- Held in long term solitary confinement; locked in tiny, windowless, sometimes sound proof, cells; cut off from fresh air and sunlight for 22-24 hours every day and given small portions of food that lacks basic nutritional requirements.
- Denied human contact and violently taken from their cells for petty violations.
- Put in solitary arbitrarily, often because of accusations of being members of prison gangs based on dubious evidence, and have no way to challenge the decisions of prison authorities to place them in solitary.
These conditions fit the international definition of torture! This is unjust, illegitimate and profoundly immoral. WE MUST JOIN IN AN EFFORT TO STOP IT, NOW!
People imprisoned at Pelican Bay State Prison in California have called for a Nationwide Hunger Strike to begin on July 8, 2013. They have also issued a call for unity among people from different racial groups, inside and outside the prisons. People who are locked down in segregation units of this society's prisons, condemned as the "worst of the worst," are standing up against injustice, asserting their humanity in the process. We must have the humanity to hear their call, and answer it with powerful support!
Letter from a Prisoner:
On the Struggle of the California Prisoners
I just finished reading the statement sent by CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] SHU prisoners ("Peaceful Protest to Resume July 8, 2013, if Demands Are Not Met")
and I wanted to express the following. First, I would like to say that
I'm glad that SHU prisoners haven't given up on the struggle. For, there
are many people, to quote Frederick Douglass, "who profess to favor
freedom and yet depreciate agitation. They want crops without plowing up
the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning."
To the Government: We Demand an Immediate End to the Torture and Inhumanity of Prison House America—Immediately Disband All Torture Chambers. Meet the demands of those you have locked down in your prisons!
To People in this Country and Around the World: We Cannot Accept, and We Should Not Tolerate This Torture. Join the Struggle to End Torture in Prisons Now!
To Those Standing Up in Resistance Inside the Prisons: WE SUPPORT YOUR CALL FOR UNITY IN THIS FIGHT, AND WE WILL HAVE YOUR BACKS!
June 21, 22 and 23 Will Be Days of Solidarity With the Struggle to End Prison Torture! There will be protests, cultural events, Evenings of Conscience, sermons in religious services, saturation of social media—all aimed at laying bare the ugly reality of wide spread torture in U.S. prisons and challenging everyone to join in fighting to STOP it.
Tim Baldauf-Lenschen, student activist, University of Maryland
Fanya Baruti, Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People's Movement
Blasé Bonpane, Ph.D., Director OFFICE OF THE AMERICAS
Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd, KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science
Susan Castagnetto, lecturer, Scripps College*, So. Cal.
M.J. Christian, Los Angeles
Marjorie Cohn, Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and editor, "The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse"
Solomon Comissiong, Executive Director of Your World News
Antonio Corona, National Brown Beret Organization
Randy Credico, impressionist and social comedian, NYC
Chuck D; Public Enemy*
Noche Diaz; Revolution Club NYC and Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Ever Ivan Florez, A victim of CDC
Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
Elder R. Freeman; All Of Us Or None*, Oakland, CA
Nellie Hester-Bailey, Occupy Harlem
Nicholas Heyward Sr., Father of Nicholas Heyward Jr., who was murdered by the NYPD in 1994
Hip, Student, UC Berkeley
Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of American History, UCLA
Gregory Koger; Revolutionary Communist who was imprisoned as a youth and spent many years in solitary confinement
Wayne Kramer, Jail Guitar Doors USA
David Kunzle, Distinguished Professor, UCLA Emeritus
B.M. Marcus, Community Director, Community Advocate and Development Organization, Brooklyn
Cynthia McKinney; former Congresswoman & 2008 Green Party Presidential Candidate
Marilyn McMahon, California Prison Focus
Travis Morales, Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Efia Nwangaza; Malcolm X Center for Self Determination, Greenville, SC
Oscar Grant Foundation
Joseph V.A. "Joe" Partansky, MBA, Former U.S. Army Mental Health Specialist and current advocate for persons with mental disabilities
Aidge Patterson, artist and activist, New York
Brian Pike, Universal Life Church rabbi
Belinda Ramos, son serving life in a California State prison
Mary Ratcliff, SF Bay View
Rev. George. F. Regas, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace
Roman Rimer
San Francisco Bay View, national Black newspaper
Peter Schey, President, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
Zadik Shapiro, attorney
Dan Siegal, National Lawyers Guild*
Temitope S
Scott Trent, Guilford County, NC October 22nd Coalition
Uncle Bobby, Oscar Grant Foundation/Committee
Jim Vrettos, Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Robin Woerner, New Haven
Clyde Young, Revolutionary Communist and former prisoner
*For identifications only
For more information and to join in this struggle contact the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at (347) 979-SMIN (7646) or at stopmassincarceration@gmail.com.
From a Prisoner:
On the Struggle of the California Prisoners
May 18, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
I just finished reading the statement sent by CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] SHU prisoners ("Peaceful Protest to Resume July 8, 2013, if Demands Are Not Met") and I wanted to express the following. First, I would like to say that I'm glad that SHU prisoners haven't given up on the struggle. For, there are many people, to quote Frederick Douglass, "who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation. They want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning."
Now, I would like to tell the SHU prisoners that even if the CDCR does grant some of the demands, that they shouldn't be seen as the end to the struggle—they should be seen only as the first positive step towards the long and strenuous struggle that awaits us. For the CDCR, is but a mere institution from the whole repressive apparatus of the capitalist/imperialist system. Our struggle should always be anti-capitalist, and our final goal to overthrow the capitalist/imperialist system, and the dismantling of all their institutions. Or, whatever gains we accomplish will always be temporary and in the end insufficient for true human liberation/freedom. Marx stated in his concluding sentence of Value, Price and Profit, “Instead of the conservative motto: 'A fair day's wages for a fair day's work!' They (the working class) ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword: abolition of the wages system!"
So I say: "instead of saying; 'reform the CDCR into a rehabilitative system,' we should say: abolition of the prison industrial complex! Abolition of the Capitalist/imperialist system!"
In Solidarity,
CA, 5/5/13
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