(Jan. 2010) Human Rights for Prisoners March, by Mary Neal

The 41 links in this article do not open in a new window, so please use your back arrow to return to this blog, or read all before opening links. I enjoy tweeting so much that I have neglected my blog. Tonight, however, the cyberdogs are running so much interference on TWITTER that I thought I would publish at my FreeSpeakBlog (the name's a joke). Thanks for stopping by http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ - I tried to tweet the following and was prevented:

1. Read: The More, the Stronger! http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/881916

2. @GOOGLE @TWITTER, when I browse for "KoffieTime Twitter" Google links won't move past pg 1, although there are 10 pgs listed

3. Visit my Care2 page - http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=513396753

PRISON TORTURE IS REPORTEDLY GOING ON RIGHT NOW IN UTAH STATE PRISON. It is reported that inmates are naked in freezing cells, mentally ill inmates are tortured and advised to commit suicide, and food is withheld from diabetic prisoners to induce coma. See the complaint at this link: http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=17280&pst=894386

Prison Reform Community Center hopes that mainstream media will report the torture and murders are underway in Utah State Prison. However, human rights, particularly prison torture and wrongful deaths, is a very censored topic in the U.S. In fact, my article entitled "HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH," is the most censored article I ever wrote. That is saying a lot! See the article below following brief introduction.

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INTRODUCTION

There have been positive changes in justice since I published the HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH article in February 2009. The updated article follows this brief introduction and update, which notes progress in some areas. People are more cognizant now about the circumstances under which American inmates live and the need to reduce the nation's high incarceration rate. Jail diversion programs for the mentally ill and people with drug addictions are becoming more common. The USDOJ made numerous grants in 2009 to reduce recidivism. Furthermore, The Second Chance Act will soon provide better opportunities for parolees to successfully reintegrate into society. The death penalty is being considered for repeal in 11 states. Fewer people were condemned to death in 2009 than at any time since 1976. Probably as a result of public outcry, U.S. prison rolls reduced for the first time in decades. Legislation is pending that could end sentencing children to life in prison. Lawmakers are taking a second look at War on Drugs laws such as mandatory sentencing and three strikes laws. Judges in New York were given back the right to do discretionary sentencing. The Supreme Court ruled that defendants have the right to examine witnesses from crime labs that present testimony against them. (After an outcry against this righteous ruling by district attorneys, the Supreme Court is now reviewing its decision that defendants should be able to examine all witnesses whose testimony is used against them as stated in the Constitution.)

During summer 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear that real justice should take precedence over procedure, and commendable steps toward real justice are being taken. Promising legislation is pending before Congress and under consideration by state legislatures across the nation. The most important pending congressional bill regarding the justice system is H.R.619, introduced on January 21, 2009, by Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-TX). H.R. 619 proposes resuming Medicaid funds for inpatient treatment for eligible middle-class and indigent mentally ill people. Withdrawal of Medicaid funding for hospitalization of mental patients in crisis led to today's overcrowded prisons and high prison costs. The former psychiatric nurse's congressional bill is needed to help decriminalize mental illness in America and end discrimination against the only people in the country who are arrested for evidencing their chronic health conditions. Denial of psychiatric services is directly responsible for numerous murders and around 1.25 million incarcerations in America. Treatment is more humane, just, and less expensive than withholding treatment and then imprisoning mental patients, usually AFTER some avoidable tragedy.

Censorship remains a major problem around human rights issues in America, and it takes courage to address injustice. Hear my October 11, 2009 interview with Rev. Pinkney, a brave minister who was imprisoned for quoting the bible. I discuss my most frightening stalking experience since revealing the secret arrest and wrongful death of my handicapped brother in 2003 and beginning our justice quest for Larry Neal and other wronged Americans:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Rev-Pinkney/2009/10/11/MARY-NEAL-A-WARRIOR

The most censored article I published to date is presented below.

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HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH

http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/human-rights-for-prisoners-march-by.html

DETAINEE TREATEMENT is frequently "inhuman" inside as it was outside America's borders. Plans were made for the first annual Human Rights for Prisoners March and Conference to be held in Atlanta on May 16, 2009. It was to be conducted in the tradition of non-violent social change demonstrations by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Freedom Riders, which were supported by people of different races and backgrounds who united to promote civil rights. It seems fitting to demand human and civil rights in Dr. King's hometown. Thunderstorms prevented the in-person demonstration, but the march continues across the Internet daily to combat abusive conditions in correctional facilities and the loss of civil liberties for Americans. The need for equal justice, prison reform, and protecting civil rights is undeniable.

Read first-person reports by seven Pennsylvania inmates who made sworn statements that they are electrocuted, beaten, half-starved, and verbally abused because they reported being tortured. Prison guards were reportedly dissatisfied with the outcome of the 2008 presidential election and took it out on some African American inmates, including mentally ill prisoners. The Pennsylvania inmates beg for your help at this link (if the link below is not allowed to work, please browse for "Mary Neal Care2 Sharebook," where you can read about this and other pressing matters):


Prison Torture in Pennsylvania

http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1124844

Whereas prison torture has been exposed and condemned in America's offshore prisons, abusive conditions with often deadly results like those reported by the Pennsylvania prisoners continue largely unchecked inside the country's correctional institutions. Furthermore, racially motivated incidents of police brutality continue to threaten the cohesion of our social structure.

There is a need to stamp out prisoner abuse and murders inside the U.S.A. as well as outside and avoid having detainees within America's borders live and die like the individuals in the VIDEO at the link below while their families are denied records and accountability. More videos are available throughout this article. (Beware - graphic violence, nudity, and death):

Torture in American Prisons - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWxpQ87C4t4

(The Torture in American Prisons link originally posted within this article in February was deactivated. If this one fails, it is available at other sites. Put the title in your browser for a 50 min. documentary of prison torture inside America that rivals the abuse in the "War on Terror" prison camps.)

Improvements regarding concerns listed below would cost nothing. In fact, applying needed changes would reduce America’s incarceration rate and save billions of dollars annually. For instance, death row inmates cost about $90,000 more per inmate than those in maximum security prisons, according to the Death Penalty Information Institute. Mentally ill inmates who are released under assisted outpatient treatment programs (mandated psychiatric care and subsistence assistance) experience over 80% reduction in future arrests, hospitalizations, and homelessness, and outpatient commitment would promote public safety. There are currently 1.25 million mentally ill people in America’s correctional facilities, comprising over half of the approximate 2.3 million inmates within the country. Because treatment is significantly less expensive than either hospitalization or imprisonment, states would save significant amounts of tax money that is needed elsewhere.

Peaceful prisoner activists and individuals with an interest in human rights are invited to participate, particularly those interested in:

1) death penalty

2) prison torture

3) solitary confinement

4) life without the possibility of parole

5) trying children as adults and life sentences for minors

6) mandatory sentencing

7) three-strikes laws

8) law of parties (sentencing all parties equally regardless of parties' level of participation in crimes committed, i.e., mentally challenged Jeff Wood drove with the wrong person to a store in Texas and wound up on death row because the person robbed the store and killed the guard. Jeff was not inside the store and did not even know a murder had occurred.)

9) criminalizing mental illness, including PTSD among American veterans

10) high costs of prison phone calls and relocating prisoners out of state, which restricts visits even for sick prisoners. (Inmates who maintain a good level of contact with their families and friends while incarcerated have an increased likelihood of successful re-entry after parole, according to studies.)*

11) private prison profiteering - especially by decision-makers with positions in criminal justice (possible conflicts of interest)

12) excessive sentencing and unacceptable disparities in sentencing for similar offenses (such as powder cocaine vs. crack)

13) enforcement of Freedom of Information Act (transparency in government)

14) prisoner health care

15) increased funding for public defenders

16) post-conviction DNA testing, followed by release of inmates who prove to be innocent (unlike Thomas Arthur, an Alabama death row inmate whose DNA test results which were released from the forensic lab in July 2009 indicated his innocence. The test results were placed under seal by the court, and plans to execute the man continue).

17) no penalty or misdemeanor charge for less than one oz. of marijuana

18) strict enforcement against police and prison and prison brutality; prosecution of 100% of offenders

19) new trials with substantial new evidence, like Troy Davis has (Gov. Purdue or Pres. Obama should pardon Davis if he is not granted a new trial by the United States District Court in Georgia where the U.S. Supreme Court remanded that decision to be made in its August 17, 2009 ruling.)

20) so-called "non-lethal weaponry" and the possibility of conflicts of interest amongst decision makers regarding police equipment purchases (Are they Taser investors?)

21) illegal alien raids and arrests

22) racism and the socio-economic caste system in civil court and criminal justice

23) police profiling and abuse of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons

24) surveillance of U.S. citizens; loss of privacy rights, and the Patriot's Act**

25) plans for mass "emergency centers" inside U.S.A. for Americans (H.R. 645)**

26) remedial damages for victims and families of abused or murdered prisoners (whether or not victims lived to reach jail)

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*Studies proved that inmates who maintain contact with their families have lower recidivism rates, so these issues affect taxpayers like they do inmates and their loved ones. Obviously, prison profiteers read the reports on the studies, too. Their response was to institute video visits, which further separates inmates from their supporters.

**Nos. 24 and 25 were coded not to copy/paste at another article where I listed the concerns above.

While the world's attention is focused on inhumane treatment of War on Terror camp detainees, more attention is definitely needed regarding prisoner welfare within America's borders. It is important to remember that our country's correctional facilities are under the same agency that runs the War on Terror camps. Even physicians participated in "inhuman" torture of persons detained by the CIA in secret overseas prisons, according to an ICAC report that was not intended to be made public. "No one who took actions [torturers] based on legal guidance from the Department of Justice at the time should be investigated, let alone punished," said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield.

It may come as a surprise to many people that abuse and deaths of prisoners inside America also get little or no investigation. As it was with tortured detainees in Gitmo and Guantanamo, there is frequently no effort to hold prisons and jails responsible for inmates' treatment. Even people who are arrested for misdemeanor offenses occasionally wind up on websites like the one at the link below that documents prisoner genocide. My brother, Larry Neal, is no. 26 on the website, but his position may change as more prisoners are murdered. Abused prisoners or their survivors are frequently without legal recourse after brutality and murders:

Prisoner Genocide Website

http://www.geocities.com/prisonmurder/

(Click on each dead prisoner's photograph for his/her story.)

Prisoner abuse not only affects people who have been convicted and sentenced for crimes. From the moment a police officer says "halt" or pulls a person over for a ticket, the individual is essentially a prisoner. Many prisoners never make it to jail before being abused or killed, like the 22-year-old father, Oscar Grant, who was killed on New Years Day 2009. Sadly, Grant's death continued a tradition of police overuse of force which claims the lives of numerous citizens every year, particularly among those who are either poor, black, brown, or mentally dysfunctional. Grant can be seen holding up his hands in surrender before B.A.R.T. officers stretched the unarmed young man out facedown on the cold floor at a San Francisco train station. Former officer Johannes Mehserle straddled Grant and delivered a single gunshot in his back. Mehserle was arrested for Grant's murder because commuters captured the murder on VIDEO, and public outcry followed. See Grant's murder and domestic unrest it caused on video at this link:
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Oscar Grant: 1st Unarmed Black Man Police Killed in 2009 - Next?
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/oscar-grant-1st-unarmed-black-man-police-killed-2009-next

The torture of War on Terror detainees was shrouded in secrecy, and full disclosure is unlikely to ever happen. Those who participated in torture were promised they would never be prosecuted for their actions. Even children were captured and tortured in secrecy. Similarly, this writer's mentally ill, physically handicapped brother, a U.S. citizen, was secretly arrested and held for nearly three weeks until death in Shelby County Jail in Memphis, Tennessee in 2003 during the Bush Administration. There was apparently a similar order from the Justice Department that Larry Neal's death would never be investigated and no one would be punished - not the police who lied repeatedly during his incarceration about having him in custody, which prevented Larry's access to vital heart medication; not The Cochran Firm, which undertook his family's wrongful death case and then secretly held the case inactive while the Tennessee statute of limitations ran; not Shelby County officials who violated the terms of the jail's Agreement with the USA to report deaths and abuse of inmates; not the stalkers who threaten his family for inquiring about Larry; and certainly not the judges, state bars, and other officials who help to keep Larry's death deprived of investigation and accountability. In fact, the African American mentally ill heart patient was denied the investigative and prosecutorial effort that is devoted to animal abuse.


When Larry's survivors sued The Cochran Firm for fraud upon discovering the firm had contracted with us in a secret conflict of interest and then used its position as the family's wrongful death attorneys to protect Shelby County Jail, authorities bonded together to protect The Cochran Firm from the lawsuit. The Neals' lawsuit was dismissed before going to jury, with the court saying that there is no Cochran Firm office in Georgia where suit was filed and served to the firm's Atlanta office. Federal court ordered that The Cochran Firm's fraud against Larry Neal's family was "immaterial," presumably because African American inmates and their families are, particularly if the inmates are mentally disturbed. Six years later, we do not know what information is being kept secret about this handicapped American's secret arrest and death in the bowels of Shelby County Jail, because his family is denied any records or investigation. Perhaps Larry Neal was used for waterboarding practice. See the website below:

Wrongful Death of Larry Neal and Cochran Firm Fraud
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/


The link below reveals that The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm, which contracted to be our wrongful death attorneys, certainly did their part to hide the circumstances of Larry's final incarceration and death. The firm's lawyers even pleaded with a federal judge to prevent Larry's survivors from accessing Larry Neal's jail records during our lawsuit against the firm for its fraud and malpractice. It was because The Cochran Firm used its position as our attorneys to protect our defendants from exposure and paying damages that they were being sued in the first place. People who were trained in "enhanced interrogation" techniques reportedly received around 80 hours of training. Were African American mental patients like Larry Neal their training subjects? Why is there such determination to keep the circumstances of Larry's incarceration secret, despite the fact that Americans' "inalienable rights" are violated by secret imprisonment and U.S. laws provide for open disclousure. Where did "enhanced interrogation" trainees learn waterboarding techniques - in American jails?
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Cochran Firm: Judge, Don't Make the Jail Tell About Larry Neal!
http://www.nowpublic.com/health/cochran-firm-judge-dont-make-jail-tell-about-larry-neal

