Prisoners conducted a national strike to call attention to the conditions in prisons from Aug. 21 to Sept. 9.
The strike, which took place on the anniversary of the 1971 uprising at the Attica Correctional facility in New York, was led by incarcerated members of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak - a group of prisoners that provide help and legal training to inmates.
Prisoners struck to call attention to prison conditions and demand access to rehabilitation services, sentencing reform, humane living conditions and an end to 21st century slavery in the form of unjust labor standards.
On average, prisoners assigned to work for state-owned businesses in the U.S. earn between 33 cents and $1.41 per hour—roughly twice as much as those assigned to regular prison jobs. Six percent of the U.S. prison population earn these “higher” wages, minus deductions, which often leave prisoners with less than half of their gross pay.
With rare exception, regular prison jobs are unpaid in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. In California, inmates are paid $2 a day and $1 an hour when working on active fires as part of a firefighting program run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Prisoners risked the little pay that they do earn by participating in the strike, which has received national news coverage. The strikers’ demands included:
- Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
- An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under U.S. jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.
- The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, giving those imprisoned a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their rights.
- The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and parole. No human shall be sentenced to death by incarceration or serve any sentence without the possibility of parole.
- An immediate end to racial overcharging, over-sentencing and parole denials, and gang enhancement laws targeting Black and brown humans.
- State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation services.
- Pell grants must be reinstated in all U.S. states and territories.
- The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called “ex-felons” must be counted.
Congress and the administration are negotiating a bipartisan criminal justice reform package including elements of the FIRST STEP Act (H.R.5682) and the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S. 1917). SRCA would reduce high mandatory minimum sentences and support work, education, rehabilitation and job training programs that reduce recidivism. SRCA includes several of the prison strike demands and is a worthy step towards fixing our criminal justice system at the federal level.
