Connecticut Prisons

Revolutionary Salutes!

Things here in Connecticut remain same as last communique: regressive and stifling! Oh! I do have intel which you comrades may find interesting?!

In January I went to R.H.U. and initiated a hungerstrike. My objective(s) were:

1. to get my rehab appointments from month’s ago rescheduled;

2. to see the quack masquerading as a doctor!

After thirteen days, my tactic was successful! Now, the issue came when a unit manager calls R.H.U. (at behest of my associates in unit) to check on my health.

The R.H.U. Lieutenant “bad jackets” me & says, “[name of author] has nothing coming as he is a child molester”. This blatant lie was manufactured in response to my chastisement of this R.H.U. Lieutenant for his managing conduct (lol)! In his quest to “get me” he locates a child molester with my 1st & last name (sans middle name obviously) and goes on to spread the falsehood to his subordinates, who in turn spread it to captives in various pseudo-leadership roles within their lumpen entities. Now, as I am from another state, the killers believed that their smear campaign would work, ie. I am unknown here! However, as a New Afrikan! one’s day-to-day stride coupled with fact, that I’ve striven to build quality captives since my arrival! negated the pigs’ ploy. “Real recognizes real.” But, as many of Connecticut’s captives are ideologically backwards and overtly pig acolytes, I may have to spit fire at some point! Enough said.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We want to commend the people, the L.O. leaders, in this Connecticut prison for not being taken in by the pigs’ lies and judging people by facts and action. This is the second principle of the United Front for Peace in Prisons – Unity – in action!

We must not let state paperwork determine who we trust and who we do not. What this comrade faced is an old trick. And we commend this comrade for eir righteous behavior in a new environment. It goes to show how righteous, revolutionary action helps build peace in prisons, even when it seems like the environment is in a backwards state of affairs.

Each day, I observe my fellow captives. I then sit back, and contemplate the “why’s” of our collective ills.

Firstly, the CT captives do not get basic prison protocols; i.e. Do’s and Don’ts! In my now, 2+ years of being imprisoned in CT, I can truthfully say that I now know what “defeat” looks like! A majority Afrikan & Latin@ populace whom have given up any thoughts of changing their conditions – content to work for a shower! As their fellow captives languish in cages during facility lockdowns! No empathy for their oppressed kindred. The individualist ideals supercede any/all “collective” ideals in CT: “As long as I get mines, fuck them.” Perfect conditions for reactionary/collaborator classes to regenerate among the ignorant masses.

I was always taught that no convict worked during a lockdown making the pigs do everything to shorten the lockdown as pigs are lazy by nature. So having to feed, collect trash, walk through garbage and bird-bath soaked tiers, etc. stress them out. Here in CT however, the prisoners have willingly acquiesced to being divided into 3 groups: (1) prisoners who work (2) apathetic individualists (3) collaborators. Daily, I am bombarded with “ideas” of what so called struggle entails and how to fashion a movement in CT; forgetting that a critical piece of any conscious progressive movement is ideological cohesiveness! How do we forge a movement with cats who see: working during facility lockdowns to the detriment of the rest of their class, or standing at the pig station talking as if such behaviors are socially acceptable norms?! Apparently, in CT this is how new age progressive movements are created. This is the working prisoner class.

The apathetic individualists are exactly that: adverse to everything! These types have grown weary from years of being in prison here in CT. Tired of trying and tired of being ratted on: tired of fighting! These types tend to have a million excuses as to why they’ve never participated in any anti-system activities. Typically, their past activities involve reactionary political actions. Cats who sow doubt among the uneducated and aiding the enemies in ignorance forgetting that “conditions” create ideologies, and from those ideologies correspond actions. The apathetic types want success without doing the necessary groundwork. It is our job to sow seeds amongst these cats, change their pessimism to optimism!

The collaborator groups in CT seem to crave the attention of the pigs. Whenever you look up, they are smiling and “jeffing” with the pigs. I have never seen cats so comfortable just kicking it with pigs. Cats who find a million reasons to dislike a fellow captive, but can’t find one to hate a pig. Being seen as “cool” by the pigs has never been a desire of those whom identify with progressive politics. So I’m quite uncomfortable being in an environment where the pigs and their captives have more in common than I do with captives. The “dragon” that I earned in blood sweat and tears coupled with the portrait on my arm of comrade George! It speaks volumes on how my comrades and I view the pigs and the oppressive system they represent. Question is: can the collaborators be co-opted/brought to a revolutionary state of mind? I shall stand firm regardless, even if it must be walking alone!

Take care and maintain! Can’t stop won’t stop!

Peace: I believe in order to have true peace among prisoners we must first war with ourselves and conquer the oppressor’s mentality that divides us; unify for a common cause and subdue the petty issues that divide us.

Unity: We must come together and collectively make sound decisions and be willing to do anything to be about our goals; we need education, skills, jobs, housing upon leaving jails; we must realize that the beasts will never rehabilitate us. It’s counter-productive to our cause. United we must stand or continue to fall one by one.

Growth: We must stop degrading and persecuting our fellow convicts; snitch, sex offender, thugs, etc. is all victim of a system that is designed to lock us up and throw away the keys; it’s not justices, it’s just us, poor, uneducated, addicts or dawgs trying to eat from the master’s table.

Internationalism: All oppressed people around the globe must unite and struggle for the same cause, strive to liberate and eradicate any and all who abuse any people for race, color, status, etc. Earth has too much wealth for any human being to go hungry or without housing or medication and treatment; we must fight within and outside the system to make it better; destroy in order to build.

Independence: We must unite and unite our community; vote and become police officer, judges, etc. Enough of singing “we shall overcome,” and lighting candles and talking; the youth should stop waiting for a leader and strive to become one, that way the system can’t kill the head to stop the body.

This is a brief description of United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP) motto and what it means to us. We don’t have much, very little or no money. We are rich in spirit and strive to be soldiers of united front. We call ourselves soldier of war, for it’s a daily battle.

MIM(Prisons) responds: These comrades in Connecticut have taken up organizing in that state and we’re very happy to be working with them. We want to expand on the point of Independence. We agree that we need the oppressed to become leaders, and ultimately this will include playing all the important roles in society. However, getting oppressed into positions in the police force and elsewhere in the criminal injustice system today won’t change anything. It will just put a few more dark faces on a white system of national oppression. True independence isn’t putting a few formerly-oppressed people in positions to serve the system. True independence is taking over the system so that the oppressed are running it in the interests of the oppressed. “Destroy in order to build,” as this comrade says. At that time the police and judges will serve the people and not the oppressors, and we will fill those roles with people from the oppressed community.

In 2011 comrades from United Struggle from Within and several other organizations put out a call for United Front for Peace in Prisons. In part they wrote:

“We fully recognize that whether we are conscious of it or not, we are already ‘united’ — in our suffering and our daily repression. We face the same common enemy. We are trapped in the same oppressive conditions. We wear the same prison clothes, we go to the same hellhole box (isolation), we get brutalized by the same racist pigs. We are one people, no matter your hood, set or nationality. We know ‘we need unity’ — but unity of a different type from the unity we have at present. We want to move from a unity in oppression to unity in serving the people and striving toward national independence.

“We cannot wish peace into reality when conditions do not allow for it. When people’s needs aren’t met, there can be no peace. Despite its vast wealth, the system of imperialism chooses profit over meeting humyn needs for the world’s majority. Even here in the richest country in the world there are groups that suffer from the drive for profit. We must build independent institutions to combat the problems plaguing the oppressed populations. This is our unity in action.

“We acknowledge that the greater the unity politically and ideologically, the greater our movement becomes in combating national oppression, class oppression, racism and gender oppression. Those who recognize this reality have come together to sign these principles for a united front to demonstrate our agreement on these issues. We are the voiceless and we have a right and a duty to be heard.”

The UFPP sets out five principles: Peace, Unity, Growth, Internationalism and Independence. If you have a group interested in joining the United Front for Peace in Prisons, send us your organization’s name and a statement of unity explaining what the united front principles mean to your organization. And tell us how you’re building peace where you’re at.

The enclosed disciplinary report states:

“Description of violation: On May 8, 2015 at 6:10 p.m. in accordance with Administrative Directive 10.7 I, Officer Lorenzen, reviewed an outgoing letter written by Inmate XX. In this letter Inmate XX shows his continued affiliation to the Security Risk Group Bloods by using a total of six five pointed stars which are identifiers used by the Bloods. Twice in this letter Inmate Patterson replaces the letter ‘C’ with the letter ‘K.’ This occurs on the bottom of the first page of the letter where he writes ‘Afrikans.’ The second place this occurs is on the third page of the letter where he writes ‘Amerika.’ This shows disrespect to the Security Risk Group Crips and is a behavior clearly associated with the Security Risk Group Bloods.

“Inmate XX makes the written statement, ‘As of now as the leader of our study group…’ This statement clearly shows that Inmate XX recognizes himself as holding a leadership position over other Security Risk Group Members. In the letter he also states, ‘We meet twice a week during our recreation period for 15 minutes…’ This statement further shows that he is recognized as a leader of Security Risk Group Members that have the same recreation period as him.

“The use of letter replacement, five pointed stars, as well as leading and organizing Security Risk Group Members are behaviors clearly associated with a Security Risk Group which is a violation of Administrative Directive 9.5. For this Inmate XX is being issued a Class A Disciplinary Report for Security Risk Group Affiliation.”

The prisoner’s appeal was denied.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We will support this comrade in eir righteous battle to have basic Constitutional rights recognized. Whether you’re Maoist or Crip, the way you spell can get you punished in the U.$. injustice system. And organizing others to come together to study, well that is a very serious offense for the most oppressed in the good ole’ U.$.A.

I’m writing in regards to the article “Gang Validation: Justification for Torture and Social Control” that the Connecticut prisoner wrote in ULK 41. I was housed in the same control unit in Corrigan Correctional Institution when the incident happened. When the prisoner who got caught with the 5 pages of Security Risk Group (SRG) paperwork returned back to the block (phase 3) I read the ticket and all paperwork that was associated with it. The paperwork clearly stated he was found in possession of the materials and he takes all responsibility. This clearly shows the prisoner who was transferred to Walker Correctional Institution was a target. I, and many other prisoners, believe he was a target of the pigs because of his ability to organize. It was through this brother that I first found out about Under Lock & Key. I feel that because of ULK I am better informed on the struggles within from state to state.

Since that incident I have also received a Class A SRG ticket because the words “Neva Will I” are supposedly Blood identifiers. Now I have been set back and have to wait for the ticket to clear to be eligible to start the program. The prisoners here in the state of Connecticut can be validated SRG members for something as simple as the “B” representing the Boston Red Sox Logo, or simply writing the $ or cents sign. I’m guessing these pigs have to keep the beds filled up some way, right?

I have to try my hardest to stay under the radar because I am now being targeted due to an incident that happened which had nothing to do with me. Two prisoners engaged in a scuffle and the one who lost cooperated with the pigs giving up unreliable information. I was questioned by the Captain and Lieutenant of the block. I was told “Since you won’t cooperate then I will do everything in my power to make sure you won’t phase through the program!” by the Lieutenant while the Captain sat there and laughed. I simply responded, in control, “Regardless of how you feel, or what you do, time will continue to move forward whether I’m in the program or not!” Since that confrontation my cell has been subjected to searches 2-3 times a week and the pigs find nothing. I believe it is just a waste of time. There is no valid justification for torture and social control, but yet the pigs continue to use these units for such. We must all keep fighting regardless of how long it takes. A war has never been won in a single day! I want to say to all comrades in the struggle to stay headstrong (educated), positive and above all else remain militant! MADMEN (Minorities Against Depression/Oppression Maximizing Education Nationally).

MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer describes the most common way that Under Lock & Key and general revolutionary education is spread behind bars: from one activist prisoner taking the information to others. And the result, as reported in ULK 41, is often punishment and even SRG “validation” for the activist. It is good for us to know that our educational work is such a threat to the criminal injustice system that they go to great lengths to stop it: censorship, solitary confinement, physical abuse, and theft of property are some examples. The attacks on our comrades are actually a confirmation of the effectiveness and importance of this work. As this comrade points out, there is no justification for torture and social control, but these are common tools of the oppressor. We call on everyone who reads ULK to take at least the one small action of sharing your copy with someone else, exposing at least one other persyn to revolutionary education. And everyone reading this should get in touch and make sure to get your own subscription since you can’t count on being in the same place to borrow a copy next time.

“The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the Constitution of the United States only requires a state to provide its inmates with access to a law library or access to persons trained in the law. Bounds v. Smith, 40 U.S. 817, 97, S. Ct. 1491, 52 L. Ed. 2d 72 (1977). The choice of which alternative to provide lies with the state, not with the inmate. Connecticut has chosen to rely on access to persons trained in the law in order to comply with the requirements of Bounds.” - CT DOC form letter

One of the services that the Connecticut Department of Corrections offers to prisoners is the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services at Yale University. In a letter dated 17 November 2012 that organization responded to a comrade stating:

We received your letter requesting assistance. Unfortunately, this office no longer has the resources to provide information or representation to such requests.

This is similar to the situation in North Carolina where the state contracts with the completely useless North Carolina Prisoner Legal Service, Inc. But, as we know, in other states where law libraries are provided, the resources in those libraries are also grossly inadequate. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton’s Prisoners Litigation Reform Act seriously hampered the ability of prisoners to get their grievances heard in U.$. courts. For those interested in this law we recommend Mumia Abu Jamal’s book Jailhouse Lawyers.

Our response to all of this is two-pronged. The main lesson is that legal battles cannot win prisoner rights under imperialism. As Mumia exposes in his book, the belief that they can leads hard-working jailhouse lawyers to literally go crazy. To win, we must organize oppressed people to establish a joint dictatorship of the proletariat of the oppressed nations over the former oppressors. Under proletarian leadership, exploitation and oppression will become the biggest crimes, and prisons will become places for education and re-socialization rather than torture and isolation.

Our second prong is our Serve the People Prisoners’ Legal Clinic. This is our short-term strategy. We know that legal information is difficult to obtain in the current system, and that providing access to this information in a useful way helps oppressed people in prison to survive this system. Just be careful that our legal work does not help prop up the very system that oppresses us, as Mumia warns. If you want to help prepare and share legal guides for anti-imperialist jailhouse lawyers write in and ask to work with the Prisoners’ Legal Clinic.

In the Security Risk Group (SRG) unit in Connecticut they have taken toothbrushes that we were allowed to have, we only have one jumpsuit, and even if we’re sweaty we are required to put the jumpsuit on. All prisoners are supposed to have 2 uniforms. We are denied religious services, we are denied schooling, and they have taken an electric socket out of the cell. We were denied library access even though this prison has one of the best libraries in the state, and we get no contact visits even though most prisoners have no tickets. SRG lumpen organization membership has tripled since 2005; 40% of the prisoners who come here are not really a part of any group but end up leaving a member. Some prisoners will get affiliated on purpose to come to the gang block to become a member. This unit is a hoax and a way for the pigs to get paid more.

When I first went to SRG in 2008 we went outside every day and had regular toothbrushes, visits 7 days a week, and this was at a supermax, Northern Correctional Institution. In September 2008 they moved the SRG block here to Corrigan. We had two uniforms. I only lasted 4 days and was sent back to Northern as a “threat member” (SRGTM Block). Slowly they took TVs, CD players and finally the revoking got so bad, they applied handcuffs on us during phase 1 of the SRGTM program (a lotta komrades including myself have a civil suit over it).

Both programs, SRG and SRGTM, consisted of 3 phases. Now they are combined so there’s only one program called SRGMP (Security Risk Group Member Program) merging both programs and now there’s 5 phases. Phase one and two are done at Walker Correctional Institution and phase 3,4, and 5 are done here. Due to the merger there are more rules and ways to threaten and make a komrade stay longer. This SRG hoax needs to be destroyed. There is no need for all this extra funding. Or to be punished for one’s beliefs. As long as we are not breaking any of this country’s man-made capitalist laws.

How are prisoners allowed 3 visits in phase 1 and 2 but only 1 visit in phase 3,4, and 5? We are tired of being experimented on! Would a letter to the governor and Department of Justice change anything? We will see. Connecticut SRG prisoners are not allowed to start petitions, we get tickets for it. All need to march to the capitol’s front steps in Hartford, Connecticut and protest the oppression being put on political prisoners in this SRGMP. When we get political it makes it harder for pigs to explain why they’re oppressing us or why they need this SRGMP.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We have reported on this abusive treatment of prisoners classified in a Security Risk Group in Connecticut in previous articles. This ongoing pattern of abuse will require unity among the many prisoners being oppressed by the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Pushing prisoners into lumpen organizations is common in prisons, and it often keeps different lumpen groups divided and fighting each other rather than focusing their power on the real enemy: the criminal injustice system itself. This is the purpose of the United Front for Peace in Prisons, to build peace among the lumpen and unity for the fight against the injustice system. We call on our comrades in the SRGMP to work with your organizations to join the UFPP and build the anti-imperialist movement.

In May the Department of Corrections in Radgowski Correctional Institution tried to shorten our visits and decrease the number of visitors allowed in the visiting room. So I organized a good amount of brothers to put pen to paper and the response was immediate. Some of us were shipped out of the jail and some to other parts of the jail. I myself was moved from the privileged part of the jail to the assessment drums.

A move is only done when you catch a ticket which I had not. I refused housing and went to the box. Since then drugs have been planted on prisoners as well as false positive urines. Now I am a level 2 prisoner but I am being housed in level 4 (max). I have basically just got the run around about my transfer. I am writing to the commissioner now with no hopes of a positive or righteous response, more so just to exhaust the administrative remedies.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Grievances are not only ignored by prisons but filing them often results in punishment, like what is described by this comrade as happening in Connecticut. Yet each state bureaucracy will go to lengths to explain the “systems” they have in place for prisoners to address any abuse they face on their watch. A campaign to demand grievances be addressed was initiated in California and has spread to Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas. It is needed in every state because there are prisons in every state. We need volunteers who can modify the petition to work in their state. Write to us for a copy of the petition.

I believe if the California comrades looked at the DOC’s model over here it would help in presenting a more productive model for them to use in reform. They used to be able to designate us at will with no evidence. Now it goes by a point system. A tattoo is not enough to designate you alone. And when you finish the program here, there’s no debrief. You just have a piece of paper of renunciation; no information is needed. They have found ways to corrupt this process, of course, but it is a step up from what California is doing to our comrades.

Our mission is to put an end to these methods altogether, but I believe there are steps in that process. Not only should we be giving a list of demands, but also presenting a model for reform that honors our human rights as well as our due process rights.

MIM(Prisons) responds: California Prison Focus, a reformist organization focused on issues related to SHU prisoners, recently put out an issue of their newsletter almost entirely devoted to analysis and criticism of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR’s) proposal for a new gang validation system.(1) The CDCR’s proposal rests on a point system similar to the one used in Connecticut. A point system might make it more challenging for prison staff to frivolously send someone to a control unit indefinitely, but only if the evidence used to calculate the points is disclosed. Another key difference in the Connecticut DOC’s system is that it lacks a debriefing process, and is therefore not as self-perpetuating as the CDCR’s.

It may be a tactical advantage to model our reforms off of those which have led to some improvements in other localities. This would depend on the conditions in each location and time. A point system is slightly more objective than the CDCR’s earlier protocol of identifying just three pieces of evidence, which were often kept secret as “confidential.” But as Ed Mead reports in Prison Focus,

The stated purpose [of CDCR’s proposal] is still to “prohibit inmates from creating, promoting, or participating in any club, association, or organization, except as permitted by written instructions.”(1)

MIM(Prisons) stands in strong opposition to this stated goal of the CDCR in our efforts to support prisoners in organizing themselves for democratic rights as a class and for self-determination of the oppressed nations.

The U.$. government uses the domestic injustice system to justify the denial of democratic and Constitutional rights to a growing segment of its internal semi-colonies. The recent CDCR proposal refuses to eliminate the use of secret evidence to put people in SHU, which is a denial of due process. Meanwhile, not only is SHU used to punish people for associating with others, but the recent proposal includes plans to expand the range of Security Threat Groups targeted for repression. If these policies were implemented for the overall population we would call it fascism. Organizing strategies of our comrades behind bars should reflect this reality.

What is so sinister about the debriefing process, why it has been a primary target of the anti-SHU struggle, is because the statements given are used as secret evidence to put others in SHU for indefinite sentences, translating to years if not decades, in long-term isolation torture cells. As long as this continues, and as long as prisoners are denied basic First Amendment rights of association then we see no progress in the “new” proposal.

MIM(Prisons) calls for the abolition of long-term isolation, as it is a form of torture that destroys humyn beings. In addition, the way it is used attacks whole nations by targeting leaders of the oppressed and isolating them from the masses. There are reforms that could weaken the second effect, but people would still be tortured unless control units are abolished completely. The proposed point system barely puts a dent in either problem and can hardly even be considered a reform. Therefore we stand with the broad consensus among prisoners opposing the proposal, and call on supporters on the outside to do the same to remove all legitimacy from the government’s attempts to keep the oppressed from organizing for any purpose.

I want to tell my story about what’s happening to me and others like me. I’m labeled a Security Risk Group Threat Member (SRGTM) because I fight against oppression. Me and other members of groups are being targeted. We are being punished, and the form of punishment being use is violating the United States Constitution 8th Amendment. During our legally mandated meaningful hour recreation in outside air, I and other SRGTM prisoners are being handcuffed behind the back, and we can’t properly get exercise while handcuffed in this painful way. After a half hour with my hands cuffed behind my back my wrists and shoulders are in pain, and this pain continues even after the cuffs are removed. And all SRGTM have been going through this for 5 to 6 months, maybe more. I believe this is cruel and unusual punishment.

Here’s what I wrote to the unit manager captain Marinelly. I also wrote to Deputy Warden Faucher, Warden Angel Quiros, and Commissioner Leo Arnone. These people, these pigs of oppression, don’t have morals or principles.

Mr. Marinelly,

I am hereby addressing this policy that the administration has put into effect. This is my second complaint, since early this year about this condition where security risk group threat members have to be handcuffed behind the back. This in fact is a violation of my 8th amendment, the right to be free “cruel and unusual punishment”, as guaranteed by the eighth amendment of the United States constitution…

I am an A.S./Phase 2 prisoner, I am also labeled as a Security Risk Group Threat Member and due to that label I am forced to be handcuffed with my hands behind my back if I want to go outside to exercise for my entitled one hour recreation. I already have pain in my wrist and shoulders being cuffed from the back for an hour. How can I exercise like that?

Sir, if you take a look at the “Connecticut prisoners right handbook” and look at chapter 8 page 66, “Exercise and Recreation,” you’ll in fact see how serious and severe this violation is.

Paragraph 2 explains this: Prison officials cannot take a prisoners’ “exercise privileges for a substantial amount of time without a good reason. Restrictions on exercise must be limited to ‘unusual circumstances in which exercise is impossible because of disciplinary needs.’”

Indeed, the fact that a prisoner is violent may justify segregating him or her from general prison population, but does not necessarily justify prison failure to make other exercise arrangements. In addition, prison may not invoke cost consideration in denying prisoners the opportunity to exercise.

Prisoners’ right to exercise does not require prisons to provide games or weight equipment for indoor or outdoor exercise areas since reliance on running, calisthenics, and isometric and aerobic exercise satisfies the exercise requirements of the 8th amendment. Prison need only provide time and space.

Sir, how can one do any of the above mentioned exercises that satisfies the requirements of the 8th amendment with his hands cuffed behind his back. This situation isn’t for a week or two weeks, but for however long it takes for those who are “SRGTM” to get to 2 East, those of us have to do 4 months as phase 1 with our hands cuffed behind our back. So a month in AS/phase 2 and 4 months in phase 1 of the SRGTM equals 5 months or more. I believe that is a substantial amount of time, wouldn’t you agree?

This violation not only deprives me of my adequate exercise. May I remind you that’s protected by our 8th amendment of the United States constitution. It also puts me in danger, how can one defend himself if someone slips his cuffs off and attacks me while my hands are cuffed behind my back. I am asking, Sir. Marinelly that this violation be investigated and corrected immediately.

MIM(Prisons) adds:
This is yet another example of the brutality of the Amerikan criminal injustice system which barely pays lip service to even following their own rules and regulations. Because these are not just individual cases, MIM(Prisons) focuses on fighting the entire system. We know that we can’t win until imperialism is defeated. But exposing the injustice system and organizing prisoners in a United Front are important for developing the anti-imperialist struggle here in the belly of the beast.