Working

W
Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
D
to
t All 
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V
Volume
V l
Volume
1, N
1
Number
b 11
11


November
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N
N
November
b 2012
2012

CALIFORNIA AUTHORITIES URGED TO END SHOCKING
CONDITIONS IN PRISON ISOLATION UNITS

T

he US state of California must make
substantial changes to their prison
isolation units and halt the inhuman
suffering of thousands of prisoners, Amnesty International said in a new report out
today.
“The Edge of Endurance: Conditions in
California’s Security Housing Units,” is
based on exclusive access gained by Amnesty International to isolation units in
California and explores the conditions of
confinement endured by more than 3,000
prisoners -- including 78 who have spent in
excess of two decades in isolation.
Prisoners in isolation are confined to
at least 22 and a half hours a day in cells
measuring fewer than eight square meters.
In Pelican Bay State Prison, over 1,000
inmates are confined alone in windowless
cells with poor access to natural light. Exercise is limited to and hour and a half a

CONTENTS
Amnesty on SHUs....................1
Tehachapi & Corcoran HS .......2
Students Protest SHU ..............2
Speech Must be Free...............3
Opposition to STG ...................3
Once Hostilities End.................4
Progress in Georgia .................5
Quote Box ................................5
Letters ......................................7
Capitalism and Prisons ............9

day, alone in a bare, concrete yard with 20
foot high walls with only a patch of sky visible through a partially meshed plastic roof.
Prisoners in isolation don’t have access
to work, rehabilitation programs or group
activities on any kind.
They are also prevented from any contact with the outside world, consultations
with medical staff take place behind barriers and visits from family or lawyers take
place behind a glass screen. Prisoners are
not entitled to regular telephone contact
with relatives.
“The conditions and length of imprisonment in California’s isolation units are
simply shocking,” said Angela Wright, US
Researcher at Amnesty International who
visited a number of prisons in the state.
“To deprive prisoners in a segregated
environment of natural light, adequate exercise or meaningful human contact is unnecessarily
punitive and unjustifiable in all
n
circumstances.
Access to natural light and
c
e
exercise
are basic needs, essential for physical
i and mental health.”
According to figures provided by the
California
Department of Corrections and
C
Rehabilitation
in 2011, more than 500 prisR
o
oners
have spent ten or more years in isolation,
more than 200 had spent over 15 years
t
a 78 in excess of 20 years.
and
Even though isolation is intended for extreme
t
cases, many prisoners who end up
in
i such units have mental illness or behavi
ioral
problems and have sometimes been
c
confi
ned for repeated, relatively minor rule
i
infractions
and disruptive behavior. Over
2
2,000
prisoners are being held in isolation
a
after
being “validated” as members or ass
sociates
of prison gangs.
One prisoner, who had been in an isolat
tion
unit for 22 years, told two Amnesty In-

ternational delegates during a visit to Pelican Bay that they were the first outsiders he
had seen in the cell block for years.
An inmate of Mexican origin wrote in
December 2011 that he had not had visits
from his elderly parents since he was sent
to an isolation unit in Pelican Bay in 1999
as they were too frail to travel the distance.
For several years he applied on grounds of
hardship for a transfer to a prison nearer to
his home, but was told by the classification
committee that “they might consider my
transfer if I would debrief” (i.e. provide information about other gang members).
“In November 2009 my mom passed
away, I never got to see her again, the last
time I talked to her was in 1999,” he said.
“We fully recognize the challenges faced
by prison administrators in dealing with
prison gangs and recognize that it may
sometimes be necessary to segregate prisoners for disciplinary or security purposes,” said Angela Wright.
“However, current conditions of isolation are extremely severe and too widely
used. Segregation should be imposed only
in exceptional circumstances and for as
short a period as possible.”
Prisoners in isolation units in Pelican
Bay have reported a range of physical
problems resulting from, or exacerbated
by, their conditions of confinement.
The severe negative psychological consequences of isolation are reflected in data
from various jurisdictions showing that
suicides occur more frequently in isolation
units than in the general prison population. In California, over a five year period
from 2006 to 2010, the number of prison
suicides averaged 34 a year with 42% occurring in administrative segregation or
isolation units.

Studies have found that negative effects
from prolonged isolation can continue long
after release; and the lack of pre-release or
transitional programming for inmates who
may have spent years, or decades in isolation before being released directly back on
to the street makes successful reintegration
into society that much harder.
“Recent reform proposals do not go far
enough to address Amnesty International’s
many serious concerns with California’s
long term isolation units; if further changes, such as those proposed in detail in our
report, are not incorporated into these reforms, California would still fall short of
international law and standards for humane
treatment of prisoners and the prohibition
of torture and other ill-treatment,” said Angela Wright.
Amnesty International is urging authorities in California to:
• Limit the use of isolation units so that
is it imposed only as a last resort in the
case of prisoners whose behavior constitutes a severe and ongoing threat to the
safety of others.
• Improve conditions for all prisoners held
in isolation units, including better exercise provision and an opportunity for
more human contact for prisoners, even
at the most restrictive custody levels.
• Allow prisoners in isolation units to
make regular phone calls to their families.
• Reduce the length of the Step Down Program and providing meaningful access
to programs where prisoners have an opportunity for some group contact and interaction with others at an earlier stage.
• Immediate removal from isolation of
prisoners who have already spent years
in those units. ■
Amnesty International,
27 September 2012

HUNGER STRIKE
CONTINUES AT
CORCORAN

A

rolling hunger strike that has moved
through three California prisons
had dwindled by Wednesday to 69
inmates, officials said.
The fasting began among some 500 inmates Oct. 10 at the state’s maximum security Pelican Bay State Prison near Oregon
and at the California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles. By
Friday, Pelican Bay inmates had resumed
eating. Those in segregated housing units
at Tehachapi continued to refuse prisonprepared meals until Wednesday, when
they resumed eating, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.
However, 69 inmates continued what
is now a four-day fast at Corcoran State
Prison.
Corrections officials said the inmates
are protesting new gang control policies
the state intends to put into place, defining
when and how inmates suspected of gang
membership are to be assigned to longterm segregation units away from the main
population.
Conditions within those security housing units and the length of time inmates are
held that way are the subject of a critical
Amnesty International report and a subject
of litigation. California has at least 78 inmates who have spent more than two decades in the tightly cloistered cells. ■
Los Angels Times, October 17, 2012

TWO PRISONS
NOW REPORT
HUNGER STRIKES
OVER GANG
POLICY

A

hunger strike over new prison gang
policies has spread to a second institution, involving more than 200
inmates.
By Tuesday, inmates were refusing food
at prisons near Tehachapi and Corcoran,
part of a protest that began Oct. 10. Corrections officials said many of the striking inmates are objecting to new policies in how
gang members are identified for placement
in special segregated units, and under what
2

conditions they may be released back into
the main population.
“They believe it widens the scope,” said
Kelly Harrington, associate director of high
security for the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The new policies, currently under review, create a four-year process for alleged
gang members to return to the general population, and spell out circumstances under
which prison officials can place inmates
into segregation. Harrington said the regulations will be circulated among wardens
“in the next week” but are not yet to be
implemented.
Currently inmates must refrain from
gang-related activity for six years before
they may be released from segregated
housing. The new policy creates a fouryear “step down” program that grants inmates additional access to exercise, food
and outside communication if they remain
“gang-free.”
The hunger strike began seven days ago
at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, where 135 inmates Tuesday continued to refuse food, down from an initial
300. Corrections officials on Tuesday said
an additional 72 inmates at Corcoran State
Prison were now also on a hunger strike,
having refused nine or more consecutive
meals. ■
Los Angels Times, October 16, 2012

STUDENTS HOLD
DEMONSTRATION
TO PROTEST
SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT
CONDITIONS

D

emonstrators set up a mock jail
cell on Sproul Plaza on Wednesday to protest inhumane treatment
of prisoners in California, an issue officials
from the state Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation say is much more complicated than the demonstration let on.
Passers-by were invited to step inside a
cell, which protesters said aimed to imitate
the quarters prisoners in solitary confinement have to live in.
UC Berkeley junior Jason Webber, who
helped facilitate the protest, said that over
a long period of time, solitary confinement
amounts to torture.
Rock

“It goes above and beyond what you
need to do to someone, regardless of what
their crime is,” Webber said.
Jerry Elster, who spent five years in solitary confinement and spoke at the protest,
equated the experience to sitting in a closet
or bathroom for 23 hours a day.
“The system is locking people up, depriving them of certain human rights,” Elster said. “It’s more than deplorable — it’s
unconstitutional.”
Terry Thornton, deputy press secretary
for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said conditions in
California cells are different from what the
demonstration presented. Some prisoners
have access to radios, televisions, libraries
and educational programs, she said.
Azadeh Zohrabi, a UC Hastings College
of the Law alumna who spoke at the protest, said prisoners can be sent to solitary
confinement based on determinate or indeterminate sentences. Indeterminate sentences include a process of “validation,”
where people can be put in solitary confinement for perceived gang-related activity, she said.
“Most people in solitary confinement
haven’t actually engaged in any behavior
that warrants the situation,” Zohrabi said.
“The process is arbitrary and broad.”
Zohrabi said she heard a story of a letter
being returned to family members instead
of being delivered to a prisoner because it
included the Spanish word for sun, “sol,”
and that was deemed gang-related. She said
she had also heard that another prisoner
was not able to send a letter to his uncle
because he called him “Tio,” the Spanish
word for uncle.
Thornton said the validation process is
how law enforcement officials work to disrupt gang activity in prisons. A new system
is currently being reviewed by the California Office of Administrative Law, and wardens are being sent information on changes
this month.
“The issue of dealing with gangs is an
issue this department has been grappling
with for decades,” Thornton said. “It’s an
investigation process.”
UC Berkeley senior Sam Miyazaki, who
was there for the protest and went into the
cell, said before the demonstration, she did
not know anything about any of the issues
being discussed.
“It’s freaking sad,” Miyazaki said. ■
Shannon Carroll, The Daily Californian
October 18, 2012
Volume 1, Number 11

SPEECH MUST BE
FREE

A

shoutout of solidarity and respect
to all who continue to resist the
CDCR, OCS/IGI illegal policies
and practices via our collective efforts on
the inside and outside of these prison walls!
For the past few months I’ve read articles
in the Bay View, the Rock, and PHSS News
about CDCR/IGI staff punishing people
who talk about non-violent, peaceful protest activities—such as hunger strike/work
strike (e.g., responding to such speech with
punitive action in the form of confiscating
incoming and outgoing mail, issuing serious rule violation reports, cancelling visits
in the middle of the visit, etc.).
I’m not a lawyer, but I believe such acts
of suppression are a clear violation of one’s
First Amendment free speech rights! An
example of legal support for this position
is the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in McCoy v.
Steward, 2002, D.J. DAR 2173, wherein
the court held “…Former gang member’s
conviction for speaking to other gang
members violated the First Amendment”
(he was alleged to have advised some Arizona gang affiliates about various ways
to structure their gang based on his gang
experience in California. The basis for the
court’s ruling was that McCoy’s conviction
was unconstitutional because, at worst, his
words to the gang were abstract advocacy
of lawlessness not directed to inciting imminent lawless action. Thus, they were
protected under Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395
U.S. 444 (1969) and its progeny.
In Brandenburg, its seminal advocacy
case, the Supreme Court held that the
“mere abstract teaching” of “the moral propriety or even moral necessity for a resort
to force and violence” is protected by the
First Amendment unless such speech is
“directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite
or produce such action.” 395 U.S. 444-448
(1969). Under Brandenburg timing is crucial, because speech must incite imminent
lawless action to be constitutionally prosecutable. Thus, several years later, in Hess
v. Indiana, the Court made explicit what
was implicit in Brandenburg: a state cannot
constitutionally sanction “advocacy of illegal action at some indefinite future time.”
414 U.S. 105, at 108 (1973).
The above principles apply to the subject
matter at issue because CDCR, et al., have
sought to criminalize and punitively sanc-

tion people for what amounts to “abstract
advocacy” regarding non-violent, peaceful
protest types of activity that does not present an imminent threat to safety or security.
Also notable is the California Appellate
Court’s implicit recognition of a mentally
competent prisoner’s right to peacefully
protest issues of personal/moral importance to the individual. See: In re Conservatorship of Burton, 170 Cal. App. 4th 1016
(2009).
These can be further researched, expanded upon, and used to challenge CDCR’s
ongoing efforts to suppress our speech—so
they can keep us silent while they continue
to torture and oppress us under the guise
of their “worst of the worst” propaganda.
Their ability to do so depends upon on our
complacent cooperation!
Onward in Struggle and Solidarity ■
Todd Ashker, October 7, 2012

OPPOSITION
TO ELEMENTS
OF PROPOSED
SECURITY STG
THREAT GROUP
POLICY
Description:
Roles and Responsibilities:
he proposed policy outlines the official roles and the responsibilities
involved in the overall scheme but
lacks an accountability element. One of the
biggest problems with the current policy is
the impunity with which officials violate,
misapply, or abdicate their duties. An accountability stipulation with, perhaps, consequential sanctions for failure to uphold
the respective office duty would go a long
way to curb the widespread impunity that,
in practice, renders any intended “checks
and balances” mechanism useless (note,
for example, the OCS’s perfunctory rubber
stamping of unsupporting or poorly articulated source items used in validations).
Certification Process:
Policy is overbroad. The department
knows that 99% of prison population is
made up of street-gang affiliates. Under
proposed certification procedure and criteria all such groups are susceptible to STG
certification. Even when they (the groups)
do not operate within CDCR’s jurisdiction,
ie: do not pose a threat to the safety and

T

3

security of the department’s multiple institutions (note: there are 5000+ street gangs
in LA County alone).
Validation Process:
This element or aspect of the policy is
ambiguous. That is, it doesn’t make clear
if a validation requires an automatic segregation of SHU placement. And, in the
event that it does, then, it conflicts with the
department’s stated intent to adopt the new
paradigm of focusing on behavior since under this policy one can be validated for matters having nothing to do with “behavior.”
Plus, the procedure subjects individuals to
interrogation that violates the 5th amendment as requires answering questions that
can incriminate which we oppose.
Security Threat Group Management
Unit Housing Program:
The policy prohibits visits at several of
the phases as well as strips individuals of
their property in what can only be viewed
as punishment for seeking to get out of the
SHU and stay disciplinary free.
Most importantly, it gives CDCR officials more range to do as they’ve been
doing…falsify, manipulate, and fabricate
source items used to validate “anyone”
which is the current reason why they refuse to relinquish to the court discovery
requests.
For one to enter a STG, he/she would be
admitting to be an associate. What most of
us have contended from day one. We object
to these draconian measures.
“Stick to our plan” ■
Derrick (Chimchim) Sims, PBSP

ONCE HOSTILITIES
HAVE ENDED

I

recently read about the “agreement to
end hostilities” and seen this as an essential step forward for prisoners but a
step that will include many more steps in
the future if prisoners are to truly take back
our humanity, not just in California but in
prisons across America. Although I support
the original five demands and will continue
to do so along with any future demands for
justice, I felt the need to add to the dialogue
and perhaps bring some ideas to the scene.
What I noticed from the five demands
and many other proposals being kicked
around is the absence of the very core of
our oppression—the SHU itself. What we
have learned since the initial strike was that
many civil rights groups and people around
the world see the SHU itself as torture, all
4

or most of what is being asked for, ie: contact visits, phone calls, cellies, etc. can be
granted were it not for SHU. Even things
like validation and debriefing, etc. become
easier to combat when the SHU is out of
the picture so it is the SHU itself that becomes the core of our oppression in regards
to the movement in general and the current
struggles we are facing in in the nation’s
SHUs and Ad-Seg units.
This is why any proposals should have
at the forefront the demand to close the
SHU’s! How can we talk of justice or prisoner rights without calling for an end to
housing prisoners for any reason in these
concentration camps? It’s like saying “you
can water board me but can we listen to a
better radio station while you do it?” No
other country is doing what America does
with the SHU on this scale but it is ultimately up to us to steer the prison movement on a real path of transformation or to
limit any changes to what amount to mild
reforms.
Many struggles throughout history
that dealt with prisons gained far more
than what has currently been proposed in
our situation. A couple of situations that
quickly come to mind are the Puerto Rican revolutionary group Macheteros who
were arrested in the 1960’s for acts against
America in their quest for independence. It
came out via Freedom of Information Act
years later that the national security advisor was on record saying the Macheteros
should be released because of the protests
and world support and how these protests
do not look good for America in the eyes
of the world. This is on record and the Macheteros were released, they were released
from prison and linked to bombings and
other acts against the US government.
Another group of prisoners were the
Red Army Faction of Germany who were
in prison for acts against the government,
bombings, cop killings, murders of politicians, etc., and when this group was arrested they were housed in a specially
constructed area of the prison—kinda like
the short corridor—and were in solitary
confinement and not allowed to come in
any contact with any other prisoners but
through hunger strikes and supporters out
in society raising awareness about their
treatment they were finally granted yard
time with each other and better treatment
after a year or two of constant struggle.
My main thrust here is that is those were
assassinating government officials, judges,
etc., in an attempt to overthrow the govern-

