She recommends that readers “visit www.re-examininglucasville.org for information on the prisoner leaders and prisoners’ spokesmen, who were immediately targeted and framed up. Five men are facing the death penalty and a dozen more have long prison terms, including the tortuous death of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP).”

Here are the statements delivered at the conference from prison by Bomani Shakur and in person by Staughton Lynd.

From Bomani Shakur

This photo of Bomani Shakur (Keith LaMar) of the Lucasville 5 in shackles was projected larger than life above and behind the panelists at the Lucasville Conference as they and the audience listened to his recorded statement.

Before I speak my piece tonight and express what’s going on inside of me, I want to first extend my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you.

I am aware that there are any number of places that you all could be on this Friday evening. And so it means a lot to me that you are here to mark this very important occasion with us.

By anyone’s estimation, 20 years is a long time. But 20 years spent in solitary confinement is torture.

In all this time, we have yet to tell our side of the story. In a very real sense, we have been silenced, held incommunicado, while we move ever closer to being executed.

Well, enough is enough. By the time you hear this message, we will have been on hunger strike for over a week now, protesting the unfair and unreasonable refusal by the state to allow us access to the media.

It’s time for the public to hear our voices. It’s time for you all to hear our side of the story.

By anyone’s estimation, 20 years is a long time. But 20 years spent in solitary confinement is torture.

 
As many of you may or may not know, there was no physical evidence linking anyone to crimes. No fingerprints, no DNA or any other kind of forensic evidence that conclusively connected anyone to any of the crimes that were committed during the 11-day uprising.

This means the state had to rely solely on the testimony of individuals who, from the very outset, were lacking in credibility.

Yet, and still, a guard was killed and somebody had to pay for that. However, with no physical evidence linking anyone to the crimes, the question inevitably becomes, “How does one manufacture credibility and bring to justice those responsible?” This was the formidable task that was taken on by the state.

In almost every case arising out of the disturbance of 1993, there were multiple versions of what actually occurred, and multiple individuals who, for various reasons, were willing to testify to different versions of the truth. So who to believe?

“What made one would-be witness more credible than the next?” This is the question to ask.

In my particular case, the state called more than six witnesses against me who testified, under oath, that they saw me murder and/or order the deaths of five inmates, and they made it appear as though the testimony given by these individuals was irrefutable. And in a certain sense it was. Not because what was said about me was true, but because they prevented me from putting forth testimony that refuted their rendering of the facts.

Keith LaMar (Bomani Shakur) with his niece and nephew – Photo: © Courtesy Bomani Shakur

When my attorneys made the request in discovery for statements that tended to point the finger at someone else, the prosecutor refused to turn over these damning statements, and there were many. Indeed, for every witness who testified against me, there was a witness who claimed to have seen someone else commit the very crimes for which I was ultimately sentenced to death. Unfortunately, the jury in my case never got the opportunity to hear from these witnesses.

Indeed, it wasn’t until my case was over and I was already sitting on death row that I even learned of these conflicting and damning statements. But it was too late by then.

“So why, then, am I rehashing all of this now?” you may ask. “What do we possibly hope to gain by asking you all here tonight?”

Well, since we didn’t receive fair trials through the criminal justice system, we intend to retry our cases in the court of public opinion. Since, when all is said and done, the ultimate outcome – be it freedom or death – will be carried out in your name. It’s to you, the public, that we must now turn.

Out of the five men who were sentenced to death, my case is the furthest along in terms of being resolved.

In late December of 2012, I filed my last appeal, moving me one step closer to the execution chamber.

Since we didn’t receive fair trials through the criminal justice system, we intend to retry our cases in the court of public opinion.

 
If the state has its way, they are going to kill me soon. However, inasmuch as my life is not for them to take, I intend to fight them, to stand up and speak truth to the power that has delivered me to this evening.

I … no … we need your help.

I’ve written a book called “Condemned.” In it, I lay out the particulars of my case and the overall injustice that occurred. Please read it and, if you believe it and if what you hear over this long weekend rings true, join us in our efforts to right these wrongs. We can stop this thing. I’m innocent. The state of Ohio is trying to kill me.

Send our brother some love and light: Keith LaMar (Bomani Shakur), 317-117, P.O. Box 1436, Youngstown OH 44501.

From Staughton Lynd

 
Our focus this morning has been a detailed discussion of what happened before and during the 11 days and in the trials that followed. My comments are intended to build a bridge between that analysis and the broader perspectives that will be offered this afternoon. I will divide my remarks in four parts.

First, I shall recall the three biggest prison rebellions in recent United States history. I will suggest that while we are just beginning to build a movement outside the walls of both prisons and courtrooms, there are particular aspects of the Lucasville events that help to explain why that has been so hard.

Second, I will make the case that, despite appearances, Ohio’s prison administration was at least as responsible as were the prisoners for the 10 deaths during the occupation of L block.

Third, I shall describe the manipulation by means of which the state of Ohio induced a leader of the uprising to become an informer and to attribute responsibility for the murder of hostage Officer Robert Vallandingham to others. I shall add that to this day the state says it does not know who the hands-on killers were.

Finally, and very briefly, because I recognize this will be the agenda for tomorrow morning, I will ask: What is to be done?

Three prison uprisings

 
There have been three major prison uprisings in the United States during the past half century.

Two powerful advocates for prisoners are, at left, Staughton Lynd, the attorney who wrote the book, “Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising,” and a play on Lucasville, and Denis O’Hearn. Denis, born in the U.S. of Irish and Native American (Aleut) parents, lived and taught for many years in Ireland, where he covered Irish prisoners for the London Guardian and wrote the acclaimed biography, “Nothing But an Unfinished Song: Bobby Sands, the Irish Hunger Striker Who Ignited a Generation.” He is now a professor of sociology at the University of Binghamton in New York. – Photo: © Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio

Initially the state of New York, including Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, claimed that the hostage officers who died in the yard had their throats cut by the prisoners in rebellion. A courageous medical examiner said, No, the officers all died of bullet wounds. And only one side in the conflict, or massacre, had guns.

Because the brazen cover story of the authorities was so soon and so dramatically refuted, the prosecution of prisoners at Attica never got far off the ground. On Dec. 31, 1976, a little more than five years after the events at the prison, New York Gov. Carey declared by executive order an amnesty for all participants in the insurrection. He stated in part:

“Attica has been a tragedy of immeasurable proportions, unalterably affecting countless lives. Too many families have grieved, too many have suffered deprivations, too many have lived their lives in uncertainty waiting for the long nightmare to end. For over five years and with hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless man-hours, we have followed the path of investigation and accusation. … To continue in this course, I believe, would merely prolong the agony with no better hope of a just and abiding conclusion.”

The governor concluded by saying that his actions should not be understood to imply “a lack of culpability for the conduct at issue.” Rather, Gov. Carey stated, “These actions are in recognition that there does exist a larger wrong which transcends the wrongful acts of individuals.”

In 1980 a second major uprising occurred at the state prison in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Again there were numerous deaths, but all 33 homicides resulted from prisoners killing other prisoners. No officers were murdered. No prisoner was sentenced to death.

Finally we come to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville in 1993. In trying to understand the tangle of events we call “Lucasville,” one confronts: a prisoner body of more than 1,800, a majority of them Black men from Ohio’s inner cities, guarded by correctional officers largely recruited from the entirely, or almost entirely, white community in Scioto County; a prison administration determined to suppress dissent after the murder of an educator in 1990; an 11-day occupation by more than 400 men of a major part of the Lucasville prison; 10 homicides, all committed by prisoners, including the murder of hostage officer Robert Vallandingham; dialogue between the parties ending in a peaceful surrender; and about 50 prosecutions, resulting in five capital convictions and numerous other sentences, some of them likely to last for the remainder of a prisoner’s life.

The task for defense lawyers and for a community campaign demanding reconsideration, is more difficult than at Attica or Santa Fe. At Attica, 10 of the 11 officers who died were killed by agents of the state. At Santa Fe, only prisoners were killed. Lucasville presents a distinct challenge: the killing of a single hostage correctional officer by prisoners in rebellion.

Who is to blame?

 
In a summary booklet Alice and I have produced, entitled “Layers of Injustice,” we argue that the Lucasville prisoners in L block, considered collectively, and the state of Ohio share responsibility for the tragedy of April 1993. Both sides contributed to what happened. Events spun out of control. Neither side intended what occurred.

The collective responsibility of prisoners in L block seems self-evident. Ten men were killed. The victims were unarmed and helpless. In contrast to what happened at Attica, all 10 victims were killed by prisoners.

However, Muslim prisoner Reginald Williams, a witness for the state in the Lucasville trials, testified that the hope of the group that planned the 1993 occupation was to carry out a brief, essentially peaceful, attention-getting action “to get someone from the central office to come down and address our concerns” (State v. Were I at 1645), “to barricade ourselves in L-6 until we can get someone from Columbus to discuss” alternative means of doing the TB tests (State v. Sanders at 2129). Siddique Abdullah Hasan, supposed by the state to have planned and led the action, said the same thing to the Associated Press within the past two weeks.

Since the prisoners, whatever their initial intentions, nonetheless carried out the homicides, the responsibility of the state is less obvious. Here are some of the main reasons I believe that the state of Ohio shares responsibility for what happened at Lucasville in 1993.

1. In 1989, Warden Terry Morris asked the Legislative Oversight Committee of the Ohio General Assembly to prepare a survey of conditions at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The Correctional Institution Inspection Committee received letters from 427 prisoners and interviewed more than 100. Such was the state of disarray in 1989 that, four years before the 1993 uprising, the CIIC reported that prisoners “relayed fears and predictions of a major disturbance unlike any ever seen in Ohio prison history.”
2. After the murder of educator Beverly Jo Taylor in 1990, a new warden was appointed. Warden Arthur Tate instituted what he called “Operation Shakedown.” A striking example of the pervasive repression reported by prisoners is that telephone communication between prisoners and the outside world was limited to one five-minute outgoing telephone call per year.
3. The single feature of life at Lucasville that the CIIC found most troublesome was the prison administration’s use of prisoner informants, or “snitches.” Warden Tate, “King Arthur” as the prisoners called him, expanded the use of snitches. In 1991 the warden addressed a letter to all prisoners and visitors in which he provided a special mailing address to which alleged violations of “laws and rules of this institution” could be reported. Six alleged snitches, a majority of the persons murdered during the rebellion, were killed in the first hours of the disturbance.
4. The immediate cause or trigger of the rebellion was Warden Tate’s insistence on testing for TB by injecting a substance containing phenol, which a substantial number of Muslim prisoners believed to be prohibited by their religion. Alternative means of testing for TB by use of X rays or a sputum test were available and had been used at Mansfield Correctional Institution. In its post-surrender report, the correctional officers’ labor union stated that Warden Tate was “unnecessarily confrontational” in his response to the Muslim prisoners’ concern about TB testing using phenol.
5. Before Warden Tate departed for the Easter weekend on Good Friday, three of his administrators advised against his plan to lock the prison down and forcibly inject prisoners who refused TB shots. The warden did not adequately alert the reduced staff who would be on duty as to the volatile state of affairs. Slow response to the initial occupation of L block let pass an early opportunity to end the rebellion without loss of life. It was two hours after the insurgency began before Warden Tate was notified. The safewells at the end of each pod in L block, to which correctional officers retreated as they had been instructed, turned out to have been constructed without the prescribed steel stanchions and were easily penetrated.
6. Sgt. Howard Hudson, who was in the administration control booth during the 11 days and was offered by prosecutors as a so-called “summary witness,” conceded in his trial testimony that the state of Ohio deliberately stalled when prisoners tried to end the standoff by negotiation. Hudson testified in Hasan’s case: “The basic principle in these situations … is to buy time. … [T]he more time that goes on the greater the chances for a peaceful resolution to the situation.” This assumption proved – to use an unfortunate phrase – to be dead wrong.
7. By cutting off water and electricity to the occupied cell block on April 12, the state created a new cause of grievance. The prisoners’ concern to get back what they had at the outset of the disturbance became the sticking point in unsuccessful negotiations to end the standoff before Officer Vallandingham was murdered.
8. On the morning of April14, spokeswoman Tessa Unwin made a statement to the press on behalf of the authorities. Ms. Unwin was asked to comment on a message written on a sheet that was hung out of an L block window threatening to kill a hostage officer. Rather than responding “No comment,” she stated: “It’s a standard threat. It’s nothing new. . . They’ve been threatening things like this from the beginning.” According to several prisoners in L block and to hostage officer Larry Dotson, this statement inflamed sentiment among the prisoners who were listening on battery-powered radios. In the judgment of the officers’ union, in their report on the disturbance:
    
   As anyone familiar with the process and language of negotiations would know, this kind of public discounting of the inmate threats practically guaranteed a hostage death.
    
   When an official DR&C spokesperson publicly discounted the inmate threats as bluffing, the inmates were almost forced to kill or maim a hostage to maintain or regain their perceived bargaining strength.
9. In 2010, documentary filmmaker Derrick Jones interviewed Daniel Hogan, who prosecuted Robb and Skatzes and is now a state court judge. Hogan told Jones on tape: “I don’t know that we will ever know who hands-on killed the corrections officer, Vallandingham.” Later Mr. Jones asked former prosecutor Hogan: “When it comes to Officer Vallandingham, who killed him?” Judge Hogan replied: “I don’t know. And I don’t think we’ll ever know.” Nonetheless, four spokespersons and supposed leaders of the uprising have been found guilty of the officer’s aggravated murder and sentenced to death.

Who did kill Officer Vallandingham?

 
With the help of Attorney Niki Schwartz, three prisoner representatives accepted a 21 point agreement and a peaceful surrender followed. The agreement stated in Point 6, “Administrative discipline and criminal proceedings will be fairly and impartially administered without bias against individuals or groups.” Point 14 added, “There will be no retaliatory actions taken toward any inmate or groups of inmates.”

At the Lucasville Conference, former Southern Ohio Correctional Facility prisoners Sam Oliver, Ishaq Alkhair and Kunta Kenyatta, with moderator Alice Lynd, discuss conditions at SOC at Lucasville, Ohio, prior to the Lucasville Uprising in 1993. – Photo: © Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio

“They made it clear they wanted the leaders. They wanted to prosecute Hasan, George Skatzes, Lavelle, Jason Robb and another Muslim. They had not yet begun their investigation but they knew they wanted those leaders. I joked with them and said, ‘You basically don’t care what I say as long as it’s against these guys.’ They said, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’”

Newell named the men who had interrogated him: Lt. Root, Sgt. Hudson, and Troopers McGough and Sayers. According to Newell:

“These officers said, ‘We want Skatzes. We want Lavelle. We want Hasan.’ They also said, ‘We know they were leaders. … We want to burn their ass. We want to put them in the electric chair for murdering Officer Vallandingham.’”

With the same motivation, the prosecutors pursued a more sophisticated strategy. ODRC Director Reginald Wilkinson put it this way in an article that he co-authored with his associate Thomas Stickrath for the Corrections Management Quarterly:

“According to Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier, his staff targeted a few gang leaders. … Thirteen months into the investigation, a primary riot provocateur agreed to talk about Officer Vallandingham’s death. … His testimony led to death sentences for riot leaders Carlos Sanders [Hasan], Jason Robb, James Were and George Skatzes.”

The so-called primary riot provocateur was prisoner Anthony Lavelle, leader of the Black Gangster Disciples, who, along with Hasan and Robb, had negotiated the surrender agreement.

How did the state induce Lavelle not only to talk, but to say what the prosecution desired?

During the winter of 1993-1994, Hasan, Lavelle and Skatzes were housed in adjacent cells at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. On April 6, 1994, Skatzes was taken to a room where he found Sgt. Hudson, Trooper McGough of the Highway Patrol and two prosecutors. This was the third such occasion and, as twice before, Skatzes said that he did not wish to continue the interview and turned to go back to his cell in the North Hole.

What happened next, according to Skatzes, was that Warden Ralph Coyle entered the room and said that Central Office did not want Skatzes to go back to the North Hole. Skatzes protested vehemently that this would make him look like a snitch. Coyle was adamant and Skatzes was led away to a new location.

