Category: US Senate

Why Isn’t Prison Justice on the Ballot This Tuesday?

Help Lady Liberty Out and Read the Full Article Here.

 

It seems as if criminal justice reform has been a mainstream topic since the 1970’s, but continuously we see prison reforms being halted or ignored by congress. The “tough on crime” approach was of major attention when New York City promised to harshly tackle the issue, but now that talk of reforming has taken place, the actual chance to take action on it seems to be absent from campaigns and ballots. Why? Well, most people pay attention to the problem of crime and then demand change, not the problems affecting criminals. However, as the article points out, America wears a scarlet letter of mass incarceration, which is an embarrassment for our country. And with so many people being affected by prison sentences, more people should be demanding change for the current system. Just because the crimes are happening behind prison walls doesn’t mean we can turn a blind eye. In fact, the author suggests, by reforming the criminal justice system, we will see a positive change in other areas, most notably, the economic inequality gap.

 

Changing Prison From the Inside Out

 

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Mark Olmsted vowed to never forget his fellow inmates that he would leave behind after his release from a nine month prison stint, and he certainly did not. When he got out he continued to keep in contact with his former cellmates, sending them money here and there or just a friendly letter to let them know they haven’t been forgotten by the outside world. As he continued to campaign for prison reform, he received surprising, and seemingly impossible, tweets from an inmate in an Alabama prison. Turns out that some inmates in southern area prisons are networking via contraband cell phones to inform us, the outside world, of their lives and prison conditions. This network has come to be known as the Free Alabama Movement. A part of it’s statement purpose reads, “And this Movement isn’t about getting ‘some outside support,’ or having our family ‘call the politicians or mayor’s office,’ ‘call the news station’ and on and on and on. The reason for this is simple: we can’t form a movement conditioned on ‘outside’ people without first unifying the ‘inside people.'” So, take a moment out of your day to hear the truth about prisons and prison life from the best experts there could possibly be: the inmates themselves. 

Free Alabama Movement Official Website– Here you can listen to the prisoners who have been forgotten, silenced and ignored. Listen to them, let their voices be heard, and spread their message further along in the outside world.

AND the Free Alabama Movement is ALL over youtube, recording their lives on the inside and exposing the hard truths to the outside.

Not only are there youtube videos being posted by FAM, but one inmate actually hosts a talk show from inside the prison, allowing for other inmates with contraband cell phones to call in and speak on his online radio station.

A New Development in Prison Reform

Advocates say that Congress has all agreed on wanting to scale back on the high mass incarceration rates. Both Republicans and Democrats are coming together for the greater good. Congress is handling the matter one reform at a time, and all new developments are underway. All previous bills and laws that were passed before Obama’s administration are being taken into account and are still being used. A recent bill that is projected to result in the number of inmates being housed in federal prisons to decrease is omnibus spending bill. The FY2014 omnibus spending bill includes a federal prison reform panel that will have discretion on which aspects of the system they would like to focus on. In particular, non-violent offenders make up more than 90 percent of the federal prison population, fairer sentences are being figured out, because it costs more than $30,000 to house an inmate for a crime that could have been taken care of with various treatment programs. There is hope for the future of prison reform, it just takes positive steps and help from everyone.

Why I’m Fighting For Prison Reform in the U.S. Senate

Senator Rob Portsman of Ohio has been significantly making strides with reforms in the US  prison system. Prison overpopulation has been a topic of constant debate since the 1980s when the amount of inmates has grown tenfold. Senator Portsman acknowledges a failure in the criminal justice system that is challenging, but he is hopeful that reform(s) will be the solution for the problem. A repeated theme of prisoners being released back into society and are back behind bars in less than a year. It has been argued that the ever-growing prison population is a budget problem, but it is a social problem that involves not only the offender but families that are broken up. Senator Portsman authored The Second Chance Act to the senate, which was approved and helps to establish and support reentry programs for newly released inmates.  The next step is to bring the same programs to the federal prison system. By cosponsoring The bipartisan Recidivism Reduction and Public Safety Act with the help of other US senator’s federal corrections now can offer the same programs to inmates. Also, the act provides drug and mental health treatment and job training programs for individuals who seek to change their lives for the better. Incentives are offered too. Read More Here.