TDCJ Hunger strikers

From Houston Indymedia:

Revolutionary greetings and respects! My name is Steven Woods, and I’m currently an inmate on death row in Texas. I am writing you to ask for your help. I am with you that the death penalty needs to be abolished, and am doing my part to see it happen. With God’s grace, we will succeed. However, I am writing now, for help on spreading the word on an activity, which is about to transpire (or already happening if you’re reading this after Oct 8th, 2006) here on death row. A few of my comrades and I are fed up with the deplorable conditions we’re housed in, and we have decided we will no longer eat. We are going to hunger strike until TDCJ moves us to more humane living conditions. We are determined and either conditions will improve or we will starve to death.

I am asking that you support us in this struggle. We’ve waited 7 years for change, and it only gets worse. Enclosed is an essay I wrote as a declaration of intent and I’m asking you to print it in your news letter (if you have one) and display it on your website (or blog). More information on this and throughout our struggle along with writings of others included can be found on my website http://www.anarchyinchains.com or by contacting us. I am a prison activist, former free-world activist, and anarchist and my website and it’s contents aren’t pretty. Reality seldom is. We welcome letters of friendship, encouragement, and solidarity. The names and contact info of the other prisoners involved are: Justen Hall 999497
Richard Cobb 999467
Travis Runnels 999505
Kevin Watts 999456
Stephen Moody 999076 I thank you for being there to support us. Please freely distribute the attached essay to anyone interested. Thank you. In Solidarity, Steven Woods 999427
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 S
Livingston, TX 77351 The Illusion of Hope…Is all but gone. A statement of Intent- By Steven Woods You can see it all the time on the news. All over the internet. U.S. prisoner abuse has run rampant throughout the world. You’ve seen Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay…Amerikkkan soldiers torturing hundreds of people in the interest of democracy, peace, justice, and freedom. It’s been turning the collective stomachs of society these past years, as you come to see the face of a beast none want to recognize. You look overseas and ask yourselves, “How can good, solid citizens behave like that?” you wonder, “ Where did that monster come from?” The question isn’t very hard to answer. That kind of abuse isn’t anything new. It’s been happening here on Amerikkan soil for decades. And while it’s true that Amerikkkan prisoners don’t suffer the depth of those held hostage by Bush Co, Here in Texas, on death row, we are forced to endure some o the harshest and most inhumane treatment imaginable. For the past several years, I and a few hundred others have been living out what can easily be called a nightmare. After the injustice of being sentence to death by a corrupt legal system (our universal right to life not withstanding), we’ve been shipped of to be warehoused in a penal institution of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Upon arrival, we are shorn of our dignity and our identity, caged and treated like animals, while we wait through the years of appeals and the judges eventual signing of our death warrants. We spend these years stored in the Polunsky Unit, in a segregated housing facility that has been designed to house over 500 people in a complete indefinite isolation. Segregative housing units (also called security housing units – SHU’s and control units) have been around for decades, designed to break the most violent and dangerous inmates in the prison system. No one is ever sentenced by a judge or jury to segregation, it’s the person’s actions once in prison that determines the need for placement here, as a non-punitive measure to maintain safety in and security of the institution. In general, after an inmate is able to prove that they are no longer a threat to the institution, they are placed back into the general population. The same is not true for us. Despite the provision for a non-segregation status in the Texas Death Row plan (the policy outlining death row housing and general procedure adopted by the director of TDCJ to bring the institution into compliance with Texas State Law), men on death row are never allowed to leave isolation. And yet, it wasn’t always like this. From 1965-1999, we were housed on the Ellis Unit, and afforded almost all of the same privileges that maximum-security general population inmates were allowed. We had art programs, group recreation, the ability to work, walk around un-restrained, had religious services, and televisions. We were generally treated better all around. Since being moved to Polunsky, though, life hasn’t been the same. We’ve been put on 22-hour lockdown. We lost all our group recreation, art programs and supplies (except well paper and color pencils), work programs, televisions, and religious services. We’re not allowed contact visits, so the only physical contact we’ll get until they kill us is when the CO’s hold our restrained arms while escorting us. According to policy, we’re supposed to have a chance to have most of that if we’re behaving ourselves. TDCJ’s non-compliance with their own policy isn’t only incredibly immoral, it’s also illegal according to the state constitution’s clause against cruel and unusual punishment. Why they’re allowed to get away with this is beyond me. The situation we’re stuck in leaves a question begging to be asked: What can we do about it? Unfortunately, an answer really isn’t forthcoming, the courts, state, and federal government are apathetic, even hostile to us. We’ve tried lawsuits, please and petitions. Each has been futile, and it has sometimes resulted in further abuse of us and our outside supporters. One of our main problems is that an insufficient number of us speak up about the abuse. As the minds of our captors and their supporters “if they’re not speaking up about it, it can’t be that bad”. Well, speaking up about it intelligently and effectively has been another problem. And even when it’s done, our complaints seem to fall on deaf ears. Over the years, we’ve also tried several civil disobedience movements, ranging from general non-compliance to non-violent resistance to try and get our complaints heard. This, too, to no avail. So if legal remedies and direction aren’t helping, what’s to be tried next? To answer that, a few of us have come together out of necessity, realizing that it’s going to take more drastic measures to try to compel a change. In this regard, as of October 8, 2006, we’ve initiated a hunger strike. We will not accept another morsel of food from our captors until such a time as TDCJ makes a credible effort towards the changes necessary to remove the current inhumane conditions. We have several viable request we’re making to the administration, dealing with health and safety issues, with policies and procedures being ignored and misinterpreted, and with our segregative housing conditions. It’s a shame that we have to starve ourselves to be treated decently. We’re hoping we don’t have to starve to death, but we cannot allow ourselves to be denied our basic human rights. We cannot, we will not live like this any longer. Yet even as we take this drastic step to stand against this injustice, we realize our actions alone will not likely bring the changes we require. We need your support in this struggle, fighting with us side by side. The administration will try to cover up and misconstrue our efforts, so we’re asking you to get involved, to put up as much effort as you’re able. Any actions you can take to help vocalize our plight are positive, be it writing to government officials, TDCJ administration, the media, participation online blogs and forums, protesting if you are able, and encouraging others to get involved. We’ll also need your encouragement and solidarity to help keep us from faltering, as even the most stout of heart can waver. The struggle will be long and hard, but in the end, with your help, we hope to succeed. In strength, struggle, and solidarity,

Steven Woods 999427
Justen Hall 999497
Richard Cobb 999467
Travis Runnels 999505
Kevin Watts 999456
Stephen Moody 999076

www.anarchyinchains.com