Duke students prepare for their Friday vigil

Tomorrow evening, Duke students will make their way down to the Durham County jail for a familiar Friday night ritual.

They won’t need to make new placards or banners – they have built up enough of those over 25 visits to the detention facility. When we joined the group last week, one read: “Honk for humanity.” “We believe in prisoners,” said another.

At the demo they will join conscientious members of the Durham community, and relatives of prisoners, who share their outrage over the reportedly harsh conditions faced by the men and women inside.

The group, which organizes the protests, says conditions at the county jail “remain completely unacceptable and inhumane“ – and has a website which shares messages from prisoners and their loved ones.

And at Duke, the cause has struck home. Students use the Facebook event page to organize carpools for freshmen who want to get involved.

Recent Duke alum Kenneth Strickland has been more involved with the jail than most.

A psychology major who graduated in May, Kenneth was arrested in December of last year, along with other Duke students, during a protest in reaction to police brutality in Ferguson and New York City.

And as he waited to post bail, Kenneth was detained for 13 hours in a holding cell – on the other side of the same jail he now protests outside.

He told The Tab that his brief experience of incarceration only gave him a small taste of life inside the facility.
 Kenneth said: “The conditions of the holding cell were like any prison – they weren’t especially bad.

“But we were treated differently because we were arrested for protesting and not any other offense, such as drug possession or larceny – my experience was probably unique just by the nature of my charge.”

He added: “Now I have buddies who were in this jail and still are in this jail, who say the conditions are far worse for people in the general population.”

Instead of the traditional bars, they were held in a bare room with only a door and a toilet along with six or seven other detainees.

He also recalled that once inside the jail, it was easy to foster camaraderie with the other inmates.

The young alum said: “It wasn’t that bad. I had a friend of mine who was in there with me, and we were singing spirituals. It was very freeing.”

A message from an anonymous inmate, posted near the jail. (Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/438952099622579/)

Kenneth was charged with impeding the flow of traffic and failure to disperse while holding a banner in the middle of the street, trying to prevent police from dispersing a poetry event.

“I was just mad that we didn’t get any warning before they arrested us—they just moved in on us without warning us or telling us to move,” he told The Tab, describing his participation in the protest as peaceful.

He added: “They actually had the riot police line up, start grabbing people, slam them down on the street, make them lay on the street until the prison van came and put us into the waiting room of the prison.”

Another alum, Adrienne Harreveld, who graduated from Duke in 2014, was also arrested that night and she alleged hostile treatment by the police. She told The Tab “all hell broke loose” and says an officer responded to a request to see his badge by throwing her to the ground.

At the time, the police said they only acted when the street-blocking protest became dangerous.

Adrienne says Duke students should choose carefully what public demonstrations they attend, advising to “be strategic and find an organization which fits your comfort level before you go to an action.”

This year’s weekly vigils outside Durham County jail have remained peaceful. The students involved believe they have impacted conditions in the prison, including the partial relaxation of “lockback” measures.

But that won’t stop them going back tomorrow night.