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.
I was glad to see petitions available concerning the grievance process
here in California. Please send me one of those in the self-addressed
stamped envelope I’ve enclosed. I’d also like to say a few words on the
grievance process here in California.
The main problem with the grievance process is at the informal level,
when a prisoner has to get two responses from staff on a CDCR 22 form.
Unless you’re challenging something out of the Title 15, the CDCR 22
must be filled out. That’s very hard to do, considering most staff just
throw them away. The CDCR 22 is designed so that officers can sign it at
the door, verifying that it was sent, and give the prisoner a receipt.
However, even with the receipt, if the prisoner does not have two staff
responses, the appeals coordinator will reject the grievance. The Title
15 Section 3084.3 (b), (c), and Section 3086 (e)(2) allow them to do
that.
What we should do is file a grievance on those three Title 15 sections I
just listed, requesting that they be changed to state: “One or two
signed CDCR 22 receipts requesting remedy or supporting documents that
also show that the staff member to whom the CDCR 22 was mailed did not
respond within the time limits detailed in Section 3086 (f)(4) and (h)
shall be receipted in lieu of requested supporting documents pursuant to
Section 3084.3.” The legal argument for this is the 14th Amendment
(access to courts) and Title 15 Section 3084.1 (right to appeal).
Just jump through the hoops until the grievance is exhausted. Then,
write the Prison Law Office and the ACLU and tell them you’d like their
help in filing a §1983 suit. Since it’s a major issue, a prisoner
advocate group will probably pick it up, and the petition distributed by
MIM(Prisons) could be used as evidence.
Another good grievance would challenge the Title 15 Section 3123 (b),
which gives CDCR the power to limit the law library hours to whatever it
wants. Here at Kern Valley State Prison, the law library is open 2 days
a week. The Title 15 should be amended to say: “Each law library shall
remain open five days a week, for not less than six hours per day.” The
14th Amendment should also be cited for that grievance.
MIM(Prisons) responds: CDCR Form 22 is a reform to the CDCR
grievance system that was rolled out December 2010 in response to the
campaign to End the High Desert State Prison Z-Unit Zoo.(1) Participants
of this campaign sent petitions to CDCR administrators and legal
protection groups such as the Prison Law Office and the U.S. Department
of Justice. An investigation was conducted, prisoners were interviewed,
and even some of their demands were met.(2)
But this contributor shows how our struggles for reforms, and even our
victories, will be met with more and more red tape under the current
power structure. Form 22 was supposedly designed “so that our requests
may be answered in a timely fashion by COs, with a receipt. Now we have
a clearer paper trail to use should K9s decide to implement their
underground rules.”(1) But still, there’s nothing stopping the COs from
simply throwing Form 22s away.
This contributor’s suggestion to change some of the language of Title 15
may be an improvement on the current grievance system in California. But
until COs and prison administrators acquire a proletarian morality that
values the well-being of all people, they will figure out ways
to continue to oppress those who they deem as unworthy of basic humyn
necessities, and their higher-ups will cover for them. This proletarian
morality doesn’t develop from procedural changes in prison operations,
no matter what documents we amend. Material conditions shape our
worldview, and until the material conditions that support national
oppression are abolished, the oppressors will continue to justify their
sick behaviors.
While we fight for reforms to improve our current conditions, we must
accept the necessity of total social change, namely the change from
capitalism to socialism. Until then there will always be a trade-off;
where one group gains, another loses. We must allow our own acquired
proletarian morality to infect our political work and inform the
orientation of all the battles we take on.
Greetings. The struggle is long and arduous, and sometimes we do etch
out significant victories, as in the case of our brotha in In re
Crawford, 206 Cal.App.4th 1259 (2012).
It’s important to emphasize that this victory is a significant step in
reaffirming that prisoners are entitled to a measure of First Amendment
protection that cannot be ignored simply because the state dislikes the
spiel. New Afrikan prisoners have a right to identify with their
birthright if they so choose, as does anyone else for that matter –
Black, White or Brown. …
[California prison officials] have gone so far as to boldly proclaim
that the term New Afrikan was created by the Black Guerilla Family (BGF)
and that those who identify as or use the term are declaring their
allegiance to the BGF, which has been declared a prison gang. They have
sought to suppress its usage by validating (i.e. designating as a gang
member or associate) anyone who uses the term or who dares mention the
name George Jackson. …
Our brotha’s case In Re Crawford was filed June 4, 2012, and
certified for publication June 13. In a brilliant piece of judicial
reasoning, a panel of justices in a 3-0 decision finally reaffirmed a
prisoner’s First Amendment right to free speech and expression, stating:
Freedom of speech is first among the rights which form the foundation of
our free society. “The First Amendment embodies our choice as a nation
that, when it comes to such speech, the guiding principle is freedom –
the unfettered interchange of ideas – not whatever the State may view as
fair.” (Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Bennett (2011) 131
S.Ct. 2806). “The protection given speech and press was fashioned to
assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of
political and social changes desired by the people … All ideas having
even the slightest redeeming social importance – unorthodox ideas,
controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of
opinion – have the full protection of the guaranties, unless excludable
because they encroach upon the limited area of more important
interests.” (Roth v. United States (1957) 354 U.S. 476, 484.”
The programs embodied in the New Afrikan Collective Think Tank, New
Afrikan Institute of Criminology 101, the George Jackson University and
the New Afrikan ideology itself are inclusive programs emphasizing a
solution-based approach to carnage in the poverty stricken slums from
where many of us come. The CDCR Prison Intelligence Units (PIU) have
sought to suppress these initiatives simply because they do not like the
message. They have marched into court after court with one standard
line: New Afrikan means BGF and these initiatives are promoting the BGF.
In re Crawford continues,
As recently noted by Chief Justice Roberts, “[t]he First Amendment
reflects ‘a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on
public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.’ [Citation.]
That is because ‘speech concerning public affairs is more than
self-expression; it is the essence of self-government.’ [Citation.] …
Speech on public issues occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of
First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection.”
(Snyder v. Phelps (2011) 562 U.S. , [131 S.Ct. 1207,
1215].
In re Crawford is a very important ruling because the justices
said these protections apply to prisoners as well. …
George Jackson cannot be removed from the fabric of the people’s
struggles in this society any more than Malcolm X can or Medger Evers or
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or Harriett Tubman or Sojourner Truth or Ida
B. Wells, Rosa Parks or Frederick Douglass, or the countless others
who’ve fought and struggled for a brighter future for generations to
come.
What CDCR and its PIU are trying to do is make a run around the First
Amendment by shielding its suppression activity under the guise of
preventing gang activity, just as it’s done historically, which gave
rise to Procunier v. Martinez (1974) 416 U.S. 396, 413.
In In re Crawford, CDCR argued for an exception to the Martinez
test for validated gang members. The court declined to make such an
exception, holding: “Gang related correspondence is not within the
exception to the First Amendment test for censorship of outgoing inmate
mail.”
The fact that they even argued for such an exception shows their
mindset. Their intentions are to suppress that which they believe to be
repugnant, offensive and that which they believe a prisoner ought not be
thinking! In their minds we have no right to think or possess ideas,
concepts or vision beyond that which they believe we should possess.
Until In Re Crawford, these highly educated judges were
sanctioning this nonsense with twisted, perverted rulings permitting a
newspaper article or magazine layout or book to be used against a
prisoner for validation purposes [to put them in torture cells -
editor]. They issued twisted rulings like those in Ellis v.
Cambra or Hawkins v. Russell and In Re Furnace,
where the petitioner was told he has no right to his thoughts and the
First Amendment only protects a prisoner’s right to file a 602
[grievance form].
These kinds of fallacious rulings ought to be publicized so as to show
the skillful manipulation of the law by those sworn to uphold it. In
Re Crawford reestablishes that First Amendment protections apply to
prisoners and that we too enjoy a measure of free speech and expression.
We ought not be punished with fabricated notions of gang activity for
merely a thought!
However, if we are to continue to meet with success, we need our
professors, historians and intellectuals to step up and provide
declarations that we can use in our litigation, defending our right to
read, write and study all aspects of a people’s history, like Professor
James T. Campbell did in In Re Crawford. This is the only way a
prisoner can challenge the opinion of a prison official. …
Much work remains to be done, like stopping the bogus validations based
on legitimate First Amendment material. We know that many individuals
are falsely validated simply for reading George’s books or a newspaper
article, for observing Black August or for simply trying to get in touch
with one’s cultural identity.
These legitimate expressions should carry no penalty at all. You’re not
doing anything wrong, and a lot of brothas who’ve been validated simply
shouldn’t be. Nor should folks be frightened away from reading or
studying any aspect of history simply because the state doesn’t like its
content. Judges who issue fallacious opinions permitting prisoners to be
punished for reading a George Jackson book or researching your history
should be exposed.
Literary content and cultural and historical materials are not the
activities of a gang; they are political and social activities that we
have a right to express, according to the unanimous decision in In
re Crawford.
The First Amendment campaign continues to forge ahead, although we still
don’t have a lawyer. The campaign still exists, and we anticipate even
greater successes in the future. … We’ve cracked one layer of a thick
wall. Now all prisoners should take advantage of this brilliant ruling
and reassert your rights to study your heritage, Black, White or Brown.
MIM(Prisons) adds: The issue in this case was one that we have
experienced first-hand as well. For example, in 2008 a letter from a
comrade in California was censored before it could reach us because it
discussed the New Afrikan Collective, which allegedly was a code word
for the Black Guerrilla Family.(1) But in reality, the New Afrikan
Collective was a new political organization in New York focused on
bettering the conditions of New Afrikans as a nation, with no
connections to any sort of criminal activity.
The first thing that strikes us about this case is a quote from the
proceedings cited by the author above, “Gang related correspondence is
not within the exception to the First Amendment test for censorship of
outgoing inmate mail.” Unfortunately this is not part of the final
opinion explaining the decision of the court, and it is specific to
outgoing mail from the prison. Nonetheless, it would logically follow
from this statement that anything that can be connected to a gang is not
automatically dangerous or illegal.
“Gang members” have long been the boogeyman of post-integration white
Amerika. The pigs use “gang member” as a codeword to excuse the abuse
and denial of constitutional rights to oppressed nation youth,
particularly New Afrikan men. And this has been institutionalized in
more recent years with “gang enhancements,” “gang injunctions” and
“security threat group” labels that punish people for belonging to
lumpen organizations. Often our mail is censored because it mentions the
name of a lumpen organization in the context of a peace initiative or
organizing for prisoners’ humyn rights. While criminal activity is
deemed deserving more punishment with the gang label, non-criminal
activity is deemed criminal as well.
As the author discusses, it becomes a question of controlling ideas to
the extreme, where certain words are not permitted to be spoken or
written and certain symbols and colors cannot be displayed. So the quote
from the court above is just a baby step in the direction of applying
the First Amendment rights of association and expression to oppressed
nation youth. Those who are legally inclined should consider how this
issue can be pushed further in future battles. Not only is such work
important in restoring rights to people, but we can create space for
these organizations to build in more positive directions.
Part of this criminalization of a specific sector of society is the use
of self-created and perpetuated so-called experts on gang intelligence.
Most of our readers are all too familiar with this farce of a profession
that is acutely exposed by the court’s opinion in this case. The final
court opinion calls out CO J. Silveira for claiming that the plaintiff’s
letter contained an intricate code when he could provide no evidence
that this was true. They also call him out for using his “training and
experience” as the basis for all his arguments.
The warden’s argument is flawed for two reasons. First, the argument is
based solely on the unsupported assertions and speculative conclusions
in Silveira’s declaration. The declaration is incompetent as evidence
because it contains no factual allegations supporting those assertions
and conclusions. Second, even if the declaration could properly be
considered, it does not establish that the letter posed a threat to
prison security.
As great as this is, as the author of the article above points out, they
usually get away with such baseless claims. More well thought out
lawsuits like this are needed, because more favorable case law is
needed. But neither alone represents any real victory in a system that
exists to maintain the existing social hierarchy. These are just pieces
of a long, patient struggle that has been ongoing for generations. The
people must exercise the rights won here to make them real. We must
popularize and contextualize the nature of this struggle.
I received issue 27
of ULK along with
MIM
Theory 13, thank you. I’ve already read the ULK and I
appreciate all the articles. A few months back you sent out a letter to
the warden here over an issue of ULK I did not receive.
Although I never received the issue, I did talk to a lieutenant who
claimed that MIM was banned. I didn’t pursue it because I had passed the
time limitation to raise the issue, but I’ve since received the most
recent issues after that. I believe it was issue 25 I didn’t get. Your
letter got their attention.
Other than that it’s business as usual with the oppressor. Just last
week the pigs slammed a young Black male (22 years old) to the ground
and charged him with assaulting a “peace” officer. The prisoner was
attempting to enter the housing unit when one of the pigs asked to see
the watch he was wearing.
The young man being a rebel without a cause chose to ignore the pig and
proceeded to walk into that building. The pig and his cronies blocked
the door and told him he wasn’t going anywhere until he showed them the
watch. The young man backed off and requested to speak to a sergeant.
This simple request pissed the pigs off. They proceed to escalate the
situation immediately.
