Mongoose Distro

Circa July 2020

We had a visit from Lorie Davis (TDCJ-CID Director) today. From a time shortly before she and her entourage arrived, we must assume the guard at the main gate radioed a warning of her. The guard staff was frantic, at least in our dorm, and they remained so until she had departed.

The guard assigned to our dorm began screaming at the prisoners to put on their (cotton fabric) masks if they were outside their assigned kennel space, and to put on their masks if they went into the dayroom. One must understand that for her to scream, she had to remove her own (N-95) mask.

One June 18, the Plantation began serving hot lunches. This after two solid months (April 19-June 17) of cold, sometimes frozen, sandwiches three times per day. Today, the dorm went to lunch at about 1:00 PM; it was the first time in the last week that I observed most, but not all, of the guards wearing protective face masks.

Our second-shift guard was apparently displeased with the situation (of being required to wear his mask), so he stalked the dorm residents seeking any reason at all to write disciplinary cases on the slaves. He passed me in the asisle, between rows of bunks, as I was returning from the restroom. I heard him mumbling to himself, “Is he out of place?”. At this point, he had already threatened two other prisoners with disciplinary cases for being in the isle without their shirts on; nevermind that he himself, not having his nametag on, was also out of uniform.

There are two things worth noting here:

1. In the dorm environment, prisoner unifrom policy is called into enforcement only when an officer wishes to act spitefully toward a prisoner, or otherwise as a weapon to extract vengeance. The policy is not commonly enforced.
2. Officers frequently refuse to wear (or remove) their nametags to inhibit the prisoners’ ability to personally identify them in making complaints. If asked for their name, most will refuse to provide it.

There is, within the context of coronavirus, one other point worth noting here:

Clothe facemasks, with regards to controlling the spread of airborne pathogens are of questionable valuel. Some say they are of no value at all. They are being used by the prison, not as a means to control the spread of a deadly virus, but as yet another means to exert domineering control over powerless subjects. To exemplify this point: We were going to breakfast one morning a few days ago. As we were going out the door, the guard in the passageway said, “Make sure you are wearing your masks, even though I am not wearing mine.” I could provide a dozen or more similar examples of this behavio, but to do so would only be tedious.

How do we battle this? We battle it by having it drip from the lips of:

everybody who is currently in prison,

everybody who has ever been in prison,

everybody who is likely to go to prison,

everybody who knows anyone in any of these groups,

everybody who has ever worked or volunteered at a prison, and

everybody who is concerned about people being abused and exploited

I am not a big fan of prisons, and not only because I am being held hostage in one of them. I am not a fan of prisons because their promoted need is a fantasy, and because, as they are presently utilized, they acquiesce to neglect and abuse. I object to prisons because, in reality, they are little more than torture chambers.

Many believe that freemasonry sprouted out of the earlier mystical traditions of the rosicrucians, a secret society with secret knowledge, said to play major roles in revolutions throughout America, France and much of Europe, known to be heavily involved in the occult, alchemy and mysticism. Also, the reformation of society and self-improvement, ‘rosicrucian’, comes from the Latin meaning “rose” and “cross”. The significance of the cross is the crucifix, a symbol of divine love and illumination, but is also an ancient solar symbol with numeral and geometric significance. It can also represent the four directions and four elements, the intersection between heaven and earth, god and man, male and female, and is known to many Native American tribes as a medicine wheel, which could be the four sacred directions and the four worlds. The rose represents love, purity and beauty, and also the passing of time. It also can represent secrecy. The Latin phrase sub rosa means “in secret”. The color red in the rose represents blood.

It is said that rosicrucian societies have existed from 1614 to this present day. It’s also said the rosicrucian fraternity was founded in the early 15^th century by a German nobleman who had the allegorical name Christian Rosenkreutz. Said to have traveled and gained secret knowledge as a youth, he soon gathered eight disciples to teach. Rosenkreutz died in 1484 at the age of 104. The disciples of Rosenkreutz branched off and began training they’re own successors. Rosenkreutz had taught his disciples how to study the hidden forces of nature, the art of alchemy and medicine and how to harness the power of magic, all to be used to cause change and to transform society for the good of all. The end result would be a utopian vision. This meant overturning the established order. According to the manifestos, the eight original disciples were known as “the invisibles” or “the invisible college”.

In 1874, an anti-slavery campaigner by the name of Paschal Beverly Randolph founded the rosicrucian orders in Nashville and San Francisco. He committed suicide a year later. His legacy was soon inherited by R. Swinburne Clymer, who brought together a number of small societies under the banner of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis (Fellowship of the Rosy Cross), or FRC. The FRC still exists today and is known as the Beverly Hall Corporation. Many believe that rosicrucism and freemasonry were of separate philosophies which mixed together in the 18^th century. As with the Illuminati influence, the cross used by rosicrucian societies is also a chemical symbol for “light”. The illuminati can be traced back as far as 1776, when they were publicly identified. Noone is sure about when it was founded. Some say it was founded by a reptillian race from another planet to rule over humans and create a slave race. A sort of game or mining operation, the Illuminati is just one of many secret societies with Muslim ideals and their sights set on a world government, controlling all authority, using mind control and nano-technology, causing a worldwide pandemic for population control and for an excuse to put microchips beneath our skin using a vaccine, technology so microscopic that it’s in the vaccine. Modern day medicine handed out by the Red Cross, a symbol of two serpents intertwined looking like DNA molecules, the Red Cross may be an organization founded by the rosicrucians (the rosy cross) with a mix of the two serpents. Maybe a reptilian organization? Could this be a space race trying to gain total control, or just a human made fraternity using television and meth to control your minds?

Not many people know, but the two founders of the Mormon church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) were freemasons. In the 1800s-1900s the Mormon church had spread from Utah to the lands of the Navajo and Hopi. This spread secrets among many Navajo men, and also a small following that man do not know about. Already infested with withcraft, the Navajo lands were also home to many medicine men and women who were healers and crystal gazers. It was an area of good and evil, the good being the medicine men and women, and the evil being the shapeshifters and Navajo witches that take the shapes of wolves, owls, cougers and horses. From this, many secret societies were formed within the witches, clans of shapeshifters who practiced actual magic.

The House of Old being one of the clans, pretty much the most talked about around Tuba City, Arizona, this clan dates back to when the Mormon settlers came to the area. It’s said that they mixed some freemason ideals with their practices, which were adopted by the shapeshifter clan. It’s said that the House of Old are people who lived through the 1800s and are still living to this day. I have no doubt that this clan is still out on that reservation. I’m a resident of the Navajo nation and I see a lot of witchcraft and hear a lot of people talk. I’ve seen men turn into dogs. I’ve watched a man run through the desert at night and crawul up on a big rock only to turn into some kind of dog on two legs and hop off fifteen feet into the air. I’ve seen a woman’s face turn into ten other faces. I’ve seen a man with horse legs and an antelope head. I’ve had corpse powder blown into my face and I blacked out. So, I have no doubt that the House of Old exists. On the reservation, it’s very isolated and a lot of stories are told. Alot of things are seen and a lot of things remain mysterious.

Are you in control of your life? Ask yourself that question. Listen very carefully to the next song you hear. That’s my song to you. Stay in control of your life. Don’t be swayed into a corner. Fuck those feelings of fear ’cause it ma just be a frequency emitted by satlellite by DARPA or some other technology. Don’t think that God is evil because of religious wars. Secret societies wage war, not God. People ask me why I believe in God. They say, “I thought you were an anarchist?” Being an anarchist doesn’t mean I’m against God. Anarchos is a Greek word that means “without government”. I believe in God ’cause my Navajo tradition also has stories of the creator – “God”, and Jesus Christ went against the Roman government. That makes Jesus an anarchist. So, open up your eyes and live your lives.

Stay in control,

Br@n Sc@m

PO Box 2496

Tuba City, AZ 86045

Order other zines by Bran Scam from:

South Chicago ABC Zine Distro

Po Box 721

Homewood, IL 60430

Ask for Filth and Vomit #11 and #17

One must acknowledge having done wrong before repentance can be made, before one can muster the resolve necessary to commit to doing right. This is true for addicts of all assortments; and it is as applicable to a nation’s rulers as it is for the nation’s ruled. So before the United States can progress toward the end of racism, bigotry, and a plethora of other prejudicial and discriminatory behaviors, the federal, state and municipal governments must acknowledge that is they, through policies and practice who have continually sown the seeds of these poisonous plants. These seeds took root long ago, before this nation was a nation of its own. Well watered, they have continued to grow, and have produced an environment that is miasmic to harmony.

Here, we discuss police misconduct, because it has come to be identified as a major issue in the United States. It is important that we understand, however, that misconduct is not a problem exclusive to the police. The public hears about police misconduct because incidents involving the police are easy for the Press to see and report on; others, that will be identified later, act in either virtual or utter opacity, and are beyond the power of the Press. These actors, because they are invisible to the Press, are both more dangerous and harmful. For now, we will limit the discussion to police officers, and, specifically those who tend to be:

hostile,

aggressive,

violent,

racist,

generally hateful, or worse – indifferent;

and so the list goes on.

It would be both unfair and untruthful to apply this discription to all police officers, and perhaps applying it to most, or even many, would be as unjust, but it does apply to enough of them to attract serious public attention. Not all dogs are vicious, but enough are to make the prudent person weary of approaching a stray. But is a dog to be blamed for acting according to its nature, or for its poor training? This is the perfect analogical template from which to consider law enforcement profressionals: For who is it that is attracted to a acareer in law enforcement but the one who is naturally propensed toward hostility, aggression and violence? What have we, then, if this same individual was raised in an environment characterized by racism, bigotry and other hateful or indifferent behaviors? Such environments are bountiful in the U.S. As with all vicious dogs, prudence demands they be maintained on short leashes.

This is where our governments are failing in their responsibility to protect the people. In a vicious dog attack both the dog and owner alike are held responsible. Not so in vicious police attacks; in these, seldom is it that anyone at all is held accountable. Not only are these individuals (violent criminals in their own right) protected by their departments and their unions, but also by the courts, through a construct of the courts known as ‘qualified immunity’. This is a glaring example of the government protecting its own. Never do we hear about the enablers (i.e. the police chiefs, union presidents, or the judges who are granting immunity) being held accountable for creating the policies that enable such rogue behavior. Never do we hear of these individuals being taken to task for their contributory and enabling roles.

Police aggression and violence, along with other forms of official misconduct, and the tolerance and fostering of such behavior is paid for with the pain, suffering and lives of its victims. This costs American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually; perhaps more. The sun of accountability may be rising, however. There are positive signs appearing on the horizon. No longer can we allow public servants to be shielded from accountability, nor can we afford that benefit to their protectors (who are indirectly responsible). To shield government actors from the legal consequences of their misbehaviors is to pave the road to despotism. If these individuals are acting within the confines of the law, they have no need of a shield; they have no need of any protection beyond the protection of the law; the same protection that every other citizen enjoys, if these government actors are obeying the laws which they have been charged to enforce, they have nothing to fear.

If, on the other hand, these individuals are using their public positions to terrorize or harm the citizenry whom they have been charged to protect, they should be made to suffer double consequences for their willful abuse of public position. If those exercising authority over the citizenry are allowed to escape the consequences of their misbehaviors – this includes the policymakers, lawmakers, and judges, among others – in so allowing, we have given license to tyranny and surrendered our freedom to it. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis Brandeis declared:

“Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)

As mentioned earlier, the police are not alone on this road. Also traveling this path are jail and prison employees, but these groups do not share the police’s position under the spotlight of the Press. This is a fact that makes them more dangerous, not less. Prosecutors and trial judges are also here, and, like jail and prison employees, they occupy a position out of the limelight. The misconduct of this group is likely the most harmful of all, because it affects the greatest number of people, and because the effects of their misconduct can be felt by the victims of it for years, decades, or… lifetimes.

Henry Wade, Dallas County, Texas’ former District Attorney for 28 years is quoted as saying:

“Guilty ones are easy to convict. It takes real effort to convict the innocent.”

Criminal Legal News, Vol. 1 No. 13, Dec. 2018, p. 38

In a free and just society, no one can be “above the law”.

Steve McCain 2096064

Eastham Unit

2665 Prison Road 1

Lovelady, Texas 75851

Direct action means industrial action directly by, for, and of the workers themselves, without the treacherous aid of labor misleaders or scheming politicians; a strike that is initiated, controlled and settled by the workers directly affected is direct action. Direct action is combined action, directly on the job to secure better job conditions. Direct action is industrial democracy.

If the workers of the world want to win all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms in their pockets then all the property of the capitalists. As long as the workers keep their hands in their pockets the capitalists cannot put theirs in there. With passive resistance, with the workers absolutely refusing to move, lying absolutely silent, they are more powerful than all the weapons and instruments that the other side has for attack.

“We believe the most violent thing the workers can do is when they quit work.”

-Adolf Lessig (1913), IWW

Fellow workers, this is the moment to put all your differences aside, in the name of humanity, in the name of fraternity, equality, and liberty. I took it upon myself to speak out against injustices against prisoners. It is why I sit in this single-man cell without any justice for stat repression, showing the men that “no matter what”, “no matter how difficult” the journey. Solidarity will triumph over anything the state can throw at me. Here I stand with Texas Local Charter wobblies on Darrington Slave Camp, and beaming with joy, that not only our charter formed, but another on a different unit. There are no words, men and women in TDCJ, to express how fuckin’ proud you make me. Courage, strength and lots of humor has pulled me through. There is “a time for everything”, and for us, the time has arrived to destroy this slavecatcher cult that is TDCJ.

Those days are long gone, and while everyone ele is moving with the time, Governor Greg “Neanderthal” Abott and his Trumpian sidekick Lt. Governor Dan “Caveman” Patrick are still taking advantage of the people and leaving them in the dark, literally, about their own capitalist agendas. Dark money is the reason why millions went cold, dark money used to grease neanderthals’ bank accounts, whether foreign or domestic. Still, our fight is with the draconian criminal justice system that is plagued with the same corruption. I’ve made some really disgusting discoveries about the system, fighting Dirty Darrington’s administration. But, one badass discovery was – TDCJ is full of shit. It’s not equipped to stop a mass movement from outside-in. I’ve called their bluffs and faded their tortures, and in the end, I’m still here, and those who dared to attack me while in a cage are no longer employed here. Wining and liberating myself is wonderful and I want that for all.

On March 16, 2021 TDCJ shake-down team in riot gear kill another black man on Darrington on the unit that is now officially an IWOC unit. Our people need to pay close attention to the slavecatcher tactics the state of Texas allows peon officers to use on the inmate. I am under state repression for report 15+ suicides under this same warden. Now, he’s gone the extra mile to try to scare the prison population with his coward-ass attack on us slaves. For this reason, I unite with you to abolish this shit, for this very reason. Now, you can try to lie and say it’s accidental, but reality shows it’s not. I’ve taken on physical attacks, threats of attack, torture, segregation, and faux-disciplinary cases just for reporting suicides, and since I do not scare easy or fear my oppressor, he has to prove to his peers that he’s a true thug.

