On May 25 to June 3, Decarcerate PA, Reconstruction, Inc and other allies will be marching from Philadelphia to Harrisburg to demand that 2013 be the year of a People's Budget, Not a Prison Budget.

 

Click flyer to download

The march will start with a huge rally in Love Park at 12pm on Saturday, May 25, and stop in towns and cities across the state, landing at the Capitol in Harrisburg at 12pm on June 3, as the General Assembly reconvenes to discuss the budget. Please join us on May 25 to kick-off the march and demand that legislators rejected Governor Corbett's prison budget and invest in high quality education and building strong communities, not more prisons. You can find more information at www.decarceratepa.info. If you would like to join the march, please register here by May 18.

Today members of the PA Senate will hear testimony on SB444, a deplorable bill sponsored by Senator Dominic Pileggi that would, among other things, strip prisoners of their access to nearly every provision of PA's Right to Know Law (also known as the Sunshine Law, giving everyday citizens the right to review most government records) and which would further cement prisoners' status as modern-day slaves with no true legal standing and even less practical ability to utilize the tools of democracy.

The Human Rights Coalition condemns this transparent and cynical attack on our Constitutional freedoms! Please take this moment to educate yourself on the issue (read HRC's testimony submitted at today's hearing here), call Senator Pileggi and give him and his staff total hell for sponsoring the bill, and then call your own state senators and let them know in no uncertain terms that it is their solemn duty to oppose this bill with all their hearts and souls and votes, and that you will not rest until they’ve torn it to shreds!           ..talking points and contact info

With one week to go of the 30-Day campaign to get former Black Panther political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz out of solitary confinement, we have heard a lot of talk about Maroon's planned release into general population. With no time frame given, no clear process set forth, and no rationale as to why the 22-year torture of this community leader who is about to turn 70 years old should continue even one more day, Maroon's supporters must make this last week count! We can do that by making the "count" of all the letters, faxes, and phone calls go up every single day till May 8, 2013. On that morning, if Maroon is not in general population his legal team will file litigation on his behalf in federal court. While we are optimistic about the strengths of his legal case, we are well aware that justice in the courts is a political act - so today's calls make the chances of successful litigation tomorrow even greater.     ..act now

In this edition: Campaign to Free Maroon from solitary Now!, PA DOC guard Nicoletti sentenced for prisoner abuse, Lynn Stewart seeks compassionate release, and more…

In this issue: Uncovering the U.S. government's mass incarceration of immigrants, the ongoing story of a Muslim family targeted as "terrorists", Parole for PA Lifers petition, and more!       download pdf

Russell Maroon Shoatz STILL IN SOLITARY confinement as Campaign grows; PA DOC Secretary Wetzel must be flooded with DEMANDS for his immediate release to general population!

Twenty-two consecutive years in solitary is more than long enough!

DEMAND that Maroon be placed in general population IMMEDIATELY!

Call PA DOC Secretary John Wetzel: 717-728-4109   (Fax: 717-728-4178)

or write him at:

1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050

read full story

HRC has just received word that Alfonso Percy Pew has been released back into general population!

Alfonso was held naked in a solitary confinement "strip cell" at SCI Rockview since March 11.

An Action Alert about his situation went out on March 26.

Thanks to everyone who called in to the prisons to demand his release!

Former Black Panther Russell Maroon Shoatz has been held in torturous conditions of solitary confinement in Pennsylvania prisons for the past thirty years. He has not had a serious rule violation for more than two decades. Maroon’s role as an educator, human rights defender, writer, and critical intellectual of liberation movements is widely renowned.

From April 8 to May 10, the Campaign to Free Russell Maroon Shoatz is calling for an intense call-in and write-in campaign to bring pressure on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC), to release Maroon from solitary confinement and into the general prison population. This is the first major phase of a coordinated political-legal campaign, beginning with Maroon’s attorneys sending a “Demand Letter” to the PA DOC on the morning of April 8, 2013. The letter, outlining the legal and humanitarian reasons why an immediate release from solitary is needed, gives the PA DOC an opportunity to correct the grave injustices being carried out on a daily basis before litigation begins.. read more to ACT NOW