Attorney Bruce Afran’s appeal of Sundiata Acoli’s parole-denial and 10 year hit resulted in the New Jersey Appellate Court’s remand to the NJ Parole Board that its 10 year hit be cut to 2 years. It was done and Sundiata has become immediately eligible for a parole hearing again. The Appellate Court must still rule on Sundiata’s 2010 denial of parole but meanwhile he’s preparing to go before the parole board again for his newly won 2012 parole hearing. In that regards he would greatly appreciate any and all letters sent to the parole board urging that he be released.

Sundiata is 75 years of age and has been in prison 39 years resulting from a stop of his car by state troopers on the NJ Turnpike, in 1973, which erupted in gunfire that resulted in the death of his passenger, Zayd Shakur, and a state trooper, Werner Foerster. The other passenger, Assata Shakur, was critically wounded and captured on the scene where another trooper, James Harper, was also wounded. Sundiata was wounded at the scene, captured in the woods 40 hours later and subsequently sentenced to life in NJ State prison.

Sundiata is now the longest held prisoner in New Jersey’s history of similar convictions. He has maintained an outstanding record in prison and has had only a few minor disciplinary reports over the past 30 years and none during the last 16 years. He’s also maintained an excellent work and scholastic record and has always been a positive influence in prison, particularly in mentoring prisoners toward becoming crime-free benefactors to the community upon return to society and thereby break their cycle of recidivism.

Sundiata is a 75 year old grandfather who has long been rehabilitated, has long satisfied all requirements for parole and has no or “little likelihood of committing another crime:” which is the main criterion for parole in New Jersey. Sundiata is an old man, in declining health, who wishes to live out the rest of his days in peace tending his grandchildren.

Send letters urging the board that “39 years is enough! Release Sundiata Acoli! NJ #54859/Fed #39794-066″ Address the INSIDE LETTER to: The New Jersey State Parole Board, P.O. Box 862, Trenton NJ 08625, BUT ADDRESS/MAIL THE ENVELOPE TO:
Florence Morgan,Esq.
120-46 Queens Blvd.
Queens NY 11415

and the letter will be forwarded to the parole board after a copy is made for SAFC files.

Thank you for your support. Please keep in touch with SundiataAcoli.org at The Sundiata Acoli Freedom Page to stay abreast of Sundiata’s parole situation and additional ways you can express support/solidarity with his parole effort. Sundiata and his Freedom Campaign, SAFC, send their sincerest condolences to the family and comrades of Christian Gomez, the prisoner who died in the California Prisoner’s Hunger Strike – and we send our warmest shout out of solidarity and strength to all those participating in or supporting the California Prisoner’s Hunger Strike.

Hunger strike representatives at Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), known as the Short Corridor Collective, have written and released a document rejecting the CDCR’s proposed plan for new regulations concerning SHU placement and gang validation, and presenting a counter-proposal. Read the Short Corridor Collective’s rejection here and read their counter-proposal here.

By Ed Mead

Reprinted from prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com

“[T]he goals we are currently pursuing are objectively incorrect. To reform the validation process is good, but as an ultimate objective it is not a resolution. It’s a peripheral manifestation of the SHU’s themselves. It’s secondary, like bed sores on a cancer patient. Bandages and topical treatment are necessary, as a reformation of the validation process, to cure the bed sores, which are peripheral to the cancer, but the patient needs to be cured of the cancer. We are not going to be cured of perpetual isolation with Band-Aids, by reformation of the process, but only by dealing with the principle source of this illness—the SHU itself.” – A SHU prisoner

In an apparent response to CA hunger strikes one and two the CDCR has proposed new regulations with respect to gang management and SHU placement. As you’d expect, there is very little velvet glove and a lot of iron fist—lots of stick but little carrot. The essence of their draft rules is to do away with gang status as a means of SHU or ASU placement, and to replace it with some sort of threat model or designation, like the feds do. In other words, instead of them saying you are somehow related to a gang, a classification the courts have held requires some measure of proof; they now change the name of “gang” to “Security Threat Group.” If you should (god forbid) be one of those people who might write about or verbally communicate something to the effect of how messed up it is to be a slave in 2012 America, then you are a “threat.” My friend Bill Dunne has been perpetually locked down in the federal system under just such a designation. But more to the point, how does this proposed new policy meet the five core demands?

The name has changed but the game is the same

The CDCR plans to no longer utilize the terms “Prison Gangs” or “Disruptive Groups” and instead will use a “Security Threat Group” designation or STG. STGs are divided into two groups, STG-I and STG-II, what used to be gang members and gang associates or affiliates, respectively. What is a STG? It is defined as “[a]ny group or organization of two or more members, either formal or informal (including traditional prison gangs) that may have a common name or identifying sign or symbol, whose members engage in activities that include, but are not limited to … acts or violations of the department’s written rules and regulations” or any law or attempting, planning, soliciting, etc. to do such things. How is one assessed to be an STG? The list is too long to detail here, suffice it to say two or more people who the cops feel might represent “a potential threat to the safe and secure environment of the institution … such activities as group disturbances [like a peaceful hunger strike?].”

Validation continues to be “[t]he objective process by which an inmate is determined to be or have been an active member of a STG.” While the CDCR’s draft documents refer to the STG designation, the surrounding verbiage is all about gangs and validation. The stated purpose is still to “prohibit inmates from creating, promoting, or participating in any club, association, or organization, except as permitted by written instructions.” This of course prohibits forming a prisoners’ union, something guaranteed to all humans by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Validation Changes

Under the proposed new rules it would still takes three sources to validate a prisoner as a gang member (STG) or associate. The only difference would be that under the new system these sources would be “weighted” in a ten point scale. Use a hand sign, that’s two points. Someone informs on you, three points. Got gang-related material in your possession, four points. A photo of you taken with suspected gang members, four points. Staff observations, for example, you are exercising with the wrong group of people, four points. Another agency says you are gang affiliated, four points. Association, four points. Visitors who are claimed to be promoting gang activity, four points. Phone conversations, mail, notes, greeting cards, etc., four points. Tattoos or body markings, six points. Legal documents evidencing gang conduct, seven points. There is more but you get the idea—the new boss is a lot like the old boss.

Behavior modification by another name

Before there was the super-max prison in Florence Colorado, the federal ADX, there was the U.S. Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, which was built to replace Alcatraz. Marion housed “the worst of the worse”, a phrase frequently used by California’s prison officials with respect to SHU prisoners.

In the 1970s the feds implemented a controversial step or behavior modification program at Marion. Prisoners in the program would start out with nothing, and step-by-step be given their rights based on their behavior. In the final phase or step, in order to show you were worthy of transfer to a less secure facility, during the regular group meetings you would be expected to snitch on fellow prisoners who may have violated some minor unit rule. Marion prisoners waged a historic and eventually successful struggle against this behavior modification program and it was shut down. To see this exact same program slated for implementation inside of California’s SHUs is a chilling reminder of those terrible days; a reminder of how history tends to repeat itself for those who fail to learn from the past.[1]

The process is a simple one. There would be a series of steps or phases. In phase 1you may or may not participate in the debriefing process, but you will have nothing in your cell but minimum hygiene items, locked up 23 hours a day, subject to mandatory urinalysis, no contact with others, and otherwise very restrictive regimen. After a given amount of time, with what your captors regard as good behavior, the prisoner slowly moves from one phase to another. With each phase they get more privileges, and also have additional obligations, such as participating in mandatory group programming, small groups at first, then larger ones. Upon successful completion of the “Inmate Treatment Plan” (behavior modification process) the prisoner is released either to an SNY or to GP, or possibly returned to the SHU if the process is deemed unsuccessful.

The Carrot

Of course there must be a little carrot in there, it can’t be all stick. That bite of carrot is the opportunity to at some point allow an administrative review of the status of current SHU or ASU prisoners, which of course would be fair and impartial—that what they had to say to you yesterday will be different than what they have to say to you tomorrow.

The CDCR says it “will be conducting a case by case review for program determination of the existing STG population housed in SHU facilities.” They continue, “[I]t cannot be overemphasized that change of this magnitude in current housing of SHU offenders must be done in a thoughtful and security minded manner…” (read slow). So when will this administrative review of existing SHU prisoners take place? They say “[u]pon approval of this document, CDCR will develop new regulations consistent with this policy for submittal to the Office of Administrative Law” for approval. Sometime after that approval the case by case review will start to take place.

