Criminal Justice and Prisons

An Open Letter To The Home Secretary

April 20, 2022 Consortium News. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

WikiLeaks‘ publisher Julian Assange’s extradition order will be sent to British Home Secretary Priti Patel on Wednesday morning by Westminster Magistrate’s Court after the U.K. Supreme Court declined to hear Assange’s appeal of a High Court decision to allow the extradition to the United States to proceed. Assange initially won his extradition case in the magistrate’s court based on the high likelihood that his mental health would lead to his suicide in harsh prison conditions in the United States. After the case was lost, the U.S. made diplomatic “assurances” to Britain that it would not put Assange in so-called Special Administrative Measures (SAMS), the most severe condition of isolation in the U.S. prison system.

UK Court Order Moves Julian Assange Closer To US Extradition

April 20, 2022 Al Jazeera. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, United Kingdom (UK)

With Assange supporters gathered outside, the Westminster Magistrates’ court in London formally issued an order on Wednesday to extradite the Australian to the US to face spying charges for publishing a trove of classified information more than 10 years ago. The order will now go to UK’s Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will decide whether to approve the extradition. While the move brings Assange closer to facing the US charges, his legal options have not yet been exhausted. His lawyers have four weeks to make submissions to Patel. If she approves the extradition, Assange can also try to challenge the decision by judicial review, in which a judge will examine the legitimacy of a public body’s decision.

Coastal GasLink Seeks Criminal Charges Against Water Protectors

April 19, 2022 Brent Patterson, PBI Canada. Resist! Coastal GasLink Pipeline, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

“On April 13, 2022 twenty seven land defenders arrested in the fall and into winter of 2021 on Wet’suwet’en territory appeared virtually before Justice Church. Coastal Gaslink’s lawyer, Kevin O’Callaghan, recommended that the charges be criminal contempt, and not civil contempt. …this would mean that the land defenders arrested during the Coyote Camp occupation at the drill pad site and the Likhts’amisyu Chief arrested on his own territory would face criminal charges. We need to make [British Columbia’s Attorney General] David Eby aware that CGL [Coastal GasLink], the CIRG [the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group], and RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]… …are abusing the intent of the court injunction to violently and illegally criminalize sovereign Wet’suwet’en people in an attempt to push through an industrial project that does not have the consent of the true title holders to the land.

Advocacy Groups Work To End Sexual Abuse At Women’s Prison

April 14, 2022 Judy Greenspan, Workers World. Resist! California, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse of prisoners by guards happens daily in the U.S. – in jails, prisons and detention centers – but is rarely reported to the public. The Associated Press recently blew the whistle on a pattern of sexual abuse and harassment at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, one of the few federal women’s prisons in the U.S. (AP, Feb. 6) FCI Dublin is known by guards and prisoners as “the rape club,” and prisoners have suffered “rampant” sexual abuse at the hands of prison guards. Prison employees who questioned the abuse have been routinely threatened or disciplined.

New York’s Prison Crisis

April 11, 2022 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, New York (NY), Rikers

Much has been written in recent months about the New York City jail at Rikers Island. The violence is overwhelming there. Corruption is endemic. Prisoners die from neglect or from violent acts with regularity. But the sad truth is that Rikers is not the worst prison in the world, as many believe. It’s not even the worst prison in New York. That would be the Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Washington County, New York. The most recent statistics released by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) show that Great Meadow has the highest rate of suicide of any prison in the state, the highest rate of suicide attempts, the highest rate of self-harm and the second-highest rate of staff violence. These figures point to an ongoing crisis that New York’s politicians have done literally nothing to correct. And there is no indication whatsoever that federal authorities are willing to get involved.

