Prisoner rights

Activists Mobilize To Help Incarcerated People Get Stimulus Checks

October 16, 2020 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Organize! CARES Act, COVID-19, Prisoner rights, Recession

For months incarcerated people and their families heard conflicting messages about whether they were eligible to receive the pandemic stimulus payments provided by Congress as the Trump administration attempted to block prisoners from receiving their checks. Last week a federal judge slammed the administration with an order to provide the stimulus relief, and now advocates across the country are working to ensure low-income people caged in state and federal prisons can apply for the much-needed federal aid as deadlines loom.

This Is America: Prisoners In The Crosshairs, Mutual Aid Fire Relief

September 25, 2020 It's Going Down. Educate! Mutual Aid, Police violence, Prisoner rights, Wildfires

On this episode, we have a special report from Perilous Chronicle, about how prisoners are directly impacted by the climate change fueled wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. This audio report is based on an article on the unfolding situation, which can be read here. Next up, we have an interview with the Portland chapter of Symbiosis, an autonomous anti-capitalist group organizing dual power programs and initiatives in the Pacific Northwest. In the wake of the spreading wildfires, the group began to organize mutual aid fire relief efforts along with a network for many other organizations.

For Some, Homes And Neighborhoods Are Now Digital Prisons

September 7, 2020 Eddie Conway, The Real News. Resistance Report home detention, Mass Incarceration, Prison reform, Prisoner rights

Eddie Conway: Welcome to this episode of Rattling The Bars. I’m Eddie Conway, your host, coming to you from Baltimore. Recently, there has been a new book out by two authors that has done extensive work in the prison system. The book is, Prisons By Any Other Name, and it was written by Maya Schenwar and Vicky Law. They’re going to join me today to kind of explain what’s in the book. Basically they’re challenging the idea that alternative to incarceration is better and represents some kind of reform.

Pennsylvania Will Rule On Mumia’s Case, After Proceeding In Secret

September 1, 2020 By Noelle Hanrahan, Prison Radio. Educate! Corruption, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Prisoner rights, Racism

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has put Mumia Abu-Jamal's evidentiary hearing on hold. The case is under seal and is proceeding in secret! This spring Mumia Abu-Jamal was back in court with a chance for freedom! The Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had agreed with defense counsel that Mumia deserved a new evidentiary hearing based on the revelation of long-suppressed exculpatory evidence. The new documents — buried in the DA's office for 38 years — call into question the entire prosecution case against Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Fraternal Order of Police backed an extraordinary petition asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to kick anti-corruption DA Larry Krasner off the case. In April 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reached down from on high and suspended the criminal case. The ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the King's Bench petition could come down at any time.

Grand Jury Resistor Jailed For Fighting Federal Repression Against BLM

August 24, 2020 It's Going Down. Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Grand Jury Abuse, Prisoner rights, Wisconsin

At 3:00 pm, Wednesday, August 19th, Jesse Shackelford, 28, was taken into federal custody at the Dane County Jail and joined a long history of grand jury resisters. He claimed his Fifth Amendment right to silence in order to protect himself and his community and in a strong stand against both this grand jury in particular and the grand jury process as an oppressive, movement-busting tactic. For refusing to testify in front of a grand jury targeting the Black liberation struggle and uprisings in Madison, Jesse was charged with civil contempt and put in a cage: he is currently being held in solitary confinement. This was his second call to the federal grand jury convened by US Attorney Scott Blader this summer. It is FFLS’ understanding that Jesse is the first grand jury resister nationally to be incarcerated in contempt as a result of the 2020 Black liberation uprisings.

New FOIA Docs Expose Conditions In Private Immigration Prison

August 23, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Resist! Detention Centers, Immigrants, Prisoner rights, Private Prisons

New documents shed light on what activists are calling “a dark pattern of abuse” at a privately-run, for-profit prison in Virginia used by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Obtained by the civil rights group the Advancement Project under the Freedom of Information Act, the documents describe a long pattern of abuse, neglect and mismanagement of detainees at Immigration Centers of America (ICA) Farmville — a facility where almost everyone has coronavirus. In 2015, for instance, one detainee was pepper sprayed in the face while in full restraints.

Jailer Who Organized Assault On An Inmate Sentenced To Prison

August 21, 2020 Morgan Eads, Kentucky.com. Educate! Kentucky, Legal System, Prisoner rights, Violence

A former deputy jailer has been sentenced to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to violating the civil rights of an inmate at the Shelby County Detention Center. William Anthony Carey, 31, admitted to asking an inmate to assault another inmate that Carey didn’t like, according to his plea agreement. Corey Lynn Hopper, 30, the inmate Carey asked to carry out the assault, pleaded guilty in January to aiding and abetting the violation of an inmate’s civil rights. Hopper admitted to enlisting several other inmates to help him beat and kick the man, leaving him with serious injuries.

