In the Belly is an abolitionist publication that works to support ecosystems of incarcerated organizing, printing revolutionary political education material by and for incarcerated people.
Category: Radical Prison Praxis
PA-DOC Phone Zap (2nd Week – updates + New Script)
📞⚡ Monday 3/25 – Friday 3/29
Call anytime between: 8am – 6pm est / 5am – 3pm pst
Send reportbacks to: abolitionist-study@protonmail.com
or DM on twitter: @abolition_ALT
phone numbers are located at the end of this post
Trigger warning: Mentions racist violence by guards at SCI Rockview
About
This is the second week of a phone zap that has not yet resulted in any further action taken by PA-DOC to reprimand three guards who hung nooses in the office (bubble) at SCI Rockview. We believe the facility’s inaction is symptomatic of the deeper condition of normalized antiBlack genocide and white supremacist class warfare in this facility (and across PA-DOC facilities). At SCI Rockview alone there was eleven preventable deaths in 2023, as well as several instances of beatings of prisoners by guards.
Following a letter campaign from the inside and a multi-day phone zap by outside supporters last week, our imprisoned comrade who filed the initial grievance about this issue was thrown in the hole (solitary) and may potentially be transferred as retaliation for speaking out. Since then we have also learned that there were other grievances submitted since the noose incident first happened, to no filing by SCI Rockview staff.
Update: as of 3/26 we have learned that a second prisoner was placed in the hole.
So, now the goals of our ongoing phone zap this week will be to demand the release of comrades from the hole, as well as continuing to pressure the DOC and other officials to take action against the guards. As of now: the officers have faced no consequences; the grievances were denied by the superintendent’s assistant (who doubles as the grievance coordinator); and the internal investigation into the “noose incident” has been closed. This is unacceptable, and prisoners in the facility have not relented in their work to expose this situation for the world to see. We owe it to the comrades in the belly of SCI Rockview, and especially to our comrade who was put in the hole for speaking up and letting the world know about this situation. This is the second time prisoners at SCI Rockview have faced severe consequences for speaking out, all the while the guards have enjoyed incredible degrees of insulation and impunity. The first phone zap we conducted resulted in an imprisoned comrade being thrown in the hole and eventually transferred to an entirely different state.
Some further Background:
In November 2023, a group of guards hung two nooses at SCI Rockview – in a location visible to roughly a hundred prisoners. Prisoners who witnessed the nooses have been outraged by this disturbing racist act, and have since demanded that these guards face consequences. In January we launched a two week phone zap campaign that forced PA-DOC main offices to contact the warden. While many Black prisoners remain tormented by this racist act, the guards responsible have enjoyed impunity, with officials in the facility even making attempts to silence anyone on the inside who speaks out. Last week we launched a second phone zap campaign, because there has been absolutely no initiative on the part of PA-DOC to reprimand the guards or acknowledge the legitimacy of prisoner concerns.
We have little reason to believe an internal investigation will achieve what the prisoners have been demanding, which includes the following:
- Release Charles Gilyard (# AY3679) and Charles Carrington (#HS1233) from the hole and do not transfer them to a different facility.
- Investigate superintendent’ secretary Nicki Paul – who is also the grievance coordinator enabling much of this nonsense.
- Investigate the hanging of nooses as a “hate crime” and take their impact seriously
- Terminate Sgt. Mosser and c/o Richards
- Mandatory therapy for c/o Kirchner
We need an external investigation of SCI Rockview & its staff. This facility has seen 11 deaths (that we know of) in 2023 and a severe pattern of racist discriminatory practices. Please join us in calling PA-DOC offices and officials, to further expose this incident and amplify the demands of our captive comrades.
Further updates on the situation (as of 2/27):
Further updates as of 3/28:
We have an update on Charles Gilyard (AY3679), who was targeted and put in the hole at SCI Rockview for filing grievances and for continuing to *speak* up after the grievances were denied and internal investigation dropped. Charles (AY3679) was moved today to SCI Houtzdale, located an hour west of SCI Rockview. He has been there since approx. 3:30pm.
We received word that Rockview did not ship any of Charles’ belongings and he is to start from scratch with no property. Charles is in his 60s. His experience in the hole (isolation) without any calls permitted and hyper-immobilized for over a week has taken a toll.
3/29 we will be calling SCI Houtzdale and PA-DOC Central Office to demand that his property be salvaged and shipped. We are also asking any letter writing collectives and books thru bars groups to send Charles (AY3679) some love and light.
The administration at SCI Rockview is deeply paranoid, fearful, and engaged in explicit damage control right now. SCI Rockview was a site of double digit fatalities and constant gratuitous violence in 2023. The noose situation is tip of the iceburg shit. We are curious to know the extent to which the Correctional Officers union is having a play in this cover up. We are starting to connect the dots a bit more. The reasons for the unprecedented quickness of these transfers is because this cover up is at a high level. Like we been saying but many keep ignoring, the “noose incident” is just the tip of the ice-burg in SCI Rockview – a site of ritualized gratuitous violence that is symptomatic of a more general condition of genocide that constitutes PA-DOC. PA-DOC knows this. This is why they have been so opaque and deflective with the public questioning and independent external investigators. And this is why they have came down so hard on prisoners who will not let this incident go without consequences. If guards face consequences for something as allegedly “minor” as hanging nooses in the facility, what will PA-DOC be forced to do when the stories of beatings and premature death are dug into further?
If we don’t hear from Charles Carrington (#HS1233) by tomorrow morning we need to call and do a wellness check. After filing his grievances about the noose incident, he expressed concern for his life and was communicating that he felt SCI Rockview staff were trying to kill him. He was allegedly transferred today. Charles G. was transferred today also. But his wife had heard from him. Charles C. has not been heard from yet.
Script for Calling (info is outdated but will be changed 3/29 in the morning)
I am calling on behalf of a community of people who are distressed by a recent incident of antiBlack harassment by a group of CO’s at SCI Rockview, who have faced no consequences for their racist actions. On 11/24/23, prisoners at SCI Rockview found two nooses made from extension cords hung by guards in the office (bubble). Two internal grievances have been submitted by prisoners who witnessed the incident, and prison officials have rejected both. The internal investigation on the matter has also been closed, leading us to resort to contacting anyone external that we can. We would like to make you aware that the facility admin has rejected both internal grievances, submitted by prisoners through the proper channels. And while the guards have faced no consequences for their hateful act, prisoners who have spoken out and lodged legitimate grievances have faced severe consequences that have placed them in the hole, led to transfers, and can compromise their records. We have little reason to believe any further internal investigation will achieve what the prisoners have been demanding, which includes the following:
- Investigate the hanging of nooses as a “hate crime” and take its impact seriously
- Terminate Sgt. Mosser and c/o Richards
- Mandatory therapy for c/o Kirchner
We on the outside would also like to add the following demands:
- Release Charles Gilyard (# AY3679) and Charles Carrington (#HS1233) from the hole and do not transfer them to a different facilities. Both Charles G. and Charles C. have been thrown in the hole as retaliation after an article was published in the Centre Daily Times detailing the “noose incident” and for demanding this group of guards who hung nooses be made to face consequences for their actions. They are being retaliated against for filing grievances, which is in fact against PA-DOC handbook policy.
- Investigate superintendent’ secretary Nicki Paul – who is also the grievance coordinator, and has been flippant and dismissive to everyone’s concerns about the nooses.
The hanging of two nooses is understood by many people imprisoned at SCI Rockview to be a hostile act and deeply offensive. Some are disclosing how these acts are part of a larger pattern of discriminatory practices used by correctional officers at this specific facility. If this was any other workplace, the act of hanging nooses would lead to severe consequences. The admin at SCI Rockview have not only displayed indifference to the racist act, but some even have made efforts to silence prisoners in distress by the incident. We urge PA-DOC officials to recognize the significance of the prisoner demands, which are derived from the exhausted grievances.
Phone Contacts
[use a *67 pre-fix to block your caller ID]
Chief Council (to demand the grievances be taken seriously)
Timothy Holmes, Chief Counsel | 717.728.7763 | tholmes@pa.gov
*also ask for Darina Varner (we are unsure how to contact her, but she oversees the grievance coordinators)
Office of Chief Counsel
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
1920 Technology Parkway
Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Office of Population Management (to demand Charles’ not be transferred)
Michael Wenerowicz, Executive Deputy Secretary for Institutional Operations 717.728.4122 | 4123
Heather Fotiou, Assistant 717.728.4025
SCI Rockview
Main Phone Line | 814.355.4874
When calling the SCI Rockview facility itself, you can request to speak with the admin or security. If you choose to speak with admin, here are their specs: Superintendent is Bobbi Jo Salamon; Deputy Superintendent of Central Services is Mike Rowe; Deputy Superintendent of Facilities is Scott Woodring; Business Manager is Adam Beck; Superintendent’s Assistant is Nicki Paul (Nicki is also the grievance coordinator – and a big liar!). When you call the prison directly, ask to speak with any of these admin.
