Criminal Justice and Prisons

Force The Government To Prove Espionage, Not Whistleblowing

July 14, 2022 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Espionage Act, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

If you’ve been following the case of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder whose revelations about US wars and war crimes outlets like the New York Times published to great acclaim, you know that you haven’t been following it in, for example, The New York Times. Major US outlets’ interest in Assange’s prosecution is hard to detect, as if they had no stake in a case which is not, at bottom, only about whether individuals can leak classified information, but whether journalists can publish that information at all. And it’s as if their readers had no stake in that decision either. Joining us now with the latest is researcher and journalist Chip Gibbons. He’s policy director of the group Defending Rights and Dissent. He joins us by phone from Washington, DC. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Chip Gibbons.

Visualizing The Economic Veins That Fuel Our Carceral Reality

July 13, 2022 The Mapping Project, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! Capitalism, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Prisoner rights, Private Prisons

The contemporary US prison system incarcerates people — largely Black, Native, Latinx, disabled, and working-class and poor folks — and hides them from society for years, decades, or lifetimes. This is true across the United States generally and in Massachusetts, specifically. These days, when discussing the case against incarceration and the prison system, there are a few different arguments one tends to hear: (1) the first is that incarceration is immoral and reprehensible in both its conditions and treatment of incarcerated people; (2) a second, appealing to economists and technocratic policymakers, argues that prisons are a drain on taxpayer dollars and the money wasted there would be better spent on social services and alternatives; (3) another argument that centers racialization is that the prison system is a direct continuation of chattel slavey, chain gangs, and Jim Crow forced labor; (4) a final common refrain is that degenerate investors in private prisons and detention centers, as well as other perpetrators of gross injustice live off of turning prison labor into private profit.

UK Bill Threatens Journalists With Life In Prison

July 8, 2022 Mohamed Elmaazi, Consortium News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Journalism, United Kingdom (UK)

The British Parliament is debating a national security bill which could undermine the basis of national security reporting and ultimately throw journalists in jail for life. A person convicted under the new offense of “obtaining or disclosing protected information,” defined in Section 1 of National Security Bill 2022, faces a fine, life imprisonment, or both, if convicted following a jury trial. A review of the parliamentary debate on the bill makes clear that work by press outlets such as WikiLeaks is at the heart of Tory and Labour MPs’ thinking as they push to make the bill law.

Supreme Court’s ‘Miranda’ Decision Further Guts Civil Rights Law

July 6, 2022 Reuters. Educate! Civil Rights, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Police, Supreme Court

A U.S. Supreme Court decision on Thursday illustrated the extent to which the court has transformed a Reconstruction-era law meant to protect the rights of freed slaves and marginalized Americans into a formidable shield for the most powerful, including police, prosecutors and businesses. The June 23 decision bars lawsuits against police for using evidence obtained without advising people of their rights – the ‘Miranda’ warnings the court mandated nearly 60 years ago that have since become the framework through which most Americans understand their rights against police intrusion.

Mumia: Unjustly Imprisoned For 40 Years

July 5, 2022 Betsey Piette , Workers World. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Philadelphia, political prisoners

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - On July 3 people in Philadelphia and dozens of other cities across the U.S. and around the globe marked the 40th anniversary of the unlawful and unjust imprisonment of Pennsylvania political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, including 29 years on death row. Now imprisoned for life in the general population, Abu-Jamal is still fighting for exoneration. In Philadelphia activists gathered at the Municipal Services Building across from City Hall. Until June 2020, a hated statue of racist former Philadelphia Mayor and police chief Frank Rizzo stood on the plaza.

Julian Assange Appeals His Extradition To The United States

July 3, 2022 Telesur English. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, United Kingdom (UK)

The Wikileaks founder met the deadline set to appeal the decision issued by the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel. Assange met the deadline to appeal the decision issued by the Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel, while. At the same time, the court in London communicated that it had formally received the notification of the accused. Assange's wife, Stella Assange, referred to the dire consequences of the case for journalism and human rights in general. "We will fight until justice is done," she said. The Australian journalist has been detained in Belmarsh high-security prison since April 2019, where he awaits the outcome of the legal process.

US Supreme Court May Take Aim At Whistleblower Protection Law

July 2, 2022 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Supreme Court, US Constitution, Whistleblowers

The False Claims Act in the United States allows individuals with evidence of fraud against government agencies to bring lawsuits as qui tam whistleblowers. They can bring a case even if the US Justice Department has no interest in fighting the alleged corruption. But on June 21, Courthouse News Reported that the US Supreme Court will determine whether the government has the authority to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit brought under the False Claims Act when the government has declined to intervene in the case. In other words, the Supreme Court could help corporations shut down independent whistleblower lawsuits that the Justice Department does not want to pursue.

How Maryland Is Preventing Prisoners From Getting College Degrees

June 30, 2022 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Education, Maryland, Prisoner rights

Education is one of the few rehabilitative options available to incarcerated people, yet all across America prisoners are prevented from pursuing their education. “Atiba” Demetrius Brown, for instance, has been dedicated to improving himself and his post-incarceration prospects by taking correspondence courses while incarcerated in Maryland, but thanks to a draconian new decree by the Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services (DPSCS), Atiba can’t take his exams. In this installment of Rattling the Bars, Victor Wallis joins Mansa Musa to discuss the case of “Atiba” Demetrius Brown and the calculated cruelty of the prison-industrial complex. Victor Wallis is a professor in the Liberal Arts Department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Time Is Running Out For Julian Assange

June 30, 2022 Tom Coburg, The Canary. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, United Kingdom (UK)

As reported by The Canary, on 17 June, home secretary Priti Patel gave her approval to a court ruling to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US. He will face 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act and one of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. Assange’s lawyers are planning to appeal Patel’s approval of extradition and cross-appeal on other grounds – including a breach of client-lawyer confidentiality. But the High Court will have to approve those appeal requests. A judicial review of Patel’s decision is also possible. In addition, Assange may appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). However, proposed UK legislation could make such an appeal problematic – and not just for Assange.

Stella Assange: ‘We Are Going To Fight This’

June 20, 2022 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

Julian Assange’s wife and one of his lawyers on Friday vowed to fight the decision of British Home Secretary Priti Patel to sign an extradition order earlier in the day sending imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to the United States to face trial on espionage and computer intrusion charges. “This is the outcome that we have been concerned about for the last decade,” Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson told a London press conference. “This decision is a grave threat to freedom of speech, not just for Julian, but for every journalist, editor and media worker.” She said he faced up to 175 years in a U.S. prison for publishing material for which he has won numerous press awards as well as a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. “This should shock everyone,” she said.

UK Government Approves Request To Send Assange To US For Trial

June 19, 2022 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

United Kingdom Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. Patel’s decision to hand over a journalist to the US government for prosecution was immediately condemned by human rights and press freedom organizations. The Assange legal team planned to submit an appeal in the High Court of Justice challenging the political nature of the case and how extradition law was interpreted. "The decision by the secretary of state was always predictable. It is nevertheless regrettable that she elected not to engage with serious issues of substance raised by Mr. Assange," Assange's lawyers at Birnberg Peirce declared. "He will appeal her decision."

No COINTELPRO In Washington DC

June 17, 2022 Pan-African Community Action, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), COINTELPRO, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Washington DC

The DC government is deploying COINTELPRO like tactics against organizations and individuals fighting to protect and expand our rights. Of course, this is not news to those who have been engaged in political work here for any amount of time, but now, thanks to one local organizer, there is proof. Suspecting she was being surveilled by the Metro Police Department (MPD), April Goggans of Black Lives Matter DC (BLMDC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the documents the DC government had on her. After years of hiding, stalling and lying by MPD, April took the request to court. The most important hearing to date was scheduled for June 14, 2022 too determine if MPD is required to follow FOIA laws.

A Whistleblower’s Agony

June 16, 2022 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Torture, Whistleblowers

A C.I.A. whistleblower languishes awaiting trial in a federal prison under inhumane conditions and almost nobody is paying attention. Joshua Schulte is a former C.I.A. hacker, one of those computer geniuses whose job it is to work his way into the computer systems of our country’s enemies in support of some of the most highly-classified operations the C.I.A. carries out. The government believes that Schulte was a malcontent who released to WikiLeaks in 2017 the equivalent of 2 billion pages of top secret C.I.A. data with code names like Brutal Kangaroo, AngerQuake and McNugget. These programs, collectively known as Vault 7, were custom-made techniques used to compromise Wifi networks, hack into Skype, defeat anti-virus software and even hack into smart TVs and the guidance systems in cars.

Society Of Spectacle

June 14, 2022 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Ruling Class, US Capitol Attack

The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, whose first of six televised hearings began last Thursday, is spectacle replacing politics. There is nothing substantially new in the accusations. The committee lacks prosecutorial power. No charges have been filed by Attorney General Merrick Garland against former President Donald Trump and none are expected. The choreographed hearings, like the two impeachment trials of Trump, will have no effect on Trump voters, other than to make them feel persecuted, especially with more than 860 people already charged (including 306 guilty pleas) for their role in storming the Capitol. The committee echoes back to Trump opponents what they already believe.

Bolivian Court Sentences Jeanine Áñez To 10 Years In Prison

June 13, 2022 People's Dispatch. Resist! Bolivia, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Jeanine Anez, US coup

The First Anti-Corruption Sentencing Court of La Paz sentenced former de-facto Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez to 10 years in prison in the ‘Coup d’état II’ case on Friday, June 10. In the case, Áñez stood accused of crimes of acting against the constitution and illegally assuming the presidency of the country in November 2019, following a right-wing civic-military coup that overthrew democratically elected socialist President Evo Morales. The court found her guilty of “breach of duties” and “resolutions contrary to the Constitution and the Law” in her capacity as the former second Vice President of the Senate. In addition to Áñez, eight former police and military officials also faced charges in the trial. Over 70 pieces of evidence and around 20 witness statements were presented.

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