From jdav@mcs.comMon Dec 5 16:47:17 1994 Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 10:49 CDT From: James Davis To: pt.dist@umich.edu Subject: People's Tribune: Special Prison Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 37 / September 12, 1994 SPECIAL PRISON EDITION P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 37 / September 12, 1994 FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX Special Prison Edition 1. FROM AN INSIDE POINT OF VIEW 2. 'I FEEL THE POISON RUNNING NOW': THE DEATH PENALTY AS A POLITICAL WEAPON 3. WHO PROFITS FROM PRISONS? 4. GOD DID NOT BUILD PRISONS 5. THE RICH GET RICHER, THE POOR GET PRISON 6. MAYBE THREE STRIKES IS OK... UNLESS THE UMPIRE IS MANAGER OF THE OPPOSING TEAM 7. SON-OF-A-PRISONER 8. ISOLATION AT IONIA MAX 9. MOTHER HITS 'WAREHOUSING' OF MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE 10. DRUGS, PRISON AND PROFIT Women Take Lead in Prison Justice Battle 11. JUDY CHANCELLOR: HER SON'S DEATH DREW HER INTO STRUGGLE 12. MOTHER OF PELICAN BAY INMATE FIGHTS FOR VISITS 13. WE SAY THERE'S _NO_ JUSTICE': WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Our Spirit is Free: The Prison Culture of Liberation 14. INTRODUCTION BY LUIS RODRIGUEZ 15. POEM: EULOGY FOR A NEIGHBOR 16. POEM: LUNCH TIME IN AMERIKKKA 17. POEM: TRINA MARIE Letters 18. 'STAND UNIFIED AS A SOLID WALL': MICHIGAN PRISONERS REFUSE TO BE SILENT 19. LETTERS FROM PRISONERS Announcements, Events, etc. 20. 'PRISONS, POLICE AND POWER': SPEAKERS FROM THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE 21. JOIN THE NOC 22. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ FRONT PAGE: 'It is no longer a racial minority thing. It is now becoming a class thing (economic status), that the inner-city minorities, and poor whites, rural as well as urban, are being attacked by the powers that be. The program is the haves are using the have-nots for monetary gain. The haves have become the keepers and the have- nots have become the inventory, the "KEPT." ' -- M.B.Y. Is-Ra-El Muskegon [Michigan] Correctional Facility AMERICAN LOCKDOWN: THE PRISON STRUGGLE AND REVOLUTION The letters came from men in the deep-segregation dungeons of the infamous Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California. They came from the sweltering Death Row tiers of Huntsville Prison in Texas. They came from inmates chained and shackled in Indiana's Maximum Control Complex. They came from mothers robbed of their children and who now are in the women's prisons of central Illinois. In the prose of young convicts, with the skill of jailhouse lawyers, they spoke of injustice and resistance. In handwritten notes and in formal legal documents, they denounced brutal guards and judicial corruption. And from the cramped offices of prisoners' rights organizations, from the modest homes of relatives and loved ones, the cards, letters, appeals and protests arrived daily in our editorial offices. They became the inspiration for the Special Prison Edition of the People's Tribune. Clearly, the "American lockdown" is about a system that imprisons those who have lost their jobs and homes and have been pushed into desperation just to survive. No wonder that in states like Michigan and California, where tens of thousands of workers have been tossed onto the scrap heap, prisons are the fastest-growing industry. At the present rate, half the population of this country will be behind bars by the year 2053. It doesn't have to be this way. We have the technology to eliminate completely and permanently the hopelessness, poverty and inequity of the capitalist system in which crime and violence is rooted. Assembly-line technology can build a home in 45 minutes. Computer- driven greenhouses can grow food 24 hours a day. No one should be forced to go without. A class of selfish billionaires now holds this technology. The struggle of our class to capture this technology is the content of the revolutionary times we live in. A new class of poor and permanently jobless people is in survival battle with capitalism. These combatants are filling the jails and penitentiaries. The prison struggle is entering a dramatic new stage. This is for the courageous women of the Dwight (Illinois) Correctional Center; for the locked-down warriors of the federal pen in Marion, Illinois; for the tortured Pelican Bay inmates; and for the freedom fighters imprisoned in Carson City, Michigan. To these leaders of the fight, and to all others, we dedicate this Special Edition of the People's Tribune. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ What you helped to make possible: A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS To those who answered the call to help us produce this Special Edition we offer our deepest appreciation. Your contribution has been used to finance the publication of almost double the number of People's Tribunes normally printed. Additionally, through your efforts, we have been able to expand the scope of the distribution of the paper to almost 30 prisons and numerous organizations devoted to the struggle of prisoners and their families. Thanks again! To order extra copies and bundles of this Special Edition, call 312-486-3551 or write P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. Free to prisoners. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. FROM AN INSIDE POINT OF VIEW By Dewayne Holmes Wasco State Prison WASCO, California -- I, as a convicted felon presently serving time in the California correctional system, feel compelled to provide you with an accurate depiction of prison life from an inside point of view ... First of all, it is essential that you understand that there is no amount of laws, prisons, or law enforcement that can or will decrease the crime problem in society. The recidivism rate among convicted criminals continues to rise yearly, not because people enjoy committing crimes, or that prisons have no deterrent effect upon them, but rather because the social-economic conditions of the environment from which these so-called criminals evolved still exist. The biggest misconception that has been spread by the government through the media is that the prison system is too lenient and therefore in need of a tougher policy. However, I am inclined to disagree. Any individual entering into a correctional institution is immediately subjected to verbal, mental and physical abuse, not to mention the many other slave-master tactics often used by the paid overseers of these concrete plantations. This type of behavior alone generates anger and frustration amongst the inmates which all too often is relieved through an act of violence upon one another or some poor misfortunate individual in the outside world. Although I in no way wish to make an excuse for any crime that may or may not have been committed, I think it is hypocritical in itself for the government to promote crime prevention yet continue to perpetuate the criminal mentality. For instance, over the past two years I've seen the situation in here (prison) escalate from bad to worse without the slightest indication of any kind of prison reform that will be beneficial to society at large now or in the future. In fact, with the exception of limited vocational and educational programs that these places provide, prison offers no reasonable solution or alternatives to the initial problems that bring you there. Furthermore, compounding an already angry, frustrating environment with de-humanizing, animalistic treatment can only help to further fuel an already explosive situation. ****************************************************************** 2. 'I FEEL THE POISON RUNNING NOW': THE DEATH PENALTY AS A POLITICAL WEAPON By Anthony D. Prince HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- On August 20, 1993, 34-year-old Carl Kelly became the 66th person to be executed by the state of Texas since 1976. "I'm an African warrior, born to breathe and born to die," said the condemned man as he was strapped down for the lethal injection. "I feel the poison running now." Carl Kelly's last plea exposed the nature of the death penalty itself, his final words as heart-stopping as the deadly drugs that flowed into his veins. David Riley, Kelly's alleged accomplice in the same 1980 crime, confessed and was given a life sentence. Why did the state of Texas spare one life and take the other? Because Carl Kelly exercised his right to a trial and paid for it with his life. Because the death penalty is a weapon of political intimidation. Only days before Carl Kelly was executed, Gary "T" Graham won another stay in a Texas death penalty case that has gained worldwide attention. His son's life temporarily spared, Graham's father immediately called for a massive mobilization to save a young Latino, Ruben Cantu, scheduled to die one week later. This beautiful show of unity means that the fight is not just about one man. The state of Texas may yet spill more blood, more individuals may yet be sacrificed, but the unity produced in the fight to save them will one day enable us to bury the whole unjust system. [A longer version of this article originally appeared in the summer of 1993.] ****************************************************************** 3. WHO PROFITS FROM PRISONS? By Al Cunningham San Quentin State Prison SAN QUENTIN, California -- While the benefits of prisons may be questionable for the public, they are undeniable for a variety of private corporate interests. To the $51 billion spent for state and local criminal justice systems, we can add the amount spent for federal criminal justice agencies ($5.7 billion in 1985) and private security systems ($21.7 billion in 1980). The annual total thus lies in the neighborhood of $80 billion (Focus, 1989). By contrast, the amount of direct losses to individuals, households, banks, and other businesses due to crime is approximately $10 billion per year. In other words, for every dollar directly lost by victims of crime, we spend about $8 to apprehend the perpetrators. Prisons take on another face if one views them as generators of profits. Some of those who profit from the business of imprisonment are easy to identify, like architects. According to the chair of the American Institute of Architecture's criminal justice committee, there are now over 100 firms specializing in prison architecture. Of the 200 companies that exhibit their products at the annual Congress of the American Correctional Association, more than 10 percent are architectural firms. One Michigan entrepreneur, who is marketing what he describes as "do-it-yourself, easy-to-assemble portable jails," comments that "once this thing goes, we're talking about scads and scads of money." THE PRIVATE SECTOR Architects are far from the only people with a vested interest in the proliferation of prisons. After successfully lobbying the state legislature for new prison construction, the former Alabama state prison commissioner, Robert Britton, moved into the private sector to head a for-profit medical firm that services Alabama's prison system. "I've always wondered what the corporate world is like," he said at the time. The corporate world is extensively involved in prison. San Quentin offers more than 350 products for prisoners to purchase, from cupcakes to fried pies to perm-cream relaxers and pinup calendars. The wares annually exhibited for sale to corrections professionals at their convention include institutional hardware like Aerko International's Mister Clear-Out ("The state of the art in tear gas hand grenades, especially designed for indoor use") and the wares of the Peerless Handcuff Company ("A major breakthrough in cuff design!"). More prosaic products include the Muffin Monster from Disposable Waste System, Inc. ("It will grind up into small pieces all the things inmates put down toilets"); the food distribution company Servomation (Justice Is Served); and the Coca-Cola Company ("Time goes better with Coke!"). PRISONS AND WAR It is a well-known fact that today, "prisons are the number one industry in America, after war." Actually, in many cases the two industries overlap. The American Security Fence Corporation of Phoenix, Arizona, manufactures the double-edged, coiled razor blade that graces most prison fences (Razor Ribbon, "The Mean Stuff"). According to the company's promotional literature, their top-of-the-line product, Bayonet barb, which "combines awesome strength ... and vicious effectiveness," is "manufactured in strict accordance with Military Specifications." Likewise, GTE Security Systems of Mountain View, California, sells an electrified fence called Hot Wire. Tested on the field of battle, the product is advertised as being "so hot that NATO chose it for high-risk installations; so hot that thousands have found their place in military installations ranging from sub-zero Alaskan winters to sizzling Southeast Asian summers." MONEY TO BE MADE >From architects to academics (who study prisoners and the prison system), from food service vendors to health care firms, from corrections bureaucrats to psychologists and social workers, there is a lot of money to be made from the proliferation of prisons. "It's a money thing." ["He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." (Martin Luther King Jr.)] Our choices are clear. We can come together and organize the millions of fighters for justice into one coordinated attack against this system, and we can establish a society and economy based on the moral principles of equality, liberty and justice. Or we can continue to be suckered by lying politicians whose only goal is public office. ****************************************************************** 4. GOD DID NOT BUILD PRISONS [Excerpted from an article by Alfred Williams Jr., editor of FACTOR, Muskegon Correctional Facility, Muskegon, Michigan.] If one would look closely at the system, it would become evident who the primary beneficiary is, and it is not society per se. The system serves the lawyers who earn millions as private attorneys and as court-appointed lawyers for poor defendants. The system serves politicians who use crime bills to promote political ambitions and prison-building projects to promote so-called economic development for bankrupt communities. It serves displaced factory workers from Michigan's dismantled automobile industry. It is argued that these payrolls are of great benefit to the economy of the state. This is a myth. Our country fought a bloody war over the issue of "chattel slavery" of human beings, yet today we are promoting a new version of "chattel slavery" cloaked in the legality of our judicial system. ****************************************************************** 5. THE RICH GET RICHER, THE POOR GET PRISON By Paul Wright, Washington State Reformatory Excerpted from "Three strikes racks 'em up." MONROE, Washington -- On April 15, Larry Fisher, 35, was convicted of his third strike in Snohomish County Superior Court in Washington. He will be sent to prison for the rest of his life. Fisher was convicted of putting his finger in his pocket, pretending it was a gun and robbing a sandwich shop of $151. An hour later, police arrested him at a bar a block away while he was drinking a beer. Fisher's two prior strikes involved stealing $360 from his grandfather in 1986 and then robbing a pizza parlor of $100. All told, the take from Fisher's criminal career totals $611. He has never harmed anyone. How much will society pay to protect itself from this $611 loss? On average, it costs $54,209 to build one prison bed space, and $20-$30,000 per year to house one prisoner. If Larry Fisher lives to be 70, the total cost will be approximately one million dollars. When the laws make no distinction in punishment between killing five people, having a gun, having 650 grams of drugs or stealing $151, there is something wrong. Washington and California police have reported that since "three strikes" laws went into effect, suspects have become more violent in resisting arrest. A suspect knowing that if convicted for the $151 robbery he will spend his life in prison has, quite literally, nothing to lose if he has to kill a few people to avoid arrest. The result of this, I suspect, will eventually be broadening the death penalty. Seattle Police Sgt. Eric Barden was quoted in The New York Times saying, "It now looks like some of these three strike cases might try to get away or shoot their way out. Believe me, that's not lost on us. We're thinking about it." No laws will be passed making corruption by public officials, endangering public health by corporations, etc., a "three strikes" offense. In 1989, the federal Sentencing Guidelines Commission was going to increase the penalties and punishment for corporations convicted of crimes, including making its executives criminally liable. Corporate America promptly lobbied the Commission and Congress and these amendments never materialized. Unfortunately, poor people affected by three strikes laws don't command a voice that Congress and the media will listen to. The rich get richer, the poor get prison. [Paul Wright is the co-publisher of the Prison Legal News.] ****************************************************************** 6. MAYBE THREE STRIKES IS OK... UNLESS THE UMPIRE IS MANAGER OF THE OPPOSING TEAM By Ray Sittloh LUCERNE, Indiana -- You may have read about my son, Denny Page, in a recent edition of the People's Tribune. Denny is serving 60 years for a murder he did not commit (Strike One). He is also serving eight additional years for an injury to another one of the gang that had been threatening to kill him, and who had burglarized two gun stores prior to the confrontation that turned into a tragedy. The injury to this individual was so minor that the prosecutor had the "victim" highlight it with a Magic- Marker (Strike Two). Now, let's look at the other team, the team that owns the umpire: Three months before his trial, Denny was sent to the Indiana Department of Corrections and held in solitary confinement to prevent him from having anything to with mounting his defense. Constitutional Rights Violation, (Ball One). The prosecutor and his partner, the county attorney, the judge (the prosecutor's former chief deputy), and the defense counsel, with the help of the local newspaper, set out to destroy Denny's reputation in the pool from which the jurors were selected. Constitutional Rights Violation, (Ball Two). Perjured testimony was not only permitted, but was practiced before the trial by prosecution witnesses and police officials. Constitutional Rights Violation, (Ball Three). During his incarceration, Denny has been beaten, (Ball Four), deliberately endangered by an attack dog, (Ball Five), deprived of property in an amount sufficient to be felony theft, (Ball Six), denied the right to submit an appeal, (Ball Seven). You get the idea ... it all depends on the umpire, and since the governor is ultimately the umpire, his team is still at bat. "Three Strikes and You're In" is a stupid concept. Justice is not a game, it is a very sacred piece of paper known as the Constitution of the United States and set out in the Bill of Rights. ****************************************************************** 7. SON-OF-A-PRISONER [Excerpted from an article by RMC, Death Row, Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Nashville, Tennessee.] [Names have been removed - jd 3/15/99] NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- For my son, discrimination entered his life at the age of seven. Before the school year had started, B was full of anticipation to attend school. Each time he walked into a store that offered school supplies, he would become overwhelmed by the sight of those he would need on his daily journey to school. During B's fourth month of school, his grades began to drop and he pleaded to stay home from school. When he was questioned as to why he felt this way, B responded, "My teacher asked where my Daddy was, and when I told her that he lived in a big, big house in Nashville by the river where the boats pass by, she stopped being my friend." Since this occurrence progressed, B's enthusiasm to learn was washed away with the tears he shed for being the son-of-a-prisoner living on Death Row. I can recall what I once thought were major ordeals during my school days: being teased about the dollar-store shoes, wearing clothes that were not in style, or hair that was too short, but never did I have to endure what my son has had placed on his shoulders at such a young and impressionable age. >From the teacher's standpoint, B is biologically predisposed to certain behaviors. He is a mere seven years old and already judged, condemned and sentenced. Even though it was not said, we know this public servant said to herself "This one is no good, he will be just like his father in prison, so why waste any time with him?" When B gets a little older and a little bolder from what he's learned about people, what will he be like? And will the public cry out that it was his parents' fault? How many other children do you imagine this takes place with every day? ****************************************************************** 8. ISOLATION AT IONIA MAX [Excerpted from an article by Derrick Bradley, recently paroled FACTOR staff writer, Muskegon Correctional Facility.] IONIA, Michigan -- Belly chains and handcuffs fasten his arms. A long snake of chain slithers through iron loops and wraps around him. He cannot get up from his bunk. Lying on his back, he stares up blankly at a brick and steel ceiling. He is resigned to the fact that he is no longer the sole owner of his body. It also belongs to the state and the state does not want the burden of maintaining his existence but is compelled by law to feed him, to prevent him from escaping or harming others. Every 15 minutes or so, a black patch on the door peels back. A pair of searching eyes gaze in on him. The door opens. A guard steps in. He looks down on the prisoner in chains. The guard does not frown, smile or speak. He merely surveys the body. It is his job to see if the prisoner is alive. It does not matter if the prisoner is alive or not. It matters that the guard does his job. Two days ago the prisoner fought this very guard and four others. He fought with the full force of his bitter rage. The guards fought back with tear gas, fists and iron chains, walking away after their job was unmercifully done. After the door closes behind the guard and the prisoner is alone again, he tries to break free from the chains. The handcuffs dig deep into his flesh, but do not yield. He lays still. He surveys his body wrapped in chains in a lonely prison cell far from home. ****************************************************************** 9. MOTHER HITS 'WAREHOUSING' OF MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE by Sandra Gourley NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Across the United States there are thousands of mentally ill men and women who are serving long, hard sentences. One is very dear to my heart as he is my 33-year-old son, Bill Waxler. In 1984 he had just been released from an alcohol treatment program at the State Mental Hospital. He was very drunk and he was wandering around the apartment complex where he lived. He asked to use the phone of a female neighbor. While he was there he had a seizure. The neighbor helped him, left him at her apartment and went to his apartment to get his medication. They spent several hours at her apartment and both became intoxicated. In the early morning hours she helped him downstairs to his room and she stayed until noon. When she left she kissed him good-bye and went back to her room. Several hours later he was arrested [and charged with rape]. On his prior record were countless arrests for public drunkenness. The local police were tired of "Crazy Bill" and, much to our horror, he received a 70-year sentence. Another inmate, Kirk S. is in his early thirties and is manic- depressive. His only arrests were also for public drunkenness. In a manic episode, he killed a young man in a residential care home. The tragedy was that he had sought help from five different agencies on that fateful night. He was turned down each and every time and each time returned to the street. He knew his illness enough to know that he was becoming psychotic and he begged for help. He is now serving a life sentence. Brian L. spent most of his 26 years in various state hospitals. He has schizophrenia. During one of his psychotic episodes he threw a rock at a police car and hit the windshield. He got a 20-year sentence for assault on a police officer. In comparison, an almost identical charge was filed in the same court. That person received six months in jail as he was the son of a local official. My hope is that someday these people will be sent to a treatment center where they will receive humane treatment, proper medication and professional care. Until that time, thousands of dollars are and will be wasted on "warehousing" the mentally ill. [Sandra Gourley chairs the Forensic Network of the Oklahoma Alliance for the Mentally Ill.] ****************************************************************** 10. DRUGS, PRISON AND PROFIT [Excerpted from an article by Scott Sandlin, FACTOR staff writer, Muskegon Correctional Facility, Muskegon, Michigan.] A major increase in drug-related crimes has turned the punishment business into a booming industry -- an industry that is indifferent to causes and not concerned with solutions. As the current trend towards mass incarceration and harsher sentences proves ineffective, the suspicions of the general public increase. The real reason that more effective measures are not being taken is mostly economic. Along with the major systematic restructuring that would prove very time-consuming and expensive, there is the fact that the present system of capitalism has proven itself able to accommodate this problem. The strange part of this problem is that although the drugs/criminals have taken away in part from society, they have also caused an increasing number of businesses and organizations to spring up and the existing ones to expand. ... The prison industry neither addresses the causes nor offers solutions. Our government deliberately circumnavigates these issues. They realize they are creating the conditions and to change the situation is not economically beneficial. In short, the government has discovered a way to capitalize on the disintegration and decadence of society, and as long as we as a people allow this type of government to continue, America's problems, not limited to drugs, will continue. ****************************************************************** 11. JUDY CHANCELLOR: HER SON'S DEATH DREW HER INTO STRUGGLE By Judy Chancellor YUKON, Oklahoma -- My beloved son, Andy Baltzell, took his life in 1992 after three years of prison warehousing on a substance abuse conviction. He was sentenced to 15 years for $90 worth of drugs. He became suicidal in prison and ended up sitting in a chain-link dog run alone in the prison yard in McAlester. After he was paroled, he was productive, in society's eyes, working 10 1/4 hours a day, five days a week. On the sixth day, he would pick up trash, etc. While he made society happy and did all the above things, he was dying inside from horrendous memories of prison warehousing. Today he is buried on Garth Brooks Boulevard in the Yukon, Oklahoma cemetery. My finger is pointing and questioning a D.A. in Oklahoma County named Bob Macy who wears a Wyatt Earp bow tie. It is his county that has the highest incarceration rate per capita for both men and women in the nation and world. This man has been a role model for D.A.'s across this nation for the past decade. He calls himself a Democrat while human rights groups call him "the Angel of Death." My deceased son and babies born in prison would agree. It is not prison staff who run to the capital screaming "lock-em- up," it is the Wyatt Earps, the D.A.'s of our society who do this. It is a tragic mess and it is time to undo it, in my son's memory and for the ungodly number of babies born in our state and federal prisons. Because of this cruel warehousing, wasted tax money, the neglect and extreme hatred and judgments on all prisoners, an Oklahoma businessman took me to Washington D.C. We knocked on our Nation's Capitol doors and brought back a national organization for prison reform, called CURE (Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants). There's a force behind this movement and it's the women. ****************************************************************** 12. MOTHER OF PELICAN BAY INMATE FIGHTS FOR VISITS [Excerpted from a letter from Betty J. McCullough to California State Senator Robert Presley.] Dear Senator Presley: As a person having experienced denial of visitation with my son (Lonzell Green, Prison No. H-09191) at Pelican Bay State Prison for two years and two months, I would like to appear before the panel hearing on the bill on denial of inmates' rights to visitation. I am opposed to the bill because had I not written the court asking for a court order to visit my son, the false charges of his assaulting a guard would still be against him [and] he would still be in a dungeon-cell. Obviously, Pelican Bay prison classification recognized my refusal to give up when reversing their decisions to deny my right to see my son. ... When prison officials have fabricated false charges or committed assault upon prisoners and want nobody to have access to evidence, what law do you suppose they'll cite in cover-up if that stupid law is passed? Sincerely, Betty J. McCullough [The author is a member of the Criminal Injustice Committee of the National Organizing Committee and active in Mothers Reclaiming Our Children (Mothers ROC).] ****************************************************************** 13. WE SAY THERE'S _NO_ JUSTICE': WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? By Mothers Reclaiming Our Children (Mothers ROC) LOS ANGELES -- The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world. The police abuse our young men in the streets, then arrest them on bogus charges. They often end up doing time for being beaten up by the police. Twenty-five percent of