Comrades, there has been a collusive and concerted effort by the Texas
Department of Criminal Injustice (TDCJ) to silence and censor the voices
of politically active prisoners housed in many of their III units.
United Strugle from Within (USW) has initiated a campaign to combat the
oppressive indigent mail policy enacted October 1, 2013 which decreased
the allotted amount of personal letters indigent Texas prisoners are
able to mail out. Prisoners went from 5 per week to 5 per month! The
prisoners who are effected the most by this new TDCJ policy are held
captive in Texas’ many control and isolation units. Just the very nature
of their confinement makes these prisoners more vulnerable to abuse and
attacks by sadistic correctional officers.
TDCJ has institutionalized a policy and practice of downplaying,
minimizing, and covering up incidents and reports of serious abuse and
violence aimed at prisoners. Their motive has always been to misinform
the public as to the true nature of the largest state prison system in
Amerika. However, limiting prisoners access to the media, clergy, and
loved ones wasn’t enough. Recently, on the Wynne Unit located in in
Huntsville, Texas, prison administrators decided to discontinue the
contract with the satellite radio company that was providing Wynne’s
2,200 prisoners access to KPFT Radio 90.1 FM Houston. KPFT is a member
of the Pacifica Network and on top of providing a diverse and well
rounded schedule of politically conscious and highly educational
programming, KPFT broadcasts The Prison Show! - every Friday
between the hours of 9pm and 11pm. Huntsville, Texas is the home of
Amerika’s largest prison population and it fit well with TDCJ’s strategy
to cut prisoners completely off from one of the most prisoner friendly
radio stations in the country!
As a result of deteriorating prison conditions, retaliation, and abuse,
many Ad-Seg prisoners on Wynne Unit and surrounding units in Huntsville,
including the infamous Estelle High Security Unit, reached out to
Mr. Ray Hill the founder of KPFT’s Prison Show. Mr. Hill has a
reputation of being an outspoken critic of Texas’ draconian prison
system. In response to their peaceful and legal activism, the Assistant
Warden in charge of Wynne’s Ad-Seg unit forced his officers to write
over 70 bogus and fabricated disciplinary cases against Ad-Seg prisoners
housed on Wynne Unit. Assistant Warden Kevin F. Mayfield has established
a pattern of this type of unethical behavior.
Prisoners responded by contacting Carole Seligman who is one of the
editors of Socialist Viewpoint Magazine, Noelle Hanrahan the director of
PrisonRadio.org, and Michael Novick of Turning The Tide
newspaper. Weeks passed by and many of us were discouraged; being
isolated and cut off from the public has a debilitating effect on a
humyn being, and TDCJ exploits this dynamic to the fullest in order to
break the revolutionary spirit of the most advanced and active comrades.
In an unforeseen turn of events, we received word that comrades who are
members of the Roots Action website, which has over 400,000 members,
sent out 20,000 emails to Texas State authorities in order to spotlight
abuses and mistreatment of prisoners on Wynne Unit and beyond!!!
A managing editor for a very reputable socialist journal contacted us
and stated, “There can be follow-ups to this (email direct action) at
various stages. Beyond a certain point, the atrocities may begin to
trigger an unwanted level of public attention, which should begin to
curb the worst of them, if we can keep the pressure on.”
Comrades, we may have not yet reached the level of solidarity and
commitment as our California counterparts (I am still highly impressed
with 33,000 prisoners from all oppressed nation groups and lumpen
organizations sending an emphatic message to the prisoncrats and
oppressors of CDCR). Never the less, USW is slowly making proactive and
positive strides in order to organize, educate, and motivate the lumpen
trapped inside Texas’ gulags. Once again, I exhort you to join USW,
contact MIM(Prisons), and involve yourself with the most dynamic Maoist
organization in the United $tates. I also encourage comrades to expand
their horizons and attempt to correspond with free world comrades who
support and add strength to our voice. We must continue to battle
censorship in Texas. Our revolutionary thoughts and voices are dangerous
to the oppressors.