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Prison Lobbyists vs Prison Reform
Read Michael’s recent posts on Change.org:
Most Popular Posts by Michael Santos
What Happened to Prison Reform?
Do Longer Prison Sentences Make the Public Safer?
The View from Inside: Prison Time Doesn’t Equal Justice
Take Action on Long-Term Imprisonment
Bring Back Federal Parole
And here’s a related article addressing the issue of prison lobbyists vs. prison reform:
First Solve Prison Crisis, then [...]
Michael Hamden is Mad As Hell About the Failed U.S. Prison System
The following article is featured on Change.org
http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/mad_as_hell_about_the_failed_us_prison_system
Mad As Hell About the Failed U.S. Prison System
by Michael Hamden
category: Prison Reform
Published March 10, 2010 @ 05:34AM PT
Yeah, I’m angry. I’m all riled up because our misguided criminal justice policies destroy individuals, families and entire communities. I’m steamed because at a time of financial crisis worse [...]
President Obama… Answer This
This is fantastic!
Check out: http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/990
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F34p0YiSp8g&feature=player_embedded
What it’s about:
1. Alienation of people: We are creating refugees amongst our own people. Inmates come back not feeling like they are part of their own community; not knowing “we the people” means them too.
2. Break up of families: unreasonable prison policies and a culture of oppression is further tarring up [...]
Bad Leadership in the Bureau of Prisons
We have bad leadership in the Bureau of Prisons!
The Second Chance Act of 2007 provided federal prison administrators with the authority to release prisoners to halfway houses one year before their sentences expired. That Act also urged administrators to expand programs that would help prisoners build stronger family and community ties while the prisoners served [...]
Senator Stevens Escapes Justice
As I waited in my prison cubicle for a census count to clear this morning, I listened to an NPR news broadcast over the radio describing how the former Senator Ted Stevens would avoid a term in prison. Senator Stevens had been convicted on political corruption charges last fall. Ever since then, I’d been waiting [...]
BOP Director’s Misrepresentation to Congress
Harley Lappin, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, issued a prepared statement to a Congressional committee on March 10, 2009. In Director Lappin’s lengthy statement pertaining to the Second Chance Act, he expressed that an integral part of the BOP’s mission indicates that “the post-release success of offenders is as important to public safety [...]
Poor Prisoners Differ From Rich
Bernard Madoff swindled billions of dollars from thousands of victims. Despite his crime, a judge did not incarcerate him immediately upon the government’s discovery of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Scooter Libby was a lawyer and a highly placed official in the Bush administration. He was convicted of a crime and a federal judge sentenced Libby to [...]
Conservative Prison Policies are Ridiculous
Duke Cunningham was a Republican congressman who now serves a lengthy prison term. Ted Stevens was a Republican senator from Alaska who was convicted of crimes that will yield a prison term. Scooter Libby was a key player in the Bush white house. Had it not been for executive clemency, he would have been but [...]
Justice Requires Redemption
Justice Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court said that he thinks our country incarcerates too many people and that American prisoners serve sentences that are too long. I agree with him. Prisons have become our nation’s only response to crime.
The United States Sentencing Commission recently released reports that show how federal offender demographics change. I [...]
Institutionalized Failure Does Not Lead to Corrections
Ryan Thomas asked whether I thought “the institutionalized lifestyle of a prisoner is in itself a way of correcting.” He also wanted to know what I attributed the growth I have made over 21 years of imprisonment if not correctional officers. I appreciate this opportunity to respond to Ryan’s question, and I hope readers find [...]
Prisons Divert Billions of Tax Dollars From Education and Health Care Programs
Rachel and Ana asked me some poignant questions on prison reform that I appreciate. An article I wrote on work-release and study-release interested them. They are criminal justice students and they understandably expect prisoners to pay a price for the crimes they committed against society’s laws. Rachel thought it unjust that people in prison could [...]
Prison Made Me Liberal
Ana Diaz is a criminal justice student who takes issue with my assertion that prisons condition failure. She asks whether I have any suggestions on better alternatives to deter crime.
As I read her question, I understood that it came from the premise of the conservative principle that prisons deter crime. I am much more of [...]
Serving Democracy from Prison
Prison administrators would like to stop me from writing about the culture of confinement. I know this because numerous staff members have admonished me for writing books and articles that describe what I have learned from other prisoners. Administrators have ordered my transfer from three separate prisons, each time as a consequence of my writing. [...]
Rich Man, Poor Man
I read of several financial professionals who were charged with securities fraud and other fraud charges during the past week. On February 25, James Nicholson of Westgate Capital Management, was charged with crimes that defrauded investors of more than $100 million. Paul Greenwood and Stephen Walsh of WG Trading Investors were arrested on fraud charges [...]
Compare Sentences for White Collar Crime With Nonviolent Drug Offenders
Disparity in sentencing laws has been a topic in the news for years. Such discussions usually revolve around arguments comparing sentences for those who sold crack cocaine with sentences for those who sold powder cocaine. I’m all for expanding the argument and comparisons.
As a long-term prisoner who has been locked in federal prison since 1987, [...]
