The Celling of America

by Burton-Rose, Daniel; Pens, Dan; Wright, Paul

• ISBN13: 9781567511406
• ISBN10: 1567511406
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-02-01
• Publisher: Common Courage Pr

Summary

In this searing indictment of the criminal justice system, Paul Wright, Dan Pens and Daniel Burton-Rose kick open the doors of America's prisons and take you through a hell-raising tour -- not only of the prisons but of the society that put them there. In this unique volume which grew out of the magazine Prison Legal News, prison journalists will teach you: -- How corporations like Microsoft are raking in big bucks from prison labor; -- How the privatization of prisons means prisoners build their ow cages; -- That while congress has eliminated the $20 million in federal funds for death penalty legal resource centers, death row executions have skyrocketed, with 56 people being killed in 1995, the highest number since 1957. "The burden of their message is that the United States has descended into a cruel era of social vengeance, as though the problems of crime and social deterioration will be solved by ratcheting up the level of torment imposed on the imprisoned and by elaborating even more irrational terms for deciding on their punishment. The nation builds prisons instead of schools. A new industrial sector has arisen around the penal system. Companies move in to capture the profit opportunities present in this new commodity -- the millions of people who are imprisoned. "This approach may temporarily mollify public fears of crime and satisfy desires for retribution, but it does not of course solve the crime problem. Indeed, the political crusade to "toughen up" the criminal justice system may be understood as a great evasion -- a retreat from the deeper and more difficult questions of social and economic relationships. In a sense, the binge of prison construction amounts to giving up on the possibility of building a more equitable society. "One remarkable quality of this book is that, while the collective indictment delivered by these inmate commentators is harsh and devastating, their tone and style is relatively restrained. One would expect otherwise, I think, especially given the facts they are presenting and their own confinement". -- from the introduction by William Greider

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	viii
Introduction	1	(5)
William Greider
Part I The New Politics of Crime	6	(24)
Citizen Anti-Crime Initiatives? How the Gun Lobby Bankrolls the War on Crime	6	(9)
Paul Wright
Three Strikes Racks 'Em Up	15	(5)
Paul Wright
Fear and Loathing in California	20	(5)
Willie Wisely
Letter from Exile	25	(5)
Ray Luc Levasseur
Part II The Distorted Lens The Corporate Media Filter of Crime and Justice	30	(34)
Media Bows to Power Will Mumia's Voice Be Silenced Forever?	30	(4)
Noelle Hanrahan
Spoon-Fed Media Eats Well Off of Prison Officials' Handouts California Prisoners Assault Office	34	(6)
Dan Pens
Paul Wright
California Bans Media Interviews with Prisoners	40	(5)
Willie Wisely
Prison Weight-Lifting is a Nonsense Issue	45	(3)
Paul Wright
Prison TV: Luxury or Management Tool?	48	(7)
Adrian Lomax
Paul Wright
Not All Prisoner Lawsuits Are "Frivolous"	55	(3)
Chief Judge Jon O. Newman
Prison Legal News' Top Ten Non-Frivolous Prisoner Lawsuits	58	(6)
Paul Wright
Dan Pens
Part III The Downward Spiral Prisons Do Their Damnedest to Increase the Misery	64	(38)
Oppression on the Rise in Arizona	64	(6)
O'Neil Stough
Dan Pens
The Resurgence of Chain Gangs	70	(8)
Dan Pens
Paul Wright
Dying For Attention The Atrocity of Prison Health Care	78	(10)
Paul Wright
"Just Say No"?	88	(4)
Philip McLaughlin
State Murder Machines Picks Up Speed	92	(2)
Dan Pens
Houston, Texas: The Death Penalty Capital of the World	94	(5)
Dan Pens
Demanding Death	99	(3)
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Part IV Workin' for the Man Prison Labor in the U.S.A.	102	(32)
Slaves of the State	102	(5)
Paul Wright
Texas Prisoners Build Their Own Cages	107	(2)
Dan Pens
The Global Economy Behind Ohio Prison Walls	109	(3)
Danny Cahill
Worked to Death	112	(2)
Danny Cahill
Paul Wright
Microsoft "Outcells" Competition	114	(8)
Dan Pens
Armed and Dangerous	122	(5)
Ray Luc Levasseur
Solidarity In Stillwater The Oak Park Heights Prisoner Work Strike	127	(7)
Daniel Burton-Rose
Part V Money and Warm Bodies The Prison-Industrial Complex in the United States	134	(35)
The California Prison Guards' Union A Potent Political Interest Group	134	(6)
Dan Pens
The Bottom Line: California's Prison Industry Authority	140	(5)
Willie Wisely
Tapping the Captive Market	145	(2)
Dan Pens
VitaPro Fraud in Texas	147	(2)
Dan Pens
Kidnapping and Extortion, Texas-Style	149	(4)
Dan Pens
INS Detainees Trash Private Prison	153	(3)
Dan Pens
America's Private Gulag	156	(8)
Ken Silverstein
Prison Industry Profiteers Sentenced	164	(5)
Dan Pens
Part VI Crimes of the Keepers Racism, Corruption and Brutality	169	(20)
Mysterious Syndrome Discovered!	169	(2)
Dan Pens
Total Power Corrupts: Guard Racism and Brutality	171	(10)
Dan Pens
Paul Wright
"Professional Conduct" at Purdy's Prison For Women	181	(2)
Vicki McElroy
The "Honorable Men" Defense	183	(6)
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Part VII Permanent Lockdown Control Unit Prisons and the Proliferation of the Isolation Model	189	(28)
The Pelican Bay Factor	189	(2)
Abdul Olugbala Shakur
Campaign of Repression	191	(2)
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Report From the Hole	193	(104)
Adrian Lomax
The Scandal of Prison "Management"	297
Jill Brotman
From USP Marion to ADX Florence (And Back Again)	200	(17)
Ray Luc Levasseur
Daniel Burton-Rose
Part VIII Prisoner Struggles and Rebellions	217	(33)
The Lessons of Attica	217	(8)
Jaan Laaman
Laura Whitehorn
Varied Forms of Rebellion and Resistance: Nonviolent Protest Suppressed	225	(3)
Adrian Lomax
Rikers Island Detainees in Struggle	228	(3)
Dan Pens
Hungry for Justice in L.A.	231	(1)
Dan Pens
The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back: The 1993 Lucasville Easter Rebellion	232	(7)
John Perotti
Challenging the Evil That Ills This Society: The September 1995 New York State Prison Strike	239	(5)
A. Johnson/Musaa
Ed Kinane
Federal Prisons Erupt	244	(6)
Dan Pens
Notes on Contributors	250	(2)
Index	252	(12)
About Prison Legal News	264