Fascinating and informative doc. Be sure to watch the whole thing to see the exchange between the head of Empire Bail Bonds and a man snagged for not reporting to court.
The US is the only first-world country that commercializes bail. The for-profit industry rakes in more than $2 billion annually in revenue. Most criminal defendants can’t pay the full bail amount and must either stay in jail or pay a 10 percent fee to secure a bond, which they won’t recoup even if found not guilty.
Nothing can stop a message that needs to be heard. As many examples of literature have shown since the 20th century, not even prison. In the 21st century, however, the platforms from which prison literature can reach the People has expanded into the world of technology. Penned, recorded and filmed inside of his cell at an undisclosed Level 4 prison in California, Lil’ Spank’s “Black August” attests to this new power at prisoners’ disposal.
Here is some more info on the video from it’s YouTube descritption:
To commemorate Black August 2015, Lil Spank Booty and MaeJAH League concocted a visual experience that functions as both a music video for his new single “Black August,” as well as a collage of hundreds of years of Black history.
“Sity By Da Border” mixtape coming soon!
Produced by: Signed X
Spank is currently serving a 37 year bid on trumped up charges for armed robbery and multiple accounts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Every time I see a case like this I always wonder why the prosecutors and the lying witness are not thrown in jail for wrongly convicting an innocent man and having the majority of life snatched away.
When I hear tragic stories such as this one, I am perplexed as to why the prosecutors in these cases are never brought up on serious criminal charges if they are guilty of mishandling of evidence in order to secure a conviction. This man lost a major portion of his adult life and even if he is awarded a few million he will never get his life back.
via The Root
Fleming was about to be eligible for parole later this year, but Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson got involved and decided to speed up the process, announcing his intentions to dismiss the charges “in the interest of justice,” the Post notes.
It’s good news, but his lawyers are not especially impressed, given the years lost in the debacle. “Mr. Fleming is very happy that this day has come, but it’s too little, too late,” Koss said. “The man suffered for almost 25 years for a crime he didn’t commit.”
Not saying you guys would need this.
via LiveSteez
Kimberly Jones, also known as the provocative, foul-mouthed rapper “Lil Kim,” has confirmed her plans to write a tell-all book about her prison experience.
Jones was found guilty of perjury after she lied about her former Junior M.A.F.I.A. group member and co-manager’s involvement in a 2001 shooting in Manhattan, New York, and was sentenced to a year and one day in prison. In 2005 Jones was sent to prison and was released in September 2006 after serving only 10 months, reports The Post Chronicle.
Jones explained “it?s about the time when I stayed in prison, the things I learned and went through. You don?t think about things until it happens to you. The book is going to give people who have been in those situations a bright outlook on life.?
The rapper said the book titled, “The Price of Loyalty,” is meant to provide inspiration to others, specifically those who are serving time in prison.
via Daily News
Bare-bones bunk beds with meager mattresses, white-washed cinderblock walls and a shared sink.
Jet-setting financier Bernard Madoff relocated Thursday to Manhattan digs a bit more spartan and cramped than he enjoyed while fleecing his oblivious clients. 
Inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, typically home to terrorists, gangsters and drug dealers, the high-rolling Ponzi scheme mastermind is one of 750 inmates.
His sprawling East Side duplex is just a memory, replaced by a 7-1/2-by-8-foot cell. After 45 years of waking up with wife Ruth, Madoff may share his room with another inmate.
Instead of a leisurely weekend brunch, the 70-year-old Madoff gets a 6 a.m. wake-up call with breakfast served 30 minutes later. Continue reading
via CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The number of executions in U.S. prisons hit a 14-year-low in 2008, continuing a downward trend and coinciding with a drop in juries handing out death sentences, according to a year-end report.
The Death Penalty Information Center estimates 111 defendants will be sentenced to death this year, the lowest figure since executions were reinstated in 1976.
Just 37 people were put to death in 2008, compared with a record amount of 98 executions in 1999. Texas carried out nearly half of this year’s executions, and one state outside the South carried out executions — Ohio, with two. No executions are scheduled for the rest of the year.
The reduced figures were helped by a de facto Supreme Court moratorium that put off any capital punishment for the first four months of 2008.
The high court ruled in April that lethal injection procedures in Kentucky were constitutional, lifting an unofficial ban on the procedure that had been in place for about eight months while the justices considered the appeal. That case involved convicted murderers Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowling, who both remain on death row in that state. Continue reading
via M&C
Johannesburg – Former South African President Nelson Mandela has instructed his lawyers to take action against a London art gallery that is selling artwork it says was produced by the anti- apartheid icon, South Africa’s SAPA news agency reported late Friday.
The Belgravia Gallery is selling lithographs it says Mandela produced during a return visit in 2001/2002 to Robben Island, his prison of 18 years off Cape Town, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Gallery director Anna Hunter told the newspaper she had personally witnessed Mandela signing the works in 2002.
According to SOHH.COM in the upcoming debut issue of Monsta magazine the big homie Game will be revealing that he plans to cop out to a felony charge of possession of a weapon stemming from a fight he had last year while playing ball. Apparently he is facing four months instead of the five years he could’ve recieved if found guilty. He had this to say in defense of the sudden cop-out:
“The crazy part about this is that I’ve had guns before in my life,” he explained. “But this time I didn’t have a gun. And because one person said I had a gun and coaxed his homies into saying that I had a gun, I’m in a predicament where I’m asking, Do I want to spend another million dollars to fight this trial so who knows what jury’s gonna come in and say I’m guilty? Or do I want to save my money, go sit down for four months and accept this felony they’re trying to give me for no reason?”
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