skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Iowa Activists to Protest in Support of Nationwide Prison Strike

play audio
Play

Tuesday, August 21, 2018   

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa activists will protest outside the Iowa Prison Industries office in Des Moines today in solidarity with the prison strike planned in at least 17 states.

The prison strike is planned to run through September 9, the date of the 1971 Attica prison uprising in New York that left 43 people dead. Patrick Stall is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America Des Moines chapter and said local activists are calling on Iowa Prison Industries to pay its incarcerated workers a prevailing wage.

"Across the country, most prisoners won't make more than $1 an hour for their labor,” Stall said. “In Iowa, working inside a prison, a prisoner will make anywhere between 27 cents and 68 cents an hour. At a private corporation like Iowa Prison Industries, the wage is something like 58 cents to 87 cents an hour."

Organizers expect a significant number of inmates across the country to refuse to work and some to participate in hunger strikes and boycott purchases from prison stores in an effort to call attention to prison labor issues and inadequate prison conditions.

A report from Iowa's Human Rights office in 2017 said the state's prison population should remain stable through the end of this year, but will likely increase 24 percent by 2027.

Stall said using incarcerated people for cheap or free labor is a widespread practice as punishment for a crime. But he argues it's a form of modern-day slavery.

"Prisoners are compelled to work as part of their program for getting out,” Stall said. “They might have a harder time being paroled, for instance, if they refuse work assignments when they're in prison."

In 2016 a prison strike was organized in 12 states, with 24,000 prisoners taking part. The latest prison protests are related to the South Carolina riot at the Lee Correctional Institution earlier this year that left seven people dead and an additional 17 injured.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021