SWOP Behind Bars will be attending, presenting and tabling at the International Human Trafficking Conference in Toledo on September 20 and 21st! We will be hosting a Sex Worker Meet and Greet on Thursday Evening (the 20th) so if you are in Toledo Ohio and want to come hang out with us – Drinks and Snacks are free from 7-9. Email us at swopbehindbars@gmail.com for location. Sex Workers and Allies Only.
“Effective immediately, the DOC will begin to transition to ebooks coupled with bolstered DOC library system featuring centralized purchasing and ordering process,” the DOC announced at its website. “No books or publications will be shipped directly to an inmate. … [we] will no longer accept books donated directly to individual inmates.”
Pennsylvania to end prison book donations, forcing inmates onto pricey eBook platform / Boing Boing
Please call in TODAY, Friday Sept 14th, to Pennsylvania Governor Wolf, state senator and representatives, Lt. Governor Candidate (and Gov. Wolf’s Running Mate) John Fetterman and PA Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary Wetzel to protest outrageous new punitive DOC policies that will impinge on prisoner’s rights and those of their families. This comes as state prisoners across PA have been held in a 10-day lockdown, unable to communicate with loved ones and supporters. See action alert and suggested talking points below from Amistad Law Project.
NPR KATIE MEYER, BYLINE: Last week, Pennsylvania’s corrections department locked down all 25 of its state prisons. Prisoners were more or less confined to their cells 24 hours a day. And though individual prisons have started relaxing procedures somewhat, the lockdown is still in place. Now Governor Tom Wolf says they’re taking another extreme action.
HIV Criminalization Impacts Sex Workers: No. We Are Not Immune. Know The Laws. Get Involved In The Discussion. Check out new blog by CHLP staffers Kate Boulton and Arpita Appannagari medium.com/@CtrHIVLawPolicy/science-alone-is-not-the-solution-4f09553190ed
PITTSBURGH — A type of synthetic marijuana could be causing the widespread staff sicknesses that have prompted a lockdown at all state correctional institutions, the head of Pennsylvania’s prison system said Thursday. Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel made the comment in Pittsburgh while speaking at a news conference about an unrelated pilot program to help inmates with re-entry to their communities. Wetzel announced the following steps, effective immediately and indefinitely:
• All DOC state prisons are locked down.
• All DOC mailrooms are closed to non-legal mail until further notice.
HIV Criminal Law Reform: A Call to Action Racial Justice, Criminal Justice and HIV Organizations Call for an HIV Criminal Law Reform Movement Grounded in Principles of Racial Justice: New York, NY (August 22, 2018)—Marking the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Consensus Statement on HIV “Treatment as Prevention” in Criminal Law Reform, advocates affirmed their commitment to an HIV criminal law reform movement that is grounded in racial justice and leaves no one behind
