HANDOUTS, FLIERS & POSTING MATERIALS for Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement

If you need copies sent to you of any of these materials for use in your actions, please contact phssreachingout@gmail.com or call (510) 426-5322.

• Together to End Solitary Brochure – 1 page, both sides, fold

• Universal HANDBILL-Statewide Coordinated Actions  1 page, both sides (here is a version for double-sided printers) print “Fit to Page”, fold
  

In California, we have changed the date to the 24th of every month.  We no longer do this action on the 23rd of every month.

_______________________________________________ The above links allow you to download and print the materials made specifically for anyone participating in Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement (24th of each month). Below are several download links for recommended materials to hand out during such actions.  Good educational materials. Coming soon: a handout of Frequently Asked Questions and the Answers, and all handouts in Spanish & English.

• Small Handout: Donate for People to Get Vital Publications Inside Prison 1 page, one side, 4-on-a-page; great to use as inserts in Handbills!

• Statement to the Streets and All Youth Lock-ups, Agreement to End Hostilities 1 page, both sides

• Acuerdo Para Poner Fin a Enemistades, Agreement to End Hostilities 1 page, both sides

• Fact Sheet-CA Solitary Confinement 1 page, both sides,
  

• Human Rights Pen Pal Flyer  1 page, both sides
  

• 2 Similar Handouts to Stop “Security Welfare Checks in Pelican Bay SHU:
  Emergency Action Alert- Stop Sleep Deprivation 1 page, both sides, 2-on-a-page
  Handout_StopSleepDeprivation 1 page, both sides, 2-on-a-page

• Proposals For Action 2013-Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor Collective 1 page, one side, 2 on each page

• Alcatraz To Pelican Bay 1 page, one side

• CHANTS-End Solitary Confinement 1 page, both sides

• Why the US Won’t Let the UN in Its Prisons-3-16-15 1 page, both sides

• Universal GENERAL Flier-Statewide Coordinated Actions 1 page, one side, no space for details  In California, we have changed the date to the 24th of every month.  We no longer do this action on the 23rd of every month.

Use this Pelican* for your facebook event Cover Photo.  Choose the art or photo for your event Profile Picture.

*We honor Peter Collins who was a long-term activist incarcerated in Canada. He drew the Pelican for the CA Prisoner Hunger Strikes. Peter died from cancer Aug.13, 2015 in prison, having been refused compassionate release. He was an astute social critic of the structures of violence in the world around us (colonialism, racism, sexism, ableism, imperialism, transphobia, misogyny etc). Peter was a writer, artist, cartoonist, activist, scholar & organizer with a great sense of humor and humanity. He was a staunch animal rights advocate. A vegan, Peter believed in principles of ‘do no harm’ to others.

Why The U.S. Won’t Let the U.N. Look Inside Its Prisons

After a half-decade and a mandate by the U.N. to investigate solitary confinement practices, U.N. torture rapporteur Juan Mendez had to find a backdoor into an American jail. Today, his findings are released in a report.

In 2010, Juan Mendez was appointed Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Degrading and Inhumane Treatment by the United Nations. His mandate is wide in size and scope—to expose and document torture wherever it exists on the planet today.

Since the beginning of his mandate Mendez has made criticizing the overuse of solitary confinement a priority. In 2011, he issued a report stating that 22 or 23 hours a day alone in a prison cell for more than 15 days at a time can cause permanent, lasting psychological damage and can constitute torture.

This problem, he emphasized, is particularly severe in the U.S., where prisoners are routinely held under such conditions for months, years and even decades at a time. Many have never committed a violent crime.

Fast-forward five years. The U.S. government has yet to grant Mendez access to a single isolation pod in any U.S. prison. The clock is ticking. Mendez has a mere 20 months left of his term, and he has yet been able to substantiate his reports with a firsthand investigation.

“The U.S. was voted into the Human Rights Council—a position that carries with it an obligation to cooperate,” he says. When he speaks, Mendez wears a look of weary determination befitting of his post.

“I’m disappointed to still be waiting for the State Department to respond to my request. I’ve been waiting over two years.”

“That fact that he hasn’t received a response is contemptible,” says Laura Rovner, legal expert on prison conditions from University of Denver. “It puts the U.S. in the company of countries like Syria, Pakistan, and Russia that also have been unresponsive to requests for country visits.”

“Given the length of the delay,” Rovner continues. “You have to wonder about the reason, whether it’s motivated by concerns about what the Special Rapporteur will find inside these prisons.”

Then suddenly, last December, Mendez was allowed access to California’s Pelican Bay State Prison—a facility known for keeping inmates in isolation indefinitely in its Security Housing Unit (SHU).

This visit did not come about through the official channels Mendez had long been appealing to, however. Instead, he found a way in to one of the most notorious prisons in the country through a kind of backdoor.

Excellent Article: CDCr’s Attempt to Silence Prisoners, Ban Critical “Oppositional” Publications

Censored and ‘Obscene’ in Solitary

by Sarah Shourd
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/21/censored-and-obscene-in-solitary.html

After a huge hunger strike to protest the state prison system’s inhuman conditions, California is threatening to ban any written material deemed “oppositional to authority and society.”