From It’s Going Down
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
Biden Administration Continuing Program to End Mail in Federal Prisons
Alec Karakatsanis of the Civil Rights Corps has highlighted that the Biden administration shows no sign of ending a Trump-era program aiming to replace all postal mail to Federal prisons with scanned and printed copies.
Alec writes:
From what we can tell so far: Biden admin transition team chose to keep this Trump pilot program to begin end physical mail in BOP, as is already happening in cruelest state prisons. It was probably easiest for Biden transition team to keep the company’s contract: these companies are powerful, BOP wants to surveil prisoner mail, they don’t care about families and prisoners, and b/c not enough people hold them accountable politically for this. Our staff still being barred from sending physical mail to a BOP institution and forced to send to this company–appears that BOP allows wardens to opt into or out of the pilot program. We are all so desensitized to this stuff that we don’t even recognize that, in a reasonable world, Biden transition would have immediately announced investigation and end to this profiteering instead of quietly continuing the contract that allows wardens to expand it. Keep in mind: Biden issued very mild (insufficient) order re: private prisons but didn’t touch all of the rampant profiteering inside and related to *public* prisons.
Although there’s not much coverage of this issue at the moment, it’s worth learning from the effects of the same policy when it was instituted in Pennsylvania, as covered in outlets such as The Appeal and Mother Jones. There, resistance to the policy included a number of lawsuits and a series of protests by families and outside supporters.
Call to Action from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and Beyond
It’s Going Down has a reportback from the National Freedom Day actions calling for mass releases. Dreaming Freedom Practicing Abolition is calling for people to help defend their comrade Stevie Wilson against retaliation from staff. The Prisons Kill project is fundraising for Tim, who was released recently and needs re-entry support, and for Mustafa, a revolutionary prisoner in Ohio who needs help paying for legal funds. The Final Straw has just put out an interview with Perilous Chronicle about their work recording prisoner resistance during the pandemic.
A few notable upcoming dates: As noted above, Malik’s defense crew are holding a rally in the Tenderloin (in San Francisco) on March 7th, March 8th is International Working Women’s Day, which is observed in some countries as a women’s strike, and March 15th is observed in some countries as a day against police brutality, so you or your crew might want to organize something for one of those days. Further ahead, there’s a call for a day of actions focused on parole on April 3rd, and further ahead still, Jailhouse Lawyers Speak have issued the following call:
Nationwide call to action: August 21st, 2021 and September 9th, 2021 in the spirit of Abolition please clear your schedules to organize demos at your local jails and prisons. Time to raise the awareness levels during these dates. A full Jailhouse Lawyers Speak statement will be forthcoming!
Uprising Defendants
Everyone should support the defendants facing charges related to their alleged participation in the George Floyd uprising – this list of our imprisoned comrades needs to be getting shorter, not longer. Also, as this column was going to print, a post on Philly Anti-Capitalist brought our attention to the case of Anthony Smith in Philadelphia. Info on how to support them here. The status of pre-trial defendants changes frequently, but to the best of our knowledge they currently include:
Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal #70002-066
FDC Philadelphia
P.O. Box 562
Philadelphia, PA 19105
David Elmakayes #77782-066
FDC Philadelphia,
PO Box 562,
Philadelphia, PA 19105
Shawn Collins #69989-066
FDC Philadelphia,
PO Box 562,
Philadelphia, PA 19105
Steven Pennycooke #69988-066
FDC Philadelphia,
PO Box 562,
Philadelphia, PA 19105
