Federal Prisons

Greetings,

I’m writing to express my gratitude to the publishers of Under Lock & Key. I was in receipt of your newspaper (the Fall 2024 issue, No. 87) and I appreciate it. The content was very informative. I was recently introduced to the prison movement by my comrade. So I am fairly new to the movement, but I’m not new to the struggle or to the oppressive ways of this noxious system.

I have been incarcerated now for 14 years. I understand that there are plenty of significant issues going on world-wide in and outside of this wicked prison system, but I would like to shine light on the fact that two thirds of the prisoner population here in North Carolina is strung out on drugs. These so called “correctional facilities” are actually drug-infested mental health institutions. I have watched the expansion of the drug K2 (a chemical based toxin) transform the entire prison system as a whole. This drug is commonly referred to as “prison crack” due to the addictiveness of this poison.

When I first entered the prison system, brothers used to share knowledge, work out together, play cards or chess, etc. The prison guards (C.O.’s) used to have a certain respect/fear of us due to the unity we displayed. However, K2 has single-handedly dismantled and diminished every aspect of that culture. The C.O.’s no longer respect us as a whole because now when they enter a block 80% of the inhabitants are incoherent; unable to talk, walk or even simply pick their heads up to acknowledge the fact that the so-called authorities/overseers have entered the block.

A majority of the people in prison wake up and before they even brush their teeth they inhale the chemicals of this despicable substance – subduing faithfully to this drug all day. This routine is repeated daily. Not all but most of the K2 users wake up just to chase after the intense, short-lived high all throughout the day. These days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. This is a dangerous cycle that has plagued the N.C. prison system.

K2 has caused guys to neglect their morals and principles. No longer caring how others perceive them. Most K2 smokers carry themselves like fiends selling anything and everything they can get their hands on: shoes, food, hygiene items, literally everything they own. I have witnessed people sell their free, state provided food trays, starving themselves and surviving off only one meal a day just to get high. Ruining relationships with family and friends due to them constantly calling trying to manipulate them out of money on a relentless search of monetary donations to purchase more K2. They show no regard for the actual well-being of the members of their support system.

In summary, this drug is causing people to exit prison worse than they were when they came in, if indeed they make it home at all. The K2 toxin has been known to cause death on many occasions. All of this has increased the need for those of us who are conscious to make it a priority to help push the agenda of MIM’s “Revolutionary 12 Step Program” designed to expose and combat addiction. Again, I would like to say thank you to the publishers of ULK for providing a platform for us prisoners to express ourselves freely. I will continue to advocate for the MIM movement. Thank you for your time and attention.

Florida DOC Tablet Saga

When tablets came out in 2017 the very first tablets were sold to the prisoners. I had a loved one to buy me one. Then the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) decided to change the mail to digital mail, so FDOC picked up all tablets that the prisoners paid for and came back around and passed out free tablets for every one. Since then all tablets have been updated no less than three times.

This comrade just got released from a Close Management Unit and was transferred to Hamilton C.I. Since I got here I found out that for the past year the Property Room Sergeant has been confiscating tablets, most of the time giving prisoners a disciplinary report for tablet tampering in which prisoners are found guilty 99% of the time and are suspended indefinitely from having another tablet. On top of this, most now have a loan on their inmate trust fund account of $130 restitution. FDOC gave a little for a period of time, then turned around and took everything. They gave the tablets, tablets belong to the state, and now they have an excuse to take them.

The Prisoner Population

I’ve been in prison for 28 years and this whole thing changed. This is not a prison anymore, this is a child care center for these fools to hang out. Everybody wants to belong to a gang but let me remind you that before you take that oath, you need to find out why that nation, group, or gang was born. It was born by the oppressed to fight in unity as a group against oppression. Who is the oppressor? Pigs that work here, the administration, the system, the state, the government. I know my history, do you know yours?

FDOC have a total of no more than 30 officers per shift (with 1/4 of them pushing overtime) and that is counting the front controls operators. It is embarrassing how that small group of pigs can control, oppress, and abuse no less than 1250 to 1500 prisoners, thugs, gangsters, criminals, and gang members. FDOC prisoners have no unity and no self-respect. I said self-respect because I might have a debt of a 78 cent soup and you ready to kill me, but the pigs call you and the whole dorm a “bunch of bitches” and you put your head down.

FDOC prisoners, mostly gang members, would rather have the pigs as a friend than anybody else with the same uniform color. They respect the pigs more than their fellow prisoners. Ali-al haf from Georgia, I read your article in the ULK Winter 2025 issue – you are not alone! I think it is a virus that is spreading. Now prisoners do the pigs’ jobs. They check and make sure that your cell door is secure, they pass mail, they make sure you don’t eat twice in the chow-hall, they even stand next to some of the pigs like bodyguards. All this ass kissing and at the end of the night your ass is just like mine: locked down behind a door. It doesn’t matter how down you might think the pigs will be, at the end of the day they will not put their paychecks on the line because of you. Coño Preso – look at the fucking color of your uniform. Ain’t you noticed that it has a different color!

Learn the difference between a right and a privilege. Use the grievance process, you must leave a written historical track in case issues need to be handled at another level. Written proof is all there is that shows a peaceful avenue was tried before going all the way out. All those comrades that in the past sacrificed their prison sentences, release dates, family, and some of them even their lives for this new generation to throw their hands up and surrender. Really? That is how we’re doing time in 2025?? Where are your cojones??

Let’s get together in the same line of thought. Before you complain about not having a tablet or not being able to watch the game on TV, we need to think about how high canteen prices are, receive more gain time, bring parole to lifers like me, get better food. Sorry, but prison is not a place that you come to to hang out with your homies and have a good time. This is the cemetery of the walking living dead, where your whole future could change in 15 seconds. Don’t forget where you are, your culture, where you came from. Do not submit to do the pigs’ work. I won’t be surprised if in a few more years visitation is done solely via video and they stop all contact visits. If we don’t get together and stand up and work as a group, as a family, we are going to keep losing. Remember that before you became a gang member you were a man, a human being – not a beast. And I refuse to be trapped like one. No quiero abrazos con la vida hasta que mi pueblo sea libre.

A Georgia prisoner echoes Ali-al haf’s report: Here at Baldwin State Prison in Hardwick, Georgia, some things are the same as Valdosta, GA. Gang members having a room all to themselves and picking on the weak, taking all their property.

In one building the unity manager has her boys, [gang members] to beat some prisoners up (mostly whites). It is told that the female officer unit manager is a [gang] member. She is always talking down to the whites.

The drugs are plenty here and the drug called strips is where most go to.

The mail system is really screwed up. Mail is passed out maybe two times a week. The mailroom officer puts mail out daily for night shift to pass out.

Stabbings happen daily. Some cut themselves to be placed in the hole to get away from the gang members. Some gang members force some, mostly whites, to put money on their books or send them cash and make them go to the store for the full amount only to take it from them and officers let it happen.

Baldwin State has nicknames such as “Bloody Baldwin”, “Body Bag”, and “Cut Throat”. The names fit well and also life flight.

$prayer responds from Pennsylvania: Our comrades here in the PADOC would rather be focused on going at each other and being on the C.O.’s side and doing a bunch of nonsense, it’s sad. Our comrades aren’t even focused on their own lives like they should be instead of worrying what others are doing. They oppress their other comrades like they’re the oppressor, like they’re not oppressed by the oppressors too. The oppressing comrades do what the oppressors want them to do so they take the heat off of their own backs and put it on their own comrades’ backs. Like I really can’t believe all of the OPPRESSION between comrades, it’s really sad. Like the oppressing comrades call us (who stand against the criminals of permission “cops”) rats, but look at what they’re doing, they’re doing the oppressors’ bidding. So who’s the real rat? They are, aren’t they, since they’re doing the oppressors’ bidding right? They really need to ask themselves who’s the rat. We’re supposed to stand up to our oppressors, not stand with them against our own comrades. Am I right or am I wrong?

MIM(Prisons) adds: We also published a report in February from a Tennessee prisoner being extorted by a drug gang that was protected by staff. Ali-al haf’s article really struck a cord with our readers, indicating the state of affairs across the prisons systems on occupied Turtle Island. This relates to our campaign: Stop Snitching, Stop Collaborating, where comrades have repeatedly pointed out that you can’t snitch on pigs. These prisoners described above are collaborating with the enemy.

But lumpen orgs working with the imperialists is not a forgone conclusion. We know this because there are plenty examples in history of lumpen orgs working on the side of anti-imperialism, especially in the internal colonies of the United $tates. We also know this because, as Trauma points out, there is a common material interest in the lumpen coming together for conditions and for respect. And as $prayer says, most prisoners should be comrades on the same side. We can make that happen through education and organization. We must build institutions that serve the interests of the lumpen better than the state does, to win over the masses.

I used to read your papers and think of how crazy some of the stories from other prisons were. Now I have witnessed firsthand how the K2 has changed prison.

Not long ago, I was relocated to a unit full of gang members. I don’t have a ton of money but I have more than the everyday prisoner. Shortly after getting unpacked and walking the unit to look for familiar faces, I was approached and asked was I in a gang and my answer was “no”. They watched me for a few days, then one morning around 8:30 AM, I was in my cell cleaning like I do every morning and someone came into my room and asked a few random questions. The next thing I know five or so others stormed in and began assaulting me and demanding money. They took my music equipment, commissary, and other belongings and left. They said that if I sent them money I could have all my stuff back. I sent one thousand dollars and they demanded more money so I just said to hell with the property. I purchased a prison made knife that same day.

The very next day I was in my cell cleaning with the cell door locked this time and suddenly the door opened. I went to the door with the knife ready and good thing I did, because it was more gang members. They had the officer open the door. I tried to walk out of the cell and they were trying to push me back into the cell. I pulled the knife and they ran away from the door. I told them if we’re fighting let’s do it out in the open as I walked out into the day room. They wanted no parts of me as long as I had that knife in my hand. The officer walked right past as all of this was going on and said nothing. I decided not to use the knife so I threw it down and asked the officer to let me out of the unit.

I went to prison operations and asked to be moved and they said “no”. I asked again and told them if I don’t get moved someone will end up hurt. They asked why and I told them. At first they didn’t believe me until they watched the cameras. Then they moved me to P.C. and allowed the same gang members to pack my property and they took everything.

When I got what was left I complained about my missing property and they said “file a grievance”. I filed the grievance and the grievance chairperson refused to file it and sent it back. So I had my family call the warden. All he said was to file it again, which I did. It has now been almost a month and no one has said anything.

I’ve had my family calling the prison and now they won’t answer the phone anymore. So I had my family call the prison headquarters and they said they are launching an investigation but still I have heard nothing. The truth of the matter is they don’t care at all. I’ve been incarcerated 14 years and this has never happened before. These prisons are dangerous and nothing is being done about it. It’s like they want us to harm and/or kill each other in here. Now I’m trying to plan my next move because this is all new for me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have 48 months left on a 21 year sentence so violence isn’t the answer. The prison needs to be held accountable for letting this happen. If you are reading this please be aware and thanks for reading. Thanks MIM for giving me a voice to get my story out.

MIM(Prisons) adds: More and more people are realizing this system doesn’t serve them. We’ve had it relatively easy in this country, even some of us in prison have seen the benefits of living in the heart of empire. But the empire is changing. And we need to change with it, or get chewed up by it.

Revolutionary greetings comrades. To take the words of Comrade Triumphant of USW’s headline in his powerful article in ULK 83: the Minnesota Department of Corrections “joins list of states using digital mail to disrupt and surveil communications.”(1)

As all dedicated readers of ULK know well, this has been a constant pattern and practice of the fascist predatory pig administrations across AmeriKKKa’s carceral apparatuses contracting with these pig-assisting surveillance companies, such as TextBehind.

