MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
I am doing an indeterminate SHU program for being validated in the last
place I was at. And the reason they validated me is because I was doing
a lot of Aztec art as well as Aztec tats, which they didn’t agree with
because they considered it to be associated with the “big boys.” So they
locked me down. But what they fail to realize is it’s all part of our
culture. Yet to them it’s based on association, so they see a direct
link to prison politics. So here I sit on the shelf locked down in this
crazy and very sad place where it’s all about no movement whatsoever.
He Recibido su propuesta para promover la paz entre las masas
inferiores. Está en circulación.
Mi crítica es que, al menos aquí en Tejas, hay muchos chavalones que no
tienen conocimiento alguno de cómo manejar relaciones sociales. El nivel
de comprensión de estos jóvenes es muy bajo. El apoyo y respaldo [de
ULK] ha amparado nuestra lucha, pero aún el problema persiste en que el
promedio de los presos en mi bloque tienen 20 años de edad. Debido a
recortes presupuestarios, nuestras oportunidades de educación son cada
día menos. Todas nuestras solicitudes para programación educativa en el
bloque han sido negadas. Y aún dicen que no calificamos para ningún tipo
de programa educativo, debido a nuestro estatus civil y contradicciones
en la política administrativa.
Estos chavalones no pueden ni leer ni escribir ni hacer simple
matemáticas. ¿Cómo es que van a entender las obras de Marx, de Mao y del
Che? Estoy pidiendo su apoyo para realizar un curso básico que le
ayudaría a nuestros jóvenes desarrollar su conciencia social.
Yo soporto y respaldo completamente sus propuestas de paz. Pero, el plan
de Tookie es demasiado básico. ¿Cuáles la esencia de este plan? Estos
mensos necesitan aprender a leer y a escribir y a desarrollar su
capacidad para resolver problemas antes de entrar a la arena política.
MIM(Prisiones) responde: ¿Qué clase de sistema opresivo le quita
la oportunidad de educación a aquellos en los rangos menores? El sistema
está creado con el propósito de perpetuar el estado inferior de las
clases marginales en la nación. Esto demuestra la importancia de
MIM(Prisiones) en la lucha por programas educativos para nuestro pueblo.
Necesitamos donaciones, mecanógrafos y otros recursos para seguir
ampliando este importante labor.
Como se destaca en esta edición de ULK hemos ampliado nuestros cursos de
estudios preliminares y actualmente estamos desarrollando un glosario
revolucionario, ambos con el fin de educar a los ignorantes. Sin
embargo, todavía necesitamos más clases de recuperación. Estamos
investigando esta cuestión y le agradeceríamos sus opiniones para
corroborar este tipo de trabajo. Estamos de acuerdo que uno solo no se
puede enseñar a leer y a escribir a través del correo. Es por eso que
nuestra vanguardia debe luchar para realizar este tipo de programación
educativa desde adentro. La educación es un requisito importante para la
creación de una Frente Único hacia la paz.
I was brutally beaten by seven correctional officers (COs) in December
and was transported to the hospital as a result. They almost killed me.
My hands were restrained the whole time while they maced and punched me
in the face continually. I was kicked in the stomach and elsewhere.
This is the second time that I have been sent to the hospital for
officer brutality. The first time was when CO Goins cut my hand wide
open and I had to get stitches. I have been forced to endure constant
harassment, degradation, malicious behavior, discrimination, etc. All of
this has happened to me as a result of “retaliation” for the many
grievances that I’ve submitted for CO Goins stealing my jewelry out of
my property bag. When I started grieving this and other matters, other
officers joined him in retaliation against me.
There’s a lot more to this matter but this letter is just to reveal some
of what I’ve gone through and am experiencing. This beating took place
six months ago, but the campaign of harassment has been going on longer.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Unfortunately brutality is not an uncommon
response by prison guards against prisoners who try to fight injustice
and illegal guard abuse through the grievance system. This is why United
Struggle from Within initiated a
campaign to
demand our grievances be addressed. There are currently petitions
for California, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, and we need help to create
petitions for other states. Write to us to get involved.
On this fourth day of July, Amerikans all across the country are
celebrating their freedoms with beer and bangs. Yet in the same country
there are more people locked in tiny cages for 22 to 24 hours per day,
with little or no access to the outside world, than in any other country
in the world. In Pelican Bay State Prison in California many are in such
“control units” because of who they associate with, and they
were put there based on secret evidence. For any student of the U.$.
Constitution or the Bill of Rights it is obvious that the promised
freedoms of Amerikkka are not granted to its internal semi-colonies.
Today we are sending dozens of signed letters from residents of
California who share our concerns for prisoners forced to live in these
torturous conditions and who support those in Pelican Bay engaging in a
peaceful hunger strike.
Warden Greg Lewis Pelican Bay State Prison P.O. Box
7000 Crescent City, CA 95531-7000
5 July 2011
Dear Warden Lewis,
Included with this letter are dozens of letters from residents of
California who are concerned for the welfare of the prisoners in Pelican
bay State Prison. We are sending these letters to you in support of the
prisoners on hunger strike. The letters are asking you to do all that is
within your power to do to change the conditions in PBSP to meet the
strikers’ demands.
We have also forwarded copies of these letters to CDCR Internal Affairs
and CDCR Office of the Ombudsman.
Sincerely,
MIM Distributors P.O. Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
To view a copy of the general letter that people signed, click
here.
Please stop any abuses that are going on inside the prison complex. -
Oakland, CA
Stop locking up prisoners who need other kinds of help (drug, etc.) P.S.
Wasting my tax dollars 4 real! - Berkeley, CA
P.S. U.S. signed the Convention Against Torture. It has been ratified.
It is the law of the land. Please do not violate our laws! Thanks. -
Richmond, CA
Please attend to this!!! NOW! - Oakland, CA
I just don’t understand how people in this day & time are still so
devilish, when they got power & it’s a very fucked up feeling
because we are human beings & you all treat us like
shit! -Oakland, CA
Dehumanizing prisoners is sickness; you are helping commit crimes
against humanity by abuses and deprivation of basic rights and needs of
prisoners. -Eureka, CA
In the letters to Warden Lewis, the California cities of Hercules, San
Francisco, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Stockton, Napa, Chula Vista and
Vacaville were also represented and supporters have forwarded letters
they wrote from as far as BC, Canada.
Here’s an update on what’s going on at High Desert State Prison: A
second Correctional Officer was busted for bringing in drugs and phones.
Boby Joe Corby was arrested for accepting $10,000 for that. And we just
had an Afrikan national overdose on heroin 3 days ago.
The pigs here were feeding us double the amount of food to prevent us
from going on the hunger strike - it only lasted a couple of days (July
1 - 3).
I have been doing a lot of organizing to unite the nations captive in
these U.$. warehouses. A lot of my homies tell me I am crazy because I
want to revolutionize my mentality, as well as my fellow brothaz, from
criminal to revolutionary, to stand up and fight for true freedom.
Hunger strike supporters outreach to visiting friends and family as
hunger strike begins.
We in facility “A” Ad-Seg Unit A1 will be following suit with a hunger
strike July 8 2011, one week after the Secure Housing Unit (SHU) strike
begins here at Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP). Your support would be
highly appreciated.
I am requesting to be provided the PBSP SHU strike campaign update with
flier. Any information that you could assist in this endeavor would be
greatly appreciated.
Letters or phone calls made in support of the abolishment of these foul,
inhumane and unsanitary living conditions would be highly appreciated.
Thank you. Could you please forward most recent Under Lock &
Key.
Thank you.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We have received news from other A units in
Pelican Bay that they are going to be participating in the hunger strike
as well. Isolation is so severe in Pelican Bay that many had not heard
of the strike until receiving our notice, but word is spreading through
many avenues and supporters on the outside and support is strong and
growing.
I am new to the cause, but not new to the system. I am currently in
reception here in California waiting to go to mainline. I am writing to
let you know I have received the newsletter and the letter from the
comrades in Pelican Bay and their serious issues [concerning their
hunger
strike], but I am also writing to let you know about some issues we
are having with health violations and degrading of prisoners by the
pigs.
First, we are being housed in gyms and they are in real nasty condition,
black mold in the restrooms, no air to keep us cool, with temperatures
that reach over 100 degrees this next month. We have no fire sprinklers
and there is an infestation of birds and bird lice that is giving
prisoners rashes and bite marks. People are passing staph infection
around, and they make us go without soap and other supplies for weeks at
a time.
MIM(Prisons) adds: It is conditions like these in prisons across
the country that led to prisoners all over California acting in
solidarity with the
hunger
strike initiated in Pelican Bay this July. And these common
interests compelled the organization of the
United
Front for Peace in Prisons as a vehicle to unite the lumpen so that
we can organize effectively against the criminal injustice system.
