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Articles by Julia Lutsky

Dominican Women Prisoners Strike for Conjugal Visits

In November of 2001, women prisoners in the Najayo public prison in San Cristóbal on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, carried out a protest during which they set fire to and burned all the books, doors and shelving in the prison library and furniture, television sets, mattresses, sheets ...

Death Toll Hits 87 as Turkish Prison Protest Strike Continues

On November 4, 2001, Turkish police used armored vehicles to batter down the barricades protesters had erected in Kucakarmutlu, an outlying district on the European side of Istanbul. The semi-official news agency Anatolia reported four protesters had died of burns or carbon monoxide poisoning after setting themselves ablaze. A police ...

Turkish Prisoners Struggle Against Transfers

When the Turkish army stormed 20 prisons in December, 2000, a four-day pitched battle ensued during which thirty-two died _ 30 political prisoners and two soldiers. The army claimed that many prisoners set themselves afire rather than surrender; prisoners who survived allege that in at least one prison, Bayrampaga in ...

Strikes Sweep Bolivian Prisons as Promise of Freedom Fades

In celebration of Jubilee 2000, Roman Catholic Pope John Paul asked the nations of the world to pardon crimes and free prisoners where possible. Bolivia responded with Law 2098 "to celebrate the coming of the third millennium by granting benefits of special character to those imprisoned."

In June of 1999 ...

Texas and Florida Prisoners Used in Medical Experiments

When the AIDS epidemic struck in the mid eighties and pharmaceutical companies wished to test new and promising drugs, what better place than in the nation's prison systems? AIDS has no known cure and test subjects in the prison population are far more available and expendable than test subjects in ...

Crime and Punishment Relation Examined

Between 1991 and 1998 the rate of incarceration in the United States increased a dramatic 47% at same time the crime rate dropped 22%. Before you conclude that imprisoning more people results in less crime you would be wise to read a report issued in September, 2000, by The Sentencing ...

The Spirit of Freedom and Resistance, Long Kesh Prison Closed

Her Majesty's Prison Maze, also called Long Kesh, is a high security prison located about ten miles from Belfast in Northern Ireland's County Antrim. The largest of Northern Ireland's prisons, it was established on the site of Long Kesh Royal Air Force Base, a World War II airfield, in the ...

Mentally Ill Prisoners in the New Jersey Prison System

Two hundred prisoners filed a class action suit against the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) in 1996. A court order issued as a result of that suit mandated an investigation to "assess the mental health services in the... NJDOC with emphasis on those institutions and housing units where the ...

A.I. Reports on US Compliance with UN Convention Against Torture

In May 2000, a United States government delegation appeared before the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva to present its first report on the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture). When the government had presented its case, ...

Political Prisoners in Spain

Political Prisoners In Spain

By Julia Lutsky

Political prisoners exist in every country and every country denies their existence. Spain is no exception. It has seen three distinct waves of modern political prisoners: those who defended the popularly elected Spanish Republican Government against Francisco Franco's 1936-39 rebellion; those who opposed ...