On March 24, a UMBC friend and I attended a protest organized by the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty at the Super Maximum Security Prison in Baltimore. In recent years, conditions at the facility, including several incidents in which prisoners died while awaiting trial, were the subject of protests. The event at hand, however, focused on the death penalty, as Death Row, evidently, is housed somewhere within the confines of the sprawling, barbed-wire encircled facility, which encompasses several city blocks. Our spirited group of about 40, paraded around the perimeter of the dungeon-like facility, chanting “Death row, hell no!” My friend, who wore a Palestinian kaffiyah, proudly carried a freshly prepared placard which read “Money for jobs and education, not for racist incarceration!”
At an informal rally following the march, the moderator drew attention to the fact that the death penalty targets predominantly black and poor people, and that almost no wealthy, white men are put to death by the state.
A speaker from Physicians for Social Responsibility drew parallels between the killing of poor black prisoners in the U.S. with the killings of innocent Iraqis and Afghans. Another, from the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said that the policy of scapegoating, prevalent in the U.S., blamed Iraqis for U.S. foreign policy woes, immigrants for unemployment, and prisoners for social ills. He deplored the 70% increase in the U.S. prison population in recent years.
Kevin James, of Son of Nun, a socially conscious hip-hop group, told protestors, “Poverty exists because the system relies on it,” before launching into a potent, politically conscious rap. I have the utmost respect for James, who took it upon himself to personally invite me (and many others, I am certain) to the protest. For more on Son of Nun:
http://myspace.com/socialistmc
The mother of Vernon Evans, a well-known death row prisoner, spoke. Evan’s sister was recognized, but did not take the mic.
Afterwards, I extended Islamic greetings and support to the organizers and gave them information about the case of Imam Jamil Al-Amin. My view is that the death penalty, when administered by an unjust, racist state playing God (astagfirullah) should concern all people of conscience, but particularly Muslims, since our faith is about justice. Many death row inmates are imprisoned as a result of inadequate legal counsel, and later found to be innocent of the crimes with which they were charged.
Showing posts with label Prison industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prison industry. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Mumit: Free at Age Fifty-Plus
A few days ago, I was messing around on the FBOP website. For once, it was good news: one of the brothers to whom I wrote regularly, at Lewisburg U.S.P., named Abdul Mumit (slave name: Lincoln Heard), was released some years ago.
Originally incarcerated for armored car heist(?), he was not a political prisoner in the sense of Sundiata Acoli, Geronimo Pratt, or the Sheikh. Like El-Hajj Malik Shabazz, he'd reverted to Islam while in prison. Because he stood up against the dehumanizing ("cruel and unusual") treatment accorded him and other prisoners, he was considered a "trouble-maker" and was repeatedly relocated from one prison to another. In between transfers, he was periodically thrown in the Hole. The relocations and the lockdowns created severe mental stress for Mumit, and he wrote me long letters expressing his fear that he would be murdered while in solitary. I did what little I could, writing letters of complaint to the prison bureaucracy, and letters of concern and support to him. He, like many Muslim inmates, felt isolated from the Ummah and craved Islamic literature, delighting when I sent him copies of New Trend (then in paper format), In the Shade of the Qur'an, the Burning Spear, and other literature.
I'd lost touch with him after my own (relatively insignificant) trials and tribulations, and so wasn't aware of his release. I exult in the thought that physically, he has survived, and is (technically) free. But, he is in his fifties now, robbed of his youth by the System, which continuously builds prisons for black youth, while closing libraries and cutting school budgets. I pray Allah help Mumit to survive the unemployment, disenfranchisment, and (more) racism which undoubtedly greeted him outside the gates of Lewisburg, and allow him to walk strong on the Sirat al-Mustaqeen.
Originally incarcerated for armored car heist(?), he was not a political prisoner in the sense of Sundiata Acoli, Geronimo Pratt, or the Sheikh. Like El-Hajj Malik Shabazz, he'd reverted to Islam while in prison. Because he stood up against the dehumanizing ("cruel and unusual") treatment accorded him and other prisoners, he was considered a "trouble-maker" and was repeatedly relocated from one prison to another. In between transfers, he was periodically thrown in the Hole. The relocations and the lockdowns created severe mental stress for Mumit, and he wrote me long letters expressing his fear that he would be murdered while in solitary. I did what little I could, writing letters of complaint to the prison bureaucracy, and letters of concern and support to him. He, like many Muslim inmates, felt isolated from the Ummah and craved Islamic literature, delighting when I sent him copies of New Trend (then in paper format), In the Shade of the Qur'an, the Burning Spear, and other literature.
I'd lost touch with him after my own (relatively insignificant) trials and tribulations, and so wasn't aware of his release. I exult in the thought that physically, he has survived, and is (technically) free. But, he is in his fifties now, robbed of his youth by the System, which continuously builds prisons for black youth, while closing libraries and cutting school budgets. I pray Allah help Mumit to survive the unemployment, disenfranchisment, and (more) racism which undoubtedly greeted him outside the gates of Lewisburg, and allow him to walk strong on the Sirat al-Mustaqeen.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
All I Need to Know, I Learned from a Brutha in tha Pen
What will convey unto thee what the Ascent is!
(It is) to free a slave...
--Qur'an 90: 12-13
At the age of 14, I began writing to (primarily Muslim) inmates in federal penitentiaries. The correspondence brought me to the realization that imprisonment is one of the worst forms of man's inhumanity to man. My view is that imprisonment raises grave ethical concerns. One who imprisons another human being controls when or if that human eats, drinks, bathes, procreates, or gets vital medical treatment, in effect, "playing God." The extreme example of "playing God" is, off course, capital punishment, where the State's irreversible act places it in the role of the Creator (nauzo-billah)--potentially taking the life of an innocent person lacking adequate counsel. Alternatives to imprisonment were practiced by indigenous societies through the ages. Considering the dismal failure of the U.S. prison system today, these examples merit rigorous study for potential adaptation to modern times.
Since the U.S. in-Justice system is unlikely to willingly capitulate to those whom it oppresses, an inquiry under the U.N. or other international fora on black males in the U.S. prison system is required. The question must be asked: Are black men inherently more criminal than all other segments of the population? If not, why do they constitute the preponderance of the prison population? Is the current prison system a continuation of the system of slavery and genocide of black people? If so, what remedy can be enacted by the international community--international sanctions, U.N. inspections of U.S. prison facilities, or peacekeepers to prevent U.S. mistreatment of its black population?
A few years after my first exchanges with Muslim inmates, I expropriated a copy of the Gulag Archipelago from my father's library. The work left an indelible impression. Imprisonment--dehumanizing by nature--is exacerbated when it is enacted as punishment for unpopular words, thought, and speech. Today, tens of thousands of primarily Muslim innocents suffer in the U.S. Gulag, spanning from Guantanamo to Afghanistan and beyond. And political imprisonment is the sword of Damocles which threatens any Muslim leader who advocates or exercises the internationally recognized (Geneva Convention affirmed) right of his people to self-defense against Zionist or imperialist aggression.
To me, the existence of such a Gulag--and the threat that any independent-minded Muslim is a candidate for it--is a major crisis, warranting the focus of Muslims and humanitarians alike. I believe the time for Picnics has passed, and Muslim leaders who insist on Picnicking--well, perhaps their leadership ought to be questioned according to the Islamic tradition of accountability of Muslim leaders to their constituents. Recall the famed example of Hazrat Umar's (RA) roughing up and questioning by a Bedouin, on the simple matter of the former's possession of a shawl. When will we finally seize our leaders by the shawl, and ask them why they silently allow the innocent Muslim imams, hafiz-e-Quran, Muslim fathers, husbands, and brothers to languish in U.S./U.S.-administered prisons, often under medieval conditions?
Clearly, a truly Islamic leadership must prioritize: 1) effective, legal organizing for the rights of the political prisoners; 2) a massive public awareness campaign, aimed at lifting the curtain of fear from the Muslim community, while also countering corporate media propaganda with objective information on political cases; and 3) providing necessary assistance to the families of political prisoners.
(It is) to free a slave...
--Qur'an 90: 12-13
At the age of 14, I began writing to (primarily Muslim) inmates in federal penitentiaries. The correspondence brought me to the realization that imprisonment is one of the worst forms of man's inhumanity to man. My view is that imprisonment raises grave ethical concerns. One who imprisons another human being controls when or if that human eats, drinks, bathes, procreates, or gets vital medical treatment, in effect, "playing God." The extreme example of "playing God" is, off course, capital punishment, where the State's irreversible act places it in the role of the Creator (nauzo-billah)--potentially taking the life of an innocent person lacking adequate counsel. Alternatives to imprisonment were practiced by indigenous societies through the ages. Considering the dismal failure of the U.S. prison system today, these examples merit rigorous study for potential adaptation to modern times.
Since the U.S. in-Justice system is unlikely to willingly capitulate to those whom it oppresses, an inquiry under the U.N. or other international fora on black males in the U.S. prison system is required. The question must be asked: Are black men inherently more criminal than all other segments of the population? If not, why do they constitute the preponderance of the prison population? Is the current prison system a continuation of the system of slavery and genocide of black people? If so, what remedy can be enacted by the international community--international sanctions, U.N. inspections of U.S. prison facilities, or peacekeepers to prevent U.S. mistreatment of its black population?
A few years after my first exchanges with Muslim inmates, I expropriated a copy of the Gulag Archipelago from my father's library. The work left an indelible impression. Imprisonment--dehumanizing by nature--is exacerbated when it is enacted as punishment for unpopular words, thought, and speech. Today, tens of thousands of primarily Muslim innocents suffer in the U.S. Gulag, spanning from Guantanamo to Afghanistan and beyond. And political imprisonment is the sword of Damocles which threatens any Muslim leader who advocates or exercises the internationally recognized (Geneva Convention affirmed) right of his people to self-defense against Zionist or imperialist aggression.
To me, the existence of such a Gulag--and the threat that any independent-minded Muslim is a candidate for it--is a major crisis, warranting the focus of Muslims and humanitarians alike. I believe the time for Picnics has passed, and Muslim leaders who insist on Picnicking--well, perhaps their leadership ought to be questioned according to the Islamic tradition of accountability of Muslim leaders to their constituents. Recall the famed example of Hazrat Umar's (RA) roughing up and questioning by a Bedouin, on the simple matter of the former's possession of a shawl. When will we finally seize our leaders by the shawl, and ask them why they silently allow the innocent Muslim imams, hafiz-e-Quran, Muslim fathers, husbands, and brothers to languish in U.S./U.S.-administered prisons, often under medieval conditions?
Clearly, a truly Islamic leadership must prioritize: 1) effective, legal organizing for the rights of the political prisoners; 2) a massive public awareness campaign, aimed at lifting the curtain of fear from the Muslim community, while also countering corporate media propaganda with objective information on political cases; and 3) providing necessary assistance to the families of political prisoners.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Baltimore’s Abu Ghraib
This Tuesday, I found out what it feels like to look into the eyes of a mother whose son has been beaten to death while in custody. Joey Gilbon's mother walked proud, carrying a picture of her son. She had beautiful dark brown skin, a crown of white hair, and deep contemplative eyes, which would make you cry if you looked into them long enough. I hugged her, hardly knowing what to say. "Your son will not be forgotten," I managed to mumble.
I stood with her and the mothers at the entrance of Baltimore's Central Booking Facility on Falls Way and Madison Street. They were there to protest the deaths of their loved ones in custody. So they were in jail in Iraq, you say? Nope, right here, in AmeriKKKa.
Twenty-seven people, mostly black, have died in custody at Central Booking and City Jail in recent months, while waiting to go to trial. Many of them were locked up for very minor, non-violent offenses, like non-payment of child support, or loitering.
Baltimore's zero tolerance law prohibits assembly in certain areas. Although the law ostensibly is aimed at drug dealers, it means that a city resident who steps outside his house, if it happens to be in an area targeted by "law enforcement," may be arrested after one or two warnings. (The zero tolerance laws are also an attack on the First Amendment freedom of assembly of some sectors of society--but that is a separate issue.) So, in effect, some of the detainees held at Central Booking were locked up for standing outside their own homes. And while there, they could be the target of murderous prison guards.
One of the recent murders was of 52-year old Raymond Smoots, who was beaten so badly by guards that his family could barely recognize his body. But, his mother was determined to fight for justice in her son's case. In the days leading up to the protest, she stood on a West Baltimore street corner with activists handing out leaflets with the heading "Is Baltimore's Central Booking our Abu Ghraib?" It was from her that I learned of the protest.
The protest was called by the Emergency Coalition for Justice, an umbrella organization which included many of the families of the victims, the All-Peoples Congress, the Million Worker March Movement, the Nation of Islam, the Troops Out Now Coalition, and others. I found out about the protest too late, otherwise, I'd have recommended that Jamaat al-Muslimeen add its endorsement.
At the start of the rally, the organizers symbolically wrapped yellow police tape around the front steps of the Central Booking facility, calling it a crime scene, and demanding the prosecution of the prison guards and police responsible for the deaths in custody. They charged that prisoners were forced to lie in their own vomit and that essential medicines were withheld from other prisoners. One, who had AIDS, was denied anti-retroviral medication, and another, a diabetic, was refused his insulin. A female detainee, Debby Epifanio, died after being denied her medicine.
Despite the heat advisory, nearly 300 people showed up for the rally. Most were people of color. I was pleased to see there was a significant youth continent--mostly anarchists and predominantly white.
Some of the mothers spoke. Other speakers included an NAACP representative in stunning African garb, a Nation of Islam representative, a Christian minister, and others. Notably absent were the "Sunni" Muslims.
Strange, I thought, the NOI Muslims don't pray (formally). But they work for justice. The Sunni Muslims pray. But they (with notable exceptions) don't work for justice. Shouldn't one lead to the other?
A particularly interesting speaker was a prison guard, who decried the abuses of his co-workers, and apologized to the families for what they had endured. He wore shades and a hat to disguise himself so that he would not be fired from his job.
While the speakers blasted prisoner abuse and police brutality, I ran up and down the road handing out fliers explaining why we were there to passing motorists. An hour handing out fliers was like a Racism 101 class. Many of the motorists were leaning out of their car windows, clearly intrigued by the protest. Nearly all the black motorists to whom I offered the flier took it; the only black people who refused the flier were prison guards who were getting off work. But the majority of white motorists refused to take the flier. A white ex-convict, who said he'd spent twenty-five years in the facility we were protesting, helped me pass out the fliers. He said, "Sh--, the white people, they won't take it. They all close-minded." It seemed a willful ignorance of injustice.
The rally over, it was time to march.
"Stop the killing, stop the lies, Raymond Smoots didn't have to die!" we chanted as we marched around Central Booking. The facility is a veritable modern day dungeon, encompassing several city blocks, with thick concrete walls protected by cameras and electronic gates.
On the next block, we found ourselves strolling along side the City Jail. It is a dilapidated old brick structure with grates and barbed wire covering the windows on every floor. We turned the corner, chanting, "Tear down the walls," and "No justice, no peace!" The prisoners could hear us, and some of them yelled back words of appreciation and encouragement. I could almost hear some of my reactionary relatives and colleagues saying, "Would you prefer if these common criminals were running the streets?"
But, the real criminals fill the corporate boardrooms, the halls of Congress, and the Oval Office; they are never the ones to be warehoused when they can't afford bail or a good lawyer.
I stood with her and the mothers at the entrance of Baltimore's Central Booking Facility on Falls Way and Madison Street. They were there to protest the deaths of their loved ones in custody. So they were in jail in Iraq, you say? Nope, right here, in AmeriKKKa.
Twenty-seven people, mostly black, have died in custody at Central Booking and City Jail in recent months, while waiting to go to trial. Many of them were locked up for very minor, non-violent offenses, like non-payment of child support, or loitering.
Baltimore's zero tolerance law prohibits assembly in certain areas. Although the law ostensibly is aimed at drug dealers, it means that a city resident who steps outside his house, if it happens to be in an area targeted by "law enforcement," may be arrested after one or two warnings. (The zero tolerance laws are also an attack on the First Amendment freedom of assembly of some sectors of society--but that is a separate issue.) So, in effect, some of the detainees held at Central Booking were locked up for standing outside their own homes. And while there, they could be the target of murderous prison guards.
One of the recent murders was of 52-year old Raymond Smoots, who was beaten so badly by guards that his family could barely recognize his body. But, his mother was determined to fight for justice in her son's case. In the days leading up to the protest, she stood on a West Baltimore street corner with activists handing out leaflets with the heading "Is Baltimore's Central Booking our Abu Ghraib?" It was from her that I learned of the protest.
The protest was called by the Emergency Coalition for Justice, an umbrella organization which included many of the families of the victims, the All-Peoples Congress, the Million Worker March Movement, the Nation of Islam, the Troops Out Now Coalition, and others. I found out about the protest too late, otherwise, I'd have recommended that Jamaat al-Muslimeen add its endorsement.
At the start of the rally, the organizers symbolically wrapped yellow police tape around the front steps of the Central Booking facility, calling it a crime scene, and demanding the prosecution of the prison guards and police responsible for the deaths in custody. They charged that prisoners were forced to lie in their own vomit and that essential medicines were withheld from other prisoners. One, who had AIDS, was denied anti-retroviral medication, and another, a diabetic, was refused his insulin. A female detainee, Debby Epifanio, died after being denied her medicine.
Despite the heat advisory, nearly 300 people showed up for the rally. Most were people of color. I was pleased to see there was a significant youth continent--mostly anarchists and predominantly white.
Some of the mothers spoke. Other speakers included an NAACP representative in stunning African garb, a Nation of Islam representative, a Christian minister, and others. Notably absent were the "Sunni" Muslims.
Strange, I thought, the NOI Muslims don't pray (formally). But they work for justice. The Sunni Muslims pray. But they (with notable exceptions) don't work for justice. Shouldn't one lead to the other?
A particularly interesting speaker was a prison guard, who decried the abuses of his co-workers, and apologized to the families for what they had endured. He wore shades and a hat to disguise himself so that he would not be fired from his job.
While the speakers blasted prisoner abuse and police brutality, I ran up and down the road handing out fliers explaining why we were there to passing motorists. An hour handing out fliers was like a Racism 101 class. Many of the motorists were leaning out of their car windows, clearly intrigued by the protest. Nearly all the black motorists to whom I offered the flier took it; the only black people who refused the flier were prison guards who were getting off work. But the majority of white motorists refused to take the flier. A white ex-convict, who said he'd spent twenty-five years in the facility we were protesting, helped me pass out the fliers. He said, "Sh--, the white people, they won't take it. They all close-minded." It seemed a willful ignorance of injustice.
The rally over, it was time to march.
"Stop the killing, stop the lies, Raymond Smoots didn't have to die!" we chanted as we marched around Central Booking. The facility is a veritable modern day dungeon, encompassing several city blocks, with thick concrete walls protected by cameras and electronic gates.
On the next block, we found ourselves strolling along side the City Jail. It is a dilapidated old brick structure with grates and barbed wire covering the windows on every floor. We turned the corner, chanting, "Tear down the walls," and "No justice, no peace!" The prisoners could hear us, and some of them yelled back words of appreciation and encouragement. I could almost hear some of my reactionary relatives and colleagues saying, "Would you prefer if these common criminals were running the streets?"
But, the real criminals fill the corporate boardrooms, the halls of Congress, and the Oval Office; they are never the ones to be warehoused when they can't afford bail or a good lawyer.
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