Prison Lives Matter: Journal in the Spirit of Nelson Mandela, Vol 1 Spring 2021

plm_1_7june2021-1Download In the Spring we helped our friends at PLM put out this zine to 800 imprisoned comrades. Here's a PDF for reading and distributing! -I https://abolitioniststudy.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/plm_1_7june2021-1.pdf

COVID

While the correctional guards' union is busy arguing that its members should not have to be vaccinated to work behind these walls, one of them has infected a prisoner here who was scheduled to be released. Because that prisoner was housed on my block, I and 46 other prisoners, all deemed high risk by the …

Meditation on Accountability

Abolition is truly a project that requires balance. It is a negative and positive project. It is presence and absence. Often, we lean one way to the detriment of the other way. Inside, we tend to focus on the dismantling, the negative aspect. We are captive in an oppressive system predicated upon anti-Blackness. We are …

Happening

We were in the small block yard. I was talking to another prisoner and suddenly remembered I needed to ask another prison a question. As I walked over to the circle of prisoners he was in, I noticed how animated two of them were. As I reached the circle, one of the two guys turned …

Dear Essex / 4.16.2021

Dear Essex, It is our birthday again. I am sitting here in this tomb of sorrow thinking about your weapons. Since I picked them up, I have been questioning whether I can carry the responsibility you shouldered. You told us that someone would have to answer the mail you leave, the messages on your phone …

In The Belly, Vol 3

Our third issue just reached comrades in PA, through their painfully slow book delivery system. That means we are posting it online now. Here are two PDFs, one is a reader and one is a Booklet, thanks to the comrades who made this beautiful booklet-making tool In The Belly 3, Reader: in-the-belly-vol-3-readerDownload https://abolitioniststudy.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/in-the-belly-vol-3-reader.pdf In The …

You Gotta Learn the History: an Interview with Michael “Safear” Ness

Michael “Safear” Ness is an imprisoned abolitionist organizer at SCI-Fayette in Pennsylvania. IA is an outside friend and comrade.  IA: When and how did you become an abolitionist in your thinking? And in your practice? Safear: I’ve been radical since before abolition was in my vocabulary. Meaning, I was always someone who wanted to understand …

Defend Stevie Against Violent Retaliation!

Image: "Bars 1" by Josh MacPhee, thanks to JustSeeds. Description: Black background, with white bars bent and broken in the middle. Stephen Wilson, a Black queer abolitionist organizer and a prisoner of the state of Pennsylvania, is once again facing retaliation, harassment, and repression at SCI-Fayette. A rank-and-file prison cop named Digiacomo, who has for …

Study Groups & Moving Together: An Interview with Stephen Wilson

image credit: Fences, by Rini Templeton, thanks to JustSeeds Stephen Wilson is a Black queer abolitionist writing, organizing, and building study groups and community behind the wall at SCI-Fayette in Pennsylvania. Ian Alexander is his friend and comrade on the outside. This interview is the first in a series that will be published together as a …

Who’s Got A Hand In This Sh*t?

By Michael "Safear" Ness (Written January 22, 2021) The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections refuses to waste money on individual COVID-19 tests for the prisoner population, instead preferring to test each prison's accumulated sewage for COVID levels. An official PA DOC memo dated January 21, 2021 from Secretary of Corrections John E. Wetzel states, "Facilities will …