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<font size=3>Published on <i>Black Agenda Report</i>
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<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/">Home</a> > GA Prison Inmate
Strike Enters New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages
For Work<br>
<hr>
<br>
</font><h1><font size=4><b>GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters New Phase,
Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages For
Work</b></font></h1><font size=3>By <i>The Editors<br>
</i>Created <i>12/15/2010 - 14:40<br>
</i>Submitted by The Editors on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 14:40
<ul>
<li>2]
<li>
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/?q=category/life-america/mass-incarceration">
mass incarceration</a> [3]
</ul><br>
<img src="http://www.blackagendareport.com/images/stories/221/GA_dept_of_corrections_map.jpg" width=425 height=325 alt="[]">
<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#800000"><b>Story by
Bruce A. Dixon, audio interview by Glen Ford<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>Georgia prisoners who
began a courageous, peaceful and nonviolent protest strike for
educational opportunities, wages for their work, medical care and human
rights have captured the attention of the world. Black Agenda Report
intends to closely cover their continuing story. Glen Ford recorded a
conversation with activist Elaine Brown and one of the striking inmates
in Georgia on Wednesday, December 15. <br><br>
Update story on the strike and support efforts of the newly formed
Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights below the fold. Click the
flash player below to listen.<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4 color="#800000"><b>GA Prison
Inmate Strike Enters New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education,
Wages For Work<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#800000">Story by
Bruce A. Dixon, audio interview by Glen Ford<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>The historic strike of
Georgia prisoners, demanding wages for their labor, educational
opportunities, adequate health care and nutrition, and better conditions
is entering a new phase.
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_7498.shtml">
Strikers</a> [4] remain firm in their demands for full human rights,
though after several days many have emerged from their cells, if only to
take hot showers and hot food. Many of these, however, are still refusing
their involuntary and unpaid work assignments. <br><br>
A group that includes relatives, friends and a broad range of supporters
of the prisoners on the outside has emerged. They are seeking to sit down
with Georgia correctional officials this week to discuss how some of the
just demands of inmates can begin to be implemented. Initially,
Georgia-based representatives of this coalition supporting the prisoner
demands included the <a href="http://www.eurweb.com/?p=71542">Georgia
NAACP</a> [5], the Nation of Islam, the National Association for Radical
Prison Reform, the <a href="http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/">Green
Party of Georgia</a> [6], and the Ordinary Peoples Society among others.
Civil rights attorneys, ministers, community organizations and other
prisoner advocates are also joining the group which calls itself the
Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights.<br><br>
Prisoners have stood up for themselves, and the communities they came
from are lining up to support them. Today, at a ground breaking for a
private prison 300 miles southeast of Atlanta in Millen GA, residents of
that local community opposed to the private prison are greeting the
governor and corrections brass with a protest. They will be joined by
dozens more coming in from Atlanta who will respectfully urge state
authorities to talk to the prisoners. We understand that one person there
has been arrested. Black Agenda Report will have photos and footage of
that event on Thursday.<br><br>
The broad-based Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoners Rights fully
supports the heroic stand of Georgia's prisoners. “This isn't Attica,”
one representative of the coalition explained. “No violent acts have been
committed by any of the inmates involved. We hope state corrections
officials will be as peaceful and respectful as the prisoners have been,
and start a good faith dialog about quickly addressing their
concerns.”<br><br>
Right now, the ball is in the hands of state corrections officials, and
reports are that in some of the affected prisons, authorities are
fumbling that ball, engaging <br><br>
</font><font size=3>“</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>They
transferred some of the high Muslims here to max already,” one prisoner
told Black Agenda Report this morning. “They want to break up the unity
we have here. We have the Crips and the Bloods, we have the Muslims, we
have the head Mexicans, and we have the Aryans all with a peaceful
understanding, all on common ground. We all want to be paid for our work,
and we all want education in here. There's people in here who can't even
read...<br><br>
</font><font size=3>“</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>They're
trying to provoke people to violence in here, but we're not letting that
happen. We just want our human rights.”<br><br>
The transfers are intended to deprive groups of leadership and demoralize
them. In some cases they may be having the opposite effect, stiffening
prisoner morale and making room for still more leaders to emerge.
<br><br>
</font><font size=3>“</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>The
prisoners insist that punitive transfers are an act of bad faith, the
opposite of what we should be doing,” said Minister Charles Muhammad, of
the Nation of Islam in Atlanta. “The coalition supports them and demands
no punitive transfers, either within or between institutions, and
absolutely no transfers to institutions outside Georgia.”<br><br>
Members of the public should continue to call the prisons listed below,
and the GA Department of Corrections and the office of Georgia's
governor, Sonny Perdue. Ask them firmly but respectfully to resolve the
situation non-violently and without punitive measures. Tell them you
believe prisoners deserve wages for work and education. Ask them to talk
to prisoners and the communities they come from.<br><br>
It's simple. With one in twelve Georgia adults in jail or prison, parole
or probation or other court and correctional supervision, prisoners are
us. They are our families. They are our fathers and our mothers, our sons
and daughters, our nieces and nephews and aunts and uncles and cousins.
Most prisoners will be back out in society sooner, not later. It's time
for us all to grow up and realize that warehousing, malnourishing,
mistreating and abusing prisoners does not make us safer. Denying
prisoners meaningful training and educational opportunities, and forcing
them to work for no wages is not the way to do. <br><br>
It's time to fundamentally reconsider prison as we know it, and America's
public policy of mass incarceration.<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#800000"><i>Bruce
Dixon and Glen Ford are reachable at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com
and glen.ford(at)blackagendareport.com, respectively. Black Agenda Report
intends to provide ongoing coverage several times per week of the ongoing
struggle of Georgia prisoners.<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>Macon State Prison is
978-472-3900
978-472-3900 <br><br>
Hays State Prison is at (706)
857-0400
(706) 857-0400 <br><br>
Telfair State prison is
229-868-7721
229-868-7721 <br><br>
Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218<br><br>
Valdosta State Prison is
229-333-7900
229-333-7900 <br><br>
Smith State Prison is at (912)
654-5000
(912) 654-5000 <br><br>
<div align="center">The Georgia Department of Corrections is at
<a href="http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/">http://www.dcor.state.ga.us</a>
[7] and their phone number is
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#666666">478-992-5246
<br><br>
<br><br>
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