VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

IMG head John Joyner

PVS CEO James Nicholson

DTE CEO Anthony Earley

Dave Bing

Judge Feikens

Kilpatrick case incomplete; indict racketeers Judge John Feikens, Dave Bing, Anthony Earley, James Nicholson, IMG, Walbridge, Weiss, other major white-owned contractors

Their goal: theft of Detroit’s water department 

Andrew Daniels-El with City Charter at rally vs. DWSD takeover; Call em Out's Agnes Hitchcock and AFSCME L. 207 Pres. John Riehl at podium

“The city shall not sell or in any way dispose of any property needed to continue the operation of any city-owned public utility furnishing water and sewerage service, unless approved by a majority of city voters voting on the question at a regular or special election.”

Sec. 7-1504 of the Detroit City Charter.

DETROIT – The federal racketeering indictments of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father Bernard Kilpatrick, former water department director Victor Mercado, contractor Bobby Ferguson, and former mayoral aide Derrick Miller say that their alleged activities related to city contracts constituted the “Kilpatrick Enterprise.” 

The five have not yet been tried or copped to plea bargains on the charges. But given the U.S. Justice Department’s narrow focus on Black city administrations, and the racial constitution of federal juries, it is likely that the numerous concrete details cited in the indictment will result in guilty verdicts or guilty pleas.  

Detroiters must try Feikens Enterprise racketeers

In addition to prison sentences, the federal indictments ask for restitution, but only to the federal government. This is why the five, along with many other more high-ranking officials and corporate CEO’s who constitute the Feikens Enterprise, should be tried by the real victims, the people of Detroit. 

“The Kilpatrick indictments are just the tip of the iceberg,” said tunnel inspector Jim Casha, who exposed malfeasance and likely fraud by major white-owned DWSD contractors that he has dealt with since 2000. (See VOD’s earlier article, “One man’s war against Detroit contractor corruption.”) 

“How could Judge Feikens oversee DWSD for 33 years and let them get away with it?” Casha asked.

“It is to be expected that given the tortured legacy of this region’s racial and cultural relations that the residents of Detroit will be tarnished and tainted by the criminal pursuits of the former mayor,” said political pundit Greg Thrasher.

Greg Thrasher

“Residents of the city will not escape the broad brush of negativity created by the indictment of the former mayor and others arising out of this criminal probe. Yet the contractors that partnered with the former mayor have yet to be indicted; more importantly excuses are already in the air about them being victims instead of criminals. I doubt if the cities and residents of those cities that housed these contractors’ firms and executives will be tarnished by their activities as well.
 
“Already the posturing and noise is in the atmosphere about the need to regionalize the Detroit Water and Sewage operation despite it having already been under federal district court oversight for years. The political buzzards are perched for attack.”

Thomas Lewand

Doug Rothwell

Tim O'Brien

The “ buzzards” who should face indictment are headed by U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens and his “Special Master” Thomas Lewand of Bodman, Longley and Dahling, LLP. Along with members of Feikens’ Business Leadership Group (BLG), which operated from 2002 to 2009, they have paved the way for the privatization and regionalization of DWSD, in violation of the City Charter. At the same time, they have accelerated huge rate increases and debt payments, causing what community and union advocates call “irreparable harm” to the people of Detroit.

Members of the BLG included current Mayor Dave Bing, DTE CEO Anthony Earley, Ford Executive Tim O’Brien, Doug Rothwell of Business Leaders for Michigan (now head of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s transition team and formerly Governor John Engler’s chief of staff) and DWSD contractor Jim Nicholson of PVS Chemicals.

Craig Martin, CEO Jacobs Eng. parent co. to Sverdrup of Detroit Wastewater Partners

Dave Vago VP Wade-Trim, of Wastewater Partners

Carlyle Group owns Synagro; both Bush presidents, other shady international leaders lead Carlyle

Walbridge CEO John Rakolta

Detroiters also must try head executives of the Infrastructure Management Group (IMG), Detroit Wastewater Partners, Detroit Meter Partners (which includes Walbridge Aldinger and Weiss Construction), and Carlyle/Synagro. James Rosendall of the last enterprise is currently serving an 11-month sentence related to bribery of city officials, but the companies themselves have never been sued or indicted.

Along with numerous other large white-owned corporations who have raped DWSD and the city for years, they have filled the pockets of mayors, city council members, DWSD officials and others with hefty campaign contributions and outright bribes. 

The real goal of this Feikens Enterprise is the theft of the entire water department, with its lucrative contracts and revenues, from the people of Detroit. DWSD supplies 675 million gallons of water per day to more than four million people in eight counties and 126 communities as far north as Port Huron and Flint. 

Detroit Councilwoman JoAnn Watson

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson has said, “It was the citizens of Detroit who paid for, and continue to pay for, the bonds which built the Water Department, and it is our citizens who own it.” 

The Feikens Enterprise has “irreparably harmed” the people of Detroit, according to Maureen Taylor, president of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

“We at Welfare Rights feel that anyone who played a part, no matter how big or how small, in increasing water rates, knowing full well that thousands of households would be deprived of water and face severe crises as a result, from Judge Feikens on down to the lowliest persons, must be tried and held accountable,”  Taylor said.  

Detroit amily waiting for assistance after shut-off

Up to 45,000 Detroit households annually are experiencing water shut-offs, which were not so endemic prior to Kilpatrick and Mercado’s entrance on the scene. The shut-offs result from delinquent bills and non-payment of large fees attached to the installation of automated meters under a four-year $153 million contract with Detroit Meter Partners, comprised of Walbridge and Weiss. Executives of both companies including the omnipresent Walbridge CEO John Rakolta are regular contributors to mayoral and city council campaigns.

“They put little blue tags on our doors in telling us to make an appointment to have automatic meters installed,” Wanda Roquemore, president of the Alger Block Club, told the City Council in 2008.

 “Then last week, they shut off everybody’s water in a three block radius for ‘non-compliance’ even if they didn’t owe a bill. We found out that the meters are not free; you have to pay $150 to $350 for a plumber to install equipment to service the meter. They’re starting with the North End; soon it will be all of Detroit.”

Detroit families have lost homes due to exorbitant water bills

Unknown numbers of families have lost their children after state social services discovered they were without water. Thousands more have lost their homes after exorbitant unpaid water bills were attached to their property taxes.  

During a meeting of the Board of Water Commissioners in Jan. 2007, Mercado was blatant about the goal of rate increases, which that year averaged 4 percent for suburbanites, and 9.3 percent for Detroiters, with an additional sewage “look-back” adjustment for Detroiters to be tacked on later.

Victor Mercado

He blamed Detroiters’ unpaid water bills, and a pending water affordability plan, for the differential increases for Detroiters.

“Last year I indicated that if we did not see a significant improvement in the collection rate from Detroit retail customers,” Mercado said, “[they] may see significant rate increases in the near future. For the 2007-08 rate proposals, we have significantly increased the allowance for…bad debt expense. Together with the enhanced water assistance program, these programs have the effect of turning what would have been a moderate (roughly two percent) rate increase into an increase of approximately nine percent.” Media from all over the world have come to Detroit to document its water shut-off policies, which endanger not only the health of the individual families, but the public health. In most countries, such shut-offs are outlawed due to the danger of cholera and other diseases.

Maureen Taylor

“The residents of Detroit have been irreparably harmed by all their actions, so we do not support selective enforcement,” Taylor said. “We have been demanding forensic audits of DWSD, the schools and other public institutions for years. When has the FBI ever been on the right side of any battle? There are no clean hands here, including those of the Board of Water Commissioners (BOWC).”

 The BOWC must approve all DWSD contracts and rate hikes before they are signed off by the Mayor and/or the City Council. Taylor said MWRO members attended every BOWC meeting for the last 28 months, objecting unsuccessfully to contracts, rate increases, and water shut-off policies.

“Mary Blackmon and the rest of the Water Commissioners should also be held accountable,” Taylor insisted.

Thousands of city workers and their families who lost their livelihoods and in many cases their homes during the orgy of privatization carried out during the Dennis Archer, Kilpatrick, Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., and Bing administrations have also been “irreparably harmed.”

Protest vs. water shut-offs 2006/Photo People's Tribune

“The crimes of this group [the Kilpatrick Enterprise] go beyond the current charges,” said John Riehl, president of Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents DWSD and Public Lighting Department workers.

“We continue to fight their unfinished scheme to give DWSD’s governance over to a regional authority. The Infrastructure Management Group Inc. had been brought into DWSD by Feikens and Mercado in 2003 ostensibly to manage large contracts,” he explained.

DWSD workers Raphael Robinson, Barry Thompson and L. 207 Pres. John Riehl after testifying against Macomb Interceptor sale at City Council in 2009

“Instead of stopping the now evident massive contract corruption they undertook the shrinking of the city workforce and assisting Kilpatrick in privatizing and downsizing Detroit’s public services. This policy continues under Mayor Bing. Hopefully these five receive long prison sentences but we want more. We demand the restoration of the city services that they cut back. They and their big business backers stole millions from our city. We want our money back.”

Riehl acknowledged that the federal government has clearly targeted Black city administrations. But he said he believes Kilpatrick’s original indictment for lying in court about his extramarital affairs was simply a stumbling block for those who wanted control of DWSD. Now that Kilpatrick has been indicted on DWSD contract-related charges, he said, those forces will move ahead with their ultimate goal of a DWSD takeover.  

Wayne Co. Exec. Robert Ficano and Oakland Co. Exec. L. Brooks Patterson would help control DWSD if Heise bill passes

In the wake of the “Kilpatrick Enterprise” indictments, Detroiters are hearing the all-too-familiar clamor for such a takeover from Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Macomb County Water Commissioner Anthony Marocco,  and others who did nothing and paid nothing to build DWSD’s massive, nine-country, 146-community infrastructure over the past century.  

Newly-elected State Rep. Kurt Heise (R-Plymouth, Northville, Wayne, Canton Twp.) announced during his campaign that he plans to introduce legislation to regionalize DWSD. Such plans have been defeated in previous decades under threat of veto from various governors, but Michigan’s new Governor Rick Snyder cannot be expected to pose the same threat.

Neither can Bing, a BLG veteran who has said that he and Snyder are “joined at the hip.”

State Rep. Kurt Heise

“My plan would keep ownership of the system with the people of Detroit, but would transfer decision making to a regional board elected by community customers of which Detroit would be a member,” Heise said. “State law would also be amended to allow the new Authority to refinance existing and future improvements, saving hundreds of millions of dollars that could stabilize water bills and provide new investment for infrastructure repair both in Detroit and the suburbs.”

The Macomb County Interceptor has already been sold off, without a vote of the people of Detroit, which the Charter mandates before the sale or transfer of any utility assets. The system includes seven interceptors made up of 21 miles of massive pipes, 12 metering stations, and the Clintondale Pump Station. It reaches as far as 20 Mile road and Romeo.

The 30-year agreement involving the interceptor’s divestiture also established a five member “Directors Council” comprised of Detroit’s mayor or the DWSD Director, Macomb County’s Public Works Commissioner, Oakland County’s Water Recources Commission, the Wayne County Executive or his designee, and a “Working Chair of the Consortium” selected by the Council.

It is a perfect take-off point for the authority proposed by Heise.

Heise’s proposal to refinance $5.4 billion in DWSD debt comes directly from plans laid out by Judge Feikens.

Water belongs to the people; not the banks

In a 2006 ruling, Feikens ordered Mercado to procure the services of banking firms (at DWSD expense) to examine the department’s current bond structure, and options for restructuring its debt.

The department was not then and is not now in deficit. At the time, it had AAA bond ratings. But Feikens told Crain’s Detroit Business, “. . .preliminary figures point to possible savings of up to $60 million a year if  bond terms are pushed out to 50 years while keeping rates where they are at.”

On Dec. 20, Moody’s Investor Service downgraded $4.6 billion in DWSD bonds to “upper medium grade” from “high grade,” (Aa3 from A1)  and revised its outlook on those bonds to “negative.” This means higher interest rates for banks who buy DWSD bonds. Such downgrades are a traditional ploy to force municipalities and other governments to accede to Wall Street demands.

Heise’s proposal to re-finance DWSD debt would bring another windfall to Wall Street, on top of billions in taxpayer bail-outs over the last several years.  

Part two of a series by Diane Bukowski 

In 1977, under a consent decree, U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens appointed himself to oversee the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), DWSD’s sewage side, to enforce compliance with federal environmental requirements under the Clean Water Act.  He insisted at the time that he was not trying to wrest control from the city of Detroit, and appointed Mayor Coleman A. Young as “special administrator.”

During the entire 24 years that tunnel inspector/whistleblower Jim Casha worked on DWSD projects, he said that graft and waste on water department contracts was rampant. Longtime DWSD chemist Saulus Simolaunus, at one time president of the chemists’ union local, has always warned that the department was racking up huge amounts of debt on unnecessary private contracts.

DWSD debt service is wasted money; provide water to the poor for free instead

At a Michigan Welfare Rights Truth Commission forum on the human right to water, he noted that 53 cents of every dollar paid to DWSD goes to service its debt, stemming from unnecessary bond issues, and leading to continual water rate increases.

In 2000, Feikens ordered DWSD to hire Detroit Wastewater Partners as a consultant at a cost of $550 to $700 million over 5 to 11 years, allegedly to keep the department in compliance with federal standards.

The Business Wire reported,  “Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) announced today that its subsidiary Sverdrup Civil, Inc. and their joint venture partner Wade-Trim signed a contract with the City of Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD).

Detroit's Wastewater Treatment Plant seen from the river

“This joint venture, known as the Detroit Wastewater Partners (DWP), will perform program management/construction management for rehabilitation and upgrade of the Detroit Wastewater Treatment plant. The 5-year project is valued at $550 million; options could extend the contract to eleven years and $700 million.”

“DWP will prepare plant needs assessments and develop a program of improvement projects needed to meet DWSD goals. During the implementation of these projects, DWP is responsible for design, construction, and startup of assigned contracts. At DWSD’s option, DWP will provide extended maintenance on new and existing facilities for a period of 7 years.”

WWTP workers were supposed to be trained to take over DWP responsibilities, but that never happened.

AFSCME mass demonstration 2009

Instead, WWTP worker William White, a grievance investigator for Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said in 2006, “The water department has already eliminated over 800 vacant city positions and they’re violating the city’s anti-privatization ordinance every day with new contracts.”

In 2001, Feikens on his own authority began assuming control of the entire department including the water side. He allowed newly-elected Mayor Kilpatrick to approve certain major “red-tag” contracts without the consent of the City Council, a process that greatly accelerated graft and privatization.

Under his direct orders, the Infrastructure Management Group (IMG), based in Washington, D.C., was hired in 2002 to oversee the process.

Reason Foundation published report by IMG heads Joyner and Steckler calling for privatization of all water systems

By 2004, according to court documents, IMG and its employees had been paid at least $3.3 million from DWSD funds, including large airfare and hotel bills. Despite the fact that City Council never approved the IMG contract, Feikens ordered extensions of their contract through 2009. 

When Detroit’s City Council voted to revoke the IMG deal, Kilpatrick vetoed their action, claiming that his “hands were tied” because Feikens ordered the contract.

Feikens extolled Kilpatrick and DWSD director Victor Mercado, both now under federal indictment, and IMG. Feikens said DWSD was “well on its way to achieving compliance with the Clean Water Act,” as a result of the triumvirate’s work, and as a result a special administrator was no longer needed.

Milwaukee's Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, privatized by IMG

IMG previously arranged the privatization of the Milwaukee Wastewater System and the “outsourcing” of the Lee County, Fla., water and sewer system. Its three top officers, Steve Steckler, John Joyner and Brian Wolf, were authors of a 2003 Reason Foundation study, which pushed for the privatization of public resources like water, lighting, jails, airports, roads and bridges.

Mercado previously worked with Joyner at United Water Resources, a global water privatizer now owned by the German-based Suez Company. Mercado was also director of operations for the private Jamaica Water Supply Company from 1989 to 1996, vice president of Thames Water North America and general manager of Thames Water Puerto Rico from 1999-2002.

Thames Water, international private water company

Thames Water, according to the Public Citizen, topped lists of the worst polluters in England and Wales for several years, with regulators finding that the company was fully aware of conditions that led to raw sewage discharges and could easily have prevented the pollution.

Joyner, Steckler and other IMG officials have contributed substantially to Kilpatrick’s campaign and those of other city officials.

Metro Times columnist Jack Lessenberry recently posted a column in favor of regionalization on his own blog. But Susan, a water department worker, opposed his stand in the comments section.

Highland Park protest against water shut-offs due to high rates 2006

“Mercado and Kilpatrick claimed lots of capital expenditure was needed,” she said, “Money for pipes, CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) basins, failure of mains, etc. They claimed increasing demand for water demanded more building and investment. This was a scam. Mercado and Kilpatrick wanted rate increases every year and increased the spending to private contracts.”

DWSD has always been a gold mine for private contractors, who perform all major new construction work. However, under Feikens’ oversight, the city greatly expanded their roles.

Where city engineers and analysts once designed projects and then bid them out for construction to private companies, under “Design/Bid/Build” schemes, private companies now get “Design/Build” and even “Design/Build/Maintain” contracts.

These have displaced thousands of resident city workers, doing particular damage to those in the skilled trades. Public jobs have frequently been the only avenue for women and workers of color in the trades to get employment.

Susan went on to say, “Private companies like to get work from the Water Department and sometimes that work is not needed. Proper emphasis on good maintenance and operations that support conservation and efficiency will benefit all ratepayers. Regionalization is more politicians that bring no value to the table, just more bid rigging.

Macomb Interceptor break causes massive sinkhole in Sterling Hts. in 2004

“We should understand that Kilpatrick and Mercado got rid of folks like the camera crew that inspected mains for problems. They wanted catastrophic failure so they could bid the contracts. The federal oversight undermined our ability to scrutinize management of DWSD. Judge Feikens fought FOIA requests and relied too much on Mercado and IMG. More transparency and public oversight, less backroom deals and bid rigging is needed. Regionalization will undermine that process.”

The contracting out of city inspectors on the 21 mile Macomb County Interceptor likely resulted in such “catastrophic failure,” the infamous break of the water main on 15 Mile Road in Sterling Heights in Aug. 2004. The collapse created a 30-ft. deep, 60-ft. wide, and 160-ft. long sinkhole, and released millions of gallons of raw sewage into the upper middle-class community.

Kwame Kilpatrick (center) and Victor Mercado (r) with local officials at site of Macomb interceptor break

“Before 2004, DWSD workers were responsible for checking the Interceptor’s stability and maintenance, going into manholes and otherwise making sure it operated properly.” Said John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local 207. According to my members, our inspectors walked every mile of that main, but when the contractors took over they only inspected it piecemeal.”

One worker remembered that when the Macomb County Interceptor was first built in the late 1960’s, word was that construction companies maximized their profits by sometimes using only two inches of concrete in areas that required up to 20 inches. This was despite the fact that heavy sand and soil conditions in the area endangered the main if water pressure dropped, as it recently did in Highland Park when that city’s main water pump malfunctioned.

(See earlier VOD story “One man’s war against Detroit contractor corruption.” Tunnel inspector Jim Casha details how private contractors caused the collapse of the DSO-2 tunnel near the Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2003 by deliberately diluting the grout needed to fix in the rock walls around the tunnel.)

Crews repairing Macomb interceptor break 2005

Whatever the cause of the Oakland-Macomb County main’s collapse, private contractors raked in millions on repairs, and water rates rose as a result.

According to a 2005 DWSD publication, “The Fix for That Sinking Feeling,” Inland Waters Pollution Control was the prime contractor on the repair job. Subcontractors were E.C. Korneffel, Ferguson Enterprise, Great Lakes Diving and Salvage, Hayward Baker, J. Mack Agency, Lakeshore Engineering Services, L. D’Agostini, Mersino Pump & Power, Northern Concrete, NTH Consultants, Ltd., O’Laughlin Construction, Rohrscheib Sons Caissons, Inc., Rotor Electric, Spalding DeDecker, Spartan Specialties, Ltd., Superior Engineering, and Thompson Pump Midwest.

Inland Waters, Ferguson Enterprise, and Lakeshore Engineering are all cited in the “Kilpatrick Enterprise” indictments as involved in various illegal activities aimed at soliciting contracts, but only Bobby Ferguson was indicted. Officials from the other two companies, which are white-owned, are expected to testify as witnesses.

Those three companies, and many of the remaining companies, in particular L. D’Agostini, Nth Consultants, and Rotor Electric, consistently appear in mayoral and council campaign finance reports as generous contributors.

The Macomb County Interceptor, and the lucrative contracts associated with it, is now in the hands of Macomb County. If the participants in the Feikens Enterprise, along with politicians like State Rep. Kurt Heise, get their way, the entire DWSD system will soon be prey to the “political vultures” who created and continue the “culture of corruption” that the daily media has blamed on the Kilpatrick administration alone.

Casha says his plans are not as elaborate as this home, built by Rayco Technologies, but the idea is similar

“Let’s salvage unused tunnel segments to create an innovative, sustainable cooperative care community for the homeless.” – Jim Casha

Special to the VOICE OF DETROIT

 As a follow up to the Dec 26^th VOD article “One Man’s War Against Detroit Contractor Corruption”, tunnel inspector Jim Casha has come up with a solution for the Corktown homeless problem, recently publicized in the city’s daily media. 

Jim Casha

“The homeless obviously need homes – at the very minimum,” says Casha. “Let’s use the surplus 21 ft. diameter precast concrete segments, left over from the failed Detroit River Outfall -2 Tunnel project, to create low cost, energy efficient, durable, round, single room occupancy (SRO) homes for the homeless. These could be set up in cooperative care communities all over the DWSD serviced region,” says Casha.

Simplicity of construction, energy efficiency, durability, flexibility of design and layout are just a few of the advantages of round concrete construction. 

Before discounting the idea, Casha says, check out the advantages to building round:

http://www.raycotechnologies.org/why_build_round.htm

“The city was going to pay $100,000’s to have the segments destroyed. Why? Let’s use them. They cost millions.”

Precast tunnel segment

Casha estimates it will cost about $10,000 per unit to turn one 21 ft. diameter ‘ring’ into a 350 sq. ft. home. Using concrete floors with radiant tubing heat and a concrete roof these homes will be indestructible and last for hundreds of years. There are approximately 700 rings available.

“That’s 700 people minimum off the street. The homes are cozy enough for two and if we cluster them around a central ‘core’ it would be ideal for a family. The possibilities are endless. What do we have to lose? Detroit certainly has the land and if we cluster them near support services we can really start caring for the homeless,” Casha says.

Casha’s original plan was to build precast concrete square or rectangular housing as a way to provide simple, permanent homes for individuals affected by fetal alcohol exposure like his adopted brothers. See article.

Tunnel pieces at W. Jefferson and Brennan, near WWTP

“Many of the children affected by prenatal alcohol exposure will be tomorrow’s homeless, substance abusers, and jail and prison occupants. We have to stop this,” he says.

Casha has advocated relentlessly in Lansing and Washington, D.C. for a small increase in alcohol taxes to raise the funds needed to try and offer these children some chance for a normal life. His pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Casha says he got Governor Rick Snyder to admit, and put on his platform, the need to care for the mentally ill and disabled so as to keep them out of prison – but he couldn’t convince the ‘CPA’ in Rick that collecting one dollar in alcohol taxes and spending nine dollars to try and undo the damage was not a very good business model.

See Center for Science in the Public Interest website: http://www.cspinet.org/alcohol/taxes.html

Logo from the Center for Science in the Public Interest

“Maybe it has something to do with guys that were good in math, but couldn’t hack engineering school, becoming CPA’s”, says Casha.

Ironically, the last time he cornered then candidate for governor Rick Snyder about an alcohol tax increase was when he ‘crashed’ a press conference Snyder was having with Gov. Milliken in front  of Phil Cooley’s Slows Bar B.Q, in Corktown.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder

“I couldn’t believe it. I turned onto Michigan Ave. and there they were. Just like God had set them up! I asked Gov. Milliken to tell Rick that, if he was elected, he needed to raise alcohol taxes so Michigan could once again be a leader in childcare and community mental health care. Rick’s face got all red and he went into a song and dance about not raising any taxes that he would find the money somewhere. Maybe he will – but what if he doesn’t – and how long is it going to take – and does he understand the magnitude of the problem he has to deal with?”  

Casha says he has a letter addressed to his 83 year-old mother from 1981, signed by Gov. Milliken thanking her for her concern for the developmentally disabled and assuring her that Michigan was a leader in Community Mental Health Care. “I was honored to have had the opportunity to meet him in person and shake his hand”, says Casha.

In another irony, the last time the beer tax was changed in Michigan was in 1962 when Milliken was Lt. Governor – and then they lowered it!

Casha would also like to get the Diponio family to help with showing how the tunnel segments could be used to create low cost housing. (See earlier VOD article, “Pastor condemns attack on homeless man in Corktown,” an attack that was carried out by Steve DiPonio, brother of Jay-Dee Contractors CEO Tom DiPonio.)

Steve DiPonio

“Steve obviously has a lot of talent when it comes to home renovation. It would be great if we could use it to make a positive contribution to solving the Corktown homeless problem. I’m not so sure about my old classmate, Steve’s brother Tom. When we were at U of D, Tom told me it was “easier building a tunnel than a house” – and since they couldn’t build the tunnel, well… (just kidding, Tom).”

