Amerika demands Christian freedom of religion internationally, but denies religious freedom in its own prisons Michigan prisons censor VIBE Magazine Protesters denounce brutality in California prisons Welcome to Under Lock and Key, news and commentary about prisons from the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. The U.$. incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other country. The rate for imprisonment of Blacks is 4 times that of apartheid South Africa, and the U.$. sends more Black men to prison than college. The purpose of this program is to educate about, and inspire activism against, the Amerikan lockdown. Amerika demands Christian freedom of religion internationally, but denies religious freedom in its own prisons In a cynical move to give Amerika more excuses to attack Third World countries and their economies, the U.$. congress has passed a bill allowing the President to take a variety of economic actions against countries that do not uphold u.$.-style freedom of religion. The Senate unanimously approved the bill, which gives the President clearance to limit or withdraw aid and bank loans, and cancel business contracts with "offender" states. "The bill's sponsors say most of the abuses are occurring within militant Islamic countries and the few remaining Communist nations. They have cited Sudan, China, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Algeria and Vietnam as some of the worst offenders of religious freedom." To RAIL and the peoples of the world this bill means that Amerika is finding more reasons to exert its economic hegemony. In this case, anyone who does not uphold Judeo- Christianity can come under attack. Enacting a law that allows Amerika to increase its imperialist repression of Third World peoples for the purpose of protecting religious freedom is the height of hypocrisy as the Amerikan prisons continue and increase their repression of religious organizations. The international and domestic policies are two sides of the same record: they both amount to repression of any nation whose religion does not include bowing to u.$. imperialism. The principal contradiction in the world today is that between imperialism and the oppressed nations. This makes the first task of revolutionaries the struggle against national oppression -- to support the struggles of colonized peoples for national liberation. Liberation from imperialist domination is the only thing that will make it possible for the oppressed to freely choose their national destinies. When Black Muslim groups talk about whites as being the devil, they are describing in mystical terms the same thing that RAIL describes through science. No nation has done as much to suppress the will of oppressed peoples internationally as the white nation in Amerika. Arguing for the passage of this new bill, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said: "[somewhere] right now, a man or woman languishes in prison, some on death row, because he or she did nothing more than choose faith in God. It is a reminder to the executive branch of the American government, both now and in the future, that as it encourages human rights all over the world, it must consider freedom of religion." It should be no surprise that the Senator did not include an explicit indictment of Amerikan policy towards prisoner religious groups. Amerika continues to imprison more people per capita than any other country on the planet. RAIL points the finger back at the United Snakes and says that a country as prison-happy as this one has no business telling other countries what they can imprison people for. In terms of religious imprisonment, prisoners all over the United Snakes are languishing in segregation cells because they "chose faith in god" yet the u.$. government does not see this as religious persecution because it sees only that these individuals chose a religion that includes speaking out against In the past few years, prisons systems in many of the united Snakes have enacted Security Threat Group, or STG, policies. The policies are used to attack prisoner religious and political organizations, but they are designed to trap nearly all oppressed nation prisoners under the STG label. Security Threat Group policies let the prisons take extra administrative and disciplinary actions against individuals who are tagged as members of organizations that "pose a threat to staff or other prisoners or to the custody and security of the facility." The majority of prisoners are oppressed nationals; they know that any religion or political ideology, support of national liberation and self-determination, celebration of non-whitebread cultures, or opposition to the disproportionate imprisonment of Blacks, Latinos and First Nations is considered a "threat to the security of the facility." This is necessarily true because the prisons' security relies on the premise that the white nation has legitimate authority over all other nations that occupy this continent. Currently the 5% Nation of Gods and Earth, an Islamic sect of which many Black prisoners are members, is fighting the gang label in several states. In a letter petitioning New Jersey state officials to drop gang charges against five percenters in the state's prisons, the organization wrote: "The Department of Corrections (DOC) has built a gang unit intended to segregate inmates they have classified as gang members on a near 24 hour a day lock-down. "Since its opening on March 4th, 1998, over one hundred inmates classified as five percenters have been placed in the gang unit. None of which received any disciplinary charges. These alleged inmates were all placed in the Security Threat Group Management Unit based on the prison staffs identification of them as advocates of the five percenters teachings. Once placed in the gang unit the only opportunity one has to be released is to denounce the five percenter teachings. "There has been no organized plans within the five percenter teachings to interfere with the security of any prison, so they should not be labeled as a security threat group. ... "The placement of five percenters in gang units has resulted in many inmates being unable to: * receive contact visits from family members * has hindered legal access to the courts * removed individuals from prison programs. * discriminatory treatment of inmates of five percenters * confiscation of all personal pictures, literature, letters, clothing, books, and any material associated with five percenters." Outside of these conditions in New Jersey, the Five Percenter web site reports that the New York DOC has been censoring the Five Percenter, the organizational newspaper. Yet RAIL understands from a NY corrections officers' website that the 5% has won the right not to be called a gang from the courts. This radio program has aired stories in the past about the true nature of the Security Threat Group policies. The policies are an extension of the prisons' goal of keeping the oppressed nations from organizing. They accomplish this first by putting huge numbers of the oppressed in prisons, therefore separating prisoners from their communities. When prisoners succeed in organizing from behind the