Also published here.
Utah
Utah State Prison, Draper 2009
I wish strength to all comrades worldwide. Last year on April 16th I caused a code red count by not racking in and having the SWAT Team deployed. For a couple hours I was considered AWOL from this Utah plantation. I sat in protest of the conditions and unjust treatment we were subject to last spring.
Since then I've been housed here in supermax, and along with the escape attempt they charged me with last year, there've been several inciting riots and disorderly conducts. My comrades in these actions have since been moved, if that's the word. One terminated or paroled and I wish him luck on the streets. The other, after continual abuses, resorted to hanging himself last month. And I want to just say to Spider and all those that choose that route, you're not forgotten and may you finally rest. I'm exposing as much as I can about these sadistic guards and have been studying law to better arm myself and eventually bring a rock solid case against the USP.
One pig was fired because of me documenting his exploits, but he has since been rehired, though it seems, and I hope, it's only temporary. The pig got a lawyer and he's suing the DOC for firing him. Sgt. Feikert doesn't realize that in a way he's now fighting on our side, the oppressed side. His lawsuit will weaken his and the prison industrial complex's capital. No matter who eventually wins, it's still a pig-on-pig fight and I can think of no better way at their throats than that.
By refusing OMR, I and others, especially almost all of section 3, have pretty much shutdown most all moves and the pigs have had to come up with new policies and rules to move us. One comrade in section 3 has been back here over 15 years, but his story is he's been kept here because the pigs fear his mind and political actions. The section 3 strike has, I assume, been his resistance and I want to wish strength to him and all those who are down.
Amerikan prisons are growing and no way a body looks at that fact is positive. Yet as a presence, us comrades are growing also. Both in numbers and knowledge, strength, and solidarity. We must all not become complacent but train our bodies and minds to be ready for action when the call to arms sounds.
It's not 'if,' it's 'when.' (Rage Against the Machine)
Word is born,
Fight the war, fuck the norm,
Now I got no patience,
So sick of complacence,
With the D - E - F - I - A - N – C- E,
Mind of a Revolutionary,
So clear the lane,
The finger to the land of the chains,
What? The land of the free?
Whoever told you that is your enemy,
Now something must be done,
About vengeance, a badge and a gun,
Now action must be taken,
We don't need the key, We'll break in.
I feel the time is nearing for revolution as the bloodthirsty U.S. overextends militarily overseas, and opportunities and weaknesses are becoming exposed here at home. Every small strike or rebellion we cause matters. We must remember that, and I want to say RIGHT ON to P.A.N. and all those that uphold the struggle by letting our voices beheard. We, as captives, have really no choice but to struggle. Either we struggle as awhole or lay down. But these ABC Networks and others have my, and I think I speak for us all, appreciation and respect, for all the tiresome, time consuming work andsupport you all provide for us convicts.
In Unity! Up the Struggle!
Brandon Green #35439,
UI 208
Utah State Prison
P.O. Box 250,
Draper, Utah 84020
From: Prison Action News (Boston ABC, 2008): p. 18-19
Utah State Prison
Draper, December 2008
The Utah State Prison is begging for litigation for First & Fourth Amendment Rights Violations, in its UINTA-1 Special Intensive Management Unit (SIMU), for Muslim diet refusals. Religious literature is not being allowed through the mail and obvious cruel & unusual punishment-type issues with mentally ill inmates being housed in these solitary cells. The denial of books and basic hygiene materials, combined with the fact that most all CO´s are just plain mean and emotionally desensitized from years of inflicting abuse, surely account for the unbelievably high rate of suicide attempts and actual suicide rates I witness day in and day out.
Those of us who speak up and out get extra shakedowns, refused writing materials and Grievance Forms; and our doors kicked during counts with taunting-type language.
SWAT Team extractions and beatings with pepper spray seeping into neighboring cells happen almost daily, and usually to the same poor mentally ill and confused inmates. One is actually almost totally deaf, so the direct orders he receives, fall literally on deaf ears. Psychiatric medications are pushed on inmates like dope on the streets, mostly so everyone will just sleep through the abuse. I find myself scared to even shower because these CO’s sometimes don’t need an excuse to throw you down and rough you up.
When I do try and grieve these issues, either I receive no responses or get excessive retaliation. I’ve been handcuffed to a hitching post for several hours and forced to urinate on myself, which I still to this day have shoulder pain from. Just one voice in 2.3 million. Utah State Prison is soon to be served a wake up call…
Brandon Green,#35439,
UINTA-One,
Utah State Prison,
P.O. Box 250,
Draper, Utah 84020
