Free Alabama Movement May Day Strike
Alabama
May 1-11, 2016
In solidarity with Texas prisoners, and in response to ADOC plan to build four “mega prisons” to quell rebellions, Free Alabama Movement calls for a strike and action at the state legislature. Kinetik Justice Amun, a cofounder of the Free Alabama Movement, spoke about the state’s logic in building the mega prisons:
“See, they want to address the issue with overcrowding of almost 10,000 extra people by building these new mega-prisons. Yeah, a lot of these prisons are old, unsanitary and overcrowded, but rather than rebuild them, you need to put the money into actually releasing the thousands of people who are eligible. ADOC said [it] didn’t have the money for parole officers and probation officers to release these people, or the money that should be used for education and rehabilitation to combat recidivism, so why are they trying to build prisons? Until you change the laws that have people coming here and being in here for 50 and 100 years with these crazy sentences for being here that long, then no, we ain’t going to never be alright. We ain’t gonna be alright until we burn it down.”
The ADOC budget request fails on the second day of the strike, then ADOC brings in prisoners from nearby work release camp as scabs.
