Working
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W
Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
D
to
t All 
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V
Volume
V l
Volume
2, N
2
Number
b 12
12

December

D
D
December
b 2013
2013

PELICAN BAY REPS MEET WITH
TOP CDC PRISONCRATS
By Arturo Castellanos, October 20, 2013
his is a short update from the four
principle SHU reps here at Pelican
Bay State Prison to inform you that
Mr. Michael Stainer [director of the Division of Adult Institutions], kept his word
and arrived here on Sept. 25 and 26 with
Mr. Ralph Diaz [warden at the California
Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and
State Prison (SATF) at Corcoran] and Mr.
George Giurbino [retired director of the
Division of Adult Institutions]. We went
through all 40 supplemental demands as
well as some aspects of the step-down program, where we also gave them written
suggestions on loading up each step with
real meaningful incentives.
Although they were adamant on not rescinding or reducing any RVRs [Rules Violation Reports] for participating in the hun-

T

CONTENTS
Reps Meet CDC Bosses ..........1
Three Key Points .....................2
Having Foresight ......................3
Editorial ....................................3
Letters ......................................4
Prison News .............................6
Prisoner PAC Proposal ............7
Atrocities Against Mentally Ill ...8
Legislative Hearings.................9
The Walla Walla Experiment ....9

ger strikes, they were forthcoming in other
areas. For example, there will be additional
allowed personal property items in SHU.
The memos on those and other supplemental demands will be out soon and placed in
the new CDCR DOM [Department Operations Manual] Article 43 as soon as possible.
Those memos should be more specific so
prison staff and prisoners will know what
kind and size of the items is or is not allowed so the same problems from the June
5 memos won’t re-occur. On other issues,
it will take time for them to investigate
and confirm or not on what we argued regarding those, and on still others, like not
rescinding the RVRs, they clearly stated
“no,” which we prefer to a vague answer
that only will string us along. But over all,
the meetings were positive and productive.
With all the above and the promises
of
o future meetings in person or by phone
conference
with Mr. Stainer or his staff rec
garding
any updates on the above and stepg
down
program and the first Senate-Assemd
bly
b hearings this month in Los Angeles, as
we
w explained to Mr. Stainer, as long as we
continue
to see forward progress, we do not
c
foresee
that the other 16 reps and prisons
f
will
w want to resume the hunger strike anytime
in the near future.
t
They also granted and reinstated our
monthly
meetings with this administration
m
and
a the new warden, Mr. Ron Barnes, to
deal
d with any new or pending issues at the
i
institutional
level. These meetings are vit to deal with any new issues and prevent
tal
f
future
problems or having to file a lot of
u
unnecessary
602 appeals. We are not MAC
[Men’s Advisory Council] members, and if

the same has not been put in place in your
SHU prison – including women – then you
need to sweat your warden about it asap.
Finally, if any of you on PBSP GP [General Population] or any prison have gone
through the potty watch be sure you contact
the Prison Law Office but address your letters Attn: Sara Norman [Prison Law Office,
1917 Fifth St., Berkeley CA 94710]. She’s
an attorney there. She came up asking for
names and information on this but we only
see some of you laying on cold concrete as
we walk by those nasty-ass holding cells.
So it’s very important that you get at her
asap to stop this torture.
We stopped them from using the tubes.
Now we need to stop the further torture of
having nowhere to sit or lay down other
than cold nasty concrete and taking craps
out there in the open. This is wrong! And it
needs to be stopped now!
On this issue, Mr. Stainer explained that
x-rays are no longer an option and potty
watch is not supposed to be torture. We explained that even those who are not found
to be carrying anything and are innocent,
because x-rays are no longer an option, are
forced to go through this humiliating and
torturous experience for two to three days
or longer, until after they have three bowel
movements. Before, they could just prove
they’re innocent by an x-ray.
They have agreed to investigate our allegations, but your information on actually
going through it is more important, so Ms.
Norman and her office can actually file
something on it to stop it!
That’s it for now. Expect more future updates from me and the other reps as time
goes by. Always in solidarity.

D Facility Visiting Room
Oct. 16, 2013 – This is to notify Warden
Barnes and the budget associate warden for
SHU of another issue that will be brought
up and discussed at the next monthly meeting between the SHU reps and PBSP administration.
CDCR Sacramento officials provided
the funds to reopen D Facility SHU visiting room to provide “extended visits” (see
Supplemental Demand No. 4). However,
PBSP officials just opened half and are
only using that half for “overflow visiting”
and the other half continues to be used for
law library access during weekdays. This is
not acceptable.
That visiting room half has to be used
for extended visits and overflow, and the
only way – as we reps have repeatedly advised this administration and Sacramento
– that our family members will all receive
extended visits is if this administration
changes the schedule from three time slots
to two time slots, with D Facility in the first
slot and C Facility in the second slot, where
all visits are a solid three hours long during the weekends and holidays. This could
even work using C Facility and just half of
D Facility visiting rooms.
The second option is that all of D Facility visiting room be opened, not just half,
where all C Facility prisoners go to the C
Facility visiting room and all D Facility
prisoners go to the D Facility visiting room
– i.e., the short corridor during the first slot
and the long corridor during the second slot
– thus giving everyone a solid three hour
long visit and providing plenty of room for
any overflow problems.
Exaggerated responses
First and more importantly, the D Facility visiting room was built to solely be used
for D Facility visiting – regular and legal
visiting – not to be converted into a law li-

By Michael Russell

2

brary or recreational book library. Now, so
far, this administration has reopened just
one half of our D Facility visiting room.
But in doing so, they also punished us by
claiming they had to remove all the recreational reading books and take them to the
B Facility general population library. So
now we have NO recreational library at
this time where SHU prisoners can order
reading books (see also our Supplemental
Demand No. 8).
Second, the administration has not
put any effort into resolving this, other
than give excuses why they don’t wish to
change anything – like, if they reopen all
of D Facility visiting room they won’t have
anywhere to put the law library. These excuses are old ones. In fact, in the past, we
gave the administration a suggestion to
solve this problem:
Since the law library mainly consists of
multiple computers containing all the legal
books on discs, they have enough computers to place one in each of the 22 SHU
units’ dry cells in front of each unit control
officer and run law library all day in each
unit using just that unit’s officers to escort
prisoners to and from those dry cells and
back to their unit section.
A new suggestion, since the administration has not responded to the suggestion
above, is that there is plenty of room in
the SHU to move both the law library and
the recreational library. For example, both
C and D Facilities presently have a lot of
space available between the back of each
main corridor control booth and the visiting
rooms. Right now it’s even being used as a
partial storage area.
These available spaces can easily be utilized as both law library and recreational
library where six-10 modified cages with
the computers can be constructed and installed in those spaces to be used for law
library access. Shelves can also
be constructed or moved from
the present library and placed
in those spaces for law books,
legal forms, copy machines and
even for recreational books.
In fact, these spaces are so
big that even with all those
mentioned cages, shelves etc.,
there will still be plenty of room
for staff desks and a walkway
in between to provide access to
the visiting area from SHU. So
all the present excuses for not
re-opening all of D Facility visiting rooms are unfounded and

“Three key points [in the
previous article] need our
present and future pressure....” Taken from a post
by a family member on the
HS list server.
“CDC ‘won’t budge’ on the issue
of ‘Rules Violations Reports’ (the
115’s) that were given to everyone
who participated in the hunger
strike. (Note: Demand to rescind
the 115’s is the subject of this
week’s Alert! by the Pledge of
Resistance/Emergency Response
Network.)
“Pelican Bay Prison Warden (Ron
Barnes) is not moving to open
up 3 hours a day, Saturdays and
Sundays, for family visits, as was
promised. The space is available,
but the prison is dragging its
heels. This is totally unfair to
family members who drive so
many hours to see their loved
ones.
“If someone you know in PB
has been potty watched, please
tell them to write Sara Norman,
attorney, Prison Law Office, 1917
Fifth Street, Berkeley, CA. 94710”
it appears that on this issue, the old CDCR
game of delay and excuse is being played
here.
In closing, the above problem of our family members barely receiving a 90-minute
visit, if they’re lucky, has greatly affected
those relations over the two decades plus
since this prison was opened, especially
those who must travel very great distances.
So, our advice to this administration is
to find somewhere to permanently move
the law library and recreational library and
re-open all of D Facility visiting room and
change the present three visiting slots to
two visiting slots as soon as possible, because on this issue, there is no in-between
and we as SHU reps promise you that this
will continue to be one of our main issues
until it’s permanently fixed. ●
Arturo Castellanos is one of the four
main SHU reps writing on behalf of all 20
reps and all SHU prisoners and their family members.
Rock!

HAVING THE FORESIGHT TO END ALL HOSTILITIES!
By Mutope Duguma
n my 29 years of incarceration I never
seen what I would witness on September 24, 2013. On our way back to PBSP
solitary confinement torture chambers.
We must commend our 20 Representatives for having the foresight to see that
the cdcr officials would be utilizing their
authority (i.e., power) to create situations
and circumstances that would attempt to
encourage and manipulate warfare between
races inside the prison environment. Now,
on the way to CSP-SAC (New Folsom), on
August 23, 2013, for our emergency medical transfer from PBSP Ad-Seg, we prisoners were placed on the bus and separated
by race. New Afrikans were placed in the
up front cages. The whites were placed
across from the New Afrikans in the more
wider cage, but still up front cages. The
larger group of Mexicans from the Los Angeles County area was placed in the back
of the bus and they too was cut off from
each other by a dividing cage door. The bus
had cameras in the back and the front of
the bus, in which the transportation officer,
not driving the bus, can surveillance these
cameras. This was their legitimate security
protocol for transferring so called highly
secured prisoners.
So why was security protocols neglected on the way back?? Where there was 1
white, 1 Mexican from the northern district, and 2 New Afrikan prisoners. It was
a total of 25 prisoners on the bus. The remainder were Mexican prisoners from the
Los Angeles County area. Now, there was
no attempt to secure the bus. We prisoners
was hopping from seat to seat. It was all
good. The front row cages were not locked,
which afforded us to move about freely.
Now there was a ‘colorful’ transportation
officer named Wagner, who came on the
bus to give a speech, talking about nothing. Now, I never seen him before in my
life prior to this bus ride, but he get on the
bus talking all this nonsense and he kept
eluding to my name after every speech he
would say, “Aren’t that right, Crawford?” I
wouldn’t say nothing in response.
Now, I didn’t read too much into this initially, but after we got five hours from Pelican Bay State Prison, it was night fall outside, and here is where, in all my 29 years
of incarceration I have never seen nothing
so blatantly clear. Earlier we picked up a
young 23 year old New Afrikan from Old
Folsom, who was 15 months to the house,

I

Volume 2, Number 12

named Tay, who had never been to prison
in his life. ‘Young and innocent’ he would
make the third New Afrikan in the bus. We
would be unable to see each other for five
and a half hours, due to transporting officers refusing to turn on the lights and not
one prisoner requested that they do so. It
was so dark you could not see the person
next to you. Never before has this every
happen for such a long period of time on a
cdcr transportation bus, especially with the
caliber of prisoners that these so called officials call the worst of the worst.
No, we prisoners have to realize that
these types of situations will be prevalent
throughout our futures because cdcr will do
whatever is within its power to place us as
prisoners back on a path of senseless, reckless violence in order to serve their interests. They wanted the majority to attack the
non-majority, when there existed a clear
opportunity to do so, in which the cdcr
transportation provided. But our 20 Representatives and their ability to understand
our historical contradictions, to which cdcr
has utilized these same realities in order to
allow one group to attack another based on
how they place them inside the prison theater, where cdcr officials allow each race,
at times, depending on who they are out of
favor with, to have total dominance over
the other races, inside prison theater, which
unfortunately would lead to opportunities
of attacks by the majority race.
The End To All Hostilities has basically
weakened the cdcr ability to create race,
gang, and internal warfare inside the prison
theater to the extent that they once did. We
prisoners have to be very conscious of the
many traps that will be set up by prison officials toward encouraging prisoners into
warfare. We have to remain very vigilant
inside these prison environments to protect
our End To All Hostilities.
After we finally got to PBSP, one of
the Elders (Huerta) turned to me and said,
“Mutope, you see what they just tried to
do??” I ‘sponded, “I sure did !!” He said,
“You need to put that out there.” You know
I am … smile. The youngster, Tay, from
Richmond CA, was a fish out of water. I
pulled him to the back of the bus with
me and an Elderly New Afrikan prisoner,
Dadisi, and after he was done talking with
the two of us, on occasions, he would lean
back and go to sleep, unaware of any threat
whatsoever for an innocent, level 2 prisoner who had no clue. Hopefully, when he

learns more about the prison environment,
he will come to appreciate the 20 Representatives for their foresight to institute An
End To All Hostilities. He would be the
only prisoner to sleep on the bus. ●
Mutope Duguma,
sn James Crawford, D05996, D-1-104
PO Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532

