Add grand jury. Fixes #37.

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Dessalines 2017-10-31 08:42:11 -07:00
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- Try to do chronologically from recent to past; it should seem like a running log.
******
## Imperialism
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- Ramping up since the 1980s, the term [prisonindustrial complex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex) is used to attribute the [rapid expansion of the US inmate population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate#Growth) to the political influence of [private prison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison) companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. Such groups include corporations that contract [prison labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_labor), construction companies, [surveillance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance) technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, [private probation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_probation) companies, lawyers, and [lobby groups](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_groups) that represent them. Activist groups such as the [National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Organization_for_the_Reform_of_Marijuana_Laws) (NORML) have argued that the prison-industrial complex is perpetuating a flawed belief that imprisonment is an effective solution to social problems such as [homelessness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness), [unemployment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment), [drug addiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_addiction), [mental illness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness), and [illiteracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illiteracy). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex)</sup>
- The [War On Drugs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs), a policy of arrest and imprisonment targeting minorities, first initiated by Nixon, has over the years created a monstrous system of mass incarceration, resulting in the imprisonment of 1.5 million people each year, with the US having the most prisoners per capita of any nation. One in five black Americans will spend time behind bars due to drug laws. The war has created a permanent underclass of impoverished people who have few educational or job opportunities as a result of being punished for drug offenses, in a vicious cycle of oppression. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs#cite_note-59), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs)</sup>
- Over 90% of criminal trials in the US are settled not by a judge or jury, but with [plea bargaining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargain), a system where the defendant agrees to plead guilty in return for a concession from the prosecutor. It has been statistically shown to benefit prosecutors, who "throw the book" at defendants by presenting a slew of charges, manipulating their fear, who in turn accept a lesser charge, regardless of their innocence, in order to avoid a worst outcome. The number of potentially innocent prisoners coerced into accepting a guilty plea is impossible to calculate. Plea bargaining can present a dilemma to [defense attorneys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_attorney), in that they must choose between vigorously seeking a good deal for their present client, or maintaining a good relationship with the prosecutor for the sake of helping future clients. Plea bargaining is forbidden in most European countries. John Langbein has equated plea bargaining to medieval torture: "There is, of course, a difference between having your limbs crushed if you refuse to confess, or suffering some extra years of imprisonment if you refuse to confess, but the difference is of degree, not kind. Plea bargaining, like torture, is coercive. Like the medieval Europeans, the Americans are now operating a procedural system that engages in condemnation without adjudication." <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargain#Controversy)</sup>
- A [grand jury](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_juries_in_the_United_States#Criticism) is a special legal proceeding in which a prosecutor may hold a trial before the real one, where ~20 jurors listen to evidence and decide whether criminal charges should be brought. Grand juries are rarely made up of a jury of the defendant's peers, and defendants do not have the right to an attorney, making them essentially show-trials for the prosecution, who often find ways of using grand jury testimony to intimidate the accused, such as leaking stories about grand jury testimony to the media to defame the accused. In the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, all of whom were unarmed and killed by police in 2014, grand juries decided in all 3 cases not to pursue criminal trials against the officers. The US and Liberia are the only countries where grand juries are still legal. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_juries_in_the_United_States#Criticism)</sup>
- The US [system of bail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bail_in_the_United_States#Criticisms_of_bail) (the practice of releasing suspects before their hearing for money paid to the court) has been criticized as monetizing justice, favoring rich, white collar suspects, over poorer people unable to pay for their release. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bail_in_the_United_States#Criticisms_of_bail)</sup>
- A black-site interrogation warehouse in Chicago called [Homan Square](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/14/homan-square-detainee-police-abuse), is notorious for sexual abuse, torture, and [dissappearances](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/02/behind-the-disappeared-of-chicagos-homan-square/385964/) of its prisoners. The main interrogator, Richard Zuley, [applied torture techniques he learned at Guantanamo bay](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/18/guantanamo-torture-chicago-police-brutality) at Homan Square<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Police_Department#Homan_Square), [2](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/14/homan-square-detainee-police-abuse), [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/18/guantanamo-torture-chicago-police-brutality)</sup>
- On Oct 25th, 2014, a mentally ill inmate, Michael Anthony Kerr, at the Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville, NC, [died of thirst after being denied water during a 35-day solitary confinement.](http://www.rawstory.com/2014/10/mentally-ill-nc-inmate-dies-of-thirst-after-water-denied-during-35-day-solitary-confinement/) Prison officials have said since Kerrs death six months ago that they would investigate the events that led to his death, but no report has been issued and officials have not said when one would be. <sup>[1](http://www.rawstory.com/2014/10/mentally-ill-nc-inmate-dies-of-thirst-after-water-denied-during-35-day-solitary-confinement/)</sup>
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- [x] Smedly Butler
- [x] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change
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