28 January 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

NAACP invokes Troy Davis legacy in anti-death penalty drive

originally by: Blackstarnews.com
published: 23rd Jamuary 2012

Motivated by the tragic execution of Troy Davis in Georgia last September, the NAACP has renewed its fight to make the death penalty a part of America’s past. Over the next year, NAACP state representatives in several key states will urge their legislators to take the necessary steps to repeal the ultimate punishment.

“People in this country care about justice and fairness,” says Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the National NAACP. “Unfortunately, Troy Davis’s case and too many other cases in our country demonstrate that these elements are sorely lacking in the application of capital punishment in this nation. African Americans and the poor are disproportionately handed this extreme punishment for the same offenses as their wealthier or White counterparts.”

28 January 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Boy found unconscious at HM Prison Cookham Wood dies

originally by: BBC News
published: 26th January 2012

A 15-year-old boy has died after being found unconscious in his cell at a young offenders institution in Kent. The Prison Service said Alex Kelly had been identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm, but did not give details of the boy’s condition when he was found. Kelly was taken to hospital from HMP Cookham Wood, near Rochester, but he later died, a spokeswoman said.

He had been serving a 10-month sentence for burglary and theft from a vehicle. The teenager was found in his cell at about 20:30 GMT on Tuesday.

Staff tried to resuscitate him and paramedics attended before he was taken to hospital, but he was pronounced dead at 19:30 GMT on Wednesday.

17 January 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

New law will send women to jail needlessly, peers warn

originally by: The Independent
published: 15th January 2012

Thousands of women will be sent to jail needlessly if new criminal justice legislation is allowed into law in its current form, a group of cross-party peers warn this weekend ahead of a vote in the House of Lords. A new Ministry of Justice bill on sentencing must be changed radically to take account of women, they say, if the Government is to reduce the growing number of women being given custodial sentences.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishing Offenders Bill (LASPO), which currently contains no reference to women offenders in the entire document, will shepherd more women into a prison system designed for men, critics claim.