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.
I am currently at Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP) and I was involved in
the recent hunger strike. We stayed on strike until July 5th, not just
the 24 hour strike that
your
article stated we did at KVSP. It would have gone on longer until
ISU and IGI started pulling out certain individuals and demanded we get
off the hunger strike! As you know, validations are very easy to come by
nowadays. So the hunger strike ended.
I write this to inform you that the COINTELPRO is still alive and active
today under another name, and is used to continue their tactics of
divide and conquer. If you are a Black Panther or have a tattoo of a
panther, or if you are interested in the history of our beloved fallen
comrades, you are now considered a security threat group (STG) [in
Texas]. So now they are targeting the majority of Black prisoners as
“gang members.” After 14 years on the same unit under many different
officers, now all of a sudden I’m labeled as an STG. This is based on
books one reads and notation that one might write for a broader
understanding. In other words our freedom of expression of political
beliefs is now viewed as inflammatory and a security threat.
MIM(Prisons) held a congress in June where we addressed some important
theoretical and practical questions for our organizing. We began
congress with some study and discussion on the principal contradiction
as applied to our work fighting the criminal injustice system. This
discussion led to some clarifications and unity as well as an agreement
to do more study to develop a position paper on this subject. The
congress itself was left with the unifying understanding that the
principal task overall is to create public opinion and independent
institutions of the oppressed to seize power. All congress discussion
strove to apply this principal task.
A discussion of finances and goals led to a re-affirmation that
Under Lock & Key is our most important organizing tool.
That thought informed discussions about potentially expanding the size
and frequency of ULK and tradeoffs with producing and/or
mailing other revolutionary literature in to prisoners. With limited
time and money, it’s important that we make the best use of our
resources by carefully considering these decisions.
We changed the distribution policy for ULK this year, sending
new people only one sample issue before removing them from the mailing
list if we do not hear back from them saying that they want to stay on.
This led to an artificial drop in people on our mailing list, and our
theory at the time of developing this new policy was that these people
were mostly not receiving ULK and/or not interested in it.
However, we’ve had a decline in the rate of new subscribers in the past
year that we think might be associated with this changed policy. To test
out this theory, we will be re-instating the policy of allowing all
people to stay on our mailing list for 6 months before they get cut off
if we have not heard from them.
On the positive side, we have had a big increase in regular writers, and
the folks contributing solid, high quality articles and art to Under
Lock & Key has gone up. We have also become more selective
about which articles/letters get typed for posting on the website and
consideration for inclusion in ULK. With an excess of good
potential articles, we are focusing on the best submissions and trying
to work with writers to improve their articles and writing skills when
we don’t accept something for publication. We are not as strong in this
second area as we would like; more should be done to send comrades
responses to their article submissions when they are not making the cut
for print. We also need to give people more guidance about what we are
and are not looking for to print.
Although MIM(Prisons) focuses on work with prisoners, we know that in
order to build public opinion we must also reach people on the outside.
Our main tool for this work is our website
www.prisoncensorship.info,
which was relaunched in January 2011 with a new look and added features
to bring in more readers. Our web traffic doubled in the past year and
we are seeing a very strong growth in interest in our online work. To
this end we are going to do some web-based outreach to continue to
expand the voices of our comrades behind bars. This will include putting
the many art submissions we receive but can’t fit into ULK
online for people to see.
Anti-Censorship and PLC
Since our winter congress, we have been focusing our anti-censorship
efforts on trying to recruit lawyers on the outside to help us take some
select prison administrations to court. This is a slow-going process,
and we recently decided to refocus back on writing directly to
administrators on behalf of prisoners who can’t receive mail from us.
This has proven to be a fruitful investment in the past, leading to both
victories over censorship, and recruiting new comrades to work with
MIM(Prisons) and the United Struggle from Within. For MIM(Prisons)’s
2011 annual censorship report, click
here.
In other legal work, many of you know that MIM(Prisons) facilitates a
Prisoners’ Legal Clinic (PLC), picking up a project that MIM used to
run. This incarnation has been going since November 2009 and has strayed
from its original path of working on issues that are intimately related
to our anti-imperialist struggle, and had degraded into a more broad
legal strategy discussion group with contributors showing limited
initiative to pick up tasks outlined by MIM(Prisons). In upcoming PLC
mailings we will be refocusing on our goals and tasks, and referring
comrades out for general legal discussion. A PLC mailing went out in
June 2011, so PLC contributors should let us know if they haven’t gotten
theirs yet.
