We dare to stand united w/ all racial groups to say enough is enough, while CDCR and FBI collaborate

[annm4peace]

( i just posted parts of the article.. but the whole article is enlightening. )

( * also, CA has a Democratic Governor, Senate and Assembly.. Democratic-- Shameful)

http://sfbayview.com/2013/we-dare-to-stand-united-with-all-racial-groups-to-say-enough-is-enough-while-cdcr-and-fbi-collaborate-to-break-our-hunger-strike/

by Arturo Castellanos

Aug. 14, 2013 – My name is Arturo Castellanos, and I am one of the four principal volunteer representatives here at Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) in the Security Housing Units (SHU). I have been here on indefinite SHU since I arrived in 1990.

CDCR did not place us in these “unfinished” ASU cells out of the kindness of their hearts. No, they placed us here to punish us for daring to stand up united with all racial groups to say enough is enough! No longer are we going to allow CDCR to lock us up in these torturous prison cells and throw away the key without us challenging them.

This is not the first time PBSP and CDCR officials from Sacramento have ordered us into these ASU cells with freezing air blowing out of the vents 24/7, no fire sprinklers, no power or cable hook ups for our personally owned appliances. This was done to us in our 2011 peaceful hunger strike also.

They claim that they are still renovating these new ASU cells they built and opened in 2007. They have still not finished “renovating” these ASU cells that are far worse than the SHU cells. Ever since the legislature has refused to fund the building of more prisons across the state, CDCR has been building these unfinished torture chambers at all men’s and women’s prisons. And they are intentionally left unfinished to look and feel depressing. But, like in 2011, CDCR has again made a big mistake by placing us here.

CDCR’s big mistake in placing us here is that we are now taking up the fight on behalf of ASU prisoners across the state demanding that the CDCR immediately “finish” renovating these ASU cells – painting them, making them appliance ready, installing fire sprinklers and heat and lowering the ice cold air.

We have begun by asking our attorneys in our present lawsuit against the CDCR’s indeterminate SHU placement to contact the attorneys in the Coleman class action suit to file a motion with the court to order CDCR to immediately finish the so-called “renovations.” The Coleman case had already addressed the issue that the overwhelming majority of prisoners, men and women, across the state who have committed suicide were at the time housed in these types of unfinished ASU cells.

Being in these cells for just 30 days, I can fully understand why they committed suicide. They are truly oppressive and constitute very depressing conditions. Suicide? Hell yes! Especially for those men and women who receive SHU terms of indefinite SHU and have to wait in these depressing cells for six months to two years until a cell opens up in SHU for them. Our attorneys are requesting that the Coleman attorneys, who are also our attorneys, file a motion in the court to order CDCR to immediately close and stop housing men and women prisoners in these “unfinished” ASU cells until they fully renovate them.

The world is unaware that FBI agents have been permanently stationed here in PBSP to assist IGI and ISU agents. They have been here for several years now. They are now playing the old propaganda agenda by conspiring together to destroy our outside support by now personally attacking the 20 named volunteer prisoner representatives from the PBSP SHU Short Corridor, especially the four groups – White, Black and Latino from the Northern and Southern parts of California – united in this common cause to radically change CDCR for prisoners, prisoners families and the overall true safety of our outside communities with our “Call to End all Hostilities” paper, our Five Core Demands and 40 supplemental demands.

The CDCR is hand feeding information to the media. They are hand feeding the press old information about us on and about old incidents, some going back 20-30 years, to re-criminalize us and take away from the legitimacy of our demands.

Little did I know that the FBI now conspired with the CDCR to go to a grand jury to file another federal indictment in my community using the very same old evidence from 2007 and again named me as the leader and as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” The media reported it, to discredit me as one of the four principal reps involved in this hunger strike and to attack our united front and diminish our public support with old evidence on this “conspiracy” from 2004-2007.

They also falsely reported that I used the phone to send messages – we are not allowed phone calls; that I was passing “kites” through visiting – we are not allowed contact visits; and that I sent coded messages through the mail, when up until May of this year all my mail was heavily restricted and screened by IGI. This FBI investigation took place over the past three years – my restrictions lasted four years. So you see this indictment was pre-planned by the feds to be released during this hunger strike to discredit this peaceful hunger strike.

I explain this to demonstrate how the CDCR and FBI are working together to try and break this movement apart. We reps expect further attacks like these using old – sometimes very old – indictments to attempt to justify keeping us in solitary confinement forever.

[annm4peace]

1. Call Governor Jerry Brown

Call Governor Jerry Brown
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Suggested script: I’m calling in support of the prisoners on hunger strike. The governor has the power to stop the torture of solitary confinement. I urge the governor to compel the CDCR to enter into negotiations to end the strike. RIGHT NOW is their chance to enter into clear, honest negotiations with the strikers to end the torture.

[msanthrope]

2. I can't stand with a guy who ordered racial killings---

Rash Of Racial Killings In Gangland

In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race, an investigation found.

There were even instances in which Florencia 13 leaders ordered killings of black gangsters and then, when the intended victim couldn't be located, said "Well, shoot any black you see," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.

According to the indictment, F13's leader, Arturo Castellanos, sent word in 2004 from California's fortress-like Pelican Bay State Prison that he wanted his street soldiers to begin "cleansing" Florence-Firestone of black gangsters, notably the East Coast Crips, and snitches.

His followers eagerly obeyed, according to federal prosecutors.

In one case, F13 members came across a black man at a bus stop, shouted "Cheese toast!" and fired. "Cheese toast" is a derogatory name for East Coast Crips, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin S. Rosenberg said.

The victim, apparently targeted only because of his skin color, survived being shot several times, Rosenberg said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-3658052.html

Obviously, serious reform needs to happen in CA prisons, but this isn't the guy to follow.

[annm4peace]

3. msanthrope: you obviously didn't read the article

and the Hunger Strike is more about what we as a nation is doing with our tax dollars and in our name.

[annm4peace]

4. msanthrope: the FBI doesn't like to be caught lying or setting up people

( I have peace activist friends who are also survivors of FBI set-ups and grand juries,, and friends with a ret FBI agent who explains why and how FBI people move up in rank and pay by getting cases)
(Grand Jurys only include a Judge, the Jury, the Prosecution and those accused. The accused don't have a right to an attorney, and their attorney is not allowed in the room. The Prosecution can ask any questions and can use what ever is said in future cases and against the accused at a latter date.. the US is 1 of 4 countries that still has a Grand Jury)

Here is part of the article I didn't post that was part of the article and ties into what you posted

In my case, I was named in a 2006-2007 federal indictment as an “unindicted co-conspirator” with my old childhood street gang, alleging, among other things, that I was running the gang from the highest security prison in California. I get no personal phone calls and no contact visits. The visits I do get are all videotaped and audio recorded and all behind thick glass. All our mail is screened first by IGI (Institutional Gang Investigation Unit) before it’s even mailed out or delivered.

Behind that 2006 indictment, this prison in August of 2008 severely restricted all my incoming and outgoing correspondence. I could only correspond with immediate family members or other people screened and approved by IGI. And when I did correspond, all my mail first went to IGI Sgt. Frisk, who personally screened all of my mail.

I was going to these “special committees” every 180 days. My last one was in April of 2013, where I again requested that all my correspondence restrictions be lifted because I had not received any Rules Violation Reports for correspondence violations involving any gang activities since the restrictions were put in place in 2008. IGI Sgt. Frisk argued against removing the restrictions, and the committee denied my request to lift them.

Then on May 13, 2013, out of the blue, I received a formal memo from the same IGI Sgt. Frisk informing me that they, IGI, would recommend to the committee that all my correspondence restrictions be lifted. I, as a convict for 32 years, of course smelled a set-up, especially since Sgt. Frisk was so adamant in the April committee not to lift them.

So on May 23, 2013, I was taken back to “special committee” and they officially lifted the mail restrictions and stated I can now correspond with anyone. I asked them why the change of heart all of a sudden? They refused to tell me. I didn’t tell anyone, not even my family, that they were lifted until I found out how I was being set up.

Just one week after my restrictions were officially lifted, I began to receive letters from total strangers who claimed they were from my childhood area and they were clearly asking me for permission to conduct illegal activities. One of these letters I showed to my attorneys at visit.

I knew that all my mail was still heavily screened by IGI, so I know these letters were intentionally delivered to me in order to get me to respond to them. I never did respond because I felt they were either debriefers from my old area being used to write me or they were IGI staff posing as individuals from my old area. I didn’t fall for it and that’s why IGI could not issue any Rules Violation Reports against me or again restrict my correspondence.

The CDCR and FBI are working together to try and break this movement apart.

Little did I know that the FBI now conspired with the CDCR to go to a grand jury to file another federal indictment in my community using the very same old evidence from 2007 and again named me as the leader and as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” The media reported it, to discredit me as one of the four principal reps involved in this hunger strike and to attack our united front and diminish our public support with old evidence on this “conspiracy” from 2004-2007.

They also falsely reported that I used the phone to send messages – we are not allowed phone calls; that I was passing “kites” through visiting – we are not allowed contact visits; and that I sent coded messages through the mail, when up until May of this year all my mail was heavily restricted and screened by IGI. This FBI investigation took place over the past three years – my restrictions lasted four years. So you see this indictment was pre-planned by the feds to be released during this hunger strike to discredit this peaceful hunger strike.

I explain this to demonstrate how the CDCR and FBI are working together to try and break this movement apart. We reps expect further attacks like these using old – sometimes very old – indictments to attempt to justify keeping us in solitary confinement forever.

[msanthrope]

6. What a load of shite by Mr. Castellanos. nt

[denbot]

5. Every single person in SHU earned their cell.

Assault, after assault, every murder of a fellow inmate, every assault of a guard, every murder of a guard. That does not even begin to cover why they are incarcerated in the first place.

Even though they are human beings, they are so violent to other inmates, and even the guards, these individuals need to be isolated. it is the only way the other inmates and guards can be protected from your so put upon "victims".

Inmates don't just make a navigation error and end up in SHU. They murder their way there.

Like I've said before, cry me a river.

[annm4peace]

9. denbot, you didn't read the article either

I think you watch too much of the Lockdown shows.

try reading some of the reports and articles.

here is a part of the Amnesty International report

Under California regulations, the SHU is intended for prisoners whose conduct endangers the safety of others or the security of the institution. Around a third of the current population are serving fixed SHU terms of SHU confinement (ranging from a few months to several years) after being found guilty through the internal disciplinary system of specific offences while in custody.

However, more than 2,000 prisoners are serving “indeterminate” (indefinite) SHU terms because they have been “validated” by the prison authorities as members or associates of prison gangs.

According to figures provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in 2011, more than 500 prisoners serving indeterminate SHU terms had spent ten or more years in the Pelican Bay SHU; of this number, more than 200 had spent over 15 years in the SHU and 78 more than 20 years. Many had been in the SHU since it opened in 1989, held in conditions of extreme isolation and environmental deprivation.

No other US state is believed to have held so many prisoners for such long periods in indefinite isolation. The main route out of the SHU for prisoners with alleged gang connections has been to “debrief”, a process requiring them to provide information on other gang members which many decline to undertake because of the threat of retaliation.

Although prisoners may also be released from the SHU if they have been “inactive” as a gang member or associate for six years, many prisoners have been held long beyond this period. Until now, these prisoners have had no means of leaving the SHU through their own positive behaviour or through participating in programs.

Many prisoners have spent decades in isolation despite reportedly being free of any serious rule violations and - if they are serving a “term to life” sentence – without any means of earning parole. Prisoner advocates and others have criticized the gang validation process as unreliable and lacking adequate safeguards, allowing prisoners to be consigned to indefinite isolation without evidence of any specific illegal activity, or on the basis of tenuous gang associations, on evidence often provided by anonymous informants.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/edgeofendurancecaliforniareport.pdf

[Bluenorthwest]

7. I endured years of hearing Obama and the OFA set preach about their devout Christian faith

and the 'Sanctity' of God made marriages and because of that this article makes me think of the words of Jesus, the 'Christ' in Christian, who said that He Himself is each and every prisoner, guilty or not guilty, and that our treatment of them is our treatment of Him. Odd to me that the same folks who spew about Jesus when they want to judge others forget about Jesus when they want to rationalize mistreatment of the prisoners they themselves have taken. Selectively religious folks are not religious at all.

[annm4peace]

10. amazing isn't it.

but there are many faith leaders and people of faith who are fasting in solidarity with the CA Prison Strikers.

I talked to a woman last Friday who is fasting in solidarity 2 days a week. She is already small and she has lost 30lbs and in her 60s.
she can't afford to lose any more weight but she is going to keep fasting as long as this goes on.

She and I are in MN.. there are people all over this and in the world who are in solidarity with these prisoners.

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/statements-of-support/

[gopiscrap]

8. I stand in solidarity!!!