Hello all - we hope you’re doing great! August, also called Black August to commemorate political prisoners, freedom fighters and Black resistance, is usually a hot-one both inside and outside the prisons. As the Summer of 2023 dissipates we look at some recent (and past) Unicorn Riot coverage spotlighting stories from behind the walls.
[View this email in your browser or 'load images' to see video embeds and images]
In the midst of a near-record heat-streak, over 100 people incarcerated in Minnesota’s Stillwater prison staged an act of civil disobedience by refusing to go back to their cells for a staff-induced lockdown on Sept. 3. Men housed in B East expressed grievances of no air conditioning, no clean or cold water, and whole units intentionally being locked down with no recreational or showers. Authorities say a modified cell release schedule over the Labor Day holiday weekend was from a staffing shortage. See our full report Civil Disobedience Inside Minnesota’s Stillwater Prison and watch the video below featuring two days of public protest outside the prison.
Prison Protest in Heat Wave Draws Public Protest Outside Prison
Hundreds of people detained at the Stewart Detention Center announced plans for a hunger strike in response to inedible food and inhumane conditions inside the notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in rural southwest Georgia. Though detainees have continued to eat while they negotiate with the facility’s staff, as many as 800 people are set to refuse food if their demands are not met. Read the story in full: Hundreds Set to Launch Hunger Strike Inside Stewart Detention Center
Hundreds Set to Launch Hunger Strike Inside Stewart Detention Center [Interview]
Since at least 2011, when prisoners at the Holman Correctional Facility seized control of a wing of the facility, fighting off guards and holding the territory for several hours, Alabama prisoners have led the way in the national movement against mass incarceration and resistance to what Alabama imprisoned organic intellectuals call “prison slavery.”
Alabama prison rebels have consistently pushed back using both combative and nonviolent tactics, including their first successful prison work stoppage in 2014, a series of powerfuluprisings in 2016, and powerful participation in the Nationwide Prison Strikes of the fall of 2016 and 2018.
In the last couple years, Alabama prisoners have been back at it. In September 2022, thousands of prisoners across the state participated in a coordinated state-wide work stoppage to call attention to their inhumane conditions of confinement. And earlier this month, a prisoner at the Donaldson Correctional Facility found a gun and tried to flee the prison grounds, calling attention to prison conditions he said were akin to a “war zone.”
Unicorn Riot has been following developments in Alabama since the 2018 prison strike, and we’ve been cultivating sources with Alabama’s prison slave camps to bring you the story of Alabama prisoner resistance from the mouths of those who are currently making history from behind bars. This newsletter takes you through some of our recent coverage on Alabama prison resistance.
On August 13, 2023, Derrol Shaw, an incarcerated person at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama decided he’d had enough. “All us got a limit. Shit. Everything do,” said Shaw, in a Facebook live video he recorded during the incident on a smuggled cell phone. “I can’t take this shit no more. For real.”
Shaw got his hands on a gun. It is currently unclear how Shaw obtained the gun, but sources within the prison say guards sometimes carry guns on their shifts in clear violation of Department of Corrections policy. Shaw described taking a vest from a female officer, locking her in the guard station, and taking off across the prison grounds — scaling razor wire fences, sliding down the pole for a basketball hoop, jumping off a roof, and getting cut up so bad on razor wire he thought he’d “bleed out. “I was just trying to go,” said Shaw in the Facebook video, apparently meaning he was trying to escape the prison. “You know? But that wasn’t in the cards."
Read the full story, including a partial transcript of Shaw’s Facebook Live testimony on prison conditions in the Alabama Department of Corrections, here. You can watch all three of the videos Shaw recorded here.
Derrol Shaw Escape Attempt/Protest at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Alabama - 3/3 [archived via Fahamivu Amun on Facebook]
2022 Alabama Prison Strike
In September 2022, thousands of prisoners across the state of Alabama participated in a coordinated work stoppage, exploiting a vulnerability they saw in the state’s incarceration system–the reliance on prison labor for their daily operations.
“It makes no sense for us to continue to contribute to our own oppression,” imprisoned organizer Kinetik Justice told Unicorn Riot during the strike. “We finance our own incarceration through our free labor and spending every dime we get in they canteens and so forth. It is our money and our family’s money that is used to keep us incarcerated and oppressed like this.”
To read the full stories contributed by Ryan Fatica and Zariya Williams click on the links below. Keep an eye out for continued coverage of Alabama’s prison rebellions as well as ongoing coverage of resistance to mass incarceration in prisons across the country.
A few months ago Unicorn Riot received and published a statement from Kashaun Pierce Sr., an inmate in a Minnesota prison calling on the Department of Corrections, guards, and society to view and value the inmates incarcerated as “human.” Read in full: Minnesota Inmate Calls on DOC to ‘Value Us as Human’
In February, an in-depth investigative report by Unicorn Riot contributor Arturo Dominguez examined a crisis of deaths at the Harris County Jail, analyzing the causes, inaction, and coverup of at least two of those deaths. Located in Houston, Harris County Jail is the third-largest jail in the U.S. and the largest jail in Texas. Read in full: Harris County Jail Crisis in Houston, Texas Kills Dozens
Struggles within prisons are also an issue internationally. Prisoners in Greece and Palestine have been using hunger strikes as weapons of resistance. Contributed by Alex Litsardakis, a report published by UR in January details how inmates have waged seven hunger strikes in prisons across Greece over the last three years as responses to the Greek government’s continuous attack on prisoners’ rights. Many of the strikes have been successful. Read in full: Prisoners in Greece: Hunger Strike as a Weapon
Palestinian Prisoner Khader Adnan Dies on Hunger Strike in Israeli Prison
Around 4,700 Palestinians are jailed in dire conditions in Israeli prisons with at least 866 of those prisoners being held on administrative detention. Human rights organizations and prisoners have long demanded an end to administrative detention and practices of ‘medical neglect’ which they contend occur regularly in Israeli prisons. Protesting the policies, prisoner hunger strikes and acts of disobedience inside Israeli jails have grown over the years – 35 consecutive days of organized disobedience actions inside Israeli prisons occurred earlier this year. While outside, Palestinians continually gather to protest Israeli policies and honor fallen prisoners. Read our report from March 2023 contributed by Mohamed Ahmed and Niko Georgiades for UR: Administrative Detention and ‘Medical Neglect’ in Israeli Prisons Lead to Deaths and Protests
Palestinians Protest Administrative Detention and Medical Neglect in Israeli Prisons
The Case of Marvin Haynes – An Investigative Series & Film Despite no evidence tying Marvin Haynes to a 2004 murder and Marvin’s consistent claims of innocence, Haynes has remained in prison for nearly two decades based off of coerced testimony of jailed teenagers. We examine his case in our investigative series.
Newsletter language by contributor Ryan Fatica and Niko Georgiades for Unicorn Riot.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
Unicorn Riot is continuing to fight a lengthy and costly court battle against DAPL / Energy Transfer, who seeks to gather protected documents from UR. Help support our DAPL Legal Defense Fund here.
