Guantánamo Prisoners Stage Peaceful Protest and Hunger Strike on 10th Anniversary of the Opening of the Prison

This article was originally posted on TheWorldCantwait.net

Written by Andy Worthington

Today, prisoners at Guantánamo will embark on a peaceful protest, involving sit-ins and hunger strikes, to protest about their continued detention, and the continued existence of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, three years after President Obama came to office promising to close it within a year, and to show their appreciation of the protests being mounted on their behalf  by US citizens, who are gathering in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to stage a rally and march to urge the President to fulfill his broken promise.

Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York, and one of the attorneys for Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, said that his client, who is held in isolation in Camp 5, told him on his last visit that the prisoners would embark on a peaceful protest and hunger strike for three days, from Jan. 10 to 12, to protest about the President’s failure to close Guantánamo as promised.

He explained that the men intended to inform the Officer in Charge ahead of the protest, to let the authorities know why there would be protests, and added that the prisoners were encouraged by the “expression of solidarity” from US citizens planning protests on Jan. 11, the 10^thanniversary of the opening of the prison.

Kassem also said that another of his clients, in Camp 6, where most of the prisoners are held, and where, unlike Camp 5, they are allowed to socialize, stated that prisoners throughout the blocks were “extremely encouraged” by reports of the protests in Washington D.C.

The prisoner, who does not wish to be identified, also said that banners and signs had been prepared, and that there would be peaceful sit-ins in the communal areas. He added that the prisoners were concerned to let the outside world know that they still reject the injustice of their imprisonment, and feel that it is particularly important to let everyone know this, when the US government, under President Obama, is trying to persuade the world that “everything is OK” at Guantánamo, and that the prison is a humane, state of the art facility.

He also explained that the prisoners invited the press to come to Guantánamo and to request interviews with the prisoners, to hear about “the toll of a decade” of detention without charge or trial, and said that they “would like nothing more” than to have an independent civilian and medical delegation, accompanied by the press, be allowed to come and talk to the 171 men still held.

In Camp 5, Shaker Aamer and the other men still held there will not be able to stage a sit-in, as they are unable to leave their cells, but they will participate in the protests by refusing meals.

No one knows how the authorities will respond to the protests, especially as the new commander of Guantánamo, Navy Rear Adm. David Woods, has gained a reputation for punishing even the most minor infractions of the rules with solitary confinement.

According to Kassem, prisoners have complained that the new regime harks back to the worst days of Guantánamo, between 2002 and 2004, when punishments for non-cooperation were widespread.

Of the 171 men still held at Guantánamo, 89 were “approved for transfer”out of Guantánamo by a Task Force of career officials and lawyers from the various government departments and the intelligence agencies, and yet they remain held because of Congressional opposition and President Obama’s unwillingness to tackle his critics. 36 others were recommended for trials, and 46 others were designated for indefinite detention without charge pr trial, on the basis that they are too dangerous to release, but that there is insufficient evidence against them to put them on trial.

That is a disgraceful position for the government to take, as indefinite detention on the basis of information that cannot be used as evidence indicates that the information is either tainted by torture, or is unreliable hearsay. It remains unacceptable that President Obama approved the indefinite detention of these men in an executive order last March, even though he also promised that their cases would be subject to periodic review.

Just as disgraceful, however, is the fact that all of the 171 prisoners still at Guantánamo face indefinite detention, as none of them can leave the prison given the current restrictions. That ought to trouble anyone who cares about justice and fairness, and the protests by the prisoners, on the 10^th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo, ought to convey, more eloquently than any other method, why the pressure to close the prison must be maintained.

Note: For further information, to sign up to  a new movement to close G, and to sign a new White House petition on the “We the People” website calling for the closure of Guantánamo, visit the new website, “Close Guantánamo.”

Georgia Prison Strike, One Year Later: Activists Outside the Walls Have Failed Those Inside the Walls

Wed, 12/21/2011 - 12:51 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

In December 2010 inmates in up to a dozen Georgia prisons either refused to leave their cells for work assignments, or were pre-emptively locked down by prison officials. They demanded wages for work, access to educational programs, fairness in release decisions, along with decent food and medical care. An ad hoc coalition sprung up to negotiate with state officials, and gained privileged access to Smith and Macon State Prisons. But the coalition has long since withered and died, without even issuing reports from its December 2010 fact finding visits. What happened? And what happens next?

Georgia Prison Strike, One Year Later: Activists Outside the Walls Have Failed Those Inside the Walls

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

The Concerned Coalition To Respect Prisoner Rights was supposed to issue public reports of its fact-finding prison visits. That never happened.

