The Lucasville Uprising was a rebellion against oppressive and racist policies at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, OH. Nine inmates and one guard died during the uprising in April of 1993. Today, many people are serving time or condemned to death by the state of Ohio in relation to the uprising. We demand amnesty for all of these inmates. The conditions at SOCF were (and still are) intolerable and unconscionable.

Some state and national media have picked up the story. Including this interview with Siddique Abdullah Hasan. If you'd like to support the effort, please consider writing a letter to the editor, or comments on the websites of any of those papers.

ACLU press release below the cut...

12.09.13

ACLU of Ohio Files Suit On Behalf of Reporters Denied In-Person Interviews with High Security Inmates

For Twenty Years, State Officials have Blocked Face-to-Face Media Access to Prisoners from the 1993 Lucasville Uprising

CLEVELAND, OH – Today, the ACLU of Ohio filed a lawsuit against
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) alleging
that prison officials are restricting media access to prisoners
convicted of crimes related to the 1993 Lucasville prison uprising in
order to stifle public discussion about the event.
“The job of the media is to explore important issues from all sides,”
said ACLU of Ohio Legal Director James Hardiman. “When government
officials arbitrarily stifle this process because they are uncomfortable
with the conversation, they are preventing public discourse on critical
issues, inhibiting a free press, and censoring prisoners from telling
their stories to the media.”

The ACLU complaint was filed on behalf of four reporters—including
Pulitzer-prize winner Chris Hedges—and one teacher. Five Ohio prison
inmates who wish to share their perspectives on the Lucasville uprising
are also included as plaintiffs.
Prison officials have claimed that they deny these media requests
because the inmates in question are at the highest prison security
level, and thus ineligible for in-person interviews. However, they have
repeatedly granted similar interview requests for other prisoners at the
same security level—including other death row inmates—who were not
involved in the Lucasville uprising.
“Prison officials are not denying these interview requests based on
security,” said Hardiman. “They are denying them based on what they
think the inmates are going to say.”

“The Lucasville prison uprising dominated state and national news for
weeks in 1993, and twenty years later, it is undeniably still a major
area of interest for the press,” added ACLU of Ohio Senior Staff
Attorney Freda Levenson. “Not only does the public have a right to know
what is happening inside our prisons, the prisoners inside these
facilities also have a right to share that information with the outside
world.”