The "Revictimization Relief Act" allows suits against offenders whose "conduct…perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime on the victim," but the fact that it was aimed at silencing jailed activist Mumia Abu-Jamal was never made a secret — the governor signed it into law saying that it "was inspired by the excesses and pious hypocrisy of one particular killer."
Prison Radio's running an Indiegogo campaign to fight the law and to keep on airing recordings of American prisoners — America having the highest incarceration rate of any nation on Earth. The campaign's after $45K, and there's a $45K matching grant if they make it.
So ostensibly, this “Revictimization Relief Act” is a direct attack on Mumia. But it is also an attack on other political prisoners and prisoners of war, potentially allowing the state to prohibit the publication or dissemination of their writings, words, and ideas. And beyond that, it is an attack on all prisoners, potentially depriving them of the right to publicly discuss their cases, how they ended up in prison, or the nature of their imprisonment. Prisons in the united states serve as an institution of genocide, intended specifically to disrupt and traumatize oppressed peoples and their communities. It is a perverse but entirely natural development that those who are supposed to be condemned to “social death” are to also have their words and ideas further criminalized.
Furthermore, the “Gag Mumia” Law is an attack on those who work with and support prisoners on the outside. One of Mumia’s supporters on the outside in the Prison Radio project, which has been recording prisoners for over 20 years, and as such regularly makes Mumia’s words available to radio stations around the world to broadcast (and on the web via their site, for instance you can listen to them here). As such, it makes sense that Prison Radio — represented, alongside Mumia, by the Abolitionist Law Center and the Amistad Law Project – is taking the lead in organizing against this new repressive attack. A “Prison Radio Defense Fund” has been launched, and received a 45K matching grant from Prison Radio’s parent organization, the Redwood Justice Fund.
The “Gag Mumia” Law [Kersplebedeb]
