Ujamaa. Ujamaa. Hi everyone. This is Dontie Mitchell, better known as Mfalme Sikivu, reporting to you from Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York. In this segment, I want to talk to you more about my fight for the reform and rehabilitation of young prisoners, and how the New York State Department of Corrections [DOC} and Community Supervision is fighting to stop me. As I told you in my first installment, I am the founder of UFD, the Ujamaa Fraternal Dynasty. UFD is a mutual self improvement fraternity devoted to Black socioeconomic empowerment, but our membership is open to anyone, regardless of race, color or creed. In prison I use UFD as a platform to positively organize, motivate, inspire, and educate young prisoners, and to steer them away from gangs, drugs and violence. I’ve had success using UFD to encourage them to change and better themselves, but I have been disciplined for doing so.
See, DOC prohibits unauthorized organizational activities. Before prisoners in New York can organize, we must get approval to form an inmate organization. The problem is that approved inmate organizations are purposefully restricted to make them ineffective, because prison administrators fear progressive inmate organizations which will expose their corruption, reactionary policies and mistreatment of the prisoners in their care. So for years, I operated UFD without official recognition and approval to avoid having prison administrators suppress my efforts. Unfortunately, doing so hasn’t worked well.
When I arrived here at Great Meadow, I tried a different approach. I made a request for approval to form a prison chapter of UFD knowing my request would likely be denied, and indeed, it was, paving the way for me to take legal action in federal court. DOC’s denial of my request not only violates the First Amendment, but it’s also tantamount to telling prisoners we have no right to rehabilitate ourselves and secure our future. We can’t expect DOC to do it. DOC sets us up for failure. That’s why the recidivism rate is so high. Corrections is meant to correct criminal behavior, and DOC sucks at it. The only solution for prisoners like me who want change and betterment is to organize, to reform and rehabilitate ourselves, and to create our own pathways to success and prosperity.
UFD does this by teaching prisoners our conscious money philosophy and the lessons of success upon which this philosophy is based. Those lessons can be found in books like Your Magic Power to be Rich, by Napoleon Hill, The Success Principles; How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, by Jack Canfield, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R Covey, and The One Minute Millionaire; The Enlightened Way to Wealth, by Mark Victor Henson and Robert G Allen. The lessons of success in these books are powerful and transformative. They teach our incarcerated members how to earn a meaningful living without resulting to crime, and UFD gives them a means to build the positive relationships these lessons of success require for their effectiveness. This is something DOC neither teaches nor offers. Tune in again next time as I continue to discuss this subject. I’m going to show you why UFD can do a better job than DOC at countering gang violence, rehabilitating young prisoners and lowering recidivism at minimum cost to the state. Follow me on Facebook at Free Dontie Mitchell. Share your comments. Also, I’m in need of a outside volunteer too to help me administratively. If you’re interested, please write me. Find my address on my Free Dontie Mitchell Facebook page. Thank you for listening.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
