Join Us for a Panel Discussion: Policies Tear Families Apart in New Mexico

Award winning journalist, and former Soros Justice Media Fellow, Nell Bernstein, author of ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD: CHILDREN OF THE INCARCERATED

AND Professor Renny Golden, criminologist, published poet, well known activist for social rights in El Salvador and Guatemala, and author of WAR ON THE FAMILY: MOTHERS IN PRISON AND THE CHILDREN THEY LEAVE BEHIND

will discuss their books which reveal how children
and parents are torn apart by the American penal system

Youth from PB&J Family Services, Inc. (a non-profit social service agency that serves families of the imprisoned) will share their personal experiences on how the penal system has affected their lives.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006 6-8 pm
UNM Law School Room 2402

Sponsors: NM Women’s Justice Project, Inc. and PB&J Family Services, Inc.

Co-sponsors include: The Women’s Agenda, Coalition for Justice, American Civil Liberties Union of NM; NM Voices for Children; Drug Policy Alliance-NM; New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty; New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; Southwest Women’s Law Center.

For more information call: Diane Wood, 505.379.9470

ACLU Challenges Overcrowding in Women’s Prison

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-5915 ext. 1002
Maureen Sanders, ACLU-NM Legal Co-Director, 980-8889

Santa Fe—Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed legal papers Tuesday asking a state court to force NM Corrections Secretary Joe Williams to relieve overcrowding in the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. According to the ACLU, inmates are being housed in public communal areas that are not designed for long-term custody, causing increased tensions and fighting among inmates and the backup of sewage into living areas. NM Representative Mimi Stewart and the New Mexico Women’s Justice Project have joined the ACLU in the lawsuit.

“We gave the Corrections Department every opportunity to fix the situation and it failed to relieve the overcrowding,” said ACLU executive director Peter Simonson. “The current conditions seriously threaten the health and safety of the inmates and of the staff. If it takes a court order to force the DOC to resolve the problem, then so be it.”

Specifically, the ACLU is demanding that the Department of Corrections comply with a state law called the Corrections Population Control Act, passed by the NM legislature in 2002. When the inmate population of a correctional facility “exceeds one hundred percent of rated capacity” for a period of sixty consecutive days, the law requires the Corrections Secretary to notify a special legislatively-created commission and provide it with a list of nonviolent offenders who are within one hundred eighty days of their projected release date. The Commission is required to approve people on this list for emergency release to relieve population pressures within the facility.

ACLU legal co-director Maureen Sanders said, “Our records show that the population at the women’s prison has exceeded the six-hundred-person capacity by sixty inmates for more than sixty days. The Secretary has a legal obligation to convene the commission, or he is short-circuiting the wishes of the legislature. The legislature acted responsibly in addressing the overpopulation problem and the safety problems that result by requiring that nonviolent offenders be released. As a society we have a responsibility to ensure that our inmates are housed in safe facilities.”

The ACLU expects that the court will set a hearing within the next ten days.

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Peter G. Simonson
Executive Director | ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566 | Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 | Fax: 266-5916

The Youth Advisory Board (YAB) of the ACLU-NM, in conjunction with the ACLU’s UNM chapter, is sponsoring screenings of two civil liberties related films.
On April 9, the HBO special If These Walls Could Talk will be shown. If These Walls Could Talk tells the stories of three women from three time periods in American history who experience abortions. After the movie, a discussion will be held featuring guest speakers represting both sides of the abortion debate.
Dirty Pictures, starring James Woods, tells the true story of a Cincinatti museum curator who was put on trial for displaying the sexually explicit photographs of artist Robert Maplethorpe. Dirty Pictures will be screened on April 30, and will be followed by a discussion.
Both films will be shown at 6:00 pm at the UNM Student Union Building in Ballroom A.

Who is going to hold the President accountable for breaking the law?

That question should be on the tip of every American’s tongue following revelations that President Bush authorized the illegal wiretapping of an undisclosed number of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

On Tuesday, April 11 from 7:00 to 8:30 PM, ACLU members will have a rare opportunity to tune in via webcast to a national ACLU townhall meeting discussing the legal implications and most recent developments in Congress regarding President Bush’s illegal order authorizing the National Security Agency to spy on Americans.

This webcast (see details for access below) will include Anthony Romero, ACLU Executive Director, John Dean, former White House counsel, and Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard Professor of Constitutional Law, among other panelists.

Please, invite friends and civil liberties advocates to watch this critical event.

The Senate Republican leadership is sponsoring two bills that would retroactively ratify the president’s illegal actions, thereby whitewashing this stunning civil rights abuse. It is imperative that ACLU members contact their Congressional representatives to:

* oppose legislation allowing warrantless surveillance of Americans, and
* support appointing a special counsel to investigate President Bush’s misuse of authority regarding surveillance without warrants on private citizens.

Unless Americans act now, Congress will allow this issue to go unchallenged.

Our Congressional delegates will be home April 10-21. E-mail or call them at

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico @ 346.6601
Email Address: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico @ 323.9017
Email Address: http://wilson.house.gov/Contact.asp

Representative Thomas Udall of New Mexico @ 994.0499
Email Address: http://www.tomudall.house.gov/feedback.cfm?campaign=Udall&type=Helping%20You%20

Here’s what you need to watch the webcast. If a group is interested in watching from the Albuquerque affiliate office, please call Joyce @ 266.5916 ext. 1003 or e-m at communications@aclu-nm.org

WATCH NOW
Windows Media Player format
Real Player format (broadband) Real Player format (dial-up)
Audio only (mp3)

Read more about illegal spying on Americans and the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging the NSA. At www.aclu.org

Joyce Briscoe
Legislative Advocate
ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566
Albuquerque, NM 87103
go to our website at www.aclu-nm.org