Tag: Washington state

Urgency to end mass incarceration and the criminalization of poor people and people of color is growing. The general public’s awareness that it simply does not make sense to lock up people with substance abuse or mental health issues is setting the stage for important reforms to our justice system. With this understanding, California voters passed Proposition 47 “The Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act.”

Tirrell Muhammad, chairman of the board of the directors of the Golden State Giants semi-pro football team, sat down with the SF Bay View newspaper to talk local football. He talks about some of the star players and upcoming open tryouts and introduces us to the some of the head honchos within the organization. Check him out.

Federal agency guideline on the use of solitary confinement: An individual should never be locked in solitary confinement, except as an absolute last resort. Individuals, when in isolated confinement, must have the ability to socialize, to communicate and to physically interact with other individuals. This would be great news for those of us working on solitary reform, except for one thing: this guideline doesn’t apply to humans; it applies to mice.

Since some 30,000 California prisoners launched a hunger strike July 8 against the practice of long-term solitary confinement and other abuses, participants have faced punitive retaliation and censorship of newspapers and other media that backed their fight. Abuses continued after prisoners suspended the strike Sept. 5.

California’s Proposition 37, the genetically-engineered (GE) foods labeling initiative, failed to pass by a very narrow margin. But that does not mean the labeling fight is over, nor does it mean proponents of honesty in food labeling cannot get even with the opposition by actively boycotting the corporations responsible for helping kill the initiative.