[Pnews] CDCr calls hunger strike supplemental demands reasonable, then reneges; prisoners respond
Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Mon Dec 2 19:28:16 EST 2013
CDCr calls hunger strike supplemental demands reasonable, then
reneges; prisoners respond
<http://sfbayview.com/2013/cdcr-calls-hunger-strike-supplemental-demands-reasonable-then-reneges-prisoners-respond/>
December 1, 2013
*http://sfbayview.com/2013/cdcr-calls-hunger-strike-supplemental-demands-reasonable-then-reneges-prisoners-respond/*
/*by Mutope Duguma*/
In all policies, the truth is in the details of their implementation. On
the surface, a policy can appear reasonable, but once you get into the
actual working out of the details, you can see that it's not what it
seems like. For example, the war on crime, the war on gangs, the war on
drugs and the California three strikes law are policies which we have
come to learn in practice were nothing but phrases -- and very costly
phrases.
The cost of those policies must be measured in the billions, because the
actual carrying out of these policies ends up indicting and outright
assaulting the poorest communities in Amerika, the same communities that
populate the prison industrial slave complex today. So in responding to
the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitaion's response
<http://cdcrtoday.blogspot.com/2013/08/cdcrs-responses-to-hunger-strikers.html>
to our 40 supplemental demands
<http://sfbayview.com/2013/prisoners-peaceful-protest-to-resume-july-8-if-demands-are-not-met/>,
I would like to get into the actual details of what the CDCr is and is
not saying in response to prisoners.
There have not been any policy changes by CDCr or by Pelican Bay State
Prison that verify the statement in the third introductory paragraph:
"Despite policy changes that had already addressed the concerns raised
during the two previous hunger strikes, gang leaders initiated a third
strike and made 40 additional demands." The term "gang leader" is
offensive and baseless. It also has nothing to do with anything but
character assassination to criminalize, devalue, degrade and dehumanize
all prisoners who are demanding to be treated humanely.
No policy was addressed before the July 1, 2011, hunger strike. The
program changes thus far have been based on operational procedural (OP)
changes, which any warden can take or give anytime they desire to. The
40 supplemental demands are crucial for anyone who has to spend one day
in these modern day torture chambers, where we exist in physical and
psychological bondage.
Solitary confinement units are graveyards. You're buried alive in a
tombstone, confined to your own personal cube. Each cell is a concrete
slab box to which you are restricted for the rest of your life. Then
you're tormented by your keepers to see how much you can take before you
break. This is the format for all solitary confinement units throughout
the United States, and almost 80 percent of the people who enter these
tombstones are broken.
A friend of mine, Vikki Law of Truthout, once asked me, "Mutope, what
about those who say, why would you want to make solitary confinement
comfortable?" I told her it's humanly impossible to make solitary
confinement comfortable. What you attempt to do is keep people connected
to their humanity; that's it. Mere placement in solitary confinement is
torture; looking in or out, it's torture.
Supplemental demands 1-40
The Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement wrote 40 supplemental demands
<http://sfbayview.com/2013/prisoners-peaceful-protest-to-resume-july-8-if-demands-are-not-met/>
to detail what prisoners are entitled to and need to have re-instated.
*Supplemental Demand No. 1 calls on CDCr to rescind all Form 115 RVRs
(Rules Violation Reports) issued to hunger strikers during the peaceful
protest.* The CDCr has refused so far. Following is the prisoner
representatives' response:
CDCr's own policy says that we have a right to go on a hunger strike
without suffering any reprisal from the state. What CDCr officials in
Sacramento did was retaliatory because they didn't like the fact that
there were a mass of prisoners on hunger strike protesting the inhumane
conditions of solitary confinement, so they penalized all hunger
strikers by saying it was a mass disturbance and that hunger strikers
were manipulating the words from the CCR Title 15 to justify it.
The four representatives and I had read everything to make sure anything
we did wasn't against state rules or policies, and going on a hunger
strike was not. So when we went on the July 1, 2011, hunger strike, the
undersecretary of the CDC at the time, Scott Kernan, had the PBSP warden
give us all CDC 128B chronos [informative documentation placed in a
prisoner's file] saying if we were to do the hunger strike again, we
would face serious disciplinary action. This threat was arbitrary and an
abuse of his administrative authority.
The four representatives and I had read everything to make sure
anything we did wasn't against state rules or policies, and going
on a hunger strike was not.
So when the second hunger strike came, Scott Kernan had Lt. Barneburg of
IGI (Institutional Gang Investigations) at the time give each and every
one of us a CDC Rule Violation Report (RVR) 115 for inciting a riot or
mass disturbance. We couldn't believe it, but it was true. They had
misused the specific act in order to embellish an RVR from nothing to a
real serious RVR offense.
Lt. Barneburg is now a captain of ISU (Investigations Services Unit). I
can only suspect his promotion was for the many evil deeds he has
carried out against prisoners throughout his stay as a so-called gang
officer, where they manipulate confidential information, along with
documenting words, all toward persecuting prisoners. This is why the
CDCr RVR 115s should be dismissed, because they were illegal.
The RVRs we received for this July 8, 2013, hunger strike caused us a
loss of credit for time served of 90 days for participating in the
hunger strike. This time they left out "inciting a riot."
The CDCr RVR 115s should be dismissed, because they were illegal.
*Supplemental Demand No. 2 asks that no RVR be issued during July 8,
2013, hunger strike.* CDCr refused to observe this request. The
regulations do not apply here in relation to the hunger strike because
refusing to eat does not equate to a disturbance and anything can be
considered a disruption of orderly operations in the institution. But a
hunger strike is definitely not an interruption. CDCr's arbitrarily
issuing RVR 115s was illegal, an outright abuse of their authority.
*Supplemental Demand No. 3 asks that no retaliation happen when the July
8, 2013, hunger strike occurs.* CDCr ignored this request. Notice that
CDCr said policies and operational procedures are again a process in
which the warden institutes the OP (operating procedure) concerning the
safety and security of the institution. This OP does not supercede
CDCr's standing policies, state penal codes, or constitutional law.
These, again, are arbitrary attacks on all hunger strike participants by
the warden at PBSP. Although the hunger strike OP 228 stipulates that
all men who are identified as hunger strike representatives will be
removed from the rest of the hunger strikers and placed in Ad Seg, CDCr
and PBSP deviated from this practice and placed every last one of us on
hunger strike in Ad Seg.
We found out that this OP was revised by gang officers at PBSP to
retaliate against all hunger strikers in September 2012. It's a clear
case of abuse of authority by prison officials who use their power to
punish prisoners.
There was never any policy before the July 1, 2011, hunger strike that
punished prisoners for going on a hunger strike. Undersecretary Kernan
arbitrarily drafted up a memorandum to this effect and the PBSP warden
inserted that memorandum into the OP with the gang officers' twist to
punish prisoners.
There was never any policy before the July 1, 2011, hunger strike
that punished prisoners for going on a hunger strike.
*Supplemental Demand No. 4 concerns the re-opening of a visiting room in
Facility D, which PBSP is slowly working on.* They have reopened
Facility D, which should have never been closed in the first place, but
the mismanagement of the prisoners' program and the deliberate attack on
solitary confinement prisoners and our families were part of that
suppression of all relationships with our families. This was done by way
of arbitrary order from the warden at PBSP. No policy or OP, just
outright wickedness.
*Supplemental Demand No. 5 calls for weekly phone calls to families and
friends for all prisoners in SHU.* CDCr is actually drilling holes in
concrete walls for wires now. What about prisoners who will be literally
waiting months, if not years, to get into a step?
This is where people in the public and prisoners have to be very
cautious and conscious of the continual games by CDCr, because there are
prisoners who have not talked to a family member in countless years.
It's been so long for some, it'll be like calling strangers.
Again, it's a policy and actual procedure that has been extremely wicked
in its application and suppression of family and prisoner relationships.
Phone calls should be instituted instantly, because families, friends
and prisoners have already suffered enough.
There are prisoners who have not talked to a family member in
countless years. It's been so long for some, it'll be like calling
strangers.
