Letter to the Editors
Alvaro Luna Hernandez—self-chosen name Xinachtli—is a political prisoner who has championed human rights, Chicano liberation, and revolutionary change. He is serving a 50-year sentence, stemming from his conviction for successfully defending himself from a police officer who was threatening him with a firearm at his own home in 1996. (Wikipedia has extensive information on Xinachtli’s biography, writings, political work, and his case.) He has applied for parole this August 2024. The following are excerpts of a letter to editors at Socialist Viewpoint:
“Conditions here are worsening and the prison ‘civil rights’ legal victory we won in the celebrated Ruiz prison conditions case have evaporated, as goes ‘civil rights’ under the capitalist system of mass incarceration with deep roots in settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the African slave trade.
“We have been on ‘lockdown’ now going on 21 days, under a starvation diet, no out-of-cell recreation, and a shower once a week. It is horrible, but the prison’s excuse is that they don’t have sufficient staff to provide us with basic human necessities we are entitled to under the law. The same process of dehumanization!
“The fact remains that the great majority of these torture cages are occupied by people of color, in this genocidal system of mass incarceration, in the nation’s largest prison system, second to California.
“Currently, there is a Supreme Court case—Grant Pass v. Johnson—on cities’ authority to criminalize and punish ‘homelessness’ under the eighth amendment standard of cruel and unusual punishment. And given the ultra-reactionary nature of a right-wing saturated court, due to Trump, the court may use the case to re-define a new standard and overrule prior cases as it did in Roe v. Wade on abortion rights, and restrict prisoners’ rights cases, defer to prison authorities to do as they please in ‘corrections’ no matter the flagrant violations of human rights.
“So, we will go back to the old ‘Marion prison’ and ‘Attica’ type conditions to fight back against the new ‘hands off doctrine’ that started in 1996 with President Clinton selling out and signing Republican laws to impose restrictions on prison litigation and the writ of habeas corpus, in challenging inhumane prison conditions, and illegal convictions.”
Write to Xinachtli:
Alvaro Luna Hernandez #00255735
McConnell Unit
3001 South Emily Drive
Beeville, TX 78102