MIM(Prisons)-led Study Groups
Last year we separated our introductory study course into two different
levels. The first level is short (only two assignments) and studies two
articles written by MIM(Prisons). The second level studies more advanced
material and lasts much longer (about one year). We have recently
recruited advanced USW members as study group responders, which helps
relieve MIM(Prisons) to do other work that can only be done by someone
on the outside, and is a great task for someone to do who can’t run a
study group where they’re at due to isolation restrictions. We encourage
all prisoners, advanced or beginner, to get together and study
revolutionary material. You will get so much more out of it than if you
just read something once by yourself!
More advanced study group participants have created a number of study
guides over the last year, and comrades are actively working to build
the MIM(Prisons) glossary, which should be available for distribution in
the next year. Study group coordinators have worked to improve structure
and set clear schedules and expectations at all levels over the last
year.
United Struggle from Within
Of the hundreds of new people we’ve had requesting to be put on our
mailing list in the last year, 50% of them were recruited by people with
various levels of activity within United Struggle from Within (USW); 32%
wrote in because they had seen some MIM or MIM(Prisons) literature, and
17% were referred by resource guides or non-prisoners, such as lawyers
or family members on the outside. This shows that the USW is
successfully completing the task of multiplying subscribers to Under
Lock & Key as outlined in the USW Intro Letter and the Second
Introductory Letter About MIM(Prisons).
Another USW task is to expand the grievance petition campaign that was
initiated in California and spread to Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma.
MIM(Prisons) was able to post these petitions online in February 2011 so
family members and activists on the outside can print them and mail them
to their people experiencing grievance issues. In California the
campaign came to a head in February 2011, and the CDCR granted the
prisoners a
partial
victory by slightly reforming their grievance process. Comrades in
Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri are still requesting the grievance campaign
from us and are submitting them to administrators. For more information
on active USW campaigns, click
here.
New Policies
Several new policies were passed related to working with prison-based
organizations and facilitating correspondence between imprisoned
groups/individuals.
Policy on Prisoner-to-Prisoner Correspondence
MIM(Prisons) provides Under Lock & Key as a general forum
for public discussion of developments within the prison movement.
MIM(Prisons) provides small group forums for specific projects,
involving those prisoners who have done work on, or have a special
interest in said project. The principle example of this is the ULK
Writers group. But our ability to run such groups is limited.
We do not want to hold the key to all work being done in the
anti-imperialist prison movement, because this is not good leadership.
Good comrades are rare, so it is in our interest that prisoners develop
independent networks of communication with those they want to build
with. This is also a positive thing in the case that MIM(Prisons) may be
repressed or somehow put to an end.
With this in mind, the following is our policy for facilitating such
developments without violating the role and purpose of MIM(Prisons) or
jeopardizing the greater movement:
If comrades have outside addresses or are allowed to correspond with
other prisoners we will forward their info to another prisoner per
request of the persyn whose info is being sent ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS.
We will make the determination to do this based on the political value
of aiding this connection, with careful consideration to the time and
money this costs our very resource-limited program. Every piece of mail
we send is less stamps and time we have available to send something
else.
Comrades who have demonstrated a certain level of ideological unity with
MIM(Prisons) may be assigned as theoretical corresponders. They will be
sent correspondence from other comrades through us for response. The
response will either be printed in ULK or sent privately to the
original writer. In either case, neither persyn’s identity is revealed
to the other.
These assignments are to expand the work of MIM(Prisons), and primarily
to improve the depth and breadth of our correspondence. Secondarily,
this is an important way for our comrades in prison to develop their
political line and debate skills, especially those who are in isolation.
We will not serve as a dropbox for third party correspondence. Not only
does this set us up for censorship, it takes up limited resources.
Theoretical struggle between those not upholding MIM line should be able
to be conducted through ULK or within MIM(Prisons)-led study
groups. When necessary, one-on-one correspondence with recruits will be
assigned to a comrade in MIM(Prisons) or a theoretically advanced USW
leader.
