Racist, Criminal Lawmakers

I'm a little slow on the draw because I've been with family these past couple of weeks, but I just came across this info about SB1175, and had to pass it on. For this you have to go to a friend of mine's blog: here. She's really on top of the immigration issues; reading her blog was how I found out about this bill.

Here's the conservative response and legislative strategy (bookmark that page - very interesting site - glad they blog too).

It should come as no surprise that Republican legislators are pushing through more racist legislation like SB 1162 was. No wonder we need so many more private prison beds. Criminalizing immigrants is big business, especially in Arizona.

The implications of SB 1175 - this latest bill Pearce got through the senate are, of course, more racial profiling, inappropriate arrests, private detention facilities, overcrowded local jails, and missing family members. Any Latino not carrying proof of citizenship would be vulnerable to arrest and detention as a "trespasser" (which would be redefined under state law to specify undocumented persons. So much for AZ tourism, I would think). Since Latinos are presumed guilty on sight (especially two or more together), I can't imagine they'd be set free once arrested unless they fought the trespassing charge and showed actual proof of their citizenship to the court.

This is what Pearce thinks should be done with law enforcement resources? Chase trespassers down public streets? Arrest people who left their identification at home?

They can't just keep criminalizing people for being brown and think we won't see it for what it is. It's racist.

Check out this article too, about halfway down - they also want to send people to prison who might "harbor" an illegal immigrant for a sentence of 5 years. This is like the 1850 fugitive slave act. This is insane. It's like accusing abolitionists of sedition and hanging them.

So, let me sum up the bigger picture. Arizona's experiencing huge budget shortfalls - partly because we have so many people in prison, and we're going to criminalize undocumented persons further, while also throwing those who help them - say, get them to a physician when they find them dying in the desert - into prison. We're going to have to build a lot more cells just for the civil disobedience that invites.

Not everyone harboring immigrants would go to prison, of course. That's where the prosecutor's "discretion" comes in. Only the "political" people will go to prison; those who know something about the immigrant activist network but won't cooperate. And they'll end up in isolation in a maximum security hellhole, justified by this law being passed around under the radar. (Community organizers are serious security threats in prisons.)

I think if these bills go through then citizens from all over the state will have to leave their ID at home, take the 5th, refuse to post bail, and start filling the jail cells - make them prove that we aren't citizens instead of offering evidence that we are. Are we not already presumed innocent? They can only hold and prosecute so many of us. It would be a citizen's nullification of the legislature's last-minute blindside.

This is such a strange state, I must say. Very mean-spirited, the politics are. I'm at a loss as to how they think they can ultimately keep so many people down. This state isn't turning Blue, like they fear - it's going to be Green and brown soon, and we're going to raise a rainbow flag over the capitol building and then throw down with the scared straight liberals about whether or not all the queers can finally get married.

Those of us not in the legislative brawl will begin bringing prisoners home.

Lucky for men like Pearce (who will likely live to see Arizona progressives in power), most of us think that even old racist, sexist pigs have the right to food, health care, shelter and other life-sustaining resources. We wouldn't just hang him out to dry because he was old and broke and did so much harm in his lifetime.

Someday maybe he'll learn a little something about mercy and grace. We will certainly have to if we really aspire to tear down prison walls.

But I'm not going to hold my breath and wait - that man and too many of his colleagues feed on hate. And I've already seen what this state does to non-citizens and prisoners - we leave them to die in the desert and criminalize those who would try to help them. I'm beginning to see where that ethic grows from - the one that turns big profits on false promises and fear; getting paid by the head for people it disappears for months and years.

Do we know anything about the good senator's investment portfolio, by the way? Maybe we should check out the whole slate of senators that voted for SB 1175. Investments and campaign contributions: Someone's got their hands in deep with the private prison industry. Or - like Sheriff Joe - has a budget that depends on the number of bodies ICE will pay to detain. Hmm.

So, again, follow Chaparral's blog for the info on immigration legislation. This is where we should put on the brakes. This guy went way too far.

Abolish them all.

First, let me repeat: There needs to be an independent outside investigation of the death of Marcia Powell, and the appropriateness of certain policies as soon as possible - before evidence is corrupted. This is the latest on the story from Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times. It is titled: "Marcia Powell did have next of kin." (She was removed from life support just hours after she was brought in from under the sun. Why could that not wait for a meaningful search for next of kin? How can Ryan investigate himself on this?)

Also announced today: It's been a little more than two weeks since Marcia Powell died, and the Perryville prison complex in Goodyear just can't get by without using outdoor cages, so they're back. It was previously reported that prisoners were supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes - that's the brilliant new policy they have in place now, with a log book where staff have to document when the prisoner was last seen alive.

That's going to keep people like Marcia from heatstroke and death again?

Here's the AZ Republic article announcing it.

Why don't we ever hear what prisoners and families have to say?

Also came across this article today about how creatively states are saving money on prisoner food budgets: they're just eliminating meals. Some prisoner advocates argue that making food a scarce commodity in prison is not only a denial of human rights, but it creates an opening for more violence.

That make sense, since it will also lead to more time and more reason to leave people locked down or in solitary. And I guess if people are busy fighting for food they won't be clamoring for luxuries like health care.

That's often an effective tactic used against poor people who are trying to organize: hunger is no small thing. Hunger is a brutal form of torture that can be dragged out for years; it wears down ones resistance and gnaws at our children; it brings entire armies to its knees. Hunger feeds our jails and prisons already with check-kiters and petty thieves - need we starve them there, now, too?

The new budget proposal calls for privatizing several prisons in AZ, including Perryville, where Marcia died and and Death Row lives. The only thing in the way of this legislation passing is the Governor. All attention should be focused on the governor's office. She could even write Marcia's law into this budget with oversight and prisoner rights protections, provisions for reducing the flow of people into prisons and overcrowding, and appropriations to make it meaningful. Marcia's Law could be a deal-maker, if she wanted it to be.

Enough of us have to let her know we want Marcia's Law first. And what we want in it.

For folks with questions about where the prison reform advocates are on this, contact Middle Ground Prison Reform in Tempe. Donna Hamm is the one who proposed Marcia's law, and probably has a clear agenda for what that might look like.

When you do contact your legislators and the governor's office, please just remember the following concerns that need to be raised:

1. do not privatize prisons - the DOC needs to be accountable - focusing instead on saving money through decarceration;

2. adequately fund re-entry assistance, long term affordable housing, and employment opportunities (and options for the disabled) to reduce recidivism;

3. reform sentencing laws to reduce incarceration rates, and

4. put teeth into prisoner rights protections - including funding more intensively for training of guards and prisoners alike about rights,

5. Citizen - community-level - oversight of facilities based on the overall jail/prison population, so both communities that operate prisons and those that lose their children to them are represented;

6. New policy immediately: no more cages (That makes a great freewayblogging sign, if you can find a fenced overpass);

7. Prioritize making recommended reforms to health and mental health care services for prisoners, and compassionate release for those who are elderly and seriously or terminally ill.

We need to take control of these institutions - just like our schools - and hold government accountable.

We don't need more commissions and studies, really. This can just be done. Just keep in mind the vision of a world with no need for prisons, and step by step we'll blaze a trail. It's already begun. Critical Resistance, in fact, produces the CR Abolition Organizing Tool Kit, which is worth the $15 I think they ask for it. Spend some time on the website - it's a great resource. There are a few other good books at that link too - I'd recommend all four selections for starting an abolition library.

I'd also recommend a subscription to The Abolitionist (same page): mine just came today and it's pretty good. It helps to see how others address the dilemmas and challenges inherent in building a world without bars.