On January 15, people imprisoned across Florida will begin a “lay down” to cripple the state’s system of prison slave labor and to challenge the brutal conditions they experience daily.
Thousands across the state will not go to work, go to chow, make purchases from the prison canteen, go to visits, use the phone system, or participate in any activity that feeds or is fed by the legalized extortion racket and slave labor system that is Florida state prison!
The best way folks can help from Asheville/far away:
*1)* *Spread the word! * The media rarely pays attention to prison struggles, so getting the word out is CRUCIAL; send to any contacts you have in the media and people you know, especially in Florida; share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (#OperationPush #layitdown #endprisonslavery)
*2) Attend a letter-writing night hosted by **Blue Ridge ABC on Sunday 1/21 (4-6pm @ Firestorm). *One week into the lay down we’ll gather to send messages of solidarity to folks who are striking–they have asked specifically for this form of support! Check out BRABC’s Facebook page for upcoming event details, updates, media coverage and more!
*3) Look out for updates from BRABC. *Prison rebels will face repression. Organizers will be posting about needs as they arise and BRABC will be sending out these updates as they occur. https://www.facebook.com/BlueRidgeABC/
*4) Get Informed! *Below, read an article from Florida prison revolutionary Kevin “Rashid” Johnson on Operation Push; and to listen to an interview with a lead organizer with the action on the outside, listen here: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/
*Links:*
YouCaring Donations to send 1000+ zines publicizing the strike into prisons
statewide
– https://www.youcaring.com/operationpush-1051439
Gainesville IWOC
– https://incarceratedworkers.org/branches/gainesville
– https://www.facebook.com/Gainesville-IWOC-995837620542847/
Fight Toxic Prisons
– https://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/
– https://www.facebook.com/Campaign-to-Fight-Toxic-Prisons-1744188675811724/
SPARC Network
– https://www.facebook.com/SPARC-133851070619730/
Blue Ridge ABC
– https://www.facebook.com/BlueRidgeABC/
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*Florida** Prisoners Are Laying It Down*
*By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson*
During early 2018 prisoners across Florida are gonna “laydown”
in nonviolent protest of the intolerable conditions in Florida’s prisons.
The objectionable conditions being protested include unpaid
slave labor, compounded by outright price-gouging in the system’s
commissary and package services, and the gain-time scam that replaced
parole, which, coupled with extreme sentencing, has created overcrowding
and inhumane conditions.
The “laydown” will consist of a prisoner work stoppage and
their refusal to participate in any state-sanctioned or related activities,
and is planned to last for several weeks, or perhaps indefinitely, until
their concerns are addressed.
It is imperative that the public be aware of the prisoners’
need for resolutions and of their abuses.
A Culture of Abuse, Corruption and Inhumane Conditions
Having been confined in the Florida Department of Corruption
(FDOC) for six months at the time of writing this, and being able to
contrast conditions here with those in other prison systems (Florida’s is
my fourth state prison system in six years), I can personally attest that
conditions here are among the worst I’ve seen.
In fact, the past four months have passed without me writing
any articles, and during that time I have fallen behind in my own legal
pursuits because I’ve been overwhelmed trying to help others’ efforts and
needs to counter and challenge the extreme levels of abuse occurring
constantly around me here at Florida State Prison (FSP).
On a literal daily basis prisoners are gassed, tortured and/or
brutally beaten by guards with the full complicity of medical and mental
health staff. As part of this culture of abuse, grievance officials
routinely trash prisoners’ attempts to grieve their mistreatment. This to
eliminate any records of the abuses and to frustrate any potential attempts
at litigation (1).
These and attendant conditions illustrate the inhumane and
unjust outrages that Florida prisoners are protesting.
Take for example that FDOC prisoners are forced to work without
pay. Only one job pays a token wage (namely the prison commissary), which,
at $50 a month, is lower than 3rd world sweatshop rates.
The enforced slave labor in the FDOC is a literal continuation
of the old antebellum slave system, selectively enforced against people of
color and the poor and based upon the 13th Amendment which only modified
slavery at the end of the Civil War in 1865, to permit enslavement of those
convicted of crimes. It was under this reformed slavery that Blacks were
targeted for re-enslavement and the FDOC was established three years later
in 1868 which the FDOC proudly boasts on its seal (2).
Coupled with Florida prisoners receiving no wages, they must
purchase basic hygiene supplies, seasonal clothing, shoes and supplemental
foods and beverages from a grossly overpriced commissary and package
system, which weighs heavily on their loved ones. Otherwise prisoners must
do without.
Again, by contrasting the FDOC with other prison systems that
I’ve been recently confined to, I can readily illustrate and attest to this
pricing scam. In fact, those on the outside can compare the prices between
FDOC’s packaging system with that in Texas, by visiting access.comand
FloridaPackages.com for Florida prices and
going to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (sic!) website and
going to Ecommdirect.com for Texas prices.
