By Laura McTighe
From PHN Issue 24, Spring 2015
We know that HIV and incarceration overlap. One in seven people with HIV will pass through our prisons and jails this year. But knowing that HIV and incarceration overlap doesn’t tell us why. Understanding why is critical if we are to end AIDS. Continue reading “Truly Understanding the Connection between HIV and Incarceration”
by Incarcerated Citizens Coalition
From PHN Issue 22, Fall 2014
From June 16 to 23, men at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Coal Township in Pennsylvania initiated a 1-week, peaceful boycott of the Inmate Dining Hall in response to the implementation of the Department of Corrections’ (DOC) “efficiency diet” at the prison. The men supported one another by sharing food and commissary items on the units. The boycott was overwhelmingly successful on the West Side of the prison, where over 70% of the men participated, with only 20 to 25 individuals per unit/wing going down to the dining hall per meal. Continue reading “Dining Hall Boycott at Pennsylvania’s Coal Township Prison”
By Teresa Sullivan
From PHN Issue 21, Summer 2014
“We, as women living with HIV, envision a life free from violence, coercion, and discrimination for all people. We, as women living with HIV, demand an end to the many different forms of violence faced by all women, including physical, emotional, psychological, religious, sexual, institutional, and economic violence, and the trauma that violence leaves in its wake.” —Positive Women’s Network, USA
When we hear the word “violence,” the first thing we visualize is the physical abuse of someone. And women living with HIV are indeed vulnerable to physical violence because of stigma and ignorance. This reality was made brutally clear yet again a few weeks ago with the heartbreaking murder of Elisha Henson, who was killed in Texas because of her HIV status. A survey conducted by the Positive Women’s Network, USA (PWN-USA) last year found that 72% of women living with HIV who responded were survivors of intimate partner violence. However, for PWN-USA, ending violence against women includes ending a spectrum of human rights violations, including but not limited to physical violence, that women have faced for many generations throughout history. Continue reading “Ending the Spectrum of Violence Against Women: The Positive Women’s Network”
by Laura Whitehorn
From PHN Issue 19, Winter 2014
Mohaman Koti is either 85 or 87 years old, depending on whether you go by his birth certificate or what his mother told him when he was a child. He has been incarcerated in New York State since 1978—long enough that his sentencing transcript has been lost in the system.
Mr. Koti has been hospitalized multiple times for health problems, including myasthenia gravis (a neurological disorder) and cancer. He must often use a wheelchair, and his hearing is pretty much shot.
In May, Mr. Koti appeared before the parole board for the sixth time, and was again denied release. The board said they thought he might commit another crime if released—despite testimony from prison staff calling him a reliable peacemaker. Continue reading “Free the Elders, Improve Public Health”
by Sergio Hyland
From PHN Issue 18, Fall 2013
I’m not one of those people who accept the notion that the existence of prisons is inevitable, because if I accept that, I’ll have to accept other associated notions as fact. Like the notion that the thousands of inhumane solitary confinement torture chambers across the nation have to exist. Because I’m on the inside and see the reality of these places, I definitely can’t accept the notion that prisons keep our communities safe! Continue reading “Open Letter to Activists on the Outside”
by Suzy Subways
From PHN Issue 18, Fall 2013
From Gandhi’s independence movement in India to women demanding the right to vote, from Cesar Chavez to Irish Republican Army political prisoners, oppressed people have used hunger strikes to show their deep commitment to freedom. This year, two major hunger strikes shook U.S. prisons. Continue reading “Fasting for Rights and Dignity: From Guantanamo Bay to California”
by Dan Berger
From PHN Issue 16, Spring 2013
We are at the beginning of a new movement against the prison. It works to shrink the prison system by using radical critique, direct action, and practical goals for reducing the reach of imprisonment. I would like to call this a strategy of decarceration. It is the demand to close prisons and reduce policing—but also to open schools and build communities. It is a strategy that takes advantage of political conditions without sacrificing its political vision. Continue reading “Decarceration: A New Strategy Against Prisons”
By Laura McTighe
From PHN Issue 15, Winter 2013
In September 2012, the Prison Health News community lost John Horace Bell, AIDS activist, mentor to a generation of currently and formerly incarcerated people, co-founder of PHN, and our friend. We know that many of you reading this article have not met John, but you do know him through his work and his continued influence on all of us at PHN. Those of you with internet access may want to read one of the many testimonials in his honor: http://fight.org/about-fight/fights-history/john-bell/. For the rest of you, we wanted to share a few PHN-specific memories. Continue reading “Passing the Torch: John Bell 1946-2012”
By Naseem Bazargan
From PHN Issue 15, Winter 2013
What is YASP all about?
We are a youth-led organization working to repeal the laws that allow young people to be tried as adults [in Pennsylvania]. The current law is if you are tried for anything that can be considered a violent crime, you will automatically be charged as an adult, and you will be held in an adult prison pretrial.Before 1996, you could only be automatically charged as an adult for murder, and all other cases the DA had to petition to get you charged as an adult. [Act 33] made it so that the crimes you could be charged for varies; it could be anything considered violent, and the DA has the discretion on what’s violent and what’s not. We don’t think young people should be charged as adults at all. We want them to repeal the amendment so it could be like it was before 1996. We have facts that show that since 1996, charging young people as adults, it never reduced crime. Continue reading “Interview with Joshua Glenn of Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP)”
by Victoria Law and Tina Reynolds
From PHN Issue 14, Summer 2012
“I never thought of advocating outside of prison. I just wanted to have some semblance of a normal life once I was released,” stated Tina Reynolds, a mother and formerly incarcerated woman. But then she gave birth to her son while in prison for a parole violation:
“When I went into labor, my water broke. The prison van came to pick me up, I was shackled. Once I was in the van, I was handcuffed. I was taken to the hospital. The handcuffs were taken off, but the shackles weren’t. I walked to the wheelchair that they brought over to me and I sat in the wheelchair with shackles on me. They re-handcuffed me once I was in the wheelchair and took me up to the floor where women had their children. Continue reading “Birthing Behind Bars: A Campaign for Reproductive Justice in Prisons”
Prison Health News 