•  atlanta, georgia
• Thursday, December 23, 2010
• Inter Press Service

In what some are calling the largest prison strike in U.S. history, inmates in the state of Georgia coordinated a strike across multiple prison facilities using pre-paid cell phones.

After refusing to come out of their cells for as long as a week, many prisoners have now emerged. However, some are still refusing to come out, IPS has learned, and others who have come out are still refusing to report to work assignments until they are paid a living wage.

Meanwhile, activists across Georgia have organised a grassroots response, and are attempting to support the prisoners from the outside. A team of activists and nongovernmental observers went in to Macon State Prison Monday to interview prisoners, observe conditions, and investigate prisoners' initial complaints as well as complaints of retaliation.

Demands included better medical care and nutrition, more educational opportunities, payment for the work they do in the prisons, better access to their families, reducing overcrowding in the prisons, and more opportunities for exercise. 'The team went inside the prison, Macon State was the first one, to ask questions of staff and basically verify the inmates' complaints,' said Bruce Dixon of the Black Agenda Report.

'It's significant we did get in to talk to the prisoners. The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) agreed to a process of document their demands and begin looking into what the jail conditions are, and to verify the truth of the [claims of] retaliation,' Dixon said. The GDC said that four prisons had been on lockdown, including Hays State Prison in Trion, Macon State Prison in Oglethorope, Telfair State Prison in Helena, and Smith State Prison in Glennville.

However, the prisoners insisted in telephone conversations with journalists and activists that they were not actually on lockdown. They claimed that every morning the gates on their cells would open up, and every day they would shut them again and refuse to leave their cells. Prisoners coordinated the strike across as many as 11 Georgia prisons.

Other facilities mentioned in various reports include Augusta State Medical Prison in Grovetown, Baldwin State Prison in Hardwick, Calhoun State Prison in Morgan, Hancock State Prison in Sparta, Rogers State Prison in Reidsville, Valdosta State Prison in Valdosta, and Ware State Prison in Waycross. The strike began on Dec. 9 and had largely ended on Dec. 16. 'It was definitely an organic thing that grew inside the prison... The coalition was sort of formed in response to it,' Dixon said.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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