Rolling with the punches

I’m in disciplinary confinement for 300 days. I’m informing you to let you know they are all about punishment. However, there are several benefits to confinement as opposed to general population.

First, as an analytical thinker, I have the solitude to concentrate on what’s more important, instead of the normal population activities of doing what Masta says and spending my people’s money on the high-priced zoom zooms and wam wams. Second, I can think of ways to further the struggle and communicate with you all from within this “think tank.” Last, regardless of where on the plantation I am, the clock still ticks, so 300 days is that much closer to my max date.

I’m getting much rest and I’m preserving my mind and body for the revolution and the future. So if I can help formulate any ideas and/or literature to help enlighten and educate the masses, just let me know.

It’s a shame that these people try to make the public think they’re all about trying to make prisoners better people so they’ll be productive members of society, yet in confinement we are not allowed any books except a bible. We can’t have a dictionary or any other book to educate your mind. It’s obvious that they couldn’t care less about our betterment when they use education material as a punishment.

They also use hygiene products as a punishment. In confinement I can’t have my soap, lotion, toothpaste, dental floss, etc. They give us half of a hotel bar of soap to last a week, and a hotel toothpaste to last a month. So I’m only able to brush my teeth once a day or it won’t last for 30 days. If food gets stuck in my teeth, I have to get a piece of string out of the sheets or boxers.

Socks are also not provided so the ones I came in with have to last 300 days. With no soap to wash them, I have to take an all-water shower once a week to save the soap to wash my boxers and socks. But hey, I’m learning survival skills and I’m stronger for it!

A weak mind will take this punishment or these conditions and feel degraded, but I often think about the conditions my ancestors endured on those slave ships, and the savage, degrading and humiliating conditions of life on these plantations under forced servitude and criminal bondage. Their only crime was being born with melanin in their skin. I think of how the Masta cut up a hog and took all the lean meat for ham, pork chops, bacon, and sausage, then threw the garbage to the slaves like the intestines, the feet, ears, tails, etc. Yet they made “soul food” with it. They made swamp grass into collard greens. And everything else that was used as punishment they used to become stronger, resilient, and more hardened to whatever the enemy came up with.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Adapting to whatever challenges the oppressor throws our way is an important part of survival under imperialism, including maintaining mental health. Long-term isolation is probably one of the greatest mental health challenges the oppressed will face. So we commend this comrade’s positive outlook and willingness to do work, even though it is much more limited while locked in isolation.