Editor’s note: The Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign received this letter, written in late January with the heading, “how can you be illegal on stolen land?” from Shaka in early February . It is the first public update since River North Correctional Facility imposed collective punishment on the entire prison population in late November. Please note that, for now, we have omitted some details as well as additional updates we hope to communicate shortly.
For now, get involved in the struggle to free Shaka, all political prisoners and prisoners of war, and our people behind bars!
Revolutionary Greetings Comrades, Friends, and Supporters,
i know some of you all have been waiting to hear from me or to get some kind of update.
Let me say that i highly appreciate all the love, solidarity, support, and comradeship that i been receiving from not only all around the “country,” but also from various countries overseas. Thank you for the letters and emails during a time i could really use and appreciate them.
Back in August 2025, i was administratively transferred back into the mountains to a prison where i had pending and ongoing litigation against for violating my rights during a hate crime attack by these officers while i was handcuffed.
The last week of September 2025, i was tricked into the infirmary, leaving all my personal property unsecured in my cell as i prepared to go out for knee replacement surgery. i would have that surgery on October 1 and be moved to another prison medical ward until October 30 and then be reentered back here to River North Correctional Facility and placed in population without my property. in fact, i would not have physical possession or see my property again until December 21, 2025, after i went on a 19-day hunger strike.
On November 17, a guard was killed by a prisoner for his continuous malicious and unprofessional treatment of and conduct against prisoners. Three other guards were allegedly wounded.
The prison was placed on lockdown under martial law as strike-force, special operations teams from prisons all over the state was brought in to conduct armed operations of the prison. While some of the teams have been pulled back, We remain on lockdown and/or martial law as some, very few restrictions are eased back.
It is now almost February and We are still being limited to three 10-minute showers a week, maybe a phone call on one of those days where you have to choose between one or the other. Maybe every 10 days, you might get to choose between a one of those or a peek at your emails.
Until recently, no property was being pulled out. The reason a lot of you haven’t heard from me is that i’ve been isolated and subjected to an embargo against being able to communicate. Remember, for months i didn’t have access to my property. So, no access to my phone book, no stamps, envelopes, etc. We couldn’t have access to emails or phone calls and were being told property would not be authorized to be pulled out for another month or two as We were being told We were going to be on lockdown for 150-180 days.
This is why i went on a hunger strike on November 30 for 19 days, demanding that i be issued my property, legal materials, etc., as i had court deadlines and court dates.
After about a week, i was moved from the medical ward and placed in a single man medical isolation/observation cell with a camera where three or four days later all of the water was shut off to the cell, leaving only toilet water unless i could get the guard to turn on the sink for a second. This was one of the nastiest cels i’ve ever been housed in: smeared feces all over the walls, body fluids all over the walls, windows, door, and rubber platform that was used as a bed.
i was denied a shower, clean clothes, and the chance to brush my teeth for over 10 days. In fact, i was told i couldn’t’ have a shower until i “came off my hunger strike because i might drink the shower water!”
After the 19th day and the intervention of the Interstate Compact Department, i was given most of my property, except for my tablet and later some political documents i discovered was missing—along with some personal photos.
In fact, after being moved back to population i was placed in the cell with an extreme lumpen neo-kolonial reactionary taking psych meds on top of substance issues. This was intentional.
After a couple of weeks and after my cellie would alert the police that he was in a mental crisis and wanted to move to another cell, the police refused to act until i filed a complaint and went to the hole overnight. i was then placed in a different cell with a more compatible and stable prisoner.
i discovered that prison authorities had access to my personal property unjustifiably and, in violation of policy, had confiscated various items that i’ve been allowed at every other prison since i’ve been in Virginia. While also designating some of my more political books as being over the allowed limit and forcing me to send them home.
The beat goes on!
Comrades, i’m to the beat, though, and moving straight ahead! Even though they seized my tablet illegally to try and keep me from organizing and emailing comrades, the beat goes on.
As my documentary, “Across Enemy Lines” and book, Manifestations of Thought have come out and been embraced all around the world to the great displeasure of agents of the state, i want to thank my family and the many comrades and people who made it possible for the book and documentary to get out, to be screened, to be distributed. To the people who did the hard work and who not only believe in me but is trying to bring me home.
We lost a lot of giants in 2025. i found out later about the transitioning onto the ancestors of Assata Shakur and Iman Jamil Al-Amin. May they forever Rest in Power and be shining beacons of light to follow and illuminate Our path.
When the masses stand up, listen and learn
While i didn’t intend for this to be this long, let me digress for a moment.
People always talk about what can’t happen in Babylon, in amerika, and yet We see federal agents are across the country functioning like slave patrols of the old days or like racist security forces of the apartheid era in occupied South Afrika as they body search and invade public and private space.
However, what has been empowering and inspirational is the response of the people. i’m not just talking about the radicals, the activists, the work; i’m talking about the average so-called citizen, the mom and pop, people who says “no, get the fuck out of Our city!” People who protested and stood up for that neighbor regardless of so-called “race” and “class.” These are seeds and blocks that are to be built upon.
i wrote an essay called “Dual Power” and another one called “Questions and Reflections.” About 30 years ago, i wrote one called “Apocalypse Now.” What We see now is some of what i was talking about when i asked the question:
“how do We move from just ‘protesting’ to ‘resisting’—using the tactics and strategy of both defense and offense.”
When you see underground networks/modern-day underground railroads, surveillance and sabotage, and strikes or general strikes at different layers and levels, it provides the opportunity for agitating, educating, and further organizing and politicizing and in fact some of these folks who claim allegiance to the prison abolitionist movement can take some lessons out of the Minneapolis playbook.
Just imagine if the energy We see in places like Minneapolis, the anti-ICE organizing that went on in Chicago and elsewhere was used in the prison abolitionist or anti-Prison Industrial Complex movement? The anti-death penalty movement? And when these people are preparing to murder Us again, it has to be a method to the madness and a vision of the future that you’re willing to fight for if not die for!
All power to the people!!
Fuck ICE!
Free the Land!
Shaka A. Shakur
P.S. Also, for my north amerikan friends and comrades, these people you see out here in this below-zero weather because they feel its morally wrong what the federal government does and says: these are some of the communities that y’all need to be in trying to politicize, organize, and mobilize (no disrespect, i’m just saying).
Action steps you can take now
- Share and donate to Shaka Shakur’s Legal Defense Fund!
- Sign and share this petition demanding Shaka Shakur’s freedom!
- Cop fresh gear and key texts at the Shaka Shakur Store!
- Watch, share, and organize a screening of the documentary, “Across Enemy Lines“
- Get involved in the struggle to free Shaka Shakur!