walls, the state makes laws to separate prisoners from each other. If you know of specific organizations or individuals targeted by Security Threat Group policies, write to this program. We will continue to publicize and expose this pro-national oppression, anti-people tactic. Michigan prisons censor VIBE Magazine Prisoners, pro-prisoners advocates and critics of prison Security Threat Group policies have argued that these policies are nothing more than a thinly disguised attack on oppressed people. The STG policies vaguely describe aspects of Black and Latino nations' body and spoken language, and describe these basic building blocks of national identity as proof of gang membership. Now the Michigan prisons have come out and said that a Black prisoner cannot receive his subscription to VIBE magazine, which is devoted to "the hip hop, rap and R&B communities, not gangs." In the most recent example offered by the Michigan prisons, a prison's mailroom staff found that the October, 1998 issue of VIBE "contained gang signs" and that this made the magazine "a threat to the institution." The prisoner's quite constructive response to this ridiculous charge was to suggest that any pages seen as a threat could be removed by the mailroom staff before the magazine was delivered to him. This not being good enough for the prison hearing officer, the officer decided that the prisoner could send his copy of VIBE home at his own expense if he wanted to save it from being thrown away. The prison's decision on VIBE just goes to show exactly how rational the prisons will be when it comes to applying their STG policies: not at all. Before the October issue of VIBE ever showed up, the same prisoner's Fall, 1998 issue of Blaze was held up and censored for containing "gang signs, which are prohibited from entering the institution." On this earlier occasion, the prisoner attempted to enlighten the ignorant mailroom staff, and to dissuade them of the misconception that every pose a Black persyn takes is a gang sign. He answered the mail rejection notice quite simply: "these are not gang signs." But this wasn't good enough for the hearing officer who on this earlier occasion also told the prisoner he could send the magazine home at his own expense or have it thrown away. This case goes down on RAIL's list as proof positive that the Security Threat Group Policy is nothing more than an attack on the majority Black population of Michigan prisons, as well as on the Latinos and all prisoners who dare to become active against the system. Culture is a fundamental aspect of national identity, alongside territory, language, history and economy. That the Michigan prisons are openly attacking Black culture shows that they recognize Blacks as a nation that is oppressed by and will rise against the prisons system. If you are a prisoner who has had your literature censored under a Security Threat Group policy, write to this program and we'll air your letter about this censorship. Censorship is the oppressor's last resort -- a means of keeping people from organizing through physical restraint, and therefore a fundamental part of the prisons system. RAIL works to expose censorship in prisons as we work to increase the flow of literature to and extend our work with prisoners. Protesters denounce brutality in California prisons Over 400 protesters gathered in front of Corcoran State Prison on October 17th in order to protest the brutal treatment prisoners receive in California prisons, as well as the continued unjust expansion of prisons in California. The protesters shouted their defiance to the prison's warden and the local cops and guards who blockaded the road to the prison. Some of the marchers' placards denounced California's "three strikes" law - one had a photo of a man and his daughter with the words "Larry Olin - Sentenced 25 years to life for two pairs of Levis." Others exposed the cruel and callous conditions in California prisons, such as the poster which simply said "Alice Quihos was murdered by medical neglect." Between 1988 and 1996 guards at Cocoran staged daily fights between prisoners, sometimes even betting on the outcome and reviewing the videotapes for their sick entertainment. Many prisoners were injured by the 37mm wooden bullets used to break up the fights, and seven were killed by guards. Public pressure forced the FBI and the state Attorney General to launch investigations of Corcoran, but -- although the gladiator fights have stopped -- little has changed at Corcoran, let alone the 32 other state prisons. Speakers at the rally included anti-prisons activists and family members of prisoners. Bill Tate, the father of one of the prisoners executed by guards during the spate of "gladiator fights" at Corcoran, reminded the rallyists that his son's case has received exceptional attention, but there are many more prisoners tortured and killed in California's prisons who do not receive media or bourgeois political attention. Indeed, a recent report by the LA Times reported that California remains the only state to officially condone the use of deadly force to break up alleged prisoner fights, despite outrage over the incidents at Corcoran. Dozens of prisoners have been killed as a result. A speaker from the HIV/AIDS in Prison Project explained that Corcoran - one of California's three control units, and referred to by prisoners as "the hole" - was recently designated as California's AIDS treatment center. Supposedly all HIV+ prisoners were transferred there. However, the conditions of all of these 230 prisoners now allegedly receiving "special medical care" have worsened, and dozens of HIV+ prisoners in California's still receive no treatment at all. The protest was a mix of electoral reformists, human rights groups, and people who, like RAIL, view prisons as a part of a larger system of national oppression and genocide. The majority of protesters and speakers did not have illusions about either of the two mainstream candidates for governor reforming CA prisons or the criminal "justice" system. Republican Dan Lundgren is a big supporter of the get-tough status quo, and, as one speaker pointed out, his Democratic opponent Gray Davis wants to lower the age at which a person can be sentenced to death by the criminal injustice system to 14. Prisons are on the front lines of Amerika's war against its internal colonies, where men and wimmin are confined against their will - more and more often for "crimes" which their white counterparts get away with. Only by solving the broader problems of national oppression can the problem of brutality in Amerikan prisons be solved. The protest was initiated by the California Prisons Focus, a single issue organization which grew out the movement against California's first modern control unit at Pelican Bay. California RAIL chapters organized a contingent to participate as part of their ongoing campaign to expose the evils of California prisons. This has been Under Lock and Key, a weekly Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist League program about prisons. For more information, contact: RAIL PO Box 712 Amherst MA 01004, or email mim@mim.org.Return to Under Lock and Key RAIL Radio Program page