Taking Direct
Action To
#FreeThemAll

From Stateville Prison to
the Front Yard of its Warden

There has been a major shift
in tactics and strategy for the
grassroots campaign to
#FreeThemAll in U.S.
prisons, jails, and detention
centers, quite noticeably
right now throughout the
Midwest.

‘This story was fiest published on the website ¢’ Gasgg Dowm,
(author unknown). The original version is found at the url:

tipss/ /itsgoingdown.org/ dict-action-to-feethemall from-
‘statevlleprison-to-the-front.yard-ofits-warden/

Stateville Correctional Center in

Joliet, IL s quickly unfolding into a nightmare
scenario of lethal punishment and carceral-police
violence. As of April 20th, 123 imprisoned people
and 65 guards/staff officialy tested positive for the
COVID-19 virus at Stateville. Infections are
assumed to be multiplying exponentially.

On Friday, April 17, a group of concemed loved
ones and advocates for prisoners in the Midwest
took the fight against conditions at Stateville into
their own hands and to the fascist's front door
where they used life-size replicas of body bags to
block the driveway of prison warden David Gomez.

These body bags represent the ongoing
accumulation of causalities from the COVID-19
pandemic at Stateville, as the infection continues
to spread rapidly throughout its carceral facilties.

Unfurling body bags at the foot of Gomez's
driveway, the masked group reads off the
following statement:
“David Gomez! We uplift the names Larry
Bourbon, Russell Sedelmaier, Joseph
Wilson, Rodney Rice, and countless others
unnamed that are languishing behind your
prison walls. The conditions at Stateville
have always been horrific, ripe with
medical meglect and fascist abuse of power
but now they are truly. Undeniable death
camps. While COVID-19 carves up our
friends and family held at Stateville. You
are the warden there David Gomes.and blood
is on your hands! The deaths of our 9
friends and family are on your shoulders!
In the names of those fallen and those
struggling still to live we uplift the
following demands. The people [across
prison walls] demand that you:

1. TEST EVERYONE FOR COVID-19

2. INCREASE HEALTHCARE AND
MEDICAL STAFF & SUPPLY

3. LOCKDOWN: ALLOW YARD ACCESS

4. KEEP FACILITIES SANITIZED

5. FREE UNLIMITED PHONE &
VIDEO CALLS

6. PROVIDE THOSE CAPTIVE WITH
SAME PROTECTIVE GEAR AS STAFF

FREE THEM ALL!
FREE THEM ALL!

The day this action took place, an estimated 10
men were already killed by the virus while in
custody at Stateville, with numbers estimated to
actually be much higher, with increasing numbers
of captives infected throughout the prison. Experts
say this is because “social distancing” is virtually
impossible in the context of prison life. While there
is a long-documented history of Stateville
operating as a site of industrialized genocide and
medical violence against its imprisoned
population, the COVID-19 pandemic, as it
progressively spreads throughout prisons, makes
clear that imminent death is a now the accepted
norm of carceral state practices.

Russell Sedelmaier, Larry Bourbon, Rodney Rice,
Joseph Wilson, and six other un-named prisoners
have been killed in custody by the state’s poor
handling of the COVID outbreak. It is these
persons who inspired abolitionists to pay a visit to
the warden’s house. Such instances of legally-
sanctioned and state-condoned manslaughter
reveal systematic pattems of medical neglect by
Gomez and current prison staff as well as Louis
Schicker and Steve Meeks, former and current
medical directors of llinois Department of
Corrections (IDOC), and the Wexford Health
Sources.

As is the inherent nature of incarceration and
policing, ranking authorities like Gomez are
objectively culpable for murder yet enjoy
complete impunity as well as an income paid by
the state.

Numerous lawsuits against IDOC medical
administration reflect a long history of open
neglect and violence against incarcerated persons
while Gomez, Meeks, and Wexford CEOs continue
to profit. Moreover, Wexford Health Sources (a
subsidiary of Bantry Group), which holds a contract
for administering a large percentage of medical
services throughout IDOC faciliies, has a
demonstrable pattem of abuse of prisoners in
other states as evidenced by lawsits in Alabama,
Mississippi, and New York.

Stateville holds an incapacitated population of
about 2,674 prisoners overall. Many are elders, a
significant portion sentenced as juveniles for long
sentences of upwards 20, 30, and even 40+ years.
A whopping 687 people held in Stateville are over
the age of 50, 35 people are in their 70s or older,
and 1 person is older than 80. This is no different
than amajority of facilities around the country. If it
isn't elderly people, then there are a host of other
vulnerabiliies to premature death inherent to the
prison regime.

Other questions that must be asked of the
Stateville administration, and specifically its
warden and medical directors, include: How many
people do you hold captive have such conditions
as diabetes? How many prisoners have high blood
pressure simply as an effect of their incarceration?
How many people have asthma and respiratory
issues from gratuitous immobilization of their
bodies, from inadequate meals, and exposure to
facility-wide pestilence? How many of the captive
imprisoned are immunocompromised? It is getting
more difficult by the day to see the gruesome truth
of the prison regime’s sadism shed its liberal cloak
for all the world to see.

According to IDOC reporting, 13,000 people out
of 43,657 within its facilities could be eligible for
release immediately. This number is nowhere near
high enough to prevent a world-historical
catastrophe inside the Northern lllinois prison. The
concerned loved ones participating in this
courageous action vocalize a rejection the idea
that only “non-violent" offenders are deserving of
consideration for release. They emphatically use
the language of: #FreeThemAll #NoMorelsolation
#NoMoreDeaths and #AbolitionNOW.

In an effort to lead by example, these folks are
asking that other non-imprisoned activists join
them in future militant direct actions to smash the
fascist state. The U.S. prison industrial complex is
enabled by every and all established social
institution and the dominant culture of white
American society more generally. This means that
the targets of our actions to abolish it are therefore
not only aimed at the physical site of the prison/jail
itself but extend into every facet of daily life, from
institutions to the roads and streets and in spaces
of everyday life.

Powerful actions and disruptions can take place in
numerous spheres of the so-called “free-world.”
Such as the maneuvers of the community of
struggle that executed this action. It is long time
the demands of loved ones of prisoners and
abolitionists, inside and out, are brought directly
to the front-yards of those who are responsible for
(and make a living from) kiling and terrorizing
people in state custody. We hope that they can
experience a hint of the unbearable terror, fear,
and trauma that they inflict on others.

We need militant direct action to #FreeThemAll

We need revolutionary community organizing for
Abolition NOW.

o "I‘ b

-
re*&‘li ¥ e
i O

DEC
True Leap P
" PO Box #408197.
Chicago IL 60640
>
RN