From @generalstrikeillinois on Instagram
Tag: prisons
Midwest Prison Censorship Update 2025: Exposing the IDOC Mail Scanning Scam
View the zine: Screen PDF – Printable PDF
View the Prison Censorship Survey results
Individual articles:
- “Stop Mail Scanning in Illinois” by Anthony Ehlers
- “The Censorship of Ideas is a Form of Psychological Warfare: A Message from the Diversionary Treatment Unit” by Hybachi LeMar
- Mail Scamming: IDOC’s Own Data Exposes how Politicians and Guard Unions are Lying about Drugs in the Mail
Download the FOIA request data (zip): 2023-2024 IDOC Drug Confiscations, 2024 Drug Exposures
Prison censorship is a front in the fascist american project. For the millions buried by the largest prison system on the planet, we know that access to communication and reading materials remain one of the only ways people behind bars can maintain humanity. Prison is censorship, a system of walls and borders that criminalizes people and ideas: a system we are determined to break by building bridges of solidarity – through sharing books and publishing zines.
Coinciding with the fascistic expansion of police and cop city projects, the prison censorship machine has rapidly marched on, consuming the majority of local, state and federal facilities. Played-out “war on drugs” fear mongering is why most people behind bars no longer receive physical mail: books are banned under cover of “content-neutral” and “publisher-only” restrictions, and private monopolies experiment with dystopian tablet technologies to monitor and profit from all communications.
Illinois has been one of the last holdouts until last year when prison copagandists began another all-too-familiar disinformation campaign. Guards are staging drug exposure hospitalization stunts to take away physical mail – incidents easily disproved as impossible by medical experts and according to IDOC’s own confiscation and exposure data. Unlike other states, this battle is being waged at capitol: multiple bills for and against mail scanning are being debated in Springfield. IDOC has not made any announcements yet, but has signed a new phone/email/tablet contract with ICSolutions: Illinois could fall to all-digital mail unless we organize now to stop it.
One voice that has not been heard from are those behind bars who are bearing the brunt of their draconian machinations. We made sure to share their plans to thousands of our incarcerated correspondents throughout IDOC, asking for comments and strategies on how to fight back and providing information on the bills and the addresses to write congress. Throughout these pages you’ll hear directly how mail censorship affects life behind bars: and special appreciations to the brave souls writing us, refusing to be silenced.
We are determined to stop mail scanning and book bans in Illinois: we share these tools and updates, seeking comrades to help break down the panopticon through underground networks of paper and print. Free the books, free the mail, free the people – free them all!
Reposted from Midwest Books to Prisoners
Casey Support Committee UPDATE 6/6/25: Retaliation and Loss of Privileges
Write Casey and send them support!
Casey has been retaliated against for filing a grievance against a deputy that threatened them. The retaliation by the grievance committee came as a variety of writeups based on concocted claims of “filing false information” and “interfering with the operation of the facility”.
Starting Monday 6/9/25, Casey will be on “LOP” (Loss Of Privileges) until 7/8/25.
This retaliation against them means:
– no phone calls
– no visitation
– no commissary
– having to fill out a form to call lawyers
The “loss of privileges” will last for the bulk of their remaining time at Santa Rita Jail as their sentencing date is on 7/22/25. So make sure to send them reading materials, letters of love, solidarity, and support! Let them know we haven’t forgot about them and that these walls can’t separate us!
Send mail to:
Casey Goonan #UMF227
Santa Rita Jail
5325 Broder BLVD.
Dublin, CA 94568
Love and struggle, CSC
Reposted from @freecaseynow (IG)
NYE noise demo reportback
NYE Noise Demo @ MCC Chicago
Cheers y’all, to another year of raising hell against the prison state in solidarity with our comrades and community behind the walls. Chicago did it right again with a rambunctious noise demo outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the hellacious downtown federal jailscraper. Mobile laser sound systems blasting, pots and pans clanging; bird whistles and a gaggle of megaphones filled the air with chaotic rhythms. Folks inside loudly banged windows from every cell window and floor, showing us dance moves and light shows of their own. “Free Them All!” we chanted, demanding the release of Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all political prisoners; and called out the pigs for the murder of Dexter Reed in his car, Sonya Massey in her home, Cory Ulmer and Robert Brooks behind bars, just a few of the over 1300 people murdered by police this year. On the street, plenty of passing revelers stopped by to see what the street ruckus party was about, checking out the zine cart and even helping hold the ACAB banner. The crowd marched around the building to make sure people on all sides got to see that they are not forgotten, to share the countdown to the end, to ring in the new year and join in on the dance party happening on the street.
An overwhelming pig presence surrounded the area for hours in advance: cruisers lining the streets with dozens of cops idling on corners, a fence blocking off the plaza was installed since last year. Despite their seeming omnipresence, we resisted, shaking their fences and shooting fireworks bouncing off the heights of those brutalist prison walls, exploding joyously outside cell windows. Later, some went to the ICE field office conveniently located down the street visible from MCC. The pigs were too slow to stop a little redecoration with an important unwelcoming message to incoming Trump ICE dictator Tom Homan: painted on the front efface, “Die, Homan. GTFO Chicago”, “Abolish ICE”. We marched on for several blocks before disappearing into the new year for more late night revelry; unfortunately, after everybody had already dispersed, some sneaky pigs apprehended at random a few people at a CTA train platform; one was held overnight and released with a misdemeanor.
It’s imperative to mark the connections between the carceral state and the xenophonic white supremacist colonial project of of mass deportation; many more prisons and jails are being planned to be built to process the millions of lives they intend to interrupt. Homan, the incoming “border czar” says Chicago is ground zero on day one of the incoming Trump regime: but they underestimate how fiercely determined and prepared people are to defend our city from their racist federal stormtrooper armies. We reject the racialized copagandized ‘dangerous city’ narrative crafted by an entire ecosystem of police scanner bros, racist nightcrawlers, and low-orbit suburban MAGA chuds feeding video clips to FOX and other right-wing outlets, who all year have spread disinformation and sensationalist lies, hyping up crime and demonizing migrants to the point of absurdity. They’ve been laying the groundwork for the incoming regime to attack the good people in our supposed leftist “Sanctuary City”, but even despite this policy, neoliberal administrations fail our newest residents with embarrassingly insufficient social services and decrepit ‘shelters’. A coordinated astroturf campaign from the right has been underway to divide communities and erode the public, an attempt on Illinois MAGA takeover: dustbin of history types Paul Vallas and Darren Bailey have failed mayoral and gubernatorial power grabs, but unfortunately Eileen O’Neill Burke snuck through as new top prosecutor, a racist FOP-backed former judge who in her first week dropped charges against Oak Lawn pig Patrick O’Donnell who committed a brutal hate crime against a 17 year old Palestinian. Caught between cowardly neoliberals and fascist onslaughts, it’s time to break from elections, reforms, and turn to each other to carve new paths.
Crime will be the main vector in which the incoming fascist regime will leverage in justification for their abhorrent plans to deport, meaning our strategy of defending against this must apply abolitionist frameworks and a rejection of “citizenship”, “peace”, and their “law and order”. The struggle to overthrow carceral society is tied directly to the fight for inherent and forever rights and unstoppable force of migration. Facing an untenable dystopic future, more people are realizing the necessity to organize autonomously and collectively, to fight to survive against this fascist wave of aggressive prison politics going buck wild with Trump’s re-election, and to build a more liberated existence. Escalate against the state and support the comrades willing to take risks to bring it all down!
Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that two people escaped from MCC with bedsheet ropes from above the 10th floor of this downtown monstrosity, a reminder that no wall is too high to deter our desires and stop the will of people yearning to be free. Free Them All!!
Submitted anonymously via email.
New Zine Submissions: On Casey Goonan and the Abandonment of Political Prisoners in the Pro-Palestine Movement
Both up on zines page.
#FreeCaseyNow: On Casey Goonan and the Abandonment of Political Prisoners in the Pro-Palestine Movement Version 1 print
FreeCaseyNow: On Casey Goonan and the Abandonment of Political Prisoners in the Pro-Palestine Movement Version 2 print
submitted anonymously
#FreeCaseyNow: On Casey Goonan and the Abandonment of Political Prisoners in the Pro-Palestine Movement
Casey Goonan is the only US political prisoner from the 2024 pro-Palestine student encampments. They are an abolitionist and anarchist who has dedicated themselves to multiple forms of prisoner support work and directly engaging with incarcerated comrades. The impact they’ve made inside is prevalent, as indicated by statements from their comrades Stevie Wilson and Hybachi Lemar. They’ve always pushed to ensure an understanding of Black struggle and revolt as central to their abolitionist work, and through understanding the totality of anti-Blackness the importance of an anti-police and anti-prison perspective was brought into any and all of their efforts towards liberation.
In June of 2024, they were arrested by a task force comprised of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in connection with an alleged direct action which took place in solidarity with the UC Berkeley encampments which had been brutalized by police and zionists earlier in the year* . If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison with a minimum sentence of 5. The investigation and court proceedings are currently ongoing but a non cooperative plea deal is pending in which Casey will plea guilty to one charge to allow additional charges to be dropped. This plea deal does not include information or testimony against anyone else.
While Casey has received a great amount of support from decentralized community in New York, Chicago, California, and elsewhere, the pro-Palestine movement needs to be publicly and actively supporting them. Right now, their primary accomplices are those who personally know them, those who prioritize prisoner support, and fellow anarchists. Despite vague assertions of the interconnectedness of repression and struggles between the American policing and prison apparatuses to that of Israel, there has been little material manifestation from that understanding within the US pro-Palestine movement. Meanwhile, coordinated struggle between prisoners and outside militants has been a key point of success for Palestinian liberation.
