Under Lock & Key

A comrade in Indiana has drafted the attached petition to address relevant state officials listed at the end regarding failures in the grievance system in the Indiana Department of Corrections. Outside supporters are encouraged to share the petition with contacts inside and to write the contacts in support of the issues faced by their friends, comrades and family. Prisoners in Indiana can write us to get copies of this petition as well as our Federal appeal petition in the case that the state petition is not effective.

We Demand Our Grievances Are Addressed!

Comrades, I know most of you are aware of the fact that we are a study specimen for experimental purposes but let me give you some details about one of these experiments that most of you are familiar with.

“Behavior Control & Human Experimentation”

These are two names with the same meaning: Behavior Modification & Special Holding Units.

SHU -> These are units that have been specifically designed to control behavior. Here is where human experimentation is legal. The purpose of these experiments is to control rebellious and revolutionary attitudes in the prison system and in society at large. In several instances the control units have been used to “Silence Prison Movement Criticism”. In 1964 at a meeting in Washington between social scientists and prison wardens addressing the topics of “man against man”, brainwashing was said to produce marked changes of behavior in attitudes necessary to weaken, undermine & remove the supports of the old patterns of behavior and old ideologies attitudes. It’s often necessary to break these emotional ties. This can be done by either removing the individual physically, preventing communication with those whom the prisoner cares about, or by proving to him that those whom he respects aren’t worthy of it and should indeed be actively mistrusted.

I will share a few specific examples:

1. Physical removal of prisoners from those they respect to positively break and seriously weaken close emotional ties

2. Segregation of natural leaders

3. Use of cooperative prisoners as “leaders”

4. Prohibition of group activities not in line with brainwashing objectives

5. Spying on prisoners & reporting back private material

6. Tricking prisoners to write statements which are then shown to others

7. Exploitation of opportunists & informers

8. Convincing prisoners they can trust no one

9. Treating those who are willing to collaborate in more lenient ways than those who are not

10. Punishing those who show an uncooperative attitudes

11. Systemic withholding of mail

12. Preventing contact with anyone unsympathetic to the method of treatment & regimen of captive populace

13. Building a group conviction among the prisoners that they have been abandoned by and totally isolated from their social order

14. Undermining all emotional supports

15. Preventing prisoners from writing regarding the conditions of their confinement

16. Making available and permitting access to only those publications which are neutral or supportive of the desired attitudes

17. Placing individuals into new and ambiguous situations from which the standards are kept deliberately unclear and then pressuring them to conform to what is desired to win favor and some respite from the pressure

18. Placing individuals whose willpower has been severely weakened or eroded into a living situation with several others who are more advanced in their thought-reform, whose job it is to further undermine the individual’s emotional support

19. Using techniques of character invalidation; i.e. humiliations, revilement, and shouting to induce feelings of guilt, fear & suggestibility coupled with sleeplessness, an exacting prison regimen & periodic interrogation-interviews.

20. Meeting with renewed hostility all the insincere attempts to comply with prisoners’ pressures

21. Repeatedly pointing out to the prisoner and their cellmates where he has in the past not lived up to his own standards or values

22. Rewarding of submission and subservience by lifting of the pressures

23. Providing social & emotional support that reinforces new attitudes

Comrade, if any of these points were used on you then you have been part of the experiment.

U.$. Imperialists have tried to manipulate our environment and culture, in particular those who belong to oppressed minority groups. Reader, you might question “What they mean by Revolutionary attitudes??”

In this experiment it evidently refers to anyone who thinks and behaves as an individual, who they feel must be made to become part of their subservient system. The point is to make people less human and “subject entirely to their will!”

Comrades, we should be truly aware and on guard that the above techniques to condition people are now general practice in most if not all prisons, state and federal throughout the United $tates as well as in workplaces, schools, and other government organizations.

The author of this article has have been in the SHU-EM at a prison in Florida State and I’m a true witness that all this has been in effect for almost forty years, and what is worse is… its working!!

Don’t be part of the experiment, don’t let the system work on you – be strong minded and of impeccable heart as well as relentless spirit. Imperialism might be able to kill a Revolutionary but never the internal Revolution of the soul!

[The following statement was circulated by email from spiritofmandela.org]

Sekou Odinga is celebrated & admired by freedom & justice movements worldwide for his persistence, courage, & principled adherence to freedom struggle.

Baba Sekou Transitioned on January 12, 2024.

