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Prisoner rights

Building Hope And A Halfway House In Washington, DC

September 10, 2023 Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
With nearly two million people in prison and an incarceration rate five times higher than most countries on the planet, the United States is the world’s only carceral superpower. Our nation has a long tradition of “justice” that is articulated in a cold, calculating and harsh expression of punishment. Despite this history, a counter narrative surrounding imprisonment and punishment in the United States has also existed — one that is based in reform, repentance, restoration and redemption. Quakers in Philadelphia spent decades in the early 19th century protesting harsh prison conditions and ultimately convinced the Pennsylvania Assembly to reform their model of imprisonment.

Hundreds Set To Launch Hunger Strike Inside Stewart Detention Center

September 7, 2023 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
Last weekend, hundreds of people detained at the Stewart Detention Center announced plans for a hunger strike in response to inedible food and inhumane conditions inside the notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in rural southwest Georgia. Though detainees have continued to eat while they negotiate with the facility’s staff, as many as 800 people are set to refuse food starting this week if their demands are not met. On the morning of Saturday, Aug. 26, roughly 300 people held inside the Stewart Detention Center were brought out of their holding cells for their morning meal.

I’ve Taught In Prisons For 15 Years; Here’s What Schools Need To Know

July 29, 2023 Nicholas De Dominic, Scheer Post. , ,
In spring of 2023, I taught a class on memoir at the California Institution for Women, a medium-security facility, in Chino. The course focused on autobiographical writing. Each week, students were asked to draft narratives focused on their life story and its larger social context. In addition to writers-in-custody at the prison, the class enrolled University of Southern California students. Every week, my colleague and I drove 12 USC undergraduates out to the prison to join their incarcerated peers in class. Both populations received college credit for their work. After the class ended, I received a thank-you note from one of our incarcerated students.

Palestinian Prisoners Call For The Freedom Of Palestine Action Prisoners

July 10, 2023 Palestine Action. , , ,
From inside Israeli jails, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement has issued a statement demanding the freedom of Palestine Action prisoners held in British jails. Six activists from Palestine Action are currently detained, and over 100 more are facing custodial sentences, for disrupting the British manufacture of Israeli weaponry [1] [2]. On Wednesday 5th July, nearly 80 public figures including celebrities, activists, academics and lawyers issued a statement of solidarity saying “We demand the charges are dropped against those already incarcerated and at risk of prison over their work to disrupt the criminal production of Israeli weapons on British soil.”

Inside The Prisoner-Led Struggle To Win Education For All

April 6, 2023 Antoine Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Despite increasing recognition that prison education is a key tool for reducing crime, Washington State prisoners were recently forced to gather in a janitor’s closet to organize and facilitate college education for people incarcerated in several prisons across the state. They took this dramatic step because new official restrictions are jeopardizing a liberating, prisoner-led program known as Taking Education And Creating History, or TEACH. Organized by a handful of incarcerated people — including me — over a decade ago, TEACH’s goal is to democratize education for people with long sentences.

Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement Victory

March 30, 2023 Munther Khalaf Mufleh, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
After the escalation of Zionist attacks against the achievements gained by the prisoners’ movement over the years, and the attempts of the fascist Ben Gvir to seize our rights by enacting laws and policies such as the laws for the execution of prisoners, revocation of nationality, and deportation of prisoners and former prisoners, as well as the attacks on the achievements of daily life of the prisoners’ movement, such as cutting access to water, setting brief times for bathing and the imposition of dozens of punitive measures, such as repeated transfer and isolation, led the prisoners’ movement to take action.

Silent No More

March 28, 2023 Stewart Acuff, Stansbury Forum. , , , ,
Under a sky spitting freezing rain with a cold whipping wind, Kimberly Burks, the mother of Quantez Burks, helped assemble the 150 marchers and stepped us off from the home of Quantez Burks at noon. We marched through the neighborhood and out to well-travelled thoroughfares and around the Beckley Police Station. We then lined a block of the main street through town holding and waving signs, some folks crying, others remembered the two men and the shock of their deaths. Josh Eagle, a friend of Burks, held a sign that read: “What if Quan was your son? Brother? Father? Husband? Friend? Uncle? We want answers. We demand justice.”

Phone Zap For Ohio State Penitentiary Hunger Strikers

March 21, 2023 Workers World. , , ,
Ohio - People incarcerated at the Ohio State Penitentiary began a protest in mid-March and need our support to be successful in getting their demands met. Recently, guards at OSP have been forcing prisoners to stand in the showers for hours on end as a form of retaliation for speaking out. The protest seeks to end this form of punishment, as well as several other injustices inside the prison. Without outside support and attention, protests like this one are much easier for the prison administration to sweep under the rug. It’s imperative that the administration hear from as many people as possible, so that they know we are paying attention to how they respond to this action.

Thousands Of Palestinian Prisoners Launch Civil Disobedience Campaign

February 16, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , ,
The Supreme Emergency Committee of Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs issued a statement on Monday, February 13, announcing the beginning of a civil disobedience movement by Palestinian prisoners against the Israeli prison authorities. It announced that the actions will begin at the Nafha prison in southern Israel, and will escalate both the scale and scope in the coming months. The announced actions are in response to an increase of repression and brutal treatment of Palestinian prisoners since the start of this year due to policies implemented by the new far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The First Big Strike Of 2023 May Happen Behind Prison Walls

December 31, 2022 Kim Kelly, Truthout. , , ,
All in all, 2022 was a banner year for organized labor. Thousands of workers in a wide variety of industries unionized; they pushed back against union-busting campaigns from oligarchs and corporate hit men; they went on strike and protested unfair treatment, from California to Alabama and everywhere in between. Public support for unions shot up to 71 percent, and the worryingly under-resourced National Labor Relations Board was inundated with more union election petitions than it could handle. Members of Gen Z, the youngest generation of workers, are even more pro-union than their millennial parents, and they aren’t shy about speaking up. All of that combined momentum isn’t slowing, either. The coming year is already poised to be another big moment for the working class.

Statements From Alabama Prisoners As Strike Enters Third Week

October 16, 2022 It's Going Down. , , ,
An estimated 80% of prisoners from Alabama’s “major male facilities” went on strike on September 26th, in response to a wide range of conditions and grievances. Inside organizer Kinetik Swift Justice stated, “Basically, the message that we are sending is, the courts have shut down on us, the parole board has shut down on us. This society has long ago shut down on us. So basically, if that’s the case, and you’re not wanting us to return back to society, you can run these facilities yourselves.” The strike has now entered its third week, and at least five facilities, each with around 7,000 prisoners, continue to participate. Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has punished prisoners by drastically reducing their meals, essentially attempting to starve them off the strike.

Protesters Converge On State Capitol In Solidarity With Prison Strike

October 16, 2022 Zariya Williams and Ryan Fatica, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Montgomery, Alabama – On the 19th day of the statewide prisoner work strike on Friday, about 100 people gathered in front of the Alabama State Capitol Building in support of the thousands of prisoners currently striking. On Oct. 7, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) confirmed that five facilities remained at a standstill due to the historic statewide work stoppage. Posts to a private Facebook group run by family members of striking prisoners confirmed that prisoners at five facilities continued to strike as of this week. The ADOC admitted the ongoing strike has caused significant disruptions to the functioning of the prisons. “All facilities remain operational,” the department wrote in a press release on Sept. 28, 2022. 

Alabama Prison Strikers Demand Change Despite Severe Retaliation

October 7, 2022 Haley Czarnek, Labor Notes. , , ,
Across the state of Alabama, where the state’s longest-ever strike is currently ongoing at Warrior Met Coal after over 18 months, another historic labor stoppage is in its second week. Thousands of incarcerated people at every major male prison in Alabama have refused to report to their work assignments. “The message that we are sending is, the courts have shut down on us, the parole board has shut down on us,” a strike organizer who goes by Swift Justice told a reporter for independent news site Unicorn Riot. “This society has long ago shut down on us. So basically, if that’s the case, and you’re not wanting us to return back to society, you can run these facilities yourselves.” “It makes no sense for us to continue to contribute to our own oppression,” Kinetik Justice, another striking prisoner, told Unicorn Riot.

Lawsuit Alleges Officials Illegally Hold People In Jail Before Trial

July 23, 2022 Margaret Barthel, DCist. , , ,
Prince George’s County, Maryland - Nine people who were recently held in the Prince George’s County jail say they were detained illegally, even after courts ordered or allowed their release. They’ve filed a lawsuit that suggests as many as a third of people in the county jail may be in custody illegally. The lawsuit, which lawyers are seeking to certify as a class action, was filed in federal district court in Maryland this week. It alleges that county judges unlawfully deferred to county officials in final decisions about the release of people before trial, shrouding the decision making process in bureaucratic mystery and leading to lengthy delays in giving people who have not been found guilty of a crime their freedom. “Every night, hundreds of people are jailed awaiting trial in Prince George’s County, Maryland, despite the absence of any legally sufficient order that they be detained,” the complaint reads.

Chris Hedges On Trauma And Teaching Writing In Prison

July 14, 2022 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , ,
Since 2013, Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and host of The Chris Hedges Report, has taught college courses in drama, literature, philosophy, and history at East Jersey State Prison (aka “Rahway”) and other New Jersey prisons. In one such course, after reading plays by Amiri Baraka and August Wilson, among others, Hedges’ students wrote a play of their own. The play, Caged, would eventually be published and performed at The Passage Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey, for a month-long run in 2018 to sold-out audiences. In his latest book, Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison, Hedges chronicles the journey he and his class embarked on together. Joining Mansa Musa on Rattling the Bars, Hedges speaks about his book and the transformations he witnessed among the men he taught behind prison walls.
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