1 January 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Capital punishment on the decline in Texas

originally by: Star-Telegram
published: 26th December 2011

The American public’s opinion on the death penalty has been changing steadily in the past 17 years. A 2011 Gallup Poll showed that 61 percent of people in the country favor capital punishment, down from 80 percent in 1994. A majority of Americans still believe that capital punishment is a justified and proportionate option for those who commit the most heinous premeditated crimes.

But they also believe that if the state is going to exact a punishment from which there is no turning back, the criminal justice system must be as fair as humanly possible.

And when jurors are given an effective alternative to a sentence of death — life without the possibility of parole — they use it.

10 December 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Yarl’s Wood detains too many pregnant women, prisons inspector says

originally by: The Guardian
published: 7th Dec 2011

The detention of “too many” pregnant women at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre has been heavily criticised by the chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick. Hardwick particularly highlighted the case of one pregnant detainee who had endured a four-day journey from Belfast to Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire via Scotland and Manchester airport, where she had collapsed.

The privately-run centre was the scene of a major riot and fire in 2002 and is now the main detention centre for women facing deportation from Britain. At the time of the inspection in July, it held 229 women and 27 male partners. Children have not been held there since December 2010.

5 December 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Locking up children for life in the US

originally by: Amnesty International USA
published: 30th November 2011

While their peers are finding dates for prom, submitting college applications, and starting families, over 2,500 prisoners sit behind bars in the US without the possibility of parole.

What makes these prisoners unique is that they were all sentenced for crimes committed while they were children.

The US is the only country in the world that pursues life imprisonment without parole against children – and it does so regularly. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child expressly prohibits life imprisonment without the possibility of release committed by people under 18 years old.

All countries except the USA and Somalia have ratified the Convention.