Working

W
Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
D
to
t All 
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V
Volume
V l
Volume
3, N
3
Number
b 1
1

January

J
J
January
2014
2014

WHY CALIFORNIA’S NEW SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT POLICY
IS A HUMAN RIGHTS DISASTER

I

n 2011, thousands of California state
prisoners engaged in a hunger strike
to end long term solitary confinement
and to demand changes to the way that
prisoners are assigned to these torturous
units, known as SHUs (security housing
units). The corrections department (CDCR)
agreed to make changes, which it rolled out
in November, 2012. CDCR’s public relations strategy is to persuade lawmakers,
judges and the general public that its new
program is a vast improvement . However,
the new program keeps most of the objectionable elements of the old program and
adds some new elements which make it
even worse.

CONTENTS
Solitary: A Human Disaster ......1
Solitary Confinement Debate ...2
On The Death of Mandela .......2
Pope Slams Capitalism ............3
Walmart Heirs Worth ................3
Letters ......................................4
Solitary Added to Suit...............5
The Illusion of Freedom ...........6
Letter from Heshima ................7
Editorial ....................................9

The Step Down Program: a new way
to perpetuate long term solitary confinement: Under the old rules, the only way to
get out of the SHU was to “parole, snitch
or die”, or be found “inactive” as a gang
member or associate (a rare finding). The
new policy offers a new way out: the Step
Down Program, a 4 step program which
takes a minimum of three or four years. The
first 2-3 years are spent in solitary confinement, with no education or other programming. The prisoner is required to demonstrate “progress” by, among other things,
filling out workbooks showing changed
attitudes. The one workbook we have seen
is condescending and judgmental. Whether
a prisoner progresses to the next step is a
ddiscretionary decision; a prisoner can also
bbe sent back to an earlier step. As a result,
rrelease from the SHU is still a discretionary
aand arbitrary decision of prison administrattors; lifetime solitary confinement remains
ppossible.
Coerced secret evidence: alive and
w
well: The hated “debriefing” program rem
mains alive and well under the new rules.
Under this program, a SHU prisoner can
U
gget out of the SHU by confessing his/her
oown gang involvement and identifying
oother prisoners’ gang involvement. This infformation is used to place other prisoners
iin the SHU or retain them there. Targeted
pprisoners are not entitled to know who has
nnamed them, or the specifics of the accusattion. It is almost impossible to defend onesself against secret charges.

Guilt by association: alive and well:
Under the old policies, prisoners were assigned a six year SHU term for simply being affiliated (as a member or associate)
with a prison gang. The prisoner did not
have to break any prison rule. Prisoners
were validated for possessing art work or
political readings, signing a greeting card,
exercising with other prisoners or saying
hello to another prisoner. Under the new
rules, this same evidence can be used to
prove a prisoner is a member, and membership alone justifies a SHU term.

CDCR has no plans to
reduce SHU beds.
New disciplinary program: association evidence becomes cite-able behavior: Under the old rules, possessing certain
artwork or literature was used as evidence
of gang association. Prisoners and advocates objected, saying that SHU placement
should only be for gang behavior. CDCR’s
responded in its new program by labeling
such evidence as gang “behavior” in its
new rules. Guards can now cite prisoners
for rules violations for possessing these
items and punishment can be imposed. Citations for serious rules violations (115s)
can extend prisoners’ SHU term and harm
their chance of being paroled.
Widening the net: Under the old policies, a prisoner could be placed in the SHU
for affiliation with any of seven prison
gangs. Under the new rules, any grouping

of three or more prisoners can be added
to the list as a “security threat group”,
membership in which can result in a SHU
term. The coining of this new provocative
term, with nuanced reference to terrorism,
is deeply troubling; the expansion of the
SHU-eligible population is of grave concern.
Rubber-stamping: alive and well: Although CDCR has inserted a new stage of
review for SHU placements, this review
is still within the confines of the prison
system, where the dominant culture is to
rubber-stamp the gang unit’s decisions.
CDCR has not changed its culture. Publicly
and internally, CDCR still considers SHU
prisoners to be “the worst of the worst” and
continues to justify the SHU’s torturous
conditions as necessary for the “safety and
security of the institution.” Independent
oversight is necessary to curtail CDCR’s
excesses.
Re-evaluations of current SHU prisoners: shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic: As part of the resolution of the 2011
hunger strikes, CDCR agreed to re-evaluate the SHU placement of current SHU
prisoners, using its new criteria. CDCR is
reviewing associates first and reports that
over half of its initial reviews are resulting in assignments to general population.
This reclassification is a huge victory and
is proof of the unfairness of the old SHU
policies, but is no proof of fairness of the
new policies. While we celebrate each prisoner’s return to general population, there is
no guarantee that these prisoners will not
be returned to the SHU in the future. Meanwhile, each prisoner’s SHU cell will immediately be filled by another prisoner. CDCR
has no plans to reduce SHU beds.
**********************************
Too little has changed for California prisoners under CDCR’s “new and improved”
gang management policy. Other strategies
would be more successful in addressing the
concerns about prison gangs. In 2012, SHU
prisoners themselves issued a call to end
hostilities between prisoner groups, which
has resulted in reduced prisoner violence
throughout the prison system. Expansion
of educational and vocational opportunities
inside all prisons, as the prisoners are demanding, would reduce conflict and stress.
We call on all people of good will to support the prisoners’ demands. ●
For more information:
stoptortureca.org
prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.
wordpress.com
2

DEBATE ON SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
By The LA Times editorial board, 12/1/13
reatment of prison inmates has finally begun to capture the attention of California’s lawmakers and
public, in large part because two lawsuits
over constitutionally inadequate medical
and mental health care resulted in a federal
court order to reduce the inmate population by thousands. The Dec. 31 deadline
has been pushed back to February as the
state negotiates with plaintiffs in the consolidated suits, and lawmakers and the
administration of Gov. Jerry Brown work
through plans to devote more funding to
treatment and alternative sentencing for
mentally ill felons. Mental illness, and its
pervasiveness among criminal offenders
and inmates, has emerged as a major focus.
So has solitary confinement. The twomonth-long inmate hunger strike at Pelican
Bay State Prison brought needed attention
to the use of extended isolation throughout
the state’s prison system. The United Nations’ special investigator on torture, Juan
Mendez, who has petitioned the State Department for permission to visit and inspect
California prisons, told The Times’ editorial board this year that the state should provide better justification for sending inmates
to isolation in secure housing units, generally known as SHUs. Inmates currently are
confined to SHUs either for set periods, as
punishment for behavior, or indefinitely,
officials say, to combat prison gangs.
Those two issues — mental illness and
solitary confinement — come together in
harrowing fashion. Many California inmates deal with some form of mental illness, which in turn can result in behavioral
problems, which in turn can get them sent
to isolation. Brief periods of separation
from most human contact may be necessary for an inmate’s own well-being, but
extended isolation is no treatment and can
hardly be deemed a useful disciplinary
measure for a person whose behavior is a
symptom of illness.
A 1995 court ruling in the case of Madrid
vs. Gomez banned solitary confinement for
mentally ill prisoners at Pelican Bay. The
federal court that is overseeing California’s
prisons could extend that ban systemwide.
That would be a welcome development.
But lawmakers need not rely on the
court. A joint legislative committee conducted hearings this year that exposed the
cruelty, and foolishness, of holding prisoners in solitary for prolonged periods. As

T

lawmakers prepare for the second half of
their two-year session, they ought to work
through the various definitional challenges
— What constitutes solitary? What qualifies as mental illness? — and put forward
a bill to apply the Pelican Bay ban to all
California inmates. ●

ON THE DEATH OF
NELSON MANDELA
“If there is a country that has committed
unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the
United States of America.”
Nelson Mandela
.I. Lenin once wrote: “During the
lifetime of great revolutionaries,
the oppressing classes constantly
hounded them, received their teachings
with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous
campaigns of lies and slander. After their
deaths attempts are made to convert them
to harmless icons….”
As I write this President Obama and former president George W. Bush, along with
other past and present leaders from around
the world, are converging on South Africa
to praise Nelson Mandela.
Ronald Reagan – who enthusiastically
hailed such scum as the US-funded Nicaraguan Contras as “freedom fighters”
– fiercely opposed the Comprehensive
Anti-Apartheid Act because the African
National Congress (ANC) was considered
a “terrorist organization” made up of “communists.” Indeed, Mandela was kept on the
US government's terrorist list until as late
as 2008. In fact, it was the CIA that helped
put Mandela in prison. In 1962 they had infiltrated the top levels of the ANC and provided Mandela’s underground identity to
the South African government so he could
be arrested.
The early goals of the socialist ANC
were to nationalize the mining and banking industries – owned by Western capital,
and distribute the benefits to the indigenous
population. Those goals passed to the wayside as Mandela became a black face for
white South African capitalism. And that
is why the global leaders of capitalism are
singing his praises today.
Conditions for poor Black South Africans are as bad if not worse today than they
were just before Mandela took power. ●
Ed Mead

V

Rock!

‘NOT TO SHARE WEALTH WITH POOR IS WALMART
TO STEAL’: POPE SLAMS CAPITALISM
HEIRS WORTH
AS ‘NEW TYRANNY’
SAME AMOUNT
mentality”.
By RT
AS BOTTOM 40
“I beg the Lord to grant us more politiope Francis has taken aim at capitalism as “a new tyranny” and is urg- cians who are genuinely disturbed by the PERCENT OF
ing world leaders to step up their ef- state of society, the people, the lives of the
AMERICANS
forts against poverty and inequality, saying poor,” Francis wrote.

P

“thou shall not kill” the economy. Francis
calls on rich people to share their wealth.
The existing financial system that fuels
the unequal distribution of wealth and violence must be changed, the Pope warned.
“How can it be that it is not a news item
when an elderly homeless person dies of
exposure, but it is news when the stock
market loses two points?” Pope Francis
asked an audience at the Vatican.
The global economic crisis, which has
gripped much of Europe and America, has
the Pope asking how countries can function, or realize their full economic potential, if they are weighed down by the debts
of capitalism.
“A new tyranny is thus born, invisible
and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules,”
the 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, said.
“To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which
has taken on worldwide dimensions. The
thirst for power and possessions knows no
limits”, the pope’s document says.
He goes on to explain that in this system,
which tends to devour everything which
stands in the way of increased profits,
whatever is fragile, like the environment, is
defenseless before the interests of a deified
market, which has become the only rule we
live by.
Shameful wealth
Inequality between the rich and the poor
has reached a new threshold, and in his apostolic exhortation to mark the end of the
“Year of Faith”, Pope Francis asks for better politicians to heal the scars capitalism
made on society.
“Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt
not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we
also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an
economy kills,” Francis wrote in the document issued Tuesday.
His calls to service go beyond general
good Samaritan deeds, as he asks his followers for action “beyond a simple welfare
Volume 3, Number 1

A recent IRS report shows that the wealth
of the US’s richest 1 percent has grown by
31 percent, while the rest of the population
experienced an income rise of only 1 percent.
The most recent Oxfam data shows that
up to 146 million Europeans are at risk of
falling into poverty by 2025 and 50 million
Americans are currently suffering from severe financial hardship.
“As long as the problems of the poor are
not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial
speculation, and by attacking the structural
causes of inequality, no solution will be
found for the world’s problems or, for that
matter, to any problems,” he wrote.
Named after the medieval saint who
chose a life of poverty, Pope Francis has
gone beyond general calls for fair work,
education, and healthcare.
Newly-elected Pope Francis has stepped
up the fight against corrupt capitalism that
has hit close to home - he was the first Pope
to go after the Vatican bank and openly accused it of fraud and shady offshore tax haven deals.
In October, Pope Francis removed Vatican bank head Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
after revelations of alleged mafia money
laundering and financial impropriety. ●

Art by Michael Russell

By Huffington Post
he six heirs to the Walmart fortune
are worth as much as nearly half of
all American households.
The Walton family was worth $89.5 billion in 2010, the same as the bottom 41.5
percent of U.S. families combined, according to Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy
Institute. That’s 48.8 million American
households in total.
Sylvia Allegreto of the University of
California at Berkeley found last year that
the six children of Walmart founders Sam
and James “Bud” Walton had the same net
worth in 2007 as the bottom 30 percent of
American households. But between 2007
and 2010, that net worth rose, while the
incomes of most Americans declined, explaining the three-year shift, Bivens notes.
hile Walmart heirs are some of the
wealthiest people in the world -- two of
them are among the top five world’s richest
women, according to Wealth X -- many of
the employees that work with the company
likely fall among that bottom 40 percent of
American earners. The company has driven down American wages by outsourcing
much of its distribution work to warehouses across the country, according to a recent
report from the National Employment Law
Project.
In addition, bringing a new Walmart to
town may cost a community big time in
lost wages. A planned Seattle-area Walmart
could cost the area $14.5 million in lost
wages over the next 20 years, a local advocacy group found in April.
The discrepancy between the Waltons’
wealth and that of the rest of the country
may be huge, but it’s just one example
of the prevalence of income inequality in
America. The top one percent of American earners saw their incomes spike 275
percent between 1979 and 2007, while the
bottom one-fifth of Americans saw their
wealth grow by only 20 percent during the
same period, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In addition, the top 10
percent of U.S. earners control two-thirds
of the country’s wealth. ●

T

3

Stamps
The last issue of Rock was recently circulated by one of the fellas who receives
them, who, along with the upstanding community, decided to take action. We wish
to demonstrate our collective gratitude
for your hard work and support, as well
as for the many persons and organizations
who’ve supported our struggle. Enclosed
are 47 forever stamps donated on behalf of
all 4B1R.
Gustavo Alviz, Corcoran SHU
More on Stamps
I am a newcomer to the Rock newsletter
and am glad I subscribed. Most of us first
heard about Rock in June and July 2013,
right before the WS/HS started. Now we
look forward to every monthly issue. I am
enclosing six stamps with this letter. I know
it’s not much but hopefully it helps. I will
be collecting more stamps from my section
to send your way next month. We all need
to pull our weight, am I right!
Before I end, let me just add, like you
and Mark have said, this is our fight our
struggle. Here on the inside we must conUnanticipated Consequence
“One of the major justifications for
the rise of mass incarceration in the
United States is that placing offenders behind bars reduces recidivism
by teaching them that “crime does
not pay.” This rationale is based on
the view that custodial sanctions
are uniquely painful and thus exact
a higher cost than non-custodial
sanctions. An alternative position,
developed mainly by criminologists,
is that imprisonment is not simply a
“cost” but also a social experience
that deepens illegal involvement. Using an evidence-based approach, we
conclude that there is little evidence
that prisons reduce recidivism and at
least some evidence to suggest that
they have a criminogenic effect. The
policy implications of this finding are
significant, for it means that beyond
crime saved through incapacitation,
the use of custodial sanctions may
have the unanticipated consequence
of making society less safe.”
Prison Labor and Crime in the U.S.
4

And Even More....
Please excuse the delay in my convict
contribution to the cause of us prisoners receiving updated information. As we
all know, information is hard to come by.
Well, accurate information that is. It’s funny sometimes when I hear other convicts
spreading rumors about things they say
they heard, or saw, or read about—things
that are going to change for us in the future.
Later it’s only proven that all that socalled information is just a bunch of BS.
But with your newsletter it’s a reliable
source of info. So here you go, 32 forever
stamps from me and my comrade Goutin.
I’ve been receiving the Rock for a few
months now and it is always printed in one
of your sections about the low amount of
funds you have to complete each monthly
issue. I would think or hope that others
reading the Rock, who have not put in any
stamps yet, would so do. 30,000 prisoners
took some part in the HS, which is a great
number. If we could get 30,000 convicts to
donate a few stamps each, that would be
awesome to our cause of getting more info
out in the future. I’m just saying.
Kenny Bess & Goutin, Tehachapi 4A
Lastly on stamps
In this struggle to liberate the oppressed
prison class from these inhumane, torturous, and degrading prison conditions, I
contribute these 20 stamps. Those who
are fortunate enough should do the same.
With 500 readers, two stamps per month
can amount to 1,000 stamps monthly in
an effort to sustain this Rock Tribune. For
WE are the people of this town and it is
OUR actions that will make a difference.
Hence it is our duty to reach out for support. Standing by this newsletter is a clear
illustration of our efforts in this regard.
Name withheld, Tehachapi
Life at Wallyworld
Wallyworld [the Washington State
Penitentiary at Walla Walla] is handing
out “indefinite programs” like candy for
Christmas. Due to the Washington State
Department of Corrections having seven
Intensive Management Units (IMUs) and
not enough prisoners committing serious
infractions to keep them even half full, the

DOC had decided to give out
long term indefinite programs instead of closing these money pits
down. No STG needed, no serious violence required, just bodies to fill the beds to justify asking taxpayers for more money.
I was given this for conspiracy to introduce drugs; no STG,
no violence. First time IMU offenders are getting crossed out
Pelican Bay style with no kind of
hearings or STG determination as required
by law. They have always pulled this wool
over the public’s eye here and gouged taxpayers just as much as they gouge us prisoners.
Scott Freeburg, WSP

LETTERS

LETTERS

tinue the good fight. All we can ask is for
you and fellow supporters to continue to
amplify our voices. We thank you.
Avetis Vartanyan, PBSP

Solidarity from Calipatria
I would like to extend my and all of D
Pod here in Calipat ASU sincere gratitude
for all you continue to do for our ongoing
struggle. Enclosed are ten stamps I’m donating to the Rock.
Quickly, in regards to some of the comments and criticism I’ve been reading from
letters about the short corridor’s strategy
for our peaceful protests, I agree with you
Ed—the strategy is solid. It’s up to us that
are participating to fulfil that strategy and
to push all that was laid out.
One has to have a deep conviction and
belief in the cause one struggles for, understanding it will not be easy, yet with the
courage to plunge full ahead while knowing the possible consequences. Those feeling the hunger strikes were a failure need to
look deep down inside and ask themselves
why?
I for one am proud to have been counted
among the 30,000 participants in this last
HS/WS. A couple of us here in D-Pod were
hospitalized. I was also transferred out of
Calipatria to Centenela for High Risk Medical Treatment. Yet we continue to be committed with spirits high for the road ahead
and our ongoing struggle. We all send ours
out in solidarity to all those likeminded individuals.
David Pacheco, Calipatria ASU
Solidarity from CCWF
I have been a devoted participant in the
crusade to bring about much needed changes within California’s prisons. I’ve felt the
repercussions. I want to say I am grateful
to the gentleman who commented on a letter that I wrote you awhile back, during the
Rock!

July 8th HS. I remember that I was feeling
a bit disconcerted due to the lack of support amongst the women here in CCWF, I
was wondering if this [lack of support] was
only taking place in the women’s prisons or
if it was just the mindset of a new generation of prisoners.
After 30 years in prison I have felt the
shift in the change amongst the younger
generation and also how DCCR has built
a perpetual machine to take control by taking what little rights we have left. To hear
this gentleman express the disgust he felt
when the men on C yard in HDSP chose to
go with the flow rather than stand up is a
wonder to me. I do understand the feeling
it creates in one’s mind. I can only say that
I choose to remain committed at whatever
cost.
I am in agreement with bringing changes, if I have to keep writing letters to our
legislators so be it. But I will not sit back
and do nothing when so many of my fellow peers are paying the price for the sake
of our greedy government and their twisted
agenda.
The practices being used in the SHUs
[including behavior modification programs] are inhumane and have been used
for many years, dating as far back as I can
remember—starting in places like Leavenworth and Marion, and now California.
The news media spreads false information by allowing the media into interview
SNY prisoners who speak in rote fashion
against our struggle, a tactic used in order
to keep the tax payers in the blind about
what’s r4eally going on in our prison system.
Lastly, my sincere condolences to Mr.
Billy Sell who lost his life in our peaceful protest. And my deepest love and respect for all who endured the 60 days all
of CDCR’s efforts to hinder their cause.
I am proud to be a supporter. Here are 20
stamps.
Diane Mirabal, CCWF
Let’s Build the PAC
I am writing to comment on the last Rock
newsletter [Vol. 2 #12, December 2013],
to the piece about the “Prisoner PAC
Proposal.”1 I think this is a great idea and
should be turned into a reality sooner rather
than later. We prisoners as a whole need to
1. PAC stands for Political Action Committee, which is a type of organization that
pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaign
for or against candidates, ballot initiatives,
or legislation.

Volume 3, Number 1

step up our game and go to the next level
with the most logical and effective tactic,
which would be something like a PAC.
If such a mechanism were established I
would have no problem donating money to
it so that we can push our agendas in the
mainstream political arena and be able to
build influence where our voices are actually heard and we can take part in our own
destiny and help shape the prison system
in a way that favors us, our families and
our communities rather than the special interests and everybody that gets rich from
overflowing prisons and housing inmates
in the SHU.
It may be slow going at first but once
word spreads about the PAC and prisoners are educated on its purpose and goals,
I can’t think how anyone would not donate
and get involved and spread the word to
their family and friends on the streets. We
make up a large part of the citizens of California with our families, friends and supporters. We could really build and maintain
a substantial war chest of available funds to
push what benefits us as a whole. It’s time
to wake up and do something different,
something that can really change things
and allow us to be recognized and the truth
be told as it really is, without all the false
and misleading information put out by
those who benefit from seeing us locked up
and placed in SHU.
So let’s get serious about all this and
whoever is putting out this proposal regarding the creation of a PAC needs to move
forward with it and let us know how we can
help and get involved to make this a reality.
Myself and everyone in my section is for it.
Maher Suarez, Pelican Bay

JUDGE ADDS
SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT
TO PRISON
CROWDING
NEGOTIATIONS
By Paige St. John, LA Times, 12/11/13
ederal judges considering California’s request for more time to reduce
prison crowding have asked the state
in turn to limit how long some mentally ill
prisoners spend in solitary confinement.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton on
Wednesday said he had accepted a state of-

F

fer to limit the time severely mentally ill
prisoners who have committed no rules violations can be held in isolation to 30 days.
Hours later, he and the other two judges
issued an order extending negotiations to
Jan. 10, and pushing the state’s deadline to
reduce crowding to April 18.
Karlton is holding hearings on the treatment of mentally ill inmates and also sits on
the federal three-judge panel that ordered
California to reduce prison overcrowding.
California has been ordered to remove
7,000 inmates from state prisons, reductions that judges say are needed to remedy unconstitutionally dangerous conditions, including inadequate medical and
mental health care. In Wednesday’s order,
the judges said they expect no further extension in the talks, “absent extraordinary
circumstances,” but that does not preclude
additional delays in the actual crowding
deadline.
Gov. Jerry Brown first proposed to expand California’s contracts with private
prison operators, mostly for beds in other
states. The judges blocked expansion of
out-of-state contracts and ordered the state
to negotiate with prisoners’ lawyers over
alternatives, including the early release of
frail or elderly prisoners.
Transcripts of courtroom hearings show
the talks took a twist after Thanksgiving,
when Karlton said he was concerned about
some 230 mentally ill prisoners currently
housed in isolation cells, though they have
committed no infraction. State prison officials say they are there for their own protection, or while awaiting space in a mental
health unit.
Karlton said he told the other federal
judges “that as far as I was concerned” the
state’s request for an extension to reduce
prison overcrowding should not be granted
as long as those mentally ill inmates were
being held in isolation units.
Lawyers for California made it clear that
the state is eager to address the judge’s
concerns about solitary confinement. Transcripts show that at one point last week,
state officials were rushing documents to
the judge for review. At another, they offered to produce Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard to speak with Karlton. The judge
said he was told Brown’s office responded
that it “understood the nature of the problem” and promised a quick remedy.
[Updated 4:26 p.m., Dec. 11: The new
Jan. 10 cutoff for negotiations coincides
Judge...................... Continued on page 10
5

THE ILLUSION OF FREEDOM IN AMERIKA
“Revolutionary suicide does not mean that
I and my comrades have a death wish; it
means just the opposite. We have such a
strong desire to live with hope and human
dignity that existence without them is
impossible. When reactionary forces crush
us, we must move against those forces,
even at the risk of death. We will have to be
driven out with a stick.”
Huey P. Newton, an excerpt from
“Revolutionary Suicide”
By Comrade Malik, Captain of Information, New Afrikan Black Panther Party
(Prison Chapter)
omrades, in the year 2013, I
achieved and experienced a moment of clarity as a Political Prisoner within the United $tates. I saw a photo
of this beautiful soldier for the people,
Ms. Lynne Stewart. She was in her federal
prison khakis, bald headed, obviously suffering from the ravages of cancer, yet she
was smiling. This hurt and touched me very
deeply. In 2013, the Department of Injustice saw fit to place a 65-year-old grandmother on a rewards-for-Terrorist Watch
List. A $2million price placed on Comrade
Assata Shakur’s head! For what?! Exercising her god-given right to free speech?
Because she damn sure is not guilty of any
crime, especially after being shot in the
back by the pigs in New Jersey.
Comrades, there is an all-out war being waged against our most politically advanced comrades. Look at this unselfish
and uncompromising revolutionary soldier
Mr. Jeremy Hammond. He has dedicated
his life and utilized his gifts to battle the
forces in this world who wish to destroy
anything and everything that smells like
freedom. And what of this government
Sabu?? Where is he while Jeremy fights
for his life? What about computer genius
Aaron Swartz? Did he tie the rope that
killed him, or did the irrational United
$tates Prosecutor in Massachusetts help
him tie the noose? What was Aaron’s
crime? Dreaming of a free Internet? Free
from state surveillance? Edward Snowden
showed us exactly how “free” we really
are. Do you see what is happening right in
front of our eyes? We are being terrorized
by the U.$. government into being docile,
complacent, weak-minded sheep – while
the pigs, wolves and foxes feast.
Comrades, as revolutionaries we must
take a pragmatic and analytical look at our

C

6

current conditions. Amerika is making its
transition – from capitalist state to imperialist state to totalitarian fascist surveillance
state!! Am I lying? I don’t think so.
Now let’s abandon the emotion for a moment and embrace our precept of dialectical
and historical materialism. As we perform
a concrete analysis of concrete conditions,
we have to ask ourselves: What benefits are
the Labor Aristocracy in Amerika getting
that the lumpen-underclass and the proletariat in Amerika not getting? If I told you
there are poor white men and women who
belong to the oppressed revolutionary proletariat class in Amerika, would you believe
me? If not, why not? Racism and bigotry
are tools in the tool-box of the Imperialist oppressor; when we who claim revolutionary socialism find ourselves using
the same tools as the oppressor, we should
re-evaluate our position. I am speaking directly to the comrades who embrace and
follow the Vulgar Labor Aristocracy line. I
personally have strived and struggled with
the comrades who embrace the VLA line;
the work these comrades do with prisoners
in Amerika is incredible. They should be
commended for their work.
However, the VLA line introduces a divisiveness into the ranks of socialists and
communists in Amerika, who need unity
and solidarity in order to defeat the imperialists. We must continue the debate on this
subject, it is a matter of life and death. But
I digress.
Welcome to Texas,
Masters of Illusion!
In 2013, the State of Texas surpassed 500
executions of human beings via their statesponsored murder program known as the
Death Penalty. The governor of Texas, Mr.
Rick Perry and his many cronies and sycophants are constantly using the term “sanctity of life” to describe their position on
abortion. Let’s look at how seriously they
adhere to this precept. In September 2013,
the drugs that Texas was using to execute
people expired. They had to be destroyed
or returned to the manufacturer. Death
Penalty opponents in Europe fought a long
hard battle and won against European pharmaceutical companies that were supplying
Texas with Sodium Pentobarbital, the drug
that Texas misuses to murder human beings. That “well” in Europe has run completely dry. All Power to the People!
So Gov. Perry and his “Sanctity of Life”
crew surreptitiously sought out a pharmacy

that would provide them with Sodium Pentobarbital so they could continue to murder
human beings! Perry and the Director of
the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice found
a pharmacy and purchased the drugs, but
apparently didn’t tell the pharmacy that
they intended to use the drugs to kill human beings. Texas tried to hide the source
of their new-found stash, but word got out.
The Woodlands Pharmacy, located in The
Woodlands, Texas, stated that they did not
know the drugs they sold to the TDCJ were
being used to kill people, and furthermore
they said they wanted the drugs back! The
Woodlands Pharmacy is a compounding
pharmacy, and their drugs are not approved
by the FDA for use on human beings.
Moreover, there is a Hippocratic Oath that
some of the pharmacy’s doctors took that
says, “Do No Harm!” Surely the benevolent Sanctity of Life crew would respect the
pharmacy’s wishes and return the drugs.
But no! That’s not what happened and
when this hypocrite Rick Perry attempts
to run for presidential office in 2016, make
sure you remember his stance on “Sanctity
of Life.”

We must get serious
about the words Revolution,
Freedom
and
Justice, or we will all be
slaves.
In DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept.
of Social Services, the Supreme Court recognized that “the State” has an “affirmative
duty to protect” a person whom the State
has incarcerated or involuntarily institutionalized. Would someone please inform
the oppressors who operate the segregated
housing unit in Pelican Bay (CA) of this?!
The State of Texas has failed in their “duty
to protect” my respected brother and comrade Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, the Minister of Defense for the New Afrikan Black
Panther Party (Prison Chapter). Rashid is
a victim of state-created danger. The Bill
Clements Unit in Amarillo, TX has a history of degrading, dehumanizing and abusing oppressed human beings. Rashid has
been placed on a unit on which he will
be physically and mentally tortured and
harmed. The purpose is to break him. My
question is this: Does the federal government, the Obama Administration, and the
Department of Injustice, condone and sancRock!

tion the abuse and torture of its citizens?
Or, because Rashid is a Black man who
holds political beliefs that are not popular
with the regime, has the U.$. government
decided he is ‘fair game’? Kill him! But
don’t involve us, we don’t want to know!
Texas! Masters of the Illusion of Freedom.
Comrades, for the Spring of 2014, a
march on Washington DC has been planned
in order to address Mass Incarceration in
the United $tates. But how can we mobilize
to end Mass Incarceration yet have failed to
mobilize in freeing Lynne Stewart?! If hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions
of like-minded comrades can organize to
march on Washington, DC, what’s wrong
with simultaneously marching on FCI Carswell to free comrade Lynne? Seriously! If
we can’t secure the freedom of Lynne, how
do we intend to be successful in the overwhelming battle against mass incarceration
in Amerika? As much as I love and respect
our beloved comrade Herman Wallace, I
don’t want Lynne to suffer the same fate
as he did. I know that President Obama’s
mother died of cancer and I believe his passionate attempt to deliver affordable health
care was prompted by the helpless feeling
he had watching his mother succumb to the
disease. For the life of me I can’t figure out
how he can stand by and do nothing while
Lynne’s condition deteriorates in Federal
prison!?
However, this all points to the illusion of
freedom in Amerika, “Home of the Free,
Land of the Brave.” Who determines who
is Free or who is brave? We are slowly
headed toward a fascist totalitarian state in
Amerika. We are in financial bondage, we
are subjected to a pervasive amount of covert and overt surveillance, and we incarcerate more of our citizens than any nation
on Earth. These objective realities are the
result of Imperialism and capitalism. We
must get serious about the words Revolution, Freedom and Justice, or we will all be
slaves. ●
Dare to struggle, Dare to Win!
All Power to the People!
Mr. Keith H. Washington
(Comrade Malik)
TDC #1487958 Wynne Unit
810 FM 2821
Huntsville TX 77349
Or contact Twitch, Central Texas ABC &
ABD Para-legal Services
PO Box 7187, Austin TX 78713
twitchon@hotmail.com
Volume 3, Number 1

LETTER FROM HESHIMA DENHAM,
Dec. 2, 2013
[Note: Denise, the person who
keyboarded this letter, put some things in
bold to highlight the main points relating
to the Jan. 7 hearing.]
ow, there is a matter of some urgency I’d like to discuss with you
in hopes you will pass it along AS
BROADLY AS POSSIBLE – to the rest
of the coalition – and your neighbors for
that matter, because it is just that serious.
Now you may recall we issued a statement,
“Creating Broken Men Part 2” where we
voiced our outrage at the inclusion of the
mandatory brainwashing components of
§700.2 of the CDCR’s Step Down Program
(SDP.) Since that time several things have
developed; 1) the Drs took Zah to the review board and attempted to bribe him
with the promise of transfer to Tehachapi
and touch visits in Step 3 IF he agreed to
participate in Step 2 for 6 months – most
centrally the “self-directed journal” outlined in §700.2; their hope being if Zah
does it, then countless other younger, more
vulnerable prisoners can be herded into this
brainwashing program.
He’s of course refused, and we’re putting
the finishing touches on a new statement on
all of this, so I’ll leave that point. 2) We had
an opportunity to review one of the journals (“The Con Game”) and it’s even worse
than we thought – well more accurately it’s
exactly what we knew it would be: a blatant character invalidation & brainwashing
tool. 3) Most disturbing of all they’ve announced a director’s rules change to provisions of CCR §3040 which introduces
mandatory brainwashing for EVERY
PRISONER IN CDCR (cognitive behavioral therapy) and attaching it to this
same regulation that governs mandatory
work and education assignments while
confined to CDCR… all of which is in
violation of Article One of the Nuremburg
Code and the most fundamental basics of
human rights. I don’t know if this is simply
an issue most don’t genuinely understand,
or id CDCR has so thoroughly hidden and
downplayed what they are attempting – but
this is the single greatest evil this struggle
faces. It is even more urgent than the issue
of indefinite solitary sensory deprivation
confinement.
What we have determined is CDCR’s
SDP Pilot program has zero to do with “a
behavior-based path for “validated’ prison-

N

ers to exit the SHU,” and is in fact a systematic and mandatory brainwashing program using the prospect of eventual SHU
release as the coercive component to force
men and women to submit to these techniques. According to the SDP/STG policy,
if you refuse to submit to the “cognitive
restructuring” components of the SDP
(such as “self-directed journals”), you will
be “stuck” in whatever step they decide to
stick you in…forever – or, like the debriefing process you finally capitulate and ask
them to brainwash you. In other words you
can be “STG behavior” free for, presumably, the rest of your life and you’ll still be
stuck in say, Step 2, in the SHU.
They have changed nothing, but creating
a new and more efficient means to produce
the same broken minds and subservient
slaves as the debriefing process – only on
a much grander scale. It is in fact worse
than the debriefing process, and not simply in the SHU, they seek to extend this to
every prison and prisoner in CDCR’s custody. CDCR is in the process of changing
their regulations to incorporate mandatory
brainwashing – what they’re calling in this
proposed rules change, “cognitive behavioral therapy” (which they define as “…evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatment
which addresses dysfunctional emotions,
maladaptive behaviors, and cognitive processes in all three areas to reach proscribed
goals.”) to ensure everyone who enters
CDCR will leave it a warped, submissive
and subservient slave.
To ensure their capacity to force this
conditioning on prisoners, they’ve actually attached this sick, twisted, assault
on the underclass to provisions of CCR
Title §3040 (participation) which makes
work, education, and “other programs”
mandatory for all CDCR prisoners. It in
turn derives its authority from the slavery
provisions of the 13th Amendment. I can
only describe this as evil. EVERY ACTIVIST, FAMILY MEMBER, AND CITIZEN
should be mobilizing against this manifestation of fascism in their midst.
Here they seek to instill beliefs and values which are synonymous with those of
right-wing, authoritarian conservatism –
while simultaneously seeking to absolve
the nature and structure of capitalist society
and contrapositive authoritarian conditioning inherent in the US fascist mass psychology for any of society’s ills – includ7

ing institutional racism, sexism, intentional
underdevelopment, social containment
and criminalization – instead they seek to
lay all blame at the feet of the individual
and their choices ( a view rejected and debunked by sociological and criminological
academia for decades.) The origin of all
crime is the disproportionate distribution of
wealth, privilege, and opportunity in a society – not simply individual choices. It is the
lack of viable choices which coerce people
into the underground economy…and inevitably into prisons where they’ve erected a
multi-billion dollar industry built on jailing
millions of poor people and people of color.
These journals stress “taking personal responsibility,” but CDCR takes none for the
hundreds of female prisoners they forcibly
sterilized in California prisons, the tens of
thousands subjected to years of psychological torture in US SHU units, the tens of
billions of dollars pillaged from underclass
and minority communities by lending institutions during the subprime loan fiascos,
for the centuries of institutional racism,
sexism, xenophobia and state-sponsored
hate that adversely affects the “choices”
available to the people subjected to these
structural components of US capitalism.
Financial corporations embezzled billions
of dollars from hundreds of millions of US
citizens (via credit default swaps and other
exotic financial instruments) in 2008 – and
not one of these Wall St. exec’s or government regulators have spend a day in jail.
There’s a guy in 3 block who got caught
with a 20 rock of cocaine and another guy
in B-section who stole 2 pizzas, and they
both got 25 to life under the three strikes

"We Will Win" written in ketchup on
the back wall of B-Tier in Walla Walla's
Intensive Management Unit (IMU) during
the historic 47-day work strike of the late
1970s.

8

law – and CDCR and “The Change Company” [the name of the vendor providing
them with the journals] have the audacity
and unmitigated gall to speak of “responsible” vs. “irresponsible” thinking. Prisons
are tools of repression to enforce property
rights and maintain the current social order.
Social conditions in these capitalist nations
are such that “perpetual growth” has met
the boundaries of planetary ecological/environmental capacity. They can’t keep on
reaping super profits from the appropriation of surplus labor value without meeting
ever increasing resistance from those suffering the ever decreasing share of wealth
and resources available.
Their solution is to increase the psychological and behavioral malleability and
passivity of the most potentially revolutionary segments of US society: the underclass, the working poor, the unemployed…
the prisoner. CDCR is, and has always
been, a model for the nation in prison “best
practices.” As goes California – so goes the
nation. The introduction and imposition
of mandatory brainwashing (cognitive behavioral therapy; cognitive restructuring;
self-directed journals, behavior modification, etc. etc.) across CDCR facilities will
produce a steady stream of broken men and
women; who will in turn take these techniques, warped values, authoritarian beliefs, and twisted ideals out to their communities where, just like those female slaves
who were subjected to “slave seasoning”
would raise their sons to be “good boys,”
physically strong (so they could work hard)
but psychologically and emotionally weak
(so they would not rebel against the institution of slavery and thereby be murdered
brutally by the slavemaster.) These broken
men and women will warp the minds of
others, who will in turn warp others, until
we will have a docile, submissive, subservient US underclass population, content to
continue enduring even more exploitation,
more severe repression, and even greater
usurpations…all because we – the progressives, the revolutionaries, the social justice
activists – the common man and woman –
failed to act.
I feel at times as though many simply
don’t understand what’s transpiring, its interconnections, and its ultimate social impact. There are no disparate social forces
– all it interconnected, and it is within these
interconnections that the vast, horrifying,
awe-inspiring scope of what these evil
“people” are trying to do becomes sickeningly clear. I don’t believe the legislators in

Sacramento know this is the case. Coercive
behavior modification and/or cognitive restructuring techniques are prohibited under article 1 of the Nuremburg Code. The
forced sterilization of female prisoners is a
war crime.
The fact that we must invoke the Nuremburg Code and war crimes statutes to oppose what a prison system in the US is doing is is the best proof of 1) how racist, sick,
and inhumane the US actually is and 2)
how completely oblivious the US population is of this fact – and the US mass media
is complicit in this. It is my assessment that
US journalists have so thoroughly crafted
this image of what they want the world to
believe American society is, they willfully
conceal, under report, and investigatively
ignore its vilest contradictions in order to
preserve this illusion. Any journalist that
claims ignorance much acknowledge it is a
willful ignorance.
We simply can’t stand idly by and allow
something like his to sweep up untold generations in this sick process. History will
judge us all harshly should we do so. EVERY ACTIVIST, EVERY ABLE-BODIED
PERSON, PERIOD, should be mobilizing
to oppose these violations of the Nuremburg Code. Now as it relates to §700.2 of
the SDP, noise has to be made about it,
like nothing before, but as it relates to the
new director’s rules changes to Title 15
§3040 (and related sections) there will be
a public hearing on this on January 7,
2014 at 10 – 11 am in the Kern Room at
1515 “S” Street, North Building, Sacramento, CA.
Written comments can be sent to:
CDCR, Regulation and Policy Management Branch (RPMB), PO Box 942883,
Sacramento, CA 94283; by fax (916) 3246075, or by email to RPMB@cdcr.ca.gov,
by 5 pm on Jan. 7, 2014. The Kern Room
should be packed with protestors on
January 7th at 10 am to bring media attention to the reality of this evil. A letter
writing and email campaign should be
organized to flood them with complaints
about this continually leading up to 1/7.
I’m contacting everyone I can on this,
and I do encourage you to do the same.
This is even more important than the abolition of SHU. It is these “peoples” intention
to subject tens of thousands of prisoners,
95% of them hailing from underclass communities – to systematic cognitive restructuring where they begin with “character
Heshima................. Continued on page 10
Rock!

EDITORIAL 3-1
Stamps and Money
elcome to the start of the third
year of the Rock newsletter. As
of this writing the newsletter has
received $2,932 in cash and 6,092 stamps.
If we take that number of stamps and multiply it by their cost of 46 cents each, we’d
get a stamp contribution total of $2,802.32.
If we add the cash amount donated to
the cost of stamps we’d come up with
$5,734.32 donated in stamps and cash over
the course of two years. If we divide that
number by the 24 issues that were produced
in those two years it comes out to $238.93
to produce and mail each issue. The actual
cost of production is greater because in the
early days the number of subscribers was
considerably less than it is today (we currently have 415 California readers and a
little over a hundred subscribers in Washington and Oregon).
While Rock does have some money in the
bank, Mark and I prefer to use that money
for laser printer toner cartridges and cases
of printer paper rather than for stamps.
However, this month we will be using
some of that money to buy stamps. While
donations of stamps continue to trickle in,
they do not arrive in an amount sufficient
to cover the cost of postage for this issue
of the newsletter. In short, we need stamps.
Our readers in California can be broken
down into thirds. A third gives more than
their fair share, another third just pay the
subscription amount or less, and the last
third freeload off the contributions of others. There have been no contributions from
Oregon, and Washington has had one prisoner pay for a subscription. Those Northwestern prisoners need to step it up by selling subscriptions to their peers and outside
people. Newsletter circulation in those
states needs to increase so we can eventually afford to move on to Nevada, Arizona,
and Texas.
All readers must remember it will be publications such as this that will be the scaffolding needed to build the structure necessary to bring about progressive change.
When you invest in such publications you
are investing not only in your future, but
also in the future of the men and women
who come after you.

W

PAC proposal
I’ll keep this one brief. We received a lot
of letters regarding my editorial on the PAC
proposal, and not one of them agreed with
Volume 3, Number 1

my position. Although they did agree that
prisoners should not be giving money to
bourgeois politicians. The main complaint
was that I was too far out in front of where
general prisoner consciousness is at and
therefore I would lose them. I agree.
Leadership
I want to talk a little about direction and
strategy, not about any I suggest but rather
about the course set by the men on the short
corridor. I get letters from some California
prisoners saying such things as the existing leadership is merely playing everyone so they can go back to the way things
were; that instead of looking forward they
are looking backwards. In the years before
HS #1 I often thought the same way. In
fact many of my editorials in Prison Focus
railed against these same men for creating
the mess California’s prisons have become,
and for their responsibility for the prisoneron-prisoner violence that has resulted in
the huge number of prisoners now living in
SNY.
That was then. This is now. The strategic
and tactical leadership they’ve demonstrated is not only remarkable, it is of historic
importance. Never before in recorded history have 33,000 people went on hunger
strike. This is an incredible foundation to
build upon. If there is any weakness I can
see it lies in their not moving fast enough
on the issue of racial unity. Which brings us
to our next topic.
Controversial Subjects
Over and over again, year after year, I’ve
raised the issue of integrated celling. And
each time I do so I receive a flood of letters
telling me why it would not or cannot work.
I disagree with the excuse making, yet I’m
rational enough to understand it isn’t going
to happen any time soon—at least not by a
process led by prisoners.
Well, if you don’t like that, how about
this: Send a message to the powers that be,
and to each other, by integrating the mess
halls. Racism has been the state’s number
one tool for keeping prisoners divided.
(You know it’s true.) Why is there such
reluctance to challenge their ploy in this
regard?
If the strength or will needed to accomplish this cannot be mustered, then do it for
a single month, or week, or day. But do it!
Even one day of interracial eating will send
a message to guards, and they will then forward that message of prisoner unity to their
overlords in the state capitol.

I’ve served somewhere between 35 and
40 years of my life behind bars. In all that
time I’ve never checked into PC, even
when I felt sure I would not live to see
another day. My reasoning was that I’m a
communist; probably the only communist
most of these prisoners will ever meet. I’ll
die on my feet rather than take the coward’s
way out and thereby give a bad name to the
principles I hold dear.
That’s me. Others do not have such ideals to honor and thus check themselves in
to PC. That fact is that between a third and
half of California prisoner are SNY. If anyone thinks this struggle can be won without
the active involvement that many prisoners
they’ve got their heads up their asses. In order to win it will be necessary to seek the
participation of all prisoners. “Settle your
quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation….” He who’s name
cannot be mentioned was right. It’s time
for all prisoners to settle their quarrels and
to join together in the struggle for a better
world.
So here I argue for both the proposition
of integrating the state’s GP prison chow
halls, even if only briefly, and to start the
process of reaching out to SNY prisoners.
If not reaching out to SNY, then at the very
least, not working to further isolate ourselves from that segment of the prison population. The common bond we are share is
that of prisoners (slaves) of the state. This
is not to say that debriefers and rats are our
friends. Rather only that we share a common interest in changing the draconian system of punishments that currently exists.
Bad to rely on legislature
I know a lot of you are putting your
hopes for constructive change in the state
legislature. This is a mistake. It is only your
unity and strength that will bring about the
changes that must take place. Any thinking
other than self-reliance is foolish and naive.
Remember the legislators are the ones who
passed all of these draconian laws, LWOP,
3 Strikes, etc. And even if they did pass a
bill or two in your favor, Governor Brown
would most likely refuse to sign them into
law—like he did with the bill to allow the
media access to prisoners. It will be nice if
the legislators do something constructive,
and they may, but it will not be enough
to give you the rights guaranteed to every
other citizen or to lift your constitutionally
defined status as slaves. Only through selfreliance in all things will you ever be able
to guarantee your human rights. ●
9

Heshima............... Continued from page 8
invalidation” and end with the complete
subordination of their minds and behaviors
to the dictates of authoritarian conservatism, manufacturing a docile, subservient
population of men and women WHO WILL
TAKE THESE SAME TECHNIQUES
OUT TO THEIR COMMUNITIES, warping the minds of generations to come. In so
doing, they not only make the expropriation
of tax dollars, at the expense of prisoners,
a more orderly process, but also make the
exploitation of labor in society at large a
less burdensome ordeal for corporations by
stamping out the very thought of resistance
or progressive, pro-people organizing.
Viewing all of this through the prism of
its Hitlerian magnitude, the insidiousness
of this undertaking is inspiringly horrific.
We shouldn’t be having this discussion –
these people have gone mad! The contact
person on the brainwashing provisions of
the new _ 3040 (et al) is Timothy Lockwood, (916) 445-2269 or email to RPMB@
cdcr.gov regarding the subject matter contact Michele Gonzalez at (916) 323-6662.
Please notify the coalition of what I’ve
shared with you here. FYI on those “self-

directed journals,” at least all those CDCR
is using, they have printed at the bottom of
each page and the answer sheets, “it is illegal to photocopy this in any shape or form”
– that alone should show anyone interested
there’s something very wrong here. ●

Judge.................... Continued from page 5
with the deadline for Brown’s 2014 state
spending plan. Senate Leader Darrell
Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and a participant in the crowding negotiations, said that
gives the court, as well as others, a chance
to see how the governor proposes to fund
prison programs. Steinberg seeks increased
spending on mental health and substance
abuse programs to reduce prison return
rates.
Meanwhile, a team of court-appointed
reviewers filed a report Wednesday declaring inadequate medical care at the state’s
largest women’s prison, in Chowchilla.
The report cites poor timeliness and quality of care at the prison, a lack of staff and
medical beds. It attributes its findings to
severe overcrowding: the prison was built
to house 2,000 inmates but holds 3,500.] ●

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

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