Pembroke Advocates for Truth (PAT), an organization that actively opposes the construction of the prison, is organizing the Rural Life/Anti-Prison rally. Many of its members are farmers who are opposed to the facility being built on land bordering their farms.

Some PAT members have been under attack because of their organized opposition to the prison. For example, Pamela Basu, a farmer and PAT member, was recently fired from her job as village treasurer.

"The reason [board president] David Leggett gave was that I wasn't getting along with the finance committee and the latest audit was late," Basu explains. "I'm not responsible for audits, and besides, the last audit was OK. So I really think it was my opposition to the prison."

Basu cited a Jan. 12, 2000, letter to the village board from Tom Perry, the wealthy real estate developer who orchestrated the Hopkins Park application for the prison.

In the letter, Perry threatened to break relations with the village unless Basu was reprimanded and fired, "if she is not of a mind to stop criticism of the project goals and myself."

Basu and other PAT members remain outspoken in their opposition to the prison, believing it to be an affront to African-Americans and a threat to their livelihoods as organic farmers.

They demand that town meetings to discuss the prison project be accessible to all residents. Recent meetings have not complied with the Illinois open-meetings act, they say.

Basu and fellow PAT member Mark Anthony, a farmer and schoolteacher, filed a suit against the village board, its president, and the Pembroke Township board, alleging breaches of the state's open-meetings act. These include lack of access to minutes and failure to give the required 48-hour public notice of meetings and agendas.

In late March police confiscated Anthony's video camera and yanked the cord of Basu's video camera from the wall as they taped a village meeting. This too violates the open-meetings act, which states, "Any person may record the proceedings at meetings required to be open by the act by tape, film, or any other means."

They were able to push the board back on this violation, although the board had restricted them to tape from the farthest corner of the room, where audio pickup is nearly impossible.

Three police officers are now stationed at town meetings. "Police have no business at board meetings. They're there to intimidate us," said Basu.

Basu and Anthony recently won a court injunction against the Village of Hopkins Park for these violations. Future meetings are to be public, with timely notification of the date and agenda, and can be videotaped.

For further information on the Rural Life/Anti-prison rally, contact PAT at (815)-944-6933.

Lisa Rottach is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Chicago.  
 
 
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