Back in the North Hole, Lavelle reacted exactly as Skatzes feared. Lavelle wrote a letter to Jason Robb that became an exhibit in Robb’s trial: “Jason: I am forced to write you and relate a few things that happen down here lately. With much sadness I will give you the raw deal, your brother George has done a vanishing act on us. … On Wednesday, April 6, 1994, G. said about 8:00 a.m. that he had a lawyer visit . … Now to be short and simple, he failed to return that day. Today they came and packed up his property which leads me to one conclusion that he has chose to be a cop.”

Later, Lavelle himself testified that he turned state’s evidence because he thought he would go to Death Row if he did not. This was an accurate assessment. Prosecutor Hogan told a trial court judge at sidebar that his colleague Prosecutor Stead had told Lavelle, “Either you are going to be my witness or I’m going to try to kill you.” According to the testimony under oath of prisoner Anthony Odom, who celled across from Lavelle at the time, Lavelle entered into his plea agreement, Lavelle “said he was gonna cop out [be]cause the prosecutor was sweating him, trying to hit him with a murder charge. … He said he was going to tell them what they wanted to hear.”

Lavelle was understandably concerned that the prosecutor might hit him with a murder charge because it is overwhelmingly likely that it was, in fact, he who coordinated Officer Vallandingham’s murder. I have laid out the evidence in my book and in an article in the Capital University Law Review. Briefly,

Three members of the Black Gangster Disciples stated under oath that Lavelle tried to recruit them for a death squad after Ms. Unwin’s statement on April 14;

Sean Davis, who slept in L-1 as Lavelle did, testified that when he awoke on the morning of April 15, he heard Lavelle telling Stacey Gordon that he was going to kill a guard, to which Gordon replied that he would clean up afterward;

The late James Bell, a.k.a. Nuruddin, executed an affidavit before his death to the effect that Lavelle had left the morning meeting on April 15 furious that the Muslims and Aryans were unwilling to kill a hostage officer;

Three prisoners saw Lavelle and two other Disciples come down the L block corridor from L-1 and go into L-6, leaving a few minutes later;

James Were, on guard duty in L-6 and thereby an eyewitness to the murder, went to L-1 when he learned that the action had not been approved by other riot leaders and knocked Lavelle to the ground. Willie Johnson and Eddie Moss heard Were explicitly blame Lavelle for the killing;

Two older and, in my opinion, reliable convicts, Leroy Elmore and the late Roy Donald, say that on April 15 Lavelle told each of them in so many words that he had had the guard killed.

Unlike prisoners who testified for the state, the 12 men whose evidence I have summarized received no benefits for coming forward and, in fact, risked retaliation from other inmates by doing so. No jury has ever heard their collective narrative.

What is to be done?

 
So, what can we do?

The first task is to make it possible for the men condemned to death and life in prison to tell their stories, on camera, in face-to-face interviews with representatives of the media.

Illustration by Mr. Fish

In telephone calls to the authorities during the first night of the occupation, prisoner representatives proposed a telephone interview with one media representative, or a live interview with a designated TV channel, in exchange for the release of one hostage correctional officer. At 7:00 a.m. on Monday, April 12, the prisoners in rebellion broke off telephone negotiations, demanding local and national news coverage before any hostage release.

In the late morning of April 12, George Skatzes volunteered to go out on the yard, accompanied by Cecil Allen, carrying an enormous white flag of truce. The men asked for access to the media already camped outside the prison walls.

When on April 15 and 16 the prisoners released hostage officers Darrold Clark and Anthony Demons, what did they ask for and get in return? The opportunity for one spokesperson, Skatzes, to make a radio address and for another, Muslim Stanley Cummings, to speak on TV the next morning.

Now the Lucasville prisoners are again knocking on the door of the state, hunger striking, crying out against their isolation from the dialogue of civic society. They ask, “Why are we being kept incommunicado? What is the state afraid of?”

The first task is to make it possible for the men condemned to death and life in prison to tell their stories, on camera, in face-to-face interviews with representatives of the media.

 
I urge all present not to be distracted by official talk about alternative means of communication. The state tells us that the men condemned to death can write letters and make telephone calls. But the media access that these prisoners seek is the kind of exchange that can occur in courtroom cross-examination. The condemned are saying to us, “Before you kill me, give me a chance to join with you in trying to figure out what actually occurred.”

These are not homicides like that of which Mumia Abu Jamal is accused or that for which Troy Davis was executed: homicides with one decedent, one alleged perpetrator, and half a dozen witnesses. This is an immense tangle of events.

There is no objective evidence except for the testimony of the medical examiners, which repeatedly contradicted the claims of the prosecution. Very few physical objects remain in existence. The medical examiner testified that David Sommers was killed by a single massive blow with an object like a bat. A bloody baseball bat was found near the body of David Sommers. Special Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier ordered the bat to be destroyed.

We need media access to the Lucasville Five and their companions not just to perceive them as human beings, but to determine the truth. George Skatzes and Aaron Jefferson were tried in separate trials and each was convicted of striking the single massive blow that killed Mr. Sommers.

Eric Girdy has confessed to being one of the three killers of Earl Elder, using a shank made of glass from the mirror in the officers’ restroom, and slivers of glass were found in one of the lethal wounds and on the nearby floor. Girdy has insisted under oath that Skatzes had nothing to do with the murder; yet the state, while accepting Girdy’s confession, has not vacated the judgment against Skatzes.

Hasan and Namir were found not guilty of killing Bruce Harris, yet Stacey Gordon, who admitted to being one of the killers, is on the street.

The trial court judge in Keith LaMar’s trial refused to direct the prosecution to turn over to counsel for the defense the transcripts of all interviews conducted by the Highway Patrol with potential witnesses of the homicides for which LaMar was convicted, and LaMar is now closest to death of the five.

Jason Robb did nothing to cause the death of Officer Vallandingham except to attend an inconclusive meeting also attended by Anthony Lavelle, but only Robb was sentenced to death.

These things are not right, not just, not fair. The men facing death and life imprisonment for their alleged actions in April 1993 need to be full participants in the truth-seeking process. That is why, to repeat, I believe that our first task following this gathering is to make it possible for these men to tell their stories, on camera, in face-to-face interviews with representatives of the media. Journalists, for example from campus newspapers, who wish precise information as to how to request interviews should contact me.

Legendary attorney, professor, historian, author, playwright, and civil rights and peace activist Staughton Lynd can be reached at salynd@aol.com.

Yo. You. Yea, you with DOC (Department of Corrections) printed on your back. Naw, don’t turn the page … WAKE UP! Better yet, look around. Like what you see? I know the streets were live: Money was flowing, women were chasing, and the respect was there. But that’s over now.

Are you really going to do all this time just to go back to what got you here in the first place? I hate to be the one to tell you, but no matter what Rick Ross says, you’ll never make it as a dopeboy. Common sense will tell you that if it really was a future in the streets, he’d be trappin’ instead of rappin’.

Early on the morning of Nov. 19, seven members of Decarcerate PA set up school desks, banners and a little red schoolhouse to block the entrance to the prison construction site on the grounds of SCI Graterford in Montgomery County. They sat at the desks, linking arms and refusing to move or allow construction vehicles onto the site. Construction was delayed for over an hour before all seven protesters were arrested and taken away. If completed, the new prisons will cost $400 million and house 4,100 people.

Knowledge will always rule ignorance, and in case you were wondering, we’re the ignorant. But ignorance is a choice. At any time we can choose education over entertainment. We can choose to be real bosses and leaders instead of criminals and ex-cons. At any time we can choose to be the masters of our own destiny instead of having our fate determined by judge and jury.

Brandon T. Jones and Michael Ta’bon get it. They came home and went right to work trying to wake people up. Tyrone Werts and Darryl Goodman see what’s going on. That’s why they’re spending their time – since getting out – trying to save the youth. And we all know that’s no easy task. Them young boys are hard headed!

Then there’s DecarceratePA. This organization tried to block construction of the new prisons being built next to Graterford – now that’s gangsta! Their message: Our government must spend its money on community reinvestment, education, housing and social services – not mass incarceration. These folks are fighting for us and our children. What are we doing? The best parent in the world can only do so much in a 15-minute phone call and two-hour visit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself will not be defended.” So don’t spend your time learning. Don’t prepare for release. Keep chasing packs and smut pics. But, one day when your child becomes your cellie, don’t be mad at him; just look in the mirror.

Send our brother some love and light: Shuja Moore, GU4039, SCI Mahanoy, 301 Morea Rd, Frackville, PA 17932. Copyright © 2013 by Shuja Moore.

Due to the litany of contradictions that we as an oppressed people are confronted with, it is easy for us to focus solely on the problem and lose sight of formulating concrete solutions to our problems. The current discussions that are centered around the revisions to the gang validation process are no exception.

And with the recent implementation of the “Step-Down” Pilot Program issued Oct. 11, 2012,¹ it has become absolutely clear that our oppressors, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Prison Intelligence Unit, are dug in on their position of maintaining the status quo of genocide population control via the continued indefinite internment of prisoners in their torture chambers – or solitary confinement units.

A New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalist historian and theoretician once warned us years ago when he stated: “I don’t think that we can afford to be nice much longer. The very last of our protection is eroding from under us. There will be no means of detection when that last right is gone … The process must be checked somewhere between now and then, or we will be fighting from a position of weakness with our backs against the wall.”

This prognosis was based upon a historical material analysis of the contradictions that have existed throughout the history of U.S. imperialist colonial slavery, in which the prison industrial slave complex has its roots. The Step-Down Pilot Program is a by-product of state repression, and only serves to reinforce the totalitarian rule of our oppressors over the captive prisoner class.

Proof of this is predicated upon the provisional policy language within the Step-Down Pilot Program in that said policies are an extension of the laws that were enacted under “Jim Crow,”² where U.S. government officials sought to relegate New Afrikans (Blacks), Mexicans, Indigenous Natives, poor Whites, Asians etc. to second class citizenry under the construct of a race-based social caste system that was based upon their previous social status as chattel slaves, alleged felons, vagrants etc.

This meant that our ancestors were stripped of their human rights, which enabled our oppressors to continue and to maintain control over our ancestors via the construct of a new form of slavery that became manifest following what was deemed the Reconstruction Era. This era of Amerikkkan history has falsely led many to believe that the remnants of slavery had ended, as the social standing of this decadent society was somehow improving.

But how can this be, when we still have caste-based economic segregation, with the same transgressions against humanity remaining in existence today? Yes, I am talking about the Security Threat Group Step Down Program!

The problem

CDCR’s Prison Intelligence Unit officials have reformed their gang management policies into what they’re now calling the STG-SDP. In other words, they have put lipstick on a pig and call it change, in spite of the fact that a pig with or without lipstick is still a pig! These revisions are supposed to make gang activity “behavior-based.” But we would like to focus on one aspect of the STG-SDP Program, where it talks about issuing prisoners disciplinary form CDC 115 Rules Violation Reports for Gang Activity.

The STG-SDP Pilot Program Gang Validation revisions are in Section 600, “STG Disciplinary Matrix for STG Related Behavior or Activity,” which states in part:

“The STG policy incorporates a behavior based disciplinary component as a foundation to its pre-existing intelligence based system. The STG validation system also incorporates a layered approach of procedural safeguards to affirm appropriate due process in the validation and housing placement of STG affiliates.”³

For those who are not familiar with American jurisprudence, a prisoner’s entitlement to due process protections is implicated only when a disciplinary guilty finding impacts a prisoner’s time credits to the point of extending that prisoner’s sentence. For example, in Sandin v. Conner,⁴ the U.S. Supreme Court held:

“Actions that may or may not have some effect on discretionary parole release have ‘too attenuated’ a relationship with the length of incarceration to constitute a deprivation of liberty invoking due process protections.”

This contradiction is critical in the sense that the overwhelming majority of indeterminate SHU class prisoners have long surpassed our minimum eligible parole dates that were handed to us under the Indeterminate Sentencing Law (ISL) that was repealed in July of 1977, meaning that any disciplinary CDC 115 Rules Violation Report that CDCR’s Prison Intelligence Unit officials choose to impose upon us for alleged “behavior-based” gang activity subjects us to summary executions via the subjective whims of our oppressors.

Now, how is this phenomenon any different from the race-based social caste system that existed under Jim Crow, where New Afrikans were falsely arrested, harassed, tormented, dehumanized, lynched, hanged etc. on the spot, under suspicion of violating the Black Codes,⁵ or “vagrancy laws”?

As was the case under the Jim Crow social caste system, CDCR’s Prison Intelligence Unit officials also have a history of filing false reports against prisoners. This truism has been substantiated by the following facts: 1) A civil §1983 legal petition that a prisoner at Calipatria State Prison brought forth against IGI Officer E. Duarte,⁶ where said CDCR PIU agent planted evidence in the prisoner’s cell and then falsely charged and validated the prisoner as a prison gang member; and 2) in 2006, a prisoner with a violence-free prison record named Ricky Gray was validated as a member of the Black Guerrilla Family and given an indeterminate SHU sentence. But the warden at his prison, who Gray claims was sympathetic to his case, took an unusual step: He instructed a staff assistant to re-interview the informants who had given evidence against him. The assistant concluded that the entire validation package was “comprised of conjecture, second hand expression, assumptions, frivolous statements, incomplete documentation and blatant lack of thorough investigation.”⁷

These contradictions are further magnified by the fact that under the “some evidence” standard that is applied to disciplinary hearings and prison gang validations, the courts have historically refused to analyze, weigh or evaluate the credibility of the evidence that is being used to keep us indefinitely consigned to their torture chambers!⁸

It has also been proven that CDCR’s Prison Intelligence Unit officials have a “rubber-stamp” process in place when it comes to investigating evidence in gang validations, as was proven in the Lira v. Cate case.⁹ Therefore, it is fundamentally impossible for those officials to be “re-affirming” our human rights to due process protections in their STG-SDP program, when historically they have been engaging in systemic extra-judicial activities ever since these “torture chambers” have been in existence!¹⁰

The solution

So now it is necessary for us to move forward and utilize our NARN science in order to resolve these contradictions – the problem – so as to enhance the power of the people! Hence, the Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement (PBHRM) is hereby proposing to the people – the Prisoner Hunger Strike Support (PHSS) Coalition – that we initiate an online petition campaign with the goal of obtaining 1 million signatures. With the current advancement of media technology in today’s society, we believe that a million signatures can be very easily achieved in time for the next state and federal elections. But prior to the next elections, we propose that the 1 million signatures be presented to both state and federal legislative officials in Sacramento, California, and in Washington, D.C.

The petition may be constructed autonomously, but we strongly encourage the people to put together their petitions on a collective basis, so that they resonate the collective spirit of our struggle! We will leave it up to the people as to how the wording of the petition or petitions is formulated, but the petition or petitions must include the following demands from the PBHRM:

1. The PBHRM hereby demands that state and federal government officials immediately institute a law that mandates and accords every prisoner the human right to due process protections in CDCR prison gang validations and disciplinary hearings in order to protect every prisoner from summary executions and persecutions. Due process must be accorded to every prisoner, regardless of whether the disciplinary finding extends our prison sentence or not, as we have a human right to be treated fairly.
2. The PBHRM hereby demands that state and federal government officials immediately abolish the current “some evidence” standard of law that is applied in prison gang validations and in disciplinary hearings and replace it with a law that mandates every piece of information and evidence in prison gang validations and disciplinary hearings be reviewed, assessed and analyzed by a committee of individuals, who must function autonomously to CDCR’s bureaucratic system.
3. The PBHRM hereby demands that state and federal government officials immediately institute a law that makes it illegal to consign any human being to indefinite solitary confinement status, based upon Amnesty International’s investigative findings¹¹ that any form of solitary confinement amounts to torture! And that this law include provisional stipulations for STG labeled prisoners not to be housed in any living conditions that are consistent with solitary confinement or isolation.
4. The PBHRM hereby demands that state and federal government officials immediately institute a law that mandates that the current construct of the Board of Prison Terms be disbanded, so that a culturally diverse community-based Board of Prison Terms can be constructed. It is currently constructed without any cultural diversity or viable representation of the poor oppressed communities that many of us come from and hope to return to one day. This is an essential point, as the CDCR prison population is overwhelmingly populated with prisoners from New Afrikan (Black), Mexican, Indigenous Native and Asian racial ancestry. And furthermore, this law must have provisional stipulations that every member of the Board of Prison Terms must have experience and rehabilitative credentials in the life work of religious clergy, community-based social workers, human rights activists, community-based psychologists and sociologists, community-based drug and alcohol counselors, and community-based re-entry experts who can provide each prisoner with vocational job training that will lead to a sustainable paying job, housing etc. upon each prisoner being paroled. As of right now, the Board of Prison Terms has only been hiring individuals with law enforcement backgrounds, such as former police officers and prison guards and prosecutors. All of these types of people have a vested economic interest in maintaining the status quo of “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” in order to maintain their job security.
5. The PBHRM hereby demands that state and federal government officials immediately institute a law that mandates that every prisoner who was sentenced under the Indeterminate Sentencing Law be provided with a release date, as mandated by Penal Code Section 1170.2(h).

