Immediate asks:
First and foremost we would like to advise you, that we as individuals on our own accord
have decided to invoke our First Amendment Right to assemble and have a peaceful
protest to address our grievances that go unanswered. We are in solidarity with the Nation &
World Wide Prison/Jail Strikes on the 45th anniversary of the Uprising of Attica Prison
and also want to expose our own local issues. For this we expect there not be any
repercussions or reprisals or any form of disciplinary actions taken during or after this
peaceful protest, which will be a hunger strike and refusal of all movements. Continue reading
Tag Archives: hunger strike
Is a Prison Strike Leader Being Falsely Accused of Inciting Terrorism?
From AlterNet
Siddique Abdullah Hasan is a key organizer for an upcoming labor strike in prisons across the country.
Activist and advocates are concerned that a politically active Muslim prisoner, Siddique Abdullah Hasan, has been falsely accused of inciting terrorism at Ohio State Penitentiary, where he is incarcerated. About half a dozen Muslim prisoners at the facility are on hunger strike, demanding that the disciplinary charges be dropped and Hasan cleared of all wrongdoing, according to activists working outside the prison.
Hasan is a key organizer for the upcoming September 9 labor strike and work stoppage, which is poised to take place in prisons across the country. Outside activists told AlterNet they suspect the allegations were intended to delegitimize the events of September 9 and sow fear about people organizing from the inside
“When you start to get actions in favor of the confined citizen, it might empower more confined citizens to speak up,” explained Tahiyrah Ali, a spokesperson with the Free Ohio Movement, one of the groups organizing around the upcoming work stoppage. Continue reading
Upcoming Hunger Strike: END Solitary Confinement and Inhumane Treatment in Santa Clara Co. Jails
From Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
Please read and spread the below statement from people in solitary confinement in Santa Clara County, California, announcing their upcoming hunger strike to begin Oct 17, 2016 and clearly explaining their human and civil rights demands behind the strike. ACT IN SOLIDARITY by sharing the prisoners’ words, putting pressure on the Santa Clara County Sheriff during the strike (phone numbers provided in the statement), writing letters to the editor, and paying attention to further statements from the Prisoner Human Rights Movement in Santa Clara County Jails.
Prisoners’ Statement/Open Letter:
All the respect across the board! Now onto the following at hand.
The following will consist of an open letter addressed to all prisoners contained within all three facilities of Santa Clara County Jail, in regards to a peaceful protest in the form of an organized hunger strike.
First off, allow us to stress the fact that by no means is this to be considered an attempt to promote or benefit any form of gang, nor is this to be considered gang activity. This letter and its request/call for action is an attempt to enlighten and remain inclusive regardless of race, creed, or color of top/shirt due to classification. The content of this letter does not simply pertain to any one group segment, nor any isolated issue, but instead it pertains to all prisoners within the three facilities of Santa Clara County Jail.
We all have a stake at hand, and we all serve to benefit from any success that may transpire as a result of our collective efforts. Therefore, it is important that we try and visualize the impact and full potential of strength and power behind our force as united prisoners for a valid purpose and common beneficial interest. With this in mind, we are now reaching out to all like-minded prisoners who are willing and interested in banding together in a united stance of solidarity under the name of Prisoners’ Human Rights Movement (P.H.R.M.) in order to bring about real meaningful forms of change. Continue reading
Dying to Live Hunger Strikers Kept on Brink of Death by Retaliatory DOC
From Dying to Live
Waupun WI- According to a letter from hunger striker LaRon McKinley, the Dying to Live hunger strike against solitary confinement at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) has become a serious health crisis after seventy-six days.
On August 15, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WI DOC) decided to suspend the force feeding they have subjected the prisoners to since June 17. They allowed McKinley and Cesar DeLeon, the two most committed hunger strikers, to go without food or water for 72 hours, until they were severely dehydrated. Then they tube fed them again on Thursday August 18.
“Presently, and for most of this week, we have been under retaliatory attack by our warden as a direct consequence of our political efforts… to force an end to prolonged Administrative Confinement,” the letter from McKinley reads. Continue reading
Detailed Update from Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan and Other Hunger Strikers.
From Lucasville Amnesty
They have given me thirty (30) days restrictions. It was a deliberate plan to cut off my direct communications with the outside world prior to the national event/action, notwithstanding their own policy only permits them to suspend my privileges for a period of up to two hundred eighty-eight hours (See paragraph (C) of rule 5120:1-10-12 of the Administrative Code or disciplinary isolation.) This restriction policy became effective 2/16/2016.
I agree that prison officials are “so used to being invisible and hiding its corruption and abuses from the public”; however, we must reveal what happened in my recent situation. Thus continue to work with the media and attorneys to expose the problems in my case. (I plan on filing my appeal to the Warden on Monday.)
There are three of us–Keith Dewitt Jr., David Martin and myself–still on hunger strike. We are all Muslims and are dissatisfied with the contract Imam’s work performance, treatment of Muslims, and using his position to remove Muslims from their services merely because they disagree with some of his teachings. The others that were on the hunger strike were showing their solidarity about me being wrongfully put in the hole. They were demanding that I be released from isolation. When that materialized, they ended their strike.
Hereunder are some of the problems in my case: Continue reading
Hasan Update: Retaliation Against Prisoner Leader Inspires Hunger Strike
Youngstown, OH- On Thursday August 18, 2016 the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) Rules Infraction Board (RIB) restricted Imam Siddique Hasan, of the Free Ohio Movement, from phone and email kiosk access. In response, Hasan and other Muslim prisoners have begun a hunger strike.
The RIB found Hasan guilty of violating Rule 59 of the OAC (Ohio Administrative Code) Section 5120-9-06 Inmate Rules of Conduct, which reads, (59) Any act not otherwise set forth herein, knowingly done which constitutes a threat to the security of the institution, its staff, other inmates, or to the acting inmate. (http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/5120-9-06 )
According to the RIB conduct report, S. Ishmael, a freelance Imam who leads prayers and religious study classes at OSP and nearby Trumbul Correctional, accused Siddique Hasan of making threats against the institution. On August 1, 2016, Ishmael told OSP staff that Hasan had asked him to wear a suicide vest in to the institution. This conversation was supposed to have taken place during religious study on July 22. Hasan and other Muslims attending the class deny Imam Ishmael’s allegation.
“The staff Imam’s story is an absurd and offensive stereotype.” OSP prisoner David Martin told supporters over the phone. “If Hasan was supposed to have made this threat on July 22, why did it take nine days before the man told staff about it? What was he doing for those nine days?”
Hunger-Strike Launched by 22 Mothers in Deportation Jail
From It’s Going Down
The following is an open letter of demand to Jeh Johnson written by 22 mothers detained at Berks Family Residential Center:
The reason for this letter of demands is to make it known to you that since Monday August 8th we have started an “INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE.”
The Immigration Department has made a public announcement stating that in family detention center parents and children are detained no longer than 20 days.
WE WANT TO DISPROVE THIS INFORMATION!!
We are 22 mothers who are detained at Berks Family Residential Center, being mothers who have been from 270 days to 365 days in detention with children ages 2 to 16 years old, depriving them of having a normal life, knowing that we have prior traumas from our countries, risking our own lives and that of our children on the way until we arrived here, having family and friends who would be responsible for us and who are waiting for us with open arms and that immigration refuses to let us out. Continue reading
ALERT: Hasan on hunger strike
ALERT! Donaldson Alabama Call In
On Thursday August 11, 2016 a group of prisoners at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility segregation unit have declared a hunger strike due to unsanitary conditions , 24 hour lock downs, use of excessive force, in addition to, retaliation for refusal to sign papers for an undocumented Behavioral Modification Program.
These men are in need of your support. Please call Warden Bolling at (205) 436-3681 and demand these issues be addressed immediately.
Wisconsin Prison ‘Dying to Live’ Hunger Strikers Continue Quest to End Prolonged Solitary Confinement – LaRon McKinley Bey
From Arawak City Anarchist Black Cross, by Laron McKinley Bey, #42642
In a nation that would not tolerate shutting in zoo animals 23-24 hours per day the State of Wisconsin has no compunction confining prisoners to indefinite isolative Administrative Confinement (AC) alone in a parking-space size cell for 164 of the 168 hour week. Such prolongued social, environmental, and occupational isolation and lack of stimulation is well known to pose a substantial risk of harm to mental and physical health.
Norman Uhuru Green and I, 2 of the longest standing Wisconsin prisoners held in this type of endless isolation at 18 years, and nearly 28 years respectively, together with Cesar DeLeon, form the 3 remaining original ‘Dying to Live’ movement hunger strikers who continue to refuse to eat or drink in hopes of forcing an end to the state’s practice of indeterminate seclusion.
On June 7, 2016, a group of 10 Wisconsin prisoners in solitary confinement at the Waupun and Columbia correctional institutions began refusing nourishment to expose the inhumane conditions of their confinement, and to facilitate dignified treatment of all humans. Within a few weeks the Department of Corrections had obtained court orders to force-feed Uhuru, DeLeon, and I 3 times daily which entails being placed in full restraints, and then strapped into a ‘restraint chair’ and having a nasal-gastro tube inserted in one nostril to the stomach where a liquid mixture of nutrition is funneled. Besides violating the sanctity of our bodies, this procedure is an invalid state response to a dignified struggle and it can cause significant internal injury.