Don’t let Darrington go down without taking a piece of it with you. We hold more power united as one than this coward-ass agency. Slave tactics are useless against solidarity. Please tell our families the slave plantation is killing slaves. It started with just assaulting slaves. Now, Warden Bruce Armstrong is a bonified killer of slaves. Law of parties states if you are aware or in the vicinity of a murder, you too can be charged with murder. Not on Darrington, they just sweep it under the rug by lying to the victim’s family. The same tactic was used when 95 slave bodies were found in Sugarland, Texas at the hands of the same agency – TDCJ.

To the F-Line murder victim – REST IN POWER

Solidarity,

Z

TLC-IWOC, IU613

from supportericking.org

When someone is indicted federally, they are sent to either a private facility, or a Federal detention center (or held in county jail through US Marshal contracts). People indicted in Florence get sent to the Englewood FDC. Right now there are abortion bombers, people called killers, people called gang leaders, but not me. For the last 19 months, the admin or US Marshals (or both) have kept me in SHU (segregated housing unit) with no reason given.

At the FDC pretrial folks get to prepare for trial. They can call their lawyers daily and have in-person visits to review all evidence against them. At the fdc, prisoners have daily access to the law library and can print anything off pertinent to their case. In the SHU I am allowed 1 15 minute phone call per week with my attorney, we’ve never had an in-person visit, over a year and a half after being indicted, still haven’t been able to review our full discovery of evidence. There is a law library here and if you don’t mind filling a written request the guards will get you in there…. HOWEVER printing out documents can take weeks to retrieve, if ever. You will be charged for the paper and then told you never printed anything, maybe try again next week?

Being in the FDC is having a normalized pre-trial experience. You were able to make friends and enemies, use select fitness equipment and shower daily. You get to feel fresh air outside playing basketball or just walking the track. You can call or email your family as much as you like, you have a cell door so you can take a s*** without a guard monitoring your status. Real canteen is available to make your meals or buy songs for your mp3. You get to build bonds with the people around you, hear their stories and share yours. If you get a disciplinary write up you go to SHU you do your time (sanctions, it designated amount of time you will spend in segregation) then you come back, business as usual.

Since I’ve been back here I’ve seen the entire SHU get turned over except my neighbor Smiles and I, who has 8 months clear conduct and is spun constantly over his eligibility…. Days ago someone who had masturbated in front of multiple staff members was allowed back for the second time, Smiles and I still wait…

The admin lies over and over, it’s a mind game “if you do this, we will reward you” then some other excuse arises. The main excuse is I am a “threat to security” no one cannot explain what this means, this is not a designation. There is no manual I can read to further understand as a threat to security what I’m entitled. Meanwhile we’ll continue to wait, fighting a serious legal case while trying to maintain our sanity. The judges and prosecutors will say everything’s fine, but I haven’t seen the stars in two and a half years.

The system is rigged

This is why we fight

Prisons are not operating to rehabilitate you, but to tame, train and punish. The truth is out there: Mass corruption is everywhere in Texas, especially in TDCJ, and you, the very one they call a “resident”, is really a commodity. Your ID says “offender”, instead of worker/slave. TDCJ has no real intention of fixing you. Out of 100 units you only have one mental health facility, which is constantly reached out to by extremes to gain respite from the real TDCJ agenda – to exploit you. Why is TDCJ perpeprating to support PREA when they are the very reason why people get sexually assaulted/harassed? TDCJ creates the conditions by oppressing you and your family by not allowing them to send money or friends, yet you are expected to make them hundreds of thousands of dollars every day because TDCJ is a for-profit business, and you are how.

I have to give you workers a bit of education. You can change it all; it’s in our hands; we run the machines, the chow halls, laundries, every aspect of prison operation is dependent on us. Take workers power back into your hands. Stop the illusion. You are individuals with the most power, and I say unto the brothers: Collectively organized, we are unstoppable.

Development of organic ways to correct injustices o not lie in the hands of a peon warden or politician. It belongs to the community, the ones who are trying to help us now. The new culture of the criminal justice in place now is being taught here in TDCJ. “Strike First and Not Last”. This was how the US Department of Labor would make observations of Mexicans in Arizona from 1907-1917. The working class was observed as a threat since before us. History is repeating itself. Just pay attention to what’s happening in South Texas. “The problem with Mexicans is that strike comes first and not last.” Again, this is exactly how I am working to emancipate my brothers and sisters “in white”.

In 1905, Lucy Gonzales Parsons was fighting the same battle and made waves across the United Snakes of Amerika.

Lucy taught us:

“…and let me say to you brothers and sisters, remember that we are here as one brotherhood and one sisterhood, as one humanity, with a responsibility to the downtrodden and the oppressed of all humanity, it matters not under what flag or in what country they happen to be born in.”

As she continues, she spoke on the issues of gender equality:

“We the women of this country have no ballot even if we wished to use it, and the only way that we can be represented is to take a man to represent us. You men have made such a mess of it in representing us that we have not much confidence in asking you, and I for one feel very backard in asking the men to represent me. We have no ballot, but we have our labor. We are exploited more ruthlessly than men. Wherever wages are to be reduced, the capitalist class use the women to reduce them, and if there is anything that you men should do in the future, it is to organize the women.”

Brothers, as Texas Local Charter IWOC delegate, there is no doubt in my heart that our sisters in TDCJ need us. If the agency has you terrified of a bullshit disciplinary csae for free speech, can you imagne the mothers in TDCJ, threatened by removal from children they created. It goes deeper than this, but my point is, this union is for us to down the machine making millions upon millions on our blood and sweat.

Lucy Parsons goes on to say:

“The tools belong to the toiler. They are owned by the capitalist class. Do you believe they will allow you to go into the halls of the legislature and simply say, “Be it enacted, the capitalist shall no longer own the tools, and the factories and the places of industry, the ships that plow the oceans and our lakes?”

Do you think they will submit? I do not, hence when you roll under your tongue the expression that you are revolutionists, remember what that word means. It means a revolution that shall turn all these things over to where they belong – to the true producers of wealth.

A south Texan, speaking such beautiful words is just incredible, and like Lucy Parsons, I am a member of the IWW, and a delegate, as she was. Making the state of Texas tremble in fear with my organizing has been the greatest revenge I’ve ever imposed on an entity, a corupt agency, and my hand is extended to all brothers, sisters, fellow Texans. Please, stop supporting and keeping alive those who aim to kill you. Stop and demand your rights. Join the One Big Union. Join us in Texas Local Charter-IWOC (Houston Branch) to end prison slavery and force parole legislation that is tangible for the workers of the state. We have the power. In solidarity we make it happen for ourselves. No reforms, no substituting one corruption for another. Abolition. Let the new become the new. We let TDCJ die because it has no place in a colorful world. Just look around you.

Bill “Big Bill” Haywood said:

“You all come to Amerika with the expectation of improving your conditions. You expected to find a land of the free, but you found we of Amerika were but economic slaves as you were in your own home. I come to extend to you tonight the hand of brotherhood with no thought to nationality. There is no foreigner here except the capitalist and he will not be a foreigner long, for we will make a worker of him. Do not let them divide you by sex, color, creed or nationality, for as you stand today you are invincible. The IWW is composed of different nationalities and with sucha fighting committee you can beat “billy wood” [police repression]. Billy Wood can beat a Polishman, in fact he beat all the Polish, but he cannot beat all the nationalities put together. The foreign worker upon landing here is made to feels that he is inferior to the native product. The foreigner naturally resents being treated thus. At the same time, he cannot prove his equality or superiority because of the lack of dominating language. In IWW meetigs the foreigner is at the same disadvantage and as a rule little attention is given him. If the agitator does not actually feel that foreigner is every bit as intelligent and revolutionary as the native, he had better not mingle with him. Yet the organizer who goes out of his way to make the foreign element at ease finds that he is given more hearty support than the natives show. If you are a wage worker you are welcome in the IWW halls, no matter what your color.”

By this you may see that the IWW is not a white man’s union, but a working man’s union, all of the working class in One Big Union. Educate, organize, emancipate. My goals are for all men and women in TDCJ to understand the capitalist mindset and the tools and tactics they utilize to ensure the slaves stay terrorized and obedient. That way we will understand how to destroy it.

I am changing the “no win” policy by force. I’ve been alone for the whole first part, but I never gave up, and now that I have made my presence known, our business is to unite and organize, hit the most strategic areas of TDCJ’s operations that are inmate run, and hand the reigns back to the oppressor. Let them slave the farm themselves while we speak our minds and bring our demands to fruition. The hard part is not uniting, it’s organizing. We need to open as many lines of communication, so bring your family into it. Kids, wives, moms, pops, everyone.

For membership to Texas Local-IWOC, feel free to contact

our facilities in Kansas City:

Briana Peril

PO Box 414304

Kansas City, MO 64141

Lets get it!

Solidarity,

Z, TLC-IWOC

Largely because prisons are closed institutions to which neither the public nor the press nor prisoner rights advocates have access, the abuse that takes place within them exists largely as an unknown. As one might imagine, this fact only exacerbates the danger. It is upon this that I wish to shed light.

Abuse in US prisons is far more dangerous than it appears because little of it appears to be either serious or physical. And while there are episodes of physical abuse, they are – perhaps miraculously – kept to a minimum. “Serious”, however, is oftentimes in the eye of the beholder, and therefore deserves more “serious” consideration. Most of the abuse doled out and experienced in prison is subtle and psychological, rather than obvious and physical, and it is this subtly that allows it to perpetuate, that prevents its victims from crying out, and it is this same subtly that defeats them when they do cry out.

Charles Dickens visited Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary in 1842. Concerning the experience, he later wrote:

“The system is rigid, strict and hopeless… and I believe it to be cruel and wrong… I hold this slow and daily tempering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body.”

A victim will not cry out for fear of being labelled by both their peers and the courts; with derogatory terms by the former, and as a chaser of frivolity by the latter. Many that do cry out suffer a shared fate: Their complaints are labeled “frivolous” by the courts and dismissed on this ground. A singular incident may well appear frivolous, but when combined with other incidents, or influenced by exacerbating factors and continued over extended periods of time, the cummulative effect is anything but “frivolous”.

