by Raymond “Chavo” Perez and Kendra Castaneda-Perez
It has been two years since our Agreement to End Hostilities was released in October 2012, and we continue to stand united. While there have been a few conflicts here and there, we need to commit to ceasing all racial hostilities towards one another and remain peacefully united throughout all prison facilities.
By re-reading and re-committing ourselves to the Agreement to End Hostilities, we are taking back control of our own lives and our own futures. As we wrote in the Agreement, “We can no longer allow CDCR to use us against each other for their benefit!”
We ask every prisoner in every California prison and jail to read the Agreement to End Hostilities (below) over and over again until you thoroughly understand it and live it every day. Then we will demonstrate our strength not by fighting – dividing and conquering ourselves – but by ceasing all hostilities between racial groups and individuals and within our own race and learning to work together, unified for one cause, programming peacefully to rehabilitate ourselves and protect our human rights from this point forward.
Agreement to End Hostilities, originally published in October 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:
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 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.
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!
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. 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!
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.
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: Todd Ashker, Arturo Castellanos, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry), Antonio Guillen
And the Representatives Body: Danny Troxell, George Franco, Ronnie Yandell, Paul Redd, James Baridi Williamson, Alfred Sandoval, Louis Powell, Alex Yrigollen, Gabriel Huerta, Frank Clement, Raymond “Chavo” Perez, James Mario Perez
We want to commend the four main reps for continuing to work together equally in unity for the last few years even with recent changes: One of the main reps, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry), has been transferred to CCI Tehachapi SHU and George Franco has taken the position again as a main rep for the Northern Mexicans.
By re-reading and re-committing ourselves to the Agreement to End Hostilities, we are taking back control of our own lives and our own futures. As we wrote in the Agreement, “We can no longer allow CDCR to use us against each other for their benefit!”
We also note that the riots and racial hostilities at Calipatria State Prison that happened a few months ago between the Mexicans and African Americans have ended. We want to thank all of those individuals who made this peaceful union occur.
We commend all who have worked hard to keep the peace and continue to peacefully unite with one another.
Starting Oct. 10, 2014, the Agreement to End Hostilities for all races is to be re-implemented in all California prison facilities and California jails.
UNITED WE STAND!
Raymond “Chavo” Perez, K-12922, is one of the 12-man Representatives Body responsible for the historic Agreement to End Hostilities. He survived 18 years in the Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor until January 2014, when he was transferred to General Population in California State Prison (CSP) Sacramento (New Folsom) on Step 5 of the Step Down Program. Raymond’s significant other, Kendra Castaneda-Perez, is a prisoner human rights activist and writer. She can be reached at kendrachavoperez@gmail.com.
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