We must recognize the necessity of attacking the infrastructure of occupation domestically. Amidst calls for escalation, it is of vital importance to defend those experiencing repression from the legal system. To not do so is to allow one of the state’s most well-funded and structured counterinsurgency tactics to take complete hold of movements. If people are abandoned to incarceration, the fear of repression will throw everyone towards inactivity. This need for defense is especially true for those facing charges beyond the more palatable ways of dissent, like marches and encampments.
State repression must be met with expanding our community resources to reach those inside. Bravery must be met with support.
It’s not surprising that, despite the large presence of the Palestinian diaspora in the American pro-Palestine movement, tactics focus primarily on vocalizing dissent through marches and making demands of the state, which are a far cry from the struggle within Palestine itself. This is partially attributed to the class character of the diaspora — a petty bourgeois group would have no investment in attacking infrastructure they partially benefit from even if that same infrastructure perpetuates the genocide of indigenous groups including Black people and Palestinians both domestically and globally. Equally, the motivations and interests of the community organizations and student groups that are largely in control of the movement not only harbor that class character but also rely on funding from the infrastructure they refuse to attack. Despite the student movement being referred to as an intifada, it’s activity is incomparable to what has occurred during the numerous intifadas leading up to the Al-Aqsa Flood.
Considering pro-Palestinian community groups and political organizations like USPCN, CJP/SJP, Dissenters, NAARPR, JVP and PSL are supplied with enough funds to bus people in for marches, plan conferences, and campaign for local policy, certainly donating money towards legal fees for those facing repression would be no issue.
Even with all the attention and credibility being given to the pro-Palestinian student movement and despite the numerous pro-Palestine student groups on university campuses, there have been no publicly circulated student-led support efforts for Casey. Outside of participants of the Columbia University encampment, there has been no mention of them from any other university space, most likely attributed to groups aligning themselves with certain tactics, a hesitancy towards anarchists, and the fear of repression.
Beyond the bare minimum of ensuring people are supported in obtaining adequate legal counsel, any revolutionary horizons with teeth require long term prisoner support. This practice is key to the current struggle that led to the Al-Aqsa Flood as exhibited by the rich history of organizing within prisons and the ongoing liberation of those being held hostage by Israel. In Khalida Jarrar’s words, “[t]he ongoing conquest to liberate prisoners is in tandem with the Palestinians’ constant and multifaceted struggle against colonialism. Hence, the slogan “emptying the prisons” is derived from and a core component in the Palestinian struggle through various stages in its history.”.
Those of us living under a plantation economy already have our own reasons to ensure incarceration is a central site of struggle. But if one does insist upon taking guidance from elsewhere and if one intends to “bring the Intifada home” or “escalate for Gaza”, Palestinians have provided plenty of methods for how carcerality can be attacked.
Casey understood this prior to their incarceration and there’s no doubt this knowledge influenced their own political horizons. If the pro-Palestine movement wants to also tote itself as an intifada they should take note of the militant organizing and support infrastructure within and between prison walls that occurrs in Palestine. Abandonment of prisoners is where revolutionary ideals die.
Empty The Prisons Free Casey Goonan
For More Info and Updates on Casey
cscommittee@proton.me
freecaseynow.noblogs.org
IG: @freecaseynow
Ways to Support Casey
– Organize a fundraiser for legal fees, commissary, or a nutritional package
– Host a letter writing night
– Form a defense committee
– Make + put up some propaganda
Readings Recs
A Practical Guide to Prisoner Support
Practical Abolition From The Inside Out
More Effective Prisoner Support
The Soledad Brothers Defense Committee: A Brief Consideration
San Quentin Six Defense Committee
A Spirit, Unbroken (Discusses the Martin Sostre Defense Committee)
Submitted Anonymously
Call for Solidarity Fund for Greek Anarchist Prisoners
call for all anarchists who have job and can donate some money, greek anarchists collect money for anarchist prisoners.
don’t let ruling class to isolate anarchists. you can also share this call to anarchist you know.
