OCCUPY SAN QUENTIN Feb 20!
Date of Alert:
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
National Day of Action in support of prisoners on February 20!
Demand an end to Mass Incarceration!
Mass Demonstration
12:00pm at San Quentin
facebook: occupy4prisoners
twitter: @occupy4prisoner
This proposal was passed at the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on
Monday, January 9
PROPOSAL
Summary
We are calling for February 20th, 2012 to be a “National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners.”
In the Bay Area we will “Occupy San Quentin,” to stand in solidarity
with the people confined within its walls and to demand the end of the
incarceration as a means of containing those dispossessed by unjust
social policies.
Reasons
Prisons have become a central institution in American society, integral to our politics, economy and our culture.
Between 1976 and 2000, the United States built on average a new
prison each week and the number of imprisoned Americans increased
tenfold.
Prison has made the threat of torture part of everyday life for
millions of individuals in the United States, especially the 7.3 million
people—who are disproportionately people of color—currently
incarcerated or under correctional supervision.
Imprisonment itself is a form of torture. The typical American
prison, juvenile hall and detainment camp is designed to maximize
degradation, brutalization, and dehumanization.
Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow. Between 1970 and 1995, the
incarceration of African Americans increased 7 times. Currently African
Americans make up 12 % of the population in the U.S. but 53% of the
nation’s prison population. There are more African Americans under
correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or
parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
The prison system is the most visible example of policies of punitive
containment of the most marginalized and oppressed in our society.
Prior to incarceration, 2/3 of all prisoners lived in conditions of
economic hardship. While the perpetrators of white-collar crime largely
go free.
In addition, the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated
that in 2008 alone there was a loss in economic input associated with
people released from prison equal to $57 billion to $65 billion.
We call on Occupies across the country to support:
1. Abolishing unjust sentences, such as the Death Penalty, Life
Without the Possibility of Parole, Three Strikes, Juvenile Life Without
Parole, and the practice of trying children as adults.
2. Standing in solidarity with movements initiated by prisoners and
taking action to support prisoner demands, including the Georgia Prison
Strike and the Pelican Bay/California Prisoners Hunger Strikes.
3. Freeing political prisoners, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard
Peltier, Lynne Stewart, Bradley Manning and Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, a
Black Panther Party member incarcerated since 1969.
4. Demanding an end to the repression of activists, specifically the
targeting of African Americans and those with histories of
incarceration, such as Khali in Occupy Oakland who could now face a life
sentence, on trumped-up charges, and many others being falsely charged
after only exercising their First Amendment rights.
5. Demanding an end to the brutality of the current system, including
the torture of those who have lived for many years in Secured Housing
Units (SHUs) or in solitary confinement.
6. Demanding that our tax money spent on isolating, harming and
killing prisoners, instead be invested in improving the quality of life
for all and be spent on education, housing, health care, mental health
care and other human services which contribute to the public good.
Bay Area
On February 20th, 2012 we will organize in front of San Quentin,
where male death-row prisoners are housed, where Stanley Tookie Williams
was immorally executed by the State of California in 2005, and where
Kevin Cooper, an innocent man on death row, is currently imprisoned.
At this demonstration, through prisoners’ writings and other artistic
and political expressions, we will express the voices of the people who
have been inside the walls. The organizers of this action will reach
out to the community for support and participation. We will contact
social service organizations, faith institutions, labor organizations,
schools, prisoners, former prisoners and their family members.
National and International Outreach
We will reach out to Occupies across the country to have similar
demonstrations outside of prisons, jails, juvenile halls and detainment
facilities or other actions as such groups deem appropriate. We will
also reach out to Occupies outside of the United States and will seek to
attract international attention and support.
We have chosen Monday, February 20, 2012 at San Quentin, because it
is a non-weekend day. Presidents’ Day avoids the weekend conflict with
prisoners’ visitation, which would likely be shut down if we held a
demonstration over the weekend.
Informational Link: