Newscast for Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Holder says civilian trials for 9/11 suspects still possible, Gitmo closing being planned
On Capitol Hill today, US Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers that New York City could still be the site of a civilian trial for suspects of the September 11th attacks. Holder also said the Obama administration continues to formulate its plan to close the Guantanamo prison. FSRN's Karen Miller has more.

Obama administration pushes shift of ‘war on drugs’ toward treatment
The head of US drug policy told a House panel today that the Obama administration is instituting a new approach to the decades long “War on Drugs.”  The administration says it is focusing more on confronting addiction through treatment and public health.  As FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, drug reform advocates are cautiously optimistic.

Advocates call for end of discrimination to HIV positive prisoners
Human rights advocates are calling on officials in Alabama and South Carolina to stop discriminatory practices in their prison systems. In a new report released today by the ACLU National Prison Project and Human Rights Watch, researchers say prisoners with HIV face harassment and systemic discrimination. Prisoners are forced to wear armbands to indicate their HIV status, and are segregated in HIV units. They must eat and worship separately and are at a disadvantage in prison jobs and re-entry programs to help them transition back into society.

One former prisoner included in the study said that the results of being segregated can be traumatic.

"You haven't even begun to deal with it and you’re getting these letters from home and they’re saying so-and-so said they saw you and you’re dying. And you have AIDS. You’re in a building where people have AIDS. So you haven't dealt with it. You’re still in denial, you’re still in shock, you’re still in disbelief and everybody’s telling your story before you can say anything yourself or even come to some type of acceptance."

The study was conducted through confidential interviews, testimony and letters from prisoners. It also looked at similar policies in Mississippi, but the state announced last month it would end segregation of HIV-positive prisoners after it reviewed findings of the report.

Megan McLemore is a researcher with the Health and Human Rights division at Human Rights Watch. She said that prison officials must implement HIV-prevention policies in a way that protects human rights.

"The reality in prisons worldwide is that sex happens and drugs happen. When correctional administrators face those realities that’s when they can really make a difference to reducing the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C in prison, but not until they acknowledge yes there is sex in prison, yes there are drugs in prison."

The report notes that the World Health Organization and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care have both found that there is no medical basis for segregating HIV-positive prisoners.

And that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found no medical evidence for barring persons with HIV from kitchen or food-service employment, a practice still currently at use in some prisons.

To download the full report from Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/node/89476

Arizona to require police check on immigration status
(Click here for web only special)
Arizona's legislature has approved what many are calling the most drastic immigration measure in the country. Lawmakers on Tuesday passed SB1070, a state bill that would require local police to verify the legal status of people stopped - for incidents as minor as a traffic violation. The state senate passed a similar bill and now it goes to Republican Governor Jan Brewer. Immigrant rights groups say it amounts to a police state, allowing law enforcement agents who are not trained in immigration law to enforce it. The Arizona police chiefs association has also opposed the bill.

We're joined by Representative Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat from Arizona's District 15. She's also the assistant minority leader in the House of Representatives.

In New York, fast-growing Nepali community organizes census count
There are three days left to send back the 2010 census forms and officials are calling on households to return the surveys. According to the government, 67 percent of households have returned the forms nationally. In the 2000 Census, 72 percent of the public mailed back their forms. Many community groups are also urging people to send in the forms as the census determines funding for social programs. Today, we’re going to look at one community’s efforts to get everyone counted. The Nepali community in New York - it's one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the area. FSRN's Salim Rizvi file this report.