Monday, March 18, 2024
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Tags Criminal justice system

Tag: criminal justice system

California Reading Report Card: Nine Bay Area school districts at bottom...

Alarmingly low CA Reading Report Card scores in Bay Area schools triggers the creating of a task force by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

Beacons of hope: Humboldt State’s Project Rebound builds a prison-to-college pipeline

Project Rebound at HSU breathes life support into possibilities for life successes to people returning from incarceration and at-risk youth.

Extra-judicial killings, mass incarceration and government attacks on civilians: The elephant...

Herukhuti Sharif educates in depth how the colonizer design of the system, and collective socio-political illusions of the people, result in relentless harm and death to Black and vulnerable people.

Community gathering and conversation on how to stop the violence in...

The SF Black communities are coming together to demand that those they elect be more proactive in helping to create what’s necessary, with community-centered leadership, to build strength, safety, health and wellbeing within SF Black communities, with a focus on the roots and impact of increasing violence.

Mayor London Breed announces spending plan for $120 million reinvestment in...

Emerging from the fertile earth of the Black community, seedlings begin to sprout as Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton present the Dream Keeper Initiative with a hefty commitment redirecting $120 million from SFPD for investments in the African American community.

Let’s not forget Zulu!

Free Zulu! The US prison system, designed to capture, confine and control, denies it holds Political Prisoners like Kenny Zulu Whitmore, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Leonard Peltier, Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz, Ed Poindexter, Romaine ‘Chip’ Fitzgerald and so many more, most falsely accused and wrongfully convicted. Released after 50 years, Jalil Muntaqim was rearrested, charged with trying to vote as the State attempts to reclaim his captivity.

SF DA Chesa Boudin and Supervisor Shamann Walton announce resolution to...

Today, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Supervisor Shamann Walton announced a resolution motivated by the murder of George Floyd to protect the public and particularly people of color from police misconduct. The resolution urges the San Francisco Civil Service Commission to prohibit the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Sheriff’s Department from hiring officers with a known history of serious police misconduct. Supervisors Hillary Ronen, Aaron Peskin, Matt Haney, Dean Preston, Sandra Lee Fewer and Norman Yee are cosponsors of the resolution.

First Step Act as seen from within the shadows of Florence...

Coco Das’ article, “Should we celebrate when a fascist regime endorses prison reform?” reached me at a particularly ripe time. None of the ironies observed about Trump’s endorsement of the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill, were misconstrued, nor did I take them for granted.

Not for human consumption

The Washington Post last week wrote one of a series of articles about the federal shutdown that focused on the criminal justice system. The reporters included the obligatory interviews with prison guards talking about how overworked and understaffed they are, which is likely true. But the article was inflammatory – not because of the interviews with the guards, but because the Post reported that while the poor guards were suffering, the prisoners were eating meals fit for a king. The purpose of the articles was to outrage the public. How can these criminals eat like this while the hard-working guards are suffering? But it’s all nonsense.

Barbara Lee on Oscar Grant and First Step Act

Ten years ago, Oscar Grant was tragically and needlessly killed by an officer at the Fruitvale BART station. Oscar was a beloved member of our East Bay community. He was a loving father, a loyal friend and a kind neighbor. My heart is with his family, friends and loved ones who are missing him dearly today. Over the last decade, communities like mine have lost far too many Black men to police violence. Since Oscar’s passing, the list of young African American men killed by police officers has grown even longer.

Amani Sawari awarded a 2019 Roddenberry Fellowship to develop Right2Vote Campaign...

I’m thrilled to share that I will be joining 19 other activists and changemakers for the 2019 Roddenberry Fellowship! Jailhouse Lawyers Speak’s Right2Vote (R2V) Campaign is being recognized for the direct impact on civil rights in the United States. The Roddenberry Fellowship supports 20 activists, organizers, leaders and changemakers who are working to make the U.S. a more inclusive and equitable place to live. Fellows’ projects focus on one of four issues: Civil Rights, Immigration and Refugee Rights, LGBTQIA and Women’s Rights, Environmental Protection.

Hiding and abusing the mentally ill and physically disabled inside Texas...

On Oct. 4, 2015, at the McConnell Ad-Seg Unit located in Beeville, Texas, prisoner Jarvis Dugas, No. 1386881, was preparing for a visit with his mother. Dugas, who is known to his friends as “Homestead,” is a Black man who is mentally handicapped and physically dis­abled. He walks with a pronounced limp. Dugas’ mother, Regina Strange, is a former employee of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She is all too familiar with the overt tactics of mistreatment, abuse and degradation associated with the corrupt prison agency and because she knows that, she regularly visits her son Jarvis.

United Playaz transform the lives of students and staff while serving...

“It takes the hood to save the hood” is the bold quote written on the shirts of the strong male and female organizers involved in United Playaz (UP), a San Francisco based 20-plus-year-old organization founded by Rudy Corpuz with a focus on youth development and violence prevention. UP’s engagement with the community is motivated by the needs of the people. United Playaz is a diamond in our community, shining light through every aspect of its mission at every level.

Tony Thurmond wins historic race for California Superintendent of Public Instruction

Assemblymember Tony Thurmond is the projected winner of the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction election. More than a week after Election Day, Thurmond has overcome an 86,000-vote deficit on Election Day to win the election. "I want to thank the voters of California for electing me to serve the 6 million students of California. I intend to be a champion of public schools and a superintendent for all California students,” said Superintendent-elect Thurmond.

Bring Amani to the Bay to be our new Bay View...

On Tuesday, Aug. 21, the first day of the historic National Prison Strike, Democracy Now interviewed Amani Sawari. The segment began with an excellent interview with Cole Dorsey of IWOC and then suddenly the bright, brilliant, radiant face of 23-year-old Amani filled the screen and a voice of eloquence, inspiration and power filled the room. All it took was host Amy Goodman saying she’s a journalist, and, involuntarily, spontaneously, I pointed at the screen and shouted, “There’s the new Bay View editor!” Amani and I have been talking ever since, and she came to visit Oct. 8-12. What fun we had.

‘Progressive DA’ Larry Krasner, you said you’d overturn wrongful convictions; what...

Given that Mumia’s next court hearing is on Oct. 29, two weeks away, many of us have felt that not enough attention has been paid to challenging Philadelphia’s widely hailed, new “liberal” District Attorney Larry Krasner. His deadly role in Mumia’s current legal proceedings in the Court of Common Pleas has not been understood by many Mumia supporters. We must pressure him to drop his opposition to Mumia’s current legal action aimed at giving Mumia new rights of appeal of his conviction.

Smyrna 17: Trials of Delaware ‘riot leaders’ begin Oct. 8

On Feb. 1-2, 2017, a riot occurred at Delaware’s James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Building C that resulted in a correctional officer being assaulted and another being killed. After a nine-month investigation led by the Delaware State Police, an 18-man indictment was handed down on Oct. 17, 2017. Everybody pled not guilty and chose trial by a jury except for one co-defendant. Not only did this cowardly snitch fabricate his story and just blatantly outright lie on others indicted, but he’s an ancient RAT, meaning that he snitched on some boys back in the day.

Prison strike solidarity update: Solid Black Fist newsletter released as striking...

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS) is currently continuing to focus energy on supporting strikers who’re suffering retaliation, raising awareness of those who continue to strike and educating policymakers of strikers’ demands. These will be our primary focuses in this season. Action points: Print and distribute Issue No. 6 of Solid Black Fist. Support prisoners still striking, raise awareness that the National Prison Strike continues in Ohio and California. Circulate the online petition to Congress demanding prisoners’ basic human rights needs be met.

Solidarity update: Continued resistance as a national coalition

The National Prison Strike flooded the media and transformed the national narrative surrounding prisoners’ human rights. While the symbolic end date of the national prison strike passed on Sunday’s 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, prisoners take the lead in determining whether to continue striking depending on their individual circumstances at their institutions: some extending the call, others placing a new date on their call and even striking indefinitely.

Reports back from the first week of the 2018 National Prison...

Prisoners are rising up in institutions across the country – and now internationally – in protest of the living and working conditions in the prisons. The first week of the strike has just come to an end and we have seen a substantial wave of success. The mainstream media attention on the strike has been monumentally greater than we have ever seen in the past. Along with this, the public narrative towards prisoners has changed dramatically. The public eye is focused on securing and protecting prisoners’ rights. We are also committed to highlighting the injustices that are inherent to our criminal justice system.