New Abolitionists Radio Weekly 5/25/2016

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Tonight on New Abolitionists Radio we will be joined by The Rev. Cheryl Rivera of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations! Rev. Rivera was one of the leaders in the battle to keep the GEO Group private prison company out of their community.

• A heartbroken Bronx family says their 22-year-old son, who was serving prison time, died and was buried without them ever knowing. NY1’s Dean Meminger filed the report we’ll be sharing tonight

• While there’s broad support for sweeping reforms, aptly named Arkansas Republican senator Tom Cotton argues that the United States doesn’t lock up nearly enough of its population and wants more prisons.

• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Georgia prosecutors discriminated on the basis of race when they excluded two black prospective jurors from serving in the trial of a black defendant facing the death penalty.
This can have large ramifications if we start challenging the tens of thousands of cases where an all-white jury sent black people to prisons.

• In the ongoing organized and simultaneous national prison rebellions the country faces right now we are seeing a pattern of abuse and retribution against prison organizers seeking nothing more than human rights, dignity and an end to prison slavery. They are in the fight of their lives and unless we let their stories be told no one will ever know the life and death struggles they face today. So saying our next story involves three men incarcerated in Massachusetts who were working with a prison reform caucus of state legislators and have been thrown in solitary confinement, in an apparent retaliation against their activism and an attempt to disrupt further communications.

• A story I’d like to cover if time allows is out of NY.
Yesterday U.S. District Judge Frederic Block (E.D.N.Y.) issued an extraordinary opinion explaining his decision to impose a non-prison sentence on a young woman convicted of importing cocaine, based on the severe collateral consequences that she faces. While other federal courts have factored collateral consequences into the balancing of factors required by 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), this is the first time a court has justified its action in such detail. We have the details of his written opinion.

• Our Rider of the 21st Century Underground Railroad is
Keith Allen Harward. Keith was released from Nottoway Correctional Facility in Burkeville, VA on Friday, April 8, 2016 after being wrongly convicted of the 1982 slaying of a Newport News man and the rape of his wife.

• Our abolitionist in profile is Stephen Smith, (1795-1873). The chairman of the African American abolitionist organization in Columbia, Pennsylvania

• If you have war stories from the field we want you to call in and give us all updates. Especially regarding the upcoming national prison labor strike on September 9th and the current Alabama prison labor strikes. We want to hear about any divestment efforts also. So call us at 1-641-715-3660. The access code is 549032#

Expect all of that and more tonight on New Abolitionists Radio