European Court says UK prisoners have right to vote, cites human rights treaty

The European Court rules that the disenfranchisement of 48,000 convicts in British jails violates the European convention on human rights.

by Peter Wagner, October 6, 2005

UK prisoners should get vote, European court rules

Simon Jeffery

Thursday October 6, 2005

“Laws setting out who can and cannot take part in elections are to be rewritten after the European court of human rights today ruled in favour of giving British prisoners the right to vote.

“Ruling in the case of a former prisoner against the United Kingdom, the Strasbourg court said the disenfranchisement of 48,000 convicts in British jails violated the European convention on human rights.

“It said that with the exception of the right to liberty, lawfully detained prisoners continued to enjoy all the rights guaranteed in the convention – including political rights and freedom from inhumane and degrading punishment.” ….

See the full story on the Guardian website.

Thank you to Rick Lines at the Irish Penal Reform Trust for the heads up about this exciting news.

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters

As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city's jail.

by Peter Wagner, September 23, 2005

Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells

(New York, September 22, 2005)–

As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff’s department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city’s jail, Human Rights Watch said today.

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

“Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst,” said Corinne Carey, researcher from Human Rights Watch. “Prisoners were abandoned in their cells without food or water for days as floodwaters rose toward the ceiling.”

Read the rest from Human Rights Watch.

Rogue state no longer — juvenile death penalty declared unconstitutional

The Supreme Court today declared the juvenile death penalty to be unconstitutional.

by Peter Wagner, March 1, 2005

The Supreme Court today declared the juvenile death penalty to be unconstitutional. See the article on Civilrights.org.

With great pleasure, we’ve removed our map of counties that execute juveniles from the front page of this site.

First Real Cost of Prisons comic book: Prison Town: Paying the Price

Kevin Pyle and Craig Gilmore explore how mass incarceration alters both rural and urban communities.

by Peter Wagner, February 10, 2005

The Real Cost of Prisons Project, which does innovative popular education workshops on criminal justice issues, has completed the first of the comic books based on one of their workshops. Prison Town: Paying the Price by Kevin Pyle and Craig Gilmore tells one story of the way in which the financing and siting of prisons and jails impact the people and economies of rural communities where prisons are built. It tells a parallel story of the damage done to people in urban communities by mass incarceration. Included is a two page “map” of How Prison Are Paid For (and who really pays?) as well as alternatives to the current system. It’s available on the web now in PDF and will be out in print in March 2005.

Other comic books being prepared for release later this spring are Prisoners of the War on Drugs and Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and Children. Organizations can order up to 300 copies of each comic book for use in their own organizing, community education and outreach work for free, merely by explaining how they would use the books. See the instructions on the Real Cost of Prisons comics page.

New documentary on juveniles being tried as adults

Leslie Neal has new documentary about the growing problem of juveniles being tried and sentenced as adults.

by Peter Wagner, October 28, 2004

Leslie Neal has new documentary about the growing problem of juveniles being tried and sentenced as adults. Juvies (2004) reveals the shocking reality of juvenile offenders in America, many of whom are serving draconian sentences for marginal involvement in so called ‘gang’ crimes. The director, Leslie Neal taught a video production class at Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall to 12 juveniles who were all being tried as adults. Juvies is the product of that class, made jointly by teacher and students, witnessing heartbreaking stories of children abandoned by families and a system that has disintegrated into a dehumanizing vending machine of injustice.

New Book: Gates of Injustice

Alan Elsner's new book examines how prison system grew out of control.

by Peter Wagner, April 23, 2004

Reuters’ journalist Alan Elsner’s new book about the criminal justice system, Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America’s Prisons is a powerful examination of how our prison system grew out of control. The book combines first hand reporting with a detailed analysis of the larger trends that made the U.S. the world’s largest incarcerator without any gain in public safety.

Gates of Injustice is both an introduction to prisons and a detailed indictment of why they don’t work. The book contains a number of powerful (and true) facts that we hadn’t been aware of.

Near and dear to the hearts of Prison Policy Initiative staff, Elsner discusses in the chapter on rural prisons how prisoners are counted in the census and he calls for changing how the Census counts the incarcerated.

This timely book is a must read for everyone interesting in making the world a better — and safer — place.

Turned Out: Sexual Assault Behind Bars

New documentary explores the historically taboo subject of homosexual relations and rape in prison.

by Peter Wagner, July 3, 2003

New documentary: Turned Out: Sexual Assault Behind Bars

Of the over two million Americans in jail today, one out of five inmates will be sexually assaulted during their incarceration. Most of those who will be “turned out,” or sodomized, and turned into sexual slaves, will be nonviolent drug offenders who have doubled the prison population over the last decade. This video is a shocking but insightful expose of the taboo subject of homosexual rape and homosexual relations in prison. It features frank and often graphic interviews with inmates at correctional facilities throughout the U.S., in which they explain the sexual hierarchy of “iboys” or “sissies,” who play the female role to more powerful inmates known as “men,” with the latter often developing relationships with several “boys” and thus developing “families,” which provide sex, companionship and protection for more vulnerable inmates. Prisoners also discuss the underground economy, the sociology of power and lust, and the sexual exploitation of inmates by prison guards, while interviews with a prison warden and family members of inmates reveal the general awareness of sexual assault within our prison system and the culture of silence which enables its perpetuation.

It’s expensive ($295 to buy, $95 to rent), but we don’t know of anything that comes even close to this on this topic.

[Editor’s note, July 10, 2014: full film is now available here.]

Instead of Prisons available online

The 1976 handbook to prison abolition has been digitized.

by Peter Wagner, May 22, 2003

Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Prison Abolitionists is now available on this website. This book summarizes the research on prisons as of the 1976 writing and discusses the strategy of abolition. For example, how do we pick reforms to fight for now that make our long term goal of abolition easier to obtain?

Thanks to everyone who helped with the digitization process!

Limits to Pain available online

Nil's Christie's book on the criminal justice "pain delivery system" has been digitized.

by Peter Wagner, February 12, 2003

We can’t speak highly enough of Nils Christie’s Crime Control as Industry (review, buy from Amazon.com). Christie’s first book, Limits to Pain (1981), which argues that the criminal justice system is in fact a pain delivery system, with the size of the system controlled not by the number of committed acts labeled as crimes but by the amount of pain that a society is willing to impose on its citizens, is now available on the internet. Limits to Pain is powerful in its own right, and very helpful in studying the most recent book. We suggest you read the on-line version of Limits to Pain today.

Illinois Governor empties death row

On Jan 11, 2003, outgoing Illinois Governor Ryan reduced the death sentences of all 167 prisoners to life or other sentences.

by Peter Wagner, January 12, 2003

On Jan 11, 2003, outgoing Illinois Governor Ryan reduced the death sentences of all 167 prisoners to life or other sentences. The day prior, he freed four death row prisoners who were innocent.

“The facts that I have seen in reviewing each and every one of these cases raised questions not only about the innocence of people on death row, but about the fairness of the death penalty system as a whole,” –Gov. Ryan

“Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error: error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die.”–Gov. Ryan

“The Legislature couldn’t reform it, lawmakers won’t repeal it, and I won’t stand for it U I must act. Because our three-year study has found only more questions about the fairness of the sentencing, because of the spectacular failure to reform the system, because we have seen justice delayed for countless death row inmates with potentially meritorious claims, because the Illinois death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious U and therefore immoral.” –Gov. Ryan

According to the New York Times:

“Governors have broad, virtually unchecked constitutional powers for pardons and clemency, and Mr. Ryan is at least the fourth to empty death row as he departs office, though the scale of his action overshadows the 22 men Gov. Lee Cruce of Oklahoma spared in 1915, the 15 death sentences Gov. Winthrop L Rockefeller of Arkansas commuted in 1970 and the five clemency petitions Gov. Toney Anaya of New Mexico granted in 1986.”