In Contempt #37: Movement in Solidarity with Palestine Faces Repression; First Cop City Trial Stalls

In this column, we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news, happenings, announcements, action and analysis. Packed in as always are updates, fundraisers, and birthdays.

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

New Year’s Eve Noise Demos

As we reported in the last column, 2024 started with noise demos being held at over 20 cities across the US and Canada, with new reportbacks being shared from Chicago, Austin, Hamilton, Tucson, Eugene, and the Bay Area.

Political Prisoner News

Recently-released anarchist prisoner Eric King has been busy, making appearances on The Final Straw Radio, Live Like the World is Dying, and the IGDcast, discussing the new book Rattling the Cages, lessons learned inside prison, and more. You can keep up with Eric’s post-release life at his Instagram.

In sadder news, former Black Panther and Black Liberation prisoner Sekou Odinga has passed away. Ralph Poynter, who served six months for civil disobedience actions during the 1960s and then went on to lead the campaign for the freedom of his wife, Lynne Stewart, also passed on at the end of 2023.

An event celebrating and discussing the life of Leonard Peltier will be held at Bound Together Books in San Francisco on February 6th, marking the 48th anniversary of his arrest.

Palestine Solidarity, Cop City, Uprising Defendants, and other Ongoing Cases

An arrest has been made in Charleston, South Carolina, of a person suspected of arson connected to solidarity actions for the Stop Cop City campaign.

Ayla King, the first Cop City RICO defendant to go to court, has faced a delay to their case. You can find an interview with a defense attorney from early January here, and a more recent interview with the Atlanta Community Press Collective here, covering the latest developments.

The Palestine solidarity movement continues to face repression. Recent events have included eight arrests at a careers fair at Cal Poly and UC students facing misdemeanor charges for a sit-in at a UC regents meeting, as well as continuous repression against Palestine solidarity protests in Toronto. A solidarity campaign is being set up for the Merrimack 3, three defendants in New Hampshire facing charges for allegedly taking direct action against the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.

In Arkansas, four defendants from the George Floyd Uprising have just been sentenced, with one defendant receiving a sentence of four and a half years, and three others receiving eighteen months each. You can read more about the background to the case here, and GoFundMes have been set up to raise funds for Rene, Angel and Cody.

In Houston, police repression continues against the local Food Not Bombs chapter, with two people arrested and one tased during a FNB meal in early January, while a trial concerning the group has had to be post-poned because “[t]oo many of the potential jurors said that even if the defendant, Elisa Meadows, were guilty, they were unwilling to issue the $500 fine a city attorney was seeking”.

Chris “Big Tex” G, a community organizer from North Texas, is asking for support as he fights both legal charges and a lawsuit from a self-described Christian-fascist group. You can donate to his legal funds here.

The support committee for Krystal and Peppy, two defendants facing charges related to an action against a transphobic speaker hosted by a right-wing group, are fundraising for their ongoing legal costs.

In Canada, three indigenous defendants, including prominent Wet’suwet’en leader Sleydo’, have been found guilty of criminal contempt of court for charges related to the ongoing struggle against the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. An appeal is due to be heard in June.

Back in the US, Hybachi LeMar who had been sentenced to 3 years, has been transferred to prison in IDOC. LeMar writes article often, so stay up with them here.

Virginia and Northwest Detention Center Hunger Strikes

A hunger strike by detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington appears to have ended around January 14th. Since then, state inspectors have been refused entry to the GEO Group-run facility to check on conditions. See La Resistencia for more on the struggle against the NWDC.

At time of writing, a hunger strike appears to be ongoing by prisoners at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, as covered by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and It’s Going Down. A phone-zap was organized in support of the strikers, and you can read a statement of support for the strikers from the local IWW here. For much more information on the hunger strike, you can listen to an interview on The Final Straw Radio here.

As of the end of January, strike leader Kevin “Rashid” Johnson no longer appears in VADOC’s custody records, although at time of writing it appears that he is receiving medical treatment at a VADOC-run facility. Check sources such as rashidmod.com and The Final Straw for updates on Rashid’s location and condition.

San Francisco Jail News and Analysis

Oakland Abolition & Solidarity have shared some analysis of recent events concerning CJ3, the San Francisco Jail, via email:

This past October saw events involving CJ3, the San Francisco Jail in San Bruno. First, a federal judge ruled favorably on a class action suit brought to get the incarcerated of CJ3 access to sunlight. Yes, it took a class action suit to get sunlight… 15 minutes of sunlight, if all circumstances and the will of the jailers permit it.

From the judgment:

“Given the need for daily access to direct sunlight, the fact that plaintiffs began suffering from medical problems approximately a year after they were incarcerated, and the failure to identify the amount of time for daily exposure, the court rules that defendant must offer to each inmate who has been incarcerated for longer than a year the following: daily access to direct sunlight, weather permitting and in the absence of an emergency (including but not limited to a global pandemic or prison riot) for at least 15 minutes.”

The second event that October was the reopening of the CJ3 annex to accommodate the increase in San Franciscans being locked up for drug offenses. As per the October San Francisco Chronicle article on the reopening, “the county jails house 1,105 incarcerated people, a 32% increase from last October’s daily average of 835.” This increase over the last year is a direct product of  the political machine of Mayor London Breed installing Brooke Jenkins and the re-prioritizing of low level street drug arrests. We can’t help but recognize this as one symptom of a nationwide ‘law-n-order’ crime panic that has been manufactured for political capital and the relegitimization of the policing regime.

Rather than just report on events here, let’s put these two events next to each other and apply some simple strategic, cost/benefit accounting from a liberatory movement perspective.

The class action suit “victory” demanded four years of litigation (first filing was in 2019), however much effort and organizing of prisoners and supporters it took to gain the attention and commitment of a law firm on their behalf, and an unknown but undoubtedly hefty sum of money to fund the litigation. This is all in support of an effort that just as easily could have been summarily blocked and denied by the action of the judge. So all this was in service of a crapshoot basically. This judge rules differently or you happened to draw some other more conservative judge and all this effort is for naught…

• Every legal victory has to be defended FOREVER. Judgements aren’t magical in their power. Very real agendas and institutional power remain. Judgements, if enforcable at all, are defied, out maneuvered or whittled away. The record of prisoner struggles show this whether it be the judgments won by the women of Chowchilla for medical care or the settlement over indefinite solitary won by the massive California prisoner hunger strikes of 2011- 2013. The advances in medical care are still uneven, insufficient and being constantly attacked and whittled away by CDCr. Indefinite solitary has definitely decreased and indeed been discredited in the public sphere,but prisoncrats continue to fight oversight, use workarounds such as making release processes fragile or unworkable, in addition to now repeatedly hitting people with one 90 day stretch in “ad seg” one after another instead of actually reclassifying someone as a SHU inmate.

Now let us turn to the reopening of the CJ3 annex. By near fiat, the district attorney and sheriff boost arrests and increase jail capacity, both very tangible, real escalations of state violence. This happened without contestation, just some scant critical commentary after the fact. Both positions of sheriff and D.A. are endowed with massive prerogative and latitude, all in service of a systemically defined and limited mandate and agenda.

If you support litigation fights as a priority or first option, can you show examples of how legal fights fit within successful liberatory movements? Are these cases chosen in consultation with social movements? How does The Law generally function as a palliative mythology of remedy? Again, are these cases undertaken out of desperation or lack of other methods?

To be clear, we at OAS are highly critical of both juridical and electoral strategies. Our collective experience, analysis, and work has produced a quite different orientation. We can get into that more some other time but here in this story we want to push the need to raise questions and to not only develop strategy but articulate them out in the open.

What are our strengths?

What are our weaknesses?

The essence of strategy is making choices. “Do Something/Do Anything/Do Everything” may be a starting point, but as strategy it’s empty and a guaranteed way to lose. What are the priorities? …at any level, for the movement, for your city or, say, for you and your loved one who is locked up in the pen right now?

Follow Oakland Abolition and Solidarity on Instagram here.

General Prison News and Abolitionist Media Projects

In Jackson, Mississippi, 215 bodies have been found buried in unmarked graves behind a jail. In the past week, several mainstream publications have also begun reporting on the role of prisoner labor in greater supply chains.

From ABC News:

Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling down a country road to an auction house, the cows are bought by a local rancher and then followed by The Associated Press another 600 miles to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill.

Intricate, invisible webs, just like this one, link some of the world’s largest food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners nationwide, according to a sweeping two-year AP investigation into prison labor that tied hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products to goods sold on the open market.

They are among America’s most vulnerable laborers. If they refuse to work, some can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment like being sent to solitary confinement. They also are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job.

Many of the companies buying directly from prisons are violating their own policies against the use of such labor. But it’s completely legal, dating back largely to the need for labor to help rebuild the South’s shattered economy after the Civil War. Enshrined in the Constitution by the 13th Amendment, slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime.

That clause is currently being challenged on the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year.

There is currently a call for a phone-zap campaign for prisoners in Vacaville, CA. More info here.

Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, one of the leaders of the 2011 California prison hunger strikes, is due to be released after 42 years behind bars, 30 of which were spent in solitary confinement. You can donate to his re-entry fund, and read much more about his life, here.

It’s Going Down has published a new article by Texas prisoner Monsour Owolabi, exploring the parallels and connections between the Palestinian liberation struggle and the US prison movement. Other articles by Monsour have been published at Texas Letters, Mongoose Distro, and Abolition Media. Monsour can be contacted at Monsour G. Owolabi #1856112, PO Box 660400, Dallas, TX 75266-0400, or via Securus.

Texas Letters is a project collecting stories from solitary confinement in Texas prisons, which can be reached at [email protected] or 1305 W 11th St #3081, Houston, TX 77008. You can find a full index of work they’ve published here.

North Carolina prisoner Phillip Vance Smith II recently published an article with Slate, looking at how the growth of prison tech has impacted romantic and personal relationships between prisoners and those on the outside.

IDOC Watch has published an article by Khalfani Malik Khaldun examining his own case and wrongful conviction, as well as organizing a phone zap to demand Khalfani is transferred away from danger and another in support of a prisoner facing retaliation and harassment at Plainfield CF.

The Final Straw Radio show recently broadcast a special edition celebrating 10 years of Sean Swain’s radio contributions, and Kite Line Radio interviewed recently-released Indiana prisoner Leon Benson.

Prison Lives Matter has published a guide on how to build regional organizing committees, and prison literature distro True Leap Press has put out an appeal for funds to help them continue their work.

Texas anarchist prisoner Jamon Hestand is asking for more outside connections and support. You can write him at Jamon Hestand 1343536, Robertson Unit, PO Box 660400, Dallas, TX 75266-0400, or via Securus. You can find out more about Jamon by reading his previous writings on Mongoose Distro, A Request for Solidarity and Revolutionary Greetings.

Revolutionary Texas prisoner Jason Walker has written two new articles, covering violence by guards in the Texas system and the link between poor food and heart attacks at the Powledge Unit.

Mongoose Distro continues to publish new prisoner writings on a regular basis, including work such as How to Fight for Your Rights to Adequate Healthcare in Prison by Leo Cardez.

The San Francisco Bay View has published an article by Amber Jackson, a California prisoner who’s asking for support as she prepares for freedom after around 20 years inside, and Unicorn Riot has a report on the case of Marvin Haynes, a Minnesota prisoner who has been released and had his conviction overturned. Marvin served 19 years in prison after being framed for murder when he was 16, in a case overseen by then-Attorney General Amy Klobuchar.

International

UK anarchist prisoner Toby Shone has published a new text, Civilization is a Cancer, discussing his medical neglect inside prison. Also in the UK, Bristol ABC are asking for support for Ben, a Kill the Bill prisoner who was released after two and a half years in prison and then recalled back to prison within days of his release, and three animal liberation defendants are due to be sentenced at the start of February.

In France, anarchist prisoner Boris has been convicted for two direct actions against telecoms equipment, while another anarchist has been arrested in Toulouse, apparently charged with assault on a lawyer who was representing cops in a different case, and is now being held in pre-trial detention.

ABC Belarus have published an annual review looking back on the persecution of anarchists and antifascists in Belarus throughout 2023, and are selling two new items to benefit the prisoners they support, a book of art by prisoner Anastasia Kukhta and a cross-stitch style t-shirt commemorating the anarchist group Pramen.

In Slovakia, long-term animal liberation prisoner Ladislav Kuc has finally been freed after 12 years inside for an action against McDonald’s. You can donate to his re-entry funds here.

Moscow ABC have published a profile of Roman Paklin, a Russian antifascist prisoner held in pre-trial custody and tortured as part of the Tyumen case.

Unicorn Riot has a new report on the Greek state’s targeting of the Rouvikonas anarchist collective, which they compare to the US state’s attacks on the cop city movement.

Atlanta Forest Defendants

According to Unoffensive Animal, the current list of Atlanta Forest/Cop City defendants is:

People who can accept any letter type or length:

• pen and marker only
• mail is scanned digitally to jail
• mail takes about 3 weeks to arrive

Victor

ADDRESS:

VICTOR PUERTAS
095610252
6B 215B
P.O Box 248
Lumpkin GA 31815 USA

Uprising Defendants

See Uprising Support for more info, and check out the Antirepression PDX site for updates from Portland cases. To the best of our knowledge they currently include:

Tyre Means 49981-086
USP Atwater
P.O. Box 019001
Atwater, CA 95301

Margaret Channon 49955-086
FCI Tallahassee
P.O. Box 5000
Tallahassee, FL 32314

Gavaughn Streeter #19203494
Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP)
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310

You can donate to Gavaughn’s post-release fundraiser here.

Malik Muhammad #23935744
Oregon State Penitentiary
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310

Cyan Waters Bass #23905849
Oregon State Correctional Institution
3405 Deer Park Drive SE
Salem, Oregon 97310

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

Matthew White #21434-041
FCI Terre Haute
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. BOX 33
Terre Haute, IN 47808

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

José Felan #54146-380
FCI Terre Haute
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute, IN  47808

David Elmakayes 77782-066
FCI McKean
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 8000
Bradford, PA 16701

Andrew Duncan-Augustyniak
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Andrew Duncan-Augustyniak / QN9211
SCI Rockview
PO Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 33733

Anthony Smith
14813-509
FCI Fort Dix
Federal Correctional Institution
Satellite Camp
P.O. Box 2000
Joint Base MDL, NJ 08640

Ellie Brett 14822-509
FCI Petersburg Medium
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 1000
Petersburg, VA 23804

John Wade 14762509
FCI Beckley
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 350
General & Legal Mail
Beaver, WV 25813

Alvin Joseph 1002016959
Hays State Prison
PO Box 668
Trion, GA 30753

Richard Hunsinger 16066-509
FCI Forrest City Low
P.O. Box 9000
Forrest City, AR 72335

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

Howard Eugene Nall #586907*
Newberry Correctional Facility
13747 E. County Road 428
Newberry, MI 49868

T’Andre Buchanan 67637-060
Milan FCI
PO Box 1000
Milan, MI 48160

Upcoming Birthdays

Veronza Bowers

Veronza Bowers Jr. is a former Black Panther Party member framed for the murder of a U.S. Park Ranger. He is being illegally held past his 30 year sentence, making him one of the longest-held political prisoners in U.S. History.

The Federal system uses Corrlinks, a system where a prisoner must send a request to connect to someone on the outside before they can exchange emails, so if you’re not already connected to Veronza then you’re best off just sending him a card or a letter.

Birthday: February 4

Address:

Veronza Bowers, Jr. #35316-136
FMC Butner Medium II
P.O. Box 1600
Butner, NC 27509
United States

Alvin Joseph

Alvin Joseph is a Georgia George Floyd uprising defendant, convicted of attempted arson charges related to police vehicles.

Birthday: February 4

Address:

Alvin Joseph 1002016959
Hays State Prison
PO Box 668
Trion, GA 30753

Kamau Sadiki (Freddie Hilton)

Kamau Sadiki is a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, who was convicted of a 30-year old murder case of a Fulton County Police Officer found shot to death in his car outside a service station. At his trial, the judge ruled that statements by a witness who heard other people discussing their participation in the shooting, and stated that he had nothing to do with it, could not be accepted as evidence. The state recently attempted to amputate his foot despite this not being medically necessary, but were forced to back off by outside solidarity.

Georgia uses Jpay, so you should be able to send him a message by going to jpay.com, clicking “inmate search”, then selecting “State: Georgia, Inmate ID: 0001150688”.

Birthday: February 19

Address:

Freddie Hilton #0001150688 (address card to Kamau, envelope to Freddie)
Augusta State Medical Prison
Bldg 13A-2 E7
3001 Gordon Highway
Grovetown, GA 30813
United States

Luis Sierra (Abdul-Haqq El-Qadeer)

A former Vaughn 17 defendant. While the state has now dropped its attempts to criminalize Luis in relation to the uprising, Vaughn defendants continue to face retaliation. Luis is also a contributor to “Live from the Trenches,” the Vaughn 17 zine.

Delaware appears not to have an inmate email system.

Birthday: February 19

Address:

Luis Sierra #00455723
James T. Vaughn Correctional Center
1181 Paddock Rd
Smyrna, DE 19977

Byron Shane “Oso Blanco” Chubbuck

Also known as “Robin the Hood”, Oso Blanco is serving 80 years for bank robberies to raise funds for the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, along with additional charges for escape and resisting the FBI.

The Federal system uses Corrlinks, a system where a prisoner must send a request to connect to someone on the outside before they can exchange emails, so if you’re not already connected to Oso then you’re best off just sending him a card or a letter.

Birthday: February 26

Address:

Oso Blanco (Address envelope to Byron Chubbuck, address card to Oso Blanco)
#07909-051
USP Victorville
Post Office Box 3900
Adelanto, California 92301

Alex Stokes Contompasis

Alex Stokes is an antifascist prisoner sentenced to twenty years for his part in a fight with Proud Boys at the New York state capital on January 6th, 2021.

New York uses JPay, so you should be able to send him a message by going to jpay.com, clicking “inmate search”, then selecting “State: New York, Inmate ID: 22B5028”.

Birthday: February 26

Address:

Alexander Contompasis 22B5028
Upstate Correctional Facility
PO Box 2001
Malone, NY, 12953

Aleksei Golovko

Aleksei Golovko was detained on 5 March 2021 under a criminal case against the anarchist movement from Brest region. ABC Belarus add “We are unaware of his political views, but since he is detained under the anarchists’ case, we consider it important to support him in every possible way.” On September 6, 2022, Aleksei was sentenced to 12 years in a reinforced regime colony and a fine of about $8,800.

Belarusian prisons will usually only accept letters in Belarusian or Russian, so if you don’t speak one of those languages your best bet is to email your message to belarus_abc(AT)riseup.net or use this online form and they should be able to translate your greetings and pass them on.

Birthday: February 26

Address:

(Belarusian or Russian letters only – use this form for English messages)

IK-15, Slavgorodskoye shosse, 183 p/o Veyno, g. Mogilev, 213105, Belarus
Aleksey Igorevich Golovko

photo: Oakland Abolition and Solidarity