80 year old arrested for wearing anti war tee shirt at New York mall

An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall
Saturday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to
remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.


Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at
the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described
as "graphic anti-war images." Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the
Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of
American military personnel and Iraqis -- 4,000 and 1 million -- and
the words "Dead" and "Enough." The shirt also has three blotches
resembling blood splatters.


Police said in a release Saturday night that Zirkel was handing out
anti-war pamphlets to mallgoers and that mall security told him to
stop and turn his shirt inside out. Zirkel refused to turn his shirt
inside out and wouldn't leave, police said. Security placed him on
"civilian arrest" and called police. When police arrived, Zirkel
passively resisted attempts to bring him to a police car, the release
said.

Source and full story

Canada: One dead after prison uprising

A federal prison inmate is dead and another is in hospital following a violent uprising Saturday night in Agassiz, B.C.

Mountain Institution, a medium security facility, is still under lockdown after a number of inmates at the prison began breaking windows in the gymnasium just before 10 p.m. local time.

Staff at the facility were threatened and other inmates were attacked, according to a news release put out by the Correctional Service of Canada.

Source and full story

Statement from Pam Africa regarding court decision and April 19 Philly Demonstration

Last week’s court decision was not a victory. While we obviously prefer to have Mumia alive, instead of executed, life in prison without parole is an unacceptable sentence for an innocent man that was convicted with a blatantly unfair trial. Further, there is still no guarantee that he will not be executed. Also, even if the overturning of the death penalty is eventually finalized, there is no guarantee that he will be moved into the general prison population, because the government has always found ways to make “exceptions” for political prisoners like Mumia.

Source and full story

U.S. Official: 1 in 10 Prisoners Eligible for Deportation

At least 304,000 immigrant criminals eligible for deportation are behind bars nationwide, a top federal immigration official said Thursday.

That is the first official estimate of the total number of such convicts in federal, state and local prisons and jails.

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie L. Myers, said the annual number of deportable immigrant inmates was expected to vary from 300,000 to 455,000, or 10 percent of the overall inmate population, for the next few years.

Source and full story

Eric McDavid's Sentencing Hearing postponed again

From the Sacramento Prisoner Support Committee:

Please note that sentencing has been rescheduled for March 10th at 9:00am. We sincerely hope that this doesn't interfere with anyone's plans to make it out and we thank you for being understanding. We are hopeful that this is the last time Eric's sentencing will be pushed back. We will continue to update this site with the most current information we have regarding the date of his sentencing.

Source and previous updates