Police, prison and abolition

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 14, 2018 11:04 am

'IT'S A FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS': AN INTERVIEW WITH A PRISON STRIKE ORGANIZER
A former inmate discusses the organization and demands behind the recent nationwide prison strike.

ARVIND DILAWAR17 HOURS AGO

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Prisoners at Oak Glen Conservation Camp line up for work deployment under the authority of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on September 28th, 2017, near Yucaipa, California.
(Photo: DAVID MCNEW/AFP/Getty Images)

From August 21st to September 9th, prisoners across at least 17 states refused work, boycotted commissaries, and participated in other forms of protest as part of a nationwide prison strike. The strike was called by inmates and endorsed by a number of outside organizations, such as the National Lawyers Guild and local chapters of Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, and the Green Party.

The strikers' demands included a number of improvements and reforms: better conditions; the end of prison slavery, racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole denials, as well as racist "anti-gang" measures; the repeal of legislation preventing prisoners from filing lawsuits against their facilities (Prison Litigation Reform Act), restricting or abolishing parole (Truth in Sentencing Reform Act), and mandating minimum sentences (Sentencing Reform Act); widespread access to rehabilitation programs; and the reinstitution of Pell grants and felon voting rights.

The strike's success is difficult to gauge. Even in the most restive of times, passing information between the "inside"—the world within prison—and the "outside" is challenging, as every legal channel is monitored by prison authorities and every illicit channel is furtive by nature. Additionally, state and federal departments of corrections seek to minimize any acknowledgement of inmate organizing so as to staunch its spread and to repress prisoners with impunity, making those departments unreliable sources.


That being said, strike organizers have confirmed that authorities have jammed cell phones in South Carolina; put facilities on lockdown in New Mexico; moved participants into isolation in Ohio, Indiana, and Texas; and punished suspected leaders in Ohio, Florida, and Texas.

The strike was timed to resonate with the history of slavery and incarceration in the United States, as well as to draw attention to recent tragedies. Its start marked the anniversary of the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner, who attempted to ignite a revolution to end slavery by traveling from plantation to plantation, freeing slaves and killing their masters, but was caught and executed by a white militia. August 21st is also the anniversary of the death of incarcerated organizer George Jackson, who was killed by San Quentin Prison guards while attempting an escape in 1971. The strike's end, on Sunday, September 9th, coincided with the anniversary of the 1971 Attica Prison uprising, in which a thousand inmates took control of their facility to bring attention to its deplorable conditions and were ruthlessly attacked by police, who killed 33 prisoners. The strike was also meant to bring attention to a riot aggravated by guards and administrators at South Carolina's Lee Correctional Institution last April, which left seven inmates dead.


A number of groups were essential to organizing the recent prison strike. Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a collective of incarcerated prisoners' rights advocates, was the primary inside organization, articulating strikers' demands and reporting on strike activity. On the outside, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a prison union, served as one of the main support groups, ferrying messages between inmates at different institutions, mailing prisoners strike literature, organizing solidarity actions, and fielding media requests.

Pacific Standard spoke with former inmate and IWOC spokesperson Kevin Steele during the strike about how it was organized, strikers' demands, and the connections between incarceration and capitalism.

section-break
What's been your role in organizing the current prison strike?

This is a strike that was called by enslaved people and is being led by enslaved people. My role is as a spokesperson for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee media team. I was once incarcerated, so I can speak to the injustice that takes place behind those walls.

How did you get involved with the IWOC?

I was introduced to the IWOC while incarcerated through a comrade who knew that I was already organizing. Initially, the IWOC sent an introductory letter to that comrade, but he wasn't an organizer, so he passed it on to me. I replied, telling the IWOC about myself and what I do, and we built a relationship from there.

What was the genesis of the prison strike?

This national prison strike was called due to the loss of seven comrades' lives in Lee Correctional Institution, where the prison is overpopulated as a direct result of the capitalist mindset of this country. The guards sat by and watched as a senseless riot took place, not once intervening, which led to the deaths. Jailhouse Lawyers Speak drafted a list of strike demands that must be met.

What is the connection between capitalism and prison?

Prison, just like racism, is a byproduct of capitalism. It's one's greed that allows him to no longer care about the existence of human life. Prisons were formed as a way to keep runaway slaves in chains, just as police officers came about as slave-catchers. It was never about crime and is still not. It was, and still is, about the capital of the state. Wherever you have capitalism, you will have overpopulated prisons. The establishment will deem things criminal if there's no gain in it; once they figure out a way to capitalize on it, it will no longer be deemed criminal. For example, cigarettes kill more people than marijuana, but only the latter is illegal. It has nothing to do with crime. It's capital.

How were prisoners in different facilities able to coordinate with each other and outside supporters to organize the strike?

To be an inside organizer takes discipline, courage, and patience. Inside organizers are able to reach organizers in other facilities via mail. Outside organizers can either visit those on the inside, write them, or be added to a call list to communicate via phone. In order for inside organizers to communicate with each other, there has to be a third party involved. This can become difficult, which is why patience is necessary.

How far has the strike spread?

Last time I checked, there were 17 states involved in the strike. There's no telling how many enslaved people or facilities are truly involved because of the lies that the prison officials tell. All revolutionary outside organizations are fighting in solidarity. Everyone has their role to play in this fight for human rights. Don't look at this as a fight to make prison a better place, because it's not. It's a fight for human rights. These men and women want to be treated as human beings.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

https://psmag.com/social-justice/fight- ... -organizer
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 25, 2018 8:30 pm

ACTIVISTS BRACE FOR FURTHER RETALIATION IN THE WAKE OF THE NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE

As media attention wanes, “this is the most dangerous period with any prisoner action,” one organizer said.
The national prison strike that swept headlines formally ended Sept. 9. Yet in many ways, advocates say, the work has just begun. Some prisoners are still engaging in protests, while others will face retaliation and need support. And the groups that helped organize the strike hope to use its momentum to push for lasting change.

Supporters say facilities in 16 states took part in the national action through work stoppages, hunger strikes, and boycotting commissaries and other prison facilities, although it’s hard to verify. Officials in Indiana, Nevada, and North Carolina confirmed to Mother Jones that protests and strikes had occurred in their facilities, while those in Alabama, California, Florida, Oregon, Michigan, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington denied any activity. Reports from participating prisoners and facilities tend to trickle in, so the number of participants could climb in coming months, said Brooke Terpstra, a member of the Oakland, California, chapter of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC).

While organizers had officially planned to end the strike on the anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, they said actions are still continuing in some facilities. “September 9th has passed, but it is up to the people in each prison who are participating in boycotts, hunger strikes, work strikes or sit-ins to determine the right day and time to close out their actions,” the groups organizing the strike, IWOC and Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, said in a press release on Sept. 11. They reported a series of continuing hunger strikes, including in California, Missouri, and Texas,, and a boycott of paying to use the phones in Michigan.

Karen Smith, a member of the Gainesville, Florida, chapter of IWOC, spoke to prisoners in Ohio who were still boycotting after Sept. 9. “People who are making progress or are feeling empowered are taking the strike beyond that,” she said.

But now that the national attention is waning, activists are gearing up for the next steps, knowing the work will now get even harder.

‘A much freer hand’
Organizers say retaliation by prison officials hindered participation in the strike. Smith said people reported being transferred, put in solitary confinement-like or other restrictive conditions that cut them off from communicating with fellow prisoners. Others said their phone privileges were taken away or the phones shut down.

In one instance, one of the prominent leaders of the strike, Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan, was placed in solitary confinement in Ohio State Penitentiary for receiving mail about and speaking about the strike, keeping him from participating or communicating. He engaged in a hunger strike to protest and has filed an appeal of the disciplinary action, saying there is “no tangible evidence” he was involved in “rioting, or encouraging others to riot” and calling them “fabricated charges.”

Another leader, Ronald Brooks, was transferred from the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola, to David Wade Correctional Center after 20 years at Angola. His family told The Appeal that the warden told them one reason for his transfer was punishment for his organizing work, although the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections said transfers are not disciplinary.

Either way, it had the same effect. Rev. Raymond Brown, who leads the New Orleans-based civil rights group National Action Now, had been communicating with Brooks and coordinating a rally outside Angola at the start of the strike to support the actions inside. “March, April, May, June, July we were going back and forth talking about what we should do,” he said. “Then out of nowhere Ronald disappeared. … Ronald got isolated, that choked off everything.” Brown said neither the strike nor the rally took place after that.

Brown is now trying to visit Brooks and highlight his situation. “Ronald can become a rallying cry,” he said. “Ronald right now is a political prisoner.”

Yet another leader, Kevin Rashid Johnson, who wrote an op-ed for The Guardian about the strike, was brought before the authorities in Sussex state prison in Virginia and faced being transferred to a different facility, although Terpstra said his group had heard from Johnson’s lawyer that his transfer has been stalled after protests.

But organizers are concerned that retaliation is about to get worse. “This is the most dangerous period with any prisoner action,” Terpstra said. “This is when attention wanes.” After prisoners in Florida staged a strike and boycott on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, prison officials put people in solitary confinement, shut down the phones, and threatened them with “Security Threat Group” status, which would label them as gang members for the rest of their sentences and limit their privileges. The last national prison strike in 2016 was also followed by reports of retaliation. In Alabama, after prisoners refused to work, they said prison administrators brought prisoners from other facilities to replace them and transferred those who had been leading the organizing. And at the Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan, prisoners reported a severe crackdown after the strike, where they were left in restraints on the ground for long periods of time, being forced to soil themselves because there was no access to a bathroom. Days later, according to the National Lawyers Guild, 250 prisoners were transferred out of the facility, many to maximum security prisons.

As the strike recedes from headlines and public attention, “prison officials know they have a much freer hand,” Terpstra said. So his group and others will be focused on assisting and protecting the victims of retaliation where they can. “Our primary duty right now is to keep people engaged and do anti-repression work,” he said, maintaining the attention and pressure. “We have to protect right now those who stood up first and foremost.”

Exposing ‘modern day slavery’
One of the top demands of the national strike was to end “prison slavery,” putting a spotlight on underpaid prison labor. But much of prison labor remains invisible and difficult to eradicate.

An estimated 900,000 of the 2.4 million prisoners in the U.S. work, often for hourly wages of just a few cents, or sometimes nothing at all. This cheap labor is used to support prison operations or is farmed out to governments or private businesses, such as staffing call centers, building furniture and office supplies, or farming. In federal prisons, about 17,000 prisoners work at more than 50 call centers, factories, and farms that sell goods and services to government agencies and private businesses. Prisoners have also been dispatched to fight fires and clean up after blizzards.

In Florida, prison labor is used not just to maintain the prisons themselves but also by local governments in public works like road and park maintenance and the upkeep of city buildings. They also make products used by the state government, such as furniture, uniforms, and license plates. “That’s what prison slave labor looks like around here,” Smith said.

Striking prisoners aren’t just demanding better pay for their work, but also better conditions. Prisoners in Angola have complained of being made to work long hours doing manual labor in the heat without enough water to keep them hydrated. Lawyers also contend that disabled prisoners are made to work without accommodations, putting them in dangerous conditions in fields and factories. Two prisoners died fighting fires in California this year. Because courts have ruled that incarcerated workers are not technically employees, prisoners are not covered by worker protections like minimum wage, overtime, or health and safety standards.

As the strikes and boycotts wind down in many facilities, attention will turn to pushing for concrete change. “The next step for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is the endorsement of a campaign to pressure politicians to enact legislative change,” the Sept. 11 press release said. “Both JLS and IWOC will be taking stock of the strike with their members over the coming weeks to consider what other future actions will be necessary to build a movement strong enough to push for the rights of incarcerated peoples.” Past prison strikes have had some limited impacts: The Attica uprising and other protests in the ’60s and ’70s led to small pay raises, the creation of prisoner-led unions, and safety improvements in some places, while a 2011 hunger strike in California’s supermax prison sparked small changes in solitary confinement policies and a lawsuit that prompted bigger reforms.

One particular area of focus will be a push to restore the right to vote for people who have lost it because of past convictions. “Organizing across states for the strike has mobilized prisoners as a unified voice to an extent we have never seen before,” Janos Marton, state campaigns manager of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Campaign for Smart Justice, told The Guardian. “The most tangible impact of that amplified voice after the strike ends is a specific effort over voting rights.”

In Florida, organizers will be pushing for Gainesville to cut its contracts that use prison labor. She pointed out that the kind of work done by prisoners in Florida for little to no pay could instead by done by local workers. “These jobs could be performed by them and, even better, they could be performed by union members who could make demands and use collective bargaining,” she said.

They also plan more efforts to raise awareness of prison conditions. “We will just become more coordinated,” Smith said. “Our network doubles with every action.” Her group has planned three teach-ins in the coming months to educate the community about their goals. A similar effort is underway in Oakland, where the local chapter is now figuring out how to incorporate all the new people who said they want to be involved in the movement during the strike.

“This action really solidified this movement as a coordinated force that can strike as one, which is what we’ve been building towards for years,” Smith said. “An epiphany has come out of this action.”

