Various Facilities in Florida
August, 2018 (exact dates uncertain)
According to IWOC Gainesville, prisoners at five facilities in Florida engaged in work strikes and commissary boycotts: Charlotte Correctional Institution, Dade Correctional Institution, Holmes Correctional Institution, Appalachee Correctional Institution, Franklin Correctional Institution.
Outside supporters with Gainesville IWOC and other groups staged a series of solidarity actions, including an occupation outside the work release camp near Gainesville.
Banner reading “Cancel the Contract” is hung by protesters outside the Gainesville Prison Work Camp.
Michelle Glady, director of communications for the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), stated that no strike activity occured in any Florida prison: “We don’t have any institutions participating in strike activity. All operations are normal at those facilities.”
The Florida Times-Union reported that two letters to prisoners at Okeechobee Correctional Institution from reporters working for their company requesting information about strike activity were rejected. According to a rejection slip enclosed with the returned mail, the letters were rejected on the grounds that they were a “threat to the security, order, or rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system, or the safety of any person”.
Demonstration in Florida in support of the National Prison Strike (Photo Source: San Francisco Bay View)
