Criminal Justice and Prisons

Mayor De Blasio’s Epic Rikers Island Failure

October 3, 2021 Glenn E. Martin, New York Daily News. Educate! Bill De Blasio, Criminal Justice and Prisons, New York City (NYC), Rikers

In 2017, a year after launching the campaign, the mayor was brought to his knees by the unavoidable momentum built by the campaign. He begrudgingly conceded that Rikers needed to close. But the devil was in the details. The mayor punted responsibility by outlining a scantily detailed 10-year plan to close the complex of eight jails on Rikers Island and build four skyscraper jail facilities in locations around the city.

What The Yahoo! Assange Report Got Wrong

October 3, 2021 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers, Yahoo

The Yahoo! News report that is mistakenly being credited for breaking the story of a CIA plot to assassinate or kidnap WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange is filled with crucial errors, while at the same time providing important new details about inside-Washington deliberations on how the plot came about.

Report: CIA Plans To Kidnap Assange

September 30, 2021 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! CIA, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange

Though District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against the United States’ extradition request, she rejected the argument from the legal team for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that hostility within U.S. intelligence agencies “translated into improper pressure on federal prosecutors to bring charges.” However, a Yahoo! News report on the CIA’s plans to kidnap or kill Assange contains some of the strongest evidence yet that Assange was only charged with crimes because of their thirst for vengeance. Assange was charged by the U.S. Justice Department with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to commit a computer intrusion that, as alleged in the indictment, is written like an Espionage Act offense.

Reporting A Federal Crime

September 29, 2021 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. Educate! Accountability, Corruption, Criminal Justice and Prisons, FBI

I tried to report a crime last week. It was a serious crime, too. Rather, it was a whole bunch of federal crimes. It was impossible to find anybody interested. Let me start at the beginning. Over the past year, I have developed first-hand knowledge of what I believe is a major international fraud. The principal is an American citizen who is defrauding investors in a financial technology bank scam based overseas, and the investors include people in the United States and in at least three foreign countries. I have thousands of pages of evidence, including forged documents, surreptitious recordings of the principal admitting to his crime, and affidavits from his former employees and targets.

PG&E Charged In California Wildfire Last Year That Killed Four

September 25, 2021 Olga R. Rodriguez, Associated Press. Educate! Accountability, Criminal Justice and Prisons, PG&E, Wildfires

San Francisco - Pacific Gas & Electric was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter and other crimes after its equipment sparked a Northern California wildfire that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes last year, prosecutors said. It is the latest legal action against the nation’s largest utility, which pleaded guilty last year to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a 2018 blaze ignited by its long-neglected electrical grid that nearly destroyed the town of Paradise and became the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century. Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett announced the 31 charges, including 11 felonies, against PG&E, saying it failed to perform its legal duties and that its “failure was reckless and criminally negligent, and it resulted in the death of four people.”

Covid Funds Spent On Police And Prisons

September 23, 2021 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! COVID-19, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Finance and the Economy, Police Budgets

The health and financial impacts of the covid pandemic have been enormous. More than 42 million people have been infected and 679,000 have died in this country. Individuals, businesses and every level of government have suffered as they lost income and revenue. Many workers are unemployed and certain sectors of the economy still suffer disproportionately. There is an easy case to make in favor of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) which was passed in order to relieve these many crises. The argument is harder to make when those funds are being used for police and prisons, and which is happening across the country. The state of Alabama is poised to use ARP funds to build three new prisons . Philadelphia is paying for police and for jails.

Spoons Become A New Symbol Of Palestinian Freedom

September 20, 2021 Palestinian Responds. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Israel, Palestine

When the six Palestinians escaped through a tunnel on September 6 from the high security Gilboa prison, social networks shared images of a tunnel at the foot of a sink, and a hole dug outside. A hashtag, “the miraculous spoon”, suggested how the Hollywood-style feat might have occurred. But whether or not the utensil had really been involved or its role was cooked up was at first unclear. Then on Wednesday a lawyer for one of the fugitives who has since been recaptured told AFP that his client, Mahmud Abdullah Ardah, said he had used spoons, plates and even the handle of a kettle to dig the tunnel from his cell. He began scraping his way out from the northern Israeli institution in December, the lawyer, Roslan Mahajana, said.

Urgent Appeal To Safeguard Palestinian Prisoners’ Rights

September 16, 2021 Al-Haq. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine

On Saturday 11 September, Al-Haq and partners submitted an urgent appeal to the UN special procedures calling for their urgent intervention to protect the lives of Palestinian prisoner escapees. On the evening of Friday 10 September, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) captured two of the six Palestinian prisoners' escapees from Gilboa Prison on Monday 6 September, Yacoub Qadri, 49 years old, and Mahmoud Abdullah Al-Aridah, 46 years old, in Al-Qafzeh Mountain, Nazareth city, and earlier this morning, Zakaria Zubeidi, 46 years old, and Mohammad Qasem Al-Aridah, 39 years old, were also captured near Al-Tur Mountain near Om Al-Ghanam village. Our organizations stress our grave concern for the lives of the captured Palestinian prisoners who are now at imminent risk of torture and ill-treatment following their capture, especially given past documented Shabak torture practices, inflicting intentional severe pain and suffering.

Charges Dropped Against Activists Who Fought For Justice For Elijah McClain

September 15, 2021 People's Dispatch. Educate! Colorado, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Elijah McClain, Legal System

The last remaining charges have been dropped against three activists in the US who were involved in organizing protests seeking justice for Elijah McClain. On September 13, Monday, John Kellner, the 18th Judicial District Attorney for the Arapahoe County in Colorado State, announced the dropping of all the 12 remaining charges against Joel Northam, Lillian House and Terrence Roberts, nearly a year after their arrest. Northam and House are members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). While the decision to withdraw all charges against House and Roberts was taken on Monday, the motion to clear Northam of charges was passed on September 9. The decision comes months after felony charges were withdrawn in April this year by Kellner. The last remaining misdemeanor charges together carried a maximum prison sentence of 13.5 years.

Palestinian Prisoners Give IPS Until Friday To End Punitive Measures

September 13, 2021 The Palestinian Information Center. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine

The Palestinian Captive Movement has given the Israeli prison service (IPS) until next Friday to renounce its repressive measures against the prisoners in its jails, warning that they would take mass protest steps if its violations persisted. This came during a pro-prisoner sit-in organized on Monday by Palestinian factions outside the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City, with the participation of ex-detainees and human rights groups. Addressing the attendees, senior official of the Democratic Front Ibrahim Mansour said that “the Palestinian prisoners are being exposed to mass punitive measures that violate all international laws and norms.” Mansour conveyed a message from the Captive Movement in Israeli jails saying that the leadership of the prisoners gave the prison service until next Friday, September 17, to revoke the suppressive measures it took against them recently following the Gilboa jailbreak.

Ruth Etzel Speaks Out Ahead Of EPA Whistleblower Hearing

September 13, 2021 Carey Gillam, The Guardian. Resist! Children, Criminal Justice and Prisons, EPA, Whistleblowers

The US Environmental Protection Agency is failing to protect children by ignoring poisons in the environment and focusing on corporate interests, according to a top children’s health official who will testify this week that the agency tried to silence her because of her insistence on stronger preventions against lead poisoning. “The people of the United States expect the EPA to protect the health of their children, but the EPA is more concerned with protecting the interests of polluting industries,” said Ruth Etzel, former director of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP). The harm being done to children is “irreparable”, she said. A hearing will be held on 13 September in which several internal EPA communications will be presented as evidence, including an email in which EPA personnel discuss using press inquiries about Etzel as “an opportunity to strike” out against her. Among many witnesses to be called to testify are several former high-level EPA officials.

Why Israel’s Gilboa Prison Break Has Palestinians Celebrating

September 11, 2021 Miko Peled, Mintpress News. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Resistance

Gilboa Prison, Palestine — It is said that Palestinians are the most incarcerated people in the world. Rarely does one find a Palestinian who has not been a victim of the Israeli prison system and when one does find one such person, he or she will have a sibling, parent or another close relative who serves or has served time in an Israeli prison. Opportunities for Palestinians to celebrate as a nation are few and far between. When the news broke of the escape of six high-profile Palestinian prisoners from one of Israel’s most secure prisons, it was a reason to celebrate. This was a reason not only for Palestinians to celebrate but indeed for all people who believe in justice and freedom. This escape, which Reuters described as a “Hollywood-style escape,” was a daring and courageous operation.

Prison Abolitionists Target Architectural Firm

September 11, 2021 Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Minnesota, Prison abolition

St. Louis Park, MN – Red paint and posters reading “No new jails” were plastered on the door of architectural firm Klein McCarthy at the beginning of the work day on September 9. Responding to a nationwide call-out for #ShutEmDown2021 actions on the anniversary of the Attica Prison Rebellion, autonomous prison abolitionist groups took part in the action which also featured graffiti and a banner drop over Highway 100. Unicorn Riot received a statement from anonymous participants in the action who said they targeted Klein McCarthy Architects because their contract “to design a new $28-million jail” in Winona. Headquartered in St. Louis Park, Klein McCarthy is one of the top “justice architecture and public facility design” firms in the Midwest.

US Government’s Lies About Prison Uprising Fueled Lingering Mistrust

September 10, 2021 Bruce C.t. Wright, NewsOne. Educate! Attica, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Prisoner rights, Racism

The rebellion began 50 years ago on Sept. 9, 1971, when prisoners took over the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York after years of complaints about the conditions in the prison went unacknowledged. Aside from the inhumane conditions, prisoners alleged that they were subjected to treatment based on race and religion. Fed up with overcrowded prison cells with temperatures that soared during warmer months and froze during wintertime, among other gripes about a basic lack of humane treatment, the disproportionately Black and Hispanic prison population rebelled to take control of the correctional facility for four days. The prisoners took dozens of hostages while they negotiated with officials about their demands.

Politicians Globally Call On Biden To Drop Prosecution Against Assange

September 7, 2021 Don't Extradite Assange. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Joe Biden, Julian Assange, Whistleblowers

Politicians around the world are sending a message to US President Biden to drop the charges against Julian Assange ahead of his 50th birthday. Julian Assange, an unconvicted, remand prisoner who hasn’t been charged in Britain is spending 3rd birthday inside high-security Belmarsh prison despite winning his extradition case last January. A cross party group of UK parliamentarians took the opportunity of Biden’s visit during G7 summit in Cornwall and appealed to President in an open letter saying: “The effect of your predecessor’s decision to take a criminal case against a member of the press working in our country is to restrict the scope of permissible press activities here, and set a precedent that others will no doubt exploit.

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