Pennsylvania Prisons

I agree 100% with what the soldier said about SCI-Huntingdon in the May/June issue of ULK. The population in this prison does not stand up for shit except count time. I’ve been trying to get these motherfuckers in here to boycott since 2005, but these dudes only worry about BET, sports, 40 cent ice cream tickets and who’s sucking whose dick.

As far as boycotting the kitchen, I understand dudes don’t want to lose their jobs but if the kitchen shuts down we shut the prison down! The prisoners do not realize how much power we actually have here, but one or two people can’t stand alone. We, the population as a whole, would have to stand together even if it’s something as simple as not going to the store for 2 weeks straight, or nobody goes to eat for one or two days. That’s enough to get the administration’s attention that we are not satisfied with the administration’s operation. Shit, the female prisoners have more balls than the males do. Muncy and Cambridge Springs shut down as soon as something goes down that they don’t agree on, but we males, what?

Yes, I’m talking to the gangsters, killers and so-called big time drug dealers across the state of Pennsylvania, because it’s not only here at Huntingdon, it’s the entire male population of PA. Stand up for yours! I’m not talking about a riot or cross burning or any kind of assaultive behavior. Just simply don’t go to the chow line for a day or two, don’t turn in that slip for the store for 2 weeks, or don’t pay that $16.50 they are charging for cable every month. Better yet, stop talking to the pigs as if they are your homies or OGs. That shit makes me sick every time I see one of these pussies “hee-hawing” with the same pig that slammed them in the Restrictive Housing Unit (RHU) and fucked up their parole.

Wake up and realize where you are people. Cuz, Blood, Latin King, G.Ds, Muslims, Christians, forget colors and religions, stand up as human beings. These redneck hillbilly pigs don’t even see us as humans, they see us as dollar signs. So since that is how they see us why not hit them where it hurts: their pocketbooks? Fuck that kitchen. Fuck that CI-shop job. Fuck the store and fuck the cable system! We pay $200 for a tube, then pay an additional $16.50 a month just to watch it, what kind of shit is that?

We need to stop spending our dough and make them waste theirs. They do it to us, it’s their turn!

Stand up! Wake Up!

On June 26 history was made in SCI Huntingdon’s Restricted Housing Unit (RHU). The early Saturday morning began with a racist Correctional Officer (CO) named Powell depriving two prisoners of their breakfast trays. Things like this have been constant here at Huntingdon but this day we had enough and decided to take a stand.

We told the superior officer on deck to feed the two inmates who were denied their breakfast trays or else it was “going down,” the officers did not comply, so we waited until they passed out cleaning supplies which consist of a bucket, disinfect, a toilet scrubber, and a floor brush. When the officers came to collect the supplies we gave back everything except the floor brush, which we kept as weapons. We then put our towels over our door windows. The officers began yelling threats about suiting up in riot gear and coming in our cells. Quickly prisoners began taking their towels off of their door and complying, and the number of us still standing was only seven.

Officers began to leave off of the quad ready to suit up in riot gear when we suggested that letting them arm themselves was a bad idea. We decided that this time we would be the hunters instead of the hunted. The two prisoners who did not eat were first. The first one faked a suicide attempt that made the officers have to run in his cell unarmed and when they opened his cell door he took action, getting as many of the four officers until more officers had to help restrain him. Next the other prisoner did the same and when they opened his door he took action using any means to get as many of them as he could before more officers had to help restrain him. From these first two incidents six officers were injured, but it was far from over. Next another prisoner forced the officers into his cell after they had sprayed pepper spray in it. He made sure he got some action before they restrained him. The injured officer toll was now eight.