When calling the staff at Rockview, they will likely lie to you and say Charles is not in the hole, and they will deny the threat of transfer. Please ask what his official 802 grievance write up was… and report back to us if you find this information out. When calling other PADOC offices tell them that Rockview staff have been lying to us on a number of accounts.
PA-DOC Central:
Laurel Harry, Secretary of Corrections 717.728.4109
Randee Brant, Chief of Staff 717.728.4107
David Radziewicz, Special Assistant 717.728.4117
Deanna Washington, Executive Secretary, Deputy Secretary’s Office 717.728.4122
Central Office Main Phone Line:
717.728.2573
Abuse Report 24/7 Voicemail Center:
1.800.677.0330
General inmate-related issues, send emails to:
ra-contactdoc@pa.gov
Email the DOC Secretary at
ra-crpadocsecretary@pa.gov
PA-DOC Contact Form:
https://py-forms-prod.powerappsportals.us/DOCContactUs/
PA-DOC Eastern:
Morris Houser, Acting Deputy Secretary Eastern Region 717.728.4122 | 4123
Marilyn Richards, Staff Assistant 717.728.4114
Samuel Condo, Staff Assistant 717.728.4747
Capt. Bly, Inspection Captain 717.728.4126
An important thing to also note is that we have called the overseer of SCI Rockview’s region, Samuel Condo, over a dozen time – with none of our voicemails replied to. It appears he is dodging the issue by simply not picking up the phone for anything related to the “noose incident.”
PA State Government
Governor Shapiro’s office: 717.787.2500
Text governor Shapiro: 717.788.8990
Governor’s office – Right to Know Requests: https://www.openrecords.pa.gov/RTKL/CitizensGuide.cfm
Michelle A Henry, PA Attorney General
Main Office Line: 717.787.3391
Press Office: 717.787.5211
PA Office of Inspector General – 717.772.4935
Government Misconduct Report Portal: https://www.osig.pa.gov/Pages/Report-Government-Misconduct.aspx
SCI Rockview is attempting to disrupt the cohesion of inside resistance to these racist guards by targeting and removing people who they think are its catalyst. While resistance inside remains steadfast, the regime is simultaneously attempting to thwart the energy of outside support into individually supporting comrades, while comrades inside are isolated and targeted for reprisal. The struggle from here therefore takes two lines: On the one hand we have defensive work: making sure the comrades who are singled out and face accelerated repression are materially supported and the prison knows we have all eyes on the unfolding situation. And on the other hand we continue our offensive work: adjusting strategy to force PADOC to not only recognize the prisoner demands but to fulfill the requested terms of relief from which such demands emerge.
Inside Letter Campaign as Tactic
Around 3/13/24, a letter writing campaign was initiated by captive comrades in SCI-Rockview, mailing 100 letters to PA officials and advocacy groups disclosing the noose incident & level of racist abuse in this facility. Below are copies of one of the grievance letters that was mailed out (on 3/13) during this campaign, where we estimate about 80 out of 100 attempted letters made it out of the facility before the mailroom caught it. The officials listed below should have received these letters by now. We are going to email these copies to the offices mentioned, as well as others. In hopes that somebody will actually care that these guards have faced no consequences for their racist actions.
The demands from comrades inside the facility are concrete and straight forward: 1) Termination of Sgt. Mosser and c/o Richards; 2) Therapy for c/o Kirchner (this is the three staff who hung the nooses) 3) Hate crimes charged against Sgt. Mosser & c/o Richards.
Important to note is how a number of the original grievances over the last few months have gone unfiled. This might also be because, as we learned last week, the “grievance coordinator” at SCI Rockview is apparently also the superintendent’s assistant. This is a conflict of interest, and apparently this is a similar phenomenon at other facilities. What a joke.
Notes on abolitionist insurgency & prisoner support in Pennsylvania
There are some dire questions that non-imprisoned abolitionists keep asking, of what solidarity with collective action inside entails. Central among them is: How do we embolden our comrades in prison or jail to feel protected enough, seen enough, and empowered enough to take action when they desire to?
Yet what is less discussed is the question posed in self-reflection: How can we embolden our comrades on the outside (who are willing to take physical risks) to provide forms solidarity that actually give inside demands a little more teeth?
- What does autonomous direct action in solidarity with collective action inside look like for abolitionists on the outside, and where are the targets that would be most decisive for attack?
- How can we better develop collective capacity for decisive attacks on PA-DOC from the outside, in conjunction with demands on the inside?
- What targets can we choose on the outside that do not exacerbate repression for the comrades situated on the inside? Or is this simply part of the equation that we must equip and be prepared for?
- How, then, can inside and outside move at once? And in this context, how do aboveground formations move horizontally with an underground to fill in the gaps in work that one another is unable to do?
These are questions that shift conversations about strategy from mere activism toward insurgency. As a comrade who was at SCI Rockview last summer writes:
“As prisoners, we can riot & take control of the prison at any time, but that won’t relieve us of this living death. We need our comrades in the world to take the fight out of the halls of legislation & to the prison walls themselves. Only then can we actually end this war. An assault on both fronts would make the difference between us banging on the walls & us breaking them down. When the world sees this, it will show that the facade of invincibility that the system has cultivated over generations of slavery is just that: an illusion.”
To compliment this ask from the inside, we believe it is equally important to attack & disrupt the everyday operations of structures and relations that compose PA-DOC’s instiutional form in ways that strategically compliment inside collective action.
For autonomous attack as abolitionist prisoner support to be decisive and effective, it first means decentering (not ignoring but thinking beyond) the “reified” site/scene of the prison facility itself in our ideas of the terrain of struggle and attack. A prison facility, such as SCI Rockview, is one among many other sites and nodes in a web of structures and social relations that make up PA-DOC’s institutional form. The targets of insurgent outside solidarity through sabotage therefore consist of everything and anything that upholds the reproduction of the prison facility itself or a DOC system from without.
Some questions we may want to ask ourselves in outside support circles include:
- What are the institutions, contractors, buildings, and other structures that enable PA-DOC to function in the first place?
- If it is a prison “industrial complex” what is the constellation of sites that allow it to function, that give it coherence and life?
One way abolitionists can support people on the inside during a strike is to initiate (and sustain) conflict w/ the state & capital. To either disrupt its logistical operations and/or weaken the regime’s resolve.
One example that comes to mind is during the 2016 nationwide prison strike, which saw sporadic instances solidarity actions that did not abide by codes of non-conflictual demonstration.
For example, ABC Chicago in 2017 writes:
“In the context of prison struggle, a recent example of solid praxis that comes to mind was in Pittsburgh at Allegheny County Jail. About eighty prisoners began a work refusal and released a list of demands that included more case workers, better medical services, and a legitimate grievance procedure. After those on the outside heard of this sit-in, they took to the jail in masks, smashed windows of the jail, a security camera, and several police vehicles. Similar models of solidarity occurred around the September 9th prison strike where people all over the US and even other continents took action in solidarity with those on the inside rising up. This took the form of noise demos and marches, as well as direct attacks on prisons and those who profit off prison… This is a type of solidarity that can produce results.”
Some more questions to consider are as follows:
- If the prison regime is upheld by numerous institutional connections & centers of gravity — that exist far beyond the “reified” site/scene of “the prison” itself — then where are the most impactful targets to attack in solidarity w/ prisoners taking collective action?
- For abolitionists who are not inside the prison itself, what does disruption in solidarity with collective prisoner action look like beyond (only) non-conflictual protest?
- Are people within prisons/jail/detention the only ones who are expected to engage in material disruption? To take risks? Are we just vessels of emotional solidarity?
- Where then, would the targets be, for outside abolitionists to exert greater pressure? How might this change perspectives of strategy? How might thinking more expansively about the terrain of engagement illumine new tactical horizons?
- Or maybe the objective of pressuring the state to meet a specific demand from inside is the wrong way to practice attack and direct action altogether?
- Yet strikes typically have demands. So what then do we do with our bodies, our (relative) mobility and access to information/resources/tools that are foreclosed to people who take collection action for particular goals while locked up?
- Where are the logistical chokepoints? What are targets of attack and sites of disruption that don’t result in severe backlash to comrades struggling on the inside? Where are the vulnerabilities to prison management’s morale and how does one remove the will of guards to endure?
- What is the relationship between a local-to-state government, the internal fiefdoms of prisons & jails, & the contractors whose fate is tethered to the regime’s institutional reproduction? How can tensions or antagonisms between such entities be exacerbated by outside sabotage?
To bring this strategy to life we not only need comrades who are up for the task of directly attacking in solidarity with inside collective action, but we also need a range of people to take up this cause at the level of research, propagation, and expanding capacity for regional anti-repression work and community care.
We need people who can map the institutional form of PA-DOC. We need people to map the digital communications infrastructure. We need people that understand how the nodes of institutions that make up PA-DOC within Pennsylvania branch out to every corner of the US settler colonial territory, with offices, remote workers, contractors, etc… all within reach of someone who is willing to take action, yet simply needs a map to take part. We also need a more focused effort of people who are not involved in combative actions directly to participate in defending the fire of revolt as it spreads. This can be done by simply organizing letter writing nights to support people in the case that they catch charges for the risks they take. This can also be done by focusing in on building or strengthening networks that provide care and mutual aid within your local spheres of movement and community.
Conversations
-sent by email
02/18/2024 1:47 PM EST
It was fifteen degrees outside this morning so I knew we weren’t going to have yard. I had been reading Issue 40 of The Abolitionist when the call for day room came. I wandered into the day room, plugged my tablet into the kiosk and headed to one of eight tables in the room to drink my coffee and continue reading. At the far end of the table, two young Black males, both 23, were conversing about happenings in their ‘hood (SW Philly). I knew them both and was especially close to one of them. I slid toward their end of the table, making it obvious that I was listening to them, and waited to get their attention.
Before long, we were engaged in conversation. One of them was very angry with “the system.” His minimum prison sentence is 13 years. He has six years inside. He felt the system was wasting 13 years of his life and that he was going to make up for that lost time upon release.
I asked him why the 13 years had to be a waste. He felt that no matter what he did inside, the time was gone so it was a waste. I explained that it didn’t have to be. That he could use the time to benefit himself, to not let the system win. Getting to this point took more than 30 minutes. He really didn’t see how one makes prison time beneficial.
I shared some of what I have been involved in as an organizer and writer. I told him it all started with reaching out across the walls, with making connections. I shared how doing so helped me grow and benefit from this time. And because he has seen my work (political education and mutual aid) in the prison and on the block, he believed me, knew that it was possible.
We began to talk about gun violence, a real issue in the lives of young, Black men. I told them about the roundtable I convened at another prison. Both of them were adamant about not putting down their guns. They had reasons. Many of them. They also felt that people didn’t understand them or try to understand them. No one was listening. I told them there our people
I told them there are people out there who do care, who do want to hear their voices. People who know those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. And no one is closer to the problem of gun violence than young Black men. They are the most likely victim of gun violence in the country. They are spoken about but rarely spoken to. They aren’t being asked why they carry guns. They aren’t being asked why this type of violence happens. They surely aren’t being asked how to solve, diminish, gun violence.
I asked each one of these men about their experiences, their lives before incarceration, and what could be done to stem violence. I listened. Some thing many don’t do when it comes to young Black people. And I learned. A lot. I asked each person to write a two page essay explaining why they weren’t going to put their guns down. No judgement. They have their reasons for feeling that carrying a gun is best for them, despite the possible consequences. I offered to share these essays with the world anonymously so people could hear their voices. They demanded I share them with their names attached.
All of this has moved me to reconvene the roundtable. The plan is to bring these young men together to discuss a problem that has and continues to vex them. From my previous roundtable, I learned how toxic masculinity was behind so much of the violence. Whether they called it heritage beef, pride, drugs, money or even women, underlying it all was an adherence to a masculinity that called upon them to believe conflict could only be resolve with violence.
I hope to connect these young men with people and organizations outside that know and practice another way of resolving conflict, who don’t see conflict as necessarily destructive. I hope to learn from these young men and teach them another way of seeing the world. And I ask for and need your help in doing so.
Always,
Stevie
Thoughts on Extraction
When Ruthie Wilson Gilmore and I sat down for a conversation, we spoke about how the PIC not only exploits the labor of imprisoned folx (mainly via reproductive labor of the prison), but also extracts value from us. I came to this conclusion because I knew that our labor wasn’t the only or even major source of value the PIC was after. The PIC extracts our lives, our life time. Ruthie helped me to see each person as a territory that the PIC extracts value from via a time-space hole that imprisonment creates. Incarceration creates a mechanism through which money/capital can flow through a person and into the pockets of the PIC. This all sounds abstract. I know. But since coming to SCI Dallas, I clearly and concretely see how extraction, not exploitation, is the big game the PIC is using. And we need to get hip.
I am housed on a Veterans Service Unit (VSU). This is one of four blocks within the PA DOC prisons system that partners with the Veterans Services Administration (state and federal). Currently imprisoned people who have served in the military, no matter how they were discharged, are eligible for the services on these blocks. Most of these people don’t work. But they still provide value to the PA DOC/PIC. How? Programming.
The PA DOC receives state, federal and private funds for creating these types of programs and keeping them filled. Almost every prison in PA has a therapeutic community (TC) for drug/alcohol treatment. Money has been flowing to the PIC via imprisoned people in these programs for decades. But now, DOCs are getting hip and creating more programs (usually centering on mental health) in order to extract more value from imprisoned people. We don’t need to work to be of value to the PIC. Just being here and being “diagnosed” by their staff makes extraction possible and valuable.
PA has created an alphabet of solitary under the mental health programming name. Thousands of people are in these programs and capital/money is flowing through them and into the PIC. These funds could be and should be used to provide non-coercive, community based services. But the PIC is gobbling up more and more of them. Mental health, substance and alcohol treatment, reentry services, elder care programming is ramping up behind the walls. We don’t have to work. All we have to do is be imprisoned and we become of value.
Some of us are experiencing exploitation. We don’t program, but we work. Most imprisoned folx don’t work but those of us who do are being exploited. These places couldn’t run without us. But many more people are experiencing extraction. Remember, many programs are mandated for parole purposes. Working isn’t. Some of us experience both. And what is even more disturbing is that many of these new programs use the labor of imprisoned folx to succeed. On my block, there is a program almost everyday. Only once a week does a DOC employee run the groups! Every other group is run by a DOC trained imprisoned person. All sign ups and paperwork too! The staff don’t even have to show up!
Extraction is going to become the dominate game. With fewer jobs available (most of us didn’t work anyway) and less out of cell time since COVID, programming is the way to create value and keep imprisoned folx running. And what makes it more sickening is that many imprisoned people are fooled into thinking these programs are the way to success, happiness, peace and safety.
***
These observations help me to see extraction as the major mechanism of the PIC. While this is more easily seen and accepted outside the walls, exploitation has been the major topic behind the walls. Even though most people don’t work in here. And work is becoming less important. They are using fewer people to work. And they are giving us less hours. A shift in the kitchen used to be 6-8 hours. Now it’s 4-6 hours. It is a rare person who gets paid for an 8-hour shift.
People out there see how extractive the PIC is. Offender-funded punishments are common. Remember Ferguson? What do we think e-incarceration is all about? But people don’t realize extraction is happening in here too. And it is taking money, programs and services from our communities and sending them through imprisoned people and into the pockets of those vested in the PIC.
Besides capital, legitimacy is being bestowed upon the PIC. It continues to offer itself as the “solution” to social problems. State, federal and private funds are flowing into prisons. These death making spaces are passing themselves off as life enhancing. Besides state and federal money, I have witnessed nonprofits like LOOP get into the game, partnering with the DOCs in a number of states to provide programming, often dependent on imprisoned people’s labor.
We have to talk more about the role of extraction in all of this.
Always,
Stevie
Abolition and Co-optation
Prior to the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a state agent, I was aware of people and organizations that described themselves as abolitionists, but promoted policies and goals that contradicted abolition. One example is Just Leadership USA which called for the building of new cages in New York City boroughs. Abolition is about shrinking the state’s ability and capacity to punish, control, cage and surveil. Abolitionist never support the building of cages. Like many others, JLUSA often claimed to center the leadership of formerly and currently imprisoned people. The truth is these organizations don’t center the leadership of currently or formerly incarcerated people. Hiring us, even placing us in upper administrative positions, doesn’t mean our leadership, concerns or priorities are being centered. What is centered by these organizations is the wishes of their funders. And the formerly incarcerated people they hire must support the line of these funders to stick around.