Consider this:

If someone comes occasionally banging on your door at 11 o’clock at night – or at two o’clock in the morning – you might consider it only a minor annoyance. But what might you consider it when it occurred more nights during the week than not? Would it still be only a minor annoyance, or might it come to present more serious connotations? Consider the following daily schedule:

Rack time (i.e. bedtime) 10:30

Roster count (if asleep, one is 11:00-11:30

woken up more times than not)

Breakfast 2:30-3:30

Morning medication 4:00-6:00

Workers (slaves) called out 4:30-5:00

There are some small variations to this schedule, but this gives a good sense of daily life in prison. Weekends are worse yet, as there is also a roster count at 1:00am and showers are also in the middle of the night. So, at what point does a minor annoyance become something far worse? At what point does it become abuse, or worse yet, torture?

Sleep deprivation is a well known and commonly employed tool of torture – Tyrants do so love their implements of torture – and one that is in continual use throughout the US prison system. Sleep deprivation is a nasty implement of torture, but it is not prison’s only implement. Its is but one tool in a very large toolbox.

Perhaps it is time the courts reconsider what is and is not frivolous.

Perhaps it is time the people took up the torch and forced the issue.

Many believe that prisoners get what they deserve. This is a fallacy, a fantasy. No one deserves what prison does to people. Death would be less cruel and more humane by far. Prison is not the solution to America’s crime problem; it is a primary contributor to it.

Challenges abound for the captive storyteller, for the public audience is only hesitantly, if at all, receptive. Alas, the public is the prisoner’s biggest skeptic; justly perhaps, but perhaps not. The criminal justice system pulled quite the fanciful trick when it managed to impeach the only voice that could authoritatively witness against it. It has been said that the great trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Well, in a like manner, the greatest trick the criminal justice system ever pulled was convincing the public that prisoners tell no truths. Oh yes, quite the fanciful trick indeed.

Presented here is not a single voice, not the voice of a lone writer, but a chorus of voices more than two million strong; they are crying out in the night, most too fearful to speak aloud or alone. Their plight begs for the public’s attention; it begs for yours. Listen closely. Do you hear them? They are neither shade nor shadow, neither spectre nor wraith. They are human – our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters – and they are alive. Their lungs pump air; their hearts, blood; and they feel, and they fear, and they hurt. It is difficult to see a defenseless people collapsing under the heavy burden of abuse and not yourself yearn to cry out. Is it not?

This is why opacity is so important to the survival of the prison institution: opacity is the prison’s protector; it prevents the public from seeing the abuse; it prevents the public’s crying out.

Open the prisons to the public. This must be our motto and mantra. These words must drip from our lips every time we speak; they must season our every conversation; they must radiate from our written words. Why? Because transparency is the key to reforming any institution, and prisons are no exception.

Prisoners cannot change the prison insitution alone, no matter how loud they scream (and they are seriously inhibited from screaming at all); they need the public’s help; they need yours. This is why this initiative is so important. As a closed institution, the public audience cannot see prison’s ever present abuses. This point was clearly made in ‘part one’ of this serious. The problem that prison reform advocates and activists face in attracting and securing public support is this: If prison’s abuses cannot be seen – recall that media also is absent – the need to reform them can neither be understood. Transparency places the public proximate to the problems. The preeminance of this cannot be overstated.

Prison policy makers and administrators, with steadfast resolve, declare themselves blameless and declaim against any wrongdoing, but they are equally unwavering in objecting to institutional transparency. Now, when has any actor ever been ashamed of a good performance? State governments object to transparency in the prison institution for two reasons:

1. They fear public outrage (though they would never admit this), and
2. They fear federal interference and policing.

At the same time, however, they refuse to adequately police their own operations, and they are loath to yield to the public’s will.

Who’s guarding the guards?

Though the position of prison guard, because of the nature of the prison environment, begs for an education and/or professional training in behavioral psychology, and though a humane prison operation demands it, prison hiring policies do not require it as a prerequisite for unemployment in that position, and the typical applicant does not possess it. The prison system could provide the training as early stage unemployment preparation, but they do not. For this, the prison institution must be held culpable for placing people in positions, and in an environment for which they are wholly unqualified, unprepared, and (for many) unsuited; and for placing them, at least potentially, directly in harm’s way.

Prison is an environment in which a large portion of the population has been diagnosed with some form of mental illness. Prison guards, uneducated, untrained in behavioral psychology, and not knowing how to appropriately respond to inmates with behavioral or other mental disorders, oftentimes become frustrated and angry, and respond to these prisoners not with professional compassion and understanding, but with aggression. And aggression begets aggression.

This is one of the principal problems in the prison environment. Aggression drives and is driven by fear; it is a cycle as perpetual as it is dangerous. This cycle creates a river of stress and tension which flows undamned, it’s current sweeping up all those in its path, prisoner and prison staff alike, and, in so doing, makes the prison environment potentially dangerous for both.

Many of the prison guards, but not all, approach the prisoners by shouting, yelling and screaming at them. This behavior is not absolute, but it is prevalent enough to cause serious problems, problems for which the prisoner has no equitable solution available. The prison staff is accuser, prosecutor, judge, hury and executioner. In a problem resolution, the prisoner has no voice at all. Except in calling for help, when an individual begins to yell, shout and scream at other individuals, those individuals have a tendency themselves to become aggressive and abusive. Recall, aggression begets aggression. Consider how many prison guards are guilty of such behavior: many, if not most. Why is this so? Ah! This is a key question indeed, but it is not necessarily the key question. That question would be, “Why is such behavior tolerated?” But, alas, it is more than merely tolerated; it is fostered.

Cruelty and abuse in the prison environment exist as a viral contagion and at epidemic proportions. These are diseases that have infected every level of every penal facility in operation in the United States; no facility is immune, be it an ICE facility, juvenile detention, Max or Super Max, state or federal prison, county jail, civil commitment facility, or some other. This, if nothing else, is absolute. These diseases have spread throughout the US penal insitutions with the same efficacy as coronavirus has demonstrated in spreading throughout the world, affecting and infecting people at every level, from the newest of corrections officer recruits to the most senior of the ranking officers, prison wardens, and top level administrators alike.

Why do prison staff members, specifically, (but not exclusively) the guard staff, exhibit aggressive and abusive behaviors? It should be noted here that verbal abuse incites anger that all too often assumes physical attributes. In this instance, there is no single answer to the question of ‘why’; there are, however, many variables that hold influence over this question. With a great deal of confidence, it could be said that, as with many other obstriable behavioral patterns, in many areas of life, peer pressure is a pivotal influence. As a young child learns through imitation, so does the newly hired prison guard; as the child imitates to gain acceptance from their social sphere, so does the prison guard from their professional sphere. Prison guards are human, and are no different from others in that they both desire and need to be accepted. So what is the newly hired prison guard to do but imitate what the other prison guards are doing? As peer pressure leads those weak of mind, will, and judgment to abuse drugs, alcohol, and more, so does peer pressure lead people to abuse power: For what is power but the most powerful drug of all.

Why does the managing staff allow and, ultimately, promote such behavior within the prison organization? In this regard, it must be said that climbing prison’s corporate ladder subjects one to not less peer pressure, but to more, which demands the ever increasing abuse of the intoxicated (i.e. power) and, as is true with chemical intoxicants, the intoxicant affects a different people in different ways. That said, being endowed with absolute power over the lives and destinies of other tends to corrupt all but the strongest of mind, will and judgment, all but the most compassionate of benevolent men and women among us. Remember Acton’s Law:

Power corrupts, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.

It should now be considered that many of the most aggressive and abusive prison guards were not corrupted by the prison environment, but, rather, were drawn to it because they themselves have a natural prpensity for aggression and violence, and the prison environment provides a ready stage upon which they can act out their nature (against a defenseless host – this is cowardice) with virtual impunity, under the protective wing of the state.

Completing this dangerous scenario is this: Under the extreme stress of serious or long-term continual abuse, either as a witness, a conductor, or a subject, the brain will anesthetize itself as a means of protection. It does much the same thing in shutting down major pain receptors following serious or traumatic physcial injuries. This anesthetic effect, as psychologically protective as it may be (i.e. it prevents one from being traumatized to the point of dysfunction), is likely what makes the prison environment as perpetually abusive as it is. The prison staff being naturally mean-hearted, or abusive, or uncaring and indifferent is not the greatest concern regarding the prison environment. As true as these things may be, and some undoubtedly are, they are a cornerstone, not the keystone. That would be this: What makes the prison environment so unnecessarily abusive, and what makes a closed prison institution most dangerous is the fact that, under the effects of the brain’s protective anesthesia, those involved in the abuse, either giving or receiving, reach a point where they no longer feel the effects of it. At such a point it is said that they have become desensitized; they live with neither affected feeling nor conscience; the clinical definition of a psychopath.

If I were not continually writing about the abuse in prison; if I were not reminding myself of it daily, hourly even, the effects of it would begin to deminish as my brain began releasing anesthesia. I would slowly lose the realization of the reality of the abuse, and I would no longer be so adversely affected by it. Writing about it continually, as I do, inhibits the brain’s natural protective processes by keeping the reality of the abuse ever present in the forefront of my mind. My disadvantage in this scenario is that it puts my own mental health at risk. My advantage, more important, more important to me by far, is that it enables me, empowers me, to continue telling the world about it.

This is why we need to open the prisons to the public, to the press, and to our advocates. This is why we need The Open Prison Initiative.

Team One begins this piece by offering our sincere condolences to the family of Mr. Bice and the families of all victims of state negligence and indifference. #PrisonLivesMatter

It was only months ago when the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner issued a statement, noting that prolonged solitary confinement amounts to psychological torture. Be that as it may, that exact form of torture is widely practiced and accepted as the norm in the self-ordained “land of the free”. Solitary confinement in excess of 14 days has been deemed “prolonged” by the UN.

Prisoncrats in the state of Texas falsely assert that they do not hold prisoners in solitary confinement. They make this false claim by not counting their restrictive housing ad-seg populations as solitary. However, such a practice is contrary to UN definitions on exactly what constitutes solitary. The United Nations deems solitary as any confinement where the prisoner is held in isolation for twenty-three hours or more hours a day. As of August 2019, Texas held over 6,500 people under such conditions, illegal conditions, we might add. More than 3,000 of those 6,500+ had been in isolation over a year. More than 650 had been in solitary for a decade or more and 145 had been isolated more than two decades. Because of this clear and continued arrogant disregard for human sanctity we say Governor Greg Abbott, TDCJ director Brian Collier, Allred Unit’s Warden Jimmy Smith and Psych. Staff member Mrs. Cherry are guilty of criminally neglegent homocide for the January 18, 2021 “suicide” of the Allred restrictive housing (RHU) solitary prisoner whom the writers only know by the surname ‘Bice’. We say that the above mentioned perpetrators should be judged by a ‘poor people’s court’, consisting of families who’ve been ravaged and victimized by the genocidal insitution that is prison. If found guilty, the punishment shall be the abolition of the TDCJ institution. We call this justice.

On January 19, a corrections officer McGraw, who found Bice unresponsive, reported to one of the writers that on the day in question, “I escorted Mrs. Cherry to Bice’s door. I heard him tell her three times that he was feeling suicidal. I later learned that he had a history of self-mutilation and suicide attempts. Mrs. Cherry had that information in her file for the inmate, but she still ignored him. She walked away. I did my rounds every 30 minutes, and on one of them I saw his feet peeking on the opposite side of the toilet. I asked was he okay. When he didn’t respond I called it in, but it was too late.”

As we write this piece on February 2^nd, Mrs. Cherry is still on duty, a paid representative of the State of Texas and the institutionalized genocide of working class people that is prison.

It is important here to illustrate the conditions which tragically led to Mr. Bice’s death. As stated in TDCJ’s own “restrictive housing plan”, “offenders in extended restrictive housing may develop symptoms of acute anxiety or other mental issues”. Therefore, TDCJ brass clearly understands that the basic conditions of this isolated confinement damages human beings, yet they do not care. We say again – #PrisonLivesMatter!

From late December until January 31^st the entire Allred Unit was on a “Covid 19 lockdown”. As we scribe this, captives in general population remain on lockdown, while restrictive housing has been let up. This is in response to Mr. Bice’s death. However, the public should know that the initial lockdown of RHU captives was arbitrary and unnecessary, as pods without any positive tests at all were locked down for over a month. Take into account the fact that we, RHU captives, are already “locked down” not only physcially but intellectually as well. Let’s illustrate further.

TDCJ defies state law, Tx.Gov.Code 501.009, by refusing to allow all inmates the opportunity to take part in mentally/intellectually stimulating programming, which would undoubtedly mitigate some of the pent up “anxiety and other mental issues”. The above government code mandates life skills, job skills, literacy and education classes, parenting, drug rehab, and religious courses for all TDCJ inmates. Of course this law is not being practiced, as RHU prisoners are routinely discriminated against for their/our social and/or political convictions.

Let’s also take into account that RHU prisoners are allowed only minimal phone time – 5 minutes weekly. This minimal amount was only made possible as a concession from the administration in response to a Team One instigated mass hunger strike in July 2020. Although TDCJ has approved both video visitation and prisoner friendly tablets as ways to further exploit the monopoly they have on their captives lives, RHU prisoners are not allowed access to these communication avenues, thereby further exasperating the psychological and emotional anguish that is solitary confinement (RHU) in general, not to mention during a pandemic.

So Mr. Bice, like over 6,500 others held captive in TDCJ’s torture chambers, was left isolated physically, ex-communicated, and intellectually unstimulated. On January 18^th he like others on Allred Unit seg/RHU/solitary was held on an arbitrary medical lockdown where out of cell time was non-existent, besides the occasional shower.

Couple these conditions with the unprofessional and incompetent psych/medical staff and it is no wonder that suicides and suicide attempts have been constantly on the rise in recent years. A close look of Mrs. Cherry’s inaction is necessary.

On each RHU pod the admin has designated cell #7 as a “psych cell”. This means that when psych staff such as Mrs. Cherry come around conducting “evaluations” the prisoners in question are to be escorted by security staff to cell #7, where Mrs. Cherry or other psych staff can conduct interviews and evaluations while allowing the prisoner the necessary privacy.

The problem is that this is never practiced. Staff are too lazy, or in their own words “too busy”, to do these escorts. On Janary 18^th laziness and incompetence is the only “excuse”, as all Allred inmates were on lockdown and the only activity security staff had to partake in daily for over a month was the serving of food trays.

So here it is, that even if Mr. Bice did not mention feeling suicidal he should have been escorted out of cell and more thoroughly evaluated, per policy.

Furthermore, upon him mentioning suicidal thoughts, Mrs. Cherry was obligated to insure that Mr. Bice was placed on suicide watch, per policy, where in every 24 hours he would’ve undergone subsequent evaluations until his suicidal feelings subsided.

Instead of taking these common sense steps, according to security staff member McGraw, Mrs. Cherry just “walked away”. Again, we say #PrisonLivesMatter!

In closing, We, Texas Team One, a collective of abolitionist and human rights activists ask that the public demand that Mrs. Cherry, Jimmy Smith, Brian Collier and Greg Abbott be held responsible for this preventable death. Further, we say that if the lives of those imprisoned by the state have no value, our families, communities and supporters on the outs should join in on helping us. #FreeEmAll!