MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
www.prisoncensorship.info is a media institution run by the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons. Here we collect and publicize reports of conditions behind the bars in U.$. prisons. Information about these incidents rarely makes it out of the prison, and when it does it is extremely rare that the reports are taken seriously and published. This historical record is important for documenting patterns of abuse, and also for informing people on the streets about what goes on behind the bars.
The petit-bourgeoisie is not only the white nation people. Anyone who
posses the ideological and social behaviors or the political views that
are influenced by private property interests are in fact part of the
petit-bourgeoisie. In Amerikkka those whose ideological principles are
on this level are part of the oppressor nation. Many TTT constituents
fail under these principles.
And as for the individual claiming to have been dropped by MIM(Prisons),
it sounds like that person never was attempting to build. For those who
want to attack an organization that has been staunch in true struggle
and who’s line is correct in many ways, needs to, as the komrade who
address this issue said, investigate before hs/she has the right to
speak. Komrade Soso did well in the response and TTT should engage in
“righteous” criticism not some back door attack on MIM(Prisons).
MIM(Prisons) must keep their energy on educating those who want to
learn. Let’s not waste energy on fictitious attacks. MIM(Prisons) has
been doing revolutionary work for many many years and has proven
results. As said, history will tell.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this comrade that TTT
demonstrates a petit-bourgeois political line, though we must be careful
with our definitions of this term. We define the petit-bourgeoisie by
their relations to the means of production, as an economic status, not
just ideological principles. The fundamental point of debate with TTT is
around the MIM(Prisons) scientific analysis of classes in imperialist
countries, concluding that the vast majority of people in these
countries are part of the petit-bourgeoisie. This is not because they
have political views aligning with private property interests, but
rather these views stem from their economic interests.
Open letter to the Director of CDCR, the Warden of San Quentin Prison
and the Captain of the Adjustment Center
San Quentin top officials have concocted and enacted an exclusive code
of regulations called the IP 608 Condemned Manual, which mandates that
Death Row prisoners are under the control of the warden of San Quentin
Prison. Therefore, after years of the abuse of authority by Adjustment
Center (A/C) committee members and unit staff and after years of filing
602s that fall on deaf ears here in the A/C, all the way up the chain of
command to Sacramento, a collective group of Death Row prisoners in the
A/C will be joining in the statewide non-violent, peaceful hunger strike
in July 2013 to demand that the warden of San Quentin use his power of
authority to bring about positive change to prisoners housed in the A/C
SHU.
For years, Grade B A/C prisoners have been told Grade B is not a
punishment; it’s just a “program” different from Grade A. So the warden
should be able to use his power of authority to order the following
immediate changes without delay:
The warden should immediately implement a “behavior based program” that
amends the current criteria that permit a condemned prisoner to be
eligible for Grade A privileges and be removed from the punitive
punishment of Grade B status, basing this program on a condemned
prisoner’s current good behavior and disciplinary free conduct
regardless of a prisoner’s alleged gang status or validation and
eliminating the under-the-table and vague indeterminate status in the
A/C. The warden must order the immediate release of A/C prisoners who
are not validated as alleged gang members and associates and have
remained disciplinary free for years.
The warden must order the A/C committee to stop the controversial and
unfair classification practices of using illegal inmate informants and
anonymous informants and the so-called roster list of names to label
prisoners gang members and associates and to stop the illegal and vague
“mandatory debriefing” and vague validation process. San Quentin
officials must put in place a set of standards and safeguards to protect
a prisoner’s right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment
Any information used in A/C committee decisions must be first-hand
information and must be corroborated by three different independent
sources;
A/C committee must state on the record why such information is
indicative of gang activity and state on the record what California laws
are being broken;
Any information used against a prisoner must be provided to the prisoner
and all copies of documents, such as 1030s and 128s, and debriefing
reports placed in a prisoner’s C-file must be immediately disclosed to
the prisoner so he will have ample time and opportunity to contest and
challenge any allegations in writing through administrative 602s and
legal redress to confront his accuser or confidential source.
The warden must (a) order the end of the administrative segregation of
condemned prisoners to segregated yards that have been designed to label
a condemned prisoner unjustly, (b) order an end to the constant use of
bogus confidential inmate informants and bogus 1030 disclosure forms to
deny A/C prisoners access to Grade A status and access to the A/C group
yards, and (c) order that all four group yards in the A/C be labeled
“re-integrated yard 1, 2, 3 and 4” and remove the racist yard labels of
“Southern/White and Northern/Black” that A/C staff and committee have
used for decades to instigate racial division and segregation among
prisoners of different races who would like to program and co-exist on a
group yard together. Every A/C prisoner should be given group yard
unless the prisoner chooses to stay in a walk-alone cage. The warden
must order that all walk-alone cages have roof coverings like the cages
in East Block and Carson Sections, and add a dip bar in each cage for
exercise.
The warden should cease all group punishment tactics. Group punishments
and lockdowns were designed for large-scale riots, not for alleged
isolated incidents. The warden should cease the unlawful use of the
interview/interrogation process and never allow the vicious attack and
assault on prisoners by A/C staff just because a prisoner invokes his
Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and refuses to answer questions
during an interview/interrogation. This illegal policy of forced
interrogations makes no sense because if staff utilize chemical agents
on a prisoner, which have proven to be lethal, and attack him and then
drag the prisoner into an interview/interrogation room, he will say, “I
have nothing to say,” and take the Fifth. Or the prisoner might give a
statement based on his fear and the fact he was brutally attacked, in
which case the information would be deemed “given under duress and
torture, therefore unreliable.” So the use of violence on prisoners,
particularly on prisoners of color, is just an excuse and a blatant act
of the worst kind of torture and racially motivated retaliation. Also,
the administration should cease passing out “interview questionnaires”
to prisoners after an alleged isolated incident because the informants
read these questionnaires and re-word them and use them as first-hand
information when the informants did not get the information from a
prisoner but directly from a prison official. Simply put, these forms
describing the incident are only done so rat inmates can exploit these
incidents for gain by giving staff bogus and false statements to be used
on 1030 disclosure forms and be rewarded by obtaining Grade A and other
privileges and favors.
The warden should order the end to the degrading policy of stripping out
A/C prisoners outside during yard recall, violating Title 15, Section
3287(4)(8), which partly states that “all such inspections shall be
conducted in a professional manner which avoids embarrassment or
indignity to the inmate. Whenever possible, unclothed body inspections
of inmates shall be conducted outside the view of others.” Stripping out
in the cold and rain is inhumane, and it’s time for this policy to stop.
The warden should allow A/C prisoners to wear tennis shoes or state
shoes on all escorts, especially in the rain, to visits and medical
escorts, and put an end to the “shower shoes only” policy and allow A/C
prisoners to be fully dressed in state blues when going to the law
library.
The warden should order that the third watch sergeant return the
scheduling of A/C prisoners for SHU law library to the SHU law librarian
clerk and start utilizing all available SHU law holding cells so Death
Row prisoners can do important research at least three to four times a
month. A lot of prisoners are being denied access to SHU law library on
a regular basis. The third watch sergeant should be ordered by the
warden to end the practice of putting dinner food on paper trays to sit
on the bed in the cell while prisoners are at law library as this
practice is unsanitary and eating cold food is unhealthy.
The warden should order the end of excessive use of property
restrictions. No other CDCR prison in the state of California uses
property restriction as a punishment and it’s only done in extreme
cases. Title 15 mandates no longer than 90 days. The excessive use of
property restriction punishment in the A/C is based on nothing more than
A/C committee members’ abuse of power and authority and is never based
on a prisoner’s behavior.
The warden of San Quentin should use the power of his authority to
expand A/C Grade B privileges for prisoners housed in the A/C through no
fault of their own and who have remained disciplinary free for
years.
Allow contact visits with family, friends and attorneys, or allow
2.5-hour non-contact visits in Booths A-l, A-2 and A-3 in the visiting
room.
