Basic Information

In September, Jesse James was sentenced to 4 months for “damage to property” during the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. We expect that he will be released on November 30, 2009. To find out some ways to support Jesse, check out our How You Can Help page.

His mailing address while in jail is:

Jesse James Forrey

RC Correctional Facility

297 Century Avenue South

Maplewood, MN 55119

A Brief Note

Hey there friends, allies, and government agents—

Time marches on and the month draws to a close. Jesse has enough food, through trading deserts and such for fruit and veggies. There’s more writing from Jesse, including an account of his halloween in jail, at the usual place.

There was a benefit for Jesse in Montpelier, VT. Here’s a brief reportback:

“The benefit went well, I think- kitchen was crazy for a day or two with friends making a bunch of lovely pies and cupcakes- the prodigal string band and our friend played music and a fair number of people showed up”

Just over a week left until this is over, at least Jesse’s incarceration. However, for many of us the cops and courts remain an unwanted presence in our lives, our neighborhoods, and our towns. The prison system and methods of surveillance and social control continue to expand, and we must ask ourselves, what do we do when faced with this behemoth? What creative methods can we theorize and put into practice to physically and otherwise dismantle these institutions? How can we short-circuit this cycle of revolt and repression, and find ourselves in a realm of wild possibilities?

 

Please support Carrie and Scott, two wonderful Minneapolis residents who were imprisoned last week in Iowa for not cooperating with a grand jury. Folks’ educated guess is that the grand jury is investigating an ALF action at the University of Iowa in 2004. Scott has since been charged with conspiracy under the “AETA” and may be released on bail, but it’s possible both could stay in jail for up to 18 months, simply for choosing to remain silent and not participate in sketchy and secretive grand jury proceedings.

 

Many thanks,

Friends of JJ

To Friends Far and Near

Nov. 7th: 22days and a wake-up.

Today was the worst day for me so far. For breakfast I was given: two sad “waffles,” one package of artificial maple syrup, and a piece of banana bread. I complained to the officers who then called the kitchen. A few minutes later I was brought a soymilk, a veggie burger patty and two peanut butter packages.

There are no lunches on the weekend.

For dinner I was given a bag lunch instead of a hot meal! And on top of that insult it had the usual four pieces of bread but only one peanut butter and one jelly. Again I had to complain and ask the custody COs to call down for more pb&j.

It is not my responsibility to do the jail’s job for them. It is fully frustrating and if it continues tomorrow I am going to ask folks to call in to demand I get full meals.

To be given a bag lunch instead of a hot tray is felt as an insult amongst inmates. Those of us with special diets deserve hot food too! Another person in here has been getting bags for hot meals for about a week or so now and it sucks. They even give him things in his bag that he is allergic to (the reason he doesn’t get the normal tray to begin with). He has put in “grievances” but it hasn’t seemed to do anything.

Our ability to feed ourselves is a very basic need and right of all living beings. It is difficult enough to have to take the usual menu offered here in jail, but to be pushed around beyond that is just additional punishment. I’ve realized how frustrated and hard my days are when I am given poor meals, as well as the pimple addition of a handful of grapes or dates can make my entire day. Jail is completely unhealthy, wrong, unjust. I was going to say “inhumane” but considering humanity is singularly misguided enough to cage living creatures, such ugliness as jail is distinctly human.

I also want to communicate my concern and support for Karen. They are about to have their sentencing and it is really hard for me not to be there for them. Court dates are hard, sentencing especially because of the unknown decision that will be made. I hope all who support me will show them the support and care they  deserve, even more so because I am kept at this distance. It is hard to think of them going to jail, of them being in jail when I get out. I hope y’all support them.

Love, jj

Karen and Christina’s Sentencing

Our friends Karen Meissner and Christina Vana will be sentenced tomorrow, Tuesday, November 10th, at 1:30 in Courtroom 840 of the Ramsey County Courthouse, by Judge Teresa Warner.  At trial, they received a plea deal, with the State agreeing to grant them a Stay of Imposition (meaning the felony charge will be dropped to a misdemeanor after succesful completion of probation), a maximimum of 90 days jail time, and the possibility of doing Sentence to Serve as a jail alternative. They face up to 7 years probation. Friendly faces and warm hearts wanted. We hope to see you there.

The Ramsey County Courthouse is located at:

15 W. Kellogg Blvd. St. Paul

Another Visit

Today we visited Jesse again, his beard is fuller and he seemed cheerful and energetic. He says he’s been spending more time out of his cell, playing cards (hearts) and being social, and has had trouble focusing on writing. He still takes time to himself to read, exercise, and stretch. In October, he did over 3,200 push-ups! (Definitely more than twice the amount of money donated.) While visiting, we joked, talked about halloween and the pranks that were played on us, and generally just shared stories and updates about our lives. Jesse said he recently had one of the best days he’s had in there, and then the next day was much harder. Sometimes the grim reality just sinks in. But today his spirits were higher.

While we were visiting, the video monitor system was malfunctioning, so we had to wait for about an hour, and then the visit got cut off early. Luckily, the clerk rebooted the system and gave us an extra 10 minutes for the visit, so the whole ordeal took up a good chunk of our time, and Jesse’s (which is always nice on the inside, to have something to break up the routine).  However, the visiting system they have continues to be a useless, terrible application of technology.

Jesse said that when calling one house that he’s called many times, he got a message saying he’d reached 86% of his collect call limit. So now he bought a couple calling cards. If you have any issues with contacting Jesse, please let us know and maybe we can help. Recently one letter didn’t get through to him, but most have gotten through. He has “too much to read”, but letters are something that continue to keep him engaged with the world, so let’s keep them steadily flowing in for this last stretch. Articles and news are appreciated as well, it’s hard to come by intelligent or relevant information in there. Check out the book list for ideas on topics.

Only 4 visits left!

Yours truly,

Friends of Jesse.

Almost Halfway

Some friends visited Jesse today. Only six more visits to go! Jesse says he spent two hours writing a letter today, appreciated the letters he recieved, and talked about the play he saw (Othello).

Again, there’s some more writing from Jesse, here.

Stay well,

Friends of JJ

More Words from JJ, etcetera

Hi friends!

So there’s lots of new words from Jesse on the From Jesse page, including “A Day in the Life of an Inmate at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility”, which should provide some insight into JJ’s experience.

Friends have been visiting Jesse every week, and that seems to help a lot. He’s growing his beard out again and looks in good spirits. If you want to visit, send us an email.

Also, this month, Jesse will do as twice as many pushups as we get dollars donated! So keep it up with the benefits. So far there’s been some money coming in from the secret café benefit that happened in Los Angeles (thanks so much!), and while the immediate costs of buying writing and hygiene supplies are met, the legal costs still loom overhead.

Here in Minnesota it snowed last week, and then melted and rained for most of the week. The past few days have been close to the ideal fall days-warm and crisp, still sunny and and a good antidote to the premature snowfall.

Stay well and in touch,

Friends of JJ

Support Jesse James Flyer Updated

We’ve updated the old Support flyer so that it has Jesse’s mailing address on it. Download it here and distribute widely!

Second Visit

We visited Jesse yesterday, and he’s doing well. He’s been reading, writing, playing cribbage, doing pushups and walking laps. Apparently his nickname in there is “Punky Brewster”. He says that other prisoners are a mix between quiet and loud, but overall nice and respectful. He recieved lots of books recently, thanks to everyone who sent those. Also, he got a warning because some letters he was trying to send out had contents that the censors didn’t like–so they refused to send them. He’ll get them back when he’s released, but in the meantime, if you have a slow reply from Jesse that might be why. There were at least 4 letters they didn’t send. Overall, he is staying active and in good spirits.

In other news, NYC Anarchist Black Cross recently had a letter writing night for Jesse. Totally sweet! Solidarity’s spreading across the country. There’s also going to be a Secret Café benefit in Los Angeles on October 11th.

A crafty friend of ours put together this image for the support t-shirt. There’s another design too, which we still have a good number of. If you want to order one we can send you the other design right away or this one once we print some more. $10 a pop. The other design is a vast array of sizes and colors of shirts, tell us what you want and we’ll see if we have it. This design is printed on some hip amerikan apparel tees, some conventional and some v-necks, all sizes. Pay via paypal or contact us for an address. Also, if you want to print your own shirts, the get the images on the Download portion of this site.

A Belated Update

In the past few days things have begun to change. The last of Jesse’s friends visiting Minnesota to support him have departed, a strange quiet permeates the air. The fall is coming here, the leaves and temperature are dropping. The rains come, the wind blows across what used to be prairie, we wonder where to go from here.

Jesse says he’s been playing dominoes and cards, he received “The Ohlone Way” and has been reading a book by Toni Morrison. We received an extensive note from him, scattered over several scraps of paper and elegantly but minutely written. Jesse still hasn’t received any letters from California, but we know mail and the censor’s prying eyes slow down the process. Besides, or in conjuction with throwing a benefit for Jesse, one thing you can do is hold a letter writing party. He’s excited to correspond with folks.

Friends visited J for the first time this Tuesday. The official visit is only 20 minutes long and will be abruptly cut off, like the phone calls. Despite this, J and his visitors were glad for the chance to see each other. There should be another visit this Wednesday.

On October 11th there will be a benefit for Jesse in Los Angeles, involving hors d’oeuvres. We’re working on a new flyer for this event and whatever else may happen in the coming months. We also have wonderful support shirts (2 designs!) featuring stenciled wild animals ($10) and copies of Jesse’s full-color zine of his writing($3). We’re working on getting pictures of these up, as well as the image on the shirts so you can print your own. If you want to order anything, shoot an email our way. Thanks!

In his recent letter Jesse shared some “ink pinks” he came up with. If you don’t know, ink pink is a game where you think of a rhyming two-word phrase, such as “oat boat”, and then tell someone two words that mean the same thing…so, in this example it could be “grain barge”. the person is supposed to guess the rhyming phrase from the non-rhyming one you tell them. so here’s what Jesse thought of, send him your answers along with yer own ink-pinks and other riddles.

squeeze-toupee. fat-mark. actpart-booklet. turkey-cloth. law-ass. note-scare. ghoul-mail. lady-scam. makeout-platform. hair-fall. rigid-incline. improved-vowel. dude-movie. bandanna-sex. bounce-write.

Last but not least, we stayed up into the wee hours of the night transcribing J’s journalesque letters to share with you all. Take at a look: Words From Jesse.

With love,

Friends of Jesse James