Skip to content

Criminal Justice and Prisons

Julian Assange And World Press Freedom Day

May 4, 2023 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , ,
The detention and persecution of Julian Assange eviscerates all pretense of the rule of law and the rights of a free press. The illegalities, embraced by the Ecuadorian, British, Swedish and U.S. governments are ominous. They presage a world where the internal workings, abuses, corruption, lies and crimes, especially war crimes, carried out by corporate states and the global ruling elite, will be masked from the public. They presage a world where those with the courage and integrity to expose the misuse of power will be hunted down, tortured, subjected to sham trials and given lifetime prison terms in solitary confinement.

May Day’s History Shows Why Labor And Prison Struggles Are Intertwined

May 2, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. , , ,
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is celebrated around the world by labor unions, socialist parties, and anarchists. May Day’s origins go back to the 1886 Haymarket Affair, when hundreds of thousands of US workers walked off the job, and 40,000 went on strike in Chicago for an eight-hour workday. Despite its origins, May Day is largely unknown in the US today. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez joins Rattling the Bars for a discussion on the history of May Day, and how the persecution of organizers in the wake of the Haymarket Massacre highlights the importance of extending solidarity from the labor movement to the fight to abolish the prison industrial complex.

Biden Slams Arrest Of US Journalist In Russia But Pursues Assange

May 2, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , ,
May 3, 2023, will mark the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, which the United Nations established to remind governments about the need to respect their commitment to freedom of the press. But as the Biden administration proclaims the centrality of press freedom globally, its hypocrisy in pursuing journalist and publisher Julian Assange is stunning. The Biden administration recently expressed outrage that Russia arrested journalist Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal, a United States citizen based in Moscow, for practicing journalism. Gershkovich is now incarcerated in Russia, facing espionage charges that could garner him 20 years in prison.

I Was Every Woman’s Worst Nightmare; Restorative Justice Changed Me

April 28, 2023 Aaron Edward Olson, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Tears poured down my cheeks. Hunched over on a hard plastic chair, elbows on knees, I buried my face in my hands. The group was silent. I had just shared the details of my crimes. Robbery and sexual assault. I confessed to being every woman’s worst nightmare. Recounting these moments from years ago brought a resurgence of guilt and shame. I had been a young, strung-out, ruthless gang member, with zero respect for women, and I had an accomplice to impress. The host of our group embraced me with a hug, her gentle hand rubbing my back. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered in my ear, validating my emotions, and washing away years of crippling embarrassment. She was a sexual assault survivor.

Haiti, Hunger, And US Prison Imperialism

April 22, 2023 James Patrick Jordan, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
Three prisoners in the US-built prison in Petit-Goâve, Haiti starved to death between August 23 and September 27, 2022. The website Haiti Libre reports, “…one of the deceased prisoners was from Léogâne imprisoned for having stolen an electric wire and… [another] from the 5th communal section of Petit-Goâve, was serving a prison sentence for having stole a rooster.” The vast majority of those imprisoned at Petit-Goâve and throughout the Haitian prison system have not yet been tried and convicted of a crime. In fact, of a prison population of 11,580 persons as of May, 2021, only 2,071 had been sentenced.

First Amendment Authorized Assange’s Possession Of Classified Data

April 21, 2023 Bruce Afran, Consortium News. , , , ,
Last week marked four years of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange being held at Britain’s Belmarsh Prison while he awaits the outcome of his fight to block extradition to the United States. While the U.S. government is also charging Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion,  the core of its case is that Assange violated the 1917 Espionage Act by “possessing” and releasing “defense” material that caused “injury” to the United States or gave “advantage” to other nations, a boundless and limitless standard that can turn virtually any journalist or blogger into a criminal defendant. No other direction, definition or limitation appears in this law that is now being applied to Assange.

5000 Palestinians Prisoners In Israel, As Palestine Marks Prisoner’s Day

April 17, 2023 Palestine Chronicle. , , ,
Marking Palestinian Prisoner’s Day on Monday, prisoners’ advocacy groups said around 5000 Palestinians are currently incarcerated in Israel, the official news agency WAFA reported. The Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Addameer Association for Prisoner Support and Human Rights, and Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Jerusalem, said in their joint report that an estimated 4,900 political prisoners are currently incarcerated in Israel. Several rallies are planned for Monday in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza, in support of the Palestinian prisoners.

Politicians Demand US Drop Assange Charges On Anniversary Of Arrest

April 14, 2023 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , , , ,
Elected politicians in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and the United Kingdom signed on to letters to United States Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that the Justice Department drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A letter of opposition signed by four members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Representative Rashida Tlaib, who initiated the letter, was prepared. However, it had not yet been sent to Garland at the time of publication. The letters were timed to mark the fourth anniversary of Assange’s arrest and detention. On April 11, 2019, Ecuador President Lenin Moreno expelled Assange from the country’s London embassy.

Assange Completes Four Years In United Kingdom Jail

April 13, 2023 Anish R M, People's Dispatch. , , ,
April 11 marks four years since Julian Assange was forcibly dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2019 and put under arrest. Ever since his imprisonment, the Wikileaks founder has spent much of his time in the high-security prison in Belmarsh under judicial remand, without any charges or conviction, fighting a prolonged extradition process. The extradition request from the United States began under the administration of former president Donald Trump, and continues under the present Joe Biden administration. From recent revelations, it is understood that the US attempt to prosecute Assange has been going on since at least the Barack Obama administration.

Belmarsh Warden Blocks Assange From Meeting With Press Freedom Advocates

April 7, 2023 Kevin Gosztola, Scheer Post. , , ,
The warden of Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh blocked representatives with the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) from visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, despite previously reviewing RSF’s request and agreeing to grant access. Rebecca Vincent, the director of operations and campaigns for RSF, declared, “We followed all rules this morning. We were there very early with all required documentation. Without even checking our documentation, we were told that we would not be allowed in.” “The first official that we spoke to said that they had received ‘intelligence’ that we were journalists, and therefore we would not be allowed to visit,” Vincent added.

Inside The Prisoner-Led Struggle To Win Education For All

April 6, 2023 Antoine Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Despite increasing recognition that prison education is a key tool for reducing crime, Washington State prisoners were recently forced to gather in a janitor’s closet to organize and facilitate college education for people incarcerated in several prisons across the state. They took this dramatic step because new official restrictions are jeopardizing a liberating, prisoner-led program known as Taking Education And Creating History, or TEACH. Organized by a handful of incarcerated people — including me — over a decade ago, TEACH’s goal is to democratize education for people with long sentences.

Mumia Abu-jamal’s Appeal Is Denied

April 4, 2023 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Despite an international, high profile campaign for his release, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal was denied by Philadelphia Judge Lucretia Clemons on Friday, March 31. Abu-Jamal has spent over 40 years in prison, convicted of killing a police officer after being politically persecuted for his work as a journalist and Black liberation fighter. The movement for his release has spanned decades and has grown to international levels, with high-profile figures such as NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim counted among his supporters. As Angela Davis wrote in an open letter in February, on December 16, a judge ruled that over over 200 boxes of materials must be handed to Abu-Jamal’s defense after previously-unseen exculpatory evidence was mysteriously discovered in 2018.

New Report On US Solitary Confinement

March 30, 2023 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. , , ,
In prisons and jails across America, between 41,000 and 48,000 people are currently being held in solitary confinement, or “isolation,” as it is called in a new study by the Correctional Leaders Association and the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale University Law School. Those numbers are too high, especially when the United Nations’ special rapporteur for torture has called the U.S. practice of using solitary confinement as a punishment a form of torture.  Still, as high as the numbers are, they are far lower than they were in 2014.  And there is growing support across the country for solitary confinement reform.

Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement Victory

March 30, 2023 Munther Khalaf Mufleh, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
After the escalation of Zionist attacks against the achievements gained by the prisoners’ movement over the years, and the attempts of the fascist Ben Gvir to seize our rights by enacting laws and policies such as the laws for the execution of prisoners, revocation of nationality, and deportation of prisoners and former prisoners, as well as the attacks on the achievements of daily life of the prisoners’ movement, such as cutting access to water, setting brief times for bathing and the imposition of dozens of punitive measures, such as repeated transfer and isolation, led the prisoners’ movement to take action.

When Killer Cops Evade Accountability, Victims’ Families Find Other Paths

March 29, 2023 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
A recent article by The Independent revealed how James Connolly used his connections to NYPD higher-ups to successfully evade accountability for not only his murder of Collado, but also for a murder he committed less than three years prior. Anthony Roman was 18 years old when Connolly shot him while the officer was on an undercover narcotics assignment. Connolly was never held accountable for this killing, in fact, he won two awards for it. In 2015, then-mayor of New York Bill DeBlasio presented Connolly with the second-highest award in the NYPD for shooting Anthony Roman, an award given for acts of “extraordinary heroism”.
«12345678910»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.