Under Lock & Key

I’m a “person” on Calincarceration’s death row who is currently warehoused on the first tier of this secret torture unit at San Quentin (SQ) State Prison called the AC. Per order of the oligarchy overlords who comprise the “Institutional Classification Committee” (ICC) my appeal submitted 2 December 2013, which provides documented evidence that their decision to continue to warehouse me here is based on false disciplinary history and a capricious misapplication of local operational procedures, is being ignored. Even the CDCR 22 requests making status inquiries to Appeals Coordinators M.L. Davis and R. Baxter, and the former LIEutenant S. Fowler, now a counselor and ICC lackey (full member), return nothing except their deliberate indifference.

That excerpt of my individual situation is only one example of how California’s most dangerous Security Threat Group (STG) gets down and dirty. Mine is not an isolated incident either. It’s only one of many weapons of mass corruption the CDCR Pilot Program has utilized to minimize, obscure, and censor the fact that they really are torturing prisoners in a way that’s no different than what Phillip Garrido did to Jaycee Dugard – minus the sex crime factor. CDCR’s goal is to take more hostages, build more torture units in back yards across the state, and their hideous Pilot Program is a bait and switch attempt. CDCR’s main STG Pilot Program objective continues to be to crush, kill and destroy their hostages’ ability to organize in a peaceful protest against no touch torture and other inhumane conditions of confinement.

Expanding the definition of “disruptive groups” by adopting several new terms is really the bastard children produced by CDCR unions. It’s the sick minded schemes of bourgeois pigs behind the scenes of the Calincarceration Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), the Amerikkkan Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCRME) and others affiliated with the CDCR who would in fact reap a profit as the additional lackeys get hired to guard the torture units popping up like 7-Elevens everywhere! Yes, that’s right. All in the name of PEACE officers AND job SECURITY (which is paid for by your taxed income).

What makes the CDCR STG “the most dangerous” is the fact that they all know what’s really going on, and know that they’re torturing prisoners. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has clarified that only 15 days in solitary confinement constitutes torture. I’m going on two years and some here have more than 10 times that. Here, in the secret torture unit at SQ, the STG Pilot Program is still being cooked up – and with “specialized” ingredients for an even fouler taste. The AC is a sort of ground zero for testing policies, a variety of no touch torture methods, and a twist on the death penalty experiment only depraved criminal minds could have concocted. SQ death row SHU prisoners shouldn’t have to be the disposable human guinea pigs getting tortured to death in the CDCR STG Pilot Program. If the state is allowed to continue its medieval oligarchical practices resulting in another word game amounting to “de mock racy” then the public must not have realized California’s most dangerous STG is the CDCR!

send your comments to:
CDCR
Regulation and Policy Management Branch
PO Box 942883
Sacramento, CA 94283

I just read this article from a Nebraska ’rad about a failed protest (in Under Lock & Key). It seems I’m not the only one dealing with embarrassments in resistance.

I’m at the largest joint in Oregon and have been in isolation for about 14 months. I’ve been a very reluctant participant in mess after mess of similar - if much weaker - attempts at goal driven resistance. I say “goal-driven”, not “goal oriented” lest it give someone the impression that the kids here have some semblance of organization or some understanding of strategy and method. They don’t. Further, I say “reluctant participant” because even though I realize the unquestionable futility of the motions carried out around here, I’ll never be “that dude” who stood idle during any attempt at resistance to the swine.

The Nebraskan bloke mentioned the complaints the prisoners have against the swine, but didn’t get much into the root of the disfunction of the prisoners during their upheaval. I’ll assume that the problems in Nebraska are at least somewhat similar to Oregon’s. Whether I’m right or not, I’ll still say what I have to say for others looking at the same problems.