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:12 pm

Former guards allege pattern of inmate abuse at NC county jail
OCTOBER 29, 2018, BY JORDAN WILKIE AND FRANK TAYLOR

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A security gate at the Cherokee County Detention Center in Murphy. Frank Taylor / Carolina Public Press

MURPHY — Inmates at the Cherokee County Detention Center were repeatedly ordered to beat up other inmates, according to two former Sheriff’s Office employees who allege a pattern of mismanagement at the jail that has lasted over several years.

This comes on top of two separate and ongoing State Bureau of Investigation inquiries into the July death of one inmate a few hours after his arrest and into a May altercation among another inmate and two guards.

Joseph Preston Allen, a former sergeant with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office who retired in March after 11 years working at the jail, described the coerced fights among inmates. In some cases, he said, officers would target an inmate for a beating and then leave the inmate’s cell unlocked intentionally, prompting attacks by multiple other inmates.

Another former detention officer, Tom Taylor, quit the Sheriff’s Office in August after seven years, including working for Allen on the night shift for several years. Interviewed separately, Taylor confirmed Allen’s claims and provided additional details. Both deny involvement in the alleged misconduct.

In general, both described a culture of inexperience among detention staff and mismanagement by Sheriff Derrick Palmer, Chief Deputy Mark Thigpen and jail administrator Mark Patterson, putting inmates and officers at risk.

Carolina Public Press contacted Palmer, Thigpen and Patterson last week for comment on the allegations. Palmer and Thigpen each issued denials. Patterson did not respond prior to the publication of this article.

“During my time as sheriff, the detention center has continuously and consistently passed all state, federal and local inspections with flying colors,” Palmer said. “Any credible reports of complaints with employees have been handled quickly and swiftly. And furthermore, any credible allegations of criminal misconduct have been reported to the SBI and the district attorney’s office by my personal request.”

However, Allen and Taylor are not the only individuals who have contacted CPP about these cases and others. Since CPP published an article in June about allegations of excessive force by two guards, multiple Cherokee County residents contacted CPP about conditions at the jail, including former Sheriff’s Office employees and former inmates.

In addition to interviewing Allen and Taylor, CPP reviewed more than 500 pages of public records from multiple public agencies, including personnel files and records about these and other incidents at the jail. CPP also interviewed more than a dozen other individuals who were not willing to go on the record but who provided independent accounts supporting aspects of what Allen and Taylor have described.

Some requested records were censored without explanation. Some requests have gone unanswered entirely.

Carolina Public Press did not discuss with Palmer who made the allegations. But the sheriff, overall, questioned the credibility of former employees.

“Unfortunately, past or current disgruntled employees can report allegations and experiences that are either untrue or exaggerated as it pertains to their employment and there is very little that can be said to refute it due to personnel laws,” Palmer said.

“This agency has been more than forthcoming, referring all requests to the county attorney, and those records were produced as the public record law allowed,” he continued.

Palmer was elected in 2014 over incumbent Keith Lovin, for whom Palmer had previously worked. During the campaign, the two exchanged allegations about inappropriate handling of evidence. After taking office, Palmer brought in Patterson as the new jail administrator.

But according to former guards Allen and Taylor, conditions declined after Patterson took charge of the jail. The jail opened in 2008 and, with a capacity of about 150 inmates, is the primary detention facility for Cherokee County, which has a population of about 28,000. It replaced a facility from the 1920s that held less than a third of that number.

Because Allen believed that the jail was not being run properly and he did not want to be responsible for any of his officers getting injured, he requested a demotion from sergeant to officer, he said. He retired in March, he said, because he no longer felt safe working there, especially after undergoing hip surgery.

“I’ll be doggone if I’m going to get in a fight and my leg goes out, and then I’ll be at their mercy while they’re beating the piss out of me while I wait for somebody else to get back there,” Allen said.

“So I talked to the doctor. He told me, ‘You don’t need to do this anymore.’”

Allen also expressed concern about the safety of anyone working at the jail under current conditions.

“If I had family people over there, I’d be afraid for their lives,” he said.



The death of Joshua Shane Long
Among the cases raising concern at the Cherokee County Detention Center, Joshua Shane Long’s stands out because it involved his death.

Long came to the attention of Cherokee County authorities on the afternoon of July 11, when someone dialed 911. The caller said a man was “screaming and yelling and banging on his own truck” and possibly under influence of drugs, according to 911 records. A short time later, records show another 911 call from a second nearby location, describing the same behavior, though the man was then said to be shirtless.

(see all documents at link)

Sheriff’s deputies reported finding Long at the location with his truck, both matching the callers’ descriptions. At 6:20 p.m., they arrested Long, charging him with marijuana possession and resisting an officer, according to 911 records, which indicated that a “male subject” who was “combative” was being transported in a squad car.

Officers held Long at the detention center for about four hours. Officers placed Long in a holding cell at the front of the jail, sheriff’s records show. According to descriptions from Allen and Taylor, the cell has a large window and is plainly visible from the desk of the booking officer.

Long eventually collapsed and became unresponsive. Officers evacuated him, and he was taken by helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, which is located about 100 miles away by car. He was pronounced dead in the early hours of July 12.

The Sheriff’s Office asked the SBI look into Long’s death the same day.

A Carolina Public Press investigation into housing issues faced by those with mental illness in NCAllen said if he had been working at the jail, the outcome could have been different.

Because Long was reportedly intoxicated on unknown substances, Allen said he would not have booked Long into the jail.

“I would have sent him to the (Erlanger) Murphy Medical Center,” Allen said. The center is about 7 miles away.

Allen said that when he was a sergeant, if an officer brought someone in who had ingested an unknown drug, he would require that person be cleared by Murphy Medical Center before being booked.

“That way, I’ve protected everybody on my shift,” Allen said. “I’ve protected the inmate, I’ve protected myself, the lieutenant, the captain and the sheriff. You can probably ask anyone over there. I’ve probably sent more to the hospital than anybody over there — I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Records provided by the Sheriff’s Office do not indicate that Long was placed on 24-hour watch or that he was seen by medical staff.

Sheriff Palmer said in a statement made to the Cherokee Scout in July that deputies saw Long take a pill, which the sheriff described as a breath mint. That should have been a red flag, Taylor said.

“If (Long) ingested something, he shouldn’t have even been in that jail,” Taylor told CPP in an Aug. 31 interview. “If he ingested something, he should have been on 24-hour watch. But really, they shouldn’t have even accepted him.”

Palmer told CPP last week that he cannot comment on the details of the case while it is the subject of an ongoing SBI investigation.

The collapse
In response to CPP public records requests, the officials with the Sheriff’s Office provided records that included two incident reports related to Long’s death. But what officials provided were copies of reports that had been altered to obscure the “incident narrative,” which could include a detailed description of what happened to Long once he entered the jail.

Despite the requirements of the North Carolina public records law to do so, no explanation was provided to explain why the information was redacted.

(see link)

Also, officials with the Sheriff’s Office did not respond at all to a public records request for records showing the rounds detention officers had taken to check on inmates.

However, they did provide 911 records and a copy of a Sheriff’s Office report to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, per CPP’s request.

What those records appear to show is that officers did not see Long collapse, even though Allen says officers would have been able to because of the location of Long’s cell and its large window.

The Report of Inmate Death submitted to state health officials says that Officer Glenn Holloway saw Long alive in his cell at 11:12 p.m. Two minutes later, records show, Officer Larry Bolen found Long unresponsive.

(see link)

Another round of 911 records show that Officer Tiffany Enloe called for an ambulance at 11:16 p.m., shortly after Bolen found Long unresponsive about four hours after he was booked into the jail. Long was not breathing, 911 records show.

Officers began CPR. According to a transcription of 911 records, an unnamed officer in the background advised that Long “might be coming down off of something.”

At 11:57 p.m., Officer Frank Daly filed paperwork releasing Long from detention on an unsecured bond, jail records indicate.

Emergency medical responders arrived at 11:59, 911 records show. They found Long unresponsive, receiving CPR and with a strong pulse. Emergency responders intubated him to help him breathe, according to 911 records.

(see link)

At 12:43 a.m., the helicopter was on its way to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The jail’s Report of Inmate Death shows Long’s time of death as 1:21 a.m.

An autopsy and a toxicology test were performed, though results have not yet been released. The Sheriff’s Office released a statement on its Facebook page on July 18 indicating that the Office of the Medical Examiner provided a preliminary report verbally, saying the medical examiner found no obvious cause of death or obvious trauma to Long. However, the statement acknowledged that a toxicology analysis was still being conducted.

Carolina Public Press requested autopsy and toxicology reports from the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Aug. 14 but had not received them prior to publication of this article.

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This screenshot shows the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page post, in which the sheriff described preliminary information from the State Medical Examiner’s Office regarding the death of Joshua Shane Long.

‘Jailhouse justice’
Other incidents that Allen and Taylor described did not result in anyone’s death but point to potentially serious issues with what the former guards call a culture of “jailhouse justice” in which vulnerable inmates are not protected and detention staff uses some inmates as “enforcers” to beat up other inmates.

They also describe a practice called “pop the locks,” where a certain inmate’s door is unlocked, allowing other inmates to go into his room and attack him.

In one situation, Corey Hall, a former inmate, was known by officers to be at risk of assault, Allen said. When Hall had previously come through the jail, he was kept in the medical or maximum-security wings or sent to Clay County for protection.

On March 14, Hall was in the A-Pod dayroom with other inmates, who attacked him, according to Allen. As with the death of Long, the Sheriff’s Office released a partial copy of the jail incident report to CPP but blocked out the description of the incident without explanation, providing only date, time, location and officers involved.

Zoom


Allen said, Hall “got the piss beat out of” him by other inmates. He was moved to the medical wing the same day, inmate housing records show.

Over the next six weeks, Hall was moved out of the medical wing three more times and was always back in the medical wing within two days. CPP has attempted to reach Hall but has not heard back.

Allen said that when he was a detention sergeant, he was responsible for assigning new detainees to their housing. He would ask the person coming in if he had problems with anyone on the units. If so, Allen would put the inmate somewhere else to keep the peace. That practice is no longer allowed, he said.

When he protested to Chief Deputy Thigpen and Capt. Patterson, they brushed him off, Allen said.

“Captain told me, ‘This is jail, they might as well get used to it,’” Allen said of the meeting with Thigpen and Patterson.

Asked Friday about the alleged remarks, Thigpen issued a denial.

Mark Thigpen
Cherokee County Chief Deputy Mark Thigpen

“As to the quote, I do not have any recollection of making any such comments,” he told CPP in an email.

Thigpen also said that such a position was outside his role at the Sheriff’s Office.

“As chief deputy, I do not make decisions on housing of inmates — those decisions are made by Capt. Patterson and/or the appropriate detention supervisor,” Thigpen said. “On occasion, I may be asked for input on those decisions, but do not make the final decision.”

Carolina Public Press’ investigation revealed that allegations about Hall’s situation may not be isolated. CPP has received and investigated multiple allegations of jail personnel mistreating other inmates.

In one case, Robert Theodore Lee was arrested in Murphy on March 29 by Sheriff’s Officer Timothy Howe on misdemeanor charges of communicating threats, simple assault and resisting an officer, according to Sheriff’s Office records. According to Lee, his wrist was injured during the arrest. He was not moved to the medical wing and claims his injury was not treated.

Lee provided CPP with medical records from April 14, the same day he was released according to jail records, showing a diagnosis of a fractured left wrist.

Palmer told CPP last week that he cannot respond to any medical allegations from inmates. “Many of the inmate claims of medical issues can be easily refuted, but we are bound by HIPPA Laws from divulging information,” he said.

Questions remain, SBI investigates
Carolina Public Press previously reported on an altercation between inmate George Victor Stokes and Detention Sgt. Joshua Gunter and Officer Wesley “Gage” Killian on May 2. The offices of the district attorney and the sheriff asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into possible excessive use of force on May 14.

Stokes’ case raises federal issues. Cherokee County law enforcement housed Stokes for the U.S. Marshal Service while he awaited a transfer.

Palmer fired both Gunter and Killian. The timeline suggests the decision to terminate the officers came after news media inquiries apparently triggered an internal investigation.

Again, the sheriff did not release details on the incident, though CPP has requested them.

According to Allen and Taylor, Gunter and Killian went “hands on” with Stokes, a practice that they said jail leadership encourages. Taylor said the inexperience of many detention staff makes matters worse.

Gunter told CPP in May that he thinks he handled the situation appropriately, though he said Killian’s conduct was less professional. At the time of the incident, Gunter had been working in the detention center for less than three years. Killian has worked there for less than three months.

Killian did not comment directly on the situation, but his lawyer, Zeyland McKinney, told CPP in May that a jail security video would show his client did nothing wrong. State law prevents the Sheriff’s Office from releasing that video without a court order.

Palmer told CPP last week that, as with the Long case, the ongoing SBI investigation prevents him from commenting on the Stokes case. He noted, however, that he would be eager to discuss the SBI’s findings when they are released.

“I look forward to the SBI reports on the Long and Stokes incidents and I will review the matter when the facts are in, as opposed to responding to innuendo,” Palmer said.

Cherokee County Courthouse in Murphy, N.C. Frank Taylor / Carolina Public Press
After inmates are housed at the Cherokee County Detention Center while they await trial, they might appear before a judge or have their case heard by a jury at the Cherokee County Courthouse in Murphy. Frank Taylor / Carolina Public Press

Legal expert: Conditions ‘violate North Carolina law and the Constitution’
Palmer acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations, but questioned why anyone who was telling the truth about such things had not come to him with their claims.

“In your list, you cite things that are very serious in nature,” he told CPP last week. “If there is truth to these things, then why have they not been reported to me, the SBI or the District Attorney? Why am I finding out about these allegations in a newspaper article? Just because someone, or several people, say it and print it does not mean that it is true.”

If true, however, allegations of a pattern of misconduct at the jail from Taylor and Allen would constitute serious criminal violations and infringements on the rights of inmates, one expert said.

“Essentially, any of the facts you described would violate North Carolina law and the Constitution,” said James Markham, the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina School of Government who has expertise in North Carolina laws related to jails.

“Those are not even really close calls — all of that sounds terrible,” Markham said after reviewing a summary of the allegations.

Inmates at a state prison generally serve sentences after being convicted. But most inmates at a county jail are often only accused of violating the law and are being held until they can make bail or a judge orders their release.

“Jails are mostly — two-thirds to three-quarters — pretrial inmates,” Markham said. “And so the constitutional analysis of various issues is a little different (from prisons) — it’s ‘due process’ instead of ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ because the inmates are technically not being punished yet.

“But the ultimate framework (of inmate rights) winds up being pretty much the same.”

Editor’s note: Carolina Public Press is continuing to investigate these and other incidents at the Cherokee County Detention Center. Contact CPP’s offices at 828-774-5290 if you have any information.

https://carolinapublicpress.org/28277/f ... unty-jail/
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 02, 2018 11:28 am

Fantastic news from @CorrectionsPA today! Thank you to everyone who joined in this fight to #StopDOCcensorship in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. You made this happen. We hope other prison systems are taking note: we stand united against book bans--now & always.

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Courtesy Books to Prisoners @B2PSeattle

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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 02, 2018 1:50 pm

HOW ALABAMA’S FINES AND FEES SYSTEM PREYS ON THE POOR
Terrance has been jailed repeatedly over court debt for fishing to feed his family.
Terrance Truitt is a self-described “all-around outdoorsman.” In and around Montgomery, Alabama, the father of two teens hunts deer and wild boar, and angles for fish. Sometimes fishing is a favorite pastime that ends in a fish fry with friends, and sometimes it’s a necessity to feed his family.

“I have to pay rent, and I have to feed myself, too. That’s part of the reason I go fishing,” said Truitt, who has at times been homeless. He doesn’t fish in public waterways, like rivers or lakes, because he doesn’t have a boat, a necessary asset for catching enough fish. Instead, to feed his family, he fishes at local ponds, which are typically privately owned, but without the required permit.

Foraging has sustained Truitt through hard times but also worsened his financial insecurity: He has been fined on at least three previous occasions for fishing in private ponds, a misdemeanor, for which he has has racked up about $1,400 in court fines and fees.

Last month, Truitt spent eight days in jail, including his 39th birthday, for missing court appearances related to a 2017 fishing conviction. His absences were no accident; he was behind in paying a $25 monthly court debt fee and knew that showing up for hearings would most likely mean he would be thrown in jail. “When they catch me, they catch me,” he figured.

This was at least the ninth time Truitt went to jail for falling behind in paying his court debt, according to records provided by the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. Other court fines and fees stem from traffic violations and possession of marijuana.

“It always ends up costing me, it gets me off track,” he said of his stints in jail. “You hold a man … bills start to pile up. And they expect you to pay, I find that really difficult to deal with.”

In Alabama, people convicted of minor crimes are frequently slapped with large court debts, regardless of their ability to pay, according to a recent report released by Alabama Appleseed. Researchers there interviewed 980 people from 41 Alabama counties who were in debt to a court.

Among respondents, the median amount owed to courts was $2,700, a formidable sum for anyone living paycheck to paycheck, and nearly 70 percent of payees had been declared indigent by the courts. Over 80 percent of respondents reported forgoing other bills, including rent, medical bills, car payments, child support and food, to stay on top of their court payments.

The average amount of time respondents had been in debt was about four and a half years. Over half of respondents reported that the amount they owed grew over time because of interest, collections fees, and other financial penalties; roughly the same percentage didn’t think they would ever be able to pay off what they owed.

The report revealed a cycle of poverty compounded by the criminal justice system. “Often the first is a [violation] that they wouldn’t have done if they weren’t living in poverty,” said Leah Nelson, a researcher at Alabama Appleseed. “Like driving without insurance or with an expired car tag or a nonworking seat belt.” Poor people often can’t afford to keep up with the payments and maintenance necessary to avoid such violations, Nelson said, and this can lead to a suspended license, leaving a person with the difficult choice of commuting to work illegally or quitting a job. To pay off their court debt and disentangle themselves from the criminal justice system, nearly 40 percent of respondents said they resorted to illicit activity, such as selling drugs, theft, or sex work. For example, 1 in 5 people whose debt originated with a broken tail light or speeding ticket ultimately committed more serious crimes, including felonies, to pay their debt.

Some of the revenue generated by court fines and fees goes toward running the courts, but mostly it functions like a state tax. In fiscal year 2017, Alabama’s Unified Judicial System took in about $14 million from court debt, whereas noncourt-related entities received over five times that amount, around $75 million. The bulk of that revenue, about $37 million, went straight to the state’s general fund. The struggling public education system received about $1.9 million of the fines and fees revenue, the police officer’s retirement fund took in over $1million, and the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources—the agency that ticketed Truitt for fishing without a permit—received over $800,000.

At the same time, state and local government collect fewer tax dollars from residents in Alabama than in any other state. Experts attribute this to a lower base of wealth in the state, but also to the state’s far-below-average tax rates. In a 2017 analysis, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama ranked the state 46th in the nation in tax collection as a percentage of total personal income earned by residents.

State lawmakers “would rather burden the poor, in Alabama particularly people of color, instead of raising taxes,” said Brock Boone, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama.

The legality of jailing those who can’t pay, like Truitt, is questionable. While Truitt was technically incarcerated for missing court appearances, practically speaking, he was in jail for his inability to make his court payments. Debtor’s prisons are illegal, yet Truitt was sent to jail on Oct. 8 on the condition that he be released, according to court documents, “upon payout of $500,” the total he owed for a 2017 fishing case, plus an additional $20 jail booking fee. It’s hard to imagine how someone who is in jail for missed payments would come up with that much money from behind bars. In Truitt’s case, RFK Human Rights paid for his release, but in the past, he said, he would have been jailed for a month. Boone, a former public defender, said that there isn’t a standard practice governing how long to keep a person in jail who can’t make their payout. Some judges will offer jailed persons a certain amount of credit toward payout–$25 per day in jail, for example. The Fifteenth Judicial Court of Alabama, where Truitt was tried, did not respond to a request for comment on how payout amounts were set, and how long a person would stay in jail if he or she was unable to pay.

Truitt is thankful that he was released, but he is still struggling to find financial stability. “I’m going to try to start working as much as I can,” he said. Of course, eight days in jail interrupted that plan and cost him his job at Costco. “It kind of puts bricks upon bricks on your life.”

https://theappeal.org/the-appeal-podcas ... re-system/

SC just as bad, if not worse
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Sat Nov 03, 2018 3:00 pm

PHONEZAP MONDAY: Ohio strikers attacked with mace
Seven people incarcerated in Toledo Correctional Institution went on strike Saturday, November 2nd). They refused to be moved into the yard for recreation time until a SWAT or SRT team moved them, and are going on hunger strike and refusing food. SWAT and SRT teams have used rubber bullets against protesters in Toledo before. They are protesting renovations to add more solitary confinement wings. In the past 2 months, the state has been trying to turn the entirety of Toledo into a lockdown institution. As a result, people have been sent to solitary because other units didn’t have room, and for minor infractions that wouldn’t have been reason to send someone to solitary confinement otherwise.



Many people in the “4B Overflow” unit in D4 North were sent there because the (lower security/not solitary confinement) 4B unit did not have enough room. People in solitary (including overflow solitary) can’t receive books, and guards in the 4B Overflow unit have been abusive, spit in food, refused to give inmates food trays or given them empty trays, and harassed Black inmates. Attempts to go through the grievance procedure have been ignored. According to a comrade on the inside, “once they finish the solitary confinement blocks, you sneeze the wrong way you’re going to the hole. Everyone in the whole institution is getting sick and tired of cops trying to lock the whole place down.”



Four of the people on strike are David Easley, Richard Harris, Elijah Bowen, and James Ward. Three others are striking, but asked to be anonymous. They’re demanding that people on the 4B Overflow unit be moved out of solitary confinement (and have asked to be moved to the A1 East unit).

Call to protest the expansion of solitary confinement, racist harassment, and the denial of food at the whims of abusive officers. They expect to be met with riot cops (SWAT and SRT), maced, and shot at with rubber bullets for doing this, and have asked that supporters on the outside phone zap in solidarity.

Mass calls this Monday, 11/5! but you can start now as well.



ODRC Interim Director Stuart Hudson: 614-387-0588



Ohio Correctional Institution Inspection Committee: 614-466-6649



Office of the Inspector General: 614-644-9110



Toledo Correctional Institution: 419-726-7977





Reportacks on calls can be posted here in comments.






Updates
Update from an outside supporter that the strikers have been chemically attacked Saturday evening: "Can’t breathe, need a shower, they ain’t letting him take a shower, shot Easley and James Lee with mace... Everybody got chemicals on their bodies, eyes nose face, they’re supposed to let them decontaminate but they’re making them sleep in it. They aren’t letting people file complaints. They got rapid fire chemical weapons, not letting people wash it off or take showers. Used mace against multiple people and aren't letting them decontaminate. I just called and the officer said that he's not allowed to discuss security concerns with me."

https://incarceratedworkers.org/phone-z ... acked-mace
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Wed Nov 07, 2018 12:04 pm

Colorado passes Amendment A, voting to officially abolish prison slavery
Two years after a similar amendment failed, voters approved a measure that will remove state language allowing forced prison labor without pay.
By P.R. Lockhart Updated Nov 7, 2018, 6:39am EST
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Colorado voters backed Amendment A, which removes state language allowing prisoners to be forced into labor without pay. RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images
More than 150 years after the ratification of the US Constitution’s 13th Amendment, Colorado has officially abolished slavery. Coloradans voted Tuesday for Amendment A, a measure removing language in the state constitution that allowed prison labor without pay.

Colorado is one of more than a dozen states whose state constitution technically still allows involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment. The state’s language closely resembles a contested passage that remains in the US Constitution 13th Amendment, which outlawed chattel slavery, but allowed those convicted of crimes to be forced into labor.

This is what that language looks like in the 13th Amendment (emphasis added):

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction

And this is what the language looked like in Colorado’s state constitution before voters backed Amendment A (again, emphasis added):

There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.

The previous language was strongly opposed by local activists like Jumoke Emery, a lead organizer with Abolish Slavery Colorado, one of the groups that has worked alongside the state ACLU and NAACP to build support for the new amendment.

“I hope that this puts forth the message that our past doesn’t have to be our future, that by and large we as Americans are interested in fixing our mistakes,” Emery told CNN last month when discussing the amendment. Amendment A was sponsored in the Colorado state legislature by three Democrats, Rep. Jovan Melton, Rep. Joseph Salazar, and Sen. Angela Williams, and one Republican Sen. Larry Crowder.


Similar language in the 13th Amendment, which is alternatively referred to as the “exception clause” or the “punishment clause,” has been criticized by those affiliated with movements like the National Prison Strike.

The Tuesday result makes Colorado one of the first states to remove this language from its constitution. Governing magazine notes that bills “with similar goals failed this year in Wisconsin and stalled in Tennessee.”

But this wasn’t the first time that such a proposal has appeared on Colorado ballots. In 2016, with the backing of state politicians and various local advocacy groups, a similar measure called Amendment T aimed to remove the “slavery as punishment” language from the state constitution. But the amendment was rejected by the state’s voters, a development experts like University of Colorado Law professor Melissa Hart blamed less on overt racism and more on the confusing way the amendment was written.

After failing in 2016, Colorado activists mounted a new campaign to remove the slavery language
With the amendment on the ballot for a second time in 2018, advocates argued that the state had a second chance to officially abolish prison slavery. A number of groups and officials weighed in on the measure earlier this year before it was added to the ballot.

“We did our due diligence ahead of time, and we had legal assistance from the state legislature, from the ACLU,” Emery told the Colorado Independent last month.

Supporters of the measure largely focused on simplifying how the amendment was worded on ballots in an effort to avoid this highly confusing question from 2016:

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning the removal of the exception to the prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude when used as a punishment for persons duly convicted of a crime?

At the time, supporters of the measure argued that this question was simply too convoluted for voters, and nearly 300,000 voters skipped the question when filling out their ballots two years ago.

“I don’t think this was a pushback at all by individuals saying they wanted slavery in the Constitution,” Rep. Joe Salazar, a Democrat who sponsored legislation to get Amendment T on the 2016 ballot, told the New York Times. “I just think the language was too confusing.” In addition to Salazar, Amendment T was also sponsored by state Democrats Sen. Jessie Ulibarri and Rep. Jovan Melton.

In 2018, the ballot question was changed to be clearer, and much like two years prior, the proposal enjoyed unanimous support from Colorado state legislators and local advocacy groups. The measure received very little public opposition, and no groups mounted an organized challenge to the amendment.

However, Amendment A did face some criticism. In an October article in the Colorado Independent, Dan Rubinstein, a Republican district attorney representing Mesa County, argued that the amendment called unnecessary attention to a settled issue, and that removing the slavery language was redundant. He added that the amendment would effectively ban community-service punishments and have the unintended consequence of increasing the number of people incarcerated or those subject to significant fines.

That argument was swiftly challenged by other local experts. “This amendment has a pretty clear reading, and I really don’t see it causing the mischief that some are worried about,” University of Colorado law professor Phil Weiser told the Independent.

While official opposition to the amendment has been limited, activists promoting Amendment A have been subjected to harassment. On Monday, Emery a posted a photo of a pile of burned Amendment A flyers on Facebook, saying that the flyers had been burned on his front porch. In an interview with the Colorado Sun, Emery likened the action to “a cross burning in my front yard.”

In the run-up to the election, there was also some confusion due to the state’s voting guide, also known as a Blue Book, which is given to voters shortly before they cast their ballots. The book is required to include arguments for and against each proposed amendment, and noted that voting yes to remove the language “makes an important symbolic statement,” adding that the 25 states who currently do not have any language about slavery in their constitutions still have prison work and community service programs.

But the book also noted that the amendment “can be viewed as making a change to the Colorado constitution that is redundant,” wording that might lead some people to vote no.

With the amendment passing successfully this time, advocates finally achieved the victory they fought for two years ago. But they acknowledge that this victory is more about the reaffirming the state’s values than immediately changing prison labor conditions.

“This won’t have a direct impact on prison reform or how inmates are treated,” Kamau Allen, an organizer with Abolish Slavery Colorado, told Fox News in July. “But it is definitely more impactful than removing something like a Confederate monument, because this will actually change the text of a living document.”

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... bor-passes

That's a win only if it affects things on the ground.
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Thu Nov 15, 2018 4:34 pm

FOLLOWING A NATIONWIDE STRIKE, PRISONERS SAY THEY FACE REPRESSIVE REPERCUSSIONS
A member of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee discusses the retaliation prisoners face when fighting for their rights.
ARVIND DILAWARNOV 14, 2018

Image
(Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr)

Voters in Florida last week approved Amendment 4, a ballot measure restoring voting rights to most felons. Although prisoners themselves were unable to cast ballots in support of their eventual re-enfranchisement, they were nevertheless leading the charge.

Amendment 4 shone a familiar light on the reinstatement of felon voting rights, which, along with issues regarding the conditions of incarceration, law enforcement, and legislation curtailing prisoners' other rights, were focal points of a nationwide prison strike earlier this year. From August 21st to September 9th, prisoners across 17 states and one Canadian province refused work, boycotted commissaries, and staged various forms of protest, all in the name of inmates' rights. The strike built solidarity among participants, won the attention of the public, and forged the way for initiatives like Amendment 4.

Despite this success, many prisoners say they continue to pay a steep price for their struggles. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a labor union for prisoners that served as one of the strike's main support groups, began to receive word of repression even before the strike began—and apparently still does months after its conclusion. IWOC accuses corrections department employees of retaliating against inmates nationwide with solitary confinement, physical abuse, destruction of property, institutional lockdown, and obstruction of access to legal aid, communications, and other resources. These accusations have also been reported by the National Lawyers Guild, which endorsed the strike.


Pacific Standard spoke with Brooke Terpstra, a member of the IWOC's national media subcommittee, about the strike and the retaliation from authorities that followed.

section-break
What inspired the recent prison strike?

In the larger sense, another national strike was inevitable—a logical progression and escalation in this period of increasing agitation and collective prisoner action dating roughly back to the Georgia work stoppages of 2010. This is a period of increasing prisoner politicization and action.

In the immediate sense, the strike was called directly in response to the state-manipulated bloodbath that went down at Lee Correctional Institute in South Carolina the night of April 15th. In the end, 12 prisoners lost their lives at each others' hands across three dormitories in a fight stoked and set up by the jailers. It was a wake-up call illustrating that it was up to prisoners themselves to take action to fight the abomination of their conditions, as well as to galvanize themselves as a class and unify, rather than ever kill each other again at the behest and approval of the state.


How many inmates participated in the strike?

Numbers of participants are hard to ascertain due to the obvious difficulties of communications with those inside being constricted or prevented by the state, the prison system being so vast and pocketed, as well as open participation guaranteeing repression and steep consequences for any striker. But we continue to receive correspondence confirming strike activity at additional facilities. As of now, we have confirmation of strike activity by prisoner groups in 32 facilities across 17 states and one Canadian province.

What kinds of actions did inmates take during the strike?

All kinds of activity have been confirmed. The initial call by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak [a group of incarcerated prisoners' rights advocates] in April asked for four different types of possible action: work stoppages, sit-downs, hunger strikes, and boycotts of phones and commissary. The most common actions were hunger strikes and boycotts, which isn't surprising since [corrections department employees] without exception meet work stoppages and sit-downs with brutal retaliation and punishment.

How have prison authorities responded to the strike?

[Corrections department employees] across the board nationwide adopted the strategy of simultaneous denial and preemptive repression. While denying there was any organizing or strike activity, they were engaging in wholesale surveillance, shakedowns, transfers, and trumping up charges on high-profile prisoners to isolate them in solitary even well before the start date of the strike. On the outside during and after the strike, it was noted that different departments of corrections were engaging in lockdowns and, in order to hide their repression, were not reporting them on visitation hotlines or webpages. One institution in Florida was even sequestering and locking down a group of prisoners in a shower area rather than declare a facility-wide lockdown.

The largest action taken in response to the strike was in Pennsylvania, where the Department of Corrections concocted a system-wide dope overdose scare as pretense to institute, first, a statewide lockdown of all facilities, and then, to enact a draconian surveillance and repression package affecting visitation and all forms of mail, including legal correspondence. There has been absolutely no physical evidence presented even now to support the claims of a widespread dope wave coming through the mailrooms and is now largely considered a "mass psychogenic" episode by epidemiologists.

The road to change is undoubtedly a long one, but have there been any signs of the strike's success?

Yes, there have been signs of success on several levels. On the legislative level, for example, campaigns to restore voting rights and end life without parole in several states have picked up momentum, and now are readily seen as part of a larger unified human rights platform for prisoners.

Underlying the broad set of 10 national, long-term demands was a realpolitik set of immediate goals for the strike. These goals were threefold: one, drive the prisoners' human rights crisis into the mainstream media and conversation; two, galvanize prisoners themselves as a unified class against the prison system, rather than against each other, so that an atrocity like Lee Correctional can never happen again; three, for self-organized and a self-determined prisoner movement to take their rightful seat at the table of outside movements and speak for themselves. Incontrovertibly, the strike gained ground on all three fronts.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TAGSCRIMINAL JUSTICEINCARCERATED WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEEPRISON REFORMPRISONSPRISON STRIKESINCARCERATION
BY ARVIND DILAWAR
Arvind Dilawar is a contributing writer at Pacific Standard.

https://psmag.com/news/following-a-nati ... ercussions
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 16, 2018 6:39 pm

Secret prison report alleges poor treatment of inmates, misleading reports on care
BY SAM STANTON

sstanton@sacbee.com

October 31, 2018 12:13 PM


A federal judge Wednesday released a scathing internal report about psychiatric care inside California’s prisons that accuses the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of providing care for inmates that is far below what has been mandated by decades of court fights.

“CDCR has a broken system of care because information is not accurately reported upon, and reliable commonsensical action has not been taken,” the 161-page report from Dr. Michael Golding, the chief psychiatrist for the prison system, reads. “I have documented that patients are not getting to appointments on schedule and in confidential spaces, that appropriate consultation is not occurring, and worse, appropriate medical decision making by psychiatric physicians has been overridden.

“I have documented that CDCR has prevented errors from being fixed, and worse, CDCR has not allowed anyone to know that there has been inaccurate reporting to the courts and to our leadership. Such knowledge would allow problems to be identified so they can be fixed. A prison mental health system needs to ensure that patients see their psychiatrists and other mental health providers on schedule, on time and confidentially, in an office.

“CDCR is not doing that, as has been demonstrated in this report.”

( all documents can be viewed at link. bp)

Golding’s report, which he leaked to a federal prison overseer on Oct. 3 after compiling it following visits to various California prisons, was ordered released with some redactions by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, who is expected to call Golding to testify about his findings and whether CDCR committed “fraud upon the court” with inaccurate information. She ordered another hearing in the case for Monday “to discuss options for moving forward in light of the current circumstances.”

Lawyers for the state had fought to delay release of the document until an internal investigation could be done, but Mueller rejected that, and the document filed on the court docket Wednesday morning contains serious allegations about how inmates are being treated, including one incident where a psychotic inmate was not given medication and ended up ripping out her eye and swallowing it.


“She was on one to one suicide watch by an LVN [a licensed vocational nurse]. This LVN 16 was tasked with constantly observing her. MG] and was to be in a strong gown, however refused to comply with issue orders,” Golding wrote. “It was documented that she was ‘psychotic’ at the time of admission.

“Documentation from the one to one observer noted ‘screaming’ every fifteen minutes for most of the four hour period. She did not receive medications during the four hour period prior to the event. The psychiatrist on call was not contacted by [either] nursing, the admitting psychologist, or custody. After touching her eye for several seconds, while in the supine position on the floor, the I/P used her left hand to enucleate her left eye [take out her left eye].

“The alarm was sounded and two correctional officers entered the cell. The I/P was asked to relinquish the eye, however, she put the eye in her 25 mouth and ingested it.”

Corrections officials have declined previously to comment on the report because it is part of pending litigation, but CDCR press secretary Vicky Waters issued a statement Wednesday flatly rejecting Golding’s allegations.

“The department strongly disagrees with this individual’s allegations, and looks forward to a fair and thorough review and hearing of all the facts,” Waters said. “We worked closely with lawyers representing prisoners, as well as the court appointment monitors, for many years to improve the mental health of inmates, and our dedicated and well-trained staff will continue to provide appropriate care and treatment.”

The report concludes that CDCR routinely mischaracterizes the frequency inmates are seen by psychiatrists, and that fewer than 50 percent of inmates are seen on time.

Some inmates lose out on appointments because they are transferred to new prisons and the clock starts all over for them, he wrote.

“Every time a mental health patient is transferred from one institution to another, CDCR resets the clock to the maximum Program Guide interval between psychiatry appointments,” he wrote. “They use this Resetting The Clock strategy to deem as compliant appointments occurring later than the maximum interval the Program Guide permits (such as 170 days rather than 90 days...).

“They reset the clock every time a patient is transferred, irrespective of when the patient last saw a psychiatrist,” meaning that a patient transferred “more than once might not have another psychiatry appointment for eight months.”



Those who are seen by psychiatrists sometimes have their appointments under extreme conditions outside their cells, Golding added.

“Cell side visits often mean talking to patients through a slit in a pretty much solid metal cell door that usually has a tiny window (which really can’t be used when speaking to the patient because of the location of the doctor’s head when speaking through the slit),” he wrote. “And sometimes the doctor has to speak very loudly to be heard, due to extremely noisy conditions.

“Several other patients and custodial officers can then hear what is supposed to be a confidential conversation. And the cellmate who is usually also in the cell can completely hear the conversation.”

Golding has not spoken publicly since the existence of his report became known, and the judge has ordered CDCR not to retaliate against him or anyone who helped him compile the report.

The report also echoes complaints by another whistleblower, Dr. Karuna Anand, a former prison psychiatrist who told The Bee last week that officials routinely allow psychologists to perform duties with patients that should only be allowed by psychiatrists.

“It seems that certain types of decisions, including level of care changes, are made by the supervising psychologist in consult with the clinician (psychologist or social worker),” one psychiatrist — whose name was redacted — wrote to Golding. “In a setting like this, you must choose your battles, so I don’t say anything.

“On a few occasions I did get frustrated because I felt strongly about certain cases and spoke up, expecting people to respect my view, but certain staff just argued against me.”

Michael Bien, the lead attorney representing more than 30,000 inmates who need mental health care in the prisons, said the report’s conclusions were disturbing, but that he was not ready yet to blame CDCR officials for intentionally misleading him and the court about practices inside the prisons.

“I would need to know more about who made what decision and when before I would say it was all intentional,” Bien said. “The biggest thing for me, it seems that there is a devaluation, a denigration of psychiatric care and that, according to Dr. Golding, that put inmates at risk.”

Inmates in the main exercise yard at Folsom State prison in Folsom on Friday, November 17, 2017. The chief psychiatrist for the state’s prison systems has compiled a secret report alleging that corrections officials have been misleading a federal court and inmates’ lawyers about psychiatric care in the prisons. Randall Benton Sacramento Bee file

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime ... 92430.html
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Re: Police, prison and abolition

Post by blindpig » Sun Nov 25, 2018 3:06 pm

Number of Incarcerated Americans:

1950: 166,123
1960: 212,953
1970: 196,429
1980: 501,800
1990: 1,148,700
2000: 1,945,400
2010: 2,279,100
2017: 2,362,500

Almost like we live in a military-police-surveillance state.

(Sources: Bureau of Justice, Sentencing Project)

Courtesy @philosophrob
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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