Allow two phone calls per month.
Allow hobby and educational programs for the A/C.
Allow more educational channels like the Discovery Channel, the History
Channel and National Geographic.
Allow $110.00 canteen draw a month.
Allow four food packages a year or two food packages and two nutritional
packages of vitamin supplements and protein meal supplements from
approved vendors.
Allow A/C prisoners to participate in the food charity drives.
Allow 10-book limit in cell, not to include any legal or religious
books.
Allow A/C prisoners to purchase white boxer underwear, T-shirts, socks
and thermals from approved vendors at least four times a year (each
quarter).
Allow clear headphones, non-clear earbuds and headphone extension for
TVs and radios or leave speakers connected in TVs and radios.
Order the return of exercise equipment on the group yards, return the
basketball court and the pull up bars, and add dip bars and a table and
provide group yard activity items such as basketballs, handballs, board
games and cards.
The warden should order that all medical chronos issued and approved by
the chief medical doctor be honored and order all A/C staff not to
interfere with the medical needs of prisoners. Custody staff should have
no say-so in medical needs of prisoners. If the medical needs of a
prisoner cannot be met in the A/C, then the prisoner should be housed in
a unit where his medical needs can be accommodated. The A/C unit staff
must not be permitted to impose unjust punishments upon prisoners who
have a proven need for medical appliances. When it is deemed medically
imperative for modified cuffs, staff puts the prisoner on leg restraints
claiming “safety and security,” when in fact it is an attempt to
discourage prisoners from seeking medical appliances by punishing them
with unnecessary, painful, degrading and excessive mechanical
restraints.
Order the Institutional Gang Investigation (IGI) unit to stop the
harassment of interfering with A/C prisoners’ mail. Incoming mail has
been denied and held by IGI under the excuse of “promoting gang
activity” with no further explanation of exactly what constitutes
“promoting gang activity”! Many times incoming mail takes anywhere from
20 to 40 days from the postmarked date on the letter to reach prisoners
in the A/C. Legal mail has been taking far too long to reach A/C
prisoners, and it should be passed out with regular mail call at 3 p.m.
so that prisoners can have plenty of time to respond to their attorneys
by the 9 p.m. mail pick-up.
All of these issues are fair and reasonable and create no serious
threats to the safety and security of the A/C but can only create a more
positive and productive environment in the A/C for prisoners who have
been put in a punishment situation with no disciplinary write-ups for
years. We ask that the warden of San Quentin and the captain of the A/C
look into these issues as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Main A/C Representatives: Smokey Fuiava, E-35592, 2AC56; Richard
Penunuri, T-06637, 3AC55; Billy Johnson, F-35047, 2AC51; Todd Givens,
V-42482, 3AC52; Marco Antonio Topete, AK-7990, 1AC12; Cuitlatuac Rivera,
T-35975, 2AC67 Body of Representatives: Bobby Lopez, K-76100,1AC16;
Reynaldo Ayala, E-10000, 2AC59; James Trujeque, K-76701, 3AC13; Mike
Lamb, G-30969, 2AC1; Hector Ayala, E-38703, 3AC4; Marty Drews, C-88058,
3AC2
We have one small victory on the censorship front on admission that
ULK is not on a restricted distribution list and subscriptions
will be delivered. Though this was issued in January, one issue still
never arrived. That is being grieved. Aside from that a recent
ULK subscriber received a Prison Legal News “survey” concerning
censorship which appeared to be a precursor to litigation against the
NDOC by PLN concerning censorship.
The principle problem which we encounter now is unofficial censorship,
such as mail being withheld/not delivered without notice, mail being
returned without notice (such as happened with ULK) and not
stamping the received date on our mail, which is then not delivered on
time.
In one extreme example, a kid got a letter form his family who had not
been able to locate him for a couple of years because all of his
incoming/outgoing mail to family had “disappeared” and they were just
recently able to locate him. Apparently officials wouldn’t explain why
or where he was.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade is on top of fighting censorship
in his prison, and provides a good example for others who are
experiencing similar problems. We need everyone to grieve censorship
whenever it happens, pursue all administrative remedies, and attempt to
contact outside organizations that might also be fighting censorship or
willing to help with a lawsuit. If you have experienced censorship in
your prison, write to us for a guide to fighting censorship, and be sure
to report all mail (both received and rejected) to us so that we can
accurate track censorship.
As I believe you are aware, I have been involved in several battles with
the prison system to secure your publications, and am now receiving them
without incident. Therefore, I was surprised to read that prison
authorities were claiming that Under Lock & Key was on the
“banned list.” The next time that I am at our law library, I will
examine the banned list, to see if the zine is on it, but I rather doubt
that it is, as this facility would not have given me it if it were.
For all of your Illinois readers, I would suggest the following actions
if they are having difficulties in receiving any of your
publications:
Regularly examine the “banned publication list” which is available in
every prison library.
It should be noted that only the Central Publication Review Committee
can actually ban a publication; a prison can request it, but only the
CPRC can approve it, and there will be a paper trail if anything is
banned.
The following documents spell out a prisoner’s rights regarding
publications; all are available through the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). However, if they are available at the prison’s library, they
will tell you to review them there. (Any person in the free world can
obtain them.)
Illinois Department of Corrections Staff Development and
Training Office of Inmate Issues Publication Review Procedures
Departmental Rule 525 Part 525 - Rights and Privileges
Subpart C: Publications
These documents can be obtained from:
Ms. Lisa Weitekamp FOIA Officer Illinois Department of
Corrections 1301 Concordia Court PO Box 19277 Springfield, IL
62794
Systemic and severe violations of international human rights law are an
endemic feature of prison conditions in Pennsylvania. This is why the PA
Department of Corrections is being investigated by the U.S. Deptartment
of Justice and a class action lawsuit has been filed by the Disability
Rights Network challenging PA’s mental health practices of warehousing
prisoners with serious mental illnesses in solitary confinement causing
this class of prisoners undue suffering. The treatment amounts to a
punishment nightmare where they cannot receive treatment, but receive
disciplinary infractions and sanctions for behavior directly related to
their mental health issues.
During the past 30 years or more, Pennsylvania has embarked upon a
project of race and class based incarceration unlike anything
Pennsylvanians have ever seen. In my almost four decades of
incarceration, I have witnessed the annual state prison budget increase
from under $100 million for the fiscal year 1980, to $2 billion today.
Not coincidentally, prison construction and prison population increased
with the passage of the law that created the Pennsylvania Commission on
Sentencing in 1982. The prison budget has increased even more because
the General Assembly authorized three new prisons and built cells at
17-existing prisons to imprison another 9000 prisoners in the next 3
years. Additionally, PA leads the nation in juveniles serving life
sentences, the overwhelming number of them being of African descent.
Pennsylvania is one of many states that are building more jails and
prisons at the same time that they are closing schools. While states
have an abundance of funds to build jails and prisons, more and more
school districts are facing funding and program cuts, furloughs, and
hiring freezes. Is it not more sensible to invest in schools than jails
and prisons? Schools will help to improve quality of life, education and
values; jails and prisons will continue the pipeline to prison and
increase the penal population.
Just like I have witnessed the state’s annual prison budget increase
tremendously, I have witnessed a perversion of the priorities in
education that in the long run criminalizes poor blacks and poor people
of color in general, institutionally robbing public education to feed
the prison industrial complex.
The National Center for Education Statistics affirms that 68 million
people read below basic levels, but less money in education is spent. It
uses the state of Texas as an example, where they have eliminated close
to $4 billion of the budget and also the financing of programs that
served 100,000 at-risk children. Other cuts have included the closing of
hundreds of schools.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We appreciate this comrade for taking the
time to write this article, which concisely points out many of the
problems with the current system. While we print it here for its useful
content, we disagree with the reformist line of the article. Long-term
isolation is torture for all people, whether you are mentally ill or you
are a political prisoner. We’ve watched as reforms around who gets put
into control units only justifies using them against some of the
greatest leaders of the oppressed. So we do not report on these efforts
uncritically.
As proletarian internationalists, spending more money on schools or
prisons for Amerikans is a crime as long as people (whose wealth they’ve
stolen) are dying of malnutrition and basic medical care.
Segregation
in public schools is an ongoing problem in the United $tates. And
the educational disparity, which leaves oppressed nations within U.$.
borders with far less than adequate education, feeds into prison. Taking
money from prisons to put into education will not solve this problem.
While we do support cutting prison budgets as a means to discourage the
ridiculously high incarceration rate in this country, as long as the
imperialists control the budgets, they will find ways to spend money on
furthering their goals. Reforms to spending will just move things around
a bit, but not make fundamental and lasting change we will need to end
the system of imperialism which prioritizes profit over the life of the
oppressed.
Since early April there have been at least three prisoners shot, all in
the head/face, and other shots fired resulting in lockdowns, two
institutional lockdowns, and a number of pig assaults on prisoners
including one in the seg unit I was released from and two on prisoners
in the unit where I am currently housed. Most recently (last week) a
Black comrade was assaulted in retaliation for exercising his first
amendment right to expose pig misconduct. All of these assaults have
been on Black prisoners by white pigs.
Amidst the above the food issue has been revived but has met textbook
excuses - all of which boil down to:
A prevailing sense of hopelessness among prisoners here
A prevailing attitude of complacency among prisoners here and
Fear of retaliation against prisoners here
The common factor? The state of mind of prisoners.
The Texas brothers demonstrated that victories are possible even with
the grievance system, and history teaches us that: “In all ages and
under all circumstances there will always exist abundant reasons not to
fight but that will be the only way not to obtain victory.” (Fidel
Castro)
History teaches us that our victories are always the result of the work
of a few against the many. It teaches us that we will never be a
majority so we must fight that much harder and with greater
determination and not allow few numbers and temporary failures to
terminate the struggle. At this moment there are a few of us here
fighting for proper food, proper medical treatment, and an end to staff
abuse, assaults and retaliation and theft/censorship of mail. We are
simultaneously trying to bring unity within the prisoner class. This
will not happen today, but there is always tomorrow, as our Texas
brothers so accurately noted in ULK 32,
we
are all fighting for tomorrow.
Program for the Aggressive Mentally Ill Offender (PAMIO) – the name
sounds innocent and by reading the thirteen page information packet,
almost promising. But the truth behind the smoke screen is anything but
innocent and promising. I am currently admitted to the PAMIO program
under advice from my psychiatric case worker and I would like to shed
light on the inhumane torture and psychological abuse the prison calls
rehabilitation.
On 21 May 2013 I was processed into PAMIO and taken to my living
quarters with no incident. On May 26 porkchop Hall made sexual remarks
and advances towards me and a few other prisoners. He then took it a
step further by denying me a shower because I would not show him my
genitals. I then encouraged my fellow prisoners to write him up to
document all incidents. This is not all Hall has done, he is also known
for refusing to feed a prisoner he doesn’t like or whose religious or
political views he disagrees with. A prisoner who is Muslim and provided
proof of his religious convictions told Hall he needs a pork-free diet.
Hall smirked and knocked his tray to the ground and closed his slot,
saying that the prisoner is now meal free. His cronie Mclaen just
laughed and walked off, both proud of themselves.
I was personally targeted by porkchop Frost with threats of physical
violence and an unnecessary gassing because of a grievance I filed.
Frost asked me why I filed a grievance on Hall and I told him it was
none of his business. He then asked “what are you doing?” and I answered
“minding my own business” and he said “sixty two cell put down the
razor.” He then pulled his gas can out and shook it up. The nurse then
came through the side door with another guard who asked what the deal
was, Frost looked at me and said “nothing I was just messing with him.”
I was targeted again, this time by an unknown porkchop who accused me of
stealing his handcuff key and then threatened to have me slammed and
gassed. However the other guard found the key nowhere near my
possession.
The last major incident still sickens me. The porkchops on both cards
and shifts got together and targeted a prisoner for over two weeks. In
this time they cut off his water, denied him necessities, denied proper
hygiene for an indigent prisoner, denied him a mattress, denied him
medication, verbally harassed, gassed, and went through other methods of
torture and degradation. This prisoner was mentally ill and could not
help himself. Instead of pulling together against the porkchops, the
other prisoners on the section this prisoner was housed whooped and
hollered and rode with the porkchops. The said prisoner has since been
transferred, thankfully because he surely would have died due to
criminal negligence on the part of PAMIO security staff.
I will now address one more note to all comrades wishing to come
together at PAMIO. The porkchops have a clique called the Wolf Pack on
both day and night shifts. The Wolf Pack has been responsible for
prisoner beatings, rapes, gassing, starvation, denial of necessities,
dehydration, and deaths among other injustice and corruption. I am in
the process of gathering the names and leader of this Wolf Pack and I
will report back with further information.
I am using this as a call to arms for all politically active comrades
within Texas to come together in United Struggle from Within to fight
abuse at PAMIO. I am requesting both militants and educators to request
admission to PAMIO. The program is located on Clements Unit.
Reading the June issue of
“The
Rock,” a recurring theme kept on popping up. That theme was the
raising up of prisoners’ consciousness. This is a very good thing as the
majority of prisoners lack the consciousness and ideology of a
revolutionary.
The demands being put out are good, but as a 23-year old prisoner I
can’t help but shout that the same demands we are asking for we already
had, and more so, they shouldn’t be privileges but rights! Fighting for
positive reforms is good in itself, but one shouldn’t miss the forest
for the trees. It’s said best by Lenin:
“People always were and always would be the foolish victims of deceit
and self deceit in politics until they learn to discover the interest of
some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social
phrases, declarations and promises. The supporters of reforms and
improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order
until they realize that every old institution, however barbarous and
rotten it may appear to be, is maintained by the forces of some ruling
classes. And there is only one way of smashing the resistance of these
classes, and that is to find, in the very society that surrounds us, and
to enlighten and organize for the struggle, the forces which can, and
owing to their social position, must constitute the power capable of
sweeping away the old and creating the new.”(1)
I quote this in length because it screams at me. “Owing to their social
position”, and what is our social position? Second, third class
citizens? What’s to keep prison ‘gangs’ form forming into political
parties? Swapping our old ideas for new ones? To dismantle our old
selves and transform into a force of change not only in prison but
society at large?
We have the ‘fuck you attitude,’ we have brass, now the question is do
we have the will to organize, agitate, analyze and act? To learn
something you don’t know is a difficult task, I could attest to that.
Putting a burden on us (prisoners) more so is the culture we cultivate
and the ideology that we act out. That is the coming up on people;
robbing, selling drugs and trying to conquer every female we come
across. The majority of the time when we do this we do it to people who
are in our same “social position.” They’re in the pit just like us.
Good thing for us there’s the ability in humans to change, whether it be
consciously, mentally, spiritually or ideologically. The main thing
though is to bring it into practice. Karl Marx observed that “It is not
the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the
contrary it is their social being that determines their
consciousness.”(2) Again what is our “social being?” Bluntly, it’s shit!
We need only to look at the environment we grew up around. Liquor stores
are in overstock, drugs are roaming freely, homes have no foundation or
stability. most have grown accustomed to this way of life. With this
deadly (literally) way of thinking, it ain’t no surprise our
consciousness is lacking in many areas of life.