Building New Groups Vs. Working with USW and MIM(Prisons)
We only work to build two organizations at this time: MIM(Prisons) and
USW. The only organizing group we run for prisoners is the USW leaders
group, and even that is mostly done through Under Lock &
Key for efficiency and to reach the masses with info on USW work.
We do not think that we, or any other group, serves as the
end-all-be-all vanguard organization for North America at this time.
There are many roles to be played and more groups to be built. But for
security reasons, and this is doubly true in prisons, organizational
cells should be primarily location-based. Mass organizations like USW
are countrywide because of coordination work through the vanguard
organization MIM(Prisons).
Because of security concerns in prisons, and the very stringent
restrictions on contact between prisoners, even within the same cell
block, MIM(Prisons) encourages those who have unity with our
cardinal principles
to become USW leaders. We do not recruit prisoners directly into
MIM(Prisons) because of the restrictions of the prison system, but we
afford these comrades the opportunity to contribute and participate at
the level of full comrade in every aspect of organizing work feasible,
including encouraging them to help us develop new political line and
move forward our organizing strategies.
There are only a few conditions that would merit launching a new
prison-based organization:
Comrades launching the organization disagree with MIM(Prisons)’s
cardinal principles. If you agree with our cardinal principles, why not
work with the established group led by MIM(Prisons): USW? If you think
you disagree, it is important to clearly articulate the cardinal
principles of your new organization if you hope to organize people
around common goals.
A disagreement with MIM(Prisons)’s policy of not recruiting prisoners
into MIM(Prisons) while they are behind bars. These comrades may wish to
establish a vanguard organization in their location, whose members are
subject to democratic centralism and can focus on cell-based organizing.
The case of an LO or other existing mass organization that develops into
a revolutionary party and adopts cardinal principles affirming their
communist ideology. While we would consider this a very positive
development, we caution comrades that this has been tried more than once
by the most advanced comrades in an LO, and the limitations of
communication with a countrywide group from within prison have always
led to insurmountable obstacles in attempts to bring the whole
organization together behind communist principles. Further, we maintain
that if the members of such a group are not overwhelmingly supporting a
move to communist organizing, the advanced elements would be better to
leave the group and join or form another, rather than wrecking the
existing group from within. The reason we talk about vanguards versus
mass organizations is that there are too many contradictions among the
masses for everyone to take the leap of forming a scientific communist
organization all at once. Existing groups that take up anti-imperialism
play a very valuable role in the United Front without becoming communist
organizations, often accomplishing things the communists could not.
Comrades who wish to build a new nation-based vanguard. MIM(Prisons) is
not a single-nation organization, but we affirm the value of such groups
to the revolutionary movement within U.$. borders. However, we caution
prisoners looking to form these organizations from scratch that the
difficulties in organizing outside of your own prison (or even within
your prison when your group is targeted for lock-up in control units, or
transfers, and other repression) are significant.
Revolutionary organizations representing different nations, lumpen
groups, or regions require self-sufficiency. If comrades trying to
launch such organizations continue to fail for lack of resources and
support they should be working within USW and MIM(Prisons) on other
projects until their conditions change.
USW is a mass organization, and therefore comrades can join USW while
maintaining membership in another organization if that organization
allows dual membership and that organization does not openly disagree
with MIM(Prisons)’s cardinal principles.
On Relations with Prison-Based Organizations
MIM(Prisons) frequently receives statements of support and principles,
as well as other contributions of work, from representatives of LOs and
other groups that span states. Many of these individuals want their
organization name printed with their article. We will always do our best
to confirm that those submitting statements can speak for their
organizations before we print them in Under Lock & Key or
on the web. Part of this process involves observing good consistent work
from that organization over a period of time. But we know that there are
often organizations that span multiple locations where different
political lines arise in different sections of that group. MIM(Prisons)
cannot pick representatives for an organization or help with
correspondence to get these groups better aligned (beyond what we
already do via ULK). Due to the limitations of organizing from
behind-bars, we encourage political LOs to consider dividing into
location-based cells to ensure each group correctly represents the
political line of its members.
For those groups whose material we do print or review, contact info will
be printed in ULK when available. The only organizations you
can contact via our address are MIM(Prisons) and USW. You may also send
United Front for Peace related correspondence to MIM(Prisons). Mail
addressed to other organizations but sent to MIM(Prisons) will not be
forwarded or returned.
I got your letter about the food strike. I did my best to hang in there,
I gave it 2 weeks and I had to eat. Sorry, I could not last any longer.
So what is the outcome of the food strike? Did they accomplish their
goal? Can you please let me know what’s going on right now? I am
validated and I got 6 years clean and they won’t let me out of the SHU
either.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We are doing our best to keep our comrades
behind bars updated on the food strike, which
ended
at Pelican Bay on July 21, at least temporarily. The
latest issue of
Under Lock & Key just went out with this update. The
original goals of the strike were not won, but the administrators
promised a major review of policies and the
latest
report from others in touch with strike leaders say that the CDCR
has a few weeks to complete their review before the strike begins again.
One thing is for sure, if we don’t keep up the pressure and hold them to
not only review but actual policy change, the conditions of abuse and
torture in prisons across California will remain the same. In addition,
hunger strikers are likely to face reprisals as punishment for their
protest if we don’t continue to increase support inside and outside
California prisons.
The recent mass hunger strike got the prisoncrats’ attention even though
the prisoncrats seek to downplay or minimize the success of the strike
by spoon feeding the media. In particular, their Sacramento Bee spin
doctor stooge accepts the official representations which contain very
few facts mixed with the typical misleading, provocative and confusing
innuendo so as to perpetuate their coined myths.
The public is gullible and must be constantly educated to see through
muddy water. Such has been the case for years because of the assumption
that government officials and law enforcement allegedly have their
safety, security and best interests at the forefront when it’s really
all about the money or budget. The CDCR purveys to the public that the
most dangerous and supposedly most hardened prison gang leaders called
for the hunger strike even though they also claim that the modus
operandi of gangs are violence and intimidation which is totally
contrary to the utilization of a passive non-violent form of protest
which requires self restraint and determination.
The secretary, Matthew Cate, stated in a CDCR prepared statement that
“hunger strikes are dangerous and ineffective as a means for prisoners
to attempt to negotiate.” Yet, the administrative appeal process is also
dangerous and ineffective as each level rubber stamps the arbitrary
decision of the prior level. Even when the decision was obviously in
error and a threat to prisoner health and safety, they refuse to accept
responsibility and accountability.
What the secretary has not said is that the hunger strike by masses of
prisoners have in fact overwhelmed the prison medical department with
additional medical expense to an already overburdened prison healthcare
system. The strikers pose a more significant problem for the
prisoncrats’ budget than the shooting and gassing of violent prisoners
in prison uprisings or even non-violent prisoners who are also shot,
gassed/sprayed and beat with zeal as prisoncrats claim they were a
threat to institutional security [see
grievance
campaign].
Prisoncrats, as any conscious prisoner should know, could not care less
about the health of prisoners. They do care about the expense of
providing constitutional mandated medical care. Therefore we should
question the prisoncrats’ claim to have had plans since January to
review and change some policies, which were only revealed to us after
weeks of food strikes.
Prisoncrats tend to take full advantage of the divide and conquer
concept and are at their best when they are able to pit the lumpen
divisions against each other for amusement or distraction which is why
one should be suspicious of any claim by the prisoncrats to want to
eliminate what they have for years encouraged and perpetuated in the
penal system to justify the excessive prison budget.
The mass hunger strike may have only lasted 20 days, but it was like a
shot across the bow of the CDCR’s battleship by an enemy they can not
justifiably target with all their massive violent resources and
infrastructure. Yes the mass hunger strike got the prisoncrats’
attention and their immediate response was to again expand the
censorship of information prisoners receive so as to keep us unaware of
what’s going on. However, it also got their budgetary attention via
their healthcare pocketbook.
The hunger strike also got the attention of the CCPOA which realizes
that such strikes benefit the SEIU who are gaining more clout in the
prison system and custody staff have effectively been rendered impotent
as they do not have a real or effective contingency for dealing with
non-violent forms of protest that they can not counteract or employ
violence to suppress and to that extent the mass hunger strike was a
success.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Many are writing in disappointed with
the outcome of the California hunger strike so far. But as this comrade
points out, the strategy of the hunger strikers was effective in a
number of ways. And as the CDCR is given a “brief grace period,” as one
of the strike initiators called it, we are regrouping. There are many
who just found out about the strike as it was happening. If the CDCR
continues to drag its feet on making any real changes, as we all expect
they will, we should see an even stronger and more widespread response
from prisoners across California and beyond. Of course, CDCR is
regrouping as well, and we must guard against efforts to trick prisoners
into thinking they do not share the same conditions and the same
enemies.
