Bondage by any other name is still Slavery.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/26/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2016/8021/802106.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 21 May 30, 2016
(front page)
Prisoners strike to protest abuse and little or no pay
in Alabama
BY SUSAN LAMONT
ATLANTA — A work stoppage by hundreds of inmates in several Alabama
prisons brought national attention to the conditions faced by the 29,000
men and women incarcerated in the state’s penal system, especially the
use of unpaid or poorly paid labor. The strike, which began on May Day,
also underscored how prisoners are organizing themselves to fight for
dignity and against systematic abuse.
“Conditions continue to get worse here," Melvin Ray, 45, told the
Militant May 15 in a phone interview from one of Alabama’s state
prisons. In addition to overcrowding and the unpaid labor prisoners are
forced to perform, “the courts are not impartial, prisoners are
brutalized, there’s a lack of funds for education and other programs,
and the food is often not fit for human consumption," said Ray, a
founder of the Free Alabama Movement, which initiated the protest.
Prisoners formed the group in January 2014, when they organized their
first strike.
Beginning May 1 prisoners at Holman, Staton and Elmore Correctional
Facilities refused to leave their cells to work, from unpaid jobs
serving food to “industry" jobs that pay from $.17 to $.30 an hour — the
only paid jobs in the state’s prisons. Prisoners at St. Clair joined the
action May 9.
At Holman, industry jobs include making Alabama state license plates and
bedding for the prisons in the sewing factory. Elmore has a canning and
recycling plant and St. Clair has a vehicle restoration and chemical plant.
The Alabama government legalized the use of prison labor by private,
for-profit companies in 2012. “We are going to put our prisoners to
work. They are going to be paid a reasonable wage," said state
representative Jim McClendon, the bill’s sponsor, at the time. Since
then, 17 different prison labor industries have been set up across the
state.
Prisoners also routinely face fines and fees. “Our mass incarceration is
a form of slavery, because we’re not being paid for our work, but we’re
being charged outrageous fines," one prisoner told Solitary Watch, a
website that publishes information about solitary confinement and its
impact. Prisoners are charged $4 for armbands and identification cards,
$31.50 for a urinalysis test and $200 to petition a court, the only way
a prisoner can file a complaint.
Prisoners also are charged $25 for being caught with a cell phone the
first time, with fines rising $25 for each further violation. Prison
guards sell the phones to prisoners, who use them primarily to call
their families, according to Solitary Watch. Its report also cited
prisoners’ complaints about the water, which “looks like fog. You cannot
drink it," one said.
The prisons where the strike occurred were put on lockdown after it
started. Authorities also retaliated by cutting the size of meals, a
practice inmates call “bird-feeding." “For the last 10 days we have been
receiving well below a thousand calories per meal," prisoner Kinetik
Justice, who is in solitary confinement in Holman Correctional Facility,
told the radio program “Democracy Now."
Alabama spends only $26 a day per prisoner. The national average is $62,
according to the Equal Justice Initiative. “It spends the least of any
state on medical care for inmates," states an EJI fact sheet. “Unsafe
prison conditions have given rise to lawsuits in which courts have found
that crowding in state and local facilities is ‘barbaric.’"
“We have contact with women in Tutwiler women’s prison," Ray said. “They
are subject to very harsh conditions. Many are supporting our protests,
even though they didn’t participate directly."
“We have support from family members and some other groups in the
community," Ray added. On May 7, a protest to support the strikers was
held outside Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, sponsored by the
Free Alabama Movement and The Ordinary People Society, which backs the
prisoners’ fight. The support group Mothers and Families is planning a
June 22 protest at Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham to back the
prisoners’ ongoing struggle.
The prisoners ended their strike May 13.
Related articles:
Gary Tyler, framed up in 1974, walks free from Louisiana prison
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