Federal Prisons

This year marks the 51-year anniversary for the fallen comrade, BGF founder/leader, Black Panther General/Field Marshall and Dragon of Ho Chi Minh. This year also marks the 52 year anniversary of his alter ego, the man-child, snatched away too soon, Jonathon Jackson, whose brave revolutionary effort at only the age of 17 to free his older brother George Jackson from a legal lynching, can only be viewed with awe. Their stories of determination inspire the question of why the revolution has been snared, and to seek a newer and more improved method for the revolution that we new soldiers, guerrillas, and political scientists plan to usher into the near future.

This month of August (Black August) is dedicated to the fallen soldiers who bravely gave their lives to improve the quality of living of not only the Afrikan Amerikans who belong to the original man, but also to educate ourselves about the correct ways of living that the history of antiquity has provided us with. It is a time to internalize those lessons in a way that would help us to bridge the racial gaps and get us to do away with our class masters and black, brown, red (a variation of brown), yellow and white could live in a world that is free from the trifles that have destroyed humanity.

George Jackson was a very strong, intelligent, courageous, and dedicated brother whom the history books should teach us more about. For many, George’s career as a shining revolutionary leader ended about as quickly as it began. However, those exist outside of the mainstream corporativism politics know well that George lived and existed as a legend long before the Soledad Brother case that would make him famous.

George Jackson entered the California penitentiary system in 1960 with an indeterminate sentence of one year to life, for the conviction of a service station robbery that resulted in the theft of $70.00. Though the evidence was in his favor, his court appointed attorney convinced Jackson that if he would only plead guilty to a lesser offense that he would receive some light county time. However, through a change of hands, his deal that was promised would result of his conviction and an indeterminate sentence that then in California would prove often times volatile because it was up to a parole board if you ever went home. A system that was heavily racist and extremely dangerous, proved to be fertile grounds of an indeterminate sentence of one to life, becoming life or in George’s case the death penalty.

The author of 2 classic pieces of Black literature that could be used as a treatise of sorts, George laid out the harsh realities of California’s prison system. The atmosphere was so openly racist that whites were even working hand in hand to kill Black and Mexican prisoners, even though ironically enough, just like in Texas some Mexicans would make alliances with racist organizations and join in killing Blacks. Through these activities George felt the need to organize what he called “the chief of staff” and that chief of staff that organized to combat the killing of Black prisoners would later on become what is now known as the Black Guerrilla Family, a revolutionary group that George attempted to align to the revolutionary movements not only in Amerika, but also in Cuba and other Third World nations. In a nutshell George agreed with International Communist Solidarity.

An avid reader, George transformed himself from an adolescent, rebellious street gangster, to a revolutionary leader and prison activist whose knowledge about history, economics, and politics, would make college professors marvel at his intellect. But this is also part of the larger reason why he was never paroled. You see, the sentence that George had, at the most allowed for a convict to do 2 years and then be paroled, but it was this political insight at a time were Black male expression was denied. Not only Black male expression, but at a time when George found communism, Amerika was trying its best to crush this red scare. So his knowledge of capitalist Amerika was that great that prison officials went to the extremes of trying to kill him. Their line to whites was “kill Jackson it will do you some good.” However as gifted as he was mentally and intellectually, he was also gifted as a self-trained guerrilla assassin. George practiced a very special bastardized style of martial arts and kung-fu called iron palm and he worked out 6 to 7 hours a day doing 1000 finger tips a day.

Typing laboriously on a prison typewriter, Jackson wrote position papers that dealt with prison life, economics, and the corrosion of Amerika’s corporate capitalist culture and circulated these papers throughout prison walls. For his activities, he was first rewarded with segregation, often times with a welded lock. Once that proved to not be enough, he was set up to be killed. But since he was a fierce warrior, oftentimes even fighting for other prisoners who were the victim of racial assaults, he would fight single-handedly 5 or 6 prisoners and come out on top. At this point the white prisoners and officers hated but feared him.

George was loved and respected by the Black prisoner population and became their teacher and leader. Even the most racist whites respected George because to them he was a man who was totally straight. All while others would murder mouth and sell wolf tickets, George was as good as his word. If he made a statement of some kind, it would always be followed by action. George formed a political education class and through that he gave his comrades the revolutionary platform that would transform their Black criminality into a Black revolutionary mentality. He also taught martial arts at a time where martial arts was outlawed in prison.

His commitment was so great that during a prison protest that led to some white inmates trying to actually lynch a Black demonstrator under the order of racist cops, when George saw all of these white guys about to push this brother off of a 30 ft. tier, he began punching, kicking, and knocking those guys off the tier. However, for this, he, not the white inmates, was locked up. It was only later on that prison officials would admit that he stood up for a brother about to be hung.

In 1969, the California parole board who had been stringing George along for years, but who had no intentions of ever releasing him, told him that he was going to be transferred from San Quentin to Soledad and that if he maintained clean conduct for 6 months he would be granted parole. Soledad was a racist penitentiary that stoked the flames between prisoners, and that ignited racial animosity to build to murder. George, as a “class based” revolutionary always strove to get the convict class to see that they could easily overcome their oppressors if they would only unite, because by playing at racism the law would essentially win since it would only be 2 maniac groups at war.

On 13 January 1970 after months of lockdown due to racial killings, a new rec yard was opened. A system where Blacks, whites, and Mexicans are to remain segregated from each other, a so-called “mistake” took place and 7 Blacks and 8 white were led to the rec yard where predictably a fight broke out. The officer’s job is to give a warning shot. However, officer O.G. Miller with a military background, southern upbringing, and racist attitude shot and killed 3 Black prisoners in cold blood. One of the dead was George’s close friend and mentor W.L. Nolen. Three days after these killings the Monterey County Courthouse, over prison radios, announced that these killings were justifiable homicide. In less that 30 minutes later anger would turn into redemption as 25-year-old officer Mills was beaten to death and thrown over a 30 ft. tier with a note in his pocket that said “one down 2 to go.”

In February, George Jackson, John Clutchette, and Fleeta Drumgo would be formally charged for the officers death even though they had no evidence outside of their prison files that labeled them as Black revolutionaries. According to prison officials, George was blamed because he was the only person who could have done it. Hardly enough in the area of evidence, it finally gave the state the legal pretext to do what they had been trying to do quasi-legally for years. If George was convicted it meant death since he already had life.

When George received visits from his family they would bring his younger brother Jonathan and the two of them would get off to one side of the visiting room where George would do his job as an educator and at the age of 16 Jonathon had a remarkable insight into guerrilla warfare, communism, and uniterian conduct locally and globally. His love for his brother made him grow-up. He saw that they never intended to let his brother go. At a time when most teens are thinking about self-gratification, Jonathon could only think of George. He said “people tell me that I’m too involved with the movement and my brother’s case, but I have one question to ask people who think like this, ‘What would you do if it was your brother?’”.

George and Angela Davis became somewhat of a power couple and George appointed Jonathan to be her bodyguard. After being fired from UCLA as a professor, just because she identified with communism, George feared that some right-wing nut might feel like a hero by killing her. It was around this time that the state asserts that Angela Davis provided the weapons that Jonathan Jackson would use on 7 August 1970 when he took a bag full of guns to a courthouse in Marin County and passed the out to 3 prisoners on trial. Calm and cold he stated “alright gentlemen I’m taking over now” and “you can take our pictures, we are the revolutionaries.” At the young age of 17 Jonathan had sense enough that the only way he could affirm justice was through a bold act that would take his life.

A year and 2 weeks later on 21 August 1971 prison authorities would concoct the most outrageous story ever invented to justify the assassination of one of our most gifted leaders, George Jackson. The state “asserts” that after a visit with his attorney Stephen Bingham that George had a metallic item in his hair that proved to be a gun that he used to gain control of the Adjustment Center after he said these chilling words “The dragon has come.” The absurdity is that when they reenacted this in a court, they affirmed that George’s cell was 50 yards away from the visiting room at San Quentin, a highly sophisticated, technological prison. And when they reenacted how it would’ve taken place they said “the gun wobbled dangerously”, meaning that it couldn’t have happened that way. At best if George did end up with a weapon he must have wrestled it away from his assassins.

But the kicker is “they say” George had explosives that he intended to blow a 20 ft wall away and escape. “They say” that George ran towards a wall and was shot in his ankle that was immediately shattered, yet somehow he managed to get up and run again and a second shot was fired that entered his back and exited his head. However, what “they say” again proved to be a lie as autopsy proved that the shots that were fired couldn’t have come from a high position as they assert, but rather from the ground.

