Working
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W
Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
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to
t All 
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Volume
V l
Volume
3, N
3
Number
b 9
9

September
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S t b 2014
September
2014

TIME TO SPEAK UP: WOMEN’S
PRISON RESISTANCE IN ALABAMA
By Victoria Law
oth incarcerated women and the
U.S. Department of Justice agree:
The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Ala., is a hellish place. In
a 36-page letter that the DOJ issued to the
Alabama State Governor Robert Brentley
in January, the agency declared, “The State
of Alabama violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution by
failing to protect women prisoners at Tutwiler from harm due to sexual abuse and
harassment from correctional staff.”
Federal investigators found that, for
nearly two decades, staff members at Tutwiler have sexually assaulted women and
compelled them into sex to obtain necessities, such as feminine hygiene products and
laundry service. Women who report sexual

B

CONTENTS
Time To Speak Up....................1
Palestinian Prison Conditions ..3
ABC Approach to Organizing ...3
Editorial 3-8 ..............................5
Letters ......................................6
30 Years on a Bum Beef ..........6
General Prison News ...............7
Solitary Confinement in CA ......8
Cruel Conditions in Alabama ...9

abuse are placed in solitary confinement,
where they are given lie detector tests and
are frequently threatened by other staff.
But while the DOJ’s letter—and conditions in Tutwiler—made headlines, less attention has been paid to the activism and
organizing by women inside Alabama’s
prisons. During the department’s investigation, for example, it received 233 letters from women currently incarcerated at
Tutwiler detailing a host of concerns about
the sexual abuse they’ve either personally
experienced or witnessed. This figure does
not include the letters that women have
been sending to the Department of Justice
and other government entities for years before the investigation was launched. When
incarcerated, sending testimony letters is
a potentially dangerous action. Women
r
risked
prison staff opening their letters and
r
reading
their complaints—and retaliating
a
against
them. Two hundred thirty-three
w
women
decided to take that risk.
These actions of testifying are far from
t first time women behind bars in Alathe
b
bama
have organized to effect change. Tutw
wiler
was built in 1942 to hold 365 women.
B 2002, Tutwiler housed more than 1,000
By
w
women.
“Every dormitory was filled front
t back with bunk beds,” described one
to
w
woman
for an essay in the anthology Interr
rupted
Life: Experiences of Incarcerated
W
Women
in the United States. “The weather
g
gets
extremely hot in the summers—the
h index regularly rises over 100 degrees
heat
i the facility — and cold in the winters. …
in
A the windows have been braced so that
All
t
they
open only a few inches at the top. Per-

sonal space is nonexistent, and security is
very poor.” In recent letters, she asked that
her name not be used for fear of retaliation
for speaking out about prison conditions.
In 2002, women filed a lawsuit against
both the state and the Alabama Department
of Corrections about the overcrowding, extreme temperatures and poor medical care.
They also attempted to contact the Department of Justice and other outside organizations about the rampant sexual abuse, but
their com-plaints received little attention.
In response to the lawsuit, in December
2002, a federal district court judge declared
Tutwiler constitutionally unsafe and gave
state officials 30 days to develop a plan to
remedy conditions.
But Alabama’s solution did not involve
sentencing reform or the implementation
of alternatives to incarceration. Instead, it

contracted with the private prison corporation Louisiana Correctional Services to
re-locate some of the women to a private
prison in Basile, a small town in southwest
Louisiana more than seven hours away.
In April 2003, Alabama sent 140 women
to Basile. In June 2003, they sent another
100 women. Women were pulled out of
educational and treatment programs and
transferred to a prison far from family and
with far fewer programs.
“Ironically, we were told that the Alabama Department of Corrections chose
prisoners for transfer based on our good
conduct at Tutwiler,” wrote the essay author. In a separate letter, she recalled that
Basile offered only three programs — a
GED course, a substance abuse program
and an anger stress management program.
The move sparked even more organizing.
Once in Basile, women who were serving
long sentences formed the Longertermers/
Insiders group.
“The group wanted to have a voice in
the decision making,” wrote the essay author. “We feared that once in Louisiana, we
would be ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ … We
felt it was time to speak up, make a stand,
and be heard.”
They worked together to help each other
develop the skills to produce a political
platform about the overuse of women’s
incarceration, write articles for the local
newspapers, write letters to legislative representatives, discuss legislation and talk
with people outside prison about lobbying
on their behalves.
“We … are continually striving to give
input to a system that has not allowed us to
be heard,” she stated.
Their efforts to have outside people advocate on their behalves resulted in the
legislature establishing the Commission
on Girls and Women in the Criminal Justice System in 2006. The commission did a
two-year study and — finding that women’s
needs and pathways to prison remained unaddressed in the cur-rent penal system —
issued a series of recommendations that
included expanding the use of communitybased alternatives to incarceration and the
closing and tearing down of Tutwiler.
In 2006, the women were transferred to
another private prison run by Louisiana
Correctional Services, this time in Newellton, La. In 2007, they were returned to
Alabama. Most were returned to Tutwiler,
which re-mains overcrowded and rife with
staff sexual abuse.
In the meantime, women’s prison or2

ganizing continued — this time aimed at
changing long-standing prison segregation
policies that discriminated against women
with HIV or AIDS. During the 1980s, many
prison systems segregated people with HIV
or AIDS from the rest of the prison population. While most states stopped the practice
years ago, a handful, including Alabama,
have continued. At Tutwiler, women with
HIV or AIDS were confined to a separate
dorm. They were only allowed to work
cleaning jobs inside their dorm or in the
dorm’s yard. They had to eat in their living
space instead of being allowed into the dining hall with the general population. They
were denied placement in other dorms and
prohibited from participating in programs.
Lastly, they were required to broadcast
their status by wearing white arm-bands.
According to an investigation by The Atlantic, when Beverly Jacobs first arrived at
Tutwiler, she applied to the religious dorm,
but officials denied her a space because of
her HIV status. She also applied to a support dorm for people recovering from substance abuse. Prison officials refused her
application, again because of her status.
They also refused her for a work-release
program. In addition to being denied participation in programs, she faced other
forms of discrimination even while held in
a separate dorm. Her clothing was placed in
a bin marked AIDS, washed separately and
often returned dirty.
“I still have nightmares about that prison,” she told The Atlantic.
Jacobs’s experience was the norm. Dana

Labeled, by Michael Russell

Harley, a mother of two who was serving a
20-year sentence, recalls being confined to
the dorm 24 hours a day.
“I felt caged,” she said in video testimony recorded by the ACLU. “I wanted to do
things, I wanted to be a part of things, but
I couldn’t.”
When her family visited, they were not
allowed to use the main visiting room.
When Harley’s four-year-old son visited,
he asked why the other children were allowed to play in the larger visiting room
while he and his mother were forced to remain in the smaller room.
“There’s just no way for me to explain
to a four year old,” Harley reflected. At
the prison’s clinic, nurses made comments
like, “You’re going to die anyway,” in response to Harley’s questions.
In 2007, Harley wrote a letter to the
ACLU describing her experiences. The
ACLU had already spent two decades
making several unsuccessful attempts —
through both litigation and negotiations—
to end this policy. The ACLU arranged for
Harley to testify at a closed hearing about
the segregation policy. It also filed another
suit and, in 2012, a judge ruled that the
policy violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. That ruling had a ripple effect,
forcing Alabama and South Carolina, the
other hold-out state, to end their HIV/AIDS
segregation policy. The change meant that
people with HIV would be allowed to participate in programs such as work release
for the first time since the segregation policy began in the early 1980s. Now, Harley
is able to attend religious services, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous,
and other programs, all of which had been
previously closed to her.
“It wasn’t for me,” she stated later in an
interview with USA Today. “It’s for the
people behind me coming in who aren’t as
comfortable [with their status].” Now, if
women with HIV or AIDS enter the prison,
none of the other women know their status.
While these changes are welcome to
those currently behind bars, the drastically
increasing numbers of women sent to, and
remaining inside, prisons should also push
us to challenge the policies that are locking up so many. In 1978, Alabama held 257
women behind bars. This included women
in local jails as well as in state and federal
prisons.
Since then, the state has seen a 930.7 percent increase in its women’s prison population. By the end of 2012, there were 2,649
women in Alabama prisons. As of April
Rock!

2014, Alabama has 2,686 women under
some form of prison custody — a figure
that does not include the unknown numbers of trans-women held in men’s jails or
prisons. Just over half the state’s prisoners
have been sentenced for drug or property
crimes. Of the 15,212 people in Alabama
convicted of violent felonies, only five percent are women.
Regardless of whether they are incarcerated for violent or nonviolent offenses, the
conditions women face once inside are horrific. In addition to pervasive, unchecked
sexual abuse, women have reported inadequate medical care, excessive use of force,
threats of force, and inadequate access to
clean clothes, uniforms and hygiene products.
For those of us on the outside, given what
we know about conditions in prison, it’s
important to support incarcerated women’s
efforts to change conditions. At the same
time, we need to understand that more humane conditions should not be the ending
point. We need to also challenge laws and
policies that lock a drastically increasing
number of women away from their families
and communities in the first place. ●
http://prisonbooks.info/2014/07/16/timeto-speak-up-womens-prison-resistance-inalabama/

PALESTINIAN
PRISONERS
SUBJECT TO
ONGOING RAIDS,
WORSENING
CONDITIONS
By Samidoun
he Palestinian Prisoners Center for
Studies reported that the conditions
of Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons have worsened significantly
following the imposition of further sanctions upon the prisoners by the occupation
forces, imposed during the mass arrest campaign following the disappearance of three
settlers in June and maintained throughout
the Israeli assault on Gaza that killed over
1850 Palestinians.
The occupation prison administration
has cut recreation time in half, reduced the
maximum amount each prisoner can have
in his or her “canteen” fund (provided by
family or Palestinian sources) from 1,200

T

Volume 3, Number 9

shekels maximum to only 400 shekels, reduced family visits to one half-hour each
month, removed 7 satellite channels of 10
from prison television (and 2 of the 3 remaining channels are Zionist channels).
Raafat Hamdouna reported that the prisoners reject these sanctions, which are designed to prevent them from learning the
truth about the war on Gaza, the Israeli
crimes and the Palestinian resistance, and
are planning to protest these sanctions as
part of the war against prisoners and in
particular those from Gaza, who are suffering an additional heavy burden behind
bars while their families face bombing and
destruction.
Meanwhile the Palestinian Prisoners Society reported ongoing attacks by prison
administration on prisoners in various prisons. In Gilboa prison, the prison administration claimed to discover a tunnel in one
of the prison sections and transferred the
prisoners affiliated with Islamic Jihad to
Hasharon and Hadarim prisons, and isolated Muhannad Zayoud and Muhannad
Sawalha. They raided each of the sections
of the prison throughout the night, and invaded section 5 - which houses prisoners
from Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ‘48
- for 5 hours. On Sunday, special units invaded section 1 for 6 hours, and section 2
has been closed since Sunday.
Similar to the pretext used in Gaza to attack civilians massively, the Israeli prison
administration has used claims of “searching for tunnels” to engage in abusive raids
and “inspections” in Ashkelon prison,
damaging prisoners’ belongings and vandalizing and ransacking the rooms. ●
http://samidoun.ca/2014/08/palestinianprisoners-subject-to-ongoing-raids-worsening-conditions

THE A-B-CAPPROACH TO
RE-ORGANIZING
THE PRISON
MOVEMENT
[The following article is the third place
winner ($50) of the Rock's writing contest.
The second place winner's piece will appear in next month's issue.]
By Kijana Tashiri Askari
oremost, I would like to make it absolutely clear that this analysis is not
being made for purposes of personally attacking individual or organization as
that would be a form of liberalism which
is a corrosive that undermine our collective
unity. But nonetheless, there is a real need
for us to reflect upon why the prison industrial slave complex (e.g. “P.I.S.C.”) has
been historically successful in stimulating
a mass consciousness amongst the people
as a supposed synthesis to the issue of
crime, gang violence, etc. that exist in our
communities? We could easily point to several reasons for this, however, it is critical
for us to look at the fact that the principal
reason for this is rooted in our collective
failure of not organizing ourselves to the
extent of building a mass movement that
is equipped with the necessary organizational infrastructure which would enable us
to qualitatively negate the advances of the
P.I.S.C.. It is an undisputable truth that the
P.I.S.C. is a by-product of the social system
of capitalism and we would be forth right
in concluding that therein belies the problem. But that would be dealing with this issue in the abstract.
Every organization or movement must
have a defined ideological method in which
it structures and organizes its primary functions and objectives around. Without ideology the basis of that organization and/or
movement is doomed to dwell in the abysmal pit of a social disconnect from the material factors that it proclaims to represent
and organizing around. For example, let’s
look at the current state of the prison movement as it exist today and begin our analysis with those factors wherein every movement/organization is supposed to have a
framework in place to advance their material existence. And in doing so we must ask
ourselves; 1.) Does the prison movement
have a clear line of organizational expecta-

F

3

tions? 2.) Are these organizational expectations clearly define and being facilitated
through ideological precepts? and 3.) Do
these ideological precepts clearly address,
confront, identify and have the ability to
destabilize the P.I.S.C.? And as we look at
the current state of the prison movement in
trying to identify these factors, the answer
is unfortunately a resounding no!!
My people, before I press further, allow
me to clarify what an ideology is how it is
developed and its overall significance to
movement building. An ideology is systematic, scientific, cultural, economic, political, social and moral values of a people.
An ideology are those systematic views that
are historically evolved by definite stages
of social, political and economic development. In dealing with the development of
an ideology, we are essentially dealing
with the development of ideas. However,
in order for these ideas and/or theories to
become transformed into an ideology they
must be tested and verified in one’s social
practice pursuant to the social history of the
people that are waging the struggle for the
total liberation of all oppressed people!!
An ideology enables an organization and/
or movement to co-ordinate its set-aims/
goals through their organized activities via
the ideological indoctrination of its members so that they can carry forward these
set-aims/goals of that particular movement
and/or organization within the harmonious
flow of social and political cohesiveness.
These points are essential in relation to us
educating the people for purpose of forging
a consciousness in them that would allow
the people to understand that our struggle
for human rights did not become manifest
in the abstract!! Meaning that it is imperative that we study analyze and draw upon
the historical experiences of those organizations and/or movements that preceded
us.
Per. the principal factors that I just outlined such as: 1.) organizational expectations, 2.)organizational expectations being
clearly facilitated through ideological pre-

4

cepts, and 3.) ensuring that our ideological
precepts clearly address, confront, identify and have the ability to destabilize the
P.I.S.C.. It should thus become quite clear
that in order for today’s prison movement
to begin developing some realistic organizational expectations we must begin to
construct organizational infrastructures
that will qualitatively facilitate the educational development of those individuals who volunteer and become members
of various human rights organizations. I
mean think about it, before an individual
in our communities can become a postal
worker, a factory worker or even to the
point of acquiring their driver’s license, he/
she must go through the process trained/
oriented before they can even be considered a postal/factory worker or be allowed
to drive a motorized vehicle on the road.
So why shouldn’t this be a requirement
when individuals of our communities decide upon becoming a human rights activist
by volunteering for various prisoner rights
organization?
I have created the W.L. Nolen Mentorship Program (e.g. “W.L.N.M.P.”) in order
to help provide solutions to not only this
contradiction but also to several other contradictions that exist in our prisoner rights
movement which addresses the issues of:
1.) Violence prevention/intervention; 2.)
Developing critical thinking skills, 3.) Cultural tolerance/sensitivity, 4.) Alternatives
to joining gangs, 5.) Support for single
mothas, 6.) Economic empowerment; 7.)
How to overcome alcohol/drug addiction,
8.) Domestic violence conflict resolution,
9.) Avoiding negative peer-pressure and
10.) tools to help develop community responsibility and awareness. (*NOTE: The
W.L.N.M.P. mission statement may be
downloaded at: www.sfbayview.com*)
I have taken the initiative to make several
prisoners’ rights organizations in California
and abroad aware of the W.L.N.M.P. However, there has been nobody to step forward thus far and facilitate the W.L.N.M.P.
through their organizations or otherwise?
This point is critical because August of 2012
we provided the people
with our agreement to
end all hostilities which
was officially implemented in October of
2012 as a deterrent to
negate the 40mplus
years of racially based
violence. The agree-

ment to end all hostilities is a tremendous
step forward!! However, it is fundamentally impossible for anybody to believe that
somebody who has been a long-standing
adherent to criminal behavior and values
would somehow make a complete transition from this aberrant way of life without
first being armed with the necessary tools to
do so. The W.L.N.M.P. provides the people
with materialism for this type of change to
occur as we have an abundance of knowledge, wisdom experience and archive of
materials that specifically deal with: alternatives to joining gangs; violence prevention; cultural tolerance/sensitivity etc.
Eventually, I would like to develop some
cadres that are cable of teaching and carrying out the objectives that are set-forth
in the W.L.N.M.P. along with converting
all of the subject materials that we are providing through the W.L.N.M.P. into: study
group workshops; instruction self-help videos, published pamphlets/books, documentaries and so forth. As we believe that this
will also aid those who have committed to
being a part of the prisoner’s rights movement, to purge within themselves all values
and aspirations of emulating capitalist behavior.
My people, this speaks to the essence
of how we begin the process of constructing an organizational infrastructure. But
in addition to this every prisoner’s rights
organization must incorporate “steering
committees” within our community based
infrastructures which must include California’s captive political prisoners to thus
allow us to be a part of the process of synthesizing information with regards to protecting and advancing the human rights
of all prisoners. This will ensure that the
issues of prisoners are qualitatively represented while allowing our organizational
expectations to be clearly understood, fostered and facilitated through ideological
precepts. This will also accord every individual within our prisoner’s rights movement to function with a unity of purpose!!
So in closing, I again ask the question:
“which individuals and/or prisoner’s rights
organizations in our communities is willing to step forward and help us change the
course of history in relation to the masses
patriotic reliance on the P.I.S.C. as a supposed synthesis to the issue of crime, gang
violence, etc. that exist in our communities.???” ●
Dare 2 struggle!!!
Dare 2 win!!!
Rock!

EDITORIAL 3-9

T

he Writing Contest: First Place
$100, Jose Villarreal wins first
prize focusing on a clear political change in the state. Jose's article "The
Lumpen Has Stood Up!" was printed on
page one of Prison Focus #43. Our Second
Place winner of $50, Anthony Artega (page
8) wins second prize proceeding from a
detailed historical analysis of prison. Third
Place, also $50, Marcus Harrison (page 3)
wins third prize; he sees prison administrations run by prisoner advocates.
Your Letters: Thank you, dear readers,
for the kind thoughts and good wishes you
there on the inside have been sending me in
your cards and letters regarding my medical condition. Your ongoing support for the
work I do is very much appreciated. There
are some great letters from you and they
will be preserved but not printed here.
Need Help: It cost $300 to produce and
mail out the August issue of Rock--$156
for printing and another $150 for the 300
stamps needed to make up for the shortfall
in donations. Last month I received a single
$30 contribution from a prisoner, the rest
came from out of my own pocket.
Now, getting ready to send this issue off
to the printer, I count stamps. There are 382
of them, whereas I need at least 600 to get
the mailing out. I also put up all of the $200
in prize money for the writing contest, and
I'll be paying the $156 to get this issue duplicated. Either you pick it up or I’ll have
put it down. I simply don't have the money
to giving away what amounts to between
three to five hundred dollars each month.
And yes, I know there is less of a need for
this newsletter now as there’s no struggle
taking place. Perhaps, California prisoners have given up, maybe feeling that what
they got was all they could get. Of course I
disagree; but it ain’t my show. I'm feeling
like we have glorious struggles ahead.
Ebola and Big the Pharmaceuticals:
Last month I wrote:
"…do … what the cells in your body
are doing, peacefully cooperating with
each other for the benefit of the whole.
That’s how civil society should be organized as well…."
One might ask why this is so, didn’t
Darwin talk about the survival of the fittest? Well, capitalism emphasizes only one
aspect of Darwinism, so much that you do
not even know there is another side of the
Darwin coin. The other side of that coin is
“mutual cooperation”, like when one bird
Volume 3, Number 9

in a flock sounds the alarm, thus attracting
attention to itself in order to warn the rest
of the birds. But more to the point than theoretical debate is the fact that you get situations in places like Western Africa, where
the Ebola virus has spread to three nations
adjoining Liberia and two non-contiguous
states. As of this writing at least 1,950 are
dead from the virus. That’s the big news
story. The story behind the news is better
framed as a question: I’ve been hearing
about Ebola in Western Africa since at least
the 1970s, so why is there no cure or vaccine for Ebola some all of these years later?
The reason is simple: While white racism plays a big part of the equation (they
are only African blacks), I think a larger
part of it was there being no mega-profits
for Big Pharma in such a small number of
infections. Once the virus spreads and there
was no cure in sight, governments started
paying Big Pharma to create a vaccine.
And wham! Looks like they might have
one already.1 Big Pharma has once again
put profit ahead of people. The Ebola cure
or vaccine is only one of many drugs that
could save lives but are not produced because there is not enough profit in doing so
for the pharmaceutical corporations.
Big Parma is not alone in putting profits
ahead of people. Indeed, it’s the capitalist
way. You probably even know some wannabe capitalist (in the old days we called
them “illegitimate capitalists”) who would
put profit before people. These are people
who’ve bought into the lie that “you too
can be rich.” Their mantra is it’s a dog-eatdog world (FTW). Fact is, and we all know
it, you’ll be lucky if you can get a minimum wage job when released, let alone
ever being rich.
Inversions: Something capitalists call an
“inversion” has been getting a lot of coverage in the news lately. A corporate inversion is when companies who have factories
or other corporate interests in the U.S., who
built there business off the land and people
of this nation, now “invert”—they buy a
little subsidiary company in a place like
Ireland, renounce their U.S. citizenship,
then say their home base is now there, and
thus evade paying taxes to the U.S. government. Even Burger King has bought a
doughnut chain in Canada and is moving
its corporate headquarters there. Hundreds
1. On Aug. 30th the SeaƩle Times reported 36
monkeys were given the Ebola virus, half were
given placebos, the other half the new experimental vaccinaƟon. The 18 given the placebos
all died, the 18 given the experimental drug all
lived.

of billions have been lost to the U.S. coffers. In an article in the Seattle Times titled
Tax Inversions Threaten Economy, U.S.
Senator Ron Wyden was quoted calling
these inversions a “plague.”
This so called plague comes at a time
when we need a lot more money for our
many military adventures. Sure we need to
rebuild America's infrastructure and stuff
like create jobs here at home, but our endless wars against the poorest peoples of
the world are very expensive.2 And now it
looks as if we need to start yet another one
in Syria.
My point is that the ruling class, the ones
who run this oligarchy, have no loyalty to
any one spot on the globe, they owe allegiance to no nation (but the god of profit)—they are globalized. Yet it seems globalization is only for the rich. The Earth’s
working class can’t seem to reach out to
other workers outside their respective national envelopes. In fact working people
are still all too happy to go off and fight
and die in these endless wars of ruling class
aggression.
So you see, just as what the healthy cells
in your body are doing, peacefully cooperating with each other for the benefit of the
whole. So too is how civil society should
be organized—on a global level. Cells that
look out for only “number one” (narrow
self-interest) are a cancer both in your body
and in the body of the capitalist system.
Bourgeois ideology, which is the philosophy of capitalism, has been taught to
everyone from the cradle to grave. Its insidious effects contaminates us all and
must be fought not only in our own head,
but in the heads of those around us. Combat
all forms of bourgeois ideology, including
its destructive offshoots of racism, sexism, and homophobia—all of which work
to divide prisoners from one another. And
anything that works to undermine prisoner
unity serves the interests of the state.
The tool for overcoming the insidious effects of that negative ideology is to study
its opposite—dialectical and historical materialism. It does takes effort to learn. ●
2. When was the last Ɵme we won one of these
wars? Well, let’s see, there was Regan's invasion of Grenada (which did not have an army).
And the Panama War over the Canal in December 1989. It occurred during the administraƟon
of Bush One, ten years aŌer the Torrijos–Carter
TreaƟes were raƟfied to transfer control of the
Panama Canal from the United States to Panama by January of 2000. The US invaded under
the pretext ousƟng a rouge puppet (Manuel
Noriega), and thus invalidated this formerly
binding treaty by invading that Ɵny naƟon.

5

THERE IS NO DIVERSITY IN
STRUGGLE
It seems to me (a recent reader) that Rock
is for those on the left and right of the political spectrum. So given such a medium,
I would like to bring up a subject that has
vexed me and that is “diversity.” This word
has become a platitude for the left and a
mark of the beast for those on the right.
The way I see things, both left and right
are confused as to what diversity actually
means. It means variety. Variety is different classes, races, income, and even rights.
So no matter where you fall on the political
field, it seems to me you have not thought
through this idea very much. I wish the left
would stop spouting it as a mission statement, and the right needs to stop running
because of ignorance.
This is just another example of how the
left and the right have been fighting little
ideological battles that makes no sense.
We have a common goal before us, let’s
take care of the task at hand before we all
become philosophers and fail to get something done.
Cameron Hayes,
Pendleton, Oregon prison
[Mark Responds: Cameron, California prisoners are the founders of the Rock
newsletter. Thirty thousand prisoners who
at one time stood in unity during the historical hunger strike dealt with the issue
of diversity by adopting a cessation of antagonisms during the struggle.
Rock is published by and for prisoners
who have chosen to struggle together in
common cause. Everyone can keep their
political “diversity” but when struggling
in common cause, it is time to put religious
and social ideologies in your back pocket.
Today, two and a half million men,
women and children are in prisons that
are systematically abused and their necessities neglected. Rock is about prisoners speaking up and struggling together
against those abuses and neglect. During
that struggle, prisoners have taken the position calling for the cessation of all hostilities among prisoners. Diversity among
prisoners is; the person in the cell next to
you and in other prisons suffering the same
neglect and abuses you suffer. Let’s Rock
this boat!]
6

ultimately reach our peers in oppression.
Just as we ourselves have done
in the past, so too many of our
peers today have internalized the
negative values of this corrupt
and illegitimate social order.
By internalizing these negative
values we become unreliable
and reactionary—we become so
alienated that we identify with
our captors rather than our peers.
With this in mind, and understanding that
we ourselves are the products of the very
system we seek to change, we must do a
through class analysis in order to really understand the subjective and objective needs
of the people.
Zero said he "Really don't give a shit
about the more subjective horrors of confinement." But we must care about the subjective horrors of confinement. Many if not
all of these "horrors" stem from objective
conditions imposed upon us by the system. In order for us to create revolutionary
change with the P.I.C. we must organize
and mobilize the people around their subjective and objective needs.
When prisoners can see that they can
trust in your ability to effect progressive
change they will then rally under the banner of a unitarian struggle.
Julian Daniels, Ontartio, OR

LETTERS

LETTERS

Class Analysis from Within
First Comrades Zero your letter was
on point. Your observations on the prison
systems were very well critiqued. In evaluating the prison society one must also understand the "free" society and its values,
because those of us (lumpen proletariat) on
the inside of the prison industrial complex
are direct products of that society and its
values.
These are the values of a corrupt, parasitic and predatory capitalist system that
influences/compels us to exploit, dominate,
and subjugate one another. One only need
look at how we separate from each other
inside of the prison setting along gang and
racial lines to see that it's a mirror image
of how we separate from each other in the
"free" society.
You see, capitalism replaces cooperation
with competition, the dog-eat-dog (individualism) mentality replaces socially progressive values (socialism) such as unity,
equality, and justice with suspicion, fear,
and intolerance.
Look at how we compete with one another in the P.I.C. for territory, status, wealth,
and resources, all the while ignoring the
horrible conditions/abuses we are subjected to by the prison administration and
their goons. The prison officials and their
flunkies play upon our fear and suspicion
of each other. They instigate/orchestrate
problems among us to divert our attention
away from the real cause of our problems.
Remember, it was the ruling elite who
brought into being divisive practices like
racism and sexism in an effort to impair
any collective movement against their rule.
The ruling class (that tiny minority) has
always employed the method of divide,
agitate, and rule over the lower working
classes (the huge majority) in order to undermine our unity and collective resistance.
Every time there is a concerted effort to
protest conditions and abuses within the
prison, the state's first reaction is to divide
us, thus fictionalizing the movement in an
effort to make it less effective.
I have been involved in several prison
riots. None of these were in response to
conditions or mistreatment by the corrupt
P.I.C.
In order for us to effect revolutionary
changes within the P.I.C. the prisoner leadership must have an accurate and compete
understanding of the classes in society. It
is through this sound understanding and
correct revolutionary ideology that we will

[This letter goes on for another two
pages, and will not be keyboarded as those
pages address issues already covered by
articles in other parts of this newsletter.]

RELEASED AFTER
30 YEARS ON A
BUM BEEF!

D

NA Exoneration: On September
2nd a North Carolina judge overturned the convictions of two men
who have served 30 years in prison for the
rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl after another man’s DNA was recently discovered on evidence in the case. Superior
Court Judge Douglas Sasser ordered the
release of Henry McCollum, 50. And Leon
Brown, 46. The half-brothers were convicted in the 1983 slaying of Sabrina Buie in
Robeson County. ●
Seattle Times, 9/3/2014, p. 2
Rock!

DEADLY BRAZIL
PRISON RIOT
ENDS
By Marilia Brocchetto and Shasta Darlington, CNN, August 26, 2014
ao Paulo, Brazil (CNN) -- A prison
riot in Brazil that left four inmates
dead came to a conclusion Tuesday
after officials transferred all the inmates
elsewhere and rioters released two guards
they had held hostage.
Brazilian authorities had begun moving
inmates out Monday after rioting at the
prison in the southern city of Cascavel,
where two inmates were decapitated and
two thrown off the roof of a cell block.
According to the state-run Agencia Brasil
news agency, there was a fifth victim, too.
Prisoners, demanding better living conditions and more flexible visiting hours,
overpowered guards Saturday at the State
Penitentiary in Cascavel. They burned mattresses and damaged cells.
The prison housed just over 1,000 inmates, according to local media reports.
Prison riots are not uncommon in Brazil,
often sparked by overcrowding, poor conditions and rivalry between gangs. ●

S

19 INJURED
WHEN TEXAS
PRISON ROOF
COLLAPSES
By Susanna Capelouto and John Newsome, CNN
ineteen inmates were injured when
a roof of a private prison collapsed
Saturday near Lufkin, Texas, fire
officials said.
Ten prisoners were taken to hospitals by
ambulance, and nine were transported as
"walking wounded" from Diboll Correctional Center to area hospitals, according to
prison officials.
At 11:30 a.m., the sheetrock ceiling of
one of the five housing units in the prison
collapsed, according to Management &
Training Corporation (MTC), which operates the prison.
"We are still trying to determine the
cause of the collapse," said a statement
by MTC. A local fire official on the scene
wasn't sure what may have caused the collapse, or whether it's related to heavy rain-

N

Volume 3, Number 9

fall in Texas recently.
"It's not raining at all today here. We got
a lot of rain yesterday. It's a new building,
a new facility. I don't know why the roof
would collapse," said Lufkin Fire Department Battalion Chief Jesse Moody.
David Driskell, the prison's warden, said,
"It probably had a lot to do with the rain
over the last couple days."
Diboll Correctional Center has a maximum capacity of 518 inmates and is managed by MTC, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website.
MTC, a private contractor based in Centerville, Utah, manages 22 prisons in eight
states, according to the company website,
and also operates 21 Job Corps programs
for the U.S. Department of Labor. ●

sequence of jail time, it creates
frenzy. It is unsafe for the public
moralizing for law enforcement.
"We can take back our neighhoods, our streets, our businessI'm confident my bill will get us
The bill is currently being disin the Senate Rules Committee.

a crime
and debores, and
there."
cussed
●

GUARDS NOT
ALLOWED
TO READ INMATE
MAIL, COURT
SAYS
Bob Egelko

BILL WOULD
ALLOW INMATE
TRANSFERS TO
ANY FACILITY IN
THE NATION

N

ew legislation recently announced
by California State Senator Ted
Gaines could provide county sheriffs with the authority to move inmates to
any other facility in order to avoid releasing them when jails become overcrowded.
Senate Bill 1376 was amended in August
by Gaines – whose district covers Siskiyou
County – from a personal income tax bill to
its existing form.
Current law allows sheriffs to transfer
an inmate from county jail to a city jail if
crowded conditions demand it and there is
room in the county jail.
If passed, SB 1376 would allow a county
sheriff to contract with any state, county or
private jail or prison in the U.S. to confine
inmates in one of those facilities, with or
without inmates' permission.
In order to cover the costs, the bill would
allow counties to bill the Department of
Justice for the reimbursement of costs associated with housing and transporting
transferred inmates.
While the bill establishes that funding
will have to be allocated to the Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation, it has
not yet identified how much funding will
be made available.
When introducing the bill, Gaines stated
in a press release "When criminals know
they can commit crimes without the con-

P

risons can inspect inmates' mail to
their lawyers for evidence of illegal
activity, like escape plans, but can't
read the letters because of attorney-client
confidentiality, a divided federal appeals
court ruled Monday.
"A criminal defendant's ability to communicate candidly and confidentially with
his lawyer is essential to his defense," the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco said in a 2-1 ruling.
The court reinstated a suit by an Arizona Death Row inmate, Scott Nordstrom,
whose letter to his lawyer was seized and
read by a prison guard in his presence in
May 2011.
In California, by contrast, prison officials prohibit guards from reading inmates'
mail to their lawyers, said attorney Donald
Specter of the Prison Law Office, which
filed arguments supporting Nordstrom's
suit.
A federal judge in Arizona dismissed the
suit, but the appeals court said the U.S. Supreme Court had implicitly ruled in a 1974
Nebraska case that officials could inspect,
but not read, inmate mail.
While guards can examine outgoing mail
to see if it contains a map of the prison, escape plans or other incriminating content,
inmates would be chilled from discussing essential information about their cases
and their backgrounds if they knew guards
would read the letters.
In dissent, Judge Jay Bybee questioned
how guards could determine whether a letter contained escape plans without reading it. He said the court majority made an
already tough prison environment "a little
tougher." ●
7

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN CALIFORNIA
(The second place Rock writing contest winner, $50.)
By Anthony Arteaga
n the 1979’s there was a general tendency to regard the basic aim of imprisonment as rehabilitation of the criminal rather than as punishment. In addition,
federal courts, often as a result of prisoners acting as their own lawyers, began to
recognize for the first time that prisoners
had constitutional rights, most notably,
the right to Due Process prior disciplinary
sanctions and freedom from Cruel and Unusual Punishment in the form of deplorable
prison conditions.
This of course didn’t last. Before long
the emphasis on prisoners’ rights and prison reform, distinguishably trail blazed by
the events in Attica State Prison in New
York (1971) followed by several other less
publicized uprisings and riots of the same
agenda began to evaporate in the face of
the “tough on crime” and “war on drugs”
crusades.
By the 1970’s a series of decisions by
the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the protections earlier envisioned as guarantees of
prisoners’ well-being and dignity. Rather
than to continue implementing programs of
rehabilitation, prisoncrats throughout the
country began to develop special solitary
confinement units (control/security housing units, etc.)
One of the very first units to be built was
the Marion Federal Penitentiary in Illinois. Here men were being confined to tiny
cells the size of a parking space for 23 to
24 hours a day. Solitary confinement units
have always been part of the prison environment. In some cases it has been used to
place prisoners in protective custody when
either the prisoner or prison staff believed
a life threatening situation existed. And of
course, solitary confinement has traditionally been used as a disciplinary measure to
punish infraction of prison rules.
However, the idea of these control/
SHU’s was very different; namely, that certain prisoners had to be permanently separated from the general population due their
supposed influence over other prisoners. In
essence they were now being subjugated to
prolonged isolation for indefinite periods,
where by being relegated to the status of
incorrigible specimens who can only be
governed, controlled, conditioned and suppressed to dehumanizing submission. In
simple terms, to break a man’s spirit.
This idea soon caught on and isolation

I

8

units were being established everywhere
and not long before they were being specially constructed into new prisons.
For over 25 years, here in California, the
Dept. of Corrections (CDCR) has had a
policy of removing prisoner from the general population, validating them as either
prison gang members or associates and indefinitely confining them to said types of
isolation units. And just like other political
figures, prison officials used propaganda
about the supposed menace of these prison
gangs and difficulties and dangers of dealing with them to encourage and maintain
public indifference to what prisoners were
actually going through on the inside.
In the 1980’s, under the above guise,
most of these men were placed at either,
Duel Vocations Institute, Tracy, [Old] Folsom, San Quentin and Soledad Correctional Training Facility, where over one fifth
of the general population at these institutions were housed in each of its segregation
lock-up units.
Ultimately, falling in line with the trends
of the times, California opened up three
(3) maximum security Housing Units of
its own at Tehachapi, Corcoran and Pelican
Bay. Most recently, a fourth SHU opened
up at [old] Folsom, where approximately
4,000 men, combined, have now been
housed for up to 5, 10, 20 and even over
30 years.
These SHU’s are literally human warehouses saturated by recycled air and blight
monotony. Both days and night are cloaked
with the eerie sense of history slowly repeating itself, specifically, that of the 16th
through 19th centuries where indigenous
populations of the Americas were gradually being eradicated by its oppressors. Only
difference here is committing the actual
deed itself and the name its being done under “security and safety” --- both of which
resemble “Liberty” in that many are crimes
committed in its name
By 1997, 45 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the Federal system were
operating these types of units with California holding the most prisoners within them
than any other U.S. state or nation. This
fact continues to grow at an alarming rate.
The majority of California prisoners
serving indeterminate SHU terms are the
result of these pseudo-prison gang violations, gang policies to which civil rights
lawyers have long been critical. The pro-

cedures used to identify gang affiliates are
severely flawed and lacking in meaningful
Due Process protections. Evidence used in
these proceedings would never satisfy the
“Preponderance of Evidence” standard required of normal legal proceedings. But because of the U.S. Supreme Court decision
in Superintendent v. Hill (1985) holding
that the Due Process Clause requires only
the existence of “some evidence” in support of a decision to segregate an inmate.
The Court gave prison administrators more
arbitrary powers and discretion over prisoners’ daily lives. This naturally leading to
shrinking further and further the process
of any accounting for or recourse from the
many perverse ways they’ve come to abuse
that power.
Under current policy, validated prisoners
are not allowed to confront their accusers
(or even to know who they are). Nor are
they allowed to cross examine witnesses or
present their own evidence to prove their
case before a panel of neutral decision
makers. You’re basically guilty and there is
no “until proven guilty”.
In 1999, after many individual petitions
and class action suits brought before both
state and federal courts challenging these
policies and inhumane SHU conditions the
six (6) year “active/inactive gang status review” was created and implemented. A policy requiring a validated inmate to remain
free of any and all gang related activity and
association for no period less than six (6)
years, in order to reconsider (but rarely
granted) general population release.
A policy and process just as flawed as
ones initial gang validation because the
crux of it is gang activity is whatever these
alleged gang intelligence experts choose to
deem as gang related without being afforded a meaningful opportunity of contesting
them.
The Procedural Due Process currently in
place consists of being reviewed every 180
days and annually. However, these reviews
are largely meaningless gestures and shams
of proceedings in light of the fact that one
first has to complete the minimal six (6)
years required.
Since the late 1990’s to present, it’s evident that inmates are not being validated
to restore order or to maintain security but
maliciously for the purpose of causing pain
and inflicting punishment in an attempt to
break a man’s spirit. Equally evident is the
Rock!

fact that despite the creation of California’s
SHU’s prison violence in the general population setting is far more violent now than
it was over 25 years ago.
Said California prison gang validations
have become a pretext to indefinitely confine its inmates to these SHU’s at the expense of their well-being and it’s only real
escape coming in one of these ways…An
individual can either choose to “debrief
--- that is to tell gang investigators everything they know about who’s involved in
gang activity both inside and outside of the
prison system, including crimes in which
they’ve committed themselves --- , parole
or die. Snitching, parole or die’ as the policy is more commonly referred to.
Mental deterioration runs rampant and
silent within the confines of these SHU’s.
In fact, social science and clinical literature
has consistently reported that men are social animals and when they are subjected to
social isolation and reduced environmental
stimulation, their lives both internally and
externally is disrupted inevitably leading to
the development of a predictable group of
symptoms, e.g. anxiety, frustration, dejection, boredom, feelings of abandonment,
paranoia, rumination and severe depression. Facts supported by an ample and
growing body of evidence that this phenomenon especially occurs among prisoners in solitary confinement . . . persons
who by definition subjected to a significant
degree of social isolation and reduced environmental stimulation.
In 2011, after endless years of withstanding such psychological torture, a collective
group of men confined to Pelican Bay SHU
initiated two (2) separate state wide hunger
strikes during the months of July and September. These protests were aimed towards
contesting the inhumane conditions indefinite SHU confinement inmates have been
subjugated to. This collective group compiled a list of five (5) demands for CDCR
officers. Those demands were:
1. End group punishment and administrative;
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify the active/inactive gang status review
criteria;
3. Comply with the Commission of Safety
and Abuse in Americas’ Prisons 2006
Recommendations Regarding Ending
Long Term Solitary Confinement;
4. Provide adequate and Nutritious food;
5. Expand and provide constructive programing and privileges for prisoners
held in indeterminate SHU status.
Volume 3, Number 9

In October of 2011, in response to said
Hunger Strikes, CDCR officials outlined
changes that would be made in the SHU
program and in March of 2012 released
new proposed gang management policies.
Under the new policies, however, accused gang members can still be segregated indefinitely; SHU conditions remain
largely the same and other changes are
mere window dressing. Overall CDCR’s
proposal shows they will continue to resist
change and accountability.
The month of March was also significant
with Juan Mendez, a U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture (followed by California
prisoners and their advocates), petitioning
the U.N. to end lengthy solitary confinement in prisons, expressing that it would
inevitably result in serious mental and
physical damage amounting to torture.
So what lies ahead??? A united group
of men/human beings determined to bring
about actual changes and SHU reform and
regaining the right to being treated humanely. This comes with the knowledge
that the oppressing powers in opposition to
such changes will concede to nothing absent a committed struggle and demand . .
. A struggle and demand that will come at
a cost but a cost to which strength to live
and reason for acting should continue to be
drawn from.

‘CRUEL
CONFINEMENT’
REPORT PACKED
WITH GRISLY
MEDICAL TALES
FROM ALABAMA
PRISONS
By Challen Stephens
taph outbreaks. Scabies outbreaks.
A footbridge over raw sewage. A
guard with TB allowed to continue
working. No blood sugar measurements for
diabetics. Stroke victim left on a cell floor
for days. A blind prisoner being tricked
into signing his own “Do Not Resuscitate”
form.
The Southern Poverty Law Center this
morning released a report laden with jarring
anecdotes, a report that argues the standard
of medical care within Alabama prisons is
cruel and therefore unconstitutional.

S

“The Alabama Department of Corrections is deliberately indifferent to the serious medical needs of the prisoners in its
custody,” contends the new report, “Cruel
Confinement.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center -- a
nonprofit civil rights organization -- notes
there are just 15.2 doctors and 12.4 dentists
for 25,000 in-house inmates. And there are
4.7 full-time psychiatrists and only 5.6 psychologists for the entire system.
The report also argues that Alabama prisons do not treat disabled prisoners fairly
and are woefully understaffed to care for
mentally ill prisoners.
The Southern Poverty Law Center collaborated with the Alabama Disabilities
Advocacy Program on the report. They
based their conclusions on inspections of
15 facilities, interviews with over 100 prisoners and review of thousands of pages of
medical records and media accounts and
depositions.
They cite a prisoner who had blood tests
showing his prostate cancer had returned.
He was given no additional treatment and
died less than a year later. They cite another
person who died when he went into shock
and staff members did not know how to use
the emergency medical cart.
“A conviction does not open the door for
the state to engage in cruelty.”
The report includes tales of infected face
wounds, amputated toes and feet, gangrenous testicles treated only with ice. They
cite the story of a prisoner who complained
after surgery that he was bleeding from his
rectum. Staff twice gave him new pants
after bled through his own, but gave him
no treatment other than an antacid. He also
died, according to today’s report.
“Deliberate indifference to these medical
needs constitutes ‘unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain’ barred by the Eighth
Amendment,” contends the Southern Poverty Law Center.
AL.com reported similar tales earlier
this year, ranging from a heart attack left
untreated to denied knee surgery. Here’s a
look at the legal standard for medical care
of prisoners. Here’s a look at mental health
care through the eyes of a prison psychologist. And AL.com also found the state releases few severely ill prisoners.
Today’s nonprofit report makes some
grim mention of the wider effects of overcrowding, contending prisons lack adequate facilities to wash clothes or handle
wastewater. “At the Hamilton Aged and Infirmed Center, there is a footbridge across
9

a canal of raw sewage,” reads the report.
The report also contends the Department
of Corrections violates the rights of the disabled, from lack of access to areas of the
prison to denial of work release to an officer hitting a deaf prisoner for not replying
to a question.
They write of mentally ill patients who
have medication stopped without seeing a
psychiatrist or are given the wrong medication.
The Alabama Department of Corrections
did not respond to a request for comment
on the report.
The report names a few contributing
writers listed, but the chief author is listed
as Maria Morris, managing attorney for
the Southern Poverty Law Center office in
Montgomery.
“Alabama illegally operates a corrections system that is little more than a network of human warehouses, a place where
individuals caught in the criminal justice
system are banished and forgotten,” reads
the report. “A conviction does not open the
door for the state to engage in cruelty.”
“Whenever Alabama determines a per-

son must be incarcerated, it must accept
the legal – and moral – responsibility that
comes from imprisoning a human being.”
We want to hear from you. AL.com is
reaching out to Alabamians for a closer
look at prison problems as part of the Alabama Investigation Journalism Lab.
Launched this year by Alabama Media
Group, the lab encourages innovation in
digital journalism and audience interaction
to guide and inform reporting on complex
stories. Partners in the lab include the Center for Investigative Reporting and NPR
station WBHM. ●

SHOUT OUT BOX
A hearty shout out to
the men of PBSP's D9/A Pod
for their donation of 100
stamps.

Rock on!

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

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