The Fraternal Order of Police and the Last Execution.

"Before this generation goes on to its ancestors, we should, we must, do our level best to pass on our lessons, so that they live in our people's minds and lives."
– Mumia Abu Jamal

Sad to think that anyone who might really understand how corrosive and unjust the death penalty is would make their support for abolishing it based on their right to see their own target alone executed before capital punishment goes out of style. That's hardly an ethical or professional stance for one of the foremost police organizations to take. I think they should either continue to support executions for the wrong reasons, or abandon their ignorant tradition and support abolition for the right reasons: you really can't play it both ways and maintain credibility with either camp, though. I wouldn't trust the cops for a minute if they said they'd join us anyway, frankly.



At least this whole episode can serve to remind the rest of us to listen critically to others in the social movements we find ourselves attracted to, before jumping on board with some of the "leaders", and look at how the internal politics play. One of the things I like about organizing with anarchists is that they're explicitly anti-authoritarian, non-heirarchical, and anti-racist. Our group decisions are arrived at by consensus, not by majority vote or some wise man's decree. That causes us to have a heightened sense of insight into how our own perspectives are shaped, to challenge and explore our own political biases and ideologies and actions, as well those of our friends, and folks aren't shy about confronting BS.


Shame on anyone calling themselves an abolitionist while throwing a comrade under the bus to die like this. Please read and keep in mind that there's a whole lot going on behind the scenes politically that has nothing to do with the merits of the arguments against the death penalty itself - or the very real people on death row around the world. Viva Carolina for exposing all this, despite great personal and professional risk...and hooray for El Enemigo Común and the Freedom Archives for their solidarity with those who struggle, as always.


This is serious business - we don't have time for the BS this guy Cushing and his buddy are up to - or any of their organizations, for that matter. Stay away from the non-profit industrial complex, if you can help it, folks - they'll just take your money and zap your will to fight by letting you think they've got it covered. Communities and collectives are far more useful units of society than organizations, anyway - and less subject to corruption.


Shoot Claude an email at the bottom if you want to sign up for the Political Prisoner News list-serve from FA. That's how I got tipped off to this piece.

Viva la compañera Carolina!

Viva Mumia Abu-Jamal!

elenemigocomun.net is an international watchdog against state sponsored repression in Oaxaca. It is the project of a small collective of volunteers in the U.S. and Mexico. We publish and translate communiqués, articles, and other media by, about, and for social movements. Our primary focus is on indigenous peoples, women, and youth, in both urban and rural communities in Oaxaca, but we also publish about other struggles against neoliberalism throughout Mexico.



The Freedom Archives contains over 10,000 hours of audio and video tapes. These recordings date from the late-60s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international solidarity movements. The collection includes weekly news/ poetry/ music programs broadcast on several educational radio stations; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; diverse activist voices; original and recorded music, poetry, original sound collages; and an extensive La Raza collection.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Two articles follow

El Enemigo Común stands with Carolina and Mumia

by El Enemigo Común ( solidarity [at] elenemigocomun.net )
Wednesday Jun 15th, 2011 10:51 AM

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/06/15/18681976.php

In recent days, El Enemigo Común and numerous other websites published an article by independent journalist and compañera Carolina which documented the presence of Renny Cushing in Mexico. Until recently a state legislator of the Democratic Party, anti-nuclear activist and director of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights, Cushing was invited by his old friend Al Giordano – founder and editor of Narco News Bulletin – to be a professor at Narco News’ 2011 “School of Authentic Journalism.” Presumably through his connection with Giordano, Cushing has also taken on the role as one of the U.S. organizers for the historic June 4 march from Cuernavaca to Ciudad Juárez, organized by Javier Sicilia and the Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity.

As any good journalist would do, Carolina pointed out the problematic nature of Cushing’s involvement around matters involving “authentic journalism” and social movements, noting Cushing’s major role in attempting to silence and eject Mumia Abu-Jamal from the worldwide death penalty abolition movement, solely in order to gain the favor of one of the most reactionary, violent and racist of organizations, the Fraternal Order of Police. Carolina simply posed the question: What can an individual who used his power to throw one of today’s most powerful and important voices for social justice under the bus in favor of a brutal, repressive gang of police officers, offer one of Mexico’s most important social movements? A question which resonated with us at El Enemigo Común and a question we were glad to publish without qualms. We fully stand by Carolina’s article, but most importantly, we without reservation stand behind and offer our full support to our compañera Carolina.

Such statements of support are unfortunately necessary, as since the publication of Carolina’s article Al Giordano has launched a one-person campaign: not to defend his actions or those of Renny Cushing; nor much less to respond to the facts put forward by Carolina; but instead to defame Carolina in the most vile of terms. Giordano has shared with anyone who will listen, and even those who aren’t interested in his ranting, that Carolina is spreading “bullshit” and is a “coward and counterinsurgent in style” and possibly a “provocateur.” Such attacks are appalling coming from anyone, and are even more disturbing when issued by the editor of Narco News. We at El Enemigo Común categorically and emphatically repudiate and denounce Al Giordano’s baseless attacks against Carolina.

Carolina has been an integral part of El Enemigo Común for several years, just as she has been to many, many other organizations, independent media formations and social movements. Her tireless dedication to documenting, promoting and participating in innumerable just struggles in Mexico, the U.S. and beyond is nothing short of remarkable. Through her decades of involvement she has rightly earned the respect of compañeras and compañeras worldwide. This in part can be seen by the support she has received from several independent media outlets in response to Giordano’s outrageous attacks. Likewise, at El Enemigo Común, we are honored and privileged to be able to work alongside her.

Contrary to Giordano’s statements, it is his spurious attacks on Carolina that threaten the integrity of social movements and their support networks. Stating or implying that someone may be a counterinsurgent or provocateur is the height of irresponsibility, as he should well know. It is truly lamentable he chose to sink to such a low.

In the meantime, here at El Enemigo Común we will continue in our efforts to spread bilingual news, analysis and calls to action regarding and in support of social movements in Mexico and beyond – including the Movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity – and throughout, proudly counting Carolina among us.

x El Enemigo Común
http://elenemigocomun.net

Letters of Support for Carolina

• Hans Bennett, Journalists for Mumia: Glad to see Cushing’s past actions being exposed
• La Haine: Strange charge against Mumia activist
• Noticias de la Rebelión: Letter of support for independent journalist Carolina Saldaña. Renny Cushing is not welcome in Mexico!
• Centro de Medios Libres of Mexico City: Solidarity with Kaloparlantes: Narrating the heartbeats of the struggles
• Multimedios Cronopios: The name doesn’t make the man (or woman); actions do
• Kaos.México: Kaos.México rejects charges against our compañera Carolina Saldaña
• International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal: ICFFMAJ supports Carolina!

http://elenemigocomun.net/2011/06/enemigo-...

************************************************************************

Anti-Mumia “abolitionist” Renny Cushing tries to clean up image in Mexico

Published: May 31, 2011
http://elenemigocomun.net/2011/05/renny-cushing-mumia-mexico/

For Renny Cushing: May the light and shadow of Mumia Abu-Jamal follow you all the days of your life. May you vomit every time you look in the mirror. And may your portrait be hung in the gallery of the Fraternal Order of Police forever.

For 29 ½ years, the North American State ––its police, district attorneys, courts, news media–– have sought to silence the revolutionary African-American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal once and for all. Now they have some accomplices who call themselves “abolitionists” to help them do their job. One of them is visiting in Mexico in an apparent attempt to polish his tarnished image by tagging onto the movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity sparked by the esteemed poet Javier Sicilia and embraced by the EZLN and thousands of Mexican people. His name is Renny Cushing. Several questions arise, and the first is this: How can a person who has lost all dignity offer anything to this movement?

Who is Renny Cushing? Ex anti-nuke activist and death penalty opponent, he is a Democratic Party politician, has been a State Representative in New Hampshire several times, and is Director of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights.

What is he doing in Mexico? Al Giordano’s old friend and mentor was invited to be a teacher in the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism in May, 2011. Al Giordano is the founder and editor of Narco News.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4278.html

What does a politician allied with one of the most brutal police organizations in the U.S. have to do with authentic journalism? I don’t have the slightest idea.

What is he planning to do now? To the misfortune of the highly respected poet Javier Sicilia, the EZLN and tens of thousands of Mexicans engaged in the process of building a movement for Peace and Justice with Dignity, Renny Cushing is one of the United States organizers who will take part in the new Caravan that leaves from Cuernavaca for Cd. Juárez this coming June 4. This was reported in an article written by Lucero Mendizábal and published in Narco News on May 22, 2011.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4419.html

What the Narco News article doesn’t mention

It’s highly possible that the reporter doesn’t know that Cushing was one of the supposed abolitionists who tried to silence Mumia Abu-Jamal on March 4, 2010, when they walked out of the Fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty in Geneva, Switzerland on March 4, 2010, in an outrageous protest against a phone call to the Congress by the death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.

It’s also doubtful that Javier Sicilia has heard of this shameful episode.

The obvious question is this: Did Al Giordano know about it when he invited Cushing to Mexico?

The motives of the movement bosses? In a confidential memorandum dated December 21, 2009, they explained why they’ve fallen so low: They don’t want to offend the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)! Why? Because they want police support in order to end the death penalty in the United States.

How did people find out? In his article, “The Politics of Death: Throwing Mumia Abu-Jamal under the Bus”, published on his site “This Can’t Be Happening” http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/117, writer Dave Lindorff exposed the sordid proposal. He says that the leaders had signed a confidential memo addressed to the French organizers of the World Congress titled “Involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the US coalition for abolition of the death penalty.”

The memo signed by Cushing and others says: “In 1999, the world’s largest association of professional law enforcement officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, announced a boycott of organizations and individuals who support Abu-Jamal. Bills have been introduced in both houses of the US federal legislature condemning the naming of streets for Abu-Jamal. The result is that Abu-Jamal, rather than abolition of the death penalty, becomes the issue and the focus of attention. That is dangerously counter-productive to the abolition movement in the US.”

That is to say, the FOP campaign against Mumia Abu-Jamal has been vicious and relentless, but abolitionists shouldn’t combat this campaign; instead they should abandon the most emblematic prisoner in the struggle against the death penalty.

The memo continues: “The voices of the Innocent, the voices of Victims and the voices of Law Enforcement are the most persuasive factors in changing public opinion and the views of decision-makers (politicians) and opinion leaders (media). Continuing to shine a spotlight on Abu-Jamal… threatens to alienate these three most important partnership groups.”

Right. In a police state like the United States, all that activists can do is ally themselves with the police. Oh yes, and with the Innocent and the Victims. It seems that even though Mumia has always maintained his innocence in the death of policeman Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981, and even though he has been unjustly caged in conditions of torture for 29 ½ years, he doesn´t qualify as one of the “most important partners” of this movement.

And so Renny Cushing and the others have no qualms whatsoever about isolating and expelling a righteous political prisoner who has attracted thousands of people to the abolitionist movement ever since the publication of his first book Live from Death Row (1995), in which he puts a human face on all the horrifying statistics of the official destruction of life behind the walls.

They also think it’s perfectly all right to do whatever they can to please the very police organization that has been trying to kill Mumia for over 29 years and that is responsible for thousands of deaths, imprisonments, beatings and acts of terror in the streets of Philadelphia and the entire nation.

It’s important to note that the counterparts of the FOP in Mexico are responsible for a large part of the violence against the civilian population of the country.

What does Renny Cushing have to offer the movement now being built in Mexico?

Upon suffering the death of his son, Javier Sicilia voiced the sentiments of thousands of Mexican people who have taken to the streets to shout “We’re sick of this shit!” The poet has not only had the courage to denounce politicians, political parties, drug traffickers and the government, but has also demanded the resignation of Mexico’s top cop, Genaro García Luna. And what would Renny Cushing do in his place? Kiss García Luna’s ass to gain his approval? That would be consistent with his practice. Is collusion with the main perpetrators of social violence the way to win peace? Is it the way to win justice? Is it the way to show dignity? This is what we could expect from Renny Cushing.

And what does Mumia Abu-Jamal have to offer to our movements?

Here is the text of an interview with Mumia by Marlene Martin of the Campaign against the Death Penalty:

MAJ: I thank the Campaign to End the Death Penalty for your wondrous support. When the letter was read to me, I felt an odd mix of rage and disbelief. It speaks volumes of the movement and why it is so moribund. Once again, a white elite “polices” (pun intended) the movement, making sure it’s not too “radical” and is acceptable to the system. That ain’t a movement; it’s a regression!

MM: When you heard that a group of abolitionists walked out of a meeting to protest your speaking, what was your reaction?

MAJ: Well, I didn’t know these people, so it didn’t make any sense to me….

MM: Should abolitionists partner with law enforcement?

MAJ: …The role of abolitionists is not to be taken lightly. They were revolutionaries fighting against one of the wealthiest and most powerful institutions in American society: Slavery.

You know the one group that abolitionists never bothered to recruit? Slave-owners. They knew that this was a waste of time. The current movement that uses that name clearly hasn’t used that lesson from history.

We forget how Lincoln hated abolitionists with a passion, and demeaned them in his speeches. Cops as abolitionists is just as nutty as the idea of slave-owners turning against the source of their wealth and status.

MM: One of the sentences in the memo reads, “The support of law enforcement officials is essential to achieving abolition in the United States.”

MAJ: Abolitionists should deeply study the history of their forbears­ and learn these lessons of history. That history is struggle­ sometimes unpopular, always controversial, but socially transformative. They can’t make deals with the devil and expect anything other than hell.

MM: In order to win abolition, do we need to be more practical and less radical? That is the implication of the memo.

MAJ: The abolitionist movement is, unfortunately, echoing history here, for after the Union triumphed in the Civil War, they put away their placards, silenced their songs and declared victory. When they walked away, they allowed Reconstruction to be a half-hearted failure.

Their departure from the field allowed politicians to betray millions of newly freed Africans to the tender mercies of the former Confederates­ who launched a campaign of terror that lasted for a century.

Frederick Douglass said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” There was no struggle and guess what? There was no progress!

MM: What should abolitionists do?

MAJ: Let us become that which we revere and remember. Let us BE abolitionists, strengthened by the positive contributions of our ancestors, Black and white. Let us STRUGGLE­ to make progress. Let us build the movement by making it Blacker, more Latino, and more working class. Let us understand that social movements change history.

MM: Have you received any apologies from anyone of the folks that walked out?

MAJ: No apologies (unless like the memo, they kept it a secret).

http://www.prisonradio.org/1-5-11CampaignToEnd%20The%20DeathPenaltyInterview.html

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

Justice Policy Institute: Baltimore Behind Bars.

from the Justice Policy Institute, thanks to a tip from the Real Cost of Prisons Project blog...

---------------

New Report Examines Factors Driving Overcrowding
of the Baltimore Jail

Research highlights the factors and policies that lead to over-incarceration, makes recommendations on how the justice system can be improved.

WASHINGTON DC - The number of people in Baltimore’s overcrowded jail can be reduced – saving millions of state dollars – by changing policing practices, reforming court processes and improving jail and post-jail services, according to a research report released today by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI).

Baltimore Behind Bars: How to Reduce the Jail Population, Save Money and Improve Public Safety details Baltimore’s complex system of city policing practices and court and bail processes that contribute to a high percentage of city residents being detained in the jail, often unnecessarily. The report also finds that the courts are clogged with too many cases, which further contributes to people being held pre-trial for extended periods of time.

“We chose to focus on the Baltimore jail because jails are ripe for reforms that until recently have focused on prisons,” said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of JPI. “The Baltimore jail holds the distinction of being among the largest and oldest jails in the country, and it incarcerates the highest percentage of the City’s population when compared to other large jails. In many ways jails are like the canary in the coal mine, with bloated populations being symptomatic of larger systemic problems.”

Baltimore Behind Bars details how more than half of people arrested in Baltimore are locked up in the jail to await trial, with more than half of those in jail not being offered bail. In all, nine out of 10 people in the jail are awaiting trial and have not been found guilty of the current offense – far higher than the national average of two-thirds. Most people are being charged with nonviolent offenses such as drug and property offenses and violations of probation. Additionally, African Americans are overrepresented at the jail, comprising about 66 percent of the general population of Baltimore, but 94 percent of the people in the jail.

The State of Maryland, which owns and operates the jail complex, is currently planning two new jail facilities in Baltimore -- one for youth being tried as adults and another for women-- at an estimated cost of $280 million. The report notes that while these facilities will be an improvement over aging facilities, they may needlessly increase the number of people incarcerated in the jail. Increasing the number of jail beds, and improving facilities, may create a disincentive to finding effective alternatives to pretrial detention, leading to more people in jail instead of less.

“The idea that arresting and incarcerating more people means less crime is a myth,” noted Nastassia Walsh, research associate at JPI and author of the report. “The last thing Baltimore needs is more jail beds. It is vital to the well-being of the city that the current jail population be reduced and that effective alternatives be considered.”

The report recommends that by implementing effective solutions to reduce the number of people in the current jail, money could be re-directed toward services like education, employment support and treatment. These services should be available for people before they come into contact with the justice system as well as for those re-entering their communities after being released from the jail.

