07/10/2010

WOMEN IN CAGES - THE OTHER PRISONERS...

{2010 - PIC = Prison Industrial Complex = Poor in Cages...Hobama is a rabid elitist who is rapidly funding the PIC. Simultaneously, Hobama is a legendary bankster making billions homeless, jobless, and hungry globally. Beware his fatally toxic and tragically timeless mix.. }


1996

The New World Order is in progress. There are more African people imprisoned in America than anywhere else, in the history of the world. Male prisoners garner the most media attention, rally the most supporters, and get the most visitors. But, there are thousands of women who are locked in the same cages and rotting inside the same belly of The Beast.

Prisons have become America's new plantations. As downsizing and unemployment impoverish millions outside prison walls, prison labor is booming! Prisoners are producing furniture, electronics, and clothing.  They are also answering hotlines as customer service agents. Prisoners do free labor for major corporations like AT&T, TWA, Toys R Us, Eddie Bauer, Lockhart Technologies Inc., and many more. (For a glimpse of such American slave labor on film, see "The Spitfire Grill".)

In a country where inmates are slaves, we Africans have proven our superior skills for over 300 years. As prisons house the new slaves, racist crack laws navigate the New Middle Passage. As always, female chattel suffer uniquely brutal abuses.

African female slaves have always suffered doubly, for their race and gender. We were beaten and raped by the same white masters. As our own children were sold, we were forced to nurse the children of the sellers. Such gender specific abuses continue as female inmates are routinely raped by male prison guards.

Never do we hear of female guards sexually assaulting male prisoners. Yet, female prisoners are raped by male guards daily. In fact, being a prison guard is an ideal job for any rapist. What could be more vulnerable than a woman in a cage to a man who holds the key? What could be better than earning a salary and benefits for your lechery?

Medical care in most American prisons is so horrific that it undeniably constitutes torture. Women generally require more medical attention than men. Our organs are more complex and sensitive to stress. Yet, penal medical care is far worse or nonexistent for women than it is for men.

The biological warfare of AIDS has intensified medical torture. Also, poverty and drug addictions are crimes. All combine to ensure a steady pool of miserable and meek prison laborers.

As poverty by design increases, so does survival by defiance. Those who are starving will eat by any means necessary. Those who cannot work to buy, will scheme to steal. The welfare bill is fueling abject poverty at a frenzied pace.

Stress-releasing casual sex is on the rise. Fatal sexually transmitted diseases escalate nationwide. The crime bill is selectively creating throngs of poor, black, and female felons. Female prison labor pools are overflowing.

In the midst of all this misery, prison stock is booming for neocon investors. While racist politicians lie about genocidal cocaine laws and CIA drug dealers, the prison cages keep closing on our sisters. 

The Beast has a belly full of "belly warmers"; a vulgar term coined by slave catchers to describe the African women they raped as cargo during chilly nights at sea. This term is hauntingly prophetic as the icy winds of the New World Order blow record numbers of sisters into the iron bellies of The Beast.

EVERY ONE OF US CAN DO SOMETHING TO LESSEN THE MISERY OF THOSE WHO ARE IMPRISONED. Please find some time to do at least one of the following, as soon as you possibly can:

Volunteer your services to any prison outreach organization. There are many of them. They all desperately need your help. Check your local directories. Or, call one of these in my area for a reference in your own area:

  • CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR WOMEN PRISONERS

    • 100 McAllister 
    San Francisco, CA 94102 
    415-255-7036 (extension 313) 
     
  • LEGAL SERVICES FOR WOMEN PRISONERS

    • 100 McAllister 
    San Francisco, CA 94102 
    415-255-7036 (extension 312) 

  • FRIENDS OUTSIDE-OAKLAND

    • 1212 Broadway # 830 
    Oakland, Caifornia 94612 
     
  • CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS

    • 714 West California Blvd. 
    Pasadena, California  91105

  • FAMILIES WITH A FUTURE

    • 301 Henry St. 
    Berkeley, California  94709 
    510-527-9524 
     
  • HIV/AIDS IN PRISON PROJECT

    • 433 Jefferson St. 
    Oakland, California 94607 
     
  • EQUAL JUSTICE USA -WEST

    • 558 Capp St. 
    San Francisco, California  94110 


    Write a long letter, buy a card, clip an interesting newspaper article, print a magazine feature or web page and send it to a prisoner. They are not all psycho demons as films portray. 

    Prisoners are our extended family. They are everyday people who fell into the pathological pitfalls of poverty/crime. They deserve your empathy.


    Visit someone in prison. Sponsor a formal event inside a prison to educate or cheer those who are caged. Prisons are being designed to increase brutality daily. Soon, all visitors may be outlawed. So, visit now, while you still can.


    DEMAND AMNESTY FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!!! Geronimo Ji Jaga left HUNDREDS of  framed fellow warriors behind. HUNDREDS more are in exile like shero Assata Shakur. 


