MISTRIAL Inmates strike in prisons nationwide over 'slave labor' working conditions, Sept 2016

A nationwide prison strike over conditions and wages behind bars, which organizers tipped to be the biggest of its kind in US history, was under way in at least several correctional facilities across the country on Friday, according to prison rights advocates.

Inmates from several states, who had bound together with the help of activists and organizing groups, aimed the national strikes – which had been in the making for several months – against what they said amounted to slave labor conditions amid mass incarceration in the country.

The coordinated events, which organizers targeted in as many as 24 states, occurred on the 45th anniversary of the riots at Attica prison in New York – the largest prison uprising in American history – over grievances today’s protesters say are similar, including poor sanitary conditions and prison jobs that amount to forced labor.

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“Work is good for anyone,” Melvin Ray, who is incarcerated at the WE Donaldson correctional facility in Bessemer, Alabama, told Mother Jones on Friday. “The problem is that our work is producing services that we’re being charged for, that we don’t get any compensation from.”

Ray is a member of the group called the Free Alabama Movement, which has been instrumental in leading the strike efforts, along with other groups formed with the help of incarcerated individuals such as the Free Ohio Movement, the Free Mississippi Movement and the End Prison Slavery in Texas movement.

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Standing in solidarity with the striking prisoners, some in Detroit are gathering downtown tonight for their own protest.

The site for that protest in Detroit will be around the “Fail Jail” which lies uncompleted by Wayne County after cost overruns. A flier for the event urged protestors to bring drums, pots, pans, whistles, and other noisemakers to help pound out the message: “No new jail, no old jail.”

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And though the strike organizers have chosen to highlight the way prison labor is exploited, substandard food is something the organizers of today’s protest are vocal about, as in this video of moldy food from the Free Alabama Movement.

For those who don’t know what the Attica Uprising was, it was an uprising at a prison in New York state that, however briefly, won the sympathy of many people. There’s a current book out about it by former U-M professor Heather Ann Thompson that has received excellent reviews in The New York Times, and even occasioned an article on how important reforms were never instituted. In fact, the paper let Thompson write an opinion piece on the injustice that lingers over U.S. prisons today.

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Prisons around the U.S. might see one of the largest inmate strikes ever in the nation's history.

Prisoners in correctional facilities across the country released a call-to-action letter, which they say aims to "end slavery in America."

What those prisoners are referring to is the forced labor required in many U.S. detention centers. The letter argues prisoners often receive little to no pay and can be punished for noncompliance.

It reads, in part, "They may have replaced the whip with pepper spray, but many of the other torments remain: isolation, restraint positions, stripping off our clothes and investigating our bodies as though we are animals."

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human said:

I don't agree with being treated horrendously,but why would they get paid while in prison?

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katydid23 said:

Oh Boo Hoo, the convicts don't get paid....too bad so sad. :no:

Maybe they should have a union and get paid vacations and pensions when they 'retire' from their prison jobs...

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katydid23 said:

Oh Boo Hoo, the convicts don't get paid....too bad so sad. :no:

Maybe they should have a union and get paid vacations and pensions when they 'retire' from their prison jobs...

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The four-day revolt at the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York, ends when hundreds of state police officers storm the complex in a hail of gunfire. Thirty-nine people were killed in the disastrous assault, including 29 prisoners and 10 prison guards and employees held hostage since the outset of the ordeal.

On September 9, prisoners rioted and seized control of the overcrowded state prison. One prison guard was fatally beaten. Later that day, state police retook most of the prison, but 1,281 convicts occupied an exercise field called D Yard, where they held 39 prison guards and employees hostage for four days. After negotiations stalled, New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller ordered the state police to regain control of the prison by force.

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katydid23 said:

WE pay for their living expenses, housing, food, medical needs, education, while they are incarcerated. Their own actions put them where they are. So why shouldn't they be put to work with little pay while they do their time?

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katydid23 said:

WE pay for their living expenses, housing, food, medical needs, education, while they are incarcerated. Their own actions put them where they are. So why shouldn't they be put to work with little pay while they do their time?

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CoolJ said:

Damn rights they should be put to work! I see no problem with making prison life suck. It should suck. And for the worse criminals, the violent ones, the murderers and rapists and child molesters it should suck even more.

Having said that, there are too many in American prisons that should not be there. There are literally thousands in the American prison system doing years and sometimes decades on what I would consider minor drug offences. Free those ones and make the despicable ones suffer a little. JMO

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CoolJ said:

Damn rights they should be put to work! I see no problem with making prison life suck. It should suck. And for the worse criminals, the violent ones, the murderers and rapists and child molesters it should suck even more.

Having said that, there are too many in American prisons that should not be there. There are literally thousands in the American prison system doing years and sometimes decades on what I would consider minor drug offences. Free those ones and make the despicable ones suffer a little. JMO

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Two more Florida prisons were placed on lockdown Friday, as state corrections officers and commanders attempted to keep order during what was touted as a nationwide prison strike timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the infamous riot at Attica prison in New York.

Michelle Glady, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections, said “disturbances” had happened Friday morning at Gulf and Mayo Correctional Institutions, and that smaller ones were reported in other prisons across the state.

A rebellion in advance of the strike happened at Holmes Correctional in Florida’s Panhandleon Wednesday night, involving more than 400 inmates. It caused damage to nearly every dorm and lasted into early Thursday morning, officials said. No one was seriously injured, but the department was concerned that the disturbance might be a harbinger of future trouble.

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bluesneakers said:

Have you never heard of the Attica Prison riots? Forty-three people - including a guard - died during the riots. Now imagine that happening at prisons all over the country.

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katydid23 said:

So basically they are threatening to riot now? Kind of like following in BLM's footsteps? ' You'd better pay us more or we'll tear up the prisons!'

That is only going to bring them MORE repression, not leniency.'

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human said:

I don't agree with being treated horrendously,but why would they get paid while in prison?

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