Ex-Supreme Complains About Pirated Music

Well! Apparently, “Baby Love” is widely pirated on KaZaa, because Mary Wilson, the only Supreme who never left the group, spoke before a state House committee yesterday about how pirated music is hurting her bottom line.

Her speech was interesting, since she admitted to buying a pirated Marvin Gaye tape on the street years ago, only it wasn’t actually Marvin Gaye. This piracy was so egregious they didn’t just steal Gaye’s music, they hired a low-rent Marvin Gaye impersonator to make a CD and sell it under Gaye’s name. Wait, that would cost more money.

Wilson also apparently has a new album coming out soon.

“There is no question in my mind, that the minute the product hits the retail market, counterfeiters will be there to copy and distribute the product I worked so hard on, without compensation to me.”

How much money could Mary Wilson possibly lose to counterfeiting? Sampling I could see, I guess, but her latest CD is only available at her website. She can’t possibly be making a fortune from it.

Oh, and the legislature is considering strengthening the penalties for counterfeiting, because our jails do not currently have enough non-violent criminals in them.

Update: Actual activism-type thing here!

Former ”Supremes” Member in Philadelphia to Speak Out Against Pirated Music [KYW 1060]

Protesters Don’t Want Taxes To Pay For Death

The Inquirer brings the story today of two South Jersey men who are in jail for failing to pay their taxes. Kevin McKee and Joseph Donato are members of a small religious group called Restored Israel of Yahweh that is opposed to war and opposed to paying taxes into the military-industrial complex.

Usually tax evaders are simply taken to civil court, but since the Restored Israel of Yahweh isn’t a big religious group like, say, the Quakers — which sometimes have members that refuse to pay taxes — so they’re serving about two years in prison each.

Donato’s wife also went to prison, but not in the minimum security ones that McKee and her husband are in. She was in the Federal Detention Center in Philly (probably with Lil’ Kim!) and said she adapted in her own way:

“Everyone sizes one another up for about a month or so. I fell back, almost, to high school,” she said. “I didn’t have an attitude. I didn’t act like ‘I’m here, but I really shouldn’t be here.’ “

Prison? A lot like high school. I hope if I ever end up there I can make the basketball team.

Hard time for S. Jersey tax protesters [Inquirer]

Non-Escape From Philly Prison

This came across our email box on Saturday:

Inmate Worker Escapes from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility

Prison Officials discovered this morning that George Wheeler, a 36 year-old inmate, had escaped from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. Wheeler was admitted to PPS on March 15, 2006. He was held on $150,000 bail, awaiting trial on charges of rape, unlawful restraint, aggravated indecent assault, statutory sexual assault and indecent exposure.

Fortunately, this came across a few hours later:

“Escaped” Inmate found in Prison Kitchen at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility

Prison officials, who spent most of the day trying to reconstruct the movements of a 36 year-old inmate, George Wheeler, who had disappeared sometime Friday evening, were surprised to learn that a kitchen officer found the escapee in the CFCF kitchen, hiding behind an oven. The officer heard noises in the ceiling, and then saw movement behind the oven, and ordered the inmate to come out. Inmate George Wheeler came out from behind the oven at 5:40 PM on Saturday, June 24, 2006. He had been hiding in the jail’s kitchen for nearly 24 hours. The kitchen at CFCF takes up over an acre of ground, and provides meals for the entire prison complex – over 30,000 meals a day.

Full press releases on the non-escape-and-capture after the jump.

More »

Have The Lambs Stopped Screaming?

Ah, so what does an juvenile correction facility/school do if there’s a riot of Bloods gang members? That’s a hard one, right?

Well, if you’re in Trenton, it’s actually fairly simple: You strap ‘em in to the electric chair!

Now, now, people, just calm down. This is an electric chair with no juice attached to it — so I guess it’s just more of a “chair” — but it does restrain the kids and include a helmet and face shield.

Alright, that still seems kinda bad. But certainly it’s been deemed appropriate by all the right, uh, people who declare these things humane or not. I mean, I’m sure this is just common knowledge and the Trentonian is blowing it out of proportion. Right? Right?

A source in the institution, who asked not to be identified, said, “They’re for the ones that are assaultive. One was banging his head against the wall. They’re kept in a room and they’re checked on.

“It’s better than the old way it used to be done — they used to just hogtie ‘em right onto a bed. So I guess it’s more compassionate, doing it this way.” [...]

In another development, corrections officers and other staffers have been made to sign notices warning them not to talk to the press about the discontent burbling inside the jail/school….

“They (administration) put out these things where everybody has to sign, that they can’t talk to the media, or your public representatives, either — your senators, your assemblymen,” he said. “You can’t divulge any information. Or you could lose your job.”

Well, maybe this chair isn’t so bad — another source says the masks are mainly to stop the inmates from spitting — but that whole second part just makes things a little, erhm, fishy?

Controlling the chaos [Trentonian]

Mistreatment for Lil’ Kim?

I can’t believe this got lost in the endless pile of faxes PW gets until after 4 o’clock yesterday (click to enlarge):

Yes, Lil’ Kim friends are holding a press conference as part of a promotion for her new show on BET to discuss the mistreatment of her in the federal prison in Center City Philadelphia. (I don’t know why she needs more promotion; her show was the highest rated in BET history.)

I called the contact but didn’t get an answer, unfortunately, since I missed the presser yesterday. But we can assume that Lil’ Kim is not being respected by Mayor John Street. I don’t know what our city’s mayor has to do with the federal prison she’s in at Seventh and Arch streets, but, hey, when you complain you gotta complain to someone.

Although I missed the press conference, I’ll just stay with this: Keep Lil’ Kim in your thoughts and prayers. If she’s not being respected in jail, she has it hard. And, of course, the real message of said presser: Her show’s on Thursdays at 9:30 on BET.

Lil’ Kim and Flavor Flav Make TV History [Pro Hip Hop]
Lil’ Kim: Countdown to Lockdown [BET.com]
March 9: Lil’ Kim Possible

‘And I turned 21 in prison, doin’ life without parole’

A report in today’s Daily News says that none other than our fair commonwealth leads the nation in juveniles serving life without parole. More than 330 juveniles are in prison for the rest of their lives. (There are about 2,225 nationwide, which puts PA roughly at 1/7 of the total.)

Why does Pennsylvania have so many inmates? Tough sentencing laws, mainly, and apparently a lot of teenagers without proper arts, athletics and porn to occupy their time.

So, celebrate! Tonight, you can sleep easy, knowing that you are safe from those 330 or so life-without-parolers. Take it from Lynne Abraham:

“I have very little sympathy for the Amnesty International position, when these little assassins come in with machine guns and submachine guns and kill people. Murder is murder.”

Thanks, Lynne!

No future [DN]