EDITORIAL 2-12

T

his issue contains an articles and
a letter proposing the creation of a
prisoners’ Political Action Committee or PAC. The authors seek comments
from readers. The object is to get a lot of
ideas and opinions on how best to continue
building a strong and peaceful prisoners’
movement. The idea of a PAC is one such
proposal.
Someday both prisoners and the CCPOA
membership will come to realize that their
respective class interests are one and the
same. But that day is not now. I agree with
the letter-writer’s analysis of things between CCOPA and the CDCR [see last letter on page 4]. And I agree that prisoners
should stick to what works. But I disagree
with any solution to the problem that does
not include a provision that no amount of
convict money will be given to bourgeois
politicians—to liberal politicians.
What works is not for prisoners to try
and outspend the CCPOA on these politicians. [See PAC proposal on page 7.] Prisoners are currently the lower segment of
the working class; they are mostly poor.
They will never win a spending contest
with members of the highest paid prison
guards in the nation (and their conservative supporters). And even if convicts did
manage to out-spend the guards, we’d still
be strengthening the corrupt, pro-rich government. What has worked so far is the
strength that flows like water from your
unity. You would not be where you are today, and today you lead the nation, were it
not for your unity of purpose. This has thus
far been a masterfully orchestrated contest.
I get letters from prisoners asking what
lies ahead, what’s the next step? They ask
because they think I know more because
of this newsletter. That’s not the case. My
guess is that nobody knows for sure, although I’m fairly certain when a decision is
made, as in previous situations, the public
Editorial ................... Continued on page 5
3

Unhappy Reader
I am writing to question why you not
only printed my article, which I did not
send to you (I sent it to Prison Focus). Not
only did you hack it up and take out material relevant to the content portions of it, you
did not print my name and CDCR number
as I had requested to Prison Focus. Then to
slap me in the face you didn’t even send a
copy of the issue my article was printed in.
I had to read it from someone else.
Look Mr. Mead, you do a lot of good
work and I do read the Rock (I should be
on the mailing list as my lady signed me up
and gave a donation) as there is good, relevant materials within it. But I would never
write an article for you as I don’t agree with
your [word unreadable] nor views on many
matters. I ask for clarification in the next issue and/or a reprinting of my entire article
along with my name.
Salvador Negrete #P-49458
[Ed’s Response: In addition to this newsletter, I am also the editor of the Prison Focus newspaper. When you submit an item
to Prison Focus it goes to me. If you are
not sending material to Rock because you
disagree with me, then you should not send
it to Prison Focus either—we are the same
in terms of editorial content..
You wrote your piece while on day 49 of
your HS (I greatly respect and honor your
sacrifice). It was timely as the HS was still
going on when I received your letter. It
would not have been timely, however, and
would not have been printed at all had I
waited until the next issue of Prison Focus
came out. As for my failure to print your
name, at the head of the letters section of
the November Rock was the message no
names would be printed in that issue
I do edit letters spelling, clarity, and
length. When editing for length I try not to
obscure the key points the writer is trying
to make. In this case it appears as if I failed
in that regard. For that I apologize.]
Public Misled
Foremost respect and veneration for your
courageous stand and to those whom in solidarity stand up and are willing to die for
humane treatment and dignity. As we all
know, injustice, abuse and disregard for established federal, state, and administrative
4

Prisoner PAC?
On August 23, 2013, 50 hunger strikers
from the Ad Seg unit in PBSP were sent out
on a special transport to a temporary Ads
Seg, unit in New Folsom. Many of us were
already on our 47th day of fasting, not an
ideal time anyone to be traveling, let alone
all wrapped up in chains; but myself personally, I’ve come to enjoy these moments,
where I can see the outside world, live, in
motion and feel a part of it. But there was
something else going on here, something
that has growing steadily throughout this
whole protest, and that’s the unity we’ve
been having that really shines when the adversity is turned up. Nobody who has experienced this trip can deny the sincerity of
that unity that goes beyond race and regional groups, we’re all there for one another
, a prisoner class with one foe and that’s
the CDCR/EEPOA (and selected groups).
If we can hold on to this spirit and let it
spread to the lower level yards then we can
actually start changing things and I’m not
talking about just the SHU situation.
One thing we’ve been talking about ,
besides what Ed talks about in his editorial 2-9 in September 2013 issue of Rock
newsletter (which I completely agree with
that these prisons cannot function if prisoners withheld their labor) is the formation
of some form of prisoner PAC or PAC-like
fund to give us some sort of political par-

ticipation. I know we can get this
off the ground with prisoners initially contributing $5 or so and
then outside support to where
businesses and even celebrities
can contribute as well–see the
separate letter by Perez which
articulates it all very clearly and
which I fully endorse. We prisoners throw enough of our money at these worthless magazines
which the c/o’s (cops)routinely
just walk in and throw away as trash a few
months after we get them. Surely we can
sacrifice some of that or a a few junk food
canteen items to build this fund. We spend
a fortune on a lot of things that don’t even
benefit us. We have the attention of the legislature, now let’s start to push the things
they can actually help to change, including
Board reform (those blanket denials), family visiting, our weights, restitution and a
lot more.
Let us not forget the previous 3 strike
proposition that we were actually winning
until CCPOA launched a last minute media blitz that turned the tide against us and
narrowly defeated the proposition. So that
should tell us how powerful media blitzes
can actually be. CCPOA union dues are
about $80 and some a month per member,
so that’s a powerful was chest there but it’s
about time we get on the board here and put
our numbers to work–there’s a whole lot of
us!!! (prisoners outnumber the correction
staff union membership by a huge margin).
I also want to urge everyone to write to
Assembly person Tom Ammiano and Senator Lori Hancock thanking them for their
committed support and also giving them a
brief story of how these years in SHU have
affected you and the relationship with your
loved ones.
Gabriel A. Huerta #C-80766

LETTERS

LETTERS

law and precedent occurs on a regular basis. It is necessary to speak out and to educate society as to what truly goes on behind
these dark corridors, that reek of fear, hate
and ignorance.
It is sad how the public is so confused
and it’s attention taken away from the problem by so much media “junk.” They [the
ruling class, media?] have taken their free
will and common sense and turned them
into gullible, empty sheep that may be led
to believe it’s in their best interest to incarcerate, abuse and confine your husbands,
sons, uncles and nephews in [SHU] dungeons for 24 hours a day (and twice a week
put in a cage/kennel to exercise for mere
two hours). All of this under false pretenses, simply because one seeks to educate
himself in philosophy, ancient cultures/societies, and the judicial system. Then those
individuals become threats, as they are now
able to see how unjust, illegal, and contradictory the state’s draconian underground
rules are. [Remainder of letter omitted.]
Name withheld, Tehachapi

Ain’t that something
As the Hunger Strike [of 2013] came to
an end we must and cannot stop the fight
against the ones that keep us in these cages, all for the mighty dollar. We must fix
this broken criminal justice system that
the taxpayers bankroll. I was reading a
motion from the law suit against solitary
confinement (Riuz v. Brown) in which the
California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) filed a motion to intervene in the law suit (be a defendant/part
of the lawsuit) claiming that “CDCR does
not have the prison guards best interests at
Rock!

hand [as] during a recent hunger strike by
PBSP SHU inmates CDCR made a number
of concessions, including the introduction
of colored pencils and pens. SHU inmates
regularly use colored pencils and pens to
dye clothing and fashion the pens and pencils into weapons.” Ain’t that something?
The guard’s union also stated that they fear
for their lives if SHU validated inmates
who have been it SHU for more than ten
years are released without going through
a step-down program. The only reason the
guard’s union is trying to intervene in the
law suit is so they can stop any negotiations
and or settlement.
The CCPOA is the prison guard’s union
and functions as the representatives for unit
6, which consists of 27,389 rand and file
corrections employees. Started in 1982,
this union is the highest paid guards union
in the nation, and the second largest union
in California. Nothing happens in prison
without the CCPOA’s approval—they run
the show. When we did our hunger strike
CCPOA shortstopped any and all our negotiations with CDCR Director Jeffrey
Beard and Governor Brown. You ask yourself how can they have so much power?
MONEY, that’s how. “Money is power.”
They fund/donate to judges and politically
powerful people! I say let’s do what works;
let’s copycat what has shown to work. This
is something I would like all of us to think
about. If we in California prisons, over 170
thousand [according to state officials that
number is now down to 110 thousand],
donated ten dollars a month to a fund that
lawyers can opened and our hunger strike
representatives/short corridor collective
can get together with our lawyers to see the
best way to use the money for the best interests of all inmates, as in supporting legislators/assembly members when they run
for office. Back the state legislators that are
courageous like Tom Ammiano, Loni Hancock, Tom Hayden when they run for office, drafting legislation/proposals to be on
the ballot for voters, class actions lawsuits,
money for expert testimony as inEx PBSP
officer associate warden Patten, Doctor EAllen, etc. as we could use right now in
our lawsuit Ruiz v. Brown. This movement
will only work if we continue our fight in
solidarity, united as one, a hundred percent
committed to ending solitary confinement
and in inhuman conditions in all SHUs and
main-lines the fight for the five to the 40
demands continue. Do the math, ten dollars
a month for 12 months over 170 thousand
equals power! That’s just a rough draft
Volume 2, Number 12

idea; I know better heads could fine-tune it.
With the Upmost Respects,
James Godoy C1
SHU Food
I am writing to you because of something
that is going on inside PBSP SHU by OTHER INMATES, which adds an unnecessary
dimension to the horror of daily life for
those in the SHU and I find it hard to swallow. I am speaking about their meals. I am
writing to one of the SHU inmates and he
tells me that his meals regularly arrive on
dirty trays, or with dirty dishwater splashed
all over them, the food itself is slopped all
over the tray – vegetables etc. put on top
of the dessert or coleslaw juice poured or
slopped on to the Jell-O etc. In addition, the
so called ‘fresh” components of the meals
are usually wilted, rotting or rotten. Items
that should be on the tray according to the
menu are missing and others are stale etc.
The men to whom this food is being
served are fighting for the rights of ALL
prisoners, not just themselves, and to be
“rewarded” by having their fellow prisoners give them such slop, is a slap in the face
to both them and their efforts. Is this fair?
To those inmates who serve this food,
please keep in mind that you too could
be validated because you said hello to the
wrong person, pissed off a guard or have
the wrong piece of artwork in your cell or
on your body – then you will be eating the
slop you currently serve to them! If you
are one of those men serving this food, ask
yourself how you would feel knowing that
your fellow inmates are co-operating with
CDC to make your life even more miserable than it already is! That, is what my
friend tells me is the hardest part – knowing that his fellow inmates are doing this
to them!
To ALL of you who, inside and out, have
friends and/or connections with those serving up the food, PLEASE exert some pressure on them to serve decent food, on clean
trays, with everything present that is supposed to be present to those men who are
fighting for YOUR rights and cannot work
as you can for extra money for extra food.
In addition to not being able to work,
they, along with many others are still recovering from 60 days of no food, so now
it is even more important that they receive
their full rations! They were prepared to
DIE for you; can’t you give them some decent food in return? We must stop prisoner
punishing prisoner and helping CDC in the
process.
Jewels

