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Prisons

The New Slave Revolt

October 15, 2016 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com ,
By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - Severe state repression and a near-total press blackout make it impossible to determine how many prisoners are continuing the national work strike that began on September 9th. The core demand is an end to prison slavery: the forced low-or-no-wage employment extracted from inmates. “Once we take our labor back,” said an organizer, “prisons will again become places for correction and rehabilitation rather than centers of corporate profit.”

Experience ‘RIKERS,’ Face To Face

October 15, 2016 Bill Moyers, www.wagingnonviolence.org , ,
By Bill Moyers for Moyers & Company - Over the years I have landed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport knowing that the island just off and below the tip of the right wing was Rikers, the city’s largest jail, isolated in the East River within sight of the Manhattan skyline and separated from the borough of Queens by a single bridge. Looking across at the stark jumble of buildings, I had often thought of Alcatraz, on the other side of the continent: penal colonies framing America’s gateways.

Prison Labor Is Slavery By Another Name

October 13, 2016 Olivia Alperstein, www.otherwords.org , , ,
By Olivia Alperstein for Other Words - Across the country the largest prison strike is taking place, vowing to "finally end slavery in 2016." Right now there’s a national movement mobilizing to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour. But imagine if instead of earning even that much, you could only earn a few cents an hour. If that sounds like something from the developing world, think again. The reality is our prisons are perpetuating slave labor.

Guards Sympathize With Striking Prisoners: “We See It As A Moral Issue”

October 12, 2016 Cora Lewis, www.buzzfeed.com , ,
By Cora Lewis for Buzz Feed News - The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into prison conditions in Alabama, weeks after inmates there joined a nationwide prisoner strike in protest of forced labor and living conditions. “The investigation will focus on whether prisoners are adequately protected from physical harm and sexual abuse at the hands of other prisoners; whether prisoners are adequately protected from use of excessive force and staff sexual abuse by correctional officers; and whether the prisons provide sanitary, secure and safe living conditions,” the DOJ said in a statement.

The New Slave Revolt

October 11, 2016 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com , ,
By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - 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.

DOJ Investigating Violence And Rape Inside Alabama Men’s Prisons

October 10, 2016 Kent Faulk, www.al.com , , , , ,
By Kent Faulk for Alabama Media Group - The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into violence, rape, overcrowding and other problems within the men's prisons in Alabama, the DOJ announced today. The investigation will focus on whether prisoners are adequately protected from physical harm and sexual abuse at the hands of other prisoners; whether prisoners are adequately protected from use of excessive force and staff sexual abuse by correctional officers; and whether the prisons provide sanitary, secure and safe living conditions, according to the DOJ announcement.

45 Years After Attica Uprising, Prisoners Are Rebelling Again

October 5, 2016 Alice Speri, www.theintercept.com , ,
By Alice Speri for The Intercept - LAST MONTH, INMATES across the country embarked on what organizers have called the largest prison strike in U.S. history, an ambitious mass protest against prison labor and inhumane prison conditions. The strike, which was the culmination of a series of renewed efforts at prison organizing in recent years, kicked off on September 9, in tribute to one of the bleakest moments in the country’s history of incarceration, the uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

Alabama Prison Guards Went On Strike This Weekend In Solidarity With Inmates

September 29, 2016 Brendan O'Connor, www.jezebel.com , , ,
By Brendan O'Connor for Jezebel - A group of guards at an Alabama prison went on strike this weekend, out of solidarity with inmates protesting overcrowding and unjust labor practices. Strikes and work stoppages have rolled through the nation’s prisons following the 45th anniversary of the Attica uprising earlier this month. On September 9th, inmates at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore went on strike for at least 24 hours, refusing to show up for their work assignments.

The Banning Of Books In Prisons: ‘It’s Like Living In The Dark Ages’

September 26, 2016 Stuart Miller, www.theguardian.com ,
By Stuart Miller for The Guardian - Dan Slater’s new non-fiction book Wolf Boys recounts the story of two Mexican-American teens in Texas seduced by the violent cartels across the border and the Mexican-born Texas detective who hunts them. It is grim and violent, yet it is a detailed and thoughtful look at American society and the war on drugs. It has also been condemned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Directors Review Committee, which declared Wolf Boys off limits to all Texas prisoners before it was even published this month.

Largest Prison Strike In U.S. History Enters Its Second Week

September 23, 2016 Alice Speri, www.theintercept.com , ,
By Alice Speri for The Intercept - THE LARGEST PRISON strike in U.S. history has been going on for nearly a week, but there’s a good chance you haven’t heard about it. For months, inmates at dozens of prisons across the country have been organizing through a network of smuggled cellphones, social media pages, and the support of allies on the outside. The effort culminated in a mass refusal to report to prison jobs on September 9, the anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison uprising.

Organizing Prisons In 1960s And 1970s: Part One, Building Movements

September 23, 2016 Staff, www.processhistory.org , , ,
By Staff of Process - On the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison rebellion in 1971, Process speaks with seven scholars of the carceral state about prisoners’ organizing in the 1960s and 1970s and movements protesting mass incarceration today. This is the first of a three-part series, guest edited forProcess by Jessie Kindig. Check out parts two and three.

Nationwide Prison Strike Draws Attention To Unpaid Labor

September 21, 2016 Rebekah Barber, , ,
By Rebekah Barber for Facing South - On Sept. 9, exactly 45 years to the day after the uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York, prisoners across the United States went on strike. The full scope of the protests is unclear, in part because of the lack of media coverage. But what is evident is that prisoners in as many as 24 states including Alabama, South Carolina and Texas took part in simultaneous nonviolent protests to demand basic human rights.

Prison Revolutionaries Of ’60s Generation: Role Models For Contemporary Strikers

September 21, 2016 James Kilgore, www.truth-out.org , ,
By James Kilgore for Truthout - In the run-up to the national prison labor strike on September 9, revolutionaries of decades past cast their imposing shadows over a new generation of activists, especially those in organizations like the Free Alabama Movement. At a gathering of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People & Families Movement (FICPFM) held in Oakland to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Attica rebellion, Truthout had the opportunity to speak with three of the most important historic figures of prison struggles past

“We’re Freedom Fighters”: Story Of The Nationwide Prison Labor Strike

September 20, 2016 James Kilgore, www.truth-out.org , , ,
By James Kilgore for Truthout - The first national prison labor strike in US history launched on September 9. Billed as a "Call to Action Against Slavery in America," the spark for the action came from the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), a prison-based organization that has been mobilizing across the state since 2012. Alabama has one of the most overcrowded prison systems in the country. Reports from FAM's base within Holman Prison indicated a universal refusal of the population to go to work on September 9.

Nationwide Prison Strike Mostly Ignored By National Media

September 16, 2016 Rohit Chandan, www.fair.org , ,
By Rohit Chandan for FAIR - But a search of the Nexis news database for the terms “prison” and “strike” showed that most national corporate news outlets thought that the potential of history being made on September 9 needed little to no news coverage. CBSMoney Watch (9/9/16) actually had a substantive report by Aimee Picchi, who noted that, “Aside from the low or nonexistent pay, the strikers say they object to the use of violence or punishments if they don’t perform as well as their jailers expect.”
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