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.
The downloadable grievance petition for Texas has been updated to
include some more relevant citations that were submitted by a comrade.
Please download it
here.
Click the link below for more information on this campaign.
“The humaneness of a society can be judged by its prisons.” - James
Doare
On August 23rd, San Francisco Rep Tom Amiano and the Public Safety
Committee in the state assembly held an informational hearing on
conditions and policies at Pelican Bay - SHU (and we assume the SHUs
here at Corcoran and Tehachapi as well). The NCTT Corcoran-SHU wishes to
express our support for the people and organizations who have mobilized
to lend their voices to this vital human rights initiative which began
with our July 1st hunger strike and will not end until the 5 core
demands have been appropriately addressed, the fundamental human rights
initiative which is acknowledged, and the basic inhumanity of the prison
industrial complex’s use of sensory deprivation torture units is exposed
and abolished.
But why should you care? Why should you care - men are being
systematically subjected to psychologically torturous conditions in your
name and with your tax dollars? The answer to that question requires you
to have certain facts and accept some inconvenient truths. Prison is a
socially hostile microcosm of society itself; a concentrated reflection
of the contradictions of it’s myriad socio-economic and political
relationships, composed primarily of the surplus labor segment of the
U.S. population. The SHU is a prison within prison, and the ultra-high
security isolation units like Pelican Bay SHU’s D-short corridor and
Corcoran-SHU’s 4B1L-C section are CIA style, experimental, psychological
torture units.
Following the temporary halt to our peaceful protest on July 20 to give
CDCR time to make some meaningful changes in line with our 5 core
demands, Scott Kernan’s first act was to publish a statement in the
Sacramento Bee characterizing us as “violent gang leaders who’ve
committed horrible crimes against the people of California”, as though
we are not a part of the people. I think it is of vital importance that
this, as well as the actual motive force underlying such thinking be
addressed.
Over the last 20 years there has been a successful campaign to demonize
those convicted of a crime in the U.S., and a degree of social
indifference in how they are treated. Through the successful efforts of
such lobbies as the California Correctional Penal Officers Association
(prison guards union) and it’s front groups such as ‘Crime Victim
United,’ and with the assistance of mainstream media programs covering
everything from America’s Most Wanted to Cops; from
Dateline to your local news. The public has been systematically
indoctrinated to not merely fear “prisoners,” but to effectively
dehumanize us as some subspecies of not quite humanity.
Your entertainment programming is 75% crime and punishment content, from
the Law & Order franchise to CSI, from
Justified to Hawaii 5-O, which not only brings in
millions of viewers and sells billions of dollars in products annually
via advertising, but divorces the so-called “criminal” from the human
condition and casts him/her in the role of perpetual villain in the
subconscious mind, deserving neither rights, compassion, or basic
humanity. This was not some unconscious effort on the part of your
elected officials, public servants, and corporate entities, no, this was
a conscious program to dehumanize a specific segment of the U.S.
population in order to ensure the speculative profits of the burgeoning
- and now well established - prison industrial complex would go
unchallenged and unprotected.
The fact is the origin of crime is relatively simplistic: the origin of
all crime can be inexorably traced to the disproportionate distribution
of wealth, privilege, and opportunity in a society. So what we find here
is not a matter of public safety proponents versus criminal fiends or
“gang leaders”, but more accurately an internal contradiction of the
state itself which pits public safety versus social control and profit.
Contrary to the propaganda of politricsters such as Mr. Kernan,
California SHU’s are not inhabited by the “worst of the worst,” and
especially not in these ultra-high security isolation torture units like
Pelican Bay SHU’s D-Corridor or Corcoran SHU’s 4B1L-C section. In fact a
significant segment of this population has been consigned to these
dungeons decades on end solely based on their political ideology and
world views. Left-wing political ideologies and revolutionary scientific
socialists are labeled “gang members” and tossed in the SHU with no
thought to the contradiction this presents to the constitutional basis
of freedom of speech, thought, and expression.
The truth of the matter is most here in Pelican Bay SHU D-Corridor and
Corcoran SHU 4B1L C Section haven’t had a rules violation, let alone
broke a law, in decades. Institutional gang investigators claim to seek
to mitigate the violence and socio-economic damage allegedly caused by
“gangs” - yet the NCTT in Pelican Bay and Corcoran SHU over the course
of the past 2 decades alone has developed and attempted to initiate
numerous programs that would effectively do just that, and even more.
This hearing was a prime opportunity to declare, if the state will truly
make rehabilitation their primary objective they may:
Meet in full the 5 core demands of the SHU human rights
initiative, acknowledging the dismal failure of their “lock em up -
lock em up” philosophy and its fundamental social and economic
unsustainability
Restructure the entire correctional system and approach to
imprisonment.
Mandate safe, clean and healthy rehabilitative environments where higher
education and viable wage job skills are offered to all prisoners
ensuring they can compete in today’s technology society, ensure parole
suitability, and make meaningful contributions to the community,
institute community based parole boards, where the communities prisoners
hail from decide when they can return to them.
Re-institute media access and transparency
Re-institute community ties programs such as social and family visiting
for all prisoners, especially those in SHU-indeterminate units
Develop community reintroduction programs where prisoners have a
community based support network that helps them re-acclimate to society
and be re-integrated successfully.
Disband the CCPOA’s stranglehold on elected officials which range from
DAs and judges to the governor himself.
If this were to occur, crime and recidivism rates would drop, prison
populations would decrease drastically (as would the violence which
plagues them), thus failing to justify the fiscal expenditure for all
these prisons, cops, guards, prosecutors, judges and many industries
which serve them. The CCPOA’s power would wane as it’s membership and
dues decreases. The state will not make rehabilitation (which begins
with humane conditions of existence) their #1 priority because this is
not in their economic and political interests.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This NCTT statement does a good job
exposing the criminal injustice system as a tool of social control with
no real interest in actually addressing crime or rehabilitation. We do
disagree with one point here: while the vast array of people working in
and around prisons certainly are motivated to protect their high wages
and benefits,
prisons
themselves do not make a profit and so can not be working to protect
their “speculative profits.” As this article notes, those working on the
side of the prison system do have a strong motivation to sustain and
even grow them, but this is for social control fundamentally.
I have recently been hit with censorship of your mailing sent on 9
September 2011. I did receive prior to that the letter you sent to
activists, but then on September 9 I got two 1819 forms indicating
disapproval of mail. I have previously won two 602s [grievances] on this
very issue, yet they cite the old 2006 memo [a ban on MIM’s mail that
was overruled years ago].
What happened is the regular Correctional Officer (CO) already been
602’d by me and has seen the 602 granted at the Director level, but he
only works five days a week. The other two days a floater works and is
not aware of my granted 602. The floater sends it to Institution Gang
Investigations (IGI), who says to deny me. I guess the temporary CO is
not very fond of MIM. Anyhow, I am sure I’ll win the 602 I am
submitting, but I know if I do it will take months. If possible, can you
send whatever it was again? It seems I’ll be having problems getting my
mail from MIM Distributors on the regular CO’s days off.
I showed my previous 602 that was granted, but was told by the temp “I
don’t know. They tell us one thing and tell you another. We need to get
it straight.” This is obviously B.S. because when a 602 is
granted, especially at the Director level, it is obviously
“straight.”
This is a constant barrage of censorship. It’s nonstop. I get a 602
granted and then someone comes who don’t like MIM literature and then
I’m forced to wait months appealing this and missing out on my studies.
It is a protracted effort to censor MIM. But nothing MIM(Prisons) says
is bad; it’s political literature! And why send it to the gang unit when
it’s political? In Amerika this is how political literature is handled;
by labeling it “gang material.” This only confirms what MIM(Prisons)
says, that there are no rights in Amerika, only power struggles! What
happened to the so-called “freedom of the press?”
This prison’s population has just gotten done with a three-week hunger
strike and now it seems, as one of the participants, I’m now being
retaliated on by censoring my political science correspondence course.
But I thought the administrators from Sacramento came saying they would
work on bettering our conditions if we stopped striking and ate? And now
this is the repayment – censoring the ability to think outside this
cell, controlling my thoughts, and preventing me from learning anything
besides the state’s perspective. I can get all the Forbes,
Wall Street Journal, National Review, USA
Today, etc. that I want, but let me get something that speaks in
the interests of poor people and I’m deprived.
This does not surprise me one bit, and I know how to go about the
process of appealing. What pisses me off is thinking of all the
prisoners across Amerika who also get this Gestapo-like treatment and
who won’t know how to appeal, or become discouraged and don’t try. This
is what pisses me off the most. But I know I got to go back to the legal
front and go in for another legal battle.
This censorship in prisons is part of the reason prisoners went on
hunger strike. This is why people starved; because of the years and
decades of not being able to read history books, not being able to take
correspondence courses, not being allowed to grapple with ideas. And
when prisoners do try to understand critical thought, we are repressed.
And when we protest torture, we are repaid with further repression! A
society that creates dungeons and employs sadists to unleash all their
sick methods on captive poor people, to torture and experiment on with
their psychological abuses, is a society that is warped and morally
bankrupt.
Beginning in February 2010 the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
decided to transfer 2000 prisoners out of state due to overcrowding in
Pennsylvania prison system. The two states Pennsylvania sent its
prisoners to were Michigan and Virginia. I was one of the prisoners they
sent to Virginia. We all were just snatched in the middle of the night
and transferred out of state. It was almost like being kidnapped, being
taken from your family and being sent to a southern prison from a
northern prison. Not even having a chance to call your family to let
them know about the transfer.
It was said that we would only be transferred for three years, but now
all the prisoners transferred to Michigan have been transferred back to
Pennsylvania because Pennsylvania now has new prisons and room for its
prisoners. My problem with this is that all of the prisoners transferred
to Virginia, including myself, are still in Virginia, with no plans for
us to be transferred back to Pennsylvania. What about us? Don’t we have
family in Pennsylvania who love us? Why are we being kept in Virginia,
when the other prisoners have been sent back? It’s almost like
Pennsylvania does not care about us. The Virginia Department of
Corrections says there is no plans to move us back to Pennsylvania. And
one sad thing is that there was a large number of prisoners who are
serving a life sentence who were transferred here to Virginia. I mean
men who have been incarcerated for 15, 20 or 30 years just transferred
out of state away from their families. It’s just not fair.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This is just one of many examples of actions
taken by prisons demonstrating that the Amerikan criminal injustice
system has nothing to do with rehabilitation. It has been shown that
ties to family and community are important to the ability of prisoners
to stay on the streets once released, but Pennsylvania (and many other
states) are more concerned with the economics of running their prison
system than the well being of the prisoners. Prisons are a tool of
social control in this country, and we should not be surprised by these
callous actions by prison administrators. On a bigger scale, the system
of imperialism displaces millions of people all around the world.
Comrades isolated by out-of-state transfers should feel unity with
refugees and migrants all around the world, who share a common interest
in tearing down imperialism and rebuilding their communities. There is
strength in numbers, and hope in unity and organizing.
I am writing on behalf of Soldiers of Bondage (S.O.B.). We are a
movement within the Illinois State prisons that fights the oppression by
our government.
We fight obscurantism, opacity, and refuse to abnegate to our
oppressors! Like any real movement we fight with every resource that we
possess; instinct, intelligence, conviction, and (when necessary)
violence.
Our mission is to free everyone from their chains of bondage so that
they may be free and that we, as a unified people, can live under
equitable conditions.
After reading and digesting the
July/August 2011
issue of Under Lock & Key I have decided to unite with my
comrades in order to better achieve the goals of S.O.B.
El 26 de septiembre, los presos en Pelican Bay State Prison volverá a su
huelga de hambre indefinida después de 2 meses de receso, durante el
cual negoció con el Estado. La huelga se inició el 1 de julio, barriendo
a través de California, y se dejó en suspenso por los organizadores el
21 de julio. Negociadores de presos múltiples de Pelican Bay han
confirmado que Scott Kernan del Departamento de Correcciones y
Rehabilitación de California (CDCR) prometió que las 5 demandas serían
satisfechas, pero que necestiban 2-3 semanas par cumplir. Esta ventana
de tiempo ha pasado hace tiempo, y los compañeros se están preparando
para lo que promete ser un tramo más largo sin comida.
