Political Prisoner Birthday Poster For September 2015 Is Now Available

From Prison Books Collective:

Hello Friends and Comrades,

1) Here is the political prisoner birthday poster for September. As always, please post this poster publicly and/or use it to start a card writing night of your own.

2) We’ve put the text online of our new zine How To Start A Prison Books Collective. We hope that this humble contribution will help other prison books groups get started and expand the important work of sending political, legal, and self-educational resources to prisoners. You can find the text here.

3) The Prison Ecology Project has extended its online fundraiser. They are creating tools to dismantle toxic prisons. So far, they are the only group focused on the intersection of environment and mass incarceration. Currently they are building a database of the five thousand prisons and jails around the country, finding the weak points in the environmental realm, and providing tools to organize locally. You can donate here.

4) Michael Kimble is up for parole in December and we are trying to get people to write letters to the parole board on his account.

Michael is a gay, black anarchist imprisoned in Alabama since 1986 for murdering a racist homophobe. He has been active for much of that time in prison organizing and rebellion. In recent years, he has been involved in hunger and work strikes in Alabama, working with the Free Alabama Movement. Michael has suffered severe consequences for his uncompromising attitude, including numerous stints in solitary (where he currently is held). Despite this, he remains committed to struggle against prison and the state.

Please, if you can, write the parole board and help get Michael free. Also, please spread this information using whatever media have available to you. Here’s a link to Michael‘s website, with a write-up on how to support his parole.

5) On Wednesday, August 12th, long term political prisoner, Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell was murdered. The context for his murder remains unclear, save for the fact that it happened in the midst of a prison riot.

In the early 1970s, while imprisoned in San Quentin State Prison, Hugo Pinell made contact with revolutionary prisoners such as George Jackson, one of the Soledad Brothers, and W.L. Nolen. On August 21, 1971, there was a prisoner uprising in Pinell’s housing unit at San Quentin, led by George Jackson. On that date, Jackson used a pistol to take over his tier in the Adjustment Center. At the end of the roughly 30 minute rebellion, guards had killed George Jackson, and two other prisoners and three guards were dead. Of the remaining prisoners in the unit, six of them, including Pinell, were put on trial for murder and conspiracy. Together, they were known as The San Quentin Six. Three of them were acquitted of all charges, and three were found guilty of various charges. Pinell was convicted of assault on a guard. For more on Hugo Pinell’s life and death see this excellent article from the San Francisco Bay View.

6) Be sure to check out the latest Political Prisoner/Prisoner Of War every-other week update by the  NYC-Anarchist Black Cross. There are lots of important updates on many political prisoners. This one includes updates on Jeremy Hammond, Barrett Brown, Memorials for Hugo Pinell, poetry and more.

Until Every Cage Is Empty,

The Prison Books Collective

Support the strike at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Alabama!

Today, 48 hours before a peaceful work stoppage starts on Sunday, March 1,
at St Clair Correctional Facility (SCCF) in Springville, Ala., riot police
have been sent to the prison to beat, torture, and intimidate the men
incarcerated at SCCF, whose demands include an end to severe overcrowding
and filthy living conditions.

Here’s how you can support the strike and help stop the brutality against
the prisoners:

1. Call SCCF’s warden, Carter Davenport, at (205)467-6111.
Tell him to stop the retaliation against the prisoners, who have a right to
peacefully protest against their inhumane treatment.

2. Send an email to the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC).. Go to the ADOC’s website, http://www.doc.state.al.us. Click contact us and then click constituent services. Type your message, addressing it to Warden Carter Davenport. Before sending your message, please sign it. (You don’t have to give your address.)

3. Spread the word to others. We must flood the prison with phone
calls and the ADOC with email.

Help Stop The Reign Of Terror By Alabama Prison Officials!

Dear Friend:

The Free Alabama Movement (FAM), composed of some of the men and women incarcerated in Alabama state prisons, along with their family members and friends, are in urgent need of your help. Currently, three Alabama maximum security prisons for men are on lockdown. At one of those prisons, St. Clair Correctional Facility (SCCF) in Springville, Ala., the men are daily being subjected to beatings by guards and other unprecedented violence.

Furthermore, the U.S. Dept. of Justice has just ended an investigation of Alabama’s Tutwiler Prison for Women, where the women have been habitually raped and sexually abused by the male guards and staff going back 20 years.

Please help FAM with its campaign to get the man fired who is responsible for the reign of terror at SCCF, Warden Carter Davenport, and to get Tutwiler’s warden, Bobby Barrett, fired. Send the letter below to Col. Jefferson Dunn, who (after retiring from the Air Force) will take office in March as the new commissioner of the Alabama Dept. of Corrections (ADOC). This is how to send the letter:

1. Go to the ADOC website

2. Click “Contact Us”

3. Click “Constituent Services”

4.Cut and paste the letter the below. Don’t forget to sign it before sending. You do not have to give your address, but may do so if you want.

You may also call Paula Argo (executive assistant to the interim ADOC commissioner) at (334)353-3870. Tell her (or whoever answers the phone) that you want Warden Carter Davenport and Warden Bobby Barrett to be fired. Help spread the word!. Pass this on to other people and ask for their help.

*****************************************

Col. Jefferson Dunn Incoming Commissioner Alabama Department of Corrections Dear Col. Dunn: I have recently read reports about the unprecedented violence at St. Clair Correctional Facility (SCCF) in Springville, Ala. According to these reports, Carter Davenport, the warden at the SCCF, is responsible for this violence.

In 2010, former ADOC Commissioner Kim Thomas appointed Davenport as SCCF’s the warden At the time St. Clair, was the least violent maximum security prison in Alabama, with only 23 incidents of violence for a prison population of approximately 1,300 men.

