The Prison Thread

AtLast · 10-29-2010, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katsarecool

Nat, I don't have the link handy but it can be found on ABCNEWS Nightline and World News Tonight. The story is about a man who was accused of murder and spent over 25 yrs in prison. Recently someone else cofessed to this Cold Case. the board of clemency in AZ reccommended to Gov Jan Brewer that he be released. She has refused and said "I made my decision and that is final!" I will come back with the link but wanted to report this miscarriage of justice in the great state of Arizona. More trash on that bitch! Excuse my language but I detest that woman.

GeeeeZussssss!!

Now, please tell me this man can get help with this! Due process is in the US Constitution! And, wouldn't Brewer be subject to legal charges for this? OK, we need the attorney members to speak to this. Wouldn't federal jurisdiction supercede her in a case such as this?

I am mortified about this! Not that I don't know that there are many miscarriages of justice in the US as well as quite a divide between POC and the ruling class in terms of arrest, conviction and incarceration- guilty or not.

Most people don't give a damn about these kinds of things until or unless it happens to someone they love or a good friend or family member. They just think a verdict of guilty is it and have no problem with innocent people serving time.

Frankly, after seeing some of the coverage of Brewer during election debates, I think she suffers from dementia. I am not being cruel- have a brother-in-law with Alzheimer's and it is an awful disease. Brewer shows many of the symptoms. Let us not forget that Ronald reagan also displayed symptoms while in office. geez, and he was just the person that had the codes for that briefcase to use nukes!

katsarecool · 10-29-2010, 07:33 PM

I agree. There is certainly something wrong with Brewer's thinking process!!!! I also would like to know what is up with these hard mean spirited women of the Republican Party like Brewer, Angle, Palin, O"Donnell, Whitman, etc.!!!

AtLast · 10-29-2010, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katsarecool

I agree. There is certainly something wrong with Brewer's thinking process!!!! I also would like to know what is up with these hard mean spirited women of the Republican Party like Brewer, Angle, Palin, O"Donnell, Whitman, etc.!!!

I know! I think it has to do with years of being with tight-assed, wealthy, white men that can't dance. Repression can do many things! Also, think about all the GOP politicians that have been nailed for seeing sex workers.

AND consider living with (and sleeping with) a Rush Limbaugh! Hummm... if so much wasn't at stake, I could almost feel sorry for these GOP women.

to them all!

Nat · 11-09-2010, 05:20 PM

http://www.clarionledger.com/article...hort-by-cancer

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi man who spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit has died less than two months after his name was cleared in the case.

Bobby Ray Dixon died Sunday from cancer. He was 53. Jerry Dixon says he's glad his brother lived long enough to see himself cleared by DNA evidence in the 1979 rape and murder of a Hattiesburg woman.

In September, a circuit judge set aside the guilty pleas of Bobby Ray Dixon and another man in the slaying of Eva Gail Patterson after the Innocence Project New Orleans filed a petition on their behalf. The judge is expected to rule later on a posthumous petition for a third man, Larry Ruffin, who died in prison in 2002.

Nat · 11-17-2010, 04:02 PM

"After I did the teaching, one of the people who sat with me at the dinner table was a Palestinian man who's become a very good friend of mine named Salaam Kalili (sp?). I said,"What brings you to do hospice work?"

And he said,"Well, my experience in prison."

I said,"What's that?" because I've done a lot of work in prisons and am quite interested.

He said,"I was a journalist in Jerusalem during the late '60s, before and after the '67 war, and I was writing about a free Palestinian state and Palestinians having part of Jerusalem as a capital, and at that time it was forbidden to do so in Israel. So periodically I'd be carted off to jail or prison and I spent about 6 years on and off in prison. I'd write and they'd arrest me. And while I was in prison, once in a while I would get beaten or tortured in some way - which happens in war. It happens on both sides, it's not like one side - it's just what happens when people go insane in war."

He said, "So one day, I was in this prison, and this guard was beating me and kicking me, and I died. There I was on the floor and this boot was kicking me and blood was coming out of my mouth, and the police report says that I died.

"But actually what happened is all this pain, and then it stopped and I was floating on the ceiling watching it...I watched it and I felt so peaceful because it wasn't really my body then, it was just what was happening.

"And then something interesting happened. What happened is that the bubble of the sense of my consciousness observing myself popped, broke, and all of the sudden I became everything. I was the walls of the prison and the old green paint flecking off the walls. I was the body there, but I was also the boot kicking it, and the dirt under the fingernails of the guard, and I was the goat whose bleating you could hear from the window outside, and I was all of it. I knew that I was never born and never could die. Then I looked at this and I said, 'What is all the fuss about?' I felt so peaceful and so joyful because I knew who I really was.

"And then a few days later I woke up inside this broken body at the bottom of a cell, but I was smiling. It took a while for my body to heal, and I got out of prison, but I couldn't do anything for the Palestians anymore. It didn't make any sense. I married a Jewish woman, I have Jewish-Palestinian children...

"I stay with people who are dying because I want to let them know that it's nothing to be afraid of, basically."

There is a certain way that as we come and practice together here and you sit through your pain and fear and loneliness and depression and ideas and all the different things that will come and go, there's a steadying of your being in the midst of the tension in the body. There's an opening of the mindfulness of resting in awareness itself as the mind tells its stories and the unfinished business of emotional waves come and go, that allows us to return to what we already know, to who we already are.

Afis (sp?), the Iraqi poet, he says,"The mind is ever a tourist wanting to touch and buy new things, then toss them into an already filled closet." And you sit here, and the mind does all that stuff, and something greater than that, the knowing, the awareness itself, becomes able to contain and be the witnessing of it, and beyond that, as Salaam experienced."

Zencast 161 - Ten Perfections

Nat · 11-17-2010, 06:36 PM

Federal Lawsuit Reveals Inhumane Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison

Youth at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility Suffering Brutal Conditions, Horrific Physical Abuse and Denials of Educational and Medical Services

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Jackson, MS civil rights attorney Robert B. McDuff today filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the for-profit operators of Mississippi's Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), charging that the children there are forced to live in barbaric and unconstitutional conditions and are subjected to excessive uses of force by prison staff.

Among the named defendants in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of all the teenagers and young men in the facility, are the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority and the Geo Group, Inc., the second largest private prison company in the country. The facility houses youth between the ages of 13 and 22 who have been tried and convicted as adults.

The lawsuit describes a facility well known for its culture of violence and corruption –a culture that is perpetuated by WGYCF’s incompetent management. Some prison staff exploit youth by selling drugs inside the facility. Other staff members abuse their power by engaging in sexual relationships with the youth in their care. Many youth have suffered serious and permanent physical injuries as a result of the WGYCF’s deficient security policies and violent staff members. Youth who are handcuffed and defenseless are kicked, punched and beaten all over their bodies. Youth secure in their cells are blinded with chemical restraints.

Billy · 11-17-2010, 06:40 PM

Everytime I see this thread I get this warm fuzzy feeling Wrong prison thread

moxie · 10-18-2011, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nat

Federal Lawsuit Reveals Inhumane Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison

Youth at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility Suffering Brutal Conditions, Horrific Physical Abuse and Denials of Educational and Medical Services

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Jackson, MS civil rights attorney Robert B. McDuff today filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the for-profit operators of Mississippi's Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), charging that the children there are forced to live in barbaric and unconstitutional conditions and are subjected to excessive uses of force by prison staff.

Among the named defendants in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of all the teenagers and young men in the facility, are the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority and the Geo Group, Inc., the second largest private prison company in the country. The facility houses youth between the ages of 13 and 22 who have been tried and convicted as adults.

The lawsuit describes a facility well known for its culture of violence and corruption –a culture that is perpetuated by WGYCF’s incompetent management. Some prison staff exploit youth by selling drugs inside the facility. Other staff members abuse their power by engaging in sexual relationships with the youth in their care. Many youth have suffered serious and permanent physical injuries as a result of the WGYCF’s deficient security policies and violent staff members. Youth who are handcuffed and defenseless are kicked, punched and beaten all over their bodies. Youth secure in their cells are blinded with chemical restraints.

This is old, but am just now reading it.

Private (or for-profit) prisons are known for their bad conditions and poor pay for staff. CCA is one of the major players in the private prisons and last time I knew they were trying to pay prison guards $9.25/hr and of course were horribly understaffed because of the low rate in pay. And they, along with the state/federal-run prisons are moving away from rehabilitation to help reduce recidivism and focus on punishment; but the lack of rehabilitation is moreso present in private prisons. Recidivism is good for them, it ups the demand and keeps their beds full, which makes them money.

Will write more later. This video is from 2008 but has some good information.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/video.html

10-29-2010, 07:33 PM	#2
katsarecool Member How Do You Identify?: Femme Preferred Pronoun?: She, Her, Woman Relationship Status: Single Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Between Athens and Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 1,236 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 3,849 Thanked 1,765 Times in 734 Posts Rep Power: 323367	I agree. There is certainly something wrong with Brewer's thinking process!!!! I also would like to know what is up with these hard mean spirited women of the Republican Party like Brewer, Angle, Palin, O"Donnell, Whitman, etc.!!! __________________

11-09-2010, 05:20 PM	#4
Nat Senior Member How Do You Identify?: bigender (DID System) Preferred Pronoun?: he/him or alter-specific Relationship Status: Unavailable Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Central TX Posts: 3,537 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 11,047 Thanked 13,968 Times in 2,589 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	http://www.clarionledger.com/article...hort-by-cancer JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi man who spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit has died less than two months after his name was cleared in the case. Bobby Ray Dixon died Sunday from cancer. He was 53. Jerry Dixon says he's glad his brother lived long enough to see himself cleared by DNA evidence in the 1979 rape and murder of a Hattiesburg woman. In September, a circuit judge set aside the guilty pleas of Bobby Ray Dixon and another man in the slaying of Eva Gail Patterson after the Innocence Project New Orleans filed a petition on their behalf. The judge is expected to rule later on a posthumous petition for a third man, Larry Ruffin, who died in prison in 2002. __________________ I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl. - Bjork What is to give light must endure burning. -Viktor Frankl

11-17-2010, 04:02 PM	#5
Nat Senior Member How Do You Identify?: bigender (DID System) Preferred Pronoun?: he/him or alter-specific Relationship Status: Unavailable Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Central TX Posts: 3,537 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 11,047 Thanked 13,968 Times in 2,589 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	"After I did the teaching, one of the people who sat with me at the dinner table was a Palestinian man who's become a very good friend of mine named Salaam Kalili (sp?). I said,"What brings you to do hospice work?" And he said,"Well, my experience in prison." I said,"What's that?" because I've done a lot of work in prisons and am quite interested. He said,"I was a journalist in Jerusalem during the late '60s, before and after the '67 war, and I was writing about a free Palestinian state and Palestinians having part of Jerusalem as a capital, and at that time it was forbidden to do so in Israel. So periodically I'd be carted off to jail or prison and I spent about 6 years on and off in prison. I'd write and they'd arrest me. And while I was in prison, once in a while I would get beaten or tortured in some way - which happens in war. It happens on both sides, it's not like one side - it's just what happens when people go insane in war." He said, "So one day, I was in this prison, and this guard was beating me and kicking me, and I died. There I was on the floor and this boot was kicking me and blood was coming out of my mouth, and the police report says that I died. "But actually what happened is all this pain, and then it stopped and I was floating on the ceiling watching it...I watched it and I felt so peaceful because it wasn't really my body then, it was just what was happening. "And then something interesting happened. What happened is that the bubble of the sense of my consciousness observing myself popped, broke, and all of the sudden I became everything. I was the walls of the prison and the old green paint flecking off the walls. I was the body there, but I was also the boot kicking it, and the dirt under the fingernails of the guard, and I was the goat whose bleating you could hear from the window outside, and I was all of it. I knew that I was never born and never could die. Then I looked at this and I said, 'What is all the fuss about?' I felt so peaceful and so joyful because I knew who I really was. "And then a few days later I woke up inside this broken body at the bottom of a cell, but I was smiling. It took a while for my body to heal, and I got out of prison, but I couldn't do anything for the Palestians anymore. It didn't make any sense. I married a Jewish woman, I have Jewish-Palestinian children... "I stay with people who are dying because I want to let them know that it's nothing to be afraid of, basically." There is a certain way that as we come and practice together here and you sit through your pain and fear and loneliness and depression and ideas and all the different things that will come and go, there's a steadying of your being in the midst of the tension in the body. There's an opening of the mindfulness of resting in awareness itself as the mind tells its stories and the unfinished business of emotional waves come and go, that allows us to return to what we already know, to who we already are. Afis (sp?), the Iraqi poet, he says,"The mind is ever a tourist wanting to touch and buy new things, then toss them into an already filled closet." And you sit here, and the mind does all that stuff, and something greater than that, the knowing, the awareness itself, becomes able to contain and be the witnessing of it, and beyond that, as Salaam experienced." Zencast 161 - Ten Perfections __________________ I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl. - Bjork What is to give light must endure burning. -Viktor Frankl

11-17-2010, 06:36 PM	#6
Nat Senior Member How Do You Identify?: bigender (DID System) Preferred Pronoun?: he/him or alter-specific Relationship Status: Unavailable Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Central TX Posts: 3,537 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 11,047 Thanked 13,968 Times in 2,589 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	Federal Lawsuit Reveals Inhumane Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison Youth at Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility Suffering Brutal Conditions, Horrific Physical Abuse and Denials of Educational and Medical Services The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Jackson, MS civil rights attorney Robert B. McDuff today filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the for-profit operators of Mississippi's Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), charging that the children there are forced to live in barbaric and unconstitutional conditions and are subjected to excessive uses of force by prison staff. Among the named defendants in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of all the teenagers and young men in the facility, are the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority and the Geo Group, Inc., the second largest private prison company in the country. The facility houses youth between the ages of 13 and 22 who have been tried and convicted as adults. The lawsuit describes a facility well known for its culture of violence and corruption –a culture that is perpetuated by WGYCF’s incompetent management. Some prison staff exploit youth by selling drugs inside the facility. Other staff members abuse their power by engaging in sexual relationships with the youth in their care. Many youth have suffered serious and permanent physical injuries as a result of the WGYCF’s deficient security policies and violent staff members. Youth who are handcuffed and defenseless are kicked, punched and beaten all over their bodies. Youth secure in their cells are blinded with chemical restraints. __________________ I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl. - Bjork What is to give light must endure burning. -Viktor Frankl

11-17-2010, 06:40 PM	#7
Billy Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Billy~ Preferred Pronoun?: Mr Princess ~ Relationship Status: Married April 20 2013 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Nashville TN Posts: 1,730 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,059 Thanked 3,871 Times in 1,053 Posts Rep Power: 20503085	Everytime I see this thread I get this warm fuzzy feeling Wrong prison thread