The caravan stopped at the site slated for the prison, where Louise Anthony and Johari Cole, both leaders of the Pembroke Advocates for Truth (PAT), explained why farmers and others in the area are determined to prevent the 1,800-bed women's prison from being built.

"This is a moral question. There is no justice in the prison system. Period. Especially for African-Americans," Anthony explained. She also pointed to the Basu farm, directly adjacent to the proposed prison site, and explained how the light and chemical pollution from the prison pose a threat to the organic farm. Development planned in the wake of the prison also threatens other farmers in the area.

Pembroke Township is an overwhelmingly Black rural community about 60 miles south of Chicago.

The Memorial Day protest caravan kicked off the all-day "Farm Fest 2000." The Pembroke Farmers Co-op and PAT, an activist group that has been tenaciously fighting the prison plans, hosted the Farm Fest at the farm run by Basu and his wife, Pamela Basu.

In his welcoming remarks, Basu, president of the farmers co-op, explained the efforts of local organic farmers to band together. Emphasizing his commitment to stop the prison and remain on the land, he explained, "The more serious they got about it [building the prison], the more serious we got about it. The land is our mother and our wealth. You ask us to give up our wealth, our mother. We will not do that."

Later that week PAT sponsored a citizens forum on the prison and invited every official and land developer that has anything to do with the project, from Governor George Ryan on down, to address the meeting and answer questions. While the governor, the mayor of Hopkins Park, and Anthony Perry, a wealthy real estate developer who orchestrated the Hopkins Park application for the prison, did not attend the meeting, a half dozen officials from the Illinois Department of Corrections were on hand. About 50 people, mostly from the community, attended. A range of views on the prison were expressed from the floor.

Linda Dillon, who headed the Department of Corrections delegation, argued that the prison will bring jobs, economic development, and infrastructure improvements to the area. Another corrections official, Glenn Hodgson, announced that $8.3 million has been earmarked for infrastructure improvements required to build the prison.

Thesley Beverly, a retired resident who was part of a panel with three farmers seated at the front of the room, exclaimed, "I have been here since 1969 and all of a sudden this money comes up in connection with the prison. It is a disgrace. You have given us no answers as to whether the prison will benefit the village. It is just going to be a prison to enslave our people in our injustice system. I would not be happy to have better roads and infrastructure if we have to sacrifice our people."

A woman from the audience added, "Why couldn't it be something the community wants? Why a prison?"

Pamela Basu asked the prison system officials if they had been informed that the planned prison was sited next to a certified organic farm. Hodgson said they had not heard about this, but the Illinois Department of Agriculture had signed off on the project.

Then Basu, husband of Pamela Basu, rose to say, "Our plight is because of the USDA," referring to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "We were denied money through discrimination and racism. I've just been to Cuba and I saw the people running things down there. Here we see secret meetings behind our backs."

Before the Illinois prison system officials got up to leave the meeting, Beverly took the floor again, saying, "Our society is corrupt. We as Black people take note: any time we get a small infraction, we go to prison." He pointedly looked at the Black members of the delegation of corrections officials and said, "We know that some Africans profited from the slave trade."

As the farmers continued to raise objections to the prison, corrections official Dillon stridently insisted, " The decision has been made. The prison is coming."

"Not yet!" shot back several voices.  
 
 
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