Arizona Prisons

I received the Prisoners’ Legal Clinic letter dated 4 October 2010. I am very glad to see that we’re making excellent progress in bringing our ideas together to develop an energetic foundation. MIM(Prisons) has been faithful in their constant commitment to battling oppression. Therefore, I’d like to continue to contribute to this movement and participate in its progressive legal work.

I am obligated to challenge the inhumane conditions of confinement. I wouldn’t go so far as indicating that I enjoy doing the litigation part, because it is very confusing. But I have a strong desire to change things for all of us who are oppressed.

I have been in solitary confinement for eight years, and because of the economic crisis around the world, Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) has been susceptible to providing sub-standard conditions. Thus I am currently litigating three §1983 federal civil rights complaints. I am hoping to bring my complaints to the courts in an effort to change policy and procedure, but I’m afraid that significant change comes from the legislators, who of course engineers these illegal laws that keep us further oppressed. I understand the real solution is socialism, and the only way to obtain it is in pieces.

I am currently setting the paper trail (framework) to the censorship repression I am experiencing at this time. The policy seems to be used as a safeguard to hinder the process of my studies. Furthermore, it’s denying me my Constitutional right to freedom of speech (First Amendment). So I am hoping to be part of these grievance petitions and censorship campaigns.

I am in the process of distributing the grievance petitions to the proper officials out here in Arizona. I have the copies ready to be sent out, but like a comrade in the Prisoners’ Legal Clinic said,

“I cannot see how the DOJ would be willing to assist us when it’s likely their office is instructing, or giving guidance to, the institutions’ appeals coordinators to screen out legitimate grievances at all cost, in an effort to frustrate our access to the courts.”

I agree with this comrade. I basically think our grievance petitions go unheard anywhere we address them. But I think if we are going to get any consideration outside the court, it’ll be through Senators or legislators. If you can suggest some things that would be a blessing to me, I have no experience or knowledge. But I’m extremely motivated and I must try. Because once I can’t try any more, at least I can say “I tried.” So sign me up.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Many people are afraid to start making change because they don’t know where to start, or they are intimidated because they have no experience. This comrade’s attitude toward learning something new is one that we would all do well to adopt.

We agree with h assessment that there are levels to change, with overthrowing capitalism being the only way to eliminate the source of these abuses. Even if new laws are put in place that make it harder for prison administrators and employees to obstruct the grievance process, their effect will be limited without independent power from organizing the oppressed. One reason we support reform of the grievance process is because it makes more space for this valuable organizing work.

If you would like to get involved in the campaign for the proper handling of grievances, write to MIM(Prisons) or follow the campaign page link below.

By aligning Amerikans’ immediate interests with their long-term interests, the militarization of the U.$./Mexico border has become a machine that will not likely slow down on its own. This machine is propelled by the imperialist politicians, imperialist businessmen (often the same people), and the Amerikan labor aristocracy. This collusion of interests at a time when Amerikan hegemony is fragile spells danger for the oppressed nations, in particular for Aztlán.

National Public Radio (NPR) released a report this week exposing financial and political connections between the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and those behind Arizona’s oppressive SB1070 law.(1) The law, which is still under judicial review after being put on hold, legalizes racial profiling and empowers state police to enforce federal immigration laws in the process. The scandal, now being denied by the bill’s sponsor Senator Russell Pearce and others, is that they passed the law to increase their income and the profits of their corporate backers.

Without SB1070, CCA was getting an estimated $117 million a year from the federal government for imprisoning migrants. Meanwhile, Wackenhut/G4S, the next largest private prison company, has a $76 million a year contract to bus migrants around the border for the U.$. government. Of course, both of these sums are chump change compared to the $3.6 billion budget for Border Patrol in 2010.(2) All of this is federal money going to the oppressor nation to do its thing – oppress.

The essence of what is going on is Amerikans getting paid a lot of money to make sure Amerikans get paid a lot of money. That’s why the border exists and why it must be militarized. If it is not, the masses whose labor value has been stolen and exported to the United $tates would come here to benefit from the fruits of their labor. Without closed borders, we can’t keep the wealth inside.

The NPR report exposes the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of state legislators and powerful corporations that get together to draft and propose laws (see figure above). The companies pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend such meetings with those who make the law. And according to NPR, the number of legislators who sponsored SB1070 was almost unprecedented and 30 out of the 36 received contributions from prison companies or prison lobbyists in the 6 months following SB1070’s passage. Meanwhile, two of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s top advisers are former prison lobbyists.(1) All of this makes CCA’s and Sen. Pearce’s denials of corporate influence look silly.

None of this is new to CCA, which was founded in Nashville, Tennessee by former chairman of the state Republican Party, Tom Beasley and his former roomy from the U.$. Military Academy at West Point, Doc Crants. Initial investors included the governor’s wife, Honey Alexander, and the Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Ned McWherter.(3) Ever since then, their business model has relied on close political ties just as most military, defense and security business does. Apparently, CCA agrees with MIM(Prisons)’s assessment that migrants are and will continue to be the fastest growing prison population in the United $tates. But while we are fighting this trend, CCA is doing all they can to foster it.

When imperialism reaches the point where the arms of oppression are major sources of profiteering, and the people are dependent on these operations for their paychecks and standards of living (i.e. where oppression and the oppressors’ financial interests become one in the same), we will see the national contradictions within imperialism heighten rapidly. This leads to increased repression both in laws and in actions but also the opportunity for raising consciousness and resistance among the oppressed nations. Even those Latinos who supported imperialist politics had to think twice about the Arizona law as it could impact their persynal safety if they visit that state. The imperialists expose their blatantly chauvinistic goals with these reactionary laws and the alliances that create the laws and it is our responsibility to point out the contradictions and organize against imperialist national oppression.

I am a Jailhouse Lawyer of the High Rolla Jailhouse Law firm. I was appointed by the chief Jailhouse Lawyer of the Jailhouse Law Firm to aid and assist the MIM(Prisons) Legal Clinic. I have reviewed the Prisoner’s Legal Clinic letter dated October 4, 2010. Upon review I have taken the opportunity to offer my legal experience to assist MIM(Prisons) in responding to the statement made by the Director of Arizona’s Department of Corrections.

According to the Director of Arizona’s Dept. of Corrections, he states Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 369 (1974) was overruled and your reliance on that case is misplaced. The Director of Arizona’s Dept of Correction further states that there is nothing that gives rise to a publisher’s right to appeal a decision to exclude its material on an administrative appeal level and you are not entitled to a forum within the prison system.

The Arizona Dept. of Corrections Director is partially correct and partially wrong. Basically what the Director is telling MIM(Prisons) is that it does not have an entitlement to use the prison grievance system to appeal administrative decisions. The Inmate Grievance System is a forum within the Department of Corrections for prisoners to avail themselves of if they are dissatisfied and wish to appeal an administrative decision. This system is for use by prisoners, not publication companies. The Director is correct, in that there is no case laws that gives rise to a publisher’s right to appeal on an administrative level. If MIM(Prisons) wishes to challenge the administrative decision of the Director to exclude its publications, the proper forum would be for MIM(Prisons) to file a §1983 Civil Rights action in Federal Court, or to provide the prisoner with the appropriate arguments, case laws and legal authorities and have the prisoner himself file the appeal by going through the Grievance System and then the Administrative Law Court.

However, MIM(Prisons) should notify the Director that it is fully aware of the fact that it does not have the right to appeal on an administrative appeal level. MIM(Prisons) should notify the Director that it is fully aware that it is not entitled to a forum within the prison system. MIM(Prisons) should notify the Director that it was only making an effort at an informal appeal or request for the Director to reconsider its decision. Because contrary to what the Director stated Procunier v. Martinez 416 U.S. 396 (1974) is still applicable in part. Just as prisoners have a first Amendment Right to receive and send mail, so does publication companies and publishers. When the complaining party is the prisoner, then Turner v. Safely 482 U.S. 78 (1987) is the applicable standard, however when a publisher complains that its first amendment right has been violated then Procunier v. Martinez and Thornburgh v. Abbott 490 U.S. 401 (1989) is the appropriate standard.

I say all that to say this, if the Director cannot show that the restrictions placed on mail received by a prisoner is rationally related to a legitimate penological interest, then the Director’s reliance on Thornburgh v. Abbott and Turner v. Safely is unsupported and misplaced, then the correct standard would be Procunier v. Martinez. The United States Supreme Court clearly held in Thornburgh v. Abbott, that prison officials could reject incoming mail if it was deemed detrimental to security, but if no such penological interest is involved, the Director can not rely on this case nor Turner v. Safely to justify its restrictions on incoming mail. The question is now “Is there a legitimate penological interest to justify its restriction of the MIM(Prisons)’s Under Lock and Key??” The only way to force the Director to answer this question and identify the penological interests involved is to file a §1983 Civil Right Action against the director making him accountable to the Federal Courts. The prisoner has the additional alternative of the Prison Grievance System which we know is unreliable. At this moment my advice and suggestion to MIM(Prisons) is to challenge these censorships from a different angle. From my research dealing with a recent line of cases i.e. Beard v. Banks 126 S.C.T. 2572 (2006), Overton v. Bazzetta 539 U.S. 126 (2003) Ramirez v. Pugh 486 F. Supp. 2d 421 (M.D. Pa. 2007), Brittain v. Beard, 932 A.2d 324 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2007). The Courts seem to be interested in whether the regulation challenged promotes rehabilitation. Recently the term “Rehabilitation” has been used by prison officials to uphold prohibitive regulations and thus far have been successful. It would be a strategic legal maneuver to argue that such restrict regulations actually discourage rehabilitation, and expert testimony from a psychologist or sociologist would help to support this argument. This would be a more strategic angle to strike from.

