CIVIL RIGHTS and HEALTH CARE VIOLATIONS IN OUR PRISONS
The School-to-Prison Pipeline
A COMEN DETECTIVE AGENCY
NATIONAL INVESTIGATION
THE CASE: Building a future international model for successful cities and towns by examining the prison system in California and the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Charleston, South Carolina, and Philidelphia Pennsylvania.
I. THE PROBLEMS
A. EDUCATION
1. Charleston County, South Carolina School Districts
School failure rate in grades 3-8. According to Acting Charleston County School Superintendent Donald Kennedy, 51% of our all 3rd through 8th graders are reading below grade level. 75% of students in poverty are reading below grade level. 81% of Black students read below the poverty level. This is a national problem.
School-to-Prison Pipeline. Black people constituted 29% of state residents, but 53% of people in jail and 60% of people in prison are black. Since 1970, the total jail population has increased by 251%. In 2015, pretrial detainees constituted 70% of the total jail population in South Carolina. The state of South Carolina has failed to live up to the principles upon which this country was founded.
2. Education in California More than half of California's students are reading below grade level, according to a survey that assessed third-grade reading performance in nearly 300 school districts. The California Reading Coalition released its report card earlier this month, which ranks the state near the bottom on national tests. Results from the 2019 National Association of Educational Progress
show that only 32% of fourth-graders are reading proficiently. These results put California below the national average and behind 25 other states.
B. PRISON POPULATIONS
1. Charleston Prison's populations are 60% black inmates.
2. California The imprisonment rate for African American men is 4,236 per 100,000 people—ten times the imprisonment rate for white men, which is 422 per 100,000. For Latino men, the imprisonment rate is 1,016 per 100,000; for men of other races it is 314. African American women are also overrepresented.
Prison population in California is 137% - 37% over-population requirement.
Civil Rights Violations of Inmates in the California Prison System Below are two of the areas of concern backed by Supreme Court decisions on the national level as well as the work of a three-judge court in California. I am investigating a number of civil rights violations involving ten inmates (so far) in Lancaster, California prison alone. This investigation involves civil rights violations involving defense attorney actions as well as the neglect of prisoners' healthcare.
Health Services according to a three-judge panel (reiterating a quote from the Plata vs. Brown case in 2005 and 2013): "The prison medical delivery system is in such a blatant state of crisis that in recent days, defendants (the California Department of Corrections) have publicly conceded their inability to find and implement on their own solutions that will meet constitutional standards. The state's failure has caused a vacuum of leadership and utter disarray in the management, supervision, and delivery of care in the Department of Corrections medical system."
There are close to ten inmates at Lancaster Prison alone who have contacted us about helping alleviate healthcare complaints.
Lack of Investigation by Defense Attorneys (a U.S. Supreme Court violation)
Defense Attorney Required to Follow Through on Appeal
In Anders v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that counsel appointed to represent a criminal defendant must "support his client's appeal to the best of his ability." The court finds that this constitutional obligation was violated when the defense counsel appointed to represent the defendant on appeal simply submitted a letter to the court expressing his opinion that the appeal had no merit and withdrew from the case. The court ruled that the defense attorney had a duty to fully investigate the case's merits and fully justify his reasons for refusing to file an appeal. In addition, the defendant should have an opportunity to rebut the attorney's arguments, and the appeals court should have the leeway to reject the attorney's arguments, to permit the appeal, and to appoint new counsel.
Our case involves a Syrian-born American citizen charged and convicted of a crime. His case was not investigated. I am now investigating it, looking to get him a new trial. I feel I can prove his innocence. My client was Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's bodyguard, driver, and interpreter while the secretary was in Iraq.
C. SOLUTION
1. Education
Young people need to be made guided toward their future careers as early as Middle School. Classes should be divided into houses based on the college concept of grouping students into a number of career pathways, i.e., government/legal, agriculture, teaching, medical, manufacturing/business, space/science, etc. Lectures by practitioners from these career fields should be added to the curriculum.
2. Prisons
The School to Prison Pipeline must be closed. Students must see the light at the end of the tunnel toward careers and success.
Defending Inmates' Civil Rights and Ramping Up Healthcare.
Groups like the ALEPH group ( https://aleph-institute.org/wp/ ) in New York must pull together other national Inmate Rights groups to lobby legislatures and the medical community to help prisons deal with these growing violations of civil rights and poor healthcare.
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