From:
SF Bay View
Oct. 14th 2012
by Mary Ratcliff
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| Unity is a matter of life and death in all ‘hoods – in the prisons and on the streets. The Youth Justice Council rallied outside the LA County Men’s Jail at 10 a.m. on 10/10, the day set by the Pelican Bay Prison Short Corridor Collective for the beginning of the end of racial hostilities. – Photo: Virginia Gutierrez |
In the U.S., we not only encage
25 percent of the world’s prisoners –
more than any nation in the history of the world and
more Black people than were enslaved in 1850 – but we isolate at least
80,000 of them in solitary confinement.
I contend that the purpose is to drive them mad; and after years of
reading their letters, I believe they are targeted for this intense form
of torture not because they are the worst of the worst but because they
are the best and brightest.
In September, the Short Corridor Collective, prisoners confined to
the SHU in Pelican Bay State Prison, one of the first and harshest
examples of mass solitary confinement, sent out a historic
call for racial hostilities to end in California prisons beginning Oct. 10.
Of the prisoners in the SHU, who are all “considered the most
dangerous and influential (prisoners) in the state,” these men in the
Short Corridor are “the leaders, what one authority called all the
‘alpha dogs,’”
writes Nancy Mullane of KALW,
who managed to get approval for a visit to the SHU – and even an
interview with a SHU prisoner. In California, reporters’ access to
prisoners is largely barred by law.
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| In announcing their 10/10 rally, LA’s Youth Justice Council quote political exile Assata Shakur: “If unity happens inside the walls of prison, imagine the impacts it will have on our neighborhoods and youth!” – Photo: Virginia Gutierrez |
In
a letter
to prisoner advocates, these so-called “shot callers,” who prison
officials say require isolation to prevent them from ordering prison
murders, have shown their true colors. Writing “on behalf of all racial
groups here in the PBSP-SHU Corridor,” they declare that “now is the
time for us to collectively seize this moment in time and put an end to
more than 20-30 years of hostilities between our racial groups.”
“Therefore,” they write, “beginning on Oct. 10, 2012, all hostilities
between our racial groups in SHU, ad-seg, general population and county
jails will officially cease.” With this call, prisoners who endure some
of the world’s worst punishment have disarmed their jailers – disabling
the most effective weapon in the Corrections Department arsenal: divide
and conquer.
“In conclusion, we must all hold strong to our mutual agreement from
this point on and focus our time, attention and energy on mutual causes
beneficial to all of us and our best interests. We can no longer allow
CDCR to use us against each other for their benefit,” they write. So,
with solidarity, the same men who led last year’s hunger strikes, which
involved 12,000 prisoners at their peak, intend to achieve the modest
relief they were promised then – promises still unfulfilled.
Prisoners respond to the call
When the
Bay View published the call
to end hostilities, prisoner advocate Kendra Castaneda printed 100
copies of the story and mailed them to 100 prisoners around the state,
so that word would begin to spread before Bay View prisoner subscribers
received their October papers. She was determined to make a way around
the severe restrictions on prisoners’ ability to communicate.
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| A large, enthusiastic crowd, including prisoners’ families and supporters as well as youth, turned out for the 10/10 rally in LA. – Photo: Virginia Gutierrez |
California prisoners, who are prohibited from writing to each
other, rely on phone calls, visits and letters from outside the walls
and on the Bay View and a few other publications for the news that
matters most to them. Most of the men in the Short Corridor Collective,
however, are allowed no phone calls, and many are denied visits as well.
And rumors reached us that the Corrections Department might ban the
October Bay View statewide for containing the call that would
effectively disarm them. We don’t yet know whether subscribers have
received their papers. What we have heard is that many prisoners’
letters to the Bay View are being confiscated.
Of the 100 copies of the call to end hostilities that Kendra mailed,
all appear to have been delivered except the 11 addressed to the very
same men who wrote it. On Oct. 12, she received 11 “mail stops,” notices
from the Pelican Bay gang unit claiming her letters violate California
Code of Regulations Title 15 with “plans that violate the law” and
facilitate prisoner-to-prisoner communication, even though she had
deleted all the signers’ names and prison numbers.
