Prisoners are Demanding More
posted by Keyona Smith | December 5, 2018 | In NewsThe 2018 Prison Strike was organized after the death of seven inmates and at least 17 injuries during a prison riot, named one of the deadliest in our nation, in April at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina. Prisoners at the Lee Correctional Institution were demonstrating against overcrowding issues seen in the facility and the lack of basic prisoner respect. The National Prison strike was announced a week later by organized prisoner officials.
This prison strike is symbolic to both the death anniversary to Black Panther Party member George Jackson, and the Attica Prison uprising in New York. Jackson was shot and killed by prison guards years prior on the same date as the beginning of the strike, August 21st and the Attica Prison uprising that reported to leave 40 people dead began on the end date of the strike on September 9.
According to The New York Times, a video shared by California prison activists showed a prisoner refusing to eat a burrito and stating that he was on a hunger strike. Mass media played a role in spreading the message throughout the nation. Amani Sawari, spokeswoman for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, said that details spread through word of mouth and different outreach programs for prisons but knowing specifics was still very difficult without unrestrained communication with prisoners.
A banners hangs outside the prison fences of North Carolina’s Hyde Correctional Institution reading, “in solidarity.” Prisoners are pushing to see better pay wages as well as living conditions. Experts say that inside prisoners struggle to afford basic necessities like toothpaste or deodorant, some cannot afford to make phone calls to their families. Amanda Arnold of The Cut, explains that states Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas do not pay their prisoners for their labor.
Prisoners are recognizing that the way they are being treated is beyond unfairly and has been for most of the established punitive corporation. Although they are imprisoned individuals, they are being denied basic human rights. They are pushing for an end to “modern-day slavery.” The solidarity demonstration is widespread across at least 17 states. They realize in order to improve their conditions they must unify. The inmates demonstrated to prison officials with hunger strikes, sit-ins and work strikes.
“The main leverage that an inmate has is their own body,” Sawari, spokesperson for the protests explained to Vox correspondent German Lopez. “Prisons cannot run without prisoners’ work.” Sawari explains that the prisoners want to be valued as contributors to our society as they are vastly involved with our car license plates, fast food chains and stores we shop at.
The prisons justify their treatment of the prisoners with the premise of the 13th Amendment. The 13th Amendment says: “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction,” according to the library of Congress.
According to the Organization of Incarcerated Workers, prisoners are standing together to call attention to a total of ten demands, among them “immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women,” “an immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor,” and “an immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole denials of black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular problem in the southern states.”
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