Mumia Abu-Jamal

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Mumia Abu Jamal's

Jailhouse Lawyers

Datum: Freitag, 9. Juli 2010 20:17



Begin forwarded message:

> From: Litestar01@aol.com
> Date: July 9, 2010 7:51:43 AM EDT

> Subject: Fwd: The Black House News | Mumia Abu Jamal's Jailhouse Lawyers
>
> via Greg Ruggiero
>
> Book Review: Jailhouse Lawyers, Mumia Abu Jamal
>
> Guest book review by Mischa Geracoulis
>
> Source: The Black House News
>
> http://bhonline.org/blog2/2010/07/08/book-review-jailhouse-lawyers-mumia-abu-jamal/
>
> July 8, 2010
> Jailhouse Lawyers
> Prisoners Defending Prisoners V. the U.S.A.
> Author: Mumia Abu-Jamal
> Introduction: Angela Y. Davis
> City Lights Books | www.citylights.com
>
> To borrow from an old African-American proverb, Mumia Abu-Jamal “speaks truth to power” in his latest book on jailhouse lawyering, the American legal system, and the prison-industrial complex. Journalist, activist, and author Abu-Jamal writes a startling expose’ on otherwise shrouded subject matter, thusly inaugurating this book unto an exemplary class by itself. Indeed, the power of his truth upholds the long-neglected promise of transformation awaiting the domains of justice.

> Abu-Jamal has been imprisoned for over two decades in a Pennsylvania correctional facility— the very institution famous for employing Charles Graner, prison guard and Army reservist convicted of prisoner abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This same prison – which employs a staff that’s 95% Caucasian to oversee the 98% African-American inmate population – is notorious for hosting an environment fraught with institutionalized racism and abuse. This is the atmosphere in which Jailhouse Lawyer was conceived. Absorbing this crucial detail, it’s indeed awesome that Abu-Jamal was able to carry out his project.
>
> Based on this information, the reader might expect text that was produced in such a volatile environment to translate into defensive, derogatory, or perhaps censored reading material. On the contrary, Abu-Jamal writes with incisive equanimity while presenting penetratingly disturbing facts. The information he discloses is little known in mainstream society, making Jailhouse Lawyers an essential read.

> What exactly is a jailhouse lawyer? He or she is an inmate who has never practiced law in the traditional sense or had any formal education thereof, but who aids other inmates with issues related to their sentencing, addresses prison conditions, and represents themselves in legal proceedings.

> The jailhouse lawyer is self-educated. He or she spends every possible moment devouring law books, such as The Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook (Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyer’s Guild, 2003) and The Jailhouse Lawyers Manual (Columbia Law School, published biannually), by taking paralegal correspondence courses, and apprenticing under other jailhouse lawyers. (The very fact that these manuals are produced is indicative of a glaring need for legal counsel and assistance among prisoners.)

> Jailhouse lawyers work for free, at an acute disadvantage, and with persistent exposure to prison-issued retaliation. More often than not, he or she is consigned to solitary confinement, AKA “the hole” for pursuing this work. In prison (and, as is suggested, in the greater society), unity is feared; hence, isolation is punishment. The author points out that despite these obstacles, the jailhouse lawyer is among the rare few to actually affect positive and far-reaching prison reform, as well as reversals of convictions. Abu-Jamal relays an adage popularized in the lawyer industry that says “one who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” Surprisingly, these “fools” (jailhouse lawyers) often emerge victorious.

> At its core, jailhouse lawyering – necessitated by the inequality in America’s legal and prison systems – is a class and social struggle, and a human rights movement. With the giant increase in America’s prison population since the 1970s, Abu-Jamal looks at the political rhetoric on the various “wars” within our culture. The so-called “war on drugs” is one example of a campaign waged, not to rehabilitate people hooked on drugs, but to grant more state power to incarcerate. His examination gives rise to questions as to whether the real war might be on our nation’s own citizenry— in particular, its minorities. Statistics show that the number of incarcerated women has surged 300% (as compared to men at about 200%), and in overall prison demographics, African-Americans eclipse all other racial and ethnic groups.
> Privatization of prisons

> As an aside, the privatization of the American prison system, or the prison-industrial complex, is big business. With prisons as a cog in the wheel of the free market economy, it then stands to reason that the demand for prisoners necessarily increases. Presently, one in 100 Americans is imprisoned. Furthermore, American prisons have been likened to labor camps; a high volume prison population translates into cheap labor. Most of these prison-laborers are lost in an abyss with little means of recourse. Accordingly, the unspoken call for jailhouse lawyers garners more voices among anxious inmates and their families.

> This pattern of privatization is one that repeats itself throughout our society. The pharmaceutical-industrial complex, for instance, is another area that profits from the demise of a huge segment of the population. In economic terms, illness, like incarceration, pays sizable dividends. It’s conceivable then, that the nation-state capitalizes most when its people are at their weakest.

> American journalist and author, Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), is noted for his assertions that the prison-industrial complex is a set of interest groups and institutions, as well as a mindset. He sees the seduction of big money as a corrupting factor in the nation’s criminal-justice system. The prison-industrial complex is not about rehabilitation; it’s about profits. For this system to survive, it banks on an inordinately high failure rate among the prison population. The more packed the prisons are, the more the system profits. Inside this system, prisoners like Abu-Jamal who dare speak up for their rights, who dare hold abusers and corrupters accountable by taking legal action, are those who live in danger of being thrown in “the hole,” threatened with torture and even death. This reiterates the point of the conditions in which Jailhouse Lawyers was written, and helps the reader grasp the author’s conviction that jailhouse lawyering warrants public attention.
> Upper class & wealthy control law making?

> Jailhouse Lawyers goes on to dissect the intent of the law, ascribing to the likes of Rousseau, Marx, and Darrow, all of whom generally agree that the will of the upper class converts into law for the commoners. Regarding law, history repeats class stratification and tyranny. Abu-Jamal establishes a convincing case, which is that the law is regularly dictated by the wealthy. He references American lawyer, Clarence Darrow (1857 –1938) who in 1902 explained that the rich make the laws, and that those very laws are not necessarily there to protect. Courts then are not instruments of justice. What matters most is not one’s innocence or guilt, but whether or not one has a savvy lawyer at their defense. Is it any coincidence that the prison-industrial complex premise fits seamlessly into this model?

> Paraphrasing the late great radical historian and social activist, Howard Zinn’s words in Declarations of Independence, a judge is more like a dictator, and the courtroom a dictatorship. One enters the courtroom anticipating a “bastion of democracy,” but finds that the judge dictates the use of evidence, witnesses, questions, interpretation of law and, Abu-Jamal adds, the meting out of punishment. To put it another way, when a prisoner does get to trial, it’s a crap-shoot. In these circumstances a person’s destiny is random, designated by the luck of the draw of judges.
> Speaking truth to power

> The outmoded model of an infallible state surreptitiously thrives in our court systems. Such a concept is in conflict with justice and democracy, yet as this book shows, judgment is relegated to the realm of chance. Abu-Jamal points out that the Prison Reform Act only serves to reinforce the assumed faultlessness of the state. Jailhouse lawyers must pander to this flawed system nonetheless. Not having the street lawyers’ luxuries of wheeling and dealing, jailhouse lawyers must approach the system as though it operates justly.

> If the system is not just, then what’s a person of conscience to do? To answer this question, Abu-Jamal leans into the proverbial wisdom of “speaking truth to power.” To the jailhouse lawyer, this means being willing to speak the truth about power, the law and history as it relates to legal pleadings. Speaking truth to power, nevertheless, cannot remain a task left solely to the arena of jailhouse lawyers. Societal, class and rights movements are interconnected. When one achieves elevation of consciousness, it will spill over into other areas of society. In other words, evolution does not occur in a vacuum; consequently, the work of the jailhouse lawyer has far-reaching capabilities. Indeed, the motivation for the jailhouse lawyer is to create a break from the old and imprisoning (pun intended) paradigms. And in practical terms, of course, to liberate the unfairly imprisoned.

> Jailhouse Lawyers rationalizes other utility in this work. Abu-Jamal points out that sometimes the hired or appointed street lawyers have little interest in working on their clients’ behalf. With the class, ethnic and racial differences that surface in the legal system, it’s crucial to have a lawyer who’s truly sworn to defend the rights of their client. In the case of the jailhouse lawyer, the client is already a prisoner, one who’s often on death row. Motivated not by money, the jailhouse lawyer works as though his client’s life depends on it— which it usually does. In addition, the jailhouse lawyer frequently demonstrates a greater competency than their street counterparts, especially as the street lawyers are driven by dollars. But, the author rhetorically asks, who can blame them with the exorbitant student loans they bear from law school?

> White supremacy interwoven into American law

> Abu-Jamal stresses that being a non-white prisoner (or non-white citizen for that matter) is disadvantageous. American law, his book asserts, even after the civil rights movement, is laced with Dred Scott-esque white supremacy. He sources the 1857 Dred Scott versus Sanford case in which Dred Scott argued for his wife’s and his own freedom. The verdict issued that no person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States, and furthermore that Scott was not entitled to bring suit in federal court. Abu-Jamal reiterates that the rights of the American people lie heaviest within the affluent domain. Here the author makes an interesting note— two nations in modern times have earned the distinction of having racial restrictions on citizenship: Nazi Germany and the United States of America.

> Might this information demand pause for reflection on the premise of a social and racial agenda that appears to be underway? It’s no wonder that jailhouse lawyering has become an essential, ever-growing vocation among inmates, albeit one that’s simultaneously castigated by prison authority. In this alleged age of more highly evolved social awareness, this then is a situation demanding of drastic and immediate change.

> Poet, writer, and activist Audre Lorde has said that silences will not protect us, but will only hurt us. Deadly silence is what propels the jailhouse lawyer. Unbeknownst to most of us, jailhouse lawyers are a task force for reform. Reform, however, first requires identification of the problem, followed by education and action that jeopardizes the status quo. Jailhouse lawyers inspire a sense of hope for their clients and themselves, and perhaps, for oppressed persons everywhere.

> Mischa Geracoulis is an essayist and reviewer in Los Angeles. With a background in political and social sciences and art history of the Near and Middle East, her body of work reflects issues of identity, myriad paths to truth and justice, and the multifaceted human condition.

> © 2010 – All Rights Reserved – The Black House News

> Unlimited online distribution allowed with acknowledgement of bhonline.org as the sourcePrisoners Defending Prisoners V. the U.S.A.Jailhouse Lawyers

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