A detailed new federal lawsuit alleges chronic abuse and neglect of mentally ill prisoners at America’s most famous prison. (First in a three-part series.)
A difficult if necessary read.
“Prison sentences of black men were nearly 20% longer than those of white men for similar crimes in recent years, an analysis by the U.S. Sentencing Commission found.” — Wall Street Journal
Broken On All Sides
“In the United States today, there are more African Americans under correctional control—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—then there were enslaved in 1850 before the Civil War began.”
Though filmed largely in Philly, Broken On All Sides is a devastating look at the reality of what Michelle Alexander dubbed “the new Jim Crow.”
The project began as a way to explore, educate about, and advocate change around the overcrowding of the Philadelphia county jail system. The documentary has come to focus on mass incarceration across the nation and the intersection of race and poverty within criminal justice. About
From San Diego’s KPBS. This 30-minute documentary explores the cost of California’s “tough on crime” legislation. It gives you an inside look into three state prisons, including the California Medical Facility. CMF houses the oldest and sickest inmates in the state.
An Ohio prison owned by Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest private prison companies in the US, has failed to meet state standards in food quality, sanitation, hygiene, and many other areas, according to a recently concluded audit. In total, the CCA prison had 47 violations.
CityBeat details the abysmal conditions at the Ohio facility, the first privately owned state prison in the country:
The local fire plan had no specific steps to release inmates from locked areas in case of emergency, and local employees said “they had no idea what they should do” in case of a fire emergency.
The audit also found all housing units provided less than the required 25 square feet on unencumbered space per occupant. It found single watch cells held two prisoners with some sleeping on the floor, and some triple-bunked cells had a third inmate sleeping on a mattress on the floor.
Inmates claimed laundry and cell cleaning services were not provided and CCA could not prove otherwise, recreation time was not always allowed five times a week in segregation as required, food quality and sanitization was not up to standards, infirmary patients were “not seen timely,” patients’ doctor appointments were often delayed with follow-ups rarely occurring, the facility had no written confined space program, the health care administrator could not explain or show an overall plan and nursing competency evaluations were not completed before the audit was conducted. Many more issues were found as well.
(via anotsosadsong)
"Some federal judges, including conservative judges, have quit in protest of federal drug laws and sentencing guidelines. Face-to-face with those whose lives hang in the balance, they are far closer to the human tragedy occasioned by the drug war than the legislators who write the laws from afar. Judge Lawrence Irving, a Reagan appointee, noted upon his retirement: “If I remain on the bench, I have no choice but to follow the law. I just can’t, in good conscience, continue to do this.” Other judges, such as Judge Jack Weinstein, publicly refused to take any more drug cases, describing “a sense of depression about much of the cruelty I have been a party to in connection with the ‘war on drugs.’” Another Reagan appointee, Judge Stanley Marshall, told a reporter, “I’ve always been considered a fairly harsh sentencer, but it’s killing me that I’m sending so many low-level offenders away all this time.” He made the statement after imposing a five-year sentence on a mother in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of “possession” of crack found by the police in a locked box that her son had hidden in her attic."
— The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color-Blindness by Michelle Alexander (via secretcosmos)
(Source: newjimcrow.com, via bluelette)
wnyc:
Kaiim Viera was born 18 years ago today. He grew into a six-foot-two teen who had a knack for getting folks to laugh even when they didn’t want to. A week and a half ago, he was shot 10 times and killed. WNYC is profiling the life of every child in the city killed by gunfire. This is Kaiim’s story.
#inharmsway
Too many lives lost Interrupt Violence
![educatedblackwoman:
#TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT
Terry Williams is facing the death penalty in three weeks for killing the man who repeatedly raped him.
But when Terry was convicted, the jury didn’t know the whole story. At the time of his trial, jurors say they had no history or background of the sexual assault and abuse that Terry Williams had suffered for years.
Terry was brutally raped for five years, beginning when he was thirteen, by an older man he trusted — Amos Norwood. When the jury learned his information after the trial, five jurors came forward to say that they no longer supported his death sentence. Even Norwood’s widow has forgiven him, and does not want Terry to be executed.
Sign the petition on Change.org asking Governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania to stop Terry’s execution scheduled on October 3 — click here to add your name.
“When I heard about Terry Williams’ life and his legal case, I knew I had to do what I could to stop the scheduled execution of a man who should not be on death row and would not be on death row had the jury heard all the relevant evidence,” said Sue Osthoff, Director of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, a Philadelphia-based organization that assists victims of abuse and trauma who have been charged with crimes related to their abuse.
Like many of the victims of abuse Sue assists, Terry was repeatedly victimized. For Terry, that abuse by older males in his life started when he was only six years old. Despite continuing to suffer sexual abuse for the next twelve years, Terry received no counseling or support to help him deal with the repeated violence he endured. In fact, some of the people who were supposed to help were the ones who actually preyed on him.
None of this information was presented to the jurors during Terry’s sentencing; had it been, Terry would not be on death row.
The public outcry for Terry’s clemency is growing. A broad coalition of people has joined the jurors and victim’s widow in asking that Terry’s sentence be commuted from death to life. Those calling for Terry’s life to be spared include a growing list of child advocates, victims’ rights advocates, former prosecutors and judges, law professors, mental health professionals, and faith leaders across Pennsylvania.
Sue Osthoff is very familiar with stories like Terry’s. She started this petition because she believes that if the jury had all of the evidence, they would not have sentenced Terry to death.
Join Sue in calling on Governor Corbett to spare Terry Williams’ life for killing the man who raped him.
As if it couldn’t get any worse, evidence that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office concealed until yesterday, September 26, now suggests that ADA Robin Foulkes, who prosecuted Williams for Norwood’s murder, was aware of Norwood’s pedophilia.
“The prosecution has credibility problems to overcome as well. While testifying last week, Foulkes could not explain a handful of notations she’d written during the murder investigation that suggested she was aware of a sexual link between Williams and Norwood.
“The comments written by Foulkes included the words ‘faggot squad’ and ‘Minister [a possible reference to churchgoing Norwood] - one of Terry’s Johns,’ a reference to Norwood having touched the private parts of a 16-year-old boy at his church. There was also a notation that Williams, Draper and Herbert Hamilton - a 50-year-old man with whom Williams had been sexually involved and killed five months before he killed Norwood - had gone to the home of another man for a ‘sandwich.’”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maaxy4i1Ig1rsca2yo1_400.jpg)
#TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT
Terry Williams is facing the death penalty in three weeks for killing the man who repeatedly raped him.
But when Terry was convicted, the jury didn’t know the whole story. At the time of his trial, jurors say they had no history or background of the sexual assault and abuse that Terry Williams had suffered for years.
Terry was brutally raped for five years, beginning when he was thirteen, by an older man he trusted — Amos Norwood. When the jury learned his information after the trial, five jurors came forward to say that they no longer supported his death sentence. Even Norwood’s widow has forgiven him, and does not want Terry to be executed.
“When I heard about Terry Williams’ life and his legal case, I knew I had to do what I could to stop the scheduled execution of a man who should not be on death row and would not be on death row had the jury heard all the relevant evidence,” said Sue Osthoff, Director of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, a Philadelphia-based organization that assists victims of abuse and trauma who have been charged with crimes related to their abuse.
Like many of the victims of abuse Sue assists, Terry was repeatedly victimized. For Terry, that abuse by older males in his life started when he was only six years old. Despite continuing to suffer sexual abuse for the next twelve years, Terry received no counseling or support to help him deal with the repeated violence he endured. In fact, some of the people who were supposed to help were the ones who actually preyed on him.
None of this information was presented to the jurors during Terry’s sentencing; had it been, Terry would not be on death row.
The public outcry for Terry’s clemency is growing. A broad coalition of people has joined the jurors and victim’s widow in asking that Terry’s sentence be commuted from death to life. Those calling for Terry’s life to be spared include a growing list of child advocates, victims’ rights advocates, former prosecutors and judges, law professors, mental health professionals, and faith leaders across Pennsylvania.
Sue Osthoff is very familiar with stories like Terry’s. She started this petition because she believes that if the jury had all of the evidence, they would not have sentenced Terry to death.
As if it couldn’t get any worse, evidence that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office concealed until yesterday, September 26, now suggests that ADA Robin Foulkes, who prosecuted Williams for Norwood’s murder, was aware of Norwood’s pedophilia.
“The prosecution has credibility problems to overcome as well. While testifying last week, Foulkes could not explain a handful of notations she’d written during the murder investigation that suggested she was aware of a sexual link between Williams and Norwood.
“The comments written by Foulkes included the words ‘faggot squad’ and ‘Minister [a possible reference to churchgoing Norwood] - one of Terry’s Johns,’ a reference to Norwood having touched the private parts of a 16-year-old boy at his church. There was also a notation that Williams, Draper and Herbert Hamilton - a 50-year-old man with whom Williams had been sexually involved and killed five months before he killed Norwood - had gone to the home of another man for a ‘sandwich.’”
(Source: evermean)
