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 interested in filing suit against California Department of
Corrections & Rehabilitation(CDCR) as well as those in contract with
them. I am aiming at their pockets because money seems to be all they
understand. I am currently one victim of close to a hundred classified
“hispanics” who were targeted by an OCS (Office of Correctional Safety)
operation that was launched here in North Folk Oklahoma.
In all, around 80 classified “hispanics” were validated and
approximately 150 to 200 Latino prisoners were affected. Our legal
property was seized (as well as bibles, etc.) while we were being
interviewed handcuffed, in our underwear, totally oblivious to them
seizing our legal and religious property.
Those who exercised their constitutional protections against
self-incrimination, considering all the elements surrounding this
suspect “interview,” were retaliated against by receiving a prison gang
validation point for refusing to “interview.”
All prisoners validated had their 1st amendment rights violated, for not
one of us were given a meaningful opportunity to be heard at a
“required” interview that we must be afforded before IGI can even send
our validation pack to OCS for determination. Further, IGI committed
fraud by writing/documenting that we did. In addition, the vast majority
of our source item(s) used in our prison gang validation do not even
meet departmental standards.
Nevertheless, these facts are not enough to overturn our validations
through our appeals. Not to mention 95% of us were denied legal library
access and legal materials to adequately defend ourselves, nor can this
institution facilitate our legal library rights for it is constructed in
a way that is physically impossible with regards to the security
measures required with the number of ad-segs that resulted from the
rogue operation.
I can seriously go on, and on but I think you get a relatively good idea
of what we’re up against. So any assistance you may be able to provide
in light of my/our situation would be highly appreciated as well.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This is yet another example of the illegal
validation practices used to lock prisoners in higher security units
based on supposed gang affiliation. Our ongoing fight against
Control
Units brings out many similar stories. Many of our Latino comrades
behind bars are being targeted with mass validations, using evidence as
flimsy as receipt of a birthday card, or being seen talking to someone
in the yard. This validation leads to lockup in segregation (also known
as control units). Filing lawsuits to fight these practices is one part
of the struggle, although MIM(Prisons) does not have the legal resources
to pursue these lawsuits ourselves.
Why are you deeply sorry for hurting/disappointing In a country
built on genocide/institutionalizing In any way - your mother, sister
or grandmother Hurt in degrees - hurt like no other The pain is
here - present - in my chest But I’ve learned it from you - who knows
it best Hypocrisy and hate and national oppression Imperialism and
capitalism and poor peoples’ depression We can’t see past all the
senseless suicides Friends’ corpses beside us - swinging above
us inside us Suicide wholesale - please forgive us Sensory
deprivations or bought off TV stations What’s worse - alone talking
to yourself or commercials repeatedly preaching consumer
masturbation? Two for one on a half off sale I for one prefer
sensory deprivation hell My pen, my thoughts - memories get me
through I am the one feeling sorry for you Bitter cynicism on a
Bob Barker mattress Verses ignorant masses on PC Macintoshes It’s
not hate I feel for you - but awe Goose stepping, concentration
kamping, new generation What’s that - what’s this - we never
saw Boxcars, traincars - jehovah witness triangles Vans, buses -
poor man and non-white shackles Business as usual - neo-fascist
neo-nazi A “criminal” boogeyman preaching - how dare he
Hatred, power, envy and greed - with not a thought of your
fellow man is the moral quota they try to breed.
Material existence at the cost of whole nations and despite the
desolation they cause overseas they still find the need to
oppress and bring the war back to you and me.
With their foot on our necks what is the lumpen to do but rise up and
revolt against the tyranny these capitalist pigs so
mercilessly rain down upon me and you.
Threatening us with terroristic tactics they try to discourage us
from educating ourselves and our fellow oppressed they label us a
threat and lock us away just for what we read labeling you a
threat to the government for trying to liberate and set our people
free.
But they are the real terrorists, exploiting weaker nations and
killing over oil their world revolves around chaos, and their
evil empires are built on blood-soaked soil.
[MIM(Prisons) has long defended a line that combats the divisions that
the California Department of “Corrections” has tried to institutionalize
by separating large numbers of people from the General Population (GP)
into Sensitive Needs Yards (SNY). In a
previous
letter this comrade joined us in calling for SNY and GP alike to
contribute to the struggle, while not hiding h lack of regard for SNY
prisoners. Today h story serves to demonstrate why allowing the pigs to
tell us who is our friend and who is our enemy is a backwards way of
discovering the truth.]
I’m in the hole (Administrative Segregation Unit) once again, the
material you sent found me when I needed it the most. This time around
I’m found under an ISU/IGI investigation which will most likely result
in me being sent to the other side (SNY). Surprising? Not really, I saw
it coming since the day I committed myself to the United Struggle from
Within (USW), in the form of either validation as a guerrilla
revolutionary or the assassination of my character behind these walls
through the SNY program that leaves a lot of brothers and sisters
credibility out and in the cold away from the warmth of prisoner
society’s acceptance.
It’s crazy how it happened all so fast. I blinked and at the drop of a
dime my whole life turned upside down. It started October 16, officially
with an unjustified unclothed cavity/cell search that I refused to
submit to because the officer first claimed that they were hitting my
cell randomly, then later said because me and my cellmate were
exhibiting suspicious behavior when I was on the toilet taking a shit
and my cellmate was on the assigned bunk asleep. I understood the nature
of the situation that the corruption officers were creating. Someone
dropped a dime on me, so I looked to get a paper trail.
By searching my cell they were committing a constitutional violation
against search-and-seizure safeguards granted to prisoners such as
notification of cell searching party (corruption officers involved),
confiscation of personal property, and the right to appeal without
retaliatory actions being taken against one. I made the choice to get
the incident documented to bring to the attention of the administration
here at Killer Kern, and I paid for it in the worst way possible. But
still I stand revolutionary minded putting USW theory into practice
outside of the study group’s environment. Refusing to let the dragon
win, I fight them with my pen and continue to force them to show their
brutality on paper and physically.
After refusing to submit to their commands I was placed in wrist
restraints and escorted to the facility program office cage where I
spent the next few hours resisting the Sergeant and Lieutenant’s request
for me to submit to an unclothed body search. At this time the
corruptions officers searching party (the Kern Valley A yard jump out
boys) were back at the cell, searching, confiscating, and disposing of
my property and attempting to pay me back for my resistance. They came
across a kite [prison letter] that I had hidden inside a medicine bottle
waiting to be delivered to it’s destination. I will say that I slipped
up! Cause I did.
The kite was in regards to a business arrangement that I had going on
and gave details about involved individuals who were to participate. The
kite was supposed to be delivered that same morning, but due to the
unexpected visitors it wasn’t and I thus forgot about it in the
commotion of three COs at my door with their cans out ready to spray me
while on the toilet for nothing.
I knew what was up, but didn’t act quick enough and therefore allowed
intel into the hands of law enforcement. And they had a ball with it
immediately reading the kite loud enough for my neighbors, who were
members of my LO, hoping to create the confusion that they did.
I spent three days in a small holding cell, cold, cuffed and shackled,
taped in a dirty jumpsuit, with no linen, and a mattress that I was
allowed only to lay on from 10 p.m. - 6 a.m. with no covering on it.
Sleep-deprived with lights on all night attempting to sleep with
restraints, I was deprived medical care, and denied high blood pressure
medication. I was smelling like shit without a shower, and forced to eat
cold meals without any eating utensils or a cup to drink from. I felt
the firsthand experience of torture at the hands of the department of
correction (corruption) until I had three bowel movements to prove that
I didn’t have anything concealed in my ass.
Once my bowel movements showed negative results for contraband (not an
explosive device or a gun, or a knife, but simple contraband) they
released me back to the yard, and to the cell I went.
Not even three hours after my arrival I received a kite about the matter
of the disclosure of intel in the confiscated kite. It wasn’t “Cuz how
you holding up? Can we assist you any way?” or none of that. But with
everything falling the way it did, I understand. Because a week prior to
the incident, individuals of various groups were getting popped with
phones. And all were cats who were making the dead presidents, but
removed from the front lines. There was a leak and Investigative
Services Unit (ISU) was getting more fat than a fat guy in an all you
could eat buffet.
I was brought up on charges of being that leak. And if the shoe was on
another person’s foot, I would’ve really pushed for an old school
lynching. Treason is a no no, but here it is in the accused, getting
kites now from OGs on the bricks, and weeks later I find myself up
against the wall with those who I’ve actually shed blood for, explaining
that I ain’t no fucking rat and did not intentionally drop intel into
the hands of law enforcement. Time drew on with me and those that be,
doing just as the pigs planned us to, as we were on lockdown due to a
war with the Blacks and the “southern Mexicans,” over a drug debt, a
phone, and miscommunication that caused an eight-on-twelve melee between
Blacks and Browns, and one Black to be stabbed eleven times.
The option came around to me after the verdict came in that I was guilty
of loose lips. I could either clean up some green (guards), get cleaned
up, or handle the individual who would clean me up. For those who can’t
read between the lines clean up in this situation means to stab
something up good enough that the message (whatever it may be) be sent
clearly.
Now it may seem like nothing, but I’m not new to this shit, I’m true to
it. I ain’t no crash dummy, I’ve got a close release date, and a lot of
life to live. I ain’t stabbin’ no pig without no chance of getting away,
and I damn sho’ ain’t about to be a pin cushion. So I got the hell out
of dodge, and didn’t blink doing it. I’m an SNY, I recognize that some
will understand, but most won’t and I am no longer who they seen me as.
But my time was limited as any real active revolutionary is on the line
abroad the people who are and love the same exact thing that they claim
to hate. Straight up!
Politicizing amongst the LOs is a difficult task when the same ones you
advocate for are advocating against your existence for individualist
purposes. I bump heads with the big dawgz about policy even when certain
radz advised against it because of my youth and their popularity, and I
got exactly what they said it would get me. An early death in the prison
game.
I sit in ASU now on my third month for investigation into my security
concerns that I raised truthfully on a 602 appeal form. The ISU/IGI
agents attempt to sell protection like they are some type of “Green
Wall” protection agency. I’m told the more you cooperate and inform us
into the details of drugs, cellphones, crooked cops, and criminal
activity, the more we can help you. Since when does the lion help the
lamb?
I attempted radio silence with MIM(Prisons) until I could get my §1983
lawsuit put in, because my mail is being highly monitored, censored,
withheld and returned.
But it seems that faith will have us together married until death do us
part. So I’m back like Jesus from the dead, not really back at all,
reborn into the characteristic of a USW on the other side of the fence.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This letter is one more example of our
point that not everyone on
SNY
yards is a snitch or rat as the pigs would like us to think. A
bourgeois approach to security allows the bourgeoisie to win out. By
bourgeois, we mean an individualist, rather than a group approach. We
oppose studying “persynalities” instead of politics. And we oppose
thinking that violence against individuals builds a strong movement.
There are plenty of enemies on mainline and there are friends to be
found in SNY. How we associate and how we build allows us to determine
which are which, not rumors or labels given out by the enemy.
I am in the death trap called Special Management Unit (SMU). They have
held me within the SMU program since 2008 with little or no
communications with the outside world. The enemy understands the
effectiveness of outside resources and communications so they strive to
limit and/or control it using tactics that go against their own policy
and program statements. We know these policies are for public
consumption to create the illusion that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
protects public interest and is operating on an egalitarian level. These
people fear collective progressive thinking. They want us programmed -
living as the walking dead, and spreading the chaos of disorganization
and the poison of anti-progressive action as we go. To effectively do
this they have built the SMU program across the country. It is a death
trap and an anti-progressive machine that is building and creating
reactionary mind sets. The psychology behind 23 hours a day lockdown for
a few years is to bend and twist a soulja to their will.
Most of the SMU population is gang- or organization-based. Most say once
they hit population again they are laying it down, and following the
rules. No one I’ve run into talks about building an anti-program machine
to combat the SMU or the BOP. None of the gangs or organizations have
created a progressive way to reach out and show unified efforts to
survive this death trap. It’s a death trap because without unified
progressive action on our part the enemy gains an edge and uses our
disunity and disorganization as a tool to continue to control us.
We become brainwashed agents of the oppressors and turn a homemade
sharpened revolutionary anti-oppressor weapon against another oppressed
captive man/woman. I’ve seen GD and the Bloodz war, Crip against Crip
sets war, Mexican gangs against other Mexican gangs war, but none
commits to warring with the key holder. All say “fuck the pig,” but none
has used action aimed at fucking up the pig. When I say action, I am
talking about hard-core, guerilla, strategic revolutionary action.
Action with purpose and filled with resolve.
Let’s unite in more than our sufferings! Power to those who don’t
fear freedom!
MIM(Prisons) responds: If this writer’s call for “hard-core,
guerilla, strategic revolutionary action” is a call to take up weapons
against the pigs, then we would disagree with h analysis of history and
current conditions. At this time in the imperialist countries the
conditions are not ripe for armed struggle. Engaging too soon will
undoubtedly bring defeat.
Yet we agree with this writer’s analysis of the SMU program as a tool to
suppress revolutionary activism. The whole prison system is set up to
encourage sets to fight each other instead of the system. This is why we
have put out a call for groups to join the
United
Front for Peace in Prisons.
The Utah crooked board of pardons and parole has supreme power over how
much time a person has to serve in the Utah crooked prison system.
In the state of Utah, the way they sentence you to time is a trap and
set up for the crooked board of pardons to be able to discriminate and
snake a person in this crooked system.
In the state of Utah, the way this crooked system works in sentencing is
called un-determinate sentencing. For example: 1. First degree felony
- 5 years to life 2. Second degree felony - 1 year to 15 years 3.
Third degree felony - 0 years to 5 years
The board has the power to make you do anything from the beginning of
that sentence to the end of that sentence. Not only can the crooked Utah
state board of pardons and parole make you do whatever amount of time
they want to, but also they can make people convicted of the same crime
and the same type of charge do more than others.
You can have two people on the same crime or the same type of charge,
and one does 2 years and the other does 5 years, this is the case all
the time, which demonstrates the discrimination and bias by the crooked
Utah state board of pardons and parole.
Also when you come into the prison the prison does a criminal assessment
which gives them a time matrix on how much time you should do. But the
Utah crooked state board of pardons does not even follow the time
matrix, and more then likely you are gonna do over your time matrix.
Further, the judge can sentence your charges to run concurrently, but
the board can go against the courts ruling and make that sentence run
consecutive at will.
The Utah state board of crookedness as you can see has the power here in
Utah to pick and choose who they want to discriminate against. Race,
sexuality, religion, or even if they do not like the way you look.
They own you and have the power over your life and death. They have too
much power and they need to be stopped.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This is just one example of the many ways
the criminal injustice system has wide discretion to discriminate
against groups of people. This is used to lock up and extend sentences
of people from oppressed nations, leading to hugely disproportionate
imprisonment of Blacks and Latinos compared to whites in Amerika.
Further this discrimination is used against politically active prisoners
to punish them for fighting for their legal rights.
In February I was taken to Captain Schwartz’s office where he confronted
me about writing grievances. I was then locked up, had 5 Disciplinary
Reports (DRs) falsified on me, received 210 days of confinement time and
lost 150 days gain time. After having been placed in the cell with a
prisoner who had written a grievance on the warden for chewing tobacco
in a state building, we were illegally gassed twice, made to sleep on
raw steel for three days and nights with nothing but a pair of boxer
shorts on, and then placed on a loaf diet for 7 days.
This is the second time that I’ve been under attack at this institution
for exercising my first amendment right to write grievances and both
times they started with the same captain and both times the Warden,
Colonel, and Central Office of Appeal have backed him up. I have been
under attack at two other institutions in the past for writing
grievances and both times Central Office knowingly and willfully allowed
me to be illegally sent to Close Management (CM) [Editor: term for
isolation/control units in Florida].
I have high blood pressure and I suffer from asthma and I am not
supposed to be gassed. When he gassed us the first time, I tried to tell
him about my medical condition and when he saw me throwing up blood and
blood running out my nose, he immediately gassed us again. Out of fear
for my life, I have not eaten but two selective meals to stay mentally
alert since February 22, 2011.
During this time, I was placed in the cell with another prisoner and he
was threatened to be gassed and have DRs falsified on him because he
refused to take my tray in the cell so it would look as though I was
eating to the camera. Finally, an officer just threw a meal tray in the
cell and wrote down that I ate that meal. I am definitely not going to
let them get away with what they have done to me and are still doing to
me. I would appreciate any help you may be able to give me and I would
also like to start receiving your newsletter. I just received notice
that they are trying to send me back to CM.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Because of the failure of the grievance
process in prisons across the country, we have initiated a
grievance
campaign. If you are in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and California
write to us to get copies of the petition and letter for your state, or
if you are in another state write for a generic petition that you can
modify for use in your state.
As a lumpen organization we are committed to creating an active peace
between all lumpen organizations, both within prisons and on the
streets. To this end, we agree to uphold the
Statement
of Principles set forth by MIM(Prisons) and other organizations in
the United Front for Peace in Prisons.
Officially, Prince Capone, Chairman of the MPP-Seattle
Chapter Comrade Booby, Chairman of the MPP-Prison Chapter
On March 19 2011, the United $tates, playing the role as leader of the
united nations forces, began bombing areas in Libya. What we know from
the imperialist media is that small pockets of opposition to the Libyan
government are attempting to rebel and attack the current government.
While we observe these developments in the Middle East in general, but
more particularly in Libya, we must first understand the history as well
as the current relations of production in these governments to really
grasp the conditions and contradictions on the ground. It’s good to
understand the world and pay attention but it’s better to know the truth
and be able to sort through the BS that blurs reality and works to shape
ideas to the imperialist program.
Libya, like much of the Middle East, has long been eyed by Amerika
because of its vast oil reserves. Libya was colonized up until after
World War II when it then became a semi-colony that was under U.$. and
British influence with a monarchy under King Idris.
In the 1960s the Middle East, like much of the world, felt a whirlwind
of revolution and liberation struggles that swept the globe. Libya also
caught this upsurge of anti-colonial fever, and King Idris was
overthrown by military officers in 1969. Moammar Gadhafi was the leader
of this coup.
Although Libya changed its name to the “Great Socialist People’s Libyan
Arab Jamahiriya” it is not currently a socialist country. There are
revolutionaries within Libya but for the most part they do not lead any
of the struggles we see in U.$. media. The incantation of imperialist
propaganda is that the Libyan people are going to overthrow Gadhafi and
that the majority want him out, but this is false.
Just as the U.$. used the south Vietnamese to massacre Vietnamese
freedom fighters, just as the U.$. used the contras to massacre their
country men the Sandinistas, and the Afghan against Afghan, Iraqi on
Iraqi, so too are they now using Libyan to destroy Libyan. I wonder when
the masses of the world will ever unite to take on the true oppressor?
Let’s be clear Gadhafi did not come to power through a socialist
revolution, although he did make some concessions and reforms,
particularly with tribal alliances. For the most part what is practiced
in Libya is a form of state capitalism where revenue from oil fuels the
economy. Nonetheless they should not be met with imperialist
intervention nor should the united nations be used to dictate their air
space as another Iraq under Sadaam Hussein.
The opposition that the United $tates seems to cozy up to the most is
the National Front for the Salvation of Libya which is known to be
funded and trained by the CIA. This group, which was founded in 1981,
has been based on the border of Egypt and Libya and seems to be the main
vehicle for propping up a U.$. puppet government in Libya should the
Gadhafi regime fall.
But let’s get to the heart of the matter in this U.$. intervention: the
main reason for this attack on Libya is oil! It’s ironic how the
so-called “united nations” have their hands in this intervention when
within their very own documents, specifically the 1514 Declaration, they
claim to grant self-determination to colonized nations and peoples. Yet
here we are watching them deny self-determination. Not that we expect
these imperialists to act in any way that isn’t exploiting the people,
but it shows those who are unaware of their parasitic aims what they’re
really about.
With the largest oil reserves in Africa it’s no surprise that this
nation is a target of the United $tates. We have seen this played out in
Iraq where the no-fly zone was set up as a prelude for outright war and
occupation. As I write this I’m sure backroom deals are being banged out
between the imperialist countries on who gets what and at what price.
Until these business agreements are worked out we probably won’t see
“troops on the ground” from the United $tates.
We see in the U.$. media accusations of Gadhafi being a “mad dog” but
why was he invited years back to the United $tates? We all remember the
jokes of him pitching a tent on one of Donald Trump’s properties. The
same bad things were said of Sadaam and Bin Laden but we see old
pictures of both of them smiling with U.$. politicians at one time. Just
to be clear, none of them were pushing for a socialist revolution. It is
the pattern of being business partners with the United $tates, and then
when the United $tates can’t exploit these leaders to the extent that
they want those same business partners become “mad dogs” or better yet
“terrorists.”
As Maoists we say no to imperialist intervention! We say no to the
exploitation of the people around the world! We say hands off Libya! We
hope for the masses of Libya to use this situation to create a socialist
revolution to discard all oppression! End the intervention!
MIM(Prisons) adds: Many legitimate wars for liberation start with
“small pockets of opposition” fighters, so it is hard to use numbers to
judge a movement from afar. What we can see is that whether monarchist
forces, CIA-backed “pro-democracy” parties or Islamic fighters, all of
the “rebel” voices in the press are supporting imperialist intervention
in Libya. This is what tells us they do not represent the masses of
Libya. No to U.$. Imperialism! Unity within keeps the imperialists out!