On 30 October 2024, the pigs here at so-called Maximum Security Prison - Oak Park Heights distributed the enclosed TextBehind flyer announcing that beginning 1 November 2024, all general mail to prisoners must be sent to TextBehind located in Phoenix, Maryland to be scanned, then re-routed over here to us. Come to find out, every person in the state of Minnesota received this same flyer. Notably, the flyer says that TextBehind does not accept legal mail. However, the Oak Park Heights PIG Administration issued additional memos, those of which I have obtained copies of and enclosed with this letter, outlining policy changes/changes to the definitions of what constitutes legal mail. As shown, the memos mention that some sort of “verification” device, QR code that attorneys must obtain before sending correspondence to their imprisoned clients.

Have you comrades heard of this type of process taking place anywhere else in terms of legal mail?

About a month or so prior to this mail memo, another memo was issued by the pigs (which I haven’t yet obtained a copy of) removing Amazon as an “approved vendor” that we as well as our family and friends can order us books from. The options we were left with are companies that don’t carry a lot of titles, like Blood In My Eye by George L. Jackson; Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America by Kristian Williams; We Reserve the Right to Resist: Prison Wars and Black Resistance by Dequi Kioni-Sadiki; and Black Power Afterlives by Sekou Odinga and Dequi Kioni-Sadiki.

This change was allegedly because of “drugs.”

The entire captive population has been under relentless terroristic attack all under the guise of drugs coming through the mail. Captives are being falsely accused by pigs of being “intoxicated” and sent to solitary confinement even after drug and alcohol testing results are negative; captives have had their visitation and phones wrongfully taken; comrades have had every single piece of paper in their cells confiscated and destroyed by the pigs. I’m talking about one’s trial transcripts, legal documents, book manuscripts, poems, letters, etc.

The strip searches have been incessant. Literally blitzkriegs of sexual assault strip searches. In relation to strip searches in general, I’ve been struggling to end them across the states men’s prisons in Minnesota to be replaced with body scanners. In the women’s prison, they successfully campaigned to have unclothed body searches replaced with body scanners. Minnesota effectively banned the use of strip searches on juveniles. I had an article published on this topic in a local newspaper.(2)

In terms of the mail issue, myself and a few other captives who’ve had their mail from courts opened are exhausting our administrative remedies (grievance process) and conducting research into this issue to bring challenge to this policy in the courts – the struggle is constant.

<sup>Notes: 1. Triumphant of United Struggle from Within, August 2023, “TDCJ Joins List of States Using Digital Mail to Disrupt and Surveil Communications”, Under Lock & Key 83.
2. Shavelle Chavez-Nelson, 4 September 2024, ​Strip searches are sexual assaults by the state”, Minnesota Spokesman Recorder.</sup>

A prisoner in Wasco State Prison reported 20 January 2025: The living conditions here are deplorable/inhumane to say the least. Appalling and disgusting. In all my time of doing time I’ve never encountered such squalor. When it comes to living conditions this place compares to my time in C.Y.A. Preston which was the worst living conditions I had encountered.

All five of our toilets were completely clogged for days with only a couple semi-working. Currently all four urinals are completely clogged and sporadically overflow spilling urine on the floor for up to 30+ minutes at a time.

The heater doesn’t work and the bunk I was assigned to happens to be the coldest area of the dorms as the cooler blows the air straight on my bunk!

Per state issue most all CDC usually passes out one bar of soap a week for each prisoner. We have been getting one bar every two weeks which is not enough to shower/wash and as a result many don’t wash hands after defecating. Some only take “water showers” because of the lack of soap. At times the one roll of toilet paper is not issued as well on a weekly basis.

We have a rat/mouse infestation with rodents not only ravaging prisoners’ lockers but eating stored food and leaving feces. Some report rodents climbing on them in their sleep as well. The kitchen is also infested.

The roof of this dorm has approximately 10 leaks in it so when it rains it leaves puddles. The water heater is rusted and deteriorated and obviously hasn’t been replaced in the 30+ years this concentration kamp has been operating. Shower water is cold and drinking water is gray, chalky and has a bad taste/smell. The water fountains have not had filters replaced in what seems like 30 years. A form was circulated stating the water was causing cancer so drink at your own risk.

We haven’t had hair clippers or nail clippers in about a month. We are told it will take more months even though ingrown toenails are rampant.

The floor is damaged with potholes where stagnant water full of bacteria gathers.

We have a laundry call but we turn in laundry only to never receive it back and the one bar of soap every two weeks means we must wear dirty clothes and sleep in dirty sheets.

Many prisoners here are doing less than a year so many fear to speak up or submit grievances for mistreatment or disrespectful talk from C.O.’s thus we get these deplorable conditions.

Phone calls are often cut off mid conversations by C.O.’s in what can only be described as group punishment.

I erroneously assumed, like many others, that “dorm living” in prison was easier. How I was wrong. I have never seen this type of inhumane treatment in a cell living environment. A hint of progress has been that a meeting was set up between prisoners and the sergeant where issues were addressed. Some things were resolved, i.e. some power struggles were won but many are still in motion. 602’s have also been submitted on some issues so some progress has been made. It would be helpful to find contacts of “civil rights” orgs that may help highlight things but as always the main thought for progress in obtaining humyn rights will come in prisoners ourselves. The positive thing is there is peace and unity within the prisoners which allows for progress to flourish in the realm of civil rights or humyn rights.

The living conditions here are worse than any level three or four prison, worse than the holes and dare I say it… worse than the SHU’s. I’m really surprised this dorm is not condemned by the health department, perhaps they’ve never had anyone housed here with the determination to carry that struggle out.

7 February 2025 update: One of my grievances was successful on the urinals, toilets and sinks that were clogged, inoperable and leaking. Everyone is sick. i was very ill, cough, sinuses, flu-like conditions. I along with four other MAC reps have spoken to the Sgt Hernandez on five occasions on all the issues here noted above. He promises to fix things and we have received hair clippers and nail clippers, but many other things still are deplorable. The dust broom here is 8 months old and is a t-shirt tied on to what was a dust broom. It saddens me that so many have no idea how to tackle these issues or have no will to do so. The conditions in Pelican Bay SHU were more humane if that helps illustrate the conditions here.

16 February 2025 update: Wasco State Prison has fixed the toilets and urinals in response to complaints. Other conditions remain.

This comrade has been struggling against censorship in the Indiana Department of Corrections for years. Last year ey was locked in a shower by staff, then given a disciplinary charge for panicking because ey has asthma. Ey has been locked in solitary for 6 months as a result and will not get to hug eir mother before she dies. This is an example of what is withheld from oppressed people in this country on a daily basis, a necessary result of the national oppression we seek to end.

I arrived at St. Brides Correctional Center at the end of February 2024. When I first got here things were pretty chill. We had rec all day, with 4 buildings and evening rec three times a week. By all day I mean, 08:30-10:30 gate break at 09:30, you could skip lunch and go to rec from 11:30-13:30, afternoon rec from 13:30-15:30 gate break at 14:30, evening rec from 18:30-dark. The day recs were with 4 buildings– 8 different pods on the “Big” rec yard. The other 2 buildings (4 pods– the short-timers) on the “small” yard. Around the beginning of June things started to change.

The VADOC came out with a fentanyl policy for increasing lockdowns due to drugs. Now, I’m not sure to what extent other prisons in VADOC enforced or implemented these policies and I’m not sure if this is the actual reason this prison did what it did. For starters, this prison was having problems with quite a few people “falling out” from smoking ‘deuce’. Our annual shakedown was 6/3-6/7/2024 (I kept track on a calendar). This was the start of the cracking down on the drug-use and punishing everyone for what only some people were doing.

Every time someone “fell-out” the pod where the event occurred would be put on sanctions (locked down) for 7 days. This was also around the time when they stopped doing lunch rec. So, our pod, specifically, was on sanctions between 6/3/2024 (start of the new policy) and ~10/21/2024 (when they started to become more lenient about it) a total of 50 days. The worst part, the guy who fell out is taken out of the pod, and sometimes was put in a different pod that was not on sanctions; i.e, not getting punished like everyone else. The sanctions include no JPAY kiosk from 06:00-18:30, no going to chow hall, and no rec, programs (school, work, and religious).

Consequently, because of the ‘drug issue’ they wanted to try to limit contact between pods and started a new rec schedule. Instead of having rec all day with four buildings, now each pod only gets 1 hour of outside rec a day where on 2 days of the week a pod has two 1-hour rec sessions in a day. It is a rotating schedule so you do not have rec at the same time every day and it is only one building (2 pods) on a rec yard at one time. Needless to say, but I essentially spent my summer indoors like I was still in jail despite the fact that I do not get high, sell drugs, or cause any trouble. Just recently they started doing “grab-and-go” where we grab a tray from the chow hall but carry it back to the pod to eat in the pod.

These new systems make it harder to interact between pods, to go to programs, and have done nothing to stop the prevalence of drugs. Luckily, they have dialed back their response in their punishment when people do partake. But, they still have not brought rec back to normal hours and they hardly offer many programs– especially when you consider all the days classes are canceled. I dream of the day when they bring back some type of normalcy. This is a level 2 prison in Virginia. There should be some privileges and incentives to being classified as a security level 2.

We have the First Step Act (FSA) here and if on wait list or just in programs/classes our phone minutes are supposed to be free! They were charging me again since COVID is gone, but I filed. They now give me six calls free so they know I was right. But they are actually supposed to give all sentenced prisoners 570 minutes so I filed further just today. This has to go to region, which here is in Kansas. So if they deny it I’ll take it to DC! I gave some guys here my info and they said they’ll file so maybe there is some hope here after all! If we don’t fight together they’ll bully us and do whatever the hell they want! And I will do my best to not allow that to go down.

Here they keep coming up with what they call Institutional Supplements and for the FSA it states those aren’t required, so I’m fighting that part right now. I’ll keep you posted. Let your federal readers know that if you’re in a lock up situation such as the ADX, SMU or CMU or lock down they are still allowed FSA incentives, even if you’re just on a wait list for programming. And if you aren’t getting it, then file.

Last summer, around June, I ordered several copies of the North Carolina Grievance petition from MIM, then had copies made and sent out. Then I announced to the block how to use the petition forms as a solution to our grievances not being answered. The forms were then distributed in the block, door-to-door in our segregated dorm. Sadly some papers were heard being ripped up as soon as they entered the cell. I challenged the chicken-shits to reveal themselves, to no avail. The remaining forms were distributed in other blocks. It wasn’t long before I realized hardly anyone would use the forms.

A couple weeks later my neighbor mentions the petition during a conversation with someone else and was telling the guy, “the police gave it to him, he saving it to the day he need to file a grievance so he could attach it to the grievance.” Translation: he has no idea how to use the petition.

Other than some people being lazy and others just don’t care, this is what I learned:

• I can’t assume we are all convicts
• Gather participants first and speak to each of them to confirm their ambitions
• Write directions on top of the form, where to send it, such as “send to address on last page or which ever office/dept you’re trying to target”
• Sometimes an orchestrator may need to influence members to participate

Close fist, Panther struggle

Comrades in SCI-Muncy came together to draft a petition for people imprisoned by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The petition demands that the state ensure that grievances be addressed by PADOC staff in a timely manner, and that people do not face retaliation for filing a grievance. The comrades ask for additional contacts to add to the list to send the petition to, and any other edits from others in Pennsylvania.