COMMUNITY ZINE VOLUME 1 Thank you to all the incarcerated people who made this zine possible by submitting their work, without them this would not exist. We hope for a day when it will not need to. The editor of this zine has made every effort to present the selected works as they were submitted, minor edits have been made for clarity, but no content has been significantly altered. nliama: The damk Mgl oF The Kue Klux = Klandoined = 4T, Ae Clinton Troy Riley New Castle Correctional Facility New Castle, Indiana PAJARO EN UNA JAULA La pintura, Péjaro en una Jaula, por Pablo Picasso, es para mi como un rompe-cabezas. Todas las piezas estan revueltas, y asi es lavida. Cuando yo miro las aves en el cielo, desde el patio de la carcel, vuelan libres. Es muy triste para mi. A veces, el ser humano tiene al pajaro en una jaula. Pero ahora, yo me siento en una jaulay comprendo lo que han de sentir los pajaros en su jaula. La cércel es una jaula muy grande. Cuando las aves del cielo vuelan libres yse acercan a la orilla de esta crcel, han de decir: “Mira a esos seres-humanos en su jaula, jcémo las cosas estan cambiando! Ahora, ellos estén en la jaula, y nosotros estamos libres”. Nadie, ni un animal, tendria que vivir en una jaula. Estoy comprendiendo cémo los animales se sienten muy Triestes por la necesidad de a libertad. Cuando el ser humano abre la puerta de sus jaulas para darles su comida, y se descuida por alguna razén, dejando la puerta abierta, cualquier animal cautiva aprovecharia esa oportunidad para escapar y ser libre. Ahora comprendo esa necesidad. s crey6 las aves para que anduvieran libres por el mundo. En elcieloy enla tierra, cada criatura debe tener derecho a ser libre, pero o es asiy por eso, ando triste de o que es mi vida. De pensar que las aves me pueden ver en mijaula es triste. Quizas alguna vez ellos fueron prisioneros de alguna jaula también, y es lo que Pablo Picasso representa en su pintura. Gerardo Sanchez Amador Cook County Jail, Chicago The painting, The Bird Cage, by Pablo Picasso, is like a puzzle for me. All the pieces are mixed up, and that is how lfe s When I ook at the bircis in the sky, from the jails patio, they fy freely.Itis sad for me. Sometimes, human beings keep birds in a cage. But now, | am the one inthe cage and | understand what such caged birds must feel. The jail is a big cage. When the birds fl in the sky above and they approach the edge of the ail, they must say: "Look at those people in the cage, oh how things have changed! Now they are in cage, and we are the free ones”. No one, not even an animal, should be kept in a cage. | am understanding how caged animals must feel sad, needing their freedom. When a person opens the door to their cages to feed them, and accidentally leaves the door open fora morment, any caged animal would take that opportunity to escape and be free. Now ! understand this need. God created birds to fly freely through the world. In the sky, and on land, every creature should have the right to be free, but it ins't like this and that is why | feel sad about myife. Thinking of the free birds looking down and watching me is sad. Perhaps once, they were prisoners in some cage too. This is what Pablo Picasso represents in his painting. Translation courtesy of La Maestra Michelle A TYPE OF FREE Barbed wire and gun towers, Emotional walls now replaced By those of concrete and stove From passing out in dive bars To passing time behind bars How far must one faulted man Fall to the bottom finding freedom Washed up and dashed upon rocks He’s now forced to break Forgotten by everyone, left only To be haunted by the ghosts Of all he should have been But finding himself strangely Liberated, suddenly free, with Every glove up into the clouds With every word written and Thrown up into the wind. —Dan Grote Bob Covelli Dixon, lllinois SILENCE MEANS CONSENT LIBERATION, OR SILENT NEVERENDING DEGREDATION It's not alright to ignore a 64 year old man’s serious medical and psychiatric needs. They call us “inmates” o seriously mentally ill (SMI) “inmates,” and somehow forget we are human people, or rationalize away the failure to give s the help and protection we need as unusually vulnerable patients/prisoners. The “pet- inmate” porter/workers run the places. They steal, overcharge, and extort the worst mentally hurt of us while most staff's “pet- inmates" are the ones who clean, serve food, collect commissary slips, pass out commissary, pack up the property of those sent to segregation, and other jobs either the staff should be doing or pretend they actually do. “Pet-inmates”—the known threat to the most vulnerable. (I actually v omit at the thought of them!) As strong as | would like to pretend | am, in spited of feeling ashamed that | need to ask for help from anyone, all | can think of after being ignored, lied to, manipulated, hurt, and injured so often is what is left of my bodly. If you have ever been beaten badly, deeply and physically hurt, you may understand what | feel. When you've been physically injured so often, getting stitches, having complaints ignored and emergency grievances shunned, you realize you are just an envelope of skin—an easily penetrated envelop that holds together what' left of your life. What is worse than soft tissue damage—no muscle tissue left to lose or damage any worse than it is now—no trauma therapy at all to ease away some of the hurt from seeing “pet-inmates” do all the above and then get away with hounding two SMI men into suicide. The plaintiff has sat next to a toilet filled with vomit so often, had his weight go up and down so often, straining his heart and weakening his body, has fell down so often, injuring his face and head and back, that he will readily admit his view of reality may be tainted by anything from frustration and terror to anxiety and a (dread) bone-deep despair. Many a night plaintiff has sincerely wondered if he should forgive all the named and unnamed defendants for letting him wither away: for letting him deal with the trauma of suicides (while dying slowly) and without trauma therapy o care of any kind; for letting him die so slowly that they are blind to their own deliberate indifference—the scornful way they regularly reject his unending requests, complaints, pleas for help, emergency grievances, affidavits and notarized letters— believing their non-actions are “reasonable” (reasonable silences/ ignoring or shrugging off his serious psychiatric and medical needs) due to their honest failure to see his ever so fragile humanity, the atrophy and massive loss of muscle tissue among other injuries, because of the fact they see him as an “inmate,” a label they've used so often (in training as well as on the job site itself) that it has dehumanized him and desensitized them. It has induced an apathy so pervasive that no amount of logic by plaintiff, no amount of deductive reasoning by anyone labelled “inmate" can ever hope to penetrate. If the defendants are deemed not at fault, if the derogatory term “inmate” is solely to blame, plaintiff prays the court will ban, forbid, and prohibit the continued use of any such label as “inmate” 5o no one else is ever hurt or injured and has their obvious hurts and injuries ignored for so long. Bob Covelli Dixon, lllinois Vs — EXNIBIT F-il UNTIL Until you've been arrested And spent endless days in jail. And walked a hundred miles Without ever leaving your cell. Until you've lost your family And you're utterly alone. You try to seek comfort Realizing it was left at home. Until you've faced a judge And entered a guilty plea. And you've heard the words of judgement That you won't be going free. You lie awake at night Shedding endless-tears Until you've lost all hope And every dream you've ever had. You fight to keep your sanity And fear that you'll go mad. Until you've gone through all these things And lost all human will. How can you look at me and say you know just how | feel. —Anonymous KISMET Kill me Is sometimes what My memories do Sol Receive Face Review Embrace Release Erase into Peace ACCEPT and create my fate I choose my destiny. —May Meridian LIBERATION FROM A MICHIGAN PRISONER Allow me to be frank if | may, outside of the typical definitions. We are taught of “Liberation:" bringing you into the perceptions. of those who have been “Liberated”, and who seek to be: “Liberated”. To be “Liberated” is to uplift and enhance yourself and those who suffer your cause! To free the mind and the body, and to unlock the soul from its chamber of affliction: passed on down the line by the slaves of then to the slaves of now, who have beaten, drilled, and broken into submission by the hands of a system which bleeds the very fabric of social equality dry! To be able to claim Liberation is to be able to bum down the gates of oppression, prejudice, disinformation, and systemic racism, while still holding onto your morals and beliefs, your dignity and integrity, and stand steady out in your mission to eradicate racisml Liberation means a freedom that is me being foreign to a country full of foreigners! Liberation means that we don't just sit back and wait for the creator to hand us miracles, but we put forth the effort expecting struggle, expecting strife and pain, We drive until we have reached our destination! And, what is a revolutionary destination? What can be Anarchic good? What is the dream of an abolitionist? Complete and utter “Liberation”! For the bible says “Faith without works is dead!” Some of us “claim’ to have “faith” in a specific cause , yet we do nothing to strengthen it! Only in the wake of “National unrest” do we choose to stand up, but if we are to be taken seriously the fight must not relax, the fist must not unclench and we should not allow our voices to be silenced! That is “Liberation” to me and the brothers and sisters of our cause. In solidarity and respect. Jonathan Summers Ak.A. “Big Prynce-G” Founder of the United States S.T.O.PP initiative and the B.M.G.F. Inc. Bellamy Creek, Michigan SR Wisconsin A RUTHLESS SYSTEM Prison takes your freedom away You don't know what it is like to have to listen and obey What it like to live in anger and pain What it is like to realize that you have already gone insane! In prison you are all alone Surrounded by Razorwire, chains and robbed by a damn pay phone Is being locked in a 5 x 9 cell one of your fears? Try living there for many years You think you forgot how to cry But one day they let you out And you break down like you are gonna die Do you know what it is like to be happy but lost at the same time? Free, but locked up for lack of the right dime You wonder how one finds their way in a ruthless system Many do not as it’s like they dreamed up a nightmare And imposed it upon the vulnerable I myself fell for their tricks Though | am in no way weak. You see | have sleeves of my own The tides turn and tyrants see what they are shown 1no longer fear to lose all of my ambition Because my strength gives me my own rehabilitation Now they call me a monster wit this Rem And a terrorist with these lines. The ruthless system just can't beat that. —Victor Brown AKA Victor Frankenstein THE BROKEN SYSTEM I'm treated like an animal held in a cage If I let loose emotion it must be rage You act like a predator, | won't be your prey There's no right in this world be it night or day Depression is weakness. They'll tear you apart Best to keep your hands up right from the start The stars in the sky can't count all my pains But | tuck them so deep only anger remains So why place me here if they want me to change? —Stephen Brown Columbsia C.I. Portage, Wisconsin AUTHOR'S NOTE: When | wrote this | was thinking of the injustices of the world of incarceration. Not only what the guards do to prisoners, but what convicts and inmates do to each other: making anger the only safe emotion because they are looking to prey on the weak. Some use rape, extortion, bullying, and theft, or a combination of these. Yes, there are gangs and cliques we utiize to help, protect, and support each other, yet a lot of times it causes more issues than solutions. Imagine if when there was an issue within the prison system, all the inmates set these ties aside and all came together. There is great power in unity. Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding are also power, 5o utilize them. | want to dedicate this to the true convicts out there that understand what I'm talking about: keep your heads up and struggle on. THE DEEP END It seems to me that were | ever to be happy, were | ever to be sober, safe, serene, it just wouldn't work, and work itis, taking oh so much effort to just give up, to admit that you're stuck, mired, inarut and left to the role of playing a first-class fuckup, so whyis everyone always trying to fix what was put on this earth to show you the ways of The Broken Man, the one whose tomorrow is always a Last Stand, the one who drowned himself in a whiskey glass so you'd be scared enough to learn to swim, soyou'd be free of the terrible weight that always dragged me down. —Dan Grote BENEATH THE SURFACE Beneath the surface, the concept being purely commercial, is nothing more than a collusive campaign to keep one in prison longer and to return a parolee to prison as soon as possible. It's the underlying basis for somm and the additional parole stipulations for the so-called sex offender. It is in fact a fabrication of theories expressive more of the bizarre than of rationality. As you can see, from this is created a plausible ly sophisticated structure intended for a type of control over the life of a prisoner and parolee so unduly restrictive that it almost guarantees failure of one being able to meet ever-shifting demands interpreted to exact ambiguity. The enforcement of additional parole stipulations is predicated upon unconstitutional policy that facilitates forced submission via threats to extend the sentence of a targeted prisoner or parolee (a facade for so-called rehabilitative methods and monitoring) that is simply another means of economic, class, and sexual exploitation that inevitably has nothing to do with the parolee successfully re-integrating back into and becoming a viable part of family and society as a whole. In truth, this concept only serves a subversive plot to further colonize and capitalize off those in the grasps of the irrational and illintended. The policy created for additional parole stipulations serves as a conduit to destabilize a parolee in order to provide the parole officer the leeway to revoke one’s parole for technical reasons, and this data is attributed to recidivism. In this way, legislation and privatization unite in unholy matrimony to perpetuate ideologies and transform them into policy that s¢ es the unilateral interests shared between the sheets of the Indiana Department of Corrections, New Castle Correctional Facility, the Parole Board, and Liberty Behavioral Health (the providers of Insomm), all of whom depend on each others’ numbers to keep in line with generated contracts for all those involved that have