*Supplemental Demand No. 6 concerns access to hobby and art supplies and
one photo per year, no matter what the prisoner's record is.* Well,
there is a problem with putting photos down as a privilege, because
photos are connected to the rehabilitation of the prisoners, like phone
calls, visits etc., which build on family ties and friendship ties.
People become re-humanized by being able to communicate who and what
they are to the outside world through photos. To allow arbitrary,
overzealous, racist, prejudiced and biased prison officials use an RVR
115 to deprive a prisoner of such important social, cultural and
family-oriented treasures like photographs is in itself cruel.
People become re-humanized by being able to communicate who and
what they are to the outside world through photos.
*Supplemental Demand No. 7 calls for prisoners to be allowed to sell or
give away art work, no matter what their record is.* Now here's where
safety and security are an excuse used to suppress people's natural
talents and creativity. The very system that claims to be about "free
enterprise" is now using fascist-like suppression tactics to deny
prisoners the human right to express themselves based on their God given
talents.
This is criminal. There is no security concern here. This is where
"group punishment" is applied, a policy where every prisoner is punished
based on the act of one individual. We all are made to suffer for an
individual's action.
Every man and woman should be paid for his and her labor. Here there
should be no exception. Any violation of a program should be punished to
the fullest extent of the restrictions assigned to that violation, but
to arbitrarily take away that program from everyone is exactly why our
Core Demand No. 1 is so important. Nothing is non-negotiable where it
suppresses the talent of a prisoner's creativity. This goes to the heart
of their rehabilitation.
*Supplemental Demand No. 8 is to allow the Inmate Welfare Fund to be
used to re-stock books for prisoners in the prison library.* CDCr gave
an excuse for not doing it. If this is true, why haven't we seen one
"new" book issued to prisoners? Yet, when we order a book from the
library, it's missing pages and is old. The CDCr's state prison budget
covers these expenses with taxpayer money. CDCr has to be honest about
their responses. We have been held in these solitary confinement units,
and we know the real truths. Independent investigation would prove these
monies are being re-routed elsewhere.
Independent investigation would prove these monies are being
re-routed elsewhere.
*Supplemental Demand No. 9 regards CDCr allowing funds for education
programming.* Compliance is yet to be seen. Plus, I would like to add
that we are living in the 21st century and prisoners' educations are
like relics when it comes to the education of the average Amerikan. We
are so far behind that we will know nothing when we parole.
The prisons have to move toward technological education systems. This is
real rehabilitation for prisoners. For society to not move prisoners in
this direction, to keep up with overall society, is a disservice to them
and the communities they are returning to. I can only hope that CDCr is
sincere about the educational programs, because if you truly want to
civilize prisoners, then education is the key. And no prisoner should
wait to be educated by CDCr, especially since they have a track record
of over 40 years of not educating their prison population.
*Supplemental Demand No. 10 concerns legal books not being counted in
the 10 book allowance for each prisoner; inmate-owned legal materials
need to be in separate category.* The June 5, 2013, memorandum does not
go far enough, and clarity is crucial in respect to how staff are
directed to deal with legal mail when they have possession of the
prisoner's mail.
*Supplemental Demand No. 11 is about allowing prisoners to donate old
appliances to other prisoners.* Again, here's where safety and security
is again abused by the CDCr. The real reason CDCr has applied their
safety and security concerns to this supplement demand is because it is
an underground profit incentive for CDCr. Where is the safety and
security concern? The process is real simple. Make sure the TV is
functional -- no parts missing etc. Then sign it over to the next
prisoner who is without an appliance or one who needs one due to their
TV going out. When prisoners have to "donate" their TVs to staff, it
becomes a lucrative business for the prison staffers.
*Supplemental Demand No. 12 increases money allowed for canteen because
of higher prices in canteen.* Price gouging is the problem here in PBSP
canteen, because prices fluxuate through a manipulation of product
changes. For example, in the CSP-SAC canteen list there is a 1 pound bag
of hot cocoa for $3.85. In PBSP the exact same bag costs $4.85, a dollar
difference. PBSP canteen managers have been scheming on money from
prisoners for years. So, it should be granted that all prisoners be able
to spend $65 per month, regardless of whether they are in a step-down
program or not.
*Supplemental Demand No. 13 regards prisoners being able to donate to
outside charities.* Now this exposes the true wicked intentions of
CDCr's claim that they rehabilitate prisoners, when they bar us from
supporting community projects like charities. We know that no matter
where people are at or what color they are, if they are poor, they are
struggling. Prisoners have good in them and should be able to benefit
the communities. Allowing us this project is the least CDCR can do.
Times are bad. Allow food drives to occur as much as possible in order
to serve the community around us.
*Supplemental Demand No. 14 regards typewriters being allowed.* CDCr in
Sacramento approved that prisoners in solitary can have a typewriter,
but now some overzealous property officers at PBSP have interfered with
the process, repeating their famous line that it affects the safety and
security of the prison.
*Supplemental Demand No. 15 allows prisoners to have multiple
appliances.* CDCr has approved the purchase of radios through their
designated vendor, so allow us to have them. The games continue.
*Supplemental Demand No. 16 calls for electrical outlets in cells and
fire sprinklers in cells.* CDCr mandated through a 602 appeal process
that was granted that all Ad Segs can have electrical outlets, and yet
PBSP is being disingenuous when they deny us the right to have them.
*Supplemental Demand No. 17 reinstates family visits for General
Population lifers.* The CDCr campaigned against allowing conjugal family
visits for prisoners, saying it was not economically feasible for them.
But this puts them in contradiction with their own rehabilitation policy
that family visits are the most beneficial to families and prisoners, as
well as an incentive for controlling prison violence, hopelessness,
depression etc. because prisoners value the union with their families
and so do the families. It was a wicked attack against the family program.
Family visits were initially banned for sex offenders, yet when it was
all said and done, CDCR ended up banning conjugal visits for all
prisoners. Hell, all non-sex offender prisoners hate child molesters,
rapists and domestic abusers. Any abuses against women or children are
seriously looked down upon by a high percentage of prisoners.
So when CDCr proposed the order to the Legislature and got it through,
they did it by attaching the sex molester stigma to it. The Legislature
will now have to change it back in order to allow family conjugal visits
again for non-molesters. But let's be clear: The CDCr is the one that
destroyed this important family-based program, which was effective and a
more humane deterrent for prisoner misbehavior than some savage
debriefing program. Reinstate the Bill of Rights for Prisoners, and a
lot of these issues will be resolved.
Reinstate the Bill of Rights for Prisoners, and a lot of these
issues will be resolved.
*Supplemental Demand No. 18 calls for Prison Industries of America,
California, to supply standard quality products and food.* PIA is
fleecing taxpayers all across Amerika. Monopolies shut out citizens and
small businesses from getting contracts with the state, by demanding
that all prisons purchase only their items, and then they can produce
low quality products, from food to mattresses. Their lumpy mattresses
are like sleeping on a bunch of softballs, causing one's blood
circulation to be cut off if sleeping on one's side and also causing
crooks in the neck and hip pain. PIA's poor quality food is infamous.
*Supplemental Demand No. 19 regards PIA producing substandard clothing.*
Again, PIA is incompetent in manufacturing its products.
*Supplemental Demand No. 20 concerns the contents allowed in annual and
semi-annual packages for prisoners.* On June 5, 2013, CDCr officials
granted T-shirts, along with sweats, thermals, etc. Now it should be
obvious that all these non-food items can and should be able to be
purchased once a year. We shouldn't have to compromise one of the two
annual food packages that prisoners are allowed to have, by including
clothing as part of one of the two food packages.
The supplemental demand requests one non-food package per year, solely
for clothing, which can be heavy when a pair of shoes is enclosed. Here
the supplemental demand is requesting a non-food package in order to get
these items. CDCr's answer was deliberately evading the question. Plus,
special purchases can easily be implemented through the warden's OP
procedures, which is allowed once a month already. So CDCr's designation
of the contents in the boxes, i.e., clothing, ribbons, cups, bowls,
headphones, paper, colored pencils, etc. is reasonable. Making it
necessary for us to include clothing in one of our food packages is
outright unreasonable.
*Supplemental Demand No. 21 regards the list of items allowed to be
purchased.* Well, I'm glad CDCr said "partially," because there's no
food or spices that we should be denied. But having it written on the
matrix specifically shows the psychological torment -- power play --
that we are subjected to by prison property officers who get a sadistic
kick out of confiscating food items, which are our property, on only a
technicality.
*Supplemental Demand No. 22 calls for getting rid of PIA as a food
supplier.* CDC did not respond to the request from prisoners to "refrain
from utilizing CAL-PIA for food products due to poor quality," and we
are left with food not worth taxpayer dollars for the poor quality
provided. This monopoly is double taxing taxpayers, because the poor
quality food does not provide nutritional value, and that leads to
medical problems, creating another expensive contradiction where
taxpayers foot the bill.
The only way to demonstrate the truth about the food is to allow an
independent dietician to investigate the actual food being served to
prisoners. Currently, the prison dieticians can call the food we get a
"heart healthy diet," because the CDCr dieticians never examine the
food, just the menu. The prison food managers are the real conspirators
(criminals) when it comes to the feeding practices, because they do not
provide, nor prepare, adequate nutritional calories in food items. Using
terms like "one each," they serve you a muffin for breakfast the size of
a biscuit and tell you it's adequate because the menu says "one each."
These are price shaving tactics and schemes most prison food managers
use at the expense of prisoners' health.
The poor quality food does not provide nutritional value, and that
leads to medical problems, creating another expensive
contradiction where taxpayers foot the bill.
*Supplemental Demand No. 23 concerns portions of food now served to SHU
prisoners.* I know for a fact that PBSP does not provide an adequate
amount of nutrition and calories, and SHU prisoners do not receive the
same amount of food as do GP prisoners. Whoever in Sacramento responded
to this question is lying outright. I have studied extensively the food
at PBSP and the deliberate games employed to inadequately feed prisoners
in order to profit. Plus, I have the evidence to prove it, if CDCr's
Michael Stainer and Kelly Harrington are interested in the truth. Oh,
there is no need to tear my cell up; it's in the hands of the lawyers.
*Supplemental Demand No. 24 regards the severely limited movies
available to prisoners.* Again, the CDCr has implemented policy around
discrimination by cutting out R-rated movies and programming
documentaries, plays, etc. CDCr has been able to take away 85 percent of
the New Afrikan and Latino-Mexican movies and programs, because most of
our programming is R-rated. This is the situation now with the
implementation of this race-based policy.
Furthermore, the state has abused the obscenity penal code policy by
deliberately misinterpreting its purpose and meaning as defined by the
court in the Martinez case. The PBSP warden has been censoring PG-13, PG
and G movies by cutting away whatever some officer feels is too
offensive or too suggestive for the viewer, and his personal standard is
cutting 40 percent of the movies.
But what's really disturbing about PBSP practice is that they are paying
$100 per video, which some if not all the time they edit to only an hour
and 10 minutes per movie. OIG (Office of the Inspector General) Renee
Hanson told me she was reviewing the expenditures of the IWF, Inmate
Welfare Fund, and I informed her that PBSP officials have been
embezzling, stealing as well as misappropriating IWF monies, when they
claim to be paying $100 per video, which adds up to $2,400 to $2,600 per
month. I find this to be outright criminal. I have the evidence to back
up these facts, if Undersecretaries M. Stainer and Kelly Harrington wish
to look into these allegations.
No need to search my property; the lawyers already have these facts in
their possession. CDCr has to, in the interest of fairness, remove this
silly state regulation that is designed to racially discriminate against
prisoners.
*Supplemental Demand No. 25 concerns the limited number of TV channels
provided.* CDCr claims PBSP prisoners have access to 23 channels. Now
this is a lie that has already been proven to be a lie. Under no
circumstances does PBSP provide 23 cable channels. I am shocked that
they even claim it in the public media. The public should demand the
name of all 23 channels they say they provide.
This is what I mean by the arrogance and abuse of power. The CDCr and
PBSP officials feel they can lie, steal and cheat the people and then
just provide some lame nonsense of a story and that justifies it. There
needs to be an open, independent investigation of these outright lies,
because this is why we went on two hunger strikes and are again on a
peaceful protest hunger strike, due to lies.
