Torture by Design: Saying No to the Architecture of Solitary Confinement (tags)
Friday, August 16 marked the 40th consecutive day of a multi-ethnic statewide prisoner hunger strike initiated from inside the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of California's Pelican Bay State Prison. As the horror of solitary confinement comes under increasing scrutiny in the US and around the world, human rights activists are confronting this public health and safety epidemic from a variety of angles. One group, called Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility has challenged solitary confinement in US prisons by recently launching a Change.org petition asking the American Institute of Architects to amend its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to prohibit the design of spaces for killing, torture, and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Lynne Stewart Petitions for Release (tags)
police state
To Feb 25 CA Hearing -Amnesty Intl: Proposed reforms will not alleviate the inhumanity... (tags)
Amnesty International has released a statement a few days before the California State Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing scheduled for 25 February. The hearing will review the reforms proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for the Security Housing Units (SHUs) and hear testimony from prison advocates, lawyers and family members.
Author Nancy Kurshan: Strategizing to Defeat Control Unit Prisons and Solitary Confinement (tags)
Author and longtime activist Nancy Kurshan’s new book, entitled Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle Against Control Unit Prisons, has just been released by the Freedom Archives. Kurshan’s book documents the work of The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), which she co-founded in 1985 as a response to the lockdown at the federal prison in Marion, Illinois. It quickly turned into a broader campaign against control unit prisons and human rights violations in US prisons that lasted fifteen years, until 2000.
New anti-solitary confinement petition to CA Gov. Brown (tags)
Please sign the petition to California Governor Jerry Brown: Stop the abuse of solitary confinement in CA prisons!
Amnesty International Denounces Torture in California Prisons --Interview w/ Tessa Murphy (tags)
2 weeks after the release of Amnesty Intl’s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement inside California’s ‘Security Housing Units’ (SHUs), entitled "The Edge of Endurance," prisoners initiated another hunger strike, with 500 participants statewide. In this new interview, Tessa Murphy speaks about her visit to California SHUs and Amnesty's report based on the visit.
Solitary Confinement on Trial --An interview with law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell (tags)
On the eve of Tuesday's Senate hearing on solitary confinement, we interview Angela A. Allen-Bell, a law professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge. The newly released issue of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly features an article by Prof. Bell entitled "Perception Profiling & Prolonged Solitary Confinement Viewed Through the Lens of the Angola 3 Case: When Prison Officials Become Judges, Judges Become Visually Challenged and Justice Become Legally Blind.”
Monday, February 20, 2012
RANCHO CUCAMONGA - Demonstrators from Occupy Riverside and Occupy San Bernardino Valley joined forces to express their solidarity with people detained at West Valley Detention Center, the main detention facility for the western portion of San Bernardino County.
Torture Is Unacceptable ? Step Up the Struggle to Stop It! (tags)
why we should all intensify our efforts to expose and defeat the repressive policies of the california department of corrections.
15 Years of Giving Voice to Women and Transgender Prisoners in California (tags)
An interview with Diana Block, Pam Faden, and Dierdre Wilson --three members of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, which is celebrating its 15th year with an event in SF on Friday Oct. 14.
Palestinians Protest Israeli Prison Hell (tags)
Palestine
California Prison Crisis Sparks Statewide Hunger Strike --interview w/ Critical Resistance (tags)
We discuss the recent statewide hunger strike initiated by prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison. The strike is put in context, alongside a statewide grassroots movement calling for cuts in prison spending to address California?s budget crisis, and a recent US Supreme Court ruling that calls for the reduction of California state prisoners by at least 30,000, in response to overcrowding.
Will Jerry Brown Close Pelican Bay Prison? (tags)
Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is under a federal mandate to release thousands of prisoners from California's overcrowded concentration camp-prisons. Abolishing the entire prison-punishment system and the death penalty would be best, replacing it with job training for decent-paying jobs in one year for those under 50 and lifetime good pensions for those over 50. He could start by closing Pelican Bay Prison, a vicious hellhole that would make Hitler proud.
The Angola Three: Torture in Our Own Backyard (in Spanish and English) (tags)
They were framed for murder after organizing a Black Panther Party prison chapter at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Together, Herman Wallace, Robert King, and Albert Woodfox have spent more than 100 years in solitary confinement.
L.A. gang members go union (tags)
'They take that street toughness that puts them into Corcoran or Pelican Bay [state prisons] and put it into this.... What we require is no fear. They're perfect for us.' Robbie Hunter, president of the Ironworkers Union
CA cannabis prohibition 4 CDC prison profit$$ (tags)
CDC state prison officials reap profits from the incarceration of non-violent cannabis offenders and the exploitation of rural economies..
CDC's Pelican Bay abuse of prisoners, rural community (tags)
Calling for shutting down of CDC's Pelican Bay State Prison for human rights abuses of prisoners, economic exploitation of disadvantaged rural community during construction and CDC's exploitation of low income prisoners detained into coerced slave labor for corporations..
Exposed at Abu Ghraib: Torture of U.S. Rule (tags)
The U.S. interrogators, officially called "Human Exploitation Teams" (HETs) have been terrorizing, raping, torturing and murdering prisoners in Iraq...
The following theory is about a police cover-up. The murder and mayhem described is true. The knife you see may have been one of the murder weapons.
Transcript of July 27 Demo in San Diego to Support Pelican Bay Prisoners (tags)
Complete transcript of the speeches given at the July 27 rally at the San Diego Federal Building to support the ongoing protests of prisoners at the Pelican Bay and Corcoran State Prisons over assignment to the Special Housing Unit (SHU) in inhuman conditions. Please see, "San Diego Police Attempt to Stop Demonstration Supporting Prison Hunger Strike," posted below, for more information on this action.
The Hunger Strikers in Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) (tags)
The Hunger Strikers in Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP)
Pelican Bay Prisoners to Begin Hunger Strike Tomorrow (July 2) (tags)
Pelican Bay Prisoners to Begin Hunger Strike Tomorrow (July 2) to Protest Security Housing Unit (SHU) Program