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 was about to begin litigating matters regarding the ventilation system
here when I came up with one last ditch effort to try and handle this
issue on a diplomatic level. I managed to acquire about 60 CDCR Form 22s
[informal grievances], and I was able to find 30 fellow comrades who
were willing to sign their name to them after I typed up all the formal
complaints. Well, all of those Form 22s were sent to the Plant
Operations Engineer’s Department, and we sent another 30 to the Plant
Operations Supervisor. At the same time I had a good friend of mine and
some relatives mail in a series of Citizen’s Complaints on the same
subject. Plus, the Ombudsman for R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility
(RJDCF), Gabriel Vela came here in response to a letter I had sent to
him over the ventilation problem. In other words, Plant Operations got
bombed on from all sides, and they responded accordingly. They were up
on the housing units today replacing the twenty plus exhaust vents that
were not working on our building. Due to that equipment failure we were
experiencing extremely high temperatures, humidity, and poor air
quality.
My whole point for telling you this story is to show you and your
readers that things can be accomplished if you hit ’em with overwhelming
force. They knew that those 60 Form 22s would more than likely translate
into the same amount of 602 appeals [formal grievances], which in case
you don’t know translates into about $1,500 a piece in man hours to
process each one of them. I’ll let you do the math. So, things can be
done in numbers, “Yes We Can.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade has been actively pushing the
campaign to have grievances heard in California, which may also have
contributed to these particular grievances getting such a direct
response. H work to mobilize comrades there is commendable. Of course,
this is just one small battle and just one piece of the work that USW
leaders need to be doing. It doesn’t cost them $1,500 to throw your
grievance in the trash can. These types of campaigns need to be pushed
with a healthy dose of political education to develop comrades
politically, so that this type of unity can reach higher levels and
address the real systematic problems. MIM(Prisons) runs correspondence
study groups and offers materials to help USW comrades run their own
study groups inside.
I have filed a
petition
in Los Angeles County Superior Court on the inadequacy of the grievance
procedure in California prisons. I’ve also written letters to the
California Attorney General’s Office, the LA County District Attorney
Office, the Governor’s office and various media outlets in order to seek
their assistance in forcing the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) staff to honor their own policies and regulations.
All of my above efforts were to no avail.
The LA County Superior Court ordered an informal response when I filed
my petition. The California Attorney General’s office assumed the
position of respondent to my petition and asked for an extension of time
to reply to my petition, and then they failed to meet even that
deadline. Before the Attorney General replied, the court denied my
petition stating that I was not in compliance with the grievance
procedure, despite being unable to cite a single grievance regulation
that I hadn’t complied with. This judicial abdication of CDCR staff
lawlessness is routine in California state-level courts.
I had tried addressing the inadequate grievance procedure in the federal
courts, by way of a federal civil suit that I filed against California
State Prison - Corcoran. The ruling on this was that the CDCR’s
violation of their grievance procedure does not create a federal
constitutional violation, basically saying that the due process clause
is meaningless. The case is now pending in the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals, case number 12-17419.
My “take-away” from my efforts so far is that in dealing with these
government types (da pigs, bureaucrats, politicians, government,
attorneys, etc.) in general, you’re up against brazenly
socioeconomically biased, unreasonable, spiteful, hypocritical,
out-of-touch, legitimized sociopaths. They work together to justify
clearly unlawful behavior, and are adverse to a system of legitimate
checks and balances. They see barely disguised partiality, in the
disposition of their duties, as reasonable and good. We see evidence of
this daily. I mean, the recently exposed
NSA
spy program is beyond any reasonable dispute a violation of the
Fourth Amendment, yet they go on unapologetically violating the same
constitution that they claim to cherish, absolutely Orwellian with the
“double-think.”
What irritates me even more is the public’s complacency in the face of
this brazen tyranny by this nation’s power elite. The Declaration of
Independence states that it is not only a right, but a duty for the
people to replace a lawless government. When will we honor that duty?
Thank you for your time, consideration, and your work performed on
behalf of the people.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this comrade’s conclusions,
and of course, we harbored no real expectations of action from the
bureaucrats’ offices and courts going into this campaign. This is why we
constantly stress the need to organize people around these demands. The
pigs are not usually going to do something just because it’s right. They
are more likely do something when they are pressured to do it. And
pressure can only be applied when prisoners are organized for their
common interests.
This is class struggle of the imprisoned lumpen against the bourgeois
classes. When this struggle does not exist, our so-called “rights” under
bourgeois democracy disappear, demonstrating that they never really
existed in their own right. That is why we don’t hesitate to report this
comrade’s failures, because they underline that important lesson. They
also allow us to highlight the real victory in the grievance campaign,
which is prisoners across many states acting in unison, sharing
information and strategizing. Our strategies around this campaign need
to keep the big picture of the balance of power in mind so that we do
not get lost in an endless cycle of give and take with the pigs.
Click on the image to download a pdf of a sample grievance. TDCJ
prisoners can use this sample grievance to protest restrictions on
indigent mail.
During their August 2013 Board Meeting, the Texa$ Board of Criminal
(in)Justice approved a revision to the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice (TDCJ) Correspondence Rules. The rules came into effect with no
warning on October 1, 2013.
This new revision restricts indigent prisoners to 5 one-ounce domestic
letters per month. It also removed all references to the first 60 days a
prisoner is indigent – essentially allowing the TDCJ to collect
“indigent debt” indefinitely. The previous policy allowed 5 letters per
week and only allowed TDCJ to recoup amounts expended during the first
60 days a prisoner is indigent. This revised policy clearly violates the
First and Fourteenth Amendments, especially in light of Guajardo v
Estelle, 432 F.Supp 1373 (1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16242).
We must proactively resist this policy. Attached is an example grievance
that can be filed by TDCJ prisoners. I encourage you to edit, expand,
personalize, or revise it. Proactively seek out other prisoners who have
the courage to resist this revision. Encourage family/friends/freeworld
comrades to contact the officials below and demand that this new policy
be repealed:
TDCJ Ombudsman, PO Box 99, Huntsville, TX
77342-0099 ombudsman@tdcj.state.tx.us 936-437-6791
Senator John Whitmire, PO Box 12068, Capitol Station, Austin, TX
78711 512-463-0115
Governor Rick Perry, PO Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711-2428 512-463-2000
Chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, PO Box 13084, Austin,
TX 78711-3084 512-475-3250 Fax: 512-305-9398
Attorney General Greg Abbott, PO Box 12548, Austin, TX
78711-2548 512-463-2100
Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, PO Box 12068, Austin, TX
78711-2068 512-463-0001
Speaker of the House Joe Straus, PO Box 2910, Austin, TX
78768-2910 512-463-1000
Another new policy that came out of the August Board Meeting which needs
our proactive resistance prohibits prisoners from receiving stationary
through the mail, starting 1 March 2014. You will only be allowed to
purchase stationary through the commissary. TDCJ is attempting to create
a monopoly. Once this happens, they will be able to charge whatever
prices they wish for their stationary. Start organizing resistance to
this policy NOW!
Click to download a PDF of the North Carolina grievance petition
Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are
experiencing issues with the grievance procedure. Send them extra copies
to share! For more info on this campaign, click
here.
Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the
addresses below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.
Secretary, Division of Prisons 4201 Mail Service Center Raleigh,
NC 27699-4201
Director of Prisons 831 West Morgan Street Raleigh, NC 27626
ACLU of NC PO Box 28004 Raleigh, NC 27611
U.S. Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division Special Litigation
Section 950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, PHB Washington DC 20530
Office of Inspector General HOTLINE PO Box 9778 Arlington, VA
22219
Jennie Lancaster, Deputy Secretary of DOC 4201 Mail Service
Center Raleigh, NC 27699-4201
And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
PDF updated May 2012, July 2012, January 2013, and October 2013
Humyn health is perhaps the most basic measure of oppression that we
have. More than economic exploitation, humyn health measures the degree
to which the basic survival needs of people are being met. Looking at
the conditions of health in U.$. prisons, as well as reservations,
barrios and ghettos across the United $tates, does not paint a favorable
picture of imperialism and its ability to provide for humyn needs, not
to mention even worse conditions across the Third World. Given this,
health becomes an issue that we can rally the oppressed around to both
serve the people and oppose imperialism.
