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<h1><small>Political or Gang Activity? “New Afrikan” Inmates in
Solitary Confinement</small></h1>
<div id="single-date" class="date">August 7, 2012</div>
</div>
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<div class="tags"><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://solitarywatch.com/2012/08/07/political-or-gang-activity-new-afrikan-inmates-in-the-shu/#more-6349">http://solitarywatch.com/2012/08/07/political-or-gang-activity-new-afrikan-inmates-in-the-shu/#more-6349</a></small><a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/tag/solitary-confinement/" rel="tag"></a></div>
<div class="author"> <span class="by-author"><span class="sep">by</span>
<span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n"
href="http://solitarywatch.com/author/sal2329/"
title="View all posts by Sal Rodriguez" rel="author">Sal Rodriguez</a></span>
</span> </div>
</div>
<p>Three African-American inmates in California Security Housing Unit’s
(Pelican Bay and Corcoran State Prison’s) have recently written to
Solitary Watch criticizing their continued isolation for being members
of the Black Guerilla Family, the only black prison gang in California
that will lead to placement in the SHU.</p>
<p>According to Mutope Duguma (legal name James Crawford) at Pelican
Bay, it’s his political views “that got me placed in solitary
confinement and labeled a BGF member, which I am not, but in order to
place you in solitary confinement IGI/ISU/OCS have to label you a BGF
if you’re a New Afrikan.”</p>
<p>He has been in solitary for over a decade. “My cell has a concrete
slab bed, the cell is white with a concrete brick slab for TV holding.
Toilet and sink connected all in one and the steel front panel door and
a white painted wall in front. No trees. No animals. No sun. No life.
Just prisoners isolated from the world,” he writes.</p>
<p>Life for men in the SHU is bleak, reports Duguma., “I get up at 5:30
AM, go to the yard when my rotation comes around for 90 minutes, then I
am back in my cell for the rest of the day.”</p>
<p>Inmates labeled BGF are routinely validated on the basis of their
political views. In a June 2012 ruling, the California Court of
Appeals found that Duguma’s political writings were wrongly used to
prevent outgoing mail to the <em>San Francisco Bay View</em>
newspaper. Duguma referred to himself as a “New Afrikan Nationalist
Revolutionary Man.”</p>
<p><span id="more-6349"></span></p>
<p>A Correctional officer intercepted the letter and sent a “Stopped
Mail Notification”, indicating that the letter “promotes gang
activity,” and that his writings were a reference to “ideology created
by the Black Guerilla Family.”</p>
<p>Stanford Professor James Campbell, after reading the letter, told
the court that Duguma is “a serious political thinker using terms such
as ‘New Afrikan’ and ‘New Afrikan Nationalist Revolutionary Man’ that
were ubiquitous in Black urban life in the 1960s and 1970s…”</p>
<p>The court ultimately ruled that “without any evidence showing the
letter to promote violence or otherwise threaten security, the
confiscation violates the First Amendment” and ordered that the letter
finally be sent to the <em>Bay View</em>.</p>
<p>According to accounts by men in California’s SHUs, drawings are also
used to justify the continued isolation of inmates. One common image
that is used to validate inmates is any drawing of a dragon. For the
BGF, one of their symbols is a dragon squeezing a prison guard tower.</p>
<p>According to J., an inmate at Corcoran State Prison:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A K-9 unit was allowed into our cells and spilled some coffee on a
Japanese cultural piece I’m doing for an auction to aid the Japanese
Tsunami Relief Fund which depicts the Sun Goddess Amazerasu releasing a
phoenix into the sky at sunrise over the Sea of Japan wearing a kimoni
with imperial dragons on it and a crown featuring the Japense Imperial
Crest (Dragon and Phoenix). When I filed to have IGI/ISU compensate me
for the piece, after reviewing the work, it was returned to me and I
was told that if I attempted to mail it out it would be confiscated
because “it has dragons on the kimono and you’re B.G.F.”</p>
<p>I asked–”Are you saying the Japanese Imperial family is B.G.F?”
The response was “If you try to mail it out we’ll take it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition, J. writes, “D. and I wrote several pieces for
newsletters. These were confiscated by an I.G.I. officer and were used
as “BGF gang material” as a basis to deny D.’s inactive status.”</p>
<p>D., also at the Corcoran SHU, writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Think about this. I could write as many letters as I want. And
call someone as many “n’s” as I want. Call women all manner of foul
things. I can even compare the President to Adolf Hitler. And it would
be cool. Protected speech. But they have actually criminalized certain
people, language.</p>
<p>I could mention the first or last name of certain Afrikans, and I
would automatically be accused of gang activity. Even if the person was
dead.</p>
<p>If they came in the cell and found an actual book marker that came
from a vendor with books. And the book marker had a drawing of a dragon
on it. They would say that it’s gang activity. Some of this has sunk to
such a low level that it would be as comical as it sounds were it not
so destructive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D.’s reference to the potential for gang validation for saying
something about a dead person is actually based on how he himself was
validated. Gang validation documents sent to Solitary Watch indicate
that among the pieces of evidence of gang activity in his case (which
ranged from a confidential informant to his name appearing on a piece
of paper in another inmates cell), was a eulogy he had written for a
deceased African-American inmate who had been a BGF member.</p>
<p>While it cannot be definitively said that none of these men have
ever been involved with the BGF, it appears from these and <a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/2012/07/01/voices-from-solitary-isolated-for-having-a-gang-calendar/">other</a>
instances of seemingly weak evidence of gang activity that prison
officials may be (sic) overreaching in their efforts to curb
legitimately disruptive gang activity.</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a></div>
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