By John Blake, NLG UDC Chapter One of my first events as the Historian of our NLG student chapter at the University of D.C. David A Clarke School of Law was the renaming of the chapter in honor of our celebrated Professor and longtime Guild member, John C. Brittain. Professor Brittain is my Torts professor, […]
Issues: Guild Notes Vol. 41, No. 1 (Spring 2016)
Kentucky’s “Corruptional” System
By Christopher L. Young La Grange, KY I am grateful to be a member of the NLG and a Guild Notes subscriber and looking forward to receiving the Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook—I appreciate the chance to get my voice heard while being a political prisoner incarcerated in Kentucky. This is why I’m committed to challenging and […]
BEYOND BARS: Inmate Advisory Counsel: A Cruel Hoax
By Rodney B. Barno Corcoran, CA I was the Inmate Advisory Counsel (IAC) Chairman at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility (CSATF) in Corcoran, California. My responsibility was to advocate for the population of my facility and for the IAC to be a vehicle of communication between the administration and population. When issues arise and […]
BEYOND BARS: Prisoner Paralegals: Our Struggle to Find Justice
By Hunter Lee Weeks Sterling, CO In prison, there are those of us who spend time, effort, and funds to acquire a formal education in law. Most of us have no education, while a few of us have Certificates of Paralegal Studies, and even fewer have degrees with legal emphasis. Our designated term of “Jailhouse […]
BEYOND BARS: Mississippi DOC Revives “Group Punishment”
By Charles D. Owens, II Lakesville, MS The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), under the leadership of the new Commissioner Marshall Fisher, has revived the practice of group punishment. Under this revived practice, entire prisons re punished for an individual’s misconduct. Recent examples include an incident where a single inmate fought with a single guard […]
Q&A with Kris Hermes: RNCs, DNCs, and NSSEs—Oh My!
Drawing on first-hand experience and in-depth research, Former Mass Defense Coordinator and longtime Guild member Kris Hermes authored Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 (PM Press, September 2015), which shows how the escalation of the National Security State was already being set in motion during the Republican National Convention protests (RNC) […]
In Memoriam: Michael Kennedy
By Eleanor Stein Michael Kennedy, a member of the NLG San Francisco Bay Area and New York City Chapters, died in January at the age of 78. Kennedy represented movement clients in major cases and was known as an indomitable fighter for justice and a combative and creative strategist on the side of the “underdogs […]
Strengthened Court Surveillance Rules for NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program
Responding to public outrage at the disclosure of a “Muslim Surveillance Program” by the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the NYPD agreed in court filings in early January to strengthen oversight of terrorism investigations thorough a series of amendments to the longstanding “Handschu” political surveillance guidelines. The court-ordered guidelines are rules to protect exercise […]