Volume 2, Issue 3 | June 2020 All Of Us Or None All of Us or None is an organizing movement started by people who have been in prison in order to challenge the pervasive discrimination that formerly incarcerated people, people in prison, and our family members face. Our goal is to strengthen the voices of people most affected by mass incarceration and the growth of the prison industrial complex. Through our grassroots organizing, we will build a powerful political movement to win full restoration of our human and civil rights.
Involuntary Servitude: Life as Civilly Dead
It reveals itself in prison fire brigades, the replacement of a name with a number, and the plantation fields of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a.k.a. Angola. It is slavery by other names -- “mass incarceration” or “prison labor” -- and it is an intentional continuation of America’s shameful past. Page 10 2|AOUON June 2020
All of Us Or None About the Artist: Cover image Self-Determination Pledge “Doing Time” is an As members of All • To help build the acrylic painting by of Us or None, we Gerald Morgan, an pledge: economic stability of formerly-incar- artist incarcerated • To demand the at San Quentin State right to speak in cerated people our own voices • To claim and take Prison in California. • To treat each care of our own Morgan is 67 years other with respect children and our old and has spent and not allow dif- families the last two decades ferences to divide us • To support com- incarcerated. This • To accept re- munity struggles to work, along with sponsibility for any stop using prisons as other pieces from acts that may have the answer to social the San Quentin caused harm to our problems prison art program, families, our commu- • To play an active is on display in the nities or ourselves. role in making our offices of the Ninth • To fight all forms communities safe for Circuit Court of of discrimination everyone. Appeals. Inside The Issue
Feature Story Spotlight
Involuntary servitude and slavery as a form of Eric Abercrombie was traumatized by violence he punishment aren’t just legal preservations of a experienced as a child. While he was incrcerated, he shameful past. In practice, it’s an immoral black eye learned he could process that channel through his on present day. Page 10 music. Page 4
Coming Home The INjustice System London Croudy promised herself her time behind bars This year, we proved the voices of directly impacted would not be in vain. Upon release, she learned how individuals will have their say in politics, even if the her experience could help fight back against the unjust means are somewhat different. Our report on the first- criminal legal system. Page 18 ever Digital Quest for Democracy. Page 6
Mail Bag Chapter Highlights
COVID inside from another angle. Reggie Thorpe, who N. New Jersey launched a campaign demanding the is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, release of incarcerated individuals as COVID begins to writes about why CDCR can’t afford to let the prison spread across the prison system. Plus, bills we’re watching population die. Page 8 and updates from our national chapters. Page 14 June 2020 AOUON|3
A Note From AOUON Founding Member Dorsey Nunn
ong before it was a question profiting from privately investing in chattel slavery, human beings could of forced labor it was the issue corporations and stocks. be beat in the middle of a town square of caging me as a juvenile for Ultimately, I found myself asking without objection. How was such Lbeing incorrigible. No real crime if there is any difference between brutality ever considered normal? but a demand that I do the dance being owned by an individual, a I know now it was due to a potent of a slave that usually accompanied corporation or the government? I narrative that operated under the most arrests; the dance that starts remember people warning me on the color of law. with being forced to get naked, yard at Deuel Vocational Institution The ugly truth is that we would to stick out my tongue, to lift my that prisoners caught tattooing would never have been able to maintain the genitals, bend over and spread my receive disciplinary charges for prison industrial complex or engage butt cheeks and to cough. It was a destruction of state property. People in mass incarceration without forcing dance that I was forced to initially told me if I died while in custody and hundreds of thousands prisoners to do at Hillcrest Juvenile Hall and my family was too poor to pay for the labor without pay, or paying them so forced repeat throughout my decade funeral, the state would sell my ashes little that they are unable to make a of incarceration. I have always to my families. No matter how much meaningful contributions to their imagined this dance as similar to I wanted to happily exist in denial, my family or their communities. that of a slave prior to being sold consciousness would not allow it. As I write this opinion piece our on the auction block. When I asked The 13th Amendment made the country is being visited by riots authorities why I was being subjected exception that read “Neither slavery from coast to coast because of to such treatment they would allege nor involuntary servitude, except as systemic racism and murder. We that it was to search for contraband. a punishment for crime whereof the have yet to do the easy stuff like However, I always assumed it was party shall have been duly convicted.” divorce ourselves from vestiges of conducted to strip me of my dignity Thirty-two dollars-a-month was slavery. It is indefensible that in my by force and to leave no doubt who the most I ever made on any prison own state, California, involuntary was in charge. job that I worked. It wasn’t much, servitude is still protected by the It took me a long time to come to but it was enough to allow me to state constitution. It needs to be grips with the notion that I’d been deny that I was not a slave and removed. When will we have the enslaved. I so much wanted to see that somehow I had a choice. This nerve to face the reality that such a myself as something else, someone belief was as false as assuming that clause in our Constitution is morally other than the person who had been robbery victims have a choice, that reprehensible? enslaved for over 10 years. Maybe they happily hand over their money my status would have been more at gun point. The manifestation of apparent if I had been beaten by a my enslavement was the labor that If you would like to send feedback whip instead of a club, choked by a was being extracted by force or fear or contribute to the All of Us or rope instead of a knee or if I had toiled of institutional punishment or the None newspaper, please contact in the hot sun picking cotton. Did reality of never being released. the Editor. due process afford me an opportunity However difficult it was for me in court make something of myself to accept my status as a slave, it is Paula Lehman-Ewing other than an enslaved human more important for the public to All of Us or None being? After all, my body became a come to grips with the fact that we 4400 Market St., Oakland, CA 94608 commodity that produced wages for are collectively holding slaves. I used Phone: (415) 625-7036 x328 others who held me and for people to wonder why, during the period of [email protected] 4|AOUON June 2020
Spotlight
For Eric “Maserati-E” Abercrombie, music was life but life was something much darker. It wasn’t until he was incarcerated that he started processing his trauma Eric through his art. Now, when life happens, Maserati-E knows he can always find peace in his craft. Photo credit: Sarah Arnold Photography
t was one of those moments that 3-2-1 you’re done convinced that his odds of getting stays with you. It can happen so fast your face will out of Oakland alive were slim to Eric Abercrombie is singing still be stunned none. He routinely saw beat-downs Ion the yard at Old Folsom prison, I’m tryin’ to cool it down, ‘cause I and killings and eventually became freestyling with his guitar. He closes was as hot as they come violent himself. his eyes to envision a space where his By the time the last string is strum, “When you feel defensive or like voice isn’t trapped inside concrete the yard is full. you do not matter, it shows up in walls. Prior to incarceration, Eric your actions,” he said. “I just went Thoughts racin’ through my mind lived a double life: one with music through every day not caring enough like Nascars and one with violence. He is a whether I lived or died, and I didn’t Never understood the purpose of third-generation musician. His think about how that belief system perpin’ the ones who act hard grandparents were musicians, his affected me or those around me.” He lifts his head for a moment and mother was a rapper and his father When he was 17, Eric was sees a crowd beginning to gather. was a signed artist with Sony. sentenced 10 years after picking up He breathes deeply and goes back Eric wrote his first song when he a second strike-offense. He was one into his trance. In this moment he was five. It was the same year he saw of the few people in juvenile hall is more than his CDCR number. He a dead body for the first time. So looking at serving years instead of is Maserati-E, a stage name he gave while his lyrics continued to have months. That, along with the fear of himself when he was younger. a message of hope, he said, he was continued on Next Page June 2020 AOUON|5 a life sentence if he incurred another gangsta shit but never cuss, and that he was recording in the prison strike, forced him to a turning point. intrigued the hell out of me,” said studio. He started with “Break the He knew he had to change, but he Eric. “He challenged me to master Mold,” a song inspired by racial wasn’t sure exactly how. the craft and the art of really being tensions at Old Folsom. The song Corrections determined that in control of my words by having was ultimately featured in the because of his record and so-called real intent in my songs, just come Netflix documentary “Q-Ball” and risk factors -- like the fact that he with a powerful message.” it helped the film earn an Emmy wasn’t married or employed (not After a couple years in Old Folsom, nomination for Musical Direction. highly unusual for a 17-year-old) Eric picked up a guitar and started Eric’s return home, however, -- Eric had to be transferred to adult performing on the prison yard. At hasn’t been easy. Since his release prison. He was at Receiving at Old times, he and the other musicians in August 2019, he’s suffered the Folsom when he met Samuel Brown. would have full-fledged shows, he harsh realization that while he had Sam was the first in a long line said, packing the basketball courts and transformed himself in prison, the of mentors Eric learned from in table areas with normally segregated violent world he’d lived in as a kid prison. He was an intellectual -- factions intermingling. Swept away had stayed relatively the same. In always reading or writing essays. in the music, the prisoners were the nine months he’s been home, When Eric had a run-in with a lifted beyond the walls, united by Eric has had to bury nine loved ones corrections officer, Sam would tell something larger than their shared including a young cousin who was him to write it down. Those words institutional address. murdered last month. would eventually be crafted into “Those were the moments that are But rather than suppress his songs and, for the first time, Eric impressionable because it’s a method feelings of grief, anger and sadness, realized he didn’t need to keep the of escape,” Eric said. “You take that he now pours his heart into new reality of his environment separate with you wherever you go, and with music he’s creating. In a new song, from his art. Instead, he could use all the prison transfers that happen, “Silver Lining,” Eric sings about his craft to process the trauma you’re touching prison yards you’ve reconciling his gratitude for freedom that had perpetuated the cycle of never even been to because people with his sense of loss for his family. violence in his life. are holding on to those moments.” “The world didn’t change, but During his time at Old Folsom, In fact, many prisoners who saw I gotta protect my peace and Eric also met Roy Stevenson. Roy Eric perform in Old Folsom did trust the process,” Eric said. could write two or three songs a day, take the experience with them. By “When I write songs, I try to shift always about hard stuff but never the time he arrived at San Quentin perspectives and give people the using a curse word. in 2017, he already had a following. option to think a little differently “He could be talking about Within days of his transfer there about their world.” TO ALL OUR COMRADES FEELING THE PAIN OF THIS MOMENT, KNOW WE WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE all of us or none! 6|AOUON June 2020
A Virtual Day of Advocacy his is a critical moment, not magnitude, in California. Fifty allied relating to 14 policy initiatives. only in our nation’s history organizations participated, with The lawmakers also contributed but in the history of our directly impacted members speaking valuable insights. In the virtual room Tmovement. It is a moment to reaffirm to lawmakers within the digital space. discussing ACA 6, the Free the Vote that our mission is too crucial to As in the past, Quest for Democracy Act, LSPC Policy Director Ken Oliver take a back seat to anything, even a gave members of our movement asked legislative attendees what could pandemic. the opportunity to advocate as be done to move the opposition. The It’s in that spirit that California- experts. Their firsthand accounts of bill, which would restore voting rights based Legal Services for Prisoners incarceration and reentry served to to 50,000 Californians on parole, with Children, the fiscal sponsor of All humanize the people impacted by needs to pass the state Senate before it of Us or None National, organized a decisions being made in the state can be referred to voters. reimagined day of advocacy. On May capital. Despite being physically “I think like any good policy, what 18, the organization hosted the first- apart, the heart and passion