Mass Incarceration

Bigger Than Incarceration: Mass Criminalization, Mental Health & Drug War

May 2, 2016 Kirsten West Savali, www.theroot.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, Sexual Violence

By Kirsten West Savali for The Root - As previously reported by The Root, black inmates who identify as transgender women are sexually assaulted at alarming rates, with approximately 32 percent being raped in jail after being placed in male populations. Additionally, male and female inmates with disabilities and/or psychological issues are also more likely to be sexually violated. According to a 2014 Vera Institute report, "On Life Support: Public Health in the Age of Mass Incarceration," the prevalence of serious mental illness is two to four times higher in state prisons than in the general public.

One Chart Perfectly Captures America’s Massive Prison Problem

March 24, 2016 Jamilah King, www.mic.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, Prison, United States

By Jamilah King for Mic - We often speak about America's prison problem in vague, amorphous terms. For instance, the phrase "mass incarceration" has become commonplace, but even it can obscure the true scale of having an estimated 2.3 million people behind bars. But here's one graph that shows how many people are incarcerated in state prisons, local jails and federal detention facilities, and for what offenses:

Newsletter: Justice Takes A Lifetime

March 19, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, Baltimore, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Chicago, Cleveland, Desegregation, Detroit, Donald Trump, Environmental Justice, Ferguson, Flint, Freddie Gray, Hillary Clinton, Incinerators, Inequality, Internet, Jeb Bush, Jim Crow, LAPD, Laquan McDonald, Los Angeles, Mass Incarceration, North Carolina, Prison Labor, Prisons, Privatization, Slavery, Student Activism, Tamir Rice, Wall Street, Water

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The #BlackLivesMatter movement continues to grow its power and have notable victories, but 600 hundred years of racial oppression, older than the nation itself, will not be rooted out quickly. The movement had a series of electoral and other victories this week. These victories for #BLM and their supporters are notable but problems still persist and the movement must continue to grow and get stronger. There are no quick fixes to a country that is crippled by its history of racism. We must all recognize that the work we are doing for racial, economic and environmental justice requires us to be persistent and uncompromising. achieve the transformational justice we seek will last our lifetimes – a marathon and not a sprint.

Earliest Memoir By Black Inmate Reveals Legacy Of Mass Incarceration

February 3, 2016 Matthew Shaer, www.smithsonianmag.com Educate! Black History, Mass Incarceration, Racism, US history

By Matthew Shaer for Smithsonian - In the fall of 2009, an unusual package arrived at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, at Yale University. Inside was a leather-bound journal and two packets of loose-leaf paper, some bearing the stamp of the same Berkshire mill that once produced Herman Melville’s favorite writing stock. Joined together under the title The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict, the documents told the story of an African-American boy named “Rob Reed,” who grew up in Rochester, New York, and had been convicted, in 1833, while still a child, of arson.

Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2015

December 12, 2015 Joe, www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, United States

By Joe for From the Trenches World Report - Wait, does the United States have 1.4 million or more than 2 million people in prison? And do the 636,000 people released every year include the people getting out of local jails? Frustrating questions like these abound because our systems of federal, state, local, and other types of confinement — and the data collectors that keep track of them — are so fragmented. There is a lot of interesting and valuable research out there, but varying definitions and other incompatibilities make it hard — for both people new to criminal justice and for experienced policy wonks — to get the big picture.

Report: One In 14 Children Has Had Incarcerated Parent

October 28, 2015 Melanie Eversley, www.usatoday.com Educate! Mass Incarceration

By Melanie Eversley for USA Today - One in 14 children have at least one parent behind bars and children in these situations suffer from low self esteem, poor mental and physical health, and other problems, a national research organization says. Child Trends, an organization based in Bethesda, Md., is releasing its report Parents Behind Bars: What Happens to Their Children? on Tuesday. The group hopes the findings will prod prisons, schools and lawmakers to make changes that will help young people who have incarcerated parents.

Newsletter – Chipping Away At The System

October 25, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Newsletter Acronym TV, Climate Change, climate crisis, COP21, Empire Files, Environmental racism, Fracking, Mass Incarceration, New Economy, Noam Chomsky, Police violence, Racism, TPP, TTIP

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - The weekly newsletter: The forces that work to maintain the status quo, to protect the oppressors and the profiteers, are powerful, but everywhere there are people chipping away at the pillars that prop up the current systems, exposing truths and forcing changes. This week, we highlight some of these struggles with the hope that we will learn from them. Issues covered include (1) The tide is shifting on mass incarceration; (2) Fighting back when public services under attack; (3) The climate crisis will not be solved by corporate lobbyists and (3) New Video Tools: Acronym TV, Empire Files and Act Out! It is essential that we use the tools we have - our own media, the legal system and organized and mobilized resistance - to continue to expose truth, fight injustice and create new systems that build the world we need. Together, can build a powerful force.

US Police Chiefs Launch Effort To End Mass Incarceration

October 24, 2015 Wilson Dizard, www.america.aljazeera.com Create! Law Enforcement, Mass Incarceration

By Wilson Dizard for Aljazeera - A group of 130 law enforcement officials announced the formation of a new organization on Wednesday to support the growing movement to end mass incarceration in the United States, where more people languish in prison than in any other country in the world. Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration — which includes the police chiefs of New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as high-level prosecutors and officials from all 50 states — announced the effort which aims to lower the prison population by reducing arrests for non-violent crimes, increasing mental health and drug addiction services and eliminating mandatory minimum sentences.

Newsletter – A People United Will Never Be Defeated

October 18, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Afghanistan, Climate Justice, Drones, Exxon, Food and Agriculture, Indigenous Peoples, Israel-Palestine, Kunduz, Mass Incarceration, Palestinians, Racism, TPP, War crimes, Wars and Militarism, Whistleblowers

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. This week, hundreds of thousands rallied in Washington, DC for the Million Man March, more information became available regarding US war crimes, we celebrated the second annual People's Climate March and World Food Day and we are preparing a mass mobilization to protest the TransPacific Partnership. Popular Resistance is collaborating with a growing number of organizations and people to protest the TransPacific Partnership and other international treaties that will prevent us from achieving success in our struggles for racial, economic and environmental justice. We are planning a mass mobilization in Washington, DC this November to show the large and diverse opposition to agreements that force us to sacrifice the health and safety of our communities for corporate profits. There will be two days of action preparation followed by three full days of creative events. You are invited to participate in any way that you can.

Mass Surveillance, Incarceration & Deportation

October 17, 2015 Malkia Cyril, www.centerformediajustice.org Resist! Deportation, Mass Incarceration, Surveillance

By Malkia Cyril for The Center for Media Justice. Washington, DC - I’m talking about the 450,000 migrants in U.S. detention centers. The 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. The 9 million under the control of the justice system. I am talking about the 883 people killed by police this year. I am here for people like my Uncle Kamou Sadiki, a former Black Panther who will spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. People like my mom, Janet Cyril, also a Black Panther, who faced the FBI head on when they burst into our house and demanded she testify against the San Francisco 8 in a secret court proceeding. She said no, and died two weeks later from sickle cell anemia.

Public Prisons Profiteering Is Staggering

October 5, 2015 James Kilgore, www.truth-out.org Educate! Mass Incarceration, Prison Industrial Complex

James Kilgore for Truthout - In addition to the private prison corporations, a wide range of companies, organizations, individuals, and even towns profit economically or politically from prisons. They all have "skin in the game" - and have a definite interest in opposing attempts to reduce or end mass incarceration. These prison profiteers recognize that incarcerating people is an economic as well as a political operation. Keeping a person in prison is costly, whether in New York, where in 2010 it cost on average $60,076 a year to lock up one person, or in West Virginia, where the price tag was $26,498. The question is: where does that money come from and where does it go?

The Fight Against Mass Incarceration Goes Global

September 28, 2015 Jennifer Turner, www.aclu.org Resist! Mass Incarceration, United Nations

By Jennifer Turner in ACLU - Next week, the U.N. Human Rights Council will formally adopt the first-ever U.N. report on mass incarceration. In this groundbreaking report, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights brings global attention to the root causes of overincarceration and overcrowding in prisons. A draft resolution that is expected to be adopted by the council will express concern about the “negative impact of over-incarceration and over-crowding on the enjoyment of human rights.” The ACLU worked with other groups to bring this issue to the attention of the Human Rights Council. With considerable movement for criminal justice reform right now, it is the perfect time for the U.N. to issue recommendations on how to reduce the prison and jail population worldwide taking into account human rights obligations and commitments. In the report, the high commissioner outlines a human rights-based approach for criminal justice reform that puts the human dignity of the person at the forefront.

Shaker Aamer To Be Transferred Home After 13 Yrs In Guantanamo

September 26, 2015 Elizabeth Beavers, www.blog.amnestyusa.org Educate! Guantanamo Bay, Law, Mass Incarceration, Torture

By Elizabeth Beavers in Amnesty USA - This is big news. At long last, the Obama administration has reportedly notified both Congress and the UK government that Guantanamo detainee Shaker Aamer will be transferred home to the UK after 13 years. Shaker’s case has for years compelled the Amnesty movement, along with many others, to call loudly for him to be transferred back to the UK. So today’s news is, to say the least, heartening. But as we celebrate, let us not forget – there is much more to be done, and not much time left to do it. The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay continues to house many who, like Shaker, have been approved for transfer. About half of the current detainees, in fact, are waiting for their own transfer. Although the U.S. national security agencies have conducted stringent reviews and cleared these people for transfer out of the prison, they are still there. They languish behind bars even though many have been cleared for years. Some, like Shaker, were cleared both by the Bush administration and now by the Obama administration.

Two Climate Activists Explain Their Involvement In Deportation Protest

September 22, 2015 Carissa Knipe, Sierra Klingele, Ed Mast, Hannah Madrone and Matthew Horwitz, www.floodthesystem.net Resist! Climate Justice, Immigration, Mass Incarceration, Solidarity

By Carissa Knipe, Sierra Klingele, Ed Mast, Hannah Madrone and Matthew Horwitz in Flood The System - Today we — a group of Seattle climate activists—chained ourselves together to block deportation buses at the Northwest Detention Center. Alongside members of the Trans and/or Womyn’s Action Camp (TWAC) and Northwest Detention Center Resistance, we risked our safety and our liberty by blocking roads and preventing the week’s deportations. As climate activists we take these risks because we believe the fight for migrant and climate justice are one and the same. We hope these actions inspire others in our movement to imagine a deeper, more engaged solidarity. Some have asked us why we are taking this action when the climate is at a crisis point. At the most basic level, we believe that people of conscience must care about human suffering, violence and injustice wherever and however it takes place.

Activists Locked Down Outside Tacoma Detention Center

September 22, 2015 Not 1 More, www.notonemoredeportation.com Resist! Immigration, Mass Incarceration

By Not 1 More - Northwest Detention Center Resistance Coalition members locked down to protest deportations at the private facility. Protesting the criminalization and scapegoating of immigrants, the protest highlights the moral injustice of privately-run for-profit detentions centers and their collaboration with local police departments creating a road to detention, and call for an end to all immigrant deportations and detentions. “Ending immigrant deportations is absolutely an environmental issue,” said Got Green executive director Jill Mangaliman. Speaking from one of the road blockades.

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