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.”
Anger Has Its Place
OP ED Columnist
New York Times
If Professor Gates ranted and raved at the cop who entered his home uninvited with a badge, a gun and an attitude, he didn’t rant and rave for long. The 911 call came in at about 12:45 on the afternoon of July 16 and, as The Times has reported, Mr. Gates was arrested, cuffed and about to be led off to jail by 12:51 The charge: angry while black.
New Zealand: Call For Independent Report on Privatising Prisons
Prof Kelsey told the committee she was concerned that private prisons could hide from public scrutiny, citing commercial confidentiality and the lack of regulation.
She recommended the committee defer the legislation until an independent review was done.
Mr Hanlon said special responsibilities came when a person lost their liberty and they lay with the state.
He said the government operated prisons were run cheaper than Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) which was run under private contractor GEO Ltd between 2000 and 2005.
A citizen's nightmare! U.S. Citizens wrongly detained, deported
SFGate
Chronicle Editorials
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they never would knowingly detain or deport a U.S. citizen. But it happens, as staff writer Tyche Hendricks outlined Monday in a series of chilling anecdotes about citizens who were held - and even deported - by U.S. immigration authorities.What is clear in those incidents is that this nation does not have sufficient safeguards against the detention of people who lack the financial means or mental wherewithal to readily prove their citizenship. Some detainees are shipped thousands of miles from their homes, without access to an attorney.
Private Prisons, Indeed A Laughing Matter
"Prisons used to be a non-profit business, too. And for good reason -- who the hell wants to own a prison? By definition you're going to have trouble with the tenants. But now prisons are big business. A company called the Corrections Corporation of America is on the New York Stock Exchange, which is convenient since that's where all the real crime is happening anyway. The CCA and similar corporations actually lobby Congress for stiffer sentencing laws so they can lock more people up and make more money. That's why America has the world's largest prison population -- because actually rehabilitating people would have a negative impact on the bottom line."
Say "NO" to Privatizing Arizona's Prisons
If this proposal goes through, it will be Arizona’s largest ever relinquishment of state control over a core government function to the for-profit sector. No private prison corporation has ever attempted to run an entire state’s prison complexes. Very few manage high security prisoners, and only in small numbers. This is a risky, unproven strategy that gambles with public safety in the name of questionable returns.
Anger Over Supremes Is Overdue
THE MORNING CALL
The sense of putrefaction in everything the Pennsylvania Supreme Court touches keeps growing.
Even if this court did not play a key role in other scandals -- including the illegal pay grab for judges and other politicians, and the illegal enactment of slot machine casino legislation -- its actions in the Luzerne County Court corruption case would illustrate just how wretched it is.
Most recently, we learned that the Supremes connived to help a fellow robe wearer, former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, escape accountability in lawsuits that threaten to put a dent in the millions of dollars in payoffs he took. (Ciavarella and another judge pleaded guilty in federal court in a case that involved the placement of juveniles -- on the flimsiest of evidence and in return for big payoffs -- in a commercial detention facility run by the son of a former Supreme.)
Beyond Attica: The Untold Story of Women's Resistance Behind Bars
"This book is the result of seven and a half years of reading, writing, listening, and supporting women in prison," Law says about Resistance Behind Bars, noting that each chapter in her book "focuses on an issue that women themselves have identified as important." The chapters include topics as diverse as health care, the relationship between mothers and daughters, sexual abuse, education, and resistance among women in immigration detention. Resistance Behind Bars paints a picture of women prisoners resisting a deeply flawed prison system, which Law hopes will help to empower both the women held in cages and those on the outside working to support them.
Panel Looks at Private Juvenile Prison In State
TULSA WORLD
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Board of Juvenile Affairs began initial discussions Friday about a possible private prison for juveniles in the state.
The board is expected to vote in September on whether to solicit proposals to build and/or manage a private lockup.
Such a move would require closing at least one of the agency's three prisons, the L.E. Rader Center in Sand Springs and two others in Manitou and Tecumseh.
Troubled prison firm's deal for new psychiatric hospital raises questions
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – A private prison company's history of filthy conditions, sexual abuse, suicides and riots in some of its Texas lockups isn't stopping the state from paying it $7.5 million to run a new psychiatric hospital near Houston. Lawmakers inserted an earmark into the state budget to fund the future Montgomery County facility starting in 2011. But they said they didn't know until this week that the county had selected the GEO Group to operate it, although GEO lobbyists were pushing for it as early as February.
Immigration detention center ready for inmates
GAINESVILLETIMES.COM
Former county jail could house first detainees soon
Officials with the Corrections Corp. of America were purposely vague on when exactly the recently-renamed North Georgia Detention Center would begin taking in federal immigration detainees, citing security concerns.
Jenn Ackerman. Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons
The Practice of Photography In Sites of incarceration
Jenn Ackerman. Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons
A few months ago I wrote to Jenn Ackerman, praised her Trapped project and of course offered to promote it. I wanted to get at her stories behind the images – namely do an interview. Jenn, however, is as good a promoter as she is a photographer.
The list of questions I wrote out while eating my chili-verde burrito on Wednesday are made largely redundant by her blog post “Trapped: Questions Answered”. Her photography and multimedia is so strong that it also speaks for itself. There is a painful truth in her work; more questions than answers.
Caritas speaks out against prison privatisation
NZ Catholic
WELLINGTON - Management of prisons should not be contracted out to private companies, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand told a parliamentary select committee on July 1.
Sanctions Against The GEO Group Sought
The Brownsville Herald
An appellate court is weighing claims against The GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., to determine if the private prison business lied when it claimed to have been exonerated of any responsibility in the beating death of an inmate and if it should be sanctioned.
Justice Ignored
Editorial
In January 2007, two immigrant advocacy groups and two former immigration detainees petitioned the Department of Homeland Security to take a simple but important step. They asked it to establish legally enforceable standards for the detention system, a fast-growing network of federal centers, county jails and private prisons that has been plagued by medical neglect and abuse.
2 Hawaii Females Allege Sexual Assault at Kentucky Prison
Advertiser Staff Writer
Accusations Are Not The First at Otter Creek Facility In Kentucky
Two female inmates from Hawaii allege they were sexually assaulted by one or more corrections officers at a Kentucky prison, and police are investigating one of the incidents. Honolulu attorney
Myles Breiner said he is representing the two women, who allege the sexuall assaults took place while they were in isolation in a medical unit at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright Kentucky.
H.R. 2450: Private Prison Information Act of 2009
Keeping the Prison Industry Accountable
On May 15th, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee from Texas and others presented H.R. 2450 to the Committee on the Judiciary (and again to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on June 12th) in hopes of raising accountability levels of private prisons. If passed, the bill would "require non-Federal prisons and correctional facilities holding Federal prisoners under a contract with the Federal Government to make the same information available to the public that Federal prisons and correctional facilities are required to make available" (GovTrack).
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