Human Rights for US Prisoners.

Upcoming Events

December 10: International Human Rights Day.
December 15: 5th Special Legislative Session Begins.

December 17: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (Tucson Memorial).

December 18: Sex Workers Outreach Project Protest at the AZ DOC in Phoenix.

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I'm linking to this post again for those who missed it last month. This is just the lead-in; you'll have to back track from here. There was a very thoughtful objection left to my original post characterizing the Israelis as not treating their prisoners well to begin with - I'll put it up when I find it; I held off because I wanted to post a response with it, but now it's floating around my in-box somewhere. 

I have seen extensive documentation of Palestinian prisoners subject to lengthy sentences under horrendous prison conditions, after a questionable process of "justice" was undergone. If my friend from Israel visits again, please bring your documentation in Israel's defense - embed your links, and I might put it up as a guest post instead of just bury it as a comment - we'll see. 

Remember the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights tomorrow. There aren't that many of them - it's easier to memorize than the US Constitution, and the principles in the UN document could set more people free than ours did, if we abided by them.

Unfortunately, our constitution left a lot of people out of the whole freedom promise to begin with. As it is today it still doesn't even protect the rights of prisoners: we made them into slaves of the state. No wonder guards are so ruthless - they grow up taking their cues from the rest of us that some people's rights don't matter...

Some of those people locked up aren't guilty, but none of those of us who are free are innocent, so long as we ignore them when they call for help.


They've been calling for a long time. It's up to us to either answer, or walk away. No one can remain neutral once they hear them, though - as Elie Wiesel once said, neutrality always sides with the oppressor...


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Israel: Private Prisons Unconstitutional

From the Yale Law blogs - amazing argument - I'd love to see this play out in the US courts...this articulates an excellent ethical and legal argument against private prisons. Odd that it should come out of Israel, whose prisons are renowned for being over-crowded, brutal, and deteriorating, and are full of Palestinians. The High Court of Justice in Israel seems to pay more attention to prisoner rights than we do...

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Prison Privatization Judged Unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Israel

The High Court of Justice in Israel put an end to years of controversy Thursday, November 19, by ruling that privately run prisons are unconstitutional. The full text of this landmark decision is currently only available in Hebrew on the Court's website [here]. I will post the English translation when it becomes available; however, the main reasoning and implications of the case discussed below should be suggestive of its importance.

The panel of nine justices, presided over by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, ruled in an 8-1 decision that a transfer of authority for managing the prison from the state to a private contractor whose aim is monetary profit would severely violate the prisoners' basic human rights to dignity and freedom. (See Tomer Zarchin, International legal precedent: No private prisons in Israel, HAARETZ)

In 2004, the Knesset passed Amendment 28 to the Prisons Ordinance, which permitted the establishment of private prisons in Israel. The state's motivation was to save money by transferring prisoners to facilities managed by a private firm, to be chosen by tender. The state would pay the franchisee $50 per day for each inmate, but would be spared the cost of building new prisons and expanding the Israel Prison Service's staff...