North Carolina Prisons

This prison facility is denying me my rights on filing administrative remedy procedure by not answering the grievance.

I put in the grievance on 6 May 2016, and it has been 18 days. The response is supposed to be given to me within 15 days.
The grievance no: 4850-2016-FPD-202128
The grievance was about grievance no: 4850-2016-FPD-201593
All of this is about a false statement of a write up and a complaint to Greene County Sheriff about it.

I sent a letter to the court in DC and the Federal court in North Carolina and to the FBI in Washington DC and North Carolina and I appealed the write up on April the 4th. All of this about is about the crimes they have done to me:

• Class 2 misdemeanor making false reports
• false imprisonment
• felonious restraint of NC criminal law is a class E felony.

They know I cannot read or write because I have no education.

I have got to look at the words to write what little I do write.

This Tabor City Correctional Institution had a dead-line to meet to empty 3 Close Custody blocks and turn them into modified housing. First D-Block was emptied. Moving prisoners into E and F Blocks. D-Block was filled with modified prisoners. There was talk of the dead-line among prisoners as many prisoners were shipped out every week to other prisons. Finally it's April and the 3 blocks aren't empty!

Someone's planning and plotting behind the scenes?

Sunday night, 17 April 2016, as the NBA play-off games are on, prisoners look forward to late night. No count was called, only an alleged pig supposedly said "lock down" and E and F block supposedly said "no!"

No code was called, everyone did lock back.

Monday night, it was late night. Tuesday at 4pm over 30 prisoners were kidnapped from their cells during count and placed in an empty block (seg.) and given A-2 and C-3 charges. These were brothers who were asleep and brothers who were not in the day room!

This demonstration put down by the Superintendent Perry and Unit Management is a clear violation of rights. And a fast way to clear E-Block for modified housing at the expense of over 30 prisoners. The grievances are moving and letters are being written to lawyers. I’m writing to MIM to inform you of this move that's being played out at the expense of prisoner's livelihoods. Please let the world know what this Tabor Correctional Institute is doing. We need help! Lastly I’ve received 47, 48, 49 issues. Thank you Comrades! I await Issue 50. Keep us informed and I shall remain in this struggle to free all prisoners from control units.

I passed out some of your grievance complaint forms. I can't speak for anyone else because i haven't had a chance to follow up, but i turned my own in immediately. The way they do grievances here is ridiculous. If your complaint has enough merit its either refused for some exaggerated reason, it goes missing somewhere along the line, or its answered with some obscure reply and ignored. I've even had grievances tell me i was wrong and then they fixed the problem to make me look like a liar! Just recently they changed the entire process. It's all computerized now, which means we don't get carbon copies of anything. They're supposed to 'mail' us copies of the paperwork but that doesn’t always happen. I have a tort claim in on the Department of Public Safety now for some of my property that was lost and I had to file the initial grievance three different times before they actually 'received' it. That’s not the only time that's happened.

I bring it up because i saw that you were asking for an update on it in the last ULK. Any other questions you have I'll be happy to answer. Till next time.

I'm a prisoner serving time in Rivers Correctional Institution(RCI), which is a GEO, Inc. prison. It's supposed to be low, but looks like a level five penitentiary.

I'm writing to inform my comrades in Pelican Bay that us comrades on this side of the country in North Carolina RCI are suffering from the same torture tactics in the Restricted Housing Unit(RHU). Yeah, that's the new name of the SHU in here. The difference between our torture tactics is the RHU staff walks by the prisoner cells to press the button on the cell doors every 15 to 20 minutes, 24/7, so 80 times a day.

I am writing to inform you of the work that I have been doing here at Tabor Correctional Institution in Tabor City, North Carolina. I am currently housed on Intensive Control (ICON) and I've been spreading the word to a few people in my block. One of the brothers in my block was the real confrontational type who would try to start arguments with different guys simply because the block was too quiet. Usually I would ignore his antics because I understood his cry for attention and fear of having to look in that proverbial mirror, i.e. being alone with his own thoughts. One day after hearing him verbally attack another comrade as well as just cursing out officers without cause I reached to him by calling him on his childish and misguided ways. At this time he told me he never got involved in the conversations that myself and a few others often had because he didn't know anything about it. I then told him the easiest way to learn about it was to ask questions, which led to me sending him two issues of Under Lock & Key. Now this same young brother is a part of these conversations about the various degrees of prison struggle. He is also a member of the Soldiers of Revolution (SOR).

I founded the Soldiers of Revolution (SOR) while housed on ICON. I did so after witnessing the relentless ongoing cycle of gang violence within the North Carolina prison population. I became a member of the Bloods organization in 1998 and in 2015 I renounced my position as a member of that organization to found the Soldiers of Revolution.

I founded this organization because of the gang violence but also because of the constant oppression the prison population endures with no one to teach them how to go about overcoming the oppression. I saw that while many gang members claimed to battle oppression they failed to do so because they were perpetuating it. I understood that they didn't know how to begin the fight against oppression because they were never educated on the many levels of oppression. So SOR was created to educate the masses as well as to be the voice and vanguard of the politically ignorant prison population in North Carolina.

SOR is a political organization founded on the principles of mass political education of all oppressed nations, the battle to end oppression, and peace within the prison population to end gang violence. We stand united in the face of oppression and fully understand that the first step to breaking the cycle is to initiate proper political education. Since we understand the importance of political education in regards to the struggle to liberate the oppressed nations, we have study groups and issue class assignments to further the desire to be politically conscious and active.

SOR is not a gang nor gang-affiliated, though some members are former gang members. As we are primarily a non-violent organization we do not condone or support gang bangin' in any fashion. We do not wish to perpetuate the lifestyles and stereotypes that plague many oppressed nations. We do not adhere to the doctrine of oppressing others to further our own cause. We will offer our assistance and stand united with other political organizations of the oppressed nations but we will not be ruled or governed by anyone but SOR.

MIM(Prisons) responds: SOR is doing important work pushing forward the political education and unity of oppressed nations, and underscores a point that is important for activists: oppression and violence are learned behaviors and we need to work hard to help humynity unlearn these terrible habits. We can't expect this change to happen overnight. In fact we know from the experience in China and the USSR that even after a socialist revolution a new group of people (many of whom were oppressed before the revolution) will attempt to take power for personal gain. This is not surprising since the individualist elements of the culture of capitalism will not be wiped out overnight.

The Chinese initiated a mass fight against the ongoing idological holdovers of feudalism, which they called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, as they worked to create a culture of socialism. Everyone was encouraged to study politics and freely criticize their leaders. This vigilance is the only way we will eventually eliminate the culture of oppression and violence which permeates every aspect of society and pulls the lumpen into anti-people activities like bangin'.

Each individual who belongs to a lumpen organization needs to assess your own situation to decide whether it is best to stay in that organization and struggle from within to build the anti-imperialist movement, or if you need to leave your organization to push forward your revolutionary organizing. There is a place for all of these organizations in the United Front for Peace in Prisons, where we can all come together to oppose prisoner-on-prisoner violence and build unity among lumpen organizations.

For every infraction we get we are charged $10 and our time on long-term segregation starts over. If a certain officer doesn't like you or they have malice in their heart all they have to do is write you up and $10 is deducted from our personal account. The officers who neglect us of our rights are the same officers that have the power to write us up at any time they feel like whether we are in violation of the rules or not. Because they know it will keep us behind these doors 24 hours a day for another year where we are limited to the opportunity to spread the word and liberate comrades from ignorance and let them know we as one need to stand up against this prison system here in North Carolina.

