THOSE NOT EDUCATED in the criminal justice system often believe that it works without flaws: someone breaks the law, is caught, and is issued a sentence proportional to the crime. The time in jail or prison is served quietly, while the offender is rehabilitated and taught skills that will aid in positively contributing to society upon release. While the offender is serving the sentence, tax dollars allow him or her to be maintained in a safe, secure, and humane environment. As criminal justice academics and practitioners, we know that this sunny look at incarceration is rarely the actual experience of an offender. Although their frequency may be sensationalized by the media, the numerous hardships of prison and jail life (e.g., rape, gangs, drugs, abuse) do exist.
Numerous studies have shown that sexual violence occurs within the confines of correctional institutions; both inmates and correctional staff can be perpetrators, and there are patterns of characteristics among victims of correctional sexual violence. In 2003, the United States Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in order to address the issues of sexual violence in correctional settings. As a part of PREA, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) was established by Congress to conduct a comprehensive study of federal, state and local government policies and practices related to the prevention, detection, and punishment of prison sexual assaults (NPREC 2007).
Sexual violence in correctional institutions is well documented (Beck & Harrison, 2006, 2007; Davis, 1968; Wolff, Shi, Blitz, & Siegel, 2007a), but the dynamics of such and how inmates experience it remain less well understood. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, inmates are not inclined to speak out about their experiences; however, several options for reporting victimization and seeking advice, guidance, and assistance are available. For some individuals, the method of choice is to contact, in writing, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC). This study focuses on the correspondence from inmates to NPREC with a goal of identifying the goals, contexts, and requests included in inmates’ correspondence.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
December 2009 Newsletter : Sexual Victimization and Requests for Assistance in Inmates’ Letters to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission
Monday, November 01, 2010
Jimmy Carter: Fox News is ‘totally biased,’ implants ‘completely false images’
Former President Jimmy Carter slammed Fox News Channel for their coverage of President Barack Obama and said the Tea Party does not realize it is financed by oligarchs.
"With the discussion groups, for instance, on Fox News, that are totally biased, and they implant completely false images not only of the facts about legislation that's passed, or doesn't get passed, but also about the character of President Obama," Carter told CNN's Howard Kurtz on Sunday.
Fox News' opinion shows cater almost exclusively to conservative audiences and the network has been a vocal critic of Obama since he won the election in 2008.
"When conservatives such as myself and others pointed out that we felt Barack Obama had radical ties and socialist, radical views, we were laughed at, made fun of, people thought we were too harsh on the president," Fox News' host Sean Hannity said in October. "Now a full, you know, 60 percent of the American people view him as socialist."
In July of 2009, another Fox News' host, Glenn Beck, claimed that the president had "a deep-seated hatred of white people or white culture."
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Urban Grocery Gap: Killing Us Softly | Race in America | Change.org
Friday, October 29, 2010
Another Day, Another 850 Afghan Children Dead
Bamiyan Diaries – Day Five
By David Smith-Ferri
“Is This Normal?”
In a small storage shed at the edge of town, we watched as fourteen-year-old Sayed Qarim signed a simple contract agreeing to borrow and repay a no-interest, 25,000 afghani loan (roughly $555). Daniel from the Zenda Company, the loan originator, counted out the crisp bills and handed them to Qarim, who smiled broadly and shook hands. Qarim, whose family farms potatoes and wheat, plans to use the funds to purchase a cow and her calf. “There are great benefits of owning a cow,” Qarim explains. “Our family gets to use the milk, and we can sell the calf for a good profit.”
No one walking by outside on the narrow dirt road would have known an important business transaction had just occurred, one that could in fact help a young man and his family gain economic traction and greater security. The transaction didn’t take place in a bank. No village leaders were present. Only a fourteen-year-old boy, the representative of a private business company, and a witness. And while the signed agreement constitutes a business relationship, the Zenda Company sees it as primarily personal.
Qarim was recommended for a loan by Faiz and Mohammad Jan, two other young men who live in his village and who have themselves recently received and repaid loans. Following this recommendation, Zenda spent much time getting to know Qarim, meeting with him, assessing his knowledge, his resources (such as access to grazing land), and his character, answering his questions, and describing to him his responsibilities as a borrower.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Iraq war logs: 'The US was part of the Wolf Brigade operation against us'
During the foreboding months of 2005, one police unit struck more fear into Iraqis than the entire occupying US army. They were known as the Wolf Brigade.
Brutal even by Iraqi standards, their soldiers and officers seemingly answered to no one. They were seen as indiscriminate and predatory. The unit's reputation had been known Iraq-wide and results of their numerous raids are still bogged down in Iraq's legal system.
But the full range of their abuses and close co-operation with the US army remained in the shadows until the WikiLeaks disclosures showcased them in stark detail.
A visit from the unit to any neighbourhood was sure to bring trouble – as it it did for Omar Salem Shehab on 25 June that year.
"We were at home that night," Shehab recalled this week. "We were three brothers sleeping above my ice-cream shop. We were woken by soldiers entering our house by force. They came with Americans. They said we were wanted and produced a document.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The WikiLeaks Release: U.S. Complicity and Cover-Up of Iraq Torture Exposed
[globalresearch.ca] On October 22nd, the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 classified Iraq war documents, the largest leak of secret information in U.S. history.
Explosive revelations contained in the Iraq War Logs provided further evidence of the Pentagon's role in the systematic torture of Iraqi citizens by the U.S.-installed post-Saddam regime.
Indeed, multiple files document how U.S. officials failed to investigate thousands of cases of abuse, torture, rape and murder. Even innocent victims who were targets of kidnapping gangs, tortured for ransom by Iraqi police and soldiers operating out of the Interior Ministry, were "investigated" in a perfunctory manner that was little more than a cover-up.
Never mind that the Pentagon was fully cognizant of the nightmare playing out in Iraqi jails and prisons. Never mind the beatings with rifle butts and steel cables, the electrocutions, the flesh sliced with razors, the limbs hacked-off with chainsaws, the acid and chemical burns on battered corpses found along the roads, the eyes gouged out or the bones lacerated by the killers' tool of choice: the power drill.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal: Detroit Screening of New Documentary, Mon., November 1, 7:00 p.m.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MECAWI HOSTS SCREENING OF NEW DOCUMENTARY, JUSTICE ON TRIAL: THE CASE OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
What: First Detroit Screening on Mon. Nov. 1, 7:00 p.m.
Where: 5920 Second Ave. at Antoinette, North of WSU Campus
Cost: Free Admission
Contact: 313.671.3715
E-mail: panafnewswire@yahoo.com
URL: http://www.mecawi.org
Important Meeting As the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal Takes on Renewed Urgency With Upcoming Court Hearing
As one of the nation’s most closely-watched death row cases heads to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on November 9, Baruch College Professor of American History Johanna Fernandez teams up with director Kouross Esmaeli of Big Noise Films to investigate the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal in their new film, Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Fernandez wrote and produced the film, which Esmaeli directed. Justice on Trial will receive its first Detroit screening at the weekly meeting of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice on Mon., November 1 at 7:00pm.
A trial court convicted Abu-Jamal of first-degree murder in the 1981
killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal was
sentenced to death and has been on death row since 1982. During the intervening years, debate has raged between Abu-Jamal’s supporters and detractors, with his supporters maintaining his innocence and claiming that exculpatory evidence was suppressed during the trial.
In Justice on Trial, Fernandez asks what she describes as fundamental questions about the workings of the criminal justice system and the Abu-Jamal case—from his sentencing in 1982 to subsequent appeals. According to Fernandez, Justice on Trial presents the legal and factual arguments for reasonable doubt about the fairness of the guilty verdict.
Abu-Jamal is an award-winning radio journalist who sits on death row in a Western Pennsylvania prison where he has authored six books, including the bestselling Live From Death Row. On orders from the Supreme Court, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals will reconsider reinstating the death penalty on Nov. 9. With the federal appeal on the horizon, Fernandez and Esmaeli expedited completion of their four-year project in order to participate in revived conversations inspired by the case.
Trailer here:
http://bignoisefilms.org/films/tactical-media/114-justice-on-trial
Democracy Now news clip on the film here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/22/as_competing_films_offer_differing_views
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/justiceontrialthemovie
Saturday, October 23, 2010
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