behind you have to do to get people on the ever Digital Quest for Democracy, these stories were still palpable. fence is tie those voting issues to in which hundreds of formerly Throughout the event participants other issues that are important to incarcerated people and their allies gathered in seven digital breakout them,” said Alex Barnett, a policy joined together, to speak on their own rooms, each of which held a forum consultant with California Senate behalf and ensure that those in power for two bills in three consecutive, half- Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg. “Like were listening. hour sessions. Representatives from the school to prison pipeline, there This was the 8th annual Quest over 50 district offices attended these might be an education member and if for Democracy, but the firstvirtual legislative visits, where they you tie in voting rights to that it might virtual version, particularly of this listened and engaged in discussions push them in the right direction.” The digital platform also enabled advocates outside of California to participate and share their knowledge. In a legislative session featuring a proposed constitutional amendment to eradicate involuntary slavery from state law, Kamau Allen, an organizer with Abolish Slavery Colorado, discussed how a similar amendment was introduced in and impacted his state. In Colorado, the measure, Amendment A, was a success among lawmakers and voters. Quest for Democracy also featured a main room, a virtual “Capitol Lawn,” featuring speakers from some of the participating organizations and International R&B singer Goapele opened her set with an acapela version continued on Next Page of “Lean on Me,” followed by her hit song “Closer to My Dreams.” June 2020 AOUON|7
keynote addresses from California Assemblymembers Sydney Kamlager, Dr. Shirley N. Weber, Luz Rivas and Kevin McCarty, and from State Sen. Nancy Skinner. In addition to the virtual lawn’s keynote speeches, there was an entertainment segment. In collaboration with Hip Hop 4 Change, a number of artists gave powerful performances, including international R&B star Goapele, Echo Park’s Spoken word artist Kyla Lacey. fearsome emcee Klassy, and Oakland Originals, a breakdancing crew. Joining • SB 1290 (Durazo/Mitchell) – • AB 901 (Gipson) – Term Limits them were Maserati-E, who’s profiled End Juvenile Fees: Ends harmful Juvenile Probation: Keeps young in this month’s “Spotlight” section, and collection of juvenile administrative people from probation contact spoken word artist Kyla Lacey (right), fees and criminal justice fees. for the non-criminal behavior of who contributed two poems. • SB 144 & 555 (Mitchell) – Fines school truancy. Both of her poems are worth & Fees: Limits the assessment and • COVID-19 Housing & repeating in their entirety. But with collection of various fines and fees; Homelessness Budget Request: spatial limitations being what they limits the over-charges for canteen Asks the Governor and Legislature are, this verse will serve for now: items in county jails. to allocate adequate resources for • AB 2342 (McCarty) – Parole CBOs to develop short and long- The justice system shouldn’t be a Good Time Credits: Grants good term housing solutions including business time credits to individuals on parole reentry housing. Especially since it’s a scam to lessen the amount of time they • Involuntary Servitude: Asks Because rehabilitation in this country would be under state supervision. legislators to consider sponsoring a Has turned into nothing but twisting • SB 1064 (Skinner) – Proof Before constitutional amendment to remove peoples’ arms Punish: Prohibits the use of unverified the exceptions clause that permits Just to hear them yell, “Uncle Sam.” confidential information in decisions involuntary servitude for punishment Here are the bills, policies and made by the Department of Corrections. for a crime. budget asks that were discussed at • AB 2054 (Kamlager) – • ACA 6 – The Free The Vote Act: Digital Quest for Democracy: C.R.I.S.E.S. Act: Repeals provisions Assembly Constitutional Amendment • SB 1111 (Durazo) – Limits that authorize the detention of 6 (ACA6)/AB 646 would add to the Detention for Youth: Repeals minors in an adult facility, redirecting ballot a constitutional amendment provisions that authorize the detention them to juvenile facilities. to restore voting rights to people of minors in an adult facility and • AB 3052 (Carillo) – Forced who have completed their prison redirects them to juvenile facilities Sterilization Compensation: sentences but are still on parole. • Executive Order Request to Compensates survivors of forced • California Reentry Commission: Address Youth Justice: Asks the sterilization through the state’s Victim Proposes the creation of a California Governor to make an executive Compensation Board. Reentry Commission (CRC), which order to reduce juvenile intakes, • ICE Out of Prisons Letter: Asks would leverage state leadership and release youth who are currently being the Governor and the legislature resources to facilitate the successful detained, and create measures to to stop all transfers to ICE upon transition and reintegration of people facilitate social distancing. earned release from CDCR. returning home from prison and jails. 8|AOUON June 2020
MAIL BAG
Editor’s Note: Reggie Thorpe is an used this fact to continue my criminal is doing nothing to protect its resources. incarcerated person in San Quentin lifestyle while incarcerated, despite *Reggie’s original letter refers to State Prison. Charged as a juvenile, he God telling me what I need to do. So “inmatess.” This has been changed to is serving a 50-years-to-life sentence. one day he asked me, ‘Son, what do “incarcerated persons” in all instances. In a separate letter to AOUON editor you all use to tell time on earth?’ I This is not done out of disrespect to the Paula Lehman-Ewing, Reggie -- who was confused, literally! I said, ‘Clocks, author. Through the collective knowledge has an Associate’s Degree in math and watches, cellphones, television, etc…” of our community members, we’ve science and is taking Calculus 2 this He responded, ‘No, son,’ and then He determined this terminology, meant spring -- did the math and determined asked the question again. Now, I am to convey an aspect of rehabilitation, that, according to the ruling in Plata really confused. This time, He said, has been used by corrections officers to v. Newsom and Coleman v. Newsom, ‘You all use the sun. I created the sun, dehumanize incarcerated persons. The more than 5,000 incarcerated persons I created day and night. I control time. memory of a CO barking “Inmate!” would have to be released to comply That 50-years-to-life sentence man has caused trauma to many of our with the court’s order to decrease gave you is man’s time, not My time. comrades, proving the term is meant to overcrowding. Since recent legislation Remember what I did for My servant punish rather than rehabilitate. authored by former California State Joshua?’ (Joshua 10:12-13). The day the Senator Loni Hancock (SB 261) has sun stood still. (Job 9:7).” ear AOUON, afforded him a parole hearing in 2022 Reggie also included sent a letter to I just read an article in -- instead of 2048, as was originally All of Us or None looking at CDCR’s Volume 2, Issue 1 April 2020, scheduled -- he is hopeful he can be reaction to the coronavirus pandemic. D“Life in the Time of COVID-19.” I one of those 5,000. It speaks to the theme of this month’s believe this is a thorough, well written In his letter he writes: “My crime issue -- involuntary servitude -- article. However, as an incarcerated was murder in broad daylight, in front because it looks at the situation from a person at San Quentin State Prison, of several dozen witnesses, who were business perspective. But, unlike other I am looking at this pandemic from a family and friends of the victim. I businesses, the corrections department business perspective. continued on Next Page June 2020 AOUON|9
First and foremost, slavery and I have an Eighth Amendment right day are staff, unless an incarcerated mass incarceration are businesses. to be free from cruel and unusual person needs care that is not available Human beings are the product and punishment. CDCR cannot infringe inside the prison. So at this point it means by which prisons receive upon this right because of the cannot be considered “negligence” if revenue from the state and federal coronavirus. an incarcerated person gets infected government. On the same token, So, in order to protect my product: in here, especially if they have not left NBA players are the product of team 1) I would cease all movement of the institution. owners and the NBA. incoming detainees and incarcerated There are further actions that In an interview with Dr. Fauci persons; 2) constantly and can be taken by CDCR to protect and Steph Curry, Steph asked why it consistently monitor those who are and prevent the coronavirus from was so easy for him to receive a test showing symptoms and/or most at entering the institution, but politics, for coronavirus, but it is virtually risk of spreading/contracting the bureaucratic red tape and special impossible for people in society who coronavirus; 3) afford incarcerated interests stand in the way. One thing do not show symptoms. I said to persons their rights to be free from they can do is start testing staff with myself, “Bro, you are a product which cruel and unusual punishment in that five-minute test that detects belongs to billionaires. They must do ways that are consistent with Gov. COVID-19 everytime they enter the what is necessary to keep you and your Newsom’s orders. institution. Staff cannot account for family safe and healthy.” As of today, no one incarcerated the whereabouts of others in their CDCR cannot afford to letin San Quentin State Prison, who household while they are here with COVID-19 spread uncontrollably has shown symptoms or not, has us. Moreover, COVID-19 symptoms inside its institutions. Between the tested positive for coronavirus. may take 2-14 days to surface in lawsuits and bodies lost, their revenue Nevertheless, the only people those infected. By then, it will be too would decline catastrophically. Also, entering and exiting the prison each late for us here at San Quentin. CoRonaViRUS ReSoURceS SUPPORTING DIRECTLY AND SYSTEM- IMPACTED PEOPLE DURING CRISIS https://www.beyond-prisons.com/covid19
SAFETY MANUALS FOR INDIVIDUALS IN STATE, FEDERAL AND CALIFORNIA CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES prisonerswithchildren.org/Coronavirus COVID-19 MUTUAL AID (NEWARK, NJ) https://www.allofusornone-northernnj. com/covid-19-newark-mutual-aid 10|AOUON June 2020
Involuntary Servitude: Life as Civilly Dead f you’re wondering why a police supremacists while refusing to officer can dig his knee into the amend the constitution — either neck of a Black man, cut off their state constitution or the U.S. Ihis oxygen and murder him on Constitution — is remarkable. camera, if you’re wondering why Even in progressive states like Black and Brown communities California, slavery still exists in are suffering more acutely than many forms within the criminal Whites during this pandemic, the legal system. answer is not simply that racism As an incarcerated person at still exists in this country. It is that Old Folsom, Ali Brit, an organizer the original system of racism in at All of Us or None, was given a this country still exists in a very 10-pound sledge hammer and a real and very legal way. A moral steel wheel barrel and forced to high ground can never be found mine rock quarries in the heat when the country’s foundation is of the California summer. Curtis crumbling from an unwillingness Howard, a founding member to shed the weight of its history. of All of Us or None San Diego, Let’s set aside for a moment the legal said he rebelled against work argument — that the Emancipation assignments, haunted by his Proclamation pertained to end the “ancestral lineage,” and was practice of slavery in America and A drawing by Heshima Jinsai depicting penalized with time added to his that, in 1967, the U.S. ratified the the evolution of slavery into the modern already lengthy sentence. U.N. Supplementary Convention system of criminalization. In fact, the idea that work in on the Abolition of Slavery, which prison is voluntary is a farce. whereof the party shall have been commits a nation to the elimination Heshima Jinsai, who has served 30 duly convicted, shall exist within the of slavery and involuntary servitude years of his sentence and is currently United States, or any place subject to within its borders and obligates it detained at Kern Valley State Prison their jurisdiction.” to cooperate with other nations in in California, has worked as a In addition to the federal law, 26 state suppressing those practices. porter for nearly the entirety of his constitutions have enshrined either Let’s simply look at the moral incarceration. He is paid pennies “slavery” or “involuntary servitude” implications: That we live in a on the dollar, which he donates (or both) as a punishment for crime. society that condones slavery in its to comrades in more dire straits And slavery is not simply an foundational legal document. financially. In a recent interview ostensible mandate. It exists in the The 13th Amendment of the with All of Us or None, Heshima sweat and labor of men and women U.S. Constitution states, “Neither said he isn’t incentivized by “good throughout the country at this very slavery nor involuntary servitude, time credits” either. moment. The audacity of politicians except as a punishment for crime who bemoan actions taken by white continued on Next Page June 2020 AOUON|11
