May 2, 2013

fuckyeahprisoninmates:

Bruce A. Liller, Chief of Psychology at North Branch Correctional Institution in Maryland explains why, despite the higher security risk of allowing inmates out of their cells during the day, the practice is necessary. Even though North Branch is a Maximum Security institution, the inmates are not on lock-down 24 hours a day. As Dr. Liller suggests, the psychological well-being of the inmates demands some movement and involvement in activities such as working in the cafeteria, visiting the library, or exercising in the yard. [x]

LTMC: This is the reason why Mississippi was able to shut down one of their Supermax facilities in 2010.  They let the prisoners out of their cages and allowed them to move around, play, work, be in the sunlight, and so forth.  Each one of those prisoners was supposedly the most dangerous inmates in all of Mississippi.  Every one of them was eventually moved back out into the general population.  It reduced violence, increased officer safety, and saved the taxpayers money.

When you treat people like animals, they behave like animals as well.  It just so happens that treating them like human beings is more cost efficient.

4:07pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxk3oM5P
(Notes: 1,137)
  
Filed under: politics prisons 
April 14, 2013
"Half a century ago, Franz Rosenthal noted in his landmark study of the concept of freedom in the pre-modern Islamic world, that secular rulers ‘‘had the right to imprison people at will whenever they decided that it was necessary’’ because the ruler’s ‘‘right to imprison people was never explicitly contested by the legal authorities.’’ While the regime’s apparent indifference to the fate of the incarcerated may jar with modern sensibilities, the arbitrariness of carceral punishment made it impossible to ascribe an ethically positive value to this action. Imprisonment was applied to secure the ruler’s self-interest; imprisonment was not implemented to insure community’s safety. Medieval Islamic rulers did not claim to imprison their subjects for their own betterment or for the sake of the social good."

— Rebecca Gould, Prisons Before Modernity: Incarceration in the Medieval Indo-Mediterranean, Al-Masaq, Vol. 24, No. 2, August 2012, at 182.

12:57am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxiemwRu
(Notes: 9)
  
Filed under: politics prisons 
April 11, 2013
"We want to use ‘compliant’ inmates. We’ll use the intercoms, we’ll see how the camera angles are, how the views from our control center are. We’ll use the lights, we’ll run the water, we’ll see how everything drains."

—

That’s Lancaster County Corrections Director Michael Thurber, explaining the theory behind this headline:

Odd invitation from Nebraska jail: Spend the night for $30

What’s going on here is a test run for the new facility, with proceeds benefitting two children’s charities.

So, for only $30 that will go to a good cause, you can make light of the distinctly American cult of incarceration:

The schedule for the overnight stay includes a tour of the jail at 8:30 p.m., lockdown at 10 p.m., lights out at 1

1 p.m., and a light breakfast at 6 a.m. the following morning. Participants will be fingerprinted and have their mugshot taken upon arrival. They will be invited to wear jail jumpsuits, but can wear street clothing if they want.

[…]

Unlike actual inmates, participants in the overnight stays are allowed to leave before their stay ends in the morning.

HT: Kate Lunsford.

(via kohenari)

LTMC: This program has some redeeming features, as most people would probably not see the inside of a prison cell otherwise.  Nonetheless, it remains problematic, because the “experience” of a guest inmate will inevitably be inauthentic.  Even if these people were to sign a contract waiving liability, those provisions would be unenforceable in the event that otherwise unlawful conduct takes place between the guest inmates and the prison staff.  A contract cannot authorize a person to violate the law.  The prison administrators know this, of course; so even if they didn’t give them this much freedom, they would still inevitably treat guest inmates with more courtesy and respect than they would an ordinary inmate—that latter of which has been branded by the state with the imprimatur of guilt and criminality, and is quite literally property of the state.  That mismatch may lead some people to think “hey, prison’s not so bad!”  Well, sure.  It’s not  so bad.  When you’re not actually incarcerated and free to leave at any time.

(via kohenari)

2:48pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxiS4RwR
(Notes: 15)
  
Filed under: politics prisons 
April 7, 2013

fuckyeahprisoninmates:

Inmate Dwayne Rosier was first incarcerated at age 17, charged with Complicity to Involuntary Manslaughter. He was sentenced to 10 years. He is pictured above lamenting his upcoming release as his sentence comes to a close. Rosier is fearful that he will not be able to re-assimilate into society upon release since he has no education, no job skills and has several prison tattoos on his neck and the back of his head. He acknowledges the fact that things have changed on the outside since he was first incarcerated, citing the fact that he has never used a cell phone or a computer before. His concerns, which are shared by many who have been incarcerated for extended periods of time, have implications regarding the success of rehabilitation programs.

LTMC: If you’re not following Fuckyeahprisoninmates, I highly suggest you do so.  They are doing heroic work highlighting the problems within our nation’s correctional institutions.

7:01pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxi9jxwt
(Notes: 2,032)
  
Filed under: politics prisons criminal law criminal justice 
February 21, 2013
George Will: 'Solitary' A Crazy Way To Run Prisons

George Will is killing it recently on criminal justice issues.  So glad to see a Conservative columnist writing about government overreach in the criminal justice system, especially since orthodox American Conservatives typically wash their hands of the criminal justice system out of a misplaced sense of aggression and condemnation for those that find themselves on the wrong side of the law, by hook or by crook.

7:20pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxehdRUV
(Notes: 7)
  
Filed under: politics criminal justice criminal law george will solitary confinement prisons 
January 19, 2013
"The New York Times editorial staff recently felt compelled to come out against “young people being battered and raped in juvenile corrections facilities all across the country.” One would hope such things go without saying, but apparently they don’t. Twelve percent of youths in juvie homes reported being sexually victimized in the past year. In some juvenile facilities more than 30 percent of the boys say they’re raped, mainly by staff members. Not surprisingly, self-inflicted injuries and suicide attempts are routine. We are warehousing our problem children in kiddie jail before they learn enough to graduate to adult prison."

— Peter Moskos, In Defense of Flogging, pg. 87 (2011).

11:37pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxcAsIzE
(Notes: 28)
  
Filed under: politics peter moskos prisons criminal law criminal justice 
January 9, 2013
Amphetamine, Pain-Killer Use Is Hiring Hurdle in Appalachia's Oil-and-Gas Boom

prettayprettaygood:

In the debate about whether American workers have the right skills to fill jobs in manufacturing and growing sectors such as oil and gas extraction, failed drug tests are often an overlooked problem. But in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia—a region undergoing an industrial transformation driven by shale gas—employers and others say widespread drug use, particularly the abuse of prescription drugs, is affecting hiring.

Health experts say drug dependency is particularly acute in Appalachia, which has a high percentage of older, blue-collar workers living in low-income areas. Workers who suffered on-the-job injuries and received prescription pain relievers as a result or endured long stretches of unemployment are more susceptible to drug use and abuse…

While some companies say more people are failing tests, health experts say that doesn’t capture the full problem. That is because some people are still able to pass initial drug screenings—by remaining drug-free for a time before a test—and substance abuse remains common among workers.

One of many reasons why it’s necessary to provide proper treatment for both legal and illegal drug abusers. Hauling away an addict to prison does little to curb their habit and certainly doesn’t improve their chance of future employment. Prescription drug abuse is especially troubling as it claims more lives than both heroin and cocaine use combined. 

LTMC: Furthermore, drug use is rampant in prisons.  While not all people sentenced to prison for drug use are addicts—indeed, most drug consumers are not problem users—those who have actual addictions and end up in jail are being placed in an environment where drugs are more available than they would be if they were placed in a treatment facility.  Letting a person run the rehab circuit a few times is far more likely to result in kicking addiction than putting them in prison, where social pressures have led most corrections officials to shirk meaningful drug treatment.  If you want to reform an addict, prison is quite possibly the worst place to put them.

(Source: prettayprettaygood)

2:55pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxbMoFqV
(Notes: 9)
  
Filed under: politics prisons war on drugs 
January 3, 2013
"If it wasn’t for drugs in this prison, you’d have a lotta more violence goin’ around. Ain’t nothin’ in here. Ain’t *nothing* in here. So when you got anger and frustration and prison and time, that’s going to breed violence. So now when you got a little something that is going to sedate the violence? They should be lucky guys like me is inside the penitentiary."

— Anonymous prison dealer, quoted in In Defense of Flogging, by Peter Moskos.  Moskos notes that the dealer in question estimated that 75 percent of prisoners use drugs, which are “smuggled in by guards and prisoners alike.”

10:22pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxavn5dl
(Notes: 53)
  
Filed under: politics war on drugs prisons criminal law criminal justice 
December 25, 2012
"Let’s debunk the notion that the drop in crime is due to incarceration. In truth, there is very little correlation between incarceration and the crime rate. Between 1970 and 1990 the total prison population in the U.S. rose by a million, and crime rose, too. Since then we’ve locked up another million, and crime has gone down. Is there something special about that second million? Were they the only ones who were “real criminals”? Did we simply get it wrong with the first 1.3 million we locked up? If so, can we let them out?"

— Peter Moskos

10:39pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxaB0qii
(Notes: 33)
  
Filed under: politics prisons mass incarceration peter moskos criminal law criminal justice 
November 14, 2012
"Why haven’t we given up on the drug war since it’s an obvious failure and violates the people’s rights? Has nobody noticed that the authorities can’t even keep drugs out of the prisons? How can making our entire society a prison solve the problem?"

— Ron Paul

3:29pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZMMjnxXH8trK
(Notes: 40)
  
Filed under: politics prisons war on drugs ron paul 
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