Monthly Archives: August 2014

Inmates in movies
We thought we would open up a discussion about inmates in movies, or the portrayal of inmates and prisons in movies, after reading today's New York Times Critics' Pick in the Movie Review section - "Starred Up," a father-and-son prison drama about  power relations and male behavior in confinement. ...
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Communication and recidivism
Today we're talking about communication and recidivism, and featuring an article about the Northampton County Prison substance abuse program. According to an article by Tom Shortell, half of graduates from Northampton County Prison substance abuse program commit new crimes. The Northampton Coun ...
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Immigrant mothers and children in prison
Today we're featuring here an article about immigrant mothers and children in prison, and a great woman, a lawyer, who works pro bono with them. We also want to highlight the problems of detaining immigrant mothers and their children, and the conditions in detention centers. Here name is Jennifer ...
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Emails for inmates
We just read a good article in The Independent, by Tracy Overstreet, about how Hall County Jail set up an email service for inmates - because the phone rates were too high! And the licensed phone provider for the jail? You guessed it - Securus!   The jail administrative assistant said th ...
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Why states shouldn’t profit from prison phone calls
Why states shouldn't profit from prison phone calls, i.e. the commission system? Because the revenue that large telcos generate and then give, as commission, to the state, comes from prisoners’ families who accept collect calls, pay for calls from their prepaid accounts or send money to their inca ...
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Humanitarian work in prison
Yesterday was World Humanitarian Day, and this year the UN and its humanitarian partners continue their ground-breaking campaign called The world needs more… which is the first-of-its-kind project that turns words into aid. To learn more and get involved go to: http://worldhumanitarianday.or ...
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Giant telecom sued for astronomical prison phone call rates
Today we read the article Class Claims Telecom Gouges Prisoners, from the Courthouse News Service, which reported that Securus, the giant telecom company was sued, a few days ago in a class action, for charging more than 100 times the going rate for phone calls in more than 2,000 prisons.   ...
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Debate over jail phone call prices
Here's a great article about the debate over jail phone call prices, in Orange County, which explains that the prices have drawn concern from two county supervisors recently and could possibly change this week. This week, a proposal concerning Global Tel Link's contract extension or amendment, will ...
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How to stop the school-to-prison pipeline?
We've been writing these days about the exaggerated number of children and youth in prison, the severe racial disparity that exists in the juvenile justice system, and the school-to-prison pipeline.   The school-to-prison pipeline describes the many ways in which inadequate support for ki ...
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School-to-prison pipeline
We've been discussing the problem of juvenile justice, and we've seen a lot of alarming reports about the school-to-prison pipeline that is decimating the African-American community, wrecking havoc on government budgets, and enriching the pockets of private prison stock holders.   Expe ...
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