Federal Prisons

I have exhausted myself mentally and physically, trying to exhaust my remedies by forms of letters, requests, verbally and grievances. All my efforts have failed due to corruption within the system, my unit, and those who don’t respond to any forms of correspondence.

On 31 October 2019, we were placed on annual lockdown. On 19 November 2019 shakedown made it to our building and section. The officers came in to [my row] and took [my row and section] to the gym to be searched of their properties and person. They were allowed to be present during the search of their properties.

Once they were returned to [my row] and secured, rank and officers changed procedures and pulled all inmates from their cells to the passive rec yard. This left officers and rank to toss cells and property without the inmates present. All other cells were allowed to return to their houses, leaving me in the rec yard 1 hour longer than others.

Once I was allowed to return to my cell, I realized they went through all my legal documents, taking more of my legal and my used typewriter ribbons I was saving as proof of all my legal work, grievances, I-60s, appeals, court filings, letters to everyone.

I called for rank all day and have been refused this request now for 4 days. I told officers on the floor in detail of the illegal theft by shakedown staff. The shakedown crew gave me no confiscation papers, which is theft and against my 5th and 6th Amendment rights of “due process.”

All this occurred after I sent out 3 withdrawal slips to file against the unit in the U.S. District Courts. On 11 August 2019, officers had once again robbed my legal documents, legal mail, grievances, new typewriter, family photos, commissary, etc. Again not allowing inventory papers nor confiscation papers. I have been filing Step 1s and Step 2s, only to be given non-conclusive answers, or not given the grievances back in return, unattaching evidence and claiming nothing was attached, etc. You know what they do to us.

At the same time, the law library is denying/ignoring our requests to access any legal materials. Another incident occurred of theft by officers on 24 July 2018, which was the same. They took some of my legal documents, family photos, medications, etc. Long of the short I have gotten nowhere by following procedures, policies, grievances, etc.

I have no choice but to take this stand to my hunger strike. Every time they rob my legal transcripts, free world documents, grievance copies, family photos, typewriter, etc. this affects my fight for freedom, my constitutional rights, civil rights, etc. My state of mind is being driven to a state of depression. This hunger strike is taking its toll as of day 4. Today I sent a letter to Governor Greg Abbott about my hunger strike and reasons. If I don’t make it through this peaceful stand, please make sure others don’t give up the fight. Thank you for your continued support.

I’m writing because I just got your mag, but the mailroom takes its time in getting our mail around to us, especially to us in Ad-Seg. Or wait, they changed the name. It’s called “Restricted Housing” (R.H.). Yet, nothing’s changed, it’s still the same.

It used to be for all STG-gangs, but here in Texas they just put anyone back here, so this place is now full of people that get into fights, don’t want to work, or people who do minor stuff out there in G.P., and once here they take years to let them back out.

So because of this, they have changed so much for people like me who has been back here since 88, because I was a gang member (Mexican Mafia). So every time I come back into the system I get put back here. But since 05 I left the gang and have been trying to get into a program called GRAD (Gang Renunciation and Dissociation).

I want out of this “R.H.” because there’s nothing back here for me. I want to get out to G.P. where I can do something instead of just sitting here doing nothing. Hell, ever since this year started we haven’t been given our recreation like we should get, in their Ad-Seg plan. Since the start of this year we’ve gotten rec once or twice each month!

What sucks is we have no unity here to try and get this back to how it should be, one line might bang and any other ways to get this rank to come talk to us, but all they do is put us on a 24 hr lockdown type of thing (since we’re already in lock up) and feed us Johnnies.

I tried going with the grievance, Steps One and Two, but was told we were given the chance to go to rec, and if we don’t go that’s on us. But how is that since they KNOW Ad-Seg guys can’t just walk out of our cells like guys in G.P.?

La mentalidad gángster puede significar cosas diferentes para cada un@. Una pandilla es un grupo de personas con un objetivo común. Quiero enfatizar que todas las palabras y/o conceptos están sujetos a connotaciones que no tienen porque tener buenas intenciones. De la misma forma, pandillas/gángsters tienen tanto connotaciones negativas como positivas, igual que otras palabras como socialismo, anarquismo, comunismo, etc. El objetivo de MIM(Prisiones) ha sido educarnos respecto a estas ideas a través del uso apropiado de la ciencia.

Si tengo en cuenta todo esto, me considero un gángster. Puesto que creo en la idea de trabajar junto a otros para alcanzar un objetivo común, para mí no se trata de “derrotar la mentalidad gángster”, sino de abrazarla y redirigirla hacia el “Sendero Iluminado.” Tenemos un enemigo común y resolver nuestras pequeñas contradicciones no significa necesariamente que tengamos que vencer nuestra mentalidad gángster. Este tipo de lenguaje es lo que, en muchos casos, causa el rechazo por parte de las organizaciones lumpen (LO). Este es el lenguaje que utilizan las organizaciones financiadas por el estado y los grupos/organizaciones cristianos.

Entiendo que la dirección de MIM es diferente, pero aquell@s que tomen la ULK y le echen un vistazo, puede que al ver este lenguaje, la dejen. Mi enfoque ha sido, y seguirá siendo, uno que politiza la mentalidad gángster. Aquí es donde se encuentran a l@s camarad@s más dedicados y que, como son respetad@s, se encuentran en una posición desde la que pueden hacer cambios reales que borren la división entre las diferentes pandillas y promuevan nuestra lucha en la dirección correcta. Se trata de aprender y enseñar cuáles son nuestras pequeñas contradicciones y trabajar para superar estos pequeños obstáculos.

En ULK 67, USW 11 se escribió sobre cómo el estado de Washington está haciendo todo lo posible para despolitizar a l@s prisioner@s y cómo en aquellos lugares donde reina la mentalidad gángster es donde se encuentra la mayor resistencia contra el estado.(1) Cuando los LOs entienden el poder que tienen si trabajan en conjunto, las cosas empiezan a cambiar y a coger formar. Al fin y al cabo, las pandillas contrastan con la mentalidad individualista de Estados Unidos y son una respuesta a las condiciones socioeconómicas que enfrentamos dentro y fuera de la prisión. Es una forma de sobrevivir en un lugar donde el sistema opresivo y capitalista enfatiza el individualismo.

In November 2019, the U.S. District Court ruled that the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) must “establish bright-line rules that narrowly define prohibited content in a manner consistent with the First Amendment.” These rules must be defined by mid-February. This ruling comes after years of censorship of a variety of publications by the ADC, often as a result of arbitrary decisions from mailroom staff.

In this case Prison Legal News (PLN) (a project of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC)) filed a lawsuit in 2015 challenging the censorship of its newsletter for “sexually explicit” content. Ironically, the content that inspired this censorship was describing non-consensual sexual contact between guards and prisoners. And as most readers know, PLN is primarily a legal resource for prisoners fighting injustices like this prison rape.

Arizona bans a variety of publications, including issues of National Geographic, Men’s Health, and GQ.

Issues of Under Lock & Key are also on this banned list, though not for sexually explicit material. In the case of ULK, the most recent ban (that we know about) is ULK 63 from July/August 2018, which was banned for “Incite, Aide, Abet Riots, Work Stoppages, Means of Resistance.” Many other issues of ULK sent to subscribers in Arizona are returned or rejected without reasons given. Our attempt to appeal this ban of ULK 63, requesting the ADC provide more evidence than these vague claims resulted in the following response: “The pages identified containing such content are throughout, including, but not limited to, pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 17.”

In an example of their arbitrary decisions around censorship, a MIM(Prisons) six-page guide to forming a prisoner-led study group was censored in 2016 because it supposedly “Promotes superiority of one group over another/promotes racism/degradation.” This is exactly what MIM(Prisons) fights against: the superiority of one group of people over another. And this is exactly what the criminal injustice system promotes.

This court ruling requires the Arizona Department of Corrections to change the mail policy from allowing DOC staff to use their discretion when determining what’s banned and to establish consistency in excluding sexually explicit material. This won’t help MIM(Prisons) as it is rare that a prison claims ULK should be censored for sexually explicit material. But any progress towards less censorship and more narrowly-defined policies is a good thing.

On 22 October, in a different case, Prison Legal News was awarded $1.2 million in attorney fees by a Federal district court in Florida after a nine-year lawsuit over censorship of PLN publication because of ads for phone services, pen-pals and stamps. This victory came after the Supreme Court refused to take up the final appeal of this PLN ban.(1) This resulted in the case remanding back to the district court for a ruling on the attorneys’ fees. Basically this means PLN won on their Due Process claims but lost on their First Amendment claims. So the censorship is still legal, but the DOC failed to follow proper censorship policy.

“Free speech isn’t free,” said Human Rights Defense Center executive director Paul Wright. “In this case, censorship by the Florida Department of Corrections cost state taxpayers almost $1.2 million – because of the vicious efforts by the prison system to censor HRDC’s publications. The Attorney General’s office spent over 3,000 hours in attorney time fighting this case. The real tragedy is that Florida prisoners remain unable to read PLN and other HRDC publications that will educate and inform them of their rights.”(2)

PLN and the HRDC have done a lot to fight censorship in prisons over the years. And their hard work on this front benefits everyone seeking to help educate and organize prisoners. This censorship, and failures in the courts prove a point we often make: there are no rights, only power struggles.

Censorship is one of the biggest barriers to our work with prisoners. And it’s an area where we always need more help, both from jailhouse lawyers and from lawyers on the streets. If your mail is censored, APPEAL IT, and get in touch with us and let us know. We will send you a guide to fighting censorship and sometimes we can assist on our end with an appeal to the prison. And lawyers on the streets get in touch and help us with these battles!

Terminator: Dark Fate
2019

The latest installment in the Terminator movies takes up where Terminator II left off. In this timeline the A.I. called Legion has achieved consciousness and seeks to wipe humynity from the earth. The plot continues the theme of humyns fighting the machines after a nuclear holocaust, with the future pivoting on the life of one persyn.

This movie features more gender and nation diversity than the previous Terminators. All the humyn heroes are female. And it moves beyond the U.$. borders to Mexico where the new target of the Terminator lives. In Dark Fate the Terminator was sent back in time to kill Dani Ramos. A cybernetically-enhanced soldier, Grace, was also sent back in time, to protect Dani. And Sarah Connor, target from the previous Terminator movies, shows up to help with Dani’s protection.

There are a few interesting themes to the Terminator movies that continue in Dark Fate. First there is the nuclear destruction of humynity. The earth and most of life on it has been wiped out. People need to take seriously the dark possibility that humynity is driving towards this destruction. It may not include a conscious A.I. wiping out the few humyns who survive. But capitalism is on a firm march towards annihilation of the current balance of life on Earth that humyns depend on. It is not sustainable. And so movies that pose this possible future, brought about by the actions of humyns, are good for the ideas they can provoke.

Another general theme of the Terminator movies is that one persyn is pivotal to the entirety of humyn existence. In previous movies that persyn was John Connor, the unborn child of Sarah Connor. And so the Terminators went back in time to try to kill Sarah to prevent the birth of John to stop em from leading the resistance that could defeat the Terminators. In Dark Fate the one persyn is Dani Ramos. In this case it’s not Dani’s womb that needs protection/destruction, it’s Dani eirself, who will lead the resistance.

We might read into Dark Fate that it’s not actually about individuals. After all, John Connor died but now we have Dani. Humynity and its conditions creates these leaders. But for the most part the movie is pushing a message that history is created by one individual who must be protected or destroyed at all cost. Humyns would not have united against the Legion without Dani. So the Legion must send a Terminator back in time to destroy Dani, and the resistance must send a soldier back to protect Dani. That’s a lot of resources and energy spent on one persyn.

Dark Fate is consistent with the bourgeois theory of history, a spin on history that focuses on the accomplishments of individuals, removing them from the political context of their time. Communists, on the other hand, don’t see Dani, or John, or the other humyn resistance leaders as uniquely qualified for their roles. Instead we see them as a product of the political conditions. They did what was necessary to fight for the survival of humynity. And in their absence others would have done the same.

The idea that only certain special individuals are able to take leadership roles fits in with a religious/capitalist way of thinking. Humynity may be moving towards destruction, but there’s nothing average folks can do about it. Only special heroes can make a difference. This way of thinking discourages people from taking up the fight for a better future. And instead suggests it’s best to just believe in a leader without question.

Maoists, on the other hand, see no individuals as infallible. In fact, a fundamental tenant of Maoism is the need for continuous cultural revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, in which the people are actively critical of and struggling with socialist leaders and one another. This includes removing from positions of power those who have strayed off the revolutionary path. The future lies in the hands of the people, and so the people must learn through struggle in order for us to discover the correct way forward.

The earlier Terminator movies had a good slogan from Sarah and John Connor: “No Fate But What We Make.” This was a mantra that John repeated to himself and others to remember that the future can be changed. This is a good counter to the idea that humynity is fated to nuclear destruction and the rise of conscious anti-humyn A.I.s. And that only John, or only Dani, can lead a successful resistance. Perhaps the A.I.s, in their limited world view, believe this to be true. But humyns should be focused on stopping the nuclear destruction and A.I. consciousness event before it happens. It is unfortunate that Dark Fate takes into its title the antithesis of this anti-fate slogan, and perpetuates that message in the plot.

The movie misses a great opportunity to avoid this idea of fate at the end, when discussing the future of one young character. The goal that this character not die in battle later in life is a good one, and a sign that potentially fate can be changed. But the assumption that the way to do this is to start military training for the post-apocalyptic battle now, rather than fight to keep humynity from destroying itself, is an unfortunate ending.

Check out other movie reviews, from the old MIM website, including a review of Terminator 3.

Scott Daniel Warren se enfrenta a 20 años de prisión por su trabajo voluntario distribuyendo comida y agua a migrantes en Arizona. Warren colabora con el grupo No Más Muertes que ayudan a l@s migrantes que cruzan la frontera en el desierto de Arizona. Por realizar este trabajo y por ofrecer a dos hombres un lugar para dormir, Warren fue acusad@ de dos cargos de felonía por prestar asilo y otro cargo de felonía por conspiración. Su juicio concluyó el 11 de junio con un jurado en desacuerdo.

Warren fue arrestad@ en enero de 2018 junto con otr@s voluntari@s de No Más Muertes. Los arrestos se produjeron horas después de que el grupo lanzara un video donde se veía a agentes de la patrulla fronteriza destruyendo jarras de agua que se habían dejado en el desierto para los migrantes. El caso todavía no está cerrado; los fiscales federales podrían optar por re-internar a Warren.

El desierto de Arizona es una de las fronteras más mortales para los migrantes debido al calor extremo. Pero las personas se ven obligadas atravesar por esta área debido a la política de “Prevención por disuasión” de 1994 que surgió en la era Clinton con el objetivo de hacer más mortal el cruce de fronteras. La idea era forzar a que el cruce de fronteras tuviera lugar sobre terrenos más hostiles, poniendo más vidas en peligro, y así desalentar a los migrantes a que intentaran el viaje. Los cálculos del plan tuvieron éxito, incluyendo las “muertes de extranjeros.” Llevando a cabo esta medida, el plan funcionó. Se redujeron el número total de personas que intentaban cruzar, sin embargo, las probabilidades de morir incrementaron considerablemente.(1)

Cientos de migrantes son encontrad@s muertos cada año. Las políticas fronterizas de Trump son solo una continuación de las políticas antiinmigrantes de todas las administraciones imperialistas estadounidenses, incluyendo la de Obama. Mantener las fronteras cerradas es una fuente barata de mano de obra y recursos naturales para los imperialistas. De esta forma, se preserva la riqueza para aquellos que están a expensas de la pobreza de los que se encuentran en el exterior. Las muertes de migrantes son solo uno de los resultados de estas fronteras. Combatir el muro fronterizo de Trump es una distracción del problema real. Luchemos en contra de las fronteras, no de los muros. Abrir las fronteras; devolver la riqueza robada a las naciones ocupadas, en casa y en todo el mundo.

Más de 200 detenid@s iniciaron una huelga de hambre el 18 de octubre en el Centro de Detención Nordeste de ICE (ICE Northwest Detention Center, NWDC) en Tacoma, Washington. El NWDC es una prisión privada dirigida por el Grupo Geo. Esta instalación puede albergar a más de 1500 personas y en ella se encuentran l@s detenid@s de redadas de inmigración transferid@s desde la frontera de México con Estados Unidos y otros migrantes atrapad@s en el sistema Amerikkano. Esta es una de las mayores cárceles de inmigración del país.

Desde 2014, los detenid@s han iniciado 19 huelgas de hambre para protestar por su detención y sus condiciones tras las rejas. Esta última protesta exige una comida comestible, un tratamiento humano y much@s también exigen el cierre total del NWDC. L@s prisioner@s se encuentran gusanos, sangre, cabellos y otras cosas en la comida. L@s trabajadoræs de la cocina informan que las ratas corren alrededor del área de preparación de alimentos. L@s guardi@s abusan de los prisioneros. Y el Grupo Geo ignora estas quejas.(1)

El Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de los Estados Unidos (ICE) refleja las condiciones que hay en otras cárceles del país. De hecho, l@s prisioner@s del Centro Correccional de Clallam Bay en Washington también iniciaron una huelga de hambre y de trabajo a principios de octubre para exigir mejores condiciones, sobre todo, respecto a la calidad de los alimentos.

L@s funcionari@s de ICE emitieron una declaración negando la existencia de dicha huelga: “El hecho de que no se coma la comida que se ofrece en el centro no es un factor determinante por que se pueda declarar la presunta o proclamada huelga de detenid@s. Los artículos alimenticios del economato permanecen disponibles para la compra para los detenid@s”. Después de esta declaración, realizaron un recorrido para la prensa por el NWDC, en el que se presentaron condiciones impecables, una sala de atención de urgencias bien abastecida y una biblioteca agradable. Al parecer, ningún prisioner@ fue entrevistad@, ni siquiera fue filmad@ de cerca durante la visita. (2)

La mayoría de l@s 54,000 detenid@s de ICE en EE UU se encuentran en prisiones privadas. Y la detención de migrantes constituye la mayor parte de la población carcelaria privada del país. Pero esto no se trata de la diferencia de condiciones entre las prisiones privadas y las estatales o las administradas por el gobierno federal. Las condiciones en todo el sistema de injusticia criminal son abusivas, peligrosas e inhumanas. No estamos luchando por una cara diferente del abuso. (3)

Es cierto que los arrestos federales en general han aumentado en los últimos 20 años, sin embargo, entre 1998 y 2018 los arrestos federales se incrementaron en un 10% entre l@s ciudadan@s norteamerican@s y en cambio, el aumento entre l@s no ciudadano@s fue de un 234%. El aumento más dramático fue entre 2017 y 2018, que creció un 71% el número de arrestos de los no ciudadan@s. En 1998 el 63% del total de arrestos federales fueron ciudadan@s estadounidonses, mientras que en 2018 este número cambió y el 64% de todos los arrestos federales fueron de no ciudadan@s. La porción de arrestos federales se ha ido centrando, cada vez más, en la frontera entre México y EE. UU., con un aumento del 33% en 1998 al 65% en 2018. El 95% de este aumento es a causa de detenciones de inmigración.(4)

