"Knowledge To Empower"
Spring/Summer 2010
Page 6 of the Virginia Defenders Newspaper - Spring/Summer 2010 Issue
--THE 864 RASTA OF VDOC
--Prisoner advocacy groups target sentencing disparity
Feel free to print and send to your incarcerated loved one!
Va. inmates file suits to stop prison violence
Thirty-five inmates at a Virginia prison, fed up with rape and sodomy at the institution, have filed federal lawsuits seeking an end to prison violence.
The lawsuits come at the same time a group of prisoner advocates are demanding that the U.S. attorney general implement regulations, ordered by Congress, to eliminate sexual attacks in prisons.
Scott Howard-Smith of Wisconsin says his story is similar to those of other prison rape victims. Imprisoned in Colorado as a nonviolent offender, he was housed with violent gang members who forced him into prostitution. He said he was passed around for $5. His complaints, he said, were ignored.
Howard-Smith spoke Wednesday at a news conference sponsored by Just Detention International, an advocacy group seeking an end to sexual attacks in prisons.
"The attacks that I suffered were devastating," Howard-Smith said. "I was repeatedly raped, assaulted and extorted by members of a notorious white supremacy gang."
The group is trying to put pressure on Attorney General Eric Holder to implement regulations under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a 2003 law passed by Congress with bipartisan support. Wednesday was the deadline for Holder to implement the rules, but his office has indicated it will need several more months.
Virginia says it already has requirements of the act in place, but other states have balked at the law, citing costs. Alabama, for example, said it would cost $58 million to start such a program in that state; New Mexico estimated its cost at $12 million.
Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said the requirements of the Prison Rape Elimination Act are covered in the basic training program for guards and reviewed annually during training.http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/va-inmates-file-suits-stop-prison-violence
Va: Rasta Inmates Spend 10 Years in Isolation for Hair
He has now been in isolation nearly 4,000 days. He begins each one with prayer, reading scripture and meditation. " Kendall Gibson, Virginia Prisoner - JARRATT, Va. -- Kendall Gibson would seem to be one of Virginia's most dangerous prisoners. For more than 10 years he has lived in segregation at the Greensville Correctional Center, spending at least 23 hours every day in a cell the size of a gas station bathroom. In a temporary home for the worst of the worst - inmates too violent or disruptive to live among the rest of society's outcasts - he has been a permanent fixture. He is there, he says, not for his crimes but for a crime he will not commit - a crime against God. The only thing imposing about Gibson is his long black dreadlocks, resting on the front of his shoulders so they won't drag the ground as he shuffles along in his orange jumpsuit. It is his hair - winding locks he considers a measure of his Rastafarian faith - that makes him a threat, according to Virginia Department of Corrections Operating Procedure No. 864.1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/07/AR2010050703559_pf.html
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee Prison Watch Project is planning to update the Fall 2001 "Torture in US Prisons – Evidence of US Human Rights Violations." We are seeking testimonies from men, women and children relating to the use of extended isolation and devices of torture (use of force, chemical and physical restraints, other living conditions, forced double celling in isolation, etc.). We will also be accepting drawings and photos. Our deadline is June 15th. We will only be able to acknowledge by form letter. Unless otherwise authorized the publication will use first name, last initial and facility only. Please send to Bonnie Kerness, AFSC, 89 Market St., 6th floor, Newark, NJ 07102. Please make this message available to people concerned with the prison system and send it to friends and loved ones in prison. Without your input, this publication would not be possible. Our gratitude. Sincerely, AFSC Prison Watch Project Bonnie Kerness <BKerness@afsc.org
Va. inmate: 'Only way to stop me' is death row
DENA POTTER
Associated Press Writer= POUND, Va. (AP) — For seven days, Robert Gleason Jr. begged correctional officers and counselors at Wallens Ridge State Prison to move his new cellmate. The constant singing, screaming and obnoxious behavior were too much, and Gleason knew he was ready to snap. On the eighth day — May 8, 2009 — correctional officers found 63-year-old Harvey Gray Watson Jr. bound, gagged, beaten and strangled. His death went unnoticed for 15 hours because correctional officers had falsified inmate counts at the high-security prison in southwestern Virginia. Now, Gleason says he'll kill again if he isn't put to death for killing Watson, who had a history of mental illness. And he says his next victim won't be an inmate. "I murdered that man cold-bloodedly. I planned it, and I'm gonna do it again," the 40-year-old Gleason told The Associated Press. "Someone needs to stop it. The only way to stop me is put me on death row." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9124611/print
PA. will transfer 2,000 inmates to Virginia, Michigan
Pa. will transfer 2,000 inmates to Virginia & Michigan.
