------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 29, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
MASSACHUSETTS: SHOULD PRISONERS PAY RENT? THEY SAY NO! By Phebe Eckfeldt Boston An attempt by the state of Massachusetts to balance the budget on the backs of the poorest of the poor--prisoners-- is meeting heroic resistance from prisoners themselves. This spring the state came up $2 billion short in tax revenues and began slashing social-service programs. In a desperate attempt to raise funds, the government attached language to the appropriation line item for the operation of the Office of the Commissioner of Public Safety that requires prisoners to pay $5 a day towards the cost of their incarceration. House Budget Line 8000-0000, as it is called, would give the state the power to take that money out of prisoners' canteen funds or their pay, if they have jobs. Prisoners are already forced to buy all their personal items such as soap, deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, clothing, footwear and medications from the prison-run canteen. In addition, the state would force released inmates to pay up to 25 percent of their earnings from any job on the outside in order to pay back the accrued debt. It is estimated that a prisoner released after serving five years would owe more than $9,000. When in the spring the warden at the Bristol County House of Corrections arbitrarily decided to impose this $5-a-day fee before the law was passed, prisoners rebelled for two days. On Aug. 7 a lawsuit was filed against this fee on the prisoners' behalf. Item 8000-0000 has passed the State House of Representatives and is now before the Senate. Proponents say that it would generate $1.1 million in revenue from prisoners and their families. PRISONER LEADS PROTEST Nathaniel Atkins is an inmate serving a double life sentence at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) in Shirley, Mass. At great personal risk, Atkins, along with other inmates, wrote a sample letter protesting this attack. Prisoners were asked to get family members, friends and other supporters to send this letter to their senators in protest. The letter says the budget rider "is designed to guarantee that poor people who become incarcerated will be consigned to degrading sub-poverty status for the rest of their lives. A financial slavery that will extend for many years after their release from prison. "To charge $5 a day to the person committed to a State/County correctional facility only furthers desperation and oppression in the lives of that person and their family. It makes a bad circumstance even worse. A huge majority of the incarcerated are at a poverty level to begin with and they have family to support. "Allowing this $5 a day to accrue and then the bill managed by probation/ parole to be paid after the person wraps up a sentence is legalizing extortion. It is also a motive for someone NOT to seek legitimate employment upon completion of his sentence." At SBCC jobs are available for only around 20 percent of the prisoners and the average pay is $1.50 per day. Working six days per week, this translates into $9.00 per week. To add insult to injury, Line Item 8000-0000 also states that if a prisoner is found responsible for injuring a guard and the guard needs workers' compensation or has medical bills as a result, the prisoner will be responsible for those costs. Many observers consider these new rules an expansion of racism, as in Massachusetts African American men make up 40 percent of the prison population but only 5.4 percent of the state population. SBCC is a super-max, high-tech prison. Prisoners are kept in their cells 20 hours a day. Contact among prisoners in a cellblock is only possible for very short periods during gym and yard time and 20 minutes during meals. Despite this isolation, Atkins and fellow prisoner activists were able to flood the entire prison with this letter, reaching all 16 cell blocks with 64 men per block. This underscores the tremendous respect Atkins has earned over the years as a political activist. PRISON AUTHORITIES FRAME ATKINS To stop his organizing and remove him from the general population, the Department of Corrections decided to frame up Atkins on bogus charges. A prison informant told authorities Atkins said he would take the superintendent hostage if the bill passed. Atkins was thrown into the segregation unit where a prisoner is confined to a 7-foot by 10-foot cell 23 hours a day for five days a week and 24 hours a day for the other two. Abuse by guards is random, arbitrary and frequent. No televisions or radios are allowed, only Walkmans, a Bible or Koran and first-class mail. Human contact is irregular and infrequent and only with staff. Atkins remained in segregation for 43 days. But he refused to be intimidated and managed to continue to educate other prisoners in the segregation unit on this issue. Atkins' supporters were able to secure legal assistance for his disciplinary board hearing and in writing his subsequent appeal. Recently the Department of Corrections ruled Atkins guilty on two charges, including threatening the warden. His punishment is the loss of six weeks of library time and no work anywhere for six months. This translates into total loss of income. Atkins told Workers World, "People cannot concern themselves with individual repercussions because that isn't what it's all about-the individual. It's about the collective, the good for the whole. Someone has to step forward to fight the good fight. We all know a standing stream will become stale and putrid so to keep it healthy you must agitate, agitate and agitate." Atkins and his supporters outside the prison are asking Massachusetts residents to write a letter to their senator protesting House Budget Line 8000-0000. Letters of support can be sent to: Nathaniel Atkins, Souza- Baranowski Correctional Center, P.O. Box 8000, Shirley, MA 01464. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
