Alice prisoners riot

Alice Springs Correctional Centre superintendent Peter Rainbird would not say why prisoners had staged the riot.

But he said guards would consult prisoners about concerns in the jail.

The Territory's jail rate is 580 per 100,000 people compared to the national average of 154 per 100,000.

Mick - It's hot - the food is shit and there are next to no rehabilitive programs. I read all the books before my eight days were up. Borrowed more from inmates. Besides all that - most mob shouldn't be in there.

- You could release most of the NT prisoners safely

How the hell are they coping in the heat with a piss-bucket for company?

By Just Us posted 18 November 05

Jail lockdown as riot rages

A TERRITORY jail was locked down yesterday as maximum security prisoners rioted.

Inmates in the reception area of Alice Springs jail's maximum security section barricaded doors and set fire to mattresses about 10am.

Guards responded by locking the jail down and rushing to the area, clearing the prisoners and putting out the fires within an hour.

Eight prisoners involved in the riot were taken to isolation cells.

Alice Springs Correctional Centre superintendent Peter Rainbird would not say why prisoners had staged the riot.

But he said guards would consult prisoners about concerns in the jail.

Supt Rainbird would not say which prisoners were involved in the riot but confirmed it would be investigated and jail procedures would be reviewed.

"Once we finish the investigation we will be able to deal with the issues,'' he said.

NT Police also will investigate the riot and may lay charges of criminal damage against the prisoners.

Firefighters were called out but the fires had been extinguished when they arrived.

The jail's maximum security unit remained in lockdown last night.

"There was only superficial damage caused,'' Supt Rainbird said.

"Public safety was not compromised at the time.'' He described the incident as "moderately serious''.

By ERIC TLOZEK 16nov05

NT Prisons - Close to boiling point
"PRISONERS threatened to riot at Darwin jail after complaining about overcrowding and the quality of food, it was learnt yesterday."

NT Prison stats

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Prisoner total rises 15% in six years
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Adler punished for being in prison
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Department of Corrective Services fails to rehabilitate offenders
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Parole Board Membership
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Corrected or Corrupted
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Tasmanian prison support visit
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Prison Action & Reform challenge the Attorney General
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Tasmania PAR banned from Risdon
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MISTREATED IN CUSTODY - NO ACCOUNTABILTY
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Risdon prisoners' seize prison to protest mistreatment
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No Safe Place
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Prison boom will prove a social bust
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The prison system requires assiduous oversight
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Crime and Punishment
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Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
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Prison guards test positive for drugs
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NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet
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Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
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Survey shows 11m people have taken drugs

Positive for Class A substances

4m admit taking class A substances

Prison officers responsible for smuggling into jails

Nearly 4 million people in England and Wales have tried class A drugs - including heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms - at least once. The annual British Crime Survey drug findings show that 11 million people, aged between 16 and 59, say they have tried some illegal drug at least once, with 3.5 million saying that they have taken them in the past year.

The figures show that since the launch of the government's drug strategy in 1998, overall use in England and Wales has remained broadly stable. Class A abuse, the most serious, has increased, mainly due to a surge in cocaine use up until 2000, despite the government's now-abandoned target of cutting class A abuse by 25%.

Fresh Home Office research also confirmed the extent of abuse in prisons yesterday, and suggested that prison staff were one route for drugs to get in. The study found that smuggling by uniformed or civilian staff was thought to be "substantially increasing" the availability of heroin and cannabis behind bars.

The figures show a fall in cannabis use in all age groups since the law was relaxed over the past 12 months.

But 9 million people say they have smoked cannabis, 1.75 million of them in the past month.

The picture for class A drugs has been stable over the past year, but there has been a fall in cocaine use and a rise in use of hallucinogens, particularly magic mushrooms.

Two million people say they have tried mushrooms, possibly because, until this summer, the class A drug could be bought legally.

Despite media coverage warning of a crack cocaine epidemic, only 239,000 people have tried the drug, against 1.8 million who have had cocaine. There are said to be about 16,000 regular crack users. It is estimated 200,000 people have used heroin; 21,000 in the past month.

