Patrick Irving writes from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, often cramped behind a desk, on the starboard side of the toilet, not infrequently rubbing shoulders while his cellie is taking the throne. His experimental advocacy model–developed and refined with the help of his father–can be studied along with the scope of his work at bookofirving82431.com.
Working the ones and the twos for this week’s post: Ed Sheeran with “Bibia Be Ye Ye.”
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA (Home of America’s first penitentiary. Thanks, Quakers.)
“I am going to help them fry that N****r!” remains a perfectly acceptable sentiment in the courtrooms of Philadelphia, where Court Clerk Terri Maurer Carter and Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Kline are alleged to have heard Judge Albert Sabo promise to do just that during his first week of overseeing the 1982 trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
On October 26, 2022, Common Pleas Court Judge Lucretia Clemons denied Abu-Jamal a new trial. This despite the question of Judge Sabo’s bias, evidence that trial witnesses received promises of money and favorable treatment in pending criminal cases to provide damaging testimony, and claims that the original prosecutor systematically prevented Black jurors from performing their civic duty.
View here: “Court Update For Mumia Abu Jamal, December 16th, 2022” by Noelle Hanrahan, prisonradio.org.
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK (The Empire State)
Legendary prison journalist John J. Lennon takes you on a tour of conjugal visits in New York. New York is one of the last states to support the practice of family rejuvenation by allowing loved ones to spend time bonding in privileged, private settings.
View here: “Sex, Love and Marriage Behind Bars. What are Conjugal Visits Really Like?” by John J. Lennon, published in Esquire.
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BOISE, IDAHO (Little Rock of the West)
Idaho’s Governor Brad Little has had the hardest time attempting to execute Gerald Pizzuto, Jr. The fourth and most recent attempt, scheduled to kick off the ten-day countdown to Christmas, appears have been no more than Little’s wishful thinking, as the state’s new extreme secrecy law, passed to protect the identities of lethal injection drug dealers, has yet to convince one solid connection that Idaho can keep from squealing under pressure.
View here: “Christmas-Countdown Execution Won’t Be Saved by Santa” by Patrick Irving, First Amend This!
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NATIONAL COVERAGE
Beth Schwartzapfel with the Marshall Project spent months interviewing a wide range of incarcerated individuals to provide you with a look at prison economics and the lengths that some must go to procure basic essentials.
View more: “Prison Money Diaries: What People Really Make (and spend) Behind Bars” by Beth Schwarzapfel with The Marshall Project.
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NEWS FROM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
Thanks to the legacy left behind by the amazing James Ridgeway, we are now able to highlight hundreds of reporters who have experienced being treated for behavioral problems by inflicting extreme demoralization in America’s tiniest torture chambers–aka “one of the many ways we’re striving to make our school-shooters saner.”
View more: “Seven Days in Solitary: A weekly roundup of news and views on solitary confinement,” published by Solitary Watch.
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13:06 12.20.22