Casha even has a name for the project – Van Gogh’s Bedroom. “A lot of people don’t realize that Van Gogh was deeply moved by the plight of the poor and his zeal so great to help them that the Church rejected him!”

“‘He has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor,’ declared Vincent Van Gogh to his brother, Theo, in a letter dated 1876.” 

From Preaching to Painting: Van Gogh’s Religious Zeal by Kathleen Powers Erickson.

“ Sort of like the late Rev. Covington, from, I am My Brother’s Keeper just up the road. It would be a great honor to the Rev. Covington if the first ones were built near his church. I’ll get the walls up – Mitch (Steve) can fix the big ‘hole in the roof’.”

THE SPIRIT OF THE GEORGIA PRISON STRIKE SPREADS!

Hunger strike of the Lucasville Uprising prisoners – starting Monday, Jan. 3

Posted on December 25, 2010 by denverabc

Siddique Abdullah Hasan

Dear family members, friends and supporters of the Lucasville uprising prisoners,

Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Bomani Shakur (Keith LaMar), Jason Robb and Namir Mateen (James Were) will start a hunger strike on Monday Jan. 3 to protest their 23-hour a day lock down for nearly 18 years. These four death-sentenced prisoners have been single-celled (in solitary) in conditions of confinement significantly more severe than the conditions experienced by the approximately 125 other death-sentenced prisoners at the supermax prison, Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. They are completely isolated from any direct human contact, even during “recreation”. They are restricted from certain kinds of good ordering including cold weather items for the almost unbearably cold conditions in the cells. They are denied access to computer databases they need in order to prepare their appeals. It has been made clear to them that the outcome of their annual “security level reviews” is predetermined, as one reads, “…regardless of your behavior while confined at OSP.”

Prisoners whose death sentences were for heinous crimes are able to win privileges based on good behavior, but not the death-sentenced Lucasville uprising prisoners.

Bomani Shakur

Meanwhile out in the world, the U.S. Supreme Court has granted additional due process rights to some of the Gauantanamo prisoners, some death-sentenced prisoners have been exonerated or had their sentences commuted, an evidentiary hearing was ordered for Troy Anthony Davis, and prisoners in Georgia are engaging in a non-violent strike for improvements in a wide range of conditions. So the four death-sentenced Lucasville uprising prinsoners have decided that being punished by the worst conditions allowable under the law has gone far enough, especially since their convictions were based on perjured testimony. They are innocent! They were wrongfully convicted! They are political prisoners. This farce has gone on far too long and their executions loom in the not too distant future. These brave men are ready to take another stand. We ask that you get ready to support them.

Jason Robb

The hunger strike will proceed in an organized manner, with one prisoner, probably Bomani Shakur starting on Jan.3. The hunger strike becomes official after he has refused 9 meals. Therefore the plan is that 3 days later, Siddiquie Abdullah Hasan will start his hunger strike and 3 days later, Jason Robb will follow. Namir Mateen has a great willingness to participate and plans to take part to the extent that his diabetes will allow.

On the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Saturday, Jan. 15, we will be holding a press conference about the hunger strike and other issues pertaining to Ohio State Penitentiary. Details of time and location are being worked out. There will very likely be a brief rally near the gates of OSP, as we have in previous years to honor Dr. King, to protest the death penalty and to protest the farce of the Lucasville uprising convictions. There will probably be one or more vans and/or a car caravan to OSP for the event. Stay tuned for more information.

Namir Mateen

Please forward this information to other people you think would be interested, here in Ohio, around the country and around the world

The Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network

Hunger Strike At Ohio State Penitentiary

http://www.zcommunications.org/hunger-strike-at-ohio-state-penitentiary-by-staughton-lynd

Go to Lucasville uprising to read first chapter of Lynd’s book.

As this is written on Christmas Eve, a small group of death-sentenced prisoners at the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) have declared their intention to begin a “rolling hunger strike” on Monday, January 3.

Who are they? What are their objectives? What is this all about?

Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising By Staughton Lynd

The four hunger strikers are Siddique Abdullah Hasan, formerly known as Carlos Sanders; Keith LaMar; Jason Robb; and Namir Abdul Mateen, also known as James Were. (A fifth member of the group, George Skatzes, was transferred out of OSP in 2000.)

All these men were sentenced to death in trials conducted in 1995-1996 for their alleged roles in the 11-day rebellion at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, Ohio in April 1993. See my book Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising (Temple University Press: 2004), to be re-issued in 2011 by PM Press, Oakland, CA, with a Foreword by Mumia Abu Jamal.

Hasan and Robb were two of the three men who negotiated a peaceful surrender. Tragically there were ten deaths during the disturbance (nine prisoners and one hostage officer). But thanks to the way the “Lucasville riot” ended, there were far fewer fatalities than at Attica, New York in 1971, where more than forty persons died.

At the request of Ohio authorities, Attorney Niki Schwartz of Cleveland helped to negotiate the surrender. During a forum on the Lucasville events held at Cleveland State University in November 2010, Attorney Schwartz asked, in effect:

Lucasville uprising prisoners are housed under conditions tantamount to torture at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown

Judge James Gwin of federal district court noted with amazement during the trial of the prisoners’ class action, Austin v. Wilkinson, that death-sentenced prisoners at the highest security level in the Ohio State Penitentiary wanted to be returned to Death Row!

The fundamental reason offered by the Lucasville defendants for a hunger strike is that throughout their more than seventeen years of solitary confinement, they have been subjected to harsher conditions of confinement than the more than 150 other men sentenced to death in Ohio. The conditions under which the death-sentenced Lucasville prisoners are confined prevent them from ever being in the same space as another prisoner.
 
At the time of the 1993 uprising Ohio’s Death Row, as well as its execution chamber, was located at Lucasville. In the mid-1990s, the execution chamber remained at SOCF but death-sentenced prisoners were transferred to the Mansfield Correctional Institution (ManCI) north of Columbus. One reason for the transfer, it seems, is that correctional officers at SOCF came to recognize death-sentenced prisoners as human beings and found it distressing to be part of execution teams.

George Skatzes, of the original Lucasville 5, was transferred away from the others

The Lucasville capital defendants consider that from the beginning their conditions of confinement have been harsher than the circumstances of confinement for other death-sentenced prisoners. They have launched several previous hunger strikes. Skatzes wrote to the authorities about one such strike at ManCI: “All we want is . . . being placed on our proper ‘security’ level.” LaMar drafted the group’s demands during another hunger strike. One of their group needed immediate medical attention, LaMar wrote, and: “Surely he is entitled to the same attention that is accorded to everyone else.”

The frustration expressed in the Mansfield hunger strikes came to a climax on September 5, 1997. Prisoners in DR-4, the living area at ManCI in which the Five along with a much larger number of other death-sentenced prisoners were being held, occupied the “pod” for approximately six hours. The correctional officers on duty were overpowered and then released unharmed. There was some prisoner-on-prisoner violence against Wilford Berry, who had given up his appeals and volunteered for execution. When a SWAT team of officers assembled from all over Ohio stormed DR-4 late in the evening, the prisoners had returned to their cells. An investigating committee consisting wholly of prison administrators found that the SWAT team had used excessive violence. Jason Robb, apparently singled out because of his alleged role in the riot four years earlier, was beaten especially badly, had his skull fractured, and almost lost an eye. 

Unequal treatment continued when the death-sentenced Lucasville defendants were transferred to OSP in Youngstown. Judge Gwin found that OSP was constructed “in reaction to the April 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville.” Consistently with this conclusion, the five alleged leaders of the 1993 occupation were transferred to OSP within two weeks of its opening in May 1998. At OSP they are housed, not in the less restrictive conditions experienced by other death-sentenced prisoners, but in the high maximum conditions specific to the highest level of security in Ohio, so-called Level 5.

Relatives protest death row conditions at Ohio State Penitentiary WW photo Susan Schneur

At OSP

Professor Denis O’Hearn, director of graduate studies in sociology at the State University of New York (Binghamton), regularly visits LaMar and Robb. As described by Professor O’Hearn: 

During occasional visits, “a wall of bullet-proof glass separates the prisoner from the visitor. A few booths away, a condemned man from death row sits in a cubicle where a small hole is cut from the security glass between him and his visitors. He can hold his mother’s hand. With a little effort, despite the shackles he must wear on a visit, he can kiss a niece or a grandchild. He does not have to shout to hold a conversation.”

Report on 2oo8 protest against Ohio death row conditions at http://www.workers.org/2008/us/ohio_0131/

Hasan, LaMar, Robb, and Were experience “security reviews” annually but the outcome of these reviews is predetermined. The Lucasville defendants have been told by the authorities, in writing:

“You were admitted to OSP in May of 1998. We are of the opinion that your placement offense is so severe that you should remain at the OSP permanently or for many years regardless of your behavior while confined at the OSP” (emphasis added).

U. S. Supreme Court outlawed continuing death row conditions in Ohio

The emphasized words violate the explicit instruction of the Supreme Court of the United States. In its opinion specifically concerning conditions of confinement at OSP, the high court held that due process required that a prisoner might be placed at OSP only on the basis of “a short statement of reasons,” and that in subsequent classification review that statement “serves as a guide for future behavior.”

But Hasan, LaMar, Robb, and Were have been told that they will remain in the conditions of confinement decreed by State administrators regardless of their “future behavior,” that is, their behavior while at OSP.

Other prisoners sentenced to death for alleged crimes comparable to those for which Hasan, LaMar, Robb, and Were were found guilty have been moved off Level 5: to Death Row at OSP, to Level 4 at OSP, and out of OSP entirely to ManCI. One of the four Lucasville defendants asks, Must I have a mental breakdown in order to get off Level 5?

The 17th century British poet John Donne commented on the practice of ringing church bells when a person died. No one should ask for whom the bell tolls, the poet observed, because “it tolls for thee.”

In the Youngstown diocese, Catholic churches continue the practice of ringing their bells when an execution occurs. At OSP, prisoners know when the van is about to leave OSP to take a man to Lucasville to be killed. A person whom they have known as a friend, alive and well, is suddenly gone and dead. This works a psychological hardship on survivors. The remaining death-sentenced prisoners, some with a specific “date,” know that sooner or later the van will come for themselves.

Incredibly, Ohio was the only one of the fifty states to execute more prisoners in 2010 than in 2009. In 2010 Ohio executed more prisoners than any other state except Texas. Of the 46 executions in the entire country, Texas executed seventeen and Ohio eight, or 17 percent of the total number of executions nationwide.

“They made it clear that they wanted the leaders. They wanted to prosecute Hasan, George Skatzes, Lavelle, Jason Robb, and another Muslim whose name I don’t remember. They had not yet begun their investigation but they knew they wanted those leaders. I joked with them and said, ‘You basically don’t care what I say as long as it’s against these guys.’ They said, ‘Yeah, that’s it.'”

The State of Ohio still does not know who actually killed hostage officer Robert Vallandingham. In various court pleadings, the Special Prosecutor has offered different lists of the hands-on killers. None of the men sentenced to death appear on any of these lists.

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Readers can help by contacting Professor Jules Lobel, vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Professor Denis O’Hearn, director of graduate studies in sociology at the State University of New York, Binghamton. They are circulating a statement of support nationally and internationally.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have organized mass rallies in support of human rights for prisoners across U.S.

by Black Agenda Report (BAR) managing editor Bruce A. Dixon, with assistance from Ingemar Smith

Wed. Dec. 22, 2010 

Last Friday members of the Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights met with Georgia correctional officials. The following Monday they commenced the first of a series of fact finding visits to the state’s correctional institutions, seeking the reasons and right response to the stand of inmates demanding their human rights. Dr. King’s annual holiday is coming up too. What would he say about the prisoners and the nation’s misguided public policy of mass incarceration? What would he do, and what should we?

WHAT WOULD DR. KING SAY OR DO?

“‘The prisoners have done all they can do now. It’s up to us to build a movement out here that can make the changes which have to be made.’”

Eight days after the start of Georgia’s historic prisoner’s strike, in which thousands of inmates in at least six prisons refused to leave their cells, demanding wages for work, education and self-improvement programs, medical care, better access to their families and more, representatives of the communities the inmates came from met in downtown Atlanta with state corrections officials. The community delegation, calling itself the Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoners Rights, was headed by Ed Dubose of the NAACP [3] of Georgia’s state conference, and included representatives from the US Human Rights Organization [4], the Nation of Islam [5], the Green Party of Georgia [6], The Ordinary Peoples Society [7], and attorneys from the ACLU of Georgia, [8] the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition [9] and elsewhere, along with state representative Roberta Abdul-Salaam [10].

State officials claimed they knew about the strike action well in advance, and said they locked the institutions down as a preemptive measure. They declared they’d confiscated more than a hundred cell phones, mostly in public places, and identified dozens of inmates whom they believed were leaders of the strike. They admitted confining these inmates to isolation and in some cases transferring them to other institutions.

Conditions in GA prisons today do not differ much from those depicted in this classic movie; prisoners are still victims of unpaid slave labor but have to pay for phone calls and commissary items

The coalition asserted that brutal reprisals were being taken against nonviolent strikers by prison authorities, and that constant threats being made against inmates. These incidents, the coalition insisted, along with the vast gulf between the reasonable demands of the inmates and some of the well-known conditions in the state’s penal institutions made the immediate entry into the affected prisons by a fact finding team of advocates, community representatives and attorneys at the earliest moment an absolute necessity. The meeting adjourned awaiting the state’s decision. And late Friday afternoon, state corrections officials agreed to access by a small number of delegated observers, who would visit Macon State Prison, some two hours south of Atlanta the following Monday.

The observers who visited Macon State on December 20 would not comment on what they saw and heard, except to confirm that they did interview staff and prisoners for about five hours. Macon State, some said, was the institution chosen by the Department of Corrections. Subsequent visits would have to be made to other institutions, they confirmed, including some of those where the alleged strike leaders were being held.

Rev. Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary People's Society

“We understand where we are and how we got here,” explained Rev. Kenny Glasgow of The Ordinary Peoples Society (TOPS) after his visit to Macon State. A former prisoner himself who spent fourteen years behind the walls, Glasgow runs a series of re-entry programs for former inmates in Georgia and Alabama. “We only got to sit down with correctional officials, we only gained access to the prisons because of the courageous stand of those behind the walls. It was their willingness to work together across different lines and to sacrifice the very limited freedom and safety they have that got us to this point. The prisoners have done all they can do now. It’s up to us to build a movement out here that can make the changes which have to be made.”

The Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoners Rights is expected to request to visit at least one more Georgia penal institution before the year ends to continue its fact finding process. Coalition spokespeople have been deluged with messages of solidarity and support from across the country and around the world. Meetings, marches and demonstrations have taken place in Oakland, Detroit, and New York and elsewhere [11]. The Center for Constitutional Rights and other outfits are circulating online petitions which have garnered thousands of signatures in support of the prisoners. Those wishing to contact the Coalition via email can do so at concernedcoalitiong@gmail.com.

“Any holiday celebration, any dinner, parade, or commemoration of Dr. King’s life and work that does not embrace the cause of Georgia’s and the nation’s prisoners… is an empty one…”

Dr. Martin Luther King Day march in Detroit, 2007/Photo Robert Akrawi

In about three weeks we’ll all be celebrating the January 15 anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birth. Many have remarked on the great distance between the actual life and work of Dr. King and the empty plaster saint of nonviolence that some have turned him into. The truth is that the living Martin Luther King was a fearless opponent of injustice, a man unafraid of endorsing unpopular causes, so long as these causes were just. If Dr. King were alive today he would wrap his arms around the cause of Georgia’s and this nation’s prisoners. Work without wages is indeed close to slavery. Even if the 13^th Amendment permits “involuntary servitude” of those convicted of crimes Dr. King might rightly observe, that this was passed almost a century and a half ago, and that many things “legal” are neither moral nor advisable.

The U.S. has four and half percent of the world’s population and nearly twenty five percent of its prisoners. Georgia leads the nation with an astounding one in thirteen of its adult citizens in prisons and jails, or under court and correctional supervision, thanks to innovations like the privatization of misdemeanor probations. When advocating ever-longer sentences becomes a standard campaign tactic for ambitious politicians, when fortunes are made overcharging inmate families for phone calls and raking off ten percent and more of paltry funds families send their loved ones, when prisons become growth industries with their own lobbyists, punishment has become a crime.

Bruce Dixon, Editor Black Agenda Report

Any holiday celebration, any dinner, parade, or commemoration of Dr. King’s life and work that does not embrace the cause of Georgia’s and the nation’s prisoners, that does not critically examine the facts America’s current policy of mass incarceration is an empty one, a hollow mockery of the man King was and the movement he stood for. More than twenty thousand in Atlanta march in observance of Dr. King’s life and work every year. The shiny new sanctuary of Ebeneezer Baptist Church is always filled with dignitaries on that day. Let’s see how many signs there are outside the church supporting the prisoners on King’s day in Atlanta and around the country. And let’s see if the dignitaries inside Ebeneezer can even bring themselves to mention the people behind the walls, the locked down and and the left out, who are truly Dr. King’s people. And ours.

GA Prisoners' demands posted on Gov. Sonny Perdue's D.C. office door

Visit Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s office in Washington, DC today and on the door you’ll find the nine demands motivating thousands of Georgia prisoners who [were] on strike. Prisoners there have been refusing to do slave labor for the State since the strike began on December 9 [and for nine days afterwards].  Drop by the National Governor’s Association (NGA) downstairs and you’ll find a bewildered bunch who’d rather pretend they have nothing to do with Perdue and his peers than acknowledge what the prisoners have brought to the fore: so many years after emancipation many US Governors today are effective slave masters over their states’ incarcerated population.

  “You’re in the wrong place to reach the governors,” Matt Malmo, Health and Human Services Director at the NGA told a group of DC locals who visited the office this morning in solidarity with the striking prisoners. Funny statement for an organization that calls itself, “The Collective Voice for the Nation’s Governors.” Malmo is not alone in his shamefully dismissive attitude towards the health and humanity of the prisoners. The Georgia Governor has yet to even acknowledge the strike and his Corrrections Department has outright denied that the strike is happening.. 
 

“We have a message for Sonny Perdue and all the governors. Slavery and injustice in the State of Georgia is an injustice to all of us,” explained one of the visitors as they presented the prisoner’s demands aloud and submitted a letter. Indeed, unpaid or penny-wage coerced labor programs exist in prisons across the country. Georgia pays most of its prison laborers nothing, while typical wages in other states range between 21 cents and $2 an hour. In recent memory an Illinois governor unilaterally declared a moratorium on the death penalty. We expect the same responsible use of gubernatorial authority to halt prison slavery and initiate just labor policies.

National Governors meeting 2008

The Georgia Prisoners are demanding living wages for their work, an end to cruel and unusual punishment, decent health care and living conditions, nutritional meals, educational opportunities beyond the high school level, vocational and self-improvement opportunities, greater access to their families, and just parole decisions.

Protest and non-cooperation with prison labor is typically punished with restrictions on basic rights like library access, rest time, and visitation. In the case of this strike, and this is largest prison strike in US history, retaliation by the state has been much harsher. Strikers with smuggled cell phones have reported violent retaliation. Corrections officers have assaulted prisoners, destroyed their property, turned off heat and hot water, restricted food, isolated suspected leaders, and cut prisoners off from their families.

The Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners Rights, a formation representing the strikers from outside prison walls, is negotiating with the Department of Corrections to stop the repression of strikers and investigate current prison conditions. The Coalition includes family members of prisoners, like spokeswoman Elaine Brown, and groups like the NAACP and the Nation of Islam.

As building security mobilized to eject the visitors to the governors’ offices today, the halls rang with the words to a great Solomon Burke song, “None of us are free if one of us are chained”. The visitors left singing and in high spirits, having sent a clear message to Sonny Perdue and the NGA: the prisoners are not alone in their righteous demands and their cry for abolition will be heard. The deafening stone of prison walls, the silencing blows of repression, and the transparent propaganda of a Department of Corrections in crisis, cannot contain the strikers’ message of rebellion and self-liberation.

Solidarity actions are occurring across the country. Shine through the media blackout and join the movement for abolition.

Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners Rights on faceb00k
Black Agenda Report
Prison Legal News

In solidarity with the Georgia prison strike.
Contact: DCabolition@gmail.com 

Jamie Scott with her grandchildren/photo from NAACP petition

GOVERNOR SUSPENDS SCOTT SISTERS’ SENTENCES

Gladys Scott To Donate Kidney To Jamie Scott

POSTED: 4:45 pm CST December 29, 2010
UPDATED: 5:08 pm CST December 29, 2010

 WAPT NEWS

JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Haley Barbour on Wednesday suspended the double life sentences of sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, who were convicted in 1994 in connection with a robbery.

“To date, the sisters have served 16 years of their sentences and are eligible for parole in 2014. Jamie Scott requires regular dialysis, and her sister has offered to donate one of her kidneys to her,” Barbour said in a statement.

“The Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society. Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott’s medical condition creates a substantial cost to the State of Mississippi.”

Demonstration to free the Scott Sisters/Photo by Clifton Santiago

Barbour said the Mississippi Parole Board reviewed the sisters’ case and recommended that he neither pardon them nor commute their sentences.

“At my request, the Parole Board subsequently reviewed whether the sisters should be granted an indefinite suspension of sentence, which is tantamount to parole, and have concurred with my decision to suspend their sentences indefinitely,” Barbour said.

“Gladys Scott’s release is conditioned on her donating one of her kidneys to her sister, a procedure which should be scheduled with urgency.”

Barbour said the release date for Jamie and Gladys Scott is a matter for the Mississippi Department of Corrections. In September, nearly 200 people rallied at the state Capitol asking Barbour to release the sisters. According to court records, the Scott sisters were found guilty of luring two men down a road near Forest, where three young assailants used a shotgun to rob the men. The Scott sisters had exhausted all of their appeals.

http://www.wapt.com/news/26314528/detail.html

Ed. note: The Scott Sisters have spent 16 years in prison for an $11 robbery which they state they did not commit. Below are excerpts from a Nov. 14 commentary by Dr. Pamela D. Reed, titled “Mississippi Goddam” (after the Nina Simone song), published on the Diverse Blog and posted on VOD:

Dr. Pamela D. Reed

“This case has attracted national attention.  Blogs and Facebook pages have sprung up lobbying for their release. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has written two columns on the case.  

The NAACP made a formal appeal to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour for a pardon or commutation. As well, the civil rights organization has launched a petition urging Barbour to act swiftly and judiciously. The petition also points out the sentencing judge’s history of racial partiality.

“The presiding judge in their trial, Judge Marcus Gordon, has a history of racially biased rulings, including granting bail to the KKK murderer of the three civil rights workers: Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner,” states the petition.

I tell you, this thing has Jim Crow written all over it!

That is why there should be millions of signatures demanding the release of the Scott sisters. The mainstream media should put Barbour on blast and he should be subjected to questions about the Scott sisters during all of his media appearances.

To build a critical mass, all civil rights organizations should take to the streets, marching and sitting-in, as they did in the ’60s. Barbour should not be able to go anywhere without seeing picketers.  Along with the NAACP, Rainbow/PUSH is also involved.”  

Mary Ratcliff, editor of the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, who forwarded this news to VOD, recommends that everyone get on the phone to Governor Barbour to ensure that the Sisters are freed forthwith. The story says their release date is up to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Nina Simone

Call Gov. Haley Barbour at 1-877-405-0733 0r 601-359-3150; email governor@governor.state.mi.us. or send letters to P.O. Box 139, Jackson, MI 39205. Thank the Governor for his action but stress that the sisters must be released at once because of Jamie’s life-threatening condition.

“Just try to do your very best, stand up be counted with all the rest, for everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam … .” Nina Simone

Tax Supported Michigan Film Productions

 by David Rambeau 

On Saturday, April 30, 2011 Project BAIT, Friends of BAIT and the Urban Theater Magazine are planning to produce a seminar titled, “Making Movies in Michigan, Producing Plays at the Dwyer Cultural Center ) in New York.”  (http://www.dwyercc.org/(http://www.dwyercc.org/). This is our humble attempt to generate a Detroit-New York connection from an afro-centric perspective in the areas of film and theater. 

We get a regular array of black plays from out-of-town produced in theater venues in Detroit.  I don’t recall any Detroit theater productions that has made it to New York.  To alter that routine we’re holding our seminar so Detroit’s producers, directors, writers, actors and technicians can learn something about producing theater in Harlem. 

Fortunately,Woodie King, Jr., director of the New Federal Theatre (see NFT website at http://www.newfederaltheatre.org/) has agreed to be one of our panelists. 

Woodie King, Jr., founder of the National Federal Theater, approaching its 40th anniversary

In addition we want to entice some of New York’s black film producers to consider making movies in Michigan to take advantage of the tax break the state is offering.   

U. S. economists are predicting no employment gains for 2011, so whatever new jobs in Michigan and Detroit or other urban areas where substantial numbers of blacks live, must be generated from new business opportunities.  Given our interest in cultural expression of all kinds and our disproportionate attendance at movie theaters and television watching, (see Target Market News, “The Black Consumer Market Authority,” at http://www.targetmarketnews.com/ ), we need to be producing, with state support, more movies and plays by us, for us. 

With the relatively new 42% tax credit there has been an explosion of films produced in Michigan. The tax break was passed by the Michigan State Legislature, composed of state representatives and state senators, which include a number of black elected officials.  Now the time has come, it’s overdue really, for research of the production statistics in detail, to critically analyze the costs and the benefits for Michigan’s black taxpayers.   

Fourteen percent of Michigan’s residents are black, but are we getting 14% of the tax supported pie?  Data should be available from the Michigan Film Office (see their website) and the Detroit Film Office (see their website), but it isn’t. (ed. note: an inquiry to Sommer Woods, head of the Detroit film office, regarding such statistics was made by the Voice of Detroit several months ago, but never answered.)

Transformers 3, by Stephen Spielberg and Paramount Pictures, was partly shot in downtown Detroit; when will Black politicians TRANSFORM tax opportunities for BLACK FILMMAKERS

Michigan’s new governor says he’s going to review the tax credit.  Will the black state reps and state senators review the benefits accrued by their constituents?  Will Michigan’s black mayors and city council people do any diligence regarding black film activity in this state?  I talked recently to a black employee in a state rep’s office who told me blacks get crumbs as far as employment is concerned, that no films produced by blacks have received the tax support, and that black businesses obtain sparse benefits.  So much for affirmative action. 

Three aspects or tools of cultural analysis are class, race and gender.  Using these as part of the process of comparative analysis is scientifically valid to use to ascertain and evaluate the flow of financial and social benefits in a society.  

I’m not, at this point, talking about classism, racism, or sexism.  I’m talking about research and analysis, and using that research to shape social policy on a distributive basis.  I’m sure elected officials understand what I’m talking about since this is the year when legislative districts are “right-sized” based on the 2010 census.  I’m talking about “right-sizing” with regard to the distribution of the 42% tax credit.  

Currently there’s a $50,000 floor for acquisition of the tax break that acts as a significant barrier for black movie production, much like performance bonds act as a barrier for black construction contractors.  Blacks make short, inexpensive films, below the $50K threshold, which are shown on local cable stations and in film festivals rather than in commercial distribution to theater complexes located in shopping malls. 

Trinity Film Coalition hosts New Years' Eve Film Gala

We have small, innovative, independent, black producers like the Trinity Film Coalition, http://www.trinityfilmcoalition.com, headed by Marshalle Montgomery, trying to gain access to success in the film industry.  That is difficult enough without the state putting up tax and financial obstacles to entry. 

Meanwhile in Detroit, the locally produced film “Vigilante” was the victim of severe police harassment and bureaucratic incompetence.  The only benefit was the unintended publicity the movie received.  (See http://www.bupfilms.net/, and read Police threaten to kill Detroit crew filming the story of Hayward Brown)

Vigilante, the Hayward Brown Story, by BUP Films

So there’s a lot for us to discuss in the film and theater seminar we’re planning for Saturday, April 30, 2011, at the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem, New York. 

Perhaps you have an experience, research or data to submit to us for inclusion in the seminar.  Or you might want to attend this venture to enhance your contacts, knowledge and production possibilities in the theater and film business.  If so, contact Project BAIT 313-871-3333 or this publication.

References: Recommended Reading:

Making Movie Course, by Chris Patmore, Barron’s Publishing

DPL #791.43023 P274m

So You Want To Be A Playwright, by Tim Fountain, Nick Hern Books

DPL # 808.2F825s

Shadow and Act – Black Film website  at http://www.shadowandact.com/

David Rambeau is the producer/host of Project BAIT’s television production, For My People, which airs on Ch. 50 WKBD-TV at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings, and on youtube.com/projectbaitdet.  He is also the publisher of the Urban Theater Magazine and is editor of the website http://www.projectbait.blakgold.net.  

Dr. Boyce Watkins

By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Dec 27th 2010 8:22AM

It turns out that the gap between the rich and the middle class is larger than it’s been in recorded American history. Much of the growth in the gap is due to the recent housing crisis taking place over the past three years.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the wealthiest 1% had an average net worth that was 225 greater than the average American. That’s higher than the previous record, which was 190 times in 2004.

Upper middle class and wealthy live in homes like this

An intriguing aspect of the divide is that it occurred while the wealth of all Americans declined on average. The richest households lost 27% of their wealth between 2007 and 2009, while middle class Americans lost 47% of their wealth during the same time period. So, the growth in the gap was mainly due to the fact that the middle class and poor suffered more during the recent recession than the wealthy.

The decline in wealth was primarily driven by declines in real estate values. Most middle class Americans have the bulk of their wealth tied up in their homes. Wealthy Americans, on the other hand, are likely to have other forms of wealth, including stocks bonds and investment real estate.

Instead of renovating standing homes and building affordable housing for the poor in Detroit, Mayor Dave Bing plans to "down-size" them out of the city

The poorest Americans struggle the most. In every study on net worth since 1962, the poor have had a negative net worth. The number declined recently to (minus) $27,000, nearly double what it was just two years before.

The results of the study are interesting in light of the recent debate on Capitol Hill regarding the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts. The Republicans, who’ve successfully branded themselves as the party of the rich, fought hard to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy in spite of the fact that these tax cuts would substantially increase the nation’s budget deficit and lead to dramatic costs for the poor and unemployed. The bottom line is that neither the Republican Party, nor most of our other political leaders, care much about what happens to the poor in America. In fact, while you consistently hear political leaders in Washington make reference to the middle class, you hear almost no reference whatsoever to the poor. These numbers are a reflection of that fact.

On another note, there is a strong racial dimension to these numbers as well. The average African American family has a net worth that is roughly one-tenth that of the average white family. Therefore, when we talk about the nation’s poor, African Americans are disproportionately represented within that particular demographic. So, when our nation’s political leaders fail to mention the poor in their rhetoric, they are continuing to leave black folks behind. This is unfortunate, and I am not sure we should support any political leader who doesn’t have our best interests at heart.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the book Black American Money To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

Prisoners held in yard

Release from: Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights

 Dec. 17, 2010

‘The Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights, newly-formed to support the interests and agenda of thousands of Georgia prisoners who staged an eight-day peaceful protest and work strike, will hold a press conference at 4 p.m. today at the James  H. “Sloppy” Floyd Building following a 3 p.m. meeting with Department of Corrections officials. The delegation will share with the media a letter from the Coalition to Gov. Sonny Purdue and Dept. of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens and share updates on the strike and conditions faced by prisoners.  

Reidsville Prison in GA, where many strike leaders are now housed in strip cells in an abandoned building

While prisoners were able to bring the strike to a peaceful conclusion, Department of Corrections wardens and administrators and Tactical Squads have begun a brutal campaign of retaliation against striking prisoners, particularly those deemed leaders, said Coalition organizers.  Many prisoners have been transferred to unknown facilities in overnight transports, most reportedly to an abandoned building at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville to be isolated in strip cells, organizers added. Other prisoners are still suffering from beatings, tear-gassing and other documented violent tactics employed to break the strike and force the men back to work without pay. Still, the prisoners’ demands remain on the table and the Coalition delegation will raise these issues and others with Corrections Department officials.  

“The prisoners’ peaceful protest was historic in scope and in the unity of thousands of black, brown, white, Muslim,

Hays State Prison maximum security cell

Christian, Rastafarian prisoners, including those at Augusta, Baldwin, Calhoun, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Rogers, Smith, Telfair, Valdosta and Ware State Prisons.  It ignited protests and support actions all over the country and, even, rumblings of similar protests in other prisons in other states,” said former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown, who has been spearheading much of the support activity and public relations on behalf of the prisoners.  

The prisoners are petitioning the DOC for their human rights, including being paid for their labor, provided educational opportunities, decent health care and nutritional meals, a halt to cruel and unusual punishments, and end to unjust parole decisions. “For eight powerful days, these men stood up for their humanity and sent a message of hope and courage to all of us to do the same, to unite and fight to end the social ills that plague our houses on both sides of the wall,” said Brown.

concernedcoalitionga@gmail.com   

(ed. note: Publication of this release was delayed because the VOD missed it amid numerous emails until today. Efforts will be made to publish an update soon.)

Also read Dec. 15 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article including quotes from prisoners who called AJC reporters, at http://www.ajc.com/news/prisoners-protest-over-for-778293.html.

What you can do: sign the online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/wagesnow/petition.html

High Max Unit at GA Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, GA

PRISON REFORM AND APPEALS FOR CHANGE

FinalCall.com. News 

Dec 15, 2010

(FinalCall.com) – The tone of the late Sunday night conference call was urgent as activists, pastors, media people and loved ones of inmates in several prisons in Georgia listened to Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther Party leader, share the plight of inmates who had gone on strike.

Former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown is coordinating support for prisoners

The strike amounted to a peaceful refusal to leave their cells as the men involved, estimated to be several thousand by Ms. Brown, appealed for payment for work, better food, better health care access and more programs or opportunities for education.

Their petition is a common appeal from those who are locked down and likely reflects the desire of hundreds of thousands locked away in prisons and jails inside America. Ms. Brown pointed out that the inmates also found some solidarity with one another in this common cause. They are working together across some racial, so-called gang, religious and other lines of distinctions to take a stand, she said.

She, joined by others in a quickly assembled coalition, appealed to Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and corrections commissioner Brian Owens to not allow the situation to get out of control and to protect the lives of the men who had undergone self-imposed lockdown by staying in their cells.

NY Gov. Nelson Rockefeller ordered the murder of numerous heroes of the Attica Rebellion in Sept. 1971, along with guards who were shot along with prisoners by officials firing into D-Block

The last thing activists, advocates and family members of the jailed men wanted was violence—especially violence like the tragedy that unfolded at Attica state prison in New York in 1971. There a standoff between prisoners and guards ended in a hail of gunfire and deaths. In the end, at least 39 people died, including guards, civilian employees and inmates.

At Final Call press time, civil rights and other leaders and activists had held a press conference in downtown Atlanta to again appeal for proper action and restraint from the authorities. Ms. Brown said some inmates had been beaten and others had been “extracted” from their cells by special units inside the correctional facilities.

But, she added, as of Dec. 13 the situation was calmer and an inmate told The Final Call via a cell phone call that some prisoners had been badly injured.

“What we’re saying is we’re not advocating that prisoners go free, or advocating making prisons a cakewalk, but a person in prison even is not to be treated inhumanely. And under some of these conditions, the prisoners are treated like animals,” said Ed DuBose, the president of the NAACP Georgia State Conference. He spoke at a Dec. 13 press conference joined by representatives of the Atlanta mosque of the Nation of Islam and other leaders and organizations. The strike by prisoners started Dec. 9.

Guard beating prisoner

Our hope is that the authorities will examine the case made by the men who are under the control of the corrections department and consider and honor those requests that are reasonable. We also hope that there would be no retaliation against the protestors. We also pray that no one—not an inmate, a guard or a corrections employee—be further injured or seriously hurt.

It may seem strange to have inmates speak of petitions or demands or requests but under the American system of jurisprudence, incarceration does not mean the surrender of all rights and any semblance of humanity. One of the most precious rights, freedom, was already taken by society at sentencing.

The U.S. presents her system of justice before the world as a model and criticizes others she accuses of rights denials and brutality. We feel the same standard of basic decency and regard for humanity should exist in Georgia and in institutions across the country that the U.S. would like to impose on nations abroad.

We also feel that this country must learn it cannot lock up its problems or merchandise its way out of social and economic crises by building and sending people to for-profit prisons. States around the country are in severe financial distress and expenses for incarceration are major budget items.

In some states, the official policy is simply to warehouse people until their release date. In many states “correction” or “rehabilitation” are not even part of the official mission, let alone the actual practices, in many penal institutions.

Black America, in particular, should be concerned and pushing for changes and abolition of the prison industrial complex and changes to prison policy.

Prisoner Rodriques Dukes in a GA solitary confinement cell

Blacks are disproportionately jailed and once released, they come right back to our communities

. If no effort was made to enlighten, reform, change or develop these human beings, is it any wonder that recidivism rates are so high and so many Black men go back to jail?

Our plea is that America reconsider her policy of throwing away those who end up in penal institutions and instead embark upon a campaign to renew and restore those she calls her citizens—or allow the Nation of Islam and those who have a love for the incarcerated to work with them. Allow committed organizations and individuals to teach those cast off by society a true knowledge of themselves and their divine connection to the Creator, to teach them how to respect themselves and one another, to teach them proper respect for authority and to teach them the way to peace.

Tear down the walls!

Society can use the hidden gifts and talents these men possess and the millions spent to lock down their bodies can be better spent with those who will help these prisoners free their minds and spirits

. The financial costs and, more importantly, the human costs of locking Blacks, Latinos and poor Whites up and throwing away the key are not sustainable. America needs a new and better way and those who advocate for the least in society can help chart a new and better course.

For background information on Georgia’s prison system, the fifth largest in the country, go to: http://www.georgiatrend.com/features-business-industry/05_10_prisons.shtml

Bing faces angry residents at first meeting last fall

For Mayor Bing’s next community meetings

 By David Rambeau 

 We have heard repeatedly in recent months about the Mayor’s call for Ideas from the citizens of Detroit.  To implement his proclamation he held last fall a series of five community-based meetings that generated a huge, surprising response from the people.  About 5,000 interested residents attended these meetings and participated enthusiastically in them.  Spirits were high, energy was elevated.   

I went to the one at the Whittier Manor located near E. Jefferson on a sunny, brisk, fall Saturday morning and was welcomed by greeters who distributed literature for the event.  I was impressed at that point.  That was the end of my favorable impression. 

Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss, Bing at their own meeting

The pamphlet handed out, though well designed, was vague, poorly written and contained multiple inconsistencies. When I followed up with a telephone call the following Monday to the number listed in the pamphlet and asked a couple of questions, I was quickly informed that the city didn’t underwrite the seminars, they were paid for by outside sources and resources, foundations and businesses I guess.   

Maybe that explains why the power point presentation didn’t work and was finally, in technical frustration, turned off completely.  Why the speakers played ring-around-the-rosey in response to questions from the audience.  Why every response sounded like a pre-recorded script.   No problem.  That’s the politics and semantics of obfuscation. 

Now, about six months later, I’m patiently waiting on the write-up or the executive summary of the sessions, still hoping the written report arrives before spring.  Even if it does arrive before Easter, I’ll probably have forgotten most of what was discussed.  If you attended, you probably will have forgotten too.  That’s ok, we can all start over from the beginning.  We do this when every new mayor gets elected. 

IDEAS should mean POSITIVE CHANGE

Let’s look at the beginning again.  When I was wandering recently through the Main Library I came across a book, Ideas That Changed the World.  It struck me that if the citizenry of the city was going to respond once again to a call from the Mayor, they/we might as well aim to achieve the highest result; we might as well change the world with our ideas, not just Detroit.   

 With that in mind I read the book and found it worthy of its title, and so when I attend the next series of community meetings promised for the spring or the summer, or whenever, I’ll be ready with some ideas of the highest caliber.        

 If you read the book, you’ll be ready too.  It’s well written, features explanatory graphics and is comprehensive in terms of the world-changing ideas presented.  Come prepared when you attend next time.

But ideas are just part of the scenario.  We must consider what really happens at community meetings, that is, the presentation of a wide range of ideas and complaints and opinions.  Opinions are virtually worthless.  In one ear and out the other, more suited to barber shop or beauty shop oratory.  Filler for radio talk shows in between commercials, or emotional rants espousing one suspicious ideology or another. 

Laid off DPS worker says rebuild school district

That’s why we never have live call-ins for our television show, For My People.  We’re primarily interested in your action, what you want to do, not what you want to say.  But if you want to call in and leave a message on our answering machine, that’s fine with us, at least that is an action based on your own initiative, not ours.                  

Another part of the production will be complaints.  Complaints have a lot of value.  They reflect actual experience and a request to city officials to change that experience in the future and the environment that produced it. 

 Complaints, then, should affect administrative behavior, improve service, provide security.  People in this city have a lot of complaints to talk about.  I have a bunch too, focusing on DDOT, which I ride every day.  Don’t get me started on DDOT’s service.  I’d need to write a book, an encyclopedia.  

Finally, there’s action.  That’s an idea with work attached to it.  Work in the form of research, study, patience, time, training, investment, communication consistency and a team.  Then add evaluation, correction and some more work. 

Pastor Eugene Watkins demands action NOW at community forum

When the work begins most of the ideas, opinions and complaints should end.  Don’t throw ideas, opinions and complaints at work, throw work at work.  Do you feel me?  See you at the next meeting.  And remember the Project BAIT motto: It takes teamwork to make the dream work.      

David Rambeau is the producer/host of Project BAIT’s television production, For My People, which airs on Ch. 50 WKBD-TV on Saturday mornings, and on http://youtube.com/projectbaitdet.  He is also the publisher of the Urban Theater Magazine and is editor of the website: http://www.projectbait.blakgold.net. 

(ed. note: go to October and September archives of Voice of Detroit to read “Trail of Tears: a Critical Analysis of Bing’s Detroit Works Plan, in five parts.”)