CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–February 6, 2017 — A solidarity letter is being circulated by supporters of inmates who organized a protest at Vaughn, a maximum security prison in Delaware, notorious for overcrowding and overuse of solitary confinement. The protest, being called the “Vaughn Rebellionâ€, ended with a police raid and the death of a corrections officer and an inmate. The letter is directed to family members, attorneys, the Delaware Department of Corrections and Warden David Pierce. Supporters are demanding a public investigation of conditions at Vaughn and inmate demands. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/vaughn-prison-hostage-attica-uprising/
Letter of Solidarity:
To the people incarcerated at Vaughn Correctional facility, we stand with you. We hear your demand for education and therapeutic programs, as well as more humane conditions, and we are here to help amplify that demand. We hear that you, like people protesting around the country, expect life under President Trump will only bring more suffering and reduced access to resources, and we believe you.
You, like women and men in over 29 facilities last year, are making demands for basic human rights, which must not be denied to you because you have been incarcerated. We know those rights are violated every day through extreme overcrowding, inadequate food and programming, and the use of solitary confinement. We understand that your actions are in solidarity with one another and all prisoners, and by extension the communities from which you were taken, which are impacted by disproportionate arrest rates, police brutality and targeted disinvestment strategies that continue to plague your families.
We also know that any attempt at organized resistance, no matter how peaceful, is met with violence by prison officials. When incarcerated women collectively demand things as basic as hygiene products, they are thrown into solitary. We know that escalation most often comes from the prison officials, and that this sometimes results in grave injury or even death, and always in the harshest conditions of segregation. We know that you do not take lightly the death of the corrections officer that occurred during what is being called the Vaughn Rebellion, just as you do not take lightly the illness, injury and death suffered by inmates who have very little access to healthcare or medical treatment. We know that you are also feeling the loss of the 58 year old fellow inmate who died in what the prison is reporting as an unrelated incident; we know this circumstance relates directly to your demands. Incarceration is violent, and those who endorse it cannot be surprised when it also harms those who labor there. Incarceration is violence, a reality from which no one can be safe.
We will join with you and others to amplify and add to those demands. We demand a public investigation into the circumstances being described as the Vaughn Rebellion, including an investigation of the conditions you described, and the need for more programs and access to education resources. We demand a return of personal property and privileges, pending the conclusion of a full investigation and a public statement released to media about how the prison intends to respond to the conditions issues raised during your action, by your collective refusal to do nothing in the face of violence.
Again, we are saddened at the loss of life and send our condolences to both families. We also stand with your loved ones, who are always in some way locked up with you. Until all live in freedom, cages will mar our humanity, make us prisoners to the harm we allow.
In Solidarity,
Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration
Uptown People’s Law Center
Project NIA
A Just Harvest
Support Ho(s)e
96 Acres
Source: https://www.facebook.com/Moms-United-Against-Violence-and-Incarceration-282859508528500/
