Open Letter to Activists on the Outside

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” →

Fasting for Rights and Dignity: From Guantanamo Bay to California

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” →

Prison SMART: Using Breath to Manage Stress

by Jeanine Campbell

From PHN Issue 18, Fall 2013

Prison Stress Management and Rehabilitation Training (Prison SMART) is a simple program that teaches a breathing technique designed to reduce stress, heal past trauma, and provide ways to handle negative emotions such as anger, guilt, and frustration. Started by the International Association for Human Values (IAHV), Prison SMART is active in prisons in over 36 countries and in 30 state, county, and federal correctional institutions across the U.S. The program is also adapted for correctional staff, the formerly incarcerated, and people in halfway houses, on parole or probation, and in juvenile justice programs. Continue reading →

Prison Yoga

by Jeanine Campbell

From PHN Issue 17, Summer 2013

The Prison Yoga Project is an organization based in California that seeks to establish yoga and mindfulness meditation programs in prisons and rehabilitation centers across the United States. They give trainings for yoga instructors interested in starting yoga programs in prisons, and have established over 20 prison yoga programs in correctional facilities across the country. Continue reading “Prison Yoga” →

Rising Above HIV Discrimination

By Joel Laux, M.C.C.F. Montgomery County, PA

From PHN Issue 16, Spring 2013

I am HIV Positive, and have been so for about eleven years now. I also am an IV Drug user. I have had personal experiences involving discriminatory practices in the law or its application. Although I have not been actually prosecuted in a court of law for an HIV specific criminal statute, I have been threatened with it. Continue reading “Rising Above HIV Discrimination” →

Decarceration: A New Strategy Against Prisons

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” →

Passing the Torch: John Bell 1946-2012

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” →

Interview with Joshua Glenn of Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP)

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)” →

Birthing Behind Bars: A Campaign for Reproductive Justice in Prisons

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” →

NO JUSTICE!: When Sex Work Brands You as a “Sex Offender” in New Orleans

by Deon Haywood and Laura McTighe

From PHN Issue 10, Spring 2011

Since our founding in 1991, Women With A Vision, Inc (WWAV) has been standing with the women of New Orleans, no questions asked. We have been trusted with stories that few others hear. But little could have prepared us for that day when ‘J’ pulled out her photo identification card, which read ‘SEX OFFENDER’ in block orange letters. As she explained how she had gotten picked up during a Mardi Gras round up and charged with a crime against nature, she was filled with anger and pain that marked this as the latest instance in a long history of exploitation. She is only 23 years old, one month clean from an 8 1⁄2 year heroin addiction. The ‘sex offender’ label will remain on her ID until she turns 48. Continue reading “NO JUSTICE!: When Sex Work Brands You as a “Sex Offender” in New Orleans” →