As the sergeant was making his way across the yard one pig rushed the
guy and slammed him to the ground. This caused some of the prisoners to
act out verbally and tell the pigs that the force was unnecessary. The
whole thing was a set up from the start. While one pig was confronting
the guy another was on the walkie talkie reporting something (most
likely a lie), and then two pigs came out of the building and the only
Black pig out of the crowd of six or seven pigs chose to slam the young
Black male. When I read the article
“Trayvon
Martin National Oppression Debate” it hit home when Soso stated:
“Every persyn in this country sees the stereotypes of Black youths as
hoodlums…” as a result any “unarmed Black youth can be killed by cops
and vigilantes while the imperialist state does nothing.”
Here lately the pigs have seemingly been trying to incite the masses.
It’s summertime and out here in Imperial County, California (which is
less than five miles from Yuma, Arizona) it’s extremely hot. Triple
digits regularly, the pigs have been forcing us to wear state issue
clothing to the chow hall and the shirts must be tucked in. When it was
winter and cold we were not allowed to wear thermals to the chow hall.
Now that it’s hot they’re forcing us to wear stuff that will make you
hotter. Furthermore, they have launched a campaign of constant
harassment. Searching cells everyday which is causing folks to complain.
As of yet no one has written a 602 [grievance form] and me personally I
don’t have any grounds to write one as I have not been harassed. I try
to lead by example and share the literature with the brothers of the
struggle.
It seems as if we’ve lost a generation or two. There’s a shortage of
revolutionaries, at least here at this place. Only time will tell if the
masses wake up. I often imagine myself coming up in the era of George
Jackson and the likes. I attempt to put myself in those guys’ shoes, and
I try to emulate what I picture them being. I’ll close on that note,
power to the people.
I’m writing to contribute to the continuing exposure of the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)’s corrupt
capitalist-imperialist system locking up human beings in long-term
solitary confinement for decades.
As we know, the anniversary of the
1st hunger
strike just passed 1 July 2012. We must remember the three soldados
who lost their lives in this battle for our basic human rights and to
end all indefinite isolation units (SHUs and Ad-Segs).
And to all who participated and those who gave and continue to give us
moral support over our torturous and inhumane conditions of being
segregated and placed in solitary confinement, known as CDCR’s SHUs and
Ad-Segs “Crypts”, indefinitely with no rights or due process.
It’s also very important we don’t forget about the women and girls
locked up in women prisons, Central California Women’s Facility
Chowchilla, Valley State Prison for Women, California Institution for
Women, White Oaks, CRC, etc. I can’t imagine the hardships and torturous
conditions these women/girls have to endure. I would bet my life on it
that thousands of these women/girls are also locked away in isolation
confinement crypts. So let’s walk side by side with our equal
counterparts women and girls who are being isolated to indefinite SHUs,
where concerns around living conditions of mental/physical torturous
behavior fall on deaf ears.
I know this first hand because I’ve been in solitary confinement
indefinitely since 1993 and counting. All we’re asking for is to be
treated as humans. Our
5
core demands are very reasonable.
But as the world now knows, California CDCR continues to deny that we
are human by placing us in their “crypts” based on lies and making it a
priority that we don’t get basic necessities: medical, mental health
treatment, human contact with our family, and sunlight.
I ask everyone who is a part of this struggle to join the fight to
eliminate unjust solitary confinement.
The prisoncrats will never admit they are terrorist dictators who are
allowed to run California’s prisons with no honest oversight or
accountability for their terrorist ideology, behavior and actions. They
falsely use so-called “prison security concerns” to label thousands of
human beings as prison gang members or associates to justify decades of
isolation practices.
Attorney Peter Schey, from the Center for Human Rights and
Constitutional Law, has filed a petition to the United Nations
concerning our solitary confinement. There is also a separate federal
civil rights action in motion. This will take time, as we know how the
court system operates.
Don’t give up hope, this is gonna be a long battle and journey. A lot of
us are stuck in these “crypts” until real change comes. It’s up to us to
protect the new generation - so they don’t have to go through torturous
inhumane isolation.
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.
Recently I received notice of change to regulations number 12-03,
publication date 25 May 2012, effective date 10 May 2012, that is said
to affect sections 3000, 3375 and 3375.6. It states the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) seeks to establish
requirements for an automated needs assessment tool to be used to place
prisoners in programs that would aid their re-entry to society and
reduce their chances of reoffending by identifying the criminogenic
needs of offenders.
The presentation appears to be harmless, but it is not harmless for
those ignorant enough to boast about their gang involvement, family
criminality, and other sensitive factors that will become readily
available and quickly cross-referenced and correlated with information
contained in intelligence files. In addition, the information gained
from the compass core assessment official record can be used as an
“administrative determinate” under 15 CCR 3375.2(b)(11) in addition to
3375.3 (9)(4)(A) & (B) which is the foundation not only for
validation but for intelligence analysts.
