Khalfani Malik Khaldun Transferred out of Special Confinement

Since December 13, 1994, Indiana Political Prisoner Khalfani Malik
Khaldun (aka Leonard McQuay #874304) has been held in control units,
i.e. administrative segregation or isolation. It began when Indiana
State Police and Indiana Department of Correction prison investigators
manufactured a murder charge against him when Indiana State Prison (ISP)
guard Phillip Curry was stabbed and killed.

Brother Khalfani, having established his presence in the system as a
Muslim and New Afrikan revolutionary educator and professed his strong
sense of radical politics and culture, was bounced from unit to unit. In
January of 2003 he was transferred to Wabash Valley Correctional
Facility and placed in the SCU (Special Confinement Unit), where he
engaged in years of civil state and federal litigation, while being
targeted, slandered, and misrepresented by racist prisoncrats and other
collaborating prisoners whose agendas he litigated against.

For years his food was tampered with and his incoming and outgoing mail
was, when it was not “lost,” was sometimes re-directed to the mail bags
of other, racist prisoners who opposed everything Khalfani stands for,
with the intention of sending idle threats or discouraging words to
destroy his outside support.

While on SCU, Khalfani pursued and completed every single available
educational program, with the intention of meeting the criteria
necessary to be reintegrated back into general population. His
completion of the ACT program, a program meant to serve as an incentive
for such release, worked for other prisoners, but not for Khalfani.
Despite the fact that the contract entered into in this program
specified that reintegration as a goal, Khalfani was denied. He never
gave up his intention to be released.

He launched a series of classification appeals demanding a full A/S
review with the superintendent p[resent to substantiate that he should
be released. In a nine-month period his request would be granted, and he
was reviewed by the superintendent four times. Superintendent Richard
Brown wanted to release Khalfani to Wabash Valley general population. He
tried to negotiate this release, but Director of Prisons James Basinger,
along with Governor Mitch Daniels, said no.

In conjunction with his pending civil litigation, on April 4, 2012
Khalfani filed a motion requesting the court to issue a permanent
injunction order to the Department of Correction to release him to
general population, with a memorandum of law in support of said motion.

Once the deputy Attorney General, representing the state defendants in
the suit, received a copy of the injunction, in short order the
prisoncrats served his transfer papers for department wide
administrative segregation at Pendleton Correctional Facility. Khalfani
signed the papers and he was transferred on 4/8/2012. Instead of
releasing him to population, he was housed in G-cell house and 17-2
range, designated as long term ad seg. This range consists of 21 cells
where prisoners are allowed to have one-hour recreation five days a
week, every other week day and weekends, and showers three days a week,
forcing them to take bird baths in the sink on the off days.

He has no physical contact with anyone. When he is removed from his cell
his is escorted by two officers and attached to a dog leash. The
recreational activities take place in a “dog cage.”

There are 14-18 prisoners out at a time in adjacent cages.

He is allowed to clean his cell once a week, on Sundays. He is allowed
to participate in the prison canteen (commissary), and when he has funds
may order up to $120.00 in food products and $50.00 in hygiene products
every two weeks. We encourage you to help this freedom fighter and
political prisoner to regroup after having spent more than nine years
exposed to low-intensity psychological warfare, housed in the barbaric
conditions of Indiana’s Special Confinement Units.

If you wish to aid in helping rebuild his survival box, you may contact
us on the address of this release. He has received very little mail from
the outside of late. The years of disappointment have taken their toll
on both Khalfani and his outside supporters. We call on you to send our
comrade some light and some love up there in that prison plantation. We
need to serve notice on the prisoncrats that he is not alone. We got his
back. We need to send a message that we are our brothers’ keepers no
matter what.

You may contact Khalfani personally at the address below:
Bro. Khalfani Malik Khaldun
(L. McQuay) #874304 GCH 17-2C
Pendleton Correctional Facility
4490 W. Reformatory Road
Pendleton, IN 46064

If you wish to make a contribution to help the campaign to free Khalfani
and aid in his survival package, send a check or postal money order
addressed to the person below, and he will transfer it to his account
(only those on his visitors list may transfer money to him).

Please distribute this release as widely as possible in the left
community, post of Facebook, whatever. We appreciate your reading and
digesting this message and appeal.

Mark Thiel Attn: Khalfani Fund
30 N. 19^th Street
Lafayette, IN 47904

Solidarity Call-in for Wabash SHU Prisoners

This is an *URGENT ACTION ALERT *asking for a solidarity call-in to demand
an investigation into abuses in the Secure Housing Unit of Wabash Valley
Correctional Facility and to protest the recent torture of our comrade
Shaka Shakur. We are asking people to make calls, starting a*t 830am EDT on
Monday February 6th through 430pm EDT Tuesday the 7th*.

*Bruce Lemmon, Commissioner IDOC:* *(317) 232-5711*, *fax *(317) 233-1474,

blemmon@idoc.in.gov >
*Richard Brown, Superintendent Wabash Valley Correctional Facility: **(812)
398-5050 ext 4102 <%28812%29%20398-5050>., fax *(812) 398-5032,* *

rbrown@idoc.in.gov >
*Jack Hendrix, Director of IDOC Classifications:* *(317) 232-2247, fax *(317)
232-5728,
jdhendrix@idoc.in.gov >
*
*
The SHU is Indiana's most repressive Super Max Prison, and is modeled after
the infamous Pelican Bay SHU. It holds many of Indiana's most political
prisoners in extreme isolation and sensory deprivation, many of them people
of color. It is a prison within a prison, in the rural south of the state,
and is imbedded with extreme racism and white supremacist organizing.

In August of 2011, prisoners there staged a multi-day protest aimed at
ending the state-wide lockdown that happened in response to a white
supremacist gang member being murdered. Prisoners in the SHU weren't
allowed access to recreation, showers, hygiene products (including water)
for their cells, and eventually had the power and water shut off
completely. The protest was successful in regaining the basic necessities
of life, but now it seems the administration is out to get those with a
history of no-comproise struggle against their conditions.

On Saturday the 21st of January, our comrade Shaka was forcefully removed
from his windowless cell, subjected to numerous invasive and humiliating
searches and eventually moved to an isolated part of the prison.

His property was thoroughly searched, x-rayed, replaced and then searched
again. He was placed in a 2ft x 3ft holding cell with only a toilet,
stripped down to his boxers. Guards on duty said this order came directly
from the Superintendent, Richard Brown. He was given water every 4 hours
and was only allowed to flush the toilet after a thorough search of its
contents.

Shaka immediately began a hunger strike, refusing all food and water from
this point on, until his release from this holding cell back to his
isolation cell. He maintained this hunger strike, even though the
conditions severely aggravated a herniated disk and kidney condition. He
remained in excruciating pain, in the 2x3ft holding cell until Wednesday
morning (4 days later), with no medical attention.

He was released back to his cell and started to take food and liquids again
on Wednesday, but his property remains gone. Political writings, books,
magazines, legal resources, family photos, even his glasses. It is all
presumed to be destroyed, as the prison officials have not presented him
with a confiscated property form.

He has been on the SHU for nearly a decade, with the quasi-official
designation of Administrative Segregation. He's has a clean conduct record
while there, but the state has refused to transfer him to population. Now
they're trying to kill him.

*We're asking for solidarity calls and actions aimed at getting the abuses
on the SHU stopped, on getting Shaka off the unit before he's murdered by
the State.*

This is not the first time such a call has been made. Recently, Indiana
based groups such as *Decarcerate Monroe County*, *The City of Bloomington
Human Rights Commission* and *The Progressive Faculty Coalition at Indiana
University* have called for an investigation into white supremacist
organizing amongst guards in the SHU at Wabash Valley. The state has thus
far dismissed such claims, and has made no effort towards explaining their
complicity in such organizing.

*Please call the following IDOC administrators. Please engage in solidarity
actions. Please tell Shaka you stand with him!

Bruce Lemmon, Commissioner IDOC:*
*(317) 232-5711*, *fax *(317) 233-1474,
blemmon@idoc.in.gov>
Call him to express horror at the actions of the Superintendent and Staff
of Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at the treatment of Shaka and to
demand adequate medical treatment and review of his continued placement in
isolation. Demand an investigation into practices of torture and denial of
basic human necessities in the SHU. Express your outrage at the continued
complicity of IDOC administrators in the known white supremacist organizing
amongst guards at Wabash Valley.

*Richard Brown, Superintendent Wabash Valley Correctional Facility:
**(812) 398-5050 ext 4102 <%28812%29%20398-5050>., fax *(812) 398-5032,* *

rbrown@idoc.in.gov

Call him to express outrage at his treatment of Shaka, his orders to hold
him for days on end without medical care in a holding cell, and demand the
return of all of his property undamaged.

*Jack Hendrix, Director of IDOC Classifications:*
*(317) 232-2247, fax *(317) 232-5728,

jdhendrix@idoc.in.gov>
Call him to demand Shaka's immediate release from Administrative
Segregation and housing on the SHU. Shaka has many years of clear conduct
and yet the IDOC refuses to release him to general population. His housing
on the SHU is leading to extremely dangerous health and safety conditions
for him.

Write to Shaka and let him know you're behind him:
Shaka Shakur #135647
WVCF
PO Box 1111
Carlisle, IN
47838

For more information or for more background information on recent events in
the SHU, contact
indianaprisonersolidarity@gmail.com

Support Prisoners in Indiana SHU

This is an URGENT ACTION ALERT asking for a solidarity call-in to
demand an investigation into abuses in the Secure Housing Unit of
Wabash Valley Correctional Facility and to protest the recent torture
of our comrade Shaka Shakur. We are asking people to make calls,
starting at 830am EDT on Monday February 6th through 430pm EDT Tuesday the 7th.

