It's hard to think of our Working Class rising up and taking control
of the government, when so many sit by without raising a finger in
defense of prisoners Rights. Once upon a time we talked about our
Reformatories. The intent was to remove those persons who violated
the laws, and allow them time to think about their wrong doings, and
to seek help in correcting them. Of course this never was the real
world, but we did at least pay some lip service to the notion. But at
the same time, we also used prison time to allow prison officials to
punish those incarcerated in prison as their punishment, to a second
level of punishment. Cruel, indifferent treatment helped ensure that
the majority of prisoners would leave prison angry and full of
revenge. And of course, today our prisons have become a private
industry, ensuring those caught in the web will most likely never get
clear of it.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/29/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8101/810154.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 1 January 2, 2017
Attica prison censors ‘Militant’ for third time
BY SETH GALINSKY
Attica prison officials have impounded the Nov. 21 issue of the
Militant, violating their own rules, and constitutionally guaranteed
rights to freedom of the press and freedom of speech, for the third time
in just two months.
The prison’s Media Review Committee claims that the image of the cover
of the Oct. 3 issue of the Militant, which accompanied a Nov. 21 article
on the fight against censorship, “could incite violence against prison
staff.”
The Oct. 3 issue had a front page article on the 1971 Attica prison
uprising. The headline reads “Fight Continues 45 Years After Attica
Rebels Said, ‘We Are Men, Not Beasts.’”
Attica officials also impounded the Oct. 31 issue, pointing to an
article reporting on the Militant’s appeal of the unconstitutional
impoundment.
New York State Department of Corrections regulations say that
publications should not be banned because of “different political
philosophies” or “criticism of Governmental and Departmental authority.”
The rules say literature may not “incite violence” or “disobedience. ”
The rules were put in place after a court ruling in 1970 that prisoners
do not lose their constitutional protections just because they are
behind bars.
The Militant’s attorney, David Goldstein of the well-known civil
liberties law firm Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman,
wrote in his appeals to the impoundments that none of the articles in
the Militant can be construed as inciting disobedience, much less posing
a risk of rebellion. He is preparing to appeal this latest censorship.
Attica officials have also sentenced the subscriber, Jalil Muntaqim
(formerly Anthony Bottom), to four months of solitary confinement,
twisting and taking out of context comments he made while teaching a
class on Black history to fellow inmates.
“I have been suffering intense harassment,” Muntaqim wrote in a Dec. 14
letter published on the freejalil.com website. “First messing with my
mail, trying to put me in SHU for writing to I Am We Prison Advocacy
Network, then denying me receipt of the Militant newspaper, now
succeeding by taking comments of a 1 and a half hour lecture and
cobbling them into a narrative to fit rule violations, removing them
from the original context and intent.”
Muntaqim is a former member of the Black Panther Party and a founder of
the Jericho Movement, which promotes amnesty for political prisoners in
the U.S. He has been in solitary confinement in Attica’s Special Housing
Units since Dec. 6. Muntaqim has been in jail since he was 19, accused
of killing two police officers in 1971, and has repeatedly been denied
parole. His supporters have been campaigning to get Gov. Andrew Cuomo to
commute his sentence.
Prison authorities had authorized Muntaqim to teach the Black history
class. In his letter, Muntaqim says that in the class he contrasted the
Black Panther Party with the Bloods gang, “stating they need to get
organized, get away from criminal behavior and tribal warfare. … I was
asked how to make that possible, and I answered they need to get a
universal newspaper together that they could collectively contribute to.
They interpret this that I was trying to organize them.”
A broad range of groups and individuals have issued statements calling
on prison authorities to reverse the censorship of the Militant. They
include American Friends Service Committee; the Gathering for Justice
and Justice League NYC; Mothers and Families, New Market, Alabama;
National Lawyers Guild; New York Civil Liberties Union; Pen America;
Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five; San Francisco Bay View
monthly; and Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water: The
Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.
“Jalil, like other prisoners, has a constitutional right to read
newspapers and other literature, to form his own opinions and to express
them without retribution,” said Militant editor John Studer. “We will
keep fighting this until we win and Attica officials give Jalil all the
previously impounded issues.”
Related articles:
Join fight against Attica censorship!
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