Pipeline Protestors Found Not Guilty

April 6, 2022 WaSEPA. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Necessity defense, Pipelines, Victory

Downingtown, Upper Uwchlan, PA - Today, two local residents, Christine “PK” DiGiulio, Analytical Chemist and community watchdog from Downingtown, Upper Uwchlan, and Connor Orion Tripp Young, Registered Nurse and concerned citizen from Lionville, Uwchlan, were found not guilty by Magisterial District Judge Ann Feldman on disorderly conduct charges for halting construction of Sunoco|Energy Transfer’s widely opposed Mariner East Pipelines by locking their bodies to construction equipment on on January 6, 2022. They were represented in court by attorney Ronald Read. Former Public Health Commissioner of Philadelphia, Dr. Walter Tsou, said, “Christina and Connor asked every politician to help protect their families from contaminated water or the threat of a pipeline blast to no avail.

Conflicts In Priti Patel’s Power Over Assange

March 31, 2022 Matt Kennard, Consortium News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

Priti Patel sat on the Henry Jackson Society’s (HJS) advisory council from around 2013-16, although the exact dates are unclear as neither the HJS nor Patel responded to Declassified’s requests for clarification. She has also received funds from the HJS, and was paid £2,500 by the group to visit Washington in March 2013 to attend a “security” program in the U.S. Congress. Patel, who became an MP in 2010 and was appointed home secretary in 2019, also hosted an HJS event in parliament soon after she returned from Washington. After the U.K. Supreme Court said this month it was refusing to hear Assange’s appeal of a High Court decision against him, the WikiLeaks founder’s fate now lies in Patel’s hands.

The Marriage Of Julian Assange

March 25, 2022 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

London - I am standing at the gates of HM Prison Belmarsh, a high security penitentiary in southeast London, with Craig Murray, British Ambassador to Uzbekistan until he was fired for exposing CIA black sites and torture centers in that country. Inside the prison, Julian Assange and Stella Moris are being married. Craig and I were on the list of the six guests invited to the wedding, but prison authorities, in an example of the institutional sadism that characterizes all prisons, denied us entry. Craig, who was to have been one of two witnesses, was informed that he could not enter because he would “endanger the security of the prison.” Craig came down from Edinburgh by train. I flew over from New York. We would at least be at the entrance of the prison with 150 Assange supporters.

Judge Gives Lawyers 24 Hours To Identify Executives Who Ordered Bribes

March 23, 2022 Jake Zuckerman, Ohio Capital Journal. Educate! Corporatism, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Ohio, Shareholder activism

Further scuttling a proposed settlement for FirstEnergy’s shareholders, a federal judge demanded their lawyers, within 24 hours, answer his question about which company officials ordered what has been described as the largest political bribery scheme in Ohio history. Both FirstEnergy and its shareholders were on the cusp of a settling the shareholders’ derivative lawsuit, announcing an agreement in February pending judicial review. It calls for FirstEnergy’s insurers to pay the company $180 million for damages incurred in the scandal. The proposed settlement also would force out six members of the board of directors when their terms expire and require corporate reforms related to “political and lobbying activities.”

Lula Counters FBI-Backed ‘Corruption’ Prosecution To Lead 2022 Race

March 22, 2022 Julian Cola, Mintpress News. Educate! Brazil, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Electoral Politics, FBI, Lawfare

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – Former Brazilian president, and frontrunner in the upcoming October 2022 presidential election, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva is putting four of his one-time accusers of corruption and money laundering in the dock. The initial charges and inquiries — all 25 of them — were completely dismissed earlier this month. Lula’s legal battles — including his sentence of 12 years and 11 months in prison, a sentence that was later increased to 17 years — are part of the infamous and multifaceted “Car Wash” investigations into corruption at state and private companies, such as Petrobras and Odebrecht, as well as among businessmen and politicians. In fact, it was during Lula’s administration that Brazil’s federal police were provided with the legal tools and mechanisms to initiate the Car Wash operations.

Do Texas Prison Conditions Violate Human Rights Standards?

March 18, 2022 Keri Blakinger, The Marshall Project. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Human Rights, Scotland

Late last year, a Scottish court quietly refused what seemed like a routine extradition. It wasn’t that of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose drawn-out efforts to avoid the American prison system have grabbed international headlines for years. Instead, it was that of a relatively unknown Scottish man, Daniel Magee, who’d allegedly shot a security guard in Austin, Texas, in 2016 before fleeing to his native country. The refusal to send a prisoner back is not unprecedented — but what has raised eyebrows in the legal community is the reason: An Edinburgh judge decided that poor conditions in Texas prisons might constitute an international human rights violation. “This is the first case I know of where this specific argument about prison conditions has succeeded — normally, the courts are very sympathetic to deporting people,” said University of Nottingham criminologist Dirk van Zyl Smit.

Extradition Looms For Assange After Court Refuses To Hear His Appeal

March 18, 2022 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

The British judicial system has erected still another barrier to Julian Assange’s freedom. On March 14, the U.K. Supreme Court refused to hear Assange’s appeal of the U.K. High Court’s ruling ordering his extradition to the United States. If extradited to the U.S. for trial, Assange will face 17 charges under the Espionage Act and up to 175 years in prison for revealing evidence of U.S. war crimes. With no explanation of its reasoning, the Supreme Court denied Assange “permission to appeal” the High Court’s decision, saying that Assange’s appeal did not “raise an arguable point of law.” The court remanded the case back to the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, which is the same court that denied the U.S. extradition request on January 4, 2021. In all likelihood, the magistrates’ court will refer the case to the British Home Office where Home Secretary Priti Patel will review it.

Network In Defense Of Humanity Condemns Kidnapping Of Alex Saab

March 17, 2022 Network in Defense of Humanity – Venezuela Chapter, Resumen English. Resist! Alex Saab, Criminal Justice and Prisons, US Sanctions, Venezuela

We reiterate our condemnation expressed on October 18, 2021 by this Network against the crime of the kidnapping perpetrated by the United States against the person of the Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab on Saturday, October 16, 2021 in the Territory of Cape Verde, with the complicity of the authorities of that country. We note that this crime is a new application of the illegal doctrine according to which the authorities of the United States would have the authority to act outside the borders of their homeland, anywhere on earth, and consequently to detain, assault and even assassinate at their discretion any human being, a fact that was perpetrated and publicly confessed with the physical annihilation of Iranian General Soleimani.

St. Louis’s Movement-Backed Mayor Promised To Close An Infamous Jail

March 17, 2022 Skyler Aikerson, In These Times. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Electoral Politics, Missouri, St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri - “What is the delay in closing the Workhouse?” moderator Maquis Govan asks Mayor Tishaura Jones at a virtual town hall on “re-envisioning public safety” February 8. The event was co-organized by Action St. Louis, an affiliate of the Movement for Black Lives. The group’s 501©4 arm, Action St. Louis Power Project, endorsed Jones during her 2021 mayoral run. The Rev. Michelle Higgins opened the event by thanking Jones warmly for “valuing and loving the constituents of this city in this way: taking the time to listen to our questions directly.” Now, activists want clarification on when the mayor will fulfill her campaign promise to close the St. Louis Medium Security Institution, more commonly known as the Workhouse, which activists have been trying to shut down for years.

UK Supreme Court Slams Door On Assange Appeal

March 16, 2022 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

Without any explanation, the British Supreme Court denied WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “permission to appeal” a decision by the British High Court. The Supreme Court maintained the appeal did not “raise an arguable point of law” and sent the case back to the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the district court which initially blocked the United States government’s extradition request on January 4, 2021. By refusing to grant Assange a hearing, the U.S. government effectively won their appeal. Prosecutors convinced the British courts to disregard concerns that he may be subject to treatment in a U.S. jail or prison that would be oppressive to his mental health. "Whether Julian is extradited or not, which is the same as saying whether he lives or dies, is decided through a process of legal avoidance—avoiding to hear arguments that challenge the U.K. courts' deference to unenforceable and caveated claims regarding his treatment made by the United States, the country that plotted to murder him," declared Stella Moris, his partner.

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