En el 23 de agosto, el legislador Tom Ammiano encabezó una audiencia
sobre las condiciones de los SHU de California y el proceso de la
validación que se coloca la gente allá. Se hizo un eco de audiencias
previas que no paró la tortura en el SHU, pero prometió que empujara el
tema más que había ido en el pasado.
La huelga no terminó sobre algunos gorritos y calendarios. Las cartas
que vinieron de los líderes después de la mensaje que la huelga terminó
eran muy claras que sólo daban el estado tiempo para cumplir con sus
demandas antes de que recomenzarían la huelga de hambre.
Necesitamos aprender construir las batallas prolongadas y sostenibles.
No hay ningunos soluciones rápidos, y los presos no pueden fiar en la
prensa y las organizaciones ajenos para salvarles. Recientemente,
Pelican Bay censuró el paquete de estudiar de MIM(Prisons) sobre la
estructura organizacional. Reconocen la importancia de tal información
para los preso realmente organizarse y ejercer sus derechos. Por tanto
que quieren clasificarnos como un grupo de amenaza a la seguridad por
hacerlo, MIM(Prisons) continua luchar por nuestro derecho a apoyar a la
organización basada en la prisión. Porque son los presos que tienen la
motivación y la determinación hacer los cambios que deben hacerse para
terminar este sistema opresivo.
On September 26, prisoners in Pelican Bay State Prison will resume their
indefinite hunger strike after 2 months of hiatus, during which they
negotiated with the state. The strike began on July 1, sweeping across
California, and was put on hold by organizers on July 21, after 3 full
weeks of fasting. Multiple prisoner negotiators from Pelican Bay have
confirmed that Scott Kernan of the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation (CDCR) promised the 5 demands would be met, but that
they needed 2 to 3 weeks to comply. That window of time has long since
passed, and comrades are gearing up for what promises to be a longer
stretch with no food.
In a statement from one strike leader announcing the September 26
restart, he stated:
I appreciate the time and love you all have given to us and you can
believe that we will not yield until justice is achieved. We went into
this trying to save lives, if possible, but we see now that there will
have to be casualties on our side and we all know that power concedes to
no one without demands.(1)
On August 23, state legislator Tom Ammiano headed a hearing on
conditions in California’s SHUs and on the validation process that gets
people placed there. It echoed previous hearings that did not stop
torture in the SHU. He promised he would push the issue further than it
has gone in the past, but like the
reforms
given by the CDCR, this is too little too late as comrades who have
faced decades in these torture cells take this struggle to the next
level.
The Truth About the Negotiations
The strike didn’t end over some beanies and calendars. Letters that came
from the leaders after the message was sent that the strike ended were
very clear that they were only giving the state time to meet their
demands before they would restart the food strike. Those in D-Corridor
and other SHU prisoners aren’t done yet.
The initial story that came out of limited communications between the
inside and outside negotiation teams was that the strike had ended,
period, in return for beanies, calendars, proctored exams and a promise
to investigate the major complaints of the strikers. The extreme limits
put on the outside negotiation team, who were only granted access to the
strikers on a couple brief occasions, allowed the state to control how
the negotiations were portrayed. As a result, many across the state were
let down by the misleading reports that first came out, because the
strikers had pledged to strike until all 5 demands were met.
It has since come to light that Scott Kernan circulated a fake version
of the five demands,(2) and that prisoners received notices that they
had broken the rules by organizing against the abuse that they face and
that they will face “progressive discipline” in the future for similar
actions. The latter contradicts CDCR Spokeswoman Terry Thorton who
stated on record, “There are no punitive measures for inmates refusing
to eat.”(3) In typical repressive fashion, the state responds to
complaints of torture committed by state employees with outlawing any
form of protest by the victims. It just goes to show that their efforts
to maintain “security” have nothing to do with safety and everything to
do with social control.
