Beloit Books Behind Bars

IWW Starbucks workers are coming together to demand scheduling improvements. Please sign to show your solidarity, and share this with your friends, especially baristas!

Starbucks: Give us a fair workweek! We’re Starbucks employees and we love our customers. Every single day, dedicated customers like Georgia, Chris, Jim, Herb, Colleen, Anna, Rob, Sandy, Charlie, Tim, Mike, Mark, Ashley, Lee, Andie and countless others come into our stores, order their drinks, and share a little bit of their day with u…

"Becca..." u have a letter!
come 2 905 to pick it up!

"While jury makeup varies widely by jurisdiction, the organization, which studied eight Southern states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — found areas in all of them where significant problems persist. In Alabama, courts have found racially discriminatory jury selection in 25 death penalty cases since 1987, and there are counties where more than 75 percent of black jury pool members have been struck in death penalty cases.

An analysis of Jefferson Parish, La., by the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center found that from 1999 to 2007, blacks were struck from juries at more than three times the rate of whites.

In North Carolina, at least 26 current death row defendants were sentenced by all-white juries. In South Carolina, a prosecutor said he struck a black potential juror because he “shucked and jived” when he walked."

Study Finds Blacks Blocked From Southern Juries - NYTimes.com The practice of excluding minorities from Southern juries remains widespread and largely unchecked.

Have you ever doubted the power of a letter?

If so, read this note Amnesty received from Sami al Haj, who was held at Guantanamo without charge for years and finally transferred home to Sudan in 2008:

“I received more than 20,000 letters from members and supporters of Amnesty International during my last two years at Guantánamo Bay. These letters really encouraged me during my very difficult time. They made me feel as though I was not alone and not to give up. Also, I felt and could notice that from all these letters, the Administration of Guantánamo Bay changed and improved towards me, as they knew I was not alone and I had people who cared about me. The guards said to me that they could see I was someone who mattered and must be important because of all the letters–this made them respect me more.”

Read the full article from American Friends Service Committee at:
https://afsc.org/action/letter-writing-guantanamo-prisoners

Letter writing to Guantanamo prisoners Below are instructions for writing to prisoners at Guantanamo and a list of names of the prisoners.

In Beloit for the summer? We've gotten about 20 new letters in the last month, and it'd be great if we could respond to them all!

We also have letters addressed to Jordan B, Colleen, Madeleine K, Renee H, and Allison V- let us know if you plan to respond or not!