North Carolina is a state with over 52,000 people incarcerated and more being added daily! The unit I am on is a segregation unit where political prisoners, gang members and others are housed for years at a time. I'd say 30% of the prisoners back here get a write up on a daily basis. Some of us who are in the sights of these tyrant officers receive 5 or 6 write ups a week just because the officers have the power to do so. I strive daily to mitigate our situation. But it's impossible when these guys around me lay down and accept what's going on around them. It's also impossible without access to the public and without help. The money taken from us funds the fascist and imperialistic government of this state.

I'm writing you in regards to my personal (incoming & outgoing) mail at Lanesboro Correctional Institution. Since I've been on Anson Unit (segregation), correctional staff have been confiscating my (and about 50 other prisoners) incoming and outcoming personal mail.

The mailroom staff, and Anson Unit Managers (Mr. Hatley & Mrs. Wieks) and their staff (Sgt. Allen, Officer Mack, Officer Jones, Officer Tillman, and Officer Harrington), are all conspiring to deprive me (and about 50 other prisoners) of my (our) rights to communicate. They are using all types of frivolous excuses to try to cover it up.

When it comes to NCDPS Division of Adult Corrections "mail policy & procedure" it doesn't specify who's to deliver or pick up the mail. The mailroom staff doesn't deliver our mail, but in actuality they should, because they are solely responsible for it. When the mail is picked up from the post office, by the mailroom staff, they sort it out, place the prisoners "housing unit" & "cell number" on the letters, then they send the mail to each housing unit, for the officers on each unit to pass out. By doing this the burden shifts towards the unit managers and their officers. But anytime I or any othe prisoner inquire about the mail delivery problems, unit management or their staff tells us to write the mailroom. So, what's happening is that they're shifting the burden back and forth to where the problems are never getting resolved.

My life has been bad ever since I wrote the newspaper about how officers at Alexander CI in North Carolina killed a man with a mental health problem and would have covered it up if I didn't write the newspaper and also they made life hell for doing it. I have been on lock for 16 months because of it and I am just now getting ready to go to the yard for standing up for what they did to htis person and I am also sending you newspaper clippings to show they tried to cover it up and also what kind of educated things you have...

Here in Tabor Correctional Institution in North Carolina, the officers/facility heads use a method that can be compared to the methods of Mr. Willie Lynch, who was a business man who had an affinity with "breaking slaves" in the Jim Crow south. Patsy Chavis is the facility superintendent/master here, and if we analyze the actions that she and the officers display, you'll see some characteristics of hers that are similar to that of Willie Lynch.

Education

In the early days of slavery, it was forbidden to educate a slave. If a slave was caught reading, writing, spelling, etc, s/he was severely punished, sold, or killed/lynched, because the overseers/masters felt that if you give a slave an inch, he'll take a mile, and a slave should know nothing but how to obey his/her master. They felt that educating a slave would make h unfit as a slave and s/he would become unmanageable.

Here at Tabor CI, Patsy Chavis censored some of the best political, law, historical, and educational books one could buy. She wants prisoners to stay uneducated, miseducated, undereducated and simply illiterate, so that we will remain in Tabor City razor wire plantation as a prisoner. Brothers who are fighting their cases who are ordering criminal law books are getting their books rejected. Those who are into politics, they are getting their magazines, books, and newsletters censored. Those of us who are Afrikan/Black and are ordering books or materials about our history, culture, way of life, etc, are being banned because they feel that it will cause "organized activity." Instead, we are forced to read books on Hitler, how to enslave Blacks, the American revolution, etc. These books promote "organized activity" among the Euro-whites, who are a part of white supremacy organizations.

The above examples are not the only books they have in our library. They have fantasy, urban, western, etc., which are books that keep you diverted from the truth, promote genocide of Blacks (i.e. urban novels), and annihilation of the Indians by the cowboys. So if you're trying to become intellectually inclined in a certain field that is beneficial to self it would be difficult, and the publications you order will be censored or banned.

Degradation/Belittlement

Another tactic of Mr. Willie Lynch was to make a slave feel like they are lower than the belly of an ant. Debasing was commonly used against slaves to let the slave know that s/he had no value and was just merely existing. This was done to make the slave more submissive to the will of h master, so they would feel that being a slave was the best thing that happened to them.

At Tabor City corrections, the facility heads/officers treat the prisoners exactly like the master/overseers treated their slaves. On the med control unit racial epithets, derogatory words, threats, etc. are continuously said by these racist euro-white officers. They cheerfully and gladly state that "Blacks need to be locked down/enslaved" and they are trying to bring the klan back. When we complain to the master, Patsy Chavis, she disregards our complaints as lies and sympathizes with her offices.

Food/Clothing

In the early slave days the overseers used to provide slaves with a certain amount of food, and an outfit that was supposed to last them a whole year. Well we don't wear the same clothes for a year, but Patsy Chavis has cut our shower time down from 5 days a week to 2 days a week, which leaves us with the same clothing on a majority of the week. When we get new clothing, they come shredded, stained with blood and other substances, and we are forced to wear them or we'll get written up and charged $10 and put in a dry cell naked for 72 hours.

The food they give us is not the portions that are recommended by the Department of Public Safety. We don't receive the proper calories, nor are we given healthy food. They starve us and proclaim that we're given the right amount, but when we lose an excessive amount of weight they say we've not been eating or starving ourselves.

These are just some examples of conditions of this prison. Patsy Chavis has mastered the art of Willie Lynchism and broken the majority of the prisoners at Tabor CI. You'll hardly see a rebellious prisoner because they keep the hot heads or rebellious individuals like myself alone. These pigs pick and choose their prey, just like the slave holders used to do at slave auctions. They instill fear in many to create a divided population among prisoners, to keep prisoner from rebelling. North Carolina is the new Jim Crow south and Patsy Chavis is Willie Lynch, the slave/prisoner breaker.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This is a good analogy between the prison superintendent in North Carolina and Willie Lynch, showing how they shared similar tactics to control people. However, we would clarify the analogy by saying prisoners in the United $tates are not slaves in the economic sense. The labor of prisoners in Amerika is not a source of profit for the prisons or government. In fact prisons are a money-losing enterprise for the state. Slavery is a system characterized by the capture or purchase of humyns for the purpose of exploiting their labor. Amerikan prisons are used for social control, not labor exploitation.

In early June of this year, MIM Distributors received a letter from Assistant Director Cynthia Bostic of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) upholding the censorship of Under Lock & Key No. 37 (March/April 2014). Bostic censored ULK 37 because it mentions the options legally available to prisoners, to not buy from commissary, not order packages through the prison's vendor, and to file civil action suits. None of these activities are illegal, or even against NCDPS's own policies. Since the newsletter talks about activities which prisoners are legally allowed to engage in, but which give the prisoners a tiny notion of agency and self-determination, it is not permitted in the state.

As a North Carolina comrade wrote almost two years ago, censorship of ULK under the guise of illegal activities was triggered by a surge in subscribers in that state and the development of a campaign by USW comrades in North Carolina to petition the state's ineffective grievance system.

MIM Distributors has written multiple letters to NCDPS administrators in an effort to defend the rights of prisoners to read our newsletter, and to exercise our right to free speech. One of these letters helped convince Bostic to approve the delivery of Under Lock & Key No. 36 (January/February 2014). According to Section D.0105(d) of NCDPS's Policies and Procedures, upon approval, the Publication Review Committee and Wardens are supposed to work together to deliver the previously censored issues of Under Lock & Key to their intended recipients. In Bostic's letter, she "permits" MIM Distributors to resend ULK 36 at our own expense. We recently checked in with our subscribers in North Carolina to see if this issue was delivered to them via the channels outlined in NCDPS Policies and Procedures. If you were a subscriber in January 2014, you should have received issue 36 from your Warden. Let us know if you haven't!