Having the foresight to end all hostilities

In: SF Bay View, October 24, 2013

In my 29 years of incarceration, I had never seen what I would witness on Sept. 24, 2013, on our way back to Pelican Bay State Prison’s solitary confinement torture chambers after our temporary transfer during the hunger strike.

We must commend our 20 prisoner representatives for having the foresight to see that the CDCr officials would be utilizing their authority – their power – to create situations and circumstances that would attempt to encourage and manipulate warfare between races inside the prison environment.

On the way to CSP-Sac (New Folsom prison), on Aug. 23, 2013, for our emergency medical transfer from PBSP Ad-Seg, we prisoners were placed on the bus and separated by race. New Afrikans were placed in the up front cages. The whites were placed across from the New Afrikans in the wider cage, but still up front.

The larger group of Mexicans from the Los Angeles County area was placed in the back of the bus, and they too were cut off from each other by a dividing cage door. The bus had cameras in the back and the front of the bus, so the transportation officer who’s not driving could keep us under surveillance. This was their legitimate security protocol for transferring so-called highly secured prisoners.

So why were security protocols neglected on the way back? There was one white, one Mexican from the northern district and two New Afrikan prisoners among a total of 25 prisoners on the bus. The remainder were Mexican prisoners from the Los Angeles County area. Yet there was no attempt to secure the bus.

We prisoners were hopping from seat to seat. It was all good. The front row cages were not locked, which afforded us the freedom to move about freely. There was a “colorful” transportation officer named Wagner, who came on the bus to give a speech, talking about nothing. I’d never seen him before in my life prior to this bus ride, but he get on the bus talking all this nonsense and he kept alluding to me by name, saying, “Ain’t that right, Crawford?” I would say nothing in response.

I didn’t read too much into this initially, but after we got five hours from Pelican Bay State Prison, it was nightfall outside, and here is where, in all my 29 years of incarceration, I have never seen anything so blatantly clear. Earlier we had picked up a young 23-year-old New Afrikan from Old Folsom named Tay, who was 15 months to the house and had never been to prison in his life. Young and innocent, he would make the third New Afrikan in the bus.

We would be unable to see each other for the next five and a half hours, due to transporting officers refusing to turn on the lights, and not one prisoner requested that they do so. It was so dark you could not see the person next to you. Never before has this ever happened for such a long period of time on a CDCr transportation bus, especially with the caliber of prisoners that these so-called officials call “the worst of the worst.”

Now we prisoners have to realize that these types of situations will be prevalent throughout our futures because CDCr will do whatever is within its power to place us as prisoners back on a path of senseless, reckless violence in order to serve their interests. They wanted the majority to attack the non-majority when there existed a clear opportunity to do so provided by the CDCr transportation.

But our 20 representatives had the ability to understand our historical contradictions and how CDCr utilizes these same realities in order to allow one group to attack another based on how they place them inside the prison theater. CDCr officials allow each race, depending on who they are out of favor with, to have total dominance over the other races, which can unfortunately lead to opportunities for attacks by the majority race.

The End to All Hostilities declared last year by our representatives has basically weakened CDCr’s ability to create race, gang and internal warfare inside the prison theater to the extent that they once did. We prisoners have to be very conscious of the many traps that will be set by prison officials toward encouraging prisoners into warfare. We have to remain very vigilant inside these prison environments to protect our End to All Hostilities.

After we finally got to PBSP, one of the elders, Huerta, turned to me and said, “Mutope, you see what they just tried to do?” I ‘sponded, “I sure did!” He said, “You need to put that out there.” “You know I am,” I smiled.

The youngster, Tay, from Richmond, Calif., was a fish out of water. I pulled him to the back of the bus with me and an elderly New Afrikan prisoner, Dadisi, and after he was done talking with the two of us, on occasion he would lean back and go to sleep, unaware of any threat whatsoever for an innocent Level 2 prisoner who had no clue.

Hopefully, when he learns more about the prison environment, he will come to appreciate the 20 representatives for their foresight to institute an End to All Hostilities. He was the only prisoner to sleep on the bus.

Note: Level 4 prisoners are maximum security prisoners and Level 2 are minimum security prisoners – a world of difference between the two.

Mutope Duguma

Hunger striker considers where we go from here, wonders, ‘Will the Legislature dupe us too’?

September 21, 2013

In: SF Bay View

by Mutope Duguma

Written Sept. 8, 2013 – First and foremost we want to give a lot of respect and love to all the human beings who made their voices heard and the countless dedicated supporters and organizations who beat the drum as well as the pavement demanding an end to solitary confinement, LONG TERM solitary confinement.

To the 30,000 hunger strikers who courageously stood up, we commend each and every one of you, no matter if you did one day or the whole 60 days. We have had three hunger strikes in which none of us could imagine such courage would stem from such a peaceful protest. But as I have written in an article called, “Because I’ve seen men,”* my own personal strength and resolve has been improved on. I could not have ever expected to be amongst such courageous individuals. I salute each and every one of you.

We want to always give much respect and love to the six prisoners who sacrificed their lives despite what CDCr propagated against you. We know each and every one of you died for a cause that’s more honorable than anything, especially in a world where men and women die every day for nothing. We also know none of you were suicidal. We will forever hold you all in our memory, high before the world.

Now, where do we go from here? We’ve been promised change, which we will humbly allow to take its course. One thing we have learned throughout our protracted struggle is that there is a solid 100 hunger strikers who we know now will be willing to lay their lives down for our cause, and I am amongst that 100. These individuals are remarkable, so our protracted struggle continues.

We all signed up collectively to move in unison; therefore, we will allow the voice of our 20 representatives to be the voice that makes the decisions in the interests of us all, based on their collective judgment. This has always been an inclusive protracted struggle. Our New Afrikan collective, Latino-Mexican collective, white collective and Asian collective – these brothers and sisters joined forces in order to end torture in Amerika’s solitary confinement units. We now allow the system to work, while being very vigilant as to what kind of change we will receive.

Relieve prisoners of their on-going suffering inside these solitary confinement units that serve no purpose whatsoever.

We continue to hit the pavement, make the calls, write the Legislature and governor. We do not know at this time what the time period would be on that change, but I am sure there will be one, and each and every one of us will be informed of that time period, especially prisoners who are suffering in solitary confinement each second, minute and hour of the day inside these torture chambers. The world has heard your screams.

We continue to educate the public about our individual horror stories inside solitary confinement units, whether they’re called SHUs, Ad Seg or Administration Segregation Units. We can never go back to accepting solitary confinement as an indefinite placement for any Amerikans, foreigners, refugees or immigrants.

The world has heard your screams.

Our protracted struggle continues. Those of us who did the whole 60 days, like myself and our main four representatives, need to take the time to get your health back in order. It will take anywhere from 90 days to six months depending on the severity of damage.

Demand blood work be done and your organs screened before you go back to exercising. We all may be called on to make that ultimate sacrifice and I personally know that we will see that courageous 100 front and center.

We can never go back to accepting solitary confinement as an indefinite placement for any Amerikans, foreigners, refugees or immigrants.

Our protracted struggle continues in memory of the following courageous prisoners:

Christian Gomez

Alex Machado

Alonzo Hozel Blanchard

A. ‘Baby Paya’ Morales (Watts native)

Billy “Guero” Sell

Johnny Owen Vick

Will the Legislature dupe us too?

The 20 representatives have to do what they believe is in the best interest of our collective and that means negotiating with CDCr, politicians or any officials who are part of that process.

We are demanding that our five core demands be met, and to those who don’t know, the 40 supplemental demands are part of Core Demand No. 5. The 20 representatives have a responsibility outside of making decisions: They each have to make sure that they don’t subject you or me to unnecessary suffering when they do not have to.

If the Legislature turns around and dupes us, then we will be forced to continue our peaceful protest in the interests of every solitary confined prisoner.

So the reality right now is that Sen. Loni Hancock and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano have basically said that there has to be change. Now the people have to get behind these two politicians and make sure that they are empowered to make that change possible: Relieve prisoners of their on-going suffering inside these solitary confinement units that serve no purpose whatsoever.

There have already been countless dialogues, interviews, books written and legislative hearings on solitary confinement and they have all been fruitless to date. So it is our hope that these current hearings will render that change that we so desperately seek, in the interests of all prisoners held throughout California in these isolation units and hopefully throughout the United States of America. We do not know to what degree CDCr will involve themselves in making these meaningful changes possible, but we hold hope.

We will be following these future events very closely and ask everyone to do the same, because if the Legislature turns around and dupes us, then we will be forced to continue our peaceful protest in the interests of every solitary confined prisoner.

In Solidarity,

One Love, One Struggle

Mutope Duguma

Send our brother some love and light: Though he was still at New Folsom Prison when he wrote this, his transfer back to Pelican Bay is believed to be imminent, so write to Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996, PBSP SHU D1-117, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532.

*Supporters have not yet received that article, but we’ll publish it as soon as it arrives.

Hunger strikers, weak and sick, transported 8 hours by bus: ‘Our strength is a reflection of your strength’

September 2, 2013

In: SF Bay View

by Mutope Duguma

Written Aug. 25, 2013 – How long must we continue to suffer? On Aug. 23, 2013, early in the morning, Pelican Bay State Prison Ad Seg (Administrative Segregation) was emptied out and placed on two buses. Every individual on the buses had been on the hunger strike since July 8, 2013, and there was not one medical staffperson on those buses.

The trip was an eight hour trip that subjected Lorenzo Benton to extremely low blood sugar. We had to demand that the bus be stopped immediately, which led to a 40 minute delay. They had three cars from SSU (Special Services Unit) escorting the whole trip, but not one medical staffperson, knowing that we had been on a hunger strike 45 days when they placed us on those buses.

Lorenzo Benton’s eyes were blurry; he couldn’t see nothing. I tried to take his pulse but couldn’t get one because his heartbeat had dropped so low. We switched position on the bus with Danny Troxell and Frank Clement so that Lorenzo would have more space. This did nothing for him.

We asked for water and the sergeant of transportation said he was instructed to not give us nothing but Gatorade. I said, “We can’t have water?” He said no. I said, “Where is the Gatorade?” Initially Abdul, HB and Mutawally demanded that they go back, but I asked how far are we from a medical facility going forward. Sergeant said six miles. We were already on the road 50 miles.

I told Lorenzo to gulp down cups of Gatorade because when my sugar is low and eyes are blurry, I just need the Gatorade to clear it up. After gulping down three canteen cups – 12 ounces – each he started to see a little better and he felt better. The sergeant asked him was he all right and if he was going to make it. The sergeant was pissed off that there wasn’t no medical staff on this trip, considering who was being transferred. At least he let us see these sentiments. If he was sincere or not I don’t know.

How long must we continue to suffer?

Once we got to New Folsom Prison (California State Prison Sacramento) we got nothing, and that is our status right now as I write this. They say on Aug. 26 it will get better. The officials knew we were coming a week in advance, so it is no excuse for subjecting us to such cruelty.

We also are receiving low quality vitamins, down from the high quality vitamins that the receivership ordered. [California prison medical services were placed under receivership by the federal court because at least one prisoner a week was dying due to medical abuse or neglect. – ed.] The Gatorade is a better quality, but we are suffering because of what we are being denied, although the hunger strike alone should be enough suffering.

But denying us linen – while holding us in ice cold cells – equals torture. It’s obvious that these actions are intended to break us, but the 60 of us have a collective strength and are committed all the way to the force feeding, for better or worse.

We can only hope that our strength is a reflection of your strength. All RACES – prison solidarity.

We do not care about how much worse our conditions get because the pain and suffering from not eating trumps it all. Also, the only prisoners in PBSP Ad Seg who were left there were Sitawa Jamaa (Ron Dewberry), Todd Ashker, Antonio Guillen and Arturo Castellanos, our four reps. We can only hope that they are safe under those circumstances. Everyone on the bus is medically on high risk status (see CDC Form 114-D), and everyone is doing very bad as well.

And it’s old age, middle age and young age prisoners inside that 60, and we can only hope that our strength is a reflection of your strength. All RACES – prison solidarity. We don’t believe that CDCr CSP-Sac can force feed each and every one of us at the same time, because obviously we will deteriorate at the same time.

[In a note dated Aug. 26, he adds: We’ve been on vitamins and Gatorade since July 25, 2013, to now, which is to sustain our organs, but they will eventually start going when our body weight is gone. I am down 63 pounds now today, according to their scale.]

One Love, One Struggle.
Mutope


Send our brother some love and light – and writing paper, envelopes and stamps to share: Mutope Duguma (James Crawford), D-05996, CSP-Sac ASU B8-232L, P.O. Box 290066, Represa CA 95671.

Why did five Pelican Bay guards beat two elderly Black prisoners on Aug. 6?

August 22, 2013

In: SF Bay View


Written Aug. 6, 2013 – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation believes it is necessary to change the course of our peaceful struggle to one of violence, which does not serve prisoners’ interests but actually gives power to the state to impose strict violent measures and actions that will subdue us as a prison class, while at the same time allowing CDCR to be justified in beating and murdering prisoners if they retaliate violently against CDCR officials.

Drawing by R. Garcia

Be it noticed that the CDCR conspired on this day, Aug. 6, 2013, to attack two elderly New Afrikan prisoners in the Short Corridor in order to provoke violence out of the New Afrikan prisoners. As a New Afrikan myself and understanding all too well what’s at stake and why CDCR has resorted to such desperate attacks, I would first like to commend the two elderly New Afrikans who allowed their discipline to take precedence over their natural impulses, which is to defend themselves, initially by any means. Instead, they respected our peaceful protest.

Their belief in our peaceful protest allowed them to de-escalate something we prisoners know all too well could have easily gotten out of control. No prisoner will willingly accept five strong Pelican Bay State Prison officers beating on elderly prisoners, who they have in prison restraints already.

This is why the New Afrikans were chosen to be attacked, so that all prisoners who witnessed the attacks would be angry, because if an attack like this happens now, then it can happen to us all. Plus, no one respects or likes people who abuse the elderly, especially someone who has been entrusted with a position of authority to serve and protect all prisoners.

We prisoners insist that any attacks against any prisoners in retaliation for our peaceful protest must cease immediately and the officers who are responsible for such attacks must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

These particular officials who set out to provoke violence by attacking prisoners are not only committing criminal acts but grossly violate the authority entrusted to them by the public. For too long CDCR and PBSP have been abusing their authority, which each official took an oath to uphold – arbitrarily applying their prejudiced and racist views by attacking prisoners.

Therefore, we prisoners insist that any attacks against any prisoners in retaliation for our peaceful protest must cease immediately and the officers who are responsible for such attacks must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. All those who had a hand in the conspiracy must be included as well.

Hunger strikers, weak and fragile but mentally strong after 35 days, say thank you
Written Aug. 11, 2013 – There is a true and righteous commitment being made through collective sacrifice by men from all walks of life who have come together to end an injustice. We suffer collectively at the hands of a prison system (CDCR) that has lost its morality, its ability to effectively run a prison system that protects the wellbeing of each and every prisoner.

Those of us who are held in Ad Segs, Adjustment Centers and SHUs ‘til this day, subjected to pain and suffering that’s being sanctioned by the state due to our peaceful protest, along with each and every prisoner who has contributed to our peaceful protest, past and present, by way of hunger strike and work stoppage, we hunger strikers commend you. And we want to say this before we deteriorate to a point where we’re unable to say thank you.

To all our supporters: We can only hope that you do everything in your power to change these horrible conditions by continuing to work with prisoners throughout the state and nation in the hope that no one else in this country is made to suffer such a horrible fate ever again.


Send our brother some love and light: Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532.

The hunger strike is about helping all prisoners achieve their humanity

by Mutope Duguma

In: SF Bay View, Aug. 22^nd 2013

Editor’s note: Mutope had asked JR Valrey, Bay View associate editor who is also producing and hosting a series of hunger strike specials on KPFA, to interview him weeks ago. We asked permission for a phone interview that could be recorded for broadcast, but CDCR denied that request. So right away, JR sent Mutope a list of questions to answer and mail back. But Pelican Bay has been blocking the mail, so in this letter, the first we’ve received from him in weeks, he asks JR to try again.

Written Aug. 19, 2013 – I have not received the letter from the Brother JR, so I do not know what’s up with that. But if he sent a letter to me, tell him to please remember when, because everyone is telling me they sent me this and that, but I am not receiving anything. I’ll need declaratories from everyone because we are keeping a record of out and incoming mail.

I didn’t receive your mail until Aug. 17, and that should tell you how they’re trying to deprive us of any effective communication in order to compromise our correspondence. Hate has always followed hate, so they cannot change what they are – and that is vindictive, overzealous, reactionary individuals. And sadly they cannot even say why they do what they do.

Let the Brother know that he should hurry up because I am 53 pounds down, have not eaten in 44 days and I am weak and fragile, Mary, but my mental capacity is strong still.

Tell the Brother JR he can come up and visit or he can send me a questionnaire and I will give him the whole 411 at the root of our struggle and how it will serve all Californians. We are not just about changing our SHU solitary confinement placement; we are talking about helping all prisoners achieve their humanity through a sound, productive and constructive education that will help them be more aware of their lives and their actions.

Plus, let the Brother know that he should hurry up because I am 53 pounds down, have not eaten in 44 days [Mutope began his strike a day early, on July 7], and I am weak and fragile, Mary, but my mental capacity is strong still.

We are still in Ad Seg under Gestapo guard.


Send our brother some love and light: Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996, PBSP ASU G-2185, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532.

Hunger strikers denied right to read: Pelican Bay officials just don’t get it

July 28, 2013

by Mutope Duguma, Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement

Published on SF Bay View

In retaliation for our peaceful protest, the security housing unit sergeant, B. Davis, drafted up a memorandum on July 8, 2013, saying that Pelican Bay State Prison will be following “regulations per DOM 54030.20.5 which allows book/ publications limit of five (5) books maximum.” This is what PBSP calls rehabilitation.

PBSP Sgt. B. Davis is demonstrating the type of mentality that we’ve been dealing with for the last 23 years in these torture chambers. We are allowed to have 10 books over the allowed five magazines, this Sgt. Davis knows, but he is attacking what we prisoners in SHU value more than anything outside our families: BOOKS.

We say: “End solitary confinement – torture – now! Stop the deliberate attacks on prisoners’ mental development by enforcing a book limit that is instituted to deprive prisoners of reading material.”

Why would an institution of prisoners attack that which aids in the rehabilitation process? Sgt. Davis does not get it, because one of our core demands deals with providing prisoners educational programs that are beneficial to our growth and development. One would think that if prisoners wanted to read, that the PBSP officials would have done all in their power to provide prisoners an avenue to endless books. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The memorandum is diametrically opposed to our fifth demand. This retaliation is against prisoners for protesting the inhumane treatment in solitary confinement units. We say: “End solitary confinement – torture – now! Stop the deliberate attacks on prisoners’ mental development by enforcing a book limit that is instituted to deprive prisoners of reading material.” If it fits in your allowed 6 cubic foot locker, then you should be able to have as many books as possible.

Why have a policy that restricts prisoners education? Especially for prisoners. The CDCr needs to be called on the many policies that go against the educational needs of the prisoners. We feel this memo was written on July 8, 2013, in order to retaliate against SHU prisoners for our peaceful protest. They, CDCr and PBSP, can take all of our material possessions and it would not interfere with our right to fight for our human and civil rights.

The memorandum is diametrically opposed to our fifth demand. This retaliation is against prisoners for protesting the inhumane treatment in solitary confinement units.

We can only hope that the CDCr and PBSP warden can see the value of reading and allowing prisoners to read leisurely at their expense without restrictions.

One Love, One Struggle!

http://sfbayview.com/2013/hunger-strikers-denied-right-to-read-pelican-bay-officials-just-dont-get-it/

Animals: CDCR human exploitation in the 21st century

July 10, 2013

By Mutope Duguma

In: SF Bay View

Holding animals in solitary confinement breeds savagery. You are placed in a concrete slab of a cage for 22 ½ hours a day and let out for 90 minutes to another concrete slab of a cage only to be returned to your animal cage like an animal in a zoo, where correctional officials walk by your cell as if they’re watching exotic animals: tall ones, short ones, little ones, big ones, dark ones, light ones etc. etc.

They section off the cages as if to say these are our wild animals. We hold them in the short corridor, the long corridor. We got a variety of animals that are just as dangerous, just like the zoo. The animals do not have a voice; therefore, us overseers control the narrative, explaining to the world why we have to hold these animals in cages, because if we let them out, they will go wild or wouldn’t know how to survive in the free world on their own. So we hold them in these animal cages in order to tame them, just like at the zoo.

We do charge a fee to hold our animals. It’s Big Business in Amerikkka. For minding “our” animal cages, we get $70,000 annually in tax dollars for our animals held in solitary confinement. But in our tame animal cages on General Population, we get $53,000 annually, and this is for each animal we have in a cage.

This is why we must continue to build more prisons-zoos, especially solitary confinement cages in the 21st century, to build on our profits. But we have to maintain a surplus of animals for our Prison Industrial Slave Complex Zoos, by manifesting as well as manufacturing 21st century slaves throughout the United States.

Imprisoning “animals” will produce an output of animals, who will perpetuate the practice of savagery … toward serving our interest.

Mutope Duguma is a 21st century prison slave, as sanctioned by the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

http://sfbayview.com/2013/animals-cdcr-human-exploitation-in-the-21st-century/