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.
When tablets came out in 2017 the very first tablets were sold to the
prisoners. I had a loved one to buy me one. Then the Florida Department
of Corrections (FDOC) decided to change the mail to digital mail, so
FDOC picked up all tablets that the prisoners paid for and came back
around and passed out free tablets for every one. Since then all tablets
have been updated no less than three times.
This comrade just got released from a Close Management Unit and was
transferred to Hamilton C.I. Since I got here I found out that for the
past year the Property Room Sergeant has been confiscating tablets, most
of the time giving prisoners a disciplinary report for tablet tampering
in which prisoners are found guilty 99% of the time and are suspended
indefinitely from having another tablet. On top of this, most now have a
loan on their inmate trust fund account of $130 restitution. FDOC gave a
little for a period of time, then turned around and took everything.
They gave the tablets, tablets belong to the state, and now they have an
excuse to take them.
The Prisoner Population
I’ve been in prison for 28 years and this whole thing changed. This
is not a prison anymore, this is a child care center for these fools to
hang out. Everybody wants to belong to a gang but let me remind you that
before you take that oath, you need to find out why that nation, group,
or gang was born. It was born by the oppressed to fight in unity as a
group against oppression. Who is the oppressor? Pigs that work here, the
administration, the system, the state, the government. I know my
history, do you know yours?
FDOC have a total of no more than 30 officers per shift (with 1/4 of
them pushing overtime) and that is counting the front controls
operators. It is embarrassing how that small group of pigs can control,
oppress, and abuse no less than 1250 to 1500 prisoners, thugs,
gangsters, criminals, and gang members. FDOC prisoners have no unity and
no self-respect. I said self-respect because I might have a debt of a 78
cent soup and you ready to kill me, but the pigs call you and the whole
dorm a “bunch of bitches” and you put your head down.
FDOC prisoners, mostly gang members, would rather have the pigs as a
friend than anybody else with the same uniform color. They respect the
pigs more than their fellow prisoners. Ali-al
haf from Georgia, I read your article in the ULK Winter 2025 issue –
you are not alone! I think it is a virus that is spreading. Now
prisoners do the pigs’ jobs. They check and make sure that your cell
door is secure, they pass mail, they make sure you don’t eat twice in
the chow-hall, they even stand next to some of the pigs like bodyguards.
All this ass kissing and at the end of the night your ass is just like
mine: locked down behind a door. It doesn’t matter how down you might
think the pigs will be, at the end of the day they will not put their
paychecks on the line because of you. Coño Preso – look at the fucking
color of your uniform. Ain’t you noticed that it has a different
color!
Learn the difference between a right and a privilege. Use the
grievance process, you must leave a written historical track in case
issues need to be handled at another level. Written proof is all there
is that shows a peaceful avenue was tried before going all the way out.
All those comrades that in the past sacrificed their prison sentences,
release dates, family, and some of them even their lives for this new
generation to throw their hands up and surrender. Really? That is how
we’re doing time in 2025?? Where are your cojones??
Let’s get together in the same line of thought. Before you complain
about not having a tablet or not being able to watch the game on TV, we
need to think about how high canteen prices are, receive more gain time,
bring parole to lifers like me, get better food. Sorry, but prison is
not a place that you come to to hang out with your homies and have a
good time. This is the cemetery of the walking living dead, where your
whole future could change in 15 seconds. Don’t forget where you are,
your culture, where you came from. Do not submit to do the pigs’ work. I
won’t be surprised if in a few more years visitation is done solely via
video and they stop all contact visits. If we don’t get together and
stand up and work as a group, as a family, we are going to keep losing.
Remember that before you became a gang member you were a man, a human
being – not a beast. And I refuse to be trapped like one. No quiero
abrazos con la vida hasta que mi pueblo sea libre.
A Georgia prisoner echoes Ali-al haf’s report: Here at
Baldwin State Prison in Hardwick, Georgia, some things are the same as
Valdosta, GA. Gang members having a room all to themselves and picking
on the weak, taking all their property.
In one building the unity manager has her boys, [gang members] to
beat some prisoners up (mostly whites). It is told that the female
officer unit manager is a [gang] member. She is always talking down to
the whites.
The drugs are plenty here and the drug called strips is where most go
to.
The mail system is really screwed up. Mail is passed out maybe two
times a week. The mailroom officer puts mail out daily for night shift
to pass out.
Stabbings happen daily. Some cut themselves to be placed in the hole
to get away from the gang members. Some gang members force some, mostly
whites, to put money on their books or send them cash and make them go
to the store for the full amount only to take it from them and officers
let it happen.
Baldwin State has nicknames such as “Bloody Baldwin”, “Body Bag”, and
“Cut Throat”. The names fit well and also life flight.
$prayer responds from Pennsylvania: Our comrades here
in the PADOC would rather be focused on going at each other and being on
the C.O.’s side and doing a bunch of nonsense, it’s sad. Our comrades
aren’t even focused on their own lives like they should be instead of
worrying what others are doing. They oppress their other comrades like
they’re the oppressor, like they’re not oppressed by the oppressors too.
The oppressing comrades do what the oppressors want them to do so they
take the heat off of their own backs and put it on their own comrades’
backs. Like I really can’t believe all of the OPPRESSION between
comrades, it’s really sad. Like the oppressing comrades call us (who
stand against the criminals of permission “cops”) rats, but look at what
they’re doing, they’re doing the oppressors’ bidding. So who’s the real
rat? They are, aren’t they, since they’re doing the oppressors’ bidding
right? They really need to ask themselves who’s the rat. We’re supposed
to stand up to our oppressors, not stand with them against our own
comrades. Am I right or am I wrong?
MIM(Prisons) adds: We also published a report in
February from a Tennessee
prisoner being extorted by a drug gang that was protected by staff.
Ali-al haf’s article really struck a cord with our readers, indicating
the state of affairs across the prisons systems on occupied Turtle
Island. This relates to our campaign: Stop Snitching, Stop
Collaborating, where comrades have repeatedly pointed out that you can’t
snitch on pigs. These prisoners described above are collaborating with
the enemy.
But lumpen orgs working with the imperialists is not a forgone
conclusion. We know this because there are plenty examples in history of
lumpen orgs working on the side of anti-imperialism, especially in the
internal colonies of the United $tates. We also know this because, as
Trauma points out, there is a common material interest in the lumpen
coming together for conditions and for respect. And as $prayer says,
most prisoners should be comrades on the same side. We can make that
happen through education and organization. We must build institutions
that serve the interests of the lumpen better than the state does, to
win over the masses.
I used to read your papers and think of how crazy some of the stories
from other prisons were. Now I have witnessed firsthand how the K2 has
changed prison.
Not long ago, I was relocated to a unit full of gang members. I don’t
have a ton of money but I have more than the everyday prisoner. Shortly
after getting unpacked and walking the unit to look for familiar faces,
I was approached and asked was I in a gang and my answer was “no”. They
watched me for a few days, then one morning around 8:30 AM, I was in my
cell cleaning like I do every morning and someone came into my room and
asked a few random questions. The next thing I know five or so others
stormed in and began assaulting me and demanding money. They took my
music equipment, commissary, and other belongings and left. They said
that if I sent them money I could have all my stuff back. I sent one
thousand dollars and they demanded more money so I just said to hell
with the property. I purchased a prison made knife that same day.
The very next day I was in my cell cleaning with the cell door locked
this time and suddenly the door opened. I went to the door with the
knife ready and good thing I did, because it was more gang members. They
had the officer open the door. I tried to walk out of the cell and they
were trying to push me back into the cell. I pulled the knife and they
ran away from the door. I told them if we’re fighting let’s do it out in
the open as I walked out into the day room. They wanted no parts of me
as long as I had that knife in my hand. The officer walked right past as
all of this was going on and said nothing. I decided not to use the
knife so I threw it down and asked the officer to let me out of the
unit.
I went to prison operations and asked to be moved and they said “no”.
I asked again and told them if I don’t get moved someone will end up
hurt. They asked why and I told them. At first they didn’t believe me
until they watched the cameras. Then they moved me to P.C. and allowed
the same gang members to pack my property and they took everything.
When I got what was left I complained about my missing property and
they said “file a grievance”. I filed the grievance and the grievance
chairperson refused to file it and sent it back. So I had my family call
the warden. All he said was to file it again, which I did. It has now
been almost a month and no one has said anything.
I’ve had my family calling the prison and now they won’t answer the
phone anymore. So I had my family call the prison headquarters and they
said they are launching an investigation but still I have heard nothing.
The truth of the matter is they don’t care at all. I’ve been
incarcerated 14 years and this has never happened before. These prisons
are dangerous and nothing is being done about it. It’s like they want us
to harm and/or kill each other in here. Now I’m trying to plan my next
move because this is all new for me. Any advice would be greatly
appreciated. I have 48 months left on a 21 year sentence so violence
isn’t the answer. The prison needs to be held accountable for letting
this happen. If you are reading this please be aware and thanks for
reading. Thanks MIM for giving me a voice to get my story out.
MIM(Prisons) adds: More and more people are realizing
this system doesn’t serve them. We’ve had it relatively easy in this
country, even some of us in prison have seen the benefits of living in
the heart of empire. But the empire is changing. And we need to change
with it, or get chewed up by it.
A prisoner in Wasco State Prison reported 20 January
2025: The living conditions here are deplorable/inhumane to say
the least. Appalling and disgusting. In all my time of doing time I’ve
never encountered such squalor. When it comes to living conditions this
place compares to my time in C.Y.A. Preston which was the worst living
conditions I had encountered.
All five of our toilets were completely clogged for days with only a
couple semi-working. Currently all four urinals are completely clogged
and sporadically overflow spilling urine on the floor for up to 30+
minutes at a time.
The heater doesn’t work and the bunk I was assigned to happens to be
the coldest area of the dorms as the cooler blows the air straight on my
bunk!
Per state issue most all CDC usually passes out one bar of soap a
week for each prisoner. We have been getting one bar every two weeks
which is not enough to shower/wash and as a result many don’t wash hands
after defecating. Some only take “water showers” because of the lack of
soap. At times the one roll of toilet paper is not issued as well on a
weekly basis.