Issuing a list of demands to prisoncrats telling them what their
validation process should be is ludicrous, as is the idea of telling
your body when it should have the urge to excrete. Cats are quick to
want to make demands without any leverage, though prisoners no matter
where they are confined, have economic leverage that they are not
willing to exercise because cookies are of more immediate import.
Since the 1880s the concept of boycotting, or organizing to engage in a
concerted refusal to have dealings with prison/jail stores or
commissaries, has been a very powerful tool. In California it deprives
the CDCR of a source of revenue. It also affects the bottom line of
prison profiteers, whose profits are guaranteed by what amounts to cash
transactions for hundreds of millions in profits and revenues, courtesy
of prisoners who lack the will to sacrifice luxuries for a while in
order to exercise necessary economic leverage, to compel some
administrative change.
Prisoners in California should remember that canteen goods originally
were purchased at wholesale prices and then marked up 10% and the
proceeds over the costs and expenses went into the prisoner welfare fund
to finance many programs and activities that benefited prisoners. This
changed with the rise of Pete Wilson, the governor who used prisoner
welfare funds to help finance a re-election bid which opened the flood
gates for all sorts of misuse of the foundational purpose of the
prisoner welfare fund.
The validation process is a means of control and manipulation that I
have noted that some general population prisoners and sensitive needs
yard (SNY/PC) prisoners embrace as a sort of badge of honor, only to
belatedly find out the effects. In ULK 26an
Oregon prisoner points to the most significant problems with the
divisive nature in the development of LOs who are in competition with
each other.
It’s common for me to hear cats hollering that they are Blood this,
Blood that. Crip this or Crip that, Norteño, Southsider, Bulldog, skin
head, nazi, etc., trying to tout some bogus gangsta facade that
ordinarily would land them on Corcoran SHU 4B and validated. These
boastful cats are easily co-opted and manipulated. Their delusions of
grandeur provide Institutional Gang Investigations (IGI) with a wealth
of intelligence via their eyes and ears on the tier.
A perfect example is the
Corcoran
prisoner’s statement about cats in ASU I (Administrative
Segregation) laying down in fear of IGI retaliation for exercising their
right to file an appeal! Typically conversations over the tier are
recorded when IGI doesn’t have a reliable agent to make note of what he
sees and/or hears. As to the idea of
not
taking a cellie as a form of protest, the typical response is
privileges taken for 90-180 days and 60-90 days of early release credits
are taken. Cats who are addicted to sports programs or television or
canteen will cave in every time because they lack the will to sacrifice
luxuries for the cause.
Prisoncrats treat gang membership or association as a tool of extortion
used in their agenda of touting the violent nature of street or prison
gangs.
The CDCR is rife with crooked officials and staff and the secretary,
governor and legislature are unable and unwilling to purge itself of
those who regularly falsify reports. Supervisory staff/officials fail to
address the problems so as to encourage the misconduct and repression.
At the same time they are quick to feed a naive public a laundry list of
bogus incidents to justify the administration’s unwillingness to reform
itself.
I try to examine all aspects of the criminal injustice system to see
what tactics we can utilize in our struggle effectively, even if I have
to employ them alone. I sacrifice luxuries already so I know it’s
possible and a little something for all to consider.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade raises a good topic of
discussion: it’s important we evaluate the tactics that will be
effective in fighting prison repression. There are a limited number of
protest options available to prisoners, and some will be more effective
than others. Whichever tactics are best may vary by prison or state, but
the fundamental task of building unity for the struggle remains the same
across the entire criminal injustice system. Comrades in California
continue to strategize on the best ways to build on the recent prisoner
rights activism there. Join United Struggle from Within and work with
other anti-imperialist prisoners so that we aren’t stuck employing
tactics on our own, but rather in a united front across facilities,
organizations and nationalities.
This report is on the conditions at California State Prison - Corcoran
4A SHU (CSP-COR). It is written with the purpose of sharing with
comrades locally and nationally the demise of the movement here at
CSP-COR, and what will be necessary for comrades of the United Struggle
from Within (USW) to regain momentum uniting those capable of being
united in the struggle to abolish the Security Housing Units (SHU).
The author has been housed at CSP-COR SHU on an undetermined SHU
sentence that resulted from a battery on a peace officer with serious
bodily injury. This was an event orchestrated by Kern Valley State
Prison’s corrupt guards. Any prisoner who has been somewhere within the
California prison system knows the history of CSP-COR and the high
degree of guard corruption; everything from murder and police brutality
to conspiracy against prisoners for complaining against officials. Here
at CSP-COR I’ve personally witnessed staff abuse the power bestowed upon
them by California and its California Correctional Peace Officers
Association (CCPOA) union for the purpose of keeping their foot on
prisoners’ throats and preventing our freedom of speech.
There is a code of silence practiced by the majority of staff at
CSP-COR, dubbed the Green Wall, and it’s alive and well here in 2012.
Where once it was isolated to those in green (correctional officers) it
has now spread to those within the medical department (nurses, doctors,
and psych staff), the legal library, the mail department, the food
services department, and the religious department. This is not to say
that every person who works for the CDCR is a part of the Wall; there
are individuals who can be used to expose the system for what it is. But
the state’s institutions seem to be uniting its forces more these days
against prisoners for the sake of covering up the problems and sweeping
important social issues under the rug.
On 4A, the law librarian prevents any access to his facility unless a
prisoner has a deadline from the courts or a state. The prison law
library is the most important resource for prisoners, providing
literature that guides the ability of prisoners to more effectively
prosecute cases in the judicial branch of this government. Prisoners
need things like computers, copies, typewriters, reference material,
etc. The CCPOA knows this and take away prisoners’ access to one of the
most important resources they have through understaffing and budgeting.
Political power in the hands of prisoners presents a threat to the
financial security of every vampire of the U.S. prison complex. And
because it is not only a possibility but also a social reality, the
state and the union seek to stall the success of the prison movement,
particularly in the area of free speech, free assembly, and right to
grievance which becomes free protest.
I’ve also witnessed officials censor prisoners’ mail because the
contents of the correspondence or periodical didn’t sit well with the
agenda or idea of the state-union establishment. Often a pig in the
position of sorting incoming/outgoing mail is issuing, withholding, or
completely disposing of a prisoner’s mail for malicious reasons.
Brothers at Corcoran SHU have a difficult time just corresponding with
the outside world. Officials with their personal vendettas, and most
times negligence, confiscate materials such as stationary packages sent
to a prisoner from their family. They then turn around and try to trade
the material with another prisoner who has filed a grievance against
them in exchange for the prisoner’s silence on the subject of the
grievance.
They trash mail that may expose the reality of the state-union
corruption. Most times they secure the support of the public by
declaring the “security” threat as a threat to the public. But if the
matter was placed under the microscope where the real public could hear
and see the position of prisoners, they’d be forced to recognize that
the blood of prisoners are on their, the public’s, hands.
California uses a department regulation 3135(c)(1) in order to validate
censorship practices in its prisons holding that the material is “…of a
character tending to incite murder, arson, a riot, or any form of
violence or physical harm to any person, or any ethnic, gender, racial,
religious, or other group.” Most times, though, this isn’t even the
case. It isn’t the security of the public that is at stake, it is the
financial security of the labor aristocracy that is at stake.
After the
Pelican Bay
State Prison (PBSP) hunger strike prisoners received a number of
small concessions from the state. Here they’ve already begun to renege
on their deal. They allow brothers to wear their personal kicks and at
times purchase new kicks. There are clear color pen fillers on the
store, beanies are issued in the winter, and someone from the psych
staff walks around once a week and passes out a sheet of paper with
eight to ten puzzles and a calendar for the Jewish month. But CSP-COR
officials don’t even recognize the elements with the most material
substance of the PBSP core demands. There is no group yard, the cages do
not have pull up bars, and the ab-roller equipment that was issued has
been banned. The canteen has not been expanded, there haven’t been any
added TV stations, and prisoners still can only receive one package per
year.
The guards are banning Prison Legal News and MIM(Prisons)
publications, but allowing religious periodicals like the
Trumpet. Any attempts by prisoners to come together to figure
out how to curb such BS is interfered with by means of vandalizing cell
inspections, shortening food rations, confiscation of
property/privileges, and bogus rule violation reports. Take, for
example, an event that occurred where various Special Needs Yard and
Disciplinary Detention prisoners of Black, white, and Latino nationality
were on the cage yard exercising together, calling out their routine in
cadence to coordinate the exercise routine. The yard pig approached the
group and interrupted their exercise stating they’d have to cease the
group work out as it was gang activity. The prisoners objected asking,
“was the Marines a gang?” The pig wouldn’t answer, so they continued
exercising. The pig called the building where these prisoners were
housed and instructed 4 coworkers that the prisoners involved in the
exercise routine were to have their cells vandalized.
This is a brief description of the abuses taking place at CSP-Corcoran.
