Prison

This is from a talk by Toby at the Bristol Tattoo Circus, which took place a few weeks ago at a squatted venue in the city. After the talks and workshops there was bands, DJs and a benefit party. Free the prisoners! Hello everyone, Ok, we’re at Tattoo circus, my name is Toby Shone, I’m an ex-prisoner and anarchist. Tattoo Circus was started around 20 years ago in Italy as a way to fund anarchist prisoner solidarity campaigns. ...

First, a warning: This text is written by and for queers and their friends. It is meant as part of a conversation around inclusion and identity where the validity of queer people isn’t in question. Anyone using this text to contribute to homo- or transphobia is a fucking goof. \\\* When finally the cell door closes, when the jangling keys recede, you’ve arrived as far as you’re going that day. Then you can exhale alone with your mattress and be in your own body again, your body no longer a problem to be solved or a question to be answered. Just your own familiar weight under the blanket, where you can just shake and shake and try to sleep and get ready for whatever happens next. ...

For more background information, check out this piece about who has been awarded the new contracts and a bit about the project to build a new prison for women on the island of Montreal. The first step in fighting new development projects is usually trying to find as much information about the project as possible. That research can involve many things; since the first contracts have already been awarded for the proposed new women’s prison in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, we wanted to get our hands on them. Long story short, that was pretty difficult. The province has put some annoying security mechanisms on the contracts that makes them somewhat easy to download anonymously but very tricky to open and share. However, we’ve seen them and they don’t contain much. We wanted to share all the relevant parts here for people looking to fight the new prison. ...

Since the opening of a new prison for migrants in Laval Quebec in October of 2022, we’ve been consistently hearing from detainees about the terrible conditions. In-person visits have been suspended, while detainees are blocked from accessing their medication, have complained of being served rotten food, and many have continued to see their mental health spiral. All this in a brand new facility, that the federal government touted as a “more humane” form of detention. Now more than ever, it is clear that detention can never be “humane”, and only ending the practice of immigration detention in its entirety can put an end to these abuses. ...

Quebec recently announced the construction of a new provincial women’s prison in Montreal, with work slated to begin this fall (2023). The new prison is intended to replace Maison Tanguay, which was closed in 2016. Since then, women have been imprisoned in Leclerc, which was initially a mixed-gender facility, in Laval. The provincial government’s plan is to demolish Tanguay in 2024, and to build the new prison between the old Tanguay site and the still operational Bordeaux prison, in Ahuntsic-Cartierville. The whole project is billed at $400 million. ...

Month of Action Against the Migrant Prison. August 1-31, 2022. Despite years of concerted opposition, construction is nearly complete on the new migrant prison in Laval. If it opens, it will maintain and expand the government’s capacity to detain, surveil and deport migrants. It will also serve to force migrants to remain in exploitative working and living conditions. This August, Solidarity Across Borders will be holding a month of action to oppose the migrant prison, as well as to demand an end to all prisons. Join us for a series of workshops, film screenings, and demonstrations to assert: the only alternative to detention is status for all! ...

Our main goal in writing this text and drawing attention to the issue of prison expansion in Ontario is to stop the projects, so in this final section we would like to offer some ideas about how that could happen. This is just our contribution to what we hope will be a larger conversation, and we certainly aren’t trying to say there is only one way of struggling against prison. That said, we hope that you will resonate with our ideas and feel inspired to push in similar directions. ...

As time moves on and the seasons change, we approach once again the June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners . Another year has passed, and many of our dear comrades remain captives of the state, subject to its daily subjugation, isolation, and brutality. June 11th is a time to stop the ever-quickening rush of our lives and remember. ...

This article is the fourth in a series about prison expansion in Ontario that starts here . Although we have many reasons to be against prisons and against this prison expansion project in particular, our motivations are profoundly anti-capitalist, since prison is an important part of how capitalism functions. However, we understand that not everyone will share this motivation, even if we have a shared goal of keeping this prison expansion project from happening. Therefore, while our primary goal is abolition, our secondary goal is to stop these prisons from being built, so we will need to find and reinforce common ground with others. Perhaps the best foundation from which to work is to identify the state, in the form of the provincial government, as a common adversary in this fight. ...

This text is the third in a series. To start at the beginning, read the introduction . The second part, a summary of the projects, can be read here . First, briefly, why oppose prisons in general? We take as our starting point that the world would be better without prisons. Prisons don’t solve social problems, they exacerbate existing inequalities and play a crucial role in a violent capitalist system. The lie told about prisons is that by disappearing people who have been convicted of criminalized activities, our communities will be “safer”. In reality, breaking up communities, only to later release people with more trauma and fewer resources, does far more harm. ...

First of May 2022 As a minimal gesture I refuse to eat from the prison servery to mark the Revolutionary 1st of May, to join in the demonstrations around the world using my body as a means of solidarity and to protest the denial of my correspondence by the security company G4S. I will not be isolated from my family, friends and comrades and I continue to define my anti-political convictions. Honour and dignity to all those who have fallen. ...

Actforfree received by email: Justice for Anarchist Prisoner Toby Shone! Anarchist prisoner Toby Shone is being held in the Category B facility HM Prison Parc, a privately run prison in South Wales, despite being in reality a Category C or D prisoner who was eligible for Release on Temporary License (ROTL) on 21 January 2022, according to paperwork he received on 26th March 2022. ROTL is home leave from prison in preparation for release. Category B prisoners are not eligible for home leave. ...