This week’s show is about the case of two prisoners in Ohio. In 2011, the staff at Mansfield Correctional Institution (MANCI) became aware of a nascent guerilla sabotage movement starting among prisoners called the Army of the 12 Monkeys (A12M). A12M sabotage and organizing manual and propaganda began circulating among prisoners.
Cells were searched in detail and James “BlackJack” Dzelajlija was found to have angry hiphop against prison he’d written and also a book on Ericco Malatesta, the long-dead Italian anarchist. Sean Swain, an outspoken anarchist prisoner and jailhouse lawyer at the same institution, was found to have an article he was writing criticizing the privatization of the prison system. Neither were found with A12M materials. As time passed, 2 other prisoners were accused and assented to membership in A12M and that Swain and Blackjack were unaffiliated. Ohio’s prison court, however, disagreed. Now this movement has spread throughout multiple facilities in Ohio, such as Noble, Lake Eerie and Toledo.
This episode is a conversation with Blackjack and Sean Swain, both serving in high security at Youngstown (OSP), and also with Ben Turk of Redbird Prison Abolition and supporter of Sean Swain. We talk about Sean’s activism and writing, how the A12M case has effected Sean & Blackjack, the targeting of anarchists within prisons and more.
http://seanswain.org for Sean’s articles, posts, zines, comics and news on Blackjack, A12M as it relates to Sean and Blackjack and more!
http://www.redbirdprisonabolition.org for info on prisoners in Ohio and prison abolition.
Sean Swain 243-205
Ohio State Penitentiary
878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd.
Youngstown, OH 44505
James Dzelajlija 530-144
Ohio State Penitentiary
878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd.
Youngstown, OH 44505
Sean Swain v ManCI Administrators, Round ???
Excerpt from recent letter by Sean Swain:
“Good news: Jesse Williams, North Regional Director of the ODRC, who authorized the illegal monitoring of my mail, has been fired. Warden Terry Tibbals was relieved as ManCI Warden yesterday (the guy who requested the illegal monitoring).
News break: in post escape investigation, it was found that $130,000 is missing from the ManCI budget. The OSHP sought maintenance supervisor Jim Miracle for questioning. At his house they found the trailer for a missing gator (golfcart vehicle) from ManCI. Miracle is M.I.A.
A few days later, Major Ralph Harr was arrested, scapegoated by Warden Tibbals. To save his own ass, Harr turned over on Tibbals. I’m certain that Harr will be an awesome witness when this goes to trial.
Lt Dahlby is gone from R.I.B. Re- assigned.
See that in the rearview mirror? That’s a pile of corpses, the careers of fascists.
We did that.”
More about Sean Swain…
Update #1: Sean has been approved for transfer to level 5 supermax and according to officials at ManCI he’s “#1 on the list to go” but according to the ODRC website, he is still at ManCI. We expected Sean to be transfered to level 4B in Lucasville. Sean has faced two conduct reports for the same incidents. It appears they approved the transfer on the basis of the first conduct report, which recommended level 5, and was thrown out / redone by ODRC legal counsel Trevor Clark because it “relied too heavily on Sean’s ideology” I’m paraphrasing that quote, rather than citing the actual letter because i’m hundreds of miles away from Sean’s legal work and because…
Update #2: SeanSwain.org mysteriously went down following the posting of “Days of Teargas, Blood and Vomit” (see full text of that here). We’re investigating to make sure this wasn’t an accident or coincidence, and hope to have the site back up, in some form, soon.
Update #3: The ManCI mailroom is acting up worse than ever. Mail from publishers / distributors appears to be thrown in the trash with no notice of witholding (a violation of prison rules) and personal letters from some people are returned with messages written on them by Sean. So they show / hand him the envelope but won’t let him open it. We’re not really sure exactly what is going on with that, but it seems like sending sean lots and lots of mail to swamp the facists in the mail room is a direct way to intervene in the situation. Calling and complaining is another option.
So, please, write Sean a letter. In fact, write him lots of letters. Put 5 pages of whatever nonsense you want in each envelope. Include 3 photographs and 3 embossed envelopes, if you’d like. Humor is an important part of resistance for Sean, so write him jokes, tell him funny stories, write short plays for two actors to perform from the other side of a steel door so he and Blackjack can entertain others on the range. Obviously don’t write about illegal stuff you’ve done or wanna do, but do write fun epic accounts of illegal stuff you’ve heard about via the grape vine, or dreamt about last night, or sent him print-outs of anonymously posted communiques or report-backs.
Write Sean at
Sean Swain
ManCI 243-205
PO BOX 788
Mansfield OH 44901
Call ManCI and ask them to please nicely follow their own rules and stop torturing our friend: 419-526-2000.
Push zero and either ask to be connected to the warden or the mail room.
http://www.redbirdprisonabolition.org/2013/08/sean-swain-v-manci-administrators-round.html