There are a few class actions being initiated and a certain USW comrade
is organizing prisoners (peacefully) around a campaign to oppose mail
censorship. The USW comrade said it all started with CSP-Corcoran
censoring MIM(Prison)’s correspondence.
Every since my filing of the MIM censorship suit I haven’t been able to
get a 602 [grievance form] processed, and I was pretty good at filing
them and winning them prior to the MIM suit. Since I’ve been at this
prison the only 602 I was able to get acknowledged and processed was one
concerning the law library, and only after two months of either having
them “screened out” for one reason or another or simply being ignored.
It was only because I finally got tired of their b.s., went over their
heads and mailed a “retaliation and conspiracy” petition to Sacramento
along with a quick letter explaining my situation.
Afterwards I not only got a letter from Sacramento telling me they’d
sent it back to appeals court with instructions to properly process, but
I got a letter from here basically reprimanding me for going over their
heads; but it got the job done.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a good example of perseverance in the
face of repression, following in the footsteps of a
similar
victory in Kern Valley this month.
The main points in your response criticize our efforts to better our own
conditions. And that’s MIM(Prisons)’s common ideology as I’ve noticed
from the material of yours I’ve read. MIM(Prisons) is quick to condemn
and downplay rebellious actions as premature, saying the rebels ain’t
“ready” and lack unity of the masses to obtain success. But I don’t
believe that’s always the proper analysis of the rebellions you speak
against. Ultimate victory is obtained through action, by taking
chances. Is it proper revolutionary conduct to sit on the sidelines and
cheerlead, even in the midst of war? That makes me think of the Muslim
Brotherhood. They failed to participate in the revolt that happened in
Egypt, but they were quick to celebrate the victory, they were quick to
want to enforce their ideologies in the new government. True
revolutionaries must, at some point, get their hands dirty.
To constantly speak against taking action, for lack of proper political
education (or for whatever reasons), is to tell Rosa Parks she should’ve
just moved to the back of the bus. It’s the same as telling indigenous
peoples they’re ignorant for fighting back against the oppressors to
preserve their way of life, or to tell the rebel fighters in the African
and Arab countries to lay down their arms because MIM(Prisons) doesn’t
feel those citizens are ready. But as we’ve seen, many oppressive
governments have been toppled successfully.
When Fidel and Raul Castro, Che, etc, invaded Cuba they did it with only
82 men. But they only had 22 left after the first ambush. They lacked
the loyalty of the masses, took a chance, and succeeded!
In the situation at YTS I admit we were young and lacked the proper
political education, and as I’ve said, I now see all our energy
should’ve been focused on the system itself. But our technique was a
success according to our young, uneducated ideologies at the time. Our
goal wasn’t to try to change the whole California Youth Authority system
itself, but to reform YTS, to make our living conditions better, to get
things back that had been taken from us. The power was in our hands, the
hands of the people. Administration clearly saw that and eventually
relented to our demands. The administration’s intent was to pacify us,
but in my article I never said anything about being pacified. The “few
bones” thrown to us did nothing to calm us down. And in the process we
learned something of value: we learned an art of war against the system,
and how to organize, even if you do choose to call it focoism.
Experience in war, even if that battle is lost (ours wasn’t), is
intrinsically valuable for the preparations of future battles against
the oppressors. “Talk,” verbal education, can only go so far. Experience
is the ultimate teacher. And it’s my experience at YTS that has now made
me hungry for revolutionary education. I now study politics and try to
get my priorities in order to help clean up the hypocrisy of the
injustice system. I doubt I’m the only one that’s been motivated as a
result of my experiences. So wouldn’t you call that a victory?!
Any patriot whose ever lost a battle will tell you he’s learned
something of more value than just how to shed blood.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We appreciate this writer’s commitment to
struggle with us over this issue after reading our response to h article
in Under Lock & Key. This is a good example of
Unity-Struggle-Unity. We must fearlessly tackle our ideological
disagreements and questions while working together for change. Theories
can only truly be tested in practice, and so in this way we agree that
experience is the ultimate teacher.
This is a debate over the lessons of experience, not one of “talk”
vs. experience as this prisoner represents. The article we printed
talked about the YTS Chino prisoners who engaged in “race riots” where
nations fought nations because they were being punished already for
violence. The prisoncrats eventually saw the wisdom of resolving the
situation by improving conditions rather than increasing repression.
Certainly all of the youth involved in these struggles learned some
valuable lessons. Most important is the lesson about the arbitrary
nature of punishment meted out by the criminal injustice system. But we
look to the practice of prisoners across the country and see that
violence among prisoners generally leads to more violence and repression
by the prison pigs, not the administration giving in to demands.