placed a stake in monetary gain as a result thereof. This is how the prison system’s style of human trafficking is sponsored, justified, and colored as something other than what it is: facilit ted by the stigma of public contempt towards those who are guilty of sex crimes and also towards those who are not. Nothing just can come from that which does not proceed from reason. With this in mind, how are those who decide what is illegal and unconstitutional any different than the prisoners and parolees they exploit and capitalize off of? Are they not criminals as well? What of their moral and mental state of being? No sane person not already inclined to criminality would postulate and enforce policy and stipulations so restrictive as to ensure the complete failure of those seeking redemption and progress in pursuit of happiness and efficiency towards a better life. 1'am not against the sanctioning of programs that actually contribute to rehabilitative and protective measures that inspire a prisoner or parolee to take responsibility for the crime committed while working earnestly towards identifying and eradicating thoughts and behavior pattems that transgress the laws or people. Such programs must be founded upon ensuring that the fights of participants remain inviolate. I don't claim to be infallible, but | am a firm believer that you can only commit your self unto being a part of the solutions, rather that the problems that plague ourselves and our society. Life is a class—pay attention. What | am to my enemies, | am not. My only revenge is to attain a power that will outlast and transcend my enemies’ desires. Happiness through truth is the will and purpose of God in man, as man is in God. | rise in fire. | am coming out of the flames. The struggle continues. —Clinton Troy Riley Indiana Darryl Allen London Correctional Institute London, Ohio Darryl Allen London Correctional Institute London, Ohio HAIKU : 3,4,5 While that smile covers your face | can still see the Shadows that cloud your eyes You don't fool me we Don't know how transparent Your true feelings are What are we but light And fragments of energy Stuck together here —May Meridian POEM WHISPERER I, a poem whisperer, coax verse[s] out of a jumble of letters. Doing it [s]neakily is- adding a quote, a crazed noun with a lying verb. —David Richards FCI Elkton Lisbon, Ohio AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a “Scrabble Poem, " written using the tiles from a Scrabble game only once each. (The square letters are the blanks). SUPPORT MIDWEST BOOKS TO PRISONERS FUNDING: By donating just a few dollars, you can help pay for postage costs which allow us to continue to provide books and other print media to the incarcerated people we serve, free of charge. Find donation information on our website, www.MidwestBooksToPrisoners.org. DONATING: We accept textbooks, novels, scientific journals, nonfiction books, religious texts, magazines, educational materials, art books, poetry and essay collections, and many other reading materials. Unfortunately, we cannot use any books that are spiral bound. If you have books you would like to donate, please drop them off at the Community Center door at First Trinity Lutheran Church 643 W. 31st Street Chicago, Illinois 60608 Please note: we do not send or accept materials which advocate hatred towards people on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religious affliation. VOLUNTEERING: We are an all-volunteer organization and are always looking for more help! Find out about volunteer opportunities on our website, www.MidwestBooksToPrisoners.org WRITE TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS Several of our talented contributors included their mailing addresses with their submissions. If you loved their work, please thank them personally by sending them a letter or putting some money on their books. David Richards 65434060 FCI Elkton PO.Box 10 Lisbon, Ohio 44432 Clinton Troy Riley 111204 New Castle Correctional Facility 1000 Van Nuys Rd. New Castle, IN 47362 Victor Brown CC1/529809 P.O. Box 900 Portage, WI 53901 Stephen Brown 468393 P.O. Box 900 Columbia Correctional Institute 2925 Columbia Dr. Portage, WI 53901 Darryl Allen 455525 London Correctional Institute 1580 State Rte. 56 S.W. London, OH 43140 Jonathan Summers 459083 Bellamy Creek 1727 W. Bluewater lonia, M1 48846 Gerardo Sanchez Amador 20190119062 P.O. Box 089002 Div. 9 - 3E - 3208 Chicago, IL 60608 Robert F. Covelli A08307 2600 N. Brinton Ave. Dixon, IL 60121 Midwest Books to Prisoners is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) not for profit organization based in Chicago. Since 2004 we have been accepting requests from any and all incarcerated people, and mailing them reading material that corresponds to their areas of interest free of charge. If you or a loved one would like to request reading material, you can contact us via snail mail at Midwest Books to Prisoners 1321 N. Milwaukee Ave PMB #460 Chicago, IL 60622 or find us on the web at ’ BooksToPri