Tag Archives: ACLU

Private prisons unaccountable —ACLU

Found on the
ACLU blog of rights.


Azadeh Shahshahani wrote for the AJC 11 June 2009,

Private prisons for immigrants lack accountability, oversight



On March 11, a 39-year-old man held in detention at the Stewart Detention
Center, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in
southwest Georgia, died at a hospital in Columbus.

That’s in Lumpkin, west of Americus, south of Columbus.

To this day, the immediate cause of Roberto Martinez Medina’s death
remains unclear (a press release pronounced the cause of death as
“apparent natural causes”).



Last month, Leonard Odom, 37, died at the Wheeler County Correctional
Facility in south-central Georgia.

That’s in Alamo, GA, between Macon, Tifton, and Savannah.

Both facilities are operated by Corrections Corp. of America, which
has a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to operate the
Stewart center and one with the Georgia Department of Corrections to
operate the one in Wheeler County.

So, what happened?

Continue reading →

Felony sentencing for possession — Are you high?

And now a word from the ACLU (yes, I am a card-carrying member):


As we watch the state budget crisis deepen, one of the most wasteful
and harmful policies of our state government – felony sentences for
simple drug possession – remains in place. We are spending unnecessary
millions to incarcerate people who pose no threat to public safety.

Sentencing reform is the way to bring prison spending back in line
with other priorities – like public schools and universities, social
services, and drug treatment.

That’s actually from the

ACLU of Northern California,
but the point is the same for anywhere that locks up people
for minor drug offenses, like Georgia.

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County.
Spend that tax money on schools instead.

-jsq

STPP: Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline Symposium



Did you know that:

Children are far more likely to be arrested at school than they were a generation ago.

The vast majority of these arrests are for non-violent offenses such
as “disruptive conduct” or “disturbance of the peace.” Five
year olds are being led out of classrooms in handcuffs for acting out
or throwing temper tantrums. Students have been arrested for throwing
an eraser at a teacher, breaking a pencil, and having rap lyrics in a
locker. These children do not belong in jail.

Why do we pay more to incarcerate people than it would cost
to educate them?

Why is this happening? “Zero tolerance” policies criminalize minor
infractions of school rules and high-stakes testing programs encourage
educators to push out low-performing students to improve their schools’
overall test scores. Students of color are especially vulnerable to the
discriminatory application of discipline and push-out trends.

Here’s a chance to do something about it.

The School To Prison Pipeline (STPP) refers to a disturbing national
trend in which students are funneled out of public schools and into the
juvenile and criminal justice systems. Most of these kids are children
of color, and many have learning disabilities or histories of poverty,
abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and
counseling services. Instead they are punished and isolated.

The Valdosta

Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline Symposium
is one of

a series throughout the state of Georgia.
It’s 9:30AM – 4PM 30 Oct 2010.

-jsq