From the Editor
This month’s cover story on death and abuse at the Riverside County jails in California is an all-too-common account from American jails. With around 3,700 jails around the country, in every community, it is fair to say that this is the story of every jail. Large or small, none seem to be especially well run when it comes to simple things like providing medical care and mental health care treatment, which begs the question of why are people being locked in facilities where basic lifesaving amenities are not being provided?
The surprise nomination of Kamala Harris to be the Democratic candidate for president in the 2024 election has brought some scrutiny to her track record as a prosecutor and attorney general. I have already done a number of media interviews noting that while serving as California attorney general, Harris argued against transgender prisoners being able to receive gender-affirming medical care. In seeking to vacate population reduction orders to reduce the California state prison population because of its inability to provide adequate medical care, Harris argued that releasing low-level prisoners would deprive the state of thousands of prisoner slave-labor firefighters being paid $1 a day to fight fires.
When she was prosecutor for San Francisco County, she was avid about prosecuting and convicting thousands of poor marijuana users. When asked if she was a marijuana smoker herself she laughed and said she was. I think it is fair to say that for her entire political career, she has been a shill for the American police state and pushed for more cops, longer sentences and harsher prison conditions. This leaves aside her support for the death penalty and harsh sentencing in general.
I would like to thank our readers who send us their verdicts and settlements for the cases they win. Please continue sending them to us so we can report them in PLN and CLN. We also post the documents on our websites as well.
Enjoy this issue of PLN and please encourage others to subscribe.
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login