#silencingact

On Monday, May 4th, we traveled to Harrisburg, PA with Decarcerate PA to protest the silencing of prisoners and other legally entangled people. We gave the following speech: 

We are from the Amistad Law Project and were on the legal team that helped to overturn the Silencing Act.

In early October 2014, imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal gave a prerecorded commencement address at Goddard College in Vermont.

The Fraternal Order of Police seized on this moment and whipped up a media frenzy leading up to the commencement speech.

PA Representative Mike Vereb introduced the Silencing Act, inaccurately named the Revictimization Relief Act and through some tricky procedural maneuvering, the bill was passed in both houses in than three weeks.

Jennifer Storm, Pennsylvania's Victims Advocate, and Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams both publicly supported the bill.

The Silencing Act allowed individual victims, county District Attorneys, and the Attorney General to sue people who were convicted of personal injury crimes for "revictimization" of victims, defined as anything that caused temporary or permanent mental anguish.

We sued a few weeks later, along with the Abolitionist Law Center and the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University, in Abu-Jamal v. Kane. Our clients were prisoners and organizations that disseminated the voices of prisoners—Mumia Abu-Jamal, Robert Saleem Holbrook, Donnell Palmer, Anthony Chance, Kerry Shakaboona Marshall, Prison Radio, Human Rights Coalition, and Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

A few months later, the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union filed suit, representing formerly incarcerated people, journalists, and advocates.

On the morning of March 30th, both lawsuits had a combined trial at that federal courthouse right there. Afterward the legal team was feeling cautiously optimistic. Then later that day we found out that Mumia Abu-Jamal had been hospitalized. His blood glucose level was dangerously high and he was rushed to the hospital in diabetic shock. He has since been sent back to the prison and the infirmary and doctors who took months to diagnose him while he lost a significant amount of weight, suffered from painful eczema, and became weaker and weaker.

Mumia's medical condition is still urgent. His lawyer from the Abolitionist Law Center, Bret Grote, his doctor, and his family are still not receiving complete information about his condition and care. Further, we know that the medical treatment, or lack thereof, that Mumia has received is not unique. Prisoners across Pennsylvania have been denied appropriate medical care.

We were glad when we learned that this law was overturned last week but we must still fight for Mumia and other victims of medical neglect. We were glad but our hearts are with the organizers and activists on the ground in Baltimore fighting for justice for Freddie Gray. We were glad but we know that this is only one of the many ways Pennsylvania has found to silence and oppress people in prison.

That's why we're here.

We are here today because we don't believe liberation will come from a courthouse or this capitol building. We believe we must fight injustice not just with lawsuits but with our bodies, not just in courtrooms but in the streets.

When our loved ones, family members, and friends in prison are targeted by laws and policies that seek to oppress them, we must stand beside them. When people inside are beaten and brutalized, we must stand beside them. When people come home and continue to face discrimination, we must stand beside them.

Representative Vereb introduced the Silencing Act to supposedly protect victims. When Representative Vereb and other politicians talk about victims, they mean something very specific. They are not talking about the Black and Brown young people who are the majority of murder victims in Pennsylvania and across the United States. They are not talking about the mother who’s lost one son to gun violence in Philadelphia and another son to death by incarceration. They are not talking about the countless victims of police brutality and other forms of state violence. They parade out victims who fit into their narrative of superpredators and thugs. They are talking about young people of color as the offenders and any and everyone else as victims.

Even though this law was overturned, Representative Vereb has said that he will rewrite this bill if Attorney General Kane doesn't appeal the decision. Representative Vereb, I want you to know, we ready!

We will not be content until the state of Pennsylvania closes its prisons, until our people come home, until we deal with harm and violence in ways that are restorative and transformative, until all of our needs are met and we are all treated with dignity and humanity.

We know that the movement to end mass incarceration and the Black Lives Matter movement are connected. We know that we cannot have prison abolition without Black liberation. We cannot have abolition without queer liberation. We know we cannot have abolition until we create a different world.

We can create that world. We can rely and depend on each other instead of on the state. We can meet each others’ needs and keep each other safe.

As Mumia Abu-Jamal said, "So long as just one person is silenced, there is no justice." 

Join us May 4th in Harrisburg to take a stand against the Silencing Act, a law designed to silence incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. We will meet on the Capitol Steps to share for 24 hours the words and ideas of people in prison and others who are potentially impacted by this law. Need a ride from Philly? Register athttp://bit.ly/SilencingActRegistration

On May 4th, Decarcerate PA and our allies will travel to Harrisburg to take a stand against the Revictimization Relief Act (AKA the ‪#‎SilencingAct‬), a law designed to silence incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Join us on the Capitol steps as we share the words and ideas of people in prison and others who are potentially impacted by this law. Help spread the word on facebook: http://bit.ly/SilencingAct

On May 4th, Decarcerate PA and our allies will travel to Harrisburg for a 24-hour protest against the Revictimization Relief Act, a law designed to silence incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Join us on the Capitol steps as we share--for 24 straight hours--the words and ideas of people in prison and others who are potentially impacted by this law.

REGISTER: Are you planning on joining us? Do you need help getting to Harrisburg or have a ride to offer someone else? Please take a minute to register here so we have a sense of who is coming and what everyone's needs are. Fill out the registration form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1J1aly5GKNAxEnOFmZ-GroAr6r4Fyp5oKoWkRwGsT5Pk/viewform

SUBMIT: Do you or someone you know want to contribute something to be read at the protest? Check out the Call for Submissions here: http://decarceratepa.info/content/silencing-act-protest-call-submissions

LEARN MORE: The Revictimization Relief Act, also called the “Silencing Act”, was introduced by Representative Mike Vereb and rushed through the legislature during Governor Corbett’s final days in office. The bill was introduced in response to political prisoner, writer, and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s commencement speech at Goddard College, and is a clear attempt to silence Mumia and other prisoners and formerly incarcerated people from advocating for their human rights or participating in movements for social change. The Silencing Act allows victims, District Attorneys, and the Attorney General to sue people who have been convicted of “personal injury” crimes for speaking out publicly if it causes the victim of the crime “mental anguish.” This law is so broadly written that seemingly any statement, no matter how unrelated, could be construed as causing “mental anguish.” And it can apply to any form of public speech: from a commencement speech to an interview on the radio to a letter to the editor.

We believe this legislation is not a genuine attempt to help victims, but a cynical move to stop people in prison from speaking out against an unjust system. The bill was pushed forward by the Fraternal Order of Police, passed by cowardly legislators more interested in what is politically expedient than what is right, and signed into law by an unpopular Governor hoping to mobilize right-wing voters on Election Day. If this law is allowed to stand, it will be a huge blow to the movement against mass incarceration. People behind the walls play a leading role in these struggles and provide analysis, perspectives, and strategies that are essential to this work. Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people who speak publicly, write books, contribute to newspapers, or testify about prison conditions run the risk of being criminalized simply for sharing their ideas.  

Already two lawsuits have been filed in Federal Court to try and overturn this law on constitutional grounds. One of these lawsuits, Abu Jamal et al v. Kane et al, was filed by the Abolitionist Law Center, the Amistad Law Project (featured later in this newsletter) and others. The second lawsuit, filed by the ACLU, is Prison Legal News et al v. Kane et al. Both legal teams have filed preliminary injunctions to try and stop the law from being implemented.

But the fight against this law won’t just be waged in the courts. We also want to send a clear message to Governor Wolf and the state legislature: For years, politicians have rubber-stamped repressive legislation like this without any fear for their jobs--but those days are over. That’s why on May 4th, we will stand on the steps of the capitol and share the words of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people for twenty-four straight hours. Through this public act of civil disobedience, we will defy the Silencing Act and show that unjust legislation like this will never hold our movement back. We’ll also highlight the profound contributions that people who have been and are imprisoned have made to our culture, our literature, and our social movements. Finally, we expect to bring nationwide attention to this issue as we build momentum not just to repeal this law, but to dismantle mass incarceration altogether.

The protest will begin at 11 AM on May 4th, 2015, and continue all day and all night. We will read words from people inside Pennsylvania’s prisons and hear speeches from formerly incarcerated individuals who are also targets of this law. We’ll hear music and watch plays by and about people in prison, and we’ll read important works from history that could have been suppressed by laws that silence prisoners: What if Martin Luther King, Jr. could not have published his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”? Or if Henry David Thoreau had been sued for writing his essay on “Civil Disobedience”? Or if Angela Davis had been barred by a court order from publishing her autobiography? When the sun rises on May 5th, we’ll still be there. We’ll also make sure to visit our legislators while we’re in town and let them know how we feel about legislation like the Silencing Act.

Our protest will make clear demands on our political leaders. To the legislature, we say: Repeal this law! To our new Governor, we say: Take a stand against this law by asking Attorney General Kathleen Kane not to defend it in court! And last, but not least, to the Department of Corrections, we say: Stop all forms of silencing prisoners! Allow the media full access to DOC prisons, stop mail censorship, don’t restrict people’s visitation rights, and cease all retaliation against individuals who speak out in protest!

The Silencing Act is an especially heinous law, but it’s only one of the many ways that the punishment system tries to silence people. When prisoners are afraid to speak out for fear of retribution, when they must pay exorbitant fees to use the telephone, or when their mail is censored and tampered with, the state is working to silence people in prison. When politicians and TV pundits demonize people who have convictions, they are saying that people in prison have nothing to teach us. Through stigma, steel bars, and outrageous legislation like the Silencing Act, the punishment system tries to deny a voice to people in prison and people with convictions. Our protest will demonstrate not only that Pennsylvania’s prisoners will not be silenced, but that we all need to hear from incarcerated people.