The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog: August 2006 Archives

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August 30, 2006

Hurricane Katrina Update: Finding Faith in Our Darkest Hour

Finding Faith in Our Darkest Hour
A New Orleans Update

By Xochitl Bervera, August 30, 2006
Friends and Famiies of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
NOTE: FFLIC continues to need financial support. For contact information go to the end of this posting.

Friends from around the country ask us: “How are things in New Orleans? Are things getting better?” I always have to pause, surprised that people haven’t heard. I forget that the national media has abandoned us, that George Bush flew into town for five minutes to make promises of federal support which gave the rest of the country and the world permission to look away. I am stunned that people don’t know how much worse it is in New Orleans today for our organization, for our members, for our community than it was even six months ago.

When people ask, I have to tell them: It’s worse than you think. It’s not what people want to hear, but it’s the truth that isn’t being reported in the mainstream media, so I have to keep telling them. And every time, I draw on a renewed commitment on the part of FFLIC and many others in New Orleans and around the country to hold onto faith and to the knowledge that the spiritual and material power of people who believe in and work for justice will one day prevail - and so we keep moving forward. Because it is always darkest before dawn and New Orleans, a year after Katrina, is due for the brightest of dawns.

How are things in New Orleans? For the young people and families who are FFLIC’s heart and soul, things are not well. Besides the chaos of still-unrepaired infrastructure (traffic lights are still broken, garbage pick up remains illusive, levees are insufficiently repaired, and entire neighborhoods remain exactly as they did in October of last year) the clear plan of developers and the business community to deny the right of return to New Orleans’ Black community is being implemented in the ugliest of ways. HUD recently unveiled its plan to demolish 5000 units of public housing. The Recovery School District will simply not open its schools that serve poor Black neighborhoods. Officials refuse to re-open Charity Hospital, the source of health care for New Orleans’ poor and working class. All are part of a plan that has been in the works since the day after the storm. We are witnessing the normally gradual process of gentrification sped up to its logical conclusion, with developers interested in eliminating (and quickly!) all public infrastructure that supports the lives of poor and working class Black communities, and politicians eager to accommodate them. Politicians publicly make their commitment to welcome everyone back while quietly making the policy decisions that guarantee its impossibility.

And yet, people keep coming home! Black New Orleanians, whose land and city this is, are finding their way back every day despite all the predictions and efforts to the contrary. Our families and communities made it back to vote and made their numbers and power felt. Folks are back looking for jobs which don’t exist and housing which is boarded up and vacant.

What does this mean? It means there are hundreds of children in the city with no public schools to attend in their neighborhood. It means there are thousands of people suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (only psychologists tell us there is no “Post” to our PTSD as the stress of daily life in New Orleans is newly traumatizing each day) with no mental health care. It means people still have no consistent place to live, no sense of protection from a future storm, no jobs to make a living, no health care to treat even basic medical needs. It means folks come back, are forced to leave again, come back and forth and back and forth…

It means that the institutions that stabilize a community – like churches, schools, and grandmas – are absent, while instability and stress factors are through the roof.

It means that there has been a 25% jump in the mortality rate, including a threefold increase in the suicide rate. It means that Arsenio and Markee Hunter, Warren Simeon, Iraum Taylor and Reggie Dantzler, – all New Orleans youth and several of whom were friends and children of FFLIC’s – were slaughtered on a street corners not 5 blocks from our offices, gunned down with a submachine gun that somehow make it back into the city and onto the streets. It means we have lost Kerry Washington, a son and a father, who died mysteriously inside the overcrowded, overheated Orleans Parish Prison –where he paid with his life for an old warrant of simple drug possession. It means Ronald Smith who was gunned down by police will never get to see how beautifully his brother testified at a city council hearing two months ago. It means our members and families live in fear of both the violence on the streets and the violence of the police who are supposed to protect them.

It means, in short, that the clash between the gentrifying forces and the Black community - who were not meant to survive, endure, and return – has turned deadly. Where the lack of schools, housing and healthcare fails to keep people away, those in power will turn to the police and prisons.

If there was ever any doubt that the criminal justice system would be used to keep Black New Orleanians from returning, the last few months have eliminated the last of it. With 300 National Guardsman called in to patrol (with M-16s which are “locked and loaded”) the empty streets of the neighborhoods where the lack of infrastructure has slowed efforts to rebuild, the NOPD has been able to turn its attention to “protecting” the neighborhoods that have been rebuilt. By consistently profiling, harassing and arresting poor people of color, NOPD are now making over 140 arrests per week. The vast majority of these arrests are for minor violations, including spitting on a sidewalk. The kinds of charges being put on people – resisting arrest, obstruction of justice, battery on a police officer - speak more to the tension between NOPD and community than to public safety.

The rise in NOPD arrests occurs at a moment when the Orleans Parish Prison is becoming made increasingly dangerous by its overcrowding and lack of adequate health care. Harsh criticism from national media and lawyers of Sheriff Gusman’s operation of OPP has not stopped him from opening new “temporary” beds at breakneck speed and sending hundreds of prisoners up to the state penitentiary in Angola to try and keep up with the new arrests.

So how are things in New Orleans?
But, there is a beacon of light. Undeniably, organizing has taken root in the city. From neighborhood associations to workers rights, environmental justice, and public safety reform groups, people are beginning to come together and use their people power, their power to disrupt, to shame, to confront elected officials and demand that they do what they were elected to do: serve the people of this city.

An inspiring example of how organizing and reform work are together making a difference is in the juvenile justice system itself. Even as news coverage concentrates all the blame for crime on young Black men, and the demonized threat of these young Black men is used to justify everything from shutting down public housing to bringing in the National Guard, the juvenile justice system itself is continuing on the path of reform that had just begun when the storm hit.

The changes in New Orleans’ juvenile justice system are real. During the six months before Katrina, there were over 4000 juvenile arrests in New Orleans. In these last six months, there have been 169. After the storm, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Chief Judge David Bell took leadership in implementing many reforms that had previously been discussed, but never implemented. For starters, he brought in Attorney (and FFLIC friend) Ilona Picou to work as the court's recovery coordinator. Ilona, well versed in juvenile justice reform, coordinated 38 volunteer attorneys from outside Louisiana to winnow down the number of active cases from 26,500 to 2,500.

A new set of procedures on how to deal with kids has dropped the number of kids being arrested by police from over 100 a day to an average of 17 per day. Police are no longer arresting kids for trespass, for example, for sitting on a basketball court after school. The Court has been able to use savings from such basic changes to upgrade its computer and phone systems. It has also purchased vehicles for use by families in need of supervision, drug court, weekend detention and alternatives to detention programs. Money that had been used to put kids in jail before the storm is now being used to bring support families need to keep their kids at home.

So, why is juvenile justice improving at the very same moment criminal justice for adults is spinning out of control, and despite the recent blame-the-victim policy responses of curfews and increased law enforcement? In part, it is because juvenile justice reform efforts – led by FFLIC and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana – were already underway when Katrina hit. Before the storm, FFLIC, a voting member of the Children and Youth Planning Board was actively engaged in getting the many stakeholders to agree that detention reform in Orleans Parish was necessary. After touring the decrepit Youth Study Center and witnessing first hand the horrific conditions in which over 100 of our children were detained on any given day, FFLIC made a commitment to ensure that any reforms of the juvenile justice system would include the closure of that facility and the reduction of the number of children held at any given time. FFLIC worked hard with other stake holders, including the juvenile court judges, to recruit the Annie E. Casey Foundations Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) to come to Orleans to implement their proven program to reform local juvenile justice systems and help jurisdictions spend less on incarceration and more quality community based programs for kids and families.

So when the storm hit, the adult system and the juvenile system responded in precisely opposite ways. The juvenile system which had been forced to see children as the precious human being they are, and detention beds as the costly, ineffective burden they are, chose to speed up its reform process. The adult system which had made no such culture shift and no such commitment to change, has continued down its path of death and destruction.

What does this mean? To FFLIC, it is a reminder that our work has impact, value and indeed can make a very real difference in people’s lives and in the systems which affect our lives. To all of us, it shows that issue based organizing has the potential to result in system shifts that can withstand a racist onslaught even of the magnitude we are witnessing in New Orleans today. It also tells us that FFLIC must not be content to just see the changes in the juvenile system, knowing more children each day are being bumped into the adult system and that no matter what the courts say, our 17 and 18 year old children are no less human, no less ours, no less worthy of our commitment to keep them safe from the harm of the streets, safe from the harm of law enforcement, safe from the harm of racism and displacement. As FFLIC looks forward, we must re-commit ourselves to organizing, to building our membership base and to our mission of improving the lives of Louisiana’s youth, especially those at risk of getting involved in the juvenile justice system in the context of today’s it’s-worse-than-you-think New Orleans. If we and the many others in New Orleans who have begun, keep on organizing, we have hope that we may soon be able to answer the question differently, “So how are things in New Orleans?”

Xochitl Bervera
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
188 Williamsburg Street
Lake Charles, LA 70605
337) 562-7083

1600 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd
New Orleans, LA 70113
(504) 606-8846

Posted by lois at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Cell Block- City Whip Out Plans for a New Bronx Jail---not in our wasteland, say opponents

Cell Block
City suddenly whips out plans for a new Bronx jail. Not in our wasteland, say opponents.

by Jarrett Murphy
August 29th, 2006 8:30 AM

In the bad old days when the Bronx was burning, some of the ashes apparently found their way to a slab of land between the Bruckner Expressway and the East River called Oak Point. Over the next two decades, other debris from construction and demolition projects was illegally dumped at the same site, but that wasn't Oak Point's only baggage. There were also multiple bankruptcies, back taxes, dueling lawsuits, a factory that never was, power plants that never came, a felonious businessman, and links to the Gotti family.

But on April 25 of this year, the city offered to give Oak Point a new lease on life—as the site of a $375 million, 2,000-bed jail. In testimony to the City Council Committee of Fire and Criminal Justice Services, a top Department of Corrections official said that an Oak Point jail, along with the proposed reopening of the Brooklyn House of Detention, would shift a significant chunk of population off of Rikers Island—with its decaying infrastructure and unwieldy size—and into the boroughs, where inmates' families and lawyers could visit them more easily.

It's a fairly momentous shift for corrections policy in the city, where jails handled more than 100,000 admissions last year. But the D.O.C. didn't exactly shout this big news from the rooftops.

Corrections commissioner Martin Horn tells the Voice he had been thinking about the project for at least two years. Norman Seabrook, the head of the corrections officers' union, says he heard about it 18 months ago. But local council members were briefed about the plan only a few days before the hearing. And community activists, for the most part, didn't know about it at all.

A few activists happened to be at the hearing, and when it ended, they began spreading the word. Now a host of groups from Hunts Point is ramping up opposition. But on the other side of the fence are some of their traditional allies, like Legal Aid, the Women's Prison Association, and the Fortune Society. John Boston from Legal Aid told the council that "getting as many detainees as practical away from Rikers Island is an excellent idea," arguing that the huge size of Rikers, its physical deterioration, and its remote location make it a bad place for inmates and people who visit them. Elizabeth Gaynes, executive director of the Osborne Association, a social-service agency for prisoners, puts it this way: "Rikers Island is a nightmare."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not just that it's a bad commute. Rikers Island, which holds 10 jails and about 15,000 inmates, is in a flood zone, so it's vulnerable to hurricanes, and near fuelfarms that can blow up. In 1957, a DC-6 taking off from LaGuardia crashed there. The island is 80 percent landfill, and as that fill settles it can break water mains. There's lone bridge connecting the island to Queens. What if a criminal group knocked the bridge out? The whole justice system would grind to a halt, corrections officials say.

"I don't think we'll ever totally abandon Rikers Island, but I think the city needs to spread its risk," says Horn. He wants to move thousands of prisoners out of their decaying, temporary modules on Rikers and into either newly refurbished facilities on the island or new jails in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Each borough jail would hold people awaiting trial there. Women and the Rikers nursery will probably be moved off the island, as well. Horn vows that citywide jail capacity will not increase, and actually will shrink, under the plan.

That promise is key to the support the city is getting from advocates for the imprisoned, who always fear an "if we build it, we fill it" mentality when it comes to jails. "If any site that is chosen," says Gaynes, "is replacing cells and not adding to them and if it is going to improve the ability of people to stay connected to their families and the community that they're from, I think it's OK."

But it's not clear exactly how big the Brooklyn jail would be or just where the women and babies would go. Horn says he doesn't know whether the Oak Point site will need 11 acres or 16. The corrections union wants an academy for its officers on the site. What's more, eminent domain mightbe needed to obtain the site; Horn says talks with the landowner are at an impasse.

If the city moves to take the land, it won't be the first time Oak Point ended up in a legal dispute. After the city stopped dumping at Oak Point, a company named Britestarr bought the land for a modular-home factory but used it as an illegal dumping ground instead and racked up heavy state fines. The Dinkins administration considered putting a jail there, but that was scotched when a Gotti associate was found to be connected to Britestarr. Britestarr president David Norkin pled guilty to federal fraud and racketeering charges in 1996, and the company went bankrupt in 2002. The court appointed Steve Smith, an energy executive, as the new president of the troubled firm. Amid continued legal battles with Norkin and others, Smith teamed up with KeySpan to propose a power plant for Oak Point. But their application for state approval has stalled, probably because a jail is the city's priority there.

Horn contends that the Oak Point jail proposal was born two years ago when Smith approached the city to see if it "was interested in building a power plant and jail." But Smith disputes that, saying the city contacted him about the jail, also in 2004. Smith also has told state regulators that the city has "expressed its desire to acquire the entire site" if KeySpan ends its power-plant proposal. KeySpan tells the Voice it hasn't "formally discussed" the city's proposal for a jail.

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In the jail-versus-power-plant contest, locals pick "none of the above," but right now, the jail seems the more imminent threat. Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, who represents Oak Point, says the area near the proposed jail site is already home to two juvenile lockups, a prison barge, several waste-transfer stations, multiple homeless shelters, and heavy truck traffic. "We're just tired of more of the stuff nobody else wants in their neighborhood," she says. She acknowledges that a borough jail might make sense. She just wants it somewhere else.

Other opponents of the jail strenuously avoid the NIMBY line. Some argue that the site could be used for something better. Sustainable South Bronx is working on a feasibility study for a "recycling industrial park." While most jail opponents aren't signing on to that particular idea, local activists insist that they were talking about what to do with the Oak Point site long before the jail proposal came up.

There are also some practical doubts that Oak Point can deliver what the D.O.C. says it will. Bronx Defenders represents low-income people in the borough's courts and therefore would seem to be benefit from a closer jail. But it opposes the plan. Oak Point isn't that easy to reach, says organizer Maggie Williams. And getting to the jail is only part of the difficulty in visiting inmates: Passing through security and waiting in line for a brief visit also make it hard. Until the city knows exactly what it's doing in Brooklyn, there's no reason to touch a new site in the Bronx, Williams adds, especially given the environmental concerns about Oak Point after the years of dumping. "No one should have to live on that land," she says. "It's not appropriate for residential living. And a jail is residential."

Most importantly, the opponents simply don't want new prison space, even if it is replacing existing jails. From 2001 to 2005, the city crime rate dropped 17.5 percent, but the average population in the city's jails fell only 6 percent, probably because cops now have time to arrest people for low-level crimes, and they serve their sentences in the city rather than upstate. "The building of a jail in Riverdale wouldn't make us feel any better," says Kelly Terry-Sepulveda, executive managing director of the Point, a community-development corporation. "The fact is there doesn't need to be another jail built, end of story. The community doesn't feel we need more jail beds. That's not where we want to send our children."

Opponents of the Oak Point jail hate the process as much as the proposal. Since the April hearing, the D.O.C. has briefed only the chairman of Community Board 2—not the whole board or any other group. The agency promises it will reach out, but opponents are trying to derail Oak Point before it gets to that stage. "We believe as soon as the process starts it's going to be very difficult to stop them," says Carlos Alicea of For a Better Bronx.

The Bronx had its own jail for many years: the House of Detention at 151st Street and River Avenue—far closer to the courthouses than Oak Point. The aging 469-bed facility was put into reserve status in 2000, but any possibility for its reopening vanished when the city conveyed it to the Related Companies as part of the Bronx Terminal Market redevelopment, which Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión championed.

While other elected officials in the area have come out against the Oak Point plan, Carrión has not. A spokesman tells the Voice in a statement: "The Borough President feels it is premature to comment on any proposed land use for Oak Point. The Borough President is committed to working with local elected officials and the community to ensure that every possibility is considered . . . "

http://villagevoice.com/news/0635,murphy,74312,5.html

Posted by lois at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Coalition for Effective Public Safety Opposes New Legislation to Build More Prisons

FLOOR ALERT
REJECT NEW PRISON BEDS

OPPOSE AB 17XX AND SB X2-10
Borrows $606 million -- without voter approval -- to build 5,340 new prison beds and plan for another 10,900 more

OPPOSE AB 16XX AND SB X2-9
Adds 4,500 new prison beds for people in women’s prisons

The Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS), a statewide coalition representing organized labor, faith, criminal justice reform, civil rights and community groups, believes you can’t build your way out of this problem.

The CDCR has many problems. But building more prison cells won’t solve any of them. Building more cells will divert even more funds away from programming, reentry services and social services that might keep people from going to prison in the first place.

Increasing the number of cells will only increase the number of people in prison and California’s extraordinary $8 billion prison budget. Increased capacity has never solved the problems of overcrowding, lack of programming or poor conditions.

California voters don’t want more prisons. A 2006 poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found only 3% of Californians named prisons as an infrastructure priority and poll after poll has found that Californians favor cuts to prison spending over any other area of state spending.

We strongly oppose the use of Lease Revenue Bonds to build new prisons. The only reason to use lease revenue bonds is to bypass voter approval, as LRBs will end up costing taxpayers nearly twice the amount borrowed.

California needs to follow the lead of other states and reduce the number of people in prison. We can’t build our way out of this problem.

CONTACT: John Lum, Public Policy Coordinator 916-995-2379

The Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS)
is a capitol based statewide coalition of 38 organizations committed to creating safer communities and lowering prison costs.

Action Committee for Women in Prison
All of Us or None
American Civil Liberties Union
American Friends Service Committee
A New PATH
Behind the Walls
Books Not Bars
CA Attorneys for Criminal Justice
CA Families Against Mandatory Minimums,
CA Prison Moratorium Project
CA State NAACP
Center for Young Women’s Development
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Centerforce
Citizens for the Three Strikes Reform
Critical Resistance
Drug Policy Alliance
Education not Incarceration
ESPINO (Youth Organizing for Equal Justice and Education) Coalition
Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes
Friends Committee on Legislation
Get on the Bus
Justice Now
Justice Policy Institute
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Lutheran Office of Public Policy
Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation
National Action Network-California Chapter,
A New Way of Life
PICO California Project
Progressive Christians Uniting
SEIU Local 535
SEIU Local 1000
SEIU State Council
Women & Criminal Justice
Youth Against Youth Incarceration
Youth In Focus
Youth Justice Coalition/Free L.A.!

Posted by lois at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)

CA: 3 parts of Governor's Plans to Expand Prisons Move Forward

This is from Craig Gilmore in LA....

3 parts of the Gov's prison expansion plan moved
out of committee last night after a brief evening
of public committee meeting. Those are 1)
contracting for 4,500 beds for women 2) building
5,000 beds at existing prisons and planning
10,000 new medical and mental health beds and 3)
transferring non-citizens out of state. Two
related bills not part of the Gov's package also
passed providing grant assistance to counties
with parolees and establishing a committee to
advise the CDCR on its disfunctional computer
systems. Floor votes expected today or tomorrow
on all.

Below are the Times and SacBee stories on yesterday's deal.....

California Prison Reform Plan Falls Short
Lawmakers, calling it faulty, say they'll reject
most of the governor's $6-billion proposal to
ease crowding.
By Jenifer Warren and Jordan Rau
Times Staff Writers

August 30, 2006

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
sweeping proposal to ease overcrowding and other
woes inside California's beleaguered prison
system hit a wall Tuesday as lawmakers said they
would reject major pieces of his $6-billion
package.

One result: California's teeming penitentiaries -
already packed to twice their intended capacity -
will run out of bed space by June, officials say,
and nobody can agree on a plan to quickly create
more room.

Assessing the prospects, Corrections Secretary
James Tilton said he would be forced to close
prison doors to incoming inmates next summer.
Counties with caps on their jail populations
probably then would be forced to release inmates,
he said.

"I'm out looking for every available bed," Tilton
said in an interview. "It's a struggle, and I
hope the Legislature will reconsider and help us
find some immediate relief."

Schwarzenegger had proposed two short-term moves
to free 9,000 beds: the transfer of 5,000 felons
facing deportation to prisons in other states and
the use of private facilities to house 4,000
low-security inmates.

Members of the Legislature's Democratic majority,
however, said the mandatory transfers might be
unconstitutional. As for the 4,000 private prison
beds, it was unclear whether they were even
available, lawmakers said.

Legislators described Schwarzenegger's plans as
hastily assembled and lacking basic pieces of
information, and asked that the administration
flesh them out when lawmakers reconvene in
January. Democratic leaders submitted alternative
legislation containing parts that they found
acceptable.

"It was apparent in the [legislative] hearings
that the governor's ideas weren't ready for prime
time," said Mike Machado (D-Linden), chairman of
the Senate's committee on the special legislative
session on prisons called by Schwarzenegger.

The special session, concurrent with the regular
session, allows lawmakers to bypass many
legislative rules and adopt bills more quickly
than usual. Any legislation that is approved
would take effect 90 days after the session
concludes rather than at the beginning of next
year.

The Senate and Assembly plan to vote on the
legislative package today or Thursday.

Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) joined other
lawmakers in criticizing the governor for failing
to focus on dysfunctional parole and sentencing
laws, which she called the root of overcrowding.
Romero also accused him of using the special
session as a campaign stunt.

"This special session is show time for the
governor," Romero said. "He wants the blaring
trumpets and big hurrahs because there's an
election coming up. He should have dealt with
these problems last October when he was warned
about the population crisis."

Lawmakers embraced only one piece of the
governor's package: the transfer of 4,500
nonviolent female inmates - about 40% of the
total number of incarcerated women - to
correctional centers in their communities. Each
center would house as many as 200 offenders,
providing them with education, vocational
training, substance abuse treatment and other
services to increase their odds of success after
release.

Experts say such a move would be a groundbreaking
shift in policy and would reduce the recidivism
rate for California's female offenders, now
housed in prisons at Chowchilla, Chino and Norco.
Many of the new beds, however, may not be
available before 2008.

Corrections - an $8.6-billion-a-year operation in
the throes of a long-running crisis - became the
subject of a special session this month after
Schwarzenegger said urgent attention was
warranted to alleviate crowding.

The state's 33 prisons house about 173,000
inmates, with more than 16,000 of them bunked in
gyms, hallways and other spaces not intended as
living quarters. Projections show that the state
will receive 23,000 more felons over the next
five years.

Officials warn that the packed prisons - staffed
by officers stretched thin because of vacancies -
are on the brink of a violent outbreak.
Schwarzenegger said a failure to address the
crisis could prompt a federal judge to seize the
prison system and order the early release of tens
of thousands of inmates.

In addition to the shifting of female convicts,
the governor's initial proposal called for $6
billion to build two prisons, expand existing
lockups and open mini-prisons - called reentry
centers - in urban areas for inmates nearing
their release dates.

Since then, however, Schwarzenegger has scrapped
his plan for new prisons and now embraces a
suggestion by the federal receiver in charge of
prison healthcare: the construction of medical
and mental health facilities for 10,000 inmates.

Legislation put forth by Democrats this week
would authorize that move and provide $14 million
to design the facilities. The legislation also
would provide funding to build space for 5,340
more inmates at existing prisons, design the
reentry facilities, and build a new Southern
California academy to train correctional officers.

In all, lawmakers propose to fund less than $1
billion of the $6-billion package originally
proposed by Schwarzenegger.

In other action Tuesday, lawmakers sent to the
governor's desk bills that would:

* Allow registered domestic partners to file
joint state tax returns just as married couples
may. SB 1827 by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San
Francisco) was a priority of gay rights groups
and opposed by social conservatives and the
California Catholic Conference.

* Require large retail stores to set up in-store
recycling programs for plastic bags. AB 2447 by
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) requires
stores larger than 40,000 square feet to offer
places where customers can drop off used plastic
bags that the store would recycle.

* Prohibit school textbooks and instructors from
teaching anything that "reflects adversely" on
homosexuals. SB 1437 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl
(D-Santa Monica) originally required textbooks to
note gay people of historical significance, but
that portion was removed.

* Require remodeled pools to include the same
safety features that new pools must have, such as
a cover or fence. AB 2977 by Assemblyman Gene
Mullin (D-San Mateo) also would add two safety
features that would meet those requirements:
removable mesh fences and alarms in swimming
pools that ring if someone enters the water.

####
Democrats offer own prison plan
Four bills are alternative to governor's bid to deal with overcrowding. By Andy Furillo -- Bee Capitol Bureau Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 30, 2006 Democratic legislative leaders Tuesday presented
an alternative to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
plans for addressing prison overcrowding, one
administration officials said would force county
jails to release thousands of inmates by next
June.

The four bills would provide $918 million in bond
and general fund financing for prison expansion,
authorize the state to move 4,500 women to
community correctional facilities, offer $25
million in grant money for neighborhood parole
programs and allow for voluntary inmate transfers
to out-of-state institutions.

But the package falls well short of the $6
billion expansion plan the governor is seeking.

State Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, chair of the
select committee that reviewed the
administration's prison bills in the ongoing
special legislative session, acknowledged that
Democrats are taking an incremental approach.

"But in no way does it hinder the Department (of
Corrections and Rehabilitation) from getting to
where it has to go over time," he said. "It
doesn't in any way impede them."

Acting Corrections Secretary James Tilton said in
a statement that he was "encouraged" by the
Legislature's "focus" on the issue. But Tilton
said the bills ignore the Republican governor's
call to move 4,000 male inmates into private
prison beds and to involuntarily transfer 5,000
foreign nationals serving time in California to
out-of-state prisons.

"As a result, these bills do not solve the
state's short-term capacity problem," Tilton said
in the statement. "The lack of a short-term
solution will create an emergency situation
whereby the department will run out of beds by
June 2007. When that day comes, the department
will be forced to stop accepting inmates, and
will notify counties that (the prisons) can no
longer accept felons sentenced by the courts."

Tilton said 18,000 inmates a month already are
getting early releases from county jails due to
their own overcrowding problems, which he
predicted will worsen with the Legislature's
prison package, thereby "severely impacting the
public safety of our communities."

Machado, however, did not back off from the
Legislature's prison proposal. He said the
administration "couldn't demonstrate" a detailed
plan on the private prisons for men and that the
proposed out-of-state transfers raise
constitutional questions.

Moreover, Machado said, his prison committee
proposed a review of re-incarcerating low-risk
parolees who violate the terms of their freedom
as a way to stem prison overcrowding.

The Democrats' plan -- offered in identical
Assembly and Senate bills -- calls for $606
million in revenue bonds and $312 million from
the general fund to kick off a new, long-term
prison construction program. The program includes
groundwork for both the community "re-entry"
facilities for short-term inmates and medical and
mental health facilities for prisoners.

The money also would fund an expansion program at
existing prisons for 5,340 inmates (short of the
14,000 sought by the administration) and lay the
groundwork for the construction of a new training
academy in Southern California and the conversion
of a women's prison in Stockton into a reception
center for men.

Schwarzenegger's plan to move the 4,500
nonviolent female offenders into private prisons
may be running into some resistance, however,
from the companies that run the facilities.

Mark Nobili, a lobbyist for Cornell Cos. Inc.,
which operates a private prison in Sutter County,
said his client is not interested in bidding for
the new women's prisons. He said requirements in
both the governor's and the Legislature's bills
that the prisons be staffed with state
correctional officers would impede Cornell's
ability to run its own programs, but still leave
it liable.

"If we don't have the authority over our staff
and over our programs, we've got no quality
control," Nobili said, adding that lobbyists for
other private prison companies have told him they
won't be bidding on the facilities, either.

Wendy Still, the prison system's head of female
institutions, said several companies -- including
some focused primarily on drug treatment -- have
expressed interest in bidding on the private
prison contracts.

"We're going to get a different kind of bidder," she said.

About the writer:

* The Bee's Andy Furillo can be reached at
(916) 321-1141 or afurillo@sacbee.com.

Posted by lois at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2006

An exit strategy for the drug war

By Neal Peirce
This syndicated column ran in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA 8-28-06
SEATTLE -- Is it time to forge an ''exit strategy'' for our prolonged ''war on drugs''?

That question -- normally considered a ''no-no'' in legal circles, especially among prosecutors and police -- has been raised by the prestigious King County (Wash.) Bar Association since 2000. And the results have been impressive. King County is sending minor street drug users and sellers through drug courts instead of incarcerating them; its average daily jail count is down from 2,800 to 2,000. The Washington Legislature was persuaded to cut back drastically on mandatory drug possession sentences, apportioning funds to adult and juvenile drug courts, and family ''dependency'' courts. Tens of millions of dollars have been saved.

''This project isn't for fringy ponytailed pot smokers,'' insists Roger Goodman, director of the bar association's Drug Policy Project. ''We did it for the courts. We can't get civil cases heard for three years. And the drug cases are mostly so petty.''

The uncomfortable truth is that despite decades of aggressive government crackdowns, U.S. drug use and drug-related crime are as high as ever. Made profitable by prohibition, violent criminal enterprises that purvey drugs are flourishing. Harsh criminal sanctions, even for minor drug possession, have packed jails and prisons. Public coffers have been drained of funds for critical preventive social services,

Internationally, we're discovering that America's heavy-handed campaign of illegal drug eradication in countries such as Colombia is about as successful as our parallel military adventure into Iraq. Despite the stunning $4.7 billion we've spent since 2000 on planes fumigating Colombia's coca crop, farmers there are producing just as much cocaine as before our aerial assault.

Back home, ''street'' prices for cocaine have dropped and purity remains high. Prohibition has failed equally to stamp out markets and quality, or increase street prices for heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana. The drug war kicked off by President Nixon in the 1970s, and copied by state and local governments nationally, costs $40 billion or more a year. It is a massive, embarrassing, destructive failure.

But politicians are normally afraid to question the system for fear of being called illegal drug apologists. So how did the King County Bar get the ball rolling? ''It's the messenger, not the message'' -- the credibility of the bar association, says Goodman. The King County Bar in fact assembled a nationally unprecedented coalition of supporters, ranging from the Washington State Bar Association to the King County and Washington state medical associations, the Church Council of Greater Seattle and the League of Women Voters of Seattle and Washington.

And the first-stated goals weren't scuttling drug laws. Instead, the bar association announced its platform as (1) reductions in crime and disorder ''to undercut the violent, illegal markets that spawn disease, crime, corruption, mayhem and death''; (2) improving public health by stemming the spread of blood-borne diseases; (3) better protection of children from the harm of drugs, and (4) wiser use of scarce public resources.

Now the bar association and its allies are asking the Washington Legislature to establish a commission of experts to design how the state can switch from punitive approaches to a focus on treatment, shutting down the criminal gangs that now control the drug trade.

As controversial as it sounds, programs for victims (most likely adults) of such dangerously addictive drugs as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine may be easiest to fashion. Rather than leaving them to the streets and black market exploitation, there may -- as some European models suggest -- be ways to register addicts, provide controlled amounts of drugs in medical settings, and try to guide them into treatment.

For marijuana, control by cartels that now provide huge quantities might be broken by state licensing of home production (like brewing) and non-commercial exchanges. Or a state distribution system like state liquor stores, demonstrably effective in denying sales to youth, could be established.

The toughest issues may surround protection of children. Today, it's noted, they get contradictory messages -- ''Take a pill to feel better,'' and ''Just say no, except when you're 21 and then you can drink.'' Youth see commercial advertising pushing a wide variety of mind-altering, pleasure-inducing substances, even while society leaves control of so-called ''illicit'' drugs to criminal gangs. Plus, kids do like to experiment.

A realistic program could start with respecting young people, providing them honest information, on uses -- and the demonstrable dangers -- of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Goodman notes that in the 13 states where medical use of marijuana is authorized, teen use is down. ''It's not as cool when grandma uses marijuana for cancer pain,'' he says.

There's surely no risk-free ''exit'' from today's terribly destructive drug war. But we have to try -- and should thank communities and states with the courage to lead.

Neal Peirce's e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com.

Posted by lois at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

IL: Town's Long Wait Over as Empty Prison Readies to Open

Tiny town's long wait nearly over as empty prison readies to open
By JAN DENNIS
Associated Press Writer

August 27, 2006, 10:07 AM CDT

THOMSON, Ill. -- Instead of inmates counting down their sentences, it's the people of this tiny Mississippi River town that have been waiting for nearly five years as a newly built state prison sat empty after falling victim to Illinois' budget crunch.

The $136 million lockup will finally be unlocked in the next two weeks, with a scaled-down opening approved last spring that will bring in about 200 of the 1,800 inmates the state-of-the-art prison was built to house.

With fewer prisoners, only 75 of the nearly 700 jobs promised will be filled when the prison opens on the outskirts of this job-hungry town, about 40 miles northeast of the Quad Cities.

Still, townspeople say it's better than nothing in a struggling region where unemployment has swelled over the last decade as area factory jobs vanished and an Army depot was shuttered in nearby Savanna.

"It always baffled me that they put that much money in a prison they didn't open. ... I guess I won't believe it until I see them unloading that first batch of prisoners," said Barb Kessler, a clerk at a produce market in this town of about 550 people that bills itself as the melon capital of the world.

Such skepticism seems justified after hopes were raised then dashed for years as Illinois battled massive budget deficits that tied up the $50 million a year needed to open the state's newest prison.

Some worry now that the $7.7 million for the partial opening -- proposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and approved by the Legislature -- was just election-year sleight of hand. They fear the money won't follow to fill Thomson's eight sprawling cell houses, completed in late 2001.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said it's too early to speculate on the governor's budget plan for next year if he's re-elected. But one area lawmaker says the rest of the prison could open as soon as next summer if the state's improving finances hold.

"I don't like to give anybody false hope. I've tried to keep this situation one of reality, but I think it's looking good. I don't know what kind of odds I'd put on it if I was a gambling man, but I think it looks good," said state Rep. Mike Boland, D-East Moline.

Officials say the scaled-back opening will provide little economic boost for this rural bedroom community, where some residents drive nearly an hour to work and the Mississippi River draws flocks of hunters and fishermen.

"The jobs are one-tenth of what we were promised. So is it good? Yes. Is it going to change the economy? No," said Lawrence Bruckner, a Thomson native and former lieutenant governor candidate who built a hotel and restaurant that has struggled as the prison sat idle.

Acting village president Randy Starr agreed, saying Thomson won't get a real economic jolt until all of the prison's jobs and cells are filled. But he said some merchants are already reporting better sales as workers ready the prison for 200 minimum-security inmates who will start arriving in groups of about 25 by early September.

"Things have picked up for us. Not dramatically, but anything is an improvement," said Mike Wheetley, who owns a downtown bar and grill where business fell 30 percent after prison construction wrapped up.

But officials say Wheetley's watering hole and the other handful of businesses in Thomson will flourish if the state comes through with money to fully open the prison, adding about 600 jobs and 1,600 inmates, who also will draw a steady steam of visitors.

"That will be a real shot in the arm," said Boland, a state lawmaker since 1995. "That will be just like putting megavitamins into the area's economy."

Chamber of Commerce president Jonathan Whitney says growth would be solid but not explosive if the prison is filled. Housing in and around Thomson could increase by about 10 percent and new restaurants and taverns could open, but probably not the grocery store and fast-food outlets many want.

Still, even more growth could lie ahead, said Whitney, publisher of The Carroll County Review, a weekly newspaper.

He said Thomson's prison could further boost its inmate population -- adding even more jobs -- if the state opts for two prisoners to a cell instead of one, the practice at most of Illinois' other 27 lockups. And other projects also are in the works, including a planned ethanol plant that would could create about 60 new jobs.

"We need jobs. Most of them are so far away. If you find something around here, you're lucky," Brandy Arnold of Savanna said last week while helping her fianc De's sister with a yard sale in Thomson.

The long wait on the prison proved too long for some Thomson business owners, who were forced to sell after building or expanding to serve an expected throng of workers and visitors who never came.

Some residents also wonder whether an earlier opening could have saved the town's schools, which merged last year with nearby Savanna and Mount Carroll, leaving only fourth- and fifth-graders in Thomson.

But others say the frustrating delay also quieted dissent over the prison that once divided the small town. Even opponents, they say, think the prison should be used now that it's there.

"I'm sure there are still some who are against it," said William Wagner, an 82-year-old Thomson native who came back home from Chicago after retiring 20 years ago. "But they're not doing any talking to speak of."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-thomsonprison,1,6833500.story
Copyright © 2006, The Associated Press

Posted by lois at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)

LA Critical Resistance Seeks Organizer

Critical Resistance Los Angeles, a grassroots organization working to end the prison industrial complex (PIC), seeks a full-time organizer.
Responsibilities and duties:

Take lead role in development and coordination of actions and events

Facilitate ongoing campaign planning and evaluation

Organize bi-monthly CRLA meetings

Build membership and capacity of local chapter through ongoing outreach and follow up with new constituents

Develop and maintain relationships with ally organizations and individuals working against the PIC and related activism in Southern California and represent CRLA in local coalitions

Create and maintain clear pathways for new member involvement, including involvement of LEAD Project participants

Represent CRLA publicly through public speaking, workshops, and media opportunities

Administrative responsibilities: keep data base, manage basic finances, respond to email and phone inquiries

Supervise/coordinate volunteers and interns

Some research support
Qualifications:
Understanding of PIC issues and commitment to CR's mission
Grassroots organizing experience
Facilitation skills
Grassroots fundraising and grant writing ability
self-starter; able to work independently; problem-solver
Good written and verbal communication skills
Ability (and inclination) to do office work
Ability to balance multiple responsibilities
Be accountable to multiple organizers in a non-hierarchical organization
Basic computer skills (word processing, database, basic layout)
Spanish language skills a plus
Former prisoners, family members of prisoners, victims of policing/INS, and people of color are especially encouraged to apply.
Please email letter of application and resume by September 15, 2006.
Critical Resistance Los Angeles
EMAIL: crla@criticalresistance.org
For more information about Critical Resistance, please visit our website (www.criticalresistance.org)
***********************

Posted by lois at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

AL: Ruling May Alow Some With Felony Convictions to Vote

Ruling may allow felons to vote
Thursday, August 24, 2006
VAL WALTON, The Birmingham (Alabama) News
News staff writer

Alabama must allow all felons to register to vote under current state law, a Jefferson County judge ruled Wednesday - a decision Secretary of State Nancy Worley said could lead to polling places in prisons.

Circuit Judge Robert Vance Jr. said any felon should be able to register and vote until the state Legislature passes a law that defines crimes of moral turpitude. No such definition exists under state law, Vance said.

Vance said his order is on hold, however, until the state submits the voting change to mandatory review by the Justice Department under the federal Voting Rights Act.

Vance's decision sets the stage for people convicted of felonies such as driving under the influence and drug possession to register immediately. Prior legal precedents such as attorney general opinions have determined that moral turpitude doesn't apply to those crimes and a handful of others.

Responding to Vance's 50-page decision, Worley said having voting stations in prisons "would be a serious problem to handle."

Vance's decision stems from a 2005 lawsuit that contended Worley violates Alabama's constitution by giving voter registrars instructions to require all felons to apply to the Board of Pardons and Paroles to have their voting rights restored.

The suit argued the state constitution is clear that people convicted of certain felonies including DUI and drug possession - unlike murder, rape or robbery - do not lose their voting rights and do not need to apply for an eligibility certificate from the board.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed suit after the Jefferson County's registrar refused in late September 2005 to register Richard Gooden because in 2002 he was convicted of DUI for a third time, raising the crime to a felony.

The state has a long practice of removing from voting rolls anyone convicted of a felony, whether drug possession or murder. The suit revived the issue of what felonies involving moral turpitude would bar convicts from voting, prompting Attorney General Troy King to weigh in and provide some examples, but not an exhaustive list.

Vance's ruling Wednesday said the power to designate crimes as acts of moral turpitude rests with Legislature.

"Only the Legislature has the constitutional power to decide which crimes involve moral turpitude so as to justify the removal of a fundamental civil right for which so many have fought and died," Vance's ruling said.

Vance said he realizes his order changes a practice that dates back many years, but given the fundamental issue of the right to vote, he wrote, he must conclude that every citizen otherwise eligible to register in the state may not be denied that right solely because of a prior felony conviction.

Sees positive side:

Edward Still, a Birmingham lawyer handling the suit, said Vance's decision is good news for hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who do not have the more serious felony convictions and who have been denied the right to vote.

"They should register to vote immediately," Still said.

Still said the requirement allowing all felons to vote is good for society because it helps reintegrate ex-convicts into the community.

Meanwhile, Worley said Wednesday's decision also clouds the issue of what wording should appear on voter registration forms that refer to a prior criminal conviction as basis of disqualification. She said her office would send a letter to the attorney general's office Wednesday night seeking direction.

"Obviously, there is the potential for appeal," Worley said. "In the meantime, we need some clear guidance."

Suzanne Webb, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, said the office was reviewing Vance's decision.

Posted by lois at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

Registries for People Convicted of Selling Meth Proliferate

By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY, 8-22-06

States frustrated with the growth of toxic methamphetamine labs are creating Internet registries to publicize the names of people convicted of making or selling meth, the cheap and highly addictive stimulant plaguing communities across the nation.

The registries ‹ similar to the sex-offender registries operated by every state ‹ have been approved within the past 18 months in Tennessee, Minnesota and Illinois. Montana has listed those convicted of running illegal drug labs on its Internet registry of sexual and violent offenders since 2003. Meth-offender registries are being considered in Georgia, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington state and West Virginia.

SAFETY : Illinois communities back meth registries

The new registries represent the latest effort by governments against meth, which can be made from household ingredients such as cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine. As meth labs have spread east from California during the past decade, most states have increased penalties for meth manufacturing and restricted the sale of medicines used to make the drug. Those laws have contributed to a decline in meth labs, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, which reported that authorities found more than 17,000 labs in 2003 and more than 12,000 last year.

Tennessee has more than 400 people in its meth-offender database, which was created partly in response to complaints from landlords and other property owners about the toxic waste created after chemicals are "cooked" to make meth.

Illinois lawmakers approved a meth-offender registry in June, and last month Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty used his executive powers to create a registry that is to be online by Dec. 31.

The registries generally include the names, birthdates and offenses of convicted meth manufacturers, dealers and traffickers. The dates of their convictions and the locations of their crimes also are included. The listings are not as specific as those in sex-offender registries, which include offenders' addresses and photos.

Officials in Minnesota and elsewhere say residents and landlords will be able to use the registries to check for meth offenders in their communities. "We want to arm citizens with information, so they can protect themselves and their communities," says Brian McClung, a spokesman for Pawlenty.

The meth-offender registries have not been challenged in court, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other critics say there are legal and practical drawbacks to them.

Graham Boyd, director of the ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project, says the prospect of being listed on a meth-offender registry for at least several years after a conviction amounts to an extra punishment "that's not allowed under our Constitution."

However, three years ago the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a similar double-jeopardy argument when it upheld state registries for sex offenders, who the court said posed a unique threat to communities.

If meth registries are challenged in court, a key question would be whether meth offenders are as much of a threat to public safety as sex offenders.

Studies consistently have shown that offenders who abuse drugs have high re-arrest rates. Recidivism rates among sex offenders can vary widely.

Boyd also says drug users could use meth-offender registries to locate dealers. "One group for whom this registry is going to be an incredibly good resource is people looking to buy methamphetamine," he says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-22-meth-registries_x.htm

Posted by lois at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

Can We Pass The Second Chance Act in 2006

Published by Western Prison Project (http://westernprisonproject.org)
Can We Pass the Second Chance Act in 2006?
Created Aug 17 2006 - 11:20am
An interview with Gene Guerrero

Justice Matters’ editor Kathleen Pequeño interviewed Gene Guerrero of the Open Society Policy Center [1] about the federal Second Chance Act, S 1934 & HR 1704. Guerrero, who lobbies Congress on criminal justice and civil liberties issues, previously worked with Human Rights First and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Justice Matters (JM): What is the Second Chance Act? What are the most important changes that you think it will create if it passes?

Gene Guerrero (GG): The Second Chance Act is a comprehensive piece of legislation designed to provide better planning and coordination for people coming out of incarceration and federal support for demonstration programs to provide needed re-entry services. Most of the people who work in the field of corrections agree that transition planning should begin as soon as someone has been sentenced. There ought to be someone thinking about what that person needs, addressing the problems the person has: addiction, educational needs, and then providing transitional services to that person.

One of the most important features of this bill is that it asks — it requires — states that are seeking funding for re-entry services to engage in a collaborative planning process to establish the re-entry priorities for that state. State officials should be talking with local officials, half-way houses, nonprofits, and faith-based groups to decide jointly what the state needs. To ask, what's the best way to use limited federal funding in that state?

The collaborative planning process is modeled after something good the Bush administration has done since they took office. They've been having meetings with various people in the relevant federal departments — the Department of Justice, HUD, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Education — to talk about what happens to people coming out of prison and figure out how to cut the high recidivism [2] rates in this country.

JM: Can you tell me more about how high recidivism rates are?

GG: Nationally, the Department of Justice has reported that 2/3 of people released are re-arrested within three years. Meanwhile, other countries incarcerate fewer people, and in the other industrialized nations, their crime rates are lower. We waste a lot of money incarcerating people who don't really need to be imprisoned and wouldn't be if they had committed their offense in France, or Germany, or Finland, or Spain. Among other things, incarceration is really expensive. We could be using other punishments that are less expensive and have less likelihood of recidivism and we could better use limited public funds on programs that offer much better promise of reducing crime. We need to really look at changing the direction of our criminal justice policy --- having a more constructive approach instead of a destructive approach.

JM: Why is this a good time to pass this bill?

GG: I have been around these issues for many years. I've thought year after year that things couldn't get worse, but year after year, they do get worse. Now, we're at the point that with 5% of the world's population, the United States has about 25% of all the prisoners in the world. We have a terrible problem in this country. For the first time in my life, I see the potential to turn this around. There are several reasons for this opportunity for real reform:

1. Crime rates are down.
2. At least for the moment, crime is not the political football it was a few years ago.
3. Now just about everyone acknowledges that the drug war has been a failure.
4. The whole faith-based initiative has opened the eyes of people to the fact that something needs to be done to help people coming out of prison.

We've made surprising progress with this act. We now have 28 sponsors in the Senate and 112 in the House of Representatives. It's passed out of the House committee, and has a really good chance of passing, especially as we line up more sponsors.

JM: You mention that crime rates are down. But if crime rates were increasing, would it be to okay to leave the system the way it is now?

GG: No, the central goal should be crime reduction. We want to cut recidivism because we want to cut crime. All the evidence shows that most of these programs do in fact cut recidivism rates. Even modest reductions not only cut crime but save money because it's so expensive to incarcerate people. Plus, you're helping people, giving them a chance to redeem themselves.

JM: What sort of response are you getting from people on Capitol Hill as you talk with them about the Second Chance Act? Have any of the responses surprised to you?

GG: There's a lot of support. The sponsorship is fairly evenly-divided between Republicans and Democrats. In the House of Representatives our lead sponsors for the Second Chance Act are Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT), Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH). In the Senate the lead sponsors are Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Joseph Biden (D-DE). Co-sponsors are a diverse group including, for example, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).

Part of the reason for the strong Republican support is Bush's inclusion of this issue in the 2004 State of the Union address, saying, "America is the land of second chance." After that address, the re-entry working group --- an informal network of organizations: civil rights groups, faith groups, and service providers --- began to work with Rep. Rob Portman. He was representing Ohio at the time, and the White House asked him to take a lead on whatever came out of the process following the State of the Union address. We've also worked with Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), who is a former prosecutor and a former judge from Cleveland, and with Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL). They've all been leaders on this in the House. Representative Davis is known as “Mr. Re-entry.” In the Senate, Senators Biden, Specter, and Brownback took the lead.

The surprise is that people are so willing to look at these issues comprehensively. The act creates two different types of grants. The first, main grant program is for the demonstration grants. If states go through the collaboration process, that helps them get a grant. The idea is to show that transition programs are cost-effective and to encourage their replication more broadly. Then the second grant program goes straight to nonprofits and faith-based groups for mentoring programs.

Meeting with conservative members of congress, they are very supportive of mentoring and programs in prison. There's a growing recognition that an overly harsh sentence can do more harm than good.

JM: Is there any resistance to the Second Chance Act? Where is it coming from?

GG: There hasn't been much opposition, but it's been mostly one of two things. There are still a few conservative people who argue that nothing about rehabilitation works. Then secondly, there's argument from some conservatives that the federal government shouldn't take this role, which should be done by the states.

Oh, and some Democrats are nervous about crime issues. We've had to work to get them to support the bill.

JM: You're hoping to pass this in session (which wraps up at the end of September). What will happen if it doesn't pass?

GG: We'll start again with the new Congress. It will be re-introduced in February or March of 2007.

There's a lot of interest from corrections people, and there's been a lot of effort to pass this. A failure to pass it would be a setback. This is a significant change of policy.

This is primarily a state issue --- most people are leaving state prisons. But the federal government plays a leadership role for bad or good. The federal government can set a positive example and can push the states in a constructive direction.

JM: So what's next for this bill?

GG: Congress is on break in August, and one important thing people can do is contact their local congressional offices in August to express support. When Congress returns in September, we have one month to pass it. We're hopeful. It's made it onto the House floor. There are a couple of situations in which it might pass, including being inserted into another bill as an amendment or passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and then making its way through the House. People need to let their congressional members know that they support this bill, especially while Congress is back in their home districts in August.

Right now, if you look at what is being done about re-entry --- there are good programs out there. The challenge is to make these programs more widely available to reach all the people, families, and communities who need them.
This interview was done in August, 2006 for the Summer/Fall issue of Justice Matters.
Source URL:
http://westernprisonproject.org/info/nation/story/920

Posted by lois at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)

On Prisons, Blacks, HIV

DERRICK Z. JACKSON
On prisons, blacks, HIV

By Derrick Z. Jackson | August 19, 2006, Boston Globe

SEVENTEEN YEARS ago, time enough for a new generation to start the next generation, Robert Fullilove tried to warn the nation about the rising impact of AIDS on black people. He and his wife Mindy were researchers in San Francisco at the nation's largest research center of color that is working on AIDS.

``We have a series of epidemics that work against dealing with AIDS," he told me in 1989. ``Homicide is caught up in drug abuse. Drug abuse is caught up in AIDS. AIDS is caught up in crack use. Crack use is caught up in STDs [sexually transmitted diseases] . STDs are caught up in AIDS. Now, AIDS is threatening to make tuberculosis common again to many people who don't have AIDS. It could start looking like 200, 300 years ago."

This week, Fullilove spoke at the 16th International Conference on AIDS in Toronto to warn participants that the series of epidemics continues to grow. ``The whole issue of black men in prison is one we also have to talk about if we're serious about this," he said over the phone. ``There is growing evidence that this is the major contributing factor that we have not paid enough attention to to connect the dots as to why infection rates are so disproportionate (in the United States) among black people."

Fullilove, 62, now at Columbia University, cited a study of HIV transmission in Georgia's prisons from 1992 to 2005, published in April in the Centers for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The study found that the prevalence of HIV infection among inmates is nearly 5 times the rate of the general population. While black inmates make up 63 percent of the Georgia prison population, they accounted for 86 percent of inmates who were infected with HIV before entering jail.

The older the prisoners and the longer their sentences, the more likely it was that they would transmit or contract HIV behind bars, primarily through male-to-male sex or tattooing. With no differences in risk behaviors among racial groups, the percentage of black inmates who contracted HIV in prison, 67 percent, roughly mirrored their share of the prison population. According to the CDC study, only 15 percent of inmates reported using ``improvised barrier protection methods" during sex. An editor's note to the study said, ``Departments of corrections without condom distribution programs should assess relevant state laws, policies, and circumstances to determine the feasibility and benefits and risks of implementing such programs." The CDC only cites state prisons in Mississippi and Vermont and city jails in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., as having condom distribution programs.

Massachusetts, despite years of urging from AIDS prevention activists, does not distribute condoms in state prisons.

With 1 out of every 3 black males facing the chance of prison in their lifetimes, according to The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group that promotes sentencing alternatives, Fullilove said that if prisons do not make changes soon, the loaded dice will explode in many more transmissions. ``There is . . . reason to assume that this is probably similar all across the country," he said. ``These young men go in because they lost hope, and when they come out, in many states, their prison record means they can't vote, they find it difficult to get a job or loans for education and qualify for housing subsidies. We're creating an underclass."

It is one being created as a bipartisan failure. Former President Bill Clinton addressed the AIDS conference this week in his current incarnation as a planetary savior against the disease. Indeed, his two terms in office were marked by a significant increase in support for AIDS education and research. But his efforts were marred by his refusal to fight congressional Republicans to overturn grossly disparate drug sentencing laws that were far more harsh for crack cocaine than for powdered cocaine. Even though illegal drug use by racial groups roughly mirrors their actual percentage of the population, those laws and enforcement of those laws have resulted in the vastly disproportionate incarceration of black people. President George W. Bush made a splash by pledging $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa, more than any other president. But he undercut his promises by reducing general research in the sciences, while overstressing abstinence and understressing condoms.

Just as Fullilove warned 17 years ago, the world and black people in particular have a series of epidemics that work against dealing with AIDS. With all that we know now, Fullilove said, any inaction on the crisis ``is as close as you can get to being criminal." Given his latest concern, that pun is intended.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.

Posted by lois at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2006

Tara Andrews Candidate for MD Senate Focuses on African American Men Not Voting

At election time, many black men not on the scene
By C. Fraser Smith
Originally published August 20, 2006
The profile of a voter in Baltimore is roughly this: a black woman of about 40, a churchgoer with a decent job. Black men, whether professionals or "brothers on the corner," often aren't in the picture. Many don't see why they should vote - or they're disqualified by virtue of involvement with the criminal justice system.

These are rough approximations of reality, but they are close enough to the truth for political purposes. And the implications are troubling, to say the least. An important part of the black community offers political leaders no reason to care about or address its concerns. If you don't vote in this country, you don't count politically.

As a candidate for the state Senate in Baltimore's 40th District, Tara Andrews found her interest in this problem grow into a pragmatic concern. A survey of the electorate in her center-city senatorial district confirmed her worst fears. She knew young black men didn't vote. It's part of a pattern.

"If there's a negative indicator of status in this society, black men are always at the bottom: in education, employment, whatever," she says.

But the numbers she found were even more profoundly distressing.

Of approximately 47,000 registered black voters in her district, about 4,300 were between 18 and 35. Between 1994 and 2002, only 2,500 went to the polls, and that's a cumulative total for all the elections in this eight-year period.

Many of those who don't vote say they have no faith their participation makes a difference for them. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Having lobbied for various causes in Annapolis for the last five years, Ms. Andrews says, "I understand even more clearly how politics works, how the policymaking process works. These young black men are not a constituency the politicians have to respond to for anything."

Many of those who don't vote are among the estimated 150,000 Marylanders barred from the voting booth by their convictions, by bureaucratic requirements that make reinstatement of voting rights difficult, and by a political tug of war between the two major political parties.

Republicans get blamed often for blocking the return of ex-felons to the voting roles. Ms. Andrews doesn't buy it. If the problem were just the Republicans, she says, it could be solved by the General Assembly's majority, the Democrats. "It's not a priority for them," she says.

Black leaders must share the blame, Ms. Andrews says. They aren't necessarily interested in seeing a lot of new voters in their districts. "They know they will continue to get elected without fixing the problem." she says.

Ms. Andrews concedes that one of her opponents, Del. Salima S. Marriott, is a longtime advocate of restoring voter privileges to felons and to making it easier for those who want to vote to get to the ballot box. Ms. Marriott was one of the sponsors of legislation extending the voting period for five days this year. If she were in the Assembly, Ms. Andrews says, she would promote virtually instant voter rights for ex-felons.

"You should be eligible to vote as soon as your feet hit the street. You paid your debt," she says.

There are many issues black voters could and should be addressing. The black community has had a love-hate relationship with the police. While many young black men find their life prospects ruined by criminal activity, others in the community are typically the victims. It's a conflict that all the voters ought to be grappling with, she says.

She is not comforted by the dominant position of black women in the electorate.

"To the extent that I'm up here and black males are down there ... we're not whole as a community," she says.

C. Fraser Smith is senior news analyst for WYPR-FM. His column appears Sundays. His e-mail address is fsmiht@WYPR.org.

Posted by lois at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Mule Creek Prison Polluting Groundwater --residents oppose expansion

Ledger Dispatch

Supes: Mule Creek Prison polluting groundwater

Friday, August 18, 2006

By Judie Marks

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to add 400 more inmates to its prison at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, but the ones who are already there generate so much wastewater that the prison is contaminating the area's groundwater.

The Amador County Board of Supervisors Tuesday passed a resolution to oppose the proposed $48 million expansion, which is the subject of a special session of the legislature called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger specifically to deal with prison overcrowding.

"The Department of Corrections is acting like the big monster coming in and rolling over the top of us," according to Supervisor Richard Forster. By pushing the governor's $6 billion prison expansion building plan through in a special session, Forster said, the state is trying to "just jam it down our throats."

"These communities are not being given much say in this," he said. "By the end of the month, it's probably going to be said and done."

Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Richard Vinson noted that the addition of 400 beds to the prison would bring the institution's population to 4,383. Originally it was designed for 1,700 beds, but overcrowding has meant the addition of 2,283 beds, for a total of 3,983 beds now.

Everyone who spoke at Tuesday's board of supervisors' meeting agreed that the prison is not a "good neighbor."

Vinson noted that the county provides numerous services to the prison, including services of the district attorney, pubic defender, coroner and public health departments. "Not only are these not paid when services are rendered," he said, "but sometimes they are not even paid in the same fiscal year, or maybe at all."

Ione City Councilman Jerry Sherman, noting the prison's present excess population of nearly 2,300, said, "We need to stop it now, before it goes any further."

Sherman said inadequate sewage treatment at the prison has resulted in the city's monitoring wells "coming up dirty."

"They are putting stuff in the groundwater," he said. "It's not from our sewer plant." He claimed that employees of the state's Regional Water Quality Control Board have been told not to check on water quality conditions at the prison. "If we tried to do anything like what they are doing now," Sherman said, "we would be shot down in a minute."

After the meeting, Julio Guerra, chief operator for the city of Ione's wastewater treatment plant, told the Ledger Dispatch that he had toured the prison's sewage treatment facility and characterized it as "hopelessly overloaded."

While it was built to treat 740,000 gallons of sewage a day, Guerra said, he was told by prison employees that it averages more than 900,000 gallons a day and at peak usage, hits surges that, if continued throughout the day, would amount to 2 million to 3 million gallons a day.

While praising the prison's sewage treatment operator as "very conscientious," Guerra said that "they need to fix what they have and bring what they have up to the level required to handle the current population." City monitoring wells between the prison and the nearby Castle Oaks Golf Course, he said, have seen higher concentrations of nitrates than are allowable.

He stressed that that contamination poses no risk to the public, because it is at least 10 to 20 feet beneath the ground, and also poses no risk to the city's drinking water, because that water is piped in by the Amador Water Agency from surface water sources in the mountains. But, Guerra said, "There may be some private wells that could be impacted by that kind of thing."

Although the issue was not slated for a public hearing, the board heard comments from various people who wanted to contribute to the discussion, including Undersheriff Karl Knobelauch, who said he is a neighbor of the prison.

"I live in the glare of Mule Creek State Prison," Knobelauch said, adding that traffic during the shift changes at the prison is a serious problem. "Employees have been arrested for (offenses) up to manslaughter for the way they drive," he said.

Another neighbor of the prison, Virginia Silva, who lives adjacent to Mule Creek, claimed that in the summertime, when the creek is mostly dried up, a few springs leave "potholes of water" that she described as "stinking black sewage in our creek." She claimed that the prison has been dumping sewage directly into the creek.

Guerra, the city's wastewater plant operator, later said he saw no evidence that the prison was allowing sewage to flow into the creek.

Brian Parriott, spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Sacramento, also denied that that was occurring. The claim, he said, had been made a few days earlier. "Mule Creek Prison denies any raw sewage is going into the creek," Parriott said. "They said if there was sewage in the creek, it didn't come from the prison."

Jim Scully, who said he lives a mile due south of the prison, complained of noise, traffic and light pollution from the prison. "The noise," he said, "is unbelievable."

Scully also said that twice he had been personally "run off the road by men wearing prison guard uniforms."

As for the light pollution, Scully said that although only two towers are manned at the prison at night, all the towers are fully lit up. He claimed that the lights were left on primarily so guards could walk between the towers without tripping. "I recommend a $3 item," he said. "A flashlight."

Scully also complained that "a full 30 percent" of the inmates come from Los Angeles County. "To my knowledge," he said, "there's no prison in Los Angeles County."

After hearing the comments, the supervisors voted unanimously to pass a resolution in opposition to expansion of the prison. The resolution notes that the residents of Ione voted in 1994 to oppose prison expansion, that the Department of Corrections never fulfilled conditions of the original Environmental Impact Report and are proposing to expand the facilities without adequate environmental review.

The resolution also noted that excess sewage generated at the prison appears to be degrading the environment, that the $320,000 the state is proposing to pay for mitigating impacts to local agencies is "woefully inadequate" and that local jurisdictions do not have enough time to properly review the proposal.

Supervisors Forster and Louis Boitano were appointed to an ad hoc committee to lobby the legislature in an attempt to keep the expansion proposal from being approved.

Parriott said in a telephone interview that the expansion is just a proposal, and that the department is "not at the stage of building anything." The expansion, if approved, he said, would not be immediate, but would begin within a four-year period and only after an Environmental Impact Statement was completed, giving both governments and citizens an opportunity to participate.

County Administrative Officer Pat Blacklock, however, said after the meeting that current law exempts Mule Creek from the California Environmental Quality Act. Previous construction at the prison was exempted, he said, and "the rumors we are hearing is that it could all happen in the final days of the legislature's session, leaving the community very little time for analysis and comment."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/newsview.asp?c=192653

Posted by lois at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

TX: 3 new Prisons to be built and more treatment programs sought

3 new prisons, more treatment programs are sought
Biggest expansion in a decade proposed to keep pace with convict growth

By Mike Ward, Corrie MacLaggan
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, August 19, 2006

Prison officials said Friday that they want to build three prisons and boost drug- and alcohol-treatment programs in the biggest proposed expansion of Texas corrections programs in more than a decade.

Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the $520 million plan — part of a $5.6 billion, two-year budget being sought by the prisons agency — is designed to keep pace with steadily growing numbers of prisoners that will require more than 11,000 additional prison beds in five years, according to official estimates.

"This is a multipronged approach designed to allow us to keep up with the growth that is currently projected," he said. "In addition to hard beds (prisons), we're requesting additional funding for treatment and diversion programs."

The request comes as all state agencies begin crafting their requests for the 2008-09 budget, which begins in September 2007. State parks officials also submitted a budget request Friday that could lead to more cutbacks at parks.

Texas tripled the size of its prison system in the early 1990s to keep up with growing numbers of convicts that, at one point, required more than 30,000 prison-bound felons to be housed in county jails.

Since then, several thousand additional beds have been added in several small projects that increased the system to a capacity of about 152,000 beds.

Drug treatment and community programs were also expanded, though funding to some of those programs has been scaled back in recent years because of budget cuts made by the Legislature.

In recent weeks, as details of the new expansion plans leaked out, Senate and House leaders questioned whether building prisons is the answer.

Instead, they backed more treatment and community-based corrections programs that are much cheaper to operate. Citing a continuing shortage of guards, they also questioned whether enough workers can be found to properly staff new prisons.

Livingston said Friday that public safety remains the priority. He noted that the proposed budget, which must be approved next spring by the Legislature, seeks a 3-percent pay raise for prison employees that could help the hiring problems when coupled with a similar raise workers will get next month.

State agencies have been asked to submit budget requests that are 10 percent less than their current budget. In their budget proposal, prison officials warned, however, that cuts would result in varied problems.

If the 10 percent cuts are implemented, the Parks and Wildlife Department's budget would fall $14.21 million for each of the next two years.

Dozens of state parks would be forced to cut services and hours of operation and several parks could close, the department said. Law enforcement, the local parks grant program and wildlife research would also be affected. In addition to asking that the state not follow through on the proposed budget cuts, the department's wish list included more money for game wardens, repairs to the battleship Texas in La Porte and restoring the Texas State Railroad, a historic railroad slated to become a museum because of high maintenance costs.

Joseph B.C. Fitzsimons, chairman of the board of the Parks and Wildlife Commissioners, told budget officials that paying for state parks is essential to their future.

"Will the Texas school children of tomorrow only know about our open spaces by seeing pictures in a book or images on a screen?" he wrote. "Texas is supposed to be different, and one of the things that make us different is our relationship to the land. That relationship will be lost if we do not provide great parks for a great state."

The state has fallen behind in recent years in its ability to pay for park operations and upkeep. The condition of Texas parks and proposals to shift more money to them have become key issues in this year's governor's race.

More prisons

•2,750-bed prison

•1,330-bed prison

•1,000-bed privately run prison, with 500 beds for a DWI treatment center

More treatment programs

•250 additional beds in special drug-treatment prisons

•200 additional beds in substance-abuse treatment centers for parole-bound convicts

•150 additional beds in private halfway houses

•250 additional beds in community-based specialized-treatment programs designed to get low-level offenders the help they need without sending them to a state prison

More money for health care

• $122 million to avoid a deficit in prison health care operations

•$434 million a year to pay for operating expenses

Source: Texas Board of Criminal Justice,

Legislative Appropriations Request

mward@statesman.com; 445-1712; cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548

Posted by lois at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

MA: Construction Begins on New Federal Prison in Dartmouth

Construction begins on new federal prison in Dartmouth

DARTMOUTH, Mass. Construction has begun on a three-point-one (M)million dollar prison in Dartmouth.

The 25-thousand square foot prison will hold up to 128 federal detainees.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson says currently there are 60-to-80 federal detainees a month.

They are held at a gymnasium at another temporary prison unit.

Officials also say Portuguese detainees who face deportation will now be closer to their families and the Portuguese consulate in New Bedford.
http://www.eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5303788&nav=F2DO

Posted by lois at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

IL: Study-Possession Tops Sales As A Charge; Big Racial Disparity

llinois: State fills up prisons with drug criminals

Study: Possession tops sales as a charge; big racial disparity
By John Keilman and Liam Ford Tribune staff reporters

August 22, 2006, Chicago Tribune

After two decades of steadily toughening laws, Illinois now puts more people in prison for drug crimes than any state except California, according to a study released Tuesday by Roosevelt University.

The report also found that more people are being incarcerated for possessing narcotics than for selling them and that the state's prisons hold about five black inmates convicted of drug offenses for every white inmate--one of the largest racial disparities in the country.

The findings cast doubt on the fairness and effectiveness of Illinois' long campaign against illegal drugs, said Kathleen Kane-Willis, a researcher at Roosevelt's Institute for Metropolitan Affairs.

"Just locking folks up is not reducing our drug problems, but it's sure costing us a lot of money," she said. "I think we need to take a different tactic and start funding treatment at higher levels so people don't have to go to prison."

The raw numbers, experts say, underscore the scope of the issue. In 1983, 456 people convicted of possessing or selling drugs were behind bars in Illinois, making up 5 percent of the total prison population. By 2002--the latest year for which detailed federal statistics on imprisonment are available--the number had soared to 12,985, or 38 percent of all inmates.

The report counted people as incarcerated for drug crimes only if a drug charge was their most serious offense. But many had prior convictions as well.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Illinois locked up more people for selling drugs than for possessing them. But by 2002, the reverse was true, according to the Roosevelt study.

Walt Hehner, deputy chief of narcotics prosecutions for the Cook County state's attorney's office, said that it might be partly due to drug dealers agreeing to plead guilty to lesser possession charges.

Hehner added that inmates imprisoned for low-level drug crimes usually have a plethora of earlier arrests and convictions. Cook County has several programs to offer people drug treatment instead of prison time, but those efforts can fail, he said.

Sometimes defendants plead guilty rather than go into drug treatment because they can spend less time on parole than they would being tracked in a treatment program, said Cook County Public Defender Edwin A. Burnette.

Using a U.S. Department of Justice database to compare state prison populations, the report found that in 2002, Illinois incarcerated more drug criminals than some larger states, including Florida and New York. Even Texas, a state with 10 million more residents and a formidable reputation for being tough on crime, locked up fewer users and sellers.

Arthur Lurigio, a criminal justice professor at Loyola University Chicago, said Illinois' oversize population of drug offenders could be due to the dynamics of the Chicago narcotics market, where dealers and their customers do business in public.

As crack cocaine overran Chicago and other urban areas in the 1980s and 1990s, Kane-Willis said, the General Assembly changed laws to mandate stiffer penalties--including prison time--for people caught with even small amounts of narcotics.

"Legislators responded punitively," she said. "Instead of making treatment more available, they made prison more available." John Giles, 42, who has been incarcerated a number of times on drug charges since the mid-1980s, was released Aug. 11 after serving two years for possession.

Giles, who is staying at St. Leonard's House, a West Side recovery home, said a prison term can be beneficial for the addict.

"A lot of people need to see how it really is so they don't want to go back there again," he said. "But if people were getting treatment, I don't believe the prison system would be the way it is."

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), who is active with prison issues, said harsher sentences only partly explain Illinois' exploding population of narcotics offenders. The state's drug problem--especially in the Chicago area--seems to be more severe than in other parts of the country, he said. "There is a level of tolerance [for using and dealing], which then allows the drug trade to flourish, and there is a lack of treatment, which then keeps a steady supply of would-be customers," he said.

The Roosevelt report also looked at Illinois' racial disparity for people incarcerated on drug charges. Its ratio of roughly five black prisoners for every white inmate is higher than any state's except Maryland's.

Kane-Willis said that because Chicago's drug markets operate in predominantly black communities, users and dealers who live in those neighborhoods are more apt to be arrested.

"The police have a smaller likelihood of picking [whites] up because they're in and out," she said.

Even some federal officials have admitted over the years that the drug war has tended to target "what was easier," by focusing on more visible drug crimes rather than going after white and black drug users equally, Burnette said.

Lurigio said one nuance in state law, which stiffens the penalty for drug possession or delivery near a house of worship, may also disproportionately affect blacks.

"In the African-American community, there are a lot of neighborhood storefront churches all over the West and South Sides," he said. "If you sell drugs just about anywhere in those communities, you're going to be in proximity to one of those areas."

The report recommends increasing drug court programs that send users to treatment instead of prison, creating better drug education courses for schools and improving social services for ex-cons.

One of those former prisoners is Ted Brown, 44, who has twice been incarcerated on drug charges.

After being busted with nearly a pound of cocaine, Brown, who was selling and using the drug, spent almost all of the 1990s behind bars. He served another three years on a separate cocaine charge and was paroled Aug. 11.

Also a resident of St. Leonard's, Brown said he sought out Narcotics Anonymous meetings during his last stint in prison and thought such programs should be mandatory for all inmates with drug problems. But it would be even more helpful, he said, if addicts were sent to treatment instead of the penitentiary.

"Honestly, I think the whole system is a joke," he said. "I don't think it's helpful at all in deterring people from doing it. You take a sick individual and lock them up with other sick individuals and tell them to change. Are you kidding me?"
----------
jkeilman@tribune.com
lford@tribune.com
- - -

Illinois ranks high for drug-crime imprisonment
Illinois is second-highest state in the U.S. for the number of drug-crime incarcerations, according to a Roosevelt University study. The state also had one of the largest disparities between black and white offenders and imprisoned more people for possessing drugs than selling them in 2002.

TOP 10 STATES INCARCERATING DRUG OFFENDERS
For 2002; by states with population more than 1 million

RANK/STATE TOTAL RATE
INCARCERATED PER 100,000
1. California 39,878 114.0
2. Illinois 12,986 103.2
3. New York 11,610 60.6
4. Texas 11,425 52.6
5. Ohio 9,077 79.6
6. Florida 7,942 47.6
7. New Jersey 6,836 79.7
8. Louisiana 6,130 137.0
9. Georgia 5,995 69.9
10. Missouri 5,955 104.8

NUMBER OF BLACK INMATES PER WHITE INMATE
For five states with largest disparities
1. Maryland 8.0
2. Illinois 4.9
3. S. Carolina 4.5
4. Virginia 3.7
5. N. Carolina 3.6

ILLINOIS BREAKDOWN
By drug offense
Sale / Possession
1983 264 180
1993 4,336 1,976
2002 5,761 6,999

Source: The Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608220157aug22,1,6705088.story
?page=1&coll=chi-news-hed

Posted by lois at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2006

The War on Drugs: Colombia’s Coca Survives U.S. Plan to Uproot It

August 19, 2006, NY Times
Colombia’s Coca Survives U.S. Plan to Uproot It
By JUAN FORERO

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The latest chapter in America’s long war on drugs — a six-year, $4.7 billion effort to slash Colombia’s coca crop — has left the price, quality and availability of cocaine on American streets virtually unchanged.

The effort, begun in 2000 and known as Plan Colombia, had a specific goal of halving this country’s coca crop in five years. That has not happened. Instead, drug policy experts say, coca, the essential ingredient for cocaine, has been redistributed to smaller and harder-to-reach plots, adding to the cost and difficulty of the drug war.

Bush administration officials say that coca farmers are on the run, and that the leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries who feed on drug profits are weaker than ever. That has made Colombia, Washington’s closest ally in a tumultuous region, more stable, they say. They argue that the plan has scored important successes, like a spike in the price of cocaine last year.

But that claim was disputed by a wide range of drug policy experts, and some politicians are questioning the drug war’s results as well as its assumptions.

The plan seemed simple enough. “The closer we can attack to the source, the greater the likelihood of halting the flow of drugs altogether,” a State Department report said soon after Plan Colombia began. “If we destroy crops or force them to remain unharvested, no drugs will enter the system.”

Yet recent data show the following results:

¶As much coca is cultivated today in Colombia as was grown at the start of the large-scale aerial fumigation effort in 2000, according to State Department figures.

¶Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, the leading sources of coca and cocaine, produce more than enough cocaine to satisfy world demand, and possibly as much as in the mid-1990’s, the United Nations says.

¶In the United States, the government’s tracking over the past quarter century shows that the price of cocaine has tumbled and that purity remains high, signs that the drug is as available as ever.

Over all, demand in the United States has dipped in recent years, but experts say that may be a result of many factors, including changing social fads and better law enforcement techniques at home. Meanwhile, demand is rising in Brazil, Europe, Africa and elsewhere.

“If we were to evaluate Plan Colombia by its initial overriding criteria, the results of the drug war have been dubious at best,” said Russell Crandall, a former adviser to the White House and the author of “Driven by Drugs,” a book on the drug war in the Andes.

“We can switch metaphors — saying it is first and 10, second and 4, light at the end of the tunnel — but what’s left are often discouraging results on reducing the amount of drugs and cocaine in the United States,” he added.

A Wider War

Bush administration officials believe that verdict is too harsh. “Over the past five years, you see a compression on cultivation,” John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an interview. “You see the remaining cultivation and trafficking in Colombia under pressure as you’ve never seen it before.”

The lingering question is whether America’s drug problem would be worse today had the drug war, nearly 40 years in the making, never been waged. That may be unanswerable.

What is clear is that the war on drugs, the original open-ended war against an elusive and ill-defined enemy, has moved inexorably onward, propelled by decades of mostly unflagging political support on both sides of the Congressional aisle.

Jon Caulkins, a drug policy expert at Carnegie Mellon University, echoing other analysts, estimates that the drug war has cost American taxpayers upward of $40 billion annually in recent years, though there is no comprehensive government tally of all its state and federal spending.

Today that money goes for patrol boats, prisons, police departments and extradition flights to bring drug kingpins to trial in the United States — not to mention a dedicated federal bureaucracy.

Plan Colombia, initiated by the Clinton administration, has been embraced by the Bush White House, the seventh administration to take up a drug war begun under President Nixon.

Bush administration officials say this latest phase, the largest foreign assistance program outside the Middle East, will take still more time, but they insist that Plan Colombia is making inroads.

The seizure of cocaine in the Andes has more than tripled to nearly 400,000 pounds in 2005 from about 132,000 pounds in 2001, it says. The number of traffickers extradited to the United States in the last four years tops 350. The number of clandestine drug labs destroyed by the authorities in Colombia soared to nearly 2,000 last year from 317 in 1999.

Many drug policy analysts, including some who have advised the government, are less sanguine, however. Even the most optimistic see the drug war as just about holding the line.

“In Colombia and an area as difficult as the Andean range, it’s hard to say that there’s been tremendous success, but it’s also hard to say that there has been tremendous failure,” said Eduardo Gamarra, a drug policy expert at Florida International University in Miami who has consulted with both the American government and the United Nations.

Progress itself is difficult to measure, experts caution. Numbers of arrests, acres fumigated or tons seized may not provide the most accurate snapshot, simply because it is hard to say what portion of the total hidden trade they actually make up.

But by any estimate, the amount of cocaine produced vastly exceeds demand, so much so that even headline-grabbing seizures do not cut deeply enough into the supply to affect price or availability. That has been the case for years.

Guerrilla Farming

Indeed, a better measure of the war’s progress may be taken at the endpoint — the price, availability and purity of cocaine on American streets — and by those indicators, the results of the drug war are far from promising, experts say.

“Prices are still the same,” said Richard Curtis, chairman of the anthropology department at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who has studied drug patterns for 30 years.

“They go up and down seasonally,” he added, “but there has not been significant change in price, and there has not been any change in availability or purity.”

Domestic spending on drug war-related projects dwarfs foreign spending, which includes interdiction on the high seas, fumigation, border patrols and other programs that total about $4 billion a year. Yet that foreign spending has in many ways come to define American policy in the region.

Since 2000, crop dusters flown by American and other foreign pilots, accompanied by attack helicopters, have sprayed the equivalent of Central Park 2,600 times in Colombia. In Peru and Bolivia, where the governments oppose aerial fumigation, troops have entered coca-growing regions to pull up the plants by hand, often in the face of protests.

But coca farmers like Jhon Freddy Romero seem anything but worried. In the southern Colombian state of Guaviare, where coca first appeared in the 1970’s, he plays a persistent game of cat and mouse with American antidrug planners.

Time and again, American crop dusters have pounded Mr. Romero’s small farm with defoliants, leaving withered coca plants in their wake. Undaunted, he repeats the tried-and-true strategy of guerrilla farming, replanting his coca on the edge of a forest where it is harder to spray.

“All this was fumigated — all of it — and then replanted,” Mr. Romero, 28, said recently as he waved his hand at the five acres of coca.

All across the country, coca farmers use similar methods. They hide their coca under larger banana plants. If their crops are hit, they prune the stalks, hoping to save the roots. Some go so far as to lather their leaves with concoctions of all kinds, hoping to weaken the defoliants.

For local farmers, the incentive to plant and preserve their coca crop is enormous; few other crops pay as well or as consistently as coca. “We all have a hectare or so of coca,” said one farmer, Joel Rubio, 40, in Caldas, a western state better known for coffee. “You keep doing it.”

And America’s antidrug planes keep spraying. As the coca crop spreads out in Colombia, they must now fumigate three times as much land as they did in 2002 just to kill the same amount of coca, according to State Department data.

“The spray program has itself increased the difficulty of carrying out the spray program,” said John Walsh, who tracks American drug policy for the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit research and human rights group. “And as a result it becomes less efficient and it becomes more costly to accomplish the same thing.”

“The bang for the buck that people are expecting hasn’t materialized,” he added.

Not all the news is bad. The latest United Nations estimates, released in June, show a 28 percent decline in the coca crop for the three Andean countries since Plan Colombia began.

But while that may seem like a big bite, experts say the drop is not significant, because the amount of coca produced so vastly exceeds global demand. Year after year, in fact, the coca crop may be a third larger than is needed, they estimate.

A Regional Worry

State Department figures are far gloomier than those of the United Nations, a disparity attributed to different satellite measurements and a broader survey done last year by the United States that covered 81 percent more area in Colombia — and found still more coca.

After swift declines in the late 1990’s, the figures show, coca plantings in Peru and Bolivia are actually on the rise. Total acreage in the Andes is now higher than in 2000, and covers as much ground as it did in 1997, the equivalent of half of Delaware.

The United Nations sees the data as distressing, illustrating the need to add a state presence in lawless coca-growing regions while providing lasting alternatives to poor farmers, something Plan Colombia devotes far less money to.

“Colombia is the only country in the world where the problem of eradication has been resolved 10 times,” said Sandro Calvani, chief of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Bogotá, which monitors the size of coca fields. “The problem is the replanting.”

Bush administration officials say the emphasis on eradication and interdiction is right.

David Murray, a senior drug policy analyst at the White House, sees success in the move by coca farmers to smaller plots, which he says are less productive and farther from traditional drug trafficking routes. Coca farmers, he says, are barely keeping up with the spraying. “We are gradually constricting them,” he said. “This is a trade whose days are numbered.”

As proof, the drug czar’s office reported last November that in 2005 the price of a gram of cocaine on American streets had risen to $170 and that purity had fallen. The White House describes the uptick as a sharp and positive change of direction.

But some analysts, like Peter Reuter, a drug policy expert at the University of Maryland, questioned the new numbers because the White House did not reveal its methodology. If viewed over the long term, he said, the price remained low compared to the price of cocaine in the early 1990’s.

“Even if you take it at face value, it really is a minor change,” said Mr. Reuter, who is also co-director of the Drug Policy Research Center at the RAND Corporation and was part of a research team that studied cocaine’s price and purity for the White House.

The White House says it was transparent about how it reached its conclusions, but the recent claims of success have sparked criticism even among some Republicans in Congress.

In an April letter to Mr. Walters of the White House drug policy office, Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who leads the caucus on International Narcotics Control, questioned whether data were being selectively used to “provide a rosier but not necessarily more accurate picture of the current situation.”

“You have to wonder, if there are more hectares being sprayed, why you get more cultivation,” Mr. Grassley said in an interview about the program. “I’m not willing to dump it at this point, but I think there are a lot of legitimate questions about it.”

Mr. Grassley said that while he continues to support fumigation, it is becoming clear that antidrug planners “have to find some way to adapt to the new way of cultivation.”

Then there is the drug war’s political impact on the region. Mr. Grassley agrees with administration officials who credit the fumigation plan with helping Colombia to sharply reduce violence by beefing up security in many towns, aiding the fight against leftist guerrillas.

But while the cartels of flamboyant kingpins like Pablo Escobar are gone, and the leftist insurgency is on its heels, today right-wing paramilitary commanders operate the drug trafficking routes instead. Drug-related corruption scandals have plagued even the upper reaches of Colombia’s intelligence service and its army.

Elsewhere, critics say, the drug war has helped sow instability, particularly in Bolivia, where a former leader of the coca growers union, Evo Morales, is now the president. He has resisted Washington’s hard-line efforts to eradicate coca.

Signs of Success

Still, authorities in the United States say they believe the drug war in Latin America, coupled with an emphasis on tougher law enforcement, has made American cities safer than at the height of the crack epidemic in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

“We have eliminated a lot of open-air markets, we have reclaimed a lot of neighborhoods,” said Bridget Brennan, the special narcotics prosecutor for New York City. “In many neighborhoods, it is still a problem, but it is not as big a problem as it was 15 years ago.”

Many drug users, even of cocaine, today shun crack. The National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health says cocaine use among high school students is 60 percent lower today than in 1985.

But that does not mean that America’s cocaine addiction is going away. Some government surveys show a rising number of teenagers using the drug for the first time. While the number of hard-core cocaine users — those who drive the trade — may be declining, they still number anywhere from two million to three million people, experts estimate.

No matter the statistics, in the South Bronx, addicts and drug counselors at CitiWide Harm Reduction, a needle-exchange and counseling center, said the drug war has made little difference to them.

Addicts say cocaine is as easy to get as ever, and that a gram can be had for $40 or less, down from $100 years ago. Walter Droz, 45, who has used cocaine for 30 years, just shakes his head when he hears claims of progress in Colombia.

“Cocaine availability has gone up, so how can they be so brazen to say it’s working?” he said. “If you know where to look, you can find what you want.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Maps and charts from this article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/world/americas/19coca.html?_r=1&oref=slogi
n

Posted by lois at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2006

MD: Youths "spewed out" by courts

Youths 'spewed out' by courts
Baltimore teen case shows shortcomings of juvenile justice
By Gus G. Sentementes
Sun reporter
Originally published August 14, 2006
No one doubted the severity of the criminal charges Rasheed Stevenson faced that day in court. The 17-year-old's public defender suggested sending him out of state for treatment. A prosecutor argued the boy had no conscience. A judge wanted him under "strict control."

A court-ordered evaluation recommended he remain charged as an adult for a case in which he was accused of choking a man until he was unconscious, and then robbing him of $6 and cigarettes.

But the judge ordered Stevenson sent back into the juvenile justice system, the same one that all three - judge, prosecutor and public defender - agreed had failed him in the past. Weeks later, Stevenson's case was dismissed because the victim didn't show up to testify.

Stevenson was back on the streets by early June, hanging with a gang in the city's Harwood neighborhood off Greenmount Avenue. A little more than a month later, he was dead. Someone had stabbed him.

The boy's journey through Baltimore's courts offers a troubling look into how juvenile offenders are treated by agencies responsible for their oversight and rehabilitation. About 10,000 juveniles are arrested each year, with more than two-thirds facing charges as minors in Baltimore, law enforcement statistics show.

Several hundred more are initially charged as adults for serious felonies, though about half are returned to juvenile court, according to prosecutors. Many end up back on the streets.

"It's a revolving door," said Stacey Gurian-Sherman of the advocacy group Juvenile Justice Family Advocacy Initiative and Resources. "All these youths are being chewed up and spewed out."

She said breakdowns between the juvenile and adult courts result in information not being shared and allow youths to slip through the cracks without getting help.

"What's wrong with the intake and case-management system that would allow us to ignore this kid until he's dead in the street?" Gurian-Sherman said of Stevenson. "He was worse than adrift. He was ignored. He was dismissed."

Because Stevenson was a minor, his criminal history - and how the juvenile system treated him - remains for the most part shrouded in secrecy. State laws shield criminal court records of juveniles from the public, even after death - a fact that some child welfare advocates say needs to change so the system can be better scrutinized.

But a telling one-hour public hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court, which was videotaped, opened a window into Stevenson's past, revealing the boy's interactions with the courts, juvenile services and police in the final months of his life.

It was public because at the time the youth faced adult charges in the assault and robbery case. The June 2 hearing was to determine whether the case should be returned to juvenile court.

Tracy Varda, the prosecutor, stood up in Judge Alfred Nance's courtroom and aggressively advocated for Stevenson to remain charged as an adult.

Varda said Stevenson had been arrested in early January, accused of choking a young man until he fell on a sidewalk, and then robbing him of money and cigarettes.

"This is an extremely serious offense," Varda argued. "He's physically overpowered a grown man. ... What kind of person is able to do this? The Department of Juvenile Services cannot give this defendant a conscience."

Varda said police officers caught Stevenson the day after the assault, after they saw him assaulting another man in the same block along Greenmount Avenue, and that he had been arrested seven times as a juvenile. Two of the incidents were adjudicated as "facts sustained" - the juvenile court's equivalent of a guilty finding.

Three of those arrests came after his January charges in the choking of the man, the prosecutor said. And his most recent arrest - on a charge of drug-dealing - occurred the night before, on June 1. He had been placed on probation twice.

But Stevenson had even more arrests on his juvenile rap sheet - a dozen total, according to information obtained by The Sun. It appears the judge never got a full picture of Stevenson's arrest history.

The boy's public defender, Mark Friedenthal, argued that Stevenson would be better served in the juvenile system, even as he criticized that same system for not providing sufficient services to the young suspect.

Stevenson couldn't read and write at a fifth-grade level, which made it difficult for him to be evaluated by a court medical investigator, Friedenthal noted. Having dropped out of school the previous year, Stevenson couldn't complete a written psychological examination.

Nance said Stevenson was at a "crossroads" in his life.

"The facts and circumstances before this court does not indicate that he has received ... real supervision within the juvenile system," Nance said. "It shows that there is no question that this case does suggest that there needs to be some strict control over him. This young man does not belong on the street."

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Citing what he thought were shortfalls in the court-ordered medical evaluation, Nance decided to send him back into the juvenile justice system.

Stevenson was detained the weekend after that Friday hearing, and had a juvenile hearing the following Monday. He was sent home with his father that day. When it later became time to try the assault and robbery case, the victim couldn't be found, and a juvenile court judge dismissed the charges July 5.

Thirteen days later, Stevenson and a 19-year-old man were stabbed. Stevenson died at Union Memorial Hospital. The other man survived.

Nance did not respond to written questions about the Stevenson case. Varda and Friedenthal both said they could not comment.

But speaking generally, Maryland Department of Juvenile Services spokesman Edward Hopkins said, the state agency is evolving into one that attempts to provide more services for juveniles.

He said hearings for probation violations are not automatic in the juvenile system, the way they are in the adult system. Juvenile caseworkers have discretion in handling incidents, and can't request a probation violation hearing until the youth has been adjudicated for the underlying offense.

Hopkins also noted that there is no "automatic alert" to the department when a juvenile is charged in the adult system, unless a caseworker is actively monitoring someone.

"The probation officer is supposed to be notified but that doesn't always happen as it should," Hopkins said. "Sometimes there is a lack of communication between the adult system and the juvenile system."

Where Stevenson died was also the same neighborhood where he was raised, where neighbors saw him grow up from a smiling boy playing in the street, to a tall young teenager who wanted to be a part of something bigger than himself.

On the streets, Stevenson was known as "Rock." His father, Robert Stevenson, was known as "Rip." His mother died several years ago.

As in the aftermath of so many killings in Baltimore, there was an impromptu street memorial for Stevenson where he was stabbed. Balloons and stuffed animals were tied to a sapling that rose up from a sidewalk with yellow police crime-scene tape. Empty liquor bottles were arranged around the sapling as tributes.

Graffiti had been scrawled on a vacant rowhouse by the memorial. It indicated names of gangs that Stevenson might have belonged to: "Black Mafia Gang" and "Bang-Bang Goonie Gang."

On the street, the words "RIP ROCK" were scrawled in large black letters.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.juvenile14aug14,1,4043837.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

Posted by lois at 06:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2006

Victoria Gray Adams: A Founder of the MS Freedom Democratic Party

August 19, 2006
Victoria Gray Adams, Civil Rights Leader, Is Dead at 79
By TIM WEINER

Victoria Jackson Gray Adams, a key figure in the struggle by Mississippi blacks to win their political and civil rights in the 1960’s and the first woman to seek a seat in the United States Senate from her state, died last Saturday in Baltimore. She was 79.

Her death was announced by her son, the Rev. Cecil Conteen Gray of Baltimore.

Forty-two years ago, Mrs. Gray Adams, a teacher, door-to-door saleswoman of Beauty Queen cosmetics and leader of voter education classes from the hamlet of Palmers Crossing, on the edge of Hattiesburg, Miss., decided to take on Senator John C. Stennis, the Mississippi Democrat who at the time had been in the Senate for 16 years.

In July 1964, she announced that she and others from the tiny Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party would challenge the power of the segregationist politicians, like Mr. Stennis, who represented her state. The time had come, she said, to pay attention “to the Negro in Mississippi, who had not even had the leavings from the American political table.”

That decision became a turning point for the civil rights movement and for the Democratic Party, which for most of its history had been profoundly influenced by all-white delegations from the South. From Hattiesburg, the waves of the civil rights movement “swept quietly through the church world into politics,” the author Taylor Branch wrote in “Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65” (Simon & Schuster, 1998).

Mrs. Gray Adams was defeated by a ratio of 30 to 1 in the Democratic primary, in part because Mississippi had effectively disenfranchised black voters. But the party she started and led went on to challenge the right of the all-white Mississippi delegation to represent her state at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City.

“We had women, men, African-Americans, whites,” Mrs. Gray Adams said of the party in a 2004 interview for the Virginia Organizing Project, a grass-roots political group she helped found. “We were going in the face of the Mississippi Democratic Party, which included some of the most powerful members of the U.S. Congress, to demand that we be recognized to have representation at the Democratic National Convention. It was wild.”

Millions of Americans watching on television saw Fannie Lou Hamer, the best known of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s founders, tell the convention’s credentials committee that she had been jailed and beaten for trying to register blacks to vote. “Is this America?” Ms. Hamer asked.

The all-white Mississippi delegation walked out of the convention. It rejected a compromise proposal to give the integrated Freedom Democratic Party token representation on the floor. It was the beginning of the end of an old political tradition. In 1968, Mississippi seated an integrated delegation at the Democratic convention.

“We really were the true Democratic Party,” Mrs. Gray Adams said in the 2004 interview. In the end, she said, “we accomplished the removal of the wall, the curtain of fear in Mississippi for African-Americans demanding their rights.”

She continued: “We eliminated the isolation of the African-Americans from the political process. I believe that Mississippi now has the highest number of African-American elected officials in the nation. We laid the groundwork for that.”

Born on Nov. 5, 1926, in Palmers Crossing, the daughter of Mack and Annie Mae Ott Jackson, Mrs. Gray Adams was educated at Wilberforce University in Ohio, the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and Jackson State College in Mississippi. She went on to serve as a campus minister at Virginia State University and to teach and lecture at schools, colleges and universities across the nation.

Her first marriage, to Tony Gray, produced three children, Georgie; Tony Jr., who died in 1997; and Cecil, and ended in divorce in 1964. Other survivors include her husband of 40 years, Reuben Earnest Adams Jr.; their son, Reuben III; a brother, Glodies Jackson; and eight grandchildren.

Mrs. Gray Adams said she learned in 1964 that there were two kinds of people in grass-roots politics, “those who are in the movement, and those who have the movement in them.”

“The movement is in me,” she said, “and I know it always will be.”

August 16, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Victoria Gray Adams

PETERSBURG, Va. (AP) -- Victoria Gray Adams, who helped open Freedom Schools that pushed for civil rights in Mississippi in 1964 and became a founding member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, died Saturday at her home in Petersburg, Va., friends said. She was 73.

Adams was a Hattiesburg, Miss. native. Along with Fannie Lou Hamer and others, she attempted to unseat the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party delegation during the 1964 Democratic National Convention at Atlantic City, N.J.

While they did not replace the all-white group, the Freedom Democrats brought national attention to Mississippi's racial and political divisions.

In 2004, Adams and others who formed the party were recognized at the Democratic convention in Boston for their trailblazing role.

------

Posted by lois at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)

National Advocates for Pregnant Women National Summit January 2007 in Atlanta

National Summit To Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women
Save the Date: January 18- 21 2007
Atlanta, Georgia, Hilton, Atlanta Airport

While much attention is paid to efforts to control women who are seeking to end unwanted pregnancies, women with wanted pregnancies face increased interference by the state and by some professionals preventing them from making health care decisions regarding birthing options and the childbirth process.

Women who want home births, who want to have doulas present at their births, or who prefer midwives to ob gyn's often find that their providers are under attack --arrested for practicing without the right kind of license and prohibited from being present at the birth.

Some pregnant women have been shamed, coerced, or forced into having unnecessary cesarean sections and others have been threatened with criminal or civil child welfare sanctions for seeking to control the circumstances of their pregnancies, labors and births. Increasingly, women who wish to try vaginal births after c-sections are being told that they cannot, with entire states in some cases effectively banning VBAC's.

Women who have suffered miscarriages and stillbirths find that existing clinics, practices, and programs fail to provide effective support for their experiences. Some find themselves accused of child abuse or homicide based on the claim that something they did or did not do during pregnancy is responsible for the miscarriage or stillbirth.

While some pharmacies are refusing to give women emergency contraception, other pharmacies are refusing to fill pregnant women's prescriptions for anti-depressants. Conversely, some pregnant women are given drugs or subjected to surgical procedures without their consent.

Meanwhile, restrictions on access to contraceptive and abortion services are growing and there are increasing efforts in some states to ban all abortions - without any exceptions including for the life and health of the pregnant woman.

Regardless of their views on the abortion controversy pregnant women are increasingly confronting employment discrimination, as well as environmental, health insurance and drug policies that threaten their health and wellbeing and that of their children. Pregnant women across party lines and of diverse faiths continue to face domestic violence and discrimination based on race, class and disability. Once parents, they face a host of policies that undermine their ability to provide for their loved ones.

While politics and media like to divide the world into neat bundles of opposites -- pro abortion vs. pro-life, pro-choice vs. anti-choice -- the reality of women's lives often do not fit these simplistic and divisive labels. We can disagree on many things, but we believe it is time to recognize common threats and CELEBRATE common threads that will ensure the humanity, dignity, and well being of pregnant and birthing women and their families.

We invite people across disciplines, faiths, ideologies, and states to come together for the first time to share knowledge, experiences and strategies to support, honor, and celebrate pregnant women and families. Please save the date, January 18-21, and join us for a unique gathering that will share information, build strength, identify new strategies and effective action and celebrate common commitments and concerns. For more information go to NAPW's website: www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org or contact: Angela Moreno at AM@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org.

Lynn M. Paltrow
Executive Director
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
39 West 19th Street Suite 602
New York, New York 10011
212-255-9252
212-255-9253 (fax)
917-921-7421 (cell)
www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org

Posted by lois at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2006

Follow the Private Prison Money Trail

"The key shift, Bender explains, is that "the prison industry has gone from a we-can-save-you-money pitch to an economic-development model pitch." In other words, says Bender, "you need [their] prisons for jobs."

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2797/
In These Times
August 14, 2006
Follow the Prison Money Trail

By Silja J.A. Talvi

While New Mexico¹s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment, its rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting. What¹s worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation¹s list for privatizing prisons; nearly one-half of the state¹s prisons and jails are run by corporations.

Supposedly, states turn to private companies to cope better with chronic overcrowding and for low-cost management. However, a closer look suggests a different rationale. A recent report from the Montana-based Institute on Money in State Politics reveals that during the 2002 and 2004 election cycles, private prison companies, directors, executives and lobbyists gave $3.3 million to candidates and state political parties across 44 states. According to Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute on Money in State Politics, private prison companies strongly favor giving to states with the toughest sentencing laws‹in essence, the ones that are more likely to come up with the bodies to fill prison beds. Those states, adds Bender, are also the ones most likely to have passed ³three-strikes² laws. Those laws, first passed by Washington state voters in 1993 and then California voters in 1994, quickly swept the nation. They were largely based on ³cookie-cutter legislation² pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), some of whose members come from the ranks of private prison companies.

Florida leads the pack in terms of private prison dollars, with its candidates and political parties receiving almost 20 percent of their total contributions from private prison companies and their affiliates. Florida already has five privately owned and operated prisons, with a sixth on the way. It¹s also privatized the bulk of its juvenile detention system. Texas and New Jersey are close behind.

But in Florida, some of the influence peddling finally seems to be backfiring. Florida State Corrections Secretary James McDonough alarmed private prison companies with a comment during an Aug. 2 morning call-in radio show. ³I actually think the state is better at running the prisons,² McDonough told an interviewer. His comments followed an internal audit last year by the state¹s Department of Management Services, which demonstrated that Florida overpaid private prison operators by $1.3 million.

Things may no longer be quite as sunny as they once were in Florida for the likes of Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the former Wackenhut, now known as the GEO Group of Boca Raton, Fla. But with a little bit of spiel-tinkering‹and a shift of attention to other states‹the prison privatizers are likely to keep going.

The key shift, Bender explains, is that ³the prison industry has gone from a we-can-save-you-money pitch to an economic-development model pitch.² In other words, says Bender, ³you need [their] prisons for jobs.²

If political donations are any measure, economically challenged and poverty-stricken states like New Mexico are a great target. In this campaign cycle, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has already received more contributions from a private prison company than any other politician campaigning for state office in the United States. The Institute of Money in State Politics, which traced the donations, reported that GEO has contributed $42,750 to Richardson since 2005‹and another $8,000 to his running mate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.

