Brooklyn, NY – Organizers from the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a speakout in Sunset Park on Saturday, March 14, just blocks away from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where up to 200 immigrants are being held by federal agents. The event was part of the group’s recently-launched “ICE Out” campaign, continuing the momentum established at mass rallies earlier in the year.

The speak-out began on the corner of 36th Street and 4th Avenue, where members of the New York Alliance handed out hundreds of flyers, delivered fiery speeches, and spoke to passersby about the campaign to kick ICE and federal agents out of the five boroughs.

A nearby subway station meant there was a steady stream of residents and families to engage with, the vast majority of whom reacted positively to the campaign. Some chose to stay and help hand out flyers, while others gathered on the sidewalk to take up chants and listen to speeches about the deplorable conditions at the MDC, the relationship between immigration enforcement and imperialism, and federal police oppression.

For many passing by it was their first time learning about the federal detention complex.

“I lived here for years at this point, I had no idea that prison was right here in my backyard,” Raqael Vasquez, a resident of Sunset Park, told one organizer. “That’s actually crazy. Seriously.”

After spending some time by the subway station, organizers moved to Industry City, a shopping complex on the same avenue as the MDC. Though the crowd here was composed mostly of young professionals and tourists as opposed to residents of Sunset Park, many onlookers took flyers and raised fists in solidarity. Drivers passing from the Gowanus Expressway underpass likewise honked in unity with the organizers’ message, which was audible from two blocks away.

Though the MDC is situated in an inaccessible and industrial corner of Brooklyn, the speakout drew attendees from all over the city, some of whom had learned of the New York Alliance from previous ICE Out campaign events. People from as far away as Staten Island and Bay Ridge gave up their Saturday afternoons to take part in the speakout, indicating the popularity of the campaign, and the frustration from New Yorkers that such a place is, indeed, operating in their backyard.

#BrooklynNY #NY #InJusticeSystem #NAARPR #NYAARPR #Prison

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Freedom Road Socialist Organization NYC.

After a 22-day strike of correction officers across New York State, prison conditions are worsening statewide. The strike began due to the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, known as the HALT Act for short, which limits the amount of time prisoners can be subjected to solitary confinement.

A cruel and inhumane punishment, solitary confinement deprives people in prison from normal social interaction and has been proven to have many adverse health effects, both physical and mental. The HALT Act was initially passed in the State legislature to bring New York’s prison conditions out of what the United Nations considers to be torture — solitary confinement used for periods longer than 15 days. The law also limits the use of solitary confinement against vulnerable populations, including very young or elderly people and people with certain disabilities.

New York correction officers, though, have displayed little empathy for the people in their care. They predominantly view solitary confinement as a necessary tool against “misbehavior” by incarcerated people. With this tool removed from their toolkit, they were unwilling to find other solutions to disciplinary issues within prisons, instead going on strike in the thousands for the longest period of time in decades. This strike wasn’t a labor dispute — it was a reactionary attempt to reverse common-sense reforms that aim to make the state’s prisons more humane.

The resulting shortage in staffing led directly to the deaths of at least seven inmates, as well as the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to fill vacant positions. And ultimately, when the strike ended on March 17th, the state capitulated to the correction officers’ demands — the HALT Act has been suspended for up to 90 days, with a possibility of going on for longer, allowing solitary confinement to be used more liberally and against more vulnerable people.

Opponents of this move have correctly pointed out that the HALT Act’s suspension is illegal; the state legislature passed this law with a veto-proof majority, and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision doesn’t have the power to override that decision. However, the state has bent over backwards to cater to the correction officers, rather than put in any effort to treat inmates with basic respect and humanity.

Even with the concessions, 2,000 prison employees refused to return to work, resulting in their termination from state employment. With lower staffing levels combined with the return of solitary confinement, living conditions will continue to worsen in prisons, as low staffing has led to delays in timely meals, medical care, and other necessities.

#NewYorkNY #NY #InJusticeSystem #Prison

Atlanta, GA – Since August 2024, a dozen Black men at Virginia’s Red Onion supermax prison have set themselves on fire in a desperate attempt to escape conditions that amount to prolonged torture.

Red Onion is infamous for the abuses it has carried out against prisoners since its opening in 1998. Most of its prisoners spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, some of them for as long as 14 years. Red Onion has been known to use attack dogs on prisoners who speak out and organize against the guards’ abuses.

This recent series of self-immolations has been brought to light through Prison Radio communiques by a veteran of the Black liberation movement, longtime political prisoner Kevin Rashid Johnson, who is currently held in Red Onion.

Johnson describes a prisoner known as Econ and his cellmate Trayvon Brown setting themselves on fire in the most recent acts of self-immolation. Econ informed Johnson that the self-immolation was an attempt to get transferred out of Red Onion, even if just temporarily to a hospital, as the conditions have become so intolerable. These acts of desperation come on the heel of Johnson’s 71-day hunger strike that was launched in protest of Red Onion’s inhumane conditions. Guards have been serving food with maggots, carrying out religious persecution, using racial slurs, and denying medical treatment.

In an interview with Prison Radio, Ekong Eshiet gave his reason for self-immolation, “I would rather die before I stay up here, because every day I’m dealing with discrimination, whether it’s about my race, my last name, or my religion.” Eshiet is a Muslim from Africa and has been subjected to frequent beatings that included rubbing pepper spray in his burn wounds. Guards often deface their Quran during these attacks. Eshiet has also launched a hunger strike, “I’m doing my best, like I’m going about this the right way, I guess, like with the hunger strike way. But if I have to, I don’t mind setting myself on fire again. This time, I would set my whole body on fire before I have to stay up here and do the rest of my time.”

27-year-old Demetrius Wallace was one of the first to set fire to his leg in August. Upon being taken to the medical wing of the prison he was denied any treatment. The guards waited three days to transfer him to the VCU Health burn unit. Wallace told The Virginia Defender, “As soon as the doctor sees me, he said, ‘When did this happen?’ I said, ‘Friday.’ He said, ‘Why haven’t you been here?’ I said, ‘I’m not trying to be funny, but I can’t drive myself from the prison.’” Because of this delay, doctors were forced to cure an infection that had developed before they could even begin treating the burn itself.

The trend of medical negligence in American prisons is used as a form of extrajudicial punishment and retaliation. By fostering the conditions for prisoners to develop medical issues, and then denying treatment for said issues, jailers have created a means to murder inmates. This tactic is part and parcel with the systematic inequality imposed on Blacks, Chicanos and other oppressed nationalities by the monopoly capitalist class.

This practice is not limited to prisons either. In the Black Belt south, overcrowded jails such as the Fulton County jail are just as dreadful as prisons. In 2024 alone there were ten inmate deaths in Fulton County. In Dekalb county outside of Atlanta, which is 53% Black, the jails conditions are similar to Fulton county.

Earlier this year, Fight Back! reported on the death of 27-year-old Christon Collins at Dekalb County jail, the result of blatant medical negligence after Christon fell and hit his head. According to Christon’s mother Jonia Milburn, “My son laid on the floor for three hours with no care. Nobody noticed. No guards, no supervisors, no one but the inmates.”

Fight Back! will continue to monitor the ongoing resistance and hunger strikes at Red Onion prison.

#AtlantaGA #GA #InJnjusticeSystem #Prison #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and leader of its branch in Gaza, urged a comprehensive popular campaign to support the brave Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails, in particular the administrative detainees who have been on hunger strike for over 15 days in rejection of the policy of administrative detention.

Mizher said that the strikers are fighting a critical battle under the slogan, “Battle of Breaking the Chains,” which requires popular and institutional support, as it is a battle of the entire Palestinian people and not just the prisoners.

He praised the striking prisoners: Nidal Abu Aker, Badr al-Ruzza, Ghassan Zawahreh, Shadi Ma’ali, Munir Abu Sharar, Bilal Saifi and the other prisoners who have joined and will join the strike, expressing confidence in their victory in this battle. He noted that over the years of imprisonment they have only strengthened their will, saying that the Front will not abandon them and will organize to support them inside and outside Palestine.

Mizher noted that the Front will hold a Press Conference on Monday, September 7, in front of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City to announce a series of events throughout Gaza in support of the striking prisoners, and emphasized the need for a unified media strategy to support the struggling prisoners and expose the crimes of the occupation against them.

In addition, the Prison Branch of the Front issued a statement in support of the strikers, urging action:

The Palestinian people are facing an overall attack at the hands of the Zionist occupation regime: siege, killing and arrest, aimed at liquidating the will to resist, struggle and sacrifice for the sake of freedom, dignity and recovering our rights. Within the framework of this attack comes attempts to target the prisoners’ movement, through daily harassment, raids, attacks and the creation of instability, which includes the situation of administrative detainees who are facing daily oppression in addition to the continuous extension of their detention.

This situation prompted strugglers like Khader Adnan and Muhammad Allan to confront the arbitrary administrative detention policy and to make these confrontations a critical site of struggle, which is now being engaged in by five Palestinian prisoners: Nidal Abu Aker, Badr al-Ruzza, Ghassan Zawahreh, Shadi Ma’ali, Munir Abu Sharar, and the others who will join them in the coming days to confront this policy.

We will support the strike of our comrades in administrative detention by all methods, and we shal soon proceed to take steps to struggle on the ground, up to and including the open hunger strike if necessary: we will not leave our comrades to struggle alone.

In this context, we call for:

1. Work to launch a wider public campaign of support that is continuous and escalating, and the best form is to confront the Zionist occupation forces at the checkpoints and other points of contact.

2. Confronting the policy of administrative detention is a path toward the formulation of a national vision to resist imprisonment in its totality, not to surrender to it to but to resist.

3. To move the official Palestinian political forces at all levels to support the administrative detainees, the sick prisoners, and advocate for the internationalization of the prisoners’ struggle.

4. We call on the Palestinian and Arab media to highlight the administrative detainees’ struggle and amplify their voice and their suffering to the world.

5. We call for enhanced coordination with the international boycott movement and for international activities to support the administrative detainees’ strike and the issue of prisoners in general.

Finally, we are highly confident in the determination of the masses of the Palestinian people and their freedom fighters, and the revolutionary school formed in the path of struggle. We are confident of the role and responsibility of the national and Islamic forces and factions, and all of the Palestinian national institutions to work to support the prisoners’ struggle in general and in particular the pioneers of revolutionary initiative, the administrative detainees confronting imprisonment.

Victory is inevitable.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Prison Branch

#Palestine #AntiwarMovement #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #PoliticalPrisoners #PeoplesStruggles #PoliticalRepression #Prison #MiddleEast