The curtain rises for Act 2. As discussed in Act 1, Greenlighting: Jailhouse Snitches, the term greenlighting comes from a lawsuit filed in the Orange County (California) superior court on April 4, 2018, against the Orange County district attorney and the sheriff. The lawsuit does not ask for money; it asks the court to overhaul the Orange County justice system, which is allegedly “in disrepair and disrepute.”… Read the rest
Sometimes allegations in a lawsuit read like banal pulp fiction. Often they ring with the tenor of a dime novel—too contrived to be true. P.E.O.P.L.E. v. Rackauckas, a forty-page civil lawsuit filed in the Orange County (California) superior court on April 4, 2018, distinguishes itself from legal humdrum. Brought by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California on behalf of the plaintiffs, the lawsuit is not about money.… Read the rest
Blogs come alive through social media. What I post to my Twitter account transcends my laptop to reach people and organizations working for prison reform. There’s a family with like concerns out there, and they supply impactful tweets and substantive information. When I check out my followers on Twitter, I see the enormous investment that others are putting into myriad prison reform issues.… Read the rest
In part 1, I focused on federal tax incentives for employers that hire formerly incarcerated people (FIP). I highlighted the federal government’s Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) opportunity for employers hiring FIPs. The WOTC was created by Congress during the Obama administration to incentivize employers to hire individuals within target groups—one of which includes the formerly incarcerated.… Read the rest
Prison reform must address the needs of men and women who are reentering the work force after serving time in prison. Returning to your community can be as traumatic as going to prison when work opportunities are hampered because of a felony conviction. The idea that it’s a person’s conduct that’s bad, not the person, gets lost in the employment market.… Read the rest
In a previous post, The Loss of Compassion: The Gray Wave—Part 1, I used this definition of compassion: a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” People without the compassion gene stand out; there’s something missing. I saw it all the time in prison in the interaction between staff and inmates and between inmates themselves.… Read the rest
What is compassion? We use the word a lot, but what does it mean? Isn’t this human emotion wired in the womb? You know compassion when you feel it—you feel a vacuum when it’s withheld.
Merriam-Webster defines compassion is a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”… Read the rest
The heavy hand of unchecked power has gone too far. The indefinite detention of people whom immigration officials have yet to decide whether to admit or deport from the country is out of control. I see policies that affront the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection of the law.… Read the rest
Crusading for change includes knowing when real change happens. Some states are making more progress than others in their efforts for prison reform. According to the New Republic, “One could reasonably argue that Georgia is doing more to reform its criminal justice system than any other state in the country—from sentencing to felon employment after release to juvenile detention.”… Read the rest
Real prison reform is a slow process. As with other social issues, it takes time for the public, judges, and legislators to make serious moves toward change. I’ve been asked why reforming prison living conditions takes so long. It’s because such reform germinates in the dark and easily goes unnoticed.
Prisons are the black holes of societies; they hold facts about aberrant morality that result in serious moral issues.… Read the rest
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