MIM(Prisons) also was inquiring about cases concerning prisoner’s rights to read newspapers as well as write for them and concerning inmate to inmate correspondence. Well I do not know right off top a specific case that involves prisoners rights to read newspapers as well as write for them, but there is a case that states “prisoners may not be punished for posting material on the internet with the assistance of a third party,” I don’t think it’s what MIM(Prisons) is looking for though.

I do know as far as inmate to inmate correspondence is concerned, that the United States Supreme Court held in Shaw v. Murphy 532 U.S. 223, 121 S.Ct. 1475 (2001) that a prisoner who was working as a prison law clerk claimed his First Amendment rights were violated when he was disciplined for statements he made in a letter to another inmate in which he gave legal advice. He was disciplined for violating a prison policy prohibiting insolence and interference with due-process hearings. The court found that inmates do not possess a special First Amendment right to give legal assistance to other inmates. If they did possess such a right, it would mean enhancing the usual protection given to inmate to inmate correspondence. Thus his letter, regardless of its content, was subject to the same regulations as all other letters sent between inmates. At least as far as South Carolina is concerned inmate to inmate correspondence is only allowed if the inmates are immediate family members or if the inmates are involved in a joint legal action and the correspondence is related to the legal action only. SCDC Policy 10.08 Section 18.

The new Arizona immigration bill SB1070, signed into law in April by Governor Jan Brewer, is the latest and most overt action in the ongoing battle against oppressed nations within U.$. borders. This law, which will take effect by August, assigns state police to question anyone they believe is in the United $tates illegally, and requires everyone to carry papers proving their legal status. It is even a crime to be caught without this proof.

As Arizona is a state bordering Mexico, it has a large migrant population, disproportionately from Mexico. In 2006, so-called “Hispanics” accounted for 29% of Arizona’s population – most of them are Mexican. This is double the percentage of Latinos living in the United $tates in 2006. More than half of the Arizona residents in the “Hispanic” category were foreign born. While there is a concentration of Mexicans in Arizona, the portion of the population that is foreign born (14%) is not much more than the typical percentage of foreign born residents in the rest of the U.$. which was 12.5% in 2006.(1) But in Arizona it is skewed towards Mexicans (and migrants born in other Latin American countries) while other areas of the U.$. have larger concentrations of Asians, europeans, Africans and people born in other parts of the world. In the U.$. in general, 45% of the foreign born population is from Latin America, which means they make up less than half of the 12.5% of foreign-born migrants living in the U.$.(2) According to the U.$. census these numbers had not changed much by 2008 (the latest statistics available) in terms of the proportion of Mexicans and foreign-born residents in Arizona and the rest of the country.

This law is a logical step forward, or backward for the oppressed, in the Amerikan spiral down the anti-immigration toilet. Those who act like this law is un-Amerikan are missing a fundamental fact of Amerikan imperialism: it is founded on national oppression. The Arizona law is most definitely Amerikan, and for this reason we must oppose not only this law, but all so-called immigration reform. Immigration is a false issue of Amerikan imperialism which requires militarized borders to protect the wealth that it stole from the land and labor of people in other countries.

Rather than get caught up in talking about which people should be allowed the privilege of coming to the United $tates (generally people from other imperialist countries, or those who have done Amerika political favors like the Cubans who oppose Castro), we need to be fighting to open the borders. Recent migrants in the United $tates should be treated no different from those who came here over the past 500 years – we are all living on land stolen from the indigenous peoples. In contrast, the Mexican people migrating north have a legitimate claim to the land now comprising the southwest of the United $tates.

Between 1846 and 1848 the United $tates fought one of its earlier wars of external aggression, against Mexico, ending in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty established U.$. control of what is now the southwest of this country, but ironically guaranteed Mexican residents in that territory the right to retain their land and enjoy the rights of U.$. citizens. This portion of the treaty was promptly ignored by Amerikkkans and land owned by Mexicans was illegally annexed after the end of the war in acts of both private and government sponsored national oppression.

Labor aristocracy benefits from closed borders and illegal workers

It should be no surprise that a recent poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal found 46% of Amerikans strongly supporting the Arizona bill, while only 24% were strongly opposed. In fact, 24% might seem high to those of us who understand that the labor aristocracy has a strong interest in protecting the wealth of Amerikan imperialism and their role in benefiting from the exploitation of the world’s people. This interest leads the labor aristocracy to support imperialist wars of aggression and reactionary anti-immigrant policies. However, this law in particular is one that will be opposed by a lot of Latinos, even if they may support wars of imperialist aggression. Because this law takes such a broad sweeping attack it is hard to get behind if you might look like you could be in the country illegally (read: are not white). So that 24% strongly opposing SB1070 includes people who are otherwise strong supporters of Amerikan imperialism. This is an example of why there are more allies to anti-imperialism in the Brown and Black labor aristocracy, even if they are not consistent.

Citizens of the United $tates are profiting just by being citizens, enjoying artificially high standards of living propped up by imperialist profits brought home and distributed in the form of high salaries with benefits, as well as services. As the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) explained in MIM Theory 1 and 10, the wealth in Amerika is not created in Amerika; Amerikan citizens are parasites. And to maintain this parasitism the country must keep the borders closed. Open borders would lead to a deluge of people migrating into the U.$. looking for an opportunity to partake in the wealth stolen from their countries.

Rather than share the wealth in the United $tates, borders are militarized and “illegal” workers are allowed in only when there is a need for truly cheap labor, because Amerikan citizens are not going to provide that labor. So Amerikan citizens benefit again from closed borders, in the form of workers to pick their crops, and do the jobs that no citizen wants, for cheap enough to keep the price of food, restaurant service, and house cleaning down.

Trust the prison industry?

One ironic element of Arizona SB1070 is the provision that they trust the police to pick out who might be suspected as an illegal immigrant without engaging in racial profiling. The reality of the criminal injustice system is blatant racial profiling as just one aspect of national oppression. The injustice system overtly targets oppressed nations within U.$. borders, from the police on the streets profiling or just setting people up, to the laws and courts which are skewed against oppressed nations, convicting disproportionate numbers of Blacks and Latinos and giving them longer sentences for the same convictions, to the prisons themselves which target oppressed nations to deny parole and lock in control units.

Everyone knows the police already engage in racial profiling, so why would they stop just when enforcing this law that is, in itself, requiring racial profiling. No one is going to stop a white person and say “Hey, I think you are here illegally from France, can I see some proof of your immigration status?”

Further fueling the prison industry, SB1070 gives the Arizona criminal injustice system an easy way to lock up more migrants, a growing trend in Amerikan prisons. As we reported in the Under Lock and Key #11 article National Oppression as Migrant Detention: “As of July 2009, there are 31,000 non-citizens imprisoned at the federal level on any given day in the u.$. This number is up from about 20,000 in 2006 and 6,259 in 1992. There are more than 320,000 migrants detained each year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and as many as a quarter of them are juveniles. These numbers include only those imprisoned under federal custody, although they may be located all around the country and in state prisons and local jails.” We went on to point out that locking up more migrants helps fill empty prison beds, something that private prisons in particular are lobbying for.

Fight national oppression with unity

A dozen Black and Brown hip hop artists from Arizona came together to do an eight minute remake of Public Enemy’s song By the Time I Get to Arizona called Back to Arizona to oppose SB1070 with a similar militant message. The original song documented the struggle to get racist Arizona to reinstate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday two decades ago. That history drove home the connection between struggles of all oppressed nations, which is a repeated theme throughout the video.

Among activists opposed to the new Arizona law, the slogan ‘Do I look illegal?’ has been gaining popularity. This question calls out the clearly racist intent behind the law which will require cops to pick out people who don’t look like good white Amerikkkan citizens. As revolutionaries we call on all oppressed nations to join the fight against this latest legalization of national oppression. As anti-imperialists we must stand against all limits on migration. The two articles [ 1, 2 ] on this page written by comrades behind bars demonstrate, this unity and correct understanding of history.

Notes:
1. Pew Research Center Publication “Arizona’s Population Growth Parallels America’s”, January 24, 2008.
2. Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 2006, Pew Hispanic Center.

Them good ol’ boys are at it again. As much as Amerikan pre$ident Barack Obama would like us to believe that we have reached a new stage in Amerikkkan society, in the form of a “post-racial Amerikkka,” which is an oxymoron by the way, state sanctioned racism raises its ugly head yet again. This time it is in the form of Arizona’s racist and illegal Senate Bill 1070. Racist, because it obviously gives Arizona’s occupational forces (law enforcement) the right to stop or pull people over solely for the color of their skin.

Reactionaries in high places as well as other proponents of SB1070 argue that the power to stop and card people will only be called for with “probable cause,” and that this power to card people for their citizenship papers is wholly sanctioned by the 4th Amendment of the constitution. However, we from the oppressed communities know full well that “probable cause” is a very loose and flexible term as applied by occupation forces. “Probable cause” can range from “gang attire” and looking “suspicious” to being seen by pigs in the wrong neighborhood. We from the oppressed communities recognize at a glance the obvious implications of “probable cause” such as “driving while Black.” Only a fool or a racist would think this oppressive tool, SB1070, is right in any way.

Although the Amerikan judicial system has given occupation forces and the kangaroo court system wide berth and due deference when it comes to the way that they apply “probable cause,” we must note that technically the way in which probable cause is actually applied is illegal. So it is no surprise that many people have expressed outrage at the idea of this racist and illegal law.

While “probable cause” has hystorically been directed at the lumpen class within the U.$., SB1070 now gives the state of Arizona the power to not just target the destructive side of oppressed nations, but the power to further oppress, harass, detain and deport whole nations of people within their jurisdiction, not to mention the authority that Arizona will now have to incarcerate people.

Just days before the signing of SB1070 into law, piece-of-shit republican senator Hunter of California appeared before news cameras touting the excellence and morality of the racist law. He then took it one step further however, when the good senator began advocating that the 14th Amendment be repealed to deny children born in the United $tates citizenship status if their parents are undocumented.(1) This further drives home that being Amerikkkan is about the fictional concept of race and not about where one is born, raised and pays taxes.

A week later, following the huge May Day protests that took place across the U.$., we saw the reactionaries and their allies attempt to push back with their meager show of support for the newly signed law by organizing counter-protests in bands of tens and twenties. These counter-protests were largely made up of the most backward Euro-Amerikkkans, however they did have some interesting mouthpieces at the front.

First, we heard from an openly gay man about how all “illegal aliens” should just go back to Mexico because all they brought to the table was crime, drugs, etc.(2) Then we heard from an African-Amerikkkan who was participating in the counter protests in a show of solidarity with his fellow Amerikkkans as well as claiming to represent a sell out organization called “Black Shield.” He spoke of how Black people could no longer find good jobs or decent middle class jobs because Mexicans, and other “illegal aliens” were stealing them all.(3) It wasn’t Mexicans who threatened to kill Blacks every time they tried to work in an Amerikan factory or study at an Amerikan school over the last 400 years.

Last, but certainly not least, we heard from a seemingly orthodox Jewish man, indeed he spewed the most vile hatred towards immigrants. Among other things this man said that there was nothing wrong with having to present proper identification to law enforcement officials if you appeared to be “illegal.” He stated that this was a constitutionally protected right and just couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. (4) Ugh, what? Weren’t the enactment of similar laws in Nazi Germany preludes to the forced display of Stars of David by Jewish people and eventually the dispersal of the Jewish peoples across Europe into concentration camps and genocide?

Days later at a candlelight vigil in support of immigrant rights, the reverend Al Sharpton addressed the Black nation, perhaps as an answer to Black people who might of been asking themselves and each other, as well as the Rev. Sharpton, why they should support immigrant rights and oppose SB1070. The Reverend answered, “… because at night, we all look Latino.”

Notes:
(1) ABC 7 News, Los Angeles. 25 April 2010.
(2), (3), (4) Noticiero Telemundo 52. 3 May 2010.

I am an
American,
but not as they say.
America’s
Christopher Columbus day
America,
independence day
Evil as they do
do as they say
America’s
the devil himself
has his own holiday
America,
this is independence
“assimilate”
I am an
American,
but not as they say.

I am currently being housed in a maximum facility in the Arizona DOC where I’ve been confined to a one-man prison cell for over seven years in 23 hour a day solitary confinement. I was sentenced to precisely 156 years for taking up arms against a corrupt judicial system. One of my ultimate goals is to help shed some light on the inhumane environment that those of us in prison are subject to live in “generation after generation.” Those of us who speak out against capitalist, imperialistic injustice are kept silent and retaliated against in prisons all across the world. We’re kept isolated in boxes about the size of dog kennels for years. Rehabilitation only comes in the form of one’s personal dedication of adopting a military mindset and achieving what is essential to keeping oneself afloat and not consumed by the burden of being taken for granted as human beings.

It’s very common to become invisible in any society designed to desensitize and demoralize the average person, designed to corrupt and eat away at some of the greatest minds. Inevitably, the mental disease surrounding this establishment consumes the vulnerable-minded completely and has its effects on those stronger and competent minds. No amount of love or money can ever replace one’s lost time or sanity. Oddly, some of these same people return back into society with no real plan on how to cope or withstand even the smallest pressures. Sadly, I witness people deteriorate on a daily basis while imprisoned, what could have been a short-term prison sentence often ends up a lifetime scar.

I’ve always resented the idea of one resorting to drugs as a means to emancipate oneself from the difficulties, but as you can see when dealing with the shamefulness of the imperialist system, I really do understand why my equals would rather be intoxicated than face a reality in which we’re born into a cycle of destruction. However, one fact that will never change is that drug abuse only hinders and destroys one’s personal experience to grow in strength and wisdom. Our ancestors weren’t quitters nor cowards. We’re skilled, imaginative, intelligent engineers and ultimately we adjust to our problems to overthrow our challenges. Yet we remain students to our own neglect; show us a meaningful purpose to our civilization and we will keenly follow.

In July 2003, I returned to the Arizona Department of Corrections to spend approximately 156 years behind bars for taking up arms against a corrupt Tuscon Police Department in self-defense. I was immediately placed in Arizona’s super-maximum facility (SMU-I,(VCU)). SMU-I is a facility that publicly houses “the worst of the worst” special management prisoners. Prisoners are able to obtain some personal items but conditions in SMU-I are very restrictive and inhumane. I was housed in VCU, which is considered isolation within solitary confinement. Ordinarily, prisoners who are held in VCU are labeled disruptive while housed in SMU-I or have accumulated serious disciplinary violations while in prison. Most prisoners in VCU are labeled disruptive for choosing not to conform to the collective ways of the prisoncrats and in return are retaliated against.

One of the many tactics used by our oppressor is to place us in the tortuous shadows of the severely mentally ill to help break a person’s spirit. I was placed in this unit upon my initial intake into the penitentiary, never once expecting for my oppressors to provide me due process before being admitted into this unusual world. During this particular part of my life a lot of soul-searching was done and ultimately strength was gained. These teachings have allowed me to fully comprehend my ancestry’s mantra of “what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.” For long periods of time I debated with the idea of suicide. It was at my lowest point in total darkness and hopelessness that my eyes were truly illuminated to the ways of this injustice system. At this point I chose to continue my life, to have life. The nightmares that keep me from advancing forward, I’ve confronted and compromised with. But as you can imagine, I found myself in a tight spot, being the VCU unit.

I was placed on a gurney while four correctional officers escorted me to my new cell. I was strip searched, placed in extra-tight handcuffs with an additional dog chain that offered my captors an object to manipulate.The officers who were escorting me decided it was essential to assert themselves aggressively. I was pushed face down on the gurney and was advised if I looked sideways or moved even just slightly I’d be pepper-sprayed, tazed and neutralized by the police K9. I knew in the back of my mind this was a familiar tactic embraced internationally by my oppressors so I closed my eyes and kept my mouth shut. It is these types of incidents that inspire me to vigorously overcome fierce adversity. In prison, life goes on but one never gets comfortable with the demeaning environment, the torture, the food poisoning, the searches, the depression, the yells, and the screams. It is what brainwashes us into what we are.

I was wrongfully convicted by a judicial system that clearly favors the police, the state’s prosecutor, and biased, corrupt judges. My best friend, my little brother and myself are all sentenced to die in an institution that shows no compassion. This is the same institution that as a child you become so dreadful of as you watch your father travel through the same system. Just when I thought my childhood couldn’t become any more tragic, reality set in. The temperatures in solitary confinement have a strong tendency of remaining freezing cold; my captors figure if we stay under our blankets all day, wishing upon falling stars, the odds of becoming productive prisoners will diminish. I say productive in the sense that we as prisoners should take up the obligation of combating what is inhumane within the injustice system. This becomes a lifetime struggle while imprisoned. What actually appears to be meaningless, in the long haul is actually morally fulfilling. Yet challenging! What we consider to be productive, our captors refer to as “disruptive.” In the end all we want is equal opportunity.

Many tactics and well practiced strategies are put up like road blocks. This has given our captors an everlasting advantage. One important method of abuse is the placement system. Our captors have the authority to move prisoners at will. The sycophants usually end up in “Disneyland” while the “disruptive” end up in “Alaska”. With this tactic our captors maintain control. The majority of prisoners housed in VCU are seriously mentally ill. Banging on cell doors creates insomnia, the lights stay on all the time, and some prisoners become extremely delusional and schizophrenic. Mental illness has a strong desire to befriend the next prisoner’s addiction, as if the air was contaminated with dementia. All different types of crazed thoughts are fabricated in these prisoners’ minds, where everyone around you acts suspiciously like an assassin. These types of delusions commonly progress and eventually their pressures become too overbearing to hold inside, forcing these prisoners to act out. Prisoners lose their minds and begin mutilating themselves to ease their mental pain. Suicide is still viewed as cowardly, but some are too overwhelmed to escape its treacherous snares.

The main instigators are often the ones who are employed to implement corrections. They introduce this type of behavior to intensify the mental strain, giving the vulnerable a reason to simply attend to their anger, frustration and pain. Sometimes they even use seduction as a defense mechanism or to infiltrate the lumpen organizations to create conflict. This misconduct usually creates disagreements, cell extractions and the like. I myself have continuously remained in long-term isolation. No effective adjustment programs have ever been offered to us in this Arizona maximum facility, so obviously this type of behavior continues to worsen. The truth is solitary confinement is creating its own demise. Since I have been in isolation, the VCU ward I spoke of has been deemed unconstitutional by the higher courts and has publicly been shut down.

I am grieving the techniques implemented by the Arizona Department of Corrections in regards to long-term isolation without adequate recourse for mental health treatment. It is detrimental to one’s comprehensive health and in due time deteriorates one’s ability to function as a human. ADOC utilizes a detrimental structure which it abuses in its discretion to maintain order, rather than to address rehabilitation/recidivism concerns. Long-term isolation without adequate and the effective recourse increases the risk for prisoners to develop extensive mental health disorders and physical health problems as well. This also recruits and increases additional mental health cases for those prisoners isolated amongst the severely mentally ill population for long periods of time. ADOC has neglected to provide adequate mental health services in their maximum custody facilities. What this atrocity does to the environment is create a breeding ground for psychosis. ADOC has strongly neglected to conform its system to reduce recidivism and in fact has demonstrated through their actions, a crime against humanity by converting prisoners into mental health patients, consciously capitalizing on prison enterprise by neglecting to provide adequate recourse for their maximum facilities. This makes prisoners worse off than when we initially arrived, creating a more fortified cycle of sociopaths. This is a logical fact and is very inhumane. Without the adequate learning tools this process is going to keep creating insanity.

Also see An Alternative to the SHU
and U.S. Prisons Prove Maddening

Back in the dayz when Amerikka made their power move on our red brothers (indigenous people) to rob them of their land, one of the many tactics used to conquer these proud peoples was to give them and then sell them “firewater” (alcohol). This disabled many of our red brothers ability to fight for their freedom, thus making it easier for the imperialistic blue coated amerikkkan storm troopers to lead many red families into western concentration camps (reservations).

Now today as I look around me I see many potential revolutionaries and even vanguards for the revolution but they are disabled by a similar poison that disabled our red brothers ability to fight. Whether it be called alcohol, heroin, cocaine, meth, PCP, etc. Poison is poison. For a revolutionary to poison himself is to bring poison to the revolution. Don’t get it twisted, you are either a revolutionary or a drug addict. You can’t be both.

You can never be a valid asset to the revolution in an altered state of mind. And even if you don’t use poison but you sell it to the oppressed people of color for your own profit then you are still not a revolutionary but a death merchant who profits off of the weaknesses and misery of your own peoples. The same law applies here. You are either a drug dealer or a revolutionary. You can’t be both.

This strategy to feed us the oppressed nationalities poison is still used today by covert operatives of the united states of amerikkka. Don’t believe the hype? The CIA played a key part in introducing crack cocaine to the urban communities of Los Angeles, California. Does the name “Freeway Willie” sound familiar? These meat warehouses called “correctional facilities” are not concerned with how much drugs a prisoner sells or uses, their main concern is that we don’t escape, don’t commit acts of violence against their plantation keepers and that we don’t stack up arms. Their concerns are against the very characteristics which make up a revolutionary.

Revolution starts with our minds. If our minds are altered, there is no revolution. If you are down for the revolution, then poison is not in the equation and can never be. Be clean, strong and sober. Fight to win.

Latin Kings vs. Black Gangsters Disciples, Vice Lords vs. Gangster Disciples, Netas vs. Insectos, Crips vs. Bloods, Surenos vs. Nortenos, MS~13 vs Latin Kings, etc. This senseless and endless beef between us who are in rival street organizations does nothing for the revolution. It does nothing to help the oppressed people of the Third World order.

This message I write today is not for the ignorant amongst us but for the true revolutionaries. When it comes to any cause united we stand and divided we fall. This isn’t just a cliche. It’s as real as it gets.

To be specific, I address this to all the groups within the U.$. that the imperialistic federal troops have labeled “supergangs.”

As rivals I realize that there can never be no real truce between enemies (too much blood spilled and riders buried). However this isn’t about kissing and making up for I know that bad blood can’t turn good. It’s also real that this message won’t influence those of us who want to continue banging. However for those of us who have metamorphosed into bona fide revolutionaries and want to make a united stand against injustice, let us use all our influence and power to call a cease fire and turn our focus on the real enemy.

“In unity we can bring any evil system to its knees.” The divide and conquer tactic of war has been used by opposing forces for centuries. One out of the many of examples used by the Federal Bureau of Instigation (FBI) to divide and conquer stands out in my mind. The one they employed in the 70s when they tried to cause beef between Fred Hampton, a leader of the Black Panther Party in Chi-town and Jeff Forte, the head of the Black Peace Stones in the same town. (Both komrades were strong and had command over mass riders). The Feds attempted this by sending both groups false information about one another. When the plan failed, the pigs simply rushed komrade Fred’s apartment and executed komrade Fred and another Panther komrade Mark Clark, and shot at komrade Fred’s pregnant fiancee (she lived). Occasionally security employs this tactic within these modern day concentration camps. If we’re busy fighting one another it keeps our minds off of the real oppressors.

We need to start moving as one when it comes to the revolution. If you are strong enough to be a revolutionary, this means you’re prolific enough to move the masses within your own organization towards the cause of revolution. If you take roll call of the members we have within the largest street organizations within the U.$. we have what? 1/2 a million members? A million? If we ceasefire and move as one towards revolution we will become a force to be reckoned with. With all our different colors and ideologies we can become a united nations of revolution.

The biggest gang in the united $tates is the police. There are 660,000 police officers below federal level - state and local - 659,000 of them to the man has no trust in the FBI and yet when called upon they work together to oppress us. If they can work together in distrust then we can work as one headed in the same direction for the same goal.

When individual people work together for a common purpose there is power available to the group that isn’t available to individuals, union is a fundamental basis of power.

Genghis Khan once stated “one tribe is like a single arrow, easily broken. All tribes together we become unbreakable.” Even if you are alone within your group when it comes to revolution, you are armed with the knowledge that all it takes is one resolute revolutionary, one disobedient spirit to turn a flock of sheep into a den of lions. You must truthfully ask yourself are you ready if need be to die for the cause? Then you must truthfully answer yourself. This is important because part of the imperialist’s false superiority is their unwillingness to die. On our end I’ll repeat Andrew Young who said “it’s a blessing to die for a cause, because you can so easily die for nothing.”

Once we get started they can’t kill a cause. Fighting for a cause is everything, simply believing in a cause is not enough.

I read a lot of articles written to MIM by my fellow komrades in chains that basically add up to “po po whupped my ass” or “these CO pawns/administration are dogging us”, what I don’t read in those same articles is what did you do or are you going to do or are doing about it? Because if an act of action is not in your makeup and character then that’s when you voicing your grievance to MIM is a futile whine.

Fidel Castro once said “a revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.” As I strip down daily and look in the mirror I take notice of the many scars handed down to me by correctional goon squads from my numerous battles with them for standing against their tyranny.

I remember the few komrades who stood side by side with me against the OAK clubs, mace, tasers, etc. And went to the hospital with me after they tortured us for fighting them. There was never enough of us. We were always the minority. We still are the chosen few. Thus I reach out to all street organizations under the banner of revolution. This is a call to arms forsaking all others. Let men and women of courage fall in and under this banner.

Greetings komrades,

I received ULK July, no. 9 and I disagree with part of your response to the prisoner that wrote on gender. You stated that the prisoner’s characterization of women as “very emotional” beings is actually a good example of sexist views.

However this is a topic I have long ago done research in. Medical science in fact states that men think with the left side of their brains which is the logical and reasoning side, and women think with the right side of their brains which is emotional and sentimental. Thus this is not a sexist view but a medical one.

This means if medical science is correct then that would mean that female officers are more emotional than male officers, which of course doesn’t make them more dangerous than male officers. Both male and female officers are illogical because the system which they adhere to is illogical. It is also an established fact that some of these hoochies that been dogged one too many times by males on the streets who become guards all of a sudden, because they lack the education to gain better employment, will exercise their piggish authority over male prisoners with a wrath, just because they can.

However that’s not to say that male guards don’t do the same when they remember that their lunch money was taken away one too many times in high school by thugs, thugs similar to the ones they now have authority over.

To summarize, the job of Gestapo in any U.$. concentration camp sucks, but women guards should never be allowed to work in men’s prisons. They’re just slightly more useless than their male counterparts. When something serious pops off they all run for cover in fear for their lives. Courage is not a criteria to become a correction pig. “A man who controls his emotions controls his destiny. The one that doesn’t is unstable in all his ways.”

MIM(Prisons) Responds: Although it may be scientifically too soon for us to say that men and wimmin are completely alike, we must remember that all studies about nature vs. nurture (in this case brain chemistry vs. socialization) are done under hundreds of years of patriarchy. It is impossible to determine how humyns ultimately behave with no outside influence, because we are very deeply affected by the culture we grow up in.

At this point in time under the patriarchy, it is counter productive for revolutionaries to make sweeping proclamations about innate characteristics of men and wimmin. This debate is a distraction from the real issues, and plays into enforcing gender stereotypes. However, this comrade gets it right when he says that “both male and female officers are illogical because the system which they adhere to is illogical.” No matter the emotional tendencies of any persyn, they will behave in illogical ways when put in an illogical position. In order to prevent the wrath of any CO, we need to eliminate the illogical job in an illogical society. This can only happen by eliminating capitalism and the profit motive, which will in turn get rid of the prison system.