Working
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W
Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
D
to
t All 
Volume
Volume
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V l
1, N
1
Number
b 6
6

June
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J
J
June
#2 2012
2012


THE RED ONION HUNGER STRIKE

M

en at Red Onion State Prison in
Virginia are not only refusing
meals but also refusing showers
and refusing recreation time. We must support these courageous comrades who are
actively revolting against the incarceration
nation. Go to http://virginiaprisonstrike.
blogspot.com and take action!

Solidarity Statement with Red
Onion Hunger Strike
Students Against Mass Incarceration
(SAMI) at Howard University extends our
solidarity to the prisoners on hunger strike
in Red Onion State Prison. As Black students, we understand that the inhumane
conditions of solitary confinement experienced by Our incarcerated brothers is an
extension of the brutality suffered by Black
people since our forced transportation to
the Western Hemisphere. A direct line can
be drawn to the daily abuses experienced
by Africans during enslavement and the
convict lease system to the Red Onion
Hunger strikers.
Similar to other social justice movements, the Red Onion Hunger strikers
simply want their human rights observed.
Simple demands such as ‘we demand fully
cooked food’ and ‘adequate medical care’
speak to the gross human rights violations
that occur on a daily basis at Red Onion
and prisons around the country. For example, Charles Graner, the ringleader of
the abuses that took place in Abu Ghraib,
was a correctional officer in Pennsylvania
state and county prisons. This is why in
October of last year, UN special rapporteur
Jaun Mendez stated “solitary confinement
should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique.” We agree.

As historically conscious Black students,
we remember the state violence experienced by Black students in Fisk University (1924) and Jackson State (1970). At
any moment, it could be any one of Us.
Free’em All!

Prisoners’ Stories
Stories from incarcerated brothers at Red
Onion State Prison. More to come.
“It is so hard and bad for me that I had to
tell my family to cancel sending me money
for me and not put any more money on my
account because the DOC would actually
steal most of my money what my family
work so hard for. That’s why for right now
I am on the DOC indigent inmate list…….
You know that people judges you wrong by
looking at you from the outside and don’t
look on the inside from your heart, mind
, and soul. I’m not like that. I love people
for who they are as human beings……
Kidnapped me from my homeland (Virgin
Islands-prisoners are shipped to VA to fill
our institutions). It was never due process
of the law…..It happen late in the night
when I was asleep . When the prison official come to my celland took me straight
to a jet…” c.
“Also the guy who attacked me with the
dog, his father is a captain here. Once the
law suit is filed the asst. warden and the
guy that attacked me with the dog will be
named in it as well as all the guards that
stood around and watched it happen. Once
that hits the courts and it is public knowledge I expect the harassment to come.
I’m ready for it. You know I cannot let go
what these criminals did to me. I already
feel ashamed because I did not physically
fight back. It was probably best that I did

not fight back because those savages would
have tried to kill me.” j.
“…As I stepped outside the chow hall officer C. called out to officer R. saying “Hey,
here goes one of those smart ass Muslims.”
Then C. told me to turn around so I could
be searched. As I turned around C. and R.
jumped on me slamming me to the ground
face first. To make a long story short, C.
ground my face into the concrete with his
knees pulling skin off both sides of my
face. He kneed me in the back of my head
busting my lips on the concrete and knocking one of my teeth so loose that it had to
be pulled. My shoulders and arms were
scarred up from the concrete. C, was on my
back with one arm pinned under my body.
Instead of letting the pressure off my back
so that my arm could be freed C. pulled my
arm from under my body pulling skin and
meat off my left wrist. The shackles were

put on my feet backwards and so tight it
left scars on my legs because I was forced
to walk that way under the threat of being
assaulted again. I was given four bogus institutional charges to justify being attacked.
After I handcuffed and shackled by C. and
R. and support staff, R. punched me in my
face and both C. and R. called me a “fucking nigger” several times.” p.
“The day I arrived I was...told that I
was at Red Onion now and if I act up they
would kill me and there was nothing anyone could or would do about it.”
If you haven’t read Human Rights
Watch’s report, “Red Onion State Prison:
Super Maximum Security Confinement in
Virginia”, now’s this time. 

NYC YOUTH AND
STUDENTS PICKET
IN SOLIDARITY
WITH THE VA
PRISON HUNGER
STRIKE
“R-O-S-P is on strike!
N-Y-C says fight, fight, fight!”
“1-2-3-4, open up the prison
doors! 5-6-7-8, liberate Red
Onion State!”

O

n Friday, May 25, students at the
City University of New York
(CUNY) and others in NYC participated in an informational picket in
downtown Manhattan to build support for
the prisoner hunger strike at Red Onion
State Prison (ROSP) in Virginia. Prisoners at ROSP began their strike on Tuesday,
May 22 to demand basic human rights and
an end to torture in the form of indefinite
solidarity confinement.
Several students carried a large banner
that read, “Victory to the Virginia Prison
Hunger Strike! Turn Every Prison into a
Trench of Heroic Struggle!” Others distributed copies of the prisoners’ press release published when the strike began on
Tuesday, as well as the strikers’ list of ten
demands, with a link to the website of the
solidarity committee in VA: virginiaprisonstrike.blogspot.com. Chants rang out on the
street in lower Manhattan, as many pedestrians and drivers in cars took the printed
materials.
Addressing the gathered supporters, a
2

Co-Chair of the Revolutionary Student
Coordinating Committee (RSCC) said,
“People in prison are our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, our cousins, our
family members, they are our people. And
we must support them in their struggle for
liberation.” RSCC is a student group based
in CUNY that mobilized its membership
for the action. Individuals from several different organizations also came out to support the picket and spoke about the need to
struggle against the mass incarceration of
working and oppressed people.
As the hunger strike moves into Day
5, we must continue to support the heroic struggle of the ROSP hunger strikers
through phone calls, emails, the Change.
org petition, op-ed articles, pickets, and
other mass actions. Keep spreading the
word! Seize the time! 

