6

DISPOSABILITY, RISK, AND
SOLIDARITY IN CDCR

   

Jennah Thompson-Vasquez
Heriberto "Sharky" Garcia
602 AS
RESISTANCE

Under the California Code of Regulations Title 15,
Section 3084.1, members of the incarcerated
population have the right to appeal any decision,
condition, or action by the California Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) or its
staff by using a 602 form. | named this zine "602"
for this reason-- this a grievance to CDCR
concerning current work policies and practices
with a focus on ideas of criminalization and
disposability, and actions people have taken on
the inside to protest the practice of incarceration
and the treatment they experience. With the rise of
mass incarceration and California's tough on crime
policies, a ripple effect was created that
communities are still experiencing today. In 2017,
Black and Latinx people made up 28% and 44% of
California's prison population, respectively
speaking. Additionally, 17% of CDCR's population
identified as an immigrant, a status that can put
someone especially at risk once they are granted
release. Scholar-activist Ruth Wilson Gilmore
emphasizes how the law is flexible, changing
based on who needs to be controlled in that
moment to achieve a "stable" society. However,
those individuals, families, and communities most
impacted by crime and incarceration know that
the removal of loved ones and community
members do not better their quality of life or
stabilize their neighborhoods. Instead, the only
stability that comes out of incarceration is a
consistent cheap work force that condemns those
on the inside to being property of the state and
limiting their available opportunities. For the
reasons outlined in this zine, a 602 should be filed
against the state for the material ways the welfare
of racialized communities is ignored and their
reliance on incarceration to maintain social control
and role in creating a disposable class.

 

Photo: ACLU Nationwide

"| do this so people
hear what | have to
say, so people know |
exist... that's why |
get loud, because
death is always upon
me...tone it down for
what? Am | free? Do
| have peace? Can |
live? So | won't stop."
-Heriberto Garcia
PERSPECTIVE

FROM THE DUNGEONS

Being that I've been incarcerated for over fifteen
years, | have become familiar with the rules and
regulations of CDCr, its forms, procedures, its
culture of silence, labor, the hidden truth of its
daily operations and with that, the 602
grievance form which is used to appeal any
decision, condition, or action by the CDCr or its
staff..In the entire length of my sentence under
colonial rule, the 602 grievance has always been
looked at as wrong, “morally wrong,” by many

for various reasons that stem from the poli

 

cs.
and politricks of the incarcerated and
employees. When | was sent to prison— the
adult system— from a juvenile facility on my
18th birthday, the word was that 602'ing was
considered “snitching.” This was something that
was mostly circulated by c/o’s and actively
spread around camp. | never once heard a
prisoner say that, but | did hear prisoners talk
about how 602ing was viewed as such. One can
only understand how convenient it would be for
CDCr to have an entire population thinking that
way because it would further aid the repression
of prisoners and solidarity. The culture of silence
practiced in CDCr under the the ruse of snitch
culture. This is a small example of how CDCr
exploits prisoners. It is my experience to be
harassed, stripped down naked, physically and
materially, cell searched, punished, and denied
access to programming due to my advocacy of
prisoner's rights, active 602 filing, organizing,

and line of politic.

For most of the times | filed a 602 specifically
on the program of the yard and employee
misconduct | underwent some form of
retaliation for doing so. Even though on paper
(and paper only) it is supposed to be our right
to appeal, prisoners receive backlash for doing
so and this retaliation ends up being carried
out in a fashion that it’s being supported by
the same rules and regulations being broken
and/or violated by staff in the first place. For
example— Ifa c/o asks “Did you 602 me? I'l
search your cell because I'm supposed to do
so anyway according to the law..You 602 me?
I'll play with your visits and call it security
measures.” The list goes on..strip searches, no
yard, phone calls, etc. So in CDCr the only way
to address issues that are going unheard and
unresolved is through 602’s and even that is
not a guarantee! Yet it's almost certain that
some form of target gets placed on you, that's
my experience with 602's. This does not
discourage me whatsoever, | must say that for
as many denials I've received, I've also had
small claim wins and been granted appeals.
For me, | use 602's in attempt to better living
conditions and advocate for prisoner rights; |
use it as a tool for organizing and to
document and expose the injustices of the

prison industrial complex
LABOR PRACTICES IN
Cc D Cc R EXPLOITATION AND THREAT OF PUNISHMENT

