Sat. Aug 19, San Jose: MILLIONS FOR PRISONERS MARCH – in solidarity with March in Washington DC

On AUGUST 19, 2017 please join in solidarity with the historic Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March. People from all over the country will be marching and hosting a rally at the White House to formally issue and demand the removal of the 13th Amendment “exception” clause that legalizes slavery. People are traveling from as far as California to join the March. Solidarity marches, rallies, and protests are being planned across the country to coincide with the DC event.  Here’s San Jose!

Join the NEW ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT

MILLIONS for Prisoners HUMAN RIGHTS

SATURDAY, AUG 19, 2017
SAN JOSE

We DEMAND the 13th Amendment ENSLAVEMENT CLAUSE of the United States Constitution be amended to abolish LEGALIZED slavery in America.

We DEMAND a Congressional hearing on the 13th Amendment ENSLAVEMENT CLAUSE being recognized as in violation of International law, the general principles of human rights and its direct links to:

• For profit exploitation of prison labor and the extortion of prisoners/families for needed goods and services
• Incentivizing criminalization by a private prison industry
• Reinforcement of systemic racial inequality and the militarization of police against our communities
• Disproportionate murder of black and brown people by police and the normalization of state sponsored murder via the death penalty
• Use of solitary confinement as punishment and torture
• Voter disenfranchisement of up to 6 million people
• Indefinite detention of entire families under arbitrary Immigration and Customs Enforcement quotas
• A bail bond system that unjustly penalizes the poor and dispossessed
• Producing 25% of the world’s prison population with only 4.5% of its overall population

MARCH WITH
California Prison Focus & Rise Up for Justice

11:00am: GATHER at Raymond Bernal Jr. Park, 7th and Mission Streets, San Jose, CA 95112

11:30am: MARCH to County Jail

12:30am: RALLY at James P. McEntee Plaza, 70 West Hedding, San Jose, CA 95110

Join local organizations, learn more, and hear speakers from San Jose and surrounding communities, including:
Watani Stiner
Sean Ramsey
Laurie Valdez
… and more

For a full list of sponsors or more information, email us at: riseup@forjustice.us

Download and put up Fliers! 8-19-17-Millions-for-Prisoners, SanJose

San Jose March Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/441574739560568/

Riverside Solidarity Rally Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/720255711508696/

iamWE Prison Advocacy Network is forever humbled to be hosting the upcoming March on Washington DC: http://www.iamweubuntu.com/millions-for-prisoners-human-rights.html

Solitary Confinement: A “Social Death” ––– New York Times on “Shocking” Data from Lawsuit [VIDEO included]

New York Times video:
Effects of Solitary Confinement

by Colin Archdeacon and Center for Constitutional Rights
Aug. 3, 2015
People imprisoned in Pelican Bay State Prison describe their experiences in long-term solitary confinement http://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000003831139/effects-of-solitary-confinement.html

Center for Constitutional Rights article: Solitary Confinement: A “Social Death” – NYT on “Shocking” Data from CCR Case

August 4, 2015
Excerpts here:

Today’s New York Times science section features a front-page piece about the research that CCR commissioned and compiled for our ground-breaking challenge to long-term solitary confinement. … 10 expert reports we submitted to the court in Ashker v. Brown, the class-action lawsuit on behalf of prisoners in solitary in California’s Pelican Bay prison. …
According to the expert reports, prisoners subjected to prolonged solitary experience a form of “social death” that is not cured upon release, but rather lingers as a “post-SHU syndrome” characterized by social withdrawal, isolation, and anxiety. …
The international and domestic experts agree that such prolonged isolation is not only unnecessary for prison security, but actually counter-productive, as well as a violation of international law. …
By bringing public scrutiny to the severe physical and psychological harm our clients and so many others are suffering as a result of their isolation, we hope to continue turning the tide against this form of torture until it is eradicated from the U.S. once and for all.  Read entire Center for Constitutional Rights article here: https://ccrjustice.org/home/blog/2015/08/04/solitary-confinement-social-death-nyt-shocking-data-ccr-case

New York Times article:
Solitary Confinement: Punished for Life

by Erica Goode   Aug. 3, 2015
The article appeared in print on August 4, 2015, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: Punished for Life.
Here’s an excerpt:

In 1993, Craig Haney, a social psychologist, interviewed a group of inmates in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison, California’s toughest penal institution.

He was studying the psychological effects of isolation on prisoners, and Pelican Bay was among the first of a new breed of super-maximum-security prisons that states around the country were beginning to build.

Twenty years later, he returned to Pelican Bay for another set of interviews. He was startled to find himself facing some of the same prisoners he had met before, inmates who now had spent more than two decades alone in windowless cells.

“It was shocking, frankly,” Dr. Haney said.
Read entire New York Times article:
http://nyti.ms/1HmwM0f

Statewide Actions Against Solitary Confinement Grow as They Enter Third Month

Media Advisory – May 20, 2015

Statewide Actions against Solitary Confinement Grow as they Enter Third Month

Contact: Mohamed Shehk 408.910.2618, mohamed@criticalresistance.org  Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

When:  Saturday, May 23, 2015 – and the 23rd of each month thereafter.

Time: All day, depending on location (see below for specifics)

What:   Community organizations, families and loved ones of people in solitary, and advocates across California will be mobilizing a day of Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement each month. These mobilizations are a response to a proposal from prisoners in Pelican Bay State Prison involved in the 2011 and 2013 Hunger Strikes, who put forward the idea of designating a day each month as Prisoner Rights Day.

“Our outside supporters have all of our gratitude; their tireless efforts supportive of our cause make a giant positive difference,” says Todd Ashker, a prisoner who has been in solitary at Pelican Bay State Prison for over two decades, and a lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against California for the use of solitary confinement. “They have recently begun monthly supportive actions—across the state—publicly rallying on the 23^rd of each month for the purpose of keeping the subject of our endless torture in public view, and thereby exposed to the world. The 23^rd of each month is symbolic of our 23+ hours per day in these tombs-of-the-living-dead—and it is hoped such rallies will spread across the nation.”

Where: Various locations across California, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Oakland, Arcata, San Francisco and others. For a complete list with information, please see prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/may-23rd-statewide-coordinated-actions-to-end-solitary-confinement-locations-details/#more-6225

Who:    The actions are being organized by groups with the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS), and are endorsed by over 30 community groups and organizations from California, and around the nation and world.

Why:    The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) refuses to respect basic human rights by continuing to keep people isolated in cells, often for years upon years, despite international condemnation calling on California to end its practice of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement has been defined as torture by the U.N., yet the U.S. puts more people in solitary and for longer periods than any other country, and California continues to be an outlier in the U.S. California continues to use the practice in violation of international law and, as many believe, in violation of the U.S.’s policy against cruel and unusual punishment.

These coordinated actions seek to build organized, community-based pressure outside prison walls, and to amplify the demands of prisoners who continue to call for the end of torture.

Spokespeople will be available to speak with media at all locations. For more information, please visit prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com

—

Mohamed Shehk
Media and Communications Director
Critical Resistance
1904 Franklin St, Suite 504
Oakland, CA 94612
510.444.0484