VEGAN PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE LETTERS
The Abolitionist’s interview with Lauren Gazzola

Vegan prisoners of conscience appreciate all correspondence with the outside world. It makes their day and with so many people in prison, animal rights activists show by writing or sending a card that they refuse to allow vegan prisoners of conscience to rot away unnoticed in prison.

Please write to Lauren, and remember to include the prisoner number otherwise your letter will be sent back. She can be reached at:

Lauren Gazzola # 93497-011
FCI Danbury
Federal Correctional Institution
Route #37
Danbury, CT 06811

Lauren’s Support Website is: www.SupportLauren.com

Abolitionist: How do you view HLS activism now and all that’s occurred since your and SHAC 7’s sentencing Lauren?

Lauren: First and foremost, I am loathe to speak of efforts against Huntingdon in the past tense; activism against HLS is very much alive and well across the US and around the world. It’s very important that activists be careful not to perpetuate, even unintentionally, that the jailing of the SHAC7 somehow put a stop to a global campaign against animal testing at HLS. We should not view it, as a thing of the past.

Similarly, I don’t grant that HLS activism is, or ever was, inherently risky. In fact in spite of hundreds of actions against HLS in the US only three people have spent more than a month in jail due to action against HLS, and those three for breaking windows in broad daylight, on videotape and – in the case of one individual – in front of dozens of police. Even those few who spent a few weeks in jail did so due to minor charges earned at public protests.

There seems to be a very low level of risk in taking action against HLS, no more than the normal amount of risk posed in attending any protest, which, from time to time, may result in arrest due to “disorderliness” or some other minor infraction.

The only heightened level of risk I see in HLS activism is in fact not unique to efforts against HLS. That is the risk that comes from being viewed, by the government, as a “leader” of a successful effort which threatens corporate governmental interests.

As the SHAC7 case demonstrates, this risk exists quite independently of whether such alleged: leadership” consists of legal or illegal acts. However, this has been the case since the first person challenged power and history has shown there will never be a shortage of people to step up and fill those roles, regardless of the risk it entails.

Abolitionist: Please describe your daily routine.

Lauren: Prison, for me, is extremely busy. I’ve not felt boredom once. This, I suspect, is more a function of the individual than the prison itself – I know plenty of people in here that are bored, bored, bored.

My day begins at 6am when the compound opens for breakfast. After breakfast, I get ready for the day, brushing my teeth and running any errands I need to get done for the day (dropping off laundry, weighing mail etc). Afterwards, or if I haven’t any errands to run that day, I walk around the compound and listen to the news on my radio. There are the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets here and I get to watch them almost every day. Lately it’s been snowing a bit and I have enjoyed walking in it.

Work Call is at 7.30am. Federal Law requires all federal inmates to work (and the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery, provides an exception for forced labor as punishment for a crime. Welcome to America). I teach math from 7.30am to 8.30am to inmates earning their GED’s. After work, I read or write until lunch, around 11. The lunch period lasts until 12.30 and, when the weather is nice, I spend the rest of the time out back walking on the track.

Between 12.30 and 3.30 I fill my time with some combination of reading, writing, and working out. We have cardio-exercise equipment (trendmills, bikes, elliptical and rowing machines), a weight room and all manner of exercise tapes and equipment (jump ropes, yoga balls, medicine balls, etc). There is also aerobics, pilates and yoga classes and even a country line dancing class! Sara Conner circa termination 2, here I come.

At 3.30 we are “recalled” to our housing units for a 4pm count. I catch a shower after working out and before the count. Then I do abit more reading or writing before dinner at 5pm. After dinner, its more walking around the compound until Mail Call. Seems like I do a lot of walking, huh? I’m in place where you are around other inmates every moment of the day. You need to find privacy in the midst of that environment since you cannot escape it. Walking with my radio is a great way to do this. Plus, I get much better reception on my radio outside than I do inside. Behind the prison building, separate from the rest of the Compound, there is a track. Across the street is Camdlewood Lake, the largest man-made lake in the Eastern half of the US. I believe it stretches across 5 towns (rumour has it that, at the minimum security camp across the street, where there are no fences, you can walk right up to the lake). There is rarely more than a few people walking back there, and it’s very quiet, and pretty looking at the hills and trees and homes off in the distance. This is another reason, I suspect, that I walk so much.

In the evenings I usually do some more writing, meet up with some friends and/or watch abit of TV – “Heros” on a Monday night, woo hoo! Around 10pm I’m in bed reading but usually falling asleep often after a few pages, to get up and do it all again the next day. All in all, I keep busy, that’s for sure.

Abolitionist: How difficult is it being vegan in the US industrial-prison complex?

Lauren: I will refrain from discussing specifics here, lest this subject becomes the subject of litigation! Suffice it to say, vegan food in prisons is not so adequate that there would be no need or grounds to litigate the matter.

Abolitionist: Does America need a ‘Vegan Prisoners Support Group’(VPSG) similar to the English one or due to the US privatisation of prisons, is this an unlikely eventuality?

Lauren: Yes. The US desperately needs a Vegan Prisoners Support Group (VPSG). Every time a new animal activist goes into prison, the movement is reinventing the wheel, working to get nutritional information to the prison, and finding lawyers and financial resources to sue if necessary. It would be much more efficient to have a centralized organization prepared to advocate for vegan food, and which may again have some influence with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) if it begins to face the same advocate over and over again. Additionally, an organization with its focus as specially vegan food in prisons can seek out additional inmates around the country who may be vegan but unknown to the animal rights community. The demand for the Bureau of Prisons to recognise a vegan diet may be higher than any of us know. Privately contracted facilities are still subject to BOP policy, so I don’t see privatisation affecting the efforts of a VPSG.

Abolitionist: What would you like to say to all the people that have been writing to you?

Lauren: Thank-you. A thousand thank-yous!! Additionally I’d like to explicitly thank those who have sent books and magazines or newspaper subscriptions. When I receive books I often do not receive the packaging, so I do not know who sent them. Similarly I have received several magazine/newspaper subscriptions without an indication of who they are from. Though I can’t thank you personally, please know that I am so, so thankful. And please be patient waiting for replies. The quantity of mail I receive is overwhelming. It’s difficult to reply promptly to everyone who has sent mail.

More importantly, to everyone who has written, sent books, donated, or done any other form of direct support, please know that the best form of support we can receive is vicarious – please get out and fight for the animals. Step up your efforts, no matter where you currently stand in your activism – take one step further, inspired by the SHAC7, and make our conviction a victory for the animals.

Abolitionist: The SHAC7 were convicted on running a website. Have you given any thought to what the future holds in the US for activism?

Lauren: Unfortunately I think the SHAC7 conviction makes it clear that even much of the legal protected activity must be conducted anonymously; It is not enough any longer to refrain from breaking the law. At the same time, it is important for activists to step up publicly and demonstrate that they will not be frightened into silence. This is a delicate balance that must be achieved in order to protect our freedoms and assert them at the same time.

Additionally it is important to recognise that the operation of a website could indeed be criminal. While I dispute that the website(s) an issue in the SHAC7 case was, if a website is sufficiently threatening to cross over the line of constitutional protection for speech, it could rise to the level of a criminal threat. It is not enough for activists to assume that if they are not smashing windows or slashing tyres, they are insulated from prosecution. Instead, it is imperative that activists fully understand where, under the Law, the lines between protected and unprotected speech lie. It is foolish to engage in a sustained effort without knowing, and hence being able to avoid, those places where that effort is vulnerable to attack.

Abolitionist: Have you received any books yet? How many are you allowed at any one time?

Lauren: As I said previously, thank-you to those who have sent books, and I’m sorry I don’t know everyone who sent one and can’t thank you personally (but feel free to write and let me know which books you sent). Most people have sent books from my book list posted at SupportLauren.com, which I appreciate. You cannot send more than 5 books at a time, hardcovers must come from the distributor, and soft covers mailed directly and must contain a declaration of the contents on the outside of the package (i.e., “2 books”)

Abolitionist: On your website (SupportLauren.com) you said you are living in a cubicle type situation as opposed to a cell. Do you get a chance to play your own music? Do you have good neighbours? Are you happy?

Lauren: The only musical option there is in Federal prison is small personal radios with headphones, cassettes, CD’s. Other forms of personal music are not permitted. As such, I spend a lot of time listening to either NPR, or channel surfing to find good songs.

All of the inmates in my unit are nice, and I’m actually trying to be less social. It gets abit too much to be surrounded by 96+ people all day and night who feel free to come up and start chatting at their leisure.

Am I happy? Yes. Very much so. Oddly, considering my life experiences over the past few years, since my arrest , I’ve come to experience some of the happiest years of my life. Again, I think that being so happy while in prison is a function of the individual person and not at all the environment. You definitely need a large capacity to put up with and/or ignore an incredible amount of bullshit.

Abolitionist: What are your politics Lauren?

Lauren: This is a very broad question however succinently, in recent years, I have come to believe that there exists, undoubtedly, at least some moral absolutes: genocide is wrong, rape is wrong, animal abuse is wrong etc. And there is no relativism about them. Additionally, I believe that force, if necessary, to stop such moral wrongs – at least those involving tangible suffering – is justified. I wish that we lived in a world where we didn’t need to fight wars to stop genocide or use force to stop any of the other countless number of society’s ills – there are almost always innocent victims of using force but unfortunately this is not the case. And I think the use of force is justified for no less purposes of stopping injustices that are not recognised by the State or society at large (private citizens recognise the ills of slavery long before any government did) as is State sanctioned force (i.e., wars fought to end genocide).

To be clear, I am extremely pleased that the animal rights movement has largely refrained in its use of force from using physical violence. I believe there are enormous benefits to not shying away from not using the level of force which is necessary, while refraining from crossing that line into using a greater level of force than is needed. Today, many goals for the animal rights movement can be accomplished through advocacy, outreach and education alone. Others require the use of actions such as live liberations and property destruction. These latter have been extremely effective when the former have not, and I wholeheartedly disagree with those who feel the animal rights movement should adopt physical violence as a tactic. It is ill advised – tactically, ethically, and politically – to increase the violence of your efforts when increasing the quantity or strategic nature of less violent efforts will be equally as effective.