STRATEGIC RELEASE: Amend The 13th: On the vital importance of ‘Strategic Release’ to Community Development
Greetings Sistas and Brothas.
As the National Agenda of ‘Amend the 13th’ continues to find resonance with the People, we see great enthusiasm for its major components such as support for the Millions for Prisoners March, the Autonomous Infrastructure Mission (A.I.M.) and the Abolition Petition, but of equal importance is public support for the concept of ‘Strategic Release.’
What has fueled the legacy of legal slavery in Amerika from the Jim Crow era to the present day is unstable and intentionally underdeveloped communities. One of the chief contributors to this instability is systematic recidivism and lack of effective leadership in the process of community development, reclamation and stability. U.S. policies of mass incarceration have fractured family units, have exacerbated generational poverty, have facilitated the school to prison pipeline and have solidified social containment policies for New Afrikans, Latinos and the poor into concrete barriers to social progress no less real than the prison walls which hold so many.
A New Progressive Mentality
But this process of systematic dehumanization also produces its opposite: New Men and Women who have been transformed by their experiences with the productive system into genuine social progressives, the very antithesis to this structural hate. Such New Men and Women have given their very lives to transforming the criminal mentality into a progressive mentality, and transforming their communities into bastions of social progress and stability.
The unfortunate reality is that the U.S. is an attrition-based society, one that prizes retribution and punishment over restorative justice; one that values the conquest of resistance, while viewing mercy as weakness. Though there is overwhelming evidence that these draconian measures do not diminish, but instead actually fuel criminalization, Amerikan policymakers continue to capitulate to the ‘growth’-model of the Prison Industrial Slave Complex (PISC). It was this social reality which led New Afrikan Political Activists to develop the concept of STRATEGIC RELEASE.
The Highest Threshold of Rehabilitation
Under Strategic Release, a Prisoner’s grant of parole, pardon or clemency is based on the positive impact he or she has had on their community and society during his or her imprisonment, and the even greater positive impact they will have on society as a whole if released.
Consideration for Strategic Release is based on a subject’s work product and proven record of service to the community and society, and a formal committment to continue to work in the service of the community and the People into perpetuity once released.
As such it is the height of social restitution, providing direct restorative justice to the People and our communities, requiring a lifetime commitment to society’s progress and welfare. Strategic Release also requires a minimum of 25 years of confinement as, according to the state’s own Bureau of
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Justice Statistics, recidivism rates for those 50 and over, or who have served 25 years or more, are virtually non-existant.
This means Strategic Release is the highest threshold of rehabilitation, public safety and social justice any Prisoner can achieve, warranting the highest reward: A second chance to serve society, physically present in their communities.
Reducing Crime
It is this physical presence of Strategic Release subjects in our communities which lies at the heart of its vital import[ance] to the process of community development. The formal adoption of Strategic Release will have a direct impact on reducing crime and violence in our communities where it has been generational, while diminishing the social inequities at the root of criminalization through the contributions and activities of those granted release.
The prospective Prisoners considered for Strategic Release are committed to solving the ills of society without working with the state or law enforcement, but instead through directly working with the People and community; thus they remain perpetually accountable to those who have granted them release.
Strategic Release is therefore vital to any community development scheme, as those released to the community, [as] much as fire transforms lifeless ice into life-sustaining water, [they] will breathe healing and life-altering development into our struggling communities.
Viable Alternative to the Carcel State
Strategic Release will provide us all with competent and dedicated leadership at a time when we are facing a crisis in leadership in so many of our communities. Strategic Release will serve as a blueprint for the expansion of restorative justice initiatives and act as a viable alternative to the maintenance of the traditional carcel state. This means Strategic Release will serve to undermine the Prison Industrial Slave Complex (PISC) at the point of criminalization: our communities.
The programs and mentorship provided by Strategic Release subjects in our communities will shut down the school-/poverty-to-prison pipeline at the source. Because the subjects for Strategic Release have literally spent decades analyzing and developing solutions to the ills of society from the perspective of the most disenfranchised and oppressed, the programs, initiatives and institutions they have developed represent a degree of innovation unknown in mainstream Amerika.
Rehabilitation through Serving the People Directly
Strategic release provides a new impetus for our imprisoned Sistas and Brothas to take self- development beyond mere rehabilitation, forward to the realm of social activism and a genuine committment to serving the People (and society as a whole). These new interconnected social, economic and political relationships produced by the impact of Strategic Release subjects and their work product will serve to move society as a whole away from the greed, hate and naked self- interest which has exacerbated its core contradictions, on to more cooperative and harmoneous modes of social life beneficial to us all.
Support the Concept of Strategic Release
I encourage you in the strongest terms to advocate for the formal adoption of Srategic Release by your community and state legistlatures; support local petitions for Strategic Release and contact your local community organizers and encourage them to support the concept of Strategic Release.
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Please visit the sites of the affinity organizations listed below for additional information and links to others currently pursuing formal adoption of Strategic Release in states across the nation. Amend the 13th stands in solidarity with them and all those actively pursuing the implementation of Strategic Release.
Until we win or don’t lose.
Joka Heshima Jinsai
Founder & Executive Director
Amend the 13th: Abolish Legal Slavery in Amerika Movement
Please visit:
Amendthe13th.org Georgejacksonuniversity.com Concreteandsteelcoe.wordpress.com Freespeechsociety.org
Email: Amendthe13th@riseup.net Twitter: @Amend_the13th Facebook: /AmendThe13th/
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PETITION FOR STRATEGIC RELEASE
The concept of Compassionate Release is fairly well known in the U.S.; under ‘Compassionate Release’ a Prisoner with a severe, often terminal ailment is released as they pose NO threat to society and their continued incarceration would prove inhumane. In recent years New Afrikan (i.e., Afrikan Amerikan) activists developed the concept of “Strategic Release.”
Under “Strategic Release” a Prisoner is granted Parole, Pardon or Clemency based on the positive impact she/he has had on the community while imprisoned, and the greater impact they will have on society as a whole if released.
Direct Impact on Reducing Crime and Gang Violence
Strategic Release, unlike ‘Compassionate’ or other forms of release, has a direct impact on reducing crime and gang violence, as well as the social inequities at the root of criminality, through the contributions and activities of those granted release. The prospective Prisoner considered for Strategic Release is committed to solving the ills of society without working with the Government or law enforcement, as it is our experience that success best flows from working directly with the People and Community.
Proven Record of Service to the Community
Consideration for Strategic Release is based on a Prisoner’s work product and proven record of service to the community and society as a whole. This includes a formal commitment by the prospect to continue their service to the community and society into perpetuity upon release. As such, it is the height of social-restitution, providing direct restorative justice to the People/Community and society. This means Strategic Release is the highest threshold of rehabilitation and social justice any Prisoner can achieve warranting the highest reward: A second chance to serve society, present in their communities.
Criteria
Consideration for Strategic Release will also require a minimum of 25 years of confinement, as according to the state’s own Bureau of Justice Statistics, recidivism for those over age 50, or who have served 25 years or more, is virtually nonexistent. This means, both federal and state prison systems have no legitimate or legal argument to deny Parole, Pardon or Clemency to subjects under Strategic Release. The criteria required under Strategic Release guarantee those freed will contribute to the restoration of humanity’s potential.
Each State-based Strategic Release Committee (SRC) will develop a list of Prisoners in their state who meet this criteria, develop a petition demanding they be granted Strategic Release, and mobilize a state and national campaign in support of their release. This petition will specifically deal with New Afrikan California Prisoners.
– California Strategic Release Committee Sponsored by:
Georgejacksonuniversity.com Amendthel3th.org
NAAFRA.org Concreteandateelcoe.wordpress.com Freespeechsociety.org
Insurrectionistsartcollective.com Sfbayview.com
BPPPress.com
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PETITION FOR STRATEGIC RELEASE
We humbly demand that the following Politically Conscious Prisoners be granted Parole, Pardon or Clemency under conditions of Strategic Release. For the past 25 to 50 years, these imprisoned activists have consistently served the Afrikan-Amerikan (i.e., New Afrikan) community, and they have been on the front-line combatting Black-on-Black gang violence, transforming the Black Criminal Mentality, Drug Abuse, Teenage Pregnancy/Promiscuity, and have been consistent leaders, innovators and contributors in the Movement to stabilize the Afrikan-Amerikan Community.
Their release would have a major positive impact, not only in the New Afrikan Community (i.e., Afrikan Amerikan), but in society as a whole. We will provide the necessary proof of their service to our communities, and thousands of signitures in support of their Strategic Release.
The People request the Strategic Release of the following eligible activists:
1) Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (s/n Ronald Dewberry), C-35671
Salinas Valley State Prison, Yard 1, C-1-118 P.O.Box 1050, Soledad, CA 93960
2) Abdul Olugbala Shakur (s/n James Harvey), C-48884
KVSP, B-2-117
P.O. Box 5102,
Delano, CA 93216
3) James X. Baridi Williamson, D-34288 Salinas Valley State Prison, Yard 1, C-1-118 P.O. Box 1350, Soledad, CA 93960
4) Ifoma Modibo Kanbon (s/n Darell Burnett), B-60892
CSATF, C-3-218
P.O. Box 5246
Corcoran, CA 93212
5) Joka Heshima Jinsai (s/n Shannon Denham), J-38283
KVSP, B-2-117
P.O. Box 5102,
Delano, CA 93216
a) Sitawa Nantanbu Jamaa, 30 1/2 years in solitary confinement, 37 years in prison. b) Abdul Olugbala Shakur, 32 years in solitary confinement, 35 1/2 years in prison. c) Baridi X. Askari, 28 years in solitary confinement, 32 1/2 years in prison.
d) Ifoma Modibo Kambon, 38 years in solitary confinement, 42 1⁄4 years in prison. e) Joka Heshima Jinsai, 20 years in solitary confinement, 27 years in prison.
NOTE: This is the initial list of eligible candidates; once the campaign for Strategic Release expands in support and resources, we will add the names of additional California imprisoned activists who meet the criteria for Strategic Release.
Sponsored by:
Georgejacksonuniversity.com Amendthe13th.org
NAAFRA.ORG
sfbayview.com Concreteandsteelcoe.wordpress.com
Freespeechsociety.org Insurrectionistsartcollective.com BPPPress.com
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