Another $30,000 went from GEO to the Richardson-headed Democratic Governors Association this past March. Richardson¹s PAC, Moving America Forward, was another prominent recipient of GEO donations. Now, its former head, prominent state capitol lobbyist Joe Velasquez, is a registered lobbyist for GEO Care Inc., a healthcare subsidiary that runs a hospital in New Mexico. But don¹t get the idea that GEO has any particular love for Democrats: $95,000 from the corporation went to the Republican Governors Association last year alone. What companies like GEO do love are the millions of dollars rolling in from lucrative New Mexico contracts to run the Lea County Correctional Facility (operating budget: $25 million/year), and the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility ($13 million/year), among others. CCA also owns and operates the state¹s only women¹s facility in Grants ($11 million per year).

To make sure that those dollars keep flowing, GEO and CCA have perfected the art of the ³very tight revolving door,² says Bender, which involves snapping up former corrections administrators, PAC lobbyists and state officials to serve as consultants to private prison companies.

In fact, the current New Mexico Corrections Department Secretary Joe Williams was once on GEO¹s payroll as their warden of the Lea County Correctional Facility. Earlier this year, Williams was placed on unpaid administrative leave after accusations surfaced that he spent state travel and phone funds to pursue a very close relationship with Ann Casey. Casey is a registered lobbyist in New Mexico for Wexford Health Sources, which provides health care for prisoners at Grants, and Aramark, which provides most of the state¹s inmate meals. In her non-lobbying hours, it turns out that Casey is also an assistant warden at a state prison in Centralia, Ill. It appears that even for a prison industry enchanted by public-private partnership, Williams and Casey may have gone too far. ________________

Silja J.A. Talvi is a senior editor at In These Times, an investigative journalist and essayist with credits in many dozens of newspapers and magazines nationwide, including The Nation, Salon, Santa Fe Reporter, Utne, and the Christian Science Monitor. She is at work on a book about women in prison (Seal Press/Avalon).

Posted by lois at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)

IL:Don't call it `prison town':Joliet says its image is no longer behind bars

Chicago Tribune

By Hal Dardick
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 13, 2006

For the first time in nearly 150 years, calling Joliet a prison town would be just plain wrong, city officials contend.

The last violent sex offenders housed at the former Joliet Correctional Center Annex left Monday, making it the first time since the mid-19th Century that the city was not home to adult felons under state lock and key.

Mayor Arthur Schultz, long a promoter of his city as an entertainment center, hailed the departure of the last imprisoned cons, apparently discounting about 292 boys the state houses at the maximum-security Illinois Youth Center on Joliet's west side.

"The city of Joliet's image is one of entertainment and a great place to live, work and play," he said. "The City Council and I understand the prison's importance in Joliet's history but are happy to move in another direction."

And, in an attempt to dispel a common misconception, he pointed out Stateville Correctional Center is not in Joliet. It's in Crest Hill, a small town just north of Joliet.

But that fact isn't likely to stop people from linking Stateville to Joliet, said Robert Sterling, a semiretired Joliet Junior College history professor who wrote "Joliet Prisons: Images in Time," a pictorial history published in 2003.

"Even though Stateville is not in the city limits of Joliet, it will continue to be associated with Joliet," he said. "I don't think the image will go away just because the last offender left the old facility within the city limits."

He recalled a Florida pastor years ago who, after being told Sterling and his wife were from Joliet, quipped, "Are they parolees or escapees?"

Stateville even comes up under Joliet, not Crest Hill, in an online telephone directory, highlighting the difficulty of changing perceptions. Crest Hill got its first ZIP code last month and the prison had a Joliet code, said Crest Hill Ald. John Vershay, 69, who has lived about a mile from Stateville his entire life.

His town isn't concerned about the prison's impact on its image, Vershay said. "I haven't heard about anybody in Crest Hill complaining about the prison," he said.

The town gets money for providing water and sewer service to Stateville, and Crest Hill's share of federal and state revenue is higher because the 2,700 inmates are counted as residents, he said. "If you talk to somebody in town, they most likely know someone who has worked over there," he said.

When Joliet Correctional Center, then called Joliet Penitentiary, opened in 1858, it too was north of the city. But as the city's population grew, partly because of prison jobs, Joliet swallowed the institution, which would become famous--and infamous.

The number of inmates at the fortresslike, medieval-looking structure reached 1,239 in 1872, and it became the largest U.S. prison for decades afterward. The state's first women's prison was built across the street 24 years later, and in 1913 the nation's first "honor farm" opened for model prisoners.

Before it closed for good in 2002, the prison played cameo roles in the 1980 "Blues Brothers" movie, which featured John Belushi as "Joliet" Jake, and the 1994 film "Natural Born Killers." After closing, it was used as a set for the "Prison Break" TV series.

Thrill-seeking killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were processed there before being sent to Stateville after its 1925 opening, and George "Baby Face" Nelson escaped from the prison's parking lot.

By the time Stateville opened, the Joliet prison had long been under fire for unsanitary conditions, and in 1970 its main purpose became processing new inmates before they were shipped elsewhere.

Today, the city is assessing the 180-acre property with the hope of redeveloping it.

In the early years, the prison was welcome. Sterling noted that Gov. Joel Matteson, a Joliet native, had sought its construction. "Political clout was wielded to get the prison here. I think at that time it was regarded more as a positive thing."

Schultz agreed. "A lot of jobs were there, and at the time it was good for Joliet. It employed a lot of people and put a lot of pork chops on the table."

Though Joliet has had a hard time shaking the prison town reputation, it also became known as a city of steelworkers and stonecutters. Today, it's one of the fastest-growing U.S. cities with populations of more than 100,000.

Schultz notes the affordable homes and good jobs, and he recites a litany of entertainment options: gambling, minor-league baseball, NASCAR racing and shows at a vintage theater.

So when the state announced in 2001 that Joliet Correctional Center was slated for closing, few tears were shed. By then, the city had waged a losing legal battle to block the state from housing its worst sex offenders in an annex of the prison.

The annex housed more than 200 convicted sex offenders who had completed their prison terms but were committed to a treatment and detention center after being deemed too dangerous to release. They were technically patients, not prisoners, but city leaders didn't see it that way.

The state has moved the patients to Downstate Rushville. Leaders of the community saw the facility as an economic boon.

"We got stuck with it for five years," Schultz said. "I'm very happy they made a decision to move it."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0608130377aug13,1,62603
43.story
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Posted by lois at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2006

IL Prison Program Could be a Model for Other States

Illinois prison program a model for state?
Schwarzenegger seeks to emulate therapeutic approach to rehabilitation

James Sterngold, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, August 7, 2006

(08-07) 04:00 PDT Chicago -- David Perry is a tall, barrel-chested drug addict who spent years involved with street gangs on Chicago's rough North Side, going in and out of prisons and their useless treatment programs. But sitting in his old neighborhood on a steamy morning recently, Perry summed up his most recent stretch this way: "That was the best thing that could have happened to me."

The straightforward and well-spoken Perry is indeed a surprise. He says he has not gotten high since leaving a special therapeutic prison, the Sheridan Correctional Center in northern Illinois, and the onetime crack house where he sits is now called Safe Haven, a spotless halfway house that is a bricks-and-mortar symbol of renewal, focused on drug rehabilitation and job training.

Perry, 42, the manager of a fast-food restaurant, is a model product of a model prison program that California, desperate for its own renewal, has decided it wants to emulate. The Illinois program offers one of the most promising means yet for breaking the cycle of revolving-door incarceration that has bloated inmate populations.

In just two years, the recidivism rate among parolees from Sheridan has been slashed by half. Illinois is succeeding, many experts say, because it is attacking the roots of addiction, spending far more per inmate and ensuring that when men like Perry leave prison, they are enveloped in an extensive web of support.

He and the others are taught skills that no one ever thought to provide them
before: how to read a restaurant menu, order a meal and tip the server, how to ride a bus, how to take a cab, how to dress for a job interview and what to say.

"What I found this time when I got out was everything was still going on out there in the world the way it had, but I had changed," said Perry.

No state knows more about that cycle of drug users constantly returning to prison than California. Many prison experts regard California as having one of the most poorly designed and poorly managed prison systems in the country, amply demonstrated by a recidivism rate of nearly 70 percent. California's 33 prisons are bursting with 172,000 inmates, nearly double their capacity, and treatment services have decreased even as costs soar.

In a sudden election-year burst of activity, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that he wants not only to embrace the Illinois rehabilitation model, which is costly and labor-intensive, but also to expand it by more than fivefold in a couple of years.

Schwarzenegger has called a special session of the Legislature, to begin today, to consider a nearly $6 billion emergency package of projects to try to rescue the failing prisons.

Much of the money would be spent on building new prisons, but a focus is something called "re-entry centers," or prisons that, like Sheridan, would provide intensive treatment and training so that inmates would re-enter their communities drug-free and with more skills and support.

California releases more than 120,000 inmates every year back to their communities, usually with nothing more than their bitter memories and old habits. While many experts are enthusiastic about the re-entry model, they are deeply skeptical of Schwarzenegger's sketchily outlined crash plan.

"What they don't seem to realize at this point is that this is not about a program," said Jeremy Travis, a pioneer in developing re-entry concepts and the president of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. "Programs are less important than the policy and political environment required to change things. What's critical is linking the prison to what happens after. That isn't addressed."

Joan Petersilia, another leading expert on re-entry and a professor at UC Irvine, had advised the corrections department for several years. She threw up her hands at what she described as the naivete of the governor's proposals.

"We haven't laid any of the groundwork for it to work here," Petersilia said. "They talk about it as though it's just the adoption of a model. It's not. There's the whole substrata and culture that is required first."

An examination of the Illinois model makes clear what success takes, and the distance California would have to travel to achieve similar results. Perhaps the most fundamental shift is that officials see themselves not as disciplinarians focused on punishment, but as therapists and partners, which means opening up to criticism that they are going soft on criminals.

Illinois is only now, more than two years after opening Sheridan, preparing to start a second therapeutic prison, in southern Illinois, with fewer than 700 beds.

"To me, this is all about risk reduction," said Deanne Benos, the assistant director of the Illinois Department of Corrections and the godmother of the new re-entry model. "Some people see a conflict between rehabilitation programs and security. There isn't. Some people don't believe in compassion, but I see it less as compassion than common sense.

"This is being tough on crime."

Michael Rothwell, the warden at Sheridan, emphasizes that the changes run deep, and that little has been left to chance.

The prison, a well-groomed 95-acres, is a medium-security facility set in classic Midwestern soybean-and-corn country 70 miles west of Chicago. It had been closed for several years before being reopened in 2004 as the jewel of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's program to fight recidivism. Although the prison has 1,300 beds, it houses only 850 inmates because of budgetary constraints.

Rothwell explained that, for starters, the prison takes only volunteers who fulfill strict criteria, which means that only 8,000 or so of the 45,000 inmates in Illinois qualify. The inmates must have six months to two years left in their sentences so that they have enough exposure to the rigorous treatment before release.

They must have substance-abuse problems, since the emphasis is on drug and alcohol treatment. The prison does not accept sex offenders, those convicted of extremely violent crimes or the severely mentally ill. Typically, the inmates had 17 previous arrests and had served two prior sentences. Nearly 60 percent of the Sheridan inmates, whose average age is 32, have never held a job.

And, of course, not all succeed. In the first two years, 1,166 inmates made it through the program, while 367 had to be removed.

Critical to success is the fact that the entire prison, not just a wing, is what is called a therapeutic community. Rothwell and others say that if the inmates mixed with the general population at a regular prison, the model would fail. At Sheridan, much of the support and encouragement comes from the inmates themselves.

Beneth Lee, a clinical re-entry specialist with Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, an organization that is critical to the program, said most inmates at Sheridan are so keen on seizing what is often their first opportunity for success that they quickly shut down gang activities, efforts to get drugs or classic prison bullying.

The inmates say that it works and that the atmosphere is much more relaxed.

"There's no knives, no gang-bangers, no fights, no drugs," said Carlos Ovieda, 38. "The guys here want to change, and they don't want to put it at risk. This is God-sent."

Rothwell stresses that there were problems in getting the staff to accept the new model. Guards are urged to get cross-training in other areas, such as substance-abuse counseling, to give them a better understanding of the inmates' needs, and to be problem-solvers rather than rule-enforcers. Sheridan, whose operating expenses run about $35 million a year, costs $11 million more than a regular medium-security prison, Rothwell said, because of the additional programs and larger staff.

Another key to success is not just intensive education and job training, but training the inmates for jobs that actually exist -- Rothwell seeks out employers willing to hire ex-convicts. The results here, too, have been impressive.

At a job fair at the prison in June, 41 of the 95 inmates who attended were hired on the spot. Ovieda, who said he had been in and out of prison five times over the past 15 years and rarely worked, received an offer to work as a construction carpenter for $22 an hour once he is released.

The result is that the inmates who leave Sheridan return to prison at a fraction of the rate of inmates from other Illinois prisons. Those who made it through the program in its first two years had a 49 percent lower risk of returning to prison.

All that, however, is just the start. Several months before release, the inmate's parole agent pays him a visit in prison (something that never happens in California).

The inmate, the parole officer and a host of groups under contract to the state prepare an elaborate post-release program. It includes drug treatment, therapy, job training, education and, if needed, housing.

In California, each inmate is supposed to have a post-release plan, but parole officers admit that many do not or that the files never reach the parole office.

Even some former Sheridan inmates say they were deeply skeptical going into the program.

"When I went there, I thought it was a hoax," said Lamont Burr, a parolee.

No longer. He is clean and sober, undergoing constant treatment and was interviewed at the Safer Foundation offices in Chicago as he was visiting his "job coach," another former inmate who sees Lamont through every step of the employment process.

Parolee Elton Johnson, 28, had a history of drug-related arrests and had been through a post-release re-entry program in Chicago called Operation Spotlight. Johnson was enthusiastic and insisted on showing off two achievement certificates he had received and an award plaque for his progress in drug rehabilitation and job training.

"They give you the nudge that nobody else gives you," said Johnson.

Johnson said he is certified in carpentry and other construction work and is studying to pass the exam for his general contractor license. His goal is to go to New Orleans, where construction is booming.

"I wanted it," said Johnson. "I didn't know how to look for it until they showed me."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/07/MNGCMKCF4R1.D
TL

Posted by lois at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)

Panel of Medical Advisers Recommends Gov't Losen Regulations on Drug Testing on People Who Are Incarcerated

August 13, 2006
Panel Suggests Using Inmates in Drug Trials
By IAN URBINA

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7 — An influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a practice that was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse.

The proposed change includes provisions intended to prevent problems that plagued earlier programs. Nevertheless, it has dredged up a painful history of medical mistreatment and sparked debate among prison rights advocates and researchers about whether prisoners can truly make uncoerced decisions, given the environment they live in.

Supporters of such programs cite the possibility of benefit to prison populations, and the potential for contributing to the greater good.

Until the early 1970’s, about 90 percent of all pharmaceutical products were tested on prison inmates, federal officials say. But such research diminished sharply in 1974 after revelations of abuse at prisons like Holmesburg here, where inmates were paid hundreds of dollars a month to test items as varied as dandruff treatments and dioxin, and where they were exposed to radioactive, hallucinogenic and carcinogenic chemicals.

In addition to addressing the abuses at Holmesburg, the regulations were a reaction to revelations in 1972 surrounding what the government called the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, which was begun in the 1930’s and lasted 40 years. In it, several hundred mostly illiterate men with syphilis in rural Alabama were left untreated, even after a cure was discovered, so that researchers could study the disease.

“What happened at Holmesburg was just as gruesome as Tuskegee, but at Holmesburg it happened smack dab in the middle of a major city, not in some backwoods in Alabama,” said Allen M. Hornblum, a Temple University urban studies professor and the author of “Acres of Skin,” a 1998 book detailing the Holmesburg research. “It just goes to show how prisons are truly distinct institutions where the walls don’t just serve to keep inmates in, they also serve to keep public eyes out.”

Critics also doubt the merits of pharmaceutical testing on prisoners who often lack basic health care.

Alvin Bronstein, a Washington lawyer who helped found the National Prison Project, an American Civil Liberties Union program, said he did not believe that altering the regulations risked a return to the days of Holmesburg.

“With the help of external review boards that would include a prisoner advocate,” Mr. Bronstein said, “I do believe that the potential benefits of biomedical research outweigh the potential risks.”

Holmesburg closed in 1995 but was partly reopened in July to help ease overcrowding at other prisons.

Under current regulations, passed in 1978, prisoners can participate in federally financed biomedical research if the experiment poses no more than “minimal” risks to the subjects. But a report formally presented to federal officials on Aug. 1 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences advised that experiments with greater risks be permitted if they had the potential to benefit prisoners. As an added precaution, the report suggested that all studies be subject to an independent review.

“The current regulations are entirely outdated and restrictive, and prisoners are being arbitrarily excluded from research that can help them,” said Ernest D. Prentice, a University of Nebraska genetics professor and the chairman of a Health and Human Services Department committee that requested the study. Mr. Prentice said the regulation revision process would begin at the committee’s next meeting, on Nov. 2.

The discussion comes as the biomedical industry is facing a shortage of testing subjects. In the last two years, several pain medications, including Vioxx and Bextra, have been pulled off the market because early testing did not include large enough numbers of patients to catch dangerous problems.

And the committee’s report comes against the backdrop of a prison population that has more than quadrupled, to about 2.3 million, over the last 30 years and that disproportionately suffers from H.I.V. and hepatitis C, diseases that some researchers say could be better controlled if new research were permitted in prisons.

For Leodus Jones, a former prisoner, the report has opened old wounds. “This moves us back in a very bad direction,” said Mr. Jones, who participated in the experiments at Holmesburg in 1966 and after his release played a pivotal role in lobbying to get the regulations passed.

In one experiment, Mr. Jones’s skin changed color, and he developed rashes on his back and legs where he said lotions had been tested.

“The doctors told me at the time that something was seriously wrong,” said Mr. Jones, who said he had never signed a consent form. He reached a $40,000 settlement in 1986 with the City of Philadelphia after he sued over the experiments.

“I never had these rashes before,” he said, “but I’ve had them ever since.”

The Institute of Medicine report was initiated in 2004 when the Health and Human Services Department asked the institute to look into the issue. The report said prisoners should be allowed to take part in federally financed clinical trials so long as the trials were in the later and less dangerous phase of Food and Drug Administration approval. It also recommended that at least half the subjects in such trials be nonprisoners, making it more difficult to test products that might scare off volunteers.

Dr. A. Bernard Ackerman, a New York dermatologist who worked at Holmesburg during the 1960’s trials as a second-year resident from the University of Pennsylvania, said he remained skeptical. “I saw it firsthand,” Dr. Ackerman said. “What started as scientific research became pure business, and no amount of regulations can prevent that from happening again.”

Others cite similar concerns over the financial stake in such research.

“It strikes me as pretty ridiculous to start talking about prisoners getting access to cutting-edge research and medications when they can’t even get penicillin and high-blood-pressure pills,” said Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, an independent monthly review. “I have to imagine there are larger financial motivations here.”

The demand for human test subjects has grown so much that the so-called contract research industry has emerged in the past decade to recruit volunteers for pharmaceutical trials. The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, a Boston policy and economic research group at Tufts University, estimated that contract research revenue grew to $7 billion in 2005, up from $1 billion in 1995.

But researchers at the Institute of Medicine said their sole focus was to see if prisoners could benefit by changing the regulations.

The pharmaceutical industry says it was not involved. Jeff Trewitt, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug industry trade group, said that his organization had no role in prompting the study and that it had not had a chance to review the findings.

Dr. Albert M. Kligman, who directed the experiments at Holmesburg and is now an emeritus professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, said the regulations should never have been written in the first place.

“My view is that shutting the prison experiments down was a big mistake,” Dr. Kligman said.

While confirming that he used radioactive materials, hallucinogenic drugs and carcinogenic materials on prisoners, Dr. Kligman said that they were always administered in extremely low doses and that the benefits to the public were overwhelming.

He cited breakthroughs like Retin A, a popular anti-acne drug, and ingredients for most of the creams used to treat poison ivy. “I’m on the medical ethics committee at Penn,” he said, “and I still don’t see there having been anything wrong with what we were doing.”

From 1951 to 1974, several federal agencies and more than 30 companies used Holmesburg for experiments, mostly under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania, which had built laboratories at the prison. After the revelations about Holmesburg, it soon became clear that other universities and prisons in other states were involved in similar abuses.

In October 2000, nearly 300 former inmates sued the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Kligman, Dow Chemical and Johnson & Johnson for injuries they said occurred during the experiments at Holmesburg, but the suit was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.

“When they put the chemicals on me, my hands swelled up like eight-ounce boxing gloves, and they’ve never gone back to normal,” said Edward Anthony, 62, a former inmate who took part in Holmesburg experiments in 1964. “We’re still pushing the lawsuit because the medical bills are still coming in for a lot of us.”

Daniel S. Murphy, a professor of criminal justice at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., who was imprisoned for five years in the 1990’s for growing marijuana, said that loosening the regulations would be a mistake.

“Free and informed consent becomes pretty questionable when prisoners don’t hold the keys to their own cells,” Professor Murphy said, “and in many cases they can’t read, yet they are signing a document that it practically takes a law degree to understand.”

During the Holmesburg experiments, inmates could earn up to $1,500 a month by participating. The only other jobs were at the commissary or in the shoe and shirt factory, where wages were usually about 15 cents to 25 cents a day, Professor Hornblum said.

On the issue of compensation for inmates, the report expressed concern about “undue inducements to participate in research in order to gain access to medical care or other benefits they would not normally have.” It called for “adequate protections” to avoid “attempts to coerce or manipulate participation.’’

The report also expressed concern about the absence of regulation over experiments that do not receive federal money. Lawrence O. Gostin, the chairman of the panel that conducted the study and a professor of law and public health at Georgetown University, said he hoped to change that.

Even with current regulations, oversight of such research has been difficult. In 2000, several universities were reprimanded for using federal money and conducting several hundred projects on prisoners without fully reporting the projects to the appropriate authorities.

Professor Gostin said the report called for tightening some existing regulations by advising that all research involving prisoners be subject to uniform federal oversight, even if no federal funds are involved. The report also said protections should extend not just to prisoners behind bars but also to those on parole or on probation.

Professor Murphy, who testified to the panel as the report was being written, praised those proposed precautions before adding, “They’re also the parts of the report that faced the strongest resistance from federal officials, and I fear they’re most likely the parts that will end up getting cut as these recommendations become new regulations.”

Barclay Walsh contributed research for this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/us/13inmates.html?hp&ex=1155441600&en=cc3e2c1795323e27&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Posted by lois at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

Help for the Hardest Part of Prison: Staying Out

August 12, 2006
Time Served
Help for the Hardest Part of Prison: Staying Out
By ERIK ECKHOLM, NY Times

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In April, Debra Harris took her 15-year-old son along for what she thought was a final visit to her parole officer. Instead, because of a “dirty urine” test two weeks before, proof of her relapse to crack use, state troopers led her straight back to prison for three more months.

Troopers then drove Ms. Harris’s son to the rented home on the south side of Providence where her boyfriend was suddenly left to tend to three of her children. Ms. Harris had forgotten to pay the gas bill, so service was cut and they lived through her sentence without a stove, surviving on fast food and microwave items.

Such jolting events are part of the fabric of life in South Providence, as some women and many more men cycle repeatedly through the state’s prisons. As the country confronts record and recurring incarcerations, the search for solutions is focusing increasingly on neighborhoods like it, fragile places in nearly every city where the churning of people through prison is intensely concentrated.

Rhode Island is among the states beginning to make progress in easing offenders’ re-entry to society with the goal of bringing the revolving door to a halt, or at least slowing it. But sometimes it can be hard to see much of a difference.

The 1980’s and 90’s were an era of get-tough, no-frills punishment; inmate populations climbed to record levels while education and training withered. Prisoners with little chance of getting a job and histories of substance abuse were sent home without help.

Now a countertrend is gathering force, part of an unfolding transformation in the way the criminal justice system deals with repeat offenders. After punishment has been meted out and time has been served, political leaders, police officers, corrections officials, churches and community groups are working together to offer so-called re-entry programs, many modest in scope but remarkable nonetheless.

Inmates now meet with planners before their release to explore housing, drug treatment and job possibilities. Once the inmates are back outside, churches and community groups have been enlisted to take them by the hand and walk them through the transition home.

“What we’re witnessing is a great turning of the wheel in corrections policy,” said Ashbel T. Wall II, the Rhode Island corrections director.

The flood of more than 600,000 inmates emerging from the nation’s prisons each year, and the dismal fact that more than half of those will return, plays out relentlessly here, as elsewhere, keeping already troubled families in emotional and financial turmoil. Even with the new programs, the odds against staying straight are formidable.

“There’s a lot starting to happen,” said Sol Rodriguez, director of the Family Life Center, established in South Providence in 2003 to help returning prisoners and their families. “But this is still a very poor community, and people are coming back into already overburdened neighborhoods.”

In South Providence, where many families share aging two-story wood houses on deceptively quiet streets, nearly one in four male residents, and half of all black men, are under the supervision of the State Corrections Department — in prison, on parole or, by far the most common, on probation, Mr. Wall said.

Eight miles away, the state prison complex is an almost palpable presence. Of some 3,500 inmates released each year, one-fourth return to a core zone of South Providence of just 3.3 square miles with 39,000 residents, most of whom are Hispanic or black.

“One day somebody is just missing in action,” said Rev. Jeffery A. Williams, pastor of the 800-member Cathedral of Life Christian Assembly in South Providence. “The father gets a three- or five-year sentence, and the family structure disintegrates. Mothers try to survive on state aid or work multiple jobs, and you see kids practically raising themselves, which perpetuates the problem.”

The strains on families take many forms. Not far from the Harris household, Alberto Reyes, 27, a forklift operator, was put on probation last winter for burglary. But in March, Mr. Reyes failed to meet his parole officer and was sent to prison for three and a half months. Without his help, his girlfriend, who makes just $280 a week as a nurse’s aide, was left in desperate straits, he acknowledged, and had to rely on charity to get summer clothes for their baby.

Erick Betancourt, 26, spent 2 years in prison for dealing crack and will be on probation for the next 10 years, leaving him vulnerable to confinement for any mistake. “Everybody you bump into is on probation or parole,” said Mr. Betancourt, who has landed a job counseling youths in the streets.

“You’re not supposed to hang out with others on probation,” he said. “So you want to go back with your old friends, but that can be dangerous, because if the police stop you, that could be a violation.”

For Cerue Williams, 61, the repeated jailing of her 34-year-old son on drug and probation violations is causing financial burdens and social isolation. Laid off from her job engraving school rings, Ms. Williams is scraping by as she cares for her son’s teenage daughter.

Ms. Williams lives in a neat, rent-subsidized house, but she never talks with her neighbors. “I keep this inside, it’s embarrassing,” she said. “Nobody visits me, and I don’t visit nobody.”

South Providence is cut off from the city’s downtown and prosperous east side by an Interstate highway. Young men drive with their seats folded far back, their faces concealed behind the doorjamb — a fashion and a mock protective measure.

Parts of the area are gentrifying, and a Hispanic influx has brought small shops to the avenues. In abandoned jewelry factories, vacant lots and a few low-rise housing projects, roaming teenagers stir trouble with drugs, but the community’s woes are mostly hidden inside wooden multifamily homes.

Tyrone McKinney, 45, has been in prison 9 or 10 times since 1979 — he is not sure at this point — on charges ranging from shoplifting to attempted murder.

The last time Mr. McKinney was released, in January, he said, “they gave me a bus token, and I went out into the belly of the beast with no job, nowhere to go.”

Drifting through homes of South Providence, he resumed using drugs and stealing and was back in prison by April, for six months. He spoke in the prison gym, where he has bulked up over the years.

As a condition of his discharge this fall he must go into a residential drug treatment program, where he will also get help applying for benefits like food stamps and finding work and a longer-term home.

“The goal now is to see if you can rehabilitate lives instead of just locking them up,” said Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, using words that once may have seemed politically risky. Mr. Carcieri has directed state agencies involved with education, drugs, mental health, housing and other issues to work with current and former prisoners.

Following an example set by Connecticut, Rhode Island has pledged to reinvest any savings from reduced prison populations in new aid for departing inmates.

Mayor David N. Cicilline of Providence has assembled a re-entry council, bringing together the police chief, religious leaders, businessmen and other community leaders. The council seeks to offer aid to every offender returning to the most affected neighborhoods, like South Providence.

In Washington, in another sign of the shifting national mood, the Second Chance Act, a bill to increase federal financing for re-entry programs, is moving through Congress with strong bipartisan support and the endorsement of the White House.

With its joining of public agencies and community groups, Rhode Island is part of a movement that is taking hold in dozens of states, said Debbie A. Mukamal, director of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Yet in Rhode Island, as elsewhere, money and facilities, especially to support people once they return to the community, have not caught up with the new goals.

Inside the prison, offenders have more access to education, skills training and counseling. But many who are approved for parole must still spend extra months behind bars, waiting for drug treatment beds to open up. Those with no homes to return to face a severe shortage of transitional housing.

“Discharge planning doesn’t always mean a lot because there are still so few services out here,” said Ms. Rodriguez, of the Family Life Center.

Most days, recently freed inmates drop into the center to check job notices, join counseling sessions or enroll in G.E.D. classes. The center is also, with the aid of the Corporation for Supportive Housing, a national nonprofit group, developing 25 units of permanent housing for troubled former offenders, and it successfully lobbied the state to stop barring former drug offenders from receiving food stamps.

Two weeks after his release, Mr. Reyes, the convicted burglar, was scouring job listings at the Family Life Center. “I have to get a job soon or I might have to go back to jail,” he said, noting that employment was a condition of his release. Like many other former prisoners, he cannot live with his girlfriend and son because she is in public housing that bans felons, so he is staying with his mother.

Social services are vital, but nothing can substitute for personal will, said Ms. Harris, 47, the mother who returned to prison after a parole violation. Before that, she had been imprisoned three times over the years for shoplifting.

She was released on parole again on July 26 with an ankle bracelet to ensure that she stayed inside her home except when explicitly permitted to leave.

“I lost too much over the years,” she said the day after her release, in the two-story home with a small backyard she cherishes but cannot sit in now without permission. She held a grandson as teenagers raced in and out, and she awaited the return of two younger children, who had moved in with their father during her months away.

“I knew this time that I didn’t want to lose all this,” she said, referring to her house, her children and her boyfriend, Victor, who stuck with her.

In prison, she started a 12-step program. Now, as a condition of her freedom, she must attend a three-hour recovery meeting at least three times a week. She has also been given a job, as an assistant to a church leader.

Ms. Harris fingered the black plastic bracelet with a transmitter on her ankle and said, “In some ways I feel like I’m back in the same old spot.”

But the bracelet also offered a strange comfort. “It kind of keeps my life structured for now,” she said, noting that she saw a drug transaction through her front window her first evening home.

“It’s crazy out there,” she said.

Posted by lois at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

ACLU Report Details Horrors Suffered by Orleans Parish Prisoners in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

ACLU Report Details Horrors Suffered by Orleans Parish Prisoners in Wake of Hurricane Katrina (8/10/2006)
National Prison Project Calls for Immediate Action by President, Congress and Justice Department

NEW ORLEANS -- As the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project today released Abandoned & Abused: Orleans Parish Prisoners in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina. The report documents the experiences of thousands of men, women and children who were abandoned at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) in the days after the storm.

"The prisoners inside the Orleans Parish Prison suffered some of the worst horrors of Hurricane Katrina," said Eric Balaban, a staff attorney for the National Prison Project. "Because society views prisoners as second-class citizens, their stories have largely gone unnoticed and therefore untold."

In conjunction with the report's release, the National Prison Project urged the president to direct the Department of Justice to evaluate OPP's current evacuation plans in an effort to determine whether any meaningful improvements have been made over the past year. The ACLU also asked Congress to audit the jail's emergency preparedness plans. The ACLU is calling for a full and immediate investigation into abuses at Louisiana correctional facilities during and after the storm and is also urging the DOJ to make the findings from such an investigation public and accessible to state and federal prosecutors.

The ACLU report describes a history of neglect at Orleans Parish Prison, one of the most dangerous and mismanaged jails in the country. This culture of neglect was evident in the days before Katrina, when the sheriff declared that the prisoners would remain "where they belong," despite the mayor's decision to declare the city's first-ever mandatory evacuation. OPP even accepted prisoners, including juveniles as young as 10, from other facilities to ride out the storm.

As floodwaters rose in the OPP buildings, power was lost, and entire buildings were plunged into darkness. Deputies left their posts wholesale, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests.

"The sheriff's office was completely unprepared for the storm," said Tom Jawetz, Litigation Fellow for the National Prison Project. "The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did more for its 263 stray pets than the sheriff did for the more than 6,500 men, women and children left in his care."

Prisoners went days without food, water and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan. Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need.

The prisoners were finally evacuated by order of the state after days of fear and chaos. The report follows the prisoners as they were transferred to jails and prisons around Louisiana. Thousands of the men were first transported to the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, where they were placed outdoors in a yard with inadequate food, medical care, and protection from other prisoners, many of whom were armed with makeshift weapons. According to the report, at several other facilities, prisoners were subjected to systematic abuse and racially motivated assaults by prison guards.

