Portland Anarchist Black Cross

Other Movement Prisoners:

Lucasville Uprising

• Siddique Abdullah Hasan
• Greg Curry
• Bomani Shakur

Corcorcan Prison Strikers

• Pyung Hwa Ryoo
• Juan Jaimes
• William E. Brown
• Michael Zaharibu Dorrough
• J. Heshima Denham
• Kambui Robinson

New Afrikan Black Panther Party

• Kevin “Rashid Johnson

Lucasville Uprising

Easter Sunday, 1993, the Lucasville, OH, prison was rocked when prisoners took control in what was the longest prison uprising in U.S. history. Black and White prisoners stood together to fight back against a brutal prison regime.  When prison boss Arthur Tate mandated TB testing with injections containing alcohol, Muslim prisoners politely requested an alternative testing method.  Tate’s refusal to comply, along with his utter disrespect of Muslims, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. During the course of the uprising, 9 prisoners and 1 cop were killed.  The Lucasville rebellion sent a shock wave into the heart of the prison system and the state was determined to teach a lesson to any who would stand up and fight back.  In the sham trials that followed, 5 people were scapegoated onto death row.

Siddique Abdullah Hasan

Siddique Hasan played a key role in negotiating a peaceful end to the siege.  Although no eyewitness testimony and no material evidence linked  Hasan to the death of any cop, the state used dubious jailhouse snitch testimony, along with a predominantly white jury in Cincinnati (a city notorious for institutionalized racism), to get a death conviction against him.  Siddique Abdullah Hasan, is a prison Imam, skilled writer, and compassionate mentor and friend to fellow inmates.  His case has widespread support but Siddique is nearing the end of any possible appeals. Some of the articles he has written can be found at: http://www.prisonersolidarity.org/

Greg Curry

In his own words:

” I believe that not only will friends of justice, freedom and equality (socialists) have to wake people up, but prisoners; especially those of us in super-max prisons, also have to play our part in waking up the masses so that the mind and body are accessible to positive growth.  But everywhere among believers and activists in society, there must be a number of houses, gardens, bakeries, study halls and schools, that can absorb like-minded prisoners returning to society.  Moreover, there must be training facilities to develop and help pioneers to travel across America and spread our words and deeds.  We have to be ready and willing to do things we have not done before in order to achieve that which we have yet to achieve.”

Bomani Shakur

Ohio prosecutors alleged that Keith Lamar was the leader of a group of prisoners dubbed the death squad and was responsible for ordering the deaths of five inmates during Ohio’s longest and bloodiest prison uprising, at Lucasville in 1993. Since the uprising he has taken the African name Bomani Shakur.  Bomani Shakur has proclaimed his innocence.  He reports that police beat him, left him naked in freezing conditions for long periods and in cells without plumbing in order to make him confess to acts he didn’t commit and to get him to become a witness for the state. He encouraged other prisoners not to make false confessions or turn state’s evidence. He is now on death row as a part of the Lucasville Uprising.

Other Prisoner Movement

Corcorcan Prison Hunger Strikers

In late December 2011, prisoners at California’s Corcoran State Prison’s ASU launched a hunger strike in protest of inhumane conditions. Prison staff transferred those who were identified as hunger strike leaders to the psychiatric ward and issued all participants violation notices for “participation in mass disturbances.”  Inmates in the ASU are held in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement. Many have been in isolation for years and even decades.  California State Prison, Corcoran, houses over 1400 in Security Housing Units and an additional 350 in ASUs.  It has been the site of  hunger strikes since late December 2011. Unlike the highly publicized Pelican Bay hunger strikes of last year, the Corcoran strikes have received scant press attention.  In February 2012, 27-year-old Christian Gomez died a week after joining the hunger strike.   There is no way out – prisoners are told they will die in there.

Pyung Hwa Ryoo, F-88924, Corcoran State Prison, ASU 1-167, P.O. Box 3456, Corcoran, CA 93212