MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
When brother Malcolm X died,
I died inside,
When Fred Hampton died,
I became revived,
When George Jackson died,
I blooded in my eyes,
When Huey P. died,
I revolutionized
and realized,
I’m Toussaint, Garvey and Stokely,
Turner, Biko, Prosser and Vessey,
Fanon, Cabral, Lumumba, Sankara,
Ruchell, Jonathan, McClain and Christmas.
My godesses are: Truth Sojourner,
Harriett Tubman, Candos, Kween Nzinga,
Angela, Ericka, Afeni and Assata,
and all the MOVE comrades
Last name Afrika.
I’m MLM to the fullest,
Anti-CIWPS, Anti-misogynist
All the way feminist, egalitarianist,
Lumpen proletarian, street reactionary
Turned radical internationalist
Revolutionary intercommunalist,
My oath is with Mother Earth
Climate Justice.
A prisoner, yeah,
But I’m not the real criminal,
Not the one making the policies,
Which creates poverty for capital
Thus, creating crime and immorality,
which are mostly survivalist, reactionary,
miseducated responses and reactions
to CIPWS miseducation and poverty.
Till we, as a People
Start taking politics personal
We will keep being the victims
of the real criminals, the real parasiticals,
The plutocrats,
Republikkklans and Demoncrats,
Working only in the interest of the tall hats
while their Plutocrat Imperialist Goons
Keep lynching us.
Then they wonder why,
We’re getting politically conscious
Self-defensive and rebellious
Screaming,
All Power to the People, from the soul
Screaming, All Power to the Proles,
Black Power, Black August
Black essential self-determination,
Our number one goal,
Only us could free us,
Black Power as a whole.
Black Power, Black August,
Black essential self control.
Black Power, Black August,
Breaking the mental and physical holds.
Black Power Black August
Black Power Black August.
Abolish FSP (Florida State Prison) use of force (pepper spray and
cell-extraction beatings) on prisoners who are only voicing their
grievances, while in secured cells, not being violent or destructive,
just voicing grievances.
End FSP so-called “no talking” rule. Prisoners are being deprived
meals and/or pepper sprayed, and/or even beaten during cell extractions,
solely for speaking to each other, our stay on CM (Close Management)
being prolonged – yes, just for talking to each other.
Abolish mental health staff being in cahoots with and approving
of overseer abuse and brutality of innocent prisoners already suffering
from CTSD (Current Traumatic Stress Disorder), being misdiagnosed as
‘disruptive.’
End overseers withholding of prisoners meals as a disciplinary
sanction.
Abolish preparing meals with subliminal intent of feeding pigs at
neighboring swill farms rather than feeding human prisoners.
End FSP serving prisoners meals on mold, greasy and wet trays.
Health risk.
Abolish FSP serving meals cold, which are supposed to be served
hot. Another health risk.
End FSP serving of half cooked meals to prisoners. Yet another
health risk.
Abolish FSP serving of highly carcinogenic, GMO, processed, fake
meat.
End FSP’s blatant and rampant arbitrary deviation from FDOC
master menu, and serving meals in exiguous portions, denying prisoners
legally required nutritional value and calorie count.
Abolish FSP vertical use of black box on handcuffs and waist
chains. Black box and handcuffs are designed to be used horizontally,
not vertically. Even while having to carry personal property, placing
prisoners at great risk of breaking wrists and/or other life-threatening
injuries during falls.
End FSP use of exhaust fans and heaters as control and/or torture
devices as collective punishment of prisoners.
Abolish FSP’s blatant and rampant withholding and delaying of
prisoners incoming and outgoing mail as a censorship tactic.
End FSP’s blatant and rampant arbitrary and retaliatory
impounding and rejection of prisoners’ incoming publications, based
solely on prisoners political beliefs, expression, affiliation and
advocacy/activism.
Abolish FSP repression, re-education campaign and war on
prisoner’s aspiration of genuine essential self-rehabilitation via
political studies, application and practices of genuine essential
self-criticism and rectification.
End conducting of prisoners medical sick-call at cell doors,
depriving prisoners of confidentiality and privacy.
Abolish FSP pepper-spraying and/or beating of mentally ill
prisoners.
End CM (Close Management) solitary confinement of mentally ill
prisoners.
Abolish the blatant and rampant ignoring the audio/video of
prisoners PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) calls on overseers sexual
harassment, or declaring mental health (psych) emergencies.
End FSP overseers taking of prisoners personal property and
giving it to or leaving it accessible to friendly or favored
prisoners.
Abolish FSP discriminatory denying CM I & II prisoners their
JPAY purchased tablets and service, while allowing CM III prisoners
their JPAY tablets and services, denial of JPAY tablet is based solely
on punishment for being on CM I & II status.
End overseer training, indoctrination, instilling mindset that CM
is disciplinary confinement rather than administrative or segregated
housing. FSP staff and overseers literally believe that CM is for
torture of prisoners rather than correction and rehabilitation of
prisoners.
Abolish FSP’s blatant and rampant throwing away/trashing of
prisoners submitted informal and formal grievances.
End FSP fabrication of disciplinary reports, falsifying
documents, solely to prolong prisoners’ stay on CM.
Abolish FSP’s racist/KKK/good-ole-boy code of silence. Prisoners
are being beaten in the medical building, off camera, in blind spots –
being in blues is the new black.
If you are reading this, please understand that the above listed are
only a few of the many injustices occurring here at FSP (Florida State
Prison). Please understand that our backs are against the wall, we are
voiceless, disenfranchised, isolated, alienated and scared of
retaliation. Please understand that we are very well aware of the fact
that we are in prison, and many believe that we deserve to be tortured.
But what we and many others do not realize is the fact that though we
are in prison, technically, we are not the real criminals. The actions
that land us in prison are only reactions and responses to the
mis-education and poverty created and perpetuated by the real criminals,
the plutocrat politicians. Most of us are in prison only and mostly
because we are not corporation owners who are too big for jail, instead
we are the too poor and mis-educated to defend ourselves against the
state and the prosecutors who know full well who the real criminals are,
their bosses and friends, state and capital.
Please help us by spreading the word and emailing the above demands
to all your friends and family, ask them to email it to friends and
family, and post it on social media. The idea is to raise mass
awareness, and to also let the real criminals, the plutocrats, know that
we, the people, know that they are the real criminals, doing all in
their power to perpetuate crime, because crime creates and perpetuates
state jobs, nationwide.
and the Inspector General using the Complaint Form at
fdc.myflorida.com.
“Real change begins with real awareness.”
18 July 2021, approximate 6:22AM, a prisoner in #1217 cell just got
pulled out of his cell and jumped by overseers. Prisoner was already in
restraints, two cells away from his cell. He was slammed to the ground,
one overseer had his knee planted in the back of the prisoners neck
while the prisoner was face down and handcuffed with his hands behind
his back, while the other overseer punched him. I’m in the wing next
door (J-Wing). Prisoners on windows reported it as it happened.
Currently I’m in confinement in Florida, pending CM (Close
Management) waiting on state classification officer decision. PIGs
(Pro-Imperialist Goons) claim I was organizing or encouraging a riot or
disturbance. All a ploy to get me behind the door for pushing the pen
too effectively. I’ve just successfully appealed 4 disciplinary reports
(D.R.s) written against me, including a D.R. written by the Assistant
Warden.
In the mean time, I’m reading throw-back ULKs. Stuck in
No. 54, learning so much. MIM, you have been so much help in my gaining
political awareness, revolutionary transformation and personality. My
first ULK was in 2012. I haven’t looked back since. Thank you
so much.
I’m reading the article, “Coffee
house revolutionaries or real militants?” by an Ohio komrade, who
referred to MIM as coffee house revolutionaries, which I see as a
constructive complement rather than a dis. And as I expected, in
response MIM is not offended. I’m feeling this article because its
helping me realize that in the struggle, everybody can’t be infantry
guerrilla, the struggle need planners and other part players. The hand
is made of 5 fingers, and each finger plays an equally valuable role in
doing whatever the hand does.
If it wasn’t for the dialectics of coffee house revolutionaries like
MIM, I would not be as effective as I am today. I would still be
fighting these pigs with emotions rather than revolutionary
intelligence, discipline and creativity. In order for our struggle to be
effective, we need the historical analysis of coffee house
revolutionaries, just as we need solid boots on the ground. We are all
in the same struggle, against the very same enemy oppressor, and we are
effective and victorious as long as we never forget this one point in
unity for solidarity.
It’s only best that we learn from each other, constructive criticism
plays a major role in self-criticism. I did a drawing once of Obama,
with an obelisk in the background. MIM wrote back sending me a list of
historical reasons illustrating why Obama and obelisk should not be in
the same piece. The picture was contradicting itself more than doing
what it was intended to do; show Obama as a black face for capitalist
imperialist white supremacy. I missed my mark, and MIM made me see that
via the show of Obama’s repeated drone assassinations, mass
deportations, granting impunity to PIGs lynching us in the streets and
court rooms, he did nothing about mass incarceration, knowing that
Blacks and poors are being targeted. MIM showed me the truth, and being
a good revolutionary has a lot to do with gaining truth and putting that
truth into practice, and learning from the result of that practice.
MIM has been with me from my beginning stages, responding to all my
letters and requests for study materials, and guidance when no one else
cared or was able to care. I learned that i had to establish myself in
the struggle, and MIM made it easier for me to do so. The books, the
study materials, the jailhouse lawyer’s manuals and the plain old
camaraderie needed as a lone operative. MIM inspired a creativity in me
that the PIGs came to know and fear. PIGs are afraid of pen pushers, but
when you go to reaching out and over the heads of their impunity
granting bosses, they pay attention. There is nothing like a warden
receiving a phone call from someone, or several people on the outside
about some brutality that was not supposed to leak out from behind the
Amerikkkan iron curtain. I kept reporting to MIM and anyone I thought
cared, MIM would publish my reports, someone would read it and call the
institution. All it takes is one phone call. And you know when they get
phone calls, their body language tell it all, they speak without
words.
The bigger their show, the bigger their fear. One time in 2014 they
woke me up, sliding my cell door open with a bang at 1:00 in the
morning, cuffed me up and took me to the security building just to ask
me, “Who is MIM?” My only response was, “We want egalitarianism.” They
didn’t even know what egalitarianism was. These PIGs are terrified of
revolutionary civility. They expect us to behave like the animals
they’ve been conditioned to believe we are, and when we show the
opposite, we disarm them. They know we can go from zero to 100 in a
split second, but our self-control, organizing, discipline and
solidarity makes them unable to sleep at night.
Do your historic research, the revolutionary has never been the one
to initiate violence, violence has always been initiated by the
government. The revolutionary has only responded with self-defense.
Self-defense is a must. The first thing every revolutionary must learn
is that the capitalist-imperialist white supremacist is not just going
to peacefully pack up and go home. They’re not just gonna give up the
means of production and subsistence and power.
We need coffee house revolutionaries in the towers, at the computer
screens, in the libraries, etc etc. to let us know what we are dealing
with or what’s coming and the most effective scientific means of
engagement. Just as importantly, we need mechanics, technicians,
carpenters, plumbers, cooks, teachers. We all have to play our
individual part in this struggle as a collective, in theory and in
practice. MIM has taken on the practice of teaching theory and practice
and that’s what revolution is, theory in practice.
With MIM’s help, I have learned and I have grown to the point where I
am in solidarity with myself and others on the inside and outside, and I
am still learning and growing, making a difference by being different.
Sentenced to life for the gun, and being buried alive for the pent.
Thanks to MIM, who gave me precious time and undivided academic
attention, I’m giving these PIGs hell, with just an ink pen. Just
imagine me holding a gun again, this time genuinely rehabilitated. And I
am a state(enemy)-labelled sex offender. I believe in rehabilitation, I
don’t care who you are, you can be rehabilitated. You can be a
revolutionary, practice self-criticism, and let your action do the
talking. I’ve been in and out of prison more than half my life, and I
have never seen the state genuinely rehabilitate anyone. Genuine
rehabilitation is like freedom, you have to give it to yourself.
They say, we are burning down our own
community,
they must be looking at the wrong TV,
According to Webster, a community is:
1) A body of people living in the same place
under the same laws.
2) society at large
3) joint ownership
4) The people with common interest
living in a particular area.
Based on this definition, we have no community.
We own no major corporations, no assets, no property.
We get no equal service and protection of law
in any of these territories,
like the Palestinians being occupied by the I$raelis.
All we are experiencing here is amerikkklan apartheid,
Portrayed as aliens, second-class citizens, animals on channel
live.
This would not be happening in our community.
Our schools and education, would not be getting determined
by capitalist imperialist white supremacist owners of our
ancestry,
In our community, the police would be police,
not PIGs (Pro Imperialist Goons) who hate us with dignity,
lynching us like dogs in the streets, with guaranteed impunity,
no accountability,
In our community, 94% of our annual spending
would be on own products and services.
Rent and interest rates would not be discriminatory.
We would be land lords, we would have our own banks,
investing our savings in our own community interest,
with appreciation and thanks.
We would own our own means of production.
Selling our labor to each other,
and receiving fair wages, top dollars,
the only community we’ve ever had,
was burned to the ground in 1921.
