By The Erie County Prisoner's Rights Coalition

In the past month, much progress has been made in the Erie County Holding Center, from detoxification units being established to help combat the prevalent suicide problem, to state and federal investigators resuming inspection of the jails, this time without the supervision of County Attorney Cheryl Green. We are excited by the work that is going on, and we know that community outrage over the conditions in the Holding Center has played a major role in maintaining the urgency of the issue. We are active in anticipating next steps for the jails:

1. In early March we met for the first time with members of the National Lawyers Guild. Topics at this meeting included preparing legislation that would address money stolen from the Commissary account and establishing the Community Advisory Board for which we've been advocating for months.

Our sense from these conversations is that funds currently in the Commissary account are intended to be used again towards rehabilitation programs, while it may be more politically difficult to get the County to remunerate funds that were taken during the budget crisis of 2005.

2. Since our first contact with the Lawyers Guild, we have had conversation with Nan Haynes and Rebecca Town, who have developed a questionnaire that we can use to help refer former or current inmates and their families to seek legal help from member of the Guild. Last Wednesday they presented to us using this questionnaire and informed us as to how we can collect good testimony from the many people in our communities with stories to tell, so that those cases that have strong litigious potential can be advocated for. If you know folks whose stories need to be heard by a good lawyer, let us know.

3. Delivery of the Buffalo News to the Alden Corrections Center has been resumed, although it is still not in the Holding Center. Sheriff Howard had the News removed from the jails months ago, reportedly because the News did not endorse his candidacy for Sheriff.

4. Some members of the Coalition continue to make an attempt to speak out on the issue of prison abuse in the media. Members of our coalition have recently appeared on Channels 2, 4 and 7, as well as the Mary Davis Show, and local radio programs on both the AM and FM side of the dial. In the interest of continually widening the array of faces that represent the coalition out in the media, however, we'd like to ask for folks who are passionately outspoken on prison abuse to let us know (just reply to this e-mail!) and we can try to keep you better informed as to when media opportunities arise. Sometimes we hear about these only the morning of, but other times we can try to let more folks know in advance, so let us know if you're interested.

5. Our weekly demonstrations continue every Wednesday at 5:00 outside the Holding Center. [...]

Every weekly protest is followed by a meeting at 14 Allen St, near the corner of Main, around 6 PM.

Till next week,

ECPRC

Contact: eriecountyprisonersrights@googlemail.com