San Diego "Honk for Justice" Calls for the Release of people in ICE Detention
repost | indybay.org | 2020-04-09
Author Pedro Rios serves as director of the AFSC's U.S./Mexico Border Program and has been on staff with AFSC since 2003. He is a steering committee member of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, which brings together over 60 organizations along the Southern border working to support migrants and border communities.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/05/18832119.php
Australian MPs call for release of Julian Assange to home detention as Covid-19 'rapidly spreads' in UK prisons
rt.com | 2020-04-09
There are new calls from Australia to release Julian Assange from prison over Covid-19 fears. Two MPs, supported on Twitter by the whistleblower's mother, sent letters to UK authorities calling for his release to home detention. | Australian MPs Andrew Wilkie and George Christensen, co-chairs of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group, wrote to UK Commons Justice Committee Chair Bob Neill MP and Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland MP calling for "urgent" consideration of Assange's case in light of the fact that Covid-19 is "rapidly spreading" in British prisons. | COVID-19 is in the UK's p…
rt.com/uk/485387-assange-covid19-belmarsh-letters/
Iran releases 'political prisoners' amid Covid-19 outbreak, while virus-stricken UK keeps Assange behind bars
rt.com | 2020-04-09
Tehran has released an Iranian national seen as a political prisoner in the UK as it fights the coronavirus. British activists and media rushed to say Iran's move was not enough
When Incarceration Becomes a Death Sentence
Marcia Brown | progressive.org | 2020-04-09
A look at how the COVID-19 outbreak is causing havoc at an Ohio federal prison.
progressive.org/dispatches/incarceration-becomes-death-sentence-brown-200409/
What Will Feds Do About Corporate Bailout Bill Corruption? Look to Walmart's Opioid Case
Karen Conner | cepr.net | 2020-04-09
Here is a simple question: if a heroin dealer sells a product that oftentimes leads to death, should the Justice Department try to put them in jail? Here, it seems, is the Trump administration's answer: Not if they are a large enough corporation. ProPublica published a walloping investigation last month showing how Trump appointees at …
cepr.net/what-will-feds-do-about-corporate-bailout-bill-corruption-look-to-walmarts-opioid-case/
Sanders Ends Campaign After 'Shit Show' Wisconsin Primary
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-09
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes says Tuesday's vote risked lives and amounted to voter suppression, and that Democrats must embrace a progressive vision to beat Trump in November.
therealnews.com/stories/sanders-ends-campaign-after-shit-show-wisconsin-primary
Rafael Correa is the latest victim of 'anti-corruption' cases
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-09
On April 7, former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa was sentenced to eight years in prison on corruption charge. Correa has termed the sentence a bid to stop him and his allies from contesting in the presidential elections scheduled in 2021.
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/09/rafael-correa-is-the-latest-victim-of-anti-corruption-cases/
Puebla Group Rejects Sentencing of Former President Correa
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-09
The Puebla Group on Wednesday demanded an end to the judicial persecution of political leaders in Latin America after Ecuadorian courts imposed a prison sentence on former President Rafael Correa. | RELATED: | Trial of Ecuador's Ex-President Rafael Correa is Under Way | The Latin American leader was sentenced to eight years in prison on alleged corruption charges. The decision includes the withdrawal of his political rights for 25 years. | "Ecuador's reactionary political sectors have incre…
telesurenglish.net/news/puebla-group-rejects-sentence-against-former-president-correa–20200409-0009.html
I think the New York State Prison system is trying to kill Ramsey Orta
WeCopwatch | indybay.org | 2020-04-09
As Ramsey Orta, (who filmed the 2014, NYPD chokehold murder of Eric Garner) sits in solitary confinement in New York State prison, the virus is spreading rapidly across the prison systems. Time is running out.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/08/18832175.php
Prison Guards Are Receiving Hand Sanitizer. My Incarcerated Son Is Not
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-09
Thirty years ago, my son Gerald Reed survived torture at the hands of the Chicago police. He was another victim of police detectives working for the…
truthout.org/articles/prison-guards-are-receiving-hand-sanitizer-my-incarcerated-son-is-not/
Prison Guards Are Receiving Hand Sanitizer. My Incarcerated Son Is Not
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-09
Thirty years ago, my son Gerald Reed survived torture at the hands of the Chicago police. He was another victim of police detectives working for the…
truthout.org/articles/prison-guards-are-receiving-hand-sanitizer-my-incarcerated-son-is-not/
Rafael Correa terms prison sentence an act of political persecution
Tanya Wadhwa | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-09
Rafael Correa was sentenced to eight years in prison on bribery and corruption charges. The former president condemned the verdict and called it a measure to prevent him from running in the 2021 presidential elections…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/09/former-ecuadorian-president-rafael-correa-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison/
Ellen DeGeneres Grilled Online Over Comparing COVID-19 Self-Isolation to Jail Time
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-09
While DeGeneres' joke apparently did not seem all that funny to quite a few people, there were also those who insisted that the comedian didn't deserve all the flak she's been getting over it.
sputniknews.com/viral/202004091078895217-ellen-degeneres-grilled-online-over-comparing-covid-19-self-isolation-to-jail-time/
India Must Fight 'the Virus of Racism': North-Easterners Allege Discrimination Amid COVID-19 Fears
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-09
New Delhi (Sputnik): The coronavirus pandemic has prompted racist attacks on the people of India's north-eastern states – known as the seven sisters
Chicago: Over 200 cars join protest demanding mass release from jails, detention centers
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-08
Chicago, IL – Hundreds of people took their cars to Chicago's jails and detention centers on Tuesday morning, April 7, to demand a mass release of incarcerated people in the city. Isolated from each other in their cars, they were united in their message: Jails, prisons and detention centers must be depopulated before the spread of COVID-19 turns them into death camps. | Nearly 300 protesters in 200 cars targeted three locations: ICE headquarters, the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and Cook County Jail. Cars carried banners with slogans such as "Free them all" and "Mass release now." Organizers also gave spee…
fightbacknews.org/2020/4/8/chicago-over-200-cars-join-protest-demanding-mass-release-jails-detention-centers
"They Don't Care if You Die": Immigrants in ICE Detention Fear the Spread of COVID-19
Ashoka Mukpo | aclu.org | 2020-04-08
Mario Rodas, Sr. first found out there was a deadly virus spreading through the country while he was watching television at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. In early March, Rodas had been pulled over and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while driving to the supermarket with his wife, a legal resident and the mother of his three U.S. citizen children. Since then, he'd been in the custody of ICE, mostly at Plymouth. | The more Rodas heard about the disease, the more fearful the 59-year-old became. | "I was scared for my health," he told the ACLU. "I was worr…
aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/they-dont-care-if-you-die-immigrants-in-ice-detention-fear-the-spread-of-covid-19
Nativist Hate Groups Want to Keep People in ICE Detention Despite COVID-19 Threat
splcenter.org | 2020-04-08
Anti-immigrant think tanks are pushing for the U.S. to detain immigrants and asylum seekers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, even as prisoners stage hunger strikes and other protests in response to what they describe as deteriorating health conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/04/09/nativist-hate-groups-want-keep-people-ice-detention-despite-covid-19-threat
Migrants in detention in Texas face COVID-19
Mirinda Crissman | workers.org | 2020-04-08
Austin, Texas Migrants being held in detention in Texas have been facing abhorrent sanitary conditions in the detention facilities long before the coronavirus pandemic began. Now that the virus is here, and threatens to infect such a vulnerable and captive population at higher rates than the general population, many migrants . . . | Continue reading Migrants in detention in Texas face COVID-19 at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/04/47542/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=migrants-in-detention-in-texas-face-covid-19
Prisons: Breeding Grounds for Disease. Julian Assange's Life in Danger
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-08
The US gulag prison system is the world's largest by far, the largely unreported in the mainstream shame of the nation. | Official numbers significantly understate the true number of incarcerated inmates annually. | According to a Prison Policy Initiative analysis, nearly …
globalresearch.ca/prisons-breeding-grounds-disease-julian-assange-danger/5709067
If COVID-19 Doesn't Discriminate, Then Why Are Black People Dying at Higher Rates?
ReNika Moore | aclu.org | 2020-04-08
COVID-19 is ravaging many parts of the United States, but nowhere more than in Black communities. Early data from the Midwest and the South reveal that Black people are contracting and dying from the virus at far higher rates than whites. Louisiana just released data which shows that African Americans account for 70 percent of all deaths in the state. In Milwaukee…
aclu.org/news/racial-justice/if-covid-19-doesnt-discriminate-then-why-are-black-people-dying-at-higher-rates
Emergency COVID-19 Laws May Become Permanent Features of the Security Landscape
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-08
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep the world, so too do radical new security measures implemented by governments in response to the global crisis. Ruling by decree, closing borders to refugees and instituting sweeping powers of detention and surveillance: In the context of the current panic, these policies may seem appropriate to some, their extremism justified by the extreme times in which we now live. | But amid this frenetic pace of change, key questions are being largely overl…
truthout.org/articles/emergency-covid-19-laws-may-become-permanent-features-of-the-security-landscape/
Black People in Louisiana Account for 70 Percent of the State's COVID-19 Deaths
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-08
Louisiana faces one of the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus in the United States. New data shows Black people account for 70% of all the state's coronavirus deaths, though they comprise just 32% of the state's population. Louisiana also has the highest incarceration rate in the country, and more than 65% of the people in its jails and prisons are Black. At least 28 people are infected, and 22 corrections staff have tested positive. State corrections officials are sending infected prisoners t…
truthout.org/video/black-people-in-louisiana-account-for-70-percent-of-the-states-covid-19-deaths/
"A Systematic Issue of Disparity": Black People in Louisiana Account for 70% of COVID-19 Deaths
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-08
Louisiana faces one of the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus in the United States. New data shows black people account for 70% of all the state's coronavirus deaths, though they comprise just 32% of the state's population. Louisiana also has the highest incarceration rate in the country, and more than 65% of the people in its jails and prisons are black. At least 28 people are infected, and 22 corrections staff have tested positive. State corrections officials are sending infected prisoners to the Louisiana State Penitentiary
Albert Woodfox: COVID-19 Offers Public a "Small Window" into What Prisoners Face in Solitary Confinement
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-08
As millions shelter in place around the world, we speak with Albert Woodfox, who served the longest time in solitary confinement of any prisoner in the United States. Known as one of the Angola Three, along with Robert King and Herman Wallace, Woodfox was held in isolation for nearly 44 years at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. He was convicted of killing a guard in jail, but always maintained his innocence. He says he was targeted for co-founding the first Black Panther chapter in Angola. He was released in 2016 and is now 73 years old. His memoir is "Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solit…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/8/albert_woodfox_solitary_confinement
Exclusive: Cops Caught Making Baseless Arrest During COVID-19 Crisis
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-08
TRNN caught cops on camera making arrests for a questionable charge, hauling a man off to jail that officials say is already infected with COVID-19.
therealnews.com/stories/exclusive-cops-caught-making-baseless-arrest-during-covid-19-crisis
Prisoners resist execution by virus
Gloria Rubac | workers.org | 2020-04-08
On a good day, most of the 5,000 prisons and jails in the U.S. are filthy hellholes. Medical care is seriously lacking and can be costly. Racism is ingrained in these institutions, and violence is often the order of the day. Right now, prisoners are terrified that as the COVID-19 . . . | Continue reading Prisoners resist execution by virus at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/04/47540/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prisoners-resist-execution-by-virus
Joseph Lowery's Example of Compassion
Nicole Austin-Hillery | progressive.org | 2020-04-08
Let's honor his life's work by taking action to save those in our jails and prisons.
progressive.org/op-eds/joseph-lowery-example-of-compassion-hillery-200408/
Black Wisconsin voters: Right-wing court order to hold election was voter suppression
Christina A. Cassidy, Gretchen Ehlke | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-08
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP)–After going to sleep angry and afraid to vote, Xavier Thomas woke up on Election Day in Wisconsin thinking about how hard black people had to fight for the right to cast a ballot. He didn't want to be deterred despite the coronavirus pandemic and the government's failure to get him an absentee …
peoplesworld.org/article/black-wisconsin-voters-right-wing-court-order-to-hold-election-was-voter-suppression/
Ecuador's Rafael Correa sentenced to 8 years in prison on bribery and corruption charges
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-08
Following the verdict, Correa has been barred from electoral politics for 25 years. The former president condemned the decision and termed it a bid to prevent him and his allies from contesting the presidential elections next year…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/08/ecuadors-rafael-correa-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison-on-bribery-and-corruption-charges/
Michigan Prisons Are One Of The Fastest Growing COVID-19 Hot Spots
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-08
Prisoners with the virus have been isolated with punitive solitary confinement measures. Symptomatic staff may still be working, raising the risk for a vulnerable prison population.
therealnews.com/stories/michigan-prisons-coronavirus-hot-spot-solitary-confinement-isolation
Louisiana's Suspension of Due Process Could Be a COVID-19 Catastrophe in Jails and Prisons
Alanah Odoms Hebert | aclu.org | 2020-04-07
, Louisiana has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot, with among the highest contraction and growth rates in the nation. The state also has the highest prison and pretrial incarceration rates in the world. Those two facts might not seem related, but they are already interacting in a tragic way: Conditions in jails and prisons make them highly vulnerable to COVID-19, allowing the virus to spread like wildfire. The potential impact could…
aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/louisianas-suspension-of-due-process-could-be-a-covid-19-catastrophe-in-jails-and-prisons
Police are Enforcing Public Health Orders, but that Doesn't Make them Public Health Experts
Carl Takei | aclu.org | 2020-04-07
, In a desperate effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, state and local officials are following the advice of public health experts to impose severe restrictions on American life, such as social distancing and shelter-at-home orders. Unfortunately, the institutions that have the most resources available to carry out this task are not public health, medical, or housing authorities. They are our law enforcement and criminal legal systems, which typically operate by criminalization and punishment. , , There's a bitter irony to this: The tactics that law enforcement officials frequently use to protect people [mda…
aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/police-are-enforcing-public-health-orders-but-that-doesnt-make-them-public-health-experts
Committee Concerned About Health of Palestinian Prisoners
Rami Almeghari | imemc.org | 2020-04-07
Representative of the Ramallah-based Committee for Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-prisoners, Hassan Abd Rabo, expressed on Tuesday the committee's growing concerns over the safety of the 5,000 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails. Abd Rabo's remarks come amidst the internationally-spread Coronavirus, inside Israel and some Palestinian cities, towns and villages. He was …
imemc.org/article/committee-concerned-about-health-of-palestinian-prisoners/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=committee-concerned-about-health-of-palestinian-prisoners
Calls for urgent action to protect prison staff and inmates from coronavirus
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-07
Failure to reduce the number of prisoners behind bars drastically and urgently to protect them and others from coronavirus "will have a devastating impact", campaigners have warned.The comments came after it emerged the death toll of inmates who had died after contracting the virus had risen to 10.Three were inmates at HMP Littlehey, Cambridgeshire, with others being held at Birmingham, Manchester, Altcourse in Merseyside, Belmarsh in south east London, Whatton in Nottinghamshire, Sudbury in Derbyshire, and a female prisoner at Low Newton, County Durham.A total of 116 prisoners had tested positive for Covid-19 in…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2020/04/07/calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-prison-staff-and-inmates-from-coronavirus/
Everyone Must be Counted in the 2020 Census
Ebony Miranda | aclu.org | 2020-04-06
Every 10 years, the federal government conducts a census to count everyone living in the United States. For people of color, especially Black people, the census has traditionally been exclusionary and deeply flawed. | Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution was intentionally designed to protect the institution of slavery by immorally reducing those enslaved to three-fifths of a human being. It remains the only reference to slavery in the Constitution and was the law when the first census was completed in 1790 and for 75 years thereafter until the 14th Amendment was passed. Two hundred thirty years later, Bla…
aclu.org/news/voting-rights/everyone-must-be-counted-in-the-2020-census
"Leaving Us Here to Die": Prisoners Plea for Release, Protection Amid Skyrocketing Infection Rates
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-06
U.S. Attorney General William Barr issued an emergency order Friday calling for the release of vulnerable federal prisoners into home confinement amid the coronavirus crisis. This news comes as at least 16 states have also released prisoners. We look at the treatment of incarcerated people in New York state, where Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to grant anyone freedom despite at least 24 confirmed cases among state prisoners. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he'll release about 300 people from Rikers Island and other city jails, but advocates are calling for far more to be freed. We speak to…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/6/covid_19_incarceration
"Leaving Us in Here to Die": Prisoners Plea for Release, Protection Amid Skyrocketing Infections
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-06
U.S. Attorney General William Barr issued an emergency order Friday calling for the release of vulnerable federal prisoners into home confinement amid the coronavirus crisis. This news comes as at least 16 states have also released prisoners. We look at the treatment of incarcerated people in New York state, where Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to grant anyone freedom despite at least 24 confirmed cases among state prisoners. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he'll release about 300 people from Rikers Island and other city jails, but advocates are calling for far more to be freed. We speak to…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/6/covid_19_incarceration
California Activists March To End Life Without Parole
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-06
Joanne Scheer, founder of the Felony Murder Elimination Project, and Kelly Savage, recently released after 23 years of incarceration, speak about how racial, gender and age disparities relate to life without parole (LWOP).
therealnews.com/stories/california-activists-march-end-life-without-parole-sentence
Cook County Jail is a death trap
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-06
Chicago, IL
Rights experts warn against discrimination in COVID-19 response
news.un.org | 2020-04-06
Fearing a needless increase in COVID-19 deaths due to discrimination, UN independent human rights experts on Monday called for Governments to commit to racial equity and equality in their response to the pandemic.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/04/1061122
Prison shelling in Yemen kills five women and a child: UN rights chief condemns possible war crime
news.un.org | 2020-04-06
The UN has condemned the shelling of the women's section of the Central Prison in a district of Yemen's war-torn Taizz Governerate, in the south of the country, which has left at least five women and one child dead, and wounding more than 11, with casualties expected to rise.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/04/1061182
COVID-19: Many refugees face destitution and disease
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2020-04-04
Refugees & migrants Jonathan StraussIssue 1260 Australia COVID-19 temporary protection visasApril 5, 2020Other than those held in detention, refugees and those seeking asylum who are…
greenleft.org.au/content/covid-19-many-refugees-face-destitution-and-disease
Protect Immigrant Communities: Fear Mounts of Deadly COVID-19 Outbreak in U.S. Border Camps, ICE Jails
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-03
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has joined thousands of medical professionals and immigration rights groups to demand that Immigration and Customs Enforcement release all prisoners from immigration jails as the coronavirus continues to spread. Meanwhile, immigration advocates are working to prepare crowded encampments of asylum seekers across the U.S.-Mexico border for a potentially catastrophic outbreak of COVID-19. Since the implementation of the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy, tens of thousands of asylum seekers from regions like Central America and Africa have been stranded in Mexican bord…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/3/covid_us_mexico_border_immigration_jails
Inmates at Privately-Run ICE Camp Go on Hunger Strike Amid COVID-19 Outbreak, Deteriorating Conditions
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-03
ICA Farmville already has a reputation for overcrowding and poor sanitation. Last year the private ICE prison was hit with an outbreak of mumps, a classic disease of overcrowding and poor sanitation.
mintpressnews.com/inmates-ice-camp-go-hunger-strike-amid-covid-19/266369/
Slave Labor, Dire Conditions: A TRNN Update On Prisons And COVID-19
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-03
Eddie Conway talks to journalists Kim Kelly and Adryan Corcione about how the coronavirus pandemic is exposing the poor healthcare system in US prisons and jails.
therealnews.com/stories/coronavirus-covid-19-cases-prisons-jails-rikers
COVID-19 Is The New Cash Cow For Policing
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-03
American citizens are facing thousands of dollars in fines and jail time for breaking state-ordered pandemic restrictions. PAR and The Masters Report discuss how profit can still be extracted by police during the coronavirus outbreak.
therealnews.com/stories/covid-19-coronavirus-new-cash-cow-police-profit
Medical experts call for release of refugees and asylum seekers
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2020-04-03
Refugees & migrants Zebedee ParkesIssue 1259 Australia COVID-19April 3, 2020More than 1100 medical professionals have called on Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton to urgently release people in detention for their own health and that of the community. Many are in…
greenleft.org.au/content/medical-experts-call-release-refugees-and-asylum-seekers
Fighting for immigrant rights during a pandemic
Katrina Huber | splcenter.org | 2020-04-02
As people across the country are confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, little attention has been given to a group of people whose health is in danger because they are locked away from the outside world
Refugees held by ICE struggle for their lives
Liberation Staff | liberationnews.org | 2020-04-02
Immigrant refugees being held in ICE detention centers are struggling for their lives and demanding to be released to prevent their deaths from COVID-19.
liberationnews.org/refugees-held-by-ice-struggling-for-their-lives/
Alabama prisons hold more than 1,100 older people at greater COVID-19 risk
Kathryn Casteel and Will Tucker | splcenter.org | 2020-04-02
More than 1,100 people age 65 or older are locked away in Alabama prisons, putting a group already highly susceptible to the deadly COVID-19 virus at an even greater risk, according to an SPLC analysis of the state's prison system.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/02/alabama-prisons-hold-more-1100-older-people-greater-covid-19-risk