#prison-strike — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #prison-strike, aggregated by home.social.
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Robert Maudsley: A Half-Century Behind Bars, Now on Hunger Strike
Robert Maudsley, jailed for 49 years, is on a hunger strike in Feb 2025. Prison took his TV, PlayStation, and books. His brother is worried.
#RobertMaudsley, #PrisonStrike, #WakefieldPrison, #InmateRights, #HungerStrike
https://newsletter.tf/robert-maudsley-hunger-strike-feb-2025-tv-taken/
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Robert Maudsley, 71, has spent nearly 50 years in prison. He started a hunger strike in February 2025 after prison guards took his TV and games.
#RobertMaudsley, #PrisonStrike, #WakefieldPrison, #InmateRights, #HungerStrike
https://newsletter.tf/robert-maudsley-hunger-strike-feb-2025-tv-taken/ -
... general strike to end prison slavery. Incarcerated workers earn an average of $0.86 per day, making products for megacorps like Target and Walmart ...#13thamendment #8thamendment #ADOC #Alabama #bullockcorrectionalfacility #freealabamamovement #hungerstrike #iwoc #jailhouselawyersspeak #kennethtraywick #prison #prisonstrike #reducerecidivism #SwiftJustice #unheardvoiceoftheconcretejungle
Behind the Hunger Strike: Swift Justice Continues Fight for ‘Prisoners’ Rights’ - UNICORN RIOT -
"We Are Striking a Blow at the State:" The Alabama Prisoners Work Strike
"We see work strikes as a weapon to be used to hit 'em where it hurts. There are many different strategies and tactics that prison rebels use, and work stoppages are just one of them. We organize around the knowledge that prison is slavery and super-exploitation of our labor power. Work stoppages are often violent due to the arena and conditions that prisoners are forced to maneuver in.
Prisons are, by nature, violent places. The guards are armed to the teeth with pepper spray, batons, sticks, knives, handcuffs, gas, and guns, and they use extreme violence as a mechanism of control. Moreover, organizers of work stoppages must navigate the different groups: gangs, shot-callers, influencers, and dope boys—and believe me, each of them has their own agendas."
#FreeMichaelKimble #AnarchistPrisoner #Alabama #PrisonStrike
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"We Are Striking a Blow at the State:" The Alabama Prisoners Work Strike
"We see work strikes as a weapon to be used to hit 'em where it hurts. There are many different strategies and tactics that prison rebels use, and work stoppages are just one of them. We organize around the knowledge that prison is slavery and super-exploitation of our labor power. Work stoppages are often violent due to the arena and conditions that prisoners are forced to maneuver in.
Prisons are, by nature, violent places. The guards are armed to the teeth with pepper spray, batons, sticks, knives, handcuffs, gas, and guns, and they use extreme violence as a mechanism of control. Moreover, organizers of work stoppages must navigate the different groups: gangs, shot-callers, influencers, and dope boys—and believe me, each of them has their own agendas."
#FreeMichaelKimble #AnarchistPrisoner #Alabama #PrisonStrike
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“We Are Striking a Blow at the State:” The Alabama Prisoners Work Strike
by Michael Kimble February 24, 2026When prisoners rebel and demand to be treated as human beings, we are not just fighting inhumane living conditions and shitty food. We are striking a blow at the state, which maintains the situation of slavery and super-exploitation—by which each of us are robbed of the fruits of our labor every day.
Work strikes or “shutdowns,” as we like to call them down here in Alabama, are also geared toward consciousness-raising of prisoners as an oppressed class; and by refusing to work for free (which is slavery), we are asserting our power as workers and as human beings, thereby challenging the view that prisoner labor is free and exploitable.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made slavery and involuntary servitude illegal unless one has been duly convicted of a crime and ratified by Congress on December 6, 1865, which merely removed the ownership of slaves from the province of the individual citizen to that of the state, which then became the sole owner of other human beings (or slaves).
Alabama was the last state in the South to end convict leasing in 1928. Before ending convict leasing, the state hired out prisoner labor to the lumber yards, mines, and cotton mills. In 1883, about 10 percent of Alabama’s total revenue came from convict leasing. In 1898, almost 73 percent. In 1922-1926, net profits from leasing and state-run mines exceeded $3 million.
In order to continue to exploit Black prisoner labor and profit from it, Thomas E. Kilby, the governor of Alabama, ordered the construction of the Kilby prison and even named it after himself. This new prison was to be the most advanced prison in the South, with the exception of the federal prison in Atlanta, styled as an industrial prison.
It was intended to house prisoners from the lumber yards, mines, and cotton mills, which would all eventually be moved inside the prison itself. The prisoners manufactured cotton to make shirts that would then be sold on the market.
Just as slaves in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries challenged their dehumanization and exploitation via work stoppages and slowdowns, letting the crops rot in the fields, so too do prisoners in this day and time. Alabama has a long history of shutting shit down! In the 1970s, we had Inmates for Action (IFA), which organized a number of work stoppages to demand an improvement to their conditions.
We see work strikes as a weapon to be used to hit ’em where it hurts. There are many different strategies and tactics that prison rebels use, and work stoppages are just one of them. We organize around the knowledge that prison is slavery and super-exploitation of our labor power. Work stoppages are often violent due to the arena and conditions that prisoners are forced to maneuver in.
Prisons are, by nature, violent places. The guards are armed to the teeth with pepper spray, batons, sticks, knives, handcuffs, gas, and guns, and they use extreme violence as a mechanism of control. Moreover, organizers of work stoppages must navigate the different groups: gangs, shot-callers, influencers, and dope boys—and believe me, each of them has their own agendas.
Alabama has a long history of shutting shit down!
You have to get past the “pig thinking” in some of these guys who see any challenge to their captors as merely a provocation for the guards, riot squads, and CERT teams to search and confiscate their cell phones, drugs, and weapons—and to incite further harassment and beatings.
That’s how they ultimately control prisoners: through their fear of losing something. And it can get violent for those who attempt to break the strike and report to their slave jobs. These people are regarded as strike-breakers (scabs), and rightfully so.
For those out there in minimum custody, you can play a part by doing what’s in your capacity to do. You can make donations and phone calls demanding that slavery, the death penalty, and life without the possibility of parole be abolished. You can take to the streets. Or you can get creative and do what the George Jackson Brigades did in the mid-1970s in support of striking prisoners.
Check out the radical histories in the U.S. and you just may find yourself. Here in Alabama prisons, we are going on a work strike starting February 8, 2026, to protest forced labor (slavery), the Habitual Offender Act (three strikes law), Life Without the Possibility of Parole, and ultimately call for the total abolition of the system of caging people.
We are exercising our agency and our right to fight back. What’s wrong with that?
Donate to Michael Kimble here.
Follow Michael Kimble and get involved in supporting him here.
Print and distribute flyers uplifting the strike here, and access the list of demands, action items, and a syllabus on the history of resistance in Alabama here.
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=28985 #alabama #AnarchistPrisoners #michaelKimble #northAmerica #PrisonAbolition #prisonStrike #prisonStruggle #slavery -
“To the Ministry of Justice
To the Surveillance Magistrate of TrentoThe imprisoned population of the prison of Trento, due to an undignified standard of living, the inefficiency of services, inhuman overcrowding, the rigidity of surveillance, proposes a peaceful protest to the bitter end that will include a strike of the ministerial food trolley and beating in the hours 12.00-12.30 and 21.00-22.00.
This protest is aimed at finding a common ground with the institutions: we ask for a more decent lifestyle and the willingness of the surveillance to grant benefits to those who meet the requirements quickly.01/08/2024”.
This text was signed by a large number of prisoners of the Trentino prison of Spini di Gardolo.
The protest, with noisy beatings and the trolley strike (i.e. the refusal of food provided by the prison) involved several sections and lasted until August 5.
