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.
Effective August 7, 2017, envelopes will no longer be provided to
inmates. Please ensure that you write your return address on the
correspondence itself; otherwise, the inmate receiving the mail will not
have the return address.
This is a further attempt to reduce the introduction of drugs into our
facilities. It is for the health and safety of the population as
correspondence is being soaked/laced with illegal drugs. Correspondence
will be copied and only the copies will be provided to the inmate
(should this not be effective in eliminating the introduction of drugs
into the facilities, further steps maybe taken including allowing only
email or postcard correspondence with only one side of the postcard
being copied.) I appreciate your assistance as we attempt to keep your
loved one safe! - Director Wendy Kelly
This is the current tactic of repression in a so-called attempt to
eliminate drug usage. It’s really Arkansas Department of Corrections’s
ploy to increase the censorship of all incoming mail. I’m asking all
supporters and prisoners’ families to write Director Wendy Kelly to
protest this insane act of censoring prisoners’ mail. So effective 7
August 2017, we prisoners of ADC will only be given copies of our mail.
This act seems to be the state’s way of censoring Arkansas prisoners’
mail and an effective method to slow the Arkansas grievance petition.
Write to protest: Director Wendy Kelly, Arkansas Department of
Correction, PO Box 8707, Pine Bluff, Arkansas 71611.
by Soso of MIM(Prisons) May 2017 permalink
MIM(Prisons) recently received notification from the publisher Seven
Stories Press that we are in violation of copyright laws by making a PDF
of The Huey P. Newton Reader available for free on our website.
Copyright laws are a capitalist invention to enable the holders to make
more profits. In the case of books, it’s publishers (and sometimes the
authors) that are making money on these copyrights.
For most of what gets printed these days, trashy novels, bourgeois
interpretations of history and the like, we don’t care that distribution
is limited by copyright. But when it comes to revolutionary literature,
especially that which is relevant to the people least able to afford it,
we see clearly how copyright laws stifle education. Books about Huey
Newton, founder and leader of the Black Panther Party, need to be more
widely available.
MIM(Prisons) explicitly publishes everything under a
creative
commons license which invites everyone to build on, copy and share
all that we write. We’re not making money on our work, we’re putting all
of our money into spreading revolutionary education. And we want to
encourage others to do the same.
Education should be free for everyone. This includes educational
material like books. Intellectual property rights laws stifle creativity
and education and also directly harm the welfare of the people. Patents
keep drugs restrictively expensive by prohibiting anyone but the
inventor from manufacturing the drugs. This system of legal restrictions
and secrecy inhibits creativity and the advancement of society by
preventing people from building on inventions made by other people.
Meanwhile, people suffer.
It’s only in a capitalist society, where profit is king, that we need
these sorts of intellectual property restrictions. In a socialist
society, where the goal is the welfare of the people, we will prioritize
the most efficient and effective formula and distribution of life-saving
drugs, educational material, and everything else that is good for
humynity.
We are sympathetic that small publishers of political books like Seven
Stories Press are in a difficult space to earn money. With new book
releases it will often take a lot of book sales just to make back the
cost of the printing. However, this doesn’t make us sympathetic to
copyright claims on a book that was first printed in 2002. Perhaps
access to an electronic PDF is curtailing some sales of the physical
book, but if free access is getting more people to read this important
book, we think that’s a victory.
We hope that Seven Stories Press will re-evaluate their goals. On their
website Seven Stories claims: “Our credo is that publishers have a
special responsibility to defend free speech and human rights, and to
celebrate the gifts of the human imagination wherever we can.” They have
published some important and controversial books including the Dark
Alliance series about the CIA and crack cocaine, All Things
Censored by Mumia Abu Jamal, and the annual Project Censored’s
Censored report. Yet by shutting down the distribution of an
important book about the ideology of the Black Panther Party in order to
preserve their profits, Seven Stories is working counter to their credo.
I start this letter sending out all my respects to all involved in
educating and enlightening those persons such as myself.
These past couple of weeks have been a little hectic. Here at
Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, we have had difficulties with the
administration censoring our mail.
With that I am proud to say that they called me back within 24 hours,
saying I “will no longer have any problems receiving [my] mail” :)
Finally, yesterday my name was called to pick up
Sept/Oct. 2016,
No. 52 issue. Honestly I was shocked, empowered to know the feeling
of winning these people is such a childish move on their behalf. I sat
in the dayroom reading the publication with honor and pride.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This victory came through comrades coming
together and
filing
appeals and paperwork on the inside and the outside. This comrade
should be proud for standing up for eir First Amendment rights and
following through on the bureaucratic process that is often there to
wear you down.
However, this is not the first time
Warden
Siebel has assured us that the censorship issue has been addressed.
So we must remain always vigilant. Our rights only exist to the extent
that we struggle for them. And Amerikans will continue to oppress others
as long as imperialism remains in place.
by MIM(Prisons) November 2016 permalink
Click to Download PDF Of California Petition
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 on behalf of prisoners.
Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) 2590 Venture Oaks
Way Suite 200 Sacramento, CA 95833
Prison Law Office General Delivery San Quentin, CA 94964
Internal Affairs CDCR 10111 Old Placerville Rd, Ste
200 Sacramento, CA 95872
CDCR Office of Ombudsman 1515 S Street, Room 311 S Sacramento, CA
95811
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
Petition updated September 2011, July 2012, and October 2013,
February 2016, November 2016
by a South Carolina prisoner November 2016 permalink
This letter is to inform you to discontinue sending out the Under
Lock & Key newsletter to me here. There is a very repressive
regime established at this prison and indeed the entire state. The
censorship of our materials goes without challenge. Why? Authorized
violation of so-called rights! The grievance procedure is designed to be
a stalling mechanism and as it stands now is actually depriving the
prisoners here of redress of grievances and access to the courts!
I do not want relevant/useful information appropriated or destroyed by
these foolish people so please do not continue to mail any of your
publications for now. I am furious at these methods and practices this
system is using to block our awareness and consciousness but I am unable
to offer a real challenge because these South Carolinians are fast
asleep! I grow weary of the incessant thought of the problem. Merely
writing or filing actions to the courts who, with every degree of
bias/prejudice, turn blind eyes. We need some direct action! Do not let
our papers go to waste brothers and sisters! I do not have any reliable
sources out there. Yet, but I guarantee I soon will.
MIM(Prisons) responds: It is always sad to hear from comrades
hard at work behind bars who want their Under Lock & Key
subscription terminated due to censorship problems. We appreciate this
comrade’s desire to save us the cost of sending in a publication that
will only be censored, but we have also noticed that in prisons that are
usually censoring our literature, occasionally things will slip through.
So if you are in this situation, we are willing to continue to send
ULK, in the hopes that it will get to you.
If we look at the last 10 issues of ULK, the rate of copies
reported received in censor-heavy states like
South
Carolina and
North
Carolina are the same as the average across the country. The reports
of censorship in those states are higher, but we still have more people
reporting ULKs received. We have also had isolated victories
after appealing censorship in both states in the last couple years. Of
course, if more subscribers told us which issues they received and which
they did not, we would have more information so we could make a more
accurate assessment. So please let us know specifically what you have
received every time you write us.
Ultimately it is a tactical question of when we want to exclude a
facility or state from our mailing list because we think we are just
throwing money away. Overall, we know that only a small fraction of the
prison population is exposed to Under Lock & Key and we will
always face state repression in our efforts to expose them. So we have
chosen tactics that increase our chances of exposing the greatest number
of people.
This writer is setting a good example by fighting this censorship on all
the fronts possible. And trying to organize others as well. Conditions
change over time, and organizing is a dialectical process that involves
many failures. This letter underscores the need for outside support for
our comrades’ battles behind bars.
In our last update letter to United Struggle from Within (USW) comrades
in California, we announced that the California USW Coordinator would be
working with the California USW Council to provide better, more regular
updates in ULK to coordinate our campaign efforts in the state.
This will also reduce the need to send out separate letters except in
time-sensitive instances. This issue of ULK is the first with
such a CA-focused section.
One issue that came up among CA USW recently is restrictions on mailing
stamp donations. This was happening at CSP-Sacramento, and more recently
reported from West Valley Detention Center. In ULK 36 (3 years
ago), we printed a
report
from San Quentin where they successfully campaigned against the same
issue through a combination of 602 appeals and letters to the press
exposing these restrictions on freedom of expression.
Appeal #CSQ-J-13-03205 was submitted October 27, explaining exactly how
operational procedure 608 article 7 was being illegally circumvented.
