5,000 signatures reached
To: NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS)
No Package Restrictions for NYS Prisoners-2022!
Petition Text
See Updates Below! We are asking people to share this petition, and also call Governor Kathy Hochul's office and DOCCS Commissioner Anthony Annucci and demand that they take directive 4911a off the table for good!
Call: Kathy Hochul: 1-518-474-8390; Anthony Annucci: (518) 457-8134
Email: [email protected]; Kathy Hochul: https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form
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In January 2018, New York State DOCCS began a pilot program at three facilities (Greene, Green Haven and Taconic) restricting packages to prisoners, forcing family members to buy overpriced food, religious items, clothes, and basic amenities from prison industry vendors. It seems that six vendors are confirmed so far, with others still possible — but all current and proposed companies come with the same issues: the loss of connection to home and family, the increased difficulty of navigating an online order process vs. walking into a store, and the smaller range and higher cost of products.
It is not too late to stop this directive (4911A) from passing, but we need the support of organizations, state officials, and family members! Call on DOCCS to halt 4911A immediately, and ensure that prisoners have access to food, religious items and literature.
Call: Kathy Hochul: 1-518-474-8390; Anthony Annucci: (518) 457-8134
Email: [email protected]; Kathy Hochul: https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form
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In January 2018, New York State DOCCS began a pilot program at three facilities (Greene, Green Haven and Taconic) restricting packages to prisoners, forcing family members to buy overpriced food, religious items, clothes, and basic amenities from prison industry vendors. It seems that six vendors are confirmed so far, with others still possible — but all current and proposed companies come with the same issues: the loss of connection to home and family, the increased difficulty of navigating an online order process vs. walking into a store, and the smaller range and higher cost of products.
It is not too late to stop this directive (4911A) from passing, but we need the support of organizations, state officials, and family members! Call on DOCCS to halt 4911A immediately, and ensure that prisoners have access to food, religious items and literature.
Why is this important?
UPDATE APRIL 2022: Three years ago, this petition was written by incarcerated women at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, including by Jennifer Fecu, who since her release in 2020 has been working to connect women to the community outside through Community Connects project of Imanis Safehouse (ImanisSafehouse.org). This petition and the brave actions of women inside led to the building of a coalition to fight the package restrictions, and ultimately the postponement of this directive. Now, in 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul is trying to slip the package directive back in, starting with the women's prisons. We are asking that people continue to sign this petition as one form of fighting back, while we build the struggle to once and for all defeat this directive that so deeply harms our loved ones in order to put money in the coffers of prison slave profiteers. Please see below for quotes from our beloved community.
"None of the vendors carry "cholov Israel, "glat kosher" or "parve" products [for observant Jews]. The prices are tripled and the shipping costs are very high." / "There are soooo many people whose families live paycheck to paycheck and are on food stamps. So when they tried this about 3 years ago an online petition was created and people flooded the governor's office with phone calls because they could not afford to order from vendors or had no way to do it at all because they are on social services and use [food] stamps for the packages of their loved ones. But now Hochul is in and they're trying to slip it through...So we are asking, all of us at Bedford....to request the governor void this. We ask that people call her office. They say its to stop violence, but when we have no food etc violence will definitely escalate!. We need help."
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Visitation packages are a crucial part of subsistence in the prisons. New York State’s prison system that houses over 30,000 men, women, and children, all of whom are under fed, under nourished, and are not able to meet hygiene needs without purchasing products. Packages brought in by visitors allow prisoners to sustain themselves while they suffer the “slow death” of the prison system. They receive books, hygiene products, stationery, religious objects, underwear, shoes, shirts and blouses (which allow people to regulate their body temperature). All of these objects are crucial for survival for inmates. The proposal to revise the package directive 4911 by adding 4911A to restrict packages to a small selection of prison vendors will severely restrict what prisoners can have (which is already extremely restrictive) and raise costs for family members who already have an extra burden to bear taking care of their loved ones in and out of prison. Currently, visitation packages can be purchased from bulk stores, which allow families to keep costs down. We can be assured that packages purchased through vendors will be more expensive. In addition to increasing costs for families who are already financially struggling, this directive will put even more money into the hands of the prison industry, which is already a multi-million dollar a year industry that thrives of other people’s immiseration. Meanwhile, prisoners are working for slave wages, making 10-16 cents an hour, and are completely reliant on outside support to supplement their starvation diets served in prison.
Furthermore, the justification for restricting packages is that visitors are allegedly smuggling drugs through packages. However, as investigations show, it is often corrections officers who smuggle drugs, and who are the ones allowing in tainted packages. Instead of monitoring the COs--there are currently no cameras in the package room--DOCCS is instead punishing prisoners and their families. In addition, suicide in prison is often a result of alienation, deprivation, and lack of stimulation, which will all increase with a new package restriction. The only things that this directive will be taking out of the prisons if it is implemented are prisoners’ human dignity, will, and incentive for good behavior.
We are asking that the new directive, 4911A, be repealed immediately, before the NYS prison system wastes time and money on further roll-out, and before the lives of over 30,000 incarcerated people and their families are changed for the worse.
Written by families and friends of people incarcerated in Women’s facilities of NYS.
"None of the vendors carry "cholov Israel, "glat kosher" or "parve" products [for observant Jews]. The prices are tripled and the shipping costs are very high." / "There are soooo many people whose families live paycheck to paycheck and are on food stamps. So when they tried this about 3 years ago an online petition was created and people flooded the governor's office with phone calls because they could not afford to order from vendors or had no way to do it at all because they are on social services and use [food] stamps for the packages of their loved ones. But now Hochul is in and they're trying to slip it through...So we are asking, all of us at Bedford....to request the governor void this. We ask that people call her office. They say its to stop violence, but when we have no food etc violence will definitely escalate!. We need help."
*********
Visitation packages are a crucial part of subsistence in the prisons. New York State’s prison system that houses over 30,000 men, women, and children, all of whom are under fed, under nourished, and are not able to meet hygiene needs without purchasing products. Packages brought in by visitors allow prisoners to sustain themselves while they suffer the “slow death” of the prison system. They receive books, hygiene products, stationery, religious objects, underwear, shoes, shirts and blouses (which allow people to regulate their body temperature). All of these objects are crucial for survival for inmates. The proposal to revise the package directive 4911 by adding 4911A to restrict packages to a small selection of prison vendors will severely restrict what prisoners can have (which is already extremely restrictive) and raise costs for family members who already have an extra burden to bear taking care of their loved ones in and out of prison. Currently, visitation packages can be purchased from bulk stores, which allow families to keep costs down. We can be assured that packages purchased through vendors will be more expensive. In addition to increasing costs for families who are already financially struggling, this directive will put even more money into the hands of the prison industry, which is already a multi-million dollar a year industry that thrives of other people’s immiseration. Meanwhile, prisoners are working for slave wages, making 10-16 cents an hour, and are completely reliant on outside support to supplement their starvation diets served in prison.
Furthermore, the justification for restricting packages is that visitors are allegedly smuggling drugs through packages. However, as investigations show, it is often corrections officers who smuggle drugs, and who are the ones allowing in tainted packages. Instead of monitoring the COs--there are currently no cameras in the package room--DOCCS is instead punishing prisoners and their families. In addition, suicide in prison is often a result of alienation, deprivation, and lack of stimulation, which will all increase with a new package restriction. The only things that this directive will be taking out of the prisons if it is implemented are prisoners’ human dignity, will, and incentive for good behavior.
We are asking that the new directive, 4911A, be repealed immediately, before the NYS prison system wastes time and money on further roll-out, and before the lives of over 30,000 incarcerated people and their families are changed for the worse.
Written by families and friends of people incarcerated in Women’s facilities of NYS.