“The need for change is clear,” added Velázquez. “Communities can’t solve social problems by locking up more of their residents. It’s time for all stakeholders to collaborate on solutions.”

"The decision to build more jails in this city without first taking steps to reduce the current jail population is wrong-headed,” added Monique Dixon, Director of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program of the Open Society Institute–Baltimore, a private foundation which supported the research that led to the report. “Creating policies to release people appropriately while they are awaiting their trials would not only save money, but also allow Baltimore residents to continue working and supporting their families while their legal matters are resolved. Other states have taken this approach, and Baltimore should too.”

The Justice Policy Institute recommends the following changes, among many recommendations, to improve the pre-trial detention process and reduce the Baltimore jail population:

• Reform arrest, enforcement, diversion and probation practices: Baltimore police can reduce arrests by giving people citations for minor offenses, and the courts can divert people with mental health and drug treatment needs to public and community-based providers. Changes to the probation system that send fewer people to jail on technical violations would further reduce the number of people in the jail.

• Expand pretrial release and reform bail practices: The booking process can be streamlined, and a system should be in place for the courts to screen low-risk individuals for pre-trial release. The courts should explore methods of releasing people other than money bail and expand use of the Pretrial Release Supervision Program.

• Update court processes: Baltimore’s courts should set up a reminder system, currently used successfully in many cities across the country, which remind people of court dates. They should also reduce the time between arrests and court dates and expand their operating hours. Violation of probation cases can be moved faster, with better data collected between the courts and the police, to reduce the number of people being held for this violation.

• Provide more, and better, re-entry and “no-entry” services: Instead of spending millions of dollars to build more jails, Maryland and Baltimore policy makers should instead focus on saving money by doing what they can to reduce the jail population. The money saved, as well as funding earmarked to build new jails, should be used to fund more front-end services, such as education, employment, treatment and housing, which can help reduce crime and incarceration. Improved re-entry services for those being released can also have a positive impact, including returning of property, timely releases and medications and services.

To read the Executive Summary and the full report of Baltimore Behind Bars CLICK HERE. For additional information, please contact Adam Ratliff at (202) 558-7974 x306 or aratliff@justicepolicy.org. For a more JPI reports on the Baltimore and Maryland criminal justice systems, please visit our website at www.justicepolicy.org.

The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) is a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to reducing society’s use of incarceration and promoting just and effective social policies.

Scott Watch: They'd better stop messing with Mrs. Rasco's kids...

Celebrate the International Observation of the Anniversary of
the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade:

ABOLISH THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!!
-----------------

This is pretty extraordinary, what's going on at MDOC. Kind of makes me feel grateful for Arizona.

Keeping both Jamie and her family ignorant of her condition seems to be medical malpractice, with malicious intent (the intent of compromising a patient's welfare to protect the welfare of an institution's image - that being the image Wexford and the MDOC want to project...). I just don't buy their assessments: why else do all these outside doctors disagree with them?

The Kidney Foundation could make such a difference in the quality of care Jamie's getting and the access her family has to her and her medical staff, with just a little diplomacy.

------------------

Subject: Jamie Scott Rushed Back To Prison So Mother Could Not Visit Hospital

3/25 SCOTT SISTERS UPDATE!

NOTE: If reading this before 10:00 a.m. EST or 9am CST on 3/25, please tune into http://www.facebook.com/l/c3cc4;www.wjzd.com for a Scott Sisters update from Mrs. Rasco on the Rip Daniels "It's a New Day" (http://www.facebook.com/l/ c3cc4;www.itisanewday.com) show. Rip Daniels is a very dedicated supporter who starts each show off at 10 a.m. daily counting down how long Jamie and Gladys have been wrongfully locked down and tormented in that prison and will even discuss the case during some mornings on his program, so please check in as regularly as you can.

Mrs. Rasco and her entire family are in Mississippi to visit Jamie and Gladys as well as to participate in the 3/26 MWM/BWDL Press Conference scheduled for 12 noon in front of the Jackson, MS Capitol Bldg. at 400 High St. The organization is asking for letters
of support for their campaign by 12 midnight 3/25 to be sent tonationalmwm@aol.com or officialmwm@yahoo.com For more info call: 267-636-3802.

Jamie has been in the hospital since 3/15 with a very serious infection, severe weakness, extreme pain and swelling. Jamie stated that she was "kicked out" of the hospital on Tuesday to prevent Mrs. Rasco from coming in and asking questions, in fact an extra guard was placed there to make certain that Mrs. Rasco didn't come in there to see her. Jamie told Mrs. Rasco that she couldn't believe how her 4' tall momma caused so much worry among those prison officials!

She was abruptly moved to her old cell in the prison to await the visit with her mother and family to take place Wednesday for an hour, after which her family was to visit with Gladys for an hour. However, the Assistant Warden met them at the entrance and stated that some of the children weren't on the list to come in. After much wrangling and his personally searching the young men he permitted everyone to visit both women together BUT for one hour total, which actually ended up being less than an hour due to all of the wasted time spent being searched and with the Asst Warden on the phone rechecking names in the waiting area. The family watched in tears as Jamie climbed off of a bus and limped slowly and weakly to the visiting area and questioned staff as to why she wasn't given a wheelchair,to which they had no answer.

Jamie and Gladys grabbed onto each other and their family members for a very emotional reunion, especially for the children. Both women had lost quite a bit of weight, Gladys from extreme stress and depression and Jamie due to her serious illness. Jamie stated that she was told by the doctor that 6 catheter infections was much too much and that she never should have had so many temporary catheters, which blew out all of her veins where they were placed. She currently has a shunt in her groin which is extremely painful and must be surgically removed next week. She is scheduled to stay in her old cell until Friday, at which time she is told that she will be returned to the hospital.

Both Jamie and Gladys want all of their supporters to know that our activities are very greatly appreciated and that they want us to keep on! Mrs. Rasco and family are also very thankful and hopeful that together we can get those women released from this horrific
situation soon! If we keep pushing and use our creativity to call attention to this case, it will happen! If you write, then write about it; if you sing, sing about it; poet about it; creatively perform about it; print out flyers and distribute them at programs and events, however you can do it, please help get the word out about the plight of these women, there's something that every one can do!

The Days of Blogging for the Scott Sisters that happened on 3/18 and is so wonderfully happening again today will really help get the word out on the case in wider and broader areas of the internet and hopefully lead to much more support and national attention! Thanks so much to all of the participants and we will be posting links to all of the blogs that participated at the Scott Sisters site, so please send them in so that you can be acknowledged! Of course everyone is encouraged to continue blogging beyond today and please do!
~~~~~

We still don't trust that Jamie will receive adequate medical care once these hospitalizations are completed, which was proven by the fact that as soon as she was returned from the hospital yesterday she was put right back in that moldy building where she was originally housed!

JAMIE SCOTT NEEDS TO BE HOUSED IN THE MEDICAL BUILDING.

Someone as seriously ill as Jamie needs to be somewhere that she can get assistance in better living conditions, and that's not in the infirmary and definitely not in her original cell. The Medical Bldg. would give her access to her sister, Gladys, who would help her with her activities of daily living and monitor her condition, just as other family members incarcerated together there are permitted to do with less life-threatening illnesses than Jamie suffers.

We must keep pushing for media attention to what's going on and are continually pressing for nationwide press. A complete and in-depth examination of this travesty of justice must be exposed!! Please forward all of the info at the site to anyone, anywhere that can help to make that happen, the Scott Sisters need to go prime-time to apply enough pressure to make this Gov. do the right thing.

Jane Velez-Mitchell should do an entire segment on the Scott Sisters now that she is aware of the case, please contact her and urge her to follow-up her brief mention of the Scott Sisters on her 3/6 "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" with a more significant segment that will focus on Jamie's serious medical condition and the Scott Sisters case period. The contact form is at http://www.facebook.com/l/c3cc4;www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html

EDITED FROM SCOTT SISTERS LIST SERVE

Live From Death Row: Talkin' Bout My Generation.

Here it is, folks. Tuesday, January 19, 2010. Mumia is reporting on racism in America from behind bars, and the Philly DA is seeking the death penalty. That was nearly thirty years ago. 

And that's the story today. 

I'm the babiest of the baby-boomers, and we are a pathetic lot, my generation of Americans. Some revolutionaries. We're a bunch of tenured professors now. Those of us who didn't go off to prison over racism, Reagan or Bush sure sold out with Clinton. We sold out all our prisoners in the 90s. We stripped them of almost all their rights while we were so worried about defending Bill's right to screw around on his wife with our time. 

What a wasted presidency. And he pardoned Rich, of all people - a guy who should have been in prison because of his selfishness and greed - he didn't even have worthy politics. People took up arms in this country to resist South African apartheid, a piece of our history that too few Americans of any color  are aware of. They sacrificed their lives trying to end our death squads and coups in Central and South America - and Ollie North got a presidential pardon and his own TV show for his efforts.


Has anyone really ever had justice in America? Do the real criminals ever get their due? Most seem to draw pensions from us...through all the halls of government.


Leonard Peltier, The Cuban Five, the Puerto Rican Independistas, and all those Black Panthers - why are they all still in prison? Why are they still in so much danger? Why are the political prisoners by and large silent now? Why have they been condemned to die in federal prisons across the country - one after another this summer and fall - without us rising in united opposition and outrage? Do we know who they are anymore? 

Do we even know who we are?


What will we do today when the Supreme Court tells us they're going to let PA kill Mumia? Tune in to Jon Stewart at 11?


Where is the Change We Believed In, anyway?

It was never going to come from high offices or the White House. That's why it's taking so long for us to get anywhere - we keep following the other guy's leaders. Wake up, everybody - they let him in; we didn't really put him there. The Change will have to come from us. We are the ones who abandoned our elders and revolutionaries, our poets and dreamers. Our real activists. We've left their executions to the next generation. 

We couldn't even end the death penalty. We won't leave them with universal health care. We are leaving them as the world's largest incarcerator - not the Land of the Free. We are the ones who need to make amends now. We need to make this right somehow. 

We can't surrender again. Respect for their "due process" should not entail sacrificing ours - or anyone else's.  Look at all those kids going in from the Green Scare - we set them all up for that, dammit, not Bush. America's due process is racist, classist, sexist - need I go on? It works the way it's intended to - it supports the power elite at everyone else's expense - extraordinary expense. 

"Fixing" their system makes it work "better" - I don't think that's what we really want to do. Fixing the prison industrial complex (the Supreme Court just tops it off) is often compared to fixing the institution of slavery. That's why I decided abolition was the better approach. It's not as easy an answer, but at least it doesn't have me trying to figure out how I'm going to accommodate thousands more prisoners in the next few years, like Pearce is. That's a real visionary: more prisons for the grandkids to live and work in.


So, I ask again: what will we do when the court returns their decision? I don't know the answer -  I don't even know what I'll do. I'm afraid we'll respond with a stunned silence. We can pretty much guess how it's going to play out - like all those parole hearings have been going: our people are getting fried. 

Whatever happened here Saturday, the anarchists are making  a lot more sense to me these days than anyone else, frankly. We need to take to the streets. I want all our political prisoners free, but shame on anyone who sits by with nothing but a sign after this day until ordinary families can stop worrying about their loved ones being raped or killed or burned alive doing time for their poverty, mental illness, or a crime that they never even committed. No one should have to go through any of that in the state's custody and "care".


At the very least our signs damn well better say "fuck you" to the Supreme Court if they vote to execute Mumia...

Pedophiles and Abolitionists

May we all get a little more in touch with our humanity in the coming year.

_____________

Here's the latest about Ladwig's indictment. It’s not a pleasant thing to talk about – to even acknowledge it happened – but it’s out there. Looks like there were signs he was having trouble well before this happened, but I'm not sure that wearing women's lingerie in and of itself is considered criminal or indicative of a child molester in-the-making. But I’m no expert on pedophiles, and welcome any corrections that can be sourced.

I guess it should come as no surprise that three days after Ladwig's Christmas molestation of that little girl, a 47-year-old prisoner at ASPC-Eyeman, Monte McCarty, who was doing life for sex offenses against children, was found dead in his cell, the result of an apparent suicide. One can’t help but wonder if he was trying to escape the evil some such men feel courses through their veins when he took his life, or if he knew that he would be the target of a lot of men’s rage who would now be stigmatized and punished by the rest of us for Ladwig’s actions. 


First, what happened to that child is a whole lot worse than losing a little good time - no one is minimizing that. There are other places where her voice is being heard and her trauma is being attended to, so I don't feel a need to do that more here. The guys inside would not only be thinking about their own daughters or sisters being victimized in such a way - they have the same visceral reactions - but must have also considered the same potential fallout from this that I did, and more. No early release program; no compassionate releases; longer sentences for methamphetamine possession (and the presumption that one must be a sexual deviant); and the stink of a pedophile on all of them when they walk out the door and try to get on with their lives as 40-something men from Arizona’s state prison on parole. Who’s going to want to give them a job, much less a place to live, whether or not they can prove they aren’t sex offenders? Ladwig wasn’t classified as a sex offender before this, it appears. How will they ever be able to support their families again?

I know that the life of the pedophile must be a pretty wretched existence. They are the most hated among all of us – their crimes are most appalling, and they are thus most readily dehumanized. The rape, assault, torture, abuse, neglect, humiliation, and mental torment they end up suffering when incarcerated is what we all have come to expect to happen to them, and we let it. Never mind whether or not such violations make up the substance of what sickened his soul to begin with. 

Unfortunately, our silence about the safety and rights of prisoners is not indifference - it's condemnation. On some level we rationalize that “justice” is being done, and turn away from reports that suggest otherwise.  That’s why prisons are so far away from towns: it's not just to keep the villager safe in case of escapes - it's so we don’t have to hear the people inside scream. We don't want to hear it; that's what perpetuates rape and violence in prison - and to a certain degree out here, too.

I realize that not all the bad guys are just "victims" – they don’t all even have perpetrators in their own memories. Sociopaths and psychopaths - whether they’re pedophiles, batterers, or corporate executives, appear to simply derive sadistic pleasure from inflicting suffering on others, even if they’ve had perfect childhoods. Even people like me have an impulse that makes us want to see them get caught and watch as they suffer – which is why they suffer so much when they’re caught. As long as they don’t go after children, most sociopaths can hurt scores of people, though – millions at a time, even - and still get cut some slack when it comes to whether or not they should be tortured. Not child molesters. We'd still be lynching them if we could.

Once they’ve been identified as the personification of evil, it doesn’t matter what degree of rehabilitation or behavior management a pedophile may achieve, or what the specifics ever were of the case (is the one in your neighborhood the 55-year old who did 20 years for repeatedly raping his daughter, or is it the 17-year old kid who impregnated his 16 year old girlfriend? They should both be registered…). However apt or misapplied, the label pedophile or child molester immediately disqualifies them as human – even among other sex offenders.

And so, the real truth in sentencing for child molesters should account for what will probably happen to them once inside, and what their life opportunities will be reduced to if they survive incarceration intact and regain their freedom. Prisons should be tracking the victimization of such offenders while incarcerated, how they deal with it, and what kind of suicide, “success”, and recidivism rates they’re seeing among that population after release in light of the realities of their previous prison experiences.

