Citizen-Prisoner Network

Family Visits
Well, they finally did it-took family visits from lifers, close custody, and sex offenders as of September 18, 1996. We expect that the California Dept. of Corrections will implement the regulation ASAP since they claimed that there is an emergency. If you are in one of those categories and you have a family visit date, you probably will not get it. The rest of the prisoners will only be allowed family visits every 6 months.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE WILL GIVE UP! It means that we go to Court to fight this regulation on Constitutional grounds-"ex post facto" and "equal protection." We have a good chance of winning, but we must hire a lawyer-and lawyers are not cheap! That is why we are collecting contributions at the Family Visiting Litigation Fund, Prison Law Office General Delivery, San Quentin, CA 94964. Anyone who wants to contribute should send money to that address. Through the combined efforts of prisoners, their relatives and friends, over $6,000 has been collected to pay a lawyer.

The fundraiser is called KICK-A-BUCK campaign because of the one dollar contributions recommended. The KICK-A-BUCK campaign is based in Lancaster, but we send mailings all over the state. We hope to inform all 140,000 prisoners and their families. If all 140,000 prisoners contribute, we would have $140,000, which is plenty enough for a lawsuit. So far, however, contributions have come from only a dozen prisons, so we need more contacts. We can be reached at P.O. Box 42944, Los Angeles, CA 90042 for further information. Or you can call Martha at (213) 256-3038. DON'T BE DISCOURAGED. WE CAN WIN BACK FAMILY VISITS!

Pepper Spray Lawsuit

On September 18, 1996, a federal civil rights lawsuit, prepared by jailhouse lawyers, was filed against several California prison officials for using pepper spray in the Security Housing Units at the Pelican Bay State Prison. The lawsuit alleges that pepper spray was used to break up a fight in a cell and that the pepper spray caused anguish to prisoners locked in adjacent cells, even though they did not pose a threat to the safety of any person or to the security of the prison.

Pepper spray is a dangerous chemical aerosol that contains tear gas and a pepper derivative called Oleresin Capsicum (OC). Contact with OC particles in a sprayed mist inflames the eyes and mucous membranes of the nose and throat, causing a painful burning sensation, tears, and shortness of breath. Effects can last for hours.

If you have been directly or indirectly exposed to pepper spray in the SHU at Pelican Bay State Prison, or if you have information about the misuse of pepper spray by prison officials employed within the California DOC, please contact or send a declaration to Arturo Castellanos, C-17275, P.O. Box 7500, C4-115, Crescent City, CA 95532.

Criminology 101: An Introduction
Approximately 6 months ago, I initiated a correspon-dence study course, Criminology 101, necessitated by the present socio-political realities. The purpose is to provide a different perspective on crime and the laws, the connection between poverty and crime, and government complicity in proliferating both. Our society is plagued by crime, and most of White Amerikkka is inclined to believe the Bell Curve hypothesis, which contends that a gene exists which predisposes New Afrikan (Black) people to criminal behavior. Though most White people would be reluctant to verbally express their support of the Bell Curve hypothesis, their belief is often reflected in their tolerance of government aggression directed at the New Afrikan community.

One of the goals of our course is to challenge the Bell Curve hypothesis from both a theoretical and practical standpoint. Every major Amerikkkan institution, especially the mainstream media, has facilitated the propagation of this hypothesis. Within the last 16 years, many political officials in Japan have equated the crime epidemic in this country with New Afrikan (Black) people. This racist equation is not indigenous to Japan; it is an imported human injustice via the U.S. media. The U.S. media has the same impact on White Amerikkka.

Keep in mind that ignorance of a reality does not invalidate that reality. Also consider that the prison system is becoming one of the major profit-making/job-producing industries, and we New Afrikan prisoners are the primary capital (commodity). To guarantee the further growth of this industry, it must define-then maintain-a capital surplus. This capital surplus is the poor community, the New Afrikan community in particular, which serves as the unlimited human cargo guaranteeing our continuing exploitation under the guise of "tough on crime."

We are presently searching for outside support. Once we establish a stable foundation, we will be distributing a questionnaire to New Afrikan prisoners. This test will eventually assist us in selecting Criminology 101 instructors. I have also written 3 pamphlets-mandatory requirements in Criminology 101-which will be available via the Prisoners' Publishing Network in the near future: 1. Poverty, KKKrime and the U.S. government, (2) Criminology 101: The Thesis, and (3) The Bell Curve Conspiracy. By no means are we attempting to justify criminal behavior, but if we expect to eradicate it from this society, we must identify all that contributes to its manifestation and proliferation.

I encourage you to support the Prisoners Publishing Network (PPN) in conjunction with the Sojourner Truth Farm School. The PPN's first book project is U.N.I.T.Y, a message to the Black Woman, written by Comrade Akono Jahi, Founder and Prison Coordinator of the PPN. The support given his book can determine the success of the PPN. For more information, please contact Dr. Dorothy Blake Fardan, c/o Sojourner Truth Farm School, P. O. Box 311, Pooleville, MD 20837, (301) 972-7409. For more information on Criminology 101, contact Abdul Olugbala Shakur (J. Harvey), D10-216/C-48884 (SHU), P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532.

REPORT FROM STANDING DEER

Texas is the prison state of the U.S. They now have 130,000 prisoners in 106 prisons, with 40,000 employees and a $2.7 billion annual operating cost. There are 434 prisoners waiting to die. The official documents issued by the coroner when a person is murdered by the state says "HOMICIDE," yet the killers walk tall like they were John Wayne before his stomach rejected him. It is madness, but their position is constantly validated by the violence and ragged horror displayed to americans on their television. I'm afraid the conscience of america has crawled off under the White House and died.

Traditional Indians in prison who have made advances in practicing their religion due to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act better sweat with all their might to make the united states supreme kkkourt let the Act stand. October 15, the high kkkourt agreed to hear the case City of Boerne v Flores and U.S. to determine whether congress exceeded its authority when it created the RFRA in 1993. This law is what made the Oklahoma prison system back off their grooming code that had them beating up Indian prisoners who refused to cut their hair on religious grounds. They would knock us down, chain us up and shave our heads. But the RFRA caused them to rescind their grooming code altogether for everybody of every race. Indians lobbied for this law, and when the reactionaries in congress tried hard to keep prisoners from being covered by RFRA, our friends lobbied harder and overrode the reaction. So prisoners are covered, but now it looks like our success may be wiped out as has happened to us so many times throughout our history. Attorneys general for Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, North Carolina, and 11 other states say they are worried about the impact of the RFRA on prisons.

Boerne is a little town in Texas about 80 miles southwest of Austin. The case arose because the St. Peter Catholic Church asked for a permit to increase its size. The city refused to grant a permit citing its historic landmark preservation ordinance. The church then claimed the ordinance violated the RFRA. The city said the law is unconstitutional. A u.s. district judge agreed with the city, but the federal appeals court sided with the church and upheld the law. Then the city applied to the u.s. supreme kkkourt for a writ of certiorari, and it was granted. I never expected to be rooting for the Catholic Church, but now I am. I thought the RFRA was to protect our spiritual places and the Native American Church with the peyote sacrament. It never occurred to me that it would have such a wide application.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Standing Deer Wilson, 640289, Estelle Unit, Huntsville, TX 77340

Jimmy Smyth Extradited

The long fight of Irish nationalist Jimmy Smyth to avoid extradition to the British prison from which he escaped nearly 13 years ago ended when federal marshals escorted him from his East Bay prison. Friends and supporters expressed shock and dismay and a sense of betrayal. Jimmy Smyth was one of 38 men who escaped from the infamous H. Blocks at the Maze Prison near Belfast in September 1983, and one of 4 men who reached San Francisco to live quietly for nearly a decade. Smyth was convicted of attempted murder in a non-jury trial. The prosecution presented no physical or eyewitness evidence other than the claim of an off-duty soldier to have recognized the back of Smyth's head. The trial, maintained his supporters, was convincing proof of the lack of human rights in British-controlled Ireland.

Smyth joined the blanket protest against prison conditions, living for years with only a blanket for clothing. Ray McCreash, Smyth's cellmate, was one of the ten young men who died on the famous Hunger Strike of 1981.

Smyth used his anti-extradition fight to highlight British policy in Ireland. His defense introduced evidence of collusion between loyalist murder gangs and the British security forces, of shoot-to-kill policies against suspected Irish Republicans, of systematic abuses of the Catholic population. The evidence was compelling enough to result in a dramatic victory in Superior Court when Judge Barbara Caulfield refused extradition. That decision was overturned, and the reversal upheld by the Supreme Court. Supporters of Smyth vowed to increase their efforts on behalf of Smyth's fellow escapees and to monitor Smyth's treatment back in British hands carefully, perhaps even requesting the aid of international human rights organizations.

