Thursday, May 16

Tag: prison

Black Mothers Are At The Center Of A Fight To Keep Youth Out Of An Adult Prison In Louisiana
No Comments
IN OTHER NEWS

Black Mothers Are At The Center Of A Fight To Keep Youth Out Of An Adult Prison In Louisiana

Parents and legal advocates in Louisiana — chief among them Black mothers — say a plan to temporarily transfer incarcerated youth to an adult facility once known as “America’s bloodiest prison” will traumatize the children and limit their access to education and rehabilitation opportunities. Under the plan from Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, about two dozen juveniles are being transferred from the Bridge City Center for Youth to the Louisiana State Prison at Angola until some time in 2023. According to reports, the first set of youth was transferred this week. Governor Edwards’ office did not immediately respond to The 19th’s request for comment. Angola — which is notorious for its violence — is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States and is named for the former sla...
Read More
Leaving Them To Carry The Burden At Home – 1 In 4 Women Have A Family Member In Prison
No Comments
IMPACT

Leaving Them To Carry The Burden At Home – 1 In 4 Women Have A Family Member In Prison

Mary Estrada, 56, met her husband, Robert, when she was 10 years old and he was 9. They have been together most of their lives, but they have also spent many years physically apart. Robert Estrada’s contact with the criminal legal system began early, with time in the city’s juvenile detention facility that ignited a cycle of incarceration. Currently he is serving a 52-year sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, more than two hours from Estrada’s home in Pomona, California. Over the decades, Estrada said she has remained her husband’s steadfast support system. Every weekend she drives 135 miles each way to visit Robert. She talks to him on the phone at least once a day, sometimes twice, at a rate of about $2 for 15 minutes. She makes sure to keep money on...
Read More
Long-Standing Ban On Pell Grants To People In Prison Lifted By Congress
No Comments
EDUCATION

Long-Standing Ban On Pell Grants To People In Prison Lifted By Congress

When Congress decided in 1994 to ban federal student aid for people behind bars, it was part of a wider political agenda to “get tough on crime” – even though crime rates had begun to fall in the 1990s. The number of people behind bars grew, but, without access to federal student aid, higher education programs in America’s correctional facilities dwindled. On Dec. 21, 2020, Congress moved to lift the long-standing ban on federal student aid – specifically, the Pell grant – for those who are incarcerated. The decision comes after a long push for prison reforms that included calls for a greater emphasis on rehabilitation, reducing prison populations and making prison sentences less harsh. $1.4 trillion The measure is part of a US$1.4 trillion government spending bill for 2021 that is attac...
Read More
During COVID-19 A Community Rallies to Change Prison Rules
No Comments
COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

During COVID-19 A Community Rallies to Change Prison Rules

Here at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, four living units—each housing roughly 200 prisoners—share one recreation yard. And around this time of year, I could watch as teams gathered almost daily to compete on the soccer field or practice around the baseball diamond, as countless residents strolled the quarter-mile track, which surrounds both. Outside the track, some played horseshoes, bocce, handball, basketball, and used the array of pullup and dip bars, while others sat at cement tables slapping cards and banging dominoes. Needless to say, our yard isn’t small. All this changed in early April, after news that the first cases of COVID-19 inside a state prison had been confirmed at Monroe Correctional Complex, where the reformatory is. Courageous fellow residents, refusing to...
Read More
How Mandela stayed fit: from his ‘matchbox’ Soweto home to a prison cell
No Comments
Journalism

How Mandela stayed fit: from his ‘matchbox’ Soweto home to a prison cell

The spread of the coronavirus has forced millions all over the world to retreat to base and abandon outdoor exercise and gym sessions. If they own a big house and garden, it’s manageable, but many live in shacks, cramped houses or tiny high-rise flats. How can they avoid going to seed during lockdown? Gavin Evans takes a look at how former boxer and South African liberation struggle icon Nelson Mandela adapted while incarcerated in a tiny cell on Robben Island. February 15, 1990: Nelson Mandela wakes as always at 5am and begins his hour-long exercise routine. The difference this time is that instead of a prison cell, his gym is the front room of his “matchbox” house – so-called for its small size – at 8115 Vilakazi Street, Soweto. And soon he’ll be besieged by journalists, well-wishers, d...
Read More
What Hundreds Of Prison Gang Members Had To Say About Life Behind Bars
No Comments
IN OTHER NEWS, Journalism

What Hundreds Of Prison Gang Members Had To Say About Life Behind Bars

The United States incarcerates a larger proportion of its citizens than any other developed country in the world, with around 1.5 million people serving time in prison. But to anyone who doesn’t work or live in a facility, life behind bars largely remains a mystery. The public gets a glimpse of life on the inside only when there are riots, executions or scandals. As criminologists, we spent nine months interviewing over 800 prisoners in Texas in 2016. They told us about their lives before and during prison, as well as their impending return to the community, a journey shared by over 600,000 people each year. We also learned about a significant reality in prisons: gangs. Our new book pulls back the curtain on how gangs compete for control and structure prison life. Gangs wield power behi...
Read More
Connecting The Dots Between Slavery And Prison
No Comments
LIFESTYLE

Connecting The Dots Between Slavery And Prison

Students suing the Ivy League say rather than helping to dismantle the system of “human caging,” the school is profiting from it. “Today we take an important step in the effort to explore the complexities of our past and to restore this painful dimension of Harvard’s history to the understanding of our heritage. The past never dies or disappears. It continues to shape us in ways we should not try to erase or ignore.” Harvard University President Drew Faust spoke these words in 2016 as she stood alongside U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia in front of the university’s famed Wadsworth House. They unveiled a plaque in remembrance of enslaved people who served the university centuries ago. In 2019, current President Lawrence Bacow renewed the pledge. But it would appear Harvard, which had a p...
Read More
Mothers in prison aren’t likely to see their families this Thanksgiving – or any other day
No Comments
Journalism

Mothers in prison aren’t likely to see their families this Thanksgiving – or any other day

On a mid-October morning, I drove from Philadelphia to State Correctional Institution Muncy, Pennsylvania’s oldest and largest women’s prison. Nearly two-thirds of imprisoned mothers have never received a visit from their children. Shutterstock/Sakhorn The prison, located in the north central part of the state, is set at the base of a mountain and encircled by farmlands, feed mills and the upper branch of the Susquehanna River. The 170-mile drive took nearly four hours. I was visiting Cynthia Alvarado. In 2010, a Philadelphia jury found Alvarado guilty of driving the getaway car in a robbery homicide. The judge gave her the same sentence as the man who pulled the trigger: life without the possibility of parole. I was there to discuss her case as part of project on Pennsylvania’s accompli...
Read More
After Incarceration: The Truth About a Loved One’s Return from Prison
No Comments
Journalism

After Incarceration: The Truth About a Loved One’s Return from Prison

Author Ebony Roberts gives voice to the unspoken struggle many women face when a loved one comes home. We often talk about the impacts of mass incarceration, particularly on society, but rarely as it relates to how the epidemic is affecting individual families and personal relationships. We don’t talk about how it’s mostly women in families who carry the weight of their loved ones being locked away. It is usually women who have to maintain the home alone, find a way to visit the incarcerated loved one, explain to their children why that particular loved one is gone, and at the same time go without—in the case of being a wife—physical intimacy. And I don’t just mean sex. But what happens when that loved one returns home? Is the relationship that was cultivated in prison...
Read More