THE MAIL REPRESION CONSPIRACY
On April 27, 2006, at around 5 a.m. the Pod Officers came around picking up Prisoners Outgoing Mail on the last security count. (Security counts are done every hour on the hour.) For the last four years the rule has been that "No TDCJ Guards are allowed to handle prisoners' outgoing mail - only mail room personnel were allowed to handle outgoing mail." When the guard (a female officer named Officer Brown) grabbed my outgoing mail that I had pinched in my door, I told her, "Give me my mail back - Guards are not allowed to handle our outgoing mail." She responded, "They passed an "IOC" yesterday saying that we are now to pick up outgoing mail on the last security count - we were told this by Lt. Stern in "Turnout." (IOC means "Inter-office communications." This is where the new rules passed by the wardens, major, captains etc. are documented and typed out to be posted in the dayroom of each pod - they never post the new IOC's in any dayroom. "Turnout" is where the TDCJ officers meet prior to their work shift to be briefed on what has gone on while they were off and how to continue enforcing the chaotic, oppressive and recessive order of the plantation.)
This rule was not supposed to go into effect until May 1, 2006. Still Guards began picking up the mail on April 27, 2006. When we first arrived on Polunsky Unit after being transferred from Ellis 1 Unit in March 2000, guards were the ones picking up our outgoing mail. But due to guards that had personal vendetta against prisoners throwing away our mail, in 2002 they passed a rule that stopped the guards from picking up the outgoing mail and made mail room personnel have to start picking up the outgoing mail. There is a saying that "TDCJ does everything backwards." True, which shows in how they are regressing in their policies, reinstating policies that they know will cause problems. Why? Because a capitalist, oppressive and repressive system feeds off of chaos to keep itself running. Thus, everything they do is for provocation - it keeps the chaos going which in turn allows them to propagate their propaganda in a manner that allows them to continue treating and confining us the way they do when we stand up for our rights, and justify the oppression under the Guise of "Security of the Institution" while stigmatizing us as a security threat. Nonetheless, we will continue to stand up!
The other reason they reinstated that old policy is because we've been cracking down on how they have maliciously been handling our mail, delaying on delivering it - and flat out throwing it away. The blame has been falling exclusively on the mail room personnel since they have been the only ones allowed to handle our mail (both outgoing and incoming) for the last four years. By changing the mail pick up back to the old way of allowing guards to pick up the outgoing mail, it allows this repressive administration to continue their repressive tactics of mishandling and throwing away our mail to keep the word from getting out about the protest, to stop inside and outside consolidation and mobilization, while at the same time making the blame for this malicious mail handling elusive by all staff being able to "Pass the buck." Now, when mail comes up missing, mail room personnel can say. "We don't pick up outgoing mail - we only inspect outgoing mail that is dropped off at the mail room by the guards. Check with them or the Post Office." Mail room personnel becomes free of blame in their assistance to help the administration repress us through the malicious handling of our outgoing mail, and the guards who pick up the outgoing mail alleviate themselves by simply saying they deliver all mail they pick up directly to the mail room (thus making the blame for maliciously-handled mail elusive because guards can say they are delivering all mail they pick up directly to the mail room. "So for any missing mail, prisoners need to check with the mail room personnel or write the Post Office because maybe they lost it.") Since there is nobody (an independent agency with higher authority above ranking officers in TDCJ) to supervise them and ensure that mail is being handled according to Federal Law and mail procedure however they please - and getting away with it because all mail room personnel and TDCJ Staff collude together against prisoners.
I believe the new mail pick-up rule was passed due to the protest. It makes it easier to throw away protesters' mail without being exposed to blame for breaking mail policies and Federal Law that exposes them to criminal charges. This new mail pick-up policy of guards picking up prisoners outgoing mail needs to be stopped before the mail problem here gets worse than what it already is.
On April 28, 2006, I spoke to a female Sgt. on the night shift (Sgt. Jones) about the mail pick-up issue being changed. I asked her why the policy regressed back to the guards picking up mail when the reason they stopped that 4 years ago was because they discovered trash can full of outgoing mail in one of the guards' pickets - the outgoing mail had been thrown away by a guard! Sgt. Jones response was: "First of all, when outgoing mail is picked up by officers, it is not suppose to ever go in the picket. It is suppose to be set by the pod’s exit door in the mail bag so mail room personnel can pick it up. I have some pretty decent officers and you don't have to worry about your mail being thrown away." I walked away from the doors laughing at her blasphemy about her having decent officers and us prisoners never having anything to worry about our outgoing mail being thrown away by her guards.
On 5-7-06 at around 5 a.m. a guard came around picking up outgoing mail. He picked up my mail. Comrade Reggie was upstairs from me in 64 Cage. It’s a corner cage and his mail is often missed at mail pick up because it's not always easy to see. The guard missed his mail. I was standing at my cage door speaking to one of my neighbors when Comrade Reggie realized the guard missed his mail at mail pick up and began calling the guard to let him know he missed his mail and needed to pick it up. It took Reggie almost an hour to get the guards attention and to come get his mail. The guard came out of the picket, picked up Reggie’s mail and went back into the picket with Reggie’s mail in his hand. 10 minutes later the female guard that had been working with the male guard who picked up the mail came out of the picket with the mail bag carrying it over her shoulder, walked to the front exit door of the pod and placed it on the floor for the mail room personnel to pick up. Now Sgt. Jones just told me outgoing mail is not supposed to ever go in the picket. Since there is no ranking officers around to monitor mail pickup, as you can already see - the bag of outgoing mail is already ending up in the guards’ picket. Soon the problem we had of guards throwing away out mail will begin (especially for those of us Protesting). I suggest mail pickup should be supervised by a ranking officer (a Sergeant) to make sure mail procedure is followed.
For the last few years we have had problems with incoming mail. Mail room personnel always takes a long time (anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks) to deliver incoming mail, when the policy is that mail personnel has "24 hours" to deliver incoming mail once it arrives on the unit, and "24 hours" to get the outgoing mail to the Post Office. However, for those of us ^protesting, the delay of delivering our incoming and outgoing mail is worse. Our outgoing mail and incoming mail to people in Texas should only take two to three days to get from one city to the next in Texas once it arrives at the Post Office. That means if I mailed a letter on 4-3-06 to Houston, TX. (which is only 2 hour drive from and to Livingston, TX) and it leaves Polunsky Unit it should arrive to its destination by 4-5-06 or 4-6-06. But my letters to Houston, TX., and other cities in Texas take 9 - 12 days (which means our outgoing mail is being delayed on Polunsky Unit by mail room personnel and TDCJ ranking officers.) It is difficult to prove they are sitting on our outgoing mail. Although many of us write the date on our outgoing letters that we mail them out, and our friends will notice a gap of days or weeks between the date written on the letter that it was mailed out and the post office dated stamped on the envelope that lets one know when the Post Office received our mail, mail room personnel will still swear up and down it's the Post Office and accuse them for the delay (we know better). But they can get away with those lies because there's no independent agency above them that is supervising them, and Warden Massey (the head warden of the unit who is also responsible for supervising mail room personnel and insuring that mail room procedure is carried out properly) is basically giving mail room personnel full sovereignty and discretion to run mail as they see fit. That's because it is Warden Massey, Warden Hirch and Major Nelson who order mail room personnel to send protesters' outgoing and incoming mail to Major Nelson for her to personally scrutinize. I know this because several of my incoming letters came to me with Major Nelson’s name written on the envelope. Mail room personnel had written Major Nelson's name so that someone in the Mail room knew to put them in Major Nelson's mail box. (All of the Comrades have received several incoming letters with Major Nelsons' name on the envelope - and the mail had been very much delayed anywhere between 12 days to 3 weeks or more.)
This administration is breaking Federal Law, and its own TDCJ Policies to suppress our mail. According to the TDCJ Policy, only mail room personnel is allowed to handle our incoming and outgoing mail. For instance, the Unit has a "Gang Intelligence Officers to monitor prisoners they consider a "security threat group." Their mail is monitored by these officers. However, the procedure on that is: Mail room personnel is given a list of prisoners' names whose mail they feel they need to monitor. When those prisoners send out mail or receive incoming mail, the personnel has 24 hours to inspect that mail for approval or denial. At the same time mail room personnel is supposed to send "Gang Intelligence" a Xerox copy of that incoming or outgoing letter and gang intelligence has the same 24 hours to inspect the letter(s) and notify the mail room personnel as to if the letter is approved for delivery, or if it is deemed a security threat to the institution and being denied. But no security staff (meaning no guards at all, whether a CO4 or a ranking officer) is allowed to touch or handle the actual incoming /outgoing letter.
However, mail room personnel, at the order of the wardens and Major Nelson, are sending all of our mail (incoming and outgoing directly to Major Nelson and gang Intelligence for their malicious scrutiny - and our incoming and outgoing mail is being intentionally delayed sometimes thrown away.) They are not supposed to be handling our mail. But how can we expect the wardens (who are responsible for supervising the mail room to maintain order) when it is the wardens' ordering mail room personnel to violate mail procedure for the sake of suppressing the mail of those of us protesting? They are treating those of us protesting as a security threat group. How blasphemous - they are the ones oppressing us! We're simply standing up for our rights. The highest ranking officials on the Unit (Dictator Warden Massey, his flunky assistant Warden Hirch, and their flunky Major Nelson) are violating the very rules and procedures they are suppose to be following and enforcing. For this reason, I feel an independent outside agency needs to be brought in to supervise them. Reasons being: I think it's pretty much common sense that since we are protesting the inhumanity of this administration, it is understood that this administration is going to attempt to repress us so as not to have their indiscretion exposed to the public because it exposes them to bad publicity, losing their jobs and criminal charges. If they were not doing anything wrong to us, then why are they so adamant on suppressing our mail and what we say about what is going on here? If it was false, then they would simply address the public and welcome the public to view how they're doing things if they're as just as they claim. You only try to hide something when you feel it's wrong or are ashamed or both. Thus, the reason for the repressive handling of our outgoing and incoming mail is to stop us from exposing "the truth" about their unjust treatment of us.
Everything they do seem to be to try to drive us insane or repress our voice. Before we know it, through suppression of our correspondence and getting more restrictive about how much postage and correspondence supplies we can have, eventually Death Row prisoners' voices will be completely silenced and Comrade Martin Luther King Jr.'s words will become a deadly reality: "Life begins to end when we stay silent about the things that matter." Willing silence is one thing, forced silence is another. Let us not be forced to silence our oppression and attempted murders by the state. Speak out against the injustice!!!
To complain about the Mail Problem call to: 936-967-8082 (the mail room supervisor is "Mrs. Owany".)
If they act indifferent call to: "MSCP" (Mail System Coordinators Panel. Ask to speak to Suzie Chiles): 936-295-6371
On The Rise!
Gabriel (CLICK ON THE ACTION CENTRE PAGE TO SIGN THE MAIL PETITION.)
MAIL PETITION
Due to mail room personnel on Polunsky Unit refusing to follow Federal Laws and TDCJ Policy regarding timely mail delivery; Giving out our incoming/outgoing mail to TDCJ Staff who are not authorized to handle our mail; Throwing away incoming/outgoing mail as a retaliatory tactic towards prisoners who ask for their rights; tampering with and opening Prisoners Legal mail out of his presence when Legal Mail is a reserved for Attorney and Client only and is a violation of our Law of Due Process to tamper with Legal Mail - we request (as a solution to these problems) that an independent outside agency be allowed to supervise Polunsky Unit Mail Room Personnel to ensure they carry out proper Correspondence Procedures - since the only ones who are suppose to insure that proper correspondence is followed (Warden Massey, Major Nelson & Warden Hirsch) are the ones authorizing these mail violations.
D.R.I.V.E.
DEATH Row INNER-COMMUNALIST VANGUARD ENGAGEMENT
