Letter From John Sinclair To Attorney Mark Stickgold

LETTER FROM JOHN SINCLAIR TO ATTORNEY MARK STICKGOLD

Dear Mark:

I have been hoping that I would hear from you, or in the alternative that I would be able to come and see you to discuss the 1983 suit, but neither eventuality seems to be forthcoming so I thought I'd better write and get some of this off my mind. I received the Mullaney (ed. note: see page 9) briefs last week and have studied them very closely, and I just can't see how we can let him get away with the phony allegations and mis-truths he has incorporated into his ad hominem attacks on me. There's no telling how much longer the Supreme Court will take to rule on my bond application, or if their ruling will be favorable, and in the meantime I'm going crazy behind being locked up. I've been in "administrative segregation" for more than a year already, my mail is still being held up, I'm still not able to receive the materials I need for my work and my legal defense (including literature which is allowed to other prisoners), and with all the commotion about impending "riots" and the "increased security" which the defendants in this case have been making I'm afraid of what might happen to me while I'm here. You know what happened to George Jackson (and the news today says that he was not shot from the guard tower but from the ground, possibly while lying on his face in a prone position), and after reading the fabrications in Mullaney's briefs about my "proven" role in last year's inmate strike here in Jackson (more on that below) I can't help but worry about what might be done to me if something jumps off in here now.

I hesitate to discuss the charges Mullaney has made in a letter since he has made it clear that my correspondence with my attorneys and even with federal judges is not only read but copied and turned over to the attorney general's office, but I can't just sit here and let that stuff be said without trying to set the record clear. The most incredible claim is his reference to my "record of repeated and brazen violations of valid Prison Regulations" -- as you may or may not know, the only Prison Regulation I have been charged and "convicted" of violating is the typewriter rule almost a year ago; the only other disciplinary ticket I have received was for "refusing to get a haircut", for which I served five days in 5-west (July 2-6, 1971) before the officials admitted that the order of Judge Keith had not been rescinded. I have never been formally charged, except in Mullaney's briefs, with violating the correspondence regulations, now with "contemptuously flouting" any other prison regulation with which I disagree.

You should also know that the two inmates who gave me the Black Panther Party material to type for them, and who (if anyone) would have been responsible for "distributing" it, were not "administratively segregated" or subjected to any other form of punishment. I had absolutely no part in distributing any material here in Jackson, as I was already in segregation when I got the ticket for the violation of the typewriter regulations. Furthermore, the BPP 10-point program and platform which Callahan asked me to retype for him was brought down from him and passed through the standard "shakedown" procedure before being turned over to him. That specific material, and material of the nature of the "Ideology of the Black Panther Party" which I retyped for Dorsey, was openly circulated at Marquette during all the time I was there, it came out of books which were approved by the Marquette administration (and in fact Callahan brought down with him a book titled The Black Panthers, by Gene Marine, from which the 10-point program and platform had been copied and which was approved by the Jackson authorities for him to have in his possession). The books which were withheld from me had all been approved by the Marquette officials while I was there, and other inmates at Marquette were receiving through the mail copies of the Black Panther newspaper and other publications which were forbidden to me.

Further, the other inmates who were shipped down from Marquette with me -- prisoners who were the officers of the Society for the Advancement of Educational and Rehabilitative Opportunities -- were released into general population (Eddie Greene, Leon Morgan, William Cherry), trustee division (Robert Shipp), or kept in the psychiatric clinic (Koskiusko Moore) when we arrived in Jackson, while I was the only one who was kept in 5-East on "administrative segregation," and I have not been released from segregation since then.  I have been on what they call "blue hole card" for the past three months and some days since I last returned from the Wayne County Jail -- this means that I am kept segregated with between 12 and 23 other prisoners on a special gallery in 6-block, where we stay on "top-lock" 24 hours a day. We eat in a segregated dining area and are allowed out into a special "yard" area which is locked behind us. We have "movie privileges" but are kept in a segregated area of the auditorium, and any time we leave the "blue hole card" area (except for visits) we must be escorted by a guard. When I first was sent to this area of 6-block I saw Dorsey, who had been responsible for the "Ideology of the BPP" incident last fall, residing in the "population" section of 6-block with full yard privileges. This seems very strange given Mullaney's assertion that "it will always be administrative segregation . . . every time, whether our 'guest' be John Sinclair or Joseph Mendi.

This is especially strange in the light of the treatment accorded the admitted "ring-leader" of the "gravely prison-dangerous confrontation of a few guards by sixty-plus black inmates. . at Marquette," especially since I was in no way associated with their organization, never attended a meeting, (and their meetings were held in the Marquette Prison yard, openly, over a period of weeks before he alleged "confrontation"), was not a signer of their petition, not an officer of their organization, etc. etc. And those prisoners who were openly associated with the organization as officers were released into "general group" immediately upon their arrival at Jackson, that is, as soon as we all went to the classification board. "It will always be administrative segregation . . . every time"???

Mullaney also refers to my "later-established complicity in the later Jackson Prison strike" -- again, I have never been charged with any such activity, or I should say formally charged, and a look at the record will show that there was absolutely no way I could possibly have been involved in that strike or any other prison activity, since I was confined in 5-east until a week before the strike began, with no contact with the rest of the prison population whatsoever, and was confined in maximum security segregation (5-west) for the six days prior to the beginning of the general strike, which I learned about over the prison radio hook-up since I was under lock and key twenty-four hours a day at the time. I don't know to this day who was involved in the Jackson strike, and despite the "conclusive evidence" proving my involvement with the Marquette and Jackson strikes I have never been formally charged or given a disciplinary board hearing on whatever "rule violations" I may have committed in that respect.

I don't quite under stand how, in an institution where prisoners are given written disciplinary tickets for such serious offenses as "skating," "silent insolence," "refusal to get a haircut," "refusing to work," talking through the fence to "blue hole card" inmates, and other heinous offenses--I don't understand how I could commit such really serious offenses as those alleged by Mullaney and not be "written up" and taken to "disciplinary court" for them. If I committed a "regulation violation" of the mail regulation then one would assume that I would have been formally charged, a ticket would have been written up, and I would have to be taken to "court" and "tried" for this offense, right? This was never done. Yet for the past year-plus I have been on a restricted correspondence list, my regular correspondents limited to 10 persons, my mail pored over and admittedly copied by the prison officials, etc. etc. This has worked and continues to work a tremendous hardship on me, although in the past two months or so I have been allowed to communicate with certain publishers and editors I need to contact, without having to remove friends and other business associates from my 10-person restricted correspondence list. Still, there are many people I need to correspond with, and many people who need to correspond with me, who are not permitted to write me.

There is a lot more that I need to discuss with you before this case goes any further, but it should be done in person since the state of Michigan regularly and contemptuously violates our attorney-client relationship with impunity. I would really appreciate it if you could come up and see me as soon as you possibly can, because it may be another month or two before the Supreme Court deigns to rule on the bond application, and I may not even live that long unless something can be done to guarantee my safety here. Let me hear from you.

Yours in struggle,  John