My celly and I were next. We were the only double cell on the tier, and the officers would not come in. They left and suited up in riot gear, and then turned our water off. Next they ran into a prisoner’’s cell with full riot gear, electrical shields and a stun gun. As soon as they ran in, a helmet came flying out and the injured officer toll was now nine. Next they came into our with full riot gear, and two officers were on the floor before either of us wes electrocuted, maced and restrained. Eleven points for the home team. While my cellmate and I were being stripped and checked for injury, the officers were complaining about the CO who started this mess (officer Powell) by depriving the two prisoners of their breakfast trays. Coincidentally, he was not amongst the officers involved in this action. There was still one prisoner left, but before they decided to go in his cell, they let it be known that whatever they had to do for us to stop the madness, they would do it. They submitted! The prisoners were fed and we all received our property back with the exception of our bed linen. We all received misconducts and along with a bruise or two it was a small price to pay in order to gain our respect. Unity overcame oppression. For the first time in Huntingdon RHU history we stopped talking and gave them the only thing that they respected (violence) to gain our respect. Message to all of our brothers in the struggle: it can be done!

MIM(Prisons) adds: We do not think armed struggle now is a viable option for obtaining a more just society within the imperialist countries today. Therefore our strategic orientation opposes going up against the state in physical confrontations where we are always outgunned. That said, we agree with the theoretical point that the state does not respect so-called rights, but they do respect violence. Ultimately the imperialists will not give up oppression and exploitation peacefully.

To oppose armed struggle as a strategy today does not mean that physical force can never be used as a tactic in the fight for justice. Much of the changes that are credited to the civil rights movement were ensured by the revolutionary nationalist movements of the time that threatened to use force against the state. Similarly, the trial of Johannes Mehserle, as pathetic as it was, was triggered by the use of physical force by the oppressed. It would be irresponsible for us to deny these truths, just as it would be irresponsible for us to encourage prisoners to get in fights with guards.

I’m facing some harsh conditions here at SCI Muncy when it comes to fighting for what I believe in and our rights. I have several lawsuits against the DOC and pigs here, and I am constantly facing obstacles that they try to put in my way. One lawsuit I have is against the grievance coordinator of Muncy, Troy Edwards. This lawsuit is why Edwards does everything in his power to prevent me from exhausting my administrative remedies, so I can’t sue him because of the requirements of the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act.

One trick Edwards uses is he tells me he doesn’t get my grievances, when I know he really does get them. He stole numerous grievances, my lawyer’s letter, and mail my mom sent to me. He had the search team confiscate all my property and legal work and it was never given back to me.

I was approved to take declarations (which is like a statement) from several prisoners here. One of the prisoners I requested to take a declaration from told me this: Edwards called h and about 5 other prisoners and told them I wanted to take their declarations. He continued to say it was a waste of their time because my lawsuits are frivolous, I don’t have a lawyer, I am representing myself, and other bullshit! That scumbag bastard tried to deter these prisoners so they would refuse to let me take their declarations, and I would not have proof of my claims, which would lead to the prison winning judgment.

I was furious when I was told this, but I was not surprised at Edwards’s pathetic attempts. He does this all the time! He and the superintendent backdate their grievance appeal responses so it looks like I am too late and I can’t exhaust my administrative remedies. They also backdate their requests. They have this stamp they can rig to put any date they want on anything.

In December 2009 and January 2010 I sent over 19 grievance appeals and never got one response back. I kept writing this grievance coordinator and the superintendent and got nothing but run-arounds. Even a few of my initial grievances were not processed. Troy Edwards picks and chooses which grievances he does and doesn’t want to answer. The ones he doesn’t want to answer, he lies and says he never got them. I have copies, though!

Prisoners do not have a right to court-appointed lawyers for their civil suits against prison administration. When it’s clear a prisoner needs one, the judge can appoint one. A good case I recommend you read if you are asking for a court-appointed attorney is Tabron v. Grace, 6F.3d 147, 155-58 (3d Cir. 1993).

MIM(Prisons) adds: One of the most active campaigns being led by United Struggle from Within comrades in a few states is to demand that prisoner grievances be heard. If one were to accept the pretexts of the existence of the U.$. “justice” system one would think they would want prisoners to have avenues to address any injustices or problems they face while incarcerated. Instead, we see the same story all over the country and the hypocrisy of the injustice system is exposed. While we appeal to those in power to recognize the importance of granting everyone basic humyn rights, we must organize the oppressed to demand those rights.

I’m writing from SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA about the department of corrections new policy of saving money off the backs of prisoners. They are getting contracts for shipping PA prisoners to Michigan and to Virginia, shipping them out by force and making them buy new products if they are not clear/see-through: radios, TVs, footlockers, you must trash or send them home. If you don’t want to be transferred they use force.

Second issue is the law library isn’t always open, it is supposed to open 7 days a week for people to have access to the courts.

Number three is the medical department staff don’t check older prisoners for cancer, or any other medical problem in a timely fashion. Mental health doctors and medical staff won’t give people that are arrested prescription medical for medical and mental health issues.

The prison staff tell you that if you try to put any paperwork of any kind it will go in your personal file and it will look bad for you when you try to get pre-release or parole.

Once again I find myself pushed in a corner with the swine in Huntingdon, PA. I’ve tried to get prisoners together and put in paperwork against these jokers, but many have no intent to do so. They’d rather bitch and complain and allow these chumps to keep doing what they do. But don’t let another convict do or say something, or you might get stabbed or rocked with a lock in a sock. It’s beyond my understanding and to be honest with you it makes me fucking sick! The prisoners would rather worry about the latest BET video or the stats of last night’s NBA game. All the while, the administration is planning to take something else from us or plan on adding another provision to an already fucked up policy. What gives?

As I have said before, our cells are think tanks. We put our focus on shit that doesn’t really mean shit. I’m not going to say take a guard hostage or stab a nurse. I’m saying to use our minds, stand as one, and do something rather than just talk about it. To really get their attention, hurt their pockets. Don’t go to work. Do you realize that if everyone stopped working in the kitchen, they would have to figure out why, but more importantly they still must feed us? This would throw a red flag in the air. Stop going to work in the CI shops. Now, no clothes or soap is being made for the state.

I’ve given these ideas to many to think about. Then the new excuse is “I need my job cuz I don’t have anyone sending me money.” Ok, I understand. However, just say we as a whole stopped working, don’t you think I wouldn’t help a few soldiers out with enough to live off? I don’t have shit but myself. Yet I have enough to get by and then some. I understand everyone’s situation is very different, but in the same token, we are in the same situation, are we not?

All in all I’m plain ol’ sick and tired of this chicken shit. Stand for what’s yours. Would you allow someone to take something off you in the free world? So why allow it here? Everyone needs to get their shit together and realize this ain’t a game. Sometimes I wish I was living in the era of the 60s and 70s. Back then convicts fought long and hard for theirs.

For those who are fighting strong, I’m with you! Even when I finally leave, I’ll still help those inside.

There is a control unit in every prison in Pennsylvania, and I’ve been in three of them so far. In every one of them I have personally witnessed or been affected by mistreatment by the guards. I was in Camp Hill when the guards opened the windows, which are about 3 feet by 4 feet, when it was around 20 degrees out and left them open all night. I filed a grievance about this and the response was that they opened the windows to reduce germs. I was forced to stay in a cell with a blanket that was nothing but a bunch of strings and had a lot of holes and spaces in it. I could not sleep due to the fact that I was shivering so badly all night long. When I would breathe out, I could see my breath in the air.

I have also personally witnessed several beatings by the guards on prisoners. Somerset was one of the worst that I have seen, as the Corrections Officers there seemed more apt to assault a prisoner. I saw one guy who was handcuffed and had a big yellow rope attached to him get punched in the face several times by a sergeant while still restrained. He ended up with a big black eye and several bruises on his face, as well as severe rope burn on both wrists.

Pennsylvania is notorious for abuse of prisoners. They cover everything up. The medical staff also changes dates on their paperwork and does not place all of the information on the medical reports. This is all an effort to cover up all the abuses. I was in the Restrictive Housing Unit (RHU) at SCI Somerset for 8 months. In that time, I personally witnessed at least 10 assaults by staff on prisoners that were handcuffed. I am now in SCI Mahanoy. I have been to the RHU here a few times. I have also witnessed assaults here on prisoners that were in handcuffs. The guards will not even try to assault a prisoner unless they are handcuffed.

