Contact: Ben Turk
Phone: 614-704-4699 (leave text or voicemail, please)Lucasville Survivors on Hunger Strike over communication access Over the weekend, staff admitted that the restriction was made to prevent them from telling their story about uprising during the 25th anniversary of it's conclusion. They promised the restriction would be lifted Monday morning. As of Monday night, only Greg's phone access was restored. https://www.facebook.com/events/1773815042661544/ Call to Action! Defend Survivors of the Lucasville Uprising In clear retaliation during the 25th anniversary of the 1993 uprising, the Ohio State Penitentiary administration rolled back communication access and possibly other conditions exclusively for the survivors of the Lucasville Uprising. Please call Ohio State Penitentiary between 9am and 5pm EST. Dial 330-743-0700 and press 0 then ask to speak with Warden Bowen. SUGGESTED SCRIPT: “Hello, my name is _____. I'm calling to demand you reverse Friday's policy changes that imposed new restrictions on prisoners impacted by the Lucasville uprising. None of these prisoners violated any rules and there's no justification for rolling back important policies that help them survive the 25 years of solitary confinement the ODRC has cruelly subjected them to.” ADDITIONAL INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS: - The policy change seems to have impacted Siddique Hasan, Greg Curry, Jason Robb, Namir Mateen (James Were), Keith LaMar and possibly others. Some of these prisoners were actively reaching out to media regarding the 25th anniversary, others weren't. Some are on special “5A long-timer” status, (something the prison invented to keep them at OSP indefinitely) others are at lower security levels. The common thread is that they're all survivors of the uprising. -The move took place late Friday afternoon, so that supporters would be unable to call the prison for more information or to reverse the policy until Monday morning. -Over the weekend, admin assured the prisoners that the restriction would end Monday morning, and was only imposed to prevent them from talking to the public about the anniversary of Lucasville (which is itself a violation of their rights). -This turned out to be a lie and delaying tactic. Phone and email access was not restored. In fact, the prison showed greater disregard for the prisoner's rights by denying a legal call. -Keith, Hasan, and Jason are starting a hunger strike on Tuesday April 24 demanding restored access. -A new captain on the block has been threatening to return “long-timer” privileges back to “how it used to be”. That might refer to conditions before the series of hunger strikes that won increased contact visitation, phone access, law library, congregate recreation, Jpay kiosk access for email and video visits, and less restrictions on books and music. We're not sure at this time which of these conditions have changed. -Greg Curry is not on “long-timer” status, but his communication access is restricted. Monday he regained phone access, but still has no email. Last month he was scheduled to transfer out of the institution, then admin canceled the transfer without explanation at the last minute. -Four of the restricted prisoners (Greg, Hasan, Keith and Jason) are litigants in a media access lawsuit which has been making gains in the courts and has a hearing Wednesday April 25. This restriction may be an attempt to punish or deter the prisoners from suing the ODRC. --
Phone: (614) 704-4699
IncarceratedWorkers.org
LucasvilleAmnesty.org
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Articles, opinions, proposals for fighting against mass incarceration in NJ.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Lucasville Survivors on Hunger Strike over communication access
Thursday, January 18, 2018
#OperationPUSH: Florida prisoners begin labor strike with mass support
by Michelle Renee Matisons, Ph.D
“But now with the living conditions deteriorating, and with the sure knowledge that we are slated for destruction, we have been transformed into an implacable army of liberation.”
“But now with the living conditions deteriorating, and with the sure knowledge that we are slated for destruction, we have been transformed into an implacable army of liberation.”
--George Jackson
Phone calls, canteen
purchases, visits from loved ones, and work assignments are all part of Florida
prisoners’ daily routines. But so is massive coordinated resistance to
incarceration conditions that, in Florida, includes the 2012 torture and
subsequent death of Darren Rainey. Rainey was incarcerated in the Dade
Correctional Institution in South Florida when guards “punished” him by pouring
boiling shower water on him for two hours. Unfortunately, his death has become
emblematic of general Florida prison conditions many are courageously
resisting.
In a 101-page report
released last spring, officials ruled Rainey’s death an “accident,” and blamed
it on his poor health condition that includes schizophrenia and heart disease.
Others investigating the death point to an incomplete investigation into
Rainey’ death… You know: business as usual for the Florida Department of
Corrections (FDOC).
It's treatment like
torture, solitary confinement, medical neglect, and exploited labor and living
conditions that have us witnessing sustained prisoner resistance efforts in the
face of serious administrative repression. The most recent campaign is
Operation PUSH (#OperationPUSH), which was launched on January 15, 2018 to
honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This is a statewide prisoner strike to
end inhumane, even deadly, Florida prison conditions.
Florida’s Prison
Plantations
It is one thing to
refuse to purchase services or take visitors, it’s quite another to refuse
work. This is exactly what the savvy organizers inside, and their outside
supporters, know well. Hitting the industries profiting from prisoner wage
theft can serve as a wake up call to the FDOC. Not only do inmates perform the
grunt work that keeps the prison running-- laundry, cooking, cleaning-- but
they also participate in a state-approved non-profit program called P.R.I.D.E. This
organization has prisoners working in all kinds of industries like furniture
and garment manufacturing--for very low pay and in frequently dangerous
conditions--under the auspices of inmate vocational training that makes
communities safer and saves taxpayer money.
Redefining the meaning
of the word “pride,” striking prisoners in 8 facilities started a laydown/ work
stoppage and refusal of other privileges for at least one month, or until
demands are met.
Theft of prisoners’
wages is a growing topic of concern in the liberal media, like PBS and NPR.
Recently, we saw coverage of California women prisoners earning a mere $2.00 to
fight deadly toxic wildfires. In Florida, the average hourly wage is from $0.00
to $0.32. This wage theft reminds us of Florida’s status as one of a handful of
states where prison jobs can go unpaid altogether. Alabama, Georgia,
Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Texas are the other states with
literal slavery conditions:
there’s no other way to describe mandatory free labor.
This no and low pay condition for mandatory labor has a cascade effect hindering other quality of life issues for prisoners, such as inability to pay exorbitant fees for canteen items and phone calls.
One organizer explains
in an interview with It’s Going Down, as published on the
Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) website: “These “privileges”
are a facade which help them more than it does inmates by boosting their
revenues. Boycotting them may temporarily seem like creating burdens for
ourselves, but that sacrifice now is worth having a better tomorrow. Or
future.”
Meet the F&$%*@!
Demands
This widely supported
and extremely well-coordinated effort has three major demands:
“payment for our labor, rather than the current slave arrangement; an end to
outrageous canteen prices; and the reintroduction of parole incentives to
lifers and those with Buck Rogers dates.” (Buck Rogers dates are release dates
set so far in the future as to seem fictional in nature.)
Other more specifically
stated goals include: stop the
overcrowding and acts of brutality committed by officers throughout FDOC which
have resulted in the highest death rates in prison history; expose the
environmental conditions we face, including extreme temperatures, mold,
contaminated water, and being placed next to toxic sites such as landfills,
military bases and phosphate mines (including a proposed mine which would
surround the Reception and Medical Center prison in Lake Butler); honor the
moratorium on state executions, as a court-ordered the state to do, without the
legal loophole now being used to kill prisoners on death row; restore voting
rights as a basic human right to all, not a privilege, regardless of criminal
convictions.
The idea is to laydown
and refuse work until Governor Rick Scott faces the harsh financial reality of
hiring outside of his precious walls for labor to run daily prison operations. This “could cost
millions of dollars each day the strike continues, which the state of Florida
relies on incarcerated workers to do for a fraction of that cost.”
Haitian strikers
currently incarcerated in Florida are connecting their presence as laborers in Florida
facilities to Trump era detention policies. A solidarity statement
from Haitian prisoners explains: “Prisons in America are nothing but a
different form of slavery plantations... There are so many Haitians, Jamaicans,
and Latinos in the FDOC serving sentences that exceeds life expectancy and or
life sentences who are not being deported. They use all immigrants, for free
Labor and then deport them.”
