Texas Prisons

Stiles went down on its annual oppressive lockdown on the 9th of September. Still no mail pick up (it’s Sat the 17th!) and only one official shower given on the 14th. Most of the guards (99.9%) are A) Nigerian citizens on work visas, or B) African-American females with little education, marketable job skills, or energy. Either way, the levels of adherence to the rules of confinement per TDJC Guidelines in Huntsville is laughable, and most paper work is pencil-whipped.

I yelled out to D-2 Asst. Warden Fisher on Tues the 13th that “4 building D-wing” has not received a shower yet, and she yelled back “That’s not what the paperwork says!”

Policy posted on the dayroom window on Day 1, Week 1 of this lockdown says showers will be allowed 3 times per week on M-W-F, with a 10 degree hygiene spend in the 2nd week. Good Luck

No mail pick up, no law library, no showers, and most meals consist of a “Johnny sack”– a paper sack with a PB+Syrup sandwich on cheap donated white bread, and a teaspoon of spicy hamburger meat an another 2 slices of bread. No access to cold water. I’m up on 3 row where the heat collects and my Vaseline turns liquid by 10 A.M.

Sir/madam Editor

I’m writing this to express my concern about the treatment of inmates with heat related disabilities, and their treatment, and lack of propper medical care. Since I have been on this farm there has been five deaths that I know of. One before i got here when an inmate burned to death in his cell while staff stood by and did nothing, the second was found hanging in a cell, that had been there so long, rigor mortus had set in. The third, was made to look like a suicide but turned out to be a murder, fourth a man just had health issues and died in his cell, and the fifth was on the way back from the hospital in Galveston, now that’s just prisoners. We’ve had one T.D.C.J. Captain blew his brains out while at work, for what reason is still unknown as well as the other five deaths.

Now all of this has taken place over a span of around 5 months. And this is just on this farm, I wonder what happens at other farms. The question is has Texas prisons turned into internment/death camps. To me it seems like T.D.C.J. is doing its best to take all the things away from prisoners that they were awarded in the Ruiz V. Estelle, and Ruiz V. Johnson. Now if we do not educate ourselves against this type of oppression and push for more people to ease some of the over-crowding. What part of justice is served when a man or womyn serves 30 years flat. That’s a lifetime, that time stood still for them, if they were 30 years old now they are a 60-year-old crippled old man or woman, let them go spend what time they have left with any family they might have. To keep them locked up any longer is just cruel.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Mark W. Stiles Unit has been operating for most of 2022 so short of staff that it is placing the public’s safety at risk. For instance buildings 3, 4 and 7 house up to 432 each and on most days operate with one officer at the building control desk, 3 officers assigned to the 3 control pickets and one rover per building. That is 5 officers per 432 prisoners. The 3 buildings mentioned above not to mention buildings 11,12,18 and 19 (of which I have no personal knowledge of the number of prisoners housed in those buildings) that is a total of 15 officers for 1,296 prisoners. The officers are over-worked and have short tempers. They are tired and the rovers are only giving the prisoners an ingress/egress to and from the cells every 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours causing tension levels to be extremely high.

LAW AND FACTS

Mission statement: The Mission of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is to provide Public safety, promote positive change in offender behavior, reintegrate offenders into society and assist victims of crime.

TDCJ Administrative Directive (A.D.)-s.40 clearly states: Offenders will be afforded at least hourly ingress tom and egress from their cells during dayroom hours. Post Order 7.023 (1) The cell block officer shall call for an ingress/egress on the hour, from the dayroom to cells and from cells to dayroom, (2) The cellblock officer shall give offenders returning to cellblock from assigned jobs, school, commissary, or other unit activities opportunity to return directly to their cells.

TDCJ’s failure to follow its own procedural rules and regulations is an independent violation of due process. This holds true even if the rules and regulations provide protections beyond those which are constitutionally required. The existence of rules creates the expectancy that they will be followed… except to create an illusionary semblance of compliance… The legislatures failure to appropriate funds sufficient to increase significantly the security staff does not absolve the TDCJ of liability for any unconstitutional shortcomings in the area of security (see Ruiz V. Seator, 359 U.S. 535 (1959)).

2021 Texas legislative House Bill 3157 by Ron Reynolds. This New Law increases the penalty for violating a person in custody’s civil rights from a class A misdemeanor to a third-degree felony.

To whom it May Concern:

I am a dialysis patient at the Estelle High Security Unit. Our Warden and Major are Having a Very Hard time getting us just across the street to get our dialysis. One day they used a tractor and trailer to get us there. All of us in High Security are Heat Restricted and a lot of us are in wheelchairs. They have put us in a transport Van Ford F-350 and put us 8 in the back and 3 in the middle with wheelchairs in or on top of them. There is a small cage in the van. This is a copy of a grievance I just sent them:

ON 8-15-22 at 5:45pm-7:10pm 11 Dialysis patients were put in a van with NO Rear A/C. We got to the rear gate of high security at 6:10pm our officer driving the van told Lt. Phillips:

“Hey there’s Dialysis in the van and it’s hot for them,”

Lt. Phillips said ,

“I don’t give a fuck I’m crossing my kitchen crew to the main building. They can fucken wait,”

It was about 90 outside. Our officer driving the van told her again,

“They just got off dialysis,”

Lt Phillips said,

“They’ll be fine.”

Lt. Phillips, Sgt. Stovall, Sgt. Sabasi, Sgt. Perillo were all out there. Not one came to check on us at all for the hour we were in the van. They were in a hurry to go home. We were at risk of Heat Stroke or worse. When we did pull in to High Security parking one of our dialysis patients fell out from his blood pressure being low from the heat from behind the van. Sgt. Stovall and Sgt. Sabasi were there to see it. Are we not Heat Restricted? Why are we put in a Hot Van? TDCJ says the vans are in working order. Blowing hot air does not mean its working.

Now I Sent it out on 8-15-22 I’m waiting for it to come back. When I got it back I will tell you the response.

I am still getting your paper at Estelle

Sincerely,

A fighter

I’m attacking the “Heat Sensitivity Scoring (HSS).”

We feel that being classified as “Heat Sensitive”, which requires a cool-bed housing assignment, is a medical treatment and a medical diagnosis. A diagnosis that you should be able to choose if you want the “treatment” or not. We have a right to refuse medical treatment but they will not let us opt out of this “classification” and will not explain how this “Heat Score” was calculated.

The best information I’ve gotten on the Cool-bed litigation came from Nell Gaither at the Trans Pride Initiative PO Box 3982, Dallas, TX 75208 (214) 449-1439, tpride.org. She copied and pasted Document 59-2 from Sain v. Collier 4:18-CV-4412 and I had her letter entered in my case. It is a 4 page letter and you can buy it for $0.50 per page from the Clerk in the Western District, Austin Division @ 501 W. 5th St., Suite 1100, Austin, TX 78701.

TDCJ makes First Nation practitioners take a religious knowledge test before they will approve them for a Designated Native American Unit and if you can’t pass the test you can’t meet with clergy or attend ceremonies, etc.

I was shipped off of my Designated Unit and put in High Security in Allred because I was “Heat Sensitive.” SO they denied me of my religion due to my health conditions and wouldn’t tell me I had to re-take the test to re-apply for a Designated Unit (which is unconstitutional). Anyway, what they’re really doing is shipping [lawsuit/paperwork] filers off to high security claiming they are “Heat Sensitive.”

If this happens to others, all they need to do is contact the Chaplain and apply for a transfer to a Designated Unit again. They will have to take the test again as is TDCJ Religious Policy AD-07.30 policy number 09.02(rev3)p.1 &2 and policy 09.02(rev2) Attachment A.

We are looking to do away with this unconstitutional religious discrimination and teach our own religion. TDCJ’s text is based on Lakota religion and there are no Lakota tribes in Texas, so it is difficult to get Native Chaplains willing to teach a religion that is not their own.

People are fired up about ULK 78! I’m going to be ordering all of my grievances to send to TX Prison Reform. Thank you Triumphant of T.E.A.M. O.N.E.! for the good info. I’ve already ordered my grievances, I have 56! You can purchase them from the law library for $0.10 each.

Note to my Connally Unit comrades: As of 1 August 2022, TDCJ will no longer make legal copies, which is fucked up! I’m having to send my original documents through the mail to the court and hope they don’t steal my mail. Warden Rayford has banned inmate-to-inmate legal visits and there is no drinking water in the Law Library and no bathroom breaks. If you need to go to the pisser, your session is over.

No legal copies and legal visits hinders our access to courts, but I suggest sending an I-60 in and getting a denial on paper even if you don’t need a jailhouse lawyer. Then, if you loose your case you can say this was because you didn’t have your “helper.” Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 490(1969) says you have a right to get legal help from other prisoners unless the prison “provides some reasonable alternative to assist inmates in the preparation of petitions.” And if they are still retaliating after that, make sure you got a lot of witnesses. It is a federal crime for state actors (the prison officials) to threaten or assault witnesses in federal litigation 18 U.S.C.§1512(a)(2).

TDCJ Officials DENIED Summary Judgment in fight to END restrictive housing in Texas

On 2 August 2022, Chief Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn rendered an Order Accepting Findings, conclusions and recommendations of the United States Magistrate Judge.

The Honorable Magistrate Judge Hal R. Ray Jr. submitted the findings, conclusions and recommendations on 17 June 2022, effectively denying TDCJ’s officials qualified immunity defense and finding that continuous confinement in TDCJ’s version of solitary confinement is INDEFINITE under the unconstitutional Restrictive Housing Plan. A date for trial has not been set though it was also recommended by Magistrate Judge Ray Jr.

The time is now for pre-trial preparations and the Plaintiff and Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E. are requesting that individuals that are being held in TDCJ’s Restrictive Housing please submit their testimony, artwork, poems and writings to the contact info above. We want to hear your stories about what you have suffered in TDCJ’s Restrictive Housing. Anyone who wishes to participate in the trial must first submit their testimony to Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E. first. Serious inquiries ONLY! Secondly you must be willing to have your background checked thoroughly. So once again, Serious Inquiries ONLY!

*** ATTENTION *** ATTENTION ***

Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E. is putting together a scrapbook about solitary. Submissions would go to the above address also, along with permission to publish your material. Submission should be turned in NO later than November 30th 2022.

Texas Together Ending All Mass Oppression aNd Exploitations

____ abolitiontoday.org ____ spiritofmandela.org ____ @EndAdSegTX ____

MIM(Prisons) adds: We have distributed copies of this press release to a number of prisoners in Texas, but need help doing so. If you know someone suffering in RHU, please share this information with them ASAP.

The campaign against long-term solitary confinement is a campaign against torture and a campaign against political repression. It is perhaps the most important struggle in the U.$. prison movement. Texas has an opportunity to do what California failed to do. In California, an alliance of lumpen leaders and reformist organizations settled the Ashker suit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.(1) Texas T.E.A.M. O.N.E. will not be following suit, and will be taking this battle to trial with the goal of ending, not reforming, long-term solitary confinement in Texas.

As the Texas prison movement continues to grow, we must build broader awareness and support for this battle, especially among the most affected masses who are willing to dig in and fight for this. The largest prison strikes in history precluded the battle against the Security Housing Units in California, and yet the battle was lost. We must put politics in command and rally the prisoners and people of Texas to put an end to torture.

^{Notes: 1. Wiawimawo, September 2015, Torture Continues: CDCR Settlement Screws Prisoners, Under Lock & Key No. 46.}

At the O.L Luther Unit we just had our annual Lockdown/Shakedown during which we were forced to sit outside with limited shade and denied respite. A close friend of mine, a 62-year-old prisoner, repeatedly told officers that he was feeling unwell and needed access to respite. After he was promptly denied respite he suffered from heat exhaustion and had to be taken to the hospital where they had to perform an emergency operation to install a pacemaker, even though prior to this he had never suffered from cardiac issues.

I feel that this incident is indicative of the type of behavior that is perpetuated inside TDCJ. A blatant disregard for the well-being of those incarcerated is the modus operandi of these facilities as well as denying respite during category 4 level heat they are also restricting access to ice. When we tried to address the issue with grievances, the responses we received were flat out lies. They maintained that we have continual access to ice for our drinks and commissary purchases. Despite the fact that several of my comrades here have received unjust disciplinary action for the simple act of trying to get ice.

While we are denied ice, in violation of their own directive (A.D. 1064) which states that we are guaranteed ice during times of elevated heat, the C.O.’s (capitalist oppressors) have their own cooler just for ice and it is kept under lock & key to prevent our access. This level of hypocrisy is inexcusable. We are currently trying to initiate a 1983 civil suit to demand A/C and access to ice. Thank you for allowing me to express my grievances. Stay strong comrades.

UPDATE FOR AUGUST 2022: Now that Juneteenth 2022 has passed, please use this updated flyer and these updated postcards now address the censorship across the state of Texas in recent months. We need your support to keep increasing the pressure to fight this censorship of political speech.

Download and print this flyer to hang or hand out.

We are also asking others to join our letter writing and postcard campaign in support of the rights of MIM Distributors and activists in Allred to freely communicate. There has been a rise in mail censorship as organizing has progressed.

1. download PDF below
2. print 2-sided on cardstock
3. cut into 4
4. add $0.40 stamp (or more)
5. go to event or public space and ask people to sign their name, city and state
6. explain the Junteenth Freedom Initiative to them
7. hand them a flyer (above) or Under Lock & Key
8. ask for a donation to pay for postage & printing
9. drop postcards in mail box (don’t mail them all at once we want a consistent stream of cards coming in)

On 19 June 2022, prisoners across Texas abstained from celebrating the federal Juneteenth holiday until real freedom is attained by the oppressed in this country. Instead they organized, studied and made their voices heard for the demands of the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative, including:

• End Solitary Confinement! End Restrictive Housing Units(RHU)!
• End Mass Incarceration!
• Stop Mail Censorship!
• Transform the prisons to cadre schools! Transform ourselves into NEW PEOPLE!

Updates Since Juneteenth

The response from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice(TDCJ) was swift and coordinated. MIM(Prisons) sent hundreds of update letters to comrades in Texas during the month of June, and almost all of them appear to have been censored.

Prisons where our letters were censored for “inciting a disturbance” or “riot” include:

• Allred Unit
• Beto I Unit
• Boyd Unit
• Christina Melton Crain Unit
• Estelle High Security Unit
• Estelle 2
• Ferguson Unit
• Gist
• Hughes Unit
• McConnell Unit
• Mountain View Unit
• Stevenson Unit
• Telford Unit
• Terrell Unit
• Wallace Unit
• Wynne Unit

We are still receiving and compiling censorship notices from June. Needless to say, there was a coordinated effort to block our letters across the state, and they were really worried about the Juneteenth boycott. Of course, there was nothing about organizing a riot in our letters. But the imperialists will consider a boycott a “disturbance” worthy of violating Constitutional rights. Biden said we must celebrate Juneteenth, so now we face the consequences of his goons in the TDCJ.

The censorship at Allred Unit had been going on for months prior. This is the worst RHU in the state, where a lot of the JFI organizing began. Therefore we began a postcard campaign to protest the political targeting of mail and of certain prisoners at Allred. One comrade there received 22 mail denial notices in one day in May! Another comrade in Allred wrote:

“I been denied 2 newsletters & 1 letter that ya’ll sent my way. [everything we’ve sent this comrade] I highly appreciate ya’ll. I’ve sent them home. This only confirms that Texas don’t want us to know. Your news letters were denied for tha reason of ‘inciting a disturbance’.”

“I asked the mail room lady if anything sent from this address will be denied and she said, ‘Yes.’ Just like that, freedom of speech denied.”

This campaign is ongoing, as the censorship continues, and we ask outside supporters to get involved. Mail from prisoners in Allred is often delayed a month or more, so updates on the launch of the JFI have not yet come in from some of the organizers.

One Texas comrade reported:

“The Juneteenth Freedom Initiative flyer was displayed for several weeks here. On Juneteenth, no movement due to low staff and no special holiday meal. The officers dining room had ribs, BBQ chicken and brisquet with all the fixins, and these were supposed to be delivered to each officer on duty. However, most were stolen en route. The warden and kitchen captain were pissed.”

The JFI was initiated by TX T.E.A.M. O.N.E who has continued to lead organizing efforts inside. Others, including Prison Lives Matter, Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee Local 613 #1, the Texas Liberation Collective, and United Struggle from Within cells, have joined the call. On the outside, MIM(Prisons), Anti-Imperialist Prisoner Support, and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement have been providing support.

Phase 2

Per the plan below, laid out by TX T.E.A.M. O.N.E. the next phase of the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative for prisoners is to file petitions with the Department of Justice. If you need a sample petition, write us to get a copy. This petition is not specific to Texas.

Prisoners in long-term solitary confinement in Texas can also join the Dillard lawsuit against the TDCJ. If you need a copy of the motion to join, write us.

Outside supporters can best assist organizers inside by joining our campaign against censorship. We want to continue to let the TDCJ know that people outside are paying attention and not willing to accept this political repression. We will be following up with a lawsuit on behalf of an affected party in Allred and MIM Distributors. You can help in the following ways:

• calling or writing letters to the TDCJ, and to Allred Unit in particular
• getting others to sign postcards protesting the censorship
• contribute to the legal fund to fight censorship

For more information go to: prisoncensorship.info and go to the Campaigns page and Boycott Juneteenth. For info on how to donate click the “Do Something” link.

Background on JFI

As you may know, Juneteenth has now been made a federal holiday in amerika. On this day many will sing the praises of Our oppressors or otherwise negate the reality of the lumpen (economically alienated class), that according to amerika’s 13th amendment We are STILL SLAVES. While We do not wish to nullify the intensity of the exploitation and oppression that New Afrikan people held in chattel slavery faced, We must pinpoint to the general public, those upcoming generations of youngsters looking to follow Our footsteps, that to be held in captivity by the state or feds is not only to be frowned upon but is part and parcel with the intentions of this amerikan government, and its capitalist-imperialist rulers. We say NO CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH until the relation of people holding others in captivity is fully abolished!!

Comrades have been organizing around the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative(JFI) for almost a year now, and we just completed phase 1. Prisoners in Texas and North Carolina took up the campaign. Instead of celebrating Juneteenth, boycotters worked to get out the voice of the incarcerated in TX and NC.

Previous campaign materials include more demands and more details. Add your own demands that speak to your local conditions and make the JFI demands heard by the masses and the oppressors. Don’t just boycott, organize.

The Boycott is just the first phase and launch of this campaign by and for all Texas prisoners.

1. Juneteenth boycott and voice demands starting 19 June 2022
2. present petition to the Department of Justice Special Litigation division (write in to get a copy if you still need one) – everyone should mail copies of their own signed petition to the DOJ following Juneteenth 2022
3. if (2) fails to bring proper response, we will petition the United Nations – date To Be Determined – watch for announcement in Under Lock & Key, we will be requesting testimonials and collecting statistics to back up our arguments on each campaign position and submit them as evidence to bolster the recent guilty verdict of the We Still Charge Genocide, International Tribunal 2021 where mass incarceration and solitary confinement were ruled to be vital tools in the U.S. campaign of genocide for centuries against Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples of this continent.

Cause Number: 2:21-CV-00337

Styled Name: F Martinez, Doll, Pineapple Pictures, et al. Versus Members of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, et al.

Dear Friends:

Greetings! I am the leading plaintiff in the above styled and numbered case. I filed this lawsuit on my behalf and others similarly situated prisoners in TDCJ. I also represent the interest of Doll, Pineapple and other commercial vendors.

The reasons in filing this lawsuit is to challenge the constitutionality of the rules 1(C) and IV(A)(10)(11) of the “Uniform Offenders Correspondence Rules” (BP-03.91)

Rule 1(C) which limits to receive ten photos per envelope is unreasonably and arbitrarily applied to deny catalogs, brochures, and flyers from commercial vendors. Rule IV(A)(10)(11) which totally bans “sexually explicit images” coming into the general population all in disguise of rehabilitation purposes.

On or about 17 June 2022, I filed in court a “motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injuction.” I hope that the court grant me this motion and temporarily enjoin the defendants from enforcing these rules until the merits are decided in trial or through the summary judgement process.

Anybody interested in copies of the complaint and the “TRO” motion may request copies form the court. To request the price fees you may write to the clerk of the court at: