Federal Prisons

Thank you for your publication. I share it with others inside to report the horrific abuse I have suffered recently as retaliation for my federal complaint filed in the local court 4/3/18. On 4/10/18 the harassment started. I was denied my dinner tray and put on camera to be threatened with chemical agents by several staff, none of whom managed to feed me the food brought and prepared for me to consume. Then on April 14th I received 3 false disciplinary reports from different security staff, after none all year. This weekend I was not given the library books sent from the general library. The same officer, Ms Baez was eager to break the law to falsify state documents as leverage ordered by the mobsters in the management but could not feed me or hand me a library book while I am locked in a room. This same officer arranged for more than one inmate to get attacked with pepper spray while doing nothing wrong. The sadistic and malicious use of pepper spray has been reported at FDOC since at least 2007. This is all done on camera with audio evidence with none of the personnel worried that there will be any consequences for their criminal acts.

On April 19, while in the shower, the sergeant Ms Taylor went into my cell and threw out my hygiene supplies just given to me days prior, donated by the community. When I told her I was allowed to have those items and needed a property receipt, she ignored me and went to get the captain Harvey. While I was bathing and unclothed he came into the shower area and began to argue with me. This had all been done to provoke me just as the denial of my food had been done to provoke me. After I was placed in my cell, I was put on camera again to be threatened with chemical weapons warfare by Lt. Desmond, who had never come to my door before. After 10 pm I was taken from my cell again and strip searched in the shower, my room was ransacked and more of my property stolen including my new clothes given to me the day before by laundry. When I asked for my property receipt the officer Ms. Jorgensen rallied to report I was “on the door”. Then a crew of several state workers paid to take care of me tortured me with chemical weapons warfare while I was in my cell not making a sound. My property was all taken away and most of it stolen or confiscated.

To deprive me of basic necessities, shampoo, dental floss, q-tips, vitamins and my legal notebook were taken. I was put in a cell with no bed roll, any of my hygiene or even extra clothes. I would not even brush my hair for days. My legal papers had all been handed off on March 22, 2018 to sabotage my post-conviction relief, crippling me of my ability to handle my legal work. The management had stolen my legal papers sent in to the law library to be copied and typed, then denied me law library access for months which was the subject of the complaint filed in April on Lowell Correctional Institute, the world’s second largest prison for women.

On April 24th the same officer who refused to feed me earlier that month, Ms Baez, threw my tray on the floor, glared at me and headed off to report that I had thrown the tray at her. She had me served with a fake DR for battery. Again I was not fed. Between 4/14-4/28 I was served 12 disciplinary reports falsified by the state workers paid to take care of me and given months of “discipline” so I cannot use the phone, have a razor to shave, earn gain time, go to the dog room, have a visit or check out a book from the general library. My mother, 74 years old, was planning to drive 4 hours to visit me for 2 hours on 4/29 but could not because of the false reports issued by the sadistic sociopaths that gravitate to those jobs because they enjoy hurting people.

I received 2 more DRs in May while locked in a room from the state carrying out reprisal and pretending it is discipline. My grievances are mostly denied and when approved nothing really changes. The officer who threw my food on the floor was promoted to sergeant, her reward for following the orders to persecute me as punishment for exercising my right to access the courts to document the corruption at LCI.

Last year I was assigned several violent roommates at FWRC in Ocala to batter me for my grievances reporting the misconduct of officers at the WFRC. I was given 30 DRs December 2010 to November 2017, and all but 15 were overturned or dismissed through the government probes. The last roommate put me in the ER. She was sent to general population after putting more than one inmate at FWRC in the hospital and I was sent to closed management for more behavior “mediation” (for the 3rd time in 2012) on the pretense I am endangering the inmate population. This is just long-term solitary confinement torture that is expensive, does not improve anyone’s behavior and causes irreparable psychological damage.

I am 41 years old and have hurt no one in or out of prison and did not all of the sudden become violent. I will have permanent scars on my face from the attack on me, all orchestrated by the management at FWRC intent on stifling my efforts to use the grievance process to report the rampant human rights violations in this penal system. The employees receive no discipline and have free reign to break the law to carry out reprisals at the taxpayer’s expense. Many of my grievances are not responded to and what answers I get are full of lies to cover up the criminal acts of the personnel. I have a $65.00 lean on my account for postage, copies and typing fees as a result of seeking relief in the courts, with several courts sanctioning me to prevent me from exposing the corruption in the criminal justice system. No court has intervened as of yet with record numbers of inmate deaths since 2012 even with populations declining along with natural deaths plummeting.

Since 2010 I have received 109 disciplinary reports, hauled off to confinement 22 times, lost years of gain time and been kept locked in a room (at 2-3 times the cost to keep me in GP) about half this period. Blatant retaliation the FDOC pretending it is discipline to justify their wrongdoing. My correspondence to the FPLE, FBI, Florida State Police, Department of Justice, POTUS (2), U.S. Congress, Attorney Generals, U.S. commission on civil rights, Criminal Justice committees, governor, Chief In over Florida, Statewide prosecutor, Florida legislature, local police, local state attorney, etc. is largely ignored. I have spent nearly 13 years in Florida jails/prisons, wrongfully convicted, no attorney I have contacted has ever conducted any real investigation or intervened on my behalf. Each time I am taken to confinement or my property is stolen, gain time revoked, privileges denied and I am kept locked in a room for extended periods of time – days, weeks, months, and even years at a time. The commission on ethics refuse to send me completed forms and the FDOC refuses to notarize them to prevent me from filing complaints on the corrupt officials.

Below are 10 stated facts of oppression here at Brickley’s Unit of ADC:

( 1) there is no air conditioning in cell-blocks, isolation cells, or several population barracks.

2. Sleep deprivation is constant in cell-blocks, isolation and population due to the excessive heat and non-stop noise. Yet in population everyone is forced to work monday-friday without pay under such conditions - - else they will receive a disciplinary and lose their class, privileges, visits, phone, commissary and eventually receive isolation time for refusing.

3. There are only 2 shower-heads to each barracks in population, yet shower times are between 4:30pm and 10:30pm. If caught taking showers out of that time frame, one is subject to disciplinary action.

4. Obtaining proper medical attention is hard in population but even harder in cell-blocks and isolation. Once seen, after the initial $3.00 copay fee from the previous sick-call, the nurse/doctor will only prescribe you the cheapest and bare minimum of medicines so as soon as that expires, if your problem persists, one has to pay another $3.00 copay fee to get those meds renewed. Also, since I’ve been in the cell-blocks and ISO, I have received other peoples’ medicine at pill-call instead of my own several times.

5. Mental-health doesn’t care what happens to inmates here at Brickey’s. Over 20 people have allegedly killed themselves or died smoking (K2) over the past 3 months of me transferring here. I myself was and still am having problems with my mental-health medication. Despite me writing several requests to mental health, writing grievances and overstating to my case manager that I need to see the psychiatrist because my meds weren’t working. Nothing has been done about it, that is why I locked myself down. Since then, every time one of the mental health people make their rounds I verbally tell them the same thing, yet to no avail. I even spoke to classification about this ongoing/worsening issue, yet they keep trying to release me back to population despite that I’ve written and verbally stated due to my mental health state, until I see the psychiatrist again and be placed meds that actually help me, I am a threat to security and don’t need to be in population. They don’t care! Also, every time they try and release me/force me to go back to population and I don’t, I receive another disciplinary.

6. I am currently in a cell that leaks through the ceiling and outside wall onto my mat and table when it rains. In population, several barracks downstairs always flood when water comes under the outside doors during rains.

7. Ants, roaches, mice and spiders are a major problem with the kitchen and cells.

8. In the cell-blocks and in isolation cells, drinks are served 2-3 hours before every meal. By the time food is served, it is usually cold from sitting around waiting to be served. Also, when the drinks are served they are hot or lukewarm a lot of the time and there’s always things floating in it. Our water in general is dingy brown and often stinks.

9. It is very hard to get paperwork back here (especially grievances). Once grievances are finally obtained, written and ready to be signed by a Sgt. or above, they will often walk right past your cell without signing them even when you ask them to. Also, mail is an issue in general - - as far as one receiving it from the outside world. My mail has been lost several times since I transferred here.

10. Most of the TVs are busted out in every cell-block, preventing inmates from watching mandatory news or institutional movies.

Currently housed in a maximum security unit in Arkansas, where laws, rules, and procedures are governed by those of higher stature and officials who have previously passed laws. So why are those rules and laws constantly being overlooked and not abided by, by the staff, wardens, and directors of the Arkansas Dept. of Corrections?

We are on lock down twenty-four/seven, and being on lock down twenty-four/seven, by federal laws and statutes, we are allowed yard/recreation of some sort five times a week, five days a week here at Tucker on Restrictive, Ad-Seq, and Punitive ISO. We are not getting that. For the past three or four months, we have been getting an hour out, sometimes two hours a week. Is this not violating our 8th amendment constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment? There should be no reason at all we shouldn’t get yard/rec.. At least an hour out of our cells we are required to receive, especially when staff are available to take us out. This is just one issue we have been having here at this unit.

If we don’t follow the rules or ADC policy, we take punishment such as disciplinary, shakedowns etc. Filing a grievance here does no good, so the smoke blows in every direction, but not in the direction of justice. There gots to be a remedy, a way, a path for us on lockdown to get the things we are entitled to. Small things like receiving toilet paper, soap & toothpaste, cell cleanup, barracks cleaned, the list goes on. I know we put ourselves here by committing a crime, that still doesn’t allow the ADC at this unit to neglect us of what we are required to receive! Maybe MIM(Prisons) can help us find the proper direction or procedure to take as a body of those being neglected. Do you have available literature to read & take action? Thanks.

5 May 2018 - The unit has been on lockdown because of a virus that had all of us throwing up and could hardly walk. They locked us down for 30 days but did nothing. It was Naro. Look it up. They had this unit on the internet and Facebook. Then they had 140 offenders that went on hunger strike for some of the wrongdoings that are still going on with the officer. I write more on that later but for now just keep up the good work.

2018 May 7 - You may have seen on the national news a large number of medium custody offenders are on hunger strike. Their main grievance is Warden Strong using group punishment for the actions of individual inmates.

She placed the wing on 30-day lockdown because one inmate was accused of staff assault in the hallway. The incident did not even happen on the wing itself. As a result, the inmate was moved to the disciplinary wing and shipped from the unit. The other 200 men, who had nothing to do with the incident, were put on 30-day lockdown with no hot meals. And all of their cells were trashed by officers doing “cell searches.”

As a result of the media coverage, internal affairs started an investigation into inmates’ claims about the time the unit was hit with a Norovirus outbreak that lasted for 3 weeks. For the immedate future, all grievances are going off unit for review.

I would like the Texas Pack to help inmates file legitimate grievances. For example, being held in dayrooms without a toilet for 3+ hours when cell access is supposed to be granted hourly. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. I’ve enclosed a SASE.

Would you please send anything you have on the rules the guards must follow? Because they make up the rules as they go, with no regard for what policies states in our (GR-106) or (I-202) handbooks. I was told to take my rule books back to my cell, or get locked up today, after telling and showing CO and Ranking COs Hallway and Chow Hall Rules. I was told that policies don’t matter; it’s what they say. Yes, I’m writing this up, no need for audio on the cameras, just watch their actions.

I’m asking for tools to work with, because the law library doesn’t have what I’m asking for (well that’s what I’m told). I’m in there everyday it’s open. I’m not allowed no more than 30 min of extra time a day, because of the number of people I’m helping or those helping me. Plus we have to pack our legal work up, and take it with us, every time we have to use the restroom.

When I write said grievances, without prejudice is what I ask and please that my complaint be truthfully and thoroughly investigated as per AD-03.82, due to me being under duress about said issue. Designees/employees are only observing the proper procedure, without honestly giving effort to ensure fair and unbiased treatment towards inmates. Also their actions of collusion by being conclusive, they also have/has malicious intent and their actions are negligent to their legal responsibility and liability, namely TX Gov Code Section 493.001 Department Mission. Their callous disregard to complaints, etc, that I and my family has copies of, that’s been filed. This is not providing public safety, or promoting positive change in offenders behavior, or reintegrating offenders into society, or assisting victims of crime.

The question is what does the officers actions show? Yes, they know policies, etc, but do they follow them? Officers lie with authority. Please help in any way you can.

While reading a comrade’s April 2017 SF Bay View, National Black Newspaper, I cam across an ad regarding the Texas prisoners’ boycott of the prison commissary injustice.

This ad helped me realize that the unarmed robbery of the loved-ones of prisoners is not only a Florida atrocity, but a national occurrence. Prisoners in Texas and other states are being used as a means of robbing not only tax payers, but loved-ones of prisoners, who are constantly being punished for supporting prisoners financially and emotionally. The imperialist monopolizers are making hundreds of millions annually through the commissary system. I can’t help but confirm and echo the main points of the Texas prisoners’ ad:

1. Sub-par and poor quality food items.
2. Faulty electronics that regularly break (after short use).
3. Tennis shoes which tear up after a week of use.
4. Inflated prices and price gouging tactics.
5. Abuse and disrespect from employees of commissaries.

All of the above mentioned is nothing but the truth to which I would love to add more. In Florida, specifically Charlotte Correctional Institution, there exists a staff canteen menu and a prisoner canteen menu. The double standard and financial discrimination can’t help but be realized once both menus are compared. Prisoners are paying twice as much as staff for the same food items. Some of the most popular food items are listed below for your own concluding.

Charlotte CI staff canteen menu prices and Prisoner Canteen menu prices:

The above list does not mention hygiene items. However, prisoners are paying exorbitantly for hygiene items that are clearly not worth their price. For example, the $4 deodorant from prescription care and Oraline-Seccure (meant for indigent prisoners) leaves prisoners musty in just a matter of hours. The $2.85 prescription care lotion is so generic it dries the skin quick as it moistens it. And it’s definitely not meant for Black people. The $1.12 prescription care shampoo does not lather up and causes more dried scalp and itching than the state soap. There is 99-cent soap claiming to be anti-bacterial and 50-cent soap, both made by Silk. Neither of these soaps are worth even being given away for free.

Prisoners do not want these canteen items. They complain amongst each other but are too cowardly to write grievances or stop buying from canteen. We all know that it is our loved ones who are being attacked by the state. We all know our families who support us are being extorted, but the needle is just too deep in our veins. Florida only has one canteen vendor (Trinity) leaving us without options or other places to shop. We are simply victims of a monopoly and we are contributing to our own victimization.

It is quite clear that the canteen profits only benefit Trinity and high-ranking members of the state prison system. It is clear that the profits are being used against prisoners rather than for their welfare and genuine rehabilitation programs.

Even in the visiting park, freeworld citizens visiting their loved-ones are forced to pay prisoner canteen prices. This price-gouging is a war against the innocent citizens who support prisoners. It also results in the isolation of prisoners from the outside world and leaves prisoners dependent and vulnerable against the state.

One is left with no choice but the question: where is all the profit from the unarmed robbery of prisoners’ loved ones? What is being done with these millions of dollars in profit? This matter must be investigated and objectively challenged. We prisoners surely need to stop perpetuating our own victimization by the state of Florida DOC.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer exposes one of the many ways that companies and individuals are making money from the prison system in this country. While overall the prisons are run at a financial loss, subsidized for most of their costs by state and federal funds (i.e. taxpayer money), lots of people are still making money off the operation of prisons.

Obviously the prisons’ employees (COs, administrators, etc.) are earning a good salary and have an interest in keeping the system going. In some prisons medical is contracted out, and then there are the many companies that sell prisons all the stuff they need to run: from clothing to food to furniture to security equipment. Most of this is funded by a subsidy from the government.

But canteen is a case of the costs falling on prisoners’ families. And this is just one of many costs borne by families of prisoners. As we exposed in an article in ULK 60 “MIM(Prisons) on U.$. Prison Economy - 2018 Update,” mass incarceration costs families and the community $400 billion per year.

U.$. imperialist leaders and their labor aristocracy supporters like to criticize other countries for their tight control of the media and other avenues of speech. For instance, many have heard the myths about communist China forcing everyone to think and speak alike. In reality, these stories are a form of censorship of the truth in the United $tates. In China under Mao the government encouraged people to put up posters debating every aspect of life, to criticize their leaders, and to engage in debate at work and at home. This was an important part of the Cultural Revolution in China. There are a number of books available that give a truthful account, but far more money is put into anti-communist propaganda. Here, free speech is reserved for those with money and power.

In prisons in particular we see so much censorship, especially targeting those who are politically conscious and fighting for their rights. Fighting for our First Amendment right to free speech is a battle that MIM(Prisons) and many of our subscribers spend a lot of time and money on. For us this is perhaps the most fundamental of requirements for our organizing work. There are prisoners, and some entire facilities (and sometimes entire states) that are denied all mail from MIM(Prisons). This means we can’t send in our newsletter, or study materials, or even a guide to fighting censorship. Many prisons regularly censor ULK claiming that the news and information printed within is a “threat to security.” For them, printing the truth about what goes on behind bars is dangerous. But if we had the resources to take these cases to court we believe we could win in many instances.

Denying prisoners mail is condemning some people to no contact with the outside world. To highlight this, and the ridiculous and illegal reasons that prisons use to justify this censorship, we will periodically print a summary of some recent censorship incidents in ULK.

We hope that lawyers, paralegals, and those with some legal knowledge will be inspired to get involved and help with these censorship battles, both behind bars and on the streets. For the full list of censorship incidents, along with copies of appeals and letters from the prison, check out our censorship reporting webpage.

Florida State Prison

On March 30, censored an invitation to the MIM(Prisons) mail-based study group because it “Contains prominent or prevalent advertising for three-way calling services, pen pal services, or the purchase of products or services with postage stamps.” This is most definitely not true.

Michigan – Macomb Correctional Facility

ULK 61 was censored because it is “mail with stamps, stickers, labels, or anything affixed to the paper with an adhesive”.

Wisconsin - New Lisbon Correctional Facility

Censored ULK 61 because “item contains contraband”.

Pennsylvania DOC

The PA DOC sent MIM(Prisons) a letter regarding ULK 61 that read: “This is to notify you that the publicaiton in issue advocates and encourages prison solidarity. As such, it violates Department policy for the reason previously stated.”

Pennsylvania - SCI Benner

We heard from a prisoner at SCI Benner “My Under lock & Key No.61 March/April 2018 was banned/taken stating DC-ADM 803 Incoming Mail and Incoming Publications. My Jan/Feb issue got to me no problem. Studying the Inmate Handbook it’s unclear as to the specific penological interest this publication violates?

Pennsylvania - SCI Pine Grove

A prisoner forwarded us a copy of the Notice of Incoming Publication Denial for ULK 60. The reason given was “Bondage of little girl, Depicts female officers in negative manner.” Clearly the PA DOC didn’t like our article criticizing an advertisement using an image of a little girl in bondage (not shown), or our criticism of gender oppression in prison.

Virginia - Middle River Regional Jail

ULK 60 and 61 were both denied with the reason given “DOC disapproved Under Lock & Key”.

Illinois - Stateville Correctional Center

A prisoner wrote: “I have received notice from the repressors here, on more than one occasion that you sent me a copy of your pub Under Lock & Key, and each time that you did, i was told that this pub is on the ‘censored’ list and any other literature from ‘MIM Distributors’ because it promotes: leadership and organizing of inmates against the prison staff - administration, and that this is a threat to the safety and security of the prison, therefore inmates are not allowed to have any of your pubs.”

MIM(Prisons) received a notification of censorship of ULK 61 sent to this same persyn in Stateville. The reasons given: “Promotes leadership & organization, instructs offenders to organize. content may be detrimental to the safety & security of the institution.”

Indiana - Pendleton Correctional Facility

A prisoner had eir ULK 61 confiscated and the response to eir grievance was “the newspaper is not allowed in the facility due to offender to offender correspondence.”

Arizona

We received a notification from the AZ DOC notifying us:

The Arizona Department of Corrections has determined that your publication described below contains unauthorized content as defined in Department Order 914.07 and, as a result, may be released in part or excluded in whole for the specific reason(s) given below.

DO 914.07 - 1.1 Detrimental to the Safe, Secure, and Orderly Operation of the Facility
DO 914.07 - 1.2.12 Methods of Escape and/or Eluding Capture
DO 914.07 - 1.2.20 Safe, Secure, and Orderly Operation of the Institution

Reification is a term that refers to using the labor power of the people and in turn using it as a powerful force to keep them under oppression.

The only way Texas can afford to keep 150,000 people imprisoned and continue to give parole “set offs” after they are parole eligible by law is through the use of forced labor to offset operating costs. Theoretically speaking if TDCJ were forced by law to pay prisoner workers through a new supreme court precedent, or if prisoners quit participating in enslaving themselves, parole would be presumptive and automatically granted at first eligibility.

Our freedom is at stake here, friends. That is why this issue is absolutely vital. In Texas, per a 1993 law which was passed in reaction to the 90s crack-cocaine-fueled crime wave, violent or aggravated offenders must serve 1/2 their entire sentence before becoming parole eligible. And often times after decades of dreams, hope, hard labor and good behavior, alas many are given the dreaded “set off.” So much time has elapsed that their momma has died, their support structures have crumbled, and they have become old men in terrible health due to poor diet, unable to gain meaningful employment, dreams are dashed. All their efforts seem totally futile.

It reminds me of the book Animal Farm by George Orwell and how they treat the work horse, Boxer. They push the old work horse to work harder and harder for the revolution, promising him great comforts and retirement benefits one day in the future. However the day comes when he becomes so old and unable to work they send him off to slaughter at the glue factory. TDCJ’s treatment of its prisoners is very analogous to this. When will we wake up?

MIM(Prisons) responds: This is an interesting take on a theme that we hear about constantly from our subscribers in Texas. This writer is saying that if prisoners didn’t help offset the operational costs of their own imprisonment, that TDCJ would be forced to release them because it could no longer afford to keep so many people locked up.

There is a contradiction between the high costs to keep people in prison, and the pressure applied to the criminal injustice system from citizens who want to keep oppressed nations in check. Texas is one of the most racist borderland states and has a very long history of national oppression and white supremacy.(1) The call for harsher sentences coinciding with the crack epidemic is simply a manifestation of this racism. It’s not about fear of violence; it’s about fear of Black violence.

TDCJ certainly would have a harder time financing its prison operations if it actually had to pay prisoners for their labor. But if it started releasing people because of these financial problems, we’d be hearing it from the citizenry. We aren’t sure what lengths the state would go to to appease its white constituency.

In fact, we have also heard countless reports of what TDCJ does when it has “budget problems”: it makes conditions worse for the prisoners by skipping rec time, medical call, and other duties it has to prisoners. We have yet to receive a letter from someone saying that TDCJ has started releasing prisoners due to budget problems.

The battle here isn’t between the prisoners getting paid for labor, and the TDCJ not paying them. The battle is between the interests of the oppressed nations who are housed in TDCJ prisons, with their entire lives stolen from them, and the Amerikkkan nation which has a strong material, social, and cultural interest in keeping these oppressed nations locked up. If that battle manifests in a struggle for work to be paid for in TDCJ, or for TDCJ to honor good time - work time credits in releasing prisoners, then we are all for it. But we can’t lose sight of this bigger contradiction, which is what the entire prisoner labor struggle rests on.

This contradiction has always existed since the beginning of the Amerikan nation, and even prior to that when it was still in development. And it has only been heightened under the Trump presidency. We aim to build our power so that we can overcome the contradiction, in unity with oppressed peoples all over the world. Any struggle for paid prisoner labor should primarily be a struggle to build our internal unity and organizing.

Throughout the numerous issues of Under Lock & Key (ULK), we have read countless articles detailing the unjust and inhumyn conditions of imprisonment across U.$. prisons and jails. Many of these stories, and the compelling analyses they entail, help shape and develop our political consciousness. From the hunger strikes in California to the rampant humyn rights’ violations in Texas on to the USW-led countrywide grievance campaign, through the pages of ULK, we have shared our organizing struggles, the successes and setbacks. As a result, our clarity regarding the illegitimacy of the U.$. criminal (in)justice system has sharpened tremendously.

And yet, there are some political and economic dimensions of our imprisonment that seem to evade our critical gaze. It is not enough that we become familiar with each others’ stories behind the walls. At some point, we must move toward relating our collective organizing experiences in prison to much broader struggles beyond prison. To this end, the anti-prison movement(1) is but a necessary phase of national liberation struggles that has serious implications for anti-imperialism. And in order for the anti-prison movement to advance we must analyze all sides of the mass incarceration question.

Many of us already understand that prisons function as tools of social control. We also recognize that U.$. prisons are disproportionately packed with oppressed nation lumpen, ostensibly because these groups organized and led national liberation movements during the late-1960s to mid-70s. After these movements succumbed to repression from U.$. reactionary forces (COINTELPRO), the U.$. prison population rose dramatically and then exploded, resulting in what we know today as mass incarceration.(2) Thus, we see, in a very narrow way, the basis for why U.$. prisons serve in neutralizing the existential threat posed by oppressed nation lumpen.

But understanding the hystorical basis of mass incarceration is only one part of the question. The other part is determining how the systematic imprisonment of oppressed nation lumpen has developed over time, and exploring its impact throughout that process. Because while the question of mass incarceration may seem as formulaic as “national oppression makes necessary the institutions of social control,” the reality is this question is a bit more involved than mere physical imprisonment.

The latter point in no way opposes the analysis that the primary purpose of mass incarceration is to deter oppressed nation lumpen from revolutionary organizing. In fact, the political and economic dimensions of mass incarceration described and analyzed later in this article function in the same capacity as prison bars – in some instances, the bonds of poverty and systemic marginalization, or the racist and white-supremacist ideology that criminalizes and stigmatizes oppressed nation lumpen are just as strong as the physical bonds of imprisonment. If oppressed nation communities, particularly lumpen communities, are kept in a perpetual state of destabilization, disorganization, and distraction, then these groups will find it that much harder to effectively organize against a status quo that oppresses them.

The point of this article is thus to widen the panorama of our understanding, to take in those political and economic dimensions of mass incarceration that too often go unnoticed and unexamined, but are nonetheless important in determining the line and strategy necessary to advance the anti-prison movement.

Partial Integration Set the Table for Mass Incarceration

As pointed out above, mass incarceration deters oppressed nation lumpen from revolutionary organizing. But what does this analysis really mean in today’s context of the national question? How does the prevention of oppressed nation lumpen from organizing for national liberation impact the national contradiction; that is, the contradiction between the Euro-Amerikan oppressor nation-state and the U.$. internal oppressed nations and semi-colonies?

The lumpen-driven liberation movements of past were, in part, strong rebukes against the integrationist Civil Rights movement (which of course was led by the bourgeoisie/petty-bourgeoisie of oppressed nations). Thus we see the partial integration agenda as an alliance and compromise between the Euro-Amerikan oppressor nation-state (its ruling class) and the comprador bourgeoisie of oppressed nations. It is meant to answer the national question set forth by the earlier protest movements (revolutionary and progressive) of oppressed nations, on one hand, and to ease tensions inherent in the national contradiction, on the other hand.

In exchange for open access to political power and persynal wealth, the comprador bourgeoisie was tasked with keeping their lumpen communities in check. To this point, it was thought that if Black and Brown faces ruled over Black and Brown places, then much of the radical protest and unrest that characterized the period between the mid-60s to mid-70s would be quelled.

This is the very premise of identity politics, and, as Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor aptly notes: electing leaders of oppressed nations into political office does not change the dire material and socioeconomic circumstances of the communities they represent.(3) In eir book, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, Taylor goes on to describe the failure of partial integration (and identity politics) with respect to the New Afrikan nation,(4) contending:

“The pursuit of Black electoral power became one of the principal strategies that emerged from the Black Power era. Clearly it has been successful for some. But the continuing crises for Black people, from under-resourced schools to police murder, expose the extreme limitations of that strategy. The ascendance of Black electoral politics also dramatizes how class differences can lead to different political strategies in the fight for Black liberation. There have always been class differences among [New Afrikans], but this is the first time those class differences have been expressed in the form of a minority of Blacks wielding significant political power and authority over the majority of Black lives.”(5)

Here we see Taylor describes the inability of partial integration to remedy the plight of the entire New Afrikan nation and its communities. Ey also articulates very precisely the internal class divisions of New Afrika brought to light by such an opportunistic agenda, which serves to enforce and maintain semi-colonialism. There is a reason why the Euro-Amerikan oppressor nation-state allied with the comprador bourgeoisie, as their interests were (and are) clearly more aligned than conflicting, given the circumstances. Where the bourgeois/petty-bourgeois integrationists wanted access to capitalist society, the lumpen and some sections of the working class of oppressed nations saw their future in their liberation from U.$. imperialist society – two very different “political strategies” reflective of somewhat contentious “class differences.”

Furthermore, Taylor highlights the moral bankruptcy of partial integration (and identity politics) with the contemporary lesson of Freddie Gray’s tragic murder and the Baltimore uprising that followed. Ey explains, “when a Black mayor, governing a largely Black city, aids in the mobilization of a military unit led by a Black woman to suppress a Black rebellion, we are in a new period of the Black freedom struggle.”(6) This “new period” that Taylor speaks of is nothing more than good-ole neo-colonialism.

To elaborate further, an understanding of the Baltimore uprising, for example, cannot be reduced down to a single incident of police murder. Let’s be clear, New Afrikan lumpen (and youth) took to the streets of Baltimore in protest and frustration of conditions that had been festering for years – conditions that have only grown worse since the end of the “Black Power era.” Obviously, the political strategy of identity politics (i.e. “the pursuit of Black electoral power”) has not led to “Black liberation.” Instead it has resulted in an intensification of class tensions internal to the U.$. oppressed nation (in this case, New Afrika), as well as increased state repression of oppressed nation lumpen.

This latter point is evidenced by the support of policies from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) that target, disrupt, and imprison oppressed nation communities (lumpen communities).(7) At the same time that these communities struggled under the weight of economic divestment and merciless marginalization, conditions which in many respects worsened under the political leadership of the comprador bourgeoisie, the drug trade opened up, providing a precarious means of survival. Predictably, as “crime”(8) increased so too did the creation and implementation of criminal civil legislation that fueled mass incarceration. To really get a sense of the true interests of the comprador bourgeoisie of oppressed nations, we only need to look at the positions taken by the CBC, the so-called champions of freedom, equality, and justice, which “cosponsored conservative law-and-order politics out of not political weakness but entrenchment in Beltway politics.”(9) It is clear that partial integration has been “successful for some,” but it is equally apparent who the victims of this opportunistic agenda have been.

What is often missed in any serious and sober analysis of the CBC (or any other political org. representative of the comprador bourgeoisie) is the legitimacy it bestows upon the prison house of nations: U.$. imperialist society. This legitimacy isn’t some figment of imagination, but a material reality expressed primarily in the class-nation alliance signified by the partial integration agenda. Dialectically, while the comprador bourgeoisie is granted the privileges of “whiteness,” access to political and economic power, the lumpen and some sections of the working class of oppressed nations are deemed superfluous (not necessary) for the production and reproduction of U.$. imperialist society. Of course, the election of more members of oppressed nations into office goes a long way in maintaining the facade that the United $tates is a free and open society that respects and upholds the rights and liberties of its citizenry. However, identity politics will never obscure the sacrificial zones within U.$. society -– South and Westside Chicago, Eastside Baltimore, Compton and South Central and East Los Angeles, and many more deprived urban lumpen areas –- maintained and, in many cases, made worse by partial integration.

Unfortunately, this is where we find the oppressed nation lumpen today on the national question, held hostage by a set of identity politics complicit in its further marginalization and oppression.

Politics of Mass Incarceration

In discussing the failure of partial integration to effectively improve the material and socioeconomic life of the entire oppressed nation, we can better appreciate the extreme limitations of such an anemic political strategy that is identity politics. But if the legitimacy that partial integration (and identity politics) provides U.$. society can only go so far in actually pacifying oppressed nation lumpen, then by what other means and methods are these superfluous groups controlled? In the next two sections, we will explore and analyze this question.

Racism and white supremacy are constant ideological threads woven throughout the founding and development of U.$. society. In each era, be it slavery, segregation, or mass incarceration today, the primary function of this political ideology is to rationalize and legitimate the oppression and/or exploitation of colonized peoples, which throughout these different eras invariably involved employing particular methods of social control against these peoples or specific groups thereof.

Now, of course, we cannot compare the fundamental nature of slavery with that of mass incarceration. And to be clear, this is not the point of this particular section. It should be obvious to the casual ULK reader that where the slave performed an essential economic role and was therein exploited and oppressed, oppressed nation lumpen have no role within the current socioeconomic order of U.$. society, as it is systematically denied access to it. The point, however, is to show how the ideological forces of racism and white supremacy, while they have assumed different forms depending on the historical era, are mobilized in service of the status quo. It is in this sense that political motivations underpin the system of mass incarceration. And as we will see in this section, these motivations are hystorically tied to the oppression and/or exploitation of U.$. internal oppressed nations and semi-colonies.

To be sure, the need to control oppressed nations has always been a paramount concern of the oppressor (settler) nation since settler-colonialism. During the era of slavery, slave codes were implemented to ensure that slaves were held in check, while slave patrols were formed to enforce these measures. We see here the emergence of the modern U.$. criminal (in)justice system in its nascent form, with its proto-police and proto-criminal laws. But it wasn’t until after the abolition of slavery that we find express political motivations to criminalize oppressed nations. For Angela Y. Davis,

“Race [nation] has always played a central role in constructing presumptions of criminality … former slave states passed new legislation revising the slave codes in order to regulate the behavior of free blacks in ways similar to those that had existed during slavery. The new Black Codes proscribed a range of actions … that were criminalized only when the person charged was black.”(10)

While the Black Codes were created in large part to control New Afrikan labor for continued exploitation, we are able to see the formation of policies and policing designed for the specific purpose of repressing oppressed nations. As a side note, irony doesn’t begin to describe the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment, meant to abolish slavery, to disestablish one system of oppression only to provide for the legal and political basis for another system of oppression -– convict lease labor.

Furthermore, Davis observes that, “The racialization of crime – the tendency to ‘impute crime to color’ … did not wither away as the country became increasingly removed from slavery. Proof that crime continues to be imputed to color resides in the many evocations of ‘racial profiling’ in our time.”(11) In this sense, oppressed nation lumpen criminality under conditions of mass incarceration is analogous to Afrikan “inferiority” or First Nation “savagery” under conditions of settler-colonialism. In both instances, there are narratives, informed by racism and white supremacy, which serve the continued functioning of the status quo.

Given that the criminalization of oppressed nations is not some modern phenomenon, but one that originated in the hystorical oppression and exploitation of oppressed nations, we now have a different angle from which to view mass incarceration. Part of this view involves recognizing that the criminal (in)justice system, law enforcement, and legislators are not neutral arbiters of justice or “law and order.” These people and institutions are infected by racism and white supremacy and thus function to carry out ideological and political aims.

Therefore, it is important that we remain diligent in uncovering the many guises under which racism and white supremacy lurk and hide. This is no less significant today as it is in the cultural arena where reactionary ideas and ideologies are propagated and traded. To be more clear, when trying to rationalize why oppressed nation lumpen are imprisoned at disproportionate rates relative to similarly-situated Euro-Amerikans, arguments about lack of responsibility and no work ethic are tossed around as explanations. Mainstream media go even further by portraying and projecting stereotypes about oppressed nation lumpen (and youth), that is to say, stereotyping the dress, talk, and actions, which is really a subtle but sophisticated way of stigmatizing. Of course, this stigmatization goes on to construct a criminal archetype, which many of us see today in nearly every facet of U.$. media life.

All of these factors, taken into consideration together, shape the public conscience on “crime” and criminality, laying the groundwork for rationalizing the great disparities characteristic of the current criminal (in)justice system. Unsurprisingly, this propaganda has worked so effectively that even oppressed nation members find it hard to ignore. So where there should be unity on issues/incidences of national oppression, none exists, because the oppressed nation is divided, usually along class lines. Taylor strikes at the heart of the matter:

“Blaming Black culture not only deflects investigation into the systemic causes of Black inequality but has also been widely absorbed by [New Afrikans] as well. Their acceptance of the dominant narrative that blames Blacks for their own oppression is one explanation for the delay in the development of a new Black movement.”(12)

This is certainly the plan of partial integration, to divide the oppressed nation against itself and thereby legitimize the marginalization and oppression of oppressed nation lumpen in the process. Naturally, this paralyzes the oppressed nation from acting on its right to self-determination, from pursuing liberation.

