THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE SAY!!!

"SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS EVIL ITSELF"!!!
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -

"HE WHO PASSIVELY ACCEPTS EVIL IS AS MUCH INVOLVED IN IT AS HE WHO HELPS TO PERPETRATE IT. HE WHO ACCEPTS EVIL WITHOUT PROTESTING AGAINST IT IS REALLY COOPERATING WITH IT."!!!

"I'd RATHER ANNOY PEOPLE WITH MY HONESTY AND LOUD OPINIONS THAN STAY SILENT."!!!
- Demi Lovato -
SOURCE: USMAGAZINE,com/FEUD OF THE WEEK NICKI (US) DEMI MAY 23, 2016, p.10

"DO YOU REALLY WANT TO STIR THE POT?" I'LL GET ASKED. "ONCE I'd THOUGHT ABOUT IT, ACTUALLY. I DO."

ON BEING VOCAL ABOUT HER OPINION.
- CHLOE GRACE MORETZ -
SOURCE: UNMAGAZINE.com/LOOSE TALK AUGUST 22, 2016, p.12.

"A man is God's marvellous creation, crowned with glory and honor, and because of this you can't quite hem him in. You can put him in...prison, but somehow his mind [imagination] will break out through the bars to scratch across the pages of history."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

VOICES
From Behind
WISCONSIN
PRISON GATES
Issue 2, September 2016

"Changes need to be made throughout the system, and for that to happen we all need to come together."
- Incarcerated Worker at Fox Lake Correctional Institute

The State of Wisconsin has capitalized off of incarcerating inmates - this includes the county jails, the courts and the prisons. It is no secret the D.O.C. is a billion dollar business - we are an assembly line to them...
The prisons would cease to function without the collective effort of the inmates. If all the inmates refused to work statewide, the Wisconsin prison system would die. Unless we push D.O.C. until their backs are to the wall, they will continue with their capitalizing scheme."
- Incarcerated Worker at Dodge Correctional Institute

"Prison doesn't stop a person from being a human being. Some of the greatest people in this world have been incarcerated."
- Incarcerated Worker at Columbia Correctional Institute

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL

This is a newsletter for people incarcerated in Wisconsin, based as much as possible on what they are saying. It is edited and printed by the Milwaukee branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. Please write us back if you have updates you'd like to give to people on the inside and the outside. The more that people talk together the less isolated we are. We are in contact with networks of prisoners areas outside of Wisconsin, and can help build those connections. Let us know if there are other people inside jails and prisons that we should contact. Besides the voices we quote here, the Milwaukee IWW is also helping groups at Waupun, Columbia and Green Bay Correctional with specific issues. Let us know if you want to hear more about these issues.
Write to IWW: PO Box 342294, Milwaukee, WI 53214

"Prison in Wisconsin is constructed to systematically break and destroy us mentally, emotionally, spiritually, morally, religiously, ethically, racially, socially!"
- Incarcerated Worker at Wisconsin Secure Program Facility (Boscobel)

"The masses have been conditioned to think that once that 'convicted felon' stamp has been applied to me, you, whoever, we're scum of the earth."
- Incarcerated Worker at Wisconsin Secure Program Facility (Boscobel)

"Not only do you provide a medium for inmates to voice their concerns, but to an unquestionable degree, you empower us to become responsible for our future. But most importantly, you raise the awareness of the public to those issues that has a tendency to make our life unique as a human experience."
- Incarcerated Worker at Fox Lake Correctional Institute

Working Class Solidarity Against Prison Slavery

Voices from Fox Lake Correctional Institute:

"The situation here at Fox lake is best compared to an accident looking for a place to happen. The water is bad. It contains both lead and copper in amounts that exceed the federal guidelines. The staff don't drink the water. They bring bottled water to work with them. The food is not much better. There are a lot of health issues here at Fox Lake, with some inmates experiencing various illnesses from cancers to heart issues."

"If they take your job, you have to wait 90 days before you can apply for another job, plus they make you stay in your room until 4:30 pm every day. And you are allowed one recreation period each day. So, to lost a job is to add insult to injury. So, some inmates have taken to brown nosing to keep their jobs."

"Another dilemma that we are faced with is how the DOC has, literally, thousands of inmates detained on allegations alone as the result of being charged with a crime, but once the charges have been exonerated the client is stuck serving a revocation without a conviction."