This article came to us via alt.prisons, and it's well worth passing to CAPS Members and good friends.
We at CAPS have shown and requested our supporters and allies to be conscious of this litigation, and to provide endorcement, and related materials to assist Attorney Serra in his present struggle against prison slave labor. Moreover, we endorse this litigation, hope it will expand to all corners on behalf of millions of prison slaves across this guilty nation.
Defense Attorney Tony Serra Sues Feds Over Slave Labor Practices
by Lynda Carson tenantsr...@yahoo.com
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/04/01/18387743.php
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ncl=http://www.indybay.org/newsitem...
San Francisco,CA,USA
Oakland, CA
During late March, San Francisco's well known and respected activist attorney J.Tony
Serra, filed suit against the federal government over slave labor practices.
Just out of California's Lompoc prison after serving 10 months for his years long tax
boycott, the celebrated attorney filed suit in an attempt to force the federal
government to pay it's prisoners a fair wage compensation for the work being done by
prison inmates, while serving time.
At the least, Serra believes that inmates should earn minimum wage for the work they
do in prison, and that unions should be allowed to organize and represent the inmates
for collective bargaining, to negotiate better wages and conditions for workers.
"It's a class action lawsuit," says Serra. "I'm a member (plaintiff) of the class
action suit, and it was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California. We believe that Lompoc's pay scale is in violation of the U.S.
Constitution's Fifth and Thirteenth Amendments, which are the United Nations
covenants on political, civil and prisoner rights."
"Prisoners have no rights in America. They don't care about the prisoners in this
country, and the prisons are profitting from the slave-like conditions being forced
upon the inmates. Lompoc has a dairy and meat industry, including a cable factory
which is a supplier for the navy and armed forces industry. Lompoc generated alot of
money last year, little of which was returned to the inmates as compensation for the
work they do. The federal prison workforce generates around $65 million per year in
net profits, and I received 19 cents an hour when working at Lompoc, while the other
prisoners were only earning anywhere from 5 cents to $1.65 an hour for their labor.
These are slave wages, and often the inmates come back from work covered in filth and
are worn out at the end of the day," Serra said.
Serra and the 300 to 500 other plaintiffs involved in the class action lawsuit, are
being represented by attorney's Stephen Perelson of Mill Valley, and John Murcko and
William Simpich, of Oakland.
When I asked Serra if he believes the lawsuit will succeed; "I think that theres so
many immunities and waivers in regards to how prisons are being operated in this
nation, that the federal government will do everything possible to toss it out of the
courts. If we could manage somehow to bring this class action far enough through the
courts to bring it before a jury, I believe that we would win."
When asked about prison life; "It feels good to be out of prison, but I feel bad for
all of those that were left behind," said Serra. "I went through a week of feeling
like Rip Van Winkle when first getting out, and I had a fresh conciousness to look at
everything differently. Prison took me out of the city, where I could hear a breeze
passing by and the sounds of birds in the trees while watering lawns during my daily
5 hour work periods. I still had my license to practice law and could help others out
when possible, and I managed to write 2 books and several essays during the past 10
months. For those who complain about conditions while in prison, the guards would
often roll up on them and take them away. The worst part of prison is for snitches or
if you are a rat, and shunning is the first level of punishment, and violence is the
second punishment level that snitches go through," said Serra.
With over 7 million people caught up into the clutches of the so-called criminal
justice system and around 2.2 million people behind bars across the nation, the U.S.
has far more people locked up and exploited than any other country in the world. The
most notorious prisons are known as Supermax facilities, and corporate prisons such
as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which manages around 69 prisons and
owns 40 prisons, with annual revenues of $1.5 billion in 2004, have often been
vilified for mismanagement scandals, lack of prisoner health care and for abusing
it's inmates.
Theres around 200,000 federal inmates nationwide, and federal inmates work for the
Federal Prisons Industry (FPI), a corporation owned by the federal government since
1934, and now known as Unicor (trade name) since 1978, which manufactures products
for use by the federal government. During 2003, Unicor had industrial operations at
112 factories located at 71 facilities within the federal prison system (including
Lompoc), while employing over 20,000 inmates.
"Minimum wage does not help much if your sucking up lead in one of Unicor's toxic
sweatshops," says Aaron Shuman, who spent 4 months in federal prison for protesting
against the "School of Americas," in Fort Benning, Georgia. "It's been documented
that prisoners working for Unicor have been exposed to excessive levels of toxic
metals at their computer recycling facilities, and I believe that inmates and prison
guards should receive reparations for the toxic metals exposure thats been occurring
in these prison factories. Unicor needs to shut down these toxic sweatshops now."
The prison industry is a $40 billion business annually in America, and it's not just
the prisoners being exploited. In California alone from 2002-2003, the inflated rates
of collect phone calls being made by prisoners in county jails adds up to $120
million a year in phone bills for their families and friends. The cost of the collect
phone calls were so inflated that they provided income to counties that range from
$100 to $1,376 per inmate, during the same period.
Prisoner populations continue to grow across the nation, and it's to the point that
children are now being held in corporate owned prisons in America, as a result of
immigrant arrests. A recent report reveals that fugitive apprehension teams hunting
down immigrants face a backlog with more than 623,000 cases in the pipeline as of
August 26, 2006.
Tony Serra closes by saying, "I hope our class action will force the federal
government to reconsider it's ways, and at the least to force the federal government
to pay a minimum wage to it's prisoner workforce."
Serra became well known as the brilliant attorney that would take cases no one else
wanted, and he inspired the 1989 film "True Believer", in which his character was
portrayed by famed actor James Woods. Through the years, Serra's cases ranged from
defending the Hells' Angels, Black Panther leader Huey Newton in a murder trial, and
the Symbionese Liberation Army, to representing his own sons in a dispute over a
skateboard ramp they built in Bolinas, CA.
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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all COck-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.
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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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