Unrestricted Shackling of Juveniles and Pregnant Women

Fact: 36 states allow the indiscriminate shackling of juveniles in court rooms.

Fact: Only 18 states prohibit or restrict the shackling of pregnant prisoners, including during labor.

Fact: Roughly 12,000 women are pregnant at the time of incarceration, including thousands who give birth while incarcerated annually.

Source: DC Attorneys Want Juveniles Released from Shackles in Court, Washington Post; The Shackling of Pregnant Women and Girls in U.S. Prisons, Jails, and Youth Detention Centers; ACLU

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Three Years Without a Trial for a 16 Year Old

Fact: Kalief Browder spent more than 1000 days in jail on Rikers Island without a trial. He was first jailed when he was 16 years old.

Fact: In 2011, 74% of felony cases in the Bronx were older than six months.

Fact: At the beginning of 2013, there were 952 felony cases in the Bronx that were more than two years old.

Fact: In 2011, 165 felony cases in the Bronx went to trial. In 3,991, the defendant pleaded guilty.

Fact: in 2013, 27% of adolescent inmates on Rikers Island are in solitary confinement.

Source: Before The Law, The New Yorker

Alabama Prisons Face Chronic Issues

Fact: Alabama’s prisons have grown 840% since 1977. The state population has grown 23%.

Fact: In 1995, Alabama briefly re-introduced the chain gang for the first time in America in 30 years, before dropping the practice amid criticism and court challenges.

Fact: In 2002, the U.S. Justice Department ordered Alabama to stop chaining inmates to hitching posts, a widespread practice.

Fact: Alabama spends 1 of every 4 dollars in the state’s General Fund on prisons.

Source: Alabama’s Prison Problems, Al.com

United States of America (plaintiff) vs. $25,180.00 in United States Currency (defendant)

Fact: The above title was an actual court case last year.

Fact: There have been almost 62,000 cash seizures without search warrants or indictments since 2001, totaling $2.5 billion in revenues for federal, state, and local authorities.

Fact: In many cases, the owner is not even charged with a crime.

Fact: Half of all seizures were below $8,800.

Fact: Almost 300 departments and an additional 210 task forces have seized 20% or more of their annual budgets since 2008.

Source: Stop and Seize, the Washington Post

African Americans 5x as Likely to be Injured By Police

Fact: African Americans are five times as likely to be sent to the emergency room for police-caused injuries than whites.

Fact: Hispanics are approximately twice as likely to be sent to the emergency room for police-caused injuries than whites.

Source: Black people are five times as likely as white people to be injured by police, Vox

LA County Approves $2 Billion Jail; Majority of Cells Designated for Mentally Ill

Fact: Los Angeles County recently approved a $2 billion project for a new 4,860 bed county jail to be built by a private contractor. 

Fact: 3,260 of the beds – 67 percent – are intended for those suffering from mental illnesses. 

Fact: About 75% of inmates with mental illnesses are re-incarcerated into L.A. county jails – almost four times the rate of comparable cities, like Miami, which has a recidivism rate among the mentally ill of 20%.

Fact: In L.A. county, it costs $20,412/year to support a person with mental illness in a housing program. 

Fact: In L.A. county, it costs about $60,000/year to incarcerate a person with mental illness. 

Source: L.A. County Jail Plan is a $2 Billion Blunder That Embraces Incarceration, Not Treatment, for Mentally Ill, LA Weekly. 

18 Months Solitary Confinement for Masturbation

Fact: Under Bureau of Prisons official policy, masturbation is punishable by up to six months in “disciplinary segregation” (solitary confinement). For a second offense within eighteen months, another year of solitary confinement is officially permissible.

Fact: In other words, the punishment for masturbating twice in 18 months, under official BOP policy, is up to 18 months in solitary confinement.

Source: The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Abuses of Solitary Confinement, Washington Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights and Urban Affairs