An inmate firefighter is deployed from a minimum-security prison on September 2017. Credit:David McNew/AFP
America’s prisoners are going on strike.
The demonstrations are planned to take place from August 21 to September 9, which marks the anniversary of the bloody uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York. During this time, inmates across the US plan to refuse to work and, in some cases, refuse to eat to draw attention to poor prison conditions and what many view as exploitative labor practices in American correctional facilities.
“Prisoners want to be valued as contributors to our society,” Amani Sawari, a spokesperson for the protests, told me. “Every single field and industry is affected on some level by prisons, from our license plates to the fast food that we eat to the stores that we shop at. So we really need to recognize how we are supporting the prison industrial complex through the dollars that we spend.”
Prison labor issues recently received attention in California, where inmates have been […]
There is really no difference between what these prisoners are forced to do than the slavery of the ancient past. It is despicable, in and of itself, not to mention the lack of their right to vote once they are incarcerated.