Prisons

The Slaves Rebel

September 4, 2018 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Resist! History, Prisons, Racism, Slave labor

The only way to end slavery is to stop being a slave. Hundreds of men and women in prisons in some 17 states are refusing to carry out prison labor, conducting hunger strikes or boycotting for-profit commissaries in an effort to abolish the last redoubt of legalized slavery in America. The strikers are demanding to be paid the minimum wage, the right to vote, decent living conditions, educational and vocational training and an end to the death penalty and life imprisonment. These men and women know that the courts will not help them. They know the politicians, bought by the corporations that make billions in profits from the prison system, will not help them. And they know that the mainstream press, unwilling to offend major advertisers, will ignore them.

Prisoner Strike Exposes An Age Old American Reliance On Forced Labor

September 4, 2018 By Calvin Schermerhorn, Theconversation.com Resist! Exploitation, Labor, Prison Labor, Prison Strike, Prisons

Prisoners in 17 states and several Canadian provinces are on strike in protest of prison labor conditions. Their demonstrations are compelling Americans to understand that some everyday foods are produced behind bars, for cents on the hour, in a system many call “modern slavery.” Prisoners in the U.S. harvest and process eggs, orange juice, ground beef and fish. They also staff call centers, fight wildfires and make sugar. For this work, they receive, on average, 86 cents a day, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, an advocacy group. Some formerly incarcerated people disagree with the comparison of prison work to slavery, saying that prison jobs teach real skills that may reduce recidivism. But the prisoners’ strike, underway since Aug. 21, shines a light on a troubling American habit of consuming, often thoughtlessly, the products of forced labor.

Massive Prisoners’ Strike In US Continues Amid Bids To Suppress It

September 4, 2018 By Pavan Kulkarni, Peoplesdispatch.org Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons, Slave labor

The prisoners’ strike launched in the US on August 21 might have expanded beyond the 17 States where the action was originally planned. This was revealed by Amani Sawari, a member of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS) – an anonymous prisoners’ collective providing legal support to the incarcerated – which had given the call for the strike. The strike, possibly the largest ever in US history, is expected to continue till September 9. It was launched in protest against the use of prisoners as slave labor – which is a multi-billion dollar industry serving private profits, as well as US military production. Other issues include the extortionist prices charged for prison services such as phone calls, poor living and working conditions, and racial discrimination in the implementation of laws.

Freedom Rider: Prison Strike 2018

September 1, 2018 Margaret Kimberley, Blackagendareport.com Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons

Incarcerated people and their advocates are the very definition of a resistance movement. The United States leads the world in many shameful measures, and mass incarceration is at the top of an infamous list. No other nation has as many people behind bars nor applies such overt racism in maintaining its penal system.One out of every eight incarcerated people in the world are black Americans. That is why the prison strike declared by the incarcerated and their supporters is so crucial. Their actions prove that this country lies when it claims to be an upholder of human rights. The 2018 prison strike commemorates two anniversaries, the murder of George Jackson in San Quentin prison on August 21, 1971 and the Attica uprising and massacre which ended on September 9, 1971.

Prisoners Participating In Elections Through The National Prison Strike

September 1, 2018 By Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org Resist! Electoral Politics, Prison Strike, Prisons, Strikes

In hotbed areas like Florida where elections are coming quickly there are as many as 5 prisons participating in the National Prison Strike. There are several demands listed in the strikes official call that require political action and policies to be made on behalf of prisoners’ rights. Prisoners are calling for the public to make these demand to materialize into legislation on their behalf. However demand number 10 calls for something that many may consider radical and revolutionary, the ability for prisoners to vote. Prisoners having the right to vote gives them the access to the political realm needed in order to make the necessary changes that their lives depend on.

Most Recent Deaths At East Baton Rouge Jail Could Have Been Avoided

August 31, 2018 Teresa Matthew, Theappeal.org Educate! Abuse, Baton Rouge, Prisons

Paul Cleveland once showed up at his niece’s door with a pork roast because he was worried she had run out of groceries. He had an extra mobile home on his property, and would let near-strangers stay there till they got back on their feet. Cleveland was a U.S. Navy veteran—and according to his niece, Sherilyn Sabo, he wasn’t afraid of anybody. But when he called her from inside the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, Cleveland told Sabo he didn’t think he would make it out alive. Cleveland had not been convicted of a crime—he was in jail (Louisiana refers to its local jails as “parish prisons”) because his family was unable to pay his $300,000 bail. When he died of a heart attack in 2014, Cleveland became the jail’s third fatality that year and its 14th since 2012.

A Labor Day Call To Action

August 31, 2018 Staff, Incarceratedworkers.org Organize! Class Struggle, Prison Labor, Prison Strike, Prisons

This is a call to establish encampments and coordinate direct actions surrounding the Labor Day weekend at the site of prison labor camps. Inspired by the recent wave of #AbolishICE organizing, prison abolitionists and labor activists have joined forces to call for an escalation of the movement to defend public service unions, stop prison slave labor, and end mass incarceration. As prisoners launch what is anticipated to be the largest national prison strike in U.S. history, between August 21- September 9, we on the outside must also ask ourselves, what are we willing to do and how much are we willing to risk to demonstrate our solidarity to fellow workers? Earlier this year, the Supreme Court announced one of the most devastating blows to union membership in decades.

Silence Is Leaden, The Revolutionary Power Of Art Behind Bars

August 30, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com Resistance Report Lead, Prisons, Water, Water Pollution

More lead in more water and the grotesque parallels across the country with regards to testing, notification, repairs and accountability. Next, as the prison strike continues, we go inside with an artist who seeks to help prisoners defy their oppression through art. But beware, this isn’t therapy - this is revolution. From tweets to marching in the streets, this is Act Out!

Reports Back From The First Week Of The National Prison Strike

August 29, 2018 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org Resist! Class Struggle, Prison Strike, Prisons

Many people are aware of the prison strike that began August 21 on the 47th anniversary of George Jackson’s assassination in 1971. Some of those following the strike are confused by the conflicting messages that are being sent out by states’ departments of corrections. It’s clear that prison officials are doing all that they can to suppress strike actions and prisoners’ organizing. However prisoners are rising up in institutions across the country, and now internationally, in protest of the living and working conditions in the prisons. They also call out for the rescinding of legal barriers and policies that keep inmates in a state of oppression and instability. They are demanding to have ownership over transforming the circumstances that contribute to the violent environments they forced to live in.

With US Prison Strike On Third Day, Reports Of Hunger Strikes And Work Stoppages Nationwide

August 25, 2018 By Julia Conley, Commondreams.org Resist! Class Struggle, Hunger Strikes, Prison Strike, Prisons

"Prisoners are boycotting commissaries, they are engaging in hunger strikes which can take days for the state to acknowledge, and they will be engaging in sit-ins and work strikes which are not always reported to the outside." Details of the nationwide prison strike, now in its third day, are gradually emerging from institutions where inmates are staging hunger strikes, refusing to work, and participating in sit-ins to protest unjust sentencing laws, poor living conditions, and the continued existence of slavery within the nation's carceral system. The strike began on Tuesday, with organizers reporting that incarcerated Americans in 17 states had pledged to join the action. According to a statement from organizers including Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), at least six direct actions had taken place at U.S. prisons in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Washington, and California.

Demanding Wide-Reaching Reforms And An End To Slavery, Inmates In 17 States Plan Prison Strike

August 20, 2018 By Julia Conley, Commondreams.org Resist! Prisons, Reform, Slavery, Strikes

The Nationwide Prison Strike is planned for August 21, the day Nat Turner led an uprising of slaves in 1831, until September 9, the 47th anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion in which more than 40 people were killed. Organizers of the action, which is endorsed by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), have released a list of ten demands for improvements to their living conditions, sentencing policies, and laws that allow for prison slavery. "All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor," reads the list of demands. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows for "slavery or involuntary servitude...as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

At Rally Outside Jamie Dimon’s Home, Immigrant Rights Advocates Demand #BackersOfHate Stop Bankrolling For-Profit Prisons

July 26, 2018 By Julia Conley, Commondreams.org Resist! Divestment, Immigration, Prisons, Undocumented

"Private detention companies like CoreCivic and the Geo Group continue to be financed by Corporate #BackersofHate like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, who profit enormously from our communities' pain and the separation of families," read the event's Facebook page. JPMorgan Chase has loaned tens of millions of dollars to CoreCivic, as well as underwriting numerous multi-million dollar corporate bonds for the company. The bank also has at least $72 million invested in the Geo Group. Both for-profit prisons have government contracts under which they run immigrant detention facilities that have filled up in recent weeks with parents and children who have been forcibly separated under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy.

Juneteenth Call to Action Against Prison Slavery Amidst Reports of Lockdowns, Strikes, Walkouts

June 17, 2018 Staff, Fight Toxic Prisons Resist! Prisons, Toxic Prisons

The Gainesville chapter of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) and the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP) have joined the call, initiated by prisoners in Florida and Texas, for actions demanding an end to mass incarceration and prison slavery around Juneteenth 2018, Tuesday, June 19. Juneteenth is a celebration of the official end of chattel slavery in the United States. It marks the day when, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, news of freedom reached slaves in Texas. Prisoners in Texas and Florida, many of whom have been at the forefront of the massive, prisoner-led movement to bring about desperately needed changes in the U.S. prison system are calling on allied groups fighting for prison reform “on the outside” to organize community events and direct actions in solidarity.

Teaching ‘Les Misérables’ In Prison

May 30, 2018 Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Educate! Education, Prisons, Theater

I spent the last four months teaching Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel “Les Misérables” at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey. My students—like Hugo’s main character, Jean Valjean, who served 19 years in prison—struggle with shame, guilt, injustice, poverty and discrimination, and yearn for redemption and transformation. The novel gave them a lens to view their lives and a ruling system every bit as cruel as Hugo’s 19th-century France. “Les Misérables” was wildly successful when it was published, including among Civil War soldiers in the United States, although Hugo’s condemnation of slavery was censored from Confederate copies. It was American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs’ favorite book—he read it in French. The socialist British Prime Minister Lloyd George said “Les Misérables” taught him more about poverty and the human condition than anything else he had ever read and instilled in him a lifelong ambition “to alleviate the distress and the suffering of the poor.”

Half Of Wisconsin’s Black Neighborhoods Are Jails

May 28, 2018 By Brentin Mock, City Lab Educate! Mass Incarceration, Prisons, Racism

17-year-old Lew Blank was fiddling around with the Weldon Cooper Center’s Racial Dot Map when he discovered something disturbing about Wisconsin, where he lives: More than half of the African-American neighborhoods in the state are actually jails. Not only that, but the rest of the black neighborhoods across the state are either apartment complexes, Section 8 housing, or homeless shelters—the lone exception being a working-middle class section of Milwaukee. Sharing this info on the Young, Gifted, and Black Coalition’s blog, Blank explains that he used the Racial Dot Map to identify where predominantly black neighborhoods—defined as “a certain area where the majority of residents are African Americans”—are located throughout the state. There are 56 of them, 31 of which are either jails or prisons. There are 15 cities where the only black neighborhood is a jail.

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