Update on pads; grievance about bras/panties/clothing state issue, needs your help!

I got a call from Shawna today & she & other ladies send a huge thx to all that helped get the ladies their pads, she said they came around and passed out 30 pads to each woman. Unfortunately, immediately afterwards, in an act of revenge, DOC went and destroyed all the plants and adobes the inmates had been working so hard on to improve their environment. Obviously they care NOTHING for morale, and only want to play petty power games and stomp on people beneath them like junior high bullies.

Now the next thing they would ask people to call/email/snail mail about its the fact DOC is not giving the ladies their state issue bra's & panties & other clothing items. DOC uses excuses about "nothing on the shelf" available! Where is all their money going?? This is just ridiculous, they are violating their own policy.  Not many can afford to just buy all that on the low wages they make, and after paying electric, medical & medication co-pays & etc. Hopefully, we can make a difference here.  Some contact info:

ADC Contact Information

Central Office

1601 W. Jefferson

Phoenix, AZ 85007

602-542-5497

You may contact the Family and Friends Liaison by email IFFLiaison@azcorrections.gov or telephone (602) 364-3945 or in-state toll-free (866) 333-2039.

Perryville

Main Telephone:

(623) 853-0304

Main Fax:

(623) 853-0425

Physical Address:

2105 North Citrus Road

Goodyear, AZ 85395

United States

Kim Currier

Warden

Governor Doug Ducey's info:   

Phone Number:

(602) 542-4331

Fax Number:

(602) 542-7601

Address

1700 W. Washington Street

Phoenix, AZ 85007

United States

On the Web

http://www.azgovernor.gov/

Gov. site email form:         https://azgovernor.gov/engage/form/contact-governor-ducey   (copy/paste)

Phone cards

Shawna is in need of some money for phone cards to call her family.  If anyone can donate 5 to 10 dollars or more, it would be great!!  Thanks from Shawna!  

January yard update

AZ DOC refusing to provide sanitary pads to women, this is a health concern

    AZ DOC has decided to NOT provide female inmates with sanitary pads each month.  They are going to have to buy them from commissary.  This will place undue and unfair financial stress on many of the women.  Menstruation is a bodily function for all females.  This is is unfair discrimination.  The prison is supposed to provide the basic needs for each inmate.  Where's all the AZ taxpayer money going?    Please contact the warden and additional office below and politely let them know this is unacceptable.  Bodily functions are NOT controllable!  I will be contacting the ACLU as well.  thx

Kim Currier

Warden

AS(623) 853-0425

PC - Perryville

PO Box 3000

Goodyear, AZ 85338

 Telephone:

(623) 853-0304

Main Fax:

Arizona Department of Corrections

1601 W. Jefferson

Phoenix, AZ 85007

Phone: 602-542-5497

Office of the Director

Director Charles L. Ryan 602-542-5225

Shawna's books, for transparency

More news about AZ giving humanity to DR prisoners

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-investigations/2017/12/19/arizona-death-row-inmates-moved-giving-more-human-contact-socialization/951808001/

AZ in the news

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6960




Several months after Arizona settled a lawsuit over the conditions of confinement on the state's death row, the state has ended the practice of automatically housing condemned prisoners in solitary confinement, and prisoners and prison officials alike are praising the changes. Carson McWilliams (pictured), Division Director for Offender Operations in the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC), told the Arizona Republic that the new incarceration conditions provide an "atmosphere where [prisoners] can socialize," resulting in "reduce[d] anxiety" that, in turn, "adds to safety control" of the prison. And, prison officials say, it has reduced institutional costs. Prior to the lawsuit, death row had meant 23-hour-per-day confinement in a concrete cell the size of a parking space, shuttered by a steel door with a perforated slot through which the prisoners would receive their meals, and with a bench bed and a sink attached to an uncovered toilet. Prisoners had no contact visits with families or lawyers, were handcuffed behind the back and subjected to body-cavity searches whenever they left their cells, and were restricted to showering or exercising three times a week. They also were denied prison jobs and educational opportunities. About the solitary conditions, McWilliams remarked, "The more you're restricted inside a cell, the more likely you are to have depression, to have anxiety, to have other types of mental problems that could lead to some type of problem inside the system, whether its self harm, or suicide, or aggression towards a staff member or towards another inmate." One death-row prisoner who was interviewed by the paper said, "It’s hard to explain the deprivation. . . . It weighs on your mind." McWilliams said it now requires fewer officers to manage death row because officers no longer have to deliver individual meals or individually escort each of the 120 prisoners. Kevin Curran, who has been a prison warden at various facilities run by the ADC, said that he "feels safer among the death-row men than among the career criminals and gangsters in the general population." Under the new conditions, prisoners are able to socialize with each other in activities such as playing basketball, volleyball, or board games, and can eat meals together. One ADC corrections officer told the Arizona Republic that he was "apprehensive" at first about the changes, but the transition has been "very good" with only a "few minor incidents," which were "a lot less" than he expected.

(M. Kiefer, Arizona death row comes out of solitary, giving convicts more human contact, socialization, Arizona Republic, Dec. 19, 2017.) See Death Row.

Disturbing update from Shawna

English Version of Documentary with Shawna Forde interview 2017

Here's a link to view the film: Voici le lien de la version anglaise :
Vimeo link : https://vimeo.com/243119201
Password : women#VA

Women on death row #Eng #Edith Paris

International Distribution #Edith Paris www.edithparis.com

vimeo.com

Arizona Statelines from The Wing

Warm greetings to everyone on both sides of the pond – I hope this finds you all in good spirits and that your friendships, both new and old, are going well. Thank you to everyone for your letters and emails; it is always good to hear from you.

I am sorry to say we lost one of our friends on the row – Albert Carreon died of an illness on 8th September aged 55. He had been on the row for 14 years. May he rest in peace now. My thoughts are with his penfriend at this difficult time.

Now an update on the legal case originally brought by a coalition of news organisations in 2014, which has received its final ruling: Arizona does not have to reveal who provides its execution drugs or divulge the qualifications of people who carry out executions. U.S. District Judge Snow ruled the media outlets didn't show they had a First Amendment right to know the suppliers of lethal injection drugs and showed concern that some drug suppliers would decline to do business with the state if their identities were not kept secret. However the media coalition has filed notice that it will appeal the ruling. (Sources: Associated Press & Arizona Republic)

I’m glad to say that hope has sprung up in another quarter though. A group of 20 former Arizona judges, prosecutors and legal experts are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an interesting new case brought by one of the guys on the row. If it decides to hear the case they will have to decide whether the state’s death penalty law is constitutional, but also whether the death penalty as a whole is. The lead lawyer on the case is former Obama administration acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, also known as the lead lawyer for Hawaii's challenge to President Trump's travel ban.

The primary argument of the case is that Arizona’s law doesn't do enough to narrow who is eligible for the death penalty. After the Supreme Court found the US death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, it brought it back 4 years later only as a result of new state laws that imposed new constraints. For example, Arizona’s new law required the finding of "aggravating" circumstances, which the court concluded would "direct and limit" who was eligible for execution "so as to minimize the risk of wholly arbitrary and capricious action." At that point there were just 6 aggravating factors that could make someone eligible for the death penalty. However 40 years later the law now lists 14 factors so that, far from the state limiting the application of the death penalty, it has instead expanded it. Indeed, so much so that in an 11 year period 99% of murder cases in Arizona were classed eligible for the death penalty. If the suit was successful Dale Baich, the assistant federal public defender, advises it could result in some death sentences being vacated.

The secondary aim is that the court should rule the death penalty unconstitutional nationwide under the Eighth Amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. It makes three other key arguments in support of this larger aim: states can't give guidance that ensures only "the worst offenders" are sentenced to death; states can't enforce the death penalty without "ensnaring and putting to death the innocent" and decades spent on death row with "the remote but very real possibility of execution" is in itself a constitutional violation. First and foremost though - fingers crossed the Supreme Court accepts the case onto their docket. (Sources: BuzzFeed News, KJZZ Radio & Washington Examiner)

Finally, as indicated in my last Statelines, sadly executions are now legally possible again, but the state has still not filed with the Arizona Supreme Court for any execution warrants, in part because it has had difficulty obtaining drugs to perform the executions. The Arizona Department of Corrections has pledged to carry out further executions using the anaesthetic sodium thiopental or the barbiturate pentobarbital without adding paralytic drugs that could mask pain and suffering, however neither drug is available to prisons from U.S. pharmaceutical firms. The state has indicated it will continue looking for them overseas or have them made to order by compounding pharmacies. Hopefully their search will be a long one. (Source: Arizona Republic)

I wish you all good health and strength of spirit in the coming months.

LIndesay Mace

A personal note from Shawna, a real must read!

This moved me very much this morning.  So much so, I felt tears prickling the backs of my eyes.  We must always remember the potential for growth within all humans and strive to help them achieve it.  Kudos Anthony.  Shawna, you have made me so proud girl.