National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners

NATIONAL ACTIONS

Read below for actions across the US in support of Prisoners

Austin, TX
Student Activities Center, 3.116 Balcony Room C
University of Texas, Austin
This national day of action is called for by prisoners and inspired by the Occupy movement which has united so many people across the country over the last several months.  Prisoners and their loved ones are a big part of the 99% and many have been inspired by the call for economic justice and justice for the oppressed.
People all over the country will unite on February 20th to show solidarity with those behind prison walls, their loved ones, and formerly incarcerated people.  Prisoners and their allies are demanding an end to inhumane conditions and unjust sentences, for political prisoners to be freed and for an end to retributive repression of prison activists, and for the positive development of people NOT prisons!
Featuring:
Dr. Simone Browne:  assistant professor in the Departments of Sociology and African American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Kevin Cokley:  Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and of African and African Diaspora Studies
Delia Perez Meyer: sister of Texas death row prisoner Louis Castro Perez
Also featuring video of Texas death row prisoner and activist Robert Will occupying his cell, and with statements from prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Kevin Cooper and Rob Will about the Occupy movement and what it means for prisoners.
Hosted by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Austin Chapter. austincedp@nodeathpenalty.org or facebook.com/AustinCEDP

Baltimore, MD
WHAT: Baltimore Anti-prison Noise Demonstration
WHEN: Monday, February 20th. 8pm
WHERE: Meet at William F. Sugar Cain Athletic Field (E. Madison & Ensor)
BRING FRIENDS, BRING THINGS TO MAKE NOISE.
SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE HELD CAPTIVE IN BALTIMORE CITY DETENTION FACILITY.
See Materials page for flyers.

Bay Area, CA
Occupy San Quentin . East Gate, San Quentin. Monday, February 20, 2012, 12 noon – 3pm. Carpool/meet-up – 10am at Oscar Grant Plaza (14th and Broadway, Oakland) and 10am at 1540 Market @ Van Ness in San Francisco. Email occupy4prisoners [at] gmail [dot] com for more information.
See http://occupy4prisoners.org/occupy-san-quentin/ for transportation information, including to sign up for a ride or volunteer for carpool.
See Materials page for flyers.

Boston, MA

On Monday, February 20, 2012 at 3:00 PM, the Occupy Boston People of Color Working Group, Ocupemos El Barrio, Jericho Movement, and many other individuals and organizations will be taking part in the National Occupy Day for Prisoners. We will meet at 3pm at the North Station MBTA Stop at Causeway St. and Friend St. and then march to the Nashua Street Jail on 200 Nashua Street in Boston. Answering the call from Occupy Oakland, we will stand in solidarity with the people confined within prison walls and to demand the end of the incarceration as a means of containing those dispossessed by unjust social policies.

Chicago, IL
Monday, February 20th
5pm March from Chicago Board of Trade (Jackson and Lasalle)
5:30p Rally outside Metropolitan Correctional Center (Clark and Van Buren)

Why are we holding this action?
This action is part of the national call –initiated in California, to call attention to the plight of prisoners across the country that make up the 99%.

What is the purpose of the action?
This action will bring together a broad section of prison activists, former prisoners, occupy activists and other social justice fighters to bring forth the message that the mass incarceration of poor people, who are disproportionately people of color, is misdirected, racist and inhumane. We will emphasize that the drug war targets people of color and is responsible for locking up half a million people, most of whom are non violent drug offenders. We will call for end to the drug war, to mass incarceration, to the death penalty and other harsh sentences like life sentences without the possibility of parole. We will call for a redirection of money to be allocated for mental health services and drug treatment programs in an effort to prevent crimes from happening in the first place.

Columbus, OH
America is the Prisonhouse of Nations, holding 2.3 million people behind bars. This is by far the highest incarceration rate in the world. The US police and surveillance forces are expanding every day. We live in the most sophisticated police state history has ever known. The state of Ohio houses over 50,000 prisoners and kills people on death row at a rate exceeded only by the state of Texas.
If Occupy is any kind of movement for the 99% then it must shine light on america’s prisoners, and resist the further expansion of the US police state.
On the afternoon of Monday Feb 20th, we will be visiting the offices of the following politicians and officials involved in the prison system, delivering polite letters, in the traditional form of democratic process.
-Governor John Kasich, who has the rarely used ability to pardon death row prisoners, and often used ability to appoint corporate cronies to positions of power.
-Senator Robert Portman, who was paid $272,853 by special interests to support the NDAA (the law allowing indefinite detention of US citizens).
-Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Retribution and Corruption (and former managing director of Corrections Corporation of America- the largest private prison corp in the country).
-Walter Distelzweig, chief of the Columbus Police Department.
Please attend. This action will be non-violent, low arrest risk, very proper and polite. We want to make sure these fascists can’t ever say that we didn’t ask them nicely.
Invite your friends to the facebook event- http://www.facebook.com/events/343754312313460/?context=create

Denver, CO
Monday February 20th has been designated as a “National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners” by the Occupy Oakland general assembly. In solidarity with the call from Oakland, the Denver Anarchist Black Cross and members of Occupy Denver are calling for a night time of action in Denver on February 20th.

Monday February 20th, 6:30pm
Meet at 30th and Peoria, outside the GEO ICE Detention Center
Bring noisemakers, drums, banners, signs, candles, your friends and families

Durham, NC
Please come join us to show solidarity with North Carolina prison rebels and all those affected by the legal and prison system.

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5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Noise Demonstration and Community Speak Out
In front of Durham…County Jail (219 South Mangum Street, Durham, NC 27701)

6:30 pm – 9 pm Food and Fellowship : Continuing the Conversation
At the Stanford L. Warren Library (1201 Fayetteville Street Durham, North Carolina 27707)
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Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/270391239697134/.

Eureka, CA
Occupy Eureka answers the call to action in solidarity with the Pelican  Bay hunger strike, with our sisters and brothers who are stolen by the  criminal INJUSTICE system, and with political prisoners everywhere.
Demonstration at 12/noon
Humboldt Courthouse & Jail
5th & I, Eureka
(Flyer on materials page)

Fresno, CA
Rally to Stop Jail Expansion
LET’S TELL FRESNO COUNTY “NO” TO MORE JAIL BEDS
WE NEED MORE…
COMMUNITY BASED REHABILITATION
EXPAND NEW AND EXISTING COMMUNITY BASED TREATMENT PROGRAMS
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
USE ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION BY
REDUCING PRE-TRIAL INMATES THROUGH O.R.
IMPLEMENT RESTORTATIVE JUSTICE

MONDAY – FEB 20, Beginning: 11:00 A.M.
IN FRONT OF THE
FRESNO COUNTY JAIL
M STREET & FRESNO STREET
JOIN: CALIFORNIA PRISON MORATORIUM PROJECT, CALIFORNIANS UNITED FOR RESPONSIBLE BUDGET (c.u.r.b.) NNIA, and MANY MORE COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Indio, CA
OccupyTogether.org
Monday, Feb.20th
9am to 9pm at 111 and Oasis, Indio Courthouse by Date Festival – Presidents’ Day Parade at 9:30am

Los Angeles, CA
Join California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement – CFASC
at 3:00pm on Monday, February 20th
as we unite with others across the nation for a
National Day of Occupation in Support of Prisoners
We are gathering in front of LA’s own House of Torture
The Los Angeles County Jail
441 Bauchet Street
(corner of Vines and Bauchet)
Los Angeles, CA 90012
We are their voices!!

New York, NY
Protest Monday Feb. 20 – 2pm
Lincoln Correctional Facility
31 West 110th Street, NYC

The Prisoner Solidarity Subcommittee of Occupy Wall Street answers Occupy Oakland’s call to action and march in solidarity with the Pelican Bay hunger strike, with brothers and sisters who are dispossessed by the criminal INJUSTICE system, and with political prisoners everywhere.

Philadelphia, PA
Decarcerate PA, with the support of Occupy Philly, is planning an event on February 20th, at 4 pm at Heery International, an agency that is contracting to build more prisons in PA, the action will be a rally focusing on voices of those on the inside and formerly incarcerated folks. It will begin at 4:15 pm.
Decarcerate PA has a three point platform:
1. No new prisons, Enough is enough!
2. Decarceration. Prison overcrowding can be solved only by reducing the number of people in prison
3. Community Reinvestment. Imprisonment guts local resources and destroys families. We need to build communities, not prisons.

San Luis Obispo, CA

Washington, DC
What: Rally in Support of Prisoners & Protest Against New Visitation Rules at DC Jail
When: Feb. 20th, 12 Noon
Where: 1901 D St. SE, Washington, DC
Who: Occupy DC, Criminal InJustice Committee
Contact: jtuzcu [at] gmail [dot] com
Why: Feb. 20th is National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners day. Actions are planned around the country in support prisoners and against mass incarceration. In DC, we will also be protesting newly planned visitation procedures for prisoners and their families. These procedures will replace the already inhuman practice of placing thick glass between prisoners and their families during visits with a new video teleconference system in which contact will be conducted through a television screen. Adding to this outrage, the DC jail is spending millions on this new inhumane form of isolation and control.