Conclusion

Maybe some will be released from the SHU, people will call it a victory, and everyone will go home (to GP) happy. But what has really been won? A new generation of SHU prisoners will take the place of those few who go through the behavior modification program or are otherwise released from the SHU. The process of litigation will start all over again, and another 15 years are wasted—a period during which even more lives are destroyed. In my opinion this is not the time to be settling for cheap trinkets. It is time to finish off the SHU once and for all.

On March 10^th the NY Times printed an article titled “Prisons Rethink Isolation, Saving Money, Lives and Sanity.” Similar articles are in the New Yorker magazine and other trend-setting publications. The mood on the streets is open to substantial change in segregation policies—not a merely changing the name of the bland soup they always serve up. SHU prisoners have finally stepped onto the stage of history, now it is time to amplify their voices even further—not just to the halls of power, but to their peers and communities as well. Now’s the time to build a lawful and peaceful movement to bring about a positive change in the existing prison paradigm. ♦

Christian Gomez was participating in the most recent hunger strike at Corcoran State Prison in the Administrative Segregation Unit (AdSeg/ASU), and died due to “medical conditions,” according to the CDCR. Gomez’s sister, Yajaira, speaks out on behalf of her brother and their family on Democracy Now. Attorney Carol Strickman, of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity, explains developments with the prisoners’ struggles against torturous conditions of solitary confinement in CA.

watch video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJS4cUCiZO0&feature=player_embedded

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/anonymous-hits-ohio-fbi-partner-website-15782173#.T0f8lfWepRQ

The website of an international prison contractor was defaced by hackers who on Friday replaced the company’s home page with a hip-hop homage devoted to former death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal.

Hackers allied to the loose-knit Anonymous movement claimed responsibility for vandalizing the site of Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which manages some 60 custodial facilities in Europe, North America, Australia and South Africa.

A call to the GEO Group Inc. was routed to The GEO Group Foundation, a charitable organization linked to the company. The foundation’s Abraham Cohen refused to discuss the attack, asking that questions be submitted in writing to the foundation’s Executive Director Pablo Paez.

Paez didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Anonymous said in a statement posted to the stricken website that its hack was “part of our ongoing efforts to dismantle the prison industrial complex.”

Earlier Friday, Anonymous claimed credit for defacing the website of a Dayton, Ohio-based chapter of Infragard, a public-private partnership for critical infrastructure protection sponsored by the FBI. The group’s site was replaced by a video of Coolio’s 1995 rap hit, “Gangsta’s Paradise.”

The FBI declined to comment on that attack.

Anonymous, an amorphous collection of activists and Internet mischief-makers, has increasingly focused its energy on military, police and security companies in recent months. Among its most spectacular coups: The interception of a conference call between FBI and Scotland Yard cyber-investigators working to track them down.

At least one element within the group has promised weekly attacks on government-linked targets.

****************************************
Hacker campaign targets US prison contractor

(AFP) – 15 minutes ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gBwPi3Q43wMi5Ab1AFaNymZ2-6sw?docId=CNG.ad762637d58cc0a3da55ce9398 9c75c5.5a1

SAN FRANCISCO ­ Hacker group Anonymous on Friday vandalized the website of a major US prison contractor in the latest salvo in an anti-police campaign.

Anonymous subgroup “Antisec” took credit for replacing The Geo Group website home page with a rap song dedicated in part to convicted murderer [sic] Mumia Abu-Jamal and a message condemning prisons and policing in the United States.

Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose birth name is Wesley Cook, is a former Black Panther and radio journalist serving a life sentence for the 1981 shooting death of a police officer in Philadelphia.

Activists around the world have rallied in support of the former Death Row inmate, who they contend fell prey to racism in the justice system.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to dismantle the prison industrial complex, we attacked one of the largest private prison corporations in the US – Geo Group,” Anonymous said in a message posted at the Geo Group website.

“We are acting in solidarity with all those who have ever been wrongfully profiled, arrested, brutalized, incarcerated, and have had all dignity and humanity stripped from them as they are cast into the gulags of America.”

The Geo Group manages prisons, mental health facilities, or detention centers in Australia, Britain, South Africa, and North America. The corporation reported $77.5 million in net profit on $1.6 billion in revenue last year.

Anonymous took credit Thursday for an online raid of the Los Angeles Police Canine Association and the posting of personal and potentially embarrassing information.

“Over the past three weeks, we in the cabin have been targeting law enforcement sites across the United States,” hackers said in a message atop a file at Pastebin.com containing officers’ addresses, phone numbers and more.

“Be it for injustices they have allowed through ignorance or naivety, taken part in, or to point out the fact that their insecurity failed to protect the safety of those they took an oath to serve,” the group said of its motives.

The hackers claimed to have gotten the addresses of more than 1,000 officers along with information from police warrants and court summonses as well as about informants in their weeks-long series of attacks on police computers.

Anonymous law enforcement targets in recent weeks have included the websites of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Prisoners at Corcoran’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), who participated in the hunger strike in the summer and fall and have been writing reports and statements about prisoners’ struggles inside–the NARN Collective Think Tank (NCTT)– have issued a proposal for 10 demands to the Occupy Movement (Read the full proposal and 10 demands here). The NCTT has also written more analysis for the Occupy Movement, which has been published by the SF Bay View Newspaper. Read “A Discussion on Strategy for the Occupy Movement from Behind Enemy Lines” here.

On Monday, February 20th, over a dozen rallies and demonstrations will be held throughout the US for a “National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners,” including in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, Denver, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Family and community members of prisoners, former prisoners, and people directly affected by the prison industrial complex will speak out against the destructive impacts of imprisonment by sharing their own experiences and reading statements from their loved ones inside prison.

Since the fall of 2011, a surge of people power has been growing in the US and worldwide, as thousands of people have been mobilizing protests against gross social and economic inequality. At the same time the Occupy movement gained steam in October of last year, 12,000 prisoners were participating in the second wave of a massive hunger strike against California’s notorious prison system. Strike actions continue inside California prisons, with dozens of prisoners at Corcoran State Prisons’ Administrative Segregation Unit refusing food in protest to the conditions of their confinement again.
California Hunger Strike representatives imprisoned in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison, who launched the historic hunger strike in July, have written a statement of solidarity which Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity will read at Occupy 4 Prisoners’ February 20th demonstration outside San Quentin:

   “Corporate Amerika has coalesced its efforts around the exploitation of human beings, while using the political apparatus of the U.S. government, federal, state and local to institute policies that set in motion the creation of a corporate police state, which has targeted the poor as a surplus for incarceration and exploitation.

   Those of us housed in solitary confinement throughout California and Amerika, support “Occupy Wall Street” and understand the necessity to resist against corporate greed.  We will no longer willingly accept the subjugation, oppression and exploitation of humanity.

    Banks and the prison industrial complex are corporate empires that prey on the souls of humanity. Therefore we officially join you all in Struggle. One Love, One Struggle!”

Prisoners in the forefront of the struggle against imprisonment have continuously braved abuse, torture and retaliation by prison administration and have reminded us of how necessary support outside of prison truly is. Let’s match this courage and amplify the voices of prisoners and their loved ones–those who have been systematically denied a voice for far too long– to further struggles against imprisonment, the loss of jobs, racism, the denial of good education and decent healthcare.

Come out on February 20th & support prisoners!

Incarcerated last week on G20 related charges

One week before she began serving a 16th month sentence related to her participation in organizing the G20 protests, UTA sat down with Amanda Hiscocks for a wide ranging discussion about her situation as a political prisoner and her analysis of the fallout of state repression against those organizing against the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010. This interview will be published in a forthcoming issue of UTA, but we are making the raw audio available here so that activists can get a better a sense of Mandy’s assessment of the features of state repression and what needs to be done to support the G20 political prisoners.

Mandy is a member of the UTA advisory board, and has been a radical political activist working out of the town of Guelph, Ontario since the mid-1990s.

The interview was conducted on January 6th, 2012 in Toronto by Tom K. of the UTA Editorial Committee. Please feel free to share this audio widely through your social networks. If you want to play it on your local community radio, we’re cool with that, but please contact us at uppingtheanti@gmail.com to let us know. We will be making a written transcript of the interview available soon.

Note: Mandy is now incarcerated at the Vanier Detention Centre. She has a blog up at http://boredbutnotbroken.tao.ca/ and you can send letters to:

Amanda Hiscocks
Vanier Centre for Women
655 Martin Street
Box 1040
Milton, ON
L9T 5E6