MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
Los medios de comunicación le han dado mucha atención al asesinato de la
Señorita Venezuela, ganadora del segundo lugar en el concurso de Miss
Universo. Los expertos de noticias son rápidos para indicar que hubo más
de 25,000 homicidios en Venezuela el año pasado y que es la capital
mundial del homicidio. La muerte de cualquier persona mediante el
asesinato y la avaricia es triste y trágica, pero los medios fallan en
mencionar el índice de asesinatos en Amerika.
Las estadísticas del reporte del FBI en Crime in the U.S. (Crímen en
E.U.) para el 2010-2011 tiene un índice de 14,612 asesinatos y
homicidios negligentes. Esto es inferior a los 24,000 homicidios en
Venezuela (2010-2011), pero no toma en cuenta los asesinatos cometidos
por las Fuerzas Armadas de los E.U. alrededor del mundo. El numero de
violaciones forzadas en E.U. fue de 85,593 para el 2010-2011. Esto no
toma en cuenta las violaciones no reportadas ni las violaciones en la
militar los noticieros con portavoz-gubernamental en los E.U. describe
viciosamente los problemas y defectos de otro país para poder mantener
los ojos curiosos del mundo alejados de E.U. La gente alrededor del
mundo debe luchar para extinguir el crímen en sus comunidades. Pero más
importante aún es que la gente entienda que el abuelo de todos los
criminales es el sistema imperialista aquí en Amerika.
Although the law says we can aid others (illiterate or unskilled) on
appeals and legal work, we can no longer legally pass papers “cell to
cell,” so now we can only help others verbally. (Thanks to Assistant
Warden Robertson).
In addition, the 2011 CDCR rules limit all grievance appeals to one
single issue appeal per 14 days. If we “Abuse” this abuse of our 1st
amendment right to file grievances on the government, it is cut to one
per 30 days. When I got here (in 1983) it was 2 appeals per week
(104/year). Then cut to 1 per week (52/year), then 1/2 per week and 1/30
days if you exercise your 1st amendment rights. I’m on my second year of
the limit to 1 per 30 days because of my work exercising my legal
rights.
I’m fighting this under 42 USC 1983. “Judge” Rogers keeps stalling but I
got her sleazy and false dismissal reversed.
UPDATE February 2016: This case has entered court as Clark v.
Jeffrey Beard CV-11-03520. The comrade fighting this has reported that
Judge Rogers has thrown out all testimony from M.L. Davis (Appeal boss
of San Quentin) on 4 perjuries and 1 faked document, Davis has since
retired to keep his pension rather than be fired.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This limit on grievance appeals is a blatant
example of the Amerikan criminal injustice system restricting prisoner’s
legal rights. Grievances are one of the only opportunities for prisoners
to fight abuse and illegal policies and restrictions. Often these
grievances are ignored or “lost”. Because of these practices, and
restrictions like the ones described here, United Struggle from Within
initiated the grievance campaign,
first in
California and now in ten states across the country, with petitions
for these states that prisoner’s can use to demand our grievances be
addressed. Write to us for a copy of the petition for your state, or to
help create one if you do not live in a state where this has already
been done.
First and foremost let me say this is not a shot to put down any of my
fellow comrades, rather this is a plea to you to step up. I am a young
comrade who fortunately had the privilege of being around some good
brothers who basically educated and raised me into the revolutionary I
am today.
But like many, even though they taught me, they too are part of the
problem we face as a whole. I say that because they took a chance with
me because I stayed with a book in my hand. But I watched them for years
doing the same thing I found myself doing until a year ago: Denying
fellow brothers in the struggle knowledge due to stereotypical reasons.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are some out there who will hurt our
movement more than help, but so many times I see brothers come through
with so much fight, so much fire, but they lack the knowledge to do
anything with it, so it’s useless. And we write them off as a fool, a
hothead, and think they’re unteachable. And to that I say this: It’s
time for us to start taking a chance and stop making excuses to not
help.
We complain that there’s no unity or organization in our movement but we
are our own problem. It’s not the brothers’ fault that don’t know any
better, it’s our fault for not teaching them. It’s time for us to start
taking responsibility and stop making excuses for why we didn’t, and
start making a plan for how we can.
This is a call to all my fellow comrades to step up and stop standing
down. Stop setting limitations. Oldheads help the young, Blood help the
Crip, Black man help the white. Our fight is not each other, it’s those
who oppose this movement. So stop focusing on the frivolous things that
weaken our strength and let’s truly stand on what we claim to stand for.
Then and only then will we ever have a chance.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We print this call as an antidote to all those
who write to us complaining about the lack of unity in their prison
without stepping up to do anything about it. We know the battle is
uphill; the capitalists have all the power and they create a culture
that discourages unity and supports violence and strife. But it is our
duty as revolutionaries to create opportunities to build unity. The
reporting in Under Lock & Key demonstrates that the
imprisoned lumpen are united by their common material conditions, even
though individuals are at different stages in terms of how they respond
to those conditions. It is logical to begin by uniting those who will
listen, but we mustn’t stop there if we hope to reach the true potential
of unity among the oppressed. Work with the
United Front
for Peace in Prisons to develop strategies to reach the majority of
prisoners and build this on a scale broad enough that we can eventually
take down the criminal injustice system as a whole.
I was recently convicted of a major category offense:
participating/encouraging others in a work stoppage/group demonstration.
My confinement in segregation for 30 days and a loss of 30 days good
time was based on a finding that I encouraged a “stoppage of buying
commissary.”
It is not against the rules to refuse to buy commissary, but I was
convicted of encouraging people to not buy commissary. In other words I
was convicted of encouraging prisoners to do something that is permitted
by the rules.
In the past three years I’ve been convicted of only one other charge,
also a major category offense. I was convicted for refusing to pay
$21.50 to obtain a copy of my birth certificate.
The pigs wanted a copy of my birth certificate to put in a file. I was
told I could neither see the birth certificate nor have a copy of it. I
told the pigs I would give them permission to get a copy at their
expense since it was for their files. The pigs refused and demanded I
sign a paper granting them permission to take $21.50 from my account. I
refused and I was convicted of refusing to comply with programming.
The connection to these two offenses and convictions is the only subject
dear to the soul of a kkkapitalist: profit. $21.50 for a photocopy of a
sheet of paper is a hefty profit when multiplied by 30,000 prisoners.
And multi-million-dollar commissary sales at hugely inflated prices are
orgasmic to these pigs. Destroying the swine is the only option.
Soldiers, the only course is to replace the thug and the U.$.
go-vermin-ent with an authentic proletarian state. The united snakes
kongress and injustice system is kkkorrupted beyond salvation because of
imperialist ideals. Like cancer, imperialism has caused every limb and
fiber to rot. The truth of kkkapitalist greed is found even in the tiny
crevices.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We are seeing
growing
activism in Virginia prisons this year, which is no doubt leading
them to invent these new “offenses” and charge perceived leaders with
them. While we agree with this comrade that the prisons are eager to
extort money from prisoners whenever possible, there isn’t any profit
coming directly from prisons themselves. The
U.$.
prison economy is a money-losing operation, subsidized by profits
exploited from the international proletariat. Any money taken from
prisoners just helps to offset this loss. This point is important
because it underscores the true purpose of the Amerikan prison system:
social control.
Texas prisons are notoriously rough and primitive. Some inmates work in
TCI (Texas Correctional Industries) sweatshops making products like
t-shirts, shorts and detergent. We work for free and then the state
sells us these products at a high cost through the prison commissary.
Nonviolent prisoners earn good time and work time which is often not
honored. We’re caged in hot boxes with no air conditioning, and
prisoners die each summer as a result. In addition to the
new limits
on correspondence, last September marriage by proxy was eliminated.
Inmates can no longer marry their loved ones on the outside, meaning
they can’t get contact visits with them, or their own children. The list
goes on and on.
