Checking Paperwork v. Checking Ourselves
Just arrived at the Ad-Seg unit @ Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP) on a charge for conspiracy to assault C.O.s on a particular facility, drag for “Administration wants you out of here.” I get to the cell and the first voice I hear coming through the adjacent HVAC duct is the voice of a Southern California Chican@, who is my neighbor asking, “Ey homes, are you active?” inquiring as to whether I am housed with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as a General Population prisoner or a Sensitive Needs Yard (SNY) prisoner. Because I do not engage in the police agenda of separating and segregating California prisons based on racial disparities, I replied, “I’m a konvict!”
To say the least this lost child of Aztlán continued to press down on myself the hellish investigative tactics so often applied under the prison politic culture. As a New Afrikan leader under the strict guidance of the L1 cell of USW, I know the difference between Politics and Politrix. And the California prison system is saturated in Politrix, most practiced by the prisoners themselves. I relieved the lost child of their fears and went to the bunk area and began opening my Prisoners Legal Clinic Accounting System. I was called by another set of prisoners who were housed on an SNY facility and were members of a lumpen group. These individuals sent me their lock-up orders and asked to review mine in order that we could engage in a confidential dialogue in relation to current feuds between Chican@ lumpen factions and a new born faction of Blacks. This brings me to the titling of this report, “Checking Paperwork v Checking Ourselves.”
Here it is. I, a leader of the New Afrikan revolutionary nationalist identity is sitting in Ad-Seg unit after being kidnapped from a previous prison to fill “Black bed space” at Kern Valley State Prison; space created by racial altercations orchestrated by the C.O.s. I’ve been shot in the arm and gassed by the pigs with no reports or medical attention administered. I’ve had a Sergeant threaten to fuck (rape) me because of my involvement in a case witnessing pigs apply unnecessary force, while the anti-intelligence agents (ISU/IGI) do everything they can to keep my voice as an activist for the “Prison Rape Elimination Act” silent. I’ve been used to carry out acts of violence on other prisoners, in a mafia-like way by CDCR and KVSP officers. Officers who then doctor their reports to justify removing the targeted prisoner. All this done against my will and yet when I pull up, the lost children of Aztlán ask me am I active.
We need to re-evaluate what it means to be active. In these last hours it means less what the person’s p.work says and more to what one’s actions say. As a member of the USW-L1 cell I stand on the principle of unity as described by the United Front for Peace in Prisons. For New Afrika, UMOJA brings about UHURU as a five letter word equal to the five point star, and/or square that is Planet Earth. Whether we are visitors or make prison our deathbed, prisoners must begin addressing our problems amongst one another using investigation methods based in true information. Not hearsay or gossip shared with us by the pigs. We must not determine who is active or who isn’t solely on a housing status, because when the tables are turned you might be the one de-activated.
In struggle and solidarity.
MIM(Prisons) adds: It is easy for the state to create paperwork, and phoney documents have been a known tactic in CDCR for a long time. This is similar to our discussion around sex offenders, who are regularly ostracized and even attacked based on cases that the imperialist state has put on them. We know there are many who snitch in prison, just as there are many who committed sexual crimes against the people to get there. But we will echo the comrade above, that we must base our judgments on peoples’ actions.
