Posts Tagged ‘jail’

Hunter Released On Bond- Jail Demo a Success!

Posted: November 10, 2011 in Uncategorized
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We got word about 45 minutes before the scheduled solidarity demo that Hunter Singleton had gotten out on bail. Happy to hear that 2 of our friends were released, we decided to hold the demonstration anyways, since folks might not hear in time and more than 1400 other people were not released from the Richmond City Jail today.

Around 25 people came out to show support. We had pots and pans and whistles and horns and train whistles and cans and bucket drums and even some real drums. We marched around the perimeter of the jail three times. We stopped along the way, yelling greetings to our friends and everyone on the inside.

We wrapped up singing a song about freedom, and then lighting candles and sitting on the sidewalk.

Thanks to everyone who came out tonight to support Eric and Hunter, as well as to support everyone incarcerated at the Richmond City Jail. Folks who enjoyed the experience or feel like they missed out are welcome to come to future Anarchist Black Cross meetings and events. Our monthly meetings are on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7pm at 2005 Barton Avenue. We also host a monthly letter writing to prisoners event on the last Saturday of every month from 12-3pm in Monroe Park at the corner of Main and Laurel during the Really Really Free Market.

Richmond City Jail’s “Resident’s” Handbook

Posted: April 2, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Inside of the cover of the handbook

We came across a copy of the “Resident’s” Handbook for the Richmond City Jail, and decided it might be more useful to people if the information was available online. If you or anyone you know is engaged in any sort of less than legal activity- like a civil disobedience- it might be beneficial to read the handbook in preparation. That way you can be mentally and emotionally prepared for the situation, which might make it less stressful.

Some aspects of the handbook are clearly troubling. The whole thing has the potential to help people understand some of the conditions within the Jail, the way inmates are treated, etc. The contents of the handbook clearly dispell the conservative myth that Jail’s are nice places to be. And the conditions listed in the handbook are simply the ones that the Sherriff’s department wrote down – other less than legal or humane policies and practices are obviously not recorded in this document.

The back page of the handbook says that AIDS is FATAL!! – some sort of cautionary statement to the inmates perhaps. However, what is significant to note is that AIDS is more likely to kill in the Richmond City Jail because Sheriff Woody takes great pride in his budget cutting policy of not providing people with AIDS medicines and treatment unless they were receiving it prior to their incarceration. AIDS kills, Sheriff Woody helps. (Don’t forget the 5 dead inmates in 2010 at RCJ).

You can download the PDF here:

http://www.archive.org/details/ResidentsHandbookForTheRichmondCityJail

We will be doing our best to add insight and analysis about this handbook, so check this website for more down the line.

Another Death in RVA Jail!!

Posted: July 7, 2010 in Uncategorized
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On June 30th an inmate at the Richmond City Jail, died. RIP Kerry Wayne Bennett.

That was the 2nd death in the month of June in the City Jail. Previously, Grant R. Sleeper, died after being moved from the Jail to the Hospital.

These are not the first inmates to have died at the Richmond City Jail due to overcrowding, poor facilities, intentionally cruel management, lack of access to food, water, medicine, and medical care etc. The Richmond City Jail is an atrocity.

The proposed solution to the torturous conditions at the current Richmond City Jail is the construction of a new jail facility.

We call for the immediate release of all prisoners currently being held at the Richmond City Jail. Moving them to a different facility, even as a temporary measure, will undoubtedly result in the overcrowding of that or those facilities. It will likely also result in the removal of those inmates from the Richmond area which will make it more difficult for them to receive support and visits from their family, friends, and lawyers.

In the long term we also oppose the construction of a new jail facility, particularly if it is an expanded facility. When our prisons and jails are all over crowded, we question the need to have so many people imprisoned.

The Richmond Anarchist Black Cross is an autonomous Collective committed to prison abolition and prisoner support. As anarchists we are oppossed to all systems of oppression and repression and have concluded that prisons serve no positive function in society. We actively seek to abolish the institutionalized slavery of the Prison Industrial Complex. We are dedicated to working in solidarity with prisoners and drawing connections between a multitude of struggles.

http://www.criticalresistance.org has more information about reasons for supporting the abolition of the Prison system in the United States.

This Article, from the Richmond Times Dispatch has more details:

Richmond, Va. –

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what it calls “punishing” conditions at the Richmond City Jail after the deaths of two inmates last month. (more…)