North Carolina Prisons

As of March 2018, the North Carolina prison system must recognize humanism as a faith group, allowing its adherents locked within the imperialistic belly of the beast the opportunity to meet and study their beliefs, a federal judge has ruled. The American Humanism Association, and a prisoner with a life sentence, sued state Department of Public Safety officials in 2015. Prison leaders were accused of violating the religious establishment and equal protection clauses of the Constitution by repeatedly denying recognition. U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle (Eastern District NC) wrote that prison officials failed to justify treating humanism differently from those religions already recognized within the walls of oppression. Humanist prisoners have the same Constitutional rights to study and discuss their values as a group – non-theistic.

Since Judge Boyle’s ruling, some individuals have reported to Convicts of Righteous, Reform and Liberation (CORRAL), that they are faced with harassment – cell property searches up to eight times a day, water being turned off, mail delayed, and structure issues. One of our board members spoke with the “admpigs”, providing a copy of this ruling. And we have been able to establish some middle ground.

CORRAL is a united group that non-violently addresses issues affecting those incarcerated. MIM has been instrumental in our quest, and we are proud to be in association. We developed our study group and board. We have three chapters. “Imperialism must be defeated”, so we do our part. Our motto: “Conscience stimulation, comes from education – which propagates liberation!”

MIM(Prisons) responds: This is a progressive victory for prisoners in North Carolina. One of the strategic areas our movement focuses on is defending the Constitutional rights of affiliation and association of prisoners of the United $tates. This is particularly good news in the context of protecting the rights of humanists to come together and discuss their values and beliefs. The first line of the Wikipedia page on humanism reads, “Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition.” While there are many forms of humanism and many insightful critiques of it, in general it is a belief in progressive change at the hands of humyns.

The Rehabilitative Diversion Unit(RDU) keeps us on solitary confinement for 24 hours on Monday and Wednesday. The rest of the week we have a chance to go to the rec cages for an hour. If the weather is bad on those days they have an empty cell inside of your block for inside rec. There is no congregate dining, no programs, no religious services, you can’t get a job or work for merit days, and no schooling. If you refuse to do the program, you stay on lock up indefinitely, limited to only 3 gain days every month you go without a write up. The whole time we’re classified as being in general population in the RDU program.

The majority of the prison is a control unit, one unit is regular close population. RDU is 4 units of about 190 prisoners each, for a total of about 760. In my block there are 31 cells with 1 white, 2 Latinos, 2 Indians, and the rest are Black. Other prisoners in other blocks say their blocks are similar.

This program is supposed to replace I-CON (6 months on restrictive housing). They say they only want violent offenders, but bring people here for getting caught with knives, cell phones and for regular fights. One prisoner I ran across was here for accidentally hitting an officer with a rubberband.

This same program is starting at Pasquotank Correctional Institution.

People are missing their minimum release dates because the program is locking them down for extra time to where they can’t work their time back down. They chain us to tables to watch videos and some prisoners get out of their restraints and stab other prisoners while they’re chained to the table. This happened recently where a prisoner stabbed another in the eyes and face while chained to the table. They take most of our property and make us either ship it home or throw it away. No contact visits.

I still have problems using the grievance procedure. I just had a petition dismissed in State Court. It was legal claims about placing me under structure sentencing laws when I was sentenced under 1979 laws. One judge ruled my claim was not frivolous and allowed me to sue as an indigent. The Attorney General’s office had my case moved to another county before a judge that favored them. He made no ruling on the merits. He went outside the complaint and said I was lawfully confined. I can’t appeal to state appellate courts because their court rules are mandatory that all documents be typed. Prison officials took out all law libraries in 1989, including type-writers and photocopying access.

I have been in long term seg several years now and have spent a fraction of that time attempting suicide and cutting myself at a severe level. At first I would cut arteries,then progressed to cutting through my abdominal wall and pulling out small-large intestines, literally. My purpose in sharing this with you is that long-term seg causes you to look at everyting differently, mostly in a negative way, causing you to suffer severe mental health issues. There are many here like myself. I’m housed in our prison’s new hospital - mental health unit. The entire prison is experiencing extreme shortages in all staff. COs, nurses, doctors, mental health staff, are to resignations, being fired etc.

A lot has been going on here in the last 2 years. Last year the CO of the hospital and staff were terminated after an investiation where over a million dollars of narcotics had “mysteriously” turned up missing at the loading deck over a long period of time. Doctors are fired for overcharging the state millions of dollars. There are COs that are high ranked gang members.

I’ve personally gotten 4 [unclear] fired and 1 doctor. I have 2 current investigations involving medical staff. I’m in regular contact with NC medical board - board of nursing, disability rights of NC. Oh man, these people love me here. I experience a lot of retaliation, beatings, missing mail, etc.

