Nicholas Ganz

David C. Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project, had a must read blog at Huffington Post yesterday called Supermax Prisons: Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading.

Honestly this particular point that he makes in his blog cannot be stressed enough in my opinion:

The mentally ill are vastly overrepresented in supermax prisons, and once subjected to the stress of isolated confinement, many of them deteriorate dramatically. Some engage in bizarre and extreme acts of self-injury and even suicide. In an Indiana supermax, a 21-year-old mentally ill prisoner set himself on fire in his cell and died from his burns; another man in the same unit choked himself to death with a washcloth. It’s not unusual to find supermax prisoners who swallow razors and other objects, smash their heads into the wall, compulsively cut their flesh, try to hang themselves, and otherwise attempt to harm or kill themselves.

This is torture, pure and simple. We are caging mentally ill people in prisons at a increasingly higher rate. Again this brings to mind Angela Davis’s contention that prisons exist to disappear the problems that society doesn’t want to or refuses to address. This must END.

For those living in Illinois who would like to take action on this issue of Supermax prisons, I would like to refer you to a terrific organization called TAMMS Year Ten.

I have been hearing about this project for over a year now and we will finally be able to see it this Wednesday at 8 p.m. on HBO. Here is the film trailer:

According to recent findings from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, more than one-third of youth in custody (35 percent) report being isolated — locked up alone or confined to their room with no contact with other residents. The vast majority of youth who were isolated (87 percent) say this was for longer than 2 hours and more than one-half (55 percent) say it was for longer than 24 hours. Locking youth under the age of 16 up in solitary confinement for more than 24 hours violates all best practices that these detention centers and prisons are supposed to abide by.

The report which was published by the OJJDP puts it this way:

“some may find SYRP findings on the prevalance of solitary confinement both surprising and problematic.”

To say the least…

Lockdown, USA is a documentary that purports to tell the story of the fight against the Rockefeller Drug Laws in New York City. For those who are not familiar with those laws, here is short primer from the film Lockdown, USA.

Anyway, this documentary is uneven to say the least. Frankly the worst parts are the ones that focus on Russell Simmons. The best parts focus on the actual “organizers” who had struggled for decades to overturn those laws and on thefamilies who are devastated by the impact of the unjust laws.

Oh and one more thing… This music video is better than the film as a whole:

P.S. I am tempted to write a note to the filmmakers imploring them to make a director’s cut of the documentary where they delete all of the Russell Simmons parts. But I guess that’s unrealistic. Oh well…

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong... Just Wrong!

A civil liberties group says a Louisiana jail humiliates suicidal prisoners by forcing them to wear skimpy shorts that say “Hot Stuff” on the rear and confines them in tiny cells more narrow than a dog’s cage.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana says it is unconstitutional for the St. Tammany Parish jail to confine prisoners in cages that are three feet wide, three feet long and seven feet tall. The ACLU says guards and prisoners refer to them as squirrel cages.

A local code requires dogs to be kept in cages at least six feet wide and six feet deep.

The ACLU also claims suicidal prisoners are forced to wear bright orange “short shorts” with “Hot Stuff” scrawled in pen on the rear.

Local officials did not immediately comment.

Paul Rucker writes:

In May of 2009, I was honored to be part of a Prison Issues residency at the Blue Mountain Center. While there I had the honor of being in the company of some amazing people. Artists, activist from around the world provided over two weeks of inspiration, knowledge, and camaraderie.

While doing my individual research, I happened upon some maps created by Rose Heyer that showed the growth of the US Prison system. With that information, I was inspired to create Proliferation, an animated mapping of the US Prison system set to original music.

Timeline
Green Dots: 1778-1900
Yellow Dots: 1901-1940
Orange Dots: 1941-1980
Red Dots: 1981-2005

For more information about Paul Rucker, visit his his website.

On any given day, there are about 90,000 youth in juvenile detention or prison facilities across the country. The following provides more detailed national and state data on juvenile residential placements.

I missed the US Social Forum in Detroit because I was out of the country while it was happening. However, I was very interested in how the issue of the PIC would be addressed in workshops and particularly at the People’s Movement Assembly.

Well by the miracle of technology, I was able to read the resolution that was developed in Detroit. And now so can you…

Now that I have put the word out to friends and family, far and wide, that I have a new blog about Prison Culture in the U.S., I am getting even more information and resources sent to me than usual.

My friend Liz from Boston sent along a link to a website called Black and Pink. I just checked it out and it is very informative. It includes information about prison abolition and also offers a state by state list of queer and trans prisoners who are looking for pen pals. Finally, the site speaks to a neglected and overlooked group of youth who are incarcerated.

The creator of the website is Jason who describes himself as a queer abolitionist clergy person. Now I know that you are just dying to visit his site.

Police Brutality

So the long-anticipated Oscar Grant verdict came in today… Surprise, Surprise the white police officer who murdered a young black man with inpugnity gets a slap on the wrist. The jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter deciding that he did not intend to kill Oscar Grant. The irony about American Prison Culture is that it is mostly reserved for those most marginalized. The privileged don’t go to prison. The question for me is: “how do we ensure accountability for violent actions across the board while not extending the PIC?” I just think that this is the question that we need to explore as a society. Even though the police officer committed an abhorrent act by killing Oscar Grant, I can’t join the calls for him to “rot in prison.” I want transformative justice and I want to uproot oppression.

For those who aren’t familiar with the case here is a good primer from Wikipedia

Julianne Hing from Racewire and Colorlines has for my money provided the best reporting and analysis of this case that I have seen. Here she summarizes the verdict from the case.