Adult penalties?

April 11, 2013

 Ottawa Citizen – Andrew Seymour
Crown wants teen pimps sentenced as adults if convicted

Three teenagers, 15 and 16 year olds, are charged in pimping and using threats of violence and violence to compel other underage girls to prostitute themselves.  Charges include human trafficking and have led to the identity of several johns.  The crown wants the possible conviction to carry adult penalties. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Crown+wants+teen+pimps+sentenced+adults+convicted/8216721/story.html#ixzz2Q4V6e000

 American University – Lynne Perri
Agencies review use of solitary confinement

The article represents a good summary of the efforts to have the legitimacy of the use of solitary on civil, undocumented immigrants.  Viewed as punishment further to incarceration itself, some deem the use of solitary illegal for civil cases involving immigrants who have not been convicted of any crime.  Additional links in the article.  http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/blogs/shop-notes/posts/2013/apr/10/agencies-review-solitary

 Winnipeg Free Press – Ashley Prest
Wrong victims targeted: police – Mistaken for gang members; one dies of injuries

The death of a 20 year old Aboriginal and the wounding of a woman companion have brought street violence in Winnipeg into focus again.  Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper says: “Something has to be done. We can’t continue to sit back and read or listen to all the news releases about another young man is shot or another person goes missing. Something has to be done.” http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/wrong-victims-targeted-police-202265591.html

 Stopthedrugwar.com – Phillip Smith
Celebrities Urge Obama Forward on Drug, Sentencing Reform

A coalition of celebrities has asked Barack Obama to continue the reform of the Fair Sentencing Act and to respond to the prevalence of minor drug convictions as an underlying cause of mass incarceration. The coalition says that of the 2.3 million people behind bars, over 500,000 are for drug convictions.  http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2013/apr/09/celebrities_urge_obama_forward_d 

 The Tyee – Allison Griner
BC Conservatives promise gang crime unit if elected

With BC elections in the wind, the Conservatives are promising to dedicate prosecutors and judges to the gang violence problems in the interior and north, with focus on Kelowna and Prince George.  http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2013/04/10/Conservative-Crime-Plan 

 N.Y. Times Learning Network – Tom Marshall and Michael  Gonchar
Justice for All? Teaching About Crime and Punishment in America

The Learning Network offers a lesson plan with links for teaching about the US prison system and mass incarceration. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/justice-for-all-teaching-about-crime-and-punishment-in-america  

 National Victims of Crime Awareness Week – CCJC Ottawa event
Moving Toward Wholeness- April 24

A full day event is planned by the Church Council on Justice and Corrections (keynote presentation by Wilma Derkson, workshops all day, and theatre in the evening) exploring the preparations that allow (a) victims, (b) offenders, and (c) communities to become ready to participate in restorative processes.  People should pre-register via email because capacity at our venue is limited.  http://ccjc.ca/moving-toward-wholeness

 The Hill – Guest editorial – Sister Pat Murphy, RSM, JoAnn Persch, RSM and Michael Gosch, CSV
Invest in community-based alternatives to immigration detention

Three US Catholic religious outline a local effort to deal with the practice of widespread detention and the eventual release of immigrants, often under circumstances considerably distant from any possible personal or family support.  http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/292443-invest-in-community-based-alternatives-to-immigration-detention#ixzz2QA7xdyGx

 Smart Justice Network Correction:

SJNC received an e-mail from Katie Haas, Legal Assistant of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regarding one of our postings on March 29, 2013.  David Fathi, identified as a UN blogger in our posting, is actually the Director of the ACLU’s national prison project and attended a UN meeting as a representative of the ACLU, and blogged about that meeting for the ACLU.

Here’s what Katie tells us about the ACLU’s effort to confront prisoner’s rights and solitary confinement.

“The United Nations is not working on a Declaration regarding the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.  Rather, a UN open-ended intergovernmental expert group is working on revising the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which were originally adopted in 1955, to be more in line with modern human rights standards.  The end goal of this process is not a new Declaration, but rather a revised version of the already existing Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

The Crime Commission meeting which will take place in Vienna in April will not include an examination of the draft report.  Discussion at the Vienna meeting will include discussion on what steps would be best to take to move the Standard Minimum Rules revision process forward, but will not include a substantive discussion on how best to revise the rules or an examination of the draft.

Finally, the links you used are not the most up-to-date links available.  Your link to the full report is to a draft which has since been replaced by a final version available here: http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/EGM-Uploads/E.version.pdf

If you would like to link to the blog by David Fathi, this is his most recent blog on this issue: http://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/un-prisoners-rights-meeting-us-puts-brakes-progress

Thanks again for your use of the ACLU’s materials.”

 SJN:  And thanks to Katie for her corrections and updates. We apologize to David Fathi for any confusion our posting may have caused.