Brigette's Blog

Prisoners of a Hard Life, the latest comic book from the Real Cost of Prisons Project is now available on the web. Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women & Their Children packs solid information and compelling stories into sixteen graphic pages.

There’s a lot of lip service given to the needs of crime victims by both law enforcement and politicians. But are all crime victims really equal in the eyes of the law?

In a July 24th story in the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times Leader, Police Chief Gerry Dessoye seemed to blame the spike in the violent crime rate in that city on the victims themselves. As reported in the Times-Leader, Dessoye made a distinction between “true” victims and those who put themselves in harm’s way. He contrasted a family whose home is burglarized while they are on vacation to people who are in high crime areas late at night (Pop Quiz: if your family can’t afford a vacation, but your home is burglarized nonetheless, are you a true victim or a fake victim?).

Anyone who has been convicted of a felony, or knows someone who has been convicted of a felony, has come face to face with the sad truth that America is rarely a land of second chances. Once convicted of a felony offense, the “collateral consequences” can be confusing and unending.

Ever since the horrific photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison outside Bagdad came to light last year, there has been a steady stream of stories in the press about the extensive nature of abuse of prisoners and detainees in the “War on Terror” by U.S. authorities. At the same time, major human rights organizations have redoubled their efforts to hold the U.S. government accountable for these sickening and outrageous violations of  human rights.