Welcome!
Written while imprisoned
January 13, 2015
My name is Sean Allen Davidson and I am writing this intro for the site from a California prison with more than three months remaining on my sentence. If you are reading this then it means that I made it out, the site is up, and plans to help a whole lot of people are moving forward. Who am I trying to help? Everyone. The legal system that I have experienced is failing everyone, hurting millions, and helping no one to the extent that I would have assumed prior to my own arrest, conviction, imprisonment, and damnation. The question isn't if or when we should debunk, overhaul, and repossess our wayward criminal justice system, but rather how soon and sufficiently can we get it done. Prison Ref's goal is to help answer this question.
Sometimes we have to go backwards before we can move forward. This certainly applies to the overwhelming need and obligation that we have as a society to refuse, refine, refocus, reform, and referee our severely debauched and adverse criminal justice system. On the one hand we need law enforcement to uphold the law in our best collective interest, and on the other hand we need to be protected from their abuse of the plenary power they possess over us individually. Repositioning law enforcement to better fulfill their oaths to protect, serve, and lead us ethically will not be a straightforward endeavor for many who have for so long been empowered and protected at the heart of the problem.
There is no greater permitable safe haven for sociopaths to do their immoral and sadistic bidding than the criminal justice system. Those of us who dissatisfy legal statutes, often without prior knowledge of those statutes or any criminal history, are instantaneously enslaved, tortured psychologically, and fully immersed in subhuman conditioning. Behind the potent guise of justice, public safety, correction, and rehabilitation, we are systematically being abducted, branded, defamed, dehumanized, humiliated, violated, brutalized, desensitized, oppressed, exploited and arranged for failure. We are captured, caged, herded, and broken like animals. We are warehoused for monetary profit without privacy or consideration for our safety. We labor without compensation. We are buried alive in America's police stations, jails, court houses, and prisons without truth, integrity, justification, information, communication, expression, representation, leadership, redemption, closure, positive opportunity, incentive, compassion, empathy, mercy, forgiveness, hope or human dignity.
There is no longer any distinguishable merit or purpose separating the good guys and the bad guys with respect to the law. Often the only difference between cops and convicts are a relatively stable environment, a constructive influence, and foreknowledge of the law. For either side of the fences to not identify and empathize with the other is inhuman and represents the root of the problem. No one is born wanting to be a bad apple, whichever side of the fences it falls on. Most criminal activity begins with simply wanting to be accepted by others. Likewise, jaded members of this archaic, foul, and bartered legal system didn't set out to kidnap, torture, brainwash, and traffic their fellow mankind, but were left unfettered to be seduced by its job security, power, acceptance, and public distinction. Understanding then the similarities between us and accepting that much of life's circumstances are beyond our control, it is the preexisting systems and attitudes that remain to be remedied.
Action Plan
Written after four years of parole exploitation
January 29, 2019
Nothing better exemplifies the boundless freewill, superior intellect, and unrelenting stupidity of mankind than our use of slavery from the earliest civilizations until now. As soon as hunter-gatherers started hanging out in larger communities the desire for excess took hold and we have simply never looked back. From Sumer in Mesopotamia some 5,000 years ago to America's mass incarceration and surveillance today, slavery has become such an interwoven thread of the human condition that forced servitude is now mistaken as neighborly, patriotic, just, and godly from birth. In 1865, The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution simultaneously ended and expanded slavery by declaring that captives of law enforcement were legally slaves of the state. The U.S. Criminal Justice System (CJS) now holds dominion over and exploits more people for profit than at the height of traditional American slavery.
America's thousands of prisons, millions of prisoners, and millions of former prisoners being supervised have turned slavery and indentured servitude into well-oiled machines like never before. As the failed War on Drugs is finally losing steam, the explosion of female and sex related convictions are backfilling the system to ensure maximum harvest for generations to come. Attempted reforms are almost exclusively double-edged and strategically non-retroactive so that forthcoming occupancy loses can be offset by new initiatives. The livelihoods of millions of CJS employees are entirely dependent upon the coercion, victimization, involuntary enlistment, processing, programming, suppression, degradation, tracking, failure, and recycling of everyone beyond their fraternal order. A third of American citizens have a criminal record and half of American citizens are directly related to someone who has been incarcerated.
Present-day U.S.A. is the most egregious tyrant pillager and trafficker of its own people in the history of the world, and we do it with a smile. The American public has been taken for a two-bit chump from the beginning and it's only getting worse still through globalist pilfering, thought shaping, and false flag pandemonium setting us all at each other's throats. There just isn't much to work with after you've tripped through a few of life's never-ending abysmal curtains of disillusionment, manipulation, and control, and all you keep finding is bullshit promises and fear of retaliation. Anyone can see the mind-blowing suppression that has suffocated daily life for many Americans. Community involvement and trust are dying. Children are no longer playing in the streets. Acceptance is the first step toward a better outcome, and this pig simply cannot hold even one more coat of lipstick without falling over dead.
