Podcasts about abolitionist law center

More than 20 years ago, Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prohibit people who are living with a criminal record from voting. But misinformation about those rights persists here in Pennsylvania. In this episode, we hear from ACLU-PA executive director Mike Lee and Saleem Holbrook, executive director of Abolitionist Law Center and a member of ACLU-PA's board of directors. Mike and Saleem talk about who can and can't vote in PA based on their involvement with the criminal legal system and why it matters. Learn more about voting with a criminal conviction here: https://www.aclupa.org/en/know-your-rights/voting-criminal-conviction And learn more about the Abolitionist Law Center at their website: https://abolitionistlawcenter.org/

Dive into an inspiring episode as Kathryn Rubino hosts Albany law student Jonas Caballero. Discover Jonas's incredible journey from protesting the Iraq War to overcoming incarceration and addiction, now excelling in law school and fighting for civil rights. A must-listen for a story of resilience and advocacy.   Highlights Reporting on human rights in the West Bank. Struggle with PTSD leading to incarceration. Roadblocks faced in re-entry post-incarceration. Rejection from multiple law schools due to criminal history. Persistence and honesty leading to law school acceptance. Overcoming 1L challenges as a non-traditional student. Continuous self-reminder of mission for civil rights. Role in Student Bar Association advocating for formerly incarcerated. Positive reception and support from law school faculty. Importance of amplifying voices of formerly incarcerated students. Law school environment fostering change and acceptance. Interning with the Abolitionist Law Center. Focus on international law and prisoner rights. Need for diversion programs over incarceration. Favorite law school experience: supportive faculty.   Episode Resources Class Action Challenges Denial from Prison Early Release Programs on Basis of Disability: https://www.kllflaw.com/news-articles/class-action-challenges-denial-from-prison-early-release-programs-on-basis-of-disability Prison Rape Elimination Act at 20 – Next Steps (Speech on Capitol Hill) https://youtu.be/JgrB33WnAGM?si=6NrxQZfMN-pl9_oD&t=1194 Sexually Assaulted In A NYC Jail? Don't Hold Your Breath For A Timely Investigation https://gothamist.com/news/sexually-assaulted-in-a-nyc-jail-dont-hold-your-breath-for-a-timely-investigation Don't Lock Me Up, Help Me Clean Up (NY Daily News) https://www.pressreader.com/usa/new-york-daily-news/20181021/281547996870524   NYC Inmates Call 311 To Report Mistreatment, But Is Anyone Listening? https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-inmates-call-311-to-report-mistreatment-but-is-anyone-listening Caballero '25 Speaks to National Audience on Prison Reform https://www.albanylaw.edu/spotlight/student/caballero-25-speaks-national-audience-prison-reform   Episode Sponsored By https://www.lexisnexis.com/lexisplus  Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player. Subscribe with Apple Podcasts Follow on Spotify Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

Shakaboona and Serge sit down with Nia Holston, an attorney with the Abolitionist Law Center, to talk about the pervasive lack of oversight in jails and prisons. Nia shares insights from her work on a lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia and its department of prisons over the conditions of the city's jails, describing how the COVID pandemic exacerbated existing human rights issues, and how people inside and outside are organizing for accountability.Episode Notes: This episode was recorded in early 2023, but the unconstitutional conditions continue to this day! ALC and others recently filed a contempt motion, which you can read here: https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/philadelphia-prisons-jail-conditions-class-action-lawsuit-contempt-20240408.html

Allegheny County's Jail Oversight Board has been in the news a lot the last few months over lawsuits, lengthy meetings, and an ongoing disagreement about whether the County Executive needs to attend. But what does the group actually do? Who's on the board? How often do they meet? And what's at stake when its members and jail employees aren't getting along? We're with Tanisha Long of the Abolitionist Law Center, who says she hasn't missed a meeting in the last two years.  We always cite our sources: You can read through the state statute on county jail oversight boards.  You can submit public comments for Jail Oversight Board meetings and view the monthly agenda on the Allegheny Courts website. Plus, previous meetings are posted on the oversight board's YouTube page. The Jail Oversight Board's meeting minutes from May 2022 include more information about the mental health tier system. Members of the Jail Oversight Board have raised concerns over the jail violating rules around solitary confinement, and the jail gives out monthly segregation housing reports. TribLive has reported on issues at the jail, including solitary confinement and use of non-lethal weapons. Become a member of City Cast Pittsburgh at membership.citycast.fm. Want more Pittsburgh news?  Sign up for our daily morning Hey Pittsburgh newsletter. We're on Instagram @CityCastPgh. Text or leave us a voicemail at 412-212-8893. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more at TheCityLife.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citylifeorg/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/citylifeorg/support

Tanisha Long,  Community Organizer of the Abolitionist Law Center joins Larry and Paul to talk about Juneteenth and the origins of the holiday. 

In conversation with Michael Simmons and Robert Saleem Holbrook Dan Berger is the author of the James A. Rawley Prize winning Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era, an ''illuminating'' (The Nation) reevaluation of 20th century African American activism through the prism of mass incarceration. A professor of comparative ethnic studies and associate dean for faculty development and scholarship in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, he has published op-eds and other work about critical race theory and social justice in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals. In Stayed on Freedom, Berger tells the story of the until-now unheralded Black Power activists Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons.  Alongside Zoharah and countless other organizers and activists, Philadelphia-raised Michael Simmons has fought for social justice and human rights for more than 55 years. His work includes time with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, imprisonment for draft resistance during the Vietnam War, assistance in the fair housing movement, and participation in the anti-Apartheid Movement. He spent more than two decades as a human rights organizer in Central Europe, both with the American Friends Service Committee and independently. Robert Saleem Holbrook is the executive director of the Abolitionist Law Center. (recorded 2/7/2023)

All were topics at Netroots Nation! Chris Smalls of Amazon Labor and Brian Young of Action Network on unionizing Amazon; Robert Saleem Holbrook of the Abolitionist Law Center; Samantha Boucher of Shire; Erica Ford of Life Camp, Inc.; and Garnell Whitfield, whose mother was the eldest shooting victim in Buffalo all join from Pittsburgh.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This is the audio version of a panel discussion hosted on March 24 that explores the importance of physical mail in prison and how the prison industrial complex works to undermine imprisoned people's ability to meaningfully communicate with their loved ones. You can watch video of the panel here: https://www.beyond-prisons.com/home/video-why-physical-mail-matters Physical mail is a layered issue, and policies that eliminate physical mail are violent and cruel. They seek to destroy the loving and caring connections that people have. They “pile on” more separation than that which already exists and makes it even harder for people to remain in relationship and community with their support systems. They disproportionately affect poor people. They add another cost onto the already long list of things that prisoners and their loved ones pay for. They expand the surveillance mechanisms of the carceral state in ways that I'm not sure we have begun to grapple with. Letter writing has always been an important form of communication between prisoners and their loved ones. Eliminating physical mail reveals the inhumanity of this system and illustrates that incarceration has NOTHING to do with rehabilitation or preparing people to return to their communities, and EVERYTHING to do with using incarcerated people and their loved ones as revenue streams.   Letters exchanged between prisoners and loved ones offer a counter to the dehumanization that we experience. Letters, cards, drawings, and ephemera serve as proof of life in a system that seeks our erasure and death. These documents are how we build or rebuild relationships, how we share news (good, bad, and mundane), how we learn about the conditions inside, how prisoners are able to stay connected to the children and families that are outside, and how we prevent more harm.  Hosted by the Beyond Prisons Podcast, NYU Prison Education Program and Study and Struggle.  Introduction by Kim Wilson. Kim Wilson is an educator, self-taught artist, and cohost and producer of the Beyond Prisons podcast. Moderated by Charlotte Rosen. Charlotte Rosen is a PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University and a member of Study and Struggle, which organizes against criminalization and incarceration in Mississippi through mutual aid, political education, and community building. Panelists: Monica Cosby. Monica describes herself as a “gramma trying to do liberatory stuff,” subscribing to an abolition feminist mode of thinking, being and moving in the world. Her life and work have been shaped and informed by  the communities to which she belongs, including the community of artists, scholars, moms with whom she was incarcerated, and whose survival was/is an act of resistance against a system that would dispose of them. As an advocate and activist, she has collaborated, organized, and worked with Westside Justice Center, Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network, Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois, Women's Justice Institute, Uptown People's Law Center, and others. Monica is a scholar, thinker, and writer, having essays published or reprinted in TruthOut and In the Long Term (published by Haymarket Books). She also wrote Solitary Confinement is Used to Break People; On Leaving Prison: A Reflection on Entering and Exiting Communities; And, Restorative Revelations by Monica Cosby and Analise Buth–published in the St. Thomas Law Journal.   Lawrence Posey (He/Him). Lawrence is 44 years old and originally from Camden, New Jersey. He currently lives in the Bronx. He is a father of two children who are 18 and 15. He was previously incarcerated. Since his  release, he works as a manager at a company called Reserve Inc which is a covid-19 coalition. He is also a student at New York University studying at The Gallatin School of Individualized Study, majoring in Film and Business. He recently started his own publishing and production company called Legacy Works Enterprises. In addition to publishing, Legacy Works Enterprises focuses on youth educational programs and social justice. Lawrence is part of a social justice cohort At the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO Works) where he organizes with the Participant Advocacy Council (PAC for short). The PAC cohort has lobbied with Communities Not Cages (CCA) which has fought to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing,  and advocated for Second Look Act, the Earn Good Time Act, and the Clean Slate Act. Finally, PAC also is in association with Treatment Not Jail (TNJ), lobbying for mental health programs instead of prison.  Mychal Pagan. Mychal Pagan (BA '24) is a student at NYU, and  is curious about the relationships between perception, memory, and narration. He is fascinated by the process of merging poetry with filmmaking, and the art of social photography with data-driven storytelling. His writing and photography have been featured in NYU publications including The Gallatin Review, Confluence, Fire in the Lake, and Missives. And his short documentary series Afternotes can be viewed at the NYU's Prison Education Program website. Sergio Hyland (He/Him). Sergio recently returned to society after serving nearly 21 years straight. He is an abolitionist, and Editor-in-Chief of THE MOVEMENT Magazine, the official magazine of the Human Rights Coalition in Pennsylvania. He also works for the Abolitionist Law Center. Andre Pierce. Andre is a Black man that spent the last 25 years caged in Connecticut State prisons. He earned a Bachelor's Degree with a concentration in Philosophy. He writes,  “my strenuous efforts took place alongside my fight to maintain my sanity in a soul-crushing carceral institution.” He asserts that his extraordinary growth and development cannot be understood as rehabilitation but instead as Black Liberation. Dre, uses his intimate experience of suffering in prison to fuel his passion for prison abolition. Ellis Maxwell. Ellis Maxwell is an educator and community member in Fort Worth, Texas. They believe in making organic political education available to people of all ages, and seek to work with anyone willing to look at their conditioning and try to move differently. Ellis is the editor of the Beyond Prisons podcast. Maya Schenwar (She/Her). Maya is the editor-in-chief of Truthout. She is the co-author (with Victoria Law) of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms and author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better. She is also the co-editor (with Joe Macaré and Alana Yu-Lan Price) of Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States. Maya is a co-founder of the Chicago Community Bond Fund, and she organizes with the abolitionist collective Love & Protect.  Episode Resources & Notes Watch video of the panel: https://www.beyond-prisons.com/home/video-why-physical-mail-matters Learn more about this issue and campaign: https://www.beyond-prisons.com/home/say-no-to-eliminating-physical-mail-in-delaware-prisons Credits Created and hosted by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein Edited by Ellis Maxwell Website & volunteers managed by Victoria Nam Theme music by Jared Ware Support Beyond Prisons Visit our website at beyond-prisons.com Support our show and join us on Patreon. Check out our other donation options as well. Please listen, subscribe, and rate/review our podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Play Join our mailing list for updates on new episodes, events, and more Send tips, comments, and questions to beyondprisonspodcast@gmail.com Kim Wilson is available for speaking engagements and to facilitate workshops. Please contact beyondprisonspodcast@gmail.com for more information Twitter: @Beyond_Prison Facebook:@beyondprisonspodcast Instagram:@beyondprisons

In theory, a probation sentence in the criminal legal system should be an alternative to incarceration. The problem? In practice, it feeds mass incarceration, with restrictive rules that set people up for failure. In this episode, we hear from Dolly Prabhu, staff attorney for Abolitionist Law Center, and Kate Parker and Byron Cotter from the Defender Association of Philadelphia. Dolly, Kate, and Byron explain how probation functions, why it's flawed, and what kind of reform is needed of Pennsylvania's probation system. (Hint: It's not in the legislation currently being debated at the PA General Assembly.) Learn more about Senate Bill 913 at this link: https://aclupa.org/en/legislation/sb-913-probation Contact your state rep and tell them to vote NO on SB 913 at this link: https://action.aclu.org/send-message/pa-oppose-sb913

An "angry critique" from Troy T. Thomas aka Asar Imhotep Amen, PhD, "What working poor Black folks need to realize as we protest for better conditions in Amerika;" Tribute to Russell Maroon Shoatz, we hear a 2011 interview and read a statement about his joining the ancestors December 17, 2021 by Abolitionist Law Center.

This is the week of the Tribunal taking place Oct. 22-25. We hear witness testimony from former political prisoner Seku Odinga; witness testimony from former youth prisoner Saleem Holbrook, Executive Director of Abolitionist Law Center; we learn that political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz has been given compassionate release after 49 years!; political prisoner David Gilbert has been given parole after 40+ years!; Nube reads the Iternational Jurors' Executive Summary of the verdict- GUILTY on all five counts! And acts of GENOCIDE have indeed been committed by the US government and it's agencies!

Later this year, the redistricting process will begin and the states will begin drawing the districts that will determine the allocation of political power and representation for the next ten years. However, a practice known as prison-based gerrymandering threatens the principle of "one person, one vote" and risks unfairly diluting the political power of Black and urban communities, while inflating the power of white, rural ones.  On this episode of Justice Above All, Thurgood Marshall Institute Senior Researcher Kesha Moore talks to the Executive Director of the Abolitionist Law Center, Saleem Holbrook, and Cara McClellan, Assistant Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, about the inherent racism surrounding prison-based gerrymandering and how it continues to feed the prison industrial complex. 

This week Kevin & Suave talk to Robert Saleem Holbrook, Ex. Dir. of the Abolitionist Law Center. Saleem is a former Juvenile Lifer in the State Of PA. We discuss the fact that the US is the only country that locks up its children for life, and how community based advocacy activism work. This is a deeply personal interview & a very unique perspective on the current system. More ALC infhttps://abolitionistlawcenter.org/ Death By Incarceration is a show about life behind bars. The USA is the only nation where a minor can be sentenced to die by incarceration before turning 18. A minor can't vote, can't serve in the military, can't drink or smoke, but they CAN go to prison for the rest of their lives. Each week, hosts David "Suave" Gonzalez (Suave podcast/released lifer) and Kevin McCracken (Adulting Well podcast) will be joined by law-makers, community leaders, policy-makers, formerly incarcerated and the currently incarcerated as they shed light on institutions that viciously target and harm marginalized communities, specifically communities of color. Be sure to listen, rate and follow/subscribe to the Death By Incarceration podcast. On APPLE, on SPOTIFY, GOOGLE PODCAST, or wherever you get your shows. Please visit one of our generous sponsors, Bella+Canvas. Whether you're looking for t-shirts, sweatshirts, tanks or long-sleeves, Bella+Canvas really does have you covered. Be different. Be Bella+Canvas. Use Code DBI2021 at checkout for 20% off your first purchase at https://shop.bellacanvas.com/ Follow DBI on Twitter & Instagram. Be sure to visit the DBI WEBSITE. Check out some Suave with the media on WHYY and on MSNBC. His amazing artwork is available for viewing and purchase at the Morton Contemporary Gallery here.  Music by Gordon Withers. Check out his WEBSITE and follow on Instagram. Edited by Jason Usry. Follow him on Twitter Listen to Kevin's show Adulting Well. And check out his company Social Imprints. Death By Incarceration is a Crawlspace Media show. Check out all the shows on their WEBSITE and follow them on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Two, A SOLDIER‘S STORY, with special guest Robert Saleem Holbrook, Executive Director of the Abolitionist Law Center, will be in your ears on Tuesday, June 8th. Please enjoy this trailer and make sure to follow, subscribe and rate - we appreciate it! Death By Incarceration is a show about life behind bars. The USA is the only nation where a minor can be sentenced to die by incarceration before turning 18. A minor can't vote, can't serve in the military, can't drink or smoke, but they CAN go to prison for the rest of their lives. Each week, premiering in June of 2021, hosts David "Suave" Gonzalez (Suave podcast/released lifer) and Kevin McCracken (Adulting Well podcast) will be joined by law-makers, community leaders, policy-makers, formerly incarcerated and the currently incarcerated as they shed light on institutions that viciously target and harm marginalized communities, specifically communities of color. Be sure to listen, rate and follow/subscribe to the Death By Incarceration podcast. On APPLE, on SPOTIFY, GOOGLE PODCAST, or wherever you get your shows. Please visit one of our generous sponsors, Bella+Canvas. Whether you're looking for t-shirts, sweatshirts, tanks or long-sleeves, Bella+Canvas really does have you covered. Be different. Be Bella+Canvas. Use Code DBI2021 at checkout for 20% off your first purchase at https://shop.bellacanvas.com/ Follow DBI on Twitter & Instagram. Be sure to visit the DBI WEBSITE. Check out some Suave with the media on WHYY and on MSNBC. His amazing artwork is available for viewing and purchase at the Morton Contemporary Gallery here.  Music by Gordon Withers. Check out his WEBSITE and follow on Instagram. Edited by Jason Usry. Follow him on Twitter Listen to Kevin's show Adulting Well. And check out his company Social Imprints. Death By Incarceration is a Crawlspace Media show. Check out all the shows on their WEBSITE and follow them on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Across the United States, COVID-19 is once again on the uptick, infecting and killing many who are the most vulnerable. More than 16 million cases have been confirmed in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. is now counting more than 100,000 cases a day as the virus surges across the country. Overall, there have been more than 307,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. One sector of society that is getting hit hard by COVID-19 and is not getting much attention is the U.S. prison population. Imprisoned people, along with frontline workers and communities of color, are extremely vulnerable to the deadly virus and are being severely impacted by it. The United States currently has the largest incarcerated population in the world, with about 2.3 million people in jails and prisons across the country, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. More than half of them (nearly 1.3 million inmates) do not have the ability to socially distance or take the sanitary measures needed to slow the spread of the virus. The effects of cramped and unsanitary cells have been disastrous across the country. One incarcerated person who is fighting for their life is Russell Maroon Shoatz. Today on Sojourner Truth, we bring you audio from a recent webinar entitled, We Are Maroon! A Teach In for Russell Maroon Shoatz. The webinar, which was dedicated to showing solidarity with Russell, featured a wide range of speakers. They include: Kempis Ghani Songster of the Amistad Law Project, Mike Africa Sr. of the MOVE Organization, Dr. Jean Schneider, Robert Saleem Holbrook of the Abolitionist Law Center, and Lavinia Vee, a human rights activist and counselor.

Across the United States, COVID-19 is once again on the uptick, infecting and killing many who are the most vulnerable. More than 16 million cases have been confirmed in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. is now counting more than 100,000 cases a day as the virus surges across the country. Overall, there have been more than 307,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. One sector of society that is getting hit hard by COVID-19 and is not getting much attention is the U.S. prison population. Imprisoned people, along with frontline workers and communities of color, are extremely vulnerable to the deadly virus and are being severely impacted by it. The United States currently has the largest incarcerated population in the world, with about 2.3 million people in jails and prisons across the country, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. More than half of them (nearly 1.3 million inmates) do not have the ability to socially distance or take the sanitary measures needed to slow the spread of the virus. The effects of cramped and unsanitary cells have been disastrous across the country. One incarcerated person who is fighting for their life is Russell Maroon Shoatz. Today on Sojourner Truth, we bring you audio from a recent webinar entitled, We Are Maroon! A Teach In for Russell Maroon Shoatz. The webinar, which was dedicated to showing solidarity with Russell, featured a wide range of speakers. They include: Kempis Ghani Songster of the Amistad Law Project, Mike Africa Sr. of the MOVE Organization, Dr. Jean Schneider, Robert Saleem Holbrook of the Abolitionist Law Center, and Lavinia Vee, a human rights activist and counselor.

Across the United States, COVID-19 is once again on the uptick, infecting and killing many who are the most vulnerable. More than 16 million cases have been confirmed in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. is now counting more than 100,000 cases a day as the virus surges across the country. Overall, there have been more than 307,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. One sector of society that is getting hit hard by COVID-19 and is not getting much attention is the U.S. prison population. Imprisoned people, along with frontline workers and communities of color, are extremely vulnerable to the deadly virus and are being severely impacted by it. The United States currently has the largest incarcerated population in the world, with about 2.3 million people in jails and prisons across the country, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. More than half of them (nearly 1.3 million inmates) do not have the ability to socially distance or take the sanitary measures needed to slow the spread of the virus. The effects of cramped and unsanitary cells have been disastrous across the country. One incarcerated person who is fighting for their life is Russell Maroon Shoatz. Today on Sojourner Truth, we bring you audio from a recent webinar entitled, We Are Maroon! A Teach In for Russell Maroon Shoatz. The webinar, which was dedicated to showing solidarity with Russell, featured a wide range of speakers. They include: Kempis Ghani Songster of the Amistad Law Project, Mike Africa Sr. of the MOVE Organization, Dr. Jean Schneider, Robert Saleem Holbrook of the Abolitionist Law Center, and Lavinia Vee, a human rights activist and counselor.

Across the United States, COVID-19 is once again on the uptick, infecting and killing many who are the most vulnerable. More than 16 million cases have been confirmed in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. is now counting more than 100,000 cases a day as the virus surges across the country. Overall, there have been more than 307,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. One sector of society that is getting hit hard by COVID-19 and is not getting much attention is the U.S. prison population. Imprisoned people, along with frontline workers and communities of color, are extremely vulnerable to the deadly virus and are being severely impacted by it. The United States currently has the largest incarcerated population in the world, with about 2.3 million people in jails and prisons across the country, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. More than half of them (nearly 1.3 million inmates) do not have the ability to socially distance or take the sanitary measures needed to slow the spread of the virus. The effects of cramped and unsanitary cells have been disastrous across the country. One incarcerated person who is fighting for their life is Russell Maroon Shoatz. Today on Sojourner Truth, we bring you audio from a recent webinar entitled, We Are Maroon! A Teach In for Russell Maroon Shoatz. The webinar, which was dedicated to showing solidarity with Russell, featured a wide range of speakers. They include: Kempis Ghani Songster of the Amistad Law Project, Mike Africa Sr. of the MOVE Organization, Dr. Jean Schneider, Robert Saleem Holbrook of the Abolitionist Law Center, and Lavinia Vee, a human rights activist and counselor.

40 people incarcerated in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections have died from COVID-19. 29 of them have died since October 15. As of December 7, there are 2,000 active cases among the DOC population. Robert Saleem Holbrook of Abolitionist Law Center joins the podcast to discuss the urgency of this moment and the failure of Governor Wolf's response. He also talks about how the state victim advocate and the Pennsylvania attorney general have contributed to mass incarceration, why people sentenced to death-by-incarceration should have the chance to come home, and how "a movement" gave him that chance. Learn more about ALC at www.abolitionistlawcenter.org and follow them on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

On Episode 29 of The Activist Files, communications assistant Alex Webster speaks with TRANScending Barriers executive director Zahara Green and Abolitionist Law Center executive director Robert "Saleem" Holbrook about what Black August means to them and the ways that they continue its legacy in their work. They discuss the importance of honoring the solemnity of the month, how current and former prisoners are the embodiment of Black August, and how we must take this moment to remember those freedom fighters who are still inside. They also highlight the ongoing work to challenge transphobia in both prisons and in organizing, the impact of COVID-19, and how abolition is an undertaking that requires entire social transformation.

In this episode we talk to Robert Saleem Holbrook and Megan Malachi. Megan is an educator and an organizer for Philly for REAL Justice, a grassroots police abolitionist organization that has been organizing in the city for years. One of their keys projects has been pushing direct action towards the removal of the statue of Frank Rizzo, and a multitude of other direct actions around racial injustice, police violence and political prisoners around the city. Robert Saleem Holbrook is the Abolitionist Law Center’s Director of Community Organizing in addition to a number of other roles in social and racial justice work, particularly related to mass incarceration. He was released from prison in 2018 after spending over two decades incarcerated for an offense he was convicted of as a child offender. They both join us today to talk about “We Want Freedom” End the War Against Black Philadelphians NOW! from the Black Philly Radical Collective, which was drafted and signed by Philly for Real Justice, Black Lives Matter Philly, The Black Alliance for Peace, Abolitionist Law Center, Human Rights Coalition, and Mike Africa Jr of MOVE, Mobilization for Mumia, International Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. It is a set of demands specific to the conditions of policing in Philadelphia that hopefully can be achieved here in Philly, but also provides a framework for discussion around the country. We talk to them about the role of the FOP and police unions, we talk to them about abolition, and defunding police. We discuss the importance of political prisoners in this moment and centering calls for economic justice in the form of reparations. As well as the importance of staying active to turn this moment into a lasting movement for real racial justice for Black and Brown people in Philadelphia and around the country.

