Tag: Mutope Duguma

For 41 years, Herman Wallace was shown no mercy by a system that has never shown any mercy to anyone it considers its historical or present enemy. Herman Wallace was made to suffer at the hands of local, state and federal governments. No matter how bad his situation got, there was not one human being within this system, or government, who sought to provide Herman Wallace any mercy.

Hasn’t CDCr created enough mentally ill prisoners through the use of solitary confinement? Hasn’t CDCr caused enough suicides through the use of solitary confinement? Hasn’t CDCr emasculated enough prisoners through its de-briefing policy? Why can’t we – normal, functioning human beings – remain as such?

I am compelled to share with your readers the evidence I have uncovered while doing research into my own case after I was framed by corrupt guards and convicted of murder at Folsom Prison in 1984. I have uncovered the real intentions behind the implementation of the deadly “integrated yard policy” and its bloody history at Folsom Prison.

While at California State Prison-Sacramento (New Folsom), we had received word that the CDCR was refusing to negotiate our hunger strike demands with the four main reps (prisoner representatives), so myself and two other New Afrikans pledged to become martyrs with the intent of forcing the CDCR to the negotiating table. I decided it would make more of an impact if I go first.

My reality of the last 13 years is concrete and steel and that’s it; no normal human relations for me. CSP-Sac was wide open. People were everywhere, 24/7, doing everything. I enjoyed every single bit of my human interaction. I talked more in a period of 12 days than I had in my whole 13 years of solitary confinement.

Our resolve remains as strong as ever, and we continue to press forward. No one should receive a sentence from a court and then have those responsible for carrying out that sentence exact revenge and arbitrary punishments at their whim. This is the reality that 30,000 men and women lent their collective voice to opposing.

In my 29 years of incarceration, I had never seen what I would witness on Sept. 24, 2013, on our way back to Pelican Bay State Prison’s solitary confinement torture chambers after our temporary transfer during the hunger strike. CDCR created a clear opportunity for the majority to attack the non-majority.

California’s use of indefinite solitary confinement and the devastating physical, mental and public health impacts of the notorious practice was at the center of today’s three hour hearing by a rare joint session of the California Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees to address demands made by prisoners during this summer’s massive hunger strike, the largest in U.S. history.

The reality right now is that Sen. Loni Hancock and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano have basically said that there has to be change. Now the people have to get behind these two politicians and make sure that they are empowered to make that change possible: Relieve prisoners of their on-going suffering inside these solitary confinement units that serve no purpose whatsoever.

How long must we continue to suffer? On Aug. 23, 2013, early in the morning, Pelican Bay State Prison Ad Seg was emptied out and placed on two buses. Every individual on the buses had been on the hunger strike since July 8, 2013, and there was not one medical staffperson on those buses. We do not care about how much worse our conditions get because the pain and suffering from not eating trumps it all.

As prisoners enter their 46th day of the massive California prison hunger strike, supporters continue to condemn Monday’s controversial court order that authorizes force feeding of strike participants and that disregards their medical wishes. The order has emboldened prisoners to continue their strike, while others have decided to rejoin the strike in response to the CDCR attack.

Mail in and out of Pelican Bay State Prison has been severely curtailed recently. Because news media are prohibited by California law from interviewing prisoners, their letters are the public’s only source of news on the hunger strike from inside the walls. These letters made it through the censors, arriving yesterday and today.

These particular officials who set out to provoke violence by attacking prisoners are not only committing criminal acts but grossly violate the authority entrusted to them by the public. For too long CDCR and PBSP have been abusing their authority, which each official took an oath to uphold – arbitrarily applying their prejudiced and racist views by attacking prisoners.

I just wrote you a few days ago about my location change; however, there’s been yet another change. We’ve been moved to Ad Seg H-Row. As you might have guessed, yes, it’s freezing cold over here. Abdul is down the row from me, Sitawa and Mutope are next door on G-Row – I think that’s the row. We are still holding up despite considerable weight loss at this point. We were all able to get some sunlight yesterday.

In retaliation for our peaceful protest, the security housing unit sergeant, B. Davis, drafted up a memorandum on July 8, 2013, saying that Pelican Bay State Prison will be following “regulations per DOM 54030.20.5 which allows book/ publications limit of five (5) books maximum.” This is what PBSP calls rehabilitation.

Mail to the Bay View from the hunger strikers has been very sparse since the strike began with 30,000 participants on July 8. Prison officials may be holding their letters as they did during the 2011 hunger strikes. But yesterday and today the mail brought a postcard and several letters from Bay View subscribers in the Pelican Bay SHU (security housing unit), where these historic hunger strikes originated.

Holding animals in solitary confinement breeds savagery. You are placed in a concrete slab of a cage for 22 ½ hours a day and let out for 90 minutes to another concrete slab of a cage only to be returned to your animal cage like an animal in a zoo, where correctional officials walk by your cell as if they’re watching exotic animals: tall ones, short ones, little ones, big ones, dark ones, light ones etc. etc.

On Jan. 29, 2013, I wrote an article called “The Lying Game: CDCR, Inc.” I wrote this article because I wanted the public, our legal team and mediation team and anyone else who’s willing to listen to know that it is not the prisoners who are lying; instead, it is the prison officials at the very top who are doing all the lying. They lied to our representatives about promising to implement our Five Core Demands.

For the past two years we’ve heard the state claim it’s reforming its long term segregation policies and practices by implementing a Security Threat Group (STG) Step Down Program (SDP). Officials claim the program is a significant move towards a more behavior-based system, yet they remain extraordinarily vague about the “ultimate conclusion.” What exactly is “gang activity”?

We all suffer from physical and psychological damage from being held indefinitely under these savage conditions, in solitary confinement. We have always said that our struggle is a protracted struggle and we intend to continue our Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement until justice is won and the long term solitary confinement torture is ended.