Co-author of "Agreement to end Hostilities" amongst the races & a representative of the largest hunger strike in US history!
Co-author of "Agreement to end Hostilities" amongst the races & a representative of the largest hunger strike in US history!
by Ronnie Yandell
On Feb. 4, 2019, I was sitting in my cell in Ad-Seg STRH H-195 in California State Prison Sacramento, known as New Folsom Prison, reading a book, when around 10 a.m. the floor officer advised me that I was being transferred to Pelican Bay State Prison.
On Jan. 23, 2019, I had been told by Associate Warden Peterson at my committee hearing that I would remain in Ad-Seg pending investigation over an alleged kite supposedly found in a routine cell search at Pelican Bay State Prison. Because I was told this, I knew my transfer was not sanctioned through normal procedures.
So, I told the officer I wasn’t going. I knew the Institutional Gang Inspectors (IGI) were trying to back-door me. Next, Lt. Cross tried to convince me to go, which again I denied. I told her this was a shady move by IGI and that Pelican Bay tried to frame me.
I knew my life was in danger due to my participation as a hunger strike representative and co-author of the “Agreement to End Hostilities” manifesto between all races. When I was released from Pelican Bay Security Housing Units (SHU) in 2015, IGI said I would “one day pay for it.”
Those of us released within the last five years from the SHU Short Corridor back into General Population (GP) due to the hunger strike have mostly held the agreement across California, bringing prison racial violence to a historic low.
The prison industry receives more money with the more violence they have to manage. This explains the resurgence in IGI-forced gladiator fighting between races recently. They are desperately trying to keep us fighting.
Lt. Cross told me she didn’t have the authority to override the transfer order. She contacted Sgt. Cline and Correctional Officer Ramirez, who works for the Investigative Security Unit (ISU). They both told me they weren’t aware of this transfer and promised to look into it. They returned later and told me they couldn’t contact anyone with enough rank to stop the transfer.
I truly felt I would be killed on the way up to Pelican Bay – “We stopped for gas, and somehow Yandell got out of the SUV, and we had to shoot him in the back.” So I told everyone that this smelled like a set-up, and I was going to defend myself. Of course, the puppets told me I was going willingly or by force.
Then Capt. Riley came, claiming he could not contact anyone either. So he ordered the assault on my cell.
Around 12:45 p.m. on Feb. 5, the assault team showed up, dressed in their chemical suits, gasmasks, combat helmets, football masks, kneepads and elbow pads. With Capt. Riley, Lt. Cross, Sgt. Johnson, Correctional Officer Vang came the assault team members, who were Correctional Officers Read, Crume, Esquerra and Deitchman.
Understand this: Legally, they can’t use chemicals or force against a prisoner unless he is a threat to himself or others. What did they do? They sprayed a burning chemical on me inside my cell for over 20 minutes, trying to suffocate me and get me to the point where I could no longer see. Though my skin was melting off me, I wouldn’t cuff up. I just couldn’t go out like that, like sheep to slaughter.
Then, the assault team breached my cell and rushed me. They were striking me with metal batons across my forehead, busting it open, and striking my body. After the assault, I was removed from the cell in handcuffs and leg restraints. I was seen by medical staff that just placed a bandage over my forehead injury to stop the bleeding, and cleared me as fit.
I found out later my wife inquired why they cleared me for transport, a seven-hour ride up to the Bay, without checking to see if I had internal bleeding or a concussion, without giving me an MRI or x-ray. You know what my doctor told her? “What injuries?” There is no record in her computer of medical even seeing me on Feb. 5. She is investigating why that is.
So, they put my burnt, beat-up body in an SUV for transport. We started the journey to who knows where, headed out of Sacramento. We were about 20 minutes on the highway to hell when the escort correctional officer gets a call. Ring-a-ding, ring-a-ding-ding. “Hello? Who? Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir.” He hangs up and the other cop says, “Who was that?” “Warden. He said to turn our asses around and bring Yandell back to New Folsom immediately.”
Yep, just as I suspected the entire time, Pelican Bay and IGI was trying to kidnap me. Warden Lynch never knew about it or signed off on it. And I found out later that Associate Warden Peterson was notified the day I was being transferred, and he OK’d it, as Warden Lynch wasn’t there that day so Peterson was acting warden.
So, who stopped the transfer that day? It was someone from CDCR headquarters in Sacramento that got wind of it and put a stop to it. That means it was someone with higher rank than a warden. I was told CDCR has egg on their face over what happened and are embarrassed.
Even prisoners who go to the committee and get endorsed to be transferred legitimately still have refused to transfer and nothing happens to them. I’ve witnessed it multiple times in here. So why did they assault me for a transfer that wasn’t approved through proper procedures? Whoever got wind of it and put a stop to it absolutely proves that it was done shadily.
On March 30, I got to see the video of them rushing my cell. Looks bad for them, especially since the Rules Violation Report the guards filed does not match the video evidence. Five guards were on me, and you can’t see but parts of my body, but you can plainly see Correctional Officer Read striking me over and over with that metal baton, raising his hand high in the air and then slamming down. When they pull me from the cell, you can see the blood from my forehead dripping on the floor. I will be able to get a copy once I file in court.
These are people so caught up in their make believe reality they’re like drunks who think they’re walking a straight line. And who the hell are the real criminals falsifying documents, falsifying confidential information on a regular basis? What’s so horrible is that they have been locking us up for decades – 23 ½ hours a day with nothing. And now it’s finally proven to be done on a fake ass foundation of lies. They put people in prison for such crimes, so shouldn’t they be held accountable?
This whole thing came out of nowhere. ISU from the Bay couldn’t wait any longer, and made their desperate move to make me pay for the hunger strikes. They fabricated that kite and put me in Ad-Seg on Jan. 13 as a desperate move to hold onto their crumbling world. Prior to this, the past four years I have been in no trouble beyond cell phone charges.
With those phones – which I was forthcoming about to the guards – the few of us here that came from Pelican Bay Secure Housing Units, Black, Mexican and a few more Whites besides me have collaborated to create a documentary on how we came together racially in our struggle to get out of the SHU. And our blueprint for a free society is to do the same, as prison is a microcosm of the world. What’s happening to us in here is happening to them out there, on a bigger scale. We will be releasing the blueprint before summer.
Prior to the hunger strikes in Pelican Bay in 2011, the Blacks did a hunger strike. It didn’t work. The Whites did one, and it didn’t work. But when we all came together, all the races, by the power of that unity, we were able to change laws. The people on the street can do the same out there.
Since arriving here with other races that came out of the SHU, there has been a significant drop in violence at New Folsom, zero racial violence and zero guard assaults in GP in the past four years. Many times, IGI has sent Sensitive Needs Yards (SNY) informants to instigate problems between us. But they have been unsuccessful because of the understanding we learned through communication with each other when issues arise. We work them out without turning immediately to violence like we did in the past.
We had the first interracial baseball game a couple years back. All the guards thought something was going to happen, but the day went smoothly and everyone had a good time. Now we go to canteen together, program together – many of the barriers have been torn down.
Until they set me up with bogus charges this past January, I was teaching the impact classes, which brought many of us closer, talking about things we never thought we would repeat to another person. Many of our stories are the same; different skin color is all.
The prison system has set up the racial divide amongst us for decades in order to have us killing each other for their profit, scamming the taxpayers out of money. This is why they force inmates to gladiator fight. Think about it: We actually have to fight and outsmart the CDC in order to have racial peace and less violence. This is the same thing those that govern the free people out there have been doing for decades.
We have been played, all of us, from the prison to the streets. Our power is in coming together. We can take back what belongs to us, our sovereignty, and the treasures that belong to everyone. They got people out there working two or three jobs to stay above water, keeping them too exhausted to fight the world that is being forced upon them. This is not the life we were born to live.
These are people so caught up in their make believe reality they’re like drunks who think they’re walking a straight line. What’s so horrible is that they have been locking us up for decades – 23 ½ hours a day with nothing. And now it’s finally proven to be done on a fake ass foundation of lies.
If we unlock the divide that has been imposed upon all of us, people out there together can change the laws, like we did, but first they have to come together and stop fighting. We got to stop taking a back seat to our own lives.
I have already begun asking around here anyone with personal stories on ISU corruption to write it down and give to me. Firstly, we elect someone in every prison to collect stories until we get organized, until they release me from Ad-Seg to GP.
Secondly, start a petition in every prison, with your name and CDC number, asking for the federal government to investigate ISU, IGI, California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) for the forced gladiator fights, racial conflict set up by informants, and forcing SNY on our yards to create problems – all illegal practices for profit.
Later on, through this, we can build a safe platform for the guards who are forced to carry out orders on gladiator fights or lose their jobs. Let’s help them come out and debrief on the CCPOA.
If we all come together as one unit, like we did up in the Bay, we can change all this. We are supposed to be doing time – not being tortured or used as chess pieces against each other for the CDCs games and profits. Let’s take a stand and let’s get organized.
In conclusion: I won’t take any settlement out of court to keep my assault and kidnapping quiet. I am taking this to trial – not for personal gain, but to take a stand and have laws changed to stop this from happening to anyone else. I will have 100 inmates of all races testify to the positive influence I’ve had in bringing everyone together.
I’m grateful to San Francisco Bay View for publishing my story. What would we do without journalists like those at the Bay View who make our voices heard?
Send our brother some love and light: Ronnie Dean Yandell, V-27927, CSP-Sac STRH H-195, P.O. Box 290001, Represa CA 95671
T
S.F. Bay View
Behind Enemy Lines
Agreement to End Hostilities
July 16, 2021
Support-the-Agreement-to-End-Hostilities-art-by-Michael-D.-Russell-1400x908, Agreement to End Hostilities, Behind Enemy Lines
“Support the Agreement to End Hostilities” – Art: Michael D. Russell. Russell, one of the Bay View’s favorite artists, is apparently free, as he can no longer be found in the California Inmate Locator.
Dated Aug. 12, 2012
To whom it may concern and all California prisoners:
Greetings from the entire PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Hunger Strike Representatives. We are hereby presenting this mutual agreement on behalf of all racial groups here in the PBSP-SHU Corridor. Wherein, we have arrived at a mutual agreement concerning the following points:
1. If we really want to bring about substantive meaningful changes to the CDCR system in a manner beneficial to all solid individuals who have never been broken by CDCR’s torture tactics intended to coerce one to become a state informant via debriefing, that now is the time for us to collectively seize this moment in time and put an end to more than 20-30 years of hostilities between our racial groups.
2. Therefore, beginning on Oct. 10, 2012, all hostilities between our racial groups in SHU, ad-seg, general population and county jails will officially cease. This means that from this date on, all racial group hostilities need to be at an end. And if personal issues arise between individuals, people need to do all they can to exhaust all diplomatic means to settle such disputes; do not allow personal, individual issues to escalate into racial group issues!
3. We also want to warn those in the general population that IGI [Institutional Gang Investigators] will continue to plant undercover Sensitive Needs Yard (SNY) debriefer “inmates” amongst the solid GP prisoners with orders from IGI to be informers, snitches, rats and obstructionists, in order to attempt to disrupt and undermine our collective groups’ mutual understanding on issues intended for our mutual causes (i.e., forcing CDCR to open up all GP main lines and return to a rehabilitative-type system of meaningful programs and privileges, including lifer conjugal visits etc. via peaceful protest activity and noncooperation, e.g., hunger strike, no labor etc.). People need to be aware and vigilant to such tactics and refuse to allow such IGI inmate snitches to create chaos and reignite hostilities amongst our racial groups. We can no longer play into IGI, ISU (Investigative Service Unit), OCS (Office of Correctional Safety) and SSU’s (Service Security Unit’s) old manipulative divide and conquer tactics!
In conclusion, we must all hold strong to our mutual agreement from this point on and focus our time, attention and energy on mutual causes beneficial to all of us [i.e., prisoners] and our best interests. We can no longer allow CDCR to use us against each other for their benefit!
Because the reality is that collectively, we are an empowered, mighty force that can positively change this entire corrupt system into a system that actually benefits prisoners and thereby the public as a whole, and we simply cannot allow CDCR and CCPOA, the prison guards’ union, IGI, ISU, OCS and SSU to continue to get away with their constant form of progressive oppression and warehousing of tens of thousands of prisoners, including the 14,000-plus prisoners held in solitary confinement torture chambers – SHU and ad-seg units – for decades!
We send our love and respect to all those of like mind and heart. Onward in struggle and solidarity!
Presented by the PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Collective:
Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry), C-35671, D1-117
Todd Ashker, C-58191, D1-119
Arturo Castellanos, C-17275, D1-121
Antonio Guillen, P-81948, D2-106
And the Representatives Body:
Danny Troxell, B-76578, D1-120
George Franco, D-46556, D4-217
Ronnie Yandell, V-27927, D4-215
Paul Redd, B-72683, D2-117
James Baridi Williamson, D-34288. D4-107
Alfred Sandoval, D-61000, D4-214
Louis Powell, B-59864, D1-104
Alex Yrigollen, H-32421, D2-204
Gabriel Huerta, C-80766, D3-222
Frank Clement, D-07919, D3-116
Raymond Chavo Perez, K-12922, D1-219
James Mario Perez, B-48186, D3-124
Note: All names and the foregoing statement must be shown verbatim when used and posted on any website or other publication.
Send our brothers some love and light and solidarity. Write to them using the listed names, numbers and housing and add the address: P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532. The Bay View sends them all our highest respect, appreciation and best wishes for this historic action.
This is the Agreement to End Hostilities as it was originally posted on the Bay View website, at https://sfbayview.com/2012/09/california-prisoners-make-historic-call-to-end-hostilities-between-racial-groups-in-california-prisons-and-jails/, when it was written in 2012. The signers, the Best of the Best, are scattered throughout California’s 30-plus prisons, still not allowed to live and work together, CDCr still fearful of their legendary organizing ability. All of them are working toward release and deserve all the help and support we can give them. Send these brothers some love and light at their current addresses:
Todd Ashker, C58191, KVSP ASU 2-194, P.O. Box 5106, Delano, CA 93216
Arturo Castellanos, C17275, PBSP, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532
Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, C35671, Freedom Outreach, Fruitvale Station, P.O. Box 7359, Oakland, CA 94601
Antonio Guillen, P18948, SVSP, P. O. Box 1050, Soledad, CA 93960-1050
Danny Troxell, B76578, CSP LAC, P.O. Box 8487, Lancaster, CA, 93539
George Franco, D46556, DVI, 2300 Kasson Rd, Tracy, CA 95304
Ronnie Yandell, V27927, CSP-SAC, P.O. Box 290001, Represa, CA 95671
James Baridi Williamson, D34288, SVSP D3-229, P.O. Box 1050, Soledad, CA 93960
Alfred Sandoval, D61000, PBSP, P.O. Box 7500, Cresecent City, CA 95532
Louis Powell, B59864, CSP LAC, P.O. Box 4430, Lancaster, CA 93539
Alex Yrigollen, H32421, CSP SAC, P.O. Box 290001, Represa, CA 95671
Gabriel Huerta, C80766, Centinela, P.O. Box 901, Imperial, CA 92251
Frank Clement, D07919, KVSP, P.O. Box 5102, Delano, CA 93216
James Mario Perez, B48186, SVSP, P.O. Box 1050, Soledad, CA 93960
Paul Redd, free
Raymond Chavo Perez, rest in power
TAGSad-segAgreement to End HostilitiesAlex YrigollenAlfred SandovalAntonio GuillenArturo Castellanosbroken by CDCR’s torture tacticsCalifornia prisonersCCPOACDCR systemcorrupt systemcounty jailsDanny Troxelldivide and conquer tacticsexhaust all diplomatic meansFrank ClementGabriel Huertageneral populationGeorge Francohunger strikeIGIIGI [Institutional Gang Investigators]informersISU (Investigative Service Unit)James Baridi WilliamsonJames Mario Perezlifer conjugal visitsLouis PowellMichael D. Russellno laborOCS (Office of Correctional Safety)Paul ReddPBSP-SHU Short Corridor CollectivePBSP-SHU Short Corridor Hunger Strike Representativesprogressive oppressionrats and obstructionistsRaymond Chavo Perezrehabilitative-type systemRepresentatives BodyRonnie YandellSHUSitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry)snitchessolid GP prisonerssolitary confinement torture chambersSSU’s (Service Security Unit’s)state informant via debriefingTodd Ashkerundercover Sensitive Needs Yard (SNY) debriefer “inmates”
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