The statement Jimmy Smyth left behind for his supporters said in part: "The American people sheltered me, supported me, fought for me and prayed for me. They have kept faith with another generation of Irish people who looked to them for sustenance in the long struggle for justice. . . . Unfortunately, the further up the political ladder we climbed, the less the voice of the people was heard. The closer to the White House . . . the less concern we found for justice and the more concern we found for political gain and for the feelings of an ally condemned throughout the world for the abuse of human rights. The more concern we found for the problem of trying to get people to forget the empty promises of election campaigns. President Clinton once promised Irish-America that there would be no more Joe Dohertys. The plane which takes me back to a British prison is evidence of the value of that promise.

I am returning to a country I left unwillingly twelve years ago. Unfortunately, little has changed. A foreign army is still on the streets. Loyalist gunmen still dictate British policy and back it up with British bullets. Justice is still just a dream. I am under no illusions about what I face. There are many who will seek revenge against me because I spoke the truth about Ireland. But I promise the American people that someday I will rejoin you as a friend in Freedom. Until then, I will never forget you."

BLACKS UNITED TO SAVE THE HOOD

It takes a whole village to raise a child (Afrikan prov-erb). Behind the walls of some Indiana prisons, con-stant discussion and the desire to bring positive change has inspired the founders of the newly formed BUSH (Blacks United to Save the Hood). Most of these brothers are straight out of prison and are sincere in giving back to the Black community. We are prepared on the inside and the outside to work together to create programs that are conducive to our growth and development. We can transform the criminal mentality of Gary's youth and those brothers and sisters who find themselves doing time. The crime and violence that happens on the streets of Gary also affects what is happening in prison, and vice versa.
Membership fees are $5 for outside members and $1 for inside members. A Structural Membership Platform is being drawn up for qualified positions for both inside and outside members. Each position will be filled by the person(s) best qualified to assume that responsibility. If you looking to become an active member of BUSH, please contact us c/o Shomari Coley and Soup Campbell, P.O. Box 07094, Gary, IN 46407-9998, or (Inside Member) Khalfani X. Khaldun, #874304, s/n Leonard McQuay, P.0. Box 551, Westville, IN 46391.

A Plea for your help

An innocent prisoner on death row requests your help. I was granted a stay of execution in July 1996. I am trying to raise money toward my legal defense fund. Every dollar is vital towards vindicating myself. Without funds, I don't stand a chance. To be incarcerated for a crime you didn't do is unbearable, and the road to the Appeal Courts is very hard. Please give your financial support to this life-saving matter. If you believe in justice, please help Harold Wilson today. Write check to Mr. Lee C. Fowler, Defense Fund Director, 4916 N. Carlisle St., Philadelphia, PA 19141. Make Money Order out to Mr. Harold C. Wilson, BC 1712, SCI, Greene, 1040 E. Roy Furman Hwy, Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090.

Texas Refuses to Cut Sentences

Sterling Shepard writes that many prisoners in Texas are serving long sentences for small traces of drugs: hundreds of people were given 99 years for a two-dollar rock of crack; some simply had a syringe and drops of cocaine; others just traces, or even just possessing a soda top, a cotton ball and what turned out to be a controlled substance. Shepard himself is serving a long sentence for delivering less than a gram of cocaine. In 1994, the law changed so that people could no longer be sent to penitentiaries for delivering and/or possessing less than a gram. But there are hundreds still in prison for what is now a misdemeanor. Shepard is asking all Texas prisoners to petition the governor, parole commission and state senators to correct this wrong. Anyone in this situation should send him affidavits showing how much time they were given for a small amount so that he can send them to the federal Justice department and Attorney General Janet Reno. In 1973, when the marijuana law changed, time cuts and pardons were given. Shepard is not experienced in legal affairs, but is seeking help and legal information. He would appreciate hearing from prisoners, lawyers, law schools, self-help groups, or anyone who might be able to help. Write: Sterling Shepard #648874, aka Rahim Ash Sheheed, P.O. Box 16, Eastham Unit, Lovelady, TX 75851.

THE CORE OF THE STRUGGLE

I am a co-founder of CORE (Convicts Organized Reform Efforts), a group dedicated to prison reform. One of our endeavors has been to file a class action suit challenging the constitutionality of several anti-prisoner litigation laws passed here in Arizona. So far, the only effect has been to transfer me from an open yard to this Special Management Unit (SMU). Once here, I was subjected to the usual tactics and a few special ones too. They even went so far as to withhold all prison meals from me for 22 days. The sheer blatancy of their slow starvation policy surprised even me. I have a feeling that with the present political and public feelings towards prisoners, things are going to get much worse before they start to get better!

Without people such as you giving time, efforts, ideas and inspiration, the oppression could become overwhelming. We are the CORE of the struggle.

-Brent Summit, 48054, ASPC-E SMU I, P.O. Box 4000, Florence, AZ 85232.

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