“The incentive is if I don’t work, I go There are 70 factories in “The truth is that the language to the hole,” he said. “The incentive California’s 33 prisons. Collectively, sitting in our constitution is a direct to work is truly involuntary.” they bring in $60 million in profit for result, and an intentional result, of These “jobs” cannot even qualify as the prison industrial complex. Since transferring slavery into the form rehabilitation efforts as many of the taxpayer dollars cover the majority of incarceration slavery,” Allen said equivalent positions on the outside of the cost to imprison someone, at the May 18 Digital Quest for require state licenses, licenses profits made from these factories Democracy. “The fact that one of my many states deny to individuals offset much of the operation costs, family members was incarcerated with conviction histories. In 2019, meaning administrators and staff for 21 years for a crime he did not three men in California’s prison can line their pockets with the commit and was forced to work for brigade died fighting wildfires that remainder. Consequently, prison 25 cents a day is by no mistake.” devastated entire towns within the guards in California receive a higher In less progressive states, the state. They made about $3 per day, base salary than their counterparts connection is more obvious: Angola plus an additional buck during active in any other jurisdiction, including State Prison in Louisiana, Parchman emergencies. They worked alongside the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Farm in Mississippi and Cummins firefighters earning an average of Kamau Allen, an organizer with Unit in Arkansas are prisons built $91,000 a year before overtime Abolish Slavery Colorado whose on former slave plantations. Their pay and bonuses. It’s unlikely any campaign to amend the Colorado labor forces work the same fields as member of the prison fire brigade state constitution was successful in chattel slaves prior to emancipation. will be able to become a firefighter or 2018, said the motive to increase This collision of white supremacy EMT when they are released because profits on the backs of an oppressed and capitalism is only part of the of their conviction history. population is no coincidence. continued on Next Page
About the Artist: Feature Story Background
The image behind our feature story “Involuntary Servitude: Life as Civilly Dead,” was drawn by Justin Hong, an artist incarcerated at California State Prison, Los Angeles County. He entitled the drawing, “Letters From My Sister” with the silohuette of a CDCR prisoner drawn on top of a collage of written letters. The messages are loving and supportive, a sharp contrast to the depicted figure’s body language and coded explitive. Justin has highlighted parts of each letter. One says, “Stay strong, chin up and always have a smile on your face because your sister loves you and God loves you. No worries, right? When a door closes, God opens a window. You’ll find that window and feel the nice breeze. I know you will.” The drawing is part of the Prison Arts Collective’s “Beyond the Blue” traveling art exhibition, which features artwork from incacerated individuals at various institutions. 12|AOUON June 2020
A frame from the Atlantic documentary Angola for Life: Rehabilitation and Reform Inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which went inside the Southern slave-plantation-turned-prison. problem, though. To reach the depth told him, “Because you are not a (Fiswick v. United States, 329 U.S. 211, of racism that exists in the U.S. person. You are C72851.” 222) In 1970, five years after the Voting today, you have to go a step further, The systemic dehumanization of Rights Act, 14 states still had some the step Derek Chauvin took when Americans through criminalization sort of “civil death” statute. Today, civil he killed George Floyd with no is, again, deeply rooted in our death still applies to some felonies in empathy for taking a human life. nation’s history and legal rulings. both New York and Rhode Island. Beyond prison labor, racism, Nearly a decade after Abraham The U.S. Supreme Court has through criminalization, has Lincoln signed the Emancipation failed to set the record straight persisted in its purest form: The Proclamation, the Virginia time and time again, deferring belief Black people are subhuman. Supreme Court decided in Ruffin decisions around civil death and Incarcerated people who tattoo v. Commonwealth a convicted collateral consequences to district themselves in prison are given penalties felon “has, as a consequence of his courts. Most recently, the court for “destruction of state property.” crime, not only forfeited his liberty denied review of the case of a man As a college student in Soledad State but all his personal rights except serving two life sentences in Rhode Prison, Flores A. Forbes, now the those which the law in its humanity Island. Lifers in Rhode Island are Associate Vice President of Strategic affords him. He is for the time being subjected to the state’s 1909 civil Policy and Program Implementation a slave of the state.” death statute, which states, “Every at Columbia University, was told to In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court person imprisoned in the adult sign a power of attorney agreement noted a felony conviction “strips an correctional institutions for life for a Pell Grant, which he needed offender of all civil rights and leaves shall, with respect to all rights of to complete his education. When a shattered character that only a property, to the bond of matrimony Forbes asked why, the administrator presidential pardon can amend.” continued on Next Page June 2020 AOUON|13 and to all civil rights and relations of just society may be built. In a letter any nature whatsoever, be deemed to All of Us or None, Heshima, to be dead in all respects, as if his or who founded Amend the 13th: her natural death had taken place at Abolish Legal Slavery in Amerika the time of conviction.” Movement, summed up the harm So, in 2010 when Dana Gallop, then in the existence of slavery in our a pretrial detainee at the Providence foundational legal doctrine like this: Adult Corrections Institution, was “The most enduring legacy of attacked by another prisoner with destruction and human misery in a razor, the state’s Supreme Court human history is the legacy of legal dismissed his suit because he had lost slavery in America. Its attendant his civil right to exert a legal claim. prejudices and unequal relationships Twenty-four states have recognized have persisted through every evolution the harm this kind of language has of American productive and social life. caused and make no mention of It is preserved in ‘law’ and enshrined slavery or involuntary servitude in in the very structure of American their constitutions whatsoever, with institutions, casting its specter of five more scheduled to vote on similar hate and hierarchy across the lives of amendments this November. The millions over the course of centuries. Colorado campaign in 2018 saw 100 From the slave codes, to the Black percent of state legislators vote in favor Codes, to the legal slavery provision of of Amendment A and 65 percent of the 13th Amendment and the thousands the voting populace affirm it. of ‘civil death’ laws which derive their In this moment when it seems the legal authority there from, America world is burning, it is important has made a mockery of the concept of to remember what started the fire, ‘freedom and justice for all’ by ensuring so from the ashes a new and more it is always denied to some.”
All of Us or None is collecting stories about plea bargaining, police brutality, and other offenses that define the criminal legal system. If you have a story you want to share, please contact AOUON Newspaper Editor Paula Lehman-Ewing: [email protected]
If you’re loved one is incarcerated, they can write their testimony and mail it to: Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Slavery and the prison industry collide in this 2011 photo. Prisoners place c/o Paula Lehman-Ewing, Editor new grave markers at Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery in El Dorado 4400 Market Street Hills, Calif. The original markers contained offensive racial epithets. Oakland, CA 94608 Photo credit: U.S. Army/Chris Gray-Garcia 14|AOUON June 2020
Regional Highlight he strength of our movement is in our stories. Knowing this, All of Us or None Northern TNew Jersey launched a #FreeThemAll #CompassionateRelease campaign featuring video testimonials about how COVID-19 is impacting our inside membership. Along with their comrades from the New York chapter, members collected letters AOUON N. New Jersey member Lauren holds a sign urging Gov. Murphy from people in prison and have to free all prisoners after reading a letter from a man incarcerated at East been rolling out videos where the Jersey State Prison. letters are read aloud. information. of completing their sentence, and “It almost feels as if I’m standing Accompanying these grim all individuals held in pretrial on the railroad tracks, staring down testimonies is a call to action: detention in New Jersey’s jails. The an oncoming locomotive,” wrote a That they be shared on social letter also insisted the state assess man incarcerated in an East Jersey media platforms with a demand whether all detained youth can be State Prison. “I see it coming, but that New Jersey Gov. Phil safely released to their homes and I’m unable to move. It’s like I’m Murphy implement significant that all incarcerated individuals are powerless to stop the train.” decarceration policies and sanitation tested for COVID-19. Other letters talk about being measures. In May, a petition was “We are not calling for the denied the right to protect yourself, sent to Gov. Murphy outlining abdication of personal responsibility being denied basic cleaning products their demands: The release of for those who have caused harm in and having unanswered COVID individuals vulnerable to infection, their communities,” the letter stated. questions and a general lack of all individuals within 6 months “We instead see the precarious environment in New Jersey’s prisons and jails for the human rights issue that it is. New Jersey formally abolished the death penalty in 2007. Yet, incarceration during a pandemic is a death sentence for many. It would be unjust to condemn the currently incarcerated to death by failing to implement decarceration and stringent sanitation measures with due haste.” There are 39,000 people behind bars in New Jersey. Forty-four individuals have died of the virus to date. June 2020 AOUON|15
San Diego (CA) New Jersey Chapter Updates San Diego has continued its hotel In addition to its #FreeThemAll voucher program, providing housing video campaign, the New Jersey Bakersfield (CA) for people being released from prison chapter has been sending its inside and jail to reduce overcrowding in the membership petitions for release Bakersfield Chapter was selected midst of the coronavirus pandemic. forms with instructions on how to receive COVID-19 funding for Chapter founder Curtis Howard also to fill them out and where to send formerly incarcerated people in participated in the May 18 Digital them. The chapter was also awarded Kern County. The funds are being Quest for Democracy, sharing his a $5,000 grant, which it used to used to provide financial relief up experience with involuntary servitude add $25 to commissary/canteen to $500 per applicant, to be used for in a legislative session proposing a accounts of each inside member. rent/lease assistance, food, utilities, constitutional amendment to strike This will also allow them to be able or medical expenses. that language from state law. to call home if their family support was affected by COVID. The chapter Los Angeles/Long Beach (CA) Idaho also provided face masks and launched a mutual aid initiative for The Idaho chapter is planning for in- As co-sponsors of SB 144, a bill that incarcerated individuals and their person membership meetings again would limit the assessment and loved ones so that they could receive in July. They are beginning outreach collection of various fines and fees for an additional $250 of support. to grow their membership and are people in county jail, representatives re-engaging current members. The from AOUON LA spoke truth to chapter has also started brainstorming Durham (NC) power at DQ4D about the harm these plans for its community give back in penalties cause. Members also attended Since COVID-19 started, the December. On the policy side, co- a Mother’s Day protest at the Lynwood Durham chapter has been doing founder Mary Failing has been in county jail to demand the release rolling protests at local jails as contact with district representatives to of mothers to their children. They well as state and federal prisons. discuss ways to work collaboratively also participated in a #LetThemFree Members have partnered with on legislation next session. protest at the California Institution for Communities In Partnership Women in Chino. Central Illinois (C.I.P.) to provide those in need with fresh fruits and vegetables Sacramento The Peoria chapter is down to the wire biweekly. They also deliver hot with its “Bring Brian Back” campaign. meals every Friday to elders in the The Sacramento chapter hasChapter founder General Parker has community. officially opened the doors of its compiled a “Social Bio” packet for new office space! Members worked attorney MiAngel Cody, founder of San Antonio (TX) tirelessly in May to continue work the Decarceration Collective, who is around reentry housing and were filing a motion for sentence reduction The San Antonio chapter is an essential part of the outreach and under the First Step Act in federal expanding the reach of All of Us planning committees for Digital court. If successful, the issue will come or None in the state of Texas, with Quest for Democracy. full circle for General and the Central plans to start 3 new chapters. They Illinois chapter: General was one of are also working on preparing Get in touch! Find contact about a dozen people chosen by Van bills for the upcoming legislative information for your local Jones and Cut 50 to lobby Congress to session, including a repeal of chapter on the last page pass the First Step Act. Brian Burnside fines and fees as well as a youth inspired the chapter’s work in this area. diversion program. 16|AOUON June 2020
California Illinois • Voting Rights for People On • Electronic Monitoring Reform Bill Watch Parole (McCarty) ACA 6 / AB 646 (Peters) HB1115 would require would approve the right for people data-driven justification for use on parole to vote and pave the way of electronic monitoring in order for a constitutional amendment to limit its use to cases where it is which would be put to California actually effective. voters in November 2020. • Right to Vote (Ford) • Debt Free California (Mitchell) HB4377/HJRCA33, a bill and SB 144 would build on the recent constitutional amendment, would *Editor’s note: As a result of the decisions of individual counties ensure incarcerated people would pandemic, many state legislatures are (such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, be able to vote. paring down their bills. While some and Alameda) to end the collection criminal justice bill are still in motion, of certain court and probation fees Kentucky the majority of bills being heard by repealing state law authorizing • Kentucky Voting Rights by lawmakers focus on COVID-19 specified criminal justice fees. (Higdon) SB62 proposes to relief and recovery. All of Us or None Idaho amend Section 145 of the and our fiscal sponsor organizations Constitution of Kentucky to continue to advocate for the reforms • Clean Slate (Rubel and Lent) grant persons convicted of a we see as necessary, this month’s “Bill [number pending] would allow felony other than a sex offense, Watch” will only reflect currently individuals with felony convictions a violent offense, or an offense active bills. for nonviolent and nonsexual crimes against a child, the right to vote to petition the courts to seal their five years after completion of public records. Individuals applying sentence; submit to the voters for for sealed records would need to ratification or rejection. have served their whole sentence and have not reoffended in the three years following their release. continued on Next Page
AOUON members in Durham, N.C., demanding the sheriff release everyone in county jail.Photo credit: Andrea Hudson June 2020 AOUON|17
Bill Watch Cont.
Missouri • Fresh Start Act (Koenig) SB Photo from the May 22 “rolling protest” in Durham, N.C., demanding the sheriff 647 would require that no person release everyone in county jail. Photo credit: Andrea Hudson shall be disqualified from pursuing, practicing, or engaging in any occupation for which a license is New York Pennsylvania required solely or in part because of • Fair Parole (Hoylman) S 2144 • Probation Reform (Williams) a prior conviction of a crime, unless & (Rivera) S497A aim to reform SB 14 would reform how long the crime for which an applicant the parole system. S 2144 would Pennsylvanians stay on probation was convicted directly relates to the make incarcerated people 55 years and the time served in prison for duties and responsibilities for the old immediately eligible for parole probation violations. It also specifies that a court may not impose a licensed occupation. if they have served at least 15 sentence of probation consecutive • Death Penalty With Mental years in prison. S 497A would limit to another sentence of probation. Illness (Hannegan) HB 1756 would the parole board’s assessment to the prohibit the execution of any person risk one poses to the public, rather Washington found to have suffered from a serious than the seriousness of the offense • Medication-Assisted Treatment mental illness at the time of the for which they were convicted. (Zeiger) SB 6585 would encourage offense for which they are accused. • Voting Rights (Parker) S 6821 the use of FDA-approved drugs to would require the Department treat detainees with opioid addiction New Jersey of Corrections and Community in county jails, including methadone, Supervision, in collaboration with buprenorphine, and naltrexone. • Reentry Support Hotline the state and county boards of (Verrelli) A 813 would require the election, to establish a program to establishment and maintenance of facilitate inmate voter registration a 24-hour prisoner reentry support and voting. hotline. The hotline, operated by certified peer recovery specialists, North Carolina If you’re interested in becoming would receive and respond to calls • The Second Chance Act (Britt, involved in policy change for from formerly incarcerated persons Daniel and McKissick) H 874 would your state, contact your local seeking support in reentry following set up automatic expungement for AOUON chapter. release from custody. people who are found not guilty or • No For-Profit Prisons (Verrelli) have charges against them dismissed (See last page for details.) A 816 would prohibit DOC after July 1, 2020, and allow people and other public entities from to petition for the expunction of contracting with for-profit, private nonviolent misdemeanor and felony correctional facilities. charges after a period of good behavior. 18|AOUON June 2020
COMING HOME
London vowed to not have her time behind prison walls be in vain. Now, as a fellow at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, she uses her LONDON experience to help others and advocate for policy changes to eradicate the injustice she experienced.
By London Croudy had changed over the course of eight pushed me to be the woman that I was years, including me. For eight years I determined to become. or nearly a decade, daydreams planned, prayed and groomed myself When the day came that I finally are what kept me going. I for the day that I would reenter walked out from behind those walls, dreamt of what it was going society. I was determined to get out my family was in the parking lot Fto feel like the day it was my turn to and live my life with purpose, to make waiting for me. I remember having be released from prison, and all the sure I would be a part of the solution this expectation that I was going to things that I wanted to do with my life. to the injustice I had experienced as be uncontrollably emotional, like These visions played over and over in an incarcerated woman. I vowed to be balloons would rise out of nowhere my head like clockwork, pulling me a vessel, to do whatever I could to help into the sky, maybe a band would through rough days; motivating me; those who were still trapped behind be playing, a celebration that I was reminding me I was worth something. those walls, and to be a light, a helping now a free woman. This was one I shared all my visions with God and hand, to help someone find a different vision that was not meant to be. pleaded with Him: “Please,” I’d pray, path than the one I’d followed. I didn’t I exchanged a few awkward hugs “let my captivity have a purpose that really have a solid plan on how I was with my family members, realizing is greater than me.” going to carry these things out. I just in those moments how much I had I went to prison when I was 24 and had prayer, a will and a lot of stored- disconnected from my family over was released at the age of 32. So much up pain, hurt and emotion that the course of eight years. Every prison June 2020 AOUON|19
I had been to -- with the exception of of someone who might be able to Muslim sister approached me with the four-month stay at Dublin at the provide me with resources. The a smile and said, “I’m Hamdiya.” I end of my sentence -- was extremely woman who answered my call gave smiled back at her, but then I broke far from all my family members. The me an address and told me to come into tears. In an instant, she and calls were expensive and limited, so down to the office the next day. The two other women took me by the in order for me to cope in prison I address was a 45-minute walk from hand and led me to their conference detached myself from the outside the halfway house. I was used to room. They hugged me and assured world. Now I felt like a stranger. jogging a minimum of five miles me that it was going to be okay. Their The ride to the halfway house was a day so a 45-minute walk would strength and genuine care made me full of anxiety for me. I was car sick, be a breeze. Plus, it would give smile. I explained to them that what there was traffic and I only had 45 me an opportunity to see my new I thought would be an easy walk minutes to get there. After the intake hometown. for me was a little traumatizing and process I was given deadlines and a I wasn’t yet aware of how they understood: They had been “To Do” list. I remember the room traumatizing my incarceration had there, too. that I was assigned had the same been. As I walked to the office, all An hour later, I was skinning metal beds as prison, with a thin mat the movement going on around and grinning with an application similar to the one that I had slept on me, crossing the street, people in my hand for the Elder Freeman the night before. yelling out their cars to me, was a fellowship. I became a fellow in I remember thinking, “Now bit much for my first alone outing. January 2019 and I’ve used that what?” I was in a city I hadn’t lived Exhausted and a bit of a mess, opportunity to make many of my in for about 20 years. I felt like a fish I walked into the Freedom and visions come true. I shed light on out of water, but I was determined. Movement Center, welcomed by a injustice in a weekly panel I host, Several days later, Chihiro bold, black fist on the wall with the “One Community, One Mic.” Most Wimbush, a documentarian I words “All of Us or None.” importantly, I am able to see now corresponded with the last two I told the receptionist that I was how my survival of prison serves a years of my sentence, sent me an there to see Hamdiya, the woman purpose: It motivates me to never email with the name and number I’d spoken to on the phone. A give up this fight. All of Us Chapter Contacts Or None
Slave, who is it that shall free you? National AOUON Headquarters Those in deepest darkness lying. c/o Legal Services for Prisoners With Comrade, only these can see you Children Only they can hear you crying. 4400 Market St., Oakland, CA 94608 Chicago Phone: (415) 255-7036 x337 Comrade, only slaves can free you. Richard Wallace: Fax: (415) 552-3150 [email protected] Everything or nothing. All of us or none. AOUON National Organizer: One alone his lot can’t better. Oscar Flores: Louisville Either gun or fetter. [email protected] Savvy Shabazz: [email protected] Everything or nothing. All of us or none. Bakersfield St. Louis Ucedrah Osby: Patty Berger: You who hunger, who shall feed you? [email protected] [email protected] If it’s bread you would be carving, Los Angeles/Long Beach Durham Come to us, we too are starving. c/o A New Way of Life Reentry Project Andrea “Muffin” Hudson: Come to us and let us lead you. PO Box 875288, Los Angeles, CA [email protected] Only hungry men can feed you. 90087 Phone: (323) 563-3575 Eastern N.C. Everything or nothing. All of us or none. Fax: (323) 563-3445 Corey Purdie: One alone his lot can’t better. Angelique Evans: [email protected] Either gun or fetter. [email protected] Charlotte Everything or nothing. All of us or none. Kristie Puckett Williams: Orange County [email protected] Stephanie Jeffcoat: Beaten man, who shall avenge you? [email protected] Greater Cincinnati You, on whom the blows are falling, Zaria Davis: Riverside [email protected] Hear your wounded brothers calling. Erica Smith: Weakness gives us strength to lend you. [email protected] Philadelphia Come to us, we shall avenge you. Malik Aziz: Everything or nothing. All of us or none. Sacramento [email protected] PO Box 292967, Sacramento, CA 95829 One alone his lot can’t better. Henry Ortiz: San Antonio Either gun or fetter. [email protected] Steve HuertaL: Everything or nothing. All of us or none. [email protected] San Bernardino c/o A Time for Change Foundation New York Who, oh wretched one, shall dare it? PO Box 25040, San Bernardino, CA 92406 Ivelisse Gilestra: He who can no longer bear it. Phone: (909) 886-2994 [email protected] Counts the blows that arm his spirit. Fax: (909) 886-0218 Kim Carter: Northern New Jersey Taught the time by need and sorrow, [email protected] P.O. Box 9812, Newark, NJ 07104 Strikes today and not tomorrow. Tia Ryans: [email protected] Everything or nothing. All of us or none. San Diego Eastern Washington One alone his lot can’t better. Curtis Howard: Megan Pirie: [email protected] Either gun or fetter. [email protected] Everything or nothing. All of us or none. Idaho Chapter Madison Mary Failing: [email protected] Caliph Muab-el: [email protected] Central Illinois Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) P.O. Box 3026, Peoria, IL 61612-3026 Phone: (309) 232-8583 General Parker: [email protected]