The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee is excited to announce that we have a new, redesigned website. You can visit it at incarceratedworkers.org. So update your bookmarks because iwoc.noblogs.org will be shutting down in the end of June.
Imagine spending 23 hours each day alone in a 6x9 ft space. Crowd into it a toilet/sink combo, rusty iron set of bunk beds, and overhead lockers... layers of peeling paint in multiple colors, showing the years of neglect, black mould, roaches, rats, along with spiders and bugs I can't even identify – then you'll have some idea of what home looks like to many people here in Texas' Eastham Unit.
Thanks to all who participated in Friday’s phonezap action to bring heat relief to the brothers in Corcoran!
We got reports all day from people who were calling and emailing Corcoran officials and there’s no doubt the prison bosses felt the pressure. We’ve got word back already via a family member of someone inside:
During this heatwave in California, families in touch with their loved ones inside Corcoran are urgently asking for help. Triple-digit weather has been affecting the area and prisoners are being confined to their hot cells, and denied access to fans and medical accommodations. They are also being denied their programs, because guards refuse to withstand the heat to supervise them.
Since March 2017, prisoners in Tecumseh Correctional Institution have been forcibly and illegally moved to a housing unit more restrictive than solitary confinement. The creation of Unit 2B was spontaneous and reactionary after a riot at the facility early in the month. It is strategically called a “close management” unit, thereby evading the regulatory oversight of being classified as solitary confinement. The conditions of 2B include 1 hour out of cell each day, and 40 minutes in the yard each week. Prisoners are double-celled, having to spend 23 hours each day in close quarters with another prisoner.
Supporters have received word that Kevin “Rashid” Johnson was picked up by Virginia officials and removed from Clements Unit on Thursday, June 23rd. He is no longer being held by Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has disappeared political prisoner Rashid Johnson, whom they were retaliating against for organizing fellow prisoners for improvements.
To ensure Rashid's safety, we are asking you to phone in to the TDCJ and ask for his whereabouts using this script.
Our friend Rashid is being retaliated against for his prison organizing. A shank was planted on him by guards, which can be confirmed by multiple witnesses. Join others in calling to demand that charges be dropped and his possessions be returned to him.
James Shelby, New-M-Pac founder, IWW delegate, and Missouri prisoner wrote regarding a medical torture call in campaign we did on his behalf . . . "I believe that I was transferred due to pressure from IWW members. At one point the warden and her assistant called me to the visiting area to meet about all the calls they were receiving due to my medical issues.
Stories from the Inside is produced by the Twin Cities Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. It features stories from people inside Minnesota's prisons about what it's like to be there, how they're working to build power, and how prisons keep our whole society chained up. Let us know what you think at facebook.com/tciwoc.