Last week, the ACLU, ACLU-PA, the Abolitionist Law Center, and two law firms announced a settlement to our lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections that challenged the department's use of permanent, automatic solitary confinement for people who are sentenced to death. Some people on Pennsylvania's death row have been in solitary confinement for more than 30 years. In this episode, we hear from Amy Fettig of the ACLU's National Prison Project and Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center, who describe the conditions of solitary confinement, what the state DOC agreed to in the settlement, and what impact this case could have in Pennsylvania and around the country. Learn more about this case at this link: https://www.aclupa.org/en/cases/reid-et-al-v-wetzel Learn more about Abolitionist Law Center at their website and on Twitter [at]AbolitionistLC. https://abolitionistlawcenter.org/

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is copying and storing mail that is sent to prisoners, including mail from their attorneys. In this episode, we hear from Vic Walczak, legal director of the ACLU-PA, and Saleem Holbrook, an organizer with the Abolitionist Law Center and a co-founder of the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration. Vic explains a new lawsuit we've filed against the DOC to stop its policy of copying legal mail, and Saleem talks about the harm caused by the department's new restrictions on all mail. Learn more about CADBI on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CADBIphilly/ Related information about the lawsuit PILP v. DOC, including legal documents, is available at aclupa.org/PILP. And Reggie Shuford's letter in response to the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue is available here: https://medium.com/@ACLUPA/we-want-america-to-be-fair-just-and-free-a-letter-from-our-executive-director-35a6fb66f9aa

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The civil rights movement shook American racial apartheid to its foundations, inflicting profound defeats on white supremacy, but the defenders of the old racial regime have turned that history into a feather in the cap of American exceptionalism; and, the Pennsylvania prison system is using a dubious alleged drug-induced health crisis to impose unprecedented restrictions on inmate mail and visitation. Israel is the only nuclear power on Earth that has not only refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, but enforces a vow of silence on U.S. presidents from both political parties. The Washington DC-based Institute for Research on Middle Eastern Policy has filed suit in federal court to make public letters that the New Yorker magazine says every president since Bill Clinton has signed, promising to never publicly discuss Israel’s arsenal of nuclear weapons or to pressure Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We spoke with Grant Smith, director of the Institute, and asked him, How could it be that, for two generations, all discussion of Israeli nukes has been forbidden in official Washington? The same people who fought the civil rights movement tooth and nail, defending discrimination and segregation, now use the movement’s victories as proof that the United States is an inherently good country, a nation that means well even when it is wrong. As proof, they point to the successes of the U.S. civil rights movement, two generations ago. Jeanne Theoharis is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College at the City University of New York, and author of the new book, “A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History.” Theoharis says the civil rights movement and its leaders have become props for American exceptionalism. Pennsylvania’s 25 state prisons all went on lockdown, last month, with no notification to inmates or the public. It eventually emerged that the state was claiming that prison guards and other employees had been poisoned by contraband drugs that were smuggled into prison. Medical experts and others questioned the state’s story. Among the most skeptical parties are the lawyers for the Abolitionist Law Center and the Amistad Law Project, who fight for prisoners’ rights in Pennsylvania. Kris Henderson is with the Amistad Law Project, in Philadelphia. Dr. Joseph Harris is a former member of the Black Panther Party, and currently the personal physician to Mumia Abu Jamal, the best known political prisoner in the Pennsylvania prison system. Dr. Harris has visited Mumia since the lockdown and shakeup of the state prison system. Harris played a key role in Mumia’s fight to be cured of hepatitis-C, for himself and thousands of other inmates.

In 1974, there were approximately 500 people serving life-without-parole, what prisoners and activists call death-by-incarceration, in Pennsylvania. Today, there are more than 5,000. In September, the Abolitionist Law Center, a prisoners' rights legal advocacy group in Pittsburgh, released a new report on DBI called A Way Out: Abolishing Death by Incarceration in Pennsylvania. In this episode, we hear from Quinn Cozzens, a staff attorney from ALC and a co-author of the report. Quinn talks about the findings of the report and the path forward to ending this dehumanizing, extreme sentence. The report is available at abolitionistlawcenter.org. ALC is also on Twitter @ AbolitionistLC and on Facebook.

Bret Grote, legal director for the Abolitionist Law Center, joins the Beyond Prisons podcast to tell us about his organization's work and what an abolitionist approach looks like for lawyers. The conversation touches on the impact the Abolitionist Law Center has had in Pennsylvania and the work it's done on solitary confinement, juvenile life without parole, health care, and more. We talk about political and politicized prisoners and the dangerous but common practice of withholding medicine and treatment in prisons. Bret also shares his thoughts on the election of Larry Krasner as Philadelphia's new district attorney and the movement to elect "progressive prosecutors." Bret Grote is the Legal Director of Abolitionist Law Center, and a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a 2013 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and was recognized as the Distinguished Public Interest Scholar for his graduating class. He was the Isabel and Alger Hiss Racial Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights in 2012. In addition to his work at Abolitionist Law Center, Bret has been a volunteer investigator, organizer, and researcher with HRC since 2007. Follow the Abolitionist Law Center on Twitter @AbolitionistLC and visit their website at www.abolitionistlawcenter.org for more on their work and how you can support them. Support our show and join us on Patreon. Please listen, subscribe, and rate/review our podcast on iTunes and on Google Play Send tips, comments, and questions to beyondprisonspodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter: @Beyond_Prison @phillyprof03 @bsonenstein @jaybeware Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyondprisonspodcast/ Music & Production: Jared Ware

Interview This week Bursts spoke with Jude, a member of the Tilted Scales Collective, about the collective's new book, A Tilted Guide to Being a Defendant out from Combustion Books. In this interview, they speak about the Tilted Scales Collective, which is "a small collective of dedicated legal support organizers who have spent years supporting and fighting for political prisoners, prisoners of war, and politicized prisoners in the occupied lands of Turtle Island (i.e., the so-called united states)." from their website, and about the book which is a comprehensive run down for people facing legal charges and how to cope with handling them. You can visit them at https://tiltedscalescollective.org/ Announcement From fighttoxicprisons.org: The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP) is a collaboration with the Abolitionist Law Center. FTP's mission is to conduct grassroots organizing, advocacy and direct action to challenge the prison system which is putting prisoners at risk of dangerous environmental conditions, as well as impacting surrounding communities and ecosystems by their construction and operation. At this time, FTP is focused on opposing the construction of a new federal prison in Letcher County, Kentucky. FTP is inspired by the abolitionist movement against mass incarceration and the environmental justice movement, which have both been led by the communities of color who are hardest hit by prisons and pollution.Both these movements also have long histories of multi-racial alliances among those on the front lines of the struggle and those who can offer support and solidarity, which we aim to build on. FTP has been informed by the ongoing research and analysis of the Human Rights Defense Center's Prison Ecology Project, as well as the work of the Earth First! Prisoner Support Project and June11.org FTP has just announced that their 2017 convergence will be from June 2-5th in Denton/Fort Worth Texas. It will include speakers, panels, workshops, protests and cultural activities, including an art show and hip-hop performances. Some proposed topics are: – Mapping Toxic Prisons – The History and Future of June 11 – Building Mult-Racial Alliances Against Incarceration – EJ Lessons from the Pipeline struggles Why Texas? Environmentalists know Texas as the financial headquarters of oil and gas empire that controls the nation's political system, where fights against pipelines like Keystone XL and Trans-Pecos have captured the attention of the nation. Prison abolitionists know Texas as home to one of the most brutal and corrupt state prison systems in the country, where extreme heat is coupled with tainted water, and vocal participants from the September prisoner strike like Keith ‘Malik' Washington sit in long term solitary confinement, subjected to both. You can stay updated on this event and see more about Fight Toxic Prisons at http://fighttoxicprisons.org Playlist: here

  Sometimes "This Can't Be Happening!" can refer to a bit of unbelievably good news and today's show is one of those times. As Bret Grote, legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center, a Pennsylvania prisoner advocacy legal service  and one of two attorneys fighting to force the state's Corrections Dept. to provide effective anti-viral medication to inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal to treat his raging Hepatitis C infection, reports, a federal judge yesterday issued an injunction ordering the prison system to begin treating the internationally known prisoner within 14 days. This is a huge victory, even if the state tries to appeal it and it offers hope that Abu-Jamal, whose death sentence was overturned and replaced with life without parole, will not end up being medically executed by the state through willful neglect.