ment were able to overturn the isolation
and draconian treatment, surely we can as
well!
In beginning to grapple with our oppression and find the best method of resistance
we must first understand the origins of
our oppression. One cannot move forward
with a correct game plan without knowing
ones opponent. When a boxer is about to
fight a formidable opponent what does he/
she do? Well, they watch the videos of the
opponent’s fights in order to understand
the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses,
thus preparing oneself for a proper offensive. We must also do our homework in
this current anti-SHU struggle, things like
where the SHU came from, why it is used
so much in America—more so than other
countries, who controls such a system? We
must identify our opponent if we want to
move forward. We know the SHU and all
prisons are a part of the “state” apparatus,
but who controls the state? The ruling class
is surely not including the people (the poor
people), it is the rich who run things, these
rich or capitalists have developed into what
Lenin defined as “Imperialism” which is
simply capitalism on steroids, it’s economic exploitation on a global scale.
So the state and thus prisons are run
according to what is in the interest of the
ruling class. Prisoners in general are not
profitable to this ruling class as most prisoners derive from what Lenin defined as
the lumpen proletariat, which is basically
the underclass or can better be defined in
America as simple the “lumpen”, which are
prisoners, the unemployed, those caught up
in crime, etc. Most lumpen are just taking
up space and not helping the wheels turn in
the economy but more importantly, lumpen
are a potential revolutionary force as this
is the natural order of repression inviting
resistance, whenever one is being smothered the natural reaction is to struggle to
breathe. Our acts of resistance in the hunger strikes clearly proved this to be true,
there are many phenomenon that occur that
are long held communist principles that
may be practiced today by many prisoners without even knowing their origins. We
must use these tools to gain victory in our
current situation, one such tool is the philosophy of historical materialism, which
is used to transform things in the material world. It does this by understanding
historical events and processes which created the specific reality which gave rise to
our current struggle. In order to change or
transform our torture condition in SHU we
Rock

would first have to understand the process
of what brought the SHU itself into being.
When we understand that it was the state
and ultimately the ruling class which created the means to throw away vast swaths
of the population and smother any embers
of resistance, then we’ll know we can’t
change things simply by picketing around
a prison or filing a lawsuit. This is because
we are up against something more sinister
than simple “tough laws.”
Marxism is a method, not a dogma. It is
fluid and continues to find new responses
in its interactions with the material world,
so it will continue to be applied to different
phenomenon. Although asking the state
for changes is cool and must be done, the
more crucial change must come from within one’s own approach to our oppression.
We are deprived of so much but the most
vital opportunities are low hanging fruit,
these being opportunities in the theoretical
realm.
The task we have ahead of all of us held
in U.S. prisons is an uphill battle which is
in sync—even if we don’t realize it—with
many other struggles aimed at the U.S.
empire, not just in America but globally.
We should aim to unmask the ruling class’
brutal dictatorship and deny it the ability
to operate cloaked in secrecy. Let’s strip it
bare and display its most grotesque parts
of society. In doing this let every dungeon
where conditions have peaked to intolerable proportions raise the banner of resistance in regard to material conditions. In
this way we will expose the contradictions
in “American democracy” while obtaining small gains to our conditions. People
are social animals. Our entire existence is
based on interaction with others, our senses
demand this. When all sensory input is deprived it works against our very being; it
destroys us, dehumanizes us.
Lastly, although I would of course always like to hear editors of publication
ramble on about what some have referred
to as “commie rhetoric”, I would much
rather hear a prisoner’s perspective on
communist principles or how they apply
to the prison movement in general or the
anti-SHU struggle in particular. Yet one
cannot discuss “prisoner rights” without
discussion prisoner oppression (capitalism). Today’s society puts profit ahead of
the people as far as education, food, land,
etc., and this crime leads to the next natural
step, which is finding an alternative society where prisons and SHUs are not used
as concentration camps. The only society
Volume 1, Number 11

that would really change that is a socialist
system—to deny this is to deny history. ■
Jose Villarreal #H-84098
PBSP –SHU=C11-106
P.O. Box 7500
Crescent City, CA 95532
[Ed’s Note: This was originally a six
page article that I had to edit for length.
Secondly, the reader should keep in mind
that socialism in the U.S.S.R. and China
took place in backwards nations, lacking
the productive capacity to meet the people’s needs, and without traditions of democracy. Socialism in this country would
look much different, in that there would be
economic justice and a meaningful extension of democracy. Right now only the rich
enjoy real democracy.]

PROGRESS IN
GEORGIA

D

ue to our efforts of numerous Letters, Protest, Marches, and lawsuits
against the wardens and officials
of the Georgia Department of Corrections,
regarding its Special Management Unit.
The Georgia Department of Corrections
has finally seen the light and implemented
new Policies and Procedures pertaining to
SMU.
We were notified today that in spite of
the GA. D.O.C. not meeting with us and
the community to resolve constitutional issues brought up by inmates and concerned
citizens. The Dept. of Corrections has implemented one of the most detailed policies
and procedures ever for SMU. These new
policies replace the old policies, which did
not fully and explicitly protect the constitutional rights of SMU inmates.
The Inhumane, unconstitutional conduct
of DOC officials is slowly being exposed.
All of our efforts regarding protest, lawsuits, letters, and inquiries to Dept. of Justice, G.B.I. and office of the Attorney General are starting to pay off in the form of
concrete criteria that help protect inmates
from being treated inhumanely.
Operating a Special Management Unit
with scant policies for decades essentially
permitted prison official to arbitrarily and
unjustifiably violate the human rights of
Georgia prisoners, for decades.
The new SMU policy comes not even
two weeks after T.O.P.S. recent lawsuit that
finally placed the DOC in a position where
it had to identify policies and procedures
that protect constitutional rights of SMU

inmates. Now the DOC has established a
new comprehensive policy that is a great
step forward towards holding officials accountable for their conduct towards inmates being placed in SMU-- as many of
you know, the former policies permitted
inmates to be placed in SMU without any
disciplinary infraction or charge officially
brought against that inmate and then be
held in SMU without any due process, for
year!
The Fight is not over. The new SMU
policy has problems as to be expected. For
example,
The review board that decides who is being placed and kept in what the DOC describes as the most restrictive prison environment within the department has no one
from the community or anyone other than
D.O.C. We need more oversight than that.
Also, we need to ensure that those currently being held wrongfully in SMU are
not kept there. ■
Pastor Kenneth Glasgow

