January 13-19, 2016 | VOLUME 41 | NUMBER 2
Y
IX IN THE C M IT CO
The
Racism of Doing
Nothing A year after MLK ’15, Jesse Hagopian is still fighting. BY CASEY JAYWORK
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FREEDOM WITHIN In one Washington state prison, yoga is giving lifers something to live for.
I
PHOTOS AND STORY BY SARA BERNARD
t’s a dreary day in mid-December, dark as flint and spitting cold rain. The Stafford Creek Corrections Center, near Aberdeen, rises neatly from the gloom like a well-manicured high-school campus. Its dozen or so concrete buildings, in various shades of gray and pale beige, are connected by long, wide sidewalks and clipped grass. The only discernible differences between a school and this prison—from the outside, anyway—are the massive spools of razor wire circling the place, the TSA-style security regulating entry, and the occasional parade of men in khaki uniforms and chalk-white sneakers trudging through the drizzle. Inside one of the buildings, behind several heavy doors, Laura Prudhomme and Dawn Hanson are seated with 10 inmates in a small classroom. It has dull linoleum floors, fluorescent lights, and a few slim windows through which no daylight penetrates. A muffled voice issues commands through a loudspeaker somewhere nearby; a guard in a puffy jacket, then a khaki-clad inmate towing a mop and bucket, pass by along the hallway, visible through the » CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 panes of glass that line one classroom wall.
“This was my first experience at a restaurant with a surcharge, and I’m happy to report that service was not affected. In fact, the servers were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable.... If this experience is any indication, perhaps all the hoopla over whether service will suffer in the absence of tips is ultimately overstated.” Bar Melusine, reviewed by Nicole Sprinkle Page 21
L
ast year, teacher and activist Jesse Hagopian broke the Internet—but not in a good way. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Hagopian was randomly peppersprayed by a panicked cop. Video of the incident went viral, adding yet another chapter to the Seattle Police Department’s long history of excessive force. Hagopian is currently suing the city. But there’s more to this teacher than his receipt of SPD’s favored less-than-lethal weapon. With another MLK Day approaching, Seattle Weekly sat down with Hagopian to talk about race and justice in Seattle.
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