I am writing to tell the story of the death of a prisoner here at Pender Kurrupt Institution in Burgaw, North Carolina. On the 20th and 21st of December 2016 a prisoner at this facility declared six (6) medical emergencies (which is where you state that you need to be seen by medical immediately) complaining about back pain. The medical staff continue to state that nothing was showing up on a one (1) month old EKG, and sent him back to the dorm with packs of ibuprofen. On the 21st along with the numerous medical emergencies, two (2) code blue were called about the prisoner (code blue is a emergency code for someone that falls out and can’t respond on their own accord). Still the medical staff does not send the prisoner to the hospital. Around the hour of (2) two o’clock in the morning the prisoner is on the floor on his hands and knees attempting to get medical attention. To no avail he collapses on the floor dead. By the time the nurse responds she watches as another prisoner gives him CPR. The nurses stand and watch (20) twenty minutes before the ambulance arrives.

The dereliction of duty conducted by the nurses here is sickening. Pender is a medical facility that has had numerous deaths that go unnoticed by the civilian population, therefore no justice for the prisoner or their families. If you fill out a DC-602 (sick call appointment request) like I have you could never be seen or told that nothing is wrong. Who knows your body better than you? Understanding that we have inmates that abuse their medication as a pacifist escapism. With that said, prisoners need help with their chronic life threatening diseases with little to no care by the medical staff.

Comrades it’s time to stand up and use our voice to contact the newspaper, news, congressmen etc. to change the intolerable, inhumane conditions we suffer in here. If that don’t work, peaceful sit downs. Unite under the banner of M.L.M.

¡Hasta La Victoria Siempre!

[This comrade confirmed that there were still 40 people in the 1 Restricted Housing Unit at Albemarle Correctional Institution in 2016. This number has not changed since our survey conducted in 2008.]

What reasons are given for putting people in the Restricted Housing Unit? not responding, assumption, racism, or any little thing.

What is the biggest barrier to building unity where you are held? Officer and administration give special privilege to inmates to sntich and to side with adminstration.

I’m writing you from a federal jail facility here in Murphy, NC. We have been on lockdown for close to 3 months now. We are on lockdown for what another individual had done, what it is I have no idea. Since my arrival I have come into contact with ULK and value the information and its message. If possible can you begin my subscription?

As the comrade whom recently filed an civil case against NCDPS stated “there are no rights, only power struggles.” Currently a prisoner entrapped in the cages of North Carolina, I testify his comment as truth. Censorship within NC prisons has been expanded from safety examination to harassing and illegal.

Censorship has become as a tool to cover up the corruption, tyranny, and oppression. Not only outgoing and incoming mail, but also phone calls. When an incident of corruption occurs, these facilities will not allow prisoners to utilize commissionary to purchase stamps, envelopes, or paper. Following the stoppage of canteens, warehouse officers will cease the issuance of paper and envelopes for those of us who are indigent.

The continuous banning of ULK, and similar publications is a problem, but not our only problem. Those of us who are experiencing these conditions, we have to create a vanguard. And the comrades in Texas, California, and the like, we must create a voice. Where is the unity? Where is the solidarity. We have to construct a united front. It doesn’t only occur in North Carolina. Maltreatment of prisoners occurs all across Amerika. We must step up to cease these problems. Our sons, daughters, the future generations, we must fight so they aren’t subjected to these circumstances.

Censorship in North Carolina has risen to the point where it’s an impossibility for my loved ones to receive a letter. Censorship in North Carolina has elevated to the plane where legal documents are not reaching their intended destinations. NCPDS has become so oppressive to where there isn’t a law library in any correctional facility throughout the state.

NCPDS attempts to counter-attack, more appropriately worded as prevent, a rise of consciousness. The preventative measures began with stripping us of the tools which was used to enslave us: politics, economics, and jurisprudence. As the historic figure Fredrick Douglass wrote to Gerril Smith, the abolitionist, in his letter entitled “No Progress Without Struggle”:

“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions, yet made to the august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

Mr. Fredrick Douglass continues:

“Those who profess freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are he who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; it may be a physical one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand.”

Is the prison industrial complex not the contemporary plantations? Are those of us who are locked away in the penal systems of Amerika, denounced, then deprived of their rights? Dr. John S. Rock, an accomplished physician and lawyer, who was the first New-Afrikan attorney admitted to the bar of the United $tates Supreme Court said, “The greatest battles which they have fought have been upon paper.”

We are stripped of our rights according to their principles, laws, and constitution. North Carolina this is the time to support each other, to unite and form organizations, on the inside and outside to voice against the oppression. You are not alone. For all of those whom are oppressed, we have one common objective: to end it! Comrades, please aid your assistance by advice.

The first step is organizing!
One for all, all for one!

MIM(Prisons) responds: We previously reported in ULK 52 on a former prisoner’s lawsuit against North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) for censoring Under Lock & Key. Since that article we have not seen any updates on this front.

In the meantime, Director of Rehabilitative Programs and Services Nicole E. Sullivan recently responded to our appeal of the censorship of ULK 51. In eir response, Director Sullivan acknowledges that ULK has a policy against violence and insurrection in our newsletter, ey still says peaceful protest when no other administrative avenue has provided any relief is a threat to safety and order. The real threat to safety and order is the deplorable conditions of confinement that prisoners in North Carolina and across the country are forced to live in. It seems Director Sullivan sees prisoners as inanimate objects rather than people.

As ridiculous as this response is, we need a lawsuit to get NCDPS to budge on its censorship of ULK in the short-term. Getting ULK into the hands of prisoners is one major way we work toward addressing the long-term problems of oppression that NCDPS is able to operate under.

Also as part of our long-term strategy, we need to go beyond Frederick Douglass and the “prison industrial complex” analysis. While Douglass did provide inspiration for many, when it was time to decide between New Afrikan self-determination and integration with Amerikkka, Douglass affirmed eir loyalty to empire and was even appointed U.S. Marshall of the District of Columbia. This was at a time when others, including Harriet Tubman, were organizing separatist movements and independent institutions for New Afrikans, post-Civil War.(1)

We oppose the line that prisons are set up for profit (the analysis of the “prison industrial complex”) because not only is it simply not true that the prison boom is motivated by profit from prisoner labor, it also glosses over the primary purpose of prisons: to control oppressed populations.(2) When we have our historical analysis ironed out, we will be better able to take on our oppressors and win!

A former prisoner of the state of North Carolina has filed suit against the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) for regularly censoring eir subscription to Under Lock & Key (ULK) without due cause. In December 2015, U.S. Marshals were ordered by the U.S. District Court to serve Cynthia Bostic and Fay Lassiter with the complaints. Lassiter was the Chair of the Publication Review Committee, who would send MIM Distributors a “letter to publisher” every two months stating that the latest issue of ULK was disapproved for delivery. Usually the reason given was “D Code” or “encourages insurrection and disorder.”

Cynthia Bostic was the Assistant Section Chief of Support Services, who was in charge of reviewing these decisions. Every two months a volunteer legal assistant would write Bostic to appeal the censorship and she would respond upholding the decision. This went on for 3 years straight with every issue being censored, every appeal being denied, and no specific justifications being given for the censorship.

In an attempt to investigate the so-called “review process” our volunteer filed a public information request with the state and began shopping the case to some civil rights lawyers in North Carolina. It was around this time that our appeal was granted for ULK Issue 36. Yet, none of the copies sent to prisoners in North Carolina were subsequently delivered. Presumably the state just threw our mail away. So we went ahead and sent new copies of ULK 36 with copies of the letter from Bostic saying that this issue was approved. These too were censored! As most prisoners know, but some readers on the street may not, it can be a real battle just to get these people to follow their own rules and decisions. Like the comrade filing the suit stated in a recent interview, “there are no rights, only power struggles.”

We want to commend this comrade for taking up this battle after eir release from prison. This is a shining example of carrying on the struggle for those ey left behind. And it shows leadership and self-reliance to come out and wage what will likely be an uphill battle against the state for basic rights. At the same time, the battle will be so much easier from the outside where one does not have to worry about constant harassment, mail being thrown out and being denied access to law books (North Carolina does not have law libraries in its prisons). The local report on eir lawsuit states that ey will be doing a fundraising campaign, and we encourage people to support em.

This battle is ongoing, as North Carolina continues to ban almost every issue of ULK statewide, despite the fact that Lassiter and Bostic are no longer involved in these decisions. Perhaps not surprising for a state that was recently told by a Federal court that its voting laws were illegal for disenfranchising New Afrikans. A lawsuit like this is needed to take the censorship struggle in NC to the next level. Bourgeois democracy will never guarantee the rights of the oppressed. But we can use lawsuits tactically to win battles when we are clearly in the right according to their own rules and principles.

I have seen many prisoners including myself after being placed in handcuffs and shackles be mistreated and beat. This shit is real. I was done like this because I would not shut up a freedom of speech, which I supposed to have in the united snakes.

I have witnessed many other similar issues. Medical care, we are charged a $5.00 copay and it’s very poor. Tylenol is a remedy for everything. I’m in long-term now, where no one’s sick calls are being answered a lot of the time.

As to the grievance policy, the person has a good grievance a lot of times and don’t get an answer. Pigs is very lazy and don’t like doing their job. The food is not up to standard. You are given an ice cream scoop on everythinig. When you eat at home, try serving all your plates with an ice cream scoop for a week and you will have a good understanding of what a grown man’s stomach feels like in here.

Strip searches are forced here in front of other prisoners, especially upon transfers in med custody, which violates a person to expose their body to other prisoners that can cause harrassment that is often homosexual. Personal property is searched and stuff thrown away without the prisoner being present. And prisoners’ legal mail is read upon transfer in and out of being placed in the hole…

Please post this on to other places and people make copies. We need change and someone and many to reach out to help, besides listen. Please lead us in the right direction of hope.

Thanks so much.