Sunset Park Rally Will Back U.S. Prison Strike

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Supporters of a national prison strike scheduled for Sep. 9 are planning to rally Friday evening in Sunset Park.

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, which is coordinating the nationwide work stoppage, will host a rally from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. outside MDC Brooklyn, located at 80 29th St.

The Brooklyn rally is being co-sponsored by a number of affiliated organizations, including the National Lawyers Guild and the Green Party of Brooklyn, according to a Facebook posting advertising the event.

"This is not only a strike against bad conditions, for the changing of rules around things like parole, and to actually be paid for their labor which makes billions for multi-national corporations, but against white supremacy itself," organizers of the national strike have written.

"While many former slaves simply became indentured share croppers," they continue, "over the decades following the civil war corporations and governments continued to look towards prisons as a major source for free and cheap labor."

Those behind the Brooklyn event specifically noted that MDC Brooklyn holds the "Eastchester 120, our brothers who were snatched from their homes in a mass pre-dawn raid by several state agencies in April of this year."

An April raid on the Eastchester Houses in the Bronx contributed to the arrest of 120 alleged gang members, as reported by the New York Daily News.

A spokesman for MDC said Thursday that the facility was unaware of any planned work stoppage, while defending the work done by those incarcerated there.

"Most inmates are assigned to an institutional job such as a food service worker, orderly, plumber, painter, warehouse worker, or groundskeeper and an average work day is approximately 7-1/2 hours," the spokesperson wrote to Patch in an email.

Many inmates earn between 12 and 40 cents per hour, the spokesperson continued, though some can earn more.

"Work assignments are the institutions most important correctional program," the spokesperson continued. "Prison work programs teach inmates occupational skills and instill sound and lasting work habits; they also have a positive impact on an offenders post release success."

Pictured at top: MDC Brooklyn. Image via Google Maps