News from the Gulags
THE SEDAR INSIDE
It began last September. A woman contacted me to help write letters of support for a Hasidic prisoner in the local gulag, Martin Correctional Institution. MCI is known as "the Little Rock." It is an intensely repressed environment. Prisoners go berserk in there and end up naked and disoriented in a hot pink room and ultimately become junkies of the state.
I wrote to the guy. His name is Ron. He was being subjected to tremendous harassment because he came forward as a witness to a guard who murdered an inmate. Eleven years later he is still waiting to go into court! During this time, in addition to threats on his life and "accidents," he has been subjected to mail tampering at all times. In 1986, in response to his complaint about missing mail, the Consumer Advocate Division of the U.S. Post Office answered him in regard to missing mail. "It is very unusual to happen on a continuing basis. Perhaps you have a stamp collector in your mailroom." 1986, again, "We cannot be responsible, nor can we intervene on your behalf, in matters pertaining to mail which is not in our system"! 1987, Ron was given a D.R. for signing his name with a suggestion when the employee delivering the mail would not show him the return address of the letter for which he was signing. He was written up for "disobeying an order"-to sign for an "address unknown" letter! 1988, from the U.S. Postal Service: "Our most recent statistics, based on customer reports of missing mail throughout the entire country, indicate that four pieces of mail are lost out of every one million pieces processed." Your report, therefore, that you have lost approximately 37 pieces of regular First Class mail and approximately 8 pieces of legal mail lead me to believe that the losses are occurring outside our system." June 1990, Plaintiff announces he had witnessed the murder of a fellow inmate by personnel of the Florida DOC, Ashcroft v. Parado, Case No. 88-939-Cir.J-14. He has enumerated a sequence of events that show a continuing series of acts against him by the Florida DOC. As James Baldwin liked to say, "The beat goes on."
Dec. 1995, Ron asked a local rabbi to include me in their Chanukah party. I relished the chance to talk to him. We had a strategy to stack the courtroom when he testified-about 6 people from the "outside" visited 6 "inside" men for the "party." We signed our names, were scanned, and carried in some food. Two weeks after the event I was wondering why Ron hadn't answered my last 4 letters. On Feb. 5th, he phoned and asked why I hadn't answer the last 4 letters he had written to me. We realized that the prison arbitrarily decided that a cessation of our correspondence was necessary.
In late March, the rabbi phoned again. They were preparing for "The Sedar Inside." Would I like to join them? In a heartbeat I said "Yes!" The Sedar was scheduled for April 1st. The prison chaplain, a version of Elmer Gantry, sent the rabbi a letter with his okay of the participants and the food. (Most of it was being sent from the Aleph Institute in Miami-a not-for-profit charitable religious organization which gives "societal help to Jewish inmates in the federal and state system.")
We arrived at the prison at 10.00 a.m. April 1st, the agreed upon time. We asked for the Chaplain. He sent back word that the Sedar was scheduled to begin at 10:30. We "stood" around-no chairs-listening to electronic doors bang shut for 45 minutes. I was lost in a train of thought wondering how the prisoners bear this: the noise, the lies, when suddenly at 10:45 the Chaplain appeared. He had "bad news"! The Sedar had to be canceled. The food from Miami hadn't arrived. The only thing they received was the grape juice. We were prepared for this. He phoned the rabbi yesterday with the "bad news." The rabbi said that was okay. Rather than disappoint the men, we'd bring our own food. Finally, the Chaplain told us the Sedar simply had to be canceled. I finally had enough of this bullshit, so I said, "It looks to me as though the only solution is to take this story to the Stuart News (local newspaper). This threat has the desired results. He let us in. As we entered the chapel, Ron rushed up to me and whispered quickly that DOC thugs had come down from Tallahassee to threaten him for agreeing to testify.
And the Sedar began. The Chaplain, who had been busy transferring the grape juice from glass containers to plastic, brought back the grape juice with terrific news. "They found the food from Miami." Eight faxes from Miami in early March that it would be duplicated and it suddenly "appeared." Everyone was so used to the Chaplain lying that nobody blinked an eye.
