"Things here are tense but festive. The C.O. and warden was stabbed…It has nothing to do with overcrowding, but with the practice of locking folks up for profit, control and subjugation. Fires were set, we got control of two cubicles, bust windows. The riot team came, shot gas, locked down, searched the dorms. Five have been shipped and two put in lockup.”
An inmate at Holman Correctional
This week, prison rebels at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama staged two riots in three days—battling guards, building barricades, stabbing the warden, taking over sections of the prison and setting a guard station on fire. These actions come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention to the crumbling prison system in Alabama and the increasing level of radicalization of the prison population there.
The uprising at Holman, and the conditions of
Alabama prisons in general, provide a unique situation in which
anarchist solidarity may prove strategic. Historically speaking,
successful prison uprisings have often been the result of a degrading prison system
(incompetence, understaffing, weak administration) in combination with a
high level of prisoner-unity and the development of a strong political
subculture within the prison that supports and encourages acts of resistance.
These conditions shift the balance of power between prisoners and their
captors and allow prisoners more latitude to take bold action. Prison
rebels in Alabama report that guards often refuse to enter the cell
blocks for months at a time out of fear of attacks. The conditions for
rebellion are ripe in the Alabama prison system.
The connections that Alabama prison rebels and
anarchists outside of prisons have cultivated over years have created a
situation in which expressions of solidarity from anarchists may have an
impact. There is a great possibility that news of solidarity actions
will reach prisoners there and that those actions will make sense to
these rebels.
Another way in which anarchist solidarity may prove
uniquely valuable in this and other situations of prison rebellion is in
our capacity to relate to these uprisings outside the framework of
reform that the media, the state and the left will inevitably push them
toward. We are already hearing the rhetoric of those outside Holman
turning immediately toward reform, appeals to legitimacy in hopes of
reaching journalists and liberals, and framing the riots as a ‘last
resort’ after non-violent methods failed.
What we propose instead is direct affirmation,
through action, of prisoners’ own revolt. In this, our solidarity is
equally with those demanding better living conditions and those who say,
quite simply, “they need to let us free up out this bitch” and “there’s only one way to deal with it: tear the prison down.”
In the spirit of diversity of tactics we’ve compiled a list of some ways to act in solidarity with prison rebels in Alabama. The intention of this list is to find ways to act in solidarity with the many, often contradictory, desires of the many different rebels involved in the uprising.
1. Publish and spread the list of demands, provided by journalists who were able to get in touch with some of the rioting inmates:
- We inmates, at Holman Prison, ask for immediate federal assistance.
- We ask that the Alabama government release all inmates who have spent excessive time in Holman Prison — due to the conditions of the prison and the overcrowding of these prisons in Alabama.
- We ask that the 446 laws [Habitual Felony Offender laws] that Alabama holds as of 1975 be abolished.
- We ask that parole board release all inmates who fit the criteria to be back in society with their families.
- We ask that these prisons in Alabama implement proper classes that will prepare inmates to be released back into society with 21st century information that will prepare inmates to open and own their own businesses instead of making them having to beg for a job.
- We also ask for monetary damages for mental pain and physical abuse that inmates have already suffered.
2. Call and write Alabama Department of Corrections officials:
General: http://www.doc.state.al.us/Contact.aspx
Holman: (251) 368-8173
3. Contact inmates at various Albama prisons in order to form bonds and connections on which to build struggle. http://www.doc.state.al.us/InmateSearch.aspx
Currently you can type a letter into the first or
last name section and get a whole giant list of inmates to choose from.
It’s up to you to discern who you’d like to write to. We avoid inmates
who are listed as having racist tattoos or sex crimes. However there are
also several pen pal sites where you can find Alabama inmates who are
already looking to maintain correspondence with someone.
4. Harass and disrupt. The Alabama
Department of Corrections is falling apart. Their employees already
have a low morale. Why not kick them while they’re down. There’s quite a
few ways you could do this. For one, you can harass them on facebook.
Holman correctional facebook.
Alabama correctional officers facebook.
From these pages you can find personal accounts of
corrections officers. If you’d like to make a fake Facebook account, you
can head over to laservoicemail.com
and get a phone number that you can use to sign up. Don’t use Tor while
doing this and choose to receive a verification code by call rather
than text. Be careful.
It would most certainly be demoralizing and
disruptive if you were to flood their investigations unit with false
reports via their online snitch form here
Also, most prisons have fax lines and email
addresses which you could flood with various free online faxing services
and throwaway emails.
Fax services:
and more…
temporary or easy emails:
and more… again, be careful.
5. Stage a protest. Have a noise
demonstration at your local jail or prison in solidarity with Holman.
Better yet, go to Holman and have one there. Or maybe stage a protest at
your local police station or courthouse? They lock people up all day ya
know. Dropping banners is nice too. Wheat-paste? Graffiti? Go all out!
6. Attack. Be creative. Be expensive.
There are many correctional officer and employee unions, associations,
and organizations. There may be one near you. The manifestations of
prison society are everywhere, so targets for solidarity and retaliation
are all around us.
