In 2011, as part of a criminal justice reform package meant to reduce incarceration and its related expenditures, Kentucky became among the first states to require judges to use a risk assessment as part of their pretrial decisions. Similar risk assessments have since proliferated across the country … [Read more...]
Chokeholds, tear gas, police reform top agenda for WA Legislature
Many lawmakers said the need to reform policing is so dire that it will be a leading topic if the Legislature meets in an emergency session this year to address the state budget. Even if no special session is held in the coming months, police reform will remain at the top of legislators’ agenda … [Read more...]
Creative Justice – A Program for youth most impacted by the school-to-prison-(to-deportation) pipeline.
CREATIVE JUSTICE USES ART AS A VEHICLE TO: Prepare young people to be leaders in community and the workplace; Amplify youth voice as a source of community transformation; Promote teamwork, collaboration, and community engagement; Help lift up the power of young people … [Read more...]
A short, violent history of Puget Sound uprisings, protests and riots
We might call Seattle the Emerald City, but the green landscape of the Puget Sound region has been sprayed with blood, shattered glass and tear gas for well over a century. Political protest and civil unrest centered on racism, labor, civil rights, and war and peace have not been uncommon. For the … [Read more...]
How a Group of Lifers Cracked the Code of Prison Reform
The NLA, founded 40 years ago by five men at the State Prison of Southern Michigan in Jackson, Michigan, is a pioneer in the movement for prison reform driven by people who are themselves in prison. There are nearly no records to take the full measure of such groups, but the NLA, despite the name, … [Read more...]
It’s not so hard to imagine a life without police
Scholars, writers and activists have long considered this possibility. Many, including Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Angela Davis and Alex S. Vitale, have developed sophisticated theories about a life without both police and prisons, two institutions joined in a symbiotic relationship. But never in … [Read more...]
Coronavirus Cases Rise Sharply in Prisons Even as They Plateau Nationwide
The number of prison inmates known to be infected has doubled during the past month to more than 65,000. Prison deaths tied to the coronavirus have also risen, by 73 percent since mid-May. By now, the five largest known clusters of the virus in the United States are not at nursing homes or … [Read more...]
Justice for the Reynolds 6
A broad coalition is calling for justice for the Reynolds 6: Six men -- Liban Adem, Isaiah Thomas, Daniel Kibby, Abdizikar Mohammed, Anthony Sams, and Zemetrious McNeal -- who were kicked out of the Reynolds Work Training Release program by the Department of Corrections just days short of their … [Read more...]
MASS INCARCERATION POSES A UNIQUELY AMERICAN RISK IN THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
There are currently 2.3 million people incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons. The U.S. accounts for 4 percent of the world’s population and 21 percent of its prisoners. While incarcerated people have been released in trickles across the country as the U.S. has become the global epicenter of the … [Read more...]
Steady arrests risk COVID-19 spread beyond jail walls, advocates say
“Because of the public health and safety risk presented by this virus at a jail facility, we believe that further action is needed, above and beyond the measures taken to date,” reads an April 10 letter to city and county leaders in the criminal justice system from the American Civil Liberties Union … [Read more...]
“BURIALS ARE CHEAPER THAN DEPORTATIONS”: VIRUS UNLEASHES TERROR IN A TROUBLED ICE DETENTION CENTER
Etowah County has a unique role in ICE’s architecture of detention and deportation. For more than two decades, the agency has provided the local sheriff’s department with a steady stream of funds for housing hundreds of immigrant detainees at a time. “The contract between Etowah County and ICE has … [Read more...]
Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington Going Digital! June 20, 2020
The Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington on June 20, 2020 will not be postponed but will be transformed! We are going digital! We will hold the largest digital and social media gathering of poor and low-wealth people and people of conscience in this nation’s history. The … [Read more...]
The Tornillo 16: Reflections on Migrant Detention and Incarceration at the U.S.-Mexico Border
I remembered one line in particular that James Baldwin wrote in his letter to Angela Davis while she was jailed in 1970. I was in the last and final holding cell awaiting either bail or intake to the upper level of the jail, when his words returned to me: “One might have hoped that, by this hour, … [Read more...]
‘Nothing short of torture’: WA to restrict youth solitary confinement
The state Attorney General's Office, a key supporter of the legislation, argued that young people need a chance at rehabilitation. The State House bill to limit the use of youth solitary confinement in juvenile detention facilities has passed both chambers of the Legislature, as the end of the … [Read more...]
Marking Nelson Mandela’s release: 30 years on
A tribute to Nelson Mandela by the Elders and "Thirty years ago, a 71-year-old Nelson Mandela walked out of the then-Victor Verster prison, an hour’s drive away from Cape Town. He had entered prison as a young fighter and emerged as an elder statesman, more open to negotiation, but still willing … [Read more...]
With an eye toward public safety, Seattle officials grapple with future of arrest alternatives
The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program began in Seattle in 2011 and brought together law enforcement and public defense attorneys to find alternatives to repeatedly arresting drug users, sex workers and other low-level offenders. Unlike other criminal justice diversion programs, LEAD … [Read more...]
Private prisons face an uncertain future as states turn their backs on the industry
States are passing laws abolishing private prisons and businesses are cutting ties with the facilities. And private prison companies are planning for a future in which their core service is illegal. Increasingly, these criticisms of private, for-profit facilities have been reflected in policy and … [Read more...]
For the Wild – Radio interviews
For The Wild is an anthology of the Anthropocene; focused on land based protection, co-liberation and intersectional storytelling rooted in a paradigm shift from human supremacy towards deep ecology. This is a series of radio programs interviewing a number of activists and leaders on a variety of … [Read more...]
Now is an Excellent Time to Contact Your Legislators About Your Concerns
It is quiet right now in the Legislature, which makes it the perfect time to reach out to our Representatives and Senators and let them know what is important to us.See leg.wa.gov site for their contact information. I am suggesting three issues that may resonate with JUUstice Washington … [Read more...]
Justice Reform in Thurston County: What’s Cooking? Nov. 18, 2019, Olympia WA
Patrick O'Connor, Director of Thurston County Public Defense, will discuss new developments in the Thurston County justice system. These include bail reform as a part of a new risk-assessment tool for pretrial release; the First Look project that evaluates diversion potential for new arrestees; ICE … [Read more...]