State Retaliation on South Carolina Prisoners in the Wake of Hurricane Florence

Over the past three weeks prisoners have been working heavily with strength and bravery to demonstrate to the world through the National Prison Strike that the US criminal justice system is in critical need of some transformative changes. Prisoners have been able to do this on a massive scale through organizing work stoppages, peaceful sit in protests, boycotts on commissary and phone costs as well as through hunger strikes across seventeen states in more than thirty institutions. Solidarity events were held in at least twenty one cities from Washington state to Florida on the kickoff of the National Prison Strike August 21. People who knew little to nothing about prisoners’ rights were now being hit in the face with the inhumane conditions of their reality, but perhaps no demonstration has been more effective in illustrating the state’s inhumane treatment of prisoners than officials decision not to safely relocate incarcerated people trapped in the red zone area of Hurricane Florence’s path after state governor Henry McMaster issued an evacuation order to citizens this past weekend. The states refusal to safely move prisoners out of the hurricane’s path is a blatant disregard to the humanity of those residing there dependent solely on the states protection. While many citizens can choose how to respond to McMaster’s orders to leave the area for safety, prisoners only choice is to fill containers with water and wait in terror as a reel of news reports flash across the dayroom television screens convincing free citizens do what they can to protect their lives.

Freedom to Evacuate

While students, professionals, families and other groups of people make the decision as to whether or not to leave the area, prisons do not have the freedom to make the best choice for their lives. Prisoners do not have the freedom to choose what to eat for dinner, where to work or when they can see their families; some validate these lack of choices saying these are the consequences of being convicted of a crime. Whether these ‘consequences’ are just or not, is it also a logical consequence for people to be forced to wait on terror for an oncoming storm after its already been charted that it will hit their location and when the hurricane hits prisoners will suffer critically. South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesman Dexter Lee, insisted that Inmates at MacDougall were not evacuated during Hurricane Hugo, a Category 4 storm that hit South Carolina in 1989, and the prison “didn’t have any structural damages,” Lee told Vox. “Previously, it’s been safer to stay in place with the inmates rather than move to another location”. However, last year we saw the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey that left prisons submerged for days following the storms hit and over 1 million people have fled the area that prisoners are located in. The aftermath of an event from 30 years ago should not be what we look to in analyzing the outcome of a present crisis. This lack of concern for the lives of prisoners is why prisoners stated in their first demand:

Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.

Flamingo’s Lives Matter

In an attempt to demonstrate the need to evacuate the state should make the first move by relocating those in its care out of high risk zones. Prisoners and others in the state’s care should be the first to move before chaos sets. This is the best way to show other residents that the state takes evacuation of the area seriously and wise citizens will follow suit as a result. This morning when I woke up to the news that the state had safely evacuated flamingos from their cages at Riverbanks Zoo. While I’m sure that these birds aren’t regularly transported and it can be dangerous to remove them from their enclosures, staff developed an action plan, hearded the animals and took that risk knowing that the risks associated with moving the animals was lower than the tragic loss of life predicted had they not been removed from the storm’s path. In comparison, Riverbanks Zoo is 85 miles further out from the Red Zone than MacDougall Correctional Institution. While no one is waiting on a call from or worried about their beloved Flamingo, prisoner’s families are forced to watch Flamingos be safely evacuated from less risky zones than their family members.

The failure to relocate hundreds of prisoners does not recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women. The lack of effective procedures to ensure the safety of hundreds of prisoners in the path of a storm due to directly hit their location does not recognize the humanity of those trapped there. This is why prisoners continue to strike in California where a hunger striker in California State Prison in Lancaster has been hunger striking for 23 days and in Ohio’s Toledo Correctional Facility where hunger strikers David Easley and James Ward relaunch their protest.

The Strike forces People to Ask

The recent three week headlines have left many to wonder about prisoners conditions in our country. Had overcrowded conditions not been a normal circumstance for our nation’s prisons then it would have been more plausible. Rather than dismissing prisoners recent protests many people have stood in solidarity while others have been forced to ask themselves, are prisoners being treated appropriately? Are their conditions contributing to an improvement in their individual development and rehabilitation? The strike has forced people who wouldn’t normally be concerned with the treatment of prisoners to ask these questions and with the upcoming onset of Hurricane Florence people are asking about the conditions of prisoners and how they’re being handled in this traumatic situation. Prisoners have been able to make their voices heard, amplify their demands and make their concerns apart of the national conversation. Prisoners have radically changed the way that people think about prisoners’ rights in making criminal justice reform a national priority.

How you Can Support

As Hurricane Florence barrels towards the East Coast 170,000 people behind bars lie directly in it’s path with no ability to evacuate in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

We need your help putting pressure on each state to ensure the horrors that happened at FCI Beaumont during Hurricane Harvey don’t happen again. Already one prison we know of in a flood zone is refusing to evacuate.

Demands-

  1. Immediate evacuation of all prisoners from every prison.
  2. Stockpiling of Water and Food at every facility.

When you get a response tweet @FightXPrisons! (Or email FightToxicPrisons@gmail.com)

ALSO-

We don’t trust ANY Department of Corrections. Per Jailhouse Lawyers Speak’s advice, “If you know any prisoners in this storm path, it’s important to tell them to fill up any containers or bags with water NOW!!Prisons are notorious for not giving adequate drinking water to prisoners if any at all after the water is contaminated.”

There’s a lot of numbers so maybe get with some friends and divide up!

Numbers to Call

North Carolina Department of “Public Safety” (Twitter- @NCPublicSafety)

Kenneth Lassiter- Director of Prisons — 704-357-6030

Department of Correction General Line — (919) 838-4000

South Carolina Department of Corrections (Twitter- @SCDCNews)

Agency Director- Bryan P. Stirling —- 803-896-8555

Virginia Department of Corrections (Twitter- @VADOC)

General Number- 804-674-3000

Only current VA evacuation- Indian Creek Correctional Center.

Federal Bureau of Prisons-

Mid Atlantic Regional Office (North Carolina and Virginia)- 301-317-3100

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