PRISON NATION -Gallery Guide

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Prison Nation GLOSSARY • Prison Nation GLOSSARY • Prison AB109 In 2012, the state was ordered by a by the U.S. Supreme Court to reduce the state’s prison population to 137.5 percent of design capacity by June 27, 2013. AB 109, The Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, was passed in response to this court order. As of October 2011, this law shifted significant responsibilities for corrections from the state government to local county governments. When individuals convicted of non-violent, non-serious, and non-sexual offenses are released from prison, they will be under the jurisdiction of county probation rather than state parole supervision. People who are newly convicted of low level non-violent offenses or have violated their probation will serve their time county jail instead of state prison. There is the potential within the law for each county to use AB109 dollars to divert people from lock-up to community-based alternatives. Ironically counties were allotted millions of dollars through AB109 to manage their realignment populations while at the same time jail construction dollars were being doled out through AB900. As a result, each County Board has a choice to make: they can use AB109 as an opportunity to reduce recidivism and prevent further jail overcrowding by investing the dollars into community based re-entry services, alternatives to imprisonment and resources like housing, employment, health care, youth programs and job services; or they can dump the money into expanding the capacity of the county sheriff’s department and set the stage for ongoing 70% recidivism rates, jail overcrowding, increased violence and the excuse to build more jails. L.A. County was awarded $124 million dollars in the first year of realignment and $90 million of that is allocated for Sheriff Baca despite the recent investigation of ongoing violence by deputies against prisoners. Only a small percent of those dollars have been distributed to agencies that provide housing to former prisoners. Rise Up LA No Prisons No Jails, Mary Sutton, Californians United for a Responsible, Budget, Rise Up LA, Digital Print, 2012 Los Angeles, CA AB900 AB900, also known as the Public Safety and Offender Rehabilitation Services Act of 2007, is the biggest single prison construction bill in history. It was designed to help reform California’s overburdened correctional system and address severe overcrowding in state prisons and local jails by funding 53,000 new beds. At that time, California’s adult prisons were filled to double capacity–incarcerating almost 180,000 people in facilities designed for 84,653. Federal judges had placed California’s prison medical system under receivership and were contemplating the early release of tens of thousands of prisoners. Rather than implement measures known to reduce prison populations like addressing the harsh sentencing, mandatory minimums, unfair parole practices, and drug and gang laws responsible for prison overcrowding, then Governor Schwarzenegger worked with then Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nuñez to gut a transportation bill, craft a massive prison construction bill. They pushed the state legislature to pass it in a process that happened over a few days without public notice, public hearings or media investigation or debate. Though California has since cut $4 billion from AB900 construction dollars, many AB900 projects are underway across the state including the renovation and reuse of the former Northern California Women’s Facility in San Joaquin County as a 500-bed adult male secure community reentry facility. The second phase of AB900 provides that bond funding be awarded to counties for the construction of new jail facilities. Of the state’s 58 counties, 32 have jail expansion projects on the table funded by AB900 ABOLITION Inspired by the movement for the abolition of slavery, PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment. BAN THE BOX When people apply for jobs, school, financial aid, housing and entitlements (such as welfare and food stamps) they are required to check a box indicating whether or not they have been convicted. The movement to “Ban the Box” refers to campaigns throughout the U.S. to remove this box from all applications. Removing the box would not eliminate background checks so community protections would still be in place. However, eliminating the box would go a long way toward easing the discrimination faced by formerly incarcerated people. CYA The California Youth Authority (CYA) is now the California Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). The CYA was long known as the world’s largest and most notorious youth prison system. Families frequently have a twelve hour round-trip from the facility where their child is incarcerated, so visits are often rare. In the span of two years, 2004-2005, five youth died in the CYA. Public hearings, demonstrations and community mobilization throughout the state were led by Books Not Bars and the Youth Justice Coalition. Research studies and several law suits exposed widespread abuse of youth by guards, including violence, misuse and over-use of medication, use of solitary confinement, under-feeding and systematic neglect of youth within the CYA/DJJ, leading to the closing of more than 2/3 of the facilities and improvements in conditions of confinement and programming. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Capital punishment is the legally sanctioned killing by the state of persons convicted in a court of law. The U. S. has executed almost 1000 people since 1976. California has the largest death row in the country with over 600 people awaiting execution. The death penalty is imposed in a discriminatory manner by race and class. Nationwide, African Americans are 12% of the population, but are 42% of the people currently on Death Rows. Over 80% of the people executed in the U.S. since 1976 were convicted of killing white victims, despite the fact that people of color make up more than half of all homicide victims in the U.S. Ninetyfive percent of all people sentenced to death are indigent. Since 1973, over 140 prisoners have been released from death row because of new evidence proving their innocence 10. Bound, Josh MacPhee, Stencil, 2006, Troy, NY CRUEL AND UNUSUAL The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1791. It states that in regards to imprisonment, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Activists have challenged the mistreatment of people in prison based on this amendment. In California, the death penalty imposed by lethal injection has been halted by the courts because activists successfully argued that injections by persons other than medical professionals constitutes “cruel punishment.” In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roper vs. Simmons that putting youths to death constituted “cruel and unusual” punishment. In recent decisions the U.S. Supreme Court has also ruled that the practice of sentencing youth under 18 to life in prison without the possibility of parole is cases where no one was killed was also “cruel and unusual punishment." DISENFRANCHISEMENT The policy is used to deny people with criminal convictions the right to vote. Fourteen states deny people with felony convictions the right to vote for the rest of their lives. This is the only law of its kind in the world. California (as well as 31 other states) denies people on parole the right to vote until their parole is completed. Twenty-nine states disenfranchise people on probation. As this policy is both confusing and inconsistent, additional people are disenfranchised since many jail, prison, parole administrators and others are unclear about the laws in their state and regularly assume detainees and people with misdemeanor convictions are ineligible to vote. In 1800, no U.S. state denied prisoners or former prisoners the right to vote. The political implications of disenfranchisement for poor communities and communities of color became especially obvious in the 2000 presidential election in which George Bush's victory was attributed to the illegal removal of thousands of voters—particularly African- Americans—from the voter rolls in Florida with the excuse that they had felony convictions. It was later determined that most of the removed voters had no criminal records but the election results were not reversed. EXPUNGEMENT A court process which enables a person to apply to have a criminal record “dismissed” so that it has less effect on: theability to find a job, get credit, obtain a license for a particular occupation, or even join the military. However, neither expungement nor Certificates of Rehabilitation “seal” or “erase" therecords although many people believe they do. LEGALIZED SLAVERY The first significant expansion of the U.S. prison system took place after the abolition of slavery, when prison labor was hired out to private business in order to re-enslave thousands of African Americans in prison factories, as contract labor to local agriculture, and in prison work crews often referred to as chain gangs. In fact, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution stated, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Today, people in prison are regularly paid as little as 30 cents an hour, and work for hundreds of U.S. corporations including interests as diverse as telephone companies, airlines and clothing manufacturers. Prisons: Slave Ships on Dry Land, Andalusia Knoll, Silkscreen, 2004, Pittsburgh, PA LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE (LWOP) A person sentenced to life without parole will have no chance of release. PAROLE Parole is the “conditional early release” from prison or jail, under supervision, after a portion of a person’s sentence has been served. A person’s parole can be violated by their parole officer at any time that parole clams they violate their “conditions of parole” – such as curfew, job, housing or treatment requirements, failing a drug test, missing a parole appointment, etc. or any time they are rearrested. Violations can result in extended time on parole or re-incarceration for the remainder of their original sentence. PROBATION Probation is a court-imposed sanction that releases a convicted person into the community under a “conditional suspended sentence.” Summary probation requires that the person have no further arrests in order to prevent further sanctions, including confinement. Under summary probation, a person does not have to report to a probation officer. Formal probation requires that the person be under the supervision of the Probation Department, in which case they are required to report to a probation officer, follow strict probation conditions—often including curfews, requirements for school if under 18 and employment or job training for adults, drug testing, courtordered treatment such as outpatient or residential drug treatment, anger management or parenting classes, unannounced home, school or job visits by probation and other law enforcement officials, and search of the person and/or their property upon demand of any law enforcement officers regardless of probable cause. Any failure to meet probation conditions can lead the court to extend or revoke probation and impose increased sanctions, including incarceration or lock-down placement.
Nation GLOSSARY • Prison Nation GLOSSARY • Prison Nation <strong>PRISON</strong> INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (PIC) The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a complicated system situated at the intersection of governmental and private interests that uses prisons as a solution to social, political, and economic problems. The lure of big money has corrupted the nation's criminal justice system, replacing notions of safety and public service with a drive for higher profits. The PIC refers to interest groups that represent organizations that do business in correctional facilities, like prison guard unions, construction companies, and surveillance technology vendors, who are more concerned with making making money than actually rehabilitating criminals or reducing crime rates. Some prisons provide free or low-cost labor for state or municipal governments. Providing jobs for prison guard union members can be seen as a motivation for building and maintaining a large prison system. The prison construction boom can also be linked to the huge increase in the number of people sentenced to prison terms with the onset of the war on drugs, the repression of radical movements by people of color for selfdetermination, and the anti-imperialist struggles of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The War on Drugs and the national and local efforts to destroy radical political movements led to increasing police presence in communities of color and poor communities, higher arrest rates, and longer prison sentences. –criticalresistance.org PRIVATIZATION/ PRIVATE <strong>PRISON</strong>S U.S prisons, whether run by government agencies or private corporations, have long collaborated with private business interests and investors. They all profit from prison labor, the sale of prison products, the feeding, clothing and medical care of prisoners, security systems and equipment for guards and of course the ongoing construction and maintenance of prisons. Almost half of all immigrants detained by federal officials are held in facilities run by private prison companies at an average cost of $166 a night for each detainee. The two main private prison corporations, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group, and others, are reaping huge profits. For nearly two decades, CCA has been one of the most stable investments on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the past decade, three major private prison companies spent $45 million on campaign donations and lobbyists to push legislation at the state and federal level. At times, this money has gone to nefarious legislation like SB1070 in Arizona, which would have landed many more people in detention. 30 of the 36 legislators who co-sponsored Arizona’s now mostly invalidated immigration law, received campaign contributions from private prison companies or their lobbyists. A 2011 report found that the private prison industry spent millions seeking to increase sentences and incarcerate more people in order to increase the industry’s profits. States contract with private prisons to reduce overcrowding. California currently has almost 9000 people incarcerated in private prisons in Mississippi, Arizona and Oklahoma. California politicians including Governor Jerry Brown, have also accepted major donations from lobbyists working for prison construction firms. Because private prisons are run with profit in mind and often have less oversight than federal, state and county-run facilities, private prisons have been found to have much higher rates of prisoner neglect and abuse. PROP. 9 In 2008, Proposition 9—Marsy’s Law—passed with 54% of the vote. It increased California’s prison population by making parole harder to acheive. It also increased the time between parole hearings, and allowed unchallenged opposition to parole by crime victims and their families. Prop. 9 prohibits early release to reduce prison overcrowding, effectively eliminating the credit of “good time” as an incentive for reducing prison violence and participating in rehabilitation programs. PROP. 21 In 2000, California voters passed Proposition 21, allowing prosecutors, rather than juvenile court judges, to decide whether youths under 18 could be tried as adults for serious crimes. The sentences of youths convicted in juvenile courts are limited to age 25, and they can be kept for the duration of their sentence in youth facilities where education is mandated and rehabilitative services more likely. Under Proposition 21, youths under 18 can be prosecuted as adults and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Prop. 21 expanded the number of “violent and serious felonies” with sentence enhancements for gang membership and gun use. Proposition 21 also turned low-level vandalism (usually graffiti) into a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. PROP. 36–The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act was passed by 61% of California voters in 2000. The law mandates probation with drug treatment for all “nonviolent drug offenders” until their third conviction, then limits incarceration to a maximum of 30 days. The law mandates that all “nonviolent drug offenders” currently serving sentences be released from jail and put on probation. The State of California has failed to live up to the promise of the law due to bureaucratic inefficiencies and the lack of adequate funding for drug treatment. Also, Prop. 36 does not apply to youths under 18, thus excluding many thousands of youths who would benefit from drug treatment as an alternative to incarceration. REVOCATION Revocation refers to the reversal or rescinding of probation or parole. Both are conditional releases, and can be revoked if the conditions governing release are not met (technical violation) or if a person is arrested for a new crime during the probationary period (new offense). Although similar, probation is supervised at the county level, whereas parole is governed by administrative procedures on the state level. SB1022 In June 2012, the California Legislature passed SB1022 which allocates $500 million for construction and renovation of county jails. This is part of Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to reduce state prison populations by increasing county jail populations. SHU SHU Stands for Special Housing Unit, or in some facilities Secure Housing Unit. Slang terms for the SHU include “the hole” or “the box.” The SHUs are for extended solitary confinement, where prisoners are held in isolation for 23 or 24 hours a day, often for months or years, with insufficient clothing, access to sunlight, or lighting to read. SHU prisoners are regularly denied visits, phone calls, recreation, rehabilitative job training and education, even reading and writing materials. Solitary confinement causes severe and longterm mental distress and illness and 11. can lead to an increase of violence to others and self-mutilation and suicide. Long-term solitary confinement in SHUs is recognized internationally as torture, yet this practice is widespread in juvenile halls, jails, and prisons in the U.S. In California, without judicial review, prisoners are put in SHUs for extended periods of solitary confinement for alleged gang membership and cannot join the general prison population unless they denounce the gang and incriminate individuals, which risks their lives and their family members’ lives. In August 2011, SHU prisoners in California’s Pelican Bay State Prison staged a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions. THREE STRIKES - PROP. 36 In 1994, California voters passed Proposition 184, one of the strictest criminal punishments in U.S. history. Sold to the voters with the slogan “three strikes and you're out,” Proposition 184 prescribed that people with two violent felonies would get 25-life sentences for any third felony conviction—even in cases where the third conviction is as minor as stealing a tee shirt, writing a bad check or possession of small amounts of drugs. Since 1996, Families to Amend California's Three Strikes (FACTS) has built a statewide movement of strikers, families and their allies to challenge the law and bring thousands of people home who are serving life sentences for nonviolent third strikes. In 2012, California voters passed Proposition 36, amending the Three Strikes Law to curtail the ability of courts to sentence a person to life for a non-violent third strike. The amendment could reduce the sentences of as many as 3,800 people currently incarcerated on a third strike. iRAQ, Forkscrew Graphics, Silkscreen, 2004 Los Angeles, California TORTURE The United Nations’ Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted by the General Assembly in 1975. It defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession.” UN reports have recently cited the U.S. for violating the Convention in the treatment of prisoners at both Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Evidence shows that the torture, abuse and neglect that characterizes these military prisons—including widespread use of solitary confinement, extreme temperatures, dehumanizing treatment and physical, sexual and emotional abuse is also practiced throughout the U.S. in county jails, juvenile halls and juvenile prisons, as well as in state, federal and private prisons and immigrant detention centers. Crack the CIA, Crack the CIA Coalition, Offset, 1997, Los Angeles, CA WAR ON DRUGS The term "War on Drugs" was first used by President Richard Nixon on June 17, 1971, when he described illegal drugs as "public enemy number one in the United States." The War on Drugs was one of the earliest tools used to fuel the rapid expansion of police forces and prisons. By exaggerating the threat of illicit drugs and exploiting the public's fear of drugaddicted youth, federal laws and funding combined with new sentencing laws at the state level mandated increasingly harsh sentences for both drug users and traffickers. Among the War’s earliest champions was Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, whose drug laws inspired the extreme mandatory minimums now in use throughout the U.S. President Richard Nixon’s policies initially included 2/3 of the funding to be used for drug treatment but over time eliminated funding for treatment in favor of suppression—including the confiscation of property of those targeted under the new term—“zero tolerance.” Later efforts at prevention included millions spent on programs that have since been proven ineffective including the DARE program that provided funds for police workshops in schools and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” Campaign Despite recent federal reforms of crack sentencing laws, much higher penalties still exist for possession and sale of crack, despite the fact that, pharmacologically, it is the same drug as cocaine. Possession of 28 grams of crack cocaine yields a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for a first offense; it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to warrant the same sentence. WAR ON GANGS In the late 1970s and 1980s, law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County created comprehensive youth gang suppression policies. Gang injunctions allow police to arrest alleged gang members for being in public with another alleged gang member including family members, being out past curfew, or carrying a cell phone. Gang databases were created by police from their surveillance files that label children as young as 10 as gang members. The 1988 STEP Act—Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act—created a statewide database that labeled “gang membership” as terrorism and provided sentence enhancements for membership. Despite the failure of the War on Gangs to increase public safety, and its impact on the mass criminalization, incarceration, deportation and death of Black and Brown youth, L.A. has exported these policies and police practices to the rest of the state and much of the nation.
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PRISON NATION -Gallery Guide

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