We have a rat/mouse infestation with rodents not only ravaging
prisoners’ lockers but eating stored food and leaving feces. Some report
rodents climbing on them in their sleep as well. The kitchen is also
infested.
The roof of this dorm has approximately 10 leaks in it so when it
rains it leaves puddles. The water heater is rusted and deteriorated and
obviously hasn’t been replaced in the 30+ years this concentration kamp
has been operating. Shower water is cold and drinking water is gray,
chalky and has a bad taste/smell. The water fountains have not had
filters replaced in what seems like 30 years. A form was circulated
stating the water was causing cancer so drink at your own risk.
We haven’t had hair clippers or nail clippers in about a month. We
are told it will take more months even though ingrown toenails are
rampant.
The floor is damaged with potholes where stagnant water full of
bacteria gathers.
We have a laundry call but we turn in laundry only to never receive
it back and the one bar of soap every two weeks means we must wear dirty
clothes and sleep in dirty sheets.
Many prisoners here are doing less than a year so many fear to speak
up or submit grievances for mistreatment or disrespectful talk from
C.O.’s thus we get these deplorable conditions.
Phone calls are often cut off mid conversations by C.O.’s in what can
only be described as group punishment.
I erroneously assumed, like many others, that “dorm living” in prison
was easier. How I was wrong. I have never seen this type of inhumane
treatment in a cell living environment. A hint of progress has been that
a meeting was set up between prisoners and the sergeant where issues
were addressed. Some things were resolved, i.e. some power struggles
were won but many are still in motion. 602’s have also been submitted on
some issues so some progress has been made. It would be helpful to find
contacts of “civil rights” orgs that may help highlight things but as
always the main thought for progress in obtaining humyn rights will come
in prisoners ourselves. The positive thing is there is peace and unity
within the prisoners which allows for progress to flourish in the realm
of civil rights or humyn rights.
The living conditions here are worse than any level three or four
prison, worse than the holes and dare I say it… worse than the SHU’s.
I’m really surprised this dorm is not condemned by the health
department, perhaps they’ve never had anyone housed here with the
determination to carry that struggle out.
7 February 2025 update: One of my grievances was
successful on the urinals, toilets and sinks that were clogged,
inoperable and leaking. Everyone is sick. i was very ill, cough,
sinuses, flu-like conditions. I along with four other MAC reps have
spoken to the Sgt Hernandez on five occasions on all the issues here
noted above. He promises to fix things and we have received hair
clippers and nail clippers, but many other things still are deplorable.
The dust broom here is 8 months old and is a t-shirt tied on to what was
a dust broom. It saddens me that so many have no idea how to tackle
these issues or have no will to do so. The conditions in Pelican Bay SHU
were more humane if that helps illustrate the conditions here.
16 February 2025 update: Wasco State Prison has fixed
the toilets and urinals in response to complaints. Other conditions
remain.
We have the First Step Act (FSA) here and if on wait list or just in
programs/classes our phone minutes are supposed to be free! They were
charging me again since COVID is gone, but I filed. They now give me six
calls free so they know I was right. But they are actually supposed to
give all sentenced prisoners 570 minutes so I filed further just today.
This has to go to region, which here is in Kansas. So if they deny it
I’ll take it to DC! I gave some guys here my info and they said they’ll
file so maybe there is some hope here after all! If we don’t fight
together they’ll bully us and do whatever the hell they want! And I will
do my best to not allow that to go down.
Here they keep coming up with what they call Institutional
Supplements and for the FSA it states those aren’t required, so I’m
fighting that part right now. I’ll keep you posted. Let your federal
readers know that if you’re in a lock up situation such as the ADX, SMU
or CMU or lock down they are still allowed FSA incentives, even if
you’re just on a wait list for programming. And if you aren’t getting
it, then file.
Last summer, around June, I ordered several copies of the North
Carolina Grievance petition from MIM, then had copies made and sent out.
Then I announced to the block how to use the petition forms as a
solution to our grievances not being answered. The forms were then
distributed in the block, door-to-door in our segregated dorm. Sadly
some papers were heard being ripped up as soon as they entered the cell.
I challenged the chicken-shits to reveal themselves, to no avail. The
remaining forms were distributed in other blocks. It wasn’t long before
I realized hardly anyone would use the forms.
A couple weeks later my neighbor mentions the petition during a
conversation with someone else and was telling the guy, “the police gave
it to him, he saving it to the day he need to file a grievance so he
could attach it to the grievance.” Translation: he has no idea how to
use the petition.
Other than some people being lazy and others just don’t care, this is
what I learned:
I can’t assume we are all convicts
Gather participants first and speak to each of them to confirm their
ambitions
Write directions on top of the form, where to send it, such as “send
to address on last page or which ever office/dept you’re trying to
target”
Sometimes an orchestrator may need to influence members to
participate
by a Pennsylvania prisoner February 2025 permalink
Comrades in SCI-Muncy came together to draft a petition for people
imprisoned by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The petition
demands that the state ensure that grievances be addressed by PADOC
staff in a timely manner, and that people do not face retaliation for
filing a grievance. The comrades ask for additional contacts to add to
the list to send the petition to, and any other edits from others in
Pennsylvania.
I actually did many years in the Arizona Department of Corrections.
The last six of those years was spent in the max (Brickeys/Cummins), cuz
I ‘bucked’ on em repeatedly. I’ve personally been through years
of what this Arkansas prisoner is describing. I filed hundreds of
grievances and they always responded with a denial of allegations and
found the grievance without merit, as this Arkansas prisoner said. I’ve
also had similar experiences with the disciplining hearings, with
disciplinary hearing officers, like ‘no-socks’, cutting the hearing
camera off on me mid hearing and automatically finding me guilty, etc.
For the longest time I held yards/showers down, barricaded cells with
spears, stabbed people, flooded toilets, busted sprinklers, slipped cuff
and attacked pigs to get justice, but I learned several things towards
the end of my set that helped a lot.
So when you – this Arkansas prisoner – ask what to do I decided to
give you a few answers in the long/short term; it’s inspiring to see
fellow Arkansas comrades goin’ down the same path as me, while “fighting
and spreading the word” in chains.
Okay, so in the short-term, request the prisoner’s self-help
litigation manual (4th edition) from the law library, they usually keep
several torn-up copies of them on hand, go to the exhaustion of remedies
section and pull up the case law at the bottom of the pages to
“shepherdize”. In 2016, while I was at Brickeys, Prison Legal
News sent me a free copy of their magazine and it had a case in
there from the Supreme Court that says that when a remedy (grievance) is
unavailable, then it is a “dead-end” process and doesn’t have to be
exhausted.
What I’m getting at is that there are certain circumstances (such as
when you’re being retaliated against as a result of exhausting your
remedies) that enable you to file the 42 U.S.C. §1983 lawsuit, without
completing the grievance process. You just gotta explain to the courts
in the §1983 complaint package why you had “no available remedy to
exhaust”, which sucks, cuz then you gotta survive a “summary judgement
motion” – it’s not easy either – once you file the lawsuit. The Arkansas
pigs are aware of this, which is why they don’t mind not signing
grievances or doin’ anything about your grievances once signed. Plus
they’re aware that the chances of them gettin’ sued are low.
Successfully sue them a couple times and watch their attitude adjust. I
personally went through this and didn’t get to finish the lawsuits cuz
the pigs where I am now trashed all my files.
Don’t just take my word for it though. Study into the case law on
grievance exhaustion and go from there (there’s no way to cover all the
case law inside of one article). If you don’t know how to shepherdize
cases, the book I told you about will instruct you on all that. On the
bright side it’ll give you something to do in the max. Get in the law
library, cuz while grievances don’t work in Arkansas, lawsuits do.
In the long term, I plan on collaborating with MIM(Prisons) to get a
campaign going against the PLRA (Prison Litigation Reform Act §1997) –
we’ll call it the “PLRA campaign”. The PLRA is what demands that
prisoners exhaust all available remedies, prior to filing any Bivens/42
U.S.C. §1983 lawsuits (Bivens are filed against the federal government,
while §1983 is for the state/local level). According to the 1st
Amendment of the U.$. Constitution we have the right to “petition the
government for redress of grievances.” And according to the 14th
Amendment of the U.$. Constitution we have a right to equal protection.
The PLRA violates both the 1st and 14th Amendments and I intend to
organize a class action challenging the constitutionality of the PLRA,
through the PLRA campaign.
In theory, our ability to “petition the government for redress of
grievances” is life-threatening and often injurious, cuz we’re forced to
exhaust dangerous grievances, prior to filing §1983’s. The fact is that
prisoners can and do get killed and fucked off – injured – for filing
grievances nation-wide. Filing grievances is dangerous in an infinite
amount of ways. They can’t legally force us to participate in a
grievance process that’s going to get us stabbed in the neck or jumped
on by fuck-boys, who are often in collaboration with the pigs. We are
unable to petition the government if doin’ so is going to get
us hurt in any kind of way. We can prove in a trial that it’s common
knowledge that guards, nation-wide, are capable of silencing and do
silence prisoner litigants’ petitions through retaliation which
intimidates many prisoners from initiating grievances or lawsuits. The
feds spent decades tryin’ to take down the five Italian mafia families,
in part for silencing litigants, so why not help us take down the pigs’
PLRA, which is essentially a technical loophole that they use to evade
justice or trials and silence litigants with mafia-like tactics.
The whole “deliberate indifference” standard that applies to 8th
Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) lawsuits wouldn’t apply in a
1st Amendment claim. We’d be arguing that the PLRA exhaustion
requirement is “abridgement”, which doesn’t necessarily have to be
deliberately indifferent.
