This month, we are launching The Collective, JoinJeremy’s digital newsroom for inside and outside voices advocating for the urgent protection and inclusion of incarcerated journalists. Read Jeremy Busby’s introduction here.
Retaliation is an ongoing risk whenever writers like Jeremy report on institutional harms and injustices. Here are two new articles by Jeremy reporting on crackdowns by Texas prison administrators, and by the FCC. He explains how these actions fail to solve the problems they claim to be addressing, while putting incarcerated lives at further risk:
“Texas’ new prison crackdown puts incarcerated lives at risk,” published September 26 in the Austin American-Statesman. Excerpt below:
According to the Texas Justice Initiative, suicides in Texas prisons have increased significantly over the past four years. From 2015-19, Texas averaged about 33 suicides a year. The rate jumped to 56 suicides a year from 2020-23. Only California has ever approached this staggering statistic, recording 42 in 2006.
Homicides have also doubled during that same period, going from an average of 5.4 per year from 2015-19 to 11.2 from 2020-24. Overall, in-custody deaths have increased by 37% since 2019.
Prison administrators have been quick to blame these deaths on a spike in illegal drug use. But they have failed to address the causes. While prison systems across the country have abandoned regressive, punitive correctional models, Texas has maintained the status quo. Instead of adopting proven health-centered approaches, Texas officials cling to failed “tough on crime” posturing.
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The new punitive contraband policy, which went into effect Aug. 15, continues the failed approach of the past. Now any incarcerated individuals found guilty of using, possessing, distributing or conspiring to distribute illegal drugs will suffer extreme consequences for two years. These include restricting visits and telephone access to immediate family members only; cutting off contact visits, meaning an inmate can’t hug a loved one; suspending access to prison-issued tablets used to send and receive correspondence; and restricting commissary privileges.
Notably missing are any mandates for drug or mental health treatment or counseling.
In my 26-plus years incarcerated in Texas, I have watched countless incarcerated individuals get involved with drugs for many reasons. Some devise drug operations to ensure they have basic hygiene items like deodorant, which Texas prisons don’t provide indigent inmates, and to supplement the often inedible food prisons serve.
Then there are those suffering from untreated mental illnesses, including trauma, depression and addiction. Others lack coping skills to handle family separation, dehumanization by staff and deplorable living conditions.
The new policy should disturb all Texans. Texas already has some of the nation’s toughest contraband policies — and they haven’t worked. Doubling down will only deepen the crisis.
Shockingly, despite the agency’s $4.3 billion annual budget, drug treatment programs were restricted to people who have been approved for release on parole until 2024. The limited programming that is now available often comes with insurmountable burdens that force incarcerated people to prove they are worthy of treatment by staying sober and disciplinary infraction-free. Of course, the road to recovery is rarely a smooth one.
To solve the drug and violence problem, incarcerated individuals in Texas need help, not punishment. Safe communities are created when people’s needs are met.
The Latest FCC Censorship Push No One Is Talking About Targets Incarcerated People,” published October 3 in The Intercept. Excerpt below:
The Federal Communications Commission this week advanced a proposal for censorship that received far less attention than chair Brendan Carr’s “mafioso” approach to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. But it will likely result in a communication crackdown that does more harm to a far more vulnerable population — denying incarcerated people one of the few tools available to expose abuse in America’s most secretive institutions.
At a meeting on Tuesday, the FCC agreed to move forward with a proposal to allow prisons to jam contraband cellphones. Cellphone jammers are otherwise illegal devices that disrupt cellphone signals and effectively disable phones within range of the jammer.
The commission was answering the call from Arkansas officials, who invited Carr to tour a state prison where officials claimed incarcerated individuals used contraband cellphones to coordinate violent criminal activities. After the September 5 tour with the state’s Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sen. Tom Cotton, Carr announced his plans for a crackdown, claiming, without data, that “the worst possible offenders” use contraband cellphones to coordinate violence outside prison walls.
As a person who has been incarcerated for over 25 years, and has had extensive exposure to contraband cellphones — including using them to expose horrific conditions and force reform — I can attest that these accusations were exaggerated and preposterous.
While there may be isolated incidents where incarcerated individuals have used contraband cellphones to commit crimes, my experience tells me they’re far more often used to connect with loved ones or to hold rogue prison officials accountable. In my opinion, it is the latter that’s driving this FCC push, not public safety.
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Regulations that rob incarcerated individuals of the ability to expose cruelties and human rights violations and hold prison officials accountable hurt more people and cause more negative societal consequences than they prevent. Just ask those whose lives were saved or drastically improved by reporting only made possible with the use of contraband cellphones.
Give journalists meaningful access to prisons and prison records, give incarcerated people the tools to communicate with the outside world and document abuses without censorship and retaliation, and I’ll never use a contraband cellphone again. Or better yet, don’t commit those abuses at all.
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