Monthly Archives: May 2016

Upcoming Dates for Prisoner Support.

Below is a list of dates when people on either side of the prison fences may want to mobilize support and demonstrate power building up to the Anniversary of Attica. Some of these are specific actions called by prisoners or organizers that could be replicated or supported through solidarity actions. Others are holidays that resonate with freedom struggles, when demonstrations of solidarity may be extra visible or resonant. We have also included times when the authorities are gathering for conferences and conventions, which could be confronted like the recent CCA meeting in Nashville.

June 10th – Prisoners in Wisconsin initiate a food refusal against solitary confinement.
June 11th – the International Day of Solidarity with Long Term Anarchist Prisoners.
June 11-13 – the national convergence of the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, Washington, DC.
July 11-13 – United States Deputy Warden’s Association Annual Conference, Des Moines, IA
June 19th – Juneteenth Independence Day celebration of the (supposed) end of slavery.
June 25th – First #IncarceratedLivesMatter rally in Birmingham, AL.
July 4th – Celebration of America’s (supposed) freedom.
July 14th – Bastille Day, commemoration of a French prison break that kicked off the revolution there.
July 18-21 – Republic National Convention, Cleveland, OH
July 25-28 – Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, PA
August 10th – Prisoner’s Justice Day (Canada)
August 5-10 – American Corrections Association Annual Congress of Correction, Boston, MA
August 12th – One year anniversary of Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell’s assassination.
August 28-September 1 – Association of Correctional Food Service Affilliates Annual International Conference, Minneapolis-Bloomington, MN
September 9th – Anniversary of Attica, Nationally Coordinated Work Stoppage and Protest.
November 8 – Election Day
October 22nd – International Day Against Police Brutality and Terror
October 22-26 – National Conference on Correctional Health Care, Las Vegas, NV
January 20 – Presidential Inauguration
January 20-25, 2017 – American Corrections Association Annual Winter Conference, San Antonio, TX

 

Kinetik Justice and The Free Alabama Movement

12549113_1689257571353128_3652465867450969853_nPeace, Blessings and Revolutionary Greetings!

First and foremost, I’m honored that the Creative Energy and the Spirit of Our Ancestors have brought us all together, at this time and in this space. . . Amun Ra!

I am Kinetik Justice Amun (g/n Robert Earl Council), a New Afrikaans Political Prisoner of War. 22 years ago at the age of 20, I defended myself by shooting and killing a white man whose intent was to bring about bodily harm to me.
The white man I killed was a  U. S. National Guardsman Ronald Henderson, the son of a predominant family of affluence and cousin to Mayor in Enterprise, Alabama. The tragedy which I am serving a capital murder sentence of life without parole was a set up for my demise due to relationships of white privilege. As police officers intimidated and coerced the only eye witness, the judge appointed M. Dale Marsh, a friend of Mr. Henderson, as (my) Robert Earl Council’s lead attorney, the D. A. Empanelled an all-white jury and the judge assured a guilty verdict by amending the indictment with his jury instruction. Adding in an additional element of robbery to seal my fate to a capital murder charge. Continue reading →

IWW Endorses the Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Work Stoppage on September 9th, 2016

224775_199400006765678_100000870396720_509467_738642_nFrom iwoc.noblogs.org

 

WHEREAS the Free Alabama Movement, Free Virginia Movement, and other revolutionary prison groups around the United States have jointly called for a Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Work Stoppage on September 9th, 2016, and

WHEREAS IWW members in prison and their allies are at the forefront of fighting the prison system from the inside,

MOVED that the GEB endorse the September 9th prisoner work stoppage with the following language:

The General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World endorses the Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Work Stoppage on September 9th, 2016 organized by the Free Alabama Movement, Free Virginia Movement, and other revolutionary prisoner worker organizations and individuals. It is the duty of working class organizations like the IWW to support the struggle of prisoner workers. We call on other unions and revolutionary working class organizations to offer their support and solidarity to this important cause.

The GEB also encourages branches and IWWs to consider planning an action for September 9, to start a local organizing group, and to donate to the efforts at iwoc.noblogs.org/donate.

DYING TO LIVE Food Refusal Starts June 10th

From SolitaryTorture.blogspot.com

Download flyers:
Outside WI (print 2 sided and cut in half)
WI FullWI 1/4 sheet (print 2 sided and cut in half)

Humanitarian Food Refusal Campaign  Against Solitary Torture

June10th Wisconsin prisoners held in long term Solitary confinement at Waupun Correctional Institution will start a “Food Refusal Campaign.” The wish to bring the horror of Administrative Confinement (AC) to the public’s Attention and end this torturous practice. Solitary confinement for more than 15 days has been deemed “torture” by the United Nations but Wisconsin the DOC has held many prisoners in isolation for decades. AS the debate and outrage grows nationwide, join us in supporting these prisoners who are making a courageous sacrifice to Wake Us Up.

 
prisoner  in “obs”- the”Treatment” for trying to harm oneself

Madison Rally         
1pm. Fri June 10
at the Capital Building
Contact: 262-443-7831
Sophiaorganizer1@gmail.com

Milwaukee Rally
Noon, Saturday June 11
At the County Courthouse
Contact:414-379-2374
argentum111@me.com

Both events will have a life-sized replica of the tiny cell these prisoners spend years in. There will be families of AC prisoners speaking as well as activists, and legislators. ALL are welcome and needed.

Sign our petition at

https://www.change.org/p/wi-doc-secretary-jon-litscher-waupun-prisoners-begin-food-refusal-to-protest-solitary-torture

Use social media to let your friends and coworkers know about this! Continue reading →

Prisoners’ Voices Blocked and Censorship in U.S. Prisons

By Jaan Laaman

The United States is often called the country of prisons because we are five percent of the world’s population, but the U.S. holds 25 percent of all the prisoners in the world. Recently we have heard talk from the White House and Congress about the need to reduce this huge prison population, which is costing the taxpayers billions.

Occasionally you might hear a prisoner’s voice on some media platform, usually a Human Rights or community outlet. These present words are written by Jaan Laaman. I am a long held political prisoner presently locked up in the U.S. Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona. Let me be very clear, prisoners have a hard time getting our words and thoughts out from behind America’s many, many prison walls. While prisoners do have a legal right to express their thoughts and report on issues and abuses, actually getting your words out is often very hard or impossible. Continue reading →

DIY Roots Action Online Petitions

GRAPHIC: Roots Action logo header
Create your own powerful campaign for change at DIY.RootsAction.org. And take a few seconds to sign these important campaigns created by others.

Did you know that the U.S. Constitution currently allows unpaid slave labor as long as it uses prisoners?

This is not optional work, preferable to inactivity. This is not educational or rehabilitative. This is not a means of making restitution or reconciliation. It’s forced labor, often factory and industrial labor that places prisoners at risk for toxic exposure, physical and neurological degeneration, and cancer-related health problems. Many prisoners view forced, unpaid labor in hazardous conditions as a death sentence, on top of their life sentence.

Our petitions have helped win reforms in prisons before. Now prisoners are protesting this injustice en masse, including going on strike in Texas and Alabama. Let’s find out how much we can all do together:

To: U.S. Senate and House:  Revisit the 13th Amendment and propose a new amendment to the Constitution that abolishes free prison labor and applies the federal minimum wage to all labor in the United States and its imperial territories. Learn more and sign here.
To: Texas State Officials:  Hundreds of prisoners are at serious risk of being exposed to cancer-causing fumes at the Texas Correctional Industries Metal Fabrication Plant. Provide immediate relief to the affected prisoners and permit an investigation by a body that is not part of the prison administration. Learn more and sign here.
To: Georgia state legislators:  A Georgia “life sentence” can, in the minimum case, be completed in 20 years. A young prisoner with such a sentence suffers horribly from not being told any release date. We urge you to change state law with legislation to allow prisoners to be given a definite release date, regardless of life sentences.  Sign here.

After signing the petitions, please forward this message to your friends.

Then start your own petition that we can feature in a future email.

Thanks!

— The RootsAction.org team

Background:
> Counterpunch: Prison Labor Strike in Alabama: “We Will No Longer Contribute to Our Own Oppression”
> San Francisco Bay View: End prison slavery in Texas now!
> Washington Times: 2 Alabama prisons on lockdown after inmates refuse work
>The Intercept: Striking Prisoners in Alabama Accuse Officials of Using Food as Weapon

P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and many others.

P.P.S. This work is only possible with your financial support. Please donate.

www.RootsAction.org
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Sign o the Times Interview with D Jones

djonesFrom Sign o the Times

Please join us Thursday May 19, 2016 on Sign o the Times Blogtalk Radio as we welcome guest, Film Director D. Jones on the air, and build around his AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY THE GREAT INCARCERATOR PART 1 DARK LiTTLE SECRET Dark Little Secret examines the US Prison System & its unprecedented explosion in population. An exploitation of dark, poor faces, intentionally relegated to second-class citizenship, otherwise known as PRISON, PROBATION & LEGALIZED SLAVERY! The conversation begins at 5pm Central 6pm Eastern & 3pm Pacific. The number to dial is 917-889-8059 or log in at www.blogtalkradio.com/nupowerradionetwork SEE YOU ON THE AIRWAVES!!! QT

The Final Straw Interview with Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan

Hasan on prison organizing & Free Ohio Movement; Istanbul ABC on Turkey & vegan anarchist prisoner Evcan Osman

Posted by Bursts O’Goodness
supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org
The Final Straw

Airs on WSFM-LP 103.3 in Asheville / streaming at AshevilleFM from 3am EST on May 23rd, 2016, through May 29th, then podcasting at radio4all.net. Also airing this week on KOWA-LPFM in Olympia, WA, KWTF in Bodega Bay, CA, KXCF in Marshall, CA, and WCRS-LP Columbus Community Radio 98.3 and 102.1 FM. The show will later be archived at TheFinalStrawRadio.NoBlogs.Org. You can email us at thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net and you can send us mail at:

The Final Straw
c/o AshevilleFM
864 Haywood rd
Asheville, NC 28806 Continue reading →

Nashville: Protest, Blockade, Banners to Resist CCA Shareholder Meeting

Submitted to It’s Going Down

A feisty group of protestors took on the annual shareholder’s meeting of the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in Nashville on May 12th. Among the 50 to 60 people who gathered were former prisoners from CCA facilities, religious radicals, members of peace and justice groups, and a large contingent of rural queer and trans folks, including many anarchists.

One contingent held a steady presence by the entrance to the meeting at the CCA corporate headquarters, confronting shareholders and employees as they entered and exited, and hearing from a number of speakers discussing private prisons and exploitation. Another rowdy crew marched to a nearby major road and disrupted traffic, blockaded the road leading to the CCA headquarters at two different intersections, and confronted police before marching back to rejoin the rest of the protest. An activist shareholder from Prison Legal News returned to the demonstration and reported on the proceedings inside, and energetic protesters harangued the profiteers as they left the parking lot.

Attendees at the demonstration distributed literature about CCA’s slimy profiteering from racist mass incarceration, their role in promoting policies that maximize sentences and destroy communities, scandals around corruption, riots, and deaths in their facilities over the last year, and the particularly terrible conditions in CCA prisons that stem directly from their profit motive, as minimizing expenses on health care, food, and other basic necessities translates directly into more money for their shareholders. Protesters also promoted the upcoming national prison work stoppage planned for September of this year, handing out hundreds of copies of “This is a Call to Action Against Slavery in America.” Continue reading →

Alabama Forced to Confront Criminal Justice Reform

From Prison Legal News

Loaded on May 5, 2016 by David Reutter published in Prison Legal News May, 2016, page 1

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Corizon, Staff-Prisoner Harassment, Systemic Medical Neglect, Failure to Treat, Failure to Protect (General), Overcrowding, Hygiene Supplies, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Failure to Train/Supervise, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Excessive Force (Wrongful Death). Location: Alabama.

“We’re at a fork in the road,” Alabama state Senator Cam Ward, chairman of the Prison Reform Task Force, said in June 2014. “We have two paths to choose from and neither one is easy. Those of us on the task force can solve, it or federal courts can do it for us. It’s our choice.”

With the state’s prison system at around 192% of capacity, lawsuits pending over inadequate medical care and high levels of violence, and federal oversight due to pervasive staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse, Alabama has one of the nation’s most troubled Departments of Corrections. The state’s creation of the Task Force in early 2014 was a measure taken in an effort to avoid a federal court-appointed receiver or monitor over its prison system, as occurred in California.

PLN has been reporting for over two decades on deteriorating and abysmal conditions in Alabama’s correctional facilities. While prison systems in Southern states are typically at the forefront with respect to regressive policies and practices, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has been an outlier with its message of “incarceration means harsh and degrading punishment” – which may as well be its official motto.
Continue reading →