A high-level commision has been appointed to study U.S. prison conditions. This is welcome news.

A high-level commission yesterday began a year-long examination of violence, sexual abuse, overcrowding and inhumane treatment in U.S. prisons, in an investigation provoked in part by reports of misconduct by U.S. corrections officers assigned to serve in military detention centers overseas.

The privately organized commission, which has attracted interest in its work from the Justice Department and key lawmakers, is headed by former attorney general Nicholas deB. Katzenbach and John J. Gibbons, a former federal appeals court judge. Its aim is to recommend prison reforms from local to federal levels after holding at least four public hearings around the country.

Why is it needed? Check out these stats:

• More than 34,000 assaults were committed by prisoners against other inmates in a 12-month period covering parts of 1999 and 2000;
• The number of prisoner assaults against staff in that period was 27 percent higher than the previous 12 months.
• More than a million people were sexually assaulted in prisons over the past two decades.
• Eleven inmates died in restraint chairs in the 1990s.
• Corrections officers have reduced life expectancies and higher rates of alcoholism than other law enforcement officers.

There's a lot of good reading on yesterday's Supreme Court decision to ban the death penalty for juvenile offenders. In addition to the editorials in our newsfeed on the left, there are these interesting reads:

• Major Victory for Minors...Chicago Tribune
• Less Fodder for Death Row....Los Angeles Times
• Sparing the Young....Houston Chronicle
• Justice Used Science to arrive at decision....Miami Herald

[hat tip to Rev. Mr.George W. Brooks, J.D.,Director of Advocacy, Kolbe House, Chicago]

This injustice needs further dissemination:

Six innocent people facing execution by firing squad. Six medical workers - five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor - were found guilty last year of "deliberately" infecting over 400 children with HIV at a hospital in Libya. They are currently on death row in Tripoli.

In effect, these people are hostages of the Libyan government, who wish to trade them for billions of dollars in "compensation", or even for the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber imprisoned in Scotland. The "Benghazi Six" are, of course, wholly innocent. This was proven by the most important HIV researcher in the world, Dr Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of the virus.

More details are available here and here. The BMSP has written an open letter to the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, appealing for him to release the six medics. They have secured the signatures of Noam Chomsky, Sir Ian McKellen, and many others .

Homeland Security is requiring immigrants in 8 cities who are in the process of applying for residency to wear electronic monitoring ankle bracelets 24/7.

These people have never been accused of a crime. There are 1,700 of them to date. Homeland Security says monitoring will prevent those ordered deported from running and hiding. But, a 2003 Justice Department report (pdf) blamed inadequate record keeping by immigration officials as the reason for problems deporting non-detained aliens.

And a three year pilot program has found:

....supervision -- regular phone calls from program workers, reminders about court dates, referrals to legal representatives and other such measures -- is more cost effective than detention and almost doubles the rate of compliance.

Why are Americans so apathetic about this?

Update: A blog named Outside the Beltway claims that our post is misleading because the 1,700 detained have been ordered deported. Totally false. Had the blogger bothered to read the source article linked in this post, it would have learned that, as I said, the program under which 1,700 are wearing ankle bracelets is being applied to immigrants who are applying to remain in the country--not, as he claims, those who have been ordered deported and refused to go. [They are lawfully appealing orders of deportation or denial of their applications for residency.]

The New York Times gives a glowing review to "Chatter," a new book by Patrick Radden Keefe. The name derives from the so-called "chatter" allegedly bantered by terrorists on the Internet that makes it way into elevated threat levels.

The Times says the book is "filled with anecdotes, colorful quotes and arresting statistics" and is "breezily aired," breaking down the complex subject matter into easily understandable terms. It sounds interesting, if these quotes are representative:

The United States has fewer than 5,000 spies operating around the world, for example, but 30,000 eavesdroppers. The National Security Agency employs more mathematicians than any other organization in the world, and every three hours its spy satellites gather enough information to fill the Library of Congress. Menwith Hill, the American listening station in North Yorkshire, England, has a staff as large as MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence service.

Grits for Breakfast (via CrimLaw) reports on a British study and its findings that surveillance cameras do not reduce crime.

Home Office researchers who studied 14 schemes across Britain found that only one had brought a clear fall in the local crime rate. While there was strong public support for CCTV before it was installed, opinion began to shift when people realised the cameras made little difference.

But they do make a difference, because they invade our privacy. They are just another measure that fails to make us safer, only less free.

Writer Jan Burke has developed a Yahoo group entitled CLP Morgue for news and articles about forensic science. CLP stands for the Crime Lab Project which Jan is using to develop a grass roots effort among writers. CLP Morgue is a free subscription service where news articles on forensics are posted. If you are interested, sign up here and pass it on to any others who might be interested. [Via CrimProf Blog.]

MSNBC reports that Kobe Bryant and his accuser have settled their civil lawsuit...in time for Kobe to avoid being deposed on Friday. Smart move by both. Kobe can afford to settle and the accuser, now married and expecting, needs to get past whatever happened that night and move on with her life.

Via People for American Way:

West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd took to the Senate floor this afternoon to deliver a compelling speech (pdf) outlining the role of the filibuster in maintaining the checks and balances of a robust democracy, and protecting the rights of the minority.

....If the filibuster is eliminated, Bush, Cheney and 50 senators could steamroll up to four new justices onto the Court – enough to create a right-wing majority. Frist needs the votes of half the Senate plus Vice President Cheney’s tie-breaker to succeed in this bare-knuckles move to eliminate the filibuster. That means we must win the votes of all 44 Democratic senators, the one Independent, and at least six courageous Republicans to stop him.

Don't let Frist get away with this. Sign the petition here.

Human Rights First and the ACLU have filed suit in federal court against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over U.S. torture policies.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Illinois on behalf of eight men who were subject to torture and abuse at the hands of U.S. forces under Secretary Rumsfeld's command. The groups charged Secretary Rumsfeld with violations of the U.S. Constitution and international law prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

The complaint is here. More about the suit is available here.

I'll be over at the Washington Post doing an online chat on the Michael Jackson trial. You can join in here.

Documentary producer Martin Bashir is the first witness.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has outlined the Justice Department's priorities. Public Enemy Number One: Obscenity.

Other priorities:

• Ending Senate blocking of judicial nominees, a "broken process that must be fixed" before there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

• Renewing provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, saying the law has been an important tool in preventing terror attacks in the United States.

• Amending the Constitution to give crime victims the right to participate in prosecutions and sentencings.

I think Gonzales is out of line. All three of those are up to Congress, the legislative branch, not the Justice Department or the executive branch. Gonzales should focus on enforcing the law, not creating it.