By Christopher Zoukis On March 12, 2013, USA Today ran an opinion piece entitled “Drivers Aren’t High, Still Busted for DUI.” This editorial, authored by EJ Montini, presented a very troubling situation which is repeating itself time and time again in numerous cities across the country. Simply stated, persons who have utilized drugs — say, marijuana —
Image courtesy dogwood33.blogspot.comBy Dianne Frazee-Walker
The Sustainability in Prisons Project’s (SPP) main objective is to educate prisoners about environmental conservation. The inmates are learning innovative ways to use nature’s resources to save tax-payers money in their own prison backyard. The project involves collaboration between Washington State Department of Corrections, Evergreen State College, inmates, prison staff, scientists, and community members.
Not only does SPP save money and the environment, but it provides prison inmates with a sense of dignity. They learn teamwork and leadership skills by working together on the prison grounds using nature’s resources to sustain the environment.
Inmates are provided with an opportunity to improve their lives on the inside and the lives of those living outside. The key fringe benefit the prisoners receive is exposure to nature. Most incarcerated individuals are confined inside prison walls and are rarely exposed to the outdoors. Working outside has healing effects on the human psyche, which is what the detainees need when it is time to function outside of prison.
In today’s deeply entrenched political climate, I was amazed to see that a longtime Republican politician had announced that he now supports gay marriage, making him the only sitting GOP Senator to affirm such a position. Senator Bob Portman of Ohio, who had voted in support of the Defense of Marriage Act as a member of
Today we at the Prison Law Blog (PLB) are announcing a new kind of post. A new series, if you will. Up to this day, we at the PLB have presented articles in standard, third-person reporting fashion. We have not written about ourselves, per se. The reason for this is because the distant voice lends
By Christopher Zoukis On February 23, 2013, The Economist ran a story entitled “Japan’s Prisons: Eastern Porridge.” This article explained how well-mannered and orderly Japanese prisoners appear to outsiders, and how the age-old concepts of respect and duty still seem to apply to their modern, incarcerated class. Since these values seem so foreign to the
By Christopher Zoukis Here at FCI Petersburg the Education Department offers several programming opportunities. These include GED classes, English-as-a-Second Language classes, and Adult Continuing Education (ACE) courses. With the exception of the GED program, none of these programs offer outside recognition of course completion. None of the courses — outside of the GED program —
In Bruce Michaels’ book College In Prison: Information and Resources for Incarcerated Students, he presents the positive reasons — along with the potential negatives — for forming a study group for prospective incarcerated college students. I like a number of his ideas and would like to explore the concept of forming institutionally-approved study groups with
As legal professionals, there are few rights we hold more dearly than that of attorney-client privilege (and the privileged correspondence which comes along with it). Even incarcerated jailhouse litigators live by such an ideal, although some might call it a component of the Convict Code: keep your mouth shut and never disclose private matters. Regardless
In another series of court rulings upholding the use of Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), a prisoner at the federal ADX supermax facility in Florence, Colorado was prohibited from receiving certain publications and communicating with his nieces and nephews. The federal Bureau of Prisons’ use of SAMs originated in a regulation promulgated in 1996 – 28 C.F.R. §
Paul Bebeu, Sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, and a former police officer, was a rising Republican star within the state in 2012 – crusading in support of the anti-immigrant legislation SB1070, co-chairing Arizona’s campaign for Mitt Romney’s presidential bid and espousing the so-called family values that appealed to his conservative base. However, his status as a