Penal labor dispute in Georgia, United States
The 2010 Georgia prison strike was a prison strike involving prisoners at 7 prisons in the U.S. state of Georgia. The strike, organized by the prisoners using contraband cell phones, began on December 9 and ended on December 15. It was reported at the time to be the largest prison strike in United States history and was followed by similar strikes in several other states, as well as nationwide strikes several years later, in 2016 and 2018.
Background and beginning.
The labor strike was organized by prison inmates over the course of several months in 2010 using contraband cell phones, with "The New York Times" claiming that the strike may be the first instance of cell phones being used to organize a grassroots protest of this nature in prisons. Several inmates with cell phones had called "The New York Times" and said they had learned about the planned strike through text messages and were unaware of who exactly were behind it. American prison activist Elaine Brown called the strike an "organic effort" by the inmates. The strike, involving 7 prisons in the state, officially began on December 9, 2010, with inmates refusing to work and many refusing to leave their cells. According to an article published in "The New York Times", the prisoners "would not perform chores, work for the Corrections Department’s industrial arm or shop at prison commissaries until a list of demands is addressed, including compensation for their work, more educational opportunities, better food and sentencing rules changes."
The prisons involved were:
While an exact number was not specified, it was widely reported that several thousand inmates were participating in the strike.
Course of the strike.
Following the start of the prison strike, the strikers issued a press release that outlined several demands. The demands, as reported by the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, included the following demands:
On December 9, in anticipation of the protest, several of the prisons involved were placed on lockdown. While the strike was initially planned as a one-day event, it was extended for several more days after prisoners reported that prison officers at several of the prisons had responded to the strike with violence. On December 15, multiple news sources announced that the strike was over. That same day, an article published in "ColorLines" called it "the largest prison strike in U.S. history." Following the strike action in Georgia, similar large-scale prison strikes were held at prisons in several other U.S. states, including Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington. Several years later in 2016, a nationwide prison strike, referred to as "one of the biggest prison protests in modern history", was held during the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison riot. In 2018, another nationwide prison strike was held that affected prisons in at least 17 states.
References.
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