Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Oh Yeah - BranScam Needs a PenPal...

Brandon (the artist that did the devil-girl on the letter below) needs a female penpal pretty bad - so if anyone knows a girl who's willing to write him, he'd be grateful.
You can write him at: Brandon Begay, #83195-008, CADC, P.O.Box 6300, Florence, AZ 85232.
He's a good guy - 26, Navajo, a party animal, and a helluva artist. Write him, OK ?

Finally...More Prisoner Art

Well, here's some prisoner art - been a while.
I receive it from time to time, but little lately has been worth a shit, frankly.
Anyway, have a Happy Halloween !

A Little Halloween Prisoner Art


Friday, October 21, 2011

Burnin' a New CD

Hi Folks,
Just burnin' a new cd, and thought I'd share a little electronica tune I found.
Enjoy.

Symphonic Metal - Stormbringer

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Hungerstrike News

Prisoners at Calipatria Call Off Strike

 
Image by Pete Collins, imprisoned at Bath Prison, Ontario, Canada
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
October 15: Prisoners at Calipatria State Prison have decided to temporarily end their hunger strike to regain strength. Hunger strikers were subject to extreme retaliation at the hands of warden Leland McEwen and guards, including witholding water and vitamins. Reports from prisoners that indicated that many men were collapsing in their cells and that the guards were doing nothing when alerted. A family member said that the infirmary there was full and that prisoners needing medical care were being transferred to Centinela.

It is becoming apparent that Calipatria is basically used as a stepping stone to Pelican Bay or other California SHUs. A majority of the men held there have been validated as gang members and have effectively been given SHU status. Some spend as long as 4 years in solitary confinement, awaiting transfer. Calipatria has virtually no programming for prisoners, and prisoners frequently have nothing in their cells to enrich their days. The prison has prohibitted radios and television, which violates CDCR policy. The hunger strikers have added these items to their demands.
 
As prisoners throughout California continue their struggle for human rights and against torture, we must keep up the pressure on Governor Jerry Brown and the CDCR as the 5 core demands have only been minimally addressed We will continue to post updates as we get them. A recent letter from a hunger striker stated:
 
“A caged man is a spirit trapped in steel — leave him alone and his spirit becomes one with his cage — it’s all he knows. Motivate him, nurture and socialize him, and his spirit soars. It’s only then that the man realizes the difference between him and his cage — the reasons for it. Thus, allowing him to finally be free from it.”



 

Why I Chained Myself to the State Building in LA

by Keith James 

Two videos of acts of Non-Violent Civil Disobedience in Support of the Prisoners Hunger Strike, to demand an end to the retaliation and torture at the hands of the CDCR and governor Jerry Brown, and a demand that CDCR and Gov. Brown immediately meet the Prisoners' Five Demands.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a word, torture… torture in a brutal and barbaric penal system hell-bent on the destruction of thousands of prisoners in high-tech torture chambers called Security Housing Units or SHU’s.

In the SHU you’re locked up in a small, windowless concrete cell 23 hours a day, with minimum human contact and maximum sensory deprivation. Imagine your only human contact with the outside world is the punch of a prison guard, or a violent gas explosion as part of “extracting” you from your cell. Imagine never hearing music ever again.

Think about everything that makes you human… that keeps you physically and mentally alive… that connects you with the world and other people… that gives you a reason to live, to love, to learn and think…. All this is what the SHU tries to extinguish.

Of the 1100 prisoners in the SHU in Pelican Bay State Prison, over 500 have been literally buried alive in the SHU, entombed, for over 10 years; 78 for over 20 years. The cruelty and illegitimacy of the State of California ’s actions must stop and stopping torture requires such inhumanity becoming a MAJOR focus of resistance in society.

Prisoners at Pelican Bay and other state prisons have rebelled against all this; for 20 days in July and now for 19 days, from September 26 to October 14, upwards of 12,000 courageous prisoners have carried out a hunger strike. The prisoners stopped eating, risked their lives, and made their just and reasonable demands to end long term solitary confinement and torture, and snatched the initiative from the prison authorities, spotlighting a towering crime that has been for far too long covered up.

What these prisoners have done is truly heroic. They are an inspiration, setting an example for everyone fighting for an end to injustice, and we must come to their side.

Yet in California the Governor supports the prison officials in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation(CDCR). As the CDCR viciously intensified their almost unimaginably cruel treatment of prisoners who are on a hunger strike with even greater repression and violence these past weeks and months, Gov. Brown fully backed the assault, saying: “We have individuals who are dedicated to their gang membership who order people to be killed, who order crimes to be committed on the outside. My recommendation is to deal effectively with gangs in prison.” No, Governor Brown - torture is unequivocally unacceptable, no matter what labels are put on prisoners. This is why I chained myself to the State Building in Los Angeles .
 
***


The CDCR response to this hunger strike has been vicious, outrageous, and ominous: intimidation and retaliation against prisoners and their families; “general population” prisoners put into isolation for participating in the hunger strike; fluids and vitamins deliberately withheld to further incapacitate the striking prisoners; expulsion orders to two key mediation team lawyers who have been banned from Pelican Bay prison pending an investigation into whether they had “jeopardized the safety and security of the CDCR”; denial of family visits; further isolation of hunger striking SHU prisoners by placing them “down under” in Administrative Segregation Units, in extreme cold with no medicine and medical attention; brutal cell extractions of hunger striking prisoners, with the use of suffocating gas explosions in the prisoners cells….

What people do on the outside of prison will be a big factor in what happens now that the prison authorities have reacted with vicious reprisals against prisoners, families, and legal advocates. The hunger strike has been halted for now. The torture, despite an epic struggle, continues… the 5 demands of the prisoners have NOT yet been met… but many, many more people, millions more, learned about the SHU’s and thousands today are looking for ways to act to put an end to such inhuman, punitive treatment.

We have a moral responsibility to act in a way that corresponds with the justness of the prisoners’ demands and with what is truly at stake. In the words of Revolution newspaper, a determined and bold movement outside the walls of prison is urgently needed to expose and demand an end to these high-tech torture chambers called “SHU’s”. That’s why I chained myself to the State Building in Los Angeles .

Saturday, October 8, 2011


Hungerstrike News
October 7, 2011 - Day TwelveVol. 2, No. 7
 

Medical Conditions of Hunger Strikers Worsen, Strikers & Supporters Keep Fighting Back

 
Image by Pete Collins, imprisoned at Bath Prison, Ontario, Canada
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Numbers of hunger strikers began to drop this week after the CDCR intensified retaliation on the strike. The hunger strike representatives at Pelican Bay who were kept in the D Corridor of the SHU were moved to Administrative Segregation at Pelican Bay. Lawyers who were finally able to have one visit last week (after some lawyers of the prisoners’ mediation team have been banned) report that the CDCR has the air conditioning on high in 50 degree weather. The hunger strike representatives continue to be willing to risk their lives in order to win the 5 core demands.
  
The CDCR’s numbers also appear to be low due to guards falsifying records of hunger strikers. At Calipatria, for instance, hunger strikers report they were finally given their liquids after filing medical requests (even though they were still denied liquids for the first several days of the strike). Now, however, guards have been delivering liquids on the prisoners’ food trays.  Once strikers take the liquids off of the trays, the guards record they are not striking (CDCR counts strikers based on who touches the state-issued food trays and who doesn’t).
 
Medical conditions are also worsening for strikers throughout the state. We’ve received reports that after 12 days of no food, prisoners are once again losing severe weight and fainting. One hunger striker at Pelican Bay was denied his medication and consequently suffered from a heart attack and is now is an outside hospital in Oregon.
 
Family & community members continue to support the hunger strikers by holding rallies, community events and vigils, publicizing the courageous action inside prison and building pressure on representatives to intervene  in the CDCR’s handling of the strike.
 
Families of SHU prisoners are calling for supporters everywhere to hold mass vigils in support of the hunger strikers on Thursday nights. If you can organize a vigil in your community, please email prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity[at]gmail.com. For more events, check out our events page here.
 

Hip hop community,
support our hunger strike!

 
by Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, for the Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We prisoners held in Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (PBSP SHU) seek support from all hip hop celebrities, fans and supporters to assist us in shutting down all solitary confinement units – i.e. Administration Segregation (Ad-Seg), SHU and Maximum Security units and the like – that hold New Afrikan prisoners and other races in solitary confinement indefinitely.
 
We embarked Sept. 26, 2011, on a peaceful hunger strike here in PBSP and throughout the state of California in order to obtain our civil and human rights. We are being denied our five core demands (submitted prior to the first phase of the hunger strike in July).
 
Prisoners are being held in solitary confinement indefinitely on the word of a prison debriefer – i.e., snitch, informer, rat, turncoat – or some false prison gang validation. Therefore, we seek your support and give you all the right to advocate on our behalf:
  • MC Lyte
  • Baby
  • Keyshia Cole
  • Lil Wayne
  • Eve
  • Jay-Z
  • Goapele
  • Scrappy
  • Lil Kim
  • Kam
  • Yoyo
  • Kwame Kweli
  • Nicki Minaj
  • The Coup
  • Erykah Badu
  • The Game
  • Foxy Brown
  • Kanye West
  • Free
  • Mos Def
  • Diamond
  • Chuck D
  • Queen Latifah
  • MOB Deep
  • Rashida
  • E-40
  • Terez McCall
  • Snoop Dogg
  • Jada Pinkett
  • Rihanna
  • Scarface
  • Lena
  • Ryakin Rip
  • Slim Thug
  • Solange
  • Tyrese
  • SolÄ“
  • Bun B
  • Jamie Fox
  • Will Smith
  • Chris Brown
  • Jadakiss
  • Gorilla Zoe
  • Black Rob
  • Rev Run
  • Busta Rhymes
  • Ice-T
  • Ice Cube
  • WC, Mack-10
  • Ti
  • Dr. Dre
  • Joe Budden
  • Eminem
  • T-Bone
  • LeCrae
  • Drake
  • Too Short
  • Flame
  • 50 cent
  • Loyd Banks
  • Raphael Saadiq
  • Maino
  • Terrence Jenkins
  • Rosci Diaz
  • Big Boi
  • KRS-One
  • DMX
  • 2-Mex
  • Gucci Mane
  • JT The Bigga Figga
  • Chino XL
  • Chingo
  • Bling
  • Rebel Diaz
  • Fat Joe
  • Tego Calderon
  • Pitbull
  • Bubba Sparks
  • Cypress Hill
  • Nas
And all the original hip hop heads etc.
 
We ask that you all support us in our struggle to be liberated from these man-made torture chambers by doing the following:
 
1. Support the peaceful hunger strike by having your fans contact the governor of California, Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., and the president of the United States of Amerika, Barack Obama, to end torture in California prisons, where prisoners are held indefinitely in solitary confinement – in PBSP SHU, Corcoran SHU, New Folsom SHU and Tehachapi SHU.
2. Donate $10 or more to our Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition, via California Prison Focus’ PayPal account, which can be accessed at www.prisons.org, and mark it for the hunger strike coalition, or mail your donation to California Prison Focus, 1904 Franklin St., Suite 507, Oakland CA 94612. Watch our blog, www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com, for information.
 
3. All of you have power, and that power is in your voice. We ask that you lend that power to our hunger strike. Yes, we will make the sacrifices. There are countless prisoners held in solitary confinement throughout this nation, who come from exclusively poor communities, being tortured. Contact the following New Afrikan prisoners who have been held in SHU since as long ago as 1976 to 2011:
  • Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996, PBSP, D-1-117, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Michael Mutawally Cooperwood, C-46411, PBSP, D-1-214, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Abdul Olugbala Shakur, s/n J. Harvey, C-48884, PBSP, D-4-212, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • James Baridi Williamsun, D-34288, PBSP, D-4-107, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Yafeu Iyapo-I, s/n Leonard Alexander, B-73388, PBSP, D-3-104, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Marcus Tashiri Harrison, H-54077, PBSP, D-3-122, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Abasi Ganda, s/n Clyde Jackson, C-33559, PBSP, D-2-101, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Kubaua Gitu, s/n Rubben Williams, B-72882, PBSP, D-2-121, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • Paul Redd Jr., B-72683, D-2-117, PBSP, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
  • J. Heshima Denham, J-38283, COR SHU, 4B-1L-46, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
  • Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, D-83611, COR SHU, 4B-1L-53, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
  • Kambui Robinson, C-82830, COR SHU, 4B-1L-49, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran CA 93212
It is important that you in the public know that all of us come from the very communities you all come from. Unfortunately, we have been held in these solitary confinement units from 10 to 40 years, simply put, for nothing. The CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) has used every strategy and tactic to get us to debrief, as the only way for us to get out of solitary confinement.
 
Since we refuse to be emasculated and become the prison stoolie for the prison gang intelligence unit, CDCR has sanctioned the torture of each and every last one of us. Therefore, we prisoners, all races, decided to come together in order to end this cruel and unusual punishment.
 
Yes, many of you have heard or know firsthand of the horror stories CDCR officials have used to propagate us to the world in order to label us the “worst of the worst” held in Pelican Bay state prison solitary confinement units. Yet ALL RACES – i.e., New Afrikans, Mexicans South and North, and whites etc. came together to end and fight against the torture we all have endured for 21 years here at PBSP SHU by way of a peaceful hunger strike, which we intend to carry out indefinitely.
 
END SOLITARY CONFINEMENT THROUGHOUT CALIFORNIA and THIS NATION!
We, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, George Franco, Arturo Castellanos and Todd Asker, the four principle negotiators and representatives of the Pelican Bay hunger strike, are requesting for all bodies and minds who are participating in the Sept. 26, 2011, human rights movement to be mindful that we prisoners are in a protracted struggle so that no other prisoners will be held in solitary confinement. All California-held prisoners can be subjected to inhumane, torturous and intentional harsh treatment by CDCR officials, enforced by their subordinates, if the use of solitary confinement is not stopped.
 
For this struggle to go forward, we need supporters to donate $10 or more to our prisoners’ cause, to shut the SHUs and all solitary confinement units within the state of California and spread this resistance across the U.S. by way of peaceful hunger strikes and other peaceful demonstrations.
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity is a coalition of non-profit organizations that have been working many years on prisoner rights issues and shutting solitary confinement units throughout California and the U.S. We prisoners appreciate and continue to need their legal support.
 
Note: California Prison Focus is the member of the coalition responsible for meeting with the spokesmen for the prisoners. Donations will be used to travel to Pelican Bay once a week and to travel to the other SHUs as often as possible this winter in order to report to the state legislature and to protect the spokesmen as much as possible. Each trip costs $300 to $400 for two investigators for two days for gas and lodging only.
 
Recent Media Coverage
 
 

Needless to say, a link to an article does not imply endorsement.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

 
 
 
Upcoming Events

 
 
In the US:

California

 
San Francisco
 
Saturday October 8th from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m: social gathering and potlock with Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition members, local activists, friends and family members of incarcerated loved ones in California prisons, to meet and socialized. Come and join us and share your favorite treat with us. Mosswood Park, 3612 Webster Street, Oakland, CA.
 
Thursday, October 13, 5-7 p.m.: Vigil at 24th  & Mission, SF.
 
Thursday, October 20, 5-7 p.m.: Vigil at Fruitvale BART, Oakland.
 
 
Santa Cruz
Saturday, October 8, 6:30pm: Noise Demonstration in solidarity with hungerstrikers. Marching from Louden Nelson Park to County Jail. Bring Noisemakers! Click here for mor info.
 


 
New York
New York
Saturday, October 8, 11am-2pm: Letter and card writing for PPs, POWs, and prisoners on hunger strike in California. @ Zuccotti Park (Liberty Street and Broadway, New York, New York). Organized by Anarchist Black Cross NY and Resistance in Brooklyn.
 

 
 
 
This list is of upcoming events we know of. If you are organizing an event in your area, let us know!
 
 
Hungerstrike News can be reached at hstrikenews@yahoo.ca


Throughout the month of July, 2011, thousands of prisoners across California participated in a hunger strike against torturous conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit.
 
Hungerstrike News documented their struggle and the actions of those who stood in solidarity with them.
 
As we enter this new period, Hungerstrike News will continue to support the prisoners and report on their struggle.

Has Your Mail to Someone in Prison Been Refused?

From Julie Tackett:
 
Having your mail rejected is one of the most upsetting things to have happen when you have a loved one in prison. Whether is just a mistake on your part, a concerted effort cut family bonds or blatant retaliation for things like the Hunger Strike, it will help to keep track of trends. I have a spread sheet to record mail rejected by CDCR. I will watch for trends of increased rejections by facility, type of rejections, reasons for rejections, and otherwise keep an eye on things.

If you ever have a piece of mail rejected by CDCR for any reason, just message me, email me at tackett.julie@gmail.com or call 206-214-8208.

Thanks, Julie

Palestinian Prisoners on Hungerstrike in Israeli Prisons

Isolation torture is a worlwide scourge, often directed at political prisoners and others who resist oppression. In some contexts these people are accused of being "gang members", in others they are accused of being "terrorists". In all cases, this dehumanization is used as a justification for the unjustifiable: the purposeful attempt to scientifically drive a human being insane.
 
As of September 27, Palestinian prisoners have begun a hunger strike against the abusive conditions they are made to suffer. Their demands are:
 
"1. End the solitary confinement and isolation of our comrade, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the PLO Central Council, Ahmad Sa'adat, Abu Ghassan.

2. End the policy of isolation for all prisoners;
 
3. End the policy of systematic humiliation by the occupation army against the Palestinian people at checkpoints and crossings, particularly targeting visitors to prisons, and end the arbitrary denial of visits to the prisoners, especially the prisoners from the Gaza Strip. End the humiliation and abuse of prisoners during transfer."
 
For more information on this struggle:
 
 
UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUES IN DEPTH:
POWERPOINT BACKGROUNDER ON HUNGERSTRIKE
 
 
MAKE CALLS AND
WRITE LETTERS OF PROTEST TO:

Secretary Matthew Cate
CDCR
1515 S Street
Sacramento
95814
TEL: (916) 323-6001
 
Governor Jerry Brown
State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
 
CDCR Public Affairs Office: (916)445-4950
 
& DON'T FORGET TO SIGN THE PETITION ATCHANGE.ORG!
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Monday, October 3, 2011

Nature of Religion - just a taste of it...

http://www.panpublishinggroup.com/?p=157
Check it out - I think you'll get something out of it - and like I said, anyone who wants a free pdf of this - just ask me, OK ?
You got it .