Author Archives: Editor

The Prison Builder’s Dilemma: Economics And Ethics Clash In Eastern Kentucky

From Ohio Valley Resource

You are Letcher County, Kentucky. You are rural, mountainous, and in the heart of the central Appalachian coalfields. Your economy is not in good shape. Fox News has called your largest town “the poster child for the war on coal.” You are offered funds to build a new federal prison. It could bring jobs but also brings up troubling moral issues. What do you do?

Call it the prison builder’s dilemma: Letcher County and other rural areas are wrestling with a choice between a potential economic boost and the ethical burden of becoming the nation’s jailers.

Coalfield economies have been hit hard by the industry’s recent decline and eastern Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District has been among the most affected. Today it has the second lowest median household income in the country, and the second-lowest rate of labor force participation. In recent years, a big chunk of the money flowing into the region has come through the Bureau of Prisons. Three federal penitentiaries have been built in the district, and now, money has been set aside to build a fourth— in Letcher County.

“I Don’t Know Anything Better”

Elwood Cornett is a retired educator and preacher of the distinctly Appalachian Old Regular Baptist tradition. More recently, he’s been serving as the head of the Letcher County Planning Commission, and a leader in the effort to bring a federal prison to Letcher County. Continue reading →

Oakland: Mobilize In Solidarity With Prison Rebels September 9th and 10th!

From It’s Going Down

On Saturday, September 10th, people across the Bay Area and Northern California will converge in Downtown Oakland in solidarity with the US wide prison work strike against prison slavery and white supremacy. Our goal is a mass showing of support with the growing prison rebellion in the US and to also march on the corporations in the Downtown area that make massive profits off of prisoner enslavement.

The strike that will begin on September 9th is not a symbolic one. It is a mass collective refusal to keep the machine of confinement running. It is the continuation of resistance to racialized slavery that began before the creation of the United States and will ultimately end in the revolutionary overthrow of this system of domination and apartheid. It is up to us on the outside to show our solidarity and to act in kind. The bay area has a rich history of both prison rebellion and support for those rebels. We hope to aid in this strike and prepare ourselves to support it not only in the early days of September, but in the weeks that proceed it as repression and lock-downs are sure to follow.

The expanding radical prison labor movement also shows us how connected our struggles truly are, as prison labor generates literally billions for various industries destroying the planet, attacking workers, and occupying entire countries. This includes corporate food giants, the US military, the banking system, and the fossil fuel industry. From fast food workers fighting back against poverty wages to the battles raging in indigenous territory against oil pipelines – regardless of what struggles we are in, we all need to stand with our comrades on the inside who courageously are going on strike. Continue reading →

IWOC NYC at #ShutDownCityHallNYC

From Facebook (?) / IWOC NYC

IWOC NYC event today, August 5, from 6 – 9 pm at City Hall Park in Manhattan, NYC:

In 2016, prisoners have called for nationwide strikes all across the country. As outside, we #ShutDownCityHallNYC (https://www.facebook.com/events/603110703195862/) and Holman square in Chicago, and as we tirelessly fight while our brothers and sisters are gunned down and incarcerated, inside people are fighting back. There is currently protests happening inside at Holman Prison in Alabama. IWOC NYC works directly with prisoners inside to develop demands, support struggles, and build for the September 9th strike as well as continuous action until all prisons are burned to the ground! We are led by people inside, and we work together on the outside as comrades. Come learn about the strikes, about IWOC, and how to get involved.

Durham: Getting Pumped for September

From It’s Going Down

Last night, Durham hosted a loud brass band concert benefiting a strike fund for prisoners joining up with the national strike in September. Folks distributed writings by prisoners and read their words over the mike in between songs. The show was capped off when a 17-piece brass band and banner-holders led a small march to the downtown jail. Prisoners responded by waving lighters or banging on their windows. The band finished off the march with a rousing and nostalgic rendition of “Pony” by Ginuwine. Really.

In the next week there’s a teach-in scheduled with former prisoners on the history of prison resistance as well as another jail demo, this time hosted by Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee folks. Both are geared towards raising awareness about the upcoming strike and getting folks pumped to be in the streets when September arrives.

Visit from Law Enforcement

On August 2nd, an officer named Mark Royko with The Ohio State Highway Patrol went to Ohio State Penitentiary, had Siddique Abdullah Hasan pulled out of his cell and tried to question him about Sep 9. See Hasan’s summary of the conversation below.

This officer used some pretty ridiculous terror-baiting language, so we are going to use this opportunity to remind everyone about some basic principles of security culture and anti-repression.

1. Do not talk to law enforcement. In the example below, Hasan was more open than we would advise anyone to be. As soon as you know the person you are talking to is a cop or a fed, walk away slowly. If they stop you, ask if you’re being detained. If they say yes, ask if you’re under arrest. In these states you’re obligated to by to give your name and show ID. In other states, if you’re driving a car or carrying a gun under an open or conceal carry permit, you’ll also need to show your ID. If you refuse to show your ID the cops, they might make up some “reasonable suspicion” pretext to arrest you, and the trouble of getting arrested and then getting it thrown out in court is maybe not worth it.

States (colored red) in which Stop and Identify statutes are in effect as of February 20th, 2013.

The cops can and do violate people’s rights all the damn time, and if you don’t want them to escalate and get violent with you, you might have to let them, just make sure you’re vocally asserting your rights (ideally before witnesses with cameras) while they trample them.
If they ask to search you say “no” out loud but do not physically resist if they search you anyway. Say “i do not consent to this search” out loud. If they arrest you, do not talk. Remain silent and assert your right to a lawyer. Follow basic ACLU know your rights protocol.

2. Tell people. Once the police have left, write down notes describing the encounter as soon as possible. If you can, get names and badge numbers of the officers. Tell anyone you’re organizing with. Email us at PrisonerResistance@gmail.com. Call IWOC Kansas City at 816-866-3808 or email iwoc@riseup.net. The more people know about law enforcement snooping around, the more safe we all are.

3. Practice good security culture. Cops don’t need to tell you they are cops. They can go undercover and infiltrate your group. This is not reason to get paranoid or stop organizing, but it is Continue reading →

Call-in For Zolo Azania

From New York City Jericho Movement

Dear Friends,We are writing to you today on behalf of political prisoner Zolo Azania. After 35 years of incarceration, 27 of them on death row, Zolo is finally due to be released in February, 2017. Regrettably, this final year has been made difficult for him. Zolo has brought to our attention a number of troubling matters and has requested that concerned individuals contact the Indiana Department of Corrections on his behalf.

It is our understanding that in recent months, violations of Zolo’s basic rights have included:

  • Confiscation (or destruction) of his personal property including his Holy Qur’an, dictionary, prayer cap and beads, art supplies, toothbrush and other items.

 

  • Prevention from participation in religious programming: Islamic faith based programs such as Jumu’ah service (Friday prayer) and Taleem (Muslim study class).

 

  • Irregular payment or denial of compensation at his minimum wage prison job, a job guaranteed to him by IDOC Commissioner Lemmon.

Zolo has consistently demonstrated good conduct and has received above average work evaluations. He does not deserve to be treated in this manner.

Please contact the Indiana Department of Corrections at 317-233-5541 or 232-5755 or email Commissioner Lemmon (blemmon@idoc.in.gov) and ask that Zolo’s concerns be addressed and remedied.

You can write
Zolo Azania #4969
Miami Correctional Facility
3038 West 850 South
Bunker Hill, IN 46914-9810

Power on the Inside: Why Incarcerated Lives Matter to the Black Lives Matter Movement

Also: a zine

Caveat: I am a 37 year old man who has been some kind of radical for all of my adult life. I’ve participated as a white ally in the Black Lives Matter movement. My involvement with that movement has been standard allyship, (calling out racists, joining marches, attending workshops, etc) but I have been deeply involved in prisoner resistance struggles for the last six years, working daily to amplify and make present prisoner’s voices and resistance actions. From this position of privilege and allyship, but also these deeper commitments to prison rebels, I’m offering this strategic appeal to the Black Lives Matter movement, its allies, and anyone who cares to pursue a radical opposition to American white supremacy. I do not expect the critical aspects of this appeal to go unchallenged, and I offer it with abiding respect and an ardent desire to see all our struggles advance.

“If you’re not talking about violence, hurting people or hurting their pocketbooks, then you’re not talking about nothing!”

– Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan
Ohio State Penitentiary
23 years in solitary confinement

The white establishment in america has survived many attempts to dismantle it. Black Lives Matter is currently fighting a system that survived enormous mass movements in the 1960s as well as the American Civil War. Each fight hurts the system, some fundamentally transforming it, but white supremacy has also learned from these near defeats and each new form has been more covert, sophisticated and more deeply embedded. Over the centuries, one thing has always been true: white supremacy is stubborn, persistent and mean. Continue reading →

Letter on the March 11th Lockdown, Stillwater Prison, MN

from Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee

Salutations to my fellow soldiers of our rights,

I would like to share some vital information that may be pertinentPICfamily-624x874 to anyone who is interested in fighting for the working/lower class of America. This is a clear example of unity. It is proof that if we all come together we can be a force to be reckoned with.

As I sit on lockdown in Stillwater after the events that took place on March 11th, 2016 in the chow-hall, I feel a real feeling of contentment. A-west stood up for the rights of our community, the small rights we have left that is. They have taken so much from us in the past, things that I have never had the privilege to experience, but loved ones who have been incarcerated for years have explained. At a time there used to be so many things that have been snatched away from our community, such as quality food, the 4th of July picnic, freedom to watch adult rated movies and magazines, and a curfew set by 9:25pm. I would like to touch on each of these topics. Continue reading →

IWOC Support + Advice – Four Key Holes

from Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee

The IWW’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee is coming along powerfully and is getting closer and closer to a movement moment where we explode onto the national scene through the work of our powerful inside organizers and outside supporters.

Yet we have some significant holes in IWOC’s infrastructure and hope some of you have suggestions for people–inside or outside of the IWW–who could help fill some of the most important ones, or ideas for how to best focus our efforts in those areas.

 

1. Delegate Mentors: people with significant IWW-style on the job organizing experience who want to help mentor delegates in prisons. This would likely be remotely via phone and letters. We could also use people to help mentor in new outside groups. This is the key barrier to us having a collective national temperature and building branches and an Industrial Union.

Continue reading →

Bend the Bars Conference Update on Asheville FM

from The Final Straw on Asheville FM

[Listen here]

This week we spoke with Alex about Bend the Bars conference which is taking place in Columbus OH on the weekend of August 26th-29th. This is a gathering which was called for in direct support for the September 9th national prisoner work strike, and is one of the only gatherings that we know of which explicitly centers the work of people doing direct support with incarcerated folks as opposed to NGOs and non profits. In this conversation we speak about the intentions for the conference as well touching on the prison condition in the US, the National Work Strike, and many other things.

You can learn more about this event by visiting https://bendthebars.noblogs.org/, and you can RSVP to this event or correspond with the organizers by emailing bendthebars@riseup.net

And, to visit the news sources that our guest mentioned, and to learn more about the upcoming national prisoner work strike to be called on September 9th, you can visit the following websites:
Free Alabama Movement
Support Prisoner Resistance
IWOC
Additionally there is Prison Legal News, which is a resource for folks who want more information about the day to day litigation that affects convicts and their families.