Entries Tagged 'Prison Industrial Complex' ↓

When voters across California go to the polls in November, we will find options in the SAFE California Act: here, we are offered the opportunity to make a decision about whether we prefer sentencing others to the death penalty or life without parole.

Tim Young, writing from Death Row, San Quentin, is clear that both are a death penalty. And lurking quietly behind this tantalizing choice to judge the fate of others, he reveals something else: SAFE includes a provision to divert $100 million dollars over the next three years (and possibly beyond) from the state’s General Fund into law enforcement, and only law enforcement.

For the whole story see below. Thanks for your research and perspective, Tim.

sfbayview.com/2012/just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe/

And, to check out the full details of the SAFE Act, see:

www.safecalifornia.org/facts/about

On July 1st, prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (SHU) began an indefinite hunger strike to protest the conditions of their imprisonment. The UN has characterized their imprisonment as ‘inhumane and degrading’.  At least 6,600 prisoners across 13 prisons in CA joined the hunger strike in solidarity with the demands from the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU).  Thousands of people both inside and outside prison are supporting their struggle. But if demands are not met soon, people will begin to die….

EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION / PICKET

Force CDCR to grant the hungerstrikers’ demands.

When: This Monday July 18, in Sacramento – 1 to 3 pm,

Where: CDCR Headquarters, 1515 S Street.

For more info, for rides: Call Manuel (415-637-8195) or Linda (510-219-0297).

The 5 Basic demands are:

1. End “Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse

2. Abolish Debriefing Policy & Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria: People inside prisons should not be categorized and punished as gang members just because another person says they are part of a gang in order to get out of the SHU.

3. Comply with the US Commission on Safety & Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations regarding an End to Long-term Solitary Confinement; people want adequate natural sunlight, quality health care and treatment

4. Provide Adequate & Nutritious Food: Not use food as punishment

5. Expand & Provide Constructive Programming & Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Prisoners: (i.e. visitation, phone calls, mail, radio, etc)

Drastic, urgent, situations require drastic, urgent measures, so I am asking you to take a courageous stance to meet the courageous efforts of people inside who are willing to sacrifice their lives so that others do not have to got through what they have had to endure for 20, 25 30+ years.

From Manuel La Fontaine, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

Ali Winston for The Informant

April 26, 2011:

“The gang injunction strategy pursued by Oakland City Attorney John Russo appears to be part of a federal effort to promote the use of gang injunctions across the country. A joint training program run by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a branch of the United States Department of Justice, and the National District Attorneys Association promotes the usage of civil nuisance lawsuits such as the actions pursued by Russo in North Oakland and Fruitvale.”

And, check out all the great documents included for your own research and thinking:

informant.kalwnews.org/2011/04/are-the-feds-pushing-gang-injunctions/

In an interview by Minister of Information JR in the SF BayView newspaper, Claude Marks teaches us some history:

“COINTELPRO is both a formal program of the FBI and a term frequently used to describe a conspiracy among government agencies – local, state and federal – to destroy movements for self-determination and liberation for Black, Brown, Asian and Indigenous struggles, as well as mount an institutionalized attack against allies of these movements and other progressive organizations.”

Please see the whole interview at: sfbayview.com/2011/cointelpro-101-an-interview-wit-filmmaker-claude-marks/

Julienne Hing for Colorlines reports on the arrest of seven Georgia prison guards for brutal beating of Terrance Dean in Macon State Prison. The seven guards arrested include Christopher Hall, Ronald Lach, Derrick Wimbrush, Willie Redden, Darren Douglas Griffin, Kerry Bolden and Delton Rushin.

Hing gives us some numbers from Reuters as well: “The Georgia employs 15,000 Department of Corrections staff for a prison population of 55,000. One in 15 Georgia residents is incarcerated or under correctional supervision.”

See: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/02/seven_guards_arrested_for_retaliatory_abuse_of_georgia_prison_inmate.html

And, Mary Ratcliff and the SF Bayview provide contacts for protesting the ongoing retaliations:

Protest retaliation against Georgia prisoners

sfbayview.com/2011/protest-retaliation-against-georgia-prisoners/

From Democracy Now!:

*****

Terrible on all fronts.

This is a piece from the Center for International Policy at the America’s Program.  It focuses primarily on listing the major players and spelling out strategies for ending private contracting in prisons:

“Elements of our criminal justice and immigration enforcement systems are spinning dangerously out of public control. Increasingly, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are outsourcing their imprisonment and detention responsibilities to hundreds of contractors and subcontractors—with scant oversight, little transparency, and often tragic consequences. As a result, human rights abuses, squandering of public revenues, and unscrupulous profiteering pervade and pervert the U.S. system of crime and punishment.

A shadow prison industry has spread to all parts of the federal detention and prison system. It is, with a few exceptions, in complete charge of all immigrant imprisonment and detention at both DOJ and DHS. Because the shadow industry has evolved without a plan or strategy, it has become a bizarre, labyrinthine complex of public and private players that is little understood and frighteningly out of control.”

*****

Down with the PIC!

This is from a really great article from over at MoJo:

“Surprisingly, even as their populations have swelled, America’s correctional facilities have become noticeably less violent. “The problem of riots and disturbances is not completely solved, but it is way below what it had been,” says Bert Useem, a Purdue sociologist who’s studied prison riots for three decades. The statistics bear this out: In 1972, the year after 29 prisoners and 10 guards were killed at Attica, there were more than 90 prison riots nationwide, yet by the mid-2000s, Useem writes, “prison riots had become rare.” And non-riot-related violence has waned too. Between 1995 and 2008, inmate violence in New York City jails dropped 95 percent.”

*****

The article is a first-person narrative about volunteering for a training exercises for prison guards.  It goes into some detail about strategies for responding to prison riots and about the business that surrounds prisons.