prisons

Whetstone prison Tucson

Prison & Long-Term Care #COVID19 Data Needed to Judge Virus Spread in #AZ (video)

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Forty percent of Arkansas’ COVID19 cases are prisoners. In a Marion, Ohio prison, more than 1800 prisoners and 100 guards have tested positive for novel Coronavirus. That is 73% of the inmates in that prison. Although prisons and jails are hotspots for the novel Coronavirus across the country, Arizona has no clue what in happening in … Read more

Florida federal district court rules prison-based gerrymandering is unconstitutional

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I posted about prison-based gerrymandering during the Arizona redistricting hearings back in 2011. See, Prison-based gerrymandering of districts, (Update) Prison-based gerrymandering of districts, and (Update) Prison-based gerrymandering of districts.

This is particularly important in counties that have large prison populations of felony prisoners who have been disenfranchised of the right to vote, like Pinal County.

prison2In practice, prison populations would be counted for purposes of equal apportionment of “residents” per district, but because disenfranchised prisoners no longer possess the right to vote in Arizona, only a small number of eligible voter residents living in a prison district may actually vote.  This is similar to Evenwel v. Abbott, a Texas case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which asserts the claim that counting large numbers of ineligible voters (e.g., undocumented immigrants) dilutes the voting power of its residents.

Today the Federal District Court for Florida’s Northern District ruled that such prison-based gerrymandering unconstitutionally dilutes the voting power of its residents. BREAKING: Federal Court Rules Prison Gerrymandering Unconstitutional:

The Federal District Court for Florida’s Northern District ruled Monday that the prison gerrymandering in Florida’s Jefferson County unconstitutionally dilutes the voting power of its residents. By packing inmates who can’t vote into a district, but counting them when drawing electoral maps, District Judge Mark Walker said the county had violated the “one person, one vote” principle in the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

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Neo-Confederate dead-enders greet President Obama in Oklahoma

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President Obama is in Oklahoma today to give a speech outlining a new effort to reduce sentences for nonviolent offenders and to revamp prison life. Obama, in Oklahoma, Will Focus on Overhaul of Criminal Justice System.

While a number of former Confederate states have been taking down the flag of treason and racial oppression in recent weeks, apparently the Neo-Confederate dead-enders in Oklahoma have not been paying attention to the news.  Charles Pierce at Esquire writes, Oklahoma Protesters Welcome Obama with Confederate Flags:

One hates to pick on Oklahoma but, here at the Cafe, we are tough but we are fair. Sometimes, the most obvious customers get the fastest service. 

Just for the historical record, mind you, we should note that Oklahoma did not become a state until 19-freaking-07, and therefore that it has but fk-all to do with the “heritage” of the Civil War. We should further note that, without the vigorous intervention of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln presiding, there likely wouldn’t even be an Oklahoma, what with the transcontinental railroad and the ethnic urban-renewal practiced by the U.S. Army. Nonetheless, today’s events are not About Race because nothing ever is About Race.

Oklahoma

“We’re not gonna stand down from our heritage. You know, this flag’s not racist. And I know a lot of people think it is, but it’s really not,” one
protester who said he drove up from Texas, Trey Johnson, told the news station.

“It’s just a southern thing, that’s it.”

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Jim Nintzel nails it on Ducey’s budget

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Hats off to Jim Nintzel of the Tucson Weekly for his cover story this week, So I Elected an Ax Murderer (a word play on Mike Myers’ So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993). Read the whole article, but here is the meat of Nintzel’s analysis.

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Six Things To Know About the New State Budget

Here are six things to know about the state budget:

1. Education Got Clobbered

K-12 education saw increases in some areas but reductions in others for a total increase of $81 million in the upcoming budget year. The state was required by formula to increase spending by $250 million, but lawmakers reduced a number of other funding programs by $169 million, according to a Joint Legislative Budget Committee summary.

The biggest cut was a general reduction of $117 million of what Ducey originally pitched as “non-classroom spending” by district, but by the final budget allows districts to decide where to cut those dollars.

Lawmakers also cut funding for district-sponsored charter schools, which will lose half of their funding this year and all of it in fiscal year 2017.

Also in fiscal year 2017, the state is cutting $30 million in support of Joint Technical Education Districts, which are designed to help students develop vocational skills. That’s of particular importance to students who don’t intend to go to college, but also helps some students get a head start on their college education.

Left unresolved is the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit over whether lawmakers have properly funded education based on population growth and inflation. So far, the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the lawmakers did not properly do so and the case has been sent back down to Maricopa Superior Court, where legal arguments are ongoing.

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Nice AGs you’ve elected yourselves there, Arizona

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

prison2Photo: globalresearch.ca

I actually don’t know if Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Weisbard was a Tom Horne or Mark Brnovich hire but does it matter?

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is asking for dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a teacher who was brutally assaulted and raped after being left in an unguarded prison classroom with a convicted sex offender.

The AG’s reasoning is essentially this: the woman knew she was in a prison, so what did she expect?

No, seriously. That’s the reasoning.

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