Human Rights Activist J. Soffiyah Elijah Opens Conference
On Sunday morning, October 15, J. Soffiyah Elijah will offer the NNG audience a human rights perspective to our social justice framework and our criminal justice lens. As Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, Soffiyah is responsible for leading the fulfillment, development and expansion of the Institute's work to address the urgent needs of the powerless, voiceless and indigent in the criminal justice system.
With 20 years in the legal profession, the scope of her keynote address will include her research of the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems and her experiences representing numerous political prisoners and social activists over the past 22 years. Her travels to Cuba over the past 17 years have enabled her to conduct extensive research on the country's legal system, with a focus on its approach to criminal justice issues
Soffijah will draw from her experiences with torture victims in the United States, including post 9/11 victims, the horrors of Chicago detainees and post Katrina treatment of evacuated of pretrial detainees in her opening presentation.
Soffiyah insists, "A civilized society cannot tolerate violations of anyone's human rights, no matter who the accused is or what the accusation may be. Indeed, a civilized society should ensure that the so-called war on terrorism cannot be used as a ruse to ignore or manipulate the community's sense of fair play and decency. The Universal Declaration of Human rights demands no less from us."
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LESSONS FROM OUR NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH:
THE CUBAN PRISON SYSTEM - REFLECTIVE OBSERVATIONSÓ 2000
by Prof. Soffiyah Elijah
Clinical Instructor
Criminal Justice Institute
Harvard Law School
Since the island nation of Cuba experienced its successful revolution in 1959 its prison system has been evolving. Despite accusations of harsh human rights abuses from its neighbors to the North, Cuba today maintains a prison system that is in many respects far more humane than Western propaganda would have the uninformed public believe.
My study of the Cuban prison system began in 1987 when I first visited the country to attend a conference co-sponsored by the American Association of Jurists and the Cuban Association of Jurists. I was pleasantly surprised during the trip when the opportunity arose to visit a men's prison. A group of conference attendees traveled by bus to the prison and when we arrived we were not searched and our belongings were not checked. We did not sign in or out. Nobody asked to check our identification. Having visited numerous prisons in the U.S. I have never entered any of them without a thorough search of my person and my belongings. Government issued photo identification is always required.
Although we were given a tour of the prison we were free to wander off and talk with the prisoners unmonitored. We walked all around the facility and were allowed to go into cells, work areas, the cafeteria, hospital, classrooms, recreation area and any other space we chose. This we were allowed to do unaccompanied. The prisoners wore street clothing.
Although one might think that this must have been a minimum or medium security prison, there are no such institutional classifications. Prison institutions are not characterized by security level. Rather prisoners of varying security levels are all housed in the same facility. The four levels of security classification for prisoners are maximum, high, moderate and minimum. The distinction in their security classification is borne out in the frequency with which they are allowed family and conjugal visits, mail, phone privileges and furlough availability. All prisoners, regardless of security level, are afforded at least four family and conjugal visits a year. Prisoners with the lowest security classifications are afforded more frequent family and conjugal visits than higher security classified prisoners.
Needless to say I was a bit taken aback at this very different approach. For the next thirteen years I built on this experience and conducted further research on the Cuban prison system.
In 1988 I returned to Cuba to attend the International Women¹s Conference hosted by the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). Another opportunity arose to visit a prison, this time it was a women’s facility. My impressions were very similar to those I had when I visited the men’s facility. In a nutshell, the Cuban system still impressed me as being more humane than what I had observed in the United States.
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http://afrocubaweb.com/elijah.htm
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