Prison still on lockdown month after riot
June 18th, 2018by Associated Press in Local NewsRead Time: 2 mins.
A Missouri prison remains on lockdown more than a month after a sit-down protest turned into a riot, and officials with the union that represents corrections officers worry that a severe staffing shortage could lead to more violence.
Inmate activities have been restricted at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron since May 12. After dinner on that day, 209 inmates staged a protest out of anger over restrictions on recreation and programs that were borne out of a corrections officer staffing shortage.
Eventually the inmates were ordered to return to their cells. The Missouri Department of Corrections said 78 of them refused to do so and began damaging property in the building that houses dining halls, the kitchen, staff offices and a factory.
Staff and the 131 inmates who surrendered after the protest were removed from the building. Local police and the Missouri Highway Patrol arrived. A patrol negotiator brokered peace after about six hours. No staff members were hurt. About a dozen inmates were treated for scrapes and bruises.
However, weeks later, an investigation continues. Meanwhile, repairs to offices, machines, security cameras, windows and other damaged property are ongoing, said Karen Pojmann, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
For now, inmates get only sack meals and no phone calls or visits, other than with their attorneys, Pojmann said. Showers are limited to once every three days. Recreation areas are off-limits, but inmates still have access to law library materials, medications and medical services, and can send and receive mail.
Pojmann said amenities such as recreation time, phone calls and expanded library access are expected to be restored over the next couple of weeks.
Statewide, 528 base-level corrections officer positions are open, Pojmann said. The problem is particularly pronounced at Crossroads, which has 70 vacancies.
Every event that occurs at a prison — meetings, classes, recreation — must be overseen by corrections officers. With so many staff vacancies, some programs are put on hold and recreation has to be limited.
That causes anger to boil over among the inmates, said Tim Cutt, grievance officer for the Missouri Corrections Officers Association. In addition to the riot at Crossroads, female corrections officers have recently been injured in attacks by inmates at prisons in Bowling Green and Farmington, Cutt said.
"We haven't lost an officer in Missouri since 1983," Cutt said. "How long can it go on with the cuts we've seen?"
The problem, Cutt said, starts with low pay. He said an entry-level corrections officer in Missouri earns $29,000 annually — last among the 50 states.
Pojmann said the Department of Corrections has begun an aggressive recruitment campaign statewide, but especially in Cameron, a town of 10,000 residents 50 miles north of Kansas City. Cameron is home to two prisons — Crossroads, with a capacity of 1,440 inmates, and the Western Missouri Correctional Center, which has a capacity of 1,925 inmates. The department even has a full-time recruiter in Cameron.
Meanwhile, the state's prison population continues to grow. Missouri had fewer than 6,000 prison inmates in 1980. It has more than 32,000 today.
http://www.newstribune.com/news/local/s ... ot/731062/
Police, prison and abolition
Re: Police, prison and abolition
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
psa:
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
Huge List of ICE Employees, Their Job Title, and Location
by Chinga La Migra
Tuesday Jun 19th, 2018 5:07 PM
It’s Time to Abolish ICE, Border Patrol, Borders, Prisons, and Military.
People on LinkedIn who work for ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Employees, Their Job Title, and Location
Collected by Sam Lavigne
DOWNLOAD & SHARE the 66 PAGE .pdf
§Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Employees
by Chinga La Migra Tuesday Jun 19th, 2018 5:07 PM
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/ ... 815796.php
Here's the link to complete list:
https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2018/06/19/ice.pdf
Just a reminder that criticism is healthy and a duty. Of course this is largely fueled by Democratic Party politics and this fact should always be to the fore. Which does not at all take away from making these Nazis lives more miserable, if that is possible.
by Chinga La Migra
Tuesday Jun 19th, 2018 5:07 PM
It’s Time to Abolish ICE, Border Patrol, Borders, Prisons, and Military.
People on LinkedIn who work for ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Employees, Their Job Title, and Location
Collected by Sam Lavigne
DOWNLOAD & SHARE the 66 PAGE .pdf
§Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Employees
by Chinga La Migra Tuesday Jun 19th, 2018 5:07 PM
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/ ... 815796.php
Here's the link to complete list:
https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2018/06/19/ice.pdf
Just a reminder that criticism is healthy and a duty. Of course this is largely fueled by Democratic Party politics and this fact should always be to the fore. Which does not at all take away from making these Nazis lives more miserable, if that is possible.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
June 23rd Protest at Indiana State Prison
June 15, 2018
On Saturday, June 23 at 10:00 AM CST (11:00 AM EST) to 2:00 PM CST (3:00 PM EST), parents, family and friends of people incarcerated at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City are holding a protest to expose the atrocious, dehumanizing conditions behind the walls of the prison! We are protesting:
Food: The food that inmates receive, which is an entirely soy food diet, is delivered in containers labeled "not fit for human consumption," by Aramark.
Infestation: Cockroaches 2 inches long, as we have personally seen crawling in the crowded visiting room in the daylight. Bed Bugs have bitten our children as they try to sleep. Birds fly in the air while mice and rats scurry on the floor.
Medical malpractice: "Drink water" is the medical advise one of our sons was given when he hyperextended his knee. That advice cost 6 dollars, as inmates must pay to have medical "care".
Visitation rights: The administration said that over 10% of the population tested positive for drugs, so contact visits are now prohibited. Children cried as their fathers were not allowed to cuddle them. After one month the percentage remained over 10. Inmates now must wear heavy green oversized jumpsuits backwards. These jumpsuits are dangerous because they zip down the back and cannot be removed by the wearer, so if there were an emergency situation they would be trapped. They must be dressed by staff after a new aggressive body cavity search. Now they’re not allowed to wear undergarments. The collar cuts into their neck. No sharing of food is allowed. The percent remains above 10%. Month 3, no human contact, degrading clothing to meet loved ones, now no purchasing food at all. Yet, no visitors have been caught with contraband. So where are these drugs coming from?? Month 4: still no human contact. There is no accountability for proof of results, and at the same time are they not proving that the main supply of drugs is coming in with visitors. The policy of no contact visitation must end!
Censorship, Surveillance and Harassment: All mail is copied, and the original kept by administration. Beginning June 11th, no pictures will be allowed. Only printed on paper....but wait, mail can only be white paper with ink. So will all color pictures be copied into black and white? Also excessive, arbitrary shakedowns are routinely carried out by prison staff, with excessive use of force.
Decrepit building: All windows are sealed. The prison was built in the 1800s. It is cement and steel. There is no air flow. When it's 90 degrees outside, its over 100 degrees inside. Frequently, days go by with either water or electric shut off for repair, resulting in the human waste of over 2000 men unable to be flushed. Inmates only receive two 8 oz bottles of water on hot days while locked in all day and night without water. No showers are possible when water is shut off.
The grievance process has been eliminated, which is illegal, and makes it impossible for people incarcerated at ISP to file lawsuits about their conditions, because prisoners can’t file lawsuits until they have exhausted the grievance process. How will they be heard?
Gross negligence resulting in death: One man was allowed to burn alive on April 7, 2017 at approximately 9:08pm because of an electrical fire started by a short on his television . . . guards looked on and refused to open the doors as he screamed from his cage for help.
We will no longer stand silently by while our loved ones are treated worse than what is acceptable for a dog!
We DEMAND to give our loved ones the loving human touch that is scientifically proven a NEED. The ban on contact visits must end!
We demand EDUCATIONAL programs
We demand REHABILITATION programs
We demand FOOD that is nutritious for humans and in an amount that is filling which will reduce violence.
We demand an END to slave labor - jobs in the prison must pay as much as on the outside!
We demand that LAUNDRY be properly washed!
We demand that prison officials and staff STOP the constant harassment and shakedowns
We demand that Deputy Warden George Payne be fired!!
To attend the protest, meet us at 1 Park Row in Michigan City, IN at 10:00am CST on Saturday, June 23. You can also join us for sign-making at 9:00 AM in the parking lot of the Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets Mall, off of W. Michigan Boulevard.
To support our demands, please call and write to the office of the Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner Robert E Carter Jr. to express your concerns and demand change:
Mailing Address:
Commissioner Carter
302 W. Washington Street, Room E-334
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Executive Assistant
Emily Bennett
(317) 232-5711
Press Contact for Protest: Debbie Marchetta-Peters, 547-255-8364
Need transportation from Indianapolis?: https://www.facebook.com/events/174452500068101/
https://www.idocwatch.org/single-post/2 ... ate-Prison
June 15, 2018
On Saturday, June 23 at 10:00 AM CST (11:00 AM EST) to 2:00 PM CST (3:00 PM EST), parents, family and friends of people incarcerated at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City are holding a protest to expose the atrocious, dehumanizing conditions behind the walls of the prison! We are protesting:
Food: The food that inmates receive, which is an entirely soy food diet, is delivered in containers labeled "not fit for human consumption," by Aramark.
Infestation: Cockroaches 2 inches long, as we have personally seen crawling in the crowded visiting room in the daylight. Bed Bugs have bitten our children as they try to sleep. Birds fly in the air while mice and rats scurry on the floor.
Medical malpractice: "Drink water" is the medical advise one of our sons was given when he hyperextended his knee. That advice cost 6 dollars, as inmates must pay to have medical "care".
Visitation rights: The administration said that over 10% of the population tested positive for drugs, so contact visits are now prohibited. Children cried as their fathers were not allowed to cuddle them. After one month the percentage remained over 10. Inmates now must wear heavy green oversized jumpsuits backwards. These jumpsuits are dangerous because they zip down the back and cannot be removed by the wearer, so if there were an emergency situation they would be trapped. They must be dressed by staff after a new aggressive body cavity search. Now they’re not allowed to wear undergarments. The collar cuts into their neck. No sharing of food is allowed. The percent remains above 10%. Month 3, no human contact, degrading clothing to meet loved ones, now no purchasing food at all. Yet, no visitors have been caught with contraband. So where are these drugs coming from?? Month 4: still no human contact. There is no accountability for proof of results, and at the same time are they not proving that the main supply of drugs is coming in with visitors. The policy of no contact visitation must end!
Censorship, Surveillance and Harassment: All mail is copied, and the original kept by administration. Beginning June 11th, no pictures will be allowed. Only printed on paper....but wait, mail can only be white paper with ink. So will all color pictures be copied into black and white? Also excessive, arbitrary shakedowns are routinely carried out by prison staff, with excessive use of force.
Decrepit building: All windows are sealed. The prison was built in the 1800s. It is cement and steel. There is no air flow. When it's 90 degrees outside, its over 100 degrees inside. Frequently, days go by with either water or electric shut off for repair, resulting in the human waste of over 2000 men unable to be flushed. Inmates only receive two 8 oz bottles of water on hot days while locked in all day and night without water. No showers are possible when water is shut off.
The grievance process has been eliminated, which is illegal, and makes it impossible for people incarcerated at ISP to file lawsuits about their conditions, because prisoners can’t file lawsuits until they have exhausted the grievance process. How will they be heard?
Gross negligence resulting in death: One man was allowed to burn alive on April 7, 2017 at approximately 9:08pm because of an electrical fire started by a short on his television . . . guards looked on and refused to open the doors as he screamed from his cage for help.
We will no longer stand silently by while our loved ones are treated worse than what is acceptable for a dog!
We DEMAND to give our loved ones the loving human touch that is scientifically proven a NEED. The ban on contact visits must end!
We demand EDUCATIONAL programs
We demand REHABILITATION programs
We demand FOOD that is nutritious for humans and in an amount that is filling which will reduce violence.
We demand an END to slave labor - jobs in the prison must pay as much as on the outside!
We demand that LAUNDRY be properly washed!
We demand that prison officials and staff STOP the constant harassment and shakedowns
We demand that Deputy Warden George Payne be fired!!
To attend the protest, meet us at 1 Park Row in Michigan City, IN at 10:00am CST on Saturday, June 23. You can also join us for sign-making at 9:00 AM in the parking lot of the Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets Mall, off of W. Michigan Boulevard.
To support our demands, please call and write to the office of the Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner Robert E Carter Jr. to express your concerns and demand change:
Mailing Address:
Commissioner Carter
302 W. Washington Street, Room E-334
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Executive Assistant
Emily Bennett
(317) 232-5711
Press Contact for Protest: Debbie Marchetta-Peters, 547-255-8364
Need transportation from Indianapolis?: https://www.facebook.com/events/174452500068101/
https://www.idocwatch.org/single-post/2 ... ate-Prison
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
Powered by Google TranslateTranslate
Kinetik speaks: ‘In segregation or on the yard, the message is the same – SLAVERY MUST END’
June 25, 2018
by Kinetik Justice Amun (Robert Earl Council), Free Alabama Movement
Kinetik raises a Black Power fist as he holds his June Bay View.
With strength and optimism, I greet the Comrades and salute the Freedom Fighters!
It has been a long ride, we have come a long way, yet there is so much work we still must do. And, I pen this expression with those in mind, who have committed themselves to the process and dedicated the time to actually DO THE WORK.
In an article I wrote back in January 2014, in conjunction with our formal introduction of Free Alabama Movement (FAM) to the world, I spoke of “a flicker becoming a flame.” And, the threat of that flame blazing into a wildfire for change.
To be in balance with the Universal Order, myself and hundreds of men confined within the Alabama DOC (Department of Corrections) decided to become the change we wanted to see. From ‘14 throughout ‘15 and ‘16 we worked, tirelessly, fanning that flicker – networking, mobilizing, organizing and educating – into a flame.
Two and a half years later, in a coordinated effort, from Alabama to Ohio and all across the nation, that flicker turned into the National Prison Strike on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. our unity, our message, our methods, our execution shook the economical underpinnings and exposed the continued inhumanities of America’s dirty little secret: SLAVERY.
As a matter of law, the “peculiar institution,” draped in the clothes of the American policing and criminal justice system, never ended. But, as historical analysis reveals, all attacks against the institution will be met with extreme repression.
True to form, due to our attack upon the “peculiar institution,” many comrades across the country are enduring the brunt of the repression. Ra’ salute to Comrade Malik, Bro Rashid, Imam Hasan, Bro Anthony Robinson, Bro Bennu and dozens of other brothers and sisters.
The National Prison Strike on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. our unity, our message, our methods, our execution shook the economical underpinnings and exposed the continued inhumanities of America’s dirty little secret: SLAVERY.
I, myself, can be counted amongst that number, as many of my ordeals, prior to and since the Sept. 9, 2016, demonstrations, have been widely documented and publicized. To my extreme benefit, in the weeks leading up to the National Prison Strikes, I received a special visit from the law firm of Gespass & Johnson, representatives of the National Lawyers Guild.
Their timing was perfect, as, due to extensive media coverage – once again, as in January of 2014 – the ADOC targeted me as the “leader” of the strikes in Alabama and sought to neutralize me. First, I was emergency transferred from Holman Correctional Facility to Kilby CF and placed under investigation, then to Limestone’s Behavior Modification Unit and eventually here to Donaldson’s Disciplinary Unit.
They came with the pain, but the NLG provided a real cushion. I can honestly say that they “showed up early and stayed late.” As from that day to this one, they have stood with me and brothers from FAM (Free Alabama Movement) every step of the way.
During the emergency transfers … they were there.
During the hunger strike … they were there.
During the “dry cell” … they were there.
During the assault … they were there.
During the Donaldson deprivations … they were there.
The NLG provided a real cushion. I can honestly say that they “showed up early and stayed late.” As from that day to this one, they have stood with me and brothers from FAM (Free Alabama Movement) every step of the way.
And, recently, it was them that filed a Habeas Corpus challenging my treatment and indefinite solitary confinement status. Since that filing in January ‘18, I have been moved from my “illegal” Disciplinary Segregation placement to the Administrative Segregation Unit, which corresponds with my classification status.
Then, two days later, I was given six months’ worth of confiscated SF BayViews, Burning Spears, Socialist Viewpoints, Prison Legal News and other publications. Based upon the move to Admin Seg, for the first time in over four and a half years, in order to circumvent the Habeas Corpus allegations, I was allowed to go before the Segregation Review Board.
However, they confirmed that without the commissioners’ approval, they couldn’t release me to General Population. A month later, they told me that they were making preparations to have me transferred again.
Then, on June 21, I was taken to see the warden where I was informed that the commissioner had signed off on releasing me from segregation with the stipulations that HE WOULD NOT TOLERATE ANY PROTEST, STRIKES OR FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT TALK. The next day, the classification specialist brought me the formal release papers.
So, it appears that, after 54 months, any day now I’ll be released to the upper deck of this plantation. But, being that I know they are fully aware of the Aug. 21 Call to Action Against Slavery, for how long is the million-dollar question.
So, it appears that, after 54 months, any day now I’ll be released to the upper deck of this plantation. But, being that I know they are fully aware of the Aug. 21 Call to Action Against Slavery, for how long is the million-dollar question.
Either way, in segregation or on the yard, the message is the same: SLAVERY MUST END … FREEDOM OR DEATH!
Love & Solidarity,
Kinetik Justice Amun
Free Alabama Movement (freealabamamovement.wordpress.com)
Send our brother some love and light: Robert Earl Council, 181418, Donaldson CF E-23, 100 Warrior Lane, Bessemer AL 35023. And visit his website, at freerobertearlcouncil.wordpress.com.
http://sfbayview.com/2018/06/kinetik-sp ... -must-end/
Kinetik speaks: ‘In segregation or on the yard, the message is the same – SLAVERY MUST END’
June 25, 2018
by Kinetik Justice Amun (Robert Earl Council), Free Alabama Movement
Kinetik raises a Black Power fist as he holds his June Bay View.
With strength and optimism, I greet the Comrades and salute the Freedom Fighters!
It has been a long ride, we have come a long way, yet there is so much work we still must do. And, I pen this expression with those in mind, who have committed themselves to the process and dedicated the time to actually DO THE WORK.
In an article I wrote back in January 2014, in conjunction with our formal introduction of Free Alabama Movement (FAM) to the world, I spoke of “a flicker becoming a flame.” And, the threat of that flame blazing into a wildfire for change.
To be in balance with the Universal Order, myself and hundreds of men confined within the Alabama DOC (Department of Corrections) decided to become the change we wanted to see. From ‘14 throughout ‘15 and ‘16 we worked, tirelessly, fanning that flicker – networking, mobilizing, organizing and educating – into a flame.
Two and a half years later, in a coordinated effort, from Alabama to Ohio and all across the nation, that flicker turned into the National Prison Strike on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. our unity, our message, our methods, our execution shook the economical underpinnings and exposed the continued inhumanities of America’s dirty little secret: SLAVERY.
As a matter of law, the “peculiar institution,” draped in the clothes of the American policing and criminal justice system, never ended. But, as historical analysis reveals, all attacks against the institution will be met with extreme repression.
True to form, due to our attack upon the “peculiar institution,” many comrades across the country are enduring the brunt of the repression. Ra’ salute to Comrade Malik, Bro Rashid, Imam Hasan, Bro Anthony Robinson, Bro Bennu and dozens of other brothers and sisters.
The National Prison Strike on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. our unity, our message, our methods, our execution shook the economical underpinnings and exposed the continued inhumanities of America’s dirty little secret: SLAVERY.
I, myself, can be counted amongst that number, as many of my ordeals, prior to and since the Sept. 9, 2016, demonstrations, have been widely documented and publicized. To my extreme benefit, in the weeks leading up to the National Prison Strikes, I received a special visit from the law firm of Gespass & Johnson, representatives of the National Lawyers Guild.
Their timing was perfect, as, due to extensive media coverage – once again, as in January of 2014 – the ADOC targeted me as the “leader” of the strikes in Alabama and sought to neutralize me. First, I was emergency transferred from Holman Correctional Facility to Kilby CF and placed under investigation, then to Limestone’s Behavior Modification Unit and eventually here to Donaldson’s Disciplinary Unit.
They came with the pain, but the NLG provided a real cushion. I can honestly say that they “showed up early and stayed late.” As from that day to this one, they have stood with me and brothers from FAM (Free Alabama Movement) every step of the way.
During the emergency transfers … they were there.
During the hunger strike … they were there.
During the “dry cell” … they were there.
During the assault … they were there.
During the Donaldson deprivations … they were there.
The NLG provided a real cushion. I can honestly say that they “showed up early and stayed late.” As from that day to this one, they have stood with me and brothers from FAM (Free Alabama Movement) every step of the way.
And, recently, it was them that filed a Habeas Corpus challenging my treatment and indefinite solitary confinement status. Since that filing in January ‘18, I have been moved from my “illegal” Disciplinary Segregation placement to the Administrative Segregation Unit, which corresponds with my classification status.
Then, two days later, I was given six months’ worth of confiscated SF BayViews, Burning Spears, Socialist Viewpoints, Prison Legal News and other publications. Based upon the move to Admin Seg, for the first time in over four and a half years, in order to circumvent the Habeas Corpus allegations, I was allowed to go before the Segregation Review Board.
However, they confirmed that without the commissioners’ approval, they couldn’t release me to General Population. A month later, they told me that they were making preparations to have me transferred again.
Then, on June 21, I was taken to see the warden where I was informed that the commissioner had signed off on releasing me from segregation with the stipulations that HE WOULD NOT TOLERATE ANY PROTEST, STRIKES OR FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT TALK. The next day, the classification specialist brought me the formal release papers.
So, it appears that, after 54 months, any day now I’ll be released to the upper deck of this plantation. But, being that I know they are fully aware of the Aug. 21 Call to Action Against Slavery, for how long is the million-dollar question.
So, it appears that, after 54 months, any day now I’ll be released to the upper deck of this plantation. But, being that I know they are fully aware of the Aug. 21 Call to Action Against Slavery, for how long is the million-dollar question.
Either way, in segregation or on the yard, the message is the same: SLAVERY MUST END … FREEDOM OR DEATH!
Love & Solidarity,
Kinetik Justice Amun
Free Alabama Movement (freealabamamovement.wordpress.com)
Send our brother some love and light: Robert Earl Council, 181418, Donaldson CF E-23, 100 Warrior Lane, Bessemer AL 35023. And visit his website, at freerobertearlcouncil.wordpress.com.
http://sfbayview.com/2018/06/kinetik-sp ... -must-end/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
In my mail:
Support FIRE Mobilization to
the Texas-Mexico Border Now!
Donate now to FIRE, a newly formed multinational, multigender grassroots movement comprised of migrant rights advocates, students, teachers, unionists, socialists, Black Lives Matter, anti-imperialist and other activists.
At this moment of crisis for millions of migrants around the world – adults and children forced to flee their homes because of poverty, violence, and wars imposed by U.S. and European expansion and intervention – it’s time to light the flames of a united fight back.
We are launching a new, national organization to amplify the struggles of im/migrants and refugees everywhere. We believe in supporting the leadership of these movements by connecting all of the issues facing workers here, whether it is police terrorism against communities of color, mass incarceration, sexism, ableism, or exploitation, we want to support a broad movement to take direct action against the horrific crimes of ICE and the Border Patrol.
Eyewitness Delegation to the U.S. - Mexico Border
FIRE is mobilizing activists, primarily young, LGBTQ, people of color, and working class organizers to travel to the U.S. border to support and learn more about struggles to defend our class against ICE and Border Patrol terrorism.
We will be traveling to Brownsville, Texas from June 27 – to July 2 to support actions and take part in an eyewitness tour against U.S. concentration camps for migrant youth and families. We need your support to bring a group of activists to learn about the conditions on the frontlines of this movement. The delegation will publish reports and findings from the border, as well as participating in demonstrations led by these communities against the ongoing separation of families in these cruel concentration camp style detention centers.
Once we return from Texas, we will be speaking out, organizing, and shutting down ICE across the country in support of this growing resistance movement. We need your support to make this important work happen!
FIRE DEMANDS:
Abolish ICE & the Police
Asylum for Central American & All Refugees;
Open the Borders
Close all Detention Centers & Prisons
End Militarization of the Border
Honor Indigenous Nations’ Lands
Justice for Everyone Killed in Detention
Justice for LGBTQ Migrants
No Muslim Ban, No Wall, No Border
Reparations for Climate Change Refugees!
Reparations to Puerto Rico for U.S. Colonialism
Forcing Boricuas into Exile
Reunite ALL Families Including from Mass Incarceration of Black, Brown & Poor People
Solidarity with African, Asian & Middle Eastern Migrants.
Reparations Now
Permanent Residence Now for All Im/migrants
U.S. & Pentagon Out of Central America & Everywhere!
No War Abroad
Workers Struggles Know No Borders
Zero Tolerance for Racist/Fascist Tactics
Who is FIRE?
FIRE is a new organization started by activists across the USA.
Here are a few of our founding organizers:
Rahui Suré Saldivar-Soto is an organizer and activist in San Diego. They are transgender and two spirit and have been fighting for liberation since 2015.
Samuel Ordóñez is a Boston-based activist whose family fled state-sanctioned violence during the Guatemalan Civil War. Dedicated anti-imperialist and pan-Americanist.
Teresa Gutierrez has been fighting for working class rights for decades; is a co-founder of the May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights and is originally from Texas.
John Parker, based in Los Angeles, is a long-time socialist who recently ran in California as the Peace and Freedom Party’s 2018 candidate for U.S. Senate.
He traveled and written extensively as an anti-imperialist, anti-war activist, as well as being a long-time and well-known fighter against racism, police terror,
for im/migrant and workers rights.
Gloria Rubac is a Houston-based activist started her work supporting the Black Panther Party in Houston and has been active for decades part in many struggles, including anti-imperialist work, as well as spending years of her life fighting to abolish the death penalty in Texas. Gloria is also part of the Migrant Rights Collective and has been active in the im/migrants rights struggle since the 1970s.
Donate now to help start FIRE https://www.gofundme.com/send-fire-to-t ... ber=360240
PS. Check out our live coverage from the border here. https://www.facebook.com/fightformigrants
Sounds good, but a lot of things sound good....
Support FIRE Mobilization to
the Texas-Mexico Border Now!
Donate now to FIRE, a newly formed multinational, multigender grassroots movement comprised of migrant rights advocates, students, teachers, unionists, socialists, Black Lives Matter, anti-imperialist and other activists.
At this moment of crisis for millions of migrants around the world – adults and children forced to flee their homes because of poverty, violence, and wars imposed by U.S. and European expansion and intervention – it’s time to light the flames of a united fight back.
We are launching a new, national organization to amplify the struggles of im/migrants and refugees everywhere. We believe in supporting the leadership of these movements by connecting all of the issues facing workers here, whether it is police terrorism against communities of color, mass incarceration, sexism, ableism, or exploitation, we want to support a broad movement to take direct action against the horrific crimes of ICE and the Border Patrol.
Eyewitness Delegation to the U.S. - Mexico Border
FIRE is mobilizing activists, primarily young, LGBTQ, people of color, and working class organizers to travel to the U.S. border to support and learn more about struggles to defend our class against ICE and Border Patrol terrorism.
We will be traveling to Brownsville, Texas from June 27 – to July 2 to support actions and take part in an eyewitness tour against U.S. concentration camps for migrant youth and families. We need your support to bring a group of activists to learn about the conditions on the frontlines of this movement. The delegation will publish reports and findings from the border, as well as participating in demonstrations led by these communities against the ongoing separation of families in these cruel concentration camp style detention centers.
Once we return from Texas, we will be speaking out, organizing, and shutting down ICE across the country in support of this growing resistance movement. We need your support to make this important work happen!
FIRE DEMANDS:
Abolish ICE & the Police
Asylum for Central American & All Refugees;
Open the Borders
Close all Detention Centers & Prisons
End Militarization of the Border
Honor Indigenous Nations’ Lands
Justice for Everyone Killed in Detention
Justice for LGBTQ Migrants
No Muslim Ban, No Wall, No Border
Reparations for Climate Change Refugees!
Reparations to Puerto Rico for U.S. Colonialism
Forcing Boricuas into Exile
Reunite ALL Families Including from Mass Incarceration of Black, Brown & Poor People
Solidarity with African, Asian & Middle Eastern Migrants.
Reparations Now
Permanent Residence Now for All Im/migrants
U.S. & Pentagon Out of Central America & Everywhere!
No War Abroad
Workers Struggles Know No Borders
Zero Tolerance for Racist/Fascist Tactics
Who is FIRE?
FIRE is a new organization started by activists across the USA.
Here are a few of our founding organizers:
Rahui Suré Saldivar-Soto is an organizer and activist in San Diego. They are transgender and two spirit and have been fighting for liberation since 2015.
Samuel Ordóñez is a Boston-based activist whose family fled state-sanctioned violence during the Guatemalan Civil War. Dedicated anti-imperialist and pan-Americanist.
Teresa Gutierrez has been fighting for working class rights for decades; is a co-founder of the May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights and is originally from Texas.
John Parker, based in Los Angeles, is a long-time socialist who recently ran in California as the Peace and Freedom Party’s 2018 candidate for U.S. Senate.
He traveled and written extensively as an anti-imperialist, anti-war activist, as well as being a long-time and well-known fighter against racism, police terror,
for im/migrant and workers rights.
Gloria Rubac is a Houston-based activist started her work supporting the Black Panther Party in Houston and has been active for decades part in many struggles, including anti-imperialist work, as well as spending years of her life fighting to abolish the death penalty in Texas. Gloria is also part of the Migrant Rights Collective and has been active in the im/migrants rights struggle since the 1970s.
Donate now to help start FIRE https://www.gofundme.com/send-fire-to-t ... ber=360240
PS. Check out our live coverage from the border here. https://www.facebook.com/fightformigrants
Sounds good, but a lot of things sound good....
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
Top Democrats Worry About Calls to Abolish ICE
June 30, 2018 at 11:40 am EDTBy Taegan Goddard17 Comments
“Top Democrats tell Axios they’re worried that a sudden wave of ambitious party members calling for the abolition of ICE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is newly controversial because of the detained kids — will make the party look weak on security, a key issue for many swing voters.”
“These Dems fear the phrase makes them an easy target for conservatives who accuse Democrats of wanting ‘open borders.'”
President Trump tweets: “To the great and brave men and women of ICE, do not worry or lose your spirit. You are doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe by eradicating the worst criminal elements. So brave! The radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero chance, It will never happen!”
https://politicalwire.com/2018/06/30/to ... olish-ice/
...the piss that sets the dye....
Death to the Democratic Party
June 30, 2018 at 11:40 am EDTBy Taegan Goddard17 Comments
“Top Democrats tell Axios they’re worried that a sudden wave of ambitious party members calling for the abolition of ICE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is newly controversial because of the detained kids — will make the party look weak on security, a key issue for many swing voters.”
“These Dems fear the phrase makes them an easy target for conservatives who accuse Democrats of wanting ‘open borders.'”
President Trump tweets: “To the great and brave men and women of ICE, do not worry or lose your spirit. You are doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe by eradicating the worst criminal elements. So brave! The radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero chance, It will never happen!”
https://politicalwire.com/2018/06/30/to ... olish-ice/
...the piss that sets the dye....
Death to the Democratic Party
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
South Carolina police object to high-school reading list
Union says depictions of brutality in The Hate U Give and All American Boys promote distrust of police and ‘we’ve got to put a stop to that’
Alison Flood
Tue 3 Jul 2018 08.49 EDT Last modified on Tue 3 Jul 2018 08.51 EDT
Police suspect … Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give’s author. Photograph: Nina Robinson for the Observer
A police union in South Carolina has challenged the inclusion of Angie Thomas’s multiple award-winning novel about police brutality, The Hate U Give, on a school’s summer reading list, describing it as “almost an indoctrination of distrust of police”.
The intervention from the Fraternal Order of Police Tri-County Lodge #3 came after Wando high school’s ninth-grade class was asked to read one of eight novels over the summer holidays. Two of the titles upset the police union: The Hate U Give, which follows a teenage girl after she witnesses the shooting of her unarmed best friend by a police officer, and Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s All American Boys, which sees a teenage boy trying to overcome his distrust of the police after he is wrongly suspected of shoplifting and then beaten by an officer.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas review – racism and police brutality
Read more
President of the lodge John Blackmon told local site News2 that the union had “received an influx of tremendous outrage at the selections by this reading list”, questioning why the school had chosen to “focus half of their effort on negativity towards the police” when “there are other socio-economic topics that are available”.
In fact, there are eight books on the reading list, only two of which tackle police brutality. Thomas’s book was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, but also includes a character, the main protagonist’s uncle, who is a black police officer and positive role model. It has won prizes including the Waterstones children’s book award, while All American Boys is the recipient of the Walter Dean Myers award for outstanding children’s literature.
Blackmon added: “Freshmen, they’re at the age where their interactions with law enforcement have been very minimal. They’re not driving yet, they haven’t been stopped for speeding, they don’t have these type of interactions. This is … almost an indoctrination of distrust of police and we’ve got to put a stop to that.”
The school’s headteacher, Dr Sherry Eppelsheimer said in a statement that a complaint about the books had been received, and that the school will follow the procedures outlined in its policies. This means a committee will review the books, as well as listening to the perspectives of the complaint filer and the teacher who set the books. The committee will then report to the school superintendent, who will make a decision.
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school offering its help in managing the process and urging it to keep the books on its list. “Removing books that have been selected for their educational value solely because the ideas expressed in them conflict with some parents’ political or moral beliefs would improperly allow parents to dominate the public education process with their opinions,” it wrote. “For young readers in Charleston, The Hate U Give and All American Boys offer insight into the racial injustices many people of colour experience, and inspiration for young activists who desire change.”
Director of programmes Svetlana Mintcheva told the Guardian that The Hate U Give, one of the American Library Association’s “most challenged” books of 2017, would probably continue to attract attention. A forthcoming film adaptation will increase the book’s profile, “coupled with national tension over police violence and its disproportionate effects on black men”.
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“We will continue advocating for open and nuanced conversations in our school system about such difficult but vital issues. It is a sign of the times that complaints over books, which used to be predominantly over sexually explicit material, are now increasingly over political issues, especially police violence,” said Mintcheva.
The books also drew support from high-profile authors including Hari Kunzru, who tweeted: “Call me a rabid leftist but I don’t think police unions should be weighing in on high-school reading lists.”
“I don’t actually believe that book-judging is a legitimate part of the business of policing,” wrote Neil Gaiman. “Local police union leader John Blackmon claims that they are only responding to the public reaching out to them to complain about the reading list. Because when people don’t like the books their kids are asked to read, they call the police.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/ ... CMP=twt_gu
Funny, haven't heard 'boo' about this locally. Guess that's because that sort of cop arrogance is uncontroversial around here. South Carolina, the prototype police state.
Union says depictions of brutality in The Hate U Give and All American Boys promote distrust of police and ‘we’ve got to put a stop to that’
Alison Flood
Tue 3 Jul 2018 08.49 EDT Last modified on Tue 3 Jul 2018 08.51 EDT
Police suspect … Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give’s author. Photograph: Nina Robinson for the Observer
A police union in South Carolina has challenged the inclusion of Angie Thomas’s multiple award-winning novel about police brutality, The Hate U Give, on a school’s summer reading list, describing it as “almost an indoctrination of distrust of police”.
The intervention from the Fraternal Order of Police Tri-County Lodge #3 came after Wando high school’s ninth-grade class was asked to read one of eight novels over the summer holidays. Two of the titles upset the police union: The Hate U Give, which follows a teenage girl after she witnesses the shooting of her unarmed best friend by a police officer, and Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s All American Boys, which sees a teenage boy trying to overcome his distrust of the police after he is wrongly suspected of shoplifting and then beaten by an officer.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas review – racism and police brutality
Read more
President of the lodge John Blackmon told local site News2 that the union had “received an influx of tremendous outrage at the selections by this reading list”, questioning why the school had chosen to “focus half of their effort on negativity towards the police” when “there are other socio-economic topics that are available”.
In fact, there are eight books on the reading list, only two of which tackle police brutality. Thomas’s book was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, but also includes a character, the main protagonist’s uncle, who is a black police officer and positive role model. It has won prizes including the Waterstones children’s book award, while All American Boys is the recipient of the Walter Dean Myers award for outstanding children’s literature.
Blackmon added: “Freshmen, they’re at the age where their interactions with law enforcement have been very minimal. They’re not driving yet, they haven’t been stopped for speeding, they don’t have these type of interactions. This is … almost an indoctrination of distrust of police and we’ve got to put a stop to that.”
The school’s headteacher, Dr Sherry Eppelsheimer said in a statement that a complaint about the books had been received, and that the school will follow the procedures outlined in its policies. This means a committee will review the books, as well as listening to the perspectives of the complaint filer and the teacher who set the books. The committee will then report to the school superintendent, who will make a decision.
The National Coalition Against Censorship has written to the school offering its help in managing the process and urging it to keep the books on its list. “Removing books that have been selected for their educational value solely because the ideas expressed in them conflict with some parents’ political or moral beliefs would improperly allow parents to dominate the public education process with their opinions,” it wrote. “For young readers in Charleston, The Hate U Give and All American Boys offer insight into the racial injustices many people of colour experience, and inspiration for young activists who desire change.”
Director of programmes Svetlana Mintcheva told the Guardian that The Hate U Give, one of the American Library Association’s “most challenged” books of 2017, would probably continue to attract attention. A forthcoming film adaptation will increase the book’s profile, “coupled with national tension over police violence and its disproportionate effects on black men”.
Advertisement
“We will continue advocating for open and nuanced conversations in our school system about such difficult but vital issues. It is a sign of the times that complaints over books, which used to be predominantly over sexually explicit material, are now increasingly over political issues, especially police violence,” said Mintcheva.
The books also drew support from high-profile authors including Hari Kunzru, who tweeted: “Call me a rabid leftist but I don’t think police unions should be weighing in on high-school reading lists.”
“I don’t actually believe that book-judging is a legitimate part of the business of policing,” wrote Neil Gaiman. “Local police union leader John Blackmon claims that they are only responding to the public reaching out to them to complain about the reading list. Because when people don’t like the books their kids are asked to read, they call the police.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/ ... CMP=twt_gu
Funny, haven't heard 'boo' about this locally. Guess that's because that sort of cop arrogance is uncontroversial around here. South Carolina, the prototype police state.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
Black Caucus Support for Anti-Lynching Law is a Sham
“The lynchers-in-blue run amuk because they are aided and abetted by the Black Misleadership Class and its Democratic elected representatives in Congress.”
Lynchings are as much a part of Americana as the 4thof July -- occasions for white supremacist pyrotechnics and celebratory violence. Deep into the 1930s, hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of whites would periodically gather, with their families and picnic baskets in tow, to ritually hang, burn, castrate, riddle with bullets and otherwise mutilate one or more Black men, oftentimes putting Black women and children to the torch, as well. At the turn of the 20thcentury, the crusading Black activist Ida B. Wells, who documented thousands of extrajudicial murders of Black people, declared “Our country's national crime is lynching .” But the U.S. Congress never made lynching a federal crime.
Lynching remains the national pastime. In the 1960s, the U.S. Justice Department revived a nearly century-old practice of prosecuting lynchers on federal civil rights charges, since local authorities often sympathized with -- or were, themselves -- lynchers. In recent decades, however, the feds have grown reluctant to build criminal cases against the usual perpetrators of extrajudicial murder of Black people – the police -- even in the face of a rejuvenated grassroots movement against killer cops. Barack Obama, the First Black President, offered empathy to the parents of Trayvon Martin, musing that the 17 year-old “could have been me 35 years ago," but he failed to bring federal charges against the vigilante that shot him. Obama’s two Black attorneys general mounted federal cases against only two killer cops, both of whom had already been indicted by local authorities.
“The feds have grown reluctant to build criminal cases against the usual perpetrators of extrajudicial murder of Black people – the police.”
The elected ranks of the Democratic Party have no stomach for a real anti-lynching law, one that would corral the main body of lynchers: the men and women in blue, who kill a Black person every 28 hours . In June of 2014, just months before Mike Brown was shot down by a cop in Ferguson, Missouri, the Congressional Black Caucus voted, 32 to 8, to continue the Pentagon’s infamous 1033 program, which funnels billions of dollars in battle-grade weapons and gear to local police departments. Barack Obama escalated the militarization of police to unprecedented levels, increasing 1033 program funding 24-fold over his Republican predecessor, George Bush.
The lynchers-in-blue run amuk because they are aided and abetted by the Black Misleadership Class and its Democratic elected representatives in Congress. The Black Caucus in May voted 29 to 11 , with 2 abstentions, to make assault on police officers a federal hate crime, effectively elevating cops to the status of a “protected class.” (See “Black Caucus Sells Out Its Constituents Again – to the Cops,” BAR.)
“Bobby Rush would not dare to construct a bill that is designed to facilitate the prosecution of cops.”
Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush was among the three-quarters of the Black Caucus that supported the Protect and Serve Act of 2018. Exactly one month later, on June 13, Rush introduced legislation to make lynching a federal hate crime . But, Blacks are already a “protected class” and, although the legislation has symbolic and political value, the feds are already empowered to bring federal civil rights charges that could result in death penalties for crimes “committed because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin of any person.” The government most often simply refuses to use its existing powers.
Rep. Rush’s bill does not enhance the already existing federal civil rights statutes that were designed to prosecute copsthat commit crimes “under color of law” -- that is, while acting as cops – against persons “on account of such person being an alien or by reason of his/her color or race,” according to FBI investigation guidelines . If Rush’s bill were to have more than symbolic value, it would reinforce the “under color of law” aspects of federal civil rights law, to make it easier to convict the police of “hate crime” murders, i.e., lynching -- since they are by far the main perpetrators.But Bobby Rush would not dare to construct a bill that is designed to facilitate the prosecution of cops, a “class” he and three-quarters of the Black Caucus had just provided additional protections.
“Rep. Rush’s bill does not enhance the already existing federal civil rights statutes that were designed to prosecute cops.”
Thirty-five Black Caucus members joined as co-sponsors of Rush’s bill. Almost all of them had voted to continue militarizing the police, in 2014 -- as would all but one of the absolutely putrid CBC members that have since been elected, based on their subsequent behavior. (New Jersey’s Bonnie Watson Coleman is the lone exception.) Most of these same Black lawmakers voted in May to make police a “protected class.” Only three Black Caucus members that supported Rush’s anti-lynching bill DID NOT vote to elevate police to protected status, or to further militarize the cops. They are:
Maxine Waters (CA), Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA), Barbara Lee (CA)
All the rest of the Caucus (Rep. Coleman-Watson excepted) are demonstrably full of crap on the subject of lynching-by-cops and every other form of racist police state oppression.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
https://blackagendareport.com/black-cau ... g-law-sham
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
Re: Police, prison and abolition
Will Altering the 13th Amendment Bring Liberation to the Incarcerated 2.3 Million?
BY James Kilgore Truthout
PUBLISHED
August 5, 2017
Though precise figures are difficult to find, likely about half of the 1.3 million incarcerated workers do labor that maintains prison institutions themselves. Without this labor, prisons could not function, yet they are poorly paid and often don’t amount to serious employment. (Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
High school students typically learn at least one “fact” about slavery: The 13th Amendment did away with it all. As usual, school history teaches a half truth. Like most promises of freedom, the 13th Amendment came with a catch, an exclusion clause that permitted both slavery and involuntary servitude “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
This “exception clause” drew considerable attention in anti-slavery circles in the decades immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation but then largely faded into the background. Even through the last several decades of mass incarceration, few people other than a handful of scholars have paid much attention to what historian Dennis Childs calls the “constitutional sanctioning of state-borne prison-industrial genocide.”
However, in the past year, abolishing the slavery clause of the 13th has become a cause célèbre. The prison labor strike of fall 2016 brought the issue to the fore. Led by members of the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) inside Holman prison, this action sparked a withdrawal of labor that some analysts say spread to as many as 29 prisons in 12 states. Kinetik Justice, the most prominent leader of FAM, explained the motivation of the strike: “We understand the prison system is a continuation of the slave system…. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery supposedly but created it again in the next breath, because it birthed the criminal justice system … the institution of slavery with a $1,000 suit on.”
Since the FAM-led strike, resistance in several prisons has kept questions of labor behind the walls in the public eye. Moreover, work stoppages and hunger strikes have occurred in a number of immigration jails in the Northwest and Southwest.
Like the FAM-led strike, much of this resistance in immigration detention centers has focused on exploitation of labor. In an interesting twist on the exception-clause argument, those detained while awaiting results of an immigration proceeding reason that they cannot be compelled to work because they have not been convicted of any crime, thereby absolving them from any application of the 13th amendment.
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In 2014, a suit against this practice was filed on behalf of nine individuals detained at the immigration facility in Aurora, Colorado, owned by the private prison company GEO Group. In March of this year, a Denver judge upgraded the suit to class action status. It now includes some 60,000 men and women held at Aurora over the years. The litigation claims those detained were subjected to “forced labor” when they were selected for a daily roster to carry out cleaning duties at the facility and paid $1 per day. The argument holds that this amounts to virtual slavery under Trafficking Victims Protection Act. GEO Group’s argument held that the labor fell under ICE’s Voluntary Work Program, and people signed up of their own volition.
Apart from actions behind bars, the highly acclaimed film, 13th, has brought the exclusion clause to the attention of millions of activists and ordinary people. The film, directed by Ava DuVernay and nominated for an Academy Award, traces the historical roots of mass incarceration back to the period of chattel slavery.
The focus on the 13th Amendment will once again take center stage in the “Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March” in Washington, DC, on August 19. Nonprofit human rights organization IamWE and a long list of co-sponsors are the organizers. The core demand of the marchers is a congressional hearing focused on the 13th amendment and its “direct links” to various aspects of mass incarceration, including exploitation of labor, profiteering by private prison operators, the implementation of quotas for immigration detention, and racial disparities in prison populations and police violence.
Mallah-Divine Mallah, a member of the national organizing committee for the march, says the action intends to “galvanize” the movement at a national level. He told Truthout that there are lots of local struggles but nothing putting the light on the “diabolical aspect” of the prison system across the country, including labor exploitation.
Prison Labor: A Case of Superexploitation
Without a doubt, prison pay rates are appallingly low. A recent study of prison wages by Prison Policy Initiative’s Wendy Sawyer revealed that prison pay levels have actually declined nationally since 2001. She found that the average minimum daily wage paid to incarcerated workers for those who do basic maintenance work in the prison is now 86 cents, down from the 93 cents reported in 2001, with maximum daily wages falling from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 today. Moreover, six states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas — pay no wage at all for basic maintenance work. Louisiana, Missouri and West Virginia pay many such workers less than five cents an hour. Heather Ann Thompson, author of the prize-winning tale of the Attica prison rebellion, Blood in the Water, views these wage levels much like Kinetik Justice, saying, “It’s absolutely fair to characterize it as slave labor, since constitutionally that is the only exception made for keeping people in a state of slavery.”
Mallah, who spent over a decade behind bars himself, adds a further dimension to the nature of enslavement behind bars: coercion. He notes that prison authorities have various forms of leverage to force people to work. Refusing to report to a job may land a person in solitary confinement; result in the elimination of their access to commissary, phones and visiting; and potentially adding time to their sentence.
Lacino Hamilton, a captive in the Michigan State Department of Corrections for 23 years, agrees, “The motive for work in prison is seldom induced by reward, but by threat of certain punishment: Not working results in mind-numbing and humiliating restrictions, in an already restrictive environment.”
The coercion element has heightened in recent years as people are increasingly charged for services. Incarcerated people are now often charged co-pays for health care, eyeglasses and wheelchairs, and they are also contending with decreases in clothing and food allocations that force them to buy overpriced goods through the commissary. Moreover, restitution and crime victims’ funds often garnish a considerable share of prison wages. Sawyer says, in some instances these deductions from paychecks reach as high as 80 percent.
While money is central in this equation, Hamilton maintains that prison labor exploitation is also about the politics of power. He told Truthout via email that “prison work is designed to train and prepare imprisoned people for the unrewarding work awaiting most of them (us) upon release. It’s designed to condition imprisoned men and women to accept the official or societal view that they are meant to be the permanent underclass. So, when the department requires that all prisoners maintain a ‘routine work assignment,’ it’s to program prisoners to become someone whose energy and labor is always at the disposal of higher ups.”
The fall in wages has also gone hand-in-hand with slashing the budgets of education and other activities. Political prisoner David Gilbert, who has spent over 30 years in New York state prisons, wrote to Truthout about how in the past there was a “range of activities where prisoners could feel like they were accomplishing something, feel good about themselves.” These have for the most part disappeared, along with what he calls “the program which is by far the most beneficial — college.” Nationally, the number of in-prison college programs has dropped from over 350 in the early 1990s to less than a hundred today. A study by the New York State Bar Association showed that the number of college degrees awarded to people in the state’s prisons fell from 1,078 in 1991 to 141 in 2011.
This reshaping of the prison landscape has gradually eliminated most of the rehabilitation-oriented programs, leaving menial jobs and dead time. As Gilbert put it, “For the vast majority there’s a tremendous amount of idleness, at times combined with the demeaning treatment from staff.”
Changing the 13th Amendment: Implications
For the moment, a key question is, to what extent the removal of the exception clause would address these issues. There is a wide range of views on this matter. Mobilization materials distributed by organizers state, “At a minimum, we expect to have an immediate impact on mass incarceration laws.” Azzurra Crispino, who was a major spokesperson for supporters of the 2016 FAM strike and currently heads Prison Abolition Prisoner Support, believes such impact would be decisive and swift. She told Truthout that the removal of the exception clause would force prison authorities to respect the whole gamut of labor laws they are now free to ignore — minimum wage, pensions, health and safety regulations. “This would immediately make the prison system unaffordable,” she contends. She predicted that within a year the prison population could shrink by up to 70 percent.
Though less optimistic than Crispino, Mallah also sees the potential in modifying the amendment. “The captured market aspect would be changed.” In his view, there would be an “impact on the quality of interaction between the people who are incarcerated and those they work for.” He sees altering the amendment as a way to “galvanize people,” to address the reality that “nobody cares about slaves, nobody cares about prisoners.”
However, some activists, legal scholars and economists are more skeptical about the impact of removing the exclusion clause. While the clause constitutes the major overarching framework enabling authorities to exempt incarcerated people from labor laws, other legal measures also facilitate prison slave labor. Court decisions and legislation have also excluded people in prison from categorization as employees. A number of cases pertaining to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have upheld this exclusion. In one instance, a claim for coverage under FLSA argued that if Congress wanted to exempt people in prison from the terms of the act, they would have specifically mentioned them. The Seventh Circuit court’s explanation in denying the appeal was that “the reason the FLSA contains no express exception for prisoners is probably that the idea was too outlandish to occur to anyone when the legislation was under consideration by Congress.” While not employing exactly the same logic, a number of cases have upheld the right of government and nonprofit sector employers to hire interns without paying them a wage, largely under the theory that an internship is volunteer work, not requiring payment.
Section 26 U.S.C. 3306(c)(21) of the tax code reiterates the FLSA decisions, noting that any service performed in a penal institution isn’t considered employment. Chandra Bozelko, who spent seven years in prison, emphasizes that, like the 13th Amendment, these laws are yet another way in which people in prison are dehumanized by the labor regime: “this definition is much more dehumanizing than any low wage,” she claimed in a recent article in National Review, “This law tells an inmate that what she does at her prison job doesn’t matter, regardless of what she’s paid. It’s one thing to be devalued; it’s another to be denied outright.”
Moreover, Steven Pitts, the associate chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center, sees a reflection of the increasingly precarious nature of work in prison labor regimes. In his view, the 13th Amendment is not “the legal vehicle that keeps people from being classified as an employee.” Rather, he contends that over the past 40 years, the line between employer and employee has become less and less clear, with many employees being redefined as consultants or independent contractors. At present, he maintains there is “always a problem applying basic labor law that assumes a clear line between employer and employee.” The blurring of this line has enabled employers to hire “workers” or “associates” for a flat rate and exclude them from benefits like retirement pay, paid holidays and job security.
Who Do People in Prison Work For?
Assessing the application of the exclusion clause raises the question of who actually employs people in prison. Despite popular notions that incarcerated workers primarily generate profits for major corporations, less than 1 percent of those in prison are under contract to private companies. According to federal law, any firm contracting for prison labor to produce goods to be sold to the public must register with the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP). According to the PIECP’s first quarter report for 2017, 5,588 incarcerated individuals were under contract to companies, most of them small firms. These are generally the best-paid jobs in prisons and according to the letter of the law, are supposed to pay the legal minimum wage. For economist Tom Petersik, who has been studying prison labor for nearly two decades, these workers who do jobs resembling production work on the streets, hold the key to resolving prison labor issues. He recommends applying the overall rules of the labor market to this cohort but not to all workers in prison. Moreover, he further cautioned in correspondence with Truthout that the Amendment only applies to people who have been convicted, exempting those awaiting trial, but also opening the door to applying the clause to individuals who have completed prison or jail terms.
Two other categories of work occupy the vast majority of those employed in prison. According to Sawyer, about 6 percent of people in prison produce goods and services for government entities. This ranges from the stereotypical license-plate-making to building communications boxes for the Department of Defense to producing mattresses or uniforms for prisons. Several states along with the Federal government have separate entities that oversee these enterprises. The federal government’s prison industrial overseer, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., (also known as UNICOR) reports that its largest single production item in 2015 was office furniture, most of which went to government buildings.
While much prison labor may be akin to factory work outside prison, a significant portion of prison workers are engaged in agriculture. Prison farms, highly reminiscent of plantations from the chattel slavery days, complete with armed guards on horseback, are mostly located in the South. Prisons like Mississippi’s Parchman Farms (made famous in a song by blues legend Bukka White) and Angola in Louisiana have gained notoriety for oppressive conditions in agricultural fields. Holman in Alabama, the focal point of the Free Alabama Movement, also has considerable agricultural production. While most of this produce ends up being consumed in prison dining halls, more recently stricter immigration laws that reduced the flow of migrant farm laborers have led to the deployment of people in prison in Georgia and Idaho to harvest crops for commercial farms.
Though precise figures are difficult to find, likely about half of the 1.3 million incarcerated workers do labor that maintains prison institutions themselves. This includes cleaning, cooking, general maintenance and a variety of office tasks. These are the most poorly paid jobs. Without this labor, prisons could not function. As Crispino points out, if Departments of Corrections had to pay these workers a minimum wage with basic benefits, they would go broke in a hurry. Yet, as Sawyer notes, few of these jobs really amount to serious employment. They might involve sweeping floors for an hour a day or serving food for a couple of hours. Even for those who do work, the days are far from full.
Moreover, Hamilton stresses that rather than physically grueling labor routines, the “real harm” lying in these jobs is that the “prisoner’s sense of self and sense of possession become alienated from his or her work capacity. That’s what’s really at stake here.”
Lastly, there is an entire layer of people in prison who do not work at all. This includes the roughly 90,000 people in solitary confinement, virtually all of the nation’s political prisoners, as well as those who are disabled or beyond working age. Former political prisoner Cisco Torres sees mobilization around eliminating the exclusion clause as viable but thinks political energy could be better spent on issues like sentencing or reducing financing for local police. He fears that even if the exclusion clause is removed, “they will come up with different methods of incarceration.”
Additionally, Torres stresses that decarceration without allocating additional resources to oppressed communities condemns people released from prison to live at the absolute margins of survival. “Even if we let them go, where do these people go?” he says. His views also highlight the fact that amending the 13th could lead to some relief for people in prison but may do very little for the millions of loved ones of incarcerated people, overwhelmingly women and children, who have also been critically impacted by mass incarceration. For the moment, Torres favors mobilizing behind “tangible goals,” like the treatment of incarcerated people or the recognition of political prisoners. For him, the central problem is “American capitalism and how we fight it,” not merely amending the Constitution.
Hamilton agrees with Torres’ assessment: “Such a demand may be a great way to raise awareness about interlinked systems of marginalization, policing and imprisonment, but it would not prevent imprisonment from being the primary mode of state-inflicted punishment. Not one prisoner would go free.”
Linking the 13th Amendment to Other Issues
Despite the complexity of assessing its impact, building a movement to abolish the exclusion clause would be a major step in changing public attitudes about incarcerated people. Moreover, the broadening of the demands to include the elimination of immigration detention quotas acknowledges that forced labor is a carceral reality well beyond the boundaries of the plantation-style farms of Holman and Parchman.
In addition, as Mallah has stressed, it would reshape consciousness and relations at the coalface of prison yard relations. He regards the march and the focus on the 13th as an effort to capture the “synergy of both national coalition and local” efforts as a key moment in the search to find the balance between marching, advocacy and education that is central to building a movement to end mass incarceration.
James Kilgore
James Kilgore is an activist, writer and educator based in Urbana, Illinois. He is the author of Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time (The New Press, 2015). He is presently a Soros Justice fellow spearheading 'Challenging E-Carceration,' a campaign focusing on the use of electronic monitoring in the criminal legal system. He also appeared as a 'talking head' in the film, 13th. Email him: waazn1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @waazn1. His website: challengingecarceration.org.
https://truthout.org/articles/will-alte ... 3-million/
Yeah, TruthOut.....but not a bad discussion.
BY James Kilgore Truthout
PUBLISHED
August 5, 2017
Though precise figures are difficult to find, likely about half of the 1.3 million incarcerated workers do labor that maintains prison institutions themselves. Without this labor, prisons could not function, yet they are poorly paid and often don’t amount to serious employment. (Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
High school students typically learn at least one “fact” about slavery: The 13th Amendment did away with it all. As usual, school history teaches a half truth. Like most promises of freedom, the 13th Amendment came with a catch, an exclusion clause that permitted both slavery and involuntary servitude “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
This “exception clause” drew considerable attention in anti-slavery circles in the decades immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation but then largely faded into the background. Even through the last several decades of mass incarceration, few people other than a handful of scholars have paid much attention to what historian Dennis Childs calls the “constitutional sanctioning of state-borne prison-industrial genocide.”
However, in the past year, abolishing the slavery clause of the 13th has become a cause célèbre. The prison labor strike of fall 2016 brought the issue to the fore. Led by members of the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) inside Holman prison, this action sparked a withdrawal of labor that some analysts say spread to as many as 29 prisons in 12 states. Kinetik Justice, the most prominent leader of FAM, explained the motivation of the strike: “We understand the prison system is a continuation of the slave system…. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery supposedly but created it again in the next breath, because it birthed the criminal justice system … the institution of slavery with a $1,000 suit on.”
Since the FAM-led strike, resistance in several prisons has kept questions of labor behind the walls in the public eye. Moreover, work stoppages and hunger strikes have occurred in a number of immigration jails in the Northwest and Southwest.
Like the FAM-led strike, much of this resistance in immigration detention centers has focused on exploitation of labor. In an interesting twist on the exception-clause argument, those detained while awaiting results of an immigration proceeding reason that they cannot be compelled to work because they have not been convicted of any crime, thereby absolving them from any application of the 13th amendment.
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In 2014, a suit against this practice was filed on behalf of nine individuals detained at the immigration facility in Aurora, Colorado, owned by the private prison company GEO Group. In March of this year, a Denver judge upgraded the suit to class action status. It now includes some 60,000 men and women held at Aurora over the years. The litigation claims those detained were subjected to “forced labor” when they were selected for a daily roster to carry out cleaning duties at the facility and paid $1 per day. The argument holds that this amounts to virtual slavery under Trafficking Victims Protection Act. GEO Group’s argument held that the labor fell under ICE’s Voluntary Work Program, and people signed up of their own volition.
Apart from actions behind bars, the highly acclaimed film, 13th, has brought the exclusion clause to the attention of millions of activists and ordinary people. The film, directed by Ava DuVernay and nominated for an Academy Award, traces the historical roots of mass incarceration back to the period of chattel slavery.
The focus on the 13th Amendment will once again take center stage in the “Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March” in Washington, DC, on August 19. Nonprofit human rights organization IamWE and a long list of co-sponsors are the organizers. The core demand of the marchers is a congressional hearing focused on the 13th amendment and its “direct links” to various aspects of mass incarceration, including exploitation of labor, profiteering by private prison operators, the implementation of quotas for immigration detention, and racial disparities in prison populations and police violence.
Mallah-Divine Mallah, a member of the national organizing committee for the march, says the action intends to “galvanize” the movement at a national level. He told Truthout that there are lots of local struggles but nothing putting the light on the “diabolical aspect” of the prison system across the country, including labor exploitation.
Prison Labor: A Case of Superexploitation
Without a doubt, prison pay rates are appallingly low. A recent study of prison wages by Prison Policy Initiative’s Wendy Sawyer revealed that prison pay levels have actually declined nationally since 2001. She found that the average minimum daily wage paid to incarcerated workers for those who do basic maintenance work in the prison is now 86 cents, down from the 93 cents reported in 2001, with maximum daily wages falling from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 today. Moreover, six states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas — pay no wage at all for basic maintenance work. Louisiana, Missouri and West Virginia pay many such workers less than five cents an hour. Heather Ann Thompson, author of the prize-winning tale of the Attica prison rebellion, Blood in the Water, views these wage levels much like Kinetik Justice, saying, “It’s absolutely fair to characterize it as slave labor, since constitutionally that is the only exception made for keeping people in a state of slavery.”
Mallah, who spent over a decade behind bars himself, adds a further dimension to the nature of enslavement behind bars: coercion. He notes that prison authorities have various forms of leverage to force people to work. Refusing to report to a job may land a person in solitary confinement; result in the elimination of their access to commissary, phones and visiting; and potentially adding time to their sentence.
Lacino Hamilton, a captive in the Michigan State Department of Corrections for 23 years, agrees, “The motive for work in prison is seldom induced by reward, but by threat of certain punishment: Not working results in mind-numbing and humiliating restrictions, in an already restrictive environment.”
The coercion element has heightened in recent years as people are increasingly charged for services. Incarcerated people are now often charged co-pays for health care, eyeglasses and wheelchairs, and they are also contending with decreases in clothing and food allocations that force them to buy overpriced goods through the commissary. Moreover, restitution and crime victims’ funds often garnish a considerable share of prison wages. Sawyer says, in some instances these deductions from paychecks reach as high as 80 percent.
While money is central in this equation, Hamilton maintains that prison labor exploitation is also about the politics of power. He told Truthout via email that “prison work is designed to train and prepare imprisoned people for the unrewarding work awaiting most of them (us) upon release. It’s designed to condition imprisoned men and women to accept the official or societal view that they are meant to be the permanent underclass. So, when the department requires that all prisoners maintain a ‘routine work assignment,’ it’s to program prisoners to become someone whose energy and labor is always at the disposal of higher ups.”
The fall in wages has also gone hand-in-hand with slashing the budgets of education and other activities. Political prisoner David Gilbert, who has spent over 30 years in New York state prisons, wrote to Truthout about how in the past there was a “range of activities where prisoners could feel like they were accomplishing something, feel good about themselves.” These have for the most part disappeared, along with what he calls “the program which is by far the most beneficial — college.” Nationally, the number of in-prison college programs has dropped from over 350 in the early 1990s to less than a hundred today. A study by the New York State Bar Association showed that the number of college degrees awarded to people in the state’s prisons fell from 1,078 in 1991 to 141 in 2011.
This reshaping of the prison landscape has gradually eliminated most of the rehabilitation-oriented programs, leaving menial jobs and dead time. As Gilbert put it, “For the vast majority there’s a tremendous amount of idleness, at times combined with the demeaning treatment from staff.”
Changing the 13th Amendment: Implications
For the moment, a key question is, to what extent the removal of the exception clause would address these issues. There is a wide range of views on this matter. Mobilization materials distributed by organizers state, “At a minimum, we expect to have an immediate impact on mass incarceration laws.” Azzurra Crispino, who was a major spokesperson for supporters of the 2016 FAM strike and currently heads Prison Abolition Prisoner Support, believes such impact would be decisive and swift. She told Truthout that the removal of the exception clause would force prison authorities to respect the whole gamut of labor laws they are now free to ignore — minimum wage, pensions, health and safety regulations. “This would immediately make the prison system unaffordable,” she contends. She predicted that within a year the prison population could shrink by up to 70 percent.
Though less optimistic than Crispino, Mallah also sees the potential in modifying the amendment. “The captured market aspect would be changed.” In his view, there would be an “impact on the quality of interaction between the people who are incarcerated and those they work for.” He sees altering the amendment as a way to “galvanize people,” to address the reality that “nobody cares about slaves, nobody cares about prisoners.”
However, some activists, legal scholars and economists are more skeptical about the impact of removing the exclusion clause. While the clause constitutes the major overarching framework enabling authorities to exempt incarcerated people from labor laws, other legal measures also facilitate prison slave labor. Court decisions and legislation have also excluded people in prison from categorization as employees. A number of cases pertaining to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have upheld this exclusion. In one instance, a claim for coverage under FLSA argued that if Congress wanted to exempt people in prison from the terms of the act, they would have specifically mentioned them. The Seventh Circuit court’s explanation in denying the appeal was that “the reason the FLSA contains no express exception for prisoners is probably that the idea was too outlandish to occur to anyone when the legislation was under consideration by Congress.” While not employing exactly the same logic, a number of cases have upheld the right of government and nonprofit sector employers to hire interns without paying them a wage, largely under the theory that an internship is volunteer work, not requiring payment.
Section 26 U.S.C. 3306(c)(21) of the tax code reiterates the FLSA decisions, noting that any service performed in a penal institution isn’t considered employment. Chandra Bozelko, who spent seven years in prison, emphasizes that, like the 13th Amendment, these laws are yet another way in which people in prison are dehumanized by the labor regime: “this definition is much more dehumanizing than any low wage,” she claimed in a recent article in National Review, “This law tells an inmate that what she does at her prison job doesn’t matter, regardless of what she’s paid. It’s one thing to be devalued; it’s another to be denied outright.”
Moreover, Steven Pitts, the associate chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center, sees a reflection of the increasingly precarious nature of work in prison labor regimes. In his view, the 13th Amendment is not “the legal vehicle that keeps people from being classified as an employee.” Rather, he contends that over the past 40 years, the line between employer and employee has become less and less clear, with many employees being redefined as consultants or independent contractors. At present, he maintains there is “always a problem applying basic labor law that assumes a clear line between employer and employee.” The blurring of this line has enabled employers to hire “workers” or “associates” for a flat rate and exclude them from benefits like retirement pay, paid holidays and job security.
Who Do People in Prison Work For?
Assessing the application of the exclusion clause raises the question of who actually employs people in prison. Despite popular notions that incarcerated workers primarily generate profits for major corporations, less than 1 percent of those in prison are under contract to private companies. According to federal law, any firm contracting for prison labor to produce goods to be sold to the public must register with the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP). According to the PIECP’s first quarter report for 2017, 5,588 incarcerated individuals were under contract to companies, most of them small firms. These are generally the best-paid jobs in prisons and according to the letter of the law, are supposed to pay the legal minimum wage. For economist Tom Petersik, who has been studying prison labor for nearly two decades, these workers who do jobs resembling production work on the streets, hold the key to resolving prison labor issues. He recommends applying the overall rules of the labor market to this cohort but not to all workers in prison. Moreover, he further cautioned in correspondence with Truthout that the Amendment only applies to people who have been convicted, exempting those awaiting trial, but also opening the door to applying the clause to individuals who have completed prison or jail terms.
Two other categories of work occupy the vast majority of those employed in prison. According to Sawyer, about 6 percent of people in prison produce goods and services for government entities. This ranges from the stereotypical license-plate-making to building communications boxes for the Department of Defense to producing mattresses or uniforms for prisons. Several states along with the Federal government have separate entities that oversee these enterprises. The federal government’s prison industrial overseer, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., (also known as UNICOR) reports that its largest single production item in 2015 was office furniture, most of which went to government buildings.
While much prison labor may be akin to factory work outside prison, a significant portion of prison workers are engaged in agriculture. Prison farms, highly reminiscent of plantations from the chattel slavery days, complete with armed guards on horseback, are mostly located in the South. Prisons like Mississippi’s Parchman Farms (made famous in a song by blues legend Bukka White) and Angola in Louisiana have gained notoriety for oppressive conditions in agricultural fields. Holman in Alabama, the focal point of the Free Alabama Movement, also has considerable agricultural production. While most of this produce ends up being consumed in prison dining halls, more recently stricter immigration laws that reduced the flow of migrant farm laborers have led to the deployment of people in prison in Georgia and Idaho to harvest crops for commercial farms.
Though precise figures are difficult to find, likely about half of the 1.3 million incarcerated workers do labor that maintains prison institutions themselves. This includes cleaning, cooking, general maintenance and a variety of office tasks. These are the most poorly paid jobs. Without this labor, prisons could not function. As Crispino points out, if Departments of Corrections had to pay these workers a minimum wage with basic benefits, they would go broke in a hurry. Yet, as Sawyer notes, few of these jobs really amount to serious employment. They might involve sweeping floors for an hour a day or serving food for a couple of hours. Even for those who do work, the days are far from full.
Moreover, Hamilton stresses that rather than physically grueling labor routines, the “real harm” lying in these jobs is that the “prisoner’s sense of self and sense of possession become alienated from his or her work capacity. That’s what’s really at stake here.”
Lastly, there is an entire layer of people in prison who do not work at all. This includes the roughly 90,000 people in solitary confinement, virtually all of the nation’s political prisoners, as well as those who are disabled or beyond working age. Former political prisoner Cisco Torres sees mobilization around eliminating the exclusion clause as viable but thinks political energy could be better spent on issues like sentencing or reducing financing for local police. He fears that even if the exclusion clause is removed, “they will come up with different methods of incarceration.”
Additionally, Torres stresses that decarceration without allocating additional resources to oppressed communities condemns people released from prison to live at the absolute margins of survival. “Even if we let them go, where do these people go?” he says. His views also highlight the fact that amending the 13th could lead to some relief for people in prison but may do very little for the millions of loved ones of incarcerated people, overwhelmingly women and children, who have also been critically impacted by mass incarceration. For the moment, Torres favors mobilizing behind “tangible goals,” like the treatment of incarcerated people or the recognition of political prisoners. For him, the central problem is “American capitalism and how we fight it,” not merely amending the Constitution.
Hamilton agrees with Torres’ assessment: “Such a demand may be a great way to raise awareness about interlinked systems of marginalization, policing and imprisonment, but it would not prevent imprisonment from being the primary mode of state-inflicted punishment. Not one prisoner would go free.”
Linking the 13th Amendment to Other Issues
Despite the complexity of assessing its impact, building a movement to abolish the exclusion clause would be a major step in changing public attitudes about incarcerated people. Moreover, the broadening of the demands to include the elimination of immigration detention quotas acknowledges that forced labor is a carceral reality well beyond the boundaries of the plantation-style farms of Holman and Parchman.
In addition, as Mallah has stressed, it would reshape consciousness and relations at the coalface of prison yard relations. He regards the march and the focus on the 13th as an effort to capture the “synergy of both national coalition and local” efforts as a key moment in the search to find the balance between marching, advocacy and education that is central to building a movement to end mass incarceration.
James Kilgore
James Kilgore is an activist, writer and educator based in Urbana, Illinois. He is the author of Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time (The New Press, 2015). He is presently a Soros Justice fellow spearheading 'Challenging E-Carceration,' a campaign focusing on the use of electronic monitoring in the criminal legal system. He also appeared as a 'talking head' in the film, 13th. Email him: waazn1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @waazn1. His website: challengingecarceration.org.
https://truthout.org/articles/will-alte ... 3-million/
Yeah, TruthOut.....but not a bad discussion.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."