by TChris

Scandals at the California Youth Authority (TalkLeft background here) and a Governor who doesn't need campaign contributions have combined to create a new political reality for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. The prison guard's union has wielded enormous influence in the state's Democratic party, resulting in tough-on-crime legislation that guarantees full prisons and full employment for well-paid prison guards.

Bucking its history of support for the CCPO, the California Senate unanimously approved a code of conduct for prison guards in an effort to eliminate "what a federal court-appointed watchdog said is a systemwide 'code of silence' that protects wrongdoers while punishing whistleblowers." The Senate also voted to block a clause in the union contract that requires investigators to turn over confidential information to prison employees who are under investigation.

In addition, 17 Democratic Senators want to renegotiate a contract that gives prison guards a 37 percent pay increase over five years. The union is fighting back with increased spending on public relations, but it may have trouble convincing voters that the pay increases are justified in tough economic times.

"To be honest, they look a little like crybabies. I don't think they're going to get a lot of public sentiment," said University of California, Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain.

by TChris

Every few months, it's worth remembering that your tax dollars are being spent to incarcerate Tommy Chong so that the Justice Department could send a message about pot pipes and bhongs.

Chong’s home was raided in February 2003 as part of the Justice Department’s nationwide crackdown against 55 companies and individuals who, according to a rarely enforced federal law, were illegally selling drug paraphernalia over the Internet. In May 2003, Chong pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to distribute paraphernalia, and on October 8, 2003, he started serving a nine-month sentence at Taft Correctional Institution, a privately run federal prison in central California.

The linked article leads to an internet petition demanding Chong's release, and to other sites that protest the decision to single out Chong for harsh treatment because of his symbolic value. Prior TalkLeft coverage of Chong's case is collected here.

Pot-TV says it has torture videos available for viewing on its website. We haven't viewed them so we can't vouch for them, but you can take a look for yourselves. [Update: The link goes directly to the show page. To view the video, click the link on the left that says "RealPlayer"and the show will start. It is a news show with the video of prison abuse mixed in.]

The following program contains scenes of police and prison guard brutality, profane language, full frontal male nudity and torture and humiliation. Intended for mature audiences with strong stomachs only!

In this first part of a three part series, Loretta Nall exposes the torture and human rights abuses that are inflicted on American prisoners, many of whom are convicted of simple possession only. These acts are committed every day in the supposed Land of the Free. The abuses and torture meted out by sadistic “rent-a-guard” private contractors in a Texas jail directly mirrors the abuses and torture meted out by sadistic “rent-a-soldier” private contractors at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq.

WHERE IS THE AMERICAN OUTRAGE FOR OUR OWN PEOPLE?

by TChris

Dixie Shanahan's story isn't pretty. Her husband beat her for three days, angry that she became pregnant with their third child. He responded to her refusal to get an abortion by repeatedly punching her in the stomach. When she fled, her husband dragged her back into the house, pointed a shotgun at her and threatened to kill her.

At some point, Shanahan shot her husband. Whether she did so in response to another threatening move, or shot him in his sleep, was disputed at her trial. An Iowa jury convicted her, and a judge imposed a mandatory 50 year sentence. The judge didn't think the sentence was fair under the circumstances, but mandatory sentencing laws gave him no discretion.

The sentence, said Shanahan's attorney, was like one last beating.

Mandatory sentencing laws often lead to injustice.

But then, justice has become a rarer commodity since the "get tough on crime" movement swept the nation during the Reagan years. Declaring the courts too soft on crime, state legislators around the country decided that judgment was too important to be left to judges. They enacted mandatory sentencing guidelines that were supposed to produce tougher and more uniform sentences. Instead, those guidelines produce travesties.

It will be 35 years before Shanahan is eligible for parole.

by TChris

The Los Angeles County Sheriff blames a lack of resources for the violent chaos in the county jail, but it's difficult to believe that mismanagement isn't part of the problem.

In all there have been five killings inside the Los Angeles County Jail over the last seven months, more than the San Quentin penitentiary has had in eight years.

LA Couny's District Attorney is commissioning a panel to investigate the Sheriff's failure to protect inmates within the jail.

The Asia Times reports that leading forensic experts say the Nicholas Berg decapitation video was staged, and he likely was dead before the decapitation. They give several reasons.

In other Berg news, the Guardian reports that authorities have information that the execution squad was led by one of Saddam Hussein's nephews.

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Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) was the lone Senate vote against the passage of the Patriot Act. After it passed, he introduced a bill to "limit records searches by requiring the FBI to show that the documents pertain to a suspected terrorist or spy."

"The Patriot Act went too far when it comes to the government's access to personal information about law-abiding Americans," he said.

Check out his letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft about Ashcroft's decision to increase the number of federal death penalty prosecutions:

....I am concerned that your apparent determination to increase death penalty prosecutions, including sometimes overriding decisions of local prosecutors, increases the risk that the federal government could execute an innocent person. Former federal prosecutors have said that "they need to take every last precaution to avoid the risk of condemning an innocent person to death." See "In Brooklyn Murder Case, Doubts on Identification," New York Times, Feb. 12, 2003. While you and I may disagree on the fundamental question of whether the federal government should be authorized to use capital punishment, I hope that we can agree that the Constitution and the integrity of our criminal justice system require the fair administration of the death penalty and that only the guilty are convicted....

Sen Feingold introduced legislation to stop the Total Information Awareness Act (TIA) from being passed. He opposed the federal Victim's Rights Amendment to the Constitution, sponsored by Sens. Feinstein (D-CA) and Kyl (R-AZ).

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo on the President's "bike spill" yesterday:

Along related lines, I can't help but wonder whether the spill the president took from his bicycle today won't become iconic in the same way that the state dinner the first President Bush attended in Tokyo on January 8th 1992 in which he collapsed into the arms of, and then vomited on, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa became a symbol of his then-faltering presidency.

Ahmed Chalabi made the round of Sunday news shows this morning and denied passing on sensitive U.S. info to Iran.

“It’s not true. It’s a false charge,” Chalabi said on ABC’s “This Week” television program. “It’s a smear.”

Iran also denies the charges:

Iran denies any intelligence sharing Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said suggestions that Chalabi had passed sensitive U.S. intelligence to Iran were baseless. “We have not received any classified information, neither from Chalabi nor any member of the Iraqi Governing Council,” Asefi said.

Chalabi blamed George Tenet for the smear:

Chalabi said the CIA, which had viewed his Iraqi National Congress group with skepticism for years, was trying to discredit him and that CIA Director George Tenet was behind the accusation that he gave American secrets to Iran. “We never provided any classified information from the U.S. to Iran, and neither I nor anyone in the INC. And that is a charge being put out by George Tenet,” Chalabi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Chalabi challenged the Tenet to bring his information before Congress:

Thinking about attending the Republican National Convention in New York this summer? From our pal Deb in Chicago, who got it from her uncle, who got it from...

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CONVENTION SCHEDULE
New York, NY

6:00 PM Opening Prayer led by the Reverend Jerry Fallwell

6:30 PM Pledge of Allegiance

6:35 PM Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding 2nd amendment)

6:45 PM Salute to the Coalition of the Willing

6:46 PM Seminar #1: Iraq Stratergies-Voodoo/DooDoo WMD

7:30 PM First Presidential Beer Bong

7:35 PM Serve Freedom Fries

7:40 PM EPA Address #1: Mercury-It's what's for dinner!

8:00 PM Vote on which country to invade next

8:10 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh

8:15 PM John Ashcroft Lecture: The Homos are after your Children!!

Cheers to the United Kingdom which has announced that it will boycott the trial of Saddam Hussein if the death penalty is sought.

Government policy and the European Convention on Human Rights lay down that the British cannot hand the prisoners over if there is any risk of them being executed. The death penalty has been suspended in Iraq, on British insistence, but is expected to be reintroduced.

....Kate Allen, UK director of Amnesty International, said: "The death penalty is arbitrary, cruel and wrong... The UK authorities must obtain assurances that prisoners will not face the death penalty before handing them over to another authority."

....Bill Rammell, a Foreign Office minister, said last week, in a written answer to a question from the Tory MP Andrew Robathan, who wants the death penalty re-introduced in the UK, that the British authorities will have to refuse to supply any evidence that might help send the former president to his death.

[Ed. A few people emailed us they were getting error messages trying to comment on this post. It happened to us as well, so we're closing the comments so we don't frustrate any more readers. We have no idea why it's happening, but rest assured we haven't done anything to keep anyone from commenting.]

A military police commander at Abu Ghraib prison will testify that the top US general in Iraq witnessed some of the abuses.

The lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, said he was told that Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of what was taking place on Tier 1A of Abu Ghraib. Shuck is assigned to defend Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II of the 372nd Military Police Company. During an April 2 hearing that was open to the public, Shuck said the company commander, Capt. Donald J. Reese, was prepared to testify in exchange for immunity. The military prosecutor questioned Shuck about what Reese would say under oath.

"Are you saying that Captain Reese is going to testify that General Sanchez was there and saw this going on?" asked Capt. John McCabe, the military prosecutor. "That's what he told me," Shuck said. "I am an officer of the court, sir, and I would not lie. I have got two children at home. I'm not going to risk my career."