Letters

From Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary Indiana, USA Brothers & Sisters - Hey, sorry about not letting you know I'd copped one issue of the Sun on subscription. But l'd assumed that it had been sent before & was being shorts topped at the mail room. Since that issue (the one where the pig judge attempted to rule the $5 fine for grass null & void) nothing else has made its way to me.

Of course, I've been residing in the hole for the last two weeks behind the strike here, I was victim number one of the pigs vacuum cleaner type lock-up.

The particular conditions for this strike began to be laid down by Warden Alldredge in late July & early August. He came into the joint professing a desire for change, & began to change things. . .superficially. He attempted to give the joint a new facade, he allowed educational funds to be deferred for a complete remodeling of the education department. This used up so much of that allotment, that people who asked for correspondence courses or aid with special educational needs were told that there was no money available, the regular educational courses are attempting to function with inoperable equipment and a shortage of texts and very little workbook materials. By the time of the strike, what was once lauded as the best educational provision in the federal system, had deteriorated to the point where the only meaningful educational program going was operated by the Afro & the Muslims! I'm talking about academic courses now, not political!

Then on top of all this, the prisoners were still I too busy hacking & butchering on themselves because of his sanction of the use of race, by his pigs, to keep prisoners unaware of their common energy, to think about striking so a cohesive force was necessary.

This appeared in the form of the new captain, George Ralston. This pig wasn't in the joint three full days before he was issuing memos & policy statements as fast as his pen could write. What were the content of these messages to the prisoners? They stripped each & every prisoner of every shred of individual identity he had managed to preserve. Art objects in cells became contraband, visiting from one range to another range or cell to cell on the same range were suddenly prohibited, a ban on friendship if you will, & many other things which reached down & touched each & every prisoner personally & focused that prisoner's attention on one man whom he hated. This created the consciousness which resulted in a spontaneous strike. All that was needed was a list of demands which were relevant to be circulated & someone did just that. I'm glad I don't know who it was but whoever it was he did the right thing & he's a beautiful brother. I'll write them down here hoping you might distribute them where necessary as other federal & state prisoners can take a look at them & think about them:

1 . An end to overcrowding

2. Legislation be passed to enable prisoners to form a prisoners' union

3. Automatic parole after serving 13 of the maximum sentence imposed.

4. Work & Study release for all prisoners

5. Minimum wage for all jobs industrial & institutional

6. An end to petty harassment & ambiguous & ridiculous rules as well as better food on the mainline.

7. That George Mische's committee for equality & justice under law be allowed to enter the institution to arbítrate between prisoners & administration for a settlement of these demands.

When you think about it, anything else that is necessary to a specific joint would find its solution in the above list, so 20 & 30 demands weren't necessary. Like the man said, if the earth would defecate, Terre Haute is where it would come out. Later Bro.

Love & Revolutionary Best Wishes