Melvin Parson and I have been working off an on for the past two years on an interview for this site. It began as an Ypsilanti Immigration Interview, and, over time, as we dug deeper into his work with We The People Growers Association, evolved into something more about his dream of establishing a world-class […]
Tag Archives: prison industry
Melvin Parson and the campaign to create a world-class urban farm in Ypsilanti
Privatization of Michigan’s prison food service industry pays off in maggots, violence and increased corporate earnings
Rick Snyder, the 48th Governor of Michigan, took office in 2011 pledging to put politics aside, and do what was best for the State. Unlike other Republicans, he said, his intention was not to push a hardline agenda of privatization and union busting. “I don’t believe in privatization,” the self-proclaimed ‘tough nerd’ said in 2012. […]
Citizens for Prison Reform’s Lois DeMott, a recent Ann Arbor Awesome Foundation grant recipient, featured on NBC’s Rock Center
The Ann Arbor Awesome Foundation recently awarded a $1,000 grant to Lois DeMott, the founder of Citizens for Prison Reform. I’d interviewed Lois at the time of the award, but I’d decided to hold off posting it for a bit, as she had mentioned to me that she was going to be interviewed by Ted […]
Angela Davis to commemorate MLK Day at U-M with a speech on the threat of the prison industrial complex
Activist, educator and author Angela Davis will be in Ann Arbor on Monday, delivering a lecture titled “Impediments to the Dream: The Prison Industrial Complex and the Dream.” Davis, as I suspect many of you know, before going on to have a successful career as an academic in the History of Consciousness Department as U-C […]
Bob Sloan on the new slavery of the American prison factory system
When I flew into Providence a few weeks ago, to attend the Netroots Nation conference, I caught a taxi from the airport to the hotel with a fellow by the name of Bob Sloan. Bob, like me, had won one of the Democracy for America scholarships, and we talked about our work as we made […]