From 1993 to today
Racial solidarity threatens prison officials
By
Sharon Danann
Cleveland
Published Oct 30, 2006 8:17 PM
Four
hundred seven prisoners took over a portion of a prison in Lucasville, Ohio, for
11 days in April 1993. When it was over, one guard and nine prisoners had been
killed, making it the longest prison uprising with loss of life in recorded U.S.
history.
It seemed that only Ohioans
were riveted to the drama as it unfolded. This was partly because the events in
Lucasville took place at the same time that 83 Branch Davidians were being
incinerated by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents in Waco,
Texas.
What held the Lucasville
rebellion together was unity between Black and white prisoners, as reported by
Staughton Lynd in “Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison
Uprising” and elsewhere.
George
Skatzes, at that time a member of the racist Aryan Brotherhood, was approached
by a Black prisoner within the first hours of the takeover because he had been
known to mediate disputes among prisoners. White and Black prisoners were on
opposite sides of the gym and the atmosphere was
tense.
Skatzes, who had never been a
public speaker, put his arm around the Black man and said to the assembled
inmates: “This is against the administration. We are all in this together.
They are against everyone in here who’s blue [the color of the
prisoners’ uniforms]. ... If they come in here, they’re going to
kill all of us. They’re going to kill this man and me, no matter what
color we are.”
Later, when Skatzes
was out in the prison yard as a spokesperson, he announced: “We are
oppressed people; we have come together as one. We are brothers. ... We are a
unit here, they try to make this a racial issue. It is not a racial issue. Black
and white alike have joined hands in SOCF [Southern Ohio Correctional Facility]
and become one strong unit.”
The
Ohio State Highway Patrol officers who entered portions of the prison after the
siege told afterward of signs and slogans written on the walls: “Black and
White Together,” “Black and White Unity,“ “Convict
Unity” and “Convict Race.” This forging of unity across racial
barriers adds to the reasons why the Ohio system of (in)justice has been so
determined to make an example of the Lucasville
Five.
The imam of the Sunni Muslims,
Siddique Abdullah Hasan, negotiated with prison authorities during the siege, as
did another member of the Aryan Brotherhood, Jason Robb. Their efforts
contributed to a negotiated settlement to the siege. This settlement included a
21-point agreement that the warden had to sign, after which the remaining five
hostages were released and prisoners came out in groups of 20. Their reward for
preventing a bloodbath, ironically, is the death
penalty.
Skatzes was also convicted and
is on death row. Together the five prisoners falsely convicted in connection
with the deaths that took place during the uprising are known as the Lucasville
Five. The other two of the Five are Black, so the Five reflect the make-up of
the prison population in Ohio: roughly 60 percent Black and Latin@ and 40
percent white.
The solidarity among the
Lucasville Five has held strong. As reported by Lynd, they share legal materials
and are actively concerned for each other’s health. They have gone on
hunger strikes together to protest the conditions of their
confinement.
One of the fasts was
accompanied by a list of demands that started with proper medical treatment for
George Skatzes. After about another week, only Skatzes and Hasan were still
fasting. The prison approached both individually to state that the concerns
would be addressed.
But neither of them
would eat until told directly by the other that he was ready to eat again. Hasan
said: “I chose to stay on the fast to let them know that I was down with
George’s struggle, too, and I would not sit quiet and let the system mess
over him. ... [T]hey got the message and know that we are
one.”
The Lucasville Five’s
convictions are based entirely on perjured testimony extracted from other
prisoners under threat that they would be sent up on capital charges if they
didn’t sculpt the facts to the prosecution’s liking. A growing
number of supporters are calling for their convictions to be overturned and them
to be set free.
Messages of solidarity,
along with stamps and envelopes to facilitate responses, can be sent to S.A.
Hasan (#R130-559), Keith Lamar (#317-117), Jason Robb (#308-919), James Were
(#173-245) at the Ohio State Penitentiary, 878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd.,
Youngstown, OH 44505-4635 and to George Skatzes (#173-501), P.O. Box 788,
Mansfield, OH 44901-0788.
Hasan is
the co-sponsor of a Web site, prisonersolidarity.org and also has a Web site at
www.ohiodeathrow.com/carlos_sanders.htm.
Keith Lamar has written a book, “Condemned,” which can be obtained
from his address above. Much of the material for this article is derived from
Staughton Lynd’s “Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison
Uprising.” For more information, go to www.workers.org/2006/us/lucasville-five-1026/
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