From Behind Bars: "Go All In" in the Fight to Stop Mass Incarceration

The following was printed in Revolution Newspaper this week.
http://revcom.us/a/266/go-all-in-in-the-fight-to-stop-mass-incarceration-en.html

The Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund received the following letter from a prisoner in the Midwest:


April 10th, Tuesday 2012


To Whom This May Concern,


I'm writing to respond to the March 25th, 2012, article in the paper (NO. 263) titled "Raise the Fight to Stop Mass Incarceration to a New Level." This particular article and call comes at no better time than NOW; and I fully attach my unconditional support behind it. I'm not sure how many readers are fully cognizant of the historic importance of this determined campaign by the Party to "go all in" (to use a poker expression for a moment), but I am. By writing this letter to the Revolution, it's my hope that others will come to recognize the same significance of this stage in our development of a movement for revolution and why it's necessary to make this particular issue a principal focal point as we ultimately strive to resolve the FUNDMENTAL CONTRADICTION of this decadent system: where "[y]ou have highly socialized production, but very privatized appropriation by a small class of people called capitalists." (BAsics 3:5) As that particular quote goes on to state:

Read more »

Stop the Vindictive Political Prosecution of Gregory Koger!

http://revcom.us/a/262/stop-political-prosecution-of-gregory-koger-en.html

On February 23, 2012, the Illinois Appellate Court denied the appeal of the unjust conviction and vindictive sentencing of Gregory Koger for videotaping with an iPhone a public event at the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago (EHSC). The court mandated that he serve out the rest of the time on the outrageous 300-day sentence. Now there needs to be a powerful outcry against this latest outrage that threatens to railroad Gregory to jail again. The cops, the prosecutors and the EHSC must not be allowed to get away with this vindictive persecution! Send statements of outrage and support for Gregory, as well as funds for the appeal. See below.

Read more »

Capitalist Disregard for Prisoners Revealed through Hurricane Irene

Even if the worst of the potential destruction warned about through Hurricane Irene did not happen, the criminal nature of this system was revealed.  Bloomberg openly and unapologetically admitted that he had no plan for how to evacuate Rikers Island should the need arise.

During his last press conference of the day, the Mayor asserted that Rikers Island wasn't in Zone A.  However, he still did not say what zone it was in nor why he felt it was acceptable to have no back-up plan for evacuation should the need have arisen.

12,000 inmates are housed on Rikers Island.  Prisoners are human beings.  Think of the fear they must have gone through.  Think of the anxiety their families experienced.

No matter what an inmate has done (and many of the people being held at Rikers are pre-trial and haven't even been convicted of a crime), the kind of terror of being locked up and left behind with no backup emergency plan in a Hurricane that is being forecast to cause major destruction is CRUEL AND UNUSUAL punishment.  It is inhumane and unacceptable.

Even if no harm has come to any prisoner (something we have no confirmation of yet), this does not change the fact that the Mayor of NYC was willing to gamble with the lives of 12,000 prisoners.  And it doesn't change the fact that no one in any other wing of the U.S. government and state felt the need to override him or criticize him for that.

This is barbaric and must be condemned.


Here is an excerpt of SolitaryWatch.org's web posting recalling the experience of prisoners during Hurricane Katrina: 



For a warning of what can happen to prisoners in a hurricane we need only look back at Katrina, and the horrific conditions endured by inmates at Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans. According to a report produced by the ACLU:

[A] culture of neglect was evident in the days before Katrina, when the sheriff declared that the prisoners would remain “where they belong,” despite the mayor’s decision to declare the city’s first-ever mandatory evacuation. OPP even accepted prisoners, including juveniles as young as 10, from other facilities to ride out the storm.
As floodwaters rose in the OPP buildings, power was lost, and entire buildings were plunged into darkness. Deputies left their posts wholesale, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests …
Prisoners went days without food, water and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan. Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need.

UPDATE (Saturday midnight): In his final news conference of the day, Mayor Bloomberg defended his decision not to evacuate Rikers Island, stating: “It is higher than the Zone A areas and it’s perfectly safe.” Representatives of the mayor have made further statements to New York Magazine (see update at end) and the Wall Street Journal, also specifying that no part of Rikers Island is in Zone A. Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson went on Twitter to say the same thing. To our knowledge, the mayor’s office still has not clarified what zone, if any, Rikers Island is in, and has not responded to questions regarding the lack of any evacuation plan for the jail.
UPDATE (Sunday 4 p.m.): The evacuation order for Zone A has ended, with the storm having considerably less impact on New York City than anticipated. The mayor’s office has issued further statements about Rikers, confirming that it is not in evacuation Zone A and comparing it to Roosevelt Island and City Island, which also were not evacuated. Critics have noted, however, that these other islands are in Zones B and C, while Rikers Island, according to the evacuation map, is not in any evacuation zone at all. Advocates also remain concerned about the admitted lack of any evacuation plan for the city’s island jail. The Center for Constitutional Rights issued a statement on the matter, and CCR spokesperson Jen Nessel said: “The maps I’ve seen all leave Rikers off the Zone scale, but even if it isn’t in Zone A where the mandatory evacuations are taking place, the fact that the Department of Corrections admitted there wasn’t even a hypothetical plan for 12,000 people who can’t exactly evacuate themselves if the situation worsens is disturbing.”

Doing a Presentation in Prison on "Male Domination"

Revolution online #243, August 21, 2011

Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund* received the following letter:

Greetings in solidarity! I've been receiving Revolution for a while now. I relish each new issue. Revolution newspaper is my weekly dose of revolutionary reality.

I am doing an AODA drug program here in the prison. Recently the subject of domestic violence, sex roles, and male dominance came up. After the group I was re-reading the June 12 issue of Revolution, when I came upon the center feature about 'Rape and A World of Violent Domination'. I knew I had to share it with the other prisoners in my AODA group.

I approached my AODA counselor with the idea of doing a presentation about "Male Domination and it's effect on women and society." I was surprised when he was fully supportive and told me I could come up with the presentation and run the group for one day.

My presentation went great. I taped the feature from Revolution up on the board and presented to my fellow prisoners many ideas that they had never considered before; namely that "women are not breeders, lesser beings, or objects created for the sexual pleasure of men, that when women are held down all of humanity is held back." I could see the shock on the other men's faces as I shared the statistics 'one in three women and girls is sexually abused or beaten in her lifetime' and all the others.

Men who only the day before had argued that male domination over women was "the natural order" suddenly began to see the horrors that these societal views force onto women and girls. The men I most suspected would dispute and argue against me began to ask questions like "what can I do to stop this violence against women?" and "How can I teach my young son to treat women as equals?"

I'm writing today to thank you from the bottom of my heart for Revolution newspaper. It gave me the opportunity to share Revolutionary thought and equality with others. It is a gift I was proud and touched to be able to share. I am happy I was able to share the truth of women's equality with these men. I truly believe it will change their lives and the lives of the women they encounter in the future in a profound manner.

In Solidarity,

'A Wisconsin Revolutionary Comrade'

 *The Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) is an educational literature fund that fills requests from U.S. prisoners for revolutionary literature, especially Revolution newspaper.  DONATE to help make this possible.