There are 2.3 million people in U.S. prisons and jails, and 67% of those are people of color. Many are there as a result of widespread prosecutorial misconduct.
Episode 26 is the first of a two-part webinar examining this issue. Joining us is Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Mississippi who spent 23 years fighting for his freedom because of a racist prosecution. His disturbing story was covered in depth in season 2 of the popular podcast, “In the Dark.”

Joining him will be Alan Bean, Executive Director of Friends of Justice, which advocated to free Flowers for more than 12 years.

Finally, Jeffrey Deskovic, another exoneree, attorney, and founder of the Deskovic Foundation will speak about efforts to end prosecutorial misconduct and how to get involved.

Moderated by CCF Chair of the BOD Steve Downs. Register on Zoom http://bit.ly/curtisflowers or watch live on Facebook on Friday, March 5, at 2:30 PM EST at http://www.facebook.com/civilfreedoms/live

Our friends at Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar collective have released their March 2021 Prison Break column on It’s Going Down. See a preview below and check out the full article here.

Though a short month, much indeed went down in February. We mourn the passing of activist and musician Anne Feeney as well as former Chicago 7 defendant Rennie Davis, both of whom fought tirelessly to create a better world. In early February, detainees at the St. Louis “Justice Center” took control of the facility for several hours, while reports emerged of officers at a jail in Oregon pepper-spraying prisoners who were being isolated for possible COVID-19 exposure. It was revealed in early February that political prisoner Bill Dunne had contracted COVID-19, and in the last days of February it was publicized that Mumia Abu-Jamal has also contracted the virus. Meanwhile, the crisis in Texas prisons and jails—and in Connecticut—continues to deteriorate, with important and tragic details here and here.

Can you feel the heat rising?  

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire 

Eyes in the scope 

Watching from the guard tower 

Taking back our lives 

Seems like the time is now 

Do you think they can feel the tides 

Shifting on the ground? 

Do you think they can hear 

As our voices got louder? 

Alarm bells sing 

We’re not ready to disperse 

Despite what they preach 

They’re not ready for the worst 

Hit em’ in the wallet  

Hit em’ where it hurts 

Hear the people chanting  

No justice in the courts 

We’re rocking in the streets 

On our way to the feast 

Time to hold steady 

Strapping on our cleats 

Policing is a disease 

And we are the vaccine 

They’ve got too much blood on their hands 

And they wont come clean 

More via supportericking.org

URGENT! Please call these 4 phone numbers now, and tell them: The prison must immediately test Mumia Abu-Jamal, and provide him with treatment, monitoring of his oxygen levels, and hospitalization if his oxygen falls below safe levels. 

Superintendent SCI Mahanoy, Bernadette Mason: 
(570) 773-2058

SCI Mahanoy Prison: 
(570) 773-2158

PA DOC Secretary, John Wetzel: 
(717) 728-2573

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner: 
(267) 456-1000

Alert released today by Prison Radio:

Yesterday Mumia Abu-Jamal called from his cell block at SCI Mahanoy, reaching Pam Africa , and letting all of us know that he is seriously ill. He has had difficulty breathing and chest pain, symptoms of COVID. We will continue to closely monitor his health, and provide updates. 

At a demonstration this afternoon, his grandson spoke: 
“We have to each one teach one, and we when we teach one we teach more.  They are trying to bury my grandfather… freedom is the only solution in Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case’.  They have have built careers off of trying to convict and kill Mumia Abu-Jamal.  I need Larry Krasner to do what he was elected to do, give Mumia a fair trial, and let the evidence be heard in court.  We have to shout from the roof tops.”  

As a survivor of chronic hepatitis C, and medical neglect, Mumia Abu-Jamal is an elder and at a heightened risk for serious complications.  

The prison must immediately test Mumia Abu-Jamal, and it must provide him with treatment, monitoring of his oxygen levels, and hospitalization if his oxygen falls below safe levels.  

Every action matters.  It is time for our political prisoners and elders to return home to their families. 

