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.
Dillard v. Davis, et al. Civil Action
No. 7:19-cv-00081-M-BP
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E.-Legal Representative
113 Stockholm, #1A
Brooklyn, NY. 11221
#endrestrictivehousinginTDCJ
more about Plaintiff at
https://wireofhope.com/prison-penpal-daniel-dillard/
TDCJ Officials DENIED Summary Judgment in fight to END restrictive
housing in Texas
On 2 August 2022, Chief Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn rendered an Order
Accepting Findings, conclusions and recommendations of the United States
Magistrate Judge.
The Honorable Magistrate Judge Hal R. Ray Jr. submitted the findings,
conclusions and recommendations on 17 June 2022, effectively denying
TDCJ’s officials qualified immunity defense and finding that continuous
confinement in TDCJ’s version of solitary confinement is INDEFINITE
under the unconstitutional Restrictive Housing Plan. A date for trial
has not been set though it was also recommended by Magistrate Judge Ray
Jr.
The time is now for pre-trial preparations and the Plaintiff and
Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E. are requesting that individuals that are being held
in TDCJ’s Restrictive Housing please submit their testimony, artwork,
poems and writings to the contact info above. We want to hear your
stories about what you have suffered in TDCJ’s Restrictive Housing.
Anyone who wishes to participate in the trial must first submit their
testimony to Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E. first. Serious
inquiries ONLY! Secondly you must be willing to have your background
checked thoroughly. So once again, Serious Inquiries ONLY!
*** ATTENTION *** ATTENTION ***
Texas T.E.A.M.O.N.E. is putting together a scrapbook about solitary.
Submissions would go to the above address also, along with permission to
publish your material. Submission should be turned in NO later than
November 30th 2022.
Texas Together Ending All Mass
Oppression aNd Exploitations
MIM(Prisons) adds: We have distributed copies of this
press release to a number of prisoners in Texas, but need help doing so.
If you know someone suffering in RHU, please share this information with
them ASAP.
The campaign against long-term solitary confinement is a campaign
against torture and a campaign against political repression. It is
perhaps the most important struggle in the U.$. prison movement. Texas
has an opportunity to do what California failed to do. In California, an
alliance
of lumpen leaders and reformist organizations settled the
Ashker suit against the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation.(1) Texas T.E.A.M. O.N.E. will not be
following suit, and will be taking this battle to trial with the goal of
ending, not reforming, long-term solitary confinement in Texas.
As the Texas prison movement continues to grow, we must build broader
awareness and support for this battle, especially among the most
affected masses who are willing to dig in and fight for this. The
largest prison strikes in history precluded the battle against the
Security Housing Units in California, and yet the battle was lost. We
must put politics in command and rally the prisoners and people of Texas
to put an end to torture.
Notes: 1. Wiawimawo, September 2015, Torture Continues: CDCR
Settlement Screws Prisoners, Under Lock & Key No. 46.
UPDATE FOR AUGUST 2022: Now that Juneteenth 2022 has passed,
please use this updated
flyer and these updated
postcards now address the censorship across the state of Texas in
recent months. We need your support to keep increasing the pressure to
fight this censorship of political speech.
Download and print this flyer to hang or hand out.
We are also asking others to join our letter writing and postcard
campaign in support of the rights of MIM Distributors and activists in
Allred to freely communicate. There has been a rise in mail
censorship as organizing has progressed.
download PDF below
print 2-sided on cardstock
cut into 4
add $0.40 stamp (or more)
go to event or public space and ask people to sign their name, city
and state
explain the Junteenth Freedom Initiative to them
hand them a flyer (above) or Under Lock & Key
ask for a donation to pay for postage & printing
drop postcards in mail box (don’t mail them all at once we want a
consistent stream of cards coming in)
On 19 June 2022, prisoners across Texas abstained from celebrating
the federal Juneteenth holiday until real freedom is attained by the
oppressed in this country. Instead they organized, studied and made
their voices heard for the demands of the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative,
including:
End Solitary Confinement! End Restrictive Housing Units(RHU)!
End Mass Incarceration!
Stop Mail Censorship!
Transform the prisons to cadre schools! Transform ourselves into NEW
PEOPLE!
Updates Since Juneteenth
The response from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice(TDCJ) was
swift and coordinated. MIM(Prisons) sent hundreds of update letters to
comrades in Texas during the month of June, and almost all of them
appear to have been censored.
Prisons where our letters were censored for “inciting a disturbance”
or “riot” include:
Allred Unit
Beto I Unit
Boyd Unit
Christina Melton Crain Unit
Estelle High Security Unit
Estelle 2
Ferguson Unit
Gist
Hughes Unit
McConnell Unit
Mountain View Unit
Stevenson Unit
Telford Unit
Terrell Unit
Wallace Unit
Wynne Unit
We are still receiving and compiling censorship notices from June.
Needless to say, there was a coordinated effort to block our letters
across the state, and they were really worried about the Juneteenth
boycott. Of course, there was nothing about organizing a riot in our
letters. But the imperialists will consider a boycott a “disturbance”
worthy of violating Constitutional rights. Biden said we must celebrate
Juneteenth, so now we face the consequences of his goons in the
TDCJ.
The censorship at Allred Unit had been going on for months prior.
This is the worst RHU in the state, where a lot of the JFI organizing
began. Therefore we began a postcard
campaign to protest the political targeting of mail and of certain
prisoners at Allred. One comrade there received 22 mail denial notices
in one day in May! Another comrade in Allred wrote:
“I been denied 2 newsletters & 1 letter that ya’ll sent my way.
[everything we’ve sent this comrade] I highly appreciate ya’ll. I’ve
sent them home. This only confirms that Texas don’t want us to know.
Your news letters were denied for tha reason of ‘inciting a
disturbance’.”
“I asked the mail room lady if anything sent from this address will
be denied and she said, ‘Yes.’ Just like that, freedom of speech
denied.”
This campaign is ongoing, as the censorship continues, and we ask
outside supporters to get involved. Mail from prisoners in Allred is
often delayed a month or more, so updates on the launch of the JFI have
not yet come in from some of the organizers.
Outreach during June included flyering and postcards on the streets,
hundreds of update letters sent to TX prisoners and radio interviews in
Texas and on Free Aztlán on 96.1 KEXU in Oakland.
One Texas comrade reported:
“The Juneteenth Freedom Initiative flyer was displayed for several
weeks here. On Juneteenth, no movement due to low staff and no special
holiday meal. The officers dining room had ribs, BBQ chicken and
brisquet with all the fixins, and these were supposed to be delivered to
each officer on duty. However, most were stolen en route. The warden and
kitchen captain were pissed.”
The JFI was initiated by TX T.E.A.M. O.N.E who has continued to lead
organizing efforts inside. Others, including Prison Lives Matter,
Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee Local 613 #1, the Texas
Liberation Collective, and United Struggle from Within cells, have
joined the call. On the outside, MIM(Prisons), Anti-Imperialist Prisoner
Support, and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement have been providing
support.
Phase 2
Per the plan below, laid out by TX T.E.A.M. O.N.E. the next phase of
the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative for prisoners is to file petitions
with the Department of Justice. If you need a sample petition, write us
to get a copy. This petition is not specific to Texas.
Prisoners in long-term solitary confinement in Texas can also join
the Dillard lawsuit against the TDCJ. If you need a copy of the
motion to join, write us.
Outside supporters can best assist organizers inside by joining our
campaign against censorship. We want to continue to let the TDCJ know
that people outside are paying attention and not willing to accept this
political repression. We will be following up with a lawsuit on behalf
of an affected party in Allred and MIM Distributors. You can help in the
following ways:
calling or writing letters to the TDCJ, and to Allred Unit in
particular
getting others to sign postcards protesting the censorship
As you may know, Juneteenth has now been made a federal holiday in
amerika. On this day many will sing the praises of Our oppressors or
otherwise negate the reality of the lumpen (economically alienated
class), that according to amerika’s 13th amendment We are STILL SLAVES.
While We do not wish to nullify the intensity of the exploitation and
oppression that New Afrikan people held in chattel slavery faced, We
must pinpoint to the general public, those upcoming generations of
youngsters looking to follow Our footsteps, that to be held in captivity
by the state or feds is not only to be frowned upon but is part and
parcel with the intentions of this amerikan government, and its
capitalist-imperialist rulers. We say NO CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH until
the relation of people holding others in captivity is fully
abolished!!
Comrades have been organizing around the Juneteenth Freedom
Initiative(JFI) for almost a year now, and we just completed phase 1.
Prisoners in Texas and North Carolina took up the campaign. Instead of
celebrating Juneteenth, boycotters worked to get out the voice of the
incarcerated in TX and NC.
Previous campaign materials include more demands and more details.
Add your own demands that speak to your local conditions and make the
JFI demands heard by the masses and the oppressors. Don’t just boycott,
organize.
The Boycott is just the first phase and launch of this campaign by
and for all Texas prisoners.
Juneteenth boycott and voice demands starting 19 June 2022
present petition to the Department of Justice Special Litigation
division (write in to get a copy if you still need one) – everyone
should mail copies of their own signed petition to the DOJ following
Juneteenth 2022
if (2) fails to bring proper response, we will petition the United
Nations – date To Be Determined – watch for announcement in Under Lock
& Key, we will be requesting testimonials and collecting statistics
to back up our arguments on each campaign position and submit them as
evidence to bolster the recent guilty verdict of the We Still Charge
Genocide, International Tribunal 2021 where mass incarceration and
solitary confinement were ruled to be vital tools in the U.S. campaign
of genocide for centuries against Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples of
this continent.
As comrades in Texas, North Carolina and elsewhere took action to
protest long-term solitary confinement and mass incarceration this
Juneteenth, we lost a leader in the struggle against solitary
confinement and oppression in all forms in California. Paul Redd passed
away on 19 June 2022. His funeral was July 9th in Oakland,
Calfornia.
Redd was a New Afrikan Revolutionary, an author, and a principal
thinker behind the development of the 2012
Agreement to End Hostilities(AEH) across California prisons. The AEH
preceded an historical campaign against Security Housing Units(SHU) that
included the largest prison hunger strikes in history.
Statement from Paul Redd’s family
“Paul Redd left us on Juneteenth. A hero to so many, he was loved by
so many communities: from his childhood friends in Oakland, to his
family who has always been with him, to decades-long friendships from
the inside, to the many friends he made in his two years home after 44
years of wrongful incarceration, including 30 in solitary. He will be
remembered for his infinite love, his courage, strength, generosity,
hope, his poetry, and passion for justice. We love you Paul!”
Words from Redd’s comrades:
“Paul Redd’s passing is heartfelt for many as he was a staunch
advocate of Black Love and Solidarity. His dedication and commitment to
freedom of himself and other prisoners made him a target of the State
and thereby a political prisoner. I spent prison time with Paul in Tracy
and San Quentin, and know of his years of selfless service in the Black
Guerrilla Family. As a soldier for the liberation of his people, he will
be sorely missed in the field of battle opposing white supremacy and the
tyranny of capitalism-imperialism. Paul, I salute you!!!” – Jalil
Muntaqim
“He taught honor and respect to so-called thugs and ‘hood niggas’ and
showed them how to respect and give concern for each other in such a
way, thereby the world would come to respect and honor them. He also
taught them to be young Lions and soldiers for all seasons. I was one of
those young soldiers that he taught. And I was one of those young
warriors that had grown with the example that he gave me. I stand now as
an eternal witness to the teachings that this Brotha imparted to me, the
political education. He taught me to refuse. He showed and taught me how
to stand and not bend, buck or bow before the murderers who held us
captive in Amerikkka’s concentration camps.
“…This Brotha, his spirit lives forever. I’m Brotha Balagoon Kambone,
a Brotha and a friend.”
by K.A.G.E. Universal July 2022 permalink
Join MIM(Prisons), KAGE Universal, CPF and others at this forum in
February
Recently a comrade from outside California wrote MIM(Prisons) to ask
for an update on the leaders of the movement against solitary
confinement because ey hadn’t heard anything about them recently. The
below letter to CA Governor Newsom provides that update in the context
of an ongoing agitational campaign.
While MIM(Prisons) supports the release of these elders, we focus our
campaigning on the release of all people from long-term solitary
confinement in line with the U.N. Mandela Rules. The decision to settle
with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the
Ashker suit was a huge blow to this cause. While we don’t know
what would have happened if the trial went to court, we knew and know
exactly what a settlement would mean. Comrades in Texas and elsewhere
should take a lesson from the leaders still sitting in solitary
confinement in California a decade later. SHU/RHU/Control Units are
torture! There is no acceptable outcome of our campaign against solitary
confinement other than abolishing them completely.
