CALL TO ACTION FOR LEONARD PELTIER, #89637-132
It is basic procedure to keep transferred inmates in the hole while processing takes place. However, we do not know how long that will take. We are asking anyone and everyone to get on the phones and get out their pens and paper. Let's flood the telephones with calls regarding Leonard! Let's stuff their mailboxes with letters about Leonard! Urge the prison to allow Leonard to contact his family as soon as possible. Ask how he is; where to write; if he's OK; about his health and privileges (phones, letters, visits, religious rights, ability to paint, etc.); about his safety-anything. Just keep calling and let the prison know that the entire world is watching and is concerned about Leonard's welfare. Please be sure to be courteous and professional, as we do not wish to complicate Leonard's situation.
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Peltier Legal Team and Leonard's family are working hard to ensure Leonard's safety and we will keep you informed as things develop.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044-0583
info@leonardpeltier.org
http://www.leonardpeltier.org/
Prison Administration:
USP Terre Haute
U.S. Penitentiary
4700 Bureau Road South
Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone: 812-244-4400
Fax: 812-244-4789
E-mail: mailto:THP/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV?subject=Prisoner Status
At the U.S. Department of Justice:
Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street, NW
Washington, DC 20534
Phone: 202-307-3198
E-mail: mailto:info@bop.gov?subject=Prisoner Status
Leonard's New Mailing Address:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP-Terre Haute
PO Box 12015
Terre Haute, IN 47801
For further information, read the following article.
CRISIS AT USP-LEAVENWORTH
Prisoner Transfers
Prison Expansion & the Burgeoning Prison Population
The Outcome of Politicizing Prisons
Political Prisoners: An At-Risk Population
What You Can Do
PRISONER TRANSFERS
Built by prisoner labor, construction on the now famous "Big House" (the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth) began in 1897. The prison was populated in 1903. At this writing, there are 1,511 prisoners living under the prison's dome.
The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) recently decided to convert the maximum-security prison to medium security. The decision to change its security level comes down to "efficiency," we're told. Newer institutions are designed better for maximum-security prisoners, the Bureau claims. They're more cost efficient, too. Fewer guards are required because the surveillance & monitoring of prisoner movements can be done electronically now.
Prison officials say the transition will happen during the next nine to 12 months. Prisoners in LVN, however, have been told that their transfer to other maximum security institutions is imminent. A guard told a visitor recently that transfers may take place within the next 60 days or so. These "mixed messages" are likely based on the prison's security concerns & a desire to keep the timing of prisoner transfers secret.
The points of transfer most often mentioned by the LVN prisoners have been the new maximum-security facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, or the supermax in Florence, Colorado.
While the Terre Haute facility is comparable to LVN – with 7.5-hour work assignments (all prisoners must work); recreation; & other programs – there are some significant differences between the two institutions. Terre Haute has a death row & its prison industry includes work in support of the United State's "War on Terrorism," i.e., production of ammunition for the U.S. military.
Florence, on the other hand, is a supermax that was built to replace the notorious Marion Penitentiary. Prisoners are locked down 23 hours a day & have minimal human contact. This is the prisoner's "punishment," being subjected to psychological torture so as to break his mind & will.
Political prisoners at LVN don't believe they'll be transferred to Terre Haute. Florence, which the government alleges is reserved for the "worst of the worst" prisoners, will be their final destination. They also believe this is being done with a purpose – to silence dissent once & for all.
According to prisoner correspondence & accounts from family & friends, the transfers are helping to create tension inside LVN, as well, & are threatening the security of all. One famous political prisoner was recently hassled in the chow line & may have been injured had not some younger prisoners intervened. Such incidents are becoming all too common in LVN. According to prisoner correspondence, the facility is going through a series of brutal lockdowns due to the increased turmoil.
This tension will continue when prisoners are transferred to other institutions. There will be no safety or security for any of these men because their relationships inside will have been completely disrupted.
Prisoners' contacts with friends & family outside will fare no better. Such contacts may become severely limited or even nonexistent. Sadly, the very community ties that the BOP itself claims are so important to "rehabilitation & reintegration" will be completely disrupted, too.
PRISON EXPANSION & THE BURGEONING PRISON POPULATION
Are these LVN transfers merely a matter of exchanging one cage for a new & improved one? Or could it be that this is simply a way to make room for more & more prisoners?
The BOP isn't shy about this. They freely acknowledge that this security transition at LVN will free up more space for medium-security prisoners – a rapidly expanding population within the prison system.
It's also worth remembering that the federal government has built 10 new facilities in the past two fiscal years, bringing the federal system to a total of 112 institutions.
The United States already has the highest rate of incarceration in THE WORLD. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2 million persons were held in our prisons & jails in mid-2004. This was actually 2.3 percent more than the year before. In fact, the prisoner population increased by more than 48,000 in ONE-YEAR – by 900 prisoners EACH WEEK. As of June 30, 2004, there were 726 prisoners for every 100,000 residents in this country – ONE IN EVERY 138 RESIDENTS WAS IN PRISON OR JAIL.
The exploding prison population is the result of the "Get Tough on Crime" political platforms of elected officials that have brought us, in the last two decades, mandatory sentences, as well as "three strikes" & "truth in sentencing" laws.
Fewer & fewer prisoners are being paroled, too. For example, we've witnessed the U.S. Parole Commission ignore its own guidelines & continually deny parole to prisoners who have been eligible for release for over a decade. The Commission has even ignored a congressional mandate to release "old system" prisoners (see the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984). In addition, under federal law, a prisoner serving a life sentence in a federal prison is entitled to MANDATORY parole after serving thirty years. Recently, however, the U.S. Parole Commission has unlawfully refused to permit the release of selected political prisoners as mandatory parolees.
The government collects health data to assess how the Nation's resources should be directed to improve the health of its population. What is the country's overall health status if the numbers look like this?
Rate of Imprisonment as Compared to Age-Adjusted Death Rates,
By Selected Causes*
Persons
Imprisoned
Persons Who Died From: **
Heart Disease
Stroke
Cancer
726 240
194
56
*Rate per 100,000 residents.
**These are the three top causes of death in the United States. Trend analyses show that the death rates from these causes is steadily declining, presumably because your tax dollars have been & continue to be spent on prevention, new treatments, & improving health care delivery. In comparison, the rate of imprisonment increases at an alarming rate. However, little or no funds go to prevention, alternatives to incarceration, or programs for parolees to ensure their successful reintegration .
Sources: Prison Census 2004 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice) & Health, United States, 2004 (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).
THE OUTCOME OF POLITICIZING PRISONS
Politicizing prisons has resulted in a shift away from rehabilitation to punishment. The U.S. prison system is now interested only in retribution, despite there being strong public support for rehabilitation & when there are lower-cost alternatives to imprisonment – addressing what are essentially medical problems by treating them, eliminating poverty, decriminalizing certain offenses, etc.
Our government officials also seem to believe that, in order for punishment to be acceptable, there must be some demonstrable harm done to prisoners. They don't apparently recognize that punishment need not & should not cause harm.
It's no great surprise that this very same attitude informed the operation of facilities in Iraq, & the treatment of "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee termed these correctional attitudes & practices related to the "War on Terrorism" as "scandalous" & "disgraceful." Are these attitudes & behaviors, as applied to this country's prisoner population, any LESS scandalous or disgraceful?
Long-term imprisonment (i.e., 10 years or more, sentences that have become common in the U.S. in recent decades) has deleterious effects. There is always potential harm that can be caused by isolation from society: deprivation – of liberty, autonomy, & security; deterioration – of personality & the prisoners' mental, emotional, & physical wellbeing; the risk of criminalization, i.e., increasingly acquiring behavior "nurtured" by the imposed conditions of the institution, i.e., the values, standards, & behavior of fellow prisoners; etc. Adverse effects are likely heightened for the innocent, those imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.
In addition, prisoners serving long-term sentences age while in prison and, as is true of the general population, their health deteriorates. Compared to the general population, however, aging prisoners have an increased risk for health complications, as well as premature death, given their poor diet, harsh living conditions, & substandard health care. The incidence of beatings, sexual assault, solitary confinement, etc., does nothing to improve the life expectancy of long-term prisoners.
But a supermax like Florence poses a different kind of hazard. The exponential growth in super-maximum security prisons & Security Housing Units in recent years has led, according to researchers, to a concurrent rise in psychotic symptoms among prisoners: hallucinations, paranoid thinking, & persecutory delusions.
According to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners adopted in 1957, "Imprisonment & other measures which result in cutting off an offender from the outside world are afflictive by the very fact of taking from the person the right of self-determination by depriving him of his liberty. Therefore the prison system shall not, except as incidental to justifiable segregation or the maintenance of discipline, aggravate the suffering inherent in such a situation…The treatment of prisoners should emphasize not their exclusion from the community, but their continuing part in it… The regime of the institution should seek to minimize any differences between prison life & life at liberty which tend to lessen… the respect due to their dignity as human beings."
The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is supposed to protect Americans from "cruel & unusual punishment," also requires dignity, humanity & decency. It is intended to prohibit "deliberate indifference to serious infliction of unnecessary or wanton pain or physical torture or lingering death."
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Eighth Amendment should reflect the standards of a “maturing” society, but our prisons currently reflect the standards of a REGRESSING one.
POLITICAL PRISONERS: AN AT-RISK POPULATION
There isn't any agreement on what is meant by "political prisoner." Suffice it to say, that this type of prisoner sees our world differently. He/she is the "other."
According to Huey Newton, the political prisoner "…rejects the legitimacy of the assumptions upon which the society is based… that the people at the bottom of the society are exploited for the profit & advantage of those at the top… [that] the oppressed… will always be used to maintain the privileged status of the exploiters. There is no sacredness, there is no dignity in either exploiting or being exploited [and] although this system may make the society function at a high level of technological efficiency, it is an illegitimate system, since it rests upon the suffering of humans who are as worthy & as dignified as those who do not suffer. [This type of prisoner] does not accept the legitimacy of the society & cannot participate in its corruption & exploitation."
Our government appears to have forgotten that this country was built on dissent. Instead, it sees political prisoners as a continuing threat to our way of life. Its prison system, a tool for social control, is used to silence such dissent. But as Newton also said, "Prison cannot gain a victory over the political prisoner because he has nothing to be rehabilitated from or to… [Like any other prisoner, he] will serve his time… [But] all the prison has is the body… The prison cannot be victorious because walls, bars & guards cannot conquer or hold down an idea."
The government does not acknowledge its inability to be victorious, however. It stubbornly continues to wage war against those who dare to speak truth & employs ever more harsh means by which to silence them.
As members of the same human family, we must support all prisoners' struggle for human dignity. To do otherwise is to "aid & abet" the oppressor. But we also must takes special pains to prevent the silencing of the voices of conscience. We cannot HOPE for the safety of these political prisoners. We must ACT to ensure it.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Write to your senators & representatives in the U.S. Congress to demand that they:
not only investigate the human rights violations against the "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay (and close it down), but insist that they end foreign policies that promote torture around the world.
turn their eyes to the abuse & torture inflicted on prisoners in the United States. A prisoner's sentence – if it's punishment the authorities crave – IS the punishment. There is no excuse for subjecting human beings to the shameful treatment that is uncovered daily in the federal & state prisons around this country.
http://www.senate.gov/
http://www.house.gov/
Also write to your congressional representatives to ask that:
ALL "old system" prisoners at LVN & throughout the United States (i.e., those convicted prior to enactment of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984) be immediately released as Congress had intended;
AND
prisoners at LVN who pose no "threat to institutional security," – in particular due to factors such as age & health status – receive a reduction in rating to medium security & be allowed to either remain at LVN or be transferred to another medium-security facility; or
that prisoners who retain their maximum-security rating be transferred from LVN to maximum-security institutions ONLY, i.e., institutions of the same security level with living conditions comparable to LVN, not to higher-security facilities, like Florence, where living conditions are extremely harsh & arguably inhumane.
Write to the newly formed Prison Commission. Let the Commission know your feelings on prison expansion & the LVN transfers; relay accounts of prisoner abuse & torture; & demand that our penal system return to a philosophy of rehabilitation & reintegration. Do it & keep doing it:
http://www.prisoncommission.org/
Report instances of prisoner abuse & torture to:
American Civil Liberties Union
National Prison Project
915 15th Street, NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Amnesty International-USA
5 Penn Plaza, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10118
Write to the political prisoners themselves. Educate yourself. Find out what you can do to help.
Political Prisoners at USP-Leavenworth
(in alphabetical order)
Prisoner Name
Prisoner Status
Byron Shane Chubbuck #07909-051
Unknown
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Patrice Lumumba Ford #96639-011
Unknown
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Tom Manning #10373-016
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/3400
Unknown
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Ramiro "Ramsey" R. Muñiz #40288-115
http://www.freeramsey.com/
Unknown
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Leonard Peltier #89637-132
http://www.leonardpeltier.org/
http://www.freepeltier.org/, or
http://www.freeleonard.org/.
Transferred to Terre Haute!
New Mailing Address:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP-Terre Haute
PO Box 12015
Terre Haute, IN 47801
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Yorie Von Kahl #04565-059
http://www.yorievonkahl.com/
Transferred to Terre Haute!
New Mailing Address:
Yorie Von Kahl #04565-059
USP-Terre Haute
PO Box 12015
Terre Haute, IN 47801
Unless otherwise indicated, send cards & letters to the above prisoners at USP-Leavenworth, P.O. Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048-1000.
And in the months ahead:
Not only as friends or family of the imprisoned, but also as concerned citizens, participate in the march for justice in Washington, DC, on August 13th.
See You There!!!
Listen to the Public Service Announcement
Block the construction of a new prison at Leavenworth. Local officials there are viewing this transition as an opportunity to develop a prison complex similar to that in Terre Haute. They have openly stated that they plan to court the federal government for this purpose. The area already "hosts" not only the federal penitentiary, but the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, the state prison in Lansing, & a privately run prison for federal prisoners in Leavenworth. Enough is enough. Write to your representatives in Washington & ask them to block any new construction in Leavenworth, specifically, & oppose any further federal prison expansion/construction elsewhere in the country.
Become & stay involved with organizations in your community who concern themselves with the humane treatment of prisoners. End prisoner abuse & torture now. Also oppose any further state & local jail/prison construction in your area & lobby for the use of alternatives to incarceration.
Thank you for caring.
Delaney Bruce
Lawrence, Kansas
June 22, 2005
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