Prison Aboliton

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SHaRC Meeting

August 29, 2007
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm

The next meeting of the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition (SHaRC) is on August 29th at 6:00pm. We will be discussing the ongoing moratorium campaign, the opening of the Chicopee Women’s Jail, and more. Please come and get involved with the anti-prison work that needs to be happening in Boston.

Posted under events, prison aboliton
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Really EXCITING Conference about Trans and Queer folks in prison

SAVE THE DATE!

Transforming Justice:
Ending the Mass Imprisonment of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People

October 13-14, 2007
San Francisco, CA – Venue TBA

Dear Ally,

We are writing to let you know about an exciting event that will be taking place in San Francisco from October 13-14, 2007. Transforming Justice will be the first-ever gathering of activists, advocates, former prisoners, and community members from across the country working to stop the cycles of poverty, criminalization, and imprisonment in transgender and gender non-conforming communities. This two-day roundtable event will work to develop shared understanding of these cycles and strategize about how we can work more effectively to end the human rights abuses and mass imprisonment of transgender and gender non-conforming people, while building safe, healthy, and strong communities. Transforming Justice will be an opportunity to learn, connect, and envision together as we work to challenge the prison industrial complex and build a world where we all can thrive.

A range of organizations and volunteers involved in LGBTSTQ justice, anti-prison, and prisoner rights movements are helping to plan this exciting gathering. The Local Coordinating Committee consists of interested community members and representatives from our local host organizations, including Critical Resistance, Justice Now, the Trans/Gender Variant in Prison (TIP) Committee, and the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP). The National Advisory Committee consists of representatives from our sponsoring organizations, including American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT Project, Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

Who should attend? In an effort to centralize the leadership and participation of people most impacted by the prison industrial complex, this event is open to any LGBTSTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, Two-Spirit, transgender, queer) person who has been imprisoned, detained, arrested, or directly impacted by prisons, policing, or poverty. We are also targeting specific invitations to organizations, activists, attorneys, and community members from a broad spectrum of social justice movements working to: end transphobia and homophobia; challenge the prison industrial complex and defend the rights of people in prisons, jails, and detention centers; promote racial, gender, and economic justice, marriage equality, women’s rights, youth leadership, non-violence, and/or immigrant rights.

We would like to invite you and/or 1-3 members of your organization to participate in Transforming Justice. We particularly encourage people most directly impacted by prisons, policing, and poverty to attend: including formerly imprisoned people, survivors of police violence, people of color, transgender and gender non-conforming people, immigrants, and low-income people.

We will send more information about registration and the event program later this summer. Please direct all RSVP’s or questions to info@transformingjustice.org . As we are targeting invitations to specific organizations and individuals, please let us know if you would like to recommend other organizations or individuals to invite to the event.

Thank you for your time and your commitment to struggling for true justice in our communities. We hope to see you in October!

In solidarity,

Transforming Justice Local Coordinating Committee: Morgan Bassichis, Vanessa Huang, Kelani Key, Alex Lee, Danielle Lopez, Nat Smith, Lala Yantes, Fernanda Valdez

National Advisory Committee: Jody Marksamer, National Center for Lesbian Rights; Sharon McGowan, American Civil Liberties Union LGBT Project; Dean Spade, Sylvia Rivera Law Project; Jessica Stern, Human Rights Watch LGBT Rights Program; Cole Thaler, Lambda Legal

Posted under prison aboliton, queerness
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Black and Pink Featured in article on 365gay.com

After sending out numerous, numerous press releases a reporter from 365gay.com decided to interview me for an article she was willing to do on queer folks in prison. She ended up interviewing a whole bunch of different folks. It is a decent article. There is certainly a lot missing and she didn’t address the issues of white supremacy and racism (which we spoke about for nearly 20 minutes of the 45 minute interview) in the article at all. If anyone has the ability to reach more press I would super appreciate it. This is an issue that needs the attention of far more groups. There are great folks around the country doing this work and we MUST get more attention for it.

Posted under prison aboliton, queerness, revolt
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Stop Prisoner Rape Summer Newsletter

Take a moment to read the newsletter put out by SPR. The pictures of the survivors from the Survivor Summit are really intense (my picture is one of them). Organizing MUST continue to end all sexual violence in and outside of prison. These steps include the harm reduction recommendations made at the Survivor Summit but we must not forget that destroying systems of oppression such as racism, patriarchy, misogyny, the prison industrial complex as a whole is what will truly bring an end to sexual violence.

Posted under prison aboliton, sexual violence
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Commissioner Dennehy No Longer in Charge!

There is certainly reason to celebrate that Massachusetts’ Department of Correction Commissioner, Kathleen Dennehy, has been asked to step down. It is indeed Ms. Dennehy who supports the building of more prisons and jails in order to address issues of "over crowding", rather than actually seeing how over crowding is intentional. Ms. Dennehy has also been complicit in the death of over a dozen prisoners. However, Ms. Dennehy is simply taking yet another job within the Prison Industrial Complex in Bristol County, where there was yet another death of an inmate. It is also tragic to see the comments from Senator Jarrett Barrios and Rep. Kay Kahn. To think that anyone could see Ms. Dennehy as a "reformer" and yet also consider themselves part of a movement to protect the rights of prisoners is appalling. The article in the Boston Globe has plenty more to critique, such as MCOFU’s comments. While I think Dennehy has done more bad than good, the guard union is even worse. A policy to limit excessive force is by no means endangering the prison guards who I know regularly beat, bruise, and batter people I care about on the inside. Each day it seems as if the Massachusetts Department of Correction does something else to tear at the lives of people in prison.

Posted under boston, prison aboliton
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What’s up???

hey all… so this is going to be a really great website about queerness, not messed up anarchism, prison abolition, and specifically supporting queer folks in prison. look forward to a pen-pal list, a great links page for good articles, and loads of information about things going on that are really neat-o.

Posted under anti-racism, boston, church, personal, prison aboliton, queerness, sexual violence
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