Car Rally to #FreeThemAll in Yuba Detention
Close the Camps, Empty the Cages! | indybay.org | 2020-04-12
Yuba County Jail | 215 5th St. | Marysville, CA…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/12/18832322.php

Julian Assange: One Year In Belmarsh
Binoy Kampmark | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-04-12
It should not be a matter of distinction, but Julian Assange is a figure who is becoming the apotheosis of political imprisonment. This seems laughable to those convinced he is an agent without scruple, a compromiser of the Fourth Estate, a figure best packed off to a prison system that will, in all assuredness, kill …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/04/julian-assange-one-year-in-belmarsh/

Julian Assange: One Year in Belmarsh
Dr. Binoy Kampmark | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-12
It should not be a matter of distinction, but Julian Assange is a figure who is becoming the apotheosis of political imprisonment. This seems laughable to those convinced he is an agent without scruple, a compromiser of the Fourth Estate, …
globalresearch.ca/julian-assange-one-year-belmarsh/5709365

Assange's mother fact-checks media, as story of her son's previously hidden family published
rt.com | 2020-04-12
Julian Assange's mother has gone on the offensive against slanted reporting after her son's legal adviser revealed that she had two children with the WikiLeaks co-founder. | Stella Morris, a South African-born lawyer who helped Assange work on a legal bid to end extradition threats against him, revealed that the journalist fathered two sons with her during his years of political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. | In a video statement, Morris said she was coming forward because their lives were "on the brink" and she feared Assange could die in prison as he awaits a ruling over his extradition to the…
rt.com/news/485598-assange-sons-media-mother-facts/

Reporting Your Neighbors for Violating Stay-At-Home Orders
MICK | indybay.org | 2020-04-12
David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated: "All kinds of constitutional liberties are being constrained right now. They are restricted because there's a reason to restrict them. In a time like this, you have to defer substantially to public health experts." But does this mean that we should be ratting-out our neighbors for violating COVID-19 stay-at-home orders?>…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/11/18832276.php

Taliban to release 20 Afghan government prisoners amid fragile peace process
rt.com | 2020-04-12
The Taliban will hand over 20 prisoners as part of the reconciliation process with Kabul, a spokesman for the militant group announced on Sunday. | "Today, 20 prisoners of the Kabul administration will be released by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and handed over to ICRC in Kandahar," the spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said in a tweet. | The decision comes just days after the Taliban recalled its negotiators from Afghanistan, after accusing Kabul of intentionally delaying a prison exchange. The Afghan governme…
rt.com/newsline/485600-taliban-release-prisoners-afghanistan-peace/

Prioritizing Jails Over Hospitals Has Made Rural US More Vulnerable to COVID-19
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-12
Infrastructure development is a matter of life and death: This has always been true, and we are now in a clarifying moment. | In the midst of a mounting public health crisis in the United States, state, local and federal governments are struggling to address a lack of hospital capacity, manage the production of personal protective equipment, and even repurpose college campuses and convention centers to respond to the rapid spread of COVID-19. The nation's smallest communities are meeting t…
truthout.org/articles/prioritizing-jails-over-hospitals-has-made-rural-us-more-vulnerable-to-covid-19/

Kabul Frees Third Group of Taliban Prisoners in Latest Confidence-Building Step
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-12
KABUL (Sputnik) – The Afghan government on Sunday released a third group of Taliban prisoners hours after the Taliban announced the handover of 20 Afghan government prisoners, Kabul's National Security Council said.
sputniknews.com/middleeast/202004121078927612-taliban-prison-free-confidence/

Assange's Extradition: Incarceration in the Time of Covid-19 Threatens His Life
Nozomi Hayase | commondreams.org | 2020-04-11
Demonstrators protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London on October 21, 2019. (Photo: Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/assange_coronavirus.jpg …
commondreams.org/views/2020/04/11/assanges-extradition-incarceration-time-covid-19-threatens-his-life?cd-origin=rss

Testimony from US and Canadian inmates exposes deadly conditions inside prisons
wsws.org | 2020-04-11
Many harrowing accounts have emerged in the form of videos and written testimony from prisoners outlining the conditions they face in the last two weeks.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/11/test-a11.html

'I only saw him once': NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal distances himself from Joe Exotic but discusses deal with Tiger King star
rt.com | 2020-04-11
Despite previously namechecking television's most notorious current figure, Shaquille O'Neal has responded to ribbing by insisting that he only met Joe Exotic once and did not accept animals from the prolific tiger breeder. | Historic footage of O'Neal visiting Greater Wynnewood, the Oklahoma exotic animal park that was run by Exotic before he was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2019, has added to the story of Tiger King, the documentary that has shocked the world and become the most talked-about show on Netflix in recent weeks. | O'Neal can be seen leading a tour of the zoo in a YouTube video posted last y…
rt.com/sport/485582-shaquille-oneal-joe-exotic/

Prisoners Committee Concerned Over Palestinian Prisoner's Condition
IMEMC & Agencies | imemc.org | 2020-04-11
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Committee for Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs, on Saturday, expressed its deep concern over the condition of a Palestinian prisoner, inside Israel's Ramon prison. In a statement, released by the committee, the condition of prisoner, Mohammed Halabi, 42, from the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabalia, is getting …
imemc.org/article/prisoners-committee-concerned-over-palestinian-prisoners-condition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prisoners-committee-concerned-over-palestinian-prisoners-condition

