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Rep. Ayanna Pressley praised President Joe Biden's recent decision to commute the sentences of nearly everyone on federal death row, calling it a “historic and groundbreaking actin an announcement on Monday.

Pressley, who represents much of Boston and a few surrounding suburbs, has long been a vocal opponent of the death penalty. She had before Biden urged to make use of his clemency authority to commute the sentences of all 40 people on federal death row before he leaves office next month.

Biden stopped in need of Pressley's request and commuted the sentences of a complete of 37 people. Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is one in all the inmates facing execution, together with Dylann Roof and Robert Bowers. Roof was convicted of killing nine black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in a racist rampage in 2015. Bowers was convicted of the 2018 killing of 11 Jewish worshipers on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

Biden commuted the sentences of the 37 other inmates to life in prison without the potential for parole. The sentences for Tsarnaev, Roof and Bowers weren’t commuted because their cases involved “terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in an announcement. At the state level, there are still many more people on death row.

“[Biden’s decision] will save lives, address the deep racial disparities in our criminal justice system and send a powerful message about redemption, decency and humanity,” Pressley said in an announcement.

Biden campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty in 2020 and directed the Justice Department to issue a moratorium on federal executions in 2021. Earlier this month, he commuted the sentences of about 1,500 individuals who were released from prison and placed under house arrest through the coronavirus pandemic and pardoned 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to resume federal executions upon his return to office. He resumed it in his first term after a break of just about 20 years. A complete of 13 executions were carried out under his watch, all of which took place in the ultimate six months of his presidency. Trump said During his 2024 campaign, he called for drug dealers and human traffickers to be given the death penalty.

In an interview with GBH NewsPressley said Biden should go further and release detained individuals who don’t pose a threat to public safety.

“State-sanctioned murder is not justice. It’s not a deterrent to crime,” Pressley said on CNN this week.

California's prisoners mustn’t be subjected to abuse by their prison guards, but inmates also needs to not be required by law to find out what work they’re willing to do behind bars.

For this reason, voters should reject Bill 6, which is cloaked in language about slavery and compelled labor, but in point of fact goals to permit prisoners to refuse work assignments.

The fundamental query is whether or not prisoners ought to be required to do work that contributes to their room and board. We consider that they ought to be required to do that, just as the remaining of us in prison who haven’t committed crimes are required to do.

For this reason, the state prison system relies heavily on inmate labor. The alternative can be a fair greater burden on taxpayers to take care of our prisons and jails.

The 13^th An amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits slavery and compelled labor, “except as a punishment for crime whereof the person shall have been duly convicted.” Likewise, Article I, Section 6 of the California Constitution prohibits slavery, and “forced labor shall be prohibited, except as a punishment for crime.”

Proposition 6 seeks to redefine the state's constitutional protections by eliminating the criminal punishment exemption. The ballot bill would also add a provision stating that “the Department of Justice may not discipline incarcerated individuals for refusing a work assignment.”

The state's Attorney General, Rob Bonta, put his thumb on the voting dial when he introduced the title for the bill: “It eliminates the constitutional provision that allows forced labor.” He might as well have said that it “adds a constitutional provision that allows prisoners to refuse work.”

Remember, this will not be only a change in state law, this can be a change within the state structure. Not only is it bad policy in the primary place, but one can only imagine the legal battles that might arise if inmates attempt to push the boundaries of what constitutes a piece project.

Could it include, for instance, protecting prisoners from the duty to maintain their cells clean themselves? Could a court interpret the brand new constitutional provision to mean that prisoners on the minimum wagepotentially costing the state billions of dollars in work that essentially serves to take care of their very own housing facility?

Of course, work assignments mustn’t be assigned arbitrarily to unfairly punish prisoners. But if there’s an issue with abusive prison guards, it ought to be addressed through targeted laws, not a sweeping constitutional amendment which may allow prisoners to legally stage work stoppages that shut down prison facilities.

It is cheap to ask prisoners to brush the floors, clean the bathrooms, or cook within the kitchen. If we will expect the identical of ourselves and our youngsters, and demand that members of the military perform these tasks, then after all we will ask the identical of incarcerated convicted criminals.

Voters should reject Proposition 6.

Originally published: September 12, 2024 at 5:35 am

If you call 911 in rural Georgia, the closest emergency responders may come from the local jail.

In 1963, the Georgia Department of Corrections began a program to do that Training prisoners to change into firefighters to support not only their prisons but in addition the encompassing communities. Over time, this system has grown dramatically. Today, prison fire crews from 19 state prisons in Georgia, including a women's prisonand 6 county jails are trained in firefighting and emergency medical care.

Crews reply to vehicle accidents, structure fires, bushfires, hazardous materials incidents, and search and rescue missions, amongst others without receiving a salary. Jackson County, Georgia, describes imprisoned firefighters in response to “every structure fire in Jackson County, where they provide manpower to every fire department on site.”

Georgia is just not alone on this practice. prison systems in Alabama, California, IndianaMississippi, New Mexico and Wyomingtogether with Federal Bureau of Prisonshave deployed incarcerated firefighters to reply to local emergencies.

Although these programs provide a significant service in lots of rural areas, they are usually not universally popular. They are accused of exploiting incarcerated people and taking jobs away from skilled firefighters.

The Era of Rural Decline and Mass Incarceration

I study connections between disasters and mass incarceration and spend a whole lot of time speaking with prison officials, disaster response teams, and inmates. My research found that individuals were incarcerated increasingly embedded in local emergency response efforts as paramedics and firefighters. There are two fundamental reasons: the endangerment of rural communities and the endangerment of incarcerated employees.

Many rural communities were has struggled to supply adequate emergency services for years. With the lack of population, their tax revenues also dwindle. Staffing volunteer fire departments was also tougher, because the increasing demands at work and on families left less and fewer time for volunteer work.

At the identical time, the Nineteen Eighties to early 2000s saw a decline in rural communities an explosion within the prison constructing. A tricky crime policy led to 1 Increase in incarceration ratesalthough research suggested that incarceration played a job at best minimal connection to crime rates.

Prisons were marketed as a approach to stabilize rural communities devastated by declines in manufacturing and resource-dependent industries equivalent to mining. They remain a cornerstone of many fragile rural economies today.

The rise of prison emergency services

The prison fire departments first began training prison staff and inmates to guard prisons from firesThey understand that there could also be little or no outside support of their rural areas. Occasionally, prison fire departments responded to local emergencies or disasters when the local fire department needed assistance. But that has modified in lots of communities.

Today the Georgian program has about 200 participants annually. Anyone who qualifies receives training to change into certified as firefighters and paramedics and to live within the prison fire department as an alternative of in cells. But while some states, including Californiapay a small wage to Georgia's inmate fire crews receive no salary.

Officials in rural communities told me they depend on prison services because Their own emergency response teams were understaffed. Without adequate staffing, not only were communities in danger, but in addition any paid or volunteer firefighters, as they might respond without the support needed to soundly reply to emergencies.

But while this system has provided much-needed stability for a lot of communities, it has also faced backlash in some areas. When Camden County, GeorgiaWhen considering supplementing the local fire department with incarcerated firefighters in 2011, members of the department expressed concerns about community safety.

Officials I spoke with suspected this was the case some resentment from more urban areas who see this system as a approach to avoid paying profession firefighters, and from local volunteers who feel they’re being replaced by the incarcerated firefighters.

Missing link: Career prospects after prison

The Georgia program also raises questions on the vulnerability of incarcerated firefighters.

Incarcerated individuals participating in this system must sign a waiver This relieves the Georgia Department of Corrections of liability in the event that they are injured while working as a firefighter. They are too are usually not entitled to employees' compensation advantages.

These rules increase risks for incarcerated firefighters. Several were injured while responding to fires and other local emergencies in Georgia and other states.

At least one imprisoned firefighter has died in Georgia. William A. Satterfield has died 1984 in response to a fireplace call from the prison fire department. In May 2013, the Georgia Board of Public Safety voted to honor Satterfield's death and repair with a Public Safety Memorial. Two firefighters from Dooly State Prison in Georgia were injured in a vehicle accident in 2016 while responding to a fireplace call.

An imprisoned firefighter in Mississippi, Michael Davenportdied while fighting a structure fire in 2006. According to court documents from a later lawsuit, Davenport didn’t receive full firefighting trainingbut there have been no laws at the moment providing for such training.

It is unknown how common these injuries are or how working as a firefighter affects the health of incarcerated individuals upon release.

Prison officials told me that men and ladies were incarcerated profit from this system since it provides vocational training.

However, once released, incarcerated firefighters face significant obstacles to finding employment in the fireplace and emergency services. Current Georgia law doesn’t allow this Participants in this system have as much as five years from the date of their conviction to use for a civilian position with a fireplace department.

Several firefighters told me they wished they might hire the incarcerated firefighters they worked with. But in the event that they had had the means to rent more full-time firefighters, they wouldn't have worked on this system in the primary place.

States can take steps to assist

Some states have worked to develop policies that support formerly incarcerated firefighters. In 2020, California passed a law that will allow incarcerated firefighters to use Criminal record clearedwhich makes them eligible to use for paramedic positions.

I consider that incarcerated firefighters and firefighters in Georgia and other states would profit from similar measures that will allow them to seek out employment upon release. The state and plenty of others would also profit from addressing the acute vulnerability rural fire departments face as they struggle to guard their communities with limited outside support.