Ten Demands of ROSP
Hunger Strikers
We (Prisoners at Red Onion State Prison)
demand the right to an adequate standard
of living while in the custody of the state!
1. We demand fully cooked food, and
access to a better quality of fresh fruit and
vegetables. In addition, we demand increased portions on our trays, which allows
us to meet our basic nutritional needs as
defined by VDOC regulations.
2. We demand that every prisoner at
ROSP have unrestricted access to complaint and grievance forms and other paperwork we may request.
3. We demand better communication
between prisoners and higher- ranking
guards. Presently higher-ranking guards
invariably take the lower-ranking guards’

side in disputes between guards and prisoners, forcing the prisoner to act out in
order to be heard. We demand that higherranking guards take prisoner complaints
and grievances into consideration without
prejudice.
4. We demand an end to torture in the
form of indefinite segregation through the
implementation of a fair and transparent
process whereby prisoners can earn the
right to be released from segregation. We
demand that prison officials completely adhere to the security point system, insuring
that prisoners are transferred to institutions
that correspond with their particular security level.
5. We demand the right to an adequate
standard of living, including access to quality materials that we may use to clean our
own cells. Presently, we are forced to clean
our entire cell, including the inside of our
toilets, with a single sponge and our bare
hands. This is unsanitary and promotes the
spread of disease-carrying bacteria.
6. We demand the right to have 3rd party
neutral observers visit and document the
condition of the prisons to ensure an end to
the corruption amongst prison officials and
widespread human rights abuses of prisoners. Internal Affairs and Prison Administrator’s monitoring of prison conditions have
not alleviated the dangerous circumstances
we are living under while in custody of the
state which include, but are not limited to:
the threat of undue physical aggression by
guards, sexual abuse and retaliatory measures, which violate prison policies and our
human rights.
7. We demand to be informed of any and
all changes to VDOC/IOP policies as soon
as these changes are made.

Rock

8. We demand the right to adequate
medical care. Our right to medical care is
guaranteed under the eight amendment of
the constitution, and thus the deliberate indifference of prison officials to our medical
needs constitutes a violation of our constitutional rights. In particular, the toothpaste
we are forced to purchase in the prison is
a danger to our dental health and causes
widespread gum disease and associated illnesses.
9. We demand our right as enumerated through VDOC policy, to a monthly
haircut. Presently, we have been denied
haircuts for nearly three months. We also
demand to have our razors changed out
on a weekly basis. The current practice of
changing out the razors every three weeks
leaves prisoners exposed to the risk of dangerous infections and injury.
10. We demand that there be no reprisals
for any of the participants in the Hunger
Strike. We are simply organizing in the interest of more humane living conditions. 

Press Release
On Tuesday May 22 as many as 45 prisoners at Red Onion State Prison, comprising at least 2 segregation pods, will enter
the first day of a hunger strike protesting
deplorable conditions in the prison and ongoing abuses by prison staff. For the men
participating in the strike this is their only
recourse to get Red Onion warden Randy
Mathena to officially recognize their grievances and make immediate changes to
food, sanitation and basic living conditions
at the prison.
Supporters from DC and Virginia along
with prisoner family members will hold a
press conference at 11 AM in front of the
VA Department of Corrections, in Richmond at 6900 Atmore Dr., to urge Warden Mathena, the Virginia Department of
Corrections under Harold Clarke, Governor Bob McDonell, state Senators Mark
Warner and Jim Webb and other state and
congressional legislators to act on behalf of
justice and human rights.
A statement released by one of the hunger strike representatives said, “Regardless
of sexual preference, gang affiliation, race
and religion, there are only two classes
at this prison: the oppressor and the oppressed. We the oppressed are coming
together. We’re considered rival gang
members, but now we’re coming together
as revolutionaries. We’re tired of being
treated like animals.” 
Vol. 1 Number 6

ON CONTENT AND
FORM
A Proposal to the H.S.
Leadership
“Whoever doesn’t find a way to struggle
against this situation is destroyed—the
situation controls him and not the other
way around.”
The Red Army Faction, 1975
By C. Landrum
t is necessary to understand that the
universe and its innumerable forms of
matter are in ceaseless flux and everchanging. Therefore if we are to formulate
an accurate analysis of our circumstances,
we must first begin with the recognition
that technically speaking, reality does not
consist of “things”, but of processes and
endless transformations.
All form is the outward manifestation
and the appearance of a given object or
process. And in fact, form is a symptomatic
pathology of an “essentially” deeper content from which form follows. In the essence and form of any object or process are
not separate aspects that are mechanically
juxtaposed one alongside the other, but are
the interpenetrating characteristics inherent
of all phenomena and in many cases perceptually indistinguishable. As V.I. Lenin
said, “Essence appears phenomenally, phenomenon is essential.”
Much like the cover of a book, the essence of its content is only partially revealed in the written summary and title
of its outside cover. We are restrained and
drawing accurate conclusions based exclusively upon their formal manifestations and
their external appearances.
The full essential content of the book itself, and is driving force of internal contradictions, can only be revealed within its
pages.
And although essence is not fully revealed on the surface, it is nonetheless for
the most part, the dominating and decisive
factor that determines the overall direction and development of a given phenomenon. And as the driving force of any given
phenomenon — organic, inorganic, social
phenomenon, even our current struggle to
end the state’s campaign of social extermination — the goal of both all science and
philosophy is, as Marx wrote, “to reveal
essence, the internal, deep and underlying
process behind the multitude of phenomena, outward sides and features of reality.”

I

In order to furnish a solution to any dilemma, a correct interpretation of reality is
required. And this necessitates the application of dialectical materialism. Having said
that despite the reciprocal influence that
both form and essence exert upon the other
and their mutual development as one, we
must recognize form for what it is — a side
effect manifesting from an essential source.
Our current struggle — as tactics currently exist — is objectively incorrect. A
true “qualitative” transformation, such as
an end to our perpetual isolation and the
social extermination resulting from it, can
only come from an “essential” transformation, not a “formal” one.
The validation process is a side effect,
the manifestation of an essential source
of oppression — the SHU. And so long as
we continue to focus our struggle on the
validation process (and the five commands
which also address the formal effects of the
SHU) while allowing the primary source
of our essential oppression to remain intact
as it is — the SHU facilities — the state
will continue to manufacture pseudo-justifications and illegitimate security threats to
isolate us indefinitely.
We must adhere to dialectical materialism’s and its teachings that the basis of
change comes not from those external forces and influences outside of a given phenomenon but within it.
External forces and influences can only
create conditions necessary for transformation. In our current circumstances, the
states increasingly oppressive practices are
the contradictions necessary for transformation. It is up to us to cultivate a collective consciousness of resistance and transform the SHU as it currently exists from
within the SHU itself, if we are to end our
perpetual isolation.
It has been said before that we are “social animals”. This is an essential truth, not
an empty cliché. It is inherent within our
DNA and coded in our genes — literally!
We must feed, clothe, procreate, and shelter
ourselves, requiring that we also cooperate,
organize, and coordinate our labor, and this
necessitates various degrees of “social intercourse” between us. It is in the process
of social intercourse that we develop our
individual personalities as distinct identities defining us as uniquely human. Yes, we
are truly social animals.
The group expresses itself through the individual and each individual is shaped and
molded by the groups multiple individuals.
Both the collective and the individual cre3

ate the conditions for the other’s existence
in an inseparable struggle of reciprocity,
where each influences the development of
the other, as one whole. Marx captured this
dialectical relationship in his observation
“the human being is not merely
a gregarious animal, but an animal
which can individuate itself only in the
midst of society … And isolated individual outside society … Is as much
of an absurdity as the development of
language without individuals living together.” (Grundrisse)
To isolate us indefinitely is to artificially
separate us from the collective and deprive
us of the social conditions necessary to develop our identities as distinct individual
social beings. It is a process of dehumanization. To elevate our political consciousness to a level necessary in order to wage a
successful struggle, it must be understood
that a campaign against indefinite isolation
is a campaign against “social extermination.” Long-term isolation is a state method
of assassination while keeping us alive as
living, breathing, biological individuals.
We must comprehend that the prison system is a microcosm of the economic and
social inequalities inherent within society
itself. It is a political – economic phenomenon.
For those of us who have endured years
of sensory deprivation have been denied
our identities. At this stage are only means
to develop our identity is to develop a political identity forged in a context of a political struggle to end our indefinite isolation
and achieve social intercourse.
I do not propose that we abandon our
current five commands, but that we recognize there “formal” character and understand that the validation process and the
five commands are side effects manifesting
from an “essential” source — the SHU as it
currently exists.
So long as the SHU exists, the C. D.
C. will subject us to perpetual isolation,
whether under the guise of validation STG,
program failure, etc., or any other creative
pseudo-justification the state prisoncrats
conveniently manufacture.
As we know, the basis of all change and
his transformation is internal. We must not
only attack the SHU itself as a source of
our “social extermination”, we must transform it from “within”. I propose that we
demand, and struggle for, “association” in
groups of no less than eight. “Association”
as a means to implement social intercourse
for the healthy psychological development
4

of the individual. Our identities would be
facilitated with our right to cellies according to the same criteria and frequency that
general population receives them, the installation of two (four – man) tables in each
pod, along with a phone, and one tear out
for day-room at a time.
A concrete transformation of the SHU itself would render all of the state’s excuses
for confining us permanently, obsolete.
Transforming the validation process alone,
will only result in a new excuse to permanently isolate us, so long as the SHU facilities exist as they currently do. We must
transform them. For
This may seem out of reach, but not only
is it a potential reality, “association” is a
tried and tested tactic that is been achieved
on various occasions by politically conscious prisoners subjected to isolation and
sensory deprivation units.
Our struggle for the five commands must
continue forward unabated on both the domestic and international fronts. Although
our primary struggle must be for the realization of Association if we are to achieve
essential transformation. At this stage, we
cannot afford to fail, which calls into question our particular tactics and the possibility of [peaceful and lawful yet] drastic actions. 

PLANTATIONS,
PRISONS AND
PROFITS
By Charles M. Blow
hat paragraph opens a devastating eight-part series published this
month by The Times-Picayune of
New Orleans about how the state’s largely
private prison system profits from high incarceration rates and tough sentencing, and
how many with the power to curtail the
system actually have a financial incentive
to perpetuate it.
The picture that emerges is one of convicts as chattel and a legal system essentially based on human commodification.
First, some facts from the series:
• One in 86 Louisiana adults is in the
prison system, which is nearly double the
national average.
• More than 50 percent of Louisiana’s inmates are in local prisons, which is more
than any other state. The next highest state
is Kentucky at 33 percent. The national average is 5 percent.

T

• Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of its prisoners serving life without
parole.
• Louisiana spends less on local inmates
than any other state.
• Nearly two-thirds of Louisiana’s prisoners are nonviolent offenders. The national average is less than half.
In the early 1990s, the state was under a
federal court order to reduce overcrowding,
but instead of releasing prisoners or loosening sentencing guidelines, the state incentivized the building of private prisons. But,
in what the newspaper called “a uniquely
Louisiana twist,” most of the prison entrepreneurs were actually rural sheriffs. They
saw a way to make a profit and did.
It also was a chance to employ local people, especially failed farmers forced into
bankruptcy court by a severe drop in the
crop prices.
But in order for the local prisons to remain profitable, the beds, which one prison
operator in the series distastefully refers to
as “honey holes,” must remain full. That
means that on almost a daily basis, local
prison officials are on the phones bartering
for prisoners with overcrowded jails in the
big cities.
It also means that criminal sentences
must remain stiff, which the sheriff’s association has supported. This has meant that
Louisiana has some of the stiffest sentencing guidelines in the country. Writing bad
checks in Louisiana can earn you up to 10
years in prison. In California, by comparison, jail time would be no more than a year.
There is another problem with this unsavory system: prisoners who wind up in
these local for-profit jails, where many
of the inmates are short-timers, get fewer
rehabilitative services than those in state
institutions, where many of the prisoners
are lifers. That is because the per-diem per
prisoner in local prisons is half that of state
prisons.
In short, the system is completely backward.
Lifers at state prisons can learn to be
welders, plumbers or auto mechanics —
trades many will never practice as free men
— while prisoners housed in local prisons,
and are certain to be released, gain no skills
and leave jail with nothing more than “$10
and a bus ticket.”
These ex-convicts, with almost no rehabilitation and little prospect for supporting
themselves, return to the already-struggling communities that were rendered that
way in part because so many men are being
Rock

extracted on such a massive scale. There
the cycle of crime often begins again, with
innocent people caught in the middle and
impressionable young eyes looking on.
According to The Times-Picayune: “In
five years, about half of the state’s ex-convicts end up behind bars again.”
This suits the prison operators just fine.
They need them to come back to the “honey holes.”
Furthermore, the more money the state
spends on incarceration, the less it can
spend on preventive measures like education. (According to Education Week’s State
Report Cards, Louisiana was one of three
states and the District of Columbia to receive an F for K-12 achievement in 2012,
and, this year, the state, over all, is facing a
$220 million deficit in its $25 billion budget.)
Louisiana is the starkest, most glaring
example of how our prison policies have
failed. It showcases how private prisons do
not serve the public interest and how the
mass incarceration as a form of job creation
is an abomination of justice and civility and
creates a long-term crisis by trying to create a short-term solution.
As the paper put it: “A prison system that
leased its convicts as plantation labor in the
1800s has come full circle and is again a
nexus for profit.” 

Quote Box
“As the centers of American power
were seized and hijacked by corporations, the media continued to pay deference to systems of power that could no
longer be considered honest or democratic. The media treat criminals on
Wall Street as responsible members of
the ruling class. They treat the criminals
in the White House and the Pentagon as
statesmen.”
- Chris Hedges
“And say, finally, whether peace is
best preserved by giving energy to the
government or information to the people. This last is the most legitimate engine of government. Educate and inform
the whole mass of people. Enable them
to see that it is their interest to preserve
peace and order, and they will preserve
them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of
this. They are the only sure reliance for
the preservation of our liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson - (1743-1826),
US Founding Father
Vol. 1 Number 6

SOLIDARITY FROM
CALIPATRIA ASU

G

reetings. First and foremost I
would like to extend our utmost
love and respects to all who remain strong and positive in their situation
and in our situation as one against CDCR’s
death grip of long-term segregation.
It has been 8 months since the last Pelican Bay-CA Statewide Hunger Strike and
there has been some “material changes”
here at Calipatria ASU. These “material
changes” consist of us being allowed an
appliance and the augmentation of canteen
items to our list. I emphasize on these being “material changes” because these are
things we’ve had coming for years. Yet, we
had to add these items to our own demands
here and starve ourselves.
Although we were given these “items”
and it appears to be a move in the positive
direction, one must remember that we had
these “items” coming, but Calipatria’s Administration was depriving us of this. This
is like patching up a bullet-hole wound by
using a band-aide.
In a recent letter to the “ROCK” newsletter (June Issue) an individual wrote that
“we won” here in ASU because we got our
T.V.’s That’s a big misstatement! Our objective as a “whole” is to see an end to all
wrongful validations and long-term segregation/isolation. We all support the men at
Pelican Bay State Prison-Short Corridor
and the 5 Core Demands. Not only do they
apply to them and the SHUs, by they apply
to all of us. As the old saying goes “United
We Stand, Divided We Fall”. We’ve been
through two Hunger Strikes in solidarity
with Pelican Bay State Prison and will continue to be as one in unity if another takes
place.
Where there has been “material changes”
here, there have been NO real changes at
Pelican Bay. It took a man to die here for
us to be taken seriously and get our voices
heard. His death was due to his solitary
confinement that brought him mental anguish beyond his control. This is the type
of psychological warfare that CDCR is
waging against us. Till this day we are still
fighting against their tactics that break the
mind, body, and soul.
We are all secluded from the outside
world which limits our voices to travel. It’s
our wives, our families, our loved ones,
who speak our minds and lets the public
know that we are and have been living
through torturous inhumane conditions.

This has had an extreme impact on all men
of every race, who are living their lives in
“long-term” segregation with their loved
ones who they can’t hug, touch, and for
most, even see. Yet, to mock our situation,
we are told that we must either “parole,
die, or debrief” in order to get out of this
dungeon. Three men have died during the
struggle thus far, and if change for ALL everywhere in these torture dungeons doesn’t
come soon, CDCR is going to have a lot to
answer for when more men are left to die
for what they believe is right.
“The ultimate test of man’s conscience
may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose
words of thanks will not be heard.”
– Gaylord Nelson
Respectfully,
Robbie Riva, CDC# T-49359, Calipatria
State Prison ASU, written on 5-28-2012
[Ed’s Note: I could not find the letter in
Rock referred to in the June issue or any
earlier issues. But in the TidBits section of
issue #4 (May) there was a reprint from the
HS Support Mailing List in which a Calipatria ASU prisoner discussed getting televisions. I found no reference to any statement
“we won”, although he did say the “Next
step is getting them out of that hellhole of
segregation....” The purpose of his letter
was to thank the outside folks for their support. In any event, we are all agreed the five
core demands are first and foremost.
I urge readers to call my attention to any
misstatements of fact or inaccuracies in
Rock, as I do make mistakes. In the last issue I had to cross out by hand a statement
that there would be a new HS on July 1st.
That bad information came from Mary at
the S.F. Bay View, who said she got it from
one of the prisoner reps.]

5

[Note: Names of letter writers will be
withheld unless the author of the letter explicitly approves printing of their name.]
Legal Question
Greeting! Just wanted to send my gratitude and respects to Ed, HS Reps, NCTT,
and all other organizations and individuals
who are putting time and effort to keep the
ball rolling. With that said, I wanted to put
a quick broadcast to the HS Reps, NCTT
and any other savvy individuals who are
up to par on litigation. As you recall they
imposed new changes to (PC) 2933.6 in
2010, which changed SHU inmates credit
earning from 1/3 to 0 credit earning. It’s no
question that this was just another ploy to
keep us in the SHU and in solitary longer.
There’s a handful of us here with dates and
we have no litigators in the vicinity to help
us with a petition. We were all validated
prior to this new change in 2010 and would
like to know if anybody has had success
overturning it? Is so, we’d highly appreciate it if you could point us in the right direction with some case laws to look up or
maybe even a spare copy of a petition concerning this issue we could use as a guide.
Gracias for your time and saludos atodos.
Richard Medina,
Pelican Bay State Prison - SHU
Thanks
First and foremost, I want to thank you
for your voice, thoughts, experience and
opinion concerning everything that has and
is taking place in California prisons. I don’t
have the education nor do I possess the vocabulary to adequately express myself, but
I do recognize that you’re of another caliber and what an actual convict once was. I
have not found a single flaw with the logic
in your editorials on how to fight for and
improve the lives and conditions of prisoners, and you’ve done more to educate the
prison population than anyone here. I hope
you will continue to agitate, agitate, agitate
until the day you leave the planet earth.
Name Withheld,
Pelican Bay State Prison - SHU
[Ed’s Response: Prisoners send me a
lot of letters like the one above, and they
are appreciated. Yet the letters I like best
are those that are critical, as they point out
things I may be doing incorrectly—areas in
which I can improve.]
6

On Torture
[Ed’s Note: The following letter was six
single-spaced pages. In the process of typing this handwritten letter it was necessary
for me to edit out many paragraphs. I have
tried not to remove too much of the author’s
meaning in the process. If you see error
they are mine, not the author’s.]
The first issue of Rock was both well received and timely. “The Road Ahead” is an
essential and critical starting point in our
struggle for justice. We must first exercise
our minds, and expand our understanding
of what is really going on. Objectivity and
critical thinking, as well as analysis, is fundamental.
Daulo Freire once said, “the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed [is] to liberate themselves and
their oppressors as well. The oppressor,
who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of
their power cannot find in this power the
strength to liberate either the oppressed or
themselves. Only the power that springs
from the weakness of the oppressed will be
sufficiently strong to free [you].”
It has often been said that power corrupts, but it is perhaps equally important to
realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power
corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts

the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion
are fruits of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not
spring from any injustice done
to them, but from the sense of
their in adequacy and importance. Sharing of wealth cannot
win the weak over to the other
side. They will feel it as a form
of oppression, nor can they win
the weak by sharing their hope,
pride, or even their hatred. The only way
to win is through the capacity for self-help
of the oppressed. They need the technical,
social, and political skills which would
enable them to get bread, human dignity,
freedom, and strength by their own efforts.
This is liberation. This is power.
We know that ideas and words have
significance, they are preludes to action.
Words, ideas are a means to an end. Words
cannot move mountains but they can move
the multitude. Men are more ready to fight
and die for a word than for anything else.
Words shape our thoughts, stir feelings,
and beget action. They kill and revive, corrupt and cure.
Torture (in CIA language “coercive
interrogation”) is a set of techniques designed to put prisoners into a state of deep
disorientation and shock in order for them
to make concessions against their will. Two
CIA manuals were declassified in the late
1990s. These manuals explain the way to
break “resistant sources” is to create violent ruptures between prisoners and their
ability to make sense of the world around
them. First the senses are starved of any
input (hoods, earplugs, shackles, total isolation, etc.), Then the body is bombarded
with overwhelming stimulation (lights,
beatings, etc.).
The goal of this “softening up” stage is
to provoke a kind of hurricane in the mind.
Prisoners are so regressed and afraid that
they can no longer think rationally or protect their own interests. It is in that state of
shock that most prisoners give their interrogators whatever they want — information, confessions, a renunciation of former
beliefs and so on (sound familiar?).
The torturers understand the importance
of solidarity. And they set out to shock that
impulse of social interconnectedness out of
the prisoners. Of course all interrogation is
purportedly about gaining valuable infor-

LETTERS

LETTERS

SDP is a Joke
I just want to thank you for the June issue
of Rock. The cover story was informative
but very disappointing. After two statewide
hunger strikes and all the media attention
we brought to the issue concerning SHU
conditions and CDCR’s gang validation
policy, you’d think we would have achieved
a lot more. What happened to BPSP-SHU’s
five demands?! The step down program
(SDP) is a joke!! The so called new strategy for validating prisoners won’t fix the
problem; in fact it’s going to make things
worse. With the new security threat group
(STG) label it’s going to make it easier for
CDCR to validate people and place them
in the SHU for their four years step down
program (SDP). If you think these changes
don’t affect you directly, think again!!! Because this new strategy will allow CDCR
to validate just about anyone, even those of
you who are not members or associates to
a prison gang (labeled). Let’s not sell ourselves short or accept anything less than the
five core demands, and let’s finish what we
started.
Name withheld,
Calipatria ASU

Letters ...................... Continued on page 9
Rock

LETTER TO ROCK
[Ed’s Opening Note: The following document was hand written and some of it was
difficult for my lone eyeball to read. I’ve
tried to use context or to otherwise guestimate the items I could not quite decipher.
With that said, here’s the article.]
“The way prisons are run and their
inmates treated give a faithful picture
of a society, especially of the ideas and
methods of those who dominate that
society. Prisons indicate the distance
to which government and social conscience have come in their concern
and respect for the human being.”
Milouan Hiilas
By Michael (Zahaaribu) Dorrough
e felt in necessary, unfortunately, to respond to certain criticism because of its incorrectness. And also to clarify what our position
is and always has been in our respect for
and support of the voice of representation
of the five core demands at Pelican Bay.
Bro. Ed’s response to that criticism [Vol.
1 #4, p. 4] was right on point and requires
no further elaboration from us.
It has always been understood, respected
and supported by us, by all of us, that the
voice of representation concerning these
issues is exclusively at Pelican Bay. And
more importantly, Pelican Bay is very
much aware of the work we are trying to
do, and that it is a part of the protracted
struggle that must be waged.
Our activities are natural outgrowths
of our support and respect for the central organizers of the California prisoners
hunger strike, Todd Asker, Paul Redd, Artureo Castellanos, Antonia Guillen, Danny
Troxell, and Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (s/n
Ronnie Dewberry) who is chairman of the
N.C.T.T. which is based at Pelican Bay.
There was also a criticism of a failure to
present practical solutions that can unite all
prisoners—the stratification of the prisoners class. While it may be true that we have
not addressed this specific issue in any
great detail, it is not true that this issue has
not been addressed. There have been articles written in the San Francisco Bay View
and discussions on prisoner unity were had
by the central organizers of the California
prisoners’ hunger strike. Abllul Olwgbala
Shakur (s/n J. Harvey) of the Bunchy Carter Institute for Revolutionary Change and
Mutope Duguma (s/n James D. Crawford),
both at Pelican Bay short Corridor, have

