Volume 13.21

(for old Editor's Notes, scroll to bottom of window)

Today, we received a letter from someone who used to write for The Beat when he was in juvenile hall. Like so many of you, he heard the stories of what lay ahead, but he thought he knew what prison is like and it didn’t bother him. He bragged about how he could handle anything! But now that he’s living that reality, he wishes that he’d listened to all those warnings because he really didn’t know how bad things are behind those bars. There’s absolutely nothing nice about it. That truth has knocked all the youthful swagger out of him. He’s been reduced to begging for a different reality. And yet, all the begging in the world will not change the tragic truth that he will remain in that world until he breathes his last breath. He is who you should be thinking of every time you write that “they can’t keep us forever.” Forever is exactly how long “they” can keep you, if you don’t make some changes. Forever is exactly how long they will be keeping our Beat friend…

No one can really explain what prison life is like. It must be experienced to be fully appreciated and fully hated for what it is, which means we hope that none of you ever learns just how much you hate it by being in it. In the last month or so, The Beat has been reminded of one of those prison realities that most of you have never thought about before, just one more similarity between prison and slavery. It’s this: you’re not free to read what you want… including The Beat Within!

Consider the following examples:

A prison inmate in Florida wants to read The Beat Within because he contributes pieces to it. We send him copies of The Beat, which are returned to our office with the following notice: “Inmates will be permitted to receive up to five pages of additional written material… Unauthorized mail returned; excess of 5 pages… without prior approval from warden.”

Does that sound fair? Is there any magazine that is less than five pages long? This is a rule that the prison can enforce when it feels like it (with The Beat, for example), and ignore when it feels like it. Believing that this policy is unconstitutional, The Beat wrote a letter to an organization that sues government agencies when they violate the Constitution (called the American Civil Liberties Union, or the ACLU), asking them to challenge this abusive policy. Today, along with that letter from the former juvenile hall writer, we also received a letter from the ACLU of Florida telling us that, “Due to our limited resources, we cannot take all civil liberties cases brought to our attention… In declining to represent you, the ACLU is not passing judgment regarding the legal merits of your case…” In other words, we may have a winning legal argument, but there’s no lawyer to make the case. This is prison. Prison administrators feel free to put into practice most any rules they choose, even if they violate bigger human rights principles, because they know they can get away with it.

Sadly, we don’t have to cite an example on the other side of the country. We can give you another example right here at home in California. Even though we believe The Beat to be one of the most positive contributions prisoners are making anywhere in the country, prison officials don’t always share our view. So, when we sent The Beat to a former Beat writer now locked up High Desert State Prison, they rejected it. When the inmate appealed that decision, they sent him a single sheet of paper titled, “Disallowed Magazines,” and at the very top of the list is The Beat Within!  We are currently in discussions with the department to try to reverse this decision, but they hold all the cards. Courts don’t like to second-guess prison managers when they choose what can and cannot enter the prison population, so there are very few opportunities to overrule whatever decisions they make. When we spoke to the Warden’s office, we were told that The Beat Within violates the no prisoner-to-prisoner communication rule. When we said that we believe that rule only covers one prisoner writing to another prisoner and not prisoners writing a general piece that all prisoners can read, we were told that’s not how they interpret the rule. And who’s going to say they’re wrong? Courts don’t like to “second guess,” so it’s just another humiliation you’re forced to eat when you’re behind state bars.

And not just state bars, either. The feds have also rejected The Beat when they feel like it. Recently, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has been returning Beats that were sent to a prisoner at Marion Federal Penitentiary in Illinois. We appealed their decision to the regional office explaining the value of The Beat. We expressed our pride in the magazine and in your writing. They rejected our appeal by stating: “In your letter you state that the publication is careful to screen out efforts by some to inflame passions or to advocate any kind of violence. You also state The Beat Within publishes letters from individuals currently incarcerated. A correspondence published by an inmate and read by other inmates is considered inmate to inmate correspondence via a third party. These types of communications are considered detrimental to the security, good order, and/or discipline of the institution…”

What can we do about this negative view of The Beat and their refusal to allow a prisoner to read it? Just about nothing… We are talking with lawyers about challenging the policy, but so far, most lawyers tell us that they have very little hope that any court will reverse any such prison policy. In short, rather than examine policies to see whether they carry out the mission they have for “rehabilitation,” they simply decide to cover their you-know-whats by never having to think at all.

That leaves the thinking up to you. We know The Beat will always be seen by some in the prison administration as a threat, because it threatens their control over your minds. (To be fair, others in the system do recognize the strength of The Beat, and want to promote it in their institutions.) It may not be news to you that prison administrators have such fear of your voices, but what may be news to you is that they can exercise their prejudices — for that’s what their view of The Beat amounts to — without fear of contradiction. There was a time when any book except the Bible was considered contraband inside a prison, and all books were banned! Today, such a blanket ban would not be tolerated, so they pick and choose what to ban, and what to allow in. What you value and respect may be what gets banned. If so, it’s a decision you’ll just have to live with, because that’s the nature of prison.

The Beat has been banned in the past from the California Youth Authority, and it took months of letters and phone calls to make those in power reverse that decision and recognize the strength of The Beat as a tool of self-expression and self-exploration. In the past, we have suffered a temporary ban from Corcoran State Prison. We have been kicked out of some county juvenile halls, or had to make special provisions to accommodate all kinds of objections.

And yet, we never quit. We never just accept a decision that limits The Beat because we believe in The Beat. Which means, we believe in you. You have so much power in the pen that you threaten, with words alone, all the steel and razor ribbon and firepower that prisons represent. In a very strange way, the reaction of the prison empire to your writing only confirms what we’ve always known: you have more power than you know; your words matter; what you say has real influence, even on those in positions of power over you —if only you would recognize the strength of what you hold in your hands right now. If The Beat were not so powerful, you can be sure that nobody in control of our prisons would give it a second thought. They do because it is!

We’re not sure where this rant is going, except to say these two things: First, you all have more power in your minds than in your hands, more power in your pens than in your guns, more power in your words than in your fists. And second, prison is a place that tries to strip you of everything, even the power to read what you choose and to write what you choose! So, if you value your words and the words of others — if you value The Beat — then think very carefully about your next steps after the hall. In here, you’ve had a tiny taste of what it means to have strangers controlling your day-to-day activities. If you move to the next level, that taste becomes an overwhelming daily reality. And once it does, there’s almost nothing you, or anyone else, can do about it!

Moving right along, this week’s topics are, “Do You Care Who’s President” - In November, we will be electing a new President of the United States. It will either be the Republican candidate, John McCain, or one of the two Democratic candidates, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Do you care who is elected? If not, why not? If so, who do you want to be President? Why did you choose that person? What do you hope the new President will do?
 
The second topic, “Persuade The President” –Let’s pretend that the next President of the United States issues a challenge: You will be in charge of changing one thing in your ‘hood, or in the country, or in the world. But you have to write the President and persuade her or him to choose your proposal. Everyone will be writing and trying to convince the President to pick their proposal, so what can you say that will grab the President’s attention and give the assignment to you? What one thing would you like to change, and what will you say to persuade the President to let you do it?

Lastly, the most popular topic, “Mothers’ Day” — When we read each issue of The Beat, we see how many tears your  mothers are left to cry for you when you’re taken away. Some mothers are left to cry for the rest of their lives, if they lose a child to the game. Others cry when they visit you because they have such high hopes for your future — hopes that don’t include jail. So tell us about your mother, and what makes her special. Then tell us what you think she wants most for you, and what you plan to do for her when you get out because of all that she’s done for you.

OK colleagues, this issue goes out to our dear friend Michael Kroll! Who is sixty-five years young today. Happy Birthday Michael!  We hope you have a great birthday workshop in Unit 6 and Unit 7 in San Francisco’s juvenile hall tonight. Your dedication to The Beat always speaks volumes.