The PLRA violates the 14th Amendment cuz the prison class
can’t seek redress for mental injuries without there being a
physical injury, and the non-prisoner class can seek redress
for mental injuries even if there isn’t any physical injuries involved,
which is unequal protection. Shutting the doors of the courts in
prisoners’ faces so that we can’t seek redress for mental injuries
doesn’t allow us equal access to the courts, which also violates the 1st
Amendment. An injury is an injury. Take it from me, a severely mentally
ill prisoner, when I say that many mental injuries are just as bad, if
not worse than, physical injuries. Suffering from mental injuries is
also a “grievance” that we should be able to “petition the government
for redress” for, under the 1st Amendment. We have to ask ourselves what
the aim of the PLRA is when it comes to barring us from the courts for
redress of mental or psychological grievances? I think that the answer
to the question is obvious and speaks volumes.
How would the prison system look without the PLRA? The PLRA is an
obstacle standing in our way of combating the number one form of
psychological torture of the Amerikan nation’s prison system – control
units. And this is due to the fact that we can’t sue anyone for the
mental injuries involved with doing hole time if it doesn’t cause
physical injuries, and doing hole time, by itself, doesn’t cause
physical injuries. If we can successfully take down the PLRA, then we
can sue to receive compensation when we suffer mental injuries as a
result of doing long-term hole or max time, without there being any
physical injuries. If they have to compensate prisoners every time
somebody suffers a mental injury as a result of living long-term in
control units, they may lean more towards changing living conditions in
the hole (such as giving one access to books, radios, phones, jobs,
fixing temperature issues, etc.), flat out abolishing the control units,
or reducing length of control unit sentences.
Anything mentally injurious going on inside of the prison that is
simply for revenge-based punishments and not for security purposes could
then lead to mass amounts of compensation. The compensation will deter
psychological torture and amplify mental-health treatments.
The last aspect of taking down the PLRA is that prisoners would no
longer have to exhaust remedies in order to file Bivens/§1983s. If we
can end the PLRA in the long term, then this would end the grievance
campaign altogether.
With that I’ll close. I hope my response was helpful.
My intentions here isn’t to give a dialectical and historical context
of the relationship between today’s Lumpen Organizations (gangs) and
past revolutionary movements, although there is an inextricable link
between the two. The origins of today’s Lumpen Organizations (L.O.s)
were strongly influenced by the original Black Panther Party (BPP) and
other similar organizations. They were formed to uplift and protect
their communities from outside threats, threats that were typically
imposed by law enforcement and the U.S. government.
With the destruction of the BPP, combined with the influx of drugs
and firearms within their already oppressed communities, members of
these organizations were lured into “gang-bangin’” against each other
and a fratricidal and suicidal criminal lifestyle that resulted in the
abandonment of the ideals and principles that were brought forth and
established by the organizations’ founders. Ideals and principles that
were often influenced by those of the BPP and the Black Liberation Army
(BLA). Today there are a limited few who diligently impress upon their
“homies” the importance of espousing the organizations founding ideals
and principles. Overall, a majority have been derailed from the
organizations initial revolutionary path, which has been detrimental to
the youth who romanticize today’s “gang” culture and their communities.
Moreover, the absence of these ideals and principles has engendered a
culture of disunity, violent competition, and the romanticizing of the
“gang-banging” mentality, which renders us incapable of redressing the
conditions we find ourselves subjected to within these razor-wire
plantations.
There is no silver bullet or magic wand that can be used to magically
expedite the transformation that must be made. Transforming the criminal
mentality into a revolutionary mentality is a protracted process that
demands accountability and rigorous educating.
i am dedicated to assisting with this transformation any way that i
can. One way is to shed some light on the draconian policies and
procedures that governs those of us who have been labeled “gang
members,” labels known as Security Risk Group (SRG) or Security Threat
Group (STG), so we can begin to seek redress to said policies and
procedures.
Gang Validation Process
Those of us who have been validated as SRG/STG often suffer
significant unfair prejudices due to the officers who are responsible
for the validating opinions often basing these opinions on sweeping
generalizations and stereotypes about “gang members” generally,
unreliable methodology, and/or the officer’s racial bias.
Here in North Carolina the Department of Adult Corrections (DAC) has
“certified” twenty-one alleged prison gangs as Security Risk Groups.
Prisoners are validated as members of SRG’s by Prison Intelligence
Officers (PIO) who are usually white, whose discretion reigns supreme in
determining who is validated as SRG members and who isn’t. These
subjective decisions lead to disproportionate validations of New Afrikan
prisoners and those from other oppressed nations. A stark example of the
racially uneven application of SRG validations is evident in the
percentage of “white” prisoners who have been validated compared to New
Afrikan prisoners. White prisoners make up 1.9% of the prisoners
validated in NC prisons.
Around the world gangs are studied by those with specialized training
in areas such as ethnography, anthropology, and psychology. In these
fields, researchers are often subjected to ethical standards that warn
against manipulating data to advance their personal objectives and
required to employ social science field research best practices in
relation to data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The officers
responsible for validating prisoners are not held to any such ethical
standards and lack the fundamental knowledge to determine if a prisoner
is actually a SRG member or not.
The degree of specialized knowledge for these officers to be
qualified as “gang-experts” is particularly lacking. An officer can be
qualified as a “gang-expert” after having only a couple months on the
job, as long as they have some formalized training. You would think
these “gang officers” would be required to demonstrate a basic
overstanding of the complicated dynamics at issue where gang membership
and behavior are concerned beyond stereotypes and prototypes, being that
these validations subject prisoners to indefinite sanctions and
restrictions that not only affect the lives of the prisoners but also
the lives of the prisoners’ families.
