Big Daddy comes to town: ACLU National Prison Project

ACLU-Arizona: "Demolish the Prisons"

Ringed by the names of those who have died in AZ State custody

of neglect, suicide, and violence since Jan 2009.

Phoenix, AZ (April 25, 2011)

The National ACLU's David Fathi and the Prison Law Office's Don Specter are in Phoenix this week, finally. As I write, they should be wrapping up interviews of prisoners at the AZ state supermax facility in Florence, ASPC-Eyman.


The National ACLU had already made the misuse of isolation and detention for managing symptoms of mentally ill prisoners a national priority, so this shouldn't be a surprise for the ADC...nor should the fact that they're interviewing some of my correspondents. Apparently their arrival is causing quite a stir, though - the guards are the ones who called Fathi "Big Daddy". They had a bit of cleaning up to do for their arrival, I imagine.




No deal is done yet - they're still just exploring the evidence and talking to possible litigants and witnesses, as far as I know. They need to see that there's a social movement here that will support their intervention, so step up with the actions and agitation. Remember to come to the following events:

Today, April 26, 2011

5:30-7:30

MI in the CJ System Roundtable:

Punitive or Restorative Justice?

ASU Art Museum
1th St/Mill Ave
Tempe

Sunday, May 1: May Day Rally.

REALLY, REALLY FREE Store 11:30

Speakers 1:30

Margaret T. Hance Park

south of the Phoenix Public Library, Central St, Phoenix

PRISONER RIGHTS ARE WORKERS RIGHTS!!!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

5:00 pm

ANGELA DAVIS

Neeb Hall, ASU-Tempe

Those of you in prison but not at Eyman, take heart - we've got a whole lot going on both out here and behind bars now, and you won't be left behind. Be persistent keeping me posted about how things are in there - but by all means, direct your eyewitness correspondence about conditions of confinement to the ACLU-AZ (PO Box 17148, Phoenix, AZ 85011), not me, right now. I have the ACLU's assurances that they won't lose any letters, and they'll no doubt try to help me find solutions to the things they can't address, to the extent that such a role is appropriate for them.



Learn to grieve things properly, and keep the frustration and violence down. Help each other out more than usual; you need to not only get through this, but you need to be vocal and visible, now that there's a light shining in there, and responsible with your complaints.




Thanks go out to the prisoners willing to put themselves out there for the rest of the folks right now, as well as to Dan Pochoda and Darrell Hill at the ACLU-AZ, and Mary Lou Brncik, Carl Toersbijns, Patti Jones, and Ken Jacuzzi, especially, for being such aggressive advocates for prisoners with serious mental illness.

From Conspire to Perryville, with love.

Note that this cop doesn't hassle me - he just looks curious. (Central)

Terry Goddard and Jan Brewer came to KAET Channel 8 ( down the street from me) last night for their gubernatorial debate, so I took advantage of the opportunity to do a little health education for the curious public that I expected to assemble in the vicinity. Broke out my chalk and inaugurated a new sign for the event.

Drove around today, by the way, and my chalkings were still out there!

(First St./KAET)

Also going on yesterday was a bit of what sounded like a protest at the Perryville women's prison in Goodyear. I got word from several families that the medium security yard, Santa Cruz, had been locked down tight, apparently because of the recent Kingman escapes. This meant that the women were trapped in stifling hot cells for 22 hours a day - at one point a whole yard refused to go back inside after their rec time was up because the conditions were just too intolerable.

There's never been A/C in the women's living areas, and the swamp coolers they use hardly ever work. Families were already worried about those more susceptible to the heat due to medical conditions or medications they were on, and were in touch with me, the media, legislators, and the ADC central office to complain about it. I decided it would also be appropriate to express our support and solidarity to the women inside, too, somehow, since they always face retaliation and seldom get noticed by the rest of us when they resist. So, I made a sign for them last night, too, and took it around to a few places - along with my Hep C sign - so I could make more postcards.

This is real easy to do, folks...

On display outside of KAET while I was chalking. Check out the juxtaposition with the "emergency" sign.

here it is in front of Terry Goddard's office.

I knew the ADC central Office would want to show the women their support, so I included them in my evening shoot. The light was awesome.



While I was there, I also pulled my Hep C sign out - looks pretty sharp, eh?
Great postcard that'll make.

Didn't want to leave the Governor's office out, either.

And finally, the women of Conspire,
in solidarity with our sisters in Perryville Prison.
Resist!