be looked into. This has to be a violation of some right that prisoners have.

The issues above are problems that are totally out of prisoners’ control, what we need in Missouri is a voice, one who is willing to fight a hard battle in court for the rights of prisoners. I am tired of the way we prisoners are being treated. I am willing to do my best to ensure that Missouri prisoners are treated fairly according to the law. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I thank you for your time.

Greetings, To all the “Warriors”, “Soldiers”, and “Comrades”, a new day is at hand. Those that have been subjected to “colonial rule” are rising up and ousting the “puppet regimes” installed by the enemy.

The brothers and sisters over in Afrika are saying “enough is enough!”. Those Afrikans over in France are also rising up! It’s only a matter of time before the Black, Brown, Red. and Yellow souljahs here on these shores say “Down with the imperialists and their flunkies!”.

We must unite and stand with those who wish to overthrow the puppets and install a government for the people and by the people.

Vita Wa Watu

Peace and Blessings to the Revolutionary Souljahs Around the Globe. I’m writing you because the Missouri Department of Corruption has found a way to censor “Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News”. I believe that it’s retaliation for my activism. However, I’m not the only one that had their issues taken by Deputy Division Director Jason Lewis and Ryan Crews. Maybe they want us reading Dr.Seuss and Mickey Mouse!

Anyway, the Struggle continues and the Damus are mobilizing here at Potosi Correctional Center for the “Greater Good of the Multitude”, We are cleaning our own house so that we can put things into perspective and form some type of “solidarity” with the other Lumpen here in misery! Things must change for the Black, Brown, and Red! We have been getting slaughtered all over the globe and all we do is “march” chanting “Black Lives Matter”. If Black Lives Matter, then “why are we still marching?”. I do understand that there is a time for war and for the “fight to end oppression”, but how much longer must we sit by and allow the enemy to oppress us? We are many and must unite to combat the deaths of our Brothers, Sisters, Uncles, Aunties, Cousins, Husbands, and Wives!

Things must change People.

Uhuru Sasa

It is not uncommon knowledge; given you have internet access; that the South-Eastern Correctional Center (herein after referred to as ‘South-Eastern’ Plantation or SECC) is by far a reflection of the “Survival of the Fittest”, mentality; (distorted interpretation of Charles Darwin’s theory dubbed ‘Social Darwinism’) that the fascist pigs who run this country maintain, and it’s core beliefs was founded upon. Theodore Roosevelt in the preface to Vernon Kellogs, a German intellectual, book “Headquarters Night”, stated that “The man who reads Kellog’s sketch and yet fails to see why we are at war, and why we must accept no peace save that of overwhelming victory; is neither a good American nor a true lover of mankind”. Remind you, this is a book where Vernon Kellog states “The creed of the Allmacht of a natural selection based on violent and fatal competition is the gospel of the German intellectuals; all else is illusion and anathema”. Scary to think that our President at the time shared the same core beliefs that kindled the Holocaust!! Individual self-seeking in hopes to promote the good of society only breeds contempt and enmity amongst social-classes by separating that which is “We the people” into “they the people”, “We a people”, “There’s some more people”.

Staff-on-Inmate to Inmate-on-Staff ratio for assaults is mind-boggling. In a last minute attempt, due to a 5 min riot in February where 3-7 C/Os were hospitalized, one in critical condition and one in a coma, SECC and Plantation Master Bill Stange issued sham pretext investigations on over 67% of the facility to target, arbitrarily and artfully punish offenders who the administration has a certain disliking for. Individuals who were in no way shape or form involved in said riot; in order to obtain order and security of the facility, more commonly known and acknowledged as oppression and submission of the offender population. On top of violating Constitutional rights, protected liberty interests, and adhering to corporal punishments, the South-Eastern Plantation in retaliatory effort has cut the camp population by over 50% and have re-administered long-term Administrative Segregation confinement(Ad-Seg). Two individuals have killed themselves this year, and 5 different hunger strikes have been done, in an attempt to obtain that which is our Constitutional right(s). The struggle against Ad-Seg isolation here continues.

The inhumane conditions, injustice, and complete disregard for policy and federal law here at the South-Eastern Plantation is amongst the worst in the state of “Misery”(MO). Particularly those who work here at the South-Eastern Plantation; with the blatant approval or blind-eye of Jeff Norman, Anne Precythe, Alana Boyles (Directors of MDOC); pigs here have taken to various different modes of divide and conquer tactics as a stratagem to warfare. One particular incident occurred on November 2nd, 2021 when COI PIG Ms. Reed rolled an offenders door without cuffing him upon request, and stepped aside so in the Ad-Seg. Unit he could stab a cuffed offender exiting from the shower. PIG Ms. Reed then directly thereafter allowed retaliation of another offender who too was handcuffed and shackled to the door. She is now on investigation along with the COI PIG Hood who before payed for an LGBTQIA+ trans woman to be assaulted by another offender.

Minimized food rations, one state bar of soap a week in Seg, rec once a week, mice infested houses, free cases and beatings; SECC is in need of some serious outside attention. Us comrades here continue to fight Capitalism-Imperialism with our dying breath. We will not stop until we bring conscious awareness of the proletarian state and the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. We seek a world without chains, slavery, and oppression.

Enclosed is the initial info on a grievance I filed on DOC for violating quarantine guidelines. I’ve since been transferred to a different prison. Only once I got here I realized that Chillicothe Correctional Center has the highest level of positive COVID-19 cases in the whole state. (285 infected) That was the last number as of 14 August 2020. We don’t get bleach to clean with, and I’ve only seen the N95 masks on a couple cops. I’m currently working on a chronological log to file on this institution as well.

On another topic. All over the state of Misery the Department of Corruption is manipulating our brothers and sisters to participate in a behavior modification program that to the best of my knowledge has a >90% recidivism rate. In our state it is called Gateway, yet it sounds like the program mentioned by an Arkansas prisoner on page 11 of ULK 70.

These monsters are pulling productive prisoners with no behavioral issues. Prisoners whose out dates are sometimes a year or more away. The machine is hungry, and we are the food. Yes we have a right to sign out. Only with the hefty cost of: they keep you just long enough to get your name on the “client” log. That log must stay at a certain number so that the grant money keeps rolling in from Big Brother. Of course, after that, this is where you may choose to stay; because the Department of Probation and Parole dangle our release dates in our faces!

If we “sign out” we receive a warm embrace from our paternalistic keepers by them giving us extra time on our sentence! My heart aches and my soul shakes for each and every day our brothers and sisters spend feeding the machine.

Here in Missouri we have a dependency problem. Drugs are so frequent and available. We have junkies so-to-say running the yards. Top members and others answer to the drugs. Not to the cause. As recently they tried to organize a strike against them fucking pigs. And again more hit and that’s all anyone really cares for. Especially in here. As this facility has a dark cloud over it. How can you not blame them for trying methods of looking for that utopia and bliss that drugs provide?

Even these people provide drugs, prescriptions to $ profit and experiment. But they provide mood altering drugs to keep us calm and pliable till we gain that true independence from them and that drug. We won’t be able to move on with the cause. And this new drug has got everyone. Even ones who used to have a clear head aren’t anymore. Could it be the man’s way of keeping us docile. Hell the CIA did it, why not the DOC. The old saying: what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. So I ask every comrade put it down for month on call. If you can’t you might be a junkie! Be strong comrades, day by day our cause will prevail.

Today a lieutenant pig walked to the cell next door and the prisoner explained to the pig that ey was in Ad-Seg for assaulting another prisoner. The high ranking pig said “as long as you don’t assault staff we’re cool.” And then ey walked away. I had to use much mental discipline to overcome emotion; understanding that this same misguided emotion has kept me and my comrades in these Missouri Department of Corrections (MODOC) Ad-Seg torture chambers for years.

Our kites are ignored, we have practically no access to grievances and it is only those strong in self-discipline who abstain from physical retaliation. Tactics I have often used to no avail.

There is a strong revolutionary presence in this Jefferson City Correctional Center Koncentration Kamp. Young comrades who, like myself, are gang affiliated yet well-studied and ready to stand up for a change. All we lack is an effective strategy that can truly unite us all. All I lack is the knowledge to properly form a United Struggle Within.

I am open to corrections, ideas and strategies from comrades and political prisoners more experienced and advanced than myself.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade is providing an example for all, by contributing regular work writing and producing revolutionary art. We have sent em lots of letters and other material, but it appears to be largely censored. So, much respect for staying active in spite of this censorship. We print this letter to encourage others to speak on this topic. By sending in regular reports on your organizing you can contribute to United Struggle from Within’s knowledge of conditions on the ground and strategizing efforts. There is much to learn through practice in action.

On our side of the bars, MIM(Prisons) offers revolutionary education classes (study groups), political literature, and resources to help form study groups behind bars, and other organizing guides. But this support isn’t that helpful if we can’t get it past the censors. This underscores the importance of our battles against censorship.