Sekou Odinga was a globally recognized Black liberation activist, member of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, founding member of both the New York City chapter and the International Section of the Black Panther Party, and former US political prisoner who survived 33 years of state captivity before his release in 2014.

Prosecuted as one of the “Panther 21” in New York City, Odinga was a prominent historical figure, having been featured on Democracy Now! and in numerous documentaries, concerts, mass public events, and major news outlets.

In addition to being featured in the widely circulated social movement texts Can’t Jail the Spirit (2002) and Hauling Up the Morning: Writings & Art by Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War in the U.S. (1990), Odinga published his writing in Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st-Century Revolutions (PM Press, 2017) and Black Power Afterlives: The Enduring Significance of the Black Panther Party (Haymarket Books, 2020).

A survivor of state torture and the FBI’s notorious Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), Sekou Odinga is both celebrated and admired by freedom and justice movements worldwide, exemplifying persistence, courage, and principled adherence to freedom struggle under the most repressive circumstances imaginable.

As I embark upon this mission to impose my spirit within your world, I ask that you be patient with me. I do not wish to cause you any discomfort but, I do mean to cause you to become “ANGRY” at the injustices that have been committed against every man, woman, and child, living within this capitalistic KKKountry called Amerikkka! Only when WE become “ANGRY” about a situation, a circumstance, a problem, do WE wish to do something about it. Therefore, as you read word by word, line by line, I hope that you become ANGRY!

As WE all know, the month before us is the month in which WE celebrate “Black History.” The “History” that so many wish, hope to, and try to keep away from US, Our children, and the people, will be told within the schools that so many Black, Brown and Red children attend. However, the teachings will be “whitewashed”, “diluted”, and “carefully told”, by those that do not want Afrikan History to be taught here in Amerikkka! Our history is their history! So, WE must tell Our stories to the people. Impose Our own history upon Our children. Let the people know that “Without Us” this so called “New World” would be nothing. WE must tell Our children the true history of Queen Harriet Tubman. WE must tell them about Nat Turner, Geronimo Pratt, George Jackson, Yogi Bear, Assata Shukar, Angela Davis, and those that played a part in the Afrikan Liberation movement. All those that lost their lives fighting for the freedom of “THIS” generation of men, women, and children. Souljahs, well, organized for revolutionary determination! Revolutionary Organized Sistas of the Earth!

We must tell them how those within power crushed our babies’ heads and attempted to raid our homes with guns blazing only to suffer their own casualties. We must tell them about the Black Liberation Army, the Black Ridahs Liberation Party, the Black Panther Party, and all those that do not get mentioned within those schools of hindrance.

With that being said, I end this with,

Vita Wa Watu

MIM(Prisons) adds: Black History Month is an attempt to appease the oppressed and control the narrative of revolutionary history as this comrade points out. It is only by sharing, learning from, and applying the lessons of our true revolutionary history that we can meet the needs of the oppressed. That is why we must build our own study programs, study groups, and organizing networks.

What is the revolutionary response to addiction? I am an alcoholic who has been in recovery for two years. I sobered up in an anti-suicide cell after committing the crime that would send me to federal prison on a five-year bid. I have a complicated relationship with my crime. If my bomb had successfully blown up that natural gas pipeline, I would be dead. It was as much a suicide attempt as a strike against capitalism, both desperate and hopeful.

I consider the fact that I am still alive to be a responsibility to make reparations and amends to who I have harmed, to make a positive impact on the world, and to forgive myself for my mistakes.

Honesty is paramount to an alcoholic and addict. I tentatively practiced honesty, at first with a few, and then with wider and wider groups of people. I began to take a position of self-criticism and humility, yet also self-love and self-care. I was controlled by my shame and failures and giving into defeatism. No longer. I lied to my family and closest friends. No longer. I neglected myself and wished to kill myself. No longer.

My sobriety date is 26 January 2022. Shame has left me. I am free inside my head. I am an honest, motivated persyn who is trusted by my community on the basis of my vulnerability and actions. I have not yet had the opportunity to learn about the revolutionary 12 step program, but I know that my work is never finished and I would love to work those steps. I write this in the hope that it inspires a comrade in addiction to have the courage to stay sober for 24 hours. Just for today.

It will please your readers to know that approximately two weeks ago four Virginia prisons were ordered shut down for good! Augusta, Sussex 2, Haynesville, and Stafford Correctional Center. Augusta continues its industry and small cadre to support it. Nottoway and a sixth prison, so far unnamed, are also on the chopping block as the VA DOC is now, quietly, downsizing due to its lack of sustainability ($1.1 billion/year, approximately 26% of the entire state budget).

As is always the case, we’ll see how things develop.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The closures are scheduled to complete by 30 June 2024 according to the VADOC. It is notable that Augusta Correctional Facility is one of the prisons comrades were campaigning to shut down for lack of air conditioning. At this time we have no reason to believe the decision was connected to that campaign. However Nottoway was also targeted by the campaign, along with a third prison Buckingham.

1. RE: Blatant & rampant First Amendment Right violation via indefinite(unconstitutional) suspension of my visitation, due to a December, 2020 Peaceful Protest in FSP(Florida State Prison) Parking lot while on CM(close management) status.

2. In December 2020, my visitation was unconstitutionally indefinitely suspended without even a DR(disciplinary report) due to a 12/6/20 Peaceful Protest, in honor of Florida Prisoner Solidarity Organizer, Karen Smith(Rest In Power) and in solidarity with all Florida prisoners(myself included) against prison conditions: overseer abuse, brutality and lynching of handcuffed defenseless prisoners in secured cells.

3. On 11/9/23 and 12/3/23, I submitted request to classification regarding reinstatement of my visitation, classification response states as follows:

“you have had 3 DRs since the incident & one of them being for (1-3) spoken threat, you also have an overall unsat institutional adjustment, your request is denied at this time.”

Classification response is not only inadequate, it is in direct cahoots with FDOC continuation of mendacity and retaliation, whereas, I was never served any notice whatsoever in relation to or as collateral effort to my already indefinitely suspended visitation, for any of those mendacious, retaliatory DRs, which I would have easily successfully appealed had FDOC not been so blue line KKKorrupt and cohesive. Plus, neither of those mendacious, retaliatory DRs are listed anywhere in the visitation privilege suspension matrix in Rule 33-601.729-31 FAC.

4. If FDOC wish me to stop writing grievances, and reporting to society about prison conditions: everything from food service prisoner workers being threatened with confinement and being placed in confinement for refusing to shake the spoon, or short food portions on prisoner trays, to prison overseers abusing, brutalizing, even lynching(murdering) prisoners in handcuffs and secured cells, as was the case with Germaine French on 11/22/23, FDOC will have to do more than mendaciously, retaliatory, indefinitely suspend my visits, FDOC will have to lynch me, or send its prisoner hit-men to stab me, to silence me. The world will know that FDOC stand for Florida Department of Cruelty, not corrections. No correction or correcting going on here, just warehousing and sadist, racist, fascist, punishment, a waste of tax payer and family/loved-ones, hostage-for-ransom prisoner, dollars.

5. And you will throw this grievance away as is culture and practice here at Suwanee, a copy has been sent to my loved-ones, and the Federal District Court, as an addendum in case #3:23-CV-01278.

6. REMEDY: Reinstate mendaciously, indefinitely suspended visitations done in retaliation for peacefully protesting prison conditions; Overseer abuse, brutality, and lynching of handcuffed prisoners, is a blatant and rampant authoritarian violation of rights against retaliation, guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Dear MIM-ULK Editor,

Your Fall 2023 edition, at page 11, published the article “Prisoners Punished for Drug Problems in Texas”. The article began:

“On 6 September 2023 the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison system mandated a statewide lockdown due to the number of deaths related to drugs: a total of 16.”

This “related to drugs” statement IS A LIE fabricated by prison administrators to cover up the TRUE basis for the 16 murders, and cast the blame and causes for the killings on solely the prisoners, with no accountability on the government. Drugs had little to nothing to do with the murders!

I am on the McConnell Unit – 5 of those 16 murders occurred here; the highest murder rate of any TDCJ-CID facility. There were, also, 3 sodomy sexual assaults. 5 murders and 3 rapes in one 12 month period. NONE of them drug related per se.

From reading the article and its various contributors’ focus; I am making an informed deduction that the fellow prisoners who contributed based their deductions solely on the TDCJ-CID “Public Information Office” press release propaganda alone, with no real knowledge of the truth. I dug deeper and actually investigated.

The FACTUAL causes of the murders was total absence of any meaningful Classification and Housing Policy/Practice to separate categories of personality types; coupled with the administration’s practice of imposing 24/7 lockdowns due to shortage of personnel; and, feeding high-carb, starchy meals that meet caloric amounts but are devoid of bio-necessary nutrients.

