A letter from Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP). 8/29/2011.
I've been in the S.H.U. since July of 1987 so I've lived through a lot of physical as well as psychological abuses. I was originally placed in S.H.U. at San Quentin's Adjustment Center. The first thing I noticed as I was being escorted past the Sgt.'s office was a caricature of a boar hog dressed in a C/O's uniform holding a noose with a hammer hanging from it posted on the wall. So, being Mexican I knew what time it was. Slowly, the blatant racism was pushed into the politically correct broom closet but it's never been thrown out.
In 2003, I was returned from court to Pelican Bay and told in no uncertain terms that I would die here.
When PBSP created the control unit (short corridor) in early 2006, the goal of the Office of Correctional Safety (OCS) was made perfectly clear: Debrief or die! They implemented orders to the short corridor C/O staff to apply pressure to targeted prisoners and the gang unit (IGI) became the overseers of the control unit and began to target prisoners' families and friends and attempt to create discord by mixing up mail, withholding and delaying personal mail and restricting visits for as little as saying hello to another prisoner. Their goal is to isolate these targeted prisoners. I had never believed in hunger strikes, thinking that they're counter-productive. However, when the gang unit began to work in concert with the chief medical officer (the I.G.I. actually decides the level of medical treatment prisoners in the short corridor receive) I decided to participate in this and the next hunger strike, but here's why:
A few years ago, a close friend, his name was Jimmy, developed cancer. The medical staff, M.T.A.'s and R.N.'s explained that if he's debrief, become an informant, he would receive better medical care. Now Jimmy and I had known each other since we were teenagers running the streets of East Los Angeles getting high and living the lifestyle that ended up with both of us in prison for life. As Jimmy's cancer grew worse, he began chemo therapy. Jimmy mentioned to me how the I.G.I. would "show up" at the clinic and comment that he could have contact visits with he wife before he died if he'd debrief. He refused but that's how he found out the cancer was terminal! Jimmy loved his wife mroe than anything and he wouldn't tell her everything about the head games and bullshit like waking up from surgery still under anesthesia being questioned by I.G.I. but I had warned him of that because it happened to me and at least three other prisoners. After one of the surgeries, Jimmy was returned to his cell after a brief stay at the PBSP infirmary. (Those cells are completely bare except for a bed and all you can do is lay there and wait). On the second night bac k in his cell, he awoke to a bed pain. He said it was a little after 2 a.m. and the staples had opened along his abdomen and he was bleeding. He was holding his intestines in calling for the C/O.
The C/O came and saw the blood and said he’d call the R.N. on duty. The C/O came back approximately 30 minutes later with a roll of toilet paper. Jimmy was sitting on the blood-covered cement floor holding a towel soaked in blood against his stomach. The cop tossed Jimmy the toilet paper and said the medical staff would not come until the next shift and there was nothing he could do. Jimmy held his stomach close din pain until almost six a.m. when the medical finally came and they rushed him to the hospital. He asked that I keep it to myself because that was his style.
I was pissed!! He had requested two hardship transfers to Corcoran because of its medical facility and he’d be able to see his wife and family more before he died. Both were denied and he was told to debrief and then he’d be transferred but he steadfastly refused. The cancer spread and the gang unit increased the headgames telling the medical staff to confiscate his shaded prescription glasses. But luckily, a Doctor Williams stepped in and told the medical staff to leave Jimmy alone as he was at end state cancer. Jimmy chose to stop the chemo therapy and die. We’d talk through a steel door and discuss everything and nothing and plan out his funeral. He died in December of 2010 and I am proud and honored to have been his friend.
Shortly after Jimmy’s death I was told that approximately 8 of the older prisoners had been approved for transfer to the S.H.U. medical facility at New Folsom but the gang unit had those transfers stopped citing that those prisoners, all in their 60s and 70s years old, had not successfully completed the debriefing or in-active process thereby issuing a death sentence to all of these prisoners and denying adequate medical care.
I am 53 years old with incurable illnesses, Hep-C and Crohn’s disease so I am participating in the hunger strike to expose how prisoners are being mistreated and medical treatment withheld as a coercement tactic. The abuses, physical and psychological, the intimidations and harassments have very well documented history here at Pelican Bay State Prison. They should speak for itself.
n Early 1990 rumors of abuses at PBSP SHU come to light. The prison opens doors to media tour
n 1995 rumors of abuses citing C/O’s extracting prisoners from their cells, stripping them naked and leaving them hogtied in the cold cells and on the cement yard over night. Prison opens doors to media tours
n 1998 C/O’s accused of setting up inmates opening cell doors in SHU
n 2001 prisoners began hunger strike to change debriefing process as it was not legal! Promises were made, Castillo case settled and reworded to be used against prisoners. Prison opens doors to media tours
n 2006 California Inspector General office issues memo for media release citing their investigation exposed that the PBSP internal affairs would avoid finding staff misconduct on excessive use of force and that some changes had been made but more are needed
During this hunger strike, prisoners have been threatened with “progressive discipline” which means the prisoners’ property will be taken out of the cells and they will only be allowed a pair of shower shoes and a pair of underwear until the administration deems the prisoner as “programming.” The warden had a staff meeting before the last hunger strike telling staff that he would ignore the hunger strikers, which he did, violating the CDCR regulations and allowing prisoners to become ill. Grievances were returned unprocessed so it never happened.
That is Pelican Bay State Prison. So now you know why I participate in the hunger strike. Thank you for your time.
Alfred Sandoval D#61000
Pelican Bay State Prison
Crescent City, California. u$a
[Hunger Strike Resumed on Monday, September 26.]
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Official Statement from Occupy Wall Street.
This statement was voted on and approved by the general assembly of protesters at Liberty Square.
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
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