PJD

Activist Communique: Prisoner Justice Day – Toronto

The Deets:

Friday August 10, 2012

6:00 pm

Outside the Toronto Don Jail

 550 Gerrard Street East

Toronto, ON

The Call Out:

PRISONERS JUSTICE DAY 2012

Friday, August 10, 2012 6:00pm
Outside the Toronto Don Jail 550 Gerrard Street East
ASL Interpretation Provided

Join us for speakers, performers, children’s programming, a mini march and a candlelight vigil at dusk.

August 10th, 2012 marks the 37th anniversary of Prisoners Justice Day. On August 10th, 1974 Eddie Nalon bled to death in a solitary confinement unit at Millhaven Penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario.

The emergency call button in his cell failed to work. An inquest into his death found that many call buttons in the unit were broken. The guards had also deactivated the receiving mechanism in the control tower. In 1975 on the first anniversary of Eddie’s death, prisoners at Millhaven went on a one-day hunger strike, refused work and held a memorial service, even at risk of punishment.

On May 21, 1976 another prisoner, Bobby Landers, died in the same segregation unit at Millhaven. Landers, active in the struggle for Prisoners Rights at Archambault Penitentiary, was involuntarily transferred to Millhaven and thrown in the hole. He had a heart attack, but the call buttons had still not been repaired and staff ignored his pleas.

Prisoners continue to observe August 10th each year. Community groups and family members gather outside prisons in solidarity.

It is a day of protest against all deaths in custody, the inhumane use of solitary confinement, racist policing, the detention and deportation of immigrants and refugees, the taking of land through colonization and the criminalization of First Nations defence of their territories, the denial of justice for Indigenous women and transpeople, the disabling effects of prison, the cruelty of psychiatric incarceration, poverty and homelessness, the separation of families, security certificates, tasers for prison guards and cops, the over-incarceration for people who use drugs or involved in sex work, the over-incarceration of people living with disabilities (especially people labeled with mental health issues and learning disabilities) and the medical neglect of prisoners with HIV/AIDS and the lack of harm reduction in
prison.

It is a call for alternatives to incarceration – at a time when governments are enacting repressive U.S. style get-tough-on-crime laws to build more prisons despite a falling crime rate.

Join us for speakers, performers and a candlelight vigil at dusk when we read the names of prisoners who have died.

Friday, August 10, 2012 6:00pm
Outside the Toronto Don Jail 550 Gerrard Street East
ASL Interpretation Provided

Join us for speakers, performers, children’s programming, a mini march and a candlelight vigil at dusk when we read the names of those we have lost to the prison system.

#30#

 More Information: Prisoners speak out against Harper’s omnibus crime bill

Krystalline Kraus

krystalline kraus is an intrepid explorer and reporter from Toronto, Canada. A veteran activist and journalist for rabble.ca, she needs no aviator goggles, gas mask or red cape but proceeds fearlessly...