Today's Date: May 31, 2023
100 MILLION WOMEN PER YEAR WILL NEED TO ADOPT MOBILE INTERNET TO CLOSE THE GENDER GAP BY 2030, GSMA REPORT REVEALS   •   NanoString to Webcast Presentation from Jefferies Healthcare Conference   •   SUMMER FUN STARTS NOW: LEGOLAND® NEW YORK RESORT OPENS LEGO® CITY WATER PLAYGROUND!   •   Hey California: Raise the Tax, Fix the Budget Hole; 2023 Legislation to Watch; Big Alcohol Hijacks Awareness Month   •   U.S. News Unveils the 2023 Best Cars for Teens   •   HighField Biopharmaceuticals’ HF1K16, a New Immuno-Oncology Drug, Shows Promise in Patients with Refractory Glioblastoma   •   The LYCRA Company’s Sustainability Director Joins Panel Discussion at the United Nations Conscious Fashion and Lifestyle N   •   French Photojournalist Laurence Geai Receives IWMF 2023 Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award   •   IICCS Forum 2023: Accelerating Carbon Capture and Storage's Implementation in Indonesia   •   Ostentus Therapeutics, Inc., and City of Hope to Continue Studies of Novel OST Natural Products for Treatment of Leukemia and Ot   •   Emler Swim School Activities Highlight Water Safety Month   •   ADP Canada Happiness@Work Index: Canadian Workers Feel Happier in May   •   Innovative Pilot Program to Support Children Suffering Loss of Caregiver Launches in Utah   •   ICON plc to Attend Upcoming Investor Conferences   •   Biodesix to Participate in William Blair’s 43rd Annual Growth Stock Conference   •   Spark Math Accredited by Global K-12 STEM Program Stalwart STEM.org   •   Gartner Announces Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference   •   Shanghai Electric's Impressive 2023 Q1 Financial Results Reflect Business Growth Momentum with Multiple Technological Breakthrou   •   Vertex Energy Announces Commercial Production of Renewable Diesel and Entry Into Working Capital Facility for Renewable Diesel B   •   CleanJoule Announces US$50M Investment by International Consortium to Accelerate Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production
Bookmark and Share

Atlanta Civil Rights Group Starts Prison Project

 ATLANTA -- The Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) has announced the launch of The Damon Lee Project for Accountability and Transparency in the Criminal Justice System, an innovative program that will provide focus and structure for its ongoing work in bringing more transparency and accountability to the operation of government agencies, particularly prisons, jails and law enforcement. SCHR Senior Attorney Sarah Geraghty has been appointed project director.  

The new program is named in memory of Damon Lee, an inmate in Autry State Prison, who was beaten to death over a period of several hours during the night of February 7, 2002, by a cellmate with a reputation for violence, while officers who were required to check on Mr. Lee every half-hour to ensure his safety, did nothing to stop the attack. The law firm of King & Spalding represented Mr. Lee’s mother, Johnnie Kitchen, in a Section 1983 civil rights lawsuit against the warden and other prison officials. The case spent years in the court system and resulted in a record-setting judgment in 2009. King & Spalding is contributing a portion of the fees it recovered in the case to fund The Damon Lee Project.

In Georgia, one in thirteen adults are under correctional control making the corrections system the state’s largest and most expensive public institution.  Rather than operating prisons as dark, mysterious places at the far edge of democracy, all parts of the criminal justice system should be fully transparent and accountable to the public.  

Ms. Geraghty joined SCHR in 2003. She focuses her work on litigating prison and jail conditions, the provision of indigent defense and other criminal-rights issues. She has been at the forefront of efforts to enhance accountability and transparency in the criminal justice system, including serving as lead counsel in Barksdale v. Allen, a 2009 “open-records” victory in the Alabama Supreme Court.  Most recently, Ms. Geraghty filed a brief in the same court on behalf of a 13-year-old middle school student in Mobile, Ala ., who was “tasered” by police outside his school without provocation or justification.

“The notion that prisons and jails should operate under a veil of secrecy is wrong, but that notion is entrenched in our criminal justice system,” Ms. Geraghty said. “Our work at the Southern Center for Human Rights is vital to ensuring that the rights of our most vulnerable citizens will be protected.”

About SCHR
The Southern Center for Human Rights, founded in Atlanta, Ga., in 1976, is a non-profit, public interest organization that provides legal representation to people facing the death penalty, challenges human rights violations in prisons and jails, seeks through litigation and advocacy to improve legal representation for poor people accused of crimes and advocates for criminal justice system reforms on behalf of those affected by the system in the southern United States.



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News