Freedom March for the Wrongfully Convicted

Pennsylvania’s Freedom March for the Wrongfully Convicted

Monday, June 3, 2013

City County Building

414 Grant St, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219

“Bringing awareness to the issue of wrongful convictions and giving a voice to those that have been silenced. We are honored to have Terrell Johnson as our guest speaker, exonerated in October 2012 for a crime he did not commit. Other’s with cases of wrongful conviction will also be speaking on their loved ones wrongful conviction such as the supporters of Da’Ron Cox and Erica Johnson, wife of Dylan Ryan Johnson. PLEASE bring posters, fliers, anything to hand out to the attendee’s to bring more awareness to your loved ones case.”

 

A Shocking Reminder

Not new by any means…but still as relevant today as it was when it was released…

Private Prisons: Payoffs, Profits & Failures

I’d like to point out that in the first article I link below, the author states that it is Republican-controlled legislatures who are responsible for private prisons…this is only partially the truth. Yes, organizations like ALEC and the prison industries they represent generally bribe, er…give campaign contributions to Republican legislators…BUT… they are not at all above bribing contributing to Democratic lawmakers when it suits their purposes. Our very own former Democratic Guv’ner Bill Richardson received more campaign contributions from private prisons than any other policlown in the country at one point. Great shock that as soon as he was in power, private prison contracts in NM expanded, eh? (The REAL shock comes in the 2nd article linked here that talks about the fines our Republican Gov’ner Martinez just slapped our private prisons with.)

Bottom line is that private prisons and all of the various twisted off-spring of the industry are willing to do whatever it takes, work with whoever it takes and pay nearly whatever it takes to keep expanding their slave trade industry and profit margins. It isn’t a matter of Right or Left anymore folks, it’s all about who can be bought and sold…both in our legislative bodies…and out here in our so-called ‘free’ society. 

Over 18 Months, Nation’s First Privately Owned State Prison Has Declined Rapidly

Think Progress, “In an unprecedented experiment fueled by budget concerns, Ohio sold a state prison to Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest private prison corporations in the country, in 2011. Within a year, a state audit of Lake Erie Correctional Institute, the nation’s first privately owned state prison, found rampant abuse and abysmal conditions well below state standards. The CCA prison was given another chance to pass, but flunked another inspection four months later.Independent reports continue to illuminate filthy, broken facilities, as well as much higher rates of crime and violence in and around the prison. On Tuesday, the ACLU of Ohio sent Ohio lawmakers a comprehensive timeline of the prison’s decline since CCA took over.

The Lake Erie prison is now reportedly overcrowded at 130 percent capacity, with single-person cells holding 3 inmates each, according to internal documents obtained by the ACLU. Assaults on guards and other inmates have skyrocketed by 40 percent.

In fact, on the same day the ACLU released their timeline, the Lake Erie prison had to tamp down a series of inmate fights that lead to the confinement of 500 inmates.

Private prison companies have been repeatedly caught cutting corners on space, sanitation, and staff in order to maximize their profits. As a result, deadly riots frequently break out at these facilities, sparked by poor food quality, lack of health care access, and unsanitary conditions.

Despite Lake Erie’s multiple violations of state standards, Ohio has stubbornly maintained its infatuation with private prisons. The state plans to outsource prison food to Aramark, a private vendor already under investigation in Kentucky for multiple contract violations, including serving old food that had not been stored properly and overbilling the state.

Republican-dominated state legislatures are all too eager to ignore the private prison industry’s dismal record. CCA and other companies like GEO are paying well to maintain their massively profitable government contracts; the industry spent $45 million on lobbying in the past decade. CCA has done especially well for itself, rebounding from near bankruptcy in 2000 to rake in a net income of $162 million in 2011.” Think Progress

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New Mexico Slaps Private Prison Companies with $1.4 Million in Fines

Prison Legal News – “The departure of Bill Richardson as New Mexico’s governor has changed the previously lax business environment for the state’s private prison contractors. The new administration of Governor Susana Martinez is taking a more aggressive tone in demanding contractual compliance at privately-operated facilities that house state prisoners.

In March 2012, the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMDOC) imposed nearly $300,000 in fines against GEO Group, which operates three private prisons in the state. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was also hit with $11,779 in fines for failing to properly staff the women’s prison in Grants.

Those fines were on top of another $1.1 million in penalties assessed in November 2011 due to GEO’s failure to adequately staff the Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF). According to Shannon McReynolds, inspector general at the NMDOC, GEO Group agreed to pay the $1.1 million fine but was “not completely happy” about it. Additionally, the company agreed to spend $200,000 over the next year to recruit more employees at LCCF.

The penalties imposed against the company in March 2012, also for inadequate staffing, resulted from GEO’s failure to have enough guards in staffed positions at LCCF. There were also noncustodial positions, such as counselors for substance abuse and mental health treatment, that had remained vacant for more than 60 days.

Part of the $11,779 penalty against CCA came from not having enough guards at the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility. The largest part of the fine, $7,964.46, was due to CCA’s failure to release 15 prisoners on time. Records indicated that 13 of the 15 were released more than 30 days past their release date.

“These are taxpayer dollars that we are spending here,” McReynolds said. “When we spend these taxpayer dollars on these services, we need to make sure we’re getting those services.” New Mexico currently contracts with GEO Group and CCA to operate four facilities that hold state prisoners.

It was only after Governor Martinez took office that GEO and CCA had to worry about penalties for failing to fulfill their contractual obligations.” Full Article on PLN

CORPORATE PRISON RAP SHEETS

American Police Force
Aramark
Cornell
Corrections Corporation of America
DynCorp
Emerald
GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut)
Keefe Commissary Services
Management & Training Corporation
Maranatha Corrections LLC
PsychSolutions
TransCor
US Extradition

The “Justified” Shooting Of A Man Sleeping In His Bed

I guess I missed this at the time of the original shooting. Even though it’s slightly dated, I decided to share anyways just because it is so damned aggravating to see officers get away with carelessly breaking the law – and doing so without feeling any consequences for it. A man with no criminal history or background was shot by officers…while sleeping in his bed. Oopsy-daisy! They had the wrong person, it seems…and to pile insult atop injury, officers claim the shooting was “justified”… 

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Via Stop Police Brutality

“Only by sheer luck, the 29-year-old Dustin Theoharis from Auburn survived after being shot 16 times by two police officers who burst into his apartment without a warrant, looking for his arrested roommate’s gun.

Theoharis was crudely woken by two armed uniformed men who rushed into his room and started yelling out orders at him. He reacted in a way most people would, instinctively reaching for the flashlight by the bed. Detective Aaron Thompson and Corrections Officer Kris Rongen immediately responded by shooting the man 16 times.

Detective Benjamin Wheeler, one of four other officers present at the scene, came into the bedroom to find Theoharis in a pool of his blood and two baffled cops still in the state of shock. Luckily the man was rushed to the hospital fast enough for doctors to save his life.

Thompson and Rongen tried to justify their action by claiming that Theoharis reached for the gun, but no weapon was found in his room. The main reason this police action was organized was Theoharis’ roommate Nicholas Harrison, an ex-convict, failing to report for community supervision. Harrison was arrested before the raid and the police searched his place for weapons so they could charge him with parole violation.

The King County Prosecutor dropped all charges against the two officers, justifying the brutal shooting as a proper response to a “perceived risk” to their safety.”

 

Why More SWAT-Style Raids?

“I’m very concerned that, on a national basis, police organizations are looking more and more like combat troops and less and less like community police officers.” 

- Robert Wadman, emeritus Weber State University criminal justice professor-

Excerpt, Standard Examiner – “Law enforcement officials agree: Police execute a “door kick” somewhere in Weber County, on average, once every week.

The forced entries range from a welfare check, when neighbors become concerned as newspapers pile up on someone’s porch and the family car is parked in the driveway.

At the other end of the spectrum are the full-on, SWAT-style raids with helmeted officers battering down a door unannounced, such as the Sept. 16, 2010, entry that left the suspect, Todd Blair, fatally shot.

Officials point to the frequency of door kicks, in police parlance, that occur without publicity or complaint as proof they’re benign — only a small percentage go awry. They steadfastly maintain they are crucial, the swift deployment necessary for officer safety and to keep suspects from destroying evidence.

Commando tactics concerns

But there are critics concerned about the increase in the commando-style entries, also known as a breach.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently announced a nationwide investigation of the “militarization” of police departments, simultaneously filing 255 public records requests in 24 states on March 6.

Among 18 Utah agencies whose records were requested are the Ogden, Roy and Brigham City police departments and the Weber and Cache county sheriff’s offices.

The agencies have been asked to provide data on SWAT team deployments and injuries during the deployments, weaponry used, and the level of funding for armament and equipment from the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

The ACLU decried militarization as an erosion “of civil liberties encouraging increasingly aggressive policing.”

In the wake of high-profile, lethal-force incidents involving officers, police brass and prosecutors have defended the strong-arm tactics as necessary in an increasingly violent world.

“Officers plan for the worst and hope for the best,” said Ogden Police Lt. Will Cragun. “It’s easy to second-guess after the fact, but you need to get down in the dirt with us to know what’s going on.”

Officials typically point to recent mass shootings around the country as a constant reminder to officers to be on their guard.

Roy Police Chief Greg Whinham noted the Columbine High School shootings of 1999, where 12 students and a teacher were killed and 21 injured, moved him to make his department the first in the state to put A-4 automatic rifles in the trunks of all patrol cars.

“I will always err on the side of getting my officers home at the end of their shift,” he said.

In an earlier news story about the ACLU records request, Weber County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Klint Anderson said the problem is “the militarization of our criminals.”

Anderson said law enforcement is seeing “criminals who have military experience and military training.”

“They are better armed, better trained and more dangerous than before.”

Jim Retallick, veteran Ogden public defender, and other defense attorneys argue there are other ways to serve search warrants than the military-style door kicks.

“Hell yes, it’s getting dangerous,” Retallick said. “For seven people to get shot over marijuana is ridiculous.”

He is referring to the Jan. 4, 2012, forced-entry raid on the Ogden home of Matthew David Stewart. Six officers were shot, one fatally. Stewart was also wounded, hospitalized and jailed and now awaits trial, facing the death penalty…” Full Article Here

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***Warning: Video Contains Graphic & Heartbreaking Footage***

 

SWAT Raids Home Over Hydroponic Equipment Purchase, Finds Tomatoes and Squash

Grow your garden outdoors, officials will bust you, fine you and demand that your ‘eyesore’ be removed from their cookie cutter communities…try to be nice and plant your veggies indoors where the neighbors can’t complain…and SWAT is going to come bust in your door and seize your uh…squash. After all,  everyone knows that the only thing hydroponic equipment could ever be used for is growing that terrifying plant known as “Pot”, right? 

The Activist Post – “Did you know that buying hydroponic growing equipment is now being used as probable cause for the government to raid your house?

Neither did Bob and Addie Harte, a Kansas couple who were raided by SWAT without a warrant last April because the authorities took notice of their purchase of indoor gardening items.

The illegal raid turned up “just six plants — three tomato plants, one melon plant and two butternut squash plants — growing in the basement”, and now the couple is suing the sheriff’s department.

The Associated Press reports:

~Two former CIA employees whose Kansashome was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables. 

Adlynn and Robert Harte sued this week to get more information about why sheriff’s deputies searched their home in the upscale Kansas City suburb of Leawood last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener.~

It seem peculiar that the couple are former CIA agents.  Perhaps government watches their former employees’ purchases more closely?

“With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors,” the lawsuit says.

“If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn’t led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?” Adlynn Harte told the Associated Press.

The lawsuit says the Harte children (7 and 13) were traumatized when deputies wearing bullet-proof vests armed with assault rifles pounded on their door.

“It was just like on the cops TV shows,” Robert Harte told The Associated Press. “It was like ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ ready to storm the compound.”

“You can’t go into people’s homes and conduct searches without probable cause,” said Harte’s attorney Cheryl Pilate.” Source

Director of Colorado’s DOC Murdered; Possible Saudi Arabian & Skinhead Connections

What a tragic, unpredictable and complicated case this has turned out to be. I’ve linked several different articles here together to try and outline more of the story and what may have happened – and why. Make of it all what you will…I have a hunch this is going to take quite awhile for investigators to sort it all out.

Tom Clements (Photo: Colorado Department of Corrections)

KWGN – “The Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Tom Clements, was shot in the chest in his Monument home Tuesday night and now authorities are looking for a car that was spotted near the scene.

Clements was shot when he answered the door at his home on Colonial Park Drive in the wooded area of Black Forest. Someone shot him in the chest and then fled, said Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies got a 911 call from a relative at 8:37 p.m. reporting the shooting. The relative has not been identified. Deputies said they were the only other person at the home with Clements.

Kramer said a resident saw a boxy-style, dark-colored, 2-door, 90s-model vehicle running unoccupied and parked at an intersection near the scene of the shooting.” Full Article

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KWGN “Investigators looking into the shooting death of the director of the Colorado Department of Corrections will look at the possibility that Tom Clements’ murder may be tied to the recent decision not to grant a transfer of a Saudi man in a Colorado prison.

Homaidan Al-Turki was convicted in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force and other charges. Prosecutors said he sexually assaulted a housekeeper and kept her as a virtual slave for four years.

His conviction angered Saudi officials. The U.S. State Department sent Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and Al-Turki’s family.

Last week, Colorado prison officials denied a request from the Saudi Arabian government to release Al-Turki to his home country to serve his life sentence.

Prosecutors opposed Al-Turki’s transfer fearing he would be released upon return to Saudi Arabia.

Celments was the one who decided to deny the transfer. He wrote in a letter to Al-Turki that because Al-Turki refused to undergo sex offender treatment in prison, “I have decided not to support your request for transfer to Saudi Arabia at this time,” reported the Associated Press.

Sources have told FOX31 Denver, Al-Turki has come from an influential Saudi family that has long pressured Colorado to release him.”

Full Article

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HOMAIDAN ALTURKI 

“…Saudi newspapers reported no less than the King Abdullah and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia were to bring up the case with President Bush as they met this week in Riyadh…”

Homaidan Al-Turki – President Bush heard a request to release a man in a Colorado prison during his visit to Saudi Arabia.

Homaidan Al-Turki is behind bars awaiting the outcome of an appeal. A court convicted him in 26 of sexually assaulting and enslaving his Indonesian maid in his Aurora home.

Saudi newspapers reported no less than the King Abdullah and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia were to bring up the case with President Bush as they met this week in Riyadh.” Full Article

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Colorado Observer “A 2006 memo that became public as part of the WikiLeaks saga warned that “violence, even terrorism” against Americans could occur as a result of the conviction of Saudi sex offender Homaidan al-Turki.

The leaked 2006 cable from the State Department Deputy Chief of Mission in Riyadh, Michael Gfoeller, includes his remarks with a close and longtime friend of al-Turki’s.

At the time, al-Turki’s allies opposed his criminal conviction, seeing it as trumped up and another example of U.S. discrimination against Muslims.

In a revealing passage, Gfoeller writes of al-Turki’s friend, Taleb:

“He said that Saudis … have turned against the current Administration because of the treatment of Arabs and Muslims following September 11, especially Saudis studying and working in the U.S.; the perception that the (U.S. government) unconditionally supports the government of Israel, the invasion of Iraq, and (government) actions against the Palestinians and Lebanon. Taleb …  expressed concern that, if this conviction stands, animosity toward the USG could be inflamed to the point of acts of violence, even terrorism, in the U.S. or against Americans in the KSA or elsewhere.”

The memo has renewed significance after the murder of Colorado Department of Corrections chief Tom Clements, who had recently denied a request by al-Turki to serve out his sentence in his home country.” Full Article

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KTSM “Texas authorities say a man who led law enforcement on a high speed chase may be linked to the death of a Colorado state prison chief.

The scattered remains of a high speed chase ended in gun fire and a crash. Law enforcement suspects this incident could be connected to the murder investigation of prison Chief Tom Clements

Texas officials say the driver sped away from a traffic stop after shooting a deputy multiple times. Officers caught up to the car, where the driver was still firing, when the vehicle slammed into an 18-wheeler. After the collision, the suspect exited the car still shooting.

“When he came by me, 100 miles per hour, maybe, just shooting out the window, he didn’t want to be taken alive. It was obvious that he was trying to hurt someone or the police,” said Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins.

Police fired back at the man who is now brain dead and on life support for possible organ donation.

Authorities have identified the shooter as Evan Spencer Ebel, 28.” Full Article

Evan Spencer Ebel

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NBC ”Shell casings from the same type of ammunition that was used in the slaying of the top prisons official in Colorado were also found near the car of a paroled white supremacist who led Texas police on a wild chase and shootout, authorities said in court records filed Friday.

Investigators are looking into whether the parolee, Evan Spencer Ebel, 28 — who died Thursday after the chase and shootout in Texas — may also have killed a pizza delivery man and Colorado Corrections Director Tom Clements, who was shot to death at his front door Tuesday night in the Denver suburbs.

Authorities from Colorado were in Texas on Friday, examining the car for evidence that might tie Ebel to the Colorado killings.

In a search warrant (.pdf) seeking permission to search the car Ebel was driving, Texas Rangers told a Wise County judge that Hornady 9mm shell casings were recovered at the scene of the shootout in Decatur, which it said were the same brand and caliber used to kill Clements.

Authorities from both states offered few other details Friday about what evidence they have turned up and stressed that the investigation was still open.

…Sources told NBC station KUSA of Denver that Ebel had been recruited into a white supremacist gang called the 211 Crew…The gang is believed to have several hundred to 1,000 members, most of them in Colorado prisons. It gets its name from a section of the California penal code that deals with robbery. Potok said it wasn’t clear why the gang was named for that section.” Full Article

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A shooting at the Kaufman County Courthouse left a Assistant District Attorney, Mark Hasse, right, dead on Jan. 31, 2013.

Huffington Post – “Authorities are investigating whether the killing of a Texas county prosecutor earlier this year is linked to the slaying of Colorado’s prison director.

Kaufman police chief Chris Aulbaugh said Friday the FBI is checking to see if the January shooting death of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse is connected to Tuesday’s killing of prison chief Tom Clements.

Hasse was killed about 100 miles away from where former Colorado inmate and white supremacist Evan Spencer Ebel died Thursday after a shootout with deputies. Investigators are trying to determine if Ebel is linked to Clements’ death.

Aulbaugh calls the investigation routine for attacks that appear similar. Both targeted law enforcement officials. Authorities have investigated whether Hasse’s death could be linked to a white supremacist gang.” Full Article

Private Prisons; Policies & Profits

“…three of the largest private prison companies have spent approximately $45,000,000 combined on lobbying and campaign contributions over the past decade.

Would they be spending so much money if those companies did not believe that it was getting results?”

 Excerpts,  The Economic Collapse Blog, “How would you describe an industry that wants to put more Americans in prison and keep them there longer so that it can make more money?  In America today, approximately 130,000 people are locked up in private prisons that are being run by for-profit companies, and that number is growing very rapidly.  Overall, the U.S. has approximately 25 percent of the entire global prison population even though it only has 5 percent of the total global population.  The United States has the highest incarceration rate on the entire globe by far, and no nation in the history of the world has ever locked up more of its own citizens than we have.  Are we really such a cesspool of filth and decay that we need to lock up so many of our own people?  Or are there some other factors at work?  Could part of the problem be that we have allowed companies to lock up men and women in cages for profit?  The two largest private prison companies combined to bring in close to $3,000,000,000 in revenue in 2010, and the largest private prison companies have spent tens of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions over the past decade.  Putting Americans behind bars has become very big business, and those companies have been given a perverse incentive to push for even more Americans to be locked up.  It is a system that is absolutely teeming with corruption, and it is going to get a lot worse unless someone does something about it…”

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“…At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions…”

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“…But of course some of the biggest profits for private prisons come from detaining young people.  Today, private prison companies operate more than 50 percent of all “youth correctional facilities” in the United States.

And sometimes judges have even been bribed by these companies to sentence kids to very harsh sentences and to send them to their facilities…” Full Article Here

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With well over 2 million people in jail – the U.S. has the world’s biggest prison population. But some are seeing the inside of a cell because dodgy judges are getting payback from the private sector…

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“For more than 30 years, ALEC has been the ideal means of creating and delivering public policy ideas aimed at protecting and expanding our free society. Thanks to ALEC’s membership, the duly elected leaders of their state legislatures, Jeffersonian principles advise and inform legislative action across the country. Literally hundreds of dedicated ALEC members have worked together to create, develop, introduce and guide to enactment many of the cutting-edge, conservative policies that have now become the law in the states.  Since its founding, ALEC has amassed an unmatched record of achieving ground-breaking changes in public policy. ALEC’s far-reaching national network of state legislators that crosses geographic and political boundaries, and affects all levels of government, is without equal. [Emphasis mine] No other organization in America today can claim as many valuable assets – both people and ideas – that have influence on as many key decision-making centers.” Learn More About ALEC

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Prisons of Poverty

“Raymond V. Liedka, of Oakland University in Michigan, and colleagues have found that the crime-fighting effects of prison disappear once the incarceration rate gets too high. “If the buildup goes beyond a tipping point, then additional incarceration is not going to gain our society any reduction in crime, and may lead to increased crime,” Dr. Liedka said.”

There is nothing unintentional about what has happened with our incarceration rates and prison system in this country over the past 2 decades or so. Since the latest scheme of enslaving people has taken root in this country, everything has gone exactly according to the plans of the slave-owners, a.k.a. the private prison industry- which is supported and funded by the very legislators we elect.

To call the current system a ‘poverty trap’ is an understatement…it isn’t an accidental trap; it is intentional and well planned. Every time something is proven to reduce recidivism rates, that *something* is magically removed from the equation. Strong outside ties help prisoners? Well then, let’s move prisoners farther from home, charge outrageous rates for phone calls and then…ah yes…let’s go ALL out and mandate that prisoners only be allowed to receive 1 postcard a month instead of long letters from home…

And if poverty increases incarceration rates well by all means…let’s make it impossible for anyone even arrested to ever rise above the poverty and earn their way out of the system via legal employment. There is no profit to be made by allowing people to serve a short, fitting sentence for actual crimes (vs non-crimes such as drug use) and then letting them return to the free world and get on with the business of earning a real living wage and becoming part of productive society and our legislators (you know, those folks who own stock in prison companies or at the very least, accept bribes campaign contributions from prison companies) damn well know it.

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US incarceration timeline (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Excerpts, NYTimes- “The shift to tougher penal policies three decades ago was originally credited with helping people in poor neighborhoods by reducing crime. But now that America’s incarceration rate has risen to be the world’s highest, many social scientists find the social benefits to be far outweighed by the costs to those communities.

“Prison has become the new poverty trap,” said Bruce Western, a Harvard sociologist. “It has become a routine event for poor African-American men and their families, creating an enduring disadvantage at the very bottom of American society.”

Among African-Americans who have grown up during the era of mass incarceration, one in four has had a parent locked up at some point during childhood. For black men in their 20s and early 30s without a high school diploma, the incarceration rate is so high — nearly 40 percent nationwide — that they’re more likely to be behind bars than to have a job.

No one denies that some people belong in prison. Mr. Harris, now 47, and his wife, 45, agree that in his early 20s he deserved to be there. But they don’t see what good was accomplished by keeping him there for two decades, and neither do most of the researchers who have been analyzing the prison boom.

The number of Americans in state and federal prisons has quintupled since 1980, and a major reason is that prisoners serve longer terms than before. They remain inmates into middle age and old age, well beyond the peak age for crime…

…Epidemiologists have found that when the incarceration rate rises in a county, there tends to be a subsequent increase in the rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy, possibly because women have less power to require their partners to practice protected sex or remain monogamous.

When researchers try to explain why AIDS is much more prevalent among blacks than whites, they point to the consequences of incarceration, which disrupts steady relationships and can lead to high-risk sexual behavior. When sociologists look for causes of child poverty and juvenile delinquency, they link these problems to the incarceration…” Full Story Here

Restoration vs Revenge

~ HT to Prison Photography for the link to Unlikely Friends ~

The world needs more thinking and more medicine like what is accomplished with projects like Unlikely Friends.

Restorative Justice instead of Revenge-based Justice. 

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“The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with one out of 32 Americans under criminal justice supervision. The rest of the world is intrigued by the paradox that the leading democracy in the free world imprisons so many of its citizens, 25% of the total prisoners worldwide.

UNLIKELY FRIENDS documents victims of brutal crimes who, through forgiveness, unexpectedly become friends with their perpetrators.

Finding a criminal justice system that has left them empty and unsupported, these victims of unspeakable crimes forgive out of a deep need to heal themselves, which in turn motivates the perpetrator to fully account for their actions and thereby begin the process of true rehabilitation.

These relationships, so unfathomable for most of us, open our thinking to new possibilities of how to transform a system ensconced in punishment and retribution to one of restorative justice that is based in humanity.”

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Hate begets hate; healing begets healing…it is not a difficult concept to grasp but it isn’t one that is promoted nearly enough. All of the ridiculous fear-based propaganda like “TOUGH ON CRIME” has taken root in our society’s thought process and we are just now beginning to see and feel the ramifications of that school of thought…More prisons, more abuses, more crimes, more violence…more, more and more of everything that is unhealthy and damaging to us all. 

Politricksters who stand to profit from the private prison industry have no reason to reverse anything they have accomplished so it is once again up to US – The People – to instigate the change. I don’t care if you are a ‘bleeding heart liberal’ that thinks we can abolish prisons entirely or an ‘uber-conservative rightwinger’ that is simply fed up with the exorbitant amount of your taxes being spent on prisons…it behooves all of us to do whatever is necessary to halt the revenge-based and profit-driven prison system from rooting itself even more deeply into our societies. (Yes, plural…ALL societies are at risk of being over-run and destroyed by this cancerous growth; it is NOT just an American problem.) 

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Proliferation, Paul Rucker

 Animated mapping of the US Prison system set to original music.
Timeline:
Green Dots: 1778-1900
Yellow Dots: 1901-1940
Orange Dots: 1941-1980
Red Dots: 1981-2005

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The only way to make an idea take hold and start to grow is to keep promoting it so please help spread the word (Loudly, repetitively and often!). The intent of this project is health-based and healing-based…but unless more people hear about it, there is little hope of the spark becoming a wildfire. If you also think it is time to stop the hate and turn towards true healing then fan the flames of forgiveness and share the message(s) and help promote projects like Unlikely Friends as much as you can…social media is our most powerful tool right now, I think and here is another opportunity to use it for good!

Connect with and support Unlikely Friends -

On Vimeo

On Facebook

On Twitter

Like A Phoenix: Power Beyond The Fall

So…you want a revolution, eh? Pissed off…fed up…you know bad things are going bump in the night but don’t know which way to turn for help when officers are murdering people – and pets – all over the place. Your government representatives have gone deaf and blind. Your online activity is not only not private, but can and will be used against you in court…doors are getting bashed in, your milk is no longer legal, your neighbors can vanish and be indefinitely detained & families are being terrorized by armed and masked SWAT men in the middle of the night…

It is time to do something…NOW!!

Enough is enough!! Our founding fathers would not have stood for this and neither should we!! 

The time for a revolution is at hand…!

Or is it..?

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No one can deny that we are in dire straits both as a nation and as part of the global community of human beings…things are not good and changes absolutely must be made before we all end up in darker times and conditions than most of us could ever dream of living in – or even surviving. But…since it is premature to jump into a revolution…and it is obvious that we cannot continue on the path we’re on without serious negative consequences, where does that leave us? 

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I wish I could drop a big, happy rainbow here and say that there is no reason to worry, our leaders will all come to their senses soon and everything will be hunky-dory. I’d be a liar if I did. I honestly don’t think that things are going to be “okay” in the sense that we want for a long time to come still. The price of…everything…has risen so it seems. It’s not actually that prices are any higher – it’s that the dollar is lower, worth less…bottom line either way is that you get fewer items for more Monopoly Money than ever before. There is no denying the rise of the police state and ever tightening laws that are strangling us on every level from personal to business. The war machine is rolling over countries left, right and sideways; it is the Hexxus of Fern Gully, out of control and oozing death and destruction everywhere it goes. We find it acceptable to imprison citizens in order to satisfy corpo-political pigs and keep them all feeding at the trough of profit via human slavery…

The Relentless March of the U.S. Police State

Excerpt from The Independent Institute – By Robert Higgs 

Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, wrote recently:

An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will. . . . Since 9/11, we have created the very government the framers feared: a government with sweeping and largely unchecked powers resting on the hope that they will be used wisely.

Turley does not say much in this article about the other rail of the Police State Railway that Americans are riding to hell: the drug war, with its massive arrests, prosecution, and imprisonment of people charged only with victimless crimes and its militarization of the state and local police all over the country. (On the militarization of the police, see especially this research paper, a revised version of which will appear in the spring issue of The Independent Review.) This massive bloating of police power and legalized oppression and the corresponding suppression of individual rights have brought down to the lowest level the threats to life, liberty, and happiness that the war on terrorism has created in what most people view as a more remote and less threatening venue—”out there” somewhere, in drone-istan.

Each day, the U.S. police state grows larger, more powerful, more pervasive, and more menacing. When will the majority awaken to the realization that this threat has nothing to do with party politics, that it makes no difference whether a Republican or a Democrat occupies the presidency while our freedoms are demolished? Read Full Article Here

A Moment Of Clarity by Lee Camp…

Brazilian Troops Bulldoze Homes; Leave Thousands Homeless

I am not really familiar with the current politics of this region but all sides of politics aside, this story is very disturbing and seems very, very wrong. I do know that several multi-national corporations have been working to force their way in to pillage the country for every possible resource…the most disturbing of which would be the human resources required to keep the new Brazilian Private Prison Corporations fully supplied and happy.

If people who were unjustly evicted from their homes decide to do something like…oh…riot or protest…the Intn’l Corporate Police will be there to *assist* and *put down* the riots.  Who knows exactly how many corporations are standing behind this land-grab or what their intentions really are…I just have that chilling kind of hunch that this is bad…very bad, for the people and future of Brazil.

Excerpts from WND

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While the press was barred from documenting much of the battle, local news reports showed the true extent of the human tragedy. Many critics have said it constitutes forced relocation, a crime against humanity under international agreements.

“Thousands of poor Brazilian families are living in wretched conditions at make-shift refugee camps after being evicted from their homes at gunpoint by federal forces, some of whom were sporting United Nations logos, according to sources.

The massive operation, which left an estimated 7,500 or more people, including thousands of children, homeless was justified by authorities under the guise of creating an Indian reservation.

Towns literally have been wiped off the map, and no compensation was offered to the victims. About 400,000 acres of land were expropriated in the latest operation.

Residents in the Siua-Missu area in the state of Mato Grosso battled heavily armed federal police and military forces for weeks using sticks, rocks, Molotov cocktails and other crude weapons.

In the end, however, the powerful national government forces were overwhelming.

Virtually all of the residents have now been displaced, living in squalor, packed into school gymnasiums in nearby towns. Others are living on charity under plastic tarps propped up with sticks with no clean water or sewage services.

Leaders of the feeble resistance, meanwhile, are being hunted down by authorities for punishment…

…“The conflicts between the productive sector and Indians are assuming greater proportions,” he added. “Countless non-governmental organizations have appeared, many from abroad, to involve themselves in the question.”

Authorities also told WND that the U.N. was not involved in the eviction efforts but that the organization’s logos were on the military equipment and personnel because they had recently returned from “peace-keeping” abroad.

“The evicted victims are now living at schools in Alto da Boa Vista and camps, with some being sheltered by relatives,” Naves Bispo, a local resident and victim of the land-grab scheme, told WND, adding that the situation was dire and deteriorating…

…Like other victims and analysts who spoke with WND, Bispo was unsure about why Brazilian authorities had decided to create an Indian reservation on land that was never occupied by Indians and was already lawfully owned.” Full Story on WND

A Solitary Torture

This is my latest project – a blog partnership with my husband as we return to prison advocacy volunteer work and try to raise public awareness about the cost, dangers and alarmingly expanded use of solitary confinement as a form of rehabilitative punishment.

“The SHU” “The Hole” “Control Units” “Isolation Cells”…”HELL”…”Deprivation Chambers”…”Mind Destroyers”…”Madness Makers”…

We blog about some general prison issues but our primary goal is to raise awareness about all aspects of solitary confinement in prisons and the detrimental effects it has on the human mind, body and spirit. Thanks to my husband, Steve, for jumping right in with help & support! ♥

Caging Our Kids

“The YIA cellblock is home to 53 kids who are rarely permitted to leave the unit, due to the dangers posed by the adult prisoners just outside their door. But once a youth offender turns 18, they begin the immediate transition into the general prison population, where thousands of adult prisoners await…”

And as if locking children up for longer periods of time than many adults will ever serve isn’t shameful enough, we make matters worse when we then isolate them in solitary confinement. They get no human comfort or contact, no education, no mental health care…the system literally helps to drive troubled young kids stark raving mad.

Is this really the best we can do for our kids…for our future??

Learn more about the dangers of harsh sentencing and use of solitary confinement on children -

Kids In Cages

If this article disturbs you then please take a moment and check out my new endeavor – a blog partnership with my husband as we return to prison advocacy volunteer work and try to raise public awareness about the cost, dangers and alarmingly expanded use of solitary confinement as a form of rehabilitative punishment.

“The SHU” “The Hole” “Control Units” “Isolation Cells”…”HELL”…”Deprivation Chambers”…”Mind Destroyers”…”Madness Makers”…

We blog about some general prison issues but our primary goal is to raise awareness about all aspects of solitary confinement in prisons and the detrimental effects it has on the human mind, body and spirit. Thanks to my husband, Steve, for jumping right in with help & support! ♥

The Road To Hell…And Redemption

I am going to scale back on posts on this blog for a few days while I work on building something new….well, it isn’t new to me…it’s more like rebuilding a home for myself after I foolishly tore the last ‘home’ to smithereens.

A bit of back-history; hang in with me here, please. This is so incredibly hard to write…

At one point I was an extremely dedicated volunteer for prison reform and prisoners. To this day I am unable to retrace the steps that led me into the work – I have not ever been in prison nor do I have a family member inside. I saw a problem I thought I could help with and so I jumped in full force, no holds barred.

Due to my inexperience and the fact that I stepped into the work without a full understanding of what I was getting into, it did not take very long for me to lose my way within the movement. I got caught and tangled in the middle of a bunch of racial/political factions that I hadn’t even really known existed prior to getting into the advocacy work.  I was a carpenter…what did I know about ANYTHING?? I believed everyone behind bars deserved equal help and that race, religion, political beliefs or gang affiliation had no place in the decision of whom to help – or not help.

To this day I believe that to be the truth…at least it should be. All dividing lines should be erased so that people can find strength in working together. It’s a nice theory but not one that I am sure I will see come to fruition in my lifetime.

Unfortunately, the road to hell really can be paved with good intentions and my good intentions led me straight into an ugly world that I still can’t fully comprehend. For a little Jewish-raised girl (me), the world of skinheads and hatred was not exactly one that I ever planned on walking into…but walk…fall?…into that world, I did.

I did not then, nor do I now, support a single idea of the neo-Nazis.

Institutional Indoctrination

Schools have not necessarily much to do with education… they are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.
Winston Churchill

There’s a line right at the beginning of the first video below about schools teaching multi-cultural lessons that strikes an *off* chord with me but overall, the video is well worth watching and the truth of it all is undeniable…

Government run schools exist to supply the government with obedient workers who will grow up to serve the government.

In our dreams, people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present education conventions of intellectual and character education fade from their minds, and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people, or any of their children, into philosophers, or men of science. We have not to raise up from them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen – of whom we have an ample supply. The task is simple. We will organize children and teach them in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.
John D. Rockefeller General Education Board (1906)

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People are not being educated they’re being tested for levels of obedience…

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I am beginning to suspect all elaborate systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself , instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he builds a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences.
Anne Sullivan

And all of this makes think of THIS -

Another Legal Grower Sent To Prison

This makes me so mad, I can’t even see straight and don’t dare say too much here…lest I explode with a very extensive list of profanities sure to offend nearly everyone.

If you think it will help, Sign The Petition to free Aaron Sandusky. After the last (NON)response I received from the White House, I personally don’t believe much will come of it…but…maybe if we all just keep vocalizing our objection to The Feds over-stepping their power, sooner or later they might get the point..?!

“No Comment” As Man Rots In Prison

Oh my…how tempting it is to accept the offer of the White House and to tell them what I think of them right about now…but…

…I sort of have a hunch that if I were to sit down and really tell the White House how I feel, I’d be banned from ever communicating with anyone there again. Rick Perry asked people what they thought and I answered him honestly…next thing I knew, I was blocked from his FB and Twitter accounts. Hrm…maybe he really doesn’t know how he functions as a sociopathic, cold-blooded murderer while appearing to be a real human being?

At any rate, below is the White House response to the recent petition I posted concerning Chris Williams, the medicinal marijuana grower in Montana who is now serving an 80 year prison sentence in a federal penitentiary.

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By The White House

Thank you for signing the petition “Grant a full pardon to Chris Williams, a man facing 80 years in prison for legally growing medical marijuana“ We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov.

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the President the authority to grant “Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States.” For more than 100 years, Presidents have relied on the Department of Justice and its Office of the Pardon Attorney for assistance in the exercise of this power. Requests for executive clemency for federal offenses should be directed to the Pardon Attorney, who conducts a review and investigation, and prepares the Department’s recommendation to the President. Additional information and application forms are available on the Pardon Attorney’s website.

The President takes his constitutional power to grant clemency very seriously, and recommendations from the Department of Justice are carefully considered before decisions are made.  The White House does not comment, however, on individual pardon applications. In accordance with this policy and the We the People Terms of Participation – which explain that the White House may sometimes choose not to respond to petitions addressing certain matters — the White House declines to comment on the specific case addressed in this petition.

Tell us what you think about this response and We the People.

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And I might just end up telling the White House folks what I think…but probably not until after I’ve had time to uh…munch a nice bowl of fresh green salad and calm down a bit!

Related articles

• 25,900 People Want Obama to Pardon a Medical Marijuana Provider Facing Life in Prison. Will He? (reason.com)
• Outrage at Potential 80-Year Sentence for Montana Medical Marijuana Grower (informationliberation.com)
• Colorado’s first marijuana club shut down in landlord dispute (denverpost.com)

Innocence #142

For 18 very long years, a prisoner on Florida’s death row has dreamed of hearing the magic words,

“Not Guilty”

A Broward County jury ended its 10th day of deliberations Friday by delivering 3 acquittals, ending a five-month trial and returning Sean Penalver’s freedom after he spent almost half his life in custody…

Continue Reading

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We just don’t seem to ever really learn from our mistakes, do we? Sean Penalver is the 142nd person to be exonerated and freed from death row since 1973…how many others have not been so fortunate and have been murdered in cold blood by The State? Chances are, we will never know for sure.

Todd Willingham was likely innocent and executed by Texas Clown, er, I mean guv’ner, Rick-The-Super-Christian-Perry.

Frank Lee Smith died while on death row in Florida…only to be found innocent…15 years of his life taken from him.

I have no doubt there are numerous other dubious convictions that cost people their lives but I think my point has been made here.

But hey, s’long as we get our “Justice” served up right and proper, who cares if there is a minor glitch now and then?

After all, we are righteous in our thirst for revenge so we can all live with a little collateral damage…

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