Citizen-Prisoner Network
News Flash.
Leavenworth Prison was locked down on January 2, 1997, after
three al-leged mail bombs were discovered in Xmas cards addressed, oddly
enough, to institutional parole officers. Two bombs arrived at the prison;
the third was found the next day at the post office, and five more were
sent to the Al Hayat Press Building in Washington, D.C. I say "alleged"
because I don't believe anything the Feds or Bureau of Prisons say, especially
in light of the following:
Leavenworth mail is processed through a bomb detector and there are NO Parole
Officers at this prison!! Who's going to send a bomb to a non-existent authority,
knowing it would be detected by the X-ray machine? The post mark looks like
a set-up to me because- given this guy's national notoriety-mailing bombs
to his own prison from his hometown, Alexandria, Egypt, is akin to a bank
robber leaving his driver's license w/the bank manager he just robbed. This
would make sense only if he claimed responsibility for the Trade Center
Bombing and wanted to draw attention to himself or his cause, but news reports
say he maintained his innocence at his trial, and still does. According
to an article in Prison News Service, it's bigoted and reprehensible, but
not unusual, for the Feds and mainstream media to automatically target someone
as "guilty" before he has had his day in court.
And isn't it a coincidence that five months ago FBI Director Louis Freeh
called a press conference to urge Congress to limit the already restricted
access that Federal prisoners have w/their families and communities? Complaining
that Federal prisoners have too many rights and privileges which allow them
to maintain contact w/the streets, Freeh proposed that Congress find ways
to limit phone calls, out-going mail and visits. Has this mail incident
been manufactured to support his request?
I refuse to print the prisoner's name so as not to perpetuate further slander
and a rush to judgment, as was the case when so-called "experts"
suddenly appeared after the Oklahoma bombing to accuse Middle-East Terrorists
for the bombing that two American citizens were eventually charged with.
-Tommy Silverstein
HUNGER STRIKE FOR JUSTICE
A hunger strike began December 30th in the Restricted Housing Unit (RHU)-"the
hole"-of the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh (SCIP) to
address serious grievances. The men feel it is better to die than continue
to accept the illegal, racist, and inhuman practices of the prison staff.
We seek outside pressure to expose these practices and remedy the situation.
We want to contact the U.S. Attorney General for the Western District of
Pennsylvania to ask that criminal activity and illegal acts here be investigated;
that we be given an audience at least with a deputy warden; that the sufficiency
of evidence leading to confinement in the RHU be evaluated fairly; that
SCIP hearing examiner, Michael Ferson, who routinely disregards constitutional,
state, and DOC rules and laws, be investigated and terminated; that the
events of Dec. 10-14 be investigated when staff took retaliatory, racist
measures against the whole prison population for the assault of several
guards by one prisoner; that each RHU prisoner be allowed boots, thermal
underwear, sweat clothes, pajamas, bathrobe and 2 blankets due to winter
conditions; that the heating system in the RHU be fixed or replaced and/or
insulation installed in the windows so that the men have humane levels of
heat; that a locked mail box for outgoing prisoner mail be placed on each
unit of the RHU, accessible only to mailroom staff so that mail will not
get lost or tampered with; and that all racist acts by SCIP staff be eliminated.
The men on hunger strike need your support. They're taking a stand for justice.
Please write letters to Superintendent Gregory White, SCIP, P.O. Box 99901,
Pittsburgh, PA 15233-0901. The men on hunger strike can also be reached
at the same address: Wayne Ferrell BA-6272, Michael Anderson BD-6431, Michael
Williams CT-2849, Vernon Brown AS-3179, Joseph Brandon CG-0851, Steven Johnson
DA-8832, Fred Terrell AP-3875
-Signed, Robert Wilcox Treetop Lewis, AJ-3326
SPRING BREAK FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS
Jericho March '98 to the
White House to Demand Amnesty
forPolitical Prisoners
THE CALL is being made to all progressive and revolutionary groups to organize
a national mo-bilization and demonstration at the White House to demand
amnesty for U.S. political prisoners. As the result of the illegal FBI Cointelpro
operations, many of these political prisoners have been in prison over 20
years. It is time to forge a single issue campaign of national significance
and mount a frontal political assault on the seat of U.S. corporate government.
Our various groups must mobilize nationally to measure our strength, to
further consolidate our energy, resources, and capacity to organize and
ultimately raise the issue of U.S. political prisoners to the level of national
debate. We must be able to force the U.S. corporate government to yield
to the political demands of the people.
Therefore, it is necessary to organize on the grassroots, student and reformist-progressive
levels. We must be able to ignite a spark of national activism that will
metamorphose into a prairie fire of marchers and demonstrators. The task
before us is to bring this issue to our people, and let them know why we
must organize to mobilize to demand amnesty for political prisoners.