There’s a striking notion that says prisoners now-a-days lack the
backbone their predecessors have. Sad to say this statement is slightly
true. I have numerous books, but urban novels and novels period got a
strong hold on my brethren. Many feel that there is no oppression,
genocide or killing of our people and other acts of aggression from the
government, but just as one sees a movie or TV show and can’t see the
camera, that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Taking a passive or neutral stance is taking a stance on the side of the
oppressor, it seems that you’re OK with the status quo. Activity and
agitation is taking the side of history as Marx viewed, “…freedom is the
recognition of necessity. Necessity is blind only in so far as it’s not
understood.”(3) As history shows times always change. We could look at
it as it passes by, we could hop on board or we could go even further
and build the vehicle of change, start it up and drive it. Closing my
humble thoughts, I’ll let Karl Marx do it, as he said it well: “There is
no royal road to science [or learning] and only those who don’t dread
the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its
luminous summits.”(4)
As numbers are straight we can use all the able bodied men to join ranks
in our battle for dignity. The strike is more than the demands being
met. This is also a call for we, as prisoners to be treated with respect
and humanity. However, the consensus is that a good portion of SNYs feel
like this battle doesn’t pertain to them. News flash, it does! I came to
realize the dumbness of judging someone by a “classification” as GP,
SNY, active or non-active. These are labels that have been placed on us
to further divide prisoners as a whole. Someone’s character is a better
yardstick to measure them. The guards have no difference or division of
opinion when it comes to fucking us up, so why should we when it’s time
to battle with them?
Simply put, I ask that prisoners on “that” side choose the side that is
with them in this fight. Join the stoppage in work and food. Rise above
the labels and make a better place for all prisoners, and more so, the
world.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We agree with this comrade’s position that the
classifications handed out by the prison system should not be the basis
of our judgement of prisoners. SNY status, validation status, and other
labels are far less important than the actions people take. We should
judge individuals by their actions. Those who take up the cause of the
majority of the world’s people, anti-imperialism, are on the side of the
people.
A while back I had sent the
petition
MIM(prisons) circulates to the director of CDCR, Internal Affairs,
the Department of (In)justice, and the ombudsmen.
First I got a response from the third level (Sacramento), J.D. Lozano
(chief), saying they received my complaint. I had checked 3 boxes in the
petition for: 1) screening out appeals to delay, 2) detaching documents
and refusing to process 602 due to missing documents, and 3) using
dishonesty to screen out 602s. In fact one 602 filed kept getting sent
back for 3 months until I had to water it down!
A while later I was interviewed by a Lt. E. Noyce. Word is he was a
former IGI (Institutional Gang Investigation). Well at first he asked me
about the grievance petition: where did I get this “form” and did I make
it. He had never seen it before so it astounded him that a prisoner
could get something like this. After this he went on a tirade saying the
people who sent me this are making money and I should have sent this
petition to the institution appeal coordinator instead of Internal
Affairs, and how I should just ask staff to “solve” the problem. That is
the problem, but he’s too deep in oppression to care. Finally he told me
I am not a lawyer.
When I was returned to my cell I wrote to internal affairs again but
this time I put it on an Inmate 22 Request Form. This way I can have a
copy of what was said and if they didn’t act I could move forward with
‘legal’ action. Always leave a paper trail!
I wrote internal affairs and told them that Lt E. Noyce had intimidated
me, chilled my right to redress or file a grievance and I’d like to talk
to someone from internal affairs. Days passed by and I was approached by
a Sgt. and asked if I’d like to add anything to my “citizen complaint.”
I told him that everything’s on the paper.
So to wrap this up the petition seems to rattle some piggy nerves. I
recommend it to be used when applicable. And at least here in Tehachapi
we’re getting responses now.
MIM(Prisons) responds: It is interesting that the interview of
the prisoner included a criticism of him for not being a lawyer. That’s
the point of the grievance petition: it makes these battles accessible
to prisoners who don’t need to know the details of the law. This is a
key contribution that jailhouse lawyers participating in the Prisoners
Legal Clinic can make to United Struggle from Within organizing work. If
there is no petition for your state, write to us to get a sample that
you can customize for use there.
We know these individual battles to address grievances will only gain
small victories, at best. But the fight to improve conditions for
prisoners, especially conditions that impede prisoner’s ability to
organize and educate themselves and others, is a critical part of
building the anti-imperialist movement. Through campaigns like this one
we plug new comrades into broader education and ultimately build
communist leaders.