Family members and friends of prisoners are asked to participate in a nationwide campaign to boycott the local businesses in cities where prisons are located. The purpose of the boycott is to send the message that family members and friends of prisoners will no longer financially support those communities that condone the abuse of prisoners.
There are more than two million people incarcerated in Federal and State prisons and jails throughout the United States and the construction of new prisons has outpaced the construction of new schools for more than twenty years. Prisons are being built in rural areas to provide economic salvation to struggling communities. Competition for the new prison is intense because of the economic windfall generated by the construction and daily operation of the prison. When the site for a new prison is announced, business leaders and other would-be entrepreneurs from the local community all gear up to either expand their businesses or open new businesses. Businesspeople know that hundreds and hundreds of outsiders will enter their community each and every week for the purpose of visiting with prisoners at the prison ad most of the visitors will have to travel great distances to reach the prison. Hotels, motels, restaurants, stores, gas stations, bars, thrift shops, etc. are expanded or opened all counting on profiting from prisoners' visitors -- and they profit well with annual revenues on the rise.
Family members and friends of prisoners spend a great deal of money in the local communities where prisons are located and are a significant contributor to the financial income of those communities. Each week, at any given prison, more than 500 prisoners will receive a visit, and most are visited by two or more visitors. That is more than 1,000 people spending anywhere from $20 to $150 per week in the local businesses surrounding the prisons. (The amount varies from the travelled and whether lodging is required.) That is a total of $20,000 to $150,000 per week per prison, with 52 weeks per year and thousands of prisons. Annual revenues generated by prisoners' visitors increase as more prisoners are incarcerated and more people visit prisons.
Family members and friends of prisoners are all too familiar with many different ways in which prison officials abuse prisoners, such as inadequate medical treatment, false disciplinary sanctions, physical and mental torture, denial of meals, clothing or showers, etc. Most family members and friends of prisoners have themselves been subjected to abuse by prison officials when they visited a prisoner. Those prisoners who have filed grievances and those family members and friends who have complained to prison administrators about abuses have had their grievances and complaints responded to with boilerplate responses which essentially state that they were not subjected to any wrongdoing by prison officials -- that prison officials never commit any wrongdoing. Most of the abuses against prisoners are motivated by racism, hostilities, hatred, ill will, laziness and//or deliberate indifference to the needs of prisoners. However, an ever-increasing number of abuses are motivated by a desire to retaliate against the prisoner for previous complaints of abuse. Prison Administrators condone the abuse of prisoners by turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the complaints of abuse, which then leads to further acts of abuse. Prisoners are then left with the choice of either accepting the abuse or filing civil litigation to obtain relief.
Nearly all prisoner litigation is filed in courts that are located in the same city as the prisons. This means that the judge and jurors who decide the case are from the communities that are profitting from prisoners' visitors. Time and again, judges and jurors find in favor of prison officials. It is no secret that prison officials are from the communities where prisons are located and that their relatives and friends frequently sit as jurors in prisoner cases. This is in both civil actions filed by prisoners and criminal prosecutions of prisoners by prion officials. Judges and jurors from such communities routinely determine that the prisoner caused prison officials to beat him senseless; or prison officials did not falsify disciplinary or criminal charges; or the prisoner received adequate medical treatment; or as in several cases, that the prisoner beat himself to death while in restraints. It is always the prisoner's fault and the prison officials did no wrong. The failure of the citizens to hold prison officials liable for abusing prisoners leaders to more acts of abuse, which prisoners and their family members and friends must then accept with great pains.
It is time to send a message to the prison communities that they must stop turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the abuse of prisoners. With over two million people incarcerated, family members and friends of prisoners have a powerful voice, which will be heard by such communities -- their money. Family members and friends of prisoners must stop financially supporting those communities that condone the abuse of prisoners. Do not support such communities just for your convenience. Friends and family should make their purchases from businesses in cities where there are no prisons. It may be inconvenient to travel to the next city for a hotel or motel room, and for meals and gas, but at least you will not be supporting those people who profit from abuse of your loved ones. A significant loss of income might just force those communities to start listening to prisoner complaints of abuse and to care about the welfare of prisoners. Such communities will never even begin to listen to or care about the welfare of prisoners until it affects them, until you -- their financial support -- make them care. You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Be part of the solution by boycotting all local businesses located in the cities where prisons are located.
-- an Illinois prisoner