This appeal was rejected by appeals coordinator puppet M.L. Davis on
November 1. Davis offered to process the appeal if appellant directed a
CDCR 22 to the mailroom. Davis also demanded appellant remove copies of
Article 7 and OP0212 which are in fact the official rules/directives
regarding “items enclosed in incoming first-class mail.”
If readers have other examples of successful tactics around this issue,
or rules to cite, send them to MIM(Prisons) for the next issue.
Santa Clara County Strike a Success
In
“Broad
Participation in September 9 FAM Prison Strike” we refer to the
challenge of organizing in California with more comrades in county jails
not under CDCR control. Perhaps this will be a temporary setback though,
as prisoners organized a recent strike in Santa Clara County. On 17
October 2016, over 300 people went on hunger strike, according to the
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition. The demands were around
ending solitary confinement, inadequate clothing, a faulty
appeals/grievance process and the overcharging at commissary. The strike
was suspended after less than a week, when the sheriff’s department
agreed to the demands. Comrades will maintain the strike in suspension
until the changes are actually made. MIM(Prisons) commends the
organizing efforts of these comrades and the focus on key campaign
issues of solitary confinement and the grievance process.
Ashker Settlement Hearings Done, SHU Victims Decrease
The number of people being held in SHU has dropped sharply since the
Ashker settlement (see
“Torture
Continues: CDCR Settlement Screws Prisoners” in ULK 46 for
more background). The review process has been completed, and 1,512 of
the 1,557 people covered by the settlement have been released from SHU
according to CDCR, with the remaining given dates for release. The
number in SHU cells in California is about 1/6 of what it was before the
settlement, with less than 500 SHU prisoners as of August 2016
(according to CDCR statistics). But we know a number of our readers are
still in SHU, and many more are in other forms of long-term isolation in
California, which is not covered by the settlement.
We must remain vigilant now to continue the fight against solitary
confinement in California. As we’ve always pointed out, these reforms
with such narrow focus only make it harder for those who remain in these
torture cells to get out. SHU cells represented less than a quarter of
the prisoners in California in long-term isolation according to our last
count prior to the recent decrease in SHU (see
www.abolishcontrolunits.org/research).
But as the comrades in Santa Clara have demonstrated, this battle is
still alive in the hearts of prisoners.
Organizing in
other
states around September 9th seems to have triggered censorship of
ULK in California. Chuckwalla Valley State Prison censored issue
51, which was the last issue before September 9th calling on people to
organize something for that day to promote peace and solidarity. The
original reasoning was that it “contained Disturbing and Offensive
content in the entire publication.” Upon our appeal, the warden upheld
the decision and specified that it was the article on page 1 that ey
felt was inspiring a work stoppage. California Health Care Facility was
the other facility that notified us of censorship of issue 51 for posing
a threat to the facility, but we have not received a response to that
appeal yet. We also received word from some comrades at Kern Valley
State Prison that they did not receive ULK 51, but no
notification of censorship has been issued.
Outside the realm of the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR), we also had problems in Orange County last month.
Orange County Jail and Theo Lacy both returned ULKs saying
prisoners were not there, when some of them are still in custody. While
the same laws apply to county jails, we must come up with tactics to
address them in addition to CDCR.
Chuckwalla seems to be going hard on mail interference. One comrade
reports that not only were ULK and SF Bayview newspapers
censored, but so are books sent from eir family. Another comrade, who
has also had letters from MIM Distributors censored, sent us a copy of a
form 22 ey submitted with a response from mailroom staff A. Salas, dated
29 September 2016:
“Bayview is currently under Division of Adult Institutions review for
all issues, to be placed on the list of Dissapproved Centralized
list.[sic] If a publication was received with your name on it then you
would have been issued an 1819, so if you haven’t received an 1819 then
you haven’t received a newspaper. MIM Distributors is also under review
by DAI to be put on the Centralized Disapproved publications list.”
MIM Distributors mail was banned by CDCR in 2006, until a
Prison Legal
News lawsuit was settled in 2007. The ban contined to be utilized
until 2011, and effectively cut us off from most California prisoners
for 3 or more years. Since then censorship in California has been
relatively low (though certainly not non-existent). We cannot afford to
lose access to our comrades in CA again. So please be vigilant in
appealing censorship and sending us updates. They do not have any basis
for a systemwide ban according to their own rules, but as we know there
are no rights, only power struggles. So keep up the fight to freely
associate with MIM(Prisons) and others on the outside!
Please be advised that Florida Department of Corrections has banned all
MIM publications. At this time I’m not able to file an informal or
formal grievance or appeal as to do so will result in immediate property
and mail restriction with a stretch of disciplinary confinement to back
it up. Enclosed are the latest rejection slips.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We are seeing many rejections from Florida
prisons, although ULK is still getting in to a few folks. We need
jailhouse lawyers who are being censored in Florida who can help take up
this fight through the grievances and into the courts. Your work will
impact many in this state with so many people behind bars. Get in touch
with us if you can take up this censorship battle. And for anyone on the
streets reading this, we really need lawyers who can support these
lawsuits from the outside. Check out our extensive documentation of
censorship in Florida (and elsewhere) from our
Amerikan Censorship
Documentation Project
by a North Carolina prisoner October 2016 permalink
As the comrade whom recently filed an
civil case
against NCDPS stated “there are no rights, only power struggles.”
Currently a prisoner entrapped in the cages of North Carolina, I testify
his comment as truth. Censorship within NC prisons has been expanded
from safety examination to harassing and illegal.
Censorship has become as a tool to cover up the corruption, tyranny, and
oppression. Not only outgoing and incoming mail, but also phone calls.
When an incident of corruption occurs, these facilities will not allow
prisoners to utilize commissionary to purchase stamps, envelopes, or
paper. Following the stoppage of canteens, warehouse officers will cease
the issuance of paper and envelopes for those of us who are indigent.
The
continuous
banning of ULK, and similar publications is a problem, but not our
only problem. Those of us who are experiencing these conditions, we have
to create a vanguard. And the comrades in Texas, California, and the
like, we must create a voice. Where is the unity? Where is the
solidarity. We have to construct a united front. It doesn’t only occur
in North Carolina. Maltreatment of prisoners occurs all across Amerika.
We must step up to cease these problems. Our sons, daughters, the future
generations, we must fight so they aren’t subjected to these
circumstances.
Censorship in North Carolina has risen to the point where it’s an
impossibility for my loved ones to receive a letter. Censorship in North
Carolina has elevated to the plane where legal documents are not
reaching their intended destinations. NCPDS has become so oppressive to
where there
isn’t
a law library in any correctional facility throughout the state.
NCPDS attempts to counter-attack, more appropriately worded as prevent,
a rise of consciousness. The preventative measures began with stripping
us of the tools which was used to enslave us: politics, economics, and
jurisprudence. As the historic figure Fredrick Douglass wrote to Gerril
Smith, the abolitionist, in his letter entitled “No Progress Without
Struggle”:
“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all
concessions, yet made to the august claims, have been born of earnest
struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and
for the time putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it
does nothing. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Mr. Fredrick Douglass continues:
“Those who profess freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are he who want
crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many
waters. This struggle may be a moral one; it may be a physical one, or
it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power
concedes nothing without a demand.”
Is the prison industrial complex not the contemporary plantations? Are
those of us who are locked away in the penal systems of Amerika,
denounced, then deprived of their rights? Dr. John S. Rock, an
accomplished physician and lawyer, who was the first New-Afrikan
attorney admitted to the bar of the United $tates Supreme Court said,
“The greatest battles which they have fought have been upon paper.”
We are stripped of our rights according to their principles, laws, and
constitution. North Carolina this is the time to support each other, to
unite and form organizations, on the inside and outside to voice against
the oppression. You are not alone. For all of those whom are oppressed,
we have one common objective: to end it! Comrades, please aid your
assistance by advice.
The first step is organizing! One for all, all for one!
MIM(Prisons) responds: We previously reported in ULK 52 on
a former prisoner’s lawsuit against North Carolina Department of Public
Safety (NCDPS) for censoring Under Lock & Key. Since that
article we have not seen any updates on this front.
In the meantime, Director of Rehabilitative Programs and Services Nicole
E. Sullivan recently responded to our appeal of the censorship of ULK
51. In eir response, Director Sullivan acknowledges that ULK
has a policy against violence and insurrection in our newsletter, ey
still says peaceful protest when no other administrative avenue has
provided any relief is a threat to safety and order. The real threat to
safety and order is the deplorable conditions of confinement that
prisoners in North Carolina and across the country are forced to live
in. It seems Director Sullivan sees prisoners as inanimate objects
rather than people.
As ridiculous as this response is, we need a lawsuit to get NCDPS to
budge on its censorship of ULK in the short-term. Getting
ULK into the hands of prisoners is one major way we work toward
addressing the long-term problems of oppression that NCDPS is able to
operate under.
Also as part of our long-term strategy, we need to go beyond Frederick
Douglass and the “prison industrial complex” analysis. While Douglass
did provide inspiration for many, when it was time to decide between New
Afrikan self-determination and integration with Amerikkka, Douglass
affirmed eir loyalty to empire and was even appointed U.S. Marshall of
the District of Columbia. This was at a time when others, including
Harriet Tubman, were organizing separatist movements and independent
institutions for New Afrikans, post-Civil War.(1)
We oppose the line that prisons are set up for profit (the analysis of
the “prison industrial complex”) because not only is it simply not true
that the prison boom is motivated by profit from prisoner labor, it also
glosses over the primary purpose of prisons: to control oppressed
populations.(2) When we have our historical analysis ironed out, we will
be better able to take on our oppressors and win!
Un mes atrás enviamos una tanda de correo a los participantes del grupo
de estudio introductorio en el MIM(Prisiones). Era la primera tanda de
correo de la nueva sesión e incluía una tarea de lectura y algunas
preguntas.
Recibimos muchos rechazos sobre este correo de las prisiones de Florida,
en particular desde el Instituto Correccional Hamilton, en donde a todos
los nuevos participantes se les devolvió su correo con un recibo de
retorno por correo noautorizado que cita razones que
incluyen: “amenaza a los objetivos de seguridad, orden o rehabilitación,
o a la seguridad de las personas. Representa, describe o alienta
actividades que pueden llevar al uso de la violencia física o
desorganización grupal. Alienta a que se lleven a cabo actos
delictivos.” De hecho, a una de estas personas también se le envió un
formulario de correo sin confirmar que enumeraba las cartas que
nosotros les habíamos enviado hace poco, y esta carta también fue
enviada, ¡citando las mismas razones! Está claro que la sala de correo
en el Instituto Correccional Hamilton ni siquiera se preocupa por leer
las cartas de MIM(Prisiones) antes de devolvérnoslas.
Como respuesta a esta censura, a estas personas les enviamos una copia
de nuestra guía de seis páginas para luchar contra la censura. Este
documento contiene consejos legales y administrativos para apelar a la
injusta negación de correo. Inmediatamente, se nos devolvió 17 sobres
(anticipamos que lo que sobra será devuelto pronto), junto con otro
recibo de retorno por correo no autorizado por parte del
personal de la sala de correo, que indicaba que esta había sido
rechazada porque:
“De otro modo representa una amenaza a la seguridad, orden, u
objetivos de rehabilitación del sistema de correccional, o a la
seguridad de cualquier otra persona.”
“Representa, describe o alienta actividades que pueden llevar al uso de
la violencia física o desorganización grupal.”
“Alienta o instruye en la comisión de actividades delictivas.”
La carta en cuestión contiene citas legales y pautas de políticas de
apelación administrativas. Este tema claramente no está relacionado con
la violencia o seguridad de una prisión. No hay nada en esta carta que
se pueda interpretar como que representa o alienta a la violencia o
desorganización grupal. Y definitivamente no tiene nada que aliente o
instruya a cometer delitos. Hemos enviado una apelación al alcaide de
Hamilton pero no somos optimistas dado que incidentes similares en
Florida se han chocado contra paredes de silencio o de negación de
nuestras demandas sin razón.
Necesitamos un abogado para que nos ayude con esta pelea en Florida,
pero hasta ahora, ninguna firma de abogados ha estado dispuesta a
aceptar este importante caso. Tenemos compañeros que conocen muy bien la
ley que pelea contra esta censura, pero es muy difícil coordinar nuestro
trabajo cuando nada de nuestro correo ni siquiera les llega a estos
activistas.
Casos como estos deberían enfurecer, incluso a aquellos que creen en
Amérika como una sociedad justa. Es obvio que no hay justicia en la
negación de material educativo y recursos legales a los prisioneros. Y
este tipo de acción expone claramente la mentira de la rehabilitación
que el sistema pretende apoyar. Las personas con acceso a internet
pueden buscar en la web estos y otros casos de censura en nuestro sitio
www.prisoncensorship.info/data.