This page is a partial archive of reporting on the prison industrial complex, political prisoners, and prison-based activism from US-based IMCs. It is not a complete archive of such coverage. If you know of a story that is missing, please contact the editorial collective at imc-us-editorial((at))lists.indymedia.org.<< Image from www.prisonzone.com
Background: The Prison-Industrial Complex
The US prison system functions as a system of modern-day slavery. People of color make up 70 percent of the prison population, and private corporations such as Eddie Bauer and Microsoft profit off of their labor. The number of prisoners topped 2 million in 2002 and keeps growing. Every year, new prisons are built -- and are filled. Private prisons (not state owned) are now being built and operated for profit.
This growth persists despite the fact that crime rates has been declining over the past 20 years. Nearly 80 percent of prisoners are there for non-violent offenses (the vast majority of these drug-related). Women are the highest rising population in prison, and most of them are there for "crimes of survival," committed to feed themselves and their families. Most of the people in prisons are poor, brown, urban, functionally illiterate, unemployed or under-employed before they were locked down, and are there for non-violent crimes, mostly selling or using drugs.
Information for this summary was taken from the Human Rights Coalition.
More Info: Books To Prisoners Projects | Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons | Critical Resistance | Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC) | Prison Legal News
Support for Political Prisoners
A movement that doesn't support it's political internees is a movement destined to fail.
Incarceration for espousing one's beliefs has been happening in this country and around the globe throughout history. Some ways folks on the outside can support political prisoners is by writing them letters that don't jeopardize cases/appeals and don't use nicknames, by sending them reading material, joining/starting a Books To Prisoners or other prisoner support group, and networking with existing support groups.
Here are some resources on political prisoners: Anarchist Black Cross | Freedom Archives | The Jericho Movement
And on eco-defense prisoner support: Portland IMC's Green Scare Page | fbiwitchhunt.org | Earth Liberation Prisoners | ecoprisoners.org
Political Prisoner Letter Writing Dinner
Wednesday, August 4th
6:30pm-8:30pm
United Church of Christ 400 S Williams St.
RELATED: Leonard Peltier and the Indigenous People: Our Lives Have Meaning II Leonard Peltier: Silence Screams
Leonard Peltier's first full parole hearing was held in 1993, at which time his case was continued for a 15-year reconsideration. Mr. Peltier has recently applied for and been granted a parole hearing. The hearing is scheduled for July 28, 2009. All supporters are encouraged to step up their efforts in support of parole for Leonard Peltier
Initiative I-100, also known as the "No New Jail" initiative, would have asked Seattle voters to require "the city to analyze successful and cost-effective jail diversion programs, address the effects of racial disparity within the incarceration system, work collaboratively with King County, and put the matter of a new jail to a public vote before a new jail could be constructed." Activists gathered 13,000 signatures to put the question of whether to build a new jail up for a vote, however, the campaign was 5,000 short of what was needed to qualify for the ballot. Despite this setback, Wednesday's rally against a new jail showed that the battle against Seattle's proposed new jail will not end. Read More & Pics | Related: "Destroy ICE Prisons" Tacoma Banner Drop
The central thesis of Resistance Behind Bars is truly profound. In clear, non-academic language, Law argues that recent scholarship documenting and radically criticizing the increased incarceration rates and mistreatment of women prisoners "largely ignores what the women themselves do to change or protest these circumstances, thus reinforcing the belief that incarcerated women do not organize." Alongside academia, Law also harshly criticizes radical prison activists, arguing that "just as the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s downplayed the role of women in favor of highlighting male spokesmen and leaders, the prisoners' rights movement has focused and continues to focus on men to speak for the masses." Read More | Related: In This Culture of Discipline and Punishment - Your Panopticon is Watching You!
Sunday July 26th, 3pm
Colorado Anti-Violence Program Office
304 Elati Street, Denver
A screening of: "Incident at Oglala"
A Matinee Film Benefit for American Indian Movement Political Prisoner,
Leonard Peltier
American Indian Movement leader and organizer, Leonard Peltier, has spent
over 30 years in prison as a result of legal proceedings marred with
Massachusetts ranks high among those prisons that are overcrowded. There is poor medical treatment, according to the inmates, prison racism, abuses, and poor nutritional food among some of the complaints. What Massachusetts prisons do have is a large number of Correctional Officers. In a state that is suffering from unemployment, and an over loaded budget, the hiring of Correction officers don't seem to be affected at all.
One Massachusetts inmate Darrell Jones could see the abuses and racism in Massachusetts prisons, and decided to watch, take notes, and eventually report on an audio tape what he felt was going on. Upon release of the audio tape on the Internet, the next day he was thrown into "the hole." He was soon transferred from OCCC to MCI Norfolk, where he currently housed. Here is my interview with Darrell, where he speaks his mind on the issues of Massachusetts prisons, and what happened to him when he spoke out against the system. Read Interview | RELATED: Voices from Behind the Wall
Recently, members of Rochester Indymedia sat in on the latest iteration of Tyquan Rivera's court case. We were moved to witness this process because of the disturbing imbalance in the corporate media coverage of the proceedings we'd seen thus far. We found the experience to be a strange brew of truth being lost between the lines of the prosecution’s witness testimonies mixed up with absurdly dysfunctional, if not incompetent, corporate media behavior. We'd like to share some of our observations that day with our Indymedia readers. [Watch the] Video of Chief Leonard Crow Dog and Delaney Bruce> speaking on May 20th...
BACKGROUND
Peltier, a high-profile member of the American Indian Movement, was convicted in April, 1977, for his alleged role in the 1975 deaths of two FBI agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He received two life sentences. A model prisoner, over the past 33 years Peltier has become an accomplished painter and, from his prison cell, has spearheaded philanthropic support of Indian communities. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize each of the last six years. Peltier is legitimately eligible for release from prison. But, again, the FBI has launched a smear campaign to influence the parole board against him.
Letters in support of Peltier are needed now more than ever. Sample letters and more information are available at: Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee and Friends of Peltier
From: "International Action Center"
Contact: action.news@organizerweb.com
The following alert was released on July 19 by the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee.
FEATURED VIDEO: Linn Washington Jr, speaks in Philadelphia on April 24 (watch parts one, two, three)
RELATED: Videos of Oakland, CA event for Abu-Jamal on April 24 II The Mumia Exception, by J. Patrick O'Connor II Sign Online Petition/Letter to Attorney General Holder II Open letters to AG Holder from Cynthia McKinney and U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means
RELATED: SF Bay View: U.S. Supreme Court rejects Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal for a new trial
Leonard’s Parole Hearing has finally been scheduled for July 27, 2009, and is the focus of an international campaign in the coming months.
RELATED: Take Action in support of parole
http://freejeffluers.org/donate.html 
International Human Rights group, Amnesty International, met with Rama Carty yesterday. Carty is an outspoken detainee at the Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC). This morning of June 3rd, 2009, at around 5:35am, Amnesty attempted to visit with Carty for a second time, but Carty has not been able to meet with them; instead, he was beaten by facility guards and “taken away”. DHS/ICE is illegally being transferred to Louisiana to be deported to Haiti.
RELATED: Leonard Peltier: Silence Screams, by Carolina Saldaña
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