Responses from prisoners who did receive her letters are beginning to reach Kendra, and here’s what they write:
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| This is one of 11 “mail stops” Kendra Casteneda received Oct. 12, barring her letters containing copies of the Bay View story announcing and including the “Agreement to end hostilities” from reaching the very prisoners who wrote the agreement. This mail stop names Ron Dewberry, better known as Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa. (Click to enlarge.) |
From Gustavo Chavez: “The idea of this agreement going around is a
positive start to a new beginning for all inmates. If we could maintain
this valuable peace treaty within the prison system, why not work on
spreading the word outside the prison walls so that we may put an end to
the gang violence and work on becoming a bigger force?
“Of course this movement will immediately be looked at as home grown
terrorism. We can’t allow such propaganda to interfere with our progress
to educate our youth. The whole system operates on scare tactics,
tactics that we shouldn’t fear.
“The challenges that lie ahead must be supremacy over the entire
system. We can’t allow our decisions to be uncertain, because
uncertainty won’t take us far. We also must implement principal to our
purpose so that we may understand the cause. When people lose focus,
things get ugly, and we all know who benefits from that!
“Last but not least, we/I know that rumors have been going around
about certain stuff, and supposedly everything is coming from the Short
Corridor. It sounds like the guards are attempting to disrupt the
agreement by spreading these rumors around. We all must be careful not
to fall into the guards’ web.
“I’m always prepared for the worst, especially when knowing I’m being
psychologically tortured day after day.” – In struggle, Gustavo Chavez,
E-45117, PBSP SHU D-8-121, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532,
written Sept. 26, 2012
In a separate personal letter, Gustavo writes on Oct. 7: “Kendra, a
lot of scandalous things are occurring up here. They have over 16
inmates from the main line on
potty watch.
I’m constantly being threatened by the coward pigs. Their tactics are
aimed to disrupt what we are setting out to accomplish. You make sure to
continue riding strong against the enemy regardless of the amount of
times they try to bring you down.”
From Terrance E. White: “They’ve moved a lot of people over to Wasco
State Prison Ad-Seg Unit, and they’re still validating people but have
let non-serious incidents go back to the yard. That’s what I’ve
witnessed.
“And they didn’t try to deter our Black August celebration this year.
Here at North Kern State Prison, we had Southern Hispanics, Northern
Hispanics and a few whites participate in our exercising routines on the
yard (dog kennel) with us New Afrikkkans.
“We
are all also aware of the peace treaty that’s to start Oct. 10, 2012,
throughout the prison system and are all in agreement with it. It is
about time to take back all that has been lost and continue to press
forward in this struggle for liberation. They’ve had all us oppressed in
these conditions for far too long.” – Comrade T, Terrance E. White,
AG8738, KVSP D6-241, P.O. Box 5005, Delano, CA 93216, written Oct. 5,
2012
From Heshima Denham: “We received the comments (from several
different sources) on the 10/10 cessation of hostilities and are in FULL
adherence/compliance with all three points. However, there does seem to
be some confusion on aspects of point 3 as it relates to the 10/10/2012
date, and we were wondering could we get some clarity from the main
reps at PB?” – Heshima Denham, J-38283, Cor-SHU 4BIL-46, P.O. Box 3481,
Corcoran, CA 93212, written Oct. 3, 2012
Prisoners’ inability to communicate leads to confusion
The confusion Heshima mentions appears to be reflected in an
Oct. 13 story in the Los Angeles Times.
Prisoners apparently heard that a call had been put out by those who
had called last year’s hunger strikes and assumed it was for another
hunger strike. The Times reports:
“Corrections officials said they do not know why about 500 inmates
started refusing food Wednesday, the same day a prison ‘end to
hostilities’ was called by inmate activists who had orchestrated last
year’s mass hunger strikes.
“The fasting began at opposite ends of the state. Several hundred
inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border refused meals
from Wednesday through Friday, but began eating again Friday night,
said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation. About 300 prisoners at California Correctional
Institute in Tehachapi, north of Los Angeles, also began refusing meals
Wednesday. About 200 of them continued to refuse food Saturday, Thornton
said.”
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| This youngster dressed in stereotypical prison garb behind bars dramatizes the encaging of human beings practiced on a mass scale in California and throughout the U.S. Prisoners in solitary confinement endure years and even decades of isolation in windowless “concrete coffins” the size of a parking space, deprived of sensory stimulation, human contact or a glimpse of the natural world – a bird, a tree or a blade of grass. Imagine the strength of character that takes! – Photo: Virginia Gutierrez |
The Times’ story closes on an ominous note:
“Prison officials regard the reference to race [in the call to end
hostilities] as a synonym for the race-based gangs active in California
prisons, including the Mexican Mafia, Aryan Brotherhood and 415 KUMI.
“Molly Porzig with Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity said Pelican Bay
prison officials responded to the ceasefire by asking the 16 Short
Corridor inmates whose names appear on the statement to acknowledge gang
activity. She attributed the claim to a family member visiting one of
those inmates last week.”
This suggests that CDCR is trying to turn the call to end hostilities on its head and consider it evidence of gang activity.
To nip in the bud these efforts to confuse and criminalize prisoners
and stop their peaceful organizing, it is imperative that the truth be
communicated to prisoners all over California. We urge readers to print
out this story and mail it to prisoners you know. If you’re not
currently corresponding with a prisoner, look for California prisoners
from among the hundreds of
pen pals listed in the Bay View.
The call to end hostilities is heard and heeded on the streets
Los Angeles’ Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) called for a “parallel
cease fire in the streets” to correspond to the end of hostilities
inside the prisons called by the Short Corridor Collective. Led by the
youth, a large, diverse crowd rallied at 10 a.m. on 10/10 outside the LA
County Men’s Jail.
In announcing their rally, YJC wrote: “Prisoners in Pelican Bay State
Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU) have announced a push to end all
hostilities between racial groups within California’s prisons and jails.
The handwritten announcement was sent to prison advocacy organizations.
It is signed by prisoners identifying themselves as the PBSP-SHU Short
Corridor Collective. Pelican Bay’s SHU was the point of origin for last
year’s hunger strikes which rocked California’s prison system, at one
point including the participation or nearly 12,000 prisoners in over 11
prisons throughout the state.”
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As the crowd gathered for the 10/10 rally, a big banner greeted them: “To the cops we all look the same! Unite LA! Why fight each other? Fight for justice!” – Photo: Virginia Gutierrez
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“We have the duty to fight for our brothers and sisters who remain inside the walls of injustice and confined to a system that does NOT
work for our community,” they declared.
Photos taken at the rally that illustrate this story exude solidarity and hope.
Sponsoring organizations included Youth Justice Coalition, Fair
Chance Project, LA Community Action Network, FACTS (Families to Amend
California Three Strikes), California Families to Abolish Solitary
Confinement, Homies Unidos, California Faith Action, Coalition to Stop
Sheriff Violence and Gender Justice LA. For more information or to add
your organization as a supporter, email the Youth Justice Coalition at
freelanow@yahoo.com or call them at (323) 235-4243.
The youth quote political exile Assata Shakur: “If unity happens
inside the walls of prison, imagine the impacts it will have on our
neighborhoods and youth!”
Another rally was held in Riverside. The announcement on Facebook
reads: “We are calling on all communities in Riverside County to stand
in solidarity with all of our loved ones locked inside California’s
prisons and county jails. This press conference and rally calls on the
CDCR and local county sheriff’s departments to honor the call to end all
hostilities between racial groups.”
In the Bay Area, a panel discussion on the call to end hostilities
among other topics under the heading, “Alternatives to the Prison
System,” is set for Saturday, Oct. 20, 2:30 p.m., at the Niebyl-Proctor
Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. The topics are:
- prisoners’ call for an end to hostilities, inside and in the communities
- a critique of power’s criminality as revealed in the existence of prisons
- real alternatives to the criminality of punishment
Panelists will include:
- Steve Martinot, author of “The Need to Abolish the Prison System: an Ethical Indictment”
- Joileen Richards, Campaign to End Mass Incarceration
- Urszula Wislanka, Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Support Committee, and News and Letters
- Melvin Dickson, The Commemorator: Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party
- Dorsey Nunn, All of Us or None
Bay View editor Mary Ratcliff can be reached at editor@sfbayview.com or (415) 671-0789.
