From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 4 10:55:13 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2018 07:55:13 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Judicial Bias Blocks Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal Message-ID: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/04/judicial-bias-blocks-justice-for-abu-jamal/ Judicial Bias Blocks Justice for Abu-Jamal by Linn Washington Jr. - September 4, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In July 1987 Philadelphia?s then District Attorney lashed out at local judges in an unusual verbal assault where that DA castigated what he said was the ?historic? practice of judges in Pennsylvania?s largest city to acquit police officers in cases where evidence clearly showed officers engaged in ?egregious? brutality. That DA, Ronald Castille, told a reporter that, ?I know the judges will bend over backwards to use whatever reasons they can to throw a case out against a police officer.? Eleven years after Castille?s outburst against pro-police bias by some Philadelphia judges, Castille engaged in pro-police bias as a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Castille?s 1998 bias act occurred when he participated in the Pa Supreme Court?s rejection of a critical appeal in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal ? the Philadelphia journalist convicted in 1982 and sentenced to death for killing a Philly cop during a trial tainted by a pro-police judge. Abu-Jamal?s conviction is condemned internationally as a gross miscarriage of justice engineered by police, prosecutors and the trial judge. Condemnation is also leveled at the appellate process that has consistently rejected extraordinary evidence of Abu-Jamal?s innocence and documentation of multiple misconduct by authorities. An Amnesty International report on the Abu-Jamal case, released in February 2000, criticized the ?appearance of judicial bias during appellate review?? Ronald Castille, who rose to the rank of Chief Justice of Pa?s Supreme Court, is currently at the center of Abu-Jamal?s latest appeal for a new trial that claims Castille violated judicial ethics by his Pa Supreme Court participation in Abu-Jamal?s appeal. That appeal also contends Castille?s actions in the Abu-Jamal case violates the dictates of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that blasted Castille for ruling on a case as a supreme court justice that he handled while DA. Pennsylvania?s judicial conduct code states judges must recuse themselves from cases where their impartiality is reasonable questioned and recuse from cases where the judge knows facts about that case due to former employment with a government agency like District Attorney. Castille, as DA, opposed appeals by Abu-Jamal, signing the DA documents submitted in court. Castille and the current Philadelphia District Attorney, deny any improprieties against Abu-Jamal. Castille, who campaigned for DA and the Supreme Court as a hands-on manager, contends he signed anti-Abu-Jamal appeals as DA simply as a hands-off administrator. Castille, for example, claimed he signed DA documents that opposed Abu-Jamal appeals without reading those DA documents thus he knew nothing about specifics of Abu-Jamal?s case when he rejected Abu-Jamal?s appeals to the Pa Supreme Court. The posture that Castille as District Attorney knew absolutely nothing about the Abu-Jamal case ? the most controversial police murder case in Philadelphia?s history ? defies law, logic and common sense. Four years before Castille participated in the Pa Supreme Court?s 1998 rejection of an Abu-Jamal appeal, a former top aide to DA Castille told a Philadelphia reporter that his old boss ?was involved in death penalty cases? and Castille was also involved in ?high-profile cases.? While that aide to Castille did not specifically mention the Abu-Jamal case during that 1994 interview, the Abu-Jamal case was definitely high profile and it was then a death penalty case. (Many years later Abu-Jamal?s sentence was shifted from death to life in prison without parole.) Back in 1987, one of the three courtroom acquittals of brutal police that sparked Castille?s ire involved a policeman fired for choking a handcuffed suspect inside a hospital emergency room that forced hospital personnel to restrain that officer. Before that emergency room incident, fired policeman Gary Wakshul viciously pummeled that suspect outside a department store and then beat him again inside a police station. But a Philadelphia judge ruled Wakshul?s multiple acts of brutality were ?not a crime.? Following that acquittal, Philadelphia?s police union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), tried unsuccessfully to have Wakshul reinstated to his police job. Wakshul eventually landed a position with Philadelphia?s court system ? the entity with the judges Castille had criticized for pro-police bias. Wakshul, a few years before that emergency room beating incident, played a pivotal role in the conviction of Abu-Jamal. Wakshul was one of two policemen who claimed they heard Abu-Jamal confess to killing Officer Daniel Faulkner. But Wakshul?s claim of an Abu-Jamal confession contained big problems?problems that courts (state and federal) cavalierly dismissed. Wakshul didn?t recall hearing that alleged confession until weeks after Faukner?s murder. Wakshul suddenly remembered the alleged confession during an investigation into an abuse complaint filed by Abu-Jamal that charged police brutally beat him at the site of his arrest and inside a hospital emergency room. Wakshul told investigators that he dismissed the confession when he heard it shortly after Faulkner?s death because when he heard it he didn?t think such a confession was important. Yet, less than ninety minutes after the 12/9/1981 fatal shooting of Faulkner, Wakshul filed an official police report where he declared Abu-Jamal ?made no comments.? During Abu-Jamal?s 1995 appeal the Pa Supreme Court, inclusive of Castille, permitted the biased judge who presided over Abu-Jamal?s 1982 trial (the infamous Albert Sabo) to preside. That high court sanctioned Sabo?s appeal involvement even though one major appeal item was the bias of Sabo, who was a former member of Philadelphia?s police union, the FOP. Sabo?s bias during that 1995 appeal hearing was so outrageous numerous journalists detailed that bias. Sabo?s conduct even outraged Philadelphia mainstream journalists who traditionally rejected claims that authorities violated Abu-Jamal?s fair trial rights. Philadelphia journalists, for example, wrote sharp editorials and scathing commentary condemning Sabo?s bias. However, Castille and his state Supreme Court confederates dismissed the journalists? confirmed evidence of Sabo?s bias with the haughty contention that the ?opinions of a handful of journalists do not persuade us? that Sabo showed ?an inability to preside impartially.? Judges are supposed to use precise language in their rulings. The word ?handful? means a ?small? number of people. There were nearly two-dozen journalists on just the editorial boards of both Philadelphia daily newspapers that castigated Sabo?s bias in 1995. Two dozen is clearly more than a ?small? number of people. When the Pa Supreme Court in 1998 upheld Sabo?s rejection of Abu-Jamal?s 1995 appeal, Castille issued a document denying Abu-Jamal?s request that he recuse himself. Castille declared no need for recusal on the specious contention that he knew no facts of that appeal/case as DA. Amazingly Castille also employed another defense ? one that cast a long shadow of impropriety that federal judges have ignored. Castille asserted absurdly that it was unfair to cite his receipt of financial and political support from police groups across Pennsylvania, particularly his many endorsements from Philadelphia?s FOP, when four other members of the Pa Supreme Court had received electoral support from ?the very same FOP which endorsed me.? The fact that five members of a seven member Supreme Court received financial and political support from the FOP organization that was an aggressive advocate for Abu-Jamal?s execution undermined both the ethical mandate appearance of impartiality by judges and the reality of fairness allegedly underlying America?s vaulted concept of justice. Earlier this year Castille, now retired from the Pa Supreme Court, told a reporter that he didn?t recuse himself from contentious cases arising from his DA tenure because he was never asked to recuse ? a clearly false statement regarding the Abu-Jamal case. Philadelphia?s current DA admits that Castille?s statement is wrong. Current Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner?s fight against this latest appeal by Abu-Jamal, is criticized by many as soiling Krasner claim to fame as a reformer and defender of justice. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 4 11:18:17 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2018 08:18:17 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] The Spirit of Black August in Solidarity with Venezuela Message-ID: https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14030 The Spirit of Black August in Solidarity with Venezuela By The Upstate Chapter of Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition - September 4, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /The spirit of Black August moves through centuries of Black, Indian and multi-cultural resistance. It is an emblem of the spirit of freedom. / /Black August has many markers throughout the long history of resistance in the Americas./ -- Mumia Abu Jamal Black August is a rising tide that lifts all boats in its course. Rooted in the Black Radical Tradition, Black August embodies an anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, feminist and internationalist legacy and is home to legendary struggles such as the Haitian Revolution. In the African revolutionary spirit of signalling the death of slavery through the Americas and the rest of the world, we call on all organizations fighting for justice to continue this struggle to defeat the vestiges of colonialism and present-day US imperialism. We, the Upstate Chapter of Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition, are an organization comprised of activists, community organizer, teachers, students and former Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War. We are dedicated to freeing Political Prisoners as well as ending Mass Incarceration in the United States. We witness the US neoliberal capitalist system carry out vicious assaults on public education, health care, public transportation, social housing, regulation of corporations, trade union rights and other essential and just programs that benefit the laboring classes everyday in the United States. However, the United States is waging this same assault in all the Americas and the world. Venezuela is a critical battleground under siege by US imperialism. Venezuelans are directly facing US aggression parallel to the racist violence and destabilization happening in Black and Brown poor communities here at home. History has proven that US empire is willing to intimidate, impose, invade and destroy lives in the name of its so-called democracy. In the scheme of neoliberal globalization, there is no room for governments like Venezuela?s which seeks to advance its independence. US empire makes much less room for those who have determined their path is socialism, communist -- simply, not capitalist. This is why Venezuela is a threat. The majority, Black and Brown working class in Venezuela do not want a US model. The people are fighting everyday against these attacks in their collectives, cooperatives, communes and grassroots social movements. The Bolivarian State, a revolutionary government determined to human rights and guaranteeing a life with dignity and happiness for all stands with its people. The Venezuelan people support their President Nicol?s Maduro and are manifesting their vision for 21st Century Socialism. However, mainstream corporate media reports diligently to suggest otherwise. But, from behind the headlines, we have to ask ourselves, does the United States really want to help Venezuelans or, does the United States want Venezuelan oil and other resources? In Venezuela?s case, it is clear that the main objective of US empire is to plunder all the oil wealth. Venezuela is home to the world?s largest known reserves. Moreover, Venezuela has repatriated all of its gold and houses more than a dozen of the rarest minerals essentially for high grade military weapons and technology. If this weren?t the case; Why did the US implement economic sanctions blocking key imports like food and medicine? Why did global capital orchestrate an economic war? Why did the US, Venezuelan opposition and political allies condemn the presidential elections even before they took place? Why was there an assassination attempt on Maduro?s life? Why have 45?s lackeys like Pence and Haley travelled to Latin America to bribe and intimidate other countries in support of a military coup d??tat? These are the questions we must ask. The answers to these questions reveal the United States? continued imperial investment in expansion, exploitation and war. Our movements in solidarity with Venezuela must defend the people?s right to self-determination and their state?s sovereignty. As Black August comes to an end, Venezuela remains firmly in our hearts and in our hands as we labor for love, justice and freedom. We hold the spirit of self-determination close and continue to fight for our vision in the name of liberation. We must denounce the assassination attempt on President Nicol?s Maduro?s life. We must condemn the illegality of US economic sanctions against Venezuela. We must stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Venezuela. We must believe in Venezuela?s vision to change the world and defeat US empire. The fight goes on. US imperialism will continue to discredit and destabilize Venezuela?s legitimate, democratic and popular process through street violence, economic blockades, planned corruption, military intervention and media manipulation campaigns. Our movements must remain vigilant. Venezuelans have a right to decide how they govern their nation, manage their resources and tread forward. In solidarity, The Upstate Chapter of Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 4 16:38:00 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2018 13:38:00 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Inside the Prison Labor Strike: New Tactics Pay Off in Mainstream Coverage Message-ID: https://truthout.org/articles/inside-the-prison-labor-strike-new-tactics-pay-off-in-mainstream-coverage/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare Inside the Prison Labor Strike: New Tactics Pay Off in Mainstream Coverage By James Kilgore Truthout - September 4, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ?Fundamentally, it?s a human rights issue. Prisoners understand they are being treated as animals. Prisons in America are a warzone. Every day prisoners are harmed due to conditions of confinement. For some of us it?s as if we are already dead, so what do we have to lose?? ?Pre-strike statement from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak When the 2016 US prison strike kicked off, the media barely whispered. Despite efforts by the Free Alabama Movement , an organization centered around the men inside Holman prison, to spread the message through social media and compelling video footage taken inside prisons, mainstream journalists weren?t biting. While independent media outlets covered the strike , an action that ultimately involved thousands of people in two dozen states drew virtual silence from mainstream media. With the current ongoing prison strike, we find a totally different scenario. The New York Times , the Guardian , Al Jazeera and The Washington Post all ran sympathetic op-eds at the strike?s outset. MSNBC?s Al Sharpton had a segment on the strike in which he interviewed a formerly incarcerated man (Darren Mack). USA Today ran an article on support demonstrations. Suddenly, prison militancy has become headline-worthy. As someone who spent six-and-a-half years behind bars, I have to wonder: What the hell is going on? *Testament to Hard Work* Several factors are at play here. First, as prison historian Dan Berger observes, ?it is a testament to the hard work that has been happening.? Due to the efforts of millions of activists, mass incarceration has grown into an issue of political importance. We have national campaigns to end cash bail, local efforts to close jails, networks formed to defend the rights of LGBTQ folks who are locked up, and massive resistance to immigration detention and deportation. Organizations of formerly incarcerated people like All of Us or None , JustLeadershipUSA and the National Council of Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls continue to proliferate. In parallel with the growth of this movement has been a swelling in the ranks of the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee. Closely linked to the revolutionary unionists of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee has been the most vibrant source of support on the streets for both strikes. In its 2018 iteration, the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee also draws activists from a resurgent left , typified by the Democratic Socialists of America, now the largest socialist formation in the US in decades. As the understanding of the oppressive nature of the prison system has grown, rebellion has begun to appear increasingly justified. Prison strike action is almost becoming normalized, an expected part of the social landscape. Since the first hunger strike at Pelican Bay Prison in California, this is at least the fifth major mass action by prisoners since 2011. Heather Thompson , author of the award-winning chronicle of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, /Blood in the Water/, explained to Truthout that in 2016, ?there was a faith among many in the media that criminal justice reform was being handled, as it should be, by a bipartisan political effort.? In her view, many reporters at that time ?perhaps felt that prisoners were making things worse by erupting.? Now, with hopes for bipartisan reform solutions fading away, people ?are more willing to listen to the prisoners themselves,? the very people ?whom everyone should have been listening to all along.? The New York Times, the Guardian, Al Jazeera and The Washington Post all ran sympathetic op-eds. The killing of seven men in South Carolina?s Lee prison in April of this year provided further evidence that conditions in many prisons are reaching the boiling point and formal political processes are doing little to address the issue. Reports of the tragedy said the deaths occurred due to conflict among various factions in the prison population, but that guards waited seven hours before intervening. An additional windfall adding legitimacy to strike action came with the widespread publicity given to the hundreds of incarcerated firefighters risking their lives battling the historic blazes in California for a few cents an hour, then facing a future where their criminal backgrounds would prevent them from being employed as firefighters after their release. *New Leadership* The high profile of this strike, however, is about more than heightened public awareness. There has also been a major shift in the aims and tactics of strike organizers. According to Brooke Terpstra of IWOC, not only has their organization grown in the past two years, but during that time, they have engaged in an intense study program in partnership with people inside prisons. Their goal was to both deepen their understanding of the prison-industrial complex and reflect on political strategy and ideology more broadly. This shift has coincided with a re-shuffling of leadership. While the Free Alabama Movement and its charismatic leader, Kinetic Justice, played the leading role in 2016, this time around, the overall direction on the inside has shifted to Jailhouse Lawyers Speak. Unlike the Free Alabama Movement, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is not identified with a single state or institution but is a network of legal activists in various facilities. Their approach is more cautious, more oriented toward legal change and more tightly structured. People ?are more willing to listen to the prisoners themselves,? the very people ?whom everyone should have been listening to all along.? Whereas in 2016 local strikers were creating their own demands, this time, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, perhaps drawing inspiration from the Ten-Point Program of the Black Panther Party , produced carefully phrased demands for the entire strike. They called these 10 demands a ?human-rights oriented? platform. The demands focus on systemic issues like ending prison slavery, but also target specific legal reforms. These include the restoration of federal Pell Grants for people in prison wanting to undertake college study, an end to racialized over-sentencing, an increase in rehabilitation programs and several demands stressing access to legal due process, like rescinding the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act. This legislation heavily restricted the capacity of people in prison to file lawsuits. All told, these demands reflect an abolitionist approach that sees major change in the prison system as a long-term, deliberate process. Furthermore, unlike the open-ended style strike in 2016, this strike set a strict time frame, with a very symbolic beginning (August 21, the day Black prison revolutionary George Jackson was killed by guards in San Quentin in 1971) and end (September 9, the 47^th anniversary of the Attica prison massacre). *New Messaging* The emphasis on universal demands went hand-in-hand with the adoption of new approaches to messaging and methods of mobilization. The media messaging of 2016 centered on ending ?prison slavery.? Moreover, the rhetoric of organizers implied an insurrectionary stance, emphasizing in their initial announcement that the strike would ?coordinate and generalize these protests, to build them into a single tidal shift that the American prison system cannot ignore or withstand.? Underlying that approach was the notion that most people in prison were in the employ of major corporations, laboring under semi-feudal conditions for a few pennies an hour. While a number of Southern prisons still resemble plantations (and some, like the notorious Angola Prison in Louisiana are actually sited on former plantations), in many states, jobs and paid labor are scarce. In some prisons, especially those at the higher security levels, only a small percentage of people actually work. Warehousing of bodies has replaced cheap labor regimes. Renowned Chicago radical lawyer Alan Mills?s observation about Illinois likely applies in many places: ?Unlike many states where the problem is prisoners are forced to do jobs that are horrible with very little money, in Illinois prisoners are made to sit in their cells with nothing whatsoever to do.? Mills said that many feel that ?even if a job is poorly paid it?s an improvement to confinement.? There has been a major shift in the aims and tactics of strike organizers. Journalist and current strike media committee member Jared Ware told Truthout the recognition of the varying work regimes across prisons prompted a re-think about how to connect with people. Darren Mack, who spent two decades in prison and is now a leading member of decarceration advocacy group JustLeadershipUSA , echoed Ware?s observations. ?Incarcerated people have learned lessons from the previous strike so they actively engaged supporters on the outside by giving them clear directions on ways to support bringing attention to their policy demands,? Mack told Truthout. Amani Sawari, the official spokesperson for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak on the outside, told Truthout how this new orientation drew recognition from around the globe, with solidarity statements coming from people in prisons in Germany, Greece , Canada and from a group of Palestinian political prisoners. She also noted the changed tactics led to a different approach to mobilization. ?Some prisoners don?t have the privilege to have a job,? she told Democracy Now! , adding that they could participate through sit-ins as well as boycotting purchases of prison commissary items or using the phones. Even those without funds, she stressed, could take part via hunger strikes. After the first week she reported to Truthout there were strike actions confirmed in 11 facilities, with solidarity actions in 21 different cities. Since prison officials try to suppress information about strike actions by cutting off communication, she said she expects to get reports of many more facilities having taken action once the strike is over. In diversifying courses of action for their mobilization, the strikers drew inspiration from a set of essays called ?Redistribute the Pain ,? written by Brother Bennu aka Hannibal Ra-Sun of the Free Alabama Movement. His work called for people on the inside to use their economic power as consumers to hold back the money they spent in the system, pointing out that these funds were often used to purchase the equipment used to punish people inside ? items like Tasers, pepper spray and stun guns. Creative uses of cellphones, Facebook and other social media have helped project the analysis and culture of those inside prisons. Apart from acknowledging the variety of prison work regimes, the messaging of the 2018 strike by allies and accomplices also shows a less defensive stance. In 2016, organizers on the outside placed considerable attention on data and headcounts, trying to prove the success of their actions statistically. Such an approach had an inherent weakness in that prison authorities control the data and are not susceptible to fact-checking. While Brooke Terpstra provided no analytics, she said the strike was a success for three reasons: 1) the media were covering it; 2) people in prisons were coming together in coordinated action; 3) the people on the inside were controlling the information and narrative. *Solidarity: Making New Allies* The 2018 strike represents a qualitative and quantitative leap forward in both organizing and messaging. A critically important aspect of the 2018 actions has been connecting with resistance in the immigration detention centers. In fact, some of the most militant and effective actions have taken place in the Northwestern Immigration Detention Center , where hunger-strikers declared their actions were specifically in solidarity with efforts to ?end prison slavery.? In turn, organizers in Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have fully recognized the similarity in the plight of immigrants facing deportation. As an anonymous incarcerated Jailhouse Lawyers Speak spokesperson told Jared Ware in an interview : ?As far as the connection and why we?re in solidarity, the biggest reason is because we understand those cages .. it?s all the same system.? How to deepen these connections is an important issue not only for prison-focused organizers, but also for social justice movements across the board. As Dan Berger suggested in a phone conversation with Truthout, it is worth looking at the present prison uprisings through the lens of the 1970s when ?a broad popular front against prisons,? was a reality. Another key aspect of solidarity in the strike has been the relationship among Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, the Free Alabama Movement, the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee and other organizations on the street. This raises the question of how people on the street support actions by those inside prison without upstaging them and silencing their voices, especially given the repression of communication by prison authorities. Creative uses of cellphones, Facebook and other social media have helped project the analysis and culture of those inside prisons. Resistance is a permanent feature in women?s prisons, but the weapons are not typically strikes or insurrections, but rather daily acts of rebelling by asserting one?s humanity. The strike media committee has made enormous efforts to ensure the amplification of the voices of those on the inside. The interviews conducted by Jared Ware with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have been exemplary in bringing the voice and views of people who are locked up front and center. Given the difficulties of communication across the razor wire, these have been remarkable. Nonetheless, the presence of a group largely made up of white activists directing the media traffic, rather than family and community members of those inside, represents a source of tension in the legitimacy of representation, a topic to be examined when the dust from this period settles. Another source of concern has been the virtual absence of action in women?s prisons during the strike. While some of this may be due to more sophisticated responses by authorities, there are other issues. In an interview with the Chicago Reader, activist Monica Cosby, who spent 20 years in Illinois state prisons herself, stressed that resistance is a permanent feature in women?s prisons, but the weapons are not typically strikes or insurrections, but rather daily acts of rebelling by asserting one?s humanity. The organizers of the strike, as well as many activists on the issue of mass incarceration, have much to learn from Cosby?s observations. While the high points of strikes and overt rebellion help draw attention to the problems of mass incarceration, there is a need to think about ways in which people in prison engage in what labor historians refer to as ?informal resistance.? This resistance may range from defying rules to asserting one?s right to be human by engaging in activities like sharing meals (what we call ?spreads? in prison) or getting involved in sports, music and graphic arts. While such acts don?t rock the prisons to their foundations, they are the kernels of positive spirit that keep those inside strong enough to be able to endure, carry out actions like the 2018 strike and withstand the horrific repression that unaccountable authorities visit on organizers and rebels. *Outcomes of the Action?* As with any mass action in a repressive setting like a prison, there will be backlash from prison authorities. From the 2016 strike, leaders like Kinetic Justice of the Free Alabama Movement and Malik Washington, founder of the End Prison Slavery Texas Movement. have suffered long periods in solitary confinement. Already, those identified as ?instigators? in Texas, Ohio and South Carolina reportedly have been sent to isolation. No doubt there will be more efforts by authorities to punish, vilify and isolate those they identify as leaders. Optimistic outcomes of the 2018 actions would be the restoration of Pell Grants, a measure already partially in motion, and a repeal of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. As Darren Mack said, ?It?s urgent that elected officials respond to the 10 policy demands in order to tackle the systemic problems of mass incarceration and racist criminal justice policies that have led to tragic events like the Attica massacre and devastated millions of lives.? But regardless of actions by elected officials, as Heather Thompson observed, ?No matter how many folks were actually able to sit in or stop working or not eat, on the outside, vital attention was drawn to the issue of how horrific prison conditions are and also the longer history of prisoners standing up to be heard at places like San Quentin and Attica.? Copyright ? Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission . -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 5 16:05:16 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 13:05:16 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Folsom prison strike manifesto and bill of rights 1970 Message-ID: Folsom prison strike manifesto and bill of rights 1970 In 1970, prisoners protesting about the brutal regime at Folsom Prison, went on strike for 19 days. They wrote the following manifesto and bill of rights in support of their action. The following manifesto and bill of rights were written in 1970 by inmates at Folsom prison in the United States. They were formulated to support a prisoners strike. Over 2,400 prisoners organized a strike. They refused to leave their cells for nineteen days, in the face of constant hunger, discomfort, and psychological and psychological intimidation. Their action was taken in protest again the overcrowded, racist, and brutal prison system. The manifesto is overtly political, and the prisoners called for the end of injustice suffered by all prisoners, regardless of race, color, or creed. They referred to the United States prisons as ?Fascist concentration camps? The prisoners believed that they were treated like ?domesticated animals?, selected to their bidding in slave labor, and furnished as personal whipping dogs for the sadistic psychopathic hate of the prison staff. The manifesto included a section on the ?unionization? of prisoners, as a means to end political persecution, and enabling peaceful dissent. It referenced explicit abuse of powers by prison authorities, such as tear-gassing, locking up of dissenting inmates, shootings, and unusual punishments, and other brutality. Folsom prison strike manifesto 1 We demand legal representation at the time of all (Adult Authority hearings). 2 A change in medical staff and medical policy and procedure. 3 Adequate visiting conditions and facilities. 4 That each man presently held in the Adjustment Center be given a written notice with the Warden of Custody signature on it explaining the exact reason for his placement in the severely restrictive confines of the Adjustment Center. 5 An immediate end to indeterminate adjustment center terms. 6 An end to the segregation of prisoners from the mainline population because of their political beliefs. 7 An end to political persecution, racial persecution, and the denial of prisoners, to subscribe to political papers. 8 An end to the persecution and punishment of prisoners who practice the constitutional right of peaceful dissent. 9 An end to the tear gassing of prisoners who are locked in their cells. 10 The passing of a minimum and maximum term bill which calls for an end to indeterminate sentences. 11 That industries be allowed to enter the institutions and employ inmates to work eight hours a day and fit into the category of workers for scale wages. 12 That inmates be allowed to form or join labor unions. 13 That inmates be granted the right to support their own families. 14 That correctional officers be prosecuted as a matter of law for shooting inmates. 15 That all institutions who use inmate labor be made to conform with the state and federal minimum wage laws. 16 An end to trials being held on the premises of San Quentin prison. 17 An end to the escalating practice of physical brutality. 18 Appointment of three lawyers from the California Bar Association to provide legal assistance for inmates seeking post conviction relief. 19 Update of industry working conditions. 20 Establishment of inmate workers' insurance. 21 Establishment of unionized vocational training program comparable to that of the Federal Union System. 22 Annual accounting of Inmate Welfare Fund. 23 That the Adult Authority Board appointed by the governor be eradicated and replaced by a parole board elected by popular vote of the people. (24) A full time salaried board of overseers for the state prisons. 25 An immediate end to the agitation of race relations. 26 Ethnic counselors. 27 An end to the discrimination in the judgment and quota of parole for Black and Brown people. 28 That all prisoners be present at the time that their cells and property are being searched. A bill of rights for prisoners This composite bill of rights for prisoners has been assembled from various state prisoners' demands: 1. Right to organize prisoner unions. 2. Right to adequate diet, clothing and health care. 3. Right to vote and end second class citizenship. 4. Right to furloughs or institutional accommodations to maintain social, sexual and familial ties. 5. Right to non-censorship of mail, literature and law books. 6. Right to access to the press and media. 7. Right to procedural and substantive due process to guarantee rights. 8. Right to personality; resistance to coercive attempts by "correctional" staff to change behaviour thru brain surgery, electric stimulation of brain, aversion therapy, hormones or modification techniques. 9. Right to properly trained counsel. 10. Right to be free from racial, ethnic and sexist discrimination. 11. Right to freedom from mental and physical brutality. 12. Right to have the community come into the prison. 13. Right to have surveillance teams in prisons to monitor rights, protect prisoners' due process and see that they have access to their own files. 14. Right to make restitution in lieu of further incarceration. 15. Right to know their release date at time of entry to the prison. https://libcom.org/blog/folsom-prison-strike-manifesto-bill-rights-1970-05012012 -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 5 16:09:54 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 13:09:54 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Attica Prison Liberation Faction, Manifesto of Demands 1971 Message-ID: Attica Prison Liberation Faction, Manifesto of Demands 1971 ?WE are MEN! We are not beasts and do not intend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace has set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States.? The Attica Prison riot of 1971 has been well documented elsewhere; therefore I will not be attempting to revisit the events that took place. If you wish to read more about the subject, you will find the following links useful. Following on from my previous blog entry on theFolsom Prisoners manifesto from 1970 , I have listed the demands made by the Attica Prison Liberation Faction in 1971, who had been inspired by events at Folsom. The demands were made following several thousand inmates seizing control of the prison in protest against the usual issues of, overcrowding, racism, and brutality from prison staff. We, the men of Attica Prison, have been committed to the New York State Department of Corrections by the people of society for the purpose of correcting what has been deemed as social errors in behavior. Errors which have classified us as socially unacceptable until reprogrammed with new values and more thorough understanding as to our values and responsibilities as members of the outside community. The Attica Prison program in its structure and conditions have been enslaved on the pages of this Manifesto of Demands with the blood, sweat, and tears of the inmates of this prison. The program which we are submitted to under the fa?ade of rehabilitation are relative to the ancient stupidity of pouring water on a drowning man, inasmuch as we are treated for our hostilities by our program administrators with their hostility as medication. In our efforts to comprehend on a feeling level an existence contrary to violence, we are confronted by our captors with what is fair and just, we are victimized by the exploitation and the denial of the celebrated due process of law. In our peaceful efforts to assemble in dissent as provided under this nation?s U.S. Constitution, we are in turn murdered, brutalized, and framed on various criminal charges because we seek the rights and privileges of all American People. In our efforts to intellectually expand in keeping with the outside world, through all categories of news media, we are systematically restricted and punitively remanded to isolation status when we insist on our human rights to the wisdom of awareness. MANIFESTO OF DEMANDS 1. We Demand the constitutional rights of legal representation at the time of all parole board hearings and the protection from the procedures of the parole authorities whereby they permit no procedural safeguards such as an attorney for cross-examination of witnesses, witnesses in behalf of the parolee, at parole revocation hearings. 2. We Demand a change in medical staff and medical policy and procedure. The Attica Prison hospital is totally inadequate, understaffed, and prejudiced in the treatment of inmates. There are numerous ?mistakes? made many times; improper and erroneous medication is given by untrained personnel. We also demand periodical check-ups on all prisoners and sufficient licensed practitioners 24 hours a day instead of inmates? help that is used now. 3. We Demand adequate visiting conditions and facilities for the inmate and families of Attica prisoners. The visiting facilities at the prison are such as to preclude adequate visiting for inmates and their families. 4. We Demand an end to the segregation of prisoners from the mainline population because of their political beliefs. Some of the men in segregation units are confined there solely for political reasons and their segregation from other inmates is indefinite. 5. We Demand an end to the persecution and punishment of prisoners who practice the Constitutional Right of peaceful dissent. Prisoners at Attica and other New York prisons cannot be compelled to work as these prisons were built for the purpose of housing prisoners and there is no mention as to the prisoners being required to work on prison jobs in order to remain in the mainline population and/or be considered for release. Many prisoners believe their labor power is being exploited in order for the state to increase its economic power and to continue to expand its correctional industries (which are million-dollar complexes), yet do not develop working skills acceptable for employment in the outside society, and which do not pay the prisoner more than an average of forty cents a day. Most prisoners never make more than fifty cents a day. Prisoners who refuse to work for the outrageous scale, or who strike, are punished and segregated without the access to the privileges shared by those who work; this is class legislation, class division, and creates hostilities within the prison. 6. We Demand an end to political persecution, racial persecution, and the denial of prisoner?s rights to subscribe to political papers, books, or any other educational and current media chronicles that are forwarded through the U.S. Mail. 7. We Demand that industries be allowed to enter the institutions and employ inmates to work eight hours a day and fit into the category of workers for scale wages. The working conditions in prisons do not develop working incentives parallel to the many jobs in the outside society, and a paroled prisoner faces many contradictions of the job that add to his difficulty in adjusting. Those industries outside who desire to enter prisons should be allowed to enter for the purpose of employment placement. 8. We Demand that inmates be granted the right to join or form labor unions. 9. We Demand that inmates be granted the right to support their own families; at present, thousands of welfare recipients have to divide their checks to support their imprisoned relatives, who without outside support, cannot even buy toilet articles or food. Men working on scale wages could support themselves and families while in prison. 10. We Demand that correctional officers be prosecuted as a matter of law for any act of cruel and unusual punishment where it is not a matter of life and death. 11. We Demand that all institutions using inmate labor be made to conform with the state and federal minimum wage laws. 12. We Demand an end to the escalating practice of physical brutality being perpetrated upon the inmates of New York State prisons. 13. We Demand the appointment of three lawyers from the New York State Bar Association to full-time positions for the provision of legal assistance to inmates seeking post-conviction relief, and to act as a liaison between the administration and inmates for bringing inmates? complaints to the attention of the administration. 14. We Demand the updating of industry working conditions to the standards provided for under New York State law. 15. We Demand the establishment of inmate worker?s insurance plan to provide compensation for work-related accidents. 16. We Demand the establishment of unionized vocational training programs comparable to that of the Federal Prison System which provides for union instructions, union pay scales, and union membership upon completion of the vocational training course. 17. We Demand annual accounting of the inmates Recreational Fund and formulation of an inmate committee to give inmates a voice as to how such funds are used. 18. We Demand that the present Parole Board appointed by the Governor be eradicated and replaced by the parole board elected by popular vote of the people. In a world where many crimes are punished by indeterminate sentences and where authority acts within secrecy and within vast discretion and given heavy weight to accusations by prison employees against inmates, inmates feel trapped unless they are willing to abandon their desire to be independent men. 19. We Demand that the state legislature create a full-time salaried board of overseers for the State Prisons. The board would be responsible for evaluating allegations made by inmates, their families, friends and lawyers against employers charged with acting inhumanely, illegally or unreasonably. The board should include people nominated by a psychological or psychiatric association, by the State Bar Association or by the Civil Liberties Union and by groups of concerned involved laymen. 20. We Demand an immediate end to the agitation of race relations by the prison administration of this State. 21. We Demand that the Dept. of Corrections furnish all prisoners with the services of ethnic counselors for the needed special services of the Brown and Black population of this prison. 22. We Demand an end to the discrimination in the judgment and quota of parole for Black and Brown people. 23. We Demand that all prisoners be present at the time their cells and property are being searched by the correctional officers of state prisons. 24. We Demand an end to the discrimination against prisoners when they appear before the Parole Board. Most prisoners are denied parole solely because of their prior records. Life sentences should not confine a man longer than 10 years as 7 years is the considered statute for a lifetime out of circulation, and if a man cannot be rehabilitated after a maximum of ten years of constructive programs, etc., then he belongs in a mental hygiene center, not a prison. 25. We Demand that better food be served to the inmates. The food is a gastronomical disaster. We also demand that drinking water be put on each table and that each inmate be allowed to take as much food as he wants and as much bread as he wants, instead of the severely limited portions and limited (4) slices of bread. Inmates wishing a pork-free diet should have one, since 85% of our diet is pork meat or pork-saturated food. 26. We Demand an end to the unsanitary conditions that exist in the mess hall: i.e., dirty trays, dirty utensils, stained drinking cups and an end to the practice of putting food on the table?s hours before eating time without any protective covering over it. 27. We Demand that there be one set of rules governing all prisons in this state instead of the present system where each warden makes rules for his institution as he sees fit. IN CONCLUSION We are firm in our resolve and we demand, as human beings, the dignity and justice that is due to us by our right of birth. We do not know how the present system of brutality and dehumanization and injustice has been allowed to be perpetrated in this day of enlightenment, but we are the living proof of its existence and we cannot allow it to continue. The taxpayers who just happen to be our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters and sons should be made aware of how their tax dollars are being spent to deny their sons, brothers, fathers and uncles of justice, equality and dignity. https://libcom.org/blog/attica-prison-liberation-faction-manifesto-demands-1971-06012012 -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Mon Sep 10 12:33:56 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:33:56 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Illinois inmate out of prison after decades in solitary - robbed a hat and dollar bill Message-ID: https://www.bnd.com/news/local/article217921700.html Illinois inmate out of prison after decades in solitary By Beth Hundsdorfer and George Pawlaczyk September 07, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As a teenager, Anthony Gay robbed a fellow teen of his hat and a dollar bill, which landed Gay in prison. His prison odyssey spanned 24 years, during which he was locked in solitary confinement in Illinois prisons for 22 to 23 hours a day, cut and slashed parts of his own body more than 500 times in protest, was strapped naked to metal bed frames without food, and, on a grim day in 2010 during what court records state was extreme mental delirium, sliced off part of his testicle and tied it to a cell door. Ten days ago, Gay, now 44, woke up in solitary in the prison?s mental unit. In the space of minutes, he was escorted out of his cell at the Dixon Correctional Center by a three-man ?extraction team? to a dressing room, where he got out of his yellow jumpsuit and into civilian clothes. A short walk followed until he reached a final door. Then freedom. ?I felt alive again. I couldn?t believe it,? said Gay, who met his sister in the parking lot. ?It?s good to be home.? She had rented a small U-Haul trailer, and Gay loaded about a dozen large cardboard boxes jammed with thousands of court documents and letters that fueled his court battles for decades. They immediately left for the family home in Rock Island. Gay?s unusual case was detailed in the BND?s 2009 award-winning investigative series ?Trapped In Tamms.? That and numerous follow-up articles helped bring attention to the plight of Gay and others. A federal judge in East St. Louis would eventually find that mentally ill prisoners held in solitary for over a decade in the now closed Tamms supermax prison in the southern tip of Illinois were cruelly treated. Reforms were recommended but the prison, the most expensive per inmate to operate, soon closed. Anthony Gay.JPG Anthony Gay George Pawlaczyk Gay expected to die in prison because of a long series of felony assaults on guards that consisted of throwing body waste or yanking back on chains. These sentences were consecutive and added 99 years to Gay?s prison time. He was up for parole at age 120. Reviewing the prison sentence But attorneys Scott Main of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University in Chicago and Jennifer Soble of the Fair Punishment Project reviewed a series of 17 assaults on guards by Gay, mostly in Livingston County where he was then held at Pontiac Prison, and determined that the consecutive sentences were improper. The local prosecutor agreed, and Gay?s sentence was reduced by 73 years. He faced just 4 1/2 more years and finally knew he would be free. But while he was out from prison, he wasn?t completely free. Gay must wear an electronic ankle bracelet for 90 days and can leave the home only to look for a job, which he has done several times. After his first night at his mother?s house, attorney Main stopped by for a visit. Gay was sitting at the dining room table talking to family members on a cellphone that took him some time to figure out. ?My feelings in that moment were of disbelief and joy,? Main said when Gay answered the door. ?Am I going to say what he did was right? No, I am not. But we put someone in segregation and when he manifests symptoms as a result of that and then we punish them for the symptoms, we can?t be terribly surprised by the outcome.? As for whether Gay will stay out of prison, Main said: ?I?m not in the prediction business. He has a strong support system from his family and his team at Northwestern. But in the end, it?s a matter of hope.? Need for a support system Johnny Perez, director of the U.S. Prisons Program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said, ?Gay?s success in society depends on creating a support system and assessing resources to help in the transition.? Perez was held for three years in solitary on New York state on a robbery charge. ?They go from being all alone into families that have learned to get along without them,? Perez said. ?Choices and responsibilities in small things such as food, clothing and transportation can seem overwhelming.? Perez offered this advice to Gay to improve his assimilation: ?Connect with people who have been in the same situation as you. Use them as mentors and service providers because only they can know what we are going through. It gets better with time. Every day gets a bit easier,? Perez said. Able to talk freely without guards listening in, Gay told a visitor he believes his basic inability to cope in the prison system started about 1994. He was diagnosed with relatively minor mental illness, including borderline personality disorder. ?I was acting out,? he said. ?I didn?t know who my friends were. The environment was all about hate. It was a nightmare.? ?The only way I could feel anything? The Department of Corrections sent Gay to Tamms in 1998, and there he encountered the most extremely restricted environment in the entire prison system. He said his answer to solitary confinement was to fall in love. As unlikely as this sounds in a prison where inmates are basically denied human contact, Gay said he found a way. It was his therapist, a woman in her 30s who saw him on a weekly basis. ?The only way I could feel anything was to fall in love,? he said. ?I was in love with her.? The love was unrequited. The therapist only provided therapy. The human contact and the communication helped him cope with the lonely hours in his cell spent in solitary confinement. That one relationship helped sustain him, he said. But suddenly, Gay was returned to Pontiac, which has been listed in court documents as the second worst environment in the state prison system. He was sent directly to solitary. He said he didn?t know why he was transferred and desperately wanted to get back to Tamms to see his former therapist. ?I knew if I could get back to see her I would be all right,? he said. But no transfer came. So that?s when he began accumulating years and years on his sentence by assaulting guards and getting charged with more crimes. ?I never thought they?d charge me for throwing (feces),? he said. The years-long battle to return to Tamms was won, but the therapist was gone by the time he returned. Feeling ?human? At his mother?s home, Gay mows the grass and dreams of writing a book about his years in solitary. He has a title, ?Life on Impulse,? and even a cover designed by a friend in the publishing business. His own letters from various state and federal court files show him as an articulate, often impassioned writer. Daily chores make him feel ?human,? he says. Despite seeking a normalcy, there are outward indications of his time spent in solitary. His arms are roped with scars, making an odd road map of his time in prison. Gay?s right arm is so scarred by cutting that it?s impossible to count the wounds. The inner thigh on one leg and his neck also contain this type of scarring. Psychiatrists say inmates who spend long periods of time in solitary sometimes cut themselves simply ?to feel something? again. Records from Tamms obtained under the Freedom of Information Act in 2009 by the BND showed that sometimes inmates were sutured without anesthetic. He said of the times he had cut on himself he was brought to a hospital maybe 50 times, although he said there were other mutilation incidents that should have resulted in a trip to the emergency room. His introduction to ?cutting,? a practice seen in society by inmates held for great lengths in solitary and adolescent girls, was sort of a breakthrough, even though it was painful and dangerous. ?It was psychologically chaotic,? he said of self-mutilation. ?You?re doing it to feel alive. I saw somebody else do it. It blew me back.? One of the advantages of a trip to a hospital was the care, contact and communication given to him by the emergency room staff. ?I love nurses,? he said. ?They are the greatest humans on earth.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Mon Sep 10 14:51:48 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 11:51:48 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Pennsylvania's New Draconian Control Unit Restrictions Deployed System Wide - Mail and Reading Controls for All Prisoners Message-ID: _/Several Articles Follow/_ Lockdown of entire system lifted, but... Statements from Abolitionist Law Center, Sep 6 https://www.facebook.com/AbolitionistLawCenter/ The PADOC ?Lockdown? and the newly unveiled policies represent a threat to the rights, dignity, and health of our incarcerated clients, friends, and family. The?problems occurring during the last week will be compounded and added to by these measures that will further restrict and chill communication between incarcerated people and those outside the walls. It is becoming clear that there will need to be an organized challenge, or series of challenges, using a variety of advocacy strategies, including potential litigation. Please feel free to share this widely. Toward that end we are asking for any reports of the following to be emailed to ckeys at alcenter.org at the Abolitionist Law Center: ? Obstruction or interference in attorney-client communications, including: o restrictions or prohibitions on visits o restrictions or prohibitions on regular legal call opportunities o failure to send outgoing legal mail, or significant delay in sending it out. o failure to process incoming legal mail, or significant delay in getting mail. o opening legal mail outside the presence of the recipient o any copying of legal mail whatsoever ? Any negative legal consequences faced by incarcerated people due to their inability to communicate with legal counsel or the courts ? missed deadlines, inadequate preparation for court proceedings, etc. ? Instances where the DOC refused to process non-legal mail, including where it was returned for no reason other than the DOC?s arbitrary statewide ?lockdown?. ? Any serious problems caused by not receiving non-legal mail sent from family, friends, or other contacts, including and especially problems caused by not receiving time-sensitive information. ? Denial of publications such as magazines, newspapers, or books due to the ?lockdown? or new policies. ? Imposition of disciplinary measures such as the issuance of a misconduct or having privileges restricted based on mere suspicion of drug use, or an allegation that mail intended for but not received by an incarcerated person contained a prohibited substance. Please include whether any evidence was obtained, tested (by the DOC or third party vendor), and whether there was any due process afforded through a hearing. ? False positives by ion scanners resulting in visitation restrictions or prohibitions. ? Instances of incarcerated people being deprived medical care during the lockdown, including regular appointments for chronic conditions, medications, mental health care, outside hospital appointments, emergency care, or specialist care. ? Instances of incarcerated people with physical or mental disabilities being deprived accommodations for those disabilities during the lockdown. With solidarity and in it for the long haul, The Abolitionist Law Center Cancel the new punitive PADOC policies, respect the rights of prisoners and their families *Sign this petition! Amistad Law Project started this petition to Governor Tom Wolf https://www.change.org/p/tom-wolf-cancel-the-new-punitive-padoc-policies-respect-the-rights-of-prisoners-and-their-families?recruiter=898270463&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=undefined * We are families and friends of incarcerated loved ones, professionals who work closely with people in PA prisons and concerned citizens who care about human rights. On September 5th Department of Corrections Secretary Wetzel and Governor Wolf announced new punitive protocols that will further punish, restrict and control people incarcerated in PA prisons. Governor Wolf and the Department of Corrections want to censor and restrict books, increase surveillance of prisoners mail, violate attorney-client privilege and institute cruel, restrictive visiting room policies which violate the American Disabilities Act. Join us in demanding that Governor Wolf and the PA Department of Corrections cancel these policies immediately and respect the rights of incarcerated people, their families and the people who work with them. We demand that we be able to order our incarcerated loved ones, friends and clients books from (formerly) approved vendors and that they be able to hold them in their hands. The Pennsylvania DOC's move to E-books and a central marketplace that they control is censorship and a monopoly and we fully reject it. We demand that our loved ones be able to touch letters that our hands touch too. We reject that our mail should be sent to a private company in Florida, Smart Communication, at taxpayer expense where it will be copied, the originals destroyed and the copies sent on. Furthermore during this process our mail will be scanned into a searchable database to increase already pervasive mailroom surveillance on our communication. If mailroom staff needs to be increased to search for contraband the DOC should do just that. The contract with prison profiteer Smart Communications should be immediately cancelled. We demand that legal mail not be photocopied. In another protocol confidential legal mail will be opened and photocopied and the photocopies will be passed on to the incarcerated person. This is violation of attorney-client privilege and it will expose legal mail to be read in part if not in whole. It cannot stand. We demand that vending machines and photos be restored on visits immediately. A new protocol states that vending machines and photos will be restricted for 90 days at which point new policies around these activities will be unveiled. This is unacceptable. People travel far to visit with their incarcerated family members and they deserve some basic decency. They ought to be able to share food and memorialize their time together through taking photos. Furthermore there are many people who are diabetic or have other conditions and cannot spend an 8 hour visit without eating anything. Not only is the the restriction on vending machines cruel it is also a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We demand that official visitors should not have to wear plastic gloves on visits. A new policy requires that lawyers, paralegals, official visitors from the prison society and others be required to wear plastic gloves on visits. Our people in prison are not contaminated or diseased or otherwise toxic and they should not be treated like quarantined and subhuman specimens. It's notable that they make only professionals wear gloves. They know very well that this policy serves no public health purpose and it is clearly meant to denigrate prisoners and their families. We demand respect. For too long elected officials have believed they can increase their political capital and their career prospects by punishing us, our incarcerated family members?and our clients. Enough is enough. We pledge that we will never stop fighting until we are heard. Pa. prisons spend $15M after guards were sickened by K2. But what if it was just in their heads? by Samantha Melamed -September 7, 2018 http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania-department-corrections-prison-lockdown-drugs-k2-fentanyl-guards-sickness-20180907.html When Pennsylvania's prisons come off a statewide lockdown begun Aug. 29, inmates will be greeted by a number of radically tightened security measures: high-tech?body-scanners for visitors, drone-detection equipment, and the digital delivery of all mail, which will be scanned and forwarded via a Florida-based contractor. In total, they?will cost taxpayers $15 million. The improvements come after the Department of Corrections reported 57 staff were sickened in 28 incidents at prisons in central and Western Pennsylvania. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced the lockdown after?linking the illnesses with exposure to synthetic cannabinoids?? the drugs have, by official and inmate accounts, flooded prisons across the state in recent years ? but also cited concern over a reported mass exposure to fentanyl at an Ohio prison the very same day the lockdown was announced. You may also like "Pennsylvania's corrections officers put themselves in harm's way to make our commonwealth safer, and it is up to us to provide them protection from harm," Gov. Wolf told reporters. "I want to assure them that their concerns are valid." But, what if their concerns are actually misplaced? That's a question raised by toxicologists, who?say one likely?diagnosis for the staff illnesses may be "mass psychogenic illness" ? that is, a sort of contagious hysteria fueled by fears of dangerous exposure. "There is some great concern that it's psychogenic,"?said Jeanmarie Perrone, director of?medical toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. "Mass psychogenic illness happens all the time. We see it all the time with law enforcement," Perrone said. "Police pull someone over and find an unknown substance. Suddenly their heart's racing, they're nauseated and sweaty. They say, 'I'm sick. I'm gonna pass out.' That is your normal physiological response to potential danger." Although?seven prison staff?were administered naloxone, the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, experts said that was probably unnecessary. Unlike the guards ? who reported symptoms including elevated heart rate and blood pressure, light-headedness, dizziness, and headaches ? an overdose victim would?be?unresponsive, Perrone said. "If they are speaking, they don't need naloxone." The American College of Medical Toxicology released a position paper on?fentanyl?last year noting that the risk of exposure?for emergency responders is "extremely low." They noted that it?cannot be absorbed through the skin in a powder form, and it's unlikely, if it were aerosolized, that it would be?concentrated enough to sicken responders. Synthetic cannabinoids ? laboratory-made compounds also known as K2 or Spice ? ?are more complicated, because they can be?made up of any number of compounds, and their makeup can vary wildly from one batch to the next. Some versions even include rat poison. Prison officials say K2 is frequently soaked in paper, which can be easily sent through the mail and then smoked. But experts?said merely touching K2 should not have?caused the guards' symptoms. "In a word, it's implausible," said Dr. Lewis Nelson, chair of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and a past president of the American College of Medical Toxicology. "One thing we know about [synthetic cannabinoids]?is that they don't cause?the effects these folks are having, and certainly not by the?route that they're being exposed. ? The symptoms are much more consistent with anxiety." Jason Bloom, president of the Pennsylvania State Correctional Officers Association, described that theory as "asinine. There's no other way to put it. Maybe moronic." "If that were the case," he added, "then why such a strong reaction from the Department of Corrections?" He described the dangers of K2 as including not only sickness from incidental exposure, but also contact with inmates who become violent?on the drug. One thing that?is not in dispute?is that K2 and other drugs have become ubiquitous in the state's prison system. Jerry Davis, a Philadelphia inmate?at Albion state prison, said that, prior to the statewide lockdown, he observed two or three incidents per week of other inmates high on K2: ?Guys passing out with K2, guys [freaking] out, running around naked. ? A sheet of K2, that goes for over $1,000 in here. That?s big business in this prison.? And it?s not just in Western Pennsylvania: At?the recently closed Graterford prison, reports of K2 were widespread in the past year, said Jorge Cintron Jr., an inmate. "I find it quite troubling that it seemed to never be an issue with the DOC on how prisoners were harming themselves with these synthetic drugs," Cintron said. " ? It is now?a problem because it is affecting the DOC staff and officers, allegedly." Wetzel said that the goal now is not to reduce drug traffic into the prisons but to altogether eliminate it. "The safety and security of staff and inmates is paramount to the Department of Corrections," Wetzel said in a statement announcing security measures. Among them: The prisons will shift to e-books and digital magazines, and double staff in the visiting rooms. And, all incoming mail must be sent to a company called?Smart Communications in Seminole, Fla., which will scan and forward it at a cost of $4 million annually. The state will pay an additional $1.9 million per year for copy machines and paper to manage legal mail, which will be photocopied by staff wearing protective clothing. Also on the horizon: $6 million on new machines to scan visitors for contraband, and $2.2 million for drone detection at each prison. Nelson said those efforts may well be necessary to keep drugs out of the institutions. But if the goal is to keep staff safe from incidental exposure, he said, "It borders on the irrational. It's panic mode." Medical experts pointed out that they frequently treat patients who are on synthetic cannabinoids without wearing gloves or other protective gear. "As chemists, we?don't even wear face masks," agreed Sherri Kacinko, a toxicologist at Willow Grove's NMS Labs who studies substances like K2. "The risk is very low." All acknowledged that the drug compounds in K2 are constantly evolving. David Vearrier, a Hahnemann University Hospital emergency doctor, said?that makes it?hard to know the truth. "Some of the newer synthetic cannabinoids you see on the street are really potent, and ? have?been associated with symptoms in law enforcement personnel," he noted, referencing a study of federal agents who handled K2 after raiding a drug lab and were later found to have the drug in their system. (However, the study also described the agents eating and drinking while cataloging the evidence, and noted that most of them did not consistently wear gloves.) To Vearrier, it's not implausible that a correctional officer could run into a similar situation. On the other hand, he said, "Just feeling anxious about it could cause them to?have some of these symptoms. There's also a?possibility that they want to get an afternoon off work." Edward Boyer, a Harvard Medical School professor and Brigham and Women's emergency doctor, reviewed the prisons' incident logs and responded with an audible shrug. "We have?no biological testing confirming exposure actually happened, and we have a large number of individuals with complaints of vague, subjective conditions," he said. He and others said they'd want to confirm the exposure through blood or urine tests. The only results the Department of Corrections have released?are lab and field tests of the substances found in the prisons. Without that confirmation, Boyer said the most likely cause is something even doctors can relate to:?"We treat people who come to the?[emergency department] with?lice all the time. Everyone begins to itch." * * *For the PA Department's document on new mail procedures* https://www.cor.pa.gov/Documents/FAQ%20-%20New%20Procedures.pdf -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Mon Sep 10 16:16:37 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:16:37 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?Prisons_Use_Solitary_Confinement_to_Silence_St?= =?utf-8?q?rikers_Nationwide=E2=80=94But_Their_Voices_Have_Been_Heard?= Message-ID: http://solitarywatch.com/2018/09/10/prisons-use-solitary-confinement-to-silence-strikers-nationwide-but-their-voices-have-been-heard/ Prisons Use Solitary Confinement to Silence Strikers Nationwide?But Their Voices Have Been Heard By Valerie Kiebala and Jean Casella - September 10, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In commemoration of the Attica Uprising 47 years earlier, incarcerated organizers chose yesterday as the final day of the nearly three-week-long National Prison Strike that began on August 21. The strike eventually extended to federal prisons, state prisons, immigration detention centers, and local jails across at least fourteen states, with actions ranging from work stoppages to sit-ins, hunger strikes, and commissary boycotts. Both the strikers? original demands and the harsh repression they faced serve as a grim reminder that in many ways, the U.S. criminal justice system has actually regressed in the intervening 47 years?a period in which the prison population grew by nearly 700 percent. Along with its nationwide reach, the strike was remarkable for the breadth of theten demands released through Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS), a group of incarcerated legal advocates which, along with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), was instrumental in organizing the strike. Far from concentrating on a narrow range of improvements to prison conditions, the organizers made clear that they are challenging the punishment paradigm that underlies the American criminal justice system, and seeking sweeping reforms to reverse the five-decade trend toward mass incarceration that began during the era of Attica. The demands include not only improved conditions that ?recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women,? but also payment of the ?prevailing wage? for prison labor (effectively an override of the 13th Amendment); sentencing and parole reform, including an end to life without parole; and measures to address the racism that saturates the system. Demands also include reversal of the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act, which sharply curtailed the ability of incarcerated people to fight for their rights in court; access to rehabilitation and education for everyone, including those convicted of violent offenses (and the funding to pay for it); and voting rights for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated citizens. The demands end, appropriately, with the statement: ?All voices count!? Incarcerated people who participated in the strike took great risks in their words and actions, seizing the chance to empower themselves in an environment designed to strip them of power, along with freedom and dignity. And not surprisingly, prison administrators and staff have been swift to employ their primary tool of control to repress incarcerated voices, retaliate against incarcerated organizers, and preemptively quell the strike: solitary confinement. The nationwide strike, which began on the anniversary of the death of ?prison activist and Black Panther George Jackson, was planned in reaction to a deadly riot in April of this year at the maximum security Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina. While prison officials blamed the riot on gang disputes, Amani Sawari from JLSattributed the violence to ?really aggravated conditions? at the prison, including an extended lockdown that subjected the entire prison population to virtual solitary confinement. ?They were placed on lockdown all day,? she said. ?They weren?t allowed to eat or use the bathroom. They were placed in units with rival gang members. And then their lockers were taken away, so they didn?t have any safe place to put their personal belongings, which really aggravated and caused tensions among prisoners?to the point where fights broke out.? Seven incarcerated men, six of them African American, died in the riot, and at least 22 were injured. No corrections officers were injured, and one witnesstold the Associated Press that ?the COs never even attempted to render aid, nor quell the disturbance.? Incarcerated people at Lee Correctional continued to be held in conditions of solitary confinement following the riot, allegedly for safety reasons. One man held at Lee claimed that the officials were actually using solitary confinement as a method to prevent participation in the widely publicized nationwide strike. Fearing retaliation, the manspoke anonymously to /Kite Line, /saying, ?As an attempt to oppress our voices and quash our unity, we have been on 24-hour lockdown since what has transpired at Lee Correctional Institution back in April this year.? He explained, ?That means zero movement whatsoever. We?re being fed late in the night. We?re only receiving one shower a week. We?re being denied cell cleaning as well as clean drinking water, even when there are water advisories. Any inmate who attempts to participate in this strike is being placed in solitary confinement, which is lockup?seg. As a result of what has taken place, you know, what has transpired at Lee, and the fact that we have been on 24-hour lockdown without any cell movement whatsoever, there have been a number of suicides and attempts.? South Carolina was not the only state to lock down a facility in the days leading up to the strike. A story in the /Santa Fe Reporter /revealed that the New Mexico Department of Corrections had publicized in a Facebook post a ?statewide lockdown at 11 prisons? starting on August 20. The story also featured an internalmemo from New Mexico?s Lea County Correctional Facility, announcing the ?lockdown schedule,? beginning on August 20 and lasting until September 17, which explained that if an incarcerated person?s ?behavior is acceptable,? their privileges will be gradually reinstated each week. The memo suggested prison officials were tracking down individuals participating in a ?disruptive behavior.? It stated, ?Although some participants have been identified, all have yet to be identified.? Those who are identified, the memo continues, will have their ?good time suspended? and will remain in the restricted conditions, barred from visitation and phone calls, receiving only ?one sack meal and two hot meals,? and allowed only a 10-minute shower three times a week. Retaliation against individual organizers also began in anticipation of the strike. /The Appeal/ reported that as early as June, a man held at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Ronald Brooks, was punished for making a Facebook video using a contraband cell phone that urged others to take part in the upcoming strike.??We are anti-slavery and are organizing to transform our ghettos into communities and our jails and prisons into places of human redemption,? Brooks said in the video. Brooks had helped organize a previous work stoppage at Angola, a former slave plantation where men earn as little as 4 cents an hours to work in the fields. While Brooks had previously been caught with illegal cell phones and punished with loss of privileges, this time the state transferred him 250 miles away to David Wade Correctional Center.??To be moved totally from a facility [has] to do with the fact that they knew that Ronald was being a human rights advocate,? his mother told /The Appeal/. ?What they wanted to do was to move him away? because he was an organizer.? Once the strike began, a host of media outlets covered its development, and some reported on the conditions underlying the strikers? demands. Articles appeared in most of the nation?s leading publications, including /USA Today/ , the /New York Times/, the /Washington Post/ , /The New Yorker/ , and/Time/ /,/ as well as dozens of local, international, and progressive news outlets. As the strike gained media traction, the use of solitary as a means to silence organizers and stifle participation increasingly came to light. Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan, who is incarcerated at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP), was placed on lockdown in late July after prison administrators intercepted strike-related mail and overheard Hasan speak to a group of strike supporters over the phone. According to anarticle in /Shadowproof/, the head of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction?s Bureau of Classification wrote that prison officials obtained this information about Hasan while ?monitoring communications and social media postings related to planning a nationwide prison strike from August 21 to September 9, 2018.? Hasan remains in the most restricted form of solitary confinement and has been prohibited from phone communication for a year. When another man incarcerated at OSP, Greg Curry, passed along news of the retaliation against Hasan to people on the outside, he was placed in solitary as well. Kevin Rashid Johnson, currently held at Sussex I State Prison in Virginia, published anarticle in /The Guardian /describing the retaliation he has faced for his outspoken organizing behind bars in the past three decades, including physical abuse, interstate transfers, and solitary confinement ? most recently, on Virginia?s death row, although he is not serving a death sentence. The Virginia Department of Corrections has set a hearing for Johnson for September 10, which he fears ?is preparatory to another out-of-state transfer, possibly into the federal system and into a site of extreme isolation,?according to Johnson?s website. Ezzial Williams, an organizer with the?IWOC held at Union Correctional Institution in Florida, was placed in solitary confinement in what the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) calls ?close management,? which he attributed to his involvement in organizing the strike. In a letter to Solitary Watch, Williams said, ?As the National Prisoner Strike leading up to September 9 continues to gain momentum, I find myself in super-solitary confinement humbly rooting for the progress being made. I mean, it?s all over the news these days! You see, I am currently serving an 18-month punishment in solitary (close management) for allegedly attempting to incite a riot through an ?email? speaking out about the inhumane treatment of inmates. Despite only suggesting non-violent sit-downs that never occurred, I was found guilty for saying something versus doing it.? Williams continued on to describe the conditions he faces in close management. ?Not only has my custody gone from minimum to maximum but I went from a work camp to being housed right next to death row inmates, locked down for 23 hours a day for the next year and a half. I?ve been subjected to a cell with no running hot water and a broken light that brightly blinks off and on all night, disrupting my sleep greatly. Every time I step out of the cell to go to medical or take a shower (three times a week), a few feet away I have to strip down and expose each orifice for contraband. Cell searches to harass us under the guise of security is the norm and sometimes soon after, a surprise inspection is called? which means if your cell is untidy (thanks to the search), you could go on ?strip? for 72 hours (all property, linen, and clothes is removed except for your boxers) or be subjected to disciplinary action resulting in a longer stay in solitary.? An outside prison reform activisttold WJCT public radio in Jacksonville that strike participants across Florida facilities have faced retaliation. She said, ?They are sprayed with pepper spray, they?re put in solitary in freezing conditions, in just underwear, handcuffed and slammed into walls.? Karen Smith, a Florida IWOC organizer,stated to /The Guardian/, ?Prison authorities have moved most of the local strike organizers into solitary confinement wings where they will be unable to communicate with others.? IWOCreported to the /Daily Beast /that Florida had locked down at least five of their prisons by August 24, though the FDOC refuted this. Hunger strikers at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility operated by the GEO Group in Tacoma, Washington, allegedly faced solitary confinement for their participation in the strike as well. An organizer with NWDC Resistancetold /Think Progress/, ?The numbers [of strike participants] started with about 200 people. We were cautious with the number of people we were counting?The people who were hunger striking were moved immediately into solitary confinement.? NWDC Resistance reported that 20 more people at the facility faced solitary after joining the strike on August 30. According to the IWOC, David Easley and James Ward, held at Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio, were placed in solitary confinement following their initiation of a hunger strike as part of the nationwide strike. IWOC also reported that Jason Turmon, a Jailhouse Lawyers Speak organizer incarcerated at the McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina, was sent to the solitary confinement unit for his participation in the strike. Solitary confinement has historically functioned as a means to prevent the collective action of people in prison. Acts of unity and solidarity among incarcerated people, even those that present no risk to peace or security, are considered threats to the absolute power wielded by correctional staff and the functioning of the prison system. Ezzial Williams echoed this in his letter when he said, ?The odds are stacked against us here and this whole thing is designed to break you down.? In an appearance on /Democracy Now!/ , Cole Dorsey, a formerly incarcerated organizer with the IWOC, commented on why he believes the strike threatened the larger social and economic order, and had to be quickly repressed. ?If these jobs that they?re now giving to prisoners?meat packing and call center workers?if they were given at a prevailing wage in those same communities that those prisoners came from prior, then they wouldn?t be in the prisons now,? he said. ?But the system has recognized that it?s easier to control the population while they?re inside prisons than it is if they?re outside, because then they have the right to strike, they have federal protections, whereas inside it can just be called an insurrection. Automatically, the leaders are sent to solitary. Automatically, they?re transferred. Automatically, privileges are denied?no more family, no more phone calls. So from a social justice and human rights aspect, it?s really draconian.? Those who organized and participated in the National Prison Strike undoubtedly knew that they would face punishment, including the torture of prolonged solitary confinement. And most of them surely knew that none of their demands would be met as a result of the strike. Yet they were willing to take action and endure the consequences. Their strategically planned strike, with its broad demands and strong outreach to the media, at least ensured that millions of Americans would be reminded of the suffering and injustice that goes on behind bars, and the existence of a path to change. And the message they sent to the outside world is clear: The next steps are ours to take. / / -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 12 10:21:53 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 07:21:53 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?California_protest_demands_=E2=80=98End_solita?= =?utf-8?q?ry_confinement!=E2=80=99?= Message-ID: https://themilitant.com/2018/09/08/california-protest-demands-end-solitary-confinement/ California protest demands ?End solitary confinement!? *By Betsey Stone*- September 17, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Supporters of the fight to end solitary confinement of inmates in California state prisons rallied outside the federal courthouse here Aug. 21. Their action was in solidarity with four prisoners ? Todd Ashker, Arturo Castellanos, George Franco and Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa ? who have helped lead the ongoing struggle against the barbaric policy. They were in a court-ordered meeting with representatives of the California Department of Corrections inside the building. The four were central leaders of hunger strikes and protests that grew to include 30,000 prisoners at the high point in 2013. These actions put a national spotlight on the abuse of thousands of prisoners held, some for decades, with little human contact in 8- by 10-foot windowless Security Housing Unit cells known as the SHU. The four were also plaintiffs in a suit ? Ashker vs. Governor of California ? that won an end to indeterminate-length sentences to solitary confinement in California and the release of over 1,400 prisoners from the SHU. Despite the success of moving some to general population units, the fight is far from over. Many of those released from the SHU have been transferred to extremely restrictive conditions in Level IV prisons or in Restricted Custody General Population Units, which have conditions markedly similar to that in the SHU. ?Our fight is against solitary confinement, no matter what they call it or what forms it takes,? Marie Levin, sister of Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, told rally participants. She pointed to a giant banner held by protesters saying, ?END ALL FORMS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.? Letters from prisoners held in Level IV and Restricted Custody Units were read aloud, describing the denial of social interaction with fellow prisoners and lack of educational and job-training programs. Anne Weills, an attorney in the lawsuit, said the prisoner representatives are demanding Todd Ashker, who was thrown back in isolation after being held for over three decades in solitary in the SHU at Pelican Bay, be released to the general population. Jamaa and other veterans of the struggle have also experienced retaliation, including being returned to solitary on trumped-up charges. These frame-ups and isolation are aimed at ?our peaceful efforts to effect genuine changes,? Jamaa wrote in an article run March 26 in the /San Francisco Bay View./ Ashker v. Governor of California was filed in 2012 by the inmates with attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights. After the hunger strikes, state prison officials settled on Sept. 1, 2015. The results are monitored by Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District Court. In July, Wilken ruled that California prison authorities were not complying with the settlement and ordered the meeting held Aug. 21. Any gains won in this fight are due to the conduct of the prisoners themselves, said Laura Magnani, an activist with the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, which organized the protest ?to their vision, courage, and persistence.? Fundamental to this has been the unity between prisoners of different races and origins forged in the struggle. ?Our current collective movement began in the bowels of Pelican Bay State Prison ? SHU ? Short Corridor, wherein prisoners of all races and various geographical areas became openly conscious of what we had in common ? rather than what was different (divisive),? Ashker wrote last year. In 2012, the Short Corridor Collective released an ?Agreement to End Race-Based Hostilities? that called for an end to violence among prisoners. Ashker said the prison authorities? efforts to pit prisoners against each other was ?the source of our mutual adversary?s manipulation tactics ? centered on keeping us divided and violent towards one another.? ?We must stand together not only for ourselves, but for future generations of prisoners,? the four prisoners said in a joint statement in 2017 reaffirming the agreement, ?so that they don?t have to go through the years of torture we had to.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 12 10:29:47 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 07:29:47 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] September 14th, Call In Day Against New Pennsylvania DOC Policies, Respect Prisoners' Rights Message-ID: https://www.facebook.com/events/2306758956005565/?notif_t=plan_user_invited¬if_id=1536717952368103 September 14th Call In Day Against New DOC Policies, Respect Prisoners' Rights On September 5th DOC Secretary John Wetzel and Governor Wolf announced a number of new punitive DOC policies that will impinge on prisoner?s rights and those of their families. Governor Wolf and the Department of Corrections want to censor and restrict books, increase surveillance of prisoners mail, violate attorney-client privilege and institute cruel, restrictive visiting room policies which violate the American Disabilities Act and further discourage contact between prisoners, their loved ones and those professionals who work with them. On Friday, September 14th we are getting mobilized. JOIN US AS CALL ON OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND CANCEL THESE PUNITIVE POLICIES. We are asking everyone to make FIVE calls: Governor Wolf, Your State Senator, Your State Representative, Lt. Governor Candidate (and Gov. Wolf?s Running Mate) John Fetterman and DOC Secretary Wetzel. If you are limited by time that is ok, but lets make as many of these calls as we can. Our elected officials (and aspiring elected officials need to hear from us.) A sample call script and call in numbers are below: Governor Wolf: 717-787-2500 Lt. Governor Candidate John Fetterman (currently Mayor of Braddock)- 412-654-4041 (Phone Number to the Mayor?s Office) Your State Representative and Your Senator Senator:http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/ DOC Secretary Wetzel: (717) 728-2573 ?Hi. My name is _________ and I?m calling to speak about the new DOC policies which will violate the rights of incarcerated people and their families. I am calling because I?d like [Gov. Wolf/Lt. Governor Candidate Fetterman/Representative So and So/Etc.] to take action to see that these policies are cancelled and that the rights of incarcerated people and their families are respected. These new policies will violate people?s rights in a number of ways. I would like to tell you about some issues with them. Under the new policies: -all mail must now be sent to a private company in Florida where it will be scanned into a permanent searchable database increasing surveillance on prisoners and their families. The original will be destroyed and a copy will be sent on. No longer will incarcerated people be able to touch a letter that their loved ones wrote with their own hand. -All legal mail will be copied by DOC employees exposing it to be read in violation of attorney-client privilege. -A DOC controlled marketplace for books will be established which is a monopoly and will increase censorship. No longer will prisoners friends and families be able to order them books from approved vendors such as Amazon. Community based and faith based books to prisoners programs will be cancelled. -For 90 days prisoners and their families won?t be able to share food from vending machines or memorialize their visits by having pictures taken. Small children cannot go a full visit without access to food. Furthermore diabetics and people who cant go without food for a full visit will be limited in visiting in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. -Official and legal visitors will be required to wear plastic gloves on visits. This serves no public health purpose and sends a message that people in prison and their families are contaminated or toxic and is extremely dehumanizing. -These and other policies will cost taxpayers 15 million dollars. They were instituted overnight without oversight by the legislature. I am calling on you as an elected official to take action to see that the rights of incarcerated people, their families and those work work with them are respected. Can I count on you to take action to see that these policies are reversed?? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 12 11:50:59 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 08:50:59 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Celebrate the birthday of Anishinabeg and Lakota Akihito political prisoner Leonard Peltier. Message-ID: https://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/2017/09/12/it-is-leonard-peltiers-birthday-statement-of-the-florida-indigenous-rights-and-environmental-equality-firee/ Statement of Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality (FIREE) ? The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons September 12, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /[Note: Amidst recovery from an unexpected triple bypass heart surgery and the largest hurricane threat seen in years, political prisoner Leonard Peltier turned 73 this week, on September 12, inside Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Central Florida. FIREE released the following statement on his birthday and , September 15, the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons will hold a rally in downtown Gainesville, FL to honor him and call for his freedom after over four decades of torture and slavery inside the world?s largest prison system. Find out more about Peltier, including his address to send a birthday card, here. ] / STATEMENT OF THE FLORIDA INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EQUALITY FOR LEONARD PELTIER?s BIRTHDAY Greetings: The Florida Indigenous Rights & Environmental Equality (FIREE), Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, and other organizations this September celebrate the birthday of Anishinabeg and Lakota Akihito political prisoner Leonard Peltier . Peltier remains a Prisoner of America?s longest war, its war on the Indigenous peoples of this great Turtle Island. Ostensibly Peltier was convicted on the killing of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who invaded the sovereign Oglala Lakota Nation with a warrant they did not have to arrest someone they knew was not there.? Members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who were at the Jumping Bull ?Tent City? location on June 25, 1975 defended the women and children of the camp from the unknown assailants who happened to be from the FBI. Cour D?Alene AIM member Joseph Killsright Stuntz gave his life in the defense of this encampment. A year later in Cedar Rapids, IA an all-white jury acquitted AIM organizers Darrell Butler and Robert Robideau of criminal charges because they acted in self-defense. The FBI altered evidence and ensured the prohibition of exculpatory evidence to ensure the conviction of Leonard Peltier during his subsequent Fargo, ND Trial. In America, the concept of rule of law can be simply exposed as the United States Constitution Article VI Clause 2 clearly defines Treaties as the supreme law of the land. Yet so-called Law Enforcement in North Dakota abandoned their oath and upheld the colonialist imposition of the United States when they failed to block Enbridge?s Dakota Access Pipeline which clearly violated the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties by crossing into sovereign Lakota lands Today in America many are waking up to the reality that America is not, nor has ever been a nation of law and order. That Truth and Justice are not the American way. America has more human beings incarcerated than any other nation on Earth. Instead of restorative justice that respects human beings we employ a profitable system of warehousing human beings and enslaving those who are incarcerated while treating them inhumanely to increase the profit margin. Today in America many are waking up to the reality that the struggle is between those who remember and recognize we are human beings against those who like a predator, see only material wealth and profit as their motivation. Indigenous peoples across the globe whether they are Hmong, Saami, Kuna, Lakota, Anishinabeg, Ainu, Bantu, Mvskokee etc. call themselves the people, the human beings. They remember who they are. The dominant society see?s themselves as ?Americans? a false term that denies their connection to themselves as a human being, their ancestors who were not ?Americans? and other human beings. Today this disconnection is visible as individuals cling to monuments and celebrations of genocide. In every city in America there is a statue, celebration or memorial to Columbus, Navarro, De Soto, Custer, etc. There are no such statues in these towns to Teshunka Witko, Piz, Titania Tanka, Techumseh, Osecola, Micanopy, Bowlegs. Etc. In many towns across the south there are statues, celebrations and memorials to the defunct Confederate States of America, yet there is no statute to the brave African men and women in America who struggled for their freedom. There are no statues in Florida to Aaron Carter or Sylvester Carrier who courageously fought off the white supremacists who massacred Africans in the Florida town of Rosewood. In today?s America a white nationalist named Trump was elected by 63 million to the White House. Now white Nationalist organizations feel empowered to commit terrorist attacks in the open with the rise of hate crimes and the violence in Charlottesville, VA which they now want to bring to Gainesville . While unquestionably revolting and vile this white nationalism is not new. Manifest Destiny, Termination, Slavery, Jim Crow, Alt-Right whatever name it has it?s the same old song Indigenous, Africans in America, and other colonized peoples in Turtle Island have heard since the syphilis-infected, half-a-planet lost Admiral of the Ocean washed up in the Arawak Nation in 1492. The terrorist killing of human being Heather Heyer was sad, and many of us mourned. But as she would note, how many have mourned the murder of Savanna Lafontaine-Grey Wolf an Anishinabeg lady who was killed for her baby a few weeks ago. How many mourned Sherry Wounded Foot or any of the scores of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. How many mourned or were outraged by the hate crime killings of Wallace Black Elk Jr, or Ronald Hard Heart or Allen Two Crows? Colonialism and white nationalism?s ugly face are interwoven, intertwined and run deep in this America. FIREE and the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons recognize and celebrate the birth and the life of the true warriors for humanity and justice. Warriors like Leonard Peltier, Buddy Lamonte, Frank Clearwater, Pedro Bissonette, Joe Stuntz, Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), Mumia Abu Jamal, and so many others. May Leonard Peltier?s courage and heart stand as a shining testament to what we must all live up to and stand for in the resistance of colonialism and white supremacy standing for the people in the Spirit of Crazy Horse! Write Leonard at: Leonard Peltier #89637-132 USP Coleman I P.O. Box 1033 Coleman, FL 33521 For more info: https://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 13 17:38:00 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:38:00 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] FBI sought electric chair execution of Black Panther leaders in Omaha Message-ID: https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/fbi-sought-electric-chair-execution-of-black-panther-leaders-in-omaha/ FBI sought electric chair execution of Black Panther leaders in Omaha Michael Richardson - September 13, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On December 4, 1969, in a Federal Bureau of Investigation orchestrated pre-dawn raid in Chicago, Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were shot to death. Fourteen handpicked policemen, armed with twenty-seven firearms including a Thompson submachine and shotguns, converged on Hampton?s apartment at 4:45 a.m. Police fired a barrage into the quiet apartment killing the two Panther leaders and wounding all of the other occupants. Attorney Paul Wolf has commented on a December 8, 1969 raid in Los Angeles. ?Four days after a similar raid on a Panther apartment in Chicago, forty men of the Special Weapons and Tactics squad, with more than a hundred regular police as backup, raided the Los Angeles Panther headquarters at 5:30 in the morning. The Panthers chose to defend themselves, and for four hours they fought off police, refusing to surrender until press and public were on the scene. Six of them were wounded. Thirteen were arrested. Miraculously, none of them were killed.? ?The similarities between the Chicago and Los Angeles raids are undeniable, with a special local police unit closely linked to the FBI involved in both assaults, spurious warrants seeking ?illegal weapons? utilized on both occasions, predawn timing of both raids to catch the Panthers asleep and a reliance on overwhelming police firepower to the exclusion of all other methods. Both raids occurred in the context of an ongoing and highly energetic anti-BPP COINTELPRO, and?as in the Hampton assassination?bullets were fired directly into Pratt?s bed. Unlike the Chicago leader, however, Pratt was sleeping on the floor, the result of spinal injuries sustained in Vietnam.? On December 10, 1969, two days after the raid in Los Angeles, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was unhappy with a lack of action in Omaha. Hoover sent a stern memorandum to Paul Young. ?While the activities appear to be limited in the Omaha area, it does not necessarily follow that effective counterintelligence measures cannot be taken. As long as there are BPP activities, you should be giving consideration to that type of counterintelligence measure which would best disrupt existing activities. It would appear some type of counterintelligence aimed at disruption of the publication and distribution of their literature is in order. It is also assumed that of the eight to twelve members, one or two must surely be in a position of leadership. You should give consideration to counterintelligence measures directed against these leaders in an effort to weaken or destroy their positions. Bureau has noted you have not submitted any concrete counterintelligence proposals in recent months. Evaluate your approach to this program and insure that it is given the imaginative attention necessary to produce effective results. Handle promptly and submit your proposals to the Bureau for approval.? Young, mindful of the deadly raid in Chicago a week earlier, selected two Omaha leaders, Edward Poindexter and David Rice (later Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa) for COINTELPRO misdeeds. Young planned an ambush in Carter Lake, Iowa after being tipped by United Airlines personnel about a shipment of/Black Panther/newspapers arriving at Eppley Airport in Omaha. Details were never finalized as Young?s agents were unable to obtain the sought cargo information. Young was able to satisfy Hoover?s blood lust for lethal outcomes with a plan to blame the two Panthers. Instead of gunplay to kill, Young?s counterintelligence plan would use Nebraska?s electric chair to execute the men. The Omaha Two faced death sentences at their controversial 1971 trial for the August 17, 1970 murder of Patrolman Larry Minard. The electric chair was last previously used in 1959 to execute serial killer Charles Starkweather. It was used three times since the Minard murder trial in 1971. Nebraska abolished the death penalty in 2014 and then restored it in 2016. Nebraska executed its first prisoner by lethal injection in August 2018. Omaha police sent the most critical piece of evidence, a 911 recording of a killer?s voice, to the FBI Laboratory for analysis to identify the anonymous caller who lured police to a bomb-rigged vacant house. However, the search for Minard?s killers was not a search for truth. Hoover ordered results of the laboratory testing squelched with no written report. The jury never heard the voice on the 911 recording, a voice that did not fit with the FBI-orchestrated prosecution scenario. Although it took three days of deliberation to reach a verdict, the jury convicted Poindexter and Rice; however, the jury spared their lives and ruled out execution. Rice, who became Mondo in prison, died at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in March 2016. Poindexter remains imprisoned at the maximum-security prison where he continues to proclaim his innocence. /This article contains excerpts from /FRAMED: J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO & the Omaha Two story /by Michael Richardson,/ /available in print at Amazon and in ebook at Kindle . Permission granted to reprint./ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 18 11:10:25 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2018 08:10:25 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Occupation Forces Kill Palestinian Prisoner Mohammad al Rimawi in Morning Raid Message-ID: http://www.addameer.org/news/occupation-forces-kill-prisoner-mohammad-al-rimawi-morning-raid Occupation Forces Kill Prisoner Mohammad al Rimawi in Morning Raid 18 September 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association holds the occupation responsible for the death of prisoner Mohammad Zegrlool al Khateeb al Rimawi (24 years old) from Beit Reyma, in Ramallah governate. Following his arrest this morning, he was severely beaten by occupation soldiers and special forces to the point of passing out. There is a distinct necessity to investigate the circumstances of his death. According to information collected by Addameer?s documentation unit, from the victim?s brother. At around 4 in the morning, Israeli special forces entered the house. Following their arrival, a larger number of regular soldiers arrived as back up. After removing the door to the house, the soldiers attacked the individual?s mother and brought the members of the family into one part of the house. This included the mother, the father and three sons. The soldiers took Mohammad into a separate room, where he was beaten into an unconscious state. He was taken away from the house while in such a state, and taken to an unknown location. After two hours, his family was informed of their son?s death. It was added that the dead had been shot in the leg two years ago during clashes in the village. This case represents a continuation of the occupation?s policy of utilizing excessive force in the arrest of Palestinians. Additionally, this excessive force, in the case of killing, amounts to the unlawful killing of a civilian population. These actions enjoy full immunity and support by the political, judicial, and security arms of the occupying state. Mohammad?s death is a direct result of such excessive use of force against civilians, in contravention to international human rights and humanitarian law. It is the case that in this instance, al Rimawi did not constitute a real or direct threat meaning that resorting to deadly force constitutes an extrajudicial killing. This is in contrary with the status of the occupied population as ?protected person?. Addameer calls on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres , to form a commission of inquiry into unlawful killings perpetrated by the occupation forces. Additionally, Addameer urges the formation of an inquiry into the treatment, including the systematic utilization of torture, and conditions of prisoners held in the occupation prisons. By allowing continued impunity for the occupying state, the international community sends the message that its violations against the Palestinian people can continue indefinitely without consequence. It asserts that, in fact, the occupation is above international legal standards. Since 1967, there have been 217 prisoners who have died while under the custody of the occupation. 78 of these where murdered, 7 were killed by gunshots while in prison, 59 were killed due to medical negligence, and 73 died as a result of torture. Additionally, 111 Palestinian prisoners have been killed since 3 October 1991, the date on which the occupation signed and ratified the Convention against Torture. This figure includes 56 individuals who were killed following arrest, 32 who died of medical neglect, and 23 who died due to torture while under interrogation. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 18 17:10:52 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:10:52 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] A Way Out - Abolishing Death By Incarceration in Pennsylvania Message-ID: http://abolitionistlawcenter.org/2018/09/18/a-way-out-abolishing-death-by-incarceration-in-pennsylvania/ Abolishing Death By Incarceration in Pennsylvania ? Abolitionist Law Center September 18, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *New Data: Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Lead the Nation and World in Life Without Parole Sentences* */Comprehensive Study Shows that Life Without Parole Sentences in Pennsylvania are Imposed on the Young with Alarming Racial Disparities/* (Pittsburgh, PA) Philadelphia County has 2,694 people serving life without parole sentences (LWOP), which is more than any other county in the United States and far more than any other country in the world, according to a new data analysis released today by the Abolitionist Law Center. /A/ /Way Out: Abolishing Death By Incarceration in Pennsylvania /[Full Report ] [Abridged Report ] found Pennsylvania has 5,346 people serving LWOP, making the state a national leader in the use of the punishment; only Florida, with twice the population, has more people serving LWOP. State Representative Jason Dawkins and State Senator Sharif Street have filed legislation that would allow parole eligibility for all lifers after 15 years of incarceration. The report refers to life without parole as ?Death by Incarceration? (DBI). Key findings include: * Most of the people serving DBI were convicted and sentenced when they were 25 or younger, a period of life when brain development and maturation remains ongoing, according to recent neuroscientific research. * More than 70 percent of those serving DBI are over 40 and nearly half (2,377 people) are over 50. The practice continues even though research shows that criminal activity drops significantly after age 40 and despite the fact that locking up a person over 55 is two to three times more expensive. * ?Black Pennsylvanians are serving DBI at a rate */_more than 18 times higher_/*?than that of their white counterparts. Out of Philadelphia?s 2,694 people serving DBI, 84 percent are Black. In Allegheny County, 13 percent of the county?s residents are Black, but constitute 76 percent of those serving DBI sentences (409 out of 541 people). ?This report presents a definitive portrait of a punishment that is archaic, cruel, unjustified, and indefensible,? said Bret Grote, Legal Director of the Abolitionist Law Center and co-author of the report. ?Death by incarceration sentences do not keep the public safer. The human and economic costs are staggering and growing by the year, as thousands of aging, rehabilitated men and women are locked away needlessly. Fortunately, there is also a rapidly growing movement determined to make parole eligibility for all lifers a reality.? In all cases involving defendants 18 years of age or older, Pennsylvania law does not allow for individualized consideration of a defendant?s circumstances; instead it mandates automatic DBI sentences to many who never actually killed or intended to kill anyone. As the report states, DBI is ?a failed policy predicated upon the fallacy that the trajectory of a person?s life ? including their capacity for rehabilitation, transformation, and redemption ? can be accurately predicted at the time of sentencing.? Avis Lee is an example of a person serving a DBI sentence because none of the particulars of her case were taken into consideration at sentencing ? and may have made a difference. Ms. Lee has served 38 years of a DBI sentence due to a robbery committed by her brother that tragically went wrong and someone lost his life. Ms. Lee was only 18 years old and had been told by her brother to serve as a look out during a robbery. Ms. Lee had turned to drugs and alcohol after a childhood riddled with sexual abuse, violence, poverty, and the death of her mother. After the shooting, she flagged down a bus and told the driver a man was injured. For more than 25 years, she has had no disciplinary infractions in prison. Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Superior Court agreed to hear her claim that her mandatory life sentence was disproportionate because of her youth. There is hope for Ms. Lee, though not many others. The Philadelphia DA?s Office is considering reviewing certain cases of excessive sentences, including mandatory life without parole sentences, and will pursue a lesser sentence when legally viable. The trend toward electing reform-oriented, less punitive district attorneys across the country could lead to similar efforts at sentence review being implemented in DA offices on a national scale. ### The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States. http://abolitionistlawcenter.org/ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 19 11:24:58 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 08:24:58 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Al Moscabiyeh Prison: Torture in the Heart of Jerusalem Message-ID: http://www.addameer.org/publications/al-moscabiyeh-torture-heart-jerusalem Al Moscabiyeh: Torture in the Heart of Jerusalem 19 September 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Throughout the period of 2015 to 2017, Addameer collected testimonies from 138 individuals who were held under interrogation in Al Moscobiyeh interrogation centre in the Russian Compound of Jerusalem. These findings were turned into the forthcoming report I?ve Been There: A Study of Torture and Inhumane Treatment in Al-Moscobiyeh Interrogation Center. For generations of Palestinians, the Russian Compound has represented the most severe interrogation facility in all of the occupied territory. It has been the place of intentionally inflicted suffering for hundreds of prisoners. Its location in the heart of Jerusalem, next to the Old City, is something of a metaphor for the whole apparatus of the occupation. The domination is hidden in plain sight. The Russian Compound was built by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in 1864, sponsored by the Caesar of Russia, to cater for Russian pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 1917, the British took the compound and turned a number of buildings into the police headquarters and an interrogation facility. The facility has been continuously used for such purposes until this day. Torture in International Law The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defined the term "torture" to mean: any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. This is the definition which was applied throughout the research, and is the foundation for Addameer?s assertion that the occupation routinely engages in the practice of torture. Torture under Occupation Despite the Orwellian double talk around the issue, torture is a widespread and common phenomena in Palestine. The veil of apparent ?civility?, which the occupiers seek to hide behind, hides a systematic attempt at dominating an indigenous people. The Israeli security forces continue to use the violation of the rights to physical safety and inherent dignity as a means to pressure Palestinians to submit totally to the occupation. This activity utilizes the legal cover provided by the Israeli Supreme Court decision in 1999. In this case, the Court recognized that the Israeli Security Agency, commonly known as Shin Bet or Shabak, did in fact commonly practice torture, and ruled that it could no longer use ?moderate physical pressure? on suspects under interrogation. However, it allowed the use of torture and physical pressure in the case of a ?ticking bomb? scenario, where security officials believe that a suspect is withholding information that could prevent an impending threat to civilian lives as stated in Article 1/34 of the Israeli Penal Code of 1972 . This exception constitutes a grave legal loophole that legitimizes the continuation of torture and cruel treatment by Shabak interrogators against individuals suspected of withholding information on ?militant operations?, and provides interrogators with legal impunity for their actions. This ruling was further developed by the case of Abu Gosh Vs. the Attorney General. In September of 2007, the Israeli forces arrested As?ad Abu Gosh who was later interrogated by the Shabak. During interrogation, the agents used excessively cruel methods, which amounted to torture, causing Abu Gosh severe physical and psychological ramifications. The methods included: beating, slamming against the wall, forcing him into a stress position where he was squatting while bending the tips of his toes, as well as the banana stress position, which includes shackling the hands and feet behind the back and stretching his body into a banana shape. Abu Gosh also suffered from forceful bending of limbs, sleep deprivation, and severe psychological stress by threatening to bomb his house and harm his family if he did not confess or cooperate with the interrogators. In December 2017, the High Court found that this did not amount to torture, and was in keeping with the ruling of 1999. Such a decision provides distinct guidelines on what techniques are allowed by Israeli law as well as enshrining the right of the occupation security services to torture. Practices of Al Moscobiyeh By conducting interviews with those who had been, or currently were being, held inside Al Moscobiyeh, Addameer was able to get a clear picture of what goes on inside of this facility. The sheer majority of individuals held there were arrested during the early hours of the morning (58%), and from their homes (75%). The majority were arrested by soldiers (67.5%), with the remainder being arrested by a mix of special forces, intelligence officers, and presenting themselves at police stations. A large portion (77.5%) of these individuals were arrested without warrants, and 88.5% were unaware of the location that they would be taken to. The average person is thus taken from their homes, with no warrant against them and no idea of their fate. In transport, individuals are blindfolded (66.3%) and handcuffed with plastic ties (75%). They are often beaten (42.5%), and struck with the weapons of the soldiers (28.8%). The released prisoner A.Z., 18 years old, stated that during his arrest Israeli soldiers hit him twice on the head with their M-16 automatic weapons, which resulted in him losing consciousness for a short period of time during arrest. Once and individual arrives to the facility, there are 8 distinct forms of torture that they may endure. These include: 1. Positional Torture such as ?stress positions?; 2. Beatings during interrogation; 3. Isolation/Solitary Confinement 4. Sleep Deprivation and long interrogation 5. Threats to family members; 6. Being subjected to sounds of torture; 7. Deliberate Medical Neglect. 8. Screaming and Cursing.? The most commonly used of these techniques involves the individual being placed in solitary confinement (83.5%), being verbally threatened, screamed at, and cursed at (95.9%), and being threatened with administrative detention (70.9%). In addition to these techniques, 58% of those surveyed reported being held in stress positions. Prisoner M.B., 18 years old, is one such case. Throughout his time in Al Moscabiyeh, he was held for 8 hours a day, in a stress position for 18 days. Close to a third of prisoners (30.8%) reported being beaten while being held in al Moscabiyeh. Prisoner T.D., 22, said that during one interrogation session, a heavily built interrogator put his hands together and hit T.D. on the head, which knocked him unconscious; the interrogator took pictures of him while lying on the floor. Despite the pain, T.D. was interrogated for seven more days, during which his hands and feet were bound and wasn?t allowed to use the bathroom. In regards to sleep deprivation, the technique remains common with 59.5% of individuals reporting that they were subjected to it. Such deprivation is achieved through extended interrogation sessions, subjecting detainees to screams from neighboring cells, and continuous knocking on the cell doors to prevent them from falling asleep, especially in the early stages of interrogation. All of these tactics result in severe psychological and physical damages. Detainee E.D., 23 years old, suffered extensive sleep deprivation and was held in a stress position for a prolonged period of time. His hands were bound with in metal handcuffs, which were shackled underneath to the back of the chair. His interrogation sessions were excessively long, with one particular session lasting up to 50 consecutive hours. It must be noted that even the Israeli High Court recognizes some of the above techniques to constitute torture, in the sense that they are banned except in ?ticking bomb? cases. One particularly acute example of these is the shaking technique. This technique is considered one of the most dangerous torture methods utilized currently by the occupation. Over one fifth (21.5%) of individuals reported being subjected to it. When individuals are not in interrogation sessions, they are returned to a 2 by 2 meter cell, which has a thin mattress, a hole in ground for a toilet, and a tap. The walls of the cell are covered in a material which makes them painful to rest against. Usually, the cells have an air conditioner, which is set to either too cold or too hot, dependant on the season. Female and Child prisoners at Al-Moscobiyeh On top of the ?usual? torture and intimidation methods that are used on everyone, female prisoners are also subjected to gendered interrogation. In this regard, interrogators often use children as a pressure mechanism on female prisoners who are mothers. Additionally, sexual harassment is common, whether it be verbal or physical. These prisoners are also often denied access to shower and basic hygiene products, as well as changing clothes. Even when the facilities themselves are provided, prisoners are to shower in areas with cameras.Due to this lack of privacy, many women refuse. Children are no exception when it comes to mistreatment and intimidation. They are arrested or kidnapped in the early hours of the morning, and are subsequently mistreated, threatened, ?and beaten up on their way to the interrogation center. 47.8% of the children in this report sample reported that they were beaten during their arrest. 45.5% reported that they experienced shabeh, a form of positional torture,during interrogation and 40.9% were threatened with the potentially injuring of their families if they did not cooperate. Conclusion & Recommendations The primary conclusion that the above research and indicators provide is that mistreatment, and coercion, amounting to torture, are commonplace and systematic within the occupation?s interrogation systems. These are not ?rogue agents?, but are rather individuals working in positions of power in service of the occupying authority against an indigenous population. As a result of torture?s status in international law, the international community has a distinct responsibility to take action to sanction the perpetrating entity. As dictated in the latest commentary on the 1st Geneva Convention, such action can include condemnation all the way up to economic sanction. Since these sort of activities have been ongoing for the past 70 years, we at Addameer urgently call on the international community to begin sanctioning the occupier for its crimes against the Palestinian people, first and foremost, and international norms. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 20 10:43:17 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2018 07:43:17 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Israel Prevents Lawyer From Visiting Hunger Striking Prisoner Khader Adnan Message-ID: http://imemc.org/article/israel-prevents-pps-lawyer-from-visiting-hunger-striking-detainee-khader-adnan/ Israel Prevents PPS Lawyer From Visiting Hunger Striking Detainee Khader Adnan September 20, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Palestinian Prisoners? Society (PPS) has reported, Thursday, that the administration of the al-Jalama Israeli detention facility, declined a request by one of its lawyers to visit with hunger striking detainee, Khader Adnan . In a statement, PPS lawyer Saleh Ayyoub, said that Adnan is ongoing with his strike for the 19^th consecutive day. Ayyoub added that the PPS conducted all legal measures to arrange for this visit, but once he arrived at the facility, the administration claimed Adnan?s medical condition prevents him for visits. The PPS said that Israel frequently prevents lawyer from visiting with hunger striking detainees, in addition to repeatedly transferring the detainees to various prisons, and constantly makes up justifications to prevent such visits. It is worth mentioning that Adnan, 40, from Arraba town, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, started the hunger strike on September 2^nd , protesting his continued detention under Administrative Detention orders, without charges. Adnan has previously held two major hunger strikes. One was a 66-day long hunger strike, in 2012, and another lasted 55 days, in 2015, in protest of his administrative detention. In related news, the PPS said that three other detainees are also ongoing with hunger strikes; Omran al-Khatib, 60, from Jabalia in northern Gaza, started the strike 47 days ago, demanding early release after spending 21 years of a 45-year prison sentence, and is suffering from various health issues, including Coagulation, high blood pressure, a chronic stomach disease, high cholesterol and cartilage in the spine. Detainee Jawad Jawareesh, 36, from Bethlehem, is protesting solitary confinement in Hadarim prison, after he was transferred there from Asqalan prison. He was taken prisoner 17 years ago, and was sentenced to a life term and 30 years in prison. The third detainee, Ismael Oleyyan, 27, from Bethlehem, started the hunger strike three days ago, protesting being held under an Administrative Detention order. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 20 11:20:05 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:20:05 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] A Border Patrol Whistleblower Speaks Out About Culture of Abuse Against Migrants Message-ID: https://theintercept.com/2018/09/20/border-patrol-agent-immigrant-abuse/ ?Kick Ass, Ask Questions Later?: A Border Patrol Whistleblower Speaks Out About Culture of Abuse Against Migrants John Washington - September 20, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _The 4-year-old_ boy and his parents had been lost for days in the desert and were desperately thirsty. Mario, a new Border Patrol officer, had received a call that there were migrants in the area and went out looking for them near the village of Menagers Dam, or Ali Ak Chin, on the Tohono O?odham reservation in Arizona. It was nearly dawn when Mario first spotted the mother in a wash. The family readily gave themselves up, and the woman told Mario that they needed water. ?They were pretty banged up,? Mario told The Intercept. ?They were in distress.? He alerted his superior officer to his location. Just as the?officer was arriving on the scene, Mario handed the?4-year-old boy a jug of water. Before the boy could take a sip, however, the?officer kicked the jug out of the child?s hands and barked, ?There?s no amnesty here.? He then reprimanded Mario for offering him water, warning him, ?Don?t go south on me.? In other words, don?t show an ounce of sympathy for those from below the border. Mario said he was shocked and offended by the officer?s actions. But it was just one of many incidents of brutality that he would witness during his two years with the Border Patrol, about which he is speaking out for the first time. The Intercept is identifying Mario by a pseudonym because he still works for a federal agency, and fears that using his name would lead to reprisals and jeopardize his job. A military veteran, Mario enlisted in the Border Patrol in 2009 and resigned in 2011. Although he has been out of the Border Patrol for years, his account sheds light on practices that reportedly continue today, and provides a rare insight into the culture of an agency that has been rhetorically emboldened by the Trump administration and promised more money, personnel, and technology to carry out aggressive border enforcement. In wide-ranging conversations, Mario discussed assaults and other abuses against migrants, a lack of effective oversight, and a disturbing culture of dehumanization in the agency. He says that he has decided to step forward to tell the American public about conduct he found embarrassing, cruel, and unregulated. The Intercept has not been able to corroborate all of the specific details of Mario?s claims, but two other former personnel who have spoken publicly about problems with the agency ? James Tomsheck, the former head of internal affairs for Customs and Border Protection, and Francisco Cant?, author of a recent Border Patrol memoir , who served in the same station as Mario ? say that his stories line up with their knowledge and experiences. They are also corroborated by complaints filed by migrants and allegations published by NGOs and news outlets. Mario confirmed his position in the agency with photographs of himself in uniform, old ID cards, serial numbers of BP-issued gear, as well as detailed knowledge of the area in Arizona where he was posted, Ajo station in the Tucson sector. As the part of Customs and Border Protection, the nation?s largest federal law enforcement agency, the Border Patrol is notoriously opaque. Most of its actions occur in locked-door stations, holding facilities, or remote desert regions inaccessible to the public, journalists, and lawmakers . There have been few front-line agents willing to speak to the press. ?The Green Line of silence is higher and wider than it?s ever been before,? Tomsheck told The Intercept, referring to the implicit Border Patrol pact not to speak publicly about what happens in the field. There is ?a clear understanding on the part of the rank and file in the Border Patrol that if they should engage in whistleblower activities, or do anything to promote transparency, that they would be retaliated against in a way that would likely end their career.? Though Mario?s run with the Border Patrol is over, he told The Intercept that he could not stand by as he watched reports that the kind of abuses he witnessed continue. In just the past year, Border Patrol agents fatally shot an unarmed woman and have reportedly threatened to rape children in their custody. Evidence also emerged that agents regularly dissuade potential asylum-seekers from asking for protection, and slash bottles of water left out for people crossing in the desert. What finally spurred Mario to come forward was the January arrest of Scott Warren , a humanitarian aid activist, for allegedly ?harboring illegal aliens.? Warren was a volunteer who provided food, water, and clothing to migrants, and when Mario read about him in the news, he thought it was clear that Warren was trying to ?stop the deaths? in the desert. He said he wasn?t surprised that the Border Patrol targeted Warren ? ?it?s just the nature of the beast? ? but wished there was something he could do. So he decided to speak out. _?Kick ass, ask_ questions later.? That was the mentality of the Border Patrol when Mario signed up and was dispatched to the remote desert region near Ajo, Arizona. In the years Mario was stationed there, Ajo was among the busiest migrant crossing and drug trafficking corridors in the country, which agents referred to, Mario said, as ?the wild wild West.? According to his descriptions, Border Patrol agents conducted themselves much like the lawless and violent cowboys and colonizers that preceded them. Mario claimed that the same?officer who?d kicked the water bottle out of the child?s hands also ordered others to slash water bottles left out by humanitarian aid groups for thirsty migrants. Around late 2009, Mario was with a group of agents, including trainees and two senior officers, when they spotted aid workers leaving gallons of water along a migrant trail. The agents waited for the aid workers to leave, and then, referring to the water as ?tonk water? ? ?tonk? is common Border Patrol slang, and comes from the noise a flashlight supposedly makes when thudding against a migrant?s head ? the senior officer told the trainees who were with him, ?If I were you, I?d take care of it.? Three agents then walked to where the jugs were, ?took their Leathermans out, and just sliced them open.? The officer both gave the order and saw that the agents slashed the bottles. Mario said this was typical ? and so was pouring out migrants? water and dumping out their food when?they dropped their bags to run from the Border Patrol. I asked him if this was something that he had been ordered or trained to do. ?Yeah, you just dump it [the food and water] out. Cut it. Step on it,? he said. Mario?s account adds to evidence gathered by the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, which released a report this year documenting thousands of vandalized water bottles between 2012 and 2015, and video of more recent incidents (I volunteered with the organization and was part of the team that wrote the report. After the report was published, nine volunteers with No More Deaths were hit with federal charges for leaving water in a federal wilderness preserve ? including Warren , the academic whose arrest motivated Mario to come forward.) The Border Patrol?s?rationale for destroying supply drops was that if they deprived migrants of water and food, they would have to turn themselves in. Taking away water in the desert, however, means putting lives in serious danger; 412 migrants were found dead along the border in 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration, and over 7,000 bodies have been discovered over the past two decades. _?Tonk? was a_ part of everyday lexicon in the agency, said Mario. ?Agents would laugh, joke around, [and ask], ?How many tonks did you catch today??? He explained that ?they laugh about this because if you use an intermediate weapon like [pepper] spray, Taser, or a baton, policy says you have to write a memo. But if you use a flashlight, you don?t have to write a memo, so it was always common knowledge:?Use your flashlight.? Besides ?tonk water,? agents also used the term ?tonk lover? to refer to humanitarian aid volunteers. Drug smugglers were ?backpackers,? and migrants in distress seeking to turn themselves in were referred to as ?give-ups.? Mario described a sense of competitiveness: Arresting ?give-ups? was seen as less impressive than arresting ?backpackers? or seizing drugs. Border Patrol agents labeled ?pretty much ? all immigrants as criminals and animals,? Mario said. ?Tuning up? migrants meant to rough them up before bringing them back to the station. Agents were trained in how to ?break? migrants so they?would divulge who among them?was the guide. ?You have to put fear in them,? Mario said. The officer that trained him repeatedly explained to Mario and his unit that ?sometimes you need to operate in the gray.? Mario said that an agent once boasted about handcuffing two migrants together around a saguaro cactus as the agent searched for drugs. (Cant? told me he?d heard similar stories.) In another incident he witnessed, a burly senior officer, without provocation, repeatedly kicked three male migrants, trying to force a confession about drug trafficking. The agent, according to Mario, ?laid [the migrants] on the floor,? and then began ?kicking the guys asking them where the dope was. Kept kicking them, kept kicking them.? No confession came, and no drugs were found. His field training officer repeatedly explained to Mario and his unit that ?sometimes you need to operate in the gray.? Mario said that when he was in the Border Patrol academy, it was taught that ?as soon as [migrants] pick up a rock and it goes over their head, you can light them up however you want. It?s fair game.? By ?light them up,? he meant shoot to kill. The Border Patrol says it has made its guidelines for the use of force more restrictive in recent years, but there have still been recent instances of fatal shootings, including the killing of Claudia Patricia G?mez Gonz?lez, a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman who was shot at the border in Texas this May. The Border Patrol initially described Gonz?lez as part of a group of ?assailants??that had attacked an agent ?using blunt objects.? Later statements contradicted that account . _Under the Trump_ administration, the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection have been accused of illegally turning back asylum-seekers , spreading falsehoods about the asylum process, or not following the proper procedures to determine if someone is afraid of returning to their home country. According to Mario, this latter practice used to be common. Agents refer to the processing of migrants at Border Patrol stations as ?rolling? them; it includes taking migrants? basic biographical information, cataloguing their property, and then fingerprinting and photographing them. Customs and Border Protection protocol says that agents should also try to determine whether the migrant might have an asylum claim, even if they don?t ask for protection outright. According to the policy, they should ?explore any statement or indications, verbal or nonverbal, that the alien actually may have a fear of persecution or torture on return to his or her country.? The agents must also ?fully advise? the migrant of the asylum process. ?We never ask that,? Mario said. ?We were just, ?What?s your name? Is this your real name?? What country they?re from ?? When I pointed out that Border Patrol agents were obligated to ask about potential asylum claims, he responded: /?/Yeah, you are. But it?s kind of like ? We would kind of lead the witness,? convincing migrants to agree to ?voluntary return ,? a quick deportation process that only Border Patrol can perform, which requires minimal paperwork and yet may negatively impact future claims for legal status in the United States. I asked if he had been trained or coached in ?leading the witness.? ?Well yeah,? Mario said, ?you?re kind of thrown in, like baptism under fire. They don?t give you a class in processing aliens. The guy that you?re relieving tells you, Hey, this is what you?re going to do, this is how I do it.? _The abuse Mario_ witnessed wasn?t only directed at migrants. Mario said that the same abusive senior officer?had once humiliated and then physically assaulted a junior agent in his training unit. It was common for the?officers?in charge of training to force the junior agents to draw maps of the area they had been working in; one day, one of the agents was having a hard time with the task, so the?officer?called the agent to the front of the class and began to berate and punch him. ?I mean closed fist, pound him right on the chest, like, ?Are you not getting this??? Mario said. ??Are you stupid? What is wrong with you? You need to quit. You?re not built for this. You?re an idiot. I don?t want you in my patrol,?? Mario remembers him saying. The assault continued to the point where the junior agent fell back and shattered a fire extinguisher?s glass panel. ?I was kind of shocked,? Mario said, ?and I knew that if I stepped in, that I would be next, so I kind of left it at that.? But the incident didn?t sit right, and Mario decided to report it to the Office of Inspector General. He called the watchdog?s office in Los Angeles and explained to an agent over the phone not only about the assault, but also about other?officers encouraging agents to commit time-sheet fraud and manipulate the fuses on their trucks so they could drive at night without headlamps (Mario did not file a written complaint, but The Intercept has viewed his notes showing dates, phone numbers, and the names of the people he contacted. Tomsheck also said he?d seen reports of ?inappropriately aggressive? behavior in training sessions.) A few weeks later, according to Mario, a representative from the Inspector General came to speak to his unit, interviewing all the agents except for Mario. The investigative method singled him out and ?ever since,? Mario explained, ?I was kind of like the pariah in the station, and I felt like I was targeted.? The issues were not only with?one particular officer, Mario said. He pointed to the horse patrol, saying that it was ?notorious for beating up illegals. ? Most of those guys were under investigation for use of?force.? When abusive officers were disciplined, they were usually temporarily reassigned to the ?rubber-gun squad? ? desk or garage jobs ? ?and then you?d be clear and you?d be back on duty.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 20 11:45:57 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:45:57 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] 'Treating protest as terrorism': US plans crackdown on Keystone XL activists Message-ID: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/20/keystone-pipeline-protest-activism-crackdown-standing-rock?CMP=share_btn_fb 'Treating protest as terrorism': US plans crackdown on Keystone XL activists Will Parrish and Sam Levin - Thu 20 Sep 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Angeline Cheek is preparing for disaster. The indigenous organizer from the Fort Peck reservation in Montana fears that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline could break and spill, destroy her tribe?s water, and desecrate sacred Native American sites. But environmental catastrophe is not the most immediate threat. The government has characterized pipeline opponents like her as ?extremists? and violent criminals and warned of potential ?terrorism?, according to recently released records. The documents suggested that police were organizing to launch an aggressive response to possible Keystone protests, echoing the actions against the Standing Rock movement in North Dakota. There, officers engaged in intense surveillance and faced widespread accusations of excessive force and brutality . ?We have to stay one step ahead at all times,? said Cheek, a Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota activist and teacher. ?History is repeating itself.? The proposed TransCanada project would carry a daily load of 830,000 barrels of oil over 1,204 miles ? from Alberta, Canada to Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska , linking to the existing Keystone pipeline and Texas refineries. The path of the project, which was revived by Donald Trump last year , would cross dozens of rivers and streams and run near a number of Native American reservations, sparking legal challenges and a judge?s recent order for a full environmental review. If the pipeline gets final approvals and construction advances in the coming months, some are anticipating massive demonstrations similar to the fight against the Dakota Access pipeline (Dapl). That conflict galvanized a global movement , but also led to FBI monitoring and the prolonged prosecution of hundreds of activists. Documents obtained by the ACLU of Montana and reviewed by the Guardian have renewed concerns from civil rights advocates about the government?s treatment of indigenous activists known as water protectors. Notably, one record revealed that authorities hosted a recent ?anti-terrorism? training session in Montana. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency also organized a ?field force operations? training to teach ?mass-arrest procedures?, ?riot-control formations? and other ?crowd-control methods?. A US justice department intelligence specialist told the Guardian the terrorism training was an annual presentation not specific to Keystone. But the ACLU noted that its records request was specifically about the pipeline protests, suggesting that authorities considered the session relevant to Keystone preparation. The repeated mass at Standing Rock led to a litany of charges, but hundreds were eventually dismissed due to lack of evidence. Police deployed water cannons , tear gas grenades , bean bag rounds and a wide array of weapons in North Dakota. ?Many of our residents were in Standing Rock, and they saw the level of violence that could be visited on us,? said Remi Bald Eagle, the intergovernmental affairs coordinator of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, which is located along the Keystone route. ?There?s a level of anxiety and fear because we don?t know what?s going to happen.? The ACLU of Montana, which filed a lawsuit this month against the government seeking Keystone records, earlier obtained a DHS report that said pipeline protesters were engaged in ?criminal disruptions and violent incidents?. The report included two past cases of alleged ?environmental rights extremists? committing violence. But the events in question ? a 2012 bombing and a 2015 shootout with police ? had no clear links to any environmental protests, said Mike German, a former FBI agent and fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice. ?Treating protest as terrorism is highly problematic,? said German, noting that the US government has long labeled activism as ?terrorism?, once claiming that filing public records requests was an ?extremist? tactic. ?It?s an effective way of suppressing protest activity and creating an enormous burden for people who want to go out and express their concerns.? The ?terrorist? and ?extremist? labels can be used to justify brutality and a militarized operation, said Andrea Carter, an attorney with the Water Protector Legal Collective, a group that has represented Standing Rock defendants. ?It?s a really egregious tactic,? she said, noting that the labels also lay the groundwork for prosecutors to turn low-level misdemeanor cases into federal felony trials. ?A lot of it has to do with public relations.? The Montana documents have also shone a light on the coordination between governments across state lines, raising questions about how extensively law enforcement was devoting resources to Keystone protests before they had materialized. An email from the Montana fish, wildlife and parks department from earlier this year said state officials had conducted ?extensive conversations with North Dakota to learn what worked and what didn?t work? when responding to Dapl demonstrations. Montana authorities have done further done training sessions on harnessing social media and have begun monitoring posts of anti-pipeline activists, a sheriff said at one meeting, according to a local news report. The records also highlighted the existing relationships between law enforcement and TransCanada. A county sheriff included a TransCanada executive on communications about one law enforcement training. In August 2017, the Montana Petroleum Association, a trade group, also hosted a panel on ?environmental activism? in the state, featuring three law enforcement officers alongside TransCanada?s senior security adviser. Rachel Lederman, a civil rights lawyer representing Standing Rock activists in a civil case, said it was alarming to see that law enforcement from North Dakota was giving advice about future pipeline protests: ?They are instant experts on quashing the indigenous insurgency. It?s very, very concerning, because what happened at Standing Rock was just a wholesale violation of civil rights.? John Barnes, a Montana justice department spokesman, defended the preparation efforts, saying in an email to the Guardian that authorities were committed to protecting ?the first amendment rights of everyone while also protecting private property and public safety?. He added: ?In North Dakota, bad actors associated with the Dakota Access pipeline protests maliciously targeted public officials and law-enforcement personnel online, and so it is important that people be prepared here.? Some activists said the law enforcement tactics would not deter them from Keystone opposition efforts ? whether in court or on the ground. ?We?ve got a lot against us. We?re the underdog,? said Lance Four Star, the Fort Peck Assiniboine council chairman, who recounted a recent incident of harassment and heckling by a pro-pipeline, pro-Trump group while the tribe was doing a ceremony. ?I may never see the results of my efforts in my lifetime, but hopefully our grandchildren will. What we?re protecting now is this water we inherited.? Peck said she was also concerned about a potential increase in violence against indigenous women , stemming from the ?man camps? where oil workers live. But the Montana wildlife department appeared to minimize this concern in one of the records, saying, ?Although man-camps bring a certain degree of law enforcement challenges, the primary enforcement focus is protest activity.? Organizers have discussed a ?variety of strategies? to oppose construction, including ?prayer camps? similar to Standing Rock, said Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member Joye Braun, who organized against Dapl and has been involved in Keystone efforts. ?Clearly, they?re scared of the power of our movement,? she said, adding that she accepted the reality that she may be under surveillance when she travels the pipeline route to meet activists. ?We haven?t gone anywhere, and we?re just building momentum.? Native Americans know the risks are immense. But the ?terrorism? label would not intimidate them, said Leoyla Cowboy, the wife of Little Feather, who was recently sentenced to three years in federal prison for ?civil disorder? at Standing Rock. ?As indigenous people, it?s embedded in our DNA. It?s our obligation to stand up.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 26 10:21:33 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 07:21:33 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Virgin Island Brothers Support Campaign Message-ID: https://mailchi.mp/jerichony.org/vi-brothers-support-campaign?e=e9f3d86b9a Virgin Island Brothers Support Campaign ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please pass on to all respective list serves - members, supporters, family and friends! *The campaign to free the Virgin Island 3, who have been locked up for 46 years, is kicking into high gear. Like many aging prisoners, they are experiencing increasing health problems and pose NO RISK to the society they?ve been locked away from for nearly half a century. Because Governor Mapp?s term is ending and he is up for re-election this November, *now* is the time to contact him to urge for commutation of their sentences. This is it; all hands on deck! * How you can help: 1) Write a letter [ideally mail it the first week of October] Please start by writing a letter to the Governor. This is also a good time to urge folks you know who care about social justice to get on board with this campaign! Suggested letter format: Governor Kenneth Mapp Government House 21-22 Kongens Gade Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas, VI 00802 ??????? Re: Warren Ballantine, Meral Smith, and Beaumont Gereau Introduce yourself. This could include comments about your job, family or work in the community, and give respect to the Governor's Office. Explain how you know their cases and/or how you may know them personally. Explain why you are concerned (if you are from the VI, explain how this affects your vote and if you are from elsewhere explain how commuting their sentences would positively influence society or your view of the VI). Some Issues are: 1. Length of time in prison 2. Their deteriorating medical conditions 3. Aging and getting old 4. No community threat (example: while they were housed in the St. Croix, they were actually allowed to go out in the community to religious services, sometimes unsupervised, with no issues) Implore the Governor to commute their sentences. Explain that you understand that he eluded to this before he was elected and at the beginning?of his term. Respectfully end your letter. 2) Fax your letter [ideally the second week of October]: Fax the letter you wrote to the Governor?s office at: (340) 693-4374 If you do not have a fax machine, you can send a free online fax using faxzero.com . 3) Email your letter [ideally the third week of October]: https://www.vi.gov/contact.html 4) Call the Governor?s office [as much and as often as possible until further notice] to ask if they received your letter/fax/email: Phone: (340) 774-0001 Leave messages urging Governor Mapp to make good on his promise to free the Virgin Island 3 ? Warren Ballantine, Meral Smith and Beaumont Gereau (these are the names the state recognizes them under)- by commuting their sentences and releasing them with time served. A few talking points if desired, but feel free to keep it short and sweet: ? After 46 years of incarceration, they are of seriously ailing health and are extremely unlikely to re-offend? Warren alone is on 6 different types of medication after a massive heart attack a year ago. ? It is costing the state a TON of money to continue to house them and pay for medical care. Keep up the pressure throughout November or until their sentences are commuted! When you can, drop one or all of the Virgin Island 3 a note telling them about the actions you took on their behalf. Warren Ballentine #16-047 Tallahatchie Correctional Facility 415 US Highway 49N Tutwiler, MS 38963 His name is Abdul Azeez, but address letter to Warren Ballentine Beaumont Gereau #16-001 Tallahatchie Correctional Facility 415 US Highway 49N Tutwiler, MS 38963 His name is Hanif Shabazz Bey, but address letter to Beaumont Gereau Meral Smith #16-024 Tallahatchie Correctional Facility 415 US Highway 49N Tutwiler, MS 38963 His name is Malik Smith, but address letter to Meral Smith Let's keep the pressure on and bring these brothers home! Via: * New York City Jericho Movement P.O. Box 670927 Bronx, NY 10467* -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 27 18:43:38 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2018 15:43:38 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Pennsylvania prisoners launch boycott of new mail system privatized by prison profiteers Message-ID: https://www.workers.org/2018/09/25/inmates-in-pennsylvania-launch-boycott-of-prison-profiteers/ Pennsylvania prisoners launch boycott of new mail system privatized by prison profiteers September 25, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ */by /**/Ted Kelly/* ?I am going to boycott the third-party correspondence system,? Bryant Arroyo, an activist and organizer currently detained at SCI Frackville in central Pennsylvania, told this Workers World reporter during an extended Sept. 23 interview. Arroyo urges all prisoners to immediately cease sending and accepting mail in response to the draconian new prison policies of current Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Eliminating the right of prisoners to send and receive correspondence via postal service is the most controversial aspect of a sweeping crackdown imposed in September by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Prisoners will no longer be allowed to receive mail directly at state correctional facilities. Instead, their mail is being routed through a third-party company that rakes in profits from the enslavement of U.S. workers. The PDOC awarded a $4 million contract to Smart Communications, a Florida-based firm that bills itself as a ?family-owned business? with ?a reputation as the true innovator in the prison marketplace.? Under the contract, Smart receives all letters and photographs, photocopies them, stores the contents on its private servers and then forwards the photocopies to prisoners. Smart?s website boasts, ?We currently have over 50 clients worldwide.? That means the company is paid to seize, open and duplicate the private correspondence of prisoners held in over 50 U.S. facilities. Pennsylvania is the 19th state to hire the company. ?I have other means of communication,? said Arroyo, referring to the phone calls and emails he must pay for in order to talk to the outside world. ?I don?t have to comply with this policy, and I don?t want to. I don?t think our people should be subjected to it. And I don?t think the taxpayers? money is being well spent ? do you?? Arroyo urges all prisoners to immediately cease sending and accepting mail in response to the draconian new prison policies of current Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Bryant Arroyo has a long history of activism defending the rights and well-being of his fellow inmates. This has made him great friends and powerful enemies. In 2006, he organized a campaign of prisoners that scuttled plans to build a $400 million coal-gasification plant next to SCI Frackville ? a plant that would have poisoned the environment around the prison and the nearby community. This organizing earned him the ire of the head of the anthracite coal cartel, Jack Rich, and his corporate backers, like former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and the South African energy company Sasol. The successful movement also led political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal to dub Arroyo ?the world?s first jailhouse environmentalist.? *?When you?re backed into a corner, you fight to live?* Now Arroyo?s focus is on the PDOC crackdown implemented in the middle of the nationwide prison strike that took place from Aug. 21 to Sept. 9. ?Big Brother has invaded the DOC. We don?t have rights in here,? Arroyo explained to WW, ?only privileges.? Even the right to unfettered legal defense can be capriciously suspended without warning by state authorities. But Arroyo is intent on fighting for restoration of the precious few resources prisoners have to defend themselves: ?This is survival mode. When you?re backed into a corner, you fight to live.? This is why he is urging prisoners to boycott the mail. Arroyo?s boycott announcement comes as the American Civil Liberties Union and many public defenders have announced their intention to stop sending legal mail through the Pennsylvania prisons. But Arroyo is intent on fighting for restoration of the precious few resources prisoners have to defend themselves: ?This is survival mode. When you?re backed into a corner, you fight to live.? ?Every prisoner must act as an individual and as a collective front not to send mail to the third party,? he said. ?This is not only a breach of our privacy but a breach of attorney-client privilege.? Under the Smart system, all supposedly protected correspondence pertaining to prisoners? legal cases is handled ? and opened ? by prison staff. Copies are made and given to prisoners, but the originals are retained by the PDOC for 15 days, after which they are allegedly destroyed. Regular personal correspondence is stored on Smart servers for seven years. Video recordings of the mail-opening process are supposed to be purged every five days. ?But [the purging of legal correspondence] is a flat out lie,? said Arroyo. ?What they?re not telling you is that they?re keeping it. And they can use it against you at any point in the future.? The Innocence Project, the Abolitionist Law Center and the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project are partnering with the ACLU to bring a lawsuit against the PDOC for this unprecedented attack on attorney-client confidentiality, which they say is ?indefensible.? The for-profit privatization of the prison mail system is having a deadly, chilling effect on prisoners? legal right to private correspondence with their defense attorneys and on their much-needed human contact with the outside world. In the meantime, Arroyo urges his fellow inmates to follow his lead in communicating with legal teams and only set up urgent face-to-face visits: ?Everything except in-person contact is compromised.? Arroyo said the first piece of mail he received after the new policy began was a card that came in the form of photocopied sheets of paper: ?It was lifeless. It takes away the joy of receiving mail.? Arroyo also described the for-profit firm?s predictable failure to fulfill its contract. One inmate received a sheaf of papers that had photocopies of the front and back of an envelope ? and the rest of the pages were blank. ?They don?t want us to smile in here,? he said. The for-profit privatization of the prison mail system is having a deadly, chilling effect on prisoners? legal right to private correspondence with their defense attorneys and on their much-needed human contact with the outside world. *Isolation puts prisoners at risk* The prison crackdown is meant to exacerbate the breakdown of social ties caused by mass incarceration. Some friends and family are understandably scared to put themselves at the mercy of prison officials at a time of such intense repression. The day Arroyo called for the mail boycott, an older couple who came to visit a man?s brother was turned away because the woman was wearing a bra with a small metal clasp, which set off a metal detector. ?It?s straight-up sexual harassment,? he commented to WW. The ?no-bra? policy is apparently unique to SCI Frackville and reportedly not in force at other PDOC facilities. The prison crackdown is meant to exacerbate the breakdown of social ties caused by mass incarceration. The PDOC crackdown also included a punitive 90-day suspension of commissary food during visits. Friends and family are usually permitted to purchase from vending machines in the visiting room. Now a row of six machines stands completely empty at the back of the room. ?We literally can no longer break bread with our community,? said Arroyo. Visits with children are necessarily shorter when parents and guardians can?t buy them snacks. Without access to vending machine drinks, visitors are also subjected to the same water that prisoners are forced to drink, with little kids hoisted up to toxic water fountains to quench their thirst. The guards and prison staff still have access to bottled spring water and soda. The PDOC crackdown also included a punitive 90-day suspension of commissary food during visits. Many Pennsylvania prisons, including Frackville and Mahanoy in Schuylkill County, are situated in a coal mining and fracking region that has become known as a ?cancer cluster? site. Arroyo points out that Schuylkill has a remarkably high incidence of polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer caused by waterborne pathogens. Arroyo calls these health risks from the prison system ?environmental terrorism.? He himself is awaiting a second round of throat surgery to remove polyps growing on his vocal cords. He is confident these are the result of 25 years of drinking poisoned water in Pennsylvania prisons. Arroyo calls these health risks from the prison system ?environmental terrorism.? In the prison lobby, this reporter also witnessed two toddlers being subjected to the magnetic wanding and swabs meant to detect trace residue of narcotics, the same security protocols required of adult visitors. When Arroyo?s daughter called to plan a visit with her small children, he was compelled to tell her to wait until the punitive three-month visitor policy expires. ?I?m not going to subject my grandchildren to this.? *Democrats lead the crackdown on prisoners* Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf is just one of many new law-and-order Democrats who display a ruthless dedication to expanding the system of mass incarceration. This reactionary cadre includes Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and District Attorney Larry Krasner, as well as national figures like former California chief prosecutor Kamala Harris, now a U.S. senator from the state. Wolf also steadfastly refuses to hear demands from im/migrant rights activists demanding he issue an emergency order to close Pennsylvania?s Berks Family Detention Facility, which is under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Other immigrant and refugee concentration camps across the country are among the 50 facilities that Smart counts as ?clients.? Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf is just one of many new law-and-order Democrats who display a ruthless dedication to expanding the system of mass incarceration. ICE kidnappings, imprisonment and rampant abuse are defended under the guise of ?national security.? Similarly, Wolf?s strategy is to tie the crackdown on prisoners to ?security and safety? in state facilities, creating a strong obstacle to efforts to fight recent prison repression in the courts. Additionally, a poorly fabricated ?health crisis? among prison staff was the apparent excuse for an August lockdown. But staff accounts of being sickened by synthetic drugs transmitted through the mail system collapsed under public scrutiny. Arroyo notes that the PDOC appears to have concocted the ?health crisis? to justify smothering prison strike efforts in Pennsylvania, which coincided with the national strike Aug. 21 to Sept. 9. The emergency lockdown was implemented in late August. After the Labor Day weekend, the omnibus prison regulations were already being implemented, including a more repressive visitor policy estimated to cost the state an additional $15 million to put in place. Arroyo notes that the PDOC appears to have concocted the ?health crisis? to justify smothering prison strike efforts in Pennsylvania, which coincided with the national strike Aug. 21 to Sept. 9. Meanwhile, the commonwealth of Virginia under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has announced a similar set of repressive measures for its prisons. Warden David Call of Nottoway Correctional Center in Burkeville, Va., released a Sept. 20 memo that referred to ?feminine hygiene products being an ideal way to conceal contraband.? In an outrageous move that mirrors the Frackville ?no-bra? policy, he declared that ?the use of tampons and or menstrual cup hygiene items during visitation are prohibited.? (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sept. 24) The Virginia DOC memo continues: ?Offender visitors who have been recognized by the body scanner machine having a foreign object that could possibly be a tampon and has [sic] failed to remove such item prior to being screened, will have their visitation terminated for the day and will have their visitations privileges reviewed.? Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, another Democrat, failed to evacuate prisoners held in state facilities even as Hurricane Florence wreaked havoc across the state. *Fight repression, ?don?t give up?* Arroyo insists that we must see prisoners as individual human beings to fuel needed collective action. Millions of people are incarcerated in this country, which means millions more family members and friends are affected by this system. He urges his fellow inmates to continue to fight and to find people on the outside who will actually listen, not just cynical aspirants to elected office. Above all, he urges prisoners across the country not to give up. Arroyo himself is an innocent man who has been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he did not commit. He says: ?I could be bitter. But I choose not to take that path. Nah, that?s not what I want. They want you to mess up so they can put you in the hole. I don?t give them that privilege.? Arroyo insists that we must see prisoners as individual human beings to fuel needed collective action. Millions of people are incarcerated in this country, which means millions more family members and friends are affected by this system. Of his beloved daughter, Genesis, he says he ?raised her through the confines.? This summer he condensed a lengthy essay he wrote, ?A Dad?s Honor, a Daughter?s Dream,? and managed to get it down to 15 minutes. Then he called Genesis? wedding ceremony and read it as a toast to his daughter. Despite this particularly trying time of reaction and repression, Bryant Arroyo retains his optimism through one of his most contagious tactics: a sense of humor. ?You?ve heard the tune that goes, ?Video killed the radio star??? he asks, breaking into song. ?Well, the DOC killed the mail!? /Copyright ? 2018 Workers World, where //this story/ /first appeared. Workers World permits verbatim copying and distribution of articles in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. / -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Fri Sep 28 17:51:15 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:51:15 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?Lucasville_Prison_-_Keith_LaMar=E2=80=99s_atto?= =?utf-8?q?rneys_file_response_requesting_to_quash_execution_date_and_asse?= =?utf-8?q?rt_innocence?= Message-ID: http://www.lucasvilleamnesty.org/2018/09/keith-lamar-execution-motion-response.html?m=1 The Lucasville Uprising was a rebellion against oppressive and racist policies at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, OH. Nine inmates and one guard died during the uprising in April of 1993. Today, many people are serving time or condemned to death by the state of Ohio in relation to the uprising. We demand amnesty for all of these inmates. The conditions at SOCF were (and still are) intolerable and unconscionable. Keith LaMar Execution Motion Response Friday, September 28, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ?An execution date should not be scheduled because Mr LaMar?s death sentence is precisely the sort identified by the Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio?s Death Penalty. Mr LaMar?s conviction rests on prisoner testimony which is not independently corroborated; there is no physical or video evidence linking him to the crimes and he has always maintained his innocence. Evidence supporting Mr LaMar?s innocence is slowly coming to light after dogged efforts to unearth such proof following years of suppression.? -excerpt from motion. Keith LaMar?s attorneys filed this response to prosecutor Mark Piepmeier?s motion requesting an execution date. Piepmeier was lead attorney on the Lucasville Uprising cases, and largely responsible for egregious misconduct and deal-making that secured these convictions based on informant testimony and withheld evidence. He has a documented pattern of doing the same to other defendants . The response starts by pointing out ways that Keith?s case fits within recommendations made by the joint task force on death penalty cases , specifically: relying on uncorroborated snitch testimony, disproportionately targeting black people, and relying on evidence improperly withheld at trial. It goes on to detail that withheld evidence, including statements by trial witnesses and others that could easily cast reasonable doubt if not fully exonerate Keith if he were afforded a new trial. Reading this portion of the document, which describes violent events occurring in the first hours and days of the uprising, a few things may become clear. First, the State of Ohio has no idea what actually happened during the uprising. One of Piepmeier?s accomplice prosecutors even admits this in an interview for D Jones? documentary film, /The Shadow of Lucasville/. Second, the rank injustice of the US criminal legal system is unconscionable. This case has exhausted its appeals and is reaching an execution date, which means the highest courts have found such evidence inadequate to win a new trial, or impermissible for them to even hear. Such a system must be unconcerned with justice, and motivated by inferior drives. This is why we call for amnesty , for recognizing that the state was ultimately responsible for the deaths that occurred at their ?maximum security? prison in April of 1993. No more blood should be shed, lives taken or freedom denied in Ohio?s futile effort to scapegoat prisoners for the ODRC?s inability to keep peace, let alone rehabilitate or correct anyone in their prisons. In October of 2015, Keith?s previous council presented only some of these statements and arguments before the panel at his appeal, so this document is the first official entry of this evidence into the court record. At that time, the three judge panel found against Keith in a decision that seems both patently absurd, but sadly unsurprising to Keith and his supporters who witnessed the hearing. Keith was not allowed to attend the hearing that advanced his case toward execution, and has not yet been able to see and respond to this document, or Piepmeier?s motion for his execution date. Since September 17 when Piepmeier filed his motion, Keith has been spending time with close supporters and friends, continuing to focus on living his life despite restrictive supermax conditions of confinement, and not allowing the threat hanging over his head to dominate his time. If the supreme Court of Ohio ignores his lawyer?s motion approves Peipmeier?s request, Keith will likely be given a 2023 execution date. He intends to fight and defend himself against this murder the state has premeditated against him, but at a time and means of his choosing, to whatever degree possible. In the meantime, supporters can read the motions, Kieth?s book Condemned and other writings to deepen our understanding of his case and the dearth of justice in the State of Ohio. We can share the motion around, write about it, and encourage journalists and others to help tell Keith?s story. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Fri Sep 28 18:47:21 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2018 15:47:21 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?The_day_the_story_changed_about_the_Black_Pant?= =?utf-8?q?hers_and_an_Omaha_policeman=E2=80=99s_murder?= Message-ID: https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/the-day-the-story-changed-about-the-black-panthers-and-an-omaha-policemans-murder/ The day the story changed about the Black Panthers and an Omaha policeman?s murder September 28, 2018 - Michael Richardson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Omaha Municipal Court preliminary hearing for Ed Poindexter and David Rice (later Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa) was called to order on September 28, 1970. Both defendants asked their murder cases be severed and tried separately but were denied. County Attorney Donald Knowles and Arthur O?Leary represented the prosecution, Public Defender A.Q. Wolf and Thomas Kenney represented Poindexter, with David Herzog representing Rice. The two men were leaders of Omaha?s affiliate chapter of the Black Panther Party called the National Committee to Combat Fascism. The pair were charged with the bombing murder of Omaha Patrolman Larry Minard, Sr. on August 11, 1970 . Peak confessed to planting the bomb and after six versions ended up implicating the Black Panther pair during his preliminary hearing testimony, however only after contradicting himself. Thomas Kenney later described the hearing held at Omaha City Hall. ?It was a few blocks from the Courthouse, but the preliminary hearing was a real circus. There was a mob of people there, and screaming and hollering. There were mobs of people, news media, pro-police factions, you know, a number of black people.? David Herzog began by immediately objecting to any testimony by Peak because he was a co-defendant, unreliable, and a minor. The judge overruled the objection stating he did not know anything about Peak. Arthur O?Leary asked Peak about seeing Ed Poindexter a week before the murder. Peak couldn?t remember. ?I don?t think I remember seeing him.? Peak also couldn?t remember seeing Poindexter at the American Legion on the Friday before the bombing as he earlier claimed. Peak couldn?t remember giving a deposition to O?Leary a month earlier where he purportedly did remember. Nor did Peak remember giving O?Leary a statement during an interrogation a week earlier. County Attorney Donald Knowles had enough and stopped the questioning. ?I note, Your Honor, from looking around the courtroom, that this witness? lawyer is not here. I would like your permission for a continuance to the time that we can get his lawyer here. I think he should be here with him.? When the preliminary hearing resumed in the afternoon, Knowles made a statement, apparently because Peak was still not ready to cooperate with the prosecution. ?I understand that the Court?s ruling was that we were allowed to withdraw the witness that was on the stand this morning due to the fact that he had taken us by surprise and we are allowed to proceed now with other witnesses.? Finally, in mid-afternoon, Duane Peak returned to the witness stand, wearing sun glasses. The /Omaha World-Herald /reported that Peak?s hands trembled and his answers were whispers. Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers interviewed Peak years later about the case and that day in court. Peak described removing his sunglasses upon instruction from the judge at the preliminary hearing. ?The stress and the pain and all that I went through, it showed in my face.? ?If you had known, you could have felt the inside of my heart, you know, it just like someone took a big bass drum and took it inside me and just started beating away. You know, I could feel like?uhh?as I sat on the witness stand, my heartbeat. I felt that everyone could see my entire body pulsating, you know. The way my heart was beating and I was under a lot of hurt and I was under a lot of stress. I had a big concern for my family. I didn?t want to see my family suffer for anything they had nothing to do with, and that was very important as well.? Peak admitted conferring with three people during the morning recess; his lawyer, his brother Donald, and his grandfather, Foster Goodlett. Objections were made against any further testimony by Peak because of the visits. The judge allowed Peak to testify. ?The young man is represented by competent counsel and I don?t know what he advised him but he has been represented and he has also conferred with his grandfather, who is a minister and whom I have known for a long time and I don?t know what advice he gave him but your motion is overruled and we will see what the defendant testifies to.? Unknown to the defendants or their attorneys, Donald Peak was a paid FBI informant who reported to Special Agent in Charge Paul Young and later to prosecutor O?Leary. Poindexter and Rice were targets of the clandestine COINTELPRO counterintelligence operation and the subject of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover?s personal attention. Donald Peak?s visit with his brother during the recess carried with it COINTELPRO taint. Peak?s testimony changed during the recess. Now Peak remembered a conversation outside NCCF headquarters with Ed Poindexter about a bomb. ?He called me outside and said he wanted to show me how to make a bomb.? Peak said Poindexter told him to meet that evening at Frank Peak?s house. ?He met me there with Rollie House.? Duane claimed that from Frank?s home he went with House and Poindexter to Mondo?s residence where Poindexter got out of the vehicle. ?We went up to Rollie House?s house. Rollie brought a suitcase out from the house.? Peak said House returned him to Mondo?s home where Peak claimed that Poindexter opened the suitcase to reveal dynamite. ?Poindexter took the dynamite out of the suitcase and put it in a box.? Peak?s story about construction of the bomb changed from his earlier versions. Peak said he and Mondo assisted Poindexter. Peak also said that Poindexter wanted to plant the bomb that night but couldn?t get a ride. According to Peak, at an encounter with Poindexter about 11:00 p.m. on Friday night at the American Legion Club, Peak was instructed to deliver the bomb to a vacant house on Ohio Street. Peak gave yet a different version of the bomb construction to Ernie Chambers. ?That thing was made in David?s basement. It was his basement.? Peak denied witnessing the construction of the bomb. None of Peak?s earlier versions of the crime supported his new claim to Chambers that the bomb was assembled outside his view in Mondo?s basement. At trial, the bomb was allegedly assembled by Poindexter in the kitchen while Peak watched on. Peak said he retrieved the suitcase and took it to Olivia Norris? house where he told his brother Donald to stay away from the suitcase. From there Peak took the suitcase to sister Delia?s apartment with sister Theresa giving him a ride. Under cross-examination by Thomas Kenney, Peak admitted telling the police a different story when first questioned. Peak said he was threatened with the electric chair during his first interrogation. David Herzog asked Peak about his arrest. Peak said he was taken to the police station where he met with police officers and one other person. ?There was one from the FBI.? ?The FBI arrested me,? testified Peak. Peak said police twice talked to him about being executed in the electric chair. ?They said I was sitting in the electric chair so I had better tell the truth.? ?I didn?t have a chance.? Peak admitted he had been coached about his confession by Arthur O?Leary in preparation for the hearing. Peak said his attorney was not present for the session with O?Leary. Herzog asked Peak to remove his sunglasses. Ernie Chambers was there and described the scene in an interview. ?When he came back in the afternoon, his face was swollen around his eyes, he had glasses on?.When Duane took his glasses off his eyes were red, you could see he had been crying, and there was an audible gasp in the courtroom.? ?His answers were scarcely audible. A young man who knew nothing about anything in the morning and suddenly gave the answers that the police, the prosecutors needed to implicate David and Ed.? Kenney asked for a dismissal of the charges. ?Your Honor, the case that the State has presented thus far was the testimony of a 16-year-old boy who admittedly was subjected to extensive psychological coercion on the part of the Omaha Police Department and therefore is unreliable.? Herzog also sought a dismissal. ?The witness has changed sides; has altered his story; has forgotten, claims to have forgotten some facts, and then comes back this afternoon and offers that testimony at the State?s own request and that witness has now impeached himself.? ?The confession itself or the statement here is of an unreliable nature; obviously coerced; obviously given under fear by the statement of the witness himself. He indicates he would give the police officer or police officers anything they wanted.? The case was continued to trial where in April 1971 the FBI obtained the conviction they sought. Peak stuck to his story, got his deal and never spent a day in prison. Raleigh House was never charged for allegedly supplying the suitcase and dynamite for the bomb. Rice was convicted and died at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in March 2016. Poindexter remains behind bars at the maximum-security prison where he continues to proclaim his innocence. The day after the preliminary hearing Peak wrote to Olivia Norris, a family friend, from his jail cell that he betrayed ?two bloods? and deserved a life sentence or execution. The letter, censored by the jail staff, was shown to prosecutors but kept from the defense. /This article is excerpted from the book /FRAMED: J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO & the Omaha Two story . /The book is available in ebook by Kindle or print from Amazon . The book is available for local readers at the Omaha Public Library. Portions of the book are also online for free at NorthOmahaHistory.com ./ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 4 10:55:13 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2018 07:55:13 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Judicial Bias Blocks Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal Message-ID: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/04/judicial-bias-blocks-justice-for-abu-jamal/ Judicial Bias Blocks Justice for Abu-Jamal by Linn Washington Jr. - September 4, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In July 1987 Philadelphia?s then District Attorney lashed out at local judges in an unusual verbal assault where that DA castigated what he said was the ?historic? practice of judges in Pennsylvania?s largest city to acquit police officers in cases where evidence clearly showed officers engaged in ?egregious? brutality. That DA, Ronald Castille, told a reporter that, ?I know the judges will bend over backwards to use whatever reasons they can to throw a case out against a police officer.? Eleven years after Castille?s outburst against pro-police bias by some Philadelphia judges, Castille engaged in pro-police bias as a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Castille?s 1998 bias act occurred when he participated in the Pa Supreme Court?s rejection of a critical appeal in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal ? the Philadelphia journalist convicted in 1982 and sentenced to death for killing a Philly cop during a trial tainted by a pro-police judge. Abu-Jamal?s conviction is condemned internationally as a gross miscarriage of justice engineered by police, prosecutors and the trial judge. Condemnation is also leveled at the appellate process that has consistently rejected extraordinary evidence of Abu-Jamal?s innocence and documentation of multiple misconduct by authorities. An Amnesty International report on the Abu-Jamal case, released in February 2000, criticized the ?appearance of judicial bias during appellate review?? Ronald Castille, who rose to the rank of Chief Justice of Pa?s Supreme Court, is currently at the center of Abu-Jamal?s latest appeal for a new trial that claims Castille violated judicial ethics by his Pa Supreme Court participation in Abu-Jamal?s appeal. That appeal also contends Castille?s actions in the Abu-Jamal case violates the dictates of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that blasted Castille for ruling on a case as a supreme court justice that he handled while DA. Pennsylvania?s judicial conduct code states judges must recuse themselves from cases where their impartiality is reasonable questioned and recuse from cases where the judge knows facts about that case due to former employment with a government agency like District Attorney. Castille, as DA, opposed appeals by Abu-Jamal, signing the DA documents submitted in court. Castille and the current Philadelphia District Attorney, deny any improprieties against Abu-Jamal. Castille, who campaigned for DA and the Supreme Court as a hands-on manager, contends he signed anti-Abu-Jamal appeals as DA simply as a hands-off administrator. Castille, for example, claimed he signed DA documents that opposed Abu-Jamal appeals without reading those DA documents thus he knew nothing about specifics of Abu-Jamal?s case when he rejected Abu-Jamal?s appeals to the Pa Supreme Court. The posture that Castille as District Attorney knew absolutely nothing about the Abu-Jamal case ? the most controversial police murder case in Philadelphia?s history ? defies law, logic and common sense. Four years before Castille participated in the Pa Supreme Court?s 1998 rejection of an Abu-Jamal appeal, a former top aide to DA Castille told a Philadelphia reporter that his old boss ?was involved in death penalty cases? and Castille was also involved in ?high-profile cases.? While that aide to Castille did not specifically mention the Abu-Jamal case during that 1994 interview, the Abu-Jamal case was definitely high profile and it was then a death penalty case. (Many years later Abu-Jamal?s sentence was shifted from death to life in prison without parole.) Back in 1987, one of the three courtroom acquittals of brutal police that sparked Castille?s ire involved a policeman fired for choking a handcuffed suspect inside a hospital emergency room that forced hospital personnel to restrain that officer. Before that emergency room incident, fired policeman Gary Wakshul viciously pummeled that suspect outside a department store and then beat him again inside a police station. But a Philadelphia judge ruled Wakshul?s multiple acts of brutality were ?not a crime.? Following that acquittal, Philadelphia?s police union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), tried unsuccessfully to have Wakshul reinstated to his police job. Wakshul eventually landed a position with Philadelphia?s court system ? the entity with the judges Castille had criticized for pro-police bias. Wakshul, a few years before that emergency room beating incident, played a pivotal role in the conviction of Abu-Jamal. Wakshul was one of two policemen who claimed they heard Abu-Jamal confess to killing Officer Daniel Faulkner. But Wakshul?s claim of an Abu-Jamal confession contained big problems?problems that courts (state and federal) cavalierly dismissed. Wakshul didn?t recall hearing that alleged confession until weeks after Faukner?s murder. Wakshul suddenly remembered the alleged confession during an investigation into an abuse complaint filed by Abu-Jamal that charged police brutally beat him at the site of his arrest and inside a hospital emergency room. Wakshul told investigators that he dismissed the confession when he heard it shortly after Faulkner?s death because when he heard it he didn?t think such a confession was important. Yet, less than ninety minutes after the 12/9/1981 fatal shooting of Faulkner, Wakshul filed an official police report where he declared Abu-Jamal ?made no comments.? During Abu-Jamal?s 1995 appeal the Pa Supreme Court, inclusive of Castille, permitted the biased judge who presided over Abu-Jamal?s 1982 trial (the infamous Albert Sabo) to preside. That high court sanctioned Sabo?s appeal involvement even though one major appeal item was the bias of Sabo, who was a former member of Philadelphia?s police union, the FOP. Sabo?s bias during that 1995 appeal hearing was so outrageous numerous journalists detailed that bias. Sabo?s conduct even outraged Philadelphia mainstream journalists who traditionally rejected claims that authorities violated Abu-Jamal?s fair trial rights. Philadelphia journalists, for example, wrote sharp editorials and scathing commentary condemning Sabo?s bias. However, Castille and his state Supreme Court confederates dismissed the journalists? confirmed evidence of Sabo?s bias with the haughty contention that the ?opinions of a handful of journalists do not persuade us? that Sabo showed ?an inability to preside impartially.? Judges are supposed to use precise language in their rulings. The word ?handful? means a ?small? number of people. There were nearly two-dozen journalists on just the editorial boards of both Philadelphia daily newspapers that castigated Sabo?s bias in 1995. Two dozen is clearly more than a ?small? number of people. When the Pa Supreme Court in 1998 upheld Sabo?s rejection of Abu-Jamal?s 1995 appeal, Castille issued a document denying Abu-Jamal?s request that he recuse himself. Castille declared no need for recusal on the specious contention that he knew no facts of that appeal/case as DA. Amazingly Castille also employed another defense ? one that cast a long shadow of impropriety that federal judges have ignored. Castille asserted absurdly that it was unfair to cite his receipt of financial and political support from police groups across Pennsylvania, particularly his many endorsements from Philadelphia?s FOP, when four other members of the Pa Supreme Court had received electoral support from ?the very same FOP which endorsed me.? The fact that five members of a seven member Supreme Court received financial and political support from the FOP organization that was an aggressive advocate for Abu-Jamal?s execution undermined both the ethical mandate appearance of impartiality by judges and the reality of fairness allegedly underlying America?s vaulted concept of justice. Earlier this year Castille, now retired from the Pa Supreme Court, told a reporter that he didn?t recuse himself from contentious cases arising from his DA tenure because he was never asked to recuse ? a clearly false statement regarding the Abu-Jamal case. Philadelphia?s current DA admits that Castille?s statement is wrong. Current Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner?s fight against this latest appeal by Abu-Jamal, is criticized by many as soiling Krasner claim to fame as a reformer and defender of justice. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 4 11:18:17 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2018 08:18:17 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] The Spirit of Black August in Solidarity with Venezuela Message-ID: https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14030 The Spirit of Black August in Solidarity with Venezuela By The Upstate Chapter of Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition - September 4, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /The spirit of Black August moves through centuries of Black, Indian and multi-cultural resistance. It is an emblem of the spirit of freedom. / /Black August has many markers throughout the long history of resistance in the Americas./ -- Mumia Abu Jamal Black August is a rising tide that lifts all boats in its course. Rooted in the Black Radical Tradition, Black August embodies an anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, feminist and internationalist legacy and is home to legendary struggles such as the Haitian Revolution. In the African revolutionary spirit of signalling the death of slavery through the Americas and the rest of the world, we call on all organizations fighting for justice to continue this struggle to defeat the vestiges of colonialism and present-day US imperialism. We, the Upstate Chapter of Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition, are an organization comprised of activists, community organizer, teachers, students and former Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War. We are dedicated to freeing Political Prisoners as well as ending Mass Incarceration in the United States. We witness the US neoliberal capitalist system carry out vicious assaults on public education, health care, public transportation, social housing, regulation of corporations, trade union rights and other essential and just programs that benefit the laboring classes everyday in the United States. However, the United States is waging this same assault in all the Americas and the world. Venezuela is a critical battleground under siege by US imperialism. Venezuelans are directly facing US aggression parallel to the racist violence and destabilization happening in Black and Brown poor communities here at home. History has proven that US empire is willing to intimidate, impose, invade and destroy lives in the name of its so-called democracy. In the scheme of neoliberal globalization, there is no room for governments like Venezuela?s which seeks to advance its independence. US empire makes much less room for those who have determined their path is socialism, communist -- simply, not capitalist. This is why Venezuela is a threat. The majority, Black and Brown working class in Venezuela do not want a US model. The people are fighting everyday against these attacks in their collectives, cooperatives, communes and grassroots social movements. The Bolivarian State, a revolutionary government determined to human rights and guaranteeing a life with dignity and happiness for all stands with its people. The Venezuelan people support their President Nicol?s Maduro and are manifesting their vision for 21st Century Socialism. However, mainstream corporate media reports diligently to suggest otherwise. But, from behind the headlines, we have to ask ourselves, does the United States really want to help Venezuelans or, does the United States want Venezuelan oil and other resources? In Venezuela?s case, it is clear that the main objective of US empire is to plunder all the oil wealth. Venezuela is home to the world?s largest known reserves. Moreover, Venezuela has repatriated all of its gold and houses more than a dozen of the rarest minerals essentially for high grade military weapons and technology. If this weren?t the case; Why did the US implement economic sanctions blocking key imports like food and medicine? Why did global capital orchestrate an economic war? Why did the US, Venezuelan opposition and political allies condemn the presidential elections even before they took place? Why was there an assassination attempt on Maduro?s life? Why have 45?s lackeys like Pence and Haley travelled to Latin America to bribe and intimidate other countries in support of a military coup d??tat? These are the questions we must ask. The answers to these questions reveal the United States? continued imperial investment in expansion, exploitation and war. Our movements in solidarity with Venezuela must defend the people?s right to self-determination and their state?s sovereignty. As Black August comes to an end, Venezuela remains firmly in our hearts and in our hands as we labor for love, justice and freedom. We hold the spirit of self-determination close and continue to fight for our vision in the name of liberation. We must denounce the assassination attempt on President Nicol?s Maduro?s life. We must condemn the illegality of US economic sanctions against Venezuela. We must stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Venezuela. We must believe in Venezuela?s vision to change the world and defeat US empire. The fight goes on. US imperialism will continue to discredit and destabilize Venezuela?s legitimate, democratic and popular process through street violence, economic blockades, planned corruption, military intervention and media manipulation campaigns. Our movements must remain vigilant. Venezuelans have a right to decide how they govern their nation, manage their resources and tread forward. In solidarity, The Upstate Chapter of Northeast Political Prisoner Coalition -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 4 16:38:00 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2018 13:38:00 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Inside the Prison Labor Strike: New Tactics Pay Off in Mainstream Coverage Message-ID: https://truthout.org/articles/inside-the-prison-labor-strike-new-tactics-pay-off-in-mainstream-coverage/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare Inside the Prison Labor Strike: New Tactics Pay Off in Mainstream Coverage By James Kilgore Truthout - September 4, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ?Fundamentally, it?s a human rights issue. Prisoners understand they are being treated as animals. Prisons in America are a warzone. Every day prisoners are harmed due to conditions of confinement. For some of us it?s as if we are already dead, so what do we have to lose?? ?Pre-strike statement from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak When the 2016 US prison strike kicked off, the media barely whispered. Despite efforts by the Free Alabama Movement , an organization centered around the men inside Holman prison, to spread the message through social media and compelling video footage taken inside prisons, mainstream journalists weren?t biting. While independent media outlets covered the strike , an action that ultimately involved thousands of people in two dozen states drew virtual silence from mainstream media. With the current ongoing prison strike, we find a totally different scenario. The New York Times , the Guardian , Al Jazeera and The Washington Post all ran sympathetic op-eds at the strike?s outset. MSNBC?s Al Sharpton had a segment on the strike in which he interviewed a formerly incarcerated man (Darren Mack). USA Today ran an article on support demonstrations. Suddenly, prison militancy has become headline-worthy. As someone who spent six-and-a-half years behind bars, I have to wonder: What the hell is going on? *Testament to Hard Work* Several factors are at play here. First, as prison historian Dan Berger observes, ?it is a testament to the hard work that has been happening.? Due to the efforts of millions of activists, mass incarceration has grown into an issue of political importance. We have national campaigns to end cash bail, local efforts to close jails, networks formed to defend the rights of LGBTQ folks who are locked up, and massive resistance to immigration detention and deportation. Organizations of formerly incarcerated people like All of Us or None , JustLeadershipUSA and the National Council of Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls continue to proliferate. In parallel with the growth of this movement has been a swelling in the ranks of the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee. Closely linked to the revolutionary unionists of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee has been the most vibrant source of support on the streets for both strikes. In its 2018 iteration, the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee also draws activists from a resurgent left , typified by the Democratic Socialists of America, now the largest socialist formation in the US in decades. As the understanding of the oppressive nature of the prison system has grown, rebellion has begun to appear increasingly justified. Prison strike action is almost becoming normalized, an expected part of the social landscape. Since the first hunger strike at Pelican Bay Prison in California, this is at least the fifth major mass action by prisoners since 2011. Heather Thompson , author of the award-winning chronicle of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, /Blood in the Water/, explained to Truthout that in 2016, ?there was a faith among many in the media that criminal justice reform was being handled, as it should be, by a bipartisan political effort.? In her view, many reporters at that time ?perhaps felt that prisoners were making things worse by erupting.? Now, with hopes for bipartisan reform solutions fading away, people ?are more willing to listen to the prisoners themselves,? the very people ?whom everyone should have been listening to all along.? The New York Times, the Guardian, Al Jazeera and The Washington Post all ran sympathetic op-eds. The killing of seven men in South Carolina?s Lee prison in April of this year provided further evidence that conditions in many prisons are reaching the boiling point and formal political processes are doing little to address the issue. Reports of the tragedy said the deaths occurred due to conflict among various factions in the prison population, but that guards waited seven hours before intervening. An additional windfall adding legitimacy to strike action came with the widespread publicity given to the hundreds of incarcerated firefighters risking their lives battling the historic blazes in California for a few cents an hour, then facing a future where their criminal backgrounds would prevent them from being employed as firefighters after their release. *New Leadership* The high profile of this strike, however, is about more than heightened public awareness. There has also been a major shift in the aims and tactics of strike organizers. According to Brooke Terpstra of IWOC, not only has their organization grown in the past two years, but during that time, they have engaged in an intense study program in partnership with people inside prisons. Their goal was to both deepen their understanding of the prison-industrial complex and reflect on political strategy and ideology more broadly. This shift has coincided with a re-shuffling of leadership. While the Free Alabama Movement and its charismatic leader, Kinetic Justice, played the leading role in 2016, this time around, the overall direction on the inside has shifted to Jailhouse Lawyers Speak. Unlike the Free Alabama Movement, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is not identified with a single state or institution but is a network of legal activists in various facilities. Their approach is more cautious, more oriented toward legal change and more tightly structured. People ?are more willing to listen to the prisoners themselves,? the very people ?whom everyone should have been listening to all along.? Whereas in 2016 local strikers were creating their own demands, this time, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, perhaps drawing inspiration from the Ten-Point Program of the Black Panther Party , produced carefully phrased demands for the entire strike. They called these 10 demands a ?human-rights oriented? platform. The demands focus on systemic issues like ending prison slavery, but also target specific legal reforms. These include the restoration of federal Pell Grants for people in prison wanting to undertake college study, an end to racialized over-sentencing, an increase in rehabilitation programs and several demands stressing access to legal due process, like rescinding the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act. This legislation heavily restricted the capacity of people in prison to file lawsuits. All told, these demands reflect an abolitionist approach that sees major change in the prison system as a long-term, deliberate process. Furthermore, unlike the open-ended style strike in 2016, this strike set a strict time frame, with a very symbolic beginning (August 21, the day Black prison revolutionary George Jackson was killed by guards in San Quentin in 1971) and end (September 9, the 47^th anniversary of the Attica prison massacre). *New Messaging* The emphasis on universal demands went hand-in-hand with the adoption of new approaches to messaging and methods of mobilization. The media messaging of 2016 centered on ending ?prison slavery.? Moreover, the rhetoric of organizers implied an insurrectionary stance, emphasizing in their initial announcement that the strike would ?coordinate and generalize these protests, to build them into a single tidal shift that the American prison system cannot ignore or withstand.? Underlying that approach was the notion that most people in prison were in the employ of major corporations, laboring under semi-feudal conditions for a few pennies an hour. While a number of Southern prisons still resemble plantations (and some, like the notorious Angola Prison in Louisiana are actually sited on former plantations), in many states, jobs and paid labor are scarce. In some prisons, especially those at the higher security levels, only a small percentage of people actually work. Warehousing of bodies has replaced cheap labor regimes. Renowned Chicago radical lawyer Alan Mills?s observation about Illinois likely applies in many places: ?Unlike many states where the problem is prisoners are forced to do jobs that are horrible with very little money, in Illinois prisoners are made to sit in their cells with nothing whatsoever to do.? Mills said that many feel that ?even if a job is poorly paid it?s an improvement to confinement.? There has been a major shift in the aims and tactics of strike organizers. Journalist and current strike media committee member Jared Ware told Truthout the recognition of the varying work regimes across prisons prompted a re-think about how to connect with people. Darren Mack, who spent two decades in prison and is now a leading member of decarceration advocacy group JustLeadershipUSA , echoed Ware?s observations. ?Incarcerated people have learned lessons from the previous strike so they actively engaged supporters on the outside by giving them clear directions on ways to support bringing attention to their policy demands,? Mack told Truthout. Amani Sawari, the official spokesperson for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak on the outside, told Truthout how this new orientation drew recognition from around the globe, with solidarity statements coming from people in prisons in Germany, Greece , Canada and from a group of Palestinian political prisoners. She also noted the changed tactics led to a different approach to mobilization. ?Some prisoners don?t have the privilege to have a job,? she told Democracy Now! , adding that they could participate through sit-ins as well as boycotting purchases of prison commissary items or using the phones. Even those without funds, she stressed, could take part via hunger strikes. After the first week she reported to Truthout there were strike actions confirmed in 11 facilities, with solidarity actions in 21 different cities. Since prison officials try to suppress information about strike actions by cutting off communication, she said she expects to get reports of many more facilities having taken action once the strike is over. In diversifying courses of action for their mobilization, the strikers drew inspiration from a set of essays called ?Redistribute the Pain ,? written by Brother Bennu aka Hannibal Ra-Sun of the Free Alabama Movement. His work called for people on the inside to use their economic power as consumers to hold back the money they spent in the system, pointing out that these funds were often used to purchase the equipment used to punish people inside ? items like Tasers, pepper spray and stun guns. Creative uses of cellphones, Facebook and other social media have helped project the analysis and culture of those inside prisons. Apart from acknowledging the variety of prison work regimes, the messaging of the 2018 strike by allies and accomplices also shows a less defensive stance. In 2016, organizers on the outside placed considerable attention on data and headcounts, trying to prove the success of their actions statistically. Such an approach had an inherent weakness in that prison authorities control the data and are not susceptible to fact-checking. While Brooke Terpstra provided no analytics, she said the strike was a success for three reasons: 1) the media were covering it; 2) people in prisons were coming together in coordinated action; 3) the people on the inside were controlling the information and narrative. *Solidarity: Making New Allies* The 2018 strike represents a qualitative and quantitative leap forward in both organizing and messaging. A critically important aspect of the 2018 actions has been connecting with resistance in the immigration detention centers. In fact, some of the most militant and effective actions have taken place in the Northwestern Immigration Detention Center , where hunger-strikers declared their actions were specifically in solidarity with efforts to ?end prison slavery.? In turn, organizers in Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have fully recognized the similarity in the plight of immigrants facing deportation. As an anonymous incarcerated Jailhouse Lawyers Speak spokesperson told Jared Ware in an interview : ?As far as the connection and why we?re in solidarity, the biggest reason is because we understand those cages .. it?s all the same system.? How to deepen these connections is an important issue not only for prison-focused organizers, but also for social justice movements across the board. As Dan Berger suggested in a phone conversation with Truthout, it is worth looking at the present prison uprisings through the lens of the 1970s when ?a broad popular front against prisons,? was a reality. Another key aspect of solidarity in the strike has been the relationship among Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, the Free Alabama Movement, the Incarcerated Workers? Organizing Committee and other organizations on the street. This raises the question of how people on the street support actions by those inside prison without upstaging them and silencing their voices, especially given the repression of communication by prison authorities. Creative uses of cellphones, Facebook and other social media have helped project the analysis and culture of those inside prisons. Resistance is a permanent feature in women?s prisons, but the weapons are not typically strikes or insurrections, but rather daily acts of rebelling by asserting one?s humanity. The strike media committee has made enormous efforts to ensure the amplification of the voices of those on the inside. The interviews conducted by Jared Ware with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have been exemplary in bringing the voice and views of people who are locked up front and center. Given the difficulties of communication across the razor wire, these have been remarkable. Nonetheless, the presence of a group largely made up of white activists directing the media traffic, rather than family and community members of those inside, represents a source of tension in the legitimacy of representation, a topic to be examined when the dust from this period settles. Another source of concern has been the virtual absence of action in women?s prisons during the strike. While some of this may be due to more sophisticated responses by authorities, there are other issues. In an interview with the Chicago Reader, activist Monica Cosby, who spent 20 years in Illinois state prisons herself, stressed that resistance is a permanent feature in women?s prisons, but the weapons are not typically strikes or insurrections, but rather daily acts of rebelling by asserting one?s humanity. The organizers of the strike, as well as many activists on the issue of mass incarceration, have much to learn from Cosby?s observations. While the high points of strikes and overt rebellion help draw attention to the problems of mass incarceration, there is a need to think about ways in which people in prison engage in what labor historians refer to as ?informal resistance.? This resistance may range from defying rules to asserting one?s right to be human by engaging in activities like sharing meals (what we call ?spreads? in prison) or getting involved in sports, music and graphic arts. While such acts don?t rock the prisons to their foundations, they are the kernels of positive spirit that keep those inside strong enough to be able to endure, carry out actions like the 2018 strike and withstand the horrific repression that unaccountable authorities visit on organizers and rebels. *Outcomes of the Action?* As with any mass action in a repressive setting like a prison, there will be backlash from prison authorities. From the 2016 strike, leaders like Kinetic Justice of the Free Alabama Movement and Malik Washington, founder of the End Prison Slavery Texas Movement. have suffered long periods in solitary confinement. Already, those identified as ?instigators? in Texas, Ohio and South Carolina reportedly have been sent to isolation. No doubt there will be more efforts by authorities to punish, vilify and isolate those they identify as leaders. Optimistic outcomes of the 2018 actions would be the restoration of Pell Grants, a measure already partially in motion, and a repeal of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. As Darren Mack said, ?It?s urgent that elected officials respond to the 10 policy demands in order to tackle the systemic problems of mass incarceration and racist criminal justice policies that have led to tragic events like the Attica massacre and devastated millions of lives.? But regardless of actions by elected officials, as Heather Thompson observed, ?No matter how many folks were actually able to sit in or stop working or not eat, on the outside, vital attention was drawn to the issue of how horrific prison conditions are and also the longer history of prisoners standing up to be heard at places like San Quentin and Attica.? Copyright ? Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission . -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 5 16:05:16 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 13:05:16 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Folsom prison strike manifesto and bill of rights 1970 Message-ID: Folsom prison strike manifesto and bill of rights 1970 In 1970, prisoners protesting about the brutal regime at Folsom Prison, went on strike for 19 days. They wrote the following manifesto and bill of rights in support of their action. The following manifesto and bill of rights were written in 1970 by inmates at Folsom prison in the United States. They were formulated to support a prisoners strike. Over 2,400 prisoners organized a strike. They refused to leave their cells for nineteen days, in the face of constant hunger, discomfort, and psychological and psychological intimidation. Their action was taken in protest again the overcrowded, racist, and brutal prison system. The manifesto is overtly political, and the prisoners called for the end of injustice suffered by all prisoners, regardless of race, color, or creed. They referred to the United States prisons as ?Fascist concentration camps? The prisoners believed that they were treated like ?domesticated animals?, selected to their bidding in slave labor, and furnished as personal whipping dogs for the sadistic psychopathic hate of the prison staff. The manifesto included a section on the ?unionization? of prisoners, as a means to end political persecution, and enabling peaceful dissent. It referenced explicit abuse of powers by prison authorities, such as tear-gassing, locking up of dissenting inmates, shootings, and unusual punishments, and other brutality. Folsom prison strike manifesto 1 We demand legal representation at the time of all (Adult Authority hearings). 2 A change in medical staff and medical policy and procedure. 3 Adequate visiting conditions and facilities. 4 That each man presently held in the Adjustment Center be given a written notice with the Warden of Custody signature on it explaining the exact reason for his placement in the severely restrictive confines of the Adjustment Center. 5 An immediate end to indeterminate adjustment center terms. 6 An end to the segregation of prisoners from the mainline population because of their political beliefs. 7 An end to political persecution, racial persecution, and the denial of prisoners, to subscribe to political papers. 8 An end to the persecution and punishment of prisoners who practice the constitutional right of peaceful dissent. 9 An end to the tear gassing of prisoners who are locked in their cells. 10 The passing of a minimum and maximum term bill which calls for an end to indeterminate sentences. 11 That industries be allowed to enter the institutions and employ inmates to work eight hours a day and fit into the category of workers for scale wages. 12 That inmates be allowed to form or join labor unions. 13 That inmates be granted the right to support their own families. 14 That correctional officers be prosecuted as a matter of law for shooting inmates. 15 That all institutions who use inmate labor be made to conform with the state and federal minimum wage laws. 16 An end to trials being held on the premises of San Quentin prison. 17 An end to the escalating practice of physical brutality. 18 Appointment of three lawyers from the California Bar Association to provide legal assistance for inmates seeking post conviction relief. 19 Update of industry working conditions. 20 Establishment of inmate workers' insurance. 21 Establishment of unionized vocational training program comparable to that of the Federal Union System. 22 Annual accounting of Inmate Welfare Fund. 23 That the Adult Authority Board appointed by the governor be eradicated and replaced by a parole board elected by popular vote of the people. (24) A full time salaried board of overseers for the state prisons. 25 An immediate end to the agitation of race relations. 26 Ethnic counselors. 27 An end to the discrimination in the judgment and quota of parole for Black and Brown people. 28 That all prisoners be present at the time that their cells and property are being searched. A bill of rights for prisoners This composite bill of rights for prisoners has been assembled from various state prisoners' demands: 1. Right to organize prisoner unions. 2. Right to adequate diet, clothing and health care. 3. Right to vote and end second class citizenship. 4. Right to furloughs or institutional accommodations to maintain social, sexual and familial ties. 5. Right to non-censorship of mail, literature and law books. 6. Right to access to the press and media. 7. Right to procedural and substantive due process to guarantee rights. 8. Right to personality; resistance to coercive attempts by "correctional" staff to change behaviour thru brain surgery, electric stimulation of brain, aversion therapy, hormones or modification techniques. 9. Right to properly trained counsel. 10. Right to be free from racial, ethnic and sexist discrimination. 11. Right to freedom from mental and physical brutality. 12. Right to have the community come into the prison. 13. Right to have surveillance teams in prisons to monitor rights, protect prisoners' due process and see that they have access to their own files. 14. Right to make restitution in lieu of further incarceration. 15. Right to know their release date at time of entry to the prison. https://libcom.org/blog/folsom-prison-strike-manifesto-bill-rights-1970-05012012 -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 5 16:09:54 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 13:09:54 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Attica Prison Liberation Faction, Manifesto of Demands 1971 Message-ID: Attica Prison Liberation Faction, Manifesto of Demands 1971 ?WE are MEN! We are not beasts and do not intend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace has set forth to change forever the ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States.? The Attica Prison riot of 1971 has been well documented elsewhere; therefore I will not be attempting to revisit the events that took place. If you wish to read more about the subject, you will find the following links useful. Following on from my previous blog entry on theFolsom Prisoners manifesto from 1970 , I have listed the demands made by the Attica Prison Liberation Faction in 1971, who had been inspired by events at Folsom. The demands were made following several thousand inmates seizing control of the prison in protest against the usual issues of, overcrowding, racism, and brutality from prison staff. We, the men of Attica Prison, have been committed to the New York State Department of Corrections by the people of society for the purpose of correcting what has been deemed as social errors in behavior. Errors which have classified us as socially unacceptable until reprogrammed with new values and more thorough understanding as to our values and responsibilities as members of the outside community. The Attica Prison program in its structure and conditions have been enslaved on the pages of this Manifesto of Demands with the blood, sweat, and tears of the inmates of this prison. The program which we are submitted to under the fa?ade of rehabilitation are relative to the ancient stupidity of pouring water on a drowning man, inasmuch as we are treated for our hostilities by our program administrators with their hostility as medication. In our efforts to comprehend on a feeling level an existence contrary to violence, we are confronted by our captors with what is fair and just, we are victimized by the exploitation and the denial of the celebrated due process of law. In our peaceful efforts to assemble in dissent as provided under this nation?s U.S. Constitution, we are in turn murdered, brutalized, and framed on various criminal charges because we seek the rights and privileges of all American People. In our efforts to intellectually expand in keeping with the outside world, through all categories of news media, we are systematically restricted and punitively remanded to isolation status when we insist on our human rights to the wisdom of awareness. MANIFESTO OF DEMANDS 1. We Demand the constitutional rights of legal representation at the time of all parole board hearings and the protection from the procedures of the parole authorities whereby they permit no procedural safeguards such as an attorney for cross-examination of witnesses, witnesses in behalf of the parolee, at parole revocation hearings. 2. We Demand a change in medical staff and medical policy and procedure. The Attica Prison hospital is totally inadequate, understaffed, and prejudiced in the treatment of inmates. There are numerous ?mistakes? made many times; improper and erroneous medication is given by untrained personnel. We also demand periodical check-ups on all prisoners and sufficient licensed practitioners 24 hours a day instead of inmates? help that is used now. 3. We Demand adequate visiting conditions and facilities for the inmate and families of Attica prisoners. The visiting facilities at the prison are such as to preclude adequate visiting for inmates and their families. 4. We Demand an end to the segregation of prisoners from the mainline population because of their political beliefs. Some of the men in segregation units are confined there solely for political reasons and their segregation from other inmates is indefinite. 5. We Demand an end to the persecution and punishment of prisoners who practice the Constitutional Right of peaceful dissent. Prisoners at Attica and other New York prisons cannot be compelled to work as these prisons were built for the purpose of housing prisoners and there is no mention as to the prisoners being required to work on prison jobs in order to remain in the mainline population and/or be considered for release. Many prisoners believe their labor power is being exploited in order for the state to increase its economic power and to continue to expand its correctional industries (which are million-dollar complexes), yet do not develop working skills acceptable for employment in the outside society, and which do not pay the prisoner more than an average of forty cents a day. Most prisoners never make more than fifty cents a day. Prisoners who refuse to work for the outrageous scale, or who strike, are punished and segregated without the access to the privileges shared by those who work; this is class legislation, class division, and creates hostilities within the prison. 6. We Demand an end to political persecution, racial persecution, and the denial of prisoner?s rights to subscribe to political papers, books, or any other educational and current media chronicles that are forwarded through the U.S. Mail. 7. We Demand that industries be allowed to enter the institutions and employ inmates to work eight hours a day and fit into the category of workers for scale wages. The working conditions in prisons do not develop working incentives parallel to the many jobs in the outside society, and a paroled prisoner faces many contradictions of the job that add to his difficulty in adjusting. Those industries outside who desire to enter prisons should be allowed to enter for the purpose of employment placement. 8. We Demand that inmates be granted the right to join or form labor unions. 9. We Demand that inmates be granted the right to support their own families; at present, thousands of welfare recipients have to divide their checks to support their imprisoned relatives, who without outside support, cannot even buy toilet articles or food. Men working on scale wages could support themselves and families while in prison. 10. We Demand that correctional officers be prosecuted as a matter of law for any act of cruel and unusual punishment where it is not a matter of life and death. 11. We Demand that all institutions using inmate labor be made to conform with the state and federal minimum wage laws. 12. We Demand an end to the escalating practice of physical brutality being perpetrated upon the inmates of New York State prisons. 13. We Demand the appointment of three lawyers from the New York State Bar Association to full-time positions for the provision of legal assistance to inmates seeking post-conviction relief, and to act as a liaison between the administration and inmates for bringing inmates? complaints to the attention of the administration. 14. We Demand the updating of industry working conditions to the standards provided for under New York State law. 15. We Demand the establishment of inmate worker?s insurance plan to provide compensation for work-related accidents. 16. We Demand the establishment of unionized vocational training programs comparable to that of the Federal Prison System which provides for union instructions, union pay scales, and union membership upon completion of the vocational training course. 17. We Demand annual accounting of the inmates Recreational Fund and formulation of an inmate committee to give inmates a voice as to how such funds are used. 18. We Demand that the present Parole Board appointed by the Governor be eradicated and replaced by the parole board elected by popular vote of the people. In a world where many crimes are punished by indeterminate sentences and where authority acts within secrecy and within vast discretion and given heavy weight to accusations by prison employees against inmates, inmates feel trapped unless they are willing to abandon their desire to be independent men. 19. We Demand that the state legislature create a full-time salaried board of overseers for the State Prisons. The board would be responsible for evaluating allegations made by inmates, their families, friends and lawyers against employers charged with acting inhumanely, illegally or unreasonably. The board should include people nominated by a psychological or psychiatric association, by the State Bar Association or by the Civil Liberties Union and by groups of concerned involved laymen. 20. We Demand an immediate end to the agitation of race relations by the prison administration of this State. 21. We Demand that the Dept. of Corrections furnish all prisoners with the services of ethnic counselors for the needed special services of the Brown and Black population of this prison. 22. We Demand an end to the discrimination in the judgment and quota of parole for Black and Brown people. 23. We Demand that all prisoners be present at the time their cells and property are being searched by the correctional officers of state prisons. 24. We Demand an end to the discrimination against prisoners when they appear before the Parole Board. Most prisoners are denied parole solely because of their prior records. Life sentences should not confine a man longer than 10 years as 7 years is the considered statute for a lifetime out of circulation, and if a man cannot be rehabilitated after a maximum of ten years of constructive programs, etc., then he belongs in a mental hygiene center, not a prison. 