Criminal Justice and Prisons

We Are Human, But In The Dark We Wish For Light

January 21, 2022 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Egypt, Human Rights, Revolution

For over a decade, Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been in and out of Egypt’s prisons, never free of the harassment of the military state apparatus. In 2011, during the high point of the revolution, Alaa emerged as an important voice of his generation and since then has been a steady moral compass despite his country’s attempts to suffocate his voice. On 25 January 2014, to commemorate the third anniversary of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s government, Alaa and the poet Ahmed Douma wrote a moving epistle from their dungeon in Tora Prison, Cairo. This prison, which houses Alaa and other political prisoners, is not far from the beautiful Nile and – depending on Cairo’s traffic – not too far from the Garden City office of Mada Masr, where the epistle was published.

Judge Upholds Ag-Gag Charge Brought Against Animal Rights Activist

January 21, 2022 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Activism, Animal Rights, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Iowa

An Iowa judge upheld one of the state’s “ag-gag” laws in a case brought against an animal rights activist, hours before dismissing all charges. In Iowa, a person may be criminalized for “food operation trespass” if they enter or remain on the property of a factory farm “without the consent of a person who has real or apparent authority to allow the person to enter or remain on the property.” Matt Johnson, an investigator with the grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), was charged with violating the ag-gag law after he exposed the extermination of pigs by Iowa Select Farms. He argued the law is “actually intended to punish individuals for expressing viewpoints disfavored by the Iowa legislature” and reminded the court that a similar Iowa ag-gag law was previously ruled unconstitutional by a federal court.

Native Activist Found Not Guilty In Border Protest

January 21, 2022 Paul Ingram, Tucson Sentinel. Resist! Border Wall, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Indigenous Activism, Victory

Amber Ortega, a Southern Arizona border activist facing two federal charges for protesting the construction of the border wall near Quitobaquito Springs, was found not guilty by a federal judge on Wednesday. Following a short motions hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie A. Bowman ruled that the federal government had imposed a "substantial burden" on Ortega's exercise of her religious faith by closing access to the border road that runs just south of Quitobaquito Springs — an area that remains central to the spiritual practices of the Hia C-ed O’odham. The on-the-spot change in the verdict felt like "a dream," Ortega said. Ortega and her friend and mentor Nellie Jo David were arrested on Sept. 9, 2020, by National Park Service officers just beyond Quitobaquito — about 120 miles southwest of Tucson...

Trial Of Software Developer And Activist Ola Bini Set To Begin

January 20, 2022 People's Dispatch. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Cyber Security, Ecuador, Ola Bini

The trial against Ola Bini, Swedish software developer and digital rights activist, is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, January 19, and continue for three days. The long-awaited trial comes after multiple delays, recusal of judges, documented harassment and surveillance of Bini, and constant shifting of charges from the prosecution leading to serious allegations of political interference in the case. In the meanwhile, digital rights advocacy groups and progressive media outlets are pushing for the Ecuadorian authorities to ensure a fair trial, that is not only free from political interference, but also made in “accordance with the law and expert technical criteria.” A group of observers, representing Regional Foundation for Human Rights Advisory (INREDH) and Observatory of Rights and Justice (ODJ), along with a coalition of rights groups and journalists from independent media outlets, will be attending the trial, to make sure that Bini is guaranteed his right to a fair trial.

The Scandal Of US Prisons

January 19, 2022 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. Educate! Bureau of Prisons, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Prisons

Michael Carvajal, director of the Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP), resigned in disgrace last week after being overwhelmed by scandals, none of which were necessarily of his doing so much as they were a result of his unwillingness or inability to make changes to the Justice Department’s largest and best-funded bureau. The scandals—and his resignation—reinforce the conventional wisdom that the BOP is broken and must be overhauled dramatically. The Associated Press reported that Carvajal, a Trump appointee, was forced to resign after more than 100 BOP employees had been arrested for or convicted of crimes during his short two-year tenure. The employees were prosecuted for crimes ranging from smuggling drugs and cell phones into prisons to sell to prisoners, to theft, to a warden raping a prisoner.

How Palestinian Hunger Striker Abu Hawash Forced Israeli Concession

January 18, 2022 Ramzy Baroud, Orinoco Tribune. Strategize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Hunger Strike, Israel, Palestine

As soon as media reports emerged regarding a deal between Palestinian prisoner, Hisham Abu Hawash and the Israeli prison authorities, Israeli extremists, led by Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, angrily the Assaf Harofeh Hospital where Abu Hawash was being held. A Palestinian political activist, Abu Hawash, 41, is a father of five. He was arrested by the Israeli army from his home in the town of Dura near Al-Khalil (Hebron) in October 2020. For the last consecutive 141 days, prior to the agreement, Abu Hawash a hunger strike, which will go down in the history of Palestinian resistance as one of the longest and, arguably, most consequential. Ben-Gvir and other right-wing Israelis were enraged by the government’s to release Abu Hawash on February 26...

The Rule Of Law Must Finally Evolve Into The Rule Of Justice

January 14, 2022 Alfred De Zayas, Counter Punch. Create! Criminal Justice and Prisons, International Law, Law, United Nations

Many politicians, academics, media pundits are wont of invoking the “rule of law”, a “rules-based international order”, “values diplomacy” etc. But what do all these benevolent-sounding slogans actually mean in practice? Who makes the rules, who interprets them, who enforces them? What transparency and accountability accompany these noble pledges? In a very real sense, we already have a “rules based international order” in the form of the UN Charter and its “supremacy clause”, article 103 of which grants it priority over all other treaties and agreements. The norms established in the Charter are rational, but effective enforcement mechanisms are yet to be created. We also have humanistic “values” that should guide diplomacy and peace-making – including the principle “pacta sunt servanda” (treaties must be implemented, art. 26 of the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties).

