Black Dove Support Network: Marie Mason Update

Monday, May 11, 2009

Marie Mason Update

4/28/2009
Recently we have gotten a lot of complaints from concerned friends andsupporters that they have not heard from Marie or if they have Marie hasnotresponded to anything they have written her in previous letters.We have confirmed jail staff is withholding a good portion of Marie's mailand is flat out rejecting and/or returning mail from certain individuals(The entire make of Got Your Back has been arbitrarily placed on a "NOCONTACT" list). This is a very frustrating situation for Marie and us asletters are the only form of communication many of us have with Marie. Wedo not know what the basis or justification is for this. We are working tofind this out.If you have had your mail returned could you please contact us atfreemarie@riseup.net. Also if you have some expertise in dealing with thistype of situation (legal or support wise) could you please drop us a line.

Struggle,
Got Your Back Collective

4/16/2009
We just heard from Marie (in the form of a letter postmarked 4/3/09) for
the first time since here transfer from county jail.

She writes that she just recently got to visit commissary for the first
time and purchase stamps and other items. Shes working on catching up with
folks she has contact info for.

Her case manager tells her that due to her security classification she is
not eligible to be placed in Lexington, KY and that she will be in FCI
Waseca for at least a year.

Shes made some new friends and shes working on her French and Spanish
skills with a small group of prisoners from Haiti.

She mentions that several folks have attempted to send her stamps and/or
money orders. Unfortunately those items (and many more) can not be sent to
a federal prisoner and she did not get them. Please see
http://freemarie.org/ways-to-help/ for detailed info on how to donate to
Marie's commissary and what you can send in the mail.

She writes she has a lot more room to move around then county jail but FCI
Waseca is a new prison and doesn't have many programs for prisoners off
the ground. She appreciates folks writing her and writes mail call is the
high point of her day. Please continue sending Marie letters of support.

Unfortunately we also learned that the FBI is continuing to harass Marie's
family specifically her teenage daughter. After the FBI failed to get the
to get a conviction against her son (charges were brought based on
information given by Frank "The Fink" Abbrose and were dismissed by the
judge outright). We suspect it is added emotional and psychological
punishment on Marie for taking such a strong non cooperating stance. What
they could possibly hope to accomplish other then fulling their own
twisted sadistic needs is beyond us. Lets make sure Marie knows she isn't
alone.

Struggle,
Got Your Back Collective

Marie Mason #04672-061
FCI WASECA
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
P.O. BOX 1731
WASECA, MN 56093

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What is the Prison Industrial Complex?

What is the Prison Industrial Complex? The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a complicated system situated at the intersection of governmental and private interests that uses prisons as a solution to social, political, and economic problems. The PIC depends upon the oppressive systems of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia. It includes human rights violations, the death penalty, industry and labor issues, policing, courts, media, community powerlessness, the imprisonment of political prisoners, and the elimination of dissent.How the PIC WorksTo fully describe the PIC, we have to look at the big picture of how it functions. For example, the prison construction boom can be linked to, among other factors, the huge increase in the number of people sentenced to prison terms with the onset of the war on drugs, the repression of radical movements by people of color for self-determination, and the anti-imperialist struggles of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The "war on drugs" and the national and local efforts to destroy radical political movements led to increasing police presence in communities of color and poor communities, higher arrest rates, and longer prison sentences.This boom is also fueled by dramatic and racist reporting about "crime," "delinquency," and "rebellion," creating a culture of fear in which it continues to be acceptable and desirable to many people to lock people (primarily people of color, youth, and poor people) in cages for longer and longer in the interest of "public safety." The way the many parts of the PIC interact is exactly what makes it so powerful and destructive. In order to fight this system, we have to see it for all that it is and recognize what drives and shapes it.Fighting the PICFighting the PIC means fighting the mainstream ideas of public safety and challenging the idea that police, prisons, and the court system make people who are not in power safer. At the same time, we must create alternative ideas of security based on the safety of the people most affected by the PIC.The United States currently imprisons around 2 million people. About 6.5 million people are presently under some form of supervision within the criminal justice system. Women represent the fastest rising prison population. Since 1980, the number of women imprisoned in the U.S. has risen by almost 400 percent. Racism continues to be a major factor in the United States, illustrated by policies and programs that sustain white supremacy. Racism, as it is used through criminal laws that target people of color, is essential to the PIC, not accidental.Prisons Are Not an Answer to CrimeThe wrongdoings we call crime do not exist in the same ways everywhere and are not "human nature". What is considered a crime is determined by the societies we live in. Because we have seen over and over again that locking more people in cages does not reduce crime, we must understand the power relationships that lead society to lock up only certain people. Since prisons do not stop problems like poverty, racism, or drug addiction, we cannot expect them to stop crime. We need to understand that we have no option but to fight and continue to fight until all of the different parts of the PIC that continue to put our survival in danger are eliminated.The Movement Against the PICThe movement against the PIC runs the risk of being shaped by easy victories or simplified struggles that do not recognize and fight the whole system. We must go beyond false separations, such as "non-violent" versus "violent" that place prisoners in opposition to each other. One important place to begin to fight the PIC is by pushing the movement to a more complete race, class, and gender analysis. We cannot allow ourselves to do short-term work that undermines our long-term vision and goals, or rely on the same systems of oppression and domination that sustain and drive the PIC to influence "mainstream" voters and decision makers. In order to do this work, we must continue to create spaces for people with different points of view to have honest discussions and disagreements about directions the movement against the PIC should take.What We Are ForSince we are so frequently asked what we are "for" rather than "against," the struggle against prisons, police, repression, punishment, and the criminalization of entire communities must display a clear vision that a world without the PIC is possible. One way to define and shape what we are for is through creating a culture of resistance, or a culture and society that fill all the different parts of our lives with alternatives to the culture of imprisonment. A new culture must nurture and sustain our struggle and provide space for political education, conversation and debate about what we are doing and what we need to do in the future.In order to figure out why people get locked up and under what circumstances, we need to look at what are sometimes called "root causes." This strategy requires looking at the competing priorities of the systems in which we live and understanding why they work well for some and horribly for others. The systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality, for instance, are commonly understood as privileging some people's needs and ideals over others. By exploring why and how those systems work for some and not for others, we can begin to develop a better understanding of how to include concrete steps in our work that deal with the negative effects of these systems on the people who are most often put in cages.To oppose the PIC, activists must work on both theoretical and practical levels. We cannot only engage in single-issue struggles, because all the issues intersect. How can we best create social change in an era of globalization? The voices of today's radical activists, particularly activists of color, must be at the front of the fight against the PIC. Those who are most affected by the system must be the ones planning its end.Organizing against the PIC is as much about building something as it is about fighting what is destroying our communities. Our organizing is also an ongoing effort to create alternatives, not only to imprisonment, but to the culture of punishment we've become so used to.

Black Dove Support Network

Monday, May 11, 2009

Marie Mason Update

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What is the Prison Industrial Complex?

Who We Are

Giving us the Hollar