From: The Honor Program
Plz click here to sign the petition to save the Prison Honor Program
July 12, 2012: For Immediate Release
The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation has decided to transfer out more than three-quarters of the men successfully functioning on the Progressive Programming Facility at California State Prison-Los Angeles County in Lancaster. This will result in the only fully functioning maximum-security facility in the sprawling, sadly dysfunctional prison system to collapse.
The prison system in California is under a federal court mandate to shrink down from a high of almost 200% of capacity to only 137.5% of capacity by June of 2013. To accomplish this, the state has diverted low-level offenders to county jails and changed parole regulations. Ultimately, prisoners remaining in the 33 far-flung institutions of the system will be spread out to ease local crowding. To date, the process appears to be on track to meet court-ordered deadlines.
All of the above is to the good, and we congratulate Secretary of Corrections & Rehabilitation Matthew Cate for his valiant efforts to turn around the troubled prisons in a time of extreme fiscal constraint and limited options.
But moving so many of the men from the revolutionary Progressive Programming Facility to other, far less well functioning prisons is a bad idea for a number of reasons.
It spends money that doesn’t need to be spent on transfers that don’t need to happen.
It jeopardizes the stability of a program that should be the template for the future corrections system in California.
It causes needless hardship to hundreds of friends and family members of men currently housed in Los Angeles’s only prison.
There is still time to change this decision by the Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation. Read the full proposal submitted to Secretary Cate by the Friends and Families for the Honor Program, and click here for sample letters you can send to Secretary Cate to advocate for his support.
The Friends & Families for the Honor Program ask that you write and/or call Secretary Cate and ask him to allow all the men who desire to continue in the Progressive Programming Facility to stay. It’s simply the right thing to do.
Thank you for your support and assistance.
Address to write to ask for a continuation of the Honor Program:
Secretary Matthew Cate
California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation
1515 S Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 830-3676
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Judge hears testimony on one-drug executions
From a mailgroup where this message was added onto the media article to correct some notions mentioned:
...the American Nurses Association has adopted a policy which involves requiring unconditional and unequivocal repudiations by registered nurses of participation in any component of the implementation of capital sentences....the notion, therefore, which is below floated that registered nurses might be commandeered to start and/or to maintain the patency of intravenous lines used to infuse one drug, ten drugs or a million drugs is a false notion....the mantra about doing no harm is as applicable to registered nurses as it is to other medical professionals....in peace....
and District Attorneys who do not seem to be able to find their 'better angels' pursue executions:
From the SF Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Judge-hears-testimony-on-one-drug-executions-3706073.php
By Linda Deutsch, on July 13th 2012
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California team of executioners is rehearsing how to use a new lethal injection to end the lives of death row prisoners with a single drug, an expert witness testified Friday.
John McAuliffe, a former corrections officer who has been contracted to develop the new single-drug protocol, made the disclosure before a judge who is considering the Los Angeles County district attorney's bid to immediately execute two death row inmates.
McAuliffe said the execution team would be composed of registered nurses who know how to insert IV lines.
Executions in California have been on hold for years while appellate courts consider the legality of the three-drug protocol now in place in the state.
Read the rest here: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Judge-hears-testimony-on-one-drug-executions-3706073.php#license-50022adb13957
...the American Nurses Association has adopted a policy which involves requiring unconditional and unequivocal repudiations by registered nurses of participation in any component of the implementation of capital sentences....the notion, therefore, which is below floated that registered nurses might be commandeered to start and/or to maintain the patency of intravenous lines used to infuse one drug, ten drugs or a million drugs is a false notion....the mantra about doing no harm is as applicable to registered nurses as it is to other medical professionals....in peace....
and District Attorneys who do not seem to be able to find their 'better angels' pursue executions:
From the SF Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Judge-hears-testimony-on-one-drug-executions-3706073.php
By Linda Deutsch, on July 13th 2012
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California team of executioners is rehearsing how to use a new lethal injection to end the lives of death row prisoners with a single drug, an expert witness testified Friday.
John McAuliffe, a former corrections officer who has been contracted to develop the new single-drug protocol, made the disclosure before a judge who is considering the Los Angeles County district attorney's bid to immediately execute two death row inmates.
McAuliffe said the execution team would be composed of registered nurses who know how to insert IV lines.
Executions in California have been on hold for years while appellate courts consider the legality of the three-drug protocol now in place in the state.
Read the rest here: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Judge-hears-testimony-on-one-drug-executions-3706073.php#license-50022adb13957
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Why I'd Vote for the SAFE California Act and Hate Myself in the Morning
July 10, 2012
Why I'd Vote for the SAFE California Act
By Kenneth E. Hartman, on: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-I-d-Vote-for-the-SAFE-by-Kenneth-E-Hartman-12
Kenneth E. Hartman, who has served over 32 continuous years in the California prison system on a life without parole sentence, says that replacing one form of the death penalty (lethal injection) with another (life without parole, the other death penalty) is not abolishing the death penalty at all.
::::::::
If I could vote, I'd vote yes on the S.A.F.E. California Act, which would end the ghastly practice of lethal injection executions.
But I'd hate myself in the morning.
There really isn't a good argument in support of the death penalty. It doesn't deter crime. It isn't a good example of why killing is wrong. And it costs a ludicrous, unjustifiable amount of money. Add in the fact that it's fundamentally a barbaric practice that should be relegated to the proverbial dustbin of history, and there's no other vote possible.
And I'd still hate myself in the morning.
The people who crafted this initiative should hate themselves, too. Instead of doing away with lethal injections and that's that, they wrote a monstrous law that will condemn thousands of Californians to perpetual imprisonment serving life without the possibility of parole. As if that wasn't enough, they had to salt it up with mean-spirited provisions guaranteed only to aid the ever more expensive prison system.
The construction of the initiative reveals a bit about the authors' motives. Pandering is a generous word in this case. First, they try to kowtow to the angry victims' rights groups by demanding that those newly minted life without parole prisoners be forced to work. The truth of the matter is we desperately want to work. There aren't enough jobs to give everyone an assignment. Second, they create six more special circumstances (to add to the existing 27) that transform second degree murders into life without parole sentences if the victim was a peace officer: not hard to figure out to what interest group that pander went. Third, the initiative creates a sort of perpetually mandated slush fund for local law enforcement to dip into at will: again, not hard to see where that pander was aimed.
The ACLU of Northern California openly advertises that life without parole is a horrible and painful sentence, that life inside this state's horrific prisons is a nightmare, that medical care is cruelly deficient, and men and women sentenced to death by imprisonment will be forced to endure endless suffering until they die a lonely death in a barren cell, somewhere. And they state all of this with a mocking glee to solicit support for the initiative. It's hard to reconcile their thuggish rhetoric with progressive thinking or with the promotion of anyone's civil liberties.
It's also clear that the authors of the initiative have little interest in promoting prisoners' rights, in working to advance civil rights inside the prisons, or in doing anything to rectify the rampant and gross abuses of power that characterize the criminal justice system in this state. One wonders how they sleep at night crowded into bed with their reactionary other halves.
The obvious reading of the sub-text of the initiative is the authors have become so myopically focused on the practice of lethal injections they're willing to throw the other 140,000 prisoners of this state under the bus. It's a pity because if they had sat down with the many other groups working to bring about real reform to the entire system a strategy could have been worked out.
That's too bad. California is ripe for deep, foundational, and transformative change, particularly inside the prisons. The confluence of factors that make this possible is a genuine once-in-a-lifetime event. In a few more years, the great edifice of punishment will rear up out of the mire of debt obligations and budgetary impasses. And then it's back to business as usual.
I've served more than 32 years for killing a man in a drunken, drugged up fistfight when I was 19 years old. When I was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole the statutes in place at the time set my first parole board hearing at 12 years and every three years thereafter. No one then thought I was sentenced to death by imprisonment. In the decades since, those dozen years to a board hearing turned into another death penalty. There are almost 4,000 men and women sentenced to the long, slow death inside.
Life without the possibility of parole is not a reasonable alternative to the death penalty; it's just a different way of doing an execution.
I'd still vote for the initiative because I believe that the death penalty is wrong and doing away with one form of it is better than nothing.
But I'd hate myself for that vote the next morning.
Submitters Bio:
Kenneth E. Hartman has served 30 continuous years in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on a life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) sentence. He is the author of "Mother California: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars," a memoir of life in prison, published by Atlas & Co. (New York, 2009), and is an award winning writer and prison reform activist. Ken was instrumental in the founding of the Honor Program at the California State Prison-Los Angeles County, and is currently leading a grassroots organizing campaign, conducted by LWOP prisoners, with the goal of abolishing the other death penalty.
Why I'd Vote for the SAFE California Act
By Kenneth E. Hartman, on: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-I-d-Vote-for-the-SAFE-by-Kenneth-E-Hartman-12
Kenneth E. Hartman, who has served over 32 continuous years in the California prison system on a life without parole sentence, says that replacing one form of the death penalty (lethal injection) with another (life without parole, the other death penalty) is not abolishing the death penalty at all.
::::::::
If I could vote, I'd vote yes on the S.A.F.E. California Act, which would end the ghastly practice of lethal injection executions.
But I'd hate myself in the morning.
There really isn't a good argument in support of the death penalty. It doesn't deter crime. It isn't a good example of why killing is wrong. And it costs a ludicrous, unjustifiable amount of money. Add in the fact that it's fundamentally a barbaric practice that should be relegated to the proverbial dustbin of history, and there's no other vote possible.
And I'd still hate myself in the morning.
The people who crafted this initiative should hate themselves, too. Instead of doing away with lethal injections and that's that, they wrote a monstrous law that will condemn thousands of Californians to perpetual imprisonment serving life without the possibility of parole. As if that wasn't enough, they had to salt it up with mean-spirited provisions guaranteed only to aid the ever more expensive prison system.
The construction of the initiative reveals a bit about the authors' motives. Pandering is a generous word in this case. First, they try to kowtow to the angry victims' rights groups by demanding that those newly minted life without parole prisoners be forced to work. The truth of the matter is we desperately want to work. There aren't enough jobs to give everyone an assignment. Second, they create six more special circumstances (to add to the existing 27) that transform second degree murders into life without parole sentences if the victim was a peace officer: not hard to figure out to what interest group that pander went. Third, the initiative creates a sort of perpetually mandated slush fund for local law enforcement to dip into at will: again, not hard to see where that pander was aimed.
The ACLU of Northern California openly advertises that life without parole is a horrible and painful sentence, that life inside this state's horrific prisons is a nightmare, that medical care is cruelly deficient, and men and women sentenced to death by imprisonment will be forced to endure endless suffering until they die a lonely death in a barren cell, somewhere. And they state all of this with a mocking glee to solicit support for the initiative. It's hard to reconcile their thuggish rhetoric with progressive thinking or with the promotion of anyone's civil liberties.
It's also clear that the authors of the initiative have little interest in promoting prisoners' rights, in working to advance civil rights inside the prisons, or in doing anything to rectify the rampant and gross abuses of power that characterize the criminal justice system in this state. One wonders how they sleep at night crowded into bed with their reactionary other halves.
The obvious reading of the sub-text of the initiative is the authors have become so myopically focused on the practice of lethal injections they're willing to throw the other 140,000 prisoners of this state under the bus. It's a pity because if they had sat down with the many other groups working to bring about real reform to the entire system a strategy could have been worked out.
That's too bad. California is ripe for deep, foundational, and transformative change, particularly inside the prisons. The confluence of factors that make this possible is a genuine once-in-a-lifetime event. In a few more years, the great edifice of punishment will rear up out of the mire of debt obligations and budgetary impasses. And then it's back to business as usual.
I've served more than 32 years for killing a man in a drunken, drugged up fistfight when I was 19 years old. When I was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole the statutes in place at the time set my first parole board hearing at 12 years and every three years thereafter. No one then thought I was sentenced to death by imprisonment. In the decades since, those dozen years to a board hearing turned into another death penalty. There are almost 4,000 men and women sentenced to the long, slow death inside.
Life without the possibility of parole is not a reasonable alternative to the death penalty; it's just a different way of doing an execution.
I'd still vote for the initiative because I believe that the death penalty is wrong and doing away with one form of it is better than nothing.
But I'd hate myself for that vote the next morning.
Submitters Bio:
Kenneth E. Hartman has served 30 continuous years in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on a life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) sentence. He is the author of "Mother California: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars," a memoir of life in prison, published by Atlas & Co. (New York, 2009), and is an award winning writer and prison reform activist. Ken was instrumental in the founding of the Honor Program at the California State Prison-Los Angeles County, and is currently leading a grassroots organizing campaign, conducted by LWOP prisoners, with the goal of abolishing the other death penalty.
The Vote
The Vote
By Kevin Cooper
Not too long ago, I wrote an essay called "No Thank You." It was concerning my thoughts on the S.A.F.E. California Act, which is on the ballot in November 2012 to end the death penalty in this state.
When I wrote my essay on this ballot measure, I was then, and I am now, speaking only for myself! I was then, as I am now, voicing my personal opinion on the subject matter.
At no time was I speaking for anyone else, nor was I telling or suggesting to anyone how to vote on this ballot initiative.
I wasn't doing so then, and I am not doing so now!
As a person who reads and studies African American history, and understands the historical fight of my people for the right to vote, as well as freely vote for what we want; as well as understands the price in blood, broken bones, and death that we had to pay for this right to vote, I could never tell anyone not to vote or not to vote for whatever they wanted to.
The same can be said for women and others who in the tortured history of this country were at one time or another denied the right to vote, and in this denial, they fought for and paid the heavy price in blood that my ancestors paid.
So, concerning the S.A.F.E. California Act, vote what is within your heart and your conscience. After all, you have to live with yourself, and your vote.
In struggle, from Death Row at San Quentin Prison,
Kevin Cooper
Thursday, July 5, 2012
School Police in Oakland costs lives and money: Justice for Raheim Brown Jr
This is the school-to-prison pipeline, which can also end up in murder. The State has no money for schools, yet there is enough money for police, weapons, prisons, and destroying people's lives. Why?
Received per email:
Oakland, California, July 3, 2012
Friday, July 6th, anti-police brutality advocates will march in solidarity with the family of Raheim Brown Jr, gunned down by Oakland School Police officers Bhatt and Bellusa January 22, 2011.
Unarmed
Raheim was barely out of his teens when he was gunned down by school police on Joaquin Miller Rd. Officers Bhatt and Bellusa attempted to pull Raheim out of the vehicle he sat in with a female friend, and, when they were incapable of pulling him out, shot him seven times, twice in the head. They also brutalized the young woman.
Instead of counselors, the city of Oakland and its school board employs armed guards to patrol children as young as 11-years-old.
At a time when the school board is claiming to not even have enough money to keep schools like Marshall, Santa Fe, Lakeview, Lazear, and Maxwell open, they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on school police. Just last year, Cole Middle School in West Oakland was closed down and now functions as a school police station.
The fact that there is a separate police department to deal with our children is an insidious abuse of power perpetrated by the school board.
Friday, July 6th, 11am, we will convene at Oakland Police Department headquarters on Broadway and 7th Streets and march to the school police office located at 1011 Union Street to demand JUSTICE FOR RAHEIM BROWN JR. AND AN END TO POLICING OUR KIDS!
Received per email:
Oakland, California, July 3, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Jeremy Miller 415.595.2894
Press Contact: Jeremy Miller 415.595.2894
Friday, July 6th, anti-police brutality advocates will march in solidarity with the family of Raheim Brown Jr, gunned down by Oakland School Police officers Bhatt and Bellusa January 22, 2011.
Unarmed
Raheim was barely out of his teens when he was gunned down by school police on Joaquin Miller Rd. Officers Bhatt and Bellusa attempted to pull Raheim out of the vehicle he sat in with a female friend, and, when they were incapable of pulling him out, shot him seven times, twice in the head. They also brutalized the young woman.
Instead of counselors, the city of Oakland and its school board employs armed guards to patrol children as young as 11-years-old.
At a time when the school board is claiming to not even have enough money to keep schools like Marshall, Santa Fe, Lakeview, Lazear, and Maxwell open, they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on school police. Just last year, Cole Middle School in West Oakland was closed down and now functions as a school police station.
The fact that there is a separate police department to deal with our children is an insidious abuse of power perpetrated by the school board.
Friday, July 6th, 11am, we will convene at Oakland Police Department headquarters on Broadway and 7th Streets and march to the school police office located at 1011 Union Street to demand JUSTICE FOR RAHEIM BROWN JR. AND AN END TO POLICING OUR KIDS!
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