Federal Prisons

I see that the United Front has broken down on the issue of migrants, or what some term illegal immigrants. All I can say is those who call themselves Marxist-Leninist or Maoist should read their works on this issue. What is going on now is nothing new that the imperialists are doing, Lenin, Mao and Stalin all dealt with this. Besides, if you really claim to know the history of Amerika you’ll know that this nation was started by who? White Settlers! Or illegal immigrants, because I’ve never seen the documents granting them tribal citizenship by the five nations, or what was once northern Mexico. So get past your chauvinisms so-called anti-imperialist revolutionaries.

As for myself, I still sit languishing in the Texas state prisons’ version of control units. We call them “High Security Buildings.” And this is all because I won’t and refuse to become part of their program GRAD: Gang Related Activity Desensitizing. You know the game that the federales play, if you wanna get out you renounce your affiliation to whatever family you are a part of and you become an informant for the administration. No thank you, I’ll pass.

So I’ll sit in this cold ass building and study, plan and grow mentally, physically and spiritually. If these prisoners before me that were kept isolated for their beliefs could hold up with no let up ten and twenty years strong. I would be doing my ancestors in the struggle a grave disservice by becoming weak for an opportunity to get an extra tray at chow or watch a football game out in the dayroom among others. How could I be amongst them and call myself a man knowing I’m snitching for the man. They can keep those bullshit illusory privileges. Remember if we keep pulling, snapping and twisting, we’ll eventually break this damn chain of imperialism. We have nothing else to lose.

I am writing to let you know that these fucking pigs are at it again. Yesterday and today these pigs turned away at least fifty people from coming in to visit they’re incarcerated loved ones. I myself was waiting on a visit yesterday and today. However since we are on lockdown at the moment there is no possible way for me to know whether my visitor did indeed come. If she did, then she would’ve come all the way from New York for nothing. Protocol for these pigs requires that they notify us inmates if they refuse our visitors entry into the facility, however that almost never gets done.

We here at Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP) have been having many difficulties with our visiting for the past couple months, it is now beginning to come to a boiling point.

Our recent troubles mostly began a month and a half ago when rumors first started flying within the inmate population that there would be new visiting guidelines implemented. The main guideline affecting us at this moment is one which states that from now on all previously approved visitors must re-submit every two years. Now when rumors of this new implementation were first whispered, I as well as other inmates wrote and inquired to staff about it. Somehow visiting staff nor any other staff seemed to know anything about anything.

All of a sudden at the eleventh hour about 65 inmates on the yard received notices that some of the people on their approved visitors list were due to re-submit by July 9th or risk being taken off of their visiting list. Now they say that visitors were due to re-submit by the 9th of July, however no one was official notified until the last week of June and everybody knows it takes an average of 30 days or more to be approved. These pigs know damn well that even if visitors re-submitted before July 9th it still wouldn’t have given anyone enough time to be re-approved by the deadline.

More than 65 people on the yard have had their visitors entry into the insitution denied, and furthermore they were never duly notified before or after the fact. They all had to find out from their own visitors days later via the phone and in some cases weeks later thru the mail. Total bullshit!

Now today there are new reports of these pigs callousness. It’s like they’re just making up their own new and special rules every other weekend. They have been changing the color which visitors are permitted to wear on a regular basis. In addition to prohibiting solid blue and solid red, which we all have know about for a long time, they recently added solid brown and solid green tops and bottoms. Today they denied a woman entry because she had on white pants. They are also now stating that there is to be no blue or red of any kind on any piece of clothing at all, no matter how minute. This is perposterous!

To add insult to injury these pigs don’t even have the decency to communicate with our friends and family in a civilized or respectfull manner. They always speak to our families in a disrepsectful tone. And if our loved ones try to argue that point, then these pigs always have the same response, “Don’t like it? Then you could leave” or “That’s it, you’re not coming in today.” Now remember, these are grandmothers and mothers, fathers and brothers, with children in tow. More than half the people coming every weekend are coming from Los Angeles, San Diego and other parts of Southern California or further away in Northern Calif. It’s one thing to deal with us in a certain manner, it’s an entirely different thing to disrespect our families.

People are also being denied entry onto the grounds due to a new metal detector in the visitor processing area. If, after going through the metal detector three times, an individual is not able to clear it, then they are being denied entry for the day. We all know that women are not allowed to wear bras with metal wire, so nobody does, however now if the bra has a metal clip or button they are being forced to cut the metal off of the clothing/bra if they want to come in. I was told of a grandmother having to do this in order to come inside. She was forced to cut the metal clip off the bra and then tie it back together.

I will be 602ing this weekend’s actions and hopefully everyone involved in these incidents will be held responsible. It would be of great importance and help if you could help us out by calling the institution head wardens office and anybody else who might be able to draw attention to these matters. Call and or write, bug the hell out of em.

Send protest letters to:

M.S. Evans, Warden
31625 Highway 101
Soledad, CA 93960

Send MIM(Prisons) a copy of your letters.

Please allow me to briefly compliment you on both your program of the MIM - what y’all want and what y’all believe - and your political platform for ways of getting those wants and beliefs.

As a 19 year old brotha locked down by a system who cares for no one but themselves, I admire someone who is willing to step to the plate and educate the people about the wicked system which they are a part of. When I first wrote to your organization I was looking for someone who I could turn to and gain political knowledge on this so-called land of the free. Not only does it seem as if I’ve found that, but also someone willing to teach and give me the tools I will need to change this wicked system that not only takes place here in America, but world wide.

While reading your brief letter I took notice of your speakings on the United Struggle from Within. It is something that I would definitely like to know more about because it sound like something that I’d like to be a part of. Being a young brotha of the struggle within this prison system has made me a young brotha seeking for knowledge and truth about this world and the forces that rule it. I want to learn how to change those forces to make them work for me and the people instead of working against us.

I am one who fully understands and believes in the saying “the blind can’t lead the blind anywhere, but into a brick wall or off a cliff.” Now while having that in mind, I wish to attain knowledge and see and then lead, or attempt to lead the blind into a safe place of being.

With your help and your guidance I can make that attempt or we can make that attempt together. I’ve been incarcerated for the past four years and I have plenty more years to go with nothing but time. If given the opportunity I will work and also learn at the same time.

Inside this cage I spill all of my rage onto this blank white paper to expose this place
Where I’m not locked down held captive.
Living in an artificial world with no rights but my mind’s still active
Thinking about the way things happened.
At 16 years old I caught a case and was sentenced like Osama Bin Laden
They say that the system’s to serve me
But all I see is wicked court judges using laws to hurt me
C/Os and wardens at work see
Behind these prison walls you’re no more than a fish in the dark see
The shark he’ll eat your alive
Get ta talking too loud and the man’ll put a hit on your life
See it’s easy they’ll just set you up.
Get another inmate to come at you no respsect or love
Once the fight starts their gone shoot.
And you better believe their only one real target is you
One shot then your life is gone.
And it’s nothing to them but paperwork and a short call home.
Right now I’m in a four wall hell.
Locked up in the hole living life underneath my cell
With just enough food to survive.
if I’m given anything lesser then it I’m fa’show gone die.

Crying tears for the years they gave me.
I understand the pain that I caused but was it truely that crazy?
These rules that they make are amazing.
It seems they only trap me in a world with a system that hates me
And once I feel that time has arrived.
To stand up, and speak out they shut me down with a basket of lies
When will they ever abide
By the rules that they set in the shade while we stand outside
Probably never and we’ll never survive until we all unite together to try and open the eyes
Of our brothers, sisters and mothers.
All families and friends
Cause even though we locked in prison we can still start trends

Ya feel my rage?

According to WAC 137-48-050 procedures for restrictions of incoming and/or outgoing mail, the Department of Corrections does not usually comply with paragraph (1) or (2) of this section on 137-48.

The Department of Corrections is not sending publishers or senders a copy of the mail restriction according to the mandatory language of shall.

For example, WAC 137-48-050(1) states in pertinent part:

…This notification shall be provided to the inmate and the sender of the specific publication, letter, or package which has been restricted and the reason for this action.

Another example, WAC 137-48-050(2) states in pertinent part:

The inmate and sender shall be advised in writing of his/her right to seek review of the decision to restrict his/her mail…

The Department of Corrections in Washington State is not abiding with this mandatory language in the code.

Publishers and senders are not receiving notice and this is a Due Process issue according to the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and also violates 1st Amendment Rights for the publisher and senders of publications.

Inmates probably have no standing to challenge the issue, but the publishers do. My advice to all inmates in the Washington State Department of Corrections to do is send the publisher or sender a copy of the restriction. Inform them of the WAC 137-48-050 mandatory language. Also explain to them the fact that they have standing to challenge the Department of Corrections under 1st and 14th Amendment grounds for censorship and Due Process. The more inmates that do this, the more prison mailroom and administration will be working that prisoners will start seeing less mail restrictions coming to them.

Also challenge on your appeal how the rejection affects you by not allowing the publisher notice since prisoners cannot even see what is being restricted, how can a prisoner effectively appeal the mail restriction? This is another issue every prisoner should challenge in court too. The fact us prisoners cannot see what the Washington Department of Corrections is censoring or restricting there is no effective appeal process because it leaves the keepers with total control without giving prisoners a “meaningful” avenue to peaceably redress government violation of the 1st Amendment and 14th Amendment grounds.

The more people that unite together the more we can expose the hypocrisy of the so-called state administrative governments. Exercise your rights, because if you don’t they will continue to take and take until you are totally defenseless. It is better to try and fail than not doing anything for yourself and fellow man. Past generation prisoners have died for what few rights we have such as clean conditions, medical care, food, mail, etc. Don’t let the new prison administrators take without a fight.

MIM responds: This comrades points are in the spirit of Black August, which is now coming to a close, when we commemorate the history of the prison movement behind bars; the struggles, both successful and failed and those whose lives were taken. And as the comrade points out, it is still worth fighting even if you don’t win immediately. Particularly when there is a movement that you are fighting as a part of. With enough appeals from prisoners and outside groups we can put enough pressure on the prison administration in Washington and elsewhere to at least follow their own rules, if not change their rules.

In 2001 we passed two resolutions in Congress calling on MIM’s Prison Ministry to take leadership in fighting censorship. The first resolution took ownership for the censorship of our literature as a violation of all writers for MIM Notes, many of whom are tax-paying amerikkkan citizens. So, we fully agree with this comrade’s call for distributors, particularly anti-imperialists who are being targeted with this censorship, to demand their so-called “rights” to free speech and association be respected. Our Prison Ministry regularly fights the censorship we face through legal and administrative challenges. Prisoners can help by letting us know when they do and don’t receive the literature we send them and sending us copies of any rejection notices and facility regulations. And of course, those who are serious about winning this battle can contribute through articles like this one and by leading legal battles on their own behalf as the writer suggests.

The second resolution we passed in 2001 established a regular report of humyn-rights violations in u$ prisons, with a focus on censorship. Following this resolution we also began reaching out to other groups working with prisoners to compile information on censorship. Only recently have these efforts become visible to the public on the Prison Ministries new website www.prisoncensorship.info. This site will feature news from prisons, including everything printed in ULK, a searchable database of censorship incidents, and rules and regulations compiled by state and facility. (On the site you can view the most recent rejection notices that Washington DOC sent MIM for political cartoons that contained swastikas.) We will be using this site to begin issuing regular censorship reports again, which will be more detailed than we were able to do in the past. We will also be accepting submissions of censorship incidents from other organizations and individuals and incorporating them into our work. We hope these efforts will encourage more collaboration with other groups, lawyers and prisoners in fighting censorship within the u$ injustice system.

Coming out of LA and the gang lifestyle to get here everything is different: everyone stuck together. But you aren’t told this while out there in society. There everything is racial. Blacks and Hispanics are the majority here so the police find a way to keep us at each other’s throats.

But after you hit these holes and SHUs [short and long term isolation cells], everybody is together, now that we all realize the police don’t give a damn about none of us. If you ain’t working with them (snitching, kissing they ass, doing they dirty work) they are gonna find a way to get you off the line. Your own might sell you out so they can stay out there and be susceptible to the bullshit. When you bring this to their attention it’s always an excuse. It’s sad because a lot of the ones who are accepting the BS know better.

These are the ones who been down twenty plus years and ain’t getting out. If they ain’t letting someone go for petty theft, how do you think you are going to get a date for 2 murders. It don’t add up. But these are the role models who are pushing these brooms around this dayroom and getting called out to speak for the population. And if you bring it to their attention, they either drop a kite to get you rolled up off the line, or they leave to protective custody.

I don’t promote violence, I’m just one who believes in truth, non-fiction. It is what it is and since I’ve been here in Calipatria, that’s what this prison breeds (snitches, protective custody, illiteracy, racial tension, etc.) So many have debriefed that it has become the norm. I just can’t accept befriending someone whose job is to fuck me over and use me and then throw me to the wolves.

The courts already sentenced me, let me just do my time and go home. But if you ain’t laughing in their face, you are a threat somehow. It’s ludicrous. So the end result is you are either going to conform and go against everything you believe in, or put a muzzle on your mouth and tie your hands together and sit around and deteriorate until you die or you’re on you’re way to a 180 degree design prison or a SHU term. If you show signs of aggression, Calipatria is gonna have you on a bus up outta here.

It’s going to take a lot to open up eyes to truth, but one must continue to push forward towards a better tomorrow!

Quiero dejarle saber lo que me hacen aqui los oficiales. El 7/8/07 el oficial J. Cross le puso veneno o algo a los tres unsources que me dan el medico. Porque el mismo me lo dijo. Y ademas pase el dia vomitando y estoy enfermo desde ese dia. La enfermera hizo un reporte de este incidente. Y el 6/22/07 este oficial me boto todos mis medicinas. Y cuando trabaja no me dan comida, y le dice a los otros oficiales que no me den comida y no me dan comida. Y me tiene amenazado de muerte, y no puedo ir a la clinica a ver al medico porque me quieren golpearme los oficiales de la clinica porque el oficial J. Cross le dijo.

El 6/22/07 mi madre me mando unos libros y el oficial Bruce no quiere darmelo, aunque tengo los recibos de los libros. Aqui no me dan el baño ni la hora de la recreación que tiene que darme mandatoriamente.

Ademas, apagan las camaras de video, y me acusan de cosas que no hice, y me dan tigues. Ademas, aqui no me procesan los grievances. Los Sargentos W. Bisso y Giambruno son lo primero racistas y abusadores. Y el Superintende no hace nada por mi aunque le enseño las pruebas de los abuses de los oficiales contra mi.

Le escribí al Commissioner en Albany para que me ayude, y me saque de Clinton y no han hecho nada por mi tampoco. Ayudemen si pueden para salir de Clinton porque mi vida esta en peligro con los oficiales y los sargentos.

Let me explain what sensory deprivation is and how it is applied on prisoners in the SHU.

First, a prisoner is placed in extended isolation with no human contact, no natural light, no clock and no calendar.

While in isolation, the prisoner is interrupted by strange blaring sounds orchestrated by the corrections officer. This technique deprives the prisoner’s mind of contact with an outer world and thus forcing it in upon itself. This is called sensory deprivation.

After a short period of time, the prisoner will be reduced to a delusional state and easy to control, and many of them will lose their mind or their personality will disintegrate. Sensory deprivation may also result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression and antisocial behavior, as well as significant psychological disorders.

The CIA and the US military have been using this sensory deprivation technique since the early 1960’s. Active and reserve members of the U$ military who are also corrections officers, have brought these dirty U$ military psychological torture techniques to U$ prisons, specifically the “Security Housing Units” (SHU).

I am actively drawing attention to the links between the ghastly practices of dehumanization at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and their everyday application in prisons across the U$. I have been a target for retaliatory actions by Southport prison officials because of my pursuit of numerous federal civil action lawsuits and my political and religious views.

I am currently trying to notify as many media outlets as possible to get my strong voice and political views out to the public. I would appreciate your assistance in getting my voice out to the public.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Keep fighting the good fight.

Comrades,

It is with mixed blessings that I report that so far in Oregon at MacLaren Youth Corruptional Facility, no editing or censoring has yet taken place for MIM Notes or MIM Theory. It is just a matter of time before it does happen here though. Until that day, I will leave my copy of MIM Theory on the bookshelf for others to pick up and read. Lets hope that it opens their eyes to the Evils of Capitalism and amerikkkan imperialism. May the best be brought to its knees and slayed by the might of the people united under true equality. Long live the Maoist Internationalist Movement! Long live Communism!

A lone communist in Youth Corruptions

Thank you for sending in your MIM Notes. We’ve played hell getting them in to Colorado D.O.C. They don’t like your message of truth. Our mailroom here in Fremont Correctional Center likes to act as our moral censor. Every time you send your notes it has to go through our “reading committee.” Every time they have to give it to us.

In Colorado D.O.C. we’ve paid very little for our slave labor. I’m glad to get your writing and I try to pass it on to others in here. The ideas spark some heated talks between us here. Your words to us in here can and do instigate some good thinking. Keep up your good work for us on the “inside”. We are appreciative of you and look forward to your mailings.