CALL TO ACTION - RALLY

FAIR COMMUTATION NOT MASS INCARCERATION

February 25, 2020

12:30p – 1:30p 

• 546 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh PA

Dear friends, 

You are invited to join us on February 25th in calling on Attorney General Josh Shapiro to use his power on the Board of Pardons to vote yes on second chances, allowing people who have worked tirelessly to transform their lives to come home after decades of incarceration. 

Commutation is a difficult process that requires, among other things, a unanimous “yes” vote from the Board of Pardons. For the over 5,300 people currently serving life without parole sentences, it is one of their only pathways home. Despite his pledge to fight mass incarceration, Josh Shapiro has denied the opportunity to come home to more people than any other member of the Board. On February 25th, you have an opportunity to hold him accountable. 

Our communities deserve elected officials that believe in people’s capacity for transformation, and use their power in ways that encourage accountability and healing. Josh Shapiro is prioritizing what he thinks will get him the most points politically over people’s lives and our communities’ well being. It will take all of us to show him that Pennsylvanians believe in second chances, and demand that he show our loved ones mercy. 

People’s lives are on the line. Will you join us in demanding that when the Chair of the Board supports an application for commutation, Josh Shapiro vote in favor?

Action Alert: SCI Smithfield delivering solitary confinement instead of medical care!

Call now to protest SCI Smithfield's use of solitary confinement against prisoners!

Mark McClary is a prisoner at SCI Smithfield, where staff are throwing him in solitary confinement rather than issue him clearance for a medical condition. In his mother's words:

My son Mark suffers from depression and has always had a sleep disorder. The doctor at SCI Smithfield has diagnosed him for both of these conditions and has prescribed an antidepressant and a sleep aid for 100 milligrams each. However, some mornings he may oversleep due to the meds and he gets written up and thrown in the RHU (Restricted Housing Unit, one of PA's versions of solitary confinement). Medical is supposed to give him clearance and keep a card on his door stating that this inmate may need assistance waking up for count, and that staff should simply knock and wake him up. Prison staff are refusing to give him the clearance even though medical is aware and treating him for these disorders.

Why? He is also harassed by three officers for no reason. They totally abuse their authority by refusing him yard time, food, and a shower. No matter how they may personally feel about Mark, he is entitled to these things and no one should have the right to take them away. They make up lies to cover up their wrongdoing. He files grievances and talks to whoever he can, but nothing gets done and nothing changes. He only has these issues on this block with these three officers. He simply wants to be moved away from these guards but he continues to be placed right back with them. They are setting him up to be terrorized by these guards. While they watch over the inmates who is watching the guards? He reached out to me because his frustration is growing and he has done all he can on his end. Any help I can get for him is greatly appreciated. Despite my calls I am getting nowhere. Please call now!.

Thank you. A very frustrated and worried mother-
Dionne

HRC receives dozens, even hundreds of reports similar to this every year. Call now- by helping out in this situation you're letting PA prison officials and legislators know that we won't take it any more!

SCI SMITHFIELD- Superintendent Kevin Kauffman (814) 643-6520
DOC Central Office- Secretary John Wetzel (717) 728-4109
Let your state senator and representative know! (find your PA legislators here http://www.legis.state.pa.us/…/findyourlegislator/index.cfm…)

Talking Points
-State that you are calling about Mark McClary ‪#‎HK‬-1530, who is being held at SCI Smithfield
-Inform them that you are aware that prison staff are attempting to use solitary confinement to resolve a medical situation, rather than take the very easy step of issuing a medical clearance to a prisoner who needs it.
-Emphasize that solitary confinement is a form of torture, that it can cause lasting mental damage after only a few days, that it is coming under increasing scrutiny both nationally and internationally, and its continued use by SCI Smithfield staff is absolutely unconscionable and must be stopped immediately
-Insist that Mark be issued medical clearance for his meds and that he be moved away from officers Klein, Douglas, and Ward
-Inform them that you have already contacted or will be contacting your state legislators (find your PA legislators here http://www.legis.state.pa.us/…/findyourlegislator/index.cfm…)

Actions Thursday! Downtown Pittsburgh

The city is currently in contract negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) so let's put pressure on our elected officials to do everything in their power to change this contract for the better.

We Change Pittsburgh Demands for FOP Contract:

1. Public access to disciplinary reports and police misconduct complaints

2. Grant the Citizen's Police Review Board subpoena power and authority to discipline officers

3. Police must reside in the city of Pittsburgh

Contact the Mayor's Office and demand he argue for the people of Pittsburgh in these contract negotiations to hold police accountable - 412 255 2626.

Rally outside the City-County Building on Thursday, May 7th before the arbitration hearing from 8:00am - 9:00am

‪#‎FOPIntervention‬ ‪#‎WeChangePittsburgh‬ ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬

Come out and support Tomi Lynn Harris' and the Allegheny County Jail Health Justice Project on May 7 at 3:00pm, in the courtyard of the Allegheny Courthouse.

We will be paying homage to Tomi's son, Frank Smart, who died in the care of the Allegheny County Jail in January of this year. Since Frank's death, two more people have died under the jail's contract with Corizon, a for-profit company providing healthcare to prisons. All of these deaths were preventable; ACJ and Corizon need to be held accountable.

Speakers include:
Tomi Lynn Harris
Michael David Battle

Julia Johnson
Mel Packer

ACJ Health Justice Project - Launch

Allegheny County Jail Health Justice Project to Launch at Jail Oversight Board meeting on Thursday (2/5)

HRC Fed Up!, along with jail workers, human rights advocates, community groups, and inmates’ family members seek an end to appalling health care at ACJ

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1604861103078658/

CORRECTION: A press release sent out earlier in the week stated that there was going to be a meeting of the Jail Oversight Board this Thursday. This meeting has been postponed to next Thursday, February 12. The ACJ Health Justice Project will still launch on February 5 with a vigil for Frank Smart and a press conference.

PITTSBURGH- Allegheny County area advocacy organizations will announce the launch of the new Allegheny County Jail, Health Justice Project this Thursday, at 4:00 p.m. outside the Allegheny County courthouse, during a vigil for Frank Smart and a press conference.  The ACJ Health Justice Project seeks to ensure that members of our community incarcerated at ACJ receive comprehensive health care.

This Thursday marks one month since Frank Smart, 39, died, after less than a day in ACJ custody.  “I lost one whole child because of one pill. All he needed was one pill,” said Tomi Harris, mother of Frank Smart, who died at ACJ on January 5, 2015.  During a phone call hours before his death, Frank said that he was not being provided his anti-seizure medication.  Unfortunately, Mr. Smart was not the first member of our community to lose his life at the hands of Corizon Prison Health Management under the careless watch of Allegheny County officials.  It is time to act to ensure that no more fathers, sons, sisters or wives suffer dire health consequences as a result of unconstitutionally inadequate care created by Corizon’s poor management and cost cutting measures.

Over 18,000 residents of Allegheny County pass through ACJ each year.  Once there they are experiencing unacceptable delays in receiving medical care and the denial of necessary prescriptions simply because Corizon has deemed crucial medications too expensive.  Compounding matters, the medical staff at ACJ are being denied critical supplies and organizational supports they need to provide care: all with an almost $12 million annual cost to Allegheny County.

Despite repeated warnings and admonishments from public officials and private citizens alike, Corizon is refusing to even admit there is a problem.  This should come as no surprise from a national prison profiteer that has been named in over 660 medical malpractice lawsuits.

The ACJ Health Justice Project calls on Rich Fitzgerald, Allegheny County Jail Warden Orlando Harper and the members of the Jail Oversight Board: Judge Cashman, Judge Williams, Ms. Lazlo, Ms. Moss, Sheriff Mullen, and Dr. Walker to step up to the plate and sincerely oversee the abysmal medical care at ACJ.  They cannot continue to look the other way when the mortality rate at the ACJ is twice that of the national average.  The ACJ Health Justice Project calls on these members of our County government to ensure that members of our community are not being sentenced to death at the time of incarceration at ACJ.  Corizon Health has shown time and time again that they do not care about the health and well being of our community.

Rich Fitzgerald, Warden Harper, Judge McDaniel, Judge Williams, Ms. Lazlo, Ms. Moss, Sheriff Mullen and Dr. Walker, have the responsibility to stop these human rights abuses.  Do not commit another taxpayer dollar to Corizon Health, show them the door this September.  Our community deserves better.

Organizations endorsing the project include the Abolitionist Law Center, the PA Institutional Law Project, United Steelworkers, New Voices Pittsburgh, We Change Pittsburgh, the Garden of Peace Project, the Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up!, and Fight Back Pittsburgh.

Contact:    Randa Ruge (rruge[at]usw.org, 412-522-9687) or Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz (amorgan-kurtz[at]pailp.org, 412-434-6175)

Upcoming Event - Dissent Under Fire!

Dissent Under Fire!  Challenging the Prison Industrial Complex

A Revolutionary Party

Justice for Mumia Abu Jamal, the Dallas 6, and Jamal Knox

February 13th at 7:30pm

At the New Bohemian (887 Progress Street)

We're holding a fundraiser for the Dallas 6, prison whistleblowers being prosecuted for speaking out against torture in prisons, challenging SB 508 for Mumia Abu Jamal's case, and seeking justice for Jamal Knox, who was convicted for performing a rap song.

Speakers:  Pam Africa and Shandre Delaney

Performing:  Devyn Swain, 1Hood, Dos Noun

Help us raise $1000!

$10 to $20 suggested donation - no one turned away!

Parent and child friendly.

Facebook event:  http://www.facebook.com/events/566017466868962/

More information at:  

legalmeans.com/justice4jamalknox

Medical Neglect at SCI Muncy

The Human Rights Coalition received reports from Stacey Detwiler, a prisoner housed at SCI Muncy, who is experiencing health problems and deliberate indifference from medical staff at the prison . Two months after being admitted to SCI Muncy and prescribed 9 new medications, Detwiler lost regular leg function and has trouble walking or standing without collapsing. She suspects her medication is not correct and has tried meeting with medical staff to resolve the issue. Staff refuse to intervene, saying she must wait until she is released in two years.  Detwiler’s laundry job pays $12 a month making it impossible for her to meet the $5 charge per sick call to get appropriate care.  Staff refuse to grant Detwiler any privileges offered to prisoners with similar health problems, claiming that she is not old enough to qualify for privileges, such as obtaining a white card to move to the front of the medication line.

In December of last year, Detwiler and other women reported to prison officials, racial comments made by Guard Wolfe.  Wolfe was removed from line duty for a short time, but then came back. Shortly after, Wolfe accused Detwiler of cutting the med line and charged her with 30 days in the hole for being in an unauthorized area. Detwiler reported being freezing in the RHU in February and having trouble doing breathing treatments in the cold cell. Juan Mendez, the U.S. Special Rapporteur on torture suggests 15 days in solitary confinement as a psychological limit for punishing people, yet the DOC doles out 30 days commonly, often in retaliation for filing grievances.

Additionally, Detwiler reports being denied food by Guards McElroy and Cramer. After collapsing on the way to the chow hall because of leg problems, Detwiler was sent to the infirmary. When attempting to get her meal later, expecting a peanut butter sandwich, CO Cramer told her he would think about it. After an hour and a half she alerted Sgt McElroy who informed her that there was no food left. Detwiler reports that other women have been denied food by McElroy and Cramer.  In addition to being a human rights violation, denying a prisoner food is against DOC policy.

Detwiler was convicted of 3.5 to 7 years for witness intimidation, after stopping over a neighbor’s house to see if she was going to go court for her son’s case.  Detwiler knew the women and had helped take care of her when the neighbor was a teen, but believe the court inflated the story to get a conviction.  Detwiler fears that she will not regain regular leg function and will have become disabled due to her lengthy prison sentence and lack of medical treatment.

Update: Federal Court Denies Motion to Dismiss and Grants Motion to Amend Complaint in Human Rights Coalition’s Censorship Lawsuit

A challenge to prison censorship of political and human rights literature in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) has seen two favorable developments in the past month.

On Thursday, May 15, United States Federal District court ruled that a lawsuit challenging censorship of political literature in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections will go forward. The court denied the defense’s request to dismiss some of the censorship claims and all of the supervisory officials named as defendants.

On June 13, the court granted plaintiffs’ motion to amend and supplement the original complaint, adding new claims for relief and one new defendant: DOC Secretary John Wetzel. The new complaint adds due process challenges claiming that prison officials failed to provide non-prisoners with notice and an opportunity to challenge when prison staff censor their mail. Additional claims challenge the criteria used by the DOC to justify censorship as being impermissibly vague, permitting prison staff to impose arbitrary standards when making censorship decisions.

Plaintiffs are seeking monetary and injunctive relief.
The lawsuit, _Holbrook et al. v. Jellen et al_., was filed in January on behalf of the Human Rights Coalition (HRC), prisoner Robert Saleem Holbrook, and College of Charleston Professor Kristi Brian against several employees of the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Coal Township and the DOC for confiscation of mail sent to Holbrook, a co-founder of HRC who is currently held at SCI Coal Township.

The suit details a series of confiscations of Holbrook’s mail since January 2012 that includes academic correspondence with a college professor, scholarly essays from the anthology If They Come in the Morning, a Black history book, and a newsletter published by HRC, The Movement, which focuses on prison abuse, solitary confinement, and ways that prisoners’ family members can come together to challenge human rights abuses and injustice in the criminal legal system.

Plaintiffs are represented in the case by the Abolitionist Law Center, and David Shapiro, Clinical Assistant Professor of Law at the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law.

Dining Hall Protest: Prisoners Challenge Food Cutbacks at SCI Coal Township

On June 16, 2014 prisoners at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Coal Township in central Pennsylvania are embarking on a peaceful protest of the dining hall by refusing to go to eat due to the administration’s cutback to their food portions and rations.

Prisoners are once again taking the lead in the struggle for human rights. Support them today by calling the officials below and advocating for their demands.

On May 26, prisoners were told that the cutbacks were related to budget concerns and that their morning meal portions would be severely reduced. Prisoners are now served half a cup of cream of wheat or oatmeal, 2 pieces of toast and 2 sugar packets at the minimum 3 times per week. Rations such as syrup have been cut in half.

The budget cuts have not, however, had any effect on staff dining options. The administration has not made any cutbacks in portions provided to the Staff Dining Room, where staff have multiple menu selections and food options, salad bars, and multiple desert entries that drain from the prison food budget.

Prisoners are requesting that:

1. The food portions and sugar rations be returned to levels prior to the May 26 memo from Superintendent Mooney authorizing cutbacks to food portions and rations.

2. The Staff Dining Room’s unjustified and expansive entitlements be eliminated and staff be required to eat from the same Department of Corrections Master Menu, receiving the same menu as prisoners with the same portions and rations. No multiple menus, optional deserts, salad bars or other entitlements. Eliminating staff entitlements would save sufficient money from the DOC’s food budget and not require cutbacks to prisoners’ food.

3. If the DOC continues to authorize cutbacks to prisoners nutritional needs then prisoners request that the DOC authorize policy and procedures allowing prisoners to receive monthly 60-pound food packages from family and friends as prisoners in New Jersey, New York, and Ohio are allowed to receive. If the DOC places the budget over our nutritional needs we request a means to provide for our own nutritional needs.

Food is a human right and the government must provide prisoners with adequate amounts of nutritional food to maintain physical and mental health. At a time when Governor Corbett and the DOC are seeking a record amount of money to warehouse people in prisons – more than $2 billion – there is no justification for forcing people to go hungry.

How you can help: Please contact the DOC officials below and inform them of the above requests by prisoners at SCI Coal Township:

DOC Secretary John Wetzel – 717-728-4901

SCI Coal Township Superintendent Vincent Mooney – 570-644-7890

Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson Rally in Harrisburg

Family and supporters of Lorenzo Johnson, a Pennsylvania prisoner framed for a homicide, will rally at the Office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Thursday, May 29 at 2pm. Supporters demand that the Attorney General’s office drop its case against Lorenzo, which was built on police and prosecutor misconduct.

Although Johnson was not accused of participating in the shooting, only of allegedly being near the alley where the murder took place, he was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1996 at the age of 22. According to new evidence, Lorenzo was not in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the night of the murder of Tarajay Williams. He was 170 miles away, at home in New York, when the murder occurred.

Johnson has been released from prison once before, when the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his conviction in 2011 due to insufficient evidence. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision in May 2012, sending Johnson back to prison without following the usual process of allowing his lawyers the opportunity to file briefs or make oral arguments.

On August 5, 2013, Johnson’s attorney Michael Wiseman filed a motion (PCRA) seeking a new trial based upon newly discovered evidence. The filing contains new sworn affidavits from people who had knowledge of the murder and of the real killer(s), information that discredits key prosecution witness Carla Brown, and evidence that Johnson was in New York at the time of the murder and could not possibly have been involved.

The newly discovered evidence contains numerous instances of unconstitutional conduct on the part of the police and prosecution in Johnson’s case. Johnson and his trial counsel were never told that the prosecution’s star witness, Carla Brown, was questioned on the night of the shooting and had to be worked on for months in order to get her to implicate Johnson.

Suquan Ripply Boyd also provided an affidavit to Johnson, revealing for the first time that he was coerced by Detective Duffin into providing a false statement. Boyd and Johnson were in New York City on December 14-15, 1995, the same date the murder occurred. Prior to the trial, Boyd signed a statement that he could not recall the exact date after Duffin threatened him with a longer prison sentence than the one he was serving at the time.

On March 5, 2014, yet more evidence of state misconduct was filed in a supplemental petition, exposing that the lead detective in the case, Kevin Duffin, has a close, family-like relationship with witness Victoria Doubs and “looked out for her” in her encounters with other police on robbery and drug charges. Doubs was used by the prosecution to establish the fabricated motive for the murder despite the fact that she was with Lorenzo Johnson in New York City at the time of the shooting.

The Attorney General’s office has refused to consider the newly discovered evidence and is continuing the frame-up with the intention of forcing Johnson to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Lorenzo’s wife Tazza spoke at a press conference called by the Families of the Wrongfully Convicted in NYC on April 9, 2014:

“Greetings and support from my husband Lorenzo Johnson, an innocent man, sentenced to life without parole in Pennsylvania for a murder he did not commit eighteen years ago. He fought and won his freedom. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction. The court said there was insufficient evidence. Lorenzo was home for four months. But the state of PA appealed and the U.S. Supreme Court reversed and ordered him back to prison. My husband along with his friend Jeff Deskovic drove himself back to prison—to a sentence of life without parole. He had the courage to do that, to fight for his exoneration and freedom.

“I am pleading to our “Justice System” to do what’s right and free Lorenzo Johnson today!!! Bring our nightmare to an end!!"

This rally, “Call to Free the Innocent! Free Lorenzo Johnson!” is supported by the Freedom March for the Wrongfully Convicted from Western PA, Families of the Wrongfully Convicted in NYC, the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice (NYC), HRC-FedUp (Pittsburgh), the Abolitionist Law Center and others. Join Us!! Sign the petition to Free Lorenzo Johnson.

Federal Court Rules that Human Rights Coalition’s Censorship Lawsuit can Go Forward

On Thursday, May 15, United States Federal District court ruled that a lawsuit challenging censorship of political literature in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC) can go forward. The court denied the defense’s request to dismiss some of the censorship claims and all of the supervisory officials named as defendants.

The lawsuit, _Holbrook et al. v. Jellen et al_., was filed in January on behalf of the Human Rights Coalition (HRC), politicized prisoner Robert Saleem Holbrook, and College of Charleston Professor Kristi Brian against several employees of the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Coal Township and the (PA DOC) for confiscation of mail sent to Holbrook, a co-founder of HRC who is currently held at SCI Coal Township.

The suit details a series of confiscations of Holbrook’s mail since January 2012 that includes academic correspondence with a college professor, issues of The Movement, essays written by Angela Y. Davis and James Baldwin, and a newsletter published by HRC which focuses on prison abuse, solitary confinement, and ways that prisoners’ family members can come together to challenge human rights abuses and injustice in the criminal legal system. The content of the materials censored by SCI Coal Township and Central Office officials touch on the most vital issues of the operation of the prison system in Pennsylvania: juveniles sentenced to die in prison, deaths in solitary confinement, repression of human rights defenders inside prisons, advocacy efforts by families of prisoners, and the pervasive racism that defines the criminal legal system in Pennsylvania and the United States.

Plaintiffs are represented in the case by the Abolitionist Law Center and Necia Hobbes of the firm Jones Day.

Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison

Listen to Book Discussion:

Download

Joshua Dubler discusses his recent book "Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison" that takes place about 35 miles outside of Philadelphia at Graterford Prison.  The book explores seven days in the religious life of the prison, focusing on the history of Islam, and the internal social structures that once unified prisoners that have since decayed.  The book talk held at the Big Idea Bookstore in Pittsburgh, touches on historical trends that got us to this moment of mass incarceration and the absurd necessity to struggle for prison abolition.

Quotes from the book and talk:

Graterford I would say is the cultural flagship of the system. It's a prison where people are serving really long amounts of time.  Of the 3500 - 4000 men who live at Graterford, maybe a quarter are serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Prior to the 1990s there was a robust commutation system, which went away in the 90s.  What I want to read to you will in part describe that transition. It was a transition locally that mapped onto law and administration shifts nation wide.

There are 15 men who work in the chapel as janitors and clerks, and with the exception of one of these people, they are all serving the sentence of life without parole.  So those are the central characters of the book.

Within this monument to American unfreedom, you actually find this earnest commitment to the protection of peoples first amendment right to free religious exercise.

The spirit of the prison is not what you would be led to believe by television.  The spirit of the prison is more like the DMV.  Where everyone is lax and in various ways trying to do as little as they can. But there are all these rules on the books. And what that means in practice is, the rules aren't enforced, and everyone is in violation of the rules at all times.  At any point, if the administration wants to crack down, they are in their right to do so.  Or if I'm a prisoner and you're a prisoner, and you have something I want, I can drop a slip on you that you have too many books in your cell and you can be punished for that too.

Back then the administration's reliance on prisoner leadership for the maintenance of social order was undisguised.  But a decade into the crack epidemic, violent crime was up, conservative social theorists warned of a new generation of super predators and even democratic politicians couldn't be tough enough on crime.  Corrections was the new master category and control it's lynch pin. In institutions across the country, prisoner movements were restricted and surveillance heightened. Educational and psychological resources were gutted.  The nominal purpose of prisons ceased to be about rehabilitating prisoners.  Prisons were now for punishment.

In '60, when King would talk about law, he would talk about law as standing in some kind of tension with justice.  And justice was this horizon that he thought that, as a kind of liberal protestant, he wanted us to bring the law in line with justice. Justice being something that belongs to god and it's perfect.  By 1964, Goldwater loses, but first articulates what's going to be the standard doctrine of the conservative movement controlling the rest of the 20th century.  Justice has fallen out.  And what law becomes about is essentially one follows the law. Ones obligation is to follow the law. And following the law means obeying the law and the law is about protecting essentially property rights and what contemporary property rights are. This framework of thinking about law in that way as opposed to law in relationship to higher justice (which I think is a religious construct) works well for evangelicals for whom justice will arrive at the end of time, and secularists who are uncomfortable with those kind of abstractions.  Some of the work I think that we might have in front of us if we are going to organize around this stuff is to develop a language that posits a horizon of justice beyond that law.

I felt as though it had to be in the present tense, because I believe that on some level the present is all there is.  And it had to be in the present tense because the present is the tense when the status quo is perpetually reproduced. And I want to hail the reader into recognizing his or her position in that present where which we receive a lot of things that seem to be fixed but that we can trouble and change.

HRC FedUp! Delivers Petitions to Drop Case against SCI Dallas Prisoners

On December 2nd, members of HRC FedUp! traveled to the Luzerne County Courthouse to deliver 250 petition signatures to District Attorney Salavantis asking her to drop riot charges against 5 PA prisoners colloquially named the Dallas 5.  FedUp! members held signs and handed out flyers for a few hours and then delivered petitions to the DA's secretary.  Members were asked to move from the steps and told by court security that there were rules governing picketing during trials.  The trial for the Dallas 5 is set to begin next Monday.  

This week, Shandre Delaney is interviewed on the Legacy of a Nation radio show about the case.
Listen Here!

Link to video outside the courthouse

Link to video of interview with Times Leader Reporter

Link to article published by the Times Leader

The District Attorney would not meet with us.

Supporters Petition DA Salavantis to Drop the Case

For Immediate Release 

Contact:  Shandre Delaney
Phone: (412) 403-6101
sd4hrc@gmail.com

Family Members Petition DA to Drop Case Against Prisoners

Luzerne County, PA - December 2, 2013- Family members and supporters of PA state prisoners accused of riot at SCI Dallas in 2010 are calling on the District Attorney of Luzerne County to drop the case, before the trial set to begin on December 9th. They will deliver petitions to DA Salavantis and convene at the Luzerne County Courthouse today at noon.

In April of 2010, six prisoners who were incarcerated at SCI Dallas covered their cell windows with towels and barricaded their cell doors leading to cell extractions by prison guards. The prisoners were removed from their cells, pepper sprayed and tased by correctional officers, strip searched, and moved to different cells. The prisoners filed grievances against the prison on conditions of confinement and food deprivation leading up to the events and wrote to outside human rights agencies. The Department of Corrections filed riot charges against the prisoners in July of 2010.

Since 2010, one prisoner has been released from prison and plead out of this case, and another, Duane Peters, has been removed from the case and will be tried separately. Court watcher, Debby Rabold, attended a preliminary hearing for 5 of the prisoners on September 19th in Judge Lisa Gelb's court, and found that one of the prisoners had not been arraigned yet and one had not been transported to the hearing. 

"If the District Attorney had any factual evidence against the inmates with which to proceed, the case would have been adjudicated long ago. Lacking evidence, the case has been continued month after month for over three years -- all at the expense of tax dollars which could have, and should have been, spent more wisely," Rabold said.

"After watching the 35 minute cell extraction video of Carrington Keys, it becomes clear that the conditions of confinement are inhumane," says Amanda Johnson of the Human Rights Coalition FedUp! "The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture concluded that solitary confinement for over 15 days could be defined as torture. No one should have to live or work under these principles and procedures. "

Prisoners who are housed in the Restricted Housing Unit within the PA Department of Corrections are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day with little recreation or social stimulation. Prisoners can be held in the Restricted Housing Unit for years for disciplinary or administrative reasons. The Disability Rights Network filed a lawsuit against the PA Department of Corrections last March on behalf of prisoners with serious mental illness being held in solitary confinement and not receiving treatment. The U.S. Department of Justice expanded their investigation from two to all PA prisons this past year.

Direct Aid for Karimah and Kids

Karimah's electric and gas have been shut off for lack of funds and she cannot get emergency heating assistance until the first week of November. Karimah zawjatul Khalid Muhammad supports her husband Sergio, who is in prison, and cares for three special needs kids.  They are members of the Human Rights Coalition.  You can read some of Sergio's writing here http://hrcoalition.org/node/255.  We are raising money to help Karimah and her three kids get their utilities back on, which is $583 dollars.

You can send a check donation directly to the energy company at:

For Delon Lewis Account # 59404-15015
PECO
P.O. Box 37629
Philadelphia, PA 19101

You can use the paypal button to donate:

For other donations, or if you have alternate housing in Philadelphia to offer contact karimah1020@gmail.com

Black August B'Earthday Celebration for Russell Maroon Shoatz

Prison Abolition Discussion Night

The Human Rights Coalition FedUp! hosted a prison abolition discussion night the first Wednesday of the month to talk about the history, context, and intersectionalities of working for prison abolition.

"Intersectionality is a concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which oppressive institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another."

This month we read a chapter from the book The Slave Ship A Human History by Marcus Rediker.  The chapter was chapter 10, "The Long Voyage of the Slave Ship Brooks."  It focuses on the role of imagery and working class, sailor narratives in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.  A poster depicting horrific conditions of enslaved people was displayed before British Parliament and spread throughout newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Much like prisons today, slave ships were advertised by merchants and profiteers as safe, hygienic, and technologically forward enterprises.  Under similar guises, local architecture firm, Astorino, has been spotlighted by Decarcerate PA Pittsburgh for their work in expanding maximum security housing and solitary confinement cells across state prisons. (See criminal justice portfolio and language) The idea that prisons can be made better and safer and that reform movements are enough, and that figuring out ways to make prisons more cost and energy efficient is challenged by the work of prison abolitionists.

poster by Andalusia Knoll 2004

Here is a preview of the chapter contents, within the questions we used to have a conversation:

1. "Every man condemns the trade, but it requires the exhibition of particular instances of the enormity, to induce those to be active in the matter"
The image of the slave ship Brooks is a visual tool used to show horrible conditions and move people to respond. What images have moved you in this way? What images have worked for the prison abolitionist movement? Feel free to bring images you have seen to share. What images can we use and how?

2. "Knowledge must be concrete, material and human. Not an exaggeration, but a narration of miseries which cannot be exaggerated which extends to millions."
Do you think working for prison abolition is the telling of a narration of miseries? What sources do you tune into to find out about or spread this narration of miseries? If our group is participating in the creation of the narration of miseries, how are we doing it and is there room to change or improve?

3. Clarkson emphasized sailors' experience (as members of preferred white race and preferred european nationality) to appeal to British government and public to look at slavery. He wasn't looking at the conditions of the enslaved people, but the conditions of the sailors charged with keeping them enslaved. The sailors were organized by a merchant class.
How does this translate to the Prison industrial complex? How do corrections officers fit into the struggle for prison abolition? How has our group related to the correctional officer class in the past and how should we moving forward?

4. Compare and contrast: Similarities and differences from the strategies of abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and the abolition of the U.S. prison industrial complex.
e.g. Both abolitionists highlighted individual and collective acts of rebellion by slaves against conditions
e.g. like prisons, slaveships were presented to government officials as safe, modern, hygenic advances in science and technology

5. Reformers: The book indicates that one way that Britain came to outlaw the transatlantic slave trade was by reforming regulations for how many enslaved people could be housed on one boat, making it unprofitable for merchant class to continue human business when regulations were high. How has/ will reform efforts help work towards prison abolition?

Oral Arguments Challenging Resentencing in Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal

On Tuesday, June 25 at 1:15PM, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 530 Walnut Street (17^th Floor) will hear oral arguments on an appeal filed by Abu-Jamal challenging his resentencing from death to life in prison without parole. Mumia Abu-Jamal’s supporters will gather at the courthouse at 11:30AM and wear red in support of the imprisoned journalist and the broader issues his case represents.

At issue is a motion filed by the President of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Judge Pamela Dembe, that failed to notify the defendant or his attorneys of his resentencing. In so doing, Judge Dembe violated Abu-Jamal’s rights to notice of sentencing, to be present and make a statement, and to be apprised of his right to appeal the sentence. These rights are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and by the laws of the state of Pennsylvania. Had Abu-Jamal not discovered and filed a timely appeal to Judge Dembe’s motion, his right to file future appeals would have been irreparably compromised. 

“The unconstitutionality of Judge Dembe’s undisclosed filing echoes the history of due process violations in the Abu-Jamal case, which spans more than three decades. In the original trial the judge, prosecutor, and police conspired to suppress evidence of innocence and to obtain a conviction,” said Professor Johanna Fernandez of Baruch College. Dr. Suzanne Ross explains that “the prosecution's case was built on the specious premise that only three people were present at the time of the shooting, but a fourth person – the probable perpetrator – was seen fleeing the scene after Officer Daniel Faulkner was fatally shot, a fact that the presiding Judge, Albert Sabo, helped suppress.”

Judicial bias and contempt for the defendant also figure prominently in this history. As former Under Sheriff of Philadelphia County, Judge Sabo, could not objectively preside over a case involving the killing of a police officer. Yet he refused to recuse himself when his impartiality was questioned. In 1995, during Mumia’s Post Conviction Relief Act Hearing, Judge Sabo should not have heard and reviewed arguments against the judicial and prosecutorial violations of the very case over which he presided 15 years earlier. Again he refused to recuse himself. Years later, a court stenographer, Terry Maurer Carter, testified under oath that she heard judge Sabo, say to another judge, "I'm going to help them fry the nigger," referring to how he was going to instruct the jury. 

In 2011, Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was confirmed unconstitutional when a Supreme Court motion allowed to stand the past rulings of four federal judges who had as early as 2001 set aside the death penalty in this case. In late 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called for Abu-Jamal’s immediate release stating, "Now that it is clear that Mumia should never have been on death row in the first place, justice will not be served by relegating him to prison for the rest of his life….Based on even a minimal following of international human rights standards, Mumia must now be released…”

100 Mile March Across PA Seeks to Halt Prison Expansion

In an unprecedented action against mass incarceration, a statewide coalition is embarking on a 100 mile march across Pennsylvania to demand “A People’s Budget, Not a Prison Budget.” The march will start in Philadelphia at Love Park at noon on May 25 and conclude with a noontime rally at the state capitol building in Harrisburg on June 3, as the state legislature reconvenes to discuss the budget for next year. Marchers are demanding that the General Assembly refuse to pass a budget with increases in corrections spending. They further call for the governor to stop the $400 million construction of two new prisons in Montgomery County, outside Philadelphia.

The march is being organized by Decarcerate PA, a grassroots campaign working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania by insisting that the state stop building prisons, reduce its prison population, and reinvest money into local community resources. More than thirty organizations are cosponsoring the march, including public school advocates, immigrant rights groups, faith-based communities, and a wide array of racial and economic justice organizations.

"Everyone in Pennsylvania has an investment in stopping prison growth." said Layne Mullett of Decarcerate PA. "That's why community groups, churches, labor unions, parents, teachers, students, formerly incarcerated people, legislators and entire families are getting involved. We know we all benefit when the state invests in education, not incarceration."

The March for a People’s Budget is an impressive and creative step in a growing national movement against mass incarceration, according to several high-profile analysts.

Voicing her support for the march, noted scholar and activist Angela Davis said, "This march is not just about one state budget. It is about enacting a vision of a society rooted in humanity instead of prisons. Decarcerate PA is an exciting part of a growing national movement to challenge the erroneous idea that prisons make us safer." These endorsers say the march is breaking new ground in the fight against mass incarceration.

Pittsburgh Solidarity at County Assistance Office

“Decarcerate PA’s march highlights a simple truth: Public budgets should be made by the people for the people,” said Ruth Wilson Gilmore, an award winning scholar of imprisonment and the past president of the American Studies Association. “In walking the walk, these historic marchers take the fight against prisons and austerity to a new level. What happens in Pennsylvania now can lift all who strive for a new national freedom agenda.”

Like other states, Pennsylvania has embraced a path of austerity. In recent years,Republican governor Tom Corbett has cut more than a billion dollars from education, eliminated General Assistance, and slashed health care spending. Philadelphia alone is in the process of closing twenty-three schools. Yet the PA Department of Corrections is requesting an additional $68 million increase in next year’s budget, which will push the DOC budget over $2 billion for the first time in the state’s history. Further, the state proceeds to expand its prison system.

“At a time when prison populations are finally beginning to decline nationally, it’s unfortunate that Pennsylvania is planning to build new prisons,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a national prison reform group. “We’ve seen that sentencing and drug policy reform, along with a broader array of non-prison options, can have a significant impact on the number of people incarcerated.

Pittsburgh Solidarity at County Courthouse

Prison construction also assures that resources will be less available to invest in the communities most heavily affected by mass incarceration.”

The March for a People's Budget includes rallies and community events in towns and cities along the ten-day march route highlighting the costs of social austerity.  The march begins only two weeks after Philadelphia witnessed a massive student walkout in protest of school closings.

Pittsburgh solidarity at the banking offices!

Decarcerate PA formed in 2011. Last November, seven members of the group were arrested and charged with trespass and disorderly conduct following a sit-in on the construction site of two new prisons in Montgomery County, PA. The demonstrators sat at school desks and wore banners reading “fund schools, not prisons.” The charges are still pending.  For more information visit www.decarceratepa.info/march

Black Power Mixtape and Russell Maroon Shoats Friday Night Mingler

Event:

Movie screening of the Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 and

Discussion of the Free Maroon Campaign

at The Big Idea Book Store

4812 Liberty Ave Pittsburgh PA  15224

Friday March 29, 2013

7 PM

About the movie:

The Black Power Mixtape examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community and Diaspora from 1967 to 1975. The film combines music, startling 16mm footage (lying undiscovered in the cellar of Swedish Television for 30 years), and contemporary audio interviews from leading African-American artists, activists, musicians and scholars. More info and trailer:

http://blackpowermixtape.com/index.php

We will have a few copies of the movie for sale at the event! Thanks ISO!

About the Free Maroon campaign:

Join the Human Rights Coalition's at this end-of-March mingler to share info and get involved with the campaign to free political prisoner and U.S. prisoner of war Russell Maroon Shoats. This April we will be raising hell to get Maroon out of solitary confinement, where he has been held for 30 years.  More info:

http://russellmaroonshoats.wordpress.com/

Contact:  Human Rights Coalition FedUp! 412-654-9070 or hrcfedup@gmail.com

Busline: Take the 86 or 54 to Liberty and Millvale