Abolish Control Units!!

[nattyreb]

This is a recent speech that was given by a long-time tireless activist for prisoners, particularly PP's/POW's, and against the DP, Bonnie Kerness, of the AFSC prisoner support group. The information and materials she has provided me with over the decades is *priceless* and always extremely useful.

Please check this when you get the time to give it a thorough read, and feel free to distribute this amongst your e-mail groups, web lists, etc.
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Chicago Control Unit Meeting

In the mid 80’s I received a letter from Ojore Lutalo who had just been placed in the Management Control Unit at Trenton State Prison. He asked what a control unit was, why he was in there and how long he would have to stay. At that point, we knew little of such places, except for the work of the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) who were monitoring the permanent lockdown at that federal facility. We began hearing from more and more people saying that they were prisoners being held for political reasons as well as jailhouse lawyers, Islamic militants, prisoner activists – most of whom were finding themselves locked down in solitary confinement. In the early 90’s, we began contacting people inside and outside the prisons to see who was interested in working specifically on isolation issues. The AFSC hosted the formation of the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons (known as NCSCUP) in 1994 in Philadelphia. This was done with the help of CEML, Komboa Ervin, who was one of the Marion Brothers, Corey Weinstein of California Prison Focus, Alejandro Molina from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, students from Oberlin College, young people across the country who belonged to the Anarchist Black Cross, the United Church of Christ, Yaki Owowusu of Spear and Shield, the input of women held in small group isolation at Lexington, Ky. and many others who gave strength and purpose to the work. Many of these people were actively involved in the different political movements and understood how control units were being used against us all.

In 1996, four Regional hearings were held giving voice to people in prison, ex-prisoners, family members, advocates, lawyers and others whom were impacted by the use of isolation. In 1997 NCSCUP came out with the Interim Report which held data on the emergence of control units or supermax prisons in almost every state. We matched inside and outside monitors in each state and formed the testimonies we received into a Listening Project called “Testimonies of Torture� and the “Survivor’s Manual�. Because of lack of funding, the AFSC graciously extended its commitment to the issues by folding the work of the National Campaign into the Prison Watch Project. During the four years of its existence, NCSCUP trained dozens of students in organizing principles, many of whom are still active today.

The history of the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons, really began with the movements of the 60’s and 70’s. My generation belonged to a society which taught that each of us was free to dissent politically. In those years, people acted out this belief in a number of ways. Native peoples contributed to the formation of the American Indian Movement dedicated to self determination; Puerto Ricans joined the movement to free the island from US colonialism; white students formed the Students for a Democratic Society and other groups, while other people worked in the southern Civil Rights movements. This was also a time that the New Afrikan Independence Movement reasserted itself, and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was formed. It was time when television news had graphic pictures of State Troopers, Police, the FBI, and the National Guard killing our peers. It was a time when I saw the bullet holes fired by police into Fred Hampton’s sleeping body, a time when young people protesting the Viet Nam War died on the Jackson and Kent State campuses killed by the National Guard, a time when civil rights workers were killed with impunity, and a time when we felt as if there was no opportunity to stop mourning because each day another young activist was dead. These killings led to the underground formations of the Black Liberation Army and the Weathermen Underground.

The government, in response to this massive outcry against social inequities and for national liberation, utilized an existing Counter Intelligence Program called COINTELPRO, which now had as its objective the crippling of the Black Panther Party and other radical forces. Over the years that this directive was carried out, those young people who weren’t murdered were put in prisons across the country. Many of them, now in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s are still there.

While the US denies that there are people being held for political reasons, there was no way at the time, to work with prisoners without hearing repeatedly of the existence of such people, including individuals who clearly fit the United Nations definitions of political prisoners and prisoners of war – and the particular treatment they endured once in prison. As early as 1978, Andrew Young, who was US Ambassador to the United Nations, noted the existence of US political prisoners.

Across the nation, we saw an enhanced use of sensory deprivation/isolation units for such people, and it was this growing “special treatment� which some of us began monitoring. As described by an official at Marion Penitentiary, the control units, were and continue to be part of a systematic effort to destroy any visible signs of resistance. They are designed to break the minds of the men and women housed there.

For many of us who have been in the struggle for decades, the deliberate use of the of long term sensory deprivation is haunting. People that we’ve known, worked with and loved have been, and some still are, being held in this manner. The names – Ojore Lutalo; Sundiata Acoli, who the Management Control Unit in NJ was built for in 1975; Assata Shakur, who was held for over five years in isolation. Marshall Eddie Conway, Albert Nuh Washington, who died in prison; Geronimo Pratt; Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Marilyn Buck; Mumia Abu Jamal; David Gilbert, Ray Luc Levasseur, who has been free for one year, Kazi Toure, Masai Ehehosi; Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez Rivera, Alejandrina Torres, Dylcia Pagan, Standing Deer and Sekou Odinga, Richard Williams, Tom Manning, Merle Africa, Imam Jamil Al-Amin - these names and dozens of others – haunt the spaces of every control unit, SHU, DDU, ad seq unit and special housing unit in the country. No matter what name they are given, their purpose is the same as it is in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo – the breaking of minds.

For people of my generation, this work is done with a compelling and lifetime passion. We’ve made a promise to those dead and alive to abolish these torture chambers. People throughout the world are beginning to understand what the political prisoners have been saying to us for decades about the oppressive tactics of the US government. Some of you have heard me say that department of corrections is more than a set of institutions, it is a state of mind. It is that state of mind which has expanded the use of isolation, the use of devices of torture and continues the Counter Intelligence Program - as part of Homeland Security -against activists, both inside and outside the walls. Some of you know that Ojore Lutalo, a New Afrikan political prisoner, was released via litigation in 2002 after 16 years in isolation. We’ve received word that he has been placed back in the MCU, with no charges pending. When I called the Department of Corrections, it took many conversations before I was bluntly told that this was upon the order of Homeland Security, that he is one of the many prisoners whom they have targeted in this way. When I asked Ojore who else was in the control unit, he said that they were holding purported “gang� members there, mostly those who are pre-trial. The latest progression of control units are called “security threat group management units�. This is particularly egregious because it is the government which gets to define what a “security threat group� is. According to a national survey done in 1997, the Departments of Corrections of Minnesota and Oregon named all Asians as gangs, which Minnesota further compounds by adding all Native Americans. The State of NJ DOC lists the Black Cat Collective as a gang. The Black Cat Collective is my free foster son along with two friends who put on Afro-Centric cultural programs in libraries. Because my own background stems from the Civil Rights Era, I am very mindful of who is considered a “security threat� to this country. Many street organizations, as they started re-focusing their efforts to become part of the larger struggle against oppression, were very much seen as a security threat to the government.

Prison gang policies occur within the context of larger society and the wider criminal justice system, and the growth of security threat group management units are part of the larger policy agenda regarding US prisons. One of the standards that the federal government sets in order for states to receive prison construction subsidies is to mandate the building of supermax prisons or security threat group management units.

One of the things that makes this such an exciting time to re-new our efforts, is that we now have the growing acceptance by the public and in the courts of the validity United Nations international law. The Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, The UN Convention on Political and Civil Rights and other treaties give us a new set of educational organizing tools for social change.

Our work this weekend is very rooted in the political oppression of activists in this country. It is deeply touching to me to have representatives of so many long time political formations present. Prison Watch continues to hear from prisoner activists, purported gang members and from the mentally ill – all being housed in isolation where devices of torture are used with impunity. After each Homeland Security Code change, Prison Watch is flooded with calls from people reporting loved ones with Islamic names being placed in solitary without charges.

I want to close with a poem of Assata Shakur’s called “No One Can Stop the Rain�, which reminds us that no one can stop a righteous movement.

Watch, the grass is growing.
Watch, but don’t make it obvious.
Let your eyes roam casually, but watch!
In any prison yard, you can see it, growing.
In the cracks, in the crevices, between the steel and the concrete,
Out of the dead gray dust,
The bravest blades of grass shoot up, bold and full of life.
Watch, the grass is growing.
It is growing through the cracks.
The guards say grass is against the Law.
Grass is contraband in prison.
The guards say that the grass is insolent.
It is uppity grass, radical grass, militant grass, terrorist grass,
They call it weeds.
Nasty weeds, nigga weeds, dirty, spic, savage indian, wetback, pinko,
Commie weeds – subversive!
And so the guards try to wipe out the grass.
They yank it from its roots.
They poison it with drugs.
They maul it.
They rake it.
Blades of grass has been found hanging in cells, covered with
Bruises, “Apparent suicides�.
The guards say that the “GRASS is UNAUTHORIZED�.
“�DO NOT LET THE GRASS GROW:�
You can spy on the grass. You can lock up the grass.
You can mow it down, temporarily.
But you will never keep it from growing.
Watch, the grass is beautiful.
The guards try to mow it down, but it keeps on growing.
The grass grows into a poem.
The grass grows into a song.
The grass paints itself across the canvas of life.
And the picture is clear and the lyrics are true,
And the haunting voices sing so sweet and strong
That the people hear the grass from far away.
And the people start to dance, and the people start to sing, and the song is freedom.

Watch the grass is growing.

Thank you.

[akilamaru]

i though your assesments on control units we're on point. thinking back when they frist opened up a max control unit here in indiana we found ourselves (rades) up against a new form of repression that dictated a new form of struggle in theory and in practice, it soon became obivious as to the objective of this form repression simply to isolate,divide then conqure, to break the will and the spirit of struggle. at that time alot of b.o.s made the leap from reactioary to revolutionary and that i think scared them more then anyhing because most of us were in gangs preying on the weak and as far as that was concern they didnt care it was when our laws and policies began to reflect struggle over stagnation,consciousness over contentment they saw the need to suppress this growing tranformation. alot of us began to understand then the difference between theory and practice. it was there that we became true soilders. we wage WAR by any means eventually our sacrifices bore fruit and the state was forced to redefine its methods,policies,and prctice. so what they did was to surround us with alot of reactionary forces with racist and psychological problem giving the appearance that we were not being singled out. as u stated there is still much work to be done for we have rade thats been struggling waging wars on these units for decades. as allways i leave as i came with love and peace. Akil amaru

[nattyreb]

Asante sana for your excellent, excellent feedblack, Bro., your add-on is very thorough, are you inside now? Also, i wish i could take credit for that piece, but it came from Bonnie Kerness, AFSC. i struggled tooth and nail with many of the Bros. from Indiana! STOPMAX is active now, you've motivated me to try to post more from there. Peace and love black atcha, stay strong, keep posting!

Originally Posted by akilamaru

i though your assesments on control units we're on point. thinking back when they frist opened up a max control unit here in indiana we found ourselves (rades) up against a new form of repression that dictated a new form of struggle in theory and in practice, it soon became obivious as to the objective of this form repression simply to isolate,divide then conqure, to break the will and the spirit of struggle. at that time alot of b.o.s made the leap from reactioary to revolutionary and that i think scared them more then anyhing because most of us were in gangs preying on the weak and as far as that was concern they didnt care it was when our laws and policies began to reflect struggle over stagnation,consciousness over contentment they saw the need to suppress this growing tranformation. alot of us began to understand then the difference between theory and practice. it was there that we became true soilders. we wage WAR by any means eventually our sacrifices bore fruit and the state was forced to redefine its methods,policies,and prctice. so what they did was to surround us with alot of reactionary forces with racist and psychological problem giving the appearance that we were not being singled out. as u stated there is still much work to be done for we have rade thats been struggling waging wars on these units for decades. as allways i leave as i came with love and peace. Akil amaru