The good news is that the United States of America is still a very young nation. We can still change if we can admit the error of our ways and find it in our hearts to forgive ourselves and one another. The question we all have to answer is, are we going to stop trying to put the shoe on the other foot? With so many people already wearing a pair of ball-and-chain sneakers from some kind of tragedy, loss, and/or burden of guilt, at some point we are all going to have to make our own concessions to evolve as a species. For the American government's part, step one must be the unequivocal release of every single human being from CJS confinement and supervision who isn't a likely threat to harm others. Without acknowledging and purposely eradicating human enslavement we cannot reach our full potential as one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The following isn't the Action Plan yet but just a few lists of ideas to help get the ball rolling. Everything seems more manageable in smaller pieces so the outlines are very helpful.
Goals
- Ensure a documented and reinforced minimum level of human rights for all people on U.S. soil, tailored specifically toward protecting people in any type of involuntary custody.
- Ensure the establishment of an independent third-party entity with the responsibility of preventing abuses of power and human rights violations by all U.S. government related personnel.
- The corruption and abusiveness of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), and especially in our jails and prisons have occurred from their inception and will continue forever without drastic change. Our entire government and its checks and balances were founded upon the simple and undeniable truth that power easily corrupts human nature. There is no more corruptible power than placing a human being in a cage against their will and dictating every aspect of their existence. This is why we must integrate an additional level of protection against this natural corruption by making sure that someone has the responsibility of "watching the watchers." Displacement of frustration and unmet desires in everyday life is occurring constantly between all of us as we experience mood swings and snap at each other in order to not feel vulnerable ourselves. Usually this is happening on a very small and momentary scale but in our jails and prisons it is life threatening and inescapable. Add to this the simple logic that, "stuff rolls downhill," and it is easy to imagine a correctional officer with too much stress and zero oversight getting even with life by abusing people at the lowest place on Earth. We can prevent these types of natural displacements and protect the people in CJS custody by giving the "watcher" an extra layer of support.
- Ensure the U.S. Criminal Justice System (CJS) is completely reinvented in the likeness of the world's most humane and successful criminal justice systems (Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, etc.).
- The CJS must change its failed core beliefs, focus, and values. For more than half a century the CJS has actively torn society apart through self-righteous hypocrisy, racial profiling, entrapment, blackmail, toxic shame, sadistic brutality, and systematic destructive conditioning to produce lawlessness for gainful employment. The CJS is a long-standing abhorrent detriment to Americans and the rest of humanity and it must be completely remade to produce a decisively and lasting positive effect for all. It is demoralizing and unacceptable to know that America has the most inhumane criminal justice system in the developed world. The more its wrongs are publicly documented and protested the more corrupt, hostile, and militarized it becomes to cover for its overwhelming moral vulnerability. False pretenses, power mongering, class warfare, victim engineering, obsessive retribution and defamation, and human exploitation must forever be abandoned in exchange for a winning foundation of constructive governance, rewarded accountability, restorative justice, community reconciliation, progressive treatment, and holistic rehabilitation. The CJS's terrorizing excuses for continuing its destructive animalism of society belie the fact that it itself has created and proliferated many of the very problems that it professes to contest. Real progress, healing, and greater safety will begin when the CJS concedes its many faults by ratifying wholesale de-escalation and lawfully restoring millions of people.
- Ensure legislative members are held accountable for illogical reasoning, conflicts of interest, and inadequate life experience.
- All legislative members should be required to submit extensive documented historical evidence of their reasoning when voting. This should include arguments both for and against proposed legislation based on empirical data, full disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest, and a rational summary of their decision. This documentation should immediately be available to the public upon voting. Similar to jury selection practices, any voting member who is likely conflicted by predisposed bias of any kind shouldn't be able to vote. There must be consequences to hold legislative members accountable for dishonesty and bias, and there has to be a means by which to remove persons from legislative responsibilities who repeatedly fail ethical standards and practices. We need to make sure that some legislation is voted on only by people who have applicable life experience. For example, a young adult without children shouldn't be voting on parenting matters. A man shouldn't vote on anything that only effects women, and vice versa. No one should vote on anything if they can't first prove a cerebral understanding of the subject matter. If we have more people voting on things that they actually understand through personal experience, naturally our laws will become more helpful and our society more just.
- Ensure the creation of a revised legislative process specifically for enabling prison and criminal justice reforms.
- Legislation begins as an idea that is developed in multiple committees and has to be voted on and approved by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate before the president can either veto or sign it into law. The biggest reasons why most prison reform legislation doesn't make it through this process are (a) most people are afraid to stand up to big government in fear of losing anonymity and freedom; (b) most people cannot stomach the horrors of our corrupt prison system; (c) prison has become a catch-all for anyone society wants to get away from and helping prisoners seems counterintuitive; (d) most people in the voting process cannot relate to the hardships of those imprisoned; (e) many of the voting members are incapable of voting objectively because of conflicting personal, professional, and special interest loyalties. The time has arrived for the creation of an updated legislative process specifically for prison reform that will overcome the shortcomings described above (a-e). America's foundation has been constructed atop three government sanctioned and publicly supported massacres of great human populations. Mass incarceration is the last of these epic human tragedies and is presently continuing unchecked without reasonable hope of change. All types of human exploitation and wrongful confinement will forever keep America culturally broken and in the dark ages of slavery. If prison reform legislation isn't able to be passed through conventional means in the very near future, we will have no choice but to amend traditional processes in order to procure human rights and progressive standards of living for all current and former U.S. prisoners.