On June 21 I received the [Hunger Strike] campaign update and I do truly
admire your organization attempting to liberate not only confined
prisoners but all oppressed people within the nation. Thank you!
Tomorrow, on July 1, I will most definitely be participating in the mass
hunger strike here in Pelican Bay State Prison. I’m under lock and key
isolated in administrative segregation awaiting transfer to Corcoran SHU
for over 17 months now, and this inhumane, dehumanizing and repressive
treatment of these control unit prisoners must come to an end. I am
tired of being targeted and psychologically tortured in solitary
confinement, which causes severe mental harm to the point of having
conversations with myself. This is a form of sensory deprivation and
must stop immediately.
Another reason why I will be protesting along with the SHU prisoners is
because here in CDCR there are no simple programs such as tattoo removal
programs. Some prisoners like myself were incarcerated as juveniles and
tried as adults, and we made mistakes by putting tattoos on our bodies.
So by attempting to truly rehabilitate myself I want all my tattoos
removed. As a prisoner I should have access to programs like this. It
makes me question, does California Department of Corrections deserve the
title of “rehabilitation?”
MIM(Prisons) responds: There’s no question about it, they do not
deserve the title “Rehabilitation” which was added years ago without any
change in their practice or policies to justify the term. Former
prisoners who spent years in these isolation cells can attest to that.
The lucky ones have family or find organizations with the resources to
support them. But too many are stuck in destructive cycles. Meanwhile,
there is a criminal mentality that penetrates the whole populace in the
United $tates based in capitalist individualism. It is up to
revolutionaries to develop independent institutions that can truly
address the rehabilitation needs of the oppressed lumpen who have more
interest in revolutionary change than most Amerikans who sit idly by
while hundreds of thousands of people are tortured in their country.
Myself and others have founded the National Liberation Revolution of
Oppressed Persons (NLROP), to educate and liberate the oppressed and
disenfranchised. Furthermore, to end the suffrage and disparagement of
formerly incarcerated persons who are never truly free or relieved of
their debt to society, constantly being subjected to various civil and
humanitarian rights violations - “The New Jim Crow.” We fully support
the United Front for Peace in Prisons, and the principles thereof as
proclaimed by MIM(Prisons). The NLROP also fully supports the Prisoners’
Bill of Rights as proclaimed by Incarcerated Citizens Coalition, the
internal chapter of the Human Rights Coalition.
I have discussed the principles of UF for Peace with our members, and as
Chairman I speak on behalf of the NLROP and do confirm our signing and
full support of the United Front for Peace, and the principles thereof.
A committee of seven members from different affiliations is currently
being constructed to oversee day-to-day operations in and outside of
prison. Our first newsletter magazine is scheduled for production and
release October 2011.
The NLROP is currently comprised primarily of incarcerated and
affiliated persons within Tennessee prison colonies. However we do not
limit ourselves or pose any restrictions on expansion, and welcome with
open arms those who are committed to the cause and agree with our
guidelines and/or principles internally, and that which we agree to as a
whole, externally.
The reason UF principles are important to us as a movement is that they
transcend those principles and guidelines that we already follow and
believe in, and expound on such in a very clear and concise manner.
I am an American Indian here in California Correctional Institution who
has had all the problems with the 602 grievance procedure here. The
so-called Appeal Coordinator, K. Sampson, has repeatedly (16 times!!!)
sent my appeal back to me because of complete bullshit reasons. So I
wrote to your legal clinic, and you provided me with an awesome petition
to send to the director about my, and all of our, appeal issues. Thank
you!
But again I, and all of us on my side, have run up against a potential
problem. I took the petition to the law library and the CO refused to
copy it. Even when I signed a trust withdraw slip to pay for it myself!
She told me that the petition was all crap and that I should be written
up for simply having it. She tried to take it from me. I had to “cause a
scream” and get at a sergeant finally who gave it back to me. He told me
he knew that our 602 process was crap and good luck! You believe that?!?
Is there any way that your office can please send me enough for at least
the 10 very good people on my tier? Every single one of them was very
impressed and wanted one of the petitions for unjust grievance
procedures appeals process. Everyone wanted to loan it from me to get it
copied, but our law librarian refuses to allow us to copy the petition.
She told me if I didn’t like her decisions to “appeal it” and then
laughed in my face!
Thank you so much for everything you have done to help me further the
struggle and get out of this U.$. gulag.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Write us to get a copy of the
grievance
petition for your state if you reside in California, Missouri,
Oklahoma or Texas, or a generic petition that you can customize for your
state if you are anywhere else.