Quote Box
“The only security of all is in a free
press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to
be expressed. The agitation it produces
must be submitted to. It is necessary, to
keep the waters pure.”
Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823
“The ruling class has the schools and
press under its thumb. This enables it to
sway the emotions of the masses.”
Albert Einstein - (1879-1955)
“The duty of a patriot is to protect his
country from its government.”
Thomas Paine
“The vices of the rich and great are
mistaken for error; and those of the poor
and lowly, for crimes.”
Marguerite Gardiner,
Countess of Blessington (1789-1849)
“It is not the consciousness of men
that determines their existence, but their
social existence that determines their
consciousness.”
Karl Marx
“Search for the truth is the noblest
occupation of man; its publication is a
duty.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Stael
5

CRIMINOLOGIST FINDS THAT DECLINE
IN ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IS MOST
RESPONSIBLE FOR DECREASING
CRIME RATE

ACLU EXPOSES
SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT IN
NY STATE PRISONS

C

“I feel like the walls are closing in on me.
I get suicidal.” — Stephan, a prisoner living in extreme isolation in New York.
magine living 23 hours a day locked in
a cell the size of a parking spot. You
are denied all meaningful human contact and mental stimulation. Recreation
amounts to an hour alone in an empty pen.
At the drop of a hat, basic necessities like
food, exercise and showers are taken away.
You receive no educational classes, vocational training or other programming.
This is the cruel reality for the thousands
of people subjected to extreme isolation
every year. In 2011, the Department of
Corrections and Community Supervision
(DOCCS) issued more than 13,500 extreme
isolation sentences. Prisoners in extreme
isolation endure psychological, emotional
and physical torment that has no place in a
decent society. Nearly 2,000 people in New
York are released directly from extreme
isolation to the streets each year.
Even the state’s top prison official admits
that New York’s use of extreme isolation is
flawed, but he claims that the system cannot be reformed “without the legislature
and the public.”
On October 10th the NYCLU released
Boxed In: The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New York’s Prisons, an unprecedented investigation of the use of extreme
isolation in the state.
Our investigation revealed that extreme
isolation is often a disciplinary tool of first
resort. Individuals spend weeks, months
and even years in extreme isolation for
non-violent, minor misbehavior. For example, one individual received six months
for failing to promptly return a food tray.
Consider DOCCS Commissioner Brian
Fischer’s comments about extreme isolation: “I’ll be the first to admit, we overuse
it,” he said during a New York State Bar
Association panel discussion in January.
But Fischer has claimed that our leaders in
Albany lack the “political will” to initiate
reform even as other states, like Mississippi, Maine and Colorado have instituted
sweeping reforms to the use of extreme
isolation that have maintained prison safety
and reaffirmed their commitment to basic
human dignity. ■

ontrary to what police, politicians and the public believe about the effectiveness
of California’s three-strikes law, research by a University of California, Riverside
criminologist has found that the get-tough-on-criminals policy voters approved in
1994 has done nothing to reduce the crime rate.
In a rigorous analysis of crime in California and the nation, sociology professor Robert
Nash Parker determined that crime has been decreasing at about the same rate in every
state for 20 years, regardless of whether three-strikes policies are in place or not.
Parker’s findings appear in the paper “Why California’s ‘Three Strikes’ Fails as Crime
and Economic Policy, and What to Do,” published recently in the California Journal of
Politics and Policy. The online journal publishes cutting-edge research on national, state
and local government, electoral politics, and public policy formation and implementation.
California’s three-strikes law imposes a minimum sentence of 25 years to life on the
third felony conviction for offenders with prior serious or violent felony convictions. Approximately 23,000 individuals have been incarcerated under three strikes. Proposition
36, on the Nov. 6 ballot, would impose the life sentence only when the new felony conviction is serious or violent.
“There is not a single shred of scientific evidence, research or data to show that three
strikes caused a 100 percent decline in violence in California or elsewhere in the last 20
years,” Parker said, adding that the downward trend began two years before the California
law was enacted. ■
Source: ucrtoday.ucr.edu/9405

Right: Unity is a matter of
life and death in all ‘hoods
– in the prisons and on the
streets. The Youth Justice
Council rallied outside the
LA County Men’s Jail at 10
a.m. on 10/10, the day set
by the Pelican Bay Prison
Short Corridor Collective for
the beginning of the end of
racial hostilities.
– Photo: Virginia Gutierrez

Left: A large,
enthusiastic crowd,
including prisoners’
families and
supporters as well as
youth, turned out for
the 10/10 rally in LA.
– Photo: Virginia
Gutierrez

6

I

Rock

[Note: Names of letter writers will be
withheld unless the author of the letter explicitly approves printing of their name.]

Support Our Publications
I know at times your Rock newsletter
may not specifically need stamps, but the
stamps that we collect here in Corcoran
SHU (4B-3R) are being donated for you
use and in support of the publications coming in to us.
The faucet of cooperation doesn’t always
flow that swiftly, so the idea I presented in
my last letter was to encourage people here
at Corcoran and elsewhere to take the initiative to gather one stamp per month from
friends around them and donate them to the
Rock, PHSS News, and Prison Focus.
There are thousands of us in prison who
both enjoy and benefit from these publications by keeping us all informed and updated on the progress or lack of and I see no
reason why you all should struggle to put
out information which is beneficial to us in
here! A little contribution from us all who
are able is a small price to pay when it’s for
the betterment of our conditions and for a
positive change.
I see a long road ahead of us in this
fight for change and I’m confident your
publication(s) will be an important and informative tool in this struggle. So I’d like
to again encourage people who read your
newsletter to make a collective effort to
contribute stamps or money.
Pascual Gosselin, Corcoran

Is Rock Vacillating?
Apparently there are too many misconceptions regarding the history of California prison politics. It is not synonymous
with the politics of prison. I am a theorist
of this state’s prison politics dating back to
the 1970s. Under the strategy of the prison
politics, especially amongst the indefinite
SHU segment, today’s social legal relations
have developed across racial lines, against
all odds. For decades there are those of
us who have been laboring mentally and
physically towards overcoming racial antagonisms, conformism, alienation, chauvinism, irrationalism, obscurantism, and
inhumanity. I espouse the ideology of
New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalism,
Volume 1, Number 11

[Ed’s Response: I’m guilty of vacillating
on the political front. I want this newsletter to be a respected source of information
for all SHU prisoners, and not something
dismissed off-hand as mere commie propaganda. While I always write from a class
conscious perspective, I have still not been
throwing readers the ideological “red meat”
they need in order to develop a lasting and
successful struggle. I’ve been overly focusing on quantity rather than quality. There
should be more balance.]

Support From Valley State
Women’s Prison
Thank you so much for sending me the
… information I asked for pertaining to the
hunger strikes that took place in the SHU
units of Pelican Bay.… Many of us women
housed here at VSPW are more than willing to show support 100%. I have already
drafted letters to our Governor and Sacramento regarding our views on the subject. I
hope that some or all change will come out
of the sacrifice and struggle we as prisoners
and some of us “lifers” put forth in order to
be treated as decent human beings. I feel a

deep sadness for the men housed
in the SHU units throughout
California, especially those in
Pelican Bay. For years I have
heard about the inhumane treatment the men suffer and the reasons and tactics used just to try
and create snitching or debriefers in exchange for freedom.
How low will they go? These
men are stripped of the basic
necessities in order to survive.
They don’t even allow them to correspond
with other prisoners due to the label they
have placed on them without merit and on
the word of another inmate trying to escape
the means of SHU or falsified information
provided by these informants and COs.
Validation without merit is truly predatory
in my opinion. Alleging the men as gang
members in order to fill a unit and create
an inhumane environment equal to that of
a dog kennel, the real gang members are
the group inflicting…and participating in
such degrading acts… They just take and
take, leaving one to feel less than what they
are, all we have is our dignity and whatever force that builds our character to give
us the strength to endure all the shit thrown
at our cages. Yes, this is a human zoo in
reality….
P.S. To all the men who fight for decency, God bless all of you and the supporters
that print all of your letters and help get the
word out.
Name Withheld

LETTERS

LETTERS

which is not in opposition to the ideology of Marxism. Prison politics have been
the transforming force since the term was
coined. It is not the politics of reactionaries. I embrace constructive criticism in the
interest of development. The Rock newsletter isn’t the proper venue to engage in an
ideological debate regarding the value of
California’s prison politics. But I will state
[that Ed’s various publications] have, for
several decades, advanced the idea, principles and doctrine of Marxism—dialectical and historical materialism. It is with
full respect of yours and my own particular
ideology that teaches that the free development of each is the condition for the free
development of all.
The ideological integrity and culture of
the new man continues to be a model of
communist education in prison politics.
As the sole editor of the Rock newsletter
you chose to keep the newsletter apolitical,
and it is of course is entirely within your
discretion to vacillate. Yet in doing so you
change the context of the newsletter. Rock
readers are bound by a social contract; all
parties are bound by a mutual obligation to
stay in context when submitting a piece to
be published.
Louis Powell, PBSP-SHU

Step Down 7.0
I received the 7.0 draft of the Step Down
Program. It’s not right. It seems that more
and more of us will be back here [in the
SHU/Ad Seg] for some nonsense. If you or
someone near you has a problem then you
become STG I or STG II. I’m sharing this
information with everyone in my pod. We
must educate each other about this bullshit
program.
Name Withheld, Calipatria
My celly went to committee and they told
him that November 1st they’re supposed to
start the Step Down Program. They said
that five and six blocks here in Tehachapi
4B are gonna be Step 3 (Step Down Program) and that seven and eight block are
going to be Step 4.
Name Withheld, Tehachapi
Letters ..................... Continued on page 8
7

Letters .................. Continued from page 7

Stamp Harassment
In the last issue of Rock you requested
that we send stamps, and like before I
did so. Except this time it wasn’t going
down. The next day at mail call my letter
was returned with a post-it saying “return
to inmate, violation 3006(b) contraband–
stamps.”
After looking it up in Title 15 it states:
Contraband, 3006(b) Money. “Inmates
may not possess money.” It doesn’t mention anything about stamps or sending out
stamps. This is just one of the recent roadblocks we’ve run into up here at the Bay.
I’ll ask my family to send some stamps to
you though.
Name Withheld, Pelican Bay
[Ed’s Response: This is one of several
letters reporting that the prison administration is misapplying the law in order to
keep you from materially supporting Rock.
Readers are urged to exhaust administrative remedies, not only on the misapplication of the rule, but also on First Amendment grounds. Your captors are trying to
prevent you from supporting a publication
that serves your interests.]

Commie Rhetoric
This is in response to the “commie rhetoric” in Vol. 1, #10 of Rock. I must agree
that communism and what it’s truly about
is not only suppressed but is distorted in
many ways. And since we are coming to
a crossroads, now more than ever choices
The drawing below is one of the dog
cages CDCR continues to use in an effort
to control a population that refuses to
embrace their incarceration.