Just three years later, the violence level at St. Clair quadrupled, to 101 violent incidents in 2013, including two murders. By 2014, six people had been killed, including four murders in 2014 alone. St. Clair prison’s population would witness historic levels of violence that would ultimately make the prison one of the worst in the nation.

Davenport has created a toxic and hopeless environment where violence rules and where there is no accountability and no respect for administrative regulations and no resources allocated to education and rehabilitation. He has overseen an administration that has repeatedly violated the civil and human rights of the men incarcerated under his authority. In 2012, Davenport himself was suspended for beating a man at St. Clair who was in handcuffs.

Under Davenport’s watch, six (6) people have been killed at St. Clair prison: Jamie Bell, John Rutledge, Marquette Cummings, Tim Duncan, Jodie Waldrop and Jabari Bascomb. Since the start of 2015, a wave of violence has taken St. Clair by storm. As of January 23, I am told, over 20 people have been stabbed; officers have beaten several people; the Riot Team was called in; the prison went on lockdown; and several men are still hospitalized. Prior to Davenport’s arrival at St. Clair prison, the men incarcerated, in conjunction with previous Warden David Wise and Warden DeAngelo Burrell, founded a program called Convicts Against Violence (CAV). This program was largely responsible for bringing down the violence level at St. Clair to the historic lows that were in place when Davenport arrived. He stopped the Convicts Against Violence program, and to this day, C.A.V. remains the only program that has been stopped. Warden Davenport also ended C.A.V.’s conflict resolution and mediation classes, and the Educational and Mentoring program, which had enrolled and actively engaged over 400 students from L-M and P-Q dorms where predominately black men were/are now “warehoused” with no outlets for their frustration.

The Equal Justice Initiative and the Southern Poverty Law Center have filed class action lawsuits against Davenport and the ADOC for the violent culture and abuse that Davenport has overseen. One man, Joseph Shack, was awarded over $70,000 in 2014 when he was beaten while handcuffed by Sgt. Mason, who remains employed. The Montgomery Advertiser and several others have called for Warden Davenport’s removal.

Finally, as you know, an investigation recently concluded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found that over the past twenty years, the ADOC has allowed the ongoing sexual abuse of the women incarcerated at Tutwiler Prison for Women. According to the DOJ, this abuse has amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment,” in violation of the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The sexual assaults of the women by male guards and staff at Tutwiler must be stopped. Tutwiler Warden Bobby Barrett has clearly failed in his responsibilities and should be fired immediately.

Sir, you have the power to start the process of stopping the human rights violations being committed at St. Clair Correctional Facility and Tutwiler Prison for Women. Fire Warden Carter Davenport and Warden Bobby Barrett. immediately.

Sincerely,

FAM Press Release: Protest at St. Clair Prison in Alabama

From Free Alabama Movement

February 1 Protest To Highlight Inhumane Conditions In Alabama Prisons

(Springville, Ala.) – Demanding an end to the filthy living conditions on
Alabama’s death row and “a culture of violence” carried out by officials
throughout the state’s maximum security prisons, families and friends of
the men, women and children who are incarcerated in Alabama prisons will hold a peaceful protest on Sunday, Feb. 1.

Sponsored by the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), the protest will begin at 11:30 a.m.
a.m. in front of the St. Clair Correctional Facility (SCCF), located at
1000 St. Clair Road in Springville.

FAM was started by men in Alabama state prisons to expose “the deplorable
conditions and the slave labor inside the cement walls” of the state’s
prisons. FAM has posted videos on You Tube in which over 80 men who are
incarcerated in the Alabama Department of Corrections give their personal
accounts about the inhumane living conditions they endure in Alabama
prisons.

Three Alabama maximum security prisons, St. Clair CF, Holman Correctional Facility,
and Donaldson Correctional Facility, all went on lockdown at some point in the past 10 days due to violent-related incidents.
Men and women are confined to their 8 by 12 foot cells 24 hours a day during lockdowns, and their family members
and friends cannot visit them.

On Jan. 25, several men on death row at Holman held a peaceful protest.
Holman officials have denied these men use of equipment to clean their
cells, and these men are being forced to eat cold sack lunches three times
a day. “We are human beings. Just because we’re on death row doesn’t mean
that we have to live like animals,” said one death row inmate. The guards
used pepper spray to punish the peaceful protesters in the segregation unit at Holman who were also protesting the inhumane living conditions.

SCCF has turned into one of the most dangerous prisons in America,
according to the FAM. The prison’s warden, Carter Davenport was previously
suspended in 2012 for assaulting a man confined at St. Clair in the head while he was
handcuffed.

Riot police have been called in at SCCF, according to FAM. In the last two
weeks, there have been at least 20 incidents in which people were
stabbed or assaulted by an officer,  at SCCF. Prisoner Jarvis “Flame” Jenkins was beaten twice by guards
and was seen with blood dripping from his clothes. Another SCCF prisoner,
Derrick LaKeith Brown, has been hospitalized with injuries for a week.

Prison officials Warden Walter Myers and Captain Darryl Fails, and others, removed  James Pleasant from his cell at Holman on January 23, 2015, and told him that he, Robert E.
Council (Holman) and Melvin Ray (St. Clair), known as the FAM 3, were problems to the ADOC and
threatened to kill them for exposing inhumane and illegal conditions inside
Alabama prisons.

FAM has been organizing Non-Violent and Peaceful Protests throughout the ADOC since January 1, 2015, when over a three week perios, over 4500 men participated in the demonstrated, which were supported by their families, friends, loved ones, and supporters nationwide.

For more information, call Ann Brooks at (256)783-1044.

UPDATED: On January 27, 2015, St. Clair CF went back on lockdown, where the overcrowding and lack of leadership from Warden Carter Davenport continues to cause a violent atmosphere.