I was also placed in the RHU for absolute lies. The staff here can place you in the RHU at their discretion. All they have to do is put on a write-up that you used foul and abusive language or threatened them. It does not matter if that is what happened or not. The hearing examiner will not call any of your witnesses to the hearing. They give us a witness form only because they have to. It is just a waste of paper. You are guilty before you walk through the door. The hearing examiner here will even tell you if you do not plead guilty to whatever is on the write-up, that they are going to place you in the hole for the maximum time for each and every charge on the write-up. So most people just plead guilty to get a little less time in the RHU.

The RHU here is also 23 hours in and 1 out. We only get 1 hour of recreation during the week, and that is only if the guard feels like taking you out. Then we are strip searched before we go out and then have to stand in the cell handcuffed until they get around to taking us out. The guards here also take pleasure in burning us for showers and recreation time. They will even burn us for meals. They simply yell out “Refused!” when they get to your cell with the food trays. It happens here all the time.

I was even sexually assaulted by a staff member here, named Ms. Longo. I reported it and requested the state police, as in the handbook it states that I have that right. They refused to call them. Then they hurried up and wrote me up saying that I was stealing several jelly packets. I don’t even eat the jelly here. They did this to discredit me and then they actually fired me from my job in the kitchen. Then that same staff member was accused of doing the same thing to several other prisoners and she still has her job. I made several complaints against her prior to this whole thing and nothing was ever done.

Longo constantly curses at prisoners, which is an offense that a prisoner would go to the RHU for. Longo on a daily basis calls prisoners “pussies, cunts, bitches, faggots, mother fuckers, assholes” and several other things. She also had several complaints about her doing “pat searches,” during which she likes to grab the penises of the prisoners.

She is in her late 50s or early 60s and has bowel issues, so she needs to wear a diaper. She constantly poops herself and then just stands there. This is also in the food service area, as she works in the kitchen. When on a serving line with her you are stuck in a very small area with very little air flow. It is about 10 feet by 30 feet in the serving line. She stands by the door to the serving line, which is where the air comes from. So the smell just travels all through the line and lingers. We are forced to stand there and smell and breathe that nasty stench in. This is cruel and unusual punishment.

We have all complained about Longo’s mistreatment and swearing at us, as well as the smell of her going to the bathroom in her diaper. The prison won’t do anything about it. These people here are all related or neighbors. They all know and protect each other no matter what. Pennsylvania put this prison and two others in this rural area on purpose. They know this is a small community and that the staff will protect each other. The prison never has Ms. Longo here when there are inspections or visitors to this prison. It seems she is always off on those days. They will not have her here for anyone to see from outside this prison.

They will also not allow us review of any security tape if we report an assault by a staff member. It seems there is never a tape unless it is used against a prisoner.

Pennsylvania is one of the most crooked prison systems in the country. That is why they had a riot at SCI Camp Hill. They were afraid that a riot was going to happen here a few years ago. There have been several staff here taken out in handcuffs since I have been here. Even one of the superintendents was taken out in handcuffs for sexual harassment of another staff member. They think that they can get away with anything here. They even tell prisoners here that if you put your hands on a staff member “we will beat you all the way to the hole.” And they have done this since I have been here at least five times. I have seen blood from prisoners all the way up the walkway. We can see the guards beating the prisoners while dragging them up the walkways. They punch and kick them while other guards are dragging them. They do this in plain view of the blocks so that we can see it out the windows.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Many prisons are built in rural areas where the staff is mostly white and tight-knit if not blood related. Prisoners are generally shipped from metropolitan areas to these back country prisons where staff have no cultural awareness or exposure to non-white people outside of their occupation. This combination inevitably leads to all levels of staff protecting each other against grievances from prisoners who they seen as less than humyn.

