Category Archives: Prisoners

Imagine being in solitary isolation twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Imagine no telephone calls. Imagine limited visits with loved ones. Imagine the few visits that are allowed to take place happening with no physical contact. Imagine the … Continue reading →

COMPILED BY THE PRISON ACTIVIST RESOURCE CENTER. For other Political Prisoner/POW-related resources, go to our political prisoner page. The list is alphabetical. And as of February 2005, there are so many names that we have split off onto separate pages … Continue reading →

ON NOVEMBER 3, 2007, a conference in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois brought together 88 participants from 29 different prison book projects across the country. A similar event of this kind has not taken place since a 2002 conference in Philadelphia. Participants shared … Continue reading →

Many are now familiar with the infamous story of Sergeant Jon Burge in Chicago. In 2002, it was found that Sgt. Burge and his underlings had tortured over 150 Black men in Chicago jails. Burge had used a hand-cranked army … Continue reading →

Recent events have convinced me that the justice system in Champaign County is skewed against the African American population and should be more properly referred to as an injustice system. There have been excessive charges against blacks, retaliatory prosecution and … Continue reading →

With the death of Quentin Larry on May 28, now five inmates have died in the Champaign County Jail over a three year period. Individuals should not die in police custody – even if they are drug addicts. Citizens must … Continue reading →

The Alderson Federal Prison Camp i n West Vi rginia looks to have solved the problemthat has beset modern penal policy for hundreds of years: recidivism. Its progressive plan of image rehabilitation has now set free a series of media … Continue reading →

While news of police mistreatment in African-American communities is nothing new in the post-Rodney King era, what is new is the nation-wide organizing against it. From Los Angeles to New York, Chicago to Champaign—grass roots organizations have come together to … Continue reading →

While American politicians repeatedly throw around words like ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation’ as cornerstones of their policies, approximately 1.4 million inmates sit in U.S. prisons. Why is this? Why does America have so many jails? One might be tempted to respond … Continue reading →

• The prison-industrial-complex has expanded dramatically over the last generation, becoming one of the fastest growth industries in the United States of America; housing over 2 million prisoners and supervising almost 5 million parolees and probationers, America’s prison systems controls … Continue reading →

Why do I care about convicts? Why do I care about our injustice system? “There but for the grace of God go I.” Being a recovering addict and having community with similar others, I know so many people who today … Continue reading →

On Nov. 20, I was among thousands of people gathered in Miami, Florida to protest negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Estimates range from 5,000 to 20,000, but it is clear that however many people were … Continue reading →