Prisoner support encompasses a variety of activities aimed a providing assistance to prisoners, particularly political prisoners. Many programs devoted to this purpose have quite limited resources; for instance, Nottingham Black Prisoner Support, with one staff worker, had 297 active cases in 1999.[1] Black Prisoner Support groups such as Partners of Prisoners have sought to establish productive working relationships with prison staff.[2] South Carolina's Alston Wilkes Society is the largest statewide prison support organization in the United States, with a budget of $918,000 and a staff of 50. It operates two halfway houses, arbitrates prisoner grievances, maintains a youth home, helps ex-inmates find work, and provides social services to prisoners' families.[3] There are many special-interest prison support groups such as the Out of Control Lesbian Committee to Support Women in Prison. Some political movements find it to be in their interests to provide prisoner supports; Break the Chains argues, "Any movement that does not support its political internees is a movement destined to fail. When power is challenged, it inevitably turns to violent repression and imprisonment to maintain itself. In order to avoid defeat, movements must become organized and capable of combating the repression of the state apparatus, and they must be able to support their comrades and allies in the event that they are arrested or imprisoned. Few would commit themselves to a movement that would leave them behind prison walls, or a movement that is incapable of sustaining itself in the face of state intimidation."[4] Ratner writes that the prisoner support movement has been hampered by "particularly strong public antipathy toward offenders who would deny culpability by assigning blame to the 'system'. This compromises the efforts of prisoner-support groups, who must rally public support in order to procure government funds. Such groups face the dilemma of rapidly losing their own legitimacy should they draw too closely to the very offenders whom they seek to help — offenders who are not perceived by the public as victims of injustice. Thus, many 'outside' groups are forced to shun the support of inmates who are in prison for violent offences, a serious ideological fracture of inside-outside alliances which limits the possibilities for prisoner politicization."[5]
In the early 2000s (decade), the United States Libertarian Party's California affiliate established a Political Prisoner Support Committee.[6] It mostly served to support medical cannabis patients. Spokesperson Ann McCormick opined, "we need not only to protect and care for our wounded, but to present them as patriots and heroes of 'the people'."[7]
^Sudbury, J (2000), Transatlantic visions: resisting the globalization of mass incarceration(PDF), Social Justice, archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-05-28, retrieved 2010-08-04
^T Ellis; C Tedstone; D Curry (2004), Improving race relations in prisons: what works(PDF), Home Office Online[permanent dead link]
^M R Levinson (June 1983), In South Carolina, Community Corrections Means the Alston Wilkes Society, vol. 9, Corrections Magazine, pp. 41–49
^S Shane; B Sun (2003), Locked Up in the Land of the Free(PDF), Baltimore Sun, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-10, retrieved 2010-08-04
^Ratner, R. S.; Cartwright, Barry (September 1990), "Politicized prisoners: From class warriors to faded rhetoric", The Journal of Human Justice, 2 (1), Critical Criminology: 75–92, doi:10.1007/BF02637531, ISSN 1205-8629, S2CID 144980921
^Libertarian Party of California Political Prisoner Support Committee
^McCormick, Ann (May 3, 2001), LP Political Prisoners Support Committee
Prisonersupport encompasses a variety of activities aimed a providing assistance to prisoners, particularly political prisoners. Many programs devoted...
A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in...
Prisoner Visitation and Support (PVS) is a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia. Trained PVS volunteers visit prisoners in the United States Federal...
The Prisoner is a British television series created by Patrick McGoohan, with possible contributions from George Markstein. McGoohan portrays Number Six...
Addameer PrisonerSupport and Human Rights Association, is a Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah. It monitors the treatment of Palestinian prisoners arrested...
The Earth Liberation PrisonersSupport Network (ELPSN), also known as Spirit of Freedom, is a network to provide information on people imprisoned for...
"Educate 2 Liberate" and maintains what it calls the "Break the Lock PrisonerSupport" program. The BRLP launched its own newspaper in 2012, the eponymous...
The Vegan PrisonersSupport Group (VPSG) is an organization based in the United Kingdom that provides support for vegans in prison, primarily vegans who...
Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it...
supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their...
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage...
individual prisoners of conscience around the world and then campaign for their release. In early 1962, the campaign had received enough public support to become...
The Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange (Hebrew: עסקת שליט; Arabic: صفقة شاليط), also known as Wafa al-Ahrar (Arabic: وفاء الأحرار) ("Faithful to the free")...
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and is the third in the Harry Potter series. The book...
Doctor Prisoner (Korean: 닥터 프리즈너; RR: Dagteo Peulijeuneo) is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Namkoong Min, Kwon Nara, Choi Won-young and...
members. Prisonersupport networks support ELF prisoners, such as Spirit of Freedom (ELPSN), an English website listing all Earth Liberation prisoners, as...
organizations also support family members of LGBTQ inmates. Black and Pink is an American organization that is composed of "LGBTQ prisoners and 'free world'...
glorifying sadistic murderers." Palestinian prisoners in Israel "Walid Nimer As'aad Daqqa". PrisonerSupport and Human Rights Association. 7 April 2024...
political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention...
Prisoner suicide is suicide by an inmate in a jail or prison. Signs that a prisoner may be at risk of suicide include giving away valued possessions,...
The future of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is considered central to progress in the Israeli–Palestinian...
phosphorescent tube, and a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts. Taguba supported United States President Barack Obama's...
exiled because of their activity in support of the Basque National Liberation Movement. Most of those prisoners and exiles are members, or former members...
Global Information