97 Years in Prison for a Mentally Ill Man Who Threw Feces
Anthony Gay was sentenced to an incredible 97 years in prison for throwing feces out his food slot, behavior experts characterize as symptomatic for severely mentally ill people held in solitary confinement. Yesterday the ACLU joined the National D...
Categories: Anthony Gay, mental illness, prisoners' rights, solitary confinement, Supermax, Tamms Correctional Center Tags:
Jail or Church? Between a ROC and a Hard Place
When the ACLU calls for alternatives to incarceration, this isn’t what we have in mind. A new program in Bay Minette, Alabama, offers an unconstitutional choice for non-violent offenders. Operation Restore Our Community, or “ROC,”...
Categories: government-funded religion, prisoners' rights Tags:
Attica 40 Years Later: Much Progress, But Much Still Left to Do
On September 9, 1971, in response to brutal living conditions and oppressive policies, prisoners rose up and took control of New York's Attica prison. The prisoners held more than 30 prison staff hostage, taking care to protect them from additional...
Categories: Alabama, Attica, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, health care, HIV, hunger strike, prison, prisoners' rights, shackling, solitary confinement Tags:
Charging for Prison Visits is Bad Business
We thought we’d heard it all when it came to the crazy ways corrections departments try to save money. That is, until we learned today that the Arizona Department of Corrections is charging people money to visit their loved ones in prison. Acco...
Categories: Arizona, budget, David Fathi, prisoners' rights, visitation Tags:
Charging for Prison Visits is Bad Business
We thought we’d heard it all when it came to the crazy ways corrections departments try to save money. That is, until we learned today that the Arizona Department of Corrections is charging people money to visit their loved ones in prison. Acco...
Categories: Arizona, budget, prisoners' rights, visitation Tags:
Charging for Prison Visits is Bad Business
We thought we’d heard it all when it came to the crazy ways corrections departments try to save money. That is, until we learned today that the Arizona Department of Corrections is charging people money to visit their loved ones in prison. Acco...
Categories: Arizona, budget, David Fathi, prisoners' rights, visitation Tags:
Rikers Island Spared by Irene, But What About Next Time?
Last month, I wrote about the invisibility of Rikers Island on some of New York City's subway maps. Unfortunately, this weekend Hurricane Irene taught us that it's not just a map on a train that fails to acknowledge the thousands of people on the...
Categories: disaster preparedness, emergency management, prisoners' rights, Rikers Island Tags:
Rikers Island Spared by Irene, But What About Next Time?
Last month, I wrote about the invisibility of Rikers Island on some of New York City's subway maps. Unfortunately, this weekend Hurricane Irene taught us that it's not just a map on a train that fails to acknowledge the thousands of people on the...
Categories: disaster preparedness, prisoners' rights, Rikers Island Tags:
Rikers Island Spared by Irene, But What About Next Time?
Last month, I wrote about the invisibility of Rikers Island on some of New York City's subway maps. Unfortunately, this weekend Hurricane Irene taught us that it's not just a map on a train that fails to acknowledge the thousands of people on the...
Categories: disaster preparedness, prisoners' rights, Rikers Island Tags:
Tennessee and Virginia Agree: Stop Shackling Pregnant Women
Women's dignity was vindicated twice in a double dose of justice on Thursday. A federal jury in Tennessee awarded Juana Villegas $200,000 as compensation for the suffering she endured when the Davidson County Sheriff's Office unconstitutionally sh...
Categories: criminal justice, pregnancy, prisoners' rights, shackling Tags: