Tag Archives: september 9

Kinross Coverage

kinrossInformation is just now beginning to escape from Kinross Correctional Facility in northern Michigan, where one of the larger, more inspiring strike actions occurred on September 9. Retaliation by MDOC officials has been severe and violent. Three prisoners have turned up dead under suspicious circumstances. Find links to news reports and coverage below, and updates at https://www.facebook.com/Michigan-for-Prison-Abolition-585834328095870

Local organizations have connected and coordinated with National Lawyers Guild and IWOC as well as family members and the prisoners to get more information out and to build an effective response to the state’s violence and refusal to release information. Continue reading →

The New Slave Revolt

From Truthdig

A nationwide prison work stoppage and hunger strike, begun on Sept. 9, the 45th anniversary of the Attica uprising, have seen over 20,000 prisoners in about 30 prisons do what we on the outside should do—refuse to cooperate. “We will not only demand the end to prison slavery, we will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves,” prisoners of the Free Alabama Movement, the Free Ohio Movement and the IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee wrote in a communique.

This round of prison strikes—there will be more—has had little outside support and press coverage. There have been few protests outside prison walls. Prison authorities—unlike during the 1971 Attica uprising when the press was allowed into the yard to interview the rebellious prisoners—have shut out a compliant media. They have identified strike leaders and placed them in isolation. Whole prisons in states such as Texas were put on lockdown on the eve of the strike. It is hard to know how many prisoners are still on strike, just as it is hard to know how many stopped work or started to fast on Sept. 9.

Before the strike I was able to speak to prisoner leaders including Melvin Ray, James Pleasant and Robert Earl Council, all of whom led work stoppages in Alabama prisons in January 2014 as part of the Free Alabama Movement, as well as Siddique Hasan, one of five leaders of the April 1993 uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, Ohio. (The Ohio revolt saw prisoners take control of the facility for 11 days after numerous grievances, including complaints about deaths allegedly caused by beatings from guards, went unanswered.) Now, authorities have cut off the access of these and other prisoner leaders to the press and the rest of the outside world. I have not been able to communicate with the four men since the strike began. Continue reading →

Ohio Muslim Prisoner Threatened With Punishment For NPR Interview On Prison Strike

From Shadowproof

Ohio prisoner Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan says he was recently threatened with disciplinary action by an investigator at the Ohio State Penitentiary for speaking on the National Public Radio program, “On Point,” about the September 9 national prison strike.

Hasan, who is a Muslim spiritual leader on death row for his alleged role in the 1993 Lucasville Uprising, said he was informed he would be written up for unauthorized use of the phone and could have his phone and email privileges restricted, despite an understanding with prison officials that he could use his phone and email time to communicate with media as he has done for the past decade.

On Monday, Hasan told Shadowproof he was not sure when the disciplinary actions would come down, but he and his supporters expect it to be imminent. If it happens, it will be the second time he’s faced retaliation for supporting the strike in as many months.

“I’m getting kind of mentally exhausted. How am I going to deal with this nonsense?” Hasan said. “I’m not going to throw in the towel. I just remain in the trenches.” Continue reading →

Financial Impact of the Prison Strike in California

From Solidarity Research Center

Authors: Solidarity Research prison-strike-in-california-10-06-16Center and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Date: October 2016

September 9, 2016 was the start of the largest prison strike in U.S. history. Over 72,000 incarcerated workers in 22 states refused to provide their labor to profit the prison industrial complex. California forces 5,588 incarcerated workers to labor in exchange for little or no compensation. The financial losses to the California prison system are as much as $636,068 in revenue or $156,736 in profit for every day of the prison strike.

 

Download the full report here.

A Prison Strike Organizer Suffers Retaliation for Speaking With Journalists

From The Intercept

A prisoner at Ohio State Penitentiary says he is facing disciplinary action for participating in an NPR interview about the nationwide prison strike that started on September 9. 

Nearly a month after inmates embarked on the largest prison strike in the country’s history, the media and the public continue to know little about where and how the action played out, and even less about officials’ retaliation against striking prisoners.

As The Intercept has reported, that’s no coincidence. Prison officials regularly go to great lengths to control the information leaving their institutions, and this strike has proven no exception, despite gradually developing media interest in the protest.

Undeterred by challenges, prison activists have succeeded in releasing sporadic updates on the strike as it spread across the country, and some of them have even used a combination of contraband cellphones and their regularly allotted phone time to speak with media organizations.

But those calls come at a cost.

In an incident suggesting just how difficult and risky it can be for prisoners to communicate with the outside, and with journalists in particular, Siddique Hasan, a prison activist sentenced to death for his role in a 1993 prison uprising, said he was “written up” by a prison investigator for his participation in a September 28 episode of the NPR show “On Point with Tom Ashbrook.” Continue reading →

Call for Renewed Actions in Solidarity With the Prison Strike, October 15-22

From It’s Going Down

It hardly seems necessary to summarize what has gone down inside U.S. prisons since September 9th. Hunger strikes, work stoppages, and riots have spread throughout the country on a scale that we likely aren’t even fully aware of yet. Some uprisings appeared took us by surprise, such as in several Florida prisons, while others presumably grew from recent organizing endeavors on the inside, such as at Kinross in Michigan or Holman in Alabama. By rough estimates, over 20,000 prisoners were involved in some way. That’s huge.

On the outside, solidarity burned so brightly all over the world. Banner drops, graffiti slogans, noise demonstrations and more showed that we had the backs of all who would partake in the strike. It is worth noting however that the vast majority of this took place the first weekend of the strike. But this prison strike—and the struggle against prisons more broadly—is about more than a day or a week. It didn’t start on September 9th and it isn’t ending any time soon. Some prisoners may return to work while others decide to stop working for the first time. It’s easier when there is a definitive date to take action on, to build momentum towards, but that’s not going to be enough.

Therefore, we would like to offer a call for renewed actions in solidarity with the prison strike and the struggle against prison society. Right now many are organizing anti-repression campaigns for striking prisoners and that is of course very necessary and not nearly as exciting work. But it would be a mistake to conceive of this struggle in a linear fashion—that is to say, a single wave where we demonstrate as it crests and write letters as it crashes. How many prisoners hadn’t heard about the strike until after it had started? How many knew but didn’t think people would actually be there to support them? Three weeks after the start of the strike, inmates in Turbeville, South Carolina rebelled against a guard and took over their dorm. How can we stop while inmates are still risking their lives for freedom? Continue reading →

Merced County Jail & John Latorraca Jail Hunger Strike 9/9/2016

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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 →

Arizona Prison Lockdowns

azdocMany prisons in Arizona refused to answer questions from the person who called to help track the strike. They neither confirmed nor denied. Some did admit lockdowns, but none admitted to the cause. From the volunteer who made calls: “Nearly every prison I called was immediately suspicious of my call and seemed to have a canned “we’re not allowed to share that publicly,” line ready. Most asked me repeatedly who I worked for.”

Perryville – They were the most hostile of all the prisons I called. They transferred my call around several times and eventually I was hung up on by someone who told me that is not any of my concern and do not call back.

Yuma – Hung up on me. Though the website says several units are not accepting visits. From website: Dakota Unit : No visitation, East yard, Building 6 No visitation, West yard, Building 8 Visitation hours as normal for West yard, Building 7
Continue reading →

*So Kinetik, what is it that people can do to help FAM ?

*So Kinetik, what is it that people can do to help FAM ?
*Join FAM, MAF, TOPS, PRODIGAL CHILD PROJECT, PROJECT SOUTH, AND THE SOUTHERN MOVEMENT in Mobilizing the people at County Jails, Prisons and Detention Centers to bring the fight front and center against this INHUMANE SYSTEM.

*So are you saying that the September 9th Call to Action is still in effect, and if so how long do you foresee this initiative lasting?

*Without a doubt the Call is still in effect. We chose the 9th as a means to connect the struggle to the historical stand that produced real change in this System and we will continue INDEFINITELY until Prison Slavery and all its manifestations are dead. We’re not in it for the fame, but for real change.

*In closing, any words for the people?

*Yeah, I want to say FREE OHIO, SOUTH CAROLINA, FLORIDA, MICHIGAN, CALIFORNIA, MISSISSIPPI, TEXAS, GEORGIA, NORTH CAROLINA and of course FREE ALABAMA, and until then, LETS GET IT, WE GOT WORK TO DO. And to Our Sisters in Alabama, at Tutwiler, HOLD TIGHT, WE’RE COMING.

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