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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Media, Revolution, and the Legacy of the Black Panther Party--interviewing Kiilu Nyasha (tags)
I initiated a correspondence with George Jackson in early 1971, and months later, got a one-hour visit in the holding cell of San Quentin. I’ve met no one before or since more dedicated to revolutionary change....George was one of the three “Soledad Brothers,” whose story began on January 13, 1970 when a tower guard at Soledad State Prison shot and killed three Black captives on the yard, leaving them unattended to bleed to death.
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..
Fluoride, uranium X, cancer in workers (tags)
Fluoride and uranium based nuclear weapons manufacture in the 1950's exposed many North American citizens of African descent to radiation and fluoride exposure..
The Hunger Strikers in Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) (tags)
The Hunger Strikers in Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP)