No More Prisons

Prison Issues in the News

After a long struggle, changes are coming in the New York Prison System:

Bar Association wants an end to Mandatory Minimum Sentences

Ruling on Death Penalty Clouds Existing Sentences

The Price of Prisons: Opponents are already arguing that given the government's enormous deficit, Congress should reject any bills that involve new spending. But given the soaring price of incarceration, and a prison population that is growing, the most costly option is to do nothing.

A 4-3 Ruling Effectively Halts Death Penalty in New York

Save Kevin Cooper

Four activists, including Wavy Gravy, were arrested in California yesterday as part of a day of action around Kevin Cooper--who is set to be the first Californian executed in two years on February 10. Gov. Schwarzenegger last week denied a clemency hearing for Cooper, despite ample evidence shedding doubt not only on Cooper's trial, but also his overall guilt or innocence. Cooper is asking people to protest for his life. Several organizations are planning a host of upcoming actions leading up to Cooper's execution date.

Rikers Houses Low-Level Inmates at High Expense

New York City's Correction Department spent an average of nearly $59,000 per inmate in the 2003 fiscal year. But when all city expenses are factored in - insurance and pension benefits for correction staff, for instance, as well as more than $150 million for jail medical care - the yearly per-inmate cost is closer to $100,000, according to the city's Independent Budget Office.

Either way, the expense of jailing people in the city is especially great, Bloomberg administration officials acknowledge - far more, for instance, than it is in other big cities.

The Cost of Imprisonment.

George Ryan @ Sundance

In January 2003, Republican Governor George Ryan granted blanket clemency to all 167 people on death row in Illinois, commuting their sentences to life without parole. With astounding access to special clemency hearings, the death row prisoners, exonerated men and Governor Ryan himself, directors Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson bring us directly into the emotional and legal storm surrounding Ryan’s extraordinary decision.

Deadline premiered at Sundance last week. The Chicago Tribue notes George Ryan's participation in the screenings of the film:

The Sundance Film Festival may be flush with charismatic yet troubled movie heroes, but only one is a gruff 69-year-old Republican Illinois ex-governor under federal indictment.

Yes, George Ryan is doing Sundance.

Ryan, who appeared at events Friday and Sunday, is the lead character/star of "Deadline," one of 16 feature-length documentaries in competition at this pre-eminent festival for American independent film. Directed by Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson, the movie chronicles the three months from the ex-governor's call for a death penalty moratorium to his declaration of blanket clemency for 167 Death Row inmates just days before he left office last January.

(u/p: rwalks/rwalks)

ACLU brings lawsuit to restore ex-prisoners' voting rights

The American Civil Liberties Union and several minority rights advocates filed suit yesterday, seeking to overturn a New Jersey law that prohibits convicted felons from voting after they have left prison and are serving terms of parole or probation.

The Sentencing Project, in Washington D.C. has lau...

The Sentencing Project, in Washington D.C. has launched a new web site. They're publications section is a gem - there's still a dearth (sadly) of great fact sheets on-line for prison activists. With the election coming up, their Drug Policy section is especially relevant.

Break The Chains Conferenceto be held on August 8-...

Break The Chains Conference

to be held on August 8-10, 2003, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

Perhaps no other single issue so convincingly illustrates the inter-connectedness of the struggle for total liberation as does the prison industrial complex. Resisting prisons is resisting state repression and blatant social control; it is resisting the most terrifying examples of racism, sexism, and homophobia, the criminalization of the poor and capitalist exploitation of labor. For this reason, the Break the Chains conference hopes to exemplify the need for continued and heightened prisoner support with our ultimate goal being prison abolition. Prison abolition is a political vision that seeks to eliminate the need for prisons and acknowledges the devastating effects that prisons have on poor and marginalized communities. Prisoner support, for both social and political prisoners, means learning from the incarcerated, making their voices heard and their existence visible and meaningful.

-- From the Break the Chains mission statement. see the site for full info including registration

new report from Yvonne Bynoe and Urban Think Tank ...

new report from Yvonne Bynoe and Urban Think Tank -a good primer on building a hip-hop movement... also check out www.UrbanThinkTank.org

MAKING OF A MASTER PLAN:
TAKING HIP HOP FROM CULTURAL EXPRESSION TO SOCIAL MOVEMENT

In recent years there has been much discussion about the emergence of a Hip Hop political movement. Urban Think Tank Institute’s report is the first to provide critical information so that for organizers and activists can more effectively galvanize their constituencies around social and political issues. This report, using a historical perspective, examines the current social and political factors that affect the Hip Hop generation, those adults born approximately between 1965 and 1984 and their ability to institute a new social movement. Moreover, the report discusses the current state of this age cohort and the obstacles existing that prevent its political mobilization. Lastly, the report provides community leaders and activists with recommendations for actions to take to better organize and mobilize young adults.

This analysis was conducted as part of Urban Think Tank Institute’s commitment to make relevant analysis and useful research available to activists and community leaders. Founded in 2000, the Urban Think Tank Institute has had as one of its goals to provide activists and community leaders with research and analysis that can assist them in their organizing and mobilization efforts. To that end, Urban Think Tank produces position papers, reports, holds public forums and maintains a web site, www.UrbanThinkTank.org and generates a regular e-newsletter.

PRICE: $13.00

Page count: 30

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Social Movements

What is Hip Hop Culture?

Current Challenges to Developing Social Movement from within the Hip Hop Generation

Recommendations for Community Organizers and Leaders

TO ORDER:

Send check or money order in the amount of $13.00 payable to Urban Think Tank

Mail to: Urban Think Tank

Attn: Hip Hop Movement Report

P.O. Box 1476

New York, New York 10185-1476

Biggest Anti-War Protest in World HistoryThis Satu...

Biggest Anti-War Protest
in World History
This Saturday
Feb 15 at noon

The NYC location is UN Plaza. See you there!

www.unitedforpeace.org

� Hip-Hop Against The War Speaking Tour � � CO...

�
Hip-Hop Against The War Speaking Tour

�
�
CONTACT: Rosa Clemente

Knowthyself72@msn.com

917.660.2187�

DATE: January 29, 2003

KNOW THY SELF PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS THE 2003 HIP HOP ACTIVISM TOUR

“SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER!”

Due to last years overwhelming success of the Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win tour at over 15 colleges and universities, Know Thy Self Productions Inc. is proud to present an additional speaking and organizing tour. The “Speak Truth to Power” tour is dedicated to educating, organizing, and mobilizing the Hip Hop generation. We are a collective of award winning; published group of grassroots organizers, community activists, radio and print journalist’s, filmmakers, teachers, artists and entrepreneurs. We are ANTI-WAR, we support the call for reparations, we demand the immediate release of United States political prisoners, the immediate cessation of U.S. Naval practices on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico and are fully committed to ending sexism in our communities. Our goals are to empower and promote self-determination within the Hip Hop generation and amongst youth. Through keynote addresses, presentations and interactive workshops participants will be able to discuss their views, identify community issues, which they believe are important, and effectively use Hip Hop culture as a tool for revolutionary change and social justice. The “Speak Truth to Power” tour will commence with Rosa Clemente and Lumumba Akinowle-Bandele at Wesleyan College on February 10th 2003.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ROSA CLEMENTE is a Black Puerto Rican community organizer, scholar-activist and journalist. She was named by Red Eye magazine as one of “50 top Hip-Hop activists to look out for in 2002.” She is the founder and owner of Know Thy Self Productions Inc., co-host and producer of PACIFICA RADIO WBAI’S Where We Live and a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

AKIBA SOLOMON is a regular contributor to BET.Com, has written on Black women’s images and self-esteem and has spoken extensively on women in Hip Hop and Hip Hop journalism.�

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN (with Fred Hampton Jr. and M1 of dead prez) will address, through the elements of Hip Hop culture, issues which effect Black and Latino/a communities such as; the prison industrial complex, the struggle to free U.S. Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, and the need for Black and Latino/a youth to reclaim their culture and use it as a tool to educate, organize, and mobilize their communities.�

DR. RON DANIELS a veteran social and political activist, is the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and an outspoken expert on police brutality, hate crimes and reparations. Daniels played a leading role in the historic Million Man March, is convener of the State of Black World/Institute of the Black World and contributes to countless magazines and newspapers around the country.

FRED HAMPTON JR. is a former political prisoner who was released in September 2001 after being falsely imprisoned for nine years. Since his release, Hampton has continued to expose the brutal prison conditions that exist and organizes to release U.S. political prisoners, prisoners of war and prisoners of conscience. (Fred Hampton Jr. participates in the Dare to struggle, Dare to win tour only, for other inquiries please email us and we will forward to appropriate parties.)

JENNIFER CALDERON aka J-Love is a community activist and a freelance writer whom contributes frequently to countless Hip Hop magazines on the issues of white cultural appropriation. J-Love is a teacher at the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, a co-creator of SISTA II SISTA, an organization and freedom school for young women of in color in Brooklyn, co-founder of the Active Element Foundation and co-founder and producer of the annual B Boy and B Girl summit.�

JESSICA SANCLEMENTE is a Latina youth organizer around the issue of police brutality. She has been an activist since the age of 15 and is currently an organizer for the Justice Committee of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights. She has experience organizing around issues of racial violence, immigration, and domestic violence.�

LUMUMBA AKINWOLE-BANDELE is a community activist and a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Lumumba is a former student of Brooklyn’s first black independent school, Uhuru Sasa Shule (Freedom Now School) and currently organizes around police brutality, the freedom of political prisoners and is active in concert production.�

MARINIEVAS ALBA is an activist, educator and writer. She is the founder and director of Hip Hop L.E.A.D.S., a New York-based youth leadership project which uses Hip-Hop culture to engage young people in a comprehensive social justice education program, Hip-Hop and other forms of popular culture to her community development and organizing activities in the U.S. Marinievas is co-founder and co-director of the International Hip-Hop Exchange (IHX).�

TANIA CUEVAS-MARTINEZ is a Mexican born, US based independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. At the age of 16 Tania was already behind the scenes of many hip-hop videos and soon began to combine her love of film and music. Cuevas uses guerilla tactics to take stories and make them easily accessible to youth and people of color.

TOUR TOPICS

-YOUTH OF COLOR SAY NO to GEORGE BUSH’s WAR: Speaking out and mobilizing the Masses�

-Its Bigger than Hip Hop: Political activism in the Hip Hop generation�

-The Institute of the Black World Intergenerational Dialogue with Dr. Ron Daniels, Rosa Clemente and others�

-Take back the airwaves: How progressive youth are creating their own media outlets�

-Black and Latina/o student relations�

-Legacy of Resistance: Children of Political Prisoners Speak Out�

-White Like Me- Cultural appropriation or authentic love?�

-Women and Hip Hop: Our time to Rhyme�

cross-posted from action figures sold seperately:C...

cross-posted from action figures sold seperately:

Critical Resistance and Incite! have issued a joint statement on Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex:

We call on social justice movements concerned with ending violence in all its forms to: 1) Develop community-based responses to violence that do not rely on the criminal justice system AND which have mechanisms that ensure safety and accountability for survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Transformative practices emerging from local communities should be documented and disseminated to promote collective responses to violence.

read the whole statement here. CR has other excellent materials, which i'll be linking to soon.

and while we're on the subjuect, Incite! -- Women of Color Against Violence has this "Myths and Facts" sheet which does a good job challenging what they see as the unrealistic portrayal of domestic violence in the movie Enough with Jennifer Lopez. And while i didn't see the film, the distortions like this one are present in countless other movies:

MYTH #1: J. Lo would walk away a free woman after killing her batterer because "self-defense is not murder".

FACT: J. Lo probably would've been convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In California, there are at least 70 women serving life for killing their batterers in self-defense. Thousands more are in prison for domestic violence-related crimes.

if you are in a Southern state and want to plug in...

if you are in a Southern state and want to plug in to ongoing work to dismantle the prison industrial complex, then get ready for April 4!

The CR South Regional Conference and Strategy Session is being organized by community organizations and individuals from across the South with support from Critical Resistance, a national grassroots group that fights to end this nation's reliance on prisons, police, and surveillance as an answer to social, political, and economic problems.

from the newly revamped Critical Resistance site.

HEMMER: Governor, let me just stop you there. Yo...

HEMMER: Governor, let me just stop you there. You mentioned about three things I really want to pick out here. You say you looked at every case individually.

RYAN: Right.

HEMMER: But ... the man raped and murdered this woman's sister, [he was] convicted, [and] on death row for nine years. What is the excuse for allowing him to have his life spared then?

RYAN: Well, Bill, I don't know if you know all the statistics about Illinois' death penalty system. But we had 40, 37, 39 people on death row. Seventeen of them have been exonerated after having been found guilty by a jury of their peers, been through every appellate process that we have in Illinois, gone to the Supreme Court of Illinois, to the United States Supreme Court, only to have their convictions verified in each case, only to come back and find that they, in fact, were innocent. And it took journalism students from Northwestern University to find that three of them were innocent. People had recanted their testimony. DNA evidence and lots of things that turned that around.

In the meantime, we executed 12 people out of that number and exonerated 17. That's a 60 percent error rate. I don't know who can survive any business in a 60 percent error rate.

Illinois Governor Ryan: "I looked at Every Case."
Also at Google News.

January 2003 Dear Activist: As a leader in the c...

January 2003

Dear Activist:

As a leader in the criminal justice reform movement, we are inviting you
to attend the first meeting of a newly-forming coalition to lower - once
and for all - the outrageous phone bills paid by those with loved ones
in New York State prisons, and to stop the continued exploitation of our
communities by the Department of Corrections and MCI. The Fifth Avenue
Committee's Developing Justice Project will host the first meeting on
Thursday, January 23, 2003, at 5:30 p.m.

As many of you know, the NYS Department of Corrections garners an
additional 60% commission for each collect call placed by incarcerated
men and women. Their claim is that these monies are utilized to
administer the Inmate Benefit Fund, which is ostensibly allocated to
provide services to current inmates. These fees cause tremendous
hardship for many working class families, and effectively charges family
members for services that the state is legally required to provide.

Many of us throughout New York State have long been outraged by this
practice. As we enter into the New Year, it is time for us to join
together and launch a cohesive, organized campaign. Our hope is that
working together, we can strategize ways for family members, advocacy
groups and the legal community can coordinate our efforts and build a
strong, unified coalition. The purpose of our first meeting will be to
strategize a campaign built on multiple levels: combining legal efforts,
public education, media campaigns and carefully targeted community
actions.


DATE:                       Thursday, January 23, 2003
TIME:                        5:30 pm
PLACE:                     151 Fifth Avenue Conference Room
                                  Brooklyn, NY (between Lincoln Place
and St. John's Place)
*By subway: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, M, N, Q or R train to Atlantic
Avenue/Pacific St.
Walk 1 block to Fifth Avenue and 4 blocks to St. John's Place

Family members who have been core leaders within our group will be in
attendance. As this is a grassroots movement, we encourage you to
invite any directly affected persons you know.

Your leadership and expertise are critical for this campaign to
successfully move forward. Please RSVP to let us know if you will be
attending. If you cannot attend this meeting but would like to join our
coalition, please contact me at 718/857-2990 x41.


In struggle,

Kym Clark
Criminal Justice Organizer
Prison Families Community Forum

Kym Clark, Organizer
Developing Justice
Fifth Avenue Committee
141 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718/857-2990 x41
718/857-4322 (fax)

IN JANUARY 2003, The Prison Families Community Forum meets on Second
(2nd) and Fourth (4th) Thursdays of the month from 5:30-7:00pm! (that's
January 9th and January 23rd). Call for details...

schooling the masseslooking for something to show ...

schooling the masses

looking for something to show at your next community forum or house party benefit? if you haven't see it already, mediarights.org has over 280 listings of documentaries on criminal justice issues (not to mention their other categories like economic justice, racial justice, human rights, and gender/women). they even break it down into subcategories like police brutality, juvenile justice, and prisoner rights. so now that you know, go! (and don't forget the popcorn).