The film opens in theaters nationwide on October 12th.  “Middle of Nowhere” provides a rare look at the harsh reality of how incarceration impacts and strains a relationship and family.  Ruby, the main character played by Emayatzy Corinealdi is a working class registered nurse grappling with the distance from her incarcerated husband, who is housed in a facility hours away.  She struggles to pay her husband’s lawyers fees and maintains contact with him through rare visits, letters and phone calls.  It’s seldom to see a film like this one that is so intimate, so raw and puts a human face on the effects of the criminal justice system.

CMJ and MAG-Net are collaborating with Participant Media to use the film for civic engagement on our Campaign for Prison Phone Justice, an organizing effort to end the predatory phone rates that folks have to pay to stay connected to  their loved ones who are incarcerated.  Participant Media’s Take Part is a portal for people to take action after watching the sobering film.

The packed crowd stayed for the Q & A with the filmmaker, actress and crew members that was moderated by Moikgantsi Kgama of Imagenation, a Harlem based arts and media advocacy based group. Moikgantsi mentioned how the film has already made waves in the advocacy front, teaming up with MAG-Net on the campaign to end these exorbitant prison phone rates.  Ava DuVernay talked about making films that reflect the reality and lives of the African-American community, she tackles those subjects in her films and wants them to be used for advocacy and social change.

This film is a reminder of how powerful character driven films like this one, can actually speak volumes about our system that has seen a 780% increase in incarceration of mainly Black and Latino men since 1970.

This past Friday, September 21st was the one-year anniversary of the execution of Troy Davis, an African American man who was incarcerated for 20 years for a murder even in the face of overwhelming evidence that argued his innocence.  We know these are not aberrations, but endemic in our system that maintains structural racism and poverty among communities of color. This kind of injustice may seem insurmountable to fight, but grassroots organizing through out the country gives us hope and faith that change is possible in our criminal justice system.  One concrete way you can take action is by going to www.phonejustice.org to help keep prisoner families and loved ones connected, because the right to communicate should belong to everyone.  This is not just a phone access issue. It is a human rights issue.  It is an economic and racial justice issue.

- ‘Freedom’s Journal’, March 16, 1827

Earlier today, members of the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) and the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice met with Commissioners and staff at the FCC.  But unlike most policy meetings, this meeting included a Sundance award winning movie screening—and a historic conversation.

The first part of the meeting included a screening of Ava DuVernay’s film, Middle of Nowhere.  Set to release on Oct. 12^th, the film “chronicles a woman’s separation from her incarcerated husband, revealing the challenges faced by families in staying connected to loved ones in prison and the effect on both parties.”  Lindsay Guetschow–from Participant Media–was present to talk about their social action partnership with MAG-Net which includes launching The Wright to Call Home website.

The second part of the meeting featured what can only be called a “historic” conversation.  Gathered on the 8^th floor–Mrs. Martha Wright, her grandson Mr. Ulandis Forte and Mr. Jackie Lucas–three named plaintiffs from Martha Wright vs. Corrections Corporation of America–shared their personal stories related to the Wright Petition (Docket 96-128) with the FCC.  They were joined by Mrs. Viola Richardson (Lucas) who shared her perspective as a family member–but not a plaintiff– who was directly impacted.

For those of you who are wondering why I use the words “historic”,  here is a quick rundown:

• In 2000 the DC Prisoners’ Project in collaboration with CURE, filed a case in federal court—Martha Wright vs. CCA–seeking to reduce the rates that prisoners’ families paid when they received collect calls
• In 2001, the District Court referred the case to the FCC for rulemaking, under the doctrine of ‘primary jurisdiction’
• In 2003 A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was issued, but no action followed
• In 2007, an alternative rulemaking proposal was filed, but no action followed

Yes, March 2013 marks the 10th anniversary of the FCC petition—and today was the FIRST time these plaintiffs addressed the FCC in person.

Kleenex was passed around as each of the plaintiffs (now petitioners) spoke.  Each of their testimonies was unique, powerful, and deeply moving.  While there is no way the fullness of their statements can be appropriately captured in text, I am sharing some of the highlights:

“It hurt me that every call home meant a sacrifice my mother had to make. She went without so many things, to stay in touch with me.”  -Mr. Lucas

“He’d call saying ‘we won’t talk but a minute’  but he had three kids to talk to, and me. Three kids plus Mom?  Ten minutes goes fast, and we could barely afford that.” – Mrs. Richardson (Lucas)

“He had to call his Mother. If she didn’t hear from him, she’d end up at the doctor sick with worry or high blood pressure. He had to call her to keep her healthy.”  -Mrs. Richardson (Lucas)

“My mother had to move in with my sister to pay the phone bills-$500 a month was normal.”  -Mr. Lucas

“I’m 3 days away from 90 days out–after 18 years in.  My grandmother is the greatest woman I have ever known. She kept in contact with me. I never thought I would be here, speaking to you all.”  -Mr. Forte

“My grandmother has been blind for 17 years.  How was I supposed to write to her? She needed to hire someone just to read the letters. When I called, we could only afford 2-3 minutes.” -Mr. Forte

“I’m 87 years old and still trying. He is my only and oldest grandson. I love him.  I thank God for him (grandson). He found his way back home.  The calls helped.”  -Mrs. Wright

These testimonies highlight the burden that families bear to remain connected.  While prices vary by state and prison, one short phone call can cost about $17–it’s a price that is well out of the reach of most people,  but which guarantees a hefty profit margin for the prison phone companies who business model thrives off an incarceration nation.

Traveling for in-person visits is time-consuming and expensive–and usually unaffordable–so access to low-cost phone service options should be part of the connectivity equation.  In fact, connecting parents, children, partners and relatives should be a national priority!   Years ago theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”  Yet today, corporate profiteering at the expense of the healthy families guides our policy making–cloaked in language that suggests regulation is bad, the marketplace is best left untouched and big government will harm us all.

Marginalized by a narrative that hides structural racism, poverty and its relationship to disproportionate confinement, our communities are left to pay a regressive tax to “stay together.”  The depravity of this system cannot be overlooked, it’s time to put people before profits and the FCC as the only agency with jurisdiction over long distance rates,  is the correct venue to resolve this issue.

Malkia Cyril, executive director of CMJ says:

“Music and art is the medium to filter change.  Because of the emotion that art can evoke, it holds the power to remind us of the struggle, link us to fate, call out history, and provide context for change.  It’s one of best framing tools for the disenfranchised and is a critical weapon in the fight for media rights and access.

Artists in particular have a self-interest in ensuring that media and cultural policy is fair.  When the media system is not accessible, affordable, and accountable, the rights of artists and the freedom and forums with which to make their art is greatly reduced.” 

Music artist Erin Mckeown is the personification of the ideals on which CMJ and our signature project, the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), is premised on.  For years, Erin’s music and activism has elevated issues of media rights and access through cultural organizing and communications power.

This year, through PledgeMusic, Erin committed to raising money for MAG-Net.  For those unfamiliar, PledgeMusic offers artists, the opportunity to fund recordings, touring or any other band associated activity, whilst also bringing them closer to their fans, and raising for money for social causes that speak most strongly to them.  We’re honored that our work has moved her to act in the same way that her music has moved us and countless others.

Via email, Erin graciously agreed to answer a few questions about why she’s picked MAG-Net as her PledgeMusic organization, and what media rights and access means to her as an individual and an artist.

Read on for our interview with Erin:

CMJ: How is the Media Action Grassroots Network connected to your work, why is it important right now?

EM: For a number of years, I have been trying to tie together several of my passions: i get really fired up about social justice. I love to play music and have built a wonderful, loyal, smart group of listeners. And I really love technology and want to see it used well. This makes Media Action Grassroots Network a natural fit for me. and, as I am sure MAG-Net and i would both say, we’re at a crucial point in time with the intersection of these issues. In both public and private ways, media and its accompanying technologies are being used to further current systems of inequality. But the fantastic part is those same tools are available for us to use to challenge and change these systems.

The music industry is experiencing a ton of change, quickly. This is not news to anyone. Technology is playing a big part in this change and artists are using it to create new strategies to continue making their art.  Fan-funding through sites like PledgeMusic.com is a great example of this, and it’s made completely possible by new media.  I didn’t want to do an album fundraiser and not try to connect it explicitly to these larger issues. When you support my new album, I also want you to be supporting the myriad ways that all kinds of folks are using new media for change.

CMJ: Why is this partnership between an artist and the network important and how did it come about?

EM: It’s the basic principle of community, right? collaborate, broaden, and mutually inspire. as an artist, I feel like my job is to be a conduit and archivist (of a sort) for human experiences. I translate these experiences into tangible pieces of sound that I can share with my established audience or with new folks I meet through other networks. But it also works in reverse! A network of activists like MAG-Net feeds me. I am so inspired by what members are doing that it drives me to expression. When you add music audiences to activism networks, then you’re really doing something useful.

How I found MAG-Net is a nice extension of this principle. I had done some work with some of your member and advisory orgs, Media Literacy Project and Free Press- without being aware of MAG-Net.  I’ve also been involved for a long time with DC-based Future of Music Coalition. All I had to do was ask them who was doing the best work on media and social justice, and they pointed me to MAG-Net.

CMJ: Beyond this specific partnership, what is the role of musicians and artists in movements for social change?

EM: I think musicians and artists have a unique ability to translate and highlight the emotional aspects of this work. So much of this work can be intellectual, requiring us to interact with government or policy or law. This is important. But it’s also important to feel, and I think musicians and artists can help us do that along with the more mechanical aspects of change. There is plenty to be said, but there is plenty that can’t be said and needs to be sung.

CMJ: What are some of the experiences or people that have shaped your work and art?

EM: I can think of so many, but i’ll highlight this one:  In the spring of 2011, Future of Music Coalition and another org I work a lot with, Air Traffic Control, brought a group of artists to tucson for a 3 day intensive workshop around immigration issues. We met with Rep. Raul Grijalva, Andrea Quijada of the Media Literacy Project, and many more amazing local folks. We also took a bus ride down to nogales AZ to witness the wall that’s being built between the US and Mexico.

Seeing the wall, walking along it, hearing stories from local folks about the way the wall has impacted them, was incredibly moving. Also, the way the wall looked was really striking to me: a scar across the desert. violent, out of place, a marker of wrong.

When I came home from the trip, I had to try to write about this image. I ended up writing a song that will appear on my new record, the one we’re raising money for with the pledge campaign. The song is called “the jailer”, and it describes the type of person that builds this wall, and how building walls like this hurt everyone involved.

I’m also collaborating with two of the other artists on the trip, Martin Perna (antibalas, ocote soul) and Stephen Brackett (flobots), to do a remix of the song.

CMJ: Besides this partnership with MAG-Net, what is another example of creative action and cultural organizing that is inspiring you right now?

EM: There are three projects i would point to. cashmusic.org builds open source web tools for artists. They’re a non-profit out of portland OR, and what they are offering is radical in a world where so much knowledge is proprietary.  In Denver, the flobots have really stepped up with flobots.org which is an umbrella for their various community and art endeavors. And the cellist Ben Sollee has spent the last several years perfecting his bike touring skills. He’s partnered with several great orgs to sponsor 2-3 week tours where he and his crew use only their bikes to get themselves, their instruments, and their merchandise from show to show.

The PledgeMusic Drive is underway now – please go to Erin’s PledgeMusic page to get some great music, swag, and support cultural organizing and MAG-Net.

The seized server was operated by the European Counter Network (“ECN”), the oldest independent Internet

service provider in Europe.  ECN provided an anonymous remailer service, Mixmaster, that was the target of an FBI investigation into bomb threats against the University of Pittsburgh.  In a formal statement May First/People Link director Jamie McClelland writes “The server seizure is not only an attack against us, but an attack against all users of the Internet who depend on anonymous communication. Disrupted in this seizure were academics, artists, historians, feminist groups, gay rights groups, community centers, documentation and software archives and free speech groups.”

According to MFPL, the seized server included the mailing list “cyber rights” (the oldest discussion list in Italy to discuss this topic), a Mexican migrant solidarity group, and other groups working to support indigenous workers in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.  Overall, over 300 email accounts, between 50-80 email lists and related websites have been taken off the Internet by this FBI seizure.

If you’re like me, I’m sure you see a glaringly obvious pattern here.  In the last several months, it seems like the ongoing attack to strip Internet users of our rights to privacy and security online has accelerated.  In the last several months, companies have increased their online behavioral tracking. In March, Google launched its new privacy policy, that would allow them to consolidate users’ data across all different platforms and services, claiming that it will improve the Internet user’s experience. Last September, Facebook made a significant change to its privacy policy wiping out the word “privacy” and rebranding it as a “data use” policy. These changes give Facebook more power to track billions of users on the web.

Finally, this week, Electronic Frontier Foundation called for week of action against CISPA, the cybersecurity bill moving quickly through the House that allow companies like Google, Facebook, and AT&T to eavesdrop on our communication correspondence and give sensitive user data to the government without a court order.

In addition, on May 3^rd – Consumers Union will be hosting an event “Facebook and Your Privacy: What every Consumer Should Know” on Thursday, May 3rd from 6-8:45pm at New York University in New York City. The panel will include various digital rights advocates like Jeff Chester of Center for Digital Democracy and Jeff Fox of Consumer Reports and Alfredo Lopez, a long time digital rights and Internet activist and founder of May First/People Link.  If you are interested in attending, please email betty@centerformediajustice.org for more info.

While our Chicago Anchor, Community Media Workshop (CMW), aren’t represented at the meeting in person – they’re there in spirit (and even sent a shout-out video to the other anchors).

And even better, we got to catch up with CMW’s Senior Trainer Diana Pando.  Read on to find out more about the work of the organization, what drives her and to get a good news tip.

DIANA PANDO, COMMUNITY MEDIA WORKSHOP – MAG-NET INTERVIEW

Can you tell me about the mission and vision of Community Media Workshop, and who you serve (in your own words)?

Our organization serves nonprofit organizations working on a variety of issues ranging from immigration to healthcare. Our purpose is to empower these organizations with the communications skills and tools they need to tell their organization’s story to the media. We do this by organizing a variety of communications and social media workshops throughout the year.  We also help in sourcing grassroots and community news for journalists. Our goal is to diversify voices in the news and promote news that matters.

What is your role at CMW?  Tell me what an average day for you is like.  What’s a day in the life of Diana Pando?

A day in the life of Diana Pando includes a strong cup of coffee and industrial strength multi-tasking. My role as the Senior Trainer at the Workshop includes: Organizing the 2012 Making Media Connections conference, scheduling and coordinating all of our regular communications and social media trainings and assist in organizing ethnic media department events.  I’ve also done custom communications trainings for the following organizations: Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs – Creative Arts Expo, Department of Family & Support Services, IL Library Association, Region V Headstart Conference, IL Education Foundation, IL Parks and Recreation Association and Telpochcalli Community Education Project.

What does media justice mean for Community Media Workshop?  Why did you all decide to help anchor a Chicago Chapter?

We decided to be a Chicago Chapter anchor because we believe in the media justice work that is being done by MAG-Net and its members. It’s a way for us to educate and spread the word about the work that is being done on media justice issues to our networks. Media justice to Community Media Workshop means strengthening this national movement by helping nonprofits tell their story to the media and diversifying the types of stories being covered in mainstream news.

For you personally, what sparked your interest in media justice work?

Media justice work is a must if we want to strengthen our democracy and include marginalized communities into a larger public narrative and conversation. Currently, there are so many community issues and stories not being covered in mainstream media. A recent example, I came across was a news article called, The Faces of the Forgotten: Missing Black Women Across America.  This article brought to my attention this disturbing issue happening to African-American women but equally disturbing is that I had to read about it in the Daily Mail, a British online news site.

This is just one example of many that exist and trying to figure out how to fill those gaps is exciting. At Community Media Workshop we try to fill these gaps in media through different program initiatives. In the last six-months, we’ve co-launched a Global Chicago Women’s Blogger Initiative, organized a media panel with Black media outlets to help them connect with nonprofits serving the African-American community, in February we launched the Latino Op-Ed initiative to encourage nonprofit organizations working on issues impacting the Latino community to write op-eds that can be used by local media outlets.

Outside of Community Media Workshop, I’m also working on Proyecto Latina’s Reporteras Series. Its purpose is to empower Latina writers to cover issues in Primera Voz and focus on issues impacting the Latina community. What makes this project unique is that it is completely Latina led and we are creating a virtual safe space for Latinas to have conversations about issues impacting them online.

What most excites you about your role in MAG-Net?

What excites me most about our role in MAG-Net is being able to support the work the organization and its members are doing to spotlight media policy issues. It allows us to inform our nonprofit networks in Chicago about these issues as well as what they can do to take action and be part of a larger media justice movement.

What are some of the media policy issues that impact Community Media Workshop and your constituents the most?

In 2010 we published our New News Report and what we discovered through our research was that between 1986 and 2008 the appearance of selected key issue words and phrases like “public housing”, “uninsured” and “school reform”, to name a few, have declined dramatically in the news. The report also found that news media is unlikely to cover your issue. Our constituents are working on a variety of issues that impact communities, and if they can’t get their stories in the media these issues and communities become invisible resulting in a lack of diversity and access to information.  You can read the New News Report here.

What’s your top news tip for the media justice movement?

My top news tip for the media justice movement is to be proactive in your communications. For example, call reporters and find out what kinds of stories they are looking for and be a resource for them. Also, take the time to follow reporters on Twitter and listen to the conversations going on about media justice issues. Engaging reporters online and offline is key to building a strong relationship with reporters.

To get more media tips go to www.communitymediaworkshop.org  and read more about Diana Pando here.

Our MAG-Net anchor organization for the Los Angeles chapter, Institute of Popular Education in Southern California (IDEPSCA), was present and worked with CMJ to send out a joint bilingual outreach email to our LA contacts.  IDEPSCA works with day laborers and domestic workers that depend on prepaid calling cards to stay connected with loved ones abroad and across the country.

Pedro Joel Espinosa, Mobile Voices Organizer at IDEPSCA, said this in his testimony: “Most day laborers from IDEPSCA’s Day Labor Centers don’t know where to go to file a complaint regarding unfair practices by pre paid phone card companies. They tell us that they are fed up with being charged with fees they don’t understand and not getting the minutes they paid for. We ask the CPUC to provide more education and consumer protection specifically complaint resolution in the Pico Union district of Los Angeles.”

Edyael Casaperalta of the Center for Rural Strategies (MAGNet member) also provided testimony emphasizing the importance of communications in rural communities.

“As rural Internet and broadband advocates, we know the importance of having access to all forms of communication. Communication is a fundamental human right. Lack of basic communication services isolates people and denies them the right to communicate. Without access to basic telephone and broadband service, rural people are further isolated from economic and civic participation, and disconnected from the safety provided by our nation’s emergency 911-service network. Furthermore, without a state agency protecting the rights of consumers, rural people will be even more vulnerable to the breach of their right to communicate.”

The fight for stronger protections of our basic communication rights could not have come at a more critical time as the California legislature is currently considering a bill that would stop the Public Utilities Commission from regulating internet service providers. With the internet becoming a basic necessity in our ability to navigate our everyday lives, this bill, SB 1161, would leave our communities without any consumer protections and in the hands of corporations.

“On its face, SB 1161 calls for wholesale deregulation of California’s telecommunications systems,” says Alex Nogales, President & CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.  ”If passed and signed into law, SB 1161 will have a dramatic and devastating impact on consumers in California – particularly for low-wealth individuals and families that rely on the California Public Utilities Commission to stay connected. Passage of this bill would make it impossible for the state to administer the Lifeline program – a program that many low-wealth consumers rely on and one that NHMC has worked to improve for many years.”

The voices of many were heard loud and clear last Thursday, and the message was that we deserve to have our communications needs protected, whether that’s through a computer, cell phone or landline. Today it’s your turn to act. Our partner, TURN has set up an online action page so you can stand up and fight against this bill! To paraphrase the great Martin Luther King Jr. a threat to our communication rights somewhere is a threat to our communications rights everywhere!

Co-anchor, Southwest Workers’ Union (SWU) is an organization of low-income workers and families, community residents, and youth, united in one organizational struggle for worker rights, environmental justice and community empowerment. SWU empowers and organizes its 2,500 members through education, leadership development, and direct action. The aim is to build multi-generational grassroots power to create sustainable systemic change for social, economic, and environmental justice and to build the movement for dignity and justice.  One of their cultural organizing projects, Underground Library is filling its shelves with books about the literature, culture and stories from and about their community.  The space serves as an organizing, cultural and artists space for community members to come together.

Laura Muraida, Mass Base Political Organizer at SWU says, “In Texas, Southwest Workers Union sees the connection between the unjust media policy environment and the resulting public discourse that has a direct effect on the struggles we are trying to win locally. We see the media justice fight as essential to our other fights.”

Martinez Street Women’s Center (MWSC) is a resource for Women in East and Southeast San Antonio, providing information and services that support the active participation of women and girls in the pursuit of their own physical, emotional, and social well-being. Their target population is women and girls who face barriers accessing health care and education. Their programs target low-to-moderate income women of diverse cultural backgrounds.

Last month, MSWC celebration International Women’s Day and a group of local young girls celebrated by featuring their artwork and listening to several prominent writers at an event hosted by University of Texas at San Antonio.  The group displayed a mural and photos they took themed, Girls Leading The Way.

Andrea Figueroa, Girl Zone Program Director at MSWC expresses, “I am excited to be part of a progressive collaboration and continue the important work of media justice in Texas. As a MAG-Net co-anchor for this region and a close collaborator with Local782, I am confident that women, girls, families, and musicians in our community will benefit greatly from our access to highly impactful programs and ideas from across the nation.”

Joleen Garcia, Executive Director of MSWC, points out that “media justice has a long history in Texas, from a strong oral history tradition to independent media-makers, cultural workers, and innovative story-tellers. We are proud to work alongside Local782 and Southwest Workers’ Union to connect a diverse group of organizations to the inspiring work of media justice.”

On a personal note, as Network Coordinator for MAG-Net, I’m very excited that SWU and MSWC have been voted into co-anchorship of the San Antonio chapter by our MAG-Net Anchors team.  San Antonio has deep roots with the media justice movement and it comes full circle with the addition of longtime labor and environmental justice group, SWU and the young girls and women-led center, MSWC partnering to lead this chapter in media change organizing in this region.  As we enter our seventh year, MAG-Net has not only expanded significantly across the country, the leadership has gotten stronger, and we truly are moving a local-to-national agenda for media rights and access.  I look forward to going even farther with the addition of our new anchors.

Cook County phone contract costs inmates and families

Preckwinkle calling for end to $15 phone charges in Cook County Jail

Dart: $15 phone calls worth reviewing

Meanwhile, CMJ’s Network Manager Betty Yu has been working overtime as a guest blogger for National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture during their blog salon series: Telecommunications Policy and the Media Arts.  Below is a cross-posting for her latest blog.  In this installment, Betty writes about the local-to-national fight for Prison Phone Justice that we’ve been waging, and the difference grassroots organizations are making in states across the country.

In this last month, the fight to end the high costs of phone rates in the prison system got a major boost when the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) held it’s spring meeting and decided to address the high cost of Prison Phone Calls—specifically the FCC’s role in increasing competition for different phone companies, so not one single phone carrier has the monopoly and free reign to inflate their charges that results in low-income families paying up to $6 a minute to call their loved once who are incarcerated.

The Center for Media Justice (CMJ), along with Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net members), Media Literacy Project and Native Public Media sit on the CAC along with others to make recommendations to the FCC to ensure that consumer voices are included in proceedings before the FCC.  amalia deloney, Associate Director of CMJ sits on the CAC, she wrote in a recent blog, ”Our [CMJ] selection for this committee meant a real opportunity to amplify the voices of historically marginalized communities and ensure that our unique communications needs were highlighted.  Knowing that we were joining the committee at the same time as other MAG-Net members meant we share a responsibility to take collective action on the issues that matter to the communities we serve.”  Read More

The articles, which mention CMJ and Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) partner Thousand Kites, are about the high cost of prison phone calls in Chicago/Cook County. We’re proud to be a part a coalition of organizations heading up the Prison Phone Justice Campaign, a local-to-local campaign challenging prison phone kickbacks and the U.S. Prison Telephone Industry.

Why is this fight important?  Consider some of these stats:

• A phone call from prison to home costs families 24 times more than a normal call – upwards of $18 for a short 15 minute conversation. (Thousand Kites)
• Up to 60 percent (or $152 million) of the costs of a call an inmate makes to their loved one goes not to the cost of services, but instead goes towards “commission” to corporations and prison agencies. (Thousand Kites)
• Before being incarcerated more than two-thirds of male inmates were employed and more than half were the primary source of financial support for their children. (Pew Foundation)
• Family income averaged over the years a father is incarcerated is 22 percent lower than family income was the year before a father is incarcerated. (Pew Foundation)

Many of these families are struggling to make ends meet from the jump.  The major hit their incomes take during incarceration is even more devastating.  The bottom line – predatory companies are levying obscenely high charges on the people that can least afford it.

But the costs are not just monetary – for the 2.7 million children with a parent in prison, they now face the uncertainty and alienation that comes with having one or both parents in prison.  For these kids, a phone call with that parent can provide stability, comfort and a sense of normalcy.  On the flip side, for the parent on the other end of the line, that same phone call can offer accountability, and a reminder of the life they have to repair post-release. Healthy family relationships increase the likelihood that people will have success in their communities when they return home.

In my past life, I worked for Safer Foundation – a 30-year old organization helping people with criminal records find employment post-release .  At their two adult transition centers, Crossroads and North Lawndale, the parenting classes offered have the highest rate of enrollment and are the ones inmates report as having the longest lasting impact on their lives.  Through these classes, and the resulting positive interactions they foster with their families, they leave prison more ready to commit to being better parents and better members of society.  The government should encourage this outcome- instead they’re working with corporations to put phone calls out of reach for families trying to stay connected.

Eight states across the country have already said NO to the jail phone contracts bleeding families of the resources they need to survive – we want 42 states to follow suit. This fight is not about “criminals” or “making life easier for murderers” as some may suggest.  This is about protecting families and communities. Together we can force the government to put people ahead of profits.

-Paper Tiger Television Manifesto

Malkia Cyril giving the keynote at Being the Media

By Betty Yu

February 15^th marked the “Support Independent Media for the 99%” day across the country.  Through the Occupy Wall Street movement, we have witnessed how powerful independent media making, citizens journalism, and cultural organizing can be when it’s put into the hands of the 99% of people directly affected by social injustice and inequality.  Through viral videos and social media, Occupy the Hood and Occupy Our Homes were able to help make tangible changes, mobilizing hundreds to help families stop wrongful evictions and foreclosures.

This past weekend in New York City, activists and organizers came together to celebrate thirty years of Paper Tiger Television (PPTV).  They were one of the nation’s first radical and independent media collectives started back in 1981.  Founded on the fundamental principles of media activism and social justice, Paper Tiger Television’s guerilla making style and groundbreaking videos inspired generations of independent media makers.  Their cutting edge videos deconstructed corporate media messages and told the stories of the 99% that were blacked out by these media giants.

The Uprising of '34, examines this hidden legacy of the labor movement in the South and its impact today.

My first encounter with Paper Tiger Television was back in 1995, when I was doing labor organizing with a workers center in Chinatown.  Documentary filmmakers, George Stoney and Judith Helfand collaborated with PPTV to bring their film “Uprisings of ‘34” about textile workers organizing in the south during the 1930’s to various communities.  At that time, in Chinatown we were engaged in a local campaign to end slave labor conditions at a restaurant that was paying it’s workers 75 cents an hour.  PPTV recognized the importance of bringing this film and other activist videos to communities like Chinatown, to share the story of a collective struggle.

On February 10^th, Paper Tiger Television’s held it’s 30^th Anniversary conference “30 Years of Media Art, Activism and Analysis” February 10^th, 2012 at the New School in New York City, which was also co-sponsored by Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net). Malkia Cyril, my fellow comrade and the executive director of Center for Media Justice gave a moving keynote speech expressing the need for independent media to stay intimately connected to grassroots organizing and those in the frontlines fighting for change.  She shared her own story about her first encounter with PPTV, when she was interviewed for “Fenced Out” over ten years ago, a video about saving the Christopher Street Piers in New York City, one of the only safe spaces for LGBTQ youth.

We wrapped up this inspiring weekend of Independent Media with a Mixer, co-hosted by MAG-Net members People’s Production House and Global Action Project. MAG-Net members, like Families for Freedom, Paper Tiger Television, Deep Dish TV attended and shared information about local project and campaigns.  Families for Freedom, an immigrant-led group fighting deportations and detentions is working another MAG-Net member, Thousand Kites to broadcast their first radio show out of a detention center.  This weekend, celebrating radical and independent media was uplifting and reminds me why I know we are winning the fight against the Paper Tiger that is Corporate Media.

MAG-Net Mixer- celebrating rrradical media in NYC