if you can help, send message at the following email:: tameio@espiv.net
Political and social prisoners supported by the Solidarity Fund of Prisoners:
Kostas Sakkas (Korydallos prison, Korydallos, PC 18110)
Spyros Christodoulou (Korydallos prison, 6 wing, PC 18110)
Dimitris Koufodinas (Kthomokos prison, Domokos, PC 35010)
Savvas Xiros (Korydallos Prison Hospital, Korydallos, PC 18122)
Andreas Floros (Amfissa Prisons)
Sian Oktay Özen (Larissa prison)
Sophocles Toutziarakis (Pharm Ag. Stefanou Patras, 1 wing, PC 25200)
Yannis Karatsolis (Malandrinou Prison, PC 33053)
Nikos Romanos (Korydallos prison, Korydallos, PC 18110)
Dimitris (Korydallos prison, Korydallos, PC 18110)
Marianna Manouria (Gynaiki Fylakes of Korydallos, ct 18110)
Dimitra Z. (Gymnalia Prisons of Korydallos, q 18110)
K.K. (Kassavetia Prisons)
Political prisoners in Greek prisons:
Nikos Maziotis (Domokos, PC 35010)
Dimitris Chatzivasiliadis (Ktimodias prison, Domokos, PC 35010)
Submitted Anonymously
NEW YEARS EVE NOISE DEMO to #FreeThemAll
Repost from Midwest Books 2 Prisoners
NEW YEARS EVE NOISE DEMO to #FreeThemAll
NO COPS – NO BORDERS – NO PRISONS – NO ICE
MCC CHICAGO – 10PM – 71 W VAN BUREN
🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴
🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆🎆
International Call For New Year’s Eve Noise Demonstrations
This is a call for a raucous night of strong solidarity with those imprisoned by the state on one of the noisiest nights of the year. On New Year’s Eve gather your crew, collective, community, organization, or just yourself and come together to raise a racket and remind those on the inside that they are not alone.
Internationally, noise demonstrations outside of prisons are a way to remember those who are held captive by the state and a way to show solidarity with imprisoned comrades and loved ones. We come together to break the loneliness and isolation.
We know that prison is beyond reform and must be completely abolished. It is a mechanism of repression used by the state to maintain a social order rooted in white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity. To come together outside of the sites of repression is to also stand in defiance of what they represent.
The logic of the state and capital—of punishment and imprisonment, must be replaced by a rejection of oppression and exploitation. This call is one step in that direction.
Wherever you are, meet on New Year’s Eve at the prisons, jails, and detention centers, be loud in solidarity with those imprisoned and to push forward the idea of a world free from domination.
We want a world without walls and borders.
We will fight together until everyone is free!
How can one live freely in the shadow of a prison?
There are moments, like today in Syria, when we can only rejoice. See the statues of Bashar and his relatives looted, the crowds in the streets, the open prison doors. These moments that remind us that all regimes, including the most authoritarian ones, can fall.
If there is a constant in the revolutions, it is that of freeing prisoners. Symbol of power, of who can decide the freedom of its subjects, prison is one of the nodes on which rests submission to the State and acceptance of social norms.
One of the worst prisons in the world, Sednaya, has apparently been completely emptied of its prisoners, allowing people to see their relatives whom they had not heard from for many years or even meet them for the first time. But let’s not be mistaken, while the «rebels» are emptying the prisons of the fallen regime, those under their control are already filled with opponents.
Revolutionaries have already fallen in the trap of supporting pro-State organisations, by third-worldism, against imperialism, seduced by kurdish communalism or the romanticism of the guerrilla. Unfortunately it is more a religious alliance, wishing to give direction to “the will of the people” than the insurgents in Syria who managed to overthrow the regime. Such structures using military practices will never be desirable. We want to carry an anti-authoritarian and without borders solidarity with the revolted in Syria, because our hopes in the Syrian revolution go beyond the perpetuation of a society held by arms, subjected to a celestial power as earthly, which requires prisons to exist.
While we welcome the liberation of syrians from the shackles of Assad’s clan, we can only hope that what was in seed during the 2011 insurrections can go even further, towards a self-organisation of all spheres of daily life, attack and the total questioning of power and property.
Here as there, so much remains to be destroyed. Prisons, Religions, States.
Happiness to the reunion of the freed, force to the ones locked up all over the world!
Anarchists, confident as wary,
France, December 9th 2024
Submitted Anonymously
Nutritional Support for Casey
Send support by
VENMO @ juliepetersonG
There are 2 types of packages that are good for diabetics, the “Protein Pouch” and the “Not Too Sweet (Low Sugar)” package. They could always use the “Not Too Sweet (Low Sugar)” package every week, and would also benefit from receiving the protein pack. The packages can be viewed at icaregifts.com . The packages cost $40-50 and there is a $150 spending limit per week for packages.
WHY IT MATTERS:
-Guards failing to identify diabetic emergencies can lead to individuals in custody being seriously harmed when their actions are mistaken for “non compliance”.
-“individuals serving their sentences receive inadequate care & develope serious complications like blindness,kidney failure, and loss of limbs as a result”.
-While being held pretrial it is specifically important to be able to think clearly and strategically about your case, because the state could approach you while you are more vulnerable, and pressure you into making decisions about your case which you wouldn’t make without proper guidance from your lawyer.
PLEASE SUPPORT IF YOU CAN!
Via @freecaseynow