Non-Humans.

 

       The case below should horrify any human with a grain of humanity, and we should be able to say, this is a unique case. Sadly it is not unique, it is a daily occurrence in prisons across the globe. When I read them I get sick in my stomach and anger in my heart, and an awareness that we will never stop this type of treatment by dialogue alone. It will take the forceful destruction of the entire state system and its many institutions of repression. The state is aware of all these inhuman exploits, if not, then that means that the prison system is out of control, they can't have it both ways.

      What I find even more depressing is that those who enact these vicious inhumane assaults are mixing in our society as if they were normal. They are among the lowest of the low and have long since given up the right to be called human. They are psychopathic misfits prostituting themselves to the underbelly of the state's savage repression system.

The following from Support Eric King:

Eric assaulted by guard at FCI Englewood June 24, 2020

       On June 18th Eric was taken into the showers while shackled and attacked. The guard took the metal detection wand and swung at his each of his ankles and then then he would life his leg this officer would swing at the other. The guard then picked Eric up and dropped him on his head onto the concrete in the shower. He woke up after loosing consciousness for 10 seconds thinking they were pouring water on his face. But it was his own blood.
      Eric was transported to Swedish Medical Center and was give 6 stitches and was diagnosed with a moderate to severe concussion. The hospital would not give him the results of the scan or release it to his family or lawyer because they told him “he is government property”.
       The reality is folks have been fighting for over a month to be able to get an expert in to assess Eric. We believe he is suffering from a traumatic brain injury after officers at FCI Florence kicked him in the head for 5 minutes in August of 2018. We were so hopeful that we were going to be able to get help for him and see where he is at with the mixture of trauma and brain injury he has been struggling with. His memory has been affected as well as many other aspects of his life. Officers at FCI Englewood know this. They knew that we were trying to get a medical expert in because of a head injury concern… and then they dropped him on a concrete fucking floor on his head in the bathroom while Shackled up.
       This all follows a situation where evidence that his case manager out of FCI Englewood in attempted to make a deal with a person with a WP prisoner (did not cooperate) to get Eric attacked. This information was turned over to the court before they denied his transfer to another facility. What the prosecutor chose to do with this evidence, evidence that a crime was committed at FCI Englewood was to run and tell the prison. Within a week both of them had assault shots. Both for water both in separate areas of the prison.
     The guard who attacked him was the same guard who claimed Eric assaulted him with a drop of water. They attempted to refer the case to the FBI for prosecution but less than a month ago the FBI released the case back the prison. The guards attempt to have him charged criminally fell flat.
       The reality at this point is Eric is not safe in BOP (Federal Bureau of Prisons) custody. Over the past two years at 5 different prisons the BOP has a pattern of placed white supremacists in cells, in fenced in areas, close to him on his tier, in an attempt to have Eric attacked.
      When he returned from the hospital he discovered his entire tier was attacked and pepper sprayed after Eric was left. He was denied the ability to contact his attorney and family. It was only on his weekly allotted 20 minute legal call that we were given this news. They also denied him last week the ability to consult his counsel when he had an appellate deadline. The pattern of BOP intervention in his ability to fight his case continues.
     The US Marshalls need to move Eric to non BOP Facility.
     The North Central Regional Office NEEDS to open an investigation into this officer, as well as the ones that may have been standing by watching. When Eric asked for one to be opened he was denied.
      The prosecutor needs to drop this fucking case.
      We are very hesitant to ask for folks to call in and advocate for Eric because the last time this happened. A year and a half ago, his phone privileges were taken away. But at this point Eric needs folks help.
       J Sheehan is the Director of prisoner operations for the US Marshalls. The ONLY entity that can choose to move Eric out of FCI Florence right now. Their phone number is 703-740-8400
     The BOP North Central Regional Office is the officer who gets to decide if the BOP will invsitgate this *criminal* attack. Their phone number is (913) 621-3939

Eric’s prisoner number is 27090045

Eric can not receive letters

Eric can not receive books

Eric can not receive magazines

Eric can not call his family
        Eric is completely isolated at the whim of the Trump DOJ right now and need folks to help keep him safe.

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Death Sentence.

     How many prison riots are we going to see repressed with savage brutality before we all stand up and say, enough is enough. Prison conditions across the planet are all in various degrees of overcrowding, unhygienic, coupled to lack of proper health care, all administered with vindictive and arbitrator rules that are intended to humiliate and intimidate. Prisoners have been rioting from Italy to America, from the UK to Australia and rightly so, as their conditions are now life threatening with the threat of covid19. The unacceptable conditions in prisons are a breeding ground for the virus and next to nothing is being done  to remedy this unacceptable and inhumane situation. A prison sentence is now becoming a death sentence, and this must be stopped. Our full solidarity and support must get behind the prisoners and their demand for justice.
      We have to end this system that depends on brutality for survival, an end to prisons and the system that creates and needs them.

      This short report from prisoners rioting in Australia who are being brutally crushed by the state's violent minders.

  The following from Anarchists Worldwide.

      So-Called Australia, 08.06.2020: Riot cops and IAT (Immediate Action Team) have brutally crushed a prisoner revolt that had spread to 3 separate yards at the notorious Long Bay Prison located about 14km south of Warang / Sydney. During the revolt, prisoners used prison-issue towels to spell out BLM (Black Lives Matter) in one of the yards so it could be seen by media helicopters.
     Update 1 – There is an ongoing Black Lives Matter uprising at Long Bay Prison, NSW. There is massive resistance.
     The Immediate Action Team (IAT) who killed David Dungay Jnr on 29/12/15 and the Riot Squad are deploying massive amounts of tear gas and other chemical weapons into the yards to break the resistance ~ so nobody can breathe.
      Children and elderly people in the surrounding suburb of Malabar are also struggling to breathe.
      Update 2: The IAT and Riot Squad have used attack dogs, indiscriminate use of riot batons and held a gun capable of firing baton rounds to the head of people who had already surrendered and were restrained.
      One person is in hospital with severe dog bite injuries.
     The uprising spread over three yards at Long Bay in scenes reminiscent of the Attica Uprising.
    The indiscriminate use of tear gas in Long Bay is being inflicted on the people most at risk of contracting and dying from Covid 19.
      Some people in neighboring suburbs have fled as tear gas has contaminated large parts of Matraville and Malabar.

 (via Abolitionist and Transformative Justice Centre / Facebook)

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Criminal Neglect.

      As this pandemic spreads it tentacles across the globe, we should always think of the most vulnerable and do our utmost to protect them. Yet one section of the most vulnerable are being ignored, the prison population. It's not as if they were an extremely tiny section of our community, there are approximately 9 million individuals locked up in prison across the world. Half of that mass of individuals are held in three countries, with the "good ol' US of A" leading the pack. The prison rate in USA per head of population is 724 per 100,000, in Russia it is 581 per 100,000, in China, that leader of the evil empire it is 118 per 100,000. England and Wales, on their own sit about the midway mark of the world's incarceraters with 118 per 100,000. US is also among one of the highest of women prisoners per head of population at 8.7%.
      Strange that the so called leader of the free world and defender of freedom should be the country that locks up more of its own population in prison cells than any other country on the planet.
      Another very disturbing figure on prison populations, especially during this Coronavirus pandemic, is the fact the practically all the world's prison are over crowded, with Kenya being the worst offender with it prison population being 284.3% of its occupancy. Even that most capitalist developed country in the world is guilty of this sardine policy with its prison population being 107.6% of its occupancy. Prisons are not on the whole, places of the best conditions nor descent medical care and hygiene, add over crowding to this toxic mix, and you have the perfect conditions for spreading this pandemic. To ignore these facts is extreme criminal cruelty and gross criminal neglect.
      A world with approximately 9 million individuals lock up in over crowded prison cells is not a free and democratic world, let's grasp this fact and do our utmost to bring down the prison system and the authoritarian regimes that foster these conditions.

Country	Prison population	Population per 100,000	Jail occupancy level %	Un-sentenced prisoners %	Women prisoners %
US	2,193,798	737	107.6	21.2	8.9
CHINA	1,548,498	118	N/A	N/A	4.6
RUSSIA	874,161	615	79.5	16.9	6.8
BRAZIL	371,482	193	150.9	33.1	5.4
INDIA	332,112	30	139	70.1	3.7
MEXICO	214,450	196	133.9	43.2	5
UKRAINE	162,602	350	101.3	19.5	6.1
SOUTH AFRICA	158,501	334	138.6	27.5	2.1
POLAND	89,546	235	124.4	16.8	3
ENG/WALES	80,002	148	112.7	16.4	5.5
JAPAN	79,052	62	105.9	14.7	5.9
KENYA	47,036	130	284.3	45.6	42
TURKEY	65,458	91	77.4	47.7	3.3
NIGERIA	40,444	30	101.5	64.3	1.9
AUSTRALIA	25,790	125	105.9	21.6	7.1
SCOTLAND	6,872	134	107.5	21	4.4
N IRELAND	1,375	79	91.5	37.4	2.2

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Anti-Prison Week.

