Category Archives: General

Texas Strike Day 1 Update.

 SUMMARY:According to (probably dishonest) reports from Texas DCJ seven institutions were locked down at least part of the day yesterday, three remained on lockdown last night. These lockdowns were likely used to control or retaliate against the striking workers, so it gives some evidence of the size of the action.

We need to wait to hear from the prisoners to get a more complete picture.

Details, from IWOC

Strike Roundup Day 1: Texas Prisons Shook by IWOC Initiated Strikes

CONTACT: Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a committee of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 816-866-3808, iwoc [at] riseup.net.

April 5, 2016

Houston, TX — Today, in a historic action, members of the Industrial Workers of the World’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) shook Texas prisons with strikes in seven prisons.

According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials as of 7:45pm on Monday (4/4), three prisons remain locked down (Wynne, Mountain View, Lynaugh)–on strike–while 3 others were but are no longer on lockdown (Torres, Polunsky, Roach). Robertson Unit officials refused to report in the evening and is therefore almost certainly still on strike/lockdown as they were when they confirmed earlier in the day.

Any information from TDCJ officials must of course be taken with a grain of salt, as the main office has been denying strikes and lockdowns all day. Concealing the strike as lockdowns is a strategy known by both prisoners and wardens.

A March 23rd letter from an IWOC Texas in-prison organizer notes that prisoners were given “reliable information” that authorities would use lockdowns “to create the public perception that we are locked down for administrative purposes and not because of the Texas Work Stoppage.”

At stake is the future of slavery in America, and the human rights of the more than two million prison slaves, including more than 143,000 in Texas. Prisoners in Texas are paid a minimum wage of $0.00/hr. Their labor is making Texas billions of dollars and “outsourcing” jobs to US companies.

“Slavery is a horrifying institution,” said Nicholas Onwuke, IWOC Co-Chair and former prisoner. “Violence is the last gasp of an evil system against people standing up, demanding their dignity. It took mass struggle to end historical slavery and Jim Crow, so will it to end prison slavery today.”

Demands specifically mentioned by the prisoners include objective timelines for release on good/work time, an end to a $100 medical co-pays that prevent access to health care, an independent grievance committee, and an end to a vast array of human rights abuses. Texas prisons lead the nation in sexaul assault of inmates and have seen a spree of overheating deaths due to lack of air conditioning.

From the March 23rd letter–“We need as many freeworld people as possible to contact the media and inform them that that [‘administrative lockdown’] is not the case and that we are in fact locked down as a direct result of our workstoppage.”

You in the free world. This is your time for action. Spread the mass movement in prisons to the free world. Stand with Texas prisoners: call, act, donate, or get involved.

Support Striking Texas Prisoners #EyesOnTexas

Today Prisoners in Texas Went on Strike Against Slavery Conditions.

 

texas strike

In early March we received word that prisoners in Texas were planning a work stoppage to occur April 4th. You can read this announcement and their demands here. Here is a flyer put out by Texas prisoners and circulating through multiple facilities. Here is the announcement and demands laid out in easy to print and mail formats. 1 sheet 2 sides. 5 pages.

Prisoners can face severe repercussions from the authorities when they stand up for themselves. Outside support and solidarity are essential to let the guards and admins know they cannot attack, starve, provoke, torture or otherwise retaliate against these striking prisoners without consequence. Here are three things you can do to show solidarity and support: Continue reading →

Announcement of Nationally Coordinated Prisoner Workstoppage for Sept 9, 2016

Prisoners from across the United States have just released this call to action for a nationally coordinated prisoner workstoppage against prison slavery to take place on September 9th, 2016.

Get it as a zine PDF. En Espanol or mailroom friendly

This is a Call to Action Against Slavery in America

In one voice, rising from the cells of long term solitary confinement, echoed in the dormitories and cell blocks from Virginia to Oregon, we prisoners across the United States vow to finally end slavery in 2016.

On September 9th of 1971 prisoners took over and shut down Attica, New York State’s most notorious prison. On September 9th of 2016, we will begin an action to shut down prisons all across this country. We will not only demand the end to prison slavery, we will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves. Continue reading →

Support Michigan Prisoner Food Protest

Prisoners in multiple facilities in Michigan are engaged in a coordinated refusal to participate in prison meals. They are refusing to go to the chow hall, and instead living off of purchased food in their cells. They have many complaints, about the quality and quantity of the food and the facility.

Contact the warden and ask him to meet the prisoner’s demands promptly by calling: Warden Duncan MacLaren at (906) 495-2282

Write to one of the prisoners:
Lamont Heard
252329
Kincross Correctional Facility
4533 W. Industrial Park Drive
Kincheloe, MI 49788

Full story from the Detroit Free Press here:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/03/30/food-protest-spreads-second-state-prison-up/82431932/

A Call For Actions in Solidarity with Alabama Prison Rebels

Source https://itsgoingdown.org/call-actions-solidarity-alabama-prison-rebels/

A Call For Actions in Solidarity with Alabama Prison Rebels
March 16, 2016

“Things here are tense but festive. The C.O. and warden was stabbed…It has nothing to do with overcrowding, but with the practice of locking folks up for profit, control and subjugation. Fires were set, we got control of two cubicles, bust windows. The riot team came, shot gas, locked down, searched the dorms. Five have been shipped and two put in lockup.” ~A Prisoner at Holman Correctional

This week, prison rebels at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama staged two riots in three days—battling guards, building barricades, stabbing the warden, taking over sections of the prison and setting a guard station on fire. These actions come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention to the crumbling prison system in Alabama and the increasing level of radicalization of the prison population there. Continue reading →

Updates on Holman Uprising

On Friday night, hundreds of prisoners took over the general population portion of Holman prison in Atmore Alabama. Read more on that and see videos made by the prisoners here.

Viewpoints from the prisoners varied, one described conditions of overcrowding, sending out pictures to accompany it: “114 Boys and Men (from teenagers to senior citizens) are allotted 2ft of personal living space with a 1ft wide locker to keep their belongings. Almost 100 feet of bunks , in 4 lines.”

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Another prisoner said “It has nothing to do with overcrowding, but with the practice of locking folks up for profit, control and subjugation.” He recounted “Things here are tense but festive. The co and warden was stabbed… Fires were set, people got control of two cubicles, bust windows. The riot team came, shot gas, locked down, searched the dorms. Five have been shipped and two put in lockup.”

According to mainstream media, the Correctional Emergency Response Team had regained control of the facility by 5 am saturday morning. 5 prisoners were emergency transferred and are likely facing harsh reprisals, and new criminal charges.

8:30 the following Monday morning, March 14th, 70 prisoners took over and barricaded Continue reading →

Uprising Currently Underway at Holman Prison In Alabama

Last night prisoners took over Holman prison in Alabama. At around midnight a fight between inmates escalated to include guards and even the warden. Staff fled, and the rioting prisoners have taken over general population, lighting guard towers on fire and barricading the doors.

News and video, here: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/03/reported_riot_fires_at_holman.html

According to rumors, the incident began when an officer responded to a fight between two prisoners with excessive force and was stabbed in response. “Then they brought the warden down and the warden got to talking crazy so they ended up stabbing the warden, and then after that all the officers ran up out of the institution, that was like 12:00, 1:00 this morning.”

The warden and officer’s injuries were not fatal. There are videos circulating on social media of prisoners burning the control towers and opening all doors. “We’re tired of this shit, there’s only one way to deal with it: tear the prison down” one of the participants stated.

At around 2 am the riot squad and police arrived. They said they were waiting on daylight to move and try to restore control of the facility. At this time, people haven’t heard from the occupied portion of the prison for a few hours, but it seems the authorities have not moved in, either. Friends and family of prisoners in Holman are asking that people pray for their loved ones.

Holman’s capacity is 1002 prisoners, but it also has a segregation unit and death row, which are still under the prison’s control. Prisoners in segregation have not received their breakfast meal, four hours after it is normally distributed. General population at Holman consists of four open space dormitories, housing 114 people each, plus a 200 person annex, so there may be between 450 – 650 prisoners involved in the uprising.

Alabama DOC has been increasingly unstable in recent months, incidents of violence within the institutions have been stacking up, the federal government was on the verge of taking over the system due to poor management and budgetary shortfalls last year.

An article from Jan 2016 about ADOC’s failure to operate safe and stable prisons: http://www.eji.org/node/1198

UPDATE and more direct perspective, from elsewhere in the prison:

On Friday March 11, 2016 the anticipated powder keg erupted at Alabama’s infamous Holman Prison. Most known for housing Alabama’s Death Row and “Yellow Mama”. However, in recent years it has been the site of organized protest. In 2007, all prisoners engaged in a Hunger and Work Strike which brought about the condemnation of Dormitories and remodeling of General Population. In 2011 a Protest against Inhumane Treatment by Officers. In 2014, the FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT launched its Coordinate Protest at Holman. Now today, Alabama Prison Administrators are seeing the fruit of their labor. As on Friday night @ 11:15 p.m a simple fight between two prisoners escalated into an Officer receiving stab wounds. The prisoners requested to see the Warden and Captain. Once Warden Davenport arrived, after being disrespectful and non negotiable. Another altercation broke out in which Davenport received stab wounds. At this time all personnel vacated Geñeral Population.

It appears that officials are back in certain parts of the prison as Death Row and the Seg Annex were served breakfast at around 11:30 am. So there must have been some sense of calm. However at around 12:45 pm Several Response Team Officers could be seen running through Death Row from the Seg Annex enroute to General Population. So it appears that the unrest continu

Texas Prison Work Stoppage

REVOLUTIONARY SOLIDARITY

“We Are At a Tipping Point”

More information: https://www.facebook.com/Fts-inmateworkercommitteecounsel-1525053261122183/ closed group, request access.

The Top Five DEMANDS for Texas:

Meaningful Work Time – Applied retroactively, when our Flat Time and accrued Good/Work Time equals 100% we should be ENTITLED to Mandatory Supervision I Parole.

We want a “Presumptive Parole System” which requires the release of a Prisoner at their earliest release date, unless there are valid objective reasons not to do so. Those reasons might include poor institutional behavior or refusing to participate in programming. The nature of the crime or any other “Static Reason” (things prisoners can NOT change) would NOT be a valid reason to deny parole. Continue reading →

The Free Virginia Movement (FVM) Declaration

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The Free Virginia Movement (FVM) Declaration

Our Purpose

The Free Virginia Movement (FVM) is an Inside-Out, multiracial statewide movement founded and organized by people incarcerated in Virginia prisons affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Union and sentenced under theso-called “no parole” or “85%” law. The function and purpose of the FVM is to organize all “no parole” prisoners into one bloc or cohesive unit so that we can effectively oppose & challenge excessive sentences, long-term incarceration & mass incarceration as a result of the abolition of parole & truth-in-sentencing laws enacted by the VA General Assembly back in 1994; and unjust, inhuman & oppressive prison conditions which endangers/jeopardizes our spiritual, mental & emotional health & well-being, and which runs counter to (hinders) our growth and rehabilitative efforts in the VA Dept. of (In)Corrections.

Our Organizing Strategy

The FVM seeks to bring the entire VA prisoner-class sentenced under the “no parole” or “85%” law & outside Human Rights & Prison Advocacy Groups together across Racial, Gender, Ideological, Religious & Geographical lines—thereby creating a cross-denominational United Front unlike anything ever seen in the VA prison system. Continue reading →