This is why it’s so important to vote for your local judges after doing a minimal amount of research. Most people just pick whatever judge is there or has a funny name, but this woman is changing the way prisoners are treated and she was voted in by the county. Always do your research before voting for judges, but don’t discount it as unomportant. You may need someone like her on your side one day.
Wanna do direct action but you can’t run, can’t fight, can’t deal with stress, can’t risk getting arrested? Not near a community to support? You can still do something.
Like write to prisoners.
Prisons try to disappear people, isolate them, crush them. Don’t let that happen.
Write to activists in prison, write to trans people in prison, write to isolated prisoners, write to prisoners who no one else thinks are worth writing to.
Write to prisoners.
Are there any programs or websites that help facilitate this which are based on the UK that you know of? Most of the info I’ve found tends to be US-based or just gov.uk general info about writing to someone you know in prison.
But given that I’m chronically ill or seems like a great way to actually do something and be an active part of change.
Great to hear that you’re interested!
The Anarchist Black Cross is a prisoner support network that has chapters in a lot of countries and cities. In the UK there are:
Do check out some of the ‘do’s and don’t’ on one of these websites before you start, there are some basics like ‘don’t talk about illegal activities’ and ‘don’t stop writing without being honest to the person about the fact that you’re going to stop writing’ that are essential to know, and a lot of less important tips that just make it easier to start writing to someone you don’t know yet. Goodluck!
Shoutout to @freackthejester for pointing out Black and Pink (http://www.blackandpink.org), that can help you find LGBTIAQ+ prisoners in prison in the US, with chapters in:
And whenever there is no explicit prisoner-support organization, ask your local anarchists! Most anarchist groups do some prisoner support as well since supporting those who defy the state is basic anarchist praxis. This long list of Australia anarchist organizations probably includes groups that do some prisoner support: https://anarchy.org.au/directory/
Also contributed by people in the notes of this post so far:
Turns out people really like the extra resources on this post so here we go. Most of these urls were listen by Anarchist Black Cross Gent but I took out some dead urls and make them clickable.
I am extremely glad to hear that Trump has signed an executive order to end the separation of families, but please do not think that the battle for justice ends here.
I mean, this is literally what Trump was referring to when he said it was ‘democrats’ law’ that was ‘making’ him separate families.
The law is the one says it’s illegal to incarcerate children for crimes their parents committed for any extended length of time. This is the law Trump wants changed.
The law exists because we realized this prolonged internment of innocent children was sometimes happening (in extremely unsafe conditions no less) and we understood that this was a horrible, inhumane, inexcusable thing to do to a child.
The conflict arose when this was paired with the Trump adminstration’s new “zero tolerance” policy, which drastically increased the number of people being prosecuted (far beyond our capacity to handle with reasonable speed and due process), and meant that refugees seeking asylum (much, much more likely to be families fleeing with small children) must go through sometimes months of appeals trying to see if asylum might be permitted.
The former USA stance was that we must not attempt to intern more people than we could handle humanely. The stance Trump’s administration is pushing for is that we must sacrifice humane treatment of these families to protect our own.
So y’all need a reminder on what the word “agenda” is?
Putting even more police officers in schools will only feed the school-to-prison pipeline. And needlessly endanger, arrest and criminalize innocent black and brown students, destroy their futures in the process, and in essence, help to maintain a permanent underclass.
“Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways in which it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination – employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, exclusion from jury service – are suddenly legal.“ – Michelle Alexander
Make no mistake: The true agenda here is not “school safety.” The real goals are to, 1. Keep the for-profit, prison industrial complex supplied with cheap prison laborers, and, 2. Disenfranchise the next generation of black and non-white voters, who will face additional hurdles to finding employment, rental housing, home loans, student loans, public food assistance, and most importantly, voting — all because they will now have a ~criminal~ record for minor school infractions.
Hey everyone? This is not okay. In May, the US government officially adopted a policy separating children from their parents when they crossed the border. It was meant to act as a deterrent to anyone seeking to immigrate to this country. Don’t come with your kids, or we’ll arrest you and take your children away. Children should never be used as political pawns like this. It’s inhuman and cruel.
Parents, after being separated from their children, are being tried as criminals. According to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “If you cross the Southwest border unlawful, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple” So not only are families being torn apart, parents are being sent to jail. It’s really hard to be reunited with your child if you are in federal prison.
Please pay attention to what is happening at our southern border. Please care about these people. I know there is a lot gong on in the world, and it’s hard to care about everything all the time, but please don’t forget about the immigrant families. Call you representatives. Vote the people who support this policy out of office in November. Find a local rally/protest. Donate to a charity. Don’t let the people in power get away with this.
Sources are from The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and a video interview with Jess Session found on NBC news. Jacob Soboroff is a reporter for NBC news and MSNBC. 13 June 2018
This is an obvious threat to African American ex-prisoners, and the message is that the state will target and punish them with unreasonable prison sentences for voting, even while on probation.
”I don’t think I’ll ever vote again. That’s being honest. I’ll never vote again.” – Crystal Mason
This is the new Jim Crow. This is an example of how Texas disenfranchises Black voters and suppresses voter turnout.
This is why Black people are disproportionately arrested and injected into the criminal “justice” system for even the smallest infractions.
The threat of re-imprisonment is how you dissuade all Black former-prisoners from voting, “just in case.”
Can you even imagine how different the South would be – how different AMERICA would be, if so many states didn’t use the criminal justice system and prison as a means to suppress the Black vote?
wupacing 