Federal Prisons

I am a Missouri Prisoner in Jefferson City. I have been in the SHU for over a year and the COs here, staff, caseworkers, nurses, etc are illegally keeping inmates in the SHU longer than necessary, refusing inmates medical attention, refusing inmates meals, harassing and assaulting inmates. I could list about a hundred more ways these capitalists are breaking the law.

I came to the hole for an alleged “guard assault.” I got charged with 1st degree assault on law enforcement and convicted with 20 years ran in with my current sentence.

When I first got thrown in the hole for this I was placed in a highly air conditioned cell in nothing but my boxers and shirt. No mattress, blanket or anything; save my toilet. I was like this for a month. Correctional Officers (COs) repeatedly maced me. When maced I was given nothing but a rag to clean it up with. COs refused me my meals and constantly made threats to “get rid of” me. When I finally got a mattress it was covered in piss from its previous user. The same day I got pulled out and my mattress taken. The pigs said I tore it up and wrote me up for destruction of state property charging me $68. My mail from my family was constantly coming up missing and the mail I sent out wasn’t getting to my family/friends. I was on a box called SSO (Safety Security Observation) for 5 months where I couldn’t get haircuts, use nail clippers, or get visits.

When I finally got written up for this so-called “incident” I was written up for 1.1 murder. The only thing is at the very bottom of the violation “attempt” was in parenthesis. This was done to keep me in solitary for as long as they want. According to their 1.1 policy, it says nowhere in policy that there is an attempt. It’s either 1.1 Murder or 2.1 Serious damage to an offender or correctional officer. I challenged this and was denied. I have been over their “90 day” violation free bullshit, yet they will not promote me to Phase 1. They have a Step up Program: Phase 0-3. 0 is solitary, 1-2 is double man if you’re not “single cell mandate” (get to that in a minute) and 2 you get food (nothing but fatty junk food) and 3 is double man with all your canteen, you can walk to chow, and go to gym.

I am thankfully not on single cell mandate, yet they continue to hold me illegally in solitary depriving me of contact visits.

Single cell mandate is where inmates cannot have a celly and either have to rot in Jefferson City hole or do a program in Potosi where you sit in solitary 5-10 years and get harassed by police and assaulted sometimes ending in death.

Since being in solitary here I have looked out my window and seen stretchers carrying inmates dead or extremely injured off the yard. Mainly coming from medical. The pigs here fuck with inmates so bad here (no joke) inmates are cutting their nutsacks out and nothing is done to help these mental health inmates, but a big help of maze.

I’ve been to quite a few Missouri penitentiaries, but I have never seen anything like I’ve seen here. Torture, harassment, and completely sadistic brutality, like 5 pigs running in a prisoner’s cell with helmets and riot shields beating the shit out of inmates breaking their bones. The phase system is a SHU trap. I’ll probably get fucked up for this letter if you receive it. Please spread the news of this so-called respectable prison.

In the People’s Republic:
An American’s First Hand View of Living and Working in China
by Orville Schell
1977

The author’s trip was arranged in the 1970s by the Hinton’s, an Amerikan family. The group was composed of men and womyn between the ages of 18 and 60. As I read ‘In the Peoples Republic’ I came to see each subchapter as a beautiful blueprint of Maoism in practice It was very informative on how people can transform all their daily habits to better the people as a whole. For instance, Mao’s China seemed what some today would call “green” friendly, Schell explains how hotels in the city that obviously generate much trash, separated the trash for organic garbage, which was sent to pig farms and used for slop. This was done nationwide. Even human waste was collected in what they called “honey trucks” and taken to special ponds where thy would turn to fertilizer. This recycling and notion of wasting nothing is an advancement that even 30+ years later has not reached the U$ on a nationwide level. The Chinese people’s ability to use all material was remarkable, wasting nothing was common practice.

On the passing of Chiang Kai Shek Schell notes that hardly a mention was given in the People’s Daily publication, and there was no rejoycing or anger shown in the streets or otherwise and that the people hated what he stood for, but not him as a person. This shows the difference under socialism and the behavior the people developed even to disliked enemies, unlike here in Amerika as we witnessed the gleefullness and cheer in the U$ media when Saddam Hussein was executed. It is clear that under capitalism humyns mean shit.

Shell included Mao’s essay “the twenty manifestations of bureaucracy” in its entirety. This document showed Mao’s passionate disagreement with different bureaucracy. It was real good to see Mao fervently denouncing ever becoming disconnected from the people. During the Cultural Revolution many plays and dance troupes even addressed this issue with one of the performers wearing oversized glasses, dressed in a suit with much face makeup appearing very pale from staying in an office and carrying a briefcase. This performer played the arrogant bureaucracy.

What I enjoyed about ‘In the Peoples Republic’ was it gave a brief description of all levels of society in a Maoist country. Even the artists and performers only created artforms that had a correct line and benefited the people, and what was amazing is even the best performers or dancers were never singled out and praised. This is a deep contrast to what is seen here in Amerika where it is totally opposite and performers or dancers and especially actors and actresses are praised for their individuality. Individualism is not only praised here but expected.

This book spoke a lot of Mao’s emphasis on including the peasants in all spheres of society, Schell described how dance troupes would take their andmade props and travel by foot to mountainous areas off the beaten path where they would perform their politically charged dance performances and songs to peasants and when Shell asked one of the performers “where do you live on such trips?” the performer stated “we live with the peasants” and he went on to describe how they have the “three togethers”: eat together, live together and work together.

A scenario was posed that would be incomprehensible here in the U.$. While touring Schell’s guide in China gathered some workers off the street, a factory worker and other store workers, and conducted a political discussion and the workers explained how politics apply to their jobs. Schell wrote how in the U.$. during a foreign tour if one would gather a Kentucky Fried Chicken worker, a Safeway worker, etc and the same discussion was held, how different that discussion would be. I believe this is because in this country it would not be beneficial to U.$. interests for the masses to take up politics because should the people become aware of how things work, capitalism would suffer, so the average person is kept in the dark about politics. I thought this was a good scenario that showed the big contradiction in socialist versus capitalist societies, and the average person living in these societies.

Having experienced the imperialist prisons and its most suppressive states, i.e. control units/security housing units, I was particularly interested in the subchapter on prisons. There was a short description of the prisons in Mao’s China that I enjoyed, I saw the real difference in treatment in a socialist prison and in a Maoist prison specifically. Here in imperialist Amerika most prisons will often pass out Christian bibles, prison officials will leave a vast amount of bibles and other religious literature in the dayroom where it is all conveniently accessible to prisoners. Prison officials often send religious pastors cell to cell asking if prisoners would like to discuss/learn about religion. I often tell these pastors I would rather discuss communism and this usually sparks a long debate between me and the pastor, ending with the pastor walking off angry because I point out religion’s long history of atrocity and oppression.

According to Schell, when he and his group visited a prison in China, all cells had Marx, Lenin and Maist books in each cell. They also worked and partook in criticism/self-criticism, there were not reports of prison riots, suicide or guards abusing prisoners, unlike here inthe U.$. where there are many of suicides and guards are always caught abusing prisoners. Here even rape is a common occurance, depression is high with guards feeling a sense of hopelessness as well as prisoners. In contrast, in Mao’s Chian prison guards felt it a great honor to work as prison guards as it was seen as a great contribution in rebuilding these people and socialist reconstruction as a whole.

This book was good and gave a good study of Maoism in practice. I would liked it to be more in depth on things or to show more on China’s economics or its military, nonetheless it was a good look into everyday life in a Maoist society.

MIM(Prisons) adds: The author is a Harvard graduate who travelled with a group of other U.$. citizens to China in the last few months of Mao’s life. They worked in a factory for a few weeks, worked in a field for a few weeks, and toured many facilities such as clinics and schools. In the People’s Republic is written exclusively through the subjective filter of a typical Amerikkkan with a bourgeois perspective. The main take-home lesson of this book seems to be “Socialism works for the Chinese because they are so odd and different from Amerikans. Socialism is against so many cultural values we have as Amerikans, and it is bad for us for these reasons.”

It gives a favorable view of China in this period, but summarizes it as the Chinese are “just different” from Amerikans. The author writes off much of the Chinese hospitality as awkward and boring, and has a near obsession with connecting with the Chinese on an individual level, and telling anecdotes with a sense of irony. While having an apparent ignorance of Mao Tse-Tung Thought, the author does not hesitate to interpret the Chinese’s body language and conversation through an Amerikan cultural lens.

If you already have an understanding of Maoism and Chinese society under socialism, it can be interesting to read about such an important project from a bourgeois perspective. While the author’s subjective interpretation of events is “off”, ey at least doesn’t lie about how successful the Chinese were in raising the living standards of even the most destitute people in the country in incredible ways. There is much first-hand favorable reflection on the cultural revolution as well.

There is one point that we disagree with in this review, and apparently also with the author of In the People’s Republic. Both Schell and the author of the review seem to think that Amerikan’s are not given information about politics because it is in the interests of Amerikan capitalism to keep them in the dark. The reviewer wrote: “I believe this is because in this country it would not be beneficial to U.$. interests for the masses to take up politics because should the people become aware of how things work, capitalism would suffer, so the average person is kept in the dark about politics.” </p?

Since 2011 GA DOC has declared war against all prisoners validated “Goodfella.” As a whole all priosoners validated Goodfella have been held on lockdown at all prisons in GA for an altercation that happened between Goodfella and Bloods. While on this never ending lockdown DOC started what they call the “Tier” program which is a lockdown program for disciplinary inmates. All prisoners validated Goodfella were automatically placed on this progra, which is supposed to be a 9 month program. Then prisoners get placed back into population. The program was originally a 3 phase program. Prison officials implemented what they call a “3 plus” phase just for all members of Goodfella to keep us locked down as I write this we are still locked down and on this program.

While on this program we are stripped of all rights, property, liberty and subjected to inhumane conditions. We’re degraded, treated like animals, denied proper adequate medical and law library. We locked in a prison cell 24 hours a day. Officers and prison officials constantly oppress and suppress us. We’re not allowed vocational programs, education classes, job training or job enhancing skills. Newspapers, books, raidios, TV or nothing to help us to grow mentally and help us transiton back into society. So basically our brothers are leaving prison the same way they came in or worse. Nothing rehabilitative comes from this program. It’s designed to break us mentally so they can control us like robots.

Since this program started look at the suicide rate and attempts in GA prison system. They don’t care about the psychological trauma stemming form this oppression, suppression and repression that’s elading to depression.

Myself as well as many other gang members have attempted to bring peace amongst our different gangs or organizations but now DOC scared to let us out for fear we going to unite with other gangs or organizations against the officers.

We’ve attempted to bring unity while back here on lockdown but brothers are scared and some still on some lil boy story and holding grudges. I went to the door last week and asked did anyone know who Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton, Huey P, Marc Clark, George Jackson and many other Black revolutionaries were. They knew one or two but no one knew everyone I ask them about. Then I ask about Bobby Hutton. Geronimo Pratt, Mutulu Shakur Al-Amin and got the same result and immediately I know the problem: our youth lack proper education. The history book only teach white history and slavery side of black history in the south.

Around 90% of inamtes released off tier program into society either start a life of crime and be in and out of jail, return to prison, do nothing productive with their lives or get killed. Why is that when this supposed to be a “therapeutic” program designed to rehabilitate and change our way of thinking? I’ll tell you why, because the tier is being used to break us mentally so they can control us. We being oppressed daily. We being stripped of all rights and forced to endure degrading inhumane conditions. And people wonder why Georgia recidivism rate so high. It’s because prisoners not being allowed to pursue an education, get trades or job enhancing skills so our comrades getting out the same way they came in or worse. Keep a man locked in a 2 man cell 24 hours a day for years. Forcing us to accept the small amounts of food on trays. Forcuing us to smell another man feces. Forcing us to live in inclement conditions. Forcing us to endure weather so hot if you move you sweat. How can a person be rehabilitated in this type of atmosphere. They can’t they not trying to. That’s their plan to either break us mentally or force us into withdrawl or depression where we lash out agressively.

Nothing positive come from this program. Look at how many prisoners have turend to mental health to try to relieve the mental pain being administered by prison officials oppressive program.

[Wisconsin prisoners have been on hunger strike since June 10 protesting long-term solitary confinement practices. Read previous updates from July and April and learn how you can support this struggle.- Editor]

Update on the food strike in Wisconsin Department of Corrections: We are still on it and still receiving support across the country from outside parts. Us at Columbia Correctional Institution (CCI) are eating just enough to prevent them from force feeding until I can get a supervisory writ filed in WI Court of Appeals (WI. Ct. App.) The circuit court in collusion with DOC did not address and/or acknowledge filings. Those at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) last I heard were still being force fed and the court made the order permanent fluid.

One WCI striker had to go to the hospital as result of abuse, got an infection and could have died. Broke his nose too.

United States East District court refused class classification. Comrade previously vowed to appeal that but it’s supposed to be new 7th Circuit precedent, stating prisoners gotta have a layer for class certification for class action (I’m not sure of this legality. I have yet to see the order and new case).

Both republican and democrat state officials are supposed to be “interested” in new solitary confinement legislation. One official met with a comrade at WCI. They only let two people visit. The official was the second. While that visit occurred, other officials walked through the oppressive confines.

This struggle is not over. The DOC is still making oppressive plays. On August 8 they continued my AC (Administrative Confinement) going on 19 years. The reasons are simple and concise: my release to GP will be a danger because I’ll influence the younger prisoners based on my conduct history. And they noted, my lack of participation (code for kiss ass) showing my disinterest in AC process. (AC process: letting them degrade me, demonize me and sit there begging them and demeaning myself, saying I’m not all that bad mas’er.)

DOC and CCI are still making oppressive moves. Our food portions get smaller every week. And they are cutting movement/activities while telling the public they are studying ways to provide the same in more form.

They are frustrating my access to court, not letting me go to law library, or access the computer to type up my motions. Forcing me to send nerve-damage-penned documents into the court. Knowing courts look down on and don’t read chicken scratch. We need you all out there reading this to continue the letter writing campaign that was printed in ULK 51. Write Gov. Walker, State officials, wardens at WCI, CCI and DOC secretary.

I’m writing your organization in hopes of raising awareness of my situation. On the date of 9-3-15, I was a inmate at Smith State Prison, where I was assaulted viciously by Derrius Attical; a member of the Cert Team. Somewhere in between the hours of 3 & 5’ oclock pm the Cert Team came to H-2, a lock down-segregation unit, with new arrivals. Somehow or another, Cert Team member D. Attical found reason to obtain the keys from the dormitory floor officer to gain access to my room. When the door came open, I was closer to the door than my bunkmate, who was sitting up-right on his bottom bunk. We were both sprayed with pepper spray none the less, but I was beat badly. I think he hit me with the bottom of the pepper spray can, but can not be certain. I & my room mate were temporarily blinded by pepper spray.

When all was said & done, I was covered in my own blood from head to toe, literally. I was escorted to medical by the Cert Team, & sent to the free world hospital, where I received stitches on my right eye brawl, & eye lid; & the left top corner of my upper lip. In total, I received what I think was 8 stitches. But it didn’t stop there. As expected I filed my grievance, & awaited disciplinary court, but on the date 9-11-15, exactly 8 days later, I was assaulted again!

On 9-11-15, about 4 something in the early morning, Lieutenant Witfield came to my new cell with a few others & a paint ball gun. They woke me out of my sleep, instructing me to cuff up, & I complied. I was then instructed to get on my knees, & I complied. From there I was pushed on my stomach. I laid there & listened, though the Lieutenant was being very unprofessional and belligerent. As he insulted me, he poked me in the face with the pepper ball gun. Still I remained silent. Some how the lieutenant felt disrespected. He quickly stood from where he once squatted & stomped on the back of my head, causing my chin to slam into the floor & split on contact.

The entire time, a female officer held the camera. I doubt that it was actually recording because of the conduct that the Lieutenant displayed, & the fact that once he was done she causally placed the camera to her side without stopping it from recording. I know this because I was waiting for her to. (Note that I received more stitches 9-11-15)

As I did the first time, I filed my grievance, & awaited to go to disciplinary court, although I did not receive a disciplinary report that time, I had still not been to D.R. Court for the incident on 9-3-15. The day I went to disciplinary investigation, I was acquitted of all charges. But for some strange reason I was forced into a program called Tier II & denied parole, which was set for 9-30-15. I was submitted into the Tier II program for “Assaultive History,” which is 1 of 13 reasons a inmate can be subjected to such a thing. This is ironic because I have never been convicted of such a thing. I have been accuse of 4 or 5 different occasions, but I have never been convicted of a violent D.R.

Due to the presumption of innocence, every man is considered innocent until proven guilty in the court of law, & to violate such a thing is to violate a man’s Due Process rights. I have hired an attorney on a contingency basis to represent me & my claims against the state, but America needs to be aware of the adversity the prison population endures.

I am just one of many. Throughout my 8 year prison term I have been a witness to many atrocious acts committed by those in authority of me. Many prisoners are not fortunate enough to have outside help and still, many are under educated, & lack the literacy skill to address such dynamic ploys. In conclusion, I hope that your org. is willing to help my raise awareness. I honestly believe that bringing attention to such evil & tyrannical people will halt such violence. Thank you for your time.

First I would like to thank the comrades willing to study and struggle with Abolitionists From Within (AFW) here on C yard for having the heart to step out and shake hands with the different ethinc groups and put an end to the hosttiliites with peace on their tongue during Black August. Our study group has been growing throughout the cells here at High Desert C yard, despite many setbacks of harassment from the pigs here and there. As I continue to share literature with the comrades and this year’s study group, I introduce them to MIM(Prisons) and United Struggle from Within (USW). I remind every comrade that everyone’s struggles are different (state of mind). If you know what the problem is our job as comrades is to help come up with solutions to combat the problem for our comrades. But in order to do anything to advance the struggle we must be organized in order to help one another, we must set triablism to the side! And set aside all of our differences as well as our past beef and come together collectively in an effort to accomplish our goals: Peace, Unity and Growth among the oppressed masses.

Wake up young Afrikan! Put an end to this madness. September 9th Day of Solidarity is just around the corner. Abolitionists From Within (AFW) is back on the move for the second year here at High Desert State Prison (HDSP), bringing together a cohesive front in reflecting, fasting and uniting to honor those nameless and faceless men of Black August and Attica (1971) by coming together in solidarity. This year we put the issues of today on the table:

1. Who is your neighbor? Always remember racism is an idea that is the product of imperialism. And AFW, USW and MIM(Prisons) are all in agreement with anti-imperialism!
2. What will help us improve our material condition? First we must start off with our neighbor, each one teach one no matter the color.
3. Understand the prison system. The system operates through criminal justice institutions, but functions more like a caste system than a system of crime control.

Comrades, wake up! Understand the racial caste system; they don’t require racial hostility or overt biogtry to thrive, they need only racial indifference. Wake up young Afrikan! Mass incarceration in the U.S. is a comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social system. Cormades, help me help us organize and advance our struggle forward for peace throughout C yard.

Comrades, Peace and Solidarity
(i will also be following up with our report of September 9th activities)

The Estelle Unit operates a constitutionally deficient “cite only” method of providing prisoners access to courts. The only way a prisoner can present this issue to a federal court is, pursuant to the PLRA, show actual harm. Basically, this means a prisoner must have presented a claim in court that was defeated due to the insufficient cite only method of providing access to courts. I’m lying in wait. Per the cite only method, it can take 72 hours or more to receive the requested research material cited – if it is ever to be obtained at all. Consequently, what would normally take weeks at the most to research, due to the cite only access, takes months.

The 14th day of August, one officer L. Bowers confiscated two affidavits sworn to by prisoners that had witnessed disciplinary incidents that was to accompany a 2254 petition. Bowers claimed the documents weren’t mine though my name was all over them. So after posting this correspondence, I will be drafting a motion to preserve documents to be submitted to the court – for all the good it’s gonna do me, but the motion will become part of the permanent record.

As I was waiting to get back inside of my barracks after breakfast I witnessed an officer assault an inmate in the hallway. The inmate had asked the other officer to shake him down and the one officer got mad so he tried to put the inmates face through a glass window that has security wire running through it. After the officer initiated the aggression the inmate fought back in self-defense. An “all rovers” went out over the radio and the inmate was placed in isolation while the officer who attacked him went right back to work.

This type of abuse against inmates is a normal occurrence at the East Arkansas Regional Unit because the inmates who does stand up against this type gets punished. This unit is not ran by any warden but by the classification officer because whatever she says goes and she will take up for these officers due to the fact that she hates inmates.