It’s also important to note that the best public offer coming from the
state right now is that they might move away from gang affiliation
charges and focus on actual rule violations as justification for
throwing someone into a torture chamber. Within U.$. prisons the First
Amendment is generally ignored and any form of expression or organizing
not sanctioned by the state is considered against the rules. But even
this reform has been on the table for a long time with no action.
According to the 2004 Castillo court decision, which took 8
years to litigate, the CDCR committed to providing logical justification
that evidence used to put someone into SHU was criminal in nature. Yet
nothing has changed, as the lead attorney on the case, Charles Carbone,
asserted at the August 23 hearing.
As Carbone pointed out, with exasperation, we already went through the
whole song and dance of having hearings around the SHU with Senator
Gloria Romero and the United Front to Abolish the SHU years ago. Another
testifier at this year’s hearing made testimony in the 70s and 80s about
the detrimental effects of isolation, but they still went on to build
Pelican Bay State Prison. It is clear that the state sees the SHU as an
important tool of social control and cares nothing for the destruction
they cause to oppressed people.
Scott Kernan was very clear at the hearing that the CDCR would continue
with the debriefing process, using confidential informants, and that
they will not allow prisoners to appeal secret evidence used against
them. He also said gang validations will likely continue to bring
indeterminate SHU sentences. Kernan did not stick around for the public
comments, and remaining CDCR staff were not given an opportunity to
respond when a public commenter asked when the 5 demands would be put
down in writing, after Kernan promised it would only take 2 to 3 weeks.
Lessons in Organizing
Through this process we are all learning how to organize in our
conditions and what limits we face.
One of the successes of the California hunger strike was the
demonstration of United Front to the masses, which inspired many to the
possibilities of prison-based organizing. We do not know the details of
how groups coordinated on the inside around the strike, but we do know
that many groups would not be willing to sacrifice their independence to
others, and yet they worked together. This example should be followed by
those on the outside. We need to recognize the strength that comes in
uniting all who can be united at any given time on the most pressing
issues that we face. Coalition organizing strategies have held back
support by not allowing a diversity of voices to come out in unity in
support of the hunger strike.
Having outside pressure during a food strike is crucial to ensuring that
the state just does not let prisoners die, as they are more than willing
to do if there isn’t too much noise about it. Outside organizations also
played an important role in spreading word about the hunger strike that
was initiated by some of the most isolated people in the whole state.
But, ultimately, the state controls our communication with prisoners.
Despite all the work put in by the coalition to develop an outside
negotiation team, the only role the state allowed them to play was to
announce when the strike had ended and ensure that everyone knew to
stop. The state realized that a memo from the CDCR was not going to be
convincing. Other than this, the negotiation team was not allowed any
access to the prisoner negotiators.
In ULK 21, we
made it sound like the strike was over for beanies, calendars and
proctors and some empty promises of change. This was the information
coming from the outside negotiating team and the best information anyone
seemed to have. Frustration with the outcome immediately started coming
in and we fear that disillusionment may have followed. But this is what
the SHU is designed for. This is why SHU inmates can’t call people on
the outside. This is why the press is not allowed in California prisons.
Misinformation would be much harder to spread otherwise. So overcoming
these barriers is part of what we need to learn here.
We need to learn to build protracted and sustainable battles. There are
no quick fixes, and prisoners can’t rely on the mainstream press or
outside organizations to come in and rescue them. Recently, Pelican Bay
censored MIM(Prisons)’s study pack on organizational structure. They
recognize the importance of such information for prisoners to really get
organized and exert their rights. As much as they want to label us a
“security threat group” for doing it, MIM(Prisons) continues to struggle
for our right to support prison-based organizing. For it is the
prisoners who have the drive and determination to make the changes that
need to be made to end this oppressive system.