Those perpetrators who were once victims themselves - especially the men, among whom childhood sexual abuse is vastly under-reported - have mutilated and killed themselves enough that I have no doubt that somewhere inside some “monsters” is a soul who desperately doesn't want to make another human being go through the same hell they experienced - especially not at their hands. Because their obsessions and compulsions run so deep and their “cure” is so elusive, some see no alternative to deal with their pathology but to spend a life in exile or prison - a place worse than hell for them - or to destroy the predator within by destroying themselves. Are any such souls worth redemption, or are all deserving of the same fate?

I've asked the ADC for data they may have gathered on rates of criminal behavior, convictions, and violent crimes by people who are classified as victims – or histories of victimization among the people they have classified as criminals. I just don't believe that the criminal/victim categories are mutually exclusive; designing our justice systems, programs, funding streams, and social rewards and punishments as if they aren't intimately overlapping categories is a mistake. 

Data about which criminals are victimized, and which victims end up criminalized, could have some far-reaching implications for how we deal with crime prevention and build communities around more restorative models of justice. It could also help us get at data on the crimes that so often go unreported precisely because the victim is engaged in criminal activity at the time: like a 16 year old runaway being exploited by a pimp who could end up in detention facing charges herself (or returned to the home where she was being sexually abused). Or a 15-year old silenced by the fear that the drug transaction which made her so vulnerable would be used to prosecute her if she reported the dealer who raped her - assuming she survived the consequences of being identified in the drug community as a narc. 

We can’t not talk about guys like Ladwig, as uncomfortable as they make us. What happened with Ladwig is going to be a big deal when the legislature starts talking sentencing reform again. Most people I talk about prison abolition with get a lot of the arguments for changes in criminal codes, drug laws, sentencing recommendations, post-sentence sanctions, and other reforms that would inch us closer to abolition – but they always want to know what we’re going to do with the sociopaths and child molesters if we don't have prisons. 

So do I. 

I may not have the answer to that just yet, but I’m starting to do more research, because I think we need to be doing something different with these guys at some point in their lives. Throwing the convicted child molesters to the wolves in the end not only condemns the innocent among them to the same brutal fate we hand to the despised, it strips the guilty of what humanity may have been left within them that could help prevent them from hurting others again. It also diminishes the humanity in us in the process.

Migration, Slavery, and American Consumerism.

An estimated 27 million people - largely women and children - still live in slavery around the world so that we (mostly Americans) may have cheap consumer goods and investors can extract a somewhat better profit. At some point, as consumers (and "taxpayers"), we need to start looking more closely at where we invest our money: either it goes to reinforce the status quo - the oppression of billions - or it goes towards building new structures and institutions that will create a more sustainable future for all. Shrimp is not a necessity... Odd how it seems that acquiring luxuries for Americans creates more suffering, brutality, and death than the necessities do. I guess it pays off for someone - just not guys like Winko...

No wonder the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is ineffective in curtailing the abuses of the Burmese junta - the profits of their merchants depend on the perpetual poverty and desperation of Burma's unemployed and refugees.

Here is a link to the "Not For Sale" campaign to end human trafficking and slavery. Check it out. Among other things, they have an on-line store and some good holiday shopping ideas for avoiding products made by slave labor (10,000 Villages, fair trade, etc.). 

Now, if we could find a way to boycott the prisons - like tax resistance or something...the problem is that if we tell the legislature to spend less on prisons, they'll keep packing more people in - just under worse conditions and with less access to health care, rehabilitative or treatment services, etc. We need more than that - we need sentencing reform, investments in community-based options for restorative justice practices, and - in the meantime - we urgently need transparency and reform within the prisons themselves. People are dying in there on sentences they should live through and supposedly learn from...


While I'm at it, let's be real abolitionists and re-write the 13th Amendment, so that slavery is permanently abolished for everyone in America. If prisoners could earn at least a minimum wage, they could much more easily pay restitution, cover the expenses of being in prison (you must pay for most everything), save money to provide stability upon release, and support themselves and their own families while unable to engage in more substantial work (Ten cents an hour? A week's pay in America at that wage wouldn't even cover a single co-pay to see the prison doctor).

Diverting those resources to private multinational companies in the business of exploiting powerless people and an imprisoned labor force sucks not only material resources out of the community, it also erodes the integrity our collective soul...and we don't have much of that to lose anymore.


----------------

Is Your Seafood Harvested by Slaves?

Sunday 29 November 2009

by: Patrick Winn  |  GlobalPost

Samut Sakhon, Thailand - Soon after Winko joined his fellow captives on a Thai fishing vessel, he witnessed his first killing.

The murdered man was, like Winko, a newly acquired fishing slave unsure how to work the boat’s machinery. But while Winko kept quiet, the new man protested. He was kicked across the deck until he tumbled overboard and disappeared in the turquoise wake.

Life is hell for Thailand’s fishermen slaves, a largely Burmese workforce lured into the Thai fishing industry by brokers. As promised, jobs await these migrants, who pay $350 to be smuggled into Thailand and introduced to a fishing crew. But often, the work doesn’t pay and quitting is not an option.

Thailand is the world’s largest seafood exporter and the United States is its largest buyer. One third of America’s shrimp is imported from Thailand, home to a $2-billion shrimp industry and a major supplier of tuna, squid and other frozen seafood imports.

But it’s an open secret that the industry relies, in part, on forced labor. Experts believe a portion of America’s seafood is hauled from the sea by people like Winko: desperate, young Burmese men duped into forced labor. Now 24, he is an escapee hiding out in Samut Sakhon, an industrial port that is the heart of Thailand’s seafood industry.

“I was just a metal worker in Burma,” said Winko, who declined to give his full name for fear of retribution. “Back home, you don’t make enough to eat. I thought coming to Thailand would improve my life.”

Last year, a Burmese broker accepted about $300 — Winko’s hard-earned savings — to smuggle him into Thailand and arrange a low-wage fishing job. Instead, Winko was sold to an illegal fishing syndicate. He spent his first night in Thailand in a dark chamber, padlocked from the outside, with about 10 other men. His cell was only one room in what he described as a dingy prison camp for hundreds of captives.

In short time, Winko was working the sea with a mostly Burmese crew. The captain pushed them until they nearly fainted from exhaustion, he said, and only allowed them to eat leftovers from the net. Winko was warned against complaining, a threat reinforced once he saw a crewmate kicked overboard.

“Anyone who didn’t know what to do was kicked,” Winko explained through a Burmese interpreter. “We were all treated so terribly.”

Winko’s nine months of slavery ended in a busy port in Chonburi, a province near Bangkok. The boat was docked. The captain was distracted. So Winko ran. He ran past the port, into the jungly underbrush, and hiked for four hours until he found a road.

“If someone had caught up to me, I was prepared to fight,” he said. “But I never looked back. I was thinking only of survival.”

Eventually, a sympathetic taxi driver offered to drive Winko to a factory where a friend was working several provinces over. Through a network of Burmese laborers, he was guided to the Labor Rights Promotion Network, an organization known for confronting law-breaking fishing crews. Its leadership is currently sheltering Winko as it pursues his broker.

“We get more than a thousand cases like this each year,” said Piyakrai Seelakort, manager of the network’s human rights team. Winko’s story, he said, is tame compared to others. For fishing syndicates, he said, the sea is a lawless haven where even murder has no consequence. Police are unlikely to notice that an illegal migrant has gone missing.

“Life aboard these boats depends on the captors,” Piyakrai said. “They own you.”

Near Piyakrai’s office in Samut Sakhon, a string of ports take in much of Thailand’s freshly caught seafood. Gaunt men emerge from fishing boats, their forearms straining to haul plastic buckets packed with seafood and crushed ice that quickly goes liquid in the heat.

The horizon here is industrial and pewter gray, a long coastline of squat factories processing more than 40 percent of Thailand’s seafood. Like the boats that supply their seafood, these plants too are sometimes accused of using forced laborers and underage workers.

A 2006 survey backed by researchers from Thailand’s Mahidol University found that the plants often employ workers younger than 15 working 12-hour-plus days. This is where seafood is prepared — the tuna heads lopped off, the shrimp deveined — and readied for the distributors who ship it to the U.S.

The supply chain eventually leads to America’s largest supermarkets, according to investigations by the Solidarity Center, a non-profit agency under the AFL-CIO.

Retailers Costco, Giant, Harris Teeter, Trader Joe’s and Walmart have all bought seafood originating from factories with substandard working conditions in Samut Sakhon, according to shipping manifests obtained by the center. Ascertaining conditions on the fishing boats that supply the plants, however, is more difficult.

The U.S. State Department, in a 2009 report, said there are no reliable means of knowing how many people in Thailand have fallen victim to forced labor. The Labor Rights Promotion Network estimates there are at least 200,000 Burmese migrants working in the Samut Sakhon seafood industry alone.

“After the seafood goes through these factories, the main markets are Europe and America,” Piyakrai said. “I wonder, do those people know they’re eating the product of forced labor? It’s delicious, but it’s at the expense of other people’s lives.”

While American officials have praised Thailand for stepping up crackdowns and building new shelters for escaped victims, officials insist forced labor remains endemic in the seafood industry. One police raid, according to Solidarity Center findings, exposed a shrimp factory owner who oversaw forced labor and children younger than 15. He was reportedly fined $2,100 and allowed to resume working.

“The Thai government still has little negotiating power with the fisheries,” Piyakrai said. “So it’s up to the person buying the seafood. Only they can really demand better conduct.”

But Winko feels no bitterness toward the people who’ve eaten the seafood he caught.

“My sadness, my anger, is directed towards the broker and the boat captain,” Winko said. “We were tricked.”

Prison Industrial Complex and Masculinity

Just found this - check it out! I had no idea these folks were out there - and they're having a forum on the prison industrial complex in December!


