October 18 -- In solidarity with other prison activist organizations, MIM, RAIL, the Barrio Defense Committee (BDC) and the Prison Reform Unity Project held a four hour rally in San Francisco demanding the Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons be shut down. October 18 was the day of rallies across the country called for by the Prison Reform Unity Project. MIM and RAIL have been on the streets in San Francisco and Oakland most Saturday's protesting the SHU, collecting petition signatures and distributing literature, so we organized this protest on the 18th as a part of our ongoing work around this issue.
The SHU is another name for a control unit. Internationally condemned as a form of torture by the UN, Control Units are prisons within a prison. Prisoners are locked in these cells for years at a time under conditions that include solitary confinement, 23+ hours a day in a tiny cell, sensory deprivation, no education, no job training, and little exercise. Under these conditions many prisoners have serious mental and physical health problems. In California close to 3000 prisoners are locked in the SHU, disproportionately Blacks and Latinos. Many of these prisoners are put in the SHU as punishment for their political activism behind the bars. California SHU prisons are notorious for their human rights violations.
This demonstration was effective in reaching large numbers of people on the streets of San Francisco on a busy Saturday afternoon. MIM, RAIL, the BDC, and the African Peoples Solidarity Committee (APSC) committed members to spending the afternoon at the rally. We were joined by members of a few other prison activist organizations who helped collect petition signatures or just stopped by to show support and talk about organizing work.
We set up a literature table, some big banners and a cardboard replica of a SHU cell at the protest, with signs around the outside condemning these torture units. A wooden SHU replica built by the APSC has worked well at rallies in the past but is very difficult to transport. Activists in San Francisco have been experimenting with other models and we would welcome design input. The set up at this protest was very effective at getting people's attention. A 6 by 8 cell is very small and the visual provides an excellent reference for people on the streets while we explain the conditions prisoners face in the SHU.
Many copies of MIM Notes were distributed with a cover story on the SHU hearings in Los Angeles. And hundreds of petition signatures were gathered from passers by who stopped to learn more about the SHU prisons. Several people asked incredulously if these were really in the United $tates and were shocked to hear that we were talking about California prisons. This education work is one of the important reasons we hold protests like this one.
A member of the Barrio Defense Committee whose son is locked up in the SHU spoke eloquently about the need to hold these protests: "The legal battles in the courts of the US government are not enough to seek justice, but it's the will and determination of the people and so the people must be informed and won over to shut down these institutions of repression. These actions must continue throughout continuously. These actions will not only free my son Jose Luis but all of our gente from these prisons of hell!" Props also go to the BDC activists whose primary language is Spanish but who struggled with English speaking people walking by and engaged in some heated arguments refusing to let the language barrier stop them from doing this important work.
Activists at this rally agreed we need to organize more regular actions like this one, in cities around the bay area including San Jose, Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco. We need help from people in these area and throughout the Bay Area who would like to help organize a rally in their city. It doesn't take hundreds of people to make a big impact.