I sit in a cell that is right above the COs’ desk in my unit. It provides me a unique opportunity to hear the psychology of staff in their thought-to-be-secure area, in their conversations with each other. The reason I write about this is because hearing their conversations, I witness first hand what the caste…
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Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police
Editor’s note: This June 2020 op-ed by Mariame Kaba bears rereading and sharing. Congressional Democrats want to make it easier to identify and prosecute police misconduct; Joe Biden wants to give police departments $300 million. But efforts to solve police violence through liberal reforms like these have failed for nearly a century. Enough. We can’t…
The Eye of the Storm
My mind, made and built by image and experience, producing thoughts, turned to actions. Reflection allowing me the opportunity to see myself, I wonder how and who I really am. Does systematic racism and disenfranchisement from birth to right-before-this-moment declare my value, or did it begin long before I was a thought, at the beginning…
Fighting the Virus at Central Michigan Prison: Analysis from Prisoner Rand Gould and Report-back of Car Caravan Demonstration
Many weeks ago, on November 15th, abolitionists in so-called Michigan held a car caravan protest in the town of St. Louis, Michigan, to call attention to the start of what has become a devastating outbreak of COVID-19 Central Michigan Correctional Facility (STF). At that time we had just learned that the positive cases in the…
Carceral Imaging: Three Communiqués from H.H. Gonzales
Hey J., I hope you are doing good and staying safe, this COVID-19 stuff has gotten crazy in here. They were bringing the National Guard in here to test us every week, but they said they weren’t coming in anymore because so many people coming in caught COVID while administering the test. Then our newly…
Where I Sit
A communiqué from H.H. Gonzales, sent 11/6/2020, before prisoners rose up and were locked down on Wed. 11/10 I sit in a cell about 5 feet by 10 feet with a bunk bed, two lockers, a sink, a toilet, and a chair, with a “bunkie” (a cellmate). The walls are concrete with many different levels…
Aura Rosser Lives: Abolition Now!
Today we continue to struggle in Aura Rosser’s memory. Aura was a beautiful artist who loved to cook. She had three children and was struggling with mental health. Instead of helping her, Ann Arbor Police officer David Ried fired the shots that killed her on the night of November 10, 2014. What’s happened since then?…