    Organize and protest our fascist and racist government's enforcement of COINTELPRO, which retroactively, covertly, and unapologetically continues to murder our revolutionary rebels!!!


    Send a gift to someone in prison. Send them a postal money order. Simple basic necessities and pleasures like toiletries and candy can be purchased in prison. Such simple and small items can make such huge differences in levels of isolation and depression.


    Most churches are gaudy shrines/pseudo-christian club houses. Make your own church a superior exception to that rule. Urge your pastor to ask each member of your congregation to adopt a prisoner. Every church is near a prison. Every prisoner is a sibling in the family of God.


    The New World Order is in progress. Poverty is escalating by design. Martial law is intensifying by decree. When you are imprisoned, you will understand the horrors of incarceration, and empathize belatedly with the hell that so many of our sisters now endure... 
     


    Jul 10, 2010 12:47:13 PM

    18 Comments

    Cryin' for the Dyin'




    Hello..Yesterday I was reviewing some other writers..and poets..anyway I discovered that 'a writer's greatest vice is narcissism'..I also discovered that is true for me..I love the sound of my own voice..it is in my genes..and everyone else's..a little humor in this hard ol' world..Peace Tony

    Posted by: Cryin' for the Dyin' | 07/14/2010 at 04:26 PM

    ALICIA BANKS

    i love your voice no matter what!

    i missed u...thanks!

    Posted by: ALICIA BANKS | 07/16/2010 at 04:13 PM

    Cryin' for the Dyin'




    It's a pleasure..Peace Tony

    Posted by: Cryin' for the Dyin' | 07/16/2010 at 04:31 PM

    ALICIA BANKS

    STOP THIS TORTURE OF WOMEN!!
    via: Diana Block------------------
    From Legal Services for Prisoners With Children:

    Shawanna Lumsey lives in Arkansas and was pregnant while in prison there.
    She gave birth in shackles and sued the state and won.  This was a really
    important lawsuit stating that shackling people during labor is
    unconstitutional.  The state appealed and this week lost the appeal.  In
    the meantime, Shawanna got a job where they didn't ask for her criminal
    background.  There was publicity about her lawsuit this week and she was
    immediately fired.

    Below is her statement...

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I am very grateful to all of the support that each and every one gave me
    in support of the Lawsuit about the shackles.  I live this traumatizing
    event over and over of the childbirth of my son.  I am very clear on the
    details because this is an experience that I will never forget. I
    thank-you from the bottom of my heart for every kind word and every
    heartfelt expression that was personally given to me.  This issue was not
    only about me it was about every woman that had to go through the same
    traumatic experience that I encountered.


    On the other had, the termination of my job-that really wasn't a big
    shocker to me! Considering the fact that our state considers that it is
    "OK" to put women in shackles during labor. It is so amazing that until
    someone finds out about my criminial past, it is so upsetting to them
    because they feel I am not deserving of anything. It is really no
    difference to my job that I have fought every barrier and defeated every
    obstacle to reform into a positive fate in society.  Instead, I have been
    ridiculed, fought against, kicked down, beat up, and whatever else you
    want to call it just by trying to accomplish the mission of the
    Corrections Institution mission to Correct my negative behavior. Here I am
    getting up going to work every day performing with my team the best of my
    knowledge and abilities and I still get terminated because of something
    that happened in my past.  I realize that there are consequences that will
    always follow me because of my criminal history. How in the world is a
    person allowed an opportunity  to reform back into society-without the
    risk of society having such a negative attitude towards them. Society
    deems that I an "not worthy" or do not deserve to have a "good job"
    because I was ONCE incarcerated. All of the money that the federal
    government has allocated for re-entry has an important missing component,
    that is  training the employers not to be bias against the former
    convicted felon." But, I am going to keep my head held high and move on.
    God has not put me through all of this turmoil without something great
    happening in the end!
    ==========

    Difficult Births: Laboring And Delivering In Shackles


    by Andrea Hsu
    July 16, 2010


    Andrea Hsu/NPR Jennifer Farrar gave birth to her daughter, Breanna, in January 2009. She says she labored with her feet shackled together, and delivered with one hand cuffed to the bed.


    It's a practice so hidden, many don't realize it exists: the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth.

    Across the U.S., there are stories of women going from jails or prisons to hospitals, where they labor and sometimes even deliver while restrained with handcuffs, leg shackles or both.

    In recent years, a growing number of states have moved to ban the practice. Ten states now have anti-shackling legislation: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont,Washington, West Virginia — and as of two weeks ago, Pennsylvania.

    There have also been lawsuits in a number of states. On Thursday, a jury in rural Arkansas found that a guard had violated the constitutional rights of a woman by shackling her while she was in labor, though they awarded her just $1. In May, a shackling case was settled in Washington state for $125,000. And in Illinois, there's a class action lawsuit against Cook County and its sheriff, Tom Dart. 

    Legs Chained, Handcuffed To The Bed

    Chicago attorneys Tom Morrissey and Ken Flaxman believe there could be as many as 100 to 150 women included in the class action suit, with cases dating back to late 2006. They're seeking an end to the shackling of inmates during childbirth, and compensation for their clients, including Jennifer Farrar, 25.


    Here I am, a mother giving birth. It should be a happy time in my life. I know that I did something wrong, and you have to take the responsibility for what you do. But it wasn't like I was a murderer.



    - Jennifer Farrar


    In November 2008, Farrar was arrested for cashing fake payroll checks. She was charged with forgery, and booked into the Cook County Jail, a sprawling complex on the southwest side of Chicago, and one of the largest jails in the country. She was almost seven months pregnant at the time.

    One day the following January, Farrar went to court for a hearing, and there the pains began. An ambulance was called. Farrar says officers cuffed her hands and chained her legs together. Another chain was placed around her belly, connecting her hands to her feet. When she got to the hospital, she says, the belly chain was removed, but her legs were still chained, and one hand was cuffed to the bed.

    "The doctor and the nurse," Farrar says, "they were telling the officer, is this necessary, you know? Where is she going to go? She's in labor you know."

    She says she remained that way for eight or nine hours, until it came time to push. At that point, thecorrectional officer unlocked the leg restraints, but left one arm cuffed to the bed. An hour later, Jennifer Farrar delivered her baby girl.

    "Here I am, a mother giving birth," Farrar says. "It should be a happy time in my life. I know that I did something wrong, and you have to take the responsibility for what you do. But it wasn't like I was a murderer."

    "Tantamount To Torture"

    Another plaintiff, Cora Fletcher, was 17 years old in 2006 when she was charged with retail theft. A year later, she missed a court date, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. A year after that, officers showed up at her house, and took her in when she was eight months pregnant.


    It was difficult to try to have a baby like that. Especially by this being my first baby. It was so painful ... and you can't move around like how you want to.



    - Cora Fletcher


    A couple weeks later, in a prenatal checkup at the jail, it was discovered that Fletcher's baby had no heartbeat. She was taken to the county hospital, where her arms and her legs were shackled to opposite sides of the bed.

    Doctors tried to induce her, but it wasn't until three days later that she went into labor. Even then, Fletcher says, she was left with one hand and one leg shackled to the bed. "It was difficult to try to have a baby like that," Fletcher says. "Especially by this being my first baby. It was so painful ... and you can't move around like how you want to."

    After delivering her stillborn child, Fletcher was allowed to hold the baby for 20 minutes.

    Gail Smith, executive director of the group Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers, has worked in Illinois jails and prisons for 25 years and says shackling female inmates during labor is tantamount to torture. "I think that there is a general attitude on the part of some people that they don't deserve to be treated with full human rights," Smith says. "And I find that appalling."

    Growth In Female Inmates

    The U.S. female prison population has grown eightfold since 1977, according to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Approximately two-thirds are in for nonviolent offenses. And yet, says Malika Saada Saar of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, departments of corrections have not put enough thought into how treatment for women should be different from that for men.

    "If a man behind bars has a broken arm, or needs to have his appendix taken out, that individual is put into restraints, into shackles during medical transport," Saada Saar says. "So essentially what is done for those men has been extended to women. And part of what's different is that we have babies."

    Labor is the crux of the issue, says Steve Patterson, spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff's Office. "A correctional officer working on a tier on the midnight shift, or any other shift, is not trained to know when a woman is in labor or not," Patterson says. 

    States Prohibit Shackles On Pregnant Women

    Ten states now have anti-shackling legislation: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia — and as of two weeks ago, Pennsylvania.


    Illinois, which passed anti-shackling legislation in 1999, requires that "when a pregnant female prisoner is brought to a hospital from a county jail for the purpose of delivering her baby, no handcuffs, shackles, or restraints of any kind may be used during her transport to a medical facility for the purpose of delivering her baby. Under no circumstances may leg irons or shackles or waist shackles be used on any pregnant female prisoner who is in labor."


    In June 2010, the American Medical Association House of Delegates voted to develop model state legislation prohibiting the use of shackles on pregnant women.


    The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has testified that physical restraints have "made the labor and delivery process more difficult than it needs to be; thus overall putting the health and lives of the women and unborn children at risk."

    —Andrea Hsu

    Therefore, he says, correctional officers rely on medical personnel, either at the jail or at an outside hospital, to make the determination. Only when labor has been determined are all restraints removed. Patterson says that policy is consistent with state law and is necessary in a public hospital.

    "We have to bring inmates to the same area that the general public comes to," Patterson says. "So, if you're laying in hospital bed, and in the next hospital bed is a woman who's in on a double murder charge, because she's pregnant she shouldn't be handcuffed to the side of the bed — I think if you're the person laying in bed next to her you might disagree."

    Patterson says in 1998, a pregnant inmate did escape during a medical visit. She was caught just off the hospital grounds. He knows of no escape attempts by pregnant inmates since 1999.

    Leg Irons, Belly Chains And Handcuffs

    No one is sure just how many incarcerated women give birth each year; Saada Saar estimates it to be about 1,300. Nor does anyone know how widespread shackling is.

    Ginette Ferszt, associate professor and psychiatric clinical nurse specialist from the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing, recently conducted a survey of state prisons to learn more about what practices are in place for pregnant inmates.

    She and a physician at the Rhode Island Women's State Correctional Facility sent out questionnaires to wardens in all 50 states. The wardens were promised anonymity, and 19 replied. The survey asked about many issues related to pregnancy, including prenatal care, nutritional needs and shackling.

    Ferszt says she was quite surprised to find that two facilities continue to use leg irons, belly chains and handcuffs during transport to prenatal visits. 

    She also learned that among the 19 prisons that responded, six of them cuff either a woman's hands or her ankle when labor begins. During the delivery of the baby, one prison says that handcuffs stay on, and four reported back that an ankle shackle remains on.

    While disturbed by the findings, Ferszt did find hope in conversations with two wardens, when she realized their shackling policies weren't something they'd thought much about.

    "For many rules and policies whether for women or men, they've existed for them a long time," Ferszt says. "It hadn't really occurred to these two wardens that this could potentially be a health problem, a health issue."

    She says the two wardens have since said they'll sit down and make changes.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128563037 

    Posted by: ALICIA BANKS | 07/20/2010 at 04:59 PM

    ALICIA BANKS




    Thursday · 10:00pm - 11:00pm










    Location http:// href="http://www.harambeeradio.com/" rel="nofollow" style="line-height: 1.2em; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; " target="_blank">www.HarambeeRadio.com 

















    Kemba Smith & the Crack Cocaine Disparity Saga
    Thursday, July 29
    10 pm (eastern time)
    www.HarambeeRadio.com
    click on "listen live"




    ...





    Host Nkechi Taifa interviews Kemba Smith, who was sentenced to 24 1/2 years in prison under the crack cocaine conspiracy laws. Kemba grew up as a protected, only child to professional parents, graduated high school and continued her education at Hampton University. She associated with the wrong crowd and became romantically involved with who she later discovered was a major figure in a crack cocaine drug ring, enduring physical, mental and emotional abuse. 

    In 1994 Kemba received a mandatory minimum sentence of 2.5 years, even though the prosecutor and judge admitted that she neither used nor handled any drugs. That's about four years more than the average state sentence for murder, at least 15 more years than the average state sentences for sexual assault, aggravated assault and robbery. Kemba will talk about the laws which required that she, as a non-violent, first time offender, receive such a draconian sentence. 

    Kemba's Story made headlines when it was featured on the cover of then Emerge Magazine, and she was granted clemency in 2000, after her case drew widespread support. 

    She is currently a wife, mother, advocate, consultant and public speaker, recently receiving Indiana Black Expo's Humanitarian Award. 

    Join us this Thursday at 10 pm for another riveting Legacy Justice Radio Show as we roc the mic with Kemba's Story and also provide updates to where we are with the long-standing crack cocaine disparity saga and what you can do to help bring justice to sentencing laws.

    Posted by: ALICIA BANKS | 07/27/2010 at 04:53 PM

    ALICIA BANKS




    PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR BEAUTIFUL SISTA MAIA CAMPBELL:
    http://sandrarose.com/2010/08/fanmail-maia-campbell-was-once-just-like-you/

    Posted by: ALICIA BANKS | 08/09/2010 at 01:09 PM

    The comments to this entry are closed.

    NEXT POST
    THE WHITENING OF AMERICA'S UNIVERSITIES & COLLEGES - PROP 209 IN 2010 {2010 - Hobama's New World Order has whitened American academia. Black faculty posts and Black Studies Departments are being axed. Tuition is more expensive than ever. Blacks are poorer than ever. "Post- racial" America becomes more rabidly racist daily...The following columns are reprinted due to the timely racism that is...
    PREVIOUS POST
    STINGING RACIST SLANDER = "AFRICANIZED" BEES!!! {2010 - Racist myths about fatal bee attacks have returned to headline news....Shame!!!} 1996 Racism is rampant in America. Everywhere. Even in the propaganda about “killer bees”. In 1957, scientists (crazed by capitalism) decided to cross breed energetic and docile African bees with European bees, to increase honey production, pollination,...

    ALICIA BANKS

    The Typepad Team

    Search

    My Other Accounts

    Recent Comments