June 11, 2018 statement from Jennifer Gann

The following statement from Jennifer Gann marks this year’s June 11th, day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners.

Insurgent greetings from behind enemy lines in so-called California (Amerikan occupied Chumash territory)!

First and foremost, a clenched fist salute to my imprisoned anarchist comrades in the U.S. and around the world!

It’s been 28 years since I was first incarcerated in 1990 for armed robbery. So, to give everyone a quick update on my personal history… I first entered the California prison system when it was racially segregated, and quickly became politicized after coming into contact with anarchists and abolitionists during the 1991 Folsom Prison Food Strike, for which I was sent to solitary confinement on “inciting” charges. As a young prison rebel in the early 1990s, I experienced the brutality and torture of solitary confinement first-hand, from beatings to gladiator fights to food deprivation and murders covered up by the corrupt pigs. I was defiant and resisted these inhumane conditions by single-handedly sabotaging and breaking 13 prison cell windows in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) at Folsom. In retaliation for the beatings and torture I suffered, I attacked a pig and received 16 years added to my sentence! Subsequently, I was charged with possession of a weapon by a prisoner, battery on a state prosecutor during an attempted escape from the Sacramento courthouse, and assault with a deadly weapon on a prison warden, for which I was given multiple 25-year-to-life sentences. All of these events occurred more than 20 years ago, and I spent more than a decade in Pelican Bay SHU.

Now, in 2018, I have a new appeal under California’s Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 which was “granted review” and is pending in the California Supreme Court. My attorney, Cheryl Anderson, says she expects me to be given a new hearing to determine if I will receive a sentence reduction and early parole date! The recent parole granted to long-time political prisoner Herman Bell gives me hope!

I’ve also recently filed an Application for Commutation of Sentence to California Governor Jerry Brown. The recent commutations of Chelsea Manning’s sentence and Oscar Lopez Rivera also give me hope for that!

I’m currently being reevaluated for sex-reassignment surgery (SRS) under California guidelines implemented as a result of lawsuits by trans prisoners Michelle Norsworthy and Shiloh Quine, seeking transgender healthcare.

I’m very grateful to my support team comrades for setting up a website and organizing an online legal fundraiser on my behalf to pay a legal consulting fee of $3000 to National Legal Professional Associates (NLPA). I appreciate all of the support and solidarity I’ve received, with special shoutouts and thanks to S—, N—, R—,S—, and I—.

I’m involved directly with Maine Anti Racist Action and Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross in bringing together a new anarchist prisoner initiative to build and strengthen our support networks, communications, and collective struggle. A fund and a paper are in the works to amplify the voices of imprisoned anarchist comrades in the U.S. specifically, and toward the concept of an anarchist prisoner conference in North America. We’ve reached out to Marius Mason, Michael Kimble, Eric King, Sean Swain, and Jeremy Hammond, among others, and I’m hopeful that we have a general consensus of the need for a new combative position toward anarchist insurgency, as expressed by our Greek comrades’ international call for Black December.

With that said, I want to express my heartfelt love and solidarity to our dear compañera Tamara Sol! Keep your head up sister! We want our freedom now and all prisons demolished immediately! ¡A la calle!

Solidarity to Antifascists!
Solidarity to Prison Rebels!