Jackie and I went to a Prison Strike rally late this afternoon in Albuquerque. The rally is part of a relatively recent nationwide movement to directly confront the school to prison pipeline and prison-industrial complex. We have let terrible things fester and worsen for way too long, and we learned NM is very much in the forefront of private prisons and slave wages for prisoners. Below is the list of demands from the national movement's website (see earlier link), most of which should be part of both the Democratic Party and Libertarian Party platforms.
While the Albuquerque rally had a relatively sparse crowd of about 100 people or so, the speakers were impassioned and powerful in explaining how harsh our prisons have become once again, and how slave wages and the profit motive in prisons have had the effect of imprisoning more and more poor people in a time when the most violent crime rates have gone down. It dovetails with the analysis of the Ferguson, MO police department, and how they funded their operations through petty citations that add up and oppressed people like a modern Sheriff of Nottingham--with no Robin Hood in sight. It helped us understand how Officer Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, MO, thought it was so important to get Michael Brown for jaywalking, which led Officer Wilson to continue to escalate the situation to a point where jaywalking ended up becoming a capital crime for Brown. Most times, the escalation falls short of that, but what ends up happening is poor people get indebted to the criminal justice system and end up inside, filing the pockets of private contractor prison firms.
My suggestion is we write to candidates and incumbents we like and help them see this as an important human rights issue which cuts across, and is connected to, economic inequality, exploitation of workers at the bottom runs of our society, electoral reform, and the need for increased and subsidized access to education across the board, both inside and outside of prison walls. This movement also clearly intersects with other criminal justice reforms which are badly needed. What I did not fully see before today is how one may connect dots to so many related issues such that this set of issues should become an important part of any set of policies that a civilized political party should endorse.
Demands of the national movement:
1. Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor. MJF Comment: This demand needs to be more specific and say there should be a right for prisoners to economically organize, and have the same rights as workers outside prison walls under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. See this article from The Nation from nearly nine years ago. We also know many prisoners are doing a wonderful job in call centers, fighting forest fires, and the like. To rent them out for less than a dollar an hour or as little as 10-20 cents an hour--some states even force prisoners to work for "free," which is the very definition of slavery--is simply a ridiculously exploitive and cruel act. This Vox article shows us where to begin to analyze this phenomenon at various policy levels. It is not enough to say, "Oh well, they are learning a skill." To say they should not be allowed to earn a decent wage simply becomes an excuse for exploitation and ultimately again cruelty.
3. The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned humans a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their rights.
4. The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and parole. No human shall be sentenced to Death by Incarceration or serve any sentence without the possibility of parole.
5. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole denials of Black and brown humans.
6. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular problem in southern states. MJF Comment: The phrasing here is problematic to me, but I think guidelines can be put into place to alleviate the racial injustices here.
7. An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting Black and brown humans.
8. No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at their place of detention because of their label as a violent offender.
9. State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation services.
10. Pell grants must be reinstated in all US states and territories.
11. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called “ex-felons” must be counted. Representation is demanded. All voices count.
I wish more politicians had appeared today. Only one Democratic Party candidate for a local State legislature seat appeared or spoke. He had experience working with immigrants who fell afoul of laws, and he spoke with intelligence and passion. Again, I think it is vital for us to start writing or emailing those we already like to elevate this issue. I know Bernie Sanders was very vocal in his presidential run against private prisons, against slave wages for prisoners, and reinstating voting rights for those who served their time after felony convictions. What I feel today is there is a way to talk about this systemically that, again, connects dots to other important issues so that this becomes part of a holistic sort of public policies.
