Brain Dead Inmate Denied Early Release

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Brain Dead Inmate Denied Early Release

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AMERICA IMPRISONS approximately 2.3 million of its citizens.  Incarceration is certainly one of those situations that my grandma used to refer to, saying, "It's heaps easier gettin' in trouble than it is gettin' out."  Grandma's homily proves true in the case of brain-dead inmate, Jackson Phaysaleum, who is incarcerated in Stockton, a California correctional facility.  San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa opposed the release, although it is definitely not "cheaper to keep him."

If only Jackson Phaysaleum were conscious, he might realize he is still being punished and rehabilitated at taxpayers' expense.

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http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/A_NEWS02/809230330/-1/A_NEWS03 

Brain-dead inmate denied early release  

by Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
September 23, 2008 6:00 AM

STOCKTON - A judge Monday blocked the compassionate release of Jackson Phaysaleum, a brain-dead inmate from Stockton, saying it would have been the first of its kind granted in California.

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America's annual prison budget tops $185 billion dollars, and much of the money is being paid for subsistance of detainees in private prisons.  1.25 million of the inmates are reported to be mental patients.  Neither mental illness nor even brain death exempt citizens from doing hard time in the U.S. penal system. 

A video which offers one a perspective of life inside prison from a mental patient's perspective is at this link:  Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons  

Unfortunately, a young mental patient suffered a very close call when he was facing execution in Texas' Death Chamber this summer.  Jeff Wood, who has a history of mental dysfunctions that date back to his early, abusive childhood, was granted a last minute stay of execution by  Judge Orlando Luis Garcia, of the Federal District Court in San Antonio, one of my justice heroes.  Read more about Jeff and his close brush with death at the link below.  The article also has a interesting assortment of videos having to do with brain damaged and mentally ill persons suffering or facing incarceration and other issues in our culture.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/scheduled-texas-execution-jeff-wood-mentally-challenged-young-man

Many people feel that our penal system is less interested in punishing and rehabilitating criminals than it is interested in actually profiting from incarcerating vast numbers of Americans at taxpayers' expense, often for non-violent crimes having to do with mental illness, possession of small amounts of marijuana and other illegal narcotics, and such offenses.

David Basker, Esq. recommended that I read the following book and gave me his review of it, an excerpt of which is below.

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Prison Profiteers:  Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration?   

This book includes Chapters written by Experts:  Edited by Tara Herivel and Paul Wright. Tara is the co-editor of Prison Nation:  The Warehousing of America's Poor, and the author of numerous articles in the alternative press.  She is a public defender in the Portland , Oregon area. Paul is the founder and editor of Prison Legal News and co-editor of Prison Nation and The Ceiling of America.  AN ALL INCLUSIVE EXPOSE of the astonishing range of industries, corporations, and individuals profiting from the imprisonment of over 2.3 million Americans that generate hundreds of billion$ from modern day $lavery, to wit:  A REPORT PRODUCED FOR THE PRIVATE PRISON INDUSTRY BY INVESTMENT ANALYSTS, FIRST ANALYSIS SECURITIES CORPORATION.

Positive:  "With the baby boomlet demographics, we foresee increasing demand for juvenile [incarceration] services."

Negative:  "It is often difficult to maintain the occupancy rates required for profitability."

Accordingly, they lobby with great success tougher laws with longer harsh sentences.

Locking up 2.3 million people isn’t cheap.

Each year federal, state, and local governments spend over $185 billion annually in tax dollars to ensure that one out of every 137 Americans is imprisoned.  Prison Profiteers looks at the private prison companies, investment banks, churches, guard unions, medical corporations, and other industries and individuals that benefit from this country’s experiment with mass imprisonment. It lets us follow the money from public to private hands and exposes how monies formerly designated for the public good are diverted to prisons and their maintenance.  

Contact – http://www.prisonle galnews.org/

Editorial Review - from Publishers Weekly:  In their follow-up to 2002's Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor, prisoner rights activists Herivel and Wright, along with 16 other contributors, follow the money to an astonishing constellation of prison administrators and politicians working in collusion with private parties to maximize profits at the expense of taxpayers, community health and, of course, the 2.3 million inmates nationwide.  

The overarching narrative, laid out clearly in the opening article by Judy Greene, finds a system increasingly dominated by select, minimally accountable private companies for whom profitability depends on the promise of more and longer convictions. As such, investment in treatment programs, education and family assistance is diverted to organizations delivering substandard food and "health care" that allows hepatitis C to reach levels one doctor compares to "the Dark Ages with the plague"; corruption runs all the way down to prison phone contracts.     

Cruelty and administrative stupidity come in many forms, claim the authors; guards earning $5.77 per hour beat the young inmates of a Louisiana juvenile facility while abuse schemes and political back- scratching trump efforts to police them, as evidenced by the growth of industry tradeshows and companies, such as Taser manufacturers. This is lucid, eye-opening reading for anyone interested in American (IN)justice.

David Mitchell Basker, J.D.
http://www.murderth edeathpenalty. us/
Alumnus:     Univ. Tenn - College of Law, PRISONERS HEALTH CARE MINISTRY
Attorney at Law, Washington, D.C., P.O. Box 357426, Gainesville, Florida Blessings, and thanks for participating in this discussion!

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Mary Neal
<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Website:  http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill