Under Lock & Key

I was recently given the privilege of reading your newsletter Under Lock and Key number 20. I was very impressed with the variety of topics and issues discussed at length in your newsletter. Some of the issues addressed hit home with me, particularly because I have and am experiencing the exact same, or incidences that juxtapose with the issues in your newsletter. Specifically, the articles False Validation Campaign in California, and Forced into SNY for Political Organization.

My current status and situation, and what led to my current housing status and prior events, correlates to both articles. I arrived at Pleasant Valley State Prison (level III) in December 2009 from High Desert State Prison (level IV), on a bi-annual favorable transfer. In January 2010 I attended my initial classification committee (ICC) and received my CDCR 128-G chrono. It indicated I am a member of the “Ansar El Muhammad” (AEM) disruptive group.

When I arrived in December 2009, while being processed through receiving/release (RR) I was called an extremist-terrorist by CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) staff and my religious properties were confiscated. At the time I didn’t give this event any value, except that I filed a CDCR 602 (complaint). But since then multiple incidence of retaliation, harassment, false claims and the confiscation and destruction of my religious property has occurred. Furthermore housing assignment staff and building floor staff have been putting active gang members in my cell, and as result I’ve been assaulted, received multiple threats of violence from prisoners and staff, labeled a snitch, received a rule violation report (CDCR 115) for refusing to cell up with any more gang members, and currently I’m in Administrative Segregation (pending SNY) transfer.

CDCR staff have falsified chronos in my central file (C-file) dating back to 2006, and I didn’t discover this until 2010. It is my strong belief that prison officials have manipulated and orchestrated prisoners since 2006 to cause me physical harm, as I was stabbed and assaulted in 2006.

In 2009 I settled out of court for a §1983 civil complaint I filed in 2007 for the stabbing of 2006. But I strongly believe that somewhere in my central file prison officials have kept a record that I received an out-of-court settlement against prison officials (CDCR), which is what is and has motivated prison officials (Green Wall) to use these tactics of falsifying records and manipulating prisoners to continue to cause me physical harm.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This false jacketing of prisoners and setting up divisions and fights as retaliation against those who exercise their legal rights to protest abuses in prison is a common practice. This is a strong reason for our campaign to build a United Front for Peace in prisons. A key principle of this United Front is unity among those facing the same struggle.

Fuck the hatred
It’s time for changes
To free this world from the oppressor
It’s time for us to make some better arrangements
In order to make our lives better
Revolution’s the lesson
Not oppression as a profession
Anti-imperialist
Being groomed for a new session
Educate each other
As we’re one within this struggle
United in this Front for Peace
Because Revolution is on the bubble

I am doing an indeterminate SHU program for being validated in the last place I was at. And the reason they validated me is because I was doing a lot of Aztec art as well as Aztec tats, which they didn’t agree with because they considered it to be associated with the “big boys.” So they locked me down. But what they fail to realize is it’s all part of our culture. Yet to them it’s based on association, so they see a direct link to prison politics. So here I sit on the shelf locked down in this crazy and very sad place where it’s all about no movement whatsoever.

por un preso de Tejas, Mayo 2011

¡Saludos y respetos!

He Recibido su propuesta para promover la paz entre las masas inferiores. Está en circulación.

Mi crítica es que, al menos aquí en Tejas, hay muchos chavalones que no tienen conocimiento alguno de cómo manejar relaciones sociales. El nivel de comprensión de estos jóvenes es muy bajo. El apoyo y respaldo [de ULK] ha amparado nuestra lucha, pero aún el problema persiste en que el promedio de los presos en mi bloque tienen 20 años de edad. Debido a recortes presupuestarios, nuestras oportunidades de educación son cada día menos. Todas nuestras solicitudes para programación educativa en el bloque han sido negadas. Y aún dicen que no calificamos para ningún tipo de programa educativo, debido a nuestro estatus civil y contradicciones en la política administrativa.

Estos chavalones no pueden ni leer ni escribir ni hacer simple matemáticas. ¿Cómo es que van a entender las obras de Marx, de Mao y del Che? Estoy pidiendo su apoyo para realizar un curso básico que le ayudaría a nuestros jóvenes desarrollar su conciencia social.

Yo soporto y respaldo completamente sus propuestas de paz. Pero, el plan de Tookie es demasiado básico. ¿Cuáles la esencia de este plan? Estos mensos necesitan aprender a leer y a escribir y a desarrollar su capacidad para resolver problemas antes de entrar a la arena política.

MIM(Prisiones) responde: ¿Qué clase de sistema opresivo le quita la oportunidad de educación a aquellos en los rangos menores? El sistema está creado con el propósito de perpetuar el estado inferior de las clases marginales en la nación. Esto demuestra la importancia de MIM(Prisiones) en la lucha por programas educativos para nuestro pueblo. Necesitamos donaciones, mecanógrafos y otros recursos para seguir ampliando este importante labor.

Como se destaca en esta edición de ULK hemos ampliado nuestros cursos de estudios preliminares y actualmente estamos desarrollando un glosario revolucionario, ambos con el fin de educar a los ignorantes. Sin embargo, todavía necesitamos más clases de recuperación. Estamos investigando esta cuestión y le agradeceríamos sus opiniones para corroborar este tipo de trabajo. Estamos de acuerdo que uno solo no se puede enseñar a leer y a escribir a través del correo. Es por eso que nuestra vanguardia debe luchar para realizar este tipo de programación educativa desde adentro. La educación es un requisito importante para la creación de una Frente Único hacia la paz.

I was brutally beaten by seven correctional officers (COs) in December and was transported to the hospital as a result. They almost killed me. My hands were restrained the whole time while they maced and punched me in the face continually. I was kicked in the stomach and elsewhere.

This is the second time that I have been sent to the hospital for officer brutality. The first time was when CO Goins cut my hand wide open and I had to get stitches. I have been forced to endure constant harassment, degradation, malicious behavior, discrimination, etc. All of this has happened to me as a result of “retaliation” for the many grievances that I’ve submitted for CO Goins stealing my jewelry out of my property bag. When I started grieving this and other matters, other officers joined him in retaliation against me.

There’s a lot more to this matter but this letter is just to reveal some of what I’ve gone through and am experiencing. This beating took place six months ago, but the campaign of harassment has been going on longer.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Unfortunately brutality is not an uncommon response by prison guards against prisoners who try to fight injustice and illegal guard abuse through the grievance system. This is why United Struggle from Within initiated a campaign to demand our grievances be addressed. There are currently petitions for California, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, and we need help to create petitions for other states. Write to us to get involved.

Here’s an update on what’s going on at High Desert State Prison: A second Correctional Officer was busted for bringing in drugs and phones. Boby Joe Corby was arrested for accepting $10,000 for that. And we just had an Afrikan national overdose on heroin 3 days ago.

The pigs here were feeding us double the amount of food to prevent us from going on the hunger strike - it only lasted a couple of days (July 1 - 3).

I have been doing a lot of organizing to unite the nations captive in these U.$. warehouses. A lot of my homies tell me I am crazy because I want to revolutionize my mentality, as well as my fellow brothaz, from criminal to revolutionary, to stand up and fight for true freedom.

I am requesting to be provided the PBSP SHU strike campaign update with flier. Any information that you could assist in this endeavor would be greatly appreciated.

Letters or phone calls made in support of the abolishment of these foul, inhumane and unsanitary living conditions would be highly appreciated.

Thank you. Could you please forward most recent Under Lock & Key.

Thank you.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We have received news from other A units in Pelican Bay that they are going to be participating in the hunger strike as well. Isolation is so severe in Pelican Bay that many had not heard of the strike until receiving our notice, but word is spreading through many avenues and supporters on the outside and support is strong and growing.

I am new to the cause, but not new to the system. I am currently in reception here in California waiting to go to mainline. I am writing to let you know I have received the newsletter and the letter from the comrades in Pelican Bay and their serious issues [concerning their hunger strike], but I am also writing to let you know about some issues we are having with health violations and degrading of prisoners by the pigs.

First, we are being housed in gyms and they are in real nasty condition, black mold in the restrooms, no air to keep us cool, with temperatures that reach over 100 degrees this next month. We have no fire sprinklers and there is an infestation of birds and bird lice that is giving prisoners rashes and bite marks. People are passing staph infection around, and they make us go without soap and other supplies for weeks at a time.

MIM(Prisons) adds: It is conditions like these in prisons across the country that led to prisoners all over California acting in solidarity with the hunger strike initiated in Pelican Bay this July. And these common interests compelled the organization of the United Front for Peace in Prisons as a vehicle to unite the lumpen so that we can organize effectively against the criminal injustice system.

On June 21 I received the [Hunger Strike] campaign update and I do truly admire your organization attempting to liberate not only confined prisoners but all oppressed people within the nation. Thank you!

Tomorrow, on July 1, I will most definitely be participating in the mass hunger strike here in Pelican Bay State Prison. I’m under lock and key isolated in administrative segregation awaiting transfer to Corcoran SHU for over 17 months now, and this inhumane, dehumanizing and repressive treatment of these control unit prisoners must come to an end. I am tired of being targeted and psychologically tortured in solitary confinement, which causes severe mental harm to the point of having conversations with myself. This is a form of sensory deprivation and must stop immediately.

Another reason why I will be protesting along with the SHU prisoners is because here in CDCR there are no simple programs such as tattoo removal programs. Some prisoners like myself were incarcerated as juveniles and tried as adults, and we made mistakes by putting tattoos on our bodies. So by attempting to truly rehabilitate myself I want all my tattoos removed. As a prisoner I should have access to programs like this. It makes me question, does California Department of Corrections deserve the title of “rehabilitation?”

MIM(Prisons) responds: There’s no question about it, they do not deserve the title “Rehabilitation” which was added years ago without any change in their practice or policies to justify the term. Former prisoners who spent years in these isolation cells can attest to that. The lucky ones have family or find organizations with the resources to support them. But too many are stuck in destructive cycles. Meanwhile, there is a criminal mentality that penetrates the whole populace in the United $tates based in capitalist individualism. It is up to revolutionaries to develop independent institutions that can truly address the rehabilitation needs of the oppressed lumpen who have more interest in revolutionary change than most Amerikans who sit idly by while hundreds of thousands of people are tortured in their country.

Myself and others have founded the National Liberation Revolution of Oppressed Persons (NLROP), to educate and liberate the oppressed and disenfranchised. Furthermore, to end the suffrage and disparagement of formerly incarcerated persons who are never truly free or relieved of their debt to society, constantly being subjected to various civil and humanitarian rights violations - “The New Jim Crow.” We fully support the United Front for Peace in Prisons, and the principles thereof as proclaimed by MIM(Prisons). The NLROP also fully supports the Prisoners’ Bill of Rights as proclaimed by Incarcerated Citizens Coalition, the internal chapter of the Human Rights Coalition.

I have discussed the principles of UF for Peace with our members, and as Chairman I speak on behalf of the NLROP and do confirm our signing and full support of the United Front for Peace, and the principles thereof.

A committee of seven members from different affiliations is currently being constructed to oversee day-to-day operations in and outside of prison. Our first newsletter magazine is scheduled for production and release October 2011.

The NLROP is currently comprised primarily of incarcerated and affiliated persons within Tennessee prison colonies. However we do not limit ourselves or pose any restrictions on expansion, and welcome with open arms those who are committed to the cause and agree with our guidelines and/or principles internally, and that which we agree to as a whole, externally.

The reason UF principles are important to us as a movement is that they transcend those principles and guidelines that we already follow and believe in, and expound on such in a very clear and concise manner.