Under Lock & Key

Kern Valley State Prison is a new prison that hasn’t been open even ten years yet and it is already dragging its prison population through the dirt. The Blacks have been on lockdown since October 2007 and I was just recently told (word of mouth) that the lockdown will be extended for four more months. Now understand, I said word of mouth vs. an official departmental memo (as CDC policy regulates).

As of now we basically have no movement at all, besides escorted movement to medical or court. We have no yard, no religious services, no reading material, no visits or nothing, and as I become more educated with litigation and the U.S. constitution I understand that they are in clear violation and someone has to hold them accountable for the things they are doing wrong.

I want to let you know the latest info on censorship and the latest prison crimes against us comrades behind bars.

Censorship: I’ve written the Attorney General’s office and there was a memo that was written on 8/16/2007 that stated that political prisoners who want to receive books on political issues need to write to our counselors. The counselor will say yes or now and then we write to the company and order the book. Tell all comrades who study the ways of Mao or any communism group to go to the library/law library and ask for the memo on political books issues. It helps us out a lot. One problem, they don’t give prisoners a copy of the memo because the prisoner who works the law library said that the head people in Sacramento said not to copy the memo. So I will put a 602 appeal in and try to get a copy of the memo for our comrades. Also be advised, it may take a while because the 602 process is very slow and I might have to take it to the director’s of appeals in Sacramento.

Prison issues: On February 26 the C/Os and a sergeant brought out a prisoner and gave him an injection in the arm. This happened in the mental health crisis bed. The C/Os and Sergeant slammed the prisoner and punched him two times in the nose, breaking it. The C/Os and the Sergeant then said the prisoner assaulted them first, which is a big lie. I saw all of it. The Sergeant and a C/O pulled me out and put the baton around my neck and started strangling me and told me to remain silent. But now I’ve not only 602ed it, I’ve filed a civil complaint.

First and foremost I sent my utmost respect. I have read the letters you sent me and I really like this fine organization you have.

I have been oppressed here in the penal code system. On December 21, 2007 I was escorted to the hospital here in Pelican Bay State Prison and a C/O put the leg shackles on me too tight. I told him the shackles were too tight but he did not loosen them. Upon my arrival in CTC (the hospital), I was put in a holding cell. Fifteen minutes later I had to use the restroom but the C/Os would not let me go. At this particular time I was rubbing my ankles where the shackles were and I pulled up my jumpsuit because my ankles hurt. I had blood on both sides of my ankles, so I pulled down my socks to get a visual on my ankles. They were cut pretty deep on both sides. I have scars on both sides now. I filed a 602 (appeal), so I just have to exhaust my remedies and take it to court.

I would like to congratulate you and your staff, MIM. My respects go to each and every one who finds themselves in the struggle.

I just finished reading some of the statements and ways of living by other prisoners in similar situations to myself in Texas. This injustice prison and freeworld system goes out of its way to get at target minorities and their peers, labeling us security threat groups. Some of these captives have never been in general population and get segregated from population as soon as they hit the prison system.

I am going on 2.5 years in TDCJ and out of that, one year has been spent in administrative segregation with 18 more years to go, with no record of disciplinary cases or proper counsel to represent me in defense or to prove otherwise.

When I first got segregated in April 2007, I was on Polunsky Unit. There, Building Major John Werner segregated me for supposedly stock piling weapons. He did not give me and several people who were also put in ad-seg for the same reason, any kind of proper hearing or any kind of counsel to represent me and help with my defense. Two weeks after, we got moved to different units so now we can not prepare a proper defense together and build a successful civil suit on the state of Texas for allowing unjust placement in ad-seg.

Out of all this I was placed in ad-seg with a label that will segregate prisoners for long periods of time - security threat group (STG). I went into the STG manual and did not find the fraternity I am associated with there. But still my review papers state clearly that I am an STG. I fought that through step ones and grievances and all I have been given is the run around. But on my I-169 review paper stating reason for ad-seg, it states “threat to the physical safety of others and/or the order and security of the institution.” Once again I wrote a step one requesting evidence and witnesses and counsel for proper defense and was denied. I have repeatedly submitted grievances requesting information and review. I am currently awaiting an answer and if I do not get a proper and legit answer I shall do my duty as a revolutionary and file a civil suit.

