Raising Cain...

Tell Secretary Napolitano to Abolish Solitary Confinement - Physicians for Human Rights

Thought I'd share this petition link from Physicians for Human Rights asking Janet Napolitano to abolish solitary confinement for people detained in immigration facilities:

Thousands of people awaiting immigration hearings in the US detention system are routinely held in solitary confinement. We know that this cruel and unusual practice causes serious and lasting psychological and physiological harm. The sometimes irreversible consequences — including panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, weight loss, and self-harm — are exacerbated for people who have endured torture, which is common among immigration detainees who have fled violence or persecution in their home countries.

Placing anyone in solitary confinement for prolonged periods is an outrage — in some cases even torture — but this practice is especially abhorrent in the immigration setting, where detainees are not being held as punishment for a crime and are usually unable to challenge their detention.

Urge Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to end solitary confinement in all immigration detention facilities. By ending this practice, the United States would send a strong signal to the international community that it does not tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading practices in its detention policy.

Sign the petition at secure3.convio.net

 

PHR has also published a report on the negative effects of solitary confinement:

Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in the US Detention System (pdf download page)

 

Related articles

Solitary Confinement Report Puts Immigration Advocates In Tough Spot

Immigrants Held in Solitary Cells, Often for Weeks

Solitary confinement isn't the solution for immigrant detainees - latimes.com

Caribbean immigrants frequently held in solitary confinement in US

U.N. Expert on Torture Calls for Investigation of Use of Solitary Confinement

Treating immigrants civilly

Fruitvale: Ryan Coogler’s Debut Film on Bay Area Police Slaying of Oscar Grant the Buzz of Sundance

Here's my pop culture pick of the week...an interview by Amy Goodman (Democracy NOW) of Ryan Coogler about his film "Fruitvale"...I think I want to see this. Grant was murdered early New Year's Day in 2009...4 years ago this month.

 

 

Transcript was not up when I visited the interview page at Democracy NOW, but you can check back for it here.

 

Related articles

Bay Area films get shot at Sundance

Oscar Grant 'Fruitvale' Film Creates Sundance Buzz

Sundance 2013: Director Ryan Coogler Talks FRUITVALE, His Connection to the Story, Why It's Important, Participating in the Sundance Lab & More

Who Is Ryan Coogler? 5 Things You Need To Know About "Fruitvale" Director

Matthew Pillischer: STORYTELLING AS AN ADVOCACY TOOL: Lighting the Path to Racial Justice with the film Broken On All Sides

This is a speech at Earlham College from visiting artist Matt Pillischer, the director, producer, and editor of "Broken On All Sides: Race Mass Incarceration & New Visions for Criminal Justice in the U.S." Pillischer is an activist, an attorney, and a filmmaker. Here he discusses the educational campaign around the movie, issues of systemic racism in global capitalism and criminal justice, the importance of independent media breaking down racial stereotypes and presenting alternative narratives about crime and race, and how to organize for massive change. Learn more about the movie and project at www.brokenonallsides.com or www.facebook.com/newvisionsforcriminaljustice

 

The School-to-Prison Pipeline Gets Its First-Ever Airing in the Senate | Common Dreams

I was really glad to see that this hearing got at least some media coverage. Perhaps the DOJ's action in the Meridian case in Mississippi got things stirred up enough to shine a Senate spotlight on the pipeline? I hope the dialogue continues:

Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing was a milestone for a movement that has fought to raise awareness about these kinds of policies in schools around the country. The issue sits squarely at the intersection of race, educational equity and criminal justice. The committee heard testimony from Obama administration officials, a former Chicago Public Schools student, reform advocates and criminal justice leaders who sought to answer some basic questions: What good has the rise of zero-tolerance school discipline policies, now responsible for three million suspensions a year, done for the students they were supposed to protect? And just as pressing: What justifiable explanations are there for the deep disparities that zero-tolerance school discipline so reliably produces?

“For many young people schools are increasingly a gateway to the criminal justice system,” said Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, who chairs the Judiciary Committee. “A schoolyard fight that used to warrant a trip to the principal’s office,” he said, is increasingly landing kids in booking stations such that “this school-to-prison pipeline has moved scores of young people from classrooms to courtrooms.”

Read the whole article.

Related articles

The School-to-Prison Pipeline Gets Its First-Ever Airing in the Senate

The Shocking Details of a Mississippi School-to-Prison Pipeline

School-to-Prison Pipeline: Senate Hears Testimony

Mississippi County Jails Kids For School Dress Code Violations, Tardiness, DOJ Alleges | NationofChange

Here's another article on the DOJ Civil Rights Division case unfolding in Mississippi. I've added some links below the excerpt:

In Meridian, Miss., it is school officials – not police – who determine who should be arrested. Schools seeking to discipline students call the police, and police policy is to arrest all children referred to the agency, according to a Department of Justice lawsuit. The result is a perverse system that funnels children as young as ten who merely misbehave in class into juvenile detention centers without basic constitutional procedures. The lawsuit, which follows unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with the county, challenges the constitutionality of punishing children “so arbitrarily and severely as to shock the conscience” and alleging that the city’s police department acts as a de facto “taxi service” in shuttling students from school to juvenile detention centers.

Read more at www.nationofchange.org

 

Related Links and Info:

DOJ's Meridian Complaint filed 10/24/12 (1.2MB)

The Special Litigation Section of the DOJ is one of several Sections in the Civil Rights Division. They work to protect civil rights in these situations:

1) rights of people in state or local institutions, including: jails, prisons, juvenile detention facilities, and health care facilities for persons with disabilities;

2) the rights individuals with disabilities to receive services in their communities, rather than in institutions;

3) the rights of people who interact with state or local police or sheriffs' departments;

4) the rights of youth involved in the juvenile justice system;

5) the rights of people to have safe access to reproductive health care clinics; and

6) the rights of people to practice their religion while confined to state and local institutions. We can also act on behalf of people at risk of harm in these areas.

Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools? (American Psychological Association task force report; pdf - 96kb)

Related articles

The Shocking Details of a Mississippi School-to-Prison Pipeline

The Shocking Details of a Mississippi School-to-Prison Pipeline

DOJ Sues Mississippi for Its Egregious School-to-Prison Pipeline - COLORLINES

Here's an update to a link I posted on September 17th about an eight-month investigation by the Justice Department seeking to learn whether or not kids like 14 year old Lionel Townsend and others were being illegally shoveled into the system for acting out in school. It appears that the conclusion was: Yes.

Mississippi is breaking the law by violating the due process rights of kids who are getting funneled through its juvenile justice system, the Department of Justice has said. It filed a lawsuit today against the state itself, as well as the city of Meridian, Lauderdale County and judges of the Lauderdale County Youth Court for doing exactly that.

“The department is bringing this lawsuit to ensure that all children are treated fairly and receive the fullest protection of the law,” Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “It is in all of our best interests to ensure that children are not incarcerated for alleged minor infractions, and that police and courts meet their obligations to uphold children’s constitutional rights.”

Read more details of this story at colorlines.com

An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk

This video is an interesting look at the NYPD Stop-and-Frisk activity -- it includes audio from a victim (warning: lots of F-words and violent language from police), and interviews with NYPD police officers whose identity and voices are disguised). See the article about video this by Jamilah King of Colorlines.

 

Mississippi Town Struggles with ‘School to Prison Pipeline’ Charges | NationofChange

Interesting article by Maggie Lee about an eight-month investigation by the Justice Department, and one of the system's targets, 14 year old Lionel Townsend. The DOJ says it believes that the city of Meridian and Lauderdale County routinely and  repeatedly incarcerate children for school disciplinary infractions:

Lionel admits he got into fights multiple times at Magnolia Middle School. When he was charged with vandalizing a school bus security camera, he was booted from school. He fought again in a community day program. The county Youth Court eventually put him on probation and ordered him to stay at home with an ankle monitor.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is alleging the juvenile justice system here is so faulty that it amounts to a “school-to-prison pipeline.”

Read the whole story at www.nationofchange.org

Here's the DOJ press release and link to their letter.

See also the Raw Story article by Muriel Cane on August 10th, 2012 (Mississippi county school accused of running 'school to prison pipeline')

Original post of Maggie Lee's article (DOJ probe alleges 'school-to-prison' pipeline in Meridian, Lauderdale Co.) at Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

BeyondBars.org takes on tax-guzzling prison system

Check out BeyondBars.org for more info. They also have a link-rich Twitter feed if you are interested in this issue.

 

The Living Death of Solitary Confinement - NYTimes.com

An article on solitary confinement from a philosopher's point of view:

There are many ways to destroy a person, but the simplest and most devastating might be solitary confinement.  Deprived of meaningful human contact, otherwise healthy prisoners often come unhinged. They experience intense anxiety, paranoia, depression, memory loss, hallucinations and other perceptual distortions. Psychiatrists call this cluster of symptoms SHU syndrome, named after the Security Housing Units of many supermax prisons. Prisoners have more direct ways of naming their experience.  They call it “living death,” the “gray box,” or “living in a black hole.”

Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com