-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [ALAOIF:10459] Sodexho Marriott Stops "No More Prisons" Show Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 12:29:00 -0800 From: John Gear <catalyst at pacifier.com> Reply-To: alaoif at ala1.ala.org To: ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom List <alaoif at ala1.ala.org>
>>> Prison Moratorium Project and
>>> Students for a Sensible Drug Policy
>>>
>>> For Immediate Release
>>>
>>> February 16, 2000
>>>
>>> Contact:
>>> Kevin Pranis, Prison Moratorium Project,
>>> (212) 727-8610 x23, kpranis at igc.org
>>> Kris Lotlikar, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy,
>>> (202) 293-8340, lotlikar at drcnet.org
>>>
>>> AMERICAN UNIVERSITY "NO MORE PRISONS" SHOW SHUT DOWN BY SODEXHO
MARRIOTT SERVICES
>>>
>>> EVENT PLANNED TO HIGHLIGHT COMPANY'S TIES TO PRIVATE
>>> PRISON INDUSTRY
>>>
>>> Washington, D.C. -- On Feburary 15, two hundred students
>>> came to American University's Mary Graydon Center to hear
>>> performers featured on the forthcoming No More Prisons Hip
>>> Hop Compilation CD. But when they arrived they were informed
>>> by employees of Sodexho Marriott Services (SMS), which is
>>> contracted to operate the venue, that the show had been
>>> canceled.
>>>
>>> David Epstein, a senior, explains that students had received
>>> all of the appropriate authorizations from American University's
>>> Office of Student Activities. "Three hours before the event,
>>> the SMS manager told us that the university didn't give them
>>> time to prepare. They could have worked with us to make the
>>> show happen. They refused to do that."
>>>
>>> Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and Prison
>>> Moratorium Project (PMP), the groups that put the show
>>> together with the support of Drug Reform Coordination
>>> Network (DRCNet), have been critical of SMS' close ties to
>>> the for-profit private prison industry. According to Kevin
>>> Pranis, a Soros Justice Fellow and PMP activist who was
>>> scheduled to speak at the event, the French-based Sodexho
>>> group, which owns Sodexho Marriott Services, is the largest
>>> investor in U.S. private prisons through its 11% holdings in
>>> Prison Realty Trust/Corrections Corporation of America.
>>>
>>> Articles detailing Sodexho's prison investments, and calling
>>> on students to put pressure on SMS, have appeared in a
>>> number of publications, such as Infusion, which reaches over
>>> a hundred campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada. Students
>>> have no evidence that these articles influenced the decision
>>> to cancel the show, but they find the coincidence eerie. "I
>>> don't know that the message had anything to do with it,"
>>> says Epstein, "but I think it's disturbing that an outside
>>> corporation can just shut down an authorized student event.
>>> That's something students everywhere should be worried about."
>>>
>>> According to Marty Leary, a researcher for the Hotel
>>> Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
>>> (HERE), SMS has a bad record with free speech issues.
>>> "It's unfortunate, but I can't say that I'm surprised. This
>>> company had a rule preventing its own employees from talking
>>> to outsiders about their working conditions." To avoid civil
>>> prosecution, SMS recently entered into a settlement with the
>>> National Labor Relations Board and agreed to drop illegal
>>> work rules.
>>>
>>> Despite the initial setback, event organizers went into high
>>> gear and managed to pull together equipment and transportation
>>> for a house party, hosted by junior and President of AU SSDP,
>>> Kate Sanders. Sanders explains "I just felt we owed it to
>>> the artists-Apani B. Fly, Lyric and El Battalion-who drove
>>> down from New York, and to all the students who showed up to
>>> hear a positive and political Hip Hop message." The party
>>> drew more than fifty students and organizers say that the
>>> footage will be available in a week on
>>> <http://www.zoomculture.com/ssdp>.
>>>
>>> The No More Prisons show was organized as part of a
>>> nationwide effort to protest the growing number of men
>>> and women behind bars, projected to exceed two million on
>>> February 15, according to a study released by Justice Policy
>>> Institute. Pranis says that the next big date will be April
>>> 4, 2000, when students at campuses across the country take
>>> action against Sodexho Marriott Services.
>>>
>>> For more information, see <http://www.nomoreprisons.org>.
>>>
>>> -30-