In early May 2009 over 125 prisoners of all nationalities came together
for a food strike in United $tate$ penitentiary, Lewisburg, PA to
protest their confinement and conditions in the newly opened Special
Management Unit (SMU). Hundreds of letters were sent out to media
outlets across the country and SMU prisoner family members were called
who then contacted national news services. The administration conducted
talks with two prisoners who were the alleged “ringleaders” of the food
strike on ways to remedy the situation to try and stop the strike. Their
story was never heard about on TV or in the newspaper, nor locally in
the Pennsylvania paper The Daily Item.
Part of the food strike was to protest for more commissary items since
the administration had refused to allow soap or shampoo to be sold on
the store list. Their reasoning was that the one tiny bar of soap the
correctional officers gave out once a week was sufficient. Also there
were no food items, not even coffee being sold to prisoners, nor were
they allowed radios in their cells or personal shoes, and a big part of
the strike was to protest double bunking in the newly created Super-Max.
The media didn’t think this was a story since many prisoners gave in to
finally eat after the administration threatened to force feed after
people passed out from malnutrition. A couple prisoners were even fed
intravenously by force after being cell extracted.
Family members of SMU prisoners have since created websites and chat
rooms to discuss and expose the harsh procedures and conditions their
loved ones are facing. The Lewisburg Prison Project has sent concerned
citizens into the SMU to talk with prisoners and administrators, some of
whom have recently been allowed to tour the facility and speak to Warden
Bledsoe who claims the 2 plus year forced Super-Max program for the
“worst of the worst” is working. The Lewisburg Prison Project has been
pushing for single-cell status for prisoners like in the ADX, Florence
CO to ease tensions created when two people live in such a confined
area. Sometimes days will go by and cellies no longer talk to each
other, they begin to plot and fight, even murder occurs in cells.
Recently one prisoner strangled his cellie due to the tension within
their cell.
Since the creation of the SMU multiple prisoners have suffered lung
damage and gotten emphysema due to the ongoing construction to renovate
the housing units after asbestos was found. USP Lewisburg was not ready
to house hundreds of prisoners in 23 hour lockdown. They built
recreation cages no bigger than the cells forcing 6 to 8 people to
inhabit the area for exercise. Only recently have the exercise cage
rules been changed to only allow 2 people at a time after the cages were
called “Thunder Domes” with assaults happening daily. There is only one
block, Z, with cells having their own showers, forcing most prisoners to
only receive 3 showers a week. And sometimes the SMU will be put on
lockdown, sack lunches are the meals for weeks, leaving prisoners hungry
and bird bathing in their sinks to remain clean.
There are 4 phases prisoners must go through to successfully make it out
of the SMU taking many months in each Phase to complete. In each phase
certain assignments are given by workbooks from the psychology
department to complete for advancement, and in turn the prisoner must
not get into any kind of trouble or face the possibility of restarting
the program. Like the new Federal CMU’s (Communication Management
Units), the SMUs are special prisons designed to isolate prisoners from
the outside world. All aspects of a prisoner’s life is monitored and up
until phase 3 to go to recreation or medical the correctional officers
must cuff the prisoners through the tray slot in the door and escort
them to their destinations.
All communication is monitored, no contact visits are given until one
has fully completed phase 4 and returned to general population at
another USP. Up until then, in phase 1 and 2 visits are conducted via
video monitor, and through glass for phase 3 and 4. Few phone calls are
allowed, and photos can’t be taken to send to loved ones until reaching
phase 3. In such a confined space, even with cellies, prisoners become
incoherent, their minds break down mentally, thoughts become confused,
speech is difficult and you’ll stutter and not be able to complete
sentences, many go paranoid and irrational and plot against each other
and fights break out due to panic and nerves breaking.
How do I know this? Because I was there! I lived through it, and
experienced it first hand. Luckily I successfully completed the SMU
after being their over 2 years and I’m currently in a Florida prison.
Upon arrival here it literally took weeks to calm down from my anxiety
being overcome with noises, crowds, people moving around and near me,
and not being confined in such small spaces for hours and days on end.
Just think of the prisoners who are released from Super-Max’s to the
streets!
The SMU’s, CMU’s, ADX, and other facilities like Pelican Bay for the
“worst of the worst” are terrible places which destroy prisoners lives,
relationships, family ties, as well as our minds. Slavery and torture
exists in the United $tate$ within the prison industrial complex,
especially in such programs as I luckily made it through. Please, let’s
shut them down!
MIM(Prisons) adds: Prisoners on
food
strike in California Security Housing Units will be lucky to receive
the type of program that exists in Pennsylvania SMUs as a result of
their current struggle. This just goes to show that reforms in these
long-term isolation prisons are nothing but reforming torture. We echo
the Pelican Bay prisoners’ call for an abolition of torture. And
ultimately, we must replace the current injustice system with one that
serves the people and works to rehabilitate those who have truly
committed crimes against the people.
A friend gave me a little study of yours, Level 1 Study Group in which a
participant states that prisoners may be called upon to build bombs and
war machines as Amerika’s military industry expands. You respond that
this is unlikely since “the imperialists will not share their military
secrets” and “wouldn’t want prisoners building bombs and war machines
for security reasons.” Well, you are wrong!
Try and take a tour of the Unicor in USP as well as FCI#1 in
Victorville, CA by Adelanto. I was there 2007-2009 prior to going to SMU
and worked in UNICOR in metal shop. We had a contract on making ammo
cans for Humvees and Humvee engines and interiors were also worked on.
Also we built little “Iraqi Villages,” little pre-engineered huts for
the military to put in the High Desert to train troops to raid prior to
deployment to the Middle East.
Not just that, but we converted 5 ton and trucks, stripped them down and
built them into MRAP prototypes (Mine Resistant Armored Protectant
Vehicles), to train troops prior to deployment, with gun turret and
everything, since real MRAPs come off the line in some warehouse and are
immediately shipped to Afghanistan. We built 15 trainee MRAPs. Also,
Humvees came into the shop and if any inmate found a bullet case or
shell and turned it over we were rewarded with up to $100 bonus! Go to
USP Victorvile and FCI #1 in UNICOR and see for yourself.
MIM(Prisons) responds: First we’re happy to hear that prisoners
participating in our study groups are sharing the lessons with others.
It’s a challenge to conduct these classes through the mail as interest
grows. In order to expand this educational work more, we rely on our
comrades behind bars to share what they are learning through USW-led
educational institutions that can be conducted face-to-face.
We’re also glad this prisoner took the time to write to us with
information about prisoner labor in federal prisons, and to correct our
comrade’s mistake on the question of letting prisoners work on military
construction. The extent of prison labor’s involvement in supporting
imperialist military repression is something we addressed in the article
The
Privatization of War: Imperialism Gasps its Last Breaths, printed in
ULK 8. Much of our empirical knowledge of the U.$. prison system comes
from our many supporters still on the inside, so we always welcome help
keeping our facts straight.
Prisoners working for free will now pay $100 per year for healthcare.
Governor Rick Perry and the Texa$ legislature have signed a bill into
law that will charge prisoners a one hundred dollar per year medical
care fee. This new law (Sec. 501.063) will take effect September 1, of
this year, and is a desperate attempt by the powers that be in Austin to
save money on a prison system housing 160,000 people which is the second
largest in the nation.
Charging prisoners for medical care, room and board, etc., is not a new
idea; but in contrast to most other states, Texas doesn’t pay their
prisoners to work. Since Texas prisoners have no way to support
themselves while incarcerated, they are financially dependent on friends
and family members. It’s their money they use to buy items like stamps,
fans, t-shirts, hygiene and food items.
The new healthcare law will not only be taking from what little money
prisoners get, it’s in essence taxing the ones who send them money. If
the prisoner doesn’t have enough money in their trust fund account to
cover the $100 fee, then 50% of all incoming funds will be deducted
until the debt is paid in full.
Some prisoners only get 50 or 100 dollars a year - usually for their
birthday or Christmas - meaning all that money their families sent and
intended for them to have, will be seized by the state for something
they shouldn’t be charging prisoners for in the first place.
Workplace injuries and ailments due to prison conditions comprise a
considerable percentage of prisoner requests for medical care. With the
new law, they will be charged to receive medical care for on the job
injuries; the same jobs they receive not a dime for.