New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Rally calls for fair wages for incarcerated workers
NEW HAVEN — Ending modern-day slavery in prisons in the United States was one of the demands made at a rally Saturday in New Haven, where about 70 people gathered for speeches and a march in support of a nationwide prison strike for reforms, including more than “below” minimum wage pay and rehabilitation services.
“No justice, no peace,” the crowd chanted in unison, some holding signs, led by Jamarr Jabari of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, New Haven. “It’s time for us to start treating people as human beings, not just for profit,” he said.
“We’re fighting for them to have a better chance, a better choice,” Jabari told the people who gathered for the rally.
In support of a nationwide prison strike, the Connecticut Green Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation of New Haven and others gathered at Superior Court, Juvenile Matters, gave speeches and marched to the New Haven Correctional Center around the corner, where they stood chanting for a short time.
“Money for jobs and education, not for mass incarceration,” the crowd chanted.
The rally was held in conjunction with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee’s call for a prison strike through Sept. 9 that seeks reforms to overcrowding, lack of rehabilitation services, better wages and improving ways to address grievances.
The nationwide prison strike was called after an April riot at the Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in South Carolina, in which seven prisoners died.
The United States has the largest prison population and highest percentage of its population in prisons of any country in the world.
Owen Charles, of Madison and the Shoreline Green Party, said he was pleased with the number of people who came out to the rally.
He hoped another rally would take place in the next couple of weeks. He stressed it is important for people outside of prisons to be aware of the need for reform.
Fred Linck, of Enfield, who is running for the U.S. Senate with the Socialist Action Party, said, “Incarceration is a business, a business, like war, that makes some exceedingly wealthy.”
But a good portion of the incarcerated workers make pennies on the dollar, he said.
“These workers are considered disposable and interchangeable,” he said.
Peter Goselin, Green Party candidate for attorney general, said it could be difficult for people to wrap their heads around supporting a strike for prisoners. “But we know this is the same strike as any strike.”
Prisoners have a right to be properly treated as workers and fairly treated through a grievance process where “they won’t have to worry about being beaten or bullied.”
Barbara Fair, of My Brother’s Keeper, asked participants at the rally to continue to be outraged and urge more than just reform, but systemic change.
Due to the barriers in and out of prison, she said, “We’re pretty much putting these people in prison for the rest of their lives.”