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McAlester

By VVAW

Of all the atrocities at the Oklahoma State Prison at McAlester, none was worse than "The Rock," the prison's isolation unit. Described by one prisoner as a "medieval chamber of horrors," the Rock was burned to the ground on Oct. 19th. The underground prison newspaper noted, "That the captives performed this long-needed step in penal reform without injury or loss of life is cause for rejoicing. The action was a complete and total victory for the people...." Recently, ten McAlester prisoners have been charged with second-degree arson, and have a preliminary hearing on Jan 24th.

The burning of the Rock is just one incident in a series of facts of resistance in response to the repression and racism of the State. In July, 1973, a $20 million fire destroyed a large part of the prison during a summer of prison uprising; but instead of reacting to the inhuman conditions which caused the rebellion, the state official increased repression. Guards took sadistic delight in gassing inmates locked in their cells, particularly those kept in isolation. In May of 1974, Bobby Forsythe was murdered in one vicious gas attack; he died locked in his 5'*8' cell, begging for help, as guards refused to listen. The official verdict on his death was that it was from "natural causes," although it was clearly the result of gas. As a result of the outraged protests of prisoners who gained the support of people around the country, a federal grand jury is now investigating that blatant murder.

Prisoner lawsuits brought another change. District Judge Luther Bohannon ordered a whole laundry-list of changes including such basic rights as receiving and sending mail, access to attorneys and legal material, and basic medical care(a "doctor" hired after this ruling was later arrested as a con artist with no medical training--the prison administrators who had checked his credentials said that it was difficult to find a doctor for the prison system). For several months, the worst of the violations of basic human rights stopped ?aided by a new warden. Then he fell victim to the political infighting between the then Governor David Hall (since indicted for bribery) and the board of corrections, and the terrorism returned under a series of ex-military officers playing warden.

In October, the Rock burned. During the pre-trial hearing of the 10 prisoner's charges with arson, political prisoner Bennie Bell, after being handcuffed, shackled and gagged, was pistol whipped in court on orders of the judge and stood in front of the bench with blood dripping down his face as the judge entered a plea in his behalf. On Jan. 5th, five wings of the trusty facility (housing for so-called "honor" prisoners) at McAlester were destroyed by fire.

Prison officials, representing the state, continue to attack prisoner's racism is blatant--of the McAlester 10, seven are Black, two are Indians, and one is white. But prisoners see racism for what it is--an attempt to divide the people. A call put out by a coalition of prison groups states: "The Dept. of Corruption wants Blacks and Whites and Browns to be at each other's throats because that makes us easy to control...We are all ONE united against a common oppressor. JUSTICE is being on the dry end of a bloody knife, but let's be certain that the knife of justice is left in brown uniforms and not brown skin. Racism sucks! We are all brothers. UNITED we are indestructible."

With the increasing repression comes increasing resistance: brothers at McAlester have learned the lessons of the past. As one prisoner has written, "The people who run McAlester have tried to institute a militaristic regime using brutality, force and violence in an effort to conquer the gooks of McAlester, but we gooks are not having any of it...We realize that the institution of prisons is a tool of class and ethnic oppression...Lash (the head of corrections) and his retired colonels are in the process of learning the same lesson that Amerikkka learned in the rice paddies of Vietnam, namely that short of murdering us all there is no way to enslave people...whose lives are committed to cooperation and UNITY!"