I have been receiving your newsletter for a couple of years now and have
thought to write on many occasions. But reading the article
“Psycho-Sexual Warfare vs Political Prisoners” by a New York Prisoner
has finally compelled me to do so. My own personal experiences within
Montana’s prison system share some common ground and I thought I would
take the time to offer a comparison.
Unlike most of your contributors, I am not only a political prisoner
within the prison system itself, I am a political prisoner for opposing
the corrupt authorities on the outside, as well. I did not commit a
crime to be arrested, I sued the City of Kalispell, Montana, and was
charged with a false crime and arrested, followed by a kangaroo court
trial and conviction, to stop my suit against those authorities.
Upon entering the prison system I committed myself to fighting the
system from the inside. I have used my legal knowledge to file hundreds
of legal documents for other prisoners (in spite of unlawful rules and
regulations prohibiting prisoners from assisting each other with legal
matters) and filed several claims in the courts on my own, including an
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) suit and a class action suit for
numerous civil liberty violations.
As a vocally outspoken opponent of the prison industrial complex as a
whole, and the Montana State prison system specifically, I have made
myself quite the target for retaliations from the prison administration.
Though I have not had the sexual element foisted upon me as my New York
counterpart reports, I have had the rest done to me. I am a low custody
prisoners presently confined in a high security lock-down facility, for
instance. This has been done in spite of the authorities’ foreknowledge
that I am claustrophobic, in spite of the fact that I am housed with
predatorily violent prisoners, many of whom are staff bulldogs
(prisoners who work for the cops, basically acting as strong-arms
against anyone in disfavor with those same cops). I have been not only
placed in “ambiguous and pressure-filled situation(s)” but I have been
beaten by an inmate who did so I believe at staff instruction.
I have had privileges stripped from me, and even property stolen from
me, by staff members whose only intent is to harass and provoke me. Yes,
I have been on the receiving end of efforts designed to “dehumanize” me
and to make me “subservient.” And I have only been subjected to all of
this extra hardship because I will not break and I continue to fight the
system. The New York prisoner is absolutely right in this regard -
prison officials isolate those with the greatest potential and subject
them to abuses designed to strip us of our focus and will.
I wanted him and everyone else suffering similar hardship to know that
you are not alone. Others fight the war with you. Each time prison
officials fail to break you, it’s a victory. Remember that and stand
strong.
I wish my brothers and sisters in solidarity strength and goodwill.