Scott Kernan, former undersecretary of CDCr, admitted he was duped on
the 23 channels. Now I see Michael Stainer of the Inspector General's
Office and his cronies are using this same lie as a means to deny a
reasonable supplemental demand.
These actions speak to the wickedness of CDCr to deny adequate,
meaningful programming for prisoners held in solitary. They are bent on
punishment and this has been their core drive -- punishing prisoners
until they break us. I wouldn't be surprised if they are taking
taxpayers' money out of the state budget for those 23 channels. PBSP
only provides one cable channel. There should be an independent
investigation of these allegations, enough so there is public outcry.
I wouldn't be surprised if they are taking taxpayers' money out of
the state budget for those 23 channels. PBSP only provides one
cable channel.
*Supplemental Demand No. 26 regards access to cable channels for
prisoners.* Well, taxpayers already cover these fees and the PBSP
officials are able to reroute these fees by writing down that they have
purchased educational programs, when in all actuality they have paid for
nothing. And when we do get to see education programs, they are repeats
of the same programming we've been seeing for over 20 years, which
allows them to pocket the funds that were meant for new programs.
This is where the real crime is committed. Ask what they spend for the
23 channels, and it's probably a ridiculously low price. But again, we
get nothing for it. It's the same as with the $100 they say they spend
for each video. There needs to be an independent investigation as to
these allegations.
*Supplemental Demand No. 27 calls on CDCr to purchase dip and pull-up
bars with IWF funds.* Some people stay in ASU (Administrative
Segregation Unit) for months and years, and these isolation units can be
worse than the SHU in most cases, with no personal property and nothing
to do on these so-called ASU recreation yards. The excuse being made is
weak and disingenuous because CDCr knows they should not hold people in
ASU for years. So be truthful, CDCr.
*Supplemental Demand No. 28 asks for weight-lifting equipment on yards.*
Again, CDCr has gone on a smear campaign about how letting prisoners
lift weights is a threat to citizens. They put a bunch of money behind
the bill and into politicians' campaigns, urging that we have to get rid
of these weights because prisoners are getting out stronger and can then
victimize Amerikans. This is how our privileges for weights were lost.
The California Legislature needs to immediately reverse this bill,
because all it did was create a medical crisis, where there were many
prisoners whose health deteriorated due to lack of exercise. Taxing who,
again? Yes, taxpayers.
The CDCr claims its policies are about the safety and security of the
public and the prisons. You can easily see the truth when you look at
the details. For instance, the weights that we used to have access to on
the yards kept the prisoners occupied, exercised and tired after
weightlifting.
This was one of those situations where CDCr took away the weights out of
pure spite, nothing else. It's kind of a sad state how prisoners are
being caged on prison yards, locked in concrete slabs with nothing to
do, sectioned off by race, just looking at each other all day, as if
they are in Roman caged gladiator fights. And here we are in the 21st
century.
*Supplemental Demand No. 29 calls for a stop to "contraband (potty)
watch" practices immediately.* Let's call it what it is, "potty watch,"
for the sole purpose of humiliating the prisoner. It is a savage
practice where you are taken to some cage and held in "slave shackles"
until you defecate. This is a reflection of the nature of the beast that
we are dealing with: CDCr uses the procedure to entrap the bowel
movement in your jumpsuit.
These savages tape the jumpsuit to your ankles. They make you defecate
three times before they relieve you of this torture. There is no real
reason for a high percentage of these potty watches. It's speculative
for the most part and, as requested, they need to be banned immediately.
The whole procedure is nothing but a trauma, and points to the military
personnel working inside the prison. It's a brutal practice; some
prisoners have been known to spend three nights and days on potty watch.
*Supplemental Demand No. 30 calls for Medical Doctor Sayre to be fired
and never hold a position of authority over prisoners again.* CDCr
stands behind their crooked Dr. Sayre, who is head of medical care at
PBSP. They don't seem to be able to get rid of Dr. Sayre. He has done
too much and he knows too much. He can destroy the whole system's
secrecy, which is why he will never be fired.
The mere fact that he attacked one of his own co-workers over a parking
space that he claimed was his speaks to the instability of Dr. Sayre. He
has been demoted, but the irony is that he still runs everything. They
simply put his girlfriend in his spot, so he still runs medical at PBSP.
Just so you can see his arrogance, he took away many men's medications
before the hunger strike and during this hunger strike. This guy is a
threat and a danger to all Pelican Bay prisoners. When who ask to see
outside doctors for serious health issues, no matter how sincere the
request nor how well it is documented, he denies it.
This is why CDCr keeps him, because he saves CDCr money in medications
and treatments. Dr. Sayre, in my opinion, is a heartless murderer by
proxy. Many PBSP prisoners have suffered under him and continue to
suffer. This is no doctor.
*Supplemental Demand No. 31 regards maintenance of cells, painting
them.* We have been locked down for cell painting each week lately, so
it shouldn't be a problem to meet this request.
*Supplemental Demand No. 32 concerns maintenance of the ventilation
system.* Now the problem here is that Pelican Bay is breaking down and
they are trying to do maintenance when the buildings are structurally
incapable of functioning for another 20 years. The whole system is
collapsing from the inside out, and the bandaid fixes will only be
temporary fixes.
The ventilation is extremely poor, and we prisoners are made to suffer
due to this poor structure. We might as well be outside when we're
inside a building as far as temperatures are concerned, because there is
no insulation anywhere in the prison. So if it's freezing cold outside,
we are freezing cold in the building. If it's burning up outside, we're
burning up inside. The PBSP plant operation cannot protect us from this
reality, because the problem is in the structure. Independent
investigation will bring out these facts.
There is no insulation anywhere in the prison. So if it's freezing
cold outside, we are freezing cold in the building.
*Supplemental Demand No. 33 regards Lexan plastic plates on cells.* CDCr
is still using them, making excuses that are disingenuous, because there
are many avenues to gas or attack an officer, if that's the prisoner's
objective. To have Lexan or Plexiglas on cells is a health hazard.
What does the Occupational Safety and Health Board say about the plastic
being a health hazard to prisoners due to collecting bacteria in the
cells? They didn't put me behind them because I made them spray the door
regularly in order to get at that bacteria. Plus people with real bad
asthma and allergies are at risk.
There's hardly any violence in PBSP solitary units despite all the hype
by CDCr about how dangerous we are. If you cut away the plastic at the
bottom of the cell walls, there's no real threat to staff, no matter who
is in the cage.
There's hardly any violence in PBSP solitary units despite all the
hype by CDCr about how dangerous we are.
*Supplemental Demand No. 34 regards the percentage CDCr can take for
restitution.* Now here is a policy that is exploitative in all its
practices. Here is the state abusing its authority by taking 55 percent
of each dollar that a prisoner who owes restitution gets from his
friends or family. And to say it is benefitting "crime victims," well,
the statistics say that most convicted felons commit offenses against
their own race -- New Afrikan on New Afrikan, Mexican on Mexican, or
white on white. One thing we do know, poor lower class on poor lower
class applies.
None of these victims are receiving any of this restitution money. So
where is the money going and where is it at? If the dollars were going
to them, the state would have never raised it to 55 percent, because
they don't want them to have it either. The injustice is that there is a
conspiracy where the judicial proceedings tack on all these outrageous
restitution fees and the CDCr then collects them for the court, and then
CDCr charges the prisoners a 5 percent fee for removing them off your
books (trust account).
This is criminal and the real victims never see a penny of this money.
The 33 percent is a reasonable request, but I would go further and say
that it should not be taken from anyone who owes restitution unless it's
going to the victim of the crime they committed or any prisoner who does
not have a pay number.
The money that family and friends send in from the streets should not be
touched at all. The prisoners should have access to a pay number to pay
off their restitution. Independent investigation is needed to locate
where this money is going!
*Supplemental Demand No. 35 allows mail to be delivered and legal and
family visits to be normal again.* The SSU (Special Services Unit), IGI,
ISU and OCS (Office of Correctional Safety) are the biggest SHAM I've
ever been able to witness and the public should be outraged at all the
time consuming hours and taxpayers' dollars wasted into this sham of a
system. Although there is a lot of hype on gangs, these guys have not
even been able to manufacture any criminal gang behavior convictions.
The extent of their service is gang validations, which they have given
80 percent of the prison population. They have a track record for
terrorizing poor, weak citizens of this nation, they sweat everything
too frivolous to mention, and they do nothing but harass prisoners and
their families and communities. They have been sued countless times and
their arrogance allows them to commit the same constitutional violations
of a prisoner's rights, over and over again.
But this is because they do not foot the bill; therefore, they have no
discipline in their actions. They have not made communities safer, nor
prisons. So what is it all for? There has to be a benefit from such an
expensive gang investigative unit, but in 30 years the CDCr gang
investigators have only allowed gangs to expand -- in and out of
prisons. So where is the safety and security? Independent investigation
is necessary here.
There has to be a benefit from such an expensive gang
investigative unit, but in 30 years the CDCr gang investigators
have only allowed gangs to expand -- in and out of prisons. So
where is the safety and security?
*Supplemental Demand No. 36 concerns timely hearings when RVRs are
issued, or dismiss them.* Well, CDCr is the one that changed the state
law and it should be changed back, because it goes against the fairness
of our procedural due process, in which we are punished for time
constraints violations. Yet staff violates time constraints all the
time; it is considered harmless and they are still able to impose on us
the worst punishment by violating prisoners' time constraints. But if we
dare to violate the time constraints, we have our complaint dismissed.
Unfair practice!
*Supplemental Demand No. 37 calls for timely hearings for serious RVRs.*
The answer to this response from CDCr is above, in No. 36.
*Supplemental Demand No. 38 asks for an independent audit of IWF.* CDCr
did not comply. The key word here is "independent," because it will show
the misappropriation of the IWF monies. OIG's Renee Hanson is doing a
review of IWF and we want those findings released to the public.
Independent investigation is key here.
*Supplemental Demand No. 39 would reinstate the monthly meetings between
the associate warden and prisoners to address problems.* If this ever
becomes fact again, few if any of our complaints would be necessary. The
[now former] warden at PBSP, G.D. Lewis, was as incompetent as they
come. He did not have the backbone to put an end to the gang officers
basically terrorizing other staff and then dictating to every
functionary in the solitary confinement units, so that they now feel
free to attack prisoners in those areas through mail restrictions, bad
food, property abuses, corrupt canteen practices, poor movies, and lack
of medical care, education, supplies, law library access etc.
They make it a living hell for prisoners and not one supervisor or
manager has ever made rounds to talk to prisoners, even after receiving
complaints, and nothing has changed at all. So supervisors and managers
have not been doing their jobs in over 23½ years at PBSP; I've never
seen them walk in my 15 years here.
I have been here, and the avoiding by the guards of answering our
questions is deliberate. The question asked was that the associate
warden ensure that prison issues will be resolved and we prisoners
should not have to wait until we can't take the suffering any more and
act on our own. When prison officials get paid good money -- some better
than college or university graduates -- to maintain prisoners' lives
along with the safety and security of all prisoners, then we expect that
to happen.
*Supplemental Demand No. 40 asks for hunger strike and work stoppage
negotiations to be conducted with the prisoners' mediation team and the
press in attendance.* CDCr has never been supportive or about
transparency. They know they are not going to be trusted in a closed
room with our representatives, without witnesses or third parties, but
they continue with the lies they have told about our reps.
Hell, Michael Stainer told our mediation team that he sees all of the 40
supplemental demands as being reasonable and that it is just a matter of
working out the details. Then he two-faced everyone, so no way can we
now trust what comes out of CDCr's mouth.
Plus, the governor vetoed the Media Access Bill, because CDCr is not
about transparency. And the question was clear during hunger strike
negotiations, and no one said anything about any of the points made in
any of the hearings on these matters! CDCr is evading the real issues again.
/These counter-responses were written by Mutope Duguma toward the end of
the 60-day hunger strike and work stoppage in 2013 -- i.e., when he had
eaten nothing for nearly two months. Send our brother some love and
light: Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996, PBSP SHU D2-107 up,
P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532. In the past, statements like this
have come from a collective, and the Bay View has published the names of
all those involved. Now, however, Mutope Duguma must be shown as sole
author to avoid an accusation by officials that multiple authorship is
evidence of gang activity. /
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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