Posted Courtesy of Wright Enterprises San Francisco Dallas Community Spotlight~~
PRESS RELEASE
Sunday, March 7, 2021
Contact: Nube Brown (707) 601-2901, nube@sfbayview.com
https://www.facebook.com/malikdefensecommittee
BLACK NEWSPAPER EDITOR SUPPRESSED BY FOR-PROFIT PRISON CORPORATION GEO GROUP, THREATENED WITH RE-IMPRISONMENT
Activists and community members, including SF and Alameda County Public Defenders and District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, will gather to demand justice for Malik Washington and an end to for-profit prison corporations in CA
San Francisco, CA - On Sunday, March 7, from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m., a socially distanced rally will take place in front of the Taylor Street Center, a federal halfway house located at 111 Taylor St. in San Francisco. The rally calls for the freedom of San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper Editor Malik Washington, an end to for-profit prison corporation GEO Group's operations in California, and an end to the attack on Black journalism by the GEO Group and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Malik Washington, who is incarcerated at the Taylor Street Center (a facility housing 240 individuals), was retaliated against when he released a public memo to shine light on a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility in January 2021. Facility staff confiscated his cell phone and brought disciplinary charges against him, including the possibility of re-imprisonment and restrictions on his ability to speak to members of the press, even though he is a working journalist.
Mr. Washington and the SF Bay View have filed a federal lawsuit alleging First Amendment retaliation against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the GEO Group, Inc. A hearing in that lawsuit takes place on March 10, 2021 at 9:30 a.m.
"This is not just a fight against my First Amendment rights" says Mr. Washington, "this is an attack on the rights of Black newspapers and Black journalists. We have to create a space for Black media to speak truth to power without being subjected to oppression or censorship by those who seek to silence our voices because it's inconvenient for them to listen to Black struggles."
San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju has spoken out against the retaliation Malik has faced within GEO Group's custody. He says, "We continue to witness GEO Group's pattern of deceit and neglect in its response to the COVID pandemic. We must protect the health and dignity of the people living at 111 Taylor and invest in future reentry care that is community-based and focused on the needs of individuals, not the profits of GEO Group. I stand in solidarity with Malik Washington and for his rights as a member of the Black press to speak out and protect his community."
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin also criticizes the GEO Group. He says, "The last four years have shown the need for ensuring that people – especially those in the press – are free and able to tell truth to power. It is deeply concerning when people – like Malik Washington – who are devoted to truth-telling are targeted precisely for trying to ensure that critical information is made public. We must stand against attempts to target or prevent people like Malik from speaking out."
The San Francisco Public Defender recently released a short documentary: "111 Taylor Street: During a Pandemic", filmed with undercover footage, documenting the lack of precautions taken by GEO to protect detained people from COVID. It can be viewed at: https://wearedefender.com/111-taylor
The GEO Group, Inc. runs private detention facilities, including halfway houses ("Residential Reentry Centers") and ICE detention facilities, for both the federal government and the State of California. In 2019, it made revenues of $ 2.5 billion dollars. During the pandemic, GEO-run detention facilities experienced COVID outbreaks, including 67 cases at a halfway house in Kansas City; two COVID-19 deaths at a halfway house in Houston, and half the people detained at the Mesa Verde ICE detention center in Bakersfield contracting COVID.
AB32, a recently passed Assembly bill sponsored by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, phases out all private prisons in California, including halfway houses and immigration detention facilities. Despite this, predatory private corporations such as GEO continue to collude with ICE to violate state law and the basic human rights of detained people. GEO and the federal government, under the Trump administration, challenged AB32 in federal court and continue to do so, despite a federal District Court ruling upholding the law. The Biden administration has the power to end the legal challenges against AB32 and cancel all private immigration prison contracts in California.
The Taylor Street Center's contract with the federal government expires later this month, on March 31, 2021.
The rally is being organized by the Malik Washington Defense Committee. Rally sponsors include the SF Bay View, the ACLU of Northern California, the San Francisco Public Defender, San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, Centro Legal de la Raza, the Immigrant Legal Resources Center, Critical Resistance, No Justice Under Capitalism, POOR Magazine, trans rights historian and filmmaker Susan Stryker, Asians 4 Black Lives, Haiti Action Committee and more.