HARRISBURG -- The state Department of Corrections, faced with a worsening problem of prison overcrowding and the protracted process of building new prisons, has decided to move 2,000 inmates to lockups in two other states. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09356/1022675-454.stm#ixzz0acu6KSGg
Virginia Prisoners Sues Parole Board
Eleven state inmates convicted of violent crimes filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Parole Board this morning, challenging what they allege are rote, automatic parole denials. The class action suit filed in U.S. District Court claims the inmates are repeatedly rejected for parole because of the “serious nature and circumstances of the crime,“ wrongly and unnecessarily prolonging their prison terms and burdening taxpayers. Parole ended in Virginia for crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 1995. However, persons convicted of crimes committed prior to that date are still eligible for discretionary parole under the old parole law. Full Article: www2.wsls.com/sls/news/state_regional/article/11_va._inmates_sue_parole_board/78870/
NYC Man Freed After 16 Years in Prison By Jeff Mays on Jun 10th 2010
This is becoming all too common. A man, usually a black man, is freed from prison after spending decades behind bars for a crime that is later discovered he did not commit.
Sometimes DNA evidence is the reason these men are freed. Other times, it's witnesses who recant their testimony, false witness identification and coerced confessions. The latest example of this comes from New York, where Jabbar Collins, 37 (pictured left), was released from prison after spending 16 years behind bars for murder. Collins was convicted of killing landlord Rabbi Abraham Pollack. Pollack was shot six times while trying to collect rent; however, prosecutors conveniently forgot that the key witness recanted his testimony before the trial. http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/06/10/nyc-man-freed-after-16-years-in-prison/?icid=main|htmlws-bv-n|dl3|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bvblackspin.com%2F2010%2F06%2F10%2Fnyc-man-freed-after-16-years-in-prison%2F
The “tough on crime” posturing and policymaking that have dominated American politics for more than three decades have left behind a grim legacy. Longer sentences and harsher parole standards have led to overcrowded prisons, overtaxed state budgets, and devastated families and communities. Now, yet another consequence is becoming visible in the nation’s prisons and jails: a huge and ever-growing numbers of geriatric inmates.
VA LEGISLATORS HAVE TWITTER
The Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate of Virginia now have Twitter accounts,
Video of Event:
Jobs With Justice Chicago Illinois Rally/March:
More than 7.3 million people were under the authority of the US corrections system at the end of 2008, according to new government data. This figure amounts to 1 in 31 adults in the country, by far the highest rate in the world. Over 2.3 million adults are held in prisons and jails throughout the US, and 5.1 million are on supervised parole or probation.
Denied religious CD, Va. inmate sues
Associated Press - February 4, 2010
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A Virginia inmate who says prison officials wouldn't let him order a sermon on CD is suing the state Department of Corrections.
The Rutherford Institute filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Norfolk on behalf of Kyle Mabe. He claims a directive allowing inmates to receive music CDs but not spoken word CDs violates his right to exercise his religious beliefs. According to the lawsuit, Mabe tried to have a CD with a Christian sermon delivered to him at St. Brides Correctional Center in Chesapeake. He says prison officials refused to process his request. A Department of Corrections spokesman did not immediately return telephone or e-mail messages Thursday. http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=11934567
Prison Legal News (PLN) Censorship Suit Against Virginia DOC
New questions on censorship
By The Daily Progress
Published: February 10, 2010
The state corrections department is at it again.
Last year, you’ll remember, the department gained notoriety first for banning a local program to send books to inmates and then for a broader censorship issue in which prisoners were denied material ranging from James Joyce’s classic "Ulysses," to The Daily Progress, to Reader’s Digest. Also banned were issues of Prison Legal News, a 7,000-circulation monthly magazine. It filed a lawsuit in October against a handful of officials at the state corrections department, claiming that they violated the First and 14th amendments. Now comes a lawsuit alleging another violation of the First Amendment, this one involving religious expression. An inmate says he was denied a copy of a CD containing a sermon because the department does not allow inmates to receive spoken-word CDs, only music disks. http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/opinion/op_ed/article/new_questions_on_censorship/52063/
Florida man exonerated, freed from prison after 35 years
James Bain, 54, talks to the media Thursday after his release in Bartow, Florida. Bartow, Florida (CNN) After more than three decades in prison, a man in florida was set free Thursday after a DNA test showed he did not kidnap and rape a 9-year-old boy in 1974. James Bain, 54, was 19 when he was convicted on charges of kidnapping, burglary and strong-arm rape.
Now he will be allowed to go home for the first time in 35 years.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/16/florida.dna.exoneration/index.html
By Boyce Watkins, PhD
Two years ago, I went to the Rainbow/Push Coalition Convention as a guest of Rev. Jesse Jackson. I was there to discuss the state of African American male athletes and how they are continuously used by the NCAA. When asked about the NCAA, the only system I considered to be more exploitative is the prison industrial complex. Judge Mathis (aka Greg Mathis) was one of the speakers on prisons, and I was impressed. During that speech, he gave the kind of bold, empowered and intelligent message that will resonate with every black male athlete, entertainer, politician, businessman and power broker in America.
Mathis challenged the prison system head on, linking it with the sad state of the American educational system. Mathis reiterated his comments this week on BET's '106 & Park,' stating that the prison system is modern-day slavery.
http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/02/24/judge-mathis-calls-prison-system-modern-day-slavery/