In the News

Prisoner freed after 29 years in segregation

According to a press release from the National Coalition to Free the Angola Three, Robert King Wilkerson, one of the Angola 3, was freed from Angola prison in early-February after spending over twenty-nine years in solitary confinement for a murder he did not commit.

Wilkerson, 57, was convicted of the 1973 murder of a fellow Angola prisoner despite the fact that another man confessed and was convicted of the murder. After two prisoners who testified against Wilkerson - the only evidence ever presented against him - retracted their testimony and revealed that it had been coerced by prison officials, the United States Court of Appeals in December issued a ruling that led to his release.

He has pledged to dedicate his life to winning freedom for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, the other two members of the Angola 3, and for all of the other innocent men with whom he was incarcerated for the past three decades. "I may be free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me," Wilkerson reportedly said. Woodfox and Wallace have also been held in solitary confinement for 29 years. They were convicted of the 1972 murder of an Angola prison guard in a murder that they have unwaveringly claimed they did not commit. In recent years, new evidence of their innocence has surfaced. Even though the new evidence was suppressed at the time of their trials, they have thus far been unable to win justice from the courts.

Wilkerson, Woodfox, and Wallace have always believed that prison officials framed them because they organized the Angola chapter of the Black Panther Party. Prior to being placed in solitary confinement, the men led campaigns to end prisoner rape, improve race relations, and ameliorate conditions at the slave plantation-turned-prison.

For more information contact Marina Drummer, National Coalition to Free the Angola 3 Telephone: (510) 655-8770 or visit www.prisonactivist.org/angola.

Federal prosecutor pleads guilty to interference

A former federal prosecutor pled guilty in St. Louis in early-February to interfering with the Branch Davidian investigation by withholding information about the FBI's use of pyrotechnic gas canisters on the day of the 1993 inferno at the Davidians' compound in Waco, Texas. According to news reports, prosecutors will recommend three years of probation for Bill Johnston at sentencing June 7th. Johnston admitted ripping a key page about the tear gas from his notes before turning them over to lawyers for some Davidians who were suing the government.

BOP lieutenant guilty of assault cover-up

According to wire service reports, a Bureau of Prisons' lieutenant at an East Texas federal prison resigned mid-February after admitting to approving false reports to cover up assaults on prisoners. Bryan Small, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wendall Radford, according to reports from Duncan Woodford, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Beaumont.

Woodford said Small, a 10-year veteran with the federal Bureau of Prisons, supervised guards at the Beaumont penitentiary. U.S. Attorney Mike Bradford reportedly said federal agents are investigating a series of assaults on prisoners that took place at the Federal Correctional Institution at Beaumont over several months in 1999.

Woodford declined to say how many men were assaulted or how they were hurt. He said none of the injuries was life threatening. "Any time there is an assault on a prisoner, it is a very serious matter that we believe cannot be tolerated," Bradford said. "It is probably even more serious when employees would cover that matter up and hide it from law enforcement officials." Bradford said Small is the only prison employee to be charged so far into the investigation and faces up to five years in prison plus a fine of up to $250,000. He remains free on bond, and a sentencing date has yet to be scheduled.

Clinton administration jailed most citizens

More Americans went to prison or jail during the Clinton administration than during any past administration, the continuing result of get-tough policies that led to more prisons, more police officers and longer sentences, reports the Justice Policy Institute. During President Clinton's eight years in office, 673,000 people were sent to state and federal prisons and jails, compared with 343,000 during President Bush's single term and 448,000 in President Reagan's two terms,

The study blamed the surge in prisoners on Clinton administration initiatives that provided more money to states for prisons, police officers and crime prevention programs. The 1994 crime bill, which gave $30 billion to states, was a major factor. Other factors included tougher sentencing and the abolition of parole. Republicans are thought by many to have more punitive crime policies than Democrats, but the opposite was true during the Clinton administration. ''President Clinton stole the show from the 'tough on crime' Republicans,'' said Vincent Schiraldi for JPI.

Marijuana and driving

A study was conducted last year in the United Kingdom by the Transport Research Laboratory to determine how marijuana affects driving abilities. Pressure from automobile organizations and marijuana prohibitionists drove the Ministers at the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions to commission the research to investigate and (of course) prove the dangers of smoking while driving.

Fifteen volunteers spent four weeks smoking herb behind the wheel of driving simulators. Researchers discovered that road skills did not decline but in fact improved. After smoking marijuana, volunteers were less likely to drive aggressively and dangerously; and though their reaction times were slowed, drivers compensated by being more cautious. The effects of marijuana were found to be much less dangerous than that of fatigue or drinking while driving.

Research by the Australian Drug Foundation found that marijuana was the only drug ever tested that actually reduced the relative risk of having an accident. Seasoned marijuana smokers participated in the UK research. Similar tests were conducted in the United States with first-time smokers who became dizzy and had to suppress the urge to regurgitate on the steering wheels of their 3-D driving simulators.

SHU Syndrome to be exposed at trial in Washington State

This coming April the media and public will finally get a close look at an oft-occurring but well concealed mental illness caused and maintained by Washington State's Department of Corrections "intensive management units": the Security Housing Unit (SHU) Syndrome.

A complete picture of this extremely dangerous state-induced psychotic condition will be presented at the 3-strikes trial of James Curtis at the Mason County Courthouse in Shelton, Washington, according to a news release disseminated by the Western Prison Project.

Numerous prisoners confined in Shelton - and the newly built and recently opened Intensive Management Unit (IMU) at the Stafford Creek Correctional Facility in Aberdeen, Washington - are suffering from the effects of sensory deprivation, lack of family and community support. The social conditions producing definite physical, mental and emotional breakdowns inherent in these Super Maximum facilities will be put on trial.

James Curtis' "three strikes" trial in Shelton, Washington draws near after 2 1/2 years of legal wrangling and DOC stonewalling. Mr. Curtis, a prisoner in the Washington Correction Center IMU in Shelton, is being charged under the "Persistent Offender" Statute (three strikes and you're out law) for allegedly assaulting a WCC guard while being 'extracted from his isolation cell' by six armor-clad guards. Mr. Curtis' attorney is presenting a "Diminished Capacity" defense, meaning that Mr. Curtis' mental condition at the time of the incident was so diminished that he was unable to form the intent to commit the crime of second-degree assault.

No doubt the Washington DOC does not want to see this trial go forward to certainly expose the maddening conditions enflamed by the extreme confinement we at the Razor Wire office hear of daily from prisoners throughout the country. The so-called SHU Syndrome will turn out to be epidemic among the thousands of prisoners suffering in similar dungeons in state and federal prisons in every region of the United States.