RT posted:Alabama inmates plan strike against prison labor
Published time: April 19, 2014 00:38
Inmates in at least one Alabama correctional facility are planning a prison-wide work stoppage that threatens to bring production to a halt over pay and court conditions, according to an inmate who spoke to reporters from his cell.
The strike was organized inside St. Clair County Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama by members of the Free Alabama Movement. The group – loosely made up of inmates at St. Clair and other Alabama penitentiaries – alleges that prison jobs initially designed to help fill convicts’ days and give them a sense of pride behind bars have effectively been turned into a kind of slave labor for Alabama officials.
“We decided that the only weapon or strategy...that we have is our labor, because that’s the only reason that we’re here,” Melvin Ray, a St. Clair inmate and the founder of the Free Alabama Movement, told Salon. “They’ve incarcerated people for the free labor.”
Prison jobs often include laundry, kitchen duty, chemical and license plate production, furniture making, carpentry, and a variety of other duties. Since employment is a privilege in most prisons, inmates are often incarcerated for months or even years before they are allowed to swap days filled with little to no activity for time spent working with tools and other inmates.
No specific instances of abuse were included in Ray’s stories, although in 2012, the Alabama legislature passed a bill that allows private prison companies to hire out their labor to prison inmates, who are paid far less than a standard employee.
An Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman told AP in 2012 that the law would encourage inmates to learn new skills and prevent them from getting into trouble behind bars. Damon Silvers, the national director of the AFL-CIO unions, warned that the US has a history of using prison labor – which he equated to “quasi-slavery” – to depress wages for employees.
Ray admitted that he is unsure how effective the work protest will be with St. Clair’s 1,300 inmates. However, the Free Alabama Movement did make headlines with a previous strike in early January. Ray claimed that 1,100 of the convicts inside St. Clair participated in the protest, while the state maintained that a small group of inmates refused to work and others were prevented from doing so because of inclement weather conditions.
“We have to get them to understand: you’re not giving up anything,” Ray said of his message to fellow inmates. “You don’t have anything. And you’re going to gain your freedom right here.”
The Free Alabama Movement has sought to spread the word, and perhaps replicate a California prison strike that included tens of thousands of inmates last year, by illegally recording videos and inmates' testimonials on smuggled-in cell phones.
“If a prison goes down for a week, we may not capture another prison,” Ray said. “If a prison goes down for two weeks, there’s a strong possibility that you’ll capture another prison. If a prisoner strike goes down for three weeks...there’s no telling how many prisons might get in.”
Though Ray claimed that correctional officers have separated Free Alabama Movement leaders and segregated some into solitary confinement, the work stoppage does not aim to become a violent demonstration.
“You have rapists, you have all the broad spectrum of criminal conduct and so we can’t incorporate violence, because you know, we’re already behind the eight ball as far as, you know, our image issue,” he told journalist Josh Eidelson. “Violence is what has drawn most of us into the prisons – and that’s what we’re trying to stop.”
http://www.freealabamamovement.com/
melvin ray's book
http://www.freealabamamovement.com/FREE%20ALABAMA%20MOVEMENT.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88hK0WZ7PKGaTMPpLMTA_w
^^^watch their videos. they've interviewed tons of prisoners
http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/04/contraband_cellphones_inmate_s.html
al.com posted:Contraband cellphones, inmate strikes not the path to fixing Alabama’s prison problems, state Sen. Cam Ward says
SPRINGVILLE, Alabama – Alabama's prison system needs to be changed, but inmates using contraband cellphones and organizing strikes could do more harm than good, state Sen. Cam Ward says.
Ward, R-Alabaster, the chairman of the Alabama Legislature's prison oversight committee, has long been a supporter of prison reform and the implementation of more community corrections programs, drug courts and alternatives to sending offenders to state penitentiaries.
Melvin Ray, an inmate serving a life sentence for murder at St. Clair Correctional Facility, has also been pushing for change. He is the spokesman for the Free Alabama Movement, which has a website and more than 60 videos alleging unsanitary conditions in Alabama prisons and urging nonviolent change.
Last week, F.A.M. announced that hundreds of men incarcerated at St. Clair and prisons across the state would stop work and demand wages for their labor, which includes cooking and cleaning; the production of license plates, furniture and linens; and farming. Prison officials say that has not occurred.
The International Workers of the World, a nationally recognized union that has pledged its support for the cause said officials have locked down large parts of St. Clair prison, in effect staging a lockout to prevent a strike.
"There is some participation in the strike, but the ADOC is doing everything it can to prevent communication between the prisoners and the outside world," said Erik Forman, who chairs the IWW's organizing department board.
Ward said that Ray's approach likely will be ineffective and that several statements Ray has made about Alabama prisons are flawed, such as when he told Salon that "they're incarcerating people for the free labor" and that the corrections system was created "to destroy men."
"My real issue comes with Melvin's statements," Ward said. "He's circumventing the fact that he committed murder, and no one in the general public is going to buy into the argument that corrections was created as a means to destroy people. I'm not disagreeing with the circumstances and poor conditions in our facilities, but I take huge exception to him as a victim."
Ward says that likening prison industries to slave labor brings race into the conversation unnecessarily.
"Turning it into a racial issue, he's detracting from very real problems that are in existence in our system and real needs that need to be addressed," Ward said.
In the past, some protests and strikes have been gang-related, and contraband cellphones have contributed to gang activity from behind bars, an association that also hurts Ray's message, Ward said.
Ray has used contraband cell phones to coordinate Free Alabama Movement events and to speak with reporters.
Alabama Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kristi Gates said inmates are not allowed to have cell phones or other communication devices and that, through regular searches, employee confiscate any devices found.
"If found with a cell phone or other communication device, inmates lose phone, visitation and canteen privileges for a set number of days, " Gates said.
Ray's mother, Antonia Brook, told AL.com her son was stripped and thrown into a cell with no bed for using a cellphone and talking to reporters from prison.
"We've checked with the staff at the facility and those accusations are false," DOC spokeswoman Kristi Gates said.
lol the senator's name is cam ward and he represents alabaster republicans
Edited by Bablu ()
there are about 60 videos like this dating from new years till february
Since employment is a privilege in most prisons, inmates are often incarcerated for months or even years before they are allowed to swap days filled with little to no activity for time spent working with tools and other inmates.
and yet here we are on the outside, working months or even years before we are allowed to swap days spent working with tools and other Freed Men for time filled with little to no activity.....really makes u think
maybe out here is the real prison
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-12/gangs-ruled-prison-as-for-profit-model-put-blood-on-floor.html
http://www.newsms.fm/gangs-private-prison-causing-big-trouble-riot-walnut-grove/
weve been letting gangs run the prisons, staging literal Gladatorial Combat, female prison guards are getting pregnant with inmates babies, and Rich White Dudes are still stackin that paper. im too lazy to post more links (too many) but this shit has been news for years now, is still going on, and now theyre talking about maybe somebody might possibly eventually lose their job over it lol
dank_xiaopeng posted:prison organization is probably one of the best ways to form a mass movement in these times, with a parallel party apparatus in major urban areas for comrades to work with after their release
personally, i'm a marxist, so i think organizing production workers is a good idea too.
discipline posted:Lenin would disagree with you comrade Fiscal
i think lenin would agree that organizing soldiers, teachers, nurses, factory workers, prisoners, etc., is a good idea.
discipline posted:I'm trying to seek out groups involved with this currently. My dream is a revolutionary women's outreach program that can offer support to incarcerated women in particular. Commissary, transport for families, letter writing, etc
any thoughts on black and pink? friends work for it and have nothing but good things to say, but i never got involved
discipline posted:I'm trying to seek out groups involved with this currently. My dream is a revolutionary women's outreach program that can offer support to incarcerated women in particular. Commissary, transport for families, letter writing, etc
i was tangentially involved in one of these. a hack local paper journalist snuck in to one of our visitor groups, "interviewed" prisoners without their consent and published things they'd said when she'd been explicitly asked not to by the prisoners because there would be retaliations by the guards and an article in her shitty hipster arts paper wouldn't change anything. she didn't give a shit, the paper published her article despite pleading from us, other community groups, the prisoners, etc, and the prison revoked all "privileges"
journalists are narcissists that shouldn't be trusted under any circumstances
shriekingviolet posted:journalists are narcissists that shouldn't be trusted under any circumstances
shriekingviolet posted:journalists are narcissists that shouldn't be trusted under any circumstances
yep, journos are awful in every sense of the word. The degree of reliance which common people have on journos is an extremely strong argument in favour of controlled and censored media. Journos need supervision and guidance because they are horribly irresponsible, inexperienced, and ignorant.
shriekingviolet posted:discipline posted:I'm trying to seek out groups involved with this currently. My dream is a revolutionary women's outreach program that can offer support to incarcerated women in particular. Commissary, transport for families, letter writing, etc
i was tangentially involved in one of these. a hack local paper journalist snuck in to one of our visitor groups, "interviewed" prisoners without their consent and published things they'd said when she'd been explicitly asked not to by the prisoners because there would be retaliations by the guards and an article in her shitty hipster arts paper wouldn't change anything. she didn't give a shit, the paper published her article despite pleading from us, other community groups, the prisoners, etc, and the prison revoked all "privileges"
journalists are narcissists that shouldn't be trusted under any circumstances
who was this? what paper?
the original version of the article even had an inmate's name in it
shriekingviolet posted:http://www.vueweekly.com/inside-the-institution/the original version of the article even had an inmate's name in it
that's incredibly fucked up
roseweird posted:like you
lol good thing youve skipped all this by just ignoring everything occurring later than around 325bc
what are you on about now
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/print/the-horrific-state-of-alabamas-prisons
follow FAM on twitter for updates. doubt anything really happens tho. just felt kinda impotent and like nagging yall
https://twitter.com/FREEALABAMAMOVE
Edited by Bablu ()