Census Bureau’s Way of Counting of Prisoners Erodes “One Person, One Vote”
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2021/10/20/wisconsin-voting-districts-skew-power-small-prison-towns/8536983002/
Since its first count in 1790, the Census Bureau has counted incarcerated people as residents of wherever they’re incarcerated at the time of the census — as opposed to where they call home — even though in 48 of 50 states, they cannot vote in that community, or anywhere. In effect, this transfers each prisoner’s vote to another voter in the district, undermining the "one person, one vote" principle of American democracy.
Why New York is Releasing So Few Inmates During the Pandemic
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, New York State has granted early release to 1400 inmates, all of them non-violent offenders. But thousands of elderly prisoners aren’t being considered for release, because they are in for violent crimes - even if they’ve served decades of their sentence and studies show that they are unlikely to re-offend. For now, it appears that advocating for the early release of these inmates is a stance even liberal politicians like Governor Andrew Cuomo are reluctant to take.
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, New York State has released 1400 inmates, all of them non-violent offenders. But thousands of elderly people aren’t being considered for release, despite having served decades of their sentences, because they are in for violent crimes. Studies show that these inmates are unlikely to re-offend, but granting them early release is a step even liberal politicians like Governor Andrew Cuomo are reluctant to take.
Transfer of Elderly Inmates to Adirondack Correctional Ignites Fear, Outrage Amongst Their Families
New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision outlined what it calls its "reopening" plans for the state prison system at the end of May. In four pages, it goes into the process for phasing staff in, and how visits are still suspended. But one little bullet point in those four pages has become a flashpoint: the announcement that it would transfer around one hundred elderly inmates out of other prisons and up to a prison in the Adirondacks.
New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision outlined what it calls its "reopening" plans for the state prison system at the end of May. In four pages, it goes into the process for phasing staff in, and how visits are still suspended. But one little bullet point in those four pages has become a flashpoint: the announcement that it would transfer around one hundred elderly inmates out of other prisons and up to a prison in the Adirondacks.
How the Pandemic is Playing Out in NY Prisons, Through One Man’s Eyes
While the number of people testing positive or being hospitalized for COVID-19 continues to fall around the state, those numbers are going up inside New York prisons, where nearly two thousand staff and inmates have gotten sick. Inmate Stanley Jamel Bellamy describes his experience of the crisis thus far.
While the number of people testing positive or being hospitalized for COVID-19 continues to fall around the state, those numbers are going up inside New York prisons, where nearly two thousand staff and inmates have gotten sick. Inmate Stanley Jamel Bellamy described his experience of the crisis thus far.
Don't Count on the Census
The results of the 2020 federal census will have a huge impact on the country over the next ten years - but in Wisconsin, mass incarceration of African-Americans is skewing the count. In a practice known as “prison gerrymandering”, inmates are counted in the district where they are imprisoned instead of the place they call home. This has the effect of shifting political power away from urban black communities and giving disproportionate representation to certain rural white populations.
When the Census Bureau comes around this April, it will be counting nearly two million people in the wrong place: in the place where they are incarcerated, not where they call home. What started as a quirk in the way we count people behind bars now serves to reinforce some of our country's ugliest racial and political dynamics. This practice, called "prison gerrymandering," happens all over the country, but some of the most dramatic examples are playing out in Wisconsin, where as a result political power gets diluted in urban black communities and concentrated in rural white communities where prisons are built.
1st Massachusetts Prisoner To Apply For Compassionate Release Awaits Answer
If someone in prison has a terminal illness and poses no risk to society, they should be allowed to die at home — that's the idea behind what's called "compassionate release." So far, 49 states have adopted the policy. Any day now, the first prisoner in the Massachusetts correctional system to apply for compassionate release is due a final answer.
If someone in prison has a terminal illness and poses no risk to society, they should be allowed to die at home — that's the idea behind what's called "compassionate release." So far, 49 states have adopted the policy. Any day now, the first prisoner in the Massachusetts correctional system to apply for compassionate release is due a final answer.
After Half A Century, Inmates Resurrect The Norfolk Prison Debating Society
Half a century ago, a team of inmates in a Massachusetts prison held an outstanding record on the academic debate circuit. By 1966 the Norfolk Prison Debating Society boasted 144 wins and only eight losses. They won and lost against Harvard, MIT, Princeton and the like. But when a more punitive approach to prisons swept across the U.S., the debate team dissolved. Until now.
Credit: Yale Joel / Getty Images
Half a century ago, a team of inmates in a Massachusetts prison held an outstanding record on the academic debate circuit. By 1966 the Norfolk Prison Debating Society boasted 144 wins and only eight losses. They won and lost against Harvard, MIT, Princeton and the like. But when a more punitive approach to prisons swept across the U.S., the debate team was dissolved. Until now.
Video Calls Replace In-Person Visits In Some Jails
Many jails are turning to video chats as a way for inmates to connect with loved ones on the outside. For families, there are financial and emotional costs.
Many jails are turning to video chats as a way for inmates to connect with loved ones on the outside. For families, there are financial and emotional costs.
Amid Backlash Against Isolating Inmates, New Mexico Moves Toward Change
Level 6 of New Mexico's state penitentiary in Santa Fe is a dense complex of prison cells, stacked tight. As the gate opens, men's faces press against narrow glass windows. They spend 23 hours a day in solitary.
Level 6 of New Mexico's state penitentiary in Santa Fe is a dense complex of prison cells, stacked tight. As the gate opens, men's faces press against narrow glass windows. They spend 23 hours a day in solitary. Security is so high that talking to one of the inmates, Nicklas Trujeque, requires a guard passing a microphone through the food port of his cell door.
Despite Bans, Pregnant Prisoners Still Shackled During Birth
Across the country, it's common practice to handcuff a pregnant prisoner to her hospital bed while she gives birth.
Photo by Jane Evelyn Atwood
Across the country, it's common practice to handcuff a pregnant prisoner to her hospital bed while she gives birth. Maria Caraballo gave birth to her daughter an entire year after New York passed its anti-shackling law. But she says she was handcuffed for eight hours the day her daughter Estrella was born.
Grappling with 40 Years of the Drug War In Brownsville, Brooklyn
Aaron Hinton says the 40-year drug war in Brownsville has almost made spending time behind bars normal. “It’s subliminally attacking out minds and making us believe that socially this is acceptable.” One out of every 50 men in New York’s prisons comes from Brownsville. The state of New York spends $40 million a year – and this has been going on for generations — locking up black and Hispanic men from this one neighborhood. What does that do to a community?
Brownsville 1972, photo by Winston Vargas
Aaron Hinton says the 40-year drug war in Brownsville has almost made spending time behind bars normal. “It’s subliminally attacking out minds and making us believe that socially this is acceptable.” One out of every 50 men in New York’s prisons comes from Brownsville. The state of New York spends $40 million a year – and this has been going on for generations — locking up black and Hispanic men from this one neighborhood. What does that do to a community?
Dying Inmates in New York Struggle to Get Home
Over the last four decades, New York’s prison population has soared, with many people serving long mandatory sentences for low-level crimes. As a result, the number of elderly inmates is surging—growing by almost eighty percent from 2000 through 2009.
Coxsackie Correctional Facility - Greene County, NY
Many terminally ill inmates are forced to remain behind bars even when they no longer appear to be a threat to society. This is the story of Daryl Bidding’s long struggle to get home before he dies.
When Should Infants Stay with Their Mothers in Prison?
The number of women in American prisons has gone up by 800 percent over the past thirty years, according to the Federal Bureau of Justice. Most of these women are mothers, and about one in twenty of them are pregnant. In New York State, a woman who gives birth while serving time has the chance to stay with her baby in a prison nursery for up to one year, or eighteen months if the mother is eligible for parole by then.
In New York State, a woman who gives birth while serving time has the chance to stay with her baby in a prison nursery, for up to one year, or eighteen months if the mother is eligible for parole by then. A Department of Corrections study found that participating in prison nurseries lowers recidivism rates dramatically—cutting the chances of a woman coming back to prison in half. Researchers say these programs also help the babies, giving them a chance to form secure attachments to their moms. But in recent years, the state’s prison nursery is slowing its admission rate.
A Look Inside Moriah Shock Prison
Two years ago, Moriah Shock Prison near Port Henry was next on the list of correctional facilities New York State wanted to close. Camp Gabriels near Saranac Lake and the Summit Shock Prison near Albany had already been shut down, and the prisons in Lyon Mountain and Ogdensburg were also on the chopping block. But the local community and Essex County officials rallied enough support to keep Moriah open. Today, 188 men live on the spartan campus, set in a former mining facility at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.
It’s lunchtime in the chow hall at Moriah Shock Prison. The room looks like a high school cafeteria. There are fifty men sitting in their seats, eyes straight ahead or locked on their trays of food. When the prison captain Boyce Rawson walks in, one inmate breaks discipline: he turns his head to look, and gets dressed down.