W

Vol. 1 Number 6

written on the subject. In the March issue
of Rock an article was featured titled “The
Road Ahead and The Dialectics of Change”
by C.L. (a California prisoner) with an introduction by Ed Mead. As well as a letter to the H.S. Solidarity coalition by Todd
Ashker that was really brilliant.
Also included in the May issue of Rock
was a beautiful example of what the men
at Calipatria ASU were able to accomplish.
Stratification of the imprisoned is only
a reflection of the stratification of the race,
caste and economic class system of capitalist American society at large. However,
the primary solution to many of the concerns lies in the examples of unity that have
been set throughout the prison system (and
inspired by Pelican Bay) over the past ten
months, and in particular in the SHU and
Ad Seg units where men have had to continue to fight in the wake of retaliation, and
to improve conditions in their immediate
spaces.
Solutions, what does and does not work
is about the extent and context in which we
understand a situation that we are faced
with, developing strategies and tactics
based on that understanding that might give
us the best chance to succeed, and acting on
it and not giving up.
As was mentioned, there really have been
an abundance of examples of solutions that
have been shown and discussed over the
past ten months that does take up the issue,
the stratification of the prisoner class.
The question was asked, “Does the
N.C.T.T. have any practical solutions that
do away with the social stratification of the
prisoner class and divisional segments?”
(i.e., general population, segregation-SHUASU status, Sensitive Needs Yards). Specifically, as it relates to Sensitive Needs/
PC Yards, no, we don’t have any solutions,
practical or otherwise. Though we acknowledge, and it has been described in detail on numerous occasions elsewhere, how
the state intentionally manufactures divisions and animosities among imprisoned
lumpen groups to maintain ease in control
and prevent broad-based cooperation and
political development. There is a significant segment of prisoners who choose to
separate themselves either consciously/actively or unconsciously/passively from the
broader prison class, and align themselves
with the state. These broken males chose
to abandon the general population for the
protective custody of the state. Regardless
of their circumstances, no matter how dire,
a choice between death and serving the in-

terests of one’s oppressor is still a choice.1
Just as all of us who took up the hunger
strike walked toward possible and actual
death to oppose the interests of the state
in maintaining these torture units made a
choice. Can truly principled men expect
any less from others they plan to unify
with? Of course not, and no reasoning person would consider otherwise.
“We should never accept being
abused or mistreated. It’s our duty as
human beings to fully resist. Our hunger strike activity over the past year
has shown that solid resistance is not
only possible, but also very effective.
And it can be done in smart, fully advantageous ways. It simply requires
prisoners to come together collectively for the common good of all and
with the support of the people outside,
forming the strength to force changes
that are long overdue.
“Our compliance with and recognition of the prison’s power of us is our
downfall. If we collectively refuse to
comply, and refuse to recognize the
prisoncrats having any power over us
via refusal to work, refusal to follow
orders, then these prisons cannot operate.” (Excerpt from a letter written by
Todd Ashker to the San Francisco Bay
View Feb. 29, reprinted in March 2012
Rock). Our only solution, as overwhelming as it may seem, is to launch
a protracted campaign of resistance
throughout the prison system (level
three and four yards) not only to close
the SHU facilities down completely,
but to gain back everything we’ve given up over the years. The time for us to
get off our knees is long overdue.
“With the application of new and
correct tactics employed through the
system, accompanied by class action
602/502s and lawsuits, coordinated
written statements from us to the media and support from various prison
activist groups and of greatest significance, mass solidarity, we can achieve
this. The legal struggle that was being waged in the interest of the entire
population to overturn the validation
process failed to provoke a unified
response. We are, as a prison population, oppressed as an entire population.
Therefore the solution is to be found in
1. Editor’s Note: Let us also not ignore
our (GP prisoners’) role in creating the
need for SNY and PC yards. It’s a two
way street.
7

a group response.
“We as a prison population are becoming increasingly more self-centered and driven by self-interest as
our material conditions continue to
deteriorate. In turn we become contributors and accomplices to CDCR’s
agendas and to the further downward
spiral of our own deterioration. More
often than not we do so unconsciously,
that is, we do so unintentionally and
unknowingly.
“We live within circumstances
where the existing and predominate
ideology of individualism is self-defeating and destructive to all of us as
a population, and where the collective
mentality is an absolute ne3cessity for
the improvement of our living conditions.” From ‘The Road Ahead and
The Dialectics of Change’ by C.L. (a
California prisoner).”
And finally, hundreds of men in the ASU
at Calipatria State Prison participated last
year in the Pelican Bay State Prison hunger
strike that reached statewide in July 2011
and another in September 2011.
The men at Calipatria State Prison ASU
who starved themselves were in unity with
Pelican Bay State Prison’s five core demands, but these men added their own demands which were to have appliances (either a TV or radio) to stimulate their minds
if they had to be forced to stay in segregation. With the help from articles that were
published to expose the illegal extended
years these men are serving the “temporary” segregation units. Loved ones on the
other side of these walls pushed CDCR to
have these men’s demands met for appliances. The men at Calipatria State Prison
ASU expressed to the public their extreme
inhuman conditions they were faced with,
and, after warden Leland McEwen at
Calipatria State Prison was removed, Sacramento approved televisions for all men
in Calipatria’s ASU. “On April 19, 2012, at
the expense of CDCR, TVs were distributed/installed in all ASU cells” From TidBits,
Rock, May 2012 issue.
Quoting these excerpts was necessary,
we believe, for one reason only, to demonstrate that the issue of addressing the need
for prisoners’ unity, of specific examples
of solutions and the importance of developing a political consciousness and its role
in developing successful strategies and tactics inside and outside of prison has in fact
been a part of the dialogue. Whether or not
anything could only be a superfluous gran8

