Tuesday, April 3, 2012

All of us or none

A week of thinking about politics, political prisoners and prisons.

Yesterday i went to Ullin to hear the hearings about the proposed state closure of Tamms supermax prison. I wanted to show my support of prison closure by presence and also to help out Tamms Year Ten in their long campaign to have the prison closed due to human rights violations. One of the things that struck me was the lack of sympathy in the audience of mostly correctional officers for a few former inmates who testified; men who had done their time and were now out... and facing a whole bunch of new problems because of legalized discrimination. It reminded me of the ex prisoner activist group I met in Detroit a few years ago; All of us or none

From their blog, "All of Us Or None is a national organizing initiative of prisoners, former prisoners and felons, to combat the many forms of discrimination that we face as the result of felony convictions. After serving time in torturous conditions, we were met at the gate with prejudice and discrimination that made our re-entry into society difficult and in some cases impossible. Many of us recognize that our prison sentence never ends as long as the discrimination against us continues."

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