In the event that the state and federal government officials fail to adopt and incorporate these five demands from the PBHRM into law, then we take the people’s 1 million signatures and utilize them as a means to support and create ballot initiatives that are consistent with these five demands from the PBHRM.

A copy of the proposal needs to be forwarded to every California state and federal legislative official.

And with that, we would like to thank the community for taking the time to review this PBHRM proposal, with the hope that you will find the humanity and determination to act upon the ideas herein.

Build to win!

For more information about the Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement, contact us:

• Kijana Tashiri Askari, s/n M. Harrison, H-54077, P.O. Box 7500, D3-122 SHU, Crescent City, CA 95532, www.myspace.com/dare2struggle, email Tashiri@gmail.com
• Ifoma M. Kambon, s/n D. Barnett, B-60892, P.O. Box 7500, D4-103 SHU, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Yafeu Iyapo, s/n L. Alexander, B-72288, P.O. Box 7500, D3-118 SHU, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Baridi Yero, s/n J. Williamson, D-34288, P.O. Box 7500, D4-107 SHU, Crescent City, CA 95532

Stop the torture!

1. Pilot Program Memorandum for Security Threat Group Identification, Prevention and Management Plan, dated Oct. 11, 2012 (Step Down Program). [CDCR still has not posted this document online for the public to read; it is available only on the SF Bay View website, at http://sfbayview.com/2012/cdcrs-oct-11-2012-security-threat-group-pilot-program/. – ed.]
2. For further reading about the historical materialism of Jim Crow as a race-based social caste system, I urge the people to read the New Afrikan Black sista Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow.”
3. Section 600 et seq.: STG Disciplinary Matrix for STG Related Behavior or Activity, Page 21.
4. In Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 487 (1955), the court held that due process is not implicated when a prisoner’s sentence is not extended per a disciplinary finding.
5. For further information about the historical materialism of the Black Codes and vagrancy laws, I urge the people to read the New Afrikan Black sista Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow.”
6. See Velarde v. Officer E. Duarte, Case No. C-11-00287-AJB-CAB, dated Feb. 10, 2011.
7. In 2006, prisoner Ricky Gray, who had a violence-free prison record, was validated as a BGF prison gang member. The warden in this case took the unusual step of instructing a staff assistant to assist Ricky Gray with investigating the evidence that was being used to validate him, and the investigator concluded that the validation was based on conjecture, as reported in the December 2012 issue of Mother Jones magazine on Page 32.
8. “Some evidence” is the standard of review that due process requires, meaning that a gang validation or a disciplinary finding will be upheld as long as there is some evidence. See Superintendent v. Hill, 472 U.S. 445 (1985).
9. The courts factually found that CDCR IGI officials routinely “rubber-stamp” their investigations by not independently reviewing the evidence used in gang validation. See Lira v. Cate, Case No. C-00-0905-SI, dated Sept. 30, 2009.
10. In the San Quentin 6 case, these prisoners were falsely and wrongfully charged with killing prison guards on Aug. 21, 1971, as they were later acquitted. But while awaiting trial in solitary confinement, they were deprived of outdoor exercise and other essential human rights. See Spain v. Procunier, 408 F.Supp.534 (N.D. Cal. 1976).
11. Amnesty International U.S. researcher Angela Wright reported on Sept. 27, 2012, that current conditions in California’s isolation units are extremely severe and too widely used, according to a report from the Amnesty International Media Centre.

“The 166 prisoners have been there 11 and a half years and 90 percent of them haven’t been charged with a crime,” according to RT.com. Approximately 86 prisoners have been cleared of any wrongdoing and slated for release but continue to be held indefinitely without any pending charges because there is no politically viable agreement about where or how to transport them out of Guantanamo.

Fifty-six of these are from Yemen, and President Obama has imposed a ban on releasing them. President Obama could use his bully leverage to close Guantanamo and release all the prisoners, despite his blaming Congress.

Prisoners come together for early morning prayer in Camp IV at the U.S. Naval Base detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. – Photo: Deborah Gembara, Reuters

“Hunger strikers who have been force fed describe it as the final humiliation,” reports RT.com. “There are three stages to the pain: Firstly there is the sensation of a tube being forced past their sinuses into their throat, which causes their eyes to water, then an intense burning and gagging sensation as it goes down the throat and finally when the tube enters the stomach there is a strong urge to vomit. When the tube has delivered the ‘food,’ it triggers the most painful sensation of all: the return of hunger.”

Currently three prisoners are in the hospital and 30 are currently being force fed with feeding tubes, a violation of international law for political prisoners.

Support for the prisoners is growing

A petition at Change.org titled “President Obama: Close Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay” has gathered over 208,000 signatures.

Seventy-one-year-old S. Brian Willson, a Viet Nam veteran member of Veterans For Peace, Portland Chapter 72, beginning Sunday, May 12, reduced his food intake by more than 85 percent, fasting on 300 calories a day in solidarity with the 130 uncharged Guantanamo prisoner hunger strikers now in deteriorating health, many of whom are being force fed.

Willson, a trained lawyer and criminologist, anti-war activist and author who lost his legs on the railroad tracks in Concord, California, when he was run over by the train he was trying to prevent from transporting weapons to Central America, lives by the mantra: “We are not worth more; they are not worth less.”

He joins 65-year-old grandmother Diane Wilson, a fifth-generation Texas shrimper, anti-war activist and author, who began an open-ended, water-only fast on May 1 outside the White House and intends to fast until the prisoners are freed.

More than 1,200 people around the country are participating in a rolling hunger strike to bring attention to the plight of the fasting prisoners at Guantanamo, who have been illegally detained for over 10 years with little recourse.

Conditions at Guantanamo are medieval

The 166 prisoners from 25 countries who remain housed in the U.S.-constructed and operated gulag at Guantanamo, located on Cuban soil without Cuba’s permission, have no contact with their families and only limited legal counsel when lawyers persist to overcome military obstruction.

Although the U.S. is a signatory to the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, its maltreatment of these detainees openly violates international laws and its own Constitution.

Conditions at Guantanamo are medieval. Stripped of their dignity, their bodies are the only place where they retain some control, yet even this is taken away as their U.S. captors have induced force feeding to keep them alive in their misery.

The American Medical Association and the World Medical Association both declared that force feeding of competent patients or prisoners is in violation of international law.

The larger context

Of the 2,300,000 prisoners warehoused in 9,000 U.S. jails and prisons, nearly 1,400,000 are racial and ethnic minorities. As many as 80,000 are held in solitary confinement.

More than 30,000 immigrants are languishing in indefinite detention. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture has concluded that physical isolation of 22-24 hours one day or longer for young people constitutes cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.

Force feeding is not unique to Guantanamo; some U.S. prisoners are routinely and systematically force fed. The U.S. possesses but 4.6 percent of the world’s population, but incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, owning the highest per capita detention rate of any country in the world.

This story combines one from PeopleNotProfit.net with a press release announcing S. Brian Willson’s hunger strike issued today by Dan Shea. Willson can be reached at bw@brianwillson.com.

by Lynne Stewart

A worldwide embrace to all of the thousands of people who helped me [by signing the petition for her compassionate release – to sign, go to LynneStewart.org]! As my hero said, we are motivated by great feelings of love and compassion, and I am fortunate to be the beneficiary this time around.

Lynne Stewart embraces her husband and No. 1 supporter, Ralph Poynter, before surrendering for prison on Nov. 19, 2009. – Photo: AP

To all of them I replied that I have been fighting battles like this all my life and I would never quit. Then I had this white blood cell setback, making me super-vulnerable and was quarantined for a week. I was released on Friday to learn that indeed “the children had shouted” and the walls “did come a-tumblin’ down” [when the warden of her prison conceded that he would not oppose compassionate release]. I must say that I was in a state of bliss. Not just to win but to accomplish it in the time honored method! We will organize the people and you dare not ignore us!

I owe an enormous debt to so many. This is the one we had to win where the medical decision was made that compassionate release was warranted. That cannot be trifled with, BUT we who have been out here struggling from the ‘50s onward know that the government is masterful at co-optation, at snatching victory and making it defeat.

Please do not think that my struggle is WON. We have this fabulous win, but we still have the D.C. Federal Bureau of Prisons – if there ever was a time to hold Obama’s feet to the fire, this is it – and then their forwarding of the case to the judge in New York for a final decision. Yes, he’s the same one who increased my original sentence from 28 months to 10 years!

Ralph Poynter leads a march for his wife, Lynne Stewart, on her 71st birthday, Oct. 8, 2010, outside the federal prison in New York City where she was then being held. – Photo: Workers World

Lynne sends her appreciation to petition signers

I want you, individually, to know how gratifying and happy it makes me to have your support. It is uplifting, to say the least, and after a lifetime of organizing it proves once again that the people can rise.

The acknowledgement of the life political – and solutions brought about by group unity and support – is important to all of us. Equally so is the courage to sign on to a demand for a person whom the government has branded with the “T” word: Terrorist.

Understanding that the attack on me is a subterfuge for an attack on all lawyers who advocate without fear of government displeasure, with intellectual honesty guided by their knowledge and their client’s desire for his or her case, I hope our effort can be a crack in the American bastion. Thank you.

Go to LynneStewart.org to sign the petition for compassionate release that nearly 14,000 people have signed so far and that persuaded the warden to no longer oppose compassionate release. And please spread the word to help save Lynne’s life! Ralph Poynter can be reached at ralph.poynter@yahoo.com.

Editor’s note: Lynne wrote this from her bed at Carswell Federal Medical Center. She’s now so weak she can rarely sit up, so writing is very difficult. Because for her treatments at an outside hospital, she’s shackled with 10 pounds of chains in transit and handcuffed to the bed and under armed guard constantly while there, she’s relatively relieved to be in the prison hospital, where she’s not tied down. This information and more is in a powerful interview with Lynne’s husband, Ralph Poynter, by Professor Walter Turner broadcast on Africa Today on Monday, April 29, at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/91142.

After a year of defying court orders to alleviate the state’s prison crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown seems to have finally pushed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to its limit. In an April 11 ruling, having already “exercised exceptional restraint,” the exasperated federal judges declared the state “will not be allowed to continue to violate the requirements of the Constitution of the United States,” giving Brown until May 2 to develop a plan that will reduce the prison population by nearly 10,000 people by the end of the year.

Brown struck back, vowing to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court “so we don’t have to let out those 10,000 people.”

Not all prison releases are bad news. Nelson Mandela and Winnie walk to freedom after his release from prison Feb. 11, 1990. – Photo: Greg English, AP

To meet the court’s mandate by the end of the year, Brown needs to begin releasing identified low-risk inmates now – a step both the federal and the U.S. Supreme Court agree “would be consistent with public safety.” Here are two ways Brown can safely, justly and dramatically reduce the prison population by the end of the year:

• Release low-risk Lifers who are past their minimum eligible parole dates. California has nearly 26,000 people serving life in prison with the possibility of parole, or “Lifers.” Seventy-seven percent of these Lifers are classified as low risk – including 9,000 people who have already passed their minimum eligible parole dates (e.g., 15 years on a 15 years-to-life sentence). Moreover, former Lifers have the lowest recidivism risk of all classes of inmates, with a “minuscule” likelihood of committing another crime. The incarceration of low-risk Lifers who have already “done the time” does nothing to enhance public safety, and Brown should take immediate action to release these men and women from prison.
• Restore good time credits. Lifers are not the only prisoners with a low risk of recidivism – 34,000 other California inmates fall into this category, including about 9,000 Second Strikers and 15,000 people serving non-life sentences for violent crimes. Restoring good time credits (time off for good behavior) incentivizes rehabilitation and is a reasonable way to reduce these sentences without adversely affecting public safety. In the 1970s, prisoners could halve their sentences with good behavior. Now, most people convicted of violent offenses must serve 85 percent of their terms and Second Strikers must serve 80 percent. According to an analysis submitted to the federal judges, if Second Strikers and violent offenders could reduce their sentences by 34 percent with good behavior, 9,000 people could be released from prison with “no significant adverse impact.”

These reforms would result in an immediate and safe reduction in the prison population, and would even allow the state to bring back its 8,500 inmates housed in private out-of-state facilities. Brown’s long-term plan should also include sentencing reform, parole reform, tightening standards for Realignment, and extending good time credits to Third Strikers, who currently receive none (thus bringing most low-risk Third Strikers up for parole).

The governor has complained that he cannot make changes in sentencing or good time credits without legislative approval – yet has “made no effort to seek the needed legislation,” the judges found. To achieve a prison system that enhances public safety and respects human dignity, he needs to begin that process now.

Lizzie Buchen is a member of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) policy team. She holds a master’s degree in neuroscience from UCSF and has worked in journalism and prisoner rehabilitation. This story previously appeared in the California Progress Report.

This week there have been enormous developments in the worldwide campaign to gain compassionate release for imprisoned people’s lawyer Lynne Stewart. The wheels are beginning to turn. We must redouble all efforts!

Please click here to sign or re-sign the petition for compassionate release for Lynne Stewart. Keep the pressure on!

On Friday, April 26, the warden at FMC Carswell Federal Prison recommended that Lynne Stewart be granted compassionate release so that she can receive treatment for her metastasized Stage 4 breast cancer. The cancer has now spread to her lungs and back.

Gaining compassionate release for Lynne was thought to be impossible just weeks ago, when we helped to initiate this petition campaign with Lynne’s family. The warden’s recommendation is the first crucial step in gaining Lynne’s release so that she can get urgently needed care.

A week later we heard more news from Ralph Poynter, Lynne Stewart’s spouse. Federal probation officers in New York had visited members of Lynne’s family on May 3 to review the Brooklyn facilities where Lynne Stewart can live and be cared for while being treated at the family’s desired medical facility, the world-renowned Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

This review is another essential step. But there are several other steps before Lynne is home with us.

If ever there was a time to push forward, ALL TOGETHER, this is the moment.

The Petition for Compassionate Release must still go before the original sentencing judge, Judge John Koeltl, and elsewhere in the government bureaucracy.

The 12,000-plus signatures that you have already generated demanding compassionate release is the reason for this breakthrough. If there ever was a time to continue and/or join this fight, the time is now.

Ask all your friends and associates, all who have access to listserves, all organizations that can pass resolutions to take just a minute to sign NOW for Lynne.

Click here to sign or re-sign the petition.

Please be ON ALERT to pack the court in case Lynne suddenly has to appear in federal court in NYC in the coming days, when Judge Koeltl may make a final determination to decide this petition for compassionate release. We want to PACK THE COURTROOM and Foley Square to show our love and deep concern for Lynne. (The U.S. Court House is located 500 Pearl Street, just off Foley Square in Lower Manhattan.)

Now more than ever, first-rate medical care is critical to save Lynne’s life and to continue her battle for freedom.

Finally, please send donations payable to the LYNNE STEWART ORGANIZATION to: Lynne Stewart Organization, 1070 Dean St., Brooklyn, New York 11216. See www.LynneStewart.org for regular updates.

Learn more about the International Action Center at iacenter.org.

