Whatz up.
I’m still fighting. I know you haven’t heard from me in a while. I been doing a lot of reading and thinking. Like the question what goal are we trying to get to? How do we plan on getting there?
What the system doing to us is the same thing they been doing for years! They just change the shell. Like slavery instead of working the fields, they send us to jail and prison. Instead of house niggers, they have c.o.’s or d.o.’s. Also D.A.’s. Continue reading
Sep 18-16
I’m doing ight. I’m making it. The HRC form—I never got it!
I heard about the march and they locked down the whole jail because of it. This shit is crazy how this system work. But the thing is how the people let them do it. If we gon’ do something, let’s do it right. I heard that there pose to be a new company that’s doing food. When is that supposed to start? Continue reading
Thank you for all that you all are doing for us. It really means a lot to know that it’s some people out there in the world that cares about us. The woman’s pod is still the same. They could at least let us have a radio or something to make the time go by. Also, some board games and some uno cards–anything is better than nothing. Other than that there’s nothing else, just a shout out to my peeps in 5D: SC, GBae, Gooch, Pinky, Rd, BL. To everybody else, keep y’all head up.
When I look out of my cell, I see other inmates standing in the door looking out their window. We look like animals in the pound waiting for someone to take us home. When we hear keys we stand at the door. “Come get me, come get me” is the way the faces look in the door. Continue reading
We are students for 4 years, but we’re oppressed our whole lives. This is the sad but true part of the educational/capitalist system that supports this oppression. Before I begin this thesis, I would like to tell the readers what inspired me to write this. I (recently) received a letter from a young woman who is in high school and on her summer vacation is taking the time to learn about activism. She wrote me as part of a project her organization was doing. I enjoy seeing consciousness among young people such as her, and for her I wrote this. Continue reading
April 21, 2016 (received May 19)
Dear —
I’m doing good, keeping my head high. I’m ready to go home, this ain’t no place for anybody, they treat us like animals and talk to us any type of way. They crazy how they let that wonderful man (Matthew McCain) die. They don’t want to be doing they job. Continue reading
3.16.16
First off I would like to thank you for writing me and for your concern in DCJ. I have been here for a while and being locked back 16 ½ hours a day can drive me crazy at times. On top of that they run the A/C all year round and only give us one blanket and yes, it’s freezing like hell. I’m not understanding—we already locked up, what more do they need? Continue reading
We recently spoke with M—and Y—about GlobalTel (GTL), the phone service contracted by the jail, along with all the ways families are exploited by the ravenous companies who set up shop at the jail. We also talked about the tremendous creativity of their dad and all the detainees.
M: I work cleaning carpets and get paid every two weeks. And as soon as I get the money it comes here (DCDF). Pretty much all my money from my job goes to this place. Like take GTL. It is way too expensive for the service they give. So every two weeks I put $50 on, because it’s down to nothing in that time. And that’s just for phone calls for me, cause I get the best rate of everyone in my family. Continue reading
(Note: the date on the following letter is correct—the envelope had multiple post marks, and seemed to have been opened before going out—editors)
Feb 3, 2016
IOA
I’m doing ok, just another day in jail. Thanks for writing. I don’t really know too much about the death of Matthew McCain, but I know the guard that was working that pod (Erick Boria) the day it happened is very lazy—all he does is sit at the desk either reading a book or looking at TV. He doesn’t do his rounds every 15 minutes like a lot of other guards here. Continue reading
the following is from a prisoner who was transferred from Durham to a state facility.
Feb 4 2016
Hello,
I got your letter and the books from the Internationalist. I am doing okay. I hate the monotony and lack of color here or any prison setting. Everything about it is built to dull men and ruin them. I feel sad a lot partly because a lot of men here in prison don’t understand the debilitating torture of all things prison (food, clothes, concrete, smart-ass guards). Continue reading
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