Since 2020, this situation has become more common. Organizations claiming to be abolitionist attach themselves to formerly or currently imprisoned people and use them to promote reformist goals. Most often, these organizations work in only two areas: litigation and electoral politics. For some reason, they believe elected officials will lead us to freedom. For some reason, they believe the most conservative branch of government, the judiciary, will grant us freedom. Don’t they know that whatever they give they can take away? Don’t they know freedom is not something given? Don’t they know history? Right now, the voting rights that elected officials and the courts granted in the 60s and 70s are being taken away all across the country? We will never obtain freedom begging politicians and judges for it.
These same organizations spend little, if any, energy organizing communities. And let it be known, mobilizing people for rallies and marches isn’t organizing. It’s mobilization. There’s a time and place for mobilization, but what we need is organizing. Like Malcolm X said, and Saidiya Hartman reiterates, we are not outnumbered, we are out organized. We need to be in the communities, connecting with people, listening to them, assisting them in obtaining what they need not only survive, but thrive and do this work. And I am talking about communities on both sides of the walls. If we are going to build a mass movement that demands freedom, that expands the meaning of freedom, that obtains freedom, we have to organize.
These people and organizations that promote legislating our way to freedom distract us from true paths to freedom. We must be vigilant. A person or organization doesn’t have to be abolitionist to be against policing, prisons, racism, sexism, ableism, imperialism, homophobia, transphobia or any other oppression. But when a person or organization claims to be abolitionist, there are expectations. There are principles and ethics that need to be upheld. We cannot allow these people and organizations to co-opt abolition, truncate its vision and distort its call.
Abolition is for and by the people!
Letter from SCI Dallas
I don’t have my property with me. I went to the library today, searching for some text that could nourish me until I received my property or books from comrades. As I perused the shelves, I realized how absent my communities are from what was available. There were no works on abolition, Black queer studies, Black studies, feminism, queer/trans liberation, disability justice or community organizing. I searched by topic and author. I searched specific titles. Nothing. This is how the PIC wants it to be. This is how fascists want it to be. I usually don’t depend upon prisons libraries for reading materials. But what about those who do? Where do they find affirmation? Where do they find sustenance for their spirits?
Moments like this make real the connection between censorship on both sides of the walls. People and their experiences are being erased. People and their concerns are being silenced. I remember the feelings of home and hope when I first encountered Joe Beam’s In The Life. That book gave me life. I was struggling. I felt alone. I felt despondent. One book changed those feelings. One book opened the world to me. In prison, marginalized people cannot find the materials that affirm them, that connect them to the world, that tell us we belong.
As I took in the purposeful absence, the shutting out, of marginalized voices in the prison library, I questioned why people and organizations partner with the state, the biggest purveyor of censorship, and believe they are providing imprisoned people with opportunities for transformation. The state denies imprisoned people the materials we need to grow. The state will never provide or allow materials that call it into question, that encourage critique of racial capitalism, heteropatriarchy or ableism.
This trip to the library encouraged me to dig deeper and find ways to get the materials we need to live, to build community and to effect real transformation.
Always,
Stevie
3/12
Happening
We were in the small block yard. I was talking to another prisoner and suddenly remembered I needed to ask another prison a question. As I walked over to the circle of prisoners he was in, I noticed how animated two of them were. As I reached the circle, one of the two guys turned to me and asked if I had watched Dateline the night before. I hadn’t. He went on to tell me how the topic was the police murder of a young man in West Philly who was experiencing a mental health crisis. I remembered the Wallace case.
The animated discussion was about solutions. One prisoner had suggested the solution offered by the state, equipping all of Philly police with tasers so their encounters could be less deadly, was the right thing. The other prisoner asked: why call the police at all? It was obvious he was winning the crowd over. Another younger prisoner summed up the problem as people not having other options when they experience emergencies. He suggested another number for mental health crisis. Don’t call 911.
I was loving this. None of these men have ever called themselves abolitionists. But they have abolitionist ideas. And only one of the five men in the circle has studied with us.
I wanted to share this because this incident reminds me that:
Sometimes all we have to do is listen. Abolitionist thought is here. People don’t always call it that. But it is abolitionist. Instead of focusing on teaching, we need to listen and learn sometimes.//
More and more people are realizing that things cannot continue the way they are. Something has to change. And people are discussing and looking for answers.//
Practicing abolition means being among the people and listening to them. And being willing to provide support for their growth and transformation.//
Political education is happening behind these walls at all times. It comes in many forms. Will we support it?//
Information & Technology Inside the Amerikan Dungeon
by Stephen Wilson & Michael Ness
Information overload is truly a free-world problem. While people in free society must wade through various streams of news to decipher just what is really happening, prisoners are often left high, dry and uninformed. What is old news to free society is often breaking news to prisoners. Prison policies and procedures limit our access to knowledge and information. There are restrictions on what we can know and learn. These restrictions are barriers to prisoner organizing and reentry efforts.
Most prisoners find themselves housed in facilities built in rural, formerly farming communities. Hundreds of miles from home, we are unable to keep abreast of current events in and affecting our neighborhoods and cities. A recent survey of more than 8,000 prisoners by Slate and The Marshall Project found that most prisoners get their news via television, radio or newspaper. We don’t have internet access so the latest news is never just a few clicks away. Television and radio news coverage tends to be local so prisoners are unaware of what is happening in their hometowns and unfamiliar with the areas they are exiled to. This ignorance can be costly.
When news of COVID19 broke, we thought it was a virus that only impacted older, white people. The majority of us behind bars being people of color, most of us thought we had nothing to worry about regarding ourselves and our families. it wasn’t until months later that we learned the disproportionate impact the virus has on people of color. The prison didn’t provide us information. Neither did the local news.
Even today, deep into the pandemic, prisoners are not provided up to date information on the virus from the prison administration or local news. With many prisons across the country experiencing lockdowns, prisoners are left worried and afraid , not knowing what to do to protect themselves and their loved ones. While people in the free world can get information with a few clicks, prisoners don’t have that option and must depend upon supporters and allies to provide us public safety health information. And when they do, sometimes , the prison administration will not allow the materials inside.
But not only is ignorance costly, being informed is also. In Pennsylvania, where we are imprisoned, prisoners must pay $17 for cable access. Because we live in rural areas, not purchasing cable means our televisions, if we can afford to pay $200 to purchase one , will get no reception. And when they do, we only get local news and one cable new network: CNN. $17 may not seem like much to people in the free world, but when you earn only .19 an hour, that’s a lot of money.
If a prisoner cannot afford a television and cable, he or she must depend upon print news for information. But there are major obstacles to obtaining information through print publications. Quite often, they aren’t available. With so many media outlets focused on the internet, the number of print publications available to a prisoner, even at full price, has seriously declined. Many newspapers no longer deliver outside of their local regions.They figure people can access the news online. But not all people can. Prisoners depend upon print media to stay informed. As print publications decline so does prisoners’ access to information.
Under these conditions, how are prisoners to stay informed? The overwhelming majority of prisoners are poor people with very limited funds. We are kept in the dark regarding current events and entire topics that people in free society, even children, are well aware of. There are prisoners who are completely computer illiterate. They have been imprisoned for decades. They have never used email. They don’t know how to use a search engine to find anything. They have never used a cell phone. But, they are coming home. As is the majority of prisoners. We come home ignorant of the changes in society and our communities. Is there any wonder so many fail at reentry?
Studies have shown that prisoners who maintain strong familial and community ties are much more successful at reentry. These prisoners are kept informed of the changes in the world and their communities. They have knowledge which is power to succeed. But they couldn’t stay informed without help from friends, family and supporters.
We depend upon our allies to keep us connected to the world. Some prisoners experience culture shock upon release. The changes in the world are new and overwhelming to them. Being exiled for decades and kept in the dark about world events can have this effect upon a person. We need people to help us gain access to news and information that will aid our reentry into society. Supporting books through bars programs is a good way to help. Even more so, supporting the print publications that still are available, many at no or low-cost, to prisoners is a great way to help. Ultimately, we believe it is the departments of corrections’ that need to provide prisoners access to information and technology, especially regarding public health, that will assist them in successfully reentering society and transforming themselves while incarcerated. And we are coming home. We want to return to society informed and not in the dark. Supporting prisoners’ efforts to access news and information is a way to shine light into these dungeons.
Dreaming Freedom, Practicing Abolition 