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.
Black-on-Black crime, I see it all the time, Why come brothers
hurting each other, instead of loving one another?; _______Every
Black person ain’t Black, _______Black is where the heart is
at. Black-on-Black violence, I see it steadily destroying
us, Why come Black people keep killing each other, instead of
helping and protecting one another?; _______Every Black person ain’t
Black, _______Black is where the heart is at. Black people
betraying themselves and each other, Always disrespecting, lying,
stealing and cheating one another, Why come brothers can’t work it
out? Psychological warfare, mind control and genocide is what I’m
really talking about; _______Every Black person ain’t
Black, _______Black is where the heart is at. Brothers not wanting
peace and reconciliation, Only helping the enemy (racism, capitalism,
and imperialism) to oppress the Black Nation; Black love, Black
reconciliation and Black redemption is what we work for and
need, Brothers and sisters join in and defeat our
enemies. _______Every Black person ain’t Black, _______Black is
where the heart is at. Black people wake up to what’s really going
on, don’t be deceived by the integrationist song; In a white
capitalist democracy, A Black minority will never be accepted or
treated equal by a white majority. _______Every Black person ain’t
Black, _______Black is where the heart is at. Black unity, Black
pride and Black power is what our ancestors loudly proclaimed, Let us
uphold this legacy and proclaim today the same darn thing; This is
what we owe our ancestors, future generations, ourselves and each
other. True commitment to the Black liberation struggle will allow us
to do nothing other; _______Every Black person ain’t
Black, _______Black is where the heart is at. Divided we fall,
together we stand, Black power and Black nationalism is our true call
and demand; And keep world liberation as our primary goal. Let
those present convey the message to those who are
absent, _______Every Black person ain’t Black, _______Black is
where the heart is at.
Forcing humans to work for free - a term better known as slavery - was
abolished in America almost 150 years ago. Most know slavery still
exists in ‘less civilized’ parts of the world, but to consider this
abominable treatment of people to be ongoing in our country is unheard
of. Perhaps it’s because few know. Well down in Texas, the business of
slavery is brisk. When told of this fact, the average American is
certain to express shock and demand to know the details. Upon being
informed that prisoners in Texas work for free, most are happy to let
out a sigh of relief and lose interest in the subject. So, in essence,
forced labor for no pay is tolerated. Because the ones involved are
convicted criminals seems to make this practice okay.
But is this really okay? Shouldn’t prisoners be compensated for their
labor like everyone else is? Prisoners in other states are, so why not
Texas? Shouldn’t they be able to provide for themselves while in prison
and their families on the outside? As a prisoner(or “offender” as we’re
called) in a Texas prison, I well know that if you’re not fortunate
enough to have someone sending you money to purchase items from
commissary, you’re SOL, as the state only provides the bare essentials.
Concerning hygiene, once a week (if you’re lucky), you get one roll of
toilet paper, a disposable razor, tooth powder and soap. Maybe four
times a year toothbrushes are issued. That’s it! Deodorant, toothpaste,
shampoo, t-shirts, shower sandals, writing paper, etc., you gotta buy.
Even a personal cup to drink out of and a bowl and spoon to eat with are
not free. But how can you buy something if you don’t have the money? For
those who pay child support the fees don’t stop when they become
incarcerated. But how do you pay when you work for free? Something to
think about.
In addition to maintaining the prisons themselves, offenders toil long
hours in TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) sweatshops under
the guise of TCI (Texas Correctional Industries), which manufactures
everything from furniture to mattresses to cleaning supplies. Many of
these products are sold to outside agencies and the private sector at a
profit, not to mention the t-shirts, shorts, socks, thermals, shampoo
and liquid detergent offenders make, that TDCJ turns around and sells to
us through the prison commissaries. Considering their labor is free,
it’s safe to assume the state’s profit margins are great. What Wal-Mart,
or say, IBM, wouldn’t give to have a complimentary workforce.
TDCJ officials will be quick to say that offenders may not receive
actual money to work, but are paid with good time and work time. Not
entirely true. Those serving sentences for aggravated crimes are not
eligible for good time and work time (even though they work like
everyone else). Nonviolent criminals such as myself do earn these time
credits, but they are often not honored. So what’s the point in even
allowing them to be earned in the first place?
It’s like working for someone who says they’re going to pay you so much
for your labor at the first of every month. You work all month for this
employer and fulfill your end of the agreement. At this time, your boss
says “Oh, I decided not to pay you. But keep working for free, maybe
I’ll pay you next month.” For the most part, that is what’s happening to
prisoners in Texas. What a shame it is. With my earned time credits, I
have five and a half years done on a three year sentence, yet I’m still
in prison. My projected release date was February 1st of last year (when
my total time credits equaled a hundred percent of my sentence), but it
was still denied by the parole board - despite being a model prisoner.
