July
7, 2013
CORCORAN
SHU
I would like to take this moment to possibly
enlighten
you to a situation we as Hispanic Mexican Nationals would like to share
with
all of you. Our hope is to create discussion and ultimately change this
sad
reality. Due to being such a small population in California prisons,
the
majority do not understand or even realize (much less consider).
Hopefully with
this essay I’m able to express correctly, sufficiently, and effectively
these
little known conditions and bring attention to this issue. We suffer
and
struggle daily in a foreign land, where many of us do not even write,
understand, or speak English.
This struggle not only involves Mexican
Nationals in
California, but also all undocumented immigrants in prison around this
nation.
Some of us are here doing life terms with no family or friends support
(mentally, emotionally, economically, physically, etc.), the most basic
of
human conditions to be social. Think about this for a minute. For
family
members to visit us from Mexico requires an incredible amount of
patience and
hard work, and huge obstacles at the US-MEXICO border. For example, on
my
situation I haven’t seen my father, brothers, and some of my sisters
since
1996.
Why??-because my family couldn’t process the visas for them and couldn’t afford to pay the expenses to travel. In the past, I used to see my mother once a year. My family had to work and save money for my elderly mother to be able to come visit me just one time every year. Unfortunately, since 2007, my family couldn’t afford it anymore. So I haven’t seen the rest of my family since 1996, which is 14 years total and counting. This is just my example. Many more undocumented immigrants/Hispanics in prison suffer the same fate. Under life terms and some of us validated in the Security Housing Units (SHU), we may very well never see or hug our immediate family and friends. Imagine the suffering and heartache we endure??? Living life sentences inside ‘the grey box’ (SHU), under this daily struggle, under this psychological and physical torture 23 hours a day we wait to hear and receive news from our family back home.
Many of us came to the U.S. from very rural
towns with
little or no education and severely economically challenged areas in
Mexico. As
we can agree, many who come to the U.S. do so for the ‘American Dream’:
Land of
opportunity and a better way of life. A sacrifice for ourselves and our
families back home. Due to having to put education on hold early in our
youth
to work and contribute to our family’s welfare, ultimately basic
reading and
writing much time is lost and thousands of us risk our lives and cross
the
border (breaking U.S. laws) and some of those thousands end up in
prisons,
detention centers, and jails across the nation. Fewer still get life
terms that
cuts off communication with family and limits it to phone calls (when
rare
monetary ability allows a phone call home) and letters (for those who
can read
and write).
This is some of what we endure and struggle
with,
maintaining communication: hope of seeing, speaking to, hearing the
familiar
voices, or hugging a family member one more time. Whatever the reason
or
situation, we as prisoners got caught up in the huge justice system of
this
mighty and powerful nation. Illiteracy, sadly, caused some to sing plea
agreements for life terms unknowingly and unintelligibly and
so,
here we are, for life we exist… in prisons far away from family and
friends back
home in our country of origin. Not knowing how their lives are going
(basic
social interaction in an advanced, immediate access, social technical
world)
for years on end sometimes, is an exhausting struggle we endure. Not
knowing
English accentuates this lonely existence. We suffer alone, unable to
afford
even toothpaste or deodorant, indigent with no outside support.
Accordingly, I’ll now share the heavier and
further sad
facts affecting us undocumented immigrants (Mexican national prisoner
class) in
California prisons. Prison officials incorrectly claim us as
gang-related, even
though we (historically) no not involve ourselves with any gangs.
Because we
socialize with other Hispanics who speak our own language, we are now
getting
validated and segregated as participants or associating with prison
gangs
incorrectly by CDCR. As we all know, this is an extremely difficult and
complicated situation as there is an already limited ability to
challenge the
validation and segregation or understand the already poorly worded
rules and
regulations.
Because we are only a few of the thousands
validated and
segregated we are still subject to these torture chambers, anti-social
conditions, indeterminately housed in the SHU. As gang associates
(incorrectly
by CDCR), our already poor communication abilities with family and
friends in
our country is made worse by constant IGI interference and delays in
mail
distribution. These are the facts and the issues. We Hispanic Mexican
nationals
doing life terms seek your support and assistance along with and in
solidarity
with the prisoner’s peaceful Hunger Strike and the Core Demands.
We are as one within this struggle and in unity
we ask
all to include our one demand in solidarity with us….Which is a call
for CDCR
to simply comply with and for us to be identified under the
international Treaty of Vienna Convention. The treaty
was adopted by the United Nations conference held at Vienna on the
twenty-fourth day of April in one thousand nine hundred and sixty three
(April
24, 1963). Agreements that both the U.S. and Mexico signed. We also
want to be
included in the U.S./Mexico prisoner exchange program (currently as
lifers, we
are ineligible). We are a prisoner class that is in need of the humane
and just
treaty.
We Mexican nationals, seek this demand in
solidarity with
California prisoners: For lifers to be included in the prisoner
exchange treaty
and for CDCR to comply with the Vienna
Convention international law. And our rights to be free from
torture of
indefinite solitary confinement (in the SHU).
Lastly, the California Prison Reduction and
Cost Saving
bill past recently and federal courts are mandating CDCR comply with
it. We
want included as a key issue, Mexican nationals and all undocumented
immigrants
be returned to their own country to do their time. Yet again, lifers
are surely
excluded , and not only that, but also CDCR will exclude us in
segregated
housing under erroneous gang labels.
The conditions and practices that imprisoned
man, women,
and children experience are in violation of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations
Convention Against Torture, and the United Nations
Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. U.S. prison practices also
violate
dozens of other international treaties and fit the United Nations
definitions
of genocide.
Article 1 of the U.N.
Convention Against Torture prohibits policies and practices that
“constitute cruel, inhumane, or degrading punishment”. The history of
international attention to this issue is compelling. In 1995, the U.N Human Rights Committee stated that
conditions in certain U.S. maximum security prisons were incompatible
with
international standards. In 1996, the U.S. special reporter on violence
against
women took testimony in California on the ill treatment of women in
U.S.
prisons. In 2000, the United Nations
Committee on Torture roundly condemned the U.S. for its treatment
of
prisoners, citing super-max prisons and the use of torture devices, as
well as
the practice of jailing youth with adults. The use of stun belts and
the
restraint chair was also cited as violating the U.N. convention against
torture. In May 2006, the same committee concluded that the U.S. should
“review
the regimen imposed on detainees in super-maximum prisons. In
particular, the
practice of prolonged isolation”.
Respectfully
In Solidarity, Juan Carlos Molina #K30854
C.S.P. COR-SHU 4B-2L-47
P.O. Box 3481
Corcoran, CA 93212
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