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suggested by Toussaint, re-posted from Texas Observer
Hunger Strike at Port Isabel, 04/28/09
To listen to interview:
http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ramaedit.mp3
Anywhere from 50 to 100 detainees at the sprawling Port Isabel Processing Center near Brownsville stopped eating last Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to extended detention that they say violates their right to due process.
One of the detainees on hunger strike - Rama Carty - spoke to the Observer by phone on Friday about how he has been detained by ICE for more than 13 months.
“It’s unconstitutional. It’s unjust,” Carty said. “We’re held well past any reasonable time under the law, or just any reasonable time, period.”
Carty fell under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2008 after he served two years in prison for what he says is a wrongful drug conviction. He spent time in detention centers in Maine and New Hampshire before being sent to Texas in December. In March, he came across an article in USA Today about a new Amnesty International report on how thousands of immigrants are detained for months or years without any meaningful judicial review of whether they should be released.
“If immigration removal is not reasonably foreseeable at all, then detention, in essence, shouldn’t exist,” Carty said, citing a Supreme Court precedent for cases like his.
Carty turns 39 next week and has lived in the United States since he was a year old. His parents are Haitian, but he was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo while they were working there. Neither country will accept him, so he languishes in detention in the country he calls home.
“I am a U.S. citizen from a cultural standpoint,” Carty told the Observer.
He wants a chance to argue he is a citizen from a legal standpoint as well. He said ICE mishandled his mother’s application for naturalization, and he should be given an opportunity to be considered a citizen. But, like many in the 1,200-bed facility, he said he lacks access to legal assistance.
“We are told we have lawyers available thru pro-bono associations but that’s not the truth,” Carty said of the overwhelmed legal aid offices that mostly focus on political asylum cases. “The amount of effective assistance of counsel is grossly insufficient,” he said.
Carty says he thinks the hunger strike will continue to grow. The strikers’ demands include a meeting with Dora Schriro, the newly appointed special advisor on detention and removal for the Department of Homeland Security.
For more info, see: http://www.businessofdetention.com/
re-posted from Critical Resistance mailing list
February 2009 Victories!
Dear Friends,
One thing we want to do better this year is to share good news when we have it. Just this month, CR helped lead the way to four significant victories against the prison industrial complex that we want to make sure you know about, and know how to support.From prison construction to youth curfews, we know that we have to continue squeezing the PIC from every direction we can. If you have an hour, a dollar, an idea, or a question, please share it with us!
With hope,
Critical Resistance
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CR's work to stop new prison construction helps compel historic prisoner release order!
For nearly a decade, Critical Resistance has prioritized stopping new prison construction. We know that if you build them; you fill them. In early February, a federal court ruled that overcrowding was the primary cause of unconstitutional medical and mental health care for people in California prisons, causing needless deaths every week. The Court ordered what we have been arguing for years is the only real solution: reducing the number of people in prison. Our role in stopping new prison construction helped lead the court to reject the state's position that it would build its way out of overcrowding, declaring that "there is no relief other than a prisoner-release order that will remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions." Noting that no new beds had been built, instead of building, the Court's order could reduce the number of people in prison by up to 56,000.
That's not to say this fight is over. We need to work harder than ever in the coming weeks and months to make sure that the state sends our people home, doesn't drag its feet, waste time with endless appeals, or, worst of all, proceed with prison construction to try to avoid sending people home or sending fewer people home. It is more important than ever that we stop AB 900, California's massive prison construction plan. This is a huge win and a huge opportunity, and we can't miss it.
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CR Oakland helps defeat proposed youth curfew following the police execution of Oscar Grant.
On February 10, CR Oakland helped mobilize over 100 people to defeat a frightening proposal for a youth curfew in Oakland. The proposal came on the heels of mass arrests during the protests of the videotaped execution of Oscar Grant by police. The ordinance would also make it a misdemeanor for a parent to allow a young person to violate the ordinance, and even expose business owners to prosecution if they knowingly allow youth on their premises during curfew hours.
"After what happened to Oscar Grant and many other youth killed by the police, how could we consider giving police yet another opportunity for racial profiling. Who will Oakland police stop at 10 p.m.? What neighborhoods will see a lockdown from 10 p.m. to 5 a. m.?," said CR member Ritika Aggarwal, 24.
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Drop the Charges
Since Oscar Grant's murder, CR has also worked hard to make sure that our ability to protest and organize out of this tragedy isn't shut down by the police and city officials. Since early January, we have worked to defend every single one of the more than 130 people arrested protesting Oscar Grant's murder; to make sure that youth of color aren't further criminalized protesting police violence, and to make sure that the focus stays where it should be: on the real effects of policing, whether they're caught on tape or not.
Working with the National Lawyers Guild and the Oakland 100 Committee, we have organized a call-in campaign and court solidarity for every arraignment. From more than 130, there are now only 4 people facing charges. Over the next few weeks, we'll be back to stay with those final defendants until every case is dismissed.
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No Jail in the Bronx or in Brooklyn
Finally, this month saw the Brooklyn House of Detention Coalition (BHOD) block plans to expand the Brooklyn House of Detention. CR-NYC played a big support role in this victory, sharing the strategies we used to stop jail construction in the Bronx with our neighbors. This marks the second victory in two years for the City's plan to build a new jail in every borough, and shows just how far we have come in the fight against endless cage building.
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THIS WORK IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN IN 2009.
Please, take a moment to help us - and yourself - in two important ways:
1. Get Involved! There is nothing more important to CR than our volunteer power. No matter where you live or what you like to do, we need your help. Find us at 510 444 0484, or email crnational@criticalresistance.org today.
2. Donate! Not in spite of but because of how bad the economy is, we need to pull our resources together more than ever. Please click here to give a gift that doesn't hurt your bank account, but does help us all - including you!
This news came to my attention a little late but is DEFINITELY worth celebrating again.
re-posted from: WorkerFreedom
Hunger strike ends as Greek government caves
Thursday, November 20 2008 @ 11:36 PM CST
After 18 days 7,000 prisoners in greece stop their hunger strike after the ministry of justice concedes to a series of their demands, promising to release half the country's prison population by April 2009.
On Thursday the 20th of November more than 7,000 hunger strikers in Greek prisons demanding a comprehensive 45-point program of prison reform have decided to stop their hunger strike, already on its 18th day, after the Ministry of Justice responded to their struggle and to the widening solidarity movement which in the last weeks has held several mass protest marches in the greek cities by declaring that by next April the number of prisoners in Greek jails will be reduced to 6.815 from the present 12.315, thus effectively releasing half of the country's prison population.
The Ministry's declaration in detail states that:
1) All persons convicted to a sentence up to five years for any offense including drug related crimes can transform their sentence into a monetary penalty. This will not be allowed in the case the jury decides that the payment is not enough to deter the convict from committing punishable acts in the future.
2) The minimum sum for transforming one day of prison sentence to monetary penalty is reduced from 10 euros to 3, with the provision of being reduced to 1 euro by decision of the jury.
3) All people who have served 1/5 of their prison sentence for 2 year sentences and 1/3 for sentences longer than 2 years are to be released, with no exceptions.
4) The minimum limit of served sentence is reduced to 3/5 for conditional release and for convicts for drug related crimes. Those condemned under conditions of law Ν. 3459/2006 (articles 23 και 23Α) are exempted.
5) The maximum limit of pre-trial imprisonment is reduced from 18 to 12 months, with the exemption of crimes punished by life or 20 year sentence.
6) The annual time of days-off prison is increased by one day. Tougher conditions for days-off are limited for those convicted for drug related crimes under Ν. 3459/2006.
7) Disciplinary penalties are to be integrated.
8) Integration after 4 years into national law of the European Council decision of drug trafficking (2004/757).
9) Expansion of implementation of conditional release of convicts suffering from AIDS, kidney failure, persistent TB, and tetraplegics.
What the Ministry failed to answer with regard to the prisoners' demands include:
1) Monetary exchange of prison sentences longer than 5 years, especially for 6.700 prisoners presently convicted for non-criminal offenses.
2) Abolition of juvenile prisons
3) Abolition of accumulative disciplinary penalties
4) Abolition of 18 months pre-trial imprisonment for a large number of offenses.
5) Satisfactory expansion of days off, despite the fact that the application of present liberties has been tested as successful during the last 18 years.
6) Immediate improvement of relocation conditions of convicts
7) Holding a meeting between the minister of justice and the prisoners' committee
Thus in a press release, the Prisoners' Committee announced that:
"The amendment submitted to the Parliament by the Ministry of Justice tackles but a few of our demands. The minister ought to materialize his promises for the immediate release of the suggested number of prisoners announced, and at the same time implement concrete measures regarding the totality of our demands. We the prisoners treat this amendment as a first step, a result of our struggle and of the solidarity shown by society. Yet it fails to covers us, it fails to solve our problems. With our struggle, we have first of all fought for our dignity. And this dignity we cannot offer as a present to no minister, to no screw. We shall tolerate no arbitrary acts, no vengeful relocation, no terrorizing disciplinary act. We are standing and we shall stay standing. We demand form the Parliament to move towards a complete abolition of the limit of 4/5 of served sentence, the abolition of accumulated time for disciplinary penalties, and the expansion of beneficial arrangements regarding days-off, and conditional releases for all categories of prisoners. Moreover, we demand the immediate legislation on the presently vague promises of the minister of justice regarding the improvement of prison conditions (abolition of juvenile prisons, foundation of therapeutic centers for drug dependents, implementation of social labour in exchange for prison sentence, upgrading of hospital care of prisoners, incorporation of European legislation favorable to the prisoners in the greek law etc.). Finally, we offer our thanks to the solidarity movement, to every component, party, medium, and militant who stood by us with all and any means of his or her choice, and we declare that our struggle against these human refuse dumps and for the victory of all our demands continues".
Prisoners' Committee 20/11/08.
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