{"id":103,"date":"2008-12-11T14:14:28","date_gmt":"2008-12-11T22:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opinion.katrinasdream.org\/?p=103"},"modified":"2008-12-11T14:17:04","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T22:17:04","slug":"naacp-leader-challenges-maine-prison-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/naacp-leader-challenges-maine-prison-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"NAACP leader challenges Maine prison policies"},"content":{"rendered":"
By LANCE TAPLEY\u00c2\u00a0 |\u00c2\u00a0 December 10, 2008<\/div>\n

Like a movie hero, the NAACP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new, young national president, Benjamin Jealous, swept into the 900-inmate Maine State Prison in Warren on Monday, quelling protests among the prisoners and, at least temporarily, rescuing the organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prison chapter from being snuffed out by state corrections officials.<\/p>\n

This is the story as told by inmate Michael Parker, the chapter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leader. He said Jealous and representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Portland branch were the prison group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153saviors\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in negotiations with state Corrections commissioner Martin Magnusson and prison officials.<\/p>\n

But prison budget cutbacks \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Magnusson admitted they were a behind-the-scenes cause of the contention \u00e2\u20ac\u201d may get worse, and their consequences could again stir up inmates, who treasure their few social and service activities, which they saw being squelched.<\/p>\n

One of the most active prisoner groups, with about 70 inmate members, the NAACP had protested the prison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent tightening of control over prisoner organizations. Officials had demanded approval of groups\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 officers, strict limitations on fundraising \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including on total dues, thereby capping enrollment \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and a maximum of one meeting a month per group.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since July we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only been able to meet twice,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Parker said in a prison interview. The new policies, he added, would have destroyed the organization.<\/p>\n

The NAACP was also concerned that the new restrictions would kill the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153re-entry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d program it has proposed to help prisoners get ready for life in the outside world as their sentences end. The prison provides little re-entry guidance. And the NAACP feared its program of providing educational videos to inmates would die.<\/p>\n

The policies also upset other inmate groups. The 25-year-old Long Timer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Group had complained in a letter to the Phoenix that the restrictions had ended its program of photographing prisoners with family members in the visitors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 room.<\/p>\n

More broadly, a Long Timer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Group representative, Charles Whitehouse, protested \u00e2\u20ac\u0153degeneration in every crucial area of prison life: food, activities, programs, visits, mail, and overall staff attitude toward rehabilitation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Emerging from the closed-door negotiations, Magnusson and Jealous said in a news conference they had agreed the controversial policies would be re-examined, with a January 15 deadline for results from the next round of negotiations. Magnusson said he had never intended to cap enrollment in prisoner organizations.<\/p>\n

He and Jealous also announced that the NAACP prison voter-registration drive held earlier this year would become annual, and that Magnusson would ensure prison staff would not treat Parker unfairly because of his activism. Parker has previously complained he has been \u00e2\u20ac\u0153harassed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by guards. Magnusson admitted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inappropriate action\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had been taken against the 32-year-old Parker, who is serving 20 years for robbery and assault.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This facility is small enough to solve problems,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d observed Jealous, who has been involved in prison issues around the country. Nationally, African Americans are imprisoned at a much higher rate than whites.<\/p>\n

Magnusson said he had instituted the rules to treat each prison group equally, though he conceded that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153budget problems\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d not enough staff to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cover\u00e2\u20ac\u009d prisoner group meetings \u00e2\u20ac\u201d were one reason for promulgating them.<\/p>\n

But now Magnusson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tight prison budget may get tighter, as state government braces for another round of cuts by Governor John Baldacci and the Legislature to deal with a recession-induced gap between tax revenues and expenses over the next few fiscal years. The gap is expected to run into many hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no question we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have reductions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Magnusson said, noting he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already straining to pay overtime \u00e2\u20ac\u201d necessitated by guard shortages \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and has cut back on guard training.<\/p>\n

Jealous, 35, an activist since the age of 14, took charge in September of the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s oldest civil rights group, headquartered in Baltimore. He previously had directed Amnesty International\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s US human-rights program. A Columbia University graduate, he was a Rhodes Scholar at England\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Oxford University.<\/p>\n

Early in the day, Jealous had spoken to students at Portland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Deering High School, his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s alma mater. He had also addressed close to 100 inmates at an NAACP meeting at the prison.<\/p>\n

In the evening, Jealous charged up several hundred people as the keynote speaker of a colorful, emotional, joyous, and sometimes somber celebration of International Human Rights Day at the University of Southern Maine. The NAACP and Amnesty International also sponsored the event. A multiethnic children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chorus sang, and a Jewish rabbi, a Muslim imam, and a Hindu recited prayers remembering the Mumbai terrorist victims. Human Rights Day is actually December 10, the 60th anniversary of the United Nations\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Introducing Jealous at the USM event, Rachel Talbot Ross, the Portland NAACP president, turned to Governor Baldacci, who had spoken briefly, and told him commandingly: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We got some work to do, governor, at the prison!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The audience applauded.<\/p>\n

Baldacci, who has kept a hands-off attitude toward the prison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problems, also clapped, but weakly.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00c2\u00a0 Click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By LANCE TAPLEY\u00c2\u00a0 |\u00c2\u00a0 December 10, 2008 Like a movie hero, the NAACP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new, young national president, Benjamin Jealous, swept into the 900-inmate Maine State Prison in Warren on Monday, quelling protests among the prisoners and, at least temporarily, rescuing the organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prison chapter from being snuffed out by state corrections officials. This is the…
Read more →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peace-justice","category-torture-no-prisoners","tag-rev-samuel-gardner-welles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}