Monday, December 19, 2011

Prisoners Organize Rally of Family

Atlanta, GA - Starting at 9:00 am Monday, December 19, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses and friends of men and women locked behind bars in Georgia prisons will stage the first in a series of marches calling for justice for their loved ones.

This grass-roots protest is part of the growing December 9th Prisoners’ Rights Movement, a re-formation of a coalition organized last year to address the plight of Georgia prisoners, which arose from the prisoners’ massive, non-violent December 9th protest.  
The Movement includes black, Latino, white, Christian, Muslim, Rastafarian and other prisoner organizations, along with The Ordinary People Society, The Nation of Islam Southern Region, The Little B Legal Defense Committee, The National Action Network Southern Region, The Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald, The Prodigal Child Project, The National Justice Coalition, Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement. 
Family and friends of inmates will march for an "end to the brutal and unjust punishments men and women behind bars regularly suffer at the hands of prison guards, with the full sanction of the Department of Corrections.  They will march to demand a fair parole process, to demand their loved ones be paid for their labor, for decent food and housing and healthcare, for an education for their loved ones."
Elaine Brown, Steering Committee member of the December 9th Movement, said, “These men and women remain human beings and deserve to be treated humanely.” 
Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, also a Steering Committee member, who is the Founder and President of The Ordinary People Society and a leader of the Formerly Incarcerated Convicted People Movement, added: “It is in the interest of our society to bring an end to these terrible conditions and to provide these men and women an education so they can be successfully reintegrated into the community when they are released.  For, despite the gross injustices permeating the parole system in Georgia, these men and women will be released some day.”
Charles Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, also a member of the December 9th Movement Steering Committee, will be in attendance at the rally.
Over the last year, the prisoners have continued to petition the Department of Corrections for their human rights.
The December 9th Movement is pledged to take the case of the human rights violations of Georgia prisoners to the International Criminal Court and the United Nations.
                            

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