Mainstream news refuses to report any events regarding Larry Neal's secret jailhouse murder and The Cochrn Firm fraud, although mainstream media has improved by reporting more prisoner abuse within America. Even some media owners are prison profiteers. Containing negative news about America’s prison industry is of paramount importance to private prison owners and investors who profit substantially from the imprisonment of 2.3 million people. Americans have been surprised at the identities of some highly respected persons who are prison profiteers holding responsible positions in our nation, like the veteran Pennsylvania judges who earned $2.6 million in kickbacks by channeling poor children into a private detention center. This writer presumes that prison profiteering is also prevalent among elected officials, the judiciary, and decision makers in mainstream media, which would account for the lack of coverage given to prisoner abuse and inmate deaths inside America, where the prison industry costs taxpayers $50 billion each year,*** and untold millions are earned through prison work projects. Why investigate and tell on oneself? People don't cook the goose that lays golden eggs. See the link below about Pennsylvania judges enriching themselves at the expense of poor American children, who happened to be mostly Caucasians. It makes no real difference to prison profiteers what race their victims are.

Judges Pled Guilty in “Jailing Children for Dollars” Scheme
http://my.nowpublic.com/health/judges-pled-guilty-jailing-children-dollars-scheme
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*** The $50 billion per annum estimate reflects 2008 prison costs as provided by PEW. The total price of crime and punishment climbs to an estimated $185 billion annually when one includes police services, jailing suspects before trial or bond, and court costs that often include lawyer fees for indigent suspects. America's criminal justice costs were greatly increased by War on Drugs, which is largely a war against drug addicts who need treatment and recreational drug users.

Many decision makers profit significantly by America having the largest incarceration rate in the history of mankind and by high rates of recidivism, excessive sentencing, criminalizing mental illness, poor funding for prison rehabilitation programs and youth work and recreation projects. Where is the incentive to Change negative circumstances when one profits millions annually by their perpetuation? Before Americans go to court on any criminal matter or civil suit against police or a prison, they should be allowed to see the judge's portfolio - and their own lawyer's, too. When citizens learn that police officers in their municipality are being outfitted with Tasers, they should ask to see investment portfolios of those who appropriated the funding. The concerns listed herein and lack of media coverage have a simple and old explanation - greed.

Prisoners inside America who are detained in public and private correctional facilities are frequently subjected to torturous conditions, depravation of medical care and psychiatric treatment, and some die, including non-violent offenders and many of the country's most vulnerable citizens who are chronic mental patients like Larry was. He spent 20 years mostly as an inpatient in an asylum before many such institutions were closed in the 1970's and sick people were released to live homeless throughout the country.

Probably because Larry Neal’s 2003 death was covered up by authorities instead of being met with justice, Memphis Shelby County Jail continued its abuse against other inmates. See the raw footage of transgender detainee Duanna Johnson's 2008 beating while Shelby County Jail personnel merely watched at this link. Johnson was murdered before filing the lawsuit planned against the jail.

Duanna Johnson: Beaten by police, plans lawsuit, murdered
http://www.lgbthatecrimes.org/doku.php/duanna-johnson

See federal lawsuits regarding three more mental patients who were beaten or killed by Memphis law enforcement since Larry Neal's death cover-up: http://braxtonandfriends.org/index.html - Minorities, vulnerable mentally ill citiens, and people in the GLBT community must have better protection from racial profiling and police violence. (The actual complaints filed in federal court were available at the link above before I published the link with this article, and the complaints are still a matter of public record.)

Following are excerpts from a Washington Post report on prison torture that occurred in secret offshore determent camps.

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Report Calls CIA Detainee Treatment 'Inhuman'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/06/AR2009040603654.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, April 7, 2009; Page A06

Medical officers who oversaw interrogations of terrorism suspects in CIA secret prisons committed gross violations of medical ethics and in some cases essentially participated in torture, the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a confidential report that labeled the CIA program "inhuman." One prisoner reported being shackled in this manner for "two to three months - seven days of prolonged stress standing followed by two days of being able to sit or lie down."

(Please use the link above to access the full article, unless it is gone. News reports and videos that I link to my articles are frequently moved from the Internet. Certain links are also sometimes removed from my outgoing emails.)

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More videos showing prison torture within America's correctional facilities are available at this link:

Killing Inmates Is Costly~Cheaper to Watch TV (w/ Torture Videos)
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/killing-inmates-costly-cheaper-watch-tv-w-torture-videos

In November 2008, former Attorney General Gonzales was indicted by a Willacy, Texas jury for prison profiteering - earning kickbacks for using his position to prevent USDOJ investigations of prisoner abuses in county jails. Although the Texas case was dismantled and former Attorney General never stood trial, the conditions of prisoners in American jails and prisons are substandard to the point of being abusive and dangerous, and investigations by the USDOJ (the agency charged with protecting the civil rights of institutionalized persons) are indeed withheld as alleged.

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Grand jury indicts Cheney, former Attorney General Gonzales as Prison Profiteers
http://my.nowpublic.com/health/indicted-vp-cheney-and-former-attorney-general-gonzales-private-prison-profiteers

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America is called a prison nation by many people who are alarmed at the country's rising incarceration rate, the highest of any nation in history. America's rate of incarceration is now 1 in every 99.1 persons, and it is 1 in 9 among young black males according to figures released in February 2008 by PEW. In 2006, the USDOJ reported that 1 in every 31 persons in America was actually imprisoned or living under the immediate threat of incarceration as parolees or probationers. The number has undoubtedly grown substantially in three years, because entrepreneurship in criminal justice is very lucrative.

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Taxpayers pay an average of $60,000 per year per inmate in New York, and substantially more for warehousing chronically ill prisoners like hospice patients and inmates who have acute mental illness, plus an additional $90,000 annually for each death row inmate. In many instances, taxpayers are paying more than the average income of a family of four to save society from a teenager who smoked a joint or a young mother who wrote a bad check. In fact, PEW reports that America's prison budget is now $50 billion annually. That amount does not include the cost of investigation and arrest or trials with state-appointed attorneys. Factoring in those costs brings the estimate for crime and punishment to over $185 billion per annum. Prison profiteers generate extra profits by prison work projects like the one at this link:

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Prisons Earn $878 Million Annually by Poisoning Inmates and Guards, Lawsuit Alleges
http://www.nowpublic.com/health/prisons-earn-878-million-annually-poisoning-inmates-and-guards-lawsuit-alleges

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In Georgia, even people with traffic tickets they cannot pay immediately are put on probation while they make principal and interest payments on fines due. If drivers miss payments, they may then be arrested for violating probation as they are guilty of the crime of being poor.

There is a malicious connection between the country's fast accelerating prison rate and the advent of private prisons. As the number of Americans behind bars grows, so do the portfolios of private prison stockholders. Private prisons have been accused of having even less regard for prisoner rights than public detainment centers. Despite rampant abuse, the federal government and local municipalities across the country continue to contract with private prison corporations to warehouse ever increasing numbers of inmates.

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YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

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An $11 theft is costing taxpayers millions to punish THE SCOTT SISTERS, two black women who have already served 15 years each in a Mississippi prison. They were each given DOUBLE-LIFE sentences for the crime. No one was hurt during the robbery, and the women claim innocence. See more information at the link below.

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The Scott Sisters - Life in Prison for $11 Robbery Charge
www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1118098

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Many crimes that used to be misdemeanors or were not crimes at all are now felonies in order to keep prison populations high. The article at the link below carries a VIDEO of extreme prisoner abuse at CCA's Nashville prison, which was recently awarded another substantial contract to imprison a "guaranteed" number of inmates:

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Torture Mentally Ill ~ 9 mo. Solitary Confinement in Filth, Naked
http://www.nowpublic.com/health/torture-mentally-ill-9-mo-solitary-confinement-filth-naked

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In addition to highlighting the need for prison reform, the Human Rights for Prisoners March was planned to help police officers and prison guards gain a less volatile work atmosphere. Most law enforcement personnel and prison guards are decent people who desire to protect and serve. But they must depend on their co-workers in crisis situations. They have no desire to be ostracized on the job or be hit with “friendly fire” in emergency situations. Therefore, there is an repulsive tendency among law enforcement personnel to ignore abuses and withhold intervention that could save lives. When prisoner abuse and police brutality are no longer tolerated in America, mutual respect between law enforcement and the citizenry will be enhanced (including inmates). Corrections personnel will benefit by the March if it promotes justice.
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Justice will not be improved, however, unless more police officers and prison guards report abuses done by their co-workers. Larry Neal's wrongful death in Memphis/ Shelby County Jail was covered-up by authorities and deprived of the investigative effort that Michael Vick’s dogs’ deaths prompted. As a result, "unacceptably different" Duanna Johnson was beaten, and more sick Memphis citizens were abused. Some died. Who is next?
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SEE THE EXTENT OF A JAIL DEATH COVER-UP IN THIS BRIEF ARTICLE. The fact that you never saw this story in mainstream news proves the powerful resolve to protect America's $50 billion per year prison industry at the expense of justice and human rights.

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Constitutional Rights Nullified for Neal Family
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1019414

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There is no reason or excuse for killing harmless mentally dysfunctional citizens as Memphis law enforcement seems to presume, and there is certainly no excuse for authorities allowing this. An estimated 1.25 million of America's prisoners are mentally ill. If mentally challenged people were treated as sick people in need of assisted outpatient treatment in their communities (Kendra’s Law) or as inpatients in secure mental hospitals (depending on the gravity of their offenses), prison overcrowding and most of America’s homeless problem would be immediately resolved with tremendous savings for taxpayers. Just one healthy 30-year-old condemned to life in prison can cost taxpayers as much as $10 million to incarcerate. Prison profiteers have no great desire to improve mental health care by instituting enforced treatment and subsistence programs that prevent tragedies.
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COVER-UPS ARE COMMON after inmates and citizens are killed by law enforcement. See another example of jail personnel who resist cooperating with a prisoner abuse and murder investigation at this link:

