k-sue park – Page 2 – Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project

Author: k-sue park (page 2 of 4)

Quincy Prison Book Program is Amazing– Visit, Help Out!

January 17, 2012 / k-sue park / Comments Off

When I went to drop off books at the Prison Book Program in Quincy last week, I walked into a whirlwind of activity generated by a big, diverse and inspiring community of people committed to getting reading materials into prisoners’ hands. Some of the forty-some volunteers that evening, who were young, old, and everything in between, were catching up with each other at round tables where they were packaging books to send out to prisons; others were absorbed in processing and filing letters and requests from prisoners all around the country; more were stocking and organizing the shelves of their small bookstore-like supply room, sorting donations, or dashing around pulling books for packages.

PBP has been increasing prisoner access to resources for education and personal development by sending out books to incarcerated individuals since 1972. They’ve moved locations a number of time over the years but since 2004 have been housed in the basement of the United First Parish Church in Quincy, Mass. I hate to give away surprises but as an inducement for you to go check it out, this Unitarian Universalist church is worth a visit itself. It was opened in 1639 as “Ye Church of Braintry” and holds the remains of two former presidents, John Adams and John Quincy, and their spouses, Abigail and Louisa Catherine. A part of your tour of PBP can include a detour round the corner to the crypt that holds the four tombs:

PBP receives around 200 letters from prisoners per week, ships to over 800 facilities, serves around 7000 individuals a year. In order to do this work, they rely entirely on volunteer labor and donations, which almost all go to postage costs. Every hour and every dollar makes a big difference. Please consider sharing some of yours! I can’t think of many ways they could be better placed.

Quincy isn’t far from Boston, and the Program has regular volunteer hours every Tuesday and Thursday evenings and some special Saturday hours over the next few months too. You can get more info about all of this from their website. Literature about the program and one of their partners, Better World Books, is also available in the PLAP office, so please look for it.

Ex-Guantanamo Prison Commander believes facility should be closed

January 11, 2012 / k-sue park / Comments Off

The former commander of America’s most notorious detention facility describes his experiences at Guantanamo and offers an opinion on its usefulness here.

More press urges MA legislature to rethink enacting Three-Strikes bills

January 6, 2012 / k-sue park / Comments Off

The editors of the Boston Phoenix weigh in on what Three-Strikes legislation would mean for Massachusetts, in a way consonant with the article discussed in this earlier post.

Massachusetts, a resource compendium for thinking about Juvenile Life without Parole

January 4, 2012 / k-sue park / Comments Off

Take a look! The Coalition for Effective Public Safety has compiled the following recent articles urging Massachusetts to reconsider its law on Juvenile Life without Parole:

January 3, 2012

Letter to the Editor from David Fassler, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont:

Letter to the Editor from Joe Donovan, Sr, father of Joe Donovan, a juvenile lifer in Massachusetts:

Letter to the Editor from Jody Kent Lavy, Director of the National Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth:

December 31, 2011

Forgotten Change: State Fails to Measure Impact of Historic Juvenile Justice Reform. Follow up article by the New England Center for Investigative Journalism on JLWOP in Massachusetts:

December 27, 2011

For teens guilty of murder, penalties can vary widely. Article in the Boston Globe by the New England Center for Investigative Journalism on JLWOP in Massachusetts.

‘Our Youngest Killers’: Juvenile Sentencing Varies Widely Report Shows. Coverage by WBUR, Boston NPR, of JLWOP in Massachusetts:

December 25, 2011

If sentences vary too widely, court should make corrections. Boston Globe editorial supporting greater judicial discretion in JLWOP cases and the review of Joe Donovan’s case and a sentence reduction:

New Massachusetts Three-Strike bills bode poorly for its already overcrowded prison system

January 4, 2012 / k-sue park / Comments Off

In this article in Metrowest, Leslie Walker and Jean Trounstine warn about the possible consequences of two Three-Strikes bills recently passed by the Massachusetts House and Senate for the already overcrowded Massachusetts prison system. With the prison population average at 143% over capacity and reaching levels of over 330% the intended capacity, these bills will further increase overcrowding and state spending on prisons by increasing both the number of sentences of life without parole and the likelihood of prisoners reoffending by making resources shown to decrease recidivism more scarce. The authors point out that by contrast, Mississippi, Kentucky, South Carolina and Texas are reducing crime, prison populations and state corrections spending all at once with smart prison reform reducing sentences for non-violent offenders.

Three-strikes reform in California? Make a wish for the new year.

December 22, 2011 / k-sue park / Comments Off

California, distinguished among other ways by having the country’s most “indiscriminately punitive” three-strikes law, has allowed a ballot initiative to go forward that would modify it to exempt non-violent criminals. This welcome change is largely financially motivated: the state’s economy is a well-acknowledged growing disaster and the state auditor estimates the cost of imprisoning nonviolent three-strikes offenders for 25 years is $4.8 billion; further, California must reduce its prison population from roughly 135,000 inmates to 110,000 two years from now to comply with the Court order on overcrowding after Brown v. Plata (see prior posts, here and here). Nonetheless, the editors of Bloomberg news warn us here that this effort will face powerful opposition from the correction-officers union, many California prosecutors, and politicians fearful of the political consequences of supporting it.

Here is a little context from the article that makes the fact that we can expect controversy over this initiative seem truly remarkable: the state has imposed sentences of 25 years to life for third strikes such as shoplifting a pair of socks and prying open the door to a church food pantry; further, “California will spend roughly $10 billion on prisons this year — more than it spends on its once-renowned higher education system” (ouch).

Settlement requires reform in treatment of the mentally ill in Massachusetts prisons

December 22, 2011 / k-sue park / Comments Off

As a result of the high suicide rate and the growing problem of the treatment of the mentally ill in Massachusetts prisons, especially the consequences of placing this vulnerable population in solitary confinement, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections has entered into a settlement agreement with the Disability Law Center. The agreement, which is pending court approval and remains under seal, requires the Department of Corrections to maintain the number of beds in secure treatment units, limits the amount of time that prisoners with severe mental illness can be housed in department disciplinary units or in special management units to 3o days, provide expanded mental health services and out-of-cell time, among other things; these improvements may cost the Department of Corrections $5.6 million a year.

Metrowest reports.

Life science classes in prison

December 8, 2011 / k-sue park / Comments Off

Despite the weirdness and questionability of her conceptualization and conceptual alignment of prisons/prisoners with trees, you might enjoy this TED talk, in which Nalini Nadkarni describes the programs bringing inmates into contact with nature that she initiated in Washington state prisons.

NY State Supreme Court finds prison-based gerrymandering unconstitutional

December 8, 2011 / k-sue park / Comments Off

Last week, with the ruling that the law to have prisoners in state facilities be counted at their last known address prior to incarceration is constitutionally legal, New York Supreme Court Judge Eugene Devine brought an effective end to the practice of prison-based gerrymandering in the state. This ruling will stop inflation of the political influence of districts containing prisons and the dilution of the votes of minority communities, and can be “considered a major civil rights achievement for New York State.”

To learn more, please check out these couple of articles with links to the decision from The Empire and Prisoners of the Census.

Send some holiday cheer to survivors of sexual abuse in prisons

December 7, 2011 / k-sue park / Comments Off

This year, while collecting gifts for your loved ones, think about taking a minute to send some words of encouragement, comfort and solidarity to someone who will spend the holidays far from family and friends in prison. More information and a link to send a message directly are available here.

Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project

Harvard Law School