MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
www.prisoncensorship.info is a media institution run by the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons. Here we collect and publicize reports of conditions behind the bars in U.$. prisons. Information about these incidents rarely makes it out of the prison, and when it does it is extremely rare that the reports are taken seriously and published. This historical record is important for documenting patterns of abuse, and also for informing people on the streets about what goes on behind the bars.
by a South Carolina prisoner October 2016 permalink
Within the last six months at this institution there has been at least
one riot in the unit where I was housed, and several assaults by
officers upon prisoners, which resulted in officers getting stabbed
and/or beat up.
This particular institution has a long history of racism, oppression,
and repression directed towards Blacks. In the past, it was basically
one-sided, as far as the violence - only officers assaulting prisoners.
However, that dynamic has changed drastically.
Needless to say, these people have been shipping prisoners to different
institutions throughout the state. I haven’t been shipped, but I’ve been
moved a couple of times.
A little over a week ago there was almost a lumpen-on-lumpen situation,
but some of the elders were able to obtain peace, since that particular
situation I made it my personal responsibility to hold some classes to
help educate these youthful lumpen on what it means to have unity.
I am also sad to inform you that on the September 9th Day of Peace &
Solidarity there were several prisoners who stabbed each other up -
thankfully none of them were killed. Since then, we have been mending
the different fractures that exist among the lumpen organizations here;
we’ve been using the ULK newsletters as tools to teach,
education, and unite the various groups.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This was one of a
couple
disturbances that occurred in South Carolina on or around September
9th that were not actually part of either of the major countrywide
organizing efforts made for that day. This goes to show how hostile
conditions in the state are. We commend this comrade for making the most
of the difficult situation. It is in times of strife that change can
often come.
On Sept. 27, 2016 an inmate here at Wallace Unit (TDCJ) was smoking fake
weed(K2) he supposedly got aggressive and beat up his celly. After which
officers became alerted of the problem. Supposedly they sprayed him with
three cans of gas after which they claimed he kept coming forward (in my
opinion unlikely). So they tackle him to the ground with great force
(multiple officers involved) and it doesn’t stop there they continue to
beat him while he is in handcuffs with metal sticks until he is K.O….
After this he is taken to the ER where he dies of a heart attack and is
revived. Later he comes back to the unit barely recognizable and on top
of that with little to no memory of his life, he asked for his mom who
has been dead for 2yrs. They shipped him off the unit.
For the second time in about one month over 900 prisoners at River North
Correctional Center were given piss tests. Now if a prisoner is causing
problems that indicate drug abuse, it’s perhaps reasonable to test him.
But testing the entire prisoner population is a fishing expedition just
hoping to catch someone.
Do the prison pigs have some admirable goal? No. They just catch people
to make lives miserable by taking jobs, suspending visits, confining in
seg, etc. If each test and lab fee is just $30 then the pigs spent over
$54,000 in a month on the off chance they might get to punish someone
for using drugs that were not prescribed.
For thousands of years humans have used mind altering substances. The
“soma” of ancient India, the mushrooms of the Incas, peyote, opium,
reefer, and alcohol are but a few examples. Only recently – within 100
years – have governments made the “drugs” illegal. What have these laws
done to stop drug use and abuse? Nothing, as we see drug abuse at an all
time high. These imperialist laws only target people, ruining lives with
jail/prison while lining the pockets of the pigs with money for funding
of the “war on drugs.”
A few generations ago a community had cobblers and tailors, blacksmiths
and silversmiths, lamp makers and other craftspeople. The cobbler knew
the people and knew the kids had warm, dry feet due to his skill. The
lamp maker knew she gave them light. Today, how many of our household
items are made by people we know? Our shoes are made in a factory by a
kid operating a machine at exploited wages. The store with neighbors who
called us by name was an imperialist casualty, destroyed by greed.
Imperialism, with its global capitalism has destroyed us. Drug abuse is
merely a convulsion before death. But you can be revived. You can join
us in re-structuring our communities, our form of government, our lives.
