Nuno pontes biography

Nuno, currently 50 years old, spent 21 years in prison, of which 14 were consecutively spent in solitary confinement. Now four years after his release, he remains actively involved in prison issues as a researcher for the European Prison Observatory.  He considers his decision to work on issues surrounding solitary confinement, torture, and prison in general as an easy one to be made; He had a moral obligation to speak out and act within his means for what was done to him and continues to be done to others. Furthermore, he is not willing to let 21 years of his life be forgotten. He has recently co-published the ‘Improving Prison Conditions by Strengthening the Monitoring of HIV, HCV, TB and Harm Reduction’ report as part of the EU co-funded project “Improving Prison Conditions by Strengthening Infectious Disease Monitoring”

Nuno started his talk with an introduction of himself as “who the state says I am”. He is an individual who spent 14 years in solitary confinement, two and half years in death row and was accompanied by a helicopter and armed officers when he needed to leave the prison. Yet, he has never physically harmed another person. He described these (re)actions and the identity that they generated as an identity imposed on him, that of a dangerous man who needed to be controlled.  

Nuno was born in Portugal in the ’s to an elite family. He grew up during a period of political unrest in Portugal’s history to become passionate about revolution and politics. At the age of 17, he went to the US, where he was later sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment for burglary and escape.

Throughout his talk, he kept on referring to his co-prisoners as comrades. In prison, he had the chance of meeting members of the Black Panthers, supporters of Black Feminists and the Black Power revolution. It was these social ties while in prison that “kept him active” - he called them his “support network”.  Responding to a question from a student regarding his pol

Prison Conditions in Portugal

by Antonio Dores and Nuno Pontes

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PORTUGUESE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM Portugal has 51 prisons of different t more GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PORTUGUESE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM

Portugal has 51 prisons of different types: 15 penitentiaries (“central prisons”, normally larger ones) for inmates condemned to serve more than 6 months; 31 penitentiaries (“regional prisons”) for inmates condemned to serve less than 6 months; and five penitentiaries (“special prisons”) for inmates who need special attention, such as women, youths, policeman, and the sick (hospital).

The first type of penitentiary has security wings to provide stricter isolation for problematic prisoners out of disciplinary regime. There are three types of general security regimes: medium, high and special. Monsanto Prison being the only special regime penitentiary – meaning a kind of North-American supermax regime.

Almost all prison buildings are old. A renewal programme began in , and in an official assessment of the prison system was presented to the public with the declaration that, with the progress being made, it would be possible to have an up-to-date “European-style” prison system within 12 years (). This programme included the concentration of facilities and population in just a few much larger high-tech buildings. However, due to the financial crisis, except for Caxias and Carregueira, which are new buildings (Caxias built into an older complex), all the plans to build new prisons were halted and the decommissioning of old prison sites reversed. In its place is now a renovation programme of old buildings, meaning later 19th century, first half of the 20th century.

Starting in the 80’s, the Portuguese penitentiary system is characterized by the growing political weight of the guards’ union, the introduction of organized distribution of illegal drugs into the prisons resulting from the intensification of the “war on drugs,” and the f

American true crime TV series (–)

I (Almost) Got Away with It is an American television documentary series on Investigation Discovery. It debuted in , ending after eight seasons, in The series profiles true stories of people who have committed crimes, and have avoided arrest or capture, but ultimately end up being caught. The series was created by executive producer David M. Frank of Indigo Films.

Episodes

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

References

External links

Prison in Pittsburgh

Jordan Correction (historically known as the "Western Penitentiary," "Western Pen," and "The Wall") was a low-to-medium security correctional institution, operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, located about five miles west of Downtown Pittsburgh and within city limits. The facility is on the banks of the Ohio River, and is located on 21 acres of land. (12 acres within the perimeter fence.) It was the first prison west of the Atlantic Plain as well as a major Civil War prison in –

On January 26, , Governor of PennsylvaniaTom Wolf announced the closing of this facility.

History

Western Penitentiary was designed by John Haviland and built in two miles south-east from the current facility by the architect Strickland. The original site is now home to the National Aviary.

During Charles Dickens’ visit to the city March 20–22, , he visited the original prison.

The original location housed Confederate soldiers after their capture in Morgan's Raid a dozen miles to the west. It held them from August 5, until they were transferred to a military fort in New Jersey on March 18, Although conditions were good for the time, at least eight confederates died during the winter, one while attempting escape.

The present facility opened on its current site in , operating as one of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's first correctional facilities, which at the time, held some maximum-security inmates. In January , after transferring the inmates to SCI-Fayette, the facility was mothballed. In , the facility re-opened with its current name. Until it was closed in , it housed low and medium security inmates who required substance abuse treatment.

The campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in

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