Victoria Law, The Nation: These Women Are Demanding a Voice in the Criminal Justice Conversation

(PHOTO:  The Council at Cucho’s Justice Center in Los Angeles.)

Check out this new article about the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls written for The Nation by author and longtime prison activist Victoria Law, entitled:

These Women Are Demanding a Voice in the Criminal Justice Conversation

“The movement to reform the criminal justice system is still dominated by men and politicians. This group of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women is changing that.” (The two accompanying photos are from the new article.)

(PHOTO:  A Council meeting in Washington, DC.)

–And, if you have not yet done so, be sure to read Angola 3 News’ previous interviews with Law:

Torturing Women Prisoners (2009),  Resisting Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex (2010), VIDEO: Resisting Gender Violence Without Cops or Prisons (2011), and Will AB 2530 Unshackle Childbirth in California? (w/ Tina Reynolds, 2012)

Victoria Law, The Nation: These Women Are Demanding a Voice in the Criminal Justice Conversation

(PHOTO:  The Council at Cucho’s Justice Center in Los Angeles.)

Check out this new article about the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls written for The Nation by author and longtime prison activist Victoria Law, entitled:

These Women Are Demanding a Voice in the Criminal Justice Conversation

“The movement to reform the criminal justice system is still dominated by men and politicians. This group of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women is changing that.” (The two accompanying photos are from the new article.)

(PHOTO:  A Council meeting in Washington, DC.)

–And, if you have not yet done so, be sure to read Angola 3 News’ previous interviews with Law:

Torturing Women Prisoners (2009),  Resisting Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex (2010), VIDEO: Resisting Gender Violence Without Cops or Prisons (2011), and Will AB 2530 Unshackle Childbirth in California? (w/ Tina Reynolds, 2012)

West Feliciana District Attorney Says Herman Wallace Has Been Reindicted

(Herman Wallace, in ambulance after his release.)

In an article published this evening, Lauren McGaughy of the Times-Picayune cites an announcement by West Feliciana District Attorney Samuel D’Aquilla, that a grand jury has reindicted Wallace. McGaughy writes further that:

George Kendall, one of Wallace’s attorneys, said no one on his legal team was notified of the indictment Thursday. Documents filed in Louisiana’s Middle District on Thursday show D’Aquilla notified the court of his intent to reindict Wallace.

“We have not received any official notification of an indictment, but if it is true, we are shocked that a state grand jury was asked to indict a man who has only days to live,” Wallace’s legal team said in a statement.

Kendall said he was “not surprised” that D’Aquilla didn’t notify Wallace’s legal team, but said the situation is disappointing and unusual.

McGaughy concludes that “the reindictment is largely a political move, as D’Aquilla said he would not ask that Wallace be put back behind bars, and also wouldn’t set a court date until the end of the year..” Read the full article here.

Please check back for an A3 Coalition statement in response to this news.

Free At Last! Herman Wallace Has Finally Been Released

–Special thanks to PBS, who is currently honoring Herman by streaming the new film Herman’s House, which you can watch, in full, here. MEDIA COVERAGE:  Oct. 2 episode of Democracy Now (embedded above) and Amy Goodman’s Truthdig column  II&nb…

VIDEOS: Oakland protest supporting CA prisoner hunger strike (featuring Danny Murillo, Janetta Louise Johnson and Paige Kumm)

RELATED:  Solidarity from Chiapas, Mexico and in Berlin, Germany (read writeup and watch video)


At lunchtime on Wednesday July 31, Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza in downtown Oakland hosted a protest rally in support of the CA prisoner hunger strike that began on July 8. The rally was followed by a spirited march through downtown Oakland (view event photos here). This event was held in conjunction with other solidarity events around the world.
The rally’s MC, Jerry Elster from All of Us or None, announced the upcoming protest outside the west gate of San Quentin Prison at 2pm on August 3, and introduced a wide range of anti-prison activists who spoke in support of the current hunger strike in California prisons. Featured here are video clips from three of the rally’s speakers.
–Danny Murillo survived 14 years of solitary confinement in California prisons and is currently a student at the University of California at Berkeley.

–Janetta Louise Johnson from Transgender Intersex Gender Variant Justice, where she works as Program Coordinator for Member Leadership Development and the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement. TGI Justice, who recently made a statement of support for the hunger strike, describes itself as “a group of transgender people—inside and outside of prison—creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom,” whose membership includes “low income transgender women of color and our families who are in prison, formerly incarcerated, or targeted by the police.”

–Paige Kumm from Causa Justa – Just Cause, where she works as a San Francisco Housing Rights Counselor/Organizer. The group’s mission statement is to build “grassroots power and leadership to create strong, equitable communities. Born from a visionary merger between a Black organization and a Latino immigrant organization, we build bridges of solidarity between working class communities of color.”

–Angola 3 News is a project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.