Stand for Lynne at these events

• May 8, 4-7 p.m.: Rally at Times Square, Red Bleachers, W. 46th Street & W. 47th St. on Broadway, NYC
• May 9, 7 p.m.: Rally at the Theater 80 Saint Marks, 80 Saint Marks Place, NYC
• May 15, Noon-6 p.m.: Vigil at Foley Square, Centre Street between Worth and Pearl, NYC

Note from Lynne Stewart: Impact of numbers – diverse and impassioned

After experiencing a great happiness as I learned that our request for my compassionate release had been approved, I truly felt a resounding depth of joy when I read in the New York Times that the Bureau of Prisons’ inspector general recommended “More Releases of Ailing Prisoners” on May 2. Of course, my gratitude to the many people who signed on the petition and wrote is unbounded. BUT as a lifelong advocate, if my case can budge the bureaucracy to unfreeze the safety valve for the dangerously ill who are confined in these prisons without hope of release, that is a much greater victory to me and all of us.

Carswell is the only women’s prison hospital in the federal system and is replete with tragedy. While not going into detail, let me just say that there now seems to be a crack in the wall because of the reaction of all of you to the call to aid me in the hour of need. That answer is reverberating and may well serve not only me but countless others who are ill and not so fortunate as I. This is what I want as my legacy — to make it better for others who may not be able to rally as I was able to.

Written by Lynne Stewart on May 4, 2013. Write her back: Lynne Stewart, 53504-054, Federal Medical Center, Carswell, P.O. Box 27137, Ft. Worth, TX 76127.

We are seeking your participation in a very unusual event – a day-long grassroots lobbying visit to the California State Capitol led by formerly incarcerated people on May 13, 2013.

Jerry Elster speaks at a rally in support of California prisoners’ hunger strike on Aug. 1, 2011. As the main spokesman for May 13, Jerry says: “Formerly Incarcerated People’s Quest for Democracy is a statewide movement of people who, in these days and time, find ourselves having to fight for the fundamental rights that are espoused by the Constitution of this country. We are not deceived to believe that we are alone in this effort and invite others are equally facing oppressive human rights constraints and restrictions to stand in support of us, as we stand in solidarity with them. We must take a collective stand against any and all discrimination, regardless of the target audience or population. Stand on May 13 with us, the Formerly Incarcerated People’s Quest for Democracy!”

We invite our brothers and sisters, supporters, allies, friends and comrades to join us and support the formerly incarcerated members of our community who have been rendered silent.

On several occasions we have been asked, why this year? Why not go to Sacramento some other time? Here’s why THIS is an opportune time.

There are currently a number of bills being considered that directly relate to our capacity to thrive as human beings. The stakes are high: our right to vote, our right to work, our right not to languish in a gang database for the rest of our lives, and our ability to seek expungement relief – all these issues are being considered.

We are witnessing the greatest change in the criminal injustice system in over 50 years. If this is not the time, then when?

We are just now beginning to secure support for the buses that will be rolling out of both Northern and Southern California. We are lining up various legislators to support this effort. We are beginning to contact the various caucuses in the state House for support.

If you are formerly incarcerated – please join us! And to all other people of good will, please come out and support formerly incarcerated people in our fight for inclusion. Come out and support us speaking in our own voice. Help us speak truth to power, regain our dignity and make California a better, safer place for all Californians.

Supporting the call:

All of Us or None (statewide)

Project Rebound-Associated Students Inc. (SFSU)

Center for Young Women’s Development/CYWD (San Francisco)

New Way of Life (Los Angeles)

Fathers and Families of San Joaquin

Safe Return (Richmond)

Contra Costa County Interfaith Supporting Community Organization/CCISCO

PICO California

CURYJ (Oakland)

California Coalition of Women Prisoners/CCWP

OneFam (Oakland)

United Playaz (San Francisco)

Homies Unidos (Los Angeles)

Starting Over (Riverside)

Life Support Alliance (Sacramento)

San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper

Occupy 4 Prisoners (Bay Area)

Youth Justice Coalition (Los Angeles)

Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement /FICPM (National)

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (San Francisco)

Families to Amend Three Strikes/FACTS (Sacramento)

Office of Restorative Justice of the Los Angeles Archdiocese

Justice Reform Coalition

Associated Prison Ministries

United for Change

NMT/The Ripple Effect

FYI Trilogy

Insight Prison Project

Prison Watch Network

California Families Against Solitary

California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement /CFASC

CURB Coalition

Please share with allies and invite people via facebook and twitter or go directly to the Facebook event page.

For more information, contact:

• Jerry Elster, organizer, All of Us or None, jerry@prisonerswithchildren.org
• Fanya Baruti, organizer, All of Us or None, Fanya@newwayoflife.org

Young people, to start, you must acknowledge that for everything you think you know, there is a great deal you don’t know. That the first pursuit of man is to acquire knowledge. But until you can discern the real from the fake, true knowledge and the wisdom to wield it effectively will always escape you.

Ikemba S. Mutulu is shown in a picture taken in Colorado. Ikemba means teacher, and he has taught dozens if not hundreds of prisoners to read, to understand history and politics, and to work together for a better day.

The wise man knows our greatest strength is our capacity for love, empathy and understanding. Every great man has had “love” at the center and source of his strength: love for the people, for life, his woman.

We are lied to, told our worth in this world is based on the material. We waste our lives chasing money, the cars, the clothes, and whatever these capitalist elitists tell us we need to be somebody. We are conditioned to accept violence as a viable means of gaining respect.

But not money nor violence can make you good leaders or men; this comes from the substance of your character and the way you conduct yourself in your dealings: treating people fairly, with respect and courtesy; conducting business fairly without being greedy or underhanded; and resorting to violence only after all other means of resolution have failed – even then, only when the issue is serious enough. Lesser matters can be chalked up to education. Or if the desire demands, avenged by more civilized means.

The vulgarities of violence should only be tolerable when you can explain to your family, comrades and loved ones that your actions were justified, intelligent and meant to achieve a worthwhile objective based on reason and reality. If you must go to your loved ones and say you’ve hurt someone, put your comrades’ lives in jeopardy because your ego was bruised, you felt slighted or some other pettiness or if you lost your life or the life of a friend, how foolish would that be?

The last thing I want to touch on here is the crimes we’ve committed in that predatory, criminal deathstyle many of us were into. I’m not saying confess to shit; some things have no statute of limitations. But it is vital we take personal responsibility and acknowledge the damage we’ve caused to our communities, the people who love us and to our own lives.

You must make a conscious decision to put an end to that pain. Expose this predatory deathstyle for the lie it is: not a way out, but a way to death and for our enemies to excuse their barbarity – the killer cops, corrupt courts etc. We must redeem ourselves and work to repair the damage we’ve caused.

The wise man knows our greatest strength is our capacity for love, empathy and understanding.

Some of us may feel we can’t make up for some of the mistakes we made. But, we can all do things and find ways to help other young people to avoid the mistakes we made. Most of us learn from our own mistakes. The trick is to learn from other people’s mistakes, so we don’t repeat the same mistakes they made.

Finally, to my loved ones out that water and the men with whom I did time, where the bonds of struggle were born (steel is formed by blending different metals together and can only be forged in fire): They stuck me in a Level 4 prison out here in Colorado. Although I am doing well here, my thoughts remain with you there.

Of the four Section 1983 civil suits I filed against the Nevada Department of Corrections and the White Pine County Sheriff’s Department, I won three. My initial objective was only to get out of the hole and off HRP (High Risk Potential). But in the end, I had to settle for $28,000.That sounds like a good come up, I know, but we missed out on a real opportunity to expose the corruption and the hypocrisy going on in Nevada.

My Nevada lawyer was more interested in photo ops and government approval, grants and donations than helping me or changing the prisons. Without any real legal or media support, I was forced to settle my lawsuits.

Being sent out of state had nothing to do with my settlement. The prisoncrats there knew that getting rid of me was their best chance to kill the work I was doing. The Nevada Prison Watch website, the Nevada Prison Newsletter, the August Initiative are some of our collective efforts to educate and uplift one another past the racism, past the gangsterism and past any of that Willie Lynch divide and conquer bullshit.

Educate one another, discipline yourselves physically and mentally to build and grow and to never give those courts, cops, wardens and all those capitalist elitists who are scared to death of what you might become the opportunity or the excuse to put you back in another prison ever again.

Over the past year while fighting my lawsuits, I kept an eye out for who and what would emerge. None of you have the rights or the respect you receive on your own. Many before you have sacrificed and fought for you to have that.

I remember back in the day (1991), a lot of them Gs was sleepin’ on the Bay. Yo boy went herd in the point to make ‘em feel us. But, the boy don’t bang. Like the homie Pac said, “We don’t give a fuck if you cuz or blood, long as you got love for thugs.” Conscious of the fact it’s too many counterfeit for trues to be divided.

That love for the real don’t never die whether it’s at an end or on some rilla shit. And that’s the history of what was laid down. So just as you have an obligation to rep that rilla or some street or convict shit, you have a higher obligation to learn about and introduce your peers to four true teachers, leaders and heroes like Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Che Guevara, Assata Shakur and George Jackson.

Educate one another, discipline yourselves physically and mentally to build and grow and to never give those courts, cops, wardens and all those capitalist elitists who are scared to death of what you might become the opportunity or the excuse to put you back in another prison ever again.

One planet, one freedom!

P.S.: Without the expertise and support of the Norman Paralegal Service, I would not have been able to do all the little things vital to winning a lawsuit. I have shared every secret I learned over the years litigating my lawsuits and am working with them to help those of you serious about continuing the work for prison and judicial reform, prisoners’ rights etc. Write out a brief summary of your observations, ideas and any issues for civil litigation. These will be reviewed and submitted for evaluation. The evaluation and/or any advice you receive is free. But the service is not, so you should expect to pay a fee, though reasonable, for any work they do or help you with. You can contact them at P.O. Box 10786, Reno, Nevada 89510.

Send our brother some love and light: Marritte Funches (Ikemba S. Mutulu), 155850, 49030 State Hwy 71, Limon CO 80826. Ikemba means teacher, and that has been his role behind enemy lines. For teaching prisoners to read and to understand the world, he has often been severely punished, yet he perseveres. Ikemba is a longtime friend of the Bay View.

Have you ever heard of a prisoner with life insurance or health care? No. This is because every prison sentence could very well end up in death to the inmate.

In January, Human Rights Watch reported that from 2007 to 2010 the number of prisoners in the U.S. over age 65 increased by 63 percent, while the total number of inmates grew by less than 1 percent. In Louisiana, caring for aging inmates costs $80,000 annually. A new law there allows parole for prisoners 60 years and older who have not been convicted of a sexual crime and who have served a minimum of 10 years. – Photo: The Atlantic

In short, we must accept anything that they dish out with a smile. One out of every 100,000 malpractice claims against prison caregivers succeed, while over half of the MD practice claims filed in society succeed.

This tells you how we are looked at by the courts. If a prisoner lives to be 60 years old, it’s a miracle. The state prison has a policy of killing off prisoners who start breaking down, costing them too much money.

There are so many ways to pull our plugs that California prisons are no better than Nazi death camps for older prisoners. Placing a prisoner with hypertension into a cell that is very hot or forcing him to stand in 100 degree heat, placing older inmates on yards that inflict drama and fear and thus heart attacks … well, you get the basic picture of the filth that is California’s prison system.

Corcoran Prison is one of the worst of these “death camps.” When I filed my civil action, I was sent there to be killed off.

Send our brother some love and light: Carl S. Harrison, J-43634, 3B04-M-L, P.O. Box 3466, Corcoran, CA 93212.

by Abdul Olugbala Shakur, Sondai Kamdibe Dumisani, Abasi Ganda, Ifoma Modibo Kambon, Dadisi Yero, Askari Joka, Mutope Duguma, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, Baridi Yero, Kijana Tashiri Askari, Yafeu I-Yapo

Preamble: Fascist repression can only flourish when the voices of its victims have been brutally silenced and isolated within the concrete confines of a man-made construct where the scrutiny of the media cannot transcend the walls. Those walls are erected by legislative venality and deprive humanity of an eyewitness account of how captured human minds, spirits and bodies are being disfigured by the instrument of officially sanctioned evil that plagues this vortex of torture they call Pelikan Bay.

Drawing by Michael Russell, C-90473, PBSP SHU D7-217, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532

As a result they themselves have become a target for the CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) agents of repression, such as the Office of Correctional Safety (OCS), Institutional Gang Investigations (IGI) and Investigations Services Unit (ISU). The confiscation of the March [and, since this was written on April 5, also the April] issue of the Bay View is a clear indication of the agents of fascist repression escalating their attacks against the Bay View.

It is imperative for all of us to understand that the Bay View is part of us. Mary and Willie Ratcliff is our sista and brotha and they have sacrificed much to help us and serve our communities. We must now go beyond rhetoric and lip service in support for the Bay View.

We now present the following statement: The San Francisco Bay View is a national Black newspaper that serves the interests of the New Afrikan communities inside Amerikkka. Its objective is to always bring attention to the injustice that occurs against New Afrikan people by speaking out against the injustices handed down by the state and federal government, who systematically abuse their authority in order to suppress the voices of the oppressed.

For over 20 years the San Francisco Bay View has played a critical role in allowing our voices to be heard.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is supposed to protect our freedom of speech, but time after time we see that the state officials tend to resort back to the Dred Scott v. Stanford Supreme Court case, where it was said that New Afrikan people “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

These are the words that Warden G.D. Lewis, C.D.W. Ducart, A.W. Swift, ISU Capt. Barneburg, IGI Lt. Frisk and their subordinates live by when it comes to New Afrikans’ freedom of speech – even after several court victories in respect to our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, in which the court clearly stipulated in their many rulings that the prison officials were in violation of our First Amendment rights.

Brad Ford, a prisoner in the federal system, uses his meager earnings to buy subscriptions for younger prisoners he mentors. The Bay View, denied for three of the last four months to subscribers at Pelican Bay State Prison in California, is currently being allowed in to federal and state prisons around the country and throughout California, except for Pelican Bay.

The officials’ actions are calculating and malicious because they deliberately withheld the Bay View paper from the prisoners who actually had been consistent in their litigation against the blatant violations of our First Amendment rights. It was each of us who were not provided the CDCR 1819 forms which we have to have in order to file a 602 appeal grievance form for that which is having an adverse effect on us. In this case, it’s our First Amendment violation governing our incoming mail.

By not issuing us our CDCR 1819 form, the CDCR/PBSP (Pelican Bay State Prison) officials are not only denying us our procedural due process but our right to file a civil lawsuit and petition of writ of habeas corpus to the courts for violations of our First Amendment rights. So the CDCR/PBSP official actions are arbitrarily insidious racist attacks on New Afrikan prisoners exclusively and the only New Afrikan newspaper that has chosen to stand up against the CDCR/PBSP’s deliberate threats and power in the interest of the oppressed prison class held in CDCR custody.

We also want to say that CDCR/PBSP officials literally ran a test run when they confiscated the 25 Bay View issues in January 2013 from those lone subscribers while giving everyone else their subscription. Only through progressive litigation can we beat back these arbitrarily insidious racist attacks by prison officials who should have never been given authority to run no prison, let alone human beings.

We will aggressively continue to attack these actions against our freedom of speech! It is worth noting we have over 15 lawsuits pending in the federal court. Brotha Abdul Shakur has a lawsuit pending specifically pertaining to the confiscation of an article he had attempted to send to the Bay View. The judge in this matter recently ordered the defendants, IGI and ISU, via the attorney general to respond to Brotha Abdul’s lawsuit. He also has a similar petition being reviewed by the California Supreme Court, so we are aggressively challenging the CDCR/PBSP campaign of repression.

People, we are all in this battle together. We cannot fight this battle by ourselves, especially from within solitary confinement. We must launch a coordinated effort in our endeavors to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the Bay View against any and all attempts to sabotage its functional capacity and impede their free speech.

We will aggressively continue to attack these actions against our freedom of speech! Your support is imperative to our success.

Our First Amendment campaign is calling on all people, especially the prison rights movement, to do the following:

1. contact Warden Greg Lewis via email or phone and demand that IGI and ISU put an end to censoring the Bay View and release the March issue [and April issue] of the Bay View to the prisoners housed within the PBSP Security Housing Unit;
2. contact Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell. Inform her how Pelican Bay State Prison Institutional Gang Investigation Unit (IGI) and Investigative Services Unit (ISU) are attempting to censor the Bay View newspaper because of their reporting on the hunger strikes, the five core demands, end to hostilities, sensory deprivation, torture and long-term solitary confinement;
3. actively help to organize support for the Bay View. This will discourage the fascist agents of repression in their endeavors to ban and isolate the Bay View. Subscriptions are imperative towards the Bay View’s longevity and stability. Brotha Abdul Shakur suggested that activists should organize a Bay View subscribers’ party where attendants pledge to subscribe to the Bay View in support of our ongoing campaign to defend and protect our free speech;
4. establish communication with the primary coordinators for our First Amendment campaign. We are all involved in litigation. Brotha Abdul Shakur has seven active cases presently pending, five Section 1983 civil suits in the federal courts, one in the local superior court, and one under review in the California Supreme Court.

Your support is imperative to our success.

Send our brothers some love and light:

• Abdul Olugbala Shakur (s/n J. Harvey) C-48884, D1-119 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (s/n R. Dewberry) C-35671, D1-117 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Mutope Duguma (s/n J. Crawford) D-05996, D1-117 (SHU) , P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Sondai Kamdibe Dumisani (s/n R. Elllis) C-68764, D1-223 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Baridi Yero (s/n J. Williamson) D-34288, D4-107 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Ifoma Modibo Kambon (s/n D. Burnett) B-60892, D4-103 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Kijana Tashiri Askari (s/n M. Harrison) H-54077, D3-123 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Yafeu I-Yapo (s/n L. Alexander) B-72288, D3-119 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Abasi Ganda (s/n E. Jackson) C-33559, D2-107 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532;
• Dadisi Yero (s/n L. Benton) B-85066, D1-101 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
• Askari Joka (s/n J. Franklin) C-08543, D2-207 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532

Response from the Bay View

We are deeply grateful to the Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement First Amendment Campaign and will do all in our power to support them in defending the First Amendment rights of us all. “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons,” wrote the Russian revolutionary Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who served four years hard labor in Siberia. That truth is beginning to manifest to the U.S. public nationwide and especially in California in a recent flood of mainstream news stories critical of prison policy and practice and the politicians responsible for it.

Pelican Bay is on the wrong side of history. Its officials’ fear of the upcoming July 8 hunger strike and work stoppage, a reaction to their refusal to negotiate in good faith over the prisoners’ Five Core Demands issued two years ago, is apparent in their current violations of the laws and regulations that are supposed to govern them.

The Bay View has yet to receive any official notification from Pelican Bay State Prison saying why and from whom the March and April issues were withheld. Numerous subscribers, however, have written to say they did not receive their papers. All but one had not been issued the 1819 mail disapproval form, which is prerequisite to their filing a 602 appeal.

We want to thank those prisoners who did receive their papers for sharing them with those who did not. If any subscriber who was denied his paper is not located where he can share another subscriber’s paper, write to us and we will send a copy with the pages cited by Pelican Bay officials removed. – Willie and Mary Ratcliff

Prisoner cancels subscription for fear of retaliation

The following letter was written April 10 by a prisoner whose name must be withheld:

“I am a subscriber to your publication and have been for approximately eight years and it truly pains me to have to write this correspondence to you at this time to ask that you remove me from your subscriber list and no longer ship your publication to me due to the prison’s view of your publication.

“While I truly enjoy your publication, it would prove to be detrimental to me to continue to receive your publication. It is my hope and sincere prayer that the prison would change its view towards your publication.

“For me, your publication has been very informative and educational and it has helped me become a better person. I truly do not understand the position of the prison.

“I am aging and cannot deal with any potential fallout as a result of my receiving your publication. It is very sad that men are not allowed to educate themselves.

“I suffer from mental health conditions that would be exacerbated by being a target of the prison’s affection as a result of my receiving your publication. I just learned of the potential problem today while reading someone else’s March edition.

“I hope to someday be able to once again enjoy your publication. Just know that it is with great regret that I make this decision. As I have stated above, I am aging and my mental health is not good. I must protect myself from harm.

“I am also a grandfather with a desire to see and hold my grandchild who was born in July of last year. I have not seen her in person and I wish to transfer down south where I can visit, so I am putting my family desires ahead of everything at this time.

“I would like to close by thanking you for educating me and being a source of comfort through many lonely years. May you have continued success. God bless you and your entire staff.”

On Monday, April 8, they ran no yard on the 4B Facility in the Corcoran SHU (Security Housing Unit). We of course investigated as to why we were, yet again, denied yard access without explanation and discovered staff had all gone to some sort of “training.”

By chance, or design, one of the NCTT-Cor-SHU coordinators was under escort by two officers who, by happenstance or design, began discussing the nature of this training that would take another two days of additional training to complete:

In preparation for the July 8 peaceful protest action (hunger strike, work stoppage etc.), Corcoran SHU administrators are directing staff to dispense with California law and state procedures and policy regarding mass hunger strikes and instead institute a policy designed to raise the potential for maximum casualties (deaths) amongst prisoner participants, while negating the existence of input data or any health care services monitoring information.

CDCR staff at Corcoran have been directed that there will be no weigh-ins, blood pressure checks or other medical monitoring of hunger strike participants for the duration of the July 8 peaceful protest. Instead, a single officer will be given a video camera to “monitor” participants every few days or so.

The facility will be locked down, a state of emergency enacted and all yard, visits and medical ducats will be suspended. No one will leave the cells. No medical intervention of any kind, including health care services, daily nursing observations and weekly primary care provider evaluations as mandated by California Correctional Health Care Services Policy Manual Inmate Medical Services Policies and Procedures (IMSP&P) Volume 4, Chapter 22.2, will be allowed. [That chapter, “Mass Organized Hunger Strike,” can be read at http://www.cphcs.ca.gov/docs/imspp/IMSPP-v04-ch22.2.pdf.]

In preparation for the July 8 peaceful protest action (hunger strike, work stoppage etc.), Corcoran SHU administrators are directing staff to dispense with California law and state procedures and policy regarding mass hunger strikes and instead institute a policy designed to raise the potential for maximum casualties (deaths) amongst prisoner participants, while negating the existence of input data or any health care services monitoring information.

Once a participant loses consciousness, if he is discovered by staff before he expires (dies), he will then receive medical intervention in the form of force feeding (physician’s order for life sustaining treatment). Once this occurs the participant will be considered no longer on “hunger strike.”

[Editor’s note: According to the IMSP&P hunger strike regulations cited above, health care staff “shall not force feed” a prisoner unless he refuses to say whether he wants to be force fed or is unable to give informed consent. In addition, forced feeding “shall not take place except in a licensed health care facility by licensed clinical staff.” The regulations contradict all the “training” the officers described.]

Our cause is a righteous cause, our peaceful protest to realize the Five Core Demands just and fair. We cannot allow the state to undermine the purpose and impact of these sacrifices.

Many of you may see the obvious contradiction in prison staff being trained by Warden Gipson to intentionally violate the law and health care policy, with the complicity of prison doctors, nurses and technicians, to intentionally jeopardize the lives of peaceful protestors.

But what’s not obvious, and in our opinion most insidious, by willfully preventing input data to even be collected, eliminating visits and confining any proof of the hunger strike to correctional officer videography, CDCR can control the narrative completely.

With plausible deniability pre-structured, this approach allows CDCR to under-report actual hunger strike participant numbers, claim those on hunger strike are actually eating by recording on video non-participants who are eating, releasing the videos to the press characterizing them as hunger strikers who are not actually striking, and do all of this while denying protestors access to mandated health care evaluation and clinical monitoring, ensuring serious injury or death befalls at least some protestors.

When it does, just like with Christian Gomez, they can claim the victim was only hunger striking a day or so and instead died of a “pre-existing medical condition unrelated to the hunger strike.”

J. Heshima Denham

Our cause is a righteous cause, our peaceful protest to realize the Five Core Demands just and fair. We cannot allow the state to undermine the purpose and impact of these sacrifices.

We are prepared to die to end great injustice. Should we not be allowed the dignity of these sacrifices being accorded the state’s policy and our opposition acting within the guidelines of their own law?

Criminals are defined not by what they are called, but by what they do. Who are the criminals in this case? The answer is as obvious as the question. All that’s left to be decided is if you will stand idly by as this crime is committed.

A luta continua.

NCTT-Cor-SHU (NCTT stands for the New Afrikan Revolutionary Nation (NARN) Collective Think Tank) is a people’s think tank comprised of New Afrikan (Black) prisoners held in solitary confinement in California’s Corcoran State Prison Security Housing Unit. The mission of the NCTT is to create, develop, review and implement programs, initiatives and concepts with and for individuals, groups and community activists across the U.S. to realize 10 Core Objectives as articulated by the think tank. Learn more and contact the NCTT at ncttcorshu@gmail.com, @NCTTCorSHU, on Facebook and on their website, at ncttcorshu.org.

Send our brother some love and light: J. Heshima Denham, J-38283, CSP-Cor-SHU, 4B-1L-43, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA 93212.

Editor’s note: Heshima Denham implies and some prisoner supporters suspect that what was overheard may be a deliberate attempt to frighten prisoners into calling off the hunger strike scheduled to begin July 8, 2013, or refusing to participate. Readers are encouraged to call the warden’s office, at (559) 992-8800, and inquire. Please relay any significant information to editor@sfbayview.com. 

Greg Curry, 48, is a prisoner in the Ohio State Penitentiary, the supermax facility in that state, serving a life sentence following a major disturbance in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF), in Lucasville, Ohio. This disturbance, known as the Lucasville Uprising, started 20 years ago, on April 11, 1993, after the warden, Arthur Tate, had instituted a very strict regime with no allowance for any discussion or negotiation of the rules, nor any respect for those in prison.

One of the important issues for Muslim prisoners was that the mandatory TB tests used alcohol (phenol) under the skin, which they refused. There was no discussion allowed with the warden to use alternative means of testing. This attitude of not listening to the serious concerns of a group of religious prisoners culminated in the uprising. For more information, see http://www.lucasvilleamnesty.org/p/background.html and https://justiceforlucasvilleprisoners.wordpress.com/.

This disturbance, known as the Lucasville Uprising, started 20 years ago, on April 11, 1993, after the warden, Arthur Tate, had instituted a very strict regime with no allowance for any discussion or negotiation of the rules, nor any respect for those in prison.

I’ve been in contact with the people who were convicted after the disturbance ended, and one big reason the story of Lucasville has to be told again and again is that not only did this tragic, desperate uprising lead to 10 deaths, but five men are still on death row and many more have been given lengthy sentences who declare their innocence.

After the uprising, informants were used to testify against other prisoners. In some cases, one prisoner would admit to having committed a murder, yet someone else would be found guilty of the same murder. Attorney and writer Staughton Lynd details this in seven essays he has written over the past year reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the Lucasville Uprising, at https://justiceforlucasvilleprisoners.wordpress.com/re-examining-the-lucasville-uprising-essays-by-staughton-lynd/.

Siddique Abdullah Hasan, designated the “ringleader” during his trial following the Lucasville Uprising and condemned to death, wrote: “One of the prosecutors, who is now a state judge, recently stated to a documentary filmmaker, ‘I don’t think that we will ever know who hands-on killed the Corrections Officer Vallandingham.’ This is not what he and other prosecutors told our juries. So yes, we are innocent men who are political prisoners.”

One big reason the story of Lucasville has to be told again and again is that not only did this tragic, desperate uprising lead to 10 deaths, but five men are still on death row and many more have been given lengthy sentences who declare their innocence.

Building a supermax appears to be the one thing politicians and prisoncrats wanted in the 1990s, and the Lucasville Uprising, which they call a riot, was all that was needed to get their way.

Greg Curry

Here is the story in short of Greg Curry, one of the prisoners who received a life sentence even though he had nothing to do with the uprising or the murders.

Annabelle Parker: Greg, on the website Gregcurry.org and in a flyer you and your supporters have published, you wrote: “I was 29 years old. My interest was going home, sports, hustling and exercising, nothing more or less: no gangs, groups or religious affiliation, nothing to prove to my peers. Therefore, I had no serious disciplinary issues. My job was a recreation aide.”

So you were not with the Muslims or affiliated with a prison gang?

Greg Curry: No, I was not part of any prison group or religion pre 1993. Most of the guys charged I had not even seen before.

A.P.: Greg, why did the prosecution or those investigating the riot turn to you? Do you have any clue? Did anyone mention your name?

G.C.: Most people knew me and Keith LaMar [now known as Bomani Shakur] was close friends, brothers even, so the assumption would be natural that we’re together or have each other’s back.

Some guys in LaMar’s block where these murders took place (apparently) blamed him and his friends, all in face mask by the way. So that started a process of founding “LaMar’s friends,” and once I was interviewed by the investigators, I was told “you or LaMar going to death row.”

I told them I didn’t know anything and have no reason to blame LaMar for anything either. Some guys – Lou Jones, Ant Walker, Donald Cassell – had previous problems with LaMar and evidence suggested that they would be charged for murders, so they needed to “perform” to get paroles and no charges on themselves.

Once LaMar’s “friends’” names were discovered, the investigators started giving these to their inmate conspirators (“snitches”) and those inmates repeated the lies. When you put most anyone up against anyone else, most people will save self; lying is only a minor detail.

I was given an opportunity to “save myself,” but I didn’t do anything or know anything worthy of needing saving from. How ironic that not knowing, not being involved, would put me at greater risk than had I committed a crime.

A.P.: This snitching by other inmates, this was encouraged by the prosecutors? Did the prisoners get anything out of snitching, which I gather means lying in court? Were they themselves involved maybe?

G.C.: Yes, the investigators that were state police and the prosecutors encouraged, created a narrative for the inmate conspirators (“snitches”) that wrapped up all loose ends and allowed different juries in different courts to convict different people for the exact same crime, so that four to five people individually are convicted for each murder.

Those snitches were then given parole or no charges. In Lou Jones’ case, he admitted being on this so-called “death squad,” yet he was not charged with anything and got a parole.

To clarify the commonly used term “snitching,” I prefer the inmate conspirators’ term. Yes, they helped get us divided, which in America is an easy task, and then the heavy burden of being poor, Black, male, convicted felon in a totally opposite rural community on trial makes you truly vulnerable to conviction.

Then, yes, these guys came to court to testify as well. As I said earlier, yes, these guys were the first to be accused, which is why the investigators paid them a visit. Once shown the evidence against them, they were given a “way out.”

I was given an opportunity to “save myself,” but I didn’t do anything or know anything worthy of needing saving from. How ironic that not knowing, not being involved, would put me at greater risk than had I committed a crime.

A.P.: You say on the website that deals are part of the law in Ohio but that the jurors have to know about the deals. In your case, the jurors clearly did not know, but the prosecution and the lying inmates did know about the fabrication of the case against you. In other words, they knew about a deal, but it was not disclosed in court? And the judge? Did he or she know?

What about Beckett v Haviland US App 6th cir?

G.C.: I believe the judge at trial, Stapleton, a retired judge, was in the blend to the deal between the prosecution and inmates. However, he became (at least) an unwilling accomplice when he stated, “By law if there were deals, they would have to be disclosed,” in response to my jurors’ inquiry, so that convinced my jury it was no deals when in fact it was, and the inmates and prosecutors covered it up. While my defense was based on my innocence and these inmates’ deals.

Beckett v. Haviland is just the latest in a long list of case law that clearly states this practice to be so out of bounds that the only remedy, and I quote: “The only remedy is a new trial.” (See http://gregcurry.weebly.com/gregs-case.html with attached document, Beckett v. Haviland.)

Thus far the judicial system has hid behind “procedural” walls to deny me a court hearing. The courts claim it’s too late to seek justice! Can you believe that crap from a world leader in telling other countries what justice is?!

“The only remedy is a new trial.”

A.P.: What were you charged with and did you know those testifying against you? What happened to them?

G.C.: I was indicted for two aggravated murders, found guilty of one and guilty on the other of attempted aggravated murder. All those who testified against me received deals ranging from paroles to lower security to choice cellmates.

A.P.: Greg, it is 20 years now since that ordeal. What is the situation now of your case, and how can we support you?

G.C.: The courts are merely a reflection of a society that “don’t wanna know,” so until people become aware and demand mainstream media look into it and the media asks questions of lawyers and pastors and civil rights leaders, then it will be 20 years more.

Our fight at present is to make people aware, skeptic or not. Just look into it. Our supporters hold rallies and events that cost money so even if you can’t physically come out, help with money. Donations help. Email blast the websites. Get to know us. Just don’t ignore this anymore. It’s been 20 years.

A.P.: Is there anything else you need us to know right now?

G.C.: As of April 11, 2013, many of us are on a hunger strike to demand access to media to tell our stories. So pray for us. But prayer without deeds can’t please our God.

Freedom first,

Greg

Annabelle Parker, who lives in the Netherlands and dedicates her life to supporting prisoners in their struggles for freedom and justice, can be reached at freegregcurry@yahoo.com.

Send our brother some love and light: Greg Curry, 213-159, OSP, 878 Coitsville-Hubbard Road, Youngstown, OH 44505. His website, created and maintained by his supporters, is Gregcurry.org.

Support the hunger strikers

The situation is urgent. As of April 21, Bomani Shakur (Keith LaMar) had already lost 28 pounds!

To support the hunger strikers, call JoEllen Smith, head of the Office of Communications at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) central office, and demand that she and ODRC Director Gary Mohr grant media access for on-camera interviews with the Lucasville hunger striking prisoners. Her number is (614) 752-1159.

Tell the operator you do not want to talk to the warden, because you know that Director Mohr and Communications Director Smith are the actual decision-makers. Tell JoEllen Smith that you believe they are denying this access because they do not want the truth to come out about April of 1993.

Sign the online petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/ohio-department-of-rehabilitation-and-corrections-allow-on-camera-interviews-with-lucasville-uprising-prisoners#.

Learn more at http://www.lucasvilleamnesty.org/2013/04/20th-anniversary-hunger-strike-press.html.

BULLETIN: The hunger strikers situation is urgent. As of April 21, Bomani Shakur (Keith LaMar) had already lost 28 pounds! He and Hasan remain on strike. No update is yet available on the other hunger strikers. Sign the online petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/ohio-department-of-rehabilitation-and-corrections-allow-on-camera-interviews-with-lucasville-uprising-prisoners#

by The People’s Minister of Information JR

Twenty years ago, there was a prison uprising in a U.S. concentration camp commonly known as Lucasville to the community and prisoners but as Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on paper. A number of people were murdered including a correctional officer and several prisoners who collaborated with the prison administration.

Siddique Abdullah Hasan

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us how long you have been locked up and a little bit about your arrest?

Imam Hasan: I’ve been behind enemy lines for 29 years. My arrest came as a result of a 1983 crime of aggravated robbery with a gun specification. In short, a motor vehicle was commandeered at gunpoint, and no one was harmed. The above crime happened in Cleveland during the autumn, but I was able to post bond and was granted authorization by the court, as well as my bail bondsman, to return to my home in Savannah, Georgia. For the most part, this is why my trial did not commence until the autumn of ‘84.

M.O.I. JR: Prior to ‘93, how long had you been locked up? How long did you have to do? What were you doing with the time?

Imam Hasan: I had been imprisoned for nine years prior to the year in discussion. I was given the maximum sentence of 13 to 25 years for my alleged crime – that is, 10 to 25 years for the aggravated robbery and a mandatory three-year sentence for possession of an operable firearm during the commission of a felony. My time, prior to ‘93, was wisely spent reeducating myself and preparing for my reentry back into society.

To be more specific, I had secured my GED diploma and had immediately enrolled in data processing and, later on, in college classes; became a member of the African Cultural Organization (formerly Black Culture Club) and, shortly thereafter, was appointed its public relations director; took up public speaking courses; initiated some stringent studies toward becoming a certified scholar in Islamic jurisprudence and Sufism (spiritual purification and enlightenment); and, finally, was working on an apprenticeship in masonry, plumbing and electrical wiring. In addition to my own academic, oratorical, religious and vocational pursuits, a portion of my time was spent providing academic, moral and spiritual training, purification and development to those prisoners who sought my tutelage.

I’ve been behind enemy lines for 29 years. I had been imprisoned for nine years prior to the year in discussion.

M.O.I. JR: For the people who know nothing about Lucasville in Ohio, can you give the people a little bit of history about the institution, so ‘93 can be put in a political and historical perspective?

Imam Hasan: Actually, the name of this infamous maximum-security prison is the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF); however, to the convict and inmate population it is called Lucasville or Luke. The prison is in Lucasville – a small Appalachian and conservative city 80 miles directly south of Columbus – and the city inherits its name from Robert Lucas, Ohio’s 12th governor.

The prison sits on 1,625.4 acres of land – 22 under roof – and, in September of 1972, this newly state-of-the-art facility commenced housing some of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC)’s most fearsome and notorious prisoners who came from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. The designed capacity of Lucasville is 1,638 cells, but the prison was overcrowded at the time of the uprising, namely, to 146.3 percent of its capacity.

Not only was Lucasville overcrowded, but the entire Ohio prison system was overcrowded. In fact, the inmate-to-correction officer ratio was 8.8 to 1, compared to the national average of 5.1 to 1.

Its Black prison population has always exceeded 60 percent, while both its minority staff and correction officer populations have never exceeded 10 percent. So what you had was predominantly former white farmers, who had very little or no social contact with Blacks, overseeing and managing a predominantly Black population that emanated from inner cities throughout Ohio.

The designed capacity of Lucasville is 1,638 cells, but the prison was overcrowded at the time of the uprising, namely, to 146.3 percent of its capacity.

Indeed, a recipe for disaster. Put another way, you basically had two very distinct cultures and ethnic groups that diametrically opposed each other on almost every front. This explains why the prison officials treated Black prisoners like “Black dogs” that they could either randomly beat up or occasionally murder for trivial things and thereafter giggle among themselves, or why they covertly and overtly promoted racial strife among Black and white prisoners.

So prisoner deaths, stabbings, rapes, assaults and other violence were the norm. It was a very vicious cycle. At one time, Lucasville averaged about five to seven murders per year, and many of them involved whites killing Blacks. But Black prisoners were not the only recipients of this racial hatred. Black prison employees were also mistreated. For example, they were made to feel unwelcome by their coworkers, and some even had their tires slashed.

This ongoing racism was displayed when and after the only Black guard captured during the rebellion was released in exchange for a live prisoner broadcast on national TV. The guard grabbed the microphone and stated that “the Muslims had nothing to do with the guard’s murder, that they protected him [the released guard], and treated him humanely.”

Siddique Abdullah Hasan, tried as Carlos Sanders and described by the Associated Press as the “alleged ringleader” of the 1993 Lucasville Uprising, is heavily guarded as he is led to the jury selection phase of his trial on Jan. 16, 1996. – Photo: Al Behrman, AP

This was the institution’s history, political backdrop and racism that Blacks were forced to live and work under for over two decades. It’s interesting to note that in the aftermath of the rebellion, the prison authorities decided to institute a mandatory cultural diversity class for all its employees. Well, it was a little too late.

JR: What led to the uprising in Lucasville in ‘93 that resulted in an officer and some inmates being murdered?

Hasan: Just like it takes a mixture of ingredients to make up the ideal male-female relationship, it was a mixture of ingredients that prompted the war between prisoners and prisoncrats. Many of these ingredients can best be understood by perusing my answer to your last query.

While Warden Arthur Tate’s uncompromising stance to administer mandatory TB testing to all prisoners under his jurisdiction and control may have ultimately been the straw which broke the camel’s back, there was a long train of abuses that spearheaded a full-scale rebellion. Contrary to the popular view the media sold to the public, the rebellion had absolutely nothing to do with the Muslims’ refusal to take the Mantoux tuberculin skin test, a test that contains an alcoholic substance (phenol) and that is religiously forbidden for Muslims to have injected under their forearm or into their system.

Instead, the rebellion was prompted by conservative guards’ elitist attitude and blatant racism toward inner-city Blacks.

The Muslims’ intention was to initiate a peaceful protest to bring Central Office’s attention to Warden Tate’s unrealistic and unsympathetic position to infringe on our First Amendment right. However, when prison guards abandoned their posts, as well as their once-loyal colleagues, young Black prisoners decided in an impromptu manner to change the game. That is, they impulsively decided to attack the guards and, in their own words, “pay those racist motherfuckers back for all the abuses they’ve dished out to Blacks” since the inception of SOCF.

The rebellion was prompted by conservative guards’ elitist attitude and blatant racism toward inner-city Blacks.

Now after the initial scene of pandemonium – where guards’ blood flowed profusely throughout L-block and where snitches’ souls were violently snuffed out – young revolutionaries made it perfectly clear that the war was not about prisoners against prisoners, but about prisoners against the administration and its sympathizers.

This is the synopsis of a story that is all too common behind enemy lines, when it comes to Black prisoners versus white guards and administrations.

M.O.I. JR: Why do you think you and your four comrades were charged and convicted of the murders, although the evidence points to the fact that as negotiators during the rebellion, y’all helped save lives instead of taking them?

Imam Hasan: Long before it was even over, we were targeted by the state as the primary leaders of the rebellion. In my case, since I was a well-respected and influential Imam (prayer leader) of the Sunni Muslims, and since it was the decision of some Muslims to stage a peaceful protest in order to bring Central Office’s attention to Warden Tate’s inconsideration toward our religious beliefs, it was anticipated that I would become a scapegoat for the action of others.

As for the others, they were either catapulted into the position of spokesmen by their respective leaders, or they opted to become spokesmen in order to avoid a massacre. History has taught me that the worst seems to come out of people during this type of crisis; thus it’s my honest opinion we were targeted because we were singled out as leaders and spokesmen.

In the eyes of the state, why not those at the forefront, i.e., the leaders and spokesmen? In personally looking back, it sometimes seems that it wasn’t a good idea to risk our lives nor our freedom to save the lives of others, especially not when we face the possibility of paying with our own lives. But religiously speaking, as a practicing Muslim, I know in my heart I did the right thing.

M.O.I. JR: Can you describe when your trial was and the political climate surrounding the trial?

Imam Hasan: By the time my trial had commenced in January of 1996, you already had the first World Trade Center bombing that happened on Feb. 26, 1993, as well as other sporadic attacks on American institutions in other parts of the world. These attacks were regularly aired by the national media, and almost every American household was regularly expressing its fears and resentment toward Muslims.

This photo of Hasan at trial, on Feb. 14, 1996, appears in the book, “Lucasville,” by Staughton Lynd. – Photo: Al Behrman, AP

The prosecutors’ diabolical plot and scheme was obvious to everyone in the courtroom, including my trial judge, who formerly worked in their office as a prosecuting attorney. The racism was so consolidated that you had Black prospective jurors being asked three times as many questions as White prospective jurors, all in an attempt to find fault in them so they could be removed for cause.

In fact, when the prosecutors were unsuccessful in removing a Black juror for cause, they attempted to use one of their peremptory challenges; however, the judge would not allow them to remove this particular juror because he had an immaculate profile and was more than qualified to sit on my jury. Plain and simple, the prosecutors’ intention was to secure my conviction and my lynching by an all-white jury.

M.O.I. JR: Do you see yourself and comrades as political prisoners? Why or why not?

Imam Hasan: In the aftermath of the rebellion, the state of Ohio was under enormous political pressure to bring to justice the person or persons who were responsible for murdering prison guard Robert Vallandingham. The political pressure was so intense that a local citizens’ committee sought to ensure that whoever was condemned to death would be executed as rapidly as possible. This same committee also drafted a petition to Gov. George Voinovich, to President of the Ohio Senate Stanley Arnoff and to Ohio Speaker of the House Vernal G. Riffe to accept their responsibility to carry out the wishes of the voters of the state of Ohio.

One of the prosecutors, who is now a state judge, recently stated to a documentary filmmaker, “I don’t think that we will ever know who hands-on killed the Corrections Officer Vallandingham.” This is not what he and other prosecutors told our juries.

When no prisoners initially came forward with any information leading to the guard’s killers, the state bowed to public pressure and decided to lay the blame for the murders at the doorsteps of the prisoner leaders and spokespersons. This is how I, along with my colleagues, ended up being charged with various murders.

One of the prosecutors, who is now a state judge, recently stated to a documentary filmmaker, “I don’t think that we will ever know who hands-on killed the Corrections Officer Vallandingham.” This is not what he and other prosecutors told our juries. So yes, we are innocent men who are political prisoners.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’“ and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

OSP prisoners join hunger strike to mark 20th anniversary of Lucasville Uprising and demand media interviews

by Ben Turk

April 16, 2013, Youngstown, Ohio – At least 21 prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) refused all three meals on Monday, April 15, in solidarity with the four Lucasville Uprising prisoners who’ve been on hunger strike since April 11.

Warden David Bobby says no additional prisoners are officially hunger-striking, because none have refused nine consecutive meals, but he said numerous prisoners have refused meals off and on during the hunger strike.

The four prisoners who are on hunger strike are Greg Curry, Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb and Bomani Shakur. All have been held in solitary confinement since receiving convictions after the Lucasville Uprising in 1993. They are demanding media be granted access to sit-down interviews with them.

Statement on the hunger strike recorded by Hasan for the Re-Examining the Lucasville Uprising Conference

The warden also met with the prisoners on Monday to hear their demands, but he has not begun negotiations with them. When asked, Warden Bobby said that he does not have final say regarding media access. The decision is made by Director Gary Mohr and the Office of Communications at ODRC Central Office.

According to JoEllen Smith at the Office of Communications, there are many reasons media requests may be denied, and she insists that the same standards are applied to any and all requests. The prisoners from the Lucasville Uprising insist that this is not the case. They say other prisoners on death row and other prisoners at OSP are granted much more media access and that their constitutional right to equal protection under the law is being violated.

Supporters of the Lucasville Uprising prisoners are organizing a conference this weekend re-examining the facts of the uprising and the investigations following it. More information about the conference is available at Re-ExaminingLucasville.org.

The hunger striking prisoners request that people please call and email both JoEllen Smith and Warden Bobby to demand that media access be granted.

• JoEllen Smith: (614) 752-1150, joellen.smith@odrc.state.oh.us
• Warden David Bobby: (330) 743-0700, ext. 2006, David.Bobby@odrc.state.oh.us

Supporters are also asking people to write the Lucasville prisoners letters of solidarity:

• Siddique Abdullah Hasan, R130-559, OSP, 878 Coitsville Hubbard Rd., Youngstown, OH 44505
• Jason Robb, 308-919, OSP, 878 Coitsville Hubbard Rd., Youngstown, OH 44505
• Bomani Shakur (Keith Lamar), 317-117, OSP, 878 Coitsville Hubbard Rd., Youngstown, OH 44505
• Greg Curry, 213-159, OSP, 878 Coitsville Hubbard Rd., Youngstown, OH 44505

Ben Turk, a journalist known for his advocacy for prisoners, can be reached at insurgent.ben@gmail.com. This story first appeared in The Free Press.

by Emily Harris, Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Sacramento – Yesterday’s ultimatum by the three-judge panel puts Gov. Brown and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on notice to present a plan for further reductions in the state’s unconstitutionally crowded prisons within the next three weeks.

“The propaganda that Gov. Brown and Secretary Beard have been feeding Californians didn’t cut the mustard with the court,” said Misty Rojo, program coordinator for the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. “Conditions inside continue to be terrible, and in women’s prisons the situation is getting worse.”

Advocates who have criticized the governor’s criminal justice realignment plan as inadequate were quick to praise the court decision.

“Realignment itself, no matter how it was implemented, was never going to produce an adequate reduction in the prison population,” said Diana Zuñiga, field organizer for Californians United for a Responsible Budget. “It has been clear for years that a serious solution to the prison crisis would require serious sentencing reforms and changes to parole and compassionate release policies.”

The court ordered the CDCR and governor to “identify prisoners unlikely to re-offend” and reduce the population by 9,000 before the end of the year. The court threatened the governor and other state officials with contempt of court if they fail to comply. Groups led by those who are members of Californians United for a Responsible Budget have worked for years to convince Sacramento to institute common sense changes already in place successfully in other states, including:

• Expand medical parole, discharge prisoners who are permanently medically incapacitated
• Use compassionate release for the terminally ill
• Create parole eligibility for elderly prisoners
• Expand use of the alternative custody program
• Parole eligible term-to-life prisoners
• Reform drug sentencing laws
• Restore conduct credits for those in SHU and expand credits for others.

To ease overcrowding in men’s prisons, prison officials replaced the women in one of what used to be two women’s prisons in Chowchilla with men, bringing the remaining women’s prison to double its capacity. Advocates at the Jan. 26 Chowchilla Freedom Rally demanded that the 4,500 women officially approved for release be freed.

“Gov. Brown put California on the disastrous road to mass incarceration during his second term in the 1980s. During his current term, he can begin the process of turning California away from a prison-first mindset. The sorts of real changes the court demands will require changes to California’s dysfunctional sentencing laws. Those changes should, as the court suggests, be applied both prospectively and retrospectively.”

“Will Gov. Brown and Secretary Beard continue to dig in their heels to defend an indefensible prison system? Or will they demonstrate that they have the courage, vision and leadership we need to make meaningful changes to our super-sized prison system?” asked Zuñiga.

CURB’s message to advocates: This is one of those game-changing moments

Late yesterday, the three-judge panel overseeing the California prison population cap issued a stinging rebuke to Jerry Brown’s foot dragging and showmanship. They didn’t buy his claim that everything is just fine in California and instead made their most pro-active ruling yet.

In effect, the judges said:

1. Stop playing games.
2. Create a list of true prison population reduction strategies,
3. Do it within 21 days.

The joy of having dad home at last: Carl Harris rejoins his wife, Charlene Hamilton, and their two daughters after 20 years in prison. – Photo: Mary F. Calvert for The New York Times

Jerry Brown and the rest of the obstructionists aren’t going to spin this just as a policy issue. They’re going to try to scare Californians to death about the fact that people will actually have a chance to come home.

It might be subtle and it might be scandalous, but you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to try to mobilize fear against the long-overdue reforms we all want.

Please click here now and send a letter to the editor to a paper near you showing our support for the court’s new, more aggressive stance – and for bringing people back to our families and communities.

The court set a tight 21-day timeline for the administration to present a new plan to come into compliance with their order. We’re ready to push the policies we know will work – and there’s no question we’re going to need everyone’s help backing those up.

But first thing first. We absolutely have to control the story on this one. Help us send 100 letters to media outlets up and down the state right now – and make sure our side of the story is told.

Let’s do this!

Emily Harris, who heads Californians United for a Responsible Budget, can be reached at emily@curbprisonspending.org.

California Gov. Jerry Brown’s bid to end federal control over the state prison system’s mental health system was denied in federal court on Friday, April 5, in a sharply worded ruling by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton. In the 68-page ruling, Judge Karlton determined that “systemic failures persist in the form of inadequate suicide prevention measures, excessive administrative segregation of the mentally ill, lack of timely access to adequate care, insufficient treatment space and access to beds, and unmet staffing needs.”

Pelican Bay SHU cell – Photo: Adam Tanner, Reuters

An additional federal class action lawsuit, Plata v. Schwarzenegger, was merged with the Coleman lawsuit and in 2009, California was ordered to reduce its prison population to 137 percent capacity, as it was determined that constitutionally acceptable medical and mental health delivery was hindered by the beyond-capacity prison population, which was deemed an Eighth Amendment violation.

California in turn appealed the order to reduce its prison population and in 2011, in Brown v. Plata, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its prison population by 30,000 inmates. Gov. Brown has an additional appeal of this order before U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson.

Judge Karlton determined that “systemic failures persist in the form of inadequate suicide prevention measures, excessive administrative segregation of the mentally ill, lack of timely access to adequate care, insufficient treatment space and access to beds, and unmet staffing needs.”

Gov. Jerry Brown has gone on the record to claim that California has “one of the finest prison systems in the United States” and no longer requires federal oversight. In a January 2013 press release, Gov. Brown stated: “After decades of judicial intervention in our correctional system and the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars, the time has come to restore California’s rightful control of its prison system.” In February, CDCR announced the completion of a new mental health treatment building at the California Medical Facility, and declared that the facility “reinforces CDCR’s ongoing commitment to provide a constitutional level of mental health treatment in California’s prisons.”

Judge Karlton’s ruling, however, strongly rebukes these claims by Brown and CDCR, saying “based on defendants’ conduct to date, the court cannot rely on their averments of good faith as a basis for granting termination. There is overwhelming evidence in the record that much of defendants’ progress to date is due to the pressure of this and other litigation.”

A major factor in Judge Karlton’s ruling was the significant rate of suicides in the California prison system, which has previously been reported to be well above the national prison average.

Friday’s ruling might force CDCR to undertake more serious efforts to prevent more people in their custody from taking their own lives.

“In summary, for over a decade a disproportionately high number of inmates have committed suicide in California’s prison system. Review of those suicides shows a pattern of identifiable and describable inadequacies in suicide prevention in the CDCR,” Judge Karlton writes. “Defendants have a constitutional obligation to take and adequately implement all reasonable steps to remedy those inadequacies. The evidence shows they have not yet done so. In addition, while defendants represent that they have fully implemented their suicide prevention program, they have not. An ongoing constitutional violation therefore remains.”

Judge Karlton cited the overuse of solitary confinement, particularly among individuals with severe mental health problems, as a continuing problem in the California prison system. The ruling states that such individuals “face substantial risk of serious harm, including exacerbation of mental illness and potential increase in suicide risk.”

A major factor in Judge Karlton’s ruling was the significant rate of suicides in the California prison system, which has previously been reported to be well above the national prison average.

The state of California argued before the court that they have “developed and implemented procedures for placing and retaining inmates with mental health needs in any administrative segregation or security housing unit.” Further, the state of California argued that while individuals diagnosed as “mentally ill” are placed in segregation units, their needs are “being appropriately met.”

Judge Karlton dismisses this claim, stating that “this contention is not supported by defendants’ own experts.” He goes on to write that the state of California’s experts “describe the ‘environment of administrative segregation’ as ‘generally non-therapeutic.’ They recommend that housing inmates with serious mental disorders be ‘as brief as possible and as rare as possible.’”

Judge Karlton notes that this does not appear to be the case and notes that California’s own experts have commented that these prisoners should be at the top of the list for receiving transfers to mental health facilities. “These issues, until remedied, mean that seriously mentally ill inmates placed in administrative segregation units continued to face a substantial risk of harm,” Judge Karlton writes.

Judge Karlton cited the overuse of solitary confinement, particularly among individuals with severe mental health problems, as a continuing problem in the California prison system.

The high rate of suicides in California’s segregation units, where most individuals are held in solitary confinement, has been heavily documented by Dr. Raymond Patterson, a court appointed consultant to CDCR.

In a 255-page report filed in March of this year, Dr. Patterson blasted CDCR for its repeated failures to instate any of the suicide prevention measures he has suggested over many years. Dr. Patterson announced in his 14th annual review of prison suicides that he was quitting, as “it has become apparent that continued repetition of these recommendations would be a further waste of time and effort.”

The report reviewed 15 of 32 suicides in 2012.

In brief, the report found that:

• 9 of 15 (60 percent) committed suicide in single-cell status
• 9 of 34 (60 percent) had a history of suicidal behavior
• 11 of 15 (73.3 percent) had a history of past mental health treatment
• 6 of 15 (40 percent) committed suicide in Administrative Segregation
• 1 of 15 (6.6 percent) committed suicide in the Security Housing Unit
• 3 of 15 (20 percent) suicides were discovered after the process of rigor mortis had begun, indicating 2-3 hours had passed before the individuals were discovered
• 13 of 15 (86.6 percent) cases showed significant indications of inadequate assessment, treatment or intervention

Below is a chart presented in the report indicating the date and location of the suicides. Notable is the high number of suicides committed in segregation units.

The 2012 report notes that people in solitary confinement have a 33 times higher likelihood of committing suicide in the California prison system.

On page 16 of the 2012 report, Dr. Patterson writes: “In 2011, CDCR’s average daily combined population in its segregated housing units (administrative segregation units, SHUs, and PSUs) was 3,771. In 2011, there were 15 suicides in these units, for an incidence of one suicide per every 251.4 inmates in segregated housing units, and for a rate of 397.77 suicides per 100,000 inmates in segregated housing units.

In 2011, CDCR’s average daily population in non-segregated housing was 158,047. In 2011, there were 19 suicides in non-segregated housing units, for an incidence of one suicide per every 8,318.26 inmates in non-segregated housing units, and for a rate of 12.02 suicides per 100,000 inmates in non-segregated housing units.”

The report of Dr. Patterson on the 34 suicides in the California prison system in 2011 provides a similarly bleak picture.

In brief, the report shows that:

• 24 of 34 (70.6 percent) committed suicide in single-cell status
• 20 of 34 (61.8 percent) had a history of suicidal behavior
• 30 of 34 (88.2 percent) had a history of mental health treatment
• 9 of 34 (26.5 percent) committed suicide in Administrative Segregation
• 2 of 34 (5.9 percent) committed suicide in the Security Housing Unit
• 1 of 34 (2.9 percent) committed suicide on death row
• 5 of 34 (14.7 percent) suicides were discovered after the process of rigor mortis had begun, indicating 2-3 hours had passed before the individuals were discovered
• 25 of 34 (73.5 percent) cases showed significant indications of inadequate assessment, treatment or intervention

In the report, Dr. Patterson reported that “the high rate of inadequacy in assessment, treatment or intervention is generally consistent with previous years and remains unacceptably high.”

The report also adds further – and disturbing – details to cases of suicides previously reported by Solitary Watch. Pages 211 to 217 document the case of Armando Cruz, who committed suicide on Sept. 20, 2011, in California State Prison, Sacramento’s Psychiatric Services Unit. Cruz, who was incarcerated at the age of 17 for an attack on a police officer, entered the prison system in 2003 with a highly documented history of schizophrenia. Cruz was repeatedly placed in isolation units for behaviors that were largely committed during hallucinations and bouts of psychosis over the course of eight years. Cruz repeatedly engaged in self-harm, including self-strangulation and self-castration, yet was determined to have a low chance of suicide.

Solitary Watch obtained Cruz’s CDCR documents in late 2012. Documentation of Cruz’s final months, however, were missing from the documents CDCR sent. In April and May, Cruz was noted in the documents to have invented an imaginary family living with him in his isolation cell; he was also noted to have been placed on suicide watch between April 29 and May 10, 2011. Documentation available to Solitary Watch runs out after July. The Patterson report fills in this gap and reports previously unknown information:

“However, at the end of August 2011, he head-butted and pushed a correctional officer during escort. Subsequently, the inmate received an RVR, a mental health assessment, and was seen by a psychiatrist and by his primary clinician. The last mental health contact was by the primary clinician on 9/09/11. However, according to the suicide report, the inmate did not see a clinician as per guidelines the following week because his primary clinician was away from the institution and there was an emergency absence by the backup clinician. The inmate committed suicide on 9/20/11.”

The Patterson report states that when Cruz was found hanging in his cell, he was not given CPR for 10 minutes following his discovery, a violation of the prison’s own policy.

Dr. Patterson reported that “the high rate of inadequacy in assessment, treatment or intervention is generally consistent with previous years and remains unacceptably high.”

The report also sheds light on the final day of Alex Machado, who was incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit. Pages 228 to 237 discuss his suicide. Dr. Patterson found that Machado’s death “appears to have been both foreseeable and preventable. The inmate quite clearly had a history of suicidal ideation and at least one suicide attempt. He was noted to have been decompensating, particularly during the month of October 2011 and especially in the 24 hours prior to his death.”

Dr. Patterson also describes the extent to which Machado had been agitated on his final day:

“During the early afternoon at 12:05 p.m., the psych tech checked the inmate’s blood pressure at his request and the inmate said that he would take a PRN medication if it would help …. The inmate was again reported as having chest pains at 11:40 p.m. and 11:50 p.m. The log book indicated that the RN was on the unit to see the inmate and the inmate ‘seems very confused.’ The inmate was returned to his cell at 12:15 a.m. Welfare checks were completed between 12:05 a.m. and 12:15 a.m. and again at 12:45 a.m., when the inmate was discovered hanging in his cell.”

Dr. Patterson found that Machado’s death “appears to have been both foreseeable and preventable.”

Friday’s ruling might force CDCR to undertake more serious efforts to prevent more people in their custody from taking their own lives.

Sal Rodriguez is reporter, researcher and social media manager for Solitary Watch: News from a Nation in Lockdown, where this story first appeared. Email him at sal_solitaryw@yahoo.com.

Greetings to all those men and women of like minds and spirits who are going to volunteer and stand with us in solidarity in the upcoming peaceful struggle to force positive changes to CDCR that will benefit all prisoners and all our outside families and friends.

California prisoners who backed up their Five Core Demands with hunger strikes – peaceful protests – in 2011 are gearing up for another such protest to begin July 8, 2013, because their demands, though promised, still have not been met. This banner led a hunger strike support march in Santa Cruz on July 23, 2011. – Photo: Bradley, bradley@riseup.net

These letters were reassuring and solidified our commitment to see this through to the end. We also have no doubt that those in Corcoran, Folsom, Tehachapi and all other California prisons have written similar letters – including those men here with us in SHU D and C Facilities, as well as GP (general population) – which will only further strengthen our peaceful struggle across the state to end CDCR’s decades long oppressive actions towards all prisoners and their families.

After these and other letters from across the state and nation that will be published, we find it hard to believe that any able-bodied individual prisoner will not wish to take part in this historic peaceful action in one form or another. Hell, even those among us who have a serious chronic illness are fully supporting this peaceful action in one form or another, even though they aren’t able to go on hunger strike. For example, they are not going to July’s canteen and they’re writing family, friends, church groups and encouraging them to join our outside support groups and/or writing the governor, state legislators etc. Every single small act of support adds up to overwhelming support for our unified cause!

Greetings to all those men and women of like minds and spirits who are going to volunteer and stand with us in solidarity in the upcoming peaceful struggle to force positive changes to CDCR that will benefit all prisoners and all our outside families and friends.

And as one contemplates whether to volunteer or not, just remember all the psychological torture and personal loss (i.e., relations) that each of us in these solitary confinement torture cells have already experienced for the past 20-30 years. And, more importantly, think of all those youngsters, maybe young relatives, who will take our places after we’re gone – for another 20-30 years – if this system is not changed at this time.

Therefore, we must refuse to continue to keep our heads buried in the ground while CDCR continues to deprive and oppress us and countless others to come. Instead, we must now stand up, holding our heads high and volunteer for this peaceful action to change everything that CDCR has stood for in the past 20-30 years.

We must refuse to become complacent in our surroundings and not believe the big 30 year lies that things will get better on their own as time goes by, or that peaceful protests cannot make an impact. Those are lies!

Along these same lines, don’t allow CDCR to scare any of you straight into non-action by being afraid of receiving write-ups or being placed in Ad-Seg or losing the very little that CDCR returned to us, that they themselves deprived us of 20 to 30 years ago. So don’t allow them to manipulate and brainwash you into non-action.

We must now stand up, holding our heads high and volunteer for this peaceful action to change everything that CDCR has stood for in the past 20-30 years.

Now is not the time to stand on the sidelines or whisper doubts or excuses to each other not to participate or be in opposition as an active obstructionist. That’s what CDCR and their many minions will be doing prior to and during this peaceful action.

No, now is the time to stand up and be counted with us and those men in AC, the women in Chowchilla and countless others who will voluntarily participate in solidarity across this state and across this nation.

Finally, for anyone to allow an opportunity such as this to slip by without participating in some positive action – an opportunity of this magnitude may not present itself again – would be a very grave mistake on their part because they will only be adding another big regret to the many others they already burden themselves with, of missed opportunities to make a difference in changing the prison system for the benefit of all prisoners and their families.

Now is the time to stand up and be counted with us and those men in AC, the women in Chowchilla and countless others who will voluntarily participate in solidarity across this state and across this nation.

Always in solidarity and with great respect to all those men and women joining this peaceful struggle in one form or another, which includes all our outside supporters, who have been invaluable in this movement.

Arturo Castellanos writes this statement on behalf of all the other representatives and PBSP SHU Short Corridor Collective. His address is C-17275, PBSP SHU, D1-121, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532.

For families and friends to join our movement:

• www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com
• www.StopTortureCA.org
• www.abolishsolitary.com
• www.fairchanceproject.com
• www.facts1.net
• www.prisons.org for Prison Focus and ROCK and PHSS News
• www.sfbayview.com for San Francisco Bay View
• www.criticalresistance.org for The Abolitionist
• www.SJRA1.com for Sentencing and Justice Reform Advocate

Solitary confinement cell – Photo: EPA/UWE ZUCCHI

Before the hearings started, the United States government declared itself a “strong supporter” of the commission and stated that “[p]reserving the [commission’s] autonomy is a pillar of our human rights policy in the region.” The U.S. must live up to this commitment by making sure prisoners across the country have their basic human rights protected.

At a hearing on solitary confinement, the ACLU testified about the excessive use of solitary confinement in the U.S. and submitted testimony alongside a coalition of human and civil rights groups. The ACLU informed the commission that in the U.S., children, persons with mental disabilities, and non-citizens in immigration detention are held in solitary confinement, often for weeks and months. The ACLU suggested that the commission immediately recommend that the U.S. government and all members of the Organization for American States strictly limit the use of solitary confinement on all individuals and prohibit its use on persons below 18 years of age and persons with mental disabilities.

In its concluding statement, the commission stated that “based on the fact that the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment may not be abrogated and is universal, the OAS Member States must adopt strong, concrete measures to eliminate the use of prolonged or indefinite isolation under all circumstances … [T]his practice may never constitute a legitimate instrument in the hands of the State. Moreover, the practice of solitary confinement must never be applied to juveniles or to persons with mental disabilities.”

The world has again taken note that abuses in U.S. jails and prisons can’t be squared with our human rights commitments. On solitary confinement, the U.S. should demonstrate its leadership and prove that change starts at home.

At a hearing on the United States, the commission heard from human and civil rights groups – as well as U.S. government officials – about how children across the U.S. are charged as if they are adults, held in adult jails and prisons, and put at serious risk of physical and sexual assault. The ACLU, jointly with Human Rights Watch, detailed how officials in adult facilities use solitary confinement to supposedly “protect” children from adults and to punish them when they break rules. The ACLU urged the commission to engage the United States about the issue and has called on Attorney General Holder to ban the solitary confinement of children in federal custody.

In its concluding statement, the commission specifically criticized the United States for its mistreatment of children, expressing “deep concern over the practice in the United States of incarcerating children under 18 years of age in prisons for adults, without any effective separation between the two. It is also cause of concern to the Commission the abuses, sexual rape and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, such as solitary confinement. The Commission urges the United States to identify and urgently implement a federal mechanism to identify anyone under the age of 18 as a child, to keep them from being tried as adults or incarcerated alongside adults.”

The world has again taken note that abuses in U.S. jails and prisons can’t be squared with our human rights commitments. On solitary confinement, the U.S. should demonstrate its leadership and prove that change starts at home.

Ian Kysel is the Aryeh Neier Fellow with the ACLU’s Human Rights Program and the US Program at Human Rights Watch, where he focuses on the solitary confinement of youth in the United States. He is the author or co-author of human rights reports on solitary confinement, prison conditions for youth serving life without parole and the resettlement of refugees to the United States. Contact him via http://www.aclu.org/general-feedback. This story was originally published by the American Civil Liberties Union.

I’d like to share a few words with fellow prisoners about possible strategies being considered by CDCR to respond to peaceful protests such as a hunger strike or work stoppage (HS/WS) in July 2013.

California Medical Facility, Vacaville

Staff here say there is a plan to open and fill these wings in July 2013 with “GP” inmates who are Level 3. Why July was picked is not clear but the P, L and S wings are sort of Ad-Seg design with all the extra security features, such as steel window covers, cuff ports, single bunk etc. This may be a way for CDCR to try to spread out prisoners who are protesting by suddenly transferring people and segregating them in these units, which are in fact very segregated.

I’m sure CDCR is anticipating disruptions and likely preparing ways to respond. Prisoners should expect CDCR officials to employ tactics such as possibly cutting power to televisions to prevent us from watching news, stopping and delaying mail delivery and sudden transfers. CDCR has had years to plan for such events such as HS/WS. This is reason why every prison has a MSF (Minimum Support Facility) Level-1 “ranch” for short timers who will do prison critical work should the more aggressive long-term population behind walls suddenly wake up and peacefully protest.

Prisoners should expect CDCR officials to employ tactics such as possibly cutting power to televisions to prevent us from watching news, stopping and delaying mail delivery and sudden transfers.

Every prison with SNY (Sensitive Needs Yard) yards and GP yards saw the transfer of main kitchen jobs to SNY population because CDCR knew that SNY populations were not organized the way GPs were. All critical jobs were given to SNY, in preparation for HS/WS peaceful protests. However, GPs cannot be replaced to eat when we refuse to do so nor can we be forced to double cell if we politely refuse to.

Also of importance to know is that it is the policy and protocol of CDCR to take daily vital sign readings of inmates on HS, including weight, blood pressure, viewing of mouth for signs of dehydration and asking some questions. Should HS participants refuse politely to speak with medical staff when they attempt to take vitals each morning, it would add further pressure on CDCR to meet demands.

CDCR also has a new policy of removing all food, including coffee and drink mixes, for people on HS for the duration of the HS. They must visually inspect your cell and ensure no food is in your cell. So we must be prepared to do without these things for the duration of the HS.

Just be prepared in the short term for CDCR response tactics. They’ll be desperately trying to save their sinking ship. But remember this: If the crew of the ship – prisoners – refuse to eat, work and double cell, the officers (CDCR) will be left with a floating ship lost at sea. Eventually nothing will stop the ship from sinking.

In my opinion July is a very good time for these peaceful protests for the following reasons: (1) not much news is being covered in July, which gives us a better shot at mainstream exposure; (2) the CCPOA prison guard union’s contract – labor contract – expires in June 2013, which means that the negotiations by Gov. Brown with CCPOA and the issue of HS/WS in CDCR will likely be one big headache for the governor and lawmakers. It’s very likely that CCPOA will be in negotiations with the governor through July 2013; (3) budget negotiations are happening in Sacramento in July; (4) the Coleman/Plata courts will be looking at CDCR due to the mess of the inadequate mental health and medical care. The attorneys who represent these class action lawsuits will likely be making some noise.

All the above prison issues may very well put huge pressure on lawmakers and the governor to fix this entire prison mess once and for all. All we need to do is stick to our beliefs and hold on a while longer. You best believe there will be light at the end of tunnel.

Just be prepared in the short term for CDCR response tactics. They’ll be desperately trying to save their sinking ship. But remember this: If the crew of the ship – prisoners – refuse to eat, work and double cell, the officers (CDCR) will be left with a floating ship lost at sea. Eventually nothing will stop the ship from sinking.

Send our brother some love and light: Angel Chavez, F52069, CMF, N-305, P.O. Box 2000, Vacaville, CA 95696.

Many within society, and rightfully so, may find what I am about to allege very incredible and absurd, beyond the capacity of their comprehension, but the truth must be told if justice is truly to be served.

“Lessons from the New Afrikan Liberation Front (NALF) for Black Power, Land and Independence,” featuring Sundiata Acoli, Assata Shakur … and how many more can you identify? – Art: prisoner artist Rashid Johnson

People, no profit-making industry is going to intentionally deplete its resources and fall into bankruptcy, if they can help it. The PISC is no exception to the rule; it will do whatever it takes to guarantee its future existence and proliferation. Recidivism was and is the principal business plan; a genuine effort to rehabilitate prisoners would facilitate the demise of the PISC as a profit-making industry. So genuine rehabilitation is not on their list of priorities, especially Pelikkkan Bay and Corcoran State Prison.

Now you may be wondering, what does the above observation have to do with our First Amendment campaign. There exists a class of New Afrikan political prisoners and politically active prisoners who are committed to: 1) eradicating New Afrikan recidivism by transforming the New Afrikan criminal mentality; 2) developing proposed solutions designed to eradicate Black-on-Black gang violence, as well as criminal activities; 3) to prepare New Afrikan prisoners for release back into our communities, and 4) via our articles expose the ills of the prison industrial slave complex. As a result of our political objectives, the PISC, for the last 22 years, has launched a COINTELPRO prototype campaign designed to criminalize our agenda and censor our voices.

Since our arrival here at Pelikkkan Bay, we as New Afrikan political prisoners and politically active prisoners have been subjugated to a CDC-sanctioned prototype FBI counter-intelligence program (Cointelpro), but this prototype was developed and executed by the CDC agents of repression, e.g., Office of Correctional Safety (OCS/SHU), Institutional Gang Investigation Unit (IGI) and the Investigative Services Unit (ISU).

As a result of our political objectives, the PISC, for the last 22 years, has launched a COINTELPRO prototype campaign designed to criminalize our agenda and censor our voices.

Their goals are similar to that which the FBI set forth in the ‘60s and ‘70s when it attempted to neutralize our New Afrikan revolutionary collective, though the methods have changed. Their goal is neutralizing and destroying any New Afrikan political prisoner or politically active prisoner who dares to struggle in the service of our people – and humanity has remained the same.

Authentic politically inspired free speech within a fascist construct is like a cancerous tumor, and if allowed to spread it has the innate capacity to facilitate the rapid demise of fascist repression. Understanding that capacity, the agents of fascist repression responded with a repressive agenda designed to neutralize those forces and voices of political fortitude and moral steadfastness. During the ‘60s and ‘70s their methods were more blatantly and racially blunt, with no intention of concealing their racist and fascist agenda. Their assassinations and false imprisonment of New Afrikan freedom fighters within the CDCR exemplify their blunt method of deploying their fascist agenda. The ‘90s marked a less obvious approach, but just as effective.

Their goal is neutralizing and destroying any New Afrikan political prisoner or politically active prisoner who dares to struggle in the service of our people – and humanity has remained the same.

The CDCR agents of repression have a five-point agenda: 1) to isolate the most politically active New Afrikan prisoners; 2) to criminalize New Afrikan revolutionary nationalism (NARN), the primary ideology of the New Afrikan prison rights movement; 3) to discredit the New Afrikan political prisoners being held at both Pelikan Bay and Corcoran State Prison; 4) to discourage the New Afrikan prison population from relinquishing their criminal mentality and supporting the New Afrikan prison rights movement; 5) to develop a scheme designed to justify our long-term isolation within solitary confinement (Security Housing Unit). This is only a brief glimpse of the CDCR Cointelpro prototype.

People, this campaign is more than just about protecting our First Amendment rights. It’s about denying the PISC the human fuel that is required to maintain this industry of human torture and exploitation, not to mention protecting society from the ramifications of the PISC. Keep in mind it is your victimization as taxpaying citizens that the PISC relies on to fuel their profit-making industry. If we can reduce recidivism, we can reduce the need for prisons, thus facilitating the eventual bankruptcy of the PISC. And this is why they have been so determined to violate our First Amendment rights and censor our voices and political activities.

Authentic politically inspired free speech within a fascist construct is like a cancerous tumor, and if allowed to spread it has the innate capacity to facilitate the rapid demise of fascist repression.

Between 1989 and 2005, no one was aware of our First Amendment Rights Campaign, and both the state and federal courts had turned a deliberate blind eye to our political persecution and a deaf ear to our call for justice. Not only were we not allowed to mention Comrade George’s name, we were actually penalized for doing so.

There’s no class of New Afrikan prisoners in the entire country that have been persecuted more than our revolutionary collective for upholding the legacy of Comrade George Jackson, W.L. Nolen, Jeffrey Khatari Gaulden, Black August, New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalism (NARN). Many of us have been denied release solely on the basis that we refused to surrender our political commitment and activities to racial repression.

2005 marked our first victory. Comrade Tashiri was granted an evidentiary hearing on the critical tenets of our political struggle, such as George Jackson, Black August and New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalism (NARN) in Marcus Harrison (aka Kijana Tashirip Askari) v. Pelican Bay State Prison, No. HCPB04-3034. This hearing exposed the campaign by the CDCR and their agents of repression to isolate, criminalize and censor New Afrikan revolutionary nationalists housed in the security housing unit (SHU) at Pelikan Bay under the guidance of their Cointelpro prototype.

Our next victory was also spearheaded by Comrade Tashiri. A federal civil suit where he negotiated an out-of-court settlement that actually set the course was Marcus Harrison v. Institutional Gang Investigation, et al., No. C07-3824 (SI). Our next victory was led by me: James Harvey (aka Abdul Olugbala Shakur) v. Puente, et al., No. 08-2894 (VRW).

The Institutional Gang Investigation Unit (IGI) and the Investigative Services Unit (ISU) attempted to prevent us from using our Afrikan/Muslim name on our mail. I settled out of court. Our next victory was led by Comrade Sondai: Randall Ellis (aka Sondai Kamdibe Dumisani) v. Capt. K. Brandon, IGI/ISU, et al., No. 10-2957 (TEH). This case also addressed our captors attempting to censor Comrade Sondai from writing about Comrade George. This case was settled out of court.

Our First Amendment Rights Campaign is now beginning to kick the door down. Our next victory was led by Comrade Mutope: James Crawford (aka Mutope Duguma) on Habeas Corpus, No. A131276. The First Appellate Court overturned a Superior Court decision ordering the CDCR agents of repression to mail out Comrade Mutope’s mail containing the language of New Afrikan, New Afrikan Nationalist Revolutionary Man, NARN and the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM).

Our most recent and significant victory was also led by me: James Harvey (aka Abdul Olugbala Shakur) v. R. Drown, IGI/ISU et al., No. 10-4891 (RS). I negotiated a very significant out-of-court settlement under the terms and conditions No. 7 of the agreement. They were ordered to place in my file a chrono stating they can no longer confiscate my outgoing mail for merely referencing the New Afrikan movement, this encompassing all New Afrikan titled terminology from New Afrikan to NARN, as long as we’re not advocating criminal activity or specific acts of violence.

Though the settlement speaks to outgoing mail, the mediation judge made it clear it would also apply to incoming mail as long as it follows the same guidelines. And this agreement will affect all New Afrikan prisoners. The CDCR cannot apply one set of rules to me and not apply the same constitutional protection to other New Afrikan political prisoners and politically active prisoners.

Because of our multiple victories, many are under the false impression that we no longer need outside support. To the contrary, we need your support more so now than before. As you know, we are dealing with a very arrogant foe, who has displayed an open disdain for our human and constitutional rights as New Afrikan prisoners. In fact in spite of these victories, many of us have federal lawsuits and state writs pending in court for the same exact issues we had already settled out of court.

I have five federal lawsuits pending. The judge ordered the CDCR to respond to two of my lawsuits already, gave them 90 days in James Harvey (aka Abdul Olugbala Shakur) v. B.Thornton IGI/ISU et al., No. C12-2866 (RS). Their 90 days was up on Jan. 31, 2013, but on Feb. 4, 2013, they filed a motion requesting an additional 60 days, which the judge granted. This lawsuit pertains to the Black August Organizing Committee.

And I just recently heard from the judge in another matter: James Harvey (aka Abdul Olugbala Shakur) v. G. Lewis, Warden, et al., No. 12-5223. The judge ordered the CDCR to respond to this complaint. They have 90 days to respond. This lawsuit pertains to the Ramadan program and the religious diet. Pelikkkan Bay served us cold hot meals on paper trays throughout the entire month of Ramadan. On some days they didn’t even feed me; and the judge is in possession of all the evidence to support my complaint, and this is why he had ordered the CDCR to respond to my lawsuit.

Because of our multiple victories, many are under the false impression that we no longer need outside support. To the contrary, we need your support more so now than before.

As you can see, people, our battle is far from being over and we just received notice that validated alleged prison gang members will not be eligible to participate in the step-down pilot program. We remain in solitary confinement indefinitely, even though many of us have already spent 25-40 years in isolation. So, as you can see, we are in need of your concrete support, not your lip service. The Bay View for over 20 years has provided us with a platform to tell our story. Follow their example!

Adbul Olugbala Skakur (s/n James Harvey), C-48884, D1-119; Ifoma Modibo Kambon (s/n D. Burnett), B-60892, D4-103; Dadisi Yero Kambon (s/n L. Benton) B-85066, D2-103; Baridi Yero (s/n J. Williamson), D-34288, D4-103; Abasi Ganda (s/n C. Jackson), C-33559, D2-107; Kijana Tashiri Askari (s/n M. Harrison), H-54077, D3-124; Yafeu I-Yapo (s/n L. Alexander), B-72288, D3-120 – all located at PBSP, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532.