Civil Liberties Never Sleep: The ACLU in the Pandemic
David Cole | aclu.org | 2020-04-10
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down many businesses, but the work of preserving civil liberties and civil rights continues, as essential as ever. Reports of courts closing down can be misleading. While public trials that require jurors and in-person testimony have been suspended, most courts and lawyers can do their work remotely. The filing of legal briefs continues, and oral arguments and hearings are being held remotely. The work of securing justice continues., , At the ACLU, our most immediate focus has been on civil liberties and civil rights issues arising from the government's response (or lack thereo…
aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/civil-liberties-never-sleep-the-aclu-in-the-pandemic

ACLU Comment on Apple/Google COVID-19 Contact Tracing App
commondreams.org | 2020-04-10
______________________________…
commondreams.org/newswire/2020/04/10/aclu-comment-applegoogle-covid-19-contact-tracing-app?cd-origin=rss

Covid-19 'mass graves' on New York's Hart Island spark frenzy of fake news amid grim reality
rt.com | 2020-04-10
Photos of a 'mass grave' for coronavirus casualties on New York City's Hart Island sent the media into overdrive overnight, even launching calls to dig up President Trump's properties instead. The truth, while grim, was different. | Drone imagery from the island showing a dozen undertakers

Coronavirus threatens to spread 'like wildfire' through U.S. prisons
John Bachtell | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-10
"It's fixin' to be a mass grave site in these prisons," said a terrified prisoner in an Alabama state prison. "Once (coronavirus) is in it will spread like wildfire," said another. "It's a death sentence," said a third, for many older prisoners like himself. "We need help!" he cried. The prisoners, forced to live in …
peoplesworld.org/article/coronavirus-threatens-to-spread-like-wildfire-through-u-s-prisons/

ACLU Lawsuit Over Baltimore Spy Planes Sets Up Historic Surveillance Battle
Jay Stanley | aclu.org | 2020-04-09
Imagine a day in the future when everyone, from the moment they step outside their home, has to live with the knowledge that their every movement is being recorded by powerful cameras circling in the skies above. Not just where they work, shop, eat and drink, and whose homes they visit, but details about their political, religious, sexual, and medical lives

What Will Feds Do About Corporate Bailout Bill Corruption? Look to Walmart's Opioid Case
Karen Conner | cepr.net | 2020-04-09
Talking Points Memo See article on original site 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 …
cepr.net/what-will-feds-do-about-corporate-bailout-bill-corruption-look-to-walmarts-opioid-case/

I'm Queer and I've Been in Solitary. Ellen Isn't Experiencing What I Did
Dominique Morgan | aclu.org | 2020-04-09
On Monday, I ended a 12-hour day returning emails to incarcerated queer folks, providing direct aid for housing to folks living with HIV & AIDS who have been incarcerated and challenging the state of Nebraska to provide humane conditions for incarcerated individuals and decided to mindlessly scroll on Twitter. , , I found the quote from the show Ellen DeGeneres filmed from her multimillion-dollar, multi-room mansion: "One thing that I've learned from being in quarantine is that people

"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

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

"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

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

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 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

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

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

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

The Added Importance of the Census, in Light of COVID-19
Steven K. Choi | aclu.org | 2020-04-01
Last year around this time, my biggest worry was how the inclusion of the Trump administration's proposed citizenship question would depress participation in the decennial census. Thankfully, our Supreme Court victory means there is no citizenship question on the census. Now, I have a new worry: a global pandemic and the health of my loved ones. As it turns out, the 2020 Census plays a role here too, as it will have enormous implications on our health care for decades to come. | Specifically, the census will determine the allocation of $300 billion dollars of federal aid for the states' health care

Evaluation of Association Between Gastric Acid Suppression and Risk of Intestinal Colonization With MDROs
Willems RJ, van Dijk K, Ket JF, et al. | jamanetwork.com | 2020-04-01
This systematic review and meta-analysis examines the association of use of gastric acid suppressants with the risk of colonization with multidrug-resistant microorganisms (MDROs).
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2761273

[Correspondence] Racism and discrimination in COVID-19 responses
Delan Devakumar, Geordan Shannon, Sunil S Bhopal, Ibrahim Abubakar | thelancet.com | 2020-04-01
Outbreaks create fear, and fear is a key ingredient for racism and xenophobia to thrive. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has uncovered social and political fractures within communities, with racialised and discriminatory responses to fear, disproportionately affecting marginalised groups.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30792-3/fulltext?rss=yes

The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery played key role in launching SPLC's legal battle against Ku Klux Klan
splcenter.org | 2020-03-30
The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, who died on Friday at 98 years old, was a longtime friend of the Southern Poverty Law Center and played a leading role in the SPLC's first lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan in 1980.
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/30/rev-dr-joseph-e-lowery-played-key-role-launching-splcs-legal-battle-against-ku-klux-klan

Weekend Read: SPLC demands ICE act amid pandemic to save the lives of countless immigrants trapped in its crowded detention centers
splcenter.org | 2020-03-27
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/30/weekend-read-splc-demands-ice-act-amid-pandemic-save-lives-countless-immigrants-trapped-its

Arbitrary & excessive: Marijuana trafficking sentences in Alabama
Kathryn Casteel and Will Tucker | splcenter.org | 2020-03-24
Alabama resident Lee Carroll Brooker garnered national attention in 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the marijuana trafficking case that put Brooker, in his 70s at the time, in prison for life.
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/28/arbitrary-excessive-marijuana-trafficking-sentences-alabama