- Remove all collusion and conflicts of interest from the Criminal Justice System (CJS) that incentivizes mass incrimination, unnecessary imprisonment, slave labor, and all financial exploitation of its captives and their family members.
- No current or former employee of the CJS, nor their family members should be able to gain financially from any aspect of the legal process. This includes prisoner food and catalogue purchases, contractor agreements, and all institutional goods such as clothing and hygiene supplies.
- There should be a limit on the number of relatives, and of the percentage of any particular race that can be employed at any CJS courthouse, jail, or prison.
- Integrating former inmates of our jails and prisons into CJS employment as police and correctional officers, clinicians, and other positions will yield integrity, empathy, and a much-needed vested interest into the wellbeing of all people in CJS custody.
- Ensure that no person under 21 years of age is placed in an adult jail or prison.
- Approximately 10,000 children are going through diabolical hell in U.S. adult prisons and jails. Children are 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted, usually within the first 48 hours of entering an adult facility, and usually on multiple occasions. Children in adult prisons miss out on education that is mandatory in juvenile facilities, are much more likely to be rearrested after release, and are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than when in juvenile facilities. Children as young as 7 are convicted as adults in many states. Approximately 3,000 children are convicted of a lifetime in prison without the possibility of parole. All of this is pure evil and must be stopped. In contrast, anyone under age 21 in Germany can be treated as a juvenile, and people can stay in juvenile facilities until age 24. Germany believed that there is nothing about the age of 18 that makes you mentally or emotionally ready for adult prisons or adult consequences. German juvenile facilities are co-ed and residents roam free in open spaces, decorate their own living spaces which have large opening windows, have their own private restrooms, cook their own food, and have jobs that pay civilian minimum-wages. The recidivism rate in German juvenile facilities is of course much lower as well.
- Ensure that our jails and prisons are occupied only by people who are immediately or repeatedly, and intentionally a threat to the wellbeing of others.
- No person should lose their civil liberties and be traumatized in government confinement but for the most serious risk of harm to society. Imprisonment should not be used for (a) mental illness; (b) homelessness; (c) the collection of unpaid fines, civil debts, child support and alimony (debtors' prison); (d) victimless crimes, such as personal marijuana use; (e) property damage or theft that can be restored and treatment completed; (f) minor physical and verbal disputes, including threats of harm, where accountability and remorse are demonstrated and treatment completed; (g) momentary and non-sexual nudity such as breastfeeding, public urination, etc.; (h) most if not all unintentional crimes that are very unlikely to be repeated; (i) minor parole and probation violations; (j) setting an example or precedents for future possible defendants; and (k) personal biases, vengefulness, and/or hatred.
- Alternatives to incarceration include mentoring, spiritual guidance, writing an essay or completing a presentation of remorse and accountability, restorative justice, public service, education, career counselling, job training and employment, mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, group fitness activities, anger management, cognitive behavior therapy, scarred straight programs, public supervision, assisted housing relocation, tattoo removal, reform schools for youth, therapeutic boot camps (none punishment-based), military enlistment, home detention, monetary fines, etc. We must completely reinvent the wheel with regard to how we view criminal offences, restitution, rehabilitation, human development, and our relationships with one another in present-day America. Our long-standing broken criminal justice system and its faithless and medieval reliance upon mass human enslavement are leading us rapidly toward irrecoverable baselessness and dissent. The dawn of the internet and the information revolution have left no quarter for the old ways of misinformation, self-righteous hypocrisy and bigotry, racism, class warfare, and human exploitation to continue unchecked. Either we stop criminalizing and putting everyone behind bars or we lose the country eventually.
- End the barbaric practice of traditional long-term solitary confinement.
- Solitary confinement for U.S. prisoners consists of isolation from human contact in a 6x9 or 8x10 cell for 22-24 hours each day, with exercise taking place in closet sized cages or small concrete rooms. More than 80,000 men, women and children are forced to live in solitary confinement in American prisons with extremely limited personal belongings, medical and psychological treatment, visitation, phone access, and view of the outside world. Periods of solitary confinement range from days to several decades. Human rights organizations and scholars the world over agree that solitary confinement for more than a few days can cause harmful and lasting psychological effects and is torture by the definition of many international treaties. Originally used in Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia in 1829 as an initial alternative to widespread capital punishments such as public beatings and hangings, solitary confinement was quickly found to cause insanity, suicide, and lasting social disfunction. The U.S. Supreme Court finally condemned long-term use of solitary confinement in 1890 after 60 years of unconscionable human torment and destruction, and it was slowly abandoned. Almost a hundred years later, solitary confinement was enabled once again at the height of the 1980s War on Drugs by systemic racism, morally bankrupt politicians, and insatiable corporate greed.
