Please write to Refuseniks and other Prisoners

“When I was imprisoned, I never received mail from family or friends (just thousands of letters from supporters).  All the mail is screened and the only time I received a letter from my mom is when she wrote using a pseudonym and in code.  The letters were very reassuring and helped me to make friends and keep the guards off my back.  Like the people who are currently imprisoned, I was in during the holidays which can be especially difficult, and I would encourage letter drives to be received on holidays.  On Christmas I received a batch of cards by British kindergartners that are really special to me.  Teachers can be encouraged to give the information to their students, and is an opportunity to teach about war resistance, anti-militarism, and peace.  It would be great to organize letter drives specifically from people's hometown or state.  Anonymous letters mean more when the writer has more in common with the reader.”  Stephen Funk, First soldier to publicly refuse to go to Iraq in 2003, and San Francisco chapter President of Iraq Veterans Against the War

ISRAEL  Women & men who have refused to serve in the Israeli Defense Force - jailed repeatedly for 14-21 days since August 2008

USA  Refusing to be killed
on death row

Tamar Katz
ID: 5396326

Yuval Oron-Ofir
ID 201205580

Mumia Abu Jamal Internationally known journalist and “voice of the voiceless”.  Railroaded for the murder of a police officer in 1981 in a trial drenched with racism, and on death row for over 25 years. His upcoming Supreme Court appeal could agree there was racism in jury selection and grant a new trial -- helping 3,000 people on death row, most of whom are people of colour. Write to:
AM 8335, SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370, USA

Sahar Vardi
ID: 6055780

Mia Tamarin
ID: 5399276

Troy Davis  Wrongfully convicted at age 20 of killing a police officer. A federal court stopped his execution in Oct under pressure from an international campaign led by his mother & sister.
He had a new hearing on Dec 9.  Seven of nine witnesses who implicated him have recanted, many citing police coercion.
Write to:

Troy A. Davis 657378
GDCP PO Box 3877 G-3-79
Jackson, Georgia 30233  USA

Rev. Edward Pinkney Benton Harbor is 94% Black with an average income of $8,000 a year.  Rev. Pinkney led successful recall election vs a city official closely aligned with Whirlpool Corp. and developers.  Found guilty of election fraud by all-white jury, given a 3-10 year sentence.  Sixty years old & threatened by guards, in a filthy prison far from supportive family & community.  NEWS FLASH: Rev Pinkney is being released!  On 18 Dec, the clemency court accepted his bond after enormous grassroots pressure from Benton Harbor residents & nationally, including from Global Women's Strike and Payday.  We are waiting for the latest on the conditions of his bond, but we're all hoping he will be home by Christmas. More public pressure will be needed in the new year.

Juhana Hirvonen
Expected release: 8 April 2009.  Write to:
Helsingin avovankila
Vantaan osasto 
PL 36  
01531 Vantaa, Finland
Sebastian Salminen
Expected release: 4 April 2009.  Write to:
Ylitornion vankila
Rajantie 410 
95600 Ylitornio, Finland

Russell Maroon Shoats  New Afrikan POW, arrested in 1972 for the murder of a police officer, serving multiple life sentences. He is 67 years old. Most of his time in prison has been spent in control units in which he is locked in his cell for 22-24 hours a day.  He has repeatedly been ignored by guards when requesting the medical attention he urgently needs.

Write to: SCI-Greene, #AF-3855  
175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg,
PA  15370-8090

URGENT Action Alert! Demand the Pennsylvania Governor Stop Torture in the Camp Hill SMU (solitary confinement)
From Human Rights Coalition - FedUp! Chapter (Pittsburgh)
412-361-3022 xt.4  hrcfedup@gmail.com 

SCI Camp Hill (Pennsylvania prison) Update—Call for Action, Increased Monitoring, Constant Vigilance

As Pressure Fades, Retaliation Escalates
Prisoners in the Camp Hill Special Management Unit report that the retaliation against them has escalated again.  The timing of the reports indicate that the last action alert stayed the hands of the guards for a while, but once the calls died down, the threats, deprivations of food, fabricated charges of misconduct, and other forms of harassment and torture have escalated again.

Michael Edwards, Damont Hagan, and Gary Tucker have been most targeted by prison guards as a result of their efforts to expose racist brutality and maintain dignity while being subjected to systematic dehumanization.

These men, and the others listed below, need the following from all of us:

1)—Take immediate action (detailed at
http://emergencyresponse.cc/stop_torture_at_smu_camp_hill)
2)—Establish channels of communication with these men; write them letters (see address below and names at the right)
3)—Committed and strategic thinking for a long-term battle with the DOC and the governor's office, involving intensive monitoring, visitation, legal battles, media work, community organizing, and—not least of all—transformation of an unsustainable, oppressive social order.

There is no other way to begin to address the conditions in the Camp Hill SMU, or any other solitary unit in PA or the country for that matter.  Please take a deep breath and make a commitment right now to make a phone call and write a letter some time in the next couple of days.

See full action alert at Family and Friends of Prisoners’ Emergency Response Network website: http://emergencyresponse.cc/

Please write one or more of the men held in the SMU at the following address (include prisoner numbers):
SCI Camp Hill, PO Box 200, Camp Hill, PA 17001, USA

24-Hour Lockdown for Months

Several recent prisoner reports indicate that the following individuals are currently locked in their cells 24 hours a day, deprived of access to shower and yard, and frequently denied food and water.