In this house, we believe…

So we made our own version of a yard sign that we see rampant around ~certain~ parts of Detroit… and the online community seems to love it.

Since we posted it, we’ve gotten tons of asks for printed versions. We do not have a printed version (though we may consider doing some stickers or posters in the future to help raise money for prisoner support initiatives). In the meantime, we’ve added the high-res version to our website. It is under the new “Posters” section here – do with it what you want.

Print it however you want, put it up wherever you want, and if you think it’d do well for a fundraiser, sell it however you want.

In return, we ask folks to be proactive in prisoner support initiatives.

We hope that folks who are already active will stay active and build prisoner support work into their everyday lives. We hope that newer folks out there will reach out and get involved. We are more than happy to provide as many resources as possible. Our DM’s and inboxes are always open.

These are polarizing times, but we must remember that no matter what people’s personal politics are, the carceral state is our enemy. And no matter who is in power, over 2 million people will remain behind bars.

CARES Act Relief for Incarcerated People

Incarcerated people are now eligible for the $1200 stimulus check under the CARES Act. They just need to file a tax form with the IRS by October 15 October 30 if by mail, and November 21 if online. This can be done online or by a paper form.

We have copies of the paper forms & instructions on how to file, and can help send them directly to any of your friends, pen pals, and loved ones in prison.

DM us their name, inmate id #, and address by Tuesday (October 6) and we’ll send the relevant materials out to them ASAP.

Resources

  • Full instructions and forms (via NLG-SF) | Download
  • Form with pre-filled exemptions for single filers making below $12,200 per year | Download
  • Sample completed form | Download
  • More information from the law firm representing this case | View

Sean Swain’s communications blocked

The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) has blocked communications to and from our friend Sean Swain. We believe this is because prison officials simply didn’t like what he wrote. Listen to Sean’s account of what happened here (via The Final Straw podcast).

We are asking friends and comrades to contact VADOC to ask them why (and to gently let them know that our 👀’s are on them).

VADOC Headquarters
(804) 674-3000

VADOC Central Regional Office
(804) 674-3008

Buckingham Correctional Center
(434) 983-4400

John Woodson, Buckingham Warden
john.woodson@vadoc.virginia.gov

Jeffrey Snoddy, Buckingham Assistant Warden
jeffrey.snoddy@vadoc.virginia.gov

Rose Durbin, Corrections Operations Manager
rose.durbin@vadoc.virginia.gov

George Hinkle, Regional Operations Chief (Central)
george.hinkle@vadoc.virginia.gov

Sample Script:
“I’m contacting you because Sean Swain, inmate #2015638, has had his communications blocked. I am a friend of Sean, and I know that he does not pose a security threat. Communications may not be censored simply because officials don’t like the content, so I would like to ask what the reason for this is.”

Every prisoner is a political prisoner.

We must remember that all prisoners are political, and while we have a strong sense of affinity with those who have been targeted for explicitly political acts, our support does not begin and end there. This excerpt is taken from a memoir by Kelly Rose Pflug-Back, a comrade who was incarcerated after her participation in the 2010 G20 protests in Toronto. Read the full memoir here.

Some political prisoners are arrested for staging public demonstrations that address poverty, and some are arrested for living in poverty. Some actively protest social inequality, while others turn to drugs or alcohol because they can no longer bear the brunt of this inequality. Some choose to publicly draw attention to injustice by their words and actions, while others are swept off the streets because their very presence is a public exposure of this injustice. Now is the time for everyone in our community to think about what it really means to say that every prisoner is a political prisoner. The next time we’re shocked and outraged by an experience of being targeted, harassed, or otherwise mistreated by law enforcement or society in general, we should stop to recognize how much respect we owe to the people all around us who face much more than that every day of their lives. Every prisoner is a political prisoner.

Kelly Rose Pflug-Back

An Open Letter to Annette Chambers-Smith from Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain

TW/CW: Violence, sexual assault by a law enforcement agent.

Sean Swain is an anarchist prisoner, as well as a dear friend to us, serving a life sentence since 1991. This letter is directed to Annette Chambers-Smith, the Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. She was previously the COO of JPay. JPay is a privately owned company that monopolizes communication between prisoners and their families by charging them to use a rudimentary e-messaging platform while limiting normal methods of communication.

AN OPEN LETTER TO “EXPLOITATION ANNIE,” ANNETTE CHAMBERS SMITH, DIRECTOR OF THE OPPRESSIVE DIMWITS OF RETRIBUTION AND CORRUPTION… ON TORTURE, RAPE, FAILED ASSASSINATION, ILLEGAL RENDITION, HER LEGACY AS AN INCOMPETENT AND INSENSITIVE FUCKWEASEL… AND THE 826 SONGS ON JPAY SHE STOLE FROM ME…

Dear Exploitation Annie:

You might not remember me. You illegally exiled me to Virginia more than a year and a half ago, so I’ll have to jog your memory.

In 2012, I wrote a public criticism of JPay, the company you ran before getting appointed to the ODRC. When I criticized your old company, your predecessor equated journalism with terrorism, had me tortured, and declared me a gang leader based upon my “ideology.”

During that year of torture, ODRC attorney Trevor Matthew Clark interrogated me and, during that interrogation, he subjected me to sexual assault, cupping my testicles in his hand and demanding sex acts that I did not perform.

Clark no longer works at the ODRC. He’s now at Wexner Medical Center for Ohio State University. They must need a lawyer experienced in grabbing balls.

After Clark grabbed my balls and the torture ended, Clark enlisted a number of officials as accomplices to torment me, including Paul Shoemaker, Roger Wilson, Brian Wenstrup and others– subjecting me to contrived disciplinary actions, baseless communications restrictions, and a whole host of really petty and childish retaliations.

The lesson is pretty clear: when a coked-up prison system lawyer grabs your balls, just let him grab your balls.

All of the reprehensible and mind-numbing torments concocted by Clark’s accomplices were recounted at seanswain.org. Then, free world people found it so shocking, they posted prison officials’ home addresses at blastblog.noblogs.org.

That’s the consequences when you conspire to carry out the agenda of a creepy ball-grabber.

They are all ball-grabbers-by-proxy.

So, by the time you came along, these clowns were continuing to ramp up the repression and it escalated until something got torched at your predecessor’s home. Gary Mohr resigned, took up a consulting job in North Carolina, fucking up their prisons like he fucked up Ohio’s.

On his way out, he hatched a plot to have me killed at Lucasville. That got exposed when prisoners there blew the whistle.

And then you came along, perfectly unqualified, after running a predatory, profiteering company that exploits prisoners. One of your first acts in office was to illegally subject the critic of your company to rendition, exiling me to the Virginia prison system.

Best thing you fuckweasels ever did to me. The food is fantastic. The weather is wonderful. The prisons are run by responsible adults, unlike Ohio.

Then COVID-19 hit and you responded to it with historic mismanagement, killing off more prisoners through ineptitude and apathy than any other prisons director. Hundreds of preventable deaths.

You really suck at this. I got exiled just in time.

I hear you got COVID-19. Unfortunate for all those prisoners that you didn’t get it sooner. Also unfortunate for them…you survived.

So, at any rate, I’ve been here in Virginia more than a year and I still don’t have my music or email from JPay. I bought it in good faith and you deprived me of access by renditioning me. JPay says they can’t transfer it from my Ohio account to Virginia.

Since you ran JPay, and because your illegal exile of me caused this fiasco, I was thinking you could get my music and emails to me.

If not, I’ll accept a personal check for the amount of my loss. I’m sure you’ve got more loot than you know what to do with, given your time with JPay… swindling prisoners…

Thanks again for exiling me to Virginia before the apocalypse hit.

Hugs,

Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain

4/28 – Virtual Prisoner Support & Letter-Writing Session

Virtual sessions for prisoner support & letter writing are back this week! Join us weekly on Slack until we are able to safely hold in-person events again. For access, email us, or send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook.

About Reverend Joy Powell:

Rev. Joy Powell is a vocal and consistent activist against police brutality, corruption, violence and oppression in her community. In 2006, she was targeted by Rochester Police Department, framed for crimes she did not commit, tried by an all-white jury and a biased judge in a case that had no evidence and no eyewitnesses, and sentenced to 16 years. In 2011, Joy was sentenced to another 25 years to life for a second wrongful conviction by a politically-motivated prosecution.

About Marius Mason:

Marius Mason is an anarchist and environmental/animal rights activist from the Detroit area. He is currently serving nearly 22 years in federal prison for acts of property damage carried out in defense of the planet, the harshest punishment of anyone convicted of environmental sabotage to date. No one was physically harmed in these actions, but at his sentencing, the judge applied a so-called “terrorism enhancement,” adding more time to an already extreme sentence requested by the prosecution.

Virtual Letter Writing Sessions

Finally decided on a virtual platform to tackle letter-writing parties in these strange times!

We’re starting right away, this Thursday 4/23, to get together letters urging the release of Josh Williams (at his request and in alliance with other efforts).

Josh is a young activist arrested during the protests in Ferguson, MO and given a harsh sentence so the state could make an example of him. If you’d like to read a message from Josh, click here: https://itsgoingdown.org/from-josh-williams/

IF YOU’D LIKE TO GET ON BOARD FOR THESE SESSIONS, JUST DM US OR SHOOT US AN EMAIL BLACKCROSS313@GMAIL.COM! DOESN’T MATTER WHERE YOU’RE AT, WE’RE ALL TOGETHER EVEN AS WE’RE ISOLATED IN OUR RESPECTIVE HOMES!

3/28 – ABCD Spelling Bee!!!

Date: 3-28-2020
Time: 6pm – 9pm
Location: Crow Manor, 3407 Trumbull St, Detroit

This event was CANCELLED due to COVID-19 concerns.

Probably the only spelling bee ever of its kind! Expect names of punk bands and political prisoners, a bonus round of Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor riddles, and much more.

ABCD will have tons of pins, stickers, and zines for the taking (though we of course suggest making whatever donation you can). In the spirit of writing, we’ll have a very special offering of zines exclusively written by incarcerated people.

More details coming soon on prizes (FYI we’re considering a 50/50 cash deal where competitors pay to enter and the winner splits the money with ABC) and it’s looking some live music for after the event. Stay tuned!

3/13 – ABCD + RAD Prisoner Letter Writing

Date: 3-13-2020
Time: 6pm – 9pm
Location: The Compound, 36 McLean St, Highland Park

Join Detroit Anarchist Black Cross and RAD (Relationship Anarchy Discussions) on Friday the 13th at The Compound to write letters to political prisoners and queer incarcerated folks. We’ll have everything you need, no need to bring anything but your person! Tons of zines, pins, stickers, and other good stuff courtesy of ABC. These community-focused events are free, and there is definitely no expectation or requirement to contribute money. However, if you wish to help fund things like heat and toilet paper so we can keep using the space and organizing this kind of rad stuff, one-time or monthly: https://www.patreon.com/thecompound

12/14 – Detroit Black & Pink Holiday Party

  • Date: 12-14-2019
  • Time: 12pm – 3pm
  • Location: The Activity Center at Cass Community United Methodist Church

    Join Detroit Anarchist Black Cross and Food Not Class in making holiday cards for LGBTQ prisoners in the US. We’ll have the cards ready to be colored and written in – no need to have anything! Do feel free to bring your own art supplies, but know that some prisons have rules against crayon wax, glitter, glue, etc. so we highly recommend sticking to ink (pens, markers) and colored pencils. We also encourage those who are able to bring a little cash to help offset the costs of printing and postage.