Georgia Prisoners transform dialogue on Civil Rights: Strike update.

"Prisoners are people, too..."

AZ State Capitol Complex/Wes Bolin Plaza, Phoenix.
(Thanksgiving, 2009)

The above chalking was my holiday gift to the prisoners maintaining state grounds who had to clean up after me last year once I discovered this form of free speech was legal. Feel free to download and distribute - I've made postcards out of it to mail to prisoners, politicians and media alike in the past year. It's still a good present.

The following update comes from the Black Agenda Report yesterday, via Claude at the Freedom Archives' Political Prisoner News list-serve. Both are awesome sources of information about prisoner rights and activism.

Members of the public should continue to call the Georgia DOC numbers below - let them know we're still watching, and that we expect these prisoners to be treated with respect. The rest of us could learn something from their courageous resistance to the brutality and violence of incarceration in America.


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GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages For Work

By The Editors
Created 12/15/2010 - 14:40
Submitted by The Editors on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 14:40
Story by Bruce A. Dixon, audio interview by Glen Ford



Georgia prisoners who began a courageous, peaceful and nonviolent protest strike for educational opportunities, wages for their work, medical care and human rights have captured the attention of the world. Black Agenda Report intends to closely cover their continuing story. Glen Ford recorded a conversation with activist Elaine Brown and one of the striking inmates in Georgia on Wednesday, December 15.



Updated story on the strike and support efforts of the newly formed Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights below the fold. (hit the Black Agenda Report and click the flash player below the article to listen to the interview).



GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages For Work



Story by Bruce A. Dixon, audio interview by Glen Ford



The historic strike of Georgia prisoners, demanding wages for their labor, educational opportunities, adequate health care and nutrition, and better conditions is entering a new phase. Strikers remain firm in their demands for full human rights, though after several days many have emerged from their cells, if only to take hot showers and hot food. Many of these, however, are still refusing their involuntary and unpaid work assignments.



A group that includes relatives, friends and a broad range of supporters of the prisoners on the outside has emerged. They are seeking to sit down with Georgia correctional officials this week to discuss how some of the just demands of inmates can begin to be implemented. Initially, Georgia-based representatives of this coalition supporting the prisoner demands included the Georgia NAACP, the Nation of Islam, the National Association for Radical Prison Reform, the Green Party of Georgia, and the Ordinary Peoples Society among others. Civil rights attorneys, ministers, community organizations and other prisoner advocates are also joining the group which calls itself the Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights.



Prisoners have stood up for themselves, and the communities they came from are lining up to support them. Today, at a ground breaking for a private prison 300 miles southeast of Atlanta in Millen GA, residents of that local community opposed to the private prison are greeting the governor and corrections brass with a protest. They will be joined by dozens more coming in from Atlanta who will respectfully urge state authorities to talk to the prisoners. We understand that one person there has been arrested. Black Agenda Report will have photos and footage of that event on Thursday.



The broad-based Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoners Rights fully supports the heroic stand of Georgia's prisoners. “This isn't Attica,” one representative of the coalition explained. “No violent acts have been committed by any of the inmates involved. We hope state corrections officials will be as peaceful and respectful as the prisoners have been, and start a good faith dialog about quickly addressing their concerns.”



Right now, the ball is in the hands of state corrections officials, and reports are that in some of the affected prisons, authorities are fumbling that ball, engaging



“They transferred some of the high Muslims here to max already,” one prisoner told Black Agenda Report this morning. “They want to break up the unity we have here. We have the Crips and the Bloods, we have the Muslims, we have the head Mexicans, and we have the Aryans all with a peaceful understanding, all on common ground. We all want to be paid for our work, and we all want education in here. There's people in here who can't even read...



“They're trying to provoke people to violence in here, but we're not letting that happen. We just want our human rights.”



The transfers are intended to deprive groups of leadership and demoralize them. In some cases they may be having the opposite effect, stiffening prisoner morale and making room for still more leaders to emerge.



“The prisoners insist that punitive transfers are an act of bad faith, the opposite of what we should be doing,” said Minister Charles Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam in Atlanta. “The coalition supports them and demands no punitive transfers, either within or between institutions, and absolutely no transfers to institutions outside Georgia.”



Members of the public should continue to call the prisons listed below, and the GA Department of Corrections and the office of Georgia's governor, Sonny Perdue. Ask them firmly but respectfully to resolve the situation non-violently and without punitive measures. Tell them you believe prisoners deserve wages for work and education. Ask them to talk to prisoners and the communities they come from. It's simple. With one in twelve Georgia adults in jail or prison, parole or probation or other court and correctional supervision, prisoners are us. They are our families. They are our fathers and our mothers, our sons and daughters, our nieces and nephews and aunts and uncles and cousins.



Most prisoners will be back out in society sooner, not later. It's time for us all to grow up and realize that warehousing, malnourishing, mistreating and abusing prisoners does not make us safer. Denying prisoners meaningful training and educational opportunities, and forcing them to work for no wages is not the way to do. It's time to fundamentally reconsider prison as we know it, and America's public policy of mass incarceration.



Bruce Dixon and Glen Ford are reachable at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com and glen.ford(at)blackagendareport.com, respectively. Black Agenda Report intends to provide ongoing coverage several times per week of the ongoing struggle of Georgia prisoners.



The Georgia Department of Corrections is at http://www.dcor.state.ga.us and their phone number is 478-992-5246



Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900


Hays State Prison is at (706) 857-0400


Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721


Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218


Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900


Smith State Prison is at (912) 654-5000

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Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977


www.Freedomarchives.org

Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org

All my friends have FBI files: Policing prisoner support networks.

This "heads up" to prisoner support networks came today by way of the Freedom Archives' Political Prisoner Newsletter. I lost track of all the watch lists my friends and I should be on by now, but this might be an added motive behind anyone feeling particularly surveilled, harassed, or abusively prosecuted. Apparently if the feds really have it in for the prisoner we correspond with (like Marilyn Buck, whom one likely cop left me a disturbing comment about recently) - they'll just send the local and state police after us, wherever we may be in the world.

It all smacks of COINTELPRO and is probably legitimized under the Patriot Act.
Ironic that anyone would be so worried about our kind of "extremists" in this state - it's the ones holding office who really threaten public safety, not the Anarchists.

I shouldn't really have to say this, but no matter how "innocent" you think are, don't let anyone in uninvited without a proper warrant. And check out the link below to request your FBI file; I bet you have have one, if you've read this blog more than once.

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From: sacprisonersupport@riseup.net
Date: Sun, September 12, 2010 4:16 am

Recently we began receiving documents in response to a FOIA request we filed with the FBI about Eric McDavid. The documents have uncovered a few alarming pieces of information, but one in particular we felt it necessary to share with the public as soon as possible. For years people have been speculating that writing political prisoners would result in a person being “put on a list.” Unfortunately, it seems that those speculations were not unfounded.

We have received perhaps hundreds of pages documenting Eric's correspondence with other people. These letters are not just kept on file ­ the Sacramento County Main Jail forwarded all of these letters to the Sacramento FBI field office, which then forwarded them to local field offices around the country (and to law enforcement internationally) to warn the FBI in other cities of a “possible environmental/ animal rights extremist” or “a possible anarchist extremist” in their community.

Originally, the FBI's communications included a statement that “Sacramento is forwarding this communication for information purposes only.” But later, they began including a much longer statement which read, in part: “this information has been determined to be of such a nature that some follow-up as to the possibility of criminal activity is warranted...” These statements were included no matter what was the content of the letter ­ often the documents include the statement that the letter was “benign in nature.”

It is unclear whether or not the FBI is still forwarding Eric's correspondence to local field offices. We have not received any documents dated after his move to a federal facility. It is also unknown whether or not all correspondence with political prisoners is treated in the same
manner. What we do know is that if a person sent Eric a letter to the Sacramento County Main Jail with their full name and address on it, the local FBI field office more than likely now has that information.

We are not sharing this information to raise alarm or spread fear. We have every intention of continuing to write political prisoners, and we urge others to do the same. That said, we hope to expose the FBI's politically motivated investigations and, unlike the FBI, we believe people have a right to know when they have been spied on. This kind of government intrusion could cause the “chilling effect” so often thrown about in conversations about 1st amendment activities. But when we give in to those fears, political prisoners are the ones who suffer. And this is exactly what the government wants.

The state is constantly trying to expand its reach by gathering information about social movements and those who participate in them. Instead of letting this new information scare us
into silence, we should use it to make informed decisions about how we support and prioritize political prisoners. This kind of repression has implications for more than just people involved in “activism.” Millions of people are incarcerated in this country. It is possible that the government uses similar tactics to investigate other communities that they actively repress. Writing our friends, family members and comrades should not be a justified excuse for investigation ­ no matter who our friends are.

If you would like to view some of these documents, you may do so at:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/09/12/18658489.php

If you would like to find out if the FBI has been collecting information on you, here is a website that explains how to request information underthe freedom of information act.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/press/information/topic.aspx?topic=how_to_FOIA

Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org

Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org

US Political Prisoners "Stay Strong".

News on our other political prisoners this week is not as good at that which we just received on Marilyn Buck...

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Ashanti Alston shared the following note from former Black Panther Sundiata Acoli, who was recently in front of the parole board:

July 14, 2010

Greetings All,

Received a letter today from the Board advising that the 3-Member Panel gave me a 10 year "hit." The basis for the hit will be explained in the Notice of Decision which will be forwarded to me upon its completion. I'll forward copies of the Decision to the Attys and SAFC when I receive it. Stay strong, I will too.

L, S, Su

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A contract has reportedly been put out on Leonard Peltier's life. He's presently at Lewisburg federal prison. Don't bother with the warden there - contact the White House to demand extra protection for him (202-456-1111). Tell them its long past time to set that man free, while you're at it.

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Long time liberation movement lawyer Lynne Stewart was handed a ten year sentence this week because the government had appealed her original sentence of 28 months, arguing it was too short (they wanted her to die in prison). This one may turn out to be a death penalty, as at the age of 70 she's fighting cancer behind bars, where the odds aren't so good, so send healing thoughts her way. Lynne's supporters' website, above, should have updated info on where/how to send her words of encouragement and solidarity. Keep her engaged in the movement without getting her into trouble*, if you can.


* I probably shouldn't have to say this, but all political prisoners' incoming and outgoing mail is read, logged, and censored as the government sees fit for these folks, so keep in mind that if you write to any of them you'll end up on a list of people who correspond with "terrorists"- and if you send anything too inflammatory they might have to pay for it, not you, so be cool. *


I recently made up a bunch of protest postcards, by the way, which can be good to send to prisoners if they're allowed to get the DIY kind. You can make them out of your own protest photos, like this one from a First Amendment rights event we chalked outside of (color computer-enhanced):

or something about current events like this:

Make sure to keep the activities you photograph legal, please. For the one on the left I didn't litter or commit criminal damage, I'm just holding my banner there, and was able to bring it home and re-use it elsewhere. I actually made a lot of postcards for local politicians and national media out of that one to show that the Resistance here is alive and well.





If you have the computer and printer but not a camera, then you might download or scan cool images like this one, which honors all political prisoners (quote by Elizabeth Gurley-Flynn):

The art is by Ricardo Levins Morales from the now-disbanded Northland Poster Collective. Morales has great stuff and would probably be honored if something like this was mailed to political prisoners -just give credit where it's due and don't mass-produce. Buy his posters and notecards there if you can - he's got some amazing work - it's all social justice stuff. Check it out.

So, those are just a few ideas. You can fit four postcards on a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock or cheap photo paper, and even design the other side like a regular postcard, with captions and stuff. Prisoners of all stripes tend to get a kick out of them - especially if you've done some creative direct actions. I've also made signs to hold up and shoot for specific prisoners and done more stuff like that chalking up there (that's not the best, but she liked it. At least it gives you the idea). Once you get the technicalities worked out of setting up the postcard page, it's pretty easy to keep making them for people - assuming you've got the computer and printer handy.

All three names up there are linked to their websites, which almost always have prisoner contact info. I have a whole bunch of political prisoner links on the Prison Abolitionist, too, near the end of the left column. If you're think of writing to an activist slammed hard in the Green Scare (Jeffrey Leurs is free, now, by the way), or perhaps to a lesser-known prisoner, there are far too many to choose from.

Whether or not the prisoner you correspond with has a website put up by supporters (if they don't that's a clue that they might not be getting a whole lot of mail, so you might want to reach out to them), once you figure out what prison system they're in (most but not all are in federal prisons), check out the appropriate website to make sure you know the mail policies (here's the BOP's). That'll save a little hassle and time.

Another good resource for political prisoner contact info is the zine produced by Jaan Lamaan and friends, 4struggle mag. In fact, if you hunt around you'll find a few publications with letters from prisoners of all kinds in them who are interested in corresponding.

Finally, if you're doing more than just a one-time salute, make sure it's something you can stick with and that your priority is to support the prisoner, not to get your own ego needs met. Just because you can't see or speak to them face-to-face doesn't mean that you don't end up developing a relationship that your pen-pal may find a welcome relief from the misery of incarceration. As in any friendship, honor them by remaining engaged and responsive, or don't set them up only to fall silent to begin with. Try to be consistent. Try not to be too intrusive, and don't talk about their politics - let them do that if they want to. They know better than us what's safe ground to cover and what's taboo.

I say that all from experience, unfortunately - I've learned too much at others' expense at times, I'm afraid. Hopefully you won't repeat the same mistakes I've made.

Good luck.

Prisoner Support SOS:Thalia Outlaw, Mississippi.

From  Sondra Dillard HumphreyApril 9, 2010 at 9:38pm at "FREE TALIA OUTLAW"


Thalia is incarcerated with the Scott Sisters.

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Subject: Thalia needs all of you

Please keep Thalia in your thoughts and prayers. She is really having a tough time and needs to know that she has people who believe in her and who are fighting for her. You will never know how much your words of encouragement mean to her whether it be through e-mail or snail mail. Thank you so much!

If you'd like to e-mail Thalia directly you can do so by going to the website:

https://www.accesscorrections.com/. 

You can either search by her name or her MDOC number, R7934. The minimum amount of credits you can purchase is $5 but the cost to send an e-mail is $.42 and it gets to her quickly. As always, I don't mind forwarding anything to her that you want to send through me.

You can also send her mail directly to her regular mail at:

Thalia Outlaw, R7034

C Bldg, Bed 103

P O Box 88550

Pearl, MS 39288-88550

Have a great weekend all and thank you so much for your continued support!

Sondra (and Thalia)

-------------------------------from Facebook site "Free Talia Outlaw"----------------------- 

Description:

Thalia Outlaw is serving life in prison for something she did NOT do. She was convicted in 1999 of murder. In fact, it was self defense in a domestic situation with a man whom she was no longer involved with and who continued to harass and stalk her. The vandalism of her property and physical assaults on her person had become overwhelming for her. Three months pregnant with her youngest child and only daughter, Thalia had moved on and was involved with another man. This did not stop her obsessed ex-boyfriend from continuing to stalk her. On the morning of July 6, 1997, Thalia woke to find her car vandalized and the extra set of keys to her car and home missing AND a flat tire on her vehicle. Knowing who had done this (because he had called and harassed her telling her what he was going to do), she asked a friend to ride with her to retrieve her extra keys from the ex. Thalia did make a mistake that day; she did NOT call the police. But the police had failed her on the prior occasions and having had a similar incident occur approximately a week prior she felt she would be safe and be able to get her keys back without incident. That was not the case. Upon arriving at a mutual friends home, Thalia approached her ex-boyfriend and asked for her keys back. An immediate physical attack on her person began by her ex using a knife. To this day, she carries the scars of those cuts. At some point during the struggle over the knife, the ex received a wound to the upper clavicle area. This did not stop him; he continued to assault her with his fists hitting her in the stomach area raging that he would kill her and her unborn child. The "mutual friend" that was there interceded and the ex-boyfriend left the home and drove to the hospital. Thalia left the home and drove by the hospital in an attempt to have her injuries looked at but seeing the car there of her attacker, she proceeded to the police station to file another assault charge. Thalia never left the police station that day. As she was finishing her report, the call came that the ex boyfriend had died; Thalia was charged with murder and spent 3 days in jail. An individual in the jail recommended an attorney to her; she called and he came to "help". Thalia was told by several investigators and police officers that they knew this was self defense and that she didn't need to worry. Trusting the system to work, Thalia plead NOT GUILTY. After all, how could she be guilty when the alleged weapon was never in her possession? A year and a half later Thalia went to trial. In a day and a half and less than 2 hours of deliberation, Thalia was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. Not one of the prior assault charges were presented to the Court to establish the history of domestic abuse. The missing "weapon" was not available to prove that she never had it in her possession. Further, the many discrepancies in testimony were not pursued by her counsel. In fact, he was chastised during the trial for whistling during court. Having no family in Mississippi to offer support, Thalia has hung on in a Mississippi prison with no help from anyone. Filing her PCR's and appeals, with no information from her case and no copies of the police reports, Thalia has found herself time barred to pursue her innocence. (read less)

Thalia Outlaw is serving life in prison for something she did NOT do. She was convicted in 1999 of murder. In fact, it was self defense in a domestic situation with a man whom she was no longer involved with and who continued to harass and stalk her. The vandalism of her property and physical assaults on her person had become overwhelming for her. Three months pregnant with her youngest child and only daughter, Thalia had moved on and was involved with another man. This did not stop her... (read more)