On July 31st 2024, GDC’s Abolition Working Group once again rallied supporters and family of Krystal Clark, this time in Lansing. First we chanted and spoke in the view of all those working in the offices of the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Parole Board, and handed out information to passersby to teach them about Krystal Clark and the conditions at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti. The MDOC thinks they can cover the mold with paint, but the prison is rotten from the inside out. Our demand to the Parole Board is that they free Krystal in response to the commutation application she submitted in October 2023. Our demand to the MDOC is to shut down WHV and fire Dr. Matthew Scot Ellison.
The group then went to Governor Whitmer’s house and rallied outside the gates, since the governor has the power to commute the remaining three years of Krystal’s sentence. We want Whitmer to know that the prison makes the inmates work through the night painting over the mold whenever there are scheduled visits, and she needs to know that the prison is an unhealthy environment. Our demands which we delivered to Governor Whitmer are that she free Krystal and shut down WHV.
Connections were drawn between Sonya Massey calling for help and being murdered by the state, John Zook Jr. in Wayne, MI calling for help and being murdered by the state, and the women in WHV calling for help and being ignored until they die, as happened with an inmate there recently. Krystal has been calling for help, WE WILL NOT LET HER CRIES BE IGNORED WHILE SHE’S SLOWLY BEING KILLED!
Krystal’s family spoke to the severity of Krystal’s health conditions, and the suffering it has put on them. The pain in their statements was palpable. Her mother and children demanded she be released. Her son Paul’s message (pictured right) for the governor was simple and clear: STAND WITH THE PEOPLE! STEP IN AND HELP ALL THE WOMEN IN WHV!