Working
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Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
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to
t All 
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V l
Volume
4, N
4
Number
b 11
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November
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November
b 2015
2015

PRISON OFFICIALS COMMIT TO
REDUCING THEIR USE OF SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT
Garrett Zehr - September 8, 2015
rison officials across the country
dedicated themselves to reducing the
use of solitary confinement as they
released a ground-breaking survey showing as many as 100,000 people were in
solitary as of last fall.
“Prolonged isolation of individuals in
jails and prisons is a grave problem in the
United States,” said a press release by the
Association of State Correctional Administrators, which is directly responsible for
the administration of correctional systems

P

CONTENTS
Solitary To Be Reduced ...........1
Supporting Political Prisoners ..3
Beating Bin-Wahad ..................3
Hepatitis C and Prisoners ........4
Jailed Palestinian Children ......4
Cons Led Anti-Solitary Fight ....5
Don't Give 'em a Break ............5
Politics of Mass Incarceration ..6
Menard Update ........................7
Editorial ....................................8
Help End Solitary in Texas .......9

across the U.S. “The insistence on change
comes not only from legislators across the
political spectrum, judges, and a host of
private sector voices, but also from the directors of correctional systems at both state
and federal levels.”
The report "Time-in-Cel" (http://www.
law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/Liman/ASCA-Liman_Administrative_Segregation_
Report_Sep__2_2015.pdf), produced by
the Association and the Yale Law School
Liman Program, is the first to provide such
a comprehensive analysis of the statistics
and conditions of solitary confinement
across
the United States.
a
The research was based on a survey of
130 questions that was sent to the directors
of
o all prison systems and details responses
from
46 jurisdictions. The report highlights
f
the
t solitary population totals received from
34
3 jurisdictions, representing 73 per cent of
the
t more than 1.5 million individuals incarcerated
c
in state and federal prisons alone
(not
(
including local jails). The report found
that
t 66,000 individuals were held in secure
housing
h
in U.S. prisons, which includes
administrative
a
segregation, disciplinary
segregation
and protective custody. Using
s
these
numbers, the authors extrapolated
t
that
in all prisons across the United States,
t
80,000 to 100,000 individuals were held in
solitary
in the fall of 2014. However, the
s
actual
number of individuals in solitary in
a
the
t U.S. is likely much higher, since the
study
was solely restricted to prisons and
s
did
d not include people being held in jail,
juvenile
j
facilities, or immigration and mili-

tary detention.
Previously, the numbers of people in
solitary were notoriously difficult to determine because of state-by-state variances,
shortcomings in data collection and differences in defining solitary confinement. “Although a few in-depth reports and litigation
have provided detailed accounts of specific
systems, relatively little nationwide information exists about the number of people
held in restrictive housing, the policies determining their placement, how isolated the
settings are, and whether the rules governing social contact, activities, and length of
stay vary from place to place,” the reports
notes.
Studies about solitary that are often cited
are more than a decade old and often underestimate the reality, with numbers ranging from anywhere between 25,000 and
80,000. For example, U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s pegged the
number of individuals in solitary at 25,000
in his recent concurrence in Davis v. Ayala,
where he notably criticized the practice of
solitary.
Prison officials predicted the high numbers shown in the report will soon be outdated. “Having current information is one
contribution of this report. So is the documentation of the commitments of correctional officials nationwide to reduce these
numbers dramatically,” says the study.
“Thus, directors of prison systems believe
that these numbers are “wrong” in the
sense that they are or will soon be out-ofdate, based on their plans to cut back on the

use of isolation and to change the conditions in it.”
In addition to the numbers, the report
also focuses on the conditions faced by
individuals in one type of secure housing:
administrative segregation.
The study found practices of administrative segregation varied significantly across
the country, but found that in many jurisdictions, individuals spent 23 hours per
day in their cells and were often locked up
24 hours per day on weekends. In general,
the amount of time allowed outside of cell
ranged from three to seven hours per week.
The size of cells of the jurisdictions surveyed ranged from 45 to 128 square feet and
sometimes two people were locked in the
same cell. Reading materials were limited
in most jurisdictions, either by total number of items or by cubic foot. For example,
individuals in segregation in the District of
Columbia are only allowed one book. The
report found that a few jurisdictions located
in hot, humid climates, including Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, do
not even have air conditioning in their solitary confinement units.
In several jurisdictions, individuals were
only permitted one phone call and social
visit per month. In virtually all jurisdictions, individuals could lose programs,
visits, phone calls and possessions as sanctions for misbehavior.
In most jurisdictions, administrative segregation had no fixed endpoint. The report
found that only two states – Colorado and
Georgia – impose any time limit on solitary
confinement. In a substantial number of jurisdictions, people remained in segregation
for more than three years, while many jurisdictions don’t even track the number of
continuous days that individuals are held in
solitary.
The study found that Black and Hispanic
individuals were over-represented in administrative segregation. Of the 22 jurisdictions that responded to questions related
to race, 21 jurisdictions contained a smaller
percentage of White individuals in segregation than the total prison population. On
average, Black individuals made up 47
per cent of the administrative segregation
population versus 39 per cent of the total
male prison population. Hispanic individuals were 14 per cent of the administrative
segregation population compared to 12 per
cent of the total male prison population.
Of the jurisdictions surveyed, Arkansas
has the highest percentage of men being
held in solitary. The report found 7.5 per
2

cent of Arkansas’ nearly 14,000 men are
held in isolation for 30 days or more.
The study also notably found that in
2013, more than 4,400 individuals were
released directly from solitary confinement
to the streets.
To evaluate trends in the use of solitary,
the researchers compared the 2014 data
with data from 2011. For many jurisdictions, the number of individuals in segregation was roughly comparable after three
years. Colorado was a notable exception,
with a decrease from 7.4 per cent of individuals in solitary out of the total of all
incarcerated individuals in 2011 to 1.1 percent in 2014. Some of the jurisdictions had
a small increase, the largest being Kansas,
which went from 4 per cent in 2011 to 6.3
per cent in 2014.
The findings complement research that
began in 2012 when the researchers set out
to address the lack of data about solitary in
the United States. In 2013 they released a
study called Administrative Segregation,
Degrees of Isolation, and Incarceration: A
National Overview of State and Federal
Correctional Policies, which analyzed criteria for placement and release from administrative segregation. That study found
that the criteria for entry into solitary were
very broad, as was the discretion given
to correctional officials. “In short, at the
formal level, getting into segregation was
relatively easy, and few policies focused
on how people got out,” researchers said of
that report.
The findings of the 2013 report and the
report just released both contributed to the
conclusions by the Association of State
Correctional Administrators to commit to
dramatic change.
“No matter what position in government a person holds—legislator, judge or
the head of an entire prison system—the

shared sense is that now is the time to reject
the use of isolation as a tool of prison management,” said Yale Law School professor
Judith Resnik, who works with the Liman
Program. “Directors of prison systems see
first-hand the harms that solitary confinement imposes—for those held, the staff
overseeing the process, and the communities to which prisoners return,” she said.
Reasons cited in the report for the desired
reduction in the use of solitary included the
required additional training for staff, prisoner and staff well-being, pending lawsuits
challenging policies and significant costs.
A few directors also said that it was important because it “is the right thing to do.”
Prison officials are not just seeking to reduce the number of prisoners in isolation,
Resnik noted, but also to change the way
that restricted housing is practised to stop
denying social contact. “There is a lot to
fix, and the heads of many prison systems,
in a host of jurisdictions, are talking about
how to do so,” she said.
Despite the consensus emerging from
prison officials about the need to bring
drastic changes to solitary, their employees
are not all in agreement.
“Today’s disciplinary confinement policies have evolved over decades of experience, and it is simply wrong to unilaterally
take the tools away from law enforcement
officers who face dangerous situations on
a daily basis,” the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent
Association told the New York Times in
response to the prison directors’ statement
calling for a reduction in the use of solitary.
“It is a fact that many of our corrections
facilities have become more overcrowded
with a higher proportion of violent offenders than ever before, and any policy changes must prioritize the safety and security
of everyone who works or resides in these
institutions,” the organization said. Prison
guard unions have considerable clout and
have often clashed with calls for prison reforms. However, the unions may be facing
an uphill battle in their resistance to change
as the researchers note that the study’s findings and the resolution of prison officials
are just parts of the growing momentum to
reduce and reform the practice.
“This Report is only one aspect of ongoing cooperative undertakings, across the
public and private sectors, to reduce and to
eliminate the isolation of prisoners, so as to
enable prisoners and staff to live and work
in safe environments, respectful of human
dignity,” the study concludes. ●
Rock!

ON SUPPORTING PROGRESSIVE
POLITICAL PRISONERS
“When the prison doors are opened, the
real dragon will fly out.”
-Uncle Ho
he issue of political prisoners is as
important today as it has ever been
in United States history. U.S. imperialism is waging an illegal war of aggression against the peoples of the Middle East
in what amounts to an act of international
armed robbery to steal their oil.
With nearly all Middle East oil under
U.S. control, this nation will own the oil
spigot that regulates the ability of China’s
economy to grow. This is a recipe for world
war. We can see signs of this now, with the
joint military exercises, which include strategic bombers, taking place between China
and Russia this year. And also by the “strategic and cooperative partnership” entered
into between China and India on April 12,
2005—a partnership in which “India and
China can together reshape the world order,” says India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

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While people in other
parts of the world are
fighting and dying in the
just struggle against international imperialism,
we here in the belly of
the beast enjoy a special
privilege of limiting our
feeble protests to only
lawful (read acceptable to
the bourgeoisie) means.
The American left will of course sleepwalk through yet another widening of these
ongoing wars. Marching in circles carrying
signs is not enough to prevent the looming
global catastrophe. We must take sides.
Ho Chi Ming created the National Liberation Front in Vietnam with only nine
armed propaganda officers. That army defeated first the French and then U.S. imperialism. Fidel Castro liberated Cuba from
U.S. domination with only a handful of
comrades who survived the landing of the
Gramma.
While people in other parts of the world
are fighting and dying in the just struggle
against international imperialism, we here
in the belly of the beast enjoy a special
privilege of limiting our feeble protests to
Volume 4, Number 11

only lawful (read acceptable to the bourgeoisie) means. This is nothing short of
American Exceptionalism—a racist belief
that our lives are more precious than those
of our darker-skinned comrades in places
like Palestine and Iraq. History demands
more from us. Many of those who rise to
meet this demand will be imprisoned or
worse. They must be supported.
Who remembers our dead from the last
effort to build a fighting movement? Where
are our monuments (however small) to
them? And what of those who are still imprisoned as a direct result of "crimes" committed in the furtherance of those efforts to
bring about a better world? What lessons
have we learned from them and tested in
practice?
Not all political prisoners are created
equal. The right wing, for example, calls
their bombers of women's clinics and assassins of doctors "Prisoners of Christ" and
lavish every sort of comfort on them while
they are on the inside. They have money,
regular visits, and even letters from school
children.
At the very least we must materially support those who have been imprisoned for
participating in the struggle for justice, in
progressive rather than reactionary struggles. If we fail to do so there will not be
another generation of comrades making
the kinds of sacrifices necessary to weaken
U.S. imperialism’s ability to wage new aggressions.
If you call yourself a progressive, a communist, anti-imperialist, or just a lover of
justice, then a part of your daily political
activity should be focused on the issue of
political prisoners. And not only comrades
here in the U.S., but also those “rendered”,
or in places liked Guantanamo Bay, Israeli
prisons, or dungeons similar to the one at
Abu Ghraib. ●
Ed Mead

BEATING
BIN-WAHAD
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Who beats up a 71-year old man?
hat question flashed in my mind
when I heard about the vicious attack on former Black Panther Dhoruba Bin-Wahad during a speech before
members of the New Black Panther Party
(NBPP) in Atlanta.
While what sparked the attack may be
unclear, the results aren’t. Bin-Wahad, a
lifelong revolutionary who has spent decades in the Black Liberation Movement,
was beaten unconscious by NBPP members his jaw broken in several places.
He wasn’t hit –or just punched. He was
pummeled, kicked, stomped, and repeatedly assaulted.
Who beats up a 71-year old man?
Who beats up a 71-year old veteran of
the Black Freedom Movement; a former
member of the famed N.Y. Panther 21?
Who does that?
Apparently the New Black Panther Party
(NBPP) does.
The New BPP is not to be confused with
the original Black Panther Party, as the
beating of Bin-Wahad demonstrates.
According to a letter circulated on the internet quoting Malik Zulu Shabazz (leader
of the NBPP until 2014) Bin-Wahad threatened him. According to that document, the
threat didn’t happen at this meeting, but is
alleged to have happened some time before.
There may’ve been some dispute as to
speaking times, but that hardly justifies the
attack on Bin-Wahad, who long has been
known for his outspokenness. Bin-Wahad,
since the days of his youth, has been a
revolutionary – and he endured almost 20
years in New York State dungeons before
proving, using FBI documents, the injustice of his trial and conviction.
When he left prison, he continued the
struggle, writing, organizing, and campaigning, struggling for Black Freedom.
One could always count on him for sharp
analysis and principled resistance to the
system’s relentless attacks on Black life –
years before the Black Lives Matter Movement emerged.
That he should have to endure such an attack from the NBPP proves that, for some,
Black lives don’t matter much.
Not when you can beat a 71-year-old
man unconscious. ●

T

3

ADMINISTER THE HEPATITIS C
CURE TO MUMIA & THE 10,000 PA
PRISONERS WITH THE DISEASE
http://www.bringmumiahome.com/
t the urging of Pam Africa, I visited Mumia yesterday, Sunday,
September 6. Pam got word from
inside that Mumia’s cell had been raided by
prison authorities.
As you know, after a series of hospitalizations in March and April 2015, Mumia
has remained in the prison infirmary. During this time, most of his property has remained in his old cell. According to Mumia,
on Friday, September 4, officers rushed
him out of his regularly-scheduled medical
bath to inform him that all the belongings
in his cell had been packed up and placed
in storage. The handling of prison property
in the absence of a prisoner is a violation of
prison procedures. After signing the forms
required when prisoner property is placed
in storage, Mumia asked if he was about to
be moved to a different facility, since the
boxing up of a prisoner’s property usually
precedes a transfer. An officer assured him
that he would not be transferred; but this all
seemed really strange to Mumia.
These developments follow the immediate aftermath of a medical lawsuit filed
by Mumia charging the DOC with medical
neglect. Coming at this moment, a prison
transfer would not be in Mumia’s best interest as it would disrupt contact with his
attorneys and isolate him from his family
and supporters. In addition, a move would
put Mumia’s at risk; it would further compromise his physical and mental health and
interrupt his medical care. The only transfer acceptable would be safe transit to a
professional facility that would guarantee
the medical attention he needs for a cure
of his “active” Hepatitis C condition, for
which there is a cure.
As you know, Mumia has been in an
acute health crisis for over 9 months, since
January 2015. In March 2015, prison infirmary physicians allowed Mumia to fall into
diabetic shock and come close to death.
Please urge the PA Department of Corrections (DOC) to act in Mumia’s best interests and refrain from transferring him.
Please also urge the DOC to give Mumia,
and the 10,000 PA Prisoners with Hepatitis
C, the cure he needs.
Recently, Mumia has lost approximately
25lbs in two months. Although his spirits
are high and his cognitive abilities have

A

4

improved, he still sleeps all day and is
suffering extreme lethargy, a bi-product
of untreated, “active” Hepatitis C, a liver
disease. The skin around his face is clearer
than before and although his leg wounds
have closed, they have left crater-like scars,
which can erupt at any moment. The skin
throughout his body remains jet-black, raw,
extremely wrinkled, and rough, like elephant hide. Nails on his hands and feet are
falling off and the palms of his hands are
blackened. These conditions are also symptoms of his untreated, “active” Hepatitis C.
The denial of the Hepatitis C cure to Mumia –while his medical condition remains
precarious and while his disfiguring skin
condition continues to cause him unthinkable suffering –is cruel and unusual punishment, and torture through medical neglect.
Demand the Hepatitis C cure for Mumia
and for the 10,000 PA Prisoners with the
disease, NOW! ●

100 PALESTINIAN
CHILDREN HELD
IN THE ‘OFER
ISRAELI PRISON
By IMEMC News
he Palestinian Detainees’ Committee has reported that the number of
Palestinian children, held by Israel
in the ‘Ofer Prison, has arrived to 100, especially since August witnessed the largest
number of abductions of children since the
beginning of the year.
Representative of detained children in
‘Ofer, detainee Abdul-Fattah Doula, who is
serving a 15-year term, said 42 Palestinian
children transferred to ‘Ofer in August, including many who are only 13 to 15 years
of age.
Doula added that 23 children were kidnapped from their homes, 5 on military
roadblocks, 4 were taken prisoner from
their neighborhoods and towns, and nine
after being summoned for interrogation.
At least eight of the kidnapped children
were violently beaten by the soldiers, while
abducting them.
He also said that three children remained
under interrogation, without legal repre-

T

sentation, for 26 days, and three others
have been repeatedly detained and imprisoned by Israel.
Mohammad al-A’raj, one of the lawyers
of the Detainees’ Committee, said 21 children were sentenced, last month, by the
‘Ofer Israeli Military Court, to periods
varying between 6 and 19 months, and
were ordered to pay high fines, mounting
to more than 40.000 New Israeli Shekels.
He added that, since the beginning of
this year, Israeli courts ordered high fines
against many detained children, mounting,
until the end of August, to 317.000 New Israeli Shekels.
Al-A’raj also said that 30 of the imprisoned children suffer various health issues,
including respiratory and Diabetes, and
many of them were wounded during their
abduction.
Many of the detained children were already receiving treatment prior to their
abduction, while Israeli continues to deny
them the right to medical treatment.
“Among the main violations against the
detained children are holding them for
more than 24 hours without charges, and
denying them the right to a lawyer or a
family member during interrogation,” AlA’raj added, “They are also placed in holding cells with adults, in direct violation of
their basic rights; some are sent to court a
year after their abduction.” ●

PRESSURE
BUILDS TO
STOP SLEEP
DEPRIVATION IN
PELICAN BAY SHU
By prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity
ollowing the historic gains made
against solitary confinement last
month, people in Pelican Bay State
Prison's SHU report the use of "welfare"
or "suicide" checks occurring every thirty
minutes, 48 times a day. The checks are
being conducted in an aggressive way and
prevent people from sleeping for over thirty minutes at a time. Loud stomping, the
slamming of doors, the striking of electronic wands against buttons installed by
cell doors, and the shining of lights into
prisoners' faces are routine. Deprivation of
sleep is widely seen as a form of torture. ●
See: https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity

F

Rock!

PRISONERS LED THE SUCCESSFUL
FIGHT AGAINST SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT
By Latif Asad Abdullah, Mercury News
have been out of prison for 10 years,
but my eight years in solitary confinement in the Pelican Bay Special Housing Unit still haunts me. It affected the very
core of my being. The sensory deprivation
was extreme; there was no stimulation for
my senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and
touch. Mankind is stimulated by nature —
the flight of a bird, the smell of a rose —
but Pelican Bay SHU is nothing but concrete. There was nothing to motivate my
creativity.
Instead, I had a redundant daily existence
— no grass, birds, barking of dogs, soothing sounds of the ocean. It was the opposite.
And when I got out, I had nothing. I didn’t
know what to do to grow, to be active, to be
creative, to aspire to be something. What
is so disturbing to me is that this environment, which deprives human beings of all
sensory input, is created by design.
To survive, I had to see myself as a combatant in a war that was attempting to destroy me. My techniques were exercise,
study, and talking to myself. People who
did not take this approach would scream,
shout, and have mental breakdowns. I had
to fight every day not to succumb.
At the very inception of the Pelican Bay
SHU, prisoners challenged as inhumane
the process used to house us in sensory deprivation units. I was put in the SHU when
the prison decided I was associated with a
prison gang, not for any behavior on my
part. I tried to challenge this as a violation
of due process, but like many others, with
no legal team or movement behind me, I
faced a process that seemed to be set in
stone.
Even so, prisoners continued to believe
we could prevail. We saw marginal gains
with the Castillo case, which led to my release from SHU to General Population in
2000.
The wider-ranging gains made by the
latest victorious settlement of Ashker v.
Brown, the class action lawsuit against solitary confinement in California, are a direct
result of the ongoing effort of prisoners to
bring about real change. Those efforts inspired a human rights movement to say that
these conditions are cruel and unusual, and
a legal team led by the Center for Constitu-

I

Volume 4, Number 11

tional Rights, together with Legal Services
for Prisoners with Children and others to
get on board.
While some might play down the settlement in Ashker as not enough, I believe
that it is enough for today. Not sending
someone to SHU because of alleged gang
membership is huge. Creating a new alternative housing unit for some prisoners
is also important. The changes are a step
towards a bigger objective--ending solitary
confinement entirely.
Challenges to cruel and unusual punishment will continue, and Pelican Bay SHU
will continue to be a focal point. I hope that
more people will get involved.
We need to apply more pressure on the
prison system until it surrenders the arrogant disposition that allows it to maintain
these inhumane conditions. ●

DON'T GIVE 'EM A
BREAK
By Ed Mead
he Monroe prison in Washington
was in the only joint in the state
that was not double celled. I was a
prisoner there for the last ten years of my
confinement. The prison administration offered all kinds of bribes to influential prisoners in an effort to get them to toss the

T

rest of the population overboard and agree
to double celling. And of course these traitors stood in line if front of the warden's
office, always ready to sell-out other prisoners if it would advance their own narrow
self-interests.
When the state tried to get influential
inmates to agree to double celling I would
put out typewritten flyers to the GP, pointing out the treachery of the sellouts. I only
had to do that a few times before the collaborators gave up. When I left Monroe it
the only single celled prison in the state
(sadly, though, they double bunked Monroe shortly after my release from prison).
Slavery and imprisonment are wrong!
Anyone who is trying to get you to adjust to
this wrongness, be in an influential prisoner
or the prison staff, is not doing you a favor.
Whatever the case, they must be exposed
and shunned (no violence). A cockroach
fears nothing like the light of day. You only
need to shine that light.
Ah, in comes the peacemaker. "There
are no sides," he says. "Dividing things
into them-or-us separates each of us from
the other and the harmony of life's blessings." Here's the thing, when someone has
enslaved and disenfranchised you, trapped
you in a small overcrowded cage, etc., then
there is indeed an "us against them" situation. When someone is holding you at gunpoint, against your will, there is indeed a
us versus them reality. I think you get the
picture.
If you're not all in, your not all there.
Then where are you? Where's your righteous anger? ●

5

THE POLITICS OF MASS INCARCERATION
Latest Stats Show Nano-Scale Reform Remains the Dominant Trend
By James Kilgore
ast week the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published their annual
census of the nation’s prison population. After over three decades of uninterrupted yearly increases, 2014 was the fourth
year in the last five in which the total number of people in Federal and state prisons
fell. The figure declined from 1,576,950 to
1,561,525, a drop of about 1%. The some
700,000 people held in local jails were not
included in these stats.
This news from the BJS will please those
who see opportunity in the increasing acknowledgement of mass incarceration in
the political sphere. Proclamations by the
President, Hillary Clinton as well as statements by arch-conservative forces as diverse as Rand Paul, Newt Gingrich and the
Koch brothers have placed criminal justice
on the electoral agenda. In 2012 no candidate made even passing mention of the
two million people in the US behind bars.
For anyone seeking to reverse the debacle
of the US’ incarceration obsession, any decrease in the number of people behind bars
is welcome. Yet a closer look at the BJS
stats shows that reform remains miniscule.
The overall landscape reflects the ongoing
tension between the continuity of mass incarceration and the need for change. The
data actually remind us that the fate of the
criminal justice system has yet to be decided.
Nonetheless, there is a bit of good news
in these numbers. Sentencing reform at the
national level, along with other changes,
did contribute to a fall in the Federal prison
population of just over 5,000. However,
even with this drop, Federal facilities still
held 2,449 more people at the end of 2014
than they did in 2009. Moreover, media
pundits often fail to note that the Feds hold
only about 14% of the nation’s prisoners.
Action by the Congress or even from the
President has little impact on the statebased departments of corrections which
house 86% of prisoners.
At the state level, the surprising star of
decarceration for 2014 was Mississippi.
Through a combination of numerous reforms, many encapsulated in HB 585, the
state prison population fell by a whopping
14.5%, amounting to about 20% of the
national fall. While noteworthy, this performance was largely driven by one-off

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6

changes in sentencing and parole which
won’t continue to yield massive annual
reductions. Yet, even with a 14.5% fall,
Mississippi remains the fifth highest state
in terms of per capita incarceration rates.
There is still a long way to go in Jackson.
When we turn our attention to other
states, a mixed picture emerges, particularly if we move our lens away from a simple focus on year-on-year national figures.
For 2014, out of the 49 states recorded, 31
showed changes of 2% or less, 15 of 1%
or less. More importantly, not all populations declined . While 26 states showed
decreases, 23 upped their populations, with
Arizona leading the way by adding more
than 1000 prisoners to its carceral rolls.
Examining state trends since the peak national prison population of 2009 shows a
similarly uneven result. During that time
the national prison population fell by just
over 52,000 or about 3.5%. Yet 26 states
have increased their prison populations
since 2009. A closer look at the declines
during that period reveals that California
accounted for about 35,000 of that national
drop. The California reductions came about
largely due to a response to a Federal court
order to decarcerate. But even the California cutbacks contain hidden contradictions,
since many of those in state prisons were
simply moved to county jails or transferred
to out of state private facilities rather than
released. Furthermore, to accommodate
that change California has allocated $500
million to counties for jail expansion as
well as putting together financial packages.
More people behind bars in the future looks
to be in the cards for California.
In the long-term, only two states have
demonstrated a serious commitment to
decarceration: New York and New Jersey.
Since 2000, the New York state prison census has decreased every year but one. Relaxed drug law enforcement combined with
massive diversion of people into programs
rather than jail has led to the closure of 11
prisons in the state and an overall fall in the
incarcerated population of about 25%. New
Jersey has followed a similar path, producing a population decline of 24% in the same
period. Still, New York and New Jersey are
outliers. The dominant trend remains a politically expedient perpetuation of the status quo. If the national prison population
continues to fall at the rate of 1%, Marc

Mauer, Director of the Sentencing Project
has estimated it will take 88 years to reach
per capita rates of 1980. The polar ice caps
are melting faster than our prison system is
shrinking.
Ultimately, policy talk about mass incarceration in most quarters glosses over
the real challenges. Politicians may take
the lead in proclaiming the success of
their sentencing reforms or new policies
on parole, but a deeper look shows that we
have not come very far and much of what
is on the table will not take us much farther. While the “tough on crime” approach
captured the hearts, minds and budgetary
allocations of every state legislature and
department of corrections in the 1980s, the
critique of prison expansion and carceral
over spending has not garnered a similar
national or local consensus. The rhetoric
about the evils mass incarceration may be
proliferating but it is not accompanied by
the kind of media efforts to popularize the
issue that characterized the 1980s. In those
days, even Michael Jackson was doing ads
for the War on Drugs. Without a concerted
effort to create mind set change, contradictory, underfunded nano-scale reform will
remain the order of the day.
At the practical level, transformative
change requires at least two things which
are not on the agenda in most states. First
comes the recognition that we cannot significantly reduce prison populations by
concentrating on those with non-violent
drug cases. This cohort constitutes about
16% of the state prison population. Ending
mass incarceration means taking responsibility for the fact that mass incarceration
has locked people up unfairly in a systematic way. The majority of those behind
bars are not there because of bad personal
choices. Legal and policy frameworks as
well as budget cuts have been formulated
to make the pipeline to prison their most
likely path. Absurdly long sentences and
disproportionate charging need to be revisited and addressed with retroactive measures to free those who have already served
far longer than any just system should reasonably punish them.
Second, political leaders and the public at large need to recognize that genuinely reversing mass incarceration will not
save billions of dollars. We need to undo
the harm done to millions of people who
Rock!

