“A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) violates the U.S. Constitution by confining offenders indefinitely without giving them access to the courts and other protections of the criminal justice system.”
Read the full article by Chris Serres in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
“No one wants to allow a child to be hurt, and laws that create mechanisms to “keep bad men away” are seductive because they make us feel safer – but that safety is an illusion that comes at a great price. As a society we are not capable of predicting who will or will not reoffend, and we must not punish someone for imaginary future crimes. When we begin to define individuals as criminals for who they are or what they think, instead of holding them accountable for specific acts, we rob them of their constitutional right to due process and dangerously erode the barriers that are meant to keep the awesome power of the state, to take away our lives and our liberty, at bay.”
Read the article by Galen Baughman in Cato Unbound.
“The growing unpopularity of the War on Drugs and the number of bipartisan moves to, supposedly, roll back mass incarceration have led some leftists to believe that, finally, the prison-state is about to be cut down to size.
“Yet a new book by University of Pennsylvania political scientist Marie Gottschalk, Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, makes it clear that the problem is far worse than commonly suspected, and that the reforms on the table are unlikely to even make a dent in the forces that keep millions behind bars.”
Read the interview with Marie Gottshalk in Jacobin.
“It was only for a moment, but on January 20, 2015, this country’s criminal punishment system got a general call for reform in President Obama’s state of the union address. With 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated people, it’s about time we heard this from our president. But what we didn’t hear was an analysis of exactly what we can do to shrink this massive system.”
Jean Trounstine in Truthout. Read more…
This is a terrible time of the year to be in prison, for the guilty and the innocent alike.
So please take a minute to brighten someone’s day with a card. I don’t care if you call it a Christmas card, a holiday card, or whatever. And neither will they.
Here is a link to a few prisoners who would really appreciate some good cheer.
https://bobchatelle.net/please-write-to-a-prisoner
-Bob
I finally heard from Joseph Allen today. Here are a few excerpts from his letter: (some grammar and spelling corrections were applied)
“The reason that no one’s heard from me or received any phone calls is because the prison on 10/10/13 put me in the hole because my case is high profile. And I’ve been in the hole ever since. I do not see how they can keep me in the hole because my case is high-profile. My case has been high-profile since November 1993. They seem to be doing everything wrong to me in trying to keep me away from talking to all the inmates. No inmates have ever given me a problem about my case. They know about it and they all speak well of me. They should not have me in the hole like this. They won’t even allow me to call anyone but one time on Wednesday late at night. Only once. They seem like they are trying to keep me from being in the news of from having freedom of speech. The prison staff wants me silenced. I need someone to contact me, some one to help put a stop to them holding me in the hole. I need a lawyer to come see me here so I can let him know what is going on against me in here by some of the staff.”
…
“I need to be out of here so I can make phone calls or talk with the inmates. I don’t have anyone I can talk to, being in the hole like this. They won’t even allow me to watch TV or go to the law library or religious services. All day and all night I see nothing but the wall of the cell. Most of the time it is very cold in the cell.
“And every time the CO’s take me anywhere they always handcuff me and my legs too. I haven’t been to any programs in here because they won’t allow me to say nothing in here. I asked them for a holy King James Bible and a dictionary and I still haven’t got them.”
…
“I do not read any newspapers or watch TV. I do not know if they will allow me to receive newspapers.”
There is no reason to keep Joseph Allen in solitary confinement and to subject him to this kind of inhumane treatment. I suspect the prison does this in response to political pressure. His innocence is likely a great embarrassment to some powerful people in Ohio.
Since Joseph is not allowed books, magazines, newspapers, or TV. It is important to his sanity that he receive cards and letters. Cards and letters will also remind the prison authorities that there are people outside the walls that care about him. His address:
Joseph Lee Allen
#A293-486
Lorain Correctional Institution
2975 South Avon Beldon Road
Grafton OH 44044
Joseph can’t get through this terrible ordeal without the help and support of his friends and people who still care about justice.
-Bob Chatelle
Mos of you are familiar with my organization, the National Center for Reason and Justice
.We are looking for volunteers to help us in our work. Please visit this page to see the kind of help we are seeking.
Dear Friend of Justice,
Yesterday I had my friend Michael Waterman post to this blog.
There is another way in which you can help Michael.
For a while, when Michael was still in prison, I was his only support person. I knew he needed more. So I bought pen-pal ads for him in some magazines and web sites. These proved very helpful. From these ads, he met his principal supporter and also his girlfriend.
When Michael was freed, he told me he wanted to start his own prisoner pen-pal site. I told him he could do this cheaply. The site could reside in my personal web space, and I would lease him a domain name for one year.
Michael looked at a number of sites, and decided upon what he believes is a reasonable and competitive price for an ad.
Here is the site: http://www.mtprisonpenpals.com/
Michael has been trying very hard to find subscribers to his site. This is not easy. There are a huge number of prison pen pal sites on the internet, and some of them are very well established.
Perhaps some of you might be willing to buy an ad for a prisoner friend.
Or perhaps some of you could link to Michael’s site. This would increase its rank with Google.
It would be nice if his venture could succeed. He could use a little extra money of course. But mainly Michael would like to be of service to those still behind bars.
-Bob Chatelle
Dear Friend of Justice,
Thanksgiving is behind us and many of us will soon be sending cards to friends and family. Please consider sending cards to one or more prisoners as well. It means a great deal to those behind bars, especially for those who are innocent.
Here are some addresses: https://bobchatelle.net/please-write-to-a-prisoner
If you see errors in this list, please let me know and I will correct ASAP.
-Bob Chatelle
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