Okay, I'm stealing this post, but will get in touch with the blog authors - it looks like a whole class.

The Journey: Discussions on the construction of masculinity in America. 
The Prison Industrial Complex
Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Since we didn't have as much time as I had hoped to explore the PIC and masculinity, we didn't have the opportunity to explore alternatives to mass-imprisonment and the PIC. After class we may have left some of you feeling as though there isn't much that can be done to end the horrendous treatment of millions of people in prisons in this country. Fortunately, that's not the case! There are alternatives to the PIC and there are many groups that are working to end the inhumane, classist, racist, sexist, and violent institution of modern prisons. The following links are to a few of the groups that are working to end our dependence upon the prison industrial complex. (There are many more but these are a few that we're familiar with).

www.criticalresistance.org (a nation-wide group focusing on prison abolition and alternative forms of community safety)www.afsc.org/tucson (a Quaker-based social justice organization focused on prison abolition generally and long-term solitary confinement in particular) www.womenandprison.org (an internet-based forum for discussing issues particular to women entangled in the PIC) and the www.tgijp.org (a group focused on preserving the rights of transgender, gender variant, and intersexed prisoners, particularly in California)

Common conceptions of an alternative to the PIC include redirecting the money currently pouring into caging people toward education and job opportunities for poor, urban communities that are disproportionately affected by the PIC. Actively blocking the privatization of prisons and decrying the abuses that occur inside prisons of every type are also common tactics. We can support alternatives to incarceration including drug and alcohol rehabilitation, reduction of sentences for non-violent crimes, and community-based programs for juveniles instead of incarceration.

Of course none of these tactics in themselves will eradicate the PIC; as we learned yesterday, it is inextricably entwined with capitalism and patriarchy to the point that we will not be able to end imprisonment without changing our culture of violence and greed. However, there are some steps we can take to diminish the PICs damaging effects while we continue the painfully slow process of shifting paradigms.

If you want to know more, be sure to come to the Prison Industrial Complex Forum, December 11th, 11-5pm at the Crossroads Center. We will be exploring the PIC through a number of different lenses (the media, gender and sexuality, the state, etc.), ending with two keynote speakers from prison abolition activist groups in Arizona.

-Amanda and Beth

Critical Resistance: "Nourishing Abolition"

Here's the link to the flier for the Critical Resistance "Nourishing Abolition" Celebration to be held Thursday, November 19, in Oakland, California. Critical Resistance is a national resource and organizing center dedicated to the abolition of the prison industrial complex. Angela Davis - abolitionist,  professor, author, former political prisoner - is among the guests at the event. It is a cause worth supporting, if you're out in that neighborhood - and the Critical Resistance site is a great internet resource.

Critical Resistance: Abolitionist Celebration

Critical Resistance, Oakland

*Featuring Angela Y Davis, Sparhla Swa, Destiny Arts, Climbing PoeTree, and more*

Please join us November 19th to celebrate what we have won and built over the last 11 years, and help make sure we can accomplish even more in the years to come!

For over ten years, CR has been putting abolitionist politics at the center of visions for collective liberation, insisting we interrogate the ways incarceration is used as a solution to vast, structural inequalities. Locally and globally, we can see the impact of our work, and also new challenges before us.

On November 19th, we're bringing together lovingly prepared food, inspiring performances, beautiful art, and conversations to keep our shared work moving!

The Details:
November 19th @ 6:30
First Unitarian Church of Oakland—685 14th St.

Tickets are sliding scale $40-80.

Critical Resistance is dedicated to making sure everyone is a part of the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex. We are trying to raise $2,000 for our Community Ticket Fund to make sure we can provide low- and no-cost tickets to this event. If you can make a donation to the Community Ticket Fund or want a Community Ticket, please let us know. This is a great way for people who are not able to attend to be able to support!


http://www.criticalresistance.org/

--------------------

On the Eve of the Revolution...

I sent an e-mail to Director Ryan today (cc'ed to Counselor Klausner, and Deputy Director Flanagan) thanking him and his staff for their time and assistance last Friday. Also e-mailed Betty Cassiano, the Constituent Services Officer, this afternoon about the men on lock down sweltering in Tuscon without being allowed to have their fans, just in case their families didn't get the info about contacting her yet. Hopefully she will be able to get them some kind of relief before another case of heat stroke.

Earlier today I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with some of the things I've been trying to take on - like setting up an Arizona Prison Watch site (akin to Nevada Prison Watch) and trying to network with the immigrant rights communities about what to do to keep everyone in this state from getting criminalized and incarcerated before this legislature can be voted out (I think it'll still take a few election cycles). Been talking with folks working on Nevada's prisons about some regional collaboration, which is pretty exciting - but just mapping out the prison industrial complex in AZ - with all its points and players - seems like a monumental task in and of itself.

That seems like the place to start, though - especially now, as the state's looking at privatizing the prison medical services and the feds/private sector are looking at more immigrant detention centers. If we don't have a map of who's doing what in this state, how are we going to know when and where to file public comments, who to lobby, what to protest, and just generally how to turn this monster around?

And there's no separating what's happening with the explosion of citizens in the state prisons from the racial-profiling, anti-immigration laws, anti-humanitarian laws, and massive round-ups of people with brown skin and those damn insisent litterbugs with water jugs. Dealing with reforming what's happening inside the prisons is a whole lot easier, I think, than dealing with what leads up to prison - and with what keeps these archaic structures in place. Like racism. Fear-mongering. Patriarchy. Capitalism and greed. Entitlement of the privileged class. The vindictiveness of our society. The vestiges of slavery. And so on.

Most people seem to think it's the "other" that goes to prison, but damn, 1 out of every 100 adults in the state right now is in prison or jail. And they aren't all poor, Black, Latino, Native American or even mentally ill - though that does cover most of them. That's like one out of every 100 sixth graders going to prison when they grow up - way more than that if they're from poor schools or communities of color, where they tend to be better prepared for prison life than for college. At least they are led to expect that one is more likely than the other, and "discipline" is conducted accordingly.

Thank god for the minority community organizing that's already been going on to regain control of community resources and to challenge draconian laws and punishments. They've been up on what's going on for a long time - white people are just really slow because we think we're already liberated. Except for Quakers, Unitarians, and the community of families of the wrongly convicted, I don't know that there's a whole lot of political organizing going on against the prison industrial complex among whites across the state. That which is happening - like creating caring communities to engage youth constructively instead of cracking down on pre-teen hooligans - probably isn't thought of as being anti-prison, but it is. So is the effort to get universal health care, the lobbying to yank Arpaio's immigrant-bashing powers, every effort made between citizens to resolve disputes without involving the police or other agents of the state, living wage and unionizing campaigns, anti-war protests, self-sustaining collectives, and global justice activities - inequality is at the bottom of it all, and that's what needs to change in order for prisons to lose their purpose and power to punish. We just need to come together from our disparate parts to recognize our common visions. Some groups have already begun to do that.

Now, if that sounds pretty radical, read some of the authors I've linked to on the left. They're serious about a more beautiful world being possible, and pull no punches about what it might take to bring it about. Hard Work. Perseverance. Hope when all seems lost. Belief in the strength of the little guy when partnered with the Truth - including those little guys (and strong women) still working for the liberation movement from within their torturous Supermax prison cells.

There are powerful forces in opposition - not all necessarily organized or in a conspiracy - just really entrenched, like "tough on crime" politicians, correctional officers unions, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the people who keep voting for Arpaio and Russell Pearce and Andrew Thomas. And, of course, the corporate giants who profit from the privatization of incarceration - right down to the companies selling prisoners $3.50 candy bars that might cost $.55 in the drugstore. And that's from prisoners who earn maybe forty cents a day. Now that's criminal.

So, all this started, I think, with feeling overwhelmed with the task at hand - just dissecting Arizona's prison industrial complex. I must say that I am subject to soar to exuberant heights and plunge into profound depressions, and the only thing that's kept me moving steadily forward on all of this are the families who have not abandoned their loved ones to die in prison, the parolees who are doing everything they can to help those they left behind, the idealists who keep plugging along as if prison abolition is the most natural social aspiration in the world, the political theorists who can plot a course through the darkness to the light that the dreamers keep alive, and the prisoners themselves who struggle honestly to find that balance between what they are responsible for changing within, and what we are responsible for transforming together...those prisoners whose stories leak out and compel us to reach in and find our own forgotten humanity long enough to consider another way through our fears.

Not everyone who supports the prison industrial complex has any idea what they have a hand in perpetrating - and few have ever considered that there might be an alternative. Even among most prisoners and families there's an internalized shame that tells them whatever befalls them in prison or throughout the course of their lives as "ex-cons" is a result of their own bad choices - not in any way a result of our collective lack of imagination for restorative justice and community reconciliation. So, an awful lot of abuse of accused "criminals" and prisoners is tolerated or ignored by the community at large, and those of us who see it as unacceptable are often marginalized or ridiculed as being too soft on crime or having our heads in the clouds.

Funny, though - it's those jerks who always have abusive things to say about people like Marcia Powell or undocumented immigrants who never use their real names when they post hostile comments to the AZ Republic or other on-line sites - as if they are ashamed of what they have to say. It's the anonymity in today's society, it seems, that allows people to so readily detach from their own humanity and inflict or condone unspeakable cruelty and suffering on others without any idea of what they've really registered their voice for - not "safer communities" or the "protection of American jobs" (or the sanctity of our marriages, for that matter), but rather the disenfranchisement, exploitation, and abuse of a large segment of the population which they - we - could join in the blink of an eye: all it takes is the incompetent debriefing of a victim of molestation, the mistaken perception of a witness, the desperation of addiction, hunger, or their infant's need for formula or medicine, or a wrong turn while distracted by one's cell phone two weeks after smoking a joint at a party (drug-related criminally negligent homicide gets you into prison, no matter how sorry you may be).

We could become criminals and prisoners of the state through a stupid, irrevocable mistake, or a desperate act of survival - we needn't have a criminal mind to cross the line. We could even become criminals and prisoners of the state for what we believe are humanitarian acts - like leaving water in the desert, driving immigrants to get medical care, defending sacred land from corporate designs, helping a family resist an eviction order, or attempting to thwart our country's ability to wage war on helpless people. And even if we are among the privileged elite, we could become criminals and prisoners of the state if we turn on our own - we're generally left to perpetrate harm if we just exploit the powerless. It is not the class or even race of the criminal that matters so much in law enforcement as it is the class or race of the victim. The killer of a Latina or a Black woman has much less to fear in most states than the killer of a white higher-class woman, or a white cop.

Now, isn't that shocking? Wouldn't that make you look twice at who ends up with the death penalty or life behind bars - or what cases even get closed at all?

And so it goes...I could write on. I will, in fact, just on another day. Soon I'll retire this blog - my place for thinking out loud, finding kindred spirits, making the dream visible - for the next blog I write will have to be more about the potentials of our communities than it is about me working out my identity and new life goals. For those of you who have followed and encouraged me along the way - including my professors, anarchist friends, Lois Ahrens, Nevada Prison Watch comrades, and my big brother and Mom - Gracias. You have filled my days with hope, my nights with Grace. For the first time in years, I feel I am in the right place, at the right time, heading in the direction I want to go, and in very good company. I know I am where I need to be right now, in the service of something much bigger than myself.

Finally, to everyone out there who reads and throws in on this with me, a hug and a blessing, brothers and sisters. I am so looking forward to sharing with you any portion of the rest of this journey. It is nowhere near as impossible a dream as it appears to be. Believe me. Trust me. However long it takes to dismantle the carceral regime, the process of building something new will itself will be worth a lifetime of work - so long as we clear the path and leave the dream alive for future generations to realize truly universal human rights and freedom.

Director Ryan Replies

Director Ryan sent me a very polite, sincere reply to my letter this evening, inviting me to make an appointment next week to discuss my concerns with him, and to perhaps tour one of the prisons. I must say I received this with considerable relief; I would much rather establish a relationship with dialogue, and appreciate that he was able to look past my antagonizing tone to attempt a connection. I wasn't sure if he would bother to do so. In fact, a part of me expected two shady looking fellows in suits and sunglasses to show up at my door accusing me of stalking the man and conspiring to do all sorts of benign things that have been criminalized since, well, actually since Clinton's reign.

So, for his willingness to first meet and talk, I am grateful.

I don't think I have any illusions that I might turn Director Ryan into an abolitionist, nor do I think he expects to change my fundamental orientation towards the mechanisms of crime and punishment in today's society. But there are things I don't understand about how prisons operate - and how prison administrators see their role - which could be useful insight to have, since my ignorance certainly doesn't help me. And it may be reassuring to him that for the most part he - personally - is not my target, per se. He may represent the department and be responsible for certain kinds of reforms, but I do not expect him to transform society in such a way as to make incarceration less and less necessary. That's really the job of the rest of us.

Still, I do have a wish list, which I outlined in my letter to him below. Even abolitionists sometimes support reforms - so long as they don't just serve to strengthen the prison industrial complex. Only some of it involves policies which I believe he may be in a position to implement, or at least influence. And I would be quite curious to know what his wish list is. If there is a place in which they overlap, then we will have the benefit of common ground.

Anyone with concerns you'd like me to give voice to, please email me, and I will try to raise them. Most of my attention has been directed on the women's prison, of course, but it has not escaped me that some of the men have been brawling and killing themselves of late, which I know has been terribly troubling to families and loved ones.

The full range of (non-violent) direct actions I've been considering and discussing with friends to bring attention to the number of deaths in custody and the continued - albeit modified - use of those cages are still on the table. I'm sure Director Ryan has a few options at his disposal as well, if we get too obnoxious to ignore. Still - as much as I truly enjoy good guerilla theater and clever protest - demonstrations are but one tactic, appropriate to a given time and place. I believe it will be most important to engage the community - non-confrontationally - in the kinds of tasks that can lead to changes in the way we run our schools, in how we define and respond to "crime", in the changing roles we want our police to play, and in how restorative justice and reconciliation looks at the local level - especially when it comes to the difficult issue of violence. There is so much work to be done, and if Marcia's death has accomplished nothing else, it has introduced people to each other who are willing to do it.

I don't expect that we will put Director Ryan out of a job anytime soon. I do hope he will take up the cause of expanding compassionate release for the critically ill, elderly and dying prisoners who pose no risk to society, so they might take their last breaths as free beings able to hold family in their arms. That would be assuming that Arizona is willing to make the investment in their care in the community instead of behind bars. I would also hope he'd use his influence and knowledge to dispel legislative and judicial delusions that long sentences in hell actually produce better citizens. Some good people emerge from prison not because of prison but despite it. Fundamentally it is a traumatic, oppressive, disturbing experience for most.

I also hope he will create more indoor space for prisoners to wait and recreate by working on the legislature to depopulate the prisons - not build more or just ship some folks out. Those cages are really unacceptable. And I would like to see an environment of greater transparency, one in which an independent evaluation team - like researchers with the university or advocates with the American Friends Service Committee - can go in and talk confidentially with prisoners and staff about concerns they may have.

In the meantime, perhaps this fall would be a good time for a big prison abolition conference at ASU's School of Justice and Social Inquiry (or whatever it's called by then). Anyone, near or far, who is interested in participating in or organizing that can shoot me an email - we'll need to get to work on it pretty soon.

Thanks again, Director Ryan, for extending your time and energy to offer to meet with me, knowing I may yet have more difficult questions to ask, and that there will likely be plenty of places we disagree. I hope you end up feeling that extending yourself it was worth it.

Dear Director Ryan;

My name is Peggy Plews. We met briefly at Marcia Powell's service last night at Shadow Rock; I believe I may have interrupted you as you were contemplating a prayer. My apologies if that was the case.

I appreciate that you took a minute to speak with me about the status of the investigation into Marcia's death, and current polices on the use of outdoor desert cages for containing human beings. You didn't have to do so. I realize that you have been in frequent communication with Donna Hamm of Middle Ground Prison Reform, and that her organization has some standing in the state as a voice for prisoner rights. I claim no such standing. I'm just a concerned citizen who believes that what happens in your prisons is as much our collective responsibility as it is yours.

I should preface the rest of this letter with an explanation that I am not a prison reformer wanting a seat at the table. I am a prison abolitionist. It is my explicit goal to help expose and dismantle the prison industrial complex that you have invested your career in. That is, of course, an extremely complex and ambitious undertaking; I am not so naive as to think that such a task can be accomplished simply by unlocking jailhouse doors, decriminalizing drugs, or gaining a better understanding of how our society produces so many sociopaths. There are indeed vicious people among us, and we will have to find some way to prevent them from hurting others. Too many are allowed to run amok as it is, occupying positions of considerable power and prestige - some, I would argue, in law enforcement and the State House. In any event, prison abolition requires creative problem-solving and massive social change, but there is sound scholarship and theory underlying the movement, and I believe the effort is worth it.

Still, I remain deeply troubled by what happened to Marcia, and by some of the things I've learned about Arizona's prisons since then - particularly Perryville. I cannot just turn and walk away, content to work on the bigger picture while so many people continue to suffer day to day. Besides, I could just as easily be behind bars as some of them. Hence my attempt to engage in dialogue with you.

You would have every reason not to communicate further with me. I am pointed and can be antagonistic, though I am hardly threatening. I have no political power and am of no consequence to this legislature, particularly as long as I live in a district represented by Democrats. I don't write on behalf of a group, constituency, or organization. Still, I do vote and pay taxes, and theoretically when the government makes the laws, prioritizes state funding, and employs professionals such as yourself to administer institutions in accordance with our community's values, it does so as a representative of the people. I am one of the people. Since no one seems to be representing my voice - not even those I voted for - I feel obliged to exercise it myself. Whether you bother to listen or not is entirely your prerogative.

I, myself, anticipate that we will have to contend with each other somehow through the years, so long as we both remain here - and I'd rather have a dialogue with words than a battle involving direct actions and reactions that could escalate and result in my own incarceration. That may well be awaiting me further down the road, as this legislature continues to pass laws that I believe are unconscionable, such as those which call for the prosecution and lengthy imprisonment of humanitarians. Those in power today are small, desperate people who must know they are slowly losing control. It is not the illegal immigrants so much as it's the citizens like me who frighten them most. I expect that it will get worse for some of us before it gets any better.

I would imagine that a prison full of "criminals" poses enough of a challenge. Fill it up with community organizers, though, and you'll be in for real trouble. It is not my desire to be one of those progressive prisoners, however. I'm deeply concerned about the safety and welfare of the people you incarcerate - and even that of their keepers, such as the two Perryville COs who recently suicided - but the focus of my activism will be much more on the electorate than on you. I want to depopulate the prisons, not make them nice places for more people to be packed into.

I suspect that some of the things on our wish lists may overlap: like reducing recidivism, alleviating pressure on overcrowded facilities, not privatizing Death Row, and allowing for the compassionate release of seriously, chronically, or terminally ill non-violent offenders whose incarceration and care must consume a good portion of your budget. I'll let Middle Ground have the lead on those issues, however. My role, for the most part, will be to seek greater transparency in your department's operations, leverage funding for community-based alternatives to incarceration, educate the electorate on the toxic effect that the carceral regime has on our economy, our social structures and our humanity, and stand by those who challenge the authority of draconian laws and their enforcers.

My methods are non-violent and generally not even criminal, but I realize that has not protected peace and justice activists from infiltration, entrapment, and prosecution under questionable laws before. So, on the outside chance that I should ever end up in the custody of your department, I wanted to clarify a few lingering concerns I have.

Like the use of those cages.

I read the policy you referred me to - and am posting the link to it on my website for others to evaluate themselves. I remain disturbed by the appearance that these cages simply function to compensate for inadequate staffing to provide supervision, and for overcrowded conditions which have robbed the women in particular of indoor space.

Shade, misters, and a continuous water supply are all improvements, but speaking as a woman on medications which predispose me to heatstroke, I would be nonetheless concerned that as a prisoner I might end up in dire jeopardy - not so much due to the criminal negligence of individual guards as due to the risks inherent in institutional policies that assume staff can remain attentive to those they place in potentially life-threatening settings throughout the course of the day. I have seen too many institutionalized people die that way. I would think that over the course of your career you have as well.

Furthermore, it is extensively articulated throughout the prisoner and family/friends community that despite policy prohibiting the use of these cages as punishment, they have long been used precisely for that purpose, which is extremely difficult for a prisoner to prove or obtain remedy for. Who, in fact, is the prisoner supposed to trust to address their grievances fairly to if their access to the outside world is so limited, and if the practices which are brutalizing them are couched in terms of official policy?

These cages have been complained about on numerous occasions in the past, and it took a severely impaired woman's highly publicized death - and Governor Brewer's embarrassment - for anyone to respond. You could attribute that to the failings of previous administrations and chart a new course from here. My expectation, however, is that rather than facilitating an atmosphere of greater transparency and prisoner/community interaction in the future around the problems Marcia's death made visible, you will work to assure that the release of information is much better controlled than it was in this instance. That possibility troubles me.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Ever since Marcia's death red flags have been flying at Perryville. What has the department done to the women who set their mattresses on fire in organized protest? It is my understanding that they are in administrative segregation now (commonly referred to as being put into the hole), and may only receive legal assistance if charged in criminal court; they are on their own defending themselves in internal disciplinary proceedings, even though the outcome could seriously affect the kind and length of time they end up doing in the long run.

What were they so distressed or agitated about that they would risk arson charges or worse in order to get outside attention directed at your prison? Would you allow a journalist in to speak with them? Would you allow someone in to interview them who researches women's resistance in prisons? Is Perryville an institution that needs to be shrouded in secrecy in order to continue to function? Or is it a place where human rights and needs are respected enough that you would have no hesitation about allowing prisoners to air their grievances openly and without fear of retaliation?

Yes, retaliation. That's part of the culture you are now responsible for too. Administrative and guard retaliation even scares their parents into silence. Guards who blow the whistle are also at considerable risk, or at least perceive they are. I may even be setting myself up for trouble; I just probably won't get hurt as badly as anyone else if I get pushed off this particular limb, as I don't have far to fall.

I'm sure that the reliance on the prison system as the default place to contain the mentally ill and drug addicted among us presents you with some concerns that I share. As the president of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill back in Ann Arbor I worked on the local level to divert non-violent offenders with mental illness from the criminal justice system into community-based settings, like supported housing. The county sheriff, the D.A., district judges, human service providers, and even left-wing radicals worked together to make this possible. This could have worked for Marcia had this state prioritized its spending in such a way. I do not think that you are so cold as to have been untouched by how she died, and therefore suspect that you might endorse a program which could have saved her life.

As the head of the Department of Corrections, you are in a uniquely authoritative position to speak to the human and economic costs of warehousing the mentally ill in prison versus the investment necessary to keep them safe in the community. Is there something that prevents you from embarking on an aggressive campaign to educate the public and the legislature on this matter?

That question applies equally to the elderly and critically ill population of prisoners. Your department will never be funded to adequately care for them in prison - which is where criminals go, and this state is divided on whether or not they even deserve adequate nutrition, much less essential health care. But you could help make it possible for the community to take responsibility for their care out here.

Additionally, as a woman whose life trajectory nearly paralleled Marcia's for a time, I'd like to know - should I ever end up in your custody - how you would know whether or not I was safe under your policies and in the hands of your employees. Would you ever come ask me or other prisoners about our treatment? Or would you simply monitor facilities through quarterly reports delivered to your office? Would you recognize that in your care, because of my disability, the chances that I would suffer neglect, abuse or death are higher than those of other women there? Would you allow as a matter of policy an outside entity - such as the American Friends Service Committee - to come into the prison to see me regularly, to review my treatment, to hear my grievances, to check on my health?

Or would I - as Marcia was - essentially be at the mercy of whomever happened to be on duty, writing me up on violations for the symptoms of my illness, and drawing out my sentence if I questioned their treatment of myself or my fellow prisoners? As one of 40,000 prisoners across this state, I don't imagine I would even show up on your radar unless it hit the papers that you killed me. And even then, it appears, all you would know about me is what is written in my criminal record. There are lifers out at Perryville who knew far more about Marcia's essential nature than you or your staff did.

I would appreciate an opportunity to discuss these concerns with you in person, or at least to receive a written reply that I can then share with the rest of those who - like me - lack the necessary status to rub elbows with you or the governor or our legislators. That means, you should know, that unless I explicitly tell you otherwise, I would be posting any written reply to this letter on my website, just as I am posting this letter to you.

Regardless of your response (or a lack thereof) I will proceed to take a more active role in educating and organizing the community to dismantle your regime. I just want to give you a reasonable chance to articulate your own position on these issues, lest I paint you and the department in an unfair light, as you may feel I have done already and would continue to do regardless.

No matter how fair I am, frankly, I don't think the light I paint the ADC in will be ever be flattering. Perhaps you have overwhelming evidence that would persuade me otherwise, but based on what I know I'm fairly convinced that the prison industrial complex in its totality functions as a tool of social repression used to divide the classes while employing racism, sexism, and a whole range of prejudices in order to perpetuate the status quo - protecting the positions of those already in power, themselves alone able to define what constitutes "crime", and what constitutes "justice". So long as the law is made by the few and punishment is arbitrarily doled out to the many, even those who think they are free among us live in chains.

I do realize I may be making a mistake by writing to you, especially when I am this deeply moved; my wiser friends would tell me not to make myself known - and certainly not to be offensive - because you are a potentially dangerous man. I have been unable to discern, as of yet (from rumor and limited observation), whether you are more a servant of the public or a knowing perpetrator of injustice, however; you are a particularly hard fellow to read. Perhaps you do what you do in the best interests of humanity. But it is this choice of professions - the violent control and confinement of tens of thousands of people - a number of whom you must know are either harmless or innocent - that gives me pause. I have a dear friend who devoted her life to corrections administration, however, so I haven't completely condemned you as a sadistic character. If I had, I wouldn't bother with writing to you now. I am holding out hope that you could actually be an ally on some matters, or that at the least we don't have to be adversaries.

But that is a very small hope.

Thank you for your time, if you have read this far. I may be provocative, I confess, but my aim is to be emphatic about the scope and gravity of the situation I believe that you - and I - are responsible for. Perhaps no one knows that better than you, except for your prisoners and their loved ones. If you don't speak with me, then I hope you are at least listening to them.

Sincerely,

Margaret J. Plews