Why is TDCJ Denying Solitary Confinement Prisoners Phone Calls?

 

Virginia Main Stream and Legacy Media Complicit and Collaborative In The Malfeasance and Lack Of Accountability of the Virginia Prison Official

If the blindness of justice is supposed and intended to convey equality before law then the work of media is the illuminant of it's practicality and Virginia's main stream and legacy media has failed us.

Whether or not societal factions agree with and support the ongoing debate for criminal justice reform and the corollarial emphasis on the lack of accountability of the prison official energizing the nation. The Commonwealth of Virginia as sister states of the Union has it's accounting to come to terms with      A coming to terms that requires exposure of those who have been complicit, collaborated, for the typical reasons and have actively exploited privileges conveyed by the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia by engaging in criminal, malfeasant acts, the perversion of justice and it's travesty.

Virginia main stream and legacy media from the Richmond Times  Dispatch through all other representations of Virginia's metropolitan hubs and regions to its colleges and university media have all been historically complicit and collaborated in enabling the lack of accountability of Virginia prison official       And not only are we calling 'em out but we invoke the mediant Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:

"Let facts be submitted to a candid world"

To which we say, that in contravention of Article 1 Section 12 and Section 15 of the Constitution of Virginia:

"That the freedom of speech and of the press are among the great Bulwarks of liberty and...." That free government rests as does all progress, upon the broadest possible diffusion of knowledge."

The mainstream and legacy media has actively pursued and foisted on the citizens of the Commonwealth an apologetic      narrative of treating the prison official as an entity above law and beyond reproach thus obfuscating and denying the necessary informed illumination on the behavior of the prison official in the name of the citizen.

As recently as December 1, 2020 in the article "Advocacy group, inmates and their families allege abuse at Virginia prison" by Frank Green of the Richmond Times  Dispatch, we find another pathetic example of the style of apologetic-narrative.

What this work, the apologetic-narrative in prison and criminal justice issues by main stream media does, is, it enables unlawful and extrajudicial behavior by prison officials and allows it's acceptance by society with its natural Phillistine impulses. Thereby mocking the idea and practice of a requisite justice bulwarking the social contract and compact. 

We are hereby focusing on Virginia main stream and legacy media and calling on it's self-correcting ethic, that if we are able to achieve equality before law and hold the prison official accountable, then its work of reporting on prison criminal justice issues has to be a mechanism of holding accountable those given the privilege of authority by the people of the Commonwealth, of which the prison official is one.

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Resources for Understanding Today’s Prison System

Izzie Ramirez, reporter for Vice, wrote a summary of the many resources available to anyone wishing to learn about the U.S. prison system. The article, published Jan. 22, 2021, discusses the varied inequalities of the prison industrial complex and how it exploits people for financial gain.

Activists are moving to expose the system’s glaring problems, writes Ramirez, if not abolish it entirely. He calls it a “racist, capitalist, sexist, colonialist, ableist, and transphobic” system. Black incarceration rates are five times greater than whites. Life sentences have dramatically increased over the last three decades.

Prisons are more proficient at extracting labor from prisoners than they were at keeping communities safe. The school-to-prison pipeline keeps the system replete with prisoners, fueling the profit-seeking private prisons.

For those without much knowledge on the current state of our prison system, but wishing to learn more, the article lists several podcasts, books, documentaries, and other resources.

Some of the podcasts listed include Beyond Prisons, Code Switch and Justice in America. Beyond Prisons is a series focusing on issues hurting prisoners the most hosted by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein. One episode, “Challenging E-Carceration,” featuring James Kilgore, is an excellent examination of the role that electronic monitoring plays in the prison system.

The podcast Code Switch on NPR includes the episode “How One Inmate Changed the Prison System from the Inside.” It features Michael Shapiro relating the history of activist Martin Sostre who was the first prisoner to successfully challenge the poor living conditions in prison.

Ramirez mentions several books for beginners. The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America, by Naomi Murakawa, shows how the current prison system was forged by both liberals and conservatives after World War II and was thereafter perpetuated by the more modern tough on crime policies.

Nancy A. Heitzeg’s book, The School-To-Prison Pipeline: Education, Discipline, and Racialized Double Standards, explores policing in public schools, how it developed, and who often pays the penalties in school discipline.

In her book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, Angela Y. Davis expounds upon what decarceration might look like. Organizations such as Critical Resistance, which Davis helped to found, has been working towards the abolition of prison for several decades.

Other resources include: a primer on transforming the justice system called 8 to Abolition; the New York Public Library Correctional Services, which supplies prisoners with donated books; and community bail funds which assist those arrested who cannot afford bail. 

by Kevin Bliss published in Prison Legal News

 Source: vice.com

AS PRISON REFORMERS WE MUST BE FIERCE AS THESE MEN

Credit ~ BBC with co-production from Discovery BBC Worldwide, John Hurt

Special thanks to these brave Dorobo tribesmen.

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State Organized Violence and Police Repression Never Works---We Never Forget---Stand Up Black August

Artwork by Antwan Williams

August 21, 1971, was the deadliest day in San Quentin history, and it’s still a painful topic, both inside the prison and out. At the center of the story was a Black revolutionary named George Jackson. Who was he, and what makes him so controversial, even today?

Snap Judgment presents, “August 21, 1971,” a special spotlight on Ear Hustle from PRX’s Radiotopia. This episode contains strong language and mentions violence and suicide. Sensitive listeners, please be advised.

Huge Thanks to Nigel Poor, Earlonne Woods and Antwan William, This episode was scored with music by Antwan Williams, Rhashiyd Zinnamon, and David Jassy.

Artwork by Antwan Williams.

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