The fact of the matter is that we all face the same situation. We’re oppressed on some level and want to relieve ourselves of that weight. Our ultimate goal and desire is to destroy our adversaries completely. This is all obvious. Each person’s - or group’s - particular complaints and level of victimization is largely irrelevant except for how it may affect the functionality of the revolt. In other words, the food quality and such, really shouldn’t be occupying much space in one’s mind or discussions when it comes to applying ourselves to revolt. It’s universally understood that we’re fed garbage and people seem to get hung up on these benign little details.

The goal is successful revolt. The problem is lack of proper organization. Here in Oregon we have too many gangs, none of which have been developed along a framework of functional organization. Not only does each gang act autonomously from the whole, but each individual acts autonomously from his own gang.

On the sporadic occasions that they all do decide on some undertaking together, there is never any defined, agreed-upon leadership. The usual formula is, 3 or 4 of the loudest gang members on a unit cook up some scheme to rail against the swine, then talk everyone else into jumping on board. The scheme is always something like “we’re gonna refuse to do this or that until they give us this or that.” And that’s about as much planning and thought that goes into it. It may last a few days till people start dropping off, and a few more until it’s abandoned completely.

Aside form lack of education in strategy and tactics, and aside from lack of education in proper modes of organization and the egotism that keeps us from filling certain necessary roles within the structure of organization, the big problem here is expecting some simple “cause and effect” in these fiascos. The idea that the swine will react how we wish or expect is absurd. The fact is, they have loads and loads of training, protocol and on-call specialists to deal with any situation we might launch against them.

Here we’re never going in with anything close to a realistic understanding of the situation. We wage half-baked, disorganized, small-scope battles against an enemy that we’re not taking fully into account. What we need to be doing is organizing a large-scale protracted war with the realization that we are facing a ridiculously superior adversary.

If we’re still griping about food, TVs, phones and other luxuries, I dare say we have a very long way to go before we’ll be of the right mentality to launch any kind of successful campaign. In fact, I’d say that if you’re a revolutionary existing in the eye of the imperialist storm you really have no business looking at the fucking TV anyways.

In my situation, I’ve been struggling to come up with an organizational model that can transcend the divisiveness created by all the gangs to create one functional body of resistance. Once I’ve got everything put together, from the structure of board and body of the groups, down to individual roles and a clear and educated model of functionality complete with protocol for deciding direction and strategy, then I, along with a few of my cohorts here, will set out to put it into place. Once our machine is fully functional and each gear is spinning in unison with the others, only then will I be willing to make any sudden movements against my adversary.

As I said, if your mind is still on things like food, phones, programs, yard and so on, then I would suspect you haven’t given yourself up to revolution as much as is necessary to achieve it. Maybe a lot of us don’t have the fortitude of mind to reach the level of dedication that some of us have, but if you call yourself a revolutionary, it’s not optional - you must sacrifice any desire for luxury for the sake of progress. Food only matters in so far as whether or not it keeps you alive and functional. Programs only matter in as much as the opportunities it affords you to communicate with each other to familiarize yourself with your environment.

I would strongly suggest that anyone who’s interested in truly shedding the weight of these forces that are crushing you to stop focusing on those lame inconveniences and start studying more practical concepts. And until you have a full grasp of what your looking at, and until you have a full grasp of what needs to be done to destroy it, and until you have what you need in place, keep your head low, keep your mouth shut, keep your face in the books, and good luck!

MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade is relatively new to working with MIM(Prisons), a fact that we mention because we have a lot of unity and we hope that s/he, like many others behind bars, will come to look on United Struggle from Within as the structure that fits with what’s needed to elevate our strategy and tactics in the prisons. The organizational model that this prisoner discusses, to elevate above divisiveness, is exactly what we too are striving to build, and is one of the main goals of the USW-initiated United Front for Peace in Prisons. We look forward to building with this comrade, through the pages of Under Lock & Key and other independent institutions. Our Free Books to Prisoners Program offers study packs on strategy, as well as organizational structures, and many other important topics. Comrades who are interested in this type of study should join a MIM(Prisons)-led study group today.

In Jacksboro, Texas, Correctional Corporation of America unit offenders with disabilities are discriminated against per 42 U.S.C. § 12132. The use of solitary confinement on prisoners with serious mental illnesses at this jail does not meet state legal standards. Offenders rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as the Eighth Amendment are in dire straits. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) fails to follow policy and laws. Offenders are in their cells 24 hours a day. I was placed in a psychiatric unit in Lubbock, Texas (Montford Unit) from February to September 2013, locked in a cell all the time. Then I moved to state jail and all my medications that I was given by TDCJ doctors were taken away and they told TDCJ they don’t allow that medication on this unit.

I am being given the run around fighting this because courts have ruled that private prison corporations are not a public entity merely because they have entered into a contract with a public entity to provide services. An instrument of the state is only a government unit or unit created by a government unit; as such, no title II ADA claims are applicable. The ADA does not apply to private prisons.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We have written extensively about the health effects of solitary confinement which is cruel and unusual punishment even for healthy prisoners. Those with mental health problems are even more dramatically harmed by this long-term isolation. Texas has a history of “treating” prisoners with mental illness with torture. We know that this isolation is a tool of social control in a criminal injustice system that does not care about the health of prisoners. Further, prisons use mental illness and labels, treatment and the withholding of treatment, as another tool of social control. We must fight this with our own institutions of mental health: education, persynal healthy practices, mental engagement and social interaction where possible. In addition to our educational programs and work connecting prisoners with the struggle on the streets, we distribute portions of the American Friends Service Committee’s Survivors Manual for people in control units. Write to us for a copy and for more information on how you can plug in to the anti-imperialist prison movement.

I am also working on my criminal convictions. I’ve navigated myself through multiple tiers of appeals. I really had a hard time exhausting all my state remedies in the Arizona State Courts. It took me almost eleven years to figure out, but most recently I filed my first federal habeas corpus petition in Arizona Federal District Court. I am requesting that the federal court appoint me a lawyer to investigate the possibility of state judicial corruption against the Tucson Police Department and the Pima County Attorneys Office. Last week I filed a Writ of Certiorari. This is a petition to the United States’s highest court; they only address issues involving “Constitutional magnitude.” I’m asking them to resolve the Constitutional question that was left open in Martinez V. Ryan, 623 F.3d 731, 132S.CT1309(1023) of:

“Whether a defendant in a state criminal case has a federal Constitutional Right to effective Assistance of Counsel at initial-review-collateral-proceedings specifically with respect to his ineffective-assistance-of-trial-counsel-claim.”

Because state law does not mandate Effective Assistance of Counsel during a convicted criminal’s Initial-Review Collateral Proceedings (Ariz. R. Crim. P. Rule 32), I’m able to believe that prisoners in Arizona are being discriminated against because they’re indigent and cannot afford effective counsel during their Initial-Review Collateral Proceedings. The United States Supreme Court only takes 3% of the cases filed each term, so the odds of them taking my case is nil, but imagine if they did. WOW, this would mean that a pro se litigant would have molded the law to conform to the needs of the oppressed here at the very bottom of society’s heap. A person is only as big as his dreams.

Fortunately, it does not end there. A Section 1983 Civil Rights Action prohibits a state from discriminating pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides that:

“No state shall… deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the Law.”

The clause is “a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike.”(City of Cleburne V. Cleburne Living ctr, 4730 U.S. 432,439 (1985))

I am determined to build a strong campaign to gain Injunctive Relief in a class action seeking to remedy the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment violations caused by Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 32’s past and continuing operations. Our actions, even if successful, will not demonstrate the invalidity of our conviction or sentence, therefore Section 1983 Class Action is the proper vehicle.(Wilkinson v. Dotson, 544 U.S. 74,82 (2005).)

If you feel you were denied Effective Assistance of trial council, and a Fourteenth Amendment right to effective assistance of Appeals Counsel for your Initial-Review Collateral Proceedings because either you did not have an attorney during your first Rule 32, or your Arizona R. Crim. P Rule 32 Lawyer was ineffective for failing to investigate Trial Counsel claims and/or other substantial right claims during trial, it would be important to draft out a notarized affidavit outlining the facts in your specific case and send them to the addresses below. If we’re able to gain enough affidavits, then we could proceed to present these facts to a federal district court asking them to appoint class counsel and certify our case as a class action. All we can do is try! In Strength and Solidarity, Revolution!

Send your notarized affidavits to:

Arizona Prison Watch
P.O. Box 20494
PHX, AZ 85036

Middle Ground Prison Reform
139 E Encanto Drive
Tempe, AZ 85281

Arizona Justice Project
P.O. Box 875920
Tempe, AZ 85287-5930

MIM(Prisons) adds: Please note to not send your affidavits to MIM(Prisons). We do not have the resources to copy and mail your affidavits to the addresses listed above.

We commend this comrade on discovering loopholes in the legal system and attempting to remedy them to the advantage of the most oppressed in this country. We encourage comrades in Arizona to participate in this effort to provide more legal support to prisoners in the state (at least on paper).

And we must remember that our struggle cannot stop there. While a successful habeas corpus case may help a prisoner to be released, a release is only as valuable as what you do with your time when you’ve made it outside. A recently released comrade wrote of the challenges s/he will face after h parole, and the difficultes s/he will have in carrying out political work, even though s/he is supposedly now “free.” The trend toward individualism of general legal counsel is one reason why the MIM(Prisons)-led Prisoners’ Legal Clinic only works on issues directly related to expanding our ability to organize, educate, and build toward an end to illegitimate imprisonment altogether (i.e. communist society). We believe people should fight for their release, but that they also should struggle for the release of the world’s majority from the chains of imperialism.

Related to the topic of carefully selecting our battles, we have written extensively on the limitations of focusing on fighting housing mentally ill prisoners in long-term isolation.(1) Some shortcomings of this strategy are legitimization of long-term isolation for not-yet-mentally-ill prisoners, and the fact that long-term isolation leads to mental illness in prisoners even if they entered isolation with sound mind and body. Of course we agree with the principle that mentally ill prisoners should not be housed in long-term isolation. But we take it further to say that no prisoners should be housed in long-term isolation, and we see no value in selling out some comrades on this issue in order to save others; eventually everyone held in long-term isolation will suffer mental illness. Abolish the SHU!

They say “America is the land of the free”
But what about the millions
of people who are just like me
Locked in a cage for petty crimes
Don’t you see in this so called land of the free
a dead president’s face on a piece of
paper is worth more than you or me
And they say the U.S.A.
is home of the brave
What’s so brave about locking a
man in a cage
with nothing other than time
to bottle up his rage
There is some who are addicts
others who are mentally ill
And the answer to the problem
when society no longer wants us around
send us to a court so a judge can lay us down
But that judge is no better than you or me
He’s just as crooked as any other
politician you see
If you have the money he’ll let you go free
But if you’re indigent the outcome is
the millions of people who are just like me

Revolutionary Greetings!

On 21 May 2013 I filed a Section 1983 Civil Suit against Illinois Department of Corrections employees S. Rhone-Plaskett (Counselor), A. Winemiller (Correctional Officer), Jackie Miller (Administrative Review Board Representative), and Grievance Officer (John Doe) for the unconstitutional banning of the November/December 2012 No. 29 issue of Under Lock & Key (ULK).

This lawsuit is the second one that I have filed concerning the bogus banning of ULK and I expect to file many more in the future. This lawsuit is based on the grounds that the Defendants cannot substantiate the banning of ULK and that the banning of ULK violates my Constitutional Rights to:

1. Receive and own reading material;
   
2. Have freedom of speech; and
   
3. Have freedom of political expression.

Any material or support you can offer that would aid me in my battle against censorship in Illinois would be greatly appreciated. Specifically, I would count it a blessing if you would comb through your archives and send me anything you have regarding censorship of ULK in Illinois, especially the November/December 2012 No. 29 issue of ULK.

Filing lawsuits does work! Because of the pressure I have been applying by filing Section 1983s, I was allowed to have the March/April 2013 No. 31 issue of ULK, the first issue of ULK that I have received since November 2011. So keep your heads high and your hearts strong as we continue to fight the phenomenon of censorship. It is just another contradiction facilitated by the proletariat/bourgeois contradiction.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Some comrades in Illinois have been permitted to receive ULK without censorship, after much work on their end to defend their rights. In other facilities, it is still banned. Specifically, at Sheridan, Menard, Stateville, and Lawrence Correctional Centers, ULK is being censorsed for any reason from “banned in facility” (Stateville) to “promotes unauthorized organization activity” (Menard). Still, we are being banned without notice to publisher or prisoner (Lawrence) and mailroom employees at Sheridan inconsistently enforce a policy that labels are not permitted on mail pieces; we have yet to see this policy in writing in any official format.

Several prisoners in Illinois have stepped up to help out with the censorship battle in their state. We recently began engaging with these volunteers on an organized basis to help push this battle to a head. We need prisoners who are facing censorship to fight out their persynal censorship battles, like the author of this article has done. MIM(Prisons) and the Prisoners’ Legal Clinic volunteers can assist, but we can’t fight the battle for you.

The author of this article is correct that occasionally we will make gains, and expand space, for revolutionary organizing. We can use the legal system to make small reforms that make our job easier; for example, defending the right to receive revolutionary newsletters. But we don’t expect to be free of all censorship, as it is a manifestation of the battle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; it is a manifestation of the battle between the Amerikan oppressor nation, and the oppressed internal semi-colonies. We use the administrative procedures and courts when we can, but ultimately we know we can’t rid ourselves of censorship, or any other social ill, unless we resolve the root problem: oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, and oppression of the internal semi-colonies by the Amerikan nation. We can only make this sweeping change by throwing out the entire capitalist imperialist system itself.

It’s cold outside, yesterday we had ice on the ground, and lots of rain, and for a month now I have been without shoes. We are given clogs, which you know are not made for inclement weather. They have holes in the bottoms. I wear compression hose due to edema in my legs. The cement sidewalk eats a hole in them and medical won’t replace them for a month, the clogs I’m told have to be worn one year before they can be exchanged. The service life is one year, which does not take into account the weight of a person or his walking habits.

The medical department at Evans Correctional Institution is dysfunctional. South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) hired a racist physician’s assistant as a necessary component to reduce prison medical expenditures. Finally after letters to the medical board, Senators, filing grievances, talking to other prisoners who experienced problems with this same physician’s assistant, prompting them to engage this fight against intolerance, he finally moved on. SCDC only hires those with less than perfect records, the last doctor was barred from practice in 3 states (Dr. Paul Drago #9700531). Now the nurses are taking up where they left off, we’ve had three deaths that I know of and it’s not getting any better.

The food is mostly a mystery meat that is supposed to be turkey, which used to come in a box that read “not for human consumption.” Now we have the same meat, in a different box. More often than not the food is cold (not serving temperature), prisoners are given the wrong size portions, some more, others less. Food supervisors just come for the pay check, and we get 6 minutes to eat. Some prisoners say they are going to bed hungry. The others that can afford it go to the canteen where most of the food is high in price and salt.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We looked up Dr. Drago and found that he was a plastic surgeon before working at the prison, not exactly the specialty needed there. But after having his license revoked in multiple states, this was likely the only job he could get. This is how little we value the health of prisoners: subjecting them to the “care” of doctors who are deemed unfit to practice medicine outside of prison.

Health and health care are generally available in direct proportion to people’s wealth and status under imperialism. Those at the bottom are lucky to have access to any medical care, and live in conditions that lead to greatly reduced life expectancy. The life expectancy in many African countries is less than 60, and those doing well are in their 60s, while imperialist countries of the world enjoy a life expectancy in the 80s. This discrepancy is killing people, lives that could be saved with a more equitable distribution of resources and education. Prisoners in the United $tates share the interests of the oppressed in the Third World in the fight for access to health care and safe and sanitary living conditions.

We are now in discovery since the judge refused to throw out the prisoner beatings lawsuit. This case is getting some press, and the Herald Sun reported: “The judge made a not so veiled reference to the practice of punishing inmates by locking them up in dim solitary units.” The judge said “your case is about sunlight where you claim there were systematic violations” to the lawyers for the prisoners. “What we need to do with this lawsuit is not bury it in a deep, dark hole and proceed with discovery.”(1)

So one damn thing for sure we got a judge on our side. The same way they have taken from us (a little at a time) we all can do the same to them. It’s just a matter of team work.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This is a good example of a winnable court battle that will result in some improvements in safety for prisoners. But it will not stop the inhumane abuse that continues throughout prisons in North Carolina. This is an ongoing contradiction of our fight against the criminal injustice system at this stage: we take on reformist battles to try to improve the conditions under which our comrades suffer, but we know that these reforms offer no more than minor adjustments to a system that is based on the oppression and suffering of those locked within.

It is ironic that the prisoners in North Carolina have to go to court to fight for their own safety within prison, while the state’s justification for every repressive act is “safety” (including North Carolina’s excuse for censoring Under Lock & Key for over three years straight). This exposes the reality of the criminal injustice system: a brutal tool of social control that endangers the safety of all who are captured in its broad nets. We need to take advantage of reform battles like this one, both to gain some breathing room for our comrades and to educate others and build unity. We can’t end the abuse until we eliminate the criminal injustice system, but these reformist battles are important steps along the way in our ultimate fight against imperialism as a whole.

No. I do not believe in your government
never have never will
No. I do not support your wars
for your greed i will not kill
No. I will not sit back and shut up
nor play deaf, dumb and blind
No. I will not hear what you say
you can’t corrupt my mind
No. I will not teach my children your hate
nor will i teach them your lies
I can see your true colors through your
red, white, and blue disguise
No. I will not go to your church
nor will i read your bible
No. I will not worship your god
fake prophets, a book or an idol

At this time; in this place; I genuinely
know why the caged bird sings other than
being falsely imprisoned, he’s being called
N.I.G.G.E.R. of all things… As I
give perfect praise to “the most high,” I can
only wonder how many more bullets have to fly?
How many more of my precious Black and Latino
prisoners must die? Before those of us who
still dare to be free can remove the blood filled
tearz from our eyez. We’ve all been
shackled by the same chainz, victimized by the
same pain, so… in whose name doez death
blossom? I can vividly recall being racially
profiled as a juvenile, because as a child
I refused to pledge my allegiance to a flag
that forced so many of my B.L.A.C.K. Panthers
into exile… This beautiful black revolutionary
love of mine is God’s design, bottom line…
I speak from the perspective of a S.O.U.L.J.A
with an objective. Cause being Black in
this “white man’s worls,” justice is often
selective. On behalf of the collective, I
stand on the front lines. My message to the b.l.a.c.k. man
is to fight the power, nourish the seeds
and restore our flowers… This form of revolutionary love will
never be televized, nor will it be glamorized,
because the very essence of this love affair
depicts us finally being unified!! Let’z
reflect back to the bird in the cage, back
to the dehumanization that we endured
while naked on the auction blocks and
stage… Or picture the 25-50 million Africans
that died during the passage that never made
it to the grave because it is only through these
degrees of pain, horror and terror, can one
truly understand the life of a slave… On
the strength of those whose lives were gave,
that divine sacrifice in turn allowed countless
other B.L.A.C.K. lives to be saved!!