Dog Cage by Richard Jackson D52210

8

must be made. The backwardness of class
“cannibalism” is not what we need at
this time. Progressive through and more,
communist thought is what is truly needed
to bring about real revolutionary change.
To keep going in the destructive path of
lumpen on lumpen is not only causing
disdain and death, but sharper divisions
between what is the oppressed Black,
Latino, Native, Indians, etc., and taking us
further away from what needs to be done.
Simply put, the gangsta lifestyle is not in
the best interest of our people and gangs
took a different path than what they were
originally.
Now what is needed is a new way and
train of thought. The culture capitalism
gives birth to is the springboard for new
forms of backwardness. All prisoners
should know it’s a vicious cycle, by being
stuck in our backwardness we aint gonna
get much accomplished or done.
Bobby Villado, Tehachapi
I think you should share your opinions
and insights as much as possible. You have
experience in this area as where we’re just
getting started. Please pass on that knowledge. I think the communist stuff is good.
I’d like to see this lead to a permeated attitude rather than just an isolated SHU/Prison Reform act that we accomplish. I think
the time is ripe.
Name Withheld, Pelican Bay

Radio Outreach
I am sending the below address out to
those who have someone that can possibly
call or write to Eureka Spanish radio station and talk to Mario about our side of the
struggle against CEDCR and specifically
about PBSP.
Any time a riot breaks out on a yard he
reads the same old propaganda press releases that CDCR puts out on the newswire. He will comment on how the races
should work together so with Oct. 10th
coming up and the call for us all to unite
in the struggle against CDCR he might
give more air time to a caller and/or might
talk more to a different audience that is not
reading the Rock. The address is: La Nueva
1310, Box 109, Eureka, CA 95502. Phone
(707) 444-8455.
On another note, a couple of years ago
PBSP was spending five grand a year on
video movies rentals. They could not explain to me why they paid so much for
crappy movies other than to say “…it’s a
contract.” At that time I had told them to
cancel the contract, rent movies/TV se-

ries though Netflix at $25 a month and
use the excess money to pay for all new
cable channels and new radio stations. As
usual, PBSP said they couldn’t. Just shows
another way of how they waste our I.W.F.
money.
W. Hopeau, PBSP

Validated SHU Women
I know that the newsletter pace is usually
prioritized for the HS representatives, with
all due respect, we women here in VSPW
would like very much to let all collective
reps know that their HS movement is acknowledged among us women who share
the same principles when it involves CDCR’s corrupted tactics used for the gain of
control over us prisoners as a whole. Being in a women’s prison is a lot different
than the men’s’ prisons. We women are a
minority so we are lumped together. SNY
does not exist and our political beliefs are
not recognized, yet we women are unjustly
labeled as “gang associates” for reasons
like a letter from a friend or photo of a
recognized “alleged gang member” whom
may just be a brother, husband or loved
one. Because of this we are placed in the
SHU unit and validated as gang associates.
All of the information printed in the PHSS
News and Rock newsletters is helpful to us
women who fact the same impasses (inescapable predicaments). We have also read
the version 7.0 draft (Blueprint) of course
we oppose its contents. In the Rock, October issue (Vol. 1 #10) article written by
Mutope (Mr. James Crawford) I found that
he is correct on his points raised. Version
7.0 targets all prisoners, not just those being held in the SHU/Ad-Seg units. We are
wise to the strategies of our oppressors, it is
harder for them (CDCR) to plot against us.
This is in reference to what Mr. Crawford
writes about our emotional connections.
I also know from years of incarceration
that CDCR is unwilling to bend. They are
a profit driven class “fuel” of these human perpetual prisoner machines they call
SHUs. We as a united force can bring it
down by getting back to the very form of
mentality Mutope talks about. Everyone!!
Also, Mr. Ed, with that said, I want to
thank you for all that you do for prisoners.
I think you are awesome! Twenty stamps
are enclosed.
Diane Mirabail, AKA Spider, VSPW
[Ed’s Comment: I receive a lot of letters
expressing appreciation for the work I do.
I almost always edit those out. But this one
was really nice so I thought I’d share it.]
Rock

CAPITALISM, THE PRISON SYSTEM, AND ITS
INTERCONNECTION
By C. Landrum
s a species, to continue living we
must first and foremost procreate,
feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves
above all else. And only through cooperating with one another can these necessities
be realized. Hence the source of our social
essence.
Today in the current state of economic
development (capitalism-imperialism) the
vast majority of the world’s people have
been separated from their means of production (land, natural resources, technology, intellectual property, factories, etc.) by
property rights which the capitalist classes
of the world, who predominately reside
within first world borders, have laid claim
to. And yet this doesn’t change the fact
that as a species we still need access to the
world’s resources so that we may continue
living.
Under this form of economy the world’s
masses won very little if anything at all,
and are forced to sell to the capitalist classes the only thing they do own so that they
may in turn purchase life’s necessities. And
what they sell to the capitalists is their labor power.
With a small exception, the capitalists
purchase this labor power from the majority of the world’s masses far below its
value. This is not only the source of profit
and capital (surplus value), it is the creation
and perpetuation of today’s racial oppression and social inequalities, including the
source of today’s prison industrial complex.
Surplus value is that value which is created through unpaid labor power. For example, if a capitalist invests $1,000 a day
for the production of shirts—$200 of which
pays for the cost of human labor power
(variable capital), and $800 which pays
for the cost of electricity, oil, cloth, thread,
technology, etc. (constant capital), and
if it takes, let’s say, five hours to produce
$1,000 worth of shirts (the original amount
invested), this five hours of expended labor
power is the true value of the workers’ labor power. But being that this labor power
has been purchased and therefore is now
owned and controlled by the capitalists, the
workers are required to expend their labor
power for the remainder of the working day,
whether it be 10, 12, 14, or however many
hours the capitalist can get away with. In
search of higher profits, imperialist expan-

