[Ppnews] From Sundiata Acoli - Birthday, Transfer and OWS

[Political Prisoner News]

Via Kiilu Nyasha

I'm in email contact with Sundiata, and he sent me this email to share:

Birthday, Transfer and OWS
by Sundiata Acoli- 1/14/2012

     Thank each of you for such warm Birthday (Jan. 14th) greetings, 
they brightened my day immensely but frankly it's hard for me to 
fully comprehend that i'm actually 3/4 of a Century old. That is old 
by any standard!

     i was transferred from FCI Otisville, NY because they're 
supposedly converting it into a "Sex-Offenders and 
Debriefed-Gang-Members" prison. Otisville population stands at around 
1200 prisoners. Staff  said they planned to transfer out 500 
prisoners, mostly gang members and replace them with sex offenders 
and debriefed gang members, i.e., prisoners who have gotten out of 
the gang and off the prison's gang list as a result of them 
debriefing by telling what they know of their gang's operations and 
pointing out other unknown gang members to the staff.

     Otisville had transferred out approximately 20 gang members (1 
bus load) each week for a month or more when they added "convicted 
murderers" to the transfer list. i departed Otisville on the 2nd 
busload of prisoners convicted of murder. At each stop along the way, 
MDC Brooklyn, NY and FDC Philly, PA the prisoners there were very 
welcoming and helpful altho federal men's prison are so overcrowded 
that there's a widespread chronic shortage of the most basic 
supplies, prisoners are literally stacked atop each other and as soon 
as any prisoner transfers out, another moves into his bed space that 
same day or the next.

      At MDC Brooklyn i received a much welcomed visit from each of 
my long time attorneys: Florence, Soffiyah, Marisa and Joan. 
Attorneys can simply show up at the Detention Center and visit. Not 
so for family or friends, they must be on a new visit list created at 
the Center. None of my family or friends were able to get on my list 
before the week or so lapsed by which time i was long gone to the 
next detention center.

      The same visit rules were in effect at FDC Philly, PA. After a 
week or so there our bus departed on a round-about trip to FCI 
Schuykill, PA, our final destination. The first stop was Harrisburg 
International Airport, PA which looked every bit like a modern day 
slave market. 40 to 50 bus and van loads of prisoners, mostly Black 
and Brown with a splash of White and smaller splashes of Red and 
Yellow, chained hand and foot, sat along the runway of a "Con Air" 
transport jet disgorging hordes of cuffed hobbling prisoners from 
it's entrails.  Empty,  and refilling its belly with just as many new 
prisoners from the buses/vans until finally sated, it turned, waddled 
down the runway , belched, and lurched into the horizon.

     Other buses and vans mixed and matched, switched and 
swapped  prisoners till each bus was loaded only with prisoners going 
to the same destinations across the Northeast: NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, 
VA, WV; the whole operation was surrounded by a cordon of federal 
marshals, prison guards, state troopers and county sheriffs.

      It was here that all the prisoners on my bus were switched to a 
bus bound for FCI Schuykill...except me. Shortly, a guard i vaguely 
recognized from long ago came, took me off the bus and escorted me to 
another filled with different prisoners. Once seated i asked where 
they were headed. They said "Cumberland." My property and traveling 
papers continued on to Schuykill. We arrived at FCI Cumberland and i 
was immediately put in SHU (the Hole) because they had no papers for 
me. I did 10 days semi-incommunicado in "the hole" until my papers 
arrived and was then let  out into general population. i thank all 
those who expressed concern about my welfare during the transfer, 
particularly Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa, the Jericho Movement and 
numerous others. i've since learned that at least 5 convicted 
murderers who left Otisville on the bus with me were rerouted back to 
FCI Otisville before reaching their transfer destination. They were all White.

     i and SAFC support the OWS/OCCUPY MOVEMENT and i thank them for 
the evolving mutual support they've shown at various times and places 
for the Jericho Movement, the Black Movement and other Movements of 
People of Color and the Oppressed.





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