25. We Demand that better food be served to the inmates. The food is a gastronomical disaster. We also demand that drinking water be put on each table and that each inmate be allowed to take as much food as he wants and as much bread as he wants, instead of the severely limited portions and limited (4) slices of bread. Inmates wishing a pork-free diet should have one, since 85% of our diet is pork meat or pork-saturated food. 26. We Demand an end to the unsanitary conditions that exist in the mess hall: i.e., dirty trays, dirty utensils, stained drinking cups and an end to the practice of putting food on the table?s hours before eating time without any protective covering over it. 27. We Demand that there be one set of rules governing all prisons in this state instead of the present system where each warden makes rules for his institution as he sees fit. IN CONCLUSION We are firm in our resolve and we demand, as human beings, the dignity and justice that is due to us by our right of birth. We do not know how the present system of brutality and dehumanization and injustice has been allowed to be perpetrated in this day of enlightenment, but we are the living proof of its existence and we cannot allow it to continue. The taxpayers who just happen to be our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters and sons should be made aware of how their tax dollars are being spent to deny their sons, brothers, fathers and uncles of justice, equality and dignity. https://libcom.org/blog/attica-prison-liberation-faction-manifesto-demands-1971-06012012 -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Mon Sep 10 12:33:56 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:33:56 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Illinois inmate out of prison after decades in solitary - robbed a hat and dollar bill Message-ID: https://www.bnd.com/news/local/article217921700.html Illinois inmate out of prison after decades in solitary By Beth Hundsdorfer and George Pawlaczyk September 07, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As a teenager, Anthony Gay robbed a fellow teen of his hat and a dollar bill, which landed Gay in prison. His prison odyssey spanned 24 years, during which he was locked in solitary confinement in Illinois prisons for 22 to 23 hours a day, cut and slashed parts of his own body more than 500 times in protest, was strapped naked to metal bed frames without food, and, on a grim day in 2010 during what court records state was extreme mental delirium, sliced off part of his testicle and tied it to a cell door. Ten days ago, Gay, now 44, woke up in solitary in the prison?s mental unit. In the space of minutes, he was escorted out of his cell at the Dixon Correctional Center by a three-man ?extraction team? to a dressing room, where he got out of his yellow jumpsuit and into civilian clothes. A short walk followed until he reached a final door. Then freedom. ?I felt alive again. I couldn?t believe it,? said Gay, who met his sister in the parking lot. ?It?s good to be home.? She had rented a small U-Haul trailer, and Gay loaded about a dozen large cardboard boxes jammed with thousands of court documents and letters that fueled his court battles for decades. They immediately left for the family home in Rock Island. Gay?s unusual case was detailed in the BND?s 2009 award-winning investigative series ?Trapped In Tamms.? That and numerous follow-up articles helped bring attention to the plight of Gay and others. A federal judge in East St. Louis would eventually find that mentally ill prisoners held in solitary for over a decade in the now closed Tamms supermax prison in the southern tip of Illinois were cruelly treated. Reforms were recommended but the prison, the most expensive per inmate to operate, soon closed. Anthony Gay.JPG Anthony Gay George Pawlaczyk Gay expected to die in prison because of a long series of felony assaults on guards that consisted of throwing body waste or yanking back on chains. These sentences were consecutive and added 99 years to Gay?s prison time. He was up for parole at age 120. Reviewing the prison sentence But attorneys Scott Main of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University in Chicago and Jennifer Soble of the Fair Punishment Project reviewed a series of 17 assaults on guards by Gay, mostly in Livingston County where he was then held at Pontiac Prison, and determined that the consecutive sentences were improper. The local prosecutor agreed, and Gay?s sentence was reduced by 73 years. He faced just 4 1/2 more years and finally knew he would be free. But while he was out from prison, he wasn?t completely free. Gay must wear an electronic ankle bracelet for 90 days and can leave the home only to look for a job, which he has done several times. After his first night at his mother?s house, attorney Main stopped by for a visit. Gay was sitting at the dining room table talking to family members on a cellphone that took him some time to figure out. ?My feelings in that moment were of disbelief and joy,? Main said when Gay answered the door. ?Am I going to say what he did was right? No, I am not. But we put someone in segregation and when he manifests symptoms as a result of that and then we punish them for the symptoms, we can?t be terribly surprised by the outcome.? As for whether Gay will stay out of prison, Main said: ?I?m not in the prediction business. He has a strong support system from his family and his team at Northwestern. But in the end, it?s a matter of hope.? Need for a support system Johnny Perez, director of the U.S. Prisons Program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said, ?Gay?s success in society depends on creating a support system and assessing resources to help in the transition.? Perez was held for three years in solitary on New York state on a robbery charge. ?They go from being all alone into families that have learned to get along without them,? Perez said. ?Choices and responsibilities in small things such as food, clothing and transportation can seem overwhelming.? Perez offered this advice to Gay to improve his assimilation: ?Connect with people who have been in the same situation as you. Use them as mentors and service providers because only they can know what we are going through. It gets better with time. Every day gets a bit easier,? Perez said. Able to talk freely without guards listening in, Gay told a visitor he believes his basic inability to cope in the prison system started about 1994. He was diagnosed with relatively minor mental illness, including borderline personality disorder. ?I was acting out,? he said. ?I didn?t know who my friends were. The environment was all about hate. It was a nightmare.? ?The only way I could feel anything? The Department of Corrections sent Gay to Tamms in 1998, and there he encountered the most extremely restricted environment in the entire prison system. He said his answer to solitary confinement was to fall in love. As unlikely as this sounds in a prison where inmates are basically denied human contact, Gay said he found a way. It was his therapist, a woman in her 30s who saw him on a weekly basis. ?The only way I could feel anything was to fall in love,? he said. ?I was in love with her.? The love was unrequited. The therapist only provided therapy. The human contact and the communication helped him cope with the lonely hours in his cell spent in solitary confinement. That one relationship helped sustain him, he said. But suddenly, Gay was returned to Pontiac, which has been listed in court documents as the second worst environment in the state prison system. He was sent directly to solitary. He said he didn?t know why he was transferred and desperately wanted to get back to Tamms to see his former therapist. ?I knew if I could get back to see her I would be all right,? he said. But no transfer came. So that?s when he began accumulating years and years on his sentence by assaulting guards and getting charged with more crimes. ?I never thought they?d charge me for throwing (feces),? he said. The years-long battle to return to Tamms was won, but the therapist was gone by the time he returned. Feeling ?human? At his mother?s home, Gay mows the grass and dreams of writing a book about his years in solitary. He has a title, ?Life on Impulse,? and even a cover designed by a friend in the publishing business. His own letters from various state and federal court files show him as an articulate, often impassioned writer. Daily chores make him feel ?human,? he says. Despite seeking a normalcy, there are outward indications of his time spent in solitary. His arms are roped with scars, making an odd road map of his time in prison. Gay?s right arm is so scarred by cutting that it?s impossible to count the wounds. The inner thigh on one leg and his neck also contain this type of scarring. Psychiatrists say inmates who spend long periods of time in solitary sometimes cut themselves simply ?to feel something? again. Records from Tamms obtained under the Freedom of Information Act in 2009 by the BND showed that sometimes inmates were sutured without anesthetic. He said of the times he had cut on himself he was brought to a hospital maybe 50 times, although he said there were other mutilation incidents that should have resulted in a trip to the emergency room. His introduction to ?cutting,? a practice seen in society by inmates held for great lengths in solitary and adolescent girls, was sort of a breakthrough, even though it was painful and dangerous. ?It was psychologically chaotic,? he said of self-mutilation. ?You?re doing it to feel alive. I saw somebody else do it. It blew me back.? One of the advantages of a trip to a hospital was the care, contact and communication given to him by the emergency room staff. ?I love nurses,? he said. ?They are the greatest humans on earth.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Mon Sep 10 14:51:48 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 11:51:48 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Pennsylvania's New Draconian Control Unit Restrictions Deployed System Wide - Mail and Reading Controls for All Prisoners Message-ID: _/Several Articles Follow/_ Lockdown of entire system lifted, but... Statements from Abolitionist Law Center, Sep 6 https://www.facebook.com/AbolitionistLawCenter/ The PADOC ?Lockdown? and the newly unveiled policies represent a threat to the rights, dignity, and health of our incarcerated clients, friends, and family. The?problems occurring during the last week will be compounded and added to by these measures that will further restrict and chill communication between incarcerated people and those outside the walls. It is becoming clear that there will need to be an organized challenge, or series of challenges, using a variety of advocacy strategies, including potential litigation. Please feel free to share this widely. Toward that end we are asking for any reports of the following to be emailed to ckeys at alcenter.org at the Abolitionist Law Center: ? Obstruction or interference in attorney-client communications, including: o restrictions or prohibitions on visits o restrictions or prohibitions on regular legal call opportunities o failure to send outgoing legal mail, or significant delay in sending it out. o failure to process incoming legal mail, or significant delay in getting mail. o opening legal mail outside the presence of the recipient o any copying of legal mail whatsoever ? Any negative legal consequences faced by incarcerated people due to their inability to communicate with legal counsel or the courts ? missed deadlines, inadequate preparation for court proceedings, etc. ? Instances where the DOC refused to process non-legal mail, including where it was returned for no reason other than the DOC?s arbitrary statewide ?lockdown?. ? Any serious problems caused by not receiving non-legal mail sent from family, friends, or other contacts, including and especially problems caused by not receiving time-sensitive information. ? Denial of publications such as magazines, newspapers, or books due to the ?lockdown? or new policies. ? Imposition of disciplinary measures such as the issuance of a misconduct or having privileges restricted based on mere suspicion of drug use, or an allegation that mail intended for but not received by an incarcerated person contained a prohibited substance. Please include whether any evidence was obtained, tested (by the DOC or third party vendor), and whether there was any due process afforded through a hearing. ? False positives by ion scanners resulting in visitation restrictions or prohibitions. ? Instances of incarcerated people being deprived medical care during the lockdown, including regular appointments for chronic conditions, medications, mental health care, outside hospital appointments, emergency care, or specialist care. ? Instances of incarcerated people with physical or mental disabilities being deprived accommodations for those disabilities during the lockdown. With solidarity and in it for the long haul, The Abolitionist Law Center Cancel the new punitive PADOC policies, respect the rights of prisoners and their families *Sign this petition! Amistad Law Project started this petition to Governor Tom Wolf https://www.change.org/p/tom-wolf-cancel-the-new-punitive-padoc-policies-respect-the-rights-of-prisoners-and-their-families?recruiter=898270463&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=undefined * We are families and friends of incarcerated loved ones, professionals who work closely with people in PA prisons and concerned citizens who care about human rights. On September 5th Department of Corrections Secretary Wetzel and Governor Wolf announced new punitive protocols that will further punish, restrict and control people incarcerated in PA prisons. Governor Wolf and the Department of Corrections want to censor and restrict books, increase surveillance of prisoners mail, violate attorney-client privilege and institute cruel, restrictive visiting room policies which violate the American Disabilities Act. Join us in demanding that Governor Wolf and the PA Department of Corrections cancel these policies immediately and respect the rights of incarcerated people, their families and the people who work with them. We demand that we be able to order our incarcerated loved ones, friends and clients books from (formerly) approved vendors and that they be able to hold them in their hands. The Pennsylvania DOC's move to E-books and a central marketplace that they control is censorship and a monopoly and we fully reject it. We demand that our loved ones be able to touch letters that our hands touch too. We reject that our mail should be sent to a private company in Florida, Smart Communication, at taxpayer expense where it will be copied, the originals destroyed and the copies sent on. Furthermore during this process our mail will be scanned into a searchable database to increase already pervasive mailroom surveillance on our communication. If mailroom staff needs to be increased to search for contraband the DOC should do just that. The contract with prison profiteer Smart Communications should be immediately cancelled. We demand that legal mail not be photocopied. In another protocol confidential legal mail will be opened and photocopied and the photocopies will be passed on to the incarcerated person. This is violation of attorney-client privilege and it will expose legal mail to be read in part if not in whole. It cannot stand. We demand that vending machines and photos be restored on visits immediately. A new protocol states that vending machines and photos will be restricted for 90 days at which point new policies around these activities will be unveiled. This is unacceptable. People travel far to visit with their incarcerated family members and they deserve some basic decency. They ought to be able to share food and memorialize their time together through taking photos. Furthermore there are many people who are diabetic or have other conditions and cannot spend an 8 hour visit without eating anything. Not only is the the restriction on vending machines cruel it is also a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We demand that official visitors should not have to wear plastic gloves on visits. A new policy requires that lawyers, paralegals, official visitors from the prison society and others be required to wear plastic gloves on visits. Our people in prison are not contaminated or diseased or otherwise toxic and they should not be treated like quarantined and subhuman specimens. It's notable that they make only professionals wear gloves. They know very well that this policy serves no public health purpose and it is clearly meant to denigrate prisoners and their families. We demand respect. For too long elected officials have believed they can increase their political capital and their career prospects by punishing us, our incarcerated family members?and our clients. Enough is enough. We pledge that we will never stop fighting until we are heard. Pa. prisons spend $15M after guards were sickened by K2. But what if it was just in their heads? by Samantha Melamed -September 7, 2018 http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania-department-corrections-prison-lockdown-drugs-k2-fentanyl-guards-sickness-20180907.html When Pennsylvania's prisons come off a statewide lockdown begun Aug. 29, inmates will be greeted by a number of radically tightened security measures: high-tech?body-scanners for visitors, drone-detection equipment, and the digital delivery of all mail, which will be scanned and forwarded via a Florida-based contractor. In total, they?will cost taxpayers $15 million. The improvements come after the Department of Corrections reported 57 staff were sickened in 28 incidents at prisons in central and Western Pennsylvania. Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced the lockdown after?linking the illnesses with exposure to synthetic cannabinoids?? the drugs have, by official and inmate accounts, flooded prisons across the state in recent years ? but also cited concern over a reported mass exposure to fentanyl at an Ohio prison the very same day the lockdown was announced. You may also like "Pennsylvania's corrections officers put themselves in harm's way to make our commonwealth safer, and it is up to us to provide them protection from harm," Gov. Wolf told reporters. "I want to assure them that their concerns are valid." But, what if their concerns are actually misplaced? That's a question raised by toxicologists, who?say one likely?diagnosis for the staff illnesses may be "mass psychogenic illness" ? that is, a sort of contagious hysteria fueled by fears of dangerous exposure. "There is some great concern that it's psychogenic,"?said Jeanmarie Perrone, director of?medical toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. "Mass psychogenic illness happens all the time. We see it all the time with law enforcement," Perrone said. "Police pull someone over and find an unknown substance. Suddenly their heart's racing, they're nauseated and sweaty. They say, 'I'm sick. I'm gonna pass out.' That is your normal physiological response to potential danger." Although?seven prison staff?were administered naloxone, the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, experts said that was probably unnecessary. Unlike the guards ? who reported symptoms including elevated heart rate and blood pressure, light-headedness, dizziness, and headaches ? an overdose victim would?be?unresponsive, Perrone said. "If they are speaking, they don't need naloxone." The American College of Medical Toxicology released a position paper on?fentanyl?last year noting that the risk of exposure?for emergency responders is "extremely low." They noted that it?cannot be absorbed through the skin in a powder form, and it's unlikely, if it were aerosolized, that it would be?concentrated enough to sicken responders. Synthetic cannabinoids ? laboratory-made compounds also known as K2 or Spice ? ?are more complicated, because they can be?made up of any number of compounds, and their makeup can vary wildly from one batch to the next. Some versions even include rat poison. Prison officials say K2 is frequently soaked in paper, which can be easily sent through the mail and then smoked. But experts?said merely touching K2 should not have?caused the guards' symptoms. "In a word, it's implausible," said Dr. Lewis Nelson, chair of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and a past president of the American College of Medical Toxicology. "One thing we know about [synthetic cannabinoids]?is that they don't cause?the effects these folks are having, and certainly not by the?route that they're being exposed. ? The symptoms are much more consistent with anxiety." Jason Bloom, president of the Pennsylvania State Correctional Officers Association, described that theory as "asinine. There's no other way to put it. Maybe moronic." "If that were the case," he added, "then why such a strong reaction from the Department of Corrections?" He described the dangers of K2 as including not only sickness from incidental exposure, but also contact with inmates who become violent?on the drug. One thing that?is not in dispute?is that K2 and other drugs have become ubiquitous in the state's prison system. Jerry Davis, a Philadelphia inmate?at Albion state prison, said that, prior to the statewide lockdown, he observed two or three incidents per week of other inmates high on K2: ?Guys passing out with K2, guys [freaking] out, running around naked. ? A sheet of K2, that goes for over $1,000 in here. That?s big business in this prison.? And it?s not just in Western Pennsylvania: At?the recently closed Graterford prison, reports of K2 were widespread in the past year, said Jorge Cintron Jr., an inmate. "I find it quite troubling that it seemed to never be an issue with the DOC on how prisoners were harming themselves with these synthetic drugs," Cintron said. " ? It is now?a problem because it is affecting the DOC staff and officers, allegedly." Wetzel said that the goal now is not to reduce drug traffic into the prisons but to altogether eliminate it. "The safety and security of staff and inmates is paramount to the Department of Corrections," Wetzel said in a statement announcing security measures. Among them: The prisons will shift to e-books and digital magazines, and double staff in the visiting rooms. And, all incoming mail must be sent to a company called?Smart Communications in Seminole, Fla., which will scan and forward it at a cost of $4 million annually. The state will pay an additional $1.9 million per year for copy machines and paper to manage legal mail, which will be photocopied by staff wearing protective clothing. Also on the horizon: $6 million on new machines to scan visitors for contraband, and $2.2 million for drone detection at each prison. Nelson said those efforts may well be necessary to keep drugs out of the institutions. But if the goal is to keep staff safe from incidental exposure, he said, "It borders on the irrational. It's panic mode." Medical experts pointed out that they frequently treat patients who are on synthetic cannabinoids without wearing gloves or other protective gear. "As chemists, we?don't even wear face masks," agreed Sherri Kacinko, a toxicologist at Willow Grove's NMS Labs who studies substances like K2. "The risk is very low." All acknowledged that the drug compounds in K2 are constantly evolving. David Vearrier, a Hahnemann University Hospital emergency doctor, said?that makes it?hard to know the truth. "Some of the newer synthetic cannabinoids you see on the street are really potent, and ? have?been associated with symptoms in law enforcement personnel," he noted, referencing a study of federal agents who handled K2 after raiding a drug lab and were later found to have the drug in their system. (However, the study also described the agents eating and drinking while cataloging the evidence, and noted that most of them did not consistently wear gloves.) To Vearrier, it's not implausible that a correctional officer could run into a similar situation. On the other hand, he said, "Just feeling anxious about it could cause them to?have some of these symptoms. There's also a?possibility that they want to get an afternoon off work." Edward Boyer, a Harvard Medical School professor and Brigham and Women's emergency doctor, reviewed the prisons' incident logs and responded with an audible shrug. "We have?no biological testing confirming exposure actually happened, and we have a large number of individuals with complaints of vague, subjective conditions," he said. He and others said they'd want to confirm the exposure through blood or urine tests. The only results the Department of Corrections have released?are lab and field tests of the substances found in the prisons. Without that confirmation, Boyer said the most likely cause is something even doctors can relate to:?"We treat people who come to the?[emergency department] with?lice all the time. Everyone begins to itch." * * *For the PA Department's document on new mail procedures* https://www.cor.pa.gov/Documents/FAQ%20-%20New%20Procedures.pdf -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Mon Sep 10 16:16:37 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:16:37 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?Prisons_Use_Solitary_Confinement_to_Silence_St?= =?utf-8?q?rikers_Nationwide=E2=80=94But_Their_Voices_Have_Been_Heard?= Message-ID: http://solitarywatch.com/2018/09/10/prisons-use-solitary-confinement-to-silence-strikers-nationwide-but-their-voices-have-been-heard/ Prisons Use Solitary Confinement to Silence Strikers Nationwide?But Their Voices Have Been Heard By Valerie Kiebala and Jean Casella - September 10, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In commemoration of the Attica Uprising 47 years earlier, incarcerated organizers chose yesterday as the final day of the nearly three-week-long National Prison Strike that began on August 21. The strike eventually extended to federal prisons, state prisons, immigration detention centers, and local jails across at least fourteen states, with actions ranging from work stoppages to sit-ins, hunger strikes, and commissary boycotts. Both the strikers? original demands and the harsh repression they faced serve as a grim reminder that in many ways, the U.S. criminal justice system has actually regressed in the intervening 47 years?a period in which the prison population grew by nearly 700 percent. Along with its nationwide reach, the strike was remarkable for the breadth of theten demands released through Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS), a group of incarcerated legal advocates which, along with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), was instrumental in organizing the strike. Far from concentrating on a narrow range of improvements to prison conditions, the organizers made clear that they are challenging the punishment paradigm that underlies the American criminal justice system, and seeking sweeping reforms to reverse the five-decade trend toward mass incarceration that began during the era of Attica. The demands include not only improved conditions that ?recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women,? but also payment of the ?prevailing wage? for prison labor (effectively an override of the 13th Amendment); sentencing and parole reform, including an end to life without parole; and measures to address the racism that saturates the system. Demands also include reversal of the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act, which sharply curtailed the ability of incarcerated people to fight for their rights in court; access to rehabilitation and education for everyone, including those convicted of violent offenses (and the funding to pay for it); and voting rights for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated citizens. The demands end, appropriately, with the statement: ?All voices count!? Incarcerated people who participated in the strike took great risks in their words and actions, seizing the chance to empower themselves in an environment designed to strip them of power, along with freedom and dignity. And not surprisingly, prison administrators and staff have been swift to employ their primary tool of control to repress incarcerated voices, retaliate against incarcerated organizers, and preemptively quell the strike: solitary confinement. The nationwide strike, which began on the anniversary of the death of ?prison activist and Black Panther George Jackson, was planned in reaction to a deadly riot in April of this year at the maximum security Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina. While prison officials blamed the riot on gang disputes, Amani Sawari from JLSattributed the violence to ?really aggravated conditions? at the prison, including an extended lockdown that subjected the entire prison population to virtual solitary confinement. ?They were placed on lockdown all day,? she said. ?They weren?t allowed to eat or use the bathroom. They were placed in units with rival gang members. And then their lockers were taken away, so they didn?t have any safe place to put their personal belongings, which really aggravated and caused tensions among prisoners?to the point where fights broke out.? Seven incarcerated men, six of them African American, died in the riot, and at least 22 were injured. No corrections officers were injured, and one witnesstold the Associated Press that ?the COs never even attempted to render aid, nor quell the disturbance.? Incarcerated people at Lee Correctional continued to be held in conditions of solitary confinement following the riot, allegedly for safety reasons. One man held at Lee claimed that the officials were actually using solitary confinement as a method to prevent participation in the widely publicized nationwide strike. Fearing retaliation, the manspoke anonymously to /Kite Line, /saying, ?As an attempt to oppress our voices and quash our unity, we have been on 24-hour lockdown since what has transpired at Lee Correctional Institution back in April this year.? He explained, ?That means zero movement whatsoever. We?re being fed late in the night. We?re only receiving one shower a week. We?re being denied cell cleaning as well as clean drinking water, even when there are water advisories. Any inmate who attempts to participate in this strike is being placed in solitary confinement, which is lockup?seg. As a result of what has taken place, you know, what has transpired at Lee, and the fact that we have been on 24-hour lockdown without any cell movement whatsoever, there have been a number of suicides and attempts.? South Carolina was not the only state to lock down a facility in the days leading up to the strike. A story in the /Santa Fe Reporter /revealed that the New Mexico Department of Corrections had publicized in a Facebook post a ?statewide lockdown at 11 prisons? starting on August 20. The story also featured an internalmemo from New Mexico?s Lea County Correctional Facility, announcing the ?lockdown schedule,? beginning on August 20 and lasting until September 17, which explained that if an incarcerated person?s ?behavior is acceptable,? their privileges will be gradually reinstated each week. The memo suggested prison officials were tracking down individuals participating in a ?disruptive behavior.? It stated, ?Although some participants have been identified, all have yet to be identified.? Those who are identified, the memo continues, will have their ?good time suspended? and will remain in the restricted conditions, barred from visitation and phone calls, receiving only ?one sack meal and two hot meals,? and allowed only a 10-minute shower three times a week. Retaliation against individual organizers also began in anticipation of the strike. /The Appeal/ reported that as early as June, a man held at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Ronald Brooks, was punished for making a Facebook video using a contraband cell phone that urged others to take part in the upcoming strike.??We are anti-slavery and are organizing to transform our ghettos into communities and our jails and prisons into places of human redemption,? Brooks said in the video. Brooks had helped organize a previous work stoppage at Angola, a former slave plantation where men earn as little as 4 cents an hours to work in the fields. While Brooks had previously been caught with illegal cell phones and punished with loss of privileges, this time the state transferred him 250 miles away to David Wade Correctional Center.??To be moved totally from a facility [has] to do with the fact that they knew that Ronald was being a human rights advocate,? his mother told /The Appeal/. ?What they wanted to do was to move him away? because he was an organizer.? Once the strike began, a host of media outlets covered its development, and some reported on the conditions underlying the strikers? demands. Articles appeared in most of the nation?s leading publications, including /USA Today/ , the /New York Times/, the /Washington Post/ , /The New Yorker/ , and/Time/ /,/ as well as dozens of local, international, and progressive news outlets. As the strike gained media traction, the use of solitary as a means to silence organizers and stifle participation increasingly came to light. Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan, who is incarcerated at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP), was placed on lockdown in late July after prison administrators intercepted strike-related mail and overheard Hasan speak to a group of strike supporters over the phone. According to anarticle in /Shadowproof/, the head of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction?s Bureau of Classification wrote that prison officials obtained this information about Hasan while ?monitoring communications and social media postings related to planning a nationwide prison strike from August 21 to September 9, 2018.? Hasan remains in the most restricted form of solitary confinement and has been prohibited from phone communication for a year. When another man incarcerated at OSP, Greg Curry, passed along news of the retaliation against Hasan to people on the outside, he was placed in solitary as well. Kevin Rashid Johnson, currently held at Sussex I State Prison in Virginia, published anarticle in /The Guardian /describing the retaliation he has faced for his outspoken organizing behind bars in the past three decades, including physical abuse, interstate transfers, and solitary confinement ? most recently, on Virginia?s death row, although he is not serving a death sentence. The Virginia Department of Corrections has set a hearing for Johnson for September 10, which he fears ?is preparatory to another out-of-state transfer, possibly into the federal system and into a site of extreme isolation,?according to Johnson?s website. Ezzial Williams, an organizer with the?IWOC held at Union Correctional Institution in Florida, was placed in solitary confinement in what the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) calls ?close management,? which he attributed to his involvement in organizing the strike. In a letter to Solitary Watch, Williams said, ?As the National Prisoner Strike leading up to September 9 continues to gain momentum, I find myself in super-solitary confinement humbly rooting for the progress being made. I mean, it?s all over the news these days! You see, I am currently serving an 18-month punishment in solitary (close management) for allegedly attempting to incite a riot through an ?email? speaking out about the inhumane treatment of inmates. Despite only suggesting non-violent sit-downs that never occurred, I was found guilty for saying something versus doing it.? Williams continued on to describe the conditions he faces in close management. ?Not only has my custody gone from minimum to maximum but I went from a work camp to being housed right next to death row inmates, locked down for 23 hours a day for the next year and a half. I?ve been subjected to a cell with no running hot water and a broken light that brightly blinks off and on all night, disrupting my sleep greatly. Every time I step out of the cell to go to medical or take a shower (three times a week), a few feet away I have to strip down and expose each orifice for contraband. Cell searches to harass us under the guise of security is the norm and sometimes soon after, a surprise inspection is called? which means if your cell is untidy (thanks to the search), you could go on ?strip? for 72 hours (all property, linen, and clothes is removed except for your boxers) or be subjected to disciplinary action resulting in a longer stay in solitary.? An outside prison reform activisttold WJCT public radio in Jacksonville that strike participants across Florida facilities have faced retaliation. She said, ?They are sprayed with pepper spray, they?re put in solitary in freezing conditions, in just underwear, handcuffed and slammed into walls.? Karen Smith, a Florida IWOC organizer,stated to /The Guardian/, ?Prison authorities have moved most of the local strike organizers into solitary confinement wings where they will be unable to communicate with others.? IWOCreported to the /Daily Beast /that Florida had locked down at least five of their prisons by August 24, though the FDOC refuted this. Hunger strikers at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility operated by the GEO Group in Tacoma, Washington, allegedly faced solitary confinement for their participation in the strike as well. An organizer with NWDC Resistancetold /Think Progress/, ?The numbers [of strike participants] started with about 200 people. We were cautious with the number of people we were counting?The people who were hunger striking were moved immediately into solitary confinement.? NWDC Resistance reported that 20 more people at the facility faced solitary after joining the strike on August 30. According to the IWOC, David Easley and James Ward, held at Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio, were placed in solitary confinement following their initiation of a hunger strike as part of the nationwide strike. IWOC also reported that Jason Turmon, a Jailhouse Lawyers Speak organizer incarcerated at the McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina, was sent to the solitary confinement unit for his participation in the strike. Solitary confinement has historically functioned as a means to prevent the collective action of people in prison. Acts of unity and solidarity among incarcerated people, even those that present no risk to peace or security, are considered threats to the absolute power wielded by correctional staff and the functioning of the prison system. Ezzial Williams echoed this in his letter when he said, ?The odds are stacked against us here and this whole thing is designed to break you down.? In an appearance on /Democracy Now!/ , Cole Dorsey, a formerly incarcerated organizer with the IWOC, commented on why he believes the strike threatened the larger social and economic order, and had to be quickly repressed. ?If these jobs that they?re now giving to prisoners?meat packing and call center workers?if they were given at a prevailing wage in those same communities that those prisoners came from prior, then they wouldn?t be in the prisons now,? he said. ?But the system has recognized that it?s easier to control the population while they?re inside prisons than it is if they?re outside, because then they have the right to strike, they have federal protections, whereas inside it can just be called an insurrection. Automatically, the leaders are sent to solitary. Automatically, they?re transferred. Automatically, privileges are denied?no more family, no more phone calls. So from a social justice and human rights aspect, it?s really draconian.? Those who organized and participated in the National Prison Strike undoubtedly knew that they would face punishment, including the torture of prolonged solitary confinement. And most of them surely knew that none of their demands would be met as a result of the strike. Yet they were willing to take action and endure the consequences. Their strategically planned strike, with its broad demands and strong outreach to the media, at least ensured that millions of Americans would be reminded of the suffering and injustice that goes on behind bars, and the existence of a path to change. And the message they sent to the outside world is clear: The next steps are ours to take. / / -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 12 10:21:53 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 07:21:53 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?California_protest_demands_=E2=80=98End_solita?= =?utf-8?q?ry_confinement!=E2=80=99?= Message-ID: https://themilitant.com/2018/09/08/california-protest-demands-end-solitary-confinement/ California protest demands ?End solitary confinement!? *By Betsey Stone*- September 17, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Supporters of the fight to end solitary confinement of inmates in California state prisons rallied outside the federal courthouse here Aug. 21. Their action was in solidarity with four prisoners ? Todd Ashker, Arturo Castellanos, George Franco and Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa ? who have helped lead the ongoing struggle against the barbaric policy. They were in a court-ordered meeting with representatives of the California Department of Corrections inside the building. The four were central leaders of hunger strikes and protests that grew to include 30,000 prisoners at the high point in 2013. These actions put a national spotlight on the abuse of thousands of prisoners held, some for decades, with little human contact in 8- by 10-foot windowless Security Housing Unit cells known as the SHU. The four were also plaintiffs in a suit ? Ashker vs. Governor of California ? that won an end to indeterminate-length sentences to solitary confinement in California and the release of over 1,400 prisoners from the SHU. Despite the success of moving some to general population units, the fight is far from over. Many of those released from the SHU have been transferred to extremely restrictive conditions in Level IV prisons or in Restricted Custody General Population Units, which have conditions markedly similar to that in the SHU. ?Our fight is against solitary confinement, no matter what they call it or what forms it takes,? Marie Levin, sister of Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, told rally participants. She pointed to a giant banner held by protesters saying, ?END ALL FORMS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.? Letters from prisoners held in Level IV and Restricted Custody Units were read aloud, describing the denial of social interaction with fellow prisoners and lack of educational and job-training programs. Anne Weills, an attorney in the lawsuit, said the prisoner representatives are demanding Todd Ashker, who was thrown back in isolation after being held for over three decades in solitary in the SHU at Pelican Bay, be released to the general population. Jamaa and other veterans of the struggle have also experienced retaliation, including being returned to solitary on trumped-up charges. These frame-ups and isolation are aimed at ?our peaceful efforts to effect genuine changes,? Jamaa wrote in an article run March 26 in the /San Francisco Bay View./ Ashker v. Governor of California was filed in 2012 by the inmates with attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights. After the hunger strikes, state prison officials settled on Sept. 1, 2015. The results are monitored by Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District Court. In July, Wilken ruled that California prison authorities were not complying with the settlement and ordered the meeting held Aug. 21. Any gains won in this fight are due to the conduct of the prisoners themselves, said Laura Magnani, an activist with the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, which organized the protest ?to their vision, courage, and persistence.? Fundamental to this has been the unity between prisoners of different races and origins forged in the struggle. ?Our current collective movement began in the bowels of Pelican Bay State Prison ? SHU ? Short Corridor, wherein prisoners of all races and various geographical areas became openly conscious of what we had in common ? rather than what was different (divisive),? Ashker wrote last year. In 2012, the Short Corridor Collective released an ?Agreement to End Race-Based Hostilities? that called for an end to violence among prisoners. Ashker said the prison authorities? efforts to pit prisoners against each other was ?the source of our mutual adversary?s manipulation tactics ? centered on keeping us divided and violent towards one another.? ?We must stand together not only for ourselves, but for future generations of prisoners,? the four prisoners said in a joint statement in 2017 reaffirming the agreement, ?so that they don?t have to go through the years of torture we had to.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 12 10:29:47 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 07:29:47 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] September 14th, Call In Day Against New Pennsylvania DOC Policies, Respect Prisoners' Rights Message-ID: https://www.facebook.com/events/2306758956005565/?notif_t=plan_user_invited¬if_id=1536717952368103 September 14th Call In Day Against New DOC Policies, Respect Prisoners' Rights On September 5th DOC Secretary John Wetzel and Governor Wolf announced a number of new punitive DOC policies that will impinge on prisoner?s rights and those of their families. Governor Wolf and the Department of Corrections want to censor and restrict books, increase surveillance of prisoners mail, violate attorney-client privilege and institute cruel, restrictive visiting room policies which violate the American Disabilities Act and further discourage contact between prisoners, their loved ones and those professionals who work with them. On Friday, September 14th we are getting mobilized. JOIN US AS CALL ON OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND CANCEL THESE PUNITIVE POLICIES. We are asking everyone to make FIVE calls: Governor Wolf, Your State Senator, Your State Representative, Lt. Governor Candidate (and Gov. Wolf?s Running Mate) John Fetterman and DOC Secretary Wetzel. If you are limited by time that is ok, but lets make as many of these calls as we can. Our elected officials (and aspiring elected officials need to hear from us.) A sample call script and call in numbers are below: Governor Wolf: 717-787-2500 Lt. Governor Candidate John Fetterman (currently Mayor of Braddock)- 412-654-4041 (Phone Number to the Mayor?s Office) Your State Representative and Your Senator Senator:http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/ DOC Secretary Wetzel: (717) 728-2573 ?Hi. My name is _________ and I?m calling to speak about the new DOC policies which will violate the rights of incarcerated people and their families. I am calling because I?d like [Gov. Wolf/Lt. Governor Candidate Fetterman/Representative So and So/Etc.] to take action to see that these policies are cancelled and that the rights of incarcerated people and their families are respected. These new policies will violate people?s rights in a number of ways. I would like to tell you about some issues with them. Under the new policies: -all mail must now be sent to a private company in Florida where it will be scanned into a permanent searchable database increasing surveillance on prisoners and their families. The original will be destroyed and a copy will be sent on. No longer will incarcerated people be able to touch a letter that their loved ones wrote with their own hand. -All legal mail will be copied by DOC employees exposing it to be read in violation of attorney-client privilege. -A DOC controlled marketplace for books will be established which is a monopoly and will increase censorship. No longer will prisoners friends and families be able to order them books from approved vendors such as Amazon. Community based and faith based books to prisoners programs will be cancelled. -For 90 days prisoners and their families won?t be able to share food from vending machines or memorialize their visits by having pictures taken. Small children cannot go a full visit without access to food. Furthermore diabetics and people who cant go without food for a full visit will be limited in visiting in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. -Official and legal visitors will be required to wear plastic gloves on visits. This serves no public health purpose and sends a message that people in prison and their families are contaminated or toxic and is extremely dehumanizing. -These and other policies will cost taxpayers 15 million dollars. They were instituted overnight without oversight by the legislature. I am calling on you as an elected official to take action to see that the rights of incarcerated people, their families and those work work with them are respected. Can I count on you to take action to see that these policies are reversed?? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 12 11:50:59 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 08:50:59 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Celebrate the birthday of Anishinabeg and Lakota Akihito political prisoner Leonard Peltier. Message-ID: https://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/2017/09/12/it-is-leonard-peltiers-birthday-statement-of-the-florida-indigenous-rights-and-environmental-equality-firee/ Statement of Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality (FIREE) ? The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons September 12, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /[Note: Amidst recovery from an unexpected triple bypass heart surgery and the largest hurricane threat seen in years, political prisoner Leonard Peltier turned 73 this week, on September 12, inside Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Central Florida. FIREE released the following statement on his birthday and , September 15, the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons will hold a rally in downtown Gainesville, FL to honor him and call for his freedom after over four decades of torture and slavery inside the world?s largest prison system. Find out more about Peltier, including his address to send a birthday card, here. ] / STATEMENT OF THE FLORIDA INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EQUALITY FOR LEONARD PELTIER?s BIRTHDAY Greetings: The Florida Indigenous Rights & Environmental Equality (FIREE), Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, and other organizations this September celebrate the birthday of Anishinabeg and Lakota Akihito political prisoner Leonard Peltier . Peltier remains a Prisoner of America?s longest war, its war on the Indigenous peoples of this great Turtle Island. Ostensibly Peltier was convicted on the killing of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who invaded the sovereign Oglala Lakota Nation with a warrant they did not have to arrest someone they knew was not there.? Members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who were at the Jumping Bull ?Tent City? location on June 25, 1975 defended the women and children of the camp from the unknown assailants who happened to be from the FBI. Cour D?Alene AIM member Joseph Killsright Stuntz gave his life in the defense of this encampment. A year later in Cedar Rapids, IA an all-white jury acquitted AIM organizers Darrell Butler and Robert Robideau of criminal charges because they acted in self-defense. The FBI altered evidence and ensured the prohibition of exculpatory evidence to ensure the conviction of Leonard Peltier during his subsequent Fargo, ND Trial. In America, the concept of rule of law can be simply exposed as the United States Constitution Article VI Clause 2 clearly defines Treaties as the supreme law of the land. Yet so-called Law Enforcement in North Dakota abandoned their oath and upheld the colonialist imposition of the United States when they failed to block Enbridge?s Dakota Access Pipeline which clearly violated the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties by crossing into sovereign Lakota lands Today in America many are waking up to the reality that America is not, nor has ever been a nation of law and order. That Truth and Justice are not the American way. America has more human beings incarcerated than any other nation on Earth. Instead of restorative justice that respects human beings we employ a profitable system of warehousing human beings and enslaving those who are incarcerated while treating them inhumanely to increase the profit margin. Today in America many are waking up to the reality that the struggle is between those who remember and recognize we are human beings against those who like a predator, see only material wealth and profit as their motivation. Indigenous peoples across the globe whether they are Hmong, Saami, Kuna, Lakota, Anishinabeg, Ainu, Bantu, Mvskokee etc. call themselves the people, the human beings. They remember who they are. The dominant society see?s themselves as ?Americans? a false term that denies their connection to themselves as a human being, their ancestors who were not ?Americans? and other human beings. Today this disconnection is visible as individuals cling to monuments and celebrations of genocide. In every city in America there is a statue, celebration or memorial to Columbus, Navarro, De Soto, Custer, etc. There are no such statues in these towns to Teshunka Witko, Piz, Titania Tanka, Techumseh, Osecola, Micanopy, Bowlegs. Etc. In many towns across the south there are statues, celebrations and memorials to the defunct Confederate States of America, yet there is no statute to the brave African men and women in America who struggled for their freedom. There are no statues in Florida to Aaron Carter or Sylvester Carrier who courageously fought off the white supremacists who massacred Africans in the Florida town of Rosewood. In today?s America a white nationalist named Trump was elected by 63 million to the White House. Now white Nationalist organizations feel empowered to commit terrorist attacks in the open with the rise of hate crimes and the violence in Charlottesville, VA which they now want to bring to Gainesville . While unquestionably revolting and vile this white nationalism is not new. Manifest Destiny, Termination, Slavery, Jim Crow, Alt-Right whatever name it has it?s the same old song Indigenous, Africans in America, and other colonized peoples in Turtle Island have heard since the syphilis-infected, half-a-planet lost Admiral of the Ocean washed up in the Arawak Nation in 1492. The terrorist killing of human being Heather Heyer was sad, and many of us mourned. But as she would note, how many have mourned the murder of Savanna Lafontaine-Grey Wolf an Anishinabeg lady who was killed for her baby a few weeks ago. How many mourned Sherry Wounded Foot or any of the scores of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. How many mourned or were outraged by the hate crime killings of Wallace Black Elk Jr, or Ronald Hard Heart or Allen Two Crows? Colonialism and white nationalism?s ugly face are interwoven, intertwined and run deep in this America. FIREE and the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons recognize and celebrate the birth and the life of the true warriors for humanity and justice. Warriors like Leonard Peltier, Buddy Lamonte, Frank Clearwater, Pedro Bissonette, Joe Stuntz, Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), Mumia Abu Jamal, and so many others. May Leonard Peltier?s courage and heart stand as a shining testament to what we must all live up to and stand for in the resistance of colonialism and white supremacy standing for the people in the Spirit of Crazy Horse! Write Leonard at: Leonard Peltier #89637-132 USP Coleman I P.O. Box 1033 Coleman, FL 33521 For more info: https://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 13 17:38:00 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:38:00 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] FBI sought electric chair execution of Black Panther leaders in Omaha Message-ID: https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/fbi-sought-electric-chair-execution-of-black-panther-leaders-in-omaha/ FBI sought electric chair execution of Black Panther leaders in Omaha Michael Richardson - September 13, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On December 4, 1969, in a Federal Bureau of Investigation orchestrated pre-dawn raid in Chicago, Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were shot to death. Fourteen handpicked policemen, armed with twenty-seven firearms including a Thompson submachine and shotguns, converged on Hampton?s apartment at 4:45 a.m. Police fired a barrage into the quiet apartment killing the two Panther leaders and wounding all of the other occupants. Attorney Paul Wolf has commented on a December 8, 1969 raid in Los Angeles. ?Four days after a similar raid on a Panther apartment in Chicago, forty men of the Special Weapons and Tactics squad, with more than a hundred regular police as backup, raided the Los Angeles Panther headquarters at 5:30 in the morning. The Panthers chose to defend themselves, and for four hours they fought off police, refusing to surrender until press and public were on the scene. Six of them were wounded. Thirteen were arrested. Miraculously, none of them were killed.? ?The similarities between the Chicago and Los Angeles raids are undeniable, with a special local police unit closely linked to the FBI involved in both assaults, spurious warrants seeking ?illegal weapons? utilized on both occasions, predawn timing of both raids to catch the Panthers asleep and a reliance on overwhelming police firepower to the exclusion of all other methods. Both raids occurred in the context of an ongoing and highly energetic anti-BPP COINTELPRO, and?as in the Hampton assassination?bullets were fired directly into Pratt?s bed. Unlike the Chicago leader, however, Pratt was sleeping on the floor, the result of spinal injuries sustained in Vietnam.? On December 10, 1969, two days after the raid in Los Angeles, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was unhappy with a lack of action in Omaha. Hoover sent a stern memorandum to Paul Young. ?While the activities appear to be limited in the Omaha area, it does not necessarily follow that effective counterintelligence measures cannot be taken. As long as there are BPP activities, you should be giving consideration to that type of counterintelligence measure which would best disrupt existing activities. It would appear some type of counterintelligence aimed at disruption of the publication and distribution of their literature is in order. It is also assumed that of the eight to twelve members, one or two must surely be in a position of leadership. You should give consideration to counterintelligence measures directed against these leaders in an effort to weaken or destroy their positions. Bureau has noted you have not submitted any concrete counterintelligence proposals in recent months. Evaluate your approach to this program and insure that it is given the imaginative attention necessary to produce effective results. Handle promptly and submit your proposals to the Bureau for approval.? Young, mindful of the deadly raid in Chicago a week earlier, selected two Omaha leaders, Edward Poindexter and David Rice (later Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa) for COINTELPRO misdeeds. Young planned an ambush in Carter Lake, Iowa after being tipped by United Airlines personnel about a shipment of/Black Panther/newspapers arriving at Eppley Airport in Omaha. Details were never finalized as Young?s agents were unable to obtain the sought cargo information. Young was able to satisfy Hoover?s blood lust for lethal outcomes with a plan to blame the two Panthers. Instead of gunplay to kill, Young?s counterintelligence plan would use Nebraska?s electric chair to execute the men. The Omaha Two faced death sentences at their controversial 1971 trial for the August 17, 1970 murder of Patrolman Larry Minard. The electric chair was last previously used in 1959 to execute serial killer Charles Starkweather. It was used three times since the Minard murder trial in 1971. Nebraska abolished the death penalty in 2014 and then restored it in 2016. Nebraska executed its first prisoner by lethal injection in August 2018. Omaha police sent the most critical piece of evidence, a 911 recording of a killer?s voice, to the FBI Laboratory for analysis to identify the anonymous caller who lured police to a bomb-rigged vacant house. However, the search for Minard?s killers was not a search for truth. Hoover ordered results of the laboratory testing squelched with no written report. The jury never heard the voice on the 911 recording, a voice that did not fit with the FBI-orchestrated prosecution scenario. Although it took three days of deliberation to reach a verdict, the jury convicted Poindexter and Rice; however, the jury spared their lives and ruled out execution. Rice, who became Mondo in prison, died at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in March 2016. Poindexter remains imprisoned at the maximum-security prison where he continues to proclaim his innocence. /This article contains excerpts from /FRAMED: J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO & the Omaha Two story /by Michael Richardson,/ /available in print at Amazon and in ebook at Kindle . Permission granted to reprint./ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 18 11:10:25 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2018 08:10:25 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Occupation Forces Kill Palestinian Prisoner Mohammad al Rimawi in Morning Raid Message-ID: http://www.addameer.org/news/occupation-forces-kill-prisoner-mohammad-al-rimawi-morning-raid Occupation Forces Kill Prisoner Mohammad al Rimawi in Morning Raid 18 September 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association holds the occupation responsible for the death of prisoner Mohammad Zegrlool al Khateeb al Rimawi (24 years old) from Beit Reyma, in Ramallah governate. Following his arrest this morning, he was severely beaten by occupation soldiers and special forces to the point of passing out. There is a distinct necessity to investigate the circumstances of his death. According to information collected by Addameer?s documentation unit, from the victim?s brother. At around 4 in the morning, Israeli special forces entered the house. Following their arrival, a larger number of regular soldiers arrived as back up. After removing the door to the house, the soldiers attacked the individual?s mother and brought the members of the family into one part of the house. This included the mother, the father and three sons. The soldiers took Mohammad into a separate room, where he was beaten into an unconscious state. He was taken away from the house while in such a state, and taken to an unknown location. After two hours, his family was informed of their son?s death. It was added that the dead had been shot in the leg two years ago during clashes in the village. This case represents a continuation of the occupation?s policy of utilizing excessive force in the arrest of Palestinians. Additionally, this excessive force, in the case of killing, amounts to the unlawful killing of a civilian population. These actions enjoy full immunity and support by the political, judicial, and security arms of the occupying state. Mohammad?s death is a direct result of such excessive use of force against civilians, in contravention to international human rights and humanitarian law. It is the case that in this instance, al Rimawi did not constitute a real or direct threat meaning that resorting to deadly force constitutes an extrajudicial killing. This is in contrary with the status of the occupied population as ?protected person?. Addameer calls on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres , to form a commission of inquiry into unlawful killings perpetrated by the occupation forces. Additionally, Addameer urges the formation of an inquiry into the treatment, including the systematic utilization of torture, and conditions of prisoners held in the occupation prisons. By allowing continued impunity for the occupying state, the international community sends the message that its violations against the Palestinian people can continue indefinitely without consequence. It asserts that, in fact, the occupation is above international legal standards. Since 1967, there have been 217 prisoners who have died while under the custody of the occupation. 78 of these where murdered, 7 were killed by gunshots while in prison, 59 were killed due to medical negligence, and 73 died as a result of torture. Additionally, 111 Palestinian prisoners have been killed since 3 October 1991, the date on which the occupation signed and ratified the Convention against Torture. This figure includes 56 individuals who were killed following arrest, 32 who died of medical neglect, and 23 who died due to torture while under interrogation. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Tue Sep 18 17:10:52 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:10:52 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] A Way Out - Abolishing Death By Incarceration in Pennsylvania Message-ID: http://abolitionistlawcenter.org/2018/09/18/a-way-out-abolishing-death-by-incarceration-in-pennsylvania/ Abolishing Death By Incarceration in Pennsylvania ? Abolitionist Law Center September 18, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *New Data: Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Lead the Nation and World in Life Without Parole Sentences* */Comprehensive Study Shows that Life Without Parole Sentences in Pennsylvania are Imposed on the Young with Alarming Racial Disparities/* (Pittsburgh, PA) Philadelphia County has 2,694 people serving life without parole sentences (LWOP), which is more than any other county in the United States and far more than any other country in the world, according to a new data analysis released today by the Abolitionist Law Center. /A/ /Way Out: Abolishing Death By Incarceration in Pennsylvania /[Full Report ] [Abridged Report ] found Pennsylvania has 5,346 people serving LWOP, making the state a national leader in the use of the punishment; only Florida, with twice the population, has more people serving LWOP. State Representative Jason Dawkins and State Senator Sharif Street have filed legislation that would allow parole eligibility for all lifers after 15 years of incarceration. The report refers to life without parole as ?Death by Incarceration? (DBI). Key findings include: * Most of the people serving DBI were convicted and sentenced when they were 25 or younger, a period of life when brain development and maturation remains ongoing, according to recent neuroscientific research. * More than 70 percent of those serving DBI are over 40 and nearly half (2,377 people) are over 50. The practice continues even though research shows that criminal activity drops significantly after age 40 and despite the fact that locking up a person over 55 is two to three times more expensive. * ?Black Pennsylvanians are serving DBI at a rate */_more than 18 times higher_/*?than that of their white counterparts. Out of Philadelphia?s 2,694 people serving DBI, 84 percent are Black. In Allegheny County, 13 percent of the county?s residents are Black, but constitute 76 percent of those serving DBI sentences (409 out of 541 people). ?This report presents a definitive portrait of a punishment that is archaic, cruel, unjustified, and indefensible,? said Bret Grote, Legal Director of the Abolitionist Law Center and co-author of the report. ?Death by incarceration sentences do not keep the public safer. The human and economic costs are staggering and growing by the year, as thousands of aging, rehabilitated men and women are locked away needlessly. Fortunately, there is also a rapidly growing movement determined to make parole eligibility for all lifers a reality.? In all cases involving defendants 18 years of age or older, Pennsylvania law does not allow for individualized consideration of a defendant?s circumstances; instead it mandates automatic DBI sentences to many who never actually killed or intended to kill anyone. As the report states, DBI is ?a failed policy predicated upon the fallacy that the trajectory of a person?s life ? including their capacity for rehabilitation, transformation, and redemption ? can be accurately predicted at the time of sentencing.? Avis Lee is an example of a person serving a DBI sentence because none of the particulars of her case were taken into consideration at sentencing ? and may have made a difference. Ms. Lee has served 38 years of a DBI sentence due to a robbery committed by her brother that tragically went wrong and someone lost his life. Ms. Lee was only 18 years old and had been told by her brother to serve as a look out during a robbery. Ms. Lee had turned to drugs and alcohol after a childhood riddled with sexual abuse, violence, poverty, and the death of her mother. After the shooting, she flagged down a bus and told the driver a man was injured. For more than 25 years, she has had no disciplinary infractions in prison. Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Superior Court agreed to hear her claim that her mandatory life sentence was disproportionate because of her youth. There is hope for Ms. Lee, though not many others. The Philadelphia DA?s Office is considering reviewing certain cases of excessive sentences, including mandatory life without parole sentences, and will pursue a lesser sentence when legally viable. The trend toward electing reform-oriented, less punitive district attorneys across the country could lead to similar efforts at sentence review being implemented in DA offices on a national scale. ### The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States. http://abolitionistlawcenter.org/ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 19 11:24:58 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 08:24:58 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Al Moscabiyeh Prison: Torture in the Heart of Jerusalem Message-ID: http://www.addameer.org/publications/al-moscabiyeh-torture-heart-jerusalem Al Moscabiyeh: Torture in the Heart of Jerusalem 19 September 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Throughout the period of 2015 to 2017, Addameer collected testimonies from 138 individuals who were held under interrogation in Al Moscobiyeh interrogation centre in the Russian Compound of Jerusalem. These findings were turned into the forthcoming report I?ve Been There: A Study of Torture and Inhumane Treatment in Al-Moscobiyeh Interrogation Center. For generations of Palestinians, the Russian Compound has represented the most severe interrogation facility in all of the occupied territory. It has been the place of intentionally inflicted suffering for hundreds of prisoners. Its location in the heart of Jerusalem, next to the Old City, is something of a metaphor for the whole apparatus of the occupation. The domination is hidden in plain sight. The Russian Compound was built by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in 1864, sponsored by the Caesar of Russia, to cater for Russian pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 1917, the British took the compound and turned a number of buildings into the police headquarters and an interrogation facility. The facility has been continuously used for such purposes until this day. Torture in International Law The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defined the term "torture" to mean: any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. This is the definition which was applied throughout the research, and is the foundation for Addameer?s assertion that the occupation routinely engages in the practice of torture. Torture under Occupation Despite the Orwellian double talk around the issue, torture is a widespread and common phenomena in Palestine. The veil of apparent ?civility?, which the occupiers seek to hide behind, hides a systematic attempt at dominating an indigenous people. The Israeli security forces continue to use the violation of the rights to physical safety and inherent dignity as a means to pressure Palestinians to submit totally to the occupation. This activity utilizes the legal cover provided by the Israeli Supreme Court decision in 1999. In this case, the Court recognized that the Israeli Security Agency, commonly known as Shin Bet or Shabak, did in fact commonly practice torture, and ruled that it could no longer use ?moderate physical pressure? on suspects under interrogation. However, it allowed the use of torture and physical pressure in the case of a ?ticking bomb? scenario, where security officials believe that a suspect is withholding information that could prevent an impending threat to civilian lives as stated in Article 1/34 of the Israeli Penal Code of 1972 . This exception constitutes a grave legal loophole that legitimizes the continuation of torture and cruel treatment by Shabak interrogators against individuals suspected of withholding information on ?militant operations?, and provides interrogators with legal impunity for their actions. This ruling was further developed by the case of Abu Gosh Vs. the Attorney General. In September of 2007, the Israeli forces arrested As?ad Abu Gosh who was later interrogated by the Shabak. During interrogation, the agents used excessively cruel methods, which amounted to torture, causing Abu Gosh severe physical and psychological ramifications. The methods included: beating, slamming against the wall, forcing him into a stress position where he was squatting while bending the tips of his toes, as well as the banana stress position, which includes shackling the hands and feet behind the back and stretching his body into a banana shape. Abu Gosh also suffered from forceful bending of limbs, sleep deprivation, and severe psychological stress by threatening to bomb his house and harm his family if he did not confess or cooperate with the interrogators. In December 2017, the High Court found that this did not amount to torture, and was in keeping with the ruling of 1999. Such a decision provides distinct guidelines on what techniques are allowed by Israeli law as well as enshrining the right of the occupation security services to torture. Practices of Al Moscobiyeh By conducting interviews with those who had been, or currently were being, held inside Al Moscobiyeh, Addameer was able to get a clear picture of what goes on inside of this facility. The sheer majority of individuals held there were arrested during the early hours of the morning (58%), and from their homes (75%). The majority were arrested by soldiers (67.5%), with the remainder being arrested by a mix of special forces, intelligence officers, and presenting themselves at police stations. A large portion (77.5%) of these individuals were arrested without warrants, and 88.5% were unaware of the location that they would be taken to. The average person is thus taken from their homes, with no warrant against them and no idea of their fate. In transport, individuals are blindfolded (66.3%) and handcuffed with plastic ties (75%). They are often beaten (42.5%), and struck with the weapons of the soldiers (28.8%). The released prisoner A.Z., 18 years old, stated that during his arrest Israeli soldiers hit him twice on the head with their M-16 automatic weapons, which resulted in him losing consciousness for a short period of time during arrest. Once and individual arrives to the facility, there are 8 distinct forms of torture that they may endure. These include: 1. Positional Torture such as ?stress positions?; 2. Beatings during interrogation; 3. Isolation/Solitary Confinement 4. Sleep Deprivation and long interrogation 5. Threats to family members; 6. Being subjected to sounds of torture; 7. Deliberate Medical Neglect. 8. Screaming and Cursing.? The most commonly used of these techniques involves the individual being placed in solitary confinement (83.5%), being verbally threatened, screamed at, and cursed at (95.9%), and being threatened with administrative detention (70.9%). In addition to these techniques, 58% of those surveyed reported being held in stress positions. Prisoner M.B., 18 years old, is one such case. Throughout his time in Al Moscabiyeh, he was held for 8 hours a day, in a stress position for 18 days. Close to a third of prisoners (30.8%) reported being beaten while being held in al Moscabiyeh. Prisoner T.D., 22, said that during one interrogation session, a heavily built interrogator put his hands together and hit T.D. on the head, which knocked him unconscious; the interrogator took pictures of him while lying on the floor. Despite the pain, T.D. was interrogated for seven more days, during which his hands and feet were bound and wasn?t allowed to use the bathroom. In regards to sleep deprivation, the technique remains common with 59.5% of individuals reporting that they were subjected to it. Such deprivation is achieved through extended interrogation sessions, subjecting detainees to screams from neighboring cells, and continuous knocking on the cell doors to prevent them from falling asleep, especially in the early stages of interrogation. All of these tactics result in severe psychological and physical damages. Detainee E.D., 23 years old, suffered extensive sleep deprivation and was held in a stress position for a prolonged period of time. His hands were bound with in metal handcuffs, which were shackled underneath to the back of the chair. His interrogation sessions were excessively long, with one particular session lasting up to 50 consecutive hours. It must be noted that even the Israeli High Court recognizes some of the above techniques to constitute torture, in the sense that they are banned except in ?ticking bomb? cases. One particularly acute example of these is the shaking technique. This technique is considered one of the most dangerous torture methods utilized currently by the occupation. Over one fifth (21.5%) of individuals reported being subjected to it. When individuals are not in interrogation sessions, they are returned to a 2 by 2 meter cell, which has a thin mattress, a hole in ground for a toilet, and a tap. The walls of the cell are covered in a material which makes them painful to rest against. Usually, the cells have an air conditioner, which is set to either too cold or too hot, dependant on the season. Female and Child prisoners at Al-Moscobiyeh On top of the ?usual? torture and intimidation methods that are used on everyone, female prisoners are also subjected to gendered interrogation. In this regard, interrogators often use children as a pressure mechanism on female prisoners who are mothers. Additionally, sexual harassment is common, whether it be verbal or physical. These prisoners are also often denied access to shower and basic hygiene products, as well as changing clothes. Even when the facilities themselves are provided, prisoners are to shower in areas with cameras.Due to this lack of privacy, many women refuse. Children are no exception when it comes to mistreatment and intimidation. They are arrested or kidnapped in the early hours of the morning, and are subsequently mistreated, threatened, ?and beaten up on their way to the interrogation center. 47.8% of the children in this report sample reported that they were beaten during their arrest. 45.5% reported that they experienced shabeh, a form of positional torture,during interrogation and 40.9% were threatened with the potentially injuring of their families if they did not cooperate. Conclusion & Recommendations The primary conclusion that the above research and indicators provide is that mistreatment, and coercion, amounting to torture, are commonplace and systematic within the occupation?s interrogation systems. These are not ?rogue agents?, but are rather individuals working in positions of power in service of the occupying authority against an indigenous population. As a result of torture?s status in international law, the international community has a distinct responsibility to take action to sanction the perpetrating entity. As dictated in the latest commentary on the 1st Geneva Convention, such action can include condemnation all the way up to economic sanction. Since these sort of activities have been ongoing for the past 70 years, we at Addameer urgently call on the international community to begin sanctioning the occupier for its crimes against the Palestinian people, first and foremost, and international norms. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 20 10:43:17 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2018 07:43:17 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Israel Prevents Lawyer From Visiting Hunger Striking Prisoner Khader Adnan Message-ID: http://imemc.org/article/israel-prevents-pps-lawyer-from-visiting-hunger-striking-detainee-khader-adnan/ Israel Prevents PPS Lawyer From Visiting Hunger Striking Detainee Khader Adnan September 20, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Palestinian Prisoners? Society (PPS) has reported, Thursday, that the administration of the al-Jalama Israeli detention facility, declined a request by one of its lawyers to visit with hunger striking detainee, Khader Adnan . In a statement, PPS lawyer Saleh Ayyoub, said that Adnan is ongoing with his strike for the 19^th consecutive day. Ayyoub added that the PPS conducted all legal measures to arrange for this visit, but once he arrived at the facility, the administration claimed Adnan?s medical condition prevents him for visits. The PPS said that Israel frequently prevents lawyer from visiting with hunger striking detainees, in addition to repeatedly transferring the detainees to various prisons, and constantly makes up justifications to prevent such visits. It is worth mentioning that Adnan, 40, from Arraba town, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, started the hunger strike on September 2^nd , protesting his continued detention under Administrative Detention orders, without charges. Adnan has previously held two major hunger strikes. One was a 66-day long hunger strike, in 2012, and another lasted 55 days, in 2015, in protest of his administrative detention. In related news, the PPS said that three other detainees are also ongoing with hunger strikes; Omran al-Khatib, 60, from Jabalia in northern Gaza, started the strike 47 days ago, demanding early release after spending 21 years of a 45-year prison sentence, and is suffering from various health issues, including Coagulation, high blood pressure, a chronic stomach disease, high cholesterol and cartilage in the spine. Detainee Jawad Jawareesh, 36, from Bethlehem, is protesting solitary confinement in Hadarim prison, after he was transferred there from Asqalan prison. He was taken prisoner 17 years ago, and was sentenced to a life term and 30 years in prison. The third detainee, Ismael Oleyyan, 27, from Bethlehem, started the hunger strike three days ago, protesting being held under an Administrative Detention order. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 20 11:20:05 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:20:05 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] A Border Patrol Whistleblower Speaks Out About Culture of Abuse Against Migrants Message-ID: https://theintercept.com/2018/09/20/border-patrol-agent-immigrant-abuse/ ?Kick Ass, Ask Questions Later?: A Border Patrol Whistleblower Speaks Out About Culture of Abuse Against Migrants John Washington - September 20, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _The 4-year-old_ boy and his parents had been lost for days in the desert and were desperately thirsty. Mario, a new Border Patrol officer, had received a call that there were migrants in the area and went out looking for them near the village of Menagers Dam, or Ali Ak Chin, on the Tohono O?odham reservation in Arizona. It was nearly dawn when Mario first spotted the mother in a wash. The family readily gave themselves up, and the woman told Mario that they needed water. ?They were pretty banged up,? Mario told The Intercept. ?They were in distress.? He alerted his superior officer to his location. Just as the?officer was arriving on the scene, Mario handed the?4-year-old boy a jug of water. Before the boy could take a sip, however, the?officer kicked the jug out of the child?s hands and barked, ?There?s no amnesty here.? He then reprimanded Mario for offering him water, warning him, ?Don?t go south on me.? In other words, don?t show an ounce of sympathy for those from below the border. Mario said he was shocked and offended by the officer?s actions. But it was just one of many incidents of brutality that he would witness during his two years with the Border Patrol, about which he is speaking out for the first time. The Intercept is identifying Mario by a pseudonym because he still works for a federal agency, and fears that using his name would lead to reprisals and jeopardize his job. A military veteran, Mario enlisted in the Border Patrol in 2009 and resigned in 2011. Although he has been out of the Border Patrol for years, his account sheds light on practices that reportedly continue today, and provides a rare insight into the culture of an agency that has been rhetorically emboldened by the Trump administration and promised more money, personnel, and technology to carry out aggressive border enforcement. In wide-ranging conversations, Mario discussed assaults and other abuses against migrants, a lack of effective oversight, and a disturbing culture of dehumanization in the agency. He says that he has decided to step forward to tell the American public about conduct he found embarrassing, cruel, and unregulated. The Intercept has not been able to corroborate all of the specific details of Mario?s claims, but two other former personnel who have spoken publicly about problems with the agency ? James Tomsheck, the former head of internal affairs for Customs and Border Protection, and Francisco Cant?, author of a recent Border Patrol memoir , who served in the same station as Mario ? say that his stories line up with their knowledge and experiences. They are also corroborated by complaints filed by migrants and allegations published by NGOs and news outlets. Mario confirmed his position in the agency with photographs of himself in uniform, old ID cards, serial numbers of BP-issued gear, as well as detailed knowledge of the area in Arizona where he was posted, Ajo station in the Tucson sector. As the part of Customs and Border Protection, the nation?s largest federal law enforcement agency, the Border Patrol is notoriously opaque. Most of its actions occur in locked-door stations, holding facilities, or remote desert regions inaccessible to the public, journalists, and lawmakers . There have been few front-line agents willing to speak to the press. ?The Green Line of silence is higher and wider than it?s ever been before,? Tomsheck told The Intercept, referring to the implicit Border Patrol pact not to speak publicly about what happens in the field. There is ?a clear understanding on the part of the rank and file in the Border Patrol that if they should engage in whistleblower activities, or do anything to promote transparency, that they would be retaliated against in a way that would likely end their career.? Though Mario?s run with the Border Patrol is over, he told The Intercept that he could not stand by as he watched reports that the kind of abuses he witnessed continue. In just the past year, Border Patrol agents fatally shot an unarmed woman and have reportedly threatened to rape children in their custody. Evidence also emerged that agents regularly dissuade potential asylum-seekers from asking for protection, and slash bottles of water left out for people crossing in the desert. What finally spurred Mario to come forward was the January arrest of Scott Warren , a humanitarian aid activist, for allegedly ?harboring illegal aliens.? Warren was a volunteer who provided food, water, and clothing to migrants, and when Mario read about him in the news, he thought it was clear that Warren was trying to ?stop the deaths? in the desert. He said he wasn?t surprised that the Border Patrol targeted Warren ? ?it?s just the nature of the beast? ? but wished there was something he could do. So he decided to speak out. _?Kick ass, ask_ questions later.? That was the mentality of the Border Patrol when Mario signed up and was dispatched to the remote desert region near Ajo, Arizona. In the years Mario was stationed there, Ajo was among the busiest migrant crossing and drug trafficking corridors in the country, which agents referred to, Mario said, as ?the wild wild West.? According to his descriptions, Border Patrol agents conducted themselves much like the lawless and violent cowboys and colonizers that preceded them. Mario claimed that the same?officer who?d kicked the water bottle out of the child?s hands also ordered others to slash water bottles left out by humanitarian aid groups for thirsty migrants. Around late 2009, Mario was with a group of agents, including trainees and two senior officers, when they spotted aid workers leaving gallons of water along a migrant trail. The agents waited for the aid workers to leave, and then, referring to the water as ?tonk water? ? ?tonk? is common Border Patrol slang, and comes from the noise a flashlight supposedly makes when thudding against a migrant?s head ? the senior officer told the trainees who were with him, ?If I were you, I?d take care of it.? Three agents then walked to where the jugs were, ?took their Leathermans out, and just sliced them open.? The officer both gave the order and saw that the agents slashed the bottles. Mario said this was typical ? and so was pouring out migrants? water and dumping out their food when?they dropped their bags to run from the Border Patrol. I asked him if this was something that he had been ordered or trained to do. ?Yeah, you just dump it [the food and water] out. Cut it. Step on it,? he said. Mario?s account adds to evidence gathered by the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, which released a report this year documenting thousands of vandalized water bottles between 2012 and 2015, and video of more recent incidents (I volunteered with the organization and was part of the team that wrote the report. After the report was published, nine volunteers with No More Deaths were hit with federal charges for leaving water in a federal wilderness preserve ? including Warren , the academic whose arrest motivated Mario to come forward.) The Border Patrol?s?rationale for destroying supply drops was that if they deprived migrants of water and food, they would have to turn themselves in. Taking away water in the desert, however, means putting lives in serious danger; 412 migrants were found dead along the border in 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration, and over 7,000 bodies have been discovered over the past two decades. _?Tonk? was a_ part of everyday lexicon in the agency, said Mario. ?Agents would laugh, joke around, [and ask], ?How many tonks did you catch today??? He explained that ?they laugh about this because if you use an intermediate weapon like [pepper] spray, Taser, or a baton, policy says you have to write a memo. But if you use a flashlight, you don?t have to write a memo, so it was always common knowledge:?Use your flashlight.? Besides ?tonk water,? agents also used the term ?tonk lover? to refer to humanitarian aid volunteers. Drug smugglers were ?backpackers,? and migrants in distress seeking to turn themselves in were referred to as ?give-ups.? Mario described a sense of competitiveness: Arresting ?give-ups? was seen as less impressive than arresting ?backpackers? or seizing drugs. Border Patrol agents labeled ?pretty much ? all immigrants as criminals and animals,? Mario said. ?Tuning up? migrants meant to rough them up before bringing them back to the station. Agents were trained in how to ?break? migrants so they?would divulge who among them?was the guide. ?You have to put fear in them,? Mario said. The officer that trained him repeatedly explained to Mario and his unit that ?sometimes you need to operate in the gray.? Mario said that an agent once boasted about handcuffing two migrants together around a saguaro cactus as the agent searched for drugs. (Cant? told me he?d heard similar stories.) In another incident he witnessed, a burly senior officer, without provocation, repeatedly kicked three male migrants, trying to force a confession about drug trafficking. The agent, according to Mario, ?laid [the migrants] on the floor,? and then began ?kicking the guys asking them where the dope was. Kept kicking them, kept kicking them.? No confession came, and no drugs were found. His field training officer repeatedly explained to Mario and his unit that ?sometimes you need to operate in the gray.? Mario said that when he was in the Border Patrol academy, it was taught that ?as soon as [migrants] pick up a rock and it goes over their head, you can light them up however you want. It?s fair game.? By ?light them up,? he meant shoot to kill. The Border Patrol says it has made its guidelines for the use of force more restrictive in recent years, but there have still been recent instances of fatal shootings, including the killing of Claudia Patricia G?mez Gonz?lez, a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman who was shot at the border in Texas this May. The Border Patrol initially described Gonz?lez as part of a group of ?assailants??that had attacked an agent ?using blunt objects.? Later statements contradicted that account . _Under the Trump_ administration, the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection have been accused of illegally turning back asylum-seekers , spreading falsehoods about the asylum process, or not following the proper procedures to determine if someone is afraid of returning to their home country. According to Mario, this latter practice used to be common. Agents refer to the processing of migrants at Border Patrol stations as ?rolling? them; it includes taking migrants? basic biographical information, cataloguing their property, and then fingerprinting and photographing them. Customs and Border Protection protocol says that agents should also try to determine whether the migrant might have an asylum claim, even if they don?t ask for protection outright. According to the policy, they should ?explore any statement or indications, verbal or nonverbal, that the alien actually may have a fear of persecution or torture on return to his or her country.? The agents must also ?fully advise? the migrant of the asylum process. ?We never ask that,? Mario said. ?We were just, ?What?s your name? Is this your real name?? What country they?re from ?? When I pointed out that Border Patrol agents were obligated to ask about potential asylum claims, he responded: /?