Today, at 11:00 AM, I approached my unit team area — F-North in FCI Petersburg — seeking to submit a form that authorizes the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send money to a friend of mine from my commissary account (BP-199). Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM is the designated “Open House”
The other day my cellmate presented a situation for my review. He explained that a particular person I regularly sat with in our housing unit’s day room had a bad reputation for some of his political and social beliefs. While I challenged his opinion on the matter, I realized that he was right after taking
Yesterday a regular Prison Law Blog reader, who is preparing to self-report to a Federal Prison Camp, brought a question to our attention. He asked, “Once I self-surrender, can I blog from prison?” As regular readers of the Prison Law Blog know, we love tackling First Amendment in the correctional context issues. We provide some answers
Full Circle Restorative Justice (FCRJ) of the 11th Judicial District of Colorado was founded in 2006 by Dianne Walker resulting from her personal experience with the criminal justice system. (For more details read FCRJ, Part l.)
Restorative Justice (RJ) is based on a theory of justice and a global social change movement that endorses peaceful approaches to harm, problem-solving and violations of legal and human rights.
The FCRJ Board of Directors’ diligence and community support has provided the community with education on the concepts of restorative justice, trained volunteer conference facilitators, and was awarded non-profit 501c3 status in April 2009. FCRJ is celebrating their Holiday Potluck Party on Dec. 17. The individuals from the left are Dunk, Chris & Jake, Toni, Mike, Cheryl, Patty, Karen & Laura.
The mission of Full Circle Restorative Justice is to provide alternative dispute resolution and facilitation within the 11th Judicial District of Colorado. Full Circle strives to: “To enhance the safety of our community by addressing offender accountability and to empower victims through a supportive conflict resolution process.”
A majority of board members became involved with FCRJ as a result of their own personal experiences with the justice system, experiences which evolved into an inspiration for exploring alternatives to punitive approaches of the current justice system.
The FCRJ board has been trained as volunteer facilitators by Restorative Solutions, LLC, Youth Transformation Center/Boomerang Program, and Center for Restorative Practices.
By Alejandra Armstrong After an exhausting week, Jessica Robinson met friends for sushi Friday, Sept. 5, 2008. And while waiting for a table at the restaurant, Robinson had a drink. She had another at the table, then had a sip of beer but didn’t drink anymore because she knew she would be driving. Robinson drove
On April 24, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon held that a postcard-only policy at the Columbia County Jail, which restricted mail sent to and from detainees at the facility to postcards, was unconstitutional. The court therefore permanently prohibited enforcement of the policy – the first time that a jail’s postcard-only policy has been struck down following a trial on the merits.
The ruling, by federal judge Michael H. Simon, was entered in a lawsuit against Columbia County and Sheriff Jeff Dickerson filed by Prison Legal News. PLN sued in January 2012 after Columbia County jail employees rejected PLN’s monthly publication and letters sent to detainees. Further, the jail had failed to provide PLN with notice or an opportunity to appeal the jail’s censorship of its materials. [See: PLN, March 2013, p.50].
The rejection of PLN’s publications and letters was attributed to the jail’s postcard-only policy and a policy or practice that prohibited prisoners from receiving magazines. PLN contended that such policies violated its rights under the First Amendment, and that the lack of notice and opportunity to appeal was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
During the litigation the defendants admitted “that inmates have a First Amendment right to receive magazines and inmates and their correspondents have a Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process.” However, the jail defended its postcard-only policy and claimed there was no official policy that banned magazines at the jail.
From Diane A. Sears PHILADELPHIA, PA (USA) – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 — A National Dialogue on Mass Incarceration will take center stage at the Joseph Priestley District’s Racial Justice conference, at the Unitarian Society of Germantown, 6511 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 3, 2013 in the form of a “Teach In”. Image courtesy
By Christopher Zoukis
Few things in this world anger me more than grown men who attack or torture small animals and think it’s acceptable. Sadly, I’m often reminded of how much I hate this occurrence due to the apparently large population of animal abusers who reside at FCI Petersburg, the medium security prison in Petersburg, Virginia where I am incarcerated. Tonight was no exception.
This evening I spent a good two hours playing Ultimate Frisbee on the recreation yard. At 8 pm, when we finished playing for the night, I was on my way to the gate and had to pass the basketball courts. I witnessed a grown man, who had just finished playing basketball with his friends, throwing rocks at the sleeping pigeons up in the rafters of the overhanging roof. Yes, you heard that right, a grown man, with his friends cheering him on, attacking small animals with rocks. I was furious.
I was so angry I walked right out onto the basketball court and confronted the man. Obviously not a very good idea, but I couldn’t allow such reprehensible behavior to continue and I didn’t see any of my friends present to back me up. So, I, the one white guy confronted a group of perhaps eight basketball players. All of them looked at me as if I was the crazy one since I thought torturing small animals was outside of the range of acceptable conduct. Perhaps they thought me as crazy for confronting them alone. Words were spoken and we went our separate ways, but when I left my blood was boiling.
By Eric Brown Montreal-based ambient rock band, Godspeed You! Black Emperor was awarded the $30,000 Polaris Music Prize for its latest album “Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!” on Monday night, but the band declined to appear at the awards ceremony and vowed to donate the money to music education programs in Quebec prisons. Godspeed You! The Polaris Music
I’m angry; I can admit it. Today I received a copy of my list of approved visitors in the FCI Petersburg institutional mail. This is commonplace when new additions are made to a federal prisoner’s visitation list.*1 After all, several weeks ago, my aunt and uncle submitted visitation applications so that they could visit me