Decarcerate The Garden State: NJ Sept 9 Status Report as of June 23

NJ Sept 9 Status Report as of June 23

NEXT PHONE CONFERENCE MEETING 6:30 PM TUESDAY JUNE 28

Conference Call Meeting Tuesday 6:30 pm EST
Conf:712-770-4010- Access 100577

What we need for all participants and interested people to do:

Read through this plan of action and determine which parts of the events on September 9 and the organizing until then that you can plug into.

Help identify organizations in your area of the state or that you have connection to that could be interested in being part of this effort.

Offer suggestions on other activities, on lead up activities, places in your community where we can possibly meet, organizations that you might be able to suggest to that they invite us as guest at their meeting, etc.

We need your help – you need to tell us what can you do and what are you willing to do to make this successful?

Minutes of meetings from June 14 and June 21 are combined into this status

June 14 Attendance: John Burns, Michael Mirsky, Carol Serebreny, Bob Witanek
John Burns has proposed to the Black Lives Matters chapters to get involved, was going to look into assisting with art work
Carol Serebreny is interested in helping with literature, leaflet and writing / editing needs
Plan updates from meeting are incorporated below.

June 21 Attendance, Malik, Renee Felton, Shulonda Smith, Jamhar James, Ed Forchion
Malik is Irvington based – will look into organizations around there and suggests working with Enok Rodriguez of Zulu Nation organization

Renee will look into possibilities around Jersey City and will work to get statement from Southwoods Family United
Shulonda is going to look into possibility of a meeting in East Orange and she is going to get some papers and once we produce them, fliers for distribution

Ed is making the restaurant Weedman’s Joint available for a Trenton meeting on June 30.
Plan updates from meeting are incorporated below.

Prior meetings minutes:

http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2016/06/september-9-organizing-531-meeting.html

http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2016/05/sept-9-solidarity-w-incarcerated.html

Lead up to Sept 9 / Schedule Activities

Attendance at POP General Assembly to get support for POP coordination of Newark September 9 events

Tuesdays, 6/28, 7/5, 12, 19, 26. 8/2, 9, 16, 23, 30, Sept 6 Conference Call Meeting Tuesday 6:30 pm EST
Conf:712-770-4010- Access 100577

Fridays, 6/24. 7/1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 8/5, 12, 19, 26, Sept 2 – Spike the Strike Social Network
We encourage supporters to constantly be promoting information about these efforts in social networking but to escalate and dedicate every Friday to making sure there is extensive sharing, tweeting, etc. of these materials.

June 30 8 pm Weedman’s Joint – meeting with Legalize Advocates / Trenton residents
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/611771928997050/

Outreach to prison families visiting Saturdays / Sundays – To be determined

“Noise” Demonstration at North Jersey State facility – To be determined

Meetings in Newark – To be determined

Leafleting of public housing projects – To be determined

Other meetings at various locations around state – To be determined

Activities planned on September 9 – 10

Newark proposed:

We will ask POP to assist in coordinating Newark. The proposal is to have an event at the county jail and if there are resources available – possibly a car pool over to the state facility on Doremus for a 2^nd rally.

Lead-ins – Planned “noise demonstration” and possibly visitor outreach at North Jersey (Doremus). Meetings at Library, other downtown meeting rooms (South Orange Av).

Is full city mobilization possible? Leafleting to projects?

Trenton proposed:

The proposal is to have an event at the Statehouse with two sections: an hour or so with representation of justice related issues with hopefully Black Lives Matter and UMIO participating. and the other hour would be the issue of cannabis related concerns with the 25000 arrests - the machine guns in the street at the Joint - both groups would also be supporting the strike of prisoners and the other demands of the day - free political prisoners (the cannabis section might also call for release of all cannabis prisoners and immediate dismissal of all pending citations and pending fines), 50% reduction of NJ prisoners - we maybe will add something about the Sentencing Project NJ twice as bad as rest of country in racial disparity. And improved conditions in NJ facilities - we hope to have specific details about that. The issue of the Trenton curfew might also be addressed.

Is full city mobilization possible? Leafleting projects.

Camden

What has been discussed so far is possibly some sort of rally at the County Jail in Camden. I have been invited to a community meeting by John Royal though it is not completely scheduled yet. Hopefully at such a meeting the proposal can be announced and improved upon and the process of fine tuning what exactly Camden does can commence. Is full city mobilization possible? Leafleting projects.

Bridgeton

Would it be better for Bridgeton to go to Camden or to do something locally in Bridgeton at the Cumberland County Jail (where there have been jailhouse deaths).

New Brunswick – Fountain activity?

Highland Park

Panel Discussion evening September 10 hosted by Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War

Atlantic City?

Asbury Park? Randall Thompson, Help Not Handcuffs

Everybody interested in making this happen should pick one of the events being proposed or offer another idea that they are willing to work on in a different area. It could be easier to get more people involved by having events that people do not have to travel a distance to.

NJ Campuses

On as many campuses as follows, have leafleting and newspaper distribution at the campus cafeterias, covering as many cafeterias and as many meals as feasible. (Up to 5 copies given to anyone expressing especial interest – clipboards to take names, contact info of interested students.)

http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2016/06/every-nj-campus-in-for-september-9.html

Rider Kenny Dillon
Rutgers Newark Jan Makovec
Bergen County James Turner

High Schools

Decarcerate the Garden State officially or unofficially is not encouraging any high school student walk outs at this time. Youth must assess any risk of participation in these events and probably should get support of their parents should they choose to support this call in any way.

Activities leading up to Sept 9

June 30 at the Joint – meeting to discuss plans for Trenton 9/9

Camden, attendance at Village meeting

Newark, meetings possibly at library, South Orange, AFL, Friends, elsewhere?

Leafleting projects? Planning meetings in Trenton. Meetings between two groups.

Who can invite us to speak at a meeting, event or help plan a special meeting for this purpose? The more the merrier/

Press Release

http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2016/06/immediate-release-joining-to.html

Initial Call to Act - Statewide Actions Proposed by Decarcerate the Garden State and Peoples Organization for Progress
http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2016/05/pop-decarcerate-garden-state-letter.html