False Validations Part of Prison Control Strategy
I am currently in an Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) for nothing. I guess you can call it mistaken identity or racial profiling. A group of about eight prisoners (Blacks) got into a fist fight. The pigs rounded up 21 of us and placed us in ASU for participation in a riot. The people who were actually involved fessed up to it like men in order to get the rest of us cut loose who had nothing to do with the incident. But the pigs didn’t want to hear the truth. They placed us in ASU and two days later sent three pigs to interview us one at a time and again the parties involved tried to accept the blame and the pigs told them they were lying. Since no one wanted to tell them what the issue was that started the fight, they decided to issue us all a CDC-115 Rule Violation Report, which is punishable by a 90 day time add and up to six months in the SHU.
These pigs had all 21 of us sitting on the hard asphalt handcuffed for nine hours. After which they put us in ASU and didn’t give us a blanket to sleep under. We were handcuffed for so long without being allowed to drink water, one guy actually passed out and hit his head on the concrete. The pigs and the medical staff did nothing. Two of the brothers went on a hunger strike in protest. One guy lasted eight days. The other guy went for 19 days before they came and took him to the medical facility.
Incidents like this are prerequisites to gang validation. By participating in group disturbances you are being labeled by the administration as an “associate” of a particular group/gang. Three CDC-115 Rule Violation Reports for participation in a riot is grounds for an indeterminate SHU placement. This alone makes you a potential candidate for gang validation. Another way they get you is by the group you congregate with. In this territorial, tribal environment of the prison yard a person has no choice but to hang around the people they know and are comfortable around. You don’t have to be a gang member but the pigs are going to label you an “associate” and as such if those people from that group get into something and get locked down, the “associate” gets lockdown too. The same goes for your cellmate.
Here in CDCR you can’t choose your cell mate. You have to go where they put you or get a 115 and go to ASU. Now if they house you with a gang member then you get the label of being an “associate” of that gang. Then you have to go through a whole gauntlet of stuff to get that label removed. After they tie you in with a certain amount of “misconduct” with a group they label you as being a “member” of then you’ll end up spending the duration of your prison sentence in the SHU unless you “Debrief.” And once you debrief you’re headed to an SNY. A lot of guys get labeled just based on where you live.
To avoid this process a lot of guys are opting to go to a SNY straight off the fish bus, only to find the same stuff going on on the SNY. Once you go SNY, for whatever reason, you can never go back to GP. All the stuff going on at High Desert is nothing but a divide and conquer strategy. Some of those guys are going to break rank and tell pigs whatever they want to hear, even if it’s a lie, to get out of that situation. You see these pigs are playing chess and they’re aggressively attacking the pawns in order to get the king. And if they have to lock us all up until all they have is whole prisons full of snitches, then that’s what they’re going to do.
We as prisoners in this imperialist u.s. prison system need to stop pointing fingers. There’s nothing wrong with constructive criticism. If the criticism is not aimed at uplifting the person or people being criticized then it does no good. Stop calling out names and singling out groups. Instead reach one teach one. Don’t be a commentator, be an inspirator and a motivator. The revolution will not happen overnight. We’re up against a powerful enemy. It took Blacks four hundred years to break the chains of slavery only to become slaves to capitalism. Now we have to figure out a way to break these chains. It’s going to take a group effort. You push me, I’ll pull you. Push, Pull, Strive! And together we’ll rise!