According to California's Penal Code, every able-bodied
incarcerated person in state prison is required to
produce "productive" labor either through work, school,
or other vocational programs. These positions can be
paid or unpaid. In California prison, incarcerated people
are paid anywhere from $0.08 to $0.37 an hour for
working, depending on the job, skill, and experience
needed. Despite the penal code saying that work is
required, especially since COVID, it can be very difficult
to get a job in part due to the racial segregation on the
inside and the discretion/favoritism of the CO's. This is 2
double-edged sword, because if you do work, you are
required to go, regardless, of risk getting a 115, a violation
that goes on file and will negatively impact you when
you see the parole board. On the other hand, if you don't
work, when you see the parole board they will view it as
not using your time productively and therefore have no
evidence of your rehabilitation. Either way, your parole
will probably get denied. The seemingly contradictory
actions of CDCR serve a major purpose-- docility. Using
Foucault's ideas of docile bodies and power, the bodies
of incarcerated people are dehumanized, their value
being related to how productive and obedient they are.
This kind of association, coupled with these individuals
being taken away from their families and communities,
such low wages, medical neglect, overcrowding, and
lack of bargaining power creates a precarious existance
for incarcerated people. These factors create an
environment of constant subjugation and discipline that

requires complete obedience-- and without achieving

 

that obedience, there is the threat that you will not be

able to return home.
WORK SKILLS

SURVIVING SHU TERMS

My first inmate assignment, also known
as my job, was to go to school and
achieve a GED. After doing so, | was
given a porter position/tier tender. For
me, this was a way to get out of the cell
in a place that was always locked down
— High Desert State Prison. | ended up
downstate in the SHU, solitary
confinement, at Corcoran, where | was
radicalized and became an active
participant and organizer of the 2013
hunger and work strikes. When | was
released from the SHU and went back to
the yard, | was given a porter position
again. Shortly after being assigned this
position, c/o’s began to see how |
organized on the tiers, help people with
their 602's, and advance the goals of the
Agreement to End Hostilities (AEH), so
suddenly the c/o’s stopped letting me
out for work without giving me a NIS.
While a 11S would have been procedure
for not going to work, not giving me a
rule violation was intentional so no
documentation could be traced back to
them. When | filed a 602 against those
that would not let me go to my
assignment, they threatened me with a
15. To my surprise, they decided they

would rather pay me as a barber, when |

had never cut hair before, instead of
having me on the tiers. I've been given
RVP's and 15's before for not going to
my assigned job or class, although it
was never because | refused to go.
Instead, it was the tower or c/o that
never opened my cell. When | would
get the 11S and had to appear at my
hearing, my explanation as to what
happened was dismissed by the officer
saying, “a c/o wouldn't lie or do that,”
implying that it was my fault. To them,
| deserved the punishment. When |
spoke out against it | was told to “602
it.” That phrase of 602'ing something is
very common amongst c/o's to
prisoners because they know that no
matter what, there won't be any
change, the percentage of a pig
indictment through a 602 is close to
none. With this, you can see how it is
impossible to talk about labor in CDCr
without also talking about 602's and
rule violations. A 602 often feels like a
process to figure out and pinpoint
wrongdoing without any change, to
give the illusion that something is
being done about the injustices

experienced by prisoners
Also, what's amazing is how aside from the

 

