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HELP STOP THE TORTURE OF HERMAN WALLACE OF THE ANGOLA THREE
After over thirty years in solitary confinement, Herman Wallace has been thrown in the dungeon at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
· The prison says he had racist literature in his cell, but has filed no charge against him.
· We say he had Black Panther Party historical information pertinent to the case of the Angola Three
As the ACLU civil suit and the criminal post-conviction filings wend their way through the courts, the prison administration has stepped up the harrrassment against Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace of the Angola Three.
Throwing 61-year-old Wallace in the Dungeon where he is under 24-hour camera surveillance and in total isolation is clear retaliation for Wallace's continued resistance to the racist, illegal treatment of prisoners in Angola.
In an excerpt from one of Wallace's letters dated 10/15
"There is one guy they brought in this morning and placed in one of the 4 cells with a camera as he is on watch. There is a woman sitting in the lobby watching the bank of screens of the occupied cells. A little while ago, one guy cut himself up, blood all over the place because this morning he went to court and was found guilty for cursing at a security office. He told me he was innocent. He was on Level 3 and the court sentenced him to Level 2. ( Inmates enter Camp J at Level 1 and move to Level 3 before being sent back to their assigned cells) He has to start the program all over again and he couldn't handle it and just cut himself up. Security got the ambulance and he has been gone for about five hours. When he returns he will be placed in 4-point restraints. This means he will be laid on the bed atop a flat mattress about ¾ inches think and 4 feet in length- legs and arms shackled to the bed, dressed in a paper gown. He is in the cell next to me and there is nothing I can do for him or any of the other guys here, as I can hardly do for myself."
From 10/21
"There is a man in this dungeon they security is really messing with - I'll talk to the lawyers about it when I have a chance. The man has been laying on his back in 4 point restraints since 10/13 (date of letter- 10/21). When a man goes on 4-point they let him up the next day, but they are keeping this man like this without a shower or feeding him. I have been sending him my food when I can. He urinates and defecates on himself and they leave him like that. His mother came all the way from Shreveport to visit him and see how he was doing and because they have him in 4-point, they told her she could not see him. There is another brother, a tier walker who told me that Security came to Camp J the other day and confiscated a few inmate's Holy Koran's and literature."
The prison has tried for thirty years to break these men by keeping them in solitary and now they're stepping up the activity.
Help to have Herman Wallace released from the dungeon and apply pressure to have both Wallace and Woodfox placed in general population while awaiting retrial by calling, faxing or writing ---
Warden Burl Cain
Louisiana State Penitentiary
Angola, LA 70712WARDEN BURL CAIN AT: (225) 655- 2002 FAX (225) 655-2319
ASSISTANT WARDEN DUPONT AT: (225) 655-2024, Fax (225) 655-2319
ASSISTANT WARDEN COODY at: (225) 655-2441, FAX (225) 655-2814SAMPLE LETTERS BELOW FOR Mailing or for TALKING POINTS:
Sample Letter:
Dear Warden Cain,
We demand that Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox be immediately transferred to general population, and be removed from CCR (Closed Cell Restriction) and Camp J (the punishment unit).
To continue to torture these men by keeping them in isolation and in chains is both illegal as a violation of the 8th Amendment outlawing cruel and unusual punishment, but also defies the UN Declaration of Human Rights and international convention.
It is even more shocking that you are specifically holding these men because of their political beliefs. Basic, constitutional rights such as the right to the First Amendment are not lost when one is imprisoned.
International outrage at your treatment of these men is growing every day. The image of Angola will only be further tarnished if justice is not done and these men are not released immediately from their three decades of torture in solitary confinement.
We will not forget them, and we will not rest until they are moved.
Sincerely
Sample letter:
Dear Warden Cain,
It is almost impossible to believe that a prison in the democratic country of the United States could actually justify holding prisoners for over thirty years in solitary.
We urge you to move Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace to general population while they are waiting re-trial and to put an immediate stop to the continuous official harassment they have faced all these years.
Your name and Angola's will be spoken of in the same breath as notorious gulags and penal colonies in Russia and in third world countries if you don't attend to the basic human rights of the inmates you are paid to care for.
Sincerely,
** Please send a copy of your letter to:
Angola Three
c/o community Futures Collective
1215 66th St.
Berkeley, CA 94702Or email to marina@napanet.net
FOR MORE DETAILS ON THE CASE http://www.angola3.org
http://www.anitaroddick.com/weblog/weblogdetail.jsp?title=null&id=316
Sign up for Anita Roddicks's newsletter at http://www.anitaroddick.com/newsletteremail/newsletteremailsignup.jsp
Or contact:
Communities Futures Collectives (memo line A3)
www.angola3.org
1215 66th
Berkeley, CA 94702
© Justice Denied