These “gang officers” employ a worksheet which lists seventeen
criteria for determining gang involvement, each of which is assigned a
point value. Prisoners may be labeled as “suspects/associates” or
“members”. A qualifying score is not difficult to achieve: prisoners
bearing tattoos “thought” to signify gang affiliation and who socialize
with “confirmed” gang-members may be regarded as members themselves.
False positives are likely to arise under this criteria, because
while they may indicate a correlation with gang membership, they do not
establish causation. Because gang membership cannot be reliably inferred
from the factors aforementioned, these “gang officers” should not be
allowed to opine about gang membership based on these factors alone.
Completed validation worksheets are forwarded to the NCDAC’s Chief of
Special Operations, Daryll Vann, who reviews the worksheet, confirms
that “relevant” documentation is attached, and validates the
identifications. Prisoners who wish to contest the validation are not
afforded the opportunity to do so. Prisoners receive no notice of their
validation, no procedural due process, nor a periodic review that would
enable the prisoner to have the validation removed. Therefore, prisoners
who have been validated, remain validated for the duration of their
incarceration and irrevocably are subject to SRG policy
deprivations.
There are only two ways to have the SRG validation removed. There is
a SRG program that’s accessible to a limited number of prisoners. It is
a 9-month program at Foothills Correctional, a prison located in the
rural mountainous region of Western NC. The staff employed there are
exclusively white, live in race segregated communities and are out of
touch with the cultures of the prisoners they oversee.
When these “gang officers” walk through the doors of the prison, many
of them, knowingly or unknowingly, hold negative biases towards those
who have been validated and those who don’t look like them.
The media perpetuates inaccurate narratives of violence, criminality,
and dishonesty among racial minorities that many of these “gang
officers” unknowingly internalize. It shows in how they interact and
deal with the prisoners.
The DAC describes this program as being a program that “targets those
beliefs (cognitions) that support criminal behavior ….” and seeks to
shift the thinking that supports these beliefs. Prisoners who complete
this program must undergo a debriefing and renounce their affiliation,
if any, before the validation is removed. This program is not available
to prisoners who have been labeled problematic.
The other way to have the validation removed is to complete your
prison sentence and be discharged from NCDAC custody. Of the 1,343
prisoners released from NCDAC’s custody last year, 564 were alleged SRG
members.
Draconian Gang Policies
& Procedures
The ostensible purpose of the DAC’s SRG policies and procedures is to
avoid prison disturbances supposedly fomented by gangs. Nonetheless it
is obvious these policies and procedures have the effect of
incapacitating significant numbers of prisoners and has cultivated an
environment opposite from what prison officials claim to be “safer”.
Those who have been validated find themselves subjected to draconian
sanctions and restrictions, such as being prohibited from receiving
visits from anyone beyond immediate family. This excludes aunts, uncles,
cousins, and the mother of your child(ren). If you have no immediate
family members to accompany your child(ren) to visitation you will not
be allowed to visit with them. Our childrens’ interests are not, as a
matter of right, factored into SRG validation determinations. The fact
that parent-child visitation can help children overcome the challenges
of parental separation and reduce recidivism rates is well-documented.
However, prison officials find it plausible to implement such a policy
that prevents parent-child visits.
As with the prisoners who have been validated, New Afrikan children
are the ones greatly affected by this policy. NCDAC has implemented this
policy without any cognizance that such a restriction may implicate the
parent-child relationship, which is typically subject to extraordinary
protection by the courts. But yet this policy goes unchecked.
During my incarceration i’ve been unable to visit with my daughter
due to me having no immediate family willing to accompany her. This has
prevented her and i from developing a meaningful relationship. This is
something that a majority of us are experiencing.
Moreover, this policy has an outsized impact on New Afrikan families
and other members of marginalized communities who bear the brunt of mass
incarceration.
Limiting a prisoner’s visitors to immediate family only effectively
cuts a prisoner off from family members who may have raised them. As we
know in marginalized communities there are an overwhelming amount of
fractured families, where grandparents and others play the mother-father
role.
Then there are the prisoners who were raised in foster care, who have
never had the opportunity to meet their immediate family. There is no
exception for foster care parents.
Although these restrictions are sometimes justified, they are being
used indiscriminately without individual analysis.
On 19 February 2019, a policy was implemented that prohibited
validated prisoners from receiving monetary support from anyone who
wasn’t an approved visitor.
Prison officials claimed that this was done to curtail “Black Market”
activities and strong arming. It’s not difficult to see how such a
policy would increase said activities and, moreover, would create an
environment where those who do have means of receiving financial support
become victims of strong arming and other acts of violence.
This policy was implemented 8 months prior to now-retired Director of
Prisons Kenneth Lassiter requesting more funding for security and
control weapons. During these 8 months, violence amongst prisoners
drastically increased, i know because a majority of the close-custody
facilities were placed on lockdown due to the increased violence.
Validated prisoners are prohibited from attending all
educational/vocational programs, compelled to serve idle prison
sentences. They are locked in their cells virtually all of the time and
otherwise maintained in extremely harsh conditions. Unable to have their
custody level reduced to medium or minimum security. And job
opportunities are non-existent. Common sense would tell prison officials
that there are many reasons to believe that these policies and
restrictions will produce unfortunate results both inside and outside of
prison.
The Ramifications of these
Policies
Motivated by an inaccurate conception of gangs and how they operate,
the NCDAC has adopted policies that have enhanced group cohesiveness and
the identities of gang-affiliated prisoners. These policies have
promoted new gang connections for prisoners who, due to the difficulties
inherent in gang identification, inadequate procedures and racial
stereotyping, are misidentified. The validated prisoner tells emself
“they think i’m a gang member, i might as well be one”. Of course these
policies raise obvious moral and ethical questions. However, i would
like to focus on how these policies make no sense from a correctional
perspective. Even if these “gang officers” are creating or enhancing
gang identities, why does it matter? Validated prisoners maintained in
these locked down blocks, after all, are effectively disabled from
committing acts of misconduct when locked in their cells.
Validated prisoners are denied access to visitation, financial
support, transfers to medium or minimum custody, as well as parole. They
have nothing more to lose so they are not deterred by any threat of
punishment, what else can be taken from them? They have no incentive to
refrain from gang involvement?
Aside from prison concerns, the impact of these policies’
ramifications will be felt most profoundly on the streets and
communities to which these prisoners will return. As i pointed out, 564
of the 1,343 prisoners released from NCDAC’s custody last year were
alleged gang members. In general, 96% of all prisoners return to
society. There are recidivism studies focusing on gang affiliated prison
releases, that show that gang members may retain their gang identity
upon their release. (see: Salvador Buentello et. al, “Prison Gang
Development: A Theoretical Model”, The Prison Journal,
Fall-Winter 1991, at 3.8.) Thus, these policies not only fail to enhance
prison security, they also undermine public safety.
We Have A Responsibility
All across the United $tates, prisoners themselves are subjected to
similar sanctions and restrictions under the guide of enhancing prison
security. i’ve revealed how these policies target New Afrikan prisoners
and others of the oppressed nations and how they affect not only the
prison but their families and communities as well. We have the numbers,
we have the capability and we have the know how to bring about change.
But as Komrade George Jackson expressed:
“We all seem to be in the grip of some terrible quandary. Our enemies
have so confused us that we seem to have been rendered incapable of the
smallest responsibility. I see this irresponsibility, or mediocrity at
best[, as] disloyalty, self-hatred, cowardice, competition between
themselves, resentment of any who may have excelled in anything….”
Because of the inexorable nature of our overseers, nationwide
demonstrations on the outside and within these walls is presently
necessary if we are to correct the correctors.
We have united fronts such as the United Front For Peace in Prisons,
the United Struggle Within (USW) and Prison Lives Matter (PLM). PLM is a
united front for political prisoners, prisoners of war, politicized
individuals behind the walls of these razor-wire plantations and their
organizations, as well as any outside formations in union with the
struggles of prisoners, that has made it possible for us to address and
redress the inhumane living conditions we find ourselves subjected to.
It’s on us to initiate the process, it’s on us to communicate and
network with one another, to get on the same page, so we can unite a
page in the history books.
A Call to Action
As we grapple with an expanding and increasingly repressive prison
system here in North Carolina, any hope for change lays in perfecting
ourselves – our physical care, intellectual acumen, and cultural
proficiency – while simultaneously confronting our overseers. And as i
aforesaid, “There is no silver bullet or magic wand that can be used to
expedite the transformation that must be made.” We have a personal
responsibility to contribute to the confronting that must be done.
Some of us don’t seem to know what side we’re on. We’re obsessed with
near-sighted disputes based on race, gang affiliation and so on. We
expend our energies despising and distrusting each other. All of this is
helping the NCDAC. We permit them to keep us at each others throats. i
am calling for unity. We outnumber them. Wake up!!! Put your prejudices,
biases, and gang affiliation aside for the purpose of OUR fight with the
NCDAC. i’m asking we start by submitting a grievance concerning NCDAC’s
SRG policies and procedures (an example has been provided below).
Of course i’m not expecting any redress from submitting grievances.
NCDAC’s Administrative Remedy Procedure process is ineffective and
honestly a waste of time if you are seeking redress. However, i’ve not
asked you to submit said grievance with hopes that NCDAC officials will
correct their wrongs.
i’m currently in the middle of litigating a civil suit against NCDAC
on behalf of all prisoners who have been validated as a SRG member. By
submitting a grievance you will be supporting the claims i have made.
Thusly i entrust you take the time and submit the following grievance
(and send a copy to MIM(Prisons) if you can):
Readers of Under Lock & Key, may this kite find you in
the best of health and spirits. In the last issue, Spring 2024, No. 85,
there was a request for prisoners to sign up for a petition and issues
about no
dayroom and yards. I have been down now 18 years in the Illinois
Department of Corrections (I-DOC) and I want to help everyone who is
seeking more out-of-cell time.
I filed a §1983 Civil Action about this topic, Patrick Bakaturski
V. Director et al, 3:23-cv-03609-SPM, which is currently pending
merit review in the Southern District of Illinois.
The basis grounds of the civil suit is that under all of the Covid-19
lockdowns, the endless cell restriction violated my 8th amendment
rights. Wexford Health Care signed an affidavit in Patrick
Bakaturski v. Rob Jeffreys, 21-cv-00014-GCS, which stated that
Wexford Health Care did not approve any of the Covid lock downs. Yet in
every grievance I-DOC said I was on quarantine.
So How Do I Get out of the Cell More? What should be the
Legal Argument?
First Look up Ashoor Rasho et al., v. Director John R. Baldwin,
NO: 1:07-cv-1298-MMM-JEH, Mental Health Settlement agreement. If
you go to page 20 you will see that I-DOC agreed that all prisoners
under segregation statutes should get 20 hours per week of out of cell
time. That means if you are being kept in the cell and not being given
10 hours of Day room and 10 hours of yard this violates your 8th
Amendment rights. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act for general
mental health every prisoner must get 10 hours of yard per week and at
least 10 of day room or programs per week in maximum security prison. I
am not in max anymore, but my prison is being ran as an unclassified max
in violation of state and federal law. So under the same standard of a
basic human right, I requested my 20 hours per week, 10 hours of day
room and 10 of yard.
The legal argument is clear, 23 and 1 is unconstitutional. ALL max
prisoners could fight to make their max a 21 and 3 by invoking the
wording in the Mental Health Settlement. The Federal Government has
already agreed in part that 23 and 1 is unconstitutional. You need to
use page 20 of the settlement to support your grievances and legal
arguments.
If anyone has any questions of how to file the grievance or would
like to see the format on what might work in Federal Court, key cite
Bakaturski in Federal Court. If you can get a copy of the
petitions I have filed pro-se.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We are not lawyers and do not offer
legal advice. When we print tips like this it is up to the reader to
determine how this information applies to your situation. The settlement
above applies to the Illinois DOC, though strategies in those cases may
be relevant elsewhere. We have long worked to shut down long-term
solitary in all its forms. The settlement is one small tool to help
prevent de facto long-term isolation from occurring in
Illinois.
In 2018 the California Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
investigated the grievance process at Salinas Valley State Prison. This
resulted in a new process in 2020, where any grievances alleging staff
misconduct in the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) would go to an Allegation Inquiry Management
Section (AIMS) in Sacramento, rather than being handled by staff at the
prison.(1) As we report on in almost every issue of Under Lock &
Key, grievances in U.$. prisons are often ignored, denied, or
covered up by staff.
One problem with this small reform is the staff at the prison was
still deciding what grievances would be forwarded to AIMS. Following OIG
recommendations in 2021, the CDCR changed its system for handling
grievances in 2022 so that staff misconduct could be reported directly
to AIMS. In March 2023, AIMS was replaced with the Allegation
Investigation Unit (AIU), within the Office of Internal Affairs.
In 2010, United Struggle from Within (USW) in California initiated
the “We
Demand Our Grievances Are Addressed!” campaign, which has since
spread across the country. We just released a petition for Indiana this
year, see the report on initial
campaign successes in this issue. And we just updated our petition
for Texas. Since 2010, hundreds of prisoners in California have sent
petitions to the California OIG and others outlining the failures of the
existing grievance system and demanding proper handling of grievances.
This campaign contributed, likely greatly, to the recent changes in
California.
It also happens that February 2023 was the last report we have of
staff in CDCR
retaliating against prisoners for filing grievances (in this case
for freezing temperatures).(2) So we are interested to hear from our
readers how the grievance process has been working over the last year.
However, the OIG’s recent report has already exposed staff misconduct
since the new program was implemented.
The OIG found that in 2023 the department sent 595 cases back to
prison staff to handle that had originally been sent to the AIU to
investigate as staff misconduct. This was reportedly done to handle a
backlog of grievances. The OIG also stressed the waste of resources in
duplicating work, given that the department had been given $34 million
to restructure the grievance process. In 127 of these cases the statute
of limitations had expired so that staff could no longer be disciplined
for any misconduct. Eight of these could have resulted in dismissal and
12 could have resulted in suspensions or salary reductions. Many other
grievances were close to expiring.
Unsurprisingly, when the OIG looked into grievances that had been
sent back to the prisons, many issues were not addressed, many were
reviewed by untrained staff, investigations were not conducted in a
timely manner (39% taking more than a year), and grievances were
improperly rejected. All of these are common complaints on the grievance
petitions prisoners have filed over the years.
The OIG states in their concluding response to the CDCR claims around
these 595 grievances:
“The purpose of this report was not to provide an assessment of the
department’s overall process for reviewing allegations of staff
misconduct that incarcerated people file; that is an assessment we
provide in our annual staff misconduct monitoring reports. This report
highlighted the department’s poor decision-making when determining how
to address a backlog of grievances that the department believed it was
not adequately staffed to handle.”