This is Kevin Rashid Johnson.
Strikes supporters set up occupied camp outside Florida prisons. Allies, comrades, and supporters of striking prisoners across the U.S. have set up an occupied camp outside of prison work camp in Gainesville, Florida. The camp has been ruling strong since the strikes began on August 21st. And has received unanimously positive support and responses from prisoners inside the prison and passers by alike.
The occupiers not only has been engaging directly with the prisoners who can see the camp, but have accepted music requests from them communicated with large signs, which they blasted inside using large speakers. Passers by have shouted and honked their support for the camp. Many have stopped to engage the campers and even take to the mic to speak across the loud speakers to the campers and prisoners in support. One ex-prisoner stopped and spoke to the prisoners, encouraging them to continue the strike for months.
Even the police who’ve been charged with keeping an eye on the encampment have not intervened, but have shown interest in the issues the occupiers have been agitating around. Occupiers report having been asked by cops what they envision a world without prisons to look like. There actually exists a sort of alienation of cops towards guards, which occupiers have seen reflected in the cops’ attitudes and general disinterest encountering the protesters.
The occupies have also engaged in direct disruption by preventing trucks from leaving the prison. The camp was inspired and has incorporated tactics employed by the occupy ICE movement, that set up barricades outside ICE detention centers in response to migrant roundups. The prison occupy camp has received round the clock coverage on the itsgoingdown.org website and on the IWOC site, where visuals of the camp and its activities can be seen.
The occupiers call on others to assemble some other camps at prisons around the US to raise awareness on both sides of the raised wire and in support of the strikes and their demands. Dare to struggle, dare to win. All power to the people.
(Sound of a cell door closing.) 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)