Under Lock & Key

Stand tall, revolution’s what I scream
Dreams shot down, Mr. Martin Luther King
Now look at what I bring to this Houston scene
See I’m the one who’s trying’ to turn the blueprint green
And that white mask red, I’m twice past dead
So I don’t give a fuck what “the white man” says
I’m a G, so I know why the criminals need
to put a bullet in these new age General Lees
Because the only way they listen’s if we enter a plea
We work hard for the money, a minimal fee
Mama girl has to work on a minimum wage
her little kids haven’t even ate dinner in days
Just peanut butter & jelly, Skittles & Lays
How you expect for us to grow in such a pitiful place?
Our streets are planted with crackheads
families who lack beds
Drugs & guns leaving Hispanics & Blacks dead
Shit, with that said…
What’s a brother to do?
Tryin’ to make it on his own with a mother of two
Mr. Officer we don’t want no trouble with you
We’re just trying’ to do, what we gotta do, to survive

Damn! Did you hear that?
[what]?
The sound of the ground rumbling
Building breaking
Broken bones moaning
Houses flooded
People drowning
Babies screaming
Families crying
Prison doors slamming
daughters in labor
Broken hearts complaining
Ice storms, rain storms, famished lands, traffic jams, ambulance, and car horns
gun shots
police sirens
courtrooms lying
and the sound of injustice hurting the survivors

Damn! You feel that?
[what]?
The biting wind of oppression
anxiety and depression
The womb of un-willing virgins
fatherless households
Empty spirits and lonely souls
Capitalism, prison systems, and bourgeoisies in control
Global anger and sadness from U$ military killings and war disasters

Damn!
[what was that]?
The world shaken by the hard fall of imperialist amerika

La mayoría de gente están ignorante de las atrocidades y tragedias que están pasando en estos campos de concentración. La gente escucha y cree las mentiras que vomitan de las bocas de los engañosos oficiales de prisión quien proponen que el idea que los prisioneros reciben “gratis” el cuidar médico superior a la gente en el mundo libre pero la realidad es algo muy diferente, aborrecible y siniestro.

La tasa de prisioneros fallecidos es irreal. En sólo un periodo de doce meses en los años de 2008 y 2009 seis prisioneros en la prisión de Holman ha fallecido y esto no cuenta los fallecimientos de presos bajo la pena de muerte por causas natural (i.e. causas negligentes) y esto está pasando en sólo un campo. Pero el chisme es que también está pasando por todo el estado.

Alabama es sólo uno en el numero de otros estados que han implementado la liberación “compasiva” a los encarcelados con enfermedades terminales. Pero, no hay nada compasiva en esta compasión; no es la razonamiento de los políticos u oficiales de prisión, esta provisión es tan compasivo como el conservadurismo compasivo de G.W. Bush.

Un prisionero había aprobado para libertad bajo de la provisión de la liberación compasiva por enfermedad terminal pero el día antes de que estaba apuntado para la libertación, falleció. Imagine lo que la familia tuvo que pasar, pensar y prepararse para su querido vuelva a casa ‘mañana’ y aprender que falleció en la mañana que iba para recogerle. Otro prisionero también selo aprobó y liberópero falleció el día después de su libertad.

Lo que es engañoso, siniestro y aborrecible sobre todos estos fallecimientos es que con el apropiado preventivo curativo de salud, la mayoría, si no todos, de estos prisioneros podrían estar vivos ahora. Los oficiales de prisión y los proveedores de cuidado médico quienes son bajo el trato con el Departamento Correccional de Alabama (ADOC) permiten que las condiciones médicos deteriorarse para ahorrar dinero en gastos médicos.

La gente debe entender que los oficiales de prisiones y los proveedores médicos de la prisión están matando a las personas por su renuencia a enviar presos a los hospitales del mundo libre y a los especialistas y proveer los medicamentos necesarios que los presos necesitan para sobrevivir, sólo para ahorrar dinero y obtener a cambio grandes beneficios.

En 2006, había un gran escándalo en la Facilidad Correccional de Limestone en Alabama. Limestone es una prisión de seguridad media que alberga también a los presos del estado con VIH / SIDA . El escándalo cuestionó el servicio médico allí. El médico de la prisión se quejaba de que los funcionarios de prisiones interferían y dictaban el tratamiento y los medicamentos que se dispensara a los detenidos. El médico declaró al periódico Birmingham News que el director de Limestone la había amenazado con el bloqueo a entrar a la cárcel si ella no dejaba de quejarse de los funcionarios de prisiones de interferir en asuntos médicos.

Limestone es también la prisión que en la década de los 1990 almacenó los cadáveres de presos con VIH/SIDA en el congelador de carne al lado de la comida usado para alimentar los prisioneros.

Todos los presos en Alabama saben que cada vez hay un médico nuevo y este médico muestra cualquier tipo de humanidad hacia los presos y cualquiera diligencia en proveer el cuidado propio, como el envío de prisioneros a los hospitales del mundo libre, a ver los especialistas, el mandar de pruebas caras o la prescripción de medicamentos costosos, no durará mucho antes de que ese médico se va.

Los prisioneros en Alabama tienen los exámenes físicos anuales programados. De mis 25 años encarcelado en Alabama, no he tenido más que mi altura, peso, fiebre y la presión de mi sangre, me quitan sangre cada tres años, exámenes de tuberculosis (TB), unas preguntas de fuego rápidas que me hace y ya es todo.

Hay mucho más descuido, incompetencia y negarse que puedo decir a sobre el cuido de la salud en este mundo de pesadilla, lo de arriba debe ser suficiente para golpear tu conciencia y tu acciones para luchar por un mundo donde el explotar, la esclavitud y el sacar provecho de otros no son los motivos para cada intento, un mundo mejor si es posible.

MIM(Prisiones) responde: en general, nosotros no creemos que los americanos están informados al nivel inadecuado sobre las condiciones en prisión y cuando le explicamos que horrible es…sus conciencias se van a despiertar y será la motivación por sus acciones. En Americans: Oppressing for a Living, explicamos cómo los constituyentes americanos demandan que sus representativos y legislación sean “duro con el crimen”. Sus intereses subjetivos en el bienestar de los prisioneros es un reflejo de la falta de programación de la educación, apoyo a los liberados, así como la atención médica aborrecible para los prisioneros. A pesar del dato, los americanos van a continuar quejando que “los criminales están recibiendo mejor cuido médico gratis” que ellos, los americanos, reciben por lo que pagan. Y lo van a ignorar si pagan los impuestos al gobierno que en realidad se está cayendo en las bolsas de los mismos contratistas de medico quien están dejando a personas morir de causas preventivas.

Aquellos de nosotros que sufren en las manos de los anglo- americanos (gringos) o hacen suicido nacional deben de unirse para tomar parte de la lucha de este compañero para luchar por un mundo donde el provecho no será el factor motivo por cualquier intento, porque si es verdad, un mundo mejor sí es posible.

As of this writing I’ve been confined to a special management unit because, of all things, a drawing. The artwork however is not the problem, but what it supposedly represents. From a larger standpoint the censoring of such work is another form of passive cultural destruction. What they can’t control they restrict. What they don’t understand, they tend to fear. And of course the “they” I’m speaking of are those upholding Amerikan values of whitewashed virtues.

The drawing was one I chose to adopt because of its high symbolism and esoteric meanings. But because this symbol was first used by the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters), a branch of the Nation of Islam, which is deemed a “security threat group” within penal institutions in six states, I was also branded a threat. I have no affiliation with that organization or any gang. I don’t adhere to the NOGE’s or NOI’s religious dogmas. I do however share in their militant outlook and agree, for better, with what they’ve done to reeducate Black youth to the realities of this system. Because of this they, and anyone even duplicating a representative symbol of such organizations, are deemed a threat.

I must assume the motivation behind the government labeling a peaceful, cultural religious organization as a gang can be found in a real warranted fear of this group’s objectives. To name just a few: its obvious work in enlightening individuals about this police state, its very successful strategy in reducing the recidivism rate, and most importantly empowering youth to be leaders and conduits of true culture in their families and communities. These priorities, and numerous others, are something to fear, especially when privatized institutions can prospectively lose millions annually.

The programming of the masses through corporate-owned media propaganda has not been done haphazardly. Sensationalism, violence, stereotypes and desensitization through repetition of crime and cop shows has not only controlled opinion but has thoroughly turned people into mindless robots, keeping the rich in control, middle class happy and poor discontented but helpless. Any organization that exposes this government for what it is and directs its energies to providing and teaching what true responsibility is to a community, is one I’d gladly be a part of.

MIM(Prisons) responds:
We agree with this prisoner that the criminal injustice system has a real reason to fear any organization that is educating people about the prison system, working to reduce recidivism, and organizing oppressed nations. These organizations threaten their use of the prison system as a tool of social control. And it is true that the media plays a major role in promoting imperialist policies to the Amerikan people. However, this is not the only reason the masses are passive. Amerikan citizens are acting in their economic self-interest when they play the role of happy robot and accept imperialist policies. See our article Amerikkkans: Oppressing for a Living in ULK 2.

NAS told us “ghetto prisoners rise” and Bob Marley asked “How long shall they kill our prophets?” It’s been going on for years, yet we have failed to grasp on to a sincere movement with righteous motives. When the Europeans landed here they drove off the inhabitants or enslaved them. Sounds familiar to the immigration issues of today. Then they enslaved over 10 million native Africans throughout the “new world.” Sounds like the incarceration and slave laboring of the Black and Latino youth of today through prison industries.

Now they don’t have to kill our prophets like Martin, Malcolm, and Hampton. They just imprison them on anything they can to stop a movement. Education is the key to unlock the doors that block us and communication is the keyring that holds it together. Ghetto prisoners rise, rise, rise, united we stand and divided we fall. When the CIA killed Ernesto “Che” Guevera, he exclaimed “go ahead, what are you waiting for, you will only kill a man.” Meaning his purpose, and meaning for which he fights will still live on. If we stand idle we are with the oppressor. Nelson Mandela said “If you fail to help the oppressed you become the oppressor.” Don’t be my oppressor. Revolution starts with the mistreatment of people, not a revolutionary.

Their objective is to keep you deaf, dumb and blind. Ignorance is suicide, they run their agenda through propaganda, spreading rumors and lies through their media. Zach de la Rocha said “fear is your only god” but don’t let fear put you in check. The time to act is now, unite. “Penitentiaries is packed with promise makers, never realize the precious time these bitch niggas is wasting.” - 2Pac

[This is a belated resolution from the MIM(Prisons) 2010 Congress.]

Overall, MIM(Prisons) stands by the Resolutions on Cell Structure passed at the last MIM congress in 2005. After 5 years of putting that resolution into practice there is experience to sum up and questions that still need to be answered.

The theoretical basis for the cell structure is that the strength of a centralized party comes into play when vying for state power, whether by elections or otherwise. That is not in the cards for Maoists in the imperialist countries at this time. Maoism is a minority movement in the First World and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. This makes it even more important that we utilize our strengths and shore up our weaknesses.

One of the main lessons to take from the cell structure resolutions is that “[w]e oppose having geographic cells come into contact with each other face-to-face. Infiltration and spying are rampant when it comes to MIM. The whole strength of having a locality-based cell is that it is possible to do all the things traditional to a movement. The security advantages of culling people we know into a cell are lost the moment we slack off on security and start accepting strangers or meeting with strangers face-to-face.” We find it frustrating that critics of what happened at etext.org as MIM faced repression are willing to ignore the lessons of those setbacks.

At the last MIM congress in 2005, they spoke of a “MIM Center” that put out the newspaper, among other tasks. Soon after, there was no MIM Notes newspaper, followed by the degeneration of the original MC cell and finally the shutting down of their last institution, the website at etext.org.

One of the challenges of small cells is developing and maintaining line. Much work has been done, and if every new group or every revolutionary had to start from scratch, we would never advance. That is why when etext.org was repressed, MIM(Prisons) posted an archive of the MIM site on our website. While we still do not have a regular newspaper for the movement as a whole, the website is a crucial reference for us all.

Fraternal organizations do not agree on everything; they agree on cardinal principles that are determined by the conditions of the time. The etext.org site is not something Maoists must agree with 100%, but there is no doubt that it is still the most comprehensive starting point for any Maoist organization in the First World.

Democratic centralism is important for security and for political line development. Yet until we are organizing on a countrywide basis, there is no need for democratic centralism at that level, not to mention internationally.

In guerilla warfare, the cell structure has been applied in a way that was hierarchical so that action cells were separate from each other, but each cell could be traced to the top of the organization. This relies on a centralized organization or center. While MIM mentions such a center being based around MIM Notes and etext.org in their 2005 resolutions, we do not see the need for this center given the current circumstances. As we have recognized before, certain ideological centers are bound to exist based on the law of uneven development. Yet such centers are not structural, but fluid, based on the type and amount of work done.

All that said, there is an inherent contradiction in the cell strategy. Since organizing strategy and security tactics are not dividing line questions, once the cell strategy is adopted and full decentralization has occurred, it is possible for cells to change their line on this question. Even the majority could do so and a new centralized party could push remaining cells to the periphery. Since we work to build a movement and not our individual organizations, and our work is already on the periphery, we should not be concerned about the impacts of such a move on our organization. It is, however, worrisome to the extent that we see our comrades opened up to attacks through faulty security.

Part of accepting cell strategy is distinguishing between cadre work and mass work. The self-described anarchist movement is able to mobilize large numbers in mass work while abhorring centralized organization. We should learn from their example, while not succumbing to liberalism in our security practices or abandoning scientific leadership.

Getting the correct balance of cadre work and mass work will be more challenging with a cell structure. There is no way to impose a balance on the movement as a whole without a center, but we can pay attention to what is going on around us and get in where we fit in. Leading cells should not be shy to point out where the movement needs more investment of resources.

One amendment we would make to the “Resolutions on Cell Structure” is to cut the suggestion that a one-persyn cell “in many ways… has the least worries security-wise!” Certainly, one-persyn cells should maintain high standards for admitting others. However, the value of criticism/self-criticism on the level of day-to-day work is something that is stressed within Maoism, and we’ve benefited from in our own practice in MIM(Prisons). We still need democratic centralism with the cell structure to provide crucial discipline and accountability. The criticisms we can give and get from other cells will be limited in nature if our security is correct. And we have seen how one-persyn cells can degrade or disappear quickly.

The November 2 elections promise some shuffling of the imperialist representatives in government, but as usual with elections where the choices are limited to different flavors of imperialist leaders, there will be no real change. One ballot initiative that did catch our attention is Proposition 19 in California which would legalize and regulate marijuana.

In an attempt to reduce support for Prop 19, on 30 September 2010 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law that changes the punishment for possession of less than an ounce of pot to just a fine. This reduces the potential impact of Prop 19 and should cut down on the number of people in prison for marijuana possession. But even arrests and convictions without a prison sentence have negative repercussions, so Prop 19 goes farther in limiting the reach of the state in terms of possession laws.

MIM(Prisons) supports any laws that will cut back on the number of people locked up in prison or otherwise controlled by the imperialist state. We know that drug laws (like other laws) are disproportionately prosecuted against oppressed nations within U.$. borders, resulting in huge numbers of Blacks and Latinos behind bars. For this reason we would support legalizing all drugs to take power away from the imperialist government and its criminal injustice system.

In 2009, just over half of the drug arrests were for marijuana (848,408 out of 1,663,583).(1) Marijuana arrests are growing as a proportion of total drug arrests in the U.$., up to 52.6% in 2009 from 39.9% in 1995. This is driven by arrests for simple possession, the percentage of arrests for marijuana trafficking has not changed much over time.(2)

Adding to these statistics on marijuana arrests is compelling information on the disproportionate use of marijuana laws against Black men in California. The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice reports:

“African Americans, just 6% of the state’s population…comprise a staggering 45% of the 1,600 Californians imprisoned for marijuana, including more than half of those locked up for marijuana felonies. Blacks are nearly 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than other races, a racial gap only slightly wider than for other crimes. But after African Americans enter California’s ‘Black marijuana system,’ disparities multiply more than for any other offense. Seven in 10 Black marijuana arrestees are charged with felonies, compared to one-fifth for other races. Blacks convicted of marijuana felonies are 3 times more likely to be sent to prison than Nonblack marijuana felons. The upshot of these accumulating discriminations is that Blacks wind up being imprisoned for marijuana at 8 times the rate of Hispanics and 18 times the rate of Whites. At older ages, the Black-Nonblack marijuana imprisonment gap soars to nearly 4,000%… No other offense (including violent, property, and other crimes) and no other drug (including heroin, methamphetamine, and crack) even remotely displays the huge racial discrepancies in imprisonment for marijuana.”(3)

The new law would not completely eliminate marijuana arrests and prosecutions, primarily because it restricts the legal age to 21 and only allows possession of small quantities, but they would be greatly reduced. In addition, the federal government has promised to challenge the constitutionality of Prop 19 if it passes, and to enforce the federal laws in California regardless. Of course we can’t look at these laws in a vacuum, the criminal injustice system will not cut back on the police force or shrink the prisons simply because one law changes. Cops will just find other reasons to arrest people, and those people will continue to be disproportionately Black and Latino.