California Prison Focus
KAGE Universal
4408 Market St., Ste. A
Oakland, CA 93608
Governor Newsom
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814
March 18, 2022
RE: Liberate Our Elders
Dear Governor Newsom et al.,
California Prison Focus (CPF) and K.A.G.E. Universal are requesting
your immediate action under the current humanitarian health crisis to
investigate the ongoing retaliation being faced by the imprisoned human
rights activists and members of the Prisoner Human Rights Movement
(PHRM) who authored and honored the historic 2012 Agreement to End
Hostilities (AEH), significantly reducing violence on California’s
prison yards, and beyond. The Agreement to End Hostilities encourages
conflict resolution and direct communication between races to counter
violence between prisoner organizations. This opened the doors for the
prison to begin providing a host of rehabilitative programs. Because of
the sacrifices those individuals made, countless others have been saved
from enduring decades-long solitary confinement torture as they did.
When these men, who had been tortured in solitary confinement for
decades had attempted to disseminate and promote this historic accord,
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
obstructed their efforts, claiming that the AEH qualifies as third-party
communication. Staff members refused to post the statement throughout
the prison, while during that same period, and since many years earlier,
CPF was receiving reports that guards were placing “disruptive”
individuals on the yards to instigate fights. [See Prison Focus
archives, www.prisons.org]
“Mr. Y stated that some people try to sabotage it, namely the
correctional officers, who continue to try to trick the general
population with their anti-solidarity games…” Pelican Bay State Prison
Report, PF Issue 48, Winter 2016
CDCR claimed that the signers of the AEH presented a major threat to
the safety of the general prison population and in September 2013, there
were approximately 3,881 prisoners in CDCR’s Security Housing Units
(SHU) when the AEH had just been distributed inside CDCR and outside to
civil society.
Approximately 2000 people were released from the SHU starting in
early 2016 as a result of the Ashker v. Brown settlement
agreement. When these older men came out of the SHUs, their principle
thinking, and mentoring of younger prisoners in General Population yards
created a dramatic decrease in violence, except when instigated directly
or indirectly by prison policy and/or guards. To the contrary, as the
men returned to the yards struggling to cope after decades of torture,
they continued to promote and honor the AEH. Their commitment to
non-violence and class unity among the SHU “kickouts” was even more
remarkable as CDCR did nothing to assist SHU prisoners in transitioning
to General Population even though it was extremely difficult for them
after decades of being in solitary, living 24/7 in tiny cells with no
natural light and under severe and harsh conditions.
CPF received reports and letters that the elders who were released
from solitary confinement after so many decades were having a profound
impact in reducing violence on the yards. At the same time CPF was
receiving hundreds of letters a year, reporting incidents of violence
that were directly or indirectly caused by both overt and covert actions
taken by prison staff, sanctioned by the policy and prison
administration of CDCR.
The signers by every organized group in CDCR, those who promulgated
the AEH, and their fellow prisoner organizers of the California Prison
Hunger Strikes, have been suffering from extreme retaliation ever since.
Twelve of the original 16 signers continue to languish in prison today,
as most of them are still being held in one form or another of solitary
confinement. One organizer died before he was ever to see freedom.
Others have received new and serious charges that are possibly
retaliatory, so as not to disrupt CDCR’s false narratives that the
organizers of the historical California Prison Hunger Strikes are the
worst of the worst. And while studies claim that California faces a 66%
recidivism rate, they continue to refuse to release these elders who
pose a risk of less than 2%.
This constitutes a human rights crisis and we can no longer remain
silent. We demand that the signers of the AEH, as well as for all
organizers and participants of the California Prison Hunger Strikes, to
be safe from retaliation, including further torture, isolation or, as
laid out in the PHRM Blueprint, from being coerced, threatened and
blackmailed to betray fellow prisoners with false accusations. We demand
that the signers of the AEH be granted 2933 credits, based on the
attached Certificate of Acknowledgment, to reduce or modify their
sentences, and receive an immediate opportunity to demonstrate their
readiness to return to their communities, starting with the individuals
who have already had a positive impact on their community and society
and would clearly have an even greater positive impact they will have on
society as a whole if released.
In addition, the PEACE program that has already been established at
Pelican Bay State Prison joins CPF and KAGE Universal to request that
the AEH be posted throughout all CDCR institutions, using Inmate Welfare
Funds.
Sincerely,
Kim Pollak, California Prison Focus, Executive
Director
Minister King X, K.A.G.E. Universal, Founder, Executive Director
California Prison Focus, Director of Culture and Art
Cc: Kathleen Allison, CDCR Secretary
Signers of the Agreement to End Hostilities
Thank you for your recent communication regarding the Juneteenth
Freedom Initiative. In the third paragraph you’ll note that it
alludes to Our organization, the Texas Liberation
Collective(TLC) as joining the campaign. As the founder of the TLC
Movement and a Black man, since my captivity and certainly the inception
of the TLC Movement, it has been a priority to bring to the forefront of
the socio-politically conscious circles the understanding that
Juneteenth is NOT celebratory.
We will continue to embark upon that trajectory by informing and
educating the masses of all the classes In the Spirit of
Frederick Douglass about The Juneteenth
Situation.
I have enclosed a document released much earlier by TLC, which
actually laid the groundwork for the exertion of Our public showing of
disapproval of being wronged by the State and Federal Constitutions’
penile tolerance for slavery. This document, Exposing the Lone Star
(Chamber of Enslavement!) is also available on my website:
www.justiceforjeromedevonniwilson.org/rubber-stamped-indictments
MIM(Prisons) responds: Greetings to the Texas
Liberation Collective. We’re glad to have another leading organization
of the Juneteenth Freedom Initiative(JFI) featured in Under Lock
& Key as we approach the launch of the campaign. MIM(Prisons)
is joining these organizations to build connections inside and out to
make the upcoming campaign a significant blow to the imperialist torture
camps.
The Juneteenth Freedom Initiative calls for an end to solitary
confinement and mass incarceration as well as unpaid labor. Long-term
isolation is torture. Disproportionately locking up masses of males
disproportionately from oppressed nations, at scales never seen at any
other time in history, for the productive years of their lives is
genocide. These are crimes and injustices that must be stopped!
We send our solidarity to all the orgs and rads on the ground
organizing for the JFI over the next couple months. We will be
communicating with USW/TX Team One/TLC and other leaders leading up to
the events. And we want to hear from everyone participating in this
campaign before our next issue comes out in early August to sum up the
lessons, the successes, and a plan for next steps to this ongoing
campaign.
‘Department of Corrections’. A place in which nothing is correct. Nor
does it correct, but corrupts absolutely. Missouri DOC and its
Corruption Officers (C.O.’s) hold in clear disdain the lives of the
human beings in its corrupting facilities. An example of this: the
‘South-Eastern Correctional Center’ (herein after referred to as the
“South-Eastern Plantation” or “SECC”) located in Charleston, MO.
The South-Eastern Plantation has taken two new modes of torture
within its Ad-Seg units. On top of being overly eager to unleash
chemical weapons known as MK-9 or “pepper spray” on offenders even in
non-violent, non-hostile, non-threatening or unsafe instances; the
South-Eastern Plantation has taken to starvation tactics and
food-poisoning. By providing inmates with week-old food or in cases of
those on “Certified Religious Diets”, stale and black-molded crackers,
peanut butters, etc. It is bad enough that COII Pig Sites puts it, “This
is our house boy, we own you.” COII Pig Sites and COI Pig Dobbs alike
make it their business to “break offenders in” by beating them in
handcuffs upon arrival to their single-cell confinement building 1
house. They say such beatings bring “safety and security” to the
facility, and that “If you don’t like it, then don’t make mistakes and
obey our commands”.
In January of this year 2022, prisoners held in the two-man cell
Ad-Seg unit (herein after referred to as Z House) all began to check out
of their cells and refuse to enter into cells for being deprived of
hair-cuts, proper food rations, clothing and unsatisfactory living
conditions. Instead of accommodating offenders to what is theirs by
‘right’, the institution instead attempted to pull the bus up to
transfer these individuals. As FUM (Facility Unit Manager) Cosby put it,
“We don’t want people like you all here, we need good boys that do what
they’re told and accept what we give them. The likes of you will only
mess up what we’ve got going on.” As to what they have going on we may
never know…$$$.
SECC’s nurses formerly employed by ‘CORIZON’ are helping the corrupt
facility by submitting fake test results for COVID-19. They just
recently filled up a wing in General Population twice under the pretense
of “testing positive” for COVID-19. 64 individuals, only 24 of which had
actually been tested and 12 of them actually positive. The only option
being, go to quarantine or go to the hole. These offenders with full
privileges now only allowed one 45 minute cell rotation. This was used
as a way to scheme money as well as punish/target individuals whom they
had a certain disliking for. The games never stop.
The comrades here at SECC fight for a world free of oppression, and
to bring awareness to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Even in the midst of
ongoing battles we will continue to shed light to the MIM and its
readers. We wish you all the best of luck as well, because our fight is
one. For a quick overview of what
else has been going on here see ULK NO.76 Winter 2022.
19 February 2022 – K.A.G.E. Universal and Hella Positive hosted an
event featuring the voices of New Afrikan elders as part of the campaign
to Liberate Our Elders from the cages of the California Department of
Corrections and rehabilitation(CDCr). As the comrades say, little “r”,
because there is no rehabilitation, and rehabilitation must come from
within.
At this event MIM(Prisons) shared copies of our new pamphlet, A
Revolutionary 12 Step Program, in the spirit of supporting
self-transformation via independent institutions of the oppressed. We
also joined K.A.G.E. Universal in promoting the United Front for Peace
in Prisons, as they work to expand the message of independent peace
building behind bars and in local schools in Oakland.
The event brought together many outside activists and organizations
and the voices of New Afrikan principal thinkers from the Pelican Bay
SHU who are now on the streets as well as some still imprisoned.
Speakers included imprisoned elder Sitawa, one of the main reps during
the historic California hunger strikes, and Paul Redd who is now
released. Louis Powell’s voice was also heard through the reading of his
new book, Chronicles of a Prison Dirty War: California Prison
Politics.
In the closing of the event, Minister King X pointed out that these
elders are “walking dictionaries,” and the state is “trying to eradicate
our history.”
I have to praise my fellow prisoners at the Allred
Unit for challenging the injustices that have been happening to all
alleged/suspected STG’s. I have been unjustly confirmed as a member
of the “Mexican Mafia of Texas” since 1986. But, was suspected prior to
that year. And all, because I was one of the few prisoners that got
tired of correctional administrators in the 1980’s using some prisoners
to conduct their dirty work for them. This is where, I believe, that I
became suspected as an STG member. Which is why I have a lot of respect
for my fellow prisoners that stood their grounds along with me at the
Ferguson Unit in 1983, until I was shipped in 1985.
Back then I was a young person. So fighting was my type of show, my
true colors. But now as an older adult I have a different mindset. Don’t
get me wrong I can still get my boxing game on, only if I have to defend
myself. But now I believe that a pen and paper is mightier than a
sword.
This is why I believe that the only way that we’ll end all types of
violence or hostile activities is for the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice Correctional Institutions Division(TDCJ-CID) to be open to “STG”
prisoners being released to the general population with unit
level agreements between all “STG” members of
different groups.
At this moment there are two types of renouncement programs. The
first is known as Reg. GRAD for ex-members that enrolled not considering
that the form they signed is unconstitutional because those individuals
incriminate themselves and probably others. The second renouncement
program is called “Population Release - GRAD.” And they have to
allegedly incriminate themselves and others, and renounce all gang
activities. But, I believe, that if the two types of GRAD groups are
combined together that would open up the other STEP DOWN the prison
violence by releasing “STG”s with a different kind of mindset. Because
the majority of these two GRAD programs at present time are full of
young set-minded street gang individuals.
I believe I am being set up by someone in the Unit’s “Security Threat
Group Management Office”, with ex-members of different groups that have
enjoyed “general population” for decades. They target those who don’t
believe in the constitutionality of the now existing renouncement
programs due to 2 reasons:
the incrimination of each enrollee and the incrimination of others;
and
the “waiver of liability” for the TDCJ-CID
These are two serious violations of the 1st, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th
Amendments of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 19
of the Texas Constitution.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a familiar story for those
of us who were part of the struggles against SHU and validation in
California over the last decade. We encourage the comrades in Texas to
study the lessons from that struggle and develop proper leadership so
that the masses are not led into the same dead ends as they were in
California where SHU
still exists and the list of STGs was greatly expanded.
Ultimately, making organizations of the oppressed illegal is
reflective of the class nature of the state. It is only by replacing the
current bourgeois state with a proletarian one that we will see the
oppressed allowed a true path to redemption. It is only in a proletarian
state that the oppressors and exploiters will be seen as the criminals
rather than the poor and struggling. We must keep this goal in mind as
we organize for the state to recognize basic bourgeois rights to free
speech and association.
There are no rights, only power struggles. The second the oppressed
let up as they did in California, the oppressor is there ready to
tighten the screws back down. That is why we must build strong,
independent organizations and not
put all our energy into short-term battles.
In the recent history surrounding Texas prison reform there has been
an erasure surrounding the plight of those held captive in solitary
confinement as it’s practiced by the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice’s(TDCJ) Restrictive Housing Units(RHU). There are numerous
groups and persyns who proclaim that they advocate for the interests of
the Texas prisoner class, but their class interests prevents them from
aligning themselves with the objective struggles of this prison system’s
cast-a-ways in RHU.
Many of these groups whom i’ve had the choice opportunity to dialogue
with via correspondence, or have spoken to captive representatives of
these groups, have fallen into the keeper’s trap of the ‘violent’
offender as the new boogey man. This line of thought ultimately concedes
that those of us trapped in these isolation tombs deserve such
conditions, that we’re beyond redemption. Sometimes, such persyns spew
the rhetoric that We in solitary are actually well-off, and living a
privileged existence. They say, ‘your food is brought to you, your
laundry, and everything else’ They assert that all We have to do all day
and night is basically chill, and We should be appreciative. Some
officers express a form of jealously, that We don’t pay bills, yet have
a handful of privileges, and seemingly unlimited downtime.
What people like this do not understand is that solitary confinement
as it is practiced via TDCJ’s RHU, is an artificial environment. By
artificial this means that it is an unnatural habitat. It is unnatural
to relinquish all civil and domestic responsibility from humankind. We
must also pose the question as to whether or not such circumstances are
productive for the individual or the society? Of course not! Who
benefits from the cultivation of a sub-class of people who’re forcefully
and entirely dependent upon everyone else in the society, and do not
provide any sort of productive function in return? When humans
cultivated civilization the world over and social responsibility was
entrusted to those of the peer group, these responsibilities were not
merely for the betterment of the social cohesiveness, but also for the
better and more balanced function of the individual as well. In short,
humyns need to be engaged in meaningful and proactive activities in
order to function at their highest levels of consciousness.
The conditions of TDCJ’s solitary confinement debilitate rather than
rehabilitate thousands of people each day. i’ve spent 8 1/2 of the last
ten years in solitary confinement. At no point in this time frame have i
ever had the opportunity to take part in any form of organized
instruction. i entered these isolation tombs as a politically ignorant
cast away. i’ve evolved, and redeemed myself via my own independent
efforts, without the interference or assistance of my keepers. Despite
the state’s stated mission to have the best interests of the general
public at heart, their true motives and intentions for their warehousing
of so many prisoners is clear. This class of people who at any time find
themselves confined in RHU are intended to be kept in an unending state
of dependence and politico-economic alienation. This is even, and
especially, after release. It is with this notion that i assert that it
is this class of prisoners whom embody ‘paper-citizens’ in amerika, as
coined in the ‘New Afrikan Declaration of Independence’.
New Afrikan revolutionary nationalist political prisoner Mutope
Duguma articulated one profound statement, ‘Ask yourselves why is it
that so many New Afrikans who have a strong political line just happen
to be locked up in solitary confinement units. We know they are not
terrorists, We know they are not gang members & We know that they
are not criminals.’
The organization and movement proactively mobilizing Texas’ captive
population is known as Tx TEAMONE. We’re an organization founded for and
by the captives themselves, not by opportunistic outside (or inside)
elements, but by proletarian conscious prisoners. One of Our main
tactics in Our Mission of elevating the socio-political commitment and
awareness of Texas’ lumpen class, is the prisoner-led mobilizing for the
abolition of solitary confinement as it’s practiced by TDCJ’s RHU.
A Case Study on Why RHU must
Go!
Beginning with the general and moving to the particular, a conscious
observer can readily notice that around the empire, from state to state,
politically active prisoners are being held in the most barbaric, and
unthinkably repressive conditions imaginable. Almost invariably these
captives are sitting in solitary confinement cells. The few that aren’t
are being shipped from state to state, sea to shining sea in a federal
effort to ostracize these captives from their political base(s).
Solitary confinement advances the same purpose within each prison
facility. A politically active captive’s political base begins with
their peers whom are also in captivity. The productive revolutionary
behind the walls is the one who’s successful in organizing their peers
behind a revolutionary program. (think; Attica; Angola BPP etc)
Therefore, the tactical use of solitary confinement to quell
revolutionary organizing has been a re-occurring reality in prisons
around the world in the imperialists’ task of keeping the masses of
people blind, deaf, and dumb to the socio-political truths of Our
collective predicament as oppressed nation people in the era of
imperialism.
Whether We look to Califas, where revolutionary New Afrikans were
kept warehoused in SHU’s, or in Indiana were Bro. Kwame Shakur is being
tortured in a SHU, or the domestic exile of Shaka Shakur, or the
thousands of unnamed, lower-profiled politically active prisoners, New
Afrikan or otherwise, it is clear that long-term and indefinite solitary
confinement is being utilized to strategically remove political dissent
off the face of the amerikkkan empire.
In tekkk$a$, there is a long hystory of not only warehousing
political dissenters, but assassinating them. In June of 2000, innocent
death row captive, Shaka Sankofa s/n Garry Graham, was murdered by the
state of tekkk$a$. Not only had evidence came out that Shaka was
innocent but he, unlike most of death row prisoners or prisoners in
general, had become politicized while in captivity. Garry Graham
revolutionized his self into Shaka Shakur, a New Afrikan revolutionary.
Consequently, tekkk$a$ saw him as better off dead than alive as a
freedom fighter. Six years later Shaka’s comrade Derrick Frazier, aka
Hasan Shakur, another innocent Black captive whom while on tekk$a$’
death row revolutionized his self into a New Afrikan ‘revolutionary
socialist to the 10th power’. He too was subsequently executed on Black
August 31st 2006, while serving as both the founder of the Human Rights
Coalition-TX chapter, and Minister of Human Rights of the then-named New
Afrikan Black Panther Party. Lastly, yet not for lack of more victims,
there is the case of Sandra Bland, a New Afrikan womyn and activist who
was mysteriously found dead in a tekkk$a$ county jail.
i think it is logical to pose the question that, if the deceased
freedom fighters had not been politically active New Afrikans, would
they’ve still met the same fate? For We know and it has been
substantiated by the recent
International Jurist’s verdict, that there has been/is a systemic
genocide against New Afrikan, and indigenous people in north amerika. We
also know that those who possess a revolutionary orientation are the
people’s only hope of defeating this genocide, and of course this
reality renders such political prisoners as prone to enemy attack and
sabotage.
tekkk$a$ has warehoused and isolated political prisoners in what is
now called RHU for decades. Revolutionary Chican@ political prisoner
Xinachtli has been in such a predicament for over 20 years. Xinachtli
was signaled out for assassination by sheriffs in Brewster County
tekkk$a$, for his legal advocacy for a Chican@ death row prisoner who in
turn wasn’t killed by the state. Xinachtli defended his self by
disarming the pig sent to murder him and for exercising his humyn right
to self-defense this comrade has languished in prison for over two
decades, most of which in solitary confinement.
Recently officials of tekkk$a$’ prisons have identified Texas TEAMONE
cadre as ‘enemy combatants’ and singled key members out for indefinite
solitary confinement (for those who weren’t already serving indefinite
terms), unprovoked cell raids, in which the only confiscated materials
are ones’ outside contact information. Cadre have been victims of
harassment by illegally confiscating typewriters of journalist comrades,
illegally disappearing mail, and upping the level of publication
censorship – specifically that which is politically orientated.
In a recent twist, this writer was recently sentenced to ‘life
without parole’ in solitary confinement. After some officials had
elected to release Triumphant from solitary, those in the know regarding
ey’s political orientation and activity demanded this comrade be
retained in such conditions. Even going as far as scratching out the
handwriting which stated that Triumphant shall be released. When asked
for the reasoning for said continued confinement, officials listed
‘LWOP’. Of course this sentence, placed on Triumphant’s shoulders
unjustly, will not remove itself from reality in six months when the
next arbitrary hearing is to take place. Therefore, the state has
announced that it intends to confine, isolate, and destroy, yet one more
New Afrikan political prisoner in order to perpetuate amerikkka’s
genocidal campaign against the oppressed nations of the globe.
In case it still is not clear to you. All freedom fighting peoples,
those outside and inside, have in their best interest to work with TX
TEAMONE as We struggle to politicize tekkk$a$’ captive population, while
doing just that We are even more determined and justified in Our quest
to abolish long-term and indefinite solitary confinement in TX prisons
and prisons around the globe.