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.
Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are
experiencing issues with the grievance procedure. Send them extra copies
to share! For more info on this campaign, click
here.
Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the
addresses below. Supporters should send letters of support on behalf of
prisoners.
U.S. Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division Special Litigation
Section 950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, PHB Washington DC 20530
Office of Inspector General HOTLINE PO Box 9778 Arlington, VA
22219
And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
I write in solidarity with those involved with the censorship campaign.
Power to those who down to struggle, and up to win. Today while on the
kennel cage rec yard I was approached by a California State Prison
Corcoran (CSPC) employee representing a flawed mail room, carrying an
envelope addressed to the young cadre sent from MIM Distributors
containing MIM Theory 7 in one hand and a CDCR 602 appeal in
the other.
After months of going back and forth between the Appeal Coordinator and
the mail room, utilizing a combination of the institutional informal
correspondence system and the appeals procedures, CSPC finally figured
out that I was building a paper trail capable of exposing their mail
censorship practices against those they deem paper-terrorists.
The staff gave me the MT 7 journal, after previously saying
that the journal was a violation against California Correctional
Regulations for supposedly inciting riots and so on. They instructed me
to either withdraw the complaint or settle it if I wanted the MT
7. Of course I settled it to preserve the right of the appeal for
the breach of settlement agreement. Because of their COINTEL B.$.
they’ve delayed my study group participation, and I’ve got a lot to do
to catch up. But with hard work comes hard results.
Comrades should note that this incident of CSPC issuing me MIM
Theory 7: Revolutionary Nationalism is proof that not only are they
profiling MIM Distributors with bogus censorships claiming safety and
security, but also their claims hold no weight in the people’s court.
Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are
experiencing issues with the grievance procedure. Send them extra copies
to share! For more info on this campaign, click
here.
Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the
addresses below. Supporters should send letters of support on behalf of
prisoners.
ACLU of Montana PO Box 1317 Helena MT 59624
U.S. Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division Special Litigation
Section 950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, PHB Washington DC 20530
Office of Inspector General HOTLINE PO Box 9778 Arlington, VA
22219
And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
Upon deep review/research, I’ve been completely unable to find any
Oregon Law (ORS) to justify and allow the prisons in this state to
charge prisoners fines. There is no law allowing it. But there is a law
saying only a judge can change/impose fines of any kind. “The Oregon
Property Protection Act of 2000” prohibits the forfeitures of property
and funds, without a criminal conviction involving that property:
article 15 section 10(2)(b), section(3), section 10(7)(b) of the Oregon
constitution. Also, “the property of a person should not be forfeited in
a forfeiture proceeding by the government unless and until that person
is convicted of a crime involving that property.”(10)(3) The Oregon
Department of Corrections (ODOC) is a political subdivision of the
state.
Well, ODOC has taken it upon themselves to impose fines of hundreds of
dollars and automatically withdraw the money from an inmates account.
Normally, to withdraw money from our account we need to sign/and
authorize them to do it by signing a CD28 giving permission. So what
they are doing amounts to theft! And is part of their money making
racketeering illegal bullshit. Yet they’ll never get charged with
racketeering because it’s okay when pigs break the laws.
Also, there is a new tool the imperial swine have up here for ensuring
their prison population grows. It’s called Measure 57. In the past 10
years the female prison population has grown by 86% because of the
lengthening of prison sentences for drug offenses and property crimes.
And this measure will more than likely affect females more than men.
(Source: Justice Matters Spring 2012 issue)
The grievance process is a joke here. I’ve filled my allotted six a
month every month on every single rule violation that happens and none
of them have gotten anything other than “we find no evidence in your
claim.”
MIM(Prisons) responds: We commend this comrade for researching
how the Oregon prisons are violating the State’s own laws. It’s
important that we fight these battles because there are so many laws
allowing oppression, those few that we can use to defend the rights of
the oppressed must be publicized. It is very common for the pigs to
ignore the law, and it’s true that they are rarely punished for this.