The term divide and conquer still holds true today. TDCJ is glad the
majority of us are fighting amongst ourselves, and are more consumed
with television, radio and gossiping, than unity and change. Texas
prisoners, do you like working for free? Do you like being a model
inmate who’s changed, but gets their parole denied year after year? Do
you enjoy living in a negative repressive environment? If you don’t,
then let’s drop the racial and gang nonsense. Let’s quit worshipping the
TV, our radios and commissary. Let’s bring Texas prisons out of the dark
ages and into the twenty-first century. Make sacrifices for the great
good of all prisoners and our families. Oppressors only have control
over their captors as long as the oppressed allow them to.
Each year the big wigs running Texas prisons decide on what to take from
the prisoners next. This year it involves indigent mail and stationary
sent in from the outside. Prisoners who have no money on their trust
fund account are able to receive supplies (paper, pen, envelopes) and
send out letters through the indigent mail. Before this March prisoners
could send out five letters a week, now it’s just five letters a month.
Going from twenty to just five letters a month shows how indifferent and
uncaring towards our family members and friends the prison
administration really is. What’s worse is that we’re charged for
indigent mail services. Whenever we get money on our account, the cost
for every letter mailed and each supply is deducted.
Prior to this March our friends and family could have stationary from an
outside store sent to us. This was eliminated, and now our only option
is purchasing stationary from commissary, and paying their prices. Like
any oppressor, TDCJ enjoys coming up with new ideas and ways to make
life more difficult for their captors. There’s strength in numbers. The
more of us who write grievances, send letters to state politicians, and
get the word out to our family and friends, the better chance we have of
telling our oppressors that we’re not going to take this lying down.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade is right on about the strength in
numbers. We have a number of prisoners across the state working on this
campaign to end the restrictions on correspondence in Texas, and we’ve
come up with a few
key
steps for prisoners and supporters to take.
Some jailhouse lawyers have created guides to fighting this injustice as
well as a broader
grievance
guide for Texas, and we are seeing an influx of prisoners requesting
these resources. We look forward to the results of this growing activism
in this state with the largest prison population and one of the highest
incarceration rates in the country.
On 27 March 2014, a Federal judge in the United States District Court
issued an order requiring prison staff to record any use of force,
should force be required on a prisoner.
Some other prisoners and I filed a lawsuit because the pigs at Central
Prison in Raleigh used blind spots in the current video system to hide
from surveillance so they could beat prisoners. We also informed the
courts of the “lack of policy for proper method of investigation in any
use-of-force incidents.”
As a result, Judge Terrance Boyle appointed an expert (former
corrections administrator Eldon Vail) to review the prison’s
surveillance system. Based on several problems he found, he made five
recommendations.
North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) prisons adopted four
of the recommendations but said using a hand-held video camera is not
feasible and placed “undue burden upon Central Prison.” However, on
Thursday, 27 March 2014 Judge Boyle ordered the fifth recommendation be
adopted. His order stated “…defendants are placed on notice that if
there is not voluntary compliance and implementation of the
recommendation, a preliminary injunction will ensue.”
The pigs deny any abuse, saying they used minimal amounts of force
required to deal with prisoners characterized as the “worst of the
worst” among the prison system’s population.
Still the state agreed last year to install more security cameras to
cover previously unmonitored areas. But Vail’s report said the new
cameras still don’t monitor all the blind spots where prisoners say the
abuse occurs. Vail also reported finding lenses so out-of-focus and
smudged with grime that it was difficult to make out what the camera was
recording.
The recommendations made by Vail that must be followed are:
Adjust each camera that demonstrates a pattern of “freezing” to improve
motion detection sensitivity.
Establish a written preventive maintenance schedule for lens cleaning,
camera refocusing and replacement of faulty cameras.
Install additional cameras to view the sally ports of each cell block in
Unit 1.
Modify the video surveillance retention policy and procedure to clarify
the responsibility to provide notice to the video retention officer to
preserve a video by the unit supervisor from the investigator’s
responsibility to request a copy of the video for the investigation.
Change the use of force policy, SOP 4.100, to require that a handheld
video camera operator respond to the scene of spontaneous use-of-force
incidents and that a camera remain on until the event is over and
[prisoner] has been safely placed in a cell.
This fifth recommendation means that during an anticipated use-of-force
(any use-of-force) a hand-held camera will be used until a prisoner is
no longer in contact with the pigs.
We are now getting ready for a pretrial conference. But we are one step
closer to getting justice. We have at least made the prison safer. Now
the pigs will not have anywhere to hide.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This update to the
ongoing
legal battle in North Carolina is good news for this carefully
planned and hard fought legal battle. We know that often we cannot win
when fighting abuse by employees of the criminal injustice system in
their own courts. But sometimes the courts have to pretend objectivity
and, when presented with facts that show the NCDPS is violating their
own laws and policies, we can win some improvements to conditions. While
the courts won’t be where we make revolutionary change, for now we can
use them as one tool to struggle against abuse. We must always accompany
these court battles with publicity and education about the case, using
them to expose both the brutality we are fighting and the injustice when
the courts rule against us.
Comrades here at Special Management Unit (SMU - long-term isolation) are
doing what they can to protest and fight against the illegal housing
that they are being subjected to. Prisoners here are going on hunger
strikes and are suffering due to the lack of outside support. Further,
the DOC has taken actions to keep outside inquiries from being made
public and the news media is refusing to expose the inhumane treatment
of prisoners in Georgia’s SMU unit.
Prisoners are being transferred to SMU for refusing to participate in
the so-called tier step down programs they’ve started in Georgia. The
DOC is trying to force lumpen groups to be housed two men in a 24-hour
lockdown cell, thus placing prisoners in physical jeopardy, in order to
start a war. Just another attempt to enact the Willie Lynch mentality
amongst these prisoners. Before, the prisoners enacted peace and
brotherhood policies amongst and between the lumpen groups, and there
was no tier step down program. So this program is to create strife
amongst the brotherhood by building enough stress and confusion to
destroy peace that prisoners worked hard to establish.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We have received a lot of
reports
about the hunger strike in Georgia, and the struggles against
SMU
classification. The unity and awareness being built in Georgia
prisons is definitely frightening the prison administrators. This is an
important lesson for organizers: when we build for peace among the
lumpen organizations our enemies will take this as a call to war. The
United Front
for Peace in Prisons is bringing together organizations and
individuals in this important battle. Get involved today in building
peace in your prison.
While capitalism advances technology and produces consumables at high
rates, most people lack decent health care April 1 - The deadline
for enrollment in health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
passed last night, and there are now 4.4 million people in the United
$tates newly enrolled in Medicaid health insurance plans sponsored by
the federal government, and another 8 million people newly enrolled in
government-regulated private insurance plans.(1) Those who do not enroll
in any insurance and are not covered by a plan through their family,
work or school will face fines. For people with incomes less than 400%
of the federal “poverty line,” the plans are subsidized by the
government, and those with less than 138% of this cut off will receive
free health care via Medicaid. In the end, for at least the lumpen class
the penalty will actually cost them more than having health insurance
would cost.
This new healthcare system in the United $tates, often called
“Obamacare,” is far from socialist, but it does serve as a good reminder
of the failures of capitalism to care for some of the basic needs of
imperialist country citizens. The United $tates has had government-run
healthcare for military service people and their families since the
1800s, and for the relatively poor, disabled and elderly since the 1960s
with the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. But these programs serve a
minority of Amerikans, leaving the rest to seek health care through
insurance provided by their work or through privately purchased plans or
by paying directly for services. This means that people out of work or
in jobs that don’t provide insurance coverage are often left without any
health insurance. The ACA attempts to address this problem by providing
a government-run program to help insure citizens without coverage.
We’re not going to take on the critics who say that health care quality
would go down if run by the Amerikan government. These same people would
abolish free universal education, privatize water distribution, and
eliminate the fire department. This is a debate between different
factions of the bourgeoisie, and not worth the time of communists,
except to point out that we have fundamentally different values. We have
no need to defend the ability of a capitalist government to run these
programs well because we don’t support capitalist governments. And we
know that the profit motive does not make for greater “efficiency”, as
capitalists like to claim. We see this clearly in the United $tates
where food is dumped rather than distributed to people going hungry, and
the tremendous waste of money on advertising rather than meeting basic
needs.
Communists think about health care the same way we think about
education, food, clean water and other basic necessities. These are
things we seek to provide to all people indiscriminately. We prioritize
basic humyn needs over luxury items like boats, fancy cars, big houses,
TVs, etc. Capitalism, on the other hand, functions on the concept that
profitable luxury items are a priority over basic humyn needs. While in
a matter of years capitalism has gotten hand-held computers into the
hands of anyone with a little disposable income, the decades-long
struggle against easily preventable diseases in the Third World
continues. Millions of children under five years old die each year in
southern Asia and Africa south of the Sahara as a result. We believe
that the Affordable Care Act should offer these people free health care
services as well. While the ACA has proven once again that small reforms
in capitalism can be achieved when they serve the interests of
imperialist country citizens, capitalism will never allow reforms to
improve the lot of the rest of the world. In fact, even within U.$.
borders non-citizens are not eligible for insurance under the ACA. Those
most in need, working the hardest and most dangerous jobs for the least
money, are still denied basic health care.
While it’s easy for Amerikans to ignore what goes on outside of their
borders, it should be an embarrassment for Amerikan imperialism that the
individualism of its citizens is so strong that until now they had
refused health care to even their own relatively well-off citizens. Even
now, many across the country continue to fight and resist this new law.
Prior to the Affordable Care Act, Amerikans who wanted to buy health
insurance on their own were often rejected by the health plans for
“pre-existing conditions.” This means the health plans were picking only
the healthiest individuals for insurance, leaving those with even minor
history of health problems with no recourse because most insurance plans
in the United $tates are privately run for a profit. Now most insurance
in this country is still run for profit, but the federal and state
governments provide minimum standards of care that must be provided with
every policy, and sell these approved insurance plans on a marketplace,
in hopes that the market competition inherent in capitalism will
increase quality and transparency while reducing cost.
Abolishing the profit motive behind health care will be a priority for
communists when we take control of a government. We want to make
preventive care and treatment available to all people. The new ACA law
in the United $tates does not eliminate private insurance or remove the
profit from health care, and it’s a fundamentally timid step towards
universal coverage for Amerikans. But it does enable people to get
health insurance regardless of income or health status. For Amerikan
citizens this is progress. And for most it is part of the ongoing
bribery of these citizens by the imperialists, ensuring their allegiance
to the imperialist system. However, a large number of the uninsured in
the United $tates come from the oppressed nation lumpen class, and the
ACA is a positive step for the survival and healthy living of this group
which has a relatively high material interest in revolution.(3) Overall
we see the ACA as a progressive step towards universal health care for
everyone in the world, if only because it demonstrates the concept of
health care as a basic right.
We will continue to fight for health care for the world’s exploited and
oppressed, who are mostly found in the Third World, where even basic
medical services are difficult to obtain. 801,000 children under age 5
die from diarrhea each year, most of which are caused by lack of access
to clean water and sanitation. More than 3 million people die from
vaccine-preventable diseases each year. 86% of deaths among children
under age 5 are preventable and due to communicable, treatable disease,
birth issues and lack of nutrition. These abysmal numbers would cost
very little to rectify. Truly universal health care is a priority for
communists, and the statistics above are just a few reasons why the
overthrow of capitalism is literally a life or death issue for the
majority of the world’s people.
In approximately 1.5 years, between 2 February 2012 and 1 December 2013,
there were 50 reported cases of censorship of material sent by MIM
Distributors in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). The
censored material included copies of MIM Theory and Under
Lock & Key, along with informational zines and personal
letters.
Out of those 50 reported cases a staggering 78% (39) of them were
censored with no reason being given as to why they had been censored.
This is typical of the IDOC.
If they do not like a given topic they will ban it without giving any
reason why. This is a continuing violation of prisoners’ constitutional
rights. The only way to combat this injustice is by filing grievances
and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil suits.
Resist! Rebel! Defy!
MIM(Prisons) adds: Many facilities in Illinois have enacted total
bans on our mail. Get involved in the
campaign to
fight censorship in Illinois. We need legal help both behind bars
from our jailhouse lawyers and from lawyers on the streets.