That’s the call of revolution. Are you willing to die in order to feel
alive? Let us use the things you make and let us make the things you
need. In revolution every person has an essential part and there’s no
time for addiction or drug abuse.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We like this author’s point about the
waste of time that is drug abuse, and the reality that this abuse comes
from the alienation fostered by capitalist culture. We sent some
feedback to this author on eir first draft of this article because it
took up an anti-corporate line that seemed to promote small scale
capitalism rather than anti-imperialism. We know that we have much unity
with this author and so suggested ey rewrite it. This rewritten version
is an improvement but still we want to clarify that small scale
capitalism is still capitalism. It is true that huge corporations are a
product of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism. But we don’t
want to promote nostalgia for petty bourgeois businesses because that’s
a reactionary approach; trying to go back to another time. Another time
that of course never really existed, since even the early days of
capitalism were full of war, oppression, slavery and land grabbing. As
this comrade explained, we need a revolution to restructure society, and
when that happens we will be able to build a new society where people
engage in productive labor, which benefits their community. But it will
not look like the capitalism of a few generations ago. We will eliminate
the system of profit-driven work, instead allowing all people to work
for the betterment of society.
In the course of our discussion with this author over eir article ey
correctly noted that Walmart will die when imperialism dies in North
America: “Walmart exploits laborers around the globe and is a foundation
of Amerikkkan imperialism with revenue that exceeds the gross national
product of many small oppressed nations. Yet its foreign laborers are
paid pennies per hour. Most of their products are from India
(semi-fascist regime) and China (state sponsored kapitalism) where
workers are exploited. Not patronizing Walmart and not purchasing
products manufactured by exploited workers is an ‘attack’ or at least a
‘stand’ against imperialism. … The corner deli or the local mom/pop shop
isn’t exploiting workers in any nation.”
While this comrade is right that big corporations like Walmart are doing
far more exploitation of Third World workers than small shops, we don’t
agree that the corner shop isn’t exploiting workers in any nation. They
are selling the same products or using the same raw materials that
everyone else in the United $tates is selling/using: most of it comes
from Third World labor at base. Most products in Amerikan stores are
manufactured in other countries. So we shouldn’t mislead people into
thinking the stuff they buy in a smaller store is exploitation-free.
Further, the companies that promote “Made in America” products are not
off the hook. Many of them are still buying raw materials and machinery
from labor in Third World countries and just assembling products in the
United $tates. Finally, most of the U.$. economy is not even productive
industries. The service and financial sectors employ most Amerikans,
distributing the wealth within U.$. borders, exploited from other
nations via trade and extraction of real goods. There is no way to
escape participating in the economy of exploitation.
So we don’t tell people to boycott Walmart because we don’t want to
mislead people into thinking that they are going to make a difference
under imperialism by favoring one type of exploitation over another. If
the exploited workers in another country initiated an action against
Walmart (or any other corporation) and asked for our support with a
boycott, that would be a different story because that is not Amerikan
consumerism feeling good about itself by switching where we spend our
ridiculous wealth. That would be internationalist solidarity for
exploited people rising up against imperialism.
“America cannot exist without separating ourselves from our identities.”
The fight began in 2011, with a lucrative proposal from a Canadian
company to access tribal lands to transport crude oil to the Gulf of
Texas. The construction they say will help create permanent jobs, the
money given to the tribal councils will help meet the needs of the
people. In reality, this pipeline will create an environmental disaster.
America can’t even fund its own infrastructure, how can anyone expect
maintenance of a pipeline on sovereign tribal lands?
The problem isn’t just the pipeline and all the filth that comes with
it. The problem is the outright
violations
of our treaties, and the lack of treatment of the self-determination
and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This pipeline steps on human rights and proves the second class
citizenship bestowed to all tribal nations, and people.
Take into consideration how all of the government spokespeople go
ballistic at any violations of any treaties bestowed upon foreign
governments by the U.S. government, why are they quick to dismiss the
rights that tribal nations have been granted?
We went to war for those treaties. Yes it’s 2016 and the rhetoric is
that all “indians” should function like regular Americans. But by
initiating a treaty it provides us recognition, and stipulates bilateral
agreements that all parties must honor. Unless, in fact, our treaties
are just “pieces of paper,” and if that is the case, Russia should
overlook the United Nations resolutions with the United States and just
bomb Israel. Is this not the same? Article 6 of the U.S. constitution
and the rider clause of 1888 say different. Both recognize the permanent
power of all Indian treaties and all Indian nations. Just because the
times have changed doesn’t mean the words have.
The U.S. government has been pushing all tribal nations to genocide for
the last 298 years. Poverty, bad water, polluted air, nuclear waste,
uranium mines opened, alcoholism, no job infrastructure for starters.
Suicide among young men has grown to an epidemic. We are just pandered
to in words when government officials want to feel good, then they rip
our children from us, take them state-side and throw them to “white
people” to be civilized – violating yet another federal law, the Indian
Child Welfare Act.
This land is more to us than just land for all tribal people, just as in
1848 when the United States annexed all of Aztlán from Mexico and
erected the largest paramilitary border in the world, much is being done
to separate tribal nations from our lands. In 1973 we fought and died
for our land. If need be, mark my words, we will rise up and fight
again. This land is our identity. It holds the blood of our ancestors,
and the pipeline will kill our people.
The below transcript is provided
because this writer wasn’t able to find a good transcript of the whole
address. The
address(1)
is itself considered a historic moment for indigenous nations of North
America.
The proposed pipeline, almost two thousand kilometers long, impacts or
potentially impacts many First Nations. It doesn’t affect just the
Standing Rock Sioux and other nations/groups of Sioux people belonging
to the larger Sioux nation, which along with other nations is still owed
land illegally taken by the U.$. government. For many First Nations
people, the anti-DAPL struggle is about land and sovereignty, to which
they have a right regardless of Amerikans’ economic, energy and
environmental concerns.
There is a long history of amerikans’ violating First Nations’
sovereignty even by breaking agreements they themselves imposed and
signed. The First Nations’ struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline
(DAPL) is one of the biggest in living memory. As it gets more
publicity, there is a chance to change public opinion – or reinforce it
in an undesirable way – regarding such violations of law and
sovereignty. That is in addition to stopping the pipeline project, which
has already destroyed some burial and prayer sites.
Like Palestine, the Great Sioux Nation is a nation containing
aspirations of greater unity/wholeness, independent statehood, and full
sovereignty. And like Palestine, the Great Sioux Nation is experiencing
ongoing settlement and colonialism, internal governmental issues related
to partitioning, and results of other nations’ failure to honor/obey and
enforce treaties and other international law. The majority-exploiter
imperialist settler entity called “the United States” subjects nations
both inside and outside u.$. borders – and Palestinians both inside and
outside the Green Line – to colonialism and even opposes the two-state
solution in Palestine despite verbal agreements. It happened that the
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman spoke to the Human Rights Council in Geneva
just a day before the International Day of Peace and two days before
Mahmoud
Abbas(2)
spoke to the General Assembly in New York.
With a global, long-term perspective and the world’s help, the Sioux
nation will get their land back and full sovereignty one day. Some in
denial about this are attempting to subsume the anti-DAPL struggle under
some anti-capitalist or environmental struggle including the ameriKKKan
petty-bourgeoisie and/or opposing nationalism of oppressed nations. Some
others talking about colonialism and sovereignty nonetheless openly say
their real concern is climate change. Hopefully they can still
contribute something to the struggle. Apparently, it is too much to ask
more amerikkkans to just abide by their own treaties and other laws. If
First Nations people weren’t facing staggering state power, a
numerically large enemy and dog attacks, like Palestinians also have,
there would be less compulsion to tolerate certain outsider activists
who seemingly may undermine the anti-DAPL struggle or larger struggles
by making their own priorities central.
Overall, it looks like the struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux as a
nation was well-represented in this brief spoken statement in Geneva.
Transcript of Standing Rock
Sioux nation address to the UN Human Rights Council on September 20, at
the 33rd Regular Session
Human Rights Council President Choi Kyong-lim: I give the floor to the
distinguished representative of Indian Law Resource Center.
Chairman Dave Archambault II: Thank you, Mr. President.
My name is Dave Archambault. I am the Chairman of the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe. Our tribal nation is a sovereign nation located in the
United States. Our sovereignty is recognized by the United States
through the legally binding treaties of 1851 and 1868, signed by our
traditional Lakota government, Oceti Sakowin (Oceti Šakowin, the Seven
Council Fires), then passed by the United States Senate, and proclaimed
by the President of the United States.
I am here because oil companies are causing the deliberate destruction
of our sacred places and burials. Dakota Access Pipeline [Dakota Access,
LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners; a.k.a. “Dakota Access”]
wants to build an oil pipeline under the river that is the source of our
nation’s drinking water. This pipeline threatens our communities, the
river, and the earth.
Our nation is working to protect our waters and our sacred places for
the benefit of our children not yet born. But the oil companies and the
government of the United States have failed to respect our sovereign
rights. Today, the pipeline construction continues. Although it has
temporarily stopped near our nation, this company has knowingly
destroyed sacred sites and our ancestral graves with bulldozers. This
company has also used attack dogs to harm individuals who tried to
protect our water and our sacred sites.
I condemn all violence, including the use of guard dogs.
While we have gone to the court in the United States, our courts have
failed to protect our sovereign rights, our sacred places, and our
water. We call upon the Human Rights Council and all Member States to
condemn the destruction of our sacred places and to support our nation’s
efforts to ensure that our sovereign rights are respected. We ask that
you call upon all parties to stop the construction of the Dakota Access
Pipeline and to protect the environment, our nation’s future, our
culture, and our way of life.
In this issue of Under Lock & Key MIM(Prisons) set out to
report on revolutionary organizing in wimmin’s prisons in the United
$tates.(1) Self-determination for the internal semi-colonies won’t be
won by males alone, and yet our subscriber list is overwhelmingly male.
As a prison organizing group, we wanted to look at what is our role in
resolving contradictions along gender lines, in our struggle toward
national liberation and an end to Amerikkkan imperialism. The lumpen
class has a strong training in male chauvinism, and prisons are an even
more extremely masculine environment. If we are going to contribute to
the resolution of gender contradictions, we need to consciously put
effort into it.
We solicited articles from many current and former prisoners on this
topic, but in the end we received very little response. This coincides
with our overall reach into wimmin’s prisons: while about 7% of the
population in prison is locked up in wimmin’s prisons, we do not have
close to 7% of our subscribers located in these institutions. In this
article we will explore the current state of imprisonment of females and
some potential reasons for our limited reach and lower political
involvement in institutions for wimmin.
MIM(Prisons) has long talked about gender oppression faced by prisoners
in the United $tates. Gender is distinct from class and nation, and
located within leisure time activities. Usually gender oppression is
something suffered by biological females. But in prison, where the vast
majority of the population is male, we still see significant gender
oppression. When male prisoners are sexually assaulted by guards this is
obviously gender oppression because it’s based in “leisure” time. But
there are other aspects of this gender oppression, including the
Amerikan legacy of lynching New Afrikan men for supposedly raping white
wimmin, which is an example of white females having gender power over
New Afrikan males. So it’s not so straightforward as just looking at
biology to determine who is gender oppressed. And as on the streets,
gender interacts with nation to complicate the situation in prisons.
Females make up 18.4% of all people under supervision of the adult
correctional system (prison, jail and probation).(2) They are 6.7% of
federal prisoners(3) and 7.2% of state prisoners.(2) The higher
percentage of females in jails and on probation reflects the lesser
severity and shorter sentences compared to males. Because our reach is
mainly in prisons, that is what we will focus on here.
Many have commented on the dramatically increasing female prison
population in the United $tates, especially as the recent growth rate
was so much higher than the rate for males. Between 1995 and 2005 the
number of male prisoners grew 34% while the number of female prisoners
grew 57%.(4) Overall, females went from 11% of all arrests in 1970 to
26% in 2014.(5) However, the U.$. prison population peaked in 2009 and
has been dropping slowly since then. The total change between 2004 and
2014 was a 1% drop in prison population. Over that same period the male
prison population dropped 1.2% while the female prison population
increased 1.4%. Since 2004 the number of females in prison has bounced
up and down every few years with a peak in 2008, a drop from 2008-2012
and then an increase in 2013 and 2014. The dramatic increases in
incarcerated females prior to 2004 seem to have leveled off, and there
are no clear trends since 2004.(2)
What we can conclude from the numbers above is that the imprisonment
rate for females is growing faster than the rate for males, but the
growth is relatively slow in recent years and the overall number of
females in prison is so much smaller than the number of males that it
would take many many years of significant growth to get close to equal
incarceration rates between males and females. It is still true that
when we talk about prisons in the United $tates we are overwhelmingly
talking about prisons for men.
New Afrikans and Chicanas are disproportionately locked up compared to
white females (twice the rate for New Afrikans and 1.2 times for
Chicanas). But these statistics mean that a much larger proportion of
people in female prisons are white than in the male prisons which locks
up New Afrikans at almost 6 times the rate of white males and Chicanos
at more than twice the rate of whites.(6) And in female prisons the
disparity has been decreasing in recent years with incarceration of
white females increasing at a faster pace than other nationalities.
Below we examine two possible explanations for MIM(Prisons)’s limited
reach into facilities for wimmin. 1. We are not doing a good job
addressing issues that are important to this population and so they’re
just not interested in working with us. 2. Females in prison are less
political than males in prison. If the former is true, we hope that this
ULK will inspire readers to write to us and tell us what we’re
missing. We do, however, see some solid evidence that the explanation is
the lack of political interest among female prisoners.
We need to consider what might cause female prisoners to be less
interested in our work than their male counterparts. Those who do write
to us often comment on the complete lack of interest among their fellow
prisoners. And while we hear this plenty from men’s institutions, we
also hear many more stories from the men’s prisons about activism and
interest. In addition, some of the wimmin who write to us are
transgender and held in male institutions, with this experience
contributing greatly to their political awareness.
Based on our experience and what evidence we can find from studies of
prisoners, we believe that wimmin are less likely to be locked up long
term, less likely to be put in solitary confinement, more likely to have
family waiting for them on the outside, and less likely to have been
active members of a lumpen organization prior to or during their term.
These are mostly conditions of wimmin in general in the United $tates,
and so reasonable assumptions to make. We are by no means suggesting
that imprisonment of females in this country is free of abuse or
anything other than a product of a system built for social control. But
females who are swept up in the net of widespread incarceration are
often not the primary targets of the system. The stats on nationality
make this clear.
One might argue that gender oppression in wimmin’s facilities is scaring
people locked up there into unwillingness to reach out to MIM(Prisons).
However, we see that increased repression in men’s prisons generally
results in increased political interest. We get many letters describing
threats resulting from political activism or even just education leading
people to greater interest in men’s facilities. And historically, on a
global scale, greater oppression has led to greater resistance, by
nation, class and gender.
Overall we think the lower percentage of people in wimmin’s facilities
reaching out and getting involved with MIM(Prisons) validates our theory
about what leads prisoners to becoming politicized. Significant factors
include: solitary confinement, lumpen organization involvement,
significant repression, censorship and conditions of abuse. Essentially,
repression breeds resistance (as long as the repression isn’t so extreme
that prisoners face total censorship, or health conditions so bad that
they are unable to function). We regularly hear that widespread access
to TV and other privileges really does buy prisoners out of political
interest and activism. This is not a surprise in a country of wealth and
privilege where the vast majority of the population enjoys petty
bourgeois lifestyles.
Further supporting this theory is our anecdotal experience that trans
wimmin are interested and active behind bars. We know they face
significant repression distinct from the general prison population. So
it is not surprising that trans prisoners are driven to political
awareness and activism.
Unique Challenges in Wimmin’s Prisons
While material conditions, as analyzed above, play a role in the appeal
of proletarian-led communist revolution to any population, we also need
to look at our own attempts, or lack of, to organize with this
population. MIM(Prisons) has not made a concerted effort to connect the
struggle for national self-determination with struggles in wimmin’s
prisons. With this ULK we hope to spark that conversation.
With that said, we need to look at what unique challenges are faced by
people locked up in facilities for wimmin. This will help determine if
we are not addressing the issues that are important to these prisoners.
The battle to maintain or regain custody of children is one issue more
prevalent in facilities for female prisoners. In 2006 (and other studies
suggest this number is pretty constant in recent years), more than 65%
of females in state prisons and 55% of males in state prisons had
children under 18 years of age. 64% of these mothers lived with their
children before prison, compared to 44% of fathers.(7) While this is a
pretty big difference, the overall magnitude of the impact of
imprisonment isn’t close: there are so many more fathers in prison than
mothers in prison. One possibility is that mothers who fear losing
custody will do anything they can to keep clean and get out quickly, and
this focuses them more on doing their time quietly than fighting abuse.
Sexual assault is another potential issue that may affect female
prisoners more than males. In a PREA survey of former prisoners from
2008, 10.5% of females reported prisoner-on-prisoner sexual assaults
compared to 2.7% of males. Staff-on-prisoner sexual assault was also
more commonly reported by females (2.5%) compared to males (1.1%).(8) We
are skeptical of these numbers, especially since the taboo against
reporting sexual assault is even greater for males and so it’s hard to
say if these statistics represent a meaningful difference between the
experiences in wimmin’s and men’s prisons. Even if it does, we wouldn’t
expect this abuse to lead females away from political activism. But it
is perhaps an issue we need to expose more often to address the large
portion of wimmin who are facing this abuse.
The Path Forward
It is important to connect our political line with our strategy and
tactics, and engage in the scientific process of developing that line as
we learn from our practice. While in this article we have focused on
facilities for wimmin and organizing of females behind bars, this is a
bigger question of how we mobilize females on the streets to join our
revolutionary struggle. We are fighting against class, nation and gender
oppression on a global scale, and this battle requires uniting all who
can be united. Around the world we have examples of wimmin joining
struggles for national liberation, taking up leadership in communist
organizations, and historically in leadership positions in Communist
China. While we see the national liberation struggle as principal at
this point in history, we can not neglect the gender contradiction, both
in the general fight against imperialism and in our own political
practice.
Rise up, rise up, it’s time to rise up against the system One that
has many young brothers and sisters missing Stuck behind walls gated
in a warehouse Amerikkka’s criminal injustice system full of
brothers and sisters they won’t let out Rise up, rise up, it’s time
to rise up against the system Hurry you must hurry you can easily
become the next victim Another nameless soul thrown into the pen
turned into a number All in the goal of breaking you and making your
spirit crumble Rise up, rise up, it’s time to rise up against the
system Revolution we must demand to overthrow these people’s
trippin Planting evidence, misconduct, lies all for political
motivation We must band together, Revolutionaries for freedom of our
nation Rise up, rise up, it’s time to rise up against the system
Power to the freedom fighters through means of resistance Rise up,
rise up, it’s time to rise up against the system!
It’s been 50 years since the most advanced segment of national class
consciousness of a people came together in unity nationwide in the inner
cites to challenge imperialism.
