Support Operation PUSH Prisoner Strike throughout Florida prison system, initiated on MLK Day

The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition stands in solidarity with the Florida Prison Strikers.

Stay informed and updated with links below. Please help amplify the striking prisoners’ voices.

These are the strikers’ demands (in their words):
1. Payment for our labor, rather than the current slave arrangement
2. Ending outrageous canteen prices
3. Reintroducing parole incentives to lifers and those with Buck Rogers dates

Along with these primary demands, we are also expressing our support for the following goals:

• Stop the overcrowding and acts of brutality committed by officers throughout FDOC which have resulted in the highest death rates in prison history.
• Expose the environmental conditions we face, like extreme temperatures, mold, contaminated water, and being placed next to toxic sites such as landfills, military bases and phosphate mines (including a proposed mine which would surround the Reception and Medical Center prison in Lake Butler).
• Honor the moratorium on state executions, as a court-ordered the state to do, without the legal loophole now being used to kill prisoners on death row.
• Restore voting rights as a basic human right to all, not a privilege, regardless of criminal convictions.

Supporters of Operation PUSH march in solidarity with prisoners on Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday, Gainesville, FL, Jan 15, 2018. (Photo from Fighting Toxic Prisons)

Florida Prisoners Are Laying It Down
with a work stoppage, an economic protest

Prisoners’ Statement: FL Prisoners Call for Operation PUSH to Improve the Lives of Incarcerated People and the Communities We Come From (with intro from Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons) https://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/fl-prisoners-announce-operation-push-starting-jan-15-to-cripple-prison-system/

Great Audio Interview: Oakland IWOC speaking on Operation PUSH on KPFA with Cat Brooks Jan 23, 2018 https://soundcloud.com/oakland-iwoc/oakland-iwoc-speaking-on-operation-push-on-kpfa-upfront-with-cat-brooks

Jan 19, 2018 Update on Operation PUSH (originally posted on SPARC) https://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/updates-on-operation-push-in-the-florida-department-of-corrections/

Are Florida prisons suppressing an inmate strike or just lying about it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/01/24/are-florida-prisons-suppressing-an-inmate-strike-or-just-lying-about-it/?utm_term=.8b74c32b7067

Florida Officials Deny Operation PUSH Is Ongoing, Even As They Retaliate Against Prisoners https://shadowproof.com/2018/01/25/operation-push-update/

Please stay updated through these sites:

• • • Supporting Prisoners And Real Change (SPARC) https://www.facebook.com/SPARC-133851070619730/
    • Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP)
      https://www.facebook.com/FightToxicPrisons  and https://tinyurl.com/ycxgf66w
    • IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) https://www.facebook.com/incarceratedworkers/ and https://incarceratedworkers.org/openaid-home

Recent Call to Action! Demand Florida DOC Stop Torturing Rashid Johnson

Kevin “Rashid” Johnson (#158039) wrote an article about the Florida prison strike, “Florida Prisoners Are Laying it Down” which was published online on January 9, 2018. The following day warden Barry Reddish retaliated against Rashid’s use of his First Amendment rights, ordering that he be given a disciplinary infraction for “inciting a riot”. Further, on January 19th Rashid was thrown in a cold cell, with a broken toilet, no heating, and with a window that will not fully close, allowing cold wind to blow into the cell. The cell has the same temperature as the outside, where temperatures have been repeatedly at or below freezing.  Kevin “Rashid” Johnson was not allowed communication with his attorney or anyone on the outside for 6 days.

UPDATE: People made many calls to the warden in the prison where Rashid is being held.

PHSS Supports Strike Against Prison Slavery and Inhumane Conditions

The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS) supports the peaceful work stoppages and hunger strikes that began throughout the country on September 9, 2016 by incarcerated people fighting prison slavery, solitary confinement, and other abuses. Opposing dehumanization in prison is an expression of the struggle for the recognition of all of our humanity. We support peaceful prisoner-class-led movements struggling against prison dehumanization and for human rights for all.

For more info on PHSS, see prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordprss.com

DYING TO LIVE Wisconsin Hunger Strike 65th day, Prisoners Justice Day Aug 10th, Nationwide (U.S.)Work Stoppage Sept 9th

DYING TO LIVE Hunger Strike Continues

The Dying to Live Hunger Strike in Wisconsin has gone on for 65 days! Strikers demand an end to indefinite solitary confinement, what the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WI DOC) calls Administrative Confinement (AC). On June 17 the DOC requested and got approval to force feed the hunger striking prisoners. Cesar DeLeon and LaRon McKinley began refusing food on June 7, and the WI DOC has been force feeding them in retaliation since June 17.

A coalition of supporters led by Milwaukee IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee are mounting a big solidarity demo on Aug 13th and calling for support actions elsewhere. Read about that here.

• SIX HUMANITARIAN DEMANDS: http://solitarytorture.blogspot.com/2016/06/demands-of-food-refusers-june-2016.html

• PHSS STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY: http://wp.me/p1BB1k-2Lo

• STAY UPDATED: http://solitarytorture.blogspot.com/

• STATEMENTS FROM PRISONERS striking since June 7
  • LaRon http://tinyurl.com/z79ppcj
  • Cesar http://tinyurl.com/jtkpuwo

• ARTICLE ABOUT FORCE-FEEDING: http://tinyurl.com/h4dufme

• SIGN PETITION! https://www.change.org/p/wi-doc-secretary-jon-litscher-waupun-prisoners-begin-food-refusal-to-protest-solitary-torture

• FOR QUESTIONS, email:  prisonforum@outlook.com

Prisoners’ Justice Day – August 10th

Today, August 10, hundreds of events across Canada and the world, in solidarity with the Canadian Prisoners’ Justice Day, a day of mourning, remembrance, advocacy and protest.

Prisoners’ Justice Day is a day set aside to remember all the men and women who have died unnatural deaths inside Canadian prisons. August 10th marks the anniversary of the suicide death of Edward Nalon in a segregation cell in Millhaven Penitentiary on Aug. 10, 1974. History here.

Advocates as well as prisoners themselves have also marked the day to bring much needed attention to issues such as the conditions inside prisoners, the harmful practice of segregation or solitary confinement, the unnatural deaths, lack of access to medication and mental health services, and other justice and rights issues.

The day helps bring a voice to some of the stories of injustice and human rights abuses that occur within the prison system and may otherwise not receive much attention. The day brings critical attention to the fundamental rights of prisoners.

Some of the issues that are advocated for include access to proper heath care, fair legal representation behind prison walls and standing up against the inhumane conditions of solitary cells, often referred to as Special Handling Units.

What started as a one time event behind the walls of Millhaven Prison has become an international day of solidarity. On this day, August 10th, prisoners around the world fast, refuse to work, and remain in their cells while those of us on the outside organize to show our solidarity with those struggling behind the bars, to show that they are not forgotten and to draw attention to the conditions inside prisons.

Read More here: http://www.cdnaids.ca/prisonersjusticeday-august10th

SEPT 9, 2016 Prisoner Work Stoppage

Prisoners across the US have called for a nationally coordinated work stoppage and protest starting on Sept 9 2016, the 45th anniversary of Attica. The safety of these prisoners and the effectiveness of the protest depend greatly on outside support. There is a robust and expanding outside support network that you or your organization could join to participate in this, the first prisoner protest of its kind.

People throughout the country are mobilizing for the upcoming September 9 strike (work stoppage), from NYC to Durham to Oakland. This week, at Ohio State Penitentiary, Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan, one of the key spokespeople for the Sep 9 movement, was visited by Ohio State Highway Patrol.

In Spring of 2016, prisoners from across the U.S. released this call to action for a nationally coordinated prisoner work stoppage against prison slavery to take place on September 9th, 2016. Get their full announcement as a zine PDF. En Espanol or mailroom friendly

This is a Call to Action Against Slavery in America

In one voice, rising from the cells of long term solitary confinement, echoed in the dormitories and cell blocks from Virginia to Oregon, we prisoners across the United States vow to finally end slavery in 2016.

On September 9th of 1971 prisoners took over and shut down Attica, New York State’s most notorious prison. On September 9th of 2016, we will begin an action to shut down prisons all across this country. We will not only demand the end to prison slavery, we will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves.

Read Full Announcement here: http://tinyurl.com/oa7m2vt

If you’re planning something in connection with the September 9th work stoppage and protest, please share it with prisonerresistance@gmail.com

 

The way forward to End Solitary Confinement Torture: Where’s the army?

Jan. 25, 2015
by Todd Ashker

On the subject of SHU and Ad-Seg constituting torture, for those of us who may not be familiar with the specifics and in light of CDCr’s steady stream of propaganda – saying, “We don’t operate any solitary confinement units or cells in the California penal system, nor do we torture anyone” – here’s a summary of relevant facts supporting our position that these SHU and Ad-Seg units and the operations thereof are designed (modeled) after techniques designed to break political prisoners as a control mechanism. They are intended to break prisoners via coercive persuasion into becoming state informants.

I’ll begin by asking you a simple question?

Why is it that CDCr is able to get away with portraying PBSP SHU (Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit) prisoners as the “worst of the worst” sub-human monsters ever encountered in modern times as justification for their policies and practices of treating said prisoners as sub-human via decades of what is clearly a form of solitary confinement with sensory deprivation – and yet, as soon as these men agree to become state stooges via debriefing, they are no longer a threat and are released to the sensitive needs yard (protective custody) general population prison of their choice?

One of the main reasons they are able to continue to get away with their BS is the failure of the people to hold the lawmakers responsible.

I’ve been in the SHU for 28.4 years, to date, 24.7 years of which has been here in PBSP-SHU. [Editor’s note: This was written Dec. 30, 2014.] I’ve been challenging prison conditions in the courts since 1988, which is viewed as challenging prisoncrats’ authority, and up until our 2011 hunger strike protest, I’d never been formally charged with a gang related rule violation. (During our hunger strike I was issued two rule violations classified as serious. They were for: a) having a photo of my longtime friend; and b) a letter that someone had sent me, a stranger who represented herself as a supporter of our cause and wanted to be a pen pal. Staff gave me the letter, and then came around later and confiscated it and wrote me up.)

The above is intended to put the following into some perspective: Based on my personal experience in PBSP SHU during the past 24.7 years, I’ve experienced many techniques designed to break me. One is isolation from my social group. This is a tactic used here by prisoncrats to physically remove those prisoners deemed “problematic” to areas sufficiently isolated to effectively break or weaken close emotional ties, along with segregation of all natural leaders.

I’ve been challenging prison conditions in the courts since 1988, which is viewed as challenging prisoncrats’ authority, and up until our 2011 hunger strike protest, I’d never been formally charged
with a gang related rule violation.

What prisoncrats like to do is claim that this place can’t be considered a solitary confinement unit because you have eight cells to each pod and thus the prisoners in each pod are able to talk to each other. But here is how it actually operates. If you are deemed a “problematic” prisoner by any of the staff – for example, if you are a prisoner who is constantly challenging the prisoncrats’ policies and practices – their way of subjecting you to an informal form of punishment or to try to break you is to put you in a pod where there are no other people of your social group.

Artwork accompanies writing at this SF Bay View link
http://sfbayview.com/2015/01/the-way-forward-to-end-solitary-confinement-torture-wheres-the-army/