[Pnews] Stop retaliation against Texas prisoner population

[Prisoner News]

*iwoc at riseup.net*

As of Monday, April 18th, prisoners in Texas have been on rolling labor 
strikes for two weeks. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) 
is retaliating by locking the prisons down and depriving prisoners of 
even the standard abysmal human necessities they are forced to provide. 
Retaliation against people who refuse to work for free is one of the 
tools prison administrators use to assure that prisoners can continue to 
be exploited in today’s modern day slave system.

If you have a minute, please call the following administrators and read 
the scripts below:

*Brad Livingston, Executive Director, TDCJ, (936) 437-2101 or (512) 463-9988
*Bryan Collier, Deputy Executive Director, TDCJ, (936) 437-6251 or (512) 
463-9988
*Jay Eason, Deputy Director, TDCJ, (936) 437-6318 or (512) 463-9988
*TDJC Ombudsman Office (936) 437-4927 ombudsman at tdcj.texas.gov
*TDJC Office of the Inspector General (936) 437-5030 oig at tdcj.texas.gov
*TDCJ Executive Director (512) 463-9988 exec.director at tdcj.state.tx.us

EASY Script: "Hi I'm calling in support of striking prisoners in Texas 
and their demands for good time, an end to $100 medical copay, an 
independent grievance procedure and an end to human rights abuses. Stop 
enslaving our brothers and sisters and assure that your staff is not 
retaliating against striking workers by giving them write ups, eyes on 
Texas!"

CHALLENGING Script: “Hi I heard about the prisoners labor strike and I’m 
calling to find out what sort of progress you are making toward meeting 
the prisoners demands.” Here is the list of demands for you to discuss 
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rgmhxemd9kfORLVnXgl-vWTPH0qwLLcY81dukdXzv7A/edit>.

~~~~~

If you have a little more time and want to have an even more significant 
impact we need help determining which prisoners are being retaliated 
against on any given day. Which prisons are on lockdown seems to change 
every couple of days.

There are nearly 100 prisons on this list of prisons and administrator 
phone numbers 
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EpBkDopALaaVlN7dBtGPtRaljnKBrC1psbm-eluiYMs/edit#gid=0>. 
Please add comments to the list so that we are better able to track what 
is happening and hopefully get at least a couple of calls in to every 
facility.

Script: “Hello, I’m calling to see if this facility is on lockdown right 
now.”

If they say no, say “I have heard that some prisons in Texas are on 
lockdown because of a labor strike associated with a list of demands 
from the prisoners”. Then start reading them this list of demands and 
letter from a prisoner 
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rgmhxemd9kfORLVnXgl-vWTPH0qwLLcY81dukdXzv7A/edit>.

If they say yes, they are on lockdown, ask them about the conditions the 
prisoners are facing and also ask them what directives they are relying 
on to guide their actions in this matter. Here are some of the reported 
conditions:

- Workers are threatened with major infractions for withholding their 
labor. These infractions could result in good time being taken away. 
Although good time seems to rarely be applied to anyone's sentence, the 
threat of losing it is highly coersive.

- The locked down prisoners are not receiving the hot meals. This means 
hundreds or thousands of prisoners have had nothing to eat but bologna 
or peanut butter sandwiches since April 4th.

- Mailroom staff is delaying or interfering with the delivery of inmate 
mail.

- There are reports of lights being left on during the night or left off 
during the day, other examples of petty harassment from trifling guards 
and threats that the lockdown treatment will extend for weeks or even 
months.

- Interfering with the prisoner’s access to basic necessities like food, 
sleep and connection with their families and the outside world is inhumane.

- Please stop punishing the prisoners for asserting their basic 
humanity, if you want them to come off the workstoppage, you should meet 
their demands.

The prisoners need sustained pressure on these institutions, so please 
call on Monday and then make plans to follow up at least once more later 
in the week, if not every day. Thank you!!!

~~~~~

Also, Looking ahead to May 1st, we are asking people to carry the 
prisoners voices with them to whatever May Day events they may be 
planning or attending. Alabama prisoners have called for a month-long 
workstoppage starting on May 1st. If you’re already getting rowdy May 
Day, please also consider throwing a jail demo or a protest at the 
public face of a prison-labor exploiting corporation.


-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20160418/bcbba589/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Iwoc_alerts mailing list
Iwoc_alerts at lists.iww.org
http://lists.iww.org/listinfo/iwoc_alerts