National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners

Please join in on a National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners on February 20th!  Start planning and event in your area and in your local Occupy assemblies today:   We want demonstrations or other actions in front of/near/about prisons/jails/detention centers across the country.  We especially want to highlight the voices of prisoners.

For more information and a full list of endorsing organizations and individuals, please visit occupy4prisoners.org.  In addition to the website there is also a Twitter (@occupy4prisoner) and a Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/ pages/Occupy4Prisoners/ 234095196660637

The Occupy4Prisoners day of action was initiated by Bay Area prison activists, anti-death penalty activists, etc. -  who want to connect our issues up with the Occupy movement.  A resolution passed in the Oakland Occupy General Assembly endorsing this action.

CA death row prisoner Kevin Cooper who wrote the fabulous essay, "Occupy Death Row", which helped fuel the idea for a national day of solidarity with prisoners.  Activists like Angela Davis, Barbara Becnel, the CEDP, Pelican Bay Hunger striker/prisoner solidarity activists, former prisoners from All of Us or None, the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia, Elaine Brown, Jack Bryson, folks from Occupy Oakland and other activists have come together to make this idea into a reality. 

Here are the reasons for this action:

Prisons have become a central institution in American society, integral to our politics, economy and our culture.

Between 1976 and 2000, the United States built on average a new prison each week and the number of imprisoned Americans increased tenfold.

Prison has made the threat of torture part of everyday life for millions of individuals in the United States, especially the 7.3 million people—who are disproportionately people of color—currently incarcerated or under correctional supervision.

Imprisonment itself is a form of torture. The typical American prison, juvenile hall and detainment camp is designed to maximize degradation, brutalization, and dehumanization. 

Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow. Between 1970 and 1995, the incarceration of African Americans increased 7 times. Currently African Americans make up 12 % of the population in the U.S. but 53% of the nation’s prison population. There are more African Americans under correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. 

The prison system is the most visible example of policies of punitive containment of the most marginalized and oppressed in our society. Prior to incarceration, 2/3 of all prisoners lived in conditions of economic hardship. While the perpetrators of white-collar crime largely go free.

In addition, the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated that in 2008 alone there was a loss in economic input associated with people released from prison equal to $57 billion to $65 billion.

What we are calling for:                  

1. Abolishing unjust sentences, such as the Death Penalty, Life Without the Possibility of Parole, Three Strikes, Juvenile Life Without Parole, and the practice of trying children as adults.

2. Standing in solidarity with movements initiated by prisoners and taking action to support prisoner demands, including the Georgia Prison Strike and the Pelican Bay/California Prisoners Hunger Strikes.

3. Freeing political prisoners, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Lynne Stewart, Bradley Manning and Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald, a Black Panther Party member incarcerated since 1969.

4. Demanding an end to the repression of activists, specifically the targeting of African Americans and those with histories of incarceration, such as Khali in Occupy Oakland who could now face a life sentence, on trumped-up charges, and many others being falsely charged after only exercising their First Amendment rights.

5. Demanding an end to the brutality of the current system, including the torture of those who have lived for many years in Secured Housing Units (SHUs) or in solitary confinement.

6. Demanding that our tax money spent on isolating, harming and killing prisoners, instead be invested in improving the quality of life for all and be spent on education, housing, health care, mental health care and other human services which contribute to the public good.