There are those who think I should give up my fight for UFD, and I should just accept the fact that these people who run the New York state prison system don’t want UFD to operate within their institution. But no one seems to think to ask why these prison officials are so adamant to resist my efforts. It gets really frustrating that people who I think stand for prison reform and prison abolition are so quick to give up the fight and to convince me to give it up as well.
I’m doing nothing wrong for exercising my first amendment rights, which exist to protect citizens against tyranny by always guaranteeing us the ability to speak truth to power and to organize against oppression. I need all of you to understand something.
These prisons are graduating young prisoners deeper into violent and criminal behaviors. And someday, most of them will be released back into the community. They don’t know how to thrive in mainstream society, and mainstream society often doesn’t accept them. This means a life of crime or mediocrity for them. UFD and I are often the only hope they have to escape such a future.
To ask me to abandon my fight for UFD is tantamount to asking me to give up the fight to save the lives everyone else seems to have forgotten about. I’ll die first before I do that.
This is Dontie S. Mitchell, better known as Mfalme Sikivu, reporting to you from Great Meadow Corrections Facility in Comstock, New York. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @freeDontieMitchell. Also, join the Dontie Mitchell support committee if you’re willing to help in small ways. Thank you for listening, God bless.
