tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-166459962024-03-12T21:22:39.755-05:00Why Am I Not Surprised?what a woman who could have joined the D.A.R. has learned about the socially-constructed, political notion of "race" by just paying attention and NOT keeping her mouth shut...changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.comBlogger690125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-75930900887608681232020-10-24T18:18:00.073-05:002020-10-25T16:55:17.694-05:00The Battle of Portland From Inside: Coming Soon To A Downtown Near You?<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlvPP6ndZXtyDWQeCGFkIOoRI-op77v-6FBE9o0Wf_Pzv1UtB33pbRszVLX_YLZEgLIWRqLO4NECCiUEr_7uTDm8rmNALh1T6oxOPkyzV9MhB6twVIOgFdwJkiL3Q3HLIeYWJrw/s1740/the+mothers+march.jpeg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1160" data-original-width="1740" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlvPP6ndZXtyDWQeCGFkIOoRI-op77v-6FBE9o0Wf_Pzv1UtB33pbRszVLX_YLZEgLIWRqLO4NECCiUEr_7uTDm8rmNALh1T6oxOPkyzV9MhB6twVIOgFdwJkiL3Q3HLIeYWJrw/w640-h426/the+mothers+march.jpeg" width="640" /></a></p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></b></p><p>by Amie Zimmerman </p><blockquote><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization – and therefore force – is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased, which irresistibly, progressing from one consequence to another, one denial to another, calls for its Hitler, I mean its punishment.”</span> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">~</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> <i>Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism</i></span></span></b></blockquote><b><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><i></i></span></span></b><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I consider myself an optimist. A skeptical, or perhaps reluctant, one but an optimist nonetheless. I want to believe that when we speak out, when we resist, it makes a difference.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Briefly, it is important to understand some basic points about Portland, Oregon, where I have lived for twenty-five years. <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-white-history-racist-foundations-black-exclusion-laws" target="_blank">We are a vastly majority white city</a>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Sundown laws, redlining, and white utopian exclusionary practices have maintained a culture of violence toward Black, Indigenous, and Brown people in Oregon since before the state was established. In accordance, our police have been notoriously brutal with vulnerable populations.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">[One recent example of police culture here: In 2009, <a href="https://www.mentalhealthportland.org/10-years-after-james-chasses-death-outrage-and-melancholy-linger-in-portland" target="_blank">James Chasse</a>, houseless and mentally ill, was suspected of urinating in public downtown. The police, including officer Chris Humphreys, began to arrest him, beating him so badly in the process that he died of broken ribs and blunt force chest trauma in the police vehicle on the way to the hospital. Chris Humphreys was put on paid leave pending investigation. The Portland police union called for a demonstration and thousands of PPB and supporters marched with matching t-shirts in a show of solidarity against the Humphreys investigation into Chasse’s death. He eventually was cleared and three years later shot a 12-year-old girl with bean bag rounds at a public transit station during a scuffle between her and a transit officer. Humphreys left the PPB amid controversy and moved back to his home county in eastern Oregon where he was elected sheriff and ultimately became – get this – <a href="https://www.eastoregonian.com/news/local/surprising-career-change-for-former-wheeler-county-sheriff/article_7321e42e-0a22-11e9-8fe7-c78469e99823.html" target="_blank">the mental health crisis liaison for law enforcement</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is just one officer’s story. There are, of course, many.]</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Portland, white as it is, also has enough of a history of liberal political resistance to have been nicknamed “Little Beirut” by George H.W. Bush while encountering protestors here in the 1990s. Over the past decades, organizations like </span><a href="https://www.dontshootpdx.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Don’t Shoot, Portland</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (led by mayoral candidate Teressa Raiford) have gained significant public support in demanding police accountability. Obviously, in this quick and dirty recap, I am not attempting a comprehensive history of Portland’s racism and resistance. But (while it appears sudden, given the enormous groundswell) protest culture, mutual aid, and organizing have been imperfectly but passionately evolving in Portland for years.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Which brings us to the current events. After the death of George Floyd in May 2020, Portland was part of a national uprising in response to police brutality and specifically the death of Black people at the hands of police. Organizers and protesters began gathering at different locations around Portland and hosting speakers, music, dance parties, marches, and demonstrations in front of schools, businesses, police precincts, civic buildings, and jails. Events started all hours of the day, often lasting into the early morning and drawing hundreds to many thousands of demonstrators. Mutual aid tents sprang up everywhere, vans and cars parked along routes to offer protestors food, water, hand sanitizer, and masks. Street medics circulated, caring for the injured. Over time, it became clear that some protestors were interested in more “peaceful” demonstrations and others were ready for direct confrontation. With little variance, all called for the focus on Black lives, which remained the center of the movement from day one, naming police accountability (or defunding/abolishment depending) as the demand. <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2020/07/20/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-battle-of-portland" target="_blank">Here is a fairly comprehensive timeline on the demonstrations through mid-July</a>. </span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The protestors who chose direct confrontation with Portland Police Bureau were always met with a predictable series of warnings and subsequent violence. Cops would show up in full riot gear. Eventually, usually by 10pm, the Long Range Acoustic Device (used as both sound wave weapon and loudspeaker) would announce that protestors were getting aggressive and should stop what they were doing – shaking the fence, throwing water bottles, or whatever else PPB was framing as violent. The series of warnings would continue, both on LRAD and Twitter, telling protestors that threatening/violent protest behavior would result in the PPB being forced to disperse the crowd and use munitions to do so, including tear gas, mace, flash bangs, and rubber bullets. Over and over footage was posted to social media and local news outlets showing the level of escalation and retaliation falling squarely on PPB’s shoulders, and demanding Mayor Ted Wheeler resign due to the clearly hostile police response.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">On Ted Wheeler: the Mayor is part of our elected City Council. Each member of the council has a set of responsibilities, including being Commissioner of a certain civic branch. Although the Mayor is not always the Police Commissioner, Wheeler happens to be in charge of PPB. Alongside calls for defunding, we have continuously demanded that Wheeler step into full responsibility for his police force, accountability he has notoriously dodged. In response to nightly tear gassing of protestors, organizers acquired a temporary restraining order against the PPB using tear gas. The language of the restraining order contained a loophole (see the Bellingcat article) allowing use of gas in case of life-threatening circumstances. Since riots are deemed life-threatening, PPB used the LRAD and Twitter to escalate their warnings to the point of declaring riots regularly to justify use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions. This obvious skirting of the intent of the TRO led to more outcry. Throughout, Wheeler remained silent. The general sense was that he and the rest of neo-liberal/conservative Portland were content to allow the brutal response because downtown was in danger. Mainstream media continued to promote images that showed smashed glass, fires, and boarded up windows, although after the first week of protests widespread property damage had not been occurring. (Many businesses downtown remained boarded up due to Covid-19 closures and reduced business hours/services, and many allowed murals on their external facades.) The hyperbole of the “affected area” is shocking if you look at this graphic:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimSiYuP0z6PdDpwBxi0OX2hR29y1QOkQ7rf9zS79sfDV7pR69NuM0D4ICfR5_wwmrrFkj35D8y5gLfBhhAZoGpH6RL1kj94Be-MlYjhXxqV1QPcoOmf3G5C3GV8Beq96M1GXVXAQ/s795/Picture3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="795" data-original-width="624" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimSiYuP0z6PdDpwBxi0OX2hR29y1QOkQ7rf9zS79sfDV7pR69NuM0D4ICfR5_wwmrrFkj35D8y5gLfBhhAZoGpH6RL1kj94Be-MlYjhXxqV1QPcoOmf3G5C3GV8Beq96M1GXVXAQ/w502-h640/Picture3.jpg" width="502" /></a></div><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">At some point we drew the ire of the federal administration. Our ongoing protest, it seems, provided them with an opportunity to experiment with the nationalization of our police force.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The main confrontation and occupation happened within 3 to 4 square blocks of downtown Portland, from SW Salmon St to SW Madison St and between SW 2</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">nd</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Ave and SW 4</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Ave. Two buildings, the Justice Center (local police headquarters and jail) and the federal courthouse, are situated on two adjacent blocks across from several blocks of urban park, known as the Park Blocks. The particular park directly across from the Justice Center is Lownsdale Square, where a small community grew. Several affinity groups and protest blocs set up temporary tents for mutual aid, including one featuring free food 24 hours per day provided by a group calling themselves Riot Ribs, as well as a fully stocked medic tent. The federal task force, nightly, would tear gas the entire park in their attempts to clear the area and often would go into the tents, opening the medical supplies and drenching them with pepper spray, slashing open water bottle reserves, and allowing tents to burn when they caught fire from flashbangs and tear gas canisters. Several times, Riot Ribs had their entire food supply, coolers, and grills opened and soaked in pepper spray and tear gas, rendering it all unusable. Community support for the medics, Riot Ribs, the Snack Van, etc, was astounding, though, with donations on the ground often being more than could be used and financial support totaling over 300K before they shut down their donation apps.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many protestors have been watching other uprisings, such as in Hong Kong, and patterned tactical improvisation on Hong Kong ingenuity. Portland’s response to the 120 federal mercenaries was unilateral refusal. Moms and Dads formed blocs, as did Veterans, Lawyers, and Teachers. (See the photo above of the Wall of Moms.) Portland ran out of gas masks and leaf blowers. Regular folks (read: white, middle-class folks) were now getting gassed alongside the long-time Black organizers who have been on the front lines for decades. In an awe-inspiring show of solidarity, tens of thousands of Portland residents showed up to be tear-gassed and beaten and arrested, while shouting Black Lives Matter and Feds Get Out. Each night, the areas around the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse, including the Park Blocks across the street, were filled with dramatic displays of resistance along the fences put up to keep the protests off the steps of the buildings. Eventually Ted Wheeler saw he had no choice but to begin the PR spin we witnessed play out in national media.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In a monumentally ironic turn, Wheeler began to speak out against the federal presence, saying they were responsible for violating our constitutional rights through such violent tactics. The kidnapping of protestors in unmarked vans had sparked media interest and Wheeler played into this, portraying Portland as a victim of federal brutality. Local journalists and activists immediately began writing to counter Wheeler’s ridiculous stance as hypocritical, attempting to draw attention to the 50 days of protests, beatings, tear gas, rubber bullets, and arrests prior to the federal occupation, but to no avail. Wheeler was painted as a liberal savior, standing up for his city in the face of Trumpian fascism, while we all rolled our eyes as far back as they could roll. Wheeler had even been locally nicknamed “Tear Gas Teddy” during week two of the protests. One night, Wheeler stood in the front line at the fence around the Justice Center and <a href="https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/07/23/28668234/mayor-wheeler-condemns-feds-indiscriminate-use-of-tear-gas-despite-portland-police-using-identical-tactics" target="_blank">was gassed along with everyone else</a>, emoting about how aghast he was that tear gas was so indiscriminate. </span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is possible Trump did not expect the whole of Portland to rise up against his federal task force occupation. (And to be fair, there are plenty of people here in full support of Trump, the PPB, and whatever tactics might be used. The comments sections of nearly every article and tweet are filled with gleeful recommendations that police switch to live ammunition, that protestors should simply be killed instead.) But I do believe that a more subtle shift in the execution of martial authority was actually accomplished without making headlines for doing so.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In a desperate attempt to negotiate what became known as a “cease-fire,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown participated in a summit with Vice President Mike Pence which ended with <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/07/oregons-governor-announces-phased-withdrawal-of-federal-officers.html" target="_blank">a phased withdrawal of federal troops</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">People seem relieved and many celebrated this as a return to the normalcy of pre-federal-occupation.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is where the layered nature of the transgression is revealed, though. First, there was no normal. Saying the feds caused the problem performs an erasure on original demands from Black Lives Matter activists for Portland Police Bureau accountability, painting the problem as solved once the feds leave. In shifting the focus to the federal occupation, the local concerns around PPB’s role in the shooting deaths of so many Black Portlanders seems assuaged. Using a bait-and-switch, the “threat” has been removed in many (liberal/white) Portland minds. Any response less escalated and brutal than storm-trooper level tactics began to seem like a tolerable exchange. Second, the feds had not actually left. Approximately 100 of the original 120 officers still remained, although the nature of their business here had been remanded to operations within the federal courthouse instead of outside the building. These troops are accountable to only the Department of Homeland Security and could resume their activity whenever activated. And third, Governor Brown agreed to assuming the regulation of protecting the federal courthouse and surrounding property through her own Oregon State Police. <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/07/oregons-governor-announces-phased-withdrawal-of-federal-officers.html" target="_blank">Approximately 100 state troopers were brought in from around Oregon to fill the vacuum the federal task force created</a>. </span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In forcing the federal occupation, Trump carved out space for the DHS task force. By capitulating to Pence’s demands, Governor Brown had agreed to a vastly increased, militarized police presence in the heart of Portland. We now housed 100 feds and 100 OSP troopers: 200 more officers occupying Portland than were here before. That neo-liberal Portland sees this as a triumph is extremely disturbing. Brown acted as if she was still the head of her police force moving forward when, according to the terms of the cease-fire, Brown had relinquished her position of authority to DHS and the federal administration, which agreed to withdraw their nightly presence only if Brown controlled the protests. This meant that DHS can, at any time, choose to activate those 100 agents who can then act in tandem with the 100 OSP troopers already stationed here.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The boundary of acceptable militarized police presence was moved in July and Brown had agreed to hold the line on behalf of the feds. She had effectively become the hand of federal oppression.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Which leads to what has happened since. The first two nights after federal withdrawal of visible presence, many of the protestors took time to recuperate. The “peaceful” protestors stepped in and bickered about what should or should not be happening. There was no police presence of note. However, once protestors began actions in front of police precincts over the weekend of July 31st, Portland Police Bureau came roaring back. With less warning than usual, they declared protestor presence illegal, using riot language to kettle and bull rush protestors. Unmasking and pepper spraying them in the face, pulling them off bicycles, beating them, filming them</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">, forcing them to run through unlit neighborhoods. There is a ton of footage on twitter from journalists noting the level of cruelty as people are thrown to the ground, not arrested, simply sprayed and beaten before being forced back up to march.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Most of the Portland press corps began suing PPB in regard to arrests, destruction of equipment, and suppression of press rights. The PPB retaliated with a destructive spree directed at press and protestors alike – slashing press/protestor tires, smashing press car windows, pulling people out of cars, arresting and/or attempting to arrest journalists. Whatever relief Portland residents were hoping for did not materialize and – shocking – Mayor Wheeler is again silent about the level of police violence the protestors are experiencing nightly.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">PPB has long had a habit of removing badges and names from police uniforms and replacing them with number patches – the length of the numbers so long they are impossible to memorize or get fully on film. As we see more footage of anonymized police, in battle gear indistinguishable from soldiers and mercenaries, holding automatic guns with silencers as they menace First Amendment protestors, it does not seem like a leap to consider a nationalized police force.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">What we are witnessing in Portland is a national/federal fascist mobilization against us pretty normal folks. I am a hairstylist and a mom. I grow tomatoes and write poems. Never in a million years would I have considered myself a threat or enemy of the state. But I guess maybe I am. Maybe we are.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">_________________________________________________</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>NOTE: </b>This background piece ends the first of August. Since subsequent developments have continued, Zimmerman is considering an additional essay covering the Battle of Portland from that time until after the coming election.</span></p>changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-85193386726794191142020-09-26T10:48:00.003-05:002020-09-26T10:58:37.299-05:00Nonunanimous Juries Under Hard Scrutiny in Louisiana<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFFH_DdMdwtBRvXbhwBijfdY26krFTFNfjdEy7WIWS6SaRb9kzIONJdTO99-g4Nd0iWHQZq0UfJpfjkZCIauvwGN90h9m1nnKvYYvu0KRE_csaD9TTQivR3qsqG_davjxm8z7dJA/s762/t-shirt+flyer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="724" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFFH_DdMdwtBRvXbhwBijfdY26krFTFNfjdEy7WIWS6SaRb9kzIONJdTO99-g4Nd0iWHQZq0UfJpfjkZCIauvwGN90h9m1nnKvYYvu0KRE_csaD9TTQivR3qsqG_davjxm8z7dJA/s16000/t-shirt+flyer.jpg" /></a></p><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: left;"></p><p align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The framers of the
U.S. Constitution adopted the</span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Sixth Amendment </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">with a unanimous
vote of twelve in mind.</span></b></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">John Addams (1797):</span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"It is the
unanimity of the jury that preserves the rights of mankind."</span></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Yet,
for 122 years, in Louisiana, the prosecutor needed to persuade only 10 </span></b><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">out of
12 jurors for a felony conviction that does not involve the death penalty.</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All other states (except
Oregon) always required unanimous jury decisions in felony cases – as did the
federal system, including federal courts in Louisiana and Oregon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Louisiana required
unanimous verdicts when it became a territory in 1803, but non-unanimous
verdicts were formally adopted as law during Louisiana's 1898 constitutional
convention, when <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #c00000;">lawmakers declared that their “mission was…to establish the supremacy
of the white race.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Non-unanimous juries:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 21pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">paved the way for quick convictions</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">facilitated the use of free prisoner labor
to cover the loss of free slave labor</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ensured that Black jurors could not block
convictions of other African Americans</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">made it easier to manipulate poor people –
whether guilty or innocent – into accepting “plea deals” rather than face the
possibility of conviction by a jury</span></span></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Non-unanimous jury laws:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">were opposed by the American Bar Association</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ignored research proving that unanimous verdicts are
more reliable and thorough</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ignored research proving that nonunanimous verdicts
contribute to mass incarceration and wrongful convictions</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">circumvented measures to protect the voices of
minority jurors</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">reduced the value of votes by any dissenting jury
member, no matter who they are</span></span></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In November of
2018, Louisiana voters amended the State constitution to do away with the
practice of convicting – and locking up – men and women without establishing
their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The Amendment was challenged, but <b><span style="color: #c00000;">on April 20, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
non-unanimous jury convictions are unconstitutional.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Two weeks later, the SCOTUS agreed to hear arguments on a case that could well make the
State of Louisiana apply the earlier ruling retroactively (based on racial discrimination) because the U.S. Constitution’s
intent was always clear on this matter. And they have now set a date, announcing that they will hear oral arguments in Edwards v. Vannoy on November 30th. If the Court rules in favor of Edwards,
anyone now incarcerated in Louisiana who was convicted by a nonunanimous jury might
qualify to request a new trial. This will involve thousands of incarcerated citizens, some of whom have already served decades waiting for the justice they deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Louisiana State Supreme Court also has a case before it that might decide the matter even before the U.S. Supreme Court does. If the LA SSC decides to re-hear Gipson v. Louisiana and decides in Gipson's favor, they will avoid having the U.S. Supreme Court force Louisiana to do the right thing. Needless to say, loved ones and supporters all over the state are following this story with bated breath.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If you want to support this effort to bring Louisiana into the 21st Century, the <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Louisiana Network for Criminal Justice Transformation (LA-NCJT)</span></b> is selling a limited number of t-shirts for $20. They've already sold them to law professors, organizers, loved ones, and formerly incarcerated citizens. For more information, email <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">LA-NCJT@ProtonMail.com</span></b>.</span></span></p><p></p><p></p>changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-64812083276418268202020-09-09T08:28:00.001-05:002020-09-09T09:20:04.408-05:00Life and Death in Angola<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS3eatyGNOiFhMMY4cs5Y15EtZo1yiUZ51bKJ9MlVtarD1EOuU_CVhEo-Xz3evCjZyPedLzjmECO15XBEp11bCJmbwhWUoHRqPfHGs7g3do7YimdtSj4YKA_mC3cWpaZvX4Ub4LA/s1000/reflection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="669" data-original-width="1000" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS3eatyGNOiFhMMY4cs5Y15EtZo1yiUZ51bKJ9MlVtarD1EOuU_CVhEo-Xz3evCjZyPedLzjmECO15XBEp11bCJmbwhWUoHRqPfHGs7g3do7YimdtSj4YKA_mC3cWpaZvX4Ub4LA/w625-h419/reflection.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I remember
when I got the call that my son – a White shotcaller for a Black gang in Ft.
Lauderdale – was dead. I hit the floor like a falling tree, the phone still to
my ear and my brain reeling. His body was at the morgue and, because he had
already been identified, they would only let me see a photo of his face, already
deformed by rigor mortis. The young female doctor about to do the autopsy told
me he was a handsome man. It was February 27, 2000 – the kind of day no mother
ever wants to see. I know because I have a tattoo on my shoulder with his name
and the date and it was two weeks before his 23rd birthday. When I was invited
to write a statement on life and death as folks inside Angola try to deal with
the most recent brutal and senseless death among them, my thoughts went
straight to my son.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He’s not
the only one I’ve known personally to die a violent death. I was 18 when a
schoolmate was stabbed to death by her mother’s boyfriend and stuffed behind a
couch. My father and one of my husbands committed suicide. The first
ex-prisoner I ever met (back in 1971) was stabbed to death a couple of years
after I met him. And I heard many years after we broke up that my first
ex-prisoner lover was stabbed to death with his girlfriend by somebody in
Oklahoma never identified. But to carry a child in your body and feed him at your
breast and watch him grow to 6’4” and face the world with his shoulders back
and his eyes steady and then have him reduced to a tattoo on your shoulder is
not something you get over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nine
months later, I was taken to Christmas breakfast by a young man I didn’t know
who told me that my son was murdered because he didn’t want to sell drugs to
kids. The most die-hard criminal I ever knew called him a “gangstah with
principles.” But the point of my telling all this is that three days after Eli
left the earth, I looked out into the backyard of the house I was living in and
saw him sitting in a cedar lawn chair under the hot pink bougainvillea blossoms
hanging from the fence. I walked out to him as if it was the most natural thing
in the world.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Why
didn’t you come into the house?” I asked him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He hung
his head and looked up at me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Because I
thought you would be mad at me,” he responded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Oh,
honey,” I replied. “You can come anywhere I am any time you want for the rest
of my life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As I
reached down to put my arms gently around his neck, he put his lips close to my
ear and whispered, “I thought I had more time…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is
nightmarish violence all over this planet. It is more common in prison than
elsewhere, but it can show up unexpectedly at a moment’s notice anywhere. Young
people, old people, rich people, poor people, all kinds of people in all kinds
of situations – who all think at that moment that they have more time. But the
fact is that no matter who we are or where we are, we only have today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many
people in Angola are saying over and over right now, “Tomorrow is not
promised.” But there’s another way to say that. <b><i>Today</i></b> is actually all we ever
have anyway. Yesterday is gone forever. Tomorrow is not promised. But how are
we spending <b><i>today</i></b>? What are we planting in the garden of our lives right now?
One of the universal laws is that whatever we plant – good or bad – grows. Bad
things can happen to good people. Senseless things can happen to anybody
anywhere. But I try hard not to make <b><i>sure</i></b> they happen to me by planting things
in my garden that I <b><i>really</i></b> don’t want to grow there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I didn’t
always believe that what goes around comes around. For many years in my life, I
routinely did things to others that I wouldn’t want done to me. But once I
realized that whatever I plant grows, I quit that. Life is hard enough as it
is. I don’t need to make it worse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If all we
have is today, how can we live in such a way that wherever, whenever, and
however we die, we die with dignity? Dignity is not decided by the details of
how we die. Inside the walls or outside them, there are many choices we don’t really
get to make. But if I work to be my best self today, to have integrity, to make
my community better because I’m in it today, the time I’m here will be well
spent and well-remembered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-34388729017087451762020-07-27T18:14:00.000-05:002020-07-27T18:39:01.287-05:00#LivingMonumentsToJimCrow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja14AkJSZ7awHQC49-TOHmhQzNbEETpCQqqrIJPpOiV7ZjfblsbPXwYKI6mWfTNq2YIJ9vSETAfZxoelQdM2BIY2J58x3bRVWgp-JysjukeI_-RYZrUwt_NxmPfnG7vQQh1MZELQ/s1600/hashtag.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja14AkJSZ7awHQC49-TOHmhQzNbEETpCQqqrIJPpOiV7ZjfblsbPXwYKI6mWfTNq2YIJ9vSETAfZxoelQdM2BIY2J58x3bRVWgp-JysjukeI_-RYZrUwt_NxmPfnG7vQQh1MZELQ/s640/hashtag.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This op-ed essay was first published in <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/article_4a9ea872-cd29-11ea-89ab-ef63943d3102.html">The Advocate</a> on Friday, July 24th.<br />
<br />
<b>Time to Restore Justice for Louisianans Convicted by Split Juries</b><br />
by Mercedes Montagnes and Jamila Johnson<br />
<br />
As the nation moves to
remove the monuments to racism throughout the South, consider the largest
monument of all: hundreds of people locked inside prisons throughout Louisiana
without the unanimous consent of a jury.<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of Louisiana’s Jim
Crow laws allowed nonunanimous juries to disenfranchise black jurors. The
practice was codified at an 1898 constitutional convention with the explicit
purpose “to establish the supremacy of the white race in the state.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the next 121
years, Jim Crow juries worked exactly as they were designed, condemning
countless numbers of people to prison for tens of thousands of years on weak cases
with inexcusably short deliberation times. Jim Crow juries helped make
Louisiana the prison capital of the world, fueling a mass incarceration crisis
that disproportionately impacted Black communities. This law was not ended
until 2018, when 65% of Louisiana voters said “enough is enough” and
overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment abolishing the practice for
future trials.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This spring, the U.S.
Supreme Court agreed with Louisiana voters and found that this practice
violated the U.S. Constitution. Through this historic ruling in Ramos v.
Louisiana, the court explained how nonunanimous jury convictions silenced the
opinions of jurors of color, as it was purposefully drafted for racist
purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But because the
Supreme Court’s ruling is not yet retroactive, Jim Crow jury sentences continue
to inflict devastating harm on families and communities across the state.
Nearly 1,500 people are still serving prison sentences — many without the
possibility of parole — even though a jury could not come to a unanimous
decision on their guilt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is unacceptable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jim Crow juries
contributed to the wrongful convictions of thousands of people, some of
whom remain in prison. The practice corrupted the jury process by silencing
dissenting viewpoints and depriving the other jurors of a full view of the
evidence. It prevented verdicts that survivors and victims' families could
believe in, deprived defendants of their rights, and stripped the Louisiana
criminal justice system of credibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A surprise to no one, these
repeated wrongs on individual and systemic levels did not make our state a
healthier or safer place to live. Louisiana still incarcerates more of its
population than any place in the world and has the greatest percentage of its
prison population serving life without the possibility of parole. Meanwhile,
our state is number one in the country for pollution; has the second-highest
rates of poverty and infant mortality; and is second to last for its education
system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While we can never
fully repair the damage Jim Crow juries have done, we can begin to heal the
wounds they inflicted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The people who remain
incarcerated on the basis of Jim Crow jury verdicts have had confirmed for them
what they have always known: that their convictions were based on an unlawful
practice that deprived them of their constitutional rights. Should they spend
the rest of their lives in prison even though we know that they deserved
better? No. As we move forward on the right side of history, we cannot leave
those most directly impacted behind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That is why the
Promise of Justice Initiative has embarked on an unprecedented litigation
campaign to restore justice to the people still imprisoned due to nonunanimous
jury convictions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This fall, the U.S.
Supreme Court will consider the retroactivity of the Ramos decision, but in the
meantime, Louisiana should apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to every
person in prison based on a nonunanimous jury verdict.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The courts can order
new trials. Judges in Louisiana should honor the constitution’s commitments,
not resort to procedural bars or technicalities. It’s a small price to pay for
the justice and liberty we value most. We can start righting the course of more
than a century of unconstitutional trials and addressing the real harm that injustice
has caused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">_________________________________________________</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>NOTE: </b><a href="https://promiseofjustice.org/about-us/staff-directory">Mercedes Montagnes</a> is
the Executive Director of the <a href="https://promiseofjustice.org/">Promise of Justice Initiative</a>. <a href="https://www.law.uw.edu/news-events/news/2020/jamila-johnson-all-or-nothing">Jamila Johnson</a> is
the Managing Attorney for the Promise of Justice Initiative’s Unanimous Jury
Project.</span></span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-26753445736995440832020-07-08T08:05:00.001-05:002020-07-08T08:10:08.392-05:00CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4cxNVqm-B1BixzNhdJGyjoUO8r-zjdYK3Wjc9CFkd1CbfBYUA9deRqd7TUMmKP6f-K9klbDfewblHzKOjUxrHXn1VRIwkreMTRosz-dZ3klg3gn9BYGj43k7SIJlMnvK4C69TA/s1600/Pollock+USP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="970" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4cxNVqm-B1BixzNhdJGyjoUO8r-zjdYK3Wjc9CFkd1CbfBYUA9deRqd7TUMmKP6f-K9klbDfewblHzKOjUxrHXn1VRIwkreMTRosz-dZ3klg3gn9BYGj43k7SIJlMnvK4C69TA/s640/Pollock+USP.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; color: red;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="background-color: white; color: red;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="background-color: white; color: red;">BREAKING NEWS FROM THE FEDERAL PRISON IN POLLOCK, LA</span></b><br />
<b><span style="background-color: white; color: red;">FROM COMRADE KEITH "MALIK" WASHINGTON:</span></b><br />
<br />
<b>A couple of months ago, <span style="color: red;">David Sumera (#37063-034)</span>, who is from Louisiana, but serving in the federal system, had a Gran Mal seizure which left him paralyzed from the waist down. He shouldn't even be here! They don't have the facilities in place nor the staff to offer him adequate medical care. <span style="color: red;">Recently, </span><span style="color: red;">staff have not been giving him the opportunity to shower and clean himself so he is left sitting and laying in his urine and excrement.</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>On July 4th, David requested to be placed in the shower. His cellmate, Jason Lee, who is also from Louisiana, helped him get in the shower. On or about 5 p.m., David had a seizure. <span style="color: red;">During and after the seizure, numerous officers and prisoners were eye witnesses to a Lieutenant Rene (White, male) saying to David (and I quote): "I hope he fuckin' dies." And he kicked him in the ribs.</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>I will write a grievance tonight, but please -- as soon as possible -- organize a Phone Zap to <span style="color: red;">call Warden Chris McConnell at 318-765-3119 demanding that David Sumera be moved immediately to an appropriate facility where he can and will be given the medical attention and on-going care he needs.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
As we know, federal and state prison systems have suspended visiting "privileges" using the COVID-19 pandemic as the excuse. This makes it even more important for us to act quickly and powerfully to hold administrations and staff accountable for the safety and care of those in their custody. Please act now.</b><br />
<br />changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-90579473893800902712020-07-07T10:09:00.000-05:002020-07-10T20:23:46.095-05:00Kush-I: "Rastafari Prisoners Persecuted at Angola"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8o7lNbp8k1nJt4R6eDCTJpc6gPjxAGfvJAG9kCSxlAE4nf51ruEnpeack84IHQfH49lrdi-TWUiDGF2ylL0guaK0g7bf8SH49ZPawu5B7PcOvxDryYEcznD5lWOPF8WgrlBTlWA/s1600/Malik+-+Kush-I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="539" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8o7lNbp8k1nJt4R6eDCTJpc6gPjxAGfvJAG9kCSxlAE4nf51ruEnpeack84IHQfH49lrdi-TWUiDGF2ylL0guaK0g7bf8SH49ZPawu5B7PcOvxDryYEcznD5lWOPF8WgrlBTlWA/s1600/Malik+-+Kush-I.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic;">Comrade Malik (Keith Washington) and Kush-I (Robert T. Smith) at USP Pollock</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
<b>NOTE: </b>This article was originally published in the <a href="https://sfbayview.com/2020/07/rastafari-prisoners-persecuted-at-angola">San Francisco Bay View</a> and has been re-published here with permission of the publisher and the author.<br />
_________________________________________________________<br />
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<em><b><span style="color: #303030; font-size: 16.0pt; font-style: normal;">Rastafari Prisoners
Persecuted at Angola<o:p></o:p></span></b></em></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<em><b><span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">by
Robert T. Smith (aka Kush-I) – San Francisco Bay View 7/5/20</span></b></em><span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In the
Old Testament Scriptures, the God in the prophet Daniel’s vision had wooly
hair: “And the hair of his head was like pure wool.” (Daniel 7:9) In the book
of Revelation in the New Testament, the God in John’s vision also had wooly
hair. “His head and hair were … like wool.” (Revelation 1:14)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
evil trick perpetrated and perpetuated by white supremacist forces historically
has been to instill a feeling of inferiority in people of other races by
denigrating their physical traits while exalting whiteness. This process and
practice continue to permeate and corrupt the social systems of the United
States and, in truth, the entire globe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
crusade to suppress Rastafari religious exercise stems from the fact that the
root of this religion sprang from rich and potent Black soil that spiritually
nurtures all nations. ONE LOVE.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<a name='more'></a></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is named after the African country from
which many Black people were kidnapped then brought to Louisiana and enslaved.
Operations at the prison are controlled by Secretary James LeBlanc of the
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Angola Head Warden
Darrel Vannoy and Jim Rentz, supervisor of the Chaplaincy Department at the
institution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Under
their leadership, Rastafarian prisoners are denied equal access to space for
storing religious material and equipment. They are also discriminated against
in ways that prohibit space and time for Rastafarian study groups and other
rehabilitative programming and denied access to community outreach support
systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Additionally,
and most egregiously, prison authorities in Louisiana have interjected
themselves into the religious practices of Rastafarian prisoners by making a
rule stipulating that Rastafarian dreadlocks cannot be grown until an
individual has been a member of the Rastafarian religious congregation for at
least six months. And even after that time, the rule stipulates that a
Rastafarian prisoner’s dreadlocks may be cut for violating any prison rule even
before they are proven guilty of the violation!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Rastafarian
adherents are required to grow their dreadlocks, which is actually a part of
the initiating vow of becoming a Nazirite Rasta. Angola’s policies therefore
violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause against excessive government
entanglement with religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b><span style="color: #cf2e2e; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">I am an elder of the
Rastafari faith. From 1989 to 1995, I was held in solitary confinement for
refusing to cut my dreadlocks for religious reasons.</span></b></em></blockquote>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">They
also violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA),
imposing a substantial burden on Rastafarian prisoners by forcing them to
engage in conduct that seriously violates their religious tenets. “Then the
Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘When either Man or Woman consecrates an offering
to take the Vow of the Nazirite to separate themselves to the Lord … they shall
let the locks of the hair of their heads grow.’” (Numbers 6:2, 5)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I am an
elder of the Rastafari faith and have experienced similar forms of religious
persecution under the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. I have been
incarcerated since July 1988. From 1989 to 1995, I was held in solitary
confinement for refusing to cut my dreadlocks for religious reasons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I was
locked in a cell for 23 hours a day and allowed only one hour of exercise five
days per week. The cell lights stayed on 24 hours a day. I was denied access to
radio, television, phone calls, thermal underwear during winter and the
opportunity to purchase food from the commissary. All this and more because I
tried to exercise my rights to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the United
States and Pennsylvania Constitutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In June
1995, I was released from solitary confinement and placed in general
population. This was accomplished through a lawsuit and negotiated settlement
agreement pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA). I
was alerted to the existence of the RFRA by political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal,
who was housed on Death Row in Pennsylvania at that time. We were placed next
to each other in cages during our recreation period. He had his supporters mail
me a copy of the RFRA and I will be eternally grateful to them and to him for
their mutual aid and solidarity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
aftermath of my lawsuit also created religious exemptions not only for
Rastafarians, but also for Native Americans, Sufis, Sikhs and other religious
groups with long hair requirements for their adherents under the 14th
Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. (The RFRA no longer applies to state
prisoners, but RLUIPA does.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">And the
Louisiana State Constitution states under Freedom of Religion, section 8: “No
law shall be enacted respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We are
in the process of building the Rastafari Legal Defense and Education Fund to
defend our religious rights. We welcome any assistance and insight from our
friends and supporters. We also extend our deepest gratitude to the American
Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild, as well as numerous
university law professors and their students and legal aid societies that have
helped us thus far. Despite being persecuted for our religion, we will
unwaveringly continue to practice love with respect, as we remain confident in
the victory of good over evil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In the
words of Rastafari Haile Selassie-I, “Since nobody can interfere in the
realm of GOD, we should tolerate and live side by side with those of other
faiths.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We
thank Rebecca Hensley and the Louisiana Network for Criminal Justice
Transformation for making us aware of the struggle of the Rastafarian brothers
inside Angola. To learn more or support their work, email LA-NCJT@ProtonMail.com.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #303030; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p>_________________________________________________</o:p></span></em></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><b>NOTE: </b></i></span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Robert T. Smith bka Kush-I is an elder of the Rastafari Living Temple, he is founder of the Rastafari Legal Defense & Education Fund and Co-founder of Global Individual Rights Defenders (GIRD). Kush-I has been incarcerated since July 1988 and he is still fighting to regain his freedom from a life sentence. Ex-Police officer Jack Baird confessed to the F.B.I. that he falsified evidence and lied to the Jury at Kush-I's trial. Baird received a 15 year sentence and hundreds of prisoners were freed on cases that Baird had worked on. Baird's confession and other due-process violations are evidence that Kush-I did not receive a fair trial.</i></div>
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<br />changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-17124214615597535092020-07-04T17:22:00.000-05:002020-07-04T17:36:45.041-05:00Love the SF Bay View? Let 'em know before it's too late.<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JyoeIvOClp0" width="560"></iframe>
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<br />
Okay, y'all. Listen up. A lot of people inside and outside the walls have been reading and respecting the <a href="https://sfbayview.com/">San Francisco Bay View</a> national Black newspaper for decades. Mary and Willie Ratcliff have been holdin' down the community for 44 years, providing a platform for news, political education, inspiration, and sharing information. Now Mary has cancer and Willie has health challenges, as well, and both of them are in their 80s. But they're not walking away.<br />
<br />
Mary has been grooming <a href="https://comrademalik.com/">Comrade Keith "Malik" Washington</a> (who'll be leaving the federal system in September) to take her place. But if the SF Bay View is going to survive, it needs some cash. Many folks have little to no money these days, but some can afford to break off a lil sumpin'-sumpin' to keep this community institution afloat. If you're one of those folks or you know someone who is (no matter which side of the wall they're on), hit this <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/invest-in-liberation?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link-tip">fundraising site</a> or contact Mary at editor@sfbayview.com to send them some help in a different way.changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-92173842232882855872020-06-30T20:05:00.002-05:002020-07-01T09:07:51.138-05:00"I'm Counting Down The Hours Now..."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3zkhQh0R5mc_uijYjYQ7Trru34GUpXSF84uOk85ywfRbzkMv5LB9nf3If6rh_1z2-uGBmsz7T8-zXNhzUUhFMAz9vNxjcGwtBsTvwiQRLXC3aVFTfYkZZVbx6rbCFRVr5i12AfQ/s1600/reflection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="669" data-original-width="1000" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3zkhQh0R5mc_uijYjYQ7Trru34GUpXSF84uOk85ywfRbzkMv5LB9nf3If6rh_1z2-uGBmsz7T8-zXNhzUUhFMAz9vNxjcGwtBsTvwiQRLXC3aVFTfYkZZVbx6rbCFRVr5i12AfQ/s640/reflection.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Nearly fifty years ago, a priest I had come across somehow in my work as a prison abolitionist invited me to lunch. I was puzzled by the invitation because I was still in my twenties and thought of being invited to lunch as a "date." I didn't think priests went out on "dates," but here we were, over sandwiches and sodas in a small-town diner, chatting about this and that after he assured me that, "No, indeed, priests don't date," prompting me to ask, "Then why are we here?"<br />
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He laughed, responding with a question of his own: "You're trying to close the prisons so the prisoners can all go home...right?"<br />
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"Yes," I nodded without a smile, having no idea where he was headed with this.<br />
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"Well...when they all go home," he went on, now looking earnestly into my face with real concern in his eyes, "where will <b><i>you </i></b>go?"<br />
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I don't remember if I tried to answer him or, if so, what the answer was, but as I recall, we parted company shortly after that and I don't remember ever seeing him again. Perhaps he saw asking that question as his priestly duty for some reason (as some version of an attempt to save a woman from herself) or perhaps he was just curious, wondering why I chose this sacrifice instead of marrying God.<br />
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I've recalled this question through the years, no closer to an answer than I was back then -- until last week, when I received a JPay email from a prisoner in Angola.<br />
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"I have been granted parole," it read. "I entered Angola at 16 and I am now 46. I will call you when I get out."<br />
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<a name='more'></a>He didn't explain why he had wound up in Angola at 16, but I already know there are many hundreds of men in Louisiana to whom this has happened, most of them innocent or caught up in circumstances not of their making. Yet they are penalized as if poverty, family dysfunction, and repeated physical, psychological and emotional trauma shot through with the effects of brutal White Supremacy from birth had played no part.<br />
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He also didn't go into the details of his imminent release, but I already know that U.S. Supreme Court decisions in recent years have held that it is unconstitutional to sentence children to life sentences without parole, opening the possibility of release for hundreds of incarcerated men and women who went from painful lives straight into a hell hole where they literally grew up with no reason to believe they would ever see freedom again.<br />
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As the days passed, the emails became regular. I warned him that life outside the walls would be complicated and difficult. He told me he knew. He told me he wanted to work with me, but he needed to try to help his family first. I told him he has a long journey before him and he should breathe and not require too much of himself. Finally, he wrote, "I've signed the papers. I'm leaving on Wednesday." And at 5:30 a.m. this morning, he wrote again. "I'm counting down the hours now. I wish I could sleep all day, but I can't. So I will face it as I have countless days here..."<br />
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I told him I would write him a letter on this blog, a short, celebratory song to mark this historic moment, but facing the task, I am overwhelmed by the memories of others I have watched leave after long periods behind bars. Some are dead now. Some are back in prison. And some have married and planted a garden in their back yard. One went to work in a junk yard where he sat with his dogs in a shady spot, not talking unless he had to. Some became sociologists, some lawyers, and a few wrote about their ordeal and their triumph over the darkness that could have destroyed them. They are, in fact, not surprisingly, everywhere in a country where we incarcerate more of our population <i>per capita </i>than any other country ever has.<br />
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And Louisiana, of course, where Angola and I are located, long-recognized as the incarceration capital of the incarceration nation, has talked of late about bringing down its number of prisoners, but it has ultimately failed, thanks to the influx of more than 8,000 mostly undocumented immigrants now held in private prisons here. So the man I'm dedicating this post to will be among thousands upon thousands of other men in Louisiana -- largely Black -- who are locked up or have been locked up or are about to be or are just being released like he will be in the morning.<br />
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They run the gamut from lovingly supported to devastatingly alone. Some are not struggling financially and some sleep under bridges. So there is no one-size-fits-all set of instructions for success. But I will write about some of what I've been told by those who've walked the path, things I've heard repeated by more than a few of them as challenges they were unprepared for. This is for you, T. I hope it helps you avoid the potholes.<br />
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People in prison live in fantasy, inside their heads. They have no choice. The physical, psychological, and emotional brutality of prison existence makes it absolutely and horrifyingly necessary. In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Does-Shine-Freedom-Selection/dp/1250309476/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">The Sun Does Shine</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfnTdQ28Hbo">Anthony Ray Hinton</a> describes how his fantasy life on death row in Alabama was so rich, he sometimes didn't eat for days. But in life outside the walls, the dreams of which those fantasies are made do not linger deliciously just outside the gate.<br />
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Life outside can be every bit as trying in its own way as life inside. Bosses may be disrespectful and insulting, especially if they're racists and/or they think you have no other choices. Financial pressures can be grinding or even panic-producing, if eviction looms or there are kids to support, especially in this COVID-19 plagued economy. The romantic and sexual delights and satisfactions so fine-tuned in day dreams and night dreams inside may not appear fast enough outside (after all those years of waiting) or may bring with them increased demands and expectations of all kinds with no clear means to or knowledge of how to meet them.<br />
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At moments when these pressures push you to the wall, say to yourself, "It's not the movies." Comparing the bitter anguish of prison life to dreams of "freedom" typically convinces the psyche that release will send you instantly from hell to heaven -- but that's the movies. That doesn't mean love doesn't exist or that things will never get better or that you don't deserve to be happy or respected or paid a living wage. It just means reality in the outside world is not the movies. It's not what you fantasized it to be to keep your soul alive. And if you despair, the people around you may not understand because they have been dealing with <b><i>reality</i></b> all the time you were dreaming about how good people outside have it -- if they only do it "right."<br />
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One of the factors related to wanting real life to be the way life is portrayed in the movies is thinking that "everyone else" (which is not true) has accomplished or accumulated so much more than you have (coming out of decades in prison) that you need to make up for "lost" time by some fantastic scheme or demand on yourself or expectations of life or other people. There are millions of people in the United States who have never been arrested or gone to prison, have worked hard all their lives, and would own virtually <i>nothing</i> if they couldn't get it on credit by some hook or crook.<br />
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A minimum wage paycheck sends a worker home with so little they fall under the Federal Poverty Guideline. Governmental decision-makers know this perfectly well and they couldn't care less. They're not going without health insurance or hot water or decent shoes. Most of us out here are "wage slaves" (meaning we make more than prison laborers earn, but not enough to get ahead or to quit our jobs, even if they're awful). So don't blame yourself for stuff White Supremacy or the economic system in this country is inflicting on most of us. And keep in mind, just because somebody looks as if they're high-rolling doesn't mean they are. Statistics tell us that an insane number of us are <b><i>one month</i></b> away from being in the street if we lose our job.<br />
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When you first got to prison, you were clueless about what to do, but here you are, thirty years later, and somehow you survived. Use that same grit and wisdom to face the next thirty years. Take it one day at a time. See what you can learn each day and try not to make any mistakes you can't fix one way or another. Learn to keep your "pride" out of the mix and make friends with "self-respect" instead. (And if you don't know what I mean, think about it for awhile and you'll figure it out.)<br />
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When you got to prison, you had to figure out who you could trust and who you better not trust. Use the wisdom you learned through that experience to do the same out here. Just because somebody makes you feel "special" doesn't mean they have your best interests at heart. And just because somebody pumps you up to go in a direction doesn't mean they're right. And just because you're desperate doesn't mean you <b><i>have</i></b> to...(fill in the blank). And just because you've waited so long doesn't mean <i>this</i> is "The One" (job, opportunity, or lover). Take your time making decisions. In fact, decisions that <i>must</i> be made <b><i>right now</i></b> should probably be left alone.<br />
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Which brings me to breathing. (I know, elementary, right?) When you feel overwhelmed or frustrated or angry or stuck, take five deep breaths. Slowly. If that doesn't work, take five more. Give yourself a break. You've just spent two-thirds of your life and <b><i>all</i></b> of your adulthood in a madhouse. But if you think there's no madness out here, sit quietly and observe. It can catch you sideways, if you're not paying attention. There's a lot of it out here. But then you already know that -- prison guards and administrators and, let's face it, even prisoners come from...(wait for it)...out here.<br />
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You might be tempted to speed up now because life outside the walls is speedy. But for your own sake, slow it down. You don't have to be ashamed or embarrassed. When somebody is recuperating from surgery, they're always warned to "take it slow." You'll be recuperating from three decades in prison. Take your time. And for goodness' sake, don't expect miracles. They <i>may </i>happen, but expecting them leads to disappointment. And besides, isn't a <i>surprise</i> miracle the best anyway?<br />
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That's probably more than enough for now. In less than twelve hours, you'll have left the gate and the plantation where you were once told you would die. You'll have lunch in a city you haven't seen since you were a kid. And I will have watched one more prisoner go home.<br />
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But what of the question the priest asked me back when I began <i>my </i>journey? Where will I go when all the walls have crumbled, the gates hang on their hinges, and the prisoners have gone home? I will be home then, too, because "home" to me -- I have finally realized -- would be a world without prisons.changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-31998539290636005492020-06-15T18:03:00.001-05:002020-06-15T18:26:00.469-05:00Get In Where You Fit In When You Stand Up For Your Rights<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/biGm7nUgisA" width="560"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">“Most people think
that Great God will come from the sky<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">and take away
everything and make everybody feel high.<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">But if you know what
your life is worth,<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">you would look for
yours on Earth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #990000;">Get up, stand up.
Stand up for your rights.” ~ Bob Marley</span></b></i><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When all else fails,
YouTube comes to the rescue for me. I don’t know what I did without it before
some saint or entrepreneur or whatever devised it for the rest of us. But this
morning, I was struggling my way through my 14th week of hardcore self-quarantine
alone, alternately depressed and agitated, when I went to YouTube to find a few
meditation videos before I punched somebody in the throat or killed myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I found a couple of
beautiful videos, posted one to Facebook, and then, as I got ready to post the
one above on there, as well, I realized that I miss blogging. Blogging takes
more time, more crafting, more thought, more reflection, more passion, more
commitment, more of myself. So slowly but surely, as I worked what amounted to
two full-time jobs for the past fifteen months, I blogged less and less,
throwing up someone else’s work or an occasional video and once in a blue moon, I actually wrote something.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But I’m going to
change that. Beginning today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve been blogging about
the socially-constructed, political notion of race since 2006. Needless to say,
my interest in mass incarceration – which developed nearly fifty years ago – shows
up often. My blog is hardly the Huffington Post (by a long shot), but over the
years, it has become a platform that has allowed me to write about race and
mass incarceration with a level of expertise and belligerence that has gotten
it read all over the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I never imagined that
I’d write it for more than a decade, that it would over that period be viewed
by more than a million people, or that I’d eventually take such pride in it
that I’d want to publish a compilation of my favorite posts so that incarcerated
people without access to the internet could read what I’ve had to say about topics
that impact their lives so greatly. But life transitions give us an opportunity
to re-consider how we want to spend our time and energy, how we want to order
our priorities, and how we see ourselves as humans contributing to life on our
planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have found myself at
just such a transitional point. At 74, I am scheduled to “retire” August 1st from
my full-time position as an Instructor of Sociology at a mid-sized public university
in The South. I have said (over and over) in the past year that I was doing so
to dedicate the rest of my life to engaging in what some people call prison
abolition work. And this is true.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What I did not consider was the breadth of
what this work might entail. I know personally people from coast to coast in
the United States who manifest their involvement in this work in a wide range
of ways, many of which are very demanding and I somehow got it in my mind that
in order to do this work “right,” I would have to commit myself to all of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I knew on some level that
this wasn’t realistic, but with reckless abandon, I simply took on one set of
demands after another until I was overwhelmed, snappish, resentful, and on the
brink of burn-out at the very beginning of this new chapter in my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At least part of the
problem is that over the five decades I’ve been engaged in my<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>own personal version of Shawshank Redemption,
I have developed a lot of expertise in the field and matched it with a strong
skill set that would normally take a whole office-full of abolitionists to reproduce. Unfortunately,
there’s only one of me. It should have been clear to me from the beginning what the outcome would be.
But who had time to think about <b><i>that</i></b>?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So until Covid-19 hit,
pushing us all off campus, and then the semester slid to a gritty finish in
May, I didn’t have time to step back and take a look at what I was doing. And
by the time I did, I felt like one of those tigers being driven by an over-zealous
trainer wielding a whip and a chair – with me playing both roles. I spent part
of every day hating myself and another part looking for somewhere to hide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then it came to me: I
was raised by parents whose own childhood turned them into perfectionistic
tyrants. This resulted in a belief in my own inadequacy rooted so deeply in my psyche that a lifetime of accomplishments, awards, and performance could not
mitigate its effect. Even as I aged, I did not lessen my own expectation that I
should be more than I am compared to others. I didn’t finish my dissertation –
like those who did. I didn’t publish widely as a scholar – like those who did.
I didn’t win research awards – like those who did. And so forth, ad nauseum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Even my radical social
change work didn’t look like others’ work. It isn’t that I didn’t do social
change work. It’s that <b><i>my</i></b> social change work did not fit the model others’ work
fit. An organizer I know from another state announced the first time we met in person that my words are my super power. She was trying to help me see what I was doing. Yet I couldn't hear her because all my standards were based on how well I was being someone else. But this week, I finally got it: if I quit trying to be everybody else and focus on being mySelf
(which I’m 110% good at), I will have a smaller workload, I will shine at
what I was doing, and my life satisfaction will go through the roof.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So that’s what I’m
going to start doing. Spending more time blogging and less time on Facebook
will be the immediate manifestation of that. Later manifestations will include spending less time stewing over
the fact that others are organizing street actions when that’s not my strong
suit anyway and, at 74 and diabetic, I ought to keep my butt out of jail (COVID or not). Not accepting prisoners’ needs as a commitment I <b><i>have </i></b>to make because
they need me to will free me up to focus on the needs I can legitimately meet and leave me feeling less guilty about what I cannot fix. And all this, in turn, will help make my work more effective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This “personal problem”
of mine shows up as a broader issue in social change work in general. When Bob
Marley wrote: “Stand up for your rights,” most of us took that to mean “get out
there in other people’s faces,” “make noise,” and so on. Assertive or even aggressive
push-back is often necessary to get public attention, especially when the “public”
in question is made up of decision-makers and cops who shoot first and talk later or not at all. But not everybody can do that for
one reason or another. Not everybody does that as well as others do, in any case. And some
people have other skills or resources that make them more valuable to the movement somewhere else rather than in the street. You don't put everybody in your army on a horse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The tricky part of social change work is
figuring out the most effective combination of strategies and where we each fit
into them. People been standin’ up for their rights since the first time an
oppressor took more than his share. Power is never given. But history tells us
that the very people who have the moral will to take power by force typically turn into
the same self-centered, greedy, morally bankrupt capitalists or even fascists
as the power-mongers they overthrew.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Look at South Africa.
The decision-makers in that country – now all Black – are treating those that
were brutalized in the past just like their predecessors did. Or check out
Dilma Rousseff, who went to prison for two years in the 1970s, where she was
tortured for her socialist organizing in the streets but became a poster child
for right wing capitalism as the President of Brazil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is partly why I’m
not a true believer in any mindset that touts being “the” vanguard. I learned –
early and hard – not to trust anyone who wants me to pledge allegiance to their
flag, their leader, or even their t-shirt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Still, living in collectives
in my twenties showed me first hand that having no “leader” meant that the same
few people did all the work all the time, while hangers-on wanted to sit on the
corner of your desk and talk revolutionary rhetoric before they went somewhere
else, got high, and ratted you out accidentally to some cop. So I don't have
much faith in anarchy either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Consequently, I've
chosen to spend my life “helping” in one way or another, sometimes affecting a
bunch of people all at once and sometimes affecting the life of “only” one;
sometimes in socially-acceptable ways and sometimes in ways I wouldn't publish
on Facebook. Once I started making enough money to cover my basic bills and
have something leftover, I gave away as much as I possibly could. And for the
past 32 years, I’ve exposed upwards of 12,000 students to world-changing ideas
some of them latched onto with a vengeance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For the past year, </span><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">under the umbrella of the <a href="https://cjtransformation.org/">Louisiana Network for Criminal Justice Transformation</a>, </span><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I've been performing “case management services” (whatever that's construed to be on a given day) for incarcerated citizens -- most of them
at Angola -- and their families. How that will unfold is, as yet, unclear. And
from time to time, a prisoner becomes frustrated with my inability to accomplish
what he needs done, as if my not being a lawyer or my not having just the right
pixie dust that would walk him through the gates is a fatal flaw that makes me
worthless.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I accept that prisoners can feel frustrated and hopeless and their families can feel helpless and abandoned. I accept that we need to change the world system that has us all trapped as wage slaves and that some of us are working for pennies to make others richer than anyone needs to be. I accept that there is no fool proof answer to how we can turn this world into a place safe for all of us where we each have what we need -- including dignity and respect and the freedom to be whole human beings. But starting today, I also accept mySelf. It will be interesting to see where <b><i>that</i></b> leads.</span></div>
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<br />changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-54366491269465280732020-05-25T15:41:00.002-05:002020-05-25T15:47:40.719-05:00Podcast: "IDOC Watch Panel: Four Voices for Liberation"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVcT_l5NNbzEUDmuW9oJTxvQwiY93BsVIdrLb9HLC-28OdiGYXSYouuSzMJ9Q4o27Wn9x7H-Eem19cyGTGYK9SIIUJkyGoYhLWX3soNbUxBqt6m0jq-dnhCT3wB3mmfeo4-yQJaA/s1600/Broken+by+Keith+Perelli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVcT_l5NNbzEUDmuW9oJTxvQwiY93BsVIdrLb9HLC-28OdiGYXSYouuSzMJ9Q4o27Wn9x7H-Eem19cyGTGYK9SIIUJkyGoYhLWX3soNbUxBqt6m0jq-dnhCT3wB3mmfeo4-yQJaA/s640/Broken+by+Keith+Perelli.jpg" width="464" /></a></div>
<br />
I wouldn't normally blog when I'm at a loss for words, but I just listened to a <a href="https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2020/05/24/idoc-watch-panel-four-voices-for-liberation">podcast</a> posted on the internet by <a href="https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/">The Final Straw Radio</a> (a weekly anarchist radio show). The podcast features four strong voices: <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOGEibw0PuMpD8rM2dIxJQ" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #24890d; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kwame Shakur</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 16px;"> of the </span><a href="http://www.stolenlives.org/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #24890d; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stolen Lives Movement,</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 16px;"> Sheila, who is a mother, grandmother, and advocate of incarcerated people, </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/lorenzo.stone.5209" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #24890d; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lorenzo Stone-Bey</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 16px;"> of IDOC Watch, and </span><a href="http://www.zoloazania.org/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #24890d; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Zolo Agona Azania</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 16px;"> who is formerly of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Liberation_Army" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #24890d; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Black Liberation Army</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-size: 16px;">, and is a three-time survivor of death row.</span></span><br />
<br />
The IDOC Watch website says:<br />
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<span style="color: #2b2b2b;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i><b>“The Indiana Department of Correction Watch (IDOC Watch) exists to be in solidarity with prisoners. This means we correspond with and and foster camaraderie with people who are incarcerated in Indiana, expose abusive conditions and treatment, and fight policies and initiatives that further isolate, marginalize, and harm prisoners. We seek to uplift prisoners’ voices and struggles and educate the masses about prisons, generally, as well as specific issues we are fighting.”</b></i></span></span></blockquote>
No matter how you found my blog in the first place or why you keep returning, if you do, I urge you to listen to this podcast -- carefully and more than once. Its message is powerful. Its truth runs deep. And its pertinence to the struggle for liberation on any front is unmistakably relevant to all of us, no matter where we live our lives.<br />
_________________________________________________________<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>NOTE:</b> The graphic above is a photo of a work of art by <a href="http://www.keithperelli.com/keithperelli.com/Keith_Perelli.html">Keith Perelli</a> of New Orleans. Its title is "Broken" but it clearly captures the undeniable resilience of Black people who have and do resist and outlast the onslaught of social brutality that has been brought against Black men, women, and children for the past five hundred years.</span><span class="mejs-offscreen" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(1px , 1px , 1px , 1px); color: #2b2b2b; font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: 1px; margin: -1px; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">Audio Pla</span>changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-78720454883524609212020-05-21T11:08:00.001-05:002020-05-21T11:08:43.424-05:00SC Static: "We Need to Try to Find a Way to Police the Police"<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iUzq0KHczAg" width="560"></iframe>changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-12253693892224773182020-05-03T17:11:00.001-05:002020-05-04T08:25:03.860-05:00Eric Brown / TRU.ENation: On the Coronavirus, Angola, and C-Murder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrcBZL8aVaVN5TFe0TWxIAL58RnvRnBUQV153gn09Yq1C3BamKT3l_yOKEFj9w05PsKSsmrv4GTHA82kWt5hG0fxTp-7bUV0xgHmOl8gZkYbJu3hqosqS7Nbhgk9V3kG92uir-Q/s1600/Eric-Brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="734" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrcBZL8aVaVN5TFe0TWxIAL58RnvRnBUQV153gn09Yq1C3BamKT3l_yOKEFj9w05PsKSsmrv4GTHA82kWt5hG0fxTp-7bUV0xgHmOl8gZkYbJu3hqosqS7Nbhgk9V3kG92uir-Q/s640/Eric-Brown.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><i>This interview was conducted by <a href="https://thesource.com/author/shawn-grant">Shawn Grant</a> and published at <a href="https://thesource.com/2020/04/16/mr-eric-brown-angola-exclusive">The Source</a> on April 16, 2020. It is being re-posted with the permission of Eric Brown.</i></b><br />
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Eric Brown, aka TRU.ENation, grew up in a prison. Sentenced
to life without parole, Brown began his sentence at age 16, before studying law
and working toward his release at age 41. During his 25-year prison stint,
Brown experienced inhumane conditions.
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“I’ve seen overflowed sinks that have flooded whole cell
blocks; bobcats, alligators and other rodents walking around units and the
prison telling the inmates to remove it,” Brown shared. “The showers have holes
in the tile where rodents come through, holes in the floor of the shower tiles.
Cells only sanitized at the inmates' financial expense.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Those conditions have only intensified during the
coronavirus outbreak as those inside do not have proper protection for their
own health and the lack of care paid to the scene is alarming.<o:p></o:p><br />
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In addition, Mr. Brown pointed out the wrongful conviction
of many inmates due to corrupt officials, which he has experienced along with
his close friend C-Murder.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“We need a major overhaul with the criminal justice system
in the United States. We need to free the innocent. The criminal justice system
was not designed to protect African Americans,” Mr. Brown says. “It was
designed to enslave us. If you are black and get caught up in a system, you are
not guilty until proven innocent. You will most likely be found guilty because
of corrupt cops, DAs, and judges. They will do everything in their power to
convict you, too.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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In a conversation with The Source, Mr. Brown details the
conditions and reports coming from Angola, along with other facilities, how the
justice system wrongfully convicted him and C-Murder and more.<br />
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<b>How do you think the response to coronavirus has been inside
of Angola and other prisons? </b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, it’s a two-prong question. I think the ones that are civilized are doing the best they can with the resources that they have. However,
I’m not into conspiracy theories or anything like that, but I don’t believe
that this just popped up out of nowhere. I did a lot of reading in those cells,
you know, about studying, research and a lot of things. I just have some type
of suspicions about certain things. I don’t have all the facts and knowledge, but when I have a gut feeling, I grew up in a penitentiary, you know what I
mean? So my intuition has helped me overcome a lot of difficult situations. So the federal government, what they are doing, I don’t think they’re doing a
sufficient job at all. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>You mentioned growing up in a penitentiary. You did
over 9,000 days. For people who aren’t familiar with that story, what led to
that and led to your freedom? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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9,001 days, exactly 25 years. From age 16 to 41 years old. I
was arrested and convicted for the armed robbery of a known drug dealer. There
was no murder weapon, eyewitnesses, fingerprints, DNA or nobody to say they saw
me do this crime. But since I refused to tell and kept my mouth shut, they felt that was sufficient to give a juvenile life without parole plus 30 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A blessing was to have two brothers in the penitentiary who told me what to research in the law library. I became a paralegal and began to
work myself out of that place.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>You were in Angola, what was the environment like inside?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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When I first made it to Angola it was the bloodiest prison
in America. It was very violent and you had to stay on your toes at all times.
You see people get murdered and raped. You see security brutalize and kill
people. I had to stay steadfast, know to never give up and refuse to be a
victim.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Beyond the danger inside, what were the conditions like?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The conditions were deplorable. As an example, if they think
you are a threat they’ll put you in the dungeon. You could only drink water
from like a toilet and a sink put together. You had all kinds of slime and just
grime gets inside the faucet where the water comes out at. It’s been getting
worse, I’m getting a lot of information about what’s going on with the coronavirus.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>How are those inside detailing the response to the coronavirus? We practice social distancing, but are there other orders that have
been given?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is what I was told is going on in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and several other prisons across the state as well. They don’t
want to give those guys hand sanitizers or anything so they can really protect
themselves. There’s no mass, anything like that. Visitation stopped, however they still allow the officers to come and go as they please.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now I’m hearing that in Angola, they have a cell block called
E-Block. And it was rarely used when I went camp to camp. But that was the initial
place for cases and those same officers would come out to the yard.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #b45f06;"><i>“There is no testing of these people (staff, guards and CO’s) there is no testing of us before they house us with other inmates. We
are not six feet apart. In some cases, it's 2-3 inmates per cell with one
sleeping on the top bunk. We use one toilet connected to a sink and no hand
sanitizer. Food handlers wear no gloves or protection and laundry is tossed
outside of the cells, then piled in a laundry bin. More will die, our lives are
in danger daily with COVID-19 and if we speak out, we get privileges like phone
calls, snacks and rec time taken away. Yet they are forcing us outside to do
fieldwork, working alongside sick people and everything.” ~</i><i> Anonymous Inmate at Angola State Penitentiary</i></span></b></blockquote>
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<b>I’m sure since this is being mishandled, general medical
conditions were also not taken entirely seriously inside?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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I just want to say there are people that have loved ones
behind the walls, man, you know, reach out to him, find out what’s going on, stay
in contact with them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Recently in Hip-Hop, Yo Gotti has sued the Mississippi
Department of Corrections due to conditions. </b><b>Do you know what can be done in
Louisiana to ease the issues inside?</b></div>
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With the guys I speak to, they are true dudes, we may be bitter
toward the system, but that doesn’t mean we want to just put out false
propaganda for attention. Whatever apprehension that they have about
protection, I mean, I think that needs to be thrown out the window because we
talking about a life and death situation right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prior to this, you have people with all
different types of medical conditions, sending their items and clothes to the
laundry together and if it isn’t handled right, it comes back brown. In
situations like this, you are asking for a disaster. They need the hot water,
the showers are filthy, once I heard about this, I knew it would be a tragedy
inside because the conditions were so poor before everything started.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>You often speak about how corrupt the criminal justice
system is and how it impacted both your life and C-Murder. How did those
situations happen?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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C-Murder, that’s really a true friend of mine. The guy is
factually innocent and the world knows. Witnesses have come forward and exposed
the Jefferson Parish police department and the prosecutor’s office on how
statements were persuaded against Corey Miller. He and McKinley “Mac” Phipps
were two of the biggest names in the city at the time. At that point,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it was "forget who really did this particular
crime. Let’s focus on these two big names, get a fat paycheck or a raise."<o:p></o:p></div>
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Louisiana and Oregon were the only two states in the country
that allowed a non-unanimous jury verdict. Corey Miller had a 10-2 verdict
where two people on his jury found him not guilty. Myself, Eric Brown, Tru
E-Nation, also had two jurors find me not guilty. Had we been in any other state in
America we would not have been found guilty of our particular charges because
it has to be a unanimous decision. There is a case pending in the United States
Supreme Court right now and we need everybody to put that press down on them
because we need this.* There are a lot of guys right now in prison dying with
life without parole sentences, found not guilty for crimes that they did not
commit.</div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">C-Murder is doing as good as to be expected. He was in good
spirits when we spoke with him last and he continues to work toward his future
release. He thanks all his fans, supporters, and family for the letters and
birthday wishes. He would like to let his fans know, if you have family
incarcerated, please check on them. There’s nothing like having people check on
you in times like this, ya heard me? Stay TRU. ~ Statement from the TRU team on C-Murder</span></b></i></blockquote>
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During my time in prison, I had a subscription to The Source
Magazine, and we would watch the Source Awards, which would be our highlight.
Much love and respect to The Source, much love, and respect to Corey "C-Murder" Miller and his Publicist Tammy Ty Page. I would like to s/o to the President of
TRU-Cuttboy G’Dinero (IG), James “JP” Parker, 2Mekadiaz (IG), Corey’s daughter
Alexischelsea (IG), TRU.ENation supporters, Bossspook, my mom, my family, my
brother Tyron RIP, my brother Charlie (Khalil) RIP, The Real Freeway Rick Ross,
Nola Culture 504, Newtral Groundz, The TRU Team, Connected and Respected.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My Motto: I Rise Because I Stayed TRU! Neva Give Up, 100.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You can keep up with Mr. Brown on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tru_enation">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUQlvhHMHJTdSZ3j0Y1W-0Q">YouTube</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>NOTE: </b>On April 20th, 2020, (after the publication of this article), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Ramos v. Louisiana that non-unanimous juries are unconstitutional. It remains to be seen how many incarcerated citizens' lives will be affected by this ruling, but it will most certainly be in the hundreds and potentially far more than that.</span></div>
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changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-72964907048675049562020-05-02T09:17:00.000-05:002020-05-02T10:23:43.972-05:00Otto Rene Castillo: "Apolitical Intellectuals"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTWCPszWp5baAfykFmktW6-v9KTksb20nXZGLdZKxcfEw91g2S7M-z_JNVG1lmaiZONJZ-HVlp1wSUKczjGkCRapjAUl8bCtbLQyELPPRSMMN6YtN6MwVnnBn3RBcD-5tSMqu_Hw/s1600/Otto+Rene+Castillo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="700" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTWCPszWp5baAfykFmktW6-v9KTksb20nXZGLdZKxcfEw91g2S7M-z_JNVG1lmaiZONJZ-HVlp1wSUKczjGkCRapjAUl8bCtbLQyELPPRSMMN6YtN6MwVnnBn3RBcD-5tSMqu_Hw/s640/Otto+Rene+Castillo.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
a writer, I've had an office at home for years. It started out as an electric
typewriter on a desk in my thirties, became a computer in my fifties, and a
separate room in my apartment in my sixties. Now, I'm in the process of
organizing that room to take on the appearance, efficiency, and feel of the hub
I want to see Louisiana Network for Criminal Justice Transformation become.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For
those of you who don't already know, I'm stepping down from my full-time
position at the university on August 1st to dedicate the rest of my life to
prison abolition. So I'm transforming the office that has been until now a
center of creative womanist energy – fighting oppression as I have always done – to reflect the more honed focus I have developed in the past year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Initially,
I removed things: books, personal items, and random clutter unrelated to
criminal justice transformation, collected over time and in the way of progress
and practicality. I added a printer/scanner/copier and a shredder. And I will
soon remove some of the art on the walls, replacing it with LA-NCJT documents
and such.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yesterday,
as I continued the process while wading my way through six weeks of largely
unanswered LA-NCJT mail, I came across a copy of the following poem by Otto
Rene Castillo. Castillo was the Chief of Propaganda and Education for the Rebel
Armed Forces in the mountains of Guatemala when he was captured in 1967 by
representatives of the right-wing government installed by the U.S./CIA in his
country thirteen years before. He was thirty-three years old when he was
captured, interrogated, tortured, and burned alive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I organized a conference in Havana, Cuba,
in 2017 for 300 radical sociologists from fifteen countries, I carried this
poem in my heart. It seems <i>appropos </i>to re-post and re-center it again in this dark time with one additional note.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It won't be just the apolitical intellectuals who will be interrogated after this. It will be the anti-stay-at-home folks that have been encouraged by those at the top to pick up their weapons and create drama in public, calling it "freedom." It will be the die-hard ministers gathering their "flocks" to die and go to Heaven. It will be the ones who had the money to order Waitr and the health insurance to buy three months of their prescriptions at once. It will be the birthday party revellers, the beach goers, yes, even the Netflix binge-watchers, who have hooked themselves up to the simultaneous intravenous drips of mind-numbing drugs and mind-numbing programming, which in fact has already been programming them for years. It will be everyone who let themselves be distracted from the suffering by the circus, who rode Instagram and Reddit while riding the lemmings off the cliff, who thought nothing could be done and so did nothing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The COVID-19 pandemic is going to change human existence from this point forward. But in the struggle to survive, many are ignoring to one extent or another the creeping onslaught and entrenchment of right wing fascism in this country, dragging White Supremacy, misogyny, and religious fanaticism with it, like the four horseman of a long-awaited apocalypse. The amused smirks of so many when that word is used suggest that much of the population of the United States is still just comfortable enough to ignore the fact that (Netflix be damned) life is not a movie. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">It will not play to the credits in two hours with snacks.
And the revolution will – this time – be televised.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>"Apolitical
Intellectuals"</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">by
Otto Rene Castillo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One
day<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
apolitical<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">intellectuals<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
my country<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">will
be interrogated<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">by
the simplest<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
our people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They
will be asked<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">what
they did<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">when
their nation died out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">slowly,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">like
a sweet fire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">small
and alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No
one will ask them<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">about
their dress,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">their
long siestas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">after
lunch,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">no
one will want to know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">about
their sterile combats<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">with
"the idea<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
the nothing,"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">no
one will care about<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">their
higher financial learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They
won't be questioned<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">on
Greek mythology,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">or
regarding their self-disgust<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">when
someone within them<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">begins
to die<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
coward's death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They'll
be asked nothing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">about
their absurd<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">justifications,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">born
in the shadow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
the total lie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On
that day,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
simple men will come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Those
who had no place<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in
the books and poems<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
the apolitical intellectuals,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">but
daily delivered<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">their
bread and milk,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">their
tortillas and eggs,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">who
cared for their dogs and gardens<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and
worked for them,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and
they'll ask:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"What
did you do when the poor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">suffered,
when tenderness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and
life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">burned
out of them?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Apolitical
intellectuals<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of
my sweet country,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you
will not be able to answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A
vulture of silence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">will
eat your gut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Your
own misery<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">will
pick at your soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
you will be mute in your shame. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-68781232811660149232020-04-17T09:25:00.003-05:002020-04-17T09:25:47.800-05:00Update From Angola: "Today Was Stranger Than Most"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LOAqdcqGX6oKpbMVnSulM-9X8UmHQPni_m1YMiAp0S8XjoShax7ny6ka97QFl2esk0TrcTJZ1HnVt_cQFFeLAHWbfWYV-XLXVlz3MROHXsVPUKiNhgMdfNgqAQiYgk10X9E8mg/s1600/virus+in+prison.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LOAqdcqGX6oKpbMVnSulM-9X8UmHQPni_m1YMiAp0S8XjoShax7ny6ka97QFl2esk0TrcTJZ1HnVt_cQFFeLAHWbfWYV-XLXVlz3MROHXsVPUKiNhgMdfNgqAQiYgk10X9E8mg/s640/virus+in+prison.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><i>Received early this morning from inside the walls:</i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Today was stranger than most. There's something weird going on and no one is talking directly to us about it. The daily briefings we were having with the officials here have ceased and dorms are being placed on quarantine one after the other. Today, it was the dorm next door. Tomorrow, it will probably extend to our dorm as well. No one from any unit is allowed to come in contact with anyone from another unit; we have to do everything separately -- eat, shop at the canteen, have yard, etc.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">"We are basically being kept in the dark about the scope of the outbreak here, but some information about new cases inside Angola is slowly reaching us from outside sources. I did find out today that the reason the dorm next door went on quarantine is because a guy tested positive for the virus after displaying flu-like symptoms. Here's the really weird part: another guy who was living in that dorm was moved into our dorm a few days ago. Then, when the guy from his former dorm tested positive, security suddenly came got the guy who had moved into our dorm and locked him up. So we are left wondering whether or not he was exposed to the virus before being moved into our dorm. </span><span style="background-color: white;">The incompetence of some of the people in charge of our safety is astounding to say the least, which leads me to believe that things are far worse than we realize at the moment.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Tempers are beginning to flare and the tension is getting so thick you could almost cut it with knife. The TV stays on CNN nearly all day everyday now and as more and more people succumb to the virus, the more anxious and nervous everyone in here seems to get. I'm curious to see what new revelations tomorrow will bring. I tend to think that I am prepared for anything, but these are uncertain times and I don't know if anyone is truly prepared for what comes next."</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>NOTE:</b> </span><i>A different source reported that five men were taken out of Ash-1 yesterday. No names are available at this time, but one of the men was reported to have left the institution. What that means has been left to conjecture. But if you have a friend or loved one in Ash-1, you should call Angola and ask for a wellness check.</i></span></span>changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-87607885032622239522020-04-16T08:36:00.000-05:002020-04-16T08:39:42.579-05:00CJ LeBlanc: Angola Prisoners Say: "This is a war -- and we're in it."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>This article was written by CJ LeBlanc and published at <a href="https://hardcrackers.com/angola-prisoners-say-war">Hard Crackers</a> on April 13, 2020.</b><br />
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<i>The United States, with 4.4% of the world’s population, incarcerates no less than 22% of the world’s prisoners, far more per capita than any other country. It’s been widely acknowledged that this has a lot to do with the “War on Drugs” initiated by Richard Nixon in 1971 (a man, we should remember, who was himself a criminal, but never served a day behind bars). Indeed, when the “War on Drugs” was launched, the prison and jail population in the U.S. stood at 171 per 100,000. Today, it’s 655 per 100,000 nationally. And in Louisiana, it’s an astonishing 1,052 per 100,000.</i><br />
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<i>Some might suggest that Louisiana’s high incarceration rate is driven by the state’s poor record in the areas of education, economy, and quality of life in general. After all, nobody’s born a criminal. But whatever the root causes, the sudden descending of COVID-19 into the prison population has presented the state with a dilemma so crucial it is likely to find itself shortly under very intense federal scrutiny.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Prisoners’ rights advocates and organizations concerned with criminal justice are weighing in assertively to push for strict adherence to protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the American Disabilities Act. Even the Louisiana Department of Health has issued a detailed memo to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections outlining its very clear recommendations. And the DPSC is responding that they are doing everything in their power to live up to the exigencies of the situation.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Reports from incarcerated citizens inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, however, beg to differ. The following quotes are from letters, emails, and phone calls to people on the outside of the walls from various prisoners inside Angola.</i><br />
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<b>Friday, April 3rd:</b> “Yellow lines are painted on the walk indicating we get six feet of space when actually a whole unit was piled on the walk and in the kitchen over 100 men and in each dorm 85 at least. The strain got 2 of 4 urinals out and 1 of 6 face bowls out. Our families and friends are mounting an electronic protest about the six feet of space everyone is calling for and how we can’t get it.”<br />
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“We are told by the workers that go out daily that they are bringing sick inmates from all over and housing them in Camp-J, a condemned building, so it appears Angola is being made into an extermination Kamp.”<br />
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<b>Sunday, April 5th:</b> “As I sit here, I am at peace but ever vigilant. I have been provided a mask and a diet of almost useless information. The one thing I have is a mind and willingness to press the front line. Always has been another battle to fight. So what is the atmosphere here? Some are afraid, others confused, others are adapting and some in denial. Even the usual aggressive administration is less aggressive, afraid of dealing with this virus and the unknown certainty of what may transpire.<br />
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“No one is being tested yet. The only measure that a usually reactionary staff has taken is to check temperatures two times a day. What about asymtomatic people who will show no signs? This is prison and closed in – a situation the World Health Organization warned about. It will breed in here. But now it’s a matter of survival – a matter of whose immune system will fight it off while panic, worry, and stress are all aides of death.”<br />
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“It could be worse. We could be locked in the dorms, security pulled, snipers placed outside the perimeter, and our deaths blamed on COVID-19. Block the cellphone towers, cut the landlines, disconnect the JPay kiosk, and lights out.<br />
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“We are somewhat okay. Uncomfortable and concerned about our loved ones and friends. I look forward to surviving. It’s not check-out time yet.<br />
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“Remember these words from an ex-criminal: Love, Mercy and Forgiveness. Prisoners have been looking for a second chance. The whole world is now looking for a second chance. Patch up those relationships and live. Extend love and mercy to all living things. But for now, we fight – together.”<br />
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<b>Monday, April 6th:</b> “A second prisoner has died over on the East Yard we are told. So, West Yard prisoners are now to have absolutely no contact with East Yard. They are importing sick prisoners from all over the state and turning the Gym into something to deal with the expected medical problems here. The guys that work on the medical wards are scared of what they have been witnessing. We cannot get in the Law library, but shoe-shine inmates still move around as they wish, shining the shoes of guards. Then at the end of the day, they sleep in the same packed dorms we do. The West yard Interfaith Chapel has been turned into a nurse’s station. Heard today the guards are going to have to start wearing masks to protect the inmates. But a lot of them don’t seem to be taking it very seriously. And this has not peaked in here yet.”<br />
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<b>Wednesday, April 8th:</b> “It appears that inexperience, incompetence, and outright stupidity is being used as the cover for an extermination plan. If the trajectory of this bio-weapon is the same as Italy and other places, Angola will explode with it. All the necessary things are being done to have this place be a killin’ field.<br />
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“It has been reported that the first inmate that got sick tested positive and was sent to the dumping ground, Camp-J, but that a mistake was made in the testing and he is now not positive and has been returned to where he started from, even though he’s definitely been exposed.<br />
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“Another inmate that got sick was moved by fully suited up guards to Camp-J. Many of the guards are scared. One of them said to my friend that seventeen hundred body bags have been placed at one of the warehouses in Angola. We shall see how this plays itself out.”<br />
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“In my view, the powers-that-be have no intentions of releasing anybody, but would rather use this virus to reduce the population to the size they desire. Check out the phone footage from Alabama that was on the News, and from other prisons all over the land. Michelle Alexander said in her book The New Jim Crow that a human rights nightmare is occurring on our watch, talking about mass incarceration. I would say, the world is about to witness a human rights nightmare she never conceived of at that time, but that prisoners have been speaking of for many years.”<br />
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<b>Friday, April 10th:</b> “There have been some positive changes, I guess. They’re opening the windows, but only in the dungeons, and they aren’t gassing people with chemical agents as much as they usually do. They’re still jumping on people, though.”<br />
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“Nobody wants to go to the field anymore because of the virus and the vegetables were rotting out there. So they beat this one guy who didn’t want to go and they’ve been forcing guys at one of the outcamps to pick ever since.”<br />
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“Guards get 5% hazard pay for going into E-block, where inmates go when they’ve been exposed or when they first get sick. The prisoners are not tested. They’re just put in E-block. So some people in there have it and some don’t, but they’re all in there together. And besides that, E-block was condemned years ago, but they’re using it now and not telling anybody it even exists. I heard it’s maxed out with maybe 60 men.”<br />
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“The medical professionals going into E-block are completely masked up all over and there’s a sign that tells people not to go in there if they’re not authorized, but they got orderlies going in and out all the time – to pass food, clean up, get inmates out of their cells – and they aren’t wearing any protective gear at all.”<br />
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“Once an inmate tests positive or has the symptoms real bad, they’re moved to Camp-J – which was also condemned several years ago – and after that nobody sees them anymore. There’s room for hundreds in Camp-J. There’s at least 90 men in there now and might be as many as 150. They’re bringing them from all over the state. But who knows?”<br />
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<i>The prisoners at Angola – as always – continue to fill out Administrative Remedy Procedures (grievance forms) related to conditions and treatment. They try to keep up with the cases they already have in Court, though it’s hard to do when Court documents often involve deadlines and the institution’s mail room is struggling like every other part of the prison. They reach out to their families and friends in the constant knowledge that any moment they or those they love could contract a condition that has already caused more than 20,000 deaths in the U.S. in less than three months. And every day above ground is a good day.</i><br />
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<i>But they feel as though those legally charged with their protection in this terrible time are not acting in their best interests. State after state and nation after nation have released or are in the process of engineering the releases of hundreds and even thousands of incarcerated men and women who might well die if left in overcrowded, already infected, institutions. Yet Louisiana – with its practice of mass incarceration at a rate unmatched anywhere else in the world – seems unwilling to follow suit.</i><br />
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“You gotta get the word out about what’s really going on in here,” wrote one prisoner to a supporter. “This is a war – and we’re in it.”
changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-3746497142337023212020-04-11T18:25:00.000-05:002020-04-12T17:12:05.629-05:00Angola Prisoners Await Their Fate<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">by CJ LeBlanc</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the
past ninety days, the human race has found itself in the strangle-hold of a
pandemic. United States citizens watched the first two months as if it was an
apocalyptic movie. Now scrambling for face masks and toilet paper, though, Americans
are riveted to social media while being ordered to shelter in place. And, since
identifying the first case within U.S. borders on January 20th, the horrifying
tally has risen to more than 400,000 cases and 10,000 deaths (as this is being
written).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Still,
there are nearly two and a half million men, women, and children who are
particularly concerned as this nightmare closes in around us. They are
incarcerated citizens. They are, by and large, unable to protect themselves in
the myriad ways the rest of us are being urged to do. And they are trying not
to despair as they fear they are being forgotten or dismissed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
Louisiana alone, for example, fifty thousand prisoners (and that doesn’t count
the roughly 8,000 immigrant detainees that are even further under the radar
than the others) rise in hope every morning that they might be released, not
because they think it’s necessarily likely but because if they are not, the
chances they may die soon and far from their families cannot be denied.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is common knowledge that Louisiana has always demonstrated a fixation with
locking up its citizens, long enjoying the dubious distinction of incarcerating
more of its citizens<i> per capita</i> than any other society now or in history. That
this had ultimately become embarrassing on some level was unexpectedly
acknowledged when the State voters elected a Governor in 2015 who had
campaigned at least partly on the commitment to lower the number of prisoners
held. That this would also lower the tax payer dollars necessary to run the
Department of Public Safety and Corrections was the cherry on top and a strong
incentive for a state that falls at the <a href="https://www.businessreport.com/newsletters/louisiana-is-last-again-in-us-news-state-rankings">bottom or near the bottom</a> of every list
comparing it to other states on such factors as the economy, education,
opportunity, and quality of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Louisiana
taxpayers spend more keeping a prisoner incarcerated (<a href="https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends-prison-spending">$16K+ per year</a>, using 2015 figures and if you want newer ones, good luck) than they do educating a K-12 student (</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/per-pupil-spending-by-state">$12K per year</a>) – which
interestingly enough actually ensures in the long run more people going to
prison for want of the skills necessary to access other options. Additionally, Louisiana
uses the Life Without Parole option at four times the national average,
allowing dirty cops, White Supremacy, aggressive plea bargaining, and prosecutorial misconduct to sucker-punch poverty-stricken Black youth who are
often barely literate and have inadequate legal representation into being a
burden on the taxpayers for life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
the election, Governor John Bel Edwards followed through on his promises. By
2018, legislative reforms driven by the Governor and public fatigue with the
bottom line reduced the overall prison population by 7.6% for a savings of
$12.2M, 70 percent of which was earmarked to support victims and reduce
recidivism. But by FY 2019, the Department was back on top of the national
statistics for numbers inside the walls and its budget was back up to $592M. In
fact, just before COVID-19 took over the mass media in America, the Governor had
gone to the legislature for <a href="https://www.wbrz.com/news/another-34m-sought-to-fill-gaps-in-louisiana-prisons-budget">an additional $34M</a> to get the DPSC to July.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Department
admits they hold <a href="https://s32082.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/0B-Demographics-1.pdf">more than 7000 geriatric prisoners</a>, the vast majority of which
pose no realistic threat to public safety, while draining the Department’s
coffers. In the last legislative session, many were surprised to hear about the
case of one man who is costing the Department <a href="https://www.wbrz.com/news/another-34m-sought-to-fill-gaps-in-louisiana-prisons-budget">more than a million dollars per
year in medical bills</a> and was one of the reasons this year’s budget will need
to be re-visited. Yet neither the Governor nor the public seem able to perceive
the lose-lose situation this has created for the state and for these men and
their families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then,
seemingly out of nowhere, a Dante’s Inferno-style scenario descended on us all,
including those whose lives are difficult even on a good day. As schools and
businesses closed and a frightened population moved toward quarantine, those
who work to change the way American culture approaches criminal justice are
striving to energize a new focus on those in the prisons, jails, and detention
centers where human beings are locked in place – and not in a good way. Some of
those people have agreed to express their concerns by relaying anonymously what
they have heard from inside the walls at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at
Angola.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are 6,300 men at Angola, an institution stretching across 18,000 acres that has
been a penitentiary for 118 years. Two miles south of the border with
Mississippi on the banks of the river with the same name, it isn’t on the way to
anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Men
– mostly Black – have been working that ground since 1870 when a Confederate
Major named Samuel James started leasing convicts from the State of Louisiana,
just seven years after the Emancipation Proclamation dried up his plantation workforce.
It was a successful enterprise until James died in 1894, leaving it in the
hands of men who watched more than a hundred convicts die every year until the
State finally felt the need to step in and take it over in 1901.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today,
the Louisiana DPSC tries to call Angola, the largest maximum security prison in
the United States, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Penitentiary">“gated community.”</a> Hundreds of guards and other staff live
on the property with their families, some of whom have worked at the
institution for generations, enjoying all the amenities of a rural Louisiana
town, complete with churches, restaurants, and recreational facilities – even a
golf course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
in 2012, Angola absorbed a thousand additional prisoners without additional
staff being hired. This influx initiated an on-going set of problems resulting
from a badly-aging and over-stressed infrastructure, over-crowding that
increased tension levels to the breaking point, and under-staffing so endemic
that it has lowered standards in both hiring and job performance. In fact,
administrators have admitted that there were at least 400 unfilled positions at
the institution even before the present crisis that has staff quitting or just
not showing up at unprecedented rates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Insiders
on the staff at Angola who choose to remain anonymous say that matters became
even worse after Burl Cain, who served as Head Warden at the prison for 21
years, resigned in 2016 in a whirlwind of allegations that he had crossed
numerous legal and ethical lines during his tenure. With 70% of the prisoners
at Angola doing life without parole, some of them know a great deal about the
underbelly of the institution. They have to in order to survive. And survive
they do, most of the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Enter
COVID-19.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
recently as March 8th, Angola prisoners were still enjoying regular visits with
family members and friends in Building A at the institution. There was some
talk, they say, about the Corona virus and how that could affect their future
visits, but no one guessed there would be no more for an undetermined period of
time. In just a few days, the announcement was made. There would be no more
visits for at least a month and possibly longer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Those
of us who’ve been here a while,” said one prisoner, “have experienced lockdowns
for all kinds of reasons. Usually it produces increased tensions inside because
we count on visits to help us do our time. But this time, it was different. If
a visitor brought the virus into Angola, we could all wind up dead. And we knew
it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“We
were more worried about our families than we were about ourselves right at
first,” wrote another in an email. “It took a couple of weeks before we started
thinking and talking about the danger we were going to be in when a guard
brought COVID-19 inside. The way the administration deals with everything else,
we knew we were going to be screwed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
not as though problems didn’t already exist. The entry level pay for front line
<a href="https://www.governmentjobs.com/jobs/900139-0/corrections-cadet">Corrections Officer Cadets</a> at Angola is $14 per hour, which is why guards can
be hired without a high school diploma or GED as long as they are 18 years of
age and have a year’s work experience in any kind of job. And half of the
guards at the institution are women. So allegations of sexual harassment of
women COs by ranking officers who are men often make the rounds of
institutional gossip resulting in transfers from one part of the institution to
another. The administration simply cannot afford to fire employees when they
are already badly short-handed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides,
Angola covers more ground than Manhattan. There’s plenty of room to move people
around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are other issues, as well, with having a plethora of young women interfacing
with thousands of male prisoners, many of whom have been locked up for decades
by the time they are forty years old and don’t expect ever to leave. So
something that will send a prisoner to the “dungeon” one day may be ignored –
or even encouraged – on another. And rivalry for attention inside this “gated
community” is not especially different from rivalries in any other setting
where 8,000 people live out their daily lives, often in close proximity. Even the
occasional fist fight can occur between young women vying for a prisoner’s attention,
though administrators quickly chalk things like that up to “rumor,” along with
anything else that doesn’t fit stated policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
gap between practice and policy can be substantial. For example, the federal
Prison Rape Elimination Act, mandating that every state must demonstrate its
commitment to zero tolerance of rape inside its correctional facilities, was
signed into law in 2003. Louisiana’s 48-page Field Operations Manual (dated
June 28, 2013) is available to the public online and posters offering an
800-number expressly for reporting rapes appear in prominent places in every
prison in the state. Unfortunately, prisoners – and no one knows this better
than they do – cannot call an 800-number from inside the walls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Further,
an effort to identify what actual steps exist to address rape inside Angola
resulted in a response that prisoners can report rapes to a warden (making them
a “snitch” to other prisoners and therefore worthy of death). Asked what the
prisoner could do in the case of a prison staff member being reported as the
perpetrator, the only option offered was to write an Administrative Remedy
Procedure (grievance report) that could result ultimately (a very long time
later) in a court suit for a civil rights violation – assuming that the A.R.P.
didn’t wind up in someone’s trash can and/or result in retribution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Administrators
of large organizations, companies, or institutions are expected to protect by
any means necessary what they see as the interests of the enterprise for which
they are responsible. But in the case of a prison, the nature of the enterprise
lends itself to practices that sometimes wind up in the courts under an
allegation of “cruel and unusual” punishment. Indeed, it has been argued that,
while it is possible to be a seasoned professional in the corrections field
with a commitment to ethics, justice, and rehabilitation, it is also not
uncommon for prison personnel at every level – all the way to the top – to hide
or even perpetrate routine miscarriages of justice and then deny it under a
blanket use of terms such as “necessity” or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“rumor.” Who’s going to believe a man convicted of a crime anyway –
assuming he can even be heard?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
mass media in Louisiana does what it can to present what is going on inside the
walls and has even earned some awards for doing so. Yet a culture of silence
has resulted from a long-standing history of corruption, a <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/article_c92145f2-c223-11e6-a396-53f84e1bf7bd.html">well-documented
level of nepotism</a> throughout the DPSC, and the disinterest of the mass public
who until two years ago were comfortable sending men – especially Black men –
to Angola for very long periods of time on the basis of a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/6/18052540/election-results-louisiana-amendment-2-unanimous-jim-crow-jury-law">jury decision wherein
two of the jurors were not convinced of their guilt</a>. The effectiveness of
Angola’s culture of silence was demonstrated in the Spring of 2019 when “rumor”
had it that no less than fifteen prisoners were stabbed in three weeks (five in
one day by a man struggling with schizophrenia) without a single mention in the
mainstream press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">These
problematic issues are not peculiar to Angola. Those who read <a href="https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/">Prison Legal
News</a>, a 70-page monthly digest that outlines such things in specific detail,
know that excessive force using unfathomable amounts of chemical agents that
are not even supposed to be used indoors and never directly onto an individual
is routine almost everywhere. Beatings by guards so brutal – for cause or
without it – that the victim may not ever fully recover, assuming they live through
them, are <i>de rigueur</i>. And those who enter prisons with mental health
problems (since beds in prisons and jails now constitute the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/31/mental-health-care-crisis-overwhelming-prison-jail">bulk of mental
health beds in America</a></span>) are often impossible to separate from the rest of the
prison population, which exacerbates their issues and adds to those of other
incarcerated citizens who may or may not have come into institutions with
similar problems, but certainly develop them over time.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
detailed accounting of who composes the medical and psychiatric staff at Angola
would likely turn up a disappointing array of lackluster at best and dangerous
at worst individuals since insiders and prisoners alike note that the prison
has been forced in desperation to hire professionals who have either lost their
licenses or had their records compromised in some other way before they came to
Angola. Apparently, this is not illegal as long as it is known at the time of
the hiring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
this is the team that is now facing and will be charged with the duty of
dealing with the rampant onslaught of COVID-19 inside. This is the team that
will decide whether or not a prisoner will be tested, whether and how he will
be treated, and whether or not he is presumed able to survive or should simply
be triaged into a condemned and contaminated corner to die. This is the team
that will report to the Governor and the public what the administrators want
them to hear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Even
before there were any admitted cases inside Angola, emails and phone calls from
prisoners to their outside supporters became troubled. The DPSC was calmly assuring
the public and the Governor’s office that they were handing out hand sanitizer
to the prisoners and engaging in a more rigorous than usual routine of cleaning
surfaces throughout the prison with disinfectant cleaners. But the men locked
in the institution were reporting that none of that was true. They not only
were not being given these life-saving products, they were told when they asked
for them that there were none. “Rumor” had it, hand sanitizer was being sold on
the B-Line (where staff who live at Angola and prisoners with the money to do
so can shop).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
reading CDC directives that hand sanitizer is simply a less effective
substitute for soap of any kind, one prisoners' rights organization asked some of their contacts inside
if they had soap. Some did, some didn’t. But more to the point there were
indigent prisoners throughout the institution, particularly those who were in
Administrative Segregation (called the “dungeon” by the prisoners) where
prisoners might be locked down without their property as punishment for one
reason or another. So they sent in money to buy soap. Organizers
inside bought the bars, broke them in half, and handed out the chunks until
there were no more. One prisoner put a bar of soap by every faucet in his unit,
writing, “You wouldn’t believe it. Even the gangstahs are washing their hands.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Early
reports during the week of March 16th still contained the usual problems:
showers flooding so badly the water ran down the tiers and never fully dried
and backed up toilets never addressed even though the smell and the dangerously
unhygienic conditions were repeatedly reported. Complaints of vermin and mold
that give prisoners rashes and make them cough. Meal trays that are never fully
clean and that have food placed on them while they still have water standing in
the compartments, so that the dirt and the water and the food mix and leave men
hungry because they can’t bring themselves or are even afraid to eat it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
other, even more concerning issues, were beginning to come out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
prisoner reported an entire month of symptoms without treatment, but instead of
just being angry, he was afraid and couldn’t get a medical person even to look
at him. A dorm known as “the handicapped dorm” was prepped for quarantine.
Units in various parts of the prison began locking down, filled with 86 “older”
prisoners in each with only 6 toilets, 5 showers, and no information. “Rumors”
referred to prisoners brought in from a jail in a parish already overrun with
COVID-19 and going straight into quarantine in E-block, a unit that had been
condemned long ago – badly contaminated by mold and notorious for its
infestation of vermin – was now suddenly inhabited.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
prisoner sent out a 13-page Preliminary Injunction asking for relief for his
fellow prisoners at Angola since the Governor had by then mandated the 6-foot
social distancing rule state-wide. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And
the prisoners in Angola agreed that pretending a 6-foot social distancing
policy could exist in a place where two grown men were forced to live in single-man
cells was ludicrous.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“They
painted lines at the chow hall so we’ll stand 6 feet apart,” wrote one
prisoner. “Yet they will be feeding two dorms at a time. With 86 people in each
dorm, that means 172 people are let out to go to the kitchen at once. We can't
sit at a social distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just not
possible.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I
understand that they’re trying to do something,” wrote another, “or make it
appear that they’re doing something, but we’re in a dangerous position and they’re
not making it better. I expect this out of them though. This is the only prison
in the world that still does a Black and White count. If you’re Mexican, Asian
or Indian, you're counted as White. How crazy is that?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">By
the end of March, it became apparent that any semblance of normality would soon
be lost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
Medical Dorms are all locked down,” one man reported. “There haven't been hospital
call-outs for a few days. The traffic to the hospital is shut down or limited.
The men who usually go there to get their insulin shots have it brought to
them. However, we are still in danger. The virus is here and we have no way of
social distancing, period. It cannot work and we can't do anything to save
ourselves.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Twenty-four
hours later, the messages became even bleaker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
latest update,” said one. “is that somehow a case showed up in one of the
Medical dorms. The dorm was locked down but still somehow got sick. We’ve been
placed on lockdown, too. I saw it coming so I had already put a [legal] petition
together that asks for a cut down in people per dorm, social distancing of 6
feet, and whatever other measures would ensure the least amount of spreading.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I'm
going to call my mother and encourage her to bring a wrongful death suit if I
don’t make it through,” wrote another man. “I practice civil law so I am going
to spend my lockdown writing all the information down for her. They should have
acted. According to the World Health Organization, closing us all in only
strengthens the virus.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
frustrated man finding resolve wrote, “At this point, what we need is masks,
ventilators, places to quarantine. But they don't have what is needed. It is
now a matter of who is strong enough to fight it off.” What he couldn’t know
was that, earlier that afternoon, at a Zoom meeting of prisoners' rights
advocates who have the ear of the powers-that-be and vice versa, the point was
made that the DPSC has already said it won’t bring ventilators into Angola at
all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
Plan,” they say, is to take prisoners who need a ventilator to the nearest
hospital with an open bed and the necessary equipment. But as Louisiana rapidly
becomes the fastest growing hotspot for COVID-19, incarcerated citizens waiting
for open beds and ventilators may wait in vain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
latest news is that increasing numbers of “freemen” (what guards are called at
Angola) are being asked to leave because they are now experiencing symptoms of
the virus. Others just don’t show up at all. The Main Prison’s E-block is still
being used for prisoners who are assumed to have succumbed to the virus without
being tested and “rumors” say it is already full. Camp J, another unit in the
institution that has been condemned and empty for years, is also being used to
quarantine those presumed to have contracted COVID-19.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">According
to prisoner reports, most of the guards are not wearing masks and don’t appear
to think the masks are important. Medical staff has stopped making routine
rounds despite the increase of symptoms in the population. So there is no
processing of sick calls for further screening and no reporting of COVID-19
cases, even though prisoners in dorms, units, and camps further out on the
property are all being reported as showing signs of infection. More than twenty
in the mental health unit are reported sick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
email reported: “Sixteen prisoners from two units were placed in Investigative
Segregation after they refused to go to the fields to work. They claimed that
with more than 100 men in the field, going to work would place them at risk for
contracting COVID-19. They were asking that their right to invoke social
distancing be granted. Yet officials refused to hear their cries.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
the prisoners at Angola resist to survive and continue to seek relief in the
courts, they are also beseeching the Governor of Louisiana, who has now called
for fasting and prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">They
write: “We call for the immediate release of all prisoners currently serving
time under the re-entry program and prisoners with 10 years or less to serve.
We call for a review of the prisoners – violent or otherwise – who have spent
20 plus years in prison. Their records will identify those who can be released
and have a place to go. This is a start for reducing the prison population,
which was already in motion prior to the virus and is crucial in this crisis.
It further serves the interest of the public because many of us have been
trained in skills that can aid society in practical ways during this difficult
time. But these releases need to begin now, as they have already begun – and
are numbering in the thousands – in other states.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
fact is: the spread of COVID-19 is becoming rampant and the death toll could be
high. Louisiana is likely to be impacted in a major way. We call on you to make
an expedient decision as visiting has been suspended and for God knows how
long. There is no Facetime. So prisoners and their families are cut off almost
completely from each other. If people are to die, let families be together. Let
them not die without mercy, separated in a time of crisis. How can we ask God
for mercy and not practice it in our own dealings with one another?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“We
call for immediate change in the face of potential devastation and immediate
action in this crisis. Some of us are the last of our bloodline. If we die, so
does our lineage. We are petitioning the immediate release of the most
qualified prisoners and an open mind to ascertaining others that might
ultimately be added to that list. We cannot be protected inside these walls.
And sentencing already incarcerated men to death by virus will add to the
indictments for which history will hold you and the State of Louisiana responsible.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-18376369283023022712020-04-10T08:17:00.000-05:002020-04-10T17:38:40.505-05:00Louisiana's Coronavirus Plan For Prisons Could Create Death Camps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">This hearse was built by prisoners at Angola to carry men to the burial ground on the property. With the current onslaught of COVID-19, it is unlikely there will be time for pomp and circumstance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><i>________________________________________</i></b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><i>This article was written by <a href="https://theintercept.com/staff/alicesperi">Alice Speri</a> and <a href="https://theintercept.com/staff/akelalacy">Akela Lacy</a> and originally published by <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/04/07/louisiana-coronavirus-prisons">The Intercept</a>.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As the Coronavirus rips through jails and prisons across the country and pressure
mounts on corrections departments to stave off disaster, federal, state, and
local officials have begun to release some incarcerated people in an effort to
reduce prison density and slow the spread of the virus. But in Louisiana, which
has both the highest incarceration rate in the country and one of the worst
virus outbreaks, officials are bucking the trend. Rather than release people,
they plan to isolate those who test positive for the virus in two
maximum-security state facilities — a plan that critics said amounts to
creating death camps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The
DOC plan to transfer people from across the state to Camp J — where there is no
medical care, no hospitals, no access to lawyers — will be the moral stain on
our country,” said Ben Cohen, of counsel at the Promise of Justice Initiative.
He’s been doing capital defense and civil rights work in New Orleans for 23
years, including several cases following Hurricane Katrina. “It is like the
Japanese internment camps, but with body bags. We are literally watching the
S.S. St. Louis being sent back to Germany.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under
the plan, local jails and state prisons without the equipment necessary to
treat Covid-19 patients can send them to one of two facilities: the Louisiana
State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola after the plantation that once
operated there, or the Allen Correctional Center. The plan, which also applies
to people held in pretrial detention, was met with a barrage of questions and
criticism. Last week, the Promise of Justice Initiative and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Louisiana filed a motion for a temporary restraining order
to prevent state officials from transferring Covid-19 patients to Angola. On
Thursday, a federal judge denied the request. A federal judge in February
declared parts of the prison’s medical care system unconstitutional, and is set
to rule in the coming days in an ongoing class-action suit filed in 2015 by
people incarcerated at the facility against the Louisiana Department of Public
Safety and Corrections.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“If
you were lacking to start with, this crisis won’t make it easier, it will make
it more challenging,” said Norris Henderson, who spent 27 years wrongfully
incarcerated at Angola and now runs Voice of the Experienced, or VOTE, a New
Orleans-based group of formerly incarcerated activists. “There is no way in any
prison environment to have the social distancing that folks are calling for,
and this is why there’s this national call across the country to start moving
people out of these types of environments.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Louisiana
released data on Monday showing that black people account for 70 percent of all
the state’s coronavirus deaths. Black people make up 32 percent of the state’s
population, while 66 percent of people incarcerated in the state are black.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On
March 28, Louisiana became the first state to record the death of an
incarcerated person from Covid-19. Patrick Jones, who was 49 and serving a
27-year sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, died at FCI Oakdale, a federal
prison that has since recorded four more Covid-19-related deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There
are more than 50,000 people incarcerated across about 100 detention facilities
in Louisiana. But attorneys and advocates have struggled to get information
from corrections officials and fear the number of positive cases is far higher
than reported. The outbreak at Oakdale, they say, should serve as a warning of
what’s likely coming to Louisiana state prisons and local jails.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To
date, Louisiana has 14,867 positive coronavirus cases, one of 13 states with
more than 5,000 reported cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At
least 28 people incarcerated in state facilities across Louisiana and 22
corrections staff have tested positive for the virus. According to local news
reports, Department officials said they identified “several hundred” beds for
possible coronavirus patients between Angola and Allen. But advocates say
that’s not enough, as they expect cases among people in prisons to continue
growing rapidly. A department spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests
for comment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
bulk of people transferred from jails will be pretrial detainees, meaning they
have not yet been convicted of a crime, said Rev. Alexis Anderson, a member of
the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition. “The minute they are
moved, [they] will lose most of their constitutional rights.” She said the
state has the capacity to move people to medical facilities and that it was
concerning that no medical experts had been consulted on the plan, which was
designed by the Sheriffs’ Association and submitted to the Department of
Corrections. The Louisiana Department of Health did not respond to a request
for comment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“There’s
no reason to believe that the experience of Oakdale is going to be any
different than Rayburn or any other prison,” said Bruce Reilly, deputy director
of VOTE, referring to the state facility with the most reported cases so far.
“We know that the governor isn’t just trying to let everybody die. But what we
do want is transparency. And we want to see public health officials overseeing
this crisis.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
situation at Rayburn Correctional Center, a men’s prison in the southeastern
part of the state, has raised particular concern after 17 men held there were
confirmed to have contracted the virus. In emails to his attorney, Christopher
Marlowe, a diabetic man incarcerated at Rayburn who has filed a petition for
emergency release, described a frightening situation. Marlowe wrote that at
least two dorms — and more than 300 people — had been put in quarantine after
people started reporting symptoms, but noted that some people had since been
shuffled to different dorms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We
don’t have free access to bleach or cleaning agents. We don’t have anything to
wipe the phones with, no alcohol pads or anything,” he wrote last week. “There
are no paper towels to dry hands. They issue us one bar of soap every two weeks
to bathe and wash hands with. We live 20-30” apart in our beds.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We
eat at tables, 4 to a table, in a cafeteria that has now proven to have had
covid-positive people working until 3 days ago, but the others that worked with
him are still there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I
just hope I don’t get it,” Marlowe added in a subsequent email. “Cell blocks
are virtual death sentences for diabetics.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So
far, only a handful of people who have tested positive for the virus have been
transferred to Angola, according to advocates monitoring the state response to
the crisis. After an uproar when the proposal to isolate sick people there was
first announced, officials backtracked and called the proposal a “contingency
plan.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There
are at least two known cases of people who tested positive for Covid-19 and
were transferred to hospitals, and are now under consideration for transfer to
either Angola or Allen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last
week, a group of advocates met with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and other
state officials to seek clarifications about their plans to handle a surge of
cases in the state’s prisons. Henderson, of VOTE, said that advocates continued
to plead with officials to release those most at risk, but also demanded
guarantees that no incarcerated people would work in prison units dedicated to
Covid-19 patients.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“They
said that no incarcerated folks would be working in or around that particular
unit, that the unit would be staffed by nurses and folks from probation and
parole and that they will have PPE,” said Henderson, referring to personal
protective equipment. “We are pressing to have these folks released. But in the
interim, this is one of the things that’s happening, they’re trying to triage.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So
far, seven staff members and five inmates have tested positive for Covid-19 at
Angola. Critics have warned that sending sick people to the prison, which
already has an aging population and houses many with preexisting conditions,
could be disastrous. Some have asked why a facility that’s historically housed
an elderly and chronically ill population doesn’t have an emergency plan for
contagious diseases. “This was already a dangerously ill population,” said
Anderson, of the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition, adding that
many people at Angola are poor or have challenges with substance abuse or
mental illness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Angola,
the largest maximum-security prison in the country, is infamous for its poor conditions,
including medical neglect. The facility also houses the state execution chamber
and men’s death row. In their 2015 class-action lawsuit, individuals
incarcerated at the prison accused officials of neglecting their medical needs,
as well as violating the rights of individuals with disabilities. To date, the
state has done little to reassure the public that Angola’s chronic problems
would be fixed on time for the prison to host Covid-19 patients. “One of the
most frightening pieces of this is, of course, Angola is currently in
litigation for its subpar health care,” said Anderson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
the new motion seeking to stop the state from transferring sick inmates to
Angola, plaintiffs argued that the state was “about to embark on a course of
action that will likely result in the death of dozens if not hundreds of Class
members.” The filers cited a supplemental declaration from an expert in medical
care at correctional facilities, Dr. Michael Puisis, who said Angola has “no
place to treat an ill person with Covid-19 except in a general housing unit or
on the infirmary, both of which would expose other patients to infection.” Even
if people could be somehow isolated and treated simultaneously, the filers
wrote, “inappropriate policy on staff who may have contracted Covid-19” would
make transmissions between staff and the general population at Angola
“inevitable.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
plan to move people to Angola was haphazard and poorly thought through, without
consultation from the state’s department of health or medical experts, critics
noted. “It’s only one thing to say, we’re going to separate the sick from the
not sick,” said Reilly, of VOTE. “What’s your protocol for the guards? Are you
separating them? Are you quarantining the guards? It’s not a contained unit if
there are people going in and out of there. If that’s part of your plan, let us
know.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“This
is not a medical facility. This is a dungeon that has had some beds and a mop
thrown into it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under
the state’s plan, people sent to Angola will be housed in Camp J, a unit which
was shut down in 2018 after operating for more than 40 years because of
inhumane treatment of prisoners, crumbling infrastructure, and poor
ventilation. At its peak, the unit housed 400 people in solitary cells.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“This
is not a medical facility,” Anderson said. “This is a dungeon that has had some
beds and a mop thrown into it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It
was shut down because it was horrific,” Cohen said. “When I would visit my
clients in Camp J, they would beg to get released because the conditions were
so terrible.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It’s
basically not suitable for living,” said Reilly. “People think of Camp J and
they think negatively. They basically think, you’re going to send me there to
die.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">So
far, state officials have done little to assuage those fears.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Anyone
who tells you that there’s a plan to care for people at Camp J is
misrepresenting both the history of Camp J and the circumstances. I don’t know
whether they’re lying to themselves or lying to you,” Cohen said, noting his
organization’s ongoing lawsuit over medical care at the facility predating the
spread of coronavirus. “The Department of Corrections has essentially had a
policy of reducing incarceration by allowing people to die for years at
Angola,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“There
are no ventilators at all in Angola, nor will there ever be. And there’s no
ventilators in West Louisiana Parish,” Anderson said. “We will literally be moving
people from places where there is competent health care, adequate space
available for isolating people within the community.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
addition to the pending class-action suit, the state Supreme Court is expected
any day to deliver an opinion in another case with potential implications for
thousands of people housed at Angola, Cohen said. He is counsel for Ramos v.
Louisiana, which deals with the question of whether a unanimous jury should be
required for conviction at the state level, as it is in federal cases. If the
court rules in favor of Ramos, it would immediately apply directly to 100
people, Cohen said, noting the possibilities for application to people at
Angola. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“What’s terrifying for me is that they’re gonna die before we have a
chance to vindicate their claims.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>UPDATE:
April 7, 2020</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>After
publication, Department of Corrections spokesperson Ken Pastorick called The
Intercept and sent a statement responding to previous questions. Pastorick
confirmed that Angola has no ventilators and is relying on existing plans to
transfer people to local hospitals who need medical care beyond what
corrections staff can provide. Asked if those medical facilities have
ventilators, Pastorick said he did not know.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>“Camp
J is intended only to serve as an isolation facility for offenders who have
tested positive but are not displaying serious symptoms and who are not in
medical distress,” Pastorick said in a statement. “Severe cases will not be
housed at Camp J. If an offender housed at Camp J begins to exhibit severe
symptoms, he will be transported to an outside hospital.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>Pastorick
declined to comment on comments from advocates that the plan could create death
camps. Asked about the ability of corrections staff to provide medical care,
and the availability of medical equipment, Pastorick said, “We have top notch
staff.” He emphasized that staff and people housed at Camp J will not come into
contact with anyone else at Angola.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-83764484899211568312020-04-07T18:33:00.000-05:002020-04-07T18:37:40.790-05:0019 Lines: A Poem From Inside Angola<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYVsQnhL1Qa5PbbJiQbh5r3ySFkuQhkWcTwPeqGbaFx4uIahY8aEdKvND1gBF2hFrWoU9_z5ni4Wx9w7xBOrrQN4-ICC3-wgr9ZfL5XMfSv1wKp2MZeAIkgRbIBpQBvX8bZT51g/s1600/Monster+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCYVsQnhL1Qa5PbbJiQbh5r3ySFkuQhkWcTwPeqGbaFx4uIahY8aEdKvND1gBF2hFrWoU9_z5ni4Wx9w7xBOrrQN4-ICC3-wgr9ZfL5XMfSv1wKp2MZeAIkgRbIBpQBvX8bZT51g/s640/Monster+1.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">19 Lines<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">by Melvin
Hassan Thornton<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I inhale and
I exhale<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">deep breaths
of life,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">each one
refreshing the lungs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Much work to
be done; much life to live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Still so
much more to give. This is not the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Step on the
scene, face to face with COVID-19;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">staring in
its heartless eyes, I stand firm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Unflinching,
unyielding, unafraid but angry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I breathe
deep, fighting on the ropes –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">a bit
overwhelmed but resilient. I don't fold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Cowardly,
Officious, Vicious, Insidious a</span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;">nd Deadly
19,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">you
shall be defeated. We don't retreat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We step up
to the challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kill if you
will but you have more to fight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Those who
survive will shine their lights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I inhale
then I exhale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I take in
the good and exhale the bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And therefore,
Mr. Virus, I'm doing fine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sincerely
yours, these 19 lines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-36426012377528258242020-04-01T10:09:00.000-05:002020-04-13T09:31:00.737-05:00A Prisoner Writes the Governor of Louisiana<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY6BpyvGmYgTJMVdTo6w_VCMApkAujAfIai-lZlHvO8gPKz-TpvT5ZRFv6fqpLfkI63IGm9ahRaBWZ0QBUtoeDw58gB9aBhrODw1RNGsh-GkacluI-qHeN_uTLZlHmhO4BXVz79A/s1600/cemetary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY6BpyvGmYgTJMVdTo6w_VCMApkAujAfIai-lZlHvO8gPKz-TpvT5ZRFv6fqpLfkI63IGm9ahRaBWZ0QBUtoeDw58gB9aBhrODw1RNGsh-GkacluI-qHeN_uTLZlHmhO4BXVz79A/s640/cemetary.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b>This is the cemetery at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. There has been quiet talk -- inside and outside the walls in America -- of the possibility of mass graves. Will that happen at Angola? The prisoner who wrote this hopes not.</b> </i><br />
<br />
It appears that America is finally starting to take this
virus more seriously. Inside the walls, here at Angola, we are even more concerned.
Earlier this week, an officer was sent into our unit with a high temperature.
Two of our [jailhouse lawyers] had to be quarantined. But that doesn't help all
of the men that went to court that day. Further, those who were quarantined are
being held where other non-infected prisoners are quarantined for the ordinary flu.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These types of decisions have caused us to call for the
immediate release of all prisoners currently serving time under the re-entry
program and prisoners with 10 years or less to serve. We call for a review of the prisoners
– violent or otherwise – who have spent 20 plus years in prison. Their records will
identify those who can be released and have a place to go. This is a start for
reducing the prison population, which was already in motion prior to the virus
and is crucial in this crisis. It further serves the interest of the public because
many of us have been trained in skills that can aid society in practical ways
during this difficult time. But these releases need to begin now, as they have already
begun – and are numbering in the thousands – in other states.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact is: the spread of COVID-19 is becoming rampant and
the death toll could be high. Louisiana is likely to be impacted in a major
way. We call on you to make an expedient decision as visiting has been
suspended and for God knows how long. There is no Facetime. So prisoners and
their families are cut off almost completely from each other. If people are to
die, let families be together. Let them not die without mercy, separated in a
time of crisis. How can we ask God for mercy and <b><i>not</i></b> practice it in our own
dealings with one another?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is an urgent need for action to be taken rather than
waiting on the virus to get completely out of hand and draconian methods are
used to start letting prisoners die out of fear and ignorance. As many people
as possible should be quarantined at home with their families. In facing this
catastrophe and death on a global scale, shall we still hold onto a vindictive way
of thinking? Is it not enough that we lead the nation in incarceration? Is it
not enough that, among the 50 states in our nation, our economy stands 44th, at
least partially due to mass incarceration? Is it not enough that we are 42nd in
our quality-of-life? Is it not enough that we are 49th in education and 50th in
opportunity? When is enough, enough?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We call for immediate change in the face of potential
devastation and immediate action in this crisis. Some of us are the last of our
bloodline. If we die, so does our lineage. We are petitioning the immediate release
of the most qualified prisoners and an open mind to ascertaining others that
might ultimately be added to that list. We cannot be protected inside these
walls. And sentencing already incarcerated men to death by virus will add to
the indictments for which history will hold this state responsible.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Louisiana Citizen<br />
Presently Incarcerated at Angola</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-11759663145618959422020-04-01T09:45:00.003-05:002020-04-01T09:45:56.492-05:00An Open Letter to Louisiana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf_K3GABr8-TBeWCUHzLyDYn3HpaLJi_yFkfrdsAR4T30u2XJwKs08dOL1QFoEz-uny9yQ0kSKfRb3SjCDOPQMQ61uLQlKTLjYHgb0WJGMR8OHAOo-kdyVN5DOlWXdMRnsRjtc7g/s1600/open+cell+door.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf_K3GABr8-TBeWCUHzLyDYn3HpaLJi_yFkfrdsAR4T30u2XJwKs08dOL1QFoEz-uny9yQ0kSKfRb3SjCDOPQMQ61uLQlKTLjYHgb0WJGMR8OHAOo-kdyVN5DOlWXdMRnsRjtc7g/s640/open+cell+door.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Louisiana has long been recognized for having the most people incarcerated per capita than any other group of people on the planet or even in the history of the world. This is a dubious distinction at best and says far more about Louisiana’s culture than it does about those it incarcerates.<br />
<br />
Even before COVID-19 emerged, decarceration as a concept was being discussed in virtually every state in our nation. One principle reason is that incarceration is far more expensive than sending people to college and it accomplishes far, far less toward our society’s best interests. In fact, Louisiana taxpayers spend on average twice as much on keeping a prisoner imprisoned ($25,000 per year) than they do educating a K-12 student ($12,500 per year) – which interestingly enough actually ensures in the long run more people going to prison for want of the skills necessary to access other options.<br />
<br />
Books like Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon demonstrate what prosecutors can do – and are doing – to address their own participation in sending too many to prison for too long, often unnecessarily and even when those charged are actually innocent.<br />
<br />
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections admits that they hold more than 7000 geriatric prisoners, the vast majority of which pose no realistic threat to public safety, while draining the Department’s coffers. In the last legislative session, many were surprised to hear about the case of one man who is costing the Department more than a million dollars per year in medical bills and was one of the reasons this year’s budget will need to be re-visited.<br />
<br />
And now we have COVID-19 challenging every Louisiana citizen to consider new ways to approach our lives, few of which we could even have imagined two months ago. We are being encouraged, begged, even ordered and subsidized to practice new and necessary alternatives to business as usual. Yet we are ignoring the powder keg our prisons, jails, and detention centers have now become – at least partly because of our commitment to locking our citizens up at a rate and for periods at which other Americans can only shake their heads.<br />
<br />
We need to take this opportunity (which may last longer than we might have hoped) to make the bold moves that could release funds badly needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic – inside and outside our prisons – by releasing every incarcerated citizen rationally possible and as immediately as can be arranged. Send home the geriatric and most physically vulnerable prisoners, those who were convicted of non-violent crimes, those who have done more than twenty years and demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation, those who will be getting out within a year anyway. Send them home.<br />
<br />
Many of those in Angola – as one example – have prepared themselves for just such an opportunity by taking advantage of training in employable trades and programs that address the issues that brought them to prison in the first place. Releasing them would jump-start a new, more rational and less expensive way to live in community with each other in a world that is demanding our commitment to all Louisiana citizens at this difficult time.changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-21706241337081740082020-03-20T11:26:00.001-05:002020-03-20T11:44:51.943-05:00The Incarcerated Person Who Knows How Bad It Could Get<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xFHW6vE8eYhlqVQKUmFcbnL6A6rrH5pGBBgUibkMQ8nt0eKMqG_gY8Zvm_XlNaaJVbfrU8GUfon9sJe9Kv2Oq9ScGl8AsA4_71G1SO2exh9xsNH3zQUdPLIdex7KFkuIVn60PA/s1600/virus+in+prison.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xFHW6vE8eYhlqVQKUmFcbnL6A6rrH5pGBBgUibkMQ8nt0eKMqG_gY8Zvm_XlNaaJVbfrU8GUfon9sJe9Kv2Oq9ScGl8AsA4_71G1SO2exh9xsNH3zQUdPLIdex7KFkuIVn60PA/s640/virus+in+prison.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><b>This interview by <a href="https://gen.medium.com/@jvanderleun">Justine van der Leun</a> first appeared on <a href="https://gen.medium.com/what-its-like-to-be-in-prison-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-1e770d0ca3c5">Medium</a>. Given our attempts to bridge the prison walls in Louisiana at this difficult time, it is being re-printed here. I believe I know who and where this incarcerated person is, but it could be anywhere and should raise demands that incarcerated people must be released, when possible, and cared for with dignity and respect in every case.</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">_______________________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">A couple of months
ago about 300 of us got sick. They took everybody 50 years old and over and
moved them permanently to their own dorm. Whatever that sickness was—maybe a
brutal flu—ripped through the rest of the prison. I had a high fever, hot and
cold sweats, dizziness, coughing for hours and hours, nonstop. The treatment
was nothing. I said, “I need medicine.” They said, “No medicine for you. Drink
some water.” Everything in prison is: “Drink water.” My stomach hurts: “Drink
water.” My head hurts: “Drink water.” I’m burning up: “Drink water.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">There were guys
worse than me. They put them up on a floor that they previously closed down
years ago because it didn’t meet living standards, even in here: peeling paint,
no running water, pure filth. Then they locked the prison down with no notice.
They didn’t tell us anything—just had everybody locked in their cells. Every
three days, we came out for 20 minutes to line up and take a shower. It lasted
two weeks. That sickness, whatever it was, cleared. But now we’re on lockdown
again. No visits, not from family or lawyers. No planned medical treatments.
There’s a new virus, they said.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Most people in
here have no idea what’s coming. I have access to a phone, even though they’re
banned, and I started telling everybody on my unit what was really going on in
Wuhan. People were like, “No way.” I’m like, “Yo, look this up. You’re going to
have all your answers.” Sure enough, the other guys with burner phones started
Googling. They’re like, “Oh man, how did you know all this?” I’m like,
“Facebook.” I’ve been tripping out on these videos from China. I was stunned.
It took me three days to get over the fact that this is truly happening. Then I
learned that it was in Washington state. I’m like: This is going to get real
bad, real quick.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">How will they
contain it here? The Bureau of Prisons figured out how to take a one-person
cell and jam in three people. The top bunk is two feet from the ceiling. You
have to slide in and out, like a coffin. We’re technically supposed to be
allowed our own brooms and a spray bottle with sanitary chemicals to keep our
spaces clean. But two weeks ago, they did a sweep and confiscated them all.
Now, if we want to clean our cells, we have to check those items out. I don’t
feel comfortable using a broom that’s not my own; it could be used to clean the
day room, another man’s cell, the showers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">In this building,
we have 136 men touching everything: rails, doors, door handles, computers.
There are 20 men who touch the phone before me. The building is infested with
mice, cockroaches, and rats; in the basement, there’s a stagnant foot-high pool
of water. You get sick easier because you don’t get the vitamins you need; your
immune system is weak. Crushed apples in the morning and meat substitutes. The
trays aren’t washed right and are covered in fungus. When a big boss comes for
an inspection, they throw away the trays and bring in a new set to make it look
like they’ve been using those all along. But usually, you have to grab that
moldy tray from a guy serving you out of a kitchen covered in dirt with no air
conditioning. He’s dripping sweat, screaming to his friend, spitting all over
the food. A couple days ago, they brought in oranges, at least. I hadn’t seen
an orange in a year and a half.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">When they finally
posted notices about the coronavirus, they just said everyone needs to wash
their hands and stay clean. How? Even at medical, where the doctor works and
people with health conditions stay, the sinks don’t function properly, the
bathroom lights don’t work, there’s no hand sanitizer in the pump, no paper
towels, only a little black clump of soap. You will not find a restroom in this
prison — not in medical, the chapel, the gym — that’s not broken. When you
flush the toilet in any common area, you’re not going to scrub down and dry
your hands. The only thing you’re going to do is rinse them. And consider
yourself lucky if the water works.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">For personal use,
they give us three small bars of soap a month and one roll of toilet paper a
week. Usually, those bars get stolen and resold, so we have to buy our own soap
at the commissary for $1.80 a bar. Toilet paper? $8 a roll. I’ve been here
going on two years, and still don’t have a job because there aren’t enough
available. But if you do have a job, you get paid $7.50 to $20 a month. If you
don’t have money, you don’t have soap or tissues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Once somebody gets
sick, it’s a domino effect. It’s only a matter of time before one of these COs
[Correctional Officers] brings that virus in. And when it hits this place, it’s
going to hit hard. Who will help? If someone has a heart attack in here, you
have to kick the door to get staff attention. Then other people will start
kicking, a team effort. One guy got sick a while back—choking on his own vomit
at three in the morning. His cellie was banging on the door. Nobody’s calling.
Nobody’s coming. The cellie grabs the tiny phone that he has hidden, dials 911.
Next thing you know, they bring the ambulance in there, pull out the paddles.
The dude still dies. He only had two weeks left on a 21-year sentence. And his
cellie goes to the Hole because he had a phone and called the ambulance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Yesterday, after
they made the announcement about the virus, I saw them bringing a 60-inch TV
and a bunch of mattresses up to that third floor, the one that’s not livable,
the one where they kept the sickest before. Then they called lockdown. From our
cells, we watched as they brought in 11 new people. They put them up there.
They’re keeping them isolated. Waiting to see if they get sick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">_______________________________________</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>NOTE: </b></span><a href="https://gen.medium.com/life-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/home">Life in the Time of Coronavirus</a> is a new GEN series where [they] are interviewing people across the country who have had their lives upended or
who are experiencing the stress of the unknown. This incarcerated person, who wishes to remain anonymous, is
serving a 15-year sentence at a federal penitentiary in a southern U.S. state. The facility in which he is housed operates beyond capacity and has scarce medical care.</span></span></div>
changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-72416043025449889762020-02-26T21:01:00.002-06:002020-02-26T21:07:46.171-06:00A Message of Solidarity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY20g81lKwQvQncUPSIWFSS6MyBr1FOKE7EJOx_-6khxyRH3e8icxMYMu6fUhNh2Y_9CQKsH3u3Jk7rad_ZpB9fJuA7ZAPcpzQA-BKxlk8mVTkBcA_1nTqRPCvsKHIT3KthKxRTQ/s1600/African+fists.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1600" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY20g81lKwQvQncUPSIWFSS6MyBr1FOKE7EJOx_-6khxyRH3e8icxMYMu6fUhNh2Y_9CQKsH3u3Jk7rad_ZpB9fJuA7ZAPcpzQA-BKxlk8mVTkBcA_1nTqRPCvsKHIT3KthKxRTQ/s640/African+fists.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">A couple of weeks ago, I was approached in the Main Prison visiting room at Angola by a Rastafarian brother. The Louisiana Network for Criminal Justice Transformation and the Rastafarian congregation at Angola have become allies in recent months, so he took that moment to meet me face-to-face. After fifteen or twenty minutes of conversation, the brother, who had sneaked into Building A because he heard I would be there, told me that the Rastafarians and the Islamic fellowship would be celebrating Black History Month together on February 23rd.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"If you write something to the group," he said, "I'll read it."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I had a lot on my plate right then. Responsibilities at the university were demanding my attention and I was about to leave to spend five days in Oakland, California, for a prison abolition national conference. But I couldn't turn down such a golden opportunity to be introduced by this man to yet another segment of the population at Angola in such a lovely way.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">With no other "free time" for the purpose, when I got on the plane to go to Oakland, I pulled out a pad and pen and wrote the following. The word is, they liked it. So as February comes to a close, I'll share it with you.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a>_________________________________________________________<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Greetings, my Rasta and Muslim brothers.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">It is a great honor to bring you salutations on this auspicious occasion and I am humbled indeed by the opportunity.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I can well imagine that some of you may be less than thrilled – or at least a bit confused – by my inclusion in your event. And I don’t blame you for having these feelings. There are too few times and spaces where people of African descent can gather without so-called “White Supremacy” forcing its presence upon the moment.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">How are you to know how much I have been affected by African men and women raised on the Continent; by men, women, and children who carry the DNA of the cradle of civilization; by writings, music and art of the oldest, richest, and most diverse collection of creativity on the planet?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">After all, you cannot even see me before you today to judge from my voice, my body language, my facial expressions exactly where I’m coming from.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">So I will ask the Ancestors to bless me with the purity of heart to bring a True Word. And I will ask them to bridge the gaps of our understanding that we might cross the chasms between us and break down the walls of race, class, and gender to birth a new world that honors us all as the wondrous expressions of Life we have been created to be.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I bring you a message of Respect for the cultural contributions of African peoples who birthed human civilization at the beginning of time.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I bring you a message of Gratitude for the Spirit African peoples carried from the Motherland in their own boats before Columbus and in other bloodier ships in a dark, dark time that smelted the iron of your history into the steel of your present day resolve to be fully who you came to be, whatever your challenges have been or are.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I bring you a message of Peace that the heart that beats in your chest and the chests of those you love will know at a level deeper than time that you are not beautiful because you have survived; you survived because you are beautiful.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">And I bring you a message of Hope that flows from the One that means – and has always meant – to make the first last and the last first.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">May those who see the Truth act in the Truth they see.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">May those who have ears to hear, celebrate their Oneness of common Soul – conceived in Africa, nourished by wisdom born of pain, and rising to overcome the brutal oppressions of our current world to lead the human race to the land of milk and honey where Love will reign and Africa will shine.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">One love. In sha’ Allah. Ashe.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Your sister,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Changeseeker</span></span>changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-22251518724796211862020-02-05T11:18:00.000-06:002020-02-09T19:13:49.586-06:00A Father Writes From Prison: "SHOTS FIRED!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0ZOnSC_jAlyzjOho3YeHmvitwdJmG5sqHeeakE81pej_iTB2ag7XEM5NCTaCEELe1DSwoiG7KQKp-mK7l04MeeTtN7kXNVhAb19Mv6g0F0r7PGWmdYYpciiJ_mb2KEtIwdjCBQ/s1600/prison+dad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="629" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0ZOnSC_jAlyzjOho3YeHmvitwdJmG5sqHeeakE81pej_iTB2ag7XEM5NCTaCEELe1DSwoiG7KQKp-mK7l04MeeTtN7kXNVhAb19Mv6g0F0r7PGWmdYYpciiJ_mb2KEtIwdjCBQ/s640/prison+dad.jpg" width="434" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>NOTE: I received the following essay from an incarcerated citizen with whom I have been working. The photo above is not of him or his children, but is intended to illustrate the issue about which he wrote.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">______________________________________________________</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> imagine that everyone – at some point in life
– faces a personal tragedy that shakes them to the core. Well, for me, this is
one of those moments.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black;">A few days before Christmas, my youngest son was
gunned down and left for dead in the streets of New Orleans, his dreams of one
day running his own real estate business indefinitely suspended for reasons I
cannot begin to fathom. And as I sit here – 150 miles away at Angola – my
heart bleeds for him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black;">In the quiet moments between the chaos and
mayhem of prison life, somber thoughts of my youngest child lying on the cold
pavement in a pool of blood sends chills down my spine and nearly breaks me
completely. The gruesome images in my mind are the kind that no parent should
have to endure – not me, not anyone. As a father, I am beside myself with grief,
not just because my son was almost killed, but because I wasn't there to protect
him in the first place. I’ve been incarcerated his whole life – 17 years – not knowing
the struggles he had to face on his own while I was locked away. Then, on
January 21, my son's birthday, I received the most important letter I would
ever read:</span><br />
</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;"><i>“Dear Dad,” he wrote. “All I want to know is ‘why?’ Why wasn’t you there when I needed you most? I’ve been through hell and back in these past 17 years and you was nowhere to be found. Why did you up and leave and never came back for me? What did I do wrong?”</i></b><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black;">Like the torrential rains of the Serengeti,
copious tears poured down my face and fell upon the delicate pages in my trembling
hands, evidence of a father’s disgrace. My sullen grief soon gave way to
crippling depression as the reality of the pain I have caused my baby boy
shocked my conscience and seized my breath. Though my heart had been broken
into a thousand pieces, I continued reading the letter my son had written to
me.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><i>“I waited up many nights for you, Dad, but you
never came back. I even asked God to look for you because I thought you were
lost and couldn’t find your way home. I want you to know that it really sucks
that you was never around for any of my birthdays or Christmases or the times I
got so sick the doctors thought I might die. I really needed you, Dad...and you
wasn’t there. Why?”</i></b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: black;">His words cut like a knife, sharp and to the
bone, but the worst pain of all was knowing that it was my fault. I had failed
him in ways I’d never imagined. Reading his letter made me realize that my
incarceration has taken a terrible toll on his life, as well. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord, what have I done? How can I fix this?</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><i>“People always tell me that I'll never get
closure unless I go directly to the source and tell you exactly how I feel. So
here it is, Dad. I am lost out here on my own. I really need you to step up and
be a part of my life. This is our one chance to make things right, so, Dad,
please don’t let me down. I’m counting on you to rescue me from this pain that
won't go away. Help me, Dad.”</i></b></span><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><span style="background: white; color: black;">From the depths of despair to now standing at
the precipice of hope, the tragedy of my incarceration has come full circle. My
son’s heartfelt letter serves as a wakeup call, a virtual lifeline offering one
last chance for redemption. Lord, give me the strength and the knowledge to
express my profound love for the child who is crying out from the wilderness
for his father:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;"><b><i><span style="color: #990000;">“Dear Son, your letter has opened my eyes to a
far greater tragedy than I ever imagined. I hope you can find it in your heart to
forgive me for failing you as a father. I am deeply sorry for the pain I’ve
caused. It was never my intention to abandon you – ever. I have loved you since
the moment you were born and not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about
the special moments I have missed by not being there. The circumstances
regarding my absence in your life had nothing to do with you. They stemmed from
issues I had been dealing with way before you came into the world.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>“By the time you were born, my life was in
complete turmoil, mostly because I was unable to bury the ghosts from my own past.
I allowed the unspeakable horrors that happened to me as a child affect my
relationships with everyone who ever tried to love me. And eventually a slew of
bad decisions was all it took to send my whole world spiraling out of control.
In the end, after what seemed like a long tumultuous journey to nowhere, I
found myself standing in front of hell’s gate, and I've been trapped in
purgatory ever since.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“Behind these unholy walls I have discovered that
prison is designed to sever the bonds between those on the outside and the
souls within. From the oppressing cost of collect phone calls to the rustic far
away location of the prison itself, steps have been taken to assure misery on
both sides of the wall for families dealing with incarceration. I understand
that. But in a million years, I never would have thought that when the judge
sentenced me to life, he also sentenced you to a lifetime of grief and
suffering, as well. For that, my son, there are no words.</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">“When I heard that you had been shot, it nearly
sent me over the edge. My bleak world took on an even darker shade of
melancholy as I struggled to hold on to what little hope I had left. I
literally felt like dying. So in essence, your letter saved me. From the moment
it arrived, I have been down on bended knees thanking God for this opportunity
to tell you how much you mean to me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #990000;">“Son, I know I can’t turn back the hands of time,
but what I can do is be here for you from now on. I hereby dedicate my life to
assisting you with reaching your goals and fulfilling every dream you’ve ever
had. Our legacy as a family starts right now, and I’ve never been more proud to
be a father. Thank you for reaching out to me. I love you, Son. Get well soon
and remember that from this day forth, you’ll never be alone again. Love
always, Dad.”</span><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div>
<br />changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-53231314688159155042020-01-24T15:51:00.000-06:002020-01-24T15:51:00.455-06:00Steven Lamont Byrdsong: "Silent Cries"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVzPgHUeVnmxujfet5bSozH8pwwGukVPi9vUDJMK6ZLiakgb5v4e5JdwKfxFOR7ig2qp150Ozx_ib_eA15_QhseWOG-dUFeN-3Lr5uq05NX5Ktq8DmkpZi5ewiAEhMleLCCHezdw/s1600/rainstorm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVzPgHUeVnmxujfet5bSozH8pwwGukVPi9vUDJMK6ZLiakgb5v4e5JdwKfxFOR7ig2qp150Ozx_ib_eA15_QhseWOG-dUFeN-3Lr5uq05NX5Ktq8DmkpZi5ewiAEhMleLCCHezdw/s640/rainstorm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the midst of my journey I’ve come to the realization that we
as humans are only motivated by the desires of our flesh. Even when that warm
tingly feeling we get in our hearts wards against the nature of our wrongs. We
surrender, and in life, Justice will never be just as long as humans are the
authors that write the script.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We as humans are supposed to be equal in every aspect. We are
created and given the same breath of life we all received from the beginning
of time. At birth, our hearts and minds are not motivated by the color of our skin or based on the social status that society places on us, but driven by
the purity of love and the righteousness of truth that’s within us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My name is Steven Lamont Byrdsong and I am a convicted murderer. I have been incarcerated since the age of 16 and at the time I write
this, I am 41. I have grown up and lived inside the pits of hell. Even when my young mind couldn’t decipher the nature of my actions, my child's</span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> heart was
crying inside. But by then it was too late to rectify my wrongs and the script
of my life was written. Life Without Parole at 16, dead before I even had a
chance to live. But continuing to function only from the beat of my heart that
was pure and not scarred by the sins of my flesh.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A lot of people would question my sanity when I tell you I often
find myself having conversations with myself, having no one to communicate with
and living in a world where exposing your true self can be used against you by predators that prey on one’s weaknesses. So my thoughts are my best
friends. And I’m guided by the answers that wage war daily with my heart and
flesh that continues to battle life and my quest for justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My life isn’t my life anymore. I have no control over anything
besides the decisions I choose to make in a world that doesn’t care. I can
easily lay down and follow the majority and it will be justified. Or I can
continue to follow the silent tears of my heart and seek justice that no one
understands but me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Justice is the truth blinded by race, creed, or one’s
social status in our society. The laws of our society are supposed to represent
the just men and women that make up the laws that bind us together and make us equal in the eyes of the law. But the very people that make the laws do not represent justice. They are only writing the script. Because living in the
flesh does not allow us as humans to make just decisions. We are all living in sin -- even those that have written and are still writing the script
that dictates all of our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Consider the judges, politicians, and even world leaders that
have created laws and passed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">legislation. And then go back and research some of those that
have been corrupt and convicted or even impeached, not because they weren’t
educated or qualified at the time, but because they were only humans no
different than you and me, but placed on a pedestal that society rewards the
fortunate with. Because of their mistakes, the laws don’t
change. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And we remain bound and oppressed by law-makers that are the same as any other criminal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So I ask: is that Justice? </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Does Justice allow the rich to get a slap on the wrist and give
the poor a sentence they will never see the end of? Does Justice not
see that the number of Black prisoners is far greater than the number of those that are White?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">September of 2020 will be 25 years day for day that I have lived
behind these walls. I have armed myself with education and knowledge besides
the knives and shanks that come along with this environment. And only, and I
mean only, by the grace and forgiveness of God, am I still surviving. I now
live by the law, but I don’t believe in the law because, as I stated before, the laws were written by people who are themselves criminals or have
been bared or impeached. But their laws still exist. And some laws are prejudiced to this day. In the eyes of the 13</span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">th</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Amendment, I am still considered a slave.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Alabama considers itself a Christian state. Yet Alabama is best known for being one of the
last states in the South to free the slaves. And </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alabama’s prison system is packed with people for some of
the smallest crimes. Recently, </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alabama’s prison system has been all over the world news after a horrific and shocking investigation proved beyond a doubt
that justice doesn’t exist for some because of the authors that write and
decide the law.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The purpose of me writing this is because I now understand what
I didn’t at 16 when my life was taken from me. Nobody then wanted to know the
truth. Nobody was even seeking the truth. They were getting a conviction,
building their resume to advance their career, not caring about a child
crying out for help.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In Alabama, we treat our pets better than we do our own people. We have laws against animal cruelty and we are charged and, if convicted, placed
in prison for it. Yet in the Alabama Department of Corrections, we are enslaved, beaten, extorted, raped, and living in conditions worse than those in a
third world country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But it’s justified because we are the "bad" guys. We are the "Scum
of the Earth" and we deserve everything we get. We are drug addicts and
alcoholics, robbers and thieves and, yes, some of our crimes are a lot worse so I
understand the punishment. But still we are all human beings and not the
animals we are being treated worse than and programmed to believe we are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is rehabilitation? Where is reform? Where is the
help needed in order for us to make a change and return to society to be productive? </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Where is love? Where is forgiveness? Where is the compassion
that our great state runs its campaign on every time a new official gets
elected? They ask the people to put them in office saying they want
to make a difference. But once they get into office, it’s like every other
elected official before them. It’s all an act.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My heart cries now because before I armed myself with knowledge, I didn’t know that people could be so evil and their heart so cold. Yet these are the people that write our laws. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The love of money is the root of evil and it is the love of money that has put those people sitting high, looking down and frowning upon the less fortunate.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We, the incarcerated citizens of Alabama, are crying
out for help. O</span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">ur cries have turned into the blood of men that are being
tortured behind these walls. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We plead daily for someone to come and save us. But the truth is that our cries never make it to the outside world, and if they
do, they are covered up and presented to the public in a whole different
version.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So now my cries are silent because I know without a doubt that the Alabama Department of Corrections is only a business. Rehabilitation
doesn’t exist because we are the heads needed in the revolving door to make
this business successful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The United States Department of Justice gave the public the horrifying details
of what’s going on inside these walls. Yet nothing has been done. As a matter of
fact, violence is on the rise. The glimmer of hope I had when the report
was first released has vanished as fast as it came. And business
continues to boom as the sun fades and the terrifying screams begin to pound
loudly through the night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I write this under my name because I don’t want to be remembered by something I once did, but by the man I have become in the darkest place on earth
with nobody but me, my thoughts, and God to hear me. And if I never get to tell my
story on the outside, I will continue to fight the injustice on the inside in the hope that a real change will happen and major people within our system will be held accountable for this nightmare. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since I am only a prisoner, maybe my thoughts and opinions
don’t matter in a state that treats those convicted of crimes worse than the
stray dogs that roam the streets.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Last night I cried because I laid in my bed and listened to the screams of a man getting raped. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">When he was finally able to escape he ran to the cube for help. The two guards that worked the dorm were asleep. The prisoner then began to bang
on the window as if he was trying to break in. Once the guards were awake, you
would think that he now had help. But instead, the prisoner was maced, kicked back
down the steps, and left to deal with whatever was going to happen. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">How many more lives do I have to witness being taken,
assaulted, raped, and tortured before anyone pays attention?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Governor Ivey
and Commissioner Dunn’s solution to this Alabama problem is building shiny new state-of-the-art mega-prisons with the same leadership and their same
mentality. It’s like taking the Miami Dolphins with a 0-7 record and putting
them into a new stadium, thinking that’s gonna make them a winning franchise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Alabama Department of Corrections is definitely a losing franchise. It’s
time to look at the leadership instead of construction and see if this is the
administration we want moving forward. If we hope for a better and more positive
environment in our state, we need to give prisoners an opportunity to be successfully rehabilitated and a fair chance at freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">May God bless us all in the midst of this storm.</span></div>
___________________________________________________<br />
<b>NOTE: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040;">Proposal to Amend Alabama Code 1775 in
relation to capital offenses and juveniles:</span><br />
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<div style="background: white; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #404040; padding: 0in;">We on the inside request a change to the existing law, the Kirby
law, which states that the defendant who was under 18 years of age at the time
of the offense and sentenced to life on a capital offense, is only eligible for
parole after serving a minimum of 30 years. We maintain that 30
years—especially when starting a sentence at such a young age—is still
effectively a life without parole sentence and in contradiction to the original
purpose of the Kirby law (to remove LWOP as a sentence for those who committed
an offense under the age of 18 years old). </span></em><span style="color: #404040;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #404040; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div style="background: white; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #404040; padding: 0in;">The proposal put forward by incarcerated individual Steven Lamont
Byrdsong and endorsed by Swift Justice is to amend sections 13A-5-2, 13-A-5-43,
13A-6-2, 15-22-27.3, Code Alabama 1775 related to capital offenses, to provide
that a person sentenced to life on a capital offense must serve a minimum of </span></em><strong style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px;"><i><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #404040; padding: 0in;">15 years prior</span></i></strong><em><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #404040; padding: 0in;"> to
being eligible for parole.</span></em><span style="color: #404040;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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changeseekerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18350201531677548579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16645996.post-15179870408828265442020-01-19T09:13:00.000-06:002020-02-02T16:33:15.182-06:00Malik Washington: "Why I Fight So Hard For Our People!"<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxB5eaK-D2V2A38IXZWEmve-xnyqBko8UzE0DSvJD0siGDJiX1JLLwTLWFN7-F2UogEtWt56bixi4J6d488KmyK8tLbhMAqYRiXAHO5WNdAlvcV9kofsZIt6qbsr-r5bz2hjujA/s1600/pollock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="960" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxB5eaK-D2V2A38IXZWEmve-xnyqBko8UzE0DSvJD0siGDJiX1JLLwTLWFN7-F2UogEtWt56bixi4J6d488KmyK8tLbhMAqYRiXAHO5WNdAlvcV9kofsZIt6qbsr-r5bz2hjujA/s640/pollock.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>“The hypocrisy of American fascism forces it to conceal its attack on political offenders by the legal fiction of conspiracy laws and highly sophisticated frame-ups. The masses must be taught to understand the true function of prisons. Why do they exist in such numbers? What is the real underlying economic motive of crime and the official definition of types of offenders or victims? The people must learn that when one “offends” the totalitarian state it is patently not an offense against the people of that state, but an assault upon the privilege of the privileged few.” ~ </i></b></span><i style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">George L. Jackson, from Blood in my Eye, p.107</i></span></b>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Revolutionary greetings, comrades!</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As I stare out of my window here at the United States Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana, I find myself in a pensive and reflective mood. I see razor wire as well as concertina fencing immediately outside my window. I see the prison yard, the grass, the gun tower and far off in the distance I see trees. I see a flag on a pole, it is the “stars and stripes”. This flag does not represent freedom to me, it represents oppression, abuse, social control and it represents the hateful legacy of slavery.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I woke up here in Pollock, Louisiana thinking of Angola 3 member Herman Wallace. I remember the day he died. I was listening to Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, and she played a recording of Comrade Herman describing the garden that he and his comrades were preparing behind the house he was planning to move into.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Once the state of Louisiana finally granted Comrade Herman release, he was on his last leg, the cancer had literally eaten him alive. When I heard the voice of Herman Wallace, with the anticipation of freedom and the hope of seeing a brighter day, I cried. I cried because I was angry, sad, and frustrated.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Louisiana had absolutely no love, compassion, or care for the Angola 3. What they had for them was racial hatred and decades of abuse. Comrade Robert King and Comrade Albert Woodfox made it out alive. Herman wasn’t so lucky.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So you should know that I fight for the Herman Wallaces of this world! The political prisoners here in America – I fight for them. I fight for my New Afrikan brothers!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We are being told that we will be on lock-down for months after this most recent incident here at USP Pollock.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black;">Lockdown means my cellmate and I will be trapped in our cell 24/7. Every 3 days we are afforded an opportunity to shower. Our meals are all cold and consist of powdered milk, a piece of fruit, bologna, bread, cheese or peanut butter and jelly. The nutritional value is extremely poor. I have survived years on this paltry diet.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">There is no programming on lockdown. So all that talk you have heard about the First Step Act is just that: talk. My cell-mate and I are both “short-timers”. He has about 14 months left, and I have about 15 months. He is 33 years old and I am 51. Two Black men. Both of us want to prepare for a successful transition back into society – but how can we?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Federal Bureau of Prisons is sending us back to our families and to our communities traumatized & scarred emotionally as well as physically.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What rehabilitation is to be had when you are forced to live in a concrete cell for months at a time? Our situation here is not unique. This is the reality for literally thousands of men who have found themselves inside a Federal U.S. Penitentiary. USP Beaumont, USP Coleman, USP Victorville, USP McCreary, Big Sandy, Lee County, ALL of them in a continual state of lockdown! This is why I fight!</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>"The psycho-social dimensions of fascism become quite complex, but they can be simplified by thinking of them as part of a collective bargaining process carried on between all the elites of the particular state with the regime acting as arbitrator. The regime’s interests are subject to those of the ruling class. Labor is a partner in this arrangement. At the head of any labor organization in the fascist state, there is an elite which is tied to the interests of the regime — and consequently tied also to the economic status quo." ~</i></b></span><i style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> George L. Jackson, excerpt from Blood in my Eye, p. 157</i></span></b></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In this environment, and I am talking about high-security prisons in Amerika, the the prison warden is the 'elite' who represents the interests of the regime.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let me be clear. Here at USP Pollock, the Complex Warden is named Mr. McConnell. Mr. McConnell is an extension of the Trump Administration. Now, I want to break down exactly what justice looks like here inside USP Pollock.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Recently, there have been U.S. Supreme Court cases, such as U.S. vs Johnson, U.S. vs Davis, and others which have the potential of granting relief to thousands of Federal prisoners. That means that many prisoners who were charged with gun charges under 924(c), 922(g) and those with Hobbs Act Robberies may receive reductions in their sentence or possibly even go home if they qualify and file the proper legal motions and writs of Habeas Corpus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The ongoing lockdowns at USP Pollock as well as all USPs across the United Snakes of Amerikkka have resulted in a mass denial of our access to the courts. USP Pollock is an egregious violator of our access to courts -- allow me to explain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">At USP Pollock we see a special problem. On most USP units, you have access to a computer terminal which is exclusively set up for the law library. That means we could access legal cases which could aid in our freedom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Because of the numerous lockdowns, we cannot make copies of case law. It would help us immensely if we had a printer on our housing units, since the prison administration here has fallen in love with the reactionary practice of the lockdown strategy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">While en route to USP Pollock, I was in the Federal Transition Center, which is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There on the housing unit was a computer terminal strictly for law library use, and another terminal which was used to print documents, both legal documents and emails from our Corrlinks e-mail accounts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">From my stance as a freedom fighter and jailhouse lawyer, I state for the record that prisoners held at USP Pollock are similarly situated as prisoners who are housed at the Federal Transition Center in Oklahoma and should be afforded the same access to the courts as prisoners there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What is happening at USP Pollock is a blatant violation of the Equal Protection Clause, as well as our Constitutional right to have access to the courts. There are men here who have excellent arguments, which could free them from Federal custody, but the B.O.P. has created a culture of incarceration which traps mostly black, brown and poor whites inside these slave kamps and gulags.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I mentioned earlier in this essay/article that we were on lockdown here at USP Pollock. What I did not mention is that some prisoners here on Unit A-3 did resist being forced back into their cells. They had good reason to resist, and after another quote from Comrade George Jackson, I will explain.</span></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;"><span font-family:="" new="" quot="" roman="" serif="" style="color: #cc0000;" times="">"As victims of one of history's most brutal contradictions, as the poorest of the poor, as blacks, it is quite justifiable and completely possible for us to destroy this country as a modern nation-state, to attack it with a totally destructive counter-sweep of frustrated retaliatory rage; that is not our purpose. As revolutionaries, it is our objective to move ourselves and the people into actions that will culminate in the seizure of state power. Our real purpose is to redeem not merely ourselves but the whole nation and the whole community of nations from colonial — community economic repression." ~</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">George L. Jackson, except from</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Blood in my Eye</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">, pgs. 133-134</span></span></b></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On December 31st, 2019, there was an incident here at USP Pollock which resulted in the warden calling for an institutional lockdown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On Unit A-3 you have a group of prisoners who have jobs, are involved in rehabilitative programs, etc... "A" Unit is considered the "good side" of the penitentiary -- the side where the peaceful and allegedly "well-adjusted" prisoners are all</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> housed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, the prisoners on A-3 Unit were not afforded the opportunity to go to the commissary. Their lockers were empty! Some of these men have active and pending litigation. There has been a palpable "frustrated retaliatory rage" building.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It took rubber bullets, shock grenades, batons and chemical agents to force the "good guys" into their cells on Unit A-3 here at USP Pollock.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You see comrades, something is very wrong here at USP Pollock and many other federal pens across the U.S. Deceptions and lies are being told about the so-called rehabilitation and re-entry programming made available to Amerikan prisoners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Question: If you make your living incarcerating poor Black, Latinx, and white human beings, why in the world would you be interested in turning out whole human beings from these slave kamps? It is not in their interest to help us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We are being sent back in worse shape than we came in! And then, when we fail, the oppressor profiles us on "Good Morning America" and highlights the worst of us, while ignoring the best of us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Do you think I will be invited to be interviewed on Good Morning America once I successfully assume my position as Assistant Editor of the San Francisco Bay View -- National Black Newspaper? Probably not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I vow to fight for those I leave behind. But what about now? What shall we do to address the current conditions of our confinement?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A violent and brutal response will not serve our interests. We must set in motion a thoughtful and well-put-together plan which must be embraced by all Federal prisoners in the USP. Violence only plays into the strategy the oppressor has in store for us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Remember comrades, there will be no programming, no visits, no phone calls and no business transactions while we are on these lockdowns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's time for the shot callers of all street tribes and organizations to communicate with one another now. Exposing the conditions which exist is one part of "the plan". As the weeks turn into months, I will be offering more ideas and suggestions that may improve our conditions, but I am only one man -- I'll need some help and co-operation from the good men who are trapped inside these razor-wire plantations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is just a glimpse - there will follow more. Will you be ready?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dare to struggle, dare to win, all power to the people!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Keith “Malik” Washington is Assistant Editor of the Bay View, studying and preparing to serve as Editor after his release in 2021. He is also co-founder and chief spokesperson for the End Prison Slavery in Texas Movement, a proud member of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and an activist in the Fight Toxic Prisons campaign. Visit his website at <a href="https://comrademalik.com/">ComradeMalik.com</a>. Send our brother some love and light: Keith “Malik” Washington, 34481-037, USP Pollock, P.O. Box 2099, Pollock LA 71467.</i></b></span></div>
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