Justice Newzzz
denying ex-felons a minimum wage increase; some inmates don't want COVID vaccines; Biden ends federal private prisons but not ICE contracts and MORE — your weekly justice news
News
done, well sorta: Biden ordered the end of privately run federal prisons, but this doesn’t effect state private prisons or ICE detention centers. Washington Post (Jan. 26, 2021)
abuse of power: Petty arrests land mostly nonwhite people in jail for things like taking too wide of a left turn while driving — yet again Texas lawmakers attempt to end the practice. Texas Observer (Jan. 26, 2021)
packed like sardines: 87% of the almost 9,000 people in Harris county jail are being held pretrial. Six incarcerated people already have died from COVID-19. There have been no efforts to reduce the jail population. The Appeal (Jan. 25, 2020 )
top of the list: Almost 4,000 inmates and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 since the March 2020 at Fresno County Jail - the largest of any single correctional facility in the country. VPR (Jan. 26, 2021)
$$$: Seattle residents will decide where $30 million of their defunded police budget will be allocated after last years efforts. The Appeal (Jan. 28, 2021)
forced by court: Despite allowing correctional staff access, Gov. Cuomo refused to allow inmates be vaccinated. Now, public defenders are threatening to sue. POLITICO (Jan. 28, 2021)
no different: And even when the vaccine is available, people inside just like the free world don’t always want it. Vice (Jan. 29, 2021)
you don’t know till you’re there: He bulked up knowing he was headed to prison. It wasn’t what he expected. The Marshall Project (Jan. 28, 2021)
Whenever I think about flipping those playing cards, doing my pushups and expending that energy in the service of self-preservation, I ask myself what would have happened if I had spent just as much energy studying conflict resolution, meditation, yoga, spirituality and other methods of anxiety relief. What if I had rejected the Hollywood image of prison and instead expected what I found: human beings locked in a cage designed to make us snap? I would have been better prepared had I developed the tools I would need every day to keep my cool, instead of just those I wrongly believed I needed to survive.
nope, not you: A Florida senator doesn’t want formerly incarcerated people with felonies to benefit from the state’s minimum wage raise. The Appeal (Jan. 27, 2021)
COVID-19 resources: State policy changes. News. Bureau of Prisons updates. State court changes. Prison holistic self care and protection.
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