The Struggle to Slow Mass Incarceration Movement In PA

September 23, 2013 | Angus Love, Esq. | The Legal Intelligencer

During last year's annual opportunity to pontificate on institutional issues in this respected venue, I mentioned the possibility of groundbreaking legislation in Harrisburg that would address prison overcrowding. The bill, titled SB 100, did pass into law and became Act 122. This year, I will examine the final legislative product and offer my thoughts on its effectiveness and provide context on the struggle to slow the mass incarceration movement in Pennsylvania.

In my capacity as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, I frequently tour our prisons and jails. Recently, I looked out over the recreational yard at the State Correctional Institution in Dallas, Pa., and saw hundreds of predominately young African-American men milling around and participating in several recreational activities. It brought to mind an old joke by Richard Pryor who had gone to a prison and was expecting to see the fruit of our justice system but saw only "just us," meaning a huge number of African-Americans. A similar experience in the Philadelphia Prison System was even more striking as individuals other than African-American were few and far between.

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Advocacy for Prisoners' Rights: Civil Litigation in the Criminal Justice World

Fall 2013 | Angus Love, Esq. | Management Information Exchange Journal

The long trek from arrest to release from confinement or supervision poses some interesting challenges for the civil and criminal legal organizations that represent indigent persons. More and more individuals are caught up in the ever expanding criminal justice system, especially people of color. Currently there are almost seven million persons or 2.9% of the American population under correctional supervision, including 2.5 million people in prisons. In a nation that houses 25% of the world's prison population, the need for legal assistance is enormous. This rapid expansion of the prison population, ongoing since 1980, is unprecedented in our nation's history. Curiously, the expansion occurred at the same time as and at a similar rate to the expansion in our country's income gap.

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A Consensus Is Building for Sentencing Reform

July 2, 2012 | Angus Love | The Legal Intelligencer

Pennsylvania, as well as the rest of the nation, has undergone a tremendous change in sentencing practices for the past 30 years. Policy decisions such as the introduction of the sentencing guidelines, mandatory sentences and the war on drugs have resulted in a major shift of thinking and reallocation of resources toward the increased reliance on incarceration to solve many social ills.

Legislatures and executives have taken away much of the discretion of judges and transferred much of the sentencing practices to the domain of the legislatures. They have declared the scourge of drug addiction to be a criminal problem rather than a disease and passed laws emphasizing punishment rather than treatment for addicts.

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With Different Flavor, City Prison Crowding Suit Settles

June 13, 2011 | Amaris Elliott-Engel | The Legal Intelligencer

When Philadelphia’s inmates have sued the city over crowding in city jails, the litigation has resulted in caps on the number of inmates held by correctional authorities and decades of supervision by federal judges.

But what the litigation never seemed to accomplish - at least for very long - were significant, sustainable reductions in the prison population.

The latest litigation over conditions of confinement in the Philadelphia Prison System appears to be breaking with past history. The system is holding 7,955 inmates, down from a population bulge of 9,800 that criminal justice leaders worried would break 10,000. The system is designed for 6,800.

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Mayor's Budget Cuts Should Include Phila. Prison System

December 22, 2008 | Angus Love | The Legal Intelligencer

Major Strasser’s been shot, round up the usual suspects." These words from Capt. Louis Renault in the closing scene of the epic film "Casablanca" sadly reflect criminal justice policies in Philadelphia for too many years.

All too often, quantity has replaced quality in the quest for public safety in our city. The usual suspects in our case are often people of color, the homeless, substance abusers and the seriously mentally ill. Are these the right folks to be targeting?

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The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project awarded grant from the Impact Fund

February 26, 2008 |   | The Pennsylvania Gazette

The Impact Fund announced that it has awarded a grant of $12,000 to PaILP to assist in the Williams v. Phila class action lawsuit. The case challenges conditions of confinement throughout the Philadelphia Prison System [PPS]. More specifically, it challenges the recent practice of triple celling in cells originally designed for one person and double bucked several years ago. The tripling is achieved by placing a temporary plastic boat/bed on the floor during night time hours.

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Jailhouse Lawyers: Nuisance or Necessity?

September, 1993 | Angus Love, Esq. | The Pennsylvania Lawyer

Jailhouse lawyers are individuals who are usually self-taught, probably well-educated and have decided to utilize their legal talents on behalf of themselves and others seeking legal assistance in the prison environment. They often work in the prison law library and are occasionally paid officially or unofficially for their efforts.

Gary Rock is one of the best jailhouse lawyers in Pennsylvania. While serving a life sentence he has educated himself not only in the area of criminal law while fighting his conviction but also in many other important areas of the law, including due process and civil rights.

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