diose presentation of a non-existent movement has yet to be determined and is really
not the point. The success of any struggle
is tied to the strength of its movement. A
movement that we can all belong to as a
result of our willingness to resist and make
sacrifices for, in the name of a movement
that does not benefit from antagonistic debates!
Unity requires dialogue and commitment, and our only interest is in broadening
and deepening the unity and support that all
of the efforts made has realized for us all.
Constructive criticism is the critical view
or opinion based on observation, knowledge, investigation, propriety, insight and
genuine concern. Perhaps this should be
the criterion of any future criticism.
As revolutionaries/activists, we cannot
be expected to act as something other than
who and what we all are, and we cannot fall
under the influences of mock polling systems. We will and must continue to pursue
the formation of a broader “National Mass
Movement” which will support the realization of the five core demands articulated by
Pelican Bay. Just as we all strive to transform the nature and structure of capitalist
society itself, which gave rise to the need
to pursue the California prisoners hunger
strike, and the Pelican Bay D-Corridor collective to create the five core demands.
Other areas that can be pursued are contacting attorneys Marilyn McMahon and
Carol Strickman, the California Prison
Focus (of which Ed Mead is an officermember) who are part of the Hunger Strike
Support coalition, if this has not already
been done, and explain to them the circumstances of your situation. Write to your
families and loved ones and make them
aware of your situation and educate them
to the prison movement as a whole. Identify areas of common interest in your space
and organize a response.
Don’t work or go to canteen. The Prisoner Activist Resource Center (PARC),
P.O. Box 70447, Oakland, CA 94612, is an
invaluable resource.
And again, “The Road Ahead and the
Dialectics of Change” in the March 2012
issue of Rock is excellent study material
to refer to and other examples referred to
in an effort to avoid the problem of having
legitimate dialogue that is intended to further the cause be reduced to who and what
we are. We will simply end this. Struggling
with you. 

THE PRISON CELL

T

he Barrios Unidos Prison Project is
constructing a prison cell that can be
utilized to teach and inform diverse
segments of the population: youth, judges,
educators, policy makers, and community
members. In constructing an interactive
prison cell, we hope to bring insight and
awareness on the realities of incarceration.
It will provide an opportunity for individuals to step into the environment, giving a
sense of what it is like to be incarcerated.
We hope to encourage people to support
alternatives to incarceration policy and legislation.

The model will be a traveling interactive
replica of a prison cell and visiting room.
We plan on bringing the model to schools,
universities, courthouses, conferences, and
other educational events. It will include literature on the consequences of incarceration, prison policy, the prison industrial
complex, alternatives to incarceration, the
economics of incarceration, as well other
pertinent information and statistics. Not
only will participants be able to sit in the
confines of the cell, to add to the sensory
experience, the participants will hear audio recordings of the on-going, day-to-day
sounds of prison life.
This project will provide realistic and
alternative education to communities concerned with the rate of incarceration, the
economic costs, and the imbalance of justice for those that cannot afford proper representation. 
Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos
Prison Project,
1817 Soquel Avenue,
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
Phone: 831 457-8208

Rock

Letters .................. Continued from page 6
mation and therefore forcing betrayal. But
many prisoners report that their torturers
were far less interested in the information,
which they usually already possessed, than
in achieving the act of betrayal itself. The
point of the exercise was getting the prisoners to do irreparable damage to that part
of themselves that believes in helping others, above all else, that part of themselves
that made them activists, replacing it with
shame and humiliation. (Doesn’t it sound
like IGI/CDCR?)
In this context the ultimate act of rebellion, where small gestures of kindness between prisoners, such as tending to each
other’s wounds or sharing scarce food,
when such loving acts were discovered,
they were met with harsh punishment (as
in the SHU, validations, chronos, etc.).
Prisoners were goaded into being as individualistic as possible, constantly offered
Faustian bargains, like choosing between
more unbearable torture for themselves
or more torture for fellow prisoners (as in
debriefing to get out of SHU, snitching on
other prisoners, etc.). In some cases prisoners were so successfully broken that they
agreed to hold the “picana” (prod), or go on
TV (as those debriefers did during hunger
strike at PBSP-SHU for the local news station Channel 9) and renounce their former
beliefs. These prisoners represented the ultimate triumph for their torturers. Not only
had the prisoners abandoned solidarity but
in order to survive they destroyed themselves, and had succumbed to the cutthroat
ethos of laissez-faire capitalism — looking
out for number one.
What we also discover from these tactics
is that direct physical brutality creates only
resentment, hostility, and further defiance.
Interrogatees who have withstood pain are
more difficult to handle by other methods.
The effect has not been to repress the subject but to restore his confidence and maturity. We know this to be true because the
men on the short corridor, who have been
isolation for decades on end, are more resilient than ever. Their integrity is intact,
and these qualities are to be esteemed and
emulated if the struggle is to be won.
The CIA manuals stressed the importance of cutting detainees off from anything that will help them establish a new
narrative — their own sensory input, that
from other prisoners, even communications with guards. Isolation, both physical
and psychological, must be maintained
from the moment of apprehension. The inVol. 1 Number 6

terrogators know that prisoners talk, they
warn each other about what’s to come, they
passed notes between the bars. Once that
happens, the captors lose their edge. They
still have the power to inflict bodily pain,
but they have lost their most effective psychological tools to manipulate and break
the prisoners. Confusion, disorientation,
and surprise; without these elements there
is no shock.
Memory, both individual and collective,
turns out to be the greatest shock absorber
of all. So let us remember these tactics that
CDCR employs. Let us remember those
men who have been subjected to these
tortures of mind, spirit, and body from 10
to 30 years. Let us honor them for their
strength and perseverance. Let us follow
their example and resist.
There is a well-known phenomenon that
hits people who have had a pinnacle experience, been the focus of attention, and do
not have anything to follow through with,
and don’t have anything to throw their energies into. Once the experience ends they
fall into a sort of post-partum depression.
We cannot let this post hunger strike time
period slip us into complacency. We must
actively resist. “Self is the prison that can
ever bind the soul.” Resistance is a state of
existence; it’s a state of mind.
[This paragraph was omitted because it
outlined specific acts of passive resistance
SHU prisoners could engage in, and therefore could result in this issue of the newsletter being censored.]
If another hunger strike is ever initiated
we should not be discouraged by a recent
court ruling allowing prison administrators
the right to force-feed prisoners on hunger strikes. Colin Dayar’s book “The Law
Is A White Dog” talks about prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay. Coordinated mass hunger strikes, to which the military classified
as “manipulative self-injurious behavior”,
peaked at 131 in December of 2005. And
by 2006 the number dropped drastically after mobile restraint chairs were introduced,
in which prisoners were force fed twice a
day through nose tubes. If CDC employs
forced feeding and the numbers are great,
there is no reason to stop the hunger strike.
We would just have some tangible physical
discomfort or maybe even pain to go with
the insidious mental anguish we experience
in our minds daily from being in the SHU
year after year. CDC will have no choice
but to declare a state of emergency and either allow prisoners to die or force-feed us,
which would shut down all programs and

make staff escort prisoners to medical for
forced feeding. The more yms[?] The more
work. The more work the more pressure.
The more pressure, the more our voices
will be heard. The longer it goes on the
louder our voice. CDC could not allowed
to go on and on. It would force them to
make the changes we demand.
Those brave men who sacrificed their
lives for our cause, and died for our struggle for justice during the HS deserve our
commitment. CDC is responsible for their
“suicide” for our cause. We cannot let their
deaths be in vain. 
In solidarity with PBHRM,
J. Angel Martinez, PBSP

SUIT TARGETS SHU

A

federal lawsuit filed Thursday
[May 31st] seeks to end the prolonged use of solitary confinement
in California, calling the practice cruel and
unusual punishment.
The lawsuit was filed by the New Yorkbased Center for Constitutional Rights, and
lawyers want to pursue the case as a classaction on behalf of inmates at Pelican Bay
State Prison who have been in solitary confinement for more than 10 years.
“The prolonged conditions of brutal
confinement and isolation such as those at
Pelican Bay have rightly been condemned
as torture by the international community,”
said Jules Lobel, the center’s president.
“These conditions strip prisoners of their
basic humanity and cross the line between
humane treatment and barbarity.”
The lawsuit said California’s practices
render the state “an outlier in this country
and in the civilized world” by allowing an
inmate to “languish, typically alone, in a
cramped, concrete, windowless cell” for
about 23 hours a day.
Earlier this year officials said they were
reviewing their policies with an eye toward
reducing the number of inmates in segregated housing units. The decision to place
an inmate in segregated housing will be
based more on their behavior in prison than
just gang affiliation, said Jeffrey Callison,
a spokesman for the California Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
In March, inmates and advocates asked
the UN to investigate solitary confinement
in California, which they called “torture.”
Inmates have also staged hunger strikes to
protest prison conditions. 
LA Times
9

GREETINGS FROM
THE CENTER FOR
CONSTITUTIONAL
RIGHTS (CCR):

I

wanted to share information about an
upcoming event in San Francisco titled,
Solitary Confinement at Pelican Bay: A
Panel Discussion. Our panel will discuss
the use of solitary confinement in the U.S.
criminal justice system, examining specifically the injustices surrounding the use of
solitary confinement at Pelican Bay. The
event will be held on Thursday, June 14th
from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at the Women’s Building (3543 18th St #8, San Francisco, CA).
We invite you to co-sponsor this event.
As a co-sponsor we will list your organization on promotional material, including
the CCR website, prior to the event and on
materials that are provided to attendees at
the event, including the program. We request that, as a co-sponsor, you help us do
outreach in the San Francisco / Bay Area,
inviting people to join the discussion and
come to the event.

Additional details are available on our
web page. Please let me know if you have
any questions and kindly confirm your interest in co-sponsoring this event. 

MEDIA ADVISORY
Center for Constitutional
Rights to Hold Press Call to
Discuss Lawsuit Challenging
Prolonged Solitary
Confinement in California
CONTACT: Dorothee Benz, CCR,
(212) 614-6480, press@ccrjustice.org,
David Lerner, Riptide Communications,
(212) 260-5000, david@riptidecommunications.com
n Thursday May 31, attorneys
from the Center for Constitutional
Rights (CCR) and others will host
a press call with reporters to discuss their
filing of a federal lawsuit against the State
of California challenging the constitutionality of prolonged solitary confinement in
the state’s Secure Housing Unit (SHU) at
Pelican Bay prison. The class-action suit

O

alleges that prolonged solitary confinement
violates Eight Amendment prohibitions
against cruel and unusual punishment,
and that the absence of meaningful review
for SHU placement violates the prisoners’
right to due process. It is part of a larger
movement for reform of inhumane conditions, sparked and dramatized by a hunger
strike last year.
What: Press call to discuss filing with
attorneys, advocates and plaintiffs’ family
members
Who: Jules Lobel, President for the
Center for Constitutional Rights, Alexis
Agathocleous, Center for Constitutional
Rights Staff Attorney, Marie Levin, family member of Pelican Bay SHU prisoner,
Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director, Legal
Services for Prisoner’s with Children,
Marilyn McMahon, Executive Director,
California Prison Focus.
When: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 10 a.m.
PDT / 1 p.m. EDT.
Call info: Toll-Free Access Number:
1.800.868.1837 Direct Dial/International
Access Number: 1.404.920.6440. Conference ID: 868895# 

Ed Mead
P.O. Box 47439
Seattle, WA 98146

FIRST CLASS MAIL