If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Politicians have held strong to the conventional wisdom that being "tough on crime" will win elections and appease the public's appetite for safety. But the pendulum of public opinion is starting to swing in the other direction.
For the last two years, Mr. Khao has contacted every legislator he can, asking for official recognition and veteran's benefits for these thousands of U.S. citizens who were soldiers for the CIA's secret war in Laos. So far nothing has come to pass.
If the U.S. hopes to convince the rest of the world that its campaign against terrorism is not one-sided and self-serving, the country must figure out a way to cut the long life sentences and harsh treatment of the four jailed terrorism fighters.
This past week Chuck Colson passed from this life to reach the destination of his faith, to be embraced by Jesus who redeemed him from pride and prejudice and the pit of prison. He will be greatly missed.
In a 2-1 ruling today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the conviction of former Waterproof mayor Bobby Higginbotham, and vacated his sente...
His drawing power, and the respect many have for him, comes also from his perseverance and, in particular, from the fact that he is quicker to embrace than to distrust. He has become a human bridge between several citizen projects and, right now, that makes him a sharp stone in the Cuban government's shoe.
Imprisoned, former Taiwanese President Chen is currently tossed by the rough waters of a calculated denial of medical treatment and subsequent human rights abuses.
The U.S. Peace Index is based on analysis of homicide, violent crime, policing, incarceration rates and availability of small arms data. With improvements in all five of these indicators from the 2011 to the 2012 USPI, the U.S. was found to be more peaceful than at any time since 1991.
The objective of building a massive prison system didn't include mechanisms that would encourage prisoners to work toward earning freedom, to redeem themselves, or to prepare for a return to society as law-abiding citizens.
The privatization of prisons in recent years has meant the creation of a small army of workers too coerced and right-less to complain.
Of the 2.3 million prisoners now being held, more than 100,000 work in federal and state prison industry programs. This doesn't mean the usual cooking and cleaning, but work that produces products for sale -- about $2.4 billion dollars annually.
The practice of strip searching all jail inmates, just because they are detainees, is a violation of basic human rights and unnecessary. It is also a recipe for sexual abuse.
Don't let this corporate exodus from ALEC fool you into thinking that these corporations have grown a conscience or that they have given up on influencing the political process.
U.S. jails are overcrowded. By reallocating budgets to improving living conditions and education, crime rates will fall -- so will the stigma of U.S. incarceration and prosperity will rise.
No matter what the politicians or corporate heads might say, prison privatization is neither fiscally responsible nor in keeping with principles of justice. It simply encourages incarceration for the sake of profits.
On Monday, a divided Supreme Court ruled in Florence v. Burlington that any person arrested can be subject to a strip search. This ruling provides the country with an opportune moment to reflect on our epidemic of mass incarceration.
