The growth of prisons hurts children

Mumia Abu Jamal explains how the prisons system takes away hope 
from prisoners

These stories and more



One and a half million children in the united states have a parent 
in prison according to a Justice Department report released August 
30. This is a 60% increase in 9 years, paralleling the 62% 
increase in prisoners during the 1990s. Children of prisoners are 
3.4% of all children.  

Imprisonment in the u.s. is a tool of social control used by the 
ruling class against oppressed nations and activists. This is just 
one part of a whole system of unequal education, economic 
opportunities, and discrimination that keeps oppressed nations 
from gaining equality in the u.s. These statistics demonstrate the 
far reaching effects of imprisonment. It is not just the men and 
wimmin locked up who are affected. Whole families are torn apart 
and already disadvantaged youth face life without a parent.

The prison system is not set up to rehabilitate. If it was it 
would encourage contact with families, one of the few factors that 
have been shown to reduce recidivism under our current system. But 
most prisoners are housed far from their families. As of 1997, 62% 
of state prisoners and 84% of federal prisoners were held more 
than 100 miles from their last place of residence. For families 
already facing financial hardship, the travel required to see 
their imprisoned relatives becomes impossible.

The impact of placing more than 1 in 4 Black men in the Criminal 
Injustice System extends far beyond these individual men. The 
effect is that the Criminal Injustice System is a self- 
perpetuating system. No amount of reformist effort will eliminate 
the national oppression within u.s. borders.

Notes: Boston Globe, 31 August 2000. p.A14.


The November Coalition, recorded message about about a child whose 
father is in prison as part of a CD entitled "Voices from the Drug 
War." The November Coalition can be
contacted on the world wide web at www.november.org

[Drug War CD Track 2, Cut at 2:45]

Mumia Abu Jamal is a former Black Panther on death row. He was 
framed for the righteous killing of a police 
officer engaged in an act of police brutality. 
He was sentenced to death in 1982 after a bogus 
trial. His appeals are now in the much quicker 
federal courts and an execution could happen very soon. 
Prior to his arrest, Mumia was a radio 
journalist who exposed police brutality. From 
within the walls through books, articles and 
radio commentaries, Mumia continues to be an 
outspoken leader of the oppressed. With Mumia's access the media 
limited, we recorded one of his essays to bring it to a wider 
audience. See for yourself the real reason why the state of 
Pennsylvania wants to kill Mumia Abu Jamal.

[MAJ essays, vol 2 Track 8: Killing Time. 5:50]

--

The federal prison system kills.

This is a letter from a federal prisoner in Florence, Colorado.

The merciless and imperialist scheme that rips off taxpayers in
the name of federal Bureau of Prisons is killing prisoners at the
ADX Supermax at the rate of nearly 2 per year.

Since the opening of this man made hell, death camp, in 1994,
mysterious deaths linked with medical negligence have killed E.
Grey; Coffman, who injured his own head during an epileptic
seizure and was permitted to bleed to death while staff stood and
watched;  Henry Evans, who had a mysterious heart attack in his
cell; Leroy Martin; D. Jones, who became ill in his cell, was
taken out around 4 a.m. by prison officials and pronounced dead
shortly thereafter.  And now there is the most recent mysterious
death of Wilson, who was pronounced dead of suicide in his
"suicide proof" cell!

This was a letter from a Colorado Prisoner, 


--

This letter from a Tezas prisoner tells prisoners how to unite.

First of all, allow me to clench fist salute my MIM comrades for
your continued devotion to this mass struggle. I've been away only
in "pen" but not in heart.

I have a message for all my Black and Latino comrades throughout
the U$, confined to these lock-down control units, to put your
(family) differences aside, and band together your resources to
enhance this struggle. The prison administration likes to call
family members Security Threat Groups or gangs, and all of
"you" are making their job so easy by fighting "each other." And
for what? I don't want to hear that crap about "he disrespected
us" or that color flag stuff!

These pig devils will beat you down and have you afraid to come
out of your cells, and very few of us will even file a
grievance/complaint. Yet we will stab and beat each other down in
a heart beat! My Latino comrades, stop the war! My Black comrades,
stop the war! Why are you all (and me) making it so easy for Gov.
Bush to ask and get more of our poor hardworking families' tax
dollars to build more of these new millennium plantations?

If you see a pig slam or beat somebody down it is your business!
Ask for a witness form and file it, then file a grievance
complaint. I know a lot of y'all think the grievance system is a
joke, and I tend to agree, but the courts have limited our rights
and the trick is to file in numbers. They are so slick here in
Texas that they have now limited the number of grievances we can
file from 3 a week to one every 7 days.

Together we are strong and we got to stop looking the other way,
because sooner or later it will be your turn to get lied on,
slammed and beat down. For my comrades here in Texas ad-seg, write
your unit law library for the "New Administrative-Segregation 
Plan", and fill out a
law book form and request "Ruiz v. Gary Johnson Memorandum
Opinion" and read them! We have to empower ourselves with
knowledge and when I say stop the wars I mean all my east, west,
north ands south comrades in struggle.

That was as letter from a Texas prisoner in administrative 
segregation.