If we really want to learn from practice we must look at more than just
one situation and draw scientific conclusions from history. It is likely
that more than one individual prayed for change to the conditions in YTS
Chino during this time, but we don’t conclude that praying to god
results in improvements in prisons just from this one experience.
Similarly we can’t take this one situation as evidence that violence
among the people will lead the oppressors to lessen oppression when this
is contradicted in the vast majority of prisons.
MIM(Prisons) does walk a line between supporting just struggles of the
oppressed wherever they break out, and drawing lessons from the
struggles while trying to push them to ever more advanced and successful
levels. While we struggle against focoism, we have a bigger problem of
inaction due to fear among the prison masses. So we recognize the
positive aspects of immature rebellions that serve as breeding grounds
for more advanced comrades and strategies. When these struggles present
just demands we will support them, but we should not blindly cheerlead
for every outbreak of rebellion.
The case of Cuba is a good historical example where we would defend
their just struggle against imperialist aggression while pointing out
that their revolution ended up dependent on Soviet imperialism and this
hindered their ability to develop socialism and advance further in the
interests of the Cuban people. This is a scientific analysis of history
that must be undertaken so that we can learn from successes and
failures. Many times in many countries people take up armed struggle
without Maoist leadership and people’s support. We resolutely support
these struggles when they oppose imperialism, but we don’t want to
mislead people by suggesting that this is the best path to follow for
other struggles.
This comrade’s development of political awareness out of his experience
at YTS Chino is a victory for the oppressed. But to sum up that history
overall as a victory would imply that random violence among the
oppressed wins victories from the oppressor. What makes it useful to
retell these histories is to say here’s what was righteous, and here’s
what was backwards or immature in our approach, to apply those lessons
to our future struggles and share them with those who find themselves in
similar situations today so that they can do better than we did.
I’m reporting from Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP). I’ve been engaged in
the last 16 months educating our comrades to the increasingly aggressive
tactics California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
has taken in the course of systematically depriving us of every human
and civil right a prisoner is supposed to retain. I’ve also been
attempting to strengthen communication and, aside from a select few,
have been met with complacency and apathy.
We few have organized effective communication with one another and have
used creative strategies to combat certain conditions we’ve been
experiencing. At first, utilizing the 602 grievance process was only met
with rejections, so we took our well written 602s (grievances) that used
Department Operations Manual (DOM), California Code of Regulations (CCR)
Title 15, California penal code, and U.S. law, and bypassed the lower
level institutional coordinators and submitted copies to:
Governor Brown, State Capitol, Ste. 1173 Sacramento, CA 95814
CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate, 1515 S. St., Ste. 330, Sacramento, CA
95811
CA Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Capitol Bldg, Rm 4005, Sacramento, CA
95814
Inmate Appeals Branch, Chief CDCR, PO Box 942883, Sacramento, CA
94283-0001
And other relevant heads of department and politicians. The outcome
has led to a spotlight shining down on KVSP administrative staff with
official reprimands and supplemental memorandums and addendum. Warden
M.D. Biter has been reprimanded to the effect of: stop superseding the
DOM, CCR, and other applicable state and federal law, and to honor the
CDCR 22 written request process that was formulated after the 2011
hunger strikes, and 602 grievance process. I’ve only been told this and
cannot provide documentation, but it comes from reliable sources within
administrative staff who are against the institution head’s policies.
Ever since these reprimands have supposedly taken place, there has been
a notable change in everything. Our 602s are being accepted for review,
22 forms are being answered within time limits, program has resumed on
modified procedure, and our food is adequately proportioned. We’ve had
no cases of staff misconduct, threats of any kind, or adverse
retaliatory actions from administration, from January through today’s
date of 5 June 2012.
I’ve created a private law library of essential regulatory content and
political value which has been utilized and facilitated by interested
prisoners and we are accumulating knowledge.
These are still initial stages and our struggle needs lots of work, but
even minor accomplishments are boosting morale. I encourage everyone to
take the steps we’ve taken and stay strong and diligent. Keep records,
daily logs, and file immediate complaints of misconduct.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This prisoner is setting a good example of how
to push forward the legal struggle for basic rights. And this article
provides some good advice for California prisoners working on the
grievance
campaign demanding that grievances be addressed. Improving
conditions within which prisoners live and organize is an important step
in the struggle against the criminal injustice system. We know these
reforms will only bring short-term relief, as the system itself serves
the interests of the ruling imperialists and so substantive change will
not come until we overthrow imperialism. But these battles are important
for both education and the successes they bring.