Café Society will meet at Mess Hall on Thursday, September 1

Mariame Kaba, founder and director of Project NIA, will be our guest speaker.

From “California prisoners make inroads with hunger strike” by Sam Stanton

Last month, inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison launched a hunger strike to draw attention to their complaints of being unfairly held in extreme isolation at the Crescent City lockup…Advocates for the inmates contend they are denied basic human rights, are kept in windowless cells, and that corrections officials wrongly label some inmates as gang leaders and banish them to the security housing unit….the hunger strike spawned media interest worldwide, and the corrections department found itself on the defensive against critical
coverage.

Questions for Consideration

How are prisoners treated? What rights do incarcerated men and women have and why should we care? Why is overcrowding in prisons a problem? What kind of prison alternatives exist or can be created in order to ensure that prisoners are treated humanely? 

Want to learn more? 

• Angela Davis: make prisons obsolete
• Too many laws, too many prisoners
• Reducing America’s Prison Population With Short, Sure Sentences
• Supermax prisons: 21st century asylums