For more articles on this issue check out…
Dixon’s Disabled done wrong
Find Your Strength
The Pigs Feed at the Lockdown Trough
My Environment! Real as it gets!
Prisons Used as Political Tool in Rural Communities

They thought that this would break me
They tried to tear me down
Confinement made my mind get stronger
You should hear me now
I wasn’t hip to all their tricks
They had me stuck before
I had to grow but now I know just what it’s hitting for
Their mission is divide and conquer
Their goal is menticide
We must protect our minds from them
Don’t let them get inside
Cus if they do
then they’ll use you to do the dirty work
Unconsciously they’ll make you be the bringer of the hurt
Unity’s ingredients are power, strength and love
And if we come together we will surely rise above
Divided, we are midgets with no hope to ever rise
But together we’re a giant who can choke them till they die.

It’s January 15 and the vicious hatemongers who operate this facility have again flipped the heating system off, changing it to cooling. On Christmas Eve over a foot of white hit up here. This is an apex mountainous zone of the Pennsylvania Appalachian territory. A day after Christmas, there was a freezing hail storm that locked in the foot-plus of white x-mas at peak altitude.

On December 23 I was nestled in warmth underneath a wool/poly blend county-issued blanket with my head tucked under and my knees towards my chest like I was back up in the womb, when I heard someone with a walkie outside near my cell comment on the nice, humane and cozy warmth on the cell walkway. At that time I thought little of it while relishing the civil humanity of heating in a prison’s segregation unit in winter. But later that night, with the peculiar uneasiness about the temperature in my cell gradually, steadily, going down, I put my hand to the vent and became stupefied with anger. This morning there was a similar occurrence as the morning of December 23.

Several times this morning I argued with that same correctional officer (CO) in response to him making statements in front of my cell as to the warmth of the unit. My point was, plain and simple, “It’s cold outside. It’s supposed to be warm inside!” Yet, the CO played it down as some deranged joke saying that it wasn’t nothing for me and if I was out the cell running around the unit working I would be complaining about it being “warm” too. (I have been on 24 hour lockdown for the past 7 years and for the past 11 days I have been on what’s known as “Butt-Naked”. [I’ll get to the Butt-Naked thing in a minute; please keep reading]).

See, on December 23 the regular maintenance faculty went on vacation for the holidays. They didn’t return until January 4: the first normal working day of this new year. Now this time, the regular maintenance faculty is off for their normal Saturday and Sunday, plus, Monday too, as this is Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. Monday is the celebration of Reverand Martin’s birthday in honor of his civil rights accomplishments, leadership and examples of peacefulness and righteousness.

It pains me to think that these hatemongers who operate this facility would be so viciously cruel as to shut down the heating and pump out air-conditioning in the middle of the winter, on a keep-lock segregation unit in a prison on top of a mountain in the Central region of Pennsylvania to spite Dr. Martin Luther King weekend, blatantly disrespecting the American notion of civil and human rights, mocking, ridiculing, and dishonoring. Yet, I am without doubt to these devil hatmongers’ viciously cruel intentions due to the fact that they blasphemed lord Jesus Christ the savior by saying, “I got a Christmas time present this year for them DHU prisoners that they’ll never forget: torture!!” and then manifesting their hate for 12 straight days.

On January 3, after hearing every excuse feasible as to why the AC was on blast, and had been continuously on blast for the past 10 days, I proceeded to unload a gallon worth of human feces, which I had been storing in my cell, saving it in half-pint milk cartons since Christmas, just for the occasion. I shitted the entire unit out! There was shit all up and down the walkways, on the stairs, the railings, the walls, high up on the walls, the ceiling, and the officers’ chairs and desks. It was shit splatting all over the place dropping at unexpected places outside the cells like bird doodoo. Everybody acted like they couldn’t understand why I did it.

The shit was splattered-scattered all over like spots on a dalmatian hound; and, the regular DH inmate workers were crying. After an officer, who must have pulled the shortest straw, came out with a shield, I went ahead and closed the box on my cell door where the shit propelled from. A special work crew came to clean the shit with a hose, a shovel, and later, a ladder. It took them 3 hours to clean it to satisfaction; but, there’s still shit gobs on the high ceiling, which have calcified.

Butt-Naked status

There’s this special punishment treatment program here at Cambria County Prison (CCP) classified by the administrators of this facility under the official title of “Security Risk” but, amongst the hip staff members and CCP prisoners/jailers, Security Risk is commonly referred to as “Butt-Naked” status (i.e. “they got Baby T on Butt-Naked again.”)

During one of my two previous stays here at CCP (from SCI Pittsburgh) while socializing with jailers outside the segregation yard cages, I was informed for the first time of what it was that those jailers called Butt-Naked (i.e. “You better be careful here because these hatemongers are really racist and like putting black men on Butt-Naked and don’t give a fuck about none of this civil-human rights shit you be preaching!”) A prisoner told me of how after he had “whipped the whole CERT [Community Emergency Response Team] teams asses and broke one of them pussies jaw” he was subdued, beaten by officers, stripped of all his clothing to total nudity, placed in a cell without any bedding or toiletries, left in handcuffs and leg irons and cuffed to the bed, and kept on Butt-Naked for over a month straight. He also told me that once, during the period he was on Butt-Naked for over a month, guards had the audacity to place another butt naked man in the cell with him who had just been put on butt-naked to “overcrowd” the DHU.

On the day I was transferred back to CCP, I witnessed a fellow state transferee be subjected to “Security Risk” Butt-Naked status. This prisoner, who happens to be transgendered, told me that officers beat her while in the jail’s intake area after 3 p.m. due to her complaints of being tired and wanting to get to a cell with a mattress to rest. They dragged and carried her from the intake to the DHU in chains and then taser gunned her and beat her more after they got her into a DHU cell before battering off all her clothing and leaving her in the DHU cell totally nude with no bedding, and no toiletries, beaten, cold and in pain without medical. She also was sexually assaulted by anal digital fondling during the episode.

I got socially acquainted with another prisoner in the DHU. I witnessed his holiday depression in 2009 after an officer pressed him about his family. One second he was speaking calmly with the CO and wisecracking, the next thing I knew he was cussing the officer out and banging on the toilet, bed frame, desk and light fixtures inside his cell without abandon.

He started screaming for the guards to “CERT the fuck up!” and come in his cell so that he may murder at least one of them, or, if they didn’t come in his cell to stop him, he was going to slit his wrists and throat and murder himself; because as he put it frankly, “Somebody gonna muthafuck’n die up in this bitch tonight!” He was banging on the fixtures in his cell trying to get some steel loose to make good on his word, one way or another. An officer who had tried to talk reason with him witnessed him making cutting gestures against himself in his cell and called in on walkie-talkie, “he’s cutting himself, it looks like it’s a razor blade.”

The CERT team did eventually appear. Instead of going right in, they doused him with 4 bursts of hot choke burn nerve OC gas for 5-8 minutes while demanding him to surrender his stance and come to the cell door to be handcuffed. He began loudly coughing from the effects of the gas, coughing interspersed with cuss screams of how the guards were cowards for continuing to spray through the door and not entering the cell. When the guards finally opened the door, they ran in on him and had him restrained in 10-20 seconds. I could hear him yelling, “You got me! You got me! Fuck! I’m not resisting! Y’all got me! Get off my fucking head!” And, I could hear the lead guard yelling over and over, “Stop resisting!”

For this he was thrown in the coldest cell on the inhumanely cold unit, inhumanely cold from the heat being turned off and the AC on for the past week, stripped of all his clothing on Butt-Naked/Security Risk. He was placed on suicide watch as well. He remained on Security Risk until January 8, 11 days from his mental health breakdown suicidal/homicidal episode.

There is not very much doubt in my mind that he wouldn’t have succumbed to his happy holiday incarcerated suicide, seasonal depression were it not for the viciously cruel devil hatemongers operating this county jail/prison and controlling the conditions of confinement within the facility motifs of physio-psychological torturing and their shutting down the segregation unit’s heat and pumping out AC against its captive inhabitants. If it were not for the physio-psychological assault on his senses from the inescapable coldness of the DHU from December 23-27 he would have never succumbed on that Sunday night.

Now, I have myself braved Cambria County Prison’s Security Risk special punishment program. I had counted on the hatemongers courting up on me and placing me on Butt-Naked after my having shitted down the whole unit. But they never came for me that night. Then the next morning after the shitting, after I had dosed the officer picking up trash after breakfast with heifer-tit juice, the CERT came (headed by an officer named Kupacella, who threatened to “shoot” me and who was cleared of wrong-doing for bringing his personal gun into the facility and shooting a prisoner to death in 2006) and I was moved to another cell. After I was moved to the Butt-Naked cell the heat came back on.

I just got off Security Risk today. I was on security risk for a total of 16 days. On the 7th day, because I hadn’t given back the blanket on time (they give you a blanket and mattress every day for use from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., the hardest time to sleep, and expect you to happily give it back when they come at 1:30-1:45 for it) the CERT team (again headed by Mercenary hate monger CO Kupacella) came back, I was caught off guard by them. I didn’t know they were coming until they were right at my door! None of the the prisoners said a word even though they knew that the CERT team was geared up for somebody.

The Lieutenant told me “I’m giving you a direct order to come to the door and cuff up.” As soon as I went to the door to cuff as instructed, the Foreman officer of the CERT team (who I recognized visually and by his voice as Kupacella) said “go to the back of the cell” and repeated it 2-3 times. After asking “How am I supposed to cuff up? Do you want me to cuff up or go to the back of the cell?” The Lieutenant didn’t respond and the Foreman again said “go to the back of the cell!” Seeing that the box wasn’t being opened for me to cuff, I went to the back of the cell. The Foreman screamed “Put your hands up! Drop it! Drop it!” Then called in on the walkie-talkie to open my door. Needless to say I had nothing in my hands. The foreman had the door opened just enough to spray me aiming at my head with high-powered OC nerve gas. After he closed the door back, I took off my eyeglasses and laid on the floor at the front of the cell with my feet at the door and my hands behind my head. I was then beaten by the CERT team, dragged to the shower, and roughed up some more.

I was dragged back into the OC-contaminated cell totally nude. There wasn’t even a decontamination attempt made! The officer evacuated all the other 3 cells due to the spraying of the gas, but still put me back on the contaminated cell. (I believe more gas was sprayed in it while I was being roughed up in the shower.) I screamed in agony from the burning effects of the OC. I couldn’t open my eyes, because he had got me dead in the face! I continuously splashed my face with water from the sink, but as soon as I’d stop my facial skin would again feel like it was on fire! I couldn’t flush my eyes out either. The horrid screams of agony started after I first splashed my body with water, after that it felt like I was in an inferno pit! I would fill a cup to try and get the OC off my body with. I would be on fire for the 15 seconds it took to fill the cup, and after I poured the water on my naked body I would start burning up again in 1-2 seconds. This went on for 2 hours. I eventually gave up on the water and sat down and supplicated to Allah.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This prisoner writes a vivid account of the horrifying conditions in Pennsylvania prisons and the irrational responses that the torture conditions elicit from prisoners, ranging from suicide attempts to aggression to any other form of acting out that they can use to maintain some small amount of control over their lives. Control units are torture, and they are used as a tool of social control in prisons.

We do disagree with this prisoner’s statement that carrying out brutality in the prisons over MLK weekend is “blatantly disrespecting the American notion of civil and human rights.” The Amerikan notion of humyn rights is the supremacy of the few at the expense of the many. This is the imperialist system. There is only lip service given to humyn rights when it is convenient, for instance protecting the Kurds in Iraq once Amerika no longer finds Saddam Hussein to be a useful ally. But the systematic destruction of basic human rights is commonplace in Amerikan militarism. And we see it daily in the criminal injustice system.

Today I write with extreme distress. I am sick of these racist pigs tyranny. On December 24, 2009 I received an order from the third circuit court of appeals stating that I have been denied relief from my wrongful first degree murder conviction and consequent life plus 7 to 20 plus 20 to 40 consecutive sentences, and that I only had 14 days to file a petition for an en banc rehearing. Due to the xmas holidays I had to wait until the 29th to go to the law library to do my research for the petition. While in the law library reading a federal rules of court book I was greeted by five hispanics that were also working on their street cases on the same table I was sitting in. Now in my legal folder I have the only two ULKs I’ve received in a while, which I gave to one of the hispanics on my table to read and pass on.

However there was a Sherlock Holmes wanna be CO who is an official KKK member who hit the panic button when he seen five hispanics educating themselves and they locked us all in the hole under so called investigation stating that I was possibly holding a Latin King meeting. Now on my DC-141-other report it states inmates are under investigation for a possible violation of institutional rules and will be held on AC status until the investigation is complete.

However, I was placed on a disciplinary cell without any of my legal work let alone property of any sort, no heat, no pen, paper, etc. Not even toothpaste. This was on Dec 29, 2009. Today is, I believe Jan 10, 2010, I could not have filed any paperwork because they do not hand out any supplies, I managed to get this pen because I fished it from under the cell door.

I have no idea what these pigs are doing with my property. Now I ask of you at MIM to assist me on succeeding in a 42 USC 1983 suit because the conditions I am under are meant to sabotage all my litigation efforts.

MIM(Prisons) responds: A good sign of whether you are a threat to the system is whether you are allowed to organize in your own interests. Union organizers in the united $tates are not put in isolation cells, Latinos with anti-imperialist literature, or even just legal books are.

With our limited resources we provide support to the legal efforts of our comrades that best target strategic battles that will benefit the most people. To be a part of the legal strategizing process write in to join our Jailhouse Lawyers group.

The McKean Federal Prison in Bradford, Pennsylvania is on lockdown due to a fight between African-American gang members and Mexican-American gang members. Nobody was hurt and all those involved or thought to be involved have been placed in segregation. So the threat of continued violence no longer exist, however the prison administration has decided to continue the lockdown indefinitely!

Due to the ill-treatment that we are going through in here, we seek the help of MIM concerning this matter. As this lockdown is about money, not a security threat as you will see.

It should be noted that an Acting Warden took over the week following the fight, and does not want to take responsibility for lifting the lockdown.

It is obvious that the threat of violence no longer exists since the prison administration allowed 30 to 40 prisoners to go to work in the prison’s UNICOR factory. If there were a serious security threat why are these prisoners being allowed to go to work? They’re not feeding prisoners or washing clothes, but working in the prison factory making cups, spoons and forks!

The prisoners have only been allowed 2 showers a week. They have been feeding us 1 thin slice of cold cuts, 1 thin slice of cheese, 4 slices of bread, 1 spoiled fruit, 1 small pack of cookies, and 2 drink mixes. Several prisoners have been suffering from constipation. They have started giving us lukewarm meals, but those meals aren’t any better.

We have been denied access to commissary except to buy stamps and batteries, denied access to the law library, phone calls, etc. But the main problem, once again, is the food.

Now, due to the lockdown, the staff here gets extra pay. So there is this possible link which motivates the continuation of the lockdown, especially due to the situation our economy is in. And with the majority of the staff here being related to each other in one way or another, nepotism is rampant here. There is no one the prisoners can complain to in order to address our concerns. And that is why I am writing you. This lockdown is about MONEY!

It is my hope that your legal department will call the acting warden, any of the associate wardens or the Captain at McKean and inquire about this situation. As you know, they will LIE, but one or two phone calls threatening legal action will bring about a change.

The phone number to the McKean Federal Prison is (814) 362-8900.

see our analysis on the parasitic economics of the amerikkkan prison system in ULK 8