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.
In Jacksboro, Texas, Correctional Corporation of America unit offenders
with disabilities are discriminated against per 42 U.S.C. § 12132. The
use of solitary confinement on prisoners with serious mental illnesses
at this jail does not meet state legal standards. Offenders rights under
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as the Eighth
Amendment are in dire straits. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice
(TDCJ) fails to follow policy and laws. Offenders are in their cells 24
hours a day. I was placed in a psychiatric unit in Lubbock, Texas
(Montford Unit) from February to September 2013, locked in a cell all
the time. Then I moved to state jail and all my medications that I was
given by TDCJ doctors were taken away and they told TDCJ they don’t
allow that medication on this unit.
I am being given the run around fighting this because courts have ruled
that private prison corporations are not a public entity merely because
they have entered into a contract with a public entity to provide
services. An instrument of the state is only a government unit or unit
created by a government unit; as such, no title II ADA claims are
applicable. The ADA does not apply to private prisons.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We have written extensively about the
health
effects of solitary confinement which is cruel and unusual
punishment even for healthy prisoners. Those with mental health problems
are even more dramatically harmed by this long-term isolation. Texas has
a history of
“treating”
prisoners with mental illness with torture. We know that this
isolation is a tool of social control in a criminal injustice system
that does not care about the health of prisoners. Further,
prisons
use mental illness and labels, treatment and the withholding of
treatment, as another tool of social control. We must fight this with
our own institutions of mental health: education, persynal healthy
practices, mental engagement and social interaction where possible. In
addition to our educational programs and work connecting prisoners with
the struggle on the streets, we distribute portions of the American
Friends Service Committee’s
Survivors Manual for people in control units. Write to us for a copy
and for more information on how you can plug in to the anti-imperialist
prison movement.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) picked up my pending case
challenging inadequate medical services and unconstitutional conditions
of confinement in 2011. We’re expecting a trial date in 2015. We are
attempting to force Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) to change
its policy and practice of housing the mentally ill in isolation for
extended periods of time. State prison is extremely poor, prisons are
understaffed and riddled with security flaws. I am an adamant critic and
am vocal about its policies and practices, therefore the administration
has made my life here in prison severely difficult.
I am also working on my criminal convictions. I’ve navigated myself
through multiple tiers of appeals. I really had a hard time exhausting
all my state remedies in the Arizona State Courts. It took me almost
eleven years to figure out, but most recently I filed my first federal
habeas corpus petition in Arizona Federal District Court. I am
requesting that the federal court appoint me a lawyer to investigate the
possibility of state judicial corruption against the Tucson Police
Department and the Pima County Attorneys Office. Last week I filed a
Writ of Certiorari. This is a petition to the United States’s
highest court; they only address issues involving “Constitutional
magnitude.” I’m asking them to resolve the Constitutional question that
was left open in Martinez V. Ryan, 623 F.3d 731,
132S.CT1309(1023) of:
“Whether a defendant in a state criminal case has a federal
Constitutional Right to effective Assistance of Counsel at
initial-review-collateral-proceedings specifically with respect to his
ineffective-assistance-of-trial-counsel-claim.”
Because state law does not mandate Effective Assistance of Counsel
during a convicted criminal’s Initial-Review Collateral Proceedings
(Ariz. R. Crim. P. Rule 32), I’m able to believe that prisoners
in Arizona are being discriminated against because they’re indigent and
cannot afford effective counsel during their Initial-Review Collateral
Proceedings. The United States Supreme Court only takes 3% of the cases
filed each term, so the odds of them taking my case is nil, but imagine
if they did. WOW, this would mean that a pro se litigant would
have molded the law to conform to the needs of the oppressed here at the
very bottom of society’s heap. A person is only as big as his dreams.
Fortunately, it does not end there. A Section 1983 Civil Rights Action
prohibits a state from discriminating pursuant to the Fourteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides that:
“No state shall… deprive any person of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the Law.”
The clause is “a direction that all persons similarly situated should be
treated alike.”(City of Cleburne V. Cleburne Living ctr, 4730 U.S.
432,439 (1985))
I am determined to build a strong campaign to gain Injunctive Relief in
a class action seeking to remedy the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment
violations caused by Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 32’s past
and continuing operations. Our actions, even if successful, will not
demonstrate the invalidity of our conviction or sentence, therefore
Section 1983 Class Action is the proper vehicle.(Wilkinson v.
Dotson, 544 U.S. 74,82 (2005).)
If you feel you were denied Effective Assistance of trial council, and a
Fourteenth Amendment right to effective assistance of Appeals Counsel
for your Initial-Review Collateral Proceedings because either you did
not have an attorney during your first Rule 32, or your Arizona R. Crim.
P Rule 32 Lawyer was ineffective for failing to investigate Trial
Counsel claims and/or other substantial right claims during trial, it
would be important to draft out a notarized affidavit outlining the
facts in your specific case and send them to the addresses below. If
we’re able to gain enough affidavits, then we could proceed to present
these facts to a federal district court asking them to appoint class
counsel and certify our case as a class action. All we can do is try! In
Strength and Solidarity, Revolution!
Send your notarized affidavits to:
Arizona Prison Watch P.O. Box 20494 PHX, AZ 85036
Middle Ground Prison Reform 139 E Encanto Drive Tempe, AZ 85281
Arizona Justice Project P.O. Box 875920 Tempe, AZ 85287-5930
MIM(Prisons) adds: Please note to not send your affidavits to
MIM(Prisons). We do not have the resources to copy and mail your
affidavits to the addresses listed above.
We commend this comrade on discovering loopholes in the legal system and
attempting to remedy them to the advantage of the most oppressed in this
country. We encourage comrades in Arizona to participate in this effort
to provide more legal support to prisoners in the state (at least on
paper).
And we must remember that our struggle cannot stop there. While a
successful habeas corpus case may help a prisoner to be
released, a release is only as valuable as what you do with your time
when you’ve made it outside. A recently released comrade
wrote
of the challenges s/he will face after h parole, and the difficultes
s/he will have in carrying out political work, even though s/he is
supposedly now “free.” The trend toward individualism of general legal
counsel is one reason why the MIM(Prisons)-led Prisoners’ Legal Clinic
only works on issues directly related to expanding our ability to
organize, educate, and build toward an end to illegitimate imprisonment
altogether (i.e. communist society). We believe people should fight for
their release, but that they also should struggle for the release of the
world’s majority from the chains of imperialism.
Related to the topic of carefully selecting our battles, we have written
extensively on the limitations of focusing on fighting housing mentally
ill prisoners in long-term isolation.(1) Some shortcomings of this
strategy are legitimization of long-term isolation for
not-yet-mentally-ill prisoners, and the fact that long-term isolation
leads to mental illness in prisoners even if they entered isolation with
sound mind and body. Of course we agree with the principle that mentally
ill prisoners should not be housed in long-term isolation. But we take
it further to say that no prisoners should be housed in
long-term isolation, and we see no value in selling out some comrades on
this issue in order to save others; eventually everyone held in
long-term isolation will suffer mental illness. Abolish the SHU!
The wardens in the California prisons that have SHUs are to meet with
the prisoners to address the human rights violations that go on here and
make the necessary changes to put a stop to these abuses. But here in
Tehachapi they are so corrupt and unethical that they will not meet with
us. Instead they took it upon themselves to intentionally not process
our 602s [grievance forms]. Every 602 we file to address the ongoing
neglect and abuse of authority by California Correctional Institution
(CCI) officials either gets lost or rejected under made-up policies.
Their reasons for rejecting them are nowhere in the Title 15 or
Department Operations Manual. When we prove them wrong is when our 602s
go missing.
I have brought this abuse of authority to the warden, captain, and
lieutenant’s attention with no results. To my surprise I was informed
that it was these high ranking officials who instructed the appeals
coordinators to not process our 602s. These officials here would rather
cover up and falsify state documentation instead of addressing and
following their own policies. We have the documents to prove this, but
if we can’t get our 602s processed then it’s pointless. These officials
behave like they are above the law. They lie and openly admit that they
don’t have to follow their own policies regardless of who is negatively
affected.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a good illustration of what we mean
when we call a system a bourgeois democracy. In such a system, certain
freedoms are very important, especially those related to trade and
exploitation. But for the oppressed peoples there is no democracy in
this system. These state officials, who are bound by the laws of the
state, regularly break those laws with impunity when it comes to the
oppressed. That is why we say the rule of the bourgeoisie must be
replaced by a rule by the proletarian class, whose interests would
respect the rights of all to be free of the abuses prisoners face in the
United $tates.
We believe this requirement that wardens meet with prisoners is an
outcome of the
recent
prisoner strike in California that targeted the inhumyn conditions
of isolation specifically. But it is no surprise that at CCI the
high-ranking officials are denying prisoners’ access to the legal
appeals system through which they are required to file. In fact, this is
not specific to CCI; we hear regularly about grievances being “lost” in
many prisons. And this is why the campaign to demand grievances be
addressed was initiated in California in 2010. This campaign won’t solve
the larger problem of torture in the SHU, or overall corruption in the
criminal injustice system, but it gives prisoners a systematic way to
fight for their limited legal rights to appeal wrongdoing by the prison
staff. Write to us today for a copy of the grievance petition for your
state. Organizing around this campaign is one way to organize the
oppressed nations and classes to eventually replace those in power now.
I am a Georgia prisoner of war at Hancock State Plantation and just
recently on 13 November 2013 I was locked down with numerous others on a
Tier II program of “gang control” for long-term lock down. The
administration says we are a threat to the security and welfare of the
institution. We were stripped of all our property, including hygiene,
and given state issue everything.
They tell us that the program is for behavior modification, which is
crazy considering most of us haven’t been to Ad-Seg in years. But they
tell us the qualification for this program runs 5 years prior sanctions.
We are not allowed to receive mail, literature, or be involved in
programs for any type of reform even though certain inmates are required
by courts to take classes in order to be released.
We only get one 15-minute phone call a month on Tuesdays and Thursdays,
which are working days to the employed across the United $tates. The
phones turn on at 8am and are cut off at 4:30pm. On top of all this, our
visitations are on the same days as our phone calls and we are allowed
to have only 2 hours of non-contact visits with a 2-person max of
visitors. Most of our families travel more than 2 hours just to see us.
Due to the lack of professionalism, or to the abundance of corruption,
we do not receive our 5 hours of outside recreation, nor do we receive
cell clean up, which is a violation of our prisoner rights per Georgia
Department of Corrections Standard Operating Procedures. We are forced,
by coercion of disciplinary reports and gas accompanied by a strip cell,
to have a cellmate even though this is a long-term lock down unit and we
are considered a threat to the security of the institution and other
persons. I heard the warden tell the captain pig “to let us kill each
other.”
Nine months is the minimum time you can be held in this Tier II program,
but if you receive a Disciplinary Report (D.R.) 90 more days are added
to your stay. There are seven close security plantations in Georgia that
have this Tier II program and they can hold us up to 2 years in each
one, which is 14 years in isolation all together if they choose to hold
you that long.
The pigs tend to aggravate and irritate us to react out of frustration
so we can receive a D.R. They do everything intentionally in order to
trick us into longer stay in Ad-Seg. They know that if everyone was to
complete this program in 9 months they wouldn’t have any program.
What’s so fishy about this sudden occurrence of a Tier II program in
Georgia is that earlier this year the Crips, Bloods, and GDs came to a
peace treaty in order for us to unite against the pigs’ oppression. We
are not organized to the point of a name, but we are upholding the
principles
of the United Front. We are trying to educate our comrades in a more
revolutionary mentality. As of now, most of the leaders and the more
influential participants are locked down in Ad-Seg and I don’t find this
a coincidence. The pigs hate the idea of us uniting in peace and not
killing each other.
Just as the oppressed communities are racially profiled as the garbage
pits of society that breeds and houses criminals, we prisoners are
racially profiled in practically a similar, if not a more blatant
extreme. The powers that govern and operate the U.S. Prison Colonies,
have catapulted measures that are atypically designed to target
prisoners, and criminalize their behavior in relation to belonging to a
disruptive prison gang, in particular, those prisoners who are
descendants of Afrikan/Mexican origin. They target those prisoners who
have demonstrated the capacity of independent thought process
(non-conformity), or those who are believed to be some kind of shot
caller, with influence over a particular group of prisoners. The
independent thought process itself that will enable prisoners to become
conscious of the injustices that are perpetrated on a regular basis
behind these walls, and so they are considered a threat.
This criminalization is called “The Validation Process.” Prisoners in
the SHU (Security Housing Units) at Pelican Bay State Prison, in
Kalifornia, have been validated as criminals belonging to a prison gang,
for some of the most idiotic reasons. From saying good morning to a
fellow prisoner, to signing a fellow prisoner’s get well card for a sick
relative, or a loved one. But the most ridiculous reason of them all is
the administration paying three collaborating informants to say that you
belong to a prison gang! Usually you’ve never even met this paid rat, or
only may have by chance possibly shared the same breakfast table with
him one morning, or looked at him in a manner that he did not appreciate
one afternoon. But yet, the burden of reliability is given to the paid
rat automatically, prior to the actual examination of facts. The
courts/society are practically lulled to sleep in the midst of this
madness, as the U.S. Prison Colony officials have planted the seed in
them, that their means of action is just, and required, in the interest
of protecting the safety/security of the institution. That’s nonsense!
As per Pelican Bay State Prison’s own policies, a gang member is one who
is consciously, and knowingly promoting criminal activities for a
particular gang. Over 75% of the prisoners housed in the SHU at PBSP are
being housed on an indefinite basis as allegedly belonging to a prison
gang, but have not committed one rule infraction.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This writer exposes the use of
control
units for social control in Amerikan prisons. This system of
isolation for control has a
long
history in the Amerikan criminal injustice system. Demonstrated to
cause both severe mental and physical damage to humyns, this long-term
solitary confinement is nothing less than torture. The recent
prisoner
hunger strike in California was initiated by prisoners demanding
change to the rules behind SHU lockup and improvements to the conditions
in the SHU. Conditions are so bad that prisoners are literally wiling to
die to fight for change. The importance of control units, as this writer
describes, is control of leaders and politically conscious prisoners.
This is not about criminal activity, it is about stopping prisoners from
spreading consciousness. Many of those targeted for the SHU are actually
promoting peace among prisoners, organizing different sets to get
together to fight the injustice system. The prisoncrats know this is the
real threat to the system.
Administrative and medical retaliations continue by California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) staff as retribution
for any sort of participation in hunger strikes and/or show of
resistance. Recent validation reviews have shown futile since CDCR is
utilizing hunger strike and single cell write-ups as proof of [security
threat group] association. Doctors first question, before denying all
subsequent inmate request for pain management, is: “were you in the
hunger strike?” 602s [grievance forms] are disappearing from inside
locked metal boxes.
MIM(Prisons) adds:Control units were developed as a form of
political and social control within the prison system, and this blatant
political repression against prisoners who protested against them shows
that social control is still their purpose. The review process is a sham
to allow the state of California to continue to torture oppressed people
while pretending to make changes.
We must continue the fight against these isolation units, but we know
that real and lasting changes will only be made when we dismantle the
criminal injustice system. In the short term we fight for reforms to
improve the conditions of those locked in these torture cells, but the
imperialists will not reform away their tools of social control. This is
why we see the fight against the criminal injustice system as an
integral part of the anti-imperialist struggle.
We mourn the death of
Herman
Wallace, one of the Angola Panthers. Herman died on Friday after a
judge threw out his case, as a result Herman was able to die outside of
prison. The fact that Herman was held the longest in solitary
confinement – approximately 40+ years, speaks of the history of torture
in U.S. prisons.
For many of us Herman is much more than simply a prisoner who was held
in the hole for decades. He co-founded the first prison chapter of the
Panthers, and spent his time in prison serving the people. He dedicated
his life behind the prison walls to educating people, ending the
hostilities surrounding prisoner-on-prisoner crime and fighting guard
brutality. For his determination to liberate his people he was framed
for a crime in an attempt to neutralize him by sealing him in a cage for
decades.
Herman refused to surrender and he was an example to other oppressed
prisoners to resist even in the dungeon. This example was too much for
the state and he was denied compassionate release by the oppressors. His
liver cancer is also suspect, we know the state has many dirty tricks in
its arsenal. But Herman, like others who rise up in prison, understood
that he might in the end pay with his life for this resistance.
It has been reported in the press that Herman’s last words were to the
effect of “I am free” before he died. But Herman was already free, he
was free while still in prison because he had liberated his mind decades
ago, and this was his real crime that the state was making him pay for.
Had Herman been a drug addict prisoner who preyed on other prisoners for
a cellphone from the pigs or for a sack of dope he would never have
spent over four decades in solitary confinement. Freedom comes from
one’s actions and this is something that the petty bourgeoisie does not
grasp and so they will never be free.
Those of us here in the SHU understand that at any time we can be free
from torture by simply making up information on someone or debriefing.
But like Herman many cannot fathom doing this to another human being and
instead choose to build our nation and RESIST! And for this we are also
met with torture. But like Herman we are also free, more free than many
people on the outside whose minds are in many ways more chained than SHU
prisoners. May the example of resistance displayed by Herman live on in
U.S. prisoners!
2 October 2013 - Right now myself and 21 other comrades are on hunger
strike. We started on Sunday 29 September 2013. Our purpose for the
hunger strike is to bring an end to all the unconstitutional conditions
that exist in segregation. These conditions include inadequate cleaning
supplies, regular use of excessive force whenever they put prisoners in
and out of cells, tampering with prisoners’ food, denying prisoners
access to recreational time on the yard, and failure to respond to
grievances. We are also striving to receive new law library books
because correctional officers destroyed the ones we had. We’re also
striving to get educational and other help programs for prisoners with
long-term segregation time.
Most prisoners who are confined in Pontiac Correctional Center are here
for staff assaults, and/or are labeled as “STG” (Security Threat Group)
status. It is well known that Pontiac C.C. is a ‘retaliatory facility’
for prisoners with the above labeled offenses. That’s why most prisoners
who come here with a year of segregation time end up with five, six,
seven years segregation time! This is all part of the oppressor’s plan
to keep places like this operating. That’s why me and the other comrades
on strike are writing local newspapers and organizations based around
the country to receive some outside support.
Me and my comrades have embraced and accepted
the
United Front for Peace in Prisons Statement of Principles and plan
to propagate them amongst the prisoners here in segregation. We see the
necessity of all five principles being put into use, as a means to unite
and gain unity amongst prisoners here, and hopefully to help free some
from the psychological chains of mental slavery.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Just last summer we received a report on
a
hunger strike at Pontiac Correctional Center for similar demands,
and in February a similar strike was reported by others. Our information
is limited due to
censorship
problems in Illinois, but we are working to get better follow up
this time around.
The problems at Pontiac were exacerbated last winter after the closure
of
Tamms
Supermax, which, for years, was the primary destination for jailhouse
lawyers and prisoner activists. One comrade reports from “North
administrative unit where it’s a constant battle with our rights and
living conditions. Since the closing of supermax Tamms, a lot of guys
are now being housed in this unit wrongfully.” As long as the oppressor
nation feels threatened by the oppressed they will not give up their
tools of torture and social control willingly.
Herman Wallace earlier this year, before his release from prison
We honor Black Panther Herman Wallace, who died on October 4, 2013 after
spending 41 years in solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison for
allegedly killing a prison guard. These charges were always suspect, and
on October 1 a U.S. District Chief Judge agreed and overturned his
conviction, ordering his immediate release. Despite the State of
Louisiana’s attempt to block the release, Wallace was able to spend the
last two and half days of his life out of prison with family and
friends.
The fact that Wallace had only days to live was well-known and likely
played into his release. On the same day of the decision, his close
comrades, Robert King (released in 2001) and Albert Woodfox (still in
solitary confinement) were able to visit him due to his dire
condition.(1) Together they made up the Angola 3, three of the longest
to spend time in solitary confinement. Woodfox is in his 41st year in a
control unit and is still locked up.
On 7 October 2013, the U.N. special rapporteur Juan E. Mendez called for
the release of Albert Woodfox from solitary confinement, saying his
isolation amounts to torture. Once again, the U.N. went on record
stating that “the use of solitary confinement in the U.S. penitentiary
system goes far beyond what is acceptable under international human
rights law.”(2)
The movement to free the Angola 3 has been championed by a dedicated
group and echoed by supporters of political prisoners for decades. And
the three, who formed a strong prison chapter of the
Black
Panther Party before being put in isolation, have continued to stay
politically sharp and struggle for the rights of oppressed people.
Robert King has been dedicated to not just supporting his two close
friends, but opposing the Amerikan criminal injustice system.
While we recognize their indominable spirits, and the pleasure Wallace
must have felt in his last few days, the tragedy of wasted lives in U.$.
torture chambers remains unacceptable. These men, who became dedicated
revolutionaries because of the adversities they faced, were prevented
from fully acting on those aims by a system that intentionally framed
and isolated them for political reasons. The state wants to brand
activists like the Angola 3 as “cop killers” when in reality they were
dedicated to a life of serving the people. They were individuals who
could have transformed the destiny of New Afrika, and supported the
liberation of all oppressed people from imperialism. Instead, Wallace
was tortured by Amerika for four decades, until he was within days of
death.
The case of Herman Wallace epitomizes the politics behind the United
$tates’s sanitized version of torture, in what is the largest mass
incarceration experiment in the history of humynkind. And while it may
be easier for some to support a Black Panther framed for killing a cop
than to support a Crip accused of being a “shot caller,” we must
recognize the continuity between them. Otherwise we only spend our time
on the individual cases, without addressing the system. We respect the
work of the Angola 3 Coalition and groups like it. On the other hand, we
should not be satisfied with victories like the release of Herman
Wallace 2.5 days before he dies. We celebrate the organizing that has
reached international attention in California in recent years, where
prisoners of all backgrounds in long-term isolation have stood together
to attack its very existence. While even that is just one piece of the
system that must be addressed, we can best pose a real challenge to this
systematic use of torture that is used by the Amerikan oppressor to
control those who might challenge their hegemony over the world by
organizing all those affected by it.
As a member of the
Georgia
hunger strikers of 2012 and the focus of Georgia’s prison beating, I
strive to awaken these brothers here in Georgia. I have been spreading
ULK to all here and to a lot of associates at other prisons. As
of 16 September 2013 the
video
of me being beaten with a claw hammer by these pigs has gone viral.
A comrade and myself have filed charges on those pigs, and due to all
the exposure, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is doing their best to
do damage control, but the damage is too great. Two state Senators are
calling for the whole ordeal to be investigated, including the Internal
Affairs and Georgia Bureau of Investigation. I’m still at the so-called
Special Management Unit.
To the brothers in California I salute you all! To all the fallen
comrades: your sacrifice will not be in vain!
MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a good example of the power of media
to expose injustice. Unfortunately, mainstream media has little interest
in exposing imperialism or the criminal injustice system, as that would
not sit well with their advertisers or their Amerikan readership. This
is why we need an alternative press. ULK fills this role for
prisons in particular. And we can best cover news when prisoners write
about what’s going on in their state. The 2012 Georgia hunger strike was
not written about extensively in ULK because we had to rely on
non-prisoner sources. Our ability to contribute to struggles like this
one is greatly enhanced with comrades like this writing in with news
about the struggle. Exposure does sometimes embarrass the pigs into
making changes, and even when it doesn’t, we must continue to educate
people about the abuse and injustice going on across the criminal
injustice system.