Prisoners in seven Georgia state correctional facilities rebelled against alleged violations of basic human rights by partaking in a self-inflicted lock-down that was supposed to hinder prisoner-supported services throughout the prison system.
On Dec. 9, prisoners remained inside their cells complaining that their living conditions are unbearable. They claim their imprisonment is a form of slavery.
Michelle Chen of the Huffington Post reported that the strike ended after six days, due to rising fears that the situation would escalate.
“We’ve ended the protest,” said one of the prisoners who planned and coordinated the resistance. “We needed to come off lock-down so we can go to the law library and start…the paperwork for a (prison conditions) lawsuit.”
Many people believe that the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes all forms of slavery. But the amendment actually reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The prisoners issued the following statement: …”Brothers, we have accomplished a major step in our struggle…We must continue what we have started…The only way to achieve our goals is to continue with our peaceful sit-down…I ask each and every one of my Brothers in this struggle to continue the fight. On Monday morning, when the doors open, close them. Do not go to work. They cannot do anything to us that they haven’t already done at one time or another. Brothers, don’t give up now. Make them come to the table. Be strong. do not make money for the state that they in turn use to keep us as slaves…”
Elaine Brown, former chairperson of the Black Panther Party, interviewed the protesters and presented the reforms they seek:
A living wage for work
Educational opportunities
Decent health care
An end to cruel and unusual punishments
Decent living conditions
Nutritional meals
Vocational and self-improvement opportunities
Access to families
Just parole decisions
Naomi Spencer on the World Socialist web site said Department of Corrections officials denied that prisoners were engaging in coordinated action, but placed four facilities under an indefinite lockdown beginning Dec. 9.
Spencer quoted prison spokesperson Peggy Chapman as telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the protests were “a rumor… There’s nothing really going on. Inmates are working… [except at] the prisons we put on lockdown. I think that [the protest] was the plan but I don’t think it’s come to fruition.”
The Workers Solidarity Alliance supported the prisoners in the controversy with a statement that said, in part:
“…The strike is astounding in more than one way, perhaps the most important of which is that it has broken the racial boundaries that structure prisons…The prisoners in Macon, Hays, Telfair, Baldwin, Valdosta, and Smith state prisons do not have picket signs we can read, nor do they have speeches that can be read out loud to us.
