GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages For Work

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December 15, 2010

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. Strikers
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.

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 Georgia NAACP, the Nation of Islam, the National Association for Radical Prison Reform, the Green Party of Georgia,
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.

Prisoners have
stood up for themselves, and the communities they came from are lining
up to support them. Today, at a groundbreaking 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.

The braod-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.”

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

“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...

“They're trying to provoke people to violence in here, but we're not letting that happen. We just want our human rights.”

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

It's time to fundamentally reconsider prison as we know it, and America's public policy of mass incarceration.

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.

Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900.  

Hays State Prison is at (706) 857-0400

Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721

Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218

Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900

Smith State Prison is at (912) 654-5000

The Georgia Department of Corrections is at http://www.dcor.state.ga.us and their phone number is 478-992-5246