Don’t forget to write political prisoners a letter (or card) on their birthdays.
Today is Oso Blanco’s (Byron Chubbuck) birthday.

Today is political prisoner Oso Blanco’s 54th birthday. Oso Blanco has an incredible story, and is a prolific writer, so write to him and show your solidarity. #FreeOsoBlanco
https://freeosoblanco.blogspot.com/

Byron Chubbuck, #07909-051
USP Victorville
PO Box 3900
Adelanto, CA 92301
*Address letter to Oso Blanco

More Political Prisoner birthdays are on NYC ABC‘s excellent calendar page at
https://nycabc.wordpress.com/pppow-birthday-calendar/

New Massachusetts Rules Would Eliminate Handwritten Letters in Prison by Ella Fassler, Truthout.

“Paper mail is precious,” Black and Pink Massachusetts Communications and Outreach Coordinator Elijah Patterson testified on February 4 against rules proposed by the Massachusetts Department of Correction (MADOC). The rules would, if approved, formally substitute physical mail for an electronic, scanned copy or photocopy through a third-party vendor.

“It means so much to me to touch the same paper as people suffering in prisons, and when I trace my hand and they place theirs over it, it means a lot for them, too. In that moment, we are together,” Patterson said during the Zoom hearing.

Prison mail serves as a primary lifeline between the two worlds separated by barbed-wired walls and guard towers. Handwritten letters, oftentimes made special by imperfections or a doodle, are cherished and highly anticipated by many incarcerated people, particularly in the era of pandemic-inspired visitation bans.

More via https://truthout.org/articles/new-massachusetts-rules-would-eliminate-handwritten-letters-in-prison/

Sign petition for Mumia Abu-Jamal at https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/to-da-krasner-stop-defending-mumia-abu-jamal-s-conviction

“We, the signers of this petition, declare:

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 1982 conviction is a travesty of justice, obtained through a combination of police, prosecutorial, and judicial misconduct, as documented by Amnesty International. Abu-Jamal has suffered from extreme injustice at all levels of the criminal justice system. These numerous improprieties have tainted Abu-Jamal’s conviction beyond repair.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is currently represented by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. We the petitioners are not his lawyers and do not speak for them. Instead, we are the grassroots movement of people united by the fact that we care about the fate of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

We are outraged by the many different ways that racism and institutionalized white supremacy have irreparably harmed Mumia Abu-Jamal’s civil and human rights, and his rights to the fair adjudication of his case. The District Attorney’s continued defense of the 1982 conviction & subsequent appeals process only affirms the longstanding racial injustice that has marred this case.”

Read the rest and sign at https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/to-da-krasner-stop-defending-mumia-abu-jamal-s-conviction

A pilot program initiated under Trump converts mail to electronic scans. Biden hasn’t reversed it, and critics call it abusive and harmful to inmates and families.

In his first-week blitz of executive actions, Joe Biden directed the Justice Department to not renew federal contracts with the private prison industry. “[W]e must reduce profit-based incentives to incarcerate by phasing out the Federal Government’s reliance on privately operated criminal detention facilities,” the order stated.

But the profit motive will still exist in the federal prison system, even after private prison operations contracts are exhausted. Food, medicine, telecommunications, banking, and practically every other service for incarcerated people are almost entirely privatized, through a network of subcontractors. Critics charge that these contractors prioritize their own balance sheets over the well-being of prisoners and their families, and that the services they provide are often exploitative, of low quality, and infringe on inmates’ civil rights.

One such contractor is poised to gain control of the means by which people communicate with those in the federal prison system. A company called Smart Communications has an exclusive pilot program with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) called MailGuard, which eliminates nonlegal physical mail in federal prison facilities and transfers it to either crude paper printouts or electronic files accessed through tablets or kiosks.

Read more at
https://prospect.org/justice/physical-mail-could-be-eliminated-at-federal-prisons/

“Here’s the latest compilation of every other week updates:
https://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/updates-23-feb-2021.pdf

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support
crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of
war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner,
please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to
have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies
sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady
contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

Free ’em all,
NYC ABC”