Mass Incarceration

How Women Of Color Bear The Costs Of Mass Incarceration

September 21, 2015 Maya Dusenbery, www.feministing.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, Women of Color

By Maya Dusenbery in Feministing - There are a number of ways to put a price tag on the United States’s shameful mass incarceration system. On the most superficial level, $80 billion is how much it costs to keep more than 2.4 million people in our jails and prisons. Then there are the costs to those incarcerated themselves, who often find they’re denied basic civil rights and struggle to find employment, education, and housing for years to come after their release. But that’s really only the beginning, according to a groundbreaking new report from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together, and Research Action Design. Surveys of hundreds of formerly incarcerated people and their families in 14 states show that the true costs — emotional and financial — “continue long after incarceration ends and reach far beyond the individual being punished.”

Empire Files: Tortured & Enslaved, World’s Biggest Prison

September 20, 2015 AbMartin, telesurtv.net Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Empire, Mass Incarceration, Racism

By Abby Martin for teleSur. United States - The Empire holds by far the most prisoners than any other country on earth, in both absolute numbers and per capita. Abby Martin explores the dark reality of America's prisons: their conditions, who is warehoused in them, and the roots of mass incarceration. Featuring interviews with Eddie Conway, former political prisoner unjustly incarcerated for 44 years, and Eugene Puryear, author of "Shackled and Chained, Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America."

After Detention & Abuse, Immigrants Find Lifesaving Support

September 14, 2015 Desiree Kane, www.shadowproof.com Create! health, Immigration, Mass Incarceration

By Desiree Kane in Shadow Proof - Deras’ experience is not unique. Other detainees have experienced neglect as well. “My experience coming here was very terrible and in detention it’s very racist.” said Eleana Muñon Cabrera. Her terrible trek across the Sonoran Desert from Mexico is written across her face, although she spoke little of it. She reported seeing dead bodies in the desert along the way and, though no measurable statistics exist, many women report being raped during the crossing. Instead of counseling her about her traumatic journey, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (I.C.E.) imprisoned Cabrera when she arrived with her now-deported brother. “I came here to reunite myself with my family and to have a better life,” she said.

Drug Warriors Have Not Given Up, Call For More Drug War

September 12, 2015 Nick Wing, Ryan Grim, Roque Planas, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Mass Incarceration, police brutality, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism

By Nick Wing, Ryan Grim, Roque Planas - For most Americans, including some presidential candidates, the record on the U.S.-led drug war is settled: After spending more than $1 trillion on efforts that have taken or destroyed the lives of millions around the world, drug purity has risen, prices have fallen and rates of use have remained the same. It has, in no uncertain terms, been a catastrophic failure. But in an op-ed published in The Boston Globe this week, two former drug czars say we have it all wrong. It's time to "Bring back the war on drugs," they argue, and recommit to an enforcement-first policy that puts forth incarceration and interdiction as the best tools to address surging heroin overdose rates. The column, written by William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, drug czars under Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, is based on the controversial premise that the drug policies of the last quarter century have actually been effective.

Rikers Families Protest ‘No Touching’ Prison Visitation Rules

September 10, 2015 Victoria Law, www.gothamist.com Resist! Mass Incarceration, New York City (NYC), Protest, Torture

By Victoria Law in Gothamist - Trina Regis travels from Sunset Park three times a week to visit her husband, who has been jailed on Rikers Island since February. "Physical contact means so much to us," she told Gothamist. "It brings a sense of peace to me and it brings a sense of peace to him. It's a little thing he can hold on to 'til the next visit." Regis, who declined to give her husband's name or details of his case for fear of retaliation by staff, also knows firsthand how important touch can be. In early 2015, she spent five months at Rikers for shoplifting. Her husband visited twice a week. "The intimacy from a loved one means a lot," she explained. "They're showing me—I'm here for your support. I love you still, no matter how it is." But new rules proposed by the Board of Correction, which sets minimum standards and guidelines for the city's jail system, may soon limit the couple's ability to touch each other.

The Fugitive Slave Act Of 2015

September 4, 2015 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, Surveillance

By Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo in Black Agenda Report - Under the ploy of fighting the surge of recent murders, Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced last week that she will ask the DC City Council to significantly expand surveillance and police powers to track ex-offenders. The provisions, outlined in a Washington Post article will give police the power to “search individuals on parole or probation and immediately detain anyone found in violation of the terms of release.” If these recommendations are enacted it will amount to a 21st Century version of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 (amended in 1850) guaranteed the rights of a terrorist (slaveholder) to “re-kidnap” escaped Africans. The U.S. Congress passed a legal mechanism for Africans to be under surveillance, tracked and forcibly returned to American concentration camps, commonly known as plantations.

The Great Unraveling

September 3, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Democracy, Imperialism, Mass Incarceration, Neoliberalism, wealth inequality

By Chris Hedges in Truth Dig - The attraction of a Trump, like the attraction of Radovan Karadzic or Slobodan Milosevic during the breakdown of Yugoslavia, is that his buffoonery, which is ultimately dangerous, mocks the bankruptcy of the political charade. It lays bare the dissembling, the hypocrisy, the legalized bribery. There is a perverted and, to many, refreshing honesty in this. The Nazis used this tactic to take power during the Weimar Republic. The Nazis, even in the eyes of their opponents, had the courage of their convictions, however unsavory those convictions were. Those who believe something, even something repugnant, are often given grudging respect. These neoliberal forces are also rapidly destroying the ecosystem. The Earth has not had this level of climate disruption since 250 million years ago when it underwent the Permian-Triassic extinction, which wiped out perhaps 90 percent of all species.

California Agreement Ends Solitary Purely Due to Gang Validation

September 2, 2015 Center for Constitutional Rights, www.ccrjustice.org Create! California, Human Rights, Mass Incarceration, Solitary Confinement, Torture

By Center for Constitutional Rights - Today, the parties have agreed on a landmark settlement in the federal class action Ashker v. Governor of California that will effectively end indeterminate, long-term solitary confinement in all California state prisons. Subject to court approval, the agreement will result in a dramatic reduction in the number of people in solitary across the state and a new program that could be a model for other states going forward. The class action was brought in 2012 on behalf of prisoners held in solitary confinement at the Pelican Bay prison, often without any violent conduct or serious rule infractions, often for more than a decade, and all without any meaningful process for transfer out of isolation and back to the general prison population. Ashker argued that California’s use of prolonged solitary confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and denies prisoners the right to due process.

Human Rights Abuses: Detaining Immigrants For Profit

September 1, 2015 Latino Rebels, www.latinorebels.com Educate! Capitalism, Deportation, Immigration, Mass Incarceration

By Latino Rebels - To make sure those changes never occur, CCA and GEO have pumped millions of dollars into political campaigns. Earlier this year, the Washington Post identified “Republican politicians in Florida, Tennessee, and border states with high populations of undocumented immigrants” as being the “biggest beneficiaries” of such donations. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has received nearly $40,000 from GEO, “making him the Senate’s top career recipient of contributions from the company.” In the end, no one should expect the for-profit prison system to operate any different, and as long as it does, we will continue seeing attempts to impose harsher immigration laws and tougher punishments for minor crimes.

Mass Incarceration Vs Rural Appalachia

August 27, 2015 Panagioti Tsolkas, www.earthfirstjournal.org Petitions and Online Actions Environment, Jobs, Mass Incarceration, Prison Industrial Complex

By Panagioti Tsolkas in the EarthFirst! Journal. Letcher County, KY - The United States Bureau of Prisons is trying to build a new, massive maximum-security prison in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky — and there’s a growing movement to stop it. The prison industry in the US has grown in leaps and bounds in the past 20 years— a new prison was built at an average rate of one every two weeks in the ’90s, almost entirely in rural communities. As of 2002, there were already more prisoners in this country than farmers. The industry seems like an unstoppable machine, plowing forward at breakneck speed on the path that made the world’s largest prison population.

US Tracks Deaths Of Bees Better Then People Jailed

August 25, 2015 Shawn Musgrave, www.muckrock.com Educate! Bees, Death, Mass Incarceration, Torture

By Shawn Musgrave in MuckRock - Every year, a certain number of bees die. And every year, a certain number of people die while in police custody. We have a solid figure for one of these death tolls. At present, it’s not the human body count. As with deaths in custody, the issue of honeybee deaths is not new. Colony collapse disorder — the generic term for mass exodus of adult worker bees from a given colony — is nearly vernacular, and wonks routinely debate the scale of the problem and its long-term consequences. Such debates hinge on quantitative modeling, on forecasts that correlate honeybee population against crop yields or ecosystem resilience. Ask any beekeeper: the only way to know how many bees are around is to count them.

Black Prisoners’ Lives Matter: Dallas 6 Blow Whistle On The Inside

August 25, 2015 Shandre Delaney, www.truth-out.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Human Rights, Mass Incarceration, Political Prisoner

By Shandre Delaney in Truth Out - On April 29, 2010, six prisoners in solitary confinement at SCI Dallas in Dallas, Pennsylvania, decided that enough was enough. Collectively, they are known as theDallas 6. One of them is my son. The Dallas 6 are jailhouse lawyers who fight injustice within prison walls and share information with the outside. They came to be seen as political prisoners through their actions as jailhouse lawyers, activists and whistleblowers. This caused them to be held in solitary indefinitely, where they were starved, beaten and outright tortured. Between the six, they served from 10 to 20 years in solitary, and one of them is still in solitary. After being subjected to starvation, brutal beatings, food tampering, witnessing beatings, the guard-assisted suicide of one prisoner and the torture of another, they covered their solitary cell windows and politely requested outside intervention.

Private Prison Firms Buy Access To Public Officials At Conferences

August 21, 2015 Mike Ludwig, www.truth-out.org Educate! Corruption, Mass Incarceration, Politics, Prison Industrial Complex

By Mike Ludwig in TruthOut - The prison industry in the United States has grown so large that there are no less than seven professional associations for people who work at prisons and jails. The industry conferences held by these associations provide a perfect venue for private corrections companies to influence government officials with little public oversight, according to a recent report by the watchdog group In The Public Interest (ITPI). The biggest names in the prison business spend millions of dollars sponsoring these conferences and wooing prison officials with free massages, awards ceremonies, luxury dinner cruises and plenty of corporate schwag. Over the past week, one of the most prominent associations, the American Correctional Association (ACA), held its summer conference in Indianapolis, where major sponsors included private prison companies Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group and food services giant Aramark.

4,000 Prison Inmates Fighting California Wildfires For $2 Per Day

August 19, 2015 Kit O'Connell, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! California, health, Mass Incarceration, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Kit O'Connell in Mint Press News - With wildfires blazing throughout the parched Western United States, the state of California has found a novel, though ethically questionable, way to save money on the state’s safety budget: Send state prisoners to work on the frontlines fighting forest fires for $2 per day. “More than 100 wildfires are burning across the West — destroying dozens of homes, forcing hundreds of people to flee and stretching firefighting budgets to the breaking point,” wrote Tim Stelloh for NBC News on Monday. For California, he reported, that means some 14,000 firefighters combating 19 forest fires, including the “Jerusalem fire,” which covered over 25,000 acres before being mostly contained as of Saturday. “[T]he blaze — along with six others — was still sending smoke south across the San Francisco Bay Area,” Stelloh wrote.

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