Under Lock & Key

The program at this prison is getting worse and changing daily. The new excuse is the budget. We are only getting program every other day because they can’t afford to pay staff overtime. What a joke! On the days we are locked down it’s common to see 10 cops sitting on their fat, overpaid asses, on the yard and eating sunflower seeds.

I overheard a nurse saying that she was working a double shift. She said she was making $48.50 an hour. Her job consists of dispensing medication to prisoners. What the hell, this lady is making $582 for her 16 hour day, she passes out pills two times a day, it takes about one hour to dispense pills so she is actually doing 2 hours of work and the rest of her day she sits and complains that our economy is messed up. Damn! She is why our economy is what it is.

They are still shipping people to different states. A bus load left a few days ago for Arizona. They will not transfer anyone who has any medical or dental issues or if you are CCCMS. By a prisoner agreeing to transfer they are helping this state. It’s crazy that California not only has the biggest prison system but now we are taking over the prisons in other states. When will it stop.

They changed the name to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They offer no form of rehabilitation on this yard. Do you know if I could file a lawsuit for false advertisement?

I was placed in ad-seg again on July 5th, 2008. The corrupt Mule Creek State Prison CCPOA mafia prison guards dispatched six of their inmate rat pack cronies to assault me in my cell because I refuse to give up my single cell status and take a second prisoner in the cell. The six inmate rats beat me unconscious, both my right and left eyes were swollen shut for over 30 days. They tried to throw me off the tier. I sustained neck, ribs, liver and kidney damage. I was med-i-vac transported to Sutter Amador hospital. The CDCR guards kept punching me in the chest at the hospital, calling me names. I kept slipping in and out of consciousness. I woke up and five days later MCSP CDCR is charging me with assault on a CDCR-CCPOA-Mafia peace officer.

So now I’m caged in ad-seg, held on a D.A. referral on a felony charge of assault on a peace officer. And I still refuse to double cell. The struggle continues.

First and foremost, I want to address the issue of struggle. Brothers and sisters, struggle has been a part of life since the beginning of time. Struggle is the life of the oppressed more than the non-oppressed [hence we expect change to come from the oppressed - editor for MIM(Prisons)]. Struggle is an element of life that brings about the strength needed to succeed beyond life’s boundaries. Struggle is not as bad as one may perceive; especially when struggle isn’t fully understood by it’s perceiver. Struggle gave us the strength to stand and speak against the conditions of oppression…

Second, my comrade who wrote, “Who’s talking in code, pig?” You are much older than me. Please let me share with you what you may already know. The ignorance of those who formulate task forces for individuals they don’t understand only shows the fear they choose not to express verbally, due to pride. This is what J. Edgar Hoover created COINTELPRO for, because they did not understand that the struggle of our people numbed the pain away, but, that same struggle they caused upon us, became the strength we needed to expose their ignorance. Many obstacles are placed before us as a test to succumb or prevail. Frustration at times ensue. Understand, that smiles given to those that seek our ultimate downfall enrages them to the point of self-destruction. Because, ignorance is their conscious and knowing that ignorance is their conscious, they can and will never be fully aware of their downfall upon its arrival. Which is already before their eye, as we know of course though. Their own ignorance has kept them blind to their own downfall, which makes it useless to lower your standards through frustration, for something that we both know is not on your level. Liberation is a must. Therefore smile at the captives, for they lack the understanding of true identity and struggle - you’re within my thoughts.

My Nevada comrade, you’re energy is truly felt. Educating the masses that have been misguided for so long is the key to exiting the mental wilderness of the oppressed. Continue with the spirit you have in uplifting the people through proper education. I commend you and wish you the best within all your endeavors. Mental liberation is indeed a must my brother.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We see the power of ULK in bringing together those who are struggling for justice, who the government has made every effort to isolate. And we find this comrades thoughts useful in inspiring struggle in others that is based in recognizing and working within the conditions we find ourselves. Life is struggle, and struggle brings change, and that should be inspiring, especially when we realize that we determine what type of change will come about.

Patience and strategic confidence in dealing with the oppressor is another thing this comrade stresses. On the one hand we should be outraged by injustice and therefore we will use strong language like in the article cited. But using strong language to rally the masses around a cause is not the same as becoming frustrated or acting out violently in anger, which this comrade rightly discourages. The comrade who wrote the article has a lawsuit that is part of a long legal struggle against the CDCR, so he is a good example of struggling through patient legal efforts. Our strength grows in slow, determined educational work, while the oppressor acts out violently and ultimately, helplessly.

My respects to all of you. I just wanted to let you know your letter was a touch down and is being passed around so others can be enlightened on topics that you provide so the struggle can be strengthened by more support on the inside.

As always, the condition in the SHU is poor, but I want to bring up another issue. The CDCR is taking 55% of all money loved ones or friends send. This is strong arm extortion at the highest level. It can also be considered robbery since none of my victims have been given a penny in reimbursement. I’m not alone in this concern. 95% of the prisoners are effected by this extortion. This needs to be addressed to the state legislators so they know the prison is not providing jobs to prisoners to earn money to pay off any restitution owed. It’s been said it may go to 60% soon. It is not fair to friends or loved ones to pay any restitution we owe. I am slammed down 24/7 as well as everyone in the SHU, so none of us are able to get jobs.

I still, to this day, have no idea how they confirmed me as being a part of an STG [Security Threat Group]. I’ve been in one fight that I got wrote up for and never had a weapon on me at any time. They don’t have any kites with my name in them and they won’t tell me anything. One day they just said you confirmed a member of an STG and locked me up.

I’m not a part of this group they confirmed me as, and the only way out is to take a G.R.A.D. program, and to do this I have to sign a paper saying yes I am a member, when I’m not. Doing this will put my life in danger as having marked an X to something I never was a part of.

They should change some rules in TDCJs in Texas because these GIs are just confirming people left and right saying they’re confirmed when they are not. I’m not the only one who’s been done like this.

How can I make them tell me what evidence they’re using to confirm me? What could I do to help people like me get out of AdSeg without taking that G.R.A.D. program?

While at the Parchman plantation I spent 5 1/2 years in a sensory deprivation unit called Unit 32. It holds a thousand bodies, but when I first got there it was doubled up due to banging between the Vice Lords and Black Gangster Disciples. The racial makeup was over 90% Black with a smattering of caucasians and one or two Vietnamese and Latinos.

I was first placed in it for my crime and length of sentence: Aggravated assault - my sentence is 110 years. I was kept in there due to my lack of conforming to their principles, willingness to attack them in court, filing numerous grievances, refusing to be brainwashed, and most importantly I did not lose my mind. Currently I am in federal court pursuing a censorship and 8th amendment cause (2nd hand tobacco smoke exposure) as I have pulmonary problems and a strong desire to be kept abreast of world events and revolutionary education.

People are ad segged for fighting, escape attempts, standing up to the officials, dirty urine, trying to obtain education or better health care, fighting the phone system monopoly and canteen monopoly, trying to obtain and utilize knowledge to make a better way for themselves and family, and for trying to obtain better prison living conditions (i.e. less overcrowding, sanitary, food, etc.)

Unit 32 opened in 1989 and has not been expanded. However, there are rumors that they are in the process of building two, possibly three more deprivation units in MS. One is to be down here and the other in Rankin County, MS, AKA Central MS Correctional Facility.

I know all about female psycho-sexual predators [as described in ULK 4]. In Parchman it is very prevalent. They use it to control prisoners in various ways. I’ve actually seen them (females) take out hits on people using their boy toy to do it. I like sex as well, if not more so then the next person, but I have never and will never lower myself to do some crap such as that. Nor set up a brother with drugs, hooch, or weapons. Down here it is not so much actual sex, though that happens too, it is the expectation that it could happen if the person just plays his cards right, or wrong as the case actually is.

I have been receiving your newsletter for a couple of years now and have thought to write on many occasions. But reading the article “Psycho-Sexual Warfare vs Political Prisoners” by a New York Prisoner has finally compelled me to do so. My own personal experiences within Montana’s prison system share some common ground and I thought I would take the time to offer a comparison.

Unlike most of your contributors, I am not only a political prisoner within the prison system itself, I am a political prisoner for opposing the corrupt authorities on the outside, as well. I did not commit a crime to be arrested, I sued the City of Kalispell, Montana, and was charged with a false crime and arrested, followed by a kangaroo court trial and conviction, to stop my suit against those authorities.

Upon entering the prison system I committed myself to fighting the system from the inside. I have used my legal knowledge to file hundreds of legal documents for other prisoners (in spite of unlawful rules and regulations prohibiting prisoners from assisting each other with legal matters) and filed several claims in the courts on my own, including an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) suit and a class action suit for numerous civil liberty violations.

As a vocally outspoken opponent of the prison industrial complex as a whole, and the Montana State prison system specifically, I have made myself quite the target for retaliations from the prison administration. Though I have not had the sexual element foisted upon me as my New York counterpart reports, I have had the rest done to me. I am a low custody prisoners presently confined in a high security lock-down facility, for instance. This has been done in spite of the authorities’ foreknowledge that I am claustrophobic, in spite of the fact that I am housed with predatorily violent prisoners, many of whom are staff bulldogs (prisoners who work for the cops, basically acting as strong-arms against anyone in disfavor with those same cops). I have been not only placed in “ambiguous and pressure-filled situation(s)” but I have been beaten by an inmate who did so I believe at staff instruction.

I have had privileges stripped from me, and even property stolen from me, by staff members whose only intent is to harass and provoke me. Yes, I have been on the receiving end of efforts designed to “dehumanize” me and to make me “subservient.” And I have only been subjected to all of this extra hardship because I will not break and I continue to fight the system. The New York prisoner is absolutely right in this regard - prison officials isolate those with the greatest potential and subject them to abuses designed to strip us of our focus and will.

I wanted him and everyone else suffering similar hardship to know that you are not alone. Others fight the war with you. Each time prison officials fail to break you, it’s a victory. Remember that and stand strong.

I wish my brothers and sisters in solidarity strength and goodwill.

I’d like to comment on some of the articles written by prisoners in September’s ULK. While I haven’t finished reading it just yet, only the prisoner articles, I quite enjoyed the ULK. This edition should’ve been titled “The Censorship Issue.”

It’s true that institutions throughout the country focus only on Black and Brown oriented magazines, citing “pornographic material” or “gang paraphernalia.” Now this doesn’t just have to do with “Vibe” or “XXL” or “Maxim en Espanol.” Even “ESPN en Espanol” has begun to be targeted within SVSP. Now last I checked “ESPN en Espanol” focuses on soccer and sports in Latin America in general and last I checked there weren’t many scantily clad women in this magazine. So what’s the deal? It seems that since many adult institutions so successfully banned pornographic materials, such as pictures and magazines, now they’re trying to stop us from appreciating our own women who aren’t even naked in these magazines. Now that they see that they can get away with this they seem to move on to sports magazines stating that they can’t understand the language therefore there’s a possibility that coded messages might be hidden somewhere in the text or some other frivolous, ridiculous reason.

To me this seems like a type of aggressive assimilation. You can’t look at brown/black women, but you can look at some fancy white model in Vogue magazine. Also I recall seeing an issue of GQ magazine sometime back with an article about a supposed member of the CRIPS gang in Watts. In this article there were a few pictures which, if found in Vibe or any other culturally oriented magazine, would’ve deemed the magazine a “safety and security risk” to the institution, but because it was in good ’ol GQ, no one batted an eye. I’m sure they don’t even bother to crack those open for inspection in the mail rooms inside institutions across Amerikkka.

Another article that caught my attention in the ULK was the plight of the South Carolina inmate. There seems to be a lot wrong with what’s going on over there. To begin with, by law every institutional law library must be properly stocked and equipped with adequate and up to date legal materials. Off hand I can’t remember the title of the case but I believe this has already been decided in the U.S. Supreme Court. Next time I go to law library I’ll try to find it.

Also concerning the New Mexico inmate whose grievances are not being responded to, it would be a good idea if he acquired declarations from other inmates there who’ve gone through similar experiences he could use these declarations to show the court how the prison refuses to let prisoners exhaust their remedies. This is what I’m doing for a couple of guys here whose civil suits were dismissed in the district court due to supposedly not exhausting the remedies. They are now appealing in the 9th Circuit and my declarations of how I found 602s and legal mail in the trash will hopefully be helpful.

I’m in a controlled unit that’s called 4B. It’s a special unit of the Maximum Security Prison of Ohio (max security level is rated 4 while 4B is a secluded section of the same prison). This is also where they administer the death penalty. People are sent to 4B for assaults, drugs, fights, etc. I came from a close security prison #3). One must do 6 months, 1 year or 18 months here on 23 hour lock down before going to general population, depending on your case. General population is called 4A here, at the same prison.

There are 6 cell blocks of 4B, 9 cell-blocks of 4A, 1 cell block of “the hole” (segregation) for 4A, 2 cell blocks for “protective custody” and one for Security Threat Groups” (gangs). On the 6 cell blocks of 4B you have 80 prisoners in each. The cells have bars and some brothers conduct themselves like animals (cursing, yelling, throwing urine and waste, etc.). Televisions are hung on the walls outside of the cells. Racially it’s probably 60% Black, 30% white, 10% other. This first opened after the riots went down here in 1993 (the Lucasville Riots). Going to recreation we have to chain up on ankles, arms behind backs and placed on a collective chain.

Just recently CDCR replaced all state owned prison institutions with new flushing mechanisms for the toilets, The flush-o-meters. This is supposed to save money on water waste, leaving the prison money, in other words. First off the flush-o-meter varies from prison to prison. But basically you get 2 flushes within a 15 minutes time zone. If you flush a 3rd time the toilet locks for 15 minutes. If you check within 15 minutes that the toilet is locked, the timer resets. So you could have your toilet lock for a long time (I myself had it lock for over 90 minutes).

The thing is, if you live with a cellmate you need to flush your waste down because of the smell. It’s the only logical thing to do. No one flushes that many times.

This is supposed to be a big money saver. First the CDCR pays pennies for work (prisoner’s work) so it’s a joke. It’s basically slave labor. A form of slavery in the worst kind. Because people want to get out of their cells they do anything, It’s like building your own cage. So right off the bat the CDCR saved for the installation of the flush-o-meter. Where did all the extra money go that they saved? Who knows.

Second off, the water waste is lessened supposedly. So the water bill for all state prisons are less. Where does that money go? My assumption is that it does not go back to help rehabilitation of prisoners. This machines is broken down, it needs reform and change. One thing for sure, whatever budget the CDCR wants, it gets.