Another Call for Prison Reform in the United States

Here is an excellent editorial from The Seattle Times on 8/15/2010 calling for prison reform: America behind bars: The time is ripe for prison reform Neal Peirce / Syndicated columnist For hard-to-defend reasons, and at staggering fiscal cost, the United States incarcerates people at a rate five times Great Britain’s, nine times Germany’s, 12 times […]

Prison Reform: In The News

Here are links to a couple of timely articles discussing the issue of much-needed prison reform in America http://www.economist.com/node/16636027 Rough justice in America Too many laws, too many prisoners Never in the civilised world have so many been locked up for so little Jul 22nd 2010 | Spring, Texas http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/will-president-barack-obama-take-on-prison-reform/19577278 Will Obama Take On Prison Reform?

National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010 passes in the House

H.R. 5143: National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010 (partner bill to Senator Jim Webb’s [ S 714]), moved forward on July 27, 2010 when the House of Representatives passed it by voice vote. Please contact your state’s Congressional legislators and tell them to support this much-needed step toward meaningful prison reform!

Larry King Discusses Prison Reform

Below is the prelinimary transcript from Larry King’s show (7/23/2010) discussing prison reform: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1007/23/lkl.01.html CNN LARRY KING LIVE / Saving Lives on the Inside / Aired July 23, 2010 – 21:00   ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LARRY KING, HOST: […]

A Supreme Change in Juvenile Justice

Read A Supreme Change in Juvenile Justice, by Michael Santos  http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/a_supreme_change_in_juvenile_justice

F is Still For Failure

Read F is Still For Failure by Michael Santos on Change.org: http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/f_is_still_for_failure

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. […]

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 […]

Prison Reform

Earlier this year, Senator Jim Webb introduced a bill in the senate to establish a committee that would study the need for reform of the entire criminal justice system. His announcement came with a considerable amount of media attention. Parade magazine featured a front-page spread, and numerous other national publications publicized the proposed legislation. Over […]

Community Leaders in Taft Camp

Carole and I are grateful for opportunities to contribute to the lives of others.  A few weeks ago, David and Tuvia, two men who recently joined our community at Taft Camp, kindly introduced us to their wives, Judy and Gila.  Our limited time with family in the visiting room is precious, so we can’t afford […]

Reality TV Can Advance Prison Reform

The schedule that I keep as a prisoner does not leave room for television, but that doesn’t mean I don’t read about television programming. Recently I’ve read several articles that describe America’s fascination with reality TV. One show receiving a lot of coverage is Jon and Kate Plus Eight, with reports showing that as many […]

Eliminate Prison Camps to Cut Domestic Spending

President Obama ought to call for the elimination of prison camps to cut unnecessary domestic spending. This type of expenditure should not continue, as prison camps do not contribute to making society safer. Indeed, prison administrators have classified all prisoners in prison camps as minimum-security offenders and require those men to serve time on their […]

What About Parole?

People in prison ask me about parole. That is a concept of allowing a prisoner to serve the final portion of his sentence in the community under clearly defined conditions as enforced by a parole officer. Essentially, parole is a conditional release from prison. In the federal prison system, parole only exists for certain offenders […]

Prison Reform Can Lower Recidivism

In 2002, the Bureau of Justice Statistics published Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994 by Patrick Langan and David Levin. “The study found that 30 percent [of] released prisoners were rearrested in the first six months, 44 percent within the first year, and 67.5 percen within three years of release from prison.” I gathered this […]

I Need Sponsors to Advance Prison Reform

I need sponsors to advance arguments for prison reform. As a long-term federal prisoner, I am in a unique position to serve as a voice from inside prison boundaries. The reason my background qualifies me as an outstanding candidate to speak on the need for prison reform is that while serving my entire adult life […]