Under Lock & Key

Call it senseless, call it tragic, call it what you will, it’s death suffered again at the hands of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), in Huntsville, Texas.

You would probably think that I was referring to an execution, considering the infamous Execution Chambers TDCJ operates in Huntsville that has contributed to the death of over 400 humans in the last 30 years. However, this death took place at an area located outside another TDCJ prison called the Wynne Unit, that’s located about 10 minutes from the Death Chambers which are at the Walls Unit.

On September 24, 2007, inmates John Ray Falk and Jerry Martin, were escorted out the back gate of the Wynne unit to perform their job assignments as members of the “Hoe Squad.” this particular Squad received its name from the gardening tool that’s assigned to each inmate as they exit the back gate; it is commonly called a “Hoe”. Duties of the Hoe Squad are best described as what most people would probably call a “Chain Gang,” except in Texas there’s no chains. Each inmate is assigned a garden tool and ushered to an isolated field that typically is located not too far from the prison grounds. Once everyone arrives at the field, the inmates are lined up in several rows and forced to chop grass or turn dirt at the pace of a numbered-paced song, that’s normally chanted by a few designated inmates.

Depending on the size of the Hoe Squad you will have 6-10 armed officers mounted on horseback to supervise the working inmates. These officers are known for their Ten-Gallon hats that are exclusively made as part of their TDCJ-issued uniform. No other officers in TDCJ are permitted to wear such a Cowboy hat; only the Field Officers. This is one of the many things that separate the officers assigned to work inside the prison and those who work out in what is called the “fields” with the Hoe Squad. Susan Canfield, age 59, was one of the Field Officers on the Wynne Unit, and was assigned to supervise the Hoe Squad that Falk and Martin were assigned to.

Falk was serving a Life Sentence for a 1986 murder conviction. Martin had just completed his 10th year of a 50-year sentence for two counts of attempted Capital Murder. At 10:10am they decided to overpower Officer Canfield and another officer, and took their weapons. After a brief shootout with some other officers, Martin and Falk fled to a nearby parking lot and stole a Huntsville city truck and ran over Officer Canfield who was trying to stop them while they were making their escape. Shortly afterwards Officer Canfield died.

Death is what the TDC has been known for, mainly because of their brutal and extremely active Execution Chamber. However, many people who have had direct experience with TDCJ know that TDCJ has long maintained a culture of death. The inhumane and barbaric conditions TDCJ prides itself on have contributed to the death of many staff people who have worked for TDCJ as well as people who have been held as prisoners within its system. The TDCJ allows their punitive laws and policies to take precedence over rehabilitation for prisoners and safety for everyone, including their officers.

TDCJ directors have no qualms or reservations about placing their officers in high risk situations in order to obtain their goals of dehumanizing, harassing, and severely punishing all prisoners within their system on a daily basis. They feel as if it is their moral obligation to ensure that every day is a living hell for those who have been found guilty of committing a crime in free society, even at the cost of the safety of their own officers.

This is why Falk and Martin were assigned to work in the Hoe Squad despite their lengthy sentences, and Officer Canfield placed in a very risky position that would ultimately cost her the loss of her life. TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons has made many reports to the media outlets that alludes to the decision that was made, that permitted Falk and Martin to work outside the prison gates in the fields under supervision, was related to Falk and Martin’s clean disciplinary records, and their minimum security classification levels. It is Ms. Lyon’s intent to give the general public the impression that being assigned to work outside the prison grounds in the Hoe Squad, is some prestigious award allotted to inmates for good behavior, which is absolutely false and extremely misleading.

As a person who has spent the last decade in the TDCJ, and has been assigned to the Hoe Squad, I can positively assure you that the Hoe Squad is the most dreadful and despised job assignment in TDCJ. Upon entering TDCJ I was assigned to work in the Hoe Squad by the TDCJ Classification Committee. I was told by this committee that it’s TDCJ’s practice to make all incoming inmates start at the bottom (Hoe Squad) and work their way up to a job in food service or a job as a porter. However, the moment that you received a disciplinary case or rub someone the wrong way after working your way up, you will be instantly sent back to the Hoe Squad. The Hoe Squad is one of the many vehicles TDCJ utilizes as a form of punishment for delinquents and to ensure none of their rules are violated.

No one volunteers to work in the Hoe Squad, it’s the most brutal job ever! Mr. Falk, who had been in prison for 21 years, and Mr. Martin, who had been in prison over ten years, were not assigned to the Hoe Squad for being model prisoners, they were assigned to the Hoe Squad as a form of punishment, despite what Ms. Lyons would like the public to believe. As a result, Office Canfield was placed in an unsafe environment that allowed these idiots to kill her.

This is a tragic and senseless death at the hands of the TDCJ. This is their culture. The usage of Hoe Squads has long been suspended in every prison system in the United States, except Texas. What did the TDC official expect out of Falk and Martin? TDCJ is just as much responsible for Officer Canfield’s death as Falk and Martin.

The Under Lock and Key (Nov 2007, No 1), MIM Theory 10, and Aug 2006 MIM Notes couldn’t have come at a better time, for at that very moment I was in extreme need to hear from others who agree that merikkka’s system of injustice – when it comes to the universally poor and oppressed – is not only justifiably contemptible, but is yearning for a well placed, organized and strategic foot in their ass.

I read of the fantastic and revolutionary things MIM does in California – especially at the Bryant Street Jail, and High Desert State Pimping where D-facility got together in protest.

I’m definitely for ending the oppression of “all groups over groups” and do not claim to have all the solutions; therefore do not mind being a soldier. Neither do I really care about the method of ending oppression of all groups over groups; only the progressive results. I’m trying to cook up a recipe for change in Pennsylvania, but we need like-minded outside support to help us stir up the pot.

When I received all three above I was at SCI Cresson. I’m now at a security level 5 unit at SCI Houtzdale where in 15 months of disciplinary time I’ll be sent to the super maximum unit at SCI Green County where free-thinking political prisoners – such as myself – have been boldly killed. Green County is Pennsylvania’s Pelican Bay.

On February 1, 2008, while out in the so-called general population I was accosted by twenty white racist in black riot gear after respectfully trying to report to a lie-utenent that one of his officer’s discriminated against my disability, called me a nigger, and made comments with homo-sexual innuendos that I did not approve of. In the process of the riot team trying to extract me from my block so that I could be isolated for further abuse, one claimed that I stabbed him twice, while another claimed I hit him with a blunt object. I’m winning in the courts, about to take down a prominent judge, I never had a misconduct before this incident, I’m very studious and charismatic. Not only do I find their timing odd, but it is no coincidence that they charged me with just enough to qualify me for a life sentence under the unjust three strikes law.

If this isn’t enough to point out that we need a revolution in Pennsylvania, SCI Cresson can only flush their toilets twice.

I would like to give a salute to thank you MIM for the MT and its many issues. Due to it and it’s very meaning, I was brought back to the experienced life I was given, or forced to live (better said). I want to express myself on this issue.

My struggle, as I came to live it, was through many twists and turns in life. I was born in 1979 in Wichita, Kansas to poorly educated migrant working parents. My father was born and raised in Puerto Rico and migrated to the U$ in the 60s to find a better life and hoping one day to build a family. The poverty-stricken conditions on the island forced him to the U$A. My mother was born in Texas in one of the country’s poverty stricken regions in the Rio Grand Valley. Her parents migrated to the U$ from Mexico to find the so-called “American Dream”.

To these two courageous parents, four boys and two girls were born into the struggle in different parts of the U$, some in Michigan, some in Florida, and me, Kansas. I was born into the revolution, my physical presence as a kid in the field under the hot and endless days brought rebellion into me. Throughout the eighties and early nineties I experienced pain, hate, anger, racism, confusion, puzzlement, stress, oppression, etc.

This rebellion grew in me due to my surroundings and seeing my people oppressed and stigmatized. For me to see how my parents, who I love, would suffer due to the cruel and unequal government and its corporate allies. I remember waking up at 5 or 6am to go to work at the age of 9 or 10 years old until the sun seemed to sit behind the dark blue sky with its shadowy background. This would happen during the summertime when school was out and it was not cold. When it did get cold in the winter we would travel from Michigan to Florida and start all over again. This would keep me from advancing in school and so everyone else seemed to be getting a good and healthy education.

The moral of my life story goes that the economy and the government does not give a damn who it hurts. I came to Texas when I was in second grade and to my surprise I was brought back to first grade because the Michigan educational system was not meeting the Texas educational standard. I was 10 years old and in first grade. Crazy right?!

Did I choose this life? No! This life chose me and I became a revolutionary from birth. I was born in the fields, I was born to know no other life but blood, sweat and tears. I have the understanding now of who I am. I became a part of a movement that stresses the importance of unity and communication to build and sustain a strong front: internationalism and to becoming the vanguard. To help teach our people to become leaders and not followers, in all that we do we represent one another. We must educate and prepare ourselves, for that day is near.

I am presently witnessing my parents suffering from their labor and the pesticide that was routine and sprayed on those fields. Since their births over 60 years ago they were migrant working people and contributed their energy to provide food for those upper class and rich bourgeoisie. My mother suffers from numbness over her body and this I think is due to the chemicals that were sprayed over those fields. My parents receive a monthly so-called support check. Between both of them they receive $600 dollars a month. Honestly, this is not much because the gas has gone up, and property taxes are not far behind. My parents barely can come to see and visit with me and my younger brother who is doing two life sentences. Texas is a big state and we both are up by Dallas while our parents are at the border between Mexico and Texas.

This is my struggle and my way of learning who I am and why I am and why I became who I am.

Kern Valley State Prison is a new prison that hasn’t been open even ten years yet and it is already dragging its prison population through the dirt. The Blacks have been on lockdown since October 2007 and I was just recently told (word of mouth) that the lockdown will be extended for four more months. Now understand, I said word of mouth vs. an official departmental memo (as CDC policy regulates).

As of now we basically have no movement at all, besides escorted movement to medical or court. We have no yard, no religious services, no reading material, no visits or nothing, and as I become more educated with litigation and the U.S. constitution I understand that they are in clear violation and someone has to hold them accountable for the things they are doing wrong.

I want to let you know the latest info on censorship and the latest prison crimes against us comrades behind bars.

Censorship: I’ve written the Attorney General’s office and there was a memo that was written on 8/16/2007 that stated that political prisoners who want to receive books on political issues need to write to our counselors. The counselor will say yes or now and then we write to the company and order the book. Tell all comrades who study the ways of Mao or any communism group to go to the library/law library and ask for the memo on political books issues. It helps us out a lot. One problem, they don’t give prisoners a copy of the memo because the prisoner who works the law library said that the head people in Sacramento said not to copy the memo. So I will put a 602 appeal in and try to get a copy of the memo for our comrades. Also be advised, it may take a while because the 602 process is very slow and I might have to take it to the director’s of appeals in Sacramento.

Prison issues: On February 26 the C/Os and a sergeant brought out a prisoner and gave him an injection in the arm. This happened in the mental health crisis bed. The C/Os and Sergeant slammed the prisoner and punched him two times in the nose, breaking it. The C/Os and the Sergeant then said the prisoner assaulted them first, which is a big lie. I saw all of it. The Sergeant and a C/O pulled me out and put the baton around my neck and started strangling me and told me to remain silent. But now I’ve not only 602ed it, I’ve filed a civil complaint.

First and foremost I sent my utmost respect. I have read the letters you sent me and I really like this fine organization you have.

I have been oppressed here in the penal code system. On December 21, 2007 I was escorted to the hospital here in Pelican Bay State Prison and a C/O put the leg shackles on me too tight. I told him the shackles were too tight but he did not loosen them. Upon my arrival in CTC (the hospital), I was put in a holding cell. Fifteen minutes later I had to use the restroom but the C/Os would not let me go. At this particular time I was rubbing my ankles where the shackles were and I pulled up my jumpsuit because my ankles hurt. I had blood on both sides of my ankles, so I pulled down my socks to get a visual on my ankles. They were cut pretty deep on both sides. I have scars on both sides now. I filed a 602 (appeal), so I just have to exhaust my remedies and take it to court.

I would like to congratulate you and your staff, MIM. My respects go to each and every one who finds themselves in the struggle.

I just finished reading some of the statements and ways of living by other prisoners in similar situations to myself in Texas. This injustice prison and freeworld system goes out of its way to get at target minorities and their peers, labeling us security threat groups. Some of these captives have never been in general population and get segregated from population as soon as they hit the prison system.

I am going on 2.5 years in TDCJ and out of that, one year has been spent in administrative segregation with 18 more years to go, with no record of disciplinary cases or proper counsel to represent me in defense or to prove otherwise.

When I first got segregated in April 2007, I was on Polunsky Unit. There, Building Major John Werner segregated me for supposedly stock piling weapons. He did not give me and several people who were also put in ad-seg for the same reason, any kind of proper hearing or any kind of counsel to represent me and help with my defense. Two weeks after, we got moved to different units so now we can not prepare a proper defense together and build a successful civil suit on the state of Texas for allowing unjust placement in ad-seg.

