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Step 1 - Impeachment (2:03) Mumia Abu-Jamal

"A Big Let Down." On October 28, 2019, the first ever presidential town hall hosted by formerly incarcerated people was held at Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary. The historic site of the first modern prison in the United States, which closed in 1970. This event was a chance for democratic presidential candidates to speak with people directly impacted by the criminal justice system and to discuss their plans for reform. But only three candidates showed up: Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Tom Steyer. I was surprised Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders didn't show up. Aren't they supposed to be the progressive candidates? To me, they had an obligation to be there. When it comes to criminal justice reform, it seems like Cory Booker stands out. Tom Steyer didn't seem to have a clue. And Kamala Harris couldn't really account for her white [inaudible] pass as a tough-on-crime prosecutor. Overall, the event was a big let down. Many of the attendees left the event more convinced than ever that no real change w

Death in the Infirmary (2:09) Mumia Abu-Jamal

When Impeachment Isn't Enough (1:48) Mumia Abu-Jamal

"Constitutional Amendment for Marsy and Not Native American and African American Crime Victim's Rights." The Pennsylvania legislature are attempting to enshrine special rights for Marsy's Law crime victims within the Pennsylvania Constitution through a ballot initiative. Yet in 253 years, Pennsylvania's legislature has not introduced a bill, let alone unanimously referred a ballot initiative, for Native American and African-American crime victim's rights amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. Native Americans are the first crime victims. Native Americans are crime victims of Caucasian colonial governments and militia, the U.S. government and military, and U.S. corporations and Caucasian settlers. Native Americans are victims of the crimes of theft of land, rape, murder, genocide, forced removals, germ warfare, kidnapping of their children, the destruction and robbery of their natural resources, ghettoization on reservations, and daily crimes of defamation with the naming of sports teams: Redskins. These

"Victim's Message to Pennsylvania Governor Wolf." Governor Wolf, Jennifer Storm does not speak for all crime victims, nor does she support all crime victims in Pennsylvania. Jennifer Storm was appointed as head of the Office of Victim Advocates by former Republican Governor Tom Corbett in December of 2013. And since her appointment, she has used the Office of Victim Advocates to advance right-wing ideas, agendas, and policies, whereas the office of victim advocates is supposed to be nonpartisan and an advocate for the rights of all crime victims, no matter who the crime victims are or their station in life. Jennifer Storm has not spoken out in the media on the behalf of the child victims of Glen Mills School's abuse, torture, and terror scandal—whom this writer was a victim of that crime scandal as a child too. She hasn't represented Glen Mills' child victims who number in the thousands. Are we not victims? Jennifer Storm did not speak out for the child victims of Pennsylvania's Catholic Church's child molest

This is coming from comrade Easley reporting live from maximum security and solitary confinement at Toledo, Ohio. Many of you know me from the 2018 national prison strike. I'm currently- I'm currently still in solitary confinement organizing The Right to Vote campaign for Ohio prisoners. War has been waged upon communities of color: death by incarceration. A mirror KKK has 2.2 million people in prison and African-Americans represent 44% of the prison population. 42% of death row inmates are African-American. The United States makes up 3% of the world's population and has 25% of the world's incarceration rate. The United States is number one in the world in incarceration, while Chicago school teachers strike for better conditions. You often never hear correction officers on strike. This because the prison industrial complex is so powerful. It literally perpetuates itself. As long as we continue to rely on the good old two-party system and electoral politics, it's sad to say whoever got the most money could jus

John Conyers: Congressman (2:30) Mumia Abu-Jamal

Abolition Of Repression (5:56) Mumia Abu-Jamal

"Murder of Prisoners and Guard Protest at Great Meadow." For the last three days, the guards here at Great Meadow have been protesting for lockout of several of their own who were implicated in the murder of a prisoner back in January. Only one local news station reported on this. Very rarely does the murder of prisoners at the hands of guards ever make the news. The death of a kid at Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie back in New York made the news because celebrities, like Cardi B, posted about it on social media. Without such attention, our lives are expendable. The guards in New York state can't legally go on strike, but here, they disrupt facility operations by running things slow, forcing the facility administration and the two captains to come on the scene and give orders and to observe what's going on. If we prisoners ever slowed down facility operations by not going to our work or program assignment, we're going to solitary confinement—the box. All of this stems from an incident back in Januar

The Real Deep State (3:29) Mumia Abu-Jamal

How y'all doing man, my name's Jamil Pirant, and these last few weeks, these last few months, been real heavy with a lot of trials and tribulations. But I've been blessed, I've been fortunate enough to been have good people like Prison Radio on my side.  From all this stuff I've been going through in the prison with the retaliation, the medical, the whole situation, I received a lot of support. I mean, I had postcards coming from everywhere—people that I didn't even know. It just lifted my spirit in a whole different kind of way and I just want to let everybody know I'm grateful—I'm so grateful. So I just want to thank everybody.  I was going through so much, man, and I- I don't even know how to start. I don't even know where to start about what happened and everything. I just want to let you know I'm grateful because I've been receiving all y'all love and support. From the time they told me to sign my paper, letting me know that I was approved for the transfer. So I just want to let y'all know I'm thankful a

"Columbus Day, Gang Wars and Prison Violence." Columbus day just passed, and I can't help but wonder how we have come to celebrate Christopher Columbus with a national holiday. What lies have to be told and believed for Congress to make Columbus Day a national holiday? Columbus was a murderer, rapist, fraud, failure. He wasn't some great heroic explorer who discovered America. He was a con man who brought in his wake death and destruction. Columbus day reflects what's wrong with our criminal justice system. Do we honestly celebrate truth and justice for all or cunning, deceit, and bias? The New York state prison system is currently experiencing a statewide gang war that has caused disturbances to several correction facilities. On October 12th, I was in the yard here at Great Meadow reading a book to three young men under my wing, when a gang fight broke out. We had to duck gas canisters being fired into the crowd of guys fighting, and we all were made to lay face down on the ground by hyper-aggressive prison

"Open Letter to My Brother Mysonne." Mysonne, peace king. This is your brother, Mfalme Don S. Sikivu. I don't know if you remember me, but you and I were in [inaudible] in 2000, 2001. I was the young dude always giving speeches in the auditorium during special events. Anyway, I read your interview in State vs. Us magazine. Powerful my brother. [inaudible], the editor and publisher of the mag was telling me about your teen stop killing teens movement, which is designed to stop the gang violence within our communities. I applaud you. Well, my brother, there's a crisis that we need to attend to. There's a statewide gang war popping off within New York state prisons between two major sets, who's founded originally out of the Bronx. It's getting nasty, as these brothers keep fighting each other senselessly. However misguided these brothers may be, these are our brothers. Many of them are baby brothers who come from hoods like you and I come from. If nothing is done, the violence may spill out onto the streets, if

The Pennsylvania life-sentenced prisoners are struggling for parole. Most States provide parole for life-sentenced prisoners. Seven states do not; Pennsylvania is one of those seven. As with the death penalty, life sentences were designed to be raised in rare cases. However, in reality, this rare practice has become common practice. As nearly 125,000 prisoners age 55 or older are now behind bars, which represent an increase of 1300% since the 1980s. Source: American Civil Liberties Union. Life sentence has become an acceptable punishment. Not only for murder, but also for a wide variety of other crimes. The War on Crime agenda pertaining to crack cocaine is one of the reasons for mass incarceration, particularly of African-Americans. However, the opioid epidemic has America under siege, which has exploded into a public health emergency. However, these issues are now being dealt with as health issues because non-Blacks are under siege. The pharmaceutical company are raking in billions and one secretive family,

Free Louisa Hanoune (2:57) Mumia Abu-Jamal

Turkish Winter Over Kurdistan (2:45) Mumia Abu-Jamal

When Trans Women Die (2:10) Mumia Abu-Jamal

"What Kind of Society Are We? A Message To The Middle Class." I'm currently in the Bennington College Prison Education Initiative program here at Great Meadow Correctional Facility. For those of you who don't know, Bennington College is a small school in Bennington, Vermont from which Peter Dinklage graduated. You know him: Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones, the dwarf. This semester, I am taking Twentieth Century American Literature, History of Thought, Enlightenment, and Computer Science. Shout out to all the Bennington College professors who take time out of their lives and go through the trouble to come into this terrible prison to educate some of us prisoners. That's no easy task. This facility isn't the best place to run a college program. When Bennington first got started here, participating prisoners were being relentlessly harassed and hassled. There is this attitude that we prisoners don't deserve a free college education when regular people must incur thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of d

"You Paid For It." Every day I watch the district prison guards yell, scream, and throw hissy fits because they lack the simple intelligence to use their authority responsibly, to get prisoners to act accordingly. And I witnessed how incompetent prison administrators lack the moral courage to enforce a more healthy prison environment that fosters discipline, rehabilitation, and safety. But what I find perplexing is why would the public pay sadistic prison guards 50 to 70 thousand dollars just to yell, scream and throw hissy fits, or pay incompetent prison administrators 90 to 120 thousand dollars who often do nothing but high corruption, abuse, and mistreatment. To be fair, there are a few good prison guards and administrators, but the corruption and incompetence runs so deep within the New York state prison system that the bad outweighs the good. No one expects prisons to be country clubs. Even we prisoners get that. But when taxpayers are paying for corruption and incompetence disguised as being hard on "vi