Tag: Keith ‘Malik’ Washington

These drastic changes like video visits and lockdowns are being gradually introduced and are creating a more inhumane environment. Will this stop the drugs and violence? I think not.

In the year 2020, support our incarcerated journalists, activists and freedom fighters. Send a resounding message to the Federal Bureau of Prisons that free speech rights of all prisoners must be respected.

The Trump administration has an overt and covert campaign of suppression aimed at journalists, activists and servants of the people – including Comrade Malik, who plans to edit the Bay View upon his release.

“When I embraced this life as a freedom fighter and whistleblower, I knew there would come a time when the oppressors would place me in harm’s way and then feign ignorance. I think it’s time we all got more serious about protecting our most advanced political elements.” – Comrade Malik

Comrade Malik, currently in solitary confinement after being attacked at USP Beaumont, urgently needs to get out of there and into an institution in California. Prison officials need to know that many, many people are watching out for him and they can’t get away with any more dirty tricks.

Today, the oppression in South Carolina prisons has, if anything, intensified. Many prisons are still on and off of lockdown TWO YEARS after the riot at Lee that touched off the 2018 prison strike.

Lorie Davis has created a culture within TDCJ by which jailhouse lawyers, also known as “writ-writers,” are subjected to manifold reprisals for their peaceful and legal activities. Activities which are supposed to be protected under the U.S. Constitution’s First and 14th Amendments!

It’s that time again and I am sending out this call to action in order to encourage everyone who is passionate about ABOLISHING all forms of SLAVERY and involuntary servitude to get organized and come together in one united action of revolutionary solidarity on June 19, 2019, to protest against enslavement, degradation and dehumanization of Amerikan prisoners and all human beings throughout the world who are subject to any form of SLAVERY or OPPRESSION!

In adherence with the beloved Komrade Keith “Malik” Washington, deputy chairman of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter, this is the year of “knockin doors down.” We must start with the doors of solitary confinement. It was estimated in 2017 that over 87,000 prisoners across Amerika are being held in solitary – despite the many studies done by neuroscientists around the world proving that solitary confinement is a neglected social, ecological and environmental risk that also causes and worsens mental illness.

As a result of my very peaceful and LEGAL advocacy efforts, Senior Warden Phillip J. Sifuentes has recently attempted to threaten me. Warden Sifuentes is retaliating because I contacted Texas Rep. Jarvis Johnson!

“By anarchist spirit, I mean that deeply human sentiment which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people, which is not an exclusive characteristic only of self-declared anarchists, but inspires all people who have a generous heart and an open mind.” – Errico Malatesta, Umanita Nova, April 13, 1922

Supporters of Keith “Malik” Washington ... are urged to sign and send this letter to: Ombudsman Office, P.O. Box 99, Huntsville, TX 77342-0099, 936-437-4927, fax 936-437-4930, ombudsman@tdcj.texas.gov and as many other intended recipients as possible. Send encouragement to Malik as well.

It is our intention to transform “prison slaves” into respected and productive members of the international proletariat movement. As a proletarian, YOU, the sister or brother sitting on your bunk, or in your cubicle, or in the day room reading this essay – YOU are a WORKER and not a SLAVE. Your lives matter, and you have great potential to be an extremely productive and successful member of the new society we are struggling to create.

On the front page of USA Today for Dec. 27, 2018, we saw a shocking headline: “Grave discovery unearths legacy of Black convict labor.” The unmarked graves of 95 “prison slaves” were found on a construction site in Sugar Land, Texas. These Black men, ages 14 to 70 years old, were our ancestors and the first victims of what we have come to know as prison slavery in Amerika! These contract convict laborers were subjected to this form of slavery because the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution still allows slavery. Only the name has been changed. Slavery is still alive!

On Oct. 4, 2015, at the McConnell Ad-Seg Unit located in Beeville, Texas, prisoner Jarvis Dugas, No. 1386881, was preparing for a visit with his mother. Dugas, who is known to his friends as “Homestead,” is a Black man who is mentally handicapped and physically dis­abled. He walks with a pronounced limp. Dugas’ mother, Regina Strange, is a former employee of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She is all too familiar with the overt tactics of mistreatment, abuse and degradation associated with the corrupt prison agency and because she knows that, she regularly visits her son Jarvis.

By now some of you may have heard that my comrades and I have been attempting to convince the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (sic!) to approve a contact visit between Miguel Flores, an imprisoned artist housed here in Ad-Seg with me at the McConnell Unit and his mom, Paulina Gracia, who has an aggressive form of leukemia. Miguel’s mom has cancer, and the prognosis is not good. Normally, prisoners in segregation are not allowed contact visits. This is going to take a massive collective response. I believe in all of you, and I think that y’all believe in me, so let’s join together and make this happen!

TDCJ has me classified as a “High Profile Inmate,” but no one here has actually told me why I have been placed on high profile status. The only reasons I’ve been given is “you have lawsuits.” However, this supports my argument that the prison agency TDCJ has been retaliating against me for accessing the courts. Last year I won a civil lawsuit when I challenged TDCJ’s unconstitutional beard and religious headgear policy. While I was litigating that suit I was not subjected to this humiliating treatment. So why now?

I’d like to send out a clenched fist salute to Amani Sawari of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak. I have studied the transcript of Amani’s appearance on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. Amani did an excellent job articulating the reasons for our actions. Amani also had the presence of mind to highlight and accentuate the fact that we, the prisoners across Amerika, seek to be treated as human beings and given meaningful opportunities toward our rehabilitation.

When Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Bryan Collier, Correctional Institutions Division Director Lorie Davis and Office of the Inspector General Joint Terrorism Task Force member Nick Vaughn contrived the plot to kidnap me from Ramsey 1 Unit on June 22, 2018, at 4:30 a.m., they figured that no one would notice, no one would care and, if questioned about the strange occurrence, they would claim plausible deniability.

Written Sept. 4, 2018 – Today the heat and humidity inside my cell has reached a level which has caused me to feel dizzy, and I have been experiencing migraine headaches. Senior U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle denied my request for an emergency preliminary injunction. One of my main requests was that she order TDCJ to fix the inoperable and malfunctioning HVAC system here on the McConnell Ad-Seg Unit.