- Legitimate reasons for housing prisoners by themselves include (a) protecting the individual; (b) protecting others; (c) disrupting criminal activity; (d) short-term punishment for rule violations; and (e) personal preference. There will always be a need to separate some individuals in our jails and prisons, but we must drastically reduce the number of people currently suffering in traditional solitary confinement. 80,000 souls being forced to live like tortured, worthless animals in the name of law and order is just pure anarchy and senselessness. We have to treat every single person with dignity and respect and attempt to lead them to rehabilitation. At least 95% of our prisoners are going to be released from incarceration and abusing them is only going to increase the likelihood of personal failure and criminal displacement in society. Living conditions must be drastically improved for all people who need or choose to reside by themselves. All living spaces should (a) be big enough for a person to pace and exercise in; (b) have enough storage room and decor options for a person to reasonably establish themselves as a sensitive and intelligent human being; (c) have a comfortable writing surface at both sitting and standing positions; (d) have a view of the outside world; (e) have artificial lighting turned off for 8 hours each night; (f) be without excessive surrounding noise and odors; (g) have toilets and bathing facilities that are removed from view; (h) have constant access to phone and email, and some form of internet search; and (i) have built-in media equipment for several hours of daily educational and personal-development programming. It costs taxpayers 2-3 times as much to house a person in solitary confinement and all we're doing with it is driving people crazy and begging them to continue dysfunctional behavior. Almost 200 years is plenty of time to prove a failure. Traditional solitary confinement must be replaced with genuine common sense and modern best practices from beyond the tainted profiteering, treachery, and absolute chaos of America's dog kennel detention centers. We need congressional guidelines and oversight for every aspect of solitary confinement and non-government clinicians present at all times to advocate for each prisoner's safety, holistic wellbeing, and rehabilitative progress.
- Ensure that consequences for initial law violations are dramatically reduced and rarely lead to arrest and confinement.
- Ensure that only people who are a substantial risk to harm others have their criminal history publicized.
- Stop the CJS's illogical practice of criminalizing people whose legal infractions are caused by plausible ignorance.
- The intent to commit a crime is known in our legal system as "mens rea," which is Latin for "guilty mind." Obviously, no one should be charged with a crime who isn't first proven guilty of criminal intent. Mens rea originated in 17th century England based on the idea that it is morally wrong to punish anyone for unintentional harm done to society. Civil law is for mediation between parties where no criminal intent is present. Tragically, the CJS has subverted justice by criminalizing people regardless of intent through the creation of "strict liability" crimes. Strict liability was created in the 19th century to help prosecute negligent factory owners whose employees were continuously injured or killed due to hazardous work conditions. Today the CJS has completely distorted the intended specific use case of strict liability to criminalize millions of people who unintentionally violate countless U.S. laws. For the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to remain valid we must stop vilifying well-intentioned people in the name of moral intervention.
- Stop the CJS's repressive practice of viciously stacking criminal charges against people to force them into plea deals.
- The CJS blackmails those who it wishes to "put away" by thuggishly multiplying and adding together many criminal charges to intimidate people into forfeiting their constitutional rights and due process. The near 100% conviction rate in federal and many state courts is largely due to ensuring that most people will never take their case to trial in fear of losing decades of their lives. While this is cost effective for government and expedient for the career ambitions of prosecutors, it makes the U.S. legal system completely devoid of moral standing and lawful validity. The CJS must drastically scale back its repetitive and sweeping application of criminal charges to reestablish liberty and human concern. Without prudence, virtue, and mercy there is no separation between government and run of the mill criminal organizations that heartlessly take and traffic life for the appeasement of selfish desires.
- End congressional and state mandatory minimum sentencing that has reduces the CJS to mercenary henchmen, pimps, and executioners.
- The U.S. Congress overstepped its bounds with the Boggs Act of 1951 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 at the cost of millions of years of unnecessary torture for endless U.S. prisoners. By forcing judges to mass incarcerate regardless of character, circumstances, severity, and criminal history, the entire U.S. government has become an elitist Ponzi scheme fueled by the continual disadvantage and suffering of the masses. Prosecutors nefariously use mandatory minimums to blackmail most people into horrific plea deals and have turned America's former trial system into a morbid bloodbath of colonial enslavement and 12th century Catholic torture. We spend $80 billion annually on the prison industry and half of our prisoners are there for drug related crimes with mandatory minimum sentences. Mandatory minimums are totally ineffective at reducing crime and none of the states that have ended their mandatory minimums have experienced an increase in crime. Insanely long prison sentences only increase recidivism, makes our communities less safe, and drive our country further into debt.
- Remove the U.S. bail for profit system that unjustly discriminates against those who cannot afford to pay large sums of money to remain free before trial.