         Prisons are symbols that we live in an authoritarian society, prisons are totally unacceptable in a free and democratic society. Locking people in cages can never be seen as an acceptable answer to any problem when we live in that free and democratic society. Today prisons are not the monopoly of the state, though the state holds the sole right to send you there, it has handed the running of prisons over to money seeking shareholders. They in turn will seek to expand the prison system and to increase its capacity, all in the drive for more profit. A typical capitalist profit making entity from dehumanising people. Freedom can only grow from the ashes of the prison system, only when the last prison lies in ruins can we say, we are truly on the road to freedom.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

 

     The anti-prison week is in less than a month! It will happen from 2 to 8 march 2020 in the old train station of Luméville, close to Bure, place of a struggle against a project of a center for burrying nuclear waste.
       The idea is to take time to meet, between people and groups from different countries, have formal and informal times of discussions, workshops, movie screenings, readings. You can come to the week with your own proposals, with or without telling us in advance. Zine distros are also very welcome.
     We received criticisms regarding the lack of topics related to racism in prison and state racism in the program of the week, considering the key role that racism play in penitentiary systems. We would like to make more space for these topics, so if you think you have something to contribute on these topics, please contact us.

Program

      We are currently contacting the groups that will take part in the week to know when each workshop or discussion will happen. This section will be updated regularly between now and the beginning of the week.

Monday
An update on the struggle in Bure, the Cigéo project, the events of the last few years.
More info soon.

Tuesday : repression and anti-repression
More info soon.

Wednesday : (No) Borders
More info soon.

Thursday : gender issues, LGBTQ+, women’s prisons
More info soon.

Friday : about being “on the run”
More info soon.

Saturday : anarchist views on justice, law, crime / how to get out of a punitive system
More info soon.

Sunday
More info soon.

Practical informations

Coming to the place of the event

       The old train station of Luméville is located in Meuse, France, close to the village of Luméville-en-Ornois, on the left of the road leading to the village of Mandres-en-Barrois. You can enter it by car. We will put up signs so you can’t miss the entry ways.



Food

        There will be vegan food from sunday 1st in the evening to monday 9th in the morning. We will provide the food and cooking equipment but cooking will be participatory and rely on self-organization. You will be able to put money in a free price box to help us cover the expenses of the week.

Sleeping

       There will be sleeping places in a building on the place of the event, but not enough for everyone. There will also be sleeping places in other collective houses in villages around (at maximum 8km). There is a lot of space on the place of the event if you can come with a tent, a camper or a truck (bring blankets if you can!).
      If you need sleeping places in the building on the place of the event, please tell us in advance how many places you need so we can organize.

Translations

     Translations will be provided as much as possible in french, english, german and italian. If you plan to come to the week and are able and motivated to do translations during discussions, you can tell us in advance when you would come and from which to which language you can translate.

Legal information

       We published an article about legal information and police controls in the context of the week. You can read it here.

See you in march!

 The Anarchist Bure Cross

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The State's Cages Of Repression.

      It is a fact that across the globe, most prisons are grossly overcrowded, conditions a deplorable and nothing is on the horizon that is likely to improve matters. This on top of the fact the all prisons are a blight on humanity. Locking people up in cages is a dehumanising process, and any civilised society would not tolerate such abhorrent institutions. We must support all those who find themselves enmeshed in this state system of repression and violence.

     This is just one case, but it could be repeated in any country and in lots of cases treatment can be much more repressive and brutal, but every case should be made public in the hope that we can end this state savagery.    

 

 This from 325:

USA: A Message from Eric King – Imprisoned anarchist comrade

November 5th, 2019

October 8th, 2019

      Here are the things I hear most:

What are you doing, we heard this, I don’t think so, we’ll see, maybe, Chow!, Count!, who’s mess is this, who’s shaking the bars, lights out, mail call, rec call, you want a shower, clean this mess, nope not today, not happening, I’ll check on it, put in a cop-out request, doubt it, quit trashing my tier, cuff up…

      Sometimes I spend hours pondering revenge fantasies, most time I think of my wife and kiddos. Fourteen months in segregation minus 4 days at Grady County, plus 6 at McCreary. We haven’t been in the same room since August 11th, 2018. Now these bastards drag me back to Colorado to force more time, and have the audacity to block our family visits, due to a bad check from 15 years ago. Maybe people who read this will be disgusted by this news.

      That said, I’m hurting friends. Being attacked sucks. Being charged with new federal charges for that attack is sickening. Never forget how horrible these people are. This system exists from the top to the bottom which is why reform is such a joke. You don’t reform cancer, you destroy it. We must destroy this system.

Until all are free,

RIP Tom Manning & Willem, never forgotten

–EK

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Attica Forty-Eight Years On.

       Prisons are inhumane institutions where people are caged and conditions often lead to pent up anger and frustration which invariably leads to violence. They are state tools of repression whose purpose is to turn the individual into a submissive units of society, a place to neutralise dissent.
       I'm a couple of days late in marking the anniversary of this rebellion. September 9th. 1971, prisoners suffering appalling conditions and in an institution that was grossly over crowded, took control of Attica prison in New York. After several days of negotiations, the authorities stormed the prison, the result was described as the worst one day slaughter in America since the America Civil War. Riot at Attica prison. The retaking of the prison was short, and extremely brutal and vicious, and as usual, covered in media lies. This incident should be another reminder that the state will use whatever violence it wishes to keep control of the population, then stamp it with its own badge of legitimacy, under the self appointed law that it alone holds the monopoly on violence to be used at will.

       Statement from the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (RAM) on the anniversary of the Attica Rebellion and national prison strikes in 2016 and 2018.

        Forty-eight years ago today, prisoners at Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York made history by beginning a days-long riot against their captors, demanding better living conditions and respect of their basic humanity. The rebellion occurred just two weeks after the murder of Soledad Brother George Jackson at San Quentin prison, while he made a bid for his freedom. This uprising forms a critical part of revolutionary history and serves as a constant source of inspiration as we continue to fight against the same horrific institutions that have kept people in bondage for centuries.
       The spirit of Attica lives on in anti-prison struggles of today, including the nationwide prison strikes that occurred in both 2016 and 2018. These strikes began on August 21st, a day on which both George Jackson’s escape attempt and the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831 are commemorated; and ended on September 9th, the final day of the Attica uprising. Prisoners all over the U.S. participated through such actions as hunger-striking, refusing to buy items at commissary, and refusing to report for work. Folks on the outside expressed solidarity with those behind the walls via actions like noise demos, motorcades, statements, letter writing campaigns, fundraising and banner drops.
         Nearly half a century after the Attica uprising, prisoner demands of today very closely mirror those of the 1970s. In other words, nothing has changed. Prisoners are still regularly subjected to solitary confinement and beatings; lack access not just to “healthful” food full of nutrients, but often, even sanitary food that isn’t covered in mold; and have what few “privileges” are allowed, such as visitation, regularly revoked without any explanation. Last winter saw mass mobilization around Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York as word got out that prisoners there had gone without consistent light and without consistent heat for weeks— during one of the coldest winters in recent history, with record-breaking lows and ferocious winds rattling the region.
       These details only fuel the fire sparked by the very act of putting someone in a cage. Whatever such a person is fed, whatever “privileges” such a person is allowed, locking someone in a cage is an inherently violent attack by the State against our friends, neighbors, and communities. This social, political, and economic situation is the continuation of slavery in the US and abolition of prisons and all the institutions making this situation tenable is an immediate goal. Such attacks cannot be tolerated! In the spirit of Attica! Solidarity with revolutionary comrades behind the walls!

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A Savage, Callous, Vindictive System.

 

        Life inside prison is an alien world to those on the outside. Those large buildings, in most cases with their small windows, conceal from the eyes of the general public, a world of vindictive authority, arbitrator violence, and degradation of the individual encased within its inescapable confines. They are an anomaly to civilised living, a scar on the face of humanity, but a necessary tool to the  authoritarian system that governs us all. Prisons are the threat hanging over the head of anyone who would dare to bring an end to this system of injustice, inequality and authority that protects those in power in their ivory towers of opulence. All those who find themselves entrapped within this tool of state repression, deserve our solidarity and support. No civilised society should tolerate, let alone support arbitrary violence and vindictive authority. No one is free while one prison stands.

     The following is an extract from a letter from a prisoner in Italy, that doesn't mean that it isn't happening in these abominations all across the globe. It is what they are designed to do, attempt to break the human spirit.

This from Act For Freedom Now: 

        Well: on 8/11 what I wrote at the beginning takes place; after they handcuff me and continue to mistreat me, they call a doctor and ask him if I’m fit to go to court, and he also, frightened only at looking at the situation, sees lumps and bruises (but he won’t write it down) and asks me “You want to go?” I say yes, especially as I had prepared a declaration to read in court, which I’d changed at that point, and add that they beat me up in prison before the trial; a rather bland declaration, where I wanted to stress the reason why I was asking for a transfer.
      In court, the judge doesn’t allow me to read my declaration as he states that the place is not suitable, but I manage to let the others in court know that the screws beat me up and that I’ve been on hunger strike for 4 days. So they take me out of the court and a zealous screw, which continues to hit me, handcuffs me so tightly that my wrists go purple and I almost faint. They take me to the basement, and after a while they bring me up again, even if only we 3 defendants are left, besides lawyers, judges, cops, and I tell the other 2 that I’d like to stay to show my lawyer the signs [of the beatings] on my body and delay my return to La Spezia as long as possible, as I foresee another beating on the way back. I also try to have the obvious signs [of the beatings] included as evidence but there’s nothing about them. The two following days I try to have that piece of evidence again but “I can’t write about things that cannot be seen”. As the visit ends they put me back in cell1on the ground floor, the one I had slept in the first night here in Spezia. Strict regime, my things had already been prepared and put in the cell by guards. At least the following day they allow me to take the rest of my things and give me a disciplinary report with 15 days’ confinement.
       This is what led me to push the guards and my experience in La Spezia: nothing out of the ordinary, guards who provoke you in a know-it-all way and then smash you with beatings while you are on the floor with kicks and punches to your head and back, a governor who covers the beatings thanks to doctors’ complicity (out of 4 visits to 3 different doctors, maybe one of them wrote down about the aching parts of my body the second time he saw me), and guards who threaten to report you for insult, a judge who doesn’t let you read a declaration relating to this and has you taken out of court.
       Everything is normal. It’s for this reason that I can’t find myself in the normality of society, which justifies authority, abuse, harassment, and which covers them. It’s for this reason that I’ll continue the hunger strike as long as I can, and I’ll continue to demand a transfer to another prison; and if De Andrè says you can’t breathe the same air as that of a screw in the exercise yard [this is a reference to a famous song], I really will always want to avoid sharing it with the guards who beat me up here, with blind and complicit doctors, with a commander who justifies her men by saying I made it all up and with a governor who hides the rot under a carpet of falsity.
ALWAYS WITH MY HEAD HELD HIGH, PASKA

Hunger strike: initial weight 5/11: 108.4 kg; weight on11/11: 101.8

       To realise the full extent of the savage brutality within these establishments, please read the FULL LETTER HERE:

  

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Prisons, Too Much Power, Too Little Scrutiny.

 

        There is not a lot to say about the following article, except that it epitomises the prison system. A trapped group in the hands of those with too much power and too little scrutiny. Reform only prolongs the same rotten, abusive system, its destruction is the only answer to this abomination.

This from Its Going Down:

       What follows is an urgent letter from long-term anarchist prisoner Sean Swain.

         A quick update, as things are hectic. I came off of a 29-day hunger strike and got nothing. The fact is that the fartgoblins want to make me die at supermax for the June11.org article about guns and drones. So, please make sure that article has my name on it and gets everywhere. Since I gotta pay for it, I want the whole world to see it.
        I’m enclosing something I hope will get everywhere, so I can generate as many calls and emails as possible. ODRC Council Trevor Clark is the fuckweasel who has been terrorizing me for years, but there’s an element in all this I haven’t talked about: In March 2013, Clark groped me after an interrogation, then he told me to take down my pants and spin around and he would dismiss the disciplinary frame-up. I didn’t do it.
        Since then, he has continually harassed and tormented me, shutting down communications and engineering disciplinary frame-ups, causing me essentially to die in in prison in 5-year installments. I would like to think this is about repression of my brilliant thoughts, but, really, it might just be a creep trying to crush me for not humoring his fetish.
         Is there a way to create a petition like the one mentioned in the enclosed? I ask because it doesn’t really exist. But I think it needs to.
       I haven’t talked about this. It was humiliating. But NOT talking about it makes me an accomplice. I have no way of knowing if Trevor Clark has done this-or worse-to others.
So, please get this everywhere.

Abolish Everything. Swain for President 2020.

Freedom,

Sean Swain 

 
Call-In Campaign:

       “I’m calling to express concern about sexual misconduct and ongoing intimidation by a high-level ODRC employee on a prisoner. I hope you will investigate. “Sean Swain is a model prisoner. He has an Honorable Discharge from the U. S. Army and a social science degree from Ashland University. He was honored for his peace work in prison, by Rosa Parks, in 2002 and as a pacifist, has not been so much as accused of any violence in 28 years. Sean contributes weekly segments to a globally- syndicated radio show and last year a book he co-wrote sold ten thousand copies. The University of Michigan is archiving his personal papers and effects because of his positive influence on our world-all from prison.
       “But in 2013, ODRC Council Trevor Clark engaged in improper sexual touching of Sean and has since then tormented him for rejecting his advances. Mr. Clark now has Sean framed for rule violations based on others’ online postings, preventing Sean from lowering in security or gaining parole. I ask you to investigate these mattes and protect Sean from Mr. Clark’s harassment and intimidation.

       “I will be joining a position at change.org to boycott Ohio tourism, universities, and travel until the ODRC protects Sean Swain from Trevor Clark. 

 

Thank you. ODRC Director Stuart Hudson: (614) 752-1611, stuart.hudson@odre.state.oh.us

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Those Inhuman Cages Of State Repression.

       Prisons are inhuman institutions, cages of repression and control, places where slight mishaps and small infringements can and do result in severe and often, arbitrary consequences. They are places where violence and intimidation are never far away. They can and often do, destroy the individual's ability to function normally, and serve no purpose other than repression, intimidation and to create subservience. All those who find themselves contained in the state's cages of repression deserve our full support and solidarity.

From Free Jeremy dot net

      After a week of anxious waiting and worrying, we now have and can share details about Jeremy’s current situation.

       Jeremy is currently in solitary confinement and is at risk of being transferred to a higher security prison because of an incident that occurred sometime last week.

       The incident occurred either Monday, November 19th, or Tuesday, November 20th. Jeremy was exiting his unit and either pushed or bumped a door. The door he was exiting through did not have a window or any way to see through to the other side. There was an officer on the other side of the door, and, when the door opened, it allegedly bumped the officer. In response to being bumped with the door, the officer grabbed Jeremy, threw him up against the wall, and took him to the SHU (segregated housing unit), without placing Jeremy in handcuffs or calling for backup, as is prison protocol. Once in SHU, he was written up for “assaulting a staff member” for the original act of bumping the officer with the door. Thankfully, Jeremy was not injured when he was thrown against the wall, but he has been in solitary for the past week while he awaits his disciplinary hearing. The hearing should be sometime this week.

       This situation is extremely serious for several reasons. The first is that when he was brought to SHU, Jeremy was placed in true solitary confinement. Most times, when Jeremy is placed in SHU, his placement is two prisoners to a cell. While time in SHU is never pleasant, true solitary confinement has been denounced by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez as “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” that may cause “severe mental pain or suffering”. A Human Rights Watch report has described it as “emotionally, physically, and psychologically destructive.” The UN Special Rapporteur on torture also strongly recommended a complete prohibition on solitary confinement in excess of 15 days. As far as we know, Jeremy has been in solitary for seven days.

       The second reason the situation is so serious is that if this infraction is upheld during his disciplinary hearing, Jeremy possibly faces a transfer to a higher security prison. Assaulting a staff member is a very severe charge, and would place Jeremy at a higher “offender level”. This is extremely worrying, as it means he would be tranferred to a medium security prison, where he would enjoy less freedoms and, even more disheartening, would be unable to finish his college classes or earn the degree he has worked so hard to complete. A transfer with a record of “assaulting a staff member” at his previous prison would also make Jeremy a target for prison staff at any new prison he was sent to. Jeremy is also very close to family at his current prison and is able to enjoy frequent visits from friends. Being taken away from that would be a devastating blow to both Jeremy and the people close to him.

       However, there is hope. If the disciplinary infraction is upheld during his hearing, Jeremy can request to stay at FCI Milan under something called “management variable”. This would mean he has the “points” that would normally place him in a medium security prison, but he would nevertheless be housed at a low security prison. This would, ironically enough, be made possible because of the college classes he has worked so hard on and is now in danger of being transferred away from. We will not know if this is an available option until we know the results of his disciplinary hearing.

These are all the details that we know as of the time of this posting. Calls are being made to Jeremy’s case manager and possibly to the warden to see what, if anything, can be done to help the situation. Please, at this time, we are asking that members of the general public do not call the prison. The situation is extremely delicate. However, you can write to Jeremy and we encourage everyone to do that! His address is:

Jeremy Hammond, #18729-424
FCI Milan
P.O.Box 1000
Milan, MI 48160

Thank you again for all your support. I will update this post with new details as they emerge.

Love and rage,
Grace North

 Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Mortal Enemies, The State And Dissent.

      States across the globe, will always act against voices of dissent, any dissent is seen as a threat to their power and control. Anarchists tend to be at the forefront of opposition to any state, so they tend to be at the receiving end of the harshest repression. Across the world today there is a crack down on anarchist individuals, groups, autonomous spaces, squats, etc.. From Russia to Italy, from Spain to Philippines, from Indonesia to America, anarchists are being harassed, beaten, imprisoned and killed.

     This case is just one among the many that are happening on a daily bases, one  that our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will pass over without a mention. It is one from that "Land of the free", the good ol' US of A, but look and you will find them in abundance in every state, no matter its shade or shape. all those at the receiving end of this state repression deserve our full support and solidarity. 

This from 325:

Update on imprisoned anarchist comrade Eric King (USA)
     A quick update since Eric is still in the Specialized Housing Unit (SHU, segregation) and it is unknown how long he will be there. He still hasn’t received a write-up nor has he been brought up on charges, but is facing a precarious situation. Eric also has some new rules regarding mail. All paper has to be plain white or regular lined notebook paper. Envelopes have to be straight white or manila if sending something larger. Eric is also unable to receive cards.
   As folx know Eric has been through a lot of trauma recently and really could use support through mail and always always books. He was pretty badly hurt, he misses his family and really needs the community right now. Eric is so grateful for all the support, letters, and books he has received so far. We in the support crew are so appreciative of people showing our friend the love!
      Please keep Eric in your mind and heart, these are hard times and our friend will need a ton of solidarity and help in the coming months.
      You can find his Amazon wish-list here: http://a.co/gUbDsYs

Eric King # 27090045

USP LEAVENWORTH
P.O. BOX 1000
LEAVENWORTH, KS 66048
USA

As always, until all are free-
EK Support Crew
Tags: Eric G. King, USA

        This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2018 at 10:10 am and is filed under Prison Struggle.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Barbarity Of The State.

          Prison is a form of state torture, from its barbaric past, to which it has held on to as a strategy for repression, solitary confinement is an added savagery to that torture, to which no human should be subjected in a civilised society, but evidence tells us, we obviously do not live in a civilised society. All those subjected to these inhumane state devices of torture and repression, demand our total and unconditional solidarity. Solidarity is one of our best winning weapons, and we should remember it takes many varied forms and is limited only by your imagination.

 Received on 01.03.18, from Insurrection News:

        Comrade Konstantinos Giagtzoglou was transferred to the hospital today after a serious fainting incident he had while resting in his cell. The officials of the Justice Department informed the comrade’s lawyers that the council which is going to decide whether Dinos will be transferred permanently to Korydallos prison or not, will meet on Friday, 4 days after the promised day (Monday). Dinos will be on hunger strike for 9 days and on thirst strike for 5 days on Friday.

The struggle committee of Korydallos prison issued a statement informing the Justice Department that if the council doesn’t meet on Friday, there will be prison rebelions all across the country.

The central building of the National University of Athens remains occupied and another series of actions and attacks have taken place:

• About 250 anarchists marched through the central streets of Athens yesterday in solidarity with Dinos
• A group of anarchists smashed several shop windows on Ermou street (it’s the central comercial street of Athens)
• Α group of anarchists raised barricades in Egnatia avenue in the center of Thessaloniki
• A group of anarchists blocked a central street in Patras
• A group called “Workers of the Night” torched a private security car and a diplomatic vehicle on 21/02 and 25/02 in Thessaloniki
• A group called “Anarchist Fraction for Political Self-defence” smashed the windows of two banks on 27/02 and on 28/02 in Athens.
• A group called “Informal Anarchist Network – Commando Haris Temperekindis” torched a private security car and attacked the central offices of the same private security firm (G4S) with Molotov cocktails on 27/02 in Athens.
• A group called “Anarchist Cells in Solidarity and Conspiracy” torched an ATM, threw 10 Molotov cocktails at a branch of the Agriculture Department, smashed the windows of a super market and torched the personal vehicle of a cop on 28/02 in Patras.
• A group of 40 anarchists occupied the offices of “Avgri (Dawn)” newspaper which is the official newspaper of Syriza, for a couple of hours in Athens.
• A group of anarchists canceled the speech of N.Voutsis, current president of the Greek parliament and one of the most well-known members of Syriza, by blocking the entrance of the hotel where the speech was scheduled to take place.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

No One Forgotten, Nothing Forgiven, Solidarity.

        It is a fact that our prison system, (the state's system of repression), is mainly populated by people with addiction problems, mental health issues and miscarriages of justice, all of these people should be elsewhere, receiving help with their problems or getting on with their lives. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, always spouts the false narrative that prisons are filled with "bad people", and they are put there by the "good" forces of "law and order". However, the history of our legal system and its prisons are a litany of miscarriages of justice and human misery. Once sucked into the penal system, it is extremely difficult to extract yourself from its callous and vindictive claws. The system never likes to show its flaws, the charade of impartial fair "justice" must always be protected, as a flawless system of fairness, protecting you and I. The lie must live for the system to survive.
        The Bristol Anarchist Black Cross, is calling for solidarity in support of one such sufferer of the system's many miscarriages of justice:

     ABOUT SAM AND HER CASE: Sam Faulder is an anarchist prisoner currently serving a life sentence in England. Sam is a miscarriage of justice who has done over ten years in the prison system.
         She has been an anti-authoritarian her whole life and was relentlessly targeted by police because of her lifestyle choices. After serving nearly two years on remand, Sam’s trial was a disaster. Police corruption impacted her trial and her solicitor firm withdrew from her case three weeks before it began. Her need to appeal coincided with cuts to legal-aid and she has been trapped in the prison system ever since.
        She is now working with Cardiff University’s Innocence Project on her appeal. Learn more about her case and appeal here: http://freedomforsam.org/about/ [1]
     ABOUT SAM’S HEALTH: After ten years experiencing every abuse imaginable, Sam was sadly diagnosed with cancer in 2016. She has still not had
treatment. She has experienced intense medical neglect while being imprisoned in a for-profit prison, HMP Peterborough, run by Sodexo. Read the full story of her cancer situation here: http://freedomforsam.org/sams-cancer-timeline/ [2]

SUPPORT SAM NEEDS:

* Please send letters and cards with solidarity messages to: Samantha Faulder A1209CF, HMP Foston Hall, Foston, Derby, Derbyshire, DE65 5DN
* Please donate to her support fund: http://freedomforsam.org/donate/
[3]
* Organise actions and dedicate them to Sam, this will mean the world
to her!
* Pay attention to the website for action alerts about her treatment
* Share her story online

For more info please email bristol_abc@riseup.net

See the graphic here: https://bristolabc.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/support-sam.jpg

Links:
——
[1] http://freedomforsam.org/about/
[2] http://freedomforsam.org/sams-cancer-timeline/
[3] http://freedomforsam.org/donate/

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

      

Return Fire.

        The autumn 2016, 4th volume, of the excellent magazine, Return Fire, is available to read or download for free. It comes accompanied by a supplement. Once again, 100 pages of passion, commentary, proposals and interview material. The supplement, Caught in the Net, is a survey of critical perspectives on what information age technology is doing to our cognitive abilities, our health more generally, and our capacity to rebel. It comes as a separate document, of another 28 pages. Both colour and greyscale cover options are available, for further reproduction and distribution. 

Magazine Return Fire, can be read and/or downloaded HERE:

Supplement, Caught In The Net, can be read and/or downloaded HERE:

       The following is a copy of one article from Return Fire, of local interest to us here in Scotland. 

        The Scottish Prison Service, [SPS] has confirmed that it used IMSI, International Mobile Subscriber Identity catchers (aka “stingrays”) at two prisons in Scotland. This is the first confession of official stingray use by UK authorities, though they are almost certainly being used elsewhere in the country as well. The SPS are using both mobile and static stingray devices at HMP Shotts in Lanarkshire and HMP Glenochil near Alloa. The SPS spent more than £1.2 million spying on both prisons. It appears that the SPS were trialing stingray tech at Shotts and Glenochil before potentially rolling it out to other prisons. While stingrays can be used to snoop on conversations or otherwise gather intelligence, it appears that in this case the SPS were using IMSI catchers to stamp out mobile phone use at the prisons (it’s supposedly a crime to use a mobile phone in prison). IMSI catchers work by tricking nearby mobile devices to connect to them, rather than an official base station. The stingray can then be used to triangulate the user’s location, or to simply block the connection [ed. – or record calls]
       Somewhat amusingly, despite the rather expensive roll out, it seems the system wasn’t all that effective at finding phones or blocking calls. “Prisoners have developed innovative countermeasures to current Arrangements. The SPS recovered significantly fewer mobile phones at HMP Shotts in 2014 (282) than in 2013 (352). “Some of this decline is due to the increased introduction of smartphones which use 3G technology, these 3G smartphones transmit on very low power levels and so are more difficult to accurately detect and locate.”
        Back in 2010, when the prisoner phones only used 2G, 1417 handsets were tracked down at Shotts alone. The report notes that the SPS wanted to use stingray tech at HMP Edinburgh, but it lost out to the rural prisons for two reasons. First, the UK’s mobile carriers had already started rolling out 4G in Edinburgh. Second, if they had used IMSI catchers at HMP Edinburgh, which is within Edinburgh’s urban area, there would’ve been a “high risk” of interfering with mobile users outside the prison. There have been various reports of stingray use by the UK authorities as far back as 2011, but this is the first time that it’s ever been confirmed.
       Last year, the mainstream media reported that it had found widespread use of IMSI catchers across London, after fake mobile masts where discovered. Over in the USA apart from the usual monitoring of criminal/terrorist elements, it is now becoming common for major protests to be spied upon in case of an outbreak of disorder.
         Obviously the fear of uprisings such as those which occurred around the UK in 2011 [ed. – see Return Fire vol.1 pg 61] & in Baltimore & Ferguson [ed. – see Return Fire vol.3 pg 76 ] in the US are on both governments minds. The state might try justify the use of IMSI to tackle crime or terrorism but increasingly this technology can be used to quell disorder ed.[– and has been noted so far at demonstrations in Germany and Turkey as well, including a body­worn type for agents walking amongst the crowd]. What is also apparent from the information gathered by the media is that the technology can be used not only to track but to listen into phone calls, not just of the specific targets but also the general population in the vicinity, as can be seen when HMP Edinburgh was rejected for Stingray tests. Surveillance technology is vastly increasing around prison island, it does not shock us that they would be tested in actual prisons first, the most concentrated form of oppression, the testing ground for many forms of control through out society.
         The prison system was the first place to test the idea of unpaid work, then it was rolled out into society for jobseekers. New glass apartment blocks resemble more a prisoncomplex with security doors and CCTV in every corner, the difference is that the gullible upstanding citizens imprison themselves. It will not be long before IMSI becomes a norm just as much as CCTV did, further limiting the possibility of dissent in this corner of the world.

        What is clear is that there needs to be a backlash against the prison be a backlash against the prison society, that it can never be society, that it can never be reformed and will involve a reformed and will involve a complete eradication of the technology that makes it possible. The ultimate culprits are those companies that make it possible.
       In the mean time, attack the prison society at its sources and maintain a vigilante security culture with phones. The police state is tracking & listening, let’s claw out their eyes & cut off their ears!

How Stingray works, HERE and HERE.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk