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February 28, 2007

Peter H. Morse-Pioneer and Leader in Harm Reduction Policy and Practice

San Francisco Chronicle - January 19, 2007 Peter H. Morse, Jr. 36, a pioneer and leader in harm reduction policy and practice, passed away on January 13, 2007. Dr. Morse was fiercely committed to protecting the health and well-being of drug users and their communities by reducing drug-related harm. His work in these areas has helped make harm reduction part of public policy and public consciousness. As the Naloxone Distribution Program Coordinator for the Drug Overdose Prevention Education (D.O.P.E.) Project of San Francisco, Dr. Morse helped to forge a groundbreaking partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to provide naloxone at needle exchange sites throughout the city. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that counters the deadly effects of overdose by heroin or other opiates. Dr. Morse helped establish and advised numerous syringe exchange programs throughout the country. He has been a member of the advisory board of the North American Syringe Exchange Network since 2001. He was currently serving as the advisory board chair for the Homeless Youth Alliance, an agency that provides critical services, including syringe exchange, to homeless youth in San Francisco. He was a member of the Injection Drug User Taskforce of the California HIV Planning Group, and was appointed to the San Francisco HIV Prevention Planning Council Substance Use and Structural Interventions Committee. Dr. Morse currently worked as the Project Coordinator of the Harm Reduction Coalition Syringe Exchange Technical Assistance Program and was working to expand syringe access in California. He was a longtime volunteer at the San Francisco Needle Exchange, and before that at the syringe exchange of the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center when he lived in New York City. He was also a member of the Moving Equipment Syringe Distribution Collective of New York City. Dr. Morse also worked as an interviewer, counselor, and project coordinator for University of California San Francisco's UFO Study, a hepatitis prevention focused health study of injection drug using youth. Dr. Peter H. Morse was born in Royal Oak, Michigan. He was educated at DePauw University, and received his doctorate in history from Binghamton University in 2006. In his research, he worked to understand the role of race and gender in the formation of political identity by members of radical industrial organizations in the United States during the early twentieth century He was an avid bibliophile and political activist, and was a member of the Bound Together Anarchist Book Collective. Dr. Morse was also a DJ, bringing electronic dance music to people in New York City, San Francisco, the Nevada Test Site, and Black Rock City, Nevada. Pete Morse is survived by his partner of 11 years, Liz Turner. The couple lived in Berkeley, California. He is also survived by his parents Pete and Patty Morse of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; his sister Carrie Morse of Washington, D.C. and his brother and sister-in-law, Dan and Meredith Morse of Berkley, Michigan. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to: Tenderloin Health/Homeless Youth Alliance, Attention: Mary Howe, P.O. Box 170427, San Francisco, CA 94117.

Posted by lois at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

LA Times: Immigrants Boost Pay, Not Prison Populations, New Studies Show

LA TIMES, 02-28-07
Immigrants boost pay, not prison populations, new studies show
Immigrants are less likely to go to prison than U.S.-born residents of the same ethnic group and they boost pay for natives, research says.

By Teresa Watanabe, Times Staff Writer
February 28, 2007

Two new studies by California researchers counter negative perceptions that immigrants increase crime and job competition, showing that they are incarcerated at far lower rates than native-born citizens and actually help boost their wages.

A study released Tuesday by the Public Policy Institute of California found that immigrants who arrived in the state between 1990 and 2004 increased wages for native workers by an average 4%.

UC Davis economist Giovanni Peri, who conducted the study, said the benefits were shared by all native-born workers, from high school dropouts to college graduates, because immigrants generally perform complementary rather than competitive work.

As immigrants filled lower-skilled jobs, they pushed natives up the economic ladder into employment that required more English or know-how of the U.S. system, he said.

"The big message is that there is no big loss from immigration," Peri said. "There are gains, and these are enjoyed by a much bigger share of the population than is commonly believed."

Another study released Monday by the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center showed that immigrant men ages 18 to 39 had an incarceration rate five times lower than native-born citizens in every ethnic group examined. Among men of Mexican descent, for instance, 0.7% of those foreign-born were incarcerated compared to 5.9% of native-born, according to the study, co-written by UC Irvine sociologist Ruben G. Rumbaut.

Both studies are based on U.S. census data, which includes both legal and illegal immigrants. They were released just days before the U.S. Congress is to restart debate on major immigration reform legislation and as numerous states, including Texas, consider harsh measures against illegal migrants.

The authors say their work shows that immigrants clearly benefit U.S. residents and are being unfairly scapegoated for problems they do not cause.

"There are grossly distorted perceptions between what people think about immigrants and the reality," Rumbaut said. "The old bromide that education is the way to reduce prejudice comes into play here."

Immigration hawks, however, took issue with both studies.

Steven Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies said the wage study, by examining immigrants only in California, failed to consider their effect on the rest of the country. Immigrants working for lower wages in a California factory, for instance, could keep wages down in a competing enterprise staffed by native-born citizens in another state, he said.

Immigrants, who make up one-third of California's labor force, could also be discouraging natives from moving to the state and taking advantage of higher-paying job opportunities, Camarota said.

And, by examining only wage effects, the study failed to address the declining percentage of native-born adults working in California, Camarota said. Their share of the workforce declined from 65% in 2000 to 62% in 2005, one of the lowest in the country, which could be caused by competition from immigrants, he said.

"The idea that immigrants compete only with other immigrants is absurd on its face," he said, adding that no industry in America employs only immigrants.

Peri said, however, that his study's more detailed analysis of California's employment trends showed no displacement of native-born workers. Other studies have shown that immigration has had a negative effect on African American high school dropouts. But those conclusions were rooted in different assessments of whether blacks performed the same work as immigrants, he said.

Of the crime study, Camarota said the U.S. government had failed to systematically collect 2000 Census data on immigration status from prisons and other institutions. The study's foundational data are therefore flawed, he argued.

But Rumbaut defended his study, saying the results were consistent with other research stretching back a century. They include national immigration studies conducted in 1911 and 1994, work by two Princeton economists examining 1980 and 1990 census data and more recent analyses of homicide rates in three border cities.

The co-author of the crime study was Walter A. Ewing, a research associate at the Immigration Policy Center. Among other findings, the study showed that the gap in incarceration rates between native-born and foreign-born men was wider in California. Incarceration rates, which rose the longer an immigrant was in the country, were highest among high school dropouts. Those of Asian descent generally showed lower incarceration rates and higher educational levels than Latinos.

Despite the data, Rumbaut said, many continue to perpetuate images of crime-prone immigrants.

Last year, the study says, President Bush blamed illegal immigrants for bringing crime to their communities, as did the city of Hazleton, Pa., in passing an ordinance barring them from renting homes or working.
The problem of crime in American society today is overwhelmingly a problem of natives, not immigrants," Rumbaut said.

In the wage study, Peri examined immigration flows and wages of California workers between 1960 and 2004 using U.S. Census data.

It found that immigrants did not worsen the job opportunities of natives with similar education and experience during the entire period.

The benefit for native-born workers ranged from a 0.2% wage increase for high school dropouts to 6.7% for those with some college, the study showed.

However, the study found that other immigrants suffered wage declines by as much as 20%.

"The findings would seem to defuse one of the most inflammatory issues for those who advocate measures aimed at 'protecting the livelihood of American citizens,' " the study said.

*
graphs at this url:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-me-immigstudy28feb28,1,4004926.story?page=2&cset=true&ctrack=1

Posted by lois at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)

Texas Talks Tough on Illegal Immigrants

Texas talks tough on illegal immigrants

Lawmakers push some of the harshest immigration-related measures in the United States.

By Miguel Bustillo, Times Staff Writer

February 27, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigtexas27feb27,0,391356,full.story?coll=la-home-nation

AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Lone Star State has long welcomed Latino immigrants, no matter how they got across the state's 1,200-mile border with Mexico.

Back when California voted to cut public services to illegal immigrants, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush was preaching that immigrants were equal players in the state's economy.

But the atmosphere has changed markedly in Texas, home to about 10% of the nation's illegal immigrants.

Now, a growing chorus of Republicans and some Democrats is pushing some of the harshest immigration-related measures in the United States — laws that would not only deny public services to illegal immigrants but strip their American-born children of benefits as well.

The proposal to deny services to American citizens, which is thought to be the first in the country, is part of a push to challenge the citizenship given automatically to children born in this country to illegal immigrants.

Prior rulings have affirmed that nearly all such children were entitled to birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. But some legal scholars have questioned whether the amendment, which redefined national citizenship to include the children of slaves after the Civil War, should cover babies born to foreign parents.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated last year that more than 3 million U.S. citizens were born to illegal immigrant parents.

"The Texas bill could be a vehicle to get this before the courts, and we strongly support that," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has been pushing Congress to revisit the 14th Amendment. "There is no question that it is time for a review, given the number of people entering the country illegally and giving birth."

Texas' shift toward a more incendiary brand of immigration politics comes at a time when many state lawmakers are frustrated that Washington has failed to stop illegal immigration. Few think President Bush's moderate proposals, which include a guest worker program and enhanced border security, will help much, even if they are approved by Congress.

State Rep. Leo Berman, the Republican legislator who wrote the bill to deny benefits to the children of illegal immigrants, admits that his goal is to set off a fight in the federal courts.

His legislation has been compared to Proposition 187, which was ruled unconstitutional after California voters approved it in 1994, but it goes further. It would deny citizens born to illegal immigrants numerous state services, including unemployment benefits and the ability to obtain professional licenses.

"A pregnant illegal alien can wait at the border, check into a hospital in Texas, give birth without paying a penny, and be rewarded for her illegal behavior," Berman said. "That's outrageous."

Berman's bill is one of more than two dozen proposals targeting illegal immigration in Texas. Other measures would tax money that illegal immigrants wire abroad; require patients to prove they are in the country legally before receiving state medical services; eliminate in-state college tuition breaks for illegal immigrants; and require state agencies to do a thorough accounting of how much illegal immigration is costing the state. Texas is home to about 1 million to 2 million illegal immigrants.

"Why should illegal immigrants, who by virtue of being in the country have broken the law, be able to get the same state services as a citizen?" asked state Sen. Royce West, a Democrat from Dallas who is proposing one of several measures to tax remittances to Mexico. He said his legislation was one way to raise money for healthcare programs.

Texas politicians say that proposing such laws would have been unimaginable a decade ago. During his days as governor, Bush regularly praised the cultural and economic contributions Latino immigrants were making to the state. His political strategy paid off: He won 40% of the Latino vote in 1998, a number previously considered unreachable for a Republican.

Bush's approach was a stark contrast from the immigration politics in California during the tenure of Gov. Pete Wilson, who backed Proposition 187, using it to win reelection.

"California has always been more liberal than Texas, but yet the treatment of immigration issues has been night and day," said Rogelio Saenz, a sociology professor at Texas A&M University.

The Texas Republican Party added hard-line immigration language to its platform last year in response to the demands of its conservative base. It included the line "No amnesty! No how. No way," and a call to "suspend automatic U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrant parents," the idea now proposed by Berman.

Latino leaders say they are stunned by the Texas proposals to deny services to children. They promise retaliation at the ballot box.

"How could anyone be so mean-spirited?" said Rosa Rosales, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest Latino civil rights group, which originated in Texas. "We're just going to have to get the community out to show these representatives that we matter."

For undocumented Texans such as Ofelia Lopez, the state's push to get tough on illegal immigrants elicits sadness as much as fear. Lopez , who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico seven years ago with the hope that she could give her children a better life, has two daughters, one 3 years old and one 6 months old, who are U.S. citizens.

"I don't think the solution is to deny children the opportunity to become better people. That's not going to help anyone," said Lopez, 35, who also has a 15-year-old daughter born in Mexico who is attending a Texas high school. "That's not going to stop people from coming here. People are coming here because it's the only way to survive."

Last year, state lawmakers nationwide proposed a record 570 immigration measures, and 84 were signed into law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The group predicts that immigration will again be among the hottest state issues in 2007.

In Texas, Democratic state Rep. Pete Gallego, head of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the House, said that though some of the new proposals were harsh, a few might have momentum, particularly the bills to tax wire transfers.

"People are appalled at how hard core some of these things are," Gallego said. "We will have a fight."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a conservative Republican who talked tough on illegal immigration during his reelection campaign last year, has tempered his rhetoric in recent weeks, and sounded a message of compassion and unity during his oath-of-office address last month. He has singled out Berman's proposal as divisive.

Berman counters that his bill may not make him the darling of Austin's lobbyists or the governor, but he is convinced his cause is popular.

"My mail is running 30 to 1 in favor of what I am trying to do," he said.

"This problem is costing Texas money. Texas has to act."

Posted by lois at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

PA: First Commutation since 2003

Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:38:41 -0500
Organization: CURE International

All-

One month into his second term of office, Governor Rendell has commuted the life sentence of Michael Anderson who has served 36 years on a first degree homicide conviction. The Governor signed the clemency documents on February 8, almost four years after the Pardons Board recommended Anderson by a 4-0 vote. It was the first commutation of a life sentence since 2003 when outgoing interim Governor Mark Schweiker extended clemency to Ricki Pinkins. The next commutation occurred in the waning hours of Bob Casey's term when he extended clemency to Louis Mickens Thomas. Anderson will have to serve one year in a half way house before being released on parole.

On a related note, the Pardons Board plans to consider Angus Love's appeal for reconsideration of the status of two cases - Jackie Lee Thompson and Keith O. Smith - who received 4-1 votes from the board and are in limbo awaiting further rulings by the courts. District Judge Richard Caputo has ruled that the 1997 referendum violated the "ex post facto" protections in the U.S. Constitution and that cases that predate the 1997 ballot should be considered under the old, majority rule in the Pardons Board. Despite the ruling, the board has refused to forward the two cases to the governor.

It's been a long time since we've seen any measure of compassion in this criminal justice system. Let's enjoy this little victory.

--Bill

William DiMascio
Executive Director
Pennsylvania Prison Society
245 N Broad Street, Suite 300
Philadelphia, PA 19107
www.prisonsociety.org

Posted by lois at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2007

Raymondville: Inside the Largest Immigration Prison Camp in the U.S.

Raymondville: Inside the Largest Immigration Prison Camp in the US
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/1536249

The largest immigrant prison camp is in Raymondville, Texas. Some two thousand undocumented immigrants are currently being held in the prison awaiting deportation. We speak with Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer representing a number of immigrants being held there.

The number of undocumented immigrants currently imprisoned in the United States has reached a record of more than twenty six thousand people. To keep pace with the increasing number of detainees, the government is rapidly expanding its federal immigration detention system. The largest immigrant prison camp is in Raymondville, Texas - in the remote southern tip of the state. Some two thousand undocumented immigrants are currently being held in the prison awaiting deportation. The $65 million jail was built last summer by the Management Training Corporation.

The Washington Post describes the Raymondville facility as a “futuristic tent city...made of Kevlar-like material” without windows and ringed by barbed wire. Many of those being held there say they have insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to the outside world.

AMY GOODMAN: Staying with the immigration issue for another minute, we're going to go now to Jodi Goodwin, who is an immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas, about twenty miles from the Raymondville prison, that huge tent city. She represents a number of immigrants being held there. She's joining us on the phone today from Houston. Jodi Goodwin, you're one of the few lawyers who have gotten into the facility. Can you describe what it is?

JODI GOODWIN: Well, it looks like a large series of circus tents put up in the middle of a field. There's a cement foundation and a steel frame, like ribs, and then there’s canvas that’s stretched over the steel frame. And there's ten tents just like that, all in a row.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Jodi Goodwin, I’m very familiar with Raymondville and Willacy County. It's one of the poorest counties in the United States, largely Mexican American. Any sense of the reaction of the surrounding community to the erection of this enormous detention center?

JODI GOODWIN: Well, it's interesting, the reaction of the community, because it's mixed. It is one of the poorest counties in the United States, and the Rio Grande Valley in general in the five-county area is the poorest area in the United States. So the thought of vast employment, which the prison did provide, I think, was welcomed by the community, because it provided a wealth of jobs for an area that has high unemployment. Now, there's questions about the training that was available prior to the prison opening and, even still, you know, whether or not the people that were hired have appropriate training as of yet.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the people you represent in Raymondville -- you call, what is it that you call it? Ritmo?

JODI GOODWIN: Now made famous by the Washington Post, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Taking after Gitmo, Guantanamo. What kind of access to food, to healthcare? What is their treatment by the guards?

JODI GOODWIN: Well, I think generally the access to healthcare is good. But there have been rampant reports and repeated reports -- and I can't say whether these are isolated incidences or not, but there are repeated reports of my clients and other people that I’ve talked to at the detention center that aren't my clients, that indicate they would put in requests for sick calls to be seen by a doctor or one of the nurses at the public health service, and days would go by before those requests would be answered. Now, I know that ICE has responded to those types of complaints by saying that that's just not true, but I have heard repeatedly from my clients and those who are not my clients that that's the case.

I’ve also heard repeatedly and over time that food service is not consistent, in terms of the timing that food is served, that the quantity of the food that is being served is not fulfilling. I mean, I went to the detention center once about probably the last part of November last year, and I walked into one of the pods, and I just opened the door and said, “Buenos dias. Como estan todos?” And they responded to me, “Muriendo de hambre” -- “We're dying of hunger.” And, you know, this is just their immediate reaction to someone coming in and asking, “How are you?” Now, ICE has responded that they are providing food within the caloric limit that’s approved by dietary services, etc., etc.

But even recently, as most recently as two weeks ago, I had a client write to me a pleading letter asking for medical attention and decent food, because he had been served rancid milk days in a row, and he and other detainees in his pod were throwing up and had stomach problems, because they had been served spoiled food. So, you know, for whatever that's worth, I know ICE's comments are completely opposite to that, but that’s what the reports that I get from my clients and from detainees there are.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Jodi Goodwin, any sense of how long the average detainee is being held there? Clearly, after the Mariel boatlift years ago, or decades ago now, some of the Cuban migrants were held for years in detention by United States Immigration. What's the situation there?

JODI GOODWIN: Well, you know, it's interesting, because the facility went up so quickly. It was contracted in mid-June, and it was housing 500 detainees by mid-August. It was at least designed to be a temporary facility, and I’m not really sure what's the number limitation that ICE would use to refer to “temporary,” but I’ve seen many, many people detained at the facility two, three, four, five months, and then there are people that are detained at the facility that have been transferred around the country and eventually end up in Willacy County, probably because it's cheaper to house detainees down in Willacy County than it is in places like New York or Boston. But I’ve seen those people that come into Willacy County after already having been in immigration detention in various facilities around the country five, six months.

I saw a woman from Ghana that had been transferred around from five different facilities in an eight-month period of time, and she was supposedly only waiting to be deported. So why does it take eight months in five facilities to deport somebody to Ghana? I’m not really sure.

AMY GOODMAN: Can we talk for a minute about who built this facility, Management Corporation of America, a private company, and how it compares to the public prisons or the ones run by the Department of Homeland Security?

JODI GOODWIN: Well, actually, Management Training Corporation is a contractor who runs [inaudible] the operations at the facility. It was a different contractor who actually constructed the facility, and I can't remember the name of that contractor. It was a contractor out of Houston, actually.

And as far as how does it compare to ICE-run facilities? Oh, night and day. We have an ICE-run facility that's a fairly large detention center that's only about forty-five minutes away from the Raymondville facility. That’s the Port Isabel Detention Center, and that’s an ICE-run facility, as opposed to a contractor-run facility. And to compare the two, and Port Isabel is Club Med compared to Raymondville. In fact, when there’s discipline problems or when someone starts complaining about their conditions at Port Isabel, almost as a joke, but really and truly it's not taken in jest, they say, “Do you want me to send you to Willacy?” You know, that people would rather stay at Port Isabel than be sent to Willacy.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think, Jodi Goodwin, has to happen right now?

JODI GOODWIN: We need immigration reform. I think that there needs to be a comprehensive approach to reform. And, you know, reform has to encompass a lot of different aspects. We can't just settle on a guest-worker program. We can't just focus on enforcement. The reform aspect needs to encompass the people who are here, needs to encompass the need of American companies for workers. It needs to encompass enforcement and just enforcement of the law. It needs to have all of those aspects to be able to be effective. And I have my hopes that Congress can set aside some of their partisanship and do something that will actually work good and be acceptable to both sides of the issue.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And what is your sense in a state like Texas and the other border states in your part of the country that clearly most feel the impact of the immigration issue, in terms of the willingness of both Democrats and Republicans this year to come up with some comprehensive immigration reform?

JODI GOODWIN: Well, it’s interesting. I’ve met with staffers in Washington, D.C. and talked to different representatives and senators with respect to the proposals. I think that there's a clear recognition by all of the border representatives in Congress that there's a problem and it needs to be dealt with. And the mere fact that they’re willing to start a dialogue on the issue, I think, is hopeful. It's gotten to a point that it's a crisis situation, so those individuals are, I think, finally realizing that they need to take action, now that they’ve recognized the issue.

AMY GOODMAN: Jodi Goodwin, I want to thank you for being with us, immigration lawyer from Harlingen, Texas, representing immigrants held in the Raymondville prison, about twenty miles from Harlingen. She was speaking to us from Houston.

Juan, as we wrap up today, there's an interesting editorial in the New York Times called "They Are America," that began, “Almost a year ago, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families slipped out from the shadows of American life and walked boldly in daylight through Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York and other cities. ‘We Are America,’ their banners cried. The crowds, determined but peaceful, swelled into an immense sea. The nation was momentarily stunned.”

And it goes on to talk about a lot that has happened since then. The country “summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied.”

“Border enforcement. What little the last Congress did about immigration was focused on appeasing hard-line conservatives by appearing to seal the border. President Bush’s new budget continues that approach, seeking 3,000 more Border Patrol officers and another $1 billion for a 700-mile fence, adding to the billions spent to militarize the border since the 1990s. That still isn’t enough to build the fence and it hasn’t controlled the illegal flow;” they say, “you need more visas and better workplace enforcement to do that. It has directed much traffic into the remote Southwest desert, making more immigrants vulnerable to smugglers and leaving many people dead.”

And then there's the federal raids, like at the Swift packing plant, the local crackdowns, the gutted due process, the web of suspicion, the rise of hate.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I think the reality is that, yes, there was a lot of attention last year, but nothing really emerged in terms of comprehensive immigration reform, and I do not see at this stage that there is any momentum, already in this new year, by this new congress, to address the immigration issue, and I think it's going to clearly necessitate another upsurge of mass protest to be able to even put it on the agenda, and I suspect that this spring we're going to see more of that.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, it's interesting that the main goal of people who are organizing the protest was just to stop any immigration legislation from passing, because they felt in a Republican congress there could only be trouble. And yet, now the Democrats are in power. What have they done, and is it on their agenda?

JUAN GONZALEZ: No. As I said, I don’t think it is right now, and I think it’s going to necessitate both the corporations who are increasingly realizing the necessity to have comprehensive immigration reform, as well as a mass movement and the labor movement to put it on the agenda, because, otherwise, with the war and the other major issues confronting the country right now, it's going to continue to be pushed back in terms of addressing what is clearly needed as some kind of comprehensive immigration reform.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we're going to link to your story on the NYU protest: "Find an Illegal Immigrant." The Republican club held it, and hundreds of students then wore little notes on them that said "illegal immigrant." Is that right?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. “I am an illegal immigrant.”

AMY GOODMAN: “I am an illegal immigrant.”

Posted by lois at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)

Human Rights Groups Call for Closure of Hutto Prison Holding Undocumented Immigrants

Human Rights Groups Call for Closure of Texas Jail Holding Undocumented Immigrants
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/1530247

Human rights groups are calling for the U.S. government to shut down a jail in Texas where about 200 immigrant children, some only infants, are being detained. Ten months ago the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began holding families in The Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas, owned by the private prison company, Corrections Corporations of America.

Many of the families held at the facility are seeking asylum in the United States. For months immigration officials refused to allow outside groups or the media into the center. But late last year researchers from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service were allowed inside.

The two groups have just released a report titled “Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families.” Michelle Brane is co-author of the report. She is the director of the detention and asylum program at the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and she joins us from Washington, D.C. And with us here in New York is Immigration Attorney Joshua Bardavid. Earlier this week he filed a habeas petition on behalf of five members of a Palestinian family being held in another immigration prison in Texas.

We repeatedly called both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Corrections Corporations of America to invite them on the program. They did not respond to our requests.

Michelle Brane. Director of the detention and asylum program at the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. She is co-author of the report “Locking Up Family Values.” Joshua Bardavid. Immigration attorney in New York. He is representing families held in immigration prisons in Texas.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Human rights groups are calling for the US government to shut down a jail in Texas, where about 200 immigrant children, some only infants, are being detained. Ten months ago, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement began holding families in the Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas, owned by the private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America. Many of the families held at the facility are seeking asylum in the United States. For months, immigration officials refused to allow outside groups or the media into the center, but late last year, researchers from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Service were allowed inside.

AMY GOODMAN: The two groups have just released a report called “Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families.” Michelle Brane is co-author of the report. She’s the director of the Detention Asylum Program at the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. She joins us from Washington, D.C. And with us here in our firehouse studio is immigration attorney Joshua Bardavid. Earlier this week, he filed a habeas petition on behalf of five members of a Palestinian family being held in another immigration prison in Texas. We repeatedly called both the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, and the Corrections Corporation of America to invite them on the program. They didn't respond to our requests.

Let's begin with Michelle Brane in Washington, D.C. Can you talk about the major findings in your report, "Locking Up Family Values"?

MICHELLE BRANE: Sure. We were investigating the use of family detention by ICE overall, and they’re using two facilities to hold families. So we visited both the facility in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and the facility that you mentioned in Hutto in Texas. When we went to Texas, we went in on December 4th of 2006. And really, what we found is that it's a former prison that is now being used to house families, and it still looks and feels very much like a prison. And even though they've made some modifications to accommodate children, such as putting railings on the bunk beds and painting some murals, it doesn’t really change the fact that it’s a prison, and people in there are treated still very much like prisoners.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And the people who being detained here, are these folks who have entered the country illegally? Are they largely asylum applicants?

MICHELLE BRANE: We weren’t able to get exact statistics on what percentage of the people being held there are asylum seekers, but it does appear that the majority of them are seeking asylum. Everybody who’s there is in some sort of immigration proceeding. Either they've been apprehended at the border crossing illegally, or they’ve -- some of them have been apprehended inside the country, and I think your other guest can speak to his clients in that case. So there's people in all sorts of proceedings, but what is interesting is that none of the people held at these facilities have any criminal charges pending against them, nor do they have any criminal backgrounds.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you give us, Michelle Brane, a historical context for locking up whole families?

MICHELLE BRANE: Sure. It's a fairly new thing to lock up families together as family units.
The Department of Homeland Security used to separate families, and before, INS. They sometimes held families in hotel rooms, but for the most part, families were either released, pending a hearing, or what they started to do post-9/11 more, as they kind of were ending the practice of releasing people to the community, was separating families. So they would take the adults in the family and put them in adult facilities -- you know, the mother in a facility for women, the father in a male facility -- and the children would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office for Refugee Resettlement, who takes custody of unaccompanied children in these proceedings. And they would be responsible for them until the case was resolved.

When Congress heard about this, they expressed concern about separating families and instructed ICE to stop separating families. And, actually, what they recommended was that ICE use alternatives, such as a program that currently exists that is run by ICE called the Intensive [Supervision] Appearance Program. And what they recommended also was that if these programs couldn't be used and detention was necessary, that home-like non-penal environments be used.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And could you tell us about the conditions that you found in these centers and, specifically, the impact on the children of being locked up?

MICHELLE BRANE: Sure. I mean, the facility in Hutto, in particular, is -- I don’t think it can be described anywhere near a home-like non-penal environment. As I mentioned, it is a former prison that still looks and feels very much like a prison. Children, families sleep in cells at night, where children are very often separated from their parents. So at night, some children do remain in the cell with their parents, and others are separated into separate cells. It depends on family size, space and the age of the child. But children as young as six can be separated at night. And, in fact, at the Berks County facility, all children over five sleep separately from their parents. And at night, these parents cannot get to their children. So, many parents talked of their children crying at night or being sick at night and not being able to go to them. While the doors of the cells at the Hutto facility are not locked -- they’ve disengaged the locks on the cell doors -- there is a laser beam that shoots across the line of cells so that if a door is opened, an alarm would go off.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking with Michelle Brane, who is one of the people who just published this report, "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families.” Joshua Bardavid is also with us, an immigration lawyer here in New York. Can you talk about your clients, the Hazahza family?

JOSHUA BARDAVID: The Hazahza family is actually being held at a different facility than the Hutto facility. They’re being held in Haskell, Texas, the Rolling Plains Regional Detention Center. Two members of the Hazahza family were held at Hutto, but have since been released: the mother and an eleven-year-old child. The remaining members of the family are being held in what is a county prison that holds violent criminal offenders, who are there -- some of whom are there for life. They are being held in absolute prison-like facility.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m going to break in for one minute, because we have just gotten a call from the Hutto detention facility. We're joined on the phone by an Iranian immigrant named Majid, from inside the Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas. He, his wife, his nine-year-old son Kevin have been held at the center for the past nineteen days. Majid, your story is quite a remarkable one. Can you tell us how you ended up at this Texas jail?

MAJID: Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I was on my way to go to Toronto, Canada, and my plane was -- after three hours in the flight, somebody died on the plane and had an emergency landing to Costa Rica. After that, they said everybody should come out. After that, we went out. Immigration, they said you need to have American visa. We had no American visa. And they hold us over there --

AMY GOODMAN: Now, just to be clear, you were never planning to end up in the United States, is that right? You were flying to Canada, but another passenger on the plane had a heart attack, and so you guys had a forced landing in Puerto Rico, and when you had to come out of the plane, while he was taken off the plane, that's when they took you?

MAJID: Yes. This happened, yes -- was a Canadian Zoom Airline, and our ticket was direct from Guyana to Toronto. And this happened. They hold us -- my son is Canadian -- hold child is nine-and-a-half years old, and they put us in detention in Puerto Rico. And from Monday to Friday, I was in the jail in Puerto Rico between criminal people, and my wife and son was other place. We had no news from each other from Monday morning until Friday at noon, until we see each other in a Puerto Rico airport. After that, they brought us here to Hutto Detention Center, and here we are in same part, but different room. My wife and my son is room, but it’s totally inside the room, uncovered toilet. My son has asthma, and he’s very bad and still comes here. It’s very horrible here. And we are in very bad situation. We need help. We need the people help me --

JUAN GONZALEZ: Majid, in other words, basically, what reason did they give you for holding you if you never intended to enter the United States at all? What reason did they give for locking you up?

MAJID: Because they said, “You have an American visa?” That's why you have to stay here. Just plane was waiting one hour for us, but they didn't let us pass. A few officers came. They said Immigration officers -- six, seven -- they said, “We’re going to send you, but let us make decision.” After that, they called the police chief. He came there. He said, “Let me think five minutes.” After five minutes, he came, he said, “I’m going to send you to Canada, but I’m afraid to lose my job. But usually we have to send with your plane, but we keep you here. America is much better than Canada. Here you have safer place. We send you to hotel, and after a few days, you're going to be free.” But they broke their promise. That's why they keep us here, and we have very bad situation here.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Do you know whether any other passengers on your plane were also detained in the same way, or was your family the only one, as far as you can tell?

MAJID: Only my family. No other passenger.

AMY GOODMAN: I just want to say to our listeners and viewers, we are not giving your full name, we’re not showing your face at your request. You did apply for political asylum in Canada in the past when you lived there for ten years. You were ultimately denied, sent back to Iran. And what happened when you were sent back to Iran, you and your wife?

MAJID: Yes. In December 2005, we sent to Iran, whole family, when my Canadian son born. And all documents -- the immigration officer gave all our documents to the captain of plane. After that, in Italy, we went with the Alitalia Airline. In Italy, police came to plane. They took us to [inaudible] room in the transit of Italy, and after that, again, they put us in the plane and give all documents to the captain of Alitalia again. We went to Iran, and in Iran, the plane’s captain said, “You have to sit until the police come to take you.” All passengers went out, and four Iranian secret police came in the plane, and he got all documents from the captain, and they took us in the airport in the secret police office. We were there for a few hours, four or five hours, in the same room.

After that, they separate us. They took me to other place, unknown place. I was in Iran a small cell for six months, and lots of torture and hitting. Now I have physical problem and knee problem and lots of things. And they took my wife to other prison, where we have no news from each other. And for six months, my wife was one year and one month in the prison, and she [inaudible] -- after she was free she [inaudible] the child, and because they [inaudible] him, and she was [inaudible] two, three time in the jail. And it's a very bad situation. But we had no news from each other. They told my wife, because your husband, you have to cooperate with us.

AMY GOODMAN: They said they killed you?

MAJID: Yeah, they a few times told. One time they told her, “He's in coma.” The other time, they said, “Already he was killed.” And, you know, many times they play with her. After one month, they free her in the street at nighttime. They did with me, too, after six months, a lot of torture. And this one, they free me in the street out of the town with closed eyes. And I didn't see anybody, but they took me in daytime some day in winter -- you know, they take my pants off to put in very cold water. They already broke the ice, they put in the water, and they hit me every day, hitting me.

And when I came out, I was less than thirty kilograms, my weight. And my wife was different, six months was under psychologist’s medication over that. And after free, I should register two times a week, every Sunday and Thursday. And when I took -- they took us over there, they took me over there again. One week, they put me in detention, and the other time, again three days. And after that, one guard told me, “I’m going to help you.” After that, he called me, said, “OK, your future is very dangerous. You have to leave. Otherwise, you are in big trouble. I don't know what will happen to you and your family.” That's why we decided and we escaped from there.

AMY GOODMAN: And you tried to go to Canada. Can you put your son Kevin on? He's standing next to you, nine years old?

MAJID: Yes. Just hold on, please?

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you. We're talking to Majid and Kevin in the Hutto Detention Center that’s run by the Corrections Corporation of America in Taylor, Texas.

KEVIN: Hello.

AMY GOODMAN: Hi, Kevin. How are you?

KEVIN: Not good.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us the situation you're in right now and what you want to happen right now?

KEVIN: Excuse me, I didn't hear you.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe where you are right now?

KEVIN: I’m in US jail right now.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And Kevin, where are you staying at night? Are you with your parents, or are they locking you up separately?

KEVIN: I’m with my parents, but we’re in separate rooms.

JUAN GONZALEZ: In separate rooms?

KEVIN: Yeah.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And are they letting you -- are you getting any kind of education, or are you just sitting in your cell all day?

KEVIN: We’re sitting in the cell all day.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you want to do now, Kevin?

KEVIN: I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school. I want to be in my homeland: Canada.

AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?

KEVIN: What?

AMY GOODMAN: You want to go home to Canada?

KEVIN: Yeah. My home is in Canada.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you with your parents in Iran?

KEVIN: My parents -- what?

AMY GOODMAN: Were you with your mother and father in Iran?

KEVIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And you were coming on the plane?

KEVIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: What are the people telling you? Can you go to Canada?

KEVIN: Hmm?

AMY GOODMAN: What are the guards telling you? Will they release you?

KEVIN: I forgot what they were saying, but they told us some stuff. I forgot what they were saying to us.

JUAN GONZALEZ: How are the other children there? Are you spending time with any of the other children?

KEVIN: No.

AMY GOODMAN: They don't let you spend time with the other children?

KEVIN: No. I’m sleeping beside the washroom, and I can't -- and I’m upstairs. I can't go to the washroom all the time. And there's a lot of smell coming out from the washroom. And the food is garbage. And the school is very bad. I can't learn anything good. And I have asthma, and I got sick in here. I can't stay here anymore.

AMY GOODMAN: Kevin, you said you're sleeping next to the bathroom?

KEVIN: Yeah. And it's not a separate room. It's right beside the bed. And I’m sleeping beside the wall, and my back gets sick and it hurts.

AMY GOODMAN: How is your mother?

KEVIN: My mother is sick.

AMY GOODMAN: Kevin, can you put your father back on the phone?

KEVIN: OK.

AMY GOODMAN: Kevin is nine years old. He's a Canadian citizen, came from Iran with his parents. They were flying over the United States, when the plane had to land in Puerto Rico because a passenger had a heart attack, and when they landed, the Majid family -- we're not using their real name -- was taken off the flight. Majid, have you talked to the Canadian consulate, and what is your hope when you get to Canada, if you get to Canada?

MAJID: Yeah, on Monday, they came here. They said -- they come here, and we spoke to each other. They mostly asked my wife and Kevin, “What's your food, and what kind of food they give you? Are you in same room with family?” My son said no, because he said, I was told -- “All your family in one room?” -- he said, “No, we are in separate room, and the toilet is inside, the uncovered toilet, in the room.” And only they said [inaudible] said, “You’re going to help us?” They said, “We don't know. You have to speak with your lawyer.” After that, just regarding information, my son’s birth certificate information, and they left. And two days ago, I tried to call them in consul, and no response, because he was to be phone. I tried again, but I couldn't reach him. No more information I have.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Majid, now, do you have a lawyer who is helping you? And do you have a scheduled hearing anytime in the future on your case?

MAJID: Yeah. I have lawyers that’s from immigration clinic here. They’re students. They’re working. They are very good people. And no hearing. Two or three time, I requested for hearing, but no response so far in the past seventeen, eighteen days here. No response. We don't know what's going to happen for us.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you want to stay in the United States?

MAJID: You know, we escaped from Iran, OK? We escaped to be safe and free with my family. But our plan was in Canada. And I don't know, they keep us here. Anyway, we want safe and free, Canada or US. If Canada give us a visa, we go there; we go to US, if here, we’ll stay here.

AMY GOODMAN: Why are you afraid to use your full name or to show your face?

MAJID: Because everybody knows the Iran. The Iran’s -- like this, we are in very bad situation, because I don't trust here immigration, because the first time they said lots of things to us, but they broke their promise. They said you're going to happen this, this, but now they said we're going to deported. OK, maybe we deported. And we are like this. We are in 100% in danger. If our whole full name goes, it's 200% in danger, because especially United States -- if you go from other country, you have less risk with government. If you go from United States, because they said “US is our enemy,” they said, Iranian authorities says, OK? But that's why we are in more and more trouble if we go back, because they will say, “Why you go to US and this happen?”

AMY GOODMAN: Joshua Bardavid is an attorney that we are sitting with in the New York studio. When you listen to this story, what are your thoughts?

JOSHUA BARDAVID: Unfortunately, this is -- what he is experiencing is a very common experience. It is the reflexive use of detention for asylum seekers. The Majid family, they’re survivors -- from what he’s describing, he’s a survivor of torture. He was detained in Iran. He is seeking freedom, in this case, in Canada, arrives in the United States and is placed back in detention. The re-traumatizing effects of being placed back in detention cannot be underestimated. You have a child who is sleeping in what was a jail cell for a maximum-security prison that has been converted, but they still leave the exposed toilet, you know, sitting in the middle of their room. There's no privacy. With other children, he's in a room separate from his parents. Now, but the door may be not locked at night, but that door is certainly shut, and it’s a steel heavy door. They are placed in a prison. There's no doubt that this is a prison. And what is particularly troubling about this is that this was designed for the purpose of holding families, yet they made a conscious decision to maintain the facility as a prison, to leave the barbed wire, to leave the doors, to leave the environment as a prison.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And what about the issue -- I don't know if you've found with other of your clients -- given the fact that you do have young children like this, you’d think there would be some kind of process for expedited hearing to find out -- have an immigration judge review the case, but they've been there now, what, more than two weeks now.

JOSHUA BARDAVID: Yeah, that's definitely another troubling aspect. In order to sentence somebody in the United States to two weeks in jail, you would need to have guilt proved beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of your peers. In order for the Majit family to spend an additional two weeks in jail, it simply could take an administrative delay. This is one of the problems.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about the role of these private prison companies. The Hutto facility is run by CCA, the Corrections Corporation of America. In fact, the jail is named after CCA’s cofounder, T. Don Hutto. I want to play a comment made by William Andrews, the chair of the CCA board, during a conference call with investors two weeks ago.

WILLIAM ANDREWS: I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that these facilities that are being reported in the paper of ICE are in any way substandard. In fact, they are above standard, and the reports come from special interest groups that are attempting to do away with privatization and the whole immigration situation. And, you know, we welcome anybody to visit our facilities. And the family facility, particularly, at T. Don Hutto is almost like a home.

AMY GOODMAN: That was William Andrews, the chair of the board of the Corrections Corporation of America, describing the conditions at the Hutto jail as “almost like a home.” Michelle Brane in Washington, D.C., your response?

MICHELLE BRANE: Well, as I mentioned already, and has been made very clear by your other guests, it is very clearly a prison that is being used to house inmates, and it has no resemblance to a home. I mean, there’s sofas. There are plastic sofas and TVs, but that’s about it. And one of the things that's very disturbing about this model that they’re using is that there are alternatives. As I mentioned before, there are pre-hearing release programs that could be used.

There’s a whole range of ways to ensure that people appear for hearings, that they don't abscond and that enforcement of our immigration laws can be accomplished without resorting to these drastic measures. And that's one of the things that we've really been stressing in the report, is that, you know, as you've heard from the responses, in the White House response and the ICE response to our report, and to other complaints about the Hutto facility, they are presenting it as an alternative of either a facility like this or complete separation, into different buildings and different centers, of entire families. And there is a wide range of other alternatives in between those two.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. I also want to thank Majid and Kevin. And we will certainly continue to cover their story and update you on the situation. For one brief moment, because they called in in the middle of you describing your own clients, if you could briefly finish, Joshua, and then we're going to go to Raymondville, to something that is, well, a tent city, a prison camp for immigrants in the tip of Texas. But very briefly.

JOSHUA BARDAVID: Well, my clients now, the Hazahza family, who are being held in Haskell, which is a county facility and is a maximum-security facility, this is an entire family that again is being separated in this center in extremely harsh conditions, that includes isolation of a seventeen-year-old, who has now turned eighteen, but at the time he was seventeen when he was placed in solitary confinement. You have the -- there is physical threats. There is strip searches as a common tool of discipline. And it is a prison. And this is an ongoing problem with intermingling immigration detainees with criminal violent offenders in the United States.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, again, the reason for their detention is they’re -- are they asylum seekers?

JOSHUA BARDAVID: They were asylum seekers. They lost their asylum hearing, but the US government has been unable to remove them, so they do not know what to do with them, so they placed them in this facility.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you, Joshua Bardavid, for joining us.

Posted by lois at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2007

Maine: State Seeks Fix for Overcrowded Prisons

Portland Press Herald
State seeks fix for squeezed prisons
By KEVIN WACK, Staff Writer
Sunday, February 25, 2007

The last time Maine studied overcrowding in its jails and prisons, a blue-ribbon commission issued an urgent call to action.

"Maine's prisons and county jails are at a critical juncture," read the 2004 report, written by a panel that included lawmakers, attorneys and judges. "Prisoners are triple- and quadruple-bunked in cells. Tensions are high.

Attacks and injuries are on the rise. Costs are spiraling upwards. The state must act now to alleviate these potentially disastrous situations."

The commission's findings led to a series of reforms. But three years later, little has changed.

The Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee recently held a news conference to again draw public attention to prison overcrowding. State officials noted that Maine's prison population is expected to grow by 21 percent between 2006 and 2011. This month, the state's prison system had 265 more inmates than are allowed under federal accrediting standards.

"So is it a dangerous situation? Yeah," said Rep. Richard Sykes, R-Harrison, echoing the 2004 report on overcrowding.

Much to the frustration of corrections officers, lawyers, judges and lawmakers, prison overcrowding is the problem that won't go away. Even though Maine has some of the nation's lowest rates of crime and incarceration, the number of inmates keeps rising at a rate that outpaces the population increase.

"It's like a creeping paralysis," said Don Allen, who was head of the Maine Department of Corrections for 18 years until he retired in 1995.

During the late 1990s, the state embarked on a $140 million plan to expand, renovate and replace its prisons. But within five years, the new space for adult prisoners was already full, and projections indicated that the trend would continue.

This set off alarm bells. So in the summer of 2003, the Legislature created an 18-member commission to find a solution without building new prisons. The commission was successful -- at least to a degree -- as its recommendations led to a number of reforms.

A 2004 law signed by Gov. John Baldacci eased probation for some offenders, since corrections officials said the state's probation system was overstressed. From October 2004 to December 2006, the number of adult probationers in Maine dropped by 17 percent.

For many prisoners, the law also increased time off for good behavior from five days per month to nine days. And there was a measurable effect. Between 2004 and 2006 the state's prison population barely rose.

But the relief was short-lived. Now the number of inmates is again rising, leading to a scramble to find places to put beds.

NO SIMPLE EXPLANATION

It's hard to say exactly why Maine's prison population continues to rise. People who work in and around the corrections system say it's unlikely there is a simple explanation.

Neale Duffett, a Portland defense attorney who served on the 2004 sentencing commission, believes that state lawmakers who take a tough-on-crime posture are a significant part of the problem.

The sentencing commission recommended a halt on enhancements to Maine's sentencing laws, but that moratorium didn't last long. At least seven new crimes were created in 2005 alone. The following year, new laws toughened the punishment for a wide range of crimes -- from the sexual assault of young children to driving with a suspended license to criminal mischief meant to harm property owners.

"I don't think the Legislature is doing its part," Duffett said.

Mary Cathcart, a former Democratic senator from Penobscot County, said that some lawmakers may support sentencing increases for political reasons. "I think there is a fear that you'll appear to be soft on crime, not giving strict enough punishments," Cathcart said.

Rep. Janet Mills, D-Farmington, said the Legislature can be blamed for failing to fund the full cost of tougher punishments. "We're notoriously poor at putting fiscal notes on criminal legislation," she said.

However, the longer sentences imposed in 2006 have not yet been in place long enough to have much effect.

Denise Lord, deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, said the impact of tougher sentences will not be felt by the state's prison system for several years.

It's also important to note that the rise in prison populations is by no means limited to Maine. Nationally, the number of prison inmates is projected to increase by 13 percent between 2006 and 2011, according to a study released this month by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

OPINIONS DIFFER ON SOLUTION

In Maine, there's a wide range of opinions about what should now be done about prison overcrowding.

Some note the high cost of incarceration and say they would like to see a greater emphasis on alternatives, such as home confinement and the use of GPS devices to track offenders' whereabouts.

"You can get tough, but you've got to get smart now because tough has proven pretty expensive," said Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion.

Others emphasize the need for more jail beds, saying that dangerous offenders need to be removed from society.

"Jails are important. You have to have incarceration," said Sen. William Diamond, D-Windham.

But despite the differences over how to fix the overcrowding problem, there is broad agreement that Maine is now in a similar predicament to the one it faced just four years ago.

"I think they've now got a crisis," said Allen, who chaired the sentencing commission. "And they're going to have to deal with it." __________________

MAINE PRISON NUMBERS

POPULATIONS as of Feb. 14 -- capacity is based on national accrediting standards

MAINE CORRECTIONAL CENTER, WINDHAM: Capacity 522, population 689

MAINE STATE PRISON, WARREN: Capacity 922, population 875

BOLDUC CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, WARREN: Capacity 150, population 214

CHARLESTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, CHARLESTON: Capacity 75, population 96

DOWNEAST CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, MACHIASPORT: Capacity 96, population 151

CENTRAL MAINE PRE-RELEASE, HALLOWELL: Capacity 50, population 55

Source: Maine Department of Corrections
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/070225prison.html

Posted by lois at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)

CA: $1 billion for nothing

Sacramento Bee
Editorial: $1 billion, for nothing
Published Sunday, February 25, 2007
What could the state buy for $1 billion?

It could buy health coverage for all California children for a year.

It could increase per-pupil spending by $169, enough to nudge California above Louisiana in the national rankings.

It could pay the cost of double-tracking light rail all the way to Folsom and add hundreds of new buses -- and still have money left over.

Instead of spending money on any of those worthy projects, the state has wasted $1 billion since 1989 in ineffective prison drug abuse programs. How ineffective are these programs? In a scathing report, Inspector General Matthew Cate found that the recidivism rates for prisoners enrolled in two of the largest in-prison substance abuse programs were actually higher than those of a control group that did not receive treatment.

The failures Cate documents are stunning in their magnitude. In some cases program contractors were paid for beds that went unfilled, so the cost of treatment zoomed from $3,832 per inmate to $5,079. Even when drug and alcohol addicted prisoners were enrolled in programs, months-long lockdowns in overcrowded prisons kept them away from required counseling sessions.

Although the contracts required that inmates enrolled in treatment were supposed to be isolated from the general prison population, none of the programs complied with that basic requirement, a serious lapse that ensured programs would fail.

The shortcomings the inspector general outlines in his report should have been well known in prison circles. The Prison Office of Substance Abuse Programs paid researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and San Diego State University $8.2 million in the last eight years to evaluate treatment programs. The 20 reports they produced identified many of the weaknesses the inspector general's investigation has now confirmed.

Inexplicably, nothing was done. In fact, the Legislature authorized the building of new prisons on the condition that new treatment beds would be created, apparently without knowing the programs were failing miserably.

In response to the report, the governor has appointed a new director and renamed the program. The old Office of Substance Abuse Programs is now the new Division of Addiction and Recovery Services. But a name change and empty promises of reform from the administration will not fix what ails California's prison system.

Everything about the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is in disarray. The state has shown time and time again that it is incapable of managing its prisons. Repeated failures mean that public safety is being compromised and billions of dollars wasted. Could a federal take-over be worse than what exists now?
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/128181.html

Posted by lois at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

Wall Street Journal:Educate, Medicate, Incarcerate- states plan an increase in spending

"Montana's Mr. Schweitzer, who also faced an austere outlook when he first took office, is now enjoying a $1 billion surplus, largely due to higher tax revenues on capital gains and energy production. As he sees it, states spend nearly all of their money to "educate, medicate and incarcerate." His two-year, $7.7 billion budget boosts spending on all three. Legislative analysts peg the budget increase at 26%; Mr. Schweitzer excludes the rainy-day fund and payments towards pension obligations and says the jump is closer to 13%. The state's prison system will see one of the largest increases. Mr. Schweitzer says Montana leads the nation in the per-capita number of citizens incarcerated. Because the vast majority of those are for drug-related crimes, he's proposing a program that would marry the state's prison system with its Department of Health. The resulting "meth prisons," as he calls them, would combine incarceration with intensive rehab programs, which he says would allow for more early releases and, over the long term, would lower the state's cost of maintaining its prisoners. It's an unusual idea, and one he says that the federal government is unlikely to help finance. "The feds aren't really interested in new and novel things," he says."

February 24, 2007, Wall Street Journal

BUDGET BOOM
States Set Big Spending Plans
As Washington Preaches Austerity
By CHRISTOPHER COOPER
February 24, 2007; Page A1

Washington may currently be focused on fiscal austerity. But a major spending spree is shaping up in the states, as local legislators abandon a half-decade of fiscal conservatism to pursue bigger budgets.

From New York to Montana to California, states are proposing budget increases that outpace inflation and far exceed the 1% rise in domestic outlays -- outside of defense and homeland security -- that President Bush recently proposed in his fiscal 2008 federal budget. In Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer is cutting taxes and boosting spending by 26% over two years, including $100 million for new "meth prisons" that blend incarceration with intensive drug rehab for those convicted of methamphetamine crimes. In Vermont, Gov. Jim Douglas wants to borrow $40 million to create "the nation's first e-state," where free wireless broadband is available to all. And in Arizona, the only dispute between a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature over a half-billion-dollar road-repair program is whether to borrow the money or pay cash.

STATEHOUSE SPENDING BOOM

€ The News: Numerous states are proposing significantly bigger budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.

€ The Background: Washington's budgetary focus on Iraq, defense and homeland security is leaving states to address other domestic concerns, like health insurance.

€ The Bottom Line: The spending boom raises the risk that states may spend beyond their means.

The binge is bipartisan. Last year, the Massachusetts legislature approved a $1.56 billion universal health-care plan under Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who is now running for president. This year, at least ten states -- most notably Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger's California -- are weighing similar programs.

But that's just one of many areas where state governments are seeking to expand services that were long considered distant dreams by advocates. Universal prekindergarten is being championed by several incoming Democratic governors, such as New York's Eliot Spitzer, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Mike Beebe of Arkansas. Democratic leaders in Colorado and Pennsylvania and several other states want to create funds for state "energy independence." Many of these proposals will be topics of conversation at the National Governors Association's annual meeting, which begins in Washington today. 1

The new state activism is driven in part by the Bush administration's budgetary focus on Iraq, defense and homeland security, which leaves states to grapple with domestic concerns on their own. Higher tax receipts and growth in energy royalties, from higher oil and natural-gas prices, have also left many states flush.

But even states faced with declining revenue are mulling ways to ramp up spending -- not with unpopular tax increases, but by privatizing valuable public assets in return for big slugs of cash. Michigan and Illinois, among others, are looking at selling off their lotteries, while Missouri is considering doing the same with its student-loan portfolio.

The growing popularity of health-care programs and higher teacher salaries raises the risk that states, giddy from surging revenue, may be in danger of expanding beyond their means, using short-term windfalls to create new long-term obligations at a time when tax increases remain unpopular with voters.

It was just a few years ago that states last found themselves in financial dire straits. In the early 2000s, many state governments were hit hard by recession and constitutional requirements to balance budgets. Reluctant to unwind fresh tax rollbacks, states were forced not only to cease creating new services but also to cut back on many basics, such as road repairs and prisons. In 2003, the National Governors Association reported that states collectively were undergoing the worst budget crisis since World War II.

Even after their economies and revenue streams recovered in the middle part of the decade, state governments concentrated on building surpluses and kept spending relatively in check. But now, many states are returning to their old ways: along with spending more, several governors are proposing hefty tax cuts as well.

Like many governors, Arizona Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano faced a looming budget shortfall -- $1 billion in her case -- when she took office in 2003. Now, thanks to strong economic growth, surging sales-tax revenue and low unemployment, the state has $650 million in reserves. For fiscal year 2008, Ms. Napolitano has proposed a $10.4 billion budget that calls for a 6.9% increase in spending on top of the 18% increase last year.

The extra money allows Ms. Napolitano to put tens of millions of dollars toward her priorities: pay raises for teachers, 12% more for state universities, and $60 million for projects to train and attract high-tech workers and businesses. "Somewhere out there is the next Microsoft," Ms. Napolitano said. "I'd just as soon that it be in Phoenix or Tucson."

Montana's Mr. Schweitzer, who also faced an austere outlook when he first took office, is now enjoying a $1 billion surplus, largely due to higher tax revenues on capital gains and energy production. As he sees it, states spend nearly all of their money to "educate, medicate and incarcerate." His two-year, $7.7 billion budget boosts spending on all three. Legislative analysts peg the budget increase at 26%; Mr. Schweitzer excludes the rainy-day fund and payments towards pension obligations and says the jump is closer to 13%.

The state's prison system will see one of the largest increases. Mr. Schweitzer says Montana leads the nation in the per-capita number of citizens incarcerated. Because the vast majority of those are for drug-related crimes, he's proposing a program that would marry the state's prison system with its Department of Health.

The resulting "meth prisons," as he calls them, would combine incarceration with intensive rehab programs, which he says would allow for more early releases and, over the long term, would lower the state's cost of maintaining its prisoners. It's an unusual idea, and one he says that the federal government is unlikely to help finance. "The feds aren't really interested in new and novel things," he says.

Mr. Schweitzer's budget also offers about $150 million in tax cuts and a $170 million capital construction program. "The best part is I don't have one dollar of bonding in my program," Mr. Schweitzer said. "We're paying cash."

Another reason states are loosening their purse strings is to compensate for a sustained decline in federal revenue sharing. In the past, the federal government could often be relied on to help finance big projects such as highways and new state initiatives, such as antipoverty programs. But the days of expanding federal revenue sharing have been on the wane for years. And the Bush administration, with its focus on war and antiterror spending, has shown little interest in supporting these efforts.

In fact, governors and others say they expect cutbacks in federal support. "I don't think anyone feels the federal government is going to be a source of revenue increases any time in the near future," says Robin Prunty, a credit analyst, who specializes in state finances for bond-rating firm Standard & Poor's Corp.

In New Mexico, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, who is running for president, is proposing a $5.7 billion budget, 11% bigger than last year's. The spending plan not only provides more than $100 million in raises for school employees, but includes some projects he had originally intended to supplement with federal grants, such as the state's commuter-rail system. "We had a commitment from the feds for $65 million but we haven't seen it yet, so I'm putting it in my own budget," Mr. Richardson says. His budget also includes a $77 million proposal to expand health care.

In many states, universal-health-care proposals are potentially the most expensive propositions, and none top the gargantuan plan offered by California's Mr. Schwarzenegger. His $12 billion health-care plan would insure an estimated 6.5 million people by imposing new fees on doctors and hospitals and giving $1 billion in tax breaks to individuals who purchase their own health insurance.

Mr. Schwarzenegger is touting his plan over the objections of many legislators in his own party, who argue that the program will cause budgetary havoc if the state's economy sours.

It wouldn't be the first time an ambitious insurance plan created fiscal problems for a state. Tennessee launched such a plan in 1994 but was forced to painfully unwind the program in 2005, when it had grown into a $7.8 billion behemoth that accounted for nearly a third of all spending and threatened to throw the state into deficit. The biggest contributor to
costs: insuring middle-aged citizens, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions. They were the first of the estimated 170,000 Tennesseans to be tossed out of the program.

Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, says the Tennessee experience is unlikely to be an anomaly. While it's relatively cheap to insure healthy children, "a 52-year-old diabetic is a lot more expensive to cover," he says.

To be sure, some states, fearing a quick reversal of fiscal fortunes, are trying to keep a lid on spending. In Alaska, a state that derives much of its revenue from oil royalties, high energy prices are expected to increase general-fund revenue to $5 billion this year, from $2 billion in 2003. Yet freshman Republican Gov. Sarah Palin vowed to limit budget growth to $3.3 billion, up less than 3% from this year. She points to a recent legislative report that predicts falling energy prices will result in declining revenue for the state as early as next year and a potential $1 billion deficit by fiscal 2010.

Already, there are indications that the flush times are ending. One early
sign: by late 2006, nearly a third of those states participating in an annual survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures -- 14 of them
-- were either experiencing or expecting to see a decline in revenue. Moreover, the group says, for the first time in years, projected spending increases this year seems likely to outstrip revenue growth, with outlays expect to rise 7.5%, and receipts, just 3.1%.

The obvious solution to flagging revenue is new taxes. But while many governors seem disposed to spend more, those same politicians remain largely conservative on taxes. Big increases, particularly on broad levies like income and sales taxes, are still considered political suicide. Instead, states from Arizona and Montana to New York, Florida and New Jersey have enacted or are considering tax rollbacks.

Many states are looking at other ways to raise cash. In Massachusetts and New York, Messrs. Patrick and Spitzer are toying with the idea of legalizing gambling to raise money. In New Jersey, which already has legalized gambling, Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine is entertaining a wager of another
sort: leasing a portion of the state's turnpike to a private company in order to raise cash. Governors in Pennsylvania and Texas are considering similar proposals.

The schemes can be a windfall for states: In Indiana last fall, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels essentially sold Interstate 85 under a 75-year lease that garnered a $3.8 billion cash payment. Now he is proposing to lease the state's lottery in return for a similar windfall -- as are several other states, including Illinois, Texas and New Jersey.

But lease deals have proven controversial. Critics fret that states won't properly value the assets or will strike deals that somehow hinder future growth. Chief among the critics is the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a trucker lobby. The lease deals being considered involve sections of some of the nation's busiest roadways. Because the deals almost always include provisions that bar states from building new roadways that might compete with the toll routes being sold, future gridlock is all but assured, the group says.

In some states, there's plenty of cash -- at least for the moment. In Arizona, Ms. Napolitano finds herself allied with the conservative Goldwater Institute as she tries to beat back a proposal by the Republican-dominated legislature to raid the state's rainy-day fund for a $400 million road-improvement program. Like her Republican brethren, Ms. Napolitano wants to fix the roads. But she would rather borrow the money and keep the $650 million rainy-day account for the economic downturn she assumes is all but inevitable.

"When I came in, we had no rainy day fund," says Ms. Napolitano. "I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117226890441117724.html

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

"But , They All Come Black: Facing the Challenge of Being Right All the Time"

"But , They All Come Black: Facing the Challenge of Being Right All the Time"
Publishing and Promotional Notes by the Author
"But , They All Come Black: Facing the Challenge of Being Right All the Time"

By Jerome Travesty, President, JJ 50 Shot University
Background

The Bourbon Institute is a Twelve Step, for-profit, research and miseducational organization for Ivy League educated upper class white policy people who understand the nuances of dealing with their less fortunate sisters and brothers of color. As Senior Research Fellow at the Institute, my research and recommendations actively supported and promoted the "tough on crime," approach of the late 1980's and 90's. I advocated for "broken windows," "zero tolerance" and "three strikes." Mass incarceration is the result of these enlightened public policy recommendations. At the time, we had no idea that we would also achieve the additional benefit of industrial expansion, political disenfranchisement and employment stimulus for rural economically depressed counties. As a further benefit, incarceration numbers inflate federal appropriations based upon census data.

From: The Truth [the.bookrelease@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 5:38 PM

Established in Washington, D.C., in 1865, The Bourbon Institute has promoted a "southern strategy" for the social, economic and governance problems confronting the nation. The Institute has advanced the careers of more white men (and a few white women) then we can accurately count at this time.

The Bourbon Institute disseminates its research findings through redundant, repeated, costly, very expensive, wasteful and usually unnecessary conferences funded by the Our Superior Intellect (OSI) Foundation. In this way, the limited social justice funding available for community-based organizations actually doing the work on the ground, is used instead to discuss and analyze urban problems and colored people. I am thankful to the Institute, and its Board of Directors, for publishing all of my books and research, when no one else would. As a member of the dominant privileged class in America, I thought I could have had my work published anywhere, but America has changed. White privilege just ain't what it used to be.

Preface

In the spring of 1999, U.S. Attorney General Janice Rio caught me coming out of the men's room in the U.S. Department of Justice. She noticed that I had failed to zip up my pants and mentioned it several times. This started me to thinking about how embarrassing it must be for ex-offenders on parole to be sent back to prison for simple violations, like not zipping your fly. It occurred to me, also, that the majority of those affected were Black men -hence the title of my latest and greatest book, "But .They All Come Black."
Immediately, I called Sally Turner at the Our Superior Intellect (OSI) Foundation and Rich Crank at the FRET Foundation [Rich resides in one of the richest counties in the United States and surrounds himself in African art and sculptures to reinforce his public image as a trustworthy liberal do-gooder-meanwhile, he supports the criminal justice system by granting the Kansas Department of Corrections 4.5 million dollars and calling it the key to policy reform] to request a planning grant of $300 million dollars, to convene a series of daily conferences from now until the year 2065. By that time my son-little Travesty-will have retired from his work succeeding me as the most esteemed conference giver in the world. I was worried that these grant makers would not be responsive, since their mission is to spend millions of dollars funding the ideas of people who are directly affected by the criminal justice system. However, I prevailed.

As you know, I created the term "ReEntry" to mean go back, as in re-enter. I actually took the term from Juan Irving, who first used it in his book in 1970, yet I claim full credit for creating it and have relegated Irving to a minor historical footnote so that I would not be accused of outright stealing or plagiarizing. This appropriation of intellectual property is a
major part of the way we do business at the Bourbon Institute and is the cornerstone of my career and that of my colleagues. The term "reentry" has since come to mean "recidivism," which was my original intent although no one picked up on it at the time.

In the fall of 1999, while still at the National Institute of Justice, I wrote a paper that proposed creating "reentry courts" as the new managers of the reentry-recidivism process. By creating this new entity, located in the community, to oversee all community supervision, we could easily realize all of the goals that the initial incarceration may or may not have accomplished, namely keeping prison populations at maximum capacity, foolishly spending taxpayer dollars and, of course, maintaining the economic/employment status quo at equilibrium for ourselves. I have come to believe that these functions are best lodged in the judicial branch of government, in the form of a "re-entry court." Briefly stated, there are
three outstanding reasons: (1) such a court would add another useless yet thick layer of government bureaucracy to an already over burdened court system, (2) the enormous expense created by this court will create more jobs and contracts (not to mention patronage) thus strengthening the economy and (3) the realities that such a court is totally unnecessary, a waste of time and perhaps even counterproductive to successful transition from prison to community, are all consistent with the other innovative recommendations I have made over the years. With this new alignment of responsibilities for overseeing the reentry process, we stand a better chance of promoting "real" reentry success as described above.

Introduction

The title of my book, "But .They All Come Black," reflects the fact that Blacks commit more crimes than whites. That's a fact that Joan and I discovered several years ago. Once we made this research public, at a series of weekly conferences we held from 2001 - 2003, we were both richly rewarded. Actually, I became the president of a very prestigious college
for cops and Joan became a cop. Both she and I have been acknowledged as experts ever since, even though neither of us have ever actually spoken directly to anyone in prison.

Throughout the book I use terms that I have either created, made up, formulated myself or otherwise produced. I deeply resent the many groups and individuals who have implied that the terminology I use is misleading, inaccurate and racist. I am conscious of the language. While I continue to use the term negro and colored to describe people of African descent, I
only do so because its alternative, African American, is somewhat unwieldy, particularly in written text. Occasionally (and only in private and among my very best friends) I resort to using the "n" word - but only for emphasis. Perhaps, someday our language will accommodate this complicated reality.

In choosing the title of the book, I was extremely sensitive to the idea that it would probably sell much, much more if I could manage to demonstrate, using the available research, that indeed Blacks were responsible not only for committing more crime then anyone else, but also that they planned the 9/11 attacks on our precious nation, the 2004 tsunami
in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Katrina, created and funded Al Qaeda, Hamas and the Mafia. Also, they were responsible for the untimely demise of Manuel Noriega and the dismal failure of the War on Drugs simply by being Black and living in urban areas. I think I have been successful in making the case in what is probably the best book ever written.

While I know much of the evidence presented in the book also points to Puerto Ricans as being responsible for getting our country involved in the mess in Iraq, especially the Abu Grab prison, I have not made that assertion as part of the thesis of the book simply because it is often too difficult for my staff and I to distinguish between Puerto Ricans and Arabs. And, in any event, the drugs - mostly heroin - coming out of Afghanistan are more the result of the failure of the United States to keep pace with the demands of people wanting to get high, than to any specific action on the part of Puerto Ricans or others.

Given the inner-city realities, especially in places like New York City where 50% of the Black male population is unemployed, I have identified the best possible reentry model practice. Of all the programs we reviewed, the Unemployment Training Program, offered by CEO (Cancelled Employment Opportunities) was superior. This program provides excellent training for ex-offenders and others who almost inevitably, by racial and ethnic definition, will be unemployed forever. The program provides basic skills training in how to cope with, even enjoy, long unemployment lines, rude and disrespectful clerks, endless applications and dead end interviews. These are simple yet practical ways to use up time during the day. In addition, catering to the criminal mind, which only understands instant gratification, CEO pays drug addicts daily in order to help them steadily relapse. Its
self-esteem building component, particularly for people with no money, income, or health insurance, is perhaps the best in the country. And, the program's promise of perpetual unemployment makes sense in the context of the global economy and the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. All of the research indicates that this program will have a success rate of between 97 and 100%. The originator of the program and the director of CEO, Cindy Marlow, is exceptional in her own right. First, she created what the existing data and outcome evaluations validated was a bullshit program, then she sold it to the city and state of New York for sums that were obscene but brilliant, and finally, she promoted herself in such a fabulous way that, like me and Joan, she became the expert on unemployment training.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Dorrie Fuckem'all who has made a national name for herself by pimping unemployed ex-offenders. In her new capacity as executive director of the JJ 50 Shot University Pimping Reentry Institute (PRI) she is primarily responsible for wasting people's time (and other resources) by inviting them to meaningless pre-dawn forums, discussions and seminars, organized by her, to talk about nothing in particular. No one is better at this than she. In fact, to solidify her legitimacy in the field, she maintains contact with a few negroes in reentry-but only the ones who will tap-dance on demand. Dorrie made such a big splash in launching the Pimping Reentry Institute, that people hardly noticed my first act as president: terminating a white middle class Jewish ex offender. See, I'm not racist. In fact, I wanted to fire the rest of those convicts, but did not want to be accused of contagious firing at the 50 Shot University. Finally, Dorrie has the task of providing diversionary cover for me at the cops college, while I upgrade the small weapons education, improve undercover racial profiling tactics and expand the curriculum in the areas of rapid fire and reloading training.

My gratitude also goes out to Leamer (I can't pronounce or spell her last name), Executive Director of the ICARE About Myself Coalition, for her truthfulness, her willingness to be creative, her efforts not to steal other people's intellectual property and for allowing us little people to join her in her many, many, many, many victories. In fact, rumor has it that
Leamer, who works the faith-based community like you have never seen, single-handedly drafted the Ten Commandments, helping God to get his own legislative agenda sponsored and passed. She has, as a result, earned my appreciation.

Finally, I am deeply grateful to Willie Horton for all of the assistance he gave me and for the time he took from his own work to offer suggestions and criticisms. While I have a greater affinity for the late John Gotti and always valued his counsel, I owe a debt of gratitude to Osama bin Laden, who did more to improve the national security, policing, and crime fighting
capacity of this country then anyone before or since. While I have been unable to contact him directly, Mr. bin Laden provided valuable comment on the draft manuscript, particularly those sections that dealt with civil liberties, constitutional rights, privacy and law enforcement.

Posted by lois at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

PA: Sale of Graterford Could Mean Money for more prisons

Sale of Graterford may benefit Berks, local officials say
The county is a potential site for one of three prisons planned to replace the aging state facility.

By Holly Herman
Reading Eagle

The state's plan to sell its Graterford prison in Montgomery County could be a good thing for Berks County, officials said.

The state wants to build three prisons within 50 miles of the overcrowded 78-year-old prison in Skippack Township.

That means Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Schuylkill counties are potential sites for the new prisons.

The plan calls for construction of a 2,000-bed maximum-security prison and two 2,000-bed medium-security prisons.

Berks County Prison Warden George A. Wagner said a local state prison could save transportation costs but only if the state changes its system of sending inmates to the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill, Cumberland County, for an initial screening before they are moved to one of the 25 other state prisons.

“It would also provide more jobs,” he said. “Prison is a growing industry. Many of the colleges have majors in criminal justice. For people who want to work in corrections and stay in Berks County, the only jobs available in corrections are at the county jail.”

Berks Commissioner Mark C. Scott said he would hope that building a state prison here would help with overcrowding at the county prison in Bern Township.

“A state facility could provide economic relief if it would mean that more Berks County inmates will be moving to the state prisons,” Scott said. “I hope it would curtail our overcrowding problem.”

The county jail has a capacity of 780 inmates but houses more than 1,200.

Scott said it would also provide employment opportunities.

State officials said the sale of the prison on 1,780 acres is designed to generate revenue while reducing prison overcrowding.

State prisons, which house the more serious criminal offenders, are severely overcrowded, with space for 38,547 inmates and a population of 44,365, according to the state Department of Corrections.

“It's possible that the construction of three new prisons would be offset by the price of the sale of Graterford,” said Edward Myselwicz, press secretary for the state Department of General Services.

“Gov. Ed Rendell is committed to saving taxpayers' money,” he said. “If we sell Graterford, there would be revenue for Pennsylvania.”

Officials said March 5 is the deadline to submit proposals to buy Graterford. The state Department of General Services is overseeing that process.

Officials declined to say if any applications have been submitted.

Berks County Commissioner Judith L. Schwank, board chairwoman, said she was unaware of the plans to sell Graterford.

“I am shocked,” Schwank said. “I would think it would be appropriate to give us warning.”

Commissioner Thomas W. Gajewski Sr. could not be reached for comment.

Susan McNaughton, state Department of Corrections press secretary, said Graterford is overcrowded and old.

“We obviously need more prison space for overcrowding,” she said.

But it would take about six years before inmates would be moved into the new prisons, she said.

McNaughton said some prisons are using modular housing because of overcrowding.

“We don't see any relief in the population explosion,” she said. “Whether this plan will happen will depend on what kind of response we get. Most of our newer prisons are built in the rural areas because we need land.”

http://www.readingeagle.com/re/news/1625889.asp

Posted by lois at 04:25 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2007

2 Groups Compare Immigrant Detention Centers to Prisons

2 Groups Compare Immigrant Detention Centers to Prisons
By RACHEL L. SWARNS, NY Times
Published: February 22, 2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 — Two advocacy groups for refugees said on Wednesday that the Bush administration routinely detained immigrant families in prison-like housing that separated young children from their parents and sometimes provided inadequate medical care, food and educational opportunities, despite calls from Congress to house such families in “non-penal, homelike environments.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which allowed the advocacy groups to visit the two detention centers that house immigrant families, has already corrected several problems identified by the groups. The two groups, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, are expected to release their report on Thursday.

But department officials, who said they were still reviewing the report, vigorously defended the quality of services provided by the 512-bed T. Don Hutto Residential Center, which opened last year in Texas, and the Berks Family Shelter Care Facility, which houses about 80 families in Pennsylvania. The centers hold immigrants and asylum seekers awaiting the outcomes of their cases.

“They adhere to the highest standards,” said Marc Raimondi, a department spokesman.

The complaints come one month after a federal inspection of 5 of the nation’s 325 immigrant detention centers found that most did not provide timely and responsive health care and sometimes failed to comply with the government’s standards of disciplining, classifying and housing detainees. Officials of the Homeland Security Department say the study was too small to be representative.

The new report found that women at the Hutto center received inadequate prenatal care and that children received only one hour of schooling a day. At both centers, children as young as 6 were separated from their parents, and separation of families and the threats of separation were used as disciplinary tools.

The study praised the Berks center for providing adequate educational opportunities and allowing families to participate in field trips and outdoor recreation time. But it says both centers are modeled on prisons, even though they hold people who are fleeing persecution or stand accused of violating civil immigration laws, not criminal codes.

“The prisonlike conditions, this form of detention, is not necessary,” said Michelle Brané, who heads the detention and asylum program at the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

“We release criminals,” said Ms. Brané, pointing to parole and monitored supervision programs. “Yet for immigrants in civil proceedings, they have not explored those options. And these are families with children.”

Mr. Raimondi said the family detention system was expanded to help end the routine practice of releasing immigrant families caught sneaking across the border. Smugglers began taking advantage of the loophole and pairing children with unrelated adults in hopes of ensuring their release, officials say. Some children were abandoned or abused. Mr. Raimondi said the centers provided a safe place for families and “serve as a deterrent to alien smugglers who needlessly endanger children’s lives.”

Ms. Brané said officials of the Homeland Security Department had addressed some of her concerns.

The Hutto center contracted with a local clinic to provide medical care to pregnant women. It also expanded the educational program to four hours a day from one.
The link for the study can be found at http://www.womenscommission.org/ by looking under the Reports section.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/washington/22detention.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Posted by lois at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

Report Blasts Calif. Prison Officials for $1-Billion Treatment 'Waste'

Report Blasts Calif. Prison Officials for $1-Billion Treatment 'Waste'
February 23, 2007

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has squandered $1 billion on ineffective drug treatment programs that have done nothing to reduce recidivism, the state's inspector general said in a scathing new report .

The Los Angeles Times reported Feb. 22 that Inspector General Matt Cate said that while successful treatment programs have the potential to "change lives and help relieve the state's prison overcrowding crisis," state corrections officials have "squandered that opportunity" by failing to manage programs properly and investing in in-prison programs where participants were destined to fail.

Cate called spending on in-prison treatment since 1989 "a complete waste of money," and said prison officials kept expanding programs even though more than 20 reports said that the programs were failing.

Reacting to the report, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs director Kathryn Jett to oversee a shakeup of the prison treatment program. Cate said that Jett's appointment was the right move, while Jett called the inspector general's report "an excellent blueprint for change."

California spends $143 million a year on addiction treatment for inmates, including on 38 privately operated programs in 22 prisons. Among the problems cited by Cate were that prisons rarely followed the therapeutic-community guidelines of separating treatment participants from the general prison population, that frequent prison lockdowns often disrupt treatment, and that group counseling programs put too many inmates with each counselor.

Cate added that the corrections department repeatedly funded studies of the programs but never took corrective action based on the reports' findings.

"Saying it's a billion-dollar failure is really a mischaracterization of what's happened, because there have been some very successful programs that have delivered amazing reductions in recidivism," said Rod Mullen, chief executive officer of Amity Foundation, which runs some of California's in-prison treatment programs. However, Mullen agreed with the report's contention that lack of followup care hurt treatment effectiveness. "That's the key, and we've known that for 10 or 15 years," he said. "What's been missing is a commitment by the department, the Legislature and the governor to make sure it happens."
http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2007/report-blasts-calif-prison.html?log-event=sp2f-view-item&nid=31734499

Posted by lois at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2007

MA: DOC says Prisons to comply with study of suicides

"I'm delighted the department has created such a detailed corrective-action plan," said Leslie Walker , executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services. "However, in light of the fact that [the study ] recommended significant changes to the Department of Correction in 2000 that have [not] yet been adopted, I am concerned that the current plan may not be realized."

Prisons to comply with study of suicides
Better training, housing urged

By David Abel, Globe Staff | February 22, 2007

The state Department of Correction announced plans yesterday to comply completely with the recommendations of an independent study that found serious problems with how prisons handle suicidal inmates.

"We embrace all of the study's 29 recommendations," said Veronica Madden, associate commissioner of reentry and reintegration at the Department of Correction. "We have taken each of the recommendations and developed an action plan for their implementation."

Madden would not say how much it will cost to fulfill the study's recommendations, but she pledged that the department will do what it takes to remove from cells housing suicidal inmates any features they can use to kill themselves, raise the number of hours staff are trained to prevent suicide, and increase the frequency of observation of at-risk inmates.

The department also will seek new housing for suicidal inmates and add oversight to allow for random rounds in segregation units, where inmates are confined for 23 hours or longer every day.

"These recommendations are broad, comprehensive, and practical," the department's response to the study said. "The DOC is committed to implementing all of these recommendations and has completed an expedited planning process."

The study, commissioned by the department after an increase in prisoner suicides in 2005 and 2006 left the state's rate nearly double the national rate over the past decade, found prison policies have contributed to the problem.

Ten inmates have killed themselves in state prisons in the past two years. A suicide attempt left a prisoner brain dead. Of the 11 inmates, five had been on suicide watches, and six had documented mental health issues.

The study found that guards and other staff members lack sufficient training in suicide prevention; guards fail to check on suicidal inmates frequently enough; some cells for suicidal inmates have features that prisoners could use to harm themselves; and inmates on suicide watch are isolated by being denied visits, phone calls, showers, and time outside their cells.

It also found that between 2000 and 2005, the number of mentally ill inmates increased by nearly 1,000, while the number of beds for such inmates did not change. The state's frequent isolation of suicidal inmates violates national prison standards, which suggest they be housed in the general population or in special mental health units, according to the report.

Some inmate advocates remained skeptical about the department's plans.

"I'm delighted the department has created such a detailed corrective-action plan," said Leslie Walker , executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services. "However, in light of the fact that [the study ] recommended significant changes to the Department of Correction in 2000 that have [not] yet been adopted, I am concerned that the current plan may not be realized."

She said a previous report the department commissioned by Lindsay M. Hayes , a national specialist in prison-suicide prevention, called for an increase in training that did not materialize.

Walker called the department's plan to develop specialized units for suicidal inmates within 60 days "unrealistic and highly unlikely" and the creation of a 12man behavioral management unit as "woefully inadequate." She also questioned whether suicidal inmates will be allowed visits by their lawyers, given the department's efforts to block such meetings in the past.

"An overriding concern is the lack of external oversight," Walker said. "Who is going to ensure that this corrective-action plan is going to be carried out? The department needs to practice what it preaches and become open and transparent."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/02/22/prisons_to_comply_with_study_of_suicides/

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

Habeas Writ Details Immigrant Detention Abuses: Haskell Protest Called

Habeas Writ Details Immigrant Detention Abuses: Haskell Protest Called

Habeas Writ for Hazahza Family Details Allegations of Sexual Harassment, Medical Neglect, Overcrowding, and Isolation Techniques Johnson-Castro will Walk to Haskell Prison for Texas Indpendence Day Protest

by Texas Civil Rights Review

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007 at 6:37 AM
There are different kinds of angry. Jay Johnson-Castro has tears in his eyes when he thinks about Suzi Hazahza at the immigration prison of Haskell, Texas.

But he's not going to cry without doing something, so next week, Johnson-Castro will walk sixty miles from Abilene to Haskell and hold a vigil for the release of Suzi Hazahza and "anyone else" being mistreated for their desire to be American.

"I'm almost in tears trying to tell you how angry I feel," says Johnson-Castro via cell phone as he drives home to Del Rio, Texas on Tuesday evening following three weeks of border protests.

He's talking now about 20-year-old Suzi Hazahza and how she was subjected to body searches so humiliating that she has refused all visitors since early December. In a federal habeas corpus brief that will be filed Wednesday in Dallas, lawyers allege that both Suzi and her 23-year-old sister Mirvat have been subjected to repeated humiliations at the hands of prison guards. And according to Suzi's fiance, the searches got even worse after his fifth visit when Suzi called begging not to be visited again.

"I can''t believe a fellow American would do that to anybody," says Johnson-Castro. "But I'm afraid that's the policy not the exception."

Dallas real-estate developer Ralph Isenberg has seen the pattern before. It happened to his wife in Haskell under similar circumstances. She was imprisoned for immigration violations stemming from "bad lawyering" and once Isenberg started making noise about things he didn't like at Haskell, his wife, too, was subjected to a full body-cavity search. To this day, he recalls the sound of the scream that the search provoked.

In protest of Suzi Hazahza's treatment and confinement, Johnson-Castro will begin his freedom walk in Abilene on Wednesday, Feb. 28, arriving at the Rolling Plains prison in Haskell for a vigil on Texas Independence Day, March 3.

Ralph Isenberg says he'll host Johnson-Castro in Dallas prior to the walk and introduce him to some people he has helped to free. During the walk, Isenberg pledges to join Johnson-Castro for a time, and if he can get enough people together, Isenberg plans to meet Johnson-Castro at the Haskell prison on Texas Independence Day with a bus full of people from Dallas.

"The good people of Haskell have no cognizance of what's happening to sweet innocents such as Suzi Hazahza," says Johnson-Castro. "And when they find out, they will rise up like the people of Williamson County did against the Hutto jail."

Outrage at the jailing of children at the T. Don Hutto immigration jail keeps growing, joined this week by Dallas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and the chair of the House subcommittee on immigration Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). Both of them told WFAA reporter Brett Shipp that child imprisonment is flat wrong, period.

And grassroots distaste for immigrant jailings sparked a new protest Tuesday from honor students of Fort Worth's Tarrant County Community College who are angry that a wonderful fellow student has also been tossed into Haskell jail for "bad lawyering."

The Fort Worth protest for 19-year-old immigration prisoner Samantha Windschitt was covered by two Metroplex television networks, which is a story in itself.

"The good news is that all the insane things that have been happening in a disconnected way are finally being connected," says long-time immigration activist Isenberg, reflecting on the protest and news coverage.

"I honest to gosh believe that everything we have done up to now is adding up to something bigger," says Johnson-Castro, who helped ignite protest in mid-December with a walk from Austin to the Hutto prison. In Haskell, he plans to make the most of the date and place.

"It's Texas Independence Day and it's the Governor's home town," he says. "We're going to be looking for freedom for people who are trying to be Americans. And we are going to Gov. Rick Perry's hometown and free the people that need to be freed, and not incarcerate them so that someone can make a profit."

The Rolling Plains immigration jail in Haskell is managed by the Emerald Companies of Louisiana (see: emeraldcompanies.com).

Meanwhile, New York attorneys Joshua Bardavid and Ted Cox are scheduled to arrive in Dallas Wednesday morning to file federal habeas corpus motions in behalf of Suzi, Mirvat, their father, and two brothers, who have all been held at Haskell since "armed and armored officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a middle of the night 'raid' " of their home on November 2.

According to the habeas writ that will be filed Wednesday, the Hazazha family arrived in the USA with temporary visas from Jordan during the summer of 2001, and they applied for political asylum. Once the appeals for asylum had been exhausted, the family was placed under a warrant of deportation in the summer of 2005, but the family was not notified about the warrant until they were abducted during pre-election immigration raids known as "Operation Return to Sender."

Suzi's mother Juma and youngest brother Mohammad were released Feb. 6 from the Hutto jail only days before a media tour of that facility. But on Feb. 12 ICE filed notice that it intended to keep the rest of the family imprisoned at Haskell as "flight risks." Where they would flee to is a good question since Jordan refuses to take the family back, while Palestine and Israel have declined to reply to requests for deportation there.

At Haskell prison, lawyers say housing units meant to house eight prisoners are frequently supplemented with sleeping bags or "boats" that allow for ten to fourteen prisoners to spend the night. When inspectors arrive, the "boats" are hidden from view.

When it comes to culturally appropriate food for Muslims, the prison serves eggs for breakfast, lunch, and supper. At prayer, the Hazahzas report they have been mocked by guards and threatened with suspension of prayer privileges.

Lawyers are only allowed to visit with prisoners for thirty minutes at a time, and only "within regular hearing distance of a stationed guard." The three Hazahza men have never been allowed to live together "despite written requests to be united in the same, or adjacent, pods."

17-year-old Ahmad Hazahza was placed in solitary confinement for three months because he was a minor at Haskell's adults-only facility. When Ahmad began urinating blood shortly after his arrival, guards mocked his medical condition and "told him that he was 'probably dying' of a disease and that there was nothing that could be done to save him." For ten days, his requests to see a doctor were denied.

Suzi and Mirvat spent the first 48 hours at Haskell sleeping on the concrete floor of a drunk tank, because no beds were available. They both ran high fevers for two weeks after that, and were also denied requests to see a doctor.

The sisters were "strip searched" each time they met with an outside visitor, including humiliating inspections that took place in full view of male guards "on multiple occasions." When taken to the recreation area, they were made to "walk the gauntlet" in front of male prisoners who sexually harassed them with techniques that included exhibition and public masturbation while guards laughed.



The prison population at Haskell is a mix of immigrant detainees from Texas and felony convicts imported from Wyoming.

As with the attorneys' previous habeas corpus motion filed in behalf of the Ibrahim family, Bardavid and Cox argue that ICE has had no legal authority to arrest or detain the family; therefore, the five Hazahzas should be immediately released.

Another family released from both Hutto and Haskell following the last Texas visit by Bardavid and Cox have been spending time on Isenberg's schedule these days. Isenberg says he's helping the Ibrahim family put together their immigration petitions so that they can stay and work. He says working with the family took several hours Tuesday. It's not the first time he's said that. And the way things look, it won't be the last time--not for weeks to come.
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/02/56423.php

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

Overview of Prison Expansion in Idaho and Eastern WA

“Last fall, Kootenai County voters rejected a $50 million jail expansion and county leaders opted against putting a similar $55 million sales tax proposal to expand the jail on the November ballot.

Capt. Jerry Brady, the Spokane County jail commander, said the regional jail is a preliminary idea. If it gains momentum, the first step would be to hire a consultant to figure out how big the regional jail should be -- perhaps 4,500 beds -- and to determine the best way to pay for it. It's possible both Idaho and Washington could contribute in addition to the federal government, Brady said.”

“The Spokane-Coeur d'Alene region has an opportunity to use the challenges of jail overcrowding to improve the quality of not only the region's criminal justice system but also our ability to respond to natural and manmade disasters and attacks. It is an opportunity that should not be wasted.”

Overview of Prison Expansion News (Idaho/Eastern WA)

Bi-state effort answer to jail overcrowding

By William McCrory, Special to The Spokesman-Review, March 2, 2006

Both Spokane County and Kootenai County experience jail overcrowding and want to build bigger jails. Spokane County's could cost from $81 million to $410 million while Kootenai County estimates its jail expansion might cost as much as $50 million.

State, local and tribal leaders from Idaho and Washington and from Kootenai and Spokane counties should discuss creating a regional criminal justice center near the Idaho- Washington border. A regional center with facilities for public safety training, state correctional programs, a combined post-conviction jail, emergency management and community education is ripe for consideration.

Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk has proposed building a regional law enforcement training center between Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base at an estimated cost of $75 million to $100 million. North Idaho has no reasonably accessible and fully equipped training center for local and tribal law enforcement officers.

One element of Sterk's proposal -- certification training for civilian bomb technicians -- would draw students from other parts of the United States, because the only other certification school is in Huntsville, Ala. That would be a revenue producer for area businesses.

In 2002 Kootenai County rejected an Idaho Department of Correction effort to put a state transition/work release center in Kootenai County. Regional leaders should reconsider that proposal. Putting a community work center, a correctional alternative placement program or both on a regional criminal justice campus makes fiscal and security sense.

It also offers correctional training and education opportunities for both criminal justice practitioners and the community. Corrections is as important as law enforcement, juvenile justice and the courts, but educating the public about corrections has been neglected.

Assessing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Sept. 11 commission noted: "Imagination is not a gift usually associated with bureaucracies." Though the commission was directing its criticism primarily at national-level agencies, public safety officials know that the first responders to emergencies will always come from nearby local agencies regardless of the emergency's size or national implications. Imaginative planning begins when political boundaries are not barriers.

Building on that understanding, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs' Association, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the Police Foundation collectively conducted " a project to help position state, local and tribal agencies to proactively manage a changed and continually changing police environment."

Last September, the project released a 62-page study, "Post 9-11 Policing: The Crime Control ­ Homeland Security Paradigm." It acknowledged that new and stronger regional relationships improve interoperability, information exchange and training, which then prepares public safety agencies to deliver more timely and efficiently coordinated services.

The project also produced four promising practice briefs. One of them was a 48-page publication in which the participants recognize that multi-jurisdictional partnerships can have benefits far beyond counterterrorism preparation. The study notes: "Moreover, regional mutual aid agreements can be tailored to meet specific needs, address likely threats and make available the full range of existing resources that can be brought to bear quickly in times of emergency."

Funding is a prominent issue among all agencies. The project participants seemed to suggest that multi- jurisdictional partnerships, not just mutual aid agreements, can result in a greater return on investment for the taxpayer's dollar.

If the Sept. 11 commission and the post-Sept. 11 policing reports were a nudge toward multijurisdictional partnerships, then the report of the Senate Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina was a bulldozer. In its preface, the committee notes: "Government failed because it did not learn from past experiences, or because lessons thought to be learned were somehow not implemented.

If Sept. 11 was a failure of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership." The report concludes: "This was not about some individual's failure of initiative. This was about organizational and societal failures of initiative. There was more than enough failure to go around."

The Spokane-Coeur d'Alene region has an opportunity to use the challenges of jail overcrowding to improve the quality of not only the region's criminal justice system but also our ability to respond to natural and manmade disasters and attacks. It is an opportunity that should not be wasted.

The first step is for government and community leaders to meet and talk. As Albert Einstein said, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

Watson to pitch regional jail idea

By Erica Curless, Spokesman-Review Staff writer, December 12, 2006

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson is still pitching his idea to build a jail for sentenced inmates on county property next to the landfill south of Coeur d'Alene near Fighting Creek.

Yet he's also looking at other solutions for jail overcrowding, including working with Spokane County to build a regional jail.

Watson plans to have lunch Wednesday with newly elected Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.

Watson wants to talk about everything from mutual aid agreements and collaboration for a training center to the idea of a regional jail.

"Criminals don't respect the state line, why should we," Watson said Monday while at the groundbreaking for the county's new trash transfer station west of Post Falls. "Interstate 90 is a crime corridor."

Both Spokane and Kootenai counties have overcrowded jails, as do many other counties in the region.

Spokane County leaders are debating whether to build an $80 million jail addition or a $450 million complex near Spokane International Airport.

Last fall, Kootenai County voters rejected a $50 million jail expansion and county leaders opted against putting a similar $55 million sales tax proposal to expand the jail on the November ballot.

Capt. Jerry Brady, the Spokane County jail commander, said the regional jail is a preliminary idea. If it gains momentum, the first step would be to hire a consultant to figure out how big the regional jail should be -- perhaps 4,500 beds -- and to determine the best way to pay for it. It's possible both Idaho and Washington could contribute in addition to the federal government, Brady said.

"There are just an awful lot of options," he said.

Watson is waiting for the two new Kootenai County commissioners to take office Jan. 8 before reviving his idea to establish a work farm at the landfill. He envisions a place where inmates could till the soil and grow food for themselves. The inmates also could work at the landfill, sorting garbage and recyclables.

The idea is to keep the majority of the inmates, who are still awaiting sentence and require frequent trips to the downtown courthouse, at the current jail on Government Way. The county would house the sentenced inmates ­ about 30 percent of the population ­ south of town at the work farm.

Watson wants the county to join with the four other northern counties, and perhaps the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, to house their sentenced inmates and share the cost of the facility and staff.

Jail swap floated

By Jonathan Brunt and Taryn Brodwater, Spokesman-Review Staff writers, January 12, 2007

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich met last month to discuss the idea of building a regional jail to solve overcrowding in both counties. They agreed to examine the concept.

Inmates from Kootenai and Spokane counties may soon share space behind bars.

Geiger Corrections Center is offering to house up to 30 male inmates from across the state line.

The proposal has been touted as a way to ease overcrowding in Kootenai County while lowering costs to Spokane County.

"The more bodies we have, the lower the rates," Geiger Director Leon Long said. "The benefit for Geiger is to help us meet our budget needs."

Geiger, which houses minimum- and medium-security inmates, is run by Spokane County and is supposed to be self-financed by charging daily rates --lower than the Spokane County Jail's -- to jurisdictions to house offenders. But 2006 was the first time in five years that Geiger fully supported itself through inmate fees. In the five years before that, Geiger lost $1.8 million.

Spokane County commissioners are expected to consider a contract between Geiger and Kootenai County later this month.

Kootenai County Jail Commander Travis Chaney said leaders have been searching for other lockups "to house our burgeoning inmate population."

The 325-bed jail had 307 inmates in custody Thursday, with 26 additional inmates housed off-site.

Last year the county reached an agreement to house offenders in Ferry County, Wash. Chaney said the jail will continue to send inmates to the Ferry County Jail, which is about 180 miles from Coeur d'Alene. Geiger will be used for inmates serving shorter sentences.

Housing an inmate at Ferry County costs $50 a day. Kootenai County will pay $61.40 per inmate each day to house offenders at Geiger. Chaney said the county hasn't decided how many inmates it will send to Geiger.

Leaders in Spokane and Kootenai counties are looking for ways to build new jails to replace ones that are often at capacity. Geiger, meanwhile, usually has at least 50 beds open, Long said.

Geiger has a maximum population of about 610 but had just 486 inmates Thursday. To break even, the center needs to hold an average of about 580 inmates, said Chris Wiese, Geiger's finance manager.

Spokane County Jail Commander Jerry Brady said his jail sends as many inmates as it can to Geiger, but that many don't qualify because they require higher security.

Long said Geiger will reserve the right to deny space to Kootenai County if Spokane County needs the beds. Almost all of Geiger's population comes through the Spokane County Jail. The center also has contracts to house female inmates from the federal prison system and state parole violators.

Posted by lois at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2007

MA: State prisons should do more to prevent suicides of people who are incarcerated

Report: State prisons should do more to prevent inmate suicides
By Associated Press- Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 \

BOSTON - Making cells more ”suicide-resistant” and hiring more staff to monitor troubled inmates are among the recommendations in a new study designed to halt an increase in suicides in Massachusetts prisons.
The recommendations - 29 in all - are included in the report commissioned by Department of Corrections Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy. It was released Wednesday along with a plan by the department to respond to each of the recommendations.

”The incidence of suicide in the DOC was greater than in prior years and we know that nationally the number of mentally ill entering the prison system is increasing,” Dennehy said in a statement accompanying the report.
The study concludes that guards and other staff do not have enough training in suicide prevention; guards fail to check frequently enough on at-risk inmates; some cells where suicidal inmates are held have not been stripped of items they could use to harm themselves; and inmates under suicide watch become more isolated because they are denied visits and phone calls.
The report stressed the need for more and better training.
”The key to any suicide prevention program is properly trained correctional staff,” wrote Lindsay M. Hayes, a national specialist in prison suicide prevention and author of the report. ”Because suicides are usually attempted in inmate housing units ... these incidents must be thwarted by correctional staff who have been trained in suicide prevention and are able to demonstrate and intuitive sense regarding the inmates in their care.”
There were seven state prison inmate deaths ruled to be suicides in 2006, including three in an eight-day period in December. There was one suicide in 2004, and one in 2003. Since 2000, there have been 18 DOC inmate suicides, the report said.
A convicted rapist hanged himself in his cell with an electrical cord at the maximum security Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley just three weeks ago.
The inmate suicide rate in Massachusetts was 27 percent per 100,000 inmates during the past ten years, nearly twice the national rate of 14 per 100,000 during the same time period, according to the report.
Other recommendations in the report include: more ”out of cell” time for inmates; 15 minute security rounds on inpatient health services units; clinical judgment regarding placement and length of stay on suicide watch; and a ban on inmates on suicide watch from covering their heads with bedding.
”Confining a suicidal inmate to their cell for 24 hours a day only enhances isolation and is anti-therapeutic,” wrote Hayes.
The report also recommend that all inmates discharged from suicide watch remain on mental health caseloads and receive regular follow-up visits and assessments.
The report, based on documents, prison visits, and interviews with staff over several months, includes details about two recent suicides when inmates were hanging for more than 30 minutes before they were discovered, even though prisoners on suicide watch are supposed to be checked at least every 30 minutes.
The report found that in two cases, inmates were taken from their cells before cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed, and two cases in which nurses struggled to find equipment to attempt resuscitation.
___
Massachusetts Department of Corrections, www.mass.gov/doc

Posted by lois at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Families to Proceed with Lawsuit Against High Phone Rates in Prisons

Families to Proceed with Lawsuit Against High Phone Rates in Prisons
WNYC News

NEW YORK, NY February 20, 2007 —Families that were forced to pay high phone rates to talk to loved ones in state prison can proceed with a lawsuit seeking refunds. The decision today from New York State’s highest court reverses two lower courts that ruled the lawsuit was not filed on time.

In a 4-2 decision, the Court of Appeals sent the case back to trial court in Albany. Relatives of inmates claim the state illegally collected millions of dollars through exclusive prison telephone service contracts with private carriers. For years, families paid $3 per call plus 16 cents per minute.

Governor Spitzer last month ordered that the three dollar surcharge on collect calls made by prisoners be eliminated as of April 1st. Families will be charged only the market cost of the call.

Posted by lois at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2007

Small towns' burden: Half of war dead have rural roots

" Diminished opportunities are one factor in higher military enlistment rates in rural areas. From 1997 to 2003, 1.5 million rural workers lost their jobs due to changes in industries like manufacturing that have traditionally employed rural workers, according to the Carsey Institute."

Small towns' burden: Half of war dead have rural roots

2/20/2007
This article ran in the Northampton MA Daily Hamsphire Gazette

MCKEESPORT, Pa. (AP) - Edward "Willie" Carman wanted a ticket out of town, and the Army provided it.

Raised in the projects by a single mother in this blighted, old industrial steel town outside Pittsburgh, the 18-year-old saw the U.S. military as an opportunity.

"I'm not doing it to you, I'm doing it for me," he told his mother, Joanna Hawthorne, after coming home from high school one day and surprising her with the news.

When Carman died in Iraq three years ago at age 27, he had money saved for college, a fiancée and two kids - including a baby son he'd never met. Neighbors in Hawthorne's mobile home park collected $400 and left it in an envelope in her door.

For a year after his death, Hawthorne took a chair to the cemetery nearly every day, sat next to his grave and talked quietly. Her vigil continues even now; the visits have slowed to once a week, but the pain sticks.

Across the nation, small towns are quietly bearing the war's burden. Nearly half of the more than 3,100 U.S. military fatalities in Iraq have come from towns like McKeesport, where fewer than 25,000 people live, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. One in five hailed from hometowns of less than 5,000.

The Census Bureau said 56 percent of the population in 2005 lived in towns under 25,000 and in unincorporated areas, but it could not provide the number of people in living only in communities of less than 25,000. The 2000 census showed 16 percent of the population lived in unincorporated rural areas.

Many of the hometowns of the war dead aren't just small, they're poor. The AP analysis found that nearly three quarters of those killed in Iraq came from towns where the per capita income was below the national average. More than half came from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty topped the national average.

Some are old factory towns like McKeesport, once home to U.S. Steel's National Tube Works, which employed 8,000 people in its heyday. Now, residents' average income is just 60 percent of the national average, and one in eight lives below the federal poverty line.

On a per capita basis, states with mostly rural populations have suffered the highest casualties in Iraq. Vermont, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Delaware, Montana, Louisiana and Oregon top the list, the AP found.

There's a "basic unfairness" about the number of troops dying in Iraq who are from rural areas, said William O'Hare, senior visiting fellow at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute, which examines rural issues.

Diminished opportunities are one factor in higher military enlistment rates in rural areas. From 1997 to 2003, 1.5 million rural workers lost their jobs due to changes in industries like manufacturing that have traditionally employed rural workers, according to the Carsey Institute.

Rural communities are "being asked to pay a bigger price for this military adventure, if I can use that word, than their urban counterparts," O'Hare said.

As a result, in more than a thousand small towns across the country - from Glendive, Mont., to Barnwell, S.C., to Caledonia, Miss., and from Hardwick, Vt., to Clinton, Ohio - friends and families have been left struggling to make sense of a loved one's death in Iraq. It's a struggle that hits with a special intensity in tight-knit, small towns.

"In a small community, even if you don't know somebody's name you at least know their face, you've seen them before, talked to them maybe," said Chuck Bevington, whose 22-year-old brother Allan, from Beaver Falls, Pa., died in Iraq, after volunteering for a second tour. "A small community feels it a lot tighter because they've had more contact with each other."

Even strangers come up and hug his mother, he said.

Lives and livelihoods

Death isn't the only burden the war has visited on the nation's small towns.

Entrepreneurs in many small communities have lost their businesses after deploying in the Guard and Reserves, said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. More federal dollars also are needed to ensure that returning troops have easy access to veterans health centers, he said.

"It's an issue of fairness that these folks are willing to go over and fight wars and put their lives on the line and really back this country up the way they have ... we owe it to them to live up to our obligation of benefits," Tester said.

Another fairness issue, raised by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., is the Pentagon's practice of transporting the remains of military personnel killed in Iraq only to the nearest major airport. Stupak said it "imposes a burden on the family and friends when they should instead receive our support." He has introduced legislation to require the DOD to deliver the remains to the military or civilian airport chosen by the family.

While support for the war in rural areas initially was high, there has been a sharp decline in the past three years. AP-Ipsos polls show that those in rural areas who said it was the right decision to go to war dropped from 73 percent in April 2004 to 39 percent now. In urban areas, support declined from 43 percent in 2004 to 30 percent now.

Marty Newell, chief operating officer of the Whitesburg, Ky.-based Center for Rural Strategies, said rural areas supported the war early on because so many of their young men and women were fighting it.

"The reason that support is dwindling now is the same reason that support would've been strong before, and that is that we know a lot more about it," he said. "We know what the real costs are and we know what the real story is. ... Every day there's another small town that has one of their own come home less than whole, and there are a lot of small towns like that."

As the war drags on into its fourth year, Vietnam war historian Christian Appy said the burden it has placed on smaller communities - just as it did in Vietnam - can be a very "embittering experience."

"I think people in many of those towns are deeply patriotic and want to support the country, but as time goes on, it's becoming increasingly clear to those people that their country and its security is not at stake in this war and in Vietnam," Appy said.

One who's conflicted about the U.S. role in Iraq is Marilyn Adams, 37, of Wexford, Pa. Her 3-year-old son opened the door in 2005 when an officer came to tell her of the death of her husband, Pennsylvania National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Brent Adams, 40, in Iraq.

"I'm torn," she said. "Should we finish the job? And then I go to the funerals of the local guys and I'm like, this is just stupid ... I don't think we're going to finish it there. I don't think there's a finishing point. They're getting more efficient at killing us, that's a direct quote from the president."

Long before football great Joe Namath put Beaver Falls on the map, the Pennsylvania mountain town was known for its cold-drawn steel. But like much of the Steel Belt, it's had a decline in population and jobs.

Allan Bevington, who enjoyed heavy metal music and loved to fish, talked to his older brother, Chuck, about his time in the Army, and eventually decided it was a way for him to get and education and support his country.

In his first tour in Iraq, he worked as a combat engineer dismantling roadside bombs. He believed he was saving American lives and helping the Iraq people. After returning home, he volunteered for a second deployment, only to be killed by a roadside bomb.

"He really felt what he was doing was helping the Iraqi people. He had a lot of bad experiences the first time, but he had just as many good experiences," Bevington said. "He was very proud of what he was doing. He would never tell you that to your face, but you could see it in his eyes."

Before his second deployment, Bevington purchased a 2002 cobalt blue Ford Mustang. Now, it sits in his brother's driveway because neither he nor his mother have the heart to move it.

Chuck Bevington doesn't like what he calls the politicizing of the troops.

"The last thing these men need are people second guessing what's going on," he said. "That's something for the history books to decide whether it's right or wrong."

"If they end it right now, they're going to make it worse then it ever was."

Hawthorne isn't waiting on history's verdict. She's bitter about a military she said enticed her son with promises of money, then sent him to a war based on a lie.

"When they came and told me he was gone, oh my God, it just crushed me," Hawthorne said. "There was actual pain in my heart. It felt like someone was in there just ripping it apart."

When her son's first enlistment was nearing an end, before the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, Hawthorne said he decided to re-enlist, partly because the signing bonus of more than $10,000 would help pay his bills. At the time, he was facing $600 in monthly child support payments from his failed first marriage.

When he deployed to Iraq, his sister said, he had money saved and planned to go to college when he got out of the military in 2005.

Instead, he died in Iraq in 2004 when his tank overturned.

Hawthorne said the military gave her $4,000 for his funeral, but it wasn't enough to cover the $14,000 expense. The funeral home forgave the rest, and neighbors collected $400 to help her get by.

"You don't see anyone who has money putting their children into the military," she said. "I'm all for our soldiers. Without them our country wouldn't be where we are today, but this war just doesn't seem right. Like the Vietnam one. It's not right."

Posted by lois at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

Letter to the Editor by Tony Papa on NY Prisons In the NY Times

The New York Times
February 18, 2007 Sunday
Spitzer's Prison Fight
To the Editor:
''A Battle Over Prisons'' (editorial, Feb. 12):
We need a smart political leader like Gov. Eliot Spitzer to correct the waste of scarce tax dollars spent on maintaining half-empty institutions.
These prisons have become cash cows for the correction officers' union and political leaders in rural upstate communities that house these facilities.
Governor Spitzer is clearly looking at the economic waste generated by the archaic prison-industrial complex. His efforts to substitute a smarter economic approach should be applauded and given time to bear fruit.
Governor Spitzer's policy will lead to a better functioning criminal justice system that will be more cost-efficient for the people of New York.
Anthony Papa
New York, Feb. 12, 2007

Posted by lois at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

NY: Juvenile Detention Fac to Reopen

This juvenile detention facility is in Rennselearville, in Southern Albany County.
Times Union
Camp Cass to reopen doors
Detention facility responds to community's fears with a program for nonviolent teens

By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Monday, February 19, 2007

The juvenile detention facility that has recently been in the news for repeat escapes and a 2004 rape and kidnapping will now offer classes in horticulture, cooking and retail management. It also will sponsor a Boy Scout Troop in which youths in the surrounding community will be urged to participate.

The center, run by the state Office of Children and Family Services, will continue to offer regular high school classes to the youths at the facility on Cheese Hill.

State officials changed the focus of the camp in response to neighbors' concerns about the safety and security of the facility. Now, the camp will house only nonviolent juvenile delinquents between the ages of 13 and 16 who are referred there by family court judges.

The state agency "has been sensitive to the concerns recently voiced by the community and we are implementing measures that enhance safety, in and around the community," said spokesman Brian Marchetti.

The camp will house a new group of children. They were expected to arrive on Thursday, but the snowstorm that blanketed the northeast postponed the move.

There have been seven escapes in the last two years, frightening residents in an area where people previously had felt safe enough to leave their homes unlocked. Despite the nonviolent nature of the new residents, the state is moving ahead with plans to build a $2 million perimeter fence with razor wire.

Earlier this month, residents packed a Town Board meeting to demand answers from Children and Family Services officials who they said have consistently ignored them. That followed a move by more than 500 of the town's 2,000 residents who gathered petitions seeking to close Camp Cass, claiming they no longer feel safe in their own homes.

Those concerns escalated after a 15-year-old convicted robber walked out of the camp undetected in November. He traveled for five miles on foot to the home of an elderly couple he robbed before driving off in their car. The boy was found hours later in Poughkeepsie.

For some in town, nothing that the state puts forward will be enough to quell fears, said Supervisor Jost Nickelsberg. "The bottom line is this fence may or may not go up within nine months," Nickelsberg said. "Once the fence is in it's a different prison and they'll use it for whatever they want to use it for.

"The bottom line is, we've been lied to, and made fools of and shame on us," Nickelsberg said. "We should have known what was in our own backyard. And now we do. Job number one is the health and safety of people in our town."

Marchetti said the new Camp Cass certificate program in restaurant management services and retail operations is being offered, in part, through a partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension and Nike, respectively. The Boy Scout Troop will be led by camp director Tim Kelso, officials said.

Meanwhile, Ed Ausborn, deputy commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services, disclosed his intention to retire last week. Marchetti said nothing should be read into the timing of Ausborn's announcement because "it is a complete coincidence." Ausborn will remain on board until May, he said.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=564505&category=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=2/19/2007

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

Growth of the U.S. prison industry

Monday, February 19, 2007
Growth of the U.S. prison industry
NEAL PEIRCE-
Syndicated columnist. This column ran in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)

New York's Eliot Spitzer, the tough ex-prosecutor turned governor, wants a commission to examine closing some of his state's dozens of prisons. Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pressing for $11 billion in bonds to add 78,000 beds to California's already burgeoning and overtaxed system.

What's going on here