       
Sometimes people in our society commit crimes. Sometimes the crimes they commit are truly heinous, but many of those incarcerated in America's prisons are there for non-violent crimes; some are, in fact, truly innocent of the crimes for which they are incarcerated.
No matter what the crime committed, the Constitution of the United States and that of the Great State of Arkansas guarantee each and every citizen certain basic civil rights. There is nothing in either constitution which makes it alright for people in jails and prisons to be chained and beaten, starved, over-medicated on psychothropic drugs, thrown into dungeons (known in our society as "The Hole") for years at a time, denied adequate medical care, terrorized, tortured, and murdered. In fact, there are many decisions of both the US and the Arkansas Supreme Courts which specifically prohibit these inhumane and barbaric practices. Yet these very things happen routinely, some of them daily in Arkansas prisons even as our President calls for human rights reform in other countries.
If we are a country which truly values human rights; if Arkansas is a state which respects human life and dignity there are certain necessary changes which must be made to bring Arkansas into the 20th century before the 21st century dawns. Below are listed some of the changes which are necessary to begin to accomplish this goal:
1) Routine medical procedures performed in ADC prison Infirmaries must only be performed by qualified medical professionls employed by the State of Arkansas, not a contracted HMO. Non-routine medical care and all invasive procedures must be provided by doctors and hospitals in each prison unit's local area on a fee-for-service basis in order to assure inmates of the Arkansas Department of Correction receive adequate medical care.
2) Immediate termination of any ADC employee found guilty of in the performance of their official duties inflicting physical or mental brutality on inmates or interested parties
3) Sentencing parity must be established in order to assure that people of comparable criminal histories found guilty of comparable crimes receive comparable sentences.
4) The Executive Clemency system must be non-politicized in order to assure that truly rehabilitated inmates receive a fair chance at obtaining Executive Clemency.
This is just the beginning of the list. New items will be added as they are brought to our attention.
       
Tell the Governor of Arkansas what you think

Explore Arkansas' River of Blood

Follow the Blood Trail

Visit the Cummins Unit Farm and read the stories of some of those incarcerated there

Meet Rolf Kaestel, read his Executive Clemency appeal and raise your voice to free him from the ADC

Read and view the artistic works of men and women incarcerated in the Dark and Evil World

        |