EMAIL US
See Who is on Board ! ! !
TYRANNY
ENDED
in AMERICA
It's time to end it !
"When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny." – Thomas Paine
"Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere." --- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...” ---Thomas Jefferson
2,319,258 Americans behind bars in 2008, most of any nation
For the first time in U.S. history, more than one in every 100 adults are in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator.
The report, released by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.
The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said.
1 in 100 adults now in prison
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Imprisonment itself, even when relatively benign, is arguably a form of torture. This is implicit in our society using prison as the most dire legal form of both "punishment" and "deterrence," except for execution. Moreover, in the typical American prison, designed and run to maximize degradation, brutalization, and punishment, overt torture is the norm. Beatings, electric shock, prolonged exposure to heat and even immersion in scalding water, sodomy with riot batons, nightsticks, flashlights, and broom handles, shackled prisoners forced to lie in their own excrement for hours or even days, months of solitary confinement, rape and murder by guards or prisoners instructed by guards--all are everyday occurrences in the American prison system.
H. Bruce Franklin
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"A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30, 2007 showed that a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year. Of the total, 2.2 million were in prison or jail. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College in London, more people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000."
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What happens inside jails and prisons does not stay inside jails and prisons. It comes home with prisoners after they are released and with corrections officers at the end of each day’s shift. When people live and work in facilities that are unsafe, unhealthy, unproductive, or inhumane, they carry the effects home with them. We must create safe and productive conditions of confinement not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it influences the safety, health, and prosperity of us all.
Summary of Findings and Recommendations Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons
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CURRENTLY
BREWING:
21st Century Tea Party
America leads the WORLD in incarceration rates. We have always been proud to be the World’s leader in protecting Human Rights. Yet we are one of the World’s biggest violater’s. How can we defend people in other countries when we don’t even take care of our own anymore?
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1. Competent legal representation for everyone charged with a crime. There are thousands of innocent people who are incarcerated and their only crime was they could not afford a competent attorney.
2. Competent and timely Medical Care for every inmate. Healthy young men and women are entering prison only to come out with permanent disabilities and illnesses that could have been prevented.
3. Mental Health patients to be housed in Mental Health facilities run by professionals.
4. Sentencing Reform- Our sentencing structure no longer fits the severity level of the crimes committed. Each sentence needs to be decided on the merits of the individual case involved.
5. Parole Reform- Make the mission be successful re-entry not failure.
6. Accountability – The funds that are collected from families and friends of inmates as “administrative” fees, and the profit that are derived by CDCR from vending machines, the canteen, etc. should be reported and an accounting of how that money is being used to improve INMATE conditions/programs/etc.
7. Create Drug Courts to re-direct drug offenders to Rehabilitative Alternatives.
8. Education and Job skill training while incarcerated.
9. Improve and encourage communication and visiting between inmates and those on the outside concerned about them to improve their chance of having a place to go when released.
10. Make sure inmates incarcerated for long periods are educated through re-entry centers before release.
GOALS
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Graphics
Quotes
Mission Statement
& Letters
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States on Board
Countries on Board
"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others. . .they send forth a ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
- Robert F. Kennedy
Run your cursor over your state flag. If there is a chairperson their name will be displayed. Click on the flag to email them.
#1) The most important thing for you to do is send letters! You can use the samples we are providing or write your own, but please send as many as you can during the week of June 30th – July 4th. The more letters that go out that week – the bigger the statement we will make. Most of us are sending tea bags with each letter, and it is perfectly legal, but if you’re not comfortable with that then just use one of our tea bag logos or send in the string and tag off the bag. – July 4th
#2) Help get the word in to the prisons! We will soon have info card and flyer templates that you can use (or design and print your own, but please include the web site address so that when the inmates pass the info along, other inmate family members will be directed there). Send as many info cards in as you can – some of us have ordered 500 of them! The inmates will also have their own specific letter that we will post for them. Again, they can use our example, or write their own. Mail them as many copies as you possibly can – otherwise they will be doing a lot of handwriting. Be sure to print out copies of the legislator addresses for them.
#3) Tell your friends! Get the site address out to as many people as possible. Send emails, post flyers, use the info cards, write to blogs, post it on My Space, put a card up on bulletin boards in grocery stores, contact local churches...use your imagination. This can only be successful if all of us make as many contacts as possible.
#4) If your state has a Chairperson – contact them and let them know what you can do to help. Each state has US legislators and State legislators, and all of those addresses can be found at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml We need to have the addresses available for everyone. There are also newspapers, televisions stations, etc. that are State specific. Know who you want to contact and have it ready when the time comes.
#5) Start getting your envelopes addressed, either by hand or label. If you are sending out a lot of letters, don’t wait until the last minute.
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