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Jun 2, 22

In Contempt #17: Jessica Reznicek Fights Terrorism Enhancement; Sundiata Acoli Released; Call for Phone-Zaps

Welcome to In Contempt #17.

In this column we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news. Packed in as always is news, updates, calls to action, and birthdays.

There’s a lot happening, so let’s dive right in!

Political Prisoner News

In one very welcome piece of political prisoner news, long-time Black Liberation prisoner Sundiata Acoli won an appeal in the New Jersey Supreme Court, overturning the parole board’s decision to deny him parole. This means that he will now be able to come home after almost 50 years in prison. You can donate to help his post-release fund here.

Meanwhile, another long-time Black Liberation prisoner, Dr Mutulu Shakur, has just had his parole denied. He intends to appeal, and will hopefully be every bit as successful as Acoli was.

In other political prisoner news, antifascist prisoner Gage Halupowski has been transferred to a new address, and the Anarchist Black Cross Federation are appealing for people to donate to their Warchest fund which supports long-term political prisoners.

Anarchist prisoner Eric King has now been transferred to USP Lee, and supporters are still asking for people to keep the pressure up to get him moved to a safer location, away from the white supremacists who’ve made active threats to him. The Real News Network just published a new interview with Eric King’s support crew about his situation.

Lucasville prisoner Greg Curry is currently on a hunger strike after being sent to solitary and having all contact with the outside world cut off, and supporters are asking for a phone and email zap to pressure the Ohio prison authorities to back off.

Steven Donzinger, the lawyer who was jailed in retaliation for his work helping communities in Ecuador fight Chevron, has now completed his sentence and been released from house arrest, a story that was covered by Amnesty, Amazon Watch and the Intercept.

Anti-pipeline prisoner Jessica Reznicek is appealing against the terrorism enhancement that was applied to her case, and her appeal has been covered in Salon and Grist. Her supporters recently held a webinar to publicize her case, which is being rebroadcast by Kite Line Radio.

Ferguson rebellion prisoner Josh Williams has a new article up now at the San Francisco Bay View, and Xinachtli, a long-term anarchist prisoner and Certain Days collective member, has recently written a Cinco de Mayo message and another new statement, both of which are now up on Mongoose Distro. Antifascist prisoner Dan Baker also released a new statement in solidarity with UK anarchist prisoner Toby Shone.

June 11, the day of solidarity with Marius Mason & all long-term anarchist prisoners, is coming up. The day will be marked by events including a Marius Mason solidarity party in Cincinnati, and anarchist prisoners Toby Shone and Sean Swain have already released statements for it.

Uprising Defendants and other Repression News

It’s Going Down has published a major update from the Uprising Support project, giving an overview of the situation with various uprising defendants. The Pittsburgh chapter of the NLG has started selling t-shirts as a benefit for local defendants through Filler Distro, although they currently seem to be sold out.

The Final Straw Radio Show has broadcast an interview giving more information on the ongoing repression against mutual aid efforts in Asheville and the case of the Asheville 15. Unicorn Riot has a report from Atlanta, which recently saw major police raids and arrests against the campaign to defend the Atlanta forest.

Prisoner and Detainee Resistance News

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have published their 2022 call for Shut Em Down demonstrations, running from August 21st-September 9th. Migrant detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, held a hunger strike that appears to have now ended with a victory.

DC Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee have called a phone and email zap for Comrade Pitt, a prison organizer who’s due to be transferred away from Virginia but is currently held in limbo without his property or legal papers.

Mongoose Distro has published an update from Texas anarchist prisoner Julio “Comrade Z” Zuniga on his ongoing struggle against the Texas prison system. Noah “Kado” Coffin, another Texas anarchist prisoner who’s spent a long time in solitary confinement, is due to be released later this year, and supporters are fundraising for him to be able to start a community garden when he’s released.

Abolitionist Media Projects

Former Rikers Island prisoner Jarrod Shanahan has a new book out, Captives: How Rikers Island Took NYC Hostage, and you can listen to an interview he did with the Antifada on the history of Rikers Island here and It’s Going Down here. The Final Straw Radio Show recently broadcast an interview with two outside organizers with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. Recent episodes of Kite Line Radio have included Mark Cook of the Walla Walla Black Panther Party talking about running an underground newspaper inside prison and Canadian prisoner Renford Farrier talking about his struggles with the parole board.

The San Francisco Bay View recently published an article on Prakash Churaman’s struggle against the courts and incarceration in Queens, and one by Gulley Britney on abuses at the Lane Murray unit in Texas.

Escaping Tomorrow’s Cages is a new six-part essay being published on North Shore Counter-Info. Sections that have been published so far are Prison Expansion in Ontario, Summary of the Projects, Why Oppose Ontario’s Prison Expansion? and Fighting Against Recuperation, and you can listen to an interview with some of the authors here.

International

The International Antifascist Defence Fund has updates on the antifascists facing charges in Messolonghi, Greece, a protester in Canada who had their charges dropped after standing up to an anti-vax convoy, and the Groupe Antifasciste Lyon et Environs, who have now successfully overturned the French state’s attempt to ban them.

In Italy, several anarchists are due in court for a hearing related to the long-running Scripta Manet case, a state crackdown on alleged insurrectionary anarchist activities. In Greece, anarchist prisoner Giannis Michaildis, currently held in pre-trial detention, has launched a hunger strike for his release. Freedom News has published a report from Munich, where the German state recently launched a series of raids against the local anarchist movement.

In the UK, anarchist prisoner Toby Shone has won an important victory in court, beating the state’s attempt to impose a post-release control order on him. He faces continued retaliation from the prison system, and recently published a report on organizing inside prison. Also in the UK, trials from the Bristol Kill the Bill case continue, and another defendant was just sentenced to five years.

Belarus ABC has published a guide on how to get letters into Belarusian prisons, and a brave court statement from Pramen case defendant Jauhen Rubashka, as well as new profiles of anarchist/antifascist prisoners Oleg Avdeyenko, Alexander Zaitsev, Hanna Pyshnik, and Artem S. Solovey.

Uprising Defendants

Everyone should support the defendants facing charges related to their alleged participation in the George Floyd uprising – this list of our imprisoned comrades needs to be getting shorter, not longer. See Uprising Support for more info, and check out the Antirepression PDX site for updates from Portland cases. The status of pre-trial defendants changes frequently, but to the best of our knowledge they currently include:

Kelly Jackson 50288-086
FCI Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 5000
Sheridan, OR 97378

Tyre Means 49981-086
USP Beaumont
PO BOX 26030
Beaumont, TX 77720

Margaret Channon 49955-086
FCI Aliceville
PO Box 4000
Aliceville, AL 35442

Malik Muhammad #825999
Oregon State Penitentiary
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310

Jacob Michael Gaines #81973-065
FCI Sheridan
P.O. BOX 5000
Sheridan, OR  97378

Jacob asks that people include an email address associated with their corrlinks account so he can return an email instead of a letter.

Cyan Waters Bass #23905849
Santiam CI
4005 Aumsville Hwy SE
Salem, OR 97317

Montez Lee 22429-041
FCI Ray Brook
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 900
Ray Brook, NY 12977

Matthew White #21434-041
USP McCreary
P.O. Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635

Matthew Rupert #55013-424
USP McCreary
P.O. Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635

José Felan
Sherburne County Jail
13880 Business Center Dr.
NW Suite 200 Elk River, MN 55330-1692

Branden Wolf #22425-041
FCI Oxford
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 1000
Oxford, WI  53952

Dylan Robinson 45802-013
USP Leavenworth
P.O. BOX 1000
LEAVENWORTH, KS  66048

David Elmakayes 77782-066
FDC Philadelphia
PO BOX 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105

Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal 70002-066
FDC Philadelphia
PO BOX 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105

Andrew Augustyniak-Duncan
2016-0021433
100 W. Cherry Ave.
Washington, PA 15301

Christopher West 04670-509
USP Canaan
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 300
Waymart, PA 18472

You can also buy fundraiser clothing for Christopher “Brother Hush” West here.

Ellie Brett 14822509
Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility
PO BOX 730
Lovejoy, GA 30250

John Wade 14762509
Robert A. Deyton Detention Facility
PO BOX 730
Lovejoy, GA 30250

Alvin Joseph
Updated address coming soon

Shamar Betts 22080-043
FCI Hazelton Federal Correction Inst.
P.O. Box 5000
Bruceton Mills, WV 26525

Diego Vargas 55070-424
FCI Allenwood Medium
PO Box 2000
White Deer, PA 17887

Adam Walton 55322-424
FCI Forrest City Medium
PO Box 3000
Forest City, AR 72336

Andrew Garcia-Smith 02324-509
FCI Williamsburg
PO Box 340
Salters, SC 29590

Kyree Robertson #597000
Parnall Correctional Facility
1780 E. Parnall Rd.
Jackson, MI 49201

Chase Vladimir Spencer
Kent County Correctional Facility
703 Ball Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Howard Eugene Nall #586907
Kent County Correctional Facility
703 Ball Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Antonio Wooden 17569-028 (Tony Cushe)
FCI McDowell
PO Box 1009
Welch, WV 24801

Upcoming Birthdays

Sergey Romanov

Sergey Romanov is a Belarusian anarchist prisoner serving a 20-year sentence for several arson attacks against state buildings.

Letters written in languages other than Russian or Belarusian may not reach prisoners in Belarus, but if you email your greetings to belarus_abc(AT)riseup.net, or enter them into this online form, they should be able to translate them and pass them on to Sergey for you. See here for more information.

Birthday: June 7th

Address:

(for letters in Russian or Belarusian only)

IK-11, Volkovysk district, Grodno region, 231900, Volkovysk st. Rokossovsky, 118
Romanov Sergey Alexandrovich

Jarreau Ayers

Vaughn Uprising prisoner, one of the only two prisoners from the Vaughn 17 to be convicted. As one write-up put it, “Jarreau Ayers and Dwayne Staats, already incarcerated under the hopeless sentence of life without parole, took it upon themselves to admit to involvement to prevent the rest of their comrades being found unjustifiably guilty, which led to success – not guilty verdicts or their charges being dropped.” You can learn more about Jarreau in his own words here and here.

Pennsylvania uses Connect Network/GTL, so you can contact him online by going to connectnetwork.com, selecting “Add a facility”, choosing “State: Pennsylvania, Facility: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections”, going into the “messaging” service, and then adding him as a contact by searching his name or “NS9994”.

Birthday: June 15

Address:

Smart Communications / PA DOC
Jarreau Ayers – NS9994
SCI Greene
PO Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL, 33733

Jason Renard Walker

Texas prison writer and organizer associated with the 2016 prison strike, contributor to the Fire Inside zine, facing down heavy repression for his ongoing attempts to expose the brutality of the prison system. You can find his writings at his website, Jason’s Prison Journal, and his work has been collected as an ebook, Reports from Within the Belly of the Beast. To find out more about Jason, you can also listen to this interview he recently conducted with the Final Straw.

Birthday: June 17th

Address:

Note: Texas prisons have now banned all greeting cards and postcards. As Texas uses Jpay, you can send him a message by going to jpay.com, clicking “inmate search”, then selecting “State: Texas, Inmate ID: 1532092”. Or to send him a letter on standard white paper that complies with Texas restrictions, write to:

Jason Renard Walker
#1532092
Alfred Hughes Unit
Route 2, Box 4400
Gatesville, TX
76597

photo: Gayatri Malhotra via Unsplash

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A monthly report on prison rebels, State repression, and news from an abolitionist perspective.

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