Los centros de detención de ICE dejan claro el propósito de las cárceles en Estados Unidos. Esta es una opresión nacional. La mayoría de est@s detenid@s que no son ciudadan@s estadounidenses están siendo procesad@s por el “crimen” de estar en Estados Unidos sin el permiso de los imperialistas. Este “crimen” representa el 78% de los casos. (4) Unas fronteras cerradas es un requisito del imperialismo. La riqueza se mantiene dentro de estas fronteras para l@s poc@s afortunad@s que nacen bajo este privilegio. La riqueza es robada fuera de las fronteras; la explotación de la mano de obra y el robo de recursos naturales aportan grandes ganancias a los imperialistas. Y l@s imperialistas comparten esas ganancias con l@s ciudadan@s de sus países para mantenerl@s pasiv@s y cooperativ@s. Esta diferencia de riqueza es obvia; es latente incluso entre l@s más pobres dentro de las fronteras estadounidenses y la población media que viven en el tercer mundo. Quienes viven fuera de estas fronteras están desesperad@s por acceder a esta riqueza robada de su tierra natal. El papel del ICE y del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional está claro: mantener esta riqueza dentro de las fronteras estadounidenses en exclusiva para l@s ciudadan@s norteamerican@s.

Apoyamos las demandas justas de l@s prisioner@s en NWDC y de todo el sistema de injusticia criminal. Este sistema ha decaído tanto que las personas se ven obligad@s a morirse de hambre para luchar contra las condiciones peligrosas e inhumanas. La solución no es mejorar las condiciones en una prisión, ni siquiera cerrar una instalación. Pero estas demandas encajan con la lucha antiimperialista mientras luchamos por unas fronteras abiertas y el fin de un sistema en el que una nación tiene el poder de encerrar a otr@s solo por el crimen de haber cruzado una línea invisible.

I am going through a lot, I been placed in segregation for no reason. They are extending my stay under false policies. I did no wrong. I look forward to Under Lock and Key, I have received all issues.

A kid killed himself here so we are on lockdown. What these wards are doing is wrong. I have done no wrong. We live in fear here. They use the rules as loop holes to harm us. Falsely file forms to hide their actions. I fear to say too much. I am trying for transfer then you will get the full story.

In fear,

Huntsville TX 77343

I am a 32 year old, white male doing a 4 year sentence in the federal bureau of prisons for illegal possession of a firearm. Since I have been in, for the 29 months, I have been severely medically neglected. At FMC Lexington KY low prison, I once had a abscess in my arm that went untreated for over 4 days. I had to break my hand against a door in front of a CO in order to get to a hospital. While there the doctors told me that the abscess had become so bad, that if it went on for 2-3 more days, that they would have had to amputate my left arm, and if it went on for 7-10 more days untreated it would have spread to my heart and sorely killed me.

On another instance in FMC Lexington KY low prison, I had an allergic reaction to a medication called anproxon that inmates can buy on commissary, the reaction was severe! The allergic reaction started on December 27, 2018. I was not taken to the hospital until December 31, 2018, 4 days later. By that time, the allergic reaction had taken its toll causing “Stevens Johnson Syndrom” to set in, causing my skin to rot away. My skin had turned black. I was wheezing for air, as my throat had become swollen making it hard to breath. My skin was rotting away, black and bleeding. The doctors at the hospital told me that cellulitis had set in due to non-treatment and it was possible it might turn into gangrene and kill me. I was in the hospital for 8 days.

I want inmates to be aware of what is going on in our prisons we’re in. Stand up and demand fair and equal medical treatment that we deserve. Not doing it may cost you your life.