have been wrongly imprisoned for excessive terms and to the communities from
which they come. These communities have
suffered the punishment of population
loss, over-policing and cutbacks in social
service provision. Mass incarceration has
come hand in hand with mass criminalization of poverty, mass immiseration. Addressing this means closing prisons and
jails and ploughing the money saved into
an urban, anti-racist “New Deal” process
to provide public housing, substance abuse
treatment, mental health services and employment opportunities to the millions who
have been negatively impacted by the warlike policies of law enforcement and corrections across the country. Ending mass
incarceration ultimately must come hand
in hand with, dare I say it, a new war- one
against poverty , inequality and the notion
that excessive punishment makes us safe. ●
[James Kilgore is a writer and activist
based in Urbana, Illinois. He spent six and
a half years in prison. During those years,
he drafted three novels which have been
published since his release in 2009. His
latest book, Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil
Rights Struggle of Our Era will be published by The New Press in September. He
can be contacted at waazn1@gmail.com]

MENARD UPDATE
By Alice Lynd
ome of you will remember the hunger strike in January-February 2014
by prisoners in Administrative Detention at the Menard Correctional Center
in Menard, Illinois. During and after the
hunger strike, several of the strikers were
sent to prisons as far away as California,
Virginia, West Virginia and New Mexico.
Others remain in Administrative Detention
at Menard.
Many of the 2014 hunger strikers wanted to know why they were there, and they
wanted to know what they had to do to get
out of Administrative Detention. Although
the Illinois Department of Corrections now
issues some notices, the notices still don’t
answer those questions.
A form called Notice of Administrative
Detention Placement Review, DOC 0432
(effective May 2014), says, “This document shall serve as notice of your upcoming review for placement in Administrative
Detention by the Administrative Detention
Review Committee.” The notice shows

S

Volume 4, Number 11

the “Review Date for Initial Placement in
Administrative Detention” or “Continued
Placement” or “Transfer from Disciplinary
Segregation.”
Next, it says: “Notice of Administration
[sic] Detention Placement Rationale: In
order to prepare you for your Administrative Detention placement review, you are
advised that the Department’s rationale for
your prospective or continued placement in
Administrative Detention is based upon the
following reason(s): …”
But the reason may be no more than “Information was received that …” without
any finding of guilt for a rule violation.
The form then specifies: “Copies of the
following identified documents relied upon
by department administrators that may subject you to Administrative Detention placement, or continued placement, are attached
to the notice; however, portions may have
been redacted based upon a finding that
disclosure would compromise security or
safety: …”
But the entry in every case we have seen
is “N/A” and no documents are mentioned
or attached.
After the review, the warden sends the
prisoner a memo that says: “This memo is
to inform [name and number] the Menard
Administrative Detention Committee has
reviewed your Administrative Detention
placement and has voted to continue your
placement in Administrative Detention on
Phase 1. You will be reviewed again in 90
days.”
I’ve compiled the following information
drawn from letters received in September
2015 from prisoners in Administrative Detention at Menard:
“Here in A.D. [Administrative Detention], everything is still the same. No one is
being released and we are still not getting
meaningful hearings. We are still not getting any written reasons or any new info relied on for the basis of the committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D.
We are still getting the same vague memos.
“We now only get one day a week of
out-of-cell exercise (yard). We are in our
cells 24 hours a day, six days a week. We
are being excessively confined in our cells.
We are still not allowed to participate in
any educational programs. Our mail is not
being picked up or passed out five days a
week, as they are supposed to.
“We don’t see any end to this indefinite isolation/solitary confinement. Due to
these issues and more, we are going to go
on hunger strike once again. We will be de-

claring a hunger strike on Sept. 23, 2015.
We will feel very thankful for your help in
spreading the word.
“Our core demands are:
• We demand an end to long term solitary
confinement.
• We demand minimum due process at
Administrative Detention Review hearings
by providing inmates with written reasons,
including new information relied upon for
the committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D., and be allowed to
grieve all adverse decisions. As it stands,
the basis of the committee’s votes are kept
secret.
• We demand more access to outside
recreation for the sake of our physical and
mental health. As it stands, we are confined
indefinitely to these cages for six days out
of the week, with the exception of one fivehour day. This is unbearable.
• We demand that meaningful educational programs be implemented to encourage
our mental stability, rehabilitation and social development for the sake of ourselves
and our communities that we will one day
return to.
• We demand access to more visiting
privileges. For most of our families, traveling to Menard is like traveling to another
state. Considering the distance, two-hour
visits behind plexiglas is insufficient. We
should be allowed five or six hours. Moreover, our family members, including inmates, should be provided the human dignity and decency to purchase food items
and refreshments from vending machines
after traveling such great distances. This
would benefit one’s social development, as
well as benefit prison staff environment.
“We ask the public’s help by calling the
warden, the director of the Illinois Department of Corrections and the governor to
check on our welfare.
• Warden Kimberly Butler, Menard Correctional Center, 711 Kaskaskia St., Menard, IL 62259, 618-826-5071
• Director John Baldwin, Illinois Department of Corrections, 1301 Concordia
Court, P.O. Box 19277, Springfield, IL
52794-9277, 217-558-2200
• Gov. Bruce Rauner, Office of the Governor, 207 State House, Springfield, IL
62706, 217-782-0244
“We will stay on [hunger strike] as long
as possible in order to hopefully bring some
change to our conditions. We thank you for
any kind of support you can give us.” ●
[Ed's Note: The hunger strike ended after
17 days. No news on outcome.]
7

