Visit www.springbreakalternative.org for information and to register for the 2007 Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break, March 12-16, 2007

The 2006 Alternative Spring Break is being organized by Texas Students Against the Death Penalty

Below is a video of the 2005 Alternative Spring Break

It was produced and directed by Sarah Garrahan

Below is information from the 2005 Spring Break last year. For information on the 2006 Spring Break visit the website of TSADP

ANTI-DEATH PENALTY ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK
Volunteer for Five Days of Activism and Education to Stop Executions

Pictures from Spring Break
More pictures (with comments) taken by Abe Bonowitz of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Video of TV coverage, including shots of Death Penalty Issues Lobby Day rally at the capitol on March 15. There are reports from two different TV stations on this file. The report with the shots of the rally are in the second story that aired on KEYE, which appears about three minutes into the clip. This is a large 84 MB file, so it is only accessible if you have a broadband connection.

Click below for a report on Alternative Spring Break in "The Corrections Connection" :
Alternative Spring Break: Students Speak Out Against the Death Penalty
By Meghan Mandeville, News Research Reporter

Here is an article in the Spanish language newspaper Rumbo

March 12-17, 2005 in Austin, Texas
Still a few rooms available for $25 for the whole week!

Alternative Spring Breaks are designed to give students something more meaningful to do during their week off, rather than just spending time at the beach or sitting at home catching up on school work. The specific purpose of this Alternative Spring Break is to bring students to Austin for five days of anti-death penalty activism and education. We will provide participants with workshops that will teach them skills they can use to go back home and set up new anti-death penalty student organizations or improve ones that may already exist. The skills participants will learn can also be used in other issues besides the death penalty. Activities include a Death Penalty Issues Lobby Day on March 15th and a direct action day on March 16th.

Students will gain valuable training and experience in grassroots organizing, lobbying, preparing a direct action and media relations. They can apply what they learn against the death penalty or in their activities involving other issues. Workshop presenters include Walter Long on "The Death Penalty in Texas"; Abe Bonowitz on "Organizing a Direct Action"; Brenda Bowser of the Death Penalty Information Center on "Working with the Media"; Dr Michael Young of UT-Austin on "How Movements Make an Impact"; Les Breeding on "Influencing the Texas Legislature" and a "Live from Death Row" event .

Alternative Spring Break Schedule

• Saturday, March 12
  Saturday's events will be held on the University of Texas campus in room 3.112 of Building A of the Jesse H. Jones Communications Center (CMA 3.112), which is located at the corner of Dean Keeton and Whitis Avenue. Dean Keeton is also known as 26th Street.

  • 1- 3:00 PM Housing check-in for people who have signed up for housing. Meet at The Goodall Wooten Co-ed Dormitory, 2112 Guadalupe (Corner of 21st and Guadalupe). Parking is available behind the building.
    Most people will be staying here, however a few people will be at a couple of other dorms nearby. If you can not check in by 3 PM, then just go directly to the Communications Building, CMA 3.112 where the Saturday workshops are taking place and you can check in to your room after the workshops.
  • 4:00 - 5:00 PM "The Death Penalty in Texas", talk by Walter Long, a nationally known expert on the issue of banning executions of juvenile offenders. Walter is an attorney who represented Napoleon Beazley and Karla Faye Tucker, among others.
  • 5 - 6 "How Movements Make an Impact: Lessons From The Past" Dr. Michael Young of the University of Texas at Austin Sociology Department will provide a survey of the impact of American social movements throughout history. He will focus in particular on the movement to abolish slavery and the civil rights movement and possible lessons for the anti-death penalty movement. Dr Young provided us an outline and notes of his talk.
  • 6 PM "Live from Death Row" event organized by the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty featuring a live phone call from an inmate on California's Death Row in San Quentin Prison. Calling in via speakerphone will be Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who was nominated in 2001 for a Nobel Peace Prize for his series of children's books and efforts to curtail youth gang violence.
    Free Pizza and soda served at first night's events.
  • Evening Time on your own for enjoying Austin, including the SXSW film festival.

• Sunday, March 13
  

  • Sleep in late, because we know everyone wants to stay out late Saturday night and enjoy their visit to Austin
  • 1 PM Meet at The Goodall Wooten dormitory to travel out to the neighborhood where we will be collecting petition signatures.
  • 1:30 - 2 PM Abe Bonowitz will talk about about direct action, so everyone can start getting ideas of what action we want to plan for Wednesday.
  • 2 - 3 PM Training on Door-to-Door Canvassing (Rachel Penticuff, TMN's Executive Director, will lead workshop)
    Held at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, 4800 Convict Hill Rd in South Austin.
  • 3-6 PM Door-to-Door Canvassing collecting signatures on moratorium petitions in the district of State Representative Terry Keel, who is chair of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.
  • Evening Time on your own for enjoying Austin

• Monday, March 14
  Monday's workshops will be held on the University of Texas campus in room 3.112 of Building A of the Jesse H. Jones Communications Center (CMA 3.112), which is located at the corner of Dean Keeton and Whitis Avenue. Dean Keeton is also known as 26th Street.
  

  • 10:00 AM - Noon Workshop: "Working with the Media" with Brenda Bowser, Communications Director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
    
  • 12:00 - 2 PM Lunch on your own
    
  • 2 - 4 Workshop: "Influencing the Texas Legislature" with Les Breeding, former legislative director for a member of the Texas Legislature. During the workshop, participants will learn how to interact effectively with legislators or legislative aides. This workshop will also cover how to convince student governments, city councils, churches and other organizations to pass resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions.
  • 4 -6 Preparation for next day's Death Penalty Issues Lobby Day. This time is reserved as a work period to finish preparing signs and the boxes representing the misplaced evidence from the HPD crime lab that will be used for the rally tomorrow. Participants should have already made appointments to visit their respective legislators before arriving in Austin.
    
  • More time on your own for enjoying Austin

• Tuesday, March 15: Death Penalty Issues Lobby Day
  Lobby day is organized by TMN and co-sponsored by CEDP, TCADP, TDPAM and State Representative Harold Dutton. We thank everyone who donated money, time and energy for Lobby Day.

  • 9:30 AM - 11 AM, Lobby Training Workshop for anyone coming to Austin just for lobby day. Location: William P. Clements Building, Room 103. Conducted by Les Breeding. 300 W. 15th Street, Austin. Parking is available either at meters along the streets or a short walk away at the Capitol Visitors Parking Garage at 1201 San Jacinto located between Trinity and San Jacinto Streets. Parking is free for the first two hours and $.75 for each half hour thereafter (maximum daily charge: $6.00) Map of the Capitol Complex.
  • 9:00 AM - 11 AM Morning lobbying appointments for people who attended the Lobby training workshop on Monday.
    
  • 11 AM Set-up boxes, table and other equipment for press conference on the south steps of the capitol
  • Noon Press Conference with among others Jesse Quackenbush, the attorney representing the family of Johnny Garrett, who was executed by Texas in 1992. Many people now believe that Garrett was innocent. Garrett was 17 at the time of the crime for which he was executed and he was a person with mental retardation. Other speakers at the press conference or the rally included State Representative Harold Dutton, State Senator Leticia Van De Putte, State Representative Ruth Jones McClendon, State Representative Elliott Naishtat, Martha Cotera, Scott Cobb, Abe Bonowitz, Hooman Keshavars Hedayaty, Lily Hughes, Carol Byars, Sister Elizabeth Riebschlaeger and Omar Neal.
  • 1 PM Rally on South Steps of Capitol with 280 boxes representing lost evidence Rally speakers will include the speakers from the press conference and others, including Texas legislators.
  • Afternoon: Visits with legislators and/or their aides.
  • 4 PM Meet in the Capitol Cafeteria to socialize and exchange information about what people learned during their visits with legislative offices.
  • More time on your own for enjoying Austin

• Wednesday, March 16: Direct Action Day
  Wednesday's workshop will be held on the University of Texas campus in room 3.112 of Building A of the Jesse H. Jones Communications Center (CMA 3.112), which is located at the corner of Dean Keeton and Whitis Avenue. Dean Keeton is also known as 26th Street.

  • 10 AM - 12 PM Workshop: "Organizing a Direct Action" During the morning workshop, participants will conceive, plan and prepare to carry out a media stunt/direct action in the afternoon. The presenter for the direct action workshop is Abe Bonowitz of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
  • Noon to 1:30 PM Lunch on your own
  • After Lunch: Meet back in CMA 3.122 to continue preparation of Direct Action
  • 5:30 PM Carry Out Direct Action at the Governor's Mansion (11th and Lavaca). Pablo Melendez, Jr is scheduled to be executed on March 16, so the direct action will be designed to protest his execution. Melendez was 18 at the time of his offense.
  • 7 PM Review of Lobby Day/Direct Action and entire ASB (possibly over dinner somewhere)

• Thursday, March 17: Departure Day

  • Students leave Austin when they get up if they didn't leave Wednesday night

You can also send a check for $25 to:

Texas Moratorium Network
602 West 7th St, Suite 202 B
Austin, Texas 78731

There is no participation fee for the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break except for those people who need housing. If you do not need housing, because you live in Austin or you are making your own housing arrangements, then your participation is free, but please register so we know how many people to expect. Participants are expected to travel to Austin at their own expense and pay for their meals and incidental expenses while in Austin.

If you can not attend the Alternative Spring Break yourself, you can still make a donation to sponsor a student who can attend.

Housing spaces are limited, so please register soon. Participants who register for housing need to bring towels, sheets and pillows.

If you would like to write a blog about your experiences at the Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break, just go to www.blogger.com, create your own blog and start blogging. We can link to your blog from our website.