Book Event in NYC Sep 17: Spotlight on Incarcerated Women: Conditions, Profiteering and Resistance

Below is information on a book event I will be speaking at next weds at the Blue Stockings bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. My co-panelists will be Vikki Law, Yraida Guanipa and Silja Talvi. If you live in NY and are interested in the subject of women in prison, or know someone who is, we hope to see you there. The event is a joint fundraiser for Prison Legal News and Books Through Bars, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Spotlight on Incarcerated Women: Conditions, Profiteering and Resistance

link available here: http://women.prisonersresistance.org/node/21

The number of women in prison has nearly tripled within the past 2 decades. Join investigative journalist and author of Women Behind Bars Silja Talvi, founding editor of Prison Legal News (and co-editor of Prison Profiteers) Paul Wright, former drug war prisoner Yraida Guanipa, and Books Through Bars co-founder (and author of the forthcoming Resistance Behind Bars) Victoria Law for a discussion on who profits from this increase, conditions inside and resistance both inside and out.

Paul Wright is the editor and co-founder of Prison Legal News , the longest publishing independent prisoner rights magazine in US history. He co-edited The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the US Prison Industry; Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor, and Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Imprisonment. Both during and since his 17-year incarceration, he has successfully litigated a wide variety of censorship and public records issues against prison systems around the country both pro se, as a plaintiff, on behalf of other prisoners and on behalf of Prison Legal News.

Silja J.A. Talvi is an investigative journalist, essayist, and author of Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System. Her work has appeared in nearly a dozen book anthologies, including Prison Profiteers, and in over 75 publications nationwide. Silja is the recipient of 12 regional awards for excellence in journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists (in the Pacific Northwest); five awards for excellence in criminal justice reporting from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency; and a national award for immigration reporting from the New American Media Foundation.

Yraida L. Guanipa was sentenced to nearly 11 years as a first-time non-violent offender under the federal sentencing guidelines. While incarcerated, she fought for programs to maintain family bonds and abolish the prison/slave labor system. She was released in 2006. She continues fighting for more just systems and is working to reestablish the bonds with her now-teenage sons.

Victoria Law (facilitator) has been involved with prisoner issues for the past 15 years and has focused specifically on incarcerated women's issues since 2000. She is the co-founder of Books Through Bars—NYC and the editor of the zine “Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison.” She is the author of the forthcoming Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women.

Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street (between Stanton and Rivington Streets), LES
212-777-6028

www.bluestockings.com

$5 to $10 sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds

Childcare is available on request. Please e-mail me at vikkiml [at] yahoo [dot] com to make arrangements.

F or V train to 2nd avenue. Exit on the 1st Avenue side.

Participants' travel costs generously sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance

Paul Wright, Editor
Prison Legal News
P.O. Box 2420
West Brattleboro, VT 05303
802-257-1342
pwright@prisonlegalnews.org
www.prisonlegalnews.org

Seattle Office:
Prison Legal News
2400 NW 80th St. # 148
Seattle, WA 98117
206-246-1022