But we can use these laws to our advantage. The grievance process is
just a start. The campaign to
demand our
grievances be addressed is another tactic in this fight. We have
petitions for many states that can be used to fight against the
systematic denial of grievances by building support among the prisoner
masses. Write to MIM(Prisons) for a copy of the one for your state, or
if we don’t have one help us customize the petition to your state. Legal
research and writing like this comrade is doing is essential to our
struggle against the imperialist system as a whole.
Many people are caught up in the line that millions are enslaved in
this country, and that the main motivating factor behind the prison boom
of recent decades is to put prisoners to work to make money for
corporations or the government. MIM(Prisons) has clearly shown that
U.S.
prisons are not primarily (or even significantly) used to exploit
labor, and that they are a great cost financially to the
imperialists, not a source of profit.(1)
“Indeed, at peak use around 2002, fewer than 5,000 inmates were employed
by private firms, amounting to one-quarter of one per cent of the
carceral population. As for the roughly 8% of convicts who toil for
state and federal industries under lock, they are ‘employed’ at a loss
to correctional authorities in spite of massive subsidies, guaranteed
sales to a captive market of public administrations, and exceedingly low
wages (averaging well under a dollar an hour).”(2)
Instead, we argue that there is a system of population control
(including all the elements of the international definition of genocide)
that utilizes methods of torture on mostly New Afrikan and Latino men,
with a hugely disproportionate representation of First Nation men as
well, across this country on a daily basis. As the new prison movement
grows and gains attention in the mainstream, it is of utmost importance
that we maintain the focus on this truth and not let the white
nationalists define what is ultimately a struggle of the oppressed
nations.
To analyze why the term “prison industrial complex” (“PIC”) is
inaccurate and misleading, let’s look at some common slogans of the
social democrats, who dominate the white nationalist left. First let’s
address the slogan “Welfare not Warfare.” This slogan is a false
dichotomy, where the sloganeer lacks an understanding of imperialism and
militarism.
It is no coincidence that the biggest “welfare states” in the world
today are imperialist countries. Imperialism brings home more profits by
going to war to steal resources, discipline labor, and force economic
policies and business contracts on other nations. And militarism is the
cultural and political product of that fact. The “military industrial
complex” was created when private industry teamed up with the U.$.
government to meet their mutual interests as imperialists. Industry got
the contracts from the government, with guaranteed profits built in, and
the government got the weapons they needed to keep money flowing into
the United $tates by oppressing other nations. This concentration of
wealth produces the high wages and advanced infrastructure that the
Amerikan people benefit from, not to mention the tax money that is made
available for welfare programs. So it is ignorant for activists to claim
that they are being impoverished by the imperialists’ wars as is implied
by the false dichotomy of welfare vs. warfare.
Another slogan of the social democrats which speaks to why they are so
eager to condemn the “PIC” is “Schools not Jails.” This slogan
highlights that there is only so much tax money in a state available to
fund either schools, jails, or something else. There is a limited amount
of money because extracting more taxes would increase class conflict
between the state and the labor aristocracy. This battle is real, and it
is a battle between different public service unions of the labor
aristocracy. The “Schools not Jails” slogan is the rallying cry of one
side of that battle among the labor aristocrats.
Unlike militarism, there is not an imperialist profit interest behind
favoring jails over schools. This is precisely why the concept of a
“PIC” is a fantasy. While the U.$. economy would likely collapse without
the spending that goes into weapons-related industries, Loïc Wacquant
points out that the soft drink industry in the United $tates is almost
twice as big as prison industries, and prison industries are a mere 0.5%
of the gross domestic product.(2) Compared to the military industrial
complex, which is 10% of U.$. GDP, the prison system is obviously not a
“complex” combining state and private interests that cannot be
dismantled without dire consequences to imperialism.(3) And of course,
even those pushing the “PIC” line must admit that over 95% of prisons in
this country are publicly owned and run.(4)
Federal agencies using the prison system to control social elements that
they see as a threat to imperialism is the motivating factor for the
injustice system, not an imperialist drive for profits. Yet the system
is largely decentralized and built on the
interests
of the majority of Amerikans at the local level, and not just the
labor unions and small businesses that benefit directly from spending on
prisons. We would likely not have the imprisonment rates that we have
today without pressure from the so-called “middle class.”