/Yeah, you are. But it?s kind of like ? We would kind of lead the witness,? convincing migrants to agree to ?voluntary return ,? a quick deportation process that only Border Patrol can perform, which requires minimal paperwork and yet may negatively impact future claims for legal status in the United States. I asked if he had been trained or coached in ?leading the witness.? ?Well yeah,? Mario said, ?you?re kind of thrown in, like baptism under fire. They don?t give you a class in processing aliens. The guy that you?re relieving tells you, Hey, this is what you?re going to do, this is how I do it.? _The abuse Mario_ witnessed wasn?t only directed at migrants. Mario said that the same abusive senior officer?had once humiliated and then physically assaulted a junior agent in his training unit. It was common for the?officers?in charge of training to force the junior agents to draw maps of the area they had been working in; one day, one of the agents was having a hard time with the task, so the?officer?called the agent to the front of the class and began to berate and punch him. ?I mean closed fist, pound him right on the chest, like, ?Are you not getting this??? Mario said. ??Are you stupid? What is wrong with you? You need to quit. You?re not built for this. You?re an idiot. I don?t want you in my patrol,?? Mario remembers him saying. The assault continued to the point where the junior agent fell back and shattered a fire extinguisher?s glass panel. ?I was kind of shocked,? Mario said, ?and I knew that if I stepped in, that I would be next, so I kind of left it at that.? But the incident didn?t sit right, and Mario decided to report it to the Office of Inspector General. He called the watchdog?s office in Los Angeles and explained to an agent over the phone not only about the assault, but also about other?officers encouraging agents to commit time-sheet fraud and manipulate the fuses on their trucks so they could drive at night without headlamps (Mario did not file a written complaint, but The Intercept has viewed his notes showing dates, phone numbers, and the names of the people he contacted. Tomsheck also said he?d seen reports of ?inappropriately aggressive? behavior in training sessions.) A few weeks later, according to Mario, a representative from the Inspector General came to speak to his unit, interviewing all the agents except for Mario. The investigative method singled him out and ?ever since,? Mario explained, ?I was kind of like the pariah in the station, and I felt like I was targeted.? The issues were not only with?one particular officer, Mario said. He pointed to the horse patrol, saying that it was ?notorious for beating up illegals. ? Most of those guys were under investigation for use of?force.? When abusive officers were disciplined, they were usually temporarily reassigned to the ?rubber-gun squad? ? desk or garage jobs ? ?and then you?d be clear and you?d be back on duty.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 20 11:45:57 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:45:57 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] 'Treating protest as terrorism': US plans crackdown on Keystone XL activists Message-ID: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/20/keystone-pipeline-protest-activism-crackdown-standing-rock?CMP=share_btn_fb 'Treating protest as terrorism': US plans crackdown on Keystone XL activists Will Parrish and Sam Levin - Thu 20 Sep 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Angeline Cheek is preparing for disaster. The indigenous organizer from the Fort Peck reservation in Montana fears that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline could break and spill, destroy her tribe?s water, and desecrate sacred Native American sites. But environmental catastrophe is not the most immediate threat. The government has characterized pipeline opponents like her as ?extremists? and violent criminals and warned of potential ?terrorism?, according to recently released records. The documents suggested that police were organizing to launch an aggressive response to possible Keystone protests, echoing the actions against the Standing Rock movement in North Dakota. There, officers engaged in intense surveillance and faced widespread accusations of excessive force and brutality . ?We have to stay one step ahead at all times,? said Cheek, a Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota activist and teacher. ?History is repeating itself.? The proposed TransCanada project would carry a daily load of 830,000 barrels of oil over 1,204 miles ? from Alberta, Canada to Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska , linking to the existing Keystone pipeline and Texas refineries. The path of the project, which was revived by Donald Trump last year , would cross dozens of rivers and streams and run near a number of Native American reservations, sparking legal challenges and a judge?s recent order for a full environmental review. If the pipeline gets final approvals and construction advances in the coming months, some are anticipating massive demonstrations similar to the fight against the Dakota Access pipeline (Dapl). That conflict galvanized a global movement , but also led to FBI monitoring and the prolonged prosecution of hundreds of activists. Documents obtained by the ACLU of Montana and reviewed by the Guardian have renewed concerns from civil rights advocates about the government?s treatment of indigenous activists known as water protectors. Notably, one record revealed that authorities hosted a recent ?anti-terrorism? training session in Montana. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency also organized a ?field force operations? training to teach ?mass-arrest procedures?, ?riot-control formations? and other ?crowd-control methods?. A US justice department intelligence specialist told the Guardian the terrorism training was an annual presentation not specific to Keystone. But the ACLU noted that its records request was specifically about the pipeline protests, suggesting that authorities considered the session relevant to Keystone preparation. The repeated mass at Standing Rock led to a litany of charges, but hundreds were eventually dismissed due to lack of evidence. Police deployed water cannons , tear gas grenades , bean bag rounds and a wide array of weapons in North Dakota. ?Many of our residents were in Standing Rock, and they saw the level of violence that could be visited on us,? said Remi Bald Eagle, the intergovernmental affairs coordinator of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, which is located along the Keystone route. ?There?s a level of anxiety and fear because we don?t know what?s going to happen.? The ACLU of Montana, which filed a lawsuit this month against the government seeking Keystone records, earlier obtained a DHS report that said pipeline protesters were engaged in ?criminal disruptions and violent incidents?. The report included two past cases of alleged ?environmental rights extremists? committing violence. But the events in question ? a 2012 bombing and a 2015 shootout with police ? had no clear links to any environmental protests, said Mike German, a former FBI agent and fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice. ?Treating protest as terrorism is highly problematic,? said German, noting that the US government has long labeled activism as ?terrorism?, once claiming that filing public records requests was an ?extremist? tactic. ?It?s an effective way of suppressing protest activity and creating an enormous burden for people who want to go out and express their concerns.? The ?terrorist? and ?extremist? labels can be used to justify brutality and a militarized operation, said Andrea Carter, an attorney with the Water Protector Legal Collective, a group that has represented Standing Rock defendants. ?It?s a really egregious tactic,? she said, noting that the labels also lay the groundwork for prosecutors to turn low-level misdemeanor cases into federal felony trials. ?A lot of it has to do with public relations.? The Montana documents have also shone a light on the coordination between governments across state lines, raising questions about how extensively law enforcement was devoting resources to Keystone protests before they had materialized. An email from the Montana fish, wildlife and parks department from earlier this year said state officials had conducted ?extensive conversations with North Dakota to learn what worked and what didn?t work? when responding to Dapl demonstrations. Montana authorities have done further done training sessions on harnessing social media and have begun monitoring posts of anti-pipeline activists, a sheriff said at one meeting, according to a local news report. The records also highlighted the existing relationships between law enforcement and TransCanada. A county sheriff included a TransCanada executive on communications about one law enforcement training. In August 2017, the Montana Petroleum Association, a trade group, also hosted a panel on ?environmental activism? in the state, featuring three law enforcement officers alongside TransCanada?s senior security adviser. Rachel Lederman, a civil rights lawyer representing Standing Rock activists in a civil case, said it was alarming to see that law enforcement from North Dakota was giving advice about future pipeline protests: ?They are instant experts on quashing the indigenous insurgency. It?s very, very concerning, because what happened at Standing Rock was just a wholesale violation of civil rights.? John Barnes, a Montana justice department spokesman, defended the preparation efforts, saying in an email to the Guardian that authorities were committed to protecting ?the first amendment rights of everyone while also protecting private property and public safety?. He added: ?In North Dakota, bad actors associated with the Dakota Access pipeline protests maliciously targeted public officials and law-enforcement personnel online, and so it is important that people be prepared here.? Some activists said the law enforcement tactics would not deter them from Keystone opposition efforts ? whether in court or on the ground. ?We?ve got a lot against us. We?re the underdog,? said Lance Four Star, the Fort Peck Assiniboine council chairman, who recounted a recent incident of harassment and heckling by a pro-pipeline, pro-Trump group while the tribe was doing a ceremony. ?I may never see the results of my efforts in my lifetime, but hopefully our grandchildren will. What we?re protecting now is this water we inherited.? Peck said she was also concerned about a potential increase in violence against indigenous women , stemming from the ?man camps? where oil workers live. But the Montana wildlife department appeared to minimize this concern in one of the records, saying, ?Although man-camps bring a certain degree of law enforcement challenges, the primary enforcement focus is protest activity.? Organizers have discussed a ?variety of strategies? to oppose construction, including ?prayer camps? similar to Standing Rock, said Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member Joye Braun, who organized against Dapl and has been involved in Keystone efforts. ?Clearly, they?re scared of the power of our movement,? she said, adding that she accepted the reality that she may be under surveillance when she travels the pipeline route to meet activists. ?We haven?t gone anywhere, and we?re just building momentum.? Native Americans know the risks are immense. But the ?terrorism? label would not intimidate them, said Leoyla Cowboy, the wife of Little Feather, who was recently sentenced to three years in federal prison for ?civil disorder? at Standing Rock. ?As indigenous people, it?s embedded in our DNA. It?s our obligation to stand up.? -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Wed Sep 26 10:21:33 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 07:21:33 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Virgin Island Brothers Support Campaign Message-ID: https://mailchi.mp/jerichony.org/vi-brothers-support-campaign?e=e9f3d86b9a Virgin Island Brothers Support Campaign ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please pass on to all respective list serves - members, supporters, family and friends! *The campaign to free the Virgin Island 3, who have been locked up for 46 years, is kicking into high gear. Like many aging prisoners, they are experiencing increasing health problems and pose NO RISK to the society they?ve been locked away from for nearly half a century. Because Governor Mapp?s term is ending and he is up for re-election this November, *now* is the time to contact him to urge for commutation of their sentences. This is it; all hands on deck! * How you can help: 1) Write a letter [ideally mail it the first week of October] Please start by writing a letter to the Governor. This is also a good time to urge folks you know who care about social justice to get on board with this campaign! Suggested letter format: Governor Kenneth Mapp Government House 21-22 Kongens Gade Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas, VI 00802 ??????? Re: Warren Ballantine, Meral Smith, and Beaumont Gereau Introduce yourself. This could include comments about your job, family or work in the community, and give respect to the Governor's Office. Explain how you know their cases and/or how you may know them personally. Explain why you are concerned (if you are from the VI, explain how this affects your vote and if you are from elsewhere explain how commuting their sentences would positively influence society or your view of the VI). Some Issues are: 1. Length of time in prison 2. Their deteriorating medical conditions 3. Aging and getting old 4. No community threat (example: while they were housed in the St. Croix, they were actually allowed to go out in the community to religious services, sometimes unsupervised, with no issues) Implore the Governor to commute their sentences. Explain that you understand that he eluded to this before he was elected and at the beginning?of his term. Respectfully end your letter. 2) Fax your letter [ideally the second week of October]: Fax the letter you wrote to the Governor?s office at: (340) 693-4374 If you do not have a fax machine, you can send a free online fax using faxzero.com . 3) Email your letter [ideally the third week of October]: https://www.vi.gov/contact.html 4) Call the Governor?s office [as much and as often as possible until further notice] to ask if they received your letter/fax/email: Phone: (340) 774-0001 Leave messages urging Governor Mapp to make good on his promise to free the Virgin Island 3 ? Warren Ballantine, Meral Smith and Beaumont Gereau (these are the names the state recognizes them under)- by commuting their sentences and releasing them with time served. A few talking points if desired, but feel free to keep it short and sweet: ? After 46 years of incarceration, they are of seriously ailing health and are extremely unlikely to re-offend? Warren alone is on 6 different types of medication after a massive heart attack a year ago. ? It is costing the state a TON of money to continue to house them and pay for medical care. Keep up the pressure throughout November or until their sentences are commuted! When you can, drop one or all of the Virgin Island 3 a note telling them about the actions you took on their behalf. Warren Ballentine #16-047 Tallahatchie Correctional Facility 415 US Highway 49N Tutwiler, MS 38963 His name is Abdul Azeez, but address letter to Warren Ballentine Beaumont Gereau #16-001 Tallahatchie Correctional Facility 415 US Highway 49N Tutwiler, MS 38963 His name is Hanif Shabazz Bey, but address letter to Beaumont Gereau Meral Smith #16-024 Tallahatchie Correctional Facility 415 US Highway 49N Tutwiler, MS 38963 His name is Malik Smith, but address letter to Meral Smith Let's keep the pressure on and bring these brothers home! Via: * New York City Jericho Movement P.O. Box 670927 Bronx, NY 10467* -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Thu Sep 27 18:43:38 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2018 15:43:38 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] Pennsylvania prisoners launch boycott of new mail system privatized by prison profiteers Message-ID: https://www.workers.org/2018/09/25/inmates-in-pennsylvania-launch-boycott-of-prison-profiteers/ Pennsylvania prisoners launch boycott of new mail system privatized by prison profiteers September 25, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ */by /**/Ted Kelly/* ?I am going to boycott the third-party correspondence system,? Bryant Arroyo, an activist and organizer currently detained at SCI Frackville in central Pennsylvania, told this Workers World reporter during an extended Sept. 23 interview. Arroyo urges all prisoners to immediately cease sending and accepting mail in response to the draconian new prison policies of current Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Eliminating the right of prisoners to send and receive correspondence via postal service is the most controversial aspect of a sweeping crackdown imposed in September by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Prisoners will no longer be allowed to receive mail directly at state correctional facilities. Instead, their mail is being routed through a third-party company that rakes in profits from the enslavement of U.S. workers. The PDOC awarded a $4 million contract to Smart Communications, a Florida-based firm that bills itself as a ?family-owned business? with ?a reputation as the true innovator in the prison marketplace.? Under the contract, Smart receives all letters and photographs, photocopies them, stores the contents on its private servers and then forwards the photocopies to prisoners. Smart?s website boasts, ?We currently have over 50 clients worldwide.? That means the company is paid to seize, open and duplicate the private correspondence of prisoners held in over 50 U.S. facilities. Pennsylvania is the 19th state to hire the company. ?I have other means of communication,? said Arroyo, referring to the phone calls and emails he must pay for in order to talk to the outside world. ?I don?t have to comply with this policy, and I don?t want to. I don?t think our people should be subjected to it. And I don?t think the taxpayers? money is being well spent ? do you?? Arroyo urges all prisoners to immediately cease sending and accepting mail in response to the draconian new prison policies of current Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Bryant Arroyo has a long history of activism defending the rights and well-being of his fellow inmates. This has made him great friends and powerful enemies. In 2006, he organized a campaign of prisoners that scuttled plans to build a $400 million coal-gasification plant next to SCI Frackville ? a plant that would have poisoned the environment around the prison and the nearby community. This organizing earned him the ire of the head of the anthracite coal cartel, Jack Rich, and his corporate backers, like former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and the South African energy company Sasol. The successful movement also led political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal to dub Arroyo ?the world?s first jailhouse environmentalist.? *?When you?re backed into a corner, you fight to live?* Now Arroyo?s focus is on the PDOC crackdown implemented in the middle of the nationwide prison strike that took place from Aug. 21 to Sept. 9. ?Big Brother has invaded the DOC. We don?t have rights in here,? Arroyo explained to WW, ?only privileges.? Even the right to unfettered legal defense can be capriciously suspended without warning by state authorities. But Arroyo is intent on fighting for restoration of the precious few resources prisoners have to defend themselves: ?This is survival mode. When you?re backed into a corner, you fight to live.? This is why he is urging prisoners to boycott the mail. Arroyo?s boycott announcement comes as the American Civil Liberties Union and many public defenders have announced their intention to stop sending legal mail through the Pennsylvania prisons. But Arroyo is intent on fighting for restoration of the precious few resources prisoners have to defend themselves: ?This is survival mode. When you?re backed into a corner, you fight to live.? ?Every prisoner must act as an individual and as a collective front not to send mail to the third party,? he said. ?This is not only a breach of our privacy but a breach of attorney-client privilege.? Under the Smart system, all supposedly protected correspondence pertaining to prisoners? legal cases is handled ? and opened ? by prison staff. Copies are made and given to prisoners, but the originals are retained by the PDOC for 15 days, after which they are allegedly destroyed. Regular personal correspondence is stored on Smart servers for seven years. Video recordings of the mail-opening process are supposed to be purged every five days. ?But [the purging of legal correspondence] is a flat out lie,? said Arroyo. ?What they?re not telling you is that they?re keeping it. And they can use it against you at any point in the future.? The Innocence Project, the Abolitionist Law Center and the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project are partnering with the ACLU to bring a lawsuit against the PDOC for this unprecedented attack on attorney-client confidentiality, which they say is ?indefensible.? The for-profit privatization of the prison mail system is having a deadly, chilling effect on prisoners? legal right to private correspondence with their defense attorneys and on their much-needed human contact with the outside world. In the meantime, Arroyo urges his fellow inmates to follow his lead in communicating with legal teams and only set up urgent face-to-face visits: ?Everything except in-person contact is compromised.? Arroyo said the first piece of mail he received after the new policy began was a card that came in the form of photocopied sheets of paper: ?It was lifeless. It takes away the joy of receiving mail.? Arroyo also described the for-profit firm?s predictable failure to fulfill its contract. One inmate received a sheaf of papers that had photocopies of the front and back of an envelope ? and the rest of the pages were blank. ?They don?t want us to smile in here,? he said. The for-profit privatization of the prison mail system is having a deadly, chilling effect on prisoners? legal right to private correspondence with their defense attorneys and on their much-needed human contact with the outside world. *Isolation puts prisoners at risk* The prison crackdown is meant to exacerbate the breakdown of social ties caused by mass incarceration. Some friends and family are understandably scared to put themselves at the mercy of prison officials at a time of such intense repression. The day Arroyo called for the mail boycott, an older couple who came to visit a man?s brother was turned away because the woman was wearing a bra with a small metal clasp, which set off a metal detector. ?It?s straight-up sexual harassment,? he commented to WW. The ?no-bra? policy is apparently unique to SCI Frackville and reportedly not in force at other PDOC facilities. The prison crackdown is meant to exacerbate the breakdown of social ties caused by mass incarceration. The PDOC crackdown also included a punitive 90-day suspension of commissary food during visits. Friends and family are usually permitted to purchase from vending machines in the visiting room. Now a row of six machines stands completely empty at the back of the room. ?We literally can no longer break bread with our community,? said Arroyo. Visits with children are necessarily shorter when parents and guardians can?t buy them snacks. Without access to vending machine drinks, visitors are also subjected to the same water that prisoners are forced to drink, with little kids hoisted up to toxic water fountains to quench their thirst. The guards and prison staff still have access to bottled spring water and soda. The PDOC crackdown also included a punitive 90-day suspension of commissary food during visits. Many Pennsylvania prisons, including Frackville and Mahanoy in Schuylkill County, are situated in a coal mining and fracking region that has become known as a ?cancer cluster? site. Arroyo points out that Schuylkill has a remarkably high incidence of polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer caused by waterborne pathogens. Arroyo calls these health risks from the prison system ?environmental terrorism.? He himself is awaiting a second round of throat surgery to remove polyps growing on his vocal cords. He is confident these are the result of 25 years of drinking poisoned water in Pennsylvania prisons. Arroyo calls these health risks from the prison system ?environmental terrorism.? In the prison lobby, this reporter also witnessed two toddlers being subjected to the magnetic wanding and swabs meant to detect trace residue of narcotics, the same security protocols required of adult visitors. When Arroyo?s daughter called to plan a visit with her small children, he was compelled to tell her to wait until the punitive three-month visitor policy expires. ?I?m not going to subject my grandchildren to this.? *Democrats lead the crackdown on prisoners* Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf is just one of many new law-and-order Democrats who display a ruthless dedication to expanding the system of mass incarceration. This reactionary cadre includes Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and District Attorney Larry Krasner, as well as national figures like former California chief prosecutor Kamala Harris, now a U.S. senator from the state. Wolf also steadfastly refuses to hear demands from im/migrant rights activists demanding he issue an emergency order to close Pennsylvania?s Berks Family Detention Facility, which is under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Other immigrant and refugee concentration camps across the country are among the 50 facilities that Smart counts as ?clients.? Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf is just one of many new law-and-order Democrats who display a ruthless dedication to expanding the system of mass incarceration. ICE kidnappings, imprisonment and rampant abuse are defended under the guise of ?national security.? Similarly, Wolf?s strategy is to tie the crackdown on prisoners to ?security and safety? in state facilities, creating a strong obstacle to efforts to fight recent prison repression in the courts. Additionally, a poorly fabricated ?health crisis? among prison staff was the apparent excuse for an August lockdown. But staff accounts of being sickened by synthetic drugs transmitted through the mail system collapsed under public scrutiny. Arroyo notes that the PDOC appears to have concocted the ?health crisis? to justify smothering prison strike efforts in Pennsylvania, which coincided with the national strike Aug. 21 to Sept. 9. The emergency lockdown was implemented in late August. After the Labor Day weekend, the omnibus prison regulations were already being implemented, including a more repressive visitor policy estimated to cost the state an additional $15 million to put in place. Arroyo notes that the PDOC appears to have concocted the ?health crisis? to justify smothering prison strike efforts in Pennsylvania, which coincided with the national strike Aug. 21 to Sept. 9. Meanwhile, the commonwealth of Virginia under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has announced a similar set of repressive measures for its prisons. Warden David Call of Nottoway Correctional Center in Burkeville, Va., released a Sept. 20 memo that referred to ?feminine hygiene products being an ideal way to conceal contraband.? In an outrageous move that mirrors the Frackville ?no-bra? policy, he declared that ?the use of tampons and or menstrual cup hygiene items during visitation are prohibited.? (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sept. 24) The Virginia DOC memo continues: ?Offender visitors who have been recognized by the body scanner machine having a foreign object that could possibly be a tampon and has [sic] failed to remove such item prior to being screened, will have their visitation terminated for the day and will have their visitations privileges reviewed.? Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, another Democrat, failed to evacuate prisoners held in state facilities even as Hurricane Florence wreaked havoc across the state. *Fight repression, ?don?t give up?* Arroyo insists that we must see prisoners as individual human beings to fuel needed collective action. Millions of people are incarcerated in this country, which means millions more family members and friends are affected by this system. He urges his fellow inmates to continue to fight and to find people on the outside who will actually listen, not just cynical aspirants to elected office. Above all, he urges prisoners across the country not to give up. Arroyo himself is an innocent man who has been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he did not commit. He says: ?I could be bitter. But I choose not to take that path. Nah, that?s not what I want. They want you to mess up so they can put you in the hole. I don?t give them that privilege.? Arroyo insists that we must see prisoners as individual human beings to fuel needed collective action. Millions of people are incarcerated in this country, which means millions more family members and friends are affected by this system. Of his beloved daughter, Genesis, he says he ?raised her through the confines.? This summer he condensed a lengthy essay he wrote, ?A Dad?s Honor, a Daughter?s Dream,? and managed to get it down to 15 minutes. Then he called Genesis? wedding ceremony and read it as a toast to his daughter. Despite this particularly trying time of reaction and repression, Bryant Arroyo retains his optimism through one of his most contagious tactics: a sense of humor. ?You?ve heard the tune that goes, ?Video killed the radio star??? he asks, breaking into song. ?Well, the DOC killed the mail!? /Copyright ? 2018 Workers World, where //this story/ /first appeared. Workers World permits verbatim copying and distribution of articles in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. / -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Fri Sep 28 17:51:15 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:51:15 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?Lucasville_Prison_-_Keith_LaMar=E2=80=99s_atto?= =?utf-8?q?rneys_file_response_requesting_to_quash_execution_date_and_asse?= =?utf-8?q?rt_innocence?= Message-ID: http://www.lucasvilleamnesty.org/2018/09/keith-lamar-execution-motion-response.html?m=1 The Lucasville Uprising was a rebellion against oppressive and racist policies at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, OH. Nine inmates and one guard died during the uprising in April of 1993. Today, many people are serving time or condemned to death by the state of Ohio in relation to the uprising. We demand amnesty for all of these inmates. The conditions at SOCF were (and still are) intolerable and unconscionable. Keith LaMar Execution Motion Response Friday, September 28, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ?An execution date should not be scheduled because Mr LaMar?s death sentence is precisely the sort identified by the Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio?s Death Penalty. Mr LaMar?s conviction rests on prisoner testimony which is not independently corroborated; there is no physical or video evidence linking him to the crimes and he has always maintained his innocence. Evidence supporting Mr LaMar?s innocence is slowly coming to light after dogged efforts to unearth such proof following years of suppression.? -excerpt from motion. Keith LaMar?s attorneys filed this response to prosecutor Mark Piepmeier?s motion requesting an execution date. Piepmeier was lead attorney on the Lucasville Uprising cases, and largely responsible for egregious misconduct and deal-making that secured these convictions based on informant testimony and withheld evidence. He has a documented pattern of doing the same to other defendants . The response starts by pointing out ways that Keith?s case fits within recommendations made by the joint task force on death penalty cases , specifically: relying on uncorroborated snitch testimony, disproportionately targeting black people, and relying on evidence improperly withheld at trial. It goes on to detail that withheld evidence, including statements by trial witnesses and others that could easily cast reasonable doubt if not fully exonerate Keith if he were afforded a new trial. Reading this portion of the document, which describes violent events occurring in the first hours and days of the uprising, a few things may become clear. First, the State of Ohio has no idea what actually happened during the uprising. One of Piepmeier?s accomplice prosecutors even admits this in an interview for D Jones? documentary film, /The Shadow of Lucasville/. Second, the rank injustice of the US criminal legal system is unconscionable. This case has exhausted its appeals and is reaching an execution date, which means the highest courts have found such evidence inadequate to win a new trial, or impermissible for them to even hear. Such a system must be unconcerned with justice, and motivated by inferior drives. This is why we call for amnesty , for recognizing that the state was ultimately responsible for the deaths that occurred at their ?maximum security? prison in April of 1993. No more blood should be shed, lives taken or freedom denied in Ohio?s futile effort to scapegoat prisoners for the ODRC?s inability to keep peace, let alone rehabilitate or correct anyone in their prisons. In October of 2015, Keith?s previous council presented only some of these statements and arguments before the panel at his appeal, so this document is the first official entry of this evidence into the court record. At that time, the three judge panel found against Keith in a decision that seems both patently absurd, but sadly unsurprising to Keith and his supporters who witnessed the hearing. Keith was not allowed to attend the hearing that advanced his case toward execution, and has not yet been able to see and respond to this document, or Piepmeier?s motion for his execution date. Since September 17 when Piepmeier filed his motion, Keith has been spending time with close supporters and friends, continuing to focus on living his life despite restrictive supermax conditions of confinement, and not allowing the threat hanging over his head to dominate his time. If the supreme Court of Ohio ignores his lawyer?s motion approves Peipmeier?s request, Keith will likely be given a 2023 execution date. He intends to fight and defend himself against this murder the state has premeditated against him, but at a time and means of his choosing, to whatever degree possible. In the meantime, supporters can read the motions, Kieth?s book Condemned and other writings to deepen our understanding of his case and the dearth of justice in the State of Ohio. We can share the motion around, write about it, and encourage journalists and others to help tell Keith?s story. -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ppnews at freedomarchives.org Fri Sep 28 18:47:21 2018 From: ppnews at freedomarchives.org (Prisoner News) Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2018 15:47:21 -0700 Subject: [Pnews] =?utf-8?q?The_day_the_story_changed_about_the_Black_Pant?= =?utf-8?q?hers_and_an_Omaha_policeman=E2=80=99s_murder?= Message-ID: https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/the-day-the-story-changed-about-the-black-panthers-and-an-omaha-policemans-murder/ The day the story changed about the Black Panthers and an Omaha policeman?s murder September 28, 2018 - Michael Richardson ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Omaha Municipal Court preliminary hearing for Ed Poindexter and David Rice (later Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa) was called to order on September 28, 1970. Both defendants asked their murder cases be severed and tried separately but were denied. County Attorney Donald Knowles and Arthur O?Leary represented the prosecution, Public Defender A.Q. Wolf and Thomas Kenney represented Poindexter, with David Herzog representing Rice. The two men were leaders of Omaha?s affiliate chapter of the Black Panther Party called the National Committee to Combat Fascism. The pair were charged with the bombing murder of Omaha Patrolman Larry Minard, Sr. on August 11, 1970 . Peak confessed to planting the bomb and after six versions ended up implicating the Black Panther pair during his preliminary hearing testimony, however only after contradicting himself. Thomas Kenney later described the hearing held at Omaha City Hall. ?It was a few blocks from the Courthouse, but the preliminary hearing was a real circus. There was a mob of people there, and screaming and hollering. There were mobs of people, news media, pro-police factions, you know, a number of black people.? David Herzog began by immediately objecting to any testimony by Peak because he was a co-defendant, unreliable, and a minor. The judge overruled the objection stating he did not know anything about Peak. Arthur O?Leary asked Peak about seeing Ed Poindexter a week before the murder. Peak couldn?t remember. ?I don?t think I remember seeing him.? Peak also couldn?t remember seeing Poindexter at the American Legion on the Friday before the bombing as he earlier claimed. Peak couldn?t remember giving a deposition to O?Leary a month earlier where he purportedly did remember. Nor did Peak remember giving O?Leary a statement during an interrogation a week earlier. County Attorney Donald Knowles had enough and stopped the questioning. ?I note, Your Honor, from looking around the courtroom, that this witness? lawyer is not here. I would like your permission for a continuance to the time that we can get his lawyer here. I think he should be here with him.? When the preliminary hearing resumed in the afternoon, Knowles made a statement, apparently because Peak was still not ready to cooperate with the prosecution. ?I understand that the Court?s ruling was that we were allowed to withdraw the witness that was on the stand this morning due to the fact that he had taken us by surprise and we are allowed to proceed now with other witnesses.? Finally, in mid-afternoon, Duane Peak returned to the witness stand, wearing sun glasses. The /Omaha World-Herald /reported that Peak?s hands trembled and his answers were whispers. Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers interviewed Peak years later about the case and that day in court. Peak described removing his sunglasses upon instruction from the judge at the preliminary hearing. ?The stress and the pain and all that I went through, it showed in my face.? ?If you had known, you could have felt the inside of my heart, you know, it just like someone took a big bass drum and took it inside me and just started beating away. You know, I could feel like?uhh?as I sat on the witness stand, my heartbeat. I felt that everyone could see my entire body pulsating, you know. The way my heart was beating and I was under a lot of hurt and I was under a lot of stress. I had a big concern for my family. I didn?t want to see my family suffer for anything they had nothing to do with, and that was very important as well.? Peak admitted conferring with three people during the morning recess; his lawyer, his brother Donald, and his grandfather, Foster Goodlett. Objections were made against any further testimony by Peak because of the visits. The judge allowed Peak to testify. ?The young man is represented by competent counsel and I don?t know what he advised him but he has been represented and he has also conferred with his grandfather, who is a minister and whom I have known for a long time and I don?t know what advice he gave him but your motion is overruled and we will see what the defendant testifies to.? Unknown to the defendants or their attorneys, Donald Peak was a paid FBI informant who reported to Special Agent in Charge Paul Young and later to prosecutor O?Leary. Poindexter and Rice were targets of the clandestine COINTELPRO counterintelligence operation and the subject of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover?s personal attention. Donald Peak?s visit with his brother during the recess carried with it COINTELPRO taint. Peak?s testimony changed during the recess. Now Peak remembered a conversation outside NCCF headquarters with Ed Poindexter about a bomb. ?He called me outside and said he wanted to show me how to make a bomb.? Peak said Poindexter told him to meet that evening at Frank Peak?s house. ?He met me there with Rollie House.? Duane claimed that from Frank?s home he went with House and Poindexter to Mondo?s residence where Poindexter got out of the vehicle. ?We went up to Rollie House?s house. Rollie brought a suitcase out from the house.? Peak said House returned him to Mondo?s home where Peak claimed that Poindexter opened the suitcase to reveal dynamite. ?Poindexter took the dynamite out of the suitcase and put it in a box.? Peak?s story about construction of the bomb changed from his earlier versions. Peak said he and Mondo assisted Poindexter. Peak also said that Poindexter wanted to plant the bomb that night but couldn?t get a ride. According to Peak, at an encounter with Poindexter about 11:00 p.m. on Friday night at the American Legion Club, Peak was instructed to deliver the bomb to a vacant house on Ohio Street. Peak gave yet a different version of the bomb construction to Ernie Chambers. ?That thing was made in David?s basement. It was his basement.? Peak denied witnessing the construction of the bomb. None of Peak?s earlier versions of the crime supported his new claim to Chambers that the bomb was assembled outside his view in Mondo?s basement. At trial, the bomb was allegedly assembled by Poindexter in the kitchen while Peak watched on. Peak said he retrieved the suitcase and took it to Olivia Norris? house where he told his brother Donald to stay away from the suitcase. From there Peak took the suitcase to sister Delia?s apartment with sister Theresa giving him a ride. Under cross-examination by Thomas Kenney, Peak admitted telling the police a different story when first questioned. Peak said he was threatened with the electric chair during his first interrogation. David Herzog asked Peak about his arrest. Peak said he was taken to the police station where he met with police officers and one other person. ?There was one from the FBI.? ?The FBI arrested me,? testified Peak. Peak said police twice talked to him about being executed in the electric chair. ?They said I was sitting in the electric chair so I had better tell the truth.? ?I didn?t have a chance.? Peak admitted he had been coached about his confession by Arthur O?Leary in preparation for the hearing. Peak said his attorney was not present for the session with O?Leary. Herzog asked Peak to remove his sunglasses. Ernie Chambers was there and described the scene in an interview. ?When he came back in the afternoon, his face was swollen around his eyes, he had glasses on?.When Duane took his glasses off his eyes were red, you could see he had been crying, and there was an audible gasp in the courtroom.? ?His answers were scarcely audible. A young man who knew nothing about anything in the morning and suddenly gave the answers that the police, the prosecutors needed to implicate David and Ed.? Kenney asked for a dismissal of the charges. ?Your Honor, the case that the State has presented thus far was the testimony of a 16-year-old boy who admittedly was subjected to extensive psychological coercion on the part of the Omaha Police Department and therefore is unreliable.? Herzog also sought a dismissal. ?The witness has changed sides; has altered his story; has forgotten, claims to have forgotten some facts, and then comes back this afternoon and offers that testimony at the State?s own request and that witness has now impeached himself.? ?The confession itself or the statement here is of an unreliable nature; obviously coerced; obviously given under fear by the statement of the witness himself. He indicates he would give the police officer or police officers anything they wanted.? The case was continued to trial where in April 1971 the FBI obtained the conviction they sought. Peak stuck to his story, got his deal and never spent a day in prison. Raleigh House was never charged for allegedly supplying the suitcase and dynamite for the bomb. Rice was convicted and died at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in March 2016. Poindexter remains behind bars at the maximum-security prison where he continues to proclaim his innocence. The day after the preliminary hearing Peak wrote to Olivia Norris, a family friend, from his jail cell that he betrayed ?two bloods? and deserved a life sentence or execution. The letter, censored by the jail staff, was shown to prosecutors but kept from the defense. /This article is excerpted from the book /FRAMED: J. Edgar Hoover, COINTELPRO & the Omaha Two story . /The book is available in ebook by Kindle or print from Amazon . The book is available for local readers at the Omaha Public Library. Portions of the book are also online for free at NorthOmahaHistory.com ./ -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: