Welcome
Welcome to the blog for Prison Strike Action, a group of NYC-based individuals that developed in the wake of the largest prison strike in U.S. history carried out by prisoners across several penitentiaries in Georgia last December. (The original press release is below).
We have been in touch with the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights in Georgia and they are calling for a Day of Action. We would like to use this day to also demonstrate our support for prisoners in New York state and across the U.S., to bring attention to the human rights crisis of mass incarceration, and to call for its end.
Please check our latest posts on the left sidebar for the most recent developments, or browse by category to read news stories about the Georgia strike.
Make sure to check “Upcoming Events” for meeting places and times.
Press Release
BIGGEST PRISONER STRIKE IN U.S. HISTORY
Thousands of Georgia Prisoners to Stage Peaceful Protest
December 8, 2010 Atlanta, Georgia
Contacts: Elaine Brown, 404-542-1211, sistaelaine@gmail.com;Valerie Porter, 229-931-5348, lashan123@att.net; Faye Sanders, 478-550-7046, reshelias@yahoo.com
Tomorrow morning, December 9, 2010, thousands of Georgia prisoners will refuse to work, stop all other activities and remain in their cells in a peaceful, one-day protest for their human rights. The December 9 Strike is projected to be the biggest prisoner protest in the history of the United States.
These thousands of men, from Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair State Prisons, among others, state they are striking to press the Georgia Department of Corrections ( DOC ) to stop treating them like animals and slaves and institute programs that address their basic human rights. They have set forth the following demands:
- A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK: In violation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude, the DOC demands prisoners work for free.
- EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: For the great majority of prisoners, the DOC denies all opportunities for education beyond the GED, despite the benefit to both prisoners and society.
- DECENT HEALTH CARE: In violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments, the DOC denies adequate medical care to prisoners, charges excessive fees for the most minimal care and is responsible for extraordinary pain and suffering.
- AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS: In further violation of the 8th Amendment, the DOC is responsible for cruel prisoner punishments for minor infractions of rules.
- DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS: Georgia prisoners are confined in over-crowded, substandard conditions, with little heat in winter and oppressive heat in summer.
- NUTRITIONAL MEALS: Vegetables and fruit are in short supply in DOC facilities while starches and fatty foods are plentiful.
- VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES: The DOC has stripped its facilities of all opportunities for skills training, self-improvement and proper exercise.
- ACCESS TO FAMILIES: The DOC has disconnected thousands of prisoners from their families by imposing excessive telephone charges and innumerable barriers to visitation.
- JUST PAROLE DECISIONS: The Parole Board capriciously and regularly denies parole to the majority of prisoners despite evidence of eligibility.
Prisoner leaders issued the following call: No more slavery. Injustice in one place is injustice to all. Inform your family to support our cause. Lock down for liberty!
keep us in the loop so we can post info on our alerts page and thanks for doing this
Amendment 8?
PLEASE HELP. In 2011, as in the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and U.S. Senate’s documented past, “military research” “incident to service” [2 & 3] injuring experiments are conducted under the ongoing secrecy cover of our ‘national interests’, e.g., WWII, Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan. Shouldn’t U.S. Service Personnel and Veterans get back those Constitutional Amendment 8 Rights that they die for and convicted rapists and murderers keep? Please hold your members in the U.S. Congress accountable!
The 2002 U.S. Senate Hearing on the Feres Doctrine [8] is 127 pages of 19 Testimonials and Submissions for the Record that ignored the previously documented: 1. Fact that convicted rapists and murderers receive U.S. Constitutional Amendment 8 experimentation protection [4] that U.S. Service Personnel DO NOT!! 2. GAO [2] and U.S. Senate [3] 1994 Reports that recorded “hundreds of thousands” of in-service personnel injured by non-consensual, experiments. The Senate 1994 Report’s withheld needed for treatment but experiment identifying evidence [2] and the 1994 Court of Veterans Appeals (COVA) related “may not review” [5] were overlooked. 3. The U.S. Supreme Courts 1987 STANLEY case was a Feres Doctrine based approval of a 1958 injurious non-consensual, military experiment.[6] Disobeyed was the 1953 DOD order [7] and for military personnel lost was the U.S. Constitution, Amendment 8 protection given to U.S. Prisoners [4]! 4. Not 2002 recognized was that many experiments were in direct disobedience of the Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary’s 1953 NO non-consensual experiments.[7]
OVERSIGHTS: Starting on page 64 of the 2002 Senate Hearing PDF version, [1] the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE stated that in the 1950 U.S. Supreme Court’s Feres Doctrine decision [8], “The Court relied upon three principal reasons in coming to its decision: (1) The existence and availability of a separate, uniform, comprehensive, no-fault compensation scheme for injured military personnel;….” Answering this issue are the millions of service records that were destroyed in a 1973 National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) fire. Followed by Congress’s 1974 Privacy Act that censored experiment verifying witnesses from any surviving and future records and the withheld experimentation evidence of the 1994 U.S. Senate Report.[2] The Report noted, “The Feres Doctrine should not be applied for military personnel who are harmed by inappropriate human experimentation when informed consent has not been given.” Then, “During the last 50 years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel” were subjected to “experiments that were designed to harm”, e.g., their reported biological and chemical agents, radiation exposure, hallucinogenic and investigational drugs, experimental vaccines and behavior modification projects. Overlooked is the “Basic Rights of Prisoners.” with its “Nonconsensual experimentation is illegal”![4] In 2011 still ignored is this and the Senate Report’s past and present, “III. Findings and conclusions”, “K. DOD and DVA have repeatedly failed to provide information and medical followup to those who participate in military research…” and “N. Participation in military research is rarely included in military medical records, making it impossible to support a veteran’s claim for service-connected disabilities from military research.”, i.e., the withheld needed for treatment but “experiments that were designed to harm” evidence. In 1994 COVA’s Chief Judge stated the related evidence restricting, “The court may not review the schedule of ratings for disabilities or the policies underlying the schedule.”[5] Based on the Senate’s, “the last 50 years” back to 1944, doesn’t the now 67 years of “underlying” policy mean the continuing use of deceived U.S. Service Personnel as guinea pigs in deliberate injury experiments?
In the “three principal reasons” continuation, the Dept. of Justice reported the Supreme Court’s, “….(2) The effect upon military order, discipline, and effectiveness if service member were permitted to sue the government or each other; and, (3) The distinctly federal relationship between the government and members of its armed services, and the corresponding unfairness of permitting service-connected claims to be determined by nonuniform law.” [1], i.e., the “unfairness” of applying the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, Amendment 8 to U.S. Citizens and Prisoners but NOT to U.S. Service Personnel?
U.S. PRISONERS PROTECTED OVERSIGHT: In 1992 the U.S. Senate signed the United Nation, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). with its “.. Article 7 – Freedom from Torture, or Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” It gives convicted U.S. rapists and murderers protection from experiments by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, Amendment 8. Under, “Basic Rights of Prisoners.” is, “Written policy and practice prohibit the use of inmates for medical…experiments.” and “Nonconsensual experimentation is illegal”! Nineteen (19) times cited is the U.S. Constitution plus its 8th Amendment’s no cruel and unusual punishment.[4]
U.S. CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION? Overlooked by many in Congress is their Oath of Office to defend the U.S. Constitution, their “Pledge of Allegiance” “with liberty and justice for all” checks and balances function, their U.S. Constitution 8th Amendment protection of convicted rapists and murderers (but NOT U.S. Service Personnel) with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ignored, carved in stone over its entrance, “EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW”!
In 2011 shouldn’t U.S. Service Personnel have the same U.S. Constitutional Rights that rapists and murderers keep?
REFERENCES:
[1] “THE FERES DOCTRINE: AN EXAMINATION OF THIS MILITARY EXCEPTION TO THE FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT OCTOBER 8, 2002.” http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/pdf/107hrg/88833.pdf
[2] December 8, 1994 REPORT 103-97 “Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans’ Health? Lessons Spanning Half a Century.” Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, 103rd Congress 2nd Session.
[3] GAO September 28, 1994 “Human Experimentation Overview on Co1d War Era Programs” T-NSIAD-94-266 archive.gao.gov/t2pbat2/152601.pdf
[4] U.S. State Dept., “U.S. Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights July 1994, Article 7 – Freedom from Torture, or Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
[5] “STATE OF COURT, CHIEF JUDGE FRANK Q. NEBEKER, STATE OF THE COURT, FOR PRESENTATION TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF VETERANS APPEALS THIRD JUDICIAL CONFERENCE, OCTOBER 17-18, 1994
[6] U.S. SUPREME COURT, JUNE 25, 1987, U.S. V. STANLEY , 107 S. CT.. 3054 (VOLUME 483 U.S., SECTION 669, PAGES 699 TO 710). http://supreme.justia.com/ us/483/669/ case.html
[7] Pgs. 343-345: “The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code; Human Rights in Human Experimentation” George J. Annas and Michael A. Grodin (N. Y.: Oxford University Press, 1992).
[8] Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 146 (1950).