The PIC is...

Very powerful project illustrating what the Prison Industrial Complex is and how it manifests in people's lives.

http://www.thepicis.org/

http://chicagopiccollective.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/finaldraftpiczine4-13-11.pdf

http://vimeo.com/oripsolob/pic

Call for Submissions: Survivors in Solidarity with Prison Abolition

http://survivorsinsoli.blogspot.com/

Due 4/15/12. See link for more details.

Transgender women from TGI Justice speak out about their experience with the Prison Industrial Complex

1973: Silvia Rivera Gives a Speech at Christopher St March

1973. Silvia Rivera forced her way on to the stage when organizers told her she would have to wait for a much later slot. (context: in 1970, she was not permitted to give a speech at the march at all) Here is the speech.

Report: 'It's War in Here': A Report on the Treatment of Transgender and Intersex People in New York State Men's Prisons

Interviews with imprisoned transgender people and their advocates to document the widespread harassment, physical and sexual abuse, discrimination, and violence that transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people face inside state custody.

published by Silvia Rivera Law Project
Read the report here: http://srlp.org/files/warinhere.pdf

Article: Resisting Deportation: Women Fighting Violence Against Women

http://bit.ly/eVxYa5
By Farrah Miranda

"Violence against women is almost entirely carried out by men and supported by government policy. Be it through the Live-In Caregiver Program where women, mostly, are forced to live in the homes of employers with minimal protection or the recent proposed jailing of refugees under a so-called "human smuggling" bill which would have jailed families or the ongoing deportation of women to places of personal and systemic violence -- Canadian immigration policies are one of the greatest perpetrators of violence against women."

Blog: On the Day of Mehserle’s Sentencing: A Feminist Vow

On the Day of Mehserle’s Sentencing: A Feminist Vow
http://kloncke.com/2010/11/05/on-the-day-of-mehserles-sentencing-a-feminist-vow/

Summary of the Immigrant Youth Rules Committee Hearing

Rules Committee March 4, 2010 Summary

Today, over 60 community members filled the meeting room at City Hall to hear JPD Chief Siffermann answer questions about his department’s refusal to comply with the amendment to the Sanctuary Ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors in November 2009. Over 30 community members gave several hours of testimony in front of Supervisor Campos (chair of the Rules Committee), Supervisor Mar, Chief Siffermann, Assistant Chief Nance and Starr Terrell, the Mayor’s Liaison to the BOS regarding policy. Supervisor Campos and Supervisor Mar asked many important questions, including how much money JPD has spent on identifying and reporting youth to ICE. Chief Siffermann refused to provide a figure.

SPARKS FLY: Benefit for Marilyn Buck's release

An evening in honor of Marilyn Buck and all women political prisoners.

SPARKS FLY: Benefit for Marilyn Buck's release
When: March 13th, 7pm
Where: Uptown Body & Fender, 401 26th Street, Oakland, CA
(between Telegraph and Broadway)
Why: To support the release fund for longtime political prisoner Marilyn
Buck, who is finally getting out after 28 years lost to the US Bureau
of Prisons

volunteers needed! please contact sparksfly2010@gmail.com

http://www.prisonactivist.org/node/660

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/02/12/18637642.php

Slavery and the Racialization of Crime and Punishment

Part I:
Visiting A Modern Day Slave Plantation

Part II:
The Racialization of Crime and Punishment

Article Abstract

Article: Slavery in US Prisons --An interview with Robert Hillary King and Dr. Terry Kupers

An 18,000-acre former slave plantation in rural Louisiana, the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is the largest prison in the U.S. Today, with African Americans composing over 75% of Angola's 5,108 prisoners, prison guards known as "free men," a forced 40-hour workweek, and four cents an hour as minimum wage, the resemblance to antebellum U.S. slavery is striking. In the early 1970s, it was even worse, as prisoners were forced to work 96-hour weeks (16 hours a day/six days a week) with two cents an hour as minimum wage. Officially considered (according to its own website) the "Bloodiest Prison in the South" at this time, violence from guards and between prisoners was endemic. Prison authorities sanctioned prisoner rape, and according to former Prison Warden Murray Henderson, the prison guards actually helped facilitate a brutal system of sexual slavery where the younger and physically weaker prisoners were bought and sold into submission. As part of the notorious "inmate trusty guard" system, responsible for killing 40 prisoners and seriously maiming 350 between 1972-75, some prisoners were given state-issued weapons and ordered to enforce this sexual slavery, as well as the prison's many other injustices. Life at Angola was living hell -- a 20th century slave plantation.

read more and watch the video here.

Article: Captured by the Clueless

Last week, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report that revealed about 12 percent of youths nationwide held in state-run, privately run or local facilities reported some type of sexual victimization including forced sexual activity with other youth and staff. Staff sexual misconduct was higher in state-run facilities.

It was the first report of its kind by the Justice Department, and the prevalence of sexual abuse by staff, particularly female workers, shocked even advocates. At our offices, we drew a deep breath and acknowledged the report as an addition to a growing list of reminders that incarcerating youth - the majority of whom are locked up for nonviolent offenses - is expensive, unproductive and harmful.

Read More Here.

Article: Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans

http://colorlines.com/article.php?ID=673&p=1

Tabitha has been working as a prostitute in New Orleans since she was 13. Now 30 years old, she can often be found working on a corner just outside of the French Quarter. A small and slight white woman, she has battled both drug addiction and illness and struggles every day to find a meal or a place to stay for the night. These days, Tabitha, who asked that her real name not be used in this story, has yet another burden: a stamp printed on her driver’s license labels her a sex offender. Her crime? Sex work.

Read More at the link above.