Inmates in five Idaho prisons exploited a vulnerability on their JPay tablets to steal almost $225,000 worth of credits, according to officials. The Idaho Department of Correction said 364 prisoners boosted their JPay account balances, according to The Associated Press. The department unearthed the issue earlier this month, and noted taxpayer dollars were not affected.

Prisoners can use credits to buy music, ebooks, stamps (to pay for email and inbound video messages), games and even the JPay tablets themselves. They can use the tablets to catch up on the news, access educational materials and view photos and videos. Inmates’ loved ones can buy the tablets for them, and talk to the prisoners with a video chat visitation.

Living and Fighting

  • In Tacoma outside of the Northwest Detention Center barricades have been placed up, which appear on social media to be blocking the entrance of the ICE center. Police removed them the next day, but the barricades blocked the facility for hours.

https://twitter.com/Occupy_NWDC/status/1023085328020561920

https://twitter.com/Occupy_NWDC/status/1023078611648167937

  • A member of the family that was resisting pipeline construction at Camp White Pine is now in jail. According to one article:

Ellen Gerhart, a retired special education teacher from central Pennsylvania, is in jail tonight. This afternoon, four officers with the Huntingdon County sheriff’s department arrived on the Gerhart’s property to make the arrest acting in response to a motion filed by Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline company notorious for the Dakota Access pipeline. The company is claiming that the 63-year old grandmother was baiting bears and mountain lions onto a pipeline easement the company established using eminent domain to take the family’s land. There have been no sightings of mountain lions in Pennsylvania for 130 years.

  • An #OccupyICE encampment has been launched in Sacramento, California. They are calling for support and more people. Check them out on Twitter and Facebook to see how to plug in and support.

  • Crowds gathered in North Toledo, after police shot and killed 25 year old Lamar Richardson while fleeing police on a bike.

https://twitter.com/Cala_Verita/status/1023012925886398464

  • New York members of the IWW showed up in solidarity with fellow union members who are being locked out by Grassroots Campaigns, a canvasing company in Seattle. Members of the union talked with rank-n-file workers about the struggle in Seattle, which has won an IWW contract. Also, starting July 27th, Seattle wobblies at Grassroots Campaigns officially launched a strike. See updates here.

  • An appeals court has canceled a permit that would allow the Mountain Valley Pipeline to be built on federal lands. Appalachians Against Pipelines wrote: “We don’t yet know exactly what this means — although we can say with certainty that the fight isn’t over. There hasn’t been any mention yet of whether this decision will be enforced or what that would look like…”
  • People found, destroyed, and covered up racist graffiti, posters, and stickers in a variety of places:

https://twitter.com/DSA_Cop_Caucus/status/1021929795024826368

  • In other anti-MVP news, Appalachians Against Pipelines also reported: “This morning 30 or so Mountain Valley Pipeline work trucks were delayed for up to an hour! They were halted by a rolling blockade led by a couple meandering cyclists taking in the sights near Craig Creek, VA.”
  • In a major victory for the #AbolishICE movement, in Philadelphia the Mayor announced Friday as Unicorn Riot reported that: “…he will not renew the city’s contract to allow ICE access to the Philly Police PARS (Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System) database. Revoking ICE access to PARS was a key demand of the camp outside city hall.” While the move by the mayor is seen as a success, the city government has also stated that the #OccupyICEPHL encampment must be removed by Saturday.

  • In Detroit, people were able to pull off a 5 hour blockade of an ICE facility. People wrote on Twitter: “After 5 hour blockade of the Detroit ICE Field Office, DHS busted up the camp. Fortunately, there were no arrests.”

  • In Chicago, protests and pickets continue against “Accenture [who] is profiting nearly $3,000,000 taxpayer dollars to facilitate surveillance, deportation, detainment, kidnapping, & rape of people of color at or near the US-Mexico border.”

  • Banner drops took place in New York, the Northwest, and Gainesville, Florida.

  • In Georgia, it was reported that someone through a sledge hammer through the windows of a local Republican Party office.

  • In Massachusetts inmates after learning of a hunger strike by ICE prisoners, launched a hunger strike in solidarity. As one report wrote:

Inmates at the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth began a hunger strike Tuesday evening in solidarity with ICE detainees, says Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson.

Hodgson says 71 inmates refused dinner Tuesday night, and another 35 inmates joined them in refusing breakfast Wednesday morning.

ICE detainees in Bristol County were on a hunger strike last week in protest of a lack of medical care, “inedible” food, and other alleged abuses. The sheriff says, news coverage of those strikes led inmates in the general population to refuse meals this week to show their support.

  • Actions and shut-downs of the Bayou Bridge pipeline continue despite continued arrests and repression.

  • Across the world on July 25th, people held events and took action to support long term antifascist prisoners. These ranged from people writing letters to dropping banners. Here’s a collection:

  • People are still gearing up to the #PrisonStrike as actions and hunger strike kick off on the side. Groups like RAM are holding regular get togethers to write and send letters into the inside.

  • In Tampa, Florida, far-Right Trump supporters showed up outside of the #OccupyICE camp and held a protest. Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys also showed up at #OccupyICEPDX to harass those who were evacuating the camp.
  • No Cop Academy held a blockade in Chicago.

  • Neo-Nazis with Identity Evropa, one of the key white nationalist groups which have continued on after Unite the Right, were driven out of Comic Con in San Diego by a group of antifascist and antiracist convention attendees. Members of IE were driven out of the event and followed for upwards of a mile.

  • Pablo Villavicencio, a man held by ICE, was finally released to his family in New York after weeks of protests. He was captured by ICE while working as a pizza delivery guy.
  • Trumpers and ICE protesters squared off in LA.
  • In San Antonio, #OccupyICE actions led to disruptions and the stopping of deportation trucks.

That’s gonna do it for us for now, so go out and make some more news for us to talk about by Monday!