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Starke

By VVAW

During the past several weeks there have been a couple of prison rebellions that have taken place. One at the Oklahoma State Prison in McAlester and one at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas. In both cases the rebellions were sparked by the prison officials refusal to grant the reasonable demands of the prisoners for things like improved medical facilities. In each case the prison guards put down the inmates with armed force. At the McAlester Prison where the prisoners held hostages, one of the hostages reported after being freed that they would have been let go earlier except that the prisoners were frightened by the gunfire from the law officers outside. Just as with the Attica rebellion two years ago, the prisoners of this country are demanding improved facilities and better treatment.

There is another prison that is in the throes of rebellion. The Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida is experiencing the same thing that happened in the other two prisons. Prisoners are being beaten and charged with various crimes in connection with an incident that took place on April 30th, 1973.

It is significant to note that the Prison at Starke contains 1013 inmates; 627 of whom are black. These prisoners are assigned to various jobs, the worst being working in the garment factory. In this factory there are 150 inmates working, 139 of whom are black. With the majority of inmates being black they are in the minority of prison personnel and there are no blacks in the Division of Correction's Administration Department. The conditions in the prison are in favor of the whites, with the blacks getting the worst jobs and the most harrassment.

On April 30th, in the garment factory, four prison officials attacked one of the inmates. When it was believed that the prison guards were coming into the factory, those who came to the defense of the inmate fled, along with others from the building. Of the 95 inmates in the factory at the time, 41 remained in compliance with a prison rule that 'no inmate shall depart...the place where he is working except with the authorization of the Superintendant..."

The 41 remaining inmates were put in administrative segregation, (maximum security); all of them being black. The prison officials then conducted an investigation, interrogating the 41 and threatening them with felony charges. But when the inmates asked for legal counsel they were told that they were being questioned and not charged and therefore did not need lawyers.

As a result of this investigation, 14 of them were charged with arson, assault, and riot. They will go on trial during the first week of October. The other inmates remain in confinement and are not given the full 'priviledges' that are due them, such as visitation rights and mail rights. None are guilty.

On Sunday August 5th, the prison experienced a rebellion by about 550 inmates. Prison officials maintain that the cause of this action by the inmates is racial although one official stated that there was no evidence of racial conflict within the prison. In a letter received from one of the inmates, he states, " The papers have carried and continue to carry the bigoted reports of the Prison Director Louie L. Wainwright, who absurdly claims that black inmates are terrorizing white inmates." The prison officials are not admitting that the cause of the disturbances are not because of racial differences between the inmates, but are directed toward the racist conditions fostered on the inmates by a racist prison system.

Another inmate has written to us to explain what the conditions are there. "Black inmates are subjected to the tyrannical rule of the prison administrators, plus the constant harrassment of the prison guards and is defenseless against the prejudice shown toward them in job assignment, disciplinary actions, religious and political beliefs.

"We, the 14 black inmates are subjected to the injustice of being tried in Bradford County, whose total economy resources are interwoven with the prison system. Being that this legal lynching is being spearheaded by the racist prison system there is no possible way for justice to be done in our behalf.

"On behalf of the struggling brothers let it be sufficient to say that it is never entirely possible to eliminated the possibility of error in life's struggle. The chances and risks to be taken are no greater in proportion than those taken when we continue to live under the devastating disadvantages of tyranny and fascism. Liberation acts are always waged upon precarious grounds...the life of man is uncertain. He travels a road of scalding grief...he is found in the heat of battle... where the water is deepest and the load is heaviest. We, the fourteen, have only one life and we mean to live it as men."

Those who protest at injustice are
people of true merit.
When the prison-doors are opened,
the real dragon will fly out.

--Ho Chi Minh