Hugo Pinell

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Hugo "Yogi Bear" Pinell (b. 1945) is an Nicaraguan prisoner currently incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison in California. He was convicted in 1965, at the age of 19, of assault in connection with the kidnapping , sodomy, and rape of a young woman in San Francisco. He turned himself in, and received a sentence of 18 months in state prison.

While Pinell was imprisoned in San Quentin State Prison he made contact with revolutionary prisoners such as George Jackson, one of the Soledad Brothers and W.L. Nolen. Both men were African-Americans who, in jail, claimed to had turned away from a life focused on crime to a life focused on the ideas of social revolution. They both lead a movement to convert their fellow prisoners to the same ideology. Along with their fellow prisoners, they fought for an end to guard brutality and racism, and for prisoner unity.

On August 21st, 1971, there was a prisoner uprising in Pinell's housing unit at San Quentin, led by George Jackson. According to the state of California, lawyer-activist Stephen Bingham had smuggled a pistol concealed in a tape recorder to Jackson, who was housed in San Quentin's Adjustment Center time awaiting trial for the murder of a prison guard. On August 21, 1971, Jackson used the pistol, an Astra 9-mm semi-automatic, to take over his tier in the Adjustment Center. In his failed escape attempt, six people were killed, including three prison guards, two white prisoners, and Jackson himself.

The prison guards were Jere Graham, Frank DeLeon and Paul Krasnes. Witnesses allege that Graham was the first victim, shot in the back of the head execution-style after Jackson commented about the pistol, "Let's see if this thing works."[citation needed] DeLeon and Krasenes were beaten, stabbed and had their throats cut, dying after a half-an-hour from loss of blood. Two other guards were similarly treated, and they nearly bled to death before being rescued when prison guards shot their way into the Adjustment Center.[citation needed] In addition to the guards, two white prisoners who had been delivering food to the Center were murdered by the rioters.[citation needed] They were hogtied with bed-sheets and stabbed to death.[citation needed]

At the end of the roughly 30 minute rebellion, guards had killed George Jackson, and two other prisoners and three guards were dead. Of the remaining prisoners in the unit, six of them, including Pinell, were put on trial for murder and conspiracy. They were known as The San Quentin Six. Three of them were acquitted of all charges, and three were found guilty of various charges. Pinell was convicted of assault on a guard. Although Pinell was convicted of assault, and another of the San Quentin Six had a murder conviction, only Pinell remains. By 1998, all of the men except Pinell had been set free.

Pinell is a member of the Black Guerilla Family prison gang. Since 1990, Pinell has been living in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison, in Crescent City, CA.

Pinell has also spent time at the well-known Folsom Prison.

[edit] Quotes

"...I'm gonna keep my mind on helping others and doing what means progress and unification of people and ideas so that our cause is constantly and always represented...the threats and dangers are there but I move forward looking to make use of my time, getting closer to the people I love and this way I am not drawn into their traps...And one thing the man wants from me now more than ever is my attention and my time at his call, and he gets neither. I'll make it out of here, yes, I will, very much alive in every way. The man has ran out of changes, he remains entrapped by his own makings-my changes have only began and I've already gained my personal freedom."

“I prefer to face these people alone and carry the burden, for it is my journey and horrible situation. Maybe there is a good break and clearance in the future, maybe. If not, there are billions of people suffering much much worse injustice and experiences than I am. That’s what our struggle is all about.”

"I was denied 2 more years. Some lady D.A. from Marin County was present to speak about the S.Q. 1971 incident, how bad I am, even tho we never met, and why i shouldn’t be released. It’s really fucked up, you know, how the deck is stacked up against Ru and I....

"When things got explosively ugly in the late 60's and early 70's they got that way because some people dared to stand up and speak out, and dared care for our people, and that's not a crime.

“I know that this is all part of their break me down process, but they won’t succeed, no.....we’re still alive and we must keep doing it right, for everyone, and for the main goals.”

"I know I say I've been blessed, rewarded, have known magnificent, special people, and I've experienced super great moments, and that's true, but I've also desperately desired and missed the human contact. I've worked so hard to live as positive and human as possible, even stretching my imagination and fantasizing, to reach some measures of human fulfillment and not be affected too much by the pains, but it is so hard."