40 Years!!

         I believe it is true to say that the American establishment is the most brutal, savage institution on the planet. It has invaded more countries than any other country on the planet, and it runs its own country with the same ruthless brutality. In doing so it has incarcerated a greater percentage of its population than any other country, and it runs that prison system with the same brutal inhumanity and savagery, and runs the prisons as one massive slave labour camp for the profit of its corporate moguls. 

The American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.

        Yet it sits at the head of the table of those nations that go by the name of the most developed and peaceful nations. The greatest illusion ever perpetrated on the human race.

The following is from Salon: 

40 Years A Prisoner.

       Eight-year-old me couldn't imagine not seeing my dad's smiling face on Christmas morning, or drawing my mom a cartoon-filled card covered in thank yous for Mother's Day, or the thousands of other memories small kids get to share with their parents. These types of memories make up the foundation of our traditions and are the things that we pass down to our kids. Mike Africa Jr., who was born in prison, was robbed of the chance of creating those in-person memories with his parents. The Philadelphia police department forced him to figure out life on his own.
        Africa Jr.'s journey is brilliantly related in the new HBO documentary film, "40 Years a Prisoner," directed by Tommy Oliver and available now on HBO Max. Featuring an all-star ensemble of producers including The Roots, Common and John Legend, "40 Years A Prisoner" is a compelling film about the horrors of America's criminal justice system. The story begins in 1978 when Philadelphia police raided MOVE, a back to nature organization based on love, among other peaceful principles. Africa's parents, two MOVE members, were arrested during that raid on trumped up charges and convicted before he was born. In the film, Oliver documents Africa Jr.'s life pursuit of freeing his parents, along with other MOVE members, and a decades-long battle with the Philadelphia police department. I recently got a chance to talk with Africa Jr. and Oliver about the film on an episode of "Salon Talks." 

Read the full article HERE:

 

"40 Years a Prisoner" is streaming on HBO Max.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk  

The Illusion Of freedom And Cages Of Repression.

 

Wikipedia:

        In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world's population, it houses around 22 percent of the world's prisoners.^[1] Corrections (which includes prisons, jails, probation, and parole) cost around $74 billion in 2007 according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.^[2][3]

         In 2016, the Prison Policy Initiative estimated that in the United States that about 2,298,300 people were incarcerated out of a population of 323.1 million. This means that 0.71% of the population was behind bars. Of those who were incarcerated, about 1,351,000 people were in state prison, 646,000 in local jails, 211,000 in federal prisons, 34,000 in youth correctional facilities, 33,000 in immigration detention camps, 14,000 in territorial prisons, 5,500 in civil commitment, 2,400 in Indian country jails, and 1,400 in United States military prisons.^[4]

          With the best propaganda system on the planet, clever smoke and mirror techniques, America has managed to weave the illusion that is the world's leader in justice and freedom, the planet's defender of democracy. It would be safe to say that it is actually at the other end of the spectrum. It also locks up more of its own citizens per head of population than any other country in the world.
          Besides locking more of its own citizens than any other country, it also has the world largest immigration detention centre infrastructure.

          According to the website Endisolation.org, the U.S. operates the largest immigration detention infrastructure in the world, with between 380,000 and 442,000 people detained per year.

From Truthdig:

         A privately run U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in rural Georgia forced a detainee into solitary confinement after he encouraged other detainees to stop working in a labor program, although ICE claims the program is voluntary, according to The Intercept.
         The news organization reports that those in ICE custody often work for just $1 per day.
        Shoaib Ahmed, 24, came to America to escape political persecution in Bangladesh, where he participated in the primary opposition party of what many viewed as the country’s authoritarian government.
           Upon arriving in the U.S., Ahmed was held in a detention center, where he has been for more than a year. He says he was forced to work in ICE facilities and punished with solitary confinement when he refused. He is now in the process of being deported.
The Intercept reports: 

          Ahmed’s account adds to a growing chorus of ICE detainees who allege that they have been forced to work in for-profit ICE facilities or else risk punishment with solitary confinement — a harsh form of captivity that, if prolonged, can amount to torture. Late last month, ICE detainees at a CoreCivic-run facility in California sued the private prison contractor, alleging that they had been threatened with solitary confinement if they did not work. In October, The Intercept reported that officials had placed another detainee in solitary confinement for 30 days for “encouraging others to participate in a work stoppage” at the same privately run facility where Ahmed was disciplined, the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
       CoreCivic has said that its practices of segregating detainees in individual cells are humane and has disputed the term “solitary confinement,” arguing that its harsh connotation does not apply to the publicly traded firm’s practices. “Use of the term in your coverage with regard to Stewart would give readers a false impression of the reality of restricted housing at the facility,” CoreCivic spokesperson Jonathan Burns said in an email.
        But over the course of two interviews with The Intercept over a fuzzy detention center phone line, Ahmed used rudimentary English to describe being subjected to the isolating conditions of solitary confinement as it is generally understood. “The room is at all times locked,” Ahmed said. “If you talk, the sound does not go outside. And nobody comes to talk with us.”
       “Sometimes I think I will be mentally sick,” Ahmed said of his time in isolation. “I feel pain in my head.”
         In addition to severe isolation, Ahmed spoke of being subjected to restrictive treatment in segregation that might be more expected for a violent and volatile criminal than for an immigration detainee under punishment for encouraging a work stoppage.
        Once a day, detention center officers would handcuff Ahmed and escort him outdoors for an hour in a recreation yard — which he described as a “cage” for one person. Three times a week, Ahmed and other detainees in solitary confinement were given the opportunity to shower. This meant being guided in handcuffs from his isolation cell to an individual shower room. “They push you into the shower room and then open the handcuffs,” Ahmed said, adding: “You take a shower and after that, you come back in your room. Then they put you back in the room. When you enter the room again, they open the handcuffs.”
       Ahmed said that because no one outside his room could hear him talk at a regular volume, his only opportunity for human interaction would often be to shout out, though he was prohibited from raising his voice — an infraction that would only cause his sentence in isolation to be extended. “Sometimes I think my head is not working, and I think I want to loudly call them: ‘Release me. Please, take me to some open site,’” Ahmed recalled. “Sometimes I think the segregation will kill me.”

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Till All Are Free.

US Prison.

      Most countries across the world are increasing the number of people that they incarcerate. A sign that we are becoming a more criminal people, or that governments are becoming more authoritarian, I think we can take it to be the latter.

 Greek prison hospital.

         America leads the world in percentage and number of people that it locks up, with the figures for 2011 being 2,266,500, with a further 4,814,200 on probation or parole, there are also 70,792 juveniles in detention. This accounts for 25% of the entire world's prison population. Here in the UK we are likewise, a "lock 'em up" state, The figures for 2011 show that we managed to incarcerate 97,000 people, we have 4,635 women in prison. The year to June 2014 saw a 2% increase in the UK prison population, the fastest growing age group in UK prisons are the over sixty's. It is the one thing that we lead Europe on, our prison population is the highest in Europe. 

 UK prison.

       With this in mind there is an appeal from Act For Freedom Now: 

      We take this moment to echo the call-out from various collectives of solidarity with prisoners and anarchist prisoners from different parts of the world. It is for a week of solidarity from August 23 to 30 (commemorating that August 23 was the date of the execution of the Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the United States):
       Given the nature and diversity of anarchist groups around the globe, we have proposed a week of common action rather than a single campaign on a specific day making easier for groups to be able to organise an event within a longer target period. Therefore, we call on everyone to spread the information about the Week for Anarchist Prisoners among other groups and communities and think about organising event(s) in your city or town. The events can vary from info-evenings, screenings and benefit concerts to solidarity and direct actions. Let your imagination run free.

 UK prison.

Till all are free.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Land Of The Free!!!!!

       It's common currency for the West, with America leading the charge, to shout about injustice, corruption and breach of human rights in other countries, but never batting an eyelid about the stinking cruel, corrupt and unjust prison system right in their own patch. The Greek prison system recently reached exploding point, however, America, "Land of the Free", leads the world in the percentage of its population that it locks up in its cruel privatised prison system.

 

      Prisons are for intimidation, control, repression, and now for profit, absolutely nothing to do with protecting society, justice or reform. This recently published letter from a prisoner in America highlights the vicious brutality and injustice of the system, with prisoners being held for long terms just waiting for their case to be heard.

This from Inside Out Alliance:

Dear IOA,
       Hope this letter finds you in best of health and spirits, as for myself I’m making it. I’ve been trying to get my writ of habeas corpus or motion to dismiss…accepted, but all have been denied without actually telling a fact. Each one of my writs or motions have been held under my constitutional right, each effort has been denied, which violates my constitutional rights and also shows due prejudice of the justice system in Durham county. Why, because I’m black.
       Each day I hear a person getting locked up for 2 grams of crack or heroin with habitual felon status and 28 grams or 14 grams with a gun and they got caught with the drugs or both and their bond is 50 for 14 grams of heroin no gun or 28 grams with a gun…I was never arrested around near any cocaine. By an informant. No arrest, still only accused. No lab work ever came back yet and now the charge is a year old. My bond was a million now for the last 5 months $500,000 bond. 7th Amendment is no excessive bond, cruel and unusual punishment. That’s why I asked your help and the Southern Coalition. My roommate and I watched your protest on the 13th of June, as we watched so did the same officers that accuse the lie on me and him. They watched all of you in the green Chevrolet, the Black F-150s, the white Ford work van, the black run down Crown Victoria with the windows down as you guys have now got their attention. I pray you watch your back for the next 4 to 8 months for just as my charge of a lie got me sitting here, I hope you better luck, if not your bond will be 1 million. Best of luck to all of you and I hope you keep your eyes open for all they do is create lies of past charges, and set up, and if you have a record of any kind they’re going to create a charge. So I ask again watch your backs you won’t know anything till they run up on you with a search warrant or indictment for some charge you done 15 years ago, but you will see them again. Three of them are S.J. Newton, D.T. Rose, and T. Thomas. There’s 18 in all, but you will learn they are a bunch of set-up artists and crooks. For I still don’t have no receipt for the last $150 they took from me when I was arrested on this charge by S.J. Newton. He still hasn’t turned it in or he paid his light bill with my money. There was no drug taken from me when they arrested me so my money since I am Black is theirs. Their word is all that counts and I’m going to sit in their jail because they can do it as long as they want for I have no help to get anyone else to come see me. My lawyer is —-, number is —-, call him tell him I said come see me. Just so you will know you call I will tell him about who I saw on June 13th…He works with District Attorney Nicholas Yates on my charge. I called both of them on the issue and haven’t seen the courtroom since they have been judge shopping ever since. This is why I asked to get the Southern Coalition to come see me. I sent the notarized affidavit of my action to you for record as well as the same copy I’m going to send the Southern Coalition. I ask again please help.
Y. B.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

LAND OF THE FREE!!!! MY ARSE.

      

     As the West lead by America claims the moral high ground and goes about the world lecturing other nations about their human rights abuses and bombing freedom and democracy into others, who is there to point the finger at the West's record on human rights? What seems to go unnoticed by all and sundry is America's  appalling record on the incarceration of its own people. Where is the world's condemnation of the staggering number of Americans locked up behind bars, in what is a commercial incarceration industry. American crime rate has fallen quite dramatically over the years but the number of Americans imprisoned has shot up. America leads the world in locking up its own people, it has the largest proportion of its own people behind bars than any other country in the world. A strange record for a country that has the arrogance to lecture the world and threaten the world with sanctions and war if they don't improve their human rights record.

      Of course the fact that in America the prison system is mainly a corporate commercial concern and under the rules of capitalism, prison companies have to grow and make money for their shareholders may have something to do with the numbers. More prisons, more prisoners, more money for the shareholders, AH, the beauty of capitalism, money from the misery of of our brothers and sisters, increase share price by removing people's freedom. This of course needs some sort of co-operation between the judicial system and the corporate prison system. Once again the state system flourishes under the illusion of democracy.

     For a more detailed look at the figures concerning the prison population in America click HERE.

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