America’s inmates do not want to perform slave labor anymore. They would also like fully staffed facilities (so that fewer of them get murdered or raped); universal access to rehabilitation programs; voting rights; the power to press their grievances in the federal court system (a right that was significantly abridged by legislation passed under Bill Clinton); and to reduce their own ranks by aligning our nation’s draconian sentencing laws with international standards, and ensuring that black prisoners are not discriminated against in opportunities for parole.
Authorities have long insisted that these are unreasonable requests. So, America’s prisoners are going on strike.
Organizers at penal institutions across the country have planned a series of actions that will begin on August 21 and continue until September 9, dates that mark the anniversary of the ill-fated uprising at New York’s Attica Correctional Facility in 1971. The actions will include work stoppages, boycotts of companies that exploit prison labor, sit-ins, and hunger strikes.
[For more on this story by Eric Levitz, go to http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...isoners-demands.html]
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