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Today, I'm going to be talking about the court system. My name is Don Brown, 468895 and I'm calling from Ohio. In America, over 95% of all convictions are acquired by plea bargains. The public defenders that handle these have no incentive to win the cases since they're getting paid the same whether they win or lose. Therefore the courts will- will overcharge and over-indict people with more cases and more severe felonies to make plea bargains almost guaranteed. America spends $182 billion a year on prisons alone. In 1960, the prison population was 212,953. In 2020, the person population has a staggering 2.12 million. If we were actually concerned about rehabilitation, we would make sure to teach trades to these people that can be used when they're released. Yes, it costs money from the public. But in the long run, it would save billions as the recidivism rates would plummet and the overall prison population would plummet. Inmates working a minimum of 32 hours a week, that's 208 hours a month, only make $18 a

Hey, this comrade Pitt, Peter Kamau Mukuria, 1197165, Red Onion State Prison, P.O. Box 1900, Pound, Virginia 24279. So I have previously left the commentary on COVID-19 here at Red Onion Prison, but given the rapid spread of this virus, things can easily change in an instant. For a while, this facility was untouched. However, August 13 and 14, COVID-19 tests were conducted for everyone, prisoners and staff. And the outcome of that was 20 prisoners tested positive and seven staff member. We're safe to assume that the staff who tested positive have been given days off as they quarantine and the prisoners who tested positive were quarantined. Only a few of them showed symptoms; the rest were asymptomatic. Beyond Red Onion Prison, cases of confirmed COVID-19 in this region have been skyrocketing this past couple of weeks, so it didn't come as a surprise that COVID-19 finally made its way to Red Onion. But, uh, so far there isn't a major outbreak that I'm aware of, but that's the current update that I have right n

Alright, peace with blessings for those who are listening. Seven. During this time, I'm actually growing, building mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually on, you know, a lot of levels. I've come to actually discover new things within myself, within people. And during this pandemic, I discovered the more profound things with  myself and within people. And as time goes by, the character within a person should also elevate. The people we surround ourselves with either rises or lower our standards. They either help us to be kinda better version of ourselves or encourage us to be a lesser version of ourselves. We become like our friends. No man becomes a great on his own and no woman can become great on her own. The people around them helped him become great. We all need people, and I kind of realized we all need people in our lives who will rise our standards, remind us of our central purpose, and challenge us to become the best version of ourselves. And throughout all the things that may have  happened t

"In full support of Democrats Biden and Harris for the presidency." Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has selected Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate, and the presidential election is 80 days away. The question many people who find such a presidential duo not to their liking have asked: what do we do? But a better question would be: what can we afford not to do? The answer makes our decision of what to do much easier. We cannot afford to allow President Trump to serve a second term in the White House. We cannot afford to allow President Trump to turn this government, albeit a corrupt one, into an authoritarian government. We cannot afford to allow President Trump to plunge America deeper into the cesspool of white supremacy nationalism and commit acts of skullduggery to destroy a human rights movement to make black lives matter in the world. We cannot afford to allow President Trump to undermine the U.S. Postal Service, to throw off our mail-in ballot votes in elections. We ca

My name is Don Brown, calling from Ohio. This thesis, what is prison reform? To me prison reform goes more than sentencing guidelines: how much a person is sentenced over what crime. Myself firstly, I got sentenced 30 years for nonviolent property crime, burglaries. White people that was sentenced in the same county were given 6 to 12 years for committing aggravated murder, which was dropped all the way down to manslaughter. Prison reform also goes inside what's going on in prisons. Given we know that, in prisons, there's systematic racism; this is the breeding ground for racism of every group of every color. We see the rise of Aryan Brotherhood, we see new gangs, like the Heartless Felons, the Bloods, the Crips, you know, the Nation of Islam Muslims. All of these are hate groups. Why do we do nothing to suppress these groups? Why don't we do anything to crawl these groups, give people incentives, incentives to stay out of prison or to stay out of these hate groups, to do something with themselves, teach peop

I call this "Still Hope." The common thing in prison is that it's 90% mental and 10% physical. I've heard this a myriad of times, especially during exercise routines. The majority of my time spent incarcerated since age 16 has been done inside of a cell, which has resulted to me utilizing my mental faculties more so than indulging in physical activities or socializing. 11 years of this, now I'm 27, has gave me the understanding that prison is mostly mental and to remain sane is the biggest battle. I witnessed the mental deterioration of fellow prisoners daily in the form of PTSD, hallucinations, violence, and suicide. On March 14th this year around 10:00 AM, my neighbor Assad was found hanging in the cell adjacent to where I'm currently housed. I viewed his cold corpse. He looked at real pale on a gurney. He seemed very normal the prior night; I still can't fully process this all. Right before this, at least three correctional officers committed suicide at home; one took his own son's life before turning the

