prison conditions
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Take Action: Texas Prisons Ban Book on Women's Incarceration
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Shipping Prisoners Out of Sight
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Arizona Seeks to Privatize its Prisons
A Jail Journal
Published November 17, 2009 @ 05:19AM PT
A Michigan man who spent five months in the Washtenaw County Jail in 2008 has been posting about his experiences in installments on the Ann Arbor Chronicle site. It's a moving and detailed account of life on the inside, and well worth a look.
The journal started as a twitter feed, doling out jail experience 140 characters at a time. It grew into well-written chapters, covering day-to-day life in a local jail -- the challenges, the characters, the slang, the work-arounds, the danger.
Here's an excerpt:
The holding cell is so crowded now, there is no room for anybody to lay down. Some inmates tuck their arms into their uniforms and curl up.
I’ve been in a holding cell for about three hours, added to 56 hours in “suicide watch.” Now, I’m waiting for a vacancy in the overcrowded jail.
At last my name is called. After spending 60 hours in three holding cells a few feet away from the entrance, I am now going to see the jail. As I pass by Bam Bam, Frank smiles and gives me a thumbs-up. It’s an ending, of sorts. Phase I of jail ends.
But it’s all really beginning.
Read his first three chapters at the Ann Arbor Chronicle.
Another Reluctant Prison Plan from the Governator
Published November 13, 2009 @ 06:10AM PT
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger handed over another version of his court-ordered plan last night to address prison crowding in the state. The state is starting a budge a bit, but Arnold won’t let sweeping reform happen without a fight.
Schwarzenegger’s second try at the plan admits that the federal court has the power to order the changes without a vote from the legislature, and lawyers for the plaintiffs in the class action suit said the new offering from the state is at least “in the ballpark.”
The state’s first offering was rejected and a three-judge panel threatened Arnold with contempt for offering a half-hatched plan. At least he didn’t code an f-bomb through the first letter of each line, as he’s been known to do.
Healthy Prison Food
Published October 21, 2009 @ 04:28AM PT
The Indiana Department of Corrections announced this week that it will reduce sodium and cholesterol in the food it serves to prisoners -- aiming to improve the health of its prison population. The state is following the lead of several others that have focused on nutrition in prison diets in recent years.
It's a worthy goal -- prisoners have little choice in what they eat, and most of them will be released eventually. By providing healthy food, prison systems are helping to ensure that released prisoners will be healthy and able to live their lives once they're released.
In the video after the jump, Slate visited the 2007 Correctional Food Conference and learned some interesting background on the food our prisoners eat. One vendor said it tends to be healthier and better than the food served in schools. Everyone works to make sure their packaging can't be used to make weapons. And, of course, cost is king - prison meat can run between 15 and 30 cents a serving.
Hiding ‘Problem Prisoners’ to Pass Inspection
Published October 20, 2009 @ 03:48PM PT
A fresh scandal in the U.K. reveals that officers at two London prisons routinely shuffled prisoners between facilities in order to pass inspections.
Reports released today from an independent examiner find that the practice -- known as “ghosting” -- was commonly used at two London facilities, where prisoners were transferred from one to the other in anticipation of an audit, and then returned immediately after the review. Justice Secretary Jack Straw ordered a nationwide investigation.
The frequent moving of prisoners is a common practice around the world, and under normal circumstances it can be destructive -- interrupting medical care, education and positive relationships, moving prisoners far from families and support networks and causing violence by forcing prisoners to repeatedly prove themselves to new populations. But hiding prisoners from inspectors is a new low.
I’ve known people who have been moved more than ten times during a 15 year sentence -- some in New York call it the “upstate tour.” Of course, there can be legitimate reasons for moves as well -- prisoners can request transfers to facilities with certain programs or to avoid violent circumstances.
A Victory for Pregnant Prisoners
Published October 06, 2009 @ 03:52PM PT
On Friday, the federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a resounding victory for pregnant prisoners and for human rights.
The court ruled that an Shawanna Nelson, an Arkansas prisoner, has the right to sue prison guards and officials for violating her constitutional rights by shackling her to the bed during the final stages of labor.
Both of Harris’ legs were shackled during labor, and the majority found that she has the right to sue the state. The guards should have known that the medical risks of shackling were “obvious,” Chief Judge Diana Murphy wrote. Harris was in prison for credit card and check fraud.
‘A Really Bad Person’
Published September 29, 2009 @ 07:21AM PT
Steve Poizner, a candidate for governor of California, recently told the Sacramento Bee: “You have to be a really bad person to get into state prison.” He went on to explain that because everyone in prison must be dangerous, he can’t support any early releases.
Last week, I wrote about labels like offender, prisoner and inmate. Where does ‘ really bad person’ fall on that scale? This is about as clear as you hear it from politicians: any ideal of rehabilitation is false, once you go to prison, you may as well disappear.
Just A Guy, a California State Prisoner (and therefore a really bad person) who writes a blog at the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about Poizner’s blanket dismissal recently and the wrongheaded way California is confronting the court order to reduce its prison population from 150,000 to 110,000 by 2011.
Challenging Prison Conditions
Published September 25, 2009 @ 06:06AM PT
I was encouraged to see the New York Times editorializing this week on the challenges American prisoners face in airing human rights abuses in court.
The Times is right: the 1996 Prison Refrom Litigation Act has been warped and misused and plays a role in keeping the worst prison abuses under wraps. It must be fixed.
The Clinton-era law sought to curb frivolous lawsuits about imagined abuses and prison food and by raising the barrier to file such a claim. The law requires that prisoners exhaust administrative grievance procedures before suing the state and they must show that they were physically injured. It directs courts to keep decision narrow when they absolutely must correct an abuse. It has been used by corrections agencies, however, to silence legitimate cries for help.
