This is the note and (presumably) offending image from the history book Guns, Germs, and Steel that was returned to us when we tried to send it to someone encarcerated in the Shelby County Jail in Memphis, TN.

Note: I cut up the note to make it fit together with the image and, in haste, ordered it wrong.  The post-it read:

Book not acceptable due to everyone must be  fully dressed w/ T-shirt & clothes on. 2/21/07 Mailroom.

The Justice Department has quietly opened a new prison unit in Indiana that houses a hodgepodge of second-tier terrorism inmates, most of them Arab Muslims, whose ability to communicate with the outside world has been tightly restricted.

At the Communications Management Unit, or CMU, in Terre Haute all telephone calls and mail are monitored, the number of phone calls is limited and visits are restricted to a total of four hours per month, according to special rules enforced by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. All inmate conversations must be conducted in English unless otherwise negotiated.

TAMPA, Fla. — Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday the state should give $5 million to the family of a teenager who died last year after he was manhandled by juvenile boot camp guards.

Crist’s comments came hours after prosecutors released an enhanced video of the beating of Martin Lee Anderson, 14, and more than 20,000 pages of evidence in the manslaughter case against seven former guards and a nurse.

The family had sued for $40 million, but said in a letter to Crist that a $10 million payment would be a fair resolution — half from the state and half from Bay County, which ran the camp.

Shannon Clark is an inmate from Arizona who blogs through the post at shannoninprison.blogspot.com.  He recently sent a few new posts about relationships, corrections staff, attitudes about gender and violence, and rehabilitation programs in the ADOC.

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This is an interesting follow up to my post earlier this week about mothers in prison.  This image is from a Spanish prison that has cell units for families, allegedly the only such facilities in the world.  

Link 

I came across this article today that describes the surprisingly prevalent practice of shackling incarcerated women while they are in labor.  Apparently, only Illinois and California have laws expressly prohibiting this practice.  Other states have formal policies banning the practice, and some others claim to have informal policies.  The article states that "Many states justify restraints because the prisoners remain escape risks, though there have apparently been no instances of escape attempts by women in labor." 

It seems like everyone in Bloomington is pretty aware of the overcrowded conditions at the Monroe County jail, but I hadn’t seen the visual reality until I saw this photo in the Indiana Daily Student today:

Link

The Real Cost of Prisons Project has started collecting comics and writing from people in prison and posting it on their website.

Below are some examples of the work.

Link to prison comics
Link to prison writing

This story shows some interesting things, including the massive number of incarcerated people in total, and especially in places like California. Also, it shows the connections between prison management and private industry. Finally, I think it shows the outlandish scenarios that happen when the industry of the construction of prisons comes before assessing the role that we want incarceration to play in our society.

-Geoff

From the Indianapolis Star:

Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to make money by opening Indiana prisons to inmates from packed California prisons has fallen short, with few convicts volunteering and what may be insurmountable objections and concerns from prisoner advocates and guards.

Despite the setback, Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue said Saturday the state hasn't given up on the notion of housing prisoners from other states.