Ugandans Escalate Movement Of ‘Radical Rudeness’ Following Violent Arrest Over Mean Tweet

January 14, 2022 Phil Wilmot, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, State Violence, Uganda

“Men with guns are breaking my door. They say they’re policemen but are not in uniform. I’ve locked myself inside.” This was the final Facebook post by Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, 2021 winner of the PEN Pinter International Writer of Courage Award, on Dec. 28. Within minutes of his post, Rukirabashaija was abducted by Uganda’s Special Forces Command, a military outfit notorious for torturing nonviolent activists. Rukirabashaija — author of a political allegory novel and an autobiographical book detailing his previous torture — has only surfaced once since his brutal kidnapping. When his lawyer Eron Kiiza summoned Rukirabashaija’s captors to present him in court, they violated the summons and brought their victim to his rural home in Iganga to search his home, much to the terror of his wife and children.

What I Got Wrong About Julian Assange

January 8, 2022 Dean Yates, Consortium News. Educate! Australia, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Journalism, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

I wrote a piece for Australian online publisher Crikey just before Julian Assange’s extradition hearings resumed in September 2020 in which I regurgitated a slur that has done enormous harm to his reputation. Australian journalists should stop using the WikiLeaks treasure trove in their stories if they wouldn’t speak up for Assange, I’d written. Journalists like to think they’d go to jail to protect a source. Well, their source was suffering in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, I said. The problem was I also wrote that Assange dumped the Iraq and Afghan war logs on the internet without redacting names. I was wrong and lazy in repeating that slur which appeared whenever you Googled Assange’s name.

Three Men Convicted Of Murdering Ahmaud Arbery Sentenced To Life

January 8, 2022 Janelle Griffith, NBC News. Educate! Ahmaud Arbery, Black America, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Georgia

The three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced Friday to life in prison, with a judge denying any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the Black man in February 2020. The life sentences for Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery, and his father, Gregory McMichael, do not carry the possibility of parole. Their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan will be eligible, however, Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley said. Bryan must serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

New Legal Filing In Mumia’s Case

January 6, 2022 Johanna Fernández, Workers World. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Mumia Abu-Jamal

The new evidence contained in the boxes is damning, and we need to expose it. It reveals a pattern of misconduct and abuse of authority by the prosecution, including bribery of the state’s two key witnesses, as well as racist exclusion in jury selection — a violation of the landmark Supreme Court decision Batson v. Kentucky. The remedy for each or any of the claims in the petition is a new trial. The court may order a hearing on factual issues raised in the claims. If so, we won’t know for at least a month.

Prosecutor Sought Enbridge Funding To Prosecute Water Protectors

January 6, 2022 Protest Law. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Line 3 Pipeline, Minnesota, Pipelines

The Center for Protest Law & Litigation has obtained documents through our ongoing investigation showing that Jonathan Frieden, the lead prosecutor in Hubbard County, Minnesota, who is seeking to jail hundreds of peaceful Line 3 water protectors, sought Enbridge pipeline corporation’s money to fund his prosecutions.

Why US Prisons Don’t Want Prisoners To Read

January 5, 2022 Eddie Conway, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Censorship, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Prisoner rights

In a recent piece for Protean magazine entitled “The American Prison System’s War on Reading,” Alex Skopic writes, “Across the United States, the agencies responsible for mass imprisonment are trying to severely limit incarcerated people’s access to the written word—an alarming trend, and one that bears closer examination.” From outright banning books and letting prison libraries fall into decay to the intrusion of for-profit electronic reading services that inmates have to pay for, the assault on prisoners’ ability to read books while incarcerated is one of many calculated cruelties that make the US carceral system so inhumane. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, TRNN Executive Producer Eddie Conway speaks with Skopic about the American prison system’s war on reading and its deep (and racist) historical roots.

Noise Demonstrations Held For The Incarcerated On New Year’s Eve

January 4, 2022 It's Going Down. Resist! Canada, Criminal Justice and Prisons, New Years Eve, Solidarity

As people counted down to 2022, across multiple cities in the so-called US and Canada, people hit the streets to hold noise demonstrations outside of prisons, jails, juvenile halls, and detention facilities. For over 10 years, anarchists and abolitionists have held noise demonstrations on New Year’s Eve as a way to mobilize energy for the new year and also continue to build connections with those locked behind bars. Here’s our roundup of noise demos. On New Years Eve 25 anarchists, abolitionists and other rebels gathered outside of the (in)Justice Center in downtown Cleveland, Ohio for the second annual New Years Eve Noise Demonstration hosted by Forest City Anarchists.

NBC News Uses Ex-FBI Official Frank Figliuzzi To Urge Assange’s Extradition

January 4, 2022 Glenn Greenwald, Substack. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Julian Assange, Media, Propaganda

Two of the television outlets on which American liberals rely most for their news — NBC News and CNN — have spent the last six years hiring a virtual army of former CIA operatives, FBI officials, NSA spies, Pentagon chiefs, and DOJ prosecutors to work in their newsrooms. The multiple ways in which journalism is fundamentally corrupted by this spectacle are all vividly illustrated by a new article from NBC News that urges the prosecution and extradition of Julian Assange, claiming that the WikiLeaks founder, once on U.S. soil, will finally provide the long-elusive proof that Donald Trump criminally conspired with Russia. The NBC article is written by former FBI Assistant Director and current NBC News employee Frank Figliuzzi, who played a central role during the Obama years in the FBI's attempt to investigate and criminalize Assange: a rather relevant fact concealed by NBC when publishing this.

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