

Working to Extend Democracy to All 
Volume 3, Number 5

F

May 2014

WOMEN DECRY DEPLORABLE
CONDITIONS IN STATE PRISON

ormer inmates at the Central California Women’s Facility say they were
denied health care and diagnosed
with diseases they don’t have. A recent report backs up their claims.
By Andrea Abi-Karam
When Theresa Martinez was an inmate
at the Central California Women’s Facility,
prison health officials diagnosed her as having HIV. Martinez said her mental health
deteriorated as a result. Prison doctors also
put her on a rigorous anti-HIV drug regimen for ten years. Eventually, officials with
the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation transferred her to a state
prison facility in Southern California.

CONTENTS
Women Decry Conditions.........1
Grass Roots Protest.................2
Guards Obstruct Litigation........3
Retaliation.................................4
Editorial.....................................4
Radical Muslim Zine.................5
Lessons From Glen Ford..........5
Legalized Slavery.....................6
Letters.......................................7
Letter to CDCR.........................8
One Step Forward....................9

Once there, the facility’s health staffers
urged Martinez to take another HIV test,
even though she had assured them that
she was infected with the virus. The results came back negative. They did the test
again. It was negative, again. She didn’t
have HIV.
Martinez said she later learned that the
Central California Women’s Facility, where
she and many other East Bay women end
up when they’re sentenced to prison, had
a contract with a pharmaceutical company
that sells HIV medication. Martinez, who
now works for the Oakland-based prisoners’ rights group Justice Now, shared the
story of what happened to her at a recent
public event. She contends that corporatedriven interests affect the physical and
mental health of prisoners throughout the
California prison system.
There’s also compelling evidence that the
health facility within the Central California
Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla
has a history of badly mistreating female
prisoners. Late last year, a three-person
panel of court-appointed medical experts
released a scathing report on the deplorable conditions inside the prison. Overall,
the panel found that CCWF “is not providing adequate medical care, and that there
are systemic issues resulting in preventable morbidity and mortality [disease and
death] that present an ongoing serious risk
of harm to patients.”
The 57-page report, which didn’t receive much press coverage, also stated that
CCWF’s health facility is disorganized and
overcrowded. “We believe that the majority of problems are attributable to over-

crowding, insufficient health care staffing
and inadequate medical bed space,” the
report stated.
The court-ordered health care evaluation
came in response to a January 2013 report
conducted by Governor Jerry Brown’s office that declared the health care conditions
at CCWF improved. The dismal quality of
health care inside California’s prisons was
the driving force behind orders issued by
federal judges to the state to dramatically
reduce its inmate population. “Overcrowding and health care conditions cited by this
Court to support its population reduction
order are now a distant memory,” Brown’s
office stated.
Despite the scathing report on CCWF by
court-appointed medical experts, federal
judges agreed last month to give Brown
and state corrections officials more time to
relieve overcrowding in California’s prisons.
The overcrowded conditions at CCWF
worsened in 2012 when the state converted
Valley State Prison for Women (which is
located near CCWF) into a men’s facility and then funneled that facility’s female
prisoners into CCWF and the California Institution for Women near Chino. CCWF’s
inmate population quickly grew to 184 percent of capacity.
According to the court-appointed medical experts, the packed conditions at
CCWF resulted in health care staff being
slow to respond to inmates’ medical needs.
“I would assume that during an emergency you would run toward the emergency,
but no, 95 percent of the time they walk
— stroll,” said Mianta McKnight, a former

Brisbane resident who was released from
CCWF three months ago and currently resides at a prisoner re-entry facility on Treasure Island.
McKnight told me that when nurses at
CCWF respond to an emergency, they’ll
only provide care if the patient is incoherent and can’t stand up. She described an instance in which her roommate was waiting
to get treatment for an earache. The pain
became so intense, she passed out and hit
her head on her bunk. “She was trying to
be seen and was ignored,” McKnight said.
And even if a prisoner does get seen by
health care staffers at CCWF, there’s a good
chance she won’t get appropriate care. According to the court-ordered report, as well
as first-hand accounts, CCWF medical
staffers routinely prescribe expired, incorrect, or insufficient medication.
“You go in and say, ‘I don’t feel well
because XYZ,’” McKnight said. “They’ll
give you a cold pack and you may have a
migraine.”
Inmates also “were given the wrong
medications at times — kind of like test
this and see if it works and if it doesn’t
work we’ll try something else,” she continued. She said she once helped take care
of a fellow inmate who became paralyzed
down the left side of her body because she
received the wrong drugs.
McKnight also said that it was not uncommon for prisoners to wait in the pharmacy line for long periods and then watch
staffers withhold their prescribed medications. They’d get to the front of the line,
and then watch staffers pull up their mugshots and arrest histories on Google, and
send the prisoners to the back of the line
if the staffers disliked what they saw, she
said.
At CCWF, prisoners with chronic illnesses and disabilities are consigned to the
skilled nursing facility, which further isolates them within the prison system, and
further alienates them from their families.
“They are sometimes thrown back there and
don’t know why they’re back there,” said
McKnight of inmates being put in skilled
nursing. “They have little or no communication with their families.” Prison officials
also regularly lock down the skilled nursing facility without explanation, she said.
The court-appointed medical experts
who examined CCWF substantiated McKnight’s experiences. The panelist said they
“found problems with timeliness and quality of care.” They also stated in their report
that “[i]nternal audits show lapses in con2	

tinuity of chronic disease medication. We
also found concerns related to expiration of
chronic medication orders.”
McKnight, who now works with the prisoner’s rights group California Coalition for
Women Prisoners, said that the health care
staffers at CCWF don’t treat patients as
humans. “I would like to see people have
the opportunity to have a better quality of
life,” she said. “And not have them have a
slow death sentence as a result of not being
taken care of.”
The California Coalition for Women
Prisoners is working on a campaign that
calls for health care staff to be held accountable; health care to be improved to
the standards of care outside of prison; and
prisoner release in lieu of overcrowding.
“It’s corrections, but it’s not meant to be
cruel and unusual punishment,” McKnight
said. “And sometimes that’s what it turns
into.” ●

GRASS ROOTS
PROTEST

O

n March 29th the Catrinas Del Barrio a grass root women’s organization which focuses on human
rights, inmates rights and community needs
scheduled a “Inmates Are Human” demonstration in Santa Barbara. Demonstrators
meet at Tuckers Grove Park at 2pm, including the family members of inmates currently in Santa Barbara County Jail as well as
members from LULAC Santa Maria.
This demonstration was inspired by
hearing stories from inmates family members about how their loved ones who are
currently in Santa Barbara County Jail, are
not receiving mail, some have even gone
without their legal mail, including letters
from the lawyers representing them in current cases as well as the inmates outgoing
legal mail to ACLU being denied sending
service. Inmates’ post cards to their children or from their children are not being sent or received. In talking to the
families as well as former inmates of
Santa Barbara County Jail who have
expressed the conditions they experienced while incarcerated; the CO’s are
turning cells normally used to house
intoxicated people aka “drunk tanks”
as solitary confinement units. This is
similar to the SHUs many are familiar
with that are used in a prison setting.
The transformed drunk tanks do not
allow the prisoner any human contact

unless it is from a guard. Prisoners are left
in these solitary confinements for months
and months on end, the longest so far is approaching one year in solitary. Some drunk
tanks are equipped with cameras, so not
only are the prisoners left without human
contact they are under video surveillance
24 hours a day 7 days a week, without even
being convicted of a crime, this is all while
they await trial.
Demonstrators walked 3 miles, 1.5 each
way from the park to the Jail, chanting, “Inmates are Human”, “Stop Solitary” along
the way and at the driveway entrance of the
Jail. The demonstrators were approached
by the Santa Barbara Sherriff’s department
officers, who offered them “A spot we reserved just for you.” Since earlier it was
said by inmates family members that the
inmates were being teased about the future
protest, and officers were overheard saying
“these protesters are really pissing me off!”
the demonstrators declined the set up invite
and maintained their position.
During the protest some of the inmates
were actually offered yard time, at first
thought to be a positive sign, until inmates
returned from yard to a raided room and
write ups. Write ups for things that weren’t
in their room, or a write up of contraband
for having one rubber band. Inmates who
asked officers about why the search happened and if this is why they received yard
time after so long without were told, “I
don’t know.” Other inmates were told they
were “Talking to much about not getting
their mail.” All inmates were told “This is
going to make it worse on you!”
The demonstrators met back at the park
and did interviews of inmates’ family members, describing what they and their loved
ones are going thru. These videos will be
posted on utube by the Catrinas Del Barrio.
The video footage of the protest is available online via Facebook at: https://www.
facebook.com/CatrinasDelBarrio. ●
Written by: Venenosa Del Barrio

Rock!

WASHINGTON STATE GUARDS OBSTRUCT LITIGATION

Coyote Ridge Corrections Center Superintendent Bans Blank Cassette Tapes Under Same
Policy the DOC Sold the Tapes to Prisoners

P

By Karl Tobey, Coyote Ridge Corrections
risoners are often unrepresented
litigants in many court cases. They
access the courts pro se for various
reasons, such as criminal appeals, habeas
corpus, civil rights violations, and public
records act violations. Prisoners have very
limited resources at their deposal to help
them gather evidence and overcome the
various court rules and procedural hurdles
in order to even get their claims heard on
the merits. Some of those resources include: access to a law library for case law,
statues, and court rules; to typewriters, typing paper, and carbon paper; and to blank
cassette tapes to record depositions. Prisoners also rely on prison officials not to
actively obstruct their access to the courts
by blocking or failing to provide the above
resources. Unfortunately, many prison officials (and attorney generals) believe it’s
a legitimate practice to obstruct prisoners’
court access by any means necessary.
In the past two years at CRCC, assistant
attorney generals (AAG) have refused to
stipulate to tape recorded depositions as
they allowed in the past. Prison officials
have reduced the amount of typing paper
provided for preparing briefs and motions
from 20 sheets a day down to 5 sheets a
day, they have rewrote policy 590.500,
Legal Access for Offenders, to exclude
typewriters and then removed all typewriters from the law library, and finally, Superintendent Jeffery Uttecht, under the same
policy which the DOC used to sell us tapes,
unilaterally banned blank cassette tapes
for purchase on commissary and possession. While this list is not all inclusive of
every dirty trick the DOC uses to obstruct
litigation, and while each one deserves to
be written about, this article focuses on the
blank cassette tapes.
The DOC implemented policy 440.000
Personal Property for Offenders in 1995.
Since that time, cassette tapes have been
allowed as personal property under the
property matrix. The DOC has revised the
property policy 15 times over the years and
the last 3 revisions were 8/1/11, 9/15/12,
and 1/1/13. The DOC had never eliminated
blank cassette tapes as allowable property.
Since 2008, The DOC has allowed prisoners to purchase blank cassette tapes on
the commissary. Prisoners use these tapes

to record music off the radio, record their
band music, and record depositions for
court cases.
What is a deposition? In simplest terms,
a deposition is where one side of litigation
ask the other side questions pertaining to
the issue(s) in the law suit. Either side can
take a deposition. Depositions are one of
the best evidence-gathering tools available
under court discovery rules. They are better
than interrogatories (written questions) because those are often answered by attorneys
rather than their clients. Plus, depositions
are the closest thing to being on the stand
in court because the person is under oath to
answer questions truthfully, and he/s cannot rely on an attorney to provide the “correct” answer. This method often gets to the
heart of the controversy and, when DOC
officials are involved, it places them in the
seat of accountability for their actions. It is
for these reasons Superintendent Uttecht
banned blank cassette tapes as a way to
stop depositions of DOC employees.
What was impetus which led to his draconian method? It’s because he was about
to be deposed in a lawsuit. Between March
and September of 2012, CRCC prisoner,
Mathew G. Silva, deposed several DOC
officials and others related to Silva v. McKenna et al., U.S. District Court No. C115629-RBL/KLS, which alleged a common pattern and practice of state officials
obstructing prisoners’ access to the courts
and their ability to effectively litigate their
claims--the very same actions such as banning the tapes. Several of Silva’s depositions were tape recorded as was common in

prisoner litigation until the Attorney General’s Office began refusing to stipulate to
them (again, a tactic to frustrate litigation).
In August, before DOC officials placed Mr.
Silva in segregation, he had a deposition
pending for Superintendent Uttecht. After Mr. Silva went to seg, Uttecht issued a
memorandum (memo) on August 28, 2012
titled “Cassette Tapes for Depositions”
stating blank “cassette tapes will no longer be available for offenders to purchase
or accrue debt for depositions ... other options offenders may consider include hiring
a stenographer or using other methods such
as interrogatories or discovery to gather
information they many need for legitimate
legal purposes....” He knows, of course,
prisoners are mostly indigent and cannot
afford to pay for stenographers or for copies of discovery materials. To add insult to
injury, Uttecht claimed policy 440.000 did
“not provide offender access to blank cassette tapes [ironically sold on commissary]
for legal purposes.” Further, He issued another memo on October 19, 2012 stating
that “only pre-recorded commercial tapes/
CDs or authorized letter tapes/CDs are allowed” under 440.000, and therefore, offenders will have 15 days to mail out their
cassette tapes which do not comply or they
will be confiscated.
Because of the threat of confiscation,
another CRCC inmate, Jeffrey R. McKee,
a well-known prison litigator who has
successfully litigated several civil suits
against the DOC, appealed the planned
confiscation to Lieutenant Richard Duncan on 10/26/12. McKee claimed the tapes
were allowed under policy because DOC
had sold inmates blank cassette tapes on
commissary since 2008 under the same
policy, and that CRCC had sold him tapes
between May and July of that year. After
6 months of repeated kites to Duncan, he
finally responded on 4/30/13 stating, “I am
sorry that I can’t help you with your issue;
I cannot over turn DOC policy or Superintendent’s memo ... you will have to send
your tapes out at your own expense.” It is
noteworthy that McKee also had pending
depositions in civil litigation involving Uttecht and other DOC officials at the time.
In between his appeal and the response,
McKee sought help from Director of Security Devon Schrum. He sent a letter on

Volume 3, Number 5		

3

4/15/13 requesting clarification whether
prisoners may retain their previously purchased tapes. Ms. Schrum never responded
to McKee’s request, but she did respond to
another inmate’s request. Interestingly, her
response did not maintain the hard-line denial of possession of the tapes as Uttecht
wanted:
Cassette tapes are no longer offered
for sale in our prisons, however, offenders may retain possession of their
previously purchased cassette tapes
(up to 20). I apologize for the misunderstanding around clear cassette tapes
and have since spoken with all of the
Superintendents about this clarification.
According to the c.c. at the bottom of her
letter, Uttecht received a copy of her letter, and Lt. Duncan did too well before he
denied McKee’s appeal. Unfortunately, Uttecht did not change his hard-line stance or
issue a new memo reflecting the clarification. In fact, his October memo is still posted in the property room. Further, prisoners’
tapes are still being confiscated, even after
they provide a copy of Ms. Schrum’s letter as authority to retain their tapes. Apparently, Uttecht does not believe in following
his own chain-of-command when it comes
to DOC policies. What this boils down to
is that DOC officials will do anything and
everything to obstruct litigation by prisoners. ●

RETALIATION

and Civil Rights Violations
Pile Up at the NWDC in
Tacoma.

R

emaining original hunger striker
breaks fast and placed in retaliatory
solitary confinement. Former isolated hunger striker “convicted” in a Kafkaesque hearing; the twenty men placed
in solitary confinement for hunger strike
grows. Despite retaliation, peaceful protest
continues.
Jesus Gaspar Navarro ended his 25-day
hunger strike on the morning of April 1st
with a full breakfast. An hour later, after
speaking on air on Spanish language 1360
am about the strike, he was removed from
medical isolation to solitary confinement.
His administrative segregation order cited
risk to self and the facility and participation in the hunger strike as reasons for his
isolation. The conditions of isolation are
not healthy for someone recovering from a
4	

nearly month-long fast.
Today Ramon Mendoza Pascual, who
was held in medical isolation for two
weeks, had a hearing on charges stemming
from the fast. In the hearing the same ICE
officer acted as translator, witness against
him and adjudicator. He was convicted of
inciting a group demonstration. Mr. Mendoza Pascual was sentenced to 20 days in
solitary confinement. The conditions include near total deprivation: 23 hour a day
lockdown with no human contact (one hour
a day of solitary time in the prison yard), no
use of telephone, no access to commissary
account items, and no access to television
or written materials.
Mr. Gaspar Navarro and Mr. Mendoza
Pascual joined dozens of other hunger
strikers who are in isolation in retaliation
for the hunger strike, what detainees call
“the hole.” But they work to keep their
spirits up. Ramon Mendoza Pascual observed while encouraging those on hunger
strike, “They don’t have enough holes for
all of us.”
Army vet Hassall Moses remains in isolation for advocating a work stoppage for
work that is compensated at $1 per day and
that ICE and GEO allege is voluntary.
Increasingly experts are coming forward
with evidence that isolation is torture. In a
recent New Yorker Magazine article public health researcher Dr. Atule Gawande
summed up all the research: “simply to exist as a normal human being requires interaction with other people.”
A 16-year resident of the US, Mr. Gaspar
Navarro is sorely missing his large family,
all U.S. citizens - a wife, five children, and
two grandchildren born since he was detained. Ramon Mendoza Pascual and his
wife of 13 years, Veronica, have three children, ages 12, 10, and 5. Ramon first came
to the United States 11 years ago, in 2002,
and works as a carpenter, finishing homes
and hospitals. Before being detained, Ramon was a significant source of support to
his family, and his wife now works three
jobs seven days a week to make ends meet.

EDITORIAL
COMMENTS

I

n my last comments I complained about
the low number of stamps that had been
donated, but after that issue went to the
press a lot of stamps came in, enough to
mail out the April issue of Rock. Unfortunately, no money came in so once again I

had to pay for the cost of printing, as I will
again this (May) month.
I keep a spreadsheet of every stamp donated and every dollar received, as well as
the date of the donation and who gave it.
So far Rock has received $4,047 in money
from both inside and outside sources, and
7,454 in stamps. With that money we’ve
put out 29 issues of Rock, starting with
a mailing list of 100 and growing that to
over 600, primarily in California but also a
slowly growing presence in Oregon, Washington, and Texas.
This newsletter may or may not survive.
That depends on my good health and your
willingness to provide the resources necessary to keep it going. But whether it continues or not, there will ultimately be other
prisoner oriented publications—maybe
more radical or maybe less—that will be
the scaffolding around which a peaceful
national prisoners’ movement will be built.

ON BEHAVIOR
MODIFICATION

B

By Ed Mead
ehavior modification can be a legitimate tool for positive change in
the hands of a skilled mental health
professional. For example, if you wanted
to stop smoking cigarettes, you and your
psychologist, social worker, or whatever,
would work out a mutually agreed upon
plan wherein you reward yourself for successfully completed steps, and maybe even
punish yourself for backsliding (such as
making a financial contribution to an organization you despise). In the hands of the
state, however, behavior modification becomes just another instrument of control. It
becomes illegitimate.
In custody behavior modification programs are a part of the systematic process
of reinforcing that a prisoner has no control over his own being. In behavioral psychology, this condition is called ‘learned
helplessness’–a derivative of Skinnerian
operant conditioning (commonly called
‘learning techniques’). In essence, a prisoner is taught to be helpless, dependent on
his overseer. He is taught to accept without
question the overseer’s power to control
him.
The United States Penitentiary (USP) at
Marion, Illinois, opened in 1963, the same
year the federal prison at Alcatraz closed.
Behavior Mod......... Continued on page 10
Rock!

TOTALLY RADICAL MUSLIMS ZINE #3
Call for Submissions!

“Hubb: Queer Muslim Love Stories”

W

e are a group of Bay Area based
social workers, activists, attorneys, and artists who put together quarterly compilations of articles by the
progressive and/or LGBT Muslim community. We are non-denominational, volunteer
run, and self-funded.
For volume three of the Totally Radical Muslim Zine, we’re exploring topics
of love, trust and vulnerability. We would
like to hear from Muslims inside California
prisons, if you feel able to. Our previous
volumes focused on Islamophobia and resilience.
We recognize these are not easy topics
to write about to complete strangers, especially for people who have been incarcerated. If we print your story, we will send
you a confirmation letter and complimentary Zine, with gratitude.
The Totally Radical Muslim Zine is
about telling our stories and reclaiming
our truths. This project is about resisting
Islamophobia, homophobia, imperialism
and so many more systems of oppression,
which we are tackling, one love story at a
time! By telling our stories, with all their
edges, contradictions, beauties and gems –
we are taking back the power to create our
narratives and imagine another present, and
another history.
For Volume 3, we are seeking submissions that share experiences on: falling in
love, falling out of love, finding queer love,
feeling loved by family, heartache, loneliness, critical thoughts on relationships,
friendship, platonic love, and stories on
self-love across prison walls, and borders.
Tell us about the ways you’ve opened and
closed your heart. Count the times you’ve
heard it break. Describe the love you’ve
asked for, prayed for, waited for, cherished,
embraced, feared, denied, chased, or fled.
Name the feelings that visit you by night.
Submission invited from all self-identified Muslims – queer, trans, straight, questioning, and more. We especially welcome
submissions from voices often left out of
Muslim discourse: queer and trans, black,
youth, disabled, Shia, Ahmadi, poor, working class, folks incarcerated and recently
released.
Formats: written, drawing, photography,
all accepted.
Deadline: Tuesday May 1, 2014 (goal is

to print for the Summer of 2014)
We do not edit your work. This is our
commitment to honoring individual voice
and storytelling. We are however, discerning in maintaining a political frame and
may decide that your piece does not fit
within our projects vision and intent.
* All submissions must be UNDER 800
words! Send submissions to TRM at P.0.
Box 29843 Oakland, CA 94604. ●
Salaam and solidarity,
Totally Radical Muslims Zine crew

TWO LESSONS
THE USA MUST
LEARN FROM
GLENN FORD
By Tessa Murphy, USA campaigner at
Amnesty International.

T

here are two lessons the USA should
learn from the release of Glenn
Ford, a 64-year-old man who spent
28 years on death row in Louisiana for a
crime he didn’t commit.
The first lesson is that the death penalty
is never the answer, including because it
carries the inescapable risk of executing innocent people. The second is that there are
some serious problems with Louisiana’s
justice system.
Glenn Ford walked out of the southern
state’s infamous Angola prison late yesterday, after spending nearly three decades behind bars for a crime he’s always claimed
he never committed.
He was sentenced to death in 1984 for
the murder of Isadore Rozeman in the
north-western Louisiana city of Shreveport
in November 1983. His freedom comes after a Louisiana judge ordered his release,
following the state’s disclosure last year
that another man had admitted to the crime
in May 2013.
Glenn Ford is the 144th exonerated prisoner to be released from death row in the
USA since 1973, and the 10th such case in
Louisiana, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center in Washington, DC.
His case shows some of the hallmarks
present in other cases of wrongful conviction – inexperienced trial lawyers, unreliable witness testimony, and prosecuto-

rial misconduct. Questions of race, never
far from the US death penalty, were also
raised in this case. Glenn Ford is AfricanAmerican and was tried for the murder of a
white man by a jury consisting of 12 white
jurors, after African Americans had been
dismissed by the prosecution during jury
selection.
Despite the flimsy nature of the evidence
against him, the death sentence hung over
his head for decades. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and
death sentence in 1986, despite acknowledging that there were “serious questions”
about the evidence. One of the judges had
dissented, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to convict Glenn Ford.
This case is reminiscent of another that
has been litigated for over 40 years, sharing
many of the same flaws. Albert Woodfox,
one of the ‘Angola 3’ inmates previously
in the same prison as Glenn Ford, was convicted in 1973 of the murder of a prison
guard before an all-white jury. No physical evidence linked him to the crime, potentially exculpatory evidence was lost and
the convictions were based on the discredited testimony of the only eyewitness to
the murder – who was later shown to have
received privileges, including a pardon, in
return for his statement.
Despite his conviction having been overturned three times, once in a state court and
twice by federal judge, Albert Woodfox
remains incarcerated while he continues
to litigate his case. The state of Louisiana
has appealed against every court ruling in
his favour while the serious flaws in his
case remain without remedy. The case is
currently before the federal appeals court.
Should the court rule against him, it is likely that Albert Woodfox will die in prison.
A second member of the ‘Angola 3’,
Herman Wallace, had his conviction overturned by a federal judge last year on the
basis of the systematic exclusion of women
from the grand jury that indicted him. It
took a terminal diagnosis of cancer for the
federal court to expedite their ruling on the
case, and a judge who recognised that “the
Louisiana court, when presented with the
opportunity to correct this error, failed to
do so”. Herman Wallace died three days after his release.
Glenn Ford and Herman Wallace lost
decades of their lives behind bars under a
flawed system. Meanwhile, justice remains
elusive for Albert Woodfox. Amnesty International continues to call for him to be
released. ●

Volume 3, Number 5		

5

BILL WOULD LET
STATE PRISONS
CONTRACT OUT
INMATES AS
FARM LABOR

I

daho’s state Board of Correction could
contract out prison inmates as farm
laborers, under legislation making its
way through this year. Reporter Sean Ellis
of the Capital Press has a report here on the
bill, SB 1374 from Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston. Ellis
reports that fruit growers in southwestern
Idaho have struggled to find enough workers to pick their fruit in recent years, and
last year, pear were left unpicked in the
Sunny Slope area. The inmate workers
would be paid under the same payment
standards used by Correctional Industries,
and part of their earnings could go to pay
restitution orders, to offset their costs of
incarceration, to buy prison commissary
items and to help them re-enter society
when they’re released. ●
The Spokesman Review, March 7, 2014

LEGALIZED
SLAVERY

T

By Shawn Womack
he prison­industrial complex is one
of the last visible relics of colonial
slavery. The inmate workforce located within the walls of Oregon State Penitentiary is not allowed to protest, not allowed even non­violently, to obtain a living
wage. These inmates are mandated by laws
enforced by the state to offer their bodies
in service/slavery to the factories located
within the prison complex. The highest
paid position in any of the various factories/industrial plantations i.e. OCE laundry,
OCE metal shop, OCE furniture factory, or
OCE call center is $150 to $200 a month.
How can a man be expected to provide for
himself and his family on such a paltry income?
Corporate executives and capitalist elites
have engineered production facilities that
bear a shocking resemblance to third­world
neo­colonies right here on American soil.
Not that this is a new phenomenon. We can
see quite plainly in the annals of American
history how society has been purposely
structured to allow for a maximization of
6	

profit for a relatively small group of individuals at the expense of impoverishing
the workers who actually produce the nation’s wealth. From the steel mills to the
coal mines, the worker has always been at
the mercy of his employer. The worker is
viewed as an expendable asset, something
to be used, exploited by capital until he/she
can no longer produce. The strike was one
of the workers’ most effective tools. It allowed him/her to forcefully change the relationship of labor versus capital. Nevertheless, we all know too well what happened
to the workers who chose to strike. They
were beaten by police officers, gunned
down by national guardsmen, hauled off to
penal/concentration camps, forever denied
employment within the matrix of America’s mainstream economy, marginalized
and stripped of all human, social, and political rights.

Oregon Corrections Enterprises is a corporation
that makes ample use of
employing slave labor for
that one reason alone: inexpensive slave labor.
The saying goes “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” The strike
has been unceremoniously bartered away
by the so­called leadership of the workers
movement. What is left can only be seen,
in its proper light, as begging for relief and
tokenism. This mentality is not only found
within organizations operating in free
American society, it is also the subject of
this essay regarding the treatment of inmate
workers. The inmate population has very
little incentive to work. If it weren’t for the
fact that their collective stomachs compel
them to eat, I daresay the revolution would
be complete. These inmates know­I mean
they are conscious­of how and by who they
are being exploited. It is common knowledge that Oregon Corrections Enterprises
is a corporation that makes ample use of
employing slave labor for that one reason
alone: inexpensive slave labor. Slaves do
not have to be justly compensated for their
labor, nor do they have any real rights—
rights that the courts would not only respect but also defend. These inmates will
not strike because they are all aware of
the retaliation that will commence on the
part of OSP’s administration. Capitalists
use the government and its military agencies to break strikers. Prison administrators

use isolation/solitary confinement, physical
violence by highly trained storm troopers,
and the fear of being transferred to another
state away from one’s loved ones as a deterrent to any inmate who wishes to organize the inmate workforce against those
who would exploit them for private gain.
I do not want to give the impression that
this essay is merely an intellectual exercise. I am trying to demonstrate the historical nature of my observations. What I am
witnessing right now is not a coincidence.
It is the product of much thought, time,
and preparation. This system is designed
to crush anyone who opposes it, to silence
anyone who would speak out against it.
Most decent humans would say that what
the state is doing is criminal. Slavery is
abolished, right? No! The U.S. Constitution allows for the imposition of slavery
for anyone convicted of a crime. This is an
actual fact. No man in this place­if he be
of sound mind­will deny the sheer brutality
and dehumanizing effect of being identified
as a slave. These men are my brothers, and
yet, they are being conditioned to think of
themselves as something inferior to human
beings. Their struggle is my struggle. It’s
not a matter of race, it’s a matter of class.
My place is with the people, those who live
but never know freedom. Our leaders have
failed us entirely. They have either joined
our oppressors in exchange for a piece of
the devil’s pie, or have co­opted the revolutionary struggle in favor of meaningless
reform. The inmate is the new steel worker,
the coal miner, the assembly linesman. One
made a slave by economic policy, the other made a slave by judicial policy. There
is only one winner in all this: the policy
maker. ●
Shawn Womack #16453123
Oregon State Peitentiary
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97301

Control Unit, by
Martain Bibbs

Rock!

Cops Won't Follow Rules
First and foremost, a huge shout out in
solidarity to all those individuals who remain committed to the overall struggle to
end CDCR’s corrupt practices and the indefinite use of solitary confinement. And a
warm salute to all those beyond the prison
walls, friends, family members, advocates,
etc., who’s invaluable contributions have
helped change the face of our movement.
On behalf of all prisoners, thank you!
Without your steadfast support none of this
would be possible.
I am writing to help further expose the
extensive corruption, lack of accountability, and abuse of authority being suffered
by those held at Tehachapi and potentially
everywhere in similar situations. More specifically, myself and other like-minded individuals continue to apply the necessary
pressure on administration in an effort to
ensure they adhere/follow their own rules
and regulations established within the Title
15. We decided it was in our best interests
to dedicate our time and energy to the issues/matters which would benefit all those
confined without the Tehachapi SHU.
A little over a year ago we launched a
campaign against the administration here
to address/correct the inordinate amount of
institutional deficiencies by using the available grievance procedure. For example, we
challenged: The prisoner official’s refusal
to comply with the required ten hours of
outdoor exercise/out-of-cell-time per week
mandated for segregated prisoners [15
CCR § 3343(h)]. The processing of inmate
packages within fifteen calendar days and
that the packages be opened/inspected in
the presence of the inmate per policy [15
CCR § 3134 (c)(3) and (4)]. The inhumane
and unsanitary living conditions as a result of copious amounts of water flooding
numerous cells and dayrooms from leaky
roofs/plumbing chases [15 CCR § 3343
(a) and (g)]. The administration’s denial of
authorized personal property for Security
Housing Unit (SHU) inmates to purchase
and receive (e.g., headphones) [DOM §
54030.20.7.2].
All of the aforementioned appeals were
granted at one or all levels of review. However, despite being fully granted, prison officials refuse to adhere, comply, or enforce
any departmental policy/regulation that is

PBSP SHU Food Prep
….[T]he topic of a better existence does
give occasion to also note that we are not
unaware of the previous criticism directed
at the SHU food preparation approach. Going forward we trust such criticism is no
longer merited and we reaffirm our appreciation for and solidarity with the struggle
for prisoner’s human rights and the betterment of us all.
Name Withheld, A Yard, PBSP
On Women, Step Down, and the
Future
[This letter was written back in January
but got lost in the mess that is my desk.]
I’ve been in solitary confinement doing
indeterminate for over two decades now
and counting here in Pelican Bay SHU.
I want to acknowledge the strong women
in CIW and Massachusetts for their statements and acts of solidarity, as well as all
strong women within and behind jail and
prison walls. I believe it is important that
we recognize the women who so bravely
stood and stand by our sides as equals in
both this struggle and in life.
We have women from all walks of life

and family positions serving
time in jails and prisons across
the country. Here in Cali-incarceration land CDCR has subjected women to terms in solitary under false pretenses. They
justify their existence of their
torture chambers with allegations such as “gang activity” or
“enemy concerns.” CDCR does
not care about the gender of the
bodies, so long as they can fill
these living tombs. And just like us men,
these women suffer on a daily basis the repercussions and retaliation of their captors
for having the audacity to speak out against
the injustice being done them.
The issues facing women are the same as
ours, maybe even more profound than ours.
Like us men, they are being denied proper
medical attention, real education, nutritious foods, meaningful contact, and access
to family and loves ones, all of which are
important aspects of rehabilitation and success on parole. The once prominent idea
of rehabilitation is now just a myth that is
heard only in stories of past times.
Now CDCR is attempting to build a
new idea and create a new myth, called the
Step-Down Program (SDP). It is nothing
more than a new con that CDCR is running on the public. This new SDP has more
holes in it than Swiss-cheese! In this case,
however, CDCR won’t be able to play its
SDP game because we prisoners, men and
women, have spoken with a united voice.
This voice has been heard, and joined, by
many other human beings from the outside
world who are now seeing the torture going on here in Cali-incarceration Land, and
have stood up and sided against this crime
against humanity!
Sadly, we have had to take serious measures and put our own bodies in harm’s way
to be heard and taken seriously. But that is
nothing new, as CDCR has put our bodies
and minds in harm’s way since the creation
of the Prison Industrial Complex SHUs!
We as human beings are used to hardship,
the difference is choice, and we all have the
freedom to choose what is acceptable to us,
and what is not. These courageous women
have decided that the conditions they are
forced to endure are unacceptable and they
demand, alongside of us, to be treated as
human beings. They demand an end to the
psychological and physical toll placed upon
them (and us) by the indefinite and torturous placement in solitary confinement.

LETTERS

LETTERS

counterproductive to their agenda to suppress all local, state, and federal rights of
prisoners. These unethical and blatant acts
are underhanded attempts to render the
venue for review (inmate/parolee appeal
process) ineffective and minimize the potential for negative publicity. It should be
equally noted that these are only a handful
of the appeals that have been fully granted
within the last year that are not being honored.
We are currently pursuing further judicial review regarding most of these matters.
Unfortunately, prison officials will continue to lie, falsify records, and disregard
any court orders issued requiring CDCR
to comply with their own rules and regulations. Therefore we are seeking any information/advice from prisoners or anyone
else having knowledge and/or expertise in
these areas—on how we might combat Tehachapi’s ongoing attempts to ignore these
granted appeals and prevent our efforts in
obtaining meaningful resolution.
With that being said, we will remain
diligent and focused in achieving our objectives and goals. Enclosed are 24 forever
stamps donated on behalf of the 4B-5A collective.
Nick Wilds, Tehachapi SHU

Volume 3, Number 5		

7

We have come a long way, and I understand the frustration felt due to the slow
progress of change, but we must continue
to deep our heads up and stand by each
other. We know that CDCR is hesitant to
change, will drag its feet for as long as possible, and will continue on its path of falsity. The Green Wall will also continue its
scheming tactics. We must hold them accountable; it is by exposing their criminal
behavior to the light of day, for all to see,
that we can make them accountable.
It is of great significance for all to remember during this peaceful struggle, that
we must keep striving for our basic humanity, and for those to follow in generations
to come, if we do not then who will? The
green wall already is licking its chops at
our children and the young. Let’s not let
history repeat itself.
So, in closing, to our sista’s standing
with us, I and the short corridor salute you!
You are not alone!
Alex Yrigollen, PBSP

LETTER TO CDCR
From a Prisoner's Friend

W

hen I look at your proposed new
Step Down Program/Security
Threat Group regulations, an
old saying comes to mind – the more things
change, the more they stay the same.
We are not fooled by your proposed
new regulations and Step Down Program.
We can easily see that you are in no way
scaling back on the use of torture units in
California prisons, but are finding ways
to continue and even expand operations at
taxpayer expense.
The elements you say are changing, are
actually staying the same. That includes:
1.	Continuation of indeterminate solitary confinement – it is still absolutely
possible that a person could spend decades or even a lifetime in the SHU torture unit.
2.	The regulations are STILL not behavior-based! In fact, they go even further
in complete eradication of even a tiny
shred of first amendment rights for those
in the torture units.
3.	“Alleged association” continues to be
used as valid criteria to keep a person in
the torture units. CALIFORNIA IS THE
ONLY STATE IN THE COUNTRY
THAT DOES THIS.
4.	There is still no due process…placement and release from SHU torture units
8	

is completely discretionary and arbitrary.
5.	Coercive debriefing remains in place
– inherently unreliable “evidence” given
by people desperate to have their torture
ended. With the substance of the accusation withheld, it is impossible to defend
against – truly a Stalinesque feat.
6.	The disciplinary matrix criminalizes
innocuous social activities and first
amendment rights – only 3 out of 8 of
the sections address seriously criminal
and violent behavior. The other 5 criminalize the tiniest acts of thinking, speaking, reading and interacting.
I personally find it horrifying that CDCR
has written into their regulations that participation in a peaceful, non-violent protest
such as a hunger strike is a crime. Incarcerated people are still US citizens and have
the right to peaceful protest of abuses by
the state.
The things that are actually new, merely
serve to expand your control, so the fact of
torture, again remains the same. Your chilling use of Homeland Security language
(i.e. “Security Threat Group”) actually EXPANDS the net for who can be placed into
indeterminate torture.
Step Down Program, Interlocking
Traps and Deceptions
The Step Down Program as designed under these regulations is a deceptive game of
chutes and ladders, with miniscule rewards
and arbitrary regressions to earlier steps, no
independent oversight and no legal protections whatsoever.
The end result, as we well know, will be
that many will continue to be held in torture
units, in the complete lack of any genuinely
violent or criminal behavior.
Those who refuse to submit to cognitive
restructuring will not progress through the
steps – a neat way to cast blame on people
resisting sensory deprivation for refusing
to submit to the traps they did not create.
The Step Down Program takes far too
long, and the incentives are so miniscule
they are insulting. The first 2—3 years in
the SDP are spent in sensory deprivation
under basically identical horrific conditions. This is NOT APPROPRIATE for

SHOUT OUT BOX

To the men of F and E rows
of the PBSP ASU for their 74
forever stamps.

Rock on!

men already in torture units for decades
without a single violent act.
Also chilling is that your new regulations will make the “interactive journaling” mandatory for those who want to
advance through the Step Down Program.
While these degrading exercises in character invalidation will have little effect on
those who possess self-respect and political maturity, the effect could be devastating on younger, less mentally stable people
housed in torture units. As you well know.
As you also know, mandatory cognitive
restructuring under ANY kind of coercion,
is against Article 1 of the Nuremburg Code.
You know it, and we know it too.
As if this weren’t bad enough, there are
no legal safeguards about how information
obtained through these “journals” can be
used by CDCR in terms of classification
hearings, criminal prosecution, civil litigation and/or Board of Parole Hearings.
This is particularly reprehensible, and
allows CDCR the façade of clean hands
while those desperate to exit your torture
units are at great risk of inadvertently
“choosing” their own extended torture sentences.
These seemingly innocuous journals are
a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”
sort of proposition. A lose/lose for incarcerated people, and a win/win for maintenance
and expansion of SHU torture.
Longer than 15 days in a sensory deprivation unit, under international law, is
considered torture. The US (champion of
democracy?) employs this form of torture
far more than most countries, and California employs it far more than other states in
the US. What that means is that California
is running a domestic torture program in
gross violation of international law, more
so than any other state in the country.
What this also means is that the handwriting is on the wall – we will END this
kind of torture. We, as Californian taxpayers working together with incarcerated
people fighting for their human rights, will
not stop until it ends. True human rights
work is rooted in great love, which sustains
us for the long term.
There are far, far better and more honorable uses for our money, and we will do everything we can to stop this torture happening in our name. Basic human rights for all
are not negotiable, and we roundly reject
this pretense of reform. ●
Sincerely,
Denise Mewbourne
April 3, 2014
Rock!

MAROON UPDATE
Rising like a Phoenix
from the Ashes

A

fter 22 years in solitary confinement Russell Maroon Shoatz has
been transferred to general population. This is significant since the U.S. government is determined to break the spirit
of political prisoners through confinement,
silencing, and torture. Here is an update on
Maroon’s transition into general population
at SCI Graterford, Pennsylvania’s largest
maximum-security prison:
It has been five weeks since his transfer.
Every week he gains his humanity back, as
he learns how to live without shackles on
his hands and feet, breathe fresh air for the
first time in months, and carefully re-teach
himself how to redistribute his weight in
order to walk up and down stairs again. He
is acclimating to his new surroundings and
becoming familiar with how prison authorities regulate his life in general population.
SCI Graterford confines up to 3,500
prisoners. They are holding Maroon in the
newest wing where prisoners are completely broken. They have lost all self-respect
and dignity. They have been broken by the
prison system and living out of fear and
desperation. Upon entering his new cell,
fellow prisoners surrounded and begged
Maroon for food. This is unimaginable to
Maroon since any sign of weakness makes
you vulnerable to manipulation by both
prison authorities and prisoners.
Along with the breaking of prisoners’
spirit, this is also a result of the privatization of prisons as they cut corners to
make profit. The prisoners are not getting
fed enough during mealtimes so they are
desperate for food. Most don’t have the
outside support and cannot afford to buy
food and drink from the commissary. As a
result, the spirit of the prisoners is so low
and defeated that Maroon spends most of
his time alone in his cell reading, writing,
and studying.
Maroon is gaining clarity on the trauma
caused by long-term solitary confinement.
He understands more concretely how prolonged solitary confinement has been specifically designed and used to target and
destroy prisoners who display political
leadership or abilities to organize prisoners
(i.e. political and politicized prisoners). He
is barely beginning to recognize all the psychological and bodily harm it has done to
him over the past decades. Despite the fact

that Maroon is one of the stronger prisoners, it is clear that 22 years of solitary confinement has done severe damage to him.
One can only fathom how much of a toll
solitary confinement takes on prisoners that
are not as strong-willed as Maroon.
We will keep you—his ardent supporters
—regularly updated on Maroon’s progress
and with his campaign as we transition into
a new phase demanding a full release from
prison.
Russell Maroon Shoatz is an innocent
man who has suffered tremendously under
the duress of state torture. He needs the
kind of rehabilitation that prison may have
once promised, but clearly can’t and won’t
give him. His cruel punishment—22 years
of continuous solitary confinement and torture—has well exceeded his original sentence.
It's way past time to free Russell Maroon
Shoatz! ●

research project that was ended.
SHU prisoners established Cessation of
Hostilities among prison groups brought
30,000 prisoners together to stand up for
their human rights. Now comes the prisoncrats with their modified “step program”
creates new divisive groups. And it is
tempting prisoners to break that solidarity
that was gained among California prisoners
over the past three years and with great personal sacrifice. The step program provides
the prisoner with a means to ease the torture not to end it. Remember it is a one step
forward program and if the prisoner slips it
is two steps backward. ●
Mark Cook,
NLG Prisoner Advocate

ONE STEP
FORWARD, TWO
STEPS BACK
PROGRAM

ost of you may know by now that
Judge Lawrence Karlton, U.S.
Dist. Ct, Eastern District made
a ruling in the case of Richard Gilman vs
Gov. Brown. This is a class action suit that
will affect all lifers. Submitted by Barbara
Brooks.
“The court accordingly DECLARES
that Proposition 9, as implemented by the
Board, violates the ex post facto rights of
the class members.”
“The court further DECLARES that
Proposition 89, as implemented by the governors of California, violates the ex post
facto rights of the class members.”
“The court orders injunctive relief as follows:
1. Going forward, the Board shall
apply Cal. Penal Code 3041.5, as it existed prior to Proposition 9, to all class
members. That is, all class members
are entitled to a parole hearing annually, unless the Board finds, under former Section 3041.5(b) that a longer
deferral period is warranted.
2. The Governor of California shall
refrain from imposing longer sentences on class members than are called for
by application of the same factors the
Board is required to consider, as provided for by Proposition 89.
This order is stayed for 31 days, and goes
into effect immediately thereafter, unless a
timely appeal is filed.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATED: February 27, 2014.”

I

have read the various letters from the
California prisoners regarding the socalled Step Down Program. It pretty
much amounts to one step forward and two
steps back.
In the forty years I have spent behind
lock and key, the most humiliating and useless "step" program was one conducted in
the hospital of the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla in the late 1960’s.
Dr. William Conte was the head of all the
prisons and mental hospitals in Washington
State. B. F. Skinner was the author of books
applauding the use of behavioral modification.
The particular program I remember involved “voluntary” participation by prisoners. It began where everything was taken
away from the prisoner and the prisoner
was placed in diapers and forced to drink
all liquids from a baby bottle. The idea was
to reduce the prisoner to the lowest point
of human immaturity. The prisoner had to
wet himself in the diapers and it would go
unchanged for a period of time. The prisoner was gradually over a period of time
“awarded” progressive niceties such as
adult clothing, mattress, bedding, recreation period, etc. It was an unsanctioned

RULING ON
LIFER PAROLE
HEARINGS

M

Volume 3, Number 5		

9

Behavior Mod....... Continued from page 4
In 1983, the whole prison was permanently
locked down and turned into the first control unit. Until recently it was the highest security prison in the United States. I
was doing time there during the late 1970s
and early 1980s. Shortly after I was transferred out of Marion the American Friends
Service Committee observed that Marion
represents choosing “a course that favors
the continual escalation of repression as a
means of control, even though it has never
been demonstrated that repression brings
its desired results.” A John Howard Association Report concluded that Marion “is
not a normal maximum-security prison on
lockdown status but rather a firmly established, fully functioning behavior modification program...”; that “the Marion program seems to be designed to break the
defiant spirit and behavior... through a year
or more of sensory and psychological deprivation [in which] prisoners are stripped
of their individual identities...”
In the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons,
Vol. 4 No. 2 (1993), is an article entitled
“Breaking Men’s Minds: Behavior Control
and Human Experimentation at the Federal

Prison in Marion.” It was written by Eddie Griffin, who spent 12 years there. I’m
not going to waste a lot of valuable space
detailing Marion’s behavior modification
program, as Eddie sums it up pretty well:
“Behavior modification at Marion consists of a manifold of four techniques: 1)
Dr. Edgar H. Schein’s brainwashing methodology; 2) Skinnerian operant conditioning; 3) Dr. Levinson’s sensory deprivation
design (i.e. Control Unit); and 4) chemotherapy and drug therapy. And, as I will
point out, the use of these techniques, the
way they are disguised behind pseudonyms
and under the philosophical rhetoric of correction, and even their modus operandi,
violate the Nuremburg Code, the United
Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
the Department of Health, Education and
Welfare policy on human experimentation,
and the 1st, 6th and 8th Amendments to the
U.S. Constitution.”
The program degenerated into individuals ratting each other out for minor rule
violations and groups of prisoners acting as vigilantes to enforce the dictates of

their captors. This too was a “voluntary”
program—volunteer or stay on indefinite
lockdown.
The prisoners who volunteered were
shunned by other prisoners, who deemed
them rats and collaborators. There was a
huge campaign by Marion prisoners who
wrote articles, exposing the program for
what it was, which in turn generated widespread outside support, and it was this
combination of inside and outside working
together that shut down that program. It
was not the participants in the program that
did this, they were brain washed. Rather it
was the rest of the population of Marion
who despised these “volunteer” minions of
the state.
Now we have to fight this same battle all
over again against the so-called Step Down
(behavior modification) Program. The next
issue of Prison Focus is completed and
at the printer. When you get it, carefully
read the article on page 1, “Power Concedes Nothing.” Understand the dynamics
of what’s going on here. Contrary to what
you’ve been conditioned to believe, there
are no individual solutions. As only peaceful collective action can produce a progressive outcome. ●

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

FIRST CLASS MAIL