"Some prisoners at Hunt attacked other prisoners, and guards did nothing to prevent this from happening," said Katie Schwartzmann, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Louisiana. "Guards threatened prisoners with guns when they were approached for help, and shot at one prisoner who had been stabbed by a group of other prisoners."

Among the people profiled in the ACLU report are:

* Ivy Gisclair, who was being held at OPP for $700 in traffic violations (mostly parking tickets) and had never been in any serious trouble with the law. After days in OPP following the storm, Ivy was transferred to Hunt, where he witnessed stabbings, rapes and countless fights. Ivy was finally transferred to Bossier Parish Maximum Security Prison. His release date came and went. When he asked a guard about it, he was pepper sprayed, repeatedly shocked with a Taser, beaten by multiple guards, and put in solitary confinement with no clothes. Ivy was released in an orange prison jumpsuit at a gas station by the side of the road, three weeks after his scheduled release date. It was the day of Hurricane Rita.
* Renard Reed, a guard at OPP's psychiatric ward who reported to work before the hurricane out of a sense of camaraderie and shared responsibility. Like many other guards, Renard was locked in during his shift to prevent desertion, and was then ordered to go to the roof with a shotgun and shoot anyone trying to leave one of the flooded buildings. He was still stranded at the prison long after the prisoners were evacuated.
* Ashley George, a 13-year-old girl housed in OPP's Youth Center, who was moved to an area adjacent to an adult male holding area where the men watched her use the toilet. As the building began to flood, Ashley spent days in water up to her neck. Adult prisoners rescued Ashley and the other children from the waters. After being taken to the bridge for evacuation, Ashley was lucky enough to be given a bag of potato chips and water. She reports again being forced to relieve herself publicly and that pregnant girls received no assistance or treatment.

"These are the untold horrors of Hurricane Katrina," Balaban said. "We must preserve these stories to create a record of the tragedy and to ensure that the mistakes detailed in this report are never repeated."

The report, along with several multimedia features including a slide show, video footage and maps, is online at: www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/26198res20060809.html

The letter to the Department of Justice is online at: www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/26420leg20060809.html

URL: http://www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/26421prs20060810.html

Posted by lois at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2006

10 Reasons to Oppose Schwarzenegger's Plans for More Prisons

New America Media, Commentary, Rose Braz and Vanessa Huang, Aug 11, 2006

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=fa9cfec4e8d2984c
1776d6ee4d3700c9

Editor's Note: California officials’ version of prison reform is counterproductive, write Rose Braz of Critical Resistance and Vanessa Huang of Justice Now. Each is a member of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a statewide coalition pushing for curbing prison spending by reducing the number of inmates and closing prisons.

OAKLAND, Calif.--California officials on June 1 last year officially unveiled the controversial Delano II prison, stating that it would be the state's "last prison" and proudly declaring the end of an unprecedented 20-year prison building boom. That was then.

Only 14 months later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who spoke of closing prisons during his first State of the State address -- will open a special session of the legislature with just one proposed "solution" to the debacle that is the California prison system: build and build some more.

California's $8-billion-a-year prison system has consistently failed to deliver on its promise of public safety. Schwarzenegger's unimaginative answer is to make this disaster even bigger by adding at least two new state prisons and 35 to 50 new, smaller prisons scattered around the state.

One could write a book on the reasons to oppose this plan, but here are just 10:

prisonbars1. As State Senator Mike Machado and others have cautioned, "You can't build your way out of this problem." Increasing the number of cells will only increase the number of people in prison. History teaches us that if we build them, they will fill them.

Since 1882, when Folsom Prison was built to replace the already decrepit San Quentin, expansion after prison expansion has failed to address the rising number of inmates, poor prison conditions, public safety and the lack of programming.

2. The governor's own Commission, headed by former Gov. George Deukmejian, concluded that the "key to reforming the system lies in reducing the numbers."

There are hundreds of ways to reduce the number of inmates. For example, if California simply reduced to the national average the rate at which it jails people for parole violations, the number of inmates could be reduced by more than 20,000.

3. Californians don't want more prisons. Four recent statewide polls of likely voters all found the that Californians consistently point to prison spending as the budget item they most want cut. Also, a May 2006 poll of California voters found that 61 percent supported the notion that "we have built enough jails in California."

4. You as a taxpayer will lose your vote on whether California should build more prisons. State bond measures must go before the voters. In the past two times that voters were asked to approve prison construction bonds, they overwhelmingly rejected them.

After seeing his November initiatives go down in defeat, Schwarzenegger wants to use a loophole called lease revenue bonds, to bypass the need for voter approval of the more than $1 billion tab for just the two new state prisons he proposes. It's money that won't be available for our children's or grandchildren's schools, libraries, public transportation or health care.

5. California can't afford more prisons. Lease Revenue Bonds carry higher interest rates than General Obligation Bonds. The governor's two new prisons will cost $500 million each. By using lease revenue bonds taxpayers actually would have to pay back about $1 billion for each. Operating costs would be at least $100 million per year.

6. Prison reform can never mean building new jails. In response to wide anti-prison public sentiment, the governor is packaging his new plan as "prison reform" and part of "gender responsiveness."

Corrections officials have identified 4,500 women who, by their own criteria, do not need to be incarcerated. The governor has responded by proposing that 4,500 new prison beds be built throughout the state. Why not let these women go home to their families, rather than build dozens of mini-prisons?

New prison construction is not and never will be "prison reform." Private prisons are not "prison reform." Building new, smaller prisons in local communities is not "prison reform." Moving men into women's prisons is not "prison reform."

7. Women inmates oppose the governor's plan to transfer women across the state. Over 1,000 women at the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) and Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) have signed petitions against the governor's plan, including the addition of 4,500 women's beds proposed in their name.

Misty Rojo, currently at CCWF and a board member of Justice Now, said, "In all the 'prison reform plans' in Sacramento these days, everyone has forgotten the most important people: those of us in prison who suffer the consequences of these actions."

8. Prison policy can't be based on election-year politicking. One can't help but suspect the pre-election timing of Schwarzenegger's special session. The problem has been building for decades. Does he really think good public policy can be accomplished in a quick-fix, three-week special session just before his re-election bid?

9. The governor's own experts reject his plan. Dr. Joan Petersilia, one of Schwarzenegger's chief corrections consultants, labeled the plan "a fantasy," saying, "It's looking backward, not forward."

10. All experts -- from the Little Hoover Commission to the Governor's own experts -- agree: Real solutions begin with changing sentencing and parole policies, changes that are nowhere to be found in his proposals.

We all want safe and healthy communities. But bankrupting the state to expand a prison system that hasn't made us safer is bad public policy.

Studies have also shown that more prisons do not make our communities any safer. For example, counties that have strictly enforced the three strikes law saw a smaller decrease in crime than counties that did not (Justice Policy Institute). States with more prisons and more people in prison experienced a smaller decline in crime in the 1990s than states with fewer inmates and fewer prisons (Sentencing Project).

Dollars currently spent on our bloated prison system should be reinvested to expand jobs, housing, education and health care resources. This is the only way to truly build safe communities.

It's time to stop pretending that increased prison capacity is part of the solution.

Posted by lois at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)

Prisons in depressed areas do not boost economy, study shows

Friday, August 11, 2006
Berlin (NH) Daily Sun

Prisons in depressed rural areas do not boost economy, study shows
Dr. Gregory Hooks describes study and surprising conclusion

Gail Scott

BERLIN— ”We looked at every county in the U.S. and every prison in the United States and we looked at employment growth over a long period of time,” Dr. Gregory Hooks, chairman of the Sociology Department of Washington State University, told an audience of some 75 people at the New Hampshire Community Technical College Wednesday.
Describing the reasons for the study, “The Prison Industry: Carceral Expansion and Employment in U.S. Counties, 1969-1994”, he said, “We wanted to know whether those counties with new prisons were better off or those counties with old prisons were better off than those without.”

The result: “We find no evidence that prison expansion has stimulated economic growth. In fact, we provide evidence that prison construction has impeded economic growth in rural counties that have been growing at a slow pace.”
Hooks said he and the co-authors of the study of the prison industry incorporated “a whole host of control variables” in their study of federal data. The co-authors included Clayton Mosher and Thomas Totolo, both of Washington State University, and Linda Lobao, of Ohio State University.
The paper grew from conversations that Hooks, Mosher, a criminologist, and Lobao, a sociologist of rural society, had about the increase in the number of prisons in rural areas in the 1980s and 1990s. Hooks speciality had been a study of military facilities, based on masses of county economic statistics from federal archives. He said the three of them were talking about the rise in the number of rural prisons and decided to study the economic effects.
This study was "self funded," Hooks said. Hooks' current study comparing the economic influences of prisons visa vis post secondary institutions of learning, he is doing at the invitation of a Soros Justice Fellowship. The present study includes a facet to share his knowledge of prison economic influence with communities dealing with prospective prison construction. Hooks said he has been invited to speak with two groups: Berlin and a community in Idaho.
Hooks and his colleagues in the study found that when they included urban counties, they found no evidence that prisons influence employment growth in these counties.
“That’s not surprising when you think of opening a prison in Manhattan,” he said, “like Manhattan would notice.”
So the study group focused on rural counties, distinguishing between the 25 percent with lower job growth and the 75 percent with higher job growth.
“In the upper 75 percentile, we found not much of anything significant statistically. We found that in slow growing counties with established prisons, the prisons had no significant impact. The impact had been absorbed. But,” he said, “we found that new prisons had a sharply negative influence on private employment. The impact on public employment was not statistically significant but there was a strongly negative impact on the private sector which resulted in overall employment losses.”
“This was the first comprehensive study (of prisons’ economic effect) and the result were a surprise,” Hood said, later noting that he and his colleagues expected to confirm conventional wisdom that prisons brought economic benefits.
“We had bought the hype,” he said.
Hooks said there is widespread belief that prisons add jobs to a local area. Typically, he said, a prison is a big, new facility. People who work there, didn’t before, obviously. You added something to the employment base. Construction brings money to the area, he said. It costs so many million to build a new facility. Prisons are thought to be recession proof because the jobs are in the public sector. They are thought not to be sensitive to recession.
The U.S. started building prisons at a rapid clip in the 1980s, he said. Early studies on the effects of prisons concentrated on what happens to towns with prisons and the studies indicated that prisons do more good than harm.
But these studies were suspect on two grounds, he said. First, they relied on case studies. In other words, they looked at one town, rather than being comprehensive studies.
Secondly, he said, if you go to a community with a prison, the people who benefited are there to talk to you. The people who didn’t benefit, have moved away. You can’t talk to them. You miss part of the selection. That is called sample selection bias, he said.
As analogy he pointed out that “people don’t go to the gaming floor in Las Vegas and talk to the people about how often they win or lose because the losers went home. One way or another, the people who are losing, aren’t there,” he said.
“These big projects are very attractive to people in the public sector who are trying to help their communities,” he said, “the big sports stadium, the military base. But the evidence that they help is not encouraging.”
Prisons seem like a panacea, he said, but things with larger budgets don’t automatically have a big impact. Noting subsequent studies that support the findings Hook and his colleagues discovered in 2004, he said, “that prisons aren’t a quick fix for a place that is struggling.”
“It’s counterintuitive,” he said. “County A has a prison with 250 jobs and County B has none. Why would the average places with new prisons end up with fewer jobs not more?”
Typically, he said, the skilled, high paying positions are held by newcomers who often live away from the prison town. They like restaurants, shopping, often they commute. When people with those skills marry, their partner is often highly educated, too. Dual career couples gravitate toward bigger communities.
“Rarely are current residents hired for the better paying jobs. In many instances, those people don’t live in town,” he said.
Secondly, he pointed out that the kind of job skills that current residents of a rural town have are limited.
“Being a prison guard means you can get a job as a prison guard. It’s difficult to generalize that job,” he said.
He also pointed out that prisoners are expected to work, although that varies by jurisdiction. When they do, their work competes with the private sector. As example, he told the story of the mayor of a prison town interviewed in front of city hall by a television reporter, while behind them, “a guy in an orange jumpsuit was weeding city hall.”
Hooks guessed that landscaping is not a job people tend to remember, but it is often the first rung on the job ladder for someone without skills.
“Someone without job skills, the mom and pop businesses, can’t compete with free labor,” he pointed out, while remarking that from the prison’s point of view, the work makes sense since it helps the prisoner to be out working, not locked in a cell.
Hooks was offered an example in the audience.
“I was laid off in the southern part of the state,” said a man in the audience. “I found out that there were jobs available in the industrial park (here). When I got there for the interview, I found prisoners were already work at the job at less money than me, as machine operators.”
“I don’t know what the fine print is at this prison,” Hooks said. “I think these are questions you will have to answer yourselves.”
Hooks notes that when people go to Atlantic City to gamble, not every one loses “or you wouldn’t play. It’s not like you smoke a cigarette and fall over dead. (Cigarette warnings) are a probability statement. I encourage you to think about the probability statements (in relation to the prison study),” he said.
“The prison will not help the tax basis,” one listener said. “The poor people will have to absorb the impact of the services that will continue (to be borne) by a population of less than 10,000,” adding, “look at the qualifications and the foundation of our labor pool. Yes, jobs are displaced in the local community, but my guess is that ten people in the town qualify for prison jobs. A prison is not diversity. It’s insanity. The local officials are not here (at this meeting) and they have the gall to say they represent the people,” he said.
Rep. Bernard Buzzell, of Berlin, and Bruce Lary, of Gorham were the only elected officials to attend the meeting.
“I’d like to bring out a question in a different vein,” said Robert Theriault, a former city councilor of Berlin. “I’ve never seen anything about the prison being economical for the taxpayers in this country. Is it economical to put a prison up here. We have no airport to bring in lawyers to protect the human animals and give ‘em their rights. You’re going to drive them from Manchester at $150 an hour to represent an animal in prison here. We have no roads to transport prisoners east and west. It takes four times longer to go to Burlington than to cross the whole state of New York.
“A lot of economic factors don’t make sense,” he continued. “We have no income tax or sales tax. We get no taxes from that prison. Where is the money going to come from to pay for the schools? . . . If we locate industry here, they want to know how much it costs to bring raw materials in here. (Have the prison officials done that?) What is the cost of labor? It would seem to me that if you put all your prisons together in Virginia (they have six already) and they all use the same services, you wouldn't have to travel all over the country to get the services and economies in volume. That’s common sense, in my opinion.
“In all the studies that have been made,” he said, “they don’t include the potential of locating a prison here based on how much it’s going to cost. What about the security? If you have a riot, you need 400 to 500 police. What are you going to do? You’ll have to wait till they travel 100 miles up here and pay their travel expenses and you have to spend time on the roads getting people to support the prison?
“One of these days they’re going to say it doesn’t make sense to have a prison up there and let’s close it down and by then Berlin will be closed down anyway,” Theriault said.
“They made a study about the water filtering system,” he added “They said we would have a growth in population. They put a big $10 million water works across the river and it’s closed. The pipes were leaking . We have the most expensive water in this country. We have the most expensive electricity in the U.S. Where do we stand on the economics of running a prison on behalf of the income taxpayers of this country?”
Hooks acknowledged that he could not comment on the local situation. In Texas, he said, some communities have been persuaded that prisons are such a good thing. that they have floated bonds to build the roads, supply the electricity and sewage to attract prisons. But the community is then impacted negatively because the towns don’t have the wherewithal to take care of their own.
“You know in your community what activities are prison compatible and what are not. That is yours to think about,” he said.
Dawn Tupick has already done a lot of thinking about the prison and she is vehemently not in favor.
“Berlin is only 60 miles square,” she said. “We already have one prison from Success to Mt. Carberry they want to put in another prison and expand the sanitary landfill another 80 acres. This is a big community of (prisoners) to have in a small area like that.”
She pointed out the high cost of gas and asked whether federal studies had been adjusted to take into account locating “in such an isolated area.”
“I am concerned about the wider impact on the community,” another contributed. “The government had a clandestine meeting proposing to take twenty properties in MIlan by eminent domain. It looks like there will be a prisoner shuttle through the air and twenty homes will be gone.”
Tupick added, “We are invited in a new population of strangers. This is not an urban area. Berlin is one of the most beautiful towns with incredible potential. I have to say a prison economy sure is not going to be an attraction. And the state prison is putting in an addition of 500 beds with more lighting. Where does this stop?”
“And one more thing,” she said, “talking about the impact on the land. There are many here from Success who are fighting for their very homes and they weren’t even allowed to vote. The feds moved in and took those people over and this is not democracy.”
Hooks reiterated that he didn’t have the answers for the local situation, but he said his most recent research compares the economic impact of prisons and of post secondary schools. He said he still had not completed the study but findings suggest that comparing the two populations, there are fewer multiplier effects (introducing wealth into the community) with a prison population. He also said that typical university or community colleges were carefully monitored not to compete with local businesses.
Schools also invest in human capital, he noted, adding that the experience of military base closings surprised social scientists because the communities were not impacted as negatively as expected.
“We were surprised to find that military bases weren’t as important as the congressional delegations thought,” he said.
Bruce Lary wanted to know if Hooks had started his study with an end in view and twisted the statistics to match.
Hooks pointed out that the study was subjected to peer review, which meant that others scrutinized the data and analysis and concluded no bias.
“It was hard to get published because the conclusion flew in the face of what was considered common knowledge at the time. Now the national studies provide no opposing evidence,” he said.
“(A desire for clarity) is why you are here,” said a member of the audience. “It is necessary to have this kind of information so one can make an intelligent decision. I guess that most of the politicians do not have the facts. This is a huge concern but not enough to draw enough people here. We are not against the city. We want as much good for the city as anyone does. But we re concerned that they are being blind sided. The facts are being ignored. Self interest seems to be the driving force.”
Hooks noted that there are studies on one-company towns. The literature is not promising, he said. As reliance grows on the one industry, it’s hard for alternatives to emerge. Labor force skills are concentrated in one sector. Complementary businesses don’t exist. A prison town (as opposed to a town with a prison) is very unattractive for tourism and related industries just as being someone working with wood rather than a mill town with an odor make a difference.
“You can bet your bottom dollar the tourists won’t go up the loop to see moose,” commented another member of the audience.
“In some instances, the dominant industry gains control of local government. Other voices and citizens are shut out . You can imagine that the one industry will be catered to, taken care of by local officials. In some rural communities, the dominance has undermined democracy and inhibited public participation," he said.
“Berlin has been like this for years. We need to take ownership. As for tourism, it’s difficult for people to get up here. We have no road access up here. It’s not like Conway with regular road access,” said another.
“You’re filling 500 rooms in Gorham every night,” remarked Michelle Lutz, of Gorham.
As generalized conversations began to break out in the room, Nathan Morin brought the group back to the point of the meeting.
Buzzell, who had mentioned the problem of roads, reiterated his point, and a questioner asked, “Are you saying you are justifying the building of a prison because we are in such a cul de sac?
Buzzell responded he was at the meeting to hear what constituents had to say.
A man in the audience pointed out that many in Berlin were comparing the state and federal prisons, but there is no comparison, he said. “The federal prison will be three times the size and have much more impact. The state prison hasn’t been bad, but I am opposed to the federal prison. The state has not delivered on the promises the city officials made when it was built. Back then they were promising lower taxes, that this wold be the best thing to hit the area, so how can we define the two. In my opinion the federal prison will be worse and bring more hardship to the area than the state prison.”
Hooks couldn’t offer special knowledge, but surmised in terms of whether jobs grow or shrink, the probabilities between state and federal prisons are about the same.
As for roads, he noted that roads are built to places with vibrant economies.
The discussion began to wander again. A speaker noted that Berlin would become known as Prisontown, New Hampshire. Another feared negative impact on property values.
Another called for more action to oppose the prison. “It’s not a done deal,” he said.
Another remarked, “I came here to find out what kind of an impact it would have. It will affect taxes, the need for more schools, the waste treatment plant is not big enough for Berlin. What’s it going to do with two prisons.
“Nobody seems to be looking t that. . . . ," he continued. "The one good thing the EIS will bring about, people are talking about starting guards needing four year degrees. There are no four year colleges in Berlin. Where are these guards coming from? Alabama?”
Another pointed out that employment promises for the state prison have not been fulfilled, that it took the state prison two years to achieve full employment.
“What are we going to do with a federal prison,” asked another, “a whole new population. Look at Main Street. This is not for the people. The mill site is on the superfiund. It would be great to have the site cleaned up and to hire the mill guys to do the work. I was in the Pacific Northwest when they shut down the fishing industry, (yet the Northwest has recovered). There is always an alternative. This mill could be retooled to recycle newsprint, but these guys don’t want to think. They say they represent the people but there is not one benefit for the people who pay the highest taxes in the state. With fuel prices going up, just to eat and keep warm will be difficult. But not one tax dollar will be contributed (by the federal prison) to benefit these people. The hunting population just lost their prime hunting area. If there was a benefit, I would be for it, but there is no employment benefit, no tax relief.
"The one hope is if we could get a regional ballot. I was at the first vote and they voted it down. I don’t understand what happened," said another.
“What can we do to turn this around?” asked Kurt Masters. “We have Mr. Nardi here from Louis Berger (consultants who produced the Environmental Impact Statements for the Bureau of Prisons). “How come you are not using peer review studies?” Masters asked. "Why use studies commissioned by AVER that have been found to be inaccurate, sloppy, and poorly put together? What can we do to turn things around?”
Mr. Nardi remarked that the study was commissioned by AVER and Louis Berger had not contacted the writer to ask questions.
Berlin City Planner Pam Laflamme responded that she was there to listen and learn.
Masters pressed, asking why the Bureau of Prisons quoted the AVER study if it had not been peer reviewed.
Nardi replied that he was there as a private citizen, always interested in the opinions of the people. He had come to listen to Dr. Hooks presentation. “I am eager to learn,” he said.
Mike Eastman pointed out that the data in the EIS about the people imprisoned in a medium security prison was from 2001.
“I think a whole lot has changed since 2001 in this country,” he said, also pointing out that federal prisoners incarcerated for violent crimes are released directly into the community, contrary to what the Berlin population has been told. Further, he pointed out, new gangs have sprung up in federal prisons such as the notorious MS-13, a violent gang whose reach now extended across the United States and into New England.
“They are in Massachusetts, along with a slew of other people that you are trading up for here and allowing into the community. It's gangland style inner city stuff. The feds can’t stop it. There are six other countries that can’t stop it. You need to be thinking about this.”
“I have friends who work in the prison system,” said Marc MacDonald, of Randolph. “They are laying off at their facilities. They are closing wings. They are in the submarine rotation, which means one guy sleeps while the others of a three person team work. Also, there is a huge initiative in the federal system to rethink the incarceration of drug people. My friend works in a women’s prison. They (the prisoners) are mules (drug carriers) for the most part. Officials are looking at a way to treat this another way.
"And, as you know, it’s last in, first out," he added. "They build this facility and there’s a layoff and shutdown because of the economy of transporting people here, we have government broken down. If this were a corporation, these guys would be out. I guarantee you this will be a closed facility just like the other 58 (Ray Hopkins) mentioned. It doesn't make sense. What is the liability here if they open this up and then down size? We will suffer more than you can imagine.”
Another in the audience suggested writing directly to Bush. “You’re wasting your time with Gregg. Send your objection to Bush directly and you may send a copy to Gregg who’s against the people of New Hampshire.”
MacDonald wasn’t finished. “We have a crack cocaine epidemic here already that is being ignored,” he said. “It is destroying families in this city. In the old days it was pot and beer. Those things are manageable. Crack cocaine is off the map. Its a huge problem. The prison would be the other shoe for the other foot. I used to play space ball in this field before this school (NHCTC) was built, unlike certain city officials from elsewhere. I have seen what has happened to this town and it is so disturbing to think the some would exacerbate the problems. I recall our Main Street, the way it used to be.”
Members of the audience were invited to sign postcards protesting the prison at tables near the door. Copies of Dr. Hook’s study and several others were available as well.
http://www.mountwashingtonvalley.com/BDS/newsbds.shtml

Posted by lois at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

Robert L. McCullough, 64, Dies; Civil Rights Innovator

August 11, 2006
Robert L. McCullough, 64, Dies; Civil Rights Innovator
By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Robert L. McCullough, who changed the civil rights movement by choosing to work on a roadside chain gang rather than pay a $100 fine after his arrest in 1961 for asking to be served at a whites-only lunch counter in South Carolina, died Monday in Rock Hill, S.C. He was 64.

Samuel Reid Jr., assistant manager of Robinson Funeral Home, confirmed the death but said he did not know the cause.

Mr. McCullough was the informal leader of nine black students and a civil rights organizer who on Jan. 31, 1961, sat down at the McCrory’s lunch counter in Rock Hill and ordered hamburgers and drinks. They were refused service and arrested for trespassing.

Nine of the 10 chose 30 days’ hard labor at the York County prison farm rather than pay the fine, as had been the practice of demonstrators.

The Gandhi-like stand by Mr. McCullough’s group, with the slogan “jail, no bail,’’ inspired an immediate change in the tactics of civil rights sit-ins; within days about 100 protesters were jailed in similar cases, winning support for the cause.

The group became known as the Friendship Nine because they were students at Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill. Mr. McCullough is the first of them to die.

Taylor Branch, in his book “Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63,” said the decision to go to jail had been “an emotional breakthrough for the civil rights movement,” because it used cheerful suffering as political witness in the manner of Gandhi during the struggle for Indian independence.

Mr. Branch said it had also allowed protesters to escape the crippling cumulative cost of bail and fines.

“The obvious advantage of ‘jail, no bail’ was that it reversed the financial burden of protest, costing the demonstrators no cash while obligating the authorities to pay for jail space and food,” Mr. Branch wrote.

Within a week of the jailing, four professional civil rights organizers went to Rock Hill to seek arrest and joined them in the York County jail; 31 protesters were in an Atlanta jail and six were jailed in Lynchburg, Va.

Despite news reports of the prisoners’ brave singing of hymns and patriotic songs, incarceration was exceedingly unpleasant. Claude Sitton, a reporter for The New York Times who visited the York County jail, said disinfectant fumes burned the eyes and ruined the taste of a cigarette. Inmates slept on the steel latticework of the bunks because “drunks set them on fire,” he reported. Some of the Friendship Nine were consigned to solitary confinement and lived on bread and water.

In an article about the release of eight of the prisoners (the ninth was released pending appeal), The Times quoted Mr. McCullough as saying that the experience “served to strengthen my conviction that human suffering can assist social change.”

Robert Louis McCullough was born on March 16, 1942, in Rock Hill, a textile manufacturing center near Charlotte, N.C. He attended the all-black Emmett Scott High School, and then Friendship, which no longer exists. The civil rights struggle had occupied Rock Hill since 1957, when a boycott of the local segregated bus company forced it out of business.

Sit-ins against segregated lunch counters began on Feb. 1, 1960, in Greensboro, N.C., with students continuing the protests there for six months. Similar demonstrations had occurred in at least 16 other cities over the three preceding years but the Greensboro demonstration elicited the support of hundreds as the days went on. Sit-ins spread to Durham and Winston, N.C., and many other cities, including Rock Hill.

At Friendship, Mr. McCullough gained the nickname Napoleon in deference to his leadership and diminutive height. In an article Wednesday in The Rock Hill Herald, David Williamson, one of the nine, called Mr. McCullough “our general.”

Mr. Williamson said, “He used to throw his weight around, but he was the smallest one in the crowd.”

Thomas Massey, another member of the group, told The Herald that he had initially balked at the lunch-counter protest because he had money and “didn’t have to sit on that white stool in that white dime store.”

Mr. McCullough had replied, using his friend’s nickname: “It’s not just about you, Dub. This is for all of humanity.”

The sit-in in Rock Hill, was different from its predecessors in that protesters gathered with the explicit intention of going to jail: some brought their toothbrushes.

Mr. McCullough is survived by his wife, the former Mary Patricia Williams; his daughter, Tracy McCullough; four brothers; four sisters; and two grandchildren.

He worked as a computer technician for various companies and was a volunteer firefighter. He attended reunions of the protesters, at which they joked that the chain gang was the first day of hard work some had ever done, according to an article in The Herald in 2001.

“I guess if we had to do it today, Scoop,” Mr. McCullough declared, calling Mr. Williamson by his nickname, ‘‘we’d do it again.’’

Posted by lois at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2006

Most People With Felony Convictions Deserve the Right to Vote

Rocky Mountain News
Speakout: Most ex-felons deserve right to vote

By Sasha Abramsky
August 4, 2006

Last week, Colorado's Supreme Court ruled the state was within its rights to deny parolees the vote. And so, as another election comes around, thousands of Coloradans living in the community, many of them paying taxes, will remain legally disenfranchised.

With peculiarly ironic timing, the ruling came down the same week the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations issued a highly critical report about how the United States treats prisoners and ex-prisoners. Among its recommendations was one urging the U.S. to find legislative ways to re-enfranchise the millions of people who, after they come out of prison, still remain voteless.

The ricochet effects of America's overuse of incarceration, and the casual way in which courts have handed out felony convictions since the 1970s, has long fascinated me. The ways in which bulking up the scale of the country's criminal justice system (five times as many people are incarcerated today as in 1973) have impacted the broader economy and politics of the country seem to me a particularly strange embodiment of chaos theory: arrest more people on drug charges, for example, put more members of the country's underclasses behind bars, and, without realizing it, you can pretty dramatically alter the underlying political equilibrium.

One of the core reasons for this is in most states people with felony convictions face at least a temporary removal of their voting rights; and in several states, mainly concentrated in the South, that loss is more or less permanent. In some parts of the country, upwards of 7 percent of the adult population is legally prohibited from voting, sitting on juries or running for public office.

In the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, I traversed the country, from west to east, chronicling the emergence of mass disenfranchisement and the challenge this epidemic of vote-removal poses to our sense of democratic identity. In states like Alabama and Kentucky, I encountered people convicted of minor drug offenses in their teens or early twenties who, decades later, couldn't even vote for the school board that ran their children's schools; I talked with people who told me not being able to vote made them feel "humiliated," "shamed," like exiles removed from their communities. On the flip side of this, I spoke with people who said being able to vote would engender in them a sense of "awe," and reconnect them with their communities in a deeply personal way. I talked with one man in Virginia, who had a drug conviction dating back to the 1980s. He had filing paperwork for more than a decade, trying to persuade the responsible government agencies to restore his voting rights.

No other country that defines itself as a democracy systematically strips the right to vote from a significant percentage of its adult citizen population. Many of America's closest allies, including Israel, South Africa and Germany, allow people to vote even when they are in prison. Most others restore the right to vote once people emerge from prison.

For too long in America complicated criminal justice policies have been held hostage to sound-bite politics. Yet often what makes a good headline doesn't make for the best long-term policy. It might sound good to deprive parolees, probationers and even ex-felons who haven't been involved in the criminal justice system in decades, of the right to vote. It might seem tough and hard and no-nonsense. But does it make society safer? Does cutting a one-time felon's ties to the rituals of community life help prevent crime, or does it serve mainly to alienate these people, to push them ever further outside the mainstream, perhaps eventually making them more likely to commit new crimes? Does shrinking the franchise make the country fairer and more democratic? Or does it mainly serve to further atomize an already cynical electorate, and to reduce the political clout not only of the affected individuals but also of the broader, often low-income and minority, communities in which they live?

If Israel and South Africa can move away from felon disenfranchisement, surely it's time the United States, and state legislators in Colorado and elsewhere, take this bull by the horns and wrestle into place fairer, more modern laws. Not to do so will, ultimately, as the United Nations report implies, only reduce the standing of our democracy in the eyes of the world.

Sasha Abramsky is a senior fellow at Demos, a New York City-based nonpartisan public policy institute.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/speak_out/article/0,2777,DRMN_23970_4892362,00.html

Posted by lois at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)

MI: 1,100 people with felony convictions have their records expunged in 6 months

August 7, 2006
More felon records erased
Files cleared in '06 jump 60 percent

Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News

More than 1,100 Michigan ex-cons had their criminal records erased in the first six months of this year, an almost 60 percent increase that coincided with heightened scrutiny of school and health employees statewide.

With their records expunged by judges, former criminals escape detection of background checks that might have banned them from sensitive jobs or made it harder for them to find work. They also can legally tell potential employers that they have no convictions.

In the first six months of 2006, 1,124 records were erased from the 1,258 ex-cons who applied -- about a 60 percent increase from the 708 ex-cons who had their records erased in the first six months of 2005 out of 939 who applied.

The growing practice amplifies the divide between those who believe that former convicts deserve a chance at redemption and those who want access to the criminal histories of educators, coaches, maids, nannies, neighbors, health care workers, other employees -- or virtually anyone else.

"It's a fine line. Should an applicant have the right to a clean start? But shouldn't an employer have the right to protect its business, its assets and the general public?" said Kevin Klimas, president and founder of Clarifacts, a Phoenix-based employment screening firm. "There is an argument on both sides of the fence."

Melodee Bush has seen both sides of the argument, but falls on the side of public access.

"People have a right to know who you are dealing with," said Bush, 33, a Detroit mom who relied on day care for her two children. She has a family member seeking an expungement. "It gives you a false sense of security. That doesn't sit well with me."

Yet as lawmakers have required background checks for more employees, more lawbreakers have gone to judges to have their felonies or misdemeanors erased.

The increase was especially apparent in March, April and May, after the Michigan State Police released to districts the results of background checks of all public school employees.

"These were our highest three months ever," said Shanon Akans, spokeswoman for the State Police, which removes records from public view.

First offenders get a break

Michigan is one of a dozen states that permit expungement of adult felony offenses. It's one of four, along with New Jersey, Rhode Island and Ohio, that limit this privilege to first offenders, said Margaret Colgate Love, former U.S. Justice Department pardon attorney whose book, "Relief From the Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Conviction" will be released later this year.

"Ever since 9/11, there has been almost an obsession with knowing people's backgrounds," said Love, whose book offers a state-by-state guide to expungement policies. "As long as you have the invasive record checks, you can't get jobs and you can't get housing. There has to be a way to get out from under this. There has to be a time when you've paid your debt to society."

To be eligible in Michigan, a person can have only one conviction and has to stay out of trouble for five years after sentencing or incarceration, whichever is later. The person cannot have been convicted of a serious sex crime, a traffic offense or a crime that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

There has been an effort in Lansing to liberalize the requirement, making the wait two years for misdemeanor convictions. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Mary Waters, D-Detroit, has passed the House and is expected to be taken up soon in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Waters said.

Around Metro Detroit, requests to set aside convictions are steady.

"For the most part, these are people who have come to the point in their lives where they need this to be a nonpublic record," said Anica Letica, assistant Oakland County prosecuting attorney in the appellate division. "They really have turned their lives around."

Such was the case for Titiana Tillbrooke, who was arrested at age 19 for writing checks worth $1,200 to herself from her employer. Convicted of uttering and publishing, she served time in prison. Upon her release, she couldn't find work.

"On the inside I was dying," said Tillbrooke, now 35. "But I had to live for my husband and kids. I wished I could die. I wished I could get out of this. Why am I being held back?"

Once her conviction was expunged, Tillbrooke received many job offers. She used the same resume as before. But this time, employers called her back after the background check phase of an interview, she said.

"It was a change from night to day," said Tillbrooke, now an accounting assistant. "It was awesome. People actually wanted me."

Easy process rankles some

While there's no guarantee a judge will set aside a conviction, the odds are very good and the process remarkably simple.

Using a little-publicized 1965 state law, ex-convicts can fill out a one-page application, pay $50 and get fingerprinted to verify they haven't had further criminal convictions. They then go before a judge for a hearing.

Judges around the state granted nearly 90 percent of the set-aside applications this year, a fact that doesn't sit well with everyone.

"It's harder for a law-abiding citizen to get their name changed in this state," said Allison Muhammed, who faced many roadblocks when she changed her name from Dennis.

People convicted of any crime should not be allowed to care for children or the elderly, said Muhammed, whose children are in day care in Detroit. But it's upsetting that parents would never know with certainty whether a caretaker is felony-free, she said.

Timothy Romisch, a former teacher at Southfield Christian School, was one of 134 whose request was denied between January and June. He petitioned to have his 1986 conviction for attempting to accost a 14-year-old female Holland student for immoral purposes removed.

Now his teaching certificate is being revoked.

On the flip side, one Armada Schools cafeteria worker easily had her shoplifting conviction set aside, as it's formally called.

"I paid $50 in court fees and I went into the courtroom," said Diane Stringer, 47. "The judge said, 'My, this has been on (your record) for a long, long time.' And before I could say anything, she said, 'We will expunge it from the record and you can leave now.' "

Stringer shoplifted at Universal Mall in Warren when she was 17. It was a stupid mistake, she said, but she hasn't been in trouble since.

Are checks undermined?

When deciding whether to set aside convictions, judges want to know if the individuals have bettered themselves, said Macomb Chief Circuit Judge Antonio Viviano. If they have, is it useful for an employer to know a person's criminal history if, in a judge's opinion, he is no longer a threat? Viviano asked.

The answer is yes, said Craig Lawrence of United Risk Partners, a Chicago area firm that does background checks for employers. "Just because a judge says yes, it's OK to expunge records, that doesn't mean that person won't engage in the behavior in the future," he said.

Expunged records undermine the purpose of background checks, Lawrence said.

"The whole point is that past conduct and behavior are predictable tools to determine what future behavior will be," he said. "Human beings are creatures of habit."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060807/METRO/608070325&template=printart

Posted by lois at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)

MA: What causes overcrowding in jails and prisons?

Bridge News » August 2006 — Issue 14 » jails and prisons?

What causes overcrowding in jails and prisons? Sheriff wants new prisons, activists want moratorium
Written by : Andrea Hornbein
Last modified 2006-08-08 18:30
Sheriff James DiPaola's jail expansion campaign relies on the myth of prison overcrowding to sell Somerville residents on the construction of up to 300 jail beds. Here are 24 reasons why you should be skeptical

• Profit motive— the profit motive that permeates society affects the punishment sector as well. The State and counties contract out for medical services, provision of meals, clothing, canteens, and so forth. In order to please shareholders, corporations must achieve growth. Empty cells do not generate profits.

• Mass round ups of immigrants and non-citizens— who in 2003 made up 40 percent of federal prisoners. The state and counties receive $75-100 per day per detainee from the federal government.

• Dragnets in low income communities— in which dozens of poor people and people of color are arrested. For example, when the new Chicopee women's jail was proposed, sweeps of sex workers in the Springfield increased.

The majority of these arrests are for low level offenses or outstanding warrants and impact the taxpayer far more than the offense. For example, a $300 robbery resulting in a 5 year sentence, at the Massachusetts average of $43,000 per year, will cost $215,000. That doesn’t even include law enforcement and court costs.

• The “War on Drugs”— In 1975 the U.S. prison population was a quarter of what it is today. Before that, the prison population had been level for over 5 decades. Today 70 to 75 percent of people in prison are drug war prisoners. Drug use, arrest and incarceration rates, along with data on sentence length, show that people of color bear the brunt of this “war.”

• Severe cuts in public health funded detox beds and treatment programs— In the last three years the State’s detox beds have been cut by over 60 percent. Western Massachusetts is particularly impacted. There are now no detox beds at all in Hampshire or Franklin counties. Lack of facilities forces individuals to travel far from their communities and support systems to receive treatment. Treatment programs that allow for mothers to bring their children are few and far between.

• Transfer of funds from social services and infrastructure into prison budgets— Over the last three decades budgets for social services have been slashed, while Department of Corrections and County Sheriffs’ budgets have continued to swell. When new prisons and jails are built the money to run them must come from somewhere. Social service funding is a big source. People are incarcerated for “crimes of poverty.” Here we can see the direct link between cuts in social services and increasing prison and jail populations.
CORI’s vicious circle

• Criminal Offender Record Indicator (CORI) Laws— Though CORI’s original stated intent was to protect the privacy of those with criminal records, today it has the opposite purpose. Businesses, landlords, educational institutions and others have access to a person's criminal record. Nearly 1/3 of all individuals in the State are thus marked for life. With a criminal record it is now nearly impossible to obtain legal employment or subsidized housing. People are forced into illegal or underground employment— perhaps the same that gave them a record in the first place—just to provide for themselves and their families.

• Mandatory Minimum Sentencing—This was supposed to eliminate racial and other bias in sentencing. Studies show that racial disparities remain and may even have worsened as a result. These laws ensure that jails and prisons will be overcrowded, as judges and administrators have no leeway to release inmates to lower the prison census.

• Raising classification of offenses—Longer sentences for the same offenses means larger prison populations.
Parole and bail abuses

• “Policing” of parole and probation—Many people are sent back for very minor, technical violations of parole or probation. Parole officers frequently impede successful reentry rather than support it.

• Denial of Parole— Parole reduces the prison population; each prisoner who is denied parole occupies a cell.

• Unaffordable bails —Many in prison and jail are low-income, and often unable to afford bail. Time spent awaiting trial can exceed the sentence if found guilty. So some people will plead guilty with a sentence of time served and a criminal record (CORI) in order to be released.

• Overburdened court systems— Public defenders are over-worked, underpaid and therefore unable or unwilling to mount a vigorous defense.

• Poverty— Elimination of programs, funding cuts and policy changes in social services. With no access to resources people turn to the underground economy to feed themselves and their families, thereby creating prisoners. Examples are:

* Elimination of Massachusetts' 200-year-old General Relief Program for poverty-stricken single men and women
* Severe cuts in Assistance to Families with Dependent Children, AFDC
* Slashing of welfare rolls

• Cuts in services to those diagnosed with “mental illness” — Massive de-institutionalization closed down the State’s “mental hospitals,” but the State budgeted inadequate resources to assist those it had abused for decades. Few resources exist to help people deemed mentally ill to find employment and housing. These folks are now experiencing re-instutionalization—this time in prisons and jails.

• Increasing Homelessness— There is less public housing and fewer housing vouchers, while CORI excludes those with criminal records.

• Job flight and outsourcing— Without concurrent job replacement, “globalization” means fewer legitimate job opportunities for everyone.

• Para-militarization of local law enforcement— Local police operate more and more like occupation armies rather than community peacekeepers.

• Criminalization of trivial acts — People are now busted for behaviors and conduct that a generation ago were not deemed appropriate for arrest.

• Criminalization of youth by “zero tolerance” policies— Young people in our state are being refused a public education because of “zero tolerance” policies. In the past a student might have been given an after school detention or an in-school suspension. Now students are suspended from school for long periods of time or expelled altogether. The most accurate predictor of who goes to jail or prison is the lack of a high school diploma.

• MCAS— Due to the cost of out-of- school assistance to increase the likelihood of passing this mandatory test, many low-income students, mainly people of color, do not finish high school. Many students drop out when they fail to pass in 8th or 10th grade because they believe they are unlikely to get a diploma.

• Closing of minimum security prisons and building of more and higher security prisons— The worst of these are the new “SuperMax” prisons, where prisoners are held in isolation for long periods of time, under conditions which are considered to be torture under international law.

• Cutbacks or elimination of programs and policies proven to reduce recidivism —Out-of-cell time, family visiting hours, educational, vocational and peer programs, furlough, GED teachers, library and gym access, elimination of good time for all but two of the remaining programs.

• Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS) - “...there is growing evidence that the Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS) is a contributing factor to high rates of recidivism,” says a recent report. The cruelty of guards and staff is a big problem. Besides physical violence, those in prison are subjected to verbal abuse and ridicule for anything from participation in programs, to sexual preference and gender identity.

PIC is a reality for as many as 70 percent of prisoners. It is a cluster of symptoms caused by incarceration. Impacts are learned helplessness, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, development of anti-social personality traits “as a coping response to institutional abuse,” as well as severe harms due to use of sensory deprivation.

We must also point out that Massachusetts ranks second in the U.S. in the ratio of staff to prisoners— 1 to 2. Because of the good salaries and benefits available—like $60,000 to 71,000 excluding overtime pay and 52 paid days off per year—pressure to have more of these destructive jobs, and therefore prisoners, will continue.

The examples above demonstrate a negative use of law and policy. Law and policy should be an instrument for the people, promoting social, political and economic justice rather than state repression and violation of civil and human rights.

http://bridgenews.org/news/082006/crowdjail

Posted by lois at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

The Public Humiliation of People Convicted of Offences is Spreading

Published on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 by the Guardian / UK
The Shame of America
The Public Humiliation of Offenders has Spread Throughout the Country, But It Is No Panacea

by Rachel Shteir

Had Mel Gibson been arrested for drink-driving in Tennessee instead of California, things might have gone differently for him. Last January, a "shame law" for driving under the influence came into effect in the southern state. Gibson could have found himself picking up litter while wearing a bright-orange jump suit emblazoned with the words "I am a drunk driver".

In a society where committing what used to be considered a shameful act can get you a spot on American Idol, it is odd to learn that shame punishment - or "public punishment", or "creative punishment" - is experiencing a renaissance in the US. Call it the new shame.
Tennessee is ground zero for shame punishment, having produced not just the state law but also judges who believe that shame is the best deterrent for petty crime. These include James McKenzie, who makes shoplifters stand outside Wal-Mart with signs that say "I am a thief put here by order of Judge McKenzie"; and Joe Brown, who graduated from dispensing shame punishment in Memphis to his own nationwide TV show. But it's not just Tennessee - throughout the country, overwhelmed judges are using shame to curb the enormous number of petty offenders.
The new shame takes a number of guises: in addition to wearing posterboards, which offenders make themselves, they give apology speeches to injured parties and put up signs in front of their homes identifying themselves as "violent felons"; shoplifters buy ads in local newspapers and put their photos in them. Judge Brown's most controversial use of shame punishment was allowing victims to sneak into burglars' homes and steal something back in a kind of larcenous quid pro quo.
The grandfather of the new shame is from Texas, George Bush's home state. Judge - now Congressman - Ted Poe was inspired to launch shame punishment in the late 1990s in Houston, when a rich kid getting his MBA shoplifted from a Wal-Mart. "He thought he could do anything," Poe told me. "But shame punishment changed his attitude. Plus the store manager said that no one stole during the week that he was standing outside the store with the sign."
According to Poe, of people who received shame punishment, 9% violated probation - far fewer than the national average of 50%. And shame punishment experienced a victory when, in 2004, an appeal court overturned Shawn Gementera's challenge to a decision ordering him to stand outside a post office with a sign saying he was a mail thief.
But shame is no panacea. In Tennessee, no sooner was the shame law passed than law-enforcement officials complained that shame took a lot more work than just throwing people in jail. And psychologists argue that shame punishments may actually do damage to offenders' sometimes fragile psyches.
Despite the fact that, as some have observed, shame punishment links the US with repressive regimes, the most important problem is that it fails to address the social problems that cause people to commit crimes - even petty ones - in the first place. Standing outside a post office wearing a sign saying "I stole mail, this is my punishment" did nothing to help Gementera kick his methamphetamine habit, which was why he was stealing in the first place.
Americans are great at a lot of things, but sometimes we are not all that great at empathising with others. We expect people to get themselves together, to pull themselves up by their bootstraps; we sometimes expect public disgrace to compensate for social injustice. Sometimes we would simply rather solve things with a spectacle.
Rachel Shteir is writing a book on shoplifting and is author of Striptease: the Untold History of the Girlie Show.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
###

Posted by lois at 09:06 AM | Comments (0)

Global women prisoners top 500,000

Global women prisoners top 500,000
Press Association
Monday August 7, 2006 3:08 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-5998243,00.html

More than half a million women and girls are held in prisons globally, new research has revealed.

The first World Female Imprisonment List, drawn up by the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS) at King's College, London, brought together data from 187 countries.

England and Wales' female prisoner population of 4,392 constitutes 5.7% of the total in the two countries.

The European average is 4.4%, said the report.

About a third of the worldwide total are in the US (183,000) and a further third in China (71,280), the Russian Federation (55,400) and Thailand (28,450), said the list compiled by Roy Walmsley.

ICPS director Rob Allen said: "Given the high financial and social cost of imprisoning women, the data should prompt policy-makers in every country to consider what they can do to limit the numbers of women locked up.

"Excessive use of imprisonment does nothing to improve public safety."

Posted by lois at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2006

Lynn Paltrow: "The Purported Pain of the 'Unborn'"

AlterNet
The Purported Pain of the Unborn
By Lynn M. Paltrow, Women's Media Center
Posted on August 8, 2006, Printed on August 8, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/39998/

Lurking in the anti-choice arsenal is a fascinating piece of legislation called the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act. Like its predecessors--the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban--it does not, on its face pose a direct challenge to the right to choose abortion. Yet, the anti-choice movement deserves credit for creatively proposing bills that put the pro-choice movement on the defensive. With titles that use such terms as "victims" and "awareness," and framed in the context of the need to inform the pregnant women, they are hard to oppose without seeming incredibly stupid or grossly insensitive.

This new bill informs us that at 20 weeks after fertilization an unborn child has the capacity to experience pain and that the abortion methods most commonly used in the second trimester of pregnancy "cause substantial pain to an 'unborn child.'" The bill therefore mandates that women must be informed of this before they can have such abortions (1.5% of all abortions occur after 20 weeks).

Now, the science the bill's authors rely on may be a wee tad speculative--they refer to unspecified experts and evidence--but the truth is that women who need such abortions aren't having them to cause fetuses pain. In fact, if there is even a possibility that this science is correct, these women will want to do anything they can to ensure that the procedure causes as little pain as possible. The premise may lack all scientific or medical justification, but it is hard to imagine any constituency that is going to be for causing pain to a fetus.

The bill has other rather bizarre features that I suppose I should mention. It defines a woman as "a female human being who is capable of becoming pregnant"--something that will come as a surprise to post-menopausal and infertile female Americans thus rendered somehow less than real women.

The statute also informs us that the "unborn child may experience substantial pain even if the woman herself has received local analgesic or general anesthesia." The idea that powerful anesthetics administered in labor might not also reach the fetus will astonish pregnant women who have been told for years that everything from cocaine to caffeine to a single glass of wine go immediately, directly and dangerously to the fetus. And--in a departure from medical ethics and principles of informed consent--the bill requires the health care provider first to inform the woman of the pain the fetus experiences; as an afterthought it says that doctors "may" (are permitted to, but not required to) inform the woman of additional medical risks to her as a result of anesthetic administered directly to and solely for the benefit of the fetus.

It must be admitted that--in addition to violating ethical principles of informed consent and lacking scientific foundation--the bill is disappointingly incomplete. It states that "there is a valid Federal Government interest in reducing the number of events in which great pain is inflicted on sentient creatures," yet covers only "unborn children." It leaves unprotected millions of born Americans who suffer chronic pain--including those blocked by draconian drug laws from obtaining medication to alleviate unrelenting suffering.

Putting aside the rather narrow definition of "sentient creatures"--and such shock-jock language used to describe abortions procedures as "dismemberment," "poisoning" and "sucks [out] the child's brain"--I will nevertheless consider supporting the bill with one caveat. It must be full and fair. Why limit its protections to only "unborn children" of women seeking abortions? Imagine the pain a fetus experiences with a forceps delivery, suffering extensive bruising during and after! And what about the pain experienced with internal monitoring in which a sharp metal wire is forced through fetal skin into their delicate scalps?

Or the extraordinary pain the fetus suffers when labor is induced and the fetus is subjected to repeated, violent maternal uterine contraction and then forced through the unimaginably narrow vaginal canal? Shouldn't these fetuses also be entitled to their own painkillers? Shouldn't the pregnant woman be fully informed of the indescribable pain she could be causing her soon to be, but yet unborn child by bearing it?

That is my modest proposal. We need a Full Unborn Child Awareness Act, one that includes all of the ways pregnant women and health care providers and birth may inflict pain on the fetus. Those who oppose the necessary amendments will be supporting what can only be understood as the Unborn Child Partial Pain Awareness Act. In good conscience, how could anyone support that?

Lynn M. Paltrow is executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/39998/

Posted by lois at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2006

Sacramento Bee: Four Editorials on the CA Prison Crisis

Editorial: Crime and punishment

Fix prisons? First, understand the numbers

Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 4, 2006
Begining Monday, you'll hear a lot of scary stuff coming out of the state Capitol. That's the day Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called the Legislature to meet in special session to decide the future of California's prison system. The governor wants to launch a new era of prison construction, with two new prisons (9,000 beds) and 15,000 new spaces at existing prisons. The governor has already begun beating the drums for his plan, and the noise will only get louder. Listening to all the sound and fury, you might conclude that California's crime rates were going up or that the state was imprisoning too few people.

Neither is true.

The fact is, California has a lot of good news on the subject of crime.

Crime rates -- measured in terms of crimes per 100,000 population -- have been consistently dropping since the early 1990s. Today, violent crimes have dropped to 1973 levels. Property crimes have dropped to 1967 levels.

Some of that decline is due to locking up violent, habitual criminals for more time. But the bulk of the decline is due to other factors: a greater commitment to community policing; a shrinking population in the crime-prone age group of 18- to 29-year-olds; a strong economy; the decline of the crack epidemic. Other states with much lower imprisonment rates than California also have seen declining crime rates.

So why is the governor calling for more prisons when crime has dramatically declined in California?

He says we need new prisons because California's population is increasing. But he's looking at the wrong numbers.

What he and the Legislature need to look at are California's state prison incarceration rates, which, like crime rates, are based on population.

In 1973, with a population of about 21 million, California had about 22,500 in state prisons -- an incarceration rate of about 100 per 100,000 population, a rate that remained about the same through the 1970s. Today, with a population of about 37 million, California has about 170,000 in state prisons -- an incarceration rate of more than 450 per 100,000.

A rate of 400 per 100,000 would give us a prison population of 148,000. A rate of 350 per 100,000 would give us a prison population of 129,500.

Our incarceration rates per 100,000 population in California have been at historic highs since the mid-1990s -- and in Schwarzenegger's time in office, they're creeping back up again, even though they're dropping in other states.

To put these numbers in perspective, consider this: The United States leads the world in incarceration rates and California ranks in the top half of states.

That large-scale imprisonment comes at a cost to society. In California, the corrections budget took 4.3 percent of the state's general fund in 1985-1986. Since then, its share of the budget has doubled. Last year corrections consumed 8.8 percent of the general fund.

These dry statistics hide a very real problem. Spending on prisons is crowding out spending on higher education, essential to the future prosperity and quality of life in our state. Soon, if our policies don't change, the corrections budget will be 10 percent or more.

Why have our incarceration rates gotten so high? You'll see in tomorrow's editorial that the rate is up largely because California has increasingly shifted low-level, nonviolent offenders to the state prison system. That system was intended and designed for violent, habitual criminals. But we are now filling state prisons with check forgers, perjurers, fraudsters, petty thieves and other low-level criminals who used to be handled at the local level.

The Legislature should resist the call to build more prisons. As we'll see in upcoming editorials, it is unnecessary and wasteful. It is a giant backward step -- pouring scarce resources into a big black hole with no end in sight.

There has to be a better solution -- and there is.

About the editorial:
This is the first of four editorials on how to solve the problems in
California's prison system. Next, who is in California's prisons, what
is driving current prison overcrowding and what can we do to fix it?

II.
Editorial: The prison two-step

Local role, sentencing changes are keys

Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, August 5, 2006
If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers really want to alleviate prison overcrowding, control spending on prisons and avert a takeover by the federal courts, they should shift their attention away from building more prisons.

Instead, they should look at how California deals with nonviolent, low-level offenders such as check forgers, shoplifters and petty thieves.

In past decades, those offenders did their time at the local level. They were sent to county jails and community punishment programs, which cost much less to operate than state prisons. Costly state prison space was reserved for violent, repeat offenders such as murderers, robbers, rapists and kidnappers.

Today, however, our state prisons are bursting with more than 170,000 prisoners. But the problem isn't that there are too many violent, repeat offenders. Only 85,000 inmates are classified as Level III or IV prisoners, the levels requiring high and maximum security prisons. The rest, the Level I and II offenders, are in prison for property and drug-related crimes or parole violations. Most of them have terms of 18 months or less.

Putting these prisoners in higher security state prisons is like a hospital putting all patients in intensive care rooms. It is expensive and unnecessary.

The shift of low-level offenders to state prisons has happened over time with little attention. That should change during this special legislative session. Lawmakers and the governor can fix this problem. Two steps would go a long way toward fixing it.

First, restore the local role.

In the past, local jails and community punishment programs were the preferred way to handle low-level offenders. They kept the offender close to home, family, jobs, schooling and other services. Putting nonviolent, low-level offenders in state prison was seen as harmful because it broke local ties and sucked the offender into the prison culture.

Until 1984, equal numbers of people served time in state prisons and local jails. That's no longer the case. Today, state prisons house 170,000 offenders; local jails, 80,000.

While the state went on a 21-year, 22-prison building binge beginning in 1984, the locals have been starved of resources for jail space and community punishment programs. They face critical shortages, which means that more and more low-level offenders end up in state prisons -- and state spending on prisons continues to grow unchecked.

The state can change that by planning to build 30,000 to 40,000 county jail beds during the next decade, at a cost of $600 million to $900 million. That would enable the state to gradually return responsibility for housing less serious offenders from the state prison system back to the local level.

The state should fund construction and operating costs for these jails because they would house low-level offenders who would otherwise end up in state prisons. To make this work, financing would have to be stable and predictable. Some have suggested creating a State-Local Corrections Partnership Fund with a percentage of the state sales tax, but this is something lawmakers should negotiate.

Restoring the state-local partnership should be a top long-term priority of the special session that begins Monday.

Second, change sentencing.

Some sentencing changes are needed. Instead of state prison, why not have those convicted of some crimes -- for example, perjury, bookmaking, bribery, drug possession, receiving stolen property, petty theft with a prior nonviolent conviction, car theft and forgery -- serve their time at the local level? They could be in local jails or in approved community punishment programs such as work camps, day reporting centers, electronic home detention or restitution centers.

In general, California has an incoherent, piecemeal sentencing system created by legislators reacting to sensational events with "crime of the week" bills. The state needs a sentencing commission -- an ongoing, independent body that develops, annually modifies and monitors the state's sentencing guidelines for all felony offenders.

Previous attempts in California to create sentencing commissions have been seriously flawed and were defeated. They were set up as one-time bodies to impose pet sentencing schemes. But many states have successful sentencing commissions. Minnesota's, the first, comes to mind. California can learn from those examples.

The challenge of the special session is to get past the usual election-year rhetoric and do something long term to return the state prison system to a population of the most serious offenders. Restoring the local role and reforming sentencing are key steps to meeting that challenge.

About the editorial:
* This is the second of four editorials on how to solve the problems
in California's prison system. Next, short-term relief to allow
long-term solutions to take hold.

The Sacramento Bee, 2100 Q St., P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852
Phone: (916) 321-1000

III.

[sacbee.com - The online division of The Sacramento Bee]

This story is taken from Opinion at sacbee.com.
Editorial: Look back to find solutions for state's prisons State has plenty of prison cells -- if it invests in options for low-risk inmates

Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says California's prison system faces an overcrowding emergency. He wants to build two new prisons (9,000 beds) and add 15,000 new beds at existing prisons.

This is a bunch of hooey.

California's prisons have plenty of space for the state's 80,000 to 85,000 violent, repeat offenders. The prisons are overcrowded with 170,000 prisoners because lower-level, nonviolent offenders increasingly have been shifted to state prisons. That is the issue that Schwarzenegger and the Legislature should address in the Aug. 7 special session.

To solve this problem, California needs to rediscover and reinvest in options for handling low-level, nonviolent offenders. Here are just a few options for immediate relief:

Conservation camps
Currently, 4,400 nonviolent offenders do time in 39 conservation camps, working on 196 fire crews. In 1992, the state had nearly 6,000 offenders in 49 camps, working on 292 fire crews. The state needs more trained fire and emergency crews than ever. Expanding prison conservation camps would help meet that need and free up 2,000 to 4,000 state prison beds.

Community facilities
The state contracts with counties, cities and private companies to house 5,300 low-level offenders with terms of 18 months or less. These dormitory-style facilities of 200 to 500 people offer training to prepare inmates for life on the outside. In 2002, these facilities housed 7,600 offenders. The state could free up 3,000 to 10,000 beds by expanding these programs.

Schwarzenegger has proposed 4,500 community corrections beds for women and 4,000 for men. But he has added a fatal flaw: requiring that these facilities be staffed with state prison guards, which makes these facilities much more expensive and undercuts their training efforts. Legislators should reject that new requirement.

Older prisoners
The state has 8,500 prisoners who are 55 and older. The state should evaluate each one and place low-risk, frail prisoners in public nursing homes or on house arrest with electronic monitoring. This could free up 1,000 or more beds.

Re-entry Centers
In 2003, the state contracted with local public and private providers for 32 re-entry centers, which housed 1,045 nonviolent offenders in their last 120 days in prison. In 2004, the program was changed and then abruptly ended. In 2005, the state put out bids for 17 re-entry centers for 745 offenders. Expanding this program could free up 1,000 to 5,000 beds.

Oddly, the governor has proposed that the state build and operate 10 re-entry centers of 500 offenders each. This is a major shift from the re-entry model of smaller locally run centers. Lawmakers should reject this plan.

These short-term options could be implemented immediately. That would help the state to get prison crowding and prison budgets under control. The alternative -- building more state prison cells and filling them with more and more low-risk offenders -- will simply make the existing crisis even worse.

About the editorial:

* This is the third of four editorials on how to solve the problems in California's prison system. Next: Lawmakers should just say "No."

IV.

[sacbee.com - The online division of The Sacramento Bee]

This story is taken from Opinion at sacbee.com.
Editorial: Reject it - now
Governor's prison plan would worsen crisis

Published 12:01 am PDT Monday, August 7, 2006
This is the last in a series of four editorials on the special session on prisons.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called California's legislators into special session to make the state's broken prison system bigger. The Legislature should waste no time rejecting this approach.

Building more prisons won't fix the system's problems, but it will be a big boost for one group: the prison guards union, known as the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

Back in January, the CCPOA came to the Legislature with a plan for two new prisons in 2006 and two more in 2010. Schwarzenegger essentially has adopted this plan -- and expanded it. The governor wants to build two new prisons (9,000 beds) and add 15,000 new beds to existing prisons.

Worse, he wants to require community corrections facilities run by counties, cities and private companies to have state prison guards as custody staff. This change would make these programs prohibitively expensive. It also would ruin the emphasis on education, vocational training and addiction programs to prepare Level I and II minimum-security inmates for life on the outside.

Worse still, Schwarzenegger wants to build 10 re-entry miniprisons (500 beds each) for parole violators and inmates serving their last 90 days. These would be state-run and staffed by state prison guards. This is a major shift away from contracting for locally run re-entry centers housing about 50 offenders each.

Schwarzenegger's plan isn't just about bonds for new bricks and mortar. It's about piling up long-term costs for state taxpayers.

If you add 10,000 new CCPOA prison guards -- not just at new state prisons but also at community corrections facilities and new miniprisons -- you have to figure costs of $100,000 a year each (salary, benefits and overtime). That alone adds $1 billion a year in new costs to already out-of-control prison budgets.

The governor's plan is a bonanza for the guards union, but it does nothing to deal with the real issue.

California's state prison system was intended and designed to house violent, repeat offenders serving long terms. Yet increasingly it has become filled with lower-level, nonviolent offenders serving sentences of a year or less -- prisoners who used to be handled at the local level.

Here's an example of how wrong things have gone. Today, 9,000 Level I minimum security prisoners are serving time in Level IV, maximum security housing. This is like a hospital putting people with a mild case of the flu in intensive care beds. It is outrageously expensive and utterly unnecessary.

As we've noted in editorials over the past three days, the key to fixing overcrowded prisons and out-of-control prison budgets is changing the way California handles low-level, nonviolent offenders. And the first step to that is to restore the balance between the state and local corrections responsibilities.

The governor's plan doesn't do that. Instead, it will make the problem worse and the eventual solutions more difficult. If lawmakers are serious about getting control of the state's prison system, the governor's plan should be dead on arrival.

Posted by lois at 07:06 PM | Comments (0)

IN: Juvenile Justice--Fixing the System Requries Prevention Strategies

"In a nutshell, the JDAI changes detention from a "building" warehousing children to a detention system. A continuum of supervision levels with the "building" reserved for those high risk children and a series of community supervision programs as "alternatives to secure detention" where a child is placed in the continuum, based on an objective risk screening. The continuum is not open to children who are charged with behavior problems or low risk misdemeanors. The "system" is for children who pose a real risk to the community. The JDAI program now exists at various implementation stages in more than 50 jurisdictions. JDAI has four "model programs" that local leaders will visit and personally see reductions in secure detention populations, new programs to help children with mental health issues outside secure detention with no increase in crime, and a reduction in public costs for expensive secure detention operations."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060730/OPINION03/607300
370/-1/ZONES04

Guest Editorials

July 30, 2006

Outside the box
Fixing the juvenile justice system requires prevention strategies and alternatives to housing kids in detention centers.

Even the people who manage the Marion County juvenile justice system agree that it's broken. This spring, nine detention center employees were charged with sexually abusing teen inmates. The center's superintendent, who has since resigned, was charged with failing to report sexual abuse. In June, it was revealed that guards hired to protect children had not undergone pre-employment criminal background checks or drug tests. Unknown to the juvenile system's administrators, 24 out of 88 guards and supervisors had criminal records, including convictions for drug possession, theft and battery.

Yet Marion County is hardly alone when it comes to operating a dysfunctional juvenile system. William Glick, executive director of the Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force, argues that the time is ripe to overhaul juvenile justice throughout Indiana. Jim Killen, executive director of the Indiana Youth Services Association, contends that detention centers are often incubators for crime rather than deterrents. And Frank Orlando, a former judge who is now working with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to address Marion County's problems, says that most children in detention centers don't need to be there.

Prevention, alternative settings are keys to fixing juvenile system

By Jim Killen

Indiana's juvenile justice system was never designed to deal with the numbers of children who now become involved. It was originally designed for a small number of children whose issues were typically much less serious than the ones judges face today. Stealing Farmer Brown's apples or tipping outhouses was far more common than assault and battery, and slingshots were seen more often than Saturday night specials.

The escalation in the numbers of children brought before juvenile judges has continued steadily over the past century as Indiana has shifted from rural to urban and from agricultural to industrial. Family patterns have shifted from the extended family to a proliferation of single-parent households. The world is no longer our grandfather's Buick. In the midst of all this change, as families have struggled to adapt, too many kids have been set adrift in a world where their roles are ill-defined and their needs overlooked.

One boost in the numbers came in 1994 when the Indiana General Assembly initiated a new direction for dealing with Indiana's crime problem. Many punitive sanctions were imposed, including "Three strikes you're out," a lower age at which juveniles could be tried in adult courts, and mandatory sentencing. State and local criminal justice budgets increased remarkably, but scant attention was paid to programs that could redirect troubled youth at risk for delinquency.

Now, more than 10 years later, it is evident that these measures have not reduced crime and delinquency. Punishment, or the threat of it, does not seem to be an effective deterrent, especially for juvenile offenders. Instead, a stay in "juvie" has become a status symbol in some adolescent circles.

The recent problems with Indiana's juvenile detention facilities have highlighted deficiencies that plague the whole system. There are signs that the General Assembly may undertake a complete revamping of the system in the near future. My hope is that, as part of this revision, sufficient attention will be paid to three important areas: prevention, community alternatives and aftercare.

We know that prevention efforts can pay off. Early identification of pre-delinquents is not difficult. Ask any schoolteacher or principal. We can know, with reasonable assurance, at age 7 if a child is likely to be running headlong into the trouble we call juvenile crime. Every serious citizen and every participant in the public debate should look at three well-founded truths that lie at the base of our experience with delinquency and juvenile crime prevention:

First, there is a well-established list of risk factors that are highly predictive of future trouble.

Second, tougher law enforcement and stricter punishments are unlikely to reduce crime significantly.

Third, there are prevention strategies that work.

A visit to any one of Indiana's 35 youth service bureaus is a practical demonstration of the variety and effectiveness of these programs. Teen Courts and Project Safe Place, operated by many of the state's youth service bureaus, are good examples of prevention programs that work.

Too many children are held for too long for too little reason. Few children in trouble are dangerous to the public or to themselves. For these children, community-based alternatives are much more appropriate than holding them with others in situations where negative attitudes and behaviors are reinforced. If adult prisons are colleges for crime, then detention facilities are high schools for crime. Home detention, community service or day treatment are all much more effective and appropriate.

A long continuum of community-based services is already available. New and creative ones are being crafted continually. What's lacking are the will and the resources to implement them. Home detention with electronic monitoring is an example of one of these alternatives.

If prevention is attention to the front door, and community-based alternatives the interior, then aftercare is attention to the back door and the future beyond. Children who have been detained or received alternative treatment are too often unceremoniously dumped right back into the same circumstances that caused problems in the first place. If it's a family problem, a school problem, a neighborhood problem, or an abusive or neglectful situation, then a return to the same environment is likely to produce a repetition of the original troublesome behavior. Aftercare programs, like those operated by AIM (AfterCare for Indiana through Mentoring), successfully address these problems.

It won't be enough to look at improvements in juvenile detention. It is imperative that we also look for improvements in prevention, community-based alternatives and aftercare.

Killen is executive director of the Indiana Youth Services Association.

Opportunity is at hand to finally overhaul system in Indiana

By William N. Glick

Since the start of my career, I have posted words of wisdom from an ancient sage on my office door. The final phrase reminds us to seize the opportunity to work to repair the world and correct injustice: "If Not Now, When?" It is a question that is particularly relevant to the situation faced today by juvenile justice system practitioners and advocates, not only in Marion County, but throughout Indiana.

The situation in Marion County may be rife with scandal, but we applaud Marion County officials for the steps they are taking to correct the situation. It gives us an opportunity to present real data on the negative impact of detention, as compared to the effectiveness of evidence-based community alternatives. Instead of re-filling the Marion County facility, or other detention facilities throughout the state, with troubled youth, we should be storming the Bastille using the latest data as our battering ram. This is not some soft on crime, coddling kids strategy; it is a systematic call to identify and provide real alternatives while protecting public safety and holding youth accountable for their actions.

According to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, detention actually increases the odds that youth will return to the justice system. Readers may approach this conclusion with skepticism, so let's examine the real effects of detention. First, detention potentially recruits more youth to more severe delinquent acts, especially if low-level offenders spend time with a delinquent peer group. Detention impacts youth with mental health problems; it is commonly said among juvenile justice professionals that detention and correctional facilities have become our nation's largest de facto psychiatric "hospitals." Even short stays in detention impact school success; and what could make less sense than sending a youth to detention for not going to school, without a systematic process to prevent truancy?

Detention is not only ineffective in reducing juvenile crime, it is also not cost-effective. That's right, taxpayers; you may be spending thousands of dollars a year to promote delinquency, rather than prevent it.

Let's look at Bernalillo County/Albuquerque, N.M. It costs them $183 per day, or an astounding $66,795 per year, to keep a youth in detention. Why not send a full-time teacher or therapist to each youth's home all day, every day, instead? Or, they could send those kids to Harvard and still have enough money left over to buy them a nice car.

In contrast, their Community Custody Program costs, on average, $25.75 per day, or $9,400. Per year. Have they experienced a surge of youth crime and young gangs roaming the streets since they implemented their community-based strategy? On the contrary, their average daily population in detention has decreased from 113 in 1999 to 63 this year. And has juvenile crime increased because they are detaining so many fewer youth? No again; their juvenile arrest rate declined 23 percent from 1999 to 2005.

We have an opportunity now to take a hard look at some bold steps that will necessitate new thinking and political will. The question must be asked: Is our county-run system of detaining youth really benefiting youth and families and protecting public safety, or are we hanging onto a system that assuages public opinion, in spite of the fact that all of the data points in a different direction?

We should also take this time to create opportunities to look closely at our juvenile correctional system, and its relationship to other state agencies. We commend the Department of Correction for the steps it has taken thus far to comply with the U.S. Department of Justice requirements in the Settlement Agreement concerning the civil rights of incarcerated youth.

The Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force Inc. and the Department of Correction are close to completing a unique agreement that would, for the first time, make an outside, not-for-profit organization a true accountability partner in evaluating procedures and implementing best practices.

However, the DOC also can find itself hamstrung by the policies of other state departments. In a recent investigation of an alleged incident by an incarcerated youth, the Task Force and the DOC have found an improbable example of an incongruity in state policies. When a report was forwarded to the Department of Child Services that two 17-year-old boys incarcerated in a state facility were alleged to have been involved in sexual activities that were reported as having been consensual, the response was that DCS does not investigate such activity between youth of that age, even though they were in state custody. If not now, when will we address such issues, and look at juvenile justice as an interlocking system with many elements that often are at odds with one another?

This leads us to critical questions: Can a correctional system designed for adults make the changes necessary to really turn around the lives of the youth, and families, in its charge? Why is Indiana retaining a system where adults and juveniles live under one bureaucratic roof, while other states have recognized the special needs of juveniles?

With the recent passage of legislation in neighboring Illinois, Indiana remains one of only 10 states that have not realized the special needs of young people and their families. If not now, when will we consider creating a separate Department of Juvenile Justice to address the special needs of youth and their families, rather than miss another opportunity to bring Indiana up to the state-of-the-art in juvenile justice, providing real chances for rehabilitation while protecting public safety?

If not now, when will we look at states like Missouri, where the recidivism rate has been reduced to 11 percent by abandoning huge juvenile institutions and replacing them with small, therapeutic correctional facilities close to the youth's homes?

If not now, when will we produce a long-range plan for reducing juvenile crime and restoring youth and families to their potential, a plan that will be able to move forward in spite of who is in state office?

If not now -- when?

Glick is executive director of the Indiana Juvenile Justice Task Force Inc.

Detaining children does not lead to reduction in youth crime

By Frank A. Orlando

The author of the landmark federal juvenile justice act made the following comment in 1989:

"Most of us place the well being of children at the top of our personal priority list . . . nowhere is the disparity between our professed concern for children and the insensitive public policy that confronts them more evident than in the juvenile justice system" -- Sen. Birch Bayh, Indiana, "Justice for Juveniles.''

Unfortunately the senator's words still ring true today. Simply stated, children in the juvenile correctional systems are other people's children. This is a nationwide fact not limited to any one jurisdiction.

Juvenile detention is the front door to the system where on any day upwards of 24,000 children can be found in overcrowded and mismanaged facilities. About 400,000 children a year cycle through these buildings -- many come out worse as far as public safety than when they went in. Many are unjustly deprived of liberty and subject to serious abuse.

If there were a legitimate connection to youth crime and being detained one could attempt to justify the numbers. However, there is no connection. Evidence clearly indicates that juvenile crime continues to decline but admissions to detention continue to climb.

Why is this? Unlike adults, children do not have a right to bail. They are presumed innocent, same as adults, but the law allows a subjective decision to lock up a child for mischievous behavior, or in some cases, running away from an abusive environment -- both unconnected to any community risk.

The stated (often ignored) purpose of secure detention is to hold children pre-trial who pose a high risk of re-offending or a risk of failing to appear in court. In 1975, detention was defined by Judge Patricia Wald as "the hidden closet for the skeletons of the rest of the system." If we examine this "closet" as to whom we detain throughout the U.S., the evidence shows that contrary to public perception, between 50 to 70 percent of children in detention are "status offenders" -- runaways, truant, misbehaving -- and a growing number of children are referred by public schools under the misguided and misinterpreted "zero tolerance" policies of the last 10 years. In other words, children who have angered an adult but pose no risk to the safety of the community.

Make no mistake -- there are children who commit serious crimes and pose a threat to the community. That one-third needs to be securely detained during case processing. So what about the other two-thirds?

That is the issue that recently confronted public officials in Indianapolis. Serious problems have existed in the local detention center over many years. Unlike many jurisdictions, Indianapolis, led by Chief Judge Cale Bradford, has chosen to open the "hidden closet" and let the public light shine in and address the issues head on. This is why the Annie E. Casey Foundation chose Indianapolis to become part of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative.

In a nutshell, the JDAI changes detention from a "building" warehousing children to a detention system. A continuum of supervision levels with the "building" reserved for those high risk children and a series of community supervision programs as "alternatives to secure detention" where a child is placed in the continuum, based on an objective risk screening. The continuum is not open to children who are charged with behavior problems or low risk misdemeanors. The "system" is for children who pose a real risk to the community.

The JDAI program now exists at various implementation stages in more than 50 jurisdictions. JDAI has four "model programs" that local leaders will visit and personally see reductions in secure detention populations, new programs to help children with mental health issues outside secure detention with no increase in crime, and a reduction in public costs for expensive secure detention operations.

Judge Cale Bradford, Chief Probation Officer Robert Bingham and Juvenile Court Judge Marilyn Moores are leading a committed group of local leaders on this difficult task that cannot be accomplished overnight. JDAI contains a blueprint for action. The Casey Foundation will provide assistance and resources, but again, I refer to former Sen. Bayh, "It is a blueprint that is built on a solid foundation of research as well as experiences in states across the country." He knew in 1989 what was needed. In 2006, the JDAI blueprint includes Indianapolis.

All children represent the future of our country. The few that come into the juvenile court deserve to be part of this future. It is all that most of them really want.

Orlando works with the Annie E. Casey Foundation as team leader of the Indianapolis Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Project.

Posted by lois at 07:03 PM | Comments (0)

MN: Did Prison Pastor Get Fired Due to Challenging Christian Program

Wed, Aug. 02, 2006
Did politics cost prison pastor her job?
Pawlenty denies role in firing Shakopee chaplain who challenged Christian program

BY DAVE ORRICK
Pioneer Press

Four state senators have accused Gov. Tim Pawlenty's office of having a prison chaplain fired for speaking out against a controversial program to bring Jesus to inmates. Through a spokesman, Pawlenty, a Republican, denied the accusation by the four lawmakers, all Democrats. The state's top prison official declined to provide a reason for the termination of Kristine Holmgren, former chaplain at women's state prison at Shakopee.

In a letter delivered to Pawlenty's office Friday, state Sens. John Marty, Ellen Anderson, John Hottinger and Jane Ranum allege that Holmgren was the victim of "outrageous treatment of a dedicated employee."

"She was told the order to fire her came from 'above' the commissioner's office ‹ in other words, it would have come from your office," the letter states, citing Holmgren and "others familiar with the case."

No documents were provided to support the allegation.

Brian McClung, spokesman for the governor, said Tuesday, "The allegations in the letter are entirely inaccurate. Our office was not involved in this matter in any way."

According to the letter and to Holmgren, she was fired after expressing concerns to the prison warden about InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a Christian program being introduced to Shakopee this summer.

One version of the program, supported by former Gov. Al Quie, already is operating at the men's state prison at Lino Lakes with the assistance of state funds. It aims to reduce the chances of inmates returning to a life of crime after they're released. In June, a federal judge in Iowa ruled a similar program there was unconstitutional on the grounds its taxpayer-funding violated the separation of church and state.

Holmgren said she spoke up shortly after the Iowa ruling during a meeting with the Shakopee prison's warden.

"A lot of staff asked questions," Holmgren recalled in an interview Tuesday. "And then I asked about whether we would solicit bids for other programs of other religions, and he said, 'We can talk about this in private.' He said later that was the 'instigator' (for her being fired)."

On June 30, a day before Holmgren would have become a "classified" state employee protected from being fired without a reason, Shakopee Warden Rick Hillengrass telephoned her and told her she had lost her job. In a written response to an unsuccessful grievance filed by Holmgren, Hillengrass declined to give a reason for her termination, other than to say a bureaucratic change resulted in "the end of her appointment."

On Tuesday, Joan Fabian, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, said she was legally prevented from discussing the case.

"She was in an unclassified appointment," Fabian said, adding that the governor's office didn't pressure anyone in corrections to fire Holmgren. "She's filed a grievance, and as such I can't talk about the details."

Marty said that's not good enough.

"It's just dishonest," Marty said. "The Legislature passed a law last year trying to keep these positions from becoming political. Š It seems like the only reason she was being fired was because she had some concerns about a program that was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in another state."

Holmgren said all she wants is her $47,000-a-year job back ‹ a position she said has been her calling since she was a girl.

"As a Brownie, we visited the prison and brought Christmas gifts," she said. "I remember wanting to be with these women to help them."

The 57-year-old mother of two was ordained a Presbyterian pastor in 1978. A former chaplain for Macalester College, she was hired Jan. 11 as chaplain for the nearly 500 women imprisoned in Shakopee.

She said she caused a stir within the first few months of her half-year tenure.

With her supervisor's approval, she cracked down on two volunteer Christian programs that don't receive state funds. In one case, inmates she surveyed objected to how some of the volunteers were framing alcoholism, lesbianism and out-of-wedlock childbearing as sins. Volunteers from the other program, she said, unintentionally were bringing in contraband, ranging from extension cords to paper clips. And they were violating ‹ again unknowingly ‹ prison policies designed to reduce gang hierarchy by anointing some inmates to lead groups during testimonials.

The next month her supervisor told her, "The warden has heard from the commissioner that the governor wants you fired," she said.

In a strange twist resulting from the way she was terminated, on Monday, Holmgren was interviewed to be rehired to her old post.

"They asked me what my experience was," she said. "It was weird. I can't say I'm optimistic."

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/15175801.htm

Posted by lois at 06:57 PM | Comments (0)

Springfield MA- Mayor Objects to Voting Rights Lawsuit

Mayor objects to U.S. lawsuit
Friday, August 04, 2006
By JO-ANN MORIARTY and NATALIA MUÑOZ
Staff writers

WASHINGTON - Springfield Mayor Charles V. Ryan yesterday denounced as rash a voting rights lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the city.

The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that it had filed a suit stating that the city violated the Voting Rights Act regarding Spanish-speaking voters.

Ryan said yesterday that neither he nor anyone in City Hall had ever received complaints about voting rights issues. Furthermore, he said, the Justice Department gave officials who had not seen the complaint virtually 48 hours to sign a consent decree in which the city would have been placed under federal oversight or face a lawsuit.

Ryan said he chose to settle the matter in court where the federal department will have to present evidence.

"I would fight on behalf of anyone to make sure that the polls are open to them," said Ryan, but regarding the lawsuit, "We have no basis to even begin to think that this is a problem."

City Solicitor Edward M. Pikula agreed that Springfield could do a better job assisting Spanish-speaking residents vote in elections, but accused the Justice Department of using "heavy-handed tactics" against the city in its decision to file a federal case so quickly.

Springfield is among four cities where the Justice Department has become involved in election matters. The other cities are Boston, Lawrence and Lowell. All have large Hispanic populations.

Secretary of State Michael Galvin, the state's chief voting rights enforcer, did not return a message left at his office yesterday.

The federal complaint states that poll workers were hostile to Hispanic and Spanish-speaking voters and denied them the right to be assisted by the person of their choice.

According to the 2000 census, Springfield has a population of 152,080 people of whom 41,360 are Hispanic. Hispanic people make up 27.2 percent of the city's population and 22 percent of the voting age population. However, 42.1 percent of the voting-age Hispanic people or 9,560 residents are not proficient in English.

"Spanish-speaking voters in Springfield have faced difficulties and rude treatment at the polls," the federal complaint reads. "In some cases, Spanish-speaking voters have left the polls without casting a ballot due to the absence of bilingual assistance and interference by poll workers."

The complaint states that the city has failed to provide effective election-related information and assistance to Spanish-speaking voters and failed to recruit and train an adequate pool of bilingual poll officials.

Pikula agreed Springfield needs more bilingual poll workers. But, he said, that state law hamstrings the city's ability to hire poll workers because the state law says the city shall draw its poll workers from a pool of candidates submitted by the Democratic and Republican political parties.

"We are committed to better addressing our obligation to provide bilingual assistance to language minority voters and acknowledge that there is room for improvement," Piluka stated in an Aug. 1 letter he sent to John Tanner, chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

"To that end, an outreach process has been initiated to seek additional bilingual poll workers," Piluka wrote.

But the Springfield city solicitor told The Republican the city was given very little time by the Justice Department to avoid a lawsuit.

Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. agency's Civil Rights Division, said yesterday it is possible that the two agencies can come to an out-of-court agreement.

Posted by lois at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)

Latvia and Slovenia: Converted Prisons Offer Low Budget Accomodations

August 7-14, 2006 | Vol. 168, No. 6/7
Jail Breaks: Converted prisons offer low-budget accommodation with a difference
BY MAX WOOLDRIDGE

We've heard of office buildings and farmhouses being turned into hotels - but we had never heard of converting prisons. And yet the interior architecture of a penitentiary should be well suited to low-budget accommodation - just think how efficiently large numbers of inmates are housed within and are briskly transferred from cell to dining hall. There were certainly no design problems at Hostel Celica, hostelcelica.com, a onetime military prison in Ljubljana effortlessly transformed into one of the most fashionable places to stay in the Slovenian capital.

The 20 prison cells - which start at around $22 a night - were refurbished by local and foreign artists. Bars on the windows and doors have been retained, as have the barbed wire and period graffiti on the property's perimeter walls. Given the modern penchant for minimalism, the revamped cells might seem almost as spartan as the oubliettes they once were, so if you would prefer something less ascetic you can opt for an apartment (sleeping seven), normal shared rooms or a dormitory bed. A requirement that guests strip their own beds upon departure smacks of a prison regime rather more than is necessary, but the bohemian atmosphere - there are regular art exhibitions as well as weekly jam sessions with local musicians - softens the overall experience, while a city-center location will prove irresistible to guests planning a breakout.

Things are even grittier at Latvia's Karosta Prison, karostascietums.lv - a former jail near the Baltic Sea resort of Liepaya. Originally built as a military hospital in 1900, it began housing prisoners during the early days of the Russian Revolution and continued to do so throughout the Nazi occupation, during the Soviet era and right up until 1997, when Latvian authorities released the last detainees. Today, for less than $10 a night, you can sleep on real prison bunks, eat prison food and be harangued by local drama students dressed as wardens. If you tire of these power games, apply for day release: Karosta organizes walking and driving tours of Liepaya starting at a mere $2 a head. It's a great escape.

CTIME. Printed on Monday, August 7, 2006 http://www.time.com/time/europe/tga/printout/0,13155,1219570,00.html

Posted by lois at 06:53 PM | Comments (0)

August 04, 2006

National Advocates for Pregnant Women--Victory in MD

From Lynn Paltrow, National Advocates for Pregnant Women
Dear Friends and Allies:

We are very pleased to report an important victory in the Maryland Cruz and Kilmon cases. In Maryland, local prosecutors in Talbot County started arresting pregnant women who continued to term in spite of a drug problem as child abusers. Two women were convicted of child endangerment.

Yesterday, Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled unanimously to overturn the convictions: "The question before us is
whether the intentional ingestion of cocaine by a pregnant woman can form the basis for a conviction under the statute of the reckless endangerment of the later-born child. The answer is "no.""

The Court concluded that the state did not intend its law prohibiting the reckless endangerment of children to apply to women in relationship to their own pregnancies. In reaching this conclusion, Maryland joins a large and growing number of appellate courts to dismiss or overturn such charges. This decision, however, stands oufor its clarity and its comprehensive analysis of legislative intent.

The Court, in effect, found that to apply the state's child endangerment statute to the context of pregnancy would "produce farfetched, absurd, or illogical results which would not have been intended by the ." The Court noted that "if the statute is read to apply to the effect of a pregnant woman's conduct on the child she is carrying, it could well be construed to include not just the ingestion of unlawful substances but a whole host of intentional and conceivably reckless activity that could not possibly have been within the contemplation of the Legislature--everything from becoming (or remaining) pregnant with knowledge that the child likely will have a genetic disorder that may cause serious disability or death, to the continued use of legal drugs . . .to not maintaining a proper and sufficient diet, to failing to wear a seat belt while driving . . .to exercising too much or too little, indeed to engaging in virtually any injury-prone activity that, should an injury occur, might reasonably be expected to endanger the life or safety of the child."

The Court also recognized that application of the child endangerment statute only to pregnant women who use illegal drugs would have the effect of "criminalizing drug addiction for this one segment of the population, pregnant women" and thus could not have been what the legislature intended.

NAPW has been involved with the Cruz case from the beginning of the appellate efforts. We had the pleasure supporting the local Maryland ACLU and their cooperating counsel at Morrison and Foerster in their comprehensive, zealous, and very successful representation of Ms. Cruz.

David Rocah of the Maryland ACLU generously wrote to us today saying ". . .we couldn't have done this case without your help. Many, many thanks!"

Suzanne Sangree and Roscoe Jones, Jr. at the Maryland Public Justice Center took the lead on a public health amicus brief on which NAPW was "of counsel." In the past, NAPW has teamed up with other reproductive rights and drug policy reform groups to write and file amicus briefs on behalf of leading public health and child welfare organizations. We were very pleased that the Maryland Public Justice Center recognized this case as a broader public justice issue.

NAPW also worked with local Maryland NOW activists in helping to organize amici and public opposition to these arrests and we are thrilled that, building on earlier work they had done at our request in the McKnight case, the National Women's Law Center also filed a compelling amicus brief clarifying how these prosecutions discriminate on the basis of race.

Below please find today's Washington Post story on the case, a link to the press release about the public health amicus brief, and, on a different subject, NAPW's lead commentary for the Women's Media Center.

Best Summer Wishes,
Lynn M. Paltrow
NAPW Executive Director

CHARGES REJECTED FOR MOMS WHO BEAR BABIES EXPOSED TO ILLEGAL DRUGS
By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 4, 2006; B06

Maryland's reckless endangerment law cannot be used to prosecute women who give birth to babies exposed to illegal drugs, the state's high court ruled yesterday, overturning the convictions of two Eastern Shore mothers.

Prosecutors said such charges were needed to protect children, but some advocates for pregnant women welcomed the decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals as an affirmation that such cases could make pregnant women vulnerable to prosecution for an array of potentially dangerous behaviors

-- such as smoking cigarettes and driving without a seatbelt -- and that drug-using mothers need treatment, not punishment.

"Imprisonment is not only the most costly thing the state could do," said Lynn Paltrow of the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women. "It's the most family-destructive thing the state could do."

Kelly Lynn Cruz, seven months pregnant and belligerent, arrived at an Eastern Shore hospital in the middle of the night in January 2005. The three-pound boy she gave birth to tested positive for cocaine. Last August, she was convicted of reckless endangerment.
Regina Kilmon, whose case was similar, was also convicted in 2005 of reckless endangerment. She was sentenced to four years in prison.

The cases were clear-cut for prosecutors. "We're talking about unlawful activity, use of a narcotic substance," Scott Patterson, the longtime state's attorney in Talbot County, said last summer.

But Talbot was the only jurisdiction in Maryland to bring such charges against women for using illegal drugs while pregnant. Elsewhere in the country, such cases have often turned into emotional debates over the rights of the unborn.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland stepped in to defend Cruz, who was the fifth woman to face similar charges in Talbot.

In the 1980s and early '90s, public horror over crack use coincided with early reports of babies damaged by drugs. Arrests followed, and legislators debated how to control the problem. But most cases were struck down, and medical research tempered the earlier fears.

A National Institutes of Health study has found that maternal cocaine use can cause slightly lower birth weights and intellectual and behavior problems later in childhood. Alcohol and tobacco can be just as damaging. An array of public health, drug treatment and medical organizations filed briefs supporting the women, arguing that such prosecutions are more likely to harm than to help mothers and babies.

The court ruled that allowing such prosecutions could open the door to so many potentially dangerous behaviors that "criminal liability would depend almost entirely on how aggressive, inventive, and persuasive any particular prosecutor might be."

Some experts say they believe there have been more such cases in recent years, driven perhaps by the increase in methamphetamine use in some parts of the country and by recent laws that allow prosecutors to treat some crimes against pregnant women as cases with two victims.

This year, a similar case was dismissed in Virginia, and in Hawaii, the state Supreme Court overturned a manslaughter conviction of a woman who smoked methamphetamine while pregnant.

Of the Maryland Court of Appeals ruling, Patterson issued a statement saying his office "fully accepts its decision as a definitive statement of the law of Maryland" and would continue to work with public health and social services employees "toward the common goal of assisting women in their fight to defeat drug addiction and in their efforts to deliver children who will be born without illicit drugs in their systems."

© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Read the Press Release About the Cruz Amicus Brief: Experts Tell Court Of Appeals in Cruz v. State That Welfare of Mother And Child Demands Treatment For Addiction, Not Criminal Prosecution here: http://advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/OralArgcruzFPR.pdf;

Posted by lois at 09:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2006

Sen. Sessions of AL seeks to adjust sentences for crack-powder cocaine

www.tuscaloosanews.com
Article published Jul 26, 2006
Sessions seeks to adjust sentences for crack, powder cocaine offenses

By Suevon Lee
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON | Sen. Jeff Sessions, a one-time federal prosecutor, introduced a bill Tuesday that would reduce the “unconscionable" disparity in federal prison terms for crack and powder cocaine offenses.

“The 100-to-1 disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine is not justifiable … these changes will make the criminal justice system more effective and fair," said the Republican senator and former Alabama attorney general.

His bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., all former attorney generals.

This is not Sessions’ first attempt to bring such a bill to the Senate floor. He introduced similar legislation in 2002 with the co-sponsorship of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Under federal sentencing requirements instituted in the mid-1980s, a minimum five-year prison term is mandatory for possession of 5 grams of crack, or 500 grams of powder cocaine. Under the legislation sponsored by Sessions, however, the crack minimum would be raised to 20 grams and the powder cocaine amount reduced to 400 grams.

A 10-year mandatory minimum sentence is issued when an individual is convicted of possessing 50 grams of crack, or 5,000 grams of cocaine powder. With the change sought by Sessions, the minimum amount of crack would be raised to 200 grams and powder cocaine lowered to 4,000 grams.

In the mid-1980s, when the mandatory sentencing laws were passed, “crack cocaine was a relatively new drug," according to Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that focuses on incarceration alternatives.

“There was a real frenzy around the drug," he said.

“It’s hard to prove it, but there’s a long history of penalties passed by legislators reflecting conscious or unconscious racial bias, given that image of crack user was a young, black man," Mauer added.

Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Tommy Smith argued that, “drugs affect" all users equally. “It is a false argument to try to make it a racial problem."

According to a 2000 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 84 percent of crack cocaine users were African American and 5 percent Caucasian.

Some drug reform advocates claim that the current federal sentencing guidelines focus on possession of minor quantities that should be dealt with on a state or local level.

Eric E. Sterling, president of the Maryland-based Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, said some amounts subject to federal prosecution are “trivial," weighing 5 to 50 grams.

“Cocaine gets smuggled into this country by airplanes, cargo containers. Those are quantities in hundreds of thousands of grams," he said.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that challenges mandatory sentencing laws, said the Sessions legislation needs to go further to reform existing laws.

“Instead of tinkering with drug weights, the senators should reform mandatory minimum sentencing laws so that drug weights alone don’t determine sentence length. Sentences should be based on traditional factors such as culpability, role in the offense, and the use of weapons or violence," the group said in a statement.

Sessions, a former U.S. attorney in Mobile, said during a news conference Tuesday that crack is considered a more dangerous, addictive drug than powder cocaine.

“We need to convince people that we’re not going soft on crime," he said.

Posted by lois at 05:55 PM | Comments (0)

States collecting DNA from Arrestees

Thursday, July 27, 2006
States collecting DNA from arrestees
By John Gramlich, Special to Stateline.org

With civil libertarians crying foul, seven states have authorized police to take DNA samples from those arrested for – but not convicted of – certain crimes.

Every state takes DNA samples from convicted sex offenders and at least 43 states take samples from other serious felons, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks state laws. But five states – California, Louisiana, Minnesota, Texas and Virginia – now take DNA samples from some arrestees as well.

Kansas and New Mexico passed authorizing legislation this spring and will begin arrestee sampling next January.

Officers commonly take the samples by using cotton swabs to collect saliva. The samples are used to try to solve “cold cases” by comparing them to biological evidence found at crime scenes. DNA profiles, or computerized snapshots of the samples, are stored in local, state and federal databases, allowing law enforcers to compare information.

Last January, President Bush signed the DNA Fingerprinting Act, which allows authorities to collect DNA “fingerprints,” or samples, from anyone arrested on any federal charge. Federal sampling has not yet begun, said Ann Todd, a spokeswoman for the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., home of the national DNA database.

In every state but Louisiana, arrestee DNA sampling is limited to those arrested for felonies. The Bayou State, however, also allows sampling of those arrested for some misdemeanors, including prostitution and assault.

California, Louisiana, Kansas and New Mexico and the federal government can keep DNA records even if arrestees are cleared of all charges – a practice that has brought objections from civil libertarians.

Led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), critics say the state and federal laws reverse constitutional guarantees and render suspects guilty until proven innocent.

Supporters say the aim is to develop a network of shared information to fight crime nationwide. DNA sampling of convicted felons has been used to aid thousands of investigations, according to a state-by-state clickable map maintained by the FBI.

DNA evidence has also been used to exonerate those who have been wrongly convicted. Nationwide, more than 180 people have been freed with the help of DNA evidence since 1989, according to the Innocence Project, a legal clinic based in New York.

Of those, 14 originally were sentenced to death.

In Virginia, one of the few states to release records of arrestee “hits,” or DNA matches, law enforcement officials found 288 matches that have helped crime investigations since the program began in January 2003, said Paul Ferrara, director of the state’s Department of Forensic Science. Fifty-nine of those were associated with sexual crimes, he said.

Although federal arrestee DNA sampling has not yet begun, enactment of the DNA Fingerprinting Act allows the five states already taking DNA samples of arrestees to begin uploading profiles into the national database.

In late June, Virginia became the first state to begin uploading profiles, sending data on about 4,000 arrestees. Louisiana followed on July 11, uploading the first 14,000 of an initial 45,000 arrestee profiles.

Civil libertarians oppose placing the burden of destroying DNA records on a defendant who has been acquitted, rather than the government. California, Louisiana, New Mexico and federal arrestees who are acquitted must request that their samples and profiles be removed from labs and databases. Usually, those acquitted must provide written notification, sometimes including a certified court order, to have the records destroyed.

Kansas is the only state that refuses to destroy all DNA records of those who have been acquitted.

Minnesota, Texas and Virginia automatically delete samples and profiles when arrestees are cleared of charges.

Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana ACLU, said there is “no reason” for states to keep DNA samples after acquittal. The practice turns arrestees into “a suspect every time a crime is committed,” he said.

Civil libertarians want DNA samples to be treated differently from fingerprints. Cook said DNA contains sensitive personal information, including medical and racial indicators that can be used to illegally profile suspects.

“The potential for abuse is great,” Cook said.

Kansas state Rep. Pat Colloton (R), who authored the bill that initiated her state’s DNA sampling program, said she expects crime rates to decrease as a result of the legislation. But she also anticipates legal challenges to arrestee sampling across the country.

“I do believe this issue will go to the United States Supreme Court,” Colloton said.

Contact John Gramlich at jgramlich@stateline.org.

ne.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=137&languageId=1&contentId=129960

Posted by lois at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)

Crime Measures Derided as Too Little Too Late: Race Class Tensions Simmer

Crime Measures Derided as Too Little, Too Late
Race, Class Tensions Simmer as D.C. Residents Question Timing of Crackdown, Effectiveness of Tactics

By Robert E. Pierre and Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 31, 2006; B01

The teenagers, both shot several times, had been dumped on Suitland Parkway in Southeast Washington for all to see.

They were the city's 11th and 12th young homicide victims in 13 days -- alarming statistics that one grass-roots group said amounted to a crime emergency. Few took notice.

This was in October. Nine months later, after 14 killings in two weeks, including the deaths of a fledgling candidate for mayor near downtown and a British activist in Georgetown, D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared a highly publicized crime emergency.

"Nobody was listening to us back then, and we saw what was happening," said Tyrone C. Parker, executive director of the Alliance of Concerned Men, a nonprofit group that counsels ex-offenders and troubled youths and that issued last fall's urgent call for help.

Public perception, it seems, has caught up with Parker and others who work with young people at detention centers and curfew halls and on the streets. As part of the announced emergency, $8 million has been set aside for police overtime. Surveillance cameras will soon be installed in neighborhoods, and teenagers 16 and younger will have less time to hang out at night because of a 10 p.m. curfew, which begins tonight.

Instead of galvanizing residents, however, the measures have exacerbated race and class rifts. Youth advocates argue that juvenile responsibility for crime has been exaggerated because adults account for 82 percent of violent crime and more than 90 percent of arrests. Many dismiss the emergency efforts as bluster that will have little impact.

"We've sort of scared people to death, and we're not able to make effective policy," said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, which works on issues of crime and alternatives to incarceration.

Washington, like many jurisdictions, has long turned to curfews, community policing and additional officers to counter crime spikes. Ramsey acknowledges that policing alone is not enough.

"I don't think it's an either-or proposition," he said. "There's a front-end issue to help kids succeed, like health care, child care, literacy, recreation. . . . As police, we're sort of the last thing there when all these other measures have failed."

The percentage of juveniles arrested this year is not dramatically higher than last year. In 2005, 6 percent of those arrested were juveniles. This year, it is 8 percent. Ramsey doesn't hesitate to shine a bright light on the change of two percentage points.

"Any increase in juvenile crime, I think it is something you have to take a serious look at," he said. "You don't want 15- and 16-year-olds to get a criminal start in life. When more kids are getting arrested, it's a societal problem."

Community groups maintain that the best deterrent is keeping children busy, working or at school, and mentoring them to suppress the pull of the streets. When the current crisis was declared, those groups were quick to point to ideas that have been waiting months or even years for someone to take notice.

The D.C. Black Church Initiative is pushing a plan to spend $15 million to $20 million a year putting as many as 75 outreach workers on the streets and starting conflict resolution centers.

"Curfews don't work," said the Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the umbrella group of 800 African American and Latino faith organizations. "The city has a piecemeal approach that has not worked. What does is mentoring."

Last year, the Alliance of Concerned Men asked city leaders for about $1 million to create a mobile crisis intervention unit, an emergency hotline and an intensive program for at-risk kids. The city gave the group about $100,000 for an outreach and mentoring program for teenagers and young adults, some of whom have been in trouble for stealing cars, getting high, shoplifting or committing robbery.

There is a consistent theme to what the youths say: Boredom sends them astray.

Dale Johnson, 17, said that's why he started stealing cars, about 50 in the past three years. He has been arrested and released numerous times for unauthorized use of a vehicle.

"There was nothing for me to do," said Johnson, who lives in Southeast and is visited three times a day by a counselor. His last arrest was five months ago.

In Northwest, near Adams Morgan, a 14-year-old picked up by police at a convenience store last week offered the same explanation. He said he attends private school. His mother watches him all day and works odd hours. When officers grabbed him, he was drinking a Red Bull. It was 1 a.m.

"I had to get out of the house," he said, twirling his hair while waiting in the curfew processing center inside the 3rd District police station.

Sgt. T.D. Best, an 18-year D.C. police veteran, said he encounters similar youths every day as he patrols his beat in historic Anacostia. With minimal adult supervision, many youths turn to stealing cars and joy riding because it's "the social thing to do," Best said.

He doubts an earlier curfew will do much good and wishes the city would instead improve schools and press businesses to fund more jobs for youths. The D.C. Council, as part of emergency legislation, authorized $1.25 million for youth sports, $400,000 for extended library hours and $200,000 for gang/crew mediation.

"The curfew gives us another tool," Best said. "But most of the kids are hanging out in front of their homes. You can't tell them to go home because they're already home. They don't go inside because it's hot and many apartments don't have air conditioning.

"Until we deal with the social and economic issues, we're always going to have these problems."

Shanda Smith has lost two children to these problems. In 1993, her 19-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter were gunned down as they drove to a church Christmas party in Southeast. Police blamed it on mistaken identity.

Smith, whose two surviving sons are teenagers, welcomes the current attention to crime in the city but shares a widespread belief that it may be a fleeting reaction to the killing of Alan Senitt, a 27-year-old British citizen. He was white; the other 13 homicide victims preceding him this month were black.

"There should have been a crime emergency a long time ago," said Smith, a member of Moms Inc. (Mothers on the Move Spiritually), which attempts to strengthen families.

City leaders say they understand the frustrations and are trying to address them.

Brenda Donald Walker, deputy mayor for children, youth, families and elders, said the city spends $2.2 billion annually on children's welfare -- an amount that includes $1.2 billion for public education.

The city hires more than 10,000 youths and young adults, ages 14 to 21, for six-week summer jobs as clerks and lifeguards, park workers and camp counselors. It sponsors a year-round jobs program for 400 young people and a series of day camps.

In a movement toward partnerships with community groups, the city joined with the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative to address gang violence and prevent children from ending up in foster care. It was so successful, Walker said, that similar efforts have been launched in Wards 7 and 8 to reduce violence and the retaliation that often ensues.

Walker said the city needs to do more and welcomes ideas.

"We get proposals saying, 'Just give me the money, I have the magic formula,' " she said. "But no one has the magic formula to solve these problems."

In the meantime, Walker said, leaders must respond to fears, both real and perceived. Overall crime has declined since 2000, with sexual assault, homicide and assault with a deadly weapon reaching a five-year low last year.

But since January, violent crime in the District is up nearly 7 percent, fueled largely by a surge in robberies.

Residents increasingly consider crime and violence "the biggest problem facing the District." That rate rose from 19 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 2002 to 38 percent this month, according to a Washington Post poll taken just after the crime emergency was declared.

"When you have high crime rates and fear of crime, people want the government to make the streets safe," Walker said. "They want things that they can see."

Some neighborhoods have been living an emergency for years and still await relief.

At a recent community meeting at Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast, image after image of black boys and young men were shown, first vibrantly alive, then lying in coffins. All had been shot to death. A nonprofit group called No Murders DC, whose goal is to end homicide in the District, has shown the homemade film throughout the city.

Several dozen people sat in the audience when someone asked for a show of hands from those who knew a murder victim. All but a few hands rose.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Posted by lois at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2006

CA: Billions in Prison Bond Funds Sought

This story is taken from Politics at sacbee.com.

Billions in prison bond funds sought

By Andy Furillo -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 2, 2006
The Schwarzenegger administration will ask the Legislature next week to approve nearly $5.8 billion in bonds to relieve prison overcrowding and pave the way for lawbreakers to break their cycle of crime.

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation acting Secretary James Tilton, laying out the cost of the administration's prison plan for the first time in a Tuesday press conference, characterized the expense as a necessary "investment" needed to solve the intractable overcrowding and recidivism problems.

"The Department of Corrections owns the responsibility to assist inmates who are willing to change their ways with basic tools, of education, life skills, drug treatment and mental health, so they can be better when they leave Corrections, not worse," he said.

"But until I get overcrowding reduced ... then I don't have the opportunity to provide the program that I believe is my charge," Tilton added.

The state's 33 prisons currently house more than 172,000 inmates in space designed for barely half that population. More than 16,000 prisoners sleep in dayrooms, classrooms, gyms and other spaces that Tilton wants returned to inmate rehabilitation activities.

Meanwhile, California parolees return to prison at a rate of about 70 percent within three years of their release -- the highest in the country.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in June called for next week's special legislative session on prison overcrowding. The details fleshed out Tuesday call for $2 billion in bond funds for 10, 500-bed "re-entry facilities" for short-term parole violators and inmates nearing the end of their terms. Tilton did not say where the mini-prisons would be located.

Schwarzenegger also is asking for nearly $2 billion in bond money to pay for expanding existing prison facilities, $1.2 billion for two new prisons, $500 million for medical care space and $55 million for a correctional officer training academy in Southern California to complement the one in Galt.

Repaying the bonds eventually will cost the state $500 million a year. New operational costs related to the capital outlay program will bring on another $463 million a year in spending, adding nearly $1 billion to the state's projected $11.6 billion prison budget in fiscal year 2015-16.

The prison plan will require two-thirds approval from the Legislature.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, would not predict the fate of the proposal. The governor's plan, Núñez said, "needs a lot of work."

"I know the administration is concerned about prison capacity, and we're concerned about prison capacity as well," Núñez said. "But we can't just build new beds. This special session will give us an opportunity to take a different approach."

Republican Assemblyman Todd Spitzer of Orange described the proposal as "a very good starting place."

"Unless the governor is serious about the transition, re-entry beds, he'll never get the hard cell beds," Spitzer said. "But it sounds like they're serious about both and have a blueprint for both."

------------------------
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, who is carrying legislation that could lead to new prison construction, was more blunt in assessing why both his proposal and the governor's rely on lease-revenue bonds.

"If you put it before voters, it will go down,'' Nuñez said.

SACRAMENTO
Governor seeks $6 billion for prison projects
- Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

(08-02) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask lawmakers this month to spend nearly $6 billion on new prison construction projects that, unlike his proposals to build new roads, levees and schools, would not go to voters for final approval.

Administration officials on Tuesday released a final price tag for a major expansion of the prison system that could add more than 40,000 beds during the next decade. The proposal is in response to what corrections officials have conceded is dangerous overcrowding in the state's 33 prisons.

There are now more than 172,000 inmates in a system designed to hold about 100,000, and the governor wants to build two new prisons, expand current prisons and build new, smaller facilities in urban areas, among other things.

But the governor's proposal, which lawmakers will begin discussing next week in a special legislative session, is already meeting with skepticism.

Some lawmakers said Tuesday that the governor should be focusing more on rehabilitative programs to lower the vast number of ex-cons who return to prison and that the governor and Legislature needed to rethink aspects of the criminal justice system to lower the inmate population. Others criticized the governor's proposal to build prisons without voters' OK.

In May, Schwarzenegger and lawmakers cut a deal to spend more than $37 billion on roads, schools, levees and housing. The four bond issues will be on the November ballot.

But the governor's prison proposal would avoid voters by using a different kind of bond, typically referred to as a lease-revenue bond, that only requires legislative approval. The bonds have a slightly higher interest rate, and one frequent Schwarzenegger ally said voters should have a voice
for such a large expenditure.

"Taxpayers are on the hook for every nickel, and that being the case, they have the constitutional right to vote on it," said state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks.

McClintock said he favors prison construction but would not support the type of bond Schwarzenegger is suggesting, although the state has
previously used lease-revenue bonds to build prisons.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, who is carrying legislation that could lead to new prison construction, was more blunt in assessing why both his proposal and the governor's rely on lease-revenue bonds.

"If you put it before voters, it will go down,'' Nuñez said. Statewide polls have consistently shown voters do not favor spending money on new prisons.

Schwarzenegger is proposing two new prisons, which he estimates will cost $1.2 billion, expanding space at current prisons, which will cost nearly $2 billion, and building smaller, community-based facilities called re-entry facilities, which will cost another $2 billion. Other building proposals include a new site to train prison guards, and the governor's plan calls for $500 million that could be spent on new prison medical facilities.

The governor is also proposing to contract with other states to house as many as 5,000 illegal immigrants who are doing time in state prisons for crimes committed in California, and moving about half of the system's female inmate population into smaller, urban-based settings.

The plan would add more than $900 million a year to prison costs when compared to doing nothing, according to Jim Tilton, acting secretary of corrections. Administration officials said the nearly $6 billion in bonds to build new facilities would eventually cost taxpayers nearly $12 billion with the added interest costs.

Total cost of corrections spending would grow from $8.2 billion this year to $12.6 billion in 2015 if every part of the proposal is adopted, although corrections costs will likely grow more than that due to new spending that is being ordered by federal judges overseeing parts of the prison system, such as mental health care.

Tilton said the system will completely run out of space by next summer if no new room is created. But he also said the plan does address the fact that 70 percent of California inmates return to prison. Tilton said the re-entry facilities the governor is proposing would work with inmates about to be released from prison by providing programs such as mental health care or job counseling as they leave the system and while they are on parole and would be aimed at helping inmates avoid future returns to incarceration.

Some Democrats said Schwarzenegger needs to provide a much more detailed plan before they would OK the spending.

"I want to know, if we go along with this, will we still have a recidivism rate twice as high as the rest of the nation?'' said Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. "Will we still have half of the state's inmates leaving prison as functional illiterates? Will 80 percent of them still have drug
and alcohol problems? There needs to be much more to this than just
build, build, build.''

While Nu“Éªz said he does support building new prisons, he also said he hopes lawmakers and the governor can talk about other issues that have led to prison overcrowding, such as lengthy sentences for nonviolent crimes.
Currently about half of the state's prison population is incarcerated on
drug offenses or property crimes.

The proposal

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask lawmakers to OK a plan to spend nearly $6 billion on bonds to build new prison facilities. The proposal includes:

-- $1.2 billion to build two new prisons.

-- $2 billion to build community-based re-entry facilities for prisoners about to be released.

-- Nearly $2 billion to expand capacity at existing prisons.

-- More than $55 million to open a new training academy for prison guards in Southern California.

Source: Governor's office

Staff writer Tom Chorneau contributed to this report. E-mail Mark Martin at markmartin@sfchronicle.com.

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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/02/BAGG1K9JLQ1.DTL

Posted by lois at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)

NH: People Incarcerated are Suing Prison System

8-2-2006
Portsmouth Herald News - Portsmouth,NH,USA

Inmates sue state prisons

By Chris Dornin
Golden Dome News

CONCORD -- Twenty inmates are suing the state prison system, seeking to shorten their sentences or gain their immediate freedom. They claim prosecutors illegally break single crimes into multiple charges and that judges have imposed improper consecutive sentences since the 1970s.

The Supreme Court recently accepted all their appeals and plans to act on them together as a matter of judicial economy. The cases reached that venue through eight different superior courts. If the state loses, the plaintiffs say hundreds of men and women who they believe have been wrongly incarcerated, some for decades, could be released.

Attorney Richard Lehmann, the former legal counsel to the state Senate, is representing inmate Kenneth Violette of Manchester, an intervener in the case.

"When they amended the criminal code, they never authorized judges to impose these consecutive sentences," Lehmann said. "If the law doesn't allow it, the judges can't do it.

"If a guy robs a bank, it just makes sense to charge him with a single armed robbery instead of 20 counts of reckless conduct against 20 people," he said. "They shouldn't be able to divide a single sexual assault into 20 felonies either."

Rep. David Welch, R-Kingston, heads the House Judiciary Committee and said the inmates have a winning claim.

"I believe that statute was repealed," Welch said. "There's a strong possibility the state has improperly sentenced a lot of people.

"If that's the way the judicial branch interprets the law, they ought to take a second look at it," Welch said. "It may account for the huge growth in prison population. "

Welch was concerned as well with an unknown number of county inmates being sentenced to consecutive terms of less than a year each. That keeps them out of the state prison and out of the state budget.

"I would think that's illegal, too, and it puts the burden directly on the property taxpayer," Welch said. "That could be an unfunded mandate, and who's doing it? The judges make the sentences."

The lead plaintiff, Randy Duquette, sent his brief to the court in June. The other 19 amicus briefs support his.

The group includes Michael Forbes of Rochester, Marc Estes of Dover, Edmour Lefebvre of Farmington and Bruce Usher of Chester. Their filings use the same wording as Duquette's.

Rep. Gene Charron, R-Chester, retired a couple of years ago as superintendent of the Rockingham County House of Corrections and served on the seven-member subcommittee that reviewed the Child Predator Act last session. He confirmed that consecutive sentences are common.

"We discovered that when we researched the bill," Charron said. "It will be interesting if they poke a hole in the practice.

"It doesn't seem possible a thing of this magnitude could go 30 years without somebody picking up on it," the former jail superintendent said. "I've seen some pretty unique legal challenges by inmates, but not something like this."

The self-taught inmate lawyers worked closely with each other, according to plaintiff Estes. In a phone interview, he said he could easily name a hundred men in his situation.

"The outcome of one will decide all the others," Estes said.

Inmate Steven Roy, formerly of Fremont, did much of the writing and research for the appeals. The case won't help him, though. He's serving life without parole for a 1992 murder in Fremont.

Roy has lost two Supreme Court appeals in his own case, in 1995 and 2002, but the experience has versed him in the law. He allowed that a few inmates might get out who belong inside, but he said the case otherwise corrects a massive injustice.

"My only concern is that the judicial assumption of ungranted powers cease and the good men who have suffered from these abuses get the sentences they were supposed to get," he said in a letter to the Golden Dome News. "The pendulum has too long been on the side of ridiculously excessive sentences."

Inmate Ray Ellsworth is rooting for the plaintiffs. He is serving consecutive sentences, too.

"I haven't read the brief, but I've done 11 years," he said. "If they win, I'd be over my minimum."

Duquette's filing says the Legislature approved a new criminal code that took effect Nov. 1, 1973. It repealed the previous law on sentencing, Chapter 607, which had allowed consecutive sentencing.

Two years later, lawmakers passed a law permitting consecutive sentences, but only in rare cases like a new crime while incarcerated.

"Courts began imposing consecutive sentences, sparingly at first, and with increasing frequency over time," the Duquette filing says. "This new-found power helped fuel a massive expansion of the state's prison population and drastically altered the legal climate of the state."

Rep. Laura Pantelakos, D-Portsmouth, serves on the Criminal Justice Committee, and she's also rooting for the plaintiffs.

"Good for them," she said. "I agree the courts give out many consecutive sentences, and nobody can find the law that justifies them.

"Those terms are bad for taxpayers and inmates," the Portsmouth representative said. "Eighty-five percent of them are in for drug and alcohol issues, and we don't have the treatment programs for that. It sets them up to fail."

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August 01, 2006

Companies Make Big Profits from Immigration Jails

Companies, communities look to benefit from enforcement

LYNN BREZOSKY, Associated Press
Posted on Tue, Aug. 01, 2006 http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/15172405.htm
RAYMONDVILLE, Texas - Men have been working on the futuristic cluster of tent-like domes to house illegal immigrants around the clock sincelate June; the quest for laborers has tapped local employment centers dry. Express delivery trucks rumble in and out with materials ordered on the fly.

Wednesday, less than 12 weeks after President Bush told the nation he was boosting the U.S. Border Patrol and ending the "catch and release" policy blamed on a shortage of federal detention space, 500 metal bunks are to be filled with immigrants awaiting deportation. By Sept. 26, 2,000 will be ready.

The army of workers were under a strict directive from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to complete the project quickly, and President Bush is scheduled to visit the region to talk about immigration reform on Thursday.

"This gives a whole new definition to a 'fast-track' project," JC Conner, a vice president at Utah-based Management & Training Corp., which will operate the prison, said in a statement issued Tuesday. "ICE announced it needed 500 beds within 40 days ... and a total of 2,000 beds within 90 days" and that work was completed on time, his statement said.

The Willacy County Detention Center is one of a host of new or expanded prisons, both public and private, that ICE has commissioned for an expected rush of illegal immigrant detainees.

ICE spokeswoman Jamie Zuieback said the facility was "a significant step forward in the president's plan" to detain and deport illegal immigrants.

Before Bush's latest crackdown on illegal immigration, Mexican immigrants were driven back across the border. Illegal immigrants from elsewhere were given a notice to appear before an immigration court sometimes as far as 30 days ahead. Few showed up, prompting border sheriffs to wryly call the paperwork a "notice to disappear."

But Bush announced in May an end to the catch and release program and
ordered stiffer enforcement of the border, causing a ripe need for more detention space in South Texas.

Holding the non-Mexican illegal immigrants until they are deported will also take bed space, as will Department of Homeland Security plans to track down and remove illegal immigrants in the U.S. interior. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last week that Salvadorans also would be detained for the first time since a two-decade-old court decision blocked them from the use of expedited removal.

The Intelligence Reform bill signed in December 2004 authorized up to
40,000 new beds in immigrant detention centers nationwide by 2010. Texas has or is expecting at least 7,000.

ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said the agency had requested funding next year for 6,700 new beds.

The Raymondville "dorm pods" will accommodate up to 2,000 detainees, and sector Border Patrol Chief Lynne Underdown said she has also been promised more space at the federally operated Port Isabel Detention Center in Bayview.

"Detention space is key to our strategy," Underdown said, praising ICE for securing contracts to quickly add detention beds. "ICE, our
counterpart ... They have stepped up to the plate."

For companies like Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's
largest private prison company, it could mean good business times ahead.

We continue to monitor the status of immigration policy to determine the effect it may have on our business," CCA president John Ferguson told stockholders in May. "We believe there will be a significant expansion of border enforcement efforts, which should result in a substantial increase in the population of illegal detainees.

CCA has reportedly reached an agreement with ICE to house families being detained at the T. Don Hutto Correctional Facility in Taylor and is working on a 722-bed expansion for ICE detainees at a county facility it operates in Laredo.

Florida-based GEO Group Inc. in June said it is adding 576 beds to the 875-bed Val Verde Correctional Facility.

Bob Libal, of Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based nonprofit that tracks the prison industry, said he anticipated a "disturbing trend of nonviolent immigrants being incarcerated for profit."

"Private prison companies are banking on the fact that they're going to be able to get rich," he said, "whether or not it's good policy, whether or not it's good for the community," he said.

ICE's directive for speed on the Raymondville facility was emphatic, and overtime and procurement costs haven't seemed to be an issue, said Kendall Phinney, a partner with Hale Mills, the lead construction firm on the Willacy County Detention Center.

Phinney said the company had essentially been challenged to complete a 12-month project in 90 days.

"When you're taking a 12-month project and cramming it into 90 days, there' s a premium you pay to do it," Phinney said.

He said extra costs included building materials for the tents, described by its manufacturer as an "engineered stress membrane structure" held together with aluminum arches that can withstand 110 mile-per-hour winds. They have been used for U.S. military in Iraq.

Each of the 10 tents will hold 200 detainees in rows of bunks separated into four rooms with drywall. Giant air conditioning vents run under the fabric ceiling. Tall barbed wire fence surrounds the complex, which neighbors a county jail and a state prison.

Contractors, subcontractors, the private prison management company and county officials are banking on the bunks staying full and on ICE coming back with orders for more. Hale Mills has 20 more acres on the site it can fill.

"The question is when it will be expanded," Phinney said.

Posted by lois at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)

VA: One New Prison, Two New Prisons, Three New Prisons, Four…

One New Prison, Two New Prisons, Three New Prisons, Four…
by Keith Wm. DeBlasio

Remember the old school yard game about one potato, two potato, three potato, four…Well, this is more suitable for the General Assembly’s budget game with new prisons in Virginia. It has been reported that the Governor Mark Warner’s (D) plan would add one new prison in Virginia, with the House of Delegates concurring, while the Senate’s budget proposal would add two new prisons.

However, none of this is completely accurate. In fact, the Senate’s Budget Bill (SB 30) would leave a line item (420 #3s) with an undisclosed amount for a third (in the Mount Rogers Planning District) and a fourth new prison (in Charlotte County). This is in addition, to the two new prisons for which$142,198,000 has been allocated by way of amendments to Senate Bill 39, a bill originally intended to finance the undertaking, development, acquisition and construction of the first phase of the Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS), introduced by Senator Kenneth Stolle (R-Virginia Beach), who recused himself from the vote on the bill due to a conflict of interest. These two new prisons slipped into the Radio System bill by amendments are destined for Tazwell and Pittsylvania Counties.

In addition to the Senate’s approval for these four new prisons, the Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS) bill provides for a $21,908,000 expansion of DeerfieldCorrectional Center, a $32,475,000 for expansion of St. Bride’s Correctional Facility (originally to be covered by federal VOITIS grant monies), $3,000,000 for
undisclosed roof repairs to state prison facilities, a $7,900,000 prison dairy and dairy processing plant at an undetermined location, and more. While at the same time, the actual Budget Bill provides for the loss of out of state prisoners, and provides an undetermined amount for the increased numbers of state responsible prisoners in local jails at increased rates.

On the other side of the General Assembly, the House Budget Bill does not actually provide for building new prisons with state funds. Actually, Delegate Chris B. Saxman (R-Staunton) presented legislation that would place a moratorium on new prison building, unless such construction was contracted with private financing. This legislation (HB 1042) passed the House of Delegates with a vote 93 to 5. The House of Delegates provided for the loss of out of state prisoners and the increased penalties for persons convicted of abusing incapacitated adults and multiple DUI offenders (HB 30 – Item 420.10 #1h), but deleted the $7,900,000 for new dairy facilities. Perhaps the denial of new dairy facilities by the House can also be contributed to Delegate Saxman’s intent to use private contracts at reduced costs for many prisonexpenses, including food services.

It is understandable that Delegate Saxman is set on demonstrating responsible spending in the area of corrections, since many of his constituents lost jobs or were transferred to far off locations when Staunton Correctional Center was closed last year. This facility is actually up for sale under a bill (SB 516) presented by Senator Emmett Hanger (R-Mount Solon), which originally would have sold the former Staunton Correctional Center to the local Industrial Authority for the sum of $1.Why close the correctional facility in Staunton while taking a loss on the property, then turn around and propose one, two, three, or even four new prisons in other areas? Why hide major prison spending costs in a bill related to the Statewide Agencies Radio System? Perhaps it is a way to compete for increased government provided jobs in localareas where the legislators have more clout. Perhaps it is a way for conservatives to liberally disperse public money while hiding behind more acceptable ‘tough on crime’ platforms. Or, perhaps it is an attempt to keep the public from realizing the vast amounts being spent to confine more and more nonviolent offenders, many of whom could better serve the public interest by receiving alternative sentences where they remain employed rather than draining our pockets. In any case, it is irresponsible spending that depletes the money available for education, health care, transportation, etc.

The Secretary of Public Safety and the Virginia Sentencing Commission acknowledge the need for less incarceration and more alternative sentences. After all, 85% of Virginia’s prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. Senator Hanger has expressed his commitment to seeking out these alternatives, and his unwillingness to increase prison beds. However, when deceptive tactics are used to tack prison spending on to unrelated pieces of legislation, which legislators want to support, even well intended commitments may have to be forgotten. At this point, it doesn’t seem that the Governor and the Virginia Senate are being straight forward. Nine Republican Senators, along with the House majority, are standing fast in their commitment to their constituencies not to increase taxes and not to spend state money irresponsibly. No matter what their positions may be on new prisons, at least these Members are practicing above-board legislating. After all, even when the former Governor George Allen (R) built two unnecessary supermax prisons, he did so with full knowledge of the citizens of Virginia – nothing hidden.
Remember, Governor Warner and the Democrats claim that there is a one billion dollar shortfall, yet almost half of this is represented in increased prison and corrections spending.
______________________
Keith Wm. DeBlasio is the Director of AdvoCare, Inc., www.advocareflash.org, and represents Virginia C.U.R.E., www.vacure.org, as their liaison to the Virginia General Assembly. He can be reached at director@advocareflash.org. Feel free to reprint or forward.

Posted by lois at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

VA: One New Prison, Two New Prisons, Three New Prisons, Four…

One New Prison, Two New Prisons, Three New Prisons, Four…
by Keith Wm. DeBlasio

Posted by lois at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

New juvenile hall delivers a message

"Throughout the state, new lockups for violators ages 11 to 19 are bigger, cleaner and more secure, with additional space for school and treatment. More than three dozen counties have rebuilt or remodeled juvenile facilities since the late 1990s, and eight counties, including San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Francisco, are completing projects. Yet most are versions of adult jails -- rows of bare cinder-block cells with bunks and steel toilets. And when one-time state and federal grants became available for improvements, most counties choose to expand -- doubling or even tripling the number of beds -- despite evidence that juvenile crime has been on a downward slide."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peni
nsula/15157773.htm

Mercury News Posted on Sun, Jul. 30, 2006
New juvenile hall delivers a message
SKYLIGHTS, SOFTER COLORS EVIDENT
By Karen de Sá
Mercury News

New architecture for juvenile justice is nearing completion in the foothills of San Mateo County -- designed to give young offenders the support they need to turn away from crime and thrive.

At the county's new $148 million youth services complex, the premise is treatment, not punishment, and the message is delivered in the very walls: soothing pastels to calm testy moods, skylights letting in swaths of sunlight and open space for stretching growing muscles.

Unlike other California counties that are greatly expanding their juvenile halls, San Mateo added only a few lockup beds and instead created homier settings for girls, substance abusers and the mentally ill. The juvenile hall is surrounded by a network of services for young people in trouble, from run-amok kids who exhaust their parents to teens who kill.

The complex, whose first phase opens in September, is already eliciting praise from advocates and justice officials statewide.

``What they're doing is not just building a juvenile hall. They've really focused on very troubled populations and treatment options to serve those kids locally, close to home,'' said Norma Suzuki, executive director of the Chief Probation Officers of California. ``Other counties are doing things, but not on this scale.''

The current juvenile hall, built in 1948 with low ceilings and dark, twisting hallways, became legendary for snakes in the showers and rats squeezing through holes in the walls. With no central heating or air conditioning at the hall, youths and the staff complain of near-constant discomfort.

A group of teenage boys interviewed inside the hall's D-unit described nauseating smells and thick grime in the corners of their cells. They said they get irritable when it's hot, fighting with the staff and their roommates.

Enhance treatment

``The building we had said: `We don't care about kids and families,' '' said juvenile Judge Marta Diaz. ``We've tried to do treatment in spite of the building. Now we'll have buildings that enhance and harmonize the treatment we want to provide.''

When complete, the campus off Highway 92 will include a 180-bed juvenile hall for both sexes, a 30-bed girls' camp, a 24-bed group home, a community school for students expelled from their districts, and a 12- to 15-bed receiving home for abused and neglected children.

Throughout the state, new lockups for violators ages 11 to 19 are bigger, cleaner and more secure, with additional space for school and treatment. More than three dozen counties have rebuilt or remodeled juvenile facilities since the late 1990s, and eight counties, including San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Francisco, are completing projects.

Yet most are versions of adult jails -- rows of bare cinder-block cells with bunks and steel toilets. And when one-time state and federal grants became available for improvements, most counties choose to expand -- doubling or even tripling the number of beds -- despite evidence that juvenile crime has been on a downward slide.

A lawsuit filed in April by the Prison Law Office alleges years of poor state oversight of eight county juvenile halls, including Alameda's. The advocacy group cites evidence of unsanitary and inhumane conditions, including walls smeared with feces, an abundant use of pepper spray and crowded classrooms and exercise yards.

Bigger facilities

New construction might remedy some of these problems. But the massive sizes of many facilities might create new problems, said Dan Macallair, executive director of San Francisco's Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Bigger facilities mean higher operating costs and less money for programs such as anger management and vocational training.

``You've got these spanking new facilities all over the state and they're sitting there, a lot of them only half-full,'' Macallair said. ``So it's made conditions perhaps a little better for some of these kids who otherwise would have been in decrepit facilities, but it hasn't improved the programming.''

Macallair said officials failed to consider the steady drop in juvenile crime when they built big. Last month, his center reported that California's juvenile crime rates are among the lowest recorded since 1960.

That leaves counties like Santa Clara -- focused for years on detention alternatives -- sitting on new, empty space. By fall, the Guadalupe Parkway juvenile hall will have a capacity of 390, even though the hall population averages about 250.

Probation officials plan to turn one of the empty units into a tutoring center and use the other one as an alternative to state prison for the most serious and violent offenders.

San Mateo County officials began building with the conviction that locking up more kids would not reduce crime. The new juvenile hall is 17 beds larger than the old -- just enough to make the project eligible for public funding
-- and tried to soften the features. Young people can spend up to three years in county custody, so the experience is critical in determining whether they'll veer away from crime or get deeper into it.

``I have nothing but praise for the way the county has gone about doing this project,'' said Gerry Hilliard, managing attorney of the Private Defender Program, who has 25 years' experience defending juveniles. The county, led by Judge Diaz, Probation Chief Loren Buddress and Supervisor Rich Gordon, ``talked about the needs of kids before they talked about the kinds of buildings they were going to build,'' he said.

After the first phase opens in September, few girls will be locked up. Instead, these offenders -- most victims of sexual and physical abuse -- will live in a sage-green circle of buildings resembling a boarding school, whose courses include overcoming post-traumatic stress and sustainable gardening.

Youths who are mentally ill and addicted to drugs also will be moved from cells into homelike settings to live in small groups.

Below the standard

The new juvenile hall, like many others in the state, does not meet American Correctional Association standards that say these facilities should serve no more than 150 people, with no more than 16 beds per living unit.

But the county tried to create some semblance of normality, designing the complex to resemble a small village, with buildings circling an athletic field and no razor-wire in sight.

Some offenders will walk freely across the campus to the dining hall and school. If they bump into a rival gang member -- just like they might on the streets -- they'll be expected to say ``excuse me'' and keep walking. If they fight, they lose the privilege of free movement.

Inside, wavy ceilings will muffle the din of noisy teenagers. The walls and carpets are yellow, green, blue and purple, with lively patterns to lighten the moods of the depressed and angry. And there's more natural light, which experts say helps adolescents process and absorb information.

For the first time, young offenders will have desks, pencils, sinks and mirrors in their rooms. A new visiting area will allow extended families to visit for the first time; currently, there is room only for parents.

Nonetheless, nine incarcerated teenagers interviewed for this story expressed concern about moving to the new facility. Certainly, there's fear of the unknown: Many have been in and out of the hall for years and have a certain affection for its funky-but-familiar look. Under a court order, the juveniles' names are not being used.

One 17-year-old scheduled to move to the girls' camp said she was worried at first about the possibility of ``a finger-in-your-face kind of thing.'' She's been in and out of lockups since age 13 for drugs and fighting, and on her dad's side of the family, jails and prisons are nothing new.

But after she toured the girls' camp, her mood picked up. She said she envisioned herself acting differently in a new environment.

``I would really feel comfortable here,'' she said. ``But at the same time you'd always have to remember you're not home -- which would be kind of hard, too.''
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Karen de Sá at kdesa@mercurynews.com or (650) 688-7550.

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