all black males are locked in one form or another into the criminal injustice system. Prisons are filled with people of color from poor, working class backgrounds. The abuses that take place within the prisons (daily) go by unchecked, including the police-instigated "race riots." There is NO meaningful employment. Mothers suffer a special pain when their children are incarcerated (lost to them). We are calling on mothers everywhere to help us build MOTHERS ROC (Mothers Reclaiming Our Children from prison). We also invite wives, fathers, sisters and brothers to help us build a movement they can't shake loose. Mothers ROC could provide support in the following ways: 1. Provide counseling and advice to families of the incarcerated; 2. Organize groups to attend court hearings and trials; 3. Meet and work with PDs or court-appointed attorneys; 4. Intervene on behalf of inmates who are mistreated; 5. Establish a hotline for prisoners and their families; 6. Have access to attorneys; 7. Educate, organize and politicize!! If we understand that it is the system that is failing us all, especially our young, and not the other way around, we will group together and fight with the knowledge that right is on our side. We will build and grow, we will overcome!! Call Mothers ROC at 213-291-1092. [Mothers ROC is a project of the Equal Rights Congress, 4167 S. Normandie Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90037.] ****************************************************************** 14. OUR SPIRIT IS FREE: THE PRISON CULTURE OF LIBERATION INTRODUCTION By Luis Rodriguez The spirit of rebellion is alive in the cell blocks, tiers and solitary confinement units of America. When all is stripped away -- when one's value in society is diminished, when one's family or home, one's livelihood or job is taken away, there remains a quality which continues to triumph. This is the creative spirit. Throughout history, imprisonment has yielded some of the most liberating and creative artwork, poetry, songs and letters. The People's Tribune pays tribute to those new voices and visions from America's prison system whose artistry has soared beyond the re-inforced concrete walls, beyond the inhumanity of steel bars and system of torturous intent. [Luis J. Rodriguez is an award-winning poet and critic and the author of _Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A._] ****************************************************************** 15. POEM: EULOGY FOR A NEIGHBOR By Delbert Tibbs The year was 1975 and I had just arrived there where a green clad guard with a ring of a thousand keys, danglin & a Jangling Informed me that I was to go to the death house and so it was and is and you were there wearing that mask that We all wore on the "row" Maybe to hide our fears and our love and our Tears I nodded and you nodded as I passed your cell walking a long hall in a short hell Where each cell held a speechless Face/Mask Hiding numberless fears and a weight too great to tally Till I reached the open space in the bars that would lock me in Over the next two years we became comrades in the second to second and micro second battle waged every day and our pay for the struggle was another day of that life, we fought the strife that comprised the very ground of our life There -- not to become inhuman and be as one with the system, there, and we hoped to live and we hoped to live I remember you: that you were generous and sharing. You liked athletic games, played strictly with the rules. I noted that you seemed to choose your friends without The great regard for color; So, I tend, always to see you as a brother with a white mask. And now that your struggle is finished there, I speak this to your Spirit: the cosmic balance wheel will deal with the killers who reaped where they had not sown and did to you what they Charged you with Bob Sullivan, may your spirit find peace, 11-30-83 ["Eulogy for a neighbor" was written for Bob Sullivan who was executed by the state of Florida in 1983. The author, Delbert Tibbs, spent seven years on Florida's Death Row until his wrongful conviction was finally reversed and he was freed.] ****************************************************************** 16. POEM: LUNCH TIME IN AMERIKKKA By Shaheed Khaleel Hamza Lunch time in Amerikkka!!! the menu continues ... David Duke stew, Bill Clinton potatoes, Rush Limbaugh crackers, U.S. constitutional corn, death penalty b-b-q steak, police brutality upside down cake, stereo-typical media meat loaf, holiday mass manipulation pot roast, ol' fashioned oreo drop-a-dime rice, Mississippi hangman's cinnamon spice, U.S. political prisoner candy bars, Hollywood madness chocolate covered stars. Lunch time in Amerikkka um!!! so distasteful, um!!! so disgraceful, um!!! so traditional, um!!! so devilish and hateful. Give me soul food by the plateful! [Reprinted from "Harambee Flame!" from Nebraska State Prison.] ****************************************************************** 17. POEM: TRINA MARIE By Lori Lynn Mcluckie Walking down the prison hallway With your scarlet lipstick Norma Jean smile, Green eyes impishly inviting; Deliberately so. A woman-child With the translucent white skin Reminiscent of more a Victorian era, And the impetuous manner Of a street child Who knows the drill; How to smoke cigarettes And see people for what they really want from you. These gray walls, These dirty floors, This ambiance of despair and cynicism Merely provide contrast To your vivacious and vulnerable glow; And the deep gruff sounds Echoing between these stark walls Are mere background to the clear Sweet tones of your childlike voice; To your bold laughter Which defies anything less. You forge your way Through this confusion every day, Burning your candle at both ends And loving at whim; Not quite sure Who to count on, What is solid Or what you want to be solid. And in your concrete room at night, Among your cigarettes and lipstick tubes, Your letters and pictures, You sit on your steel bunk And wonder when you'll be able to settle down To the one great love Which you have always imagined. [Reprinted from Fortune News, a publication of the Fortune Society. This poem received first prize in the 1992 PEN Writing Awards for Prisoners awarded by the PEN American Center.] ****************************************************************** 18. 'STAND UNIFIED AS A SOLID WALL': MICHIGAN PRISONERS REFUSE TO BE SILENT A proper analysis of crime begins with the recognition that crime is basically an economic and political problem. In fact, the crucial phenomenon to be considered is not crime per se, but the historical development and operation of the capitalist economy. The solution rests in its resolution. Crime involves an investigation of such natural products and contradictions of capitalism as poverty, inequality, unemployment and the economic, social and political crisis of capitalism. The struggle between classes, central to developing capitalism, is regulated by capitalist justice. Justice in capitalist society, today as always, is an ideological and practical instrument in class struggle. Capitalist Justice secures the capitalist system. Justice is grounded not in some alternative idea of the social good or the natural order but in the survival needs of the capitalist system. Judgment is in the hands of legal agencies of the capitalist state. Yunus Collins, former prisoner, current co-chair, Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War Chapter of the NOC On behalf of all political prisoners, we are in here under the guise of someone's "politics." It is not the law that places people in prison. It is the real thieves, the real murderers, the real robbers and the real rapists who place us in here. They just do so under the American system. We are not in here by mistake. Those in power have their "think tanks" plotting and planning. The state, thanks to Gov. John Engler, recently passed a law abolishing the Freedom of Information Act for prisoners. I have been advocating for many years that we must all stand unified as a solid wall and do our duties and our part to free ourselves, educate ourselves, to help ourselves. We cannot be silent and accept prison conditions. Ali K. Abdullah #148130 State Prison of Southern Michigan The Freedom Network is growing stronger (as the struggle must). We have tried to instill in the captive brothers that everyone is significant to the overall impact of the struggle, and that each must step forward to assume his role. But what we have been struggling with mostly is to assist brothers in making what George Jackson called the "intellectual breakthrough." The majority are aware of struggle and oppression in the most crude and unrefined sense. They know the surface stuff, but lack specificity. The process of oppression, and the same could be said equally of the process of liberation, eludes the brothers. And this is something we have to seriously deal with. We are speaking not on prison reform, but, rather, prison destruction. ... We are not talking only a black thang, but rather a "collective captive thang." Kwasi A. Bailey #199320 Carson City Correctional Facility, Michigan ****************************************************************** 19. LETTERS FROM PRISONERS 'Salutations, People's Tribune and all likely readers: I'd just like to thank you for printing my news-article inside your February 14, 1994 issue which referred to prison officials withholding of my incoming mailed books. After a thorough investigation ordered by the prison's warden and three months time span, the post office returned [the books] to the prison. It feels good to know there's still a voice of the people out there.' David Esco Welch, #E-25702 San Quentin [California] State Prison ****************************************************************** 'I'm at the Merced [California] Re-Entry Mission. I've been in the prison system and if you've seen one, you've seen them all. There is constant oppression. No matter what race, age or sex you are. To them, you are a number. They don't care if you can read or write, as long as you do your assigned duties. They don't care if you are sick or dying. To them, it's a job. With this new Three Strikes and You're Out law, the prison system will be three times as bad. To me, this isn't an answer.' Tina Marie Rice Merced, California ****************************************************************** I witnessed women dying in Dwight Correctional Center. A woman having a heart attack was forced to walk to the clinic, and yes, she died. I myself had a temperature of 102 degrees for six days. I could not see a doctor, nor did I receive any type of medication. You, the public are paying your tax money for us to be treated cruel and inhumanely. 'I will go home July 28, 1994. I was sentenced to five years. My going home does not enable me to forget the women I will leave behind, nor the struggles they endure each day. I will go home with the strength God has given me to fight for better conditions for women on the inside.' -- Tammi Fleming, #B21652 Dwight Correctional Center, Dixon, Illinois ****************************************************************** Pelican Bay prisoner writes: 'I refused to participate in their dirty game' Dear People's Tribune: After being afforded the opportunity to read an issue of the People's Tribune, I decided to write and inquire as to whether you might be able to place me on your mailing list. I am a prisoner here in California, locked down in the maximum security section at Pelican Bay State Prison. I have been in maximum security lock-up since January 1986, for allegedly threatening staff, after telling a gun rail officer that if he shot anyone on the yard, "his family better have Blue Cross." This was said in the heat of anger. I was given 10 days disciplinary detention and a segregated housing term of four months, but when my four months expired, instead of being released into the general population, I was given an indeterminate term in segregated housing. Prison officials claimed that they had confidential information that I was a high- ranking member of an alleged para-military revolutionary black nationalist prison organization which they consider a prison gang. Therefore, they were not going to allow me back into the general population unless I informed on the inside and outside activities of this group and provided names of members and associates. Because I refused to participate in their dirty game, they have kept me locked up where I have no physical access to other people unless I am manacled. During my 18 years in prison, and the last eight in lock-up, my access to outside resources has become very limited. Therefore, I am unable to purchase literature and periodicals such as yours which would keep me abreast of what's happening in the outside communities. If you could share your paper with me, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for whatever you can do. Yours in struggle, Musa Mata M. Mata Johnson B-325278 C7-108 P.O. Box 7500 Crescent City, California 95532-7500. ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition), Vol. 21 No. 37 / September 12, 1994; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: jdav@igc.org. Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. Please include this message with reproductions of this article. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC People's Tribune (Online) 9-12-94 .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 37 / September 12, 1994 SPECIAL PRISON EDITION P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** 20. 'PRISONS, POLICE AND POWER': SPEAKERS FROM THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The following are available as speakers: Yunus Collins Detroit, Michigan Founder and co-chair of the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War Chapter of the National Organizing Committee Maria Elena Castellanos Houston, Texas Leading criminal defense attorney, a founder of the Binational Network Against the Death Penalty (Mexico-USA) and prisoners' rights advocate Anthony D. Prince Chicago, Illinois Editor of "Deadly Force" weekly column on police brutality for the People's Tribune Theresa Allison Los Angeles, California Founder of Mothers Reclaiming Our Children (Mothers ROC), Steering Committee member, National Organizing Committee Andrea Gibbs, Gulfport, Mississippi Founder, Mississippi Victim's Voice, former sheriff's deputy who exposed police brutality Jitu Sadiki Los Angeles, California Chairman, Black Awareness Community Development Organization (BACDO), former prisoner and Steering Committee member, National Organizing Committee Shirley Dicks Murfreesboro, Tennessee Mother of Death Row inmate, activist, author To arrange for a speaker, learn more or obtain a complete listing of all People's Tribune speakers, call 312-486-3551. ****************************************************************** 21. JOIN THE NOC The National Organizing Committee (NOC) is a fighting organization. When homeless activists seize empty buildings, look for us. The NOC will be there. When the unemployed fight for jobs, look for us. The NOC will be there. When the victims of police state brutality speak out to expose injustice, listen for us. The NOC will be part of the chorus. We are revolutionary fighters from every battlefront. Our mission is to forge the revolutionary force necessary to destroy this capitalist system, a system of poverty and injustice. We are an organization that believes the poor and exploited people can be educated, organized and inspired to rise up in our millions. We want to create a new system based on justice and economic prosperity for everyone. ___ I want to join the NOC. ___ Please send me the NOC program, information on speakers and samples of NOC publications. ___ I want to make a monthly donation to the NOC of: ___$5 ___$10 ___$25 ___$50 ___Other Name ____________________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip __________________________________________________ National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647 312-486-0028 ****************************************************************** 22. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed, clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate politically those millions on the basis of their own experience. It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a better world, and a strategy to achieve it. Join us! Editor: Laura Garcia Publisher: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 486-0028 To help support the production and distribution of the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, please send donations, letters, articles, photos, graphics and requests for information, subscriptions and requests for bundles of papers to: PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE P.O. Box 3524 Chicago, IL 60654 Respond via e-mail to jdav@igc.org Reach us by phone: Chicago: (312) 486-3551 Atlanta: (404) 242-2380 Baltimore: (410) 467-4769 Detroit: (313) 839-7600 Los Angeles: (310) 428-2618 Washington, D.C.: (202) 529-6250 Oakland, CA: (510) 464-4554 GETTING THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE IN PRINT The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is available at many locations nationwide. One year subscriptions $25 ($35 institutions), bulk orders of 5 or more 15 cents each, single copies 25 cents. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654, tel. (312) 486- 3551. WRITING FOR THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE We want your story in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. Send it in! Articles should be shorter than 300 words, written to be easily understood, and signed. (Use a pen name if you prefer.) Include a phone number for questions. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654, tel. (312) 486-3551. ****************************************************************** We encourage reproduction and use of all articles except those copyrighted. Please credit the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. ******************************************************************