A

Volume 1, Number 11

sion takes the capitalist across the globe
under the guise of spreading d democracy,
looking for the cheapest source of labor
power and natural resources, i.e., where the
people are most desperate and can be thoroughly exploited along with their natural
resources. It is this cheap source of labor
and natural resources that is at the root of
capitalism’s so-called “economic success.”
Let’s say 12 hours constitutes a full working day for our shirt workers. If it takes five
hours to make a $1,000 worth of shirts, our
shirt workers are still required to expend
their labor power for an additional seven
hours—the remainder of the working day.
These seven hours over and beyond the five
hours is surplus labor—seven hours of unpaid labor power that the capitalist is robbing from the workers.
Being that workers are paid in either
hourly wages, piecemeal, or by the day,
these various forms of payment only serve
to disguise and camouflage the unpaid surplus labor, creating a false appearance that
the workers are being paid for all of their
labor power which simultaneously disguising the parasitical nature of capitalism.
In a nutshell the capitalists pay the workers below the value of their labor power and
pocket the difference in the form of profits
and reproduction of capital (surplus value)
upon the sale of the goods produced by the
workers. What does this have to do with us
as a prison population? This mode of production not only creates and perpetuates already existing poverty; it creates with these
objective conditions the corresponding
subjective ideology that fuels the development of a prison industrial complex.
All prison struggles transcend their prison walls whether we are conscious of this or
not. It is not “us” as a nation pitted against
other nations we have been taught and programmed to believe throughout our lives.
The prison system is just one aspect of a
much larger interconnected class struggle
that transcends all national borders. We as a
prison population must deepen our knowledge and raise our political consciousness.
We must transform our incorrect narrow
nationalistic views into a scientifically correct internationalist outlook and recognize
the concrete material reality that we are
just one of the numerous side effects of an
outdated and insufficient economic system that results in the social inequalities
where a prison system becomes necessary

to protect the stolen riches and privileges
of a small powerful elite—the same profit
driven economic system that oppresses
and exploits 3rd world peoples around the
globe. Our interests do not lie in siding
with our own domestic ruling classes in the
imprisoning of over two million of our own
population, or in the exploitation of billions
of 3rd world people around the globe. Our
interests, however overwhelming as it may
seem, lies with our own impoverished and
3rd world people against not only our own
capitalist ruling class and its beneficiaries,
but against all capitalist ruling classes of
the world regardless of national borders.
So long as we live in a society that’s divided into social classes, the preservation
and need for a prison system is guaranteed.
And any achievements gained internally
or externally of the prisons themselves, as
welcomed as they are, will be purely reformist, i.e., temporary. To be successful as
possible and maintain continuity in struggle
(progress), our ultimate goal must be that
of a classless society—that is the abolition
of the objective and subjective conditions
that give rise to a prison system. ■
[The above piece was originally printed in
Vol. 5, #12 (December 2005) issue of the
Prison Art newsletter.]

9

EDITORIAL
COMMENTS
Gubernatorial Stuff
s reported in the last issue of this
newsletter, the state senate passed
Ammiano’s prison media access
bill. Well, who could have guessed, Gov.
Brown has vetoed it, saying the bill “went
too far.” Heaven forbid the public should
gain access to the one of most secretive
areas of state power—a place so very
pregnant with the potential of abuse. The
good “liberal” governor also issued Executive Order B-11-11 that calls for enhanced
airport-type security at state prisons to interdict contraband, such as wireless communication devices, from being introduced
through visiting.
On the other hand, on September 28th
the governor signed AB2530, which means
that pregnant women can no longer be
shackled in California’s jails and prisons
while giving birth. Wow! What progress!

A

Newsletter Stuff
I’ve had some people write and ask for
a subscription to Rock, saying nobody in

their pod receives it. I honor those requests.
But sometimes someone will do that and
then fail to write their name and number
legibly, making it impossible to for me to
give them a subscription. I also get request
for information on how to subscribe.
I made a subscription box containing that
information (on page 9) and will print it in
nearly every issue. Subscriptions are $15
a year or 30 stamps. That amount covers
my costs of production and mailing, with
just a bit left over to help those who have
not contributed. Right now the mailing list
is 193 people. Of that number 82 (close
to half) have never contributed anything.
So far this year people have contributed
$1,056 in money and 1,356 stamps. That’s
very good, and it allows me (and you who
donate) to carry the burden for those who
do not materially support this work.
As I mentioned in a previous issue, this
is the first newsletter (in some 35 years of
publishing stuff for prisoners) that has almost paid for itself. This is especially significant since the mailing list is so small,
currently almost all SHU prisoners. Right
now I’m still low on stamps so if you have
some extras please send them. While Rock

has cash, I hate to use precious money for
stamps when it could be better used for
buying paper and printer toner.
I get a pretty good stack of mail every
day and some questions pop up over and
over again. One of these questions is if it’s
okay to send money from your prison account to my post office box (47449) for
the Rock newsletter. Yes, you can send
money to for the newsletter but don’t make
the payment out to Rock as I don’t have a
bank account in that name. Checks should
be made out to Ed Mead. All checks from
prisoners and their loved ones on the outside are set aside for the specific use by this
newsletter. ■

Free Electronic Copy
Outside people can read, downloaded, or print the Rock newsletter
by going to www.prisonart.org and
clicking on the “Rock Newsletter”
link.
Outside folks can also have a free
electronic copy of the newsletter
sent to them each month by way of
e-mail. Have them send requests for
a digital copy to rock@prisonart.org.

Ed Mead, Publisher
Rock Newsletter
P.O. Box 47439
Seattle, WA 98146

FIRST CLASS MAIL