constant harassment due to my active
602'ing, my filing a 602 against a rule
violation | received was used against me at
my parole board hearing— claiming that |
was not owning up to my actions, my
“criminal mentality" was causing me to
make excuses instead of taking
accountability. This alone added another
five years to my sentence as | was deemed
“unsuitable” to re-enter society. This is
exactly what we mean when we say “the
seemingly contradictory actions of CDCr
serve a major purpose— docility.” If a 602
really amended injustices and solved issues
of misconduct, prisoners wouldn't have to
put their lives on the line through hunger
strikes and other forms of resistance,
causing them to sacrifice any chance at
freedom due to the rule violations and the
parole denials that follow, simply for
demanding better conditions. Here in
California, prior to California's 2013 mass
hunger and work strikes, there was a gang
validation system to place you in the SHU
for a minimum of six years. However, there
was no guarantee that someone's time in
solitary would have an end date, leading
some to be confined to the hole, with
minimal contact, programming, or
stimulation for decades. Not only was this
practice wrong and inhumane, but due to

the high number of Black, Indigenous,

and Raza individuals that get labeled as
gang, or “threat group,” it also serves to
further racialize and criminalize
communities that are already
overrepresented in the prison system. Many
of my comrades got validated for hunger
striking because it was viewed as “gang
activity;” the unity and strength of the
lumpen is always criminalized, but is the
only force the system truly fears— lumpen
mass mobilization and direct action. These
actions tend to install a sense of autonomy,
power, and love for your neighbor and those
around you. It is a beautiful moment when
the oppressed realizes who's the oppressor
and who and what our collective energy
needs to be directed towards. | truly believe
that just as in here where people unite
under the worst of conditions, people can
unite and do the same under fucked up
conditions out there. We shouldn't be afraid
of the fire that's already in front of us and
with us all seeking emancipation. We
shouldn't be afraid of the sacrifice and the
struggle to come because Just as in here,
people will united even if it is the worst of
conditions, necessary to survive and work
towards that common goal of a better
future for us and the generations to come
However, for that to happen we must fuel
the flame and let it all burn down to start

anew from the ashes.

     

«
LABOR,PROTEST,

ys

AND SOLIDARITY

HUNGER STRIKES

Away incarcerated people have
historically and presently fought against
their poor treatment and inhumane living
conditions has been through strikes. It's
worth reminding the reader that such
action comes at extreme risk for those
organizing-- risk of solitary confinement,
stripping of privileges, write-ups that can
prevent them from going home, and so
on. | want to be explicit about this because
of the importance in respecting the
courage and determination of those that
do organize and protest on the inside
Their behavior, which is often
characterized as criminal or being a
“trouble-maker," actually stems from a
place of such care and love that they are
willing to risk their personal safety to
better the conditions of everyone on the
inside. Recently in 2018, one of the more
public prison strikes took place, beginning
on August 21 and ending on Septermber
9--coinciding with the death of activist
George Jackson and the Attica prison riot. |
say public because not only did this strike
happen across the United States, with
people incarcerated in other countries
standing in solidarity, but also because the

general public was

able to bear witness. . Protest, strikes,
and videos, these public displays are
necessary to make change to the
conditions of prisons, with the hope that
one day they will be abolished
altogether. As it is, there is very little
information about what goes on inside
prisons-- they are meant to make
people disappear, to serve as an
abstract threat to the public to maintain
control. The importance of taking action
sheds light on the dehumanization that
occurs on the inside, it forces the private
to become public. They force the
general public to recognize that,
according to Michel Foucault, "our
disregard for an incarcerated person's
humanity and the violence we condone
to happen to them" is something we
have control over. We, as people on the
outside, have the power to resist this
type of dehumanization that is
considered "appropriate" punishment,
and stand in solidarity with incarcerated

people worldwide.
PERSPECTIVE

ALL OF US OR NONE

From that wave of power exercised by the lumpen
organizing inside prisons grew the Agreement to
End Hostilities that has implemented “peace”
amongst barrios in California with influence in all of
Southern, Centro, and Northern California. This was
an attempt to unite not only Chican@ nations, but
also Black, Brown, First Nations, and all oppressed
peoples. For years now, the California Prisons have
turned into the dungeons where the lumpen build

 

community create structure across street, militant,
hood life schools of thought. | participated in the

When it comes down to demanding one's 2018 National Prison Hunger Strike in solidarity with
human rights and bettering our living prisoners across states, documenting my action
conditions whether it is in the form of a strike —_ with a telephone. By doing this, by showing direct
or 602, the demands tend to vary state to action and rejecting the dehumanization that we
state. This doesn’t mean our struggle ain't the endure on a daily basis, the abstract threat of the
same, it just means that some places are prison becomes concrete. Those on the outside can
fucked up in different ways than others. no longer maintain their passive acceptance of the
Regardless, we should always chip away at the _ system, but have to choose. There is no neutrality in
machine while working on abolishing it. the oppression of others. When | did this, | was
Prisons shouldn't exist in our communities; searched every day for one week straight in an

our communities deserve better, our families attempt to find the phone and harass me during
deserve better, and we deserve better. I've the strike. My call to comrades led to a phone zap
participated in hunger and labor strikes that put pressure on the administration to to stop
throughout my time behind bars away from their retaliation against me. It worked, I'm always.
home and inside the belly of the beast. My first. challenging the administration— through the 602
group hunger strike was the 2011-2013 grievance process, documenting c/o behavior and
California Prison Hunger Strikes. The mission our (lack of) accessibility to program, disobeying
of these actions was to shut down the SHU direct orders, and taking blows at the machinery
program and solitary confinement, calling for through fucking up state property (clogging pipes,
the release of all validated prisoners with toilets, fucking up computers, sticking staples in
indeterminate SHU sentences back into the the locks and chains, etc.)

general populations.
2018 NATIONAL PRISON
STRIKE DEMANDS

Aa)
Nye a

 

|.Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the
humanity of imprisoned men and women.

2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under
United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their
labor.

3. The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned humans a proper
channel to address grievances and violations of their rights.

4. The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be rescinded so that
imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and parole. No human shall be
sentenced to Death by Incarceration or serve any sentence without the possibility of parole.

5. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole dentails of Black
‘and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the
crime was white, which is a particular problem in southern states.

6. An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting Black and brown humans.

7.No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at their place of
detention because of their label as a violent offender.

8.State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation services.

9.Pell grants must be reinstated in all US states and territories.

10. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-
called "ex-felons" must be counted. Representation is demanded. All votes count.
INSIDE/OUTSIDE

POST-2018

 

Ruth Wilson Gilmore takes note in her book The

Golden Gulag that since 1982, California has
undertaken "the biggest...[prison building and filling
plan] in the history of the world." The state
continues to make this investment in caging its
residents, and this investment in removing people
from their communities is not just a threat for those
engaging in “illegal” behavior. Everyone suffers. In
her book, Gilmore concludes that "urban and rural
households struggle from objectively similar but
subjectively different positions across the prison
landscape." Both groups suffer from disinvestment
and uncertainty surrounding the future and
opportunities available to them. And both groups
end up in the prison system-- either by a lack of
opportunities that caused them to end up
incarcerated, or caused them to seek employment
within the same system. This kind of maneuver at
the hands of California is intentional, as it limits
opportunity to build class solidarity between those
coming from both rural and urban geographies.
The power dynamic between those incarcerated
and those employed by CDCR is paired with
society's dominant beliefs that those who are

criminalized are inhuman and deserve to suffer.

