“Prison Nation.”
When I left Death Row, I could no longer use my signature sign off: “live from death row,” which incidentally was the title of my first book. I had to find a new sign-off, so I chose “from imprisoned nation.”
As I looked around me, now in prison population, I found astounding numbers of men and women in prison, a nation of millions in chains. State by state, the United States has embarked on the greatest incarceration increase in history.
Fueled by the politics of fear, the states and the federal government chose prisons as the option to address a variety of social problems. Politicians played to media-driven fear to launch wars on drugs, wars on gangs, wars on those seen as dark others such as the so-called superpredators. Remember that one?
So-called social scientists gave pseudoscience to politicians to justify their assaults on the poor, again, sending thousands and tens of thousands into the netherworld of state and federal prisons for longer and longer periods of time. And even for those who made it out of prison, they were condemned to a lifetime of social and political revenge.
These punitive powers have been used to poison the putative freedoms of ex-prisoners, denying them jobs, education, and simple human growth. Thus, as they were denied these things in prison, so they are denied these things once out of prison, ensuring their poverty and social marginalization, pushing them back into the lives of hustling, of illegal drug sales or use, and returning many people to the health of prison.
Dr. Angela Y. Davis, herself a former political prisoner, has worked for decades to teach the merits of prison abolition. That’s right. Prison abolition: the core and kernel of bringing an end to prison nation. In 2003, Angela published the book Is the Prison Obsolete? With her characteristic brilliance, she raised a question that is now right on time for us all. That question can and must be answered by all of us today. Is it time to abolish prison nation? Angela Davis asks us is the prison obsolete? What say you?
From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
https://conta.cc/4ayDxlB](https://www.prisonradio.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)