Of the 5 murders and 3 rapes over 12 months here at McConnell Unit, one murder was committed by a prisoner high on K-2 and one of the rapists was drunk on “hooch”. The other 4 murders were NON-drug-related – the killers and victims were incompatible personalities placed in an 8’x12’ closet-sized cell and, at the time of the murders, having to spend 24 hours a day in the cell together. Nerves got frayed, personalities clashed, someone died. All three rapes occurred under similar circumstances: cellmates who were under a prolonged in-cell period due to “Staff Shortage”; one a dominant predatory personality, the other a passive victim – the predator gave in to his nature, the victim got sodomized.

In EVERY murder and rape, it could have been avoided had TDCJ-CID enforced a legitimate and meaningful classification, Housing Policy and Practice that separated prisoners into housing with compatible personalities and dispositions. However, classification is almost universally based on:

1. age range;
2. physical size; and,
3. disciplinary history.

While TDCJ-CID policy states various other factors for the classification as well, actual practice uses only the above 3. Cell assignments usually keep the occupants within a similar age and physical size, but the overall cellblocks will contain ranges in age from 18-98 and people ranging from 5’2”, 100 lb to 6’6”, 350 lb. We’ll get a 19-20 year old first offender with 10-12 disciplinary cases in prison for a few theft cases put in a cell with a hard-core Gangsta on his fifth trip to prison for domestic violence/armed assault.

Since state law does NOT allow for any kind of public oversight NOR citizens’ investigations of conditions and administrative practices in the prison facilities, TDCJ-CID can fabricate whatever tale it wants to explain the murders and rapes – hence, put the blame on drugs, gangs, etc. and deny itself any blame.

I realize ULK Editors MUST rely on prisoners’ reports to even know what circumstances are behind the walls. However, it’s prudent that you fact check what the prisoners say, because the vast majority of Texas prisoners actually take “Official Reports” as truth and never even question what they hear on the news!

CLUE: Anytime an Official Report points its finger solely at prisoners to assign blame, and/or gives excuses that open a door to imposing harsher or more restrictive “security” measures – the odds are the Official Report contains lies and is little more than “Perception Management” propaganda to deceive the public.

Courts will not pry into prison operations; they always defer to the “professional knowledge of prison authorities” and accept whatever fabricated “fact” the prison administration offers. When any public organization tries to monitor inside prison conditions, they are blocked. And, the prison administration always has “Brown Nose” prisoners willing to sing whatever song officials want in exchange for privileges.

Prisons are for the most part “black holes” where the light of truth is concerned – truth is sucked in and hidden while only the darkness of lies is visible.

TDCJ-CID has about as much transparency as the CIA – and, until Congress adopts a Law, or the people put in the state Constitution something that imposes citizen oversight (by independent organizations), TDCJ-CID will remain a near-opaque agency.

Thank you for the attention you’ve given to this reality of life in Texas prisons.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We thank this comrade for the additional information on the situation on the ground. We explain our perspective and our reliance on on-the-ground correspondents in every issue of ULK in a box titled ‘On “Objective” Reporting.’

The main point of the article being responded to was that the TDCJ was enforcing a statewide lockdown for a problem that they caused. We know there is massive drug addiction plaguing the imprisoned population in Texas and many other states right now. So in these regards we had the facts straight, and made it clear that it was the staff to blame.

That said we appreciate the additional information this comrade provides on the causes of the deaths and violence. We would not say that celling certain personalities together are at the heart of the violence. And we certainly wouldn’t blame predatory behavior on an individual’s “nature.” There are plenty of contexts in which different people can live together without killing each other. It is the particular oppressive and stressful conditions of U.$. prisons that lead to these tragedies and lost lives. As this comrade mentions, solitary confinement and poor food are serious stressors on the body, especially the brain. It is our experience that the drug economy is a big contributor to conflicts as well. This is not blaming the prisoners, this is blaming the state for promoting the current drug epidemic as a means to divide and pacify the oppressed.

The principal contradiction that defines the prison system is that between the captive and the captor. It is in the interests of the captor, who is the minority, to distract and divide the captives. This must come first, before things like ignoring celling protocols can become operative in a way that leads to deaths. A united prisoner population would not be manipulated by celling strategies.

That said, we agree that policies regarding who is celled with who can reduce these conflicts in our current situation. More importantly, we agree that some kind of outside oversight and pressure is necessary to change the ways of those who would be enforcing such policies. It is only through building true independent institutions that we can begin to apply such independent pressure in a way that serves the people by preventing these oppressive tactics.