Out of all this I was placed in ad-seg with a label that will segregate prisoners for long periods of time - security threat group (STG). I went into the STG manual and did not find the fraternity I am associated with there. But still my review papers state clearly that I am an STG. I fought that through step ones and grievances and all I have been given is the run around. But on my I-169 review paper stating reason for ad-seg, it states “threat to the physical safety of others and/or the order and security of the institution.” Once again I wrote a step one requesting evidence and witnesses and counsel for proper defense and was denied. I have repeatedly submitted grievances requesting information and review. I am currently awaiting an answer and if I do not get a proper and legit answer I shall do my duty as a revolutionary and file a civil suit.

I bring this up because it is not just I who is being played but several tens of hundreds of should be revolutionary comrades. The Texas system has a program that is called GRAD (Gang Renunciation and Dissociation) that one must go through in order to be placed back into population. The Texas Senate sponsored the program instead of funding educational programs. The majority of people segregated are Latinos (90%). Some of these men have no education or way of knowing if their rights are being violated.

Texas prisoners confined in ad-seg are deprived of virtually all human contact and mental stimuli. We are housed alone and remain in our cells 23 hours a day. But lately we have been housed 24/7 due to shortage of officers. We have no access to educational, vocational, or other rehabilitative programs and we are provided with only limited access to legal materials, visitation and other privileges.

What’s more, Texas prisoners placed in ad-seg for gang affiliation are reviewed just once a year and because we are deemed members of a security threat group, the State classification committee has only one option, to continue confinement in ad-seg.

I would like to give a brief synopsis of a matter that took place about a year ago in Huntsville TX prison, but somehow is just now surfacing in the public (prison) eye. A prisoner by the name of Larry Cox died due to medical shortage of staff in 2007, but the thing is not as it seems to appear. 48-year-old Larry Cox should not have been left to deteriorate on his prison cell floor, with a broken back and in his own waste, for two days last year, before being sent to the hospital to die.

This clearly shows the negligence of the prison officers as much as the prison nurses, who have no concern what so ever for a prisoner who disrupts the institution. In testimony before the Senate criminal justice committee Dr. Ben Raimer and a colleague, Glenda Adams - both with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston - suggested a mix of factors led to Cox’s death, including the prisoner’s poor health due to negligence of the medical office on the unit, his tendency to malinger, and his “violent behavior.”

See, that violent behavior is what caused his death. Reason being, once you interfere with the rules and regulations of the institution, you create a reputation where these guards hold anger and frustration toward you to the point, as in this case, where they will allow others or even themselves kill you. How else would he have gotten a broken back? Assistance did not come to him until after the fact of negligence by nurses, doctors and the guards.

Two days is a long time on the floor. I mean, these guards passed out chow, mail, and did head count for over two days. They, as much as the nurses, are at fault. I know they saw him there on the floor asking for help. It was an easy task for one of those guards to have gone and advised his supervisors.

Later, Raimer and Adams both indicated that the death of the prisoner from Houston may have been aggravated by a shortage in medical staff, including a 50% shortage of doctors, 18% shortage in registered nurses. How about the guards and their evil ways? It all revolves around the same thing, a man’s death. Cox died two weeks after he had a scuffle with the prison guards at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville Texas.

The prison’s independent inspector general, John Moriatry, who is in charge of monitoring the prison system, told lawmakers that on four occasions prison medical staff did not administer Cox’s prescribed medication, even when he told them he was paralyzed and could not get it himself. A physician care assistant recorded that as a “Refusal to take medication.”

Moriarty defended his guards stating that they hand-fed Cox painkillers, and one supposedly alerted medical supervisors that the prisoner needed to be transferred to a hospital. By then, however, it was too late. For two days Cox was left on a mattress on his cell floor, dying in his own waste.

No one was ever held criminally responsible. The two prosecutors involved, one with the Walker County District Attorney’s office and the other assigned to the state’s prison prosecutor’s unit, recommended that “no criminal charges be filed,” Despite the medical examiner’s report and Moriarty’s conclusion that criminal charges should be brought against at least five medical employees. But what about the guards at the Estelle unit?

This is some of what happens behind these walls of silence. We as comrades need to break this silence by using common sense and observation. We must mobilize the masses to go against this in prison and expose the corruption of this capitalist and imperialist government.

Mao Zedong: A Life
by Jonathan Spence

The author of this book, Jonathan Spence, teaches at Yale University. his awards include a Gugenheim and MacArthur Fellowship so it was of no surprise from the very first pages to read criticism of Mao with many false claims adding no sources to validate the slander found in this book. Spence’s ludicrous claims of Mao being disinterested in education ‘browsing through newspapers for months’ seemed humorous, I thought, who believes this shit? Mao was known for his intense study and his ground breaking theory reflects this.

As I navigated through the bullshit I found glimpses of history peppered throughout ’ a life’, I found interesting Mao’s early years pre-1920’s Chinese civil war. His Book Society Club and being editor of the progressive journal “New Hunan” seemed to build public opinion during these early years. I did enjoy reading in Chapter 4 of the formation of the Chinese Communist Party which was assisted by the Soviets, at this time Chinese were sent to Russia and France to study who would return to help build China. Spence did give a brief description of the Chinese Communist Parties first congress, which was ultimately held on a boat on a Zhejiang lake, and the secrecy that was needed at that time, the first congress decided they would focus on organizing factory workers for the immediate future.

In chapter 5 Spence points out that in 1925 British forces shot Chinese civilians demonstrating and sparked popular movements against imperialism. According to Spence, in 1925 communist party membership was under 1,000 but by 1927 it expanded to over 57,000. What Spence fails to point out is it took public opinion and the communist party to seize these opportunities to show the people, teach and guide them to action against the imperialists acts of atrocity to create over 57,000 members in the CCP.

In Chapter 5 Spence begins surprisingly well when describing how in 1926 Mao was one of those chosen to organize the peasants in the countryside including in his homeland of Hunan, which proved a success, and how the poorest of peasants seized power from the dominating landlords and how in the liberated areas women were no longer enslaved by husbands. The petty criminals, secret societies and even children began to partake in the new liberation areas. However, the credit was short lived as Spence got back to criticizing Mao’s attention to detail in his writings with tables and neat rows of figures on the size and location of each peasant association. Later in the book Spence even criticizes Mao in his later years for not being detailed in his writings as before.

Every now and then Spence will give Mao his due respect, one such instance is in chapter 6 when describing Mao’s guerilla episodes when Mao and his forces used the JiangXi county town of YongXin as their “center” and as a base for organizing “insurrection” in the neighboring counties. At this time Spence goes on to say “Mao was 34, lean from privation, rich with experience from his organizational work among the peasantry, and a storehouse of knowledge about communist and Guomindang party leaders.” Spence goes on to criticize the long march with much death and disaster, however he fails to note that had Mao not initiated the long march, the communist troops would have been wiped out by the Guomindang at “Jiangxi soviet” which was the new communist base area on the FuJian border.

There were three pages on Stalin and Mao’s meetings that were informational yet when discussing the cultural revolution Spence seems to limit this great achievement to closing brothels and construction of buildings. When discussing the Korean War Spence goes on to mention how Mao’s oldest son died in this war and goes on to say “when Mao was finally told of his son’s death by Peng DeHuai in person, he agreed to let the body remain in Korean soil, as an example of duty to the Chinese people.” This I think shows Mao’s character and what kind of leader he was.

Overall this was a horrible book about Mao, written with a blatant imperialist bias. I thought I could sort through the bullshit and pick out good information but I had many headaches attempting to do so, Spence often cites “facts” about Mao without any notes or references as to where he found these “facts.”

I just finished reading the January 2009, Number 6, issue dealing with the gender issue and had to write. As a prisoner in a SMU I am constantly faced with gender oppression. Everytime you come out of your cell you are frisked. For security purposes I can understand this. But these officers (both male/female) take it beyond what is necessary. Male and female COs alike fondle your genitals as well as posterior claiming to be making sure you don’t have any weapons. However, everyone knows that its main purpose is to degrade and dehumanize you.

The one thing that was not touched on though in this issue was gender reveral on the part of the COs. Some women COs who are attracted to certain prisoners (as is natural in male and female interaction) will encourage you to masterbate for them. A lot of dudes for whatever reason indulge them. But then you have those who will give you an infraction if you expose yourself to them. However the male COs will give you an infraction if you don’t allow them to look at your genitalia and anal cavity until they have satisfied themselves with that part of your anatomy.

This is what I mean by gender role reveral. The men has taken on the likes, wants, and desires of the womena nd the women have taken on the attitude of the men. Yet they continue to portray us to the Amerikan public as socially deviant.

Keep up the good work.