November 16, 2005
Halo Friends,
Hope you are all doin’ well. So a lot has been cookin’ at FedUp! and we are starting to see some real progress. Last August, in collaboration with Resource Help and Information for the Disadvantaged, FedUp! sent about 18 accounts of abuse and living conditions certified mail to Governor Warner’s office as well as the Department of Corrections head, Gene Johnson. These reports were from Red Onion, WallensRidge and Keen Mountain. Also, by way of RIHD, FedUP! presented packets of documentation to two Virginia Legislatures who spoke at one of their meetings. Well we heard nothing back, but recently there have been reports from Red Onion that the guards have “mellowed” out a bit, and people haven’t been getting beat up. Prisoners have said that it seems that the procedure of cell extraction has stopped. This is where the Correctional Officers take prisoners out of there cells and during this process is where a lot of the abuse has been taking place. There have also been rumors that two of the abusive guards have been fired. One Fowler and one Boyd. It is a rumor and we’re not sure which Fowler and which Boyd, as was previously mentioned in an old newsletter there are a lot of people with the same last names working there. There were also reports that the Governor’s office sent a delegation out to the prisons to check on things. So, my friends! This is all really positive news and proves how important it is to have organizations on the outside keeping a watchful eye. As long as the prison knows we are out here, collecting information and acting on the documentation that we receive, correctional officers may be less likely to misuse their power and abuse our friends and loved ones. BUT, even with all that “good” news, we are still receiving reports of abuse. In a letter I received just two days ago, my friend said it sounded as if someone was getting beaten in his pod, and that is all the information I have so far about that case. So, we must keep the pressure on and keep our eyes and ears open. There is more info further down in the newsletter about another account. Also, at Red Onion there were 3 suicide attempts in the span of 2 weeks. (late August to September)
Wallens Ridge has been under serious water restrictions due to a water shortage in the town of Big Stone Gap. “Our toilets are completely shut off as well as the sink water. So human waste lies stagnant for hours in a two man cell until the c/o’s decide to flush the toilet once at designated times which ranges from 4 to 6 to 8 hours. Our health is being compromised for the sake of “saving the town” which also has the subtle effect of implying that us prisoners are “using up all the damn water” which is a convenient excuse and justification to impose these unreasonably, unsanitary austerity measures on us prisoners. Also, as the water gets turned off and on, I guess the pipes are also being purged in the process by these sudden “spurts” of water and there’s all types of corrosion and gunk being spewed out of the pipes that we receive our drinking water from. This “crisis” has exposed the DOC’s and the local officials lack of concern for the prisoners health in constructing a “make shift” water facility or rather the pre- existing water facility, which was antiquated anyway, was used to take on more than it could actually handle so as to save money and still accommodate the prison (WRSP) construction and completion which would bring in more dollars to the region and in the event of a “crisis” they could improvise like they doing now as well as “wait on it to rain”, cause that one of the proposed solutions to wait on on it to rain.” Many people called the Governor and other officials and the delegation that the Governor sent specifically checked on the water conditions at Wallens Ridge. According, to Hank, FedUp!’s Roanoke contact, the delegation found that the water restrictions were not inhumane or unsanitary. So, people on the inside, keep us updated on what is going on and please feed us ideas on how to act on this, if you want us to.
FedUp! is working with a group called The People United, a grassroots social justice network that has members all over Virginia. We are planning an event for December 10th in Richmond. December 10th is the International Day for Human Rights. The idea is to address human rights violations in prisons abroad, like Abu Ghraib, and make the correlation between the Human Rights Violations that are taking place here in Virginia. The people in this country were appalled when photographs and footage of torture and abuse found its way to the public. If only we can get the people in this country to see what has been happening here in Virginia and in prisons across the United States, the reaction would be the same – horrified, ashamed, and outraged. So, please if you can, try to attend the rally in Richmond on December 10th. It will take place at 2:30pm at the Oliver Hill Court House which is located across from the City Jail. There will be speakers and a march. Keep your evening free for an evening event is being planned where we will have a chance to network and strategize about where we want to go from here. Together our voices our strong. STOP THE ABUSE! There are also plans for an event on Sunday the 11th people to gather at one of Virginia’s Super Max prisons. There will be transportation provided. There is a flyer for the event enclosed in this mailing with more information. Feel free to make copies of the flyer and pass them around your neighborhood or to friends who may be interested.
Erika at FedUp!- VA Beach, continues to work hard!. With a member of Parents Against Prison Abuse, Erika met with a reporter from the Virginia Pilot to talk about prison conditions across the state as well as the abuses in the Western District. She is still cranking out the support and as always specializing in helping folks with mental illness and health problems. Erika wants everyone to know that even if you are not hearing from us regularly, we are still here!
So, there are a few projects we hope to get underway in the next few months. One is to do major outreach to pro-bono lawyers to get advice and counsel on the proposed class action suit regarding the abuse at Red Onion State Prison.
We are also trying to put together a resource guide for Virginia Prisoners and Prison Advocates. If you know of any organizations that have been helpful to you or could be helpful to someone else please please please let us know about them. We need contacts for organizations that help with parole, probation, education, legal, women, children, housing after released, jobs after release, social justice etc… Also, if you know the ins and outs of certain procedures please share that information with us. For example, one of our most frequent complaints at FedUp! is that people are being held for extremely long periods of time in segregation or unlawfully in the high security facilities. (They may be a level 4 and still be housed out level 6) If you know the procedure, the paperwork on how to find out the status, what lists people need to be on ect. Please share that info. Basically, any information dealing with the system that can help people on the outside help people on the inside. Please share!!
Ok, that’s all for now! Thanks to Theresa Trujillo, Lori Martin and Patrick Lincoln for sending stamps!! Much appreciated! Anyone who wants to get involved, we need you!! Hope to see you in Richmond in December!
In Peace. In Struggle. In Love. In Hope,
FedUp! in Pittsburgh – etta
Without further ado, here are some of the many
Voices from the Inside.
“Honestly, there’s not much anybody in society can do for us – until we, who exist in here, begin to address the problems ourselves. Nobody wants to fight for a person or a people who have the power and the numbers to fight but yet choose to whine and complain and hope in the process someone will fight the battle for them. The guys in here want to reap the rewards and be recognized as the ones who stood, but they don’t want to put in the labor and make the sacrifices necessary. We cannot help someone who does not and chooses not to help themselves.” ---Supreme Lord Aaquil from Keen MT
“I was going to dedicate this letter to an unwritten rule they have here at ROSP in regards to how long a prisoner remains in segregation prior to recommendation for release. But, the cops have once again beaten a prisoner up and are now systematically starving him. But, I will get to that after the unwritten rule. People had been telling me since I arrived here that their unwritten policy was that you had to do minimum of two years in segregation before they would even consider you for release. I had never been told this by the Institutional Classification Authority until about two weeks ago. This type of action is clearly contrary to their DOP 822 policy which specifically states that “segregation is not a punishment” but, any time a sentence is imposed it clearly rises to the level of punishment. And this is absolutely contrary to their policy. Further more, this type of action is the only way that they are able to keep these segregation units full. A look at the sentences imposed for disciplinary offenses shows that, rarely if ever, is isolation time given as a sentence. Yet the charges leveled are usually labeled among the most serious. Yet the disciplinary sentences handed down are absolutely the most lenient I have ever seen. Other than failure to follow their grooming standards, which carries a mandatory isolation sentence, I have never seen an isolation sentence imposed. Why? Because they know that the real punishment comes from the two year mandatory minimum a prisoner has to serve in segregation prior to even being considered for release. This is a violation of their own policy, and also violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the fifth and fourteenth amendments.
Now to the guy who got beat up. Apparently, he had been having problems with the cops in the unit he came from over having fruit in his cell on the weekends. He is a diabetic and needs the fruit to regulate his blood sugar on the weekends, when we are only fed two meals. He tried to explain that to the cops. But it seems they were mad at him for going out to recreation. I don’t know if you know this, but these cops hate to run recreation, and will do nearly anything to deny you recreation, buy it from you or cancel it all together. In fact the cancellation of recreation has become a huge problem since this new warden took over. Nearly one day of the week recreation is lost for inane reasons or no reason at all. I have of course filed a grievance on it. Anyway, I guess yesterday the situation with that guy hit the fan. They apparently jumped on him in the unit he was in. Then when they brought him to this unit they jumped on him again. Both times he was handcuffed and shackled. They then put him in restraints in which he still remains. Then the LT. told all the cops present, that the guy should not be fed on the weekends any more. He hasn’t been fed all weekend. I am surprised that he hadn’t gone into some type of diabetic shock. As further insult, the cops when they pass his cage tell him what food we are going to be served either for breakfast or dinner. Remember its LT’s who run the classification process. It is illegal and contrary to their policy for them to deny prisoners food in this manner. But, as I have told you before it’s able to be done because of lack of high level supervision and the direct participation of low level supervisors such as SGt’s LT’s and Captains too.
Another interesting development is when ever these cops want to retaliate against a prisoner they tell the Lt. that the man in question threatened to kill himself. So he can be tied to his bed. I heard a cop threaten a prisoner with this type of action a few days ago.”----Jesse Trujillo Red Onion State Prison
“I’ve been inspired by the light of Frantz Fanon when he stated about the colonized man: “The same time the colonized man braces himself to reject oppression, a radical transformation takes place within him which makes any attempt to maintain the colonial system impossible and shocking.”
So what I’m saying is I’m incapable of retreat. Farrakhan stated, whether your a fan or not the truth is irrefutable, that “ When you are afraid , then you do the will of what you are afraid of..” The oppressed here in the U.S, have been taught by example that it’s unbeneficial to take protest outside of dissent; even dissent has its backlashes and parameters and many have been the victim of persecution for speaking truth to power. The backlash of all this in the part of the U.S. government is as Hugo Chavez stated that any time you try to suppress a nonviolent revolution your bound to start a violent one. Our position in a supermax prison, pretty much limits our options of approach, however I believe Gandhism here will render us closer to the desired result. There’s much to be said that can make this a habitable environment suitable for human beings. But change only comes with struggle or action. Who we are, which is human beings, have been overshadowed by the image of a monster. I hear now that there’s even websites that depict us as worthless, lumpen gangsters. Many harbingers are here that adds substance to my suggestion of the end product. Many in here are in such abject mental states that their incapable of helping themselves, and, reluctantly to say unhelpable. A revoltion in here will start externally. The subjective conditions will never get ripe to the point that an internal revolution will take place in here. The mechanisms of the opposition works very effective in the retardation of such an overture. Prison, however is a part of society therefore the people must be informed and activated on a course of bettering the living conditions . For their prisoners, because we are suppose to be their prisoners not the state prisoners. I’m pretty sure you understand the difference and the chasm between state and society.”
---Big Al Ruffin from Red Onion
Education and Black Self Esteem
An Overview by Outlaw at Wallens Ridge State Prison
Although now out of existence for over 3,000 years, the Egyptian Empire which dominated the ancient world for millennia still has special importance for many Blacks today. With a noted sense of pride my peers describe how Egypt was the first human society, originating in Africa they emphasize, to achieve such cultural achievements as grandeur architecture, immense libraries with books propounding the most complex math equations, flawless sculpture and artworks, advanced scientific achievements in agriculture, horticulture, zoology etc, all of which made Egypt the teacher of the world as Greeks, Romans and Asians traveled to the shores of Africa to learn the “ways of civilization.” But how can Black people today feel such a strong sense of pride by praising the achievements of ancient society? What benefits do Blacks enjoy in this day and age when on the plane of factual being it is clear that the past existence of an African civilization does not change anything very much in the lives of Blacks today?
No one can deny that all the proofs of a wonderful Egyptian civilization will not change the fact that today Africans in Africa are impoverished, illiterate, tens of billions infected with HIV/AIDS, not to mention a host of other diseases that are curable. African descendents throughout the world share a similar plight. Reveling in the glorious past is, in the words of Frantz Fanon, who was a distinguished African political analyst, “kept up or at least directed by the secret hope of discovering beyond the misery of today, beyond self contempt, resignation, abjuration, some very beautiful and splendid era whose existence rehabilitates us both in regard to ourselves and in regard to others.” Despite the fact that Egypt was a hierarchical, exploitative society that thrived on slave labor, it is readily apparent that Blacks today feel an affinity for Egypt and its achievements mainly if not solely, because the Egyptians were people of color like us- because they were Black. This intimate identification with an ancient society must fill some emotional and psychological void in the area of individual and collective self esteem that is not being fulfilled today in the present society. Like ancient Egypt, present day society i.e., American society, is a hierarchical, exploitative society that thrived for centuries on Black slave-labor and still does, however in the form of predatory capitalism- imperialism. American society is characterized by class inequalities (extreme wealth existing side by side with extreme poverty), racism, militarism, and a repressive police- judicial-prison complex that has succeeded in incarcerating the highest number of people in the world – over 2.1 million; all this in the “land of the free.” However, a significant number of Blacks whole heartedly believe that we are not only in the “land of the free” but the “land of opportunity” as well. [And this view is somewhat understandable considering the extremely dire conditions of our 3rd world counterparts. But what we fail to see is that exploitation of the 3rd world. because we reap benefits from multi-national corporate bribes and a government foreign policy that work hand in hand to maintain the dependent – status of the 3rd world as cheap sources of labor and raw materials] Yet the national reality of Blacks in America conflicts with our claims to being in the land of the free or the land of opportunity. Why do we hold such views despite the fact we’re among the principally disadvantaged and oppressed?
Psychologists assert that the disadvantaged face a difficult psychological dilemma: “ [the disadvantaged] believe in the basic fairness of the world and view their poor outcomes as deserved or recognize that society is unfair and risk feeling helpless. Thus, it is proposed that members of the disadvantaged face a “legitimization crisis” in which they desire to see their society as fair conflicts with motivations to view themselves and their group in a positive light.” In simpler terms what this means is, if members of low-status , namely Blacks, view society as just, then our disadvantaged position implies unflattering view of ourselves, however if we do view society as unjust then we risk feeling helpless because believing that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get maintains a sense of control over our circumstances. Here I might add that a belief in Fate mitigates this sense of helplessness by taking the blame off the unjust society and its rulers and attributing everything to Gods’ will, which I believe goes a long way in explaining why Blacks are notoriously religious.
Even more revealing in their psychologist research was how they found the disadvantaged to deal with and preserve individual and collective self esteem, often they note “at the steep price of disengaging from domains which disadvantaged groups fare poorly.” They note that “for the disadvantaged these domains – such as schools-may be precisely those that provide the best opportunity for upward mobility; research has demonstrated that disillusioned black students devalue the importance of academic feedback – when they suspect it may be racially biased – so that failure at school does not threaten how they feel about themselves. Protecting self esteem in this manner however, decreases motivation to do well and promotes alienation from school (e.g. viewing school success as acting white).” That last statement holds particular significance. Whites are the dominate social group in America, evidenced by the standards that arise out of the functions of these institutions, which in turn assist in the maintenance of these institutions. In this context, education serves the purpose of preserving the status quo i.e., the dominance of white America. Upward social mobility on these terms means entry into the “white world” (e.g. vacating low-income, predominantly black neighborhoods to move into affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods) Owing to the Eurocentric orientation and curriculum of the educational system, Blacks who advance in this arena especially at the college level cant help but to adopt a Eurocentric world outlook which is not geared towards the upliftment of the disadvantaged and oppressed i.e. Blacks, Indians, etc. Therefore successful Blacks in this arena become ideologically restricted from making any meaningful contributions to the liberation of Blacks, which is not lost on the Black masses who develop distaste for not only these black figure heads but everything they represent including their academic achievements. Hence our concrete association of societies institutions (educational, political, etc.) with the dominate group that controls them.
I would raise the question though “Where does this leave us?” Here in lies our biggest dilemma, with official statistics showing that there are more Black males in prison then in college, drop-out rates among Blacks at staggering levels, and myself having grown Black men who are illiterate ask me to read their mail to them – this devaluing of education has frightening implications for our future. When doctors are sorely needed to deal with the numerous medical problems that plague blacks, the world over, when engineers, scientist, agronomist etc are severely needed to aid in the development of the third world, when our rational thinking faculties are “being under-utilized and manipulated resulting more than a “comic view and severely impeding the stimulation of our intellect to deal with the complex political, social, and economic problems that confront us – is it wise for us to continue to devalue the importance of education when it is clear that education, in direct relation to solving our problems, is in our vital interest? Claiming to be the descendants of the first scholars and educators it is disheartening and extremely frustrating to hear my peers today, when being urged to take up relevant studies, ask with noted contempt, “What the hell is a book?!”
We cannot and must not continue to be indifferent towards such vital matters as politics, economics, medicine, science etc because the rulers of present day society have distorted and interpreted the advancements of these spheres of human activity to serve the interests of an exploiting minority and furthermore laid ownership claims to such (e.g. intellectual property) portraying these achievements as only characteristic of their ilk. If this systems education is irrelevant and insulting then we must seek out an education that is relevant and which inspires positive views about ourselves, even if this means an education that challenges the legitimacy of the system itself i.e. the legitimacy of our being disadvantaged and oppressed. We should have no qualms about such an education being the victims of a system that thrives off our ignorance and lack of self worth, a system that teaches us in the words of W.E.B Dubois, “that mankind can only rise by walking on men, by cheating them, killing them, that only on a doormat of the despised and dying, the dead and rotten, can a British aristocracy, a French Cultural elite, or an American millionaire be nurtured and grown. This is a lie.” Knowledge is power. The key however is to put knowledge at the service of the people, where it is then transformed into its highest expression – People Power.
Illustration by Alixa Garcia