Missouri Prisons

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.

Love & Prosperity from behind enemy lines. It’s been over thirteen months that I have been locked in the Segregation Housing Unit (SHU). I’ve recently been separated from all my brothers of war, and transferred to a new concentration kamp. And I tell you, this new plantation has these prisoners (slaves) domesticated. But I observed the same thing at my last concentration kamp, and look what happen to that plantation (it closed).

Re-education, and re-activating that radical recalcitrant is our duty, to those who have not yet awaken from out of the matrix. I believe that it is a necessity to constantly educate myself if I intend to re-generate The People.

As I’m currently committed to this mission, I also happen to find myself engaged in a battle with this new plantation staff. Whereas I have been at Jefferson City Correctional Center (JCCC) for nearly a month, and these pigs are denying all policies and procedures.

First, I have been in the SHU my entire stay at JCCC. Since being here I have been denied my right to access the court afforded to all prisoners by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

I have been deprived from obtaining any case laws because the librarians are asserting that I do not have Qualified Legal Claim (QLC) on file. How can this be when I have a court date scheduled in two weeks?

Wherefore I’ve followed Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) and wrote the classification staff requesting to be approved for QLC, but you have a better chance of hearing a bird speak English than receiving a response back from a case-manager working in the SHU.

Jefferson City Correctional Center SOP 8-1.4 Access to Law Library Material

1. Offenders in a special unit may not be afforded direct access to the law library; however, limited access shall be provided as follows:
   
   

A. offenders in a special unit must show proof they are working on a qualified legal claim:

1. Classification staff will verify this utilizing the Qualified Legal Claims Verification Form.
   
   

2. Qualified legal claims will be reviewed at least once a year to ensure they have not expired.
   
   

It is highly unlikely that I’ll receive any case law to further prepare myself before my court date. But to make things worse, I’m being denied my right to the grievance process. I requested an Informal Resolution Request form, to file on the deprivation that has been occurring. I have yet to receive a response or IRR, and this was three weeks ago.

Second, (Yes, there’s more) Upon arriving at JCCC I have been furnished none of the necessities I require to stay in communication with the outside world. (pertaining to my address book)

Whereas we are not allowed phone calls while assigned to the SHU, at JCCC. Whereas, our First Amendment right guarantees us communication with the free-world. Me and my comrades are being denied this right by being unable to obtain our address books.

SOP 21-1.2 Administrative Segregation: Assures the we allowed to possess address books and sacred writing. In which me and my comrade were never provided ours from out of our personal property upon arriving at JCCC.

SOP 21-1.2 Administrative Segregation: Also provides that offenders may request property that is allowed in the SHU by submitting a request to classification staff.

I’ve already done this multiple times and have yet to receive a response.

Third, offenders are afforded Library reading material. This reading material is supposed to be circulated around by second shift pigs. I have been here a month and I have yet to see officers passing out books.

SOP 21-1.2 Administrative Segregation: (1) Library reading material should be provided in the unit in accordance with standard operating procedures.

Library books should be distributed weekly.

1. The Librarian will ensure the books for distribution are available in the unit, updating the selection on a monthly basis.
   
   

Fourth, SOP 21-1.2 Administrative Segregation provides that offenders should be permitted to retain prescribed general educational development workbooks or correspondence courses as in accordance with institutional services procedures regarding correspondence courses.

So I came to the conclusion that everything that is supposed to be entitled to JCCC prisoners, as asserted in SOP policies and procedures, is not being provided. This is just an aberration, for those who reside in the free-world and wish to know how the system is supposedly rehabilitating the so-called demented offenders. Because they are not following any of the policies and procedures laid out in their Standard Operation Procedures.

Furthermore, they’re even denying me my right to file a grievance on their violations of policy. I wrote my beautiful Black Queens to have them call up here and tear them a new asshole, also I requested of them to call the central office to inform them of what has been occurring at their plantation (prison). I also wrote the central office to inform them of the deprivation prisoners have been experiencing in the SHU at JCCC.

Just another day on the battlefield: push-ups and pepper-spray. We hold the advantage. Due to the enemy’s underestimation of the people. They characterize us as illiterate animals who’d rather be at each other’s throats instead of detaching the leg from the body that presses down on all of the prisoners and proletarians’ throats. We out-class the enemy on every level. Mass, fitness, age, experience (in guerrilla fighting), and even intellectual. But for some reason the vanguard is few in numbers. Unity among the oppressed has been dis-jointed. We have been deceived by propaganda propagated through the media and taught to us inside authoritarian schools. Consolidate with us Guerrilla Fighters (Young Radicals) and assist in helping dismantle the enemy that has been repressing the Blacks, Browns, Indians, and even the Poor Whites. Monopolizing capitalist economic growth off of prisoners.

To my young warriors, understand, just because we choose to engage the enemy in peaceful manner, does not make us peaceful.

“Attaining one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of excellence. Subjugating the enemy’s army without fighting is the true pinnacle of excellence. Warfare should not be undertaken unless the state is threatened. Haste, fear of being labeled a coward, and personal emotions such as anger and hatred should never be permitted to adversely influence state and command decision-making. The army must not be rashly thrown into an engagement, thrust into war, or unnecessarily mobilized.

“If it is not advantageous, do not move. If the objective can be attained, do not employ the army. Unless endangered, do not engage warfare. A ruler cannot mobilize the army out of personal anger. The general cannot engage in battle because of personal frustration. When it is advantageous, move; when not advantageous, stop. Anger can revert to happiness, annoyance can revert to joy, but a vanquished army cannot be revived, the dead cannot be brought back to life.”-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

As I require assistance from comrades in the realm of the free-world, please call up here if possible and demand action for the issues asserted earlier in this scribe.

• That prisoners in the administrative segregation housing unit be provided reading material from the Library; as afforded by SOP 21-1.2
  
  

• That prisoner in administrative segregation be provided educational material, when requested; as afforded by SOP 21-1.2
  
  

• Also, that prisoners in administrative segregation be afforded the opportunity to file grievances.
  
  

I respectfully request that you call up here at Jefferson City Correctional Center at (573) 751-3224 and Request to speak with Warden Ramey. Also call the Central Office (573) 751-2381

This is the first article I have written for ULK. I was especially interested in writing about the topic above because, all too often, I have witnessed how the ‘gangster’ type are eager to dictate to others how their mission is to bring unity, yet their actions and attitudes are completely misplaced. For instance, if we are to fight oppression within the prison system, how is extorting other prisoners, assaulting others, et cetera, a means to that end?

I am not, nor would I ever become, gang-affiliated. In my opinion, if a person joins a gang, it is because they are too weak to stand up for themselves. Prison has become a daycare. Whites sell out whites, blacks team up with whites and babies have babies. What the hell? I’ve met pedophiles who are ranking gang officials, and snitches are free to roam as they please. Nothing makes any sense anymore and, just for the record, any gang which encourages a prisoner to extend their sentences or which demand that parents of children perform acts which result in them not being able to see them, that crap is no better than the lowest of the lowly.

The things gangs in Missouri do and continue to do are stupid and their actions bring upon us all the oppression. Gang members in Missouri, though they continuously spout the B.S. about solidarity, unity and integrity are, in turn, the cause and continuing justification for our being oppressed.

Instead of fighting for our right to not be abused by ‘the system,’ Missouri gangs are the tinder with which the fire under oppression is fueled. For every instance of stupidity by Missouri gang members, we, as a whole, lose an integral part of the overall voice with which we need to be able to defend ourselves from the wrongs of the system.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This author asserts that “if a person joins a gang, it is because they are too weak to stand up for themselves.” We ask in return: why is it wrong to seek out others to help you defend yourself? Lumpen organizations arose, on the streets and in prisons, in response to very real threats to the safety of oppressed nation people. It is not realistic to think that, in the face of institutional violence and attacks, or organized violence from other groups of people, one should stand alone. And seeking this help and unity is not a sign of weakness.

However, we do agree with this writer that organizations that require their members to engage in anti-people activity, or which engage in actions that harm the general prisoner population, are not friends of the fight against the criminal injustice system. There are many different types of lumpen organizations and conditions vary in different areas. In some situations staying away from L.O.s might be the best practice for anti-imperialists. But at this stage, to organize the lumpen masses, we need to be building unity between lumpen organizations where possible, not perpetuating the fighting that the prison administration encourages. We regularly print articles in ULK from comrades in lumpen orgs doing just this sort of building behind bars. This is the leadership we need to highlight and learn from as most of our readers in prison are in or have been in lumpen organizations..

I am a prisoner at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri. I’m currently being held in solitary confinement for our May 12 uprising against the oppression and abuse inflicted on us by the administration and guards.

For months, the administration had been keeping us locked in our cells for 23 hours a day, in population! Using excuses of “short on staff,” we are only allowed to either shower or call our loved ones for one 30-minute session per day. Our one-hour recs are cut to 45 and 30 minutes consistently. The inmate barber shop is closed. Visits are canceled. Guards are verbally and physically abusive.

Until, on May 12th at dinner chow (2 hours late) at 7:30 pm, 288 prisoners participated in a mass sit-in, in peaceful protest to all of the injustices. Instead of answering requests for talks with white-shirts, all officers fled both chow halls and kitchen, leaving us locked in, and grouped outside the windows and taunted us. The sit-in quickly escalated into the largest “riot” in Missouri history, consisting of a reported $4 million in damages, with the complex being taken over and held for over 7 hours. Inside, only 2 people were attacked before leadership and unity were established.

Countless abuses and injustices followed our return to custody, including: remaining zip-tied for 7-9.5 hours, forced to urinate ourselves, beatings, double-celling prisoners in single-man cells for a week with no mattress or bedding, less than 1000-calorie daily diet instituted for the entire camp for over 70 days, etc.

Through all this, the administration kept up its tricks of sowing hate and dissension amongst prisoners in population by blaming the 3-month lockdown on us by actually naming us to other prisoners in hopes of retaliation). Visits were canceled, no canteen, etc.

However, those of us in confinement know the truth: in 2017, we had a mass race-riot of Browns & Whites vs Blacks, and less than 12 months later those same races, true those same prisoners, come together to fight in unity against oppression! Me and about 20 other comrades came together again in September 2018.

It is coming up on 6 months since our placement in seg and we are likely to receive another 90 days just for good measure, but we are still standing. There are 78 of us from the uprising in seg, and many of us belong to one organization or another. When we are released we will continue to spread and build on this unity that was formed under great oppression. We will carry this momentum to bring all prisoners together to face the true enemy!

We have seen and heard praise for our battle and victory in the struggle throughout other max securities in Missouri. There have been other uprisings that have followed ours at a couple mediums, (one was a race-riot, but with guidance and support those aggressions can be properly re-directed), and the administration is taking notice. The five principles of the United Front are taking hold in Missouri. We will do our part to learn, share, teach and uphold them as we struggle together in our war against oppression. I will do my part in not only spreading the message to mi raza, but others as well. Unity is the key! Viva la gente!

MIM(Prisons) responds: We printed some good discussion about these Missouri protests in ULK 65. This writer highlights what is most important about these sorts of actions: the learning by participants and observers about what prisoners can accomplish with unity. By building the United Front for Peace in Prisons, comrades in Missouri are building strength and unity, setting up the conditions for stronger actions in the future.

Vita Wa Watu! This is one essay on my tactics to recruit Brothas and Sistas for certain movements. Take the Day of Peace and Solidarity for instance. I sent out letters to those that have a Genuine Love for me and the Struggle and kept it real with them. I informed them that I would be fasting for the 9th day of September because it was a day that meant more to Oppressed and Lumpen than the Sabbath does to the Jews. I told them that that day is a day of Peace in the Prisons around the country and that it commemorated one of the biggest prison uprisings in the states, and also that it was the last day of the now annual prison strike.

Then I informed them that this Glorious Day meant that there would be no beatings, rapes, stabbings, or any violence of the Oppressed against the Oppressor and that it mean a lot to me if they would fast with me. I got a few confirmations and still awaiting others.

Also, I let the Brothers here in Ad-Seg know the meaning of this day. However, only one Soulja fasted with me. Nevertheless, the day was a success here at Northeastern Correctional Center. Stay strong, Comrades. I will join you again next year.

MIM(Prisons) responds: In ULK 64 we printed some early reports of actions on the September 9 Day of Peace and Solidarity. We’re happy to hear about this work going on in Florida.

And this is a good example of sharing your tactics for organizing and recruiting. The next issue of Under Lock & Key is devoted to this topic and we’re seeking moreinput from readers about what’s worked for you, and also what hasn’t worked. We can all learn a lot from our practice and from the practice of others. Sum up your organizing experiences and send them in for ULK. See ULK 63 for our prior deep dive into this topic.

13 May 2018 – 208 prisoners of every race, background, group, organization, etc. said enough is enough! We came together and sat down in a peaceful protest. During dinner (chow hall) as usual the pigs not only violated our constitutional rights (First Amendment freedom of speech) but they also attempted to bully us by flex’n and threatening us. That’s when our peaceful protest turned uprising. I wish y’all could have seen the way all the guards (C.O.s, Sergeants, Lieutenants, etc.) ran out the kitchen and chow halls. You would have thought they ran track! Who the cowards now?

For the first time in Missouri history we united. The pigs see the end of their control within our unity. In a matter of seconds we gained control of the kitchen, both dining halls, property room, canteen storage, the factory, forklifts, weapons, keys, phones, computers, etc. Well after a few hours the phones start to ring. Guess who’s calling? The warden and highway patrol. For the first time they listened to our demands. They respected us. They feared our unity. They was at our mercy.

On our own terms we surrendered 8-9 hours later. After we got our point across.

Note: 90% of guys in our peaceful protest turned uprising have outdates ranging between a few weeks and 15 years. So only imagine if the outcome was the other way around. 90% of us could have been locked to the board (life without?).

Due to us striving so fast and hard we left administration not only confused but also emotionally off balance. Being that this never happened before in Missouri history they acted off impulse and violated every constitutional right you can think of. Which led to KC Freedom Project lawyers starting a class action lawsuit on our behalf against Missouri DOC. The media has been on fire regarding this.

Update? We still on lockdown! We still receiving brown bags (sack lunches). They say it was $3 million worth of damage. They making us do 1 year. We damn near 6 months in.

Administration is still up to their tricky ways. They have attempted to divide and conquer us by destroying all the guys’ property that was in the hole and told them we did it. Also telling all the guys in GP it’s our fault they are locked down still. So yeah the struggle continues.

By the way, there have been two other uprisings of this kind since we kicked it off. If we can unite here in Missouri where unity has never existed then any state can.

Another Missouri prisoner wrote:

It has been 13 months since the prisoners bonded together, Black, White, Native and brown (Chicano) and kicked off a riot at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, causing over a million dollars in damage. What did it accomplish?

1. Prison property got damaged that your families who are tax payers (and you too cause you pay taxes on your canteen items) are going to have to pay for the damages.

2. You injured one another with violent acts and all it accomplished is enemies, and lockdown of the prison.

3. Supposedly two housing units are to be cleared out for the creation of SHU units. They are supposed to lock up all the gang leaders and violent soldiers.

As of now, this is all just rumor, but every time Missouri prisoners show acts of violence via riots, the prison gets stricter. For example, the 1985 riot in the old Missouri State Penitentiary caused them to build a supermax housing unit.

When are we gonna learn that we are hurting ourselves more ways than one by these acts of violence? When I was advocating peaceful protests with demonstrations of how to shut the prison system down, nobody in Missouri wanted to participate. But you go off on your own and committed this no nonsense act of violence against your brother, your friends, your families, and jeopardized everyone.

It costs $85 million a year to keep the U.S. prisons up and running. The government is not producing this money to keep the prisons going. So where is the money coming from? Let’s see now, in Missouri it’s coming from Missouri Vocational Enterprise (MVE), the sign shop, the printing shop, the license plate plant (tag plant), the furniture factory, the chemical plant, information technology (IBM program), the braille program, the laundry, the cooled-chill plant (cold food storage), the shoe factory, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDot work release) and the newly implemented paneling factory.

The above-mentioned factories are multi-million-dollar industries per year. They are paying you pennies. So what a couple of these jobs pay between $150 and $300 per month. If you peacefully protest by refusing to go to work in these factories, either they are going to pay you at least minimum wage where you will be making at least $340 a week, or they are gonna bring in civilians to do the work, in which case the factories are going to have to be uprooted and moved because most civilians are not coming inside the prisons to work. So to shut down a beast like the U.S. prison system is to shut down their economy – that is, the very thing that’s bringing them money to keep the prisons open is the very thing that can shut it down.

This just doesn’t begin and end with the prisoners. The prisoner has to survive. He has to eat. So the people in the free world are going to have to support the prisoner financially. Family, friends, advocate organizations are all going to have to pitch in and support the prisoner financially. That means to stop working we have to buy food to eat. To stop using the phones and tablets, we need stamps, envelopes, paper and pens to write letters that cost money. So the free world must understand that for us to make these sacrifices, then society is going to have to make sacrifices to assist us.

So Missouri prisoners, society (family, friends, organizations, advocates, etc.), stop going about things the wrong way and do them like they should be done in order to get results.

I go home next year on parole, but I do not leave my fight behind. There is a bigger world out there, which means a lot more opportunities to fight. I am going to find resources and seek out that they join me in my quest to do away with this beast. I will need their support mentally, physically, spiritually and above all, financially. With this, Comrades, I hope to see you on the other side, working with me and supporting me from the inside and outside.

In struggle–In solidarity
Arm raised–clenched black fist

MIM(Prisons) responds: A lot of folks talk about how hard it is to get people to unite behind bars. The prison controls everything from day-to-day comfort to release dates. And that’s powerful incentive to conform. Then they introduce drugs and other distractions to pacify the population. They pay off snitches to keep an eye on activists. And they lock organizers down in solitary confinement. Still, faced with all these barriers, prisoners can and do come together to protest. Conditions at Crossroads CC were bad enough to inspire this action. And while the outcome wasn’t all positive, the class action lawsuit and attention of the public has forced the Missouri DOC to admit that prisoners are suffering significant restrictions due to short staffing.

The comrade criticizing this action for its lack of focus and random acts of violence and destruction is right that often these sorts of actions lead to more repression. Though peaceful protests are also often met with increased repression. This debate over tactics in prison protests is one that should be happening within all prisons across the country. We hope the comrades at Crossroads will learn from this action and move forward in greater unity towards future actions that will be even more effective.

Focusing on the economics of prisons reveals the ridiculous scale of the criminal injustice system. As the writer above notes, it would be a significant financial loss to the state if they were forced to hire non-prisoners for all the jobs prisoners are doing. And this is financial leverage that prisoner workers can use to their advantage.

But to debate the value of this tactic we need to first be clear about the scope of prisoner labor. The state of Missouri 2018 budget allocated the Department of Corrections over $725 million. About the same as the previous year, which was up $50 million from 2016.(1) The state would have to allocate even more money if no prisoner labor could be used to help run the prisons, or produce products that are sold to generate revenue. But that prisoner labor is still a small part of the total cost of running prisons.

As we showed from data collected from prisons across the United $tates, in general, losing prisoner labor would add about 10% to the cost of running prisons. Prisons are mostly subsidized by states’ budgets. The labor from prisoners just doesn’t come close to covering that cost. So while there is definitely economic power in those jobs, shutting down prison industries won’t shut down prisons.

We don’t aim to just improve conditions. In the end we know the criminal injustice system keeps taking away rights, doing what it can to make prisons a place of suffering and complacency. But this protest showed the people involved that they have the power to take collective action. As the original writer notes, the prison can see their downfall in the unity of the prisoners. This lesson of the importance and power of unity is what will hopefully fuel ongoing organizing.

August 2018 – September 9 is expected to be big! No violence, everyone has agreed to be at peace. In USW we support!

We are upholding the five principles of the United Front here in Missouri. We’ve been effectively organizing, uniting, educating, etc. as a part of the program for peace, unity, growth, internationalism, and independence. And as a result, prison violence has dropped dramatically. We thank you for giving us a way to transmit positive energy and reduce conflict among prisoners. We now have 5 maximum security prisons on board, helping to raise the consciousness of the confused youth and building unity amongst the older captives. As we focus ahead, we see a future filled with love, freedom, and peace. We pray that you will continue to help us transform our people so that together we can strengthen our organizing for liberation.

I received ULK 63! I was so glad to hear from you all. This issue really laid it all out for my guys, so I made 45 copies and passed them out, then instructed each member of UZI (United Zulu Independence Movement) to do the same.

Three days later I called a meeting in the gym to discuss in-depth what each bro had read in this new issue of ULK about UFPP. The responses I received were beautiful. The young Crips now believe that the lumpen in California, who they mimic, are seeking to unite instead of separate. They now see that the gangs are fighting against the oppressor.

Missouri is a slow state, so they were still set on fighting each other, until they witnessed me and my New Afrikan Tribe moving under the sciences of peace, unity, growth, internationalism, and independence. We trade evolutionary material, we speak about communism, we teach each other to use the law as a tool to build doorways to freedom, and now your newsletter just explained everything that I’ve been telling these young Crips about the need to stop the senseless gang bangin’, riots, and territorial disputes on the yard caused by the COs.

Thank you! ULK Thank You! Now these bros see that the struggle is real. I have to get back to work. Will write more soon. Can’t stop! Won’t stop!

I was placed in administration segregation and stripped of my privileges (contact visits, phone calls, canteen, personal property, etc.) for the reason of investigation. A violation of my “due process” rights, as I am punished before being found guilty of anything. Other prisoners under investigation are stripped of their privileges as well. Investigation can last up to 6 months or longer. The investigator most usually takes as long as they want to speak to us. I was placed in housing unit 2 and the conditions are extremely hostile and cruel.

There is a rodent infestation due to trash not being cleaned and food, juice, coffee and milk cover the floor most of the day or longer. The mice live in the hall and the utility closest between cells. (This rodent infestation is rampant in all housing units and the chow hall).

We are forced to live in cells with individuals who many times do not get along with each other, mostly on purpose. As of 8-17-18, many convicts request protective custody (PC) to get out of these hostile cell arrangements, but due to the overcrowdedness of the administration segregational housing units, these is no where else the inmate can be placed. If an inmate refuses the same cell he came out of, he is punished with a conduct violation and disciplined.

Convicts, including myself, are forced to sit on an iron bench with our hands handcuffed behind our backs, attached to the bench, as well as our legs shackled to the bench with no alternative. The handcuffs and shackles are so tight that our hands and ankles result in bloody incisions and bruises. Mostly, medical refuse to check on the prisoner’s health and well-being. By policy, medical is supposed to check prisoners in handcuffs and shackles to make sure they’re not in pain. They refuse to comply or look past the fact our wrists are bleeding. We are refused all meals and water as well while on the bench, and are limited bathroom breaks, sometimes resulting with inmates urinating or defecating on themselves.

Once inmates per unit request PC, the correctional officers refuse to pull other inmates, in possible danger, out or they maliciously pepper spray them. This is a denial of our rights to PC and 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. These units hold 72 inmates each and there are 3 of them in 2 houses.

Convicts in need of PC were determined not to live in cells 24 hours a day with people who may cause them problems or harm. Prisoners “rode” the bench for over 144 hours (handcuffed and shackled). August 23, 2018 seemed to break convict’s spirits.

On 8-23-18, around 3:00 p.m., up to about 6:00 p.m., the Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) came and proceeded to brutally assault inmates. All this is on cameras in housing unit 2 A, B and C wing at above time. Benches, holding cages and some showers were full of convicts awaiting compatible cells.

I was standing in a holding cage, 2C, face and chest exposed (due to the designs and patterns on cage) under PC awaiting a compatible cell. SCCC Correctional Officer (CO) Benevitez and Jefferson City Correctional Center (JCCC) CO Ousley told me that the JCCC officers “had something for me”. (I had been convicted of 1st degree assault on correctional officer in JCCC; received 20 years; currently appealing) JCCC Officer Talest (referred to as Bull) then came to my cage and maliciously emptied about 3 small cans and 2 big cans of pepper spray directly into my face. JCCC, SCCC, Ozark Correctional Center, as well as other correctional officers take me to the ground, handcuffed me and proceeded to brutally assault me. About 10 officers or more, all of them 180 to 250 pounds, struck me with closed fists in the facial and body area, stomped and kicked me, elbowed me, twisted my toes and ankles, twisted my fingers back tearing ligaments, choked me and drove their knees into my back. CO Davis ran from nowhere to join the assault.

Inmates claim the officers were screaming, “This is what you get when you fuck with JCCC”. Officers then “hog tied” me, picked me up by my throat and ankles and carried me to Housing Unit 2A (H.U. 2A was flooded with sewage water due to broken toilets and sprinklers). Officers then threw me on the ground by cell 106, pulled the inmates out of 106 and picked me up and threw me to the concrete floor in 106. They then proceeded to beat me and shove my face and nose in water where I could not breathe. They punched, kicked, and stomped all parts of my body, especially my facial area. They twisted my finger and emptied a can of mace into my buttocks area. One officer urinated on me, they took my restraints off and left, whooping and hollering, “That was for Officer Post” and “don’t fuck with JCCC”. They then left me in a pool of bloody sewage water. I was denied any medical assessment. Nurse Courtney, who was working, told me, “Fuck your medical assessment, I hope you die”. I did not receive a conduct violation to support their use of force assault.

Officers then came and put my enemy (who I had requested PC from) into the cell with me. I then declared PC and they refused to pull me out. My enemy then held the food port, stuck his head out with my PC note at med pass to get me pulled out. I then went to “ride” the bench. During a restraint check, nurse Christine G. refused to check my restraints, denied me medical attention, and quoted from the “Bible” Romans 13:4 “It is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evil doer”. When nurse Barker came in, I declared a medical emergency for broken nose and broken fingers. She claimed, “Broken bones is not a medical emergency”. My face was drenched in blood. Later, I declared a medical emergency for chest pains. I can’t remember what nurse seen me, but she checked my vitals and said I was “OK”. I told her about my injuries and she said, “So what”. I was finally placed in cell 113 with a guy named Ben.

My injuries include possible broken nose, torn ligaments in my hands and finger, and I’m extremely traumatized. Prisoner [X] was standing in a holding cage in 2C (his whole body and face exposed due to design and pattern of cage) maliciously maced intravenously, pulled out the cage and beat ruthlessly by about 10 officers. His injury included a broken toe.

Prisoner [Y] was in 2C-240 and was maliciously pepper sprayed, pulled out the cell and his legal materials twisted.

Prisoner [Z] was in 2A-202 maliciously pepper sprayed and ruthlessly beat by about 10 officers. The main instigator was CO Applegate of SCCC. Not sure of his injuries, but when I seen him he looked like the “Walking Dead”. Face, arm, and elbows black and purple.

These attacks were organized by Warden Jeff Norman, Michelle Buckner and Conrad Sutton. Other prisoners were attacked as well.

After these brutal assaults, some inmates were bullied into living with incompatible prisoners. The pigs have 3 TV’s in the wings and are turned on if we are “good”. The same movie is played over and over all day long. The movies usually portray the imperialists oppressing and slaughtering the proletariat. It was used as a brainwash mechanism to control the feeble.

On a bathroom break, I was slammed to the ground on my jaw by CO Callhoun. I was then written up for a 19.1 (Creating a Disturbance). Everyone under PC felt there was nothing they could do and went back to their cells. I stayed on the bench. On 9-1-18, I was taken to Housing Unit 1B-122 for 2 2’s (guard assaults). The violations claim I slipped a handcuff and assaulted 2 officers by striking them numerous times in face and body with closed fists and knees. When in actual reality COI Riggs, COI Karr and Serge Herndon assaulted me. COI Riggs striking me in face with closed fist. I went one week in nothing but boxers and socks. No mattress. By the grace of Yaweh one convict got a sheet to me. Mail room staff Keli Ann Burton has been confiscating all his outgoing and incoming mail. I’m under “Security Orders” and denied medicals sick cell essentials, cleaning supplies, and told at all meals to lay face down on my bunk with arms behind my back and legs crossed to receive a “Suicide Bag” of food, while I’m not suicidal.

Us convicts ask for the administration to resolve certain issues as follows:

1. Relief of overcrowding in administration segregation (Ad-Seg) units by:
   –limiting investigation to 45 days.
   –letting individuals out of Ad-Seg after their disciplinary segregation terms are
   –Ending long erm Ad-Seg (which is used in Missouri as punitive in addition to disciplinary segregation).
   

2. Access to incentives found in other Missouri Prisons for those assigned to long-term indeterminate Ad-Seg confinement and those placed under investigation.
   –Possession of personal property (appliances, books, clothes, etc.).
   –Ability to buy food items from canteen and all hygiene products.
   

3. Access to privileges to those placed under investigation
   –Ability to use the phone at least 3 times a week.
   –Allowed contact visits at least twice a month.
   

If you would please support us convicts by expressing these claims to the Missouri Department of Corrections, we would greatly appreciate it. Also, expose our sufferings and 8-23-18 to the media, Fox 2 News, Channel 5 News, WNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC and mainstream newspapers. Myself, as well as others, will keep pushing. Some of us are litigating 1983’s.

I’m a politikal prisoner warehoused at the State of Missouri’s most repressive slave plantations (Crossroads Correctional Center). It’s name (Crossroads) alone sounds like a cemetery and it does literally feel like one.

The institution is still on lock-down from a riot that took place 5, 6 months ago where no one was injured but millions of dollars in property damage occurred.

The conditions that led up to the rioting still exist today and are even worse today. Basically, we are locked down in our cells all day and none of our daily needs are met. For example, they transferred me here last week as a punishment from another camp and placed me in ad seg despite me not having any conduct violations (write-up). They refused to bring me my ad seg allowable soap, toothbrush, and toothpaste for six (6) days, but gave the other transfers theirs the same day.

So, I sent my case worker numerous kites requesting grievance forms, which she denied me. I’m on high blood pressure medication, which I should have received the first day I arrived, yet medical staff continues to ignore my request. When I arrived here, they gave me another prisoner’s used and dirty underclothes and bedding when everyone knows that you’re supposed to be issued new underclothes and can be issued used outer garments. Again, I sent my caseworker a kite for a grievance complaint and a legal request form to order prison policies and legal case law to challenge these conditions and was again denied.

I’m on a certified religious diet meal plan, yet they refuse to recognize it at this camp despite having documentation proving that I’m on the diet plan. (Please note: A white prisoner next door to me receives his CRD-meal 3 times a day).

We are dealing with gangsters here. Gangsters who have been allowed to do whatever they feel like doing and outside of what prison regulations mandate without being challenged or corrected. And if you bring attention to this abuse of authority, they calculatingly and systematically isolate you and target you with more abuse.

Please send me something to read, i.e. newsletter, prisoner resource guide, anything that will keep my spirit and mind up.

I’m writing because I have received my first issue of ULK, and I am going to tell you about how I became who I am, and what I am. It started in 2010 at South Central Correctional Center with a brother by the name of Supreme. At that time I was 21 years old and didn’t want to hear a thing from no one cause I thought, “you can say what you want but it don’t mean a thing if you can’t show it.” I never used to listen to nothing until he started talking to me and on top of that he was showing it to me. So I can see that it was true.

Once I started to see what he was showing it all came to me and I said to myself “this is a brother I can believe and count on when I’m in need, and need help against the pigs.” Because at that time I was having problems with the pigs and they were giving me hell back to back and I didn’t know what to do about it. He saw it and started helping me and showing me how to go at it with them. I saw what he was showing me was working, so now I’m a believer. He’s an older brother and I respect him a lot for what he did.

I have had a lot of guys tell me things and couldn’t show it. They say “look at the message and not the messenger,” but sometimes the message don’t mean a thing if you can’t show it. I had a guy tell me one day, “yeah man we all should write some letters to people outside. I don’t think it’s gonna work but we can do it anyway.” See! That right there told me a lot, that he didn’t even believe what the fxxk he was saying, so why should I believe that would work?

Now I listen to the ones that show and tell and I make sure I do the same. I never feed anyone bull because I don’t let anyone feed me bull. And I have a lot of brothers that show and tell. One, a political prisoner, does a lot to help all of the brothers that he can. So I give a lot of love to brothers like him and Supreme.

I liked the whole issue of ULK 62 for May/June and I am letting a lot of other brothers read it too. I have read some of your ULKs in the past but I never had a chance to write to you guys and it seemed like noone ever heard of your paper. I realized that there are a lot of guys in prison that are not doing their job, the job of educating other brothers. So now that is why we have a lot of b.s. where everyone is against each other. We see this again and again in all of Missouri prisons. I don’t know everything, and I’m still learning, but as I go on I try my best to help all of the other real brothers gain knowledge.

I know just as well as you know that we have a lot of guys that are faking and trying to bring the movement down working with the pigs. I can tell you a lot of dudes don’t like me because I tell it like it is and I don’t hold nothing back for no one. A lot of these guys are just all talk, they act like they are something they are not, but see they don’t like that I’m about all of that and some, I practice what I preach. I want to help all of the brothers that I can and I mean it and I show it too. So guys don’t like me because I show and tell for real! I want to thank you at MIM(Prisons) for your time and allowing me the chance to talk with you all and the reading material you all send me to help me more. I’m still growing.

Keep on fighting the fight, never give up. To all the brothers and sisters of the struggle: a warrior never gives up. Freedom is what we make it.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This article is especially interesting to us because it’s easy for such a long-term project as ours to sound like what this comrade is criticizing above. “[W]e all should write some letters to people outside. I don’t think it’s gonna work but we can do it anyway.”

We write letters to prison administrators to defend our right to send prisoners our literature, and a lot of the time it doesn’t go anywhere. We run the grievance campaign, and often times we’re just sent in circles between the Inspector General, Ombudsman, and the warden. But we’re not discouraged. We already have strategic confidence in our work, because we’ve studied enough history to know that what we’re doing today will pay off in the long term. Engaging in the endless bureaucracy is tolerable because we already understand how it relates to the big picture.

However, this comrade’s skepticism underlines the importance of how we recruit new people. Our strategy ultimately is to build unity and confidence among the oppressed masses. Busy work (sending letters just to send them) does not have this effect. Even if we don’t expect an immediate positive response from admin, if people just see us as wasting their time and resources, it’s going to discourage them even more and cause them to distrust us.

Part of encouraging people is in picking battles that are winnable. Part of it is in framing these battles as a piece of our larger struggle. Part of it is in showing historical successes and broadening people’s vision. And part of that is relating our goals to the perspective and values of the people we’re attempting to recruit.