June 7, 2023 – Watch the gap…
The Canadian Press – Stephanie Taylor
Canadians want revenge on Bernardo, but that’s not how prison works: ex-official -Prison sentences not about revenge: ex-official
The latest raging controversy is about a change in status for Paul Bernardo from maximum security to medium security and the expectation that he may have access to some treatment in medium. The case is a flashpoint for many Canadians who see terrible prison conditions as part of the punishment for crime. “Mary Campbell, a lawyer who retired from her role as director-general of the corrections and criminal justice directorate in the Public Safety Department in 2013, said that without question Bernardo’s crimes were horrific…We, as a country, gave up torture quite a while ago, ” she said in an interview Tuesday. “And we’re pretty critical of other countries that engage in torture.” https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/politics/canadians-want-revenge-on-bernardo-but-thats-not-how-prison-works-ex-official/article_ed7bc557-f5ba-5cb5-a578-7f0d2e6182d1.html Related tweet from Justin Piche on Deaths in prisons: “If @fordnation wants heads to roll in ‘corrections’, perhaps he should start with past and current ministers and senior leadership @ONsafety for presiding over significant increases in deaths in provincial jails during his time in office.” https://twitter.com/JustinPicheh/status/1666149897236623360?s=20
Passblue (US) – Foteini Papagiati
Watch the Gaps: A Feminist Reaction to the UN’s Own Gender Equality Review
Normally an environmental NGO independently monitoring the UN, in this case, Passblue is commenting on the promise and delivery of gender equality as the UN pursues its international role with an avowed agenda to improve gender diversity. “Much like the system it aims to reform, the review falls short of its transformative potential. It fails to address persistent challenges, stops short of holding leaders accountable, worsens divisions, undermines the work of gender advocates and offers vague or politically naïve recommendations that seek to recreate past efforts without scrutiny. The proposed repositioning of UN Women’s role, intending to curtail its operational footprint, has become a particularly contentious issue…Equally disappointing is the lack of a competitive selection process and limited chances for engagement and input by the people and groups most affected by the proposed changes.” https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?e=c7d8da311d&u=5d5693a8f1af2d4b6cb3160e8&id=b268fe3a00 Passblue Accompanying Note – ‘Independent Review of the UN System’s Capacity to deliver on
Gender Equality’ https://www.passblue.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/gender-equality-report.pdf?utm_source=PassBlue+List&utm_campaign=b268fe3a00-RSS_PassBlue&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4795f55662-b268fe3a00-55077933
N.Y. Times –
What Happened When a Brooklyn Neighborhood Policed Itself for Five Days – On a two-block stretch of Brownsville in April, the police stepped aside and let residents respond to 911 calls. It was a bold experiment that some believe could redefine law enforcement in New York City.
The report is an astounding rebuke of all the copaganda about what would happen without militarized policing. The notion is for five days a year to let neighbours respond to 911 low level crime, not the police. The force? “They are part of the Brownsville Safety Alliance, a group of neighborhood and city groups, police officers and members of the Kings County District Attorney’s office that is trying to ensure that fewer people are arrested and entangled in the criminal justice system.” When not pursuing problems, the neighbours work as volunteers distributing information and literature about social programs available in the neighbourhood. The real question is why only five days a year? “Similar programs are underway in Eugene, Ore.; Denver; and Rochester, N.Y., among other places, according to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. The group has estimated that almost 40 percent of calls to police could be handled by community responders.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/nyregion/brooklyn-brownsville-no-police.html?unlocked_article_code=Uuc_1DULGLmRBe5iMX_aEy_2ICEVv9-VxvgFQNi786eDdMK-L38HcI33zVfEE78_s7g489QE1XxhOFmZoQExklck1q-4CHzQIbZmVzKnLpDyXY6lYLF_414qzkAxg0kxKG9I7iJu8omzqBXmcum23DUHm_r8E3zpM7o40R75rrH0WbaOKl3FHbAUylpP6eaZJwYdkHjcQdnjnRUu5Le8KE-hBxV1TAY6fZu4Qg4LHGvn11k-7vt8H5-SLF1_45ZCGwMddToIgm8BldCjwbvD6zR9Sj23mBUyF-FmraguI7R2dhwAeyBPZ0MM_YgQX6kjen5jYTXkBIzv6ZT5F1DeWSyftudvQgcJlw&smid=url-share
WCAX (CBS) TV (Vermont) – Cam Smith
Community college classes for prison inmates and staff
Vermont got a $4.5 million federal government grant and is setting up college credits through the Community College of Vermont for both corrections staff and incarcerated persons. The courses for staff start now while the College does a little research on what type of courses to offer the incarcerated. https://www.wcax.com/2023/06/04/community-college-classes-prison-inmates-staff/
Slate (US) – Khawla Nakua
The Prison System Can’t Stop Discriminating Against Muslims
The article focuses on Lovelock Correctional Institution in Nevada but is entirely likely to be a perspective of corrections that endures elsewhere. For years, Lovelock offered traditional Jummah services on Friday afternoon. Then Muslims were told by the Christian chaplain Scott Davis it suddenly was no longer available. The end of the services lead to a lawsuit in which the chaplain conceded that the denial was because (in notes presented in the court case) “I couldn’t say in front of all them that it is because they teach racism, hate, black supremacy,” he wrote. “There would have been a riot.” (I reached out to Davis and other prison officials at Lovelock, but they didn’t respond for comment.)” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/being-a-muslim-in-prison-discrimination.html
Globe and Mail – Stephen Chase
Saudi Arabia is top export destination for Canadian arms after United States in 2022
While Canada struggles internally and legislatively with the legalities around guns, both long guns and handguns, Canada seems to have fewer scruples on the international scene, and particularly with markets that appear to use the weapons to brutalize their own people. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-saudi-arabia-canadian-arms-exports/
The Sentencing Project (US) – Ashley Nellis
Left to Die in Prison: Emerging Adults 25 and Younger Sentenced to Life without Parole
The report confronts the practice of a sentence of life or Life without Parole (LWOP) especially as regards the notion of the age of the individual at the time of the offense and whether or not full capacity was a factor in the offense, the full intellectual / mental capacity of an adult. Increasingly the medical evidence suggests that the average age of someone sentenced to LWOP is 23 years old, many much younger. The report is challenging the age of 18 for transition to adult court and more severe penalties: “The legal demarcation of 18 as adulthood rests on out-dated notions of adolescence. Based on the best scientific understanding of human development, ages 18 to 25 mark a unique stage of life between childhood and adulthood which is recognized within the fields of neuroscience, sociology, and psychology. Thus, there is growing support for providing incarcerated people who were young at the time of their offense a second look at their original sentence to account for their diminished capacity.” https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2023/06/Left-to-Die-in-Prison-Emerging-Adults-25-and-Younger-Sentenced-to-Life-without-Parole.pdf?emci=8fb8f1c4-8b04-ee11-907c-00224832eb73&emdi=58e482a6-3b05-ee11-907c-00224832eb73&ceid=10203385
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Newshour (US)
An investigation by The Washington Post found that surveillance cameras meant to fight violent crime in cities across the country are being used to punish and evict residents of public housing projects. (A 3 min video report) https://twitter.com/NewsHour/status/1665468859111944193?s=20