On The Block Radio

A radio show that takes a critical look at the criminal justice system. Airs every Friday night, from 9pm to 11pm, on WPEB Radio, 88.1FM, Philadelphia.

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: Decarcerate PA

The Prisoner Hunger Strike Resumes in California.

On today's show.

 Pennsylvania Prison Report Headlines: 

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--Prisoner at Camp Hill attempts suicide after being denied mental health treatment
--Prisoner harassed and denied property at SCI Greene
--Lawsuit against guard alleges sex-abuse in SCI Pittsburgh probe
--Robert King of the Angola 3 comes to Pittsburgh
--Troy Davis Executed by the state of Georgia after U.S. Supreme Court rejects stay
--Pelican Bay hunger strike to resume:
--New York City Bar Association denounces solitary confinement

The Pennsylvania Prison Report is produced by the Human Rights Coalition.  For complete transcripts of the PA Prison Reports, go to www.hrcoalition.org. 
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Feature Story: Prisoner Hunger Strike Resumes in California

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On September 26, 2012, prisoners in California resumed a hunger strike that had been suspended at the end of July after receiving statements by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that prison officials will meet some of prisoners' demands. 

The hunger strike was initiated in the middle of this past summer in protest of what prisoners have described as the cruel and unusual conditions endured by inmates in the state's prisons.  According to Laura Magnani, a member of the team mediating on behalf of prisoners with CDCR officials last summer, while some positive movement by CDCR officials has been made in the last few months in meeting the intial demands of inmates, "it is painfully slow for people who have lived under conditions of torture for years, and often decades in California's prison system.  While the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation tries to paint the prisoners as nothing more than 'dangerous gang members,' we see this strike as a courageous effort to work across all cultural and ethnic divisions through time-honored non-violent actions." 

Isaac Ontiveros of the Prisoners Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, reports that based on accounts from family members and confidential sources for the Coalition, the strike resumed on last Monday with 6000 prisoners taking part.

"On the Block" speaks with Isaac Ontiveros about the recent developments.

Decarcereate PA and the Social Costs of a Growing Prison Industrial Complex.

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The Decarcerate PA Coalition plans to rally outside the Philadelphia offices of Hill International on Wednesday August 17 in an effort to pressure the company to end its plan to manage the construction of a new Graterford Prison in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Hill International has been awarded a 14 million contract to oversee the building of the new prison. That is a fraction of the 400 million dollars of Pennsylvania state funds slated for various aspects of the new Graterford Prison construction project. According to Dan Berger of Decarcerate PA, the larger aim behind the August 17 rally is the reprioritization of Pennsylvania’s social agenda.

“We are going to be out there rallying against the proposed construction of a new prison at Graterford…and really demanding that the money—the 14 million dollars that Hill has been given in various contracts so far and the 400 million dollars that the Graterford Prison is supposed to cost—not go into prison construction, and instead be spent on schools, jobs, healthcare and things that will actually sustain our communities,” Berger says.

According to the recent Sentencing Project report “On the Chopping Block: State Prison Closings,” 13 states in 2011 have either closed prisons or are considering doing so, creating the potential for a total decrease in prison capacity nationwide of up to 14,793 beds. Pennsylvania’s 400 million-dollar new Graterford prison construction project, however, is a move in a different direction.

We speak with 3 members of the Decarcerate PA Coalition--Dan Berger, Joshua Glenn, and Omar Shabazz--about the relationship of the Hill International contract to the larger issue of the social costs of the growth of the prison industrial complex.

Corrections.

1. In the interview, an incorrect meeting spot was given for the Decarcerate PA Coalition. The correct meeting location is: 21 South 12th Street, 7th floor.

2. In addition, in the interview it was stated that Hill International had built only a few prisons in the United States. After further exploration of the Hill International website, however, Dan Berger discovered a list of more than 30 jails and/or correctional institutions that Hill was involved in constructing.