Raleigh: Death Row Prisoners Stage Cafeteria Protest

August 4, 2011 prisonbookscollective



On July 14th, 2011, a group of ten to fifteen death row inmates at Central

Prison in Raleigh staged a peaceful group protest in reaction to the

brutal beating of another death row inmate, William Bowie. Bowie was

handcuffed, with his hands behind his back, and then beaten by one

Sergeant Soucier in front of 25-30 inmates.



During the protest, prisoners stood up in the cafeteria and gave speeches

against the abuse. The following day, officials placed the men on

administrative segregation (solitary confinement) as punishment for the

protest.



One prisoner, Morgan Herring, was quoted as saying, “Rather than

discipline one of their own, the Central Prison authorities would exact

retaliation against those who seek the dignity and respect to which they

are entitled under NC administrative codes.”



This protest comes off the back of related protests in US prisons.

Recently thousands of prisoners in California entered the fourth week of a

massive hunger strike, which has spread to over a third of the state’s

facilities, in protest of the torture and isolation of long-term solitary

confinement. Prisoners in Indiana’s Wabash Valley Segregated Housing Unit

also engaged in group protest last week. Last December in Georgia, the

largest prison labor strike in US history, coordinated across vast

divisions of race, gender, and religion, spread to over 6 facilities in

opposition to a variety of policies including forced work with no pay.



These protests have elicited solidarity actions and demonstrations all

over the country, and has even spread internationally from Canada to

Turkey. Recently in Greensboro a noise demonstration took place outside

the Guilford County Jail to help spread awareness of the strike to North

Carolina prisoners.