April 22: CRUEL AND UNUSUAL – THE STORY OF THE ANGOLA 3 Film Screening at Reel Work Labor Film Festival – with speakers Marie Levin and Dr. Craig Haney

REEL WORK LABOR FILM FESTIVAL presents
TOGETHER TO END SOLITARY

FREE  EVENT: Film, Discussion, and Reception with Refreshments
Sunday, April 22, 2018
2:00 – 5:30 PM
UCSC Media Theater (Performing Arts M110), 453 Kerr Rd, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL-THE STORY OF THE ANGOLA 3

The Angola 3 are three Black men who collectively spent 114 years in solitary confinement torture in the USA.  They were framed for organizing against injustice inside Angola Prison in Louisiana. The film documents their decades-long struggle for justice and to build a national and international movement to end solitary confinement.

After the film and discussion, all are invited to a reception with the speakers, and free refreshments by Riverview Farms Catering and Marie Levin’s MOMM’s Pastries.

*Please RSVP using this link so UCSC can plan accessibility, free parking, and food.
*Free parking in Performing Arts Lot 126
*ADA accessible: Wheelchair, Restrooms, Parking
*Doors open 1:30pm
*Call 510.426.5322 if you want to rideshare from the SF Bay Area.
*Download Event Flier HERE
*Facebook event: Cruel and Unusual-the Story of the Angola 3

 

 Speakers

Craig Haney, Ph.D. in Psychology, Juris Doctorate (JD), academic specialization: psychology and law. Expert witness in Angola 3’s lawsuit in Louisiana; Ashker v. Brown in California; January 17, 2018 Canadian ban on federal indefinite solitary confinement; and numerous lawsuits on behalf of incarcerated people. UCSC Distinguished Professor of Psychology; UC Presidential Chair, 2015-2018; Co-Director, UC Criminal Justice & Health Consortium.

 

Marie Levin, African American woman, organizer, and minister; California Families Against Solitary Confinement, Essie Justice Group, NLGSF Prisoner Advocacy Network, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition; owner of MOMM’s Pastries, employer of formerly incarcerated people; sister of Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, co-author of the Agreement to End Hostilities, and 1 of 4 Principle Negotiators for CA prisoners challenging conditions in California’s solitary units and general prison population.

Co-hosts: UC Santa Cruz Presidential Chair, California Families Against Solitary Confinement, End Solitary Santa Cruz County

Co-sponsors: ACLU-NC, Santa Cruz County Chapter; NAACP Santa Cruz County Branch #1071; Peace and Freedom Party Santa Cruz County; Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos; Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism (SCCCCOR); Temple Beth El, Aptos; UC Santa Cruz Legal Studies Program; Veterans for Peace, Santa Cruz; Watsonville Brown Berets

Reel Work Labor Film Festival – Full schedule of events at reelwork.org

Feb 21 Legislative Hearing on Video Visitation in Jails

VIDEO of the Hearing!  Powerful testimony from family and formerly incarcerated perspectives: Zoe Willmott and Anita Wills of Essie Justice Group, Michael Cortez of Project WHAT! (alumni), and compelling public comment.

The below post was updated Feb 16, 2017

On Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 10am in Sacramento, there will be a Joint Legislative Hearing on video visitation in county jails. It will be hosted by the Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Public Safety.

JOINT HEARING
PUBLIC SAFETY AND BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW

CA Senate Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections, Public Safety and the Judiciary and CA Assembly Subcommittee No. 5 on Public Safety

• Hearing Subject: Looking Through the Screen: The Effects of Video Visitation on County Jail Inmates and their Families

• 10:00 a.m. — John L. Burton Hearing Room (Rm 4203), CA State Capitol, Sacramento 95814

• Chairs: Senator Nancy Skinner and Assembly Member Shirley Weber

• FINAL AGENDA (pdf) for the Hearing

Help protect in-person visitation! We believe that there will be an opportunity for public comment. Please consider speaking or providing a written statement if you have experience with in-person or video visitation.

We are in a period when many counties are building or seeking to build new jails.  Some counties are building jails without facilities for in-person visiting.  Instead, they are setting up video-visitation as the only visiting method.  There are many problems with video visitation. In-person visitation is crucial to the well-being of incarcerated people and their families.

Last year, the legislature passed SB 1157 (introduced by Senator Holly Mitchell), to require in-person visiting in county jails, but unfortunately Gov. Brown vetoed the bill. SB 1157 would have allowed counties to install and use video visitation as a supplemental option, but would have protected in-person jail visits from being eliminated and sacrificed to the video visitation industry.

It is important to protect in-person visits for incarcerated people and their loved ones in California jails. We are glad that the CA legislature remains concerned about this issue.

• Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity members will be carpooling to Sacramento on Feb 21st.  Contact: 510.426.5322

• Also, Bernadette Rabuy of the Prison Policy Initiative invites you to contact her if you would like to provide public comment at the hearing  brabuy@prisonpolicy.org.

Below is an extensive list of articles and reports about video visitation from the Prison Policy Institute.