Working

W
Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
D
to
t All
All
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V
Volume
V l
Volume
4, N
4
Number
b 9
9

September

S
S t b 2015
September
2015

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT ISN'T
PUNISHMENT — IT'S TORTURE!
By Jasmine Heiss
lbert Woodfox sits alone in a cell
smaller than the average parking
space. Unless it is one of the three
days that he gets to stretch his legs in the
prison yard, the 68-year-old will likely remain caged in these conditions for 24 hours
today. The four walls are solid – save a single small window that looks onto the parking lot – as is the metal door in front of him.
His isolation is complete, even from others prisoners in nearby cells. He has spent
more than half of his life in this nightmare.
Woodfox – who has the dubious honor
of being the United States’ longest serving
prisoner in solitary confinement – is just
one of an estimated 80,000 people held
in solitary confinement on any given day

A

CONTENTS
Solitary is Torture .....................1
Hands Off Doctrine Revisited...2
Princeton on Democracy..........3
Quote Box ................................3
It's Time For Peace ..................4
Visiting George ........................5
Voices Crying Out ....................6
Nebraska Uprising ...................7
Editorial ....................................7
Prisoners Organize for Health..8
Letters ......................................9

in the United States. He has described the
physical and mental anguish of solitary as
“standing at the edge of nothingness, looking at emptiness.”
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
has specifically condemned Woodfox’s
treatment as torture and called on the
United States to eliminate the use of prolonged isolation. Albert’s case has returned
to the spotlight in the past month because
he is no longer a convicted man – a federal
judge ordered his unconditional release in
early June, two years after his conviction
had been overturned for a third time (a
last-minute appeal kept him behind bars).
The ruling on Albert’s behalf came only
two days after the devastating news that
22-year-old Kalief Browder killed himself.
Browder
wasn’t guilty of a crime – in fact,
B
he
h was never even convicted. A judge eventually
dismissed his case, but only after he
t
had
h spent two years in solitary confinement
for
f fighting with other inmates inside the
notoriously
brutal prison.
n
Their stories further illuminate the need
for
f urgent and long-overdue reform of the
United
States’ use of prolonged solitary
U
confi
nement. Albert and Kalief’s ordeals
c
are
a particularly devastating because of
their
strong arguments of innocence and
t
the
t glaring flaws their cases expose in the
criminal
justice system. But solitary conc
finement is a grave human rights abuse for
guilty
and innocent alike. No human being
g
should
face the prospect of years, or des
cades,
c
in a cage without meaningful human
contact,
c
battling the very real prospect of
being
b
overtaken by insanity.
Numbers alone make the human cost of
s
solitary
confinement devastatingly clear.
H of all successful suicides in US prisHalf

ons occur in solitary cells. With an estimated 2.4m people behind bars in the United
States, isolated prisoners make up only
about 3% of the entire prison population.
And if that human price isn’t compelling
enough, the financial arguments may be:
the independent advocacy project Solitary
Watch has documented available figures
from key states and the federal system,
painting a picture of an extravagantly expensive practice that only increases recidivism and fails to reduce violence. Although
there are few available numbers, one study
estimated that the annual per-cell cost of a
Supermax prison is about $75,000, compared to $25,000 for each cell in a prison
not designed specifically for solitary confinement. They are also estimated to be
about two to three times more costly to
build.
Because mass incarceration in the United
States is particularly devastating for communities of color, it’s not surprising that
race is an important part of both Albert
Woodfox and Kalief Browder’s stories.
Browder consumed by a system in which
racial profiling and excessively high bail
thrust a child into a degrading, dehumanizing prison system. Woodfox is the cofounder of the first prison chapter of the
Black Panther Party and has been zealously
pursued and publicly maligned by a Louisiana attorney general through two overturned convictions, despite the doubt that
has clouded his case for decades. While the
demographic information about prisoners
in solitary confinement is scarce, it seems
to suggest that their cases are emblematic
of a general over-representation of people
of color in solitary confinement in the US.
Despite all this evidence that solitary is

unfairly used and disproportionately affects people of color, states are not required
to keep statistics on the numbers of prisoners held in segregated facilities, the demographics of those prisoners, the length of
confinement they have endured, the effectiveness of programs instituted, the overall
costs or the impact on prisoners and overall prison safety. The federal system lacks
clear internal review procedures and monitoring for mentally ill prisoners. Human
rights organizations like Amnesty International and the UN expert on torture have
specifically condemned the use of solitary
confinement for juveniles or mentally disabled prisoners.
It is time to develop national guidelines
to limit the use of solitary or isolated confinement so that we can ensure that it is
imposed only as a last resort – and never
indefinitely. The dehumanisation, degradation and deprivation typified by the
prolonged isolation of prisoners in the US
prison system is akin to sentencing a prisoner to stand on the knife’s edge of insanity
and waiting to see if they stumble. It cannot, and must not, be the status quo. ●
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/02/solitary-confinement-isntpunishment-its-torture

THE “HANDS
OFF” DOCTRINE
REVISITED
By Ed Mead
t one point in my political career
I was the co-founder of a publication called Prison Legal News, and
as such I had occasion to write many articles on decisions from various state and
federal courts involving prisoner rights issues. I don’t think I’ve written much about
the law since I ended my relationship with
PLN.
I first became involved in prisoner oriented litigation in the early 1960s; indeed,
I received my first legal-related infraction
at the U.S. Prison at Lompoc, California,
in 1963, for “illegal procedure in writing
a writ” (my crime was to assist another
prisoner with his post conviction relief petition). In those days there was something
called the “hands off doctrine,” which essentially held that prisoners have no rights
the federal courts are bound to respect—
that they are literally slaves of the state.
After all, the courts reasoned, the 13th

A

2

Amendment to the U.S. constitution legitimizes this condition of slavery. With the
advent of a growing prisoner rights movement, however, that old reasoning slowly
changed. By 1972 I had won a case in the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that
federal prisoners had a right to file class action habeas corpus petitions to challenge
their conditions of confinement. See, Mead
v. Parker, 464 F.2d 1108, 1111 (9th Cir.
1972). In those days I naively believed the
courts would fairly apply the law to achieve
the ends of justice.
While we have not totally gone back
to the hands off doctrine, we’ve now got
pretty much the same thing. Today they say
while prisoners do have due process rights,
the needs of the state, however frivolous
they may be, trumps those rights—meaning of course that we have no rights at all.
In 2005 a unanimous U.S. Supreme
Court has dashed the hopes of those liberal
prisoners who look to the courts as an avenue of salvation from the ever-increasing
levels of deprivation and repression being
visited upon them by their captors. In the
case of Wilkinson, Director, Ohio DOC, et
al. v. Charles Austin et al., No. 04-495, decided June 13, 2005, the high court noted
that “In the OSP [a Supermax or SHU facility] almost every aspect of an inmate’s life
is controlled and monitored. Incarceration
there is synonymous with extreme isolation. Opportunities for visitation are rare
and are always conducted through glass
walls. Inmates are deprived of almost any
environmental or sensory stimuli and of almost all human contact. Placement at OSP
is for an indefinite period, limited only by
an inmate’s sentence. Inmates otherwise eligible for parole lose their eligibility while
incarcerated at OSP.” The court went on to
note that: “For an inmate placed in OSP, almost all human contact is prohibited, even
to the point that conversation is not permitted from cell to cell; his cell’s light may be
dimmed, but is on for 24 hours; and he may
exercise only one hour per day in a small
indoor room.” Moreover, such placement is
reviewed only once per year. Yet when all
is said and done, the court held “that courts
must give substantial deference to prison
management decisions before mandating
additional expenditures for elaborate procedural safeguards when correctional officials conclude that a prisoner has engaged
in disruptive behavior.” So how much
process is due before locking someone up
in one of these dungeons for an indefinite
period? According to the court the answer

is an “informal, non-adversary procedures
comparable to those we upheld in Greenholtz and Hewitt.” (See, Greenholtz v.
Inmates of Neb. Penal and Correctional
Complex, 442 U. S. 1 (1979) and Hewitt v.
Helms, 459 U. S. 460 (1983).)
Which brings us to the question of how
relevant is the legal front in today’s struggle for the rights of prisoners? As mentioned above, and as any astute prisoner
rights activist knows, the 13th Amendment
banned slavery except for those convicted
of a crime. In other words, slavery still
exists for some 2.3 million Americans.
Worse, there are countless millions more
who have been disenfranchised (a modern
Jim Crow) as a result of their status as previously convicted persons. While 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. Democrats know that if formerly
incarcerated individuals had been permitted to vote in Florida’s 2000 presidential
election George W. Bush would have never
been president.
From California to Florida there is a push
by liberals to enfranchise ex-felons. This
has nothing to do with their love of prisoners, and everything to do with their love of
the Democratic Party. Even the New York
Times has editorialized on the need to give
ex-felons and, shudder, prisoners the right
to vote. They understand that, for the most
part, prisoners will not be voting for prolock ‘em up; pro-death penalty, anti-parole

Rock!

Republicans. So here comes the vote, not
from the courts, but from bourgeois politicians. Oh, the courts may hand down the
ruling, but it will be the existing political
climate that caused it to happen. In the late
1960s and early 1970s it was the prisoners that created the climate for judicially
mandated reform and the expansion of our
meager rights. Today, sadly, it is the liberal
wing of the bourgeoisie that is providing
the necessary impetus for voting rights.
So before too the vote will come, at least
to ex-convicts and very possibly to those
still on the inside. And in time, lots of time,
the 13th Amendment may be modified to
abolish slavery once and for all. But that’s
a story for another day.
Today we need to talk about how we can
use our small amount of influence to insure
that this vote thing does not unfold in a
manner that is antithetical to prisoner interests. The liberals will try to get the vote to
felons using the absentee ballot, thus dispersing the impact of our ballot over the
entire state. But prisoners are counted in
the census for the county in which they are
confined, and those counties receive funds
from the state on the basis of that count.
The prisoner vote should be concentrated
in the respective county where the prison is
located, not scattered by absentee ballots.
Since most prisons are located in remote
areas, with such a condensed voting block
prisoners will be able to have local politicians catering to their legitimate needs—
visiting, vocational facilities, etc.
There was a time when the rights of prisoners could be extended through use of the
bourgeois judicial system. As can be seen
by Wilkinson, cited above, and the numerous cases just like it, those days are all but
over.
The courts can from time-to-time still be
used for the occasional defensive struggle,
but to expect any significant advances to be
made as a result of litigation is an exercise
in futility—we are merely throwing wadded up paper balls at them. The task of today’s advanced prisoners is not litigation,
but organization. And the issues we should
be organizing around are the right to vote
(winning the franchise for prisoners) and
the final abolition of slavery in the United
States. Conjugal visits, wages, and myriad
other issues can be raised at the same time,
but the guiding star should be the elimination of the pro-slavery segment of the 13th
amendment. Once that falls the legal justification for treating other human beings as
less than human will be gone. ●
Volume 4, Number 9

PRINCETON
STUDY: SAYS U.S.
IS NO LONGER
AN ACTUAL
DEMOCRACY
By Brendan James
new study from Princeton spells
bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists.
Asking “[w]ho really rules?” researchers
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argue
that over the past few decades America’s
political system has slowly transformed
from a democracy into an oligarchy, where
wealthy elites wield most power.
Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002,
the two conclude that rich, well-connected
individuals on the political scene now steer
the direction of the country, regardless of
or even against the will of the majority of
voters.
“The central point that emerges from our
research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts
on U.S. government policy,” they write,
“while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent
influence.”
As one illustration, Gilens and Page compare the political preferences of Americans
at the 50th income percentile to preferences
of Americans at the 90th percentile as well
as major lobbying or business groups. They
find that the government—whether Republican or Democratic—more often follows
the preferences of the latter group rather
than the first.
The researches note that this is not a new
development caused by, say, recent Supreme Court decisions allowing more money in politics, such as Citizens United or
this month’s ruling on McCutcheon v. FEC.
As the data stretching back to the 1980s
suggests, this has been a long term trend,
and is therefore harder for most people to
perceive, let alone reverse.
“Ordinary citizens,” they write, “might
often be observed to ‘win’ (that is, to get
their preferred policy outcomes) even if
they had no independent effect whatsoever on policy making, if elites (with whom
they often agree) actually prevail.” ●
Source: Information Clearing House

A

Quote Box
"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It
is the measles of mankind."
Albert Einstein
"The major western democracies are
moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with
a bottom line for every human activity,
every dream, every decency, every hope.
The main parliamentary parties are now
devoted to the same economic policies
- socialism for the rich, capitalism for
the poor - and the same foreign policy
of servility to endless war. This is not
democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food."
John Pilger (05/11/2009)
"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear-kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor-with the
cry of grave national emergency. Always
there has been some terrible evil at home
or some monstrous foreign power that
was going to gobble us up if we did not
blindly rally behind it ..."
General Douglas MacArthur, 1957
On the threat to democracy by corporate power Fascism - A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of
the extreme right, typically through the
merging of state and business leadership,
together with belligerent nationalism."
American Heritage Dictionary, 1983
"Fascism should more appropriately
be called Corporatism because it is a
merger of State and corporate power."
Benito Mussolini, Italian fascist
Any president engaged in lying and
empire-building must have some of the
traits of a psychopath ... To murder innocent people in order to aggrandize the
American Empire would be extremely
difficult if not impossible for someone
who feels empathy, remorse and guilt
and who is incapable of lying. It might
even be suggested that having at least
some psychopathic traits is a qualification for the job."
David Model, "Lying for Empire"
"Democracy is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority."
Albert Camus
3

IT’S TIME FOR PEACE
By Anthony Murillo
he reinvigorated Prisoner’s Rights
Movement,
currently
focused
upon the abolition of control units
and long-term solitary confinement, has
brought about the first real effort at penal
reform since the 1970s. California has been
the engine leading the rest of the states,
particularly with regards to increased consciousness, solidarity, and peaceful demonstrations on the inside. However, now that
the Five Core Demands and Supplemental
Demands are being addressed, there is a
lull in action resulting in the natural dissipation of energy.
Everything gained (or promised) thus far
is largely the result of the civilian coalition working closely with incarcerated influencers to set and receive realistic goals.
We have seen a few hiccups with tactics,
but overall strategy has been consistent and
effective. This demonstrates a ripening of
the prisoner class itself and proves, once
more, that violence must not always be met
with violence. Sometimes, the image of
our humanity is more powerful than brute
strength.
Furthermore, the 2012 Agreement To
End All Hostilities is a game-changer. It
represents not just an increase in awareness and corresponding solidarity amongst
prisoners but a counter-strategy to deflate
the state’s long held assertion that control units and solitary confinement are the
only way to combat prison gangs and other
groups it calls disruptive. (This argument
was whacky all along because segregating
those accused of gang membership did not
put a dent in the senseless drama, but that’s
neither here nor there.) The next logical
step for the Movement is a Formal Peace
Process culminating in a permanent treaty that spells out obligations, establishes
bench marks, and puts in place necessary
mechanisms for dealing with inevitable
violations. This is where at least some of
that stationary energy should be directed
while we patiently wait for the CDCR and
Legislature to follow through with policy
changes.
The keys to a successful case process
are: 1) a social mandate for a negotiated
settlement; 2) the willingness of warring
parties to talk and three the emergence of a
neutral mediator and facilitator.
Most combatants and noncombatants
want peace, so it’s safe to say the first two

T

4

keys are met; it’s just a matter of resolving differences in political dogma. As with
most social issues, there is a left right divide, and many peoples’ opinions are
formed through the prism of race, class,
and culture. But we are witnessing a general pull to the center, and that is where civil
conflict are ultimately settled. Interrogating
warfare affects everyone on many different
levels, including but not limited to: physical and mental health, taxes, insurance premiums, property values, social stability,
and overall quality of life.

...the 2012 Agreement
to End all Hostilities is a
game-changer.
The third key is what is conspicuously
absent. Anyone familiar with the internal
workings of the system knows that we’ve
been sending signals to civil society since
the 1990s. Yes some individual, as well as a
number of religious, and cultural organizations, I’ve seen the signals and attempted to
make things happen, but there is no statewide effort, no collision, no Federation of
groups dedicated to the secular because of
creating a formal peace process.
The civilian coalition, which did such a
great job of winning public support, harnessing media attention, and negotiating
with the cats during and after the last round
of hunger strikes, could easily use the network to raise awareness of support for the
adoption of a case plan. One such plan, entitled “We Want Peace”, is a comprehensive
28 page document modeled after a number
of successful plans in other regions of the
world. You Want Peace was authored by
a former gang member and is sponsored by
the national coalition of Barrios Unidos, an
organization with more than two decades
experience in working with at risk, prisoners, and communities.
Now is the time for society to act, but
anyone interested in being a part of the
solution must understand politics call for
finesse. Protocols must be followed. Certain prisoners must be consulted. I’ll times.
Civil society cannot force it’s will upon
warring factions in our communities, but
there are a few answers can convince the
warring parties to squash there rivalries as
an extension of a Peace Treaty behind bars.
Most civilians don’t understand the nexus
between street gangs and prison cliques,

but the former listen to the latter, and that’s
just the way it is. If society wants peace,
society must also one piece for its incarcerated masses.
What we need, more than anything, is
a father Gregory, Bishop Tutu, Dolores
weather, Jimmy Carter or Jesse Brown to
step up to the plate. We need somebody
with more recognition, in the background
and diplomacy, and experience in dealing
with complex issues. What we don›t need
is highly political, rhetoric spouting firebrands who do more talking than listening.
This is a tall order, for sure. But all these
processes are. Again, this is only partly
about games and prisoners; it is mostly
about society as a whole, and future generations. As Americans, we say we want
peace, but too often our actions declare and
maintain war. Let us want for ourselves
what we claim to want for other people all
over the world, and Let our deeds form to
our words.
A dignified peace is more possible than
ever. All the stars and planets are aligned.
The civilian coalition must seize this opportunity by creating the space influencers need to debate the pros and cons, once
more, attempting to engage in a formal
Peace Process. (The last effort fizzled because it lacked keys one and three. Now,
we just need that one that is brave and qualified to make peace a reality, but as always,
the clock is ticking....
Do we really want peace? We›ll see....
The we want peace document can be
viewed at www.barriosunidos.net ●

Who's UR Daddy?
Just when you thought US imperialism
could not mess things in the Middle East up
any worse, they’ve found a way. Many of
you know that the US is objectively allied
with Iran in Iraq against ISIS, and against
Iran in Yemen, and some of you know that
the US and Israel are quietly supporting
Al Qaeda in Syria against the duly elected
leader of that nation. But here’s what you
probably did not know, “fighters loyal to
ISIS have seized substantial territory in Afghanistan for the first time, wresting areas
in the east from rival Taliban insurgents in
a new threat to stability.”
See: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusiveturf-war-afghan-taliban-islamic-state
[So ISIS is a “threat to stability” in the
13 year war against the Taliban? Try and
wrap your head around all that.]
Rock!

ON VISITING GEORGE
By Dr. Tolbert Small, July 29, 2015
eorge Jackson was a legendary
prisoner who was attempting to
organize the Blacks, Latinos and
poor whites under their common linkage as
victims of an exploitative class system. At
that time, he was incarcerated in the San
Quentin Adjustment Center, which housed
the prison’s most feared and dangerous inmates.
The Adjustment Center also housed the
political prisoners. Both Huey Newton,
who had recently been released from prison, and Angela Davis, who was incarcerated herself, had asked me to “go see about
George.” George’s attorney, John Thorne,
had to get a court order to allow me to visit
George.
On April 8, 1971, I drove my bright red
Plymouth Barracuda across the San Rafael
Bridge to San Quentin, parked and walked
down the long lane to the opening gates of
San Quentin. There, a short wiry guard,
who George later informed me was a member of the John Birch Society (a far rightwing group that was politically influential
at the time – ed.), searched my black medical bag. Another guard escorted me across
the yard and along several dreary red brick
buildings, winding our way to the feared
Adjustment Center.
After being led into the Adjustment Center, I immediately saw a tall, handsome
man, locked into his holding cage, which
was the size of a small casket, that was
bolted against the wall. He immediately
gave me the raised fist sign, power to the
people, as I nodded my head toward him.
A thin, shorter gentleman, Ruchelle McGee, was sitting to the left against the wall.
He stared at me, asking me if I was an attorney? When I told him no, he smiled at me.
Ruchelle was a jailhouse attorney who felt
that he, himself, and many other prisoners
were victims of glib attorneys. Ruchelle
had a passionate dislike for attorneys.
The escorting guard told me that George
was a very intelligent person – “too bad he
got into trouble.” He unlocked George’s
cage and escorted both of us into a small
office to the right of the hallway. We saw
a layer of guards lining the room like corn
stalks in a circle. George immediately
pointed out which guards were members of
the John Birch Society. “Officer so and so
is a member and so are his two sons; the
john who searched you at the entrance is
one of his sons.”

G

Volume 4, Number 9

Using a hard oak desk as an exam table, I
gave George a complete history and physical. George was concerned over the pain
from his ingrown toenails; he wanted me
to operate on him, immediately. I informed
him that this was not possible.
The San Quentin officials had ignored
George’s request for medical therapy for
over a year. I arranged for George Rhoden,
D.P.M., a Jamaican gold medalist in the
Olympic 400 meters, to perform the surgery. In direct violation of the court order,
Warden Red Nelson refused to allow Dr.
Rhoden into San Quentin.
George told me that he realized that the
podiatrist who operated on his toes was not
referred by me, when the podiatrist asked
George, “Did he feel any pain?” George replied, “Yes.” The podiatrist then proceeded
to cut on George’s toes.
Immediately after the surgery, they made
George walk 200 yards back to the Adjustment Center. Each step was quite painful for George. The guards claimed that
George was too much of a security risk to
stay in the infirmary.
George was not given any convalescence, because Warden Nelson didn’t want
an extra guard in the hospital. Knowing
that George was allergic to codeine, they
gave him codeine for pain. George was up
all night vomiting. They refused to give
him any other pain medicine. They gave
George another prisoner’s three year old
dirty shoes and dirty socks to wear. He was
given no follow-up care, no clean facilities
and no sterile gauze.
George was more concerned with the
health of other prisoners than with his own
health. He wanted me to visit an ill Ulysses McDaniels, the cofounder of the Black
Guerilla Family. I was allowed to visit
George three times before Warden Nelson
had the judge rescind the court order. Warden Nelson claimed that I was a security
risk.

George’s body bore the permanent scars
of many a battle. In 1967, he was hit with
a lead truncheon five times; he bore to his
grave an indentation and scar on the back
of his skull. After this beating, he had ringing in his ears for six months.
On April 6, 1971, a San Francisco sheriff’s deputy kicked him into his mouth,
knocking out three of his teeth. The same
day, while handcuffed, George was cracked
across his throat with a sap. He had pain
over his larynx and he had numerous bruises over his neck. He had been hit in the
nose numerous times. He had a permanent
nasal scar.
The left frontal area of his head was
swollen. His right shoulder had a bite
mark. In November 1970, the prison guards
broke and dislocated his left fourth finger. This was not treated. The finger grew
back crooked. Even today, the San Quentin guards brag about the good old days in
which they would take eight people to beat
one prisoner down.
George was an amazing person. Like
Napoleon, he only slept four hours per
night. He spent his days reading, writing,
exercising and doing martial arts. He did
a thousand pushups per day in sets of one
hundred. He showed me how he could do
pushups standing on his head.
George was assassinated on Aug. 21,
1971. He was shot in the neck while he
lay helpless on the ground from a gunshot
wound to his foot. When Mrs. Georgia
Jackson heard about it on the radio, she
called up San Quentin.
The prison guard laughingly told her,
“We killed one of yours sons last year
and another one this year. Pretty soon you
won’t have any more sons left.” I was up to
3 a.m. with an angry but grieved Georgia
Jackson.
In a telegram that I sent Mrs. Jackson on
Aug. 25, 1971, I wrote: “Let George’s fiery
writings and iron deeds serve as a path to
lead all of our imprisoned cadres to final
victory. Let us mourn him. Let us love him.
Let us miss him. Let us do as he did in the
name of freedom. In our last hours, let us
die as men and not as slaves. Long live
George Jackson.”
George was not a paper panther. In the
Black Panther Party, we had many paper
panthers, some in leadership roles. That
is why the first woman to join the Panther
Party would be one of the first women to be
beaten in the party. I would like to dedicate
this poem to Comrade George; I wrote it
five years after George’s assassination.
5

THE HEROIC
GUERILLA
Scream! Scream! Scream!
About that man
Who threatened the fires of hell.
Stalk forward, Bronze Dragon.
Breathe pits of fire
To melt the molted bars of slavery.
Conquer concrete walls
With courageous conviction.
Teach us the art of raging, Heroic Guerilla.

trail forever. They won’t defeat my revenge.
Never. Never.”
I wanted to be a part of helping George
fulfill his promise to “dog his trail forever.”
There will be other mass organization and
underground groups that will continue with
that important dogging. I am proud of having been a part of the first group to do so.
That said, George did have his faults,
such as the endemic homophobia that existed at the time. And you and I, too, have
our blind spots that only those in the future
consciousness will see.

George’s mother writes: “My dear only
surviving son, I went to Mount Vernon August 7th, 1971, to visit the grave site of my
heart your keepers murdered in clod disregard for life. His grave was supposed to
be behind your grandfather’s and grandmother’s. But I couldn’t find it. There was
no marker. Just mowed grass. The story of
our past. I sent the keeper a blank check for
a headstone and two extra sites—blood in
my eye!!!” George is buried at the Bethel
Memorial Cemetery, Mount Vernon, Jefferson County, Illinois 62864.]

Steal my writings, resist we must.
Steal my weapons, resist we must.
Steal my life, resist we must.
In your last hours, caged but unconquered,
Stand defiant
Before the jaws of death.
Teach us to die as men, not as slaves,
So that even after death
We may continue to resist.
Steal my writing, resist we must.
Steal my weapons, resist we must.
Steal my life, resist we must.
In your spirit of defiance,
Let’s crawl over our slain heroes
To tumble down those prison walls
Stone by stone.
Remember well, Dragonslayer;
Truth will break the chains of death.
I shall escape from the grave
To dog your every footstep.
Five years have passed.
‘Tis a pity.
Your ideas, though alive,
Lie dead
In the hearts of your followers.
Source: S.F. Bayview,
by way of Freedom Archives
[Editorial Note: Dr. Small wrote this
poem only five years after George’s murder.
At that time he may not have been aware
of the existence of Seattle’s George Jackson Brigade. The group took its name from
a passage in Blood In My Eye, which the
poem expresses as: “I shall escape from
the grave - To dog your every footstep.”
What George's words were referring to the
ruling class and its minions: ”Hurl me into
the next existence. The descent into hell
won’t turn me. I’ll crawl back to dog his
6

VOICES CRYING OUT

POETRY

By Ebony Delaney, March 9, 2015
What good are voices that fall on deaf ears?
What good are eyes constantly filled with bitter tears?
Hearts torn from the grief of lives unnecessarily lost,
How deep is the debt? Haven’t we paid the cost?
Like a chorus of the dead, these names ring with truth.
Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin to name a few.
Eric Gardner of course, and now Tony Robinson as well,
Lives filled with potential, erased as bullets left their shells.
Hands up, don’t shoot…No justice, no peace.
I can’t breath, I’m not armed, and one day we’ll all be free?
Voices drowned with rage, chants pulled from a nation’s soul.
Eliminated by official thugs drunk with power and out of control.
We the people? In God we trust? And, all men are created equal?
Tell me, how is this possible when we’re targeted as a people?
Living in the land where hatred’s engrained in society’s psyche;
Taught through systems of the familiar, believing this is the key.
Saying “I’m so sorry” will never quench this raging fire,
There’s far too much judgment, yet not enough justice is desired.
Scarred by police trigger fingers wrapped around their guns,
What’s the difference between a racist bullet or a rope from which we’re hung?
Yes, black lives matter! Our hands are up, please don’t shoot!
We’ve been enslaved, lynched, raped, betrayed and abused.
Denied the truth of self, ripped from all we ever knew,
Forced to drink the cup of lies and feast at the table of untruth.
When will it end? Will enough ever truly be enough?
Is change really a change when we’re preferred dead or in cuffs?
Innocent until proven guilty? Honestly, for us it doesn’t apply.
Blind justice is a joke, fairness simply another lie.
We’ve sang hymns and marched until weariness claimed our strength.
We’ve rallied and cried out, decrees and letters have been sent.
Will justice ever flow like a river or righteousness a mighty stream?
Or, like Martin, do we have to continue to hope in a dream?
Rock!

INCARCERATED WORKERS’ UPRISING ED'S COMMENTS
elcome to the September issue
IN NEBRASKA
of the Rock newsletter. This
From IWW, By FW Chadrick, x385061
reetings my friends. My name is
Chadrick Fitzgerald, IWW membership number x385061. As I
write these words, I am sitting in a cell on
the Special Management Unit (SMU) gallery in Tecumseh Correctional Facility under investigation for the uprising that took
place on May 10, 2015. The Nebraska Department of Correction (DOC) has been run
poorly for some time; we have had a number of changes in directors and that’s about
it. The number of problems are too long to
list but somewhere at the top of that lists its
overcrowding, lack of programming, and
the mistreatment of the inmates.
To give you an idea of how out of control
it has become, prison guards themselves
have sued the state of Nebraska and won
because they were being abused by coworkers using racial slurs at work. The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
has threatened to sue because of the overcrowding and current living conditions. The
inmate population has tried many times to
get programming that would help us upon
release, and time and again: nothing.
There are a few jobs that pay more than
$24 per month ($1.21 per day) and they are
restricted to approximately 200 of the more
than 1,000 inmates that live here. Those
jobs include Cornhusker State Industries
(CSI) wood-shop and laundry, and a few in
the kitchen. So once again a group of inmates came together to make a list of things
that need to be changed. This list was to be
presented to staff at 2:30 p.m. on May 10. If
the prison staff refused to talk with us, then
work was to stop on May 11.
At approximately 2:30 p.m., a group of
about 65 inmates went to the main compound area when medical sick calls were
called over the PA (public address system).
When staff noticed the group, they were
confronted. Seventeen staff members were
trying to stop more from joining the growing group. As the list was given to the staff
by an inmate, the staff became aggressive
and pulled out large cans of mace and told
the inmate who handed them the list to cuff
up, at which time he asked why. Shortly
there after, there was a melee with staff
spraying mace and inmates fighting back.
Shots were fired from the gun tower and all
became quiet as inmates and staff lay flat
on the ground.

G

Volume 4, Number 9

Staff regained control of the situation
for a moment. They handcuffed a few and
identified the rest, but before long, their
verbal taunts became too much. The group
stood as one and began marching around
the compound. Inmates inside the housing
units joined in at this time. Staff ran for
cover, locking everyone out of their housing units. The group of inmates marching
on the compound tried to break into the
gym to let out inmates who had been locked
in. This is when they shot inmate Washington in his upper leg. As inmates attempted
to give first aid, the tower rained down bullets. The only two hit were Washington and
Camancho. Inmates then carried Washington to medical where they refused to give
him aid for some time before dragging him
off by his arm to the medical sally port.
Once word got out, fires started burning.
Hours later, local and state law enforcement, along with prison officers, came in
and regained the prison by force, shooting
inmates with less lethal rounds at pointblank range. Some were already cuffed
when they were shot. Inmates were taken
to the education building until all were accounted for. Many inmates were left cuffed
with hands behind their backs for more
than 48 hours.
At the time of this writing, that was eight
days ago. We have been receiving only two
meals a day since, with little or no way
to make contact with our family or loved
ones. What the future holds we do not
know, but until there are no prisons left, we
must fight. ●
Source: Industrial Worker, issue #1776

W

month we have something a little different for you. At the bottom of your
address label is an expiration date. When
that date is reached your subscription is
cancelled unless you send me some stamps
or money. As regular readers know, over
the years I’ve pumped thousands of dollars
into this thing. I’m a 73 years old ex-convict with advanced stage lung cancer and
living on a fixed income. I know many of
you are locked down and broke. All I can
say is that when I was on the inside I sold
subscriptions to my peers for the publications that supported prisoners’ rights. It just
takes a little hustle.
There seems to be a lull in the dynamics of the prisoners’ struggle in California,
at least that’s my perception. And from the
letters I get it seems as if there is a two line
political discussion taking place on the inside. One line is represented by those who
believe that prisoners must be their own
liberators—that peaceful means of prisoner protest will win the day. The other
line takes the approach that outside people
should fight our battle for us, while we sit
back as passive observers—occasionally
giving instructions. It’s clear to see where
I’m coming from on this question.
During the hunger strikes we had a combination of inside and outside struggle taking place at the same time. The outside
support was triggered by the struggle on
the inside. Over my years as a prisoner
I’ve help to form many outside support
groups. Some of these were effective, one
even pied (hit in the face with a cream pie),
twice, the director of corrections for the
state of Washington. Yet these groups were
never able to achieve much in terms of
change. The progress we made came from
our struggle on the inside, and that struggle
was the little motor that cranked up the big
engine of change. We got conjugal visits that are still in place to this day, and a
whole lot more. Out here on the streets one
of our slogans is “No justice, no peace!”
Here’s one I’ve not heard yet but makes
common sense, “No struggle, no progress.”
Yes, your captors can and most likely
will keep you longer if you peacefully object to being a slave of the state. So all who
think they are tough yet still cringe in fear
of the parole board, it’s time to stand up
like the proud human being you are.
Take care in there. See you next month. ●
7

IN WORLD’S
LARGEST
FEMALE PRISON,
PRISONERS
ORGANIZE FOR
HEALTH
By Claudia J. Gonzalez
y heart begins to pound as I enter
the gym at the Central California
Women’s Facility (CCWF) on
the outskirts of Chowchilla, about 20 miles
south of Merced. Within moments memories of my own time behind bars flood my
mind. I can’t help but wonder at my own
sense of being so at home after so many
years.
I’m here as a volunteer for a health fair
co-organized by an advocacy organization
and a group of CCWF inmates. The facility
is one of three female prisons in the state,
and with an inmate population of 3,123 is
the largest female-only prison in the world.
Opened in 1990, CCWF has 2,004 beds,
and is currently at 155 percent capacity.
Twenty inmates are currently on death row.
Niki Martinez, 38, has spent the past 20
years as at CCWF. Petite, her arms decorated with tattoos, she was sentenced as an
adult for a crime she committed when she
was only 17.
“I was young and I take responsibility for
my crime,” said Martinez, who is serving a
sentence of 45 years to life. “But [now] my
goal is to help other girls avoid ending up
in my situation.” Martinez joined with fellow prisoner Elizabeth Lozano, 40, to form
the Juvenile Offenders Committee (JOC)
several years ago, which provides a support
system for women at CCWF who were sentenced as adults when they were juveniles.
A 2010 study by the UCLA School of
Law Juvenile Justice Project found that 66
percent of youth sentenced as adults develop mental illnesses. Forty-three percent
were found to have three or more psychiatric disorders. JOC currently has some 130
members. The group provides workshops
on issues like substance abuse, trauma education and assistance with preparing for parole hearings.
In June, JOC partnered with the San
Francisco-based organization California
Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP)
and Centerforce, which is headquartered in
San Quentin and has been providing health
and family services to incarcerated popula-

M

8

tions for the past 30 years, to host the 2015
Health and Wellness Fair. CCWP advocates for women, transgender people, and
communities of color impacted by incarceration, and its membership encompasses
both incarcerated women and activists.
Nearly 1,000 women gathered in the
prison gym on the day of the event, which
featured informational booths on substance
abuse, transgender support, disability services and trauma. There were also a variety
of activities like exercise challenges and
live performances. Martinez says events
like this are crucial, not only because they
identify available resources, but also because they help build morale among the inmates and encourage them to support each
other.
Sara Kershnar is a coalition member. She
says the fair was “organized with the goal
of giving people tools that they can use to
take care of themselves and each other.”
She adds that groups like CCWP are working to “build power in a place where you
are humiliated, blamed, and shamed on a
constant basis.” Recent reports do in fact
paint a grim picture of life inside California’s women’s prisons.
In 2013 the Center for Investigative Reporting published a report that found that
between 2006 and 2010, 148 women inmates had been sterilized without consent
in California. Prisoner rights advocates
called the practice a form of eugenics. That
same year a Health Care Evaluation of the
Chowchilla prison by medical experts took
note of the “overcrowding, insufficient
health care staffing and inadequate medical
bed space” available at the prison. The report’s authors attributed at least one inmate
death in 2013 to complications brought on
by subpar care. Such concerns are what
drew Lamercie Saint-Hilaire to participate
in the fair.
A practicing physician in San Francisco,
Saint-Hilaire spent the afternoon answering
medical questions and providing medical
information to attendees. She says many
of the questions were about health care for
relatives on the outside.
“It’s amazing that even when dealing
with the daily struggle of surviving prison,
they still prioritized their family’s needs
before their own,” recalls Saint-Hilaire,
who says the trip to Chowchilla offered her
an opportunity to help women in need of
care, and to gain insight into health care
inside the prison system. “This experience
showed me their humanity … I left the
event with a great sense of humility,” she

said.
I shared that same sense of humility, having spent the day listening to the stories of
women whose narratives sounded so much
like my own. I was at turns amazed and
inspired at how many of them were eager
to help others and try to give back to their
communities from the inside.
As the fair was wrapping up an elderly
inmate approached. “I am so happy to see
you here,” she said. “It makes me feel like
somebody cares about us.”
I reflected on my own time behind bars,
and how I could be where she is now had I
not been given a second chance.
“We do care about you,” I replied. “Never forget that.” ●
http://www.wecedyouth.org/2015/07/inworlds-largest-female-prison-inmates

Oops, Missed Again...
U.S. Drone Strikes Killed at Least 874
People in Hunt for 24 Terrorists: U.S.
drone strikes that hit their intended targets
only 21% of the time have resulted in the
killings of hundreds of civilians, including
children, in America’s hunt for terrorists in
Yemen and Pakistan.
http://us.sputniknews.com/
us/20150120/1013514542.html

The Buck Stops....Where?
The dollar has a seven-fold indebtedness
(i.e. total outstanding and uncovered commitments are currently more than 7 times
higher than the US GDP (US$ 17.6 trillion,
2014 est. – vs. US$ 128 trillion of unmet
obligations); making the US worldwide
the most indebted country – by far. Russia,
on the other hand, has foreign exchange
reserves of close to half a trillion dollars,
equivalent, more than two times the rubles
in circulation. Russia’s economy shows a
pristine balance sheet with only about 15%
debt to GDP, whereas the EU’s debt-GDP
ratio is close to 100%.

Haikus By Kurt Michaels
San Quentin
Gaia
sad, wise, cautious eyes.
Green shoots after a wildfire.
Life follows all storms.
Archipelagos
Island of strung pearls,
Safe harbors during rough seas,
Where I find myself.
Rock!

He Likes Us
I see what you’re doing, in terms of your
reform advocacy and in teaching us, and I
know that it comes from a place of compassion. I see that you have a strong humanitarian sense. I believe you to be a truly
selfless and pure hearted person.
There are a long of good people in the
world but there aren’t many who have the
courage to face down their peers to champion for all underprivileged classes or people. I’ve always admired that about you.
You are second to none in your passion
for advocating for equality for all classes
of people and defending the mistreated. I
know that you don’t do it for recognition
or accolades but I don’t feel that you get
enough of them. I predict that you will one
day though. You’ve sacrificed your whole
life for this cause.
You and a few others have brought out a
better side of me. You’ve inspired me to be
better and strive for better. You’ve caused
me to think beyond myself and in doing
so you’ve fostered a new found sense of
empathy in me. You’ve challenged many
preconceived notions/ideals that I’ve had
and provoked countless hours of evaluation. One of the by-products of this are new
goals for myself and I new direction that
I’d like to go with my life upon parole. I
know that you’ve had this effect on others
as well. You’ve made some real changes.
I know that the reform movement is just
starting but you’re recognized as an integral part in the genesis of that movement
by myself and others. You’ve facilitated
and contributed some great things. I thank
you for all that you’ve done for myself and
others, directly and indirectly.
When I was younger, I was very reckless
with life (my life and the lives of others.)
Death did not scare me and I did not appreciate life. Now that I’m older, I feel the
opposite. I want to live for a long time and
accomplish many things. The death of any
friends or family would feel untimely regardless of their age or health. I’m not sure
how to process this or come to terms with
it. I was very close with my grandfather. He
passed away of cancer a few years back.
I’m still trying to process it and come to
terms with it. Perhaps those unresolved
feelings have exacerbated my feelings
about your condition.
Volume 4, Number 9

I’m getting out of the SHU. It’s a bittersweet feeling. As soon as I leave some other hapless human being will fill my cell. I
always dreamed of something big happening which would re-write policy and cause
a mass exodus of us all out of here. I too
share in your frustration and dissatisfaction
with the ‘new’ regulations.
You thanked me for my ongoing financial and moral support (that means a lot
to me coming from you). Ed, it has been
my pleasure and privilege every step of
the way. It is a great source of pride and
contentment for me to be a part of this and
contribute to it.
[Name Withheld]

Outside Versus Inside?
I recently heard about the mass actions
going on out in society to raise awareness
about the upcoming court date. It’s important that people outside of SHU, and outside of prison for that matter, get involved
in our efforts because on some level what
we are going through affects everyone. So
in that sense participation is key.
The recent monthly actions have been
held on the 23rd of each month where folks
have been raising awareness out on the
streets. The idea of involving people in the
anti-SHU or anti-solitary struggle is important, but I think it’s [also] important to cast
our net wide in order to build momentum.
I think after the court date in December that people exploring ways to better
get folks on the streets involved in prison
struggles for human rights start thinking
of creating a day of action which is more
inclusive of various prisoners, not just a
certain demographic. It is understandable
that we keep focus on SHU and ad seg
prisoners, but the issue of prison oppression is scaling the walls of the maximum
security prisoner whether we like it or not.
The struggle for prisoners’ rights, or prison
reform is stretching out to other prisons and
even other states.
A day designated at prisoners’ Human
Rights Day should be a day that includes
prisoners throughout the U.S. and in every
prison. It should be a day which has historically represented prisoners struggling for
justice, a day which represents all prisoners struggling against state repression. As
I scoured various dates the only one which
signifies this the most is September 9th, the
date of the Attica Uprising where all prisoner rose up against the state to reclaim

their humanity.
The date of September 9th
would be inclusive of all prisoners throughout the U.S. and can
be used to highlight the history
of prisoners in the U.S. not just
suffering oppression, but resisting as a class against the state. It
would get wider swath of people
to get involved and take notice
about not just solitary or SHU issues, but for prisoners in general.
It would open up these efforts to a larger
audience than just the current friends and
family of SHU prisoners. Our sights should
be set on shooting for a complete U.S. prison-wide movement for change.
The efforts created from within the SHU
are spreading and affecting laws and reforms spanning across the U.S. in regards
to prisons, our ideas and days of action
should not lag behind these developments
but instead lead them.
Jose H. Villarreal, PBSP

LETTERS

LETTERS

[Ed's Note: Jose’s letter points to the
need for prisoners to honor the struggles
of those past by having a generally accepted Prisoners’ Day. I totally agree. And
I agree that Attica uprising should be the
event we celebrate each year on September 9th. I have already been doing that for
many years. Did I ever mention that I traveled from Seattle to Buffalo back in 1974
to work with the Attica Brothers' Legal Defense committee?
Anyway, moving right along, lately I’ve
been noticing a trend in which prisoners
are agitating for outside people to fight
your battle for you, while you passively sit
back and eat Bonbons.
I’ve been here before, more than a few
times. As soon as you forget that it is your
struggle and your responsibility to fight it,
when you fail to remember that the only
reason you have any outside support at all
is because of the sacrifices of the SHU prisoners, then you have lost all understanding
of the dynamics of this struggle. As soon
as you rely on people other than prisoners you are plunging a knife in the back of
the movement. Your base is prisoners, and
from that everything else flows. Look to
outside volunteers too much and you burn
them out. Look to the courts, legislature, or
executive branch for relief, you are pissing
up a rope. Remember, self-reliance in all
things!]
9

Important Notice

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I am no longer accepting
the things I cannot change,

Shout Out Box
Shouting out to Diane Mirabal
who hails from the womens'
joint at Chowchilla. She has
donated 38 forever stamps.

Rock On Diane!

I am changing the things I
cannot accept.

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

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