Dianne Frazee-Walker Ten years ago, when Brian Banks was a 16-year-old high school student, his freedom was cut short because of a false allegation. Banks had just agreed to sign on to play football at Southern Cal because Coach Pete Carroll had his eye on the Long Beach Poly High School star linebacker. Instead, he
By Michael Snyder How would you describe an industry that wants to put more Americans in prison and keep them there longer so that it can make more money? In America today, approximately 130,000 people are locked up in private prisons that are being run by for-profit companies, and that number is growing very rapidly.
By Christopher Zoukis Her name was Janie Porter. She was born just as the American Civil War came to a close. Growing up in Macon, Georgia, Janie was an exemplary student, eventually graduating with honors from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Janie took her teaching degree seriously, accepting a position in rural Georgia. Five years
Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of American society is our vast network of prison systems. Crime must be hindered, criminals must pay for their crimes, and prison is where we must confine them. But what if the person spending time in the slammer is not necessarily a criminal, but an erring citizen? What if the
Through his tears Louis Taylor could hardly speak when he was interviewed by CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker after being freed from prison after 40-years for something he did not do. “How did this happen?” exclaimed Taylor. “We live in a country that is supposed to have the best criminal justice system in the world.”
In 1970 Taylor was only 16 years old when he was accused and convicted of 29 counts of murder. How did this happen? Taylor was working at the Pioneer Hotel in Tucson when the building perished in a fire that killed 29 people. Originally, Taylor was regarded as a hero because he rescued people from the burning hotel. Taylor is a trained medical technician so in an emergency his training to save lives took over, but he believes because he is African American his status quickly went from hero to criminal.
Taylor was charged with 29 counts of murder and spent 40 years behind bars for a crime he claims he “did not do.”
Thanks to 60 minutes Investigation, Arizona Justice Project, and his legal team, Taylor is now a free man. Even though a shoddy investigation and racial bias was uncovered, Taylor had to take a plea bargain of “no contest” to 28 counts of murder before being released from prison, but the plea was no bargain for Taylor. He was forced into the plea agreement to avoid a retrial. The Pima County prosecutor said, “His release doesn’t mean exoneration. His conviction still stands.”
In the first week of January 2013, at the federal prison in which I live, a couple of dozen guards and other staff members — teachers, mostly — stomped into my housing unit and appeared intent on doing a vigorous “shakedown” of our cells and the common areas. There were no guns or drug-sniffing dogs,
In an innovative move by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), federal inmates are now allowed to purchase MP3 players from their institution’s commissary and individual MP3 files through their housing unit’s Trust Fund Limited Inmate Communication System (TRULINCS) computers. This system is offered via a federal contract with Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) and has
The Equal Protection Clause set forth in the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits denying any person “the equal protection of the laws.” Id. This constitutional protection does not stop at the prison gates, but its utility to the incarcerated is circumscribed, and efforts to violate rights under the clause can be fraught with difficulties related to the
The First Amendment protects “the free exercise” of religion, and this right extends to those in prisons and jails. This has been established by the courts, see Cruz v. Beto, 405 U.S. 319, 322 (1972)(Buddhist prisoner has right to practice faith in prison), and by federal statutes. E.g., 42 U.S.C. sect; 2000cc et seq. (Religious
The other day a good friend passed along a few letters which several schools had sent him concerning college-level correspondence education. He was digging through the Distance Education and Training Council’s (DETC) directory of accredited schools and wrote to several concerning his own studies. As a result of his letters, these schools responded that they