Alabama prison rebels have reported brutal retaliation and beatings by guards at Easterling Correctional.
Please call Warden John Crow to request a welfare check for prisoners Brandon Oden and James Pratt, to let the administration know that people outside are paying attention, and the discourage further abuse.
(334) 397-4471
Two reports on the conditions of Alabama’s prison system. Commentary by Michael forthcoming.
Investigation of Alabama’s State Prisons for Men (April 2019)
Alabama Excessive Force Findings (July 2020)
I’m outta Holman! Back in December 2019 I was placed in lockup for assault on a guard. I had come to the aid of another prisoner who was being assaulted by a guard.
I was threatened with physical harm by this guard and I immediately alerted my supporters and comrades who started a phone zap demanding that I be transferred. In January I was released back into general population without any disciplinary infraction for the assault, and in early February I was transferred to my present location at Easterling. Easterling is a medium security prison. It’s the only no smoking prison in the state of Alabama. The prisoners here are a lot less rebellious than those prisoners at the maximum security prisons. Prisoners at Easterling tend to have less time to do than those at max. prisons.
On July 29th, anarchist prisoner Michael Kimble, fellow prisoner, Brandon Oden, and several others began a hunger strike from all foods other than water, in protest of the inept mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis at Easterling Correctional Facility.
Issues include the lack of outside exercise, despite an hour of such time being mandated by law, the lack of access to the law library, the lack of clean and fresh water, the lack of access to immune boosting healthy foods and fruit, the lack of proper testing and quarantining of prisoners, the lack of proper disinfection, and the administration’s refusal to release vulnerable prisoners being held at Easterling.
Additionally, prisoners are demanding adequate medical treatment for prisoners Daniel Wilson, who has a broken arm that has gone untreated, and for 86-year old prisoner Michael Mayola, who has back and other health issues that been neglected by prison staff.
We ask that everyone call and fax the warden of Easterling Correctional and the AL Commissioner of the AL DOC and demand that they address these serious problems immediately.
Alabama Commissioner of Prisons Jefferson Dunn – (334) 353-3883
Easterling Correctional Warden John Crow – (334) 397-4471
Michael Kimble Poster HERE
Michael Kimble is a passionate freedom fighter who has been held captive by the Alabama Department of Corrections for nearly 33 years. After defending himself during a homophobic attack by a known white supremacist in 1987, Michael was arrested, charged with murder, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. His trial was typical of what could be expected from a racist criminal justice system in Jefferson County, Alabama.
Since his conviction, Michael has been fervently involved in efforts to free himself and others, assisting in legal defense for fellow inmates, organizing reading groups and Black History events, speaking up for queer folks behind bars, and helping to organize and agitate alongside the Free Alabama Movement for the historic national prison strike of September 2016.
The Alabama prison system has recently come under fire from the federal government for its abhorrent conditions, and Holman Prison, where Michael is incarcerated, is being decommissioned and largely shut down. In this context, many Alabama prisoners have been successfully challenging the length of their original sentences. A group of Michael’s supporters on the outside have recently joined forces to hire a new legal team to help him push for a sentence reduction. Given the amount of time already served, we are hoping this could result in his release.
All the money raised will go directly towards filing motions for sentence reduction, and anything left over will be used to support Michael’s day to day life inside with things like stamps, books, and commissary funds. Fingers crossed, we’ll also be raising money to support Michael once he joins on the outside.
For more information, check out this awesome interview with Michael from a few years back, as well as his blog.
Until Every Cage is Empty,
– Michael Kimble Support Crew
Supporters have learned that anarchist prisoner, writer, and organizer Michael Kimble was recently placed in segregation at Holman Correctional, in Alabama, for allegedly coming to the defense of a fellow prisoner who was being beaten by guards. He is urgently asking for support in attaining transfer to a new facility.
Michael has been politically active behind bars for many years, in particular helping agitate for the 2016 national prison strike, which made waves across the country and largely started as the brainchild of prison rebels at Holman. He is also the author of several zines, and his writing can be found at anarchylive.noblogs.org.
Due to his political activity he has frequently faced retaliation and punishment from guards and the DOC riot squad. Just this past week, after being placed in lock-up, a guard visited his cell to threaten him. Michael immediately wrote to one supporter, “I need you to spread the word that I desire an immediate transfer because I fear for my safety. They can have another prisoner do their dirty work. These are pigs on the CERT (riot squad) who have been assigned here since 2016…I know they plan to retaliate. That’s what they do.”
Please take the time to call these numbers:
Alabama DOC Commissioner’s Office (Ask for Commissioner Jeff Dunn) 334.353.3883
Holman Correctional (Ask for Warden Cynthia Stewart) 251.368.8173
Help Promote Phone Zap on Social Media by Sharing This Image
“My name is ______, and I am calling out of urgent concern for Alabama inmate Michael Kimble, who is currently on lock-up at Holman Correctional. He was placed on lock-up without due process, and without the paperwork and notices that are required by law to notify him of whatever infraction is alleged. He has also been the subject of physical threats by Corrections Officers while in lock-up. His safety is at risk, and he needs to be transferred to a facility where he is safe from reprisal and physical retaliation.”
From The Final Straw
In this June 11th special, we’re releasing an interview with some anarchist prisoners in the so-called U.S. and some of the folks who support them. June 11th, for people who don’t know, is a day of solidarity with Marius Mason and other long term anarchist prisoners. You can find bits of the history of the importance of the date up at crimethinc.com and interviews with and about anarchist prisoners up at our website and at june11.org . The framing of this special is to focus on a publishing project currently being undertaken inside and outside of the prisons that many long-term anarchist prisoners in the so-called U.S. participate in called Fire Ant.
First up, Sean Swain shares his views on Fire Ant and prisoner support. [2min 20sec , followed by Surrounded by Matador from the album The Taking, Black Powder Records]
Then we hear Michael Kimble sharing his views on the publication and recent experiences in the Alabama prison in which he’s held, which was a part of the interview we aired with Michael a few weeks back. [10min 56sec, followed by The War On The Imagination by Sole from Let Them Eat Sand]
After Michael speaks, a supporter and partner of Eric King talks about their impressions of the impact of June 11 and Fire Ant on their partner’s life. We’ll be sharing more from Eric’s partner in coming weeks about his situation, changes coming in the BOP and about the types of support federal prisoners and their supporters need. [42min 52sec]
After the Eric section, we are happy to share a musical track by the project, Realicide, called “Decide Today = Free Marius Mason” about the long-standing Earth Liberation, anarchist, Animal Liberation prisoner. There’s a link to youtube for the audio in our show notes.
Finally Robcatt, one of the folks on the outside shares some of the history of Fire Ant zine, some of his past support experience and a provocation on how we as anarchists need to shift how we do support work. [52min 17sec]
You can find issues of Fire Ant, which are written and adorned by anarchist prisoners, at the website for Bloomington ABC and for a list of June 11 events around Turtle Island, check out https://itsgoingdown.org.
Other music in this episode:
Black Star Dub Collective, Dissident Dub
From The Final Straw
In the first portion of this episode William and Bursts spoke with black, gay, anarchist prisoner, Michael Kimble, being held at Holman Prison in Alabama serving a life sentence for the murder of a white, homophobic, racist bigot. This audio is from a longer conversation we had in the context of an upcoming episode about Fire Ant zine featuring the voices of prisoners and outside folks involved in its production. Keep an ear out for that. Meanwhile, Michael talks about the gang breakdown of the prison he’s at, the queer & mostly white prisoners he’s around now, pushes to reform the prison system in Alabama. Here are a few links referencing what we talked about: William’s 2015 interview with Michael Kimble; Swift Justice on Kinetic Justice and AL prison expansion; Thurgood Marshall was an FBI informant on Robert F Williams during the Civil Rights struggle.
On 4/18/19, 300 agents from numerous agencies (FBI, Sheriff’s Office, State Police, ADOC CERT, Commissioner’s Office) descended upon Holman prison supposedly to conduct a complete search of the prison for weapons, drugs, and other contraband in an effort to stem the violence at the prison.
In local news reports it’s been reported that over 300 weapons were found and confiscated. True, some weapons were found, but CERT members entered the Old Metal Fabrication building and added scrap metal and falsely elevated the number of weapons found.
