Under Lock & Key

In August 2010, Sgt Lowry grabbed me from behind and started choking me. It is on video tape. I was in my cell and unit manager Covington had my cell door opened and lock-opened. He asked me to dress and exit my cell. I step out my cell door. I was then grabbed from behind and choked. They acted out of retaliation from two officers being in a confrontation with another convict earlier.

My case is a sure assault on a convict. I have witnesses, plus I wrote RN Barrett up for denying me medical attention. I finally received medical attention on August 20, eighteen days after the assault. I’ve been trying to receive further medical attention and medical has not made any attempts at scheduling or assisting me with my neck injury I sustained from being choked. The facility and the medical department at Scotland Correctional are working together against my claim of assault. I have written various letters to assist superintendent Stanback concerning this matter. I have not received step two from grievance even though I signed off on step 1 a month ago. No one is answering my paperwork.

My case is very strong against them. This is why they are avoiding me. Hoping I will get tired of writing or pursuing the issue. I just need the proper legal back-up. I would appreciate your advice or referral in this matter.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Unfortunately it is typical that prisoner’s grievances are ignored by staff, especially when they directly accuse a staff person of wrong doing. For this reason we are working with USW comrades on a grievance campaign. We have petitions set up for several states and need prisoners to help expand this across the country. Contact us for more information and to get a copy of the petition for your state (or to get a generic petition that you can customize for your state).

I endure draconian conditions with an acrimonious mainframe
surrounded by animals who poorly pose as human with
transparent pious characters
They attempt to sway me with virulent ideologies
Thoroughly adding to the dumb urban inmate stereotype
makeshift cadres are formed, under myopic manifestos
to establish misguided unity among the misguided
who enthusiastically appoint a despot to lead & maneuver
flocks into self destruction
Unconscious & unintelligent most blindly embrace
this way of life in the name of “the cause”… the cause?
an imaginary cause that leaves those dedicated filled
with an undeserving sense of accomplishment
severe daddy issues has them covered in tattoos
hoping to hide or disguise “the little boy inside”
striving to fill their voids with praises of approval
from: perros, comrades and even n’dugus
slip once and its a wrap [full throttle relegation] “exile” SNY
disgraced & disrespected after years of dedication
your position was boss, but in the end it means nothing
Mr. Victim, statistic neo-enemy of “the cause”

MIM(prisons) responds: There are a few points in this which require a response. First, the “daddy issues” which is a psychology term not clearly explained here but which we universally oppose. There is no need to get into psychoanalysis of people to figure out their material interests and to explain their actions. We need to be scientific when we look at our friends and our enemies and understand their political and material motivations. On the SNY question, we have written extensively and published many letters in Under Lock and Key explaining that we do not oppose those in SNY on principal, but rather look at their practice like we look at the practice of all prisoners to determine whose side they are on. While the SNY does house snitches who have sold out their people for some benefits from the pigs, it also houses people looking to escape the violence and political games of mainline.

I’m writing you today regarding High Desert State Prison’s (HDSP) violation of my constitutionally protected rights (as well as the rights of many other inmates). Those violations include 14th amendment (due process), 1st amendment (freedom of religion) and 8th amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) just to name a few! Now I would like to give you a little of the background and then a brief rundown on conditions here at HDSP in the Z Unit Administrative segregation Unit as well as how these violations are taking place.

On August 4, 2009 HDSP targeted “northern hispanic” prisoners on C-yard general population, due to supposed racial tension between white prisoners and “northern hispanic” prisoners (there was no tension until HDSP staff started spreading false rumors). Note: because of these rumors both white and “northern hispanic” prisoners were placed on lockdown the first week of June 2009. On August 4, 2009 staff turned all water off on C-yard prior to 8am. Then IGI/ISU started a building by building sweep of all (only) “northern hispanic” prisoners. All were systematically strip searched, cuffed and removed from their cells, wearing only boxers and shower thongs. Our boxers were then taped to our stomachs and around our legs (the taping was done on bare skin). All these prisoners were taken outside and wanded with hand held metal detectors and we were then sent to one of three destinations: 1) if your names was on the list for validation you went to the gym where you were medically cleared and then forced, by investigators, to be photographed, then sent to ad-seg. 2) if the list did not say validated by your name, and the metal detector did not beep you went to the dining hall. 3) if the wand beeped you went to potty watch. Note: some inmates went to potty watch even without the wand beeping. All “northern hispanic” prisoners’ property was confiscated and thrown in the gym where it was searched and personal items were lost, destroyed and damaged by careless correctional officers.

This was simply a racially motivated attack by HDSP! Close to if not more than half of all “northern hispanics” on C-yard were removed from general population and sent to ad-seg and then validated.

Now the aforementioned is just the background and beginning to the violations of our constitutionally protected rights. Since my arrival in Z unit, staff has refused to follow the policies set forth in California Code of Regulations Title 15 section 3343 - conditions of segregation - with their willful and blatant disregard for following state created rules and regulations, they (HDSP) are in violation of the 14th amendment of the US constitution, specifically the Due Process Clause. Now let me briefly explain the conditions they are violating.

1. Clothing/laundry exchange - this has recently improved, however prisoners for the most part must still wash their clothing by hand, because the exchange offered is either old and worn out or there is only one or two different items available. Prisoners also do not receive proper winter attire. It is extremely cold and it snows much of the late fall, winter and early spring. The jackets given to us do not button up nor do they zip up, and prisoners are not allowed gloves or beanies. The only clothing we are allowed to wear outside at yard are a pair of socks, boxers, t-shirt, thin cloth jumpsuit, jacket and a lightweight pair of state issued slip-on shoes, and if a prisoner has already purchased their own, prior to ad-seg placement, a set of thermals. This is all in sub-zero temps.

2. Meals are served in unsanitary conditions. Food is served cold, mixed together some items are stale and fruit is rotten, and meat and other food is undercooked.

3. Mail is late, lost and destroyed, outgoing mail is lost, delayed or not mailed at all.

4. Personal cleanliness - prisoners are supposed to be allowed to shave 3 times a week, however in the year plus that I have been in Z unit I have never shaved more than once in any given week and then it’s not with a razor, it’s with haircutting clippers. Also indigent supplies such as the tooth floss and bodywash/soap is not always passed out. Supplies for cleaning our cells are not adequate to last the week nor are they always provided.

5. Exercise yard - yard is often canceled. For example in February of 2010 our section only had yard four times the entire month. Prisoners are supposed to get a minimum of 10 hours per week of yard. While at yard in the winter, prisoners are strip searched outside in snow, ice and 10 degree temps. While we are standing there naked correctional officers laugh and say “it’s not that cold out here!” Not only do these actions listed above violate 14th amendment rights, they are also violating the 8th amendment and are (most if not all of them) a form of cruel and unusual punishment.

All of the previously mentioned issues I have tried to address via the institutional appeal system (CDCR 602) but I have been stopped at every turn. Staff either toss it in the trash, disregard it, or screen it out every time I attempt to bring these issues to the table. Therefore they are not allowing issues to be resolved administratively nor are they allowing us to be able to seek judicial review.

Other major issues include these validations from August 4, 2009 - most if not all of them are bogus as well as prejudicial. For example, not one point used to validate me meets CDCR criteria, state or federal laws. Now my initial paperwork said I was only under investigation. Less than 2 months later I received a second 114-D which said the first one was a lie, the investigation was concluded in July 2009 (which was prior to my ad-seg placement). These lies did not allow me to prepare a proper defense to combat these allegations. This is the standard operating procedure of staff and administrators here at HDSP which is to tell one story after another, lie after lie, and this is designed to keep prisoners confused and off balance.

Validated inmates are not being transferred to the SHU unit due to supposed over crowding at the SHUs, so here at HDSP it takes 2-3 years to be transferred. SHU inmates are supposed to be allowed an appliance, i.e. a TV or a radio, but not here in Z unit, here we don’t even receive all of our allowable property. Also the lighting is poor, causing eye strain. There are no fire extinguishers in the cells. Toilets are on flush meters meaning if you flush more than 2 times in 5 minutes the toilets will shut down for an hour. Also power outages disable the toilets and those are frequent. Also there are ants, spiders, mice and birds on the tier. Which leads to animal (mouse) and bird feces on the walls, the doors, the floors as well as all over the yard cages. Each and every one of these issues are a violation of the 8th amendment and they create cruel and unusual conditions of punishment.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This testimonial highlights the difficulties with the grievance system that many prisoners face when fighting the atrocious conditions in the criminal injustice system. We point this prisoner and others to the grievance campaign that was initiated by a California prisoner working with United Struggle from Within and has now spread to states across the country. [Since receiving this report, a full blown campaign to end the abuses at the “Z-Unit Zoo” has developed.]

Ears on alert everyone - wherever snitches roam carelessly, claiming that this is their “get down” generation ready to put any prisoner way down.

There’s no doubt that snitching has gotten out of hand in prison, but here in Texas we have found a good solution to this shameful way. If you want to be a “snitch”, go ahead get down, I and other prison reformers have decided to support you all the way. You can declare victory now!

Pick up your pen and paper, if you need more, feel free to ask for more from any of us. No one will try to stop you, as long as you start snitching 24-7 to our state Senators and Representatives about our prison conditions. I truly believe that you, snitches, can get something rolling, and help us bring some kind of change for the betterment of thousands, if not millions. That’s truly getting down, maybe someday others will stop calling you a snitch and honor your efforts because you finally got it right. Other prisoners are not the enemy - for sure.

What are you waiting for, become part of the solution, stop contributing to the problem. If that’s what makes you a snitch, then more power to you, use your mind and your prison time for the struggles of someday fulfilling better prison reform. Go ahead, if you plan to do something, let it be done in prison style, that’ll be the day, I and thousands more, maybe millions of prisoners will shake your hand tight, call you a real brother, never a snitch.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade correctly points out that there is a political line behind snitching. And when it is the imperialists and their pigs committing the worst crimes, we support those who are brave enough to come forth and expose the truth.

I have been in disciplinary segregation since August 2004 and I am currently at Western Correctional Prison, Maximum Security. On 26 January 2008, I wrote an Administrative Remedy Complaint (ARCs) on six officers who attacked me while coming from the showers on the 4 - 12 shift. This was due to me writing grievances (ARCs) on them for not abiding to DOC policy and procedures. The ARC has stayed its course through the process and it is now in the Court of Special Appeals where it has been since February 2009.

On 13 March 2009, I was assaulted by officer Broadwater, which precluded the above ARC. All these officers at the time were working SHU #4 Disciplinary Segregated Isolation tiers.

On 25 March 2008, I was assaulted by officers Rice, Brambles, and McKenzie. I was sprayed with chemical pepper spray all over my front body, from my waist to my head. This chemical was literally dripping off my body. The officer said in his report that he gave me a one second burst! This ARC went through the process and is in the Court of Special Appeals as of February 2009.

To relieve themselves of an injunction that I won, they transferred me to Eastern Correctional Prison, which is classified as medium security. I am classified as Maximum #2 level, so I made out really good from the injunctions.

I’ve lodged numerous ARPs:
1. Concerning the wearing of hair nets while serving our food to us. I won this ARP and the Gestapo hates it.
2. Serving us cold food all the time. This ARP is at the Inmate Grievance Office (IGO) now, which is the last step before going to court.
3. ARP about tiers having food and trash on them, which the guards encourage. This ARP was addressed at the IGO level in December 2009, and now they have to come around to each individual cell and collect unwanted food and trash. Gestapo hates it because they have to do a little work.
4. ARP concerning filthy showers and the tier floor not being mopped regularly as stated in the DOC policy and procedures, “It is imperative that good sanitation be maintained at all time!”

I also have two cases in local courts. As you can see, I am very adamant about these Gestapo security guards doing their job correctly. Whatever you can think of that these Gestapos can do to me, they’ve done it over the years. So whatever they do to me, they’re not getting a cherry. Been there and done that!

As far as the grievances go towards censorship of incoming books, magazines, and literature such as Under Lock & Key, I fought the censorship of incoming literature from Book ‘Em and Books to Prisoners. Basically I wrote an ARP because when the books came in they sent them back without notifying me that the books were even here. I found out via Books to Prisoners writing me and telling me about it. So the prison violated not only mine, but Books to Prisoners’ due process rights.

Plus the prison had a list of 34 companies where you could order books from. This list is called a “blackball” list and it is illegal. I charged them with a restraint of trade and discrimination. Once the ARP got to the second level of the process, Commissioner’s Office, they withdrew the list of 34 companies.

I have a very good track record for winning ARP cases, and my first two books were from Books to Prisoners.

I want to put Maryland on the map, so to speak! There are numerous upon numerous violations that are at fault in this Gestapo Security Guard Concentration Camp. I’d like to see more prisoners in this state get involved in any movement that stands against this Draconian style suffering towards those who are imprisoned.

Nothing and no one will stop me from exercising my absolute right to litigate from anyone refusing to adhere to giving me those few basic rights that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States of Amerikkka says that I have!

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade domonstrates that following through on appeals and filing court cases can actually lead to winning cases and that building your experience fighting such legal battles can pay off.

Though prisons are one of the most fascist elements of U$ society we don’t use the term “Gestapo” to describe the pigs. The Gestapo was the official secret police of the Nazi government, and to call U.$. prison guards a Gestapo tends to let imperialism off the hook. The petty bourgeoisie likes to believe that bourgeois democracy is a more humane system than fascism. But part of the importance of exposing what is going on in U$ prisons is demonstrating that imperialism can be just as oppressive when it needs to be. Fascism happens when the imperialists decide they need to be that oppressive all the time.

Modern day slavery is plaguing Amerika like an incurable cancer. This is apparent by the way the puppets (police) chase down, kidnap, and plant crimes on Blacks and other non-whites in the so-called ghetto, send them to the auction block (court), and sell them to one of the 33 plantations (in California) to work for massa. What’s even worse is the blood guzzlers made it legal for them to kill at will! Most may not believe what I’m saying, so allow me to expound.

On 12/4/1969, in Chicago, the FBI murdered Fred Hampton (the murder was planned months in advance, which makes it premeditated), however, no one was charged let alone convicted. In 1991 the Los Angeles police beat Rodney King, it was caught on video camera and everything, still no one was convicted. In 1999 the Rampart scandal erupted, embroiling an anti-gang unit who were framing people, robbing suspects and engaging in other brutal conduct, and the majority of them got off free. On 11/25/2007 in New York the police unleashed 50 shots and killed Sean Bell; no one convicted. In January 2010, BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit] police shot Oscar Grant in the back while he was laying face down, and they gave him (the officer) a slap on the wrist which is like not being convicted.

Not vivid enough for you yet? Well allow me to continue. A North Carolina crime lab has been caught falsifying blood samples to help the DA get a conviction. Three of the people who were wrongfully convicted were executed, and another four or so wrongfully convicted individuals are serving time on death row. For nothing! (I saw this on K-Cal 9 news on 8/18/2010, you already should know that they won’t air it again.) That’s premeditated murder. It all started when they falsified evidence. The DA, the police, and the crime lab were fully aware that the individuals they were framing were facing death. So it was planned. And it ended with people watching the wrongfully convicted get executed, in the name of justice, like they were watching their favorite television show on a big screen. This is what they call just-us. It’s just-us getting executed, over-sentenced, and wrongfully convicted. And it’s just-them collecting long money for inflicting pain and keeping families separated. And they do it in the name of justice, to just-us.

And they will continue to do it as long as they keep the majority of society brainwashed and deceived. They use the news, newspapers, Detroit 187, Cops, Law and Order, etc. to keep the blindfold over people’s eyes. First they use the news to fill their heads with Blacks and other non-whites as being hard core criminals. And then they follow it up with one of their latest police shows, to fill their heads with images of the police keeping their community safe. And they fall for this bullshit! Why do you think so many people are snitching? Because the mentally deaf, dumb, and blind truly believe that the law is on their side. But in reality it’s just an illusion, it depends on keying into your brain and your mind and making you see.

That’s why it’s important for a militant Black (or other non-white) voice to reach mass audiences. We must awaken those who are asleep. And I’m going to be actively involved in the process. You never have to worry about me biting my tongue if something I know as truth is on my mind.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This exposure of the legalized murder of oppressed nations hits on many of the lowlights of recent Amerikan history. We’re written about the Oscar Grant case extensively in Under Lock and Key. And we agree that cop shows are propaganda to keep the people passive. This is effective because it’s done in conjunction with economic pacification of the vast majority of the Amerikan population (citizens) who benefit from the imperialist plunder and exploitation in Third World countries, where the imperialists murder on a scale even more horrifying than they do at home. This wealth is brought back home and shared in the form of higher wages and cheap consumer goods to keep the population pacified. Nonetheless, national oppression can unify the oppressed within U.$. borders and we need to expose this sort of brutality and murder as a rallying cry for the anti-imperialist struggle.

Greetings brothers and sisters bound by the chains of injustice. I speak today about the urgent need as prisoners to unite to stand against prisoner abuse. Too many of my fellow prisoners become caught up in gang-warring, belittling each others’ character to become the block’s best gang-warring machine. Rather than us fighting against prison oppression, we engage in battles amongst each other. If the majority of prisoners confined in these special housing units (SSNU, SMU, RHU, etc.) come together to stand as one against staff on prisoner abuse, we could stop the abuse and place a halt on the unconstitutional actions by prison officials.

When we fight amongst ourselves we allow the prison officials to get away with their actions of brutality and mistreatment. The DOC was meant to break the strong-willed and to demolish the fighting mainframes of prisoners. Some of us do break and some of us can withstand the difference. Rather than attempt to break each other, we should be attempting to break the chains of injustice.

When we see one of our fellow prisoners stuck in a situation where he’s trapped fighting these prison officials alone, let’s stand with him and fight by his side to curb what they are doing to him. There are many outside agencies that we can contact to help stop prisoner abuse. It’s not hard to write a letter to these agencies exposing prison officials’ abuse. The more that the names of these oppressive people becomes public, the more society becomes aware of the abuse we go through each day.

The special management units of SCI-Fayette and SCI-Camp Hill are breeding grounds for abuse, neglect and high forms of oppression. In these units it is hard to organize a solid front to stand against the abuse. However, educating each other should open each others’ eyes to the need to fight against oppression. Some of us are stuck in our cells each day pondering what we can do next to get back at these prison officials. Let’s use our thoughts, ideas and possibilities to make a successful attempt at forcing these prison officials to think twice about abusing and mistreating us prisoners.

Another thing I see happening in these control units is prisoners co-signing the irresponsible acts of prison officials towards their fellow prisoners. This happens because someone is upset with the next man locked in his cell so he decides to applaud the abuse they receive. Because you had an argument with your fellow prisoners doesn’t make it right for you to support abuse towards them by prison officials. Gang-warring behind a steel door each day should be against the prison administration that carries out these racist, oppressive and hostile actions, not against another prisoner.

This is where unity has failed and this is the place where it could start. One group of prisoners can make a difference. They can only separate so many prisoners until they get sick and tired of moving them all the time.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We agree with this prisoner’s call for unity, especially among those prisoners in lumpen organizations (LOs) fighting each other rather than the oppressive system. And we offer prisoners an avenue to join this unity through the MIM(Prisons)-led group United Struggle from Within (USW) - an anti-imperialist organization for prisoners. We are also working on a project for peace among lumpen organizations and encourage all representatives of LOs truly interested in fighting imperialism to get in touch to help us move this forward.

[img=“https://www.prisoncensorship.info/art/quick/singlespark.jpg” alt=A Single Spark]I’m writing from the plantation state of Texas, although I’m currently confined in Texas I’ve never lived here. I was sent to Texas from the Maryland Division of Corrections, under Maryland’s Interstate Corrections Compact Agreement. I was transferred to Texas in part due to my prison politics, and because I wouldn’t become a passive and willing participant of my own oppression. I was not alone, there were many like minded comrades who have been exiled to other states because of our dedication and loyalty to the struggle, in our pursuit of freedom, justice and equality. The revolution has never started amongst the masses, it’s always been the flame of a few, to spark the righteous indignation of the many! The revolution has always been bloody, in the pursuit of freedom, justice and equality there’s always going to be bloodshed because these imperialist, capitalistic pigs will never voluntarily relinquish control of the commodity of the prison industrial complex.

I quickly came to realize that the Texas correctional philosophy is deeply rooted in an overt racist sentiment that’s too casually expressed. The very colors of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s officer’s uniforms are a symbol of oppression and hatred, confederate blue and gray. These are the very same color uniforms of the confederacy, that the confederate soldiers wore during the civil war, when they were fighting to uphold the institution of slavery. Unfortunately the Willy Lynch theory is prevalent here in Texas. The penitentiary politics that these pigs employ are reminiscent of the gestapo tactics of the Third Reich.

I quickly found myself entrenched in the struggle here in Texas as a righteous member of the Nations of Gods and Earths, I manifest a peace mentality that’s deeply rooted in a position of strength. Here in Texas, the penitentiary politics involved with the different prison organizations goes contrary to the very foundation on which they were built, which was the struggle. The devils here in Texas use our cultural differences against us, to keep us divided, employing the age old tactic of divide and conquer. Our struggles have always been intertwined, from Che Guevara fighting in Angola and Mozambique to General Toussaint of Haiti leading the revolution to free the island of Hispanola. The Black and Brown struggle has always been one and the same. Why do so many of your forsake the struggle and identify with the oppressor? Stop allowing these devils to exploit our differences to keep us divided, the more divided we stand, the more they’ll continue to conquer us. It’s time for us to unite.

MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade’s article about Texas is appropriately timed for our Under Lock and Key theme of United Front. The importance of oppressed nation groups coming together to fight the oppressors rather than fighting each other is no more clearly seen in Amerika than in the prisons. As this comrade points out, the criminal injustice system plays oppressed groups against each other to keep them divided. We are working to bring together lumpen organizations for peace as a part of the anti-imperialist United Front. Representatives of groups, who are authorized to speak for them, or who want to help build support within their group, should contact MIM(Prisons) for a copy of the draft statement of unity.

To kill the individual is the first objective of the potential revolutionary. To become a revolutionary one must first become human. When we become revolutionized we step into the conscious of our/all humanity. Once we become conscious of our/all humanity we see that it is a struggle to liberate all oppressed people (free & caged) of the atrocities of the capitalist imperialist system. The revolutionary makes the mental adjustments that must take place to evolve from LO member to revolutionary socialist/communist and takes up the fight to liberate all of humanity.

In laymens terms a revolutionary is a “force” for change. So to become a revolutionary simply means “we must change”. Change the way we think and change the way we treat each other. As a revolutionary political force we must recognize and understand that individualism means death. The “I just do me” mentality must be defeated for a revolutionary to come into full consciousness. I read somewhere once that “a revolutionary like a snake sheds his old skin and regrows the new skin of the people.” We have to start living in accordance with the laws of humanity with a socialist politic. As we learn through study, through observation, through actual experience and as we live dialectic materialism we strengthen our commitment to the socialist/communist cause/struggle.

Revolutionaries realize the reality of the U.S. is one of historic and continued exploitation, injustice and racism. It is our obligation to end forever this fascism, because that is what we’re currently liven under here! Individualism must disappear, want for the apolitical brotha what you want for your/our comrade. The ability to determine the world we inhabit is just a world where grown ass racist pigs in Seattle can punch out a young black teenage girl and get away with it, a world where racist trigger happy pigs in Detroit can murder a little black girl and get away with it, a world where a capitalist system allows oil to just continue to spew into the ocean destroying the ecological system. All this shit can be stopped if we kill the individual and step into consciousness.

The people can’t wait they need the enforcers of change to lead them to freedom and justice, to a world where we all work and live according to our principles of socialist humanity. Revolutionaries adhere to a cause/struggle greater than themselves, humanity needs those who are ready and willing to fight for the liberation of the oppressed, those who are ready and willing to, if necessary, sacrifice the individual for the many. Franz Fanon said “where individuals are concerned, a positive negation of common sense is evident. While the settler or the policeman has the right the livelong day to strike the native, to insult him and to make him crawl to him, you will see the native reaching for his knife at the slightest hostile or aggressive glance cast on him by another native; for the last resort of the native is to defend his personality vis-a-vis his brother.” Obviously the “native” is us “the convict” and the “settler” is “the oppressor pigs”. When we become revolutionized we no longer accept the oppressors not respecting our humanity.

There is no such thing as an unconscious revolutionary. A revolutionary sees the plight of the masses and seeks through armed struggle and resistance to relieve the masses of their injustice. The question is how does the revolutionary socialist/communist navigate the individualistic attitudes of the typical convict? How does a conscious revolutionary convict reach the potential revolutionary in this cesspool of apolitical, self-hating individualistic brothers? As a revolutionary socialist who is quite limited in his movement due to 6 years in the hellish existence of the California SHU at Corcoran how do we get them to realize, recognize and understand as individuals we are lost and conquered but as a force of united revolutionaries under one politic, one ideology, one banner and one color?! Long live the revolutionary. Power to the people who don’t fear freedom. As long as we continue to think in terms of “me & I” we will never unite and amass the power to defeat capitalist imperialism and fascism.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade makes a strong point about the need to fight individualism as a part of the revolutionary struggle. This is a particularly big challenge in the belly of the beast, where it is all about doin’ me and mines, even among those who face extreme repression under imperialism. On that note, we agree with the MIM line on fascism: “even though the imperialists have not implemented fascist measures against the exploiter majority in First World countries, the imperialists are the principal prop of fascism in the oppressed nations.” Within U$ prisons there is an argument to be made that fascist conditions exist, just as they do in many parts of the Third World, funded by the United $tates. But internally, Amerikan imperialism remains a bourgeois democracy.

January 2011 will be a legislature year in Texas. A petition has been put on the internet to ask our state leaders to reform the Texas parole board system, a tyranny agency ruining thousands of lives, in prison and in our own society. For some years now, since the mysterious death of David Ruiz (a Brown brother who achieved federal action to demand prison reform in Texas) we continue to raise awareness of the new and old injustices of the “justice” system as it pertains to parole.

Texas prisoners are not granted parole, even though they have done everything possible to be eligible for parole as required by their Inmate Treatment Plan (ITP). When the judge, the lawyers for both sides, and the offender all agree to a sentence, why does the parole board have the right to deny the parole because they decide the prisoner hasn’t served enough time? Doesn’t make sense or seem fair, does it? Prisoners have a time calculated date which is the parole eligibility date and those having met their ITP requirements should automatically make parole on that date. As the system works now, prisoners can not know whether they can exercise their special review rights, effectively ask for a review, or even know why or if they have been turned down, because they do not have access to their files. It is impossible for anyone to know if they have been falsely or wrongly accused of a transgression while incarcerated. If information has been erroneously placed in the file that may actually belong to another prisoner, or if their parole is being thwarted by a campaign by others they won’t know. They can not know if rules have been violated or if evidences that would prove their worthiness for the privilege of parole is actually in their file.

Good time is currently not calculated or used to achieve parole or financial compensation for prisoner labor. At present it is awarded but discounted as part of the parole process (ignored and not honored), meaning modern day slavery is going on. The system currently continues to vindictively punish even the “ideal” prisoners who have been rehabilitated (which supposedly is the goal of the incarceration) making them wonder why they keep trying and causing them to lose all capacity for hope as the promised parole is disregarded and becomes one setback after another. In addition it callously wrecks the lives of families and children of prisoners who suffer needlessly while trying to find some reason for the parole board’s coldness and tyrannical practices acting above the laws of the land.

Taxpayers are being robbed of funds by the corrupt parole practices. Prisoners in Texas seem to be the exception to the 13th amendment of the U$ constitution abolishing slavery as a large amount of capital is raised by the prison work generated by the incarcerated people now in prison. However, in the united states of america we should not allow slavery for state and corporate profit. It is criminal in itself to keep prisoners incarcerated for financial benefit by enslaving inmates past their parole eligibility date when they prove that they have gotten rehabilitated and qualify for parole release.

If you want to help change these parole injustices, please have your families and friends go to the following website and sign the petition: www.petitiononline.com/tcb123/petition.html
Also please have them write each one of their representatives.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this prisoner that the parole system in Texas, and throughout the criminal injustice system in the U$, does not work, not even by the laws of this illegal government. We find the demands in the petition agreeable in that they would lead to a general reduction in imprisonment in Texas.

However, disagree with the common misperception that the U$ prison monstrosity is driven by a desire to exploit prison labor. Certainly the workers benefiting from their well paid jobs running the prisons have an interest in denying parole, and the politicians who want the votes of the workers and their families, share this interest. But as we explained in an article on the U.$. prison economy, prison labor can offset some of the costs of imprisonment, but prisons are not profitable. They are a tool of the government that both provide jobs for the mostly oppressor-nation labor aristocracy workers while providing social control of the mostly oppressed nation population that is incarcerated. The U$ prison system is a massive suck on superprofits extracted from the Third World to pay staff and provide basic needs for those imprisoned. This is one of the costs of operation the imperialists are willing to pay, not something they are making money off of. That an industry has developed around this massive project is only a product of this reality that helps tie labor aristocracy interests to the imperialist state.