We’ve been pushing this very issue in United Struggle from Within (USW)
circles in California for some months, in some cases leading to state
repression. With the recently suspended mass hunger strike in that
state, a rash of deaths in Texas and the usual array of abuses across
U.$. prisons, we thought this was an opportune time to focus an issue of
ULK on health struggles.
Health was a central theme in the California hunger strike where
prisoners began to pass out from lack of food and other complications.
Bill “Guero” Sell died after a approximately two weeks on hunger strike.
The state says it was suicide, but however he died, the SHU was the
cause of death. One San Quentin prisoner’s kidneys shut down, and many
complained of the lack of medical monitoring and the aloofness of
medical staff. We have been sending regular updates to comrades in
California about what has been going on over the last two months. For
those who want to see more reporting in ULK, send in your
donations to help reach the goal of $250 to add 4 pages to a future
issue.
In at least two Texas prisons we have comrades organizing around the
murders of prisoners by staff abuse and neglect, the most basic health
campaign. In Texas we also have positive examples of organizing sports
as a way to bring people together and improve health. Meanwhile comrades
in more restrictive conditions in one California prison were punished
for organizing group exercise, calling it “Security Threat Group
activity.”
The manipulation of people through chemical substances is another common
health theme. Many comrades are being denied medications they depend on
and facing life-threatening conditions. At the same time oppressed
communities fight the use of recreational drugs to oppress their people
as seen in the struggle of the Oglala Lakotah. The exposure of this form
of low-intensity chemical warfare right here in North America is
particularly relevant at a time when the blood-thirsty imperialists have
been ramping up for an invasion of Syria based on unsubstantiated claims
of chemical weapons use by the government there.
From rotten potatoes in Massachussetts, to inadequate servings in Nevada
and people forced to rely on vending machines in Florida, basic
nutrition is denied to people in a country where 40% of food is wasted.
Recently, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that
greenhouse gases from global food waste is more than the emissions of
any single country except China or the United $tates.(1) Water, another
vital resource, is also used to produce all this wasted food. From U.$.
prisoners, to the global countryside where malnutrition leads to
thousands of deaths daily, to the environmental services that all of
humynity depend on, the capitalist profit system has failed to serve
humyn need.
We can look to the barefoot doctors in revolutionary China, or the
mobile health units of the
Black
Panther Party or the Young Lords Party as examples of serving the
people’s basic health needs in a revolutionary context. The Chinese also
took a completely different approach to mental illness, which bourgeois
society does more to cause than to remedy. Materially, the capitalist
economic system can produce enough for everyone, but cannot provide it
to them. It’s a system that uses the denial of basic health as a form of
social control, because if it did not the system would be overthrown.
Rather than begging the oppressor for a little relief, let’s implement
real solutions to these problems.
I must commend you on your continued effort to keep the masses informed.
I did receive the latest Under Lock & Key after all the
demonstrations reached their pinnacle. People are now in the recovery
stage, preparing their total being to reach a strengthening height. I
also received the chronology of events leading up to the suspension of
the protest. Mail was, and continues not to be a priority as far as
delivery is concerned, so it’s basically, we get it when we get it. So
much was in flux, so, patterns have not set in. I just moved back to
this address, we were scattered all over the place.
There are many occurrences that occupied ones time, so I am in the
process of hopefully catching up in extending my profoundest respect and
gratitude to all the support we received in this massive and historical
action. MIM(Prisons) definitely played a critical role in helping
propagating and educating the masses which helped us breach through the
enormous machinery of our adversarial relations. This large scale
struggle would not have been possible without the giant sacrifices of
people from civil society. Even as we pursue justice in recognition of
our plight, we must remain cognizant to the larger picture of oppressed
people. This struggle is basically an aspect of the struggle in civil
society against a surveillance state and the erosion of civil liberties.
MIM(Prisons) adds:We have received feedback from a number of
comrades since the latest phase of the struggle went on hold saying they
are putting the updates we sent to good use for further organizing and
building. We are currently working to continue those efforts to reflect
and build on what has been achieved.
The movement to end torture in California prisons has certainly reached
impressive levels. About time, we might add, after many comrades have
faced the torture of the Security Housing Units for decades. And many
different types of people and organizations have been pushing this
common cause in the ways that they can. Our focus is on facilitating
prisoner organizing, and this is a strategic decision in this movement
because we see prisoners as the motive force behind it. With all the
hard work and important contributions from various sectors, prisoners
must continue to come together and stand solidly for this cause for it
to succeed. We act in united front with all who oppose torture and
demand an end to long-term isolation across the imperialist United
$nakes of Amerika.
September 9, 2013 has come and gone, and while the turn out was
significantly improved over last year, there is still room for much
improvement. This is, of course, reflective of the general malaise which
has infected the population concerning prison conditions and prisoner
solidarity. But it is also the result of an inability to reliably
communicate between units and custody levels here at High Desert (HDSP).
The turn out for this unit was approximately 8% but this may or may not
be representative of prison-wide participation. There appears to have
been significant participation from our brothers and sisters at Ely
State Prison and our utmost respect and gratitude goes out to you all
for standing with us. There have been some indications here at HDSP that
there is a storm on the horizon and there is currently some discussion
and preparation in anticipation. But we must wait until events begin to
unfold before embarking on any course of action. This includes pushing
September 9, 2014 harder and longer this year.
It was a good fast day for me on the most recent day of Peace and
Solidarity, a powerful underground movement. I am in the midst of a lot
of things right now and I may be getting transferred soon, I don’t want
to put the re-mailing cost on you, because I know that there are a lot
of people who look forward to your paper. I am also enclosing a few
stamps to help out with the financial element of the movement. I’ll get
in touch as soon as I move.
Our struggle here in the belly of the beast continues! I’m writing to
update you on the recent communication I received from the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning the
petition I
sent them in regards to the grievance system. In the DOJ’s response
to my petition, they wrote, “The Special Litigation Section only handles
cases that arise from widespread problems that affect groups of people.”
I have not received a response from the many other mailing resources you
indicated on the petition. Therefore I suggest that those engaged in
fighting against this unjust Texas grievance system gather all petitions
and send them to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division,
Special Litigation Section, PHB 950, Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC
20530. Comrades, let’s flood their office with these petitions!
MIM(Prisons) responds: The imperialists will use every excuse in
the book to justify their oppression. So one piece of our struggle
involves making it harder for them to make excuses, which further
exposes them as the willful oppressor. In that light we are promoting
this comrade’s suggestion as a next step for the campaign in Texas.
UPDATE: Texas prisoners also need to send formal
complaints letters/I-60’s to the Central Grievance Office, PO Box 99
Huntsville, TX 77342-0099. Also, MIM(Prisons) has a new guide available
for the Texas grievance system combining the information from a couple
supporters of this campaign.
According to the Collective’s statement, they have suspended their
strike in response to a pledge by state legislators Tom Ammiano, Loni
Hancock and Tom Hayden to hold a legislative hearing into conditions in
the Security Housing Units (SHU) and the debriefing process.
MIM(Prisons) is not optimistic of the outcome of such hearings. Ammiano
held a hearing in August 2011 in response to the first of three mass
hunger strikes around this struggle, and nothing changed, leading to the
second hunger strike that October. Back in 2003, our comrades as part of
the United Front to Abolish the SHU attended a legislative hearing on
the conditions in the California SHU and the validation process. They
published an article entitled,
“CA
senate hearings on the SHU: we can’t reform torture.” Ten years
later, little has changed. These hearings keep happening, but they are
little more than pacifying talks by those in power. The facts have been
out there, the state has known what is going on in these torture cells.
So what is the difference now? And how can we actually change things?
CDCR Done Addressing Problems
Before we look at how we can change things, let’s further dispel any
illusions that the CDCR or the state of California is going to be the
source of this change. In the latest iteration of the strike, an
additional 40 demands were drafted around smaller issues and widely
circulated to supplement the
5
core demands. On 26 August 2013, the CDCR released a
point-by-point
response to the demands of those who have been on hunger strike since
July 8. The announcement by the CDCR cites a 5 June 2013 memo that
allegedly addresses many of these supplemental demands. Others are
listed as being non-issues or non-negotiable.
This CDCR announcement implies that we should not have hopes for
negotiations or actions towards real change from CDCR. The Criminal
Injustice System will not reform itself; we must force this change.
The Struggle Against Torture Continues
At first glance, the fact that this struggle has been waging for decades
with little headway (especially in California) can be discouraging.
However, our assessment of conditions in the imperialist countries
teaches us that right now struggle against oppression must take the form
of long legal battles, despite claims by the censors that we promote
lawlessness. Sporadic rebellions with lots of energy, but little
planning or longevity, do not usually create change and the conditions
for armed struggle do not exist in the United $tates. We are therefore
in strategic unity with the leaders who have emerged to sue the state,
while unleashing wave after wave of peaceful demonstrations of ever
increasing intensity. All of us involved have focused on agitation to
shape public opinion and promote peace and unity among prisoners, and
then using those successes to apply pressure to the representatives of
the state. These are all examples of legal forms of struggle that can be
applied within a revolutionary framework. Lawyers and reformists who can
apply constant pressure in state-run forums play a helpful role. But
make no mistake, prisoners play the decisive role, as the strikes are
demonstrating.
Control units came to be and rose to prominence in the same period that
incarceration boomed in this country. As a result, in the last few
decades the imprisoned lumpen have been a rising force in the United
$tates. Within the class we call the First World lumpen, it is in
prisons where we see the most stark evidence of this emerging and
growing class, as well as the most brutal responses from Amerikans and
the state to oppose that class.
In California prisons in the last three years we’ve seen that with each
successive hunger strike, participation has more than doubled. Just
think what the next phase will look like when the CDCR fails to end
torture once again! And as a product of this rising force in prisons,
support on the outside has rallied bigger each time as well. As we said,
this outside support is important, but secondary to the rising
imprisoned lumpen.
Over 30,000 prisoners, one-fifth of the population in California,
participated in this latest demonstration against torture. Many who
didn’t strike the whole time wrote to us that they, and those with them,
were on stand-by to start up again. These grouplets standing by should
be the basis for developing cadre. The 30,000 plus prisoners should be
the mass base, and should expand with further struggle and education.
If you’re reading this and still wondering, “what is it that
MIM(Prisons) thinks we should do exactly?” – it’s the same things we’ve
been promoting for years. Focus on educating and organizing, while
taking on winnable battles against the injustice system. Fighting to
shut down the control units is important, but it is only one battle in a
much larger struggle that requires a strong and organized
anti-imperialist movement. We run our own study programs and support
prisoner-run study groups on the inside. We provide Under Lock &
Key as a forum for agitating and organizing among the imprisoned
lumpen country-wide. We have study materials on building cadre
organizations, concepts of line, strategy and tactics and the basics of
historical and dialectical materialism. Each of these topics are key for
leaders to understand.
Organizing means working and studying every day. In addition to the
topics above, you can study more practical skills that can be used to
serve the people such as legal skills, healthy living skills and how to
better communicate through writing and the spoken word. Prisoners are
surrounded by potential comrades who can’t even read! We need Serve the
People literacy programs. Combining these practical trainings with the
political study and trainings promoted above will allow leaders to both
attract new people with things they can relate to, while providing
guidance that illuminates the reality of our greater society.
Principled organizing builds trust and dedication, which are two thing
that comrades often report being in short supply in U.$. prisons.
Principled organizing is how we can overcome these shortcomings. It is
not an easy, nor a quick solution. The opponent we face is strong, so
only by studying it closely and battling strategically will we be able
to overcome it.
Whatever other tactics comrades on the inside decide to take to continue
this struggle against torture, the need for building, organizing, and
educating is constant and at the strategic level. Without that the
movement does not strengthen or advance. If you’re taking up this work,
we want to hear from you and we want to support you in your efforts.