SOLIDARITY

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Organizations such as the union, Incarcerated
Workers Organizing Committee, and both inside
and outside advocates can help intervene. By
organizing actions and strikes, by making
demands and using language like that above--
which emphasizes the humanity of those
incarcerated-- is the first step in shifting beliefs
that those in prison are not worthy of respect or
even their own personhood. We must accept the
risk-- especially those of us on the outside-- and
become comfortable with being uncomfortable,
as incarcerated people are uncomfortable every
day of their sentence. Changing the way we think
about the incarcerated and recognizing the only
“us vs. them is all of us versus the state is the only
way we can move forward. It is California who
created "tough on crime" policies that some have
been away from their loved ones for decades. It is,
because of the way the United States and its
racism operates that there is the belief that those
who commit crimes are inferior and somehow
less human, allowing them to disappear in the
prison system. It is only through the recognition
of each other's humanity and right to life that we

can move forward.
PERSPECTIVE

Where do we go from here? As mentioned before,
“both rural and urban groups suffer from
disinvestment and uncertainty surrounding the
future and opportunities available to them,” this is
by design. It is by design that people are going to
be pushed to do “illegal” things in order to survive
and make ends meet. These actions will most
likely cause them to end up in the revolving door
of prison and it is the same need to survive that
pushes people to become employees of these
gulag dungeons. By doing this, both groups end
up physically and mentally imprisoned. It is,
amazing to see how not only does the carceral
state dehumanize and institutionalize the captive,
but the employee/overseer becomes desensitized,
dehumanized, and institutionalized in the process
of “work” to the point it affects their relationships
with others by further creating a gap between
classes of peoples and becoming the oppressor.
Even if the employee class realized that we need
to dismantle the prison system because it doesn’t
work and harms our communities, it is the
prisoners from both sides of the walls that will
bring emancipation and fight, build, and organize
from the perspective of the oppressed. Not even
an awoken pig can change the establishment, but
it can sure aid it if it’s willing to go against all it
was ever molded to believe. As we prisoners work
to better our living conditions, hold on to our
flame as we push against the prison industrial
complex, and build within these gulags it is
important to understand and practice building
bridges and connections across prison walls with

outside organizers and supporters.

BUILDING TOGETHER

So as a prisoner, | understand the value and impact.
a radical kite, books, dialogue, pictures, support,
and love can have on anyone inside. Those
connections are powerful and necessary in order to
move forward. Prisoners are isolated from the
outside world, so it can be easy for us to give up on
campaigns because of harassment, retaliation, or
feeling like their efforts to create change are in
vain. This often happens because the prisoner
doesn't see the effects of their efforts. Instead the
impact they take notice of is more repression and
isolation, handed to them in the form of solitary,
strip searches, and other dehumanizing activities
meant to wear them down and stop their
‘organizing, To combat this, we must remind
prisoners of the immense support they have and
the many organizations behind the movement,
help them understand their connection to the
movement, and the role they can play from within
through filing 602's, supporting campaigns, strikes,
efforts to build community, etc. We are working to
end the prison industrial complex. This movement
cannot be limited to leftists and radical
intellectuals, it needs to be open to everybody.
Everybody needs to understand the harm prisons
cause families and communities, everybody needs
to understand that we can end prisons in our
lifetime and create meaningful change. It is time to
change the way we view prisons, prisoners, and our
interactions with them. We need to be willing to
build and sacrifice to make advances towards
abolition and support one another as we become

equal in our struggles.
FURTHER READING

True Leap Press
Publishing and Distribution
RO. Box 6045
Concord, CA 94524,

Vy

 

The Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and
‘Opposition in Globalizing California, by Ruth Wilson
Gilmore

The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, by Guy
Standing

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, by
Michel Foucault

Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical
Tradition, by Cedric Robinson

Blood in my Eye, by George Jackson

Assata: An Autobiography, by Assata Shakur
Discourse on Colonialism, by Aimé Césaire
Scenes of Subjection, by Saidiya Hartman
Black Skin, White Masks, by Franz Fanon

We Do This Til We Free Us, by Mariame Kaba
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine,
and the Foundations of a Movement, by Angela Davis

Are Prisons Obsolete? By Angela Davis

all about love, by bell hooks

Resisting State Violence, by Joy James

How We Get Free, by Keeanga-Yamahta Taylor

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi