Occupy the Justice Dept. for Mumia Abu-Jamal and All Political Prisoners on April 24

Prison Radio is also reprinting Mumia's pamphlet Message to the Movement which sold out its original print run. This new version will contain Mumia's original essay, as well as a new Spanish translation by long time Prison Radio collaborator Lori Berenson. And the pamphlet will also feature Alice Walker's recent poem Occupy Mumia's Cell.

The Occupied Media Pamphlet Series is a special project launched with Adelante Alliance to participate in the movement through the printed word. To get a copy go to our website store HERE.

Save the Date: April 24th Occupy the Justice Department

The next big action will be Occupy the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on April 24, Mumia’s birthday. Free Mumia and ALL political prisoners!

Solidarity and Victory

On Wednesday evening, twenty-five prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) ate their first meal since Sunday night. The hunger strike was inspired by the Occupy4Prisoners National Day of Action called by Occupy Oakland. Siddique Abdullah Hasan (pictured above), one of the hunger strikers, called Prison Radio and recorded a statement, saying they initially intended a one day fast as a “symbolic gesture, a way of locking arms with the people on the outside.”

By Monday evening the prisoners had decided to issue demands and continue refusing food. Their demands included specific changes in the conditions of their confinement at Ohio’s super-max prison as well as calls for broader reforms. They resumed eating after Warden David Bobby agreed to grant a number of their demands, including:

1. Reversing the recent decision to reduce outdoor recreation time for prisoners to a schedule alternating between 3 and 4 hours per week;

2. Improving enrichment programming, including new movies and religious movies for the prison television station;

3. Bringing the head dietitian from Central Office in Columbus to review OSP food policies and hear prisoner complaints about inedible and scorched food;

4. A number of specific instances of price-gouging, skimping and lack of variety in the commissary.

Hasan said “Warden Bobby has been a man of his word in the past, so we don’t anticipate the kind of situation going on in California” referring to slow response to negotiations during last year's large prisoner hunger strikes in California.

The prisoners consider their hunger strike a victory because they won these specific demands and also because they helped raise awareness of state and even nation-wide issues regarding the artificial economy of state pay and commissary prices.

Siddique Abdullah Hasan, a Muslim Imam, has been on death row fighting what he says is a wrongful conviction following the 1993 Lucasville Uprising. More information about the Lucasville Uprising is available on a new website Hasan and other prisoners helped create, at LucasvilleAmnesty.org.

—-Prison Radio first began recording prisoners in 1990. Our mission is to challenge unjust police and prosecutorial practices which result in mass incarceration, racism, and gender discrimination by airing the voices of men and women victimized by an unjust criminal justice system. Our website www.prisonradio.org features Mumia Abu-Jamal’s essays and much more, including the latest news about his case. To receive our email newsletter, please sign up on the bottom of our website’s front page.