EDITORIAL 4-11

O

n page two of the September issue of Rock, in an article on “The
‘Hands off Doctrine’ Revisited”,
I said, “[w]hile the issue of prisoner enfranchisement (right to vote) is pending
appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the 2nd Circuit, in a lawsuit filed by political prisoner Anthony Jalil Bottom, the
outcome of that litigation will most likely
turn on a political rather than legal rationale.” I’ve since received a letter from Mr.
Bottom, who writes from Attica prison in
New York, “you mentioned I had an appeal
pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals …
regarding prisoners’ right to vote. Indeed,
you are correct, the Court made a political decision in this case, by dismissing it
stating I did not have standing to file the
suit because I am not a resident of NYS,
and therefore was unable to vote in the first
place. They did not want to rule on the merits of the lawsuit, so, they found a technical
reason to deny and dismiss the appeal.”
Pete Brook wrote: “We need to disassemble the notion that prisoners are different.” What prisoners need to do is the same
thing the Syrian refugees are doing—saying loud and clear, we are human beings!
Those in power do not want you to be seen
as a human being, they want you to be seen
as “other” upon which any cruelly can be
administered, even death, because you are
different. You don’t want to follow the constitution and give some people the right to
habeas corpus, a trial by jury, etc.?
It’s easy, just label them as “other” such
as terrorist or criminal. In such circumstances the victims of these labels are visited by all sorts of cruelty that people would
object to if it were happening to their loved
ones. Mr. Brook said, we need to disassemble the notion that prisoners are different than everyone else. And while we’re at
it, we need to educate the public about the
new Jim Crow for prisoners that in effect
imposes perpetual punishment on prisoners
for the rest of their lives in terms of issues
like housing and job discrimination.
The December issue will conclude my
fourth year of publishing the Rock newsletter. When I look back over those years
I see something approaching a bell curve.
The newsletter started out slowly, gradually reaching a subscription peak of 600
during the second and third hunger strikes,
and since then readership has dropped off
significantly. My optimistic plan of building first a regional publication for prison8

ers, one that would eventually go national,
have not materialized. While prisoners
have been providing the stamps, I still pay
for the printing.
At its height Rock was the only publication I’ve put out that readers not only financially supported, but paid one hundred
percent of the costs for over a year.
Then stamp contributions started to
drop, and drop again. The decline in support started about the time I announced my
diagnosis of advanced stage lung cancer.
Contributions have continued to fall ever
since then. I don’t’ think it was totally the
announcement of my diagnosis that caused
the drop in support, but also the absence of
any significant struggle on the inside and a
general sense of demoralization. There was
also the issue of my communist politics,
which turned off many prisoners.

Indefinite SHU continues
under the name of Administrative SHU, which
requires "compelling evidence" before indefinite
SHU...
You might be asking yourself why is
there no coverage of the settlement in the
Ashker case? For two reasons: I did have
two-paged article I'd written on the details of the settlement but pulled it after a
lengthy discussion with the lead attorney
and members of the outside support community. Secondly, we at CPF have just put
out a special issue of Prison Focus on the
settlement, which should be in your hands
well before you receive this newsletter.
However, as I understand it, the plaintiffs were asking for more due process before indefinite SHU placement, and for the
elimination of indefinite SHU status on the
basis of mere gang affiliation alone. The
agreement gives them that and a bit more.
Indefinite SHU continues to exist under the
name of Administrative SHU, but the state
must have "compelling" evidence you deserve indefinite SHU in order to place you
there—yeah, the new worst of the worst.
I know this is not the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s
(I was in prison during a part of all those
decades). That said, and old time cons will
confirm, that if you killed another prisoner
you'd go to Ad Seg until trial. Regardless
of whether or not you were convicted or
acquitted, you'd be released back into the
general population after about 18 months
at the most. There was no such thing as
indefinite lock down in the hole—nobody

did years in the IMU or on Ad Seg. It just
wasn't done. California's prisons are a different kind of beast, more inhuman than
most. And it has spread its sickness to other
jurisdictions, including Washington State.
As I write this the Pope has just made a
speech to a joint session of congress. I’m
loth to admit that I sort of admire this pope.
On a recent tour of South America he told
the assembled multitude that “capitalism
is the devil’s dung.” And on his visit here
in the U.S. he preached for the abolition of
the death penalty, leveling the disparity between the rich and the poor, immigration
reform, climate actions, etc. When invited
to dine with the leaders of congress he declined, instead choosing to go to a homeless shelter to eat with and serve food to
the poor.
I'm a sucker for those who live by their
principles—whose thoughts, words, and
deeds all coincide with each other. The
Pope is not at all confused about what he
stands for, even if he happens to lead a reactionary and male chauvinist institution
that has enslaved and tortured indigenous
peoples here in the Americas and elsewhere, oppressed women and abused children, etc.
I’ve written a book called, oddly enough,
Lumpen, the autobiography of Ed Mead,
which can be obtained from Amazon or
perhaps your favorite radical book store.
If you’ve enjoyed reading the Rock over
the years I think you’ll also like the book.
I would prefer to be modest here, but the
fact is, as my publisher said, “it is a fucking
great read.” The cover price is a whopping
twenty bucks. Out of that I get a dollar for
each book sold. No need to worry about
me getting rich as radical books written by
commies tend not to sell that well here in
capitalism land. Besides that, the content is
something only a prisoner could love.
The book will help you understand the
how and why of what's going on inside. It
is about the struggles I've engaged in elsewhere and the lessons I've learned in the
process. If you are an aspiring prisoner activist, you should to read this book.
I'll be sending free copies in to some of
the prisoners I regularly correspond with.
Since I also have to pay for the copies I
mail in, and since I have very little money,
the rest of you will have to pay up for the
read. Copies can be obtains by sending a
$20 check or 41 forever stamps to: Prison
Art, Book Program, P.O. Box 47439, Seattle, WA 98146. Or, as I said, order it from
Amazon or any radical bookstore. ●
Rock!

HELP END SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
IN TEXAS
Jason Walker, Clements Unit, Amarillo, TX
aving read, and in response to the
California prison hunger strike and
the agreement to end hostilities, I
felt it would be imperative if other states
used this historic movement in the making
to spread the awareness of how prolonged
periods of solitary confinement equals cruel
and unusual punishment, at the very least.
From Washington to New York solitary
confinement living conditions are pretty
much the same, with California allowing
its prisoners the privilege of having a TV,
which does not make living conditions than
those here in Texas (which doesn’t give
prisoners more than three hours of recreation a week, let alone television).
In order for the movement to abolish
solitary confinement to be successful in the
near future, it is going to take the populations of state and federal prisons across the
country to put racial, ethnical, and social
differences to the side and wake-up to the
cause that’s starting to get very persuasive
in the California prison system.
There is no way California prisoners
should be playing big brother to something
that has a foothold on every prisoner in
solitary confinement. Here in Texas we are
literally getting man-handled by prison officials, medical staff, and even the maintenance workers. Prisoners work for free, the
grievance system is not only inadequate but
rigged, the food is of the poorest choice,
recreation is seldom provided, prisoner
guards are corrupt and assaultive, and telephone calls to the outside are off limits. All
of the things I just named are those that are
supposed to be provided, but are illegally
being stripped away from us.
One reason our repressed status in this
state is unmoved by any effort of liberation
is because we are embodied by the happy
slave mantra. This status has Texas prison-

H

Volume 4, Number 11

ers brainwashed into believing that the only
things worth fighting for is commissary and
confiscated items like homemade speakers
and other items ruled to be contraband.
The attitude here is that any form of unity is for the weak and less respected. Prisoners here are more apt to make a deal that
strips them of their constitutional rights
for a chance to go to commissary. So all in
all, Texas prisoners in solitary confinement
lack both discipline and social bonding. In
order for this to change awareness must be
spread to every Texas prisoner—through
media, newsletters, and Facebook.
During a talk with a fellow prisoner on
the rec yard, he explained that the reason
California prisoners are being heard is because they have unity. He explained that
the reason California prisoners are being
heard is because they have unity. He spoke
of this as if unity was purchased and only
available to a select few. This though pattern needs to change. We need to recognize that just because we don’t have unity
doesn’t mean we can’t trail blaze and gain
just as much if not more awareness.
One key to gaining awareness is by realizing our common similarity of being in
solitary confinement. We must also understand we all share the goal of being released
into the general population. Our goals to be
released from solitary have to be stronger
than our will to uphold a rung on the social
ladder that only exists in our minds.
At this point we can exchange ideas on
who to write, what to say and what rights
and privileges we will need while we
struggle in harmony with prisoners in other states. We have to commit ourselves to
daily organizing, networking, and not succumbing to the influence of individualism,
separatism and racism, which are three key
factors in keeping us from moving forward.
A bright light shines on the Texas prison system, we merely have to remove our
shades to see it. I’m calling out all gangsters, recluses, racists, long term residents
as well as those who don’t believe they will
get out of solitary confinement before they
die.
Unite today and help jump start a movement to end solitary confinement in Texas
and the U.S. Our future lives and sanity depend on it.
Dare to struggle! Dare to Win! All power
to the people! ●

POLITICIANS:
SERVANTS OF
THE WEALTHY
By Mumia Abu-Jamal,
September 9, 2015
t is impossible to look at the current
crop of political presidential aspirants
and not be struck by their level of subservience to the wants and needs of the
owner class.
Like Puppies panting in the presence of
their masters, the politicians, emboldened
by the unconscionable Citizens United decision, are at the feet of the billionaires for
scraps to better serve their betters.
Now, one billionaire can field half-dozen
pols, and by so doing, can determine not
just who runs, but who wins - and what
laws will be passed.
Why not? They own them, don’t they?
But still, that is not enough. For witness
the emergence of New York real estate executive Donald Trump.
Trump brags, at every opportunity, of his
enormous wealth. By so doing, he intimidates his potential rivals, who are used to
bending their knees to such men. But he
also represents the distrust of his class, for
rather than hiring politicians, he runs himself, to lock in his class dominance.
Nor is this solely a Republican affair, for
Democrats, who run on emotional appeals
to labor unions and working people, once
in power lead to the interests of Wall Street
– the source of the lion’s share of their donations.
Their strategy, of talk labor, while pleasing capital was seen in the destructive
NAFTA pact, which decimated manufacturing jobs in the U.S. by the millions.
Bill Clinton hustled NAFTA like a street
dealer sold crack, selling dreams that
turned to dust.
Now, the Clintons return, posing as the
saviors of the working class, when their
treasured NAFTA ripped away tens of thousands of jobs annually, undermined unions,
and transferred vast wealth to Wall St.
When Texas businessman and 1992-96
presidential candidate, H.Ross Perot predicted NAFTA would produce a “giant
sucking sound” of lost jobs, the media pundits laughed at him, making him sound like
a fool.
History proves his words were true.
Politicians–servants of capital; promisers of progress, but bringers of disaster. ●

I

9

Important Notice
Articles and letters sent to the
Rock newsletter for publication are
currently being delivered and received in a timely manner. Please
do not send such materials to third
parties to be forwarded to Rock as it
only delays receiving them and adds
to the workload of those asked to do
the forwarding.
Letters sent to Rock (located in
Seattle) in care of Prison Focus (located in Oakland) can take over a
month to reach us. Send Rock mail
to this newsletter's return address
(below). Anything for publication in
Prison Focus can be sent either to
me or to CPF in Oakland.

Class consciousness is
knowing which side of the
fence you're on.
Class analysis is figuring
out who's there with you.

Free Electronic Copy
Outside people can read, download, or print current and back issues
of the Rock newsletter by going to
www.rocknewsletter.com and clicking on the issue of the Rock newsletter they'd like to read.
Outside folks can also have a free
electronic copy of the newsletter sent
to them each month by way of email.
Send requests for a digital copy to
ed@rocknewsletter.com.

On Jailhouse Lawyers
“…jailhouse lawyers often unwittingly serve the interests of the state
by propagating the illusion of ‘justice’
and ‘equity’ in a system devoted to
neither.” They create “illusions of legal options as pathways to both individual and collective liberation.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal,
JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: Prisoners
Defending Prisoners v. The U.S.A.

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

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