Do you know where the children are?

Prison Policy Initiative board member Barbara Fedders and Barbara Kaban have released a new report "Do you know where the children are? A Report of Massachusetts Youth Unlawfully Held Without Bail", which was featured in today's lead Boston Globe editorial "Fair hearings for children".

by Peter Wagner, September 15, 2006

Prison Policy Initiative board member Barbara Fedders and Barbara Kaban have released a new report Do you know where the children are? A Report of Massachusetts Youth Unlawfully Held Without Bail, which was featured in today’s lead Boston Globe editorial Fair hearings for children.

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The New York Times quotes Executive Director Peter Wagner in "Panel recommends change in how prisoners are counted in U.S. Census".

by Peter Wagner, September 15, 2006

The New York Times quotes Executive Director Peter Wagner in Panel recommends change in how prisoners are counted in U.S. Census.

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Added press release announcing that National Academies report calls for Census Bureau to collect alternative addresses for people in prison to the PPI in the news page.

by Peter Wagner, September 14, 2006

Added press release announcing that National Academies report calls for Census Bureau to collect alternative addresses for people in prison to the PPI in the news page.

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by Peter Wagner, September 6, 2006

Added Ezekiel Edwards’ article Counting Off Upstate: Just Say Moo, in The Brooklyn Rail to the PPI in the News page.

cited

by Peter Wagner, August 25, 2006

Our worked is cited in a New York Newsday editorial We’re a long way from real democracy.

Don’t sink more funds into jails for women

Letter to the editor in the Hampshire Gazette by Peter Wagner arguing against a $6 million expansion to the Hampden County women's jail.

by Peter Wagner, April 27, 2006

Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA) April 27, 2006

To the editor:

Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe says his new women’s jail will be full
when it opens next year, so he wants another $6 million to add 56 more
cells. Our local leaders should say no. The new women’s jail will hold women
from all four counties of western Massachusetts.

Building bigger jail after bigger jail is not the solution to crime and it
might even make things worse. Adding extra capacity to a jail should be a
last resort, because those empty cells will reduce the pressure for judges
and legislators to consider cost-effective and rehabilitative alternative
sentences for people who pose no threat to the community.

Rather than build now, the prudent thing to do is to force Sheriff Ashe to
”make do” for a few years with the 240 cells already under construction.

Before lawmakers grant Ashe’s request, they should remember that 56 cells
will cost $2.4 million a year to operate. That money will no longer be
available to fund schools, drug treatment or other far more beneficial
programs.

Bringing more state investment to western Massachusetts is a good goal, but
dumping it into jails is the last thing we can afford.

Peter Wagner
Northampton

Johnny Cash had his demons, but few understood the importance of preserving human dignity like the Man in Black

Johnny Cash condemns the corruption and brutality of prisons in the song "Jacob Green".

by Peter Wagner, December 22, 2005

Frames from the Johnny Cash biopic. Note the missing shoelaces.

There is a new movie about Johnny Cash in the theatres now, Walk the Line. The trailer explains the importance of the film better than I can here, so I’ll let the trailer and the frames on the right of prisoners stomping their feet for Johnny Cash speak for themselves about the film.

This is as good a time as any to revisit our last article about Johnny Cash. When he died in 2003, we replaced the front page of this website with an obituary that highlighted what we then thought were two of his least known and most important songs, Man in Black and San Quentin.

Since then, we’ve discovered something rarer and even more important: Jacob Green. The song was first performed at a Swedish prison and released on the 1974 LP “Pa Osteraker” (Inside a Swedish Prison). In the U.S., the only place we know of to hear or see this song is in the recording of a 1976 concert at the Tennessee State Prison, A Concert Behind Prison Walls.

From that recording, here are the lyrics to Jacob Green:

Jacob Green

I’ve learned one thing, that when a man is at rock bottom, when there is no place else he can go except up, that the only thing that is really important in the world to him is that somebody, somewhere cares. And with that in mind, I wrote this song about something that really happened to a 16 year old boy in the state of Virginia. It’s called Jacob Green.

Jacob Green got busted for possession
next morning early he appeared in court
But he was sent to jail to wait
to be tried at some later date
Next morning early, there came a sad report
At the jail they took away his clothes to shame him
and to make sure Jacob Green had no pride left
They cut of all his hair
Today they found him hanging there
afraid to face the day he killed himself

It happened yesterday, and if you turn your head away
Somewhere in some dirty hole the scene will be rerun
Not only Jacob Green, but many more you’ve never seen
It could be someone that you love gets done
like Jacob Green got done
It could be someone that you love gets done
like Jacob Green got done

Jacobs father hired a team of lawyers
inspections and long inquiries were held
The sheriff then retired
and the papers said two guards were fired
They put a brand new coat of paint on Jacob’s cell
But like a tomb that looks so white and shiny
inside you’ll find corruption never seen
And somewhere out there tonight
In a dirty cell without a light
There will be locked up another Jacob Green

It happened yesterday, and if you turn your head away
Somewhere in some dirty hole the scene will be rerun
Not only Jacob Green, but many more you’ve never seen
It could be someone that you love gets done
like Jacob Green got done
It could be someone that you love gets done
like Jacob Green got done

European Court says UK prisoners have right to vote, cites human rights treaty

The European Court rules that the disenfranchisement of 48,000 convicts in British jails violates the European convention on human rights.

by Peter Wagner, October 6, 2005

UK prisoners should get vote, European court rules

Simon Jeffery

Thursday October 6, 2005

“Laws setting out who can and cannot take part in elections are to be rewritten after the European court of human rights today ruled in favour of giving British prisoners the right to vote.

“Ruling in the case of a former prisoner against the United Kingdom, the Strasbourg court said the disenfranchisement of 48,000 convicts in British jails violated the European convention on human rights.

“It said that with the exception of the right to liberty, lawfully detained prisoners continued to enjoy all the rights guaranteed in the convention – including political rights and freedom from inhumane and degrading punishment.” ….

See the full story on the Guardian website.

Thank you to Rick Lines at the Irish Penal Reform Trust for the heads up about this exciting news.

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters

As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city's jail.

by Peter Wagner, September 23, 2005

Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells

(New York, September 22, 2005)–

As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff’s department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city’s jail, Human Rights Watch said today.

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

“Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst,” said Corinne Carey, researcher from Human Rights Watch. “Prisoners were abandoned in their cells without food or water for days as floodwaters rose toward the ceiling.”

Read the rest from Human Rights Watch.

The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains died 50 years ago today

Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Robert Elliot Burns, known as "The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains", for his role in ending the brutal chain gang system in the South.

by Peter Wagner, June 5, 2005

Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Robert Elliot Burns, known as “The Man Who Broke a Thousand Chains”, for his role in ending the brutal chain gang system in the South. A World War I veteran, Burns twice escaped from a Georgia chain gang in the 1920s and brought national and international attention to the brutality of the chain gang system. His life, his book and a 1932 Paul Muni I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gang film on his life were the inspiration for the initial abolition of the chain gang system.

After the film’s release, he was arrested again after speaking out a a screening, but three successive New Jersey Governors refused to extradite him back to Georgia. He died of cancer on June 5, 2005 and is buried in a veteran’s cemetery in New Jersey.

The film, re-released on DVD on May 12, has renewed interest in his case, and, one would hope, the stupidity of bringing back chain gangs in symbolic form.

Robert E. Burn’s gravesite (with red flower, in center) at the Beverly National Cemetery. See larger version