Abolition Now!

In the pre-dawn hours, white and Hispanic guards at Soledad State Prison in California violently ripped hundreds of Black prisoners from their bunks. The men were slammed around by wannabe commandos in full riot gear, zip-tied and led to the chow hall, without masks, barefoot, wearing only what they’d fallen asleep in.

Prisoner abuse and neglect, murders, deaths, suicides, disease, torture, assaults, lack of medical and mental health care, ADA and PREA violations, corrupt officers, extreme overcrowding and a toxic and hazardous environment – please help us and print these deaths in the Bay View. We need media exposure on Walker County!

To writer Sumiko Saulson, who still has their humanity intact, and to the Innocence Project, the story and path of Pervis Payne appears clear – he has been wrongly convicted and sentenced to be executed, although new DNA testing has not revealed his DNA on the weapon and he has intellectual disability. In the U.S. it is illegal for the state to execute Pervis under these conditions, but the state is going ahead anyway – because they want to, and who is going to stop them?

From Anthony Boult we learn the disturbing truth about just how historically diabolical the state of Louisiana is with regard to their caged “slave population,” utilizing a systematic strategy to destroy the dignity of the Black family and suppress the legal, political and socioeconomic rights of African Americans.

These are people so caught up in their make believe reality they’re like drunks who think they’re walking a straight line. And who the hell are the real criminals falsifying documents, falsifying confidential information on a regular basis? What’s so horrible is that they have been locking us up for decades – 23 ½ hours a day with nothing. And now it’s finally proven to be done on a fake ass foundation of lies. They put people in prison for such crimes, so shouldn’t they be held accountable?

"In Ohio prisons, maggots were also found in Aramark’s foods." | Corporate profit and Aramark's starvation diets

Black August adds another hero and martyr to the roll. By some accounts, it was his first day on the yard after 46 years in solitary confinement when Hugo “Yogi” Pinell was assassinated Aug. 12. Prison guards celebrated on social media: “May he rot in hell” and “Good riddens” (sic), they typed. Yogi was the only member of the San Quentin 6 still in prison, and his role in the events of Aug. 21, 1971, the day George Jackson was assassinated, has earned the guards’ incessant enmity ever since.

Sahara Fakhir is 33 years old. Prior to her incarceration, she was productive in the community, a member of Custodians of Faith, feeding the homeless. She is loved by family, friends and the homeless. She is a free-hearted, free spirited, loving individual. Even though she is physically restricted due to knees that render her immobile, she is always willing to sacrifice her own needs for the benefit of others.

Jason Renard Walker witnesses and speaks out about the beating of Marquis Kingbury, with humanitarian and defiant disregard for Sgt. Schwartz’s threat that he will beat Walker nearly to death just like Kingbury should he ignore the threat. 

A 23-year-old African American male is accused and convicted of murder in the second degree. Sadly, there is a higher chance of that happening with our young Black men than any other ethnic group in the U.S. Even when evidence favors a Black defendant, the verdict of guilty is handed down to Black males between the ages of 18 through 35 at four times the rate for whites. Take Aljerwon Moran, for instance.

Patricia Wright is a prisoner in Central California Women’s Facility’s Nursing Unit coping with an extraordinary array of challenges. She is legally blind, has stage four cancer that has spread to her breasts and her brain, causing her to lose control of her bodily functions, leaving her diapered, and has been given six months to live. What’s worse is that she’s innocent.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, like many Republican governors across the United States, followed the lead of President Donald J. Trump and pushed to re-open states before the science confirmed that it was time to do so.

During my previous seven years living in environments such as the Clements Unit, it felt like I’d seen more suicide attempts (several successful) and prisoner death cover-ups than I’d seen my own reflection.

On Dec. 14, 2018, families of prisoners and supporters traveled to Sacramento to rally in front of the California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation’s (CDCr) headquarters against the CDCr-induced violence that many of their loved ones are experiencing. The next rally is Friday, Feb. 15, 1 p.m., in front of CDCr Headquarters, 1515 S St., Sacramento.

I am an inmate at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, California. In April 2013, I and another individual were falsely accused of sexual assault and placed in Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg) immediately. I was forced to face the loss of my job assignment, property, good living quarters, placement and status in groups and organizations.

This horror story is unique to Phillip Littler – but not. Kevin ‘Rashid Johnson has told the story again and again, and as a revered artist, he lays bare these atrocities in drawings, exquisite in the pain they reveal, imploring us to listen, feel and act to abolish the existing evil culture killing our fellow human beings.

Secondary prisonization is what happens when people visit someone in prison. Children are no exception. We experience subtle versions of our parent’s physical confinement, elaborate surveillance and strict guidelines for any and everything. In my experience, from the long rides all the way to small prisons in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky, to my little sister’s severe nosebleeds in the car as we traveled through the mountains of West Virginia, to the amped up security at each facility, to the absurdly cold visitation rooms – all of it was miserable.

I can hardly believe that 47 years have gone by since the Aug. 7,1970, Marin Courthouse Slave Rebellion. Ruchell is now 77 years old. It’s a sin and a shame the fascist state has practically taken this brother’s whole life. And he has never seriously injured anyone. Quite the opposite, Ruchell has been responsible, through his jailhouse lawyering, for the release of countless prisoners over the five-plus decades he’s been incarcerated. Here’s his story, written years ago and updated.

Departments of corrections and state legislatures are putting into place chilling bans on free speech and expression by prisoners, formerly incarcerated persons, family members, friends, journalists, advocates and activists. Pack the courtroom for the hearing on Abu-Jamal v. Kane, challenging Prisoner Gag Law SB 508, on Thursday, Feb. 26, 10 a.m., in U.S. Courthouse, 228 Walnut St., Courtroom 2, Harrisburg, Penn.

The Adjustment Center (AC) is the death row Security Housing Unit at San Quentin (SQ) which also serves as Administrative Segregation Unit overflow housing. But for all intents and purposes the AC is a secret torture unit at SQ and the fraternal twin of CDCR’s other torture units now partially exposed by media attention resulting from the 2011 peaceful hunger strikes at Corcoran, Pelican Bay and Tehachapi.