Toby Shone is an anarchist prisoner currently held at HMP Garth. As with many prisoners interested in political struggle, we have been sending him FRFI each issue; however the prison refused to give him the paper until both we and Toby protested. Eventually a response was received which backtracked from a blanket ban. What is telling, however, is the way this response was framed: the security manager of HMP Garth, in his response to the complaints, said that in the future each copy of FRFI will be reviewed and allowed through if ‘there is no concern around the content that could undermine his rehabilitation’. This framing of their decision to allow access to completely legal and publicly available material reveals the kind of psychological regime that Toby has had to endure throughout his encounter with the state.
Toby will continue to resist censorship. He would also love to hear from comrades with letters and other books and magazines. Toby says:
‘This is the strength of our newsletters, our books, our letters to comrades that they make the enemy afraid. In my case, I’m also being denied socialist, autonomous-marxist and communist papers and books, which have been sent to me by those in solidarity from the radical left, as well as books on black history, transformative justice, and prison abolition. Freedom is written with ink and our blood, like it always has been and will be. Value your books, your newspapers, your letters sent and received. Combative memory persists, and we pass it to each new generation with our efforts alone.’
Toby Shone A7645EP,
HMP Garth, Ulnes Walton, Leyland,
Preston, PR26 8NE
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 301 August/September 2024
