[Update: Further news from the Financial Times, citing Addameer (the prisoners rights group), reported on the Egypt-brokered deal and its effect on the longer hunger strike among Palestinian prisoners:
":Sahar Francis, director of Addameer, said the agreement appeared to be favourable for Palestinian inmates. “It’s good – as far as the prisoners’ main demands, this appears to be enough,” she said.
It was not clear what impact the accord would have on a separate hunger strike by several prisoners against Israel’s policy of detaining Palestinians without charge for months or even years.
The Israeli activist organisation Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said on Monday that at least seven administrative detainees were on weeks-long hunger strikes. Most have been refusing food for at least 40 days. The group also said two had been refusing food for more than 70 days and were “in imminent risk of death”.
According to Israeli human rights activists, international law says countries should use administrative detentions only in exceptional cases but Israel implements it as a “blanket measure” against Palestinians....
The agreement did not make any mention of administrative detentions." (See the Financial Times and Addameer for more information. --Frontlines ed.]
by Nidal al-Mughrabi | Reuters | May 14, 2012
A Palestinian artist paints a mural in Gaza City in support of Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike in Israeli jails May 14, 2012. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
Palestinian women look at a man standing inside a mock prison cell during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 14, 2012, in support of Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike in Israeli jails. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails agreed on Monday to an Egyptian-brokered deal aimed at ending a mass hunger strike that challenged Israel’s policy of detention without trial and raised fears of a bloody Palestinian backlash if any protesters died.
Most of some 1,600 prisoners, a third of the 4,800 Palestinians in Israeli jails, began refusing food on April 17 although a few had been fasting much longer – up to 77 days.
Their protest centered on demands for more family visits, an end to solitary confinement and an easing of so-called “administrative detention”, a practice that has drawn international criticism on human rights grounds.
An Egyptian official involved in the talks said that under Monday’s deal to end the strike, Israel had agreed to end solitary confinement for 19 prisoners and lifted a ban on visits to prisoners by relatives living in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Israel also agreed to improve other conditions of detention, and to free so-called administrative detainees once they complete their terms unless they are brought to court, according to the official.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri confirmed the deal, telling Reuters that “the prisoners signed the deal after their demands were met. The deal was brokered by Egypt.”
Israel also confirmed an accord had been struck. “An agreement has been signed to bring about the end of a 28-day hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners,” the Israel Prisons Authority said in a written statement. Read more »
Palestinian protesters hold up banners and portraits of a prisoners jailed in Israel,during a rally in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, April 30, 2012 (APA images)
May 12, 2012 — JENIN (Ma’an) — Hunger-striker Bilal Diab has sent a will to his family in the northern West Bank on his 75th day without food, relatives said on Saturday.
Diab, 27, has refused food since Feb. 29 to protest his detention without charge in Israeli jail.
His family, from Jenin-district town Kufr Rai, said they received his will on Saturday detailing his wishes in case of his death.
“We will have victory, but only through either martyrdom or immediate release — not any partial solution as claimed by the prisons administration,” Diab wrote.
Last week, representative for Fatah prisoners Jamal al-Rjoob said detainees affiliated to Fatah had accepted half the proposals offered by Israeli authorities in response to the strike.
But Yousef Rizqa, political adviser to Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, warned on Monday that Israel was trying to use party affiliations to sow rifts between the hunger-strikers.
“On the 75th day of my hunger strike, I am still determined, patient and focused on continuing against conspiracies, threats and solitary confinement by the fascist Israeli prison administration,” Diab wrote.
Diab instructed his family keep his grave at ground level, in accordance with Islamic teaching, and distribute sweets at his funeral as a sign of celebration.
He asked his brother Homam to perform prayers for him, and freed hunger-striker Khader Adnan to lower him into his grave.
The young hunger-striker thanked all Palestinians, and Arab and Islamic nations for their support. Read more »
Sunday April 29, 2012 15:03, by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News
Palestinian sources reported, Sunday, that detained secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Sa’adat, was moved to the Ramla prison hospital after a sharp deterioration in his health condition.
Sa’adat had been on hunger-strike since thirteen days joining the open-ended hunger-strike declared by the Palestinian political prisoners held in various Israeli prisons and detention center.
The PFLP leader has been in solitary confinement for three years now, with no end in sight; his health condition is gradually deteriorating due to various health conditions that need specialized medical attention.
Palestinian Minister of Detainee, Issa Qaraqe’, stated that the Ministry’s attorney, Rami Al-Alami, went to visit Sa’adat on Sunday but the Israeli Prison Administration told him that Sa’adat was moved to the Ramla Prison hospital.
The Quds Net News Agency reported that detainees of the PFLP rejected an Israeli offer to end their hunger-strike in exchange for removing Sa’adat from solitary confinement, and stated that Israel must stop all of its violations, and put an end to its illegal solitary confinement policies.
All hunger-striking detainees are demanding Israel to treatment in accordance with International Law, and insist on an end to all policies of solitary confinement, and all sorts of attacks and violations against them and their visiting family members.
Detainee Bilal Thiab entered his sixty-second day of ongoing hunger-strike demanding to be released. Several hunger-striking detainees were moved to hospital but refused to break their strike.
Detainee Tha’er Halahla entered his 61 day of hunger-strike at the Ramla Prison Hospital; prison doctors warned Thursday that his body is losing its immune system and his organs might be failing. Read more »
The number of Palestinian political prisoners, held by Israel in various prisons, detention camps and interrogation facilities around the country, will likely reach 3000 as waves of detainees intend to join the strike, demanding their internationally-guaranteed rights.
Israeli Prison - File, Nablus TV
Dozens of detainees are currently on hunger-strike that officially started last Tuesday; the strike, described as “the battle of empty bowels”, aims at ending Israel’s illegal administrative detention polices, halting all violations against the detainees and their families, and improving the living conditions of the detainees.
Head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), Qaddoura Fares, told the Maan News Agency that the first group of detainees, held under administrative detention without charges, have reached the “no return point” as they have been on hunger-strike since 56 days, and insist on not breaking their strike until they are released.
Fares added that the second group of detainees has been on hunger strike since seven days now, and are demanding Israeli to improve their living conditions, allowing visitation rights, halting violations against their visiting family members, ending all solitary confinement policies, allowing them the right to education, and ending all night raids, and searches, targeting the them and their rooms.
“The current number of detainees who are on hunger-strike is 1400-1600, and will likely increase to 3000 in the coming few days” Fares said and added that it is unlikely that all 4700 detainees will join the strike, but could hold solidarity hunger strikes, such as two days a week. Read more »
Herman’s House – Trailer – Herman Wallace / Angola 3 Documentary 2012
Published on Mar 19, 2012 by HermansHouseTheFilm
Please sign the Amnesty Int’l petition to end the decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons http://bit.ly/amnestyactionFor more information about our film please visit the website http://www.hermanshousethefilm.comThere are 2.2 million people in jail in the U.S. More than 80,000 of those are in solitary confinement. New Orleans native Herman Wallace has been there longer than anyone.In 1972, Herman was serving a 25-year sentence for bank robbery when he was accused of murdering an Angola Prison guard and immediately thrown into solitary. Many believed he was wrongfully convicted. Then in 2001 he received a letter from art student Jackie Sumnell, who posed the provocative question:”What kind of house does a man who has lived in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell for over 30 years dream of?”An inspired creative dialogue led to a collaborative art project: “The House That Herman Built.” The exhibition has brought thousands of gallery visitors around the world face-to-face with the harsh realities of the American prison system.But as Herman’s House reveals, the exhibition is just the first step.
Their journey takes an unpredictable turn when Herman asks Jackie to make his dream a reality. As her own finances dwindle, Jackie wonders if she will ever succeed. Meanwhile, the Louisiana courts consider Herman’s latest appeal. Along the way we meet former “stick-up kid” Michael Musser; Herman’s sister Vickie, a loyal and tireless supporter; and former long-term solitary inmate and fellow Black Panther activist Robert King.
With compassion and meaningful artistry, Herman’s House takes us inside the lives and imaginations of two unforgettable characters–forging a friendship and building a dream in the struggle to end the “cruel and unusual punishment” of long-term solitary confinement.
They’ve spent 23 hours of each day in the last 40 years in a 9ft-by-6ft cell. Now, as human rights groups intensify calls for their release, a documentary provides insight into an isolated life
Herman Wallace, left, and Albert Woodfox in Angola prison in Louisiana. Robert King, the third member of the Angola 3, had his conviction overturned and was released in 2001.
“I can make about four steps forward before I touch the door,” Herman Wallace says as he describes the cell in which he has lived for the past 40 years. “If I turn an about-face, I’m going to bump into something. I’m used to it, and that’s one of the bad things about it.”
On Tuesday, Wallace and his friend Albert Woodfox will mark one of the more unusual, and shameful, anniversaries in American penal history. Forty years ago to the day, they were put into solitary confinement in Louisiana‘s notorious Angola jail. They have been there ever since.
They have spent 23 hours of every one of the past 14,610 days locked in their single-occupancy 9ft-by-6ft cells. Each cell, Amnesty International records, has a toilet, a mattress, sheets, a blanket, pillow and a small bench attached to the wall. Their contact with the world outside the windowless room is limited to the occasional visit and telephone call, “exercise” three times a week in a caged concrete yard, and letters that are opened and read by prison guards.
A new documentary film takes us into that cell, providing rare insight into the personal psychological impact of such prolonged isolation. Herman’s House tracks the experiences and thoughts of Wallace as he reflects on four decades banged away in a box.
The film is based on recorded telephone conversations between Wallace and the documentary’s director Angad Bhalla. Wallace, a New Orleans native now aged 70, speaks with powerful understatement about his time in solitary.
“Being in a cage for such an extended period of time, it has its downfalls. You may not feel it, you may not know it, you may think you’re OK, and you’re just perfunctory about it.” Read more »
Palestinian officials appealed to the international community on Tuesday to press the Israeli government to end its draconian administrative detention policy.
Addressing the first day of a two-day UN meeting in Geneva on “The question of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention facilities,” Palestinian Legislative Council representative Ahmed Shreem and director general of prisoners’ rehabilitation minister Mohammad Albatta called on UN member states to bring concerted legal and diplomatic pressure to bear on Israeli authorities.
They said that this was the only way to force them to stop locking Palestinian people up in Israel for renewable terms of six months without charge.
Earlier this week PA Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe branded administrative detention a “dangerous policy” which “turns Palestinian prisoners into hostages of the Israeli security services in breach of international human rights law.”
More than 300 Palestinians are currently held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons. Read more »
[SISTERHOOD: Women narrate their stories. Photo: Divya Trivedi]
Women prisoners reveal the shocking conditions of their confinement –custodial violence, which has no sanction under law, is a part and parcel of the system
Following a minor altercation with the warden in Ward No. 8 of Tihar Jail, Zohara Baratali received severe blows on her lower abdomen that made her bleed for a full month before she succumbed to her injuries. That was a decade ago.
Last year, unable to bear the trauma of being stripped, beaten and sexually assaulted by three policemen inside Pratap Nagar Police Station in Jaipur, Seema Singh tried to end her life by jumping in front of a train. She did not die, but became a paraplegic for life. That did not deter the authorities from arresting her. Last week, the hearing for her bail application was adjourned, yet again.
The All India Meet on Women Prisoners & Custodial Violence held in Delhi on the weekend threw light on the plight of women prisoners in the country. Custodial violence, which is illegal and has no sanction under law, is a part and parcel of the system, with Soni Sori’s case having brought it into the forefront. The speakers shared their concern over the use of women’s sexuality to torture and criminalize them, with police reports usually mentioning these women as those with ‘low’ character. According to them around 99.9 per cent of women prisoners in the country belong to the backward Dalit, Adivasi and minority communities.
Trade Union activist Anu said, “The class divide runs deep in jails. If you are dressed well and look affluent, you won’t be asked to do a lot of the work. But others have to be on their feet all the time, even an 80 year old woman is not spared.” Speaking of her days in Tihar Jail, Anu said that the moment one enters the jail, even as an under trial, the perception is that the person is a criminal and an atmosphere of fear is created. Violence and abuses are a part of that fear psychosis. Read more »
Report by Manoranjan Routray; Koraput : The media in Koraput today received a third letter from the CPI (Maoist) Party regarding release of kidnapped BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka. The letter, addressed to media persons, lashes out at the Naveen Patnaik Government for deliberate inaction on demands stated by CPI (Maoist) Party in exchange of the release of the captive BJD MLA. CPI (Maoist) Party has criticized Government for repeatedly sending requests for appointing negotiators despite the Party’s clear statement that they do not want any mediators and expect the Government to use mediapersons to convey their willingness to act on demands released by the Party to the media ten days ago.
It may be recalled that leader of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (CMAS) Narayanpatna Nachika Linga had already given a statement in media that their organisation has nothing to do with kidnapping of the BJD MLA. In this context the Party letter asks why then is the Government repeatedly asking for the mediation of CMAS in the matter of release of the captive BJD MLA ? The Party therefore concludes that the Government is trying to buy time by deliberately delaying decision on mediation and action on the stated demands. The letter asks media to reflect whether Government, which is repeatedly asking the CPI (Maoist) Party to abjure violence, is itself bound to this principle ? And whether or not the State is indulging in violence by launching combing operations ? Read more »
March 15, 2012 | Omaha — Several dozen demonstrators spread a 30 foot banner across the entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol on Tuesday in behalf of the Omaha Two. Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice) are serving life sentences at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln for the 1970 murder of an Omaha policeman.
FBI Director J Edgar Hoover organized the special COINTELPRO program to eliminate the movements against racism and imperialism. The targets were Black activists and other radical and revolutionary people's movements. The methods were frame-ups and imprisonment, cold-blooded murder, and campaigns of media malignment. Hoover was FBI director from 1924 to 1972.
The Omaha Two were convicted after a COINTELPRO-tainted trial where Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover had ordered evidence withheld from the jury. Poindexter and Mondo were leaders of Omaha’s Black Panther affiliate chapter and targets of Hoover’s clandestine war of counterintelligence against domestic political activists.
Serving 41 years in prison, the Omaha Two are among America’s longest-held political prisoners.
The capitol steps demonstration was organized by Ben Jones of the Anti-Oppression Art project. Jones used Facebook to help recruit people to help hold the giant banner.
Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa continue to maintain their innocence for the murder of Larry MInard, Sr. on August 17, 1970. Minard and seven other Omaha police officers were lured to a vacant house by an anonymous 911 call about a woman screaming. Instead of a woman, police found a booby-trapped suitcase filled with dynamite which exploded in Minard’s face as examined it.-
J. Edgar Hoover ordered the FBI crime laboratory to withhold a report on its analysis of a recording of the 911 call. Omaha police had sent the tape to Washington to determine the identity of the anonymous caller. The unknown caller presented a problem in making a case against the two Black Panther leaders. Read more »
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity, February 2012
Dear Friends,
Occupy San Quentin demonstration on February 20, 2012
As you know on February 20th, over a dozen rallies and demonstrations were held throughout the US for a “National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners,” including in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, Denver, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.
At Occupy San Quentin in California, despite the prison administration’s attempts to close off access to the protest, over 700 people gathered at the prison’s East Gate to hear statements from prisoners and family and community members of prisoners, former prisoners, and people directly affected by the prison industrial complex speak out against the destructive impacts of imprisonment.
Many prisoners sent words of encouragement and vision to be read at the actions. Prisoners in Ohio State Prison went on hunger strike in solidarity with the national day in support of prisoners. Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit at Corcoran State Prison wrote a statement of solidarity and have raised 10 demands for the Occupy Movement. The N.C.T.T (NARN Collective Think Tank) at Corcoran SHU, a group of prisoners who participated in the CA hunger strike in the summer and fall and have been writing reports and statements about prisoners’ struggles inside, writes:
You champion us all with your ideas and the courage of your convictions, just as we continue to support you with our sacrifices and insight. It is now time to take the movement to its next evolution and ultimately to its inevitable conclusion: victorious revolutionary change.
Some of the San Quentin 6, formerly incarcerated San Quentin prisoners--friends and comrades of George Jackson, who had been accused of rebellion when he was murdered by prison guards in 1971--spoke to the demonstration on 2/20/12.
Your greatest power lies in your unity and cooperation and ultimately your organizational ability. The power of the people far surpasses all the repressive violence of the Babylons attacking you/us or the wealth of the 1 percent, who will stop at nothing to silence us all.
This is a protracted struggle; there will be no 90-day revolution here. Victory will require sacrifice, tenacity and competent strategic insight. The question you must ask is, Are you prepared to do what is necessary to win this struggle? If you answer in the affirmative, commit to victory and accept no other alternative. The people, as we are, are with you. Until we win or don’t lose, our love and solidarity to all those who love freedom and fear only failures.
Read the full letter, including ten demands for the Occupy Movement from the NCTT at Corcoran SHU here.
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity is calling for hunger strike supporters to jam the CA legislature’s communication with overwhelming support for the hunger strike.
Visit our blog for sample phone & email scripts, as well as an open letter you can send in or fax, and flyers to pass out at Occupy’s National Day in Support of Prisoners and other events. Read more »
Istanbul, Turkey- Dawn on Tuesday brought an unfortunate wake up call to many Kurds and especially to journalists as a wave of arrests across Turkey picked up 40 people, most of whom are journalists.
The arrests came under the premise of alleged links to the Union of Committees in Kurdistan (KCK). Turkish “anti-terrorism” police specifically targeted pro-Kurdish media, mainly DIHA and ETHA news agencies, the Özgür Gündem daily newspaper, the Demokratik Modernite magazine and the Gün printing press. Turkish state media alleged that the recent wave of arrests was part of a two year long investigation into the KCK and its members. In addition, French Kurdish photographer Mustafa Ozer, who works for the French news agency Agence France Presse, was detained, smiling as he was carried away by security officers.
This wave of arrests is only the latest in Turkey’s sustained assault against the KCK and all those affiliated with it. The new arrests brings the number of journalists alone in Turkish prisoners over 90, making Turkey one of the worst countries in the world for imprisoning members of the media. Along with journalists, Turkey has been undertaking a systemic campaign of arresting children, activists, academics, politicians, and arguably any other powerful voice of dissent in the country.
Although for the most part Turkey’s unjust actions against the Kurds go unnoticed, the arrest of 40 Kurds, most of whom are journalists, has received some of the criticism is deserves. Hundreds of journalists gathered in Taksim Square in Istanbul to protest the arrests and demand that freedom of the press in Turkey be preserved and protected. “The imprisonment of journalists means the usurpation of our right for information” read the statement released at the demonstration. “We are here today to defend both our colleagues and the right of information.”
In addition, the international organization Reporters Without Borders released a statement saying they were “very concerned” by the latest arrests, and called on the Turkish government and authorities to “stop trying to criminalize journalism, including politically committed journalism.”
The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) also released a statement, calling on all those who support the right of information and freedom of the press to protest Turkey’s many human rights abuses.
The detention of 40 journalists, all seeking to reveal the same truth about the situation of Kurds in Turkey, is in fact affecting the entire profession of journalism. With 40 less people reporting on Turkey’s marginalization of the Kurdish community, Turkey is further quashing voices of dissent in the name of anti-terrorism and clearing the path for even more human rights abuses in the future.
Detained artist Ericson Acosta and other political detainees all over the country are on hunger strike.
They began their strike last Saturday, December 3, 2011, as part of the campaign to free all political prisoners in the country. The hunger strike and sympathy fasts would continue until December 8. Other forms of protests are also being held in Camp Bagong Diwa and Batangas Provincial Jail.
Acosta, in particular, began his hunger strike to expose the particular circumstances of his arrest and continued unjust detention.
Acosta is an artist, journalist and cultural worker who was arrested by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on February 13, 2011 in Barangay Bay-ang, San Jorge, Samar province in the Eastern Visayan region. He faces trumped-up charges of illegal possession of explosives and is currently detained at the Calbayog City sub-provincial jail.
The UP activist’s counsel has filed a Petition for Review of his case before the Philippine government’s Department of Justice (DOJ) last September 1.
Acosta’s supporters have called on authorities, particularly the Department of Justice , to immediately withdraw the fabricated illegal possession of explosive complaint lodged by the military against the poet. In a written message, Acosta stressed that it was “ utterly baseless for him to undergo a full-blown trial for this trumped-up charge.”
“I am the one who has the right to charge the state elements responsible for violating my human rights,” he said.
One of his particular demands is to pull out the highly irregular if not illegal presence of a squad of military men near his place of detention. A platoon of soldiers from the 87th IB were first deployed in the nearby barrio since July in the pretext of military operations, but it has become apparent that the soldiers are there to “guard” Acosta. Read more »
The demand for the release of political prisoners is a major demand of democratic movements in India now, and the condition of prisoners in jail a major cause for concern. The case of Binayak Sen had brought the issue of political prisoners into focus, but there are thousands like him languishing in jails, including people like Jiten Marandi who have been sentenced to death.
The situation has parallels to the USA, which has the largest prison population ratio to the total population in the world, and has political prisoners who have been in jail for more than thirty years, from the time when the Black population of the US stood up in struggle for their rights. In the following article, the author Isaac Ontiveros of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Condition writes about the recent historic hunger strike by prisoners in California prisons, which had focused attention on the US prison system and the condition of prisoners therein. This hunger strike, which at one point had 12000 participants throughout the California prison system, exposed the inherent repression, maltreatment and misery of the prisoners in the US prisons and became a symbol of resistance against these.
In India, over the last one year there have been many hunger strikes in prisons, led mostly by political prisoners in various jails, although they have never received any media attention as the hunger strike by Anna Hazare did. As the aggression by the Indian state against its own people continues, and as resistance builds against it, India has come to have one of the largest political prisoner populations. Draconian central laws such as the UAPA, and various state laws have been used to incarcerate a large number of political activists in various jails [for example, this letter from the incarcerated Chhatradhar Mahato, from Midnapur jail in West Bengal, details the inhuman condition of political prisoners there and the resistance]. Together with these, application of various sections of the Criminal Penal Code (CrPC) has resulted in a large number of cases, in most instances false, against people who have resisted or protested in any form against the aggression by the state or corporations. And just as the US prison population has a disproportionately large number of African-Americans and Hispanic people, who form the most downtrodden and marginalized sections of the American population, the political prisoner population in Indian jails has a disproportionately high number of adivasis and dalits, who have borne the brunt of the repressive state policies.
For example, amongst the 250 odd political prisoners in Midnapore central jail, around 240 are adivasis of all ages and gender. The political prisoners have gone on hunger strike a number of times in jails in West Bengal, demanding better treatment and better facilities for all prisoners, and for the recognition of their status as political prisoners. Even that has been hard to come by, both during the previous Left Front regime and the new Trinamool Congress government which had promised to release the political prisoners before the polls.
Currently, more than 800 under-trial prisoners in Presidency, Alipur and Dum Dum jails in Kolkata are in the fifteenth day of a hunger strike demanding speedier disposal of their cases and better conditions in prisons. This week, the hunger strike spread to Medinipur and Krishnanagar jails, with the political prisoners and other prisoners in these jails joining the hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners in the Kolkata jails. As of now, more than 1500 prisoners are on a prolonged hunger strike in West Bengal.
As the struggle for the release of political prisoners continues to build up in India, this article gives us a glimpse of the resistance by US prisoners and reminds us about the need of international solidarity to bring the issue of political prisoners to the fore.
———————————————
November 21, 2011
By Isaac Ontiveros.
The author works on the media committee of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition.
The California Hunger Strike: Repression, Resistance, and the US Prison System
This past summer, at least 6,600—probably many more—prisoners in the US state of California’s prison system went on hunger strike. After more than 20 days, prisoners suspended their strike when prison administration was forced to respond. Then, in late September, because repression had increased, and there was no movement on their demands–and reprisals were targeted against those labeled as strike leaders, the prisoners resumed their strike. The second round of striking, which lasted nearly three weeks, at one point had at least 12,000 participants throughout California. Both waves of the strike were initiated in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison.
SHUs are some the highest security facilities in the United States—often referred to as “prisons within prisons.” Prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day in eight by ten feet cells made of smooth concrete that have no windows. Fluorescent lights can be kept on 24 hours per day. Armed guards control entrances and exits electronically and are strategically located to be able to fire on prisoners at any time. The average amount of time a prisoner spends in the Pelican Bay SHU is 6 ½ years, while some have been held for over 20. Around 4,000 prisoners in California are held in SHUs. Nationally, it is estimated that 80,000 people are held in some form of solitary confinement. Many organizations internationally have condemned SHUs and other solitary confinement facilities as torture. In California and elsewhere, prison administrators claim that prisoners are kept in these special units because they are high level gang shot-callers, yet many have pointed out that, in fact, the SHUs are often used to break up organizing for prisoner’s rights. Read more »
CPI (Maoist) has opened a new front, from behind the bars, away from Junglemahal. With senior leaders lodged in jails, the party is not only spreading its views among the inmates, but also leading movements and agitations on various issues. Since the past couple of years, a number of agitations have taken place inside the jails, including the central jails, where a large number of inmates even sat on indefinite hunger strikes.According to jail sources, Maoists have formed various jail committees, which not only look after rights of prisoners, but also make them aware of the current political situation. Intelligence sources admit that Maoists have also initiated indoctrination classes for young under trials in some jails.”It is their strategy to catch the administration on the wrong foot. They have been organising inmates behind the bars and prompting agitations. They are the brain behind most agitations, however frivolous for a cause it may be,” said Ranvir Kumar, inspector general of jails. Read more »
The Ankara Penal Authority Discipline Board penalized 63 prisoners in Sincan Prison for chanting slogans and singing on 1 May 2011, reported Antenna-Turkey in its Freedom of Expression Weekly Bulletin of 24 June 2011.
Six prisoners received a month of ban for visitors and 57 were banned from receiving communication and information media.
The case of the 63 prisoners in Sincan Prison is now being investigated.
The inmates appealed stating that singing on 1 May is not a crime. The Turkish state accepts 1 May as a public holiday and that it is celebrated with songs and slogans all over the world, the defendants counselor Evrim Deniz Karatana commented on what he termed an unnecessary and arbitrary sentencing.
FRS is an internationalist, US-based information and news website. We post material from the front lines of revolutionary struggle worldwide. We especially try to gather information about arenas of revolutionary struggle that are blocked or distorted by the bourgeois media and often unknown or misunderstood even by progressive people.
We want to support internationalist education in the U.S. and generate wide ranging discussion, debate and political activism. We do not aim to represent the struggles we report on but to bring them into public view.
We encourage your comments on particular articles on the site. Please send us your feedback and suggestions for postings to: revolutionaryfrontlines@gmail.com.
The UP activist’s counsel has filed a Petition for Review of his case before the Philippine government’s Department of Justice (DOJ) last September 1.