This strike emerges on
the heels of what has been a few serious years of prisoner resistance and
organizing in the state, coordinated with national efforts. August 2016 saw
prisoners placed on lockdown in anticipation of the national prisoners’ strike
commemorating the Attica prison uprising’s 45th anniversary on September 9,
2016.
Prior to
#OperationPUSH’s January 15th kick-off date, on January 13 it was reported that
facilities began to retaliate against strike leaders and organizers by placing
some in solitary confinement.
An Implacable Army of
Liberation
On the strike’s first
day, communication from inside ceased. Outside, supporters,
including 100 organizations, organized solidarity actions including a protest
at Norfolk City Jail in Virginia and a solidarity demonstration in Tallahassee,
Florida where one demonstrator, a Dream Defender, was arrested. Supporters also
rallied outside Miami’s Florida Department of Corrections building, outside the
Lake Butler facility, and in Jacksonville.
It’s no shock that Angela Davis has
thrown her enthusiastic support behind the strike, exclaiming that: “There’s no
better way to keep the legacy of Dr. King alive than by supporting the
prisoners’ strike.” Her speech was delivered to a packed audience at Florida
State University, Tallahassee on Wednesday, January 16, 2018.
IWOC has merely heard
rumors of what is currently happening inside, and the organization initially
waited to verify rumors as facts before releasing information. As of January
17, there’s verification of pre-emptive organizer sweeps and facility
lockdowns: collective punishment, if you will. Given the brutal conditions that
characterize U.S. prisons, jails, and detention facilities, we should not be
surprised to hear about prison administration crackdowns on strikers-- yet we
should remain outraged.
On the Supporting
Prisoners and Real Change (SPARC) Facebook
page, it’s reported as of January 17 at 10
AM that: “Info coming in... key organizers being held in confinement ‘under investigation’
with no reason being given. Strong possibility they do not have access to
certain personal property such as writing materials or extra clothing to deal
with the extreme low temperatures in these prisons without heat. Details will
be updated as we receive them.”
The temperature
throughout the state is no joke this time of year. January 17, 2018’s evening
temperatures dropped below freezing in Florida’s panhandle.
By January 18, the UK’s Daily Mail has
covered the strike, reporting that Florida prisons have the highest death rate
in history. Also, in 2017 alone, the FDOC confirms prisoners performed 3.15
million hours of outside labor as “community work squad members,” worth $38
million. Part of the arrangement is that instead of getting paid, inmates can
work off sentence time. Of course, this also produces a sinister culture
whereby guards can place time onto prisoners records-- especially if they are
strike organizers and participants.
Speaking of sinister,
Florida eliminated parole for non-capital felonies in 1984, and strikers are
demanding the return of the parole option, which would reduce overcrowding,
illness, suicides, and deaths.
Some prisons have
already cancelled visitation and phone calling privileges in retaliation
against strike demands. This is nothing other than pre-emptive collective
punishment as this new round of serious struggle commences. Under collective
punishment, every prisoner is a political prisoner. SPARC reports that Avon Park prison has
shut off all facility phones. Prisoners who once planned to boycott phone use
are now being denied the privilege pre-emptively by Polk County’s Avon Park
administrators. What the hell are they planning to do to strikers?
In the meantime, as more
news trickles in about the strike climate, there are many things you can do as
an individual or a group to support #OperationPUSH. You can organize and attend
solidarity demos; coordinate your organization’s endorsement of the strike
(email fighttoxicprisons@gmail.com); use the #OperationPUSH hashtag to publicize the strike;
write prisoners; and donate to supporting organizations.
Relevant and informative
websites following the strike include:
Addendum: Kevin “Rashid”
Johnson’s Invaluable Perspective
Amidst the general
organizing efforts inside Florida prisons, there’s a recent addition to the
Florida system, and officials can’t be happy. Kevin “Rashid” Johnson,
co-founder and Minister of Defense for the New Afrikan Black Panther Party
(Prison Chapter), and author of anti-prison organizing book, Defying the
Tomb, Kersplebedeb: 2010) was transferred from Texas to Florida State
Prison in Bradford County six months ago.
Since this is Johnson’s
fourth state prison system in six years (he’s also done time in Virginia and Oregon),
he is one to adequately compare state systems. He has gone down on record as
stating that he “can personally attest that conditions [in Florida] are among
the worst I’ve seen.”
In addition to slave
labor, Johnson also describes other
travesties of justice: “On a literal daily basis prisoners are gassed, tortured
and/or brutally beaten by guards with the full complicity of medical and mental
health staff. As part of this culture of abuse, grievance officials
routinely trash prisoners’ attempts to grieve their mistreatment. This to
eliminate any records of the abuses and to frustrate any potential attempts at
litigation.”
Other shocking examples
of more routinized economic exploitation include Johnson’s list comparing Texas
prison canteen prices to Florida.
Highlights include price-gouging for ramen, oatmeal, and other anti-starvation
necessities: “One Top Ramen soup is $.30 (TX); $.70 (FL); ten individual packs
of oatmeal are $1.50 (TX); $5.30 (FL)...”
When Florida is outdoing
other monumental prison states like Texas and California for exploitation and
corruption, we have a serious situation on our hands that will not simply go
away.
While striking prisoners
portray their resistance as deliberately non-violent in the tradition of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., the state remains complicit in running a violently
racist, class bludgeoning death chamber that is receiving international
attention.
Even an imperialist U.S.
president like John F. Kennedy can tell you that “Those who make peaceful
revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
Governor Rick Scott and
Company: it’s probably a good idea to heed this warning.
Michelle Renee Matisons,
Ph.D. is an adjunct philosophy professor and writer living in the Florida
panhandle. She can be reached at michrenee@gmail.com.
Monday, January 8, 2018
The Coalition of Medical Marijuana, New Jersey (CMMNJ)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Coalition of Medical Marijuana, New Jersey (CMMNJ)
Contact:
Peter Rosenfeld (856) 495-5824 or jprosenfeld@yahoo.com
Peter Rosenfeld (856) 495-5824 or jprosenfeld@yahoo.com
January 9, 2018, State House Annex, starting at 10:30 AM
- Protest and Rally outside the State House Annex By NJ Medical Marijuana Patients for Home Cultivation
- Protest and Rally outside the State House Annex By NJ Medical Marijuana Patients for Home Cultivation
New Jersey Medical Marijuana Patients To Governor-elect
Murphy: We Need Home Cultivation
Murphy: We Need Home Cultivation
Trenton:
Registered medical marijuana patients in New Jersey will gather in front of the State House Building Annex on January 9th from 10:30 AM to 1 PM to call on New Jersey legislators and Governor-elect Phil Murphy to allow home cultivation of cannabis.
Peter Rosenfeld, a board member of the Coalition of Medical Marijuana
New Jersey (CMMNJ), pointed out that caregivers and patients were expecting home gardens until the provision was removed in 2009 from the Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act. Almost a decade later, and the promises of a robust medical marijuana program have been broken.
New Jersey (CMMNJ), pointed out that caregivers and patients were expecting home gardens until the provision was removed in 2009 from the Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act. Almost a decade later, and the promises of a robust medical marijuana program have been broken.
“Home Cultivation is STILL needed for three reasons, Mr. Rosenfeld said:
1) Cost - the cost of medical marijuana exceeds half the income of the 50% of patients who are on disability
2) Consistent supply - many patients need specific strains for their conditions, but the dispensaries often stop providing them for cost and other reasons. Supply, in general, has been an issue.
3) Empowerment - allowing those patients who can to grow their own medicine lets them take control of their disease.
1) Cost - the cost of medical marijuana exceeds half the income of the 50% of patients who are on disability
2) Consistent supply - many patients need specific strains for their conditions, but the dispensaries often stop providing them for cost and other reasons. Supply, in general, has been an issue.
3) Empowerment - allowing those patients who can to grow their own medicine lets them take control of their disease.
The recreational marijuana bill that Senator Scutari may be introducing today will make the specific strain supply issue much worst, to the detriment of patients. Home cultivation is one way of alleviating this issue."
Ken Wolski RN, Executive Director of CMMNJ, who will be speaking
at the press briefing said, “Home cultivation empowers patients to take charge of their own healthcare, to grow their own medicine for pennies and to choose the specific strains that best helps their medical conditions.”
at the press briefing said, “Home cultivation empowers patients to take charge of their own healthcare, to grow their own medicine for pennies and to choose the specific strains that best helps their medical conditions.”
Rosenfeld added, “As New Jersey moves on to full legalization of
marijuana we want legislators and Governor-elect Murphy to consider the needs of our state's medical marijuana patients.”
marijuana we want legislators and Governor-elect Murphy to consider the needs of our state's medical marijuana patients.”
CMMNJ also extends an open invitation to Governor-elect Murphy to attend our January 9th meeting in Lawrenceville.
Contact:
Peter Rosenfeld
(856)495-5824 or jprosenfeld@yahoo.com
Peter Rosenfeld
(856)495-5824 or jprosenfeld@yahoo.com
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Resist the Deportation Machine Letter to Joe D / Essex Freeholders
Resist the Deportation Machine, a coalition which Decarcerate the Garden State supports, sent the following letter to the Essex County Freebolders as a follow up to their recently coordinated protest at an Essex County Freeholders meeting.According to Jay Arena of Resist the Deportation Machine organization:
"This letter is a followup to our November 9 demonstration at the Essex County Freeholders. After the demo we went into the meeting and demanded that the county break the contract with ICE to imprison immigrants at the Essex County prison. Enclosed above is a formal letter, sent this week by email, making that request."
This effort to close the detention facilities should be widely supported and linked to the struggles to end mass incarceration and oppose US wars at home and abroad. Stay tuned for an announcement of a protest that will take place on January 27 around these issues.
For more information, join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/143490942937260/
Dear Essex County Chosen Freeholders and Essex County
Executive DiVencenzo,
We are writing to strongly urge you as members of the Essex County Board of Chosen
Freeholders and as County Executive to immediately act to end the contract with
the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to hold 850 immigrant
detainees at the Essex County Correctional Center in Newark.
ICE’s detention centers throughout the country are a crucial
part of its cruel and illegal deportation machine that is spreading terror and
disrupting the lives of millions of immigrants.
Without ICE’s ability to hold up to 41,000 immigrants in detention, it
would be impossible for it to deport the 400,000 or more immigrants per year it
is now expelling. Most of the 100 detention facilities are, like the Essex
County Correctional Center, leased from local authorities.
Shutting Down detention centers will force ICE to free
immigrant detainees. The ICE system is full to capacity, and ICE is requesting
Congress authorize 5,000 more beds. Detainees that are no longer housed at ECCC
can’t, in general, be moved elsewhere because there is no room for them. ICE will
have to release many of them. We are as well demanding that Hudson County and
Bergen County close their detention centers and we expect that shutting down
one of these centers will inspire other campaigns throughout the country.
Multiple shut-downs will cripple ICE’s entire deportation operation, preventing
ICE from simply moving detainees around. In 2006, the closing of the Passaic
County immigrant detention facility in Paterson led to the paroling or outright
release of over 140 detainees.
Immigrant detentions are unconstitutional and a threat to
the rights of all. By ICE’s own
admission immigrant detainees are “administrative detainees” who have not been
charged with or convicted of a crime. Their detention—really imprisonment under
a different name—violates the basic protection of the Bill of Rights that no
person is to be deprived of liberty without due process—indictment and trial by
jury.
Deportations and Detentions Undermine All Workers’ Rights.
The threat of arbitrary detention and deportation deters many immigrants from
defending their rights to decent wages and working conditions. This hinders the
ability of all workers to defend these rights.
Essex County Must not Run on Blood Money. The fact that the
county profits from the unconstitutional detention of immigrants, because ICE
pays for the beds, is not a valid argument for collaborating in the ICE
deportation machine. The County could raise money by selling opioids as well,
but that would not make it a wise policy.
Therefore you should act now to immediately end the
detention contract with ICE.
Sincerely yours