Under Lock & Key

In the midst of Amerika’s soaring prison and jail population, quite possibly the country’s only real growth industry, what is often overlooked is the destruction it is wreaking on family and community. For all their polemics about “family values,” no Republican or Democratic presidential candidate bothered to address, or even “spin” the subject on any level. This alone should be enough to alert any person of good conscience to the fact that something is afoot and to the distinct probability that these acts of omissions add up to a purposed agenda of the state and the powers it represents.

As of June 30, 2006, there were 2,245,189 persons incarcerated in the united $tates. That is 1 out of every 133 Amerikans and the highest per capita incarceration rates in history. This is a 2.8% increase over the previous year, and this rising incarceration rate has been rapidly accelerating since the 1960s. This trend is accompanied by an increasing racial disparity, with 4.8% of all Black men, 1.8% of all Hispanic men, and .7% of all white men in the united $tates incarcerated. Most alarming, however, is the 4.8% increase in the incarceration rate of women, as compared to 2.7% for men, for a total of 111,403 in prison as of June 30, 2006, with Black women incarcerated at nearly 4 times the rate of white women and more than twice the rate of Hispanic women. (See Bureau of Justice Statistics, [ul]Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2006[/ul], NCJ217675 (June 2007)).

Moreover, the Washington DC-based Public Safety Performance Project (PSPP) statistically analyzed prison population trends in all 50 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and projected the total prison population, not including jail, will increase by 192,023 to 1.7 million between 2007 and 2011. That’s three times the growth of the u$ population and an overall increase of 13%, comprised of 12% for men and 16% for women. (See PSPP, [ul]Public Safety, Public Spending, Forecasting Amerika’s Prison Population 2007-2011[/ul]).

As shown by these statistics and projections, ’07 through ’11 are going to be lucky years for the prison industry but not for the persons included in and affected by them, particularly, women and their families. To argue that these numbers point to some accidental anomaly would strain the bonds of credulity past the breaking point, as they represent nothing less than the achieved goal of state repression of so-called minority communities in Amerika, with said goal encompassing the destruction of family as well. “Minorities” first, then everyone else.

These statistics serve to reveal and confirm the long-term pattern of intentional destruction of community and family in the ghettos and barrios of Amerika that already struggle for existence under a virtual police siege and occupation. The state has come to recognize that, with most of the men incarcerated, the women, our mothers and daughters, are still carrying on - the glue holding family and community together - so it has set about to eliminate them via incarceration. The final stage in the planned destruction of women’s continued ability to resist the state’s destruction of their families and communities.

This plan includes redlining by insurance companies and a direct attack on home ownership by refusing to offer reasonable mortgages in “minority” communities and, instead, offering subprime and adjustable rate mortgages, with women much more likely to be saddled with a bad mortgage than men, a good credit rating not withstanding. Further, with only starvation-wage employment available to them, many of these women are forced to subsist on welfare. The December 1, 2007, New York Times reported that almost half the states refuse to pass on the money collected for child support to the families on welfare, with most of the remaining states only passing along $50 per month, in spite of studies done of a Wisconsin experiment that showed “when support payments were fully passed along to mothers, more fathers came forward and paid…and were more likely to establish lasting patterns of payment and connection with their children.” Of course, incarcerated parents are usually unable to pay any child support.

Families have little chance to survive intact with the men locked-up and the women financially hamstrung. However, chance has been removed from the equation by the state-administered death blow of locking up women wholesale for minor drug and property crimes. Imagine, if you can, that you are an oppressed nation woman trying to survive and hold a family together in the face of this flagrant state repression. Pretty scary, yes? And even scarier if you are one of the 12 million immigrants trying to do so. Patriarchy and white privilege uber alles! The state keeps its foot on our necks by using the age-old tactic of divide and conquer. Divide the community, then divide the family and all that is left are isolated individuals whose existence is completely state-mediated.

With family and community in the advanced stages of disintegration, all that remains are the children - alienated and utterly deprived of meaningful family and community upbringing. Children with fathers, and now mothers, in jail or prison. Children driven into foster “homes,” juvenile detention facilities and even adult jails and prisons. Children rendered functionally illiterate by an educational system that is steadily being pried from the hands of our communities and handed over to state control. Children born and bred in a world where the driving premise is everyone for themselves and devil take the hindmost. Children artfully molded to “be all they can be,” which sadly amounts to the brainwashed cannon-fodder of the Amerikan imperialist dream-death machine.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade is right that imprisonment of men is a direct blow to families, particularly oppressed nation families, and that the incarceration of increasing numbers of wimmin means increasing devastation to families. It is true that the imprisonment rate of wimmin is rising faster than that for men, but in absolute numbers there are still far more men locked up every year and prisons are still primarily used to target oppressed nation men within U.$. borders. Also of note, for the first time since the penitentiary replaced the poor houses over a century ago, we are seeing whole families locked up in detention centers along the border with Mexico. Migrant men, wimmin and even children are probably the fastest growing group in u$ prisons.

There are issues specifically relevant to wimmin prisoners, most obvious is placement of children in foster systems because wimmin are typically the primary caregivers for children. While men may be able to rely on their wives to care for their children when they are locked up, and single men are unlikely to have custody of children, the reverse is not true for wimmin. But the loss of connection to their families and particular children has devastating effects on men and their children as well.

Groups and individuals who claim to value family and community should be working with us to stop the growth of prisons in Amerika and set up programs for family contact where they do exist. These attacks on families are some of the reasons we can still talk about oppressed nations existing within u$ borders. As long as these conditions exist there will be groups of people whose existence demands the end to imperialism and white power in this country.

I have come across two cases that fit the criteria of our problems with censorship in California.

Powell v. Ellis, 2006 US Dist. Lexis 83758 (D. Aliz. Nov 15, 2006) is concerning authorized vendor status for books among other things.

The other case, Ross v. Alameida 2006 US Dist. Lexis 6079 ED Cal. Feb 15, 2006, really interests me because Scott Kernan is named as a defendant in this 2nd Amendment complaint. He was acting warden at the time of the incident. The incident was related to freedom of religious exercise and due process violations in the past authorized by Scott Kernan as acting warden at Mule Creek State Prison. Sound familiar?

The violation had to do with requiring the inmates to receive some kind of prior approval in order to receive religious reading materials thru the mail. Also, the same as now, inmates were not being notified of their disapproved mail.

I hope that you are able to check this out and refer it to anyone also pushing forward with a §1983 on the ban.

Mr. Kernan, it seems from his experience in Ross v. Alameida, knew full well that by issuing a statewide ban in our current care he was willfully and deliberately breaking the law, and for that there is no excuse!

I’m writing to let you know what this prison here in Montana is up to concerning my many fallen brothers. For instance, a close brother of mine is having this huge run around with the so-called medical department. He’s got all sorts of heart problems and takes multiple medications for his conditions. They took his meds away once and he was made to file all sorts of paperwork on them to get them back. Tell me that wasn’t some kind of life threatening game played by the prison officials.

I have another brother who has serious knee problems. It took forever fighting with them and listening to them say “There’s nothing wrong with you, it’s all in your head,” before they agreed to bring in a rehab specialists. This specialists told my brother that his left knee was permanently screwed, which he already knew, but anyhow, he told my brother that he’d recommend a brace for knee support and that he’d be back in a couple of weeks to start working with him. The prison put a kebash on those plans because this was done a month and a half ago and still no brace or a second visit from the specialist.

The way I see it is the prison officials, medical and semi-high ranking staff will do anything to put an extra taxpayers buck in their pocket.

There’s also another issue that just makes me split a gut. This place does a lot of racketeering. Take for instance the fact that they took our 13” TVs away and started selling 7” TVs. The 7 inchers were only $100 for a while, then out of the blue they switched vendors and the 7 inchers went up to $200 a piece. Seems to me that somebody’s making a killer profit.

Dear King,

I have received you all renewal notice stating that October will be my last issue. Well, I would really like to continue my subscription, but for some strange reason, when I attempt to reach out to the company on numerous occasions to inform you all that Red Onion State Prison is stopping the magazine at the first level of a three level panel because they consider it to be promoting violence, gang-related, among other reasons used to reject you all King Magazines to those of us at Red Onion State Prison who paid in advance to receive the King Magazine each month.

I am disappointed with the customer services department for not having their staff effectively communicating on this matter. No one responded to my letter and no one at Harris Publishing is showing any type of concern to battle Red Onion State Prison for slandering King Magazine and what you all represent, which is a Black popular culture magazine.

Now, like I mentioned above, I’d love to reorder. But the conditions are not stable and you all not showing support to fight the struggle with these people and I’m a customer. This document I’m enclosing is how they categorize King. Now, it didn’t spread mainstream through the whole Virginia system yet, but it’s coming very soon. So what is King going to do to maintain thousands of their worthy customers?

View rejection notice

I included two pages of a book titled “Hip Hop Lil Wayne”, by Janice Rockworth [see below], which the library is issuing out for prisoners incarcerated at Red Onion to read. Now, this particular book literally speaks in details about gangs. But yet, they (ROSP) constantly keep stopping ULK & Black magazines from coming into this facility for the reasons that they promote gangs or gang activity. It is not fair for these people to try and dictate what we can receive with the money we spend, especially when we have personal property approval slips to receive them. These pages are evidence to support any case brought against ROSP pertaining to discrimination and publication censorship.

Still I Rise… not for myself but for my nation. I’m blinded by justice -n- deaf from oppression. All I hear is freedom, all I see is liberty…

Still I Rise… not for love but for equality. I’m armed for war -n- scarr’d from tragedies. All I feel is pain, all I see is shame…

Still I Rise… not for a reason but for a cause. A tongue sharp as a sword a heart as solid as a rock. I speak the truth -n- love every bit of it…

Still I Rise… no turning back when you motioning forward. Yesterday struggles is in the past but the memories of the pain still flow violently thru my veins.

The heart of Nat Turner, the tears of Corretta Scott King, the blood of every Ethiopian king -n- dreams of my fallen soldiers to let me know it’s never over because… Still I Rise

Askari

Inside prison I’m constantly reading cases where the defendants lose because they couldn’t keep their big fuckin’ mouths shut, either before or after the much-vaunted Miranda warning. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436 (1966).

Based on the 5th Amendment to the U.S. constitution, Miranda extends our well-known, seemingly little-used, right to remain silent, as in “I’ll take the fifth,” outside the courtroom. In other words, ya’l can’t be compeled to incriminate yourselves during police investigations in which “your freedom of action is curtailed in any significant way…” Id. at 467. This used to be interpreted by the courts to mean that upon arrest you must be given the Miranda warning, or else anything you said, or resulted from what you said, must be suppressed, that is none of your unwarned statements, or evidence resulting from them, can be used against you at trial.

However, not so much anymore. Back in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court radically limited Miranda when it held that the failure by police to give Miranda warnings does not require suppression of the physical fruits of an arrested suspect’s unwarned but voluntary statements. It seems, the dummy, errr suspect, voluntarily told the police the gun they found was his before the warning and his conviction stands. United States v Patane, 542 US 630 (2004); also, Hibel v Sixth Judicial Dist. Court of Nev., 542 US 960 (2004) (defendant’s conviction for refusal to identify self did not violate his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination).

That ain’t all folks, as the Supremes have been chipping away at Miranda for years, mostly by narrowing the definition of what constitutes an arrest or being in custody. Maybe it’s just me, but when I’m surrounded by armed thugs I just know I’m under arrest and in custody! Unfortunately, that ain’t necessarily how the U.S. Supreme Court sees it, as it has repeatedly found that not every violation of Miranda requires suppression of the evidence. See Harris v New York, 401 US 222 (1971); New York Quarles, 467 US 649 (1984); and Oregon v Elstad, 470 US 298 (1985). This trend was emphasized when the court held that a California state appellate court did not unreasonably apply clearly established federal law (i.e. Miranda) by finding non-custodial status, given the debatability of status. Yarborough v Alvardo, 541 US 652 (2004); Cf., Fellers v United States, 540 US 519 (2003) (police violated 6th Amendment by deliberately eliciting information from defendant, during post-indictment visit to his home to arrest him, absent counsel or waiver of counsel, regardless of whether officers’ conduct constituted an “interrogation”); Missouri v Seibert, 542 US 600 (2004) (Miranda warnings given mid-interrogation, after defendant gave unwarned confession, were ineffective, and thus confession repeated after warnings were given was inadmissible at trial.)

No doubt, it is a “settled principle” that “the police have the right to request citizens to answer voluntarily questions concerning unsolved crimes,” but “they have no right to compel them to answer.” Davis v Mississippi, 394 US 721, 727, n. 6 (1969). Therefore, ya’ll have to quit volunteering to incriminate yourselves and others. Also, you tattletales (i.e., snitches, informants, etc.) should know that when you do incriminate others to get out of your shit, then you more often than not incriminate yourself. It al boils down to this: When encountering the police, or any other armed terrorist enforcers of the state, just shut the fuck up.

I read your article about lockdown units, I’m in a Special Offender Unit. We have only one program, it’s like a hygiene class or something that is only available half the time, and a GED program with very limited extra topic access, which for me is hard because I’m college level in everything but math and punctuation.

We are in shackles whenever we are out of our cells and get dayroom time to watch about 2 hours of TV several times a week. Our cells are flooded almost weekly, the phones are broken much of the time, and I have had mail I sent to my 14 years old son and several legal firms taken.

I’m also told I cannot grieve (fight back through the administrative system), and they will not bring me to the office to call lawyers that do not accept collect calls, and they say none of the offices want to speak to me or don’t answer. This has gone on for over a month. I have two civil suits, one about the legal mail and my family mail being taken and another for failure to administer thyroid medicine. The conditions are very poor and I’ve been punished for asking for attorney calls – having my level frozen at 8 leaving me in shackles with no hope of release.

The Under Lock and Key (#4 – September 2008) article on psycho-sexual warfare vs. political prisoners hit me hard because that’s what’s been happening to me except on a different level of sexuality. Female officer would pay me porno mags, drugs (both pills and street), tobacco, lighters, stamps, even sexual favors such as hand jobs or blow jobs to masturbate in the open where they could see. I was even charged on multiple counts of indecent exposure. I was told by some higher up the ladder that it was best not to fight it and go along so I did. This institution is most notorious for what’s called IEX, Indecent Exposure.

I was attacked and assaulted by 4 officers on the facility B yard at High Desert State prison. Then 40 officers in riot gear came on the yard – 20 officers set up a line of protection for their partners while the other 20 attacked and assaulted me with the first 4 officers. I was beaten black and blue, I was bloody with abrasions and lumps and bumps and I suffered a psychological break down.

Here in the Youth Correctional Facilities (YCFs) of California the wards are put into training camps to further their commitment to a life long criminal pursuit. The “youth councilor” (a.k.a. the imperialist swine puppet) make sure to not only further the cause of these criminal acts, but they play other methods of corruption throughout the units where they’re all given power over their assigned group of prisoners. All under one higher echelon of imperialist corruption, called administration control.

These YCC (Youth Correctional Councilor) and YCO (Youth Correctional Officer) are given power over the wards who are incarcerated in these housing units. The job of the YCC is to study their assigned wards and learn their past history and behavior, then act like they have solutions to prevent any further violence or acts of criminality that these wards might do. At the same time they (YCCs and YCOs) use their power to manipulate the ward’s behavior by falsely accusing the wards of doing or saying things that reflect off their past when they have not done anything at all. This of course frustrates these prisoners to the point that they attack the pigs, throw bodily fluids at these pigs, or they simply tongue lash, i.e. verbally threaten these pigs.

Just two months ago a ward here was placed on Specialized Modified Program (SMP) lockup for these same treatments. One day when he asked a YCC if he could shave, the YCCs all ignored his request. Then when he asked again the YCC he initially asked told him to “shut the fuck up or I’ll put you on suicide watch.” The ward then began to get frustrated and loud, which gave the YCC the incentive to go through with his threats. That same YCC said this ward had made threats to kill himself, so the YCOs used chemical agent spray to detain him, then they took him to the suicide unit. I was a witness to the whole incident – he didn’t say any of the things they claim he said.

There have been many more incidents where these pigs have lied and then tried to cover their mistakes with more lies. I mean why else would the higher ups put cameras in every unit, down every hall in this facility. Up north too, in Chad. The sick thing is that to some of these pigs this sort of treatment towards us is fun for them.