This is the first issue of a newsletter intended for people currently incarcerated at Green Bay Correctional Institution, sent by the Milwaukee branch of IWOC (Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee) on 4/7/20. It is based on stuff we’ve received from people inside GBCI. This is for you: your voice and your concern.
Opening: Greetings inside comrades. Salutations to you all.This is your comrade Jihad, I am writing you to discuss the importance of organizing. The positive effect it can and will bring about. Just recently four women by the name of “Dominique Walker, Shares Thomas,Tolini King, and Sameerah Karim,and Misty Cross, became symbols of Oakland and the world. When these homeless woman was asked to vacate a vacant house they were living in.They rebelled until the city did something about homelessness. For 57 days these five women organized and demonstrated.The Alameda county sheriff’s Department, including swat team members armed with AR-15s,tanks,and a robot used to search for bombs surrounded the home using a battering ram to smash the door open and arrested the women, charging them resisting arrest and obstructing. The raid sparked nationwide public ire and condemnation. The five moms were released.A deal was struck, according to the group wedgewood Inc.The property will be sold to a non-profit company that refurbish houses.The five Women will be allowed to stay in the home.The mayor Libby Schaaf and the city helped broker the deal. Suffice me to say,Administrative segregation(A.C.)convicts can earn the public ire to bring about change in the Green Bay corr.Inst.(GBCI). Each men could organize ten other men to write the Governor Events office. At the same time about the same issue…joined in by us out here change going to come. I just attended a meeting out here about this and other topics and we agree to not only go to Madison to talk face to face with D.O.C. bigwigs about such matters but to hold a press meetings as well. You are not alone.When your guy Bulldog is in the Midst rest assure they will get the gist. The mental health crisis is also another topic we are bringing to outside agencies and need convicts who had their mental health neglected to do the same thing get others whom is similarly situated to write Governor Events all at the same time to reveal the neglect. Early this month friends of mind from the expo group and wisdom went up to Madison,spoke to the Governor face to face. About these topics and about crimeless revocations that wreck havoc the state budget,families of the relocated,and ,the societies they are apart of. I.W.O.C. is campaigning the same agendas. I even voted for the first time in my life. This coming from a man who did 25years straight in solitary segregation. Who had to learn how to walk again,ect.if I can get involved,keep the do it fluid to do it, you can do it to. To all the old Law prisoners who has served their time and who is eligible for release via parole,and,pardon.(yes the pardon board is open again and is working. So far three woman has been pardoned) people outside are campaigning for you. We are fighting for you quiet as it is kept. Until next time comrades Roof!!
Process:
You can write to our post office box at Green Bay Newsletter, P. O. Box 342294 Milwaukee, WI 53234 We will aim to send this newsletter as frequently as possible, hopefully doing it monthly. We currently have 174 contacts at GBCI. IWOC also sends Voices From Behind Wisconsin Prison Gates, Wisconsin Grapevine and Freedom’s Cause across multiple institutions.
Here are some tips on responding to the newsletter:
1) Start a new message for your reply; this message is basically at the character limit for emails through the Corrlinks system. When responding to this newsletter with questions, reactions or submissions for the next newsletter put in subject line: “For Green Bay Newsletter”. Also, be sure to let us know if you want to be named or remain anonymous.
2) If you have other updates, put clear detail in the subject line.
3) We do not have access to any lawyers; individual legal support is outside of our capacity.
4) Please let us know which prison you are writing from in every message, especially if you have been transferred.
If you will be released within the next three months, please reply to us with the subject line, “Release,” so that we can forward you information and resources we may have regarding reentry.
We are seeking to grow the capacity of our network, so that we can have more people involved who can help with IWOC work: research, phone calls, etc. If you have any family or friends that might be able to help out our work in any way, send a new email that says “Outside People”, and include in the message the person’s name and phone number or other contact information.
We will be attending the next meeting of the DOC Committee on Inmate/Youth Deaths public session. This committee is supposed to review patterns that cause people in prison to die and make recommendations, they are complacent and inactive. If you have anything you would like us to present to this committee, send it in a new email to us with subject line “COIYD.”
We are a member-ship based labor union that organizes against capitalism and prison slavery. If you’d like to join our union, or want more information on what joining means, send a new email to us with subject line “Membership”.
We have a biweekly bulletin to give IWOC meeting notes, call for agenda items and the Freedom’s Cause update on developments in the prison system. If you don’t receive this and want to, write a new email with subject line “Add Me to Freedom’s Cause”
If you know anyone at GBCII that did not receive this newsletter tell them to add us on corrilinks iwoc.milwaukee@gmail.com once the new contact is added and sorted by institution then they’ll automatically get future issues.
Recent Word From Inside, statements by people inside Green Bay Correctional, relating to concern over the ongoing coronavirus and its likely impact:
➨On almost every channel I turn to throughout the day there’s a story in the media about the corona virus. The daily tally of deaths and those being affected by the deadly virus is enough to conclude that the virus does not discriminate against ANY population.
➨ Among the preventive measures recommended to use to avoid catching the corona virus include washing hands, not touching the facial area and staying at least six feet from each other.
Not until two days ago did I see that the media included the prison population among those who are vulnerable to the corona virus. This was mentioned in the form of releasing “nonviolent” prisoners. Up until that point I was puzzled as to why the media had not mentioned prisoners among the vulnerable population. It was as though we prisoners were invisible. The very presence of my cellmate that I’m forced to share this tiny cell with lets me know that we are visible. The fact that we have to flatten ourselves against the wall in this tiny cell in order to get past each other lets me know that we are visible. We don’t have any way of avoiding each other’s germs when one of us sneezes or coughs. I have become a clean fanatic with cleaning everything that my cellmate touches. Prison officials have the prison on a “modified” lockdown, which means being locked in the cell all day with the exception for showers two or three times a week.
➨The media talks about the shortages of necessary materials, e.g. masks, ventilators, etc., to treat the vast number of individuals they predict will be affected by the virus. I often wonder if the prison has sufficient materials to deal with this pandemic if/when it enters the prison.
➨There are more than 1,000 prisoners here at the Green Bay Correctional Institution. There are approximately 22,000 people locked up in Wisconsin’s prisons, and more than 2 million people locked up in the United States. This population is treated as though we don’t exist.
I can’t speak for anyone else but if you ask my family members they will tell you that they love me. My family will also tell you that they expect me to come home. In other words, they will tell you that I exist.
I exist.
➨Well I am at ( G.B.C.I.) and we is getting are two free call’s a week every other day. And they have a runner come by like every day and wipe the bar’s down but the are not giving us the powder stuff that they supost to give us when we clean are cell. And we only clean are cell on Saturday or Sunday, and we get showers every other day.
➨I would like to report first handedly that GBCI is not taking full medical protocol to stop the spread of The Coronavirus, Medications are being handed out by nurses with no face masks on and no gloves on. Face masks are not being handed out to every inmate and there is a shortage of masks. Hsu is not taking the situation seriously as they are not testing anybody with the symptoms of the virus I first handedly had shortness of breath and a hot strike and I’ve told Hsu and wrote a medical slip describing my symptoms and I did not get tested I was told to drink plenty of water and wash my hands regularly. I will continue to update you on these events as they unfold Thank you and be safe.
This is what we have been hearing lately. Please continue to keep us updated. Stay strong. An injury to one is an injury to all.