Monthly Archives: August 2016

Manchester Says No to a New “Mega-Prison”

From IWOC UK

[On] Wednesday August 10th, Manchester residents and supporters marked International Prisoner Justice day by demanding that local councils reject proposals for a new “mega-prison”. The group assembled at Manchester Town Hall in Albert Square and marched to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) offices, engaging with passers-by to build resistance to the plans.

The Conservative Government is pushing GMCA to find a site for a huge new “resettlement jail”, ignoring evidence against the effectiveness of custodial sentences, and the research-led calls for a nation-wide ban on new prison construction. Campaigners believe that, rather than wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on constructing and operating a new prison, Manchester would be better served by community-based solutions which tackle the root causes of harmful behaviour such as improved mental health care, homelessness support and working conditions.

The informal, grass-roots “Manchester No Prisons” group plans to continue its work: building solidarity with prisoners across the North-West and beyond, educating ourselves about the prison-industrial complex and humane alternatives to incarceration, and pressuring Manchester councils to build communities, not more prisons. Find the group on Facebook or e-mail noprisonsmcr@riseup.net to see how you can get involved!

Prison Boycott in Illinois Targets Costs of Incarceration

From truthout, by Brian Dolinar

During the month of April, at least 100 of those incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center, about an hour outside of Chicago, Illinois, participated in a boycott of the overpriced phone calls, commissary goods and vending machines. “Mass incarceration is a luxury business,” stated Patrick Pursley, one of the men who joined in the boycott.

The boycott comes at a time of growing demonstrations led by those inside US prisons. The most successful in recent memory was a series of hunger strikes at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison, organized by those protesting solitary confinement in the security housing unit (SHU), beginning with one in 2011, and another in 2013 that spread across the state involving 30,000 people inside 24 different prisons, including women in the Central California Women’s Facility. The largest hunger strike in the history of the US, it lasted for two months and was only suspended when a judge agreed to force-feed those who remained on strike.

Since then, there appears to be an uptick in actions on the other side of the walls. In early June, at least seven people in Waupun Correctional Institution, located in central Wisconsin, organized a hunger strike to protest the conditions of solitary confinement and lack of resources for those with mental health issues.

In Alabama, a series of work stoppages were recently coordinated to protest overcrowding, poor conditions and unpaid prison labor, what those involved say amounts to slavery. The Free Alabama Movement held a 10-day strike beginning May 1, 2016. A national work stoppage has been called for September 9, and a statement released proclaims, “We will not only demand the end to prison slavery, we will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves.” Continue reading →

Commemorate Black August | Support Prisoner Led Organizing

Critical Resistance joins the many fighting against the prison industrial complex in commemorating this month as Black August. In a month dedicated to prisoners’ reflection, education, struggle, and solidarity, we take the time to reflect on and be inspired by the deep legacy of Black resistance in August as we continue to work against jail expansion in San Francisco and Los Angeles, policing in Oakland and Portland, and advance calls to shut down the notorious Attica prison in New York.

A central part of our work, and particularly significant during Black August, is to uplift the voices of imprisoned people struggling against their oppression. Next month, two important events are taking place, organized by currently and formerly imprisoned people. Please see below for more information, and join us in amplifying the powerful movement behind prison walls.

Source:http://criticalresistance.org/

Get to Know Your Enemy: An Anarchist Prisoner Response to Sept. 9th

From pdxabc.org

In Response to “Fighting the Real Enemy” by SOSO :an Article in the Under Lock and Key (a widely distributed publication in prisons) by the Maoist Internationalist Movement.

Joshua Cartrette (left) Patrick Morris (right)

Joshua Cartrette (left)
Patrick Morris (right)

As a member of the organization pushing the mass prisoner work-stoppage beginning September 9th, and of one of the anarchist betworks laying the groundwork, and being familiar with MIM (prisons), after some certain correspondences, I’m inclined to offer this public response.

First, we are not calling for a work-strike. A strike by definition is temporary until resolutions are reached between slave and master so that we will continue the process of being exploited. We are not organizing a simple strike. We are going to stop working. Period. Some groups and individuals may, at some point start working again, but a lot of us, including myself. Will not.

Second, it should be clear that UFPP is not the only organization, group, network, or individual which has been building praxis around September for several years, and we believe that recognition, credit and support should be given to all of those groups and individuals- including UFPP and USW — whether we necessarily agree with their political line or not.

Third, our call for a work-stoppage is not merely in “recognition of growing protests in prison” as SOS claims. Recognition comes from an observational perspective, not from a participants’ and those making this call have been the same who’ve been making those protests happen to begin with. This choice of word-usage by SOSO might be seen as a subtle attempt to undermine the work a lot of us have been doing. Personally I’ve spent several years in solitary confinement as a result of my own participation in prison resistance, and in September I’ll likely be going back, so maybe you should be the one to “recognize” SOSO. Continue reading →

A Challenge: Spread the Strike to Every Jail, Juvie, and Prison!

From It’s Going Down

This is a challenge to anyone who is supportive of the September 9th prisoners’ strike but who has remained on the sidelines until now.

In order for this strike to not be snuffed out by a handful of prison censors and violent guards, it needs to spread uncontrollably beyond their reach. And because prisons strictly forbid communication between prisoners, it is our responsibility on the outside to facilitate this contagion.

The first obvious step is to begin sending in word of the strike, immediately. If people on the inside are to be able to meaningfully act, they are going to need some time to begin spreading the word to their friends and formulating a plan. To that end, we are suggesting that outside accomplices begin printing the strike announcements (below) and mailing them inside en masse.

Spanish: http://insurgenttheatre.org/sprdocs/prisoncalloutSpanish.pdf

English: http://insurgenttheatre.org/sprdocs/sept9clean.pdf

English (half-sized booklet): http://insurgenttheatre.org/sprdocs/septstrikepamphletalt.pdf

(For all, print double-sided and “flip on short edge.”) Continue reading →

Block Report Radio with Greg Curry

From BlockReportRadio.com

Lucasville Rebellion Survivor Greg Curry speaks on the September 9th National Prison Strike, his comrade Saddique Hasan being placed in the hole by the prison to disrupt his part in organizing the national prison strike, and the personal plight of Greg Curry. Tune in for more at BlockReportRadio.com. Free’Em All!

https://soundcloud.com/blockreportradio/ohio-prisoner-greg-curry-speaks-on-september-9th-natl-prison-strike

Update on Siddique Abdullah Hasan

[To see the initial post on Hasan’s punitive treatment, see here.]

Around noon eastern time, Hasan got word out through lawyers that he was doing fine and that if anyone wanted to correspond with him they should include a stamp for the reply since he could not go to the [jpay] kiosk.

Hasan has access to postal mail, so you can send him letters, and it sounds like also to JPay, but not the kiosk machine, so if you write him an email (and visit JPay.com to find out how if you don’t already) be sure to click the “include a stamp for reply” box before sending.

Please also continue to call the prison 330-743-0700. They are routing all the calls to a specific person, so lets keep her busy. Ask when he’s going to be let out of the hole and demand that this bogus investigation end immediately.

Also, write to Hasan, the more mail he gets the more support we’re demonstrating. You can include a total of 5 sheets of paper and 3 embossed (postage pre-printed) envelopes, so if you have any handy, slip them in to make sure he’s got supplies to write people back.

His address is

Siddique Abdullah Hasan

R130-559

OSP

878 Coitsville-Hubbard Rd

Youngstown OH 44505

Central Florida: Solidarity with Prison Strikers, September 10

On September 10 movement supporters will gather outside of Federal Correctional Complex Coleman (846 NE 54th Terrace, Wildwood, Florida) from 10 am to 12 pm to stand in solidarity with prison strikers across the nation.

Get to the event page here.

Bring signs, banners and drums to let the Bureau of Prisons know we are watching.

Several cities around FL are planning local events in and around their communities on Sept 9, then coming out for this on Sept 10.

One suggestion is a Friday demo at your closest jail or prisons, perhaps coupled with a potluck, letter-writing session and/or film showing about prisons, Attica, etc.

Check back on this page for further details and updates on the event.

Background:

Sept 9th is the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising in New York, where national attention was drawn to the problem of prisons in this country. This year there will public demonstrations in support of prisoners who have a called for a coordinated national work strike in response to extreme abuses they face, including toxic environments, discrimination and literal slavery based on the 13th Amendment which wrote prison slave labor into the U.S. Constitution. Continue reading →