Showing posts with label prison industrial complex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison industrial complex. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 June 2014

FBI exposes L.A. County Jail guards (video)

Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Victoria Kim (latimes.com, June 4, 2014); Rob Halford and Judas Priest, Chris Barnes and Six Feet Under
Jailhouse Sheriff's deputies walk past cells on the 3000 floor of the L.A. County Men's Central Jail in downtown, housing 19,000 detainees and inmates (Jay L. Clendenin/LA Times)


Police (Sheriff's deputies) eager to commit felonious assault with great bodily injury to create climate of terror and oppression for all awaiting their day in court. Innocent until proven guilty is reversed in this upside down world of darkness, the rotting -pool nestled in the center of the City of Lights.

One officer recently pleaded guilty to assembling an automatic weapon for private off-duty use, and 19 or so are up on felony charges of conspiracy and impeding an investigation... -- because the worst thing one can do in jail is fink on another. This is not the lore of prisoners, it is the active mantra of the jailers. To tell on them and expose their crimes means the full weight of the Force will be brought down on you to silence you and continue their illegal behavior. Exposure might stop the police brutality, homosexual officer-on-prisoner rapes, and unwarranted murders of prisoner (framed to look as if they committed suicide or were killed by other inmates, when more often than not a simple form of killing an inmate is by exposing him to great danger by placing him defenseless in closed quarters with deadly inmates and then saying it was "just one of those things" that happens in jail).

No one wants to hear about it. None of us wants to believe police of all people commit the most heinous crimes under color of uniform sanctioned by the state and all of complicit by our silence, police revenge killings, deputy sexual assaults, predatory-police and sociopathic-jailer torture. And so it continues. 

Accused criminals are blamed. They must be "causing" good, wholesome officers to behave this way. The Stanford Prison Experiment tells us that the social context contributes a great deal, but who becomes a police officer, a jailer, a punishment-meting patrolman (most are men)? The average person doesn't. Troubled, thrill seeking misfits do, as do many damaged people back from war, who enjoy wearing uniforms, vastly outgunning "enemies," and acting with impunity.

Breaking the Law? "There I was completely wasting, out of work and down/ All inside it's so frustrating as I drift from town to town/ Feel as though nobody cares if I live or die/ So I might as well begin to put some action in my life!/ CHORUS: Breaking the law, breaking the law.../ So much for the golden future, I can't even start/ I've had every promise broken, there's anger in my heart/ You don't know what it's like, you don't have a clue/ If you did, you'd find yourselves doing the same thing, too!/ CHORUS/ You don't know what it's like!" (Judas Priest/Rob Halford).
 
(Judas Priest) These were to good ol' days when a British rock band led by a closeted gay singer dressed extravagantly in leather and chains could sing staccato of "breaking the law."
 
Jail deputy told FBI agent of "unwritten rule" on fights with inmates
Victoria Kim (latimes.com)
Cop vs. cop, FBI vs. Sheriff's deputies
On top of the many protocols and regulations he learned in training, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy William David Courson was taught one "unwritten rule": If an inmate fights with a deputy, that inmate ends up at the hospital [or the morgue].
 
He learned the rule at a jail operations training session led by a sergeant and two deputies in a classroom full of about 50 deputies, Courson testified Wednesday [June 4, 2014]. Courson, who has worked at Men's Central Jail since graduating from the academy in early 2008, described [police] violence and [police] coverups among jail guards at the federal trial of six sheriff's officials on charges of obstruction of justice.
 
The "unwritten rule" was among the things Courson told [a female] FBI agent investigating the jails. He had asked the agent out on dates after seeing her at the jail facility. Over meals at a taco joint and a breakfast cafe, he talked to her about the jail's culture and specific incidents -- not realizing that all the while, she was wearing a wire and recording him as a potential target in the investigation into excessive force and corruption in the sheriff-run jails.
 
(6FU) Fast forward a few decades, and it's now the bad new days, as Florida Bigoot/yakkha/skunkape Chris Barnes growls "No Warning Shots," Six Feet Under, "Maximum Violence."
 
Courson said that during pill call one night not long after he started working at the jails, he saw a deputy come up from behind an inmate and start a fight. That same day, a senior deputy came up to him and asked him what he saw.
 
