In 2015, New York announced it had reached a landmark settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the state's aggressive use of solitary confinement to discipline inmates. Five Mualimm-ak is one of the activists who pushed for the changes. He spent five years in solitary and says it left him broken. "When people say you survived solitary? Nobody survives that," he says. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, agreed to a multi-year process phasing in limits on the time inmates...

In 2015, New York announced it had reached a landmark settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the state's aggressive use of solitary confinement to discipline inmates. Five Mualimm-ak is one of the activists who pushed for the changes. He spent five years in solitary and says it left him broken. "When people say you survived solitary? Nobody survives that," he says. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, agreed to a multi-year process phasing in limits on the time inmates...

Ryan Crotwell's memories of growing up in French Settlement are filled with mental snapshots of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father. First he remembers kneeling on rice. Then the whippings started — "switches, belts, whatever was within reach." Crotwell, 34, recalls acting out in school and receiving brutal punishments at home. He was institutionalized for psychiatric treatment twice before his 10th birthday and diagnosed with various psychological conditions including attention...

In 2015, California settled Ashker v. Governor , a historic class-action lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of a group of Pelican Bay State prison inmates who had each spent at least a decade in isolation. The settlement resulted in an end to the use of indefinite solitary confinement in CA prisons. On Monday, CCR filed a motion accusing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of violating the rights of inmates freed from indefinite...

When the American Arbitration Association's Rochester, NY office of the National Center for Dispute Settlement, began assembling a 'Nationwide Prison Dispute Mediation Team' [shortly after/in response to, the Attica 'Rebellion'] including former guards and former prisoners on the team, we were quite fortunate to have a woman who was a 'former prisoner' on the team, ....

(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...

(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...

Lisa Flynn noted one item that a project I participated in found 'relevant'. After the Attica 'Rebellion' , the Rochester office of the American Arbitration Association's /National Center for Dispute Settlement had a 'Task Force' of both gender former prisoners, African-American former guards at Attica, and assorted 'Academics & Dispute resolution staff ......; about the same time, a resident Family Physician embarking on a new 'Prison Sick-Call Strategy' at Attica- using both prisoners...

Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...

Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...