I appreciate you sending me the book I had requested. You see, I’ve got
to stay busy to not allow myself to get sucked into the Texas prisoner
slave mentality. Just perhaps, being armed with initiative and the right
knowledge, I can get these guys minds off of the TV and gossiping, and
onto unity and change. It’s a very pitiful state here in Texas (no pun
intended!) Last week an officer turned off the dayroom TVs during count
and left them off for an hour or so. The prisoners went crazy! They were
yelling, cursing, making threats and demanding to speak to rank. They’re
willing to come together and protest over something trivial like the
television, but not over important things like parole, our good time and
work time being honored, and getting paid to work.
As we know, slavery and capitalism go hand in hand. This is evident
because there’s no equality; slaves are less than, and whoever is the
richest and most famous, their lives are more precious than the common
and poor folk. Capitalism takes on a new meaning in Texas prisons. Since
we work for free, and the state has enslaved us in their TCI factories
to exploit and profit off of us; it’s every “offender” for themselves,
and some are doing whatever it takes to survive.
While the warden and major sit in their air conditioned offices, and
officers are huddled up in the air conditioned pickets, us offenders are
sweating like pigs in the scorching hot day rooms and cells. We’re
running around like savages hustling and conning for a ramen soup, stick
of deodorant, a stamp, or a shot of coffee. And the ones who are
fortunate enough to have friends and family sending them money to buy
stuff from commissary; they’re revered, admired, despised, or the next
potential victim. Thanks to the state of Texas, petty criminals and
first timers become hardened criminals, and whoever has the most money,
has either the most power, or has to make the most protection payoffs.
If prisoners were treated as people and paid for their labor like
everyone else in civilized society are, they would in turn, act
accordingly. There would be real equality, unity and harmony. MIM,
please give me some advice on how to make this come about.
On a related topic, I’ve enclosed my latest timesheet showing I have 213
percent of my sentence completed with all my worthless earned time
credits. I want people to view this state issue timesheet so they can
see for themselves what a scam this is. The time credits look great on
paper, but they’re not worth a damn. If they were, I would have been
released last February when I reached a hundred percent.
Also with this letter is my last denial letter from the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles. I want the people to see this too. To see the
absolutely ridiculous reasons why we’re denied parole and “mandatory
supervision.” The following is their most absurd: “The inmate has a
previous juvenile or adult arrest for felony and misdemeanor offenses.”
We’ve all been arrested for a felony or misdemeanor. We wouldn’t be in
prison if we hadn’t. The parole board might as well deny prisoners
because they wear white uniforms, since that applies to all of us too.
Truly amazing the Lone Star State is getting away with such widespread
and blatant fraud, and exploitation of its prisoners. But, in our
capitalist society and capitalist prison system, money and profit always
trump humanity and morals.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer is correct about the need for
unity to fight the injustice in prison. We point everyone to the
United Front
for Peace in Prisons as a starting point for developing principled
unity to fight our common enemy. We do, however, need to point out that
the
prison
economy does not lead to prisons, the state or the imperialists
profiting from prisoner labor. It is a system primarily used for social
control, not for profit. Though of all states, Texas probably has the
most productive industries in prisons, and workers receive no wages,
only room and board.
As we concluded in our article in Under Lock & Key 8 on the
U.$. Prison Economy: “A number of articles in this issue include calls
from prisoners to take actions against the prison industries that are
making money off prisoners, and to boycott jobs to demand higher wages.
All of these actions are aimed at hitting the prisons, and private
industries profiting off relationships with prisons, in their
pocketbook. This is a good way for our comrades behind bars to think
about peaceful protests they can take up to make demands for improved
conditions while we organize to fundamentally change the criminal
injustice system.”
California Prison Focus reported
this evening (July 21, 2011) that CDCR claims that the hunger strike in
Pelican Bay has ended are true. They report they stopped “in exchange
for a major policy review of SHU housing conditions, gang validation
process, and debriefing process.” While our experience of reviews within
the department are universally that nothing happens, the leaders of the
strike have nonetheless achieved a great victory in uniting prisoners
across California and beyond for the just demands of the oppressed. This
is a struggle to learn from and build on.
Presumably prisoners at other prisons (such as Chino, Calipatria,
Corcoran, Tehachapi, Folsom, Vally State Prison for Women, San
Quentin) are still on food strike unaware of the agreement.
Of all the agencies and offices I filed the California grievance
petition with, only the U.S. Department of Justice and the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation bothered to respond. They
only issued form letters disclaiming any responsibility for further
investigation, and simply redirected me back to the same dysfunctional
process that I had complained of!
MIM(Prisons) responds: It is clear that the U.$. Department of
Injustice and the CDCR won’t back up their words to give administrative
remedy to prisoners with actions when they discover the process isn’t
working. In fact, it’s to their benefit if the grievance system is
broken so that they won’t have to actually deal with the problems that
arise in the prison system. This ensures their control over oppressed
nations peoples.
The prisoner who received these defeating form letters asked for more
copies of the petition in the same letter. S/he recognizes that the
response from the bureaucrats isn’t the be-all-end-all goal of the
grievance petition. We want to show that if we ask nicely for a
solution, we will be given the brush off. We also want to use this
petition to recruit others into doing political work, even if it’s just
sending out the petition to a few administrators. Hopefully this action
will be a simple beginning to a long history of contribution to the
struggle against oppression.
We currently have grievance petitions prepared for California, Arizona,
Oklahoma, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, and Texas. If you’re
experiencing obstructions of your grievance procedure but your state
isn’t currently covered by the grievance campaign, consider modifying it
to apply to your state! Write in for more info, or to get petitions.
I am a prisoner at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, NJ. I am
presently housed in what is called the Management Control Unit (MCU). I
have been in this unit since 2008. New Jersey’s MCU is basically the
equivalent of other states Security Housing Units (SHUs) or Intensive
Management Units (IMUs). The reason I’m writing is to alert you of the
numerous human and civil rights violations that we have been subjected
to here. I also want to bring to your attention the fact that the
administration at the prison has intentionally instituted a system
designed to violate procedural due process rights of the prisoners in
MCU.
Design and intent of the Management Control Program
The MCU program was designed to house the prisoners the administration
considered a threat to the daily operations of the prison, to the
correctional officer, or those they considered unable to house in
general population with the other prisoners. The MCU unit in theory was
not supposed to be a punitive unit for punishment since you could be
placed there coming directly from the street never having received a
disciplinary infraction inside of the prison. The prisoners of the MCU
unit were told that the MCU is basically a “population for MCU
prisoners.” However, the MCU is anything but.
The MCU is supposed to be governed by what’s called the New Jersey
administrative code 10A. However, the administration does not adhere to
it’s own rules as put forth in the 10A. The so-called release program of
the MCU is a three phase program (levels 1-3, one being the lowest).
Completion of the following programs are requisite: Cage your Rage, and
Thinking for a Change. The problem with this criteria is that the
programs are very seldom offered, or capriciously and arbitrarily
offered. This situation has only gotten worse recently. Since April of
this year (2011) the administration has had the unit on lock-down. This
lock-down is supposedly the result of a couple of random fights between
a few prisoners (no correctional officers were involved in either of the
situations). Since these random fights, the administration has done the
following:
Canceled all requisite programs needed to be considered for release
Painted the cell windows so that we can no longer see outside
Closed down the pantry in the unit where the food is served
Taken all the jobs from the workers in the unit
Canceled indoor recreation
Changed the outdoor recreation schedule from every other day to once
every four days
Changed the amount of people allowed to go to the outdoor recreation.
Everybody that was on MCU was able to go to the yard together. Now only
six can go at a time.
It is my opinion, which I believe to be firmly grounded, that the couple
of fights had nothing at all to do with the draconian measures taken by
the administration. On July 2, 2010 the superior court of New Jersey
appellate division issued a crushing ruling that the administration of
New Jersey thought would never happen! In that ruling the court said
that once a prisoner has reached phase three (the highest level in the
MCU program) the burden then shifts to the prison to show why the
prisoner should be held in MCU. The burden the administration must meet
is to show a present identifiable threat that the prisoner presents. Up
until this ruling the administration in New Jersey was just throwing
prisoners on MCU and leaving them there. The average prisoner in MCU has
been there for about a decade.
To circumvent this ruling the administration has canceled the programs
preventing prisoners from reaching phase three which would render them
eligible for release if the administration is unable to meet it’s
burden. I have more proof that this is the administration’s intention.
The court ruling was issued on July 2, 2010. Up until that ruling
whenever a MCU prisoner would appeal the Management Control Unit review
committees (MCURC) decision to continue his placement in MCU, the
administrator would quickly respond to the appeal 99.9% of the time
upholding the MCURC decision.
Let me explain. Every three months the prisoners in MCU are given what’s
called routine review where the committee decides whether or not the
prisoner should be released or if his placement in MCU should be
continued. Every MCU prisoner is allowed to attend even though you must
be phase three to even be considered for release. This is not more than
a ceremonial display and out right sham. Again, after these hearings
about a week later you receive the MCURC decision on paper which you can
appeal to the administrator. The decision from the court was issued July
2, 2010 and since that decision none of the MCU prisoners have received
a response back from any of the routine review appeals which would be
September 2010, December 2010, March 2011, and the last one June 2011. I
do not believe in coincidences. As I said up until that decision from
the court we were getting every single one of our appeals back.
There are a few prisoners in the MCU unit right now that are phase three
and still the administration have not let them go. Not only have they
not let them go, but by not responding to the appeals they are
preventing prisoners from taking their case to the court. The court has
ruled that before a prisoner can prevail on his complaint s/he must
afford the administration the opportunity to make it’s final decision.
Thus, the administration is violating the MCU prisoners procedural due
process rights! If this is not suppose to be a punitive unit and a
general population for MCU prisoners, how do you explain the actions
taken by the administration?
They have stopped me from being able to finish the programs, they have
painted over my cell window so that I can’t even see outside! I’m only
allowed to go outside every four days and you cover my window. This is
treatment one would expect to hear being done at Guantanamo Bay. Before
the covering of the window the MCU unit was already a socially and
sensory depriving unit. The prisoners are in single cells and the only
time they come out in the unit is for a 15 minute shower one at a time.
Thus any conversation is carried on by yelling through the crack of the
door. The only contact you have with anyone is during recreation every
four days. I truly hope that my concerns and suffering, as well as the
concerns and suffering of the other prisoners will lead you to pick up
our cause and help us fight for and defend our human and civil rights.
We are still humans.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Lack of due process and group punishment were
two of the main complaints behind the California hunger strike that
started in the Pelican Bay SHU and included participation of at least
6600 prisoners across the state. As stated by the author these
conditions of long-term isolation are very similar across the United
$tates, as are the policies that keep people there. This example also
parallels that in California where the courts are ordering the state to
make release easier (whether from MCU or prison altogether). But the
interests of the Amerikan workers has made sure that in neither case has
the state government begun to comply with court orders. While the courts
offer a facade of justice, the state continues on as it always has in
its efforts to control oppressed people.
MIM(Prisons) sent another stack of letters in support of the prisoners
on hunger strike across California to the so-called Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation with the cover letter below. There will
also be a demonstration in support of the prisoners’ demand outside of
the CDCR office today:
Monday, July 18th 1-4PM Demonstration outside CDCR Headquarters.
1515 S. St. in Sacramento, CA
Warden Greg Lewis Pelican Bay State Prison P.O. Box
7000 Crescent City, CA 95531-7000
18 July 2011
Dear Warden Lewis,
Two weeks ago we sent dozens of letters from residents of California who
are concerned for the welfare of the prisoners in Pelican Bay State
Prison. As the conditions outlined by the prisoners have still not been
addressed by the CDCR we are sending additional letters of support (see
enclosed). We are all aware that the conditions of many prisoners are
becoming critical and we urge you to take immediate action to remedy the
conditions. The conditions addressed by the prisoners demands are in no
way conducive to rehabilitation and no one should have to die for these
basic requests.
We have also forwarded copies of these letters to CDCR Internal Affairs
and CDCR Office of the Ombudsman.
Sincerely, MIM Distributors P.O. Box 40799 San Francisco, CA
94140