Jeffrey Deskovic, left, on a subway to Greenwich Village. He was freed last year after 16 years in prison.
...At least 205 men and one woman nationwide have been exonerated through DNA evidence since 1989, including 53 who, like Mr. Deskovic, were convicted of murder. In gathering information on 137 of them over the past four months — one of the most extensive such efforts to date — The New York Times found that many faced the same challenges Mr. Deskovic has confronted, like making a living, reconnecting with relatives and seeking financial recompense for his lost years....
When was the last time prison conditions became a campaign issue?
There aren't that many men and women, to date, whom have been victimized by wrongful prosecution, judgements and sentences. This is an opportunity to set it straight.
The entire prison system within the borders of the USA needs to be addressed. HIV/AIDS is an issue and sometimes used as a weapon with the prison population. The 'product' the prison systems of the USA are putting out after incarceration is far from desirable. The prisons were suppose to return members to society that were valuable and productive; not simply people processed 'with time served.'
John Edwards has made it a point to bring to discussion the reality of the 'minority heavy' prison population and finding a better alternative. The American Society has turned it's back on prison reform and have cut funding to rehabilitation. There has to be a 'real' answer for this issue and not just a 'capture and release' program. It needs to be a campaign issue and remain such until resolved.
The Innocence Project (click here)
Does the USA want to have a torture chamber attached to the fact there may be innocent people within it's prisons, because, that is what a death row inmate goes through. It is a gross combination of curelties for the sake of maximum security that involves little 'yard time' and 'the righteous' limitation of freedoms based on the sentence of death.
There needs to be library time, time for educational opportunities and a place where privacy can be felt if not actually occurring. The USA prison system is underfunded and ignored by a former Governor of Texas with a record number of executions to his name.
Enough !!!!!
STATE PRISONS LAW REVISES.; Powers of the Prison Commission Extended -- Transfers from Elmira. (click here)
January 22, 1898, Wednesday
Page 3, 428 words
ALBANY, Jan 21. -- Senator Wilcox to-day introduced the codification and revision of the State prisons law prepared by the Statutory Revision Commission. The bill proposes little radical change in existing laws except to provide uniform methods of government for all penitentiaries, to provide for the release on parole of prisoners transferred from the Elmira Reformatory, and to make more explicit the powers of the prison commission. [ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH ]
