July 5, 2022
BMC Health International and Human Rights – Nguyen Toan Tran, Stéphanie Baggio, Angela Dawson, Éamonn O’Moore, Brie Williams, Precious Bedell, Olivier Simon, Willem Scholten, Laurent Getaz and Hans Wolff
Words matter: a call for humanizing and respectful language to describe people who experience incarceration
Most professional health care specialists now recognize the health consequences of childhood trauma, often exacerbated by nasty angry words. This article exposes the presence of derogatory words in “in policies, programs, and research publications” about incarcerated persons, almost 10 million worldwide. Instead, the article proposes some principles to be used in those documents. “These principles include: engage people and respect their preferences; use stigma-free and accurate language; prioritize individuals over their characteristics; and cultivate self-awareness. The article offers examples of problematic terms to be avoided because they do not convey respect for incarcerated people and propose preferred wording which requires contextualization to local language, culture, and environment.” The article includes lists of offending words and their more respectful substitutes. Said one advocate: “This thesis certainly has great truth but what also needs to be addressed is WHY people use the scapegoating derogatory language that has thoughtlessly become so common-place. What is the function of such usage? Perhaps that the use of the language keeps us stuck in place.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6240232/#!po=0.980392
Vox.com Highlite Magazine (US) – Sean Collins
Juneteenth isn’t just a celebration of freedom. It’s a monument to America’s failures. The newest federal holiday observes the emancipation of enslaved people. Let it also be a time to consider the hypocrisies of the American experiment.
Every once in a while an article arrives which is absolutely worthy of note for its refreshing perspective added to provocative thought and extensive outreach about a social problem. This is one of those articles. Rather, it is a series of articles all floating around the celebration of the American Juneteenth. Besides a cover article there are a number of other articles flowing from that cover and offering insightful perspectives on slavery and its stubborn resistance over the years. Get comfortable and read! https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23096448/juneteenth-history Related article: The Marshall Project (US) – Eli Hager White Terrorism Often Leads to Harsher Punishment for People of Color – Amid calls for tougher laws after the Capitol assault, research shows that measures addressing White violence usually fall harder on Black people. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/01/14/white-terrorism-often-leads-to-harsher-punishment-for-people-of-color
Toronto Star – Jacques Gallant
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians could see their drug possession records disappear – It’s estimated that as many as 250,000 Canadians may have drug possession convictions stemming from cannabis possession alone, when it was still illegal. That may be about to change
While the Bill, C-5 now revived by the Liberals with an NDP addition about automatic sequestration for simple possession, does not end possession as an offence and while the Bill needs two further years before the automatic sequestration of the criminal record is effective, the bill does bring closer the end of the secondary punishments from having a criminal record for ‘drugs.’ The bill also repeals mandatory minimums for drug offences and some gun offences. The government has insisted on a two year interval for implementation of the automatic sequestration. https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/07/04/hundreds-of-thousands-of-canadians-could-see-their-drug-possession-records-disappear.html
The Crime Report (US) – Cynthia Golembeski, Michael Méndez and Nicholas Shapiro
The Deadly Link between Climate Change and Incarceration
The report has some startling revelations and perspectives. Not only does the report connect climate change and incarceration, but it suggests that the victims are the same for both. Further, the report recognizes that many of the deaths in prisons and jails are labelled “accidental” and no one is held accountable for avoidable and preventable deaths such as that of Marcia Powell, a 48-year-old woman serving a two-year sentence in Arizona for sex work related charges, (who) was kept in an uncovered chain-linked outdoor cell for at least four hours while temperatures hovered above 107°F… The medical examiner documented a core temperature of 108°F; first and second-degree burns on her face and body; dehydration; metabolic acidosis (when too much acid is produced by the body) with coagulopathy (a blood coagulation disorder); rhabdomyolysis (a life-threatening condition where the muscle breaks down); and acute kidney failure.” These are what Homer Venters, a former chief medical officer for Rikers calls “jail or prison attributable injury, illness, or death—one that would not have occurred without incarceration.” https://thecrimereport.org/2022/07/05/the-deadly-link-between-climate-change-and-incarceration/ Related article: The Crime Report (US) – Isidoro Rodriguez Prosecutorial Misconduct Implicated in 550 Death Penalty Reversals, Exonerations https://thecrimereport.org/2022/07/05/prosecutorial-misconduct-implicated-in-550-death-penalty-reversals-exonerations/ Related article: Michigan Journal of Race and Law – J.D. Spearlt – University of Pittsburgh 9/11 Impacts on Muslims in Prison https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1389&context=mjrl Related article: Arizona Central – Jimmy Jenkins Arizona prisoners, advocates call for change after health care system ruled unconstitutional https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2022/07/02/arizona-prisoners-and-advocates-call-for-changes-after-health-care-system-ruled-unconstitutional/7793272001/ Related article: The Marshall Project – Aaron M. Kinzer Surviving Prison is 90% Mental. That’s Why I Teach Workouts That Strengthen the Mind https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/04/08/prison-workouts-benefit-mind
PBS.Org (Rhode Island)
Breaking Good: Women and the War on Drugs
The link is to a 52 minute PBS video presentation framed in the context of building a $50 million dollar prison for women whose presence in the prison system dates from the War on Drugs, escalating since the 1980’s at an extra-ordinary rate. Women often cannot get plea deals like men and often bear the full brunt of the system with less justification for the lengthy sentences. Additionally, once released there are housing problems and the damage done to children as a consequence. https://www.pbs.org/video/breaking-good-women-and-the-war-on-drugs-81qunh/ Related article: FRA Europe (European Union Agency for Human Rights) “FRA just published its updated online criminal detention database. For the first time, it covers detention conditions of women and prison food. The database contains national standards, laws and monitoring reports on detention conditions from across the European Union and the United Kingdom.” https://fra.europa.eu/en/news/2022/criminal-detention-conditions-database-new-information-women-detention-and-food-prisons Link to the data base of 28 countries: https://fra.europa.eu/en/databases/criminal-detention/