I bring this up because it is not just I who is being played but several tens of hundreds of should be revolutionary comrades. The Texas system has a program that is called GRAD (Gang Renunciation and Dissociation) that one must go through in order to be placed back into population. The Texas Senate sponsored the program instead of funding educational programs. The majority of people segregated are Latinos (90%). Some of these men have no education or way of knowing if their rights are being violated.

Texas prisoners confined in ad-seg are deprived of virtually all human contact and mental stimuli. We are housed alone and remain in our cells 23 hours a day. But lately we have been housed 24/7 due to shortage of officers. We have no access to educational, vocational, or other rehabilitative programs and we are provided with only limited access to legal materials, visitation and other privileges.

What’s more, Texas prisoners placed in ad-seg for gang affiliation are reviewed just once a year and because we are deemed members of a security threat group, the State classification committee has only one option, to continue confinement in ad-seg.

I would like to give a brief synopsis of a matter that took place about a year ago in Huntsville TX prison, but somehow is just now surfacing in the public (prison) eye. A prisoner by the name of Larry Cox died due to medical shortage of staff in 2007, but the thing is not as it seems to appear. 48-year-old Larry Cox should not have been left to deteriorate on his prison cell floor, with a broken back and in his own waste, for two days last year, before being sent to the hospital to die.

This clearly shows the negligence of the prison officers as much as the prison nurses, who have no concern what so ever for a prisoner who disrupts the institution. In testimony before the Senate criminal justice committee Dr. Ben Raimer and a colleague, Glenda Adams - both with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston - suggested a mix of factors led to Cox’s death, including the prisoner’s poor health due to negligence of the medical office on the unit, his tendency to malinger, and his “violent behavior.”

See, that violent behavior is what caused his death. Reason being, once you interfere with the rules and regulations of the institution, you create a reputation where these guards hold anger and frustration toward you to the point, as in this case, where they will allow others or even themselves kill you. How else would he have gotten a broken back? Assistance did not come to him until after the fact of negligence by nurses, doctors and the guards.

Two days is a long time on the floor. I mean, these guards passed out chow, mail, and did head count for over two days. They, as much as the nurses, are at fault. I know they saw him there on the floor asking for help. It was an easy task for one of those guards to have gone and advised his supervisors.

Later, Raimer and Adams both indicated that the death of the prisoner from Houston may have been aggravated by a shortage in medical staff, including a 50% shortage of doctors, 18% shortage in registered nurses. How about the guards and their evil ways? It all revolves around the same thing, a man’s death. Cox died two weeks after he had a scuffle with the prison guards at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville Texas.

The prison’s independent inspector general, John Moriatry, who is in charge of monitoring the prison system, told lawmakers that on four occasions prison medical staff did not administer Cox’s prescribed medication, even when he told them he was paralyzed and could not get it himself. A physician care assistant recorded that as a “Refusal to take medication.”

Moriarty defended his guards stating that they hand-fed Cox painkillers, and one supposedly alerted medical supervisors that the prisoner needed to be transferred to a hospital. By then, however, it was too late. For two days Cox was left on a mattress on his cell floor, dying in his own waste.

No one was ever held criminally responsible. The two prosecutors involved, one with the Walker County District Attorney’s office and the other assigned to the state’s prison prosecutor’s unit, recommended that “no criminal charges be filed,” Despite the medical examiner’s report and Moriarty’s conclusion that criminal charges should be brought against at least five medical employees. But what about the guards at the Estelle unit?

This is some of what happens behind these walls of silence. We as comrades need to break this silence by using common sense and observation. We must mobilize the masses to go against this in prison and expose the corruption of this capitalist and imperialist government.

Mao Zedong: A Life
by Jonathan Spence

The author of this book, Jonathan Spence, teaches at Yale University. his awards include a Gugenheim and MacArthur Fellowship so it was of no surprise from the very first pages to read criticism of Mao with many false claims adding no sources to validate the slander found in this book. Spence’s ludicrous claims of Mao being disinterested in education ‘browsing through newspapers for months’ seemed humorous, I thought, who believes this shit? Mao was known for his intense study and his ground breaking theory reflects this.