Even worse, cities like Oakland will likely be using the new tax revenues to restore its recently cut back police force. The city stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries if the law passes, as it is home to Oaksterdam University, which will be licensing large growing and distribution centers under the new law. The financial interests behind Oaksterdam University bankrolled the introduction of Prop 19 to the November ballot. Los Angeles campus chancellor Jeff Jones pointed out that support has come primarily from the jobs and tax revenue angle. He says that focusing on imprisonment rates gets little support from Californians.

While the imperialists run the global drug trade, here the state is partnering with corporate interests to take over the local industry, which has been the domain of the lumpen class. Following the national liberation movements of the sixties many in the ghetto who didn’t see the Amerikan dream through integration were able to find an income through the drug economy. By the 1970s, Italians, Jews and others who dominated black markets, in particular drugs, had long been integrated into white Amerika. Whites left the inner cities for the suburbs where they could become richer more easily by joining a growing financial sector, allowing for Black and Latino gangs to take over profitable street crime in their own areas. Organized crime, led by the CIA, backed the most individualistic and destructive emerging groups, while repressing Black and Brown power movements and flooding these neighborhoods with cocaine.(4)

Faced with economic crisis today, white Amerika wants these jobs back. And the state is leading the charge, hoping to reach a new tax source to close huge shortfalls in paying their bureaucrat employees - especially their pigs, who account for 85% of city spending in Oakland (police & fire combined).(5) But whites aren’t forming a new mafia (at least not exactly). Instead they formed a new university to train and certify workers in the industry and they have joined labor unions to ensure wages of $25.75 an hour with pensions, paid vacations and health insurance.(6) In contrast, reports from the 1990s showed that most in the drug game in the inner cities made around minimum wage and worked long hours (needless to say with no benefits).(7) So the state hopes to shrink the workforce in drug sales and production, pay a few trained workers a nice sum, and increase their share of profits from the sale of marijuana to pay cops and other state employees. In the process, the economic crisis will be passed along to the lumpen who will become ever more desperate to make ends meet. This will lead to more violence and problems, and make the need for self-determination more dire in oppressed nation communities that lack legal job markets.

While MIM(Prisons) supports the passage of laws that result in fewer people in prison, we are under no illusions that even full legalization of drugs in Amerika will solve the drug problems here. As we have seen with alcohol, legalization of a drug does not make for safe use. Amerikan culture is alienating and leads to rampant legal and illegal drug abuse. According to a World Health Organization survey of 17 countries across the globe, the U.$ leads the world in users of both legal and illegal drugs. Drug use is correlated with wealth of a country with the richer countries having a higher percentage of drug users.(8)

It will take a revolution to create a culture that allows people to feel valuable, safe and empowered and not in need of the easy escape that can be found in drugs. After the revolution in China, the Maoist-led country basically eliminated drug addiction through community-based campaigns. Drug addiction, particularly to opium, was a widespread problem imported by the British. But after the revolution there was a strong focus on helping drug addicts get clean, and on giving everyone useful work and education as well as health care. This campaign, combined with a strategy of wiping out opium growing and distribution in favor of much needed food crops, virtually eliminated the drug problems in China by the early 1950s. Only with a government that serves the people rather than working to enrich its imperialist masters will we be able to eliminate drug abuse and the criminal injustice system. As we work towards such a system we will support laws that result in fewer people in prison, but we know the impact of these laws will be minimal at best.

I’m writing in response to the article “Gulf Oil Spill: It’s Capitalism, Stupid!”, and wanted to address one issue within the article. In this prisoner’s article, he states that “this type of disaster would have had a very small to nil chance of happening in the former Soviet Union (1917-1953) [The Lenin and Stalin era] or the socialist People’s Republic of China (1949-1976), because those communist countries wouldn’t have had to do the extensive drilling that the First World seems so caught up with. Why? It is exactly because the communist countries implement something called ‘planned economics,’ to meet human needs.”

We must be careful what we teach in regard to a better government when using the Stalinist era. This individual’s comment regarding “planned economics” is wrong, it was not implemented peacefully but through violence. He should read about Stalin’s seven year plan and the collectivization of property and farms. History reflects that Stalin killed over 20 million of his own country men, so using him or that era as an example is misguided. Stalin was a tyrant, a pathological killer. I would not name his era as one of humanity’s finer points, nor look up to his “planned economics” which cost so many of his countrymen’s lives.

Additionally, the Soviet Union’s record regarding ecological and environmental disasters is one of complete failure and surpasses the United States record on a grand scale, both under the Stalinist era and even today.

It is ok to believe in one form of government or a goal of government, but let’s not distort the past to build a better future as this is nothing more than an illusion in which we all already live under in America.

MIM(Prisons) responds: The original author was correct to uphold the Soviet Union and China as examples of environmentalism. In 1942, under Stalin’s leadership, the city of Moscow composted all of the waste of its 4,000,000 inhabitants. The biothermal process heated large “greenhouse farms” in the city, while the resulting compost was used as fertilizer.(1) With all the talk of “green cities” in the United $tates, there are no projects that rival what the Soviets were doing 70 years ago. Similarly, China and the Soviet Union had massive recycling programs for metal decades before such things became fashionable in the imperialist countries. Also note, that if one were to do a quantitative comparison of socialist vs. capitalist environmentalism, one must compare countries of the same time period, reflecting similar ecological knowledge.

This letter gives us a chance to debunk some myths about the Stalin era in the Soviet Union in general. First, we want to be clear that state capitalism, which was put into place in the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death, does not reflect Stalinism or any form of socialism. Therefore this author is just confusing the issue by complaining about environmental disasters there today. Second, we must point out that the article in question never claims that planned economics was an entirely peaceful process. However, we must be very clear that it was Stalin’s policies and practices that enabled the Soviet Union to industrialize the Soviet Union, defeat Hitler and put an end to fascism, in spite of the purposeful non-interference policy of countries like the U.$. who hoped to stand aside and let fascism wipe out communism.

This letter reflects the typical anti-Stalinist propaganda of the imperialist countries who like to claim that Stalin himself killed over 20 million people, as if one man could possibly be so powerful. The reality is that many people died during the fight against fascism, and in fact Stalin himself did order or oversee many deaths of spies and those suspected of being infiltrators for the fascists. In this way Stalin ensured that the Soviet Union was the only country free of a Fifth Column of fascist spies and infiltrators. This made it possible for him to do what no other country could even come close to accomplishing, in spite of the lack of development and widespread poverty in the Soviet Union, and defeat Hitler. The aggressive industrialization and collectivization reflected the needs of the Soviet Union at the time those policies were implemented.

This letter includes the usual imperialist propaganda of labeling Stalin a pathological tyrant rather than looking at his actions and evaluating them scientifically. It’s easy to sling around names masquerading as political criticisms. But when we look closely at Stalin’s record and his policies we can see a history of carefully evaluating the difficult conditions of the time and making decisions about what to do based on the reality of those conditions. When you have the fascists amassing on your borders, planning invade and massacre your population to put in place a system of tyranny and oppression, sometimes the best options to fight those fascists don’t involve picking flowers and singing happy songs. Without industrialization the Soviet Union could not have defeated Hitler (even Hitler saw this) and with an active Fifth Column of spies the fascists would have had the inside track on Soviet activities. In wartime difficult decisions must be made, and the world is lucky that Stalin was a man able to make these decisions scientifically, without sentiment, or we could be living under global fascist rule today. As it was the Soviet Union lost more than 20 million people to the war against the fascists. The number of lives saved by his victory in the war is never something he gets credit for, but even deaths from starvation due to the conditions of war are something his critics like to count as if Stalin had personally executed every single person who died during his leadership.

For more on Stalin we recommend MIM Theory 6, The Stalin Issue.

These are chains of another kind
I see locked on a souljah’s mind
Got em killing for no purpose
So he feeling that life’s worthless.
Raised in another struggle
Pray for better days but still trouble
I wonder will he break free from tha enemy
N see that a king is what he can be
We all victims of this white man’s oppression
locked in by his trick words n hard lessons
I see kids grown up with no dads n moms
and in other countries they getting killed by bombs.
Drugs got tha hood on lock, how can we change
Mothers giving birth to babies with dead brains
Fathers living life in these pins
N this is all cuz tha color of our skin.
Browns, Blacks, Yellows, N Reds
No matter what, if ya ain’t white, they wanna see ya dead
Open up ya eyes so you can see tha truth
and never stop trying ta turn seeds to fruit
I shed tears more than what you would think
but I shed em on tha paper with ink
I hope you listen, cuz even thou there’s diamonds that glisten
we still got pictures of kids missin
Now give thought, right now as we speak
there’s a kid in this world who got nothing to eat
People spending mills on cars n claim to be stars
when others dying everyday from tha fact that they starved
This is chains of another kind

First and foremost I hope this letter reaches you. Officer Sherry A Conrad over in the mailroom has been opening and reading my legal mail. She has also confiscated every legal document I have tried to send to you, along with the letters I’ve written to you about her. I used the prisoner grievance system against her and ever since then she has used retaliation against me. She has written 3 major disciplinary reports on me about my mail; one of these major disciplinary reports was concerning a letter I wrote you. I appealed this major disciplinary but Warden Jimmy Banks has violated my due process rights and refused to answer my appeal.

Under Lock & Key was also confiscated and sent to the Unit Publication Review Committee for “illegal discrimination, violence, verbal or sexual abuse or inflammatory attitudes towards any racial, sexual, age, handicapped or individuals or groups.” I appealed the decision of this committee but it also has been refused to be answered. Now Warden Jimmy Banks and Law Library Officer Ms. Smith are refusing to make copies of my legal documents so I can mail them to you and the United States District Court to file a claim against them.

I’ve also requested the Administrative Regulation and Directives of the Arkansas Department of Corrections so I could send them to you and the court but I’ve been denied access to these by Warden Jimmy Banks. Warden Banks does not want us to have these Administrative Regulations or Directives because he or his officers at the Varner Super Max Unit do not follow the Administrative Regulations and Directives. So many of our rights are being violated by Warden Banks and his officers, it’s not even funny.

This is the good ole south, “the good ole boy system” and they will do everything it takes to keep the public, media, or any other group or organization in the dark about how prisoners are being violated in the Arkansas prison system. The prisoners in Arkansas will not stand or stick together, write grievances, or write the public, media or any other groups or organizations out of fear of major disciplinaries or retaliation used against them for doing so. If a prisoner writes a grievance, public officials, media or groups or sticks together to take a stand against the ADC, they are placed in the Super Max under false charges, written major disciplinaries that will keep them from being released, are placed in the hole without any of their property, and the list goes on and on.

If a prisoner keeps on doing these things to stand against the ADC then the officers will use all kinds of force on the prisoner and make the reports look like the force was justified. I have been held in the Varner Super Max for one year under false banding together, escape, possession of tobacco, and possession of cell phone charges. Now they are using retaliation against me by confiscating my legal and personal mail and writing me major disciplinary reports for the mail they confiscate when I’ve broken no administrative regulation, directives, policies or rules. They are also refusing me law books, legal copies, and administrative regulations and directives that I need. I’ve been told by the Warden himself that I’ll never be released from Varner Super Max into population.

I know many prisoners who want to write your organization but they have seen everything that has happened to me and others who have written letters about the ADC and they are afraid. I refuse to just lay down and go quietly away. I try to stay in the law books, and follow all rules, policies and regulations. A lot of prisoners come to me for legal advice and I try to help all I can. I’m working on filing a big claim of many violations against Interim Director Ray Hobbs, Warden Jimmy Banks, Officer Sherry A. Conrad of the ADC in the United States District Court.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This account of retaliation against prisoners who fight censorship and other illegal actions in prisons should strengthen our resolve to get Under Lock & Key in the hands of all prisoners who can receive it. We know receiving ULK can be a risk, which is why it is important that our subscribers share. But if you’re not organizing, then nothing’s gonna change. Those on the outside willing to help with these legal battles can aid us both in fighting censorship and exposing the criminal injustice system. As long as the state is not following its own rules, there will be countless legal battles to take on.