The Summer of Our Discontent (2:35) Mumia Abu-Jamal

Yeah, revolutionary greetings. So I want to- first of all, this is comrade Peter calling in from Red Onion Resort. I want to, first of all, give a special revolutionary shout out to New Afrikan Black Panther Party comrades and the United Panther Movement comrades; panther love. And then Baltimore Industrial Workers of the World, Incarcerated Workers Ogranizing Committee comrades; panther love. I want to commend my comrades for the incredible work they have been doing supporting those of us caught up in the carceral system. Both of these organizations implemented critical programs that I think should be replicated.  It's well understood that the terrible impact and destabilization mass incarceration has caused on oppressed communities. And oftentimes those incarcerated tend to be extremely far away from their communities, which makes it nearly impossible for people to visit their loved ones. Now this tactic is conspicuously designed to break family and community ties. Having recognized this, the NABPP and UPM

My name's Ivan Kilgore and I am the founder of the United Black Family Scholarship Foundation. And I'm calling you from Solano State Prison in Northern California. Let's go back to March of 2020. What's happening in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. At this particular time, what the department is doing is they're issuing memorandums to the public and in the prison population basically saying that they are providing us with social distancing, soaps, infectants, things of that nature/ Which someone who's been incarcerated for over 20 years and actually in prison reading this stuff, I'm like, okay, where is this stuff? They weren't passing out none of that. And so what happened uh, eventually, I was I was contacted by the administration and informed that- that had been a VICE News video that was made. I guess it received, you know, three, four thousand reviews, and they were basically saying that, okay, we got you on this video. And this video, what it shows is basically CDC is not hol

Peaceful blessings, this is Seven, Travis Nettles, with these few words that I call "Fighting For an Out Date," cause that's exactly what I'm doing. I said, what would you do you were locked inside a cell fighting for an out date? Having thoughts of never going home bring nothing for pain and heartache. Some of the ones you left do not like to give, they would rather take. Things most people do for you, they throw right back in your face. The relationships you have seem to be erased- you are not around, so someone else has taken your place. You lack the support you need. So many people have lost their faith. They do not believe you would make it home. Kids might forget who you are once they become grown. Will you keep it too real with no future? Most people feel you are wrong, but who's to say you wrong or right when you are the one fighting for your life? When you really need help, a lot of people go stiff. Being very dependent is very bad for your health. When you ask people how they're doing, they talk abo

Peaceful blessing, my name Seven. You can find me under Travis Nettles. I'm at Toledo Prison in Toledo, Ohio. I'm serving a 20-year-to-life prison sentence. My inmate number is 735142. Travis Nettles, N-E-T-T-L-E-S. Now, I would like to let the world know here at this prison with all this Coronavirus stuff that's going on, I have watched the news and the governor of Ohio, you know, shared that tests is available for everyone on the COVID-19 side. And I decided you and a couple individuals that I'm incarcerated with, we decided to talk to the deputy warden on our way to go to shower. And we asked the deputy warden, like, what's going on, like, what's up, can we get tested? So he said we can't get tested. Sunday night, why we can't get tested? They said on the news that everyone in Ohio that wants to go to get tested if we want to get tested. You know, we want to know if we got it, cause it gets random people that pop up with COVID-19 inside these prison walls. And they really don't say too much about anything.

Hey, my name is Peter Kamau Mukuria, currently incarcerated here at Red Onion State Prison in the state of Virginia, Virginia supermax prison. But anyway, so this commentary is regarding a quote from Ruth Wilson Gilmore and it's about abolition. And in this quote, I found--  the quote is not only powerful but I shared this quote with another comrade of mine. And the response was almost equally as powerful to which he compelled me to share this quote and see what you can make out of it. The quote by Ruth Wilson Gilmore goes like this: abolition requires that we change one thing, which is everything; abolition is not absence; it is presence; what the world will become already exists in fragments and pieces, experiments and possibilities. So those who feel in their gut deep anxiety the abolition means knock it all down, scorch the earth and start something new, let that go. Abolition is building the future from the present in all the ways that we can. Now in response to this quote I shared with a comrade, their

I call this "COVID-19 to Life." I never believed that jailhouse rumor pertaining to a world catastrophe or an invasion on U.S. soil, which would prompt the correctional officers to go to each cell and kill us prisoners one-by-one in accordance to a written law, which prohibited our release in this world event due to us being threats to society, deeming us enemies of the state. Fellow prisoners, usually the older ones, will point out that I can find this law located in some book in the  law library. I've never ventured there and I disagree to their promulgations, maybe out of denial or, better yet, fear, but I will reject it even more strongly when my peer spoke of them releasing poisonous gases in the ventilation systems connected to our cells, thus eliminating us and exiting the prison compound in gas masks peacefully. Hold the humor. There's a saying we've all heard about, how the same thing that'll make you laugh will make you cry, and it's ironic today. My smile has vanished. And what with the jailhouse r

Black Lives Matter is global, so what's Joe Biden's foreign policy? When a black rebellion spread like wildfire in America immediately after the police's murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, that far left across borders and oceans finding- tending tinderboxes of similarly racially, oppressed black national communities throughout Europe. Igniting and it's spreading massive black rebellions and protests in European capitals of Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. This shows the face of global white supremacy, commonly diluted to the generic term of racism, how black lives doesn't matter all over the world under Caucasian governments. Since Black Lives Matter is a global problem and America is the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, then what is presidential hopeful Joe Biden's foreign policy to bring the world in line with respecting the human rights of African-American peoples globally. Lest African-Americans not forget that the history of Africans kidnapped, ens

When I was a young man (a boy really), I found barber shops to be fascinating places, for there, men gathered in an air of relaxed familiarity, and discussed things they didn’t do elsewhere.  I heard tales of ancient African empires, of unknown roads of Black history, and often the name of the brilliant self-taught historian, .A. Rogers. I’d later search many a bookstore for his work, often without success. I thought of those days because of a little-known quote I’d read in the work of two late Black scholars and historians: Ishakamusa Barashango and Lerone Bennett. The quote was from Thomas Jefferson, President and slaveowner, and it reflected his paradoxical nature… Said Jefferson of African slavery in America, “one hour” suffered under such conditions “was fraught with more misery than ages” of that suffered under the British by white Americans who “rose in rebellion to oppose” them. This is really a quite astounding statement by not only an American slaveowner, but a revolutionary. It tells us that Jeffer

Peace with blessings for those who listening. My name is Seven. I'm currently incarcerated in a Toledo, Ohio prison. And I decided to sit here and reach out, letting individuals know that I understand that it's a tough moment, it's tough time out there in this world and a lot of people out there is not used to being so isolated and sort of speak of a solitary confinement situation. And for me, serving a 20-year life prison sentence, I'm- I'm used to being separated from the world. I'm used to being separated from the children, I'm used to being separated from family. I'm used to being separated from, you know, society, period. So some techniques that you may would like to try if you getting overanxious or depressed, or their anxiety really just extremely kicking in, is just take a breath in three seconds, let it go, and just [].  We pick up books, work out. Exercising is a beautiful thing; meditation is even greater. I just want to let you guys know that tough times don’t last, tough people do, in stressful s

By Juan Moreno HainesJuly 16, 2020 This is Prison Radio intern Isabel Barbera, reading the words of Juan Moreno Haines, an award-winning member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Juan writes for The Appeal and Solitary Watch. To receive Inside Updates, contact Valerie Kiebala - valerie@solitarywatch.org. Since mid-March, all California prisons have ceased visitations. At San Quentin, telephone use is now suspended. So, for me to reach the free world, I must use the same US Postal Service that’s slowing down mail delivery, because of a Trump move. That said, available technologies could securely and better connect prisoners with the outside world - see JPay tablets. Just think, I mailed this July 16 and you’re hearing it now. Even as this pandemic is raging, a 12 year old could show prison officials how to give us secured telephones. So, the telephones are taken, I contend, to quiet our voices, particularly to abolitionists and especially to the media...the tactic is to quell the audio and leave it to

Hey, my name is Peter Kamau Mukuria, currently incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison. And this commentary is about COVID-19 at Red Onion Prison where I'm currently confined in, which is a junior supermax facility. For the past eight years. I've been in solitary confinement and was recently moved to a transition part where I must- where I must first complete a 24-class program, 12 on phase one and 12 more on phase two. Now when COVID-19 hit, I was in solitary confinement. Therefore I'll only speak on the conditions and responses based on where I was and currently housed in. Around the month of May, face masks were distributed to all prisoners and we were mandated to wear them anytime we were out of the cell.And staff were also mandated to wear face masks during their work shift.  Masks have proven to be an effective approach to prevent, block, and contain an outbreak, therefore mandating facial coverings, I believe was a good response. However, unlike most other state prisons, the [inaudible] did not distribu

I'm Sergio Hyland. And this is "In Solidarity With The San Quentin Prisoners." On May 9th, 2020, State Correctional Institution at Chester, Pennsylvania went into a full lockdown due to one confirmed positive case of the COVID-19 Coronavirus. For nearly two weeks straight, we languished in our cells, worried, not knowing what was happening. There was no communication from the staff, and to make matters worse our emailing system had been purposely disabled in what we believe was an attempt to limit communications between us and our families. It was extremely stressful. And I witnessed first hand the decay of morale amongst the prisoners whom I've lived with for the past 20 years. As a Pennsylvania board-certified peer specialist, I'm trained to recognize when others are in the midst of a mental crisis. Those two weeks pushed many to the brink. I spent five years in solitary confinement, and it's still getting compared to what we were forced to endure for that brief period of time in May. With that said, I want

John Lewis: No Longer In the House (2:25) Mumia Abu-Jamal