Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Trial Begins for 5 Prisoners Charged with Riot

Luzerne County, PA – September 18, 2013 – The trial for 5 Pennsylvania prisoners who were charged with riot at SCI Dallas in 2010 is scheduled to begin September 30, 2013 at Luzerne County Courthouse after a pretrial hearing today.

In April of 2010, 6 prisoners who were incarcerated at SCI Dallas covered their cell windows with towels to speak to prison officials about food deprivation and conditions in solitary confinement.  The men were removed from their cells, pepper sprayed, beaten, and tased by correctional officers.  The prisoners filed grievances and wrote to outside agencies about the event.  The Department of Corrections filed riot charges against the prisoners in July of 2010.  One prisoner plead out of the case and has since been released.  The remaining 5 incarcerated men will face trial under Judge Lisa Gelb.

The details of the case are documented in two reports issued by the Human Rights Coalition, a Pennsylvania based advocacy group for human rights.  The case was highlighted at a hearing, last September, on solitary confinement that was convened by the Democratic Policy Committee in Pennsylvania.  The Human Rights Coalition is calling on the District Attorney this week to dismiss charges against the prisoners.

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Lack of Hepatitis C Treatment Brings Lawsuit Against DOC

A class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of PA prisoners in January, 2013 seeking injunctive relief for the testing and treatment of Hepatitis C (HCV) without regard to sentence length. Current DOC protocols stall and deny treatment for the deadly virus depending on sentence length, which lawyers charge is unconstitutional.

Prison Legal News reported on the case of Jason Runkle, who was sentenced in 2010 on drug offenses for 18 months to 5 years. Upon intake at Camp Hill, Runkle’s blood test showed elevated levels of AST, ALT, bilirubin and a decrease in blood platelets, which is indicative of HCV and liver disease. Runkle was transferred to SCI Mercer, received a second blood test with the same results, and sought treatment.

Typical treatment for HCV consists of a 24 or 48 week antiviral medicine, depending on the specific genotype of the disease a person tests positive for. The current DOC protocol passes off treatment and intervention of the disease if a prisoner will be released in the near future. Prisoners are denied the 24 week treatment if their sentence is less than 12 months, and denied the 48 week treatment if their sentence is less than 18 months. Prisoners who are diagnosed withHCV but are time restricted receive palliative care (taking a Tylenol) at the chronic care clinic rather than treatment to cure the disease.

Runkle’s minimum date was June 2011, 33 weeks from the start of his incarceration. He served 6 months unsentenced at York County before entering the state prison. He was denied genotype testing to see if his strain qualified him for the 24 week program. He continued to seek treatment and was denied despite his sentence being extended each time he came up for parole. Even after the parole board recommended Runkle serve his max sentence of 5 years, he continued to be denied treatment by medical staff because he was still eligible for parole and could be paroled at any of his hearings within the possible treatment period. He effectively received no treatment despite being incarcerated for well over the time constraints.

Prison Legal News quoted former Secretary Jeffrey Beard’s American Correctional Association’s conference speech in 2002 about HCV testing and treatment in prison as a smart and necessary public health investment. Beard acknowledged that early disease perception and intervention would prevent costly treatment of complications later on and prevent a significant number of deaths in the prison (17% of prisoner deaths in PA in 2001). With the DOC’s sentence protocol and the pattern and practice of denying prisoners parole despite their minimums due to incomplete or full programs, or a lack of home plans in the current political and economic climate, prisoners with HCV remain at considerable risk to die in prison.

Many Songs

Performed at the 10 Minute Play Festival 7/28/2013

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5 years. 18 housies. 14 new friends. 6 non human animals. 2 heartbreaks. Many songs. 1 death.  A memoir of 272.

I didn't have any pets as a kid.  I have been spending years of my adult life learning how to love animals.  I have spent the past five years at 272.  There is Klemmons, my best dog friend, who eats garbage and still comes over sometimes.  Sadie.  Nettle, who was a complete alien to me at first.  AND the cats...Tom, Lyra, and Lillie.  Lillie cleared up our mouse problem, but may have been a part of the reason that I decided to move.  We had a complicated door situation.  People have been asking me why I decided to move, and I can't really remember a reason.  But I feel ready.

The place to be at 272 is the kitchen.  The door is always open.  Sadie was always underfoot, except when she was outside.  She couldn't hear, and she couldn't climb stairs, but sometimes, you could catch her in the act of a quick trot with a jolly tail wag.  Crystal decided to put her down on my birthday.  She was 16 years old.  We had a funeral party for her the same day.  I had a migraine and a melt down when everyone left because I didn't want to do any of it.  But I learned that loving someone, is a willingness to clean up their piss off the floor, day after day, after day, even if you aren't their designated human.

(Song for Sadie): The gate's open.  What's it mean when the gate's open, Sadie Girl? The gate's open.  What's it mean when the gate's open Sadie Girl? Oh shit. Sadie Girl. Oh shit. Hairs of pearl, and black she wanders the streets so free.  That's what the neighbors don't want to see. Sadie Girl, oh. Sadie Girl. (End song)

I don't like too many cooks in the kitchen.  If there's one thing I don't like, it's a small group of people having to make a long chain of decisions about the smallest things.  When I have a friend over for a meal, and they want to help, I ask them to tell a story.  Hundreds of butts have sat on this kitchen bench.  Hundreds of stories.  I almost can't take it with me, because it belongs here, you know?  I don't feel like I own this thing.  How could anyone own a thing that's made of so many other things?

(Song for Amy): Lately I've been thinking, that the spices must be missing you.  The shake and dash you used to do.  To make the rice taste sweeter.  But by now the diet's stricter, and the peas they aren't exciting, so I'm writing you this love letter, wishing and inviting you to.....Meet me in the kitchen.  Sit with me awhile.  Ask me what should I do.  Tell me about your day.  Meet me in the kitchen.  I'll tell you a story.  Maybe it is boring. But maybe it's okay and we'll toast. (End Song)

 In 2009 I began to be more formally and consciously politically educated.  I have a confession to make: it was the white boys I loved who taught me about feminism.  I started having new heroes and they were real people in my Pittsburgh life.  On this bench, I talked politics for hours and hours and hours.  I learned about power.  I learned about war, and genocide, and mass incarceration.  I learned about patriarchy, domination and control, capitalism and exploitation.  I learned that stories weren't told in newspapers you could buy at the corner store.  That the stories of pain and courage, and empathy were hidden.  I listened.  And I learned.  And the stories filled me, and I became this person.  I really like this person.  I settled into becoming her.

The years past, and I kept the same small room with the window that goes out onto the roof.  I filled the walls with paper and tape, with artifacts of friendships and experiences.

2007 bike gang t-shirt (hold up shirt)
photograph of craft night ritual (hold up photo)
art from my pen pals in prison (hold up lions)
prints and posters made by friends and local artists (northstar)
things to inspire me (mirah)

and sad reminders
this one is, yes these tears, but oh theses wings.

(silent hold up of resistance of the heart against business as usual)

There were many break downs and build back ups.  I wrote a poem about how good we were at recovering.  At breaking down and building back up.  It became possible for me to throw all of my belief into our power. Even in the face of everything.  What used to take three weeks of despair to pass began to take one evening.

I sat with a stranger, Clifford, in his saddest moment.  I sat with a best friend in one of her hardest times. And I watched them transform.  You sat with me in my hardest moments.  I learned loving someone is a willingness to sit with them in their muck.

(Song for KF) : Dave's going out fishing and I think I'll go with him but I'm not going to catch anything.  Cause I don't have the poles, and I don't have the bait, and I don't have the patience to sit here and wait, I was wrong. About moving on.  I thought. I was moving on.  This city is filled with people so pretty, but I'm still in love with, your itty-bitty, snaggle tooth.  What's the use? (End song)

 I didn't think it would be true for me, but time did heal all my love wounds.  I waded through heart breaks and I became strong.  I stayed when you left.  You could not make home here.  But then I visited you.  And I saw you, and I shared your joy.  I felt alone sometimes, but I knew better.  I still had everything.  I mean, all of it, added up.  I became less afraid.  I could give more.  I met my soul people. My voice became clearer.  My heart became fuller. I loved and was loved at 272.

(Song for Fall #2): It is raining.  And my brain hurts. And my back hurts. And my heart hurts.  But I'm swaying, under an awning, with my lover. And my groceries.  I'm so hungry for nutrition, I'm on a mission, I am wishing.  To have a prolific body experience. I get delirious. Without comfort. All the ghosts inside of your body.  Move around like electricity.  I'm glad your with me, while they are searching.  For where they belong. In some organ.  And then your brain makes.  A new wrinkle.  It's so magical. The way that you flow and, I'm not planning. For the future. Cause I know life is long, I know life is long.  I'm just being, with my lovers, under the covers, I gotta SNUGGLE, fall comes in and, fall goes out again. I just want to heal and, know I'm growing. (End song)

Love Letter to Cooper Ravenstahl

This letter is written to Cooper Ravenstahl after Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl responded to local media that members of Pittsburgh for Trayvon had frightened his son when delivering posters of demands for justice to his house on the morning of July 18, 2013.  He said that they did not have the right to frighten his young child.  I have been comparing this right with George Zimmerman's legal murder of Trayvon Martin in my brain and wrote Cooper Ravenstahl a letter.  

Dear Cooper,

This is a love letter.  Love is something given or shared between people that helps them learn and grow. I might not ever meet you, but I want you and all other children to be loved.  I want you to be well.  I want you and all other children to be healthy, fed, safe, and strong.  I want you to be safe where you live and at school and when you are outside.  Many children are not safe right now because of white supremacy. White supremacy is very big and complicated.  It is something we have to think about and work on.  It's all the ways in which people, neighborhoods, governments, and history overlap to make it better and easier for white people to be successful and safe.  As you grow up, you be allowed to make many choices. You will be able to choose if you want to uphold white supremacy or work for justice.  You will be able to choose if you want to create and spread fear or create and spread love.  

My friends came to your house last week asking your dad to help make Pittsburgh safe for all people and children.  They are spreading love and working for justice.  Your dad said in the paper that you were afraid of them.  I am sorry that you were made afraid.  You are not alone. Here are some things that I am afraid of:

I am afraid that your dad will never tell you why my friends came to your house that morning and that he will never tell you why he didn't talk to us at his office.  That your dad will not understand or try because he doesn't have the language to talk about racism.   I'm afraid that you will not hear the word racism until you are 20 years old. That you will grow up and think it is okay for a young black person like Trayvon Martin to be killed.  That you will be like so many others, and think that Trayvon Martin's life is less than precious because he is black. I am afraid that you will be on a jury, with people who do not look like Trayvon Martin, who have never loved anyone who looks like him, and you will decide that Trayvon Martin's life is not precious.  That you will be a judge and you will believe that what is the law is correct, and that you are a steward of justice.  That you will be George Zimmerman, and that you will kill Trayvon Martin because you do not know that his life is precious.  I am afraid that you will be full of fear and that you will let it rule your life.  That you will be afraid of everyone who is not the same as you.  That you will grow up and not know who Trayvon Martin was.  

My fear is that you will perpetuate white supremacy by being a white person living in a multiracial world with our history.  I am afraid that you will not acknowledge racism.  That your job will employ you to kill black and brown people.  That your job will pay you to treat people unfairly. That your job will separate you from anyone who does not think like you.  That you will think that people who do not have a job are less then you.  Not working as hard as you.  That they aren't as precious as you. That they don't deserve all of the things that you have.  I am afraid that you will think that you do deserve all of the things that you have.  That you won't know who was here before you. That you will think that you are free and that is enough. That you won't work for justice.      

The people who came to your house are educators.  They are dancers, teachers, poets, farmers, parents and children.  They are spreading love and working for justice.  They make me believe that the future will be good for us.  That we can work together to make something happen.  Something better than this.  Something better than being afraid of each other.   

I want you to believe too.  It will be hard for you because their aren't a lot of hand holders for this journey.  It will be hard for you because many people will try to hold you back.  It will be hard for you because once you start, you have to commit for your whole life.  But I will root for you Cooper. I do not want us to be afraid.  I want us to be full of love and for that love to rule our lives.

Standing By,

Amanda

Prison Abolitionist Discussion Night

The Human Rights Coalition FedUp! hosted a prison abolition discussion night the first Wednesday of the month to talk about the history, context, and intersectionalities of working for prison abolition.

"Intersectionality is a concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which oppressive institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another."

This month we read a chapter from the book The Slave Ship A Human History by Marcus Rediker.  The chapter was chapter 10, "The Long Voyage of the Slave Ship Brooks."  It focuses on the role of imagery and working class, sailor narratives in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.  A poster depicting horrific conditions of enslaved people was displayed before British Parliament and spread throughout newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Much like prisons today, slave ships were advertised by merchants and profiteers as safe, hygienic, and technologically forward enterprises.  Under similar guises, local architecture firm, Astorino, has been spotlighted by Decarcerate PA Pittsburgh for their work in expanding maximum security housing and solitary confinement cells across state prisons. (See criminal justice portfolio and language) The idea that prisons can be made better and safer and that reform movements are enough, and that figuring out ways to make prisons more cost and energy efficient is challenged by the work of prison abolitionists.

poster by Andalusia Knoll 2004

Here is a preview of the chapter contents, within the questions we used to have a conversation:

1. "Every man condemns the trade, but it requires the exhibition of particular instances of the enormity, to induce those to be active in the matter"
The image of the slave ship Brooks is a visual tool used to show horrible conditions and move people to respond. What images have moved you in this way? What images have worked for the prison abolitionist movement? Feel free to bring images you have seen to share. What images can we use and how?

2. "Knowledge must be concrete, material and human. Not an exaggeration, but a narration of miseries which cannot be exaggerated which extends to millions."
Do you think working for prison abolition is the telling of a narration of miseries? What sources do you tune into to find out about or spread this narration of miseries? If our group is participating in the creation of the narration of miseries, how are we doing it and is there room to change or improve?

3. Clarkson emphasized sailors' experience (as members of preferred white race and preferred european nationality) to appeal to British government and public to look at slavery. He wasn't looking at the conditions of the enslaved people, but the conditions of the sailors charged with keeping them enslaved. The sailors were organized by a merchant class.
How does this translate to the Prison industrial complex? How do corrections officers fit into the struggle for prison abolition? How has our group related to the correctional officer class in the past and how should we moving forward?

4. Compare and contrast: Similarities and differences from the strategies of abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and the abolition of the U.S. prison industrial complex.
e.g. Both abolitionists highlighted individual and collective acts of rebellion by slaves against conditions
e.g. like prisons, slaveships were presented to government officials as safe, modern, hygenic advances in science and technology

5. Reformers: The book indicates that one way that Britain came to outlaw the transatlantic slave trade was by reforming regulations for how many enslaved people could be housed on one boat, making it unprofitable for merchant class to continue human business when regulations were high. How has/ will reform efforts help work towards prison abolition?

Assessments

When I was in West Virginia last month, I was awed by my friends' quick assessment-to-action capabilities.  Like, in one moment, O indicated that a cat was moving in on the chicken coup.  I was mostly sleeping on the couch, but I understood that in the next moment, R was running with the squirt bottle to ward him off.  In another moment, the cat bumbled into the living room holding a bird.  In the next moment, the baby was secured, O had scruffed the cat, R had grabbed a towel while saying, "you get the cat, I'll get the towel," and the bird was scooped up and gone.  I'm thinking of the ability to understand something is awry, determine what that is, and then take an action towards it, all very fast.

This morning I had my own experience with measuring my assessment to action capability.  I was riding my bike to work past the fancy waterfront condos.  All of the sudden, a skinny red squiggly thing was squiggling next to me on the sidewalk.  I have good eyesight, and within a moment I could discern the thing was a rubber snake attached to a fishing line.  I slowed my bike a few windows down, and said, "That is a fake snake!"  There were two people approaching with a dog, and I said to them, "there is a fake snake on a string right there."

The snake got hoisted back through the first floor window.  I rode back to see if I could discern the culprit.  A small child? A cooky grandparent?  A true creep? I saw a metal piece of art near the windowsill and a closet full of long sleeve button down shirts and a flat screen television.  I waited a minute or two, but no one appeared to dispel the mystery.

Futures

for JM

Hold fast friends!
There are desires among us.
That will ring restless until they can breathe,
that will pry and be searched until they are found.

We have already begun to stomach the changes:
 a cleaner house
a necessary hug
another birthday
a poem

We danced together and I am not afraid.
Because we have spent our entire lives learning to become ourselves
and will spend our entire lives yet.
and I sometimes feel undernourished for how long that may be
but still, there is comfort there.