The Opening Statement – Fall 2023

The Opening Statement is a free quarterly newsletter that features articles, poetry, political writing and opinion pieces, as well as other relevant pieces by non-incarcerated authors.

OPENING STATEMENT – FALL 2023  (CLICK THE LINK TO DOWNLOAD PDF)

ARTICLES AND AUTHORS LISTED BELOW:

• Stiff Prices, Unfulfilled Orders: How the Private Contractor Running Rikers Commissary Serves Detainees Bianca Pallaro and Reuven Blau
• Book Club Returns! Utopian and Dystopian Visions MAPS
• Tribulations of the March from Inside Kenneth
• (Super) Maxed Out: The Demise of Alabama Prisons Kriston Dowdell
• The Inaugural MAPS Crossword Puzzle! MAPS

Dear comrades,
Hello! We’re back again, with revolutionary greetings and updates from the outside world. The last time you heard from us, we sent in an analysis of the “lay of the land” – what the current landscape of prison dis/organizing looks like in Michigan. We affirmed the need to be critical of reform, skeptical of state-sponsored moves towards “freedom,” and suspicious of grifters and the non-profit industrial complex. Some of you really vibed with what we wrote (cool!), and for the first time in a long time, we got zero rejections. Maybe the MDOC prefers us to talk about the futility of policymaking – which we can talk about endlessly. But we also remain committed to revolutionary action, and to the conversations and collaborations that get us there eventually.

We also write with heavy hearts, full of rage and sorrow, for the thousands of Palestinians killed, tens of thousands injured, and a million displaced from Gaza since October 7, 2023. As we stated in “The Lay of the Land,” we unequivocally support Palestinian freedom, and we affirm that the struggle for freedom in Palestine is intimately connected to the fight against prisons in occupied Anishinaabe land (Michigan).

Some updates on the MDOC: staffing shortages continue to affect the cages you’re all held in. We’ve seen reports from local news outlets about staffing shortages at prisons like Chippewa, Kinross, Alger, Cotton, Cooper Street, and others. Apparently, there are currently somewhere between 900-1,000 unfilled corrections officer positions, and the guard union is complaining about forced overtime. From the guard union’s perspective, what’s at stake are the guards’ bad working conditions. Their solution is to hire more guards, increase salaries, and generally dedicate more money to the prison system. On the other hand, as abolitionists we want to free prisoners, shrink the prison system, defund and dismantle these violent institutions, and use that money to build a world in which people’s needs are met and prisons and police are obsolete.

At the same time, though, staffing shortages can make life difficult for prisoners in the short term. So, it’s a complicated situation. From our vantage point, what’s important about the staffing shortages is that they heighten the tensions between MDOC administrators and guards, and these tensions mean that there are opportunities for political education and organizing. What do guard and staffing shortages look like where you’re at? What kinds of problems have you experienced as a result of these shortages? What tensions, disagreements, and difficulties have you seen in this employment crisis, especially between staff? The local news doesn’t care to ask prisoners what they think of staffing shortages, but we want to know. Write us!

In our last issue, we also included reports on how the MDOC forces y’all to stand outside in long lines for medications regardless of the weather – in the rain, sleet, snow, whatever. As we write the intro to this issue, the autumn rains have begun in earnest – have you noticed any changes in how these med lines operate?

A recent article in the Detroit Free Press states that MDOC is promising to improve prisoner dental care as a result of a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit. The article states: “It’s aimed at improving detection and treatment of periodontal disease – a gum infection that can result in bleeding, pain, and loosened teeth. Under the previous policy, the department didn’t use dental probes to check prisoners for periodontal disease upon intake, according to documents filed in the case. Incoming prisoners were just given a visual examination, along with one panoramic X-ray of their teeth. The use of dental probes is ‘just a basic medical dental need … for saving and/or keeping healthy teeth,’ said Tracie Gittleman, a Farmington Hills attorney who represented the prisoners along with the MSU Law Clinics.” The proposed settlement calls for a periodontal exam upon entering MDOC; routine dental services including an annual cleaning after one year in prison (instead of two); and the posting of notices of the proposed settlement.

This issue of The Opening Statement is shorter than previous issues, because of a new MDOC policy against “voluminous mail.” According to the new MDOC policy directive on prisoner mail that took effect on August 1, 2023, a new item was added to the list of prohibitions: “Voluminous mail (i.e., greater than 12 single sided pages in legible font, which is the equivalent of a two-ounce first class postage stamp)” (section QQ, #22). This is, frankly, bullshit – it is clearly designed to make it harder for reading materials that do not come from approved vendors, including but not limited to radical zines and newsletters. Materials like these are brief and accessible, as they can be printed by anyone on the outside and often contain information and analysis that is easier to process in small portions. That the MDOC wants to crack down on the volume of paper that comes into their cages is not actually about the volume of paper – it’s about limiting speech, curtailing information, and circumventing political education. Overall, with recent restrictions on the publication of writings by prisoners and this new restriction on “voluminous mail,” MDOC is doubling down on censorship.

However, they cannot and will not stop us. This issue features a report on the Keefe Group, the private company (now owned by a Miami-based private equity firm called H.I.G. Capital) that runs the commissaries in MDOC facilities, and their sketchy no-bid contract with New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail. The article, which was originally published in The City, an online newspaper focused on New York City, details how the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic changed staffing protocols at Rikers, which in turn changed how commissary orders were filled. Writers Bianca Pallaro and Reuven Blau also highlight the enormous price inflation on items like toothpaste, Top Ramen, and instant coffee, namely that Keefe-brokered products are between 35-98% higher than their listed price in free world stores. We included this article to build on our brief look into commissary inflation in MDOC and to provide another data point of comparison for you all, as you watch inflation continue to hit your own commissaries.

This issue also features an article on the present conditions of the Alabama Department of Corrections, written by someone currently held captive by the ADOC. We include this article, originally published in Scalawag Magazine (a digital publication that shares stories of “oppressed communities in the South to disrupt and shift the narratives that keep power and wealth in the hands of the few”), to give you a glimpse into another prison system in the US – one that bears quite a few resemblances to the one you’re held in. Write us with your thoughts on “(Super) Maxed Out”!

We are also delighted to announce the return of the book club! Turn to page 7 for more. And let us know how you like our first attempt at a TOS crossword puzzle!

We have also included an essay from a participant in the group Study and Struggle, a project based in Mississippi. The group believes that “study and struggle are necessary, complementary parts of any revolutionary movement, and that dismantling the prison industrial complex (PIC) requires centering criminalized people.” The essay we’ve included, by Kenneth, details some of the challenges and accomplishments of this Study and Struggle group. We hope you find it instructive and illuminating.

Finally, we want to give a huge shout out to our new subscribers, who tell us that they connected with The Opening Statement because someone (their cellie, their bunkie, a friend) shared it with them. To the folks who pass on TOS when they’re done with it, thank you for ensuring that these words are read and this knowledge is shared. To our new friends and comrades, hello and welcome! We’d love to hear from you. Every time you share this publication, every time you discuss the articles printed here with each other, the bonds of solidarity grow a little more.

With love and rage,
The Opening Statement Editorial Team