On one of these evenings, a group of supporters went under the walls to support the protest and talk to the prisoners.The reasons for the protest are the same as in other Italian prisons where there have recently been protests and riots: Trieste, Sanremo, Turin, Alessandria, Genoa, Bolzano…
Revolts repressed with tear gas and batons (as well as with expulsion orders to solidarity supporters): in Trieste a prisoner died, officially of an “overdose” (like the 9 deaths during the Modena uprising in 2020…).In the meantime, with Bill 1660 still under discussion, they would like to establish the crime of prison revolt for simple disobedience to orders and equate passive resistance with active resistance, as well as putting those who protest inside and those who bring solidarity outside on the same level.
The climate of war means that the State wants to steamroll over the struggles, inside and outside the prisons.
For this reason, it is even more necessary to bring out the voice of the prisoners and bring in the warmth and concreteness of our solidarity.Against the Security Package!
Alongside the prisoners in struggle! -
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson PROTESTING ILLEGAL ABUSES On March 23, 2024 the Virginia legislature passed a new law restricting the use and duration of solitary confinement in the state’s prisons. (1) This law was enacted in response to years of public protest against Virginia’s ongoing abuses of long term solitary confinement. Despite this law and Virginia officials leading the public to believe they had stopped using solitary confinement long ago, the abuse secretly continued at the state’s remote super maximum security prisons Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) and Wallens Ridge State Prison (WRSP). These two prisons, which are hidden away in the remote mountains of southwestern Virginia, have been notorious for abuse and racism since they first opened in 1998 and 1999 respectively. On Dec 26, 2023 seven prisoners at ROSP, including myself, began a hunger strike protesting abuses at the prison, including the continued abuse of indefinite solitary confinement. I, and several others of us, had been designated for placement on this status at Red Onion. I was also protesting my recent transfer to ROSP in retaliation for publicizing abuses in Virginia’s prisons and my removal from Virginia’s central region near loved ones and major medical facilities while I suffered major health conditions (cancer and cardiac conditions) that require specialized care unavailable in the Virginia Department of Correction’s (sic!) [VDOC] western region where ROSP is located. Because I was seen as a leader of the hunger strike and a source of generating public support for and attention to the protest, I was notified the day after our strike began that the warden decided to disapprove my assignment to the indefinite solitary confinement status. Despite this effort to placate me I remained on the strike with the others who had not been offered such concessions. A PLOT TO DIVIDE AND CONQUER UNITES OUR STRIKE When this attempt to pacify me failed to break my participation or to divide us, ROSP officials separated everyone on the strike, moving us to different cellblocks on Dec 30th. This ploy to divide us failed however, as the next morning 15 of the 21 other prisoners in the cellblock with me joined the strike. As the days passed and word about the strike spread at ROSP, many others across the prison also joined the strike. On Dec 30th, when we were separated into different cellblocks, Red Onion officials began using abuse and torture in efforts to force me off the strike. That morning a Sergeant Osborne was ordered to turn off the water in my cell so I couldn’t drink, flush the commode, bathe nor clean the cell; he also took most of my personal property including hygiene items, books, all bedding except a mattress and two blankets, etc. As these measures also failed to coerce me off the strike, I was moved on Jan 3, 2024 into a cold isolation cell in the prison’s medical department, where all my remaining property was taken including my law books, eyeglasses, all writing supplies and my blankets. To further isolate me, several other striking prisoners who were previously housed in the medical department were moved out when I was brought in. I was held alone in the medical department. This cell’s water had also been shut off, and I was denied anything to drink. As a result of having already gone days without water I was dehydrated and had to be rushed to a local ER on Jan 4th for intravenous hydration. While held in the ROSP medical cell, my only option for hydration was water from the uncleaned commode. As a result I remained severely dehydrated for the duration of my confinement in that department and had to be taken to the ER several times for IV hydration. I was made to live like an animal, remaining under these conditions – denied water, showers, heat, clean clothes and so on – for weeks, solely because I was on a hunger strike. This was all done under direct supervision and instruction of the ROSP warden Rick White, security chief J. Hall, chief mental health clinician Creech, medical administrator D. Trent and other top level ROSP administrators and healthcare providers acting as a “hunger strike committee.” Their role was explicitly to coerce and torture me off the strike. FAILED EFFORTS TO FORCE FEED ME When these efforts to force me off the strike failed, on Jan 26th the ROSP warden, petitioned the local courts for an order to allow them to force feed me. Representing myself I was found by the courts to be exercising my 1st Amendment rights to engage in the hunger strike, and that I was competent. The request to force fed me was therefore denied. The court did rule that the VDOC could have me evaluated by mental health professionals independent of the VDOC however. Based on this ruling I was taken to the Medical College of Virginia hospital (MCV) where I was evaluated by a psychiatrist the following day and was found again to be competent. But instead of VDOC officials respecting my 1st Amendment right to strike, more torture and abuse followed. ISOLATED AND WATCHED OVER BY MILITARIZED GUARDS I was then transferred to the medical infirmary at VDOC’s State Farm Prison (SFI), which has largely been closed down, where I was confined on an abandoned wing that had been previously condemned in yet another cell with no running water. This time I was watched over by a rotating cycle of militarized ‘Strike Force’ guards (three at a time) in 12 hour shifts, who were brought in from prisons across the state, each paid a $2000 overtime wage every few days just to sit watching me – a clear waste of manpower and resources in a prison system that frequently complains of gross understaffing. I was housed at SFI on the isolated wing alone and had no contact with any other prisoners for the duration of my stay at SFI. At SFI I was denied access to my personal property, had almost no contact with loved ones by phone or mail, and suffered under constant observation of the Strike Force guards whose specific training is to respond violently to riots, hostage situations and similar incidents where specialized armed intervention is authorized. WASTED RESOURCES AND MANPOWER These guards were neither needed nor justified to watch a prisoner on hunger strike, and I was the only prisoner on strike held under this level of observation. VDOC Strike Force guards generally behave antagonistically and belligerently towards prisoners; their role again is one of violent intervention and they thus expect to be seen as a deterrent and intimidating presence, so they behave arrogantly and with open antagonism toward prisoners, with their identities typically concealed since their behavior is frequently controversial and abusive leading to complaints and litigation – unlike other VDOC guards they never wear identifying nametags. The constant presence of these guards under direct orders of VDOC headquarter administrators in response to my hunger strike was intended to add another layer of coercion, antagonism, intimidation and threat in efforts to force me off the hunger strike. I clashed repeatedly with these Strike Force guards but remained on the hunger strike. As a result of having gone long periods being denied water, I became unable to drink and keep fluids down (each time I tried to drink fluids I’d throw them back up), and had to be rushed to the ER eleven times for IV hydration. Many times I was so dehydrated as a result, the prison and hospital medical staff couldn’t locate or insert IV needles in my veins using ‘normal’ methods. VDOC GOES FROM FROM STONEWALLING TO SETTLING Numerous ranking VDOC HQ administrators visited me at SFI to assure me that they would not relent under our protests. My strike persisted. On Feb 5, 2024 attorneys acting on my behalf filed a federal lawsuit against VDOC officials concerning my strike, my retaliatory transfer to ROSP, my need of care at major medical facilities unavailable in the VDOC’s western region, and other related matters. After several hearings and VDOC stonewalling, it became clear that I was pushing the strike to the extreme and would not relent. State officials admitted fearing the political consequences of me dying from the strike. It was then agreed to move me to a medium security prison in the VDOC’s central region where I was near my loved ones and major medical facilities. Meantime the matter of the VDOC’s continued abuse of solitary confinement at ROSP and WRSP was set for trial in federal court beginning in mid-March 2024 with the court having already ruled the status illegal. With our/my hunger strike demands having been largely satisfied, I thus ended my strike on Mar 5, 2024. I’d gone 2 1/2 months (71 days) without any food, days on end without drinking, and had lost 70 pounds. My recovery however defied ‘professional’ expectations. Since resuming eating and ‘normal’ fluid intake I have experienced none of the complications that medical professionals anticipated after having gone so long without nutrition and little fluids. TRIBUTE TO PEOPLE POWER Both I and others who participated into the strike received huge support from the public and devoted supporters, advocates, and loved ones, for which I am humbled and grateful. Thank you to everyone who lent their protest efforts, voices, energy and support to our struggle. You were my inspiration and strength and the source of my success. Only because you all dared to struggle along with us have we dared to win! All Power to the People! _______________________ Endnotes: 1. Va Code section 53.1-39.2 (Restorative housing; restrictions on use) _______________________ Write to Rashid at: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson #1007485 Greensville Correctional Center 901 Corrections Way Jarratt, VA 23870-9614
#1007485 #blackLiberation #kevinRashidJohnson #newPanthers #northAmerica #prisonStrike #repression
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"It’s been more than three days since Texas prisoners across the state began a hunger strike to protest indefinite solitary confinement, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has confirmed at least 72 people are still starving themselves.
An activist working with the protesting men believes the number is closer to 120, down from the more than 300 she estimated began refusing food on Tuesday. Striking prisoners are medically evaluated daily, and doctors can force feed a prisoner whose condition worsens, according to prison spokesperson Amanda Hernandez."
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/13/texas-prison-hunger-strike-solitary/
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"It’s been more than three days since Texas prisoners across the state began a hunger strike to protest indefinite solitary confinement, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has confirmed at least 72 people are still starving themselves.
An activist working with the protesting men believes the number is closer to 120, down from the more than 300 she estimated began refusing food on Tuesday. Striking prisoners are medically evaluated daily, and doctors can force feed a prisoner whose condition worsens, according to prison spokesperson Amanda Hernandez."
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/13/texas-prison-hunger-strike-solitary/
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"The strike has now entered its third week, and at least five facilities, each with around 7,000 prisoners, continue to participate. Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has punished prisoners by drastically reducing their meals, essentially attempting to starve them off the strike." #PrisonStrike #ShutDownADOC2022 https://itsgoingdown.org/statements-alabama-prisoners-strike-third-week/
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Two statements from #Alabama prisoners, as strike enters its third week. #ShutDownADOC #PrisonStrike https://itsgoingdown.org/statements-alabama-prisoners-strike-third-week/
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National Shutem Down Prison Strikes and Boycotts Call to Action: Freedom and Abolition
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CW: prisons, politics
The warzone is in every city and state: the front lines are in amerikan jails, prisons, detention centers, in the criminalization of poverty and homelessness.
Everyone taking sides on #Iran but when it comes to battles for freedom in the US, which side are you on?
#prisonstrike -
CW: prisons, politics
Keep fighting. Keep the acts of Attica prison rebels alive. Everyday.
And in 2 days ... #burnday #burndayforbidenscrimebill #jailhouselawyersspeak #fuckthe1994crimebill #prisonstrike #prisonstrikedemands -
CW: prisons, politics
TODAY!
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RT @[email protected]
⚡MONDAY ⚡ROUND 2⚡ for the hungerstrikers in solitary in NC
Mon is Day 6!
Get ur people. Make some calls!No sleep deprivation torture!
Mandated rec time!
Supply mandated notaries for legal filings!https://incarceratedworkers.org/phone-zaps/round-2-nc-hungerstrike-scotland-ci
https://twitter.com/IWW_IWOC/status/1158135857057951744 -
CW: prisons, politics
⚡MONDAY ⚡ROUND 2⚡ for the hungerstrikers in solitary in NC
Mon is Day 6!
Get ur people. Make some calls!No sleep deprivation torture!
Mandated rec time!
Supply mandated notaries for legal filings!https://incarceratedworkers.org/phone-zaps/round-2-nc-hungerstrike-scotland-ci
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CW: prisons, politics
Alabama!
"They're preparing for your future prisons to be filled with your children."
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RT @[email protected]
https://youtu.be/ym-2z6k5k2c Check out this video made with the help of @freeworldnikos to spread the message of Alabama's prison struggles.