The Black
Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was capable of leading the
lumpen in the struggle for the overthrow of oppressive/exploitative
relationships and the building of national independence,
self-determination, and socialism. They were equipped with the right
ideology of dialectical materialism, which is a concrete analysis of
concrete conditions, and knew how to apply it to where the principle of
“from the people back to the people” was being done successfully with
the breakfast for children program. However, they couldn’t combat the
oppressor’s COINTELPRO strategy, which destroyed a beautiful movement.
We celebrate the sacrifices these beautiful men and women made when they
stood up to fascism, and some lost their life to the struggle by death,
or state-sanctioned death known as incarceration, and they will not be
forgotten.
As I’ve read books by Mumia Abu Jamal, Robert Hillary King, Huey P.
Newton, David Hilliard, and Eldridge Cleaver (just to name a few), I’m
reminded of what it means to be New Afrikan in the United $tates, as
well as why being a revolutionary is the most important ideology to have
and apply when facing this oppression, and it’s due to the same
challenges we face today. COINTELPRO is not over, but has only advanced
so that the oppressor does not see another people’s revolution again.
The spirit of the Panther lives inside of me, as well as countless
others who languish behind enemy lines, and we will continue their
legacy through our practice of serving the people.
MIM(Prisons) adds: As we enter the month marking the 50th
anniversary of the most advanced Maoist party in the history of this
country, we put out a
commemorative issue
focused on the BPP this summer for our 50th issue of Under Lock
& Key. [In October, hundreds of copies were also distributed at
BPP commemorative events. That month we also finalzed a new edition of
our study pack:
Defend
the Legacy of the Black Panther Party.] We’d also add to this that
the Party’s own internal contradictions played out allowing COINTELPRO
to deliver the death blows that it did. There is no all-powerful
oppressor that can stop the oppressed, although we are in the minority
in this country. So as COINTELPRO continues, we learn from history and
push the struggle forward!
I have been submitting Step 1 grievances for months (no replies from the
Unit Grievance Office), and talking to the Sargents and Lieutenants and
writing to the Captain and Wardens has been useless. I have tried to
make them aware of violations of my civil rights by forcing me/us to
choose between meals, medical, medications or religious activities and
meaningful access to the courts.
The Grievance Office is not answering the grievances. I have submitted
one every 40 days over and over since MARCH and I do not even get a
reply. I can’t submit Step 2 Grievance until I get a reply to my Step 1
Grievance. It is obvious they are looking the other way to protect other
guards. I imagine I can’t file in court until I exhaust local channels.
But if they never received or replied to the grievances, that bars me
from bringing them to court.
The same goes for them not wearing name badges. I was told by a guard
“You can’t write me up if you don’t know my name.” Asking other guards
what another guard’s name is proves fruitless. When denied access to the
law library or attempting to address the issue they have threatened me
with writing me a case for being out of place and sent me back to my
section. So all attempts to remedy the situation have failed so far.
They have a duty to investigate once I bring a violation to their
attention, but no one takes ownership. What do I do? Who on the outside
can help with this? How do I proceed?
When we ask for rank (supervisors) we get denied access to them or the
Sgt/Lt refuses to come look into the situation. We don’t know if it is
the guard that didn’t tell the supervisor and is lying to us (to not get
in trouble) or if it is the Sgt/Lt that just doesn’t care. Since we are
in the day-room or cell we have no way of knowing whether supervisory
staff is really ignoring the issue or whether the officer is just trying
to cover up issues related to violations of our rights.
It has been quite frustrating here trying to diligently fight these
issues that pose a legal disability.
I really do appreciate your help. But I have another favor to ask you.
For a long time I have been trying to get a copy of the TDCJ Policy so
that I can better understand how to fight every case that be written up
against me. Cause these peoples will write peoples up for no reason at
all. You can’t imagine how corrupted this system is. They don’t let us
get access to the most important policies that we need to be able to
fight for our rights. I am a 12 hour worker in here in this prison a
day. And sometimes my supervisor don’t feed me telling me they don’t
have to feed me a hot meal. Just a Johnny Sandwich. Which isn’t right at
all. So if you can please provide me this policy concerning TDCJ, I will
appreciate it very much.