Both conferences were huge successes for our members. They were able to network, learn more about the movements, and bring the important and powerful voices of trans women to these movements.

Our Executive Director, Miss Major spoke on a panel at the FICPM convening and really got people fired up! Thank you to our member, Miss Grace Lawrence for capturing this moment on video!

Memorial service at 5pm, Wednesday December 14th, City of Refuge, 1025 Howard St, San Francisco.

Chris Teagel

For those of you participating in Occupy Oakland, or Occupy anywhere: Be Safe and Stay Strong!

More info on the strike here

FICPM as it is called believes that imprisonment or conviction on a felony charge should not result in a lifelong violation of our basic rights as human beings, either while we are on probation, in prison or as we make the transition from prison back into our communities. We are firmly committed to prioritizing De-Entry over Re-Entry, and oppose the concept of a Rehabilitative Industrial Complex that grows along with prisons.

Below is the link to the Alabama Conference in 2011, which was also attended by Miss Major and Minister Bobbie Jean Baker.

Special thanks to the Drug Policy Alliance for their generous scholarship and to all our friends and family who donated to TGI Justice toward this trip!

Click here to see the movie:
Inaugural Meeting of Formerly Incarcerated- Alabama, 2011

During the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) training series, members learned about the politics of prisons in the U.S., honed their public speaking and leadership skills, and shared their own personal thoughts and experiences about the Prison Industrial Complex. Additionally, as a key part of the training, members wrote, directed, and filmed a mini-documentary in which they interviewed each other as first hand experts on the effects of the Prison Industrial Complex on trans women and their communities.

The documentary is in the final stages of being edited. When finished it will be submitted to film festivals and shown at conferences. We will be sure to announce screenings as they occur. Special thanks to James Tracy for bringing his amazing skills to TGI Justice!

TransFaith In Color 2011 Conference
Friday, July 29th through Sunday, July 31st
Hilton Hotel, University Place, Charlotte, NC

LSPC has received letters from prisoners in the Pelican Bay SHU for many years, recounting the horrors that go on there. Particularly terrible is long term sensory deprivation and isolation, lasting in many cases for decades. Behind this inhumane treatment is the prison’s policy of requiring prisoners to “debrief” (inform on other prisoners) in order to be released from the SHU. An unwritten policy is in place to stop any lifer in the SHU from ever being paroled. Men imprisoned in the SHU exist for decades in metal and concrete cages, under fluorescent light 24 hours a day, deprived of human touch except for a guard locking them in handcuffs and shackles.

Facing this slow death penalty, an exceptional show of racial has unity emerged. SHU prisoners issued five core demands:

- End Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse
- Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria
- Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006
Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement
- Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food
- Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status
Inmates.

The SHU prisoners reached out to us and other prisoner rights organizations, seeking our support for their demands and hunger strike.

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children has wholeheartedly devoted itself to building support for the prisoners’ demands. I am a member of the mediation team that is working to negotiate the hunger strikers’ demands with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Today the prisoners resumed eating. They didn’t want people to die and they know implementation of their demands will take time. By ending the strike now, in this way, they believe they are better positioned to win their demands. The strike was successful because it shined a big light on CDCR’s torture and barbaric practices and mobilized many of us. The prisoners are grateful for our support, and know this is just the beginning. Continuing public pressure and possibly a class action lawsuit are needed to stop the torture.

I ask that you help us win the prisoners’ basic human rights. CDCR responded to the prisoners’ demands with a good faith promise to seriously consider substantive policy change. It is up to us to make CDCR deliver. We cannot stand silent while our state prison system tortures people. Please join us in these actions to win the prisoners’ demands:

- Sign up for regular action updates and sign the on-line petition at the Prisoner Hunger
Strike Solidarity website.
- Call Jerry Brown’s office daily: 916.445.2841. If you know the Governor or his associates,
urge Jerry Brown to grant the prisoners’ demands.
- Call CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate: 916.323.6001. Urge him to grant the prisoners’
demands.
- Call your elected officials. Urge them to support legislative hearings at Pelican Bay State
Prison, to hear the testimony of the men imprisoned in the SHU.
- Religious leaders are forming a religious delegation to talk directly to the Governor. Urge
any religious leaders you may know to support this delegation and call me to get
involved.
- If you know legal representation with the capacity to engage in a class action lawsuit,
please call me.

For more information about the hunger strike please access the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity website.

Please spread this message widely.

In pursuit of justice,
Dorsey E. Nunn
415.255.7036 x312

For more information about the Pelican Bay SHU Hunger Strike, go here: Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity.

TGI Justice Day of Action

El Rio Fundraiser

Thanks to the generosity of El Rio and raffle donations from Good Vibrations, AK Press, Babeland, The Sausage Factory, LE Boy, Monster Maddix, Bike Love, Annalise Ophelian, and Simply Unique Nails we raised $5,000!

We also want to thank DJ Durt, OMEDJ, and DJ Jillio for spinning fabulous tunes, the SF Trans March, and everyone else who donated, helped out, and showed up! Finally, an extra gigantic thank you to Danni West for making the whole thing happen. We could not have done any of this without Danni.

Check out more pics from the event here.

You can now follow TGI Justice is now on Twitter! http://twitter.com/#!/tgijp