Showing posts with label Illinois. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Illinois. Show all posts

Wednesday 30 September 2015

Solitary Confinement Is Torture.

      The state likes to keep everybody in line, no disobeying rules, always do as you are told, it works hard at this with the early stages being our education system, and as you go through your life there is a tsunami of propaganda that washes over you on a daily basis, reinforcing conformity. In case this doesn't work there are the police and the judicial system, backed up by the prison system, and by any stretch of the imagination, on entering this, we have left the realms of humanity.
      Within the inhumane system of locking people up in cages, there are degrees of repression that can take you deeper into the morass of dehumanising, in an attempt to turn the individual into a submissive clone of a human. Solitary confinement breaks every aspect of humanity, we are social creatures, to take somebody and lock them away from any human contact, any form of mental stimulation, for days, weeks and months, is nothing short of torture, to break the individual. There is nothing reforming, or rehabilitating about the prison system, it is a tool of state repression to protect its apparatus and power.
      There has been a long running series of hunger strikes at the Menard Correction Center Illinois, against the excessive use of solitary confinement, like all prisoners, they need our support and solidarity.
An appeal from Anti-State STL: 
       On September 23rd, prisoners in the administrative detention unit at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois declared a hunger strike in response to the administration’s continued unwillingness to respond to their demands for relief from their conditions of long-term solitary confinement. See below for their list of demands and description of their conditions. This strike is a continuation of a series of hunger strikes by the prisoners there, which began in January 2014.
Read the full article HERE:
    
Our core demands are:

· We demand an end to long term solitary confinement.

    We demand minimum due process at Administrative Detention Review Hearings by providing inmates with written reasons, including new information relied upon, for Committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D. and be allowed to grieve all adverse decisions. As it stands, the basis of the Committee’s votes are kept secret.
      We demand more access to outside recreation for the sake of our physical and mental health. As it stands, we are confined indefinitely to these cages for 6 days out of the week, with the exception of one 5-hour day. This is unbearable.
      We demand that meaningful educational programs be implemented to encourage our mental stability, rehabilitation, and social development for the sake of ourselves and our communities that we will one day return to.
     We demand access to more visiting privileges. For most of our families traveling to Menard is like traveling to another state. Considering the distance, 2-hour visits behind plexiglass is insufficient. We should be allowed 5 or 6 hours. Moreover, our family members, including inmates, should be provided the human dignity and decency to purchase food items and refreshments from vending machines after traveling such great distances. This would benefit one’s social development, as well as benefit prison staff environment.
        We ask the public’s help by calling the warden, the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the Governor on September 23, 2015, and so forth, to check on our welfare.

Warden Kimberly Butler, 618-826-5071
Menard Correctional Center
711 Kaskaskia Street
Menard, IL 62259

Director John Baldwin, 217-558-2200
Illinois Department of Corrections
1301 Concordia Court
P. O. Box 19277
Springfield, IL 52794-9277

Governor Bruce Rauner, 217-782-0244
Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706

       We will stay on [hunger strike] as long as possible in order to hopefully bring some change to our conditions. We thank you for any kind of support you can give us.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 26 December 2014

Censorship.


       Call for support and solidarity for two American animal rights activists.

Call for action: Flood the jail with magazines

     After lawsuit is filed against Kevin’s jail over magazine policy, a call to mass-mail magazines.
     On behalf of Kevin, we are asking anyone who publishes a magazine, newsletter, or any periodical to send copies to Kevin this week.
       This week, a lawsuit was filed against the jail by Prison Legal News over its refusal to allow magazines (except PLN) into prisoners.
We would like to have as many periodicals as possible mailed into the Kankakee County Jail as soon as possible. This will accomplish two objectives:  
  • Testing the jail’s willingness to comply with the law.
  • Allowing us monitor what, if any, magazines are rejected or not passed on to prisoners.
If you publish a magazine
    We’re asking anyone involved with any kind of periodical (zine, newsletter, magazine, etc) to mail a copy to Kevin. It must be clearly marked as coming from the publisher to be allowed in. And if your budget allows, please add tracking so it can be confirmed if magazines are being delivered to the jail but not Kevin.
On behalf of Kevin and all prisoners, thanks for the support.
***
Please send Kevin a letter of support:
(Note: Kevin Johnson is his legal name.)
Kevin Johnson #469551
Jerome Combs Detention Center
3050 South Justice Way
Kankakee, IL 60901
Tyler Lang was released from state custody in November 2013. He is currently out on bond awaiting trial on the federal charges.

Who are Tyler and Kevin:

     Tyler Lang and Kevin Olliff are two Los Angeles animal rights activists who were arrested in rural Illinois for “possession of burglary tools.” After a traffic stop in which they refused consent to a police search, their car was searched anyway. Inside, police allege they found bolt cutters, wire cutters, muriatic acid, ski masks, and cammo clothing.
      Police believe these items were “burglary tools” intended to be used in a crime, and arrested Kevin and Tyler. The two are held on felony charges which carry up to 3 years in prison. They have remained in jail since their arrest on August 14th.
      There is no evidence linking them to any crime or intended crime, nor were they arrested on anyone’s property, and their history as animal advocates is the only basis for these serious felony charges.
      There are additional details which cannot yet be released, but will be posted here as soon as we are able to share more.
More details HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk