As a teen, I first heard of corporate prisons in 1996 in an unlikely place, the Geto Boys’ Resurrection album. Larry Hoover, himself a prisoner, told everyone who heard the album that “big companies” had interests in prisons. He rattled through the names of a few, “Master Card, Smith Barney.” I did not process the significance of his claim for a few years, and I did not come face to face with the beast that is the corporate prison complex until last year. In April of 2009 I joined a long-established coalition of activists who were fighting to close Hutto, an immigration jail which “housed” immigrant children and their parents. The New York Times’ photograph of a crib behind bars at Hutto still haunts me today.

Even though the political pressure resulted in some success on the child detention issue, profit-driven prisons are still a great problem. Correction Corporation of America (CCA) still has the contract to operate the Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas, even though children are no longer being detained there. Recent reports and arrests of Hutto guards prove that a lack of oversight at corporate detention facilities has led to abuses which amount to torture.

The Austin American Statesman reported on August 20th that a resident supervisor, William Dunn, was arrested and charged with three counts of official oppression and two counts of unlawful restraint. In essence, he fondled several women while in the process of transporting them. A few days later, on August 26th, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing incidents of sexual torture at a for-profit prison in Texas. The report describes an incident in Willacy County at a facility operated by Management and Training Corporation. In this incident a guard locked a female detainee in a room with a male detainee to whom he “owed a favor” so that the female could be raped.

According to TexasPrisonBidness.org, the private prison model faced declining profits earlier this century, but after September 11, 2001, their fortunes changed. There became a new political demand for prisons to hold immigrants prior to deportation, and herein lies part of the problem. Prior to September 11, 2001 immigrants who were not considered a flight risk were often not detained prior to their hearing. However, because there were some immigrants who opted to abscond instead of appearing at their hearing, there was a great political will to detain a great deal of immigrants facing hearings, even at great cost to the taxpayers.
At the same time, there are great profit motives to hold detainees that need not be detained according to mandatory detention statutes. It’s not that hard to figure out: The longer these detainees are held in these facilities, the more money that these companies make. These company executives are savvy enough to figure out that if they can buy the right politicians, they create the right policies which allow them to hold people who otherwise would pose no threat. The connections between politicians and private prisons are well documented.

One of the most notorious cases was revealed last month, when it became clear that two of Arizona Governor Brewer’s top advisors had a financial interest in corporate prisons. With the passage of Arizona’s anti-Mexican law, the advisors had a potentially lucrative profit motive in passing the law. The more immigrants that the state would cause to be detained, the more money these two advisors stood to gain.
This is only one of many connections, however. Many conflicts of interest involve county jails, rather than immigration facilities. In late July, The San Antonio Express News reported a potentially illegal scheme involving over $100,000 between the Bexar County Sheriff and his ilk and a private prison, which involved the local county jails.

Early in the twentieth century, the State of Texas became conscious that the mix of profit and human detentions did not make for a good mix, and they abolished relationships with such contractors. The profit motive often led to abuses of power and to the preference of profits over justice. One El Pueblo reader called me last week and equated profits in the private prison industry to slavery. In the wake of a miserable economy, in which the ruling class has had a notably difficult time in raising profits, the private prison industry has been remarkably resilient. In a recent article, The Final Call Newspaper cites a report which states that since 2005, and estimated $1.2 billion has been funneled to Texas alone in order to house undocumented immigrants. One report cited that it was more expensive to detain a child at Hutto than it was to educate that child at Harvard University. Any society which allows a segment of its populace to enrich itself at the unnecessary imprisonment of another segment can no longer consider itself a society of and by the people.

An Open Letter to Sheriff Adrian Garcia

La Raza Justice Movment

July 27, 2010

Honorable Adrian Garcia

Sheriff of Harris County

1200 Baker St

Houston, TX 77002

Dear Sheriff Garcia:

On Tuesday, July 20, 2010I was contacted by someone from the area of 45 and Airtex.  One night prior, at around 9:30 PM, she had been the victim of a home invasion in which her husband was beaten, and many items had been stolen from her.  She contacted me to help her navigate the bureaucracy regarding some follow up information that she had regarding the investigation, and she was aware of my work in human rights and my work with La Raza Justice Movement. 

As this is an open letter, I will not disclose many of the details related to the case.  However, I intend to send a supplement letter with the details.

By Friday, July 23 it became clear that the victim had some new actionable, time-sensitive information.  This information, after several more days, would not be useful.  I was advised by a deputy that the correct procedure would be to have the victim call and request a “supplement,” if an investigator had not yet been assigned.

She did call.  A deputy arrived, and he refused to take a supplement, saying only that it was the investigator’s job.  Mind you, five days later most deputies could not verify whether an investigator had been assigned or not.

That same day, I spoke to Sergeant Haynes.  Understandably, he was unable to release information to a third-party.  He also added that civil rights legislation prevented knee-jerk reaction to new information.  I told him that I, too, was particularly interested in civil rights, but that civil rights should not be used as a way to excuse lax police work.  The new evidence that was being introduced required only routine police work, and hiding behind civil rights legislation is a slap in the face to those of us who have labored for years in the civil and human rights area.

It was not until Monday, July 26^th that an investigator was assigned, and today, Tuesday, this investigator is to meet with the victim.  The backdrop for all of this is a neighborhood which has seen an alarming increase in property crimes over the past several months, and now this, a home invasion.

Sheriff Garcia, there are several problems with either your policy or procedures and their application to this case.  Under no circumstances should it take a week to assign an investigator to a home invasion case.  It would seem that this should be a priority just under homicide.  Further, new, time-sensitive information should not go into a black hole until an investigator is assigned.  Time-sensitive information on a case involving a home invasion should be responded to immediately, regardless of whether an investigator is assigned or not.  When I asked a deputy why it took so long to assign an investigator, the response was that the case load was too heavy.

Sheriff, this is surprising to me, considering that you have chosen to support the implementation of 287(g), the controversial program in which people are deported after having been detained for violations as small as traffic violations.  In a report by 11 News, Lieutenant Michael Lindsay, was quoted as saying: “A lot are saying, ‘Well, you know, you’re deporting somebody for a minor crime.’  They’re not being deported for any crime at all.  They’re being deported because of their status here.”

Sheriff, where are your priorities?  Here I am giving you the case of a lady who has had her loved one abused by criminals in her own home, and you are concerning your self with deporting an average of 1000 people per month, oftentimes for petty offenses, sometimes even college students who failed to stop at a signal.  You should not concern yourself more with making your deportation numbers than with ensuring the peace.  You should not spend so much capital, including your capital with our community, in running such a large deportation operation at the expense of real police work.  Where is your conscience?  Where is the security?  Where is the peace?

Hector A. Chavana Jr

La Raza Justice Movement

CC:      Houston Unidos, La Raza Justice Movement, Media

In the same way that most migrants hop the illegit border to find a way to feed their families, they too are part of a moral disobedience to unjust laws.  Just like the slaves, many of whom were running for their own freedom, migrants come not for political action, but for their own good.  Even so, we must change our view of their role in society. 

Whatever their motivation, they are rebelling against unjust laws which have created the greatest disparities in wages between two borders in the world.  These laws include NAFTA, which open the borders for rich white-owned companies to economically raid the rich labor market of Mexico, without offering anything in return.  It also includes the laws related to the War On Drugs, which enriches by billions-fold, entrepreneurs in the detention business and related industries, and does nothing to treat the root of the drug problems.

These laws have created the explosive situation between the two countries, and undocumented migration is a rebellion against these laws.

We need to honor those who have chosen this path, not try to apologize on their behalf nor try to engender sympathy from the enemy.  We must speak and act in terms of just, indignant rebellions, not in terms of us coming to shine the gringo’s shoes.

Honor them.  Honor us.

Pope Benedict XVI looks on during an Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, April 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Is anyone above the law?  Certainly, the Bill of Rights did not extend the freedom of religion to include illegal activities, especially if said activities do not pertain to the faith of the individuals.  Certainly, there is precedent in this country of prosecuting religious figures of small and large religions and sects.  Joseph Smith of the Mormon Church was served a warrant (don’t remember the outcome), and Elijah Muhammad served time for sedition for instructing his followers to avoide registering in the selective service.

So why should the pope escape prosecution if it is found that he, a foreigner, was involved in the cover up of molestation and sexual abuse by his subordinates.   One of the most damning pieces of evidence is a letter that was recently revealed in which an accused priest begs for the mercy of the Congregation for the Doctrine of The Faith, the oversight office for the Catholic Church, which the now-pope headed at the time this letter was written.