A year ago this month, black, white and brown inmates in a dozen Georgia prisons staged a brief strike. They put forward a set of simple and basic demands --- wages for work, decent food and medical care, access to educational and self-improvement programs, fairness and transparency in the way the state handles grievances, inmate funds and release decisions, and more opportunities to connect with their families and loved ones. A short-lived formation calling itself the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights came together, and met with the Georgia Department of Corrections. In the last weeks of 2010 teams of community observers were allowed to visit Macon State and Smith prisons, where they examined facilities and interviewed staff and prisoners.

The Concerned Coalition To Respect Prisoner Rights was supposed to issue public reports of its fact-finding prison visits. That never happened. It was to have initiated a long-term dialog with state officials in pursuit of the inmates' eminently just and reasonable demands. That never happened either. It should have called public meetings and begun to organize a lasting campaign to educate the public on the meaning of Georgia's and the nation's prison state, and the possibilities for radical reform. These are the things the prisoners expected of their allies and spokespeople on the outside. But compromised and undermined from within and without, the coalition was unable to make any of these things happen. Thus the trust that Georgia prisoners placed in activists outside the walls to organize in support of their demands was betrayed.

From the beginning, members of the coalition uncritically deferred to a single one of their number with extremely limited local availability. That leading person vetoed public meetings, the establishment of an interactive web site or even a steering committee listserve, insisting that nobody else could not be trusted to manage or access the coalition's contacts. So apart from the limited interactivity of a seldom updated Facebook page, the coalition maintained no easily found point of public contact. This leading person, in sole charge of calling meetings simply stopped emailing or telephoning this reporter and others who contributed significantly to the cause of the prisoners.

“True to his name, Deal reportedly made a deal with some leading figures in the Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights”

State authorities did their party to gut the coalition as well. Georgia got a new governor at the beginning of 2011, who took a keen interest in his own right wing vision of “criminal justice reform.” Taking his cues from an ultraconservative think tank called “Right On Crime”, Governor Deal is one of those who believes the main thing wrong with mass incarceration is that it's too expensive. Aided by the Pew Foundation and a major state contractor, Deal created a commission on “criminal justice reform” composed of judges, prosecutors and state legislators to approve what his consultants cooked up --- a hodgepodge of recommendations to shrink the state's maximum and medium security institutions while greatly expanding probation, home monitoring, workfare, closely supervised “diversion” and misnamed “re-entry” programs, all under the profitable guidance of well-connected “not for profit” entrepreneurs.

True to his name, Deal reportedly made a deal with some leading figures in the Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights, who bolted the coalition with the expectation that if they help line up black Democrats behind the white Republican governor's “criminal justice reform” proposals, they'd get some of the state's new “re-entry” money. A senior national civil rights leader quietly flew in and out of Atlanta the same day to quietly meet with Governor Deal about his deal. So the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights, withered and died.

And so, a year out from the December 2010 prison strike, it is clear that activists outside the walls have largely failed to honor their commitment to those inside the walls. In the past year, not much has changed. Scores of prisoners alleged to be strike leaders were punitively transferred and locked down in the wake of the strike. Dozens more who were not strike leaders were savagely beaten, as exemplary reprisals for the strike, and denied medical attention afterward. State officials conspired to hide from his family and the public the whereabouts of one man they beat into a coma for nearly two weeks as he hung between life and death. A handful of guards were charged, but local prosecutors and grand juries refused to indict. The federal Justice Department, under its first black attorney general, and president has thus far expressed no interest in protecting prisoners from the arbitrary and brutal retaliation inflicted upon them by Georgia officials.

Inmates with debilitating and life threatening conditions are still mostly untreated. Educational programs are available to less than 5% of prisoners, and thousands of Georgia's prisoners as young as 14, 15 and 16 years old, continue to be confined in adult institutions with adults. Bank of America still has the exclusive contract to handle inmate accounts, and levies a parasitic fee each and every time a family member sends an inmate a few dollars, and deducts another monthly charge as long as any funds remain in an inmate account. This year as last, thousands of prisoners who speak mainly Spanish are not afforded interpreters at disciplinary hearings, and with no transparency at any level it's impossible to know whether there is any hint of fairness in these proceedings. Politically connected companies like J-Pay and Global TelLink are still allowed to siphon millions each month from the families of inmates by collecting tolls on the money transfers going into and phone calls coming out of prison. Food ranges from bad to merely inadequate, vermin infestations abound, and of course Georgia inmates still work every day without pay.

“The question is what will that work look like? How do activists in Georgia bring the questions of the prison state and the rights of prisoners to the front burner as a public and political issue? “

On Wednesday December 14, a year after the strike, Rev. Kenneth Glasgow of TOPS, The Ordinary Peoples Society showed up at the Georgia state capitol with some of the families and supporters of prisoners savagely beaten by wardens and correctional officers in Georgia after the strike.

“We are here to reaffirm our commitment to the prisoners who made a principled stand for their own and each others' human rights a year ago this week. We know the ball was dropped. TOPS and the National Organization of Formerly Incarcerated Persons, along with some others, are picking it up. Over the past year we've worked to secure legal and other assistance to the families of some of the prisoners who suffered beat downs in retaliation for the December 2010 strike, and we've expanded our work with the National Organization of Formerly Incarcerated Persons. But we know that much more has to be done to fulfill the promise of last year's coalition.

For our part, we can promise that the next twelve months out here won't be like the last twelve. Decent food and medical care, wages for work, educational opportunities and the like are ordinary human rights to which everybody is entitled. The Ordinary Peoples Society is ready to work with whoever is willing to advance the human rights of Georgia's prisoners.”

The question is what will that work look like? How do activists in Georgia bring the questions of the prison state and the rights of prisoners to the front burner as a public and political issue? With the corporate media determined to twist and ignore the issue, and prominent sections of the black establishment lining up in bipartisan endorsement of a phony “criminal justice reform” package in return for a share of “re-entry program” money, how can this be done. Hugh Esco, secretary of the Georgia Green Party, thinks he knows.

“We've worked with people in Georgia communities to come up with 13 demands for the governor and his phony Commission on Criminal Justice Reform. Demands like ending the lifelong discrimination in housing, employment and other areas against persons convicted of felonies, automatically restoring the vote to everyone including inmates currently in prisons and jails, decent food, health care and education behind the walls, stopping the incarceration of juveniles in adult prisons, decriminalizing homelessness, mental illness, drug use, and more. Beginning this week we've got persons on the courthouse steps every day courts are in session, first in Cobb and Fulton counties, and within a few weeks in half a dozen other Georgia counties.

“Our volunteers will be petitioning, gathering signatures on these demands. The Georgia Green Party will be sending letters, postcards, phone calls and emails to those who sign the petitions inviting them to phone conferences and face to face public meetings beginning in January, and going throughout the year. That's what a campaign of grassroots public education looks like, and that's how our party is going to pick up the ball that the coalition dropped last year. Our campaign even has its own web site atwww.endmassincarceration.org. We are also helping the families of prisoners build their own network of mutual aid and support.

“Using these methods we expect to be able to call well-attended public meetings on the prison state in many parts of Georgia this spring and summer. And 2012 is an election year, so we expect that some of the friends and families of prisoners will join with us to run for seats in Georgia's state legislature, using their 13 demands as the core of their platform. In this way we will use the elections to educate our neighbors on Georgia's and the nation's prison state. Anybody who wants to help in this campaign can contact us at info@endmassincarceration.org. We're here, we're serious, and we aren't going anywhere.”

The 13 demands of the Georgia Green Party's Campaign to End Mass Incarceration can be found here.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report, and a member of the state committee of the Georgia Green Party. He can be reached at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.

Check out this excellent explanatory video of the 99% in America! This Guardian animation provides a clear and easy-to-understand analysis of who composes the 99% in our country, of our current socio-economic situation, and begs the question - should it actually be the 99.99%?

Norman Finkelstein at University of Florida, The lsrael-Palestine Conflict

Join the Gainesville ISO in supporting Norman Finkelstein and our fellow Palestine supporters Jewish Voices for Peace, the Islamic Center of Gainesville and the Arabic Cultural Association tomorrow night at 7:30 PM! Norman Finkelstein received his PhD in Political Science from Princeton University in 1988 and has done much research on the Israel-Palestine conflict. These groups are sponsoring a lecture by Dr. Finkelstein at the Reitz Grand Ballroom on this conflict at 7:30 PM tomorrow evening (October, 13). The Gainesville ISO has decided to invite our contacts and members to join us in attending this event in place of holding our regular weekly branch meeting.

Please spread the word, and join us in this privileged setting as Dr. Norman Finkelstein demystifies the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. We hope to see you there!

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/

Doors open at 7:00pm.
Event starts at 7:30pm.
Solidarity,
Gainesville ISO

 

Pelican Bay/Calipatria Hunger Strike to Resume!!

California Prison Hunger Strike ResumesPrisoners Cite Continued Torture, CDCR Bad Faith Negotiations
Press Contact: Isaac Ontiveros
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
Office:  510 444 0484

Oakland – On Monday, September 26, 2011, prisoners at both Pelican Bay and Calipatria State Prisons will resume hunger strike that last most of last July in continued protest of the inhumane conditions of their confinement, including long term solitary confinement and the widely-condemned practices of gang validation and debriefing. Despite international public outcry as well as legislative intervention in California, prisoners have stated CDCR has yet to make any substantial changes to their policies and has failed to keep up negotiation promises made when the strike was suspended in July.

“This is far from over and once again, hopefully for the last time, we will be risking our lives via a peaceful hunger strike on Sept 26, 2011 to force positive changes” writes Mutope Duguma (aka, James Crawford), a prisoner in the Pelican Bay SHU and a representative of the hunger strikers, “for 21 1/2 years we have been quietly held in Pelican Bay State Prison solitary confinement under some of the most horrible conditions known to man. So we continue to struggle to be treated like decent human beings.”

Prisoners in the Pelican Bay SHU will be joined on strike by prisoners in the Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg) Unit at Calipatria State Prison, located in California’s southeast-most county. Ad-Seg Units are similar to SHUs in that they place prisoners in solitary confinement for long periods of time. In addition, prisoners at Calipatria are also subject to the same gang validation and indeterminate sentencing practices at the center of this past summer’s strike. Many prisoners marked as gang members at Calipatria are kept in Ad-Seg units for years before being transferred to Pelican Bay. “Several hundred prisoners in Administration Segregation Units at Calipatria State Prison have been validated or given an indefinite SHU term and majority of the men have been waiting three to four years in administration segregation to be transferred to the Pelican Bay SHU,” says Kendra Casteneda who has a family member at Calipatria, “The men at Calipatria are striking because the same conditions that exist at Pelican Bay exist in prisons throughout California.”

California Department of Corrections (CDCR) officials seem to be preemptively cracking down on prisoners in anticipation of the strike and have publicly said they were preparing to take harsh actions against strikers. Illustrating the CDCR’s hard-line stance, Undersecretary of Operations Scott Kernan said in a recent interview, “If there are other instances of hunger strikes, I don’t think the Department will approach it the same way this time around.” Lawyers who have recently visited Pelican Bay have taken testimony from SHU prisoners who have been retaliated against by prison officials for their participation in this summer’s strike. “Prisoners are receiving serious disciplinary write-ups, usually reserved for serious rules violations, for things like talking in the library or not walking fast enough,” says Carol Strickman, a lawyer with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, “It’s clear that prison officials are trying to intimidate these men and to make them ineligible for any privileges or changes that may be forced by the strike.”

This summer’s hunger strike saw widespread participation across the California prison system with at least 6,600 prisoners participating in more than a third of the state’s 33 prisons.  National and international support led to a legislative hearing in the state’s capitol, where conditions in California’s Security Housing Units were scrutinized by state legislators and condemned by experts.  Family members, advocates, and organizations have vowed to continue to support the prisoners in resuming their strike, and to help them in winning their demands.

For more information about the strike and for ongoing updates, please visit www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com

Troy Davis Update!

[via Freedom Archives]

Georgia Senator Joins SCHR to Urge Execution Staff to Strike & Refuse to Kill Troy Davis

Date of Publication:
 09/20/2011

Atlanta – Today, the day before Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection, Georgia Senate Democratic Whip Vincent Fort and Southern Center for Human Rights Executive Director Sara Totonchi have issued a joint statement calling upon the individuals charged with carrying out the execution to refuse to participate in the killing of a possibly innocent man. 

Davis is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, September 21 at 7:00pm at Georgia Diagnostics & Classifications Prison in Jackson, Georgia. The statement, included below and sent to all parties mentioned, appeals to the basic humanity of individuals who each play roles in carrying out an execution including the private medical company that contracts with the state to be involved in executions and the Corrections staff at the prison.  
Statement from Senator Vincent Fort and Sara Totonchi to Those Who Will Carry Out the Execution of Troy Davis

The execution of Troy Davis is immoral and wrong.  Almost all of the witnesses against him have recanted.  The courts and the parole board have failed to use their power to prevent this imminent miscarriage of justice. However, Troy Davis' execution cannot take place unless human beings at the Georgia Diagnostic & Classifications Prison make it happen.  They can refuse to kill Troy Davis.

We call on Dr. Carlo Musso, CEO of Rainbow Medical Associates, the organization contracted by the Georgia Department of Corrections to oversee executions, to decline to participate and not allow any physician or other medical personnel associated with his companies to participate in the immoral execution of a possibly innocent man, Troy Davis.  We also call on all employees of Dr. Musso's businesses, Rainbow Medical Associates and CorrectHealth, Inc., who have any involvement with implementing the Georgia Department of Corrections execution protocol, to refuse to participate in the execution of Troy Davis. Remember your humanity and that your oath is to facilitate healing, not killing!

We are calling for a general strike or sick-out by all but a skeleton staff of the Georgia Diagnostic Prison on September 21st, 2011.  We say to the prison staff: If you work on that day, you will enable the prison to carry out the execution of a possibly innocent man.  Please remember your humanity! 

We specifically call on Georgia Diagnostic Prison Warden Carl Humphrey to refuse to carry out the execution of Troy Davis, because he may be innocent.  Warden Humphrey, remember your humanity.   You have the power to stop this immoral execution.  Use it!

We call on the Deputy Warden of the Georgia Diagnostic Prison to refuse to prepare the lethal injection drugs for injection into Troy Davis' veins.  You have the power to disrupt this immoral execution.  Remember your humanity and refuse to participate!!

We call on the prison nurses, who prepare the IV lines through which lethal chemicals will flow through Troy Davis' veins:  Refuse to participate in the execution of Troy Davis, because he may be innocent.  You are human beings who have the power to stop this immoral execution.  Your oath is to facilitate healing, not killing!

We call on the corrections officers who are assigned to strap Troy Davis to the lethal injection table:  Refuse to carry out your tasks tomorrow!  You have the power to stop this immoral execution.  Call in sick!

We call on the members of the Injection Team:  Strike!  Do not follow your orders!  Do not start the flow of the lethal injection chemicals.  If you refuse to participate, you make it that much harder for this immoral execution to be carried out.

Each and every one of you are human beings with the power to refuse and resist participation in an immoral execution of a man who may be innocent. We implore you to use this power. Please remember your humanity!


Media Contact: Kathryn Hamoudah 404/688-1202 khamoudah@schr.org

CA Prison Strike Grows!

Inmate hunger strike expands to more California prisons

Inmates in at least a third of California's prisons are believed to be refusing meals in solidarity with maximum-security prisoners at Pelican Bay.

By Sam Quinones, Los Angeles Times

July 6, 2011

Inmates in at least 11 of California's 33 prisons are refusing meals in solidarity with a hunger strike staged by prisoners in one of the system's special maximum-security units, officials said Tuesday.

The strike began Friday when inmates in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison stopped eating meals in protest of conditions that they contend are cruel and inhumane.

"There are inmates in at least a third of our prisons who are refusing state-issued meals," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The number of declared strikers at Pelican Bay ­ reported Saturday as fewer than two dozen ­ has grown but is changing daily, she said. The same is true at other prisons.

Some inmates are refusing all meals, while others are rejecting only some, Thornton said. Some were eating in visitation rooms and refusing state-issued meals in their cells, she said.

Assessing the number of actual strikers "is very challenging," Thornton said.

Prison medical staff are "making checks of every single inmate who is refusing meals," she said.

More than 400 prisoners at Pelican Bay are believed to be refusing meals, including inmates on the prison's general-population yard, said Molly Poizig, spokeswoman for the Bay Area-based group Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity.

The group had received reports on the strike from lawyers and family members visiting inmates over the weekend, she said.

The group's website claims that prison officials attempted to head off the strike by promoting a Fourth of July menu that included strawberry shortcake and ice cream. According to the website, the wife of a Security Housing Unit inmate said her husband had never had ice cream there and "has never seen a strawberry."

Inmates at Calipatria State Prison ­ with more than a thousand prisoners ­ were among those reported to be refusing meals, Poizig said. Prison officials could not be reached for comment.

But Thornton acknowledged that inmates at the prison were refusing to eat state-issued meals.

The strike was organized by Security Housing Unit inmates at Pelican Bay protesting the maximum-security unit's extreme isolation. The inmates are also asking for better food, warmer clothing and to be allowed one phone call a month.

The Security Housing Unit compound, which currently houses 1,100 inmates, is designed to isolate prison-gang members or those who've committed crimes while in prison.

The cells have no windows and are soundproofed to inhibit communication among inmates. The inmates spend 22 1/2 hours a day in their cells, being released only an hour a day to walk around a small area with high concrete walls.

Prisoner advocates have long complained that Security Housing Unit incarceration amounts to torture, often leading to mental illness, because many inmates spend years in the lockup.

Gang investigators believe the special unit reduces the ability of the most predatory inmates, particularly prison-gang leaders, to control those in other prisons as well as gang members on the street.

Prison administrators are meeting with inmate advisory councils to discuss the inmates' complaints, Thornton said.

But "I have not heard there's been any decision" to modify policies governing the Security Housing Unit, she said. "A lot of those policies have been refined through litigation."

sam.quinones@latimes.com 

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times