This article is to announce the short-term success of our recent campaign to keep our website alive. After proposing that our limited comrade time might be better spent on pushing forward our prisoner support work, we launched a campaign to engage our online readers. With minimal effort, we have received a substantive response indicating that we were incorrect to hypothesize that we could not mobilize our online readers to contribute to this project as our prison-based readers have from the beginning.

In just five months we’ve seen our volunteer base and collaborative work grow enough to convince us that web development is a good use of our limited comrade time. But as we pointed out in that article, regular contributions are much more useful than sporadic ones, so we must keep up this trend. We have gained at least one regular financial contributor, which more than covers the cost of keeping our website online. We encourage our other volunteers to stick to it.

A note to potential financial contributors, we had been soliciting postage stamps, however we are approaching our limits on how many we can use, especially since this is the main way that prisoners send donations. So new contributors should consider sending cash, blank money orders or bitcoin.

Those watching our website may have noticed us taking down some requests for help as volunteers have stepped up. While not all have proven themselves yet, we have received responses to diverse needs. By offering up more specific tasks, we’ve inspired our readers into action, proving they are more than just web traffic statistics. This also proved that lack of focused leadership on our part was part of the problem.

It was not just online readers who responded to our call. One United Struggle from Within leader put forth a proposal to our annual congress to up the enrollment fees for our correspondence study groups and to only provide hard-to-find books to those who pay for them. Another USW comrade proposed that we remove people from the ULK mailing list faster to cut costs. We adopted new policies incorporating both proposals, which should help on the postage side of things. One comrade even spoke of the impact the website had on em from prison, demonstrating that the website directly contributes to our prison-based work.

In addition to the new contributors we’ve gained in recent months, we’ve seen an increase in comradely projects putting out good material. This can help us directly by providing material for our newsletter and study groups. But it also helps the movement in general. Supporting MIM(Prisons) is a great way to contribute as we have a proven track record. But we need more projects than the Prison Ministry. So don’t let the scope of our work limit you if you can contribute in bigger and better ways.

While things will roll out slowly as usual, we will be continuing to improve and add content to our website in coming months. We also want to put a call out there for supporters who want to contribute as part of a cyber promotion campaign. This is something that you can easily do on your own, and there is no limit to how many can help promote our work and MIM line in whatever forums you are active. Or get in touch for ideas of outlets for promotion.

There is no doubt that setting up secure, reliable institutions on the internet is a needed task. While platforms owned by transnational corporations may have tactical use for promotion, with proper precautions in place, they cannot be our base of operations. Prisoncensorship.info has contributed in this regard and with your support we will continue to work to strengthen it as an independent institution of the oppressed.

I just read an article in ULK (Jul./Aug. 2016). On page #14 <a href “https://www.prisoncensorship.info/article/overcome-censorship-on-tier-program/”>Overcome Censorship on TIER Program. I am currently housed at one of the prisons that has this so-called “program.” We have nearly 800 inmates locked away there now. Some have been there for years. I myself transferred to court recently, & upon coming back here, they placed me in “TIER I” for 2 weeks before I went back to general Pop. For “security purposes”… It’s torture!

The toilets are flushed by the C.O.s outside, & often times the stagnant waste sits in the bowl for hours. The food portions are never what they’re supposed to be. The C.O.s are often nowhere to be found, & don’t do their rounds consistently. If I had suffered a real life-threatening emergency, I wouldn’t be here now & I was only in there for 2 weeks! I shudder to think of all the inmates struggling to survive in those conditions

With that written, I’d like to get pro-active & do all I can. Even in general pop., we’re having issues with not receiving our mail in its entirety. Books must be approved by the institution in order to be received by prisoners (according to S.O.P.). However, completed forms never get returned, & so we’re denied the opportunity for new books. We hardly get the chance to visit the prison “library” due to “lack of staff” or “security purposes”.

Our grievance system is a joke. They must be handed personally to a counselor within a 10 day span of writing it, but the counselors do not visit the dorms regularly. When the grievances do get filed, it takes months for a response & the responses are ridiculous. So, I’m interested in the Censorship Pack, if you could possible send it. But what I REALLY need from you is the petition for the unanswered grievances (for the State of Georgia). I’d appreciate as many copies a you can offer, as this facility does not make personal copies for inmates. I will most definitely update the campaign of any progress I can make.