(via 70sscifiart)
(via lonelysassclub)
Michelle AlexanderIn the Land of the Free, one-quarter of the entire planet’s prison population, some 2.2 million people, currently languish behind bars; yet, an astonishing number of them — around 2 million — have never been to trial. Indeed, these figures categorically debunk the notion the criminal justice system in the United States maintains any semblance of its formation’s original intent: to ensure the guilty suffer punishment befitting their crimes, while the innocent avoid false conviction.
As the fundamental basis for the justice system in the United States, the Sixth Amendment states: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”
Justice, as an untold — though no doubt, appalling — number can attest, has been utterly abandoned for the interests of the careless expedience, apathetic convenience, and unabashed profiteering of the U.S. prison-industrial machine.
“The reality is that almost no one who is imprisoned in America has gotten a trial,” explains award-winning journalist, Chris Hedges, in a recent Truthdig column. “There is rarely an impartial investigation. A staggering 97 percent of all federal cases and 95 percent of all state felony cases are resolved through plea bargaining.” Of those millions who bargained away their right to a trial by accepting plea deals, “significant percentages of them are innocent.”
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/due-process-dead-staggering-95-inmates-america-received-trial/#wgC2HmPdifTS52q2.99
has been talking about this for a few years, as have other formerly incarcerated folks, and abolitionists. The reality is: we’re at a point of overcriminalization (particularly of already vulnerable populations) that is beyond utterly unsustainable. We’re at the point where people are facing court time over damned near every infraction. If every person who was charged with an offense had the resources to go to trial, the courts would literally never be able to (constitutionally) keep up
100% of the people that call me because they have been placed in removal proceedings tell me that they are in proceedings because their public defender told them to plea guilty because “it would be easier.” Our justice system is a joke, unless you’re wealthy and white.
(via pecospecos)
مآ أجمّل أنْ تصمتْ
فيْ ؤجهْ منْ ينتظرْ منِك الخِصَاموما أجمل أنْ تضحك
فيْ وجهْ منْ يُنتظرْ منك البكـاءْHow beautiful is it to stay silent
When someone expects you to be enraged from them.
And how beautiful it is to laugh
When someone thinks you are going to shed tears.
(via findmiguel)
(6/6) “I was institutionalized after the incident. They were giving me Celexa, Wellbutrin, Ambien to help me sleep, Minipress for nightmares, Sertraline, Klonopin. But none of the medication was really working. Finally they gave me convulsive shock therapy and that has helped some. I do feel better. I’m going to The Digital Film Academy now. I thought I’d try to get back into cinema. Recently I made my first film. It’s about a sergeant who failed at his job and caused another soldier to get injured. When he asks for forgiveness, the soldier asks him to prove his remorse by shooting himself in the leg. He agrees. But then it turns out that the gun isn’t loaded.”
———————————————
Jamie’s film: https://vimeo.com/148893064
Artisanally aged. (via lthibs)