As I navigated through the bullshit I found glimpses of history peppered throughout ’ a life’, I found interesting Mao’s early years pre-1920’s Chinese civil war. His Book Society Club and being editor of the progressive journal “New Hunan” seemed to build public opinion during these early years. I did enjoy reading in Chapter 4 of the formation of the Chinese Communist Party which was assisted by the Soviets, at this time Chinese were sent to Russia and France to study who would return to help build China. Spence did give a brief description of the Chinese Communist Parties first congress, which was ultimately held on a boat on a Zhejiang lake, and the secrecy that was needed at that time, the first congress decided they would focus on organizing factory workers for the immediate future.

In chapter 5 Spence points out that in 1925 British forces shot Chinese civilians demonstrating and sparked popular movements against imperialism. According to Spence, in 1925 communist party membership was under 1,000 but by 1927 it expanded to over 57,000. What Spence fails to point out is it took public opinion and the communist party to seize these opportunities to show the people, teach and guide them to action against the imperialists acts of atrocity to create over 57,000 members in the CCP.

In Chapter 5 Spence begins surprisingly well when describing how in 1926 Mao was one of those chosen to organize the peasants in the countryside including in his homeland of Hunan, which proved a success, and how the poorest of peasants seized power from the dominating landlords and how in the liberated areas women were no longer enslaved by husbands. The petty criminals, secret societies and even children began to partake in the new liberation areas. However, the credit was short lived as Spence got back to criticizing Mao’s attention to detail in his writings with tables and neat rows of figures on the size and location of each peasant association. Later in the book Spence even criticizes Mao in his later years for not being detailed in his writings as before.

Every now and then Spence will give Mao his due respect, one such instance is in chapter 6 when describing Mao’s guerilla episodes when Mao and his forces used the JiangXi county town of YongXin as their “center” and as a base for organizing “insurrection” in the neighboring counties. At this time Spence goes on to say “Mao was 34, lean from privation, rich with experience from his organizational work among the peasantry, and a storehouse of knowledge about communist and Guomindang party leaders.” Spence goes on to criticize the long march with much death and disaster, however he fails to note that had Mao not initiated the long march, the communist troops would have been wiped out by the Guomindang at “Jiangxi soviet” which was the new communist base area on the FuJian border.

There were three pages on Stalin and Mao’s meetings that were informational yet when discussing the cultural revolution Spence seems to limit this great achievement to closing brothels and construction of buildings. When discussing the Korean War Spence goes on to mention how Mao’s oldest son died in this war and goes on to say “when Mao was finally told of his son’s death by Peng DeHuai in person, he agreed to let the body remain in Korean soil, as an example of duty to the Chinese people.” This I think shows Mao’s character and what kind of leader he was.

Overall this was a horrible book about Mao, written with a blatant imperialist bias. I thought I could sort through the bullshit and pick out good information but I had many headaches attempting to do so, Spence often cites “facts” about Mao without any notes or references as to where he found these “facts.”

I just finished reading the January 2009, Number 6, issue dealing with the gender issue and had to write. As a prisoner in a SMU I am constantly faced with gender oppression. Everytime you come out of your cell you are frisked. For security purposes I can understand this. But these officers (both male/female) take it beyond what is necessary. Male and female COs alike fondle your genitals as well as posterior claiming to be making sure you don’t have any weapons. However, everyone knows that its main purpose is to degrade and dehumanize you.

The one thing that was not touched on though in this issue was gender reveral on the part of the COs. Some women COs who are attracted to certain prisoners (as is natural in male and female interaction) will encourage you to masterbate for them. A lot of dudes for whatever reason indulge them. But then you have those who will give you an infraction if you expose yourself to them. However the male COs will give you an infraction if you don’t allow them to look at your genitalia and anal cavity until they have satisfied themselves with that part of your anatomy.

This is what I mean by gender role reveral. The men has taken on the likes, wants, and desires of the womena nd the women have taken on the attitude of the men. Yet they continue to portray us to the Amerikan public as socially deviant.

Keep up the good work.

por un prisionero en California. Noviembre, 2007

Muy pronto me voy a encontrar con otra obstrución. [En la investigación de demandas de censura, para ayudar a pelear la censura de MIM]. Nuestra biblioteca de ley va a ser cerrada muy pronto. Los empleados de la biblioteca nos dijieron que despúes del 29 de Noviembre, la biblioteca de ley va a ser abierta. Solo uno o dos días de la semana. La razón por esto o la excusa, más bien dicho. Es dado que, nuestro gimnasio va a ser desocupado dentro de las dos proximas semanas. La población en la yarda va a sustanciosamente más pequeña y no hay necesidad que la biblioteca de ley sea abierta todos los días. Por supuesto que esta es nada más una excusa para que no corran la biblioteca para nosotros. Así que lo más probable es que la unica gente que le van a permitir entrar, van a ser esos con el estatus “PLU.” No va a ver oportunidad para el resto de nosotros, de hacer ningun tipo de investigación. Sin embargo, ya hay gente que estan preparando 602s y esos que tienen más experiencia con la ley, han prometido perseguir este asunto. Mientras que la biblioteca permanesca abierta, espero que voy a estar listo para presentar una queja con la corte del districto.

También quiero mensionar que hace unas cuantas semanas adquirí un manual: “Jailhouse lawyers handbook.” Solo enseña a los prisioneros como presentar 1983s. Yo he mirado unos cuantos manuales similares a este, y este es ciertamente el manual más simple y directo al punto que yo he visto. Es muy fácil para entender. Puedes pedirle a alguien que lo descarje gratis por el internet, o les puedes escribir via una carta y pedirles una copia gratis. Escribe a: The Prison Law Project, National Lawyers Guild National Office, 132 Nassau St, Rm 922, New York, NY 10038. Descargalo al: http://jailhouselaw.org

I was studying Comrade George L. Jackson’s “Blood in my Eyes” when I first came to know of your organization and movement. After inquiring I was given a little more information and agreed completely with everything that you expressed and stood for.

I’m currently serving a life sentence, though I strive each day to relieve myself of this oppressive prison system, having gone through this experience has been fundamental in the development of my revolutionary consciousness. When I was running the streets the same conditions that exist in prison where I’m at existed out there as well. It took the compounding of these conditions that prisons create to lead me to open my eyes. More than that, being housed and living with, and in many cases fighting along side with, BGF, Crips, Bloods, former Black Panthers, and others, gave me the strength and realization that there is still much work to be done.

George Jackson has become a role model of sorts for me. His strength, intelligence and desire for positive and meaningful change are aspects I see within myself. Through this process of self and environmental reflection I’ve come into my own ideas of how to affect change, and have begun working with a couple of other comrades towards this end. But one many can only do so much by himself, or even with a few determined comrades.

I read about the USW (United Struggle from Within) and I want to become a part of this. Because this prison is quick to suppress any efforts to organize prisoners around anything that isn’t conformatory, I haven’t heard of any others involved with the USW. But that’s not to say there are not any. I will work from my end to affect the goals and objectives of the USW.

The conditions of my prison are as follows: the overcrowding here is out of control and has lead to the placing of prisoners on bunks in the middle of the day room floors and gym, two places that were never intended to house prisoners.

The conditions I find to be most objectionable however are those you can’t see. Not having the access to exact numbers I can only describe the following situation from a first hand perspective. Though I’m a convicted murderer, at the moment I’m a level 3 prisoner, and many of my comrades here will be heading back to the streets within the next 5 years. The education system here is worthless. A man who is given the chance to work toward his GED isn’t given any help in the way of actually understanding the information he’s asked to memorize off the packet of work he’s given. The man is asked to sit in a classroom for 6 hours where he receives no instruction, and the teacher, like most of the so-called students, is goofing off, doing everything except the work intended. These men are fed through a worthless system where their only requirement is that they show up.

From what I have read, education is the biggest factor in the reasons people come to prison in the first place, and return in the second. And yet, when money “needs” to be cut, it’s education that is the first place they turn to. The system in my eyes hides this fact by compensating the lack of education with an abundance of yard time. My prison does offer a college correspondence course, one must first have his GED and with a majority of the prisoners being unable to read through an entire newspaper their ambitions remain as such, alone and to themselves. So with the illusion of GED and college classes, the fact that many of the prisoners will never participate or complete them is hidden from those too distracted walking laps around the prison yard. Thankfully I came in with a GED, and I am taking college classes. But the basis of this educational system is to be laughed at.

The conditions of today’s prison system are not, in my eyes, as physical as they once were in the 50s, 60, 70s, and 80s. Though I’m only 25 years old, I tend to view the developing prison system as I do the development of the New African Nation here in America. Some think that because the physical restraints have come off and we have been given fists full of “rights” that we’ve come along in the way of freedom. I take nothing away from those who lived and died to achieve these rights, but the United States is a flexible entity that has existed as long as it has because it is able to mold itself with developing and commanding situations. I ask myself, did slavery end because they finally work up and realized their abuses, or did it become just too difficult to maintain any longer? I like to believe it’s the former. The abuses of this country or of its prison system have only receded from the front lines where it’s most easily attacked, to the rear, where those of less than open eyes cannot see its source.

traducido por un prisionero de Washington
fue escrito en May 2006

En 1989, el departamento de correcciones (DOC) abrio la prisión estatal de Pelican Bay (PBSP). Su primordial indicada por la construcción fue para reducir violencia en la prisión por medio de segregar preguntos líderes de bandas y miembros. Pero contrario a su declarardo proposito, la violencia en la prisión ha aumentado rapidamente y dramaticamente. El sistema prisionero de California es más violento ahora que como era antes de la apertura de PBSP. Por ceirto, esta es la más peligrosa y mortal sistema de prisión en el país, como las estatistcas claramente afirmarán.

En Febrero 2001, California presencío uno de sus más violentos disturbios raciales aquí en PBSP, donde aproximadamente 38 Nuevos Africanos (Negros) prisioneros fueron puñalados. Un mensaje fue entregado a mi el siguiente día de un grupo de hermanos quienes habían estado en vueltos en el disturbio, pidiendo mi asistencia en resolver este conflicto/guerra racial. He estado encerrado en la casa modulo de seguridad (SHU) aquí en PBSP (reclusión solitaria), asi que me encuentro en una posición de hablar con ciertos prisioneros influyentes Mexicanos y blancos.

Esa noche, escribí al director Ayers, explicandole a él que me gustaría iniciar platicas de paz designada a resolver este conflicto. La siguiente mañana, fuí escoltado a la oficina del director. El estaba interesado en mi propuesta. Mientras estaba ahí, el preguntó que podría él hacer para facilitar este proceso de paz. Le dije a él que yo necesitaba hablar con un número de prisioneros, y él le dije a su personal que proveeieran mis esfuerzos. Fuí capaz de traer todos los grupos relevantes a la mesa, un plan de paz fue adoptado y un alto a la violencia fue impementado.

Nosotros sabíamos que allí había un número de guardias asociados en PBSP, como también banda institucional de investigación (IGI) modulo de administración en Sacramento, junto con la asociación de paz de oficiales de corrección (CCPOA, unión de guardias de prision) quienes no querian que esta tregua tomará lugar o tomará posesión. Verdad hasta la forma, ellos sabotearon nuestras platicas de paz con mentiras y propaganda negativa. Porque nosotros fallamos en movilizar afuera, bases de soporte, nosostros no pudimos poner en tela de juicio las mentiras y distorsiones que se estaban diciendo.

El departamento de correcciones le dijo a los politicos y medios de comucación que ellos no nos necesitaban para resolver este conflicto. Ellos saben que eso es mentira, nosotros somos los unicos que podemos resolver esto. Cuando digo “nosotros,” quiero decir esos prisioneros Nuevo Africanos, Mexicanos y blancos presentemente encerrados aquí en el SHU en PBSP en la facilidad-D, modulos 1, 2, 3 y 4. Bastantes de nosotros estamos entre 40-65 años de edad y hemos estado en confinamiento solitario desde 20 hasta 40 años. Yo personalmente he estado en aislación por 27 años. Nosotros somos los unicos quienes poseen el respeto y la influencia para terminar este conflicto.

Podríamos haber resolvido este conflicto racial hace cinco años pero el CDC no quiso que nosotros alcansarámos esa meta. Como un resultado directo, el conflicto se ha salido de control. Desde 2002, han habido al menos 500 disturbios de rusa adentro de las paredes, y aproximadamente los mismos incidentes individuales de puñaladas reacionado con este conflicto. Arriba de 200 disturbios raciales tuvieron lugar solo en 2005. Peor aun, desde 2001 el conflicto se ha desparramado dentro de la comunidad afuera de las paredes, especialmente en el sur de California y ahora la comunidada está envuelta en el conflicto. Claro el CDC no tomará responsibilidad por la ascendencia de este conflicto, pero los hechos continúan, fue el CDC quien saboteo nuestros esfuerzos para terminar esto, y ahora esto ha envuelto todo el estado de California.

Nosotros no podemos permitirnos la espera de que el CDC o el gobierno termine este conflicto, o permitirles que nos prevengan de terminar esto. La escalasión de este conflicto es un ejemplo más alla del CDC y su neglijencía criminal. Como una clase de convictos veteranos, estamos alcansando a la afuera por su asistencia en resolver este conflicto con tu ayuda, podemos poner un final a esta guerra.

Hemos desarrollado un plan que consistiría de un esfuerzo en conjunto. Lo que necesitamos de usted es que obligue el CDC que nos permita iniciar discusiones en una resolución de paz. Al presente no nos permiten juntarnos y dialogar una tregua. Preentemente estamos buscando voluntarios afuera que sirvan como facilitadores y cordinadores. Los facilitadores asistirán esos directamente envueltos en el proceso, porque el estar en aislación limita lo que podemos hacer. Esto es porque es muy importante para nosotros tener asistencia afuera. Los cordinadores son organizadores de base que serán responsable de movilizar el soporte de comunidad en apoyo de nuestra cumbre de paz. Si usted está interesado en ser un facilitador, puedes contactarme a la siguiente dirección:

Abdul Olugbala Shakur s/n J. Harvey
D-4-112/ C-48884 (SHU)
PO Box 7500
Crescent City, CA 95532
Pelican Bay State Prison

Tambien tenemos una petición que estamos presentemente distribuyendo de nuestra cumbre de paz.

MIM responde: Esta declaración de mision respalda lo que MIM por largo tiempo reportado - el Departamento de Correcciones de California está detras de violencia de prisioneros y conflicto entre naciones en la prisión. Ellos formaron esas divisiones y ellos sabotearon los esfuerzaos de los prisioneros de alcansar una resolución pacifica. El CDC y su interes en promover guerras entre bandas dentro de las barras es claro - teniendo los prisioneros divididos y peleando uno contra otro los previene de juntarse para pelear el sistema de injusticia. Y esos pleitos le da al CDC justificación para toda clase de represión y encerramientos. Por cierto, ellos justifican la existencia del modulo casa de seguridad (SHU) el cual clama de encerrar los “validos” miembros de banda.

Esta es la misma cosa pasando en las calles - el gobierno Estadounidense ha jugudo un papel poniendo pistolas y drogas en las calles para ayudar a prender la creación de organizaciones peleando una contra otra en comunidades oprimidas. Esas organizaciones necesitan boltearse hacía una autentica defensa personal en el interes de su nación, contra su verdadero enemigo quien perpetua el sistema de opresión nacional en Amerika: el gobierno imperialista Estadounidense. Las organizadores de Pelican Bay estan poniendo un buen ejemplo para la gente dentro de las rejas y afuera en las calles, y nosotros trabajaremos con ellos para llevar el esfuerzo al siguiente nivel, más alla de la justicia y hasta la unidad de esfuerzo de justicia.