Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike: "Repression Breeds Resistance"

Democracy Now! - democracynow.org -
At least four prisons in Georgia remain in lockdown five days after prisoners went on strike in protest of poor living and working conditions. Using cell phones purchased from guards, the prisoners coordinated the nonviolent protests to stage the largest prison strike in U.S. history. There are reports of widespread violence and brutality by the guards against the prisoners on strike. Democracy Now! speaks to longtime prison activist Elaine Brown of the newly formed group Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners' Rights.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• elaine brown
• geogia
• prison
• strike
• lockdown
• prison industrial complex
• racism
• poverty
• democracy now
• amy goodman

[selenaclarke]

Jails in their current form are outmoded now. We need a better way. If you treat anyone like a caged animal amongst fear, boredom, degradation the person will only come out as a worse human being.

[cazcadejewellz11]

these fools could give a fuck about better education for reform i work there i see for myself they got the world fooled on this sympathy shit. Tell this bullshit to the victims these inmates have touched. they are two to a room they are not gonna hav a cell to themselves. During this great time of economic down fall the state doesn't have the money to feed these inmates steak and lobster and hell no there not gonna get paid they are reapying there debt to society. fuck you lady you are blind.

[YGK2012]

@zwartepiet412 where else do you fight racial inequality? Blacks make up about 13% of the country yet they are they have the highest percentage of people in jail. Besides that, how else do you expect to lower overall crime? We must look to the society if we want to eliminate most of the crime in the country. Poverty does alot to increase crime, REDUCE poverty and you REDUCE crime.

[f1ref1ghter10]

they dont work, thats fine.... they cook the food for all the inmates, they dont work, they dont eat. thats fine by me. they dont clean, they live in filth, fine by me. correctional officers aint going to do the work for tham. they are inmates, they dont deserve to get paid. they are inmates, they have no constitutional rights. the rights they have, are the rights the officers tell them they have, thats it. 

[HaydukeIsAlive]

The issue is not unjust sympathy toward convicted felons, its effective reform. Education opportunities are the number one best way to achieve reform.

Also it needs to be understood that we are talking about the prison INDUSTRY. That means this is a lucrative business. Crime has become commodified. This is why new immigration laws in AZ came to exist. The incentive to incarcerate people has nothing to do with justice and safety anymore, it has to do with making money of the free labor.

[vjackso4]

Not everyone in prison s guilty some just couldnt afford a defense team. There are many ppl in prison because of crimes they comitted, but there are some in prison who has been there since the age of 17 for a crime they hadnt comitted but didnt have the family or defense to back them.

[zwartepiet412]

newsflash: being in prison sucks. if you dont like the living conditions in jail dont do things that put you in jail.. elaine brown is exploiting this so-called 'issue' to advance her own agenda of fighting racial inequality. i dont have a problem with fighting racial inequality but dont sit there playing a violin for convicted felons, ok?!

[sHiNsAiKo]

Ppl need to start waking up and fuck those rich fat ppl and make it equal to everyone.

[sHiNsAiKo]

@pochiegirl1 lol...get out.

[pochiegirl1]

this is all about gangs wanting to take over the prisons, they are stabing each other every day, pay for work, you the tax payer do you want to pay inmates to clean their rooms and fix there own rooms..lets get real