Editorial ............... Continued from page 3
will have many months of advance notice.
Anyway, in terms of a prisoner’s PAC,
liberal politicians have a more finely tuned
sense of justice and will therefore support
the prisoners’ call for actual (meaningful
and merciful) justice, no matter what—
there’s no need to pay them. And even if we
could buy-off a lawmaker or two, someone
with more money would just come along
and buy those politicians back.
As for getting a ballot initiative, that
would take way more strength and resources than currently exist. Just look at previous failed efforts like three strike reform.
With all that said, there is a real need for
money to be spent on things like legal filing
fees, duplicating costs, postage needs, etc.
I agree there should be a secure fund set up
for that.
Back when we had some money, Mark
and I setup a bank account in the name of
the Bruce Siedel Memorial Fund. We put
$13,000 in that fund for the purpose of
giving it to progressive political prisoners
being released from prison. Today there is
something like $3,500 of that money left.
We’ve given away about $4K to released
political prisoners, and the rest was used to
support the three California hunger strikes.
If it would ease the burden on your lawyers of opening and maintaining a bank
account, Mark and I could act as disbursement officers—at least to start with. The
Coalition would really be a much better
choice for this task, however, since they
have more people, including lawyers, and
are located right there in Oakland.
Anyway, maybe a membership organization in which dues are collected can be created. Yeah, that would go up the CCPOA’s
ass sideways, but if any group has a right, a
need, to peacefully organize, it’s prisoners.
It was a crime from workers to organize
into unions back in the early 1900s—they
called workers organizing “criminal syndicalism” or some such thing. But workers
went ahead an organized anyway. They
won the right to organize, the eight hour
day, weekends off, etc. The unions accomplished a lot until they started sucking up
to management and kicked out all the communists from the unions. The result of this
treachery can be seen in the sorry state of
trade unionism in the U.S. today. Membership is at an all time low and workers are
under continuous attack by big business,
even their pensions are being taken, while
the union leadership remains paralysed. ●
5

California to limit pepper
spray use on mentally ill
inmates
By Paige St. John, LA Times, 10/23/2013
Facing federal scrutiny of the way it uses
force to subdue mentally ill prisoners, the
California corrections department is working on new rules to curb some of those
practices. In testimony Wednesday before a
federal judge, the state official in charge of
adult prisons said he sought the changes in
part because of videotapes showing half a
dozen inmates — some naked and screaming for help — being repeatedly sprayed
with large amounts of pepper spray.
Those tapes “are honestly one of the reasons we will be revising our policy to provide additional guidelines,” said Michael
Stainer, deputy director of the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Stainer said the new rules would limit
the amount of pepper spray guards may use
and ban canisters of the substance meant
for crowd control in a small cell. ●

Inmates briefly take control of
part of Oregon youth prison
Posted by John de Leon
The Associated Press, Oct. 7, 2013
Authorities say 11 inmates rioted at a
youth prison in Southern Oregon, taking
over a portion of the Rogue Valley Youth
Correctional Facility in Grants Pass for
several hours.
Superintendent Ken Jerin told the Grants
Pass Daily Courier (http://bit.ly/19vEFPS
) that one guard had to barricade himself
in an office Sunday night until police and
guards regained control. Two other guards
backed out and locked down the quadrant.
Jerin says two SWAT teams and negotiators were called in, and the last youth gave
up shortly after midnight. A day room was
“trashed,” but no one was seriously injured.
During the incident, someone identifying
himself as an inmate called The Grants Pass
Daily Courier and said there was a riot.
Jerin said the cause of the riot was under
investigation. ●

One For Ten
For every 10 people on death row who
are executed, at least 1 person on death row
is innocent. That would be about 74 in CA
which houses 740 prisoners on death row.
There are many reasons why innocent
people might be wrongly sentenced to
6

death, and the One For Ten documentary
series – taking its title from the statistic
that for every 10 people executed, one person is exonerated – recently highlighted
the stories of innocent people who found
themselves facing execution. Some people
falsely confess to the crime under pressure
from the police.” ●

Private prisons suing states
for millions if they
don’t stay full
The prison-industrial complex is so out of
control that private prisons have the sheer
audacity to order states to keep beds full or
face their wrath with stiff financial penalties, according to reports. Private prisons
in some states have language in their contracts that state if they fall below a certain
percentage of capacity that the states must
pay the private prisons millions of dollars,
lest they face a lawsuit for millions more.
And guess what? The private prisons,
which are holding cash-starved states hostage, are getting away with it, says advocacy group, In the Public Interest. In the
Public Interest has reviewed more than 60
contracts between private prison companies
and state and local governments across the
country, and found language mentioning
“quotas” for prisoners in nearly two-thirds
of those contracts reviewed. Those quotas
can range from a mandatory occupancy of,
for example, 70 percent occupancy in California to up to 100 percent in some prisons
in Arizona.
One of those private prisons, The Corrections Corporation of America, made an
offer last year to the governors of 48 states
to operate their prisons on 20-year contracts, according to In the Public Interest.
The offer included a demand that those
prisons remain 90 percent full for the duration of the operating agreement. If there
are not enough prisoners then there will be
an unspoken push for police to arrest more

people and to have the courts send more to
prison for petty, frivolous and nonviolent
crimes. There will also be a “nudge” for
judges to hand down longer or maximum
sentences to satisfy this “quota.”
Private prison companies have also
backed measures such as “three-strike”
laws to maintain high prison occupancy.
When the crime rate drops so low that the
occupancy requirements can’t be met, taxpayers are left footing the bill for unused
facilities. The report found that 41 of 62
contracts reviewed contained occupancy
requirements, with the highest occupancy
rates found in Arizona, Oklahoma and Virginia. ●

Prison guards accused of
making inmates fight for
snacks
Three Pennsylvania corrections officers
who have been accused of organizing inmate fights have been suspended pending
an investigation.
The three York County Prison officers
have been placed on unpaid administrative
leave while state police investigate the allegations, the York (Pa.) Daily Record reported.
A York County news release Friday said
the allegations were made against the officers during another investigation into graffiti at the prison.
“Earlier this year, while conducting an
unrelated investigation into pen/marker
graffiti and other minor vandalism inside
an area of the facility, prison administration
learned of possible unprofessional conduct
by three corrections officers. Management
immediately began an internal investigation,” the release said. “Based on evidence
obtained during the internal investigation,
the three officers were placed on unpaid
administrative leave and the matter was
turned over to the Pennsylvania State Police for further investigation and possible
criminal charges. The York County Prison
and its staff actively cooperated with the
State Police investigation.”
The officers are accused of having inmates fight each other or perform stunts for
coffee or snacks.
One inmate alleged that he took part in
the “Retard Olympics,” organized by officers, and had to perform “stupid stuff for
food and coffee.” Another inmate said he
agreed to be sprayed in the face with pepper spray foam for coffee, which he never
received. ●
Rock!

PRISONER PAC
PROPOSAL
By Jesse Perez
erely days after the suspension
of the historic California hunger
strike of 20123, which lasted an
unprecedented sixty days and saw record
prisoner support across the state, the task
of tactical and strategic reassessment—imperative in any protracted struggle at key
junctures of the same—is well under way.
As our reps have publicly made known:
we are gearing up for the upcoming battles
in our overall struggle to abolish the state’s
practice of long-term solitary confinement
in both the political and legal arena, which,
given the prisoncrats resistance to change,
are very likely the forums where the matter
will ultimately be decided—one way or the
other.
With that in mind, the occasion recently
arose to submit to some of our reps the idea
of developing a prisoner Political Action
Committee (PAC) aimed at, in the short
term, bolstering the tactical momentum
gained in the latest strike and, in the long
term, competitively establishing our voice
in the one place where it all goes down—
the public policy making process of the
California legislature. The reps were receptive to this idea but had reservations, chiefly, is the actual prisoner population even
there? An entirely legitimate question. To
get a gauge on an answer it was further suggested that an article outlining the idea and
requesting feedback on it from the prison
population could be disseminated. That being the precise intention here; the idea is as
follows:
The object would be to formally register a prisoner PAC, an act protected by the
First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
as set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in
Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, 93 S.Ct. 375 (2010). Such a PAC
would give prisoners competitive access to
the political arena by way of “independent
expenditures” that would focus on promoting/advancing our political interests.
Such expenditures would have to be primarily funded, at the onset at least, by the
prison population. Yes, we are not well off
and some are barely scrapping by—if that.
But prisoner contributions required to get
this idea off the ground are reasonable and,
more importantly, entirely doable. Consider this, the overall prison population in California is just above one hundred thousand,

M

Volume 2, Number 12

and if that number of prisoners each contributed only five bucks that would bring in
five hundred thousand dollars. Five bucks
pales to the amount most spend in canteen
each month or the sacrifice of starving
yourself or blowing your release date for
supporting a work strike.
Or, for a more conservative estimation, if
the thirty-three thousand who initially supported the latest strike contributed a similar
amount that would still place a notable sum
($165K) in our political war chest. Further,
such estimates don’t even take into account
likely contributions from non-prisoner
sources (i.e., informed voters for whom the
tough-on-crime rhetoric has run its course,
natural allies such as small businesses who
stand to gain from effectively opposing
the prison industrial complex (PIC), and
of course family and friends). So an actual
final tally could top a million worth of independent expenditures.

...the prison population
in California is above one
hundred thousand, and if
that number each contributed only five bucks that
would bring in five hundred thousand dollars.
Independent expenditures are prohibited,
under federal regulations, from making direct contributions to the official campaigns
of candidates for office. So you can dismiss
any misplaced belief that your contribution
to the PAC would end up in the pocket of
some politician. What regulations do allow,
however, is PAC expenditures towards purchasing space in the media (i.e., TV, radio,
newspapers, magazines, etc.) to run ads informing the voters in support or in opposition of candidates for office. For those who
don’t follow politics, that is mostly how it
works. Lawmakers/politicians are more responsive to the narrow interests of the few
who support them by financially investing
in their political career (directly or not) than
the broader interests of the many who support them with their vote. Why? Because
the vote in influenced by the information
(accurate or not) that voters are exposed to
vial political ads. Such expenditures can
be, and should be, very strategically made.
For example, say Tom Ammiano, Chairperson to the Assembly’s Public Safety
Committee and demonstrated supporter of
our cause, decides to run for the office of
state senate once his term is up and he is

constitutionally ineligible to seek another
term in the assembly, our PAC can make
expenditures to run ads opposing the candidates of his political rivals because Ammiano has already shown to be responsive to
our interests even, quite incredibly, without
even the specter of receiving financial support for this political aspirations from us.
The likely tactical edge gained by instituting a well-funded prisoner PAC, in the run
up to the impending legislative hearings,
should be clear at this point.
Another of the concerns that came up
with this idea of a PAC was this: How do we
avoid individual contributor’s natural skepticism about whether their contributions
are actually being put to work for them?
The answer is simple enough—complete
transparency. More specifically, a website
would be developed where the instant a
contribution is received the name and exact
amount contributed by every person would
be posted, along with the overall sum total
of all contributions as well as when, where,
how, and why any contributed penny is expended/used. In this way, anyone and everyone could ask their people to simply go
online and confirm whether their contribution was received and if it is being used to
push for progress in the political arena.
Furthermore, to completely eliminate
the development of any degree of skepticism, among any and all the sub-sectors
that collectively make up the overall prison
population, regarding contributions make,
we can opt to delegate their management
to a neutral party (such as a willing political science professor and his/her students),
while still basing such management on the
consensus coming out of the decision making process already in place within the infrastructure of our movement.
The above, then, is the prisoner PAC proposal as currently envisioned. Any feedback, critiques, suggestions, commentary,
etc. in support or opposition would be welcomed and considered.
In conclusion, I submit this personal observation: not only is an idea like this a natural progression of all our efforts thus far,
but to pull something like this off would
send a strong message to the world of state
politics. That message being that no longer can the interests of working-class poor
(i.e., our families and us) be wholly ignored
without political consequences. ●
Jesse Perez #K-42186
CSP SAC B-8-119
P.O. Box 29002
Repressa, CA 95671
7

PANTRIES, POISONS, GASSINGS AND OTHER ATROCITIES COMMITTED
AGAINST MENTAL PATIENTS IN SECURITY HOUSING UNITS AND AD-SEG

I

t seems that change in our society is
only brought about by those of our
populace who are considered to be radicals, so this piece is written for those radicals who are passionate enough to care and
who will take the necessary efforts to make
a lasting difference for us who are held and
tortured in security housing units, SHUs,
which are specifically dedicated for those
inmates who are claimed to be patients and
who are, and who are supposed to be under
the care of CDCr’s Mental Health Delivery
System Clinicians. These American gulags are also known as “psychiatric service
units”, or PSUs.
CSP-Sac (New Folsom) These specifically dedicated SHUs are rarely, if ever
visited by outside prisoner rights organizations, to my knowledge. Also, the inmates
housed therein are simply forgotten. These
inmates have no representatives and no
means to voice their concerns, and so the
atrocities accumulate unchecked. Aggressive and sadistic guards are known to pepper spray an individual until he can not
breathe, due to accumulation of micronized
capsaicin (pepper essence) in their lungs
when the guard empties into the individual, several canisters of the corrosive irritant chemical weapon. It is not third party
hearsay; I know of it personally, for it has
happened to me. Of course, nothing is done
about it when you have the foxes guarding
the henhouse. Think an inmate can obtain
justice through prison administrative grievance systems? You had better think about it
again. No Way. And, the courts, including
the federal courts, will not entertain themselves of the issues of complaint, when the
completion of the administrative appeal
process has been denied to you. It has been
made law, a statutory pre-release, otherwise known in litigation circles as a “procedural bar.” It creates gross injustice and
perpetuates unchecked human abuse which
is tolerated by society. It’s a blatant indication of how cruel and vicious we have become as a people.
Even more sinister is the presence of
food pantries created within each of the
SHU/PSU units which are independent
from the main kitchen, where mainstream
inmates receive their meals. Also, they are
therefore not under the control of licensed
food service entities, which are in fact, totally controlled by the guards assigned to
that block. Those inmates who are targeted
8

by the ‘system’ quite often find themselves
physically sickened by the meals which
they are served; meals which are served
with full-blown contamination.
The milk is a flavored vehicle to get an
inmate victim to ingest a ‘knock-out’ drug
and get raped as he lies unconscious. It is
a fact, it has happened to me twice. Also,
milk is utilized in these modernized dungeons as a tool to get unsuspecting targeted
inmate/patient victims to consume psychotropic substances which have the effect of
a ‘truth serum’ and are used as an aid in
covert interrogation of an inmate suspect,
by debriefer inmate informants – snitches.
And for the same purpose, targeted inmate/patient victims are placed in cells
with low pressure or dysfunctional ventilation systems, which are used to force irritant gasses, pepper spray or other toxic,
obnoxious chemical weapons through to be
inhaled by the occupant of that particular
cell. In addition, the usual torture routine
goes something like this: air cooling system
on full blast in mid-winter, heating system
turned full up in mid-summer. Ever hear
of heat related death by inmates who have
been prescribed psychotropic medications,
in your local news rag? It is well known to
all, now, that claims of ignorance pertaining to a subject, which through due diligence on your part you should have known,
is not accepted as a legitimate defense. Fact
is, we are all responsible for the repeated
occurrences of these atrocities. After all, it
is us who established the ‘closed’ penal institutions, and it us who refuse to enter it. Is
it a cause to wonder why our society is falling apart? And what will ultimately be the
end? Right? We shall see. But our future is
‘seeable’ if we take a look at the past.

And where are the mental health clinician
professionals when all of this madness reveals itself? Think they will stand up and
report inmate/patient human abuse? Better
think again! Jobs are hard to find and our
economy along with our morals are stagnant. Bottom line is, it seems that few, if
any, even our social-minded organizations,
will keep a vigil on our state prisoners condemned to serve lengthy terms in SHU/
PSU gulags, sometimes at the price of life
itself!
And, how about those massive jail facilities, serving huge metro areas, which are
built with integral hospitals and extensive
medical facilities and integral (loyal-tolaki entombment) medical personnel which
also helps inmates who are deemed to need
psychiatric care or medications, who, in
fact, may not need psychiatric services or
medications at all, but may have been railroaded into such mental health systems by
corrupt public counsel and an indifferent
court. I am one of those inmates.
Think that the courts will intervene on
my behalf when I file litigation for relief?
Or for any other inmate who finds himself
in similar situation, where their foods are
subsequently wheeled into those hospitals
by potentially dangerous inmate trustee
snitches and they are subjected to unauthorized medical procedures? Remember
we are describing acts performed in closedto-the-public penal detention facilities here.
I have personally witnessed very strange
behavior and operations, involving inmate/
patients, medical personnel and trustees
at very late hours at night and very early
hours of the morning.
Say these type of atrocities of which I
describe could not possibly happen in our
modern society? Better think again. Better
yet, let’s rally support in our communities
and force investigative committees and
regularly tour these penal facilities. Talk
to the inmate/patients themselves, not just
to the captain or warden, or whoever they
assign to follow you around their facility.
The ability, also capacity, of most organizations is insufficient to maintain the constant watch necessary to prevent this type
of gross human abuse and torture. We,
ourselves, individual concerned citizens,
must form these groups. It is time for us to
become our Brother’s Keeper, and never
stop! ●
James E. Smith, AB5463, Represa CA
Rock!

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATIVE HEARINGS
TAKE ON SOLITARY CONFINEMENT,
ADDRESS HUNGER STRIKE DEMANDS,
100 RALLY IN SUPPORT
By prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity, 10/9/13
rare joint session of the California
Senate and Assembly Public Safety
Committees held this afternoon to
address demands made by prisoners during
this summer’s massive hunger strike has
just ended. California’s use of indefinite
solitary confinement, and the devastating
physical, mental, and public health impacts of the notorious practice was at the
center of today’s three hour hearing. The
hearing was preceded by a lively rally of
100 people, made up mostly by prisoners’
loved ones, who demanded an end to solitary confinement. The crowd then filled
the hearing room where panels of experts
gave sometimes emotional testimony on
the internationally condemned practice.
Impassioned public comment continues at
the time of this release. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
(CDCR) continued to defend its practices
during the hearing.
Billed as an informational hearing, Senator Loni Hancock was clear that the these
“frank, public discussions will lead to legislation.” Calling conditions in solitary
“beyond the pale,” Assemblymember Tom
Ammiano said bluntly that he didn’t want
“lip service” from the CDCR. Giving often
meandering answers to direct questions,
the CDCR admitted directly that action was
taken against prisoners who participated in
the peaceful hunger strike protest.
“We have to work with, and urge our representatives in the legislature to ensure that
changes are made in the interest of imprisoned people, their loved ones, their communities—in the interests of humanity,”
prisoners being held in solitary at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison said today
in a statement issued to their supporters and
state legislators. They continued: “We cannot ignore the urgency of this moment. Let
there be no illusions about the difficulty of
making these changes, but they are necessary and inevitable.”
After hearing testimony from expert panelists including the ACLU, legal scholars,
prisoners’ loved ones, and former prisoners, legislators were particularly interested
in the astounding number of people being
held in solitary in California, the length of

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Volume 2, Number 12

time people are being held there, as well
as clear pathways other states have taken
to reduce or eliminate their use of solitary
confinement.
“We are glad to take the opportunity to
educate the Public Safety Committee on
the human rights violations happening in
California’s solitary confinement cells. We
are thankful that the committee understands
the gravity of this issue and the legitimacy of the hunger strikers’ demands,” said
Dolores Canales of California Families to
Abolish Solitary Confinement after testifying before the Committee on the conditions
faced by her son in solitary confinement.
“But, we have had many informational
hearings on this issue over the course of the
past 10 years. It cannot be clearer: now is
the time for the legislature to take swift and
resolute action to end California’s shameful use of solitary confinement.” ●

THE WALLA WALLA
EXPERIMENT

A

few issues of Rock back I printed
a quote from a California prisoner
named C. Landrum. He said something to the effect that “there’s no such thing
as prisoners’ rights. There are only power
struggles.” I believe that to be true. That in
the long term prisoners will entirely run the
prisons, facilities that will look nothing like
today’s institutions. The long term can be
discussed another day. There is still a medium and short term to be discussed. Regardless of the term, short or long, the issue will
be one of power—that of empowering the
powerless. In the short term we are talking
about dual power, where prisoners control
all non-custody functions. While I view
this is the primary short term objective, I
doubt it is something most of us will live to
see. “Short term” may be 50 years or more.
To start with let’s understand that prisons
cannot be seen as serving the long range
needs of the public. While offenders are off
the streets, what goes on behind the walls
brings no chance for a safer society. This
is demonstrated not only by the violence
that takes place inside the prisons, but also
by the seventy percent recidivism rate that

exists in most states. When a person steps
through prison doors he or she becomes a
number and loses their identities as human
beings. Fact is, you just don’t get good results from doing bad things to people. The
prisons are returning folks back to society
with more anger and hatred in them than
when they entered the system. Yet neither
politicians nor correctional officials will
admit there is much room for improving
their failed system of corrections—at least
not beyond public relations ploys such adding the word “rehabilitation” to their name.
Here is how the prisons are often managed: The prison administration has a few
key leaders among the population. These
persons serve the role of the modern-day
capos. These prisoners are rewarded with
special favors. They get choice cells, better work assignments, and other perks such
as greater access to the officials. These few
are the prison administration’s first line of
defense. If there is trouble brewing they
learns about it through these stooges, and
the cops often leave it to them to bring potential troublemakers into conformity. The
practice is unconscionable in its unfairness
to other prisoners, yet it is widespread in
America’s prison system.
Dr. William Conte was a psychiatrist
who in 1966 became the Director of Corrections in Washington State. It was a time
when the public was not as intolerant of
crime and criminals as it is today. During
the course of his term Dr. Conte made a
trip to Scandinavia to view the operation
of their prison systems. He came back to
Washington with some radical ideas. At
about this same time, it was 1971, prisoners at the Washington State Penitentiary at
Walla Walla went on a work strike for long
hair and beards, which was what many men
on the streets were sporting at the time.
They won that demand, along with a
lot of others they’d not asked for, including abolishing strip cells, the installation
of telephones inside the prison, the elimination of prison censorship, and, most
controversial and sweeping, the creation
of a “Resident Governing Council (RGC)
inside the prison. Prisoners were given a
hand in shaping their own destiny inside
the walls. “The purpose of the council,”
Dr. Conte subsequently said, “was to give
the men in prison an opportunity to learn
something of the process of representative
government because, after all, we were preparing them to return home.”
Suddenly prisoners had rights and were
not subject to the indiscriminate orders and
9

power that formally existed. The program
was called 50/50 in which prisoners had 50
percent of the power and the administration
had the other 50 (and veto power)—essentially all non-custody areas of the prison.
So if a prisoner was drunk from too much
pruno, for example, his comrades would
escort him back to his cell. If he was too
obnoxious, they would take him to the hole
to sleep it off and then release him the next
morning. There was an elected prisoner
legislature and an RGC president. Needless
to say, this new situation did not sit well
with the guard’s union, nor then warden
B.J. Rhay for that matter.
Power is not something that can just be
handed to you, rather it is something that
must be struggled for, and in the process of
that struggle people learn how to exercise
the responsibility that comes with holding
power. While mistakes were made, prisoners did a remarkable job of implementing
this form of self-government. Yet as one
president of the RGC said to the Seattle
Times newspaper in early 1979, “These
innovative and experimental programs, in
spite of their high rate of success, will disappear one by one until they remain nothing but idealistic dreams of the advocates of

penal reform.” Some months later another
president of the RGC wrote the Associated
Press saying, “Somebody, somewhere, has
to do something about the [guards] union.
The union wants a crisis here so they can
… strengthen their hand.” The guards got
their way, years after the 1971 work strike
and after Dr. Conte had left office, and in
spite of its many successes, this experiment
in self-government was ended. It did not
end peacefully, however, as nobody quietly
suffers the snuffing out of even rudimentary democracy. The rebellion was led by
the RGC, and crushed by armed guards.
So this was an example of power being
thrust upon prisoners who had not sought
nor struggled for it, and yet for years they
did a remarkable job against huge obstacles
placed in their way by the guards union and
the prison administration. Should this experiment ever be replicated, as it must, it
will be by prisoners consciously seeking
to implement the short term goal of dual
power. The long term goal of course being
the total elimination of prisons as we know
them, and with the politically and class
conscious residents of such facilities making all decisions (budgetary, classification,
custody, etc.). ●

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

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