Tulsa Oklahoma, Black Wallstreet.
Where the owners of corporations and property
looked like us, thought like us, acted like us
everything there was for us, by us.
The court rooms in our community would be egalitarian and just.
We wouldn’t be getting lynched in the streets,
or being incarcerated, rail-roaded for profit.
This is not our community,
Burn it down… Burn it down…
To the ground,
This is not our community.
While reading a comrade’s April 2017 SF Bay View, National Black
Newspaper, I cam across an ad regarding the Texas prisoners’ boycott of
the prison commissary injustice.
This ad helped me realize that the unarmed robbery of the loved-ones of
prisoners is not only a Florida atrocity, but a national occurrence.
Prisoners in Texas and other states are being used as a means of robbing
not only tax payers, but loved-ones of prisoners, who are constantly
being punished for supporting prisoners financially and emotionally. The
imperialist monopolizers are making hundreds of millions annually
through the commissary system. I can’t help but confirm and echo the
main points of the Texas prisoners’ ad:
Sub-par and poor quality food items.
Faulty electronics that regularly break (after short use).
Tennis shoes which tear up after a week of use.
Inflated prices and price gouging tactics.
Abuse and disrespect from employees of commissaries.
All of the above mentioned is nothing but the truth to which I would
love to add more. In Florida, specifically Charlotte Correctional
Institution, there exists a staff canteen menu and a prisoner canteen
menu. The double standard and financial discrimination can’t help but be
realized once both menus are compared. Prisoners are paying twice as
much as staff for the same food items. Some of the most popular food
items are listed below for your own concluding.
Charlotte CI staff canteen menu prices and Prisoner Canteen menu
prices:
Item
Staff price
Prisoner price
sodas
.56
.99
honey buns
.70
1.35
chips
.5
.99-1.49
candy bars
.75
1.39
water
.5
.99
oatmeal
.23
.53
poptarts
.56
1.18
soups
.56
.70
ice cream
.93
2.19
danishes
.7
1.28
nutty bars
.47
1.00
saltines
.7
.88 per sleeve
trail mix
.47
1.00-1.28
BBQ sandwich
1.64
3.49
Pizzas
1.64
2.98
Tuna
1.87
2.47
The above list does not mention hygiene items. However, prisoners are
paying exorbitantly for hygiene items that are clearly not worth their
price. For example, the $4 deodorant from prescription care and
Oraline-Seccure (meant for indigent prisoners) leaves prisoners musty in
just a matter of hours. The $2.85 prescription care lotion is so generic
it dries the skin quick as it moistens it. And it’s definitely not meant
for Black people. The $1.12 prescription care shampoo does not lather up
and causes more dried scalp and itching than the state soap. There is
99-cent soap claiming to be anti-bacterial and 50-cent soap, both made
by Silk. Neither of these soaps are worth even being given away for
free.
Prisoners do not want these canteen items. They complain amongst each
other but are too cowardly to write grievances or stop buying from
canteen. We all know that it is our loved ones who are being attacked by
the state. We all know our families who support us are being extorted,
but the needle is just too deep in our veins. Florida only has one
canteen vendor (Trinity) leaving us without options or other places to
shop. We are simply victims of a monopoly and we are contributing to our
own victimization.
It is quite clear that the canteen profits only benefit Trinity and
high-ranking members of the state prison system. It is clear that the
profits are being used against prisoners rather than for their welfare
and genuine rehabilitation programs.
Even in the visiting park, freeworld citizens visiting their loved-ones
are forced to pay prisoner canteen prices. This price-gouging is a war
against the innocent citizens who support prisoners. It also results in
the isolation of prisoners from the outside world and leaves prisoners
dependent and vulnerable against the state.
One is left with no choice but the question: where is all the profit
from the unarmed robbery of prisoners’ loved ones? What is being done
with these millions of dollars in profit? This matter must be
investigated and objectively challenged. We prisoners surely need to
stop perpetuating our own victimization by the state of Florida DOC.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer exposes one of the many ways
that companies and individuals are making money from the prison system
in this country. While overall the prisons are run at a financial loss,
subsidized for most of their costs by state and federal funds
(i.e. taxpayer money), lots of people are still making money off the
operation of prisons.
Obviously the prisons’ employees (COs, administrators, etc.) are earning
a good salary and have an interest in keeping the system going. In some
prisons medical is contracted out, and then there are the many companies
that sell prisons all the stuff they need to run: from clothing to food
to furniture to security equipment. Most of this is funded by a subsidy
from the government.
But canteen is a case of the costs falling on prisoners’ families. And
this is just one of many costs borne by families of prisoners. As we
exposed in an article in ULK 60
“MIM(Prisons)
on U.$. Prison Economy - 2018 Update,” mass incarceration costs
families and the community $400 billion per year.
I am listed as a sex offender, a few friends and I caught a charge
in ninety six. We did time and got released, but can a sex
offender be fixed? Currently I’m doing life for a 2006 armed
robbery I have never violated any disciplinary measure for
masturbation on female prison staff or any sexually related
issues but I’m still listed as a sex offender Can a sex offender
become a revolutionary? Can a sex offender become a genuine
feminist? Or an anti-patriarch misogynist? Can a sex offender
have been a victim of misogyny? Or sexism like his victim? For a
sex offender, where does the healing and fixing begin? Can a sex
offender be considered or seen as equal? Can he ever be considered
or seen as a member of the people? Does a sex offender still have
human rights? Is he even still human? Can he ever be forgiven or
forgotten for his crime against the people? Aren’t almost all crimes
against the people? Can a sex offender be genuinely healed or
rehabilitated? Do we throw away the key and keep all sex offenders
gated? Yes? No? Is the justice system just or genuine? We
all agree that poverty is the mother of crime, So then affluence
must be its father by grand design. Can a sex offender be a victim
of sexual double standard or contradiction? Can a rich sex
offender be subject to the same prosecution, incarceration,
condemnation or even oppression as a poor sex offender in this
nation? Do poor sex offenders receive systematic indulgence? How
long has the #MeToo movement been in existence? Suddenly, the #MeToo
movement has after so long, gained overdue prominence. Will the real
sex offender please stand up? Let your money do your talking, prove
the law is corrupt. Rich sex offenders versus poor sex
offenders? White sex offenders versus Black, Brown, Yellow and
Red sex offenders? Ghetto, hood sex offenders versus hillbilly sex
offenders. President sex offenders, PIG (pro imperial goon) sex
offenders, evangelical sex offenders, papacy sex offenders?
Thomas Jefferson was a sex offender? Still your hero and founding
father? Because his victim was a wombman of color? Sally
Hemmings, daughter of momma Afrika Columbus was a sex offender,
still got his own day, for us to remember “Grab them by their pussy”
that’s what Trump say. I don’t see anybody throwing their keys
away. A poor sex offender can’t point the finger, can’t scream “foul
play?” rich sex offenders could be healed, poor ones can’t?
Can’t compare apples with grapes? Naw. Aren’t they all fruits? Yes,
but naw. Ain’t we all been living the misogynist culture? Won’t
we still keep doing it till so-called society fixes its mental
stature and structure? Separate the sex poorfenders from the sex
richfenders Can a sex offender practice genuine self criticism?
Can a sex offender be a guerilla for egalitarianism?
The terrorist attains his goals by means of instilling fear and
intimidation. The revolutionary, being an egalitarianist,
attains his goals by means of instilling courage. So who then but
the government is the real terrorist? Using the press and the
media, showing off weapons and technologies, instilling fear in
oppressed people, giving them nothing but worries. Wonder why
the people are standing up no more? After decades of being
psychologically bombarded, with nothing but pro-imperialist goon
(pigs) and military blows? Big Brother’s watching you, everybody
knows. Got you watching yourself too, from head to tippy toes
like you was living in One Nine Eight Four.
The grand jury is a mockery, no matter all white or all
black Psychologically conditioned into seeing all pigs as right and
exact Just like a trial jury, the state can never be wrong The
state’s not trying to indict, they’re only playing along, singing a
song To keep the people pacified and from raging against the
machine It’s a police state, a black persyn’s life ain’t worth a
thing They can kill us but we can’t kill them, what kind of justice
is that How can we free the people with all this warring against us
Blacks? “No Egalitarianism, No Peace!” this double standard of law
must stop Calling us extreme for us only responding to them extremely
peeling our caps Leaving it to their mock grand jury like leaving it
to their mock god Til we show them what we’ll do for our blood, we’re
scarred We must do more than just protest, we must boycott We must
organize and educate and revolutionize believe it or not We are the
only people that the constitution don’t protect Shooting us down now
is equivalent to ropes around our necks They’re killing us while
screaming they’re in fear for their lives They pick the fight then go
to crying, telling lies Bullies, that’s all they are, goons for the
rich Take their guns and badges away, they’ll run back to the
sticks 6 conscripted pigs on one Black man, chokehold him to
death And his family is screaming for calm, that’s all we
get “Burn it down!” Michael Brown’s step dad said Look how quick
he was about to face indictment, as a threat Amerikkka fascinates us
but infuriates us more You’re an Amerikkkan if you’re not against
Ms. Justice and her so-called law Having all Black pigs won’t make a
difference either Because their oath is to the anti-egalitarianist
imperialist agenda We are not supposed to fight back or take a
stand Just accept our inferior status, know our place and stand in it
looking grand It’s not angry, extreme or wrong to kill an innocent
black man Criminal background or not, 12 or 90, blam blam Not only
in Amerikkka but in many distant lands Bombing innocent wombmen and
children in Afghanistan But one of theirs get killed they go
Amerikkkan Nam Oppression is oppression here, there and
everywhere Apartheid is apartheid, in Azania, Palestine or
Amerikkka We are occupied by imperialist forces, we can’t afford to
bow The pigs want beef, we gotta bring the whole
cow Egalitarianism now, yes right now
Imperialism; you are the highest elevation of capitalism, you
are the cause, and the source of all racism, you murdered
egalitarianism, communism and gave birth to this oppressive
machanism called prison. Imperialism; you built and bought the
slave ship Jesus, that brought my innocent ancestors into
slavery. You hired the guns that assassinated bravery, you paid
for the ropes that lynched knowledge and courage, you are the main
cause of all our sufferage. Imperialism; you have caused slaves to
become overseers, local representatives of the oppressor, by
placing the needles in the veins of our so-called niggero brothers
and sisters. Imperialism; you created the miseducation that keeps
us blind, and the mis-justice that keeps us confined. You created
poverty; and when you created poverty, you created crime. You
locked up our bodies when you locked up our minds and I’m not just
making up excuses. I’m a clock, best believe, I know the
time. Imperialism; your agenda may be instilled in our every
move, your ideals may be in every thing we learn and know, show
and prove, your hands may be in every aspect of our lives, your
blood may be in every one of our husbands or wives, your products
may be in everything we consume, but none of this will stop or
prevent your doom. Imperialism; Your tel-a-lie-vision, weapon of
mass distraction and destruction is evil, but no amount of lies
and weapons can defeat the fighting spirit of the lumpen proles - the
people. Egalitarianism, communism will rule Supreme, you may win
the fight, but the war you will not win. Once red and blue, black
white brown and yellow unite under MIM, United Struggle from
Within Imperialism; you already know, you are the ultimate
sin.
We recently created a petition addressed to Governor Scott:
The families and friends of Florida prisoners petition for a state
investigation of the Keefe commissary network contract with the FDOC. In
this economy and in fairness, the people of Florida deserve a new
contract that makes canteen prices more affordable or reasonable. (see
www.tampabay.com/news/kickback/155046)
Keefe is one of the biggest if not the biggest prison and jail
commissary vendors in the United States. Revenues from canteen operation
for fiscal year 2009-2010 were $30,973,262. The prices prisoners are
being charged are higher than prices for the same items sold in the free
world. There are several vendors who bid for the FDOC contract who would
offer a wider variety of available items at almost a 60% decrease of
what Keefe presently charges. One has to “wonder” why were these other
vendors not given the contract?
Keefe’s sneak attack on snacks continue to prey on the families and
friends of Florida prisoners who for the most part provides financial
support to the prison population to spend on canteen. With the economy
in recession it is doubtful prisoners families and friends are going to
be able to spend more money.
Keefe, which is based out of St. Louis, MO, latest price increase has
lead to more thefts, robberies and violence in Florida’s prisons.
Governor Scott, you can stop Keefe’s price gouging with just one phone
call, we urge you to be that champion of the fairness and justice that
you promised all Floridians during your campaign by making that call.
<P CLASS=“no-indent”>MIM(Prisons) responds: We printed
an
article
about Keefe back in 2009 with similar complaints from a prisoner in
Pennsylvania. We don’t hold out much hope that Governor Scott is going
to turn his back on the capitalists to help out prisoners and their
families, but the exposure of Keefe and education about the corruption
in the criminal injustice system and its role in making lots of
companies (and their employees) rich, is a valuable educational and
organizing tool.
Also at issue here is the right to healthy and adequate food. Vending
machine food is always going to more expensive and less nutritional. All
pisoners should be provided with adequate, fresh food, so that
supplementary snacks are a luxury.