Join us on April 4th from 5-7pm at West Asheville Park (Vermont Ave, Asheville) for our monthly, socially distanced letter writing events. We’ll provide materials, names of prisoners with upcoming birthdays or facing repression who could use a kind word, potential friends and comrades. Letters not only bridge connection through the bars, they provide a…
Political Prisoner Letter Writing Sunday, March 7th in West Asheville Park, Blue Ridge ABC will be hosting a political prisoner letter writing event from 5-6:30pm. They’ll provide postage, names and addresses as well as stationary for those who want to come by and write to political prisoners with upcoming birthdays or prison rebels facing repression.…
Two people arrested during the protests in Asheville were questioned by the FBI while in custody. Both talked with jail support about it and shared that the agents were asking who the planners and leaders were, who was coordinating and funding. These sound like standard general questions, and are consistent with reports nationwide of FBI approaching people arrested in the uprisings in custody or door knocking after release. Unfortunately this is normal and to be expected. As we now know this has happened here, it’s a great time to review our best practices and share resources with new friends. The NLG will be asked to make support and education about FBI visits available to communities statewide who are protesting. Locally, we have lots of resources and experience to share.
Some things to do/keep doing:
– Generalize materials about law enforcement questioning and door knocks. Give special effort to share directly with people you’re working with and meeting through the protests in addition to posting on social media. Don’t assume everyone already knows something or feel embarrassed if you don’t know something.
-Efficient legal support helps keep people from being vulnerable to law enforcement in custody and means they already have a lawyer before a potential contact after release.
-Learn about what support is available so you can assure others they have support if they refuse to speak to police/FBI. Bolster legal support organizing and the people doing it to keep this high standard of legal support sustainable.
-Avoid the spread of rumors about FBI and confirm reports. Share confirmed info carefully, precisely and widely. Support yourself and others around the anxiety this brings up.
-Take a personal inventory of your practices and your resources.
Hello, my name is ___. I’m calling because Commissioner Ishee needs to direct Caledonia CI, Bertie CI, Pasquotank CI, and NCCIW to immediately begin testing their entire inmate populations for covid19. Currently, at Caledonia 17 people have tested positive, at Pasquotank 19 have tested positive, at Bertie 10 have tested positive, and at NCCI Women, the outbreak has already reached disastrous proportions with 81 cases confirmed.
We present here the 6th issue of Fire Ant Journal, featuring the voices of anarchist prisoners including: Sean Swain, Jennifer Rose, Michael Kiimble, Marius Mason, Thomas Meyer-Falk and Noah Coffin.
[High Res (45.1MB): PDF for printing] (8.5×11)
[Lower Res (4.5MB): PDF for printing] (8.5×11)
Update (April 11th): We’ve updated the zine with new information. The links below have been updated.
COVID19 poses a serious threat in prisons and jails due to the nature of these facilities (overcrowded, cramped, unsanitary) and due to the lack of political, social, and economic capital criminalized people and communities possess.
We’ve developed a COVID19 Info Zine for NC prisoners as a resource to help people inside have reliable info in this crisis, both about the pandemic and about what communities are doing to advocate for folks inside. We encourage anyone who writes to someone inside to send it in. It was compiled specifically for NC prisoners, but the health info is relevant to all and the advocacy steps could be translated to any state or jurisdiction. While the guide is primarily in English there are a few sections with key info (symptoms, how to avoid spread) that are in Spanish as well.
From the facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/503825183570471/ Join us for a film screening and discussion of the short documentary film “Condemned,” which tells the story of Bomani Shakur (or Keith Lamar) who is on death row for five murders he did not commit or play any part in during the 1993 Lucasville Prison uprising. Bomani was recently…
Monday, March 23rd 2020, folks are encouraged to flood the phone lines of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and demand the release of all prisoners due to the mismanagement, lack of preparedness, lack of access to free sanitary living conditions for it’s wards in this time of Covid-19 pandemic. You can call Governor…
Join BRABC for a showing of the amazing 1996 documentary, ‘All Power To The People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond’. This film features the voices of many folks involved in the BPP, BLA and other liberation movements of the 1960’s and 70’s as well as historians and activists talking about the suppression of the…