To frame this point another way, take a Chican@ business owner. This persyn has a business in a predominantly Chican@ lumpen community, despite residing in the suburbs. This business owner sees Chican@ youth hang out and skip school. Ey sees them engaged in questionable, possibly criminal activity. Add in the scenario that local media frames crime as a virtue of Chican@ lumpen youth on a nightly basis. And then say one day one of those Chican@ kids is killed by the police. How will the Chican@ business owner respond?

Before the era of mass incarceration, the overwhelming majority of the oppressed nation would have viewed this scenario for what it was: a police murder. Today, we cannot be so sure.

To sum up, the current criminal (in)justice system, law enforcements, etc. are unfair and unjust not because these institutions are biased against oppressed nations, but because the fundamental nature of society, the basis upon which these institutions are built and set in motion, is founded on the oppression of non-white peoples. We must remember that slavery was legal and segregation was held up as permissible by the highest courts in this stolen land. For us to view mass incarceration solely from the social control perspective undermines any appreciation for the urgency of anti-imperialism, for the need for a reinvigoration of U.$. national liberation struggles. We need to be more nuanced in our analysis because the system is nuanced in its marginalization and oppression of oppressed nation lumpen.

Economics of Mass Incarceration

This nuance mentioned above is primarily played out on an economic plane. And there are many economic dimensions and impacts of mass incarceration that maintain a strangle hold on oppressed nation lumpen and communities.

We can explore how contact with the criminal (in)justice system can leave an oppressed nation member and eir family destitute, through fees, fines, and other forms of financial obligations. We can look at the impact of prisons located in rural communities, providing employment opportunities and economic stimulus. We could even investigate prison industries and how prisoner labor is utilized to offset the costs of incarceration. However, the point here is that there are many things to analyze, all of which, taken as a whole, disadvantage oppressed nation lumpen and their communities.

The most consequential impact of mass incarceration is how it feeds the cycle of poverty and marginalization characteristic of lumpen communities. Basically, the criminalization / stigmatization of lumpen reinforces its material deprivation, which in turn nurtures conditions of criminal activity as a means of survival, further unleashing the repressive forces of the criminal (in)justice system, which proves or validates the criminalization / stigmatization of oppressed nation lumpen in the first place. Thus, oppressed nation lumpen are inarguably subjected doubly to the poverty and marginalization, on one hand, and to the relentless blows of national oppression, on the other hand.

Todd Clear, provost of Rutgers University – Newark, who specializes in the study of criminal justice, draws a stark picture of this cycle of crime and poverty that lumpen are subjected to:

“A number of the men are gone at any time; they’re locked up. And then the men that are there are not able to produce income, to support families, to support children, to buy goods, to make the neighborhood have economic activity, to support businesses … the net effect of rates of incarceration is that the neighborhood has trouble adjusting. Neighborhoods where there’s limited economic activity around the legitimate market are neighborhoods where you have a ripeness to grow illegitimate markets.”(13)

What Clear is depicting is not so much the fact that crimes take place in lumpen communities. Clear is emphasizing that criminogenic factors (factors that strongly tend to lead to criminal activity/inclination) are really a reflection of the lack of socioeconomic opportunities to social upward mobility. This is the essence that fuels the dynamic relationship between crime and poverty. What Clear fails to mention is that there are Euro-Amerikans who are in similarly-situated circumstances as oppressed nation lumpen but are more likely to escape them where oppressed nation lumpen are trapped. This is so for reasons already mentioned in the above sections.

Furthermore, not everyone in lumpen communities are imprisoned; in fact, most likely never see the inside of a jail or prison. But enough people do go away and stay away for a considerable period of time that the community is destabilized, and familial bonds are ruptured. When free, the imprisoned persyn from the lumpen community represented some sort of income, and not a liability weighing down a family, financially, morally, etc, already struggling to make ends meet. Enough of these families are part of the lumpen community that the cycle mentioned above seems to be unbreakable. Kids growing up in broken homes, forced to assume adult roles, only to make kid mistakes that come with adult consequences; and the cycle continues.

To be sure, this cycle has been in force with respect to oppressed nations since the end of slavery. It has just become necessary over time to enact laws and policies that now target and disrupt these communities. Both the politics and economics of mass incarceration work to keep lumpen communities from organizing for national liberation as was done during the late-60s.

Conclusion

Part of any strategy related to our anti-prison movement is first recognizing these dimensions of mass incarceration, and taking into account that we live in enemy society where enemy consciousness prevails, even amongst much of the oppressed nations. We have to also recognize that the interests of oppressed nation lumpen are not the same as the other classes of the oppressed nation. There are some members of the oppressed nations who have bought the bill of goods sold by partial integration. They are fully immersed in the delusions of identity politics, subtly sacrificing their true identity for the trinkets of “whiteness.”

Understanding and recognizing these points means we can focus our organizing efforts on building public opinion and independent institutions, on a concrete class/nation analysis and not because someone is Black or Brown. We need to be patient with lumpen communities as they are in that day-to-day grind of survival and may not (or cannot) see the merit in our movement. Ultimately, we need to step up and be those leaders of the movement, so when we do touch we hit the ground running.