Federal Prisons

1. Lack of opportunities to go to outside recreation.
2. Cold food being served every meal at the Ad-Seg/High Security Unit.

There are a lot of similar problems here at Eastham Ad-Seg and some of the common denominators which allow these problems to continue are:

1. Serious Shortages of Staff all over TDCJ
2. Lack of funds to make repairs on anything
3. Deliberate Indifference and Abuse by uncaring Staff at Allred!

One issue that I’d like to bring to your attention is that prisoners who are housed in Ad-Seg (all over Ad-Seg, but especially at the Allred Unit) are more vulnerable to abuse by TDCJ prison employees because they are more isolated from the general public, the media and their FAMILIES!! Hunger Striking is the last ditch effort to have their grievances heard. This is a cry for HELP! We cannot ignore them.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The Texas grievance process is abysmal, and in most (if not all) facilities, the instructions on how to use the grievance process are not even made available to prisoners. We saw no other choice but to compile this material and distribute it ourselves. So when this correspondent says “hunger striking is the last ditch effort,” we can attest to the lack of progress using official channels. Eventually it gets to a point where humyns can’t take the abuse and neglect anymore, and the prison admin is only frustrating their attempts to go the “proper” route. Hunger striking is one of the only forms of protest left. We are trying to work toward a society where people don’t need to starve themselves to be allowed outdoors, and asserting ourselves, such as in this hunger strike, is one step toward that new society.

I received the book that you sent me and the ULK newsletter. I agree with the line that all sex is rape and that the majority of the white working class in the United States is not a revolutionary force due to the fact that they have a material interest in maintaining imperialism on a global stage.

I been doing organizing and educational work. I been helping showing others how to fill out grievance forms. I end up getting 100% participation from all cadres on lock up down at Jessup Correctional Institution. As you can see my address changed. They moved me to Maximum security prison North Branch, it is the most secure prison at Maryland. Due to my organizing and assault on COs at Jessup they raised my security level.

We had to move the struggle to the physical level because they was not respecting our grievance forms; they was ripping them up. When the grievance process fails the physical level is the next step. I am not a focoist. But when oppressive tactics are used by the imperialist blood suckers of the poor then violence is the next step.

I don’t think that the drug problem is getting any better. A lot of brothers are getting high off of the medication these nurses are giving out which is nothing but another form of social control that is used by the imperialist system. Everything under this capitalist system is abnormal. The people will only begin to see the value of people through the transitional stage of socialism. Individualism is what majority of citizens value. We as communists must continue to struggle and fight to win the people over.

I have political debates all the time with capitalists. They don’t see how the means of production should be collectively owned by the people. I been raising the class consciousness elucidating to comrades how the Democratic party and the Republican party will not exist without perpetuating social conflict amongst the people and how racism and classism is inextricably built into the capitalist system.

One thing about a lot of women is they don’t like the inequality and sexism but when you ask them do they believe we should abolish the current system a lot of them will say no! A lot of women are willing to put up with inequality and sexism because they have a material interest. I agree with this line that sexism will always exist under this capitalist system even during the transitional stage which is socialism. Classism is the worst social ill that we have in our society, to me classism is a disease it takes a long time to cure. I am a blackman from a low income community. A lot of women I talk to are ignorant to communism. They have a bad perception about it due to imperialist propaganda. I would like to learn more about Mao Zedong. Please send some knowledge about Mao Zedong.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We have a lot of unity with this writer about the nature of class, nation and gender oppression in the imperialist world today. But we see national oppression as the main problem today, not class. This is because imperialism is built on a system of nations oppressing other nations. That oppression is economically exploitative, and in many ways parallels class oppression. But recent history has shown revolutionary nationalism to be the form that the most successful anti-imperialist organizing has taken. We will have the best success against imperialism by pushing national liberation struggles. And these in turn will push forward the class struggle.

We also want to comment on the question of organizing strategies becoming physical. Change can’t occur without action that has consequences. And ultimately an oppressor that uses force to control must face a response of force before that oppression can be ended. But as Sun Tzu taught in the Art of War, the enemy must be truly helpless to be defeated. Comrades must be careful to plan actions so that they don’t just result in greater repression. Leaders getting locked up in isolation doesn’t advance the movement. Everyone needs to evaluate their own conditions to determine what’s the best organizing approach and what’s necessary for self-defense. And self-defense should not be confused with revolution.

This is a response to the recent article on Prop. 57 organizing. While I understand how this could be a tool for comrades to organize with, at the same time there are plenty of programs here at Folsom that are doing the whole time reduction program. For example, there are a few of my homies that have gotten 1/4 of their time knocked off after GED/College degree. And they are not white, rich, or snitches as the headline suggests.

Now one thing that we can definitely push is for youth offenders to be able to fit the criteria of Prop. 57. Because that is definitely something us under SB260-261 do not fit into. Not to say that the carrot of reform is something we bit into with high hopes, but it can most definitely be something to put into motion.

I just feel the headline stating that only snitches and privileged are getting good time in New Folsom EOP/GP could be a turn off. It will move/push people in the wrong direction. We can use this, let’s just not label solid comrades snitches on paper when organizing.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We thank this comrade for this criticism and correction. While we did print a couple responses from USW comrades in ULK 60 citing instances of good time used to favor certain prisoners, we should not paint with such a broad brush to imply that anyone getting good time is in that boat.

It does seem that access to info on Prop. 57 is also imbalanced. As we are still getting people asking for information, while others say the state is on top of it. Strategically, we seek to build Serve the People programs where we can provide for the needs of the masses better than the state. Prop. 57 is not a place we can do a better job than what the state is doing. Providing books that serve the interests of oppressed nations, for example, is. We agree with this comrade that we cannot hope for reformism to change things, but we can fight for winnable battles that help us move in the direction of revolutionary change.

Addendum: The politics of Prop. 57 also overlap with the focus of this issue of Under Lock & Key. The CDCR tried to exclude anyone convicted of a crime that required being registered as a sex offender from Prop. 57 benefits. But only certain crimes in the sex offender classification are also classified as violent felonies in the California Penal Code. In February, in a suit brought by the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, a judge ruled that the CDCR was overstretching the law, and that limits on Prop. 57 must be applied only to those convictions deemed “violent” in the California Code. (16 February 2018, Seth Augenstein, California’s Prop 57 Sex Offender Release Regs Are Void, Court Rules)

I am an inmate in the Texas department of criminal justice prison system. Have been locked up for going on years and have been on three other units. Why it has taken me so long to write the MIM Under Lock and Key publicaiton to expose some of the fowl stuff that is going on behind these walls is beyond me. My bad please forgive me brothers in white!

I started my time at the Smith Unit in Lamesa TX and did 5.5 years before I got my first case and that got me put in close custody for six months and to top it off it was for a fight that never happened. An inmate got to the unit and didn’t want to be on the unit and being that I was the only one he knows by name he said that I assaulted him and the rank on that unit is so corrupt that they accepted the story. And well I ain’t been able to bounce back yet and this happened in 2014. Six months later the same captain that ran the case on me got walked off the unit because he was caught with meth in his office and a few cell phones that he was selling to prisoners.

After I got sent to close custody I started my grievances to try to get my case over turned and nothing would come my way that would open any doors. I did my time and got sent to Lynaugh Unit in Fort Stockton, Texas and that unit is no better. I stayed there less than a year and was given 8 or 9 cases by the STG officer over the eyar. And all I could do was put in my grievances and let them work for me but I was still doing something wrong that wasn’t getting no kind of justice.

I got into a riot there and not only did I get put back on gang file but I got G5ed again and got shipped to this unit which is the Michal Unit.

I’m having a hard time dealing with all the bullshit they got going here. I got your Texas pack of legal rights that us inmates have and often overlook and get screwed because of it. I sat down and read it from cover to cover and well I want to let you know that even though I can’t win them all I have started getting some wins under my belt for a few of my fellow brohers in white because of the Texas pack.

Here on the Michael unit they feed us Johnny Sack meals every chance they get and thse sack lunches have nothing but one peanut butter sandwich and a meal sandwich of some kind. The breakfast Johnny is the one that is the real joke, 2 pancakes that is way below the calorie diet for any human being. When I got here I was weighing about 275. I am 6 feet carry my weight well but have been here about 7 months and well I am down to 220. Yeah for me that is my ideal weight but losing the weight too fast is not good and then they don’t give us recreation but maybe once a week if we are lucky.

This unit is way out of line and well I am trying to get some other brothers in white to start pushing the pin with me but a lot of these inmates have it in their head that writing a grievance is snitching. So what can I do for myself? They charged me the $100 fee for medical when they had no reason to and well because of the Texas pack and a little bit of patience I got my money back and now they are retaliating by not answering my sick calls for renewals so I am thinking more of the lines of a 1983 being filed so they can get their hearts right.

I am writing you in regards to treatment on this unit. I have put a restraining order on administration and his staff/employees. I’ve been through the proper procedures that the adminstration and the ranking officer told me to go through which is the proper procedures which is the Step 1 and Step 2. I haven’t gotten a response.

Every time I talked to the Major Rockella L. Neal she keep telling me that she don’t know what they want to do and that she did her part. I talked to Malcolm J Hawkins, a seargent, and he said that he doesn’t have anything to do with it. Officer Ciera M. Narcisse Co III is the one who messed up my property and didn’t want to give me an inventory slip. Officer Yessica L Medinamartinez Co III told me that she don’t know what property that I’m talking about. I know they giving me a run around about my property and every time I address a ranking officer they tell me to get the fuck on and go back to my assigned building and this what comes down to me getting a restraining order on the administration in his employees.

They gone cover their back and look out for each other so I have to cover mines just case anything happen to me by getting this restraining order against the administration and his employees. I would like to file theft charges on the administration for messing with my property. Please can you let me know what assistance you can provide.

I am writing to you in regards to the hunger strikes occurring as this is being typed by my good friends on the Powledge Unit in Palestine, Texas.

I have heard on the local radio station that a hunger strike is happening on the Allred Unit. The count is at 45 inmates concerning the conditions of confinement, this has been ongoing in Texas because I have personally litigated many claims about unsanitary conditions of confinement.

On another note, the K-2 epidemic is still mounting here on Powledge, but administration refuses to address the problem. The K-2 is coming in thru the industry here, by employees and controlled by the gang members here. This is supposed to be a G.R.A.D. unit. Gang renunciation unit.

But it appears that it is a gang re-organizing unit. They reorganize once they get free of smart gang intelligence officer and get this dumb one here.

This unit is a geriatric unit for old men and infirmed men, but they continue to fill it with young gang members that want to get high or drunk off hooch made with hand sanitizer. A deadly combination that has claimed four inmates. Our society has no more dumb people than we do.

Offenders are forced to endure the smoke despite their breathing problems and sends the offender to the medical with severe problems, in which medical blames it on some other activiating mechanism like the dust or debris.

One inmate died while smoking K-2 and the inmates brought him back to life before the guards could be alerted. He made parole and has not been seen since.

Your analysis has been enlightening and brought us up to date on the epidemic of K-2. Thank you for your service to this major problem in prison and outside. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

5 January 2018 – I am writing to inform our allies that D Yard here at Salinas Valley State Prison has been on lock down since 18 December 2017. The reason claimed is that “somebody stole a piece of metal.” All cells have been searched and all prisoners signed papers stating that they have no knowledge of any stolen metal. Yet we still remain on lockdown even after the cops found no weapons or metal in cells or on prisoners.

This is my end-of-year report on our MIM Grievance Campaign. We did one on the “unlocks” here, and we’re currently working on the issue of showers. Due to the California drought they claim that we are still in a drought and therefore can only shower on Tuesday and Thursday. Even then there is no hot water so we are showering in ICE cold water. This is in spite of the fact that we are in a medical facility and most of us are older prisoners.

The temp has dropped to 34 degrees in the morning and we have been in these conditions now for over a month. Enclosed please find the grievances.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Comrades at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility have been pursuing these issue through 602 appeals forms and subsequent appeals. After receiving a response of “partially granted” there was no actual change in conditions and they began utilizing the grievance petition for California. They have done a good job documenting the process, citing case law of Armstrong vs. Brown and the 8th and 14th Amendment.

Comrades in California and other states can write in to get a copy of a grievance petition to use as an organizing tool to bring people together around conditions that are not being addressed at your prison.

I am currently at Hays State Prison in Trion, GA. I for the record am white, am a Muslim by religion, and tired of seeing all these white trash pigz and klansmen that work here on this kkkompound treat all the inmates like modern day slaves.

There is this level style program called Tier II in GA (see Sop 209.08 Tier II/Administrative Segregation) and here at Hays it is beyond the norm of oppression. Unit managers, supervisors, and officers alike threaten and try to antagonize any prisoner they see as weak. There is an area known to all as simply “behind the glass” its supposed to be level 6 security and the wardens have at times said that level 6 status only will last 30 days, but people are kept in there up to 90 days, for no reason at all. The warden has personally told people, myself included, that “you get no legal library behind the glass.”

The food service here is supervised by ARAMARK, a major imperialist conglomerate in the food service industry, and per the above SOP all Tier II inmates are to receive the same quality and quantity of food as GP. However we don’t receive coffee at breakfast all other state run institutions in the GDC do, our portions are often inadequate and no way possible add up to 2000 calories per day, we only receive lunch Monday-Thursday except on state/federal holidays, meaning on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and any and all holidays we only eat twice, the trays arrive cold more often than not.

When officers are confronted with issues they, in some cases, lie and simply move on. Today, 25 December 2017 I watched a nurse refuse a man his mental health medication, I am unsure of this nurse’s name, simply because he wouldn’t go to the back of his cell even though he is no “behind the glass.” When he asked the C.O. working pill pass why he had to step back the C.O. said “I don’t trust you.” When the inmate refused to move the nurse said “you have three seconds then you’ve refused your meds,” and ultimately she refused his medication.

There are many other very cruel things I’ve heard about but until I see the actual use of “the involuntary hunger strike” or an inmate beat to death by staff, I cannot speak on them.

I ask my fellow inmates/convicts no matter your race, religion, gang affiliation, or sexual preference to stand as one at Hays State Prison without using any unwarranted violence so that us on lockdown get what we need. Please y’all come together and fight oppression and racism with me cause I cannot do it alone.

To all my Muslim brothers As-Salam Alaikum and to the Christians God Bless and to the ones I’ve left out be safe and hold your heads up.

I’m writing to you from a prison cell deep in the bowels of a Texas prison. Recently I reread your article “Texas Comrades Need to Step up” in the Sept/Oct 2016 issue of Under Lock & Key. It was well written and a much needed call to arms! One question I have for you though is “Have you ever been to Texas, and if so, have you been incarcerated here?” I ask this because I’ve traveled a lot and have found that most people who’ve never been here have a hard time understanding the typical Texan, much less the uneducated incarcerated Texan.

To understand Texas you first have to accept that we are programmed from birth to believe that communism is not only a bad thing, but one of the very worst. Communists aren’t just the enemy, they are the boogeyman sent forth from the deepest, darkest depths of hell, by satan himself, to steal babies and rape our cows! There is no place on earth where the capitalists have been more successful at spreading their agenda than in Texas. The reason that most inmates in Texas are not doing those things you address in your article is because they do not believe in our cause. At heart they, most of them, are capitalists who only believe in “me”, not “we”. This, comrade, is the gist of all our problems.

Most of the people who receive Under Lock & Key only support your mission because it furthers their own self-interest of getting out of prison, or making their time easier. When someone has been taught to “not understand” their own best interests, how can one be expected to grasp what’s right for the whole, much less fight for it? What to do about it? I’m still working on that one and will get back to you on it!

The main reason for this letter is to find out whether or not you have any specific caselaw that would help me with my 1983 that I’m in the process of drafting. First, I’d like to say that I completely understand that you must receive hundreds of letters each month from POWs requesting help. While I do not claim to be any more important than any of those individuals, I do believe that my situation is unique in its scope. I say this because I currently have the “standing” to challenge all of the criminal justice issues that your org. has taken a stand against, as well as quite a few other issues. But most importantly, is the vast amounts of evidence that I have compiled to support my claims.

A couple areas in which I’m seeking caselaw for are:
1. The grievance system and denial of due process
2. The $100 medical copay. TDCJ charged me for a medical visit that clearly should have been exempt and has never given me the money back.
3. Good Time. Feds ruled that a state can’t arbitrarily take good time so Texas created legislation that negates the good times worth.
4. Price gouging and profiteering. Texas uses free labor to manufacture products that it in turn sells on commissary for inflated prices that fare exceed the prices of similar products sold at freeworld retail stores.

There are a few more issues that I plan to file on but I’m sure you get the point. The help I seek is minor in comparison to the amount of good that my suit will generate for all those incarcerated in this country. Mostly I need help finding case law. Because they striped our law libraries of the Supreme Court Digest and I’m having a hard time finding what I need. Can you help with this? The topics listed above are my main concern. I would be grateful for any info or ideas you can provide. With that, I will end this here by saying “thank you!” for your time, consideration and the call to arms for Teas inmates. Some of us do truly think correctly. But only after having re-programed our own brains!