FDOC prices are literally double or more the prices of the same
or similar items sold to Texas prisoners. Here are some random examples
comparing the 2017 prices of the same or similar items sold to FDOC versus
TDCJ prisoners:
1. A Speed Stick deodorant is $2.50 (TX); while a generic Oraline Secure
roll-on deodorant is $4.00 (FL);
2. One AA battery is $.27 (TX); a pack of two AA batteries is $3.02 (FL);
3. A roll of toilet paper is $.50 (TX); $1.00 (FL);
4. Ten letter size envelopes are $.30 (TX); $.80 (FL);
5. Multivitamins—100 count—are $2.30 (TX); $7.21 (FL);
7. A 3.5 ounce pouch of mackerel fillets is $.85 (TX); $1.59 (FL);
8. A 4 ounce bag of coffee is $.85 and $1.90 (TX); $6.03 (FL);
9. One Top Ramen soup is $.30 (TX); $.70 (FL);
10. Ten individual packs of oatmeal are $1.50 (TX); $5.30 (FL);
11. A bottle of nasal spray is $1.85 (TX); $8.75 (FL), and so on.
Again, these are only random samples showing the comparative
overpricing of items sold to FDOC prisoners. It should also be kept in
mind that the quality of goods sold by prison vendors are typically
inferior to those sold to the general public.
Forced to work without pay and to purchase goods at usurious
prices, while most come from poor communities, prisoners are especially
vulnerable to such pricing scams, and most obviously cannot afford to
purchase basic necessities, supplement the inadequate prison meals and
nutrition, and acquire the few allowed amenities at the prices set by the
FDOC.
This is particularly problematic where, as the Florida media
has exposed, the FDOC has been caught denying its prisoners such basic
necessities as toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, etc. and have issued and
forced them to wear clothes that are threadbare and literally shredded.
They are also made to live in housing units that are falling apart around
them. (3)
And while prison officials love to profess their function to be
that of “rehabilitating” those they confine so that they might become
productive members of society upon release, nothing be further from the
truth. Slavery does not teach one work ethic nor how to be free.
With little to no outside support, most prisoners areforced to
hustle and scheme as a means of acquiring necessities and amenities.
Forcing people to work without pay while denying them needed and desired
things, only teaches them to becomes thieves, predators and swindlers. So
officials are actually teaching criminality. Which is only reinforced by
the culture of corruption that pervades the FDOC, which is beyond the pale.
Some of that corruption began to come out in the media during
and after 2014 when outside protests and litigation exposed patterns of
FDOC prisoners being killed by officials and covered up at the highest
administrative and investigative levels. Particularly the murder of a
mentally ill prisoner, Darren Rainey, in 2012 by guards scalding him to
death in a rigged shower at Dade Correctional Institution which was swept
under the rug until exposed in 2014.
The public exposure of this incident and the attempts to cover
it up opened a can of worms, leading to the exposure of numerous other
killings, routine malicious beatings and gassings of prisoners by guards,
systemic denials of mental health care, and more, as a deeply entrenched
statewide culture (which continues) (4).
Also exposed was a system of retaliations, firings and
harassments against investigators and other staff who tried to report or
expose such abuses, engineered at highest levels of power in the FDOC. (5)
This abusive environment has been made all the worse by such
staffing problems as frequent guard turnovers, low pay, chronic
understaffing, and a generally inadequately trained and unprofessional
staff body.
These are among the many inhumane and intolerable conditions
and abuses that FDOC prisoners suffer every day with no voice or help, and
which they are protesting for relief from. They need and deserve all
possible support.
Dare to struggle, dare to win!
All Power to the people!
*__________________________*
*1. Under federal law prisoners must exhaust any existing prison grievance
procedures before filing suit. See 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a). This requirement
is however invalidated when officials obstruct a prisoner’s
grievances. Turner v. Burnside, 541 F. 3d 1077, 1083—84 (11th cir. 2008).*
*2. See, Jessica Lipscomb, “Unpaid Florida Prisoners Forced to Clean Up
After Hurricane Irma,” The New Times, Sept. 28, 2017.*
*3. Mary Ellen Klas, “Florida Prisons Have Toilet Paper, But They’re Not
Supplying it to Some Inmates,” Miami Herald, July 19, 2017; Paula Dockery,
“Inspector General Fiasco Adds to Prison Woes,” Florida Today, May 9, 2015.*
*4. A series of many , many reports covering these issues have come out in
the Miami Herald from 2014 to present, many written by journalists Julie K.
Brown and Mary Ellen Klas. These reports are too numerous to list here but
can be reviewed online by interested readers.*
*5. Julie K. Brown, “Top Cop Accused of Thwarting Investigations Quits
Florida Prison System,” Miami Herald, December 21, 2016; Mary Ellen Klas
and Julie K. Brown, “New Prison Policy Punishes Investigators Who Speak
Out,’Miami Herald, February 5, 2015, Mary Ellen Klas, “Florida Prison
Inspectors Detail Alleged Interference in Their Investigations,” Miami
Herald, June 1, 2016*
