Federal Prisons

In Under Lock & Key issue 13, we published an article announcing a campaign about the improper handling of grievances by prison staff. Below is an update from the California comrade who originally turned us on to the campaign.

I initially mailed out my own petition to the CDCR Director Level back in Nov./Dec. of ’09 as part of the first wave of petitions. This was done under the auspice of its originator. However some time after the first wave went out, the persyn who devised this plan was subsequently taken to the hole. It was rumored that it was exactly because of this persyn’s legal maneuvering that he was sent to the hole. Anyway, back in January ’10 I received a response. As it turns out, these petitions were never investigated or even looked into as we requested. The Appeals Coordinator at the Director Level simply re-routed my petition back to the Warden’s office here at this institution, at which time the warden here implied that the appeals which I had pending were screened back to me because I basically failed to comply with inmate appeal regulations. This is of course total bullshit! The “W.” pretty much just issued me a de facto “695 Screen Out Form” without ever really looking into the matter, thereby sweeping the matter back under the rug.

I then decided that someone needed to step up to the plate and pick up where this petition’s originator left off. I began by tracking down as many people as I could find who’d participate in the legal action. I tracked down about eighteen people, of which only three others besides myself received responses. As it turned out, we all got the same document with seemingly no other action taken.

I then proceeded to make as many copies of the original petition as I could obtain. I was only able to make 20. Of these 20 I only had twelve more people agree to mail the petitions out. As of today nobody’s received any responses.

I contacted the Ca. Prison Law Office, useless. The Ombudsman, useless, no response, and a few other organizations claiming to offer inmates assistance (Critical Resistance? critically useless). I didn’t bother with Internal Affairs or the Inspector General as they are both connected to CDCR and seemingly cover their asses. The DOJ is a different story. However, they will only take action if it can be proven that civil rights abuses are taking place en masse. Since only four of us received responses, the DOJ will not take action.

So it hasn’t turned out as we hoped [with an investigation into the failed CDCR grievance system]. I suppose it wasn’t a total failure, though, as we have proved yet again that the inmate appeals procedure in the Ca. Dept. of Corruption is nothing but an obstacle placed in front of prisoners’ path to the U.$. judicial system.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade’s initiative to pick up a worthwhile project, after state repression stopped the original leader, is commendable. Others who have this kind of initiative should be working with the United Struggle from Within, the MIM(Prisons)-led anti-imperialist prisoner organization. Comrades have been working diligently to expand the scope of the campaign and we now have petitions prepared for CA, MO, OK and TX. If you are filing grievances about any issue and they aren’t being handled properly by staff, consider becoming a part of this campaign and spread it to your people inside.

This comrade’s analysis of the success of the campaign is completely accurate. We can hope for an investigation into the corrupt grievance system, but if it doesn’t happen, then we have instead successfully exposed yet another flaw in the Amerikkkan “justice” system. It is important to not give up even if we feel like nothing will happen because these exposures are agitational points that we can rally people around. Also, like this comrade pointed out, if we send in enough petitions to the DOJ s/he believes that they may respond. So continue to send in your grievance petitions and get with MIM(Prisons) to get involved!

I’m writing in regards to a letter I had read asking for us prisoners to provide art in order to convey the message of injustice in prison. As you know in prison there are many unjust actions that occur on a daily basis so there is a lot to draw on. However, one of the many recent hardships brought upon us Mexicans (specifically northerners) is a mass validation sweep in High Desert State Prison on 8/4/09. 58 northern hispanics were taken off the mainline without due process and stuck in Ad-Seg (Z unit). Now we are all diligently striving to appeal these false fabricated lies on our people but administration has found a new way to hinder our progress by preventing us ample time to go to the law library, making it difficult to get Title 15s, make copies, etc.

I am a prisoner at Northeast Correctional Center. For 17 months I have been on max (solitary confinement) for assault on a prisoner with major injuries. It was a gang fight, and a bunch of us ended up on max. With an assault charge they are supposed to hold us for six months to a year. But here in the rebel state of Tennessee they got what they call election day, the day they sign a new government into the state office. That takes up to a yeer, the year when the government changes, the wardens around the state of Prisons of Tennessee change also, which also takes up to a year. Being that election day is around the corner, the warden here where I am housed has decided to hold us prisoners until the government has changed and the wardens have changed. We will be housed here until 2012 with a whole bunch of time here on max and a bunch of problems, from racial slurs to profanity, these COs try to keep us prisoners out the box, and you have some prisoners who can’t control their tempers and quickly lash out, which leads to more write ups and more time in max. I feel that this is wrong.

The Texas prison system is fucked up. We were the last state to get telephones in the units. Our governor called phone privileges pacifiers. We inmates have so few privileges it is sad. I believe we are the only state that doesn’t pay the inmates to work. we get “good time credits” but the good time credits don’t count if you are an aggravated offender or if your custody level is high.

Texas definitely endorses slavery. If you refuse to work they take away what few privileges we do have. I have now been in this cell for three weeks without drinking water. If I want any water I have to get it out of the toilet like I am a dog. Grievances don’t work here because when we get them back they all have the same answer on them “officer denies allegation no further action will be taken at this time.”

Censorship is crazy here. They ban books by Mao, Lenin and Stalin. But we can get books on genocide, ethnic cleansing, Adolph Hitler, and the K. I have actually seen a book called The Hitler We Loved and Why by Christof Friedrich and Eric Thompson. Friedrich is a Nazi sympathizer and should have been imprisoned for his active role in genocide. I am including an article from the Austin American Statesman on the redundancy of the censorship. The article is titled Variety of Books Banned in Prison.

Medical conditions here are no better. Back in January I was being treated for H. Pylori virus. It is a virus that lives in well water. The system has prevented us from filing a class action lawsuit on it. They claim that we could have got it in the free world. While I was being treated for H. Pylori half the unit along with myself came down with the Novo Virus. The officials said that we got it from the food. What I can’t understand is why only half the unit came down with it and the other half didn’t.

Now I want to take a little time talking about racism. It is not just corporate white colonizers that are the bigots. But it goes on in every nationality. We need to set aside skin color and look at the bigger pictures. Communist leadership and rule was formed to go against imperialism and capitalist bullshit. It is not a movement against whites. From what I understand, Marx, Lenin and Stalin were all white. There are too many people of the Latino and Black race who are caught up in the imperialist and capitalist movement for it to be only the whites to be put down like they are in some of the articles. When it comes to the U$ imperialists the only color that I can see is green. So stop hating on skin color. The only way we can make a change is to put race aside. Remember, we are all red inside.

MIM(Prisons) responds: While we share this reader’s call for unity among all people fighting for communism, we do not agree that whites should be equated with other nationalities within U$ borders. The reality of Amerika is national oppression, and whites enjoy the role of oppressor. Historically, being Amerikan has been defined by pseudo-scientific ideas of race. As other groups become more integrated into the amerikan nation, the idea of race could become less significant, but Amerika would still be the oppressor nation.

We don’t believe in race, so we would never say that whites can’t join the revolutionary struggle, but when we talk about whites as a group we have to recognize their role as an oppressor nation. Whites do have to work against their national interests to join the revolutionary struggle. Similarly, all free U$ citizens have class/economic interests that they must work against to join the revolutionary struggle.

The above memorandum is a response to a petition for the correct handling of grievances signed by dozens of prisoners held in the Kern Valley State Prison KVSP) Administrative Segregation Unit. In it the Appeals Coordinator does the job s/he was hired to do: ignores the complaints of the prisoners, baselessly denies any accusations of illegal activity, and employs the bureaucratic runaround tactic (in this case advising the prisoners to seek redress within the same system they are complaining about).

Shortly after receiving this memo, the USW leader of this campaign in KVSP did follow the advice given and filed a group appeal on a 602 form. To our knowledge, he has not yet received a response for this group appeal.

Regarding a complaint about the failed grievance system, we do not expect the Appeals Coordinator to admit guilt. But it can be valuable to go through their steps to seek remedy to create a clear example that their system does not work. The CDCR Office of Internal Affairs “concluded the issues can more likely be managed at the institution” rather than the state level. What? Obviously it can’t; that’s what the whole petition is about. And the Appeals Coordinator says to file a 602 regarding the corrupt 602 system.

For those trying to find a strategy to combat the injustices of the prison industrial complex, we recommend working in the Maoist framework toward a world without oppression. You can do this by contributing to MIM(Prisons), spreading the grievance campaign, or starting/joining a Maoist cell in your own area.

In just days our comrade Ronnie Garner will be shot to death by trigger happy pigs at the Utah state plantation. Line upon line of trigger happy swine congregate. Just itching to be one of the five to open fire on an unarmed, seated, shackled and waist chain and cuffed human being. Tickets are sold out with standing room only for one of imperialist Amerikkka’s favorite shows. A lynching. High def, surround stereo sounds reports of five rifles, four loaded, just what the ignorant chauvinistic piles of racist shit needed to return the old bounce to the abusive, greedy step.

Settler nation. Thieving cowardly nation. As those rifles hollow-pointed slugs tear through an unpremeditated killers beating heart. As five premeditated murderers slay a man who was threatened with such a demise for centuries. As the state treated all his ills for this long, from ulcers to dandruff, and now sees fit to just blow his chest out his back for sport. All you across this doomed Americur$e know this. I scream anti-imperialism with two fingers in the air. Fuck you too Amerika!

As the Mexican border walls get higher and higher to keep starving people off Amerikan streets, Amerikur$e ships/flies ton upon ton of military might and fattened U$ soldiers to Iraqi/Afgani streets. “Hypocritic swine,” I scream. You rich fucks in the oval office who smoke “illegal” smuggled Cuban cigars and have sex with children, prostitutes, each other. I scream socialist proletarian justice and have your spots chalked out in my mind for your firing squad$.

As all eyes turn to this Utah lynching of a tied, seated man. Dandruff and cavity free. Let us not forget the masses toothless with lice who sharpen blades in leaky lean-to. Let us never forget the millions who starve to death yearly because the U$ snakes see fit to not feed them as there is no profit in it.

As I approach release from USP after two plus years down in this UINTA One control unit. And bid ‘fare-in-martyrdom-well’ to a fellow political prisoner of war I scream again. What do I yell you ask? Is it revenge at the cost of my life or a light show on the ten-o-clock news? A blaze of glory?

Fuck no comrades. It’s to the library I go and to your piggy drug abuse classes. It’s to the parole office I go smiling. Because there isn’t a dope pipe or ‘pigs-brains-on-concrete’ that can get me as high as this anti-imperialist struggle does. I’ll play your games and beat you at them you cowardly pigs and then some. No more will I be your puppet to dance and justify these wars on crime/drugs. To justify these killer fascist koncentration Kamps.

You’ll lose Amerika. You will. And on that day we’ll truly see who gets the firing squad. Might even give your overweight, liposucked fat racist asses a running start too.

Power to the people!

MIM(Prisons) adds: Ronnie Garner is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on June 18, 2010, but his lawyers are working to appeal. We do not know Mr. Garner or the details of his case.

Los Estados Unidos es el crisol de culturas del mundo. Un poco de todo y de todos habita esta tierra. Mejor dicho, es la tierra de la oportunidad ¿pues qué más se puede esperar, no? De norte a sur, de este a oeste, gente está haciendo hasta lo imposible para llegar hasta esta tierra de lamento. Por supuesto que es la tierra de las oportunidades, claro, de la oportunidad de ser golpeado, derrotado, pisoteado y escupido por todos lados.

Mientras la gente del Tercer Mundo o de los países empobrecidos están bajo la falsa percepción de que este es el lugar idóneo para estar y progresar, haciendo cualquier intento necesario para llegar hasta aquí; la agencia militar del ICE se sienta desde arriba de la cerca de púas y espera el momento oportuno para brincar sobre sus espaldas y, o bien, permitir la explotación de su trabajo o enviarlos de regreso a su desastroso ambiente del cuál están huyendo.

Siendo un individuo nacido aquí en estos Estados (Des)unidos, viviendo entre los mismos imperialistas, mi opinión sobre el tema de la situación fronteriza o del encarcelamiento de otros camaradas de otros países—que desean mejorar su situación por tomar un poco de lo que estas serpientes imperialistas han tomado de ellos—puede ser tomada como la de una persona que está mirando desde afuera.

Pero confíe y créame, que soy un hermano mirando desde adentro. No soy ciudadano U$, tampoco soy amerikkkano. Mi padre es descendiente Samoano y mi madre es descendiente de África, punto. Soy inmigrante junto con todos los individuos en este país desunido que no es indígena. Colón y su escuadrón llegaron de Europa huyendo de malas condiciones y buscando una oportunidad para mejorar sus condiciones y escaparse del hambre capitalista de la reina. ¿Dónde estaba el ICE en ese entonces? En el mismo barco del Mayflower que trajo el primer cargamento de esclavos africanos, probablemente él era el hijo de puta que manejaba la nave. Cuando uno piensa sobre la fundación de los E.U. como un país desunido se debe pensar en los inmigrantes y salta-fronteras de esta tierra. Todo desde los ingleses, los alemanes, los franceses, hasta los holandeses y irlandeses fueron los que llegaron a esta tierra infringiendo a los nativos.

La única diferencia entre ellos y muchos inmigrantes del tercer mundo es que éstos no pueden permanecer mucho tiempo bajo el sol sin quemarse, ni tienen ojos rasgados ni pelo crespo ni saben lo mínimo acerca del comunismo. Ellos son blancos. Ellos nada más buscan el crecimiento y desarrollo imperialista de su raza blanca, y la destrucción de la gente del tercer mundo y el espíritu comunista. Ahora, no estoy jugando la carta racista aquí, así que no lo tomen como si, pero para poder tratar efectivamente este problema necesitamos dirigir el hecho subrayado de la ideología imperialista blanca y el concepto de supremacía blanca. Desde el principio de la expansión colonial, el hombre blanco a estado delegando una campaña en la cual él es el hombre superior del planeta tierra y todos deben arrodillarse frente a él y su semilla, alabándolos siempre. En su campaña le ha declarado guerra a todas las naciones que niegan reconocer esta supuesta superioridad y intentan no sólo suprimir estas naciones sino suspenderlos de su existencia (i.e. las primeras naciones de Norte América). Cuando los esclavos africanos empezaron a escaparse del rebaño de sus dueños y comenzaron a causarle tremendo dolor a la señorita libertada, los europeos pronto respondieron con la KKK, que al cambio intentaron de desanimar a los africanos a que huyeran por medio de ataques terroristas. No es muy diferente hoy en día excepto que dejan sus batas blancas y suásticas en casa. Cuando piensas en la agencia de ICE y a lo que se dedican, lo único que les falta son las batas blancas.

Permiten que la gente de países pobres entren al país saltando fronteras, les permiten que trabajen en los campos de algodón, o bodegas, y después en cuanto de pronto ya no necesitan de la mano de obra barata los mandan a un nuevo “campo de control social” o los mandan fuera de los Estados Unidos y de regreso a su país asolado por la guerra imperialista.

O se ama o se odia, o se acepta o se niega. La única manera de eliminar el problema fronterizo es acabar con el imperialismo y su ideología que lo mantiene vivo.

MIM(prisiones) responde: Mientras sobre todo correcto, este camarada falla en distinguir entre la ciudadanía de un país y la nacionalidad. Estamos de acuerdo que, en este país, para estar al lado del opresor uno debe renunciar cualquier la pertenencia a la nación yanqui. También estamos de acuerdo que hay varias nacionales en Norte américa y muchos de ellos sufren de la opresión de las nacionales amerikanas y kanadiences. Esto es señalado en el rechazo de derechos propietarios, aprisionamiento masivo, guerra química por medio de narcóticos, el alto paso de muertos por enfermedades prevenibles y terrorismo policiaco de la policía estatal.

No obstante, siendo un miembro de una nación opresiva en Norte américa no significa que no seas ciudadano. La diferencia siendo en que, como ciudadano puedes trabajar legalmente y ganar mala paga, a pesar que ya es bastante más difícil conseguir el puesto para uno que para los blancos. Aunque migrantes a veces pueden ganar mucho más que otros en el tercer mundo, ellos enfrentan explotación aquí en los e$tado$ unido$, y otras formas de opresión que muchos ciudadanos legales no necesitan temer.

Estamos de acuerdo con la idea de que este compañero no es un ciudadanos de E.E.U.U. debido a la posición de prisionero del Estado.
Miramos hacia prisioneros y migrantes adentro del país como fuerzas revolucionarias potentes porque no disfrutan de plenos derechos de la ciudadanía. Aparte del hecho de que más y más presos son inmigrantes, esta es la conexión que hace que el tema de los migrantes sea muy importante para los presos de este país. La lucha de liberación nacional será dirigida por los que entre los oprimidos que tienen un gran interés frente al imperialismo.

La analogía entre I.C.E. y la KKK está sumamente a la medida, aunque diríamos que “los Minute Men” son el comparativo más directo. Pero ICE se diferencia en que sus agentes son muy bien pagados por lo que hacen, no solamente voluntarios de su nación. Los dos juegan una parte en el manejo de las naciones de esta gente explotada para el beneficio de su nación.

Una nota final sobre las definiciones, una pregunta que ha surgido en la discusión de este tema es cómo se utilizan los términos “migrante”, “inmigrante” y “no ciudadano”. Como se mencionó anteriormente, los no ciudadanos son personas sin derechos de ciudadanía legal, y en los prisioneros de E.E.U.U, mientras que por lo general legalmente a los ciudadanos, se le podría incluir en este grupo o al menos considerados ciudadanos parciales. Los inmigrantes y los migrantes no son ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, un inmigrante es alguien que se muda a otro lugar para vivir. Los migrantes son personas que viajan de un lugar a otro con el fin de encontrar trabajo. Puede que no tengan un hogar, pero a menudo no tienen una familia que envían dinero y prefiere estar con ella.

We talk a lot about what’s going on in the prison system but what about what’s going on in the county jails? The Los Angeles County Jail (MCJ) where the infamous headquarters is located is like CDCR’s notorious “green wall”. Operation Safe Jail (OSJ) is no more than a prison gang, more so than those who are validated and serving time in CDCR’s SHU facilities. Just like the green wall, they bet on human cock fights and beat you down to the point where you can’t even walk anymore. In prison I dropped out of a prison gang and have been doing my time in SNY facilities also know as PC (Protected Custody).

In August 2009, as I was getting booked through the LA County Jail processes and being interviewed by officers. I informed them that I was put on the hit list by a [lumpen organization] member and was put in PC in State Prison and that I should be put into PC in the county jail as well since I still do fear for my life and safety. They housed me in high power fish roll 4500 for 3 weeks with no contact with anybody, no visit, no phone calls, nothing. After that I was interviewed by OSJ and I explained to them my situation and they promised to put me in PC. But to my surprise they lied to me because I was declassed to General Population. I did start to refuse but officers grabbed me, by twisting my arms they forced me to walk to another floor where I was to be housed in GP. I refused and pulled away from their torturing grasp. They took me down and beat me with unnecessary force. They tasered me while I was on the ground for a long, long time. After I passed out. I awoke to them still beating on me hand cuffed. They were even tasering my hand cuffs.

When it was all over they promised to put me in PC if I did not say anything to the lieutenant or anybody while they put me on camera where I was to be asked some questions that I was to answer “I don’t want to talk about it” to every question, or I would be put back into GP. So I did what I was told for fear of my safety. To my surprise I was medically cleared and they put me in a cell in Green Light Fish Roll for PC process. They also told me that if I had any complaints they would put me in GP.

I really needed to see a doctor again. But I couldn’t ask for fear that I would be put in GP so I did what they told me. Well, everybody else on Fish Roll heard my cries of pain and suffering and they called “man down” for me which I begged them not to for fear that they would think I’m still complaining. They finally came (officers and nurses) and took me to the MCJ’s clinic where they transported me to LCMC where they discovered that I have a collapsed lung. It it wasn’t for everybody calling man down for me I would have died that night.

Of course they lied on the report and submitted it to the DA for prosecution. They gave me 2 years with 1/2 for resisting. I am now in prison because LA County failed to serve and protect, as their motto says.

At 19, I’ve become equally conscious of the circumstances we must face as well as the necessary struggle we must wage in order to remedy these maladies which has infected us as a people mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally and financially. Not to say that I have mastered Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, but I have grasped firmly the concept of socialist-communist revolution to an acceptable degree.

To summarize, the question at hand is basically, “What strategy and tactics can ULK employ to become a better tool at correctly propagandizing the masses, particularly the prison population, organizing us into a revolutionary impetus which can successfully seize its liberation, justice and equality?” Before I voice my opinions let me state, matter of factly, that all recipients of ULK are equally responsible for the progress as well as its shortcomings. For no force is greater than that of the people. Therefore we, the people, are more than obligated to ensure that ULK plays a productive role in our revolution. If we fail to contribute, we are as counter-revolutionary as the reactionary monsters who daily oppress us all.

I think in order to educate and be educated by each other, we must combine theory with practice as well as embrace “criticism and self-criticism.” We must refrain from using speech which can be taken offensively for this may cause dissension, and out of emotion some may shun the message we intend to give. This is counter-productive. Instead of just denouncing our “criminal” actions, let us acknowledge the fact that in some form or degree, even if subconsciously, we have resisted this nefarious system and its institutions. Let us acknowledge that, unfortunately, through experience, we’ve now gained first-hand knowledge of the repressive conditions we live under. We are the lumpen, we are the most exploited. [MIM(Prisons) Editor: The lumpen, by definition, are not an exploited class, though some prisoners and black market laborers face economic exploitation. The lumpen are the excess people, thrown off by capitalism. In the united $tates the lumpen are one of the most oppressed groups.] Now, through political education, we must learn to combine our individual struggles into one struggle of the people and for the people.

We must discuss piece-meal the written works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Tse-Tung, Frantz Fanon and others. We must learn the history of other peoples and study all rebellions, revolts and revolutions in detail, from feudalist society to our present society. This will impress upon us our historical role of resistance, raising our consciousness as we embody the spirit of true revolutionaries. This will also show how we’ve undergone the transformation from the family-oriented, ethical man to the selfish, barbaric, sub-human savages we’ve become; competing against, or at extremes, injuring, raping, and murdering our kith and kin for riches and social status which can never satisfy our vegetating, ever ungovernable greed.

We must teach how racism, sexism and religion have each played their part in forming the basis of these exploiting class systems, keeping the masses divided. Also how the media and schools have kept us ignorant, replacing our need for knowledge and truth with fabricated tales of European heroes and Amerikkkan humanitarianism.

Fidel Castro said that the duty of the revolutionary is to make the revolution. We cannot ignore the fact that the only way to overthrow the capitalist-imperialist elite and their government is through armed struggle. Therefore we should still encourage our education in warfares, even though MIM opposes the use of armed struggle at this time. In Mao’s Little Red Book (quotations), he states:

“War, this monster of mutual slaughter among men, will be finally eliminated by the progress of human society, and in the not too distant future too. But there is only one way to eliminate it and that is to oppose war with war, to oppose counter-revolutionary war with revolutionary war, to oppose national counter-revolutionary war with national revolutionary war, and to oppose counter-revolutionary class war with revolutionary class war. . . When society advances to the point where classes and states are eliminated, there will be no more wars, counter-revolutionary or revolutionary, unjust or just; that will be the era of perpetual peace for mankind. Our study of the laws of revolutionary war springs from the desire to eliminate all wars; herein lies the distinction between us communists and all the exploiting classes.”

We do not want war, we want peace. But to eliminate war we must wage war. “Political power grows out from the barrel of the gun.” This is a truth we must accept.

We must encourage a vigorous struggle for prison reform. We must expose the injustices, the curtailed food rations, and all the other foul living conditions of these DOC concentration camps. We must recognize the word “individual” as a metonym for “divided”, understanding that never is one person ever alone in any particular struggle. Therefore all grievable issues should be grieved en masse showing that the power of the people is an unyielding power, perceptual no matter how much it is caged and bound. We must advise all prisoners of their constitutional rights, what they mean, and how to fight for them if violated. We must encourage prisoners to form unions or law study groups within their facilities so that we become literate of legal terms and parlance, etc. We must encourage the fight against legal misrepresentation, illegal sentencing, and prejudicial convictions. We are the bearers of our own freedom.

We must encourage all prisoners to reach out and educate their peers, family, and friends, etc. It is imperative that our support system comes from the outside as well as the inside. Also that those who may be “freed” in the near future continue our struggle. This last issue is very important: prisoners without financial means should not have to be exempt from the Maoist study cell just because they’re unable to pay the $5 membership fee. So I ask all brothers and sisters to come together and donate money so that all our comrades can participate. It is their revolution just as much as it is ours!

Power to the people who don’t fear freedom!

Free all political prisoners!

It is said that you can measure how far a society has advanced by how well it treats its prisoners, so by Connecticut’s standards we have not come very far. We are fair game to be brutalized and tortured, have our property stolen at will or destroyed with impunity. Then they act shocked or surprised when one of their captives strikes back. And instead of learning they attempt to intensify the torture methods, and the cycle starts all over again. I continue to put my thoughts on paper even though I’m aware of the systematic effort to stop any mail that is critical of staff or other DOC policy.

None of the policies or tactics being used against us are accidental. In fact they are a part of a larger illegal psychological experiment. Under the code name ‘behavior modification,’ that will be used to control all of the sheeple in the larger society, once it is perfected, and there is no outcry by the sheeple. Prisoners are the most vulnerable in society, and if our basic rights are denied then no one will have rights. These experiments as they are being conducted should give raise to serious legal, cultural, political and ethical questions. Systematically prisons destroy your support system, charging astronomical surcharges for phone calls, victimizing our wives, children and family so that the billionaires and millionaires can reap more profit. And trust me, profits is all they care about.

We are limited to visits from immediate family only, which destroys most other relationships you may have. Again I contend it’s by design. When in fact other interpersonal relationships are just as important as those of your immediate family. They purposely subject your family members to all kinds of degrading mistreatment, as they try to dissuade them from further visits. One they cut off your phone calls and visits, then comes the ‘coup de grace’: they withhold your mail, creating a state of total isolation from any community support base. Furthering this isolation they deprive you of any meaningful reading material, i.e. only material they choose. While enacting and enforcing draconian, no passing rules, so you cannot share anything with your neighbor, keeping you totally isolated from each other.

This so-called program is being run by persons from the mental health field, so I know they are very much aware of the damage and negative effects that is caused by the extreme isolation and sensory deprivation upon its victim’s psyche. They are very much aware that by reducing the sensory feedback, which is essential to a person’s well-being, cracks can appear in their mental defense system, which I believe is their diabolical plot. They attack those of us who they consider to be troublesome, militant agitators or even writ-writers and jailhouse lawyers. Severing your family ties and putting you in isolation. Depriving you of human contact, mail, and all other sensory stimulation, while making every effort to weaken your internal defenses, and heighten your susceptibility to the influence and control of the prison authority. And if you respond by abandoning your attitude of individuality and independence as a man, then and only then are you granted so called privileges, i.e. phone calls, commissary or the use of your radio. I personally see this as the modern equivalence of the old slave breaking technique. If you do not conform, your psychological torture continues indefinitely. No matter what any staff uses as an excuse, like “oh I’m just doing my job,” “I’m just following orders” or “just making a living,” they are all part of this twisted Orwellian attitude, and Machiavellian experiment. With this call to assist, I am seeking to have an investigation into the continuous retaliation, discrimination, and harassment which boarders on a form of psychological torture.

This is being written as an ongoing report as I try to have the conditions I face and treatment I’m being subjected to disseminated as widely as I can. If you are reading this, please send it to people you know and ask them to do the same.

On December 22, 2009 a guard was assaulted. It was alleged that I assaulted him. In vigilante style retaliation, I was attacked by a hoard of guards. If you can imagine a group of wild beasts in a feeding frenzy, you would have the exact picture. I had 13 to 17 guards on top of me all out of control. Without any resistance from me, lieutenant Germond (who continues to threaten me) sprayed a powerful mace substance point blank up my nostrils. Then shook the can and sprayed my entire face. This act was sadistic at the least, done only to inflict gratuitous pain and suffering. This chemical agent burns your skin and will take your breath away at 10 feet, one can only imagine the effects of having the can against your nose and the chemical shooting up your nostrils. Three months later and I am still having to use a nasal flush solution because I’m unable to breath through my nasal passage. I believe that the chemical burnt the lining membranes of my nose. Because I was never properly decontaminated it continued to burn my skin for days. Even though the instructions for its removal warn against the use of hot water, that is exactly what they did, while handcuffed they forced my upper torso under hot water, face first, knowing that such actions would cause me excruciating pain because the hot water opens your pores and allows the chemical to go directly to your nerves. It felt like someone was sticking a red hot poker to my face and skin, again done only to appease their sadistic lust. The powerful chemical totally took my breath away, it’s constructed to actually consume the air molecules, in a chemical reaction.

While already unable to breath a full mask, like those worn by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, was placed on my head, effectively preventing me from breathing, and my heart was under excessive strain. Combined with this I had over 1200 pounds on top of me, and I was unable to expand my diaphragm, and was slowing being asphyxiated. It was fortunate for me that I had my arms in front of me, as this allowed me to get enough leverage to turn in order to get some air. One of the guards whom I believe is named Sisk was punching me repeatedly in my jaw. While another one was standing up then dropping his knee only my body with all of his weight using as much force as he could. Someone else was trying to break my legs and yet another was trying to break my finders. All types of sadistic underhanded things were being done to inflict pain, and at all times during this assault on my person they were yelling like a bunch of banshees.

Finally they put leg irons and cuffs on me. The leg irons were so tight I was unable to walk. So I was dragged down this quarter mile long hallway. I was put in this dirty filthy cell, and in all my years of doing time I have never been in a more foul place. It smelled like you would expect the den of a wild animals to smell. Unfit for human occupation. There was dried blood, urine and spit on the walls and floor. The toilet had crud caked on it, outside and in, the crud on the inside of the toilet was more than an inch thick. I was 4 pointed (chained feet and hands) to the bed. As these two guards (Sisk/Thomas) were chaining me, they were putting their feet on the bed to get leverage in order to be able to pull the chains as tight as possible to assure maximum pain. So much pressure was applied that my right collar bone was hyperextended, leaving me in constant and continuous pain to date. I was four pointed over night. It was the longest night of my life, or so it seemed. I was in pain as the chemical burned my skin all night. I was denied water by lieutenant Germond. My cloths were cut and ripped off of leaving me totally naked, while the cell was freezing cold. They draped a summer blanket over me to cover my nakedness, but it was pourous and did nothing to keep me warm, purposely leaving my feet exposed to the cold that was radiating from the back wall. I was only inches away from this wall which was like a block of ice, it was so cold that you could see your breath when you exhaled. I had serious concerns that my feet would suffer frostbite.

The next day I was released from the four point restraints and for the next four days I was kept in a three point (leg irons, handcuffs, and a tether chain). I was chained in such a way (called, short chained) it prevented me from being able to stand erect, which is illegal and done to create pain in your lower back and that is exactly what the results were. The floor of the cell was concrete, cold and dirty, and I was not given any socks or shoes. I spent 9 days shivering from being cold, which defines torture. The toilet could only be flushed from the outside by the guard, and they only flushed it 3 or 4 times in 9 days, which in itself is inhuman and sadistic. I was not fed at all for the first few days, until I was seen by a captain from internal affairs. Once I started to get meals the guards started bringing in my food and drink. My food tray would sit with the guards in their guard station, sometimes for over an hour and a half, and they would do ungodly things to it before a supervisor would come to give me my food. While I was in what are called cell restraint I ate no solid food. I was able to consume only my juice and milk out of a carton.

Right after the incident, every Tom, Dick and Harry started writing me false disciplinary reports, with impunity. This one guard named Michael Jaison has been allowed to write false DRs continuously to retaliate against me. I am the only prisoner for whom they are enforcing the rule about no radio while on seg time, everyone else has their radio while I’ve been without mine for 5 months. The same goes for my photo album, what value is it to them, to deny me photos of my family and friends, while all others have theirs, except gratuitous punishment, acting like juveniles, because I wanted my photo album they want to deny it, in retaliation.

Everything they are doing to me is an attempt to attack me psychologically, in the hopes it will produce cracks in my mental defenses. This is the scheme behind putting me in a dog cage and leaving me chained, foot and hands, when the door to the cage was designed so the cuffs and leg irons could be removed. All other prisoners have their cuffs and leg irons removed once they are secured inside. All other prisoners are afforded the ability to interact and converse with others, I am the only one kept totally isolated, leaving all other dog cages empty. They gave strict orders that no other prisoner can pass me anything to write with, or to read while allowing all others to do so. Any privilege or amenity that is denied other prisoners on my tier, the guard will infer that it is due to the heat that my presence brings on the tier. The purpose is to attack my popularity and make me a scapegoat. They are trying to capitalize off of my mistreatment to convince others not to resist their authority, or we will isolate you and torture you. It is the weakness of principles in those around me that causes me to stand out. All I do is refuse to abandon my independence as a man, a principle that is ingrained in my heart and soul.

In their attempt to stop my ability to defend these attacks upon me, they discarded my legal papers and destroyed the files I do have, over 7 boxes of my legal papers are missing and what they gave to me, you cannot make heads or tales of them. When they removed me from the isolation cell, I was put in a Klu Klux Klan den, run by the Grand Dragon of the unit. As the head goes, so does the body. His Klan members were being allowed to spit and urinate in any food. To bring attention to this fact, I made some samples of what I believe to be urine in my coffee. The Grand Dragon retaliated against me and used his authority to have me chained foot and hands, and returned to those same filthy cells mentioned earlier, for another four days or so.

Since December 22, 2009 they have continued to subject me to all kinds of retaliation and psychological torture, and in their attempt to keep me from having a real investigation into these criminal matters they have cut off most of my envelopes and paper. I have filed numerous complaints concerning the harassment and mistreatment I am being subjected to. My complaints have either been ignored or allowed to be whitewashed with rote investigation, no matter what evidence or witnesses I have they say “based on the facts gathered the accusations are found to be uncorroborated.” No further investigatory action will be taken.

During subzero temperatures outside, I was under threat of force and denial of OCE (out of cell exercise), told I could not dress warm enough, only allowed to put on 1 pair of socks, 1 t-shirt, and I was not allowed to wear both my sweat pants and thermals, I was told either one or the other, I was not allowed to wear anything on my head or hands which I could not put in my pocket, because I was cuffed feet and hands. Once I was outside I was forced to stay out for the full hour and sometimes longer. All they gave me was a thin summer jumpsuit, and cloth top tennis shoes. The jacket was draped over my shoulders, again because of the handcuffs.

There are a group of lieutenants known to me as the gang of five (Shakpe, Germond, Pafumi, Revera and Correa) who are the main perpetrators of these diabolical schemes being used against me. While denying me clothing to wear they will leave the camera off, antagonizing and badgering me, then turn the camera on to try to capture me acting bad on camera. They came to toss my cell, before leaving they threw my toothbrush in the toilet. This retaliatory treatment continues on a daily basis with impunity. In closing, I’m telling all who read this, I am under threat of bodily harm from the gang of five.

MIM(Prisons) responds:
This is a good exposure of the brutal abuse that happens in prisons across the Amerikan criminal injustice system. There are a few points in this article where we disagree with the author. First s/he states that these tactics used in prisons “will be used to control all of the sheeple in the larger society, once it is perfected, and there is no outcry by the sheeple.” Prisons are a tool of social control, targeting oppressed nations within U.$. borders. However there is no need for expansion of this tool beyond the criminal injustice system because imperialism has created a bought-off middle class out of the citizens of imperialist countries. This population already has a material interest in imperialism and does not need further controlling, especially the white nation.

Our second point of disagreement is over the question of profits in prisons. The author states that the goal of prisons is profit: “victimizing our wives, children and family so that the billionaires and millionaires can reap more profit. And trust me, profits is all they care about.” As we explained in our article on the economics of prisons, prisons in Amerika are not profitable. They are a tool of social control propped up by the profits of imperialism. It certainly helps to reduce the cost of prisons to charge prisoners exorbitant prices for purchases, take 50% or more of money sent in to prisoners, and force some prisoners to engage in labor for little or no wages. But none of this is sufficient to cover the cost of running the Amerikan prison system.