A nationwide strike by prisoners in the US (and some parts of Canada) officially ended on 9 September, but repercussions for those that took part continue and some prisoners are continuing hunger strikes or other non-compliance in response.
Organisers estimate that imprisoned people in over 14 states participated in forms of action that varied from work strikes, commissary boycotts, sit-ins, hunger strikes and yard rallies. Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) reported after week one of the strike actions in: Washington where immigrant detainees at Northwest Detention centre declared a hunger strike and an estimated 70 took part; Georgia state prison ″Reidsville″; South Carolina where work strikes and commissary boycotts are reported in Broad River, Lee, McCormick, Turbeville, Kershaw and Lieber Correctional Institutions; Hyde Correctional Institution in North Carolina; New Folsom Prison in California; Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio; Wabash Correctional Institution in Indiana; Lea County Correctional Facility in New Mexico; Charlotte, Dade, Franklin, Holmes and Appalachee Correctional Institutions in Florida; Anderson County in Texas; and Burnside County Jail in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Outside organisers with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, IWOC and others have organised solidarity rallies, and ″phone zaps″ during the strike and since in order to put pressure on authorities who are retaliating against organisers and those taking part in the strike. Students at Harvard Law school also organised a rally in support of the strike.
Organisers are now asking people to sign a petition (bit.ly/2N5FIGD) in support of the prisoners′ demands and in order to maintain the pressure of the strike.
