Security Does Not Mean Safety: #1

As an incarcerated penal abolitionist, I’m often asked by other prisoners: what do we do about murderers and rapists? When this happens, I acknowledge the fears that people convicted of these crimes might harm others, but I ask the questioner what their real concern is. Invariably and resoundingly, it’s safety—for themselves and their loved ones. …

Terrifying Assault on our Comrade at SCI-Smithfield ~ PHONE ZAP NEEDED

Yesterday at 12pm, Andre Logan, PA DOC # LM3820, was assaulted by two officers outside of the chow hall at SCI-Smithfield. The officers used excessive force on Andre because his shirttail was untucked. Andre suffered a fractured nose after having his face slammed into a glass window and then slammed to the concrete ground in …

Inhabiting a Paradox

Prison, paradoxically, is a place of emotional rawness and emotional repudiation. Each day, we are rubbed raw by the reality of our condition: exiled, alienated, subjugated and unremembered. But we are dissuaded from expressing any emotion other than rage/anger. Our sadness, our fear, even our desire is manifested as anger. To exhibit anything else is …

Community Book Review: Care Work

After numerous conversations with friends about what I call the "internal work" of abolition (emotional healing and growth, character-building, interpersonal skill development, etc.) and self-care, my good friend Charlotte Pope sent me Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's CARE WORK. I wanted to read a text that related the struggles and resiliency strategies of others in the movement. …

Addressing Internal Contradictions

I've been re-reading the intro from the inaugural issue of Propter Nos, published by True Leap Press (twitter: @true_leap) and it made me think about some things... I am often frustrated by other prisoners myopic view of just what is happening to us. The PIC is never "wholly grasped in its systemic totality," as True …

Nondistribution: Changes in the Tactics of Prison Censorship

Because a learned prisoner is an affront to the PIC, the PA DOC will stop at nothing to suppress prisoners' efforts to connect with the outside world. Last fall, it enacted an onerous mail policy that banned all publications. After much backlash, it modified the policy. The PA DOC would have the public believe that …

Letter to America

I have outmaneuvered the death you prepared for me and my community