US Prisoners Nationwide Have Gone On Strike

On August 21st, incarcerated men and women across seventeen states in the US began a nineteen-day-long nationwide strike in an attempt to force prison reform and end what has been described as modern slavery. The strike aims to bring attention to the inhumanity of prison conditions, unpaid labour and life without parole sentences experienced by those incarcerated. All across the country, inmates are staging sit-ins and hunger strikes, refusing to work and boycotting prison commissaries.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, an inmate group that offers legal aid and training to other inmates, is spearheading the strike. In an anonymous pre-strike statement, the group declared, “Prisoners understand they are being treated as animals. We know that our conditions are causing physical harm and deaths that could be avoided. For some of us it’s as if we are already dead, so what do we have to lose?” The group is also supported by the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a labour union for prisoners.

Together, they have released a list of ten demands they believe must be met in order to deal with “a systematic problem born out of slavery that this nation must come to grips with and address.” The list of demands includes the improvement of prison conditions and policies, a proper wage for inmates, the removal of life without parole sentences (referred to in the statement as “death by incarceration”),  better funding for rehabilitation services, restoration of voting rights and an end to “racial overcharging, over-sentencing and parole denials” of people of colour.

The strike come as a response to a bloody seven-hour riot that took place in April at the Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina. The riot, one of the most violent prison brawls in recent history, left seven inmates dead. Officials declared that the violence was sparked by gang rivalry over contraband but many prisoners have argued such bloodshed would not have occurred were it not for the chronic overcrowding and understaffing of prisons.

The dates of the strike are significant. August 21st marks the 47th anniversary of George Jackson’s death, a prison revolutionary and Black Panther member who was shot and killed as he attempted to escape from San Quentin prison. September 9th, also represents the 47th anniversary of the bloody uprising at Attica prison in New York that left 39 dead. The Attica uprising exposed the depravity prisoners lived with everyday.

Many state-prison officials have refused to acknowledge the protests are occurring and with such limited access to the PR, it has been difficult to confirm how far the strike has spread. The majority of the information comes from the family members of inmates or inmates themselves speaking on contraband mobile phones. Reporter Jessica Pupovac, who has worked documenting media access to prisons, told the Columbia Journal Review that the authorities will simply ignore those journalists they don’t want to talk to. She said, “What happens behind prison walls—with public funds and in the name of public safety—is completely out of public view. If they’d prefer a story not get out, it doesn’t.”

The United States is home to around 5% of the world’s population but holds 25% of the world’s prisoners. This means approximately 1 in 110 people are incarcerated. As the strikes draw to a close, having spread north to Canada, their impact on policy remains to be seen. While the prisoners have made their demands clear, it is unclear whether they will be heard.

Daisy D'Souza

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