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Criminal Justice and Prisons

Judge Worked For Same British Government Departments That Pursued Assange

June 19, 2023 Mark Curtis, Consortium News. , , ,
Jonathan Swift, the High Court judge who has rejected Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the U.S., has a long history of working for the government departments that are now persecuting the WikiLeaks founder. Swift, who ruled against Assange on June 6, was formerly the government’s favourite barrister. He worked as ‘First Treasury Counsel’ – the government’s top lawyer – from 2006 to 2014, a position in which he advised and represented the government in major litigation. Swift acted for the Defence and Home Secretaries in at least nine cases, Declassified has found. He also acted for the Cabinet Office, Justice Secretary and the Treasury, during his time as First Treasury Counsel.

Jail Support Won’t Stop Until Everyone Is Free

June 19, 2023 Hana Urban, In These Times. , ,
The abolitionist movement is thriving in Chicago, and gaining momentum each day. On a warm Sunday on May 7, 2023, more than 60 people attended a rally outside Cook County Jail in protest and solidarity with current and former incarcerated people subjected to the jail’s inhumane conditions, including a new ban on paper that restricts access to everything from legal documents to photographs of loved ones, and a staggering seven deaths inside the jail since January, are just two examples. The rally was organized in part by Chicago Community Jail Support (CCJS), an abolitionist, volunteer-run mutual aid group that came together during the summer 2020 George Floyd protests.

New Research Examines Restrictions On Incarcerated Journalists

June 19, 2023 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , ,
A briefing from the Prison Policy Initiative documents many of the restrictions that prisons in the United States impose to prevent journalism from incarcerated individuals. Fourteen states—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Virginia—have a “total ban on business and compensation.” That means they do not allow incarcerated journalists or writers to receive payment for their work. The United States government’s Federal Bureau of Prisons has what is described as an “explicit ban on journalism.”

What Juneteenth Looks Like For Prisoners

June 18, 2023 Antoine Davis and Darrell Jackson, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Juneteenth is a bittersweet day for us — and all Black people in prison holding onto the promise of freedom. Let’s start with history. The Emancipation Proclamation — issued by Abraham Lincoln on Sept. 22, 1862, during the American Civil War — declared that all slaves in the Confederacy would be “forever free.” Unfortunately, that freedom didn’t extend to the four slaveholding states not in rebellion against the Union, and the proclamation was of course ignored by the Confederate states in rebellion. For the roughly 4 million people enslaved, Lincoln’s declaration was symbolic; only after the Civil War ended was the proclamation enforced.

Despite Legalization, Those Harmed The Most Are Not Able To Benefit

June 16, 2023 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , , ,
As media critics, we encourage people to write letters to the editor, noting that even if your letter doesn’t run, it may help another letter with a similar point get in. Because a paper that gets one letter may not feel obliged to represent that view, but if they get 20, they may figure they should run one. All of which is to say, the New York Times must have got a boatload of letters scoffing at columnist Ross Douthat’s sad sack May 17 piece about how legalizing marijuana is a big mistake, not least because his opposition to it is making people call him a “square.” Unsurprisingly, Douthat isn’t being a principled contrarian, just obfuscating.

Alex Saab’s Illegal Detention Reaches Three Years

June 15, 2023 Orinoco Tribune. , , , ,
This Monday marked three years of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab’s illegal detention in a United States prison, in a case in which violations of international law and diplomatic conventions by the US regime stand out. On June 12, 2020, Alex Saab was traveling to Iran on a diplomatic mission for the Venezuelan government to negotiate medical supplies and food for the Venezuelan people amid the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the strengthening of illegal US and European sanctions. The Venezuelan government plane Saab was traveling in stopped on Sal island in Cape Verde, an archipelago country off the West coast of Africa, to refuel before continuing on its route.

US Sentencing Commission Could Reduce Prison Time For Thousands

June 13, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , ,
On April 27, 2023, the United States Sentencing Commission submitted to Congress amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines that would recommend lower sentences for certain defendants. If these changes are applied retroactively, some 18,775 people in federal prison could become eligible for a sentencing reduction—including 3,288 individuals who could be eligible for immediate release. Mary Price of Families Against Mandatory Minimums joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the proposed amendments and what they could mean for thousands of prisoners and their families.

Jonathan Swift’s Lilliputian Reasoning

June 12, 2023 Tareq Haddad, Consortium News. , , ,
Four years into Julian Assange’s imprisonment at H.M.P. Belmarsh and four years since plain-clothed officers from London’s Metropolitan Police Service dragged the WikiLeaks journalist and publisher out of Ecuador’s London embassy, taking him from Kensington to a maximum-security prison, a British judge last week rejected two separate applications made by Assange’s lawyers to appeal his extradition to the United States — striking down all submitted grounds. In making his judgements, Justice Jonathan Swift, formerly a lawyer for the British government [whose favourite clients he says were the intelligence services], also struck down the call from Assange’s lawyers to discuss new facts that have arisen in the case — concluding pithily: “The application to rely on fresh evidence is refused.”

Training Formerly Incarcerated Leaders To Fight Mass Incarceration

May 23, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , ,
Over 1.9 million people are incarcerated in the US today, and even greater 5.5 million people are subjected to the wide-ranging system of mass punishment from parole, probation, and beyond. One organization, JustLeadershipUSA, seeks to tackle the prison system by building leaders among formerly incarcerated people, and fighting for change from the local level up. JustLeadershipUSA President and CEO DeAnna Hoskins joins Rattling the Bars to explain the work of her organization and how it seeks to bring about to change. DeAnna Hoskins has been at the helm of JLUSA as the President and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA) since 2018.

In 2022, Exonerations Hit A Record High In The US

May 21, 2023 Jamiles Lartey, The Marshall Project. , , ,
History is full of variations on this idea. The core concept reverberates through centuries and across cultures around the globe: It’s worse to punish innocent people than to let the guilty go free. Today, a majority of Americans may not agree. In a series of recent surveys that polled more than 12,000 people, law professors Brandon Garrett and Gregory Mitchell found that more than 60% of Americans “consider false acquittals and false convictions to be equally bad outcomes,” and a “sizeable minority” viewed wrongful acquittals as worse than wrongful convictions. Mitchell and Garrett also found that in mock trials, those more concerned about wrongful acquittals than wrongful convictions were more than twice as likely to convict after viewing the same evidence.

The Tampa 5 Are Facing Ten-Plus Years In Jail

May 21, 2023 Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Fight Back News!. , , ,
Tampa, Florida – Florida state prosecutor Justin Diaz it trying to put the Tampa 5 in prison. The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) members, arrested at a campus protest against the racist agenda of Governor Ron DeSantis, each face a trumped-up felony charge, alleging “battery on a police officer,” carrying five years of jail time. When the activists rejected a plea deal requiring them to apologize for doing the right thing, the prosecutor added on more felony charges. This means that three of the activists are facing more than ten years behind bars. In addition, the activists face ten misdemeanor charges.

New Media Project Brings Incarcerated Writers To The Forefront

May 10, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , ,
The call for prison abolition has been popularized over the last decade of mass movements against police violence, many of which have operated under the banner of Black Lives Matter. But what does abolition mean, and who gets to define it? Thus far, much of the conversation has been steered and curated by mainstream media. A new initiative from Scalawag Magazine tentatively titled ‘Project Abolition’ seeks to disrupt the dominant narrative by platforming voices from within prisons themselves. Scalawag Editor-At-Large Da’Shaun Harrison joins Rattling the Bars to explain Project Abolition.

Australian MPS Meet US Envoy Caroline Kennedy On Assange

May 9, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
A cross party delegation of Australian legislators met on Tuesday morning in Canberra with Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador, to discuss the continued U.S. prosecution of imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. U.S. President Joe Biden is due in Australia in two weeks as the pressure continues to mount on him from presidents, parliaments, the public and human rights and press freedom groups to free Assange. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Senator Andrew Wilkie, who took part in the meeting with Kennedy, as saying: “This is an intensely important time with the US President about to visit. It would be very unhelpful if he comes to Australia and this issue is still unresolved, it will hang over us all in an uncomfortable way.” “The US and Australia have a very important and close relationship, and it’s time to demonstrate that,” Wilkie said.

Forest Defenders Appear For Preliminary Hearings

May 7, 2023 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , ,
DeKalb County, Georgia - Two defendants arrested in March during a music festival against ‘Cop City’ were again denied bond Wednesday in DeKalb County Magistrate Court, while a third was granted $25,000 bond with conditions. The defendants, all of whom are facing domestic terrorism charges for their alleged participation in the movement against the sprawling police training complex, have been detained since their arrests two months ago. Luke Harper and Victor Puertas were denied bond, while Fredrique Robert-Paul was granted a $25,000 bond with conditions including relinquishing her passport, remaining in Georgia pending trial, severing contact with codefendants, and avoiding discussing the movement against ‘Cop City’ on social media.

COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Era Prisoners On The Agenda Of A UN Panel

May 4, 2023 Efia Nwangaza, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
Greenville, SC - Atlanta's April 26th UN Delegation session, bearing the 2010 human rights campaign theme, “Putting COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Era Political Prisoners, Prisoners of War, and Exiles on the Global Agenda,” featured PP/POWs/Exiles in person, their relatives, and former co-defendants, has generated a buzz that will hopefully become a storm of sustained substantive activity for their release and relief.  It seems to have had the humanizing effect our interned comrades, their relatives, and we longtime advocates could only conjure in our dreams. Since 2010, with the visionary support of the U.S. Human Rights Network's founding director, Ajamu Baraka and his successor, Kali Akuno, I've been boarding planes to Geneva, Switzerland, to talk to UN Human Rights Council members, Commission staffers, treaty body reviewer mechanism experts, and others.
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