Rally April 7th.

Occupy 4 Prisoners Demonstration

On Monday February 20th, the Occupy Movement called for a National Day of Occupation for Prisoners. There were actions all across the country. In Columbus, we had a workshop, delivered some letters, and supported friends inside who went on a hunger strike.

These are videos of the letter delivery action, so the fascists can never say we didn't ask them nicely.

OSP Occupy4Prisoners hunger strike

Siddique Abdullah Hasan

On Thursday Feb 23rd, Hasan recorded a statement about the hunger strike for PrisonRadio.org. Audio of that statement is available here.

Feb 23 Press Release
On Wednesday evening, twenty-five prisoners at Ohio's super-max prison ate their first meal since Sunday night. The hunger strike was inspired by the Occupy4Prisoners National Day of Action called by Occupy Oakland. According to Siddique Abdullah Hasan, one of the hunger strikers, they initially intended a one day fast as a "symbolic gesture, a way of locking arms with the people on the outside."

Occupy for Prisoners

America is the Prisonhouse of Nations, holding 2.3 million people behind bars. This is by far the highest incarceration rate in the world. The US police and surveillance forces are expanding every day. We live in the most sophisticated police state history has ever known. The state of Ohio houses over 50,000 prisoners and kills people on death row at a rate exceeded only by the state of Texas.

NYE Noise Demo

Last Saturday we went down to Jackson Pike to do a New Years Eve solidarity noise demo in response to the international call out. Some places these things got big and wild. In some places, they got epic long.   


There were 15-20 of us. We stayed for about 45 minutes, ignored by the authorities, and unable to see any responses from inside. Jackson Pike's cells are pretty well insulated, with frosted and blocked off windows. We had fun anyway, and left Just as cops were coming out. As we drove off, 4 police cars with lights on came storming towards the jail (dunno if they were coming for us, or something else). Our sound system didn't work, but we had lots of weird cacophonous instruments, pots and pans, and a good enough time. 

Ban The Box Legislation

The most common complaint from formerly incarcerated people we've talked to is the difficulty finding a job. Too many people get out of prison and find themselves in 2nd class status, left with few opportunities to avoid criminal activity likely to land them back in prison.

Employer discrimination against formerly incarcerated people is a major cause of recidivism and contributor to mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex.

Occupy Columbus

RedBird made an appearance at Occupy Columbus, we  went with the intention of reminding people that the struggle didn't start on Setp 17th in New York city. People have been committed to resisting this government and this system for longer than America has existed.

We encouraged people to write to political prisoners as a way to connect with some of the more recent examples of that resistance. We handed out fliers and had conversations about the CA prisoner hungerstrike to let people know how deep our invisible friends

Prisoner Hunger Strike Update

The California Prisoner Hunger Strike has resumed. CDCR reports that 12,000 inmates have participated by skipping at least 9 consecutive meals. Inmate families and advocates estimate that hundreds or thousands have been refusing all food since the strike resumed on Sept 26th. The prison administration has retaliated against hungerstrikers with very repressive policies: denying them privileges and rights, attempting to provoke them to violence, isolating many of them from laywers, advocates, family members, and any other outside support.

The way things are going, in a few weeks we may be living in a country that allows hundreds of people to starve to death in our prisons. We cannot allow that to happen. Our attention and anger is a very important part of reversing this process. You can call CA gov Jerry Brown at 916-445-2841 and help flood his office with demands that the SHU be shut down, that the hungerstrikers' demands be met, that CA reform it's prison system, now.

REPORTBACKS GALORE

We have been too busy for the internet. Here's what's up...

1. Pelican Bay- we went to Ohio State Penitentiary  for a "supermax to supermax" rally organized by the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network. Before talking about the silly little action we did, I want to acknowledge both the amazing bravery of the hungerstrikers and the despicable apathy of the powers that starved them for four weeks (some are still refusing food). Read updates here. We made the group into about 15 people standing on the side of the road 1/4 mile away from the prison. Visitors came and waved. We chatted with folks and got sunburnt. Shift change happened and dozens of COs drove past scowling. We got bored and felt even more ineffectual than protests normally make us feel, cuz we were out of sight of both the inmates we were trying to express solidarity with and the administration we were trying to confront. So, we got our signs and some buckets and marched, past the no tresspassing signs making as much racket as we could. A couple other protesters joined us, including Brother Quahar of the new black panthers. We made it to the parking lot by looking at the ground, walking and not stopping with the noise every time a car pulled up next to us to try and talk to us. Finally in the parking lot an oily no-nonsense CO who clearly did not know how to talk with people he couldn't get away with beating up or macing with impunity informed us that the highway patrol was on their way to arrest us if we didn't leave immediately. We knew we weren't going to tear down any walls that day, and had important plans to come back and visit people the next morning, so we marched back, hoping at least half the inmates had seen or heard us. 20 minutes later 4 highway patrol cars rolled up and a much more polite officer told us that we ought not do that again. As usual he started with "who's in charge here" and when we told him no one was, he directed his statements at me, until Wes and Kate reminded him that they were there too.

2. ABC conference- We're going to the Denver ABC conference, and they've asked us to do a presentation on the Lucasville Uprising Prisoners. With that goal in mind, we visited Staughten and Alice Lynd at their house near Youngstown. They've both done a lot of work with the Lucasville cases, including writing the book on it. They have so much detailed knowledge to share. I feel like we could have talked to them all night, but we only had 45 minutes.  Then we camped out in a thunderstorm, which was surprisingly fun. The next day we went back to OSP to visit Siddique Abdullah Hasan and Bomani Shakur. This was an inspiring and very enjoyable experience. Bomani and Ben shared handshakes and book references. Hasan, Kate and Weslie talked about all kinds of current events and political prisoner issues. We also discovered they're celled on the other side of the prison. We'll have to march around the whole perimeter to be seen by them. We got a much better understanding of their case and their preferences for what we tell ABC. We'll be going back soon, for the bigger challenge of talking with Jason Robb about his affiliation with the Aryan Brotherhood and ABC's tradition of refusing solidarity with white supremacist groups. We're very much looking forward to helping the complexities of the lucasville situation enrich discussion and analysis at the ABC conference.

3. Elkton FCI food strike - got a letter from the shitheads claiming that they can't give me any records I requested. They say it's part of an ongoing criminal investigation and I can appeal to a higher authority, which I will be doing.

4. The "what are prisons for" puppet show from Mysterious Rabbit and Puppet Army was really great. If you have a chance to see them, please do.

News Updates- FCI Elkton and Pelican Bay

FCI ELKTON- Been calling to check up on the FOIA request every couple days. They're still processing it. If you'd like to help pressure them to take this more seriously, please see this post.

We also received a letter from an inmate at FCI Elkton, who wrote an article about the 24 hour lights-on policy which he says inspired the protest. We're working on publishing the whole article, but here's an excerpt about the food strike: "On May 18th, 2011, the majority of the inmate population at Elkton participated in a "food strike" where they refused to attend the meals offered at the chow hall in protest of a variety of newly imposed policies (constant lighting at nighttime being the most significant). The protest lasted about a week.