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Free Quierza Lewis!

Angola Inmate Targeted for Organizing to Contain COVID-19

Quierza Lewis (center) with family.

by Z Petrosian

As COVID-19 infected and killed men at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Quierza Lewis knew he had to do something to protect himself and other inmates. Denied adequate testing, proper medical care, PPE, sanitizer, and unable to physically distance, Lewis and two other inmates began to seek legal advice and discuss the possibility of a peaceful protest aimed at improving living conditions at the prison.

For this organizing, Quierza was charged with the intent to initiate a work stoppage and moved to solitary confinement. In an even more absurd move, Angola officials charged him with bribery, citing a GoFundMe a friend set up to help with his case. Quierza was denied a lawyer to fight these charges.

“I just couldn’t let them railroad Quierza like that,” said Tanisha Lewis, Quierza’s older sister. Taking matters into their own hands, Tanisha was joined by other activists in contacting the prison on Quierza’s behalf: “I let them know that the calling wasn’t going to stop.” As more people called and help publicize the situation, the prison was pressured into dropping the bribery charge, and on September 14, Quierza was sent back to general population after 34 days in solitary.

Pandemic conditions at Angola warrant immediate action

The organizing Quierza and the two other inmates were trying to initiate is desperately needed at Angola where COVID-19 has sickened hundreds and claimed the lives of at least 16 inmates and 3 staff. “They know they are not doing what they need to,” Tanisha remarked. “They hate that the inmates are getting [that information] out.”

Still, as illnesses and deaths mount, the Department of Corrections itself claims they have only tested 1,365 inmates, roughly one quarter Angola’s incarcerated population of around 5,500.

Making matters worse, Angola inmates generally have to pay for their own medical care. Though these fees have been waived during the pandemic, Quierza, who suffers from asthma, has been unable to obtain an inhaler. Frequent punitive chemical sprays in solitary aggravated his condition, and the next call to action is to advocate for Quierza’s access to an inhaler.

“We are fighting for him.”

Tanisha is worried but steadfastly fighting for her brother: “My mom died fighting for her baby. She died fighting for him, and I’ve gotta continue.” That fight began nearly 16 years ago when Quierza, then 25, was convicted of cocaine distribution by a non-unanimous jury relying on testimony that three co-defendants gave in exchange for lighter charges. Quierza was sentenced to life without parole even though no drugs or paraphernalia were found on him or in his home.

Quierza Lewis is one of thousands of incarcerated people who have made efforts to organize behind bars to fight for their lives in the face of the pandemic and the broader system of injustice. When their jailers try to silence their voices, those on the outside must make them heard because none of us is free while our siblings remain in cages. For Quierza and all other non-violent offenders, we demand the state #FreeThemAll!

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Come Fire or Flood, Incarcerated Workers are Saving Our Lives

Sept. 13: Valley View inmate firefighters working in Butte County, CA

As fire and hurricane seasons become longer and increasingly dangerous, incarcerated workers are on the frontlines fighting to protect our communities. Often risking their own lives to save those on the outside, these workers receive little pay if any.

In California, thousands of incarcerated firefighters receive only $2-$5 a day and an additional $1 per hour during active fires even though they have the same training as Cal Fire’s non-incarcerated firefighters who earn an average of more than $70,000 per year. The State of California has admitted stealing $100 million per year in wages from incarcerated firefighters.

Louisiana: Unpaid incarcerated workers from Hunt Correctional Center work 12-hour shifts to make tens of thousands of sandbags ahead of Hurricane Barry in 2019.

Here on the Gulf Coast, incarcerated workers regularly work during storms and other disasters such as oil spills. In Louisiana, those who work on storm preparation and recovery are generally not paid even a penny for their long hours.

None of us is free while any remains in chains, and no worker should tolerate slave wages for any other worker. Not only is this exploitation wrong but it results in our own inability to find work at decent wages. If governments and other employers are allowed to pay slave wages to incarcerated workers, why would they decrease their profits by paying even minimum wage to someone on the outside?

Workers unite across the prison bars! Together, we will win!

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Stop the Torture! Free Mississippi Prisoners!

By LaVonna Varnado Brown

The conditions faced by inmates in facilities like Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm (a maximum-security prison farm located in Sunflower County), are horrific. These conditions include torture and the deliberate setting up of rivalries by sadistic guards. These are methods approved by Mississippi prison authorities to repress and divide inmates.

Despite the horrific conditions at Parchman (which used to be a plantation and is still run like one) many prisoners have united to organize inside, and their families and supporters have held many demonstrations asking for people to support their demands for release or for more livable conditions.
Among the independently documented conditions were 100 violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act in January alone. There were three dead inmates in three days. Family members report that there is absolutely no care being shown in operations (which is echoed by recent reports out of Louisiana prisons). Prison gangs are in control of other inmate’s food and sleeping rations.

Inmates are being celled with publicly known rivals, and people are being murdered. Seven homicides and five suicides have been reported at other facilities. An inmate named Bobby Lewis Vance died on February 15, making him at least the 17th inmate in the state’s troubled prison system to have died in less than two months.

Gov. Phil Bryant says the state has the issue “under control as best we can.” Mississippi’s prisons are run by abusive guards who facilitate corruption, and drug and drug paraphernalia sales inside the prisons. Parchman reports a 50% vacancy rate for job positions. All the guards need to be fired for their racism, sexism and for torture. Most prisoners could be released and for those who cannot, new personnel should be hired and vetted for their humanity and attitudes.

America is the world’s most incarcerated country. In southern states like Mississippi and Louisiana, incarcerated people outnumber the total sum of inmates in many countries. The labor of southern workers is being exploited in the same way that the inmates’ labor is. We are fattening the pockets of those that imprison and oppress us. We demand the abolition of mass incarceration, while we work to improve current conditions for inmates. It is time to unite and fight for the rights of all people.

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Debtors Prisons Punish the Poor In Mississippi

The state of Mississippi has revived an old method of punishing the poor and extracting cheap labor out of workers, often with no end in sight for the victims of their scam.

In Mississippi, workers can be sentenced to prison indefinitely if they don’t pay debts. The state has four “restitution centers,” or debtor’s prisons, where people are forced to live when they are not working their state-mandated minimum wage jobs. The money they earn from their jobs is then taken by the prisons. Most of the money they earn is not paid to those they owe debts to but to the prison itself for “room and board,” transportation to their jobs, and healthcare. For many, this means their sentences just get longer the longer they are there.

All of these workers are forced to work for private companies like fast food chains, slaughterhouses, or processing plants, or for rich people hiring landscapers or repair services. They are under severe restrictions while at work to keep them from contacting their families. People who cannot work end up in prison indefinitely, racking up debt while unable to pay any of it down. Meanwhile, at the debtors’ prison, they are forced to perform unpaid labor in the form of “chores.”

The state provides intentionally confusing records to the inmates so that it is unclear how much they owe or how long they will be in prison.
Sometimes these debts are connected to a crime, though for many, their crimes were not paying court fees or other punishments by the state for being poor. Most are for probation violations. In the majority of cases, the actual prison sentence associated with the crimes would be shorter than the debtors’ prison sentences. Many people are in debt because of plea bargains they were coerced to agree to.

Mississippi is the only state to continue this practice. Three judges in the state are responsible for a third of these sentences. Like with most incarceration programs, Black people are disproportionately targeted for these debtors’ prisons (nearly half of the workers are Black); it affects the poor far more than the rich, who can rely on their wealthy families, friends, or connections to get them out of any trouble.

This is not a tool for rehabilitation or a method of paying off the victims of crimes—most of the “crimes” had no victims—the debts were imposed by the courts, knowingly targeting those who cannot pay. Meanwhile, the rich continue to rack up their own debts and escape through bankruptcy or bailouts. Meanwhile, the rich are destroying peoples’ lives by raising the costs of housing, healthcare, and other necessities. Debt is a trap designed to control the poor.

The Workers Group calls for all court and criminal fees to be waived in Mississippi and for the closing of these four debtors’ prisons. This racist, predatory practice must come to an end.

