From contact inside: “12:01 Sept 9th, all inmates at Holman Prison refused to report to their prison jobs without incident. With the rising of the sun came an eerie silence as the men at Holman laid on their racks reading or sleeping. Officers are performing all tasks.”
Monthly Archives: September 2016
Support the Resistance: Subscribe to the Incarcerated Worker or Sponsor a Union Membership!
From IWOC.NOGBLOGS.ORG
Prisoners are going on strike against prison slavery on September 9, 2016. Help support their organizing, and hear their story. Subscribe to the Incarcerated Worker, a mini-magazine written and edited by prisoners. Subscriptions are $20/year, and all proceeds go to supporting prisoner organizing.
Can you swing a bit more for prisoner resistance?
Sponsor union membership for a prisoner for $5/month or $60/year.
CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR A UNION MEMBERSHIP!
We encourage union locals and community groups to sponsor membership for incarcerated workers in prisons in your area. If you’re interested in finding ways to support the resistance against prison slavery, get in touch!
#PrisonStrike Resistance to Slavery Across the World
See more up-to-date list of actions at ItsGoingDown.org.
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Hundreds of inmates riot at Florida prison
September 8, 2016 1:34 PM
Hundreds of inmates riot at Florida prison
A nationwide prison strike planned Friday has Florida’s jails and state prisons on high alert through the weekend, bracing for possible upheavals by inmates protesting what they say is inhumane and violent treatment.
Already, a revolt at Holmes Correctional in Florida’s Panhandle on Wednesday night, involving more than 400 inmates, caused damage to nearly every dorm during an uprising that lasted into the early morning. No one was seriously injured, but the department is concerned that the disturbance might be a harbinger of what’s to come.
Florida’s prison system, the third-largest in the country, has been dangerously understaffed for nearly a year, and several sieges have occurred in recent weeks. To further exacerbate tensions, many inmates have been in forced confinement in their dorms, allowed out only to eat because there isn’t even enough staff to guard them during outside recreation.
Over the past two years, the Miami Herald has published a series of stories documenting the brutal or unexplained deaths of inmates in Florida prisons, a record number of use-of-force incidents and corruption by guards and top officers.
In recent weeks, the department has had disturbances at Jackson Correctional, Gulf Correctional, Franklin Correctional and Okaloosa CI. All of them, like Holmes, are located in Region 1, in the Panhandle. And a corrections officer was stabbed during a melee at Columbia CI in April.
“It’s very hot in those dorms and when you can’t get any rec, the inmates start causing problems,’’ said a veteran corrections officer at Holmes, who would not allow his name to be used for fear of reprisals.
The loosely organized national strike, a grassroots effort, comes on the 45th anniversary of the prison riots at Attica, the 1971 prison siege near Buffalo, New York, considered the largest prison rebellion in U.S. history. Over 40 people died when inmates took control of the facility for four days, protesting racism, officer beatings, rancid food, no rehabilitation programs and forced labor.
Phillip A. Ruiz, an organizer for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, one of the groups spearheading the Friday demonstrations, said conditions in America’s prisons aren’t that different from those at Attica 45 years ago.
“They are participating in work stoppages, hunger strikes and sit-ins in protest of long-term isolation, inadequate healthcare, overcrowding, violent attacks and slave labor,’’ said Ruiz, whose committee is part of the Industrial Workers of the World, an international labor union whose membership peaked a century ago.
Ruiz said organizers are emphasizing that the protests will be nonviolent. Florida corrections officers have nevertheless been briefed and are prepared to work all weekend in case there are uprisings.
Of the disturbances in Florida, the riot at Holmes involved the most inmates so far — more than 400 of the 1,100 men incarcerated there — and was spread across the compound.
Officers interviewed by the Herald said that Wednesday’s rebellion began in B Dorm about 6 p.m. One officer, stationed in a control center (called “the bubble”), was in charge of nearly 150 inmates. The prisoners put blankets and sheets over the windows of the bubble then proceeded to smash cameras, ransack the dorm and then began tearing away the ceiling and crawling in the attic, possibly trying to escape.
Officers from five other prisons were called in, as well as special RRTs (Rapid Response Teams) trained to handle riots. Though some officers were armed, no shots were fired, sources said.
“We would get one dorm under control and then it would start in another dorm. It was every dorm, as if it was planned,” the Holmes officer said.
It took until 4 a.m. to bring the compound under control, he said. Officers were able to restrain many inmates after setting off canisters of chemicals, making it hard for the prisoners to breathe, the officer said.
The compound in Bonifay, a town of just more than 4,000 that is bisected by Interstate 10, was still on lockdown Thursday, according to a statement released by FDC shortly after noon. One inmate was injured but no corrections officers were hurt, the statement said.
The department did not say when the uprising happened, what precipitated it, how long it took to bring it under control or how much damage occurred.
Photographs leaked to the Herald show damage to ceilings, floors, beds, walls, cameras and doors. The inmates were transported to other prisons, FDC said.
“The department is currently accessing the facility for any damages that have resulted and have transported all the involved inmates to other locations. Additional information will be made available following a comprehensive after-action review and investigation,” FDC’s statement concluded.
The riot is the latest in a series of disturbances that have plagued the agency since January. Many institutions are at minimum staffing levels because of a shortage of corrections officers statewide.
The staff at Holmes, like many Florida prisons, has an abundance of young, inexperienced officers who have had little training.
“These officers are 19, 20, 21, some of them still live at home. They put them in charge of dorms for 12 hours a day with professional convicts, all by themselves,” said the officer. “I’m not a worrier but when you walk into those dorms you don’t know what you have or what they are going to do.”
Kim Schultz, president of the union representing the department’s officers, called the situation “extremely dangerous.” Florida’s state corrections officers are some of the lowest paid in the country, and they haven’t had pay raises in more than eight years, she said.
“This has resulted in high turnover and inexperienced officers who are not equipped to deal with prison riots,” she said.
The Nib: Inmates Are Planning The Largest Prison Strike in US History
IWOC-NYC stands in solidarity with NYC Stands with Standing Rock
Dear all,
On September 9, 2016, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, as thousands of prisoners across the world are striking against prison-slavery, several thousand indigenous tribal members of over 160 tribes and supporters of #BlackLivesMatter are collectively resisting white-supremacist and settler-colonialist capitalist powers. In New York City, many will be gathering outside Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to protest the police terrorization and kidnapping of 120 youth from Eastchester Gardens in the Bronx. At the same time, NYC Stands With Standing Rock will be holding a protest in Washington Square Park in support of the Sioux Tribe and water protectors resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline.
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Crowdsource Fundraiser for IWOC
From https://rally.org/endprisonslavery
Donate to support the long term organizing work of IWOC.
When the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865, it in theory banned slavery, except in the form of imprisonment. After the civil war, many former slaves were forced into becoming indentured share croppers, while others were imprisoned for minor offenses and were forced to work for free in the fields. Over the decades, corporations and governments continued to look towards prisons as a major source for free and cheap labor. Today, prison labor generates billions in profits for fossil fuel and energy corporate giants, fast food companies, banks, and other industries, who all grow rich from prison slaves.
In the past several years, a movement has grown from the inside out to fight against prison slavery. This struggle has taken many forms, from hunger and work strikes, to full fledged revolts, to mass organizing drives and the creation of publications and study groups.
IWOC is part of this movement – to abolish prisons and the slavery they run on in the United States and worldwide and seeks to be a springboard of information and action between those on the inside and those on the outside.
On September 9th, over 50 cities will take to the streets to support the prison strike as prisoners on the inside will lay down their tools.
In order to continue and expand our work as IWOC however, we need your help. We need to raise upwards of $10,000 to expand IWOC and continue to engage in mass organizing. With this money we will:
1.) Carry out mass mailings to our over 800 IWW members on the inside to update them on the strike, our union, and ongoing prison struggles. This is one of our major costs and we hope to secure funding for our outreach publication, The Incarcerated Worker, for the coming period.
2.) Create outreach materials for those on the inside and the outside.
3.) Help cover costs of organizers putting in long hours behind the scenes to accomplish these tasks and support those taking risks behind bars.
4.) Provide legal and other support for prisoners as much as possible that are going to be legally taking part in the strike. We can’t help everyone, but with more resources, we can certainly increase the amount of solidarity that we do offer.
This strike is a blow against white supremacy and prison slavery. We hope that you can be apart of it, in whatever capacity. Stand with us. Stand together. Until all the prisons fall.
For more information check out: https://iwoc.noblogs.org https://itsgoingdown.org https://supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org
Free Alabama Fundraising TShirts
As you can see, the front features the “Straight Outta Holman” logo, and the back has a chronology of resistance at Holman Prison.
Send us an email at prisonerresistance@gmail.com and specify sizes to order shirts.
Individual shirts will be $15 apiece, which should include shipping. If you would like to order bulk and re-sell these shirts at events, order more than 10 and you’ll only be charged $5. Any profits from selling the shirts should go to Free Alabama Movement through PayPal at famfamalabama@gmail.com.
September 9 Approaches
Here are some specific and important things you can do to support the largest prisoner strike in the history of the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world:
1. IWOC hotline: prisoners facing retaliation for strike activities can call the IWOC hotline collect anytime of the day or night at 816-866-3808. Send that number to your inside contacts, or call it yourself if you hear from someone needing help. You can also email IWOC at iwoc@riseup.net.
2. Mobilize legal aid! The National Lawyer’s Guild has offered to file an individual “notice of claim” on behalf of each prisoner against abusive and retaliatory prisons and guards. Filing a notice of claim tells the prison that a suit could be filed and puts them on notice that abuse has happened. *It is not the actual suit*, but it gives violated prisoners time to find local lawyers. Please send details to newjersey@nlg.org and to massdef@nlg.org. Prisoners can also reach out directly to: NLG Mass Defense, 132 Nassau Street, Rm. 922, New York, NY 10038
Some Chants
1, 2, 3, 4
Prison slavery and war
5, 6, 7, 8
america was never great
brick by brick
wall by wall
we will make these/your prisons fall
Stop stop stop the torture
Solitary is torture
Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons
fire to the prison
freedom to the prisoners
Burn your mattress
flood your cell
tell your guards
to go to hell
Burn the prisons
Just make sure
the cops are in them
Any more ideas? Send em to us at prisonerresistance@gmail.com