Category Archives: Indiana

General, History, Indiana, Political Prisoner, Prisons, Racism, repression, Transcribed, zine

Too Black on the Case of the Pendleton 2!

Too Black on the Case of the Pendleton 2!

Cartoonized image of Naeem and Balagoon, "Free The Pendleton 2! | TFSR 10-16-22"
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This week, we’re airing a conversation with Too Black, communications representative for the defense committee to Free the Pendleton 2. Too Black also hosts the Black Myths podcast. For the hour, Too Black talks about the case of the Pendleton 2, two Black men incarcerated in Indiana who had decades added to their sentences, including decades in solitary confinement, for defending another prisoner from a white supremacist guard officer formation in the Pendleton Prison Uprising, February 1st 1985. Too Black talks about Christopher “Naeem” Trotter and John “Balagoon” Cole and the struggle to free these elders.

You can find out more about the case by visiting the links at LinkTr.ee/FreedomCampaign (the form Too Black mentioned in particular can be found at this link) see the documentary They Stood Up about the Pendleton 2 at youtube, and you can hear Black Myths Podcasts at libsyn.com

We sometimes forget to add in content warnings, but since we’re talking about racialized brutality behind bars, there are some descriptions of violence and racist quotes read.

Continue reading Too Black on the Case of the Pendleton 2! →

abolition, Capitalism, Colonization, General, Indiana, Prisons, Racism, Transcribed, United States, zine

IDOC Watch, Leon Benson and Abolitionist Organizing in Indiana

IDOC Watch, Leon Benson and Abolitionist Organizing in Indiana

IDOC Watch logo, a fist raising up and crushing a chain over a red background
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First, you’ll hear from Koby Bluitt talking about her father, Leon Benson and his struggle for release after 23 years in prison, 10 of which was in solitary confinement, for a murder charge in 1998 that he has consistently claimed to have not committed. More on Leon at freeleonbenson.org or leonbenson-freeleonbenson on facebook. The Mass Release & Clemency for Leon rally in Indianapolis is July 25th at Tarkington Park. [00:04:44]

Then, you’ll hear from Landis Reyonolds, a founder of IDOC Watch currently held in Westville Correctional Institution and who’s been in since he was a juvenile, and Ray, an outside organizer with the South Bend, Indiana chapter of IDOC Watch. They talk about their work to start study groups in prison, promote Prison Lives Matter, support jailhouse lawyers and recruit outside lawyers through the Prison Legal Support Network alongside the NLG and more. More info at IDOCWatch.Org or find them on twitter, instagram or fakebook. You can support them via their patreon as well! [00:38:08]

PLSN contact info

If you are or know an incarcerated paralegal in IDOC, please send a letter to:

IDOC Watch
P.O. Box 3322
South Bend, IN, 46619

or leave us a voicemail at (423) 281-5009 with your name, DOC #, a brief introduction, and legal training/experience. We will contact you by GTL.

If you are an abolitionist-minded lawyer, law student, paralegal, or have legal expertise and would like to assist:

Email Ray (PLSN outside facilitator) @ RaddishGreens@protonmail.com

Prison Lives Matter:

Sean Swain on Texas abortion laws at [01:19:58]

Continue reading IDOC Watch, Leon Benson and Abolitionist Organizing in Indiana →

Capitalism, General, History, Indiana, Law, Political Prisoner, Race, Racism, Transcribed, zine, Zolo Agona Azania

Former Political Prisoner Zolo Azania

Zolo Agona Azania

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This week on The Final Straw radio we are sharing a chat that Bursts had with New Afrikan, former Black Panther and political prisoner, Zolo Agona Azania. Zolo is  from Gary, Indiana where he lives now, working a job and also doing re-entry work with the formerly incarcerated and community service to break cycles of trauma. After 7 and a half years in prison from ages 18-25 where Zolo engaged in political education with members of the Black Panther Party from Indianapolis, he was released. In 1981 he was re-arrested, picked up by the Gary police while walking around the city after a bank robbery took place, resulting in the death of a Gary police lieutenant. Because of his political views and circumstantially being on the street at that time, Zolo was convicted by an all white jury and sentenced to death.

Zolo beat that death penalty from within prison twice and blocked a third attempt by the state to impose it. For the hour, Zolo talks about his life, his parents, his art, his education, his time behind bars, his political development, the Republic of New Africa, and his legal struggle.

To get in touch with Zolo you can email him at azaniazolo5( at)gmail(dot )com or you can write

Jumpstart Paralegal and Publishing
PO Box 64854
Gary, Indiana 46401

To see more of Zolo’s art you can visit this support page!

Continue reading Former Political Prisoner Zolo Azania →

General, Indiana, Music, Prisons, Racism, repression

V on repression of prisoners at Pendleton CI in Indiana

indianaqps.noblogs.org
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This week William speaks with V, who is an anarchist living in Bloomington IN about current and former instances of racist and institutional violence against inmates at the Pendleton Correctional Institution in Madison County, Indiana. Folks are organizing a call in day from 11am-1pm EST on Monday, September 8th. People are asked to flood the central office and the mail room to protest repression against radical and New Afrikan organizing in the form of severe restrictions to mail and communication, among many other things.

(317) 233-6984 for the DOC central office.

The Pendleton mail room supervisor can be reached at (765) 778-2107 extn.1264

To learn more about this issue, and for updates you can visit
indianaqps.noblogs.org

The other half of the show is metal and post-metal music: http://www.ashevillefm.org/node/10167

activism, Anarchist, Feminism, France, gender, General, Health, Hunger Strike, Immigration, Indiana, Nazis, Notre Dames-de-landes, Police, Prisons, Queer, Racism, Vinci, ZAD

Hunger strike at Westville in IN, Sean Swain radio and more!

http://dignityatwestville.wordpress.com
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This week’s episode of the Final Straw starts off with a couple of announcements about recent prisoner resistance from around the U.S. and the upcoming court dates for the NATO3. (links below)

Secondly, we’ll present a short audio essay by Sean Swain, a regularly occurring segment we hope to become a regular portion of our show. Find out more about Sean Swain at http://seanswain.org

http://freethenato3.wordpress.com/

http://prisonbooks.info/2014/01/10/inmates-strike-to-protest-alabama-prison-conditions/

http://www.illinoisprisontalk.org/index.php?topic=31966.0

This’ll be followed by an interview with Deedee, a member of Saving Our Families, a network of those with loved-ones in the Prison Industrial Complex, based out of Indiana. Deedee is also a supporter of Control Unit Prisoners on hunger strike at Westville Correction Facility in Indiana about the strike and the atrocious food distribution, run by Aramark Corrections Services based out of Philly PA. More info can be found at http://dignityatwestville.wordpress.com

And, finally, we’ll present the last portion of the ZAD interview we started with last week. http://zad.nadir.org

Also, we announce that we’re now available at 106.5LPFM in Olympia Washington on KOWA. Tune in on Saturday nights at 9pm to hear us!