Rumor has it, the parole board often denies prisoners who stay out of
trouble and demonstrate reform. Why? For “manipulating the system.” So I
guess those who act up have a better chance of getting out early.
Perhaps I should start being a troublemaker, might help me make parole
the next time I come up.
Many prisoners in the Lone Star State put in years, and decades even, of
thankless free labor for the state. Upon release from prison they are
rewarded with a bus ticket and one hundred dollars. Some of these
ex-cons have no family and no place to go. How far can one get towards
rebuilding a new life on a C-Note? In this year of 2011 I wouldn’t say
very far. A one night’s stay in a cheap motel, set of thrift store
clothes and a few fast food meals at the most. I suppose us in the big
house can consider ourselves lucky. Those serving state jail time in
such TDCJ facilities, must work for free also, and all serve their
sentences day for day; but when released, they get not a dime. If they
have no one to pick them up, they are dropped off at the nearest
homeless shelter. Broke, unemployed, and with nothing but the clothes on
their back, they’re basically being set up for failure. What are the
odds of them returning to crime? Great I’d say.
There’s the saying, “Texas is like a whole other country.” I agree
completely when it comes to criminal justice. Not only do other states
pay their prisoners to work, good time and work time is guaranteed. Is
there a correlation between the Texas prison mass slavery operation and
its high recidivism rate? Highly likely. This too is something to think
about.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This prisoner points out some important
facts about the labor situation in Texas. As we’ve reported
elsewhere
the labor situation in prisons throughout this country is similar to
what’s described here. But the prison system in this country is not the
same as the economic system of slavery. Prisons are a tool of social
control rather than a way of exploiting labor.
Class hatred’s what i’m spewing, because class hatred’s what
they’re doing “The beginning of all wisdom,” that’s what Lenin
said The beginning of the end, that’s what i say.
Take a look around and realize your role Take a look around and put
the shit on hold Become the vehicle of expression and make your
weight felt Too much practical knowledge to practically ignore.
Fuck a cop in killa Cali! Is that all you saying? Fuck
that! Our histories got much more weight than that!
Power to the People! And all that good shit Fair distribution
& fuck the land sent! From each according to his abilities, to
each according to his needs For a world without oppression, this
is what we should strive for, this is what we need This is what we
should fight for, not against each other.
Putting it down on the underground, above ground United in a
Movement, a United Front.
Black & Brown, and white too, if you’re progressive, for that
matter, Black & Brown if you’re progressive.
Because we can never go nowhere if we don’t get together United in
a front; hence progressive.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010)
We have to give props to a kids’ movie that can portray an anti-fascist
struggle, while downplaying the glamor of war. Soren is a young owl who
dreams of meeting his heroes, the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, who are
legendary for defending the owls against evil forces. He and his brother
Kludd are kidnapped by the fascist owls, “The Pure Ones”, who recruit a
select few from their species of owls to join their army and enslave all
other species of owls. Soren escapes and flees to find the Guardians for
help while his brother joins the Nazi owls.
Soren’s journey to the Guardians requires him to learn to fly and take a
difficult trip with a few fellow travelers who believe in the mission.
As the Guardians gather information and prepare for battle with the
fascists they learn that one of their leaders is working for the enemy
and has betrayed them. This is a good lesson in the need for vigilance
against spies and turncoats in the anti-fascist struggle.
Kludd’s decision to join the fascists is played as a simplistic need for
recognition after a childhood of struggling to achieve next to his
brother. But this is not so far off. Fascism appeals to people who are
easily convinced that their lack of success can be overcome at the
expense of others. In Amerika we have a large labor aristocracy who are
paid more than the value of their labor with profits brought home from
exploitation of Third World workers; these workers have a material
interest in imperialism. Those who are in the lowest stratum of the
labor aristocracy look around and see that they are not achieving the
same wealth as their peers. This group of people are the most likely to
go for fascist rhetoric that blames their failures on immigrants and
Third World workers with promises of greater wealth for those who
deserve it (i.e. the white nation). There was no labor aristocracy in
The Owls of Ga’Hoole but the oppressed nations were represented by the
different species of owls who, just by nature of birth, were considered
inferior to “The Pure Ones.”
When Soren meets the Guardians he gets to know one who is somewhat crazy
and a bit of an outcast, only to learn that he was the heroic leader in
previous battles. From this owl Soren learns that war is not all glamor
and has real consequences. The decision to fight the fascists was taken
seriously with this in mind.
For a kids’ movie, Legend of the Guardians has a lot to offer, but we’d
rather see the oppressed nations (or species in this case), organize to
rise up and fight for themselves. The movie makes that impossible by
drugging all the slaves and implying that the rest of the owls from
other species were completely in the dark about the fascist plot to take
over the world. This plot twist might have been possible if they had
gone further and The Pure Ones struck out in battle so that other
species realized what was happening.
That a group of heroic owls had to save the world and defeat the
fascists was made somewhat better by their failure due to turncoat
betrayal requiring Soren and his fellow travelers to join the battle and
save the day. At least this reinforced that anyone could be a heroic
part of the anti-fascist struggle, not just the special heroes of
Ga’Hoole.
Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Washington State hires prisoners.
They pay them 42 cents an hour to make wooden chairs and the prison
charges the public $400.00 per chair.
On November 28, WikiLeaks began releasing U.$. diplomatic cables that
have been extremely embarrassing to the U.$. government and its allies.
This resulted in increased persecution of the WikiLeaks site and staff,
and an international debate about the role of websites like WikiLeaks.
This story underscores the failure of mainstream media to do more than
serve as a mouthpiece for the imperialists. But it also reveals the
lengths to which imperialist governments will go to persecute activists
and those causing damage to imperialism.
Humynity benefits from more availability of information about
imperialism. As revolutionaries, we welcome the opportunity to expose
U.$.-backed atrocities and the imperialists’ back room deals. Meanwhile,
the attacks on WikiLeaks and its staff present the opportunity to
further expose the myth that capitalism = democracy. The basic premises
of democracy include transparency of government and freedom of speech.
While the communist government in China under Mao encouraged the people
to criticize their leaders during the Cultural Revolution and went so
far as to provide free paper and space to post big character posters to
propagate free speech, the Amerikan government is doing all it can (in
collaboration with other governments and capitalist corporations) to
shut down the speech of those who are merely exposing facts.
WikiLeaks launched in 2007 to publish documents from anonymous sources
that generally expose the actions of imperialist governments and their
lackeys. WikiLeaks states that “One of our most important activities is
to publish original source material alongside our news stories so
readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth.” On their
website WikiLeaks summarizes the major stories they have broken; an
impressive list of government and corporate corruption, brutality and
war.(1) It has been particularly valuable in exposing U.$. atrocities in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
As a result of their work exposing governments, corporations, and
churches around the world, Wikileaks has faced significant persecution.
According to their website, “Since formation in 2007, WikiLeaks has been
victorious over every legal (and illegal) attack, including those from
the Pentagon, the Chinese Public Security Bureau, the Former President
of Kenya, the Premier of Bermuda, Scientology, the Catholic & Mormon
Church, the largest Swiss private bank, and Russian companies.“(1)
Julian Assange has taken the role of public spokespersyn and as such has
faced dramatic persynal persecution, particularly after the release of
the U.$. diplomatic cables.
What’s the big deal about the U.$. diplomatic cables?
Before we get into the issues of censorship and political persecution,
let’s take a look at what these diplomatic cables really contain. The
U.$. government employs thousands of foreign service staff posted in
embassies and consulates around the world. According to the U.$
Department of State website, these people work in one of 5 general jobs:
Consular: Consular Officers protect Americans abroad and strengthen U.S.
border security.
Economic: Economic Officers work on economic partnerships and
development, support U.S. businesses abroad, and cover environmental,
science, technology, and health issues.
Management: Management Officers run our embassies and make American
diplomacy work.
Political: Political Officers analyze political events.
Public Diplomacy: Public Diplomacy Officers explain American values and
policies.
In other words, many of these people work in foreign countries
acting as spies. But not spies who are working in secret; they are overt
spies whose job is to meet with people at various levels in other
governments and then write up reports about their meetings and the
situation in those countries. This is how the U.$. government collects a
lot of its information about what’s going on around the world. The
foreign service staff don’t try to hide what they are doing. It’s a
political game which foreign diplomats sometimes use to get messages
through to the U.$. government without having to make public statements.
There is a lot of backroom deal making done this way, without having to
make information public.
So when people say that the diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks released
are embarrassing, what they really mean is that imperialist governments
and their lackeys don’t want the truth to be known publicly. As
WikiLeaks summarizes, “the cables show the extent of US spying on its
allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights
abuse in ‘client states’; backroom deals with supposedly neutral
countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats
take to advance those who have access to them.”(1) So the U.$.
government doesn’t want people to know these things. They are probably
not so much worried about the Amerikan public whose response to this
story has been split with many taking the side of their imperialist
government, but rather concerned about what people in other countries
are going to learn, especially those in the Third World being screwed by
the imperialists and the deals they make with their own lackey
governments.
Imperialists and censorship on a global scale
There was a quick and coordinated attack against WikiLeaks by the U.$.
government and their allies in the international and corporate
community. This included a coordinated December 2 attack shutting down
their domain via the New Hampshire-based company EveryDNS, and
Amazon.com cutting off the infrastructure services they were providing
to WikiLeaks. Forced to move to the French internet company OVH,
WikiLeaks then faced attacks by the French government looking for ways
to ban hosting of the site.
The finance capitalists got in on the game quickly too. On December 3
PayPal cut off the account that was collecting donations for WikiLeaks,
claiming that the account violated its “Acceptable Use Policy” by
engaging in “activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct
others to engage in illegal activity.” On December 6 MasterCard
announced its plan to cut off WikiLeaks from accepting MasterCard
payments because “MasterCard rules prohibit customers from directly or
indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal.” Visa
took similar action on December 7. On December 8 WikiLeaks released
diplomatic papers that revealed lobbying by the Obama administration on
behalf of MasterCard and Visa.(2) And finally, the Swedish bank
PostFinance froze Julian Assange’s persynal bank account on December 6,
using the flimsy excuse that he provided an incorrect address on his
account.
On December 23 Apple dropped the WikiLeaks app (program for iPhones)
from their app store, just 10 days after it was approved for sale. The
app gave users access to the WikiLeaks Twitter feed and the ability to
access leaked documents. An Apple spokespersyn gave the official excuse:
“Apps must comply with all local laws and may not put an individual or
group in harm’s way.”(3) These examples of corporate censorship help
demonstrate the complicity between the imperialist government and big
corporations. The imperialists make backroom diplomatic deals to give
the capitalists financial advantages, and those same corporations look
out for the government’s interests by denying anti-imperialists access
to resources to exercise their free speech.
While diverting resources from WikiLeaks’ primary mission, these attacks
have also served to expose the imperialists, who only give lip service
to freedom of speech when it serves their interest. And this has
galvanized a counter attack by defenders of WikiLeaks. This counter
offensive includes hackers who have launched denial-of-service attacks
to shut down web sites that have cut off WikiLeaks, targeting EveryDNS,
Amazon, MasterCard and Visa among others.
In the United $tates, the imperialists are running around with their
pants down, unsure how to control the information already released. On
December 3 the White House issued a directive that forbids unauthorized
Federal employees from accessing the classified documents that are now
available on WikiLeaks. Carrying out this order, the Library of Congress
blocked access to WikiLeaks from its computers. Government employees,
military personnel and employees of some private corporations are
prohibited from reading the documents, even from home. Meanwhile,
college students are being threatened that if they post info about
WikiLeaks online they will not be eligible for government jobs after
graduation.(8)
Amerikan public opinion is split between those who think it’s right to
investigate those in power and those who want to see Assange prosecuted.
It might be surprising that so many Amerikans care about freedom of
speech when the imperialists so clearly oppose it. This is promising for
activists looking for ways to win over people who have a material
interest in imperialism, even if only for specific battles against the
imperialists.
Political persecution of activists
Julian Assange and others have complained of surveillance and harassment
in various countries in the past, but after the release of the
diplomatic cables this has stepped up to a level that may lead to death
or permanent imprisonment of those associated with the site. While
throwing around baseless accusations of “terrorism” against Assange,
North Amerikan politicians have openly called for him to be illegally
assassinated - the definition of terrorism.(9)
The U.$. Justice Department has been scouring the books searching for
something to prosecute Assange on, some way to punish him and stop his
work, and they are negotiating with Sweden to get him extradited to the
U.$. Assange was taken into custody in Britain after an arrest warrant
was issued by Sweden to question him on allegations of sex crimes, and
has since been released on bail.
In the United $tates, there has been a strong push to make it illegal to
conduct investigative journalism that is not approved by the State.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
argues that Assange’s actions violate the Espionage Act, a World War
I-era law crafted to punish individuals who spy on the country during
wartime. This is despite the fact that WikiLeaks has not released any
Top Secret documents and even offered to work with the U.$. government
to redact any facts that would endanger individuals in the field (which
the U.$. turned down). An initial hearing on WikiLeaks and the Espionage
Act was held on December 16 by the House of Representatives Judiciary
Committee. So far no decisions about prosecution have been made. Senator
Joseph Lieberman goes further and has urged the administration to
consider charges against media outlets that produced news articles based
on the leaked documents. These organizations, according to Lieberman,
have “committed at least an act of bad citizenship, but whether they
have committed a crime - I think that bears a very intense inquiry by
the Justice Department.”(4)
In the 1970s a very similar attack against Daniel Ellsberg was carried
out after he released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times,
exposing the Amerikan government’s lies about the Vietnam War. The U.$.
government attacked Ellsberg both covertly and overtly in court where
they put him on trial for theft and conspiracy under the Espionage Act.
Ellsberg explains, “The truth is that every attack now made on WikiLeaks
and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon
Papers at the time.”(5)
If the outcome is more chilling this time around, it will be with the
mainstream media cheering for the repression of their own rights to
report on facts. They’d rather talk about sex and persynalities anyway.
We talk about sex to stop talking about sex
Pseudofeminists have lined up on two sides of the Julian Assange “rape”
debate. One recognizes the obvious truth that this is a political ploy
by the imperialists to distract from the facts and attack Wikileaks. The
other side says we need to stand by all wimmin who claim that they are
raped. The latter are a dream come true for the FBI. The former are on
the right track, but falter in their attempts to define “real” rape.
This situation was painfully obvious in a series of debates on
Democracy Now! this week that degenerated into a pornographic
discussion of the details of various sexual encounters.(6) To both
defend Assange and uphold that some sex is not rape, Naomi Wolf ended up
making some embarrassingly incorrect claims.
If we can just admit that all sex is rape, then we can get on with the
original discussion of hundreds of thousands of wimmin (and men of
course) dying at the hands of the U.$. military as exposed by WikiLeaks
documents. The real feminist here is white male Julian Assange who
responded to TV news host Larry King’s inquiry about the sex charges
with: “It is not right to bring in sensational and, in fact, false
claims, a relatively trivial matter compared to the deaths of 109,000
people… CNN should be ashamed of doing that.” Assange was referring to a
death toll released on WikiLeaks that was recorded by the U.$. military
in Iraq who previously claimed to not be tracking Iraqi deaths.
To assure readers that these tactics are nothing new, a parallel story
played out within our own movement just 2 years ago. The decades old MIM
website at etext.org was shut down by people outside of MIM on January
9, 2009. This occurred as the primary editor of the website was
reporting death threats and the circulation of rape charges by multiple
white wimmin. He has referred to this as a “lynching,” as rape charges
have always been a tool of social control of oppressed nation men under
the rule of white power. While MIM(Prisons) and at least one other cell
made efforts to restore the content of the site, the damage was done as
all incoming links were defunct. Traffic to those documents remains at a
fraction of what it used to be.
The editor of the etext.org MIM site later explained that he did not
restore the site immediately as it could just as quickly be taken down
again. WikiLeaks is unique in its resources and high profile status, so
it has largely managed to remain online, with its mission receiving a
net benefit from the press coverage. But when decades of material are
separated from their domain name as happened to MIM, as well as many of
the over 80 hip hop websites shut down by Homeland Security last
month(7), their access to the rest of the world is seriously challenged.
As we have mentioned in the past, independent institutions of the
oppressed online are very fragile. Some combination of technology,
security tactics and alliances with the national bourgeoisie in
anti-imperialist nations will need to provide solutions to this problem
as the imperialists increase their repression on the internet.
The need for anti-imperialist media sources
A University of Maryland study titled “Misinformation and the 2010
Election” found that people who are exposed to mainstream news sources
are quite misinformed about the facts. For instance, 42% of people
surveyed didn’t know that Obama was born in the U.$. The survey looked
at newspapers and news magazines, network TV news broadcasts, public
broadcasting (NPR or PBS), Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. They found “Looking
at the frequency of misinformation among the consumers of various news
sources, one striking feature is that substantial levels of
misinformation were present in the daily consumers of all news sources.
Even the daily consumers of news sources with the lowest levels of
misinformation still included substantial numbers with
misinformation.”(10)
This doesn’t mean we should all stop following the news; people with
higher levels of exposure to news sources had lower levels of
misinformation. This last fact had a few striking exceptions, for
instance, Fox News topped the misinformation list with the viewers with
the most incorrect information and a trend showing that the more a
persyn watches Fox the more misinformed they become. However, consumers
of other mainstream media sources were also very mislead on key facts,
including NPR and PBS consumers and viewers of other daily TV news.(10)
Without a viable daily source of anti-imperialist news, revolutionaries
still need to use mainstream media, but we need to look at it with a
critical eye and use as many international sources as we can get our
hands on.
The clear misinformation being spread by mainstream media, combined with
the constant covering up of even the most mundane of facts by the
imperialist governments and their allies, mean that the value of
alternative media sources can not be overstated. WikiLeaks provides a
clear service to anti-imperialists even without any significant
political analysis on their website. The politics are clear in the
context of the content that comes through WikiLeaks daily exposing
imperialism as a system of corruption, brutality and exploitation. News
sources like this are crucial to revolutionaries and we must defend
their existence.
It is our task to go further and provide context for the facts and help
people make connections between all the terrorist acts committed by the
U.$. and other imperialist countries and the just revolutionary
struggles of the oppressed peoples around the world.
As we already know, control units are torture chambers where prisoners
spend from 22 to 24 hours a day locked up in a tiny cell for long
periods of time with a blinding light burning all day, with no
educational or other kinds of programs and without proper medical and
mental health attention. We are forced to live in here with the pigs
oppressing us every day. These conditions are meant to break prisoners’
mental states and spirit. They are oppression tools. Here I’ve seen
prisoners give up and lose all hope, lose their mental states, harm, and
even kill themselves. There’s no doubt that these horrifying places
affect the majority of prisoner’s mental health. However, we can and
should turn these torture chambers into our universities, for the
betterment of ourselves and our oppressed comrades.
The first time I was placed in a control unit (here in Florida they are
called close management units or CM) I did 2 years locked up in a tiny
cell 24 hours a day. In my first few months I was wasting my time
bullshitting, fighting and reading mind-killing fiction books. I was
blind about the struggle - our struggle, oppressed against oppressor.
Then, one day, a comrade handed me a book called “Last Man Standing” by
Geronimo Pratt, a top member of the
Black
Panther Party. That book alone sparked the revolutionary in me and
since then I haven’t looked back. Then I met George Jackson, Mao, Lenin
and Che among others. That’s when I started shaping and organizing my
ideals. When my family asked me if I needed money for canteen, I told
them no. Instead I asked them to send me books on or by the
above-mentioned comrades and I started studying full time.
Along the line a comrade gave me a copy of
Under Lock &
Key and I loved it. That boosted me up on the prison struggle. I
started corresponding with MIM and after a while I began writing
articles for them. The comrades at MIM(Prisons) supplied me with good
and much needed studying material and I kept working hard on behalf of
the struggle - our struggle. I’ve learned to discipline and organize
myself in a way that I never thought possible. As I grew mentally and
expanded my knowledge of the struggle, I shared it with others and
helped awaken their consciousness.
I had access to nothing except what MIM(Prisons) sent me and my only
opportunities to get out of my cell were when I had to see medical or
mental health personnel and when we had recreation in a tiny dog pen and
showers 3 times a week. Nevertheless, I refused all these. I thought -
and still think - that by going to these I was throwing away time that I
could use to study and put in work for the cause. I exercised and took
bird baths in my cell. I studied even when the lights went out. I used a
little bit of light that came in through the back window from a light
pole that stood outside the building.
The pigs were used to going around doing their checks and seeing
prisoners cuddled up in their beds doing nothing or just staring into
space while talking to themselves. In fact, they like to see this
because they know that they are breaking the prisoners’ minds and
fighting spirit. But they hated it when they walked by my cell and saw
me sitting on the floor with all kinds of books, dictionaries, papers
and pens scattered around me. They couldn’t crack me, let alone break
me, and that chewed at their insides. I wouldn’t give them a chance. I
was, and still am, going to fight them until the very end. If I can’t
fight them physically I will fight them with pen and paper by spreading
the word of struggle and helping other oppressed people wake up
consciously.
When I was close to being released to open population I told myself that
if I started getting off track and losing my discipline I would return
to CM on purpose to start disciplining myself all over again. When I was
finally released in late 2009 people who knew me before wouldn’t
associate with me much because they couldn’t relate to my new mindset.
Fortunately I was able to wake some of them up and have them join forces
in the struggle.
In my first prison, after my release from CM, I quickly formed a study
group of nine comrades, of which the comrade who first introduced me to
MIM(Prisons) was a part. However, the prison in which we were was
extremely racist and oppressive and the pigs started targeting us. For
being the group’s spokesperson they considered me the leader and for
that alone they ransacked and destroyed my personal property every time
they got a chance, threatened me, then placed me in solitary confinement
on false charges. Finally they transferred me to another prison.
At my next prison the pigs already knew about me, so as soon as I got
there the searches and property destruction continued, but that didn’t
discourage me nor did it put a dent in my confidence. In a matter of
weeks I had another study group going. But then, not even a year after
my release from CM, I had an altercation with another prisoner who was a
snitch for the pigs and was returned to CM where I currently find
myself.
I have come to the conclusion that open population is not for me. It
only takes too much of my study time. Study time that I need for when I
get released back into society. Besides, in CM I don’t have the pigs in
my face all day. In open population there’s a great chance that I harm
one of them badly and catch more prison time. So I’ve decided to do my
remaining 14 years in a solitary cell. This might be helpful for me, but
it is not for everyone because not everyone understands and appreciates
it like I do.
If you have no choice but to be in a control unit, don’t waste your time
bullshitting. Don’t let these damn pigs break you. Turn the torture
chamber in which you find yourself into your university. Read, study,
and educate yourself. Subscribe to Under Lock & Key and
other MIM(Prisons) material. If you don’t have much material to study,
whatever you do have study it over and over. You will be surprised by
how much you can learn from reading the same thing over and over. I
still have the first Under Lock & Key I ever read, which
was given to me by that good comrade 3 years ago, and I still read it
every once in a while. And every time I read it, I learn something new.
So comrades, wake up and get to studying. Show the pigs that you won’t
allow them to break you and that you are willing to fight, learn,
struggle, and turn their torture chambers into your university. Just
don’t turn it into your mental and physical graveyard.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We’re glad to see our work having such an
impact on comrades in prison and we agree with the recommendations given
for those in isolation. But keep in mind that control units exist in
order to keep those who study away from the masses. A one-man university
is nothing compared to running study groups and organizing sessions with
a group of people. For those who are forced into isolation, Under
Lock & Key is your connection to dialogue with the larger
prison movement.
There’s this confusing aspect I’ve never quite been able to understand
about christian morality. You see, I’ve sat alone for three years in the
solitary superman control unit sensory deprivation dungeon. Where every
emotion is sharpened a hundred fold but every avenue to share or express
this feeling is cruelly taken away. Except mail. And my pen.
So it irks me to receive these fancy gilded colorful christmas cards
from total strangers where they tell me they love me but damn me to the
depths of hell in the same breath. Because I’m a sinner my soul is in
limbo and its time for me to repent and prostrate myself to the all
might glorious one, or burn!
But I love you. Brother. Take care.
Is this what a motherfucker needs? Maybe if you all got together out
there and started chanting and holding hands these walls that hold
amerikka’s 2.4 million political prisoners would crumble and we could
join you with a psalm.
Well?
We’re waiting…
Of course, maybe because we are top notch “sinners” in your books the
last thing you want is for us to be released. Does that thought frighten
you! Is it a whole hell of a lot easier to pray for someone’s soul than
it is to minister to their torturous mindfucked life? Because, in
reality, christians and “criminals” are both mindwashed masses. I’d be
surprised if one could exist without the other. The former needs the
latter to lord over and condemn. And preach to from afar. (The further
the better - no?) and what would a “criminal” do without the piles upon
piles of guilt, shame, sense of inferiority and hurt his brother
christian bestows? In shiny christmas cards.
The time has come to turn the tables.
Your religion and those U$ concentration kamps; your steeples and the
judges pulpit; the church and the courthouse are one and the same. Tools
of oppression. Both are filled with bigotry, racism and egotism. The
priest and the judge. The gangster, the killer and the dope dealer. Who
are the real sinners here? Who’s the bad guy? The true gang?
I heard once that to interact with the true insanity in a person one has
to be aware of the fact that craziness likes to jump ship. Meaning a
crazy person has the ability to make you feel like you’re the one that’s
nuts. And I’d say the same applies to unjust systems in power. They have
a way of mindwashing you into a nazi or a
‘mexican-border-fascist-crazed-minuteman.’
So father-elder-sister-brother our struggle is a fight to survive. Day
to day. Minute to minute as human beings. Your creed and country are
killing us as you pass around the collection plate and mail form letters
to us to ease your consciences. Our struggle attempts to raise our
fellow captives self-esteem and heal; not guilt-trip and destroy as your
church does, the living, right here and now, interest us. Not some
idealist bourgeois bullshit afterlife.
It is your imperialist system that must lay down and prostrate and ask
for mercy. And not from the almighty or some winged man. But from your
fellow man you’ll kneel in supplication.
And I”m going to go there. I must.
Why are we the ones hated? The prisoners. We who sit and study and
starve to death. And why are they the ones supported? The soldiers. The
ones who drop bombs on innocent people for a paycheck. Maybe because all
we do is keep beds full and a handful of you employed we’re inferior? At
least compared to those that keep your gas tanks full and new amerikkan
colonies occupied we are. no?
But I digress.
Brother christian, I’ll wish you a merry christmas also. And I send my
love. But please note I’m not parting with some “beefed up scare tactic
ultimatum” that might leave you in tears tonight fingering your pistol.
I understand that your kind, who keep medical science in a moral
chokehold and evolution out of the elementary schools, are escapists and
weak. I know a person who’s a citizen of earth’s most
‘murderous-racist-atomic-imperialist-hypocritical’ nation feels a need
to bury the old head in the sand. I feel you. I used to hide beneath the
needle myself.
I just ask you keep your demons to yourself. Please. Never once did I
try to push my dope on you. So give me the same respect.
And as you stand bent over with your head in a stale hole. Know the rest
of us have woken up and changed the CD. That bass beat you hear as you
lose consciousness isn’t the stars and stripes.
We’re rocking the anthem of international socialism round these parts.
The international! Let no one build walls to divide us, walls of
hatred nor walls of stone. come greet the dawn and stand beside
us, we’ll live together or we’ll die alone. in our world poisoned
by exploitation, those who have taken, now they must give! And end
the vanity of nations… we want no condescending saviors to rule us
from their judgment hall…
I just completed my fourth reading of a pamphlet I received from you
titled “Shut Down Control Units in Prison,” and I found it in step with
my own thoughts on the subject.
Your interpretation on how prisoners are validated is right on point and
I’m living proof of it, my validation was based on my being in
possession of written materials and an image of a dragon. But the inept
way in which I was validated isn’t what made me go into a state of
frenzy, it was the fact that after being in the prison system for 12
years, prior to my being validated, I had no idea of what the validation
process was. As one who spent a great deal of his time studying the
rules and regulations of the prison system, I can only guess that the
reason I overlooked the validation process is because I became too busy
fighting to make a difference in other areas of the prison system, but
now that I’m in the grasp of the demon I’m going to alter the hell he
has pulled so many into.
After spending about a year in the SHU trying to figure out how the hell
I was validated, I rolled up my sleeves and started working on how to
not only get myself out of the SHU, but the multitude of others around
me. But I soon found out that a large number of prisoners in the SHU
feel so defeated that they have given up hope and become content with
being in the SHU. Some have even become proud of being validated and
don’t want to hear anything from me about what we can do to get out of
the SHU.
One of the first cases that I started studying about the validation
process is a case you wrote about in the pamphlet you sent to me which
is the Castillo case. Now don’t get me wrong the case knocked on the
door of change, but it should have kicked down the door. An example of
what I’m referring to is the rule change requiring that a prisoner has
to be in possession of items such as written materials or symbols on
their body before they are placed in the SHU. But what the attorneys who
represented Castillo didn’t ask the court to make a requirement of is
that the CDCR must list the names of which written materials, tattoos
and symbols are “gang related,” because as we now know the CDCR can say
anything that they want is a gang related item.
I’ve written to the attorneys who represented Castillo, and one told me
that they no longer work on prison cases and the other one who you wrote
about in the article told me that he wanted $5000 to answer my questions
about the Castillo ruling. So I filed a 602-appeal, and to make a long
story short my appeal was shot down due to my filing it too late, and
although that door was closed another one has opened and I’ll keep you
updated on the outcome.
Another thing you wrote about prisoners being in the SHU that I agree
with is how atrocious it is that a prisoner can be put in the SHU for a
determinate term for committing a violent act, but a prisoner who has a
tattoo, symbol or certain written materials in their possession will be
put in the SHU without committing any violent action for an
indeterminate term for a minimum of 6 years (this also is a stipulation
that the attorneys for Castillo could have changed). In conversations
that I’ve had with some Institutional Gang Investigators (IGI), they
have agreed with me about the flaws in the validation process, but also
said that it isn’t their responsibility to correct it. I can understand
why they would say it, so myself and other prisoners must pick up the
baton and run with it towards the finish line of change. It’s time for
me to step down from my podium speaking about subjects you already have
a full understanding of, so in closing I thank you for all that you are
doing for those of us behind prison walls and I look forward to hearing
from you again.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Check out our campaign against
control
units for more information on the fight against these torture
chambers filled with people on false gang validations.