Then on 4/26/19, CERT snatched up a number of prisoners and transferred them to other prisons. What’s evident is that the prisoners who were transferred were not a problem for prison officials. There is a gang war going on throughout the Alabama prison slave system and it has become obvious that prison officials are complicit in keeping this war going. No gang leaders have been transferred or locked up and the violence continues. Many of the guards are gang members and are facilitating the violence among prisoners by giving certain gang leaders favoritism and leeway to commit acts of violence against members of opposing gangs.
Last year the governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, asked the legislature for $800 million for the construction of three new prisons to house Alabama’s 16,000 prisoners. The legislature refused to allocate the $300 million the governor requested, so a plot has been devised, as we prisoners see it, to get the new prisons through creating an environment of extreme violence among prisoners. This is what it’s all about. As long as the CERT is deployed at Holman, those guards on it will continue to make excessive amounts of pay. And the descending of 300 agents is an attempt to appease the feds and instill fear.
DEMOLISH ALL PRISONS!
DEATH TO THE STATE!
For the last couple of years the Department of Justice has been conducting an investigation into the Alabama Department of Corrections. The investigation has come to a close and a report of the Justice Dept.’s findings has been published.
The Justice Dept. report found that prisoners are routinely subjected to horrifying violence and sexual abuse within a “broken system” where prisoners are murdered “on a regular basis.”
Alabama locks up more folks per capita than almost any other state and federal agents found illegal drugs and weapons were rampant, overcrowded cellblocks and gross indifference on the part of prison officials.
The report states that prison officials overlooked obvious murders in three cases, ascribing the deaths to natural causes even when prisoners had been stabbed. The report further states that prison officials turned a blind eye to prisoners who were raped and that prison officials accepted violence and sexual assaults among prisoners as “a normal course of business.”
In one week in 2017, at least two prisoners died – one from a stabbing and the other from a drug overdone – and others were beaten and sexually assaulted in daily clashes across 13 prisons that house 16,000 prisoners.
The report concluded that prison officials fail to provide adequate conditions and that prisoners experience serious harm, including deadly harm, as a result.
Chronic overcrowding and staff shortages have exacerbated conditions, “creating an environment rife with violence, extortion, drugs and weapons,” the report stated.
Federal investigators said the number of guards in Alabama prisons dropped even as the state packed more prisoners into overcrowded prisons.
The number of guards dropped from just under 1,800 in 2013 to about 1,300 in 2017. That left prisoners to fend for themselves. “Prisoners have been tied up for days by other prisoners while unnoticed by staff.”
In one case, investigators said guards watched an inmate bleed on the other side of a locked fence as they struggled to find a key. In another, investigators stated an unnamed prisoner told them that a guard told him that he would need to arm himself with a knife to survive.
From 2015 to 2018, at least 27 men were murdered in Alabama prisons, a rate the government said was eight times the national average. Prison Captains and Lieutenants interviewed by federal investigators indicated that staffers were often resigned to the idea that prisoners “will be subjugated to sexual abuse as a way to pay debts accrued to other prisoners.”
Investigators also found that prison officials allowed drugs to flourish, the report says, and staff smuggles contraband inside. One employee reportedly earned $75,000 smuggling drugs and other contraband, and his accomplice – a prisoner – made $100,000. Even prisoners interviewed styled the drug problem as an “epidemic.”
At Holman, about 95% of the prison population uses drugs, according to one commander’s estimate. A synthetic marijuana known as K-2 resulted in at least three dozen deaths at several Alabama prisons from 2016 to 2018.
The contents of this report is something that prisoners and abolitionists have been reporting for years.
From reading the investigators’ report one can only draw from it that everything we, prisoners and anarchists, have been saying about prisons being corrupt, oppressive, violent, etc. is true.
But we can never forget that the federal investigators are agents of the state and even though they seemingly condemn the Alabama prison system, they themselves are upholders of the state and a vast prison system.
Before i end this, it should be noted that this drug epidemic didn’t really start here at Holman until stiff resistance against prison officials sprung up here in 2016.
F.T.P.!
