#prisoner demands

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Today is August 10 - Prisoner's Justice Day. It started in the 1970s - in a context of horrific violence and turmoil behind bars. But many of the demands, the problems, the calls of justice, go back far further than that period.

I've been (very slowly) working on a project about the 1930s prisoner revolt in Canada. The first fruit of that research can be read here. During most of that decade, prisoners wrote, organized, protested, and struck against the penal system across Canada. In the early years of this revolt, prisoners created a diverse assortment of writings - public letters, petitions, constitutions, reform plans, memoirs and manifestos. Possibly the most famous of these is the collective document 'Barbarism and Civilization' written by the inmates of Kingston Penitentiary in mid-1932.

Although likely started by prisoners working with the Communists incarcerated at Kingston, as it was passed around, debated, and recopied (like a medieval scriptorium) new sections and demands were added, or repeated in new words and with new hands. The manifesto argued that the Canadian penal system in 1932 was "a gigantic failure...smothered in a tangle of persecution, hard routine, distrust, etc., and every human passion that breeds a prolific hate. If you plant thistles you do not expect to pluck roses." Prisoners felt their "minds were censored" and compared convict labour to slavery: "Canada...makes slavery a medium for normal rehabilitation.”

I wanted to share a section of this manifesto, which was retyped by staff as evidence of 'communistic literature'. No handwritten version survives. A partial transcript is below. This is the final page that ends with a call to action to rise up.

Most of the demands, like inmate pay, were accomplished within a few years of writing, but many - like baseball - remained a point of contention until the 1940s and 1950s (and indeed organized team sports have largely disappeared from federal and provincial prisons across Canada). To bring us back to PJD, some of the most radical 1930s demands made at Kingston Penitentiary - for the abolition of corporal punishment, for the removal of the Warden's unilateral power to punish, for voluntary job assignments, and for the creation of inmate committees - remained unfulfilled until the late 1970s when a new generation achieved change. This was, in the words of Bobby Paul at Kent Institution (and echoing sentiments of men and women incarcerated forty years before) "because [our treatment] was brought to people’s attention with blood, literally with blood. Then they changed it!" --- “This is no more than recognition of the fact that convicts are not beasts. Normal men need more than three meals a day and a tooth brush even if they are good meals, they need fresh air and sunshine and an outlet for their emotion. Will any intelligent man claim that fifteen minutes a day doing dumb round after round like a fools parade is exercise! Nobody not even an official could pretend that it is exercise or recreation we need to let ourselves go sometimes to get enthusiastic and excited even if it is over the exploits of somebody else, we need more than fifteen minutes per day in the sunshine less gang rule while we are out there and something more to exercise our lungs over than supper hash. The slaves of the southern states had their recreation…Even the rulers of ancient Rome recognized the need and gave the slaves circuses. All over the world today it is admitted that the so called criminal is a product of society, the same as a banker is, it is only in Canada that the inmates of penitentiaries are horded like dumb cattle and made the victims of revenge. Nearly every other country pays the inmates for their work so they have a little stake when they go out….prison work hours are limited to eight hours per day…they can have letters and visits more like human beings and smoke a cigarette without poisoned paper. We have none of these things, we should have them all. We can get most of them if every man will strive steadily in the proper way for one thing at a time. We want more air and sunshine less time inside and more time outside. We want recreation it will cost nothing to us it will mean a lot one hour per day in the air not like a bunch of apes trotting around their keeper but in free intercourse with each other we want recreation and we are going to have to it. There are nearly a thousand of us. If we want it badly enough we can get it – let’s go boys.”

- “Make a copy of this and pass it around. This is the 23rd copy. Send them to good people.” 

[britcision]

So I’m doing a bunch of little things I’m calling After Dinner Mints for post final fight Dungeon Meshi (cuz the goal is they’ll be short and sweet) but

It just hit me

Kabru went and kicked Mithrun’s ass into gear after having his last desire removed and not thinking there was anything else to do with his life now

Kabru

Kabru whose whole teen and adult life was about finding a way to get rid of all of the dungeons forever so Utaya couldn’t happen again

Which

Y’know

They just did that

And if Kabru even thinks “well shit what do I do with my life now” Mithrun’s gonna hone in on him like a shark and beat his ass like he did after the “the world is ending and it’s all my fault” soliloquy

Sooooo that might be a slightly longer thing

[shiikiyun]

my honest opinion about the "futa was guilt tripping es and only regrets what he did because hes in pain now" crowd, and by proxy, any criticism on the other prisoners' display of remorse or general attitude around their actions

Didnt feel like copypasting this as a post the screenshots will have to do

[plan-3-tmars]

do milgram and magnus archives fans exist because I may or may not be figuring out which fear entity each character would be an avatar of hahaha

[xxno-thoughts-just-chaosxx]

A little more of a preview of that au I was talking about.

[whumpwillow]

okay but imagine an idea where pain can be extracted as a physical element so people wouldn’t have to feel it if they were going through something, except the element is so unstable that it has to be felt by someone or else it will combust, so it is sent to the world’s prisoners and they are injected with literal pain element. just think about it 

[radioactivepeasant]

This Week's Snippet Poll

[unanimousredundancy]

Clementine Kesh is the Anakin Skywalker of F@TT and there are too many Natalie Watsons in the fandom.

[rusquared]

heugh they were right. if you're feeling bad first check if you've eaten or had water or slept enough. horrifying!

[smeetlinglord]

Free Palestine, Congo, Haiti, Sudan, the list does not end here. Free every oppressed place. Free us from wage slavery. Free us from fundamentalist Christianity in all its many forms. Free us from theocracy. Free us from "infinite" gain culture. Free us all.

Free yourself first. Stop breaking your mind and body. By all means necessary, lift yourself to the standard of being kinder, a better listener, a more strategic doer, a better problem solver, a better neighbor, a better peer, a better friend, a better lover, a better artist, and a more complete person. What doesn't serve you is meant to be done away with. If you aren't sure where to start, you begin researching. What is it that would help you survive if your current circumstances fell through as they are subject to repeatedly do under capitalism? How would you do it? Where would you need to go? What would you need to learn? Who would you turn to? I urge you to get into this work now. You have time but it's limited and tomorrow isn't promised. Act sooner. Don't wait.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"DEFIANCE REWARDED WITH BETTER MEALS," Toronto Star. July 4, 1933. Page 3. ---- Prisoners at Mimico Balked at Bad Bologna and Went on Strike ---- Not until 3 p.m. yesterday, according to the reformatories branch of the provincial secretary's office, did official notice come from the Mimico reformatory of a strike on Friday of the prisoners working in the brick and tile plant, on account of food they claimed was not fit to eat. At breakfast, it is reported, the men found a piece of bologna on their plates. The meat had turned, and had a bad odor. Angered at the type of food they were asked to eat before going to work, the men with one accord are alleged to have thrown the bologna all over the room where a good deal of it stuck to the walls and ceiling. The men are then said to have gone back to their dormitories and to have refused to work until they were better fed. This was about 5.30 a.m. An attempt at pacification was made by Sergt. Vincent, who, as the result of the recent investigation at Burwash, was transferred from the latter institution to Mimico by order of Inspector of Reformatories, James A. Norris. "There was nothing to it," said F. C. Neelands, assistant provincial secretary, this afternoon. "The meat was a little off color, and the men complained. But Sergt. Vincent talked to them, and soon had them back to work again. "I have seen the same thing happen in a university dormitory," explained Mr. Neelands. "As a matter of fact, we did not know that there had been any trouble at Mimico until a few minutes ago (3.15 p.m.)." The report was brought to the department at Queen's Park by Superintendent Elliott of Mimico yesterday afternoon. In contrast to the bologna on Friday, the men were fed bacon and eggs Saturday.

[AL: I'd love to learn more, but researching administrative files and records for provincial prisons is somehow even harder than for federal prisons from this period. But a few guesses. 'Bad food' is a common cause of prisoner protests - because "what else do you have to look forward to?" and bad food is a sign of neglect, cruelty and disrespect - but it is usually not the only thing a protest is about. The fact that they were striking against an officer who had recently been transferred from another prison for creditably beating a man to death should not be ignored. It wouldn't surprise me if other factors relating to work conditions were also involved.]

[reitziluz]

Hey! For the ask meme- 18 and/or 19, for Vaal?

18. What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

weirdly enough. the fact that e actually fucking loves to thrown down. for a long time i approached em as someone who is fully pacifist, just a ray of sunshine, friend to all kittens etc. it felt wrong, but the thought of em being angry and vengeful felt more wrong. eir thing is like, growing and learning to be a person and reclaiming a life for emself. but actually going on 1v1 on dragons and shit is something e misses from eir former life. and if e had been able to live the childhood e was denied, it would have 100% involved chokeslamming a sibling more than once.

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

again skipping story event stuff. despite the moth theming, vaal isn't a moth. or even an insect. e actually has eight limbs. there's the humanoid arms and legs. then there's the wings, that could be mistaken for insect wings, but are actually some real magical bullshit. e has a flight mode e can shift into, so the wings aren't present all the time, and more like jets of magic anyway. but! there actually are two small modified limbs on eir back! like rudders! so that's six, right? but surprise! e also has praying mantis like limbs on eir hips!

so technically our buddy is an arachnid! :D

(also a more meta favorite fact is that vaal is my oldest oc that's still active. i should redraw the first design and put it next to the current one, and list the biggest similarities and differences, because it would be hilarious)

[telekinetiq]

if i brought M2's clones to actual side muse status, which one(s) would people be most interested in interacting with...

[coquelicoq]

now that i've moved on to reading les misérables aloud, i'm still having the same problem i had with le comte de monte-cristo (i.e., le procureur du roi continues to dog my every step), but a new issue has arisen, viz., i'm only 60 pages in and i've already gotten so choked up with emotion that i've had to stop reading two different times. and all that's happened so far is hugo has been giving background on the guy who will eventually let jean valjean steal his candlesticks. we have not met even a single major character yet. heh heh. i'm in danger.

[chickadee-chariot]

Turning over when you're lying down with a migraine is so thankless. Fucking hell for the price of relieving the discomfort of being in one position for too long you recieve *agonized screaming*

[llitchilitchi]

Do Sam and Dream do anything more than make out? /gen

/ copacetic au / talks of sexual themes, dubious consent

their relationship is very much built on sex. the whole arrangement started in prison when dream offered favours for things like extra food, or potions, and things got out of hand very, very fast

because of this pre-established mess, sam was quick to agree to not tell quackity, and soon after came with the proposition that dream comes live with him on the private island, and the sexual relationship continues even into that

it's something that gives dream power over sam, if only vaguely, and something that is quick and easy to pacify sam when need be. and it's not half bad either, and dream finds himself enjoying it, especially later on when they settle together.