- Judges assign incredibly high bail costs to people before trial that ensures that most will be forced to feed into the unconstitutional profiteering of human suffering in our local jails. Without freedom before trial defendants are not only without resources and family support to mount a reasonable defense, but they are actively being battered into submission through fear tactics that coerce most into taking horrific plea deals.
- Forcing people into servitude before trial also does not allow them an opportunity to put their personal affairs in order. This often leads to broken relationships, unemployment, financial hardship, and a ruined credit history that will take many additional years to repair.
- Stop the CJS's manipulative and highly destructive branding practices that unjustly ruin people's lives for ulterior purposes.
- The CJS attaches stigmatizing buzzwords to people such as, "violent," "assault," "high risk," "felon," "convict," and "offender" that are often a complete misrepresentation of the person's legal history and/or character. Based on these knowingly bogus titles the CJS is able to endlessly exploit people and persuade legislators and the general public to bend to their will. Legal consequences and supervision is dramatically worse for those who are wrongfully branded, and members of the media pummel them for the remainder of their lives to appease misguided public fear and contempt.
- Ensure judgment and sentencing procedures carefully weigh each person's genuine risk and positive contributions to society.
- Intelligence can often be measured by the ability to identify differences in anything that is similar but not identical to something else. The CJS needs to get much more intelligent and logical when deciding if and for how long an individual will need to be removed from society. Plausible ignorance, accountability and remorse, military and other public service, types of relationships, and other critical variables must all be given the proper amount of value and respect. How can a military combat veteran not have their sentencing waved or drastically reduced after a service related meltdown? How can someone urinating in a park be convicted as a sexual predator? How can someone be imprisoned for responsibly spanking their children or threatening someone but later apologizing? Who are we protecting by throwing these people away? No one. We have to stop the mindless continuation of bad precedents that has turned the CJS into a slaughter house for many decades. Life is messy and everyone makes mistakes. Legal intervention and confinement should be the very last resort. We have to start caring about human life again.
- Ensure that only case-related personnel are allowed to be present during a person's court proceedings.
- The world has become too big, dense, and invasive to continue subjecting people to public scrutiny in court. The America public has been thoroughly confounded and weaponized by an insane sense of entitlement to everyone's personal affairs by our tabloid-like news and social media platforms. The ongoing witch-hunt in our courtrooms has now enabled all news websites to plaster the faces of persons accused of anything with a damning headline across the entire planet. Add to this the celebrity nonsense by our judges and other law enforcement personnel and the entire court experience has become a totally disingenuous farce by an out of control branch of government. Every person charged with a crime in the United States of America is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. We need to do a much better job of protecting the people and intended sanctity of our courtrooms.
- Ensure the thorough documentation of all CJS arrests, convictions, sentencing, housing, mental health diagnosis and treatment, sexual assaults, violent altercations, violence and corruption by CJS employees and subcontractors, supervision, recidivism, and other pertinent information is available to the public in real-time.
- Ensure the CJS is held accountable for its spending by making all costs and wages available to the public in real-time.
- Overhaul the outdated language, monotone communication, and stoic process of the CJS in the best interest of human rights, plain and forthright communication, and the holistic wellbeing of all people.
- The written and spoken language of our legal system often leaves the average American with little or no idea what is happening to them without paying very large sums of money for a lawyer's interpretation. We need to update everything to be easily understood and beneficial to U.S. citizens. This includes dramatically reformatting traditional legal documentation with modern commercial and publishing best practices, revising it with current language that is understood throughout society, and removing the need for us to pay into the wealthy back scratching guild that has hijacked the intended service and essence of our courthouses.
- Amend the CJS's tradition of precedents with common sense judgment that is fluid and progressive.
- Ensure CJS parole and probation are only used either in full replacement of incarceration or for a very short time afterwards.
- U.S. Parole and probation were initially established as cost-effective alternatives to imprisonment in the 19th century. After mass incarceration began in the 1970s parole was manipulated to became a secondary form of incarceration in addition to prison sentencing and itself became a significant driver of recidivism. Parole requirements, restrictions, and mandatory periods of supervision have greatly increased and jail-first policies for minor parole violations flood U.S. jails and prisons with people who haven't committed crimes. As of 2017 there were more than 60,000 people in prison for minor parole violations and many more in jail. Today parole durations are indiscriminately assigned regardless of need or benefit and extend for years beyond U.S. prison sentences that are already longer than ever before, and much longer than anywhere else in the civilized world. The constant reminder of secondary citizenship and the destructive suggestion of indefinite supervision contribute to a negative self-image and hopelessness that increases the likelihood of unlawful activity. Relationships and community acceptance are very difficult to uphold through the endless scrutiny of law enforcement and abrupt visitation of parole agents. The increased use of GPS ankle monitors on low-risk parolees can lead to mental illness from long term isolation and the physical and psychological torment of not being able to shed a foreign body. CJS supervision must be redefined with explicit purpose and acceptable use cases that make extended supervision the exception instead of the norm. We need to decouple supervision from sentencing and choose between the two based on individual needs. Most people should be given supervision over confinement for initial and low-risk legal infractions. Studies have shown that it takes the average person approximately 66 days to form a new habit, so 3-4 months should be enough time to give most people adequate support either redirecting behavior or adjusting to life outside of prison. Additional support without requirements and restrictions should then be available upon request for at least a year. All other parole programs of those who are sentenced to prison (reintegration, education, substance abuse, etc.) should be fulfilled during the person's prison sentence without extending it. The aimlessness and counterproductivity of CJS supervision can only be reformed if the underlying culture of ineptitude and punitive ruthlessness is first addressed. Parole agents and probation officers, unit supervisors, legislators, and everyone else involved must be redirected in the best interest of public safety and the person being supervised. Currently it is commonplace for a parole agent to openly disparage and humiliate parolees while threatening incarceration at every turn. Communication and moral commitment is almost exclusively very poor. It couldn't be more obvious that parole and probation function primarily to break people and perpetuate unlawful activity. We must either remove or thoroughly reconstitute the current, broken implementations of CJS supervision to stop mass incarceration and give former prisoners a new beginning.
