Prisoners launch hunger strike at three NC facilities

According to a release from the Prison Books Collective in Chapel Hill today, an unknown number of prisoners at three different prisons in North Carolina began a hunger strike Monday until the demands listed below are met. The prisoners are located at Bertie CI in Windsor, Scotland CI in Laurinburg and Central Prison in Raleigh. They have called for supporters to contact prison officials like Director Robert Lewis, march in protest at Central Prison, boycott goods sold in prisons and contact the media. Here are their demands, as listed in the press release:

PRISONERS' DEMANDS
Law Libraries. We are tired of being railroaded by the courts, and having our rights violated by prison staff and officers. NC Prison Legal Services are inadequate and oftentimes do not help us at all. A law library is needed to enable us to legally defend ourselves.

An immediate end to the phsical and mental abuse inflicted by officers.
Improve food, in terms of quality and quantity.

A better way to communicate emergencies from cells; many emergency call buttons are broken and never replaced, and guards often do not show up for over an hour. At least one prisoner has died this way.

The canteens that serve lock up units need to make available vitamins and personal hygiene items.

An immediate stop to officers' tampering or throwing away prisoners' mail.

Education programs for prisoners on lock-up.

The immediate release of prisoners from solitary who have been held unjustly or for years without infractions; this includes the Strong 8, sent to solitary for the purpose of political intimidation.

The immediate end to the use of restraints as a form of torture.

The end of cell restriction. Sometimes prisoners are locked in their cell for weeks or more than a month, unable to come out for showers and recreation.

The theft of prisoners' property, including mattresses and clothes. When on property restriction, we are forced to sleep on the ground or steel bed frames naked, with no bedding.

Medical privacy and confidentiality. Guards should not be able to listen in on our medical problems when on sick call.

Change our cell windows to ones which we can see through. The current windows are covered with feces and grime. Not being able to see out is sensory deprivation, and makes us feel dissociated from everything that exists outside of prison.

An immediate repair of cell lights, sinks, toilets, and plumbing.

Toilet brushes should be handed out with cell cleaning items.

The levels of I-Con, M-Con, and H-Con need to be done away with altogether.

When one is placed on Intensive Control Status (I-Con), one is placed in the hole for six months and told to stay out of trouble. But even when we stay out of trouble, we are called back to the FCC and DCC only to be told to do another six months in the hold, infraction free.

New jail celebrated with ribbon-cutting

Guilford County Commissioners and Sheriff BJ Barnes celebrated the completion of the new $115 million county jail with a ribbon-cutting Monday morning.

Read more about the event in Wednesday's paper.

Above, the US flag is raised as part of the ceremony, as Barnes watches from the podium (center) and Chairman Skip Alston and Commissioner Paul Gibson look on (at left).

Photo by Eric Ginsburg.

Dozens protest outside Department of Corrections

Dozens of people demonstrated outside the Department of Corrections building in Raleigh Friday, Nov. 4 against solitary confinement and harassment of politicized prisoners, including members of the Almighty Latin King & Queen Nation. 

(right: a photo of the demonstrators taken after the rally. Taken from the Prison Books Collective website)

North Carolina ALKQN leader and Greensboro city council candidate Jorge Cornell appeared on Channel 12 News speaking from the protest, which one participant said drew 60 people despite heavy rain. According to a post on Greensboro Indymedia, about 25 of the participants were part of the ALKQN, and they were joined by anarchists and anti-prison activists from throughout the state. 

"This protest comes on the back of the historic prisoners' hunger strike against solitary confinement in California, which spread to over 11 facilities this summer," a flyer for the rally read. "Prisoners in NC have been active for the last year as well, organizing radical study groups, staging a yard occupation in Windsor, hunger strikes in Taylorsville and Polkton, and speaking out against the beating of a handcuffed prisoner at Central Prison in Raleigh."

Anarchists have staged a number of anti-prison solidarity demonstrations throughout the state in the last year in connection to a prisoners' hunger strike in California — which was recently restarted — and in solidarity with some of the North Carolina actions as well. The "noise demo" in Greensboro happened July 24, and approximately 40 people attended.

The protest at the Department of Corrections comes a week before the second annual Carrboro Anarchist Bookfair.