letterstomycountry:

fuckyeahprisoninmates:

Bruce A. Liller, Chief of Psychology at North Branch Correctional Institution in Maryland explains why, despite the higher security risk of allowing inmates out of their cells during the day, the practice is necessary. Even though North Branch is a Maximum Security institution, the inmates are not on lock-down 24 hours a day. As Dr. Liller suggests, the psychological well-being of the inmates demands some movement and involvement in activities such as working in the cafeteria, visiting the library, or exercising in the yard. [x]

LTMC: This is the reason why Mississippi was able to shut down one of their Supermax facilities in 2010.  They let the prisoners out of their cages and allowed them to move around, play, work, be in the sunlight, and so forth.  Each one of those prisoners was supposedly the most dangerous inmates in all of Mississippi.  Every one of them was eventually moved back out into the general population.  It reduced violence, increased officer safety, and saved the taxpayers money.

When you treat people like animals, they behave like animals as well.  It just so happens that treating them like human beings is more cost efficient.

(via upworthy)

futurejournalismproject:

CISPA Is Not Dead

Visit Fight For The Future and CISPA Is Back for an overview and actions you can take, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for background on the bill since it passed the House and what happens next as it moves to the Senate.

Meantime, the White House responded to an anti-CISPA petition signed by over 100,000 people with — in part — the following:

The White House issued a veto threat for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) on April 16, because the legislation did not fully address our core concerns (especially the protection of privacy). Even though a bill went on to pass the House of Representatives and includes some important improvements over previous versions, this legislation still doesn’t adequately address our fundamental concerns…

…There is broad consensus on the need for more threat-related information sharing — including among the leading privacy advocates we regularly engage on the issue. The essential question on which people across the spectrum disagree isn’t if we can share cybersecurity information and preserve the principles of privacy and liberty that make the United States a free and open society — but how.

Related: Here’s something to chew on, via Wired:

A secretive federal court last year approved all of the 1,856 requests to search or electronically surveil people within the United States “for foreign intelligence purposes,” the Justice Department reported this week.

The report, released Tuesday to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada, provides a brief glimpse into the caseload of what is known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. None of its decisions are public.

The 2012 figures represent a 5 percent bump from the prior year, when no requests were denied either.

Image: Via CISPA Is Back. Select to embiggen.

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