Mother Jones reports:
(1) The United States operate 1,800 prisons and 3,000 jails. Like Alcatraz, they aren't about rehabilitation. They're about punishment.
(2) 80,000 people are held in solitary confinement every year.
(3) As many as half of all sexual assaults in prisons are carried out by prison guards.
(4) One fourth of the people incarcerated on Earth are incarcerated in the United States.
(5) We have 2.3 million Americans behind bars . . . they’re held at ADX Florence, Pelican Bay, and Rikers Island, where an inmate recently baked to death in his cell. Baked to death.
Rikers Island is the nation’s second-largest jail system with 12,000 inmates. A whopping 40 percent are mentally ill, and a third of them suffer from serious mental problems.
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Jerome Murdough was arrested after seeking shelter from harsh weather in New York in February. The meds he was administered for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia made the former Marine more susceptible to heat. One can only hope that Murdough was asleep as he slow-roasted in a solitary jail cell at Riker's.
APNEWSBREAK: NYC INMATE 'BAKED TO DEATH' IN CELL
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/apnewsbreak-nyc-inmate-baked-death-cell
Mother Jones: America's Worst Prison Closed 51 Years Ago. Except It Didn't
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/03/alcatraz-anniversary-51-years-ago
Condolences to Murdough's family and close friends. Hundreds of thousands of people of all races and ages who were labeled as being mentally ill were roasted in Nazi ovens before WWII. Our apologies for taking so long to decriminalize mental illness in the USA and give Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill. Our messages to the public and politicians are censored. Human rights advocates at AIMI hope that more care is applied in the future to ensure the safety of America's most vulnerable citizens and that victims and survivors are given due process instead of cover-ups when the system fails.
Citizen: One who by birth or naturalization owes a debt of loyalty to a country and is due protection BY that country (certain exemptions apply).Mary Neal, director
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI)
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimiDog Justice for Mentally Ill
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com
Wrongful Death of Larry Neal
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.comParagraph 1 repeated: There was a time when I thought we could negotiate a confidential settlement regarding the secret arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal. I assumed the government and The Cochran Firm would not want it known that a mentally ill heart patient who was a U.S. citizen was killed and his survivors were defrauded by a law firm carrying Johnnie Cochran's name. We initially believed Larry's death was accidental. Not only was Larry Neal's death NOT accidental, but authorities do not seem to mind if the whole world knows that mentally and physically disabled Americans are secretly jailed and killed and that such deaths are covered up. It happens regularly. Apparently, it happened to Jerome Murdough.
It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog into a deadly restraint chair for control. But this happens to mentally ill Americans routinely in the nation's jails and prisons. What happened to Larry Neal?
Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally.
Advocate for U.S. Congress to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act