MetaFilter posts tagged with law and prison

Supermax Nation

Law Talkin' Guy — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:54:31 -0800

Awakening on a mattress atop a wooden slab, the bare walls of your 7' x 12' cell come into focus, illuminated by the constant glare of an overhead light. Through the narrow window in the back of your cell, you can peer out into the prison yard. In the window in the reinforced steel door, you can catch an occasional glimpse of a prison guard as they bring your meals, usually the only interruption of the silence and isolation that pervade your living conditions. Those walls are the boundaries of your world for 23 hours a day in the Departmental Disciplinary Unit-- the supermax prison maintained in Walpole, Massachusetts, one of dozens of such institutions currently operated in the United States, in spite of growing outcry based on human rights violations. Since 1790, prolonged solitary confinement has been criticized as inhumane. The tendency of prolonged isolation to lead to severe psychological damage is well-documented, but the stories of inmate abuse associated with supermax confinement are too numerous to comprehensively recount. Significant examples include Vaughn Dortch, who was forced into a bathtub filled with scalding hot water and held there until the skin burned off his legs, Timothy Souders, who died of dehyrdation after being shackled to his bed and abandoned by prison guards during a psychotic episode, and Bobby Delello, who contracted Hepatitis C after being shackled with bloody handcuffs that had been used on another inmate. The use of supermax prisons persists despite evidence that they are not effective at reducing inmate violence, are not cost effective, increase rates of inmate recidivism, cause significant psychological symptoms in most inmates, and lead to disproportionately high rates of inmate suicide. When this thread was posted, 220,000 people were confined to supermax facilities in the United States. For further reading, see supermaxed.

Mackerel Economics in Prison Leads to Appreciation for Oily Fillets - Wall Street Journal

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:01:03 -0800

As dollar flounders, inmates stack mackerel

"I spent 16 years in prison for a crime I didn't commit."

allkindsoftime — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:26:43 -0800

Remember Jeffrey Deskovic? (If not, spend a minute browsing the links on the previous thread first). He just wrote an interesting position piece on what can be done to make sure that what happens to him doesn't happen to others.

Life without parole: Child prisoners in the US

flibbertigibbet — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:46:50 -0800

"In the US, there are 2,270 prisoners [report, news release, with testimonies] who were sentenced as children to life without parole. They will die behind bars. Ed Pilkington asks five of them - from a 21-year-old to a 70-year-old - how do they cope?" Related: as of 2005, executions of prisoners for crimes committed as children is no longer permissible in the United States.

Al Odah v. U.S. and Boumediene v. Bush

ao4047 — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:37:15 -0800

Al Odah v. U.S. and Boumediene v. Bush go before SCOTUS Streaming on C-Span today. The Center for Constitutional Rights (great podcast) will argue before the Supreme Court today:

Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision in Rasul, The Center for Constitutional Rights and cooperating counsel filed 11 new habeas petitions in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of over 70 detainees. These cases eventually became the consolidated cases of Al Odah v. United Statesand Boumediene v. Bush, the leading cases determining the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Rasul, the rights of non-citizens to challenge the legality of their detention in an offshore U.S. military base, and the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Free at last.

Soup — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:32:52 -0800

"Free and Uneasy: The First Year Out." The story of wrongfully convicted Jeffrey Deskovic. And others.

California Inspects Spector and cannot decide. There is more to this than meets the eye.

Rancid Badger — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:55:21 -0800

California Where the Rich do Fine While the Poor are Doing Time "Hell, you got to live with it, there's nothing else to live with except mendacity, is there?" Big Daddy, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Court martial begins for Guantanamo JAG who leaked detainee list

planetkyoto — Tue, 15 May 2007 07:50:22 -0800

It began with an innocent-looking Valentine's Day card in 2005. Inside the card were several slips of paper, a hastily cut-up printout of names of 550 secret detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The human rights lawyer who received "this weird valentine" handed it over to authorities, and this week the court martial begins for JAG LtCmdr Matthew Diaz, facing 36 years for divulging state secrets.
Whither goest thou, American Jurisprudence?

The velvet rope goes to jail.

Pope Guilty — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:58:53 -0800

Are you about to do some time in a California jail, but feel that people of your quality shouldn't have to mix with the other inmates? For just $82 a day, you don't have to! I suspect it's an extension of that classic Clinton-era program.

Prison Rape and the War on Drugs

homunculus — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:23:50 -0800

Stories from Inside: Prisoner Rape and the War on Drugs (PDF). A new report by the human rights group Stop Prisoner Rape. [Via Drug WarRant.]

