[Ppnews] GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters New Phase
Political Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Wed Dec 15 16:02:07 EST 2010
Published on Black Agenda Report
(<http://blackagendareport.com>http://blackagendareport.com)
<http://blackagendareport.com/>Home > GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters
New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages For Work
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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
* 2]
*
<http://blackagendareport.com/?q=category/life-america/mass-incarceration>mass
incarceration [3]
[]
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.
Update story on the strike and support efforts of the newly formed
Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights below the fold. Click
the flash player below to listen.
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.
<http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_7498.shtml>Strikers
[4] 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
<http://www.eurweb.com/?p=71542>Georgia NAACP [5], the Nation of
Islam, the National Association for Radical Prison Reform, the
<http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/>Green Party of Georgia [6], 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.
Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900 978-472-3900
Hays State Prison is at (706) 857-0400 (706) 857-0400
Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721 229-868-7721
Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218
Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900 229-333-7900
Smith State Prison is at (912) 654-5000 (912) 654-5000
The Georgia Department of Corrections is at
<http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/>http://www.dcor.state.ga.us [7] and
their phone number is 478-992-5246
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