#prisonstrike #SwiftJusticeInc #FAM #TimesUpADOC #TimesUpDOJ #UnheardVoicesOTCJ #UnheardVoicesOTCJ
https://twitter.com/UNHEARDVOICES16/status/1153092679779020800 -
CW: prisons, politics
DAY 13 of the foodstrike inside Corcoran 3C.
Anywhere from 900-1000 of the 1000 capacity unit are still refusing trays from the kitchen until GP/mainline prisoners get the kitchen jobs back.---
RT @[email protected]
UPDATE: Today is Day 5 of nearly 1000 ppl inside Corcoran 3C refusing food trays in protest of kitchen jobs being taken from GP prisoners and given to Protective Custody yard.BACKGROUND: 3 unit saw a ma…
https://twitter.com/IWW_IWOC/status/1145715317953269760 -
CW: prisons, politics
https://mobile.twitter.com/IWW_IWOC/status/1145717300474961920
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RT @[email protected]
CORCORAN 3C FOOD STRIKE
Parallel to the above 2017 agreement was a deal struck btwn mainline reps and admin that all kitchen jobs would be theirs & they would cooperate with the move of +/- 1800 pplThis is the deal 3C is upholding and the warden is breaking 2/
#prisonstrike
https://twitter.com/IWW_IWOC/status/1145717300474961920 -
CW: prisons, politics
CORCORAN 3C FOOD STRIKE
Parallel to the above 2017 agreement was a deal struck btwn mainline reps and admin that all kitchen jobs would be theirs & they would cooperate with the move of +/- 1800 pplThis is the deal 3C is upholding and the warden is breaking 2/
#prisonstrike -
CW: prisons, politics
"Everyone is refusing. Southerners,crips,bloods,woods,Asian, everyone"
They want their jobs back and PCs not be allowed to prepare or possibly sabotage their food.
All Corcoran 3C is surviving on one sealed "bag lunch" per day: bologna sandwich, 6 oz milk, fruit
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CW: prisons, politics
BREAKING: Approx 1000 ppl inside Corcoran 3C, a max unit in CA, enter their 3rd day refusing tray. A food strike across all racial lines.
All their kitchen jobs were taken from them and given to Protective Custody prisoners.
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CW: prisons, politics
"Everybody deserves love, so why should you look at people different for who they love" says Melanie Quick, a prisoner at Shakopee who wore blue in solidarity with her trans and queer fellow prisoners.
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CW: prisons, politics
CALIFORNIA - In CDCr's Dept Operations Manual...
The section on "inmate civil rights"? 1/2 of a page.
The section on how to properly display a flag - 6 pages.
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CW: prisons, politics
Another "not-guilty" verdict in the Vaughn uprising.
"...appeals to the state's "humanity" don't work, they aren't meant to work."
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CW: prisons, politics
"Austerity" regimes intensifying in the US may well drive the rise of the chaingang again.
#prisonstrike
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RT @[email protected]
“There’s no way we can take care of our facilities, our roads, our ditches, if we didn't have inmate labor,” a former Gulf County commissioner said. “We could not tax our citizens enough...” https://public.tableau.com/views/Workforced/Dashboard2?:embed=y&:embed_code_version=3&:loadOrderID=1&:display_count=ye…
https://twitter.com/conarck/status/1131636684880252935 -
CW: prisons, politics
Important story.
Good work by @[email protected] on the largely unstudied and unrecognized reliance on prisoner labor for public works projects and maintenance.Poor rural counties basically forcing prisoner labor to combat austerity.
#prisonstrike
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RT @[email protected]
THREAD: Florida prison labor d@[email protected] to the days of emancipation. Some things hardly change. Teams of incarcerated men — disproportionately black —…
https://twitter.com/conarck/status/1131636672343564288 -
CW: prisons, politics
LESSON: When the sheriff offers y'all a tour of the jail to contain the outrage and protest.
THREAD
#prisonstrike
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RT @[email protected] -
CW: prisons, politics
DeKalb jail fight stays hot!
https://psmag.com/social-justice/instagram-images-exposed-ongoing-problems-at-one-georgia-jail