"I’m in the Hole for studying Chinese."

homunculus — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:29:18 -0800

Convicted as an ecoterrorist, a brilliant young scholar nose-dives in prison. An article on Billy Cottrell, a physics genius with Asperger's Syndrome who was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for his role in destroying $5 million worth of SUVs. His case was previously discussed here. [Via BB.]

Pictures of Failure

mediareport — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:15:21 -0800

Pictures of Failure: Incarcerated Youth. [via happy palace]

Lots of lockups

Gyan — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:54:09 -0800

The Prison Policy Initiative conducts research and advocacy on incarceration policy. Some interesting data include the proliferation of prisons in the US over the last century, disenfranchisement of potential black voters, global incarceration rates and percentage of US population under control of the criminal justice system.

Judge backs Guantanamo challenge

borq — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:56:13 -0800

Judge backs Guantanamo challenge A US judge has ruled that special military tribunals being used to try hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are illegal.

Guns don't kill people, bongs kill people

homunculus — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 21:16:18 -0800

Tommy Chong in prison. 3 months into his 9 month prison sentence for selling bongs, the LA City Beat talks to Tommy Chong and the LA Weekly talks with his family about the details of his case. [Via Drug WarRant.]

Man Rapes Infant Daughter

fenriq — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 17:32:40 -0800

Man Pleads Guilty to Raping his own 2 month old Daughter
But wait, that's just the beginning. This guy's daddy heads the state Corrections Department and part of his plea is to reduce the amount of time he's going to spend in jail for this most heinous act.
This guy is facing, if the judge agrees to the plea, only 6 months in jail! The standard sentence for first-degree child rape is seven to 10 years in prison.
He's admitted to molesting a 9 year old in Maine before and has also been convicted of orchestrating an armed robbery.
How in the heck he's going to get ANY leniency is beyond me.

Stop Prisoner Rape

majcher — Fri, 05 Sep 2003 09:25:26 -0800

Bush signs a bill into law that very few people will have anything bad to say about. Most of those who would oppose the new law can't vote, anyway, being members of predatory prison gangs, so I think we're pretty much good on this one.

DNA frees 3 convicts after 17-year incarcerations.

trharlan — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:14:23 -0800

DNA frees 3 convicts after 17-year incarcerations --Barry Scheck and The Innocence Project have struck again. Thus far, they have used DNA to free 128 wrongly convicted people. Read Frontline's interview with Scheck. Learn about a sister organization, Northwestern's Center on Wrongful Convictions, which has freed nine Illinois men who were once sentenced to death. For those sentenced to time in the can, prison can be a rough place. How can we prevent innocent people from being put to death? Or fates worse than death?

mikrophon — Thu, 22 Aug 2002 13:41:02 -0800

An All-American Fugitive When Margo Freshwater escaped from prison 32 years ago, she began a happy and law-abiding life, becoming a devoted mother, grandmother and wife. Now she's back behind bars . . . And unless she's given a new trial or is granted clemency . . . she will remain behind bars until she is an old woman . . . Meanwhile, the man who confessed to the killing probably will die a free man.

skallas — Sun, 28 Jul 2002 16:38:32 -0800

The catch-22 of prison therapy. The biggest criticism of sex offender justice is that imprisonment does not mean rehabilitation. In Massachusetts because of stringent anti-sex offender laws, lawyers are advising their clients to turn down prison therapy because it will be used against them. Even used against them after they're done with their sentence. These are serious violations of double jeopardy and doctor patient privilege.

xowie — Wed, 24 Jul 2002 19:00:01 -0800

Smoke pot, stay out of jail. As your lawyer, I advise you to read this cartoon by Ellen Forney. See also: Bustcard.

mathowie — Tue, 16 Jul 2002 00:22:52 -0800

This is some scary stuff. Life in prison for malicious hacking? We can't keep rapists and murderers away from society for very long but now hackers & crackers could be jailed for life? And on top of that the FBI can monitor internet packets without a warrant? If you enjoy your freedom from gov't surveillance, it looks like it's time to start using PGP.

johnnyboy — Thu, 28 Feb 2002 07:36:43 -0800

on a budget madame, well incarceration is our cheaper plan. Yes it seeems that the economics suggest that life imprisonment is the prudent option rather than the wanton excess of execution.

RylandDotNet — Mon, 18 Jun 2001 02:12:26 -0800

Not in favor of the death penalty? How about a gulag in Alaska? It sounded ludicrous to me at first, but after reading the article I'm a little more open to the idea.

williamtry — Fri, 07 Apr 2000 05:57:54 -0800

Steal a Snickers bar ---> Get 16 years in jail This Texan appears to be extremely unfortunate, even when you read his past criminal record. How can stealing a Snickers equate to 16 years in prison? However, the audacious comment from the assistant attorney is worth noting:
"If it was a Milky Way, we probably wouldn't have even tried him on it".