BK/NY – Tuesday, February 14th – Letter-Writing Dinner For Mumia Abu-Jamal

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, February 14th, 2017
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free

This week NYC ABC is happy to announce that we will be joined by a special guest speaker from the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home as we write to Mumia Abu Jamal. Mumia has recently filed a grievance to the officials at SCI Mahanoy regarding the cleanliness and quality of the water at the prison as well as their non-compliance in a court order to treat his hep-c and has asked that folks on the outside participate in a campaign to remedy those issues.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an African-American writer and journalist, author of six books and hundreds of columns and articles, who has spent the last 30 years on Pennsylvania’s death row and now general population. Mumia was wrongfully convicted and sentenced for the murder of a Philadelphia cop. The demand for a new trial and freedom is supported by heads of state, Nobel laureates, distinguished human rights organizations, scholars, religious leaders, artists, scientists and, as important, millions of folks like you and us. For more information, be sure to visit bringmumiahome.com.

We expect to see you on Tuesday. If you can’t make it, please take the time to write a letter to Mumia:
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM 8335
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Road
Frackville, Pennsylvania 17932

As you prepare to join us on Tuesday in writing letters to Mumia, please take a moment and heed his request with this action alert from the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home

Urgent Call to Action:
Water Crisis in the Prison, DOC in Contempt of Mumia Court Order

From Flint and Standing Rock to SCI Mahanoy and prisons across the country, people are defending the life-saving right to clean water. While all of us need clean water, prisoners are especially vulnerable when the institution they are controlled by, does not provide it. They cannot use filters, buy clean water, or move to a different city. And the large majority of prisoners’ health is already compromised by the prisons’ poor food, dirty surroundings, and horrific medical care. The DOC is responsible for providing for the prisoners’ basic needs which it regularly fails to do.

At SCI Mahanoy, the Pennsylvania prison that houses Mumia Abu-Jamal, the water is unsafe for prisoners to bathe in, shower in and drink. It is “dirty, brackish, turbid, even black water” —that is how Mumia Abu-Jamal describes the dramatic situation in a grievance he filed last week. The grievance includes six demands, including 1) the immediate provision of an alternative source of “clean, fresh, safe, and untainted water” for bathing and drinking and 2) “testing of the water piped into the infirmary tub and showers.”

Please help amplify the voices of all prisoners. Take action. Call the prison and publicize Mumia’s grievance widely (see transcript below). A grievance about the lack of clean water has also been filed at Frackville Prison, only a few miles from Mahanoy

As you know, Mumia has a severe skin ailment, a symptom of his untreated HEP C. The water contamination at the prison, therefore, poses a serious threat to his life through infection. For this reason Mumia has refused the three baths a week that prison doctors prescribed to alleviate his symptoms. In addition to violating the January 2017 court order of a federal judge mandating that Mumia be immediately treated with the HEP C cure, which is the root cause of his skin problem, the DOC is in violation of its own woefully inadequate “baths prescription” for the treatment of his skin condition and HEP C.

TAKE ACTION. Call the prison, the DOC & the Pennsylvania Governor

LANGUAGE TO USE and DEMANDS

Hi, I am a concerned citizen from______________. I am calling to demand that the Mahanoy prison administration

1. Immediately provide all prisoners clean water for bathing, showering and drinking.

In addition, I am demanding that the institution

2. Comply with Judge Mariani’s court ruling of January 3, 2017, which ordered the immediate treatment of Mumia Abu Jamal with the Hep C cure by the DOC. Give Mumia the cure he needs.

Officials to Call:
1. Theresa Del Balso, Superintendent SCI Mahanoy: 570.773.2158 x8102 | 570.783.2008 Fax | 301 Morea Road, Frackville, Pennslvania 1793
2. John Wetzel, Pennslvania DOC: 717.728.4109 | 717.728.4178 Fax | ra-contactdoc@poc.gov | 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, Pennslvania 17050
3. Tom Wolf, Pennslvania Governor: 717.787.2500 | governor@PA.gov | 508 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg, Pennslvania 17120

IN ADDITION, TAKE ACTION IN THE STREETS.

RALLY in Philadelphia at the Governor’s Office
When: Thursday, February 9, 2017 — 4-6PM
Where: 200 South Broad Street, Philadelphia
______
Transcript of Mumia’s Grievance.

OFFICIAL INMATE GRIEVANCE
TO: FACILITY GRIEVANCE COORDINATOR
Jane Hinman, Assistant to Superintendent
FROM: (INMATE NAME & NUMBER)
M. A. Jamal #AM8335
DATE: 1/25/17
A.     Provide a brief, clear statement of your grievance. Additional paper may be used, maximum two pages …. State all relief that you are seeking.
Over the last several months, I have repeatedly complained of dirty, brackish, turbid, even black water in the infirmary’s tub. In my discussions with c/o Easterday, I’ve confirmed this situation several times. I’ve received several responses from my prior grievances, which I believe are misleading, incorrect and untrue.
Several weeks ago, c/o Easterday informed me that he was told by someone looking into this issue that the water’s discoloration stems from the water pooling in the pipes (or words to that effect), and if one simply let the water run for 5 minutes, it would clear up.
When I reported for my medically-prescribed bath today (around 8:30 due to waiting some 20-25 minutes in the pill line(!) because of the length of the line), I found the water, upon running, dark, turbid, and quite discolored. I again showed it to c/o Easterday, who repeated what he told me several weeks earlier.
I let the water run; for 5 minutes; for 10 minutes; for 15 minutes; for 20 minutes—and not only didn’t it clear up—it got worse! While the water appeared like tea in the beginning, it looked more like coffee after a 20-minute run. I left the stopper in after the last run, and showed it to the c/o, who replied he ‘understood,’ when I informed him there was no way I could/would get into a tub in that condition.
He made a call (to whom, I don’t know) and he explained (as I was then outside the room), he explained that the water in the shower room also was running dark, discolored, coffee-colored, and dirty, despite the fact that a man in a wheelchair had just showered in this stuff! This was clearly a situation that went beyond ‘a dirty pipe.’ How am I supposed to clean myself in dirty water? I left the water in the tub, and thereby left it ripe for testing by the person contacted by c/o Easterday.
If this was not done (why wouldn’t it be?), I hereby request the following:

B.     List actions taken and staff you have contacted, before submitting this grievance.

(As shown in the text, I showed this matter to c/o Easterday, several times this morning.)

1.  Immediate testing of the water piped into the tub and shower rooms;
2.  A clear determination of what substance (or substances) turned the water such a dark, turbid color;
3.  Immediate correction of this situation so that people won’t be further harmed by whatever is in this water.
4.  Please explain how, and when this matter will be corrected.
5.  Please provide an alternative, which timely provides clean, fresh, safe, untainted water, not just for bathing, but for drinking.

The deal, as always, is that you come bringing only yourself (and your friends and comrades), and we provide you with a delicious vegan meal, information about the prisoners as well as all of the letter-writing materials and prisoner-letter-writing info you could ever want to use in one evening. In return, you write a thoughtful letter to a political prisoner or prisoner of war of your choosing or, better yet, keep up a long-term correspondence. We’ll also provide some brief updates and pass around birthday cards for the PP/POWs whose birthdays fall in the next two weeks thanks to the PP/POW Birthday Calendar.

Directions:
Getting to The Base is simple:
From the M Train:
Central Avenue Stop: Walk east on Myrtle Avenue (away from Hart Street, toward Cedar Street). We’re about two blocks down on the south side of the street.

Knickerbocker Avenue Stop: Walk west on Myrtle Avenue (away from Harman Street, toward Himrod Street). We’re about three blocks down on the south side of the street.

From the L Train:
DeKalb Avenue Stop: Walk south on Stockholm Street (away from Wyckoff Avenue, toward Irving Avenue). We’re about four blocks down, at the intersection of Stockholm Street and Myrtle Avenue.

From the J Train:
Myrtle Avenue Stop: Transfer to the M train and follow the above directions