Vision Without Action Is A Daydream. Action Without Vision A Nightmare.
The National Public Service Council To Abolish Private Prisons made a concerted effort when choosing its name to erase any possibility of ambiguity regarding who we are and our mission statement. It is our unwavering organizational belief that as long as our government permits Private Prisons For Profit to operate as legal businesses, the American Criminal Justice System, in particular, will never have the capacity to develop -in theory or otherwise- a credibility that the people of this great nation can respect and feel morally comfortable with. This is not a complicated matter. In spite of the endless assortment of political debates and the countless number of discussions among independent committees appointed to research and examine the economic pros and cons of privatization, and in spite of all the "other" arguments created by design, to distract, divide, frighten and confuse the citizens of this country and prevent them from using humane common sense, one cannot ignore or pretend not to see the flashing red flag draped around the philosophical question standing at attention in the middle of the room. Arguably, the criminal justice system is not designed to be a "moral compass." However, it cannot ignore or deny the inherent components at the core of its foundation: equality, fairness, and the humane practice of justice. These are more than lofty concepts to be arbitrarily applied when convenience allows. Our justice system must offer unequivocal, resplendent and reliable standards of "right and wrong" ..."just and unjust" because the people cannot respect or pledge an allegiance to a justice system that fails to demonstrate the difference between "right and wrong" in its own application. The inherent and most fundamental responsibility of the criminal justice system cannot be shirked, avoided, taken lightly or "jobbed out." Like it or not, when an institution is the definitive symbol representing authority and judicial proceeding, your function must reflect a fundamental fairness, and above all else, it must be accountable to all of its citizens. If ever there was a reason for second guessing the process or the ability of the United States Government (Federal & State) to perform its duty when addressing the important task of corrections and rehabilitation in the criminal justice system, the cornerstone of that uncertainty sits squarely upon the shoulders that permit private prisons for profit to operate in the United States of America. Clearly, this immoral profit driven system is without parallel in its resemblance to the most heinous institution to ever exist upon American soil. Slavery.
Aristotle wrote, "It is the peculiarity of man, in comparison with the rest of the animal world that he alone possesses a perception of good and evil, of the just and the unjust"
INCARCERATING PEOPLE FOR PROFIT IS IN A WORD WRONG
All law emanates from the people, so that, when the laws thus enacted are not executed, the power returns to the people, and is theirs whenever they may choose to exercise it.
We are mindful that the Supreme Court is the final interpreter of the constitution...we are also mindful that the federal and state correctional facilities originate from government design and, therefore, must be regulated and maintained by the government.
We must restore the principles and the vacated promise of our judicial system. Our government cannot continue to "job-out" its obligation and neglect its duty to the individuals confined in the corrections and rehabilitation facilities throughout this nation, nor can it ignore the will of the people that it was designed to serve and protect.
There is urgent need for the good people of this country to emerge from the shadows of indifference, apathy, cynicism, fear, and those other dark places that we migrate to when we are overwhelmed by frustration and the loss of hope.
My hope is that you will support the NPSCTAPP with a show of solidarity by signing our petition to send one million signatures to congress expressing the will of the people to abolish the private prison for profit industry. Ahma Daeus
--Ahma Daeus
"Practicing Humanity Without A License"
Man In The Mirror
Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Judge Ciavarella was unusually harsh. He sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a state rate of 1 in 10. He also routinely ignored requests for leniency made by prosecutors and probation officers.
“The juvenile system, by design, is intended to be a less punitive system than the adult system, and yet here were scores of children with very minor infractions having their lives ruined,” said Marsha Levick, a lawyer with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center.
“There was a culture of intimidation surrounding this judge and no one was willing to speak up about the sentences he was handing down.”
Worst Companies in the World: US, Monsanto, Peabody and Barrick
The United States was voted the "Worst Company in the World," in a reader poll conducted by the Censored News blog that ended today. Readers, primarily Indigenous Peoples, voted Monsanto as the second Worst Company in the World. Peabody Energy Corp., recently granted a life of mine permit to expand coal mining on Navajo and Hopi lands, was voted the third Worst Company in the World.Barrick Gold Corp., which began the destruction of the Western Shoshone's Mount Tenabo region during Thanksgiving, was voted the fourth Worst Company in the World. Blackwater Worldwide, responsible for murders and brutality worldwide, was voted the fifth Worst Company in the World. GEO Group, Inc., formerly Wackenhut, profiteering from the misery of migrants and people of color in prisons, was voted the sixth Worst Company in the World.
Hold private prisons accountable
Sojourners are there for detainees
AP Special Correspondent
"H-26," the guard yelled. "You have a visitor."
Locked in a windowless warehouse for three months, Ibrahim Cisse had long given up hope of anyone finding him. Now, his mind raced. How could he possibly have a visitor when no one in this country knew his name?
Detention system criticized as cruel
"We are a country that cares about people but first we care about our own people and that they know who is here and why," said ICE spokeswoman Pat Reilly.
But a broad coalition of human rights groups criticize a system that indefinitely incarcerates people who have committed no crimes, and the groups argue, inflicts lasting psychological damage on top of traumas many have already experienced. They also raise questions about the legality of some ICE policies and the accountability of programs that cost billions of taxpayer dollars and affect millions of lives.
Made in Maryland prisons: All the furniture a state needs
Examiner Staff Writer
When State House newspaper reporters move back into their renovated digs in two weeks, they are supposed to get new workstations manufactured by Maryland Correctional Enterprises, a $51-million-a-year self-supporting business employing 1,900 prisoners around the state. Most of the furniture, cabinets and bookshelves seen around state offices are built by prison labor, from high-end polished wooden executive desks to rugged college dormitory furnishings and sturdy bunk beds for state mental hospitals.
Third of top aides become lobbyists
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — More than a third of top congressional staffers who left their public service jobs this year went to work for private lobbying firms or other groups seeking to influence the government, according to a USA TODAY analysis.
Under an ethics law passed last year, the House and Senate for the first time must list the names of departing staffers earning $127,000 or more per year. So far this year, 32 of the 193 top staffers who left government registered as lobbyists and another 42 went to work for consulting firms, law offices, interest groups and trade
In Prison at the 'End of the Earth'
Washington Post Staff Writer
DEVILS LAKE, N.D. -- The 15 travelers from the District were exhausted after a 1,500- mile journey. It was not yet dawn. They had been on the road for 24 hours, and sub-zero temperatures smacked them in the face like needles, stinging cheeks and tearing up eyes.
But the weariness and discomfort were nothing compared with the ache of lying awake nights wondering whether a teenage son behind bars halfway across the country was eating right or getting health care or being abused. Now, only minutes, and the brick walls of the Lake Region Law Enforcement Center, separated them from the eight D.C. teenagers incarcerated here.
Immigrant center draws criticism
KVUE News
Inside a former prison in Taylor, surrounded by chain link fences, sit nearly 400 immigrants.
"The people who are being housed there are not criminals," said former Mayor of Georgetown, Mary Ellen Kersch.
Jail owner wants more cash from county
by Dan Monk
dmonk@bizjournals.com
The Tennessee company that owns the Queensgate jail is trying to maintain its lease with the Hamilton County, a move that could inflate rental costs for a facility shut down in a budget-cutting move.
The 822-bed jail, closed by Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis on Dec. 19, is owned by Nashville-based Community Corrections Corp. of America. It signed a two-year lease extension in 2007 that requires the county to pay about $190,000 in monthly rent.
Leaning on Jail, City of Immigrants Fills Cells With Its Own
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — Few in this threadbare little mill town gave much thought to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility, the maximum-security jail beside the public ball fields at the edge of town. Even when it expanded and added barbed wire, Wyatt was just the backdrop for Little League games, its name stitched on the caps of the team it sponsored. Then people began to disappear: the leader of a prayer group at St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church; the father of a second grader at the public charter school; a woman who mopped floors in a Providence courthouse
Nevada Town Fights Proposed Prison
LAS VEGAS (CN) - Residents of Pahrump, Nev., want to stop a 1,500-bed private prison from going up in their small town 60 miles west of Las Vegas. Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community say Nye County officials shut them out of meaningful discussions about the prison and failed to draft a meaningful environmental impact report.
State withholds some payments to private prisons
The shortages include a lack of medical personnel that Corrections Corporation of America says are difficult to fill because of a nationwide shortage.
The decision to penalize private prisons for contract violations stems from a recommendation made in a performance audit of prisons requested last year by the Oklahoma Legislature.
Cal leads nation in inmates, especially parole violators
Posted by Dan Walters
California has more men and women locked up in prison than any other state, a new federal report finds, and unlike any other state, the vast majority of those placed behind bars are parole violators. The report bolsters contentions by critics of the much-overcrowded prison system that state parole officers, who belong to the same union as prison guards, are extraordinarily willing to slap a parole inmate back behind bars, thereby exacerbating a prison overcrowding problem.
Self-reporting rule for contractors takes effect
enewell@govexec.com
The controversial new Federal Acquisition Regulation rule requiring contractors to disclose government overpayments and their own criminal contracting violations went into effect Dec. 12 at 9 a.m.
Under the new FAR rule, company executives must disclose to the inspector general of the agency with which they have a contract as soon as there is "credible evidence" that the company or one of its employees has violated contracting regulations related to fraud, bribery, conflicts of interest, false claims or gratuity.
Inquiry creates legal storm
The Brownsville Herald
Guerra claims trail leads to Lucio, others....
This year's Willacy County grand jury investigation into alleged criminal activity surrounding for-profit prisons and high-profile public officials is not the first, and District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra said it is tied to an earlier investigatio
Storey County weighs prison:officials in talks with private Texas firm
mbellisle@rgj.com •
A Texas company that operates private prisons is in talks with Storey County officials about building a facility east of Reno. But county officials based in Virginia City say they can’t reveal the name of the company, the nature of its business or discuss the details of the negotiations because they’ve signed “nondisclosure agreements” with the firm.
Littlefield detention center to close
BUSINESS EDITOR
GEO Group Inc. says it has canceled its contract with the city of Littefield and plans to terminate 74 employees at the Bill Clayton Detention Center effective Jan. 5
The Boca Raton-based Fla. company gave official notice last month, filing a mass layoff Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act letter with the city in accordance with federal law. The letter was obtained by The Avalanche-Journal.
Both Hostages Released at Reeves County Detention Center
NewsWest 9
PECOS - The second hostage at the Reeves County Detention Center III has been released after a riot broke out around 1:00 Friday afternoon.
NewsWest9 first reported there were hostages at the prison, but officials denied that before finally saying the information was true. One hostage was let go Friday evening. The second was free by midnight.
Man's Family Asks How He Died In Jail
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Cynthia Smith said she wasn't told that her husband, Torrey Lamar Smith , had died until more than 24 hours after his death, when a Hays County detective called her mother-in-law with the news. She said no one has given her answers about the circumstances surrounding his death.
Could grand jury act again?
The Brownsville Herald
DA pro tem says panel may review high-profile cases
The Willacy County grand jury that returned the indictments against several high-profile officials including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney Alberto Gonzales and state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. has every right to revisit the cases, District Attorney Pro Tem Alfredo Padilla said Thursda
Wackenhut still doing damage control a year after election commission break-in
Almost a year after the Christmas Eve break-in at the Davidson County Election Commission office, the company contracted by Metro to provide security services was in town explaining its side of the story.The question now is what does the future hold between Metro and Wackenhut, the international security company that has handled the government’s security guard contract for the last 17 years.
Prisons Earn $878 Million Annually by Poisoning Inmates and Guards, Lawsuit Alleges
Go Directly to Jail...and Die
Cover Story Otay Mesa
Francisco Castaneda came to the United States from El Salvador during its civil war of the 1980s. Fleeing the violence, his mother crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 1982 with Francisco, aged 10, and his three siblings. Her husband had died of a heart attack just before they left. For years, she did odd jobs and sewing in and around Los Angeles. But she died of cancer before turning 40 and before she secured legal status for her children.
Lawsuit Filed In Jailed Woman's Death
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
The family of a woman who died of an asthma attack while being held at the St. Louis City Justice Center filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against the medical company providing care at the jail.
Guerra: Lucio’s Position Conflicting
RAYMONDVILLE - District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra said Monday that state Sen. Eddie Lucio's elected position conflicts with his job as a consultant for companies that work within his jurisdiction.Guerra said he believes that companies hire Lucio because of his position as a state senator and that Lucio uses his influence to obtain the consulting work.
David and Goliath: Guerra, Cowen to square off at hearing set for Dec. 10
The dismissal last week of indictments against a host of elected officials, including state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., in a Raymondville courtroom did not signal the end of attorney Michael R. Cowen's trips to this city of about 10,000 people.
If Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra sees himself as the biblical "David," as he has described himself, Lucio's attorney, Cowen, would be his "Goliath" this week.
Attorney: Guerra On Personal Vendetta
RAYMONDVILLE - Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra has 25 days remaining on his term, but he is not winding down his court appearances.Guerra has subpoenaed the prison companies for which state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. is a consultant, while the senator's attorney is seeking to have Guerra disqualified from prosecuting Lucio.
Locals Think Crime & Immigration Pays Big Time For GEO! Detention Facility May Expand; Corley Honored
GEO Group Inc., which has a two-year contract with the county, is running the facility, which houses inmates of the U.S. Marshal’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Tuesday, the jail had 1,062 inmates, warden Chris Strickland said.
Vigil Opposes Renewing of Hutto Center Contract
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
GEORGETOWN — More than 100 Central Texans gathered for a vigil outside the Williamson County Courthouse on Sunday night, asking Williamson County commissioners to end a contract with the T. Don Hutto Residential Center.
Does Jail Crisis Loom For County?
YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County officials are concerned about the prospect of a direct federal contract with the private prison on Hubbard Road to house revenue-generating federal inmates. A commissioner said the county needs 150 revenue-generating prisoners to keep the jail open.
Immigrants fuel one economic growth sector: Prisons
At a time when most other industries are reporting slackening consumer demand and plunging revenues, the executives of the major private companies providing prison services attribute their fortunes to the sorry fate of America's immigrant population. That's not likely to change any time soon.
Help Stop Immigrant Detention Center in Farmville!!!!
Federal Judges to rule on Calif. prison crowding
SACRAMENTO—Over the past three decades, California lawmakers and voters have sought to combat crime with an ever-expanding list of sentencing laws, adding years to inmates' terms and returning parolees to prison more often.
Jailed Moms Earn Time To Bond With Their Kids
BOSTON LEGAL'S "GUARDIANS AND GATEKEEPERS"
CHECK OUT THE CR10 VIDEO
http://vidsearch.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26210031
Ahma Daeus' Favorite Quotes
- "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" JOHN F. KENNEDY
- "We must be the change we want to see in the world".........GANDHI
- "We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies".... M.L. KING JR.
- "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty, the obedient must be slaves"
- "The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free"..... HENRY DAVID THOREAU
- "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear" ................AUNG SAN SUU KYI
- "When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, it becomes less & less important whether I am afraid"................... AUDRE LORDE
- "The function of freedom Is to free someone else".............TONI MORRISON
Links We Recommend
- ARC
- Ella Baker
- Provisions
- Van Jones
- Hard2Hire
- Just Seeds
- Sister Song
- Prison Talk
- Openureyes
- Justice Now
- U.S. Congress
- Injustice Line
- Lee Gaylord
- Prison Activist
- Simple Justice
- Thousand Kites
- The Situationist
- Dissident Voice
- Why I Hate CCA
- All Of Us Or None
- Educate-Yourself
- Prison Legal News
- Critical Resistance
- Grits For Breakfast
- Women And Prison
- Books Through bars
- Women Behind Bars
- United States Senate
- Justice Reinvestment
- Convict Criminology
- Texas Prison Bid'ness
- Prison Policy Institute
- Grass Roots Leadership
- Prisoners With Children
- The Innocence Project
- The Sentencing Project
- People Against Injustice
- The November Coalition
- Slavery By Another Name
- Prison Moratorium Project
- Penal Reform International
- Write Your Representative
- The Justice Policy Institute
- Private Corrections Institute
- Peoples Law Office (Chicago)
- Prison Law Office (California)
- The Real Price of Prisons Site
- The Media Awareness Project
- Citizens Against Recidivism, Inc
- Criminal justice Policy Coalition
- The Real Cost Of Prisons Project
- The Private Corrections Institute
- Death Penalty Information Center
- The Council On Crime And Justice
- Abolish Prisons Social Justice Wiki
- Human Rights Watch Prison Project
- Yeshua's Second Chance Foundation
- iAbolish "American Antislavery Group"
- The Public Eye (Political Research Assoc.)
- Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
- Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition
- The Center On Juvenile And Criminal Justice
- The Coalition For Higher Education Act Reform
- FACTS: Families To Amend California's Three Strikes
- Architects/Designers/Planners For Social Responsibility
- Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities
- The Project On Law & Mind Sciences - Harvard Law School
- Informational Resources On The Second Chance Act of 2005
- California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty