Judge Marks and Mass Incarceration in the Middle District of Alabama
Stephen Cooper | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-30
In 2016, together with former colleague Assistant Federal Public Defender Donnie W. Bethel, I wrote, "eople of all persuasions, political parties, and philosophies have awakened to the terrible toll the crises of overcriminalization and mass incarceration have wrought on America." Then, a year later, highlighting the "criminalization of addiction," I wrote about Benny King — one of Bethel's clients –…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/30/judge-marks-and-mass-incarceration-in-the-middle-district-of-alabama/

Google says hackers have been putting 'monitoring implants' in iPhones for years
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2019-08-30
Hackers have been using compromised websites to install "monitoring implants" in iPhones for years, according to researchers at Google.The malicious software gathers users' images, contacts and other information.Ian Beer, from Google's Project Zero, said in a blog post that the hacked sites had received thousands of visitors each week.Beer said: There was no target discrimination; simply visiting the hacked site was enough for the exploit server to attack your device, and if it was successful, to install a monitoring implant.Project Zero is the technology company's team for examining new security vulnerabilities.B…
thecanary.co/global/world-news/2019/08/30/google-says-hackers-have-been-putting-monitoring-implants-in-iphones-for-years/

Ecuador: Ola Bini Faces New Charges Similar to Prior Ones
teleSUR -EF | telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-30
Ola Bini was called to appear at a court hearing in Quito on Thursday by Ecuador state prosecutors who now say they want to change the charges against the Swedish expert in open software development who has been under investigation by the government since April for supposedly "hacking" state computer systems. | RELATED: | Ecuadorean Tribunal Court Upholds Prison Order for Swedish Privacy Rights Activist Ola Bini | The hearing to change the charges…
telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuador-Ola-Bini-Faces-New-Charges-Similar-to-Prior-Ones-20190829-0035.html

I Didn't Kill Anyone, But I'm Sentenced to Die in Prison
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-30
| I wake up each morning with the burden of having to serve another day of a life sentence in prison. This debt to society is not measured by years, but by breaths. All life sentences in Illinois are without the possibility of parole (LWOP). So, my debt will be paid, in full, upon my last breath. | Just as fractions can be converted into decimals and decimals into fractions, there must be a mathematical formula to convert breaths into years and give me a sense of what percentage of my life is leveraged against…
truthout.org/articles/i-didnt-kill-anyone-but-im-sentenced-to-die-in-prison/

"All-Out Attack": Trump's Anti-Immigrant Policies Target Children, Cancer Patients & Servicemembers
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-30
On Tuesday, the Trump administration reportedly ended its "medical deferred action" program, which allows immigrants with serious health problems to stay in the U.S. for up to two years beyond the terms of their visas to receive critical treatment. Just one day later, it announced that some children born to U.S. servicemembers and government employees stationed overseas will no longer automatically receive citizenship. The policy changes come days after the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to allow the Trump administration to implement its rule banning almost all migrants from seeking asylum in the Unit…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/30/lee_gelernt_aclu_immigrant_rights

Family of Mexican Teenager Slain by Border Agent Awaits SCOTUS Ruling to Determine If They Can Sue
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-30
This fall, the Supreme Court will decide whether the parents of Sergio Hernández Gàºereca, a 15-year-old Mexican teen killed by a Border Patrol agent in 2010, can sue the American agent in a U.S. federal court. It's been nearly 10 years since Border Patrol agent Jesus Mesa Jr. shot across the El Paso-Juárez border and struck Hernández Gàºereca in the head. The central question in the case is whether a Mexican citizen killed on Mexican soil by a U.S. border agent is protected by the U.S. Constitution — allowing for the family members of victims to file civil lawsuits. If the Supreme Court rules in…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/30/scotus_case_border_patrol_killings_mexico

No right to discriminate
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
civil rights freedom of speech Alex SalmonIssue 1235 Australia religious discrimination bill PerthAugust 30, 2019A ral…
greenleft.org.au/content/no-right-discriminate-0

Marching for the right to protest
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
civil rights Alex BainbridgeIssue 1235 Australia BrisbaneAugust 30, 2019Hundreds of people marched through Brisbane on August 28 in opposition to the Queensland Labor government's proposed anti-protest laws. | The local council tried to ban the march but lost the cour…
greenleft.org.au/content/marching-right-protest

Extraordinary rise in NSW police strip searches
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-30
civil rights Rachel EvansIssue 1235 Australia strip searches SydneyAugust 30, 2019The number of strip searches carried out by NSW police has risen almost 20-fold in less than 12 years, with young people…
greenleft.org.au/content/extraordinary-rise-nsw-police-strip-searches

Assange Suffering "Psychological Torture" In UK Prison: Pilger
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
Julian Assange's 'Psychological Torture is unabated', investigative journalist John Pilger said shortly after speaking to the Wikileaks founder. There are concerns for his health after being incarcerated in a high-security prison with few rights, as he faces extradition to the U.S. for exposing the wrongdoings of the United States government. | RELATED: | Assange to Face Full US Extradition Hearing in February 2020 | "I spoke to Julian #Assange at the weekend. His psychological…
telesurenglish.net/news/Assange-Suffering-Psychological-Torture-In-UK-Prison-Pilger–20190829-0018.html

How Solitary Confinement Kills: Torture and Stunning Neglect Ends in Suicide at Privately Run ICE Prison
José Olivares | theintercept.com | 2019-08-29
Guards at an ICE jail put Efraín Romero de la Rosa in solitary confinement despite a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He killed himself after 21 days.
theintercept.com/2019/08/29/ice-solitary-mental-health-corecivic/

The Growing Push for Politicians to #VisitAPrison
Stephanie Wykstra | progressive.org | 2019-08-29
"It's our job. We represent them too. So whether or not they're enfranchised or disenfranchised, we are still their representative."
progressive.org/dispatches/growing-push-for-politicians-visit-prison-wykstra-190829/

For Incarcerated Workers, Summer Heat Can Be a Death Sentence
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-29
| Abilene, Texas–Temperatures reached 97 degrees on June 21 at the French Robinson Unit prison the day Seth Donnelly collapsed. The Texas Observer reported Seth passed out during his prison job of training attack dogs — running around in a 75-pound "fight suit" while the dogs tried to bite him. Seth's internal body temperature was 106 when he reached the hos…
truthout.org/articles/for-incarcerated-workers-summer-heat-can-be-a-death-sentence/

The American Gulag: Brick by Brick, Our Prison Walls Get More Oppressive by the Day
John W. Whitehead | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-29
" The exile of prisoners to a distant place, where they can 'pay their debt to society,' make themselves useful, and not contaminate others with their ideas or their criminal acts, is a practice as old as civilization itself. The …
globalresearch.ca/american-gulag/5687500

The American Gulag
John W. Whitehead | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-29
The exile of prisoners to a distant place, where they can 'pay their debt to society,' make themselves useful, and not contaminate others with their ideas or their criminal acts, is a practice as old as civilization itself. The rulers of ancient Rome and Greece sent their dissidents off to distant colonies. Socrates chose death …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/the-american-gulag/

Department of Homeland Security using $155 million in FEMA disaster relief to fund Trump's immigrant crackdown
wsws.org | 2019-08-29
The shuffling of funds comes one week after the Trump White House announced an end to the Flores settlement, as a result, the government will be using FEMA funds to imprison immigrant families indefinitely.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/29/fema-a29.html

Taxpayers Have Been Ordered to Pay Over $2 Million For Discriminating Against LGBTQ People
aclu.org | 2019-08-29
Government officials should know that discrimination comes with a cost to taxpayers. | Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that the Commonwealth of Kentucky was liable for $224,000 for the actions of Kim Davis, who refused to do her job and issue marriage licenses (to same-sex or different-sex couples) as county clerk. | While Davis' story made national headlines, her case isn't the only one in the past year where a court case filed by the ACLU has led to a bill for discriminatio…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/lgbt-nondiscrimination-protections/taxpayers-have-been-ordered-pay-over-2-million

LGBTI activists slam draft religious discrimination bill
Fred_F | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-29
LGBTI rights Kerrie SmithIssue 1235 Australia religious discrimination billAugust 29, 2019LGBTI activists have slammed the federal Coalition government's draft religious discrimination bill and vowed to step up protests. | Commenting on the draft that wa…
greenleft.org.au/content/lgbti-activists-slam-draft-religious-discrimination-bill

As hurricane approaches Puerto Rico, Trump transfers funding to border cages
Mark Gruenberg | peoplesworld.org | 2019-08-28
WASHINGTON–With Hurricane Dorian poised to smash into Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and then Florida, GOP President Donald Trump's decision to transfer disaster relief money and Coast Guard funds from those uses — among other things — to build migrant detention camps in the Southwest has sparked outrage. The catch is that there's not …
peoplesworld.org/article/as-hurricane-approaches-puerto-rico-trump-transfers-funding-to-border-cages/

'Seducing and Killing Nazis' challenges us to resist, not adapt to, fascism
Chauncey K. Robinson | peoplesworld.org | 2019-08-28
The book Seducing and Killing Nazis is essential reading because there's nothing "normal" about Nazis. From past to present, they are a group of people who support the genocide of others based on hate and the idea of "white pride." There's nothing "normal" about fascist regimes; they stamp out democracy and encourage suppression. Yet, in …
peoplesworld.org/article/seducing-and-killing-nazis-challenges-us-to-resist-not-adapt-to-fascism/

Woman Goes Into Premature Labor After Aggressive Arrest; Judge Still Sends Her to Jail
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-27
Join us Thursday, August 29th 9PM EST on Youtube and Facebook for the live premiere of The Police Accountability Report. Click on the image for more info. In this episode we will look at a federal lawsuit accusing police of violating the civil rights of a then-pregnant woman that has cleared a major hurdle. Court…
therealnews.com/stories/woman-goes-into-premature-labor-after-aggressive-arrest-judge-still-sends-her-to-jail

Woman Goes Into Premature Labor After Aggressive Arrest; Judge Still Sends Her to Jail
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-27
In this episode we will look at a federal lawsuit accusing police of violating the civil rights of a then-pregnant woman that has cleared a major hurdle. Court filings reveal the harrowing experience for a woman who went into labor shortly after she was put in handcuffs and jailed.
therealnews.com/stories/woman-goes-into-premature-labor-after-aggressive-arrest-judge-still-sends-her-to-jail

Stripped of Their Rights
aclu.org | 2019-08-27
In 2011, guards at an Illinois prison violated the constitution when they carried out a mass strip-search of incarcerated women. | In March 2011, a tactical team of guards at a state prison in Lincoln, Illinois gathered 200 women and ushered them into a gymnasium, where they were brought in small groups into a separate room nearby. Inside that room, they were told to strip naked in plain view of other guards, cadets, and civilians, without any explanation. Women on their periods were ordered to remove their tampons and sanitary pads. One-by-one, each woman was ordered to lift her breasts, cough and squat, and dis…
aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/women-prison/stripped-their-rights

New Resource Tool Sheds Light on Government's Prepublication Review System
aclu.org | 2019-08-27
Millions of current and former government employees are subjected to this far-reaching censorship system. | This piece was originally published in Just Security. | For more than three years, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have been litigating a series of Freedom of Information Act requests relating to "prepublication review." Under this far-reaching censorship system, millions of current and former government employees, con…
aclu.org/blog/free-speech/employee-speech-and-whistleblowers/new-resource-tool-sheds-light-governments

Breaking The Media Blackout on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange
Mnar Muhawesh | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-26
The same media that has spent years dragging Assange's name through the mud is now engaging in a blackout on his treatment. If you are waiting for corporate media pundits to defend freedom of the press, you're going to be disappointed.
mintpressnews.com/media-blackout-imprisonment-espionage-act-julian-assange/261510/

Family mourns 18-year-old killed by East LA Sheriffs
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-08-26
Los Angeles, CA – On August 23, over 70 people, including the family of Paul Rea, gathered for a memorial. 18-year-old Rea was shot and killed by East Los Angeles Sheriffs on June 27, after a minor traffic infraction. The East LA sheriff's station is currently under FBI investigation. Since 2014, there have been lawsuits against and reports that there is a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department gang called Los Bandidos. Additionally, East LA sheriffs have a long history of brutalizing and murdering Chicanos. | The event featured tacos cooked on site and drinks, all at no cost to participants. Chairs, tables and fl…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/8/26/family-mourns-18-year-old-killed-east-la-sheriffs

Newark's Water Crisis is One of Thousands That Are Worse Than Flint's
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-25
Lead poisoning is a public health emergency in poor working class communities across the United States, raising crime rates, causing school dropouts, filling our prisons and creating human tragedy…
therealnews.com/stories/newarks-water-crisis-is-one-of-thousands-that-are-worse-than-flints

Will North Carolina's Supreme Court Allow Racism to Remain a Persistent Factor in its Death Penalty?
aclu.org | 2019-08-23
North Carolina's Supreme Court will determine whether evidence of racism in capital punishment can be swept under the rug. | In 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act (RJA), which allowed defendants to strike the death penalty from their cases if they could show that racial discrimination was a factor in their prosecution. The law came as a response to a series of exonerations of Black people who were falsely convicted of crimes they did not commit by all-white or nearly all-white juries. The legislature took a bold step to address was what suspected to be deeply troubling evidence of racism infe…
aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment/racial-disparities-and-death-penalty/will-north-carolinas-supreme-court

Israel's Online Occupation of Palestine
Miriam Deprez | progressive.org | 2019-08-23
How a Facebook post can land you in prison.
progressive.org/dispatches/israels-online-occupation-of-palestine-deprez-190823/

Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's War Against Migrant Families as U.S. Moves to Indefinitely Jail Kids
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an old Walmart where the government was detaining about 1,500 immigrant children in Brownsville, Texas.
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/jeff_merkley_trump_administration_child_separation

A Louisiana Parish Jailed a U.S. Citizen for Being Latinx. We're Suing
aclu.org | 2019-08-22
Officers in a Louisiana jail held a U.S. citizen for four days on an immigration hold simply because of his skin color and name. | Ramon Torres had been a U.S. citizen for nearly ten years when he was detained for four days on an immigration hold — despite having a U.S. passport, a Louisiana driver's license, and a Social Security card, and despite that fact that a court ordered his release. | Torres' ordeal began in August 2018, when he was pulled over and arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Torres, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2009, was carrying multiple forms of identification, inclu…
aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/louisiana-parish-jailed-us-citizen-being-latinx-were

Los Angeles County Votes to Stop Construction of New Jail-Like Facility, Adding Momentum to National Abolition Movement
Francisco Aviles Pino | theintercept.com | 2019-08-22
"A jail is a jail is a jail. It is not enough to change the name of the facility," said LA Board of Supervisors member Heidi Solis.
theintercept.com/2019/08/22/los-angeles-county-mental-health-facility-abolition/

Warren Apologizes to Native Americans; Sanders Backs Rescinding Medals for Wounded Knee Massacre
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-22
This week 10 Democratic candidates and one independent in the 2020 presidential race, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, addressed indigenous communities at the first-ever Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. During the two-day event, candidates individually answered questions from a panel of tribal leaders and Native American youth and elders on issues including treaty rights, voter suppression, and murdered and missing indigenous women.
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/22/frank_lamere_native_american_presidential_forum

An Arizona Law Requires Surveillance of People Who Are Presumed Innocent
aclu.org | 2019-08-21
The government cannot take shortcuts around constitutional rights. | A pillar of our democracy is the presumption of innocence: before a person has been convicted of a crime, they are considered completely innocent under the law. Yet across the country, people who have not been convicted are punished–both explicitly and implicitly–based on the mistaken assumption that they are dangerous, purely on the basis of an accusation. We do not live in a society where you can be incarcerated or monitored simply because you have been accused of a crime. Doing so violates constitutional rights, fuels mass incarce…
aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/arizona-law-requires-surveillance-people-who-are

Over 500 Lawsuits Already Filed Days After Child Victims Act in New York Goes into Effect
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-21
This is Part 2 of our conversation with two New York state legislators, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who helped pass the Child Victims Act in New York. The state law, which went into effect last week, extends the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse and includes a "lookback period," giving survivors of any age a year to take legal action even if their cases had expired under the old statute of limitations. Over 500 lawsuits have already been filed. Both Biaggi and Niou are sexual abuse survivors, and they have spoken about the importance of the Child Victims Act in personal…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/21/child_victims_act_biaggi_niou

Trump is Taking More Money for Raids and Detention. Congress Should Stop Him
aclu.org | 2019-08-19
Without congressional checks, ICE and CBP will continue to overspend and overstep. | 08/27/19 Update: Congress made public today a document outlining the Department of Homeland Security's plan to take nearly $280 million in funds meant for FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the TSA, among other critical priorities. Over $115 million of these funds will go towards President Trump's growing detention and deportations of immigrants, with the rest being used for sham border courts to…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/trump-taking-more-money-raids-and-detention

The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person
aclu.org | 2019-08-15
How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…
aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/pregnancy-and-parenting-discrimination/challenges-breastfeeding-black-person

SPLC publishes Opportunity Costs: Unequal Justice in Alabama's Community Corrections Programs
splcenter.org | 2019-08-15
A new investigative report published today by the Southern Poverty Law Center reveals serious flaws in Alabama's community corrections programs, an otherwise promising system for diverting people from the state's prisons.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/15/splc-publishes-opportunity-costs-unequal-justice-alabamas-community-corrections-programs

The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs
SAMIR | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-15
The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs: PACBI StatementConne Island, Golden Pudel and : //about blank are complicit in Israel's oppression of Palestinians | Cultural Boycott Right To BoycottAugust 15, 2019…
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-calls-to-boycott-three-german-clubs

BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide
patrick | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-14
BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide: BNC StatementOur nonviolent movement opposes all forms of racism and racial discrimination. | Right To BoycottAugust 14, 2019 | By: | | Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) …
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-condemns-antisemitic-fascist-forces-germany-and-worldwide

Weekend Read: Neo-Nazi leader must pay more than $14 million in damages
splcenter.org | 2019-08-10
A federal judge has ruled in an SPLC lawsuit that neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin must pay more than $14 million in damages for using his website to launch an antisemitic campaign of terror against a Jewish woman and her family.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/10/weekend-read-neo-nazi-leader-must-pay-more-14-million-damages

New Civil Rights Memorial to be installed on 54th anniversary of Voting Rights Act
splcenter.org | 2019-08-05
Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by Alabama state troopers during a peaceful voting rights march on Feb. 18, 1965.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/06/new-civil-rights-memorial-be-installed-54th-anniversary-voting-rights-act