I think that polls have shown us that americans the people no longer want to see these numbers and these institutions built. Theyre looking at other ways in order other ways to handle people with Mental Health issues and drug addictions, which really drive the numbers in our prisons and in our jails, but i think that what we have done over the last three decades is really built this mass incarceration vehicle that has driven and driven and driven the numbers of men and women and children into the systems and now were realizing that its not working, its broken, its too costly, its taking lives that we could handle differently. So, thats where we have landed. But the system keeps churning away. And i am very happy to see a proposition in california like proposition 47, that the people can go and cast their vote, and this machine will have to downsize. So, i think that its out of control. Irregardless of what we the people are looking at and wanting for our communities. Also i want to poi
From honduras with their 3yearold son after her father beat her to cause her a miscarriage and threatened her with torture and death. When she was sent to jail, a guard gave favors to her and her son and told her that he could help her with her immigration case. When he initiated sex with her, she did not feel comfortable saying no. Because a guard can exercise so much control over the daily life of a detained person, including when she can eat, when she can sleep and when she can be punished notions of consent have little meaning in this context. Thats why pria treats any Sexual Conduct by a guard as a form of sexual abuse, regardless of apparent consent. But authorities at berks did not understand this rule. Rather than educate the women at berks about their rights under pria, the facilities announced new victim blaming policies against wearing tight or revealing clothing. The response must fall on ice for failing to comply with prias mandate. Ice deserves credit for implementing and
Detention existsystem is unknown and Oversight Authority within the agency is unclear. My written testimony identifies specific oversight and transparency mechanisms that the commission could push cbp to implement. Since others have commented extensively on the obama administrations cruel and unnecessary policy of detaining Central American immigrant families i will just emphasize one of the inevitable consequences of this policy something that was only public a announced by ms. Lucas today. Sadly, a baby girl in a ice detention facility will turn 1 month old. She and her mother have been in Homeland Security custody since she was 11 days old. The administrations decision to massively expand the detention of immigrant families with children means that many more newborns toddlers and Young Children will experience milestones like this while incarcerated. The commission can play an Important Role by calling for an end to these family detention policies. When ice does not implement its de
Persuading people to come on board from all parts of the political spectrum. I think its important if we can help us develop if we have the ability to do so, quantifying some of the dollars involved here versus in terms of the cost of currently incarceration, essentially, thats what it is. Incarceration of these individuals versus the cost of administrative parole, of ankle monitor release, show up rates in terms of coming to a Court Hearing and i was going to say and then looking at that seeing and i imagine that delta on that would be pretty big and within that delta, how much of that could go towards providing counsel for those folks to make it become a fairer fight. Again, my basic feeling is that americans are fair and they understand when people are fleeing something. Thats horrible that they should have a right to a good, fair hearing. I think if we can put in terms of dollar in some ways to do this, i think that would help us make that argument to a broader audience. The other
Hostage in iran recalled her harrowing ordeal. For 410 days, mostly in solitary confinement. Held for 26sh were months. Their memoir is being published today. It wasnt until six months or so into it that we saw a new sticker, american spies to go to trial at some point. We kept telling our interrogators, what are we being charged with . They would say, we dont know. And we will look at what theyve been doing since the release. Once i left prison, it didnt feel over. I thought about the people i was in prison with. I thought about prisoners around the world. It made sense to me to start looking into prisons in this country. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Russia is formally recognized crimea as an independent state, paving the way for the annexation and define new sanctions led by the United States. In a speech today, russian president Vladimir Putin announced his support for itsxing crimea following vo