Some in the white nationalist left at times appears to dissent from
other Amerikans on the need for more prisons and more cops. At the root
of both sides’ line is the belief that the majority of Amerikans are
exploited by the system, while the greedy corporations benefit. With
this line, it is easy to accept that prisons are about profit, just like
everything else, and the prison boom can be blamed on the corporations’
greed.
In reality the prison boom is directly related to the demands of the
Amerikan people for “tough on crime” politicians. Amerikans have forced
the criminal injustice system to become the tool of white hysteria. The
imperialists have made great strides in integrating the internal
semi-colonies financially, yet the white nation demands that these
populations be controlled and excluded from their national heritage.
There are many examples of the government trying to shut down prisons
and other cost-saving measures that would have shrunk the prison system,
where labor unions fought them tooth and nail.(1) It is this continued
legacy of national oppression, exposed in great detail in the book
The
New Jim Crow, that is covered up by the term “Prison Industrial
Complex.” The cover-up continues no matter how much these
pseudo-Marxists lament the great injustices suffered by Black and Brown
people at the hands of the “PIC.”
This unfortunate term has been popularized in the Amerikan left by a
number of pseudo-Marxist theorists who are behind some of the popular
prison activist groups on the outside. By explicitly rejecting this
term, we are drawing a clear line between us and the organizations these
activists are behind, many of whom we’ve worked with in one way or
another. For the most part, the organizations themselves do not claim
any Marxist influence or even a particular class analysis, but the
leaders of these groups are very aware of where they disagree with MIM
Thought. It is important that the masses are aware of this disagreement
as well.
It is for these reasons that MIM(Prisons) passed the following policy at
our 2012 congress:
The term “Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)” will not generally be used in
Under Lock & Key because the term conflicts with
MIM(Prisons)’s line on the economic and national make up of the U.$.
prison system. It will only be printed in a context where the meaning of
the term is stated by the author, and either criticized by them or by
us.
I received the questions on reformatting the petitions. In my opinion,
yes, this should be applied to MIM (Prisons)’s already-written
grievance
petition. I say this because in my response to the grievance
petition I submitted to the NC Director of Division of Prisons, it was
mentioned that I had no specific complaint on why I filed the petition -
in which I resubmitted the petition and attached my complaint. This
helped change the grievance system at Foothills, where I was previously
housed at.
Also I noted a problem that would be difficult to resolve. In the
response to my petition, which I have sent to MIM(Prisons), they listed
all the grievances I had filed while on that unit at Foothills. The
grievances which were thrown away or didn’t get turned in to unit
managers weren’t listed. So it was difficult to prove I ever turned it
in without reviewing the cameras. It was still difficult to prove that
the papers I turned in were truly grievances.
This problem we had at Foothills changed how grievances were processed.
Now it has to be signed by the receiving officer in front of you and
your copy is returned right there. Also this “new” petition only regards
appeals and not actual grievance forms - which is the main problem. We
wouldn’t have to appeal if the regular grievance process was fixed.
Miércoles 9 de mayo del 2012, Youngstown, OH. El pasado lunes 7 de mayo,
después de largas negociaciones con el administrador carcelero David
Bobby, llegó a su fin la huelga de hambre de los prisioneros recluidos
en la Penitenciaría Estatal de Ohio. Dos de los hombres se mantuvieron
en huelga hasta el día Martes debido a su insatisfacción con los
términos del acuerdo. Luego de una reunión adicional con el director
carcelero, los dos últimos huelguistas acordaron también terminar la
protesta. El director Bobby reportó que “para la hora del almuerzo del
día de hoy, todos estaban comiendo.” Esto fue confirmado por dos fuentes
independientes de prisioneros.
En este momento los detalles del acuerdo son poco claros, pero algunas
fuentes dicen que los huelguistas están satisfechos y creen haber
alcanzado resultados positivos. Una fuente describió las demandas y la
respuesta del director como “razonables.” Sin entrar en detalles, las
peticiones principales hacían referencia al costo de productos en la
tienda del penal, al monto de remuneración laboral a los presos, a los
costos de telefonía, al tiempo de estadía y a las duras penalidades por
violaciones insignificantes a las reglas. El director afirmó que había
discutido “muchos asuntos” en la reunión del día lunes con
representantes de los huelguistas, “muchas cosas más allá de las
demandas principales,” pero que no revelaría ningún detalle.
Los huelguistas están descansando y recuperándose, pero han enviado por
correo información detallada a quienes desde afuera les han apoyado,
como es el caso de Redbird Prison Abolition (Abolición de la Prisión el
Pájaro Rojo) - información que será revelada al público tan pronto como
sea posible. El director admitió que uno de los huelguistas fue
transferido a segregación administrativa por violaciones a las reglas
institucionales no relacionadas con la huelga, pero agregó que no habrá
retalación o castigo alguno a quienes participaron en la huelga de
hambre. Una de las fuentes de prisioneros está de acuerdo con esa
declaración.
La huelga de hambre comenzó el 30 de abril y fue programada para
coincidir con protestas del Día de Mayo en las afueras de la prisión.
MIM(Prisiones) añade: Esta huelga de hambre demandó numerosas
reformas a las condiciones de vida en la prisión. Al igual que otras
huelgas de hambre en otros estados como California, la administración de
la prisión hizo promesas para conseguir que los detenidos terminasen la
huelga. Por lo menos un prisionero continuó la huelga de hambre el 4 de
junio luego de que el director carcelero fallase en implementar sus
promesas.(1)
Las huelgas de hambre se están convirtiendo en una táctica popular cada
vez más frecuente en la lucha contra el sistema de injusticia criminal.
Los detenidos son forzados a asumir una posición donde hay muy poco que
ellos puedan hacer para luchar por sus derechos. El sistema legal se
rehusa a responder, los formularios de quejas son ignorados o
destruidos, y en las calles hay más apoyo por la política de “dureza
contra el crimen,” que por los derechos de los prisioneros. Es así como
los prisioneros sienten que su única elección es el colocar sus vidas en
riesgo al rehusarse a comer.
MIM(Prisiones) apoya los comienzos de la organización y lucha contra el
sistema de injusticia criminal. Urgimos a los prisioneros activistas a
tomar con seriedad la necesidad de estudio y organización antes de tomar
acción. No todos serán comunistas, pero todos podemos avanzar nuestra
teoría y práctica a través del estudio y la discusión. Necesitamos
teoría organizacional para hacer mejor uso de la unidad y de la acción.
Aquellos que están listos para unirse contra el sistema de injusticia
deben estudiar la Declaración de principios del frente unido de paz.
Discutan con nosotros si usted está en desacuerdo con alguno de los
principios, pero si está de acuerdo, únanse a los prisioneros a lo largo
del país para construir nuestra unidad y nuestra lucha.
In prison one comes face to face with the harshest reality. A prisoner
is at the mercy of his captors. Once confined the breaking process
begins with the strip search – the intrusive search and viewing of one’s
body parts by complete strangers - over and over again. To refuse brings
one response: assault and abuse. Physical assault at the hands of the
prison guards (pigs) becomes a regular ritual.
The pigs will feed you a bag lunch consisting of bologna and cheese,
three times a day, seven days a week, or a loaf and raw cabbage. The
“Nutra Loaf” supposedly has all the nourishment a body needs baked into
a loaf of bread.
The pigs will delay or destroy incoming and outgoing mail. There are men
and women who go months without hearing from family and friends, as the
pigs want you to believe no one loves you. Visits and phone privileges
are denied as a form of disciplinary measure, for years at a time.
Then prisoners are placed in solitary confinement, in control units
given various names: SHU, SMU, etc. In these units prisoners are locked
down in the cells 23 hours a day. This is even done to pretrial
detainees not yet convicted of crimes who in fact may be innocent. In
the summer, heat is pushed through the vents, and in winter ice cold air
is pushed in. Men are kept in ambulatory restraints (handcuffed, with
waist chain and black-box, and shackles) or “four pointed” (handcuffed
and shackled to a bed or restraint chair) for days at a time.
There are “cell extractions” where prison staff (pigs) suit-up in riot
gear in five-man teams (allegedly a man for each body extremity). These
five men enter a cell of one man, and beat him or her senseless,
breaking arms, teeth, head, legs, ribs, etc. These are carefully crafted
beatings with the words “stop resisting” yelled over and over for the
camera operator who stands outside the cell, pointing the camera at the
backs of the pigs in riot gear. The prisoners are then either “four
pointed” or placed in ambulatory restraints. “Non-lethal” munitions are
used, which are the chemical agents. They gas you until you choke; many
have died this way. They throw concussion grenades into the small
confines of the cell, which is a grenade that contains black balls. Or
they shoot rubber balls into the cell at a range of five feet and less.
Many have been maimed. These attacks are justified by reports concocted
and written by staff to cover their ass. In fact, United States
Penitentiary Lewisburg (USP Lewisburg), where the newly formulated
Special Management Unit is instituted, has more cell extractions and men
placed in restraints than any facility in the federal Bureau of Prisons,
including ADX which supposedly confines the most dangerous prisoners in
the country.
These abuses in American prisons are real and it’s all designed to
de-humanize the prisoners and destroy their sense of self-worth,
self-respect, dignity and morals.
Often I ask young pigs “is there a difference between a man and an
inmate?” The majority say yes, but when I ask the difference they cannot
explain it. Others have come back later and said no, but their initial
response is a “learned one.” For example, new staff (pigs) are taught at
training facilities (at Glencoe for federal officers, local places for
state officials) to not eat prisoners’ food, and to not drink prisoners’
water. They are indoctrinated psychologically to view prisoners as
sub-human, a separate species, in the same manner as the U.S.
Constitution counted Black people as three-fifths human. In the year
2011, USP Lewisburg had on display in the institution toy figurines: a
gorilla complete with orange pants, a broken handcuff attached to one
wrist, and a toy white man in the costume of superman. This is how they
view themselves and us.
But I will not delve too deeply into the racist mentality inside
America’s prisons; that is a well-known and accepted fact. There are
many tortures perpetuated in America’s prisons, from those stated above
to sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, to brutality and killings.
These acts are well known and rarely is anything done.
Instead, the judicial system turns the proverbial blind eye. There are
over a thousand cited juridical cases of prisoner lawsuits dismissed as
frivolous, or on some contrived technicality, e.g. failure to exhaust
administrative remedies/the institutional grievance process, even when
that “grievance process” affords no capacity for redress. See Prison
Litigation Reform Act, 42 USC 1997; 28 USC 1915(g), Woodford v. Ngo, 126
S. Ct. 2378 (2006), Booth v Churner, 532 U.S. 731 (2001).
In federal civil rights cases, the U.S. Attorney (and Department of
Justice) for the district where the prison is located “represents” the
prison staff at the tax payers’ expense. In state 42 U.S.C. §1983 civil
rights cases it is the state attorney general who represents prison
staff, again at tax payer expense. Prisoners are rarely given an
attorney to prosecute their civil actions.
Emboldened by success at having prisoner lawsuits dismissed, prison
staff have become more abusive and more blatant. This abuse and torture
has had the desired effect, and many prisoners stop reporting staff
abuse and just accept it. Thus happens the moral decay of the prison
population. Men and women who were social pariahs, when free, for
economic reasons, become scavengers, who lack morals, integrity and
principles. Human beings are confined and allow the conditions of that
confinement to make them into predatory beasts. Whether you are
incarcerated for murder, robbery, drug dealing, extortion, or burglary,
these crimes have a rational basis, often poverty-bred crime.
In America’s prisons, what morals and integrity are left in the prisoner
are slowly eroded away. Those who never used alcohol become drunks on
prison-made wine and white lightening; those who never used drugs become
heroin addicts with self-made needles; psychotropic medication-babies;
gunners-flashing and masturbating in front of prison staff; men raping
weaker men.
Prisoners are not doing time, the time is doing them. Mentally,
prisoners are being dumbed down. It used to be when the youth entered
prison they received a book from elder prisoners and a knife from their
comrades for protection from the other prisoners and the pigs. Now the
youth sit in front of the idiot box (TV) tuned in to BET and MTV.
The majority of prisoners pled guilty and got more time than they
deserved, yet few ever even look inside the law library; they cannot
read or write, yet do not go to school. They simply play the yard all
day, until they find themselves in the SHU for a stabbing over being
drunk, fighting over a “punk” or some minor offense perceived as
disrespect.
Prisoners have lost the identity of who their enemy is and is not. Do
other prisoners lock you in at night, deny you visits and phone calls,
throw your mail in the garbage, tell you to strip naked, squat, cough
and spread ’em?
All these groups, formed for this fight against “oppression” or claiming
to be pushing an agenda of growth and development, and representing
truth, justice, etc., are only oppressing themselves. On every yard in
the country more Bloods stab Bloods, Crips stab Crips, GD stab GD, Vice
Lords stab Vice Lords, LK stab LK, Norteños stab Norteños, Southside
stab Southside, and the pigs lock us all down at the end of the night.
Where is the comradeship amongst yourselves in particular, and prisoners
in general? Where are the George Jacksons of today, Geronimo Pratts,
Huey P. Newtons, Albizu Campos, Lolita Lebrons of today? How can you be
a man or a “G” and sit confined every day without ever trying to
liberate yourself? Is that gangsta, to sit idle chasing dope for the
rest of your years in the womb of oppression?
I commend and salute the brothers and soldiers of Georgia State Prisons
that in 2010 had a six-facility work stoppage to protest deplorable
prison conditions. Every year, there should be a whole month where
prisons across America simply refuse work; working for under a dollar
for your captors is a crime against yourself. Every time a prisoner is
beaten, collectively, without discussion or plan, everyone should simply
refuse to work.
In all prisons, and the federal system in particular, there needs to be
a moratorium on prisoner-on-prisoner assaults. This needs to go on with
each “gang” and I say “gang” because you do not act like freedom
fighters, revolutionaries or movements.
“No people to whom liberty is given can hold it as firmly, and wear it
as grandly as those who wrench their liberty from the iron hand of the
tyrant.” - Frederick Douglas
MIM(Prisons) responds: In June of 2010 we had someone write to us
about the
degrading
conditions in Georgia prisons, while lamenting how sorry and
submissive the prisoners in Georgia were. Six months later thousands of
prisoners in at least 6 prisons launched a coordinated strike just as
the comrade above describes. Eighteen months after that, a
hunger
strike is approaching the one month mark after expanding to multiple
GA prisons as well. So, while everything about the breaking process this
comrade describes above is true, its hold is not permanent on the minds
of the oppressed.
It is already traditional that the month of August be used to honor
those who came before us, and
SAMAEL
has answered this comrade’s call for a countrywide fast and work
stoppage on September 9, though only for 24 hours. We encourage
comrades to use the month of August to do education work around the
history of the prison movement. Get in touch with MIM(Prisons) if you
need additional study materials. We hope this comrade will follow
through on his own suggestions and organize where he is at for a day of
solidarity with others in the United Front for Peace in Prisons on
September 9.
This past year MIM(Prisons) was fortunate enough to be working with a
volunteer with legal expertise on our anti-censorship campaign. This
volunteer’s insight and knowledge helped us send in many more letters to
administrators, and with more depth and research than ever before. But
sending out more complaints to prison officials means we are getting
back a comparable amount of bullshit responses from them. Through this
process we’ve learned just how important it is to be selective with who
we write letters on, because sending one form letter protesting a single
censorship incident easily escalates into a major research project.
One of the most common bullshit responses we receive from prison
administrators is that whatever article of mail we sent was “never
received via USPS.” Unfortunately in these cases, the only option we
have is to resend the item via Certified Mail or with Delivery
Confirmation. At least this way the mailroom staff can’t just throw the
mail in the trash. But we won’t know if your mail actually made it into
your hands unless you tell us you got it.
Each July we report how much mail is unreported as received or censored
for the past year. Consistently for the past few years, about 75% of the
mail is unconfirmed at the time of the report. Gradually, as more people
tell us what they received, and respond to Unconfirmed Mail Forms
(UMFs), the amount of unreported mail drops. Our current rate of
unreported mail for the 2010-2011 reporting year is down to 60%, an
all-time low! We attribute this to our widespread use of UMFs, and
subscribers’ diligence in responding to them. But don’t wait until you
get a UMF to report mail you received! Every UMF we send is money we
could have spent sending you actual literature, so you should tell us
what you’ve gotten since the last time you wrote.
Appeals are Viable Tactic
Appealing censorship and filing grievances can lead to small but
significant victories. In Arizona, Pennsylvania, California and
Colorado, some mail from MIM Distributors which was originally denied,
was allowed to be received by prisoners after appeal. Of course not all
appeals will be granted, and we don’t expect to ever be completely free
of censorship from the state. But we encourage everyone to at least
attempt to appeal all censorship of mail from MIM(Prisons). Send us
copies of your documents and we can upload them to our website
www.prisoncensorship.info.
Future Struggles
Do we even need to say it? If you know the words, then sing along:
California is still banning literature from MIM
Distributors! Up to the present, administrators and staff in CDCR
amazingly are still citing the 2006 ban of MIM literature, which was
overturned in 2007! In another attempt to remedy this problem, we have
compiled a supplement to our Censorship Guide which is specific to the
California ban. If a 2006 memo is cited as a reason why you can’t get
mail from us, tell us and we’ll send you the supplement.
Mailroom staff in Michigan are eager to protect the
“freedom” of white supremacists, as this subscriber reports:
“Please know that I was able to obtain a hearing yesterday on the
administration’s rejection of MIM Theory 13, even though MDOC policy
doesn’t require one to be held due to it already being on the Restricted
Publications List (RPL). The hearing officer gave two reasons for
upholding the rejection: 1) It was on the RPL; 2) It was racist because
there was an article against white supremacists. I found reason number 2
rather illuminating. . . I asked which article she was referring to and,
quickly scanning the table of contents, asked her,”Is it the book review
criticizing Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf?” In any event, she could not
point out a single reason for the rejection let alone relate it to a
serious penological concern. I flipped through it and pointed out many
reasons why it should be let in and, of course, one of them was that it
is against white supremacy or racial supremacy of any type.”
Last year we reported that we were contacted by the ACLU in
Nebraska because they had been contacted by one of our
subscribers regarding the ban of literature from us. They wrote at least
one letter to the Warden at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.
This letter was important because it forced the Director Robert P.
Houson of Nebraska Department of Correctional Services to admit that
“there is no outright ban on MIM’s publications at TSCI at this time and
such a ban never existed in the past.” Unfortunately it appears that the
legal intern who favored us has left the organization, and their new
legal intern isn’t being as generous with their legal expertise and
sway. We encourage prisoners to contact the ACLU and other support
organizations to help them fill a role that MIM(Prisons) can’t.
Last year we reported that Arizona was holding the
position that publishers have no appeal rights if their materials are
censored. In January 2012, thanks to the assistance of our legal
volunteer, we were able to send Director Charles L. Ryan a letter
detailing exactly the legality behind our claim to appeal rights. In
June we received a letter from Assistant Attorney General Pamela J.
Linnins, responding to a different letter from us in May. She has yet to
respond directly to our letter from January.
“It appears that the Department and MIM Distributors must agree to
disagree. The Department stands by its position and belief that you do
not have a right to notice when inmates are denied access, regardless of
its permanence, to your publications. However, as a courtesy to you and
pursuant to your request, the Department will begin providing notice to
you, MIM Distributors, when inmates are denied an issue of your
publications.”
At Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, multiple
lawsuits reached settlement in the last few years challenging their
illegal censorship of literature, namely from Prison Legal News
and The Final Call. We were hoping that these settlements would
have had an impact on our own literature, but we appear to still be
banned at Red Onion. The amount of literature we know was censored is
the same for the past 2 reporting years, but the amount of mail we know
was received is about a third as much this reporting year compared to
2010-2011. This could be from delay inherent to mail correspondence, or
it could be due to more censorship. It is unclear which is true at this
time.
Other states with significantly large censorship proportions were:
South Carolina and Florida. It is
significant that wherever we have a growing population of active
subscribers, repression of our literature increases. We hope comrades
and subscribers everywhere will take up this important battle to protect
freedom to share knowledge. If you’re in a state listed above, you
should especially get on board!
When the 2011 food strike was peaking in California, MIM(Prisons) had
mentioned similar tactics being used by Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
And just as the struggle in U.$. prisons continues, so has the struggle
of the Palestinians. A mass hunger strike lasted 28 days this spring,
with some leaders having gone as long as 77 days without food, until an
agreement was made on May 15.
“The written agreement contained five main provisions:
The prisoners would end their hunger strike following the signing of the
agreement;
There will be an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for
“security” reasons, and the 19 prisoners will be moved out of isolation
within 72 hours;
Family visits for first-degree relatives to prisoners from the Gaza
Strip and for families from the West Bank who have been denied visit
based on vague “security reasons” will be reinstated within one
month;
The Israeli intelligence agency guarantees that there will be a
committee formed to facilitate meetings between the IPS and prisoners in
order to improve their daily conditions;
There will be no new administrative detention orders or renewals of
administrative detention orders for the 308 Palestinians currently in
administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which
administrative detention is based, contains “very serious”
information.”(1)
While the concessions were a bit more gratifying than those that
stopped the strike in California, Palestinians still have to ensure that
Israeli actions followed their words, just as
prisoners
have been struggling to do in California. And sure enough the
Israelis have not followed through, as leading hunger strikers have had
their “administrative detentions” (which means indefinite imprisonment
without charge or conviction) renewed. One striker has been on
continuous hunger strike since April 12, and was reported to be in grave
danger on July 5, after 85 days without eating. Others have also
restarted their hunger strikes as the Israelis prove that they need
another push to respect Palestinian humyn rights.
[UPDATE: As of July 10, Mahmoud Sarsak was released
from administrative detention, after a three month fast. Others continue
their fasts, including Akram Rikhawi (90 days), Samer Al Barq (50 days)
and Hassan Safadi (20 days).]
MIM(Prisons) says that U.$. prisons are just as illegitimate in their
imprisonment of New Afrikan, First Nation, Boricua and Chicano peoples
as Israel is in imprisoning the occupied Palestinians. The extreme use
of imprisonment practiced by the settler states is connected to the
importance that the settlers themselves put on the political goals of
that imprisonment. Someone isn’t put in long-term isolation because
they’re a kleptomaniac or a rapist, but they are put in long-term
isolation because they represent and support the struggle of their
people to be free of settler control.