Among young people (aged 16 to 24) the BCS estimates 45% have tried illicit drugs at least once, 26% in the past year and 16% in the past month. A million young people, or one in eight, have used a class A drug.

More generally, cannabis was the most commonly used drug, followed by cocaine, which is now more popular than ecstasy. There is also significant use of amyl nitrate, also called poppers, and amphetamines by young people.

Further Home Office research by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at King's College London shows that heroin, cannabis, non-prescribed medication, and crack cocaine were all in circulation at the six prisons studied.

Main routes of entry were social visits, mail, new prisoners, drugs thrown over the perimeter, and contact after court appearances.

More than half the prison officers and ex-prisoners questioned said staff were responsible for smuggling - the fourth most commonly mentioned route.

"Many of the staff who were interviewed acknowledged that such trafficking goes on, and could substantially increase the amount of illegal drugs available in an establishment," said the report.

At one prison a member of staff had been convicted of supplying drugs and sentenced to seven years.

Once an officer has been persuaded to bring in contraband, he or she is vulnerable to blackmail, the report said.

By Alan Travis posted 31 October 05

People: 'Prisoners' of Drugs'

People who are addicted to heroin usually take the drug because it relieves them of problems such as low self-esteem, distrust and fear of abandonment. They may have poor communication skills & poor relationship skills.

Blunkett's Quest, but is he on drugs?

The legislation is expected to introduce a new definition of "possession" of an illegal drug, making it an offence to have a certain amount in the bloodstream. This is likely to prove controversial - not least because some drugs, such as cannabis, can remain in the bloodstream for weeks.

POSSESSION? OR INVASION?

UK: This absolutely preposterous idea/theory of allowing a person/s to be possibly charged with 'possession', if found to have a drug substance within their bloodstream, just goes to prove such hypocrisies which certain hierarchies feel justifies passing legislation, is another blow for democracy!

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Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned
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Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
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Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
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End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
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Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
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Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
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England tops the EU in imprisonment
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Restraint methods prone to disaster

Illustration: RESTRAINT ASPHYXIA – SILENT KILLER

UK: In May, 24-year-old Azrar Ayub, a patient at the Edenfield secure mental health unit, part of Prestwich hospital near Manchester, died after being restrained by hospital staff.

Azrar Ayub

It was a tragic reminder of the death of the 38-year-old mental health patient David "Rocky" Bennett in similar circumstances in a Norwich hospital in 1998. Bennett's death caused a public outcry and resulted in an official inquiry, which led earlier this year to the issuing by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) of new guidelines on the use of restraint.

David "Rocky" Bennett

So why, six years after Bennett's death, does it appear that deaths as a result of restraint are still occurring?

First, the big picture. There were 116,000 incidents involving violent or verbal abuse in the NHS in England and Wales in 2002/03. About half were in mental health settings. Many of these would have involved a patient being restrained. It is generally believed that deaths caused by restraint are rare, but there are no reliable figures on injuries or deaths.

Restraint is often regarded by mental health nurses as a vital, if undesirable, measure of last resort for dealing with violence on wards. Establishing why some techniques might lead to injury or death is not easy. Each individual case is different, and a range of factors need to be taken into account - for example, whether staff were trained properly or whether the technique had been applied incompetently.

The Nice guidelines were designed to help guide staff and trusts on what is acceptable, but have been criticised for not going far enough to protect vulnerable mentally ill people against, in particular, prone restraint, where the patient is held face down, and which risks death from asphyxiation.

At a conference called Care or Abuse? last week in Derby, more than 100 mental health professionals, trainers, educators and service users discussed and challenged some of the most controversial and questionable restraint methods. During one dramatic presentation, a former mental health service user recounted - at times in tears - what it was like to come close to death while being held face down on the floor by four nurses when she suffered a "psychotic episode" in 2003.

One mental health trust director called for a ban on methods that, in his view, caused distress or pain to patients. He claimed that at his trust, such methods had been abandoned, leading to a cut in the number and severity of violent incidents. But he was accused by one delegate (a restraint trainer) of being sensationalist. Their exchange illustrated that even after the Bennett inquiry and the Nice guidelines, there is still a fissure in the mental health establishment over what is and what is not ethical and acceptable practice when it comes to restraint.

The conference shed light on why some forms of restraint remain problematic. Some acute mental health services in the UK are managed badly and are short of cash and staff, putting extraordinary pressure on nurses to react to incidents by restraining patients rather than talking to them to defuse potentially violent situations. These difficulties are exacerbated because trusts do not agree on which restraint methods to use or when to apply them.

There are around 2,500 restraint techniques currently being taught by a multitude of private companies, but there has never been a national evaluation to standardise training. Some research has been conducted but it is patchy and the results are far from conclusive. The Department of Health has plans to collect more accurate figures on injuries and deaths caused by restraint, but scepticism persists over their reliability because of fears of under-reporting.

In the absence of robust evidence on physical restraint or injuries caused by it, we are gambling with the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society. It is a matter of urgency that we identify what works, what does not, and that we act on it.

By Mary O'Hara posted 27 October 05

Related:

Ohio's Abu Ghraib
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Abu Ghraib, USA
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On Solitary Confinement
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UN sees no need for hunger

The world has enough resources to feed its growing population if political leaders can get past "short-term interests", the head of the UN's food agency says.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Senegalese director, Jacques Diouf, has made the comments to mark World Food Day.

"Today the world has the resources and technology to produce sufficient quantities of food not only to meet the demand of a growing population, but also to bring an end to hunger and poverty," Mr Diouf said.

He adds that he "dares to hope" that politicians would "make decisions based on the social harmony of a world of solidarity and peace, not on short-term interests that can lead to injustice and social unrest".

The United Nations estimates that 852 million people worldwide went without enough food in 2004.

That is a rise of 10 million over the previous year, which indicates that food crises have become more frequent around the world.

Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, says every day some 100,000 people die of malnutrition.

"The right to food is a human right," stated the special rapporteur, who will present his full report to the UN in New York on October 27.

The chronic lack of food in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly worrying, with over a third of the region's population now considered malnourished.

The numbers of underfed soared from 88 million 1999 to 200 million in 2001.

Mr Ziegler complains that while the 191 countries in the UN spent a trillion dollars on arms in 2004, they reduced their donations to international organisations.

This year, the coffers of the World Food Program (WFP) were $290 million down, while the UN High Commissioner for Refugees needed an extra $241 million to run his operations properly.

The WFP has had to reduce food rations for thousands of refugees over the past few months, particularly in west Africa and the east African Great Lakes region, to well below the 2,100 calories needed for survival.

By Feed the World 17 October 05

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Annan urges UN members to 'make poverty history'
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Kenya faces hunger crisis
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Health catastrophe looms in Sudan: UN
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UN estimate of Darfur deaths soars to 180,000
More than 180,000 people have died in Sudan's conflict stricken Darfur region over the past 18 months, UN humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland says. The United Nations had previously estimated about 70,000 dead from the fighting, disease and malnutrition linked to the Darfur conflict.

The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

HUMAN rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance.

For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens."

The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000.

In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

"The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners' work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself," says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."

The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. "This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors."

According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UP

According to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:

¥ Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years' imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack.

A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams - 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years' imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.

* The passage in 13 states of the "three strikes" laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.

* Longer sentences.

* The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.

* A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.

* More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.

HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES

Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of "hiring out prisoners" was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else's land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery - which were almost never proven - and were then "hired out" for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads.

From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of "hired-out" miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.

During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. "Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex," comments the Left Business Observer.

Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more.

All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month.

The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call "highly skilled positions." At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.

Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.

Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that "there won't be any transportation costs; we're offering you competitive prison labor (here)."

PRIVATE PRISONS

The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton's program for cutting the cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.

Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one.

According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, "the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners." The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners.

In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for "good behavior," but for any infraction, they get 30 days added - which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost "good behavior time" at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.

IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATES

Profits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits.

According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state's governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.

After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 - ending court supervision and decisions - caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering "rent-a-cell" services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.

STATISTICS

Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country's 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.

BY VICKY PELAEZ posted 15 October 05

Related:

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters
As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city's jail, Human Rights Watch said today.

Lockdown
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Ohio's Abu Ghraib
US: Before becoming an Ohio State Penitentiary physician, Dr. Ayham Haddad experienced a different side of incarceration as a political prisoner in Syria. After being arrested, tortured, and released, Haddad immigrated to the United States to begin a new life.

Two Million Imprisoned = Too Many
On August 13, thousands of people from around the nation are expected to march in a "Journey for Justice" to our nation's capitol. Times have certainly changed since the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, but this year's march still has everything to do with what many view as institutionalized racism.

Harmful, Undeserved Punishment
US: Nearly five million American citizens are denied the right to vote - one of every 50 citizens. That includes 13 percent of all African-American men nationwide, up to almost twice that percentage in particular states and the majority of adults - black and white -- in some inner city neighborhoods.

ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition
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[PRISONACT] FOR THE MILLIONS WHO CARE!
US: Washington: Hello. My name is Kay Lee and among other things, I am currently a coordinator for Prison Reform's first 'Call to Arms': A massive march which is scheduled to take off from Lafayette Park in Washington DC on August 13, 2005.

International conference: Prisoners and their families
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Association for the Prevention of Torture
The Optional Protocol requires 20 ratifications to enter into force. All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.

US land of the free: 2,131,180 prisoners
US: WASHINGTON -- The nation's prisons and jails held 2,131,180 inmates as of June 30, 2004, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced this week. Two-thirds were in federal and state prisons, and the other third were in local jails. Jail authorities were supervising an additional 70,548 men and women in the community in work release, weekend reporting, electronic monitoring and other alternative programs.

The ABOLITIONIST
From the first issue's open letter: "When a prisoner suggested we entitle this quarterly newspaper The Abolitionist, we couldn't help but revel in the titleâs historical significance. The original Abolitionist was a monthly journal of the New England Antislavery Society that agitated for the immediate abolition of slavery back in 1835.

ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition
We are excited to announce that ICOPA X1, the eleventh International Conference on Penal Abolition will happen in Tasmania, Australia from February 9 - 11,2006. Please pass this onto all networks.

All the World's a Prison: History
No doubt many of my readers, even those who are well-educated or widely read, think that the prison -- the place where dark deeds are darkly answered[2] -- is an ancient institution, a barbaric hold-over from barbaric times. In fact, the prison is of relatively recent origin, and this tells us a great deal about the pretentions and realities of modern times, and the wisdom and high degree of development of the ancients.

Unlock the Box:
Unlock the Box is a product of many years of struggle to shut down the Security Housing Units in California. During this time, the United Front to Abolish the SHU was created as a forum to coordinate the actions of everyone involved in this campaign.

State of the Prison System
US: According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 2.3 million men and women are now behind bars in the United States. Yes, the country that touts itself as the "land of the free" and the champion of freedom around the world incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any other country.

THE HIDDEN TRUTH ABOUT EXECUTIONS:
For death row inmates in Indonesia, execution usually comes on a deserted beach or remote jungle at the hands of a paramilitary firing squad. And, it rarely comes fast.

US incarceration rate climbs
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Three-Strikes law mandatory sentencing
US: First of all, this is not about a simple baseball game. This is about the most important thing of all, the game of life. The Three-Strikes law (mandatory sentencing for three felony convictions) came into being through fear, manipulation and, yes, full-blown prejudice.

Most women 'should not be jailed'
Women make up 6% of the prison population in England and Wales. Imprisonment of women should be "virtually abolished", a prison reform group has said.

He Did Time, So He's Unfit to Do Hair
She has managed to turn life in federal prison into a nifty career move. Her company's stock is soaring, and she has plans for not one but two television shows. It almost makes you wonder why the Enron types are fighting so hard to stay out of jail.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
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THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK:
US: The American media reports that thousands of Iranians cheered, whistled and clapped as a serial killer was publicly executed in Iran last week.US death row numbers don't change policy?
The number of prisoners on death row in the United States appears to be falling, mostly credited to a single Governor who commuted the sentences of all the death row prisoners in his state.

Despite Drop in Crime, an Increase in Inmates
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DNA Evidence of Bipartisanship
Last week the U.S. Congress passed the Justice for All Act, which includes provisions of the Innocence Protection Act. As of this posting, the legislation has not yet been signed by President Bush. Attached is an analysis of the legislation prepared by the Justice Project.

Our Two Priority Bills sent to White House
US: The 8th National CURE Convention last June lobbied on Capitol Hill the Innocence Protection Act in the Senate and the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 in the House. On Sunday, October 10th, Congress passed both bills and sent them to the President to be signed.

THE LAW IS AN ASS:
US: A Californian man who beheaded a german shepherd dog he had named after his girlfriend, has been sentenced to 25 years to life under California's three-strikes law.

How Denying the Vote to Ex-Offenders Undermines Democracy
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BIRTHDAY PROTEST BACKS INNOCENT MAN ON DEATH ROW:
Kids from 3 to 83 years old beat candy labeled "Justice" out of a big Texas-shaped piqata on Aug. 1 as dozens gathered in the Houston City Hall Park to celebrate the 30th birthday of Nanon Williams, an innocent person on Texas death row.

THE LAND OF BIBLES, GUNS, PATRIOTS AND THE 'WORLD ROLE MODEL' FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: The state of Alabama, USA, executed James Barney Hubbard. So what? ... you might say ... America executes prisoners almost every week!

Abu Ghraib, USA
When I first saw the photo, taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, of a hooded and robed figure strung with electrical wiring, I thought of the Sacramento, California, city jail.

On Solitary Confinement
There has been much written about solitary confinement by some of the world's leading psychiatrists, but very little written by victims of solitary themselves. I believe that the 32 years I have spent in solitary qualifies me for the task.

Appealing a Death Sentence Based on Future Danger USA-HOUSTON, June 9 - Texas juries in capital cases must make a prediction. They may impose a death sentence only if they find that the defendant will probably commit more violent acts.

Forensics? In proposing a new death penalty for Massachusetts last month, Governor Mitt Romney offered firm assurance that no innocent people would be executed: Convictions, he said, will be based on science.

The Two Million Signature Campaign
We are shooting for over 2,000,000 signatures on the LERA petition! That is one signature for every person incarcerated in the United States!

Restorative Justice Practices
Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America: Part NSW Community News Network Archive: US land of the free: 2,131,180 prisonersOne BY LAURA MIRSKY.

Maoist Internationalist Movement
March 6 -- Protesters took to the streets in cities across the state of California to demand California prisons shut down the Security Housing Units (SHU). Like other control unit prisons across the country, the SHU are prisons within a prison. They are solitary confinement cells where prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day for years at a time. The one hour a day these prisoner sometimes get outside of their cell is spent alone in an exercise pen not much larger than their cell, with no direct sunlight.

From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell If the president wasn't so forthright about his disinterest in the world, it would have been hard to believe him Wednesday when he said the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison "doesn't represent the America I know."

US Prison system ending love affair with incarceration?
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High court keeps alive case of inmates held in solitary
NEW ORLEANS: The nation's highest court refused Monday to kill a lawsuit brought by two prisoners and an ex-inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who spent decades in solitary confinement.

Notebook of a Prison Abolitionist
In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass recalls how as a slave he would occasionally hear of the "abolitionists." He did not know the full meaning of the word at first, but he heard it used in ways that he found appealing. He heard about it when a slave ran away or killed his master. He heard about it when a barn was set on fire or a slave committed an act his master thought wrong. For Douglass, these utterances and reports were "spoken of as the fruit of abolition." He adds, "Hearing the word in this connection very often, I set about learning what it meant."

