~ from Jeju Prison, by Kim Young-Jae
Posted on May 17, 2013
Kim Young-Jae was arrested on April 12 while standing in front of a truck, on the road leading into the site of a naval base under construction on Jeju Island, South Korea. Two days later, he was issued a warrant and taken to jail. Here are translated excerpts from a letter he wrote on April [...]
» Read more~ Prison letter from Brian Terrell, from Yankton
Posted on April 23, 2013
Drones, Sanctions and the Prison Industrial Complex by Brian Terrell In the final weeks of a six month prison sentence for protesting remote control murder by drones, specifically from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, I can only reflect on my time of captivity in light of the crimes that brought me here. In these [...]
» Read more~ Message from Yang Yoon-Mo, Jeju prison
Posted on April 9, 2013
from Save Jeju Now UPDATE ON YANG YOON-MO ON HIS 68TH DAY IN PRISON Yang Yoon-Mo hit his 68th prison day on Monday, April 8. On April 10, he will hit his 70th prison day. On a sunny Monday, the way to the meeting room of the Jeju prison was filled with green trees and magnolia. [...]
» Read moreBradley Manning’s statement taking responsibility for releasing documents to WikiLeaks
Posted on March 7, 2013
from the Bradley Manning Support Network By Army PFC Bradley Manning Read to Judge Denise Lind, Fort Meade courtroom, February 28, 2013 Transcript by the Bradley Manning Support Network. (Scroll down for acknowledgements.) I wrote this statement in confinement, so… The following facts are provided in support of the providence inquiry for my court martial, [...]
» Read more~ from FPC Yankton, by Brian Terrell
Posted on February 15, 2013
Dear Friends, Greetings from the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota! As of this writing, I am two months into a six month sentence imposed due to my protest of war crimes committed by remote control from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri against the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Betsy accompanied me here [...]
» Read more~ Prison message from Leonard Peltier
Posted on November 23, 2012
Greeting my relatives, friends, and supporters, It is with great honor that I get a chance to speak with you even though it’s a written message that someone has to read. I’m saddened that we have to call this a Day of Mourning, but we must take every opportunity to remind this nation when it [...]
» Read moreJail reflection from Transform Now Plowshares activist Greg Boertje-Obed
Posted on September 2, 2012
(published in issue #167 of the Nuclear Resister newsletter) ~from Blount County The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. – Psalm 118.22-23 When Megan, Michael and I were preparing for the witness that became the Transform Now Plowshares, we [...]
» Read more~ Post prison reflection from Susan Crane
Posted on June 16, 2012
A Reflection on Coming Out of Prison: On Contradictions and Responsibility From the Disarm Now Plowshares website After the Disarm Now Plowshares action, trial and sentencing, I was in prison with a fifteen month sentence: an eye-blink in comparison to the sentences of most of the women I was with in FDC SeaTac and FCI [...]
» Read more~ Prison reflection from Lynne Stewart
Posted on June 16, 2012
We Must Raise The Level Of Our Resistance Excerpted from Lynne Stewart’s letter to the United National Anti-war Coalition (UNAC) conference that took place March 23-25, 2012 in Stamford, Connecticut. Too many wars, too much death and destruction on both sides… And our ever-present legacy of these wars? Go down to your local “shelter for [...]
» Read more~ Prison reflection from Steve Kelly, SJ
Posted on June 13, 2012
From issue #166 of the Nuclear Resister Unrecognized political prisoner: A Year’s Reflection Or as Steve Baggarly of the Norfolk Catholic Worker wrote in a letter from jail: “If the SHU fits…” Many folks, mostly activists, write to us with this first thought: “Oh, I could never do what you are doing”, meaning either [...]
» Read more~ from FCI Dublin, by Susan Crane
Posted on April 11, 2012
Easter Greetings from Susan Crane from the Disarm Now Plowshares blog Dear Friends, Thanks for your prayers, letters, books and encouragement. Your support means so much to me. And thanks for your work that brings us all closer to the Beloved Community. I was walking back to the housing unit from dinner the other day, [...]
» Read more~ from Lancaster County Prison, by Norman Lowry, Jr.
Posted on March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Dear Jack and Felice, Thanks for the great card from the Tucson Peace Fair. These cards are always filled with grand encouragement, to be sure! After numerous delays, my trial took place yesterday. Sentencing will take place after a presentencing investigation. Had I chosen, after the many judicial conferences along the [...]
» Read more~ Prison reflection from William “Bix” Bichsel, SJ
Posted on March 1, 2012
A Lenten Call: Give Up Our Violence! Note from Leonard Eiger, Disarm Now Plowshares: This is a reflection written over the course of two days by William “Bix” Bichsel, SJ during his 30-day stay in solitary confinement at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center. Bix began this reflection on Friday, February 3, 2012, the third day of his second (four day) [...]
» Read more~ From Morgantown FCI, by Steve Baggarly
Posted on December 8, 2011
The one thing which every jail and prison does more than anything else is counting people. We’re counted five times a day here. Three times we’re returned to our housing units to stand by our bunks and be counted, and they come through twice at night after lights out. We’re counted to the extent that [...]
» Read more~ From the Irwin County Detention Center, by Steve Baggarly
Posted on September 5, 2011
Reprinted from the Catholic Agitator, newsletter of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker. Steve Baggarly will be sentenced September 20 in federal court in Knoxville, Tennessee, for trespass July 5, 2010 at the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Last night as I prepared to turn in, at the foot of my upper bunk, [...]
» Read more~ From FMC Carswell, Max Unit, by Helen Woodson
Posted on September 5, 2011
Silo Pruning Hook activist Helen Woodson is due to be released September 9 after serving nearly 27 years in prison for that and subsequent actions against war and other assaults on human dignity, peace and the environment. July 23, 2011 Dear Jack & Felice, 48 days – and then I’ll emerge, Winkle-esque, into a very [...]
» Read moreJackie Hudson, Presente
Posted on August 15, 2011
TRIBUTE TO JACKIE HUDSON, OP from her sisters in prison Sister Jackie Hudson, OP – Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan, missioned to Ground Zero near Bangor Trident Naval Base, faith-filled and faithful peacemaker and organizer, strong preacher of truth, gentle and nonviolent woman, teacher, musician, plowshare activist and resister, was called before her unconditionally [...]
» Read more~ From the Irwin County Detention Center, by Sr. Mary Dennis Lentsch
Posted on July 24, 2011
July 8, 2011 Dear Peacemaking Friends, With all the prayers and positive energy coming to me from so many directions, I feel I’m doing very well here at the Ocilla jail. This letter is being written to LaQuita with what the commissary calls a “ballpoint pen”. It is the skinny little filler for a pen so [...]
» Read more~ From the Irwin County Detention Center, by Michael Walli
Posted on July 1, 2011
A JOKE AND A LETTER The U.S. and Russia are supposedly allies in fighting Islamic terrorism. But they do not trust one another – they spy upon one another. The U.S. Navy Seals used trained porpoises to spy upon the Russian Navy in their naval warfare activities. But the Russian sailors kidnapped the porpoises. This [...]
» Read more~ From FCI Dublin, by Susan Crane
Posted on June 19, 2011
Thank you for your letters, your prayers, the books you have sent. Thanks for maintaining contact with me. I arrived at the federal prison here in California, flown in with 29 other women from Pahrump, Nevada. We had been woken up at midnight to get ready to leave, and had been in shackles and waistchain [...]
» Read more~ From the Irwin County Detention Center, Georgia, by Bonnie Urfer
Posted on June 18, 2011
TOILET PAPER by Bonnie Urfer I really want to complain about every woman in this jail receiving one roll of toilet paper to last for the whole week but I can’t because the for profit jail almost killed my friend Jackie in it’s “medical” unit. I really want to complain about the lack of toilet [...]
» Read more~ From the Blount County Correctional Facility, TN, by Carol Gilbert, O.P.
Posted on June 6, 2011
May 25, 2011 Dear Friends, Welcome to another of America’s gulags – this one in Eastern TN – the Blount County Correctional Facility in Maryville, TN! This is day number 15 and I want to begin the journey with a quote from Jarhead by Anthony Swofford and his experiences as a Marine in Operation Desert [...]
» Read more~ from Tacoma, Washington, by Lynne Greenwald
Posted on April 29, 2011
FDC SeaTac by Lynne Greenwald Concrete walls and locked doors cannot take away images of bright lights, fences and towers protecting tombs of unimaginable horrors. We remember fertile lands, natural forests, mollusk-rich beaches, early morning fog clinging to water and earth until the sun brightens the sky, exposing Olympian mountains. Trident IS Illegal and Immoral. [...]
» Read more~ A letter from Bix (written several days before beginning “diesel therapy” to Tennessee)
Posted on April 19, 2011
After spending the first 2 1/2 weeks of his prison sentence for the Disarm Now Plowshares action at the SeaTac Federal Correction Facility, Jesuit priest Bill “Bix” Bichsel was taken out of his cell on April 18. He is being transported several thousand miles across the U.S. to Tennessee, where he is scheduled [...]
» Read more~ from Lompoc, California, by Louis Vitale
Posted on March 24, 2011
Responding to the Message of Fukashima By Louie Vitale In “From Hiroshima to Fukushima,” an article published in The Nation on March 15 in the wake of the nuclear power disaster in Japan, historian Jonathan Schell once again hit the mark. The author of the ground-breaking book The Fate of the Earth published in the [...]
» Read more~ From Fr. Louis Vitale, written at the Irwin County Detention Center, Georgia
Posted on December 20, 2010
December 8, 2010 HERE WE ARE AGAIN by Fr. Louis Vitale Two weeks have passed since David Omondi and I began our sojourn here at Irwin County Detention Center in southern Georgia. Some may say, “Vitale has protested himself back into the pokey below the Mason-Dixon line” and “He has been jailed again in an [...]
» Read more~ from Danville, Connecticut, by Nancy Gwin
Posted on September 29, 2010
Illegal Reentry by Nancy Gwin I. In January I was found guilty in Federal Court in Columbus, Georgia of “Illegal Reentry onto a United States Military Reservation.” I have been incarcerated here at Danbury Federal Correctional Institution since March 8. The illegal reentry occurred last November when Fr. Louis Vitale, Ken Hayes, Michael Walli and [...]
» Read more~ from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, by Leonard Peltier
Posted on September 29, 2010
(from the Nuclear Resister #158/159, September 20, 2010) February 6, 2010 Greetings to everyone, Thirty-four years. It doesn’t even sound like a real number to me. Not when one really thinks about being in a jail cell for that long. All these years and I swear, I still think sometimes I’ll wake up from this [...]
» Read more~ from Skenäs Prison, Sweden, by Martin Smedjeback
Posted on August 2, 2010
SERVING TIME FOR PEACE IN SWEDEN 17th of June, 2010 I am led into the central office of the prison Skenäs outside of Norrköping. Two guards help me to carry my stuff. “It looks like you are moving in here!” says one guard. “That’s exactly what I am doing, temporary anyway,” says I. “Do you [...]
» Read more~ from Lompoc, California, by Fr. Louie Vitale, OFM
Posted on June 5, 2010
(From the Nuclear Resister #157, June 1, 2010) February 25, 2010 How Can I Cope? Many people who write me – friends and supporters – ask about harsh treatment and brutality. I do not deny that in many prisons and jails these conditions do exist. One can even raise the charge of torture. In regards [...]
» Read more~ from Vikbolandet, Sweden, by Martin Smedjeback
Posted on April 1, 2010
(From the Nuclear Resister #154, July 17, 2009) Strategy Behind Swedish Disarmament The network Ofog (meaning mischief in Swedish) started in 2002 as an anti-militarist network for a nuclear-free world. Inspired by the Trident Ploughshares campaign in Great Britain, we used mainly blockades in our actions but also other forms of direct action, like penetrating [...]
» Read more~ from Pekin, Illinois, by Kristin Holm
Posted on April 1, 2010
(From the Nuclear Resister #153, May 1, 2009, via lettersfromprison.com) March 22, 2009 (in the afternoon) I got my first visit yesterday – mom and dad. When I found out they were coming I was pleased, but markedly unemotional. It would be good to see them – I like my parents. But it was to [...]
» Read more~ from Norrköpping, Sweden by Annike Spalde
Posted on April 1, 2010
April 4, 2009 Ten years ago I was in jail in England, awaiting trial for an action within the Trident Ploughshares campaign. Now I’m on remand in Sweden, for a disarmament action against the fighter jet Gripen. It’s my first time locked up in Sweden. Compared with in England, one spends more time in the [...]
» Read more~ from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, by Leonard Peltier
Posted on April 1, 2010
(From the Nuclear Resister #152, February 24, 2009) February 6, 2009 Greetings my relatives, First of all, before anything else I want to thank all for the work that you’ve been doing because what you do for me, you do it for my people and all those that come after us. The enemy that we [...]
» Read more~ from Terre Haute, Indiana, by Rafil Dhafir
Posted on April 1, 2010
(From the Nuclear Resister #151, December 20, 2008) December 16, 2008 Two days ago, December 14, was my second anniversary here in CMU-Terre Haute, Indiana. Two years ago, with dozens of others, I was whisked here without explanation, to this place reserved for those on death row. The place was closed for years. It was [...]
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