- End corrupt civil asset forfeiture practices that allow the CJS to legally steal billions worth of money and property from law abiding U.S. citizens.
- Law enforcement has increased its use of civil forfeiture laws since the outset of the War on Drugs in the 1980s. Being able to seize money and property believed to be associated with criminal activity was a powerful tool in attempting to stop drug trafficking. As with most aspects of the War on Drugs, civil asset forfeiture has also been shamelessly exploited by law enforcement to benefit itself at the cost of American citizens and their constitutional rights. The fifth amendment of the U.S. constitution states that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process, and yet billions are taken annually from people who haven't been criminally convicted or even charged. Police use the property and profits gained to militarize themselves and as a stipend to increase their budgets. This incentivized cycle of coercive profiteering is the antithesis of public service and protection. By forcefully depriving people of their personal belongings without due process, the CJS has become a self-serving occupying force of oppressive tactics and criminal intentions.
- Prevent judges and other law enforcement personnel from becoming television celebrities and gaining financially from their sacred status as an impartial overseer and intermediary of the people.
- Prevent government related media programming that conveys any type of subhuman hunting mentality or hateful impassioned rhetoric that objectifies and endangers people under CJS supervision.
- Ensure the Implementation of strict employment and legal consequences for all members of the CJS that commit abuses of power.
- Ensure comprehensive training of all CJS employees to establish empathy and combat the anti-intellectual and 'Us' vs. 'Them' mentality that most CJS abuses are rooted in.
- Establish safety, privacy, adequate information and representation, and free communication for all people in CJS custody.
- End Three-Strikes type legislation that allows the CJS to exploit its captives with impunity.
- End the unsubstantiated and inhumane National Sex Offender database, replacing it with an array of much more objective, specific, purposeful, and effective programs to better prevent inappropriate behavior and protect human rights.
- The U.S. sex-offender registry and most related laws are absolute bullshit based on false information. The U.S. justice system, in multiple landmark cases, repeatedly decided to allow unconstitutional treatment of those convicted of sex crimes based primarily on a reckless opinion that the rate of re-offense was approximately 80%. Worse yet, the source for this opinion was from a 1986 magazine article in Psychology Today that wasn't even verified by anyone during court cases that included the U.S. Supreme Court. In reality, the recidivism rate for sex crimes has been found to be no more than 4% by many independent studies and is one of the lowest re-offense rates of any crime. Now that we know that the registry is based on a lie we have to take it down.
Priorities
- Human rights
- National security
- Public safety
- Fiscal responsibility
Phases
- Initial outline based on my own personal experiences and insights.
- Collaborative refinement and solidification of Action Plan.
- Public forum with vetted membership for cultivating ideas and protecting the rights of all inhabitants and visitors of the United States of America.
- 1.Refuse
Failing to comply with law enforcement will lead to negative consequences and is counterproductive to the causes of peaceful protest and conscientious reform. The following are ways that I believe we can refuse to internalize and perpetuate the repugnant culture of the Criminal Justice System while remaining lawfully compliant.
- Intimidation
The uncontested power, domineering control, and shrouded secrecy of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) provides it with the perfect breeding ground for physical and psychological abuses of its captives. These abuses are undeniably prevalent in the dreadful existence of every United States prisoner. In order to contest the longstanding habituated nature of these abuses we need to stop pacifying and enabling the abusive members of the CJS. The CJS's adverse culture of entitled abusiveness can only continue if we allow it to. Whenever an abuse occurs, we can communicate it to our loved ones and to the rest of the world in order to increase the seriousness and urgency of our abuses in the public's consciousness. Most importantly, we can lawfully communicate our refusal to be casually abused to the corrupt and malevolent members of the CJS who are abusing us. By simply refusing to make light of or feed into their abusiveness we can send a lawful but clear message that their behavior is both unwelcomed and unacceptable.
- Demoralization
The commonly accepted animosity towards and maltreatment of the CJS's captives is maniacally inhumane, counterproductive to rehabilitation, and represents the absolute antithesis of public service and protection. Failing to satisfy any one of the CJS's hundreds of thousands of legal statutes does not give members of the CJS the right to regard and treat people as insensible and inconsequential commodities. The open contempt for and unrelenting disrespect toward the prisoners of the CJS by its members is entirely unacceptable and must be exchanged with a constructive and progressive culture of personal development. The punishment phase of any prisoner's incarceration should be limited to their separation from society. Once a person has been imprisoned they must be lead in a holistically healthy direction with the goals of allowing them an opportunity at self-satisfaction and best ensuring their safe and productive contribution to society upon release.
- Dehumanization
Strip-searches are a form of rape effectively and need to cease immediately. Modern technology has progressed to the point that having any person remove their clothing is entirely unnecessary and therefore blatantly unacceptable as an incomprehensible breach of the CJS's own statutes. Nothing more poignantly exemplifies the subversive animalism of the CJS than its daily coercive stripping, groping, taunting, and public exhibitioning of its prisoners. Likewise, being forced to shower and use the restroom in full view of other persons, hundreds of other persons even, is absolutely barbaric and serves only to debase a person's human identity and values. Every person who is held prisoner by the CJS must be treated with human dignity and respect, regardless of their convictions. Deliberately torturing any living creature is psychotic, sadistic, and criminal. Currently the CJS is afflicting cruel and unusual suffering upon millions of impotent and indefensible human beings in its custody by systematically depriving them of their clothing, privacy, safety, and the final psychological sanctuary of their own bodies. The CJS's process of attempting to animalize and exploit its captives for its own ulterior motives cannot be allowed to continue.
- Emasculation
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- Brainwashing
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- Division
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- Suppression
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- Displacement
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- Hostility
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- Sexual Assault
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- Intimidation
- 2.Refine
- Don't Do This
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- Item 1
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- Item 2
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- Item 3
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet. Duis sagittis ipsum. Praesent mauris. Fusce nec tellus sed augue semper porta. Mauris massa. Vestibulum lacinia arcu eget nulla. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi.
- Don't Do This
- 3.Refocus
- Don't Do This
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- Item 1
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- Item 2
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- Item 3
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi. Nulla quis sem at nibh elementum imperdiet. Duis sagittis ipsum. Praesent mauris. Fusce nec tellus sed augue semper porta. Mauris massa. Vestibulum lacinia arcu eget nulla. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer nec odio. Praesent libero. Sed cursus ante dapibus diam. Sed nisi.
- Don't Do This
- 4.Reform
- Don't Do This
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- Item 1
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- Item 2
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- Item 3
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- Don't Do This
- 5.Referee
- Don't Do This
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- Item 1
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- Item 2
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- Item 3
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- Don't Do This
Positive developments in criminal justice reform have been too few and too slow to make any significant difference for most U.S. prisoners and their families. At this rate it's going to be another half century before we see needed changes. Major sentencing and supervision reductions, humane prison modernization, the abolition of slave labor, technological alternatives to strip searching, and the removal of barbaric public sex offense registries haven't been addressed at all yet. Half the system is being mindlessly propped up by the descendants of people who have previously been beaten down by it and sold out to the highest bidder. Let me know if America gets real about its past and present sins and grows the hell up finally. How can the 13th Amendment not be updated in 2019?
Oregon prosecutes more children as adults than every other U.S. state but Florida. Measure 11 is largely to blame since being passed in 1994 as a result of unproven political fearmongering and mistruths. Now, SB 1008 aims to bring sensible reforms to Measure 11 that will allow many youth offenders a second chance at life once they have matured and demonstrated progress. Research completed since Measure 11 was approved has tought us that human brain development doesn't complete until our mid-to-late 20s, so holding children accountable as adults is not supported by science. SB 1008 passed through the Oregon Senate on April 16 and is now under debate in the House. Update: SB 1008 was passed by the Oregon House on May 23.
Free communication for justice-involved residents is a key component of proper justice, effective rehabilitation and successful reintegration. New York City has become the first major U.S. city to remove exploitative telephone fees from its jails by fully implementing Intro 741-A. Nurturing personal relationships and procuring adequate legal defense through free telephone access is an essential aspect of reducing recidivism and defeating mass incarceration.
New York State budget SFY 19-20 includes many substantial criminal justice reforms that will help countless New Yorkers realize greater justice. Kalief Browder and millions like him demand our greatest efforts to evolve. Reforms include raising the age of criminal responsibility, issuance of court appearance tickets instead of arrest for many offenses, a steep reduction in the use of cash bail, limiting public disclosure of arrest photos, revised discovery laws, greater asset forfeiture accountability, expanded reporting on the use of force by law enforcement, repealing mandatory driver license suspension for drug offenses, the removal of certain mandatory barriers to employment, and more.
The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has created a ground-breaking Mental Health Division to divert people with mental health challenges away from incarceration. Building on years of transformative work including "A Blueprint for Change" in 2015 and California's Mental Health Diversion Bill of 2018, this growing "spirit of collaboration" toward "innovative justice" represents a new frontier in criminal justice reform. With the potential of finally establishing a humane middle ground between the horrors of America's previous insane asylums and the counterproductive terror and destruction of incarceration, L.A. County's commitment to change may ultimately be a solidifying evolutionary "giant leap" for humanity.
Passage of the First Step Act was an upright "first step" toward moral and constitutional legitimacy for present-day America. The lowest hanging fruit is coming down finally after many decades of neglect and spoil. Now the real work of reforming thousands of prisons, how we treat those in greatest need, and the great American ideal at large can begin in earnest. Hats off to everyone involved in moving things forward. Work on the PrisonRef Action Plan continues.
Congratulations U.S.A. on the signing of the First Step Act and Juvenile Justice Reform Act. Historic human investment and bipartisan support has created a significant opportunity for millions of lives to be dramatically improved. Most prisoners and their families will not benefit from this legislation directly but the fact that many will is a reason for celebration and greater hope. Find out more at Global News, MSNBC, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Dick Durbin, CNN, The New York Times, Twitter, and Google.
After 2,183 days of developing PrisonRef, the end is in sight. The original vision for a Criminal Justice and Prison Reform website has been accomplished. Work on the Action Plan is continuing and supplemental content will be added along the way. Progress from here on out might slow to a crawl but the site will get finished. Millions of lives and America's legitimacy as a free, just, and democratic nation are in the balance. Thank you to all of the wonderful people who are working to improve America's broken Criminal Justice System.
Work on the Action Plan has begun. First up is the introductory text in which I will be stating my hope, goals, and priorities for reforming the U.S. Criminal Justice System. Much more important than when the Action Plan is completed is how it is presented. While it is unrealistic to believe that everyone will agree upon and be satisfied with reforms of any kind, my intention is to help as many people as possible through a spirit of common intrinsic sensibility and heartfelt communication.
The fourth and final draft of PrisonRef has come to fruition after 1,948 days of blood, sweat, and tears. The hardest part should be over finally. I'll be taking some time off before writing the Action Plan. If anyone is interested in taking on development responsibilities please let me know. Graphic design experience is also welcomed. My sincere respect and appreciation to all who have helped this human rights milestone become a reality. Your kindness and support will never be forgotten.
Development of Prisonref is now continuing. Prison and Criminal Justice reforms are at the center of the next great step in human evolution. One day soon we are going to look back and wonder how we allowed ourselves to knowingly abandon, torment, and destroy so many failing souls in the name of righteousness. Then, and only then will the healing process begin for us all. By this time next year I am hoping to have the site finished with a comprehensive Action Plan.
Well folks, that's all the prison reform hell and misery I can put myself through. The site remains unfinished but its identity, message, and potential are clear. Five years ago my life suddenly became a throw away existence and every day since I have been in complete shock and disbelief. Working on PrisonRef has given me hope and a place where I could channel my sadness, anguish, and rage. I have done my part. God bless.
The third draft of the site is up. PrisonRef is now mobile ready and can be viewed at all device sizes. Much of the content remains dummy text for design purposes but the look and feel have begun to convey a message of their own. This update is dedicated to our many veterans who have needlessly lost so much of their lives and faith in humanity while mercilessly forsaken in the U.S. Criminal Justice System.
The second draft of the site is up. Lots of cool changes have been made since just before New Year's and I can really see a clear identity coming together. Still not mobile ready yet, much of the content is only dummy text for design purposes, and many of the links do nothing. This update was pure guts. Glad it turned out.
The initial draft of the site was posted online as a heap of bits and pieces borrowed from across the internet. What a mess. The prison bars and black background were created on the first day of development. From there everything began slowly coming together through tedious trial and error experiments and frequent disruptions from all around. The learning curve was seemingly insurmountable and I had serious doubts about being able to adequately focus on, learn, and retain so much technical information. My right of passage as a budding web developer consisted of thousands of Google searches from an outdated laptop that was constantly overheating and abruptly shutting down. Sitting in a stiff and soiled chair with two fans blowing at me in a transitional living facility, somehow over the course of several months PrisonRef began to breath and stare back in my direction. Written January 30, 2018.
After being forcefully removed from society for more than two years, the end of the tunnel was beginning to show daylight finally. My release date from prison was approaching and barring any further unforeseen entanglements I would soon be getting tossed out onto the streets of America in a state of great confusion and disrepair. My daily routine for so long had consisted of studying web development languages and meditating on its use to somehow help fix the world, but suddenly I was beginning to falter. The pain and suffering of going up against Goliath was threatening to become a reality and the temptation of life's enjoyment was calling to me once again. Pushing back forcefully against my overwhelming needs for safety and leisure, I decided to stay the course and fully committed myself by choosing the PrisonRef domain name and writing the introduction. Written January 30, 2018.