Marie Mason - another potential victim of US Green Scare

Below is a message from the Friends of Marie Mason. Marie is a long-time environmental, community and labour union activist based in Cincinnati, whose house has been raided by the FBI on charges relating to her environmental activism. She lives with her 16 year-old daughter who was present during the raid. Environmentalist prisoner support groups, and activists with the IWW (the radical union she belongs to), are asking people to send letters of support and money for legal fees, vegan food and socks(!).

For more updates please visit www.midwestgreenscare.org

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First we want to thank everyone who has expressed interest in supporting recently arrested Eco defense organizer Marie Mason. Below you will find the an overview of what we know as well as the latest updates about Marie’s case and current situation and ways you can help support Marie. A listserv has been established to keep supporters updated. To subscribe send an email to: freemarie-subscribe@ lists.riseup.net Send Marie your letters of support! MARIE MASON #134001 Butler County Sheriff’s Office & Correctional Complex 705 Hanover Street Hamilton, Ohio 45011. When writing please use your common sense; don’t write about anything that is likely to get a prisoner in trouble in any way. Avoid discussing any details of her case and/or any potential charges against her.

We were able to briefly speak with Marie Monday night (3/10/08) and that is when we found out she was in the Butler County Jail and was promptly placed on suicide watch on arrival. We were able to assure her that her daughter was safe (her 16 year daughter was at Marie’s home when the FBI, Homeland Security, and local Police served a search warrant and detained her for over an hour), that her pets were being looked after and several other personal affairs would be attended to. Several of us drove to the Butler County jail the next day (3/10/08) with the intention of putting money in Marie’s commissary account.

To make things more difficult the prisoner must add visitors names to a pre-approval list prior to the visit and prisoners are only able to update their visitors list once every 30 days. We quickly wrote Marie a letter detailing all this and that we had deposited funds into her commissary account as well as a list of friends #s she can call collect at any time and dropped it off at the post office a few blocks from the jail in hopes she would get the letter before visiting day. We got a call from Marie’s Mother (3/12/08) today who had received a collect call from Marie. Marie told her that she needed funds to obtain vegan food as well socks and basic toiletries in prison. She asked her mother to contact us to and request we put money in her jail commissary account. This news was frustrating to us as we had already driven up to the Butler County Jail and deposited ample money in her account and was told she would be given a receipt of its deposit detailing her current balance and she would have access to it by 3pm of the day of deposit. Since we have not heard from her since Monday we assume she has not gotten our letter with all the contacts yet and that as of 2pm today had not been given access to the funds we placed in her commissary account. The last thing we want is Marie to feel alone during all this. We will be driving up to the Butler County jail tomorrow in hopes of seeing her and at the least depositing more money into her commissary account. We will keep everyone posted. How you can help:

1. We are currently collecting funds for Marie’s legal defense. One lawyer told us it will likely cost between $20,000 - $60,000 to represent a case like this. Its important we begin our fund raising immediately. We are in the process of setting up a website (freemarie.org coming soon) where folks will be able to use PayPal to donate direct but until then ask folks to send funds in the form of a check or money order made out to “Books for Prisoners”. Please put in the notes section Marie and/or include a letter detailing that the enclosed funds are for Marie Masons defense. We are grateful to have been contacted by an anonymous donor who will match dollar for dollar up to $1000 for Marie’s legal defense fund. This offer is good up until April 15.

2.We are looking for artists who are willing to donate their talent and time to the cause.

3. Write to Marie! Mail will be a life line for her during these troubling times.

Friends of Marie Mason P.O. Box 19065 Cincinnati, OH 45219 freemarie@ riseup.net