-Jalil Muntaqin
ANOTHER Victim of Police Assault
This is a true story of a 42-year-old Black man, born in Norwalk, CT. On
June 5, 1996, at about 10:00 a.m., I was walking in my neighborhood on my
way to get an application for a summer job. Suddenly I was surrounded by
five white cops on bicycles, wearing helmets, black gloves, thick black
flack jackets, boots, and large weapons belts. They asked me where I was
going and if I had any I.D. They grabbed me by each arm and leg and around
the neck, saying, "You're under arrest, nigger," then slammed
me face first into the blacktop. One cop put his knee on the side of my
face and mashed down so hard that the bones in my face started cracking
and something in my eyes popped and my vision started going He then put
his hands on the side of my face and pushed down and along the blacktop
and ripped the skin off the whole side of my face. Then they put handcuffs
on my wrists behind my back so tight that they cut me and cracked my bones.
I was screaming that I had done no wrong, that I was a free Black man, that
I was not their nigger. There was no warrant for my arrest; no complaint
against me; I had committed no crime; and I was not on probation or parole.
Why were they assaulting me?
"Shut up, nigger," one of them said and pushed my arms, still
cuffed behind my back, up and forward so that my shoulders popped. They
picked me up, slammed me head first into the curb, then into the door of
the police car which had pulled up. I was put in the back of the car and
taken away. One of the cops who had jumped me, threatened me the whole way
to the station by shaking a mace container and pointing it in my face and
laughing.
I was put in a cell, then taken to the hospital the next day because now
I was blind. Still blind, I was taken back to court, then shipped to a county
jail, then to a supermax prison where I lay blind for three weeks and received
no medical treatment for four weeks. Still blind, I was taken back to court
over 100 miles away. The police charged me with breach of peace, assault
on a police officer, interfering with a police officer, and refusal to be
fingerprinted. The State said to the public defender that the police were
wrong for stopping me, but I should do a year anyway.
I suffer here alone. The court has given me a $2500 bail. Having no money,
I seek help with my legal defense fund so I can make bail. This happened
in front of witnesses who are scared to death to say anything. If you can
help, please send a donation to the Darnell X Legal Defense Fund, c/o Attorney
Bujdud, 1200 Summer St., Suite 201A, Stamford, CT 06905, (203) 327-7660.
You can also write to me, Darnell X Tatem, 13073, at P.O. 665, Somers, CT
06071.
Information & Help Needed
I am calling on all lawyers, jail house lawyers, and anyone who may have
information useful to my situation. I was assaulted by two c/o's, then accused
of assault on one of them. Many inmates who witnessed the incident wrote
their own report which was submitted to my public defender. The assault
occured on the "D" yard of P.V.S.P on July 31, 1996. I need help
on wording my 602's in the most effective way to push this to court. Anyone
who wants my report about the officer who assaulted or who can help, please
write: Mr. LaSalle McDaniel, Jr., P.V.S.P., P.O. Box 8504, Coalinga, CA
93210. If it will be allowed I will keep Citizen-Prisoner Network informed
about the situation. Please! Have faith and believe in me. I am not wrong.
- Lasalle McDaniel Jr.
MUMIA UPDATE, December 1996
In November 1996, the Pennsylvania DOC moved to ban cameras and audio and
video recording equip-ment from all its prisons. Just days before the media
ban went into effect, the Prison Radio Project, in conjunction with Britain's
Index on Censorship, taped Mumia reading 10 fresh commentaries. The new
recordings will challenge the DOC's prohibition on press. A continued press
ban means that the public will never see the faces or hear the voices of
the human beings the state puts to death. Help lift this deadly shroud of
enforced silence! Call, mail, or fax your protests to Commissioner Martin
Horn, PA Department of Corrections, P.O. Box 598, Camp Hill, PA 17001; 717-975-4860,
717-787-0132 (fax).
As prison officials slammed the door on the press, Philadelphia Judge Albert
Sabo ruled that Veronica Jones's testimony detailing police coercion was
"incredible and worthy of little belief." He made no mention of
his own intimidation of Veronica at the hearing: he ordered her arrest as
she left the witness stand on a 1994 warrant stemming from a minor bad check
charge. Direct your outrage at Sabo's most recent disregard of police misconduct
to Nancy Sobolevitch at the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts,
1515 Market St., #1414, Philadelphia, PA 19102, (215) 560-6315 (fax).
Copies of the letter to Sobolevitch are still available from Equal Justice
USA (301) 699-0042/Quixote Center, P.0. Box 5206, Hyattsville MD 20782,
301-699-0042, Hotline: 301/699-5007quixote@igc.apc.org
