Daryle Lamont Jenkins & Menard Hunger Strikes

This week we’re speaking with Daryle Lamont Jenkins of One People’s Project based in Philadelphia, PA. Mr Jenkins is a writer, activist, and committed anti fascist. This hour we’ll speak about the state of fascism in the US and how to approach dealing with fascists and racists in your community. We talk about the One People’s Project, its history, and its goals. Keep an eye out for their new website at http://idavox.com/ to be up next month. You can see our previous interview with Mr. Jenkins at The Final Straw’s website

To write to the One People’s Project, address letters to:

One People’s Project
PO BOX 42817
Philadelphia, PA 19101

For more about Ida B. Wells you can visit the wikipedia article about her.

For information about the TORCH Antifa Conference in November 2015 you can visit their website

And for more about the 0161 Festival in England, you can visit their facebook link

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Here is an update on the hunger strike in Menard:

Some of you will remember the hunger strike in
January-February 2014 by prisoners in Administrative Detention at the Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois. During and after the hunger strike, several of the hunger strikers were sent to prisons as far away as California, Virginia, West Virginia, and New Mexico. Others remain in Administrative Detention at Menard. Many of the 2014 hunger strikers wanted to know why they were there, and they wanted to know what they had to do to get out of Administrative Detention. Although the Illinois Department of Corrections now issues some notices, the notices still don’t answer those questions.

The following information is drawn from letters received in
September 2015 from prisoners in Administrative Detention at Menard, compiled by Alice Lynd.

Here in A.D., everything is still the same. No one is being released and we are still not getting meaningful hearings. We are still not getting any written reasons or any new info relied on for the basis of the Committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D. We are still getting the same vague memos.

We now only get 1 day a week of out-of-cell exercise (yard). We are in our cells 24 hrs. a day, 6 days a week. We are being excessively confined in our cells. We are still not allowed to participate in any educational programs. Our mail is not being picked up or passed out 5 days a week, as they are supposed to.

We don’t see any end to this indefinite isolation/solitary confinement. Due to these issues and more, we are going to go on hunger strike once again. *We will be declaring a hunger strike on September 23, 2015. *We will feel very thankful for your help in spreading the word.

*Our core demands are:*

We demand an end to long term solitary confinement.

We demand minimum due process at Administrative Detention Review Hearings by providing inmates with written reasons, including new information relied upon, for Committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D. and be allowed to grieve all adverse decisions. As it stands, the basis of the Committee’s votes are kept secret.

We demand more access to outside recreation for the sake of our physical and mental health. As it stands, we are confined indefinitely to these cages for 6 days out of the week, with the exception of one 5 hour day. This is unbearable.

We demand that meaningful educational programs be implemented to encourage our mental stability, rehabilitation, and social development for the sake of ourselves and our communities that we will one day return to.

We demand access to more visiting privileges. For most of our families traveling to Menard is like traveling to another state. Considering the distance, 2 hour visits behind plexiglass is insufficient. We should be allowed 5 or 6 hours. Moreover, our family members, including inmates, should be provided the human dignity and decency to purchase food items and refreshments from vending machines after traveling such great distances. This would benefit one’s social development, as well as benefit prison staff environment.

We ask the public’s help by calling the warden, the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the Governor on September 23, 2015, and so forth, to check on our welfare.

Warden Kimberly Butler, 618-826-5071
Menard Correctional Center
711 Kaskaskia Street
Menard, IL 62259

Director John Baldwin, 217-558-2200
Illinois Department of Corrections
1301 Concordia Court
P. O. Box 19277
Springfield, IL 52794-9277

Governor Bruce Rauner, 217-782-0244
Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706

We will stay on hunger strike as long as possible in order to hopefully bring some change to our conditions. We thank you for any kind of support you can give us.

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