Now why such an outrageous story for this situation? I mean to me, even though I feel very sorry for Georgia Bea Jackson as she lost 2 sons within a year, I still can’t help but admit that if he went out as the state asserts, it even more adds to his legend. Killing 5 people in the span of 30 seconds (which is impossible) before being killed is remarkable. But upon investigation, if George would’ve went to trial and beat his case, he very well may have been released from prison. So instead of us believing in government created conspiracies, we need to question the facts. In love and revolution, may George and Jonathon both rest within the essence, while they continue to live through people like me and countless others.

Peace to those who don’t fear freedom

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).

I am writing to you because I’m currently housed in California State Prison - Sacramento B-yard (PSU). I’m writing to you on my behalf and on behalf of all the prisoners who are housed in B-7(PSU) to ask you if you can help us because we are living in a very dirty, unsanitary & cruel solitary confinement.

Where we have bird in the unit who poop all over the unit as the showers never get clean and due to that numerous prisoners caught fungus on their feet, like myself I caught bad fungus that now spread to my hand & fingers. Because the unit officers never clean the showers nor the unit & even when myself and a few other prisoners submitted 6O2 complaints about it they only send prisoners from the main line to clean a couple of times and after that it went back to the same old days being dirty and when we write complaints about staff misconduct, the sergeants and unit officers start to retaliate by not feeding us or threatened us that they would not feed us, get assaulted, sexual harassment, coming inside our cells & throwing or spitting on our food and hygiene on the floor & ripped or throw away our legal documents. Like they did to me & a few other prisoners.

And everyday at breakfast Officer G. Herrera is going around with other officers while passing breakfast not giving prisoners their breakfast food and threatening them that he’s going to go inside our cells and beat us up. It got to a point that at one time he told me and another prisoner that he was going to come inside our cell knock us out and sodomize us. We reported this and many other misconducts and the way we are living to the appeals coordinators by submitting complaint 602 appeals and also writing letters to the institution warden. Nothing was done on their part all we got was more retaliation from officers.

The appeals coordinators have been giving our complaints to sergeants from the same yard we are and those are sergeants who myself and other prisoners have filed complaints against already. And they are biased because they write us up by saying we lied on our complaint but that sergeants don’t even do the right and proper investigation all they do is issue us all write ups for supposedly lying.

Also when we go through mental breakdown & are dealing with suicidal thoughts & we notify the officers and nurses that we are experiencing suicidal thoughts to help us. The officers and nurses they just ignored us, even when we end up cutting ourselves and swallow shard metal objects in the intent of ending our lives they ignored us. All this happened to a lot of us prisoners and we are in the (PSU) because we are part of the mental health program at the E.O.P level and we are still being mistreated, discriminated against and ignored and this just triggers more our mental health and safety concerns.

So please help us as we are all begging for your help as we keep being ignored.

Sincerely, (PSU) Prisoners

I filed a 602 [grievance form] on the North Kern state prison CDCR employees for threats against me, for them soliciting my murder, institutional racism, etc. Right after I had the interview for this 602/grievance the C.O.’s opened my cell door and let three of their agent provocateur inmates into my cell where we started fighting. At the end of the fight the C.O.’s kicked me in the face and the C.O.’s punched me while I was on the ground proned out, cuffed.

Later on on the patio the C.O.’s sprayed me with MK-9 chemical agent, cuffed me up again drug me to a different holding cell. Once in that holding cell they grabbed me by my dreadlocks and my neck and forced my head under the water that was running. They did this up to the point of loss of oxygen while calling me racial epithets. The C.O’s did this in front of other C.O.’s who have a duty to be mandated reporters but they did not do or say anything about it. Subsequently I was thrown in the Ad-Seg Unit and given two trumped up RVR’s [rules violation charges]; one for fighting and one for assault on a peace officer. I have been assailed by a fringe group of C.O.’s/Nurses/CDCR employees. They’ve given me approximately 19 RVRs to max out my release date. I had already pre-warned the CDCR that these people were assailing me, and the reasons why.

Racial/political targeting is clearly prohibited under state and federal law. Committing crimes of conspiracy, soliciting murder and obstruction of justice are too, but the C.O. corruption runs deep. I believe this is the same collusive methods used on other individuals with like minds.

The freedom of speech and debate clause protects grievants from retaliations for writing grievances and what they say. The CDCR unwillingness to investigate and prosecute corruption in an effective fair and transparent manner is why they are obsessed with covering up things in the interest of keeping their finger off the deed, regarding serious allegations on their part as well as their racist C.O. gang Greenwall cultures engaging in fraudulent and unlawful activities against me for their benefactors.

These CDCR Employees harass me on a daily basis in some type of way. I have been the subject of faux cell moves, tampering with my legal mail, excessive use of force and I am an ADA who was shot by the Los Angeles Sheriff Department - Compton Division in 2018 and I use a walker to ambulate. Just on 10 August 2022 they MK-9 chemical agent gassed me out of the cell I am assigned to by the state forced a strip search on me and confiscated all of my legal documents and legal books. They’ve falsified documents, arbitrarily and maliciously classified me. They’ve threatened to have me shot by the tower guards. I am being targeted censored and harassed with impunity.

The capitalist of the CDCR(California Dept. of Corruption and Repression) have been utilizing their agent provocateur/snitches against me overtly and covertly. Housing me around their operatives who have a motive of creating false narratives tying me to things I have absolutely nothing to do with. All the while aiding a people who are attempting to compile falsehoods to co-opt my freedom and lifestyle. This is just a small portion of what’s going on dealing with this white power structure of imperialism being a pro-Black male.

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 offender, 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 Texas Department of Criminal Justice (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 and 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 concerns. Stay strong comrades.

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.

We have a lot of issues at this facility, especially with mail delivery delays (policy states the facility has 48 hours from arrival to deliver mail and 72 hours for packages; both can take over a week) and with unnecessary censorship. The Colorado Department of Corrections’ administrative regulations are clearly laid out regarding mail, but this facility often misinterprets or outright ignores those policies.

BCCF is a private-owned (CoreCivic) prison, and despite having a Private Prison Monitoring Unit (PPMU) assigned to monitor the facilities compliance, they more regularly choose to cover for the administration, for whatever reason, instead of holding them accountable in any way. In fact, the former head of PPMU at this facility recently “retired” from DOC and was hired by CoreCivic to a lucrative, high-ranking position (Chief of Unit Management) at this very facility. No potential for conflict of interest there, right?

The grievance procedure is a complete joke around here. Each step of a grievance can take up to 2 months to receive a response, although denying that any issues exist is hardly any sort of helpful response. By the time a DOC employee becomes involved, several months have passed and either they are lied to by facility staff, or they lie to the prisoner. Either way, nothing is done about any real problems.

In my 8+ years at this prison, I have experienced a variety of changes, including now having the third warden in that time frame. In the past year – about the time the current Chief of Security and Warden, and shortly thereafter, the PPMU/Chief of Unit Mgmt., arrived – the level of violence here has skyrocketed. During most of my time here this place had remained largely peaceful, if mismanaged to some degree, however, now that new “security protocols” have been implemented (such as creating two “compounds” from the one, making one dangerously understaffed compound the “High-security” compound), drugs have flooded this facility, despite all incoming mail being photocopied. We can’t even get photos from family anymore. The rest of Colorado DOC facilities are going through “normalization.” This private prison is only normalizing drugs, anger, and violence. With no programs and very limited rec, things will only get worse here.

I constantly encourage everyone around me who will listen to file grievances and write letters to public officials. Even if they do not solve issues in and of themselves, they create and build a record of the abuses at a particular prison, or in a state’s system. “Keep your copies!” Tell family and friends about all of the problems, change public opinion of “us” by being responsible, educated citizens who expect accountability from our government just like everyone else. When something is broken, government just pours more of its stolen money into the problem, never fixing anything (but getting more powerful in the process). We need to expose to the public what a waste the prison system is – in financial and human capital – and discourage anyone from supporting the expansion of such a broken system.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this comrade’s strategy. We should not have false illusions about reforming the system through grievances or exposure, but we also must come together and practice diligence and build our skills in fighting abuses. By doing so we can build towards real solutions.

I was just made aware of the passing of Shaka At-Thinnin via the Black August Organizing Committee, of which the comrade was a lead member of. We are losing a generation of New Afrikans right now. The ones who survived the most brutal oppression of the U.$. injustice system to live long lives.

Of course brutal oppression remains in the U.$. concentration camps to this day. The torture units that were developed in response to the resistance of brothers like Shaka are still in full operation across most of this country.

The comrades who started Black August responded to this repression with collective self-defense, an immense openness and love for the oppressed, and a sharp discipline. Discipline is one of the tenets of Black August. And it is one that i think we can all benefit from. It can be hard to impose strict discipline when it is not out of necessity or dire circumstances as it was for the founders. But studies have shown that the more you practice discipline the easier it becomes, in all aspects of your life. Little routines, little extra efforts, regaining little chunks of time to put it towards what you care about.

Struggling to spend a couple hours writing to prisoners, or handing out fliers, or studying political economy after working all day for exploiter wages is not as glorious as the struggles of some. Yet it is no less important. Shaka emself spent many evenings writing comrades inside after eir release from prison. I’ve had people come to me years later and tell me how a small action, a few words, or a magazine shared really impacted them. You will never know all the impacts you have if you put in work to reach others every day, every week, or even every month.

Shaka did not live to see the liberation of New Afrika, yet eir contribution was still great and continues to inspire us. When i was younger i had read George Jackson’s books, and knew the story of Jonathan Jackson, and studied the Attica rebellion. But it was only after meeting Shaka and Kumasi of the Black August Organizing Committee that I got a real understanding of what Black August was about, and what the New Afrikan resistance in California prisons at the time was like. Their work to preserve that history and share it with the world helps sustain the struggle into the future.

In my years in this movement i’ve had the privilege of meeting many elders of the generation of the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Each one of them inspired me, even if our interactions were brief. What they’d been through and how they responded was a testament to the potential of struggle, and the strategic confidence that we hold in the oppressed majority of the world who have nothing to lose but their chains.

The world is in constant flux. People come, people go. Empires die. The climate changes. And through it all we know that the oppressed nations are the rising force in the imperialist world today. And that force will eventually seize power from the current oppressors and change the course of history.

In Kentucky dept. of corrections, the D.O.C. is being funded with grant money to operate a 1-year-long program for prisoners whom are in the hole for a long period of time, to slowly re-integrate back into general population.

The “T.U Program” (Transition Unit program) started out as a voluntary program, to help prisoners and prevent them from doing long stretches in segregation. Then the “30 day law” came along, which says no prisoner can spend more than 30 days in segregation because it’s been proved to cause “Mental Deterioration”. Because it was a voluntary program, not all the bed space was being filled causing the prison to lose its grant money due to lack of prisoner participation! Very quickly (within a few years) it evolved into a program that the D.O.C. made mandatory, for all prisoners whom received multiple disciplinary reports with any kind of violence, drug offenses, or assaults on staff.

Now, there’s only 2 prisons in the state that has this program and due to it becoming a mandatory program, this has caused a major overload, to where there’s now more prisoners that have to do the program than there is bed space, causing prisoners to sit in segregation for 18 months to 2 years waiting on bed space.

Frankfort(Kentucky’s capital) “Classification Branch” for D.O.C. recommends for a prisoner to complete the T.U. program and if the prisoner refuses they will remain in seg until they complete it. Example, I have a staff assault, I was given 30 days seg time altogether. Classification branch recommended me to do the program in which i was put on the “waiting list” (which is up to 24 weeks long) and then once 24-weeks is up and a bed space comes open I’ll have to do another 24-weeks to complete the program. The program is 4-phases and 6-weeks each phase, then you graduate to general population. How is this just when all I had was 30 days in Seg?

They tell me I can’t get out of segregation until I complete program, but I can’t get in the program, because there’s not enough bed space. How can this be legally taking place when the law states it shouldn’t be? I came to seg in September 2021, and I’m still on the “waiting list,” almost a year later! There’s other prisoners who’ve been waiting for 2 years in seg and nothing is happening. I plan on continuing the fight from within. It’s very hard for the lumpen class to be heard but we’ll continue to stand in strength.

“Human life, then involved a curious paradox; it seems to require injustice, for the struggle against injustice is what calls forth what is highest in man.” - Francis Fukuyama