There are now unconscionable abuse cases arising out of Ireland, Germany, Minneapolis, and Wisconsin, where over 200 deaf boys were sexually molested over a span of perhaps 25 years by then-Father Lawrence C. Murphy. The charges are beyond shocking, and the acts they describe are heinous. And these are just the cases made public and over the last few weeks. To be sure, this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

Despite being plagued by years of sexual scandal, the Church remains cavalier in its denial and arrogant defense of itself and of its failed self-policing mechanisms. It acts as if it’s above the law and shrouds itself in secrecy, and its predatory monsters are afforded leniency and forgiveness no other common criminal would receive. For example, Murphy, in a letter to the CDF, begged, “I am seventy-two years of age, your Eminence, and am in poor health. I have just recently suffered another stroke which has left me in a weakened state. I have followed all the directives of both Archbishop Cousins and now Archbishop Weakland. I have repented of any of my past transgressions, and have been living peaceably in northern Wisconsin for twenty-four years. I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood. I ask your kind assistance in this matter.” He died in 1998, still a priest. After his death, Archbishop Weakland appealed to the Vatican to close the case: “This Discastery commends Father Murphy to the mercy of God. And shares with you the hope that the Church will be spared any undue publicity from this matter.”

Undue publicity? What publicity would be undue?

The RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization) Act was enacted to prosecute members of organizations habitually involved in crime, usually the mob. However, it has been used to prosecute corrupt unions, and some have argued that it should be applied to the boy scouts for covering up sex abuse.

Straight from the code: “As used in this chapter–(1) “racketeering activity” means (A) any act or threat involving murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter…(or) section 1503 (relating to obstruction of justice), section 1510 (relating to obstruction of criminal investigations), section 1511 (relating to the obstruction of State or local law enforcement), section 1512 (relating to tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant)…(or) sections 2251, 2251A, 2252, and 2258 (relating to sexual exploitation of children).

I have to admit that I though this would be an original and clever post when I began to write it.  As I started doing some google searches on the matter, an attorney and advocate by the name of Marci Hamilton had already suggested prosecuting the church under RICO in 2003 before the pope seems to have been so close to the subject. At issue with RICO is that the statute seems to target those whose main line of business is commercial criminality, but as she points out in this commentary, unions have been prosecuted under RICO, even though they are not in the principal business of commercial criminality. In a later post in April of 2010 Hamilton seems to concede the point that financial harm must be done, even though she advocates for amending the law to include the church’s cover up activities. She also makes note of a letter by the pope, which I was not aware of:

And, in 2001, in what many are now calling nothing short of an obstruction of justice, he issued a definitive letter requiring that the handling of child sexual abuse issues be under the “pontifical secret.”

The other small issue is the whole head of state immunity thing for the pope. [Kinda like that immunity the church didn't respect for Motecuzoma or Cuahtemoc, but I digress.] It is not that he is a foreign head of state that might be the problem. Pinochet and other dictators from South America have been prosecuted by Spain (of all countries to take the lead on this) under the international legal doctrine of Universal Jurisdiction. The issue is that he is a SITTING head of state.

Even that premise is being questioned in Britain.

Lawyers are divided over the immunity issue. Some argue that the Vatican isn’t a true state, while others note the Vatican has national relations with about 170 countries, including Britain. The Vatican is also the only non-member to have permanent observer status at the U.N.

Then again, no other top religious leaders enjoy the same U.N. privileges or immunity, so why should the pope?

To my Catholic friends, I don’t believe such a civil action would violate your religious teachings. As I understand it, papal infallibility extends only to the pope’s official teachings on the church’s beliefs, not administrative decisions. In this case, it seems that the the pope erred.

I am not an attorney, and much less an international law or RICO expert, but I do think that if foreigners can be prosecuted and other religious figures can be prosecuted, and it does seem that the pope has obstructed justice, why not?

Mi Querido Jefe: Hector A. Chavana

My father, an attorney for thirty years, came in this morning to the office with a funny smile, which made me know something was up.  We exchanged our morning greeting, and I paused, knowing that he had something to say. 

I was eating some oatmeal at the time, and he told me that the courts are a buzz with a recent decision.  I bit.  “What is it I asked?”  He told me that a judge had made a very “courageous decision,” by ruling that the death penalty was unconstitutional. 

I quickly tried to clarify whether he had ruled the entire death penalty was unconstitutional or whether something specific to this case made its application unconstitutional.  I guess I was a little too quick to react, and ended up literally choking on my oatmeal before I could get the question out.  Just another normal morning at Oficinas Chavana.

It’s true. Check out what Judge Kevin Fine said as quoted in the Houston Chronicle.

A Houston judge on Thursday granted a pretrial motion declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, saying he believes innocent people have been executed.

“Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed,” state District Judge Kevin Fine said. “It’s safe to assume we execute innocent people.”

Fine said trial level judges are gatekeepers of society’s standard for decency and fairness.

“Are you willing to have your brother, your father, your mother be the sacrificial lamb, to be the innocent person executed so that we can have a death penalty so that we can execute those who are deserving of the death penalty?” he said. “I don’t think society’s mindset is that way now.”

I have personally known (before their legal troubles) five or six people who have been sentenced to death row (that makes for a different blog post).  It looks like a sixth might be headed there soon.  One of them, Johnnie Bernal, was removed from death row because the crime that he committed occurred one night before his eighteenth birthday.  All of them are minorities.

I stand against the death penalty due to the decidedly prejudiced form in which the death penalty is applied to minorities and the poor. 

The chances are that this ruling will be promptly overturned, but this judge has taken a bold stance toward a more human outlook from the bench.

Last Fridayish, Attorney General Eric Holder held a press conference in which he explained why some of the 9-11 criminals would be tried in civilian courts…but just some. The rest, would be tried by military tribunals. In essence, he implied that the criminals that would be tried in civilian courts were sure-fire convictions. The evidence was overwhelmingly in favor of the prosecution in the cases that are going to civilian courts. The reason, of course, that some criminals would be tried in civilian courts is, according to Holder, that true justice requires due process and a fair trial.

I was surprised when, a few questions later, a reporter took the words right out of my mouth. He asked, “you say this is being done in the name of justice, but it seems that you are choosing which cases you can win and sending those into civilian courts. How is that just?”

As soon as he posed the question that I had wondered about, I recalled an article, Nuremburg: A Fair Trial? by Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr. in which the liberal author argued that the Nuremburg Trials were simply a propaganda show for the Allies after World War II. He argued that the Nazi prisoners should simply have been executed by military tribunals. He argued this, not in the name of revanchist reaction, but so that the supposed purity of the jurisprudence system not be corrupted and manipulated by populist politics.

Obviously this guy was not familiar with the tradition of Southern/Frontier Justice, but he brought to light a good point. He went through a litany of reasons as to why the Nazi defendants did not receive an actual “trial.” He explained that Nuremburg was really a dog and pony show for the international stage. The article taught me a great deal about the motivations of powers to hold public trials.

I hold no romantic notions about the soundness of the justice system, as might Wyzanski, but recalling his article did open my eyes, and soon pundits began raising the point about the Obama administration’s high priority of reestablishing credit abroad.

My point in all this, besides the fact that I figured it out first and that, therefore, I am brilliant, is that I agree with many conservatives on the idea that these defendants should be tried by military tribunal.

I believe this not for the hate that conservatives feel toward the criminals, nor for the romantic feelings toward the (in)justice system that Wyzanski espouses. I believe that they should be tried by the military because we all know that they have already been convicted, and I believe that no life should be sacrificed to the God of US Imperialism with the added benefit of strengthening Uncle Sam’s credibility abroad and increasing his capacity to further invade, kill and maim civilians. They will be put to death anyway, let’s not use a show-trial to increase US hegemony.

People who supported former third-party presidential candidates like Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr are cited in the report, in addition to anti-abortion activists and conspiracy theorists who believe the United States, Mexico and Canada will someday form a North American Union.

“Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups,” the report reads. “It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty or Libertarian material.”

Other potential signals of militia involvement, according to the report, are possession of the Gagsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag or the widely available anti-income tax film “America: Freedom to Fascism.”

Barr, the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential nominee, told FOXNews.com that he’s taking steps to get his name removed from the report, which he said could actually “dilute the effectiveness” of law enforcement agencies.

However, it has been the tradition of intelligence agencies to focus their intelligence activities on progressive or left-wing groups. Today seems to be no different. Even the fox news story gave a nod to the harassment of people on the other side of the spectrum: “ACLU officials blasted a Texas fusion center last month (Feb 2009) for distributing a ‘Prevention Awareness Bulletin’ that called on law enforcement officers to report activities of local lobbying groups, Muslim civil rights organizations and anti-war protest groups.”

However, yesterday’s report on CNN, shows the flimsy excuses that fusion centers can use to begin an intelligence file. Here is a partial transcript of the report, which describes the results of an investigation at a fusion center.

WILLIS: It was the morning of Governor Jodi Rell’s inaugural parade.

KEN KRAYESKE, POLITICAL ACTIVIST: I pulled out my camera and I shoot the Governor Rell, about 23 shots.

WILLIS: Moments later, Ken Krayeske was stopped by Hartford police officers, handcuffed, arrested, and jailed.

KRAYESKE: I said “What did I do?” They said you shouldn’t have been making those threats.

WILLIS: Local police had been on the lookout for him after state police gave out a security bulletin with his photo on it. officials wouldn’t comment pending a civil lawsuit, but court documents reveal state police were alarmed by Krayeske’s blog posts — “Whose going to protest the inaugural ball with me?” And, “No need to make nice.”

KRAYESKE: Why do I have to be nice to a political figure simply because she won an election?

WILLIS: Police began digging for more information, mining public and commercial data bases. They learned Krayeske had been a Green Party campaign director, had protested the gubernatorial debate, and had once been convicted for civil disobedience. He had no history of violence.

Law professor Danielle Citron says police aren’t supposed to gather information on citizens who aren’t suspected of a crime.

DANIELLE CITRON, PRIVACY ADVOCATE: If we’re interested in someone because they are an advocate for a Green Party candidate and we think they are suspicious because they want to get people to protest ideas but not because we think there is a true threat to their lives, I think that’s troubling.

Protests? Antipathy toward politicos? Third parties and blogs? Could be me and you, right?

The whole program sounds eerily similar to the COINTELPRO Program which was originally set up to gather counter-intelligence on the Soviet Union, but which slowly changed its attention to progressive activists, especially organizations which tried to empower people of color like the Brown Berets, the Black Panther Party and La Raza Unida Party.  These modern fusion centers were created to gather information on acts of terrorism, and they are now in the business of harassing bloggers who promote protests, and third-party supporters.

I have been guilty in the past of not taking the possibility of government intelligence gathering too seriously. My thought had always been that everything I do is overt (nothing covert) and within my legal rights. However, I recently re-read an article from my undergrad days: “Thoughts on a Neglected Category of Social Movement Participant: The Agent Provocateur and the Informant.”

The article was a good reminder that even if a group is acting responsibly and within the boundaries of the law, the informants may have differing motives to report something completely different. Informants have often fabricated lies to advance their career or to seem like a more valuable asset to their handlers. Even worse, law enforcement officers themselves, have repeatedly fabricated lies which they have represented to community supporters, courts and spouses. All of this has been done in an attempt to disrupt and “neutralize” (to use COINTELPRO’s term) their target.

If history is teaches us anything, it might be that it does not matter so much that an activist or organization is acting legally, once they become the targets of these fusion centers.  Still, those of us committed to justice must not allow fear of surveillance paralyze us.  It’s just one other thing to keep in mind as we push hasta la victoria.

Here are just a few of the COINTELPRO activities listed in the article.

-A Chicano leader helped organize the Brown Berets, while working as an informer for the Treasury Department in Texas and California. His actions permitted police to raid the Chicano Moratorium Committe and arrest some of its members.

-Malcolm X’s personal bodyguard, the man who delivered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to him, was a New York detective who had been undercover for seven years…He earned a black belt in karate and taught it to one black nationalist group he infiltrated.

-In demonstrations at the University of Alabama, a police agent reportedly urged violence, set fire to at least one building, and threw fire bombs at police. His actions were used to declare unlawful assemblies in which 150 people were arrested.

-A deputy sheriff posed as a campus radical and testified that he helped students build and test explosive devices in Buffalo, New York

-”Tommy the Traveler,” posing as an SDS organizer, offered bombs, guns and lessons in guerilla tactics to students on various New York campuses. Two students whom he had trained burned down the campus ROTC building and were immediately arrested.

The article cites 24 of these incidents.

Why I Chose the Name “Tlecoz Huitzil”
“Tlecoz” is the Nahuatl name for “he ascends.” “Huitzil” is short for “Huitzilopochtli.” Huitzilopochtli, which means “Blue Hummingbird on the Left,” was the Mexica god of the Sun and the war. He was also the national god of the Aztecs. The word “huitzil” alone is the Nahuatl
word for “hummingbird.”

According to Laurette Séjourné, in her book “Burning Water” in Nahua maps, the South is at the left, and in the South is the paradise of the sun. The “left” is the deep south, the location of the spirit world. Ancient texts reveal that the souls of the dead warriors return to the earth as butterflies and hummingbirds, so the esoteric meaning of Huitzilopochtli is “the warrior soul from the paradise.” From a description in the Florentine Codex, Huitzil was so bright that the warrior souls had to use their shields to protect their eyes. They could only see Huitzil through the arrow holes in their shields, so it was the bravest warrior who could see him best. From time to time, those warriors could return to earth as butterflies or hummingbirds.

Taken together I have adopted the name “Tlecoz Huitzil” to mean “the warrior soul who continues to ascend.” I seek to foster my perpetual growth and development every available opportunity and I endeavor to do the same in others.

I elected to choose a Nahuatl name to honor my rich cultural and historical roots, and to adopt a name that I believe truly reflects the person I am. The importance of identity, culture, history and self-empowerment can never be underscored enough, and selecting a name that reinforces this is an enormously powerful expression.

Can you tell us a little bit about your work with Presente.org?
In February of this year when my friend and supporter Favianna Rodriguez was in Michigan for the 16th Annual Dia de la Mujer Conference at Michigan State University (where she was the keynote speaker), Favi and I discussed the creation of Presente.org and its purpose. She had been in discussions about the group’s creation in California before coming to Michigan. I told Favi I fully supported Presente.org’s vision and accepted her invitation to join the Presente.org Team. So, officially I am one of the founding members of Presente.org and a member of its Team.

Since my involvement in Presente.org I have been actively involved in the group’s work and have been promoting their campaigns utilizing every available medium to do so. I have a great team of supporters and organizers across the country who help me accomplish this. My respected leadership, organizing skills, and networking knowledge are a few of the reasons that Favi invited me to work with Presente.org. The BastaDobbs campaign is our latest action campaign receiving national attention. I don’t need to repeat here why this campaign is so important to Xicano/Latino people. People can visit the campaign site to learn more about it.

What recent activities have you been involved with in addition to the above?
I recently raised money for the Making Strides American Cancer Society campaign and funds to help purchase a new laptop and printer for a Detroit elementary school classroom whose district could not afford these items. The class teacher will use these items as tools to teach ESL students how to make comic books. Yesterday I received a request from students of MEXA de Michigan State University to participate as a speaker at an upcoming social justice event which
will be held at a church to discuss the DREAM Act and my case. My work continues each day as I strive to improve the condition of the community. It is work I look forward to continuing upon my eventual release as well.

Efren Paredes Jr. aka Tlecoz Huitzil

If the Governor grants my commutation request I could be released within a few weeks of her signing it. This is why my supporters created the Free Efrén petition on Change.org. Whenpeople sign the petition an e-mail is sent to the Governor expressing support for my release. The Parole Board held my commutation request for nine months after my public hearing. They forwarded it to the Governor with their recommendation on August 20. We expect that a decision could be rendered any day now.

We are not aware of what the Parole Board’s recommendation was and they will not make it publicly known. We do know that the final decision is made by the Governor.

What are the conditions like where you are being held?
I am housed in multi-level facility in Jackson, MI. I am housed in the Level II part which would be considered medium security in most states. The facility holds 1,900 prisoners. In the part of the facility I am housed there are two prisoners per cell. Up until the past six months or so the facility didn’t have a lot of violence for the most part. One hundred prisoners were added to the facility in recent months which has exacerbated the already crowded situation and resulted in an escalation of violence, problems, and tension.

I have managed to avoid the pitfalls of violence and being assaulted because of the respect I extend to others, and they in turn extend to me. I am conscious of the law of reciprocity. I am also widely recognized by prisoners for helping educate the people around me and foster peaceful resolutions to conflicts that arise. I impress upon others the need to not let their emotions dictate their actions, to eliminate self-defeating attitudes, and the value of developing critical thinking skills that will equip them to avoid potential problems. I also emphasize the need to develop positive self-image and confidence.

At this prison there is a lot of out-of-cell activity. When we are not working or going to school we can go to the yard throughout the day or use the pay phone to call friends and family. I receive visits from family and friends seven times per month, and always receive the maximum of allowable visits. I have been blessed with wonderful family and friends who have visited me weekly for the entire 20 years of my imprisonment.

Do you have direct access to the internet, and if so, how does that help you to cope with
your injustice?
No, I do not have internet access. I rely on family and friends to maintain my web site, blogs, and social networking sites. There is no internet access in Michigan prisons. This means I have to receive all my messages and send messages via phone. I call friends and family several times each day to get updates about my case, our campaign, and any messages that people send me. I also tell them messages I would like them to send to people on my behalf as well. Sometimes it can be a lengthy process, but we get it done. All messages sent to people in my name are my exact words. People are very good about doing that for me. As far as posts go, I tell people what I want them to post for me and they do it. I ask them to create groups for me, actions, etc.

I have a fantastic team that works with me.

Much of your online activity seems to be geared toward social justice. Were you or your
family involved with social justice issues before your incarceration? Did your unjust
incarceration move you toward social justice issues?
No, my family and I were not involved in social justice issues previous to my incarceration. You have to remember, too, I was only 15 at the time of my arrest. I always cared about other people’s struggles and I have always been helpful to other people, but when I was home I was a teenage boy who was going to school and playing sports as is the case with many other adolescents.

My unjust incarceration definitely moved me toward social justice issues. Not only did I begin fiercely working on my campaign, but I began working on other campaigns as well, worked to promote social justice on a broad scale, and have inspired others to do so as well.

Being in prison, isolated from my family, friends, and free world gave me a great deal of time for introspection and an opportunity to examine the struggles of people all over the world. I discovered that social injustice is a shameful recurrence that is often fostered by people’s silence or indifference. It was something I felt compelled to not be a partner to. Instead I chose to combat it. “If you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem,” is a maxim that has resonated in my life and I convey to others frequently.

I believe we have to be the change we wish to see in the world. Too often we allow injustice to be pushed into the shadows or ignored. As proponents of social justice we have a responsibility to lend our voices to end injustice wherever it occurs. We are all interconnected. We can’t proclaim to care about the human condition yet stand by and observe our people suffering. We weren’t blessed with knowledge, talent and resources to squander it.

When we work to build the community we work to improve our own lives. If we truly want to make a difference in the world we have to do it, not talk about it. As Cesar Chavez said, “Talk is cheap. It’s the way we organize and use our lives every day that tells what we believe in.”

I came to prison a 15-year-old boy. Today I am a 36-year-old conscious Xicano man whose life has been dedicated to the service of our gente, increasing Raza consciousness (i.e., teaching culture, identity, and history). I promote education, human rights, ending youth violence, working to build alliances inside and outside the Xicano/Latino community, and combating social injustice.

I have been a voice for many people inside and outside prison who want to speak out about social injustice but are afraid, unable to articulate their message, or simply do not know they can express their discontent through the written or spoken word. Encouraging people to express themselves and not be paralyzed by fear are things I try to do.

I often tell people that our perceptions shape our experiences. It is the way we choose to see a situation that determines how it affects us. We wield much ore influence over our lives than we give ourselves credit for. It is important that we teach people to recognize this and empower them. It is a lesson I talk about in my workshop “Awakening the Xicano/Latino Leader Within.”
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122014556740&ref=ts.

If I can prevent one act of violence, one child from dropping out of school, one wrongful conviction, one human rights abuse, or oneteen pregnancy, I have done something to make a difference in the world. From the looks of things it appears I have done many of these things and more already. That means my vision has substance and I am not only talking about change, I am making it manifest as well.

Though my body has been caged, my mind, spirit, voice and love for our gente can never be held captive.

Do you have any models or cases that you look to in regard to unjust incarcerations which
have been reversed?
There have been hundreds of cases that have been reversed by courts across the country. There will be many more to come as well. I don’t necessarily look to any particular cases as guides for how I have lead my campaign for freedom. I have taken an eclectic approach and tried to incorporate the best methods of organizing used everywhere. I am an avid reader and researcher.

I read several newspapers each day, magazines, books — or whatever people print off the internet and mail to me via U.S. Mail, and books. People mail me documents and information all the time.

Consequently, I have had an opportunity to read about and study myriad cases and campaigns over the past two decades. I think the thing that sets my campaign apart is how my family and supporters have harnessed the power of social networking sites and used my web site and blogs to get our story out. We have been able to reach every corner of the Earth with this campaign in that way.

Not to mention the interviews I have done with radio stations and organizations who record their shows via podcasts which has also helped us take our campaign nationwide (e.g., Campaign for Youth Justice (Washington, DC), Thousand Kites (in Whitesburg, KY), Flashpoints on KPFA 94.1 in (Berkeley, CA) La Raza Chronicles (in Berkeley, CA), etc.). You already mentioned the interviews I have done with Ebling and You (in Lansing, MI) and Barrio Nuevo (in Toronto, (ON) Canada).

I do want to add that one thing I do share in common with many of the other persons whose cases have been overturned is my refusal to admit guilt for a crime I did not commit. Under no circumstances, even in exchange for immediate release, am I willing to admit guilt for a crime I did not commit. If I were guilty I would have plead guilty 20 years ago, been sentenced as a juvenile, and been released by age 21 at the latest. I will not reward the system for mistreating me and robbing me of 20 years of my life and admit to something I did not do.

I know it is difficult for people who have not experienced a wrongful conviction in their family to understand how easily an innocent 15-year-old boy can be convicted of a crime he did not commit.

Many of us have been conditioned to think that all criminals must be guilty, even though since 1992, The Innocence Project has shed light on wrongful convictions and shares these statistics:

There have been 242 post-conviction DNA exonerations in United States history. These stories are becoming more familiar as more innocent people gain their freedom through postconviction testing. They are not proof, however, that our system is righting itself.

The common themes that run through these cases — from global problems like poverty and racial issues to criminal justice issues like eyewitness misidentification, invalid or improper forensic science, overzealous police and prosecutors and inept defense counsel — cannot be ignored and continue to plague our criminal justice system.

-Seventeen people had been sentenced to death before DNA proved their innocence and led to their release.
-The average sentence served by DNA exonerees has been 12 years.
-About 70 percent of those exonerated by DNA testing are members of minority groups.
-In almost 40 percent of the cases profiled here, the actual perpetrator has been identified by DNA testing.
-Exonerations have been won in 33 states and Washington, D.C.

Those of us in Harris county might more easily conceive the possibility of wrongful convictions since the City of Houston admits that no less than 8,000 pieces of evidence have been mishandled. Furthermore, an article by Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair indicates that six people have been liberated after having been convicted due to faulty work of the Houston Crime Lab, a lab considered by some to be the worst in the country.

Many articles have been written about the details of Efren’s case. I’ll keep the details brief, since there are many other sources that can provide much better details on the case. Even though this case happened in Michigan, it came down to a Southern-style, convict-anyone-at-all-costs prosecution. Says one document on the 4Efren site:

The individuals who lied about Efren’s involvement in the Rick Tetzlaff murder/Vineland Foods robbery
admitted to participating in the crime themselves. One of those individuals was never charged with a single crime, and one received six months in jail…

The prosecutor gave “deals” to all the truly guilty people who admitted their part in the crime. Two key
prosecution witnesses received their “deals” in exchange for testifying…

Countless heavyweight scholars, including Drs. Betita Martinez, Carlos Munoz and Rodolfo Acuna back Efren and his fight for freedom.

What bothers me most is that Efren was robbed of his teens, deprived of his twenties and time is threatening to steal his thirties, as he is now approaching forty years of age. The thing that attracted me specifically to Efren’s case is his tireless work in the area of social justice. From behind bars, he has given more workshops and presentations than many of us in the so-called free world. In 2009 alone, Efren has spoken via telephone to crowds at: a workshop at a national MEChA conference; a Toronto youth rally; Ebling and You radio show in Lansing, Michigan; a conversation with Walter Swift, an exonnerated convict at Freedom March for Wrongful Convictions and the Thousand Kites National radio broadcast. He currently maintains a blog as well. On top of everything, he has recently joined in promoting the BastaDobbs.com campaign.

It is a little embarrassing to admit, but Efren has been so active that I had to ask him if he was the same Efren Paredes Jr. that is incarcerated, after seeing his many activities posted on facebook. He has been so active that I thought he just happened to have the same name as the Efren that is locked up.  “How could someone who is incarcerated be so active in our community,” I thought to myself ignorantly. When I found out that Efren Paredes Jr., my friend on facebook and prolific activist, was the same Efren Paredes Jr. who was wrongfully convicted, I couldn’t help posting something about him and his contributions.

So que hacemos? If nothing else, sign Efren Paredes Jr’s online petition. His online petition also sends an e-mail to the governor’s office. You can also circulate information, write letters and donate.

Further, anyone who is incarcerated needs support, especially when they do so much for our community. Contact him on his facebook page. We became friends through my facebook page because of his tireless community work. Be sure to connect to the Free Efren facebook page, which is a separate page dedicated to his release.

Check back for some personal words and photos from Efren. I am hoping to receive them soon.