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Article in the Economist about this last week. http://www.economist.com/node/16636027 Didn't see it posted. I'd be hard pressed to find something more legit than the Economist. From the article: Jail is expensive. Spending per prisoner ranges from $18,000 a year in Mississippi to about $50,000 in California, where the cost per pupil is but a seventh of that. Why aren't the 'make the gubmit smaller and spend less' tea party assholes trumpeting about this as a means to reduce the deficit and the debt? I mean, they're not racist, so putting black people behind bars shouldn't be a sufficient motivation. olylifter fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jul 27, 2010 |
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Jul 27, 2010 21:30
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mew force shoelace posted:Thats what I am questioning, we have a bad prison system but it's not like we are the first country on earth to have one. As far as I know russian gulags, nazi prison camps and midevil dungeons weren't also rapeatoriums. Gang rape of women and men was endemic to the gulag system. Anne Applebaum's book on the Gulag has a whole section on it - it was usually the vory v zakone or 'thieves in law' - essentially the precursor to the Russian mob doing it to the politicals.
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Aug 4, 2010 19:25
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HidingFromGoro posted:Just so you guys know, Eric Holder (along with Barack Obama) is still dragging his heels, and he's still intentionally complicit in the devastation of hundreds of thousands of people's lives. Because he's choosing not to enforce a law- a unanimously-supported law- which exists to remedy one of the most heinous institutional failures in American history; a failure that enables, condones, and even encourages the large-scale violent torture of citizens across the entire nation. From sea to shining sea, legions of people are brutalized to an extent the average person can't even comprehend, through unspeakable pain and indescribable humiliation. "NPR reports that the standards — which include segregating young or weak prisoners and ensuring that male guards don’t supervise female prisoners — could cost more than $1 billion to kick off, and another $1 billion each year." Jesus loving Christ. 1 billion is what's holding them back? That's between 2-3 days of funding for the war in Iraq. Harper's dropping $9 billion on prisons for imaginary criminals who commit theoretical crimes up here. We can't even look down on Prison America with contempt and pity anymore.
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Aug 12, 2010 02:17
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The Justice Department is moving on states that segregate prisoners with HIV. http://www.salon.com/life/aids/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/08/14/prison_segregations_aids As they're enforcing the existing laws prohibiting discrimination against people with HIV and other diseases, this is a good thing, right? In response, the Republican party is going to spin it as Obama trying to increase the spread of AIDS. That makes sense.
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Aug 14, 2010 20:58
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HidingFromGoro posted:informative stuff on the prison industrial complex http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2009197,00.html Meant to post that yesterday - population 46,000, home to 13 prisons. The last one is terrifying: State of the Art The newest complex in the valley, Colorado State Penitentiary II, is currently under construction in the heart of Cañon City. At this facility, a state-prison spokesman says, prisoners "won't receive any visits or calls. They won't have contact with anyone. That's our version of Supermax."
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Aug 20, 2010 00:29
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Yeah, but don't they just use that as the excuse to avoid bringing the inmates at Guantanamo back to American soil where they'd be covered by American laws and entitled to, I don't know, trials and such? Off-topic for the prison thread, but still, its further evidence of the general hypocrisy afoot.
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Aug 20, 2010 05:05
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In this month's Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/09/prison-without-walls/8195/ Outlines how through increased used of GPS and other forms of technology it may be possible to avoid incarceration for a number of people convicted of crimes. One plus outlined in the article in this idea is: "U.S. prisons are astonishingly harsh, with as many as 20 percent of male inmates facing sexual assault" The author also describes (in the tagline) the US prison system as being "a failure by almost any measure".
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Aug 25, 2010 22:53
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Guy gets locked up for filming evidence of child abuse. Guards proceed to torture him, ignore his requests for assistance and reports of violence as he's beaten and repeatedly raped by his cellmate. Guy even complains to the chaplain, who goes to the guards who continue to do nothing. And then: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100829/ap_on_re_us/us_prison_injustice Vicious, feared attack leaves Pa. inmate comatose "The 29-year-old former Connecticut man was heading back to his cell block from a recreation area when he was ambushed by an inmate with a history of violence who was supposed to be locked down — but wasn't. The inmate knocked him to the floor and stomped on his head at least 15 times "with all his might," according to a police report. Pinto's face was shattered, and he suffered brain injuries that left him comatose" "He wrote that he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by an inmate he dubbed "the silverback." "First night is bleeding but no penetration," wrote Pinto, who also referred to his rapist by name. "The next night (and never again, he lies) is full-on jailhouse Bubba." He reported the rape to authorities, but no investigation was conducted, said the Rev. William Pickard, a Catholic priest and the prison's longtime chaplain. "A former inmate who lived on the same block as Pinto confirmed the abuse. The inmate, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears retribution against family members who hold local patronage jobs, told The Associated Press that he saw guards brutalize Pinto. He said he saw guards force Pinto to strip down and stand for prolonged periods in his cell, stomp on his toes while parading him naked in the common room, slap him hard upside the head, and toss his meals in the garbage." Jesus loving Christ. He pleaded guilty to one count of making child pornography. Going by what I know about the US justice system, he likely pleaded just to avoid a long trial at the threat of the DA, guilty or not. Even if he is guilty, this essentially amounts to a government employee causing and/or sanctioning harm onto a citizen. What the gently caress.
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Aug 30, 2010 05:28
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HidingFromGoro posted:
Read that and totally meant to post it in this thread. That poor guy. The internal strength he possesses is utterly astonishing.
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Aug 31, 2010 04:42
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http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/d8u5d/my_friend_from_high_school_is_on_death_row_here/ A girl on Reddit has a friend on death row. This is a letter he wrote her from there. Some quotes: To save money on heating and cooling, the air in this building is overly recirculated. This means, of course, more carbon dioxide and less oxygen. Worst of all, they will turn the air flow down so much that we often cannot feel any air coming out of our vents for months at a time. Because of all this, we are suffering Hypoxic Hypoxia. All of us prisoners are lethargic and couldn't exercise even if we had the space to do so. We all have short term memory loss and trouble concentrating. It is probable that we are all suffering at least mild brain damage. Malnourishment and oxygen deprivation is causing our bodies to grow old very rapidly. Prisoners not even thirty years old are going gray and losing hair. We have bone joint and muscle problems. We have lines in our faces that young people should not have. My body is so broken down, especially my mind. All jails and prisons in the U.S. conduct in activity that the world court condemns as torture. Guards will shock people with electricity, strap naked prisoners to a chair and hose them down with ice cold water, spray C-S gas and pepper spray into the faces of chained prisoners, deprive people of sleep, and deny medicine that treats painful illnesses. According to the U.S. Constitution we are slaves and have no civil rights. That's why our torture is legal. That's why I call myself Nemo. Jesus loving Christ.
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Sep 3, 2010 01:05
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HidingFromGoro posted:E: never mind An excuse to post this video. Awesome. These guys kick serious rear end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhF4Kpg6soc
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Sep 12, 2010 20:39
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duck monster posted:If the judge ignored or misinformed the jury, that ought get turned over in a higher court, assuming he's got the $$$ to pursue it (Which can be a hard call when your rotting in a cell) I don't get how the NRA didn't send an attack lawyer in a loving helicopter gunship to defend this guy.
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Nov 18, 2010 00:29
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CatchrNdRy posted:Numbers Gang video That was highly interesting - thanks for posting that. The Wiki entry about The Numbers Gang is surprisingly comprehensive. It different in that it appears to be only one real gang separated into three wings, who all work in something resembling harmony. Curious to know if there's ever been an attempted upstart group trying to compete. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Numbers_Gang Content: continuing in the theme of right wing people becoming anti-Machine after they've had a run-in with it, here's an article by Conrad Black, out on appeal from a prison in Florida writing about the need for a change to drug laws in the USA and Canada: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Wrong+crime/4782674/story.html olylifter fucked around with this message at 03:16 on May 16, 2011 |
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May 16, 2011 03:12
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BattleMaster posted:Slavery might be coming to my province. Ontario provincial Conservative leader Tim Hudak wants to put provincial inmates to work picking up garbage and cleaning graffit. 40 hour work weeks, no word on pay. Tim Hudak is a colossal rear end in a top hat who wants to drag Ontario back to the glory days of Mike "I killed seven people" Harris. Doing this is a two-stroke dick move. First, you're re-instituting slavery, second, you're giving an excuse to get rid of government employees who are currently performing those tasks. It'd be a matter of time before the Ford brothers here in Toronto figured out how to do the same with people locked up in the Don, thus stopping the 'gravy train' of CUPE 416 people who currently do those jobs. Guy is so far out of wack that he makes Dalton look like a viable alternative, and Dalton's a dimwit who could gently caress up a cup of coffee.
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May 27, 2011 01:56
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BattleMaster posted:The Conservative Party of Canada is building more prisons and is passing legislation to punish more things with jail time, to make sentences longer, and make more things illegal in spite of the crime rate being on a constant downward trend. Remember when they asked Doris Day about it and he said there's unreported crime so we need to build prisons? http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2010/08/03/canada-economy-stockwell-day.html I seriously cannot believe anyone voted for that oval office Harper.
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Sep 12, 2011 05:15
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http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/an-american-gulag-descending-into-madness-at-supermax/258323/ BOP justifies this in Orwellian fashion: it discontinues the prisoner's medication, thereby making the now non-medicated prisoner "eligible" for placement in the Control Unit. Then, when this newly eligible prisoner requests medication needed to treat his serious mental illness, he is told that BOP policy prohibits the administration of psychotropic medication to him so he should develop "coping skills" as a substitute for medicine being withheld. Instructing a prison confined in long-term segregation and who has schizophrenaia or bipolar Illness to self-treat this disease with coping skills is like demanding that a diabetic prisoner learn to "cope" without insulin. In some cases, ADX staff turn the simple (although cruel and unusual) refusal to feed a prisoner into a deceptive hoax. ADX prisoners, including those in four point restraints, sometimes are put on a disciplinary "sack lunch" nutrition program in which they are fed not standard prison trays but a paper bag containing a sandwich or two and a piece of fruit. Many mentally ill prisoners at ADX who are placed on sack lunch restriction have received sacks (suitably videotaped) being delivered to their cells. But when they open the bags (off camera) they sometimes are empty. Through this ruse ADX staff produce false video evidence of feeding, raising (if only for a minute) the prisoner's hope for basic nutrition, then smash the often-chained and always hungry prisoner's hopes with a bag of air. ... As a result of this type of abuse, other prisoners in nearby cells and ranges are often subject to the shrieking and suffering of prisoners undergoing such abuse. Jesus wept. What the gently caress is wrong with people. No, wait, there's someone to look after the prisoners after all: Perhaps you are wondering if the prison has an inside "watchdog" official who might be authorized to investigate allegations of misconduct by prison staffers. There is indeed such a person at Supermax, the complaint alleges. Her name is Dianna Krist. Her title is "Special Investigative Agent." But Krist appears to be married to Captain Russell Krist, who is responsible for "all corrections functions" at Supermax. No court in the country would countenance such an obvious conflict of interest -- and federal policy prohibits it. olylifter fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Jun 19, 2012 |
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Jun 19, 2012 03:40
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