Nearly 30 years ago, the sitting United States Attorney for the state
of Alabama lost his chance to become a federal judge due to concerns
about his views on race. Among other things, he’d labeled the NAACP an “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” organization
that “forced civil rights down the throats of people.” He’d conducted a
tenuous criminal investigation into voting rights advocates,
culminating in an unsuccessful prosecution against a former aide to Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. And an African American attorney who once worked
for him testified that the nominee said that he “used to think [the
KKK] were OK” until he found out some of them were “pot smokers,” that
the nominee referred to his black subordinate as “boy,” and that the
nominee had told the black attorney to “be careful what you say to white
folks” after the nominee heard the attorney chastising a white
secretary.
We’re talking, of course, about United States Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-AL).
Read on...
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Showing posts with label Alabama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alabama. Show all posts
Alabama Agriculture Department Advances Plan To Replace Immigrant Workers With Prisoners
ThinkProgress has been reporting on the catastrophic economic consequences of Alabama’s harshest-in-the-nation immigration law. Undocumented workers are the backbone of Alabama’s agriculture industry, and their exodus has already created a labor shortage in the state. Farmers say crops are rotting in the field and they are in danger of losing their farms by next season.
GOP politicians have crowed that driving immigrants out of the state will reduce unemployment by letting native citizens fill those jobs. But they’ve quickly discovered that Americans are simply unwilling to do the back-breaking labor of harvesting crops.
To stave off the disastrous collapse of state agriculture, Alabama officials are seriously considering replacing immigrant workers with prison laborers who they could perhaps pay even less than immigrants. Earlier this year, the head of Alabama’s agriculture department floated this idea. Now, the department is actively promoting it to the state’s farmers:
Alabama Town Says Church or Jail
Yes, this is what the beginning of a theocracy looks like. A small town in Alabama is forcing individuals charged with misdemeanors to choose between serving time in Jail or time at a Christian only church. Yeah, you read that right.
Starting this week, the city judge [of Bay Minette, Alabama] will implement Operation Restore Our Community (ROC), which gives misdemeanor offenders a choice between fines and jail or a year of Sunday church services. [...]Pastor Robert Gates told WRKG that the program was a win-win for everyone involved.
"You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I'll show you a person who won't be a problem to society," he said.
ACLU of Alabama director Olivia Turner called the policy "blatantly unconstitutional."
Alabama and South Carolina: Stop Segregating HIV-Positive Prisoners
Conditions in HIV Units ‘Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading’
Birmingham, Alabama) - Alabama and South Carolina should immediately change their policy of segregating HIV-positive prisoners from the rest of the prison population, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU National Prison Project concluded in a report released today. Prisoners in the designated HIV units face stigma, harassment, and systematic discrimination that amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment, the report found. The 45-page report, "Sentenced to Stigma: Segregation of HIV-Positive Prisoners in Alabama and South Carolina," says that prisoners in the HIV units are forced to wear armbands or other indicators of their HIV status, are forced to eat and even worship separately, and are denied equal participation in prison jobs, programs, and re-entry opportunities that facilitate their transition back into society.Read on...
Here is the link to the report. Tom
Advocates Settle Lawsuit on Voting Rights, Historic Voter Education Effort to Proceed in Alabama Prisons
Alabama Joins Only Vermont and Maine in Allowing Certain People to Vote While Incarcerated in State PrisonsLocal and National Organizations Join the New Bottom Line Campaign to Enter Jails and Hit the Streets to Register Eligible Voters with Felony Convictions for Drug Possession
WASHINGTON - October 22 - Yesterday, a settlement was reached between The Ordinary People's Society (TOPS) and the Alabama Department of Corrections, allowing Reverend Glasgow to resume his non-partisan ministry to register eligible voters currently incarcerated in the state's correctional facilities.
The lawsuit was filed after the Alabama Department of Corrections cancelled Reverend Glasgow's ministry following the Alabama Republican Party's objection to his voter education activities. NAACP Legal Defense Fund, under Ryan Haygood, acted as counsel for TOPS in the lawsuit
Read on...
WASHINGTON - October 22 - Yesterday, a settlement was reached between The Ordinary People's Society (TOPS) and the Alabama Department of Corrections, allowing Reverend Glasgow to resume his non-partisan ministry to register eligible voters currently incarcerated in the state's correctional facilities.
The lawsuit was filed after the Alabama Department of Corrections cancelled Reverend Glasgow's ministry following the Alabama Republican Party's objection to his voter education activities. NAACP Legal Defense Fund, under Ryan Haygood, acted as counsel for TOPS in the lawsuit
Read on...
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