"I asked him what did he want to hear," Courson said. The senior deputy responded: "Say you were upstairs running the showers," he recalled the senior deputy saying.
 
None of the five [police] men and one woman on trial are accused of civil rights violations or excessive force [felonies they committed and commit on a routine basis]; they faces charges of attempting to impede the investigation by hiding a federal informant and threatening the case agent with arrest... More

"No Warning Shot"
Lyrics by Chris Barnes
Vientiane, Laos (Ianh3000)
"Die, die!/ The end of all law/ Four shots fired, another body falls/ I execute the guilty, violently/ Undercover killing spree, no warning shot// CHORUS: Die, [mister], die, die/ Die, [mister], die, die!/ Die, [mister], die, die! / I'll put a bullet between your [blooming] eyes// Pull the trigger, cock the hammer back/ Fifth shot to the back of your neck/ You're not a threat, you're a [blooming] disease/ Eradicate the enemy/ Dead body, another crime scene/ Blood-stained pavement, chalk outline/ Bullet holes, you're dead and cold/ The end of all law, no warning shot// CHORUS// I put the gun to the side of your head/ Squeezing the trigger/ Powder burnt skin, breaking through cranial bone/ Decayed brain tissue implodes/ Just another life that you thought you could control/ Just another pig, dead, with some extra holes/ You better think again, before I kill again/ You won't survive, when the bullets start to fly/ Protect and serve yourself/ Dug your own grave, now rot/ In that hole decay/ The murder will never stop, no warning shot// CHORUS

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Worldwide May Day marches: Cali, Russia...

With rise of Putin-ism and patriotism, former USSR restores May Day rally in Moscow (AP)
Topless FEMEN Int'l training at Paris HQ ends: We are returning to Ukraine and our countries to fight patriarchy with FEMEN! Be strong, sisters and brothers! We will win! (femen.org)
.
MOSCOW, Russia - About 100,000 people have marched through Red Square to celebrate May Day, the first time the annual parade has been held on the vast cobblestoned square outside the Kremlin since the fall of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991.
 
May Day anti-US drone protest (crwflags.com)
In keeping with Soviet-era traditions, Thursday's parade was organized by trade unions and honored the working person.

But it also celebrated Russia's annexation of Crimea and was seen as part of Pres. Vladimir Putin's efforts to stoke patriotic feelings. Marchers held up signs saying "Let's go to Crimea for vacation" and "Putin is right." Russian flags fluttered through the crowd. More

Los Angeles May Day 2014
"Capitalism divides - Mayday unites"
(NBC) Thousands of community advocates and immigrant rights supporters took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles today (Thursday, May 1st) and marched for worker rights and immigrant justice. Three different May Day marches were planned by three different groups. As a result of the marches, some downtown streets were closed Thursday, starting at 9:00 am. More + Video

Thursday, 13 March 2014

Why for-profit prisons fill with inmates of color

"Kids for Cash" is a shocking and riveting real-life documentary thriller that rivals fiction.

"Kids for Cash" examines the notorious true story of judicial scandal that has recently rocked the nation. Beyond the millions of dollars paid to corrupt judges to jail kids by private for-profit prisons, it exposes a shocking American secret. In the wake of the shootings at Columbine, a small town celebrates a law-and-order judge who is hell-bent on keeping kids "in line." Then one parent dares to question the real motives behind his brand of "justice." This real-life story reveals the untold stories of the masterminds at the center of the scandal to fill up for-profit prisons with any children available, guilty or not, and the chilling aftermath of lives destroyed in the process. It is a stunning emotional roller coaster.

A new study by a UC Berkeley graduate student has surprised a number of experts in the criminology field. Its main finding is that private prisons are packed with young people of color.
 
The concept of racial disparities behind bars is not new. Study after study, report after report, working group after working group has found a version of the same conclusion [ -- the country and courts are affected by ethnic prejudice, economic biases, and subtle racism that people find too uncomfortable to discuss or recognize]. 

Prisons for Profit (WQ)
The Sentencing Project estimates that one in three black men will spend time behind bars during their lifetime, compared to one in six Latino men, and one in seventeen white men. Arrest rates for marijuana possession are four times higher for black Americans than white Americans. 
 
Black men spend an average of 20 percent longer behind bars [when everything else is controlled for] in federal prisons than their white peers do for the same crimes.
 
These reports and thousands of others have the cumulative effect of portraying a criminal [in]justice system that disproportionately incarcerates black Americans and people of color in general.
 
An inmate walks through the yard at the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, which recently switched to private management.
Ruining lives the racist way: a young inmate of color walks through yard at the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, which recently switched to private for-pro management (Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images).
  
Int'l Women's Day, L.A. (WQ)
Berkeley sociology Ph.D. student Christopher Petrella's finding in "The Color of Corporate Corrections," however, tackles a different beast.

Beyond the historical over-representation of people of color in county jails and federal and state prisons, Petrella found that people of color "are further overrepresented in private prisons contracted by departments of correction in Arizona, California, and Texas."

This would mean that the racial disparities in private prisons housing state inmates are even greater than in publicly-run prisons. His paper sets out to explain why -- a question that starts with race, but takes him down a surprising path.

Age, race, and money
Prisoner (themonastery.org)
First, let's look at a bit of background. Private prisons house 128,195 inmates on behalf of the federal government and state governments (in 2010 numbers, which have increased by 2014). There is a continual debate among legislators and administrators as to which is more cost effective -- running a government-operated prison, with its government workers (and unions), or hiring a private for-profit company (like GEO or Corrections Corporation of America) to house prisoners. States like California, Arizona, and Texas use a combination... More

Monday, 3 March 2014

2014 Best Movie: "12 Years a Slave" (video)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Irma Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly MODERN SLAVERY
(MCS Trailer)

Director Steve McQueen brings this powerful Academy Award winning film, determined the Best Picture of 2014. It is based on Solomon Northup's astonishing true story. In 1841, Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free citizen, is kidnapped and sold as a slave. He is stripped of his identity and sold into American slavery system forced to work for a ruthless plantation owner (Michael Fassbender).
 
There are many modern slaves in America and around the world today (freetheslaves.net)
 
Prof. Michelle Alexander
Now he must find the strength to survive in this unflinching story of hope that swept the Spirit Awards and earned a Golden Globe for Best Picture, Drama. 

This gripping film features an all-star cast, including newcomer Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'O, Angelina Jolie-loving Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Paul Dano. 
(THNKR) The new "slaves" of the prison-industrial complex and drug war
 
THINK
Yale and Ohio State Univ. legal scholar Michelle Alexander's breakthrough book about the rise of mass incarceration in America argues that "by targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial subordnation and control just like the old Jim Crow system.

Thursday, 9 January 2014

Pussy Riot: "Words Will Break Cement" (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly (Eds.); Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement, Terry Gross (Fresh Air)
Pussy Riot collective as punks, Lobnoye Mesto, Red Square, Moscow (Denis Bochkarev)
 
Nadia, the face of Pussy Riot
Because of the Winter Olympics that are coming to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia, next month, Pres. Vlad Putin had Pussy Riot (the feminist collective) members released a few weeks early. They did not ask for the amnesty, nor would they have accepted it. They had no choice, and far from thanking Putin, they are condemning the atrocious gulag system that almost approaches the misery of the US Prison System with its death penalty, torture, homosexual rape, and widespread indefinite solitary detention. No other country is as bad as us, the U.S. But Russia has its own forms of abuse -- overworking inmates, starving them, threatening them... WHYY's Fresh Air with Terry Gross talks with Russian lesbian, mother, feminist, wife, journalist Masha Gessen about Pussy Riot, members of whom she interviewed after their release from prison.

"In war, you're either a collaborator or a resister. You don't get a choice to be neutral." 
- Masha Gessen
 
Wisdom Quarterly, being forced to choose, chooses to resist. Pussy Riot and Gessen do, too.
The Passion of Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot in glass cage in Moscow court, 10-10-12 ( Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images)

 
Words Will Break Cement
Words Will Break Cement (256 pages, $16)
Masha Gessen is a prominent journalist who is also a lesbian and an outspoken LGBT rights advocate in Russia. After Russia passed two anti-gay laws in June (2013), she decided it was time for her, her partner, and their children to leave. In late December, they moved to New York.
 
"The only thing more creepy than hearing someone suggest the likes of you should be burned alive is hearing someone suggest the likes of you should be burned alive and thinking, 'I know that guy.'"
 
That's what Gessen wrote recently, referring to an experience she had with one of Russia's most virulent homophobic public figures.
 
Gessen is the author of a critical book [A Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladamir Putin] about President Vladimir Putin, published in 2012. Her new book is about Pussy Riot, the Russian group that has used punk rock as a form of performance art to protest against Putin. 

I have face! - Putin
Its most famous "action" was in February 2012 inside a Moscow cathedral [in allegedly atheist Russia, which was never atheist but always quietly Christian and Buddhist] where band members danced and played air guitar as their boom box played what they called "A Punk Prayer":

"Virgin Mary, Mother of God, chase Putin out
...The phantom of liberty is up in heaven,
Gay pride sent to Siberia in a chain gang
...Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist!"
 
The action resulted in the arrest of three members of the group. Two of them, Nadezhda [Nadia] Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were sentenced to two years in prison.
  
Straight host Terry Gross (nymag)
"Not coincidentally, their arrest ... launched Putin's crackdown on the opposition and on his critics, which has lasted for the last two years," Gessen tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

"So, in a way, both their performance and their arrests marked the beginning of a new political era in Russia."
 
As part of Putin's pre-Olympics prisoner amnesty, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released last month, two months before their sentences were up. Gessen's new book is called Words Will Break Cement: The Passion Of Pussy Riot.

Interview Highlights
On the working conditions inside the women's prison where Nadezhda Tolokonnikova served time:
 
What had happened at her penal colony was that the sewing factory that has served as the lifeblood of every women's penitentiary institution in Russia, and many of the men's ones, was taking on more and more orders, so the inmates were forced to work longer and longer hours. By the end of the summer, the workday was about 17 hours... LISTEN TO INTERVIEW (37:52)

Saturday, 14 September 2013

Off the Cushion: Against the Stream

Seth Auberon, Gary Sanders, Wisdom Quarterly; Against the Stream, "Off the Cushion"
Against the Stream: 4300 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90029, (323) 665-4300

Dharma Punx centers (nationwide)
A commitment to social action and service is an integral part of Against the Stream's ethos (and Articles of Incorporation) as is the case with Wisdom Quarterly. Quietly, many members, facilitators, and teachers volunteer in many different ways.
 
An amazing amount of generosity and compassion inspires us and others to participate. This year ATS wants to make it easier for members of our spiritual community (sangha) to get involved. Because when we get Off the Cushion, we Step into the World.
  • Insight on the Inside: Prison Pen Pal Program
  • Volunteer at Against the Stream, Buddhist Meditation Society
  • One Earth Sangha and Earth Care Week, October 1-7, 2013
Insight on the Inside is ATS's pen pal program. It connects ATS members with prisoners around the country who are seeking support with their practice. This program has been going strong for two years and we are currently seeking more pen pals. If interested, visit the IOTI Information Page. This program has led to two of our facilitators (Gary and Corey) bringing meditation classes into Tehachapi State Prison in California on a regular basis.
 
Volunteer
Against the Stream depends on visitors and members to keep going. It is a non-profit and dependent on generosity to survive. But "generosity" does not just come in the form of monetary donations; it comes as time and energy as well. ATS is always in need of people to help edit talks, host classes, clean the centers, work on the Website, and more. Looking for a way to connect with the community? Visit the ATS volunteer page. It does not happen without you!
 
One Earth Sangha, Earth Care Week
Save our planet, save countless beings!
Last summer all of those attending the International Vipassana Teachers' meeting at Spirit Rock (including founder Noah Levine) responded to a request for teachings on climate change by making it a topic for concentrated discussion and action. One outcome was the creation of Earth Care Week, which will take place the first week in October each year. ATS teachers will offer teachings together with InsightLA and the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA (marc.ucla.edu).

The ATS community has already begun to get Off the Cushion to raise awareness and make a difference in this area. And after a successful Clinton Street Cleanup, ATS is keeping it up with the Melrose Neighborhood clean up, which takes place on the second Sunday of each month after the 11:00 am class. Join ATS for a quick clean up starting on Sept. 7, 2013. And stay tuned for another round of The Sock Project (collecting socks for the homeless).
 
ATS has a broad and diverse community with different interests and skills. All are invited to join in the commitment to ease suffering and bring compassion wherever it can be brought. ATS and WQ would also love to hear about other doings and ideas. Let's build a network to help everyone. More