Mentally Ill Inmate Beaten to Death by Guards; Jail Personnel Aren't Talking http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/03/21/fultonjail0321.html

After Larry Neal's wrongful death, his family recognized there is a need to bring more attention to the horrors of prison life and other gross injustices within America that are frequently allowed to continue without investigation or remedy. For that reason, members of ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL ("AIMI") and Larry Neal's survivors hope concerned people will support the Human Rights for Prisoners March, which had to be canceled due to thunderstorms on May 16. There were, however, numerous other demonstrations throughout 2009 regarding the issues covered in this article sponsored by human rights groups and prisoner activists across America. Join us by marching across the Internet and demanding respect for all people. Readers are invited to copy this article in its entirety or share a link with their friends and online groups to acquaint others with the problems at hand and some of the improvements that are being made. Visit AIMI online at http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
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People who are concerned about criminal justice and human rights, as well as protecting civil rights for all Americans, should use this opportunity to peacefully demand CHANGE regarding areas of concern.
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Each of the 2.3 million prisoners in America is likely to have several family members and friends who care about how they fare while imprisoned. Based on recent proposed legislation, this writer believes officials are getting the point of how badly prison reform is needed. Below are some proposed bills that deserve support:

~ Sen. Jim Webb (VA-D) introduced The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009 calling for a national commission to "undertake a top-to-bottom review of our entire criminal justice system."

~ Rep. Johnson (TX-30) introduced H.R. 619 to resume Medicaid payments for care in mental institutions (withdrawal of these funds helped cause hospital closings); and H.R. 766 to provide housing and financial counseling for individuals before their release from inpatient or residential institutions.

~ Mr. Davis of Illinois (for himself, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Mr. Towns, Mr. Rush, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Ms. Waters, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Fattah, Mrs. Christensen, Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Mr. Cummings, and Mr. Clay) introduced the following bill, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary: H. R. 1475 to amend Title 18, United States Code, to restore the former system of good time allowances toward service of federal prison terms, and for other purposes.

Regarding H.R. 766, counseling is a good start. But if prisons were made to pay minimum wage to inmates who work, their salaries could be used to:

(a) restitution to inmates' victims,


(b) pay a portion of their own incarceration fees to unburden taxpayers,


(c) pay child support so inmates' children can avoid becoming another expense for taxpayers while parents are incarcerated, and


(d) enable released inmates to afford a home, a business, or further their education upon prison release. Why should the proceeds of prison laborers go to private prison owners and investors who are already compensated around $50,000 per year per prisoner in some states and even more for sick and condemned inmates? People exiting prisons need more than financial counseling to become viable members of a community - parolees need financial ASSISTANCE. I recently met a man who was just released from a Georgia prison with only $25 to start his new life. That is a situation that might induce parolees to return to crime. Make prison owners pay minimum wage and end slavery in America.


Mandating minimum wage for prison laborers would also end unfair competition for labor contracts between prison owners/investors and other American workers. Many of the jobs that Americans think moved overseas actually moved behind prison walls. Inmates are paid less than third-world country wages and have no benefits. If prison laborers have an on-the-job injury, taxpayers pay for their medical treatment. When inmates' injuries are not treated and they become disabled, their status as disabled inmates can mean more revenue to the prison owners, since costs for medical services, special equipment, and other provisions for mentally or physically handicapped inmates are also billed to taxpayers, whether or not those services and provisions are actually provided to sick and injured prisoners. Therefore, whether the inmates remain healthy or become mentally or physically ill or handicapped is a win/win situation for prison owners and investors. For this reason, there is too little emphasis placed on providing quality inmate health care and worker safety.

Financial and housing counseling proposed in H.R. 766 would also help identify the needs of mental patients being released from hospitals, but counseling alone will not be useful to chronic mental patients. This is particularly true of those suffering from "anosognosia," which prevents acute mental patients from recognizing their own illness. Such patients exit the hospitals and jails and quickly discontinue their therapy, necessitating re-hospitalization or re-arrest. Taxpayers experience no savings when mental patients fail to get proper care and provisions for continued treatment when dismissed from institutions. Frequently, released psychiatric patients commit crimes ranging from simple vagrancy to murder, like 32-year-old Na Yong Pak, a woman who was released from a mental health facility in Georgia last year and promptly murdered her mom - burned her to death.

Na Yong Pak - Released from Mental Facility and Promptly Burned Her Mother to Death
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2009/02/11/burned_woman_mental.html
Georgia saved nothing by ignoring this family’s protests and dismissing Pak from the hospital earlier than needed, which resulted in her mom’s death and a felony murder arrest for Pak. Neither will incarceration "rehabilitate" the mentally ill woman. Her brother reports that she asked him during a visit when she could go home. She probably expects to see her mom there. http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/18683942/detail.html

Pak's family is devastated, another sick person was charged and probably sentenced to a lengthy, expensive prison term, and the only people who might benefit are prison owners. Private prison profiteers benefit even when people go to public prisons because until public correctional facilities are full, privately owned correctional facilities do not get inmates. Consider how certain Pennsylvania judges allegedly curtailed funds for the public juvenile correctional facilities in order to channel children who appeared before their benches into private prisons. The same thing happened on a much grander scale in the 1970's when mental institutions were depopulated and sick Americans were supposedly "deinstitutionalized." Many mental hospitals are closed, community care is limited, and mandatory treatment is largely outlawed, leaving chronically ill people like Na Yong Pak to become inmates rather than inpatients. It does not seem to matter enough to decision makers that prolonged treatment for Pak and many others would prevent deaths.

Chronic mental patients exiting institutions should be placed in an assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) program like Kendra’s Law that combines subsistence assistance with mandatory outpatient treatment. Kendra’s law reduces homelessness, recidivism, and future hospitalizations by 85% or better. Furthermore, fewer arrests mean safer communities and less expense to taxpayers. Lawmakers are making changes that indicate they are more cognizant of this truth.

Thanks in large part to the economic downturn, elderly inmates are eligible for early release in some regions. Releasing elderly, handicapped, and chronically ill inmates would reduce the prison budget substantially as well as exercise compassion.

Prison Biz News: Compassionate Release v. Prison Hospitals http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/prison-biz-news-compassionate-release-v.html

Reducing America's incarceration rate is the humane and financially prudent thing to do. It can be easily accomplished through early release programs, jail diversion for drug users and the mentally ill, releasing non-violent mental patients to community care with enforced treatment and subsistence provisions, increasing and improving prisoner rehabilitation programs, supporting parolees' reorientation into society through re-entry programs that help with jobs and housing, and like programs. The most important change needed is to allow post-conviction DNA testing and give new trials when warranted by substantial new evidence. No government should foster a system that allows unwarranted or excessive punishment. Freeing innocent inmates saves money that should not be spent to rehabilitate and punish people while the guilty parties remain free to commit more crimes. Ensuring the guilt of imprisoned persons promotes community safety and saves money on unwarranted, unjust punishment. The Innocence Project helps inmates be cleared of wrongful convictions by providing DNA tests, usually over the objections of district attorneys who do not seem to care whether defendants are guilty or innocent. Please support the Innocence Project today. More about DNA testing is available at this link: http://www.innocenceproject.org/ and in some of my NowPublic articles at http://NowPublic.com/duo advocating against wrongful convictions and the death penalty, such as the article at the link below:

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against DNA Testing Rights; Death Penalty is No Crime Deterrent
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/supreme-court-dna-ruling-study-shows-dp-no-crime-deterrent

Since the 1980's, America has had a steady increase in its incarceration rate until this nation now imprisons more people than any other nation in world history. It is now time to reverse that trend and use the savings from our prison budget to address some of the damage that has been done to budgets for education, health, and social welfare. Restoration strengthens families, communities, and the economy. It is good government.


************************

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity,

as being yourselves also in the body. ~ Hebrews 13:3

Truth burns up error. ~ Sojourner Truth

NOTE: Your comments are invited at this blog post. Please add me to your email list if you deal with human rights issues: MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com - Should you get no response to inquiries at my email address within 24 hours are invited to phone me at 678.531.0262. Please aware that the censorship team put a false message on my phone the week of 12/11/09 saying my number is out of service. I have changed my phone number several times due to Cointelpro-like take-overs, but changing my email addresses and phone numbers does not help. I am censored and stalked while deprived of normal police services in part because I maintain that:

(a) Crimes are acts done in intentional disregard of other people's safety and property rights by individuals with the mental faculties to understand the damage their actions could or did cause. (This definition excludes children, who are considered too immature to sign legally binding contracts. Minors should be interned only in juvenile correctional facilities with an emphasis on teaching them how to behave and preparing them to be decent, law-abiding citizens. No child should be tried and sentenced as an adult. My definition of criminals also excludes mentally ill offenders and most drug users - people with issues that cannot be improved by incarceration and should not be punished, but treated.)


(b) Every available resource should be used to ensure that only the guilty are punished. Wrongful convictions that could be avoided are criminal deprivation of citizens' rights. Americans are supposed to have "inalienable rights" to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, all of which are lost when one is incarcerated. Therefore, it is the government's responsibility to ensure that only people who have actually forfeited those rights are punished by imprisonment or execution. Please see the articles at the links below:

I Didn't Do It, Your Honor! http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-didnt-do-it-your-honor.html
.
How Important is Innocence in Criminal Justice?
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-important-is-innocence-in-criminal.html

(c) Private prisons should close. Private prisons would no longer be needed if America's 1.25 million imprisoned mental patients were either relocated back to mental hospitals (where they were before prison profiteering) or released to their communities under mandated treatment provisions, depending on their offenses. Correctional facilities are necessary and should be owned and operated by the people through the people's government. It smacks of slavery to capture people from their communities and delivering them to private business owners who financially profit from their internment by billing taxpayers and by using inmates' youth and vigor for enforced servitude, especially in an atmosphere where their humanity is ignored. In fact, America's prison industry was born immediately following the Civil War, and inmates are overwhelmingly poor whites and minorities. Africans and poor whites from Europe's ghettos were slaves and indentured servants during America's settlement. Slavery was never abolished, but rather, it thrives in America's prison industry. Slavery, which made Southern plantation owners and businessmen in New England wealthy before the War Between the States, is still one of the most profitable enterprises in this country.


(d) Rehabilitation and job training should be the primary focus during imprisonment. Since 90% of inmates have a release date, the emphasis for "correctional" institutions should be on preparing inmates for successful re-entry into society, not exclusively on punishment for crimes. Judges and juries frequently decide that defendants found guilty of crimes should be incarcerated, but torture (including solitary confinement) should not be a part of their punishment.


(e) Capital punishment is murder. Jesus paid for all of us to have the opportunity to CHANGE. It is wrong to kill people and deprive them of the opportunity that Jesus provided with His own blood. Furthermore, between the time when capital crimes are committed and executions are carried out, many condemned people have already changed. Middle-aged people are oftentimes executed for acts done when they were teens. How much have you changed since you were 19? The answer is not to execute condemned persons sooner, because most exonerees were imprisoned for a decade or two before proving their innocence and being freed on new evidence or finally having "a fair day in a just court" (Troy Davis's words). Quicker executions would therefore result in more innocents being murdered by the State, like Cameron Todd Willingham was in Texas in 2004. It is time to end prison torture within the U.S.A. and kill the death penalty.

LET HIM WHO IS WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE.

~John 8

ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENTS IN JUSTICE indicate that marching across the Internet for human rights is effective. There were also in-person demonstrations in 2009 to combat wrongful convictions, the death penalty, protest prison torture and overuse of force by police. Prisoner activists, mental health advocates, death penalty abolitionists, and other organizations with a commitment to human rights courageously advocate for change, and CHANGE IS HAPPENING. Public interest is the main reason why legislators are focusing on making our justice system more just. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions and contacted their elected officials in support of prison reform and other justice issues.

Elected officials care about what voters care about, and voters cannot care about conditions they do not know about. But there are villains who wish to prevent voters from learning about injustice and corruption in our justice system and abusive conditions within America's correctional facilities, where two-thirds of inmates were convicted of non-violent crimes. They also seek to prevent the public from learning about humane, cost-saving remedies to America's high incarceration rate that would also promote community safety. My regular readers probably recall how the Human Rights for Prisoners March article was frequently attacked at NowPublic.com, where it was originally published. This is my most highly censored work to date. The article disappeared several times, and it is invisible again (see where it should be at this link: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/human-rights-prisoners-march-was-postponed-weather ). Only some of the comments remain at the original site of the Human Rights for Prisoners March article at NowPublic.com as of this date. Over 2,000 people read the article at NowPublic. Since it was removed from public view again, I decided to post it here, and it has gone out via email to hundreds of people and was published on blogs across the nation.

Human rights for prisoners is censored, especially my articles. I think it is very significant to know WHAT the censorship staff deletes. In addition to my Human Rights for Prisoners March article having been repeatedly removed from public view, my Care2 article regarding Senator Rockefeller's Senate Bills 773 and 778 to give the presidential office the power to shut down the Internet was also deleted. Furthermore, on the list of 26 issues presented below, I discovered that numbers 24 and 25 were covertly coded to be ineligible for the copy/paste function when I published the list on an online invitation to listen and comment to the radio show where I was the guest of Rev. Pinkeny on October 11.

Mary Neal's October 11 interview on Rev. Pinkney Blogtalk Radio show - link: http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/mary-neal-discusses-human-rights-for.html

My punishment for writing about prisoner issues and protecting the Bill of Rights for ALL Americans is not limited to cyberterrorism, but includes actual stalking.

Only 30 addressees actually received the 566 American Greetings eVites for the interview that I sent to 566 people. No explanation was given by American Greetings, although I inquired. That was similar to the censorship I endured publishing this article and invitations to join the Human Rights for Prisoners March, which was to be held in Atlanta on May 16, 2009. The invitations to the march were also hindered, Yahoo bounced over 2,000 of my emails during daily suspensions of my email service that occurred within a few weeks of my announcing the demonstration due to illegal attacks on my email box, and the email box another online service issued me in respect Human Rights March invitations was fake or sabotaged after being issued to me. The mailbox was coded to neither send nor receive emails. Human rights and protection of Americans' civil liberties are concepts that are attacked online.

Mary Neal
Website: http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (“AIMI”)
a/k/a The Dorothea Dix Group
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

The Bible reveals that God's prophets and His anointed kings were the peoples' judges. May God bless us with more righteous judges and equal justice for ALL!


Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice -

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Thanks for your attention to current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ (the name is a joke, believe me).