Tag: Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)

In the year 2020, support our incarcerated journalists, activists and freedom fighters. Send a resounding message to the Federal Bureau of Prisons that free speech rights of all prisoners must be respected.

On Dec. 19, the United States Senate voted 87-12 in favor of watered-down legislation that will roll back a few of the most draconian provisions of the federal criminal justice system. The “First Step Act,” short for the “Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act,” goes back to the House of Representatives, which passed a slightly stronger version last May by a vote of 360 to 59. When it comes to locking people up, the United States stands on top of the heap.

The Justice Department plans to stop using privately run prisons that typically house undocumented federal inmates following a report finding they are less safe than those that are federally run, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced today. Stock prices of the country’s two biggest private prison companies – Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group – nosedived by nearly 25 percent this morning.

I am serving 21 years in federal prison – in solitary confinement – because I protested the Iraq War. I am with the men of Pelican Bay and am calling for a federal strike to support the men in PBSP as well as all those held in such housing in all U.S. prisons.

The United States puts more people behind bars than any other country in the world. Attend a panel discussion on the Center for Constitutional Rights' lawsuit against two CMUs - prisons with extreme isolation - on Tuesday, April 5, 6:30 p.m., at the Women’s Building, Audre Lorde Room, 3543 18th St. #8, San Francisco.