I am rocked to my core by this expose.The indifference, deception, corruption & disregard for the law of judges on the Louisiana 5th Circuit court,the complicity of the press & the state Supreme Court, & the too often naked brutality of the legal system… https://t.co/5x1Wqz0pJq
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) November 4, 2023
justice system failure
“The rot from slavery and its aftermath are still with us, in a thousand different ways.”
A Black man will spend the rest of his life in prison for stealing hedge clippers after the Louisiana Supreme Court denied his request to have his sentence overturned last week. https://t.co/IuVmbNSjd8
— CNN (@CNN) August 6, 2020
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The Louisiana Supreme Court denied a request to review a LIFE sentence issued to a Black man convicted of trying to steal hedge clippers from a storage room in 1997. Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, the court’s lone Black justice, was the sole dissent. https://t.co/YVpQkFBP7D
— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) August 4, 2020
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Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson: A life sentence for a failed attempt to steal hedge clippers is a “modern manifestation” of the “Pig Laws designed to re-enslave African Americans.” https://t.co/L4GYMz4G2R
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 7, 2020
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“The rot from slavery and its aftermath are still with us, in a thousand different ways.” @JoyAnnReid discussing Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the prison sentence of a Black man who is serving life for stealing hedge clippers in 1997. https://t.co/Wa6mkTll4u
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) August 8, 2020
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The Louisiana Supreme Court refused to review the life sentence imposed on a man for attempted theft of hedge clippers. The court’s only Black justice dissented and identified this as a harsh legacy of racially-biased punishment. https://t.co/zMGbwqFMTC
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) August 7, 2020
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“If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost one million dollars to punish Mr. Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers,” wrote the sole dissenter in the court’s decision.https://t.co/ffTLXdB9cF
— NPR (@NPR) August 7, 2020
We must end the absurdity of the United States having more people in jail than any other country on Earth
Black youth only account for about 20% of the total youth population in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania—but they were 20X more likely than their white peers to be arrested and charged as adults in 2016 & 2017. via @theappeal https://t.co/JxCF3mYbii
— Sentencing Project (@SentencingProj) November 27, 2018
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Because of the use of a notoriously unreliable roadside drug test, a Georgia woman endured arrest, a million-dollar bond, and months of jail—over "meth" that was actually cotton candy.@laurenk_gill via @theappeal https://t.co/hBwIzThYCP pic.twitter.com/MAqAkl8R4e
— Inst. Policy Studies (@IPS_DC) November 27, 2018
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Reform of the criminal justice system must include a nuanced approach to the prosecution and sentencing of all crimes. Larry Krasner is one of the only DAs in the country that doesn't limit his reform to the prosecution of nonviolent crimes. https://t.co/GStcWahbi6 by @abgutman
— The Appeal (@theappeal) November 20, 2018
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For framing innocent Black men, a Florida police chief gets three years in prison. Raimundo Atesiano, the former Biscayne Park police chief, directed his officers to frame innocent men for a series of unsolved burglaries. https://t.co/6lqspz71Fn
— The Appeal (@theappeal) November 27, 2018
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We must end the absurdity of the United States having more people in jail than any other country on Earth. We have a racist criminal justice system that must be fundamentally transformed.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 25, 2018
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“I know what I did was wrong, and I had to pay the price for my actions… But this is the most extreme price there is.”
There's more than one family separation crisis in this country. https://t.co/nz2X3OZefp
— Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) December 5, 2018
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BREAKING: An Illinois appeals court upheld a decision to sentence a man to 10 years in prison for stealing $33 worth of underwear from a Family Dollar store. https://t.co/7hQstxIFFQ
— Injustice Watch (@injusticewatch) December 5, 2018
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Bail was created to ensure that people show up to their court date, but instead it’s just used to punish poor people. @jduffyrice pic.twitter.com/kDEYAVysgP
— Liz Plank (@feministabulous) November 30, 2018
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Delaware prisoners say they were beaten, stripped and tortured for months after a February uprising, w/ guards physically and verbally abusing them to this day. https://t.co/MYsk5sKdT6
— Matt Ferner (@matthewferner) November 30, 2018
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Fred Clay was arrested for murder when he was 16, found guilty, and then spent nearly 38 years in prison in Massachusetts before he was exonerated. Clay has been out of prison for over a year but has yet to see any compensation from the state. https://t.co/rrTa616JFe
— The Appeal (@theappeal) December 3, 2018
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“I’m not trying to escape, I just wanted to cut myself,” Molly, who has a severe mental illness, told Illinois corrections officers. She used the razor wire from the fence to cut her arm. The prison responded with pepper spray and punishment. https://t.co/zqcw10QdNh
— The Appeal (@theappeal) December 5, 2018
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Life imprisonment has little effect on crimes rates, yet there are more than 200,000 lifers in prison. Watch our full video on the real impact of life sentences here: https://t.co/4nFkdPOvx3
Learn more at: https://t.co/pENPanaahG #EndLifeImprisonment #20YearsisEnough pic.twitter.com/YXiVMkmQ94
— Brave New Films (@bravenewfilms) December 5, 2018
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Where is the justice? A Tennessee court ruled that Cyntoia Brown, a #SexTrafficking survivor, must serve 51 years in prison before she is eligible for parole https://t.co/0JaprhGtgH pic.twitter.com/x4XiOEixNk
— Blavity News (@Blavity) December 7, 2018
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"Cyntoia [Brown] never described herself as a child sex slave, a term that is now being used to characterize her experience. … Such sensationalist language … obscures the complexities inherent in the experiences of young people in the sex trade.” https://t.co/CJH489IwzF
— The Appeal (@theappeal) December 11, 2018
#CJreform Tweets 12.11
If we want to change our communities we cannot continue to close schools and fill prisons. We need #CJreform now. https://t.co/0SjnBQSgjP
— TalkPoverty.org (@TalkPoverty) December 7, 2015
Head of Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority steps down https://t.co/K3tNcFq8dm
— NBC Chicago (@nbcchicago) December 7, 2015
RT @atlantic: Minority girls 2x as likely as white girls to be incarcerated: https://t.co/tZSTBhrfiE #race #CJReform pic.twitter.com/WHlppP4nfi
— Scott Greenberger (@sgreenberger) December 7, 2015
Police abuse complaints by black Chicagoans dismissed nearly 99 percent of the time https://t.co/i8cjHSRazW pic.twitter.com/VY8UDkUMng
— HuffPost Graphics (@HuffPostGraphic) December 7, 2015
#BlackLivesMatter Tweets 8.31
IMPORTANT READ: Exclusion of Blacks From Juries Raises Renewed Scrutiny http://t.co/AAlJea7GT4
— deray mckesson (@deray) August 31, 2015
"When you see us smiling it's because we're glad to know that your child is still alive." – Ron Davis, Father of #JordanDavis
— Erika Totten (@2LiveUnchained) August 29, 2015
#BlackLivesMatter & the killing of "innocent bystander" #FelixKumi by the NYPD last Friday: http://t.co/GBmidDP9w2 pic.twitter.com/AiY8TECGAo
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) August 31, 2015
California Voters Want Policing Reforms That Politicians Won't Deliver http://t.co/BRA7VULLDq
— deray mckesson (@deray) August 30, 2015
Young black man jailed since April for alleged $5 theft found dead in cell http://t.co/Hq9fylpPTQ by @jonswaine pic.twitter.com/dcqSCaAj5X
— SPLC (@splcenter) August 28, 2015
Culture Shock: The Problem of Juvenile Justice
See on Scoop.it – Community Village Daily
“The prison system as a whole isn’t working, particularly so for juvenile detention centers.
WHEN the Center for Investigative Reporting recently visited the Santa Cruz County Juvenile Hall — widely considered one of the best juvenile detention centers in the country — they found remarkably prison-like conditions, ranging from the bare, concrete walls to the use of solitary confinement as a method of disciplining youth. There are currently no federal or state laws that regulate the use of solitary confinement for juvenile offenders, despite overwhelming evidence of its harmful effects. But the abuses don’t stop there. A 2012 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division of the Department of Justice, determined that youth held in adult prison facilities suffered less instances of sexual violence than their peers in juvenile facilities. And in some facilities, the rate of juvenile recidivism is over 80 percent, meaning that the bulk of these young people will eventually add to the burgeoning prison population.
There seems to be a consensus that the prison system as a whole isn’t working, and this is particularly true when it comes to juvenile detention. The United States incarcerates more young people under the age of 18 than any other industrialized country in the world. (By comparison, South Africa, our closest competitor, incarcerates its youth at one-fifth the rate of the United States.) Most juveniles who are sent to these facilities are from racial minorities. Many of them suffer abuses in prison that are heinous for adults and potentially ruinous for youth — solitary confinement, rape, repeated physical abuse, deprivation of sunlight, insufficient food and affection. Perhaps worst of all, children leave these facilities with additional traumas under their belts and no promise that their outside lives will improve.
And yet, despite protestations from all political parties that our society values children, despite the proliferation of New York Times bestsellers on how to raise children, despite growing scientific evidence that the confinement of adolescents may profoundly stunt their brain development, despite the fact that juvenile crime is steadily declining, change has not followed. Why?
In her new book, Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison, Nell Bernstein, a journalist whose previous book addresses the problems of children of the incarcerated, attempts to explore this elusive question using a mix of reporting, research, and anecdotal history. Bernstein’s basic premise, which I agree with, is that it’s mostly a matter of culture, an elusive but necessary concept. She argues that young adults and children require positive relationships with adults in order to rehabilitate, but prison, which isolates and punishes violators for transgressions, is based on just the opposite assumption. Prisons assume that those who commit crimes must be isolated from the community, both to force them to think about their immoral acts and to protect the rest of the law-abiding community. This is the direct opposite of what we should be doing for children in prison: educating them, providing them life skills and positive role models, and supporting their mental and physical development in a positive way.
Click through to read more.
See on lareviewofbooks.org
There Are 400,000 Unprocessed Rape Kits in the U.S. How Can This Be?
Actress Mariska Hargitay is producing a documentary about America’s rape kit backlog.
See on www.slate.com
Louisiana’s longest-serving death row prisoner walks free after 30 years
Glenn Ford, Louisiana’s longest-serving death row prisoner, walked free Tuesday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
Don’t you love when people say the U.S. has the best criminal justice system?
See on www.cnn.com
Update On Howard Morgan
“This is a case where the jury acquitted Morgan on counts of firing a firearm and counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, but deadlocked on charges of attempted murder. At the retrial, the judge denied the jury knowledge of the acquitted charges, and the second jury convicted Morgan of attempted murder. His attorneys have argued double-jeopardy because it was only possible for the jury to convict upon finding that Morgan fired a gun — a charge in which he was acquitted.
Tomorrow, February 26, 2014, a rally recognizing 9 Years of injustice against Officer Howard Morgan is being held in Chicago.
Time: 12pm – 1pm
Location: James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph, Chicago, IL
Hosted by: Attorney Benjamin Crump
The Free Howard Morgan Campaign has a website where it also provides a petition.
http://www.freehowardmorgan.com/
U.S. Police are shooting people as if they are in a war zone.
Howard Morgan was shot 28 times
The faces of the forgotten: Heartbreaking plight of the 64,000 black women missing across America… as the country turns a blind eye
Nearly 40 per cent of those who disappear, often in suspicious circumstances, are black. These missing women have not been found (pictured). However critics allege that media attention focuses on missing white women in the U.S.
See on www.dailymail.co.uk