We began an abbreviated Sedar. We read portions of the Hagaddah, the story of Passover, in English and Hebrew. We each had a turn and for a second it was almost a normal family Sedar. The men were anxious to eat. They hadn't eaten a home-cooked meal "since 1979," "for 30 years," etc. I couldn't eat. I was blindsided by the repressed controlled environment, the Chaplain's lies, and the deep sorrow in the faces of the men. The six of them appeared shell-shocked. Some kind of pseudo tranquillity was broken when we were dividing up the remaining food to be taken back to the cells. One man was short a cookie and became upset. One of the visitors was visibly moved. We made some small talk. Two hours flew by and it was time to leave. We promised to write and return as soon as possible. Again four letters to Ron were unanswered. The Aleph Institute also didn't receive a reply from him in regard to their correspondence.
Today is May 2nd. Ron phoned at 7:00 p.m. The network was having an effect. A letter sent to the warden demanding accountability, which stated we could no longer accept the harassment and sadism from prisoncrats was xeroxed and sent to judges, lawyers, county commissioners and interested citizens. The warden became a rat in a maze, trapped by his own lies. Too many people knew what was going on. Ron had to be allowed to call me. He was overjoyed to hear about the network. The cell had been ripped apart that evening. The goon squad arrived in riot gear with batons and mace ready to intimidate one unarmed prisoner. He received 3 D.R.s [disciplinary reports] for "lying to staff." We must write D.R.s to the warden for "lying to taxpayers and lying to inmates." Should we present the D.R.s in riot gear? When will they understand that we are no longer going to tolerate this unaccountable behavior from the prisoncrats?
Send letters of support to Ron Ashcroft, 489677, Martin Corr. Inst., 1150 SW Allapattah Rd., Indiantown, FL 34956. Send complaints for harassment, lack of accountability, sadism, and lying to taxpayers to Fred Dixon, same address. Achtung! Bring it down!
"KILLER"-A NOT-TO-BE MISSED INDICTMENT OF THE PRISON SYSTEM
In the Oct./Nov. '95 issue of NCX, Raymond J. Corsini talks about his fomer work in the prison system. He began his career in 1935 amidst conditions that Corsini describes as "peaceful," attesting to the fact that "most guards are considerate and professional; most prisoners are contented."
A new masterpiece of a film, Killer, directed by Tim Metcalfe and starring Robert Sean Leonard and James Woods, refutes Mr. Corsini's contention.
Killer is a scathing indictment of a prison system gone amuck with brutality when its narrator, a former guard, worked there in 1929. It should be viewed by everyone to understand that the uncivilized conditions of high tech torture and brutality that exist in prisons today did not arise from a vacuum.
James Woods is superb as Carl Panzram, considered to be the nation's first serial killer. Robert Sean Leonard, as Henry, the guard, is a quiet complement of rage to the more violent reactions to injustice from his friend Carl.
Henry is a young newly married tailor by trade. He lives upstate New York and decides that he would rather work in the local prison. His father thinks this is the craziest thing he ever heard, but Henry is persistent.
A well-intentioned Henry is unprepared for the level of abuse and violence he encounters from guards towards inmates. He is not expecting the collusion between the warden, guards, politicians and church. He is completely revolted by the conditions to which he is exposed, and, groping for a shred of humanity, befriends Carl.
Carl Panzram is bright, alert, and witty, with a tremendous thirst for knowledge. For an absurd infraction of one of the "99 rules," Carl is beaten senselessly and left to "heal" or "die" in solitary.
One night, on the late shift, Henry passes Carl's cell and sees him fiddling with a burnt out match stick. He asks him what he is doing. Carl says he wants to write his story, but paper and pencil are not allowed.
The next night, Henry slips him paper and pencil. The story (the bulk of the film), a relentless condemnation of the society that formed him, gets written. Henry mails it out but the pencil is discovered. The action moves into high gear and involves a murder, a trial (one in which Carl Mininger is involved) and a hanging, which occurs after Henry has quit his job.
We are riveted in our seats as the film ends. Henry, the narrator, confesses that it took him 40 years to get Carl's story out and the film ends as he asks, "If not me, who? If not now, when?"
Do not miss Killer, USA, 1995, Spelling Films, Int'l. Demand that it be shown in your area. Available in August.
MEETING TO SHUT DOWN CONTROL UNITS
A meeting was called on April 27th in the American Friends Service Committee meeting house in Philadelphia to listen to testimony on the dehumanization of control units: isolation, solitary, C.M., S.H.U., S.M.U., etc. This was the fourth such meeting held on this subject. Groups met in Colorado, Chicago and Ohio. About 100 people attended the Philadelphia hearing.
Testimony after testimony concurred that these isolation units exist to hide people for what they think, not for what they've done.
A mother read a letter from her son: "Being locked in S.M.U. makes me wonder if I am alive." There are no rules for this solitary confinement. It is arbitrary. A person is sentenced to isolation for 90 days and finds he/she is still in these torture chambers two years later.
The control units were designed to destroy one's personality. One man testified that he would "bang his head on the wall to know that he was still alive."
Medical care was nonexistent; at best an insult to humanity. A former inmate at Marion, Illinois, testified that the prison had one unlicensed doctor for 300 inmates. Psychological care was also a farce. Sometimes once in 100 days, a psychologist (if none is available a guard could substitute) would knock on one's cell and ask, "Is everything okay?" What can you answer except "Everything's okay." If you say, "I'm a complete wreck," they'll haul you off to a mental facility for life! If you answer, "I have definitely decided that I want to kill you," they'll kill you first! "Am I okay? Can I be okay when your goal is to break me down?"
There was testimony from members of MOVE. Michael Afrika read letters from both his parents. Their justifiable rage came through in every sentence from his lips. The incarceration for 100 years of parents, friends, sisters and brothers. The sham state trial where the judge, whom they referred to as a "legal gangster," decided his parents' fate. They called the judge dangerous. "He can lock you up forever." These units are run by "special interest" people. There are 200 people "in business" in each facility. They are not there to "correct."
Each testimony became more excruciating to listen to. A mother couldn't finish reading a letter from her son. She was blinded by her tears. Her daughter finished the account of this barbarism.
described his years at Marion. The brutalization, the sadism, the beatings, and the batons. 23 hours a day, locked down in a small cell. No contact with other human beings, arbitrarily beaten. He had been out for 8 years, but it was too painful to recall. He started to cry. He apologized and said, "I'm sorry. It always ends like this. I am still trying to adjust." Then he wondered out loud if he were ever going to get over what they had done to him.
Dr. Alan Berkman testified with Charles Hollman as to the dehumanization of control units. Both agreed that they had to desensitize themselves to human emotions for survival, that most people inside acted in a similar fashion. "I could see abuse, but I had to move on for my own survival."
The doctor talked about the years it took him to adjust back to his wife and daughter. He told about the second day out of segregation. Another prisoner accidentally brushed past him in line. His reaction was to put his hands around the neck of the other man and try to choke him. The doctor could not believe what he had done. He knew it wasn't himself, that it was someone else they had created.
The horrors of being desensitized continued. The disorientation at being in a store. The awe at seeing grass for the first time in years. It took a while to get used to these things. Then they asked, "What about the long-term effects? Will we ever recover from the torment?" One of the men added quietly, "We are fortunate. We are able to testify."
The meeting concluded with the listeners being asked for a statement. What can anybody say except that we must stop this state torture immediately. Otherwise, we are too uncivilized to continue as a society.
UPDATE ON LORETTA GOINS
A letter-writing campaign to Judge Malcolm Howard, P.O. Box 25967, Raleigh, NC 27611-5967 is still underway despite BOP efforts to keep this victim of torture (21 days in 4-pointed restraints) incarcerated. Loretta has been transferred to a federal mental facility. Write to Loretta Goins, 13024-056, Carswell, P.O. Box 27137, FMC-SHU, Fort Worth, TX 76127
A conventional "set up," by BOP standards, caused Loretta's transfer. How could they release her and admit that victims of torture cannot stay "inside"? Loretta was working on a book of a 5-year-old abused little girl-her bio. She was proud of it. She is an artist, she is articulate, and she has an excellent sense of humor. About 2 weeks ago, on returning from the shower, Loretta saw that guard Edwards had wrecked her cell. Putting things back, she noticed that the markers for her book were gone. Cheap shot totally devastated her. Egged on, she reacted in kind-heartbroken, distraught, tortured again, self-destructive again. How much can a person take?
So . . . common BOP solution, used at Krome Detention Center in Miami. Drug the victim with megadoses of thorazine and ship her out. Loretta was put on a private Lear jet accompanied by Shawnee's medical administrator, Myles Mathews.Naturally, the doctor at Carswell pronounced her "very sick." How else can torture be justified?
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