Some guides to help if you face going to prison

Being sent to prison is shit, even worse you are now a captive of one of your worst enemies, the state, so avoid it if you possibly can. But every day more people are being sent to prison, increasingly as a result of the ongoing social conflict between the bosses & politicians, and the rest of us.

Unsurprisingly therefore, the last year has seen a large growth in the number of ‘political activists’ imprisoned, as the state tries to intimidate our social movements. But don’t let the bastards grind you down. Be prepared.

Read these guides, but remember they are only guides, not the ‘law’, and the rules for courts and prisons do change all the time, often on the whim of those in authority. Read on:

Prisoner support resources

We have added a new page to the Bristol ABC blog, aptly titled ‘Resources‘.

The new page contains a series of downloadable pdf flyers, links to related texts, and some posters – feel free to copy and print out all of them for distro. The purpose of the page is to make these resources easily available on the one page, which will be added to as time goes by, as well as providing a point of reference for people looking for info & help around prisoner solidarity & support.  Taken together with the ‘Prison Texts‘ page, and the links on our home page, we hope some of your questions and queries will be answered, and the info you need more easily found.

California Prisoner Hunger Strike – More on Medical Crisis, Need Support Pressuring Immediate Negotiations

Legal representatives made visits to the Secure Housing Unit (SHU) at California’s Pelican Bay prison Tuesday, and interviewed a number of hunger strikers. Each prisoner explained how medical conditions of hundreds of hunger strikers in the SHU are worsening. Many prisoners are experiencing irregular heartbeats and palpitations, some are suffering from diagnosed cardiac arrhythmia. Many are also experiencing dizziness and constantly feel light-headed. Many struggle with shortness of breath and other lung and respiratory problems. Dozens of prisoners have fainted and been taken to either the infirmary and/or outside hospitals. Some prisoners also have Chrones disease, which leads to extreme loss of fluids and electrolytes and needs to be treated by adequate nutrition and hydration.

At least 200 prisoners continue the strike in solidarity with the prisoners at Pelican Bay at Calipatria State Prison, where summer heat has reached to 43C, even hotter inside the SHUs. Some people have experienced heat stroke due to severe dehydration.

The Tattoo Circus DIY prisoner support benefit FUNdraiser

Saturday 20 November, in London, sees the capital’s second Tattoo Circus of the year, and it looks like being another weird and wonderful cracker of an event!

It all kicks of at 11am in the morning. For venue details ring 07908 037170 or 07908 068724 after 10pm on Friday 19 November.

The Prison Works

‘The Prison Works’ is a cracking little pamphlet recently published by the Campaign against prison slavery (CAPS) & Brighton ABC.

Ken Clarke, confused new Tory boss of the injustice system

If you think prison does actually work, then read this. If you dont think it works…well read it anyway as it will broaden your knowledge and understanding. The term ‘prison works’ is a play on the dogmatic ideas of the likes of Michael Howard and the Tory governments from 1979 to 1997. Just put the term in a search engine and you’ll see what we mean!

The 20 page pamhplet contains 4 articles:

The Association of Prisoners

A while ago, Bristol ABC was one of a number of groups contacted by Ben Gunn, a prisoner at HMP Shepton Mallet, and nominated general secretary of the executive committee of the soon to be (re)launched Association of Prisoners, essentially a union for prisoners. We reproduce here the aims of the AoP, and calls for support. If you are in touch with any prisoners please pass this info on. This pdf may be a useful format for printing/circulating infoAssoc of Prisoners_aims See also this blog The Prisoners Voice for other background info.

The text is as written by Ben Gunn, although we have changed the order for ease of understanding ie putting the AoP Aims at top, and added in some links to help (and images are by us too).

PRISON? event at The Cube (Bristol)

Bristol Indymedia and Bristol ABC, in association with Bristol Anarchist Bookfair, present PRISON? – a one man performance written and performed by Charlie Ryder. This is a true story which is creatively told using a variety of theatrical devices including puppetry, masks, physical theatre and dance.

Interview with the Campaign Against Prison Slavery

Recently Joe Black of CAPS, one of the most knowledgeable anarchists involved in prisoner solidarity work, was interviewed for the lefty rag Solidarity (organ of trot group Workers Liberty). Its a wide ranging interview covering diverse prison and prisoner-resistance related topics, and well worth a read, so we’ve cut and pasted into our blog below. You can read the original online version here if you think you can handle exposure to WL! We also recommend a visit to the CAPS website where there is plenty of info, facts and politics.

Prisoner’s blog rattles Ministry of Justice

Shepton Mallet prisoner Ben Gunn’s blog has got the Ministry of (In)Justice all in a tizzy, and his blog is only 23 days old.

The blog is believed to be the first, or at least the only current blog, to be updated by a serving prisoner. Of course, he doesn’t personally post new articles to the blog, because as a prisoner he has no internet access. So he writes them by hand, and then gets friends to post the articles up on his blog for him.

The MoJ insist that Ben Gunn’s blog breaks the rules. He disagrees: “In 2008, the justice minister, Maria Eagle, told MP Sion Simon that prisoners could blog, subject to the rules of correspondence. Yet despite my complying with the law and ministerial pronouncements, the prison service is now reverting to its old habits – attempting to squash the vocal dissenter.”

News from the campaign against prison slavery

The last couple of days has seen the Guardian newspaper publish a major article by Richard Cookson and Phil Chamberlain headlined ‘Inside the sell blocks: Major companies are using prisoners as cheap labour through secretive government contracts. But who else benefits?’ on prison labour in the UK, which mentions the Campaign Against Prison Slavery (CAPS). See http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/sep/09/prisoners-cheap-labour-major-companies