Media Silent As Guards, Inmates Unite In Largest US Prison Strike Of Its KindBy Alice Salles Regardless of the total number of states, according to Media Matters, virtually none of the most popular American media venues or channels have covered this story. The Free Alabama Movement, a nonviolent organization focused on advocating for human rights, is one of the groups behind this demonstrationand has been at the forefront of a campaign to improve prison labor practices since 2012. FAM, as the organization is commonly referred to, initially led the strikes, which were primarily limited to work stoppages. But over time, FAM, along with the Free Ohio Movement and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), added hunger strikes to their campaigns, officially launching the effort on the anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison uprising. That event inspired the movie Attica, starring Morgan Freeman, which helped the public learn about what had been going on inside U.S. prisons. According to the New Yorker, the 1971 campaign was launched as a modest petition for decency that eventually blossomed into a full-fledged takeover one as surprising to the inmates as to anyone else that, after four days, ended in a reprisal riot by guards and state police that left thirty-nine people dead. Much like the Attica uprising, members of FAM have focused their protests on the poor living conditions and overcrowding, but initially, leadership was primarily focused on changing forced labor practices, which include allowing [c]orporations [to] cut deals with both private and public prisons, [giving] them access to a labor force that has no choice but to work for, say, 20 cents an hour. On the official launch day, 24,000 inmates across at least 12 states, including Alabama, Michigan, Texas, South Carolina, and Florida, didnt show up for work. Following that initial strike, several inmates carried on with the protests on a rolling basis. Over time, however, the number of participant strikers decreased. Currently, the strike [is] apparently winding down, but if the number of participants is officially confirmed, the FAM-led strike could still be the largest of its kind in U.S. history. And their actions may have helped to force officials to act at least on paper. In Alabama, which has thefifth highest incarceration rate in the country, prison guards joined the strikers, launching an informal labor strike to bring the governments attention to overcrowding issues, which create conditions that make prisons unsafe for both guards and prisoners. In order to address this issue, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) responded, and on October 7, it released a statement. According to the DOJ, officials would begin a possibly unprecedented investigation to determine whether prisoners are adequately protected from physical harm and sexual abuse at the hands of other prisoners; whether prisoners are adequately protected from use of excessive force and staff sexual abuse by correctional officers; and whether the prisons provide sanitary, secure and safe living conditions. According to the IWOC , inmates across the country regularly engage in myriad demonstrations of power on the inside, launching labor and hunger strikes that unfortunately receive little to no attention from the media. The most recent campaigns have included the 2010 Georgia prison strike, the massive rolling California hunger strikes, [and] the Free Alabama Movements 2014 work stoppage, which, according to the IWOC, have gathered the most attention. But as the movement becomes more popular, it also becomes more diverse. Now, IWOC adds, prisoners at immigrant detention centers, womens prisons and juvenile facilities are joining the movement to demand the end to prison slavery. With these strikes, the IWOC explained, these prisoners are not only demanding changes to be implemented. They also claim they are [ending prison slavery] ourselves by ceasing to be slaves. In an interview with Mother Jones, Prison Legal News editor Paul Wright explained that [t]ypically prisoners are required to work, and if they refuse to work, they can be punished by having their sentences lengthened and being placed in solitary confinement. When the strike launched, FAM drafted a list of demands that partially addresses this issue. The list calls for the reduction of the state prison population, the release of inmates who are mentally ill and who require appropriate care, the establishment of an Education, Rehabilitation and Re-Entry Preparedness program, the enforcement of minimum wage laws so prisoners who choose to work are compensated, and the restoration of voting rights. The DOJ investigation into Alabama prisons is being conducted under theCivil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act but officials have not confirmed whether the strike prompted the probe. Nevertheless, FAMs Pastor Kenneth Glasgow told Buzzfeed the strikes have played an important role: I do believe the prison strike that was initiated led and organized by those on the inside of Holman prison is the reason for the DOJ launching the investigation. And I think when they saw that even the officers admitted that the administration was allowing a hostile environment to be created, that was the straw that broke the camels back. According to the DOJ, many of the departments past investigations into similar state prison issues resulted in important reforms. Only time will tell which reforms, if any, will help to address one of the biggest issues with the U.S. prison system: the drug war. This article (Media Silent As Guards, Inmates Unite In Largest US Prison Strike Of Its Kind) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alice Salles andtheAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article toedits@theantimedia.org. Good Deal to be able to work for decent wages. In Texas the allow 100 dollars to be credited toward your time served. Without working for it. If they Doubled it by Hiring you out, you would shave considerable Time?Money off your sentence. Americas prison system with all its inherent problems wouldnt be necessary had the late 18th-century founders not rejected Yahweh as sovereign and thus His law as supreme. Under the Bibles juridical system prisons are superfluous. Convicted capital criminals are put to death expeditiously, per Ecclesiastes 8:11. Non-capital criminal are required to pay two to five times restitution (depending upon the nature of the crime) to their VICTIMS, per Exodus 22:1ff, etc. If a thief is unable to pay the required restitution, hes to be sold into indentured servitude until restitution has been paid, per Perfect, just like King David said it was in Psalm 19:7-11. Under such a system, crime would be all but unheard of and tax-paid-for prisons would non-existent. For more on how Yahwehs triune moral law (His Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and judgments) applies and should be implemented today, see free online book Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant. Click on my picture, then our website. Go to our Online Books page and scroll down to title. Then A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government. Yahveh Note: Kingdom Ambassador aka Ted R. Weiland is an internet preacher and one trick pony. He wants the U.S. Constitution abolished so we can proceed without the freedom and liberty generations of Americans before us have enjoyed. Grundune is actually a who rejects Christ and the Word of God (see Psalm 19:7-11; John 1:1-3, 14; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 John 1:7-11, etc.) and whose Doctrine and Covenants demand he defend the Constitution as divinely inspired (DC 101:80, etc.), much the same as with the Book of Mormon. He Tragically, many Christians are more inclined to follow Doctrine and Covenants than the Bible when it comes to the Constitution. If you cant do the time, dont do the. What about false arrest and manufactured conviction? Just cuz you end up in jail doesnt always mean there was a crime committed! By the time one is imprisoned that part is moot; it is called the judicial process and has nothing to do with the executive branch of the govt, which is what the prison stuff falls under. Are you stupid on purpose OM GOODNESS. You have hurt my feelings. Oh, Oh, Oh,FEELINGS.nothing but FEELINGS(crescendo). What is your point? You dont understand how govt works? Your 12 Tribes comes out of some sort of justice system foreign to the USA? Or do you simply practice trolling people who may be stupid in your eyes? Which means you prey upon the weak and stupid and plan to help them by calling us names? Your are to bright by half. Hmm, I wonder how many of our politicians/dual citizens own stock in these slave labor camps? Kudos to the guards AND inmates!! We should switch them out for the cops/government officials. This sewer would be more honorable. Instantly. The prison system on this land is one of commerce, not rehab. Due to this, there is more incentive to increase the populace within them than to eliminate the need for them. It is not desired to fix this dilemma, as folk have invested such so it wont be fixed. (profits, profits, profits) They put all these people in jail for drugs then the CIA brings in the drugs 