Witness Against Torture Prison Hunger Strike

August 15, 2020 Witness Against Torture. Resist! Hunger Strike, North Carolina, Prisoner rights, Solitary Confinement

Shine’s hunger strike is now in its second week and the next few days of pressure are critical! So WAT family: Contact Shane Tharrington and demand Shine's (Joseph Stewart #0802041) release from solitary even if you're not fasting in solidarity: shane.tharrington@ncdps.gov & 984-255-6100. The Call-to-Action gives you history and details to elaborate on. Tell Mr. Tharrington: "As a member of Witness Against Torture, I stand resolute against the use of solitary confinement. Re-classify Joseph "Shine White" Stewart because solitary confinement is torture. "

Newly Released Video Shows Jailed Black Man Died In Custody

August 11, 2020 By Connor Perrett, Insider. Resist! incarceration, killed by police, North Carolina, Prisoner rights

Newly released video footage shows a Black man in custody in medical distress, repeatedly telling corrections officers he couldn't breathe as officers struggled to detain him after he experienced a medical event in a North Carolina jail two days before he died. Five corrections officers and one nurse have since been fired and charged with involuntary manslaughter for their role in the death of a 56-year-old James Elliott Neville, who died on December 4, 2019. The video, released this week as part of a judge's order, depicts events that occurred at the Forsyth County Jail on December 2, 2019, two days before his death and one day after he was arrested on assault charges by the Kernersville Police Department, according to the report. The Forsyth County Medical Examiner said Neville's death was caused by "complications of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury due to cardiopulmonary arrest due to positional and compressional asphyxia during prone restraint." The Greensboro, North Carolina, man had been revived several times, both at the jail and in the hospital before he entered a coma and ultimately died.

Occupy The Block For The Neville Family On Third Week

August 9, 2020 the Triad Abolition Project. Resist! Murder, North Carolina, Prisoner rights, Transparency

On day 22 of Occupy the Block #OccupyWSNC, demonstrators gathered at Bailey Park at 10 am. At 3 pm, approximately 300 occupiers, supporters, and the Neville Family gathered on the sidewalk outside the Forsyth County Courthouse for the Rally of Support for the Neville Family. Activists spoke of love for the Neville family and called for transparency and accountability from our officials. Sean Neville offered words of thanks for the movement. Meanwhile, officers lined the windows at the entrance of the courthouse. Bike cops stalked the gathering, following the group even as they marched and threatened participants if they stepped off the sidewalk.

Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds Racist Modern Day ‘Pig Law’

August 9, 2020 Zack Linly, The Root. Educate! Legal System, Louisiana, Prisoner rights, Systemic Racism

There has been plenty of discussion about whether prison is more about rehabilitation, punishment or keeping society safe. However, for Black people especially, it often seems like there’s a fourth option: Prison is about throwing undesirable people away. More than 20 years ago, a Black man was given a life sentence for stealing a pair of hedge clippers. Last week, the Louisiana Supreme Court denied that man a request to have his sentence reviewed citing prior bad acts, most of which were nonviolent. Only one of the seven justices on the bench agreed that his sentence should be reviewed—the Black one.

Private Prison To Pay $3.7 Million After Recording Attorney-Client Conversations

August 7, 2020 Equal Justice Initiative. Educate! Legal System, Prisoner rights, Privacy, Private Prisons

Private prison company CoreCivic and communications company Securus Technologies agreed on Friday to pay $3.7 million to settle federal claims that they illegally recorded attorney-client conversations in a private pre-trial detention facility and shared those recordings with law enforcement and others. In 2016, a federal court in Missouri found that detention facilities including CoreCivic’s Leavenworth Detention Center in Kansas had installed devices that could record communications between attorneys and detained clients, Law360 reported.

First Person: Sick And Afraid Inside San Quentin

August 6, 2020 Kevin Cooper, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Coronavirus COVID-19, Death Row, Health Care, Prisoner rights

Death Row San Quentin Prison - We men and women who unfortunately have been sentenced to death and sent to death rows here at San Quentin State Prison (for men) and the Central California Women’s Facility at Chowchilla have often been referred to as the “walking dead” or “Dead Man Walking,” as made famous by the 1995 movie, starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, about a death row inmate. We were called these names long before the COVID-19 pandemic came upon us all, seemingly out of nowhere. After it came on the scene, we death row inmates got a double dose of death.

Calls For Video Related To John Neville’s Death Persist

July 29, 2020 By Lee Anne Denyer, WXII. Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Police violence, Prisoner rights, Transparency

Protesters made new demands of Forsyth County elected officials Tuesday, calling for a general increase in transparency from county leaders, and specifically, the release of video pertaining to the death of an inmate at the Forsyth County Detention Center. "We're fighting for truth, justice, dignity, humanity, economic justice, social justice," said Tony Ndege, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Winston-Salem. "We stand against state violence, but we also stand for social and economic justice." Demonstrations began in Winston-Salem weeks ago and groups like Black Lives Matter Winston-Salem say they plan to continue calling for change. While the group wants fairness and equality for the entire community, its demonstrations are largely focused on advocating for minority communities.

What’s Keeping Thousands In Prison During COVID-19?

July 29, 2020 By Taryn A. Merkl, Brennan Center. Educate! Compassionate release, COVID-19, Prisoner rights, Prisons

In U.S. prisons there have been over 55,000 known cases of Covid-19 and over 600 deaths (including corrections officers) since the pandemic started, a predictable situation that advocates have been warning about from the start. A recent study shows that people in prison are over five times more likely to contract Covid-19, and three times more likely to die from the disease if they contract it. Due to poor access to basic hygiene products and close quarters, prisons have long been hotbeds of disease outbreaks, and prisons across the country have housed some of the worst clusters of Covid-19 cases since April. The Constitution requires that prison officials and governments protect incarcerated people from the inevitable continued spread of Covid-19 behind bars.

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