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Prisons Send Families into Debt

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

Prisons cost the federal government billions of dollars to keep approximately 2.3 million people behind bars each year. The City of New Orleans currently dedicates 63% of its $721 million dollar budget to jails, police, and other reactive measures. The “City of Yes” says no to returning stolen tax dollars to working families by continuously dedicating only 1% of the budget to job development and 3% to children and families. Families around the country spend thousands of dollars each year just to keep in contact with dear ones who have been placed in prisons. They send money to incarcerated loved ones and incur debt to pay for emails, phone calls, food, and personal hygiene items.

Research done by a collaborative, participatory research project with 20 community-based organizations across the country like the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together, and Research Action Design shows some hard hitting facts about how America’s punitive jail system is deeply impacting families as much as the incarcerated.

One report states, “The high cost of maintaining contact with incarcerated family members led more than one in three families (34%) into debt to pay for phone calls and visits alone. Family members who were not able to talk or visit with their loved ones regularly were much more likely to report experiencing negative health impacts related to a family member’s incarceration.” If we want to support building whole communities, we must examine what punitive systems like this really achieve. Who do they benefit? The rich ruling class is waging war on working people and the poor. We must call for an end to the prison industrial complex and support building communities where families can be healed. We must fight for the right to self-determination for all people.

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City Budget Ignores Youth, We Must Fight for Youth Services Not Jails

63% of City Budget goes to cops and jails, only 3% to children and families.

By Malcolm Suber

New Orleans mayor Latoya Cantrell and arch-racist DA Leon Cannizzaro have teamed up to announce yet another scheme to supposedly curb an uptick in crimes committed by youth, especially young Black men. They are using sensational reports of youth crimes to call for more funds for the NOPD, more police patrols and more police contact with our youth (meaning more unwarranted stops and searches).They are also calling for stepped up enforcement of the citywide youth curfew.

The mayor and DA paint a picture of Black youth as predators in need of rounding up and locking away from the majority of law-abiding residents; so they call for an expansion of the juvenile lock-up as well as the trying of more juveniles as adults.

We workers should not be taken in by this ruling class propaganda. Youth crime is tied to the lack of gainful employment opportunities and lack of recreational and cultural programs that provide youth with positive things to do in their non-school hours. Why don’t the Mayor and DA address the root cause of juvenile crime instead of offering a band-aid on the cancerous conditions which exist for New Orleans youth? The working class community is rightly frustrated by the almost nightly barrage of reported criminal activity by alienated youth. But the Mayor and DA are only playing to this frustration in order to get the public to consent to their plan to lock up more youth. These youth in many cases are lashing out against the rich white ruling class and their politicians who have written them off as nothing more than a public nuisance.

Where is the money for more programming at our recreational centers? Where is the money for hiring full-time coaches? Where is the money for counselors and for youth employment? Rather than ‘disrupting’ the pipeline to prison, the Mayor and DA are actually facilitating the mass incarceration of our youth. They would rather spend more money on surveillance cameras and give fat contracts to their friends to monitor ankle bracelets on the growing number of youth arrested by the NOPD.

“What we are seeing and the rhetoric we are hearing from the political elites is because the system continues to fail our communities. We do a great job of holding vulnerable youth and parents accountable, but who will hold the system accountable? WE WILL THAT’S WHO!”
— Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC)

Even though the capitalist media claims the USA economy is robust and nearing full employment, Black youth unemployment is nearly 50%. Many of their parents and guardians are forced to work two jobs and the youth are left to raise themselves. By allowing these conditions to fester, we show that we are not really concerned about saving these youth from the path to enslavement in the USA prison system.

Our task is to help our youth build a movement that champions their demands for a quality of life that gives them the freedom to explore their revolutionary history of struggle for Black liberation. This movement will train our youth to avoid the modern day slave catchers and give real meaning to being woke and the understanding that Black Lives Do Matter.

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Women Deserve the Right to Self-Defense

Michele Benjamin (courtesy of Loyola Law Clinic)

25 years ago, as Michelle Benjamin was walking in the French Quarter, a man solicited her for sex and she refused. Despite saying no, she was attacked and fought back. In the struggle, her attacker died. For that, she was sentenced to life in prison. Michelle was only 16 at the time.

Like Cyntoia Brown, who defended herself against a man who had kidnapped, raped, and abused her, Michelle Benjamin was acting in self-defense. And like Cyntoia Brown, she spent decades in prison being punished for this “crime.”

This capitalist system treats women like slaves—to be used, controlled, kept quiet and submissive. We are supposed to submit to assault from partners or strangers. Killing someone in self-defense is often legal, but for women those protections rarely apply. Of the 219,000 women in prison, up to 30,000 are in prison for killing someone who attacked, abused, or raped them. Racist men like George Zimmerman hide behind “Stand Your Ground” laws for murdering innocent black children while women who protect themselves or their children from real harm are jailed.

Like Cyntoia Brown, Michelle Benjamin wasn’t found innocent. Her case wasn’t accepted as self-defense. She was only granted parole after 25 years of fighting for freedom. In the eyes of the state, she is still a murderer, not someone legally entitled to defend herself. Like Cyntoia Brown, she was not pardoned but was instead given a commuted sentence after a major pushback from the public.

Justice has been denied to Michelle Benjamin and Cyntoia Brown. They won their freedom despite the racist incarceration system because the people rose up with them. After decades of struggle, they won a concession, but justice still eludes them and the tens of thousands of others who have fought back.

Women deserve the right to self-defense & the resources to leave their abusers.

Cyntoia Brown was kidnapped into sex slavery. Michelle Benjamin was attacked for refusing solicitation for sex. Their cases mirror the thousands of women who have had to kill to survive in domestic or stranger abuse situations. Even when their lives are threatened or they are beaten, women who earn their living by selling sex are deemed criminal for fighting back. Even when a wife or partner’s life is threatened or she is being beaten, she is deemed the criminal. According to this unjust system, women are the property of men and have no right to protect their own lives.

Meanwhile, the billionaire class has continued its attack on women by refusing to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, stripping what few legal protections exist for women who try to escape abuse or seek protection from it. While there are many women fighting to push a renewal through, this still leaves many more vulnerable than before.

Many women have no choice but to defend their own lives. Women are 75% more likely to be killed by their abuser when they try to escape. There is no effective protection from the state for those who seek to escape domestic violence, sexual abuse, kidnappers, or dangers to their children.

Over 80% of women who are in shelters escaping abuse state that affordable housing is one of their top needs. Often, abusive men use money to control their victims. Even when a woman has a paying job, the wages are often too low to cover the costs of moving on.

Killing in self-defense is the only way for most women to survive once they find themselves in a violent domestic partnership or other situation. We must stand with women in this situation.

After the revolution in China, when men would abuse their wives, the women in the village gathered together and went in a large group to confront the abuser. They stripped him naked and marched him down the street often giving him the same beating he inflicted on his wife. Domestic violence dropped dramatically.

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Free Pregnant Incarcerated Women

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

As I started to research this piece, my intention was to shine a light on the grossly egregious health care female inmates in Louisiana receive, specifically in Orleans or Jefferson Parish. From an initial Google search of ‘women giving birth in jail cells,’ I literally got back 6,750,000 results. Women in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Denver, Texas, Australia, and all over this Earth are mistreated and ignored in prison systems. Human, procedural, and systemic failings have combined to create serious and avoidable risks to both mothers and babies.

In many of these cases, women pleaded and stated the pains and issues they were having to several deputies and nursing staff. In a world where movements like Black Lives Matter are countered by legislation like Blue Lives Matter, it is clear the police don’t care about Black lives or women’s lives.

There are situations like the case of Jefferson Parish resident Tiffini Woodward. She cried out during childbirth and was ignored. At 22 years old she gave birth to her son in a metal toilet, alone. She is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit naming both Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and its private health contractor Correct Health Jefferson.

Any woman who has given birth knows what a spiritual time it is. How emotionally draining it is for weeks and sometimes months after. To imagine being in that situation alone and purposefully isolated and denied help is horrifying to me.

There are currently no state or federal laws limiting the restrictive housing of pregnant prisoners, according to a review by the National Women’s Law Center. Twenty-two states either explicitly allow the use of leg irons or waist chains on pregnant inmates or have no policy on them at all. Forty-three states do not require medical examinations as part of prenatal care, and 48 states do not offer pregnant prisoners screening for HIV.

We call for the release of these women and for them to be provided with all the financial and housing support that they and their children need.