Bruce Lemmon, Commissioner IDOC: (317)
232-5711, fax (317) 233-1474,
blemmon@idoc.in.gov
Richard Brown, Superintendent Wabash Valley Correctional Facility:
(812) 398-5050 ext 4102., fax
(812) 398-5032,
rbrown@idoc.in.gov
Jack Hendrix, Director of IDOC Classifications:
(317) 232-2247, fax
(317) 232-5728,
jdhendrix@idoc.in.gov

The SHU is Indiana's most repressive Super Max Prison, and is modeled
after the infamous Pelican Bay SHU. It holds many of Indiana's most
political prisoners in extreme isolation and sensory deprivation,
many of them people of color. It is a prison within a prison, in the
rural south of the state, and is imbedded with extreme racism and
white supremacist organizing.

In August of 2011, prisoners there staged a multi-day protest aimed
at ending the state-wide lockdown that happened in response to a
white supremacist gang member being murdered. Prisoners in the SHU
weren't allowed access to recreation, showers, hygiene products
(including water) for their cells, and eventually had the power and
water shut off completely. The protest was successful in regaining
the basic necessities of life, but now it seems the administration is
out to get those with a history of no-comproise struggle against
their conditions.

On Saturday the 21st of January, our comrade Shaka was forcefully
removed from his windowless cell, subjected to numerous invasive and
humiliating searches and eventually moved to an isolated part of the prison.

His property was thoroughly searched, x-rayed, replaced and then
searched again. He was placed in a 2ft x 3ft holding cell with only a
toilet, stripped down to his boxers. Guards on duty said this order
came directly from the Superintendent, Richard Brown. He was given
water every 4 hours and was only allowed to flush the toilet after a
thorough search of its contents.

Shaka immediately began a hunger strike, refusing all food and water
from this point on, until his release from this holding cell back to
his isolation cell. He maintained this hunger strike, even though the
conditions severely aggravated a herniated disk and kidney condition.
He remained in excruciating pain, in the 2x3ft holding cell until
Wednesday morning (4 days later), with no medical attention.

He was released back to his cell and started to take food and liquids
again on Wednesday, but his property remains gone. Political
writings, books, magazines, legal resources, family photos, even his
glasses. It is all presumed to be destroyed, as the prison officials
have not presented him with a confiscated property form.

He has been on the SHU for nearly a decade, with the quasi-official
designation of Administrative Segregation. He's has a clean conduct
record while there, but the state has refused to transfer him to
population. Now they're trying to kill him.

We're asking for solidarity calls and actions aimed at getting the
abuses on the SHU stopped, on getting Shaka off the unit before he's
murdered by the State.

This is not the first time such a call has been made. Recently,
Indiana based groups such as Decarcerate Monroe County, The City of
Bloomington Human Rights Commission and The Progressive Faculty
Coalition at Indiana University have called for an investigation into
white supremacist organizing amongst guards in the SHU at Wabash
Valley. The state has thus far dismissed such claims, and has made no
effort towards explaining their complicity in such organizing.

Please call the following IDOC administrators. Please engage in
solidarity actions. Please tell Shaka you stand with him!

Bruce Lemmon, Commissioner IDOC:
(317) 232-5711, fax
(317) 233-1474,
blemmon@idoc.in.gov
Call him to express horror at the actions of the Superintendent and
Staff of Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at the treatment of
Shaka and to demand adequate medical treatment and review of his
continued placement in isolation. Demand an investigation into
practices of torture and denial of basic human necessities in the
SHU. Express your outrage at the continued complicity of IDOC
administrators in the known white supremacist organizing amongst
guards at Wabash Valley.

Richard Brown, Superintendent Wabash Valley Correctional Facility:
(812) 398-5050 ext 4102., fax
(812) 398-5032,
rbrown@idoc.in.gov
Call him to express outrage at his treatment of Shaka, his orders to
hold him for days on end without medical care in a holding cell, and
demand the return of all of his property undamaged.

Jack Hendrix, Director of IDOC Classifications:
(317) 232-2247, fax
(317) 232-5728,
jdhendrix@idoc.in.gov
Call him to demand Shaka's immediate release from Administrative
Segregation and housing on the SHU. Shaka has many years of clear
conduct and yet the IDOC refuses to release him to general
population. His housing on the SHU is leading to extremely dangerous
health and safety conditions for him.

Write to Shaka and let him know you're behind him:
Shaka Shakur #135647
WVCF
PO Box 1111
Carlisle, IN
47838

For more information or for more background information on recent
events in the SHU, contact
indianaprisonersolidarity@gmail.com

Three Arrested at New Year's Eve Noise Demo/Dance Party in Bloomington, Indiana

Jan. 1, 2012 Anarchist News

This is a report back from the perspective of one participant in Saturday
night's demonstration:

Saturday night around fifty people gathered at the Occupy Bloomington camp
in People's Park for a roving dance party and noise demonstration outside
the Monroe County jail. The party left the park just before 11pm heading
west on Kirkwood Ave toward the square. The mood was festive as those
dancing in the street traded greetings of "Happy New Year!" with other
revelers on the sidewalks, in cars, and in windows overlooking the square.

Early on the dance party/march had the unwelcome escort by the BPD, though
the flashing lights did add to the celebratory atmosphere. It was the
first time the cops have shown any real interest in a march associated
with "Occupy Bloomington" since the camp was established nearly three
months ago. At this point they were mostly following the march and
blocking traffic along the route they assumed would be taken. Only a few
cars got aggressive towards the dancers, while most people were excited to
see such an unconventional method of bringing in the New Year. Our numbers
would occasionally swell as people on the sidewalks and in bars would run
out to join us for a minute before returning to their regularly scheduled
programs.

The march arrived at the jail at 11:30pm where more dancing ensued. At
this point three or four police cars were blocking the three-lane one-way
street, one or two cops were parked at the other end of the block, and a
couple more patrolled the area. Sparklers were lit and small fireworks
were ignited. One comrade read a statement through a megaphone expressing
solidarity with those people locked inside the jail and against this
prison society. It was inspiring to hear pounding on the windows from the
inside as we cheered from the outside. Just before midnight a banner that
read "Break Your Chains" was dropped from the Hilton hotel across the
street from the jail. Then at midnight huge 4th-of-July-like fireworks
shot into the sky. People continued to dance and cheer as the night sky
was lit up with thunderous booms and showers of light. It truly felt like
we were in control.

At maybe 12:30am the crowd danced up the street a few blocks towards the
newest hipster bar in town, pausing along the way to watch another huge
firework or four shoot up into the air. Tourists and revelers alike looked
on from the sidewalks and hotel windows, fucking iphones in position. Upon
arriving at the hipster bar, our numbers swelled to well over 100 and
maybe 150 as well-groomed partiers came out to dance and be seen in the
street. While the whole scene was being closely monitored by over a dozen
cops, it looked as if they were going to let the party ride out and fizzle
on its own accord. But that's not what happened.

Last call drew many back into the bar, and a much small crowd made its way
back north on College Ave. Somewhere in the mix a bottle was broken on the
sidewalk. Soon after that a pig-shaped pig jumped out of his car and
tackled a comrade on the edge of the larger group, punching him in the
head as he lay helplessly below the much larger cop. People initially
tried to pull our friend back to safety, but were unsuccessful. This lead
to verbal confrontations in the street between pigs and protestors. At
this point the crowd had dwindled and become more scattered. More cops,
including university cops, BPD, and Monroe County, showed up. The march
turned east on Kirkwood as fifteen cops or so followed on foot, ordering
people out of the street. By the end, two more comrades were arrested
during the confrontation. The crowd finally dispersed around 1:30am.

One comrade is being held on a misdemeanor with a $650 bond. Another
received a minor charge and got OR'd. The last person, however, is being
charged with 4 D felonies, including 3 battery on an officer. For some
reason his bond was set at $750, but was being held for 24 hours anyway.
We hope that by the end of today (Sunday) everyone will be out of jail.

This was not the first march since the dawn of "occupy bloomington," but
it was certainly the most confrontational and empowering. It will be
interesting to see the response from the city government, who so far have
taken a largely ambivalent stance towards the occupation. Last night's
demonstration was refreshing to see in a town run by self-congratulatory
and "enlightened" liberals of the Democratic Party and Indiana University,
who have grown comfortable with the docility of their constituents. This
resevoir isn't calm as it once was, and it's time to rock the boat.

Until every prisoner is free.

Call 8/1-2 for Wabash Valley SHU Prisoners

From NYC ABC

Please forward this:

*Indiana:  Solidarity with Wabash Valley SHU Protests.  Emergency call-in
days August 1 and 2!

The call-in days are Monday, August 1 and Tuesday, August 2nd.  Wabash
Valley administration can be reached at (812) 398-5050.   The Indiana
Department of Corrections commissioner can be reached at (317) 232-5711*

On the morning of 7/16, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood was stabbed by
other prisoners.  The attack took place at Pendleton Correctional Facility
in the Maximum Security area of the prison.  The administration used the
stabbing as a justification for putting every prison in the state on
lockdown and conducting system-wide searches, raids, and beatings.  Since
the lockdown began, inmates at the Secure Housing Unit at Wabash Valley had
been denied access to water for bathing, sanitation, and cleaning their
cells.

In response, a protest took place at the SHU last week.  Inmates initiated a
response to the administration's refusal of basic sanitation needs. The
inmates flooded the range and have begun a campaign of noise disturbance.
In response, the guards cut off all water and electricity to the SHU...

Inmates threw a t-shirt over the security camera on the range and bombarded
the guard pod with feces and piss thrown from their cells:
“If we have to live in filth, so do you.”  Electricity and water were turned
back on at 4 am, after many hours without either. Their demands for
sanitation and clean water were finally addressed later that evening.

As a condition of coming off this brutal lockdown, the prisoncrats have
instituted an intervention by the Internal Affairs Security Threat Group
officers to subject the entire prison to interrogations and forced
debriefing, including photographing of tattoos and forced declarations of
organizational allegiances. The prison officials have said that they won't
come off lockdown until everyone has been subjected to these measures.

Struggles in prison can't sustain themselves if, on the outside, they only
encounter the deadening silence of social submission.  By remaining passive
on the outside, we give the prison system more room to do whatever it wants
to the prisoners in struggle.  The inmates at Wabash Valley are protesting
to end the system-wide lockdown, to defend their access to basic needs and
their dignity.  Without solidarity, this protest could be drowned in
beatings and blood, so let's break the social silence that allows the Secure
Housing (isolation) Units and prison to play their normal, murderous role.
Indeed, raids against the rebellious blocks are ongoing right now.

Close the Secure Housing Units and isolation regimes – Isolation is always
torture!

Solidarity with the hunger strikers in California prisons and the protests
spreading in the Indiana prison system!

Down with prison-society!

************************************************
In support of the prisoners' struggle, an Anarchist Solidarity Initiative in
Bloomington is making the following call:

For active and subversive solidarity with the prisoners, to be practiced by
whoever feels affinity with their struggles.

For specific call-in days on Monday, August 1 and Tuesday, August 2nd.
Wabash Valley administration can be reached at (812) 398-5050.   The Indiana
Department of Corrections commissioner can be reached at (317) 232-5711

*We demand, in solidarity with the prisoners:*
*-A restoration of access to water and sanitation.
-An end to the system-wide lockdown and brutal searches.
-An end to forced debriefing and interrogation.
-That no prisoner faces repercussions for their participation in protests.*

The Department of Corrections is constantly planning to expand the prison
system.  Last year, it contracted with GEO Group to build a new private
prison.

Indiana: Solidarity with Wabash Valley SHU Protests. Emergency call-in days August 1 and 2!

From NYC ABC

Please forward this:

Indiana:  Solidarity with Wabash Valley SHU
Protests.  Emergency call-in days August 1 and 2!

The call-in days are Monday, August 1 and
Tuesday, August 2nd.  Wabash Valley
administration can be reached at
(812) 398-5050.   The
Indiana Department of Corrections commissioner
can be reached at (317) 232-5711

On the morning of 7/16, a member of the Aryan
Brotherhood was stabbed by other prisoners.  The
attack took place at Pendleton Correctional
Facility in the Maximum Security area of the
prison.  The administration used the stabbing as
a justification for putting every prison in the
state on lockdown and conducting system-wide
searches, raids, and beatings.  Since the
lockdown began, inmates at the Secure Housing
Unit at Wabash Valley had been denied access to
water for bathing, sanitation, and cleaning their cells.

In response, a protest took place at the SHU last
week.  Inmates initiated a response to the
administration's refusal of basic sanitation
needs. The inmates flooded the range and have
begun a campaign of noise disturbance.  In
response, the guards cut off all water and electricity to the SHU...

Inmates threw a t-shirt over the security camera
on the range and bombarded the guard pod with
feces and piss thrown from their cells:
"If we have to live in filth, so do
you."  Electricity and water were turned back on
at 4 am, after many hours without either. Their
demands for sanitation and clean water were
finally addressed later that evening.

As a condition of coming off this brutal
lockdown, the prisoncrats have instituted an
intervention by the Internal Affairs Security
Threat Group officers to subject the entire
prison to interrogations and forced debriefing,
including photographing of tattoos and forced
declarations of organizational allegiances. The
prison officials have said that they won't come
off lockdown until everyone has been subjected to these measures.

Struggles in prison can't sustain themselves if,
on the outside, they only encounter the deadening
silence of social submission.  By remaining
passive on the outside, we give the prison system
more room to do whatever it wants to the
prisoners in struggle.  The inmates at Wabash
Valley are protesting to end the system-wide
lockdown, to defend their access to basic needs
and their dignity.  Without solidarity, this
protest could be drowned in beatings and blood,
so let's break the social silence that allows the
Secure Housing (isolation) Units and prison to
play their normal, murderous role.  Indeed, raids
against the rebellious blocks are ongoing right now.

Close the Secure Housing Units and isolation
regimes � Isolation is always torture!

Solidarity with the hunger strikers in California
prisons and the protests spreading in the Indiana prison system!

Down with prison-society!

************************************************
In support of the prisoners' struggle, an
Anarchist Solidarity Initiative in Bloomington is making the following call:

For active and subversive solidarity with the
prisoners, to be practiced by whoever feels affinity with their struggles.

For specific call-in days on Monday, August 1 and
Tuesday, August 2nd. Wabash Valley administration
can be reached at (812)
398-5050.   The Indiana Department of Corrections
commissioner can be reached at (317) 232-5711

We demand, in solidarity with the prisoners:
-A restoration of access to water and sanitation.
-An end to the system-wide lockdown and brutal searches.
-An end to forced debriefing and interrogation.
-That no prisoner faces repercussions for their participation in protests.

The Department of Corrections is constantly
planning to expand the prison system.  Last year,
it contracted with GEO Group to build a new private prison.

Indiana Inmate Murdered, Entire State on Lockdown

July 28, 2011 moorbey

This is a statement of fact and analysis written collaboratively
between folks on the inside and the outside of Indiana prisons. Our
goal here is to contribute to opposing and actively resisting all
forms of domination, be they imposed directly by the state or
manifested through structural inequalities and prejudices.

Recap of Recent Events:

On the morning of 7-16, an alleged white supremacist was stabbed and
killed by two alleged Latin Disciples. The attack took place at
Pendleton Correctional Facility in the Maximum Security area of the
prison. The murder, coming on the heels of inmate murders at Miami
Correctional Facility and Pendleton Correctional Facility earlier in
the year, was the stated pretense for putting all institutions in the
state on lock down and conducting thorough, far reaching searches.

While many of the lesser security units and institutions have come off
lockdown, prisoners at Pendleton, Wabash Valley and the Indiana State
Prison are still facing raids and searches. The searches at first
seemed to be targeting alleged gang members, in search for contraband
materials that could be used in retaliatory attacks, but it has also
been used as an excuse to harass and attack inmates across the board,
especially those at the Wabash Valley SHU. The SHU houses many of the
states political prisoners and the leadership of much of the political
organizing that has taken place over the past 3 decades in Indiana
Prisons.

Recently on the SHU, CERT and other such ‘emergency response teams’
have entered the cells of many different inmates, unannounced and
unprovoked, in full riot gear in order to carry out violent and
destructive searches, in clear violation of their own policies. This
is despite the fact that the SHU has not only been on total lockdown
since 7/17 /11 but had just gone through an intense search of personal
property by these same teams looking for contraband. Many different
people have been transferred and shuffled around, with transfers off
the SHU being given in accordance with predictable race based
prejudice.

A personal account of what has taken place on the SHU:

“Now scores are being settled by reactionary guards who have been
given a green light to target anyone they choose for assault.

Imagine sitting in your cell reading, or watching TV n suddenly your
door rolls open and hear comes a five man team of guards in riot gear
beating, kicking n throwing u to the ground to be handcuffed while
screaming ‘stop resisting!’

This is what’s taking place on a daily basis on the SHU at Wabash Valley
Prison.

These assaults are without warning or provocation. In violation of DOC
policy n operating procedures, in violation of the United Nations
Standard Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners and US constitutional
law…Prisoners are not being given any due process. We are not being
given the opportunity to cuff up or even being asked. The DOC by its
on policy is required to have a camera present video taping in any
kind of cell extraction. Cameras are non-existent! There is no
recording… Only your word against the guards.

Prisoners who are political, progressive, jailhouse lawyers or
convicts who do not snitch are the prime targets.

This is designed in part to boost the morale of overworked and
underpaid guards who have been complaining about working conditions n
pay. This is designed to unify and close ranks amongst terroristic
guards who have been complaining that SHU prisoners have it to easy
[this despite the fact we are locked in our cells 23 hours a day!
Despite the fact that outside of GED no rehabilitative, educational,
counseling programs exist on the unit or that all visits are by video
monitor or you’re only allowed one phone call a week! That people have
been held under these conditions on average 3yrs or more, some as long
as 10!] Hey boost morale lets stomp a prisoner head in!

It is also designed to intimidate and soften up the rest of the
prisoners held on the SHU. The message being this could happen to you!
Resist, open your mouth, file a grievance or lawsuit and this could be
you! Refuse to be a snitch or debrief and this could be you.”

Inside sources have noted that the white supremacist organizations
that have come under attack lately have in the past and today continue
to enjoy institutional support, from job placements that allow the
construction and distribution of weapons to favorable transfers that
facilitate the development of a strong base of members in certain
units or institutions. This treatment is, in effect, allowing them to
build up their institutional infrastructure in order to recruit more
into their ranks and expand their activities.

Everything from drug distribution networks to fake IDs are at their
disposal, following from their elevated status and treatment by the
administration. The Department of Corrections is facing escalated
racial tensions that they have purposefully helped to create, and are
using such manifestations of this tension as pretense for increased
security measures and violence against those who dare speak out.

An analysis of the racial politics of this recent crack down from
inmate Frank Talk:

“Prisoners that display a certain profile in terms right wing politics
or racist politics or whatever have always enjoyed a certain
skin-privilege. This privilege, coming from the Department of
Corrections, is geared towards disrupting progressive movements for
prison struggle, disrupting solidarity amongst prisoners within the
state of Indiana to fight a collective struggle against their
conditions. That is, it is a privilege based in supporting activates
of a criminal nature that do not directly challenge the status quo of
prison control, that don’t attack the power of the administration.

If you go back to when they first started opening up Super-Max units
and SHU units in the state of Indiana, starting in 1991, and look who
was on these units, they were mostly occupied by political prisoners,
jailhouse lawyers, young guys who were just rebels, and guys that was
challenging the overt racism that was being perpetrated by the system,
responding to the attacks on black people in general. Then you got
guys who were influential amongst other prisoners. This included many
white supremacists or white pride folks, who held these but were
anti-administration as well. They were being punished for
collaborating or cooperating with the black prisoners or New Afrikan
prisoners They were standing on what we call the ‘convict code’ or
standing on political views of we do not support the guards, we do not
support the system, we do not support the administration.

Back in the ’80s and early ’90s you had a breed that were white pride
and whatever, but they were also anti-administration. You could
approach these dudes and create some lines of solidarity or unity
around conditions or the issues that were affecting prisoners as a
whole. But you didn’t see the leadership of the white supremacist
organizations in these lockup units, and you still don’t today. These
guys don’t challenge the administration’s control; they play the game
as a reactionary police force, an auxiliary police force, and are
encouraged and rewarded as such.

Today, most of the white supremacist guys are reactionaries. You know,
these guys they hate us, they hate black people more so than they hate
the police, more so than they hate the administration, more so than
they hate their own oppression; in actuality the majority of these
guys have a police mentality. Their conduct is more of an agent
provocateur nature, and this is why the administration and the
Department of Corrections as a whole turn a blind eye or actively aid
and assist these organizations in building up their infrastructure and
bases of operation, because they have a police mentality, because of
the fact that their daily activities are geared towards expanding
their criminal mentality, it’s not geared towards challenging the
administration. It’s not geared towards creating unity or solidarity
amongst prisoners, so in actuality these organizations are a police
force: they carry out hits for the state, they disrupt activities
geared towards progressive activities or forms of solidarity.

On the SHU at Wabash, where the racism is blatant, the guards with
white supremacist views are in your face. Some of these guards belong
to white supremacist organizations, others exhibit a ‘benign racism’,
where hating people of color is ‘just how they are’ culturally
speaking. Within the administrative dealings, in terms of who gets
reviews and who is released from the SHU, it’s blatantly
discriminatory. If you look into the facts of who has remained in
these units for 5, 10 years, its obvious. If you look into who has
been prosecuted for murder by the Department of Corrections, again, is
blatantly disproportionate in terms of race. These are signs from the
State, signals of what is allowed and what isn’t and who is able to
get away with certain things. People like myself and other political
prisoners who are geared towards a progressive agenda, a revolutionary
agenda, we are punished and isolated and there’s an agenda to destroy
us mentally and physically. And that’s the order of the day all across
the state.

We as radical minded people try to unify and reach across racial lines
to join in efforts to better our conditions, to better expose and
educate other prisoners to the social reality that we’re dealing with
behind these walls and in this country. We’re opposed to all forms of
oppression and strive to work together to combat them as they affect
us all. Today that’s a hard draw. Today we’re dealing with a younger
population; we’re dealing with more reactionary violence. There are so
many internal contradictions amongst ourselves in terms of the youth,
in terms of the drug use, in terms of the reactionary gang violence on
the streets, and that spills over to the prison system.

And it’s hard to want to reach out to some of these white supremacist
dudes; it’s hard not to just hate these mutherfuckas, man. It’s hard
to reach out to these dudes who got swastikas on their chest and are
espousing all kinds of reactionary views. And personally, I’m of the
mindset that there are going to have to be some hard examples set,
some lines drawn in the sand if there are going to be any strategies
of reaching across certain lines.

And you know, a lot of these cadres, they’re not as hard-core as they
front, compared to what’s going on in California for example. A lot of
these guys that claim to be racist and whatnot, they cowards; I don’t
say that from biases, I’m just being real, if they were locked up in
another state, there own people would kill’em. A lot of the youth, the
majority of this white youth, they come in here into hip-hop culture,
they’re listening to rap, they’re listening to Jay Z, and yet they
supposed to be hard core racists. You sneaking in to watch B.E.T., but
you’re claiming to be a racist. In other places, this wouldn’t stand,
their own people would kill’em.

They just bond together out of fear and ignorance. And it’s the same
with the leadership. The leadership claim to be convicts who
facilitate breaking bread and engaging in various business ventures
with all kinds of prisoners, they subscribe to a convict code of
non-cooperation with the administration, yet they do not have any
discipline within they ranks, they don’t hold they rank and file
accountable for breaking this code. It’s like you got a puppy, you got
a puppy and he’s shitting and pissing all over the place. You not
disciplining this puppy, you’ve got to take a newspaper to his behind
and train this puppy.

That’s what they’re facing; they got guys that come on these units,
they’re dealing with a small amount of time and causing conflicts with
other prisoners. These young guys are throwing feces and urine and
spoiled milk on other prisoners, a lot of times for the guards, for
the police. These white supremacist guards might have a conflict with
a certain inmate, so they will talk to these young white guys, bond
with them and get them to throw shit in an inmates cell. So for them,
it’s not about having an identity as prisoners, a bond as prisoners; I
mean, you can subscribe to whatever views, but for these young white
supremacists, it’s not about us and them, it’s us, you and them. You
hate other prisoners more than you hate the state, you hate prisoners
more than you hate the guards, you hate prisoners more than you hate
the mutherfucka who got they foot on your neck.

And so, in my mind, you are one of them! And the State and the
Department of Corrections encourages this type of behavior, encourages
this type of conduct by allowing these guys to organize and by
concentrating them in certain areas, giving them jobs to create and
manufacture weapons and to distribute their materials. In other words,
they’re encouraged to build a base of operations. If you fraternize
using your skin privilege, you’re allowed to engage in certain
conduct; whether it’s drugs or violence or what have you. All with the
knowledge that you’re not going to be held on these isolation units
for 5 or 10 years like a lot of the New Afrikan or political
prisoners.

A lot of the guards too, especially down here at Pendleton and at the
Farm, subscribe to or are members of themselves some of these white
supremacists organizations. Which makes them more open to
collaborating or communicating with some of these other elements
within the prison. And we do not know, yet, to what extent these guys
are working with outside forces. Cause, you know, just as the left
wing or whatever is working and organizing within the prisons, so is
the right wing. And I think that’s one of the reasons we’re seeing
such an influx or momentum amongst these elements these days.

And so now, after allowing and promoting this kind of conduct, the
administration wants to lock down the whole state just cause two or
three Aryan guys have been killed. We’ve seen repeatedly acts of
violence, like there’s a war going on between black gangs, street
organizations, and they have not once, in my 27 years of doing time,
responded in the ways that they are now. Trying to lock down the whole
state and engage in the activities they engaged in, never. Again, what
signal is being set here.

Call for unity

The DOC in Indiana is constantly expanding; expanding its bed count,
expanding its budget, expanding (and tightening) its grip on the lives
of the people it holds captive. In late 2010, it signed a contract
with the GEO Group Inc. to build at its private facility at New Castle
a new for-profit, 512-bed high security prison wing. The DOC has also
begun to construct ‘prisons within a prison’, by building more
barriers within each institution: more gates, more walls, more fences
to physically separate and alienate prisoners from each other. Filling
up the SHU, the MCC and making life at high security institutions more
controlled and repressed are the operating norm of the DOC. These
trends must be countered!

This is a call for solidarity in action amongst prisoners, between
prisoners and those on the outside that struggle against the prison
system. In Indiana, in contrast to the solidarity we’re seeing from
guys out there in California responding to what’s going on at the
Pelican Bay SHU, and the solidarity we saw amongst folks down there in
Georgia, we’ve got a long way to go. But it can start now, right now.
To put ideological discrepancies aside, to reach across racial and
cultural differences, to form a common bond of struggle against the
prison authorities that oppress us all: this has been done before and
it is possible still today.

The misguided and reactionary activities of the majority of prisoners
continue in prisons due partly to the fact that the guards and
administrators promote these activities and ways of life. They would
much rather have drug dealing, would much rather have gang violence
than to have to deal with a cohesive and diverse group of prisoners
attacking the root cause of their present situation.

This is a call out: to think about your daily activities, to analyze
the battles you choose in prison and ask “is this working towards my
and my fellow prisoners’ freedom and dignity as human beings” or “is
this helping the guards and administrators to keep us down, to keep us
buried alive”? This is a call to come together as prisoners, as a
class of people who have tremendous powers even under the most adverse
of conditions when we choose to come together, choose to fight
together. To find one another, to find folks on the outside, to
develop bonds of comradeship and connections of struggle. To fight
back.

IN STRUGGLE, TILL THE LAST PRISON CRUMBLES