prisinoners are people too!-gctid35097

[kweku, afro olmec]

PRISONERS ARE PEOPLE TOO! is the powerful brainchild of Sis. Karima Amin out of Buffalo, NY and deserves our attention and support!

Their next Mtg. will be Monday, June 22, 2009, at 6:30-8:30, at the Pratt-Willert Community Center, 422 Pratt Street in Buffalo, please help pass the word on their righteous efforts!

The organization history is in a very compelling article at: http://artvoice. com/issues/ v6n41/prisoner_ exchanges and below are some excerpts:

Prisoners Are People Too! has been meeting once a month at the Pratt Willert Community Center on Buffalo's East Side since 2005. Each month focuses on a different topic relating to prisons, and each month Amin shows a film, invites a guest speaker and then opens the floor up for a group discussion. Women behind bars, juvenile justice, the death penalty, mental illness in prison, wrongful convictions and current and historical prison-related events are just a handful of topics that have gotten specific attention at Amin's monthly events.

One of the most surprising aspects of Prisoners Are People Too! is the people who turn out.

"I expected to get a lot of black people from the East Side," Amin remembers. "We got some West Side support. There are some people who come from North Buffalo, South Buffalo, Lackawanna, Niagara Falls and West Seneca. Some of them are formerly incarcerated people and some of them are professional people who have an interest in prison issues and criminal justice issues. There are ministers, social workers, educators, and just a wide range of people who come...It's a real mix because everybody in this community is touched by the criminal justice system in some way."

Some people have been more than touched. Some have spent the majority of their lives locked up and are looking for assistance adjusting to the outside; others are activists working to change the prison system and improve their communities; and others are family members or loved ones of prisoners who are looking for empathy and comradery. It's a powerfully diverse atmosphere.

"The system is so broken," Amin laments. "I wish there was just a way to dismantle it and start all over again. Because so many people are being hurt, so many lives are being lost, so much energy is being misspent, so much knowledge is going down the tubes, and those who could make a difference...don' t seem to have the will. Sadly, a lot of people have these attitudes that prisons are these remote places to lock up bad people, unfortunately it does more than lock people up. Prisons destroy lives...to me that's criminal. In my point of view, that's criminal."

Here is the link to the fantastic 12 min. video they made about gainful employment for formerly incarcerated people:

http://www.archive. org/details/ PrisonersArePeop leToo

and below is their most recent communication:

Four Years for Prisoners Are People Too and
Thirty-three Years for BaBa Eng
by
Karima Amin

As we celebrate the fourth anniversary of Prisoners Are People Too, we remember that the plight of George BaBa Eng was, in  part, the inspiration for my creating this program. While participating in a special event at Wende Prison as a guest speaker in April of 2002, I was struck with the reality of how prisons can sometimes destroy families. I saw several of my former students that day behind bars. This wasn't the first time. On prior visits to several prisons,  I had seen far too many of my former students, young men and women, whose lives had been marred by incarceration. On that sunny Saturday in April of 2002, I recognized two more former students behind the wall and I met George BaBa Eng. Three years later, Prisoners Are People Too was born. Families are still being negatively impacted by incarceration and BaBa is still being held.

Since the last anniversary of Prisoners Are People Too, BaBa has been denied release to parole supervision four times. He has been imprisoned for 33 years. His fifth parole board hearing is scheduled to take place in October of 2009. More than three decades ago, while in a drug induced state, with no concern for consequences, George BaBa Eng killed an armed man who had threatened his wife in an argument over a gambling debt. BaBa was arrested, tried, and convicted, then sentenced to a term of 25 years to life. More than twenty years ago, BaBa admitted wrongdoing and accepted full responsibility for the crime he committed. He then started the hard work of rehabilitating himself and making amends through service to others. In his relentless striving to be a better man, he has pursued education while incarcerated, earning three college degrees. He has achieved success in all therapeutic programs and work assignments available to him. He has obtained more than 50 certificates and awards that document his accomplishments as a Law Clerk, Teacher's Aide, Youth Assistance Program Facilitator, HIV/AIDS Counselor, Inmate Program Associate, workshop facilitator for Alternatives to Violence, and more. A national honor for exemplary program development was awarded to him from the N.A.A.C.P. Over the years, he has been a fearless and faithful proponent for more humane conditions behind bars. In his pursuit of self-improvement, he has always looked for ways to help others. He has been a mentor, teacher, friend, and "jailhouse lawyer" to his brothers in lockdown. In his life mission, George BaBa Eng realizes that no one can restore life to a dead man, but all of us can make the effort to bring life to those who are dead in spirit, lost in life, and hopeless about the future, whether in prison or the "free society." While visiting prisons around the state and while presenting BaBa's  scholarly writing at conferences, I have personally witnessed the love and respect that incarcerated men and formerly incarcerated men have for him. And there are those who have never been incarcerated who are strong advocates for his release too. He has a legion of longtime supporters on the inside and on the outside who readily proclaim  their respect for his intelligence, litigation skills, work ethic, and "vision of service."  At his last parole hearing, one Parole Commissioner said, "Mr. Eng, you have gone above and beyond our expectations."  Still, parole was denied. BaBa's sentence was 25 years to life. How much more punishment must he endure?  It's been 33 years.

At the next meeting of Prisoners Are People Too on Monday, June 22, 2009, at 6:30-8:30, at the Pratt-Willert Community Center, 422 Pratt Street in Buffalo, George BaBa Eng's life, work, and enduring fight for freedom will be our focus.  Our guest speaker, will be Mr. Jerome Wright, a man who knows BaBa and who was recently released from prison just a few short months ago. While adjusting to life with family on the outside, Mr. Wright has already proven himself to be a worthy community asset.  The documentary film being screened is "Getting Out."

This program is sponsored by "The Circle of Supporters for Reformed Offenders" and "Friends of BaBa Eng." For more information: 716-834-8438; karima@prisonersare peopletoo. org.
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