[…] a revolt at Holmes Correctional in Florida’s Panhandle on Wednesday night, involving more than 400 inmates, caused damage to nearly every dorm during an uprising that lasted into the early morning. No one was seriously injured, but the department is concerned that the disturbance might be a harbinger of what’s to come.
The prison is currently shut down due to extensive damage, and all inmates had to be transported to other prisons.
On September 8th, there will be a film screening of Ghosts of Attica, followed by a discussion about prisoner resistance in history and today. We will include thoughts from current prisoners on the upcoming national prison strike.
On Sept 9th, the strike officially begins. There will be a solidarity march in Atlanta targeting corporations which profit from the slave labor of prisoners.
On Sept 10th, Atlanta ABC is organizing a caravan to Donaldson Prison in Alabama to show visible support for the striking inmates there. The demonstration begins at 10am, we will leave Atlanta early Saturday morning. Please get in touch if you can participate.
Please circulate these materials to spread the word about the upcoming solidarity action for the September 9th prison strike. If you need printed flyers to distribute, contact us and we will get you some.
Continuing a tradition of confrontational noise demonstrations at correctional facilities in Atlanta, GA, dozens of people converged last night on the DeKalb County Jail to offer a small gesture of support, disruption, and solidarity with all those struggling against the American prison nightmare.
We do this for our friends, family and loved ones currently facing repression, in anticipation of the national prison strike set to occur on September 9th, and to show our comrades currently in revolt in Alabama and elsewhere that they are not alone in the fight against slavery and domination.
With banners reading “Burn the American Plantation: Holman to Milwaukee” and “End Prison Slavery: Attica to Holman,” we entered the jail’s vestibule and attempted to pass into the lobby, but were prevented by an exceptionally heavy police presence. This is not the first time there’s been a noise demonstration at this facility, and the correctional officers there were eager to settle the score. When fireworks started going off in the doors of the detention center, corrections officers responded immediately by tackling and arresting one demonstrator, and aggressively pushing others out of the vestibule. We made sure to litter the lobby with confetti reading “SOLIDARITY,” “FUCK THE POLICE,” and advertising for the national prison strike before we left.
Back outside, we set off more fireworks and banged on drums, light poles, bus stations, and anything else that resonated. We shined powerful LED lights into cell windows and police cameras, and sang songs and chanted amidst the mounting DeKalb County Police presence. Dozens of prisoners banged their fists against the windows, some rhythmically bashing their mattresses against them to the sound of our drums.
The vast and open terrain at this facility was particularly unfavorable to us, and while our confrontational energy created space between us and the officers, it proved highly difficult to disperse safely without being followed. At the close of the night, some demonstrators returning to their cars found their only exit blocked off by police cruisers. After a small group was detained by almost twenty deputies, one protester was ultimately singled out and arrested on a prior warrant.
It is only in the space of revolt that we gain the strategic intelligence necessary to actually disrupt the systems of oppression that govern our lives. While our spirits were joyful and rebellious throughout the night, the arrests of two of our comrades confirm our need for more numbers, deeper organization, and more tactical experience together in the streets.
We condemn the DeKalb Police Department and the entire Justice system for maintaining and enforcing the racial and economic ordering of society.
We demand the immediate release of those incarcerated for their participation in this demonstration, as well as the immediate release of all persons held in isolation and bondage by the American prison system.
Support is still needed for those arrested. One comrade has been bailed out, and is facing misdemeanor charges of Simple Assault and Obstruction. The second comrade is still in custody awaiting arraignment, and is facing charges of felony Criminal Damage to Property and Simple Assault. To support, please contribute to the bail fundraiser, and consider organizing actions in your own area.
It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
Dekalb County Jail · 4425 Memorial Drive
Meet 8:30pm across the street
Get LOUD – Bring Drums, Noise, Lights!
Prisoners all over are gearing up for a nationwide strike in September. They are putting their lives and freedom on the line to bring an end to prison slavery, inhumane living conditions, and the abusive prison system overall.
Prison officials want to hide this resistance and make prisoners invisible, but we won’t abandon those behind bars. Let’s show solidarity with prisoners: we stand with them when they resist!
– Solidarity with the Sept. 9 National Prisoner Strike
– End forced labor in for little/no pay
– Fight the Prison Industrial Complex
– Abolish prison and the system that creates it
On Wednesday night, a group of 30-40 people held a noise demonstration at Atlanta City Detention Center in solidarity with the ongoing prison rebellion at Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama.
Following a short speech at Troy Davis Park, the crowd took the streets and marched to the city jail with a banner reading: “END PRISON SLAVERY – ATTICA TO HOLMAN.”
Upon reaching the jail, demonstrators immediately rushed the steps and entered the facility. Loud drums and ‘fuck the police’ chants filled the ground floor while people banged on doors and windows. Jail staff scrambled to bring down corrections officers from upstairs, but were unable to disperse the crowd. Individual police officers were ridiculed by name, called “house n—as” and “traitors” and engaged in minor push-and-shove matches with demonstrators openly defying their orders.
Eventually, reinforcements from Atlanta Police Department showed up and attempted to form a perimeter around the building. Rather than being kettled, the crowd moved back into the street, chanting, banging drums and pans, and lighting off fireworks as inmates banged on windows, danced, cheered, and flicked their cell lights off and on in joyous call-and-response.
Energy was high throughout the night. After four hours of noise, the crowd dispersed without arrest.
This demonstration reflects the ongoing solidarities forged in streets during the last few months of struggle in Atlanta. Specifically, the success of this event was contingent on the relationships formed between anarchists, Street Groomers (a black nationalist gang unity organization), various friendships and affinities made throughout Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and the recently formed Atlanta chapter of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). Although small in numbers, this demonstration served to strengthen these connections and reaffirm our collective strength. We will continue to organize together until we achieve full collective liberation.
“AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL” “FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS” “FREE ALL PRISONERS”
Prisoners all over the country are gearing up for a strike in September. Let’s show solidarity with them, and let inmates know that we stand with them when they resist!
Inmates at Holman in Alabama took over their dorm yesterday, August 1st, and prison authorities have yet to regain control. Inmates set fires and resisted the CERT team which is currently trying to suppress the uprising. Power and water have been shut off, and the entire prison is on lockdown.
Prisoners are calling for news of this resistance to be spread. This is only the most recent in a series of rebellions at Holman, and it will not be the last! Those outside the prison walls are encouraged to get in touch with prisoners and get organized to support them.
On the date of June 21st 2016, at approximately 8:15 a.m., a inmate at the Georgia Diagnostic State Prison/Special Management Unit of Jackson Ga.; Cedric Newton GDC #1218943, was assaulted and stabbed by an inmate with a hand made knife, while being escorted to the L-F-Wing recreation (yard call) area, by Officer North and Officer May. Inmate Cedric Newton, whom was in handcuffs to his back, and leg shackles, was very helpless, and could only pray for his life that the inmate didn’t take his life. Especially being that both officers ran and left him to be stabbed by the madman inmate.
This incident wasn’t supposed to even take place, being that the (SMU) prison is “SUPPOSED” to be the most high Maximum Security Prison out of Georgia; which no inmates are supposed to have any contact with each other. This is a “MAJOR” security violation, now the deputy Warden of security Mrs. June Bishop are trying to keep this issue underneath the rug; along with the support of her assistances to her crime; which is Deputy Warden of administration Mr. William Powell; Captain Williams; Sergeant Michael Nopel; Co II North; CO II May;and Nurse Mary Gore and Dr. Burnside whose trying to hide the medical records of the incident.
Now mr. Cedric Newton is living in deep dark fear, being that the administrative staffs are forcing the officials to retaliate against him. Which Deputy Warden of security Mrs. June Bishop has even threaten the prisoner’s life that if she get in trouble behind this incident, that he would be a dead man, and that Mr. Cedric Newton, would not know where it’s going to come from. Warden of security mrs. June Bishop, has even commented, that she wished that the inmate would have killed him; that way he wouldn’t live to tell anyone what happen.
The incident has even been brought to prison director’s Mrs. Davis, whom are also playing part of cover-up, and has made her comment, that she doesn’t talk to inmates: Why must a man have to be a victim by the prisoner’s, and the prison officials? Oppressors and their corruptions on the move! And there has been numerous of incidents that has been covered up by “Black-hearted” administrative staffs. Such as inmates being beaten while in handcuffs; officials trying to poison the prisoners; sexual harassments and sexual assaults; nurses stealing money from prisoner’s accounts; denial of access to the law library, etc. Which the actions toward the prisoners at the (SMU), really makes a person, want to stop and think, of whose really the criminals in this?
The administrative staff, and prison director Mrs. Davis, are working together to enslave the minds of the prisoners under their mass-incarceration movement, within the new (Tier) program that they have, that’s being illegally ran “Illegally”. And in this program, for each phase, a inmate are supposed to move up into the next phase every 90 days, according to the inmates Behavior. Which most of the prisoners has been in one place for one to two years, without any disciplinary records (write-ups). And honestly, there hasn’t been a transfer from the (SMU) in two and a half years. And they’re refusing to transfer any prisoner’s from (SMU) back to General population. This is in face, a crime within itself; kidnapping, mentally abuse; torturing, etcetera. Which being locked down 23 hours a day, a sometimes 24, are making the prisoners frustrated, to the point, that the administrative are recreating monsters, instead of rehabilitating the minds of the prisoners. This is more like the practice of the Willie Lynch enslavement.
And if the (Tier) program would have been ran as supposed to be ran. No inmates frustration wouldn’t of carried the toil of a ambush animal, to harm mr. Cedric Newton. Now this inmate mr. Newton, has to live in fear, and suffer in nightmares from being mentally tilted, from the stabbing and being victimized by the administrative staffs threats.
Prisoners in Alabama went on strike across the state starting May 1st, refusing to work. Many of them are reportedly still on lockdown. Prisoners are refusing to support the institutions which abuse, neglect, and enslave them.
The rebels in Alabama prisons have been getting a lot of attention in Georgia too. A banner was spotted in Atlanta showing a message of support for the strikers.
