News

Criminal Justice at Changes.org

• America's New Jim Crow System?
  Over at the Nation, Michelle Alexander delivers an incendiary, excellent piece on what she describes as the renewed rise of a caste system in America -- one that's inescapably embedded in the U.S. criminal justice system. Caste is an uncompromising kind of word, one that suggests a fixed stratification few in the U.S. would feel comfortable identifying […]
• Mad As Hell About the Failed U.S. Prison System
  Yeah, I'm angry. I'm all riled up because our misguided criminal justice policies destroy individuals, families and entire communities. I'm steamed because at a time of financial crisis worse than any downturn since the Great Depression, government throws away billions of dollars (more than $39 billion, by most estimates) on policies that have […]
• UN Says the Developing World Needs to Fight a New Drug War
  It's amazing how much more sensible the "war on drugs" sounded when discussed this week by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Speaking this week in Vienna, UNODC's chief, Antonio Maria Costas, pointed to the rise of heroin in East Africa, cocaine in West Africa and synthetic drugs in South East Asia and the Middle East as signs of an emerg […]
• What Happened to Prison Reform?
  I've become discouraged about the prospect for meaningful prison reform. In March of 2008, Senator Jim Webb introduced a Senate bill to form a commission that would study our criminal justice system from top to bottom. Slamming America's prison system as a national disgrace, the Virginia senator urged reform. But after extensive media coverage when […]
• 93% of Law Enforcement Ignores Missing Persons Database
  Crime-solving usually conjures up images of dossiers, interrogation rooms or all-night stakeouts. But sometimes cracking a case is a much easier -- and more mundane -- activity. In the missing-person case of Luis Fernandez, it took just a click of a mouse. Fernandez had been missing a year before his family reported the case in 2008. A few weeks after they d […]

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Yahoo News Headlines

• HANO's former Section 8 chief sentenced to eight months in prison (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
  Dwayne Muhammad, who lost his job runnning HANO's Section 8 voucher program last August when it emerged that he was benefiting from a voucher himself, was sentenced this morning to eight months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance... […]
• US 'JihadJane' charged for Europe, Asia terror recruiting (AFP via Yahoo! News)
  A US woman operating online under the name "JihadJane" has been indicted for recruiting jihadist fighters in the United States, Europe and Asia in a bid to carry out terror plots. […]
• US hikers held in Iran allowed to call family (AFP via Yahoo! News)
  Three US hikers being detained in Iran for entering the country illegally were allowed to phone their families for the first time since their arrest, their supporters said Wednesday. […]
• 'JihadJane' recruited in US, Europe, Asia: prosecutors (AFP via Yahoo! News)
  A US woman operating online under the name "JihadJane" recruited jihadist fighters in the United States, Europe and Asia in a bid to carry out terror plots "or die trying," prosecutors said. […]
• 'JihadJane' recruited for Europe, SAsia terror attacks: US (AFP via Yahoo! News)
  US authorities charged an American woman known as "JihadJane" with recruiting jihadist fighters via the Internet and conspiring to kill an unnamed individual in Sweden. […]

Prison News Blog

• Why Prisons Will Always Be Full
  Prison Journal: Day 8,227  It’s 3:30 on Wednesday morning as I write this entry. I’m in the room where I begin every day, watching as Dave walks on the concrete pathway that leads to the Control Center of Taft Camp. Dave is being released from prison, and in a few hours the guards will finish processing [...] […]
• Gary McGivern’s life work
   Click on the link below to read Michael’s most recent post on Change.org: http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/in_one_prisoners_life_work_inspiration […]
• Community Building
  Text of a recent Toastmasters speech Michael gave at Taft Camp– Community Building I don’t know how many of you remember studies of early Western Civilization, but on the pages of a history book that’s circulating I read a passage describing the early Greeks. As founders of the first known city, the Greeks recognized the importance of [...] […]
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave
  Title: Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave Date Read: January 19, 2010 Book title: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave Author: Frederick Douglas Book Publisher: Barnes and Noble Classics Series (1845/2003) Non-Fiction / 126 pages Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave was the 2nd book […]
• Lessons From Prison
  Date Read: January 6, 2010 Book Title: Lessons From Prison Book Author: Justin M. Paperny Book Publisher: APS (2009) Non Fiction/ 200 pages  Lessons From Prison was the first book I read in 2010 Why I read Lessons From Prison:  Justin Paperny, the author of Lessons From Prison, was confined with me at Taft Camp for about one year.  While he was [...] […]

Google Prison Reform

• Political Prisoners: Government, Police, and Incarceration - FinalCall.com News
  Political Prisoners: Government, Police, and IncarcerationFinalCall.com NewsThe panel discussion was moderated by NOI Student National Prison Reform Minister Abdullah Muhammad and intended to reconnect people to the pain suffered by ... […]
• OPEN FORUM: On student protests - San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
  OPEN FORUM: On student protestsSan Francisco Chronicle (blog)The difference could be made up by prison reform and reduction of corporate tax breaks that have been disproportionately beneficial to the most privileged ...and more » […]
• Everyone's Freaking Out. Should Obama? - Esquire
  EsquireEveryone's Freaking Out. Should Obama?EsquireWith state budgets tight, prison reform is all the rage. In California, they're even talking about releasing thousands of prisoners early, mostly nonviolent ... […]
• Man charged with leading student visa fraud operation - Los Angeles Times
  Los Angeles TimesMan charged with leading student visa fraud operationLos Angeles TimesIf convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison. Higgins and his attorney, federal public defender Elizabeth Macias, declined to comment after the ...and more » […]
• DR. BOYCE: A Three Point Plan for a Black Agenda - News One
  News OneDR. BOYCE: A Three Point Plan for a Black AgendaNews OneSo, reform of the prison system is critical to saving the integrity of the African American family. In fact, it is argued by many scholars that the prison ... […]

Life Behind Bars