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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A small group of human rights supporters Friday invoked Martin Luther King Jr.&#8217;s method of peaceful protest in a demonstration against the alleged abuse of prison inmates.</p><p>Demonstrators who held posters and signs from the base of the Luzerne County Courthouse steps said their protest was in support of a group of prisoners who they claim was abused by guards after enacting a nonviolent protest at the State Correctional Institute in Dallas in April 2010.</p><p>The demonstrators urged for an immediate dismissal of all charges against members of &#8220;the Dallas 6,&#8221; a group of six prisoners who covered their cell windows with bed sheets in an attempt to get outside intervention and bring attention to their alleged abuse.</p><p>Members of the group were later beaten and charged with rioting as retaliation, the group asserts.</p><p>Demonstrators said they chose to protest Friday, which would have been King&#8217;s 87th birthday, because the late social activist had himself witnessed and spoken out against mistreatment of prisoners during the civil rights era.</p><p>Theresa Shoatz supported Friday&#8217;s demonstration because, she said, inmates need to have a voice on the outside of their prison walls.</p><p>&#8220;Not only are they our eyes and ears on the inside; we&#8217;re their eyes and ears on the outside,&#8221; Shoatz said.</p><p>Shandre Delaney, a member of the Human Rights Coalition and mother of one of the Dallas 6, said she made the trip from Pittsburgh to Wilkes-Barre Friday to battle the injustices carried out against all prison inmates including her son, Carrington Keys.</p><p>Keys, 35, is charged with six felony counts of aggravated harassment by a prisoner and one felony charge of rioting, court records show. Delaney said her son was sent to prison on a robbery charge when he was 18 years old.</p><p>&#8220;In this courthouse, there&#8217;s a lot of corruption,&#8221; Delaney said, speaking into a microphone as traffic zipped past the half dozen protesters on North River Street.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no accountability,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;There&#8217;s no accountability from the district attorney. There&#8217;s no accountability from the Department of Corrections. There&#8217;s no accountability from anyone involved with this case.&#8221;</p><p>Delaney, 56, said instead of wasting taxpayers&#8217; money pursuing a vendetta against the inmates, District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis should investigate the circumstances that led to the inmates&#8217; protest.</p><p>&#8220;They need to do what is right by actually investigating what really happened instead of helping the (Department of Corrections) to push these false charges through the court,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Delaney said there are records that document the alleged abuse against the Dallas 6 that Salavantis&#8217; office refuses to acknowledge. She said the group hopes to bring the alleged injustices faced by the prisoners to light.</p><p>A petition with over 500 signatures was delivered to Salavantis&#8217; office, she said.</p><p>A member of the district attorney&#8217;s office declined to comment on the protest Friday as he said he did not witness it and is involved in the the Dallas 6&#8217;s pending trial.</p><p>Court documents filed Friday show the trial, originally scheduled for Feb. 1, has been continued to April.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Human rights supporters Friday protested the alleged mistreatment of &#8220;the Dallas 6,&#8221; a group of six inmates from the State Correctional Institute in Dallas believed to have been retaliated against after enacting a peaceful protest. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_TTL011616Protest-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Human rights supporters Friday protested the alleged mistreatment of &#8220;the Dallas 6,&#8221; a group of six inmates from the State Correctional Institute in Dallas believed to have been retaliated against after enacting a peaceful protest. </caption0><photoCredit0>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Human rights groups invoke Martin Luther King Jr., protest treatment of inmates at Dallas prison</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Human rights groups invoke Martin Luther King Jr.’s practices, protest treatment of inmates at Dallas prison