Australia: Cop Watch - drugs in the force

Taking the illegal drugs leads to the officers associating with drug suppliers, stealing drugs, stealing money and supplying friends, and providing confidential information to the drug suppliers.

Lots of drugs, official reports, more police corruption.

An unknown number of officers in the NSW Police Force are drugged up to their eyeballs, according to a Report just released by the NSW Police Integrity Commission.

Taking the illegal drugs leads to the officers associating with drug suppliers, stealing drugs, stealing money and supplying friends, and providing confidential information to the drug suppliers.

The drugs include amphetamines, cannabis, heroin and cocaine.

The 4 volume Report on drugs in the NSW Police force, which received little media attention, can be seen in full at Police Integrity Commission.

A FORMER POLICE OFFICER WHO TRIED TO DO THE RIGHT THING, prosecute a senior Catholic priest accused of child-sex crimes, was drummed out of the police force, according to the October 3 Australian.

According to documents obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws 30 years after the event, Denis Ryan was disciplined by being removed to Melbourne from a remote country post: this was done to prevent him from pursuing the charges against the abusing priest.

Mr Ryan had taken statements from 16 children saying that they had been abused, but none of the matters reached court. Mr Ryan is attempting to obtain more disclosures under the FOI legislation preparatory to a civil action against his former employer.

POLICE IN TASMANIA ARE ASKING FOR MORE COPPERS TO CLOSE BROTHELS, according to the Oct 7 Mercury.

The copper's union, the Police Association of Tasmania, has said that they would need more cops and wide powers, following the state government's plan to shutdown the state's brothels.

Community groups and sex workers are opposed to the crackdown.

Tasmanian sexual-abuse support group Beyond Abuse warned that driving brothels underground would mean that an illegal and unregulated industry would allow children to become involved in prostitution.

The new law is expected to include five-year jail terms or $50,000 fines for operators of brothels.

MORE CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION is being thrown like confetti to the wind, according to the Oct 5 Melbourne Courier Mail.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Noel Ashby said officers have been told not to use the backs of confidential investigation documents for note paper, which then end up being circulated.

Mr Ashby said that a pad of such documents was stolen from Frankston Police Station, in Melbourne, on Friday of last week.

Confidentiality is a sore spot at the moment, as the Victorian government decided in August to ditch the police force computer system after tens of thousands of pages of confidential information were wrongly released.

NEARLY ONE IN EIGHT HIGH-SPEED POLICE CAR CHASE ENDS IN A CRASH, for the year ending June, according to the October 6 Sydney Morning Herald.

There were 2146 recorded pursuits over 2004-2005. Of these, there were 284 collisions and 3 deaths.

'The statistics show clearly that even in relation to minor offences, police are continuing to recklessly endanger innocent bystanders,' said the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy.

Once again, NSW Police tried to hide the facts by refusing to release the information, only being compelled to do so after a successful freedom of information application.

Mr Murphy continued to say that 'At the moment it seems that when a chase goes right and someone is arrested, there's no real analysis of the conduct. The police just don't get that it isn't worth the life of an innocent bystander or a police officer in order to arrest someone for a minor offence.'

ANOTHER COPPER, ANOTHER CONVICTION, as the first piggy goes to prison following the Western Australian Police Royal Commission.

According to ABC News online of October 6, former copper Gary Mervyn Fagg, 47, pleased guilty to 7 counts of corruption and one count of aggravated burglary and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

Fagg was filmed stealing $10,000 from a storage unit as part of a sting operation set up by the Commission. He admitted obtaining $21,000 by corruption from a businessman he was investigating.

IN A RARE ACT BY AN OTHERWISE SUPINE OMBUDSMAN, a recommendation has been made which would make the police a bit more accountable.

The ACT's Ombudsman has 'urged' the Australia Federal Police to upgrade video surveillance in the cells of Canberra's watch-house.

The latest Annual Report highlights numerous complaints by prisoners, including minors being detained without their parents being notified, and requests for medical help being ignored.

The ombudsman says it has made repeated calls for the installation of a digital video camera system but the police have refused. Video footage from an existing camera helped prove a claim of excessive force by police against a prisoner. However, the video coverage is patchy and unreliable.

A copy of the ACT Ombudsman Report

By Cop Watcher posted 8 October 05

There are coppers on the dance floor

There are coppers on the dancefloor but you better not kill the groove.

Dj, gonna burn this goddamn house right down.

Oh, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, about your kind, and so and so and so and so and so and so, I'll have to play.

If you think you're getting away, I will prove you wrong. I'll take you all the way, boy, just come along, hear me when I say, hey.

There are coppers on the dancefloor but you better not kill the groove, hey, hey hey, hey.

There are coppers on the dancefloor but you better not steal the moves, Dj, gonna burn this goddamn house right down.

Oh I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, there may be others and so and so and so and so and so and so,you'll just have to pray.

If you think your geting away, I will proove you wrong. I'll take you all the way, stay another song, I'll blow you all away, hey!

There are coppers on the dancefloor but you better not kill the groove.

There are coppers on the dancefloor, but you better not steal the moves.

DJ, gonna turn this house around somehow?

“Murder on the Dancefloor” is a song written by Gregg Alexander and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Alexander and Matt Rowe for Ellis-Bextor’s first album Read My Lips (2001). The music video was directed by Sophie Muller.

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NSW Police Force: 2 dead, $1 million dollars to catch a thief?
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OUR STORIES MUST BE TOLD. THEY HAVE TO BE
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More NSW Police Corruption?
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NSW Cop suspect in murder?
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New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has sacked an officer who confessed to being involved in corrupt activities over the past eight years.

Policeman draws blank on fake raids
A suspended Sydney policeman has told an inquiry that he has "little recollection" of the details of fake police raids he set up.

Officer planned to kidnap criminals
A senior Sydney police officer who has admitted taking money for tipping off a child porn suspect had also been planning to kidnap criminals and extort money from them, the Police Integrity Commission heard yesterday.

Police offer protection to family following gang rape allegations
The parents of a 14-year-old girl claim their daughter was gang-raped in Sydney earlier this year, and have raised concerns about corrupt policeman Detective Sergeant Christopher Laycock's review of the case.

NSW police prosecutor charged with child porn possession
A New South Wales police prosecutor has been charged with the possession of child pornography.

Police, teachers charged in child porn bust
One-hundred-and-fifty people, including police officers and teachers, have been arrested in what the Federal Police (AFP) describe as Australia's biggest Internet child pornography bust.

A corrupt way to treat the community?
I seen the police bleeding on Nine's Sunday program arguing that promotion should depend on how many crimes police have solved and not how many brains they have and that was coming from police commissioner Ken Moroney and Police Minister John Watkins?

Judges Blood Sample: After the fact of the fact of a hangover?
Lawyers say New South Wales Supreme Court judge Jeff Shaw should not give police his own sample of blood taken after he crashed his car near his Sydney home last month.

NSW police drug amnesty under review
A drug amnesty for the New South Wales police force is under review, Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has said.

Police to uphold law not decide mental health
A diagnosis of mental illness could be made over the phone instead of in person, and involuntary psychiatric patients could lose the right to have their case reviewed by a magistrate, under proposed changes to NSW mental health laws.

Redfern police need education not weapons
According to the description of one senior police officer, the ACLO called out on the afternoon before the Redfern violence escalated was "hopeless, intoxicated and had no driver's licence."

Bulldogs simply not the best!
SIMPLY NOT THE BEST AND DEFINITELY NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYONE I'VE MET.

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

Drive-by shootings: test your political IQ?
What if since the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption the drugs moved from Kings Cross to Cabramatta. Then since the the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Cabramatta the drugs moved to Bankstown/Greenacre. Giving police more power might just be more fuel on the fire.

NSW drug wars: family feud not responsible for shootings
Do New South Wales citizens have to be diverted from the truth about a drug infested gangland killing? Why did the police lie? Why did the Premier lie? What is wrong with our government and police, are they on the take? Are they on drugs? Are these people being drug tested?

Who is bad?
Super Rat? M5? M11? K8? N2? So I trust that some people who, with the photos and guns guessed that a jury would quickly establish a case against a profiled person whom, you just had a picture and a history of. Common knowledge? The government knew their victims would take the blame. Not just chess in court, 'moving around the pieces', but 'putting false evidence, or not enough evidence before the jury."

2,500, crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Where did the police learn their trade skills? Led by example perhaps?

How to become corruption resistant in NSW
Don't trust those who cannot prove themselves with the little amounts of trust you give them. Just because they have a letter of perceived trust doesn't mean they can be trusted.

This is not how you eat 'antisocial behaviour'
Process corruption, perjury, planting of evidence, verbals, fabricated confessions, denial of suspects rights, a solicitor to induce confessions, tampering with electronic recording equipment, framing. Generally green lighting crime, and I say Murder, including the kids who overdosed on heroin. No doubt.

Black Knight - Long way to go home
In line with the current climate of police corruption and the demise of the reform unit set up by Wood, these facts ought to have been a good reason to leave Moroney out of the package as Commissioner.

Bob down and sniff my arse
These are serious invasions of privacy and draconian laws? Where are our democratic soldiers, the lawyers and the barristers who need to take on the government in the courts? Are they plastic? Or to busy feathering their nests? Or have they been cleverly purchased by this black government. Drug test police and politicians, and have the tests independently accessed.

Come in spinner? Or Come in sinner?
"You don't have, in my view very vigilant processes. I suppose it's akin to the problem of corruption within the police," he told the ABC radio. " People say there's corruption with the police (but) do you get the police to investigate problems within their own ranks?

Deeds
I am disturbed by Governments 'actions' in relation to shuffling the police service. Clive Small seconded into Parliament like a cocky in a perch. A breach of the fundamental Separation of Powers Doctrine does not in my view allow the thought of intervening, planning, or shuffling to stack the deck of our police service. The one that suppose to be autonomous according to Lord Denning. Where the Parliamentary Secretary can ask the commissioner of police to 'report' then sack him if he is not satisfied with such report.

Prison Mind Games-Do they exist?
Directives are given inside the prison system that are not consistent with the law in NSW. And not in the good interests of the health and well being of the prisoners.

Truth
Who is telling the truth? Well I guess Dr. Ed. Chadbourne or Mr. Peter Ryan may have the answer to that. Dr. Chadbourne sacked by Peter Ryan and more specifically in my view because he elected deputy commissioners Dave Madden and Andrew Scipione as the best men in the service in relation to his qualifications to make a recommendation in his capacity as human resources.That is if you believe that a Dr. can be corrupted.

Honesty
What is happening between the Police Service and politics is quite extraordinary at the moment. If stand over tactics don't work tell half the truth honestly and follow the example of sheep. Another word for it is sleaze, yeah. Another word for it is workplace harassment. Another word for it is bribing a Police Officer. Another word for it is misleading Parliament.

Tele Tales
Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerous senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Corrosive
Clive Small is Bob Carr's choice for the new Police Commissioner. It could only be the case considering his, Small's special appointment into Parliament House. Small who suffers from the little person syndrome is the ideal bend over boy who gets shuffled through his corrupt actions. Rolling the legal system for him after the fact, just like his predecessor Roger the dodger Rogerson.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Same boat
The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Good Cop
Why have our democratic institutions broken down? It's not just the criminal justice system. The Anti-Corruption Network webmaster@anti-corruption-network.org exposes the same issues. A group of white-collar workers who say they have suffered as follows:

Dangerous
I refer to the Daily Telegraph article 22 March 2002 under the heading Priest quits advisory job.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Warren Lanfranchi, or Sally-Anne Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').

Federal Police

AFP: The unlikely CRIMINAL
It was born of a bombing and it made its name after a far more devastating act of terrorism. But for most of the 25 years in between, little was known about the Australian Federal Police force or the work it did.