USA: after deadly SC prison riot, prisoners nationwide may go on a hunger, labor strike

Two years after a national prison strike rocked U.S. correctional institutions, prisoner advocacy groups are calling for a national protest in response to the April riot at Lee Correctional Institution in Lee County.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a group aimed at providing free legal services to prisoners, and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a prisoners’ rights advocacy group, called for a 20-day strike pushing for better conditions, according to a statement.

“Seven comrades lost their lives during a senseless uprising that could have been avoided had the prison not been so overcrowded from the greed wrought by mass incarceration, and a lack of respect for human life that is embedded in our nation’s penal ideology,” a statement from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak read.

The group is encouraging prisoners to participate in work strikes, sit-ins, boycotts and hunger strikes from Aug. 21 until Sept. 9, according to the statement.

A series of demands have been issued, including improving conditions in prisons, paying a fair wage for prison labor, providing the possibility of parole to all prisoners, allowing access to rehabilitation programs, increasing funding at state rehabilitation services and restoring voting rights to felons.

Local protesters are planning on rallying outside of Lee Correctional Institution on Saturday, Aug. 25, according to a statement from the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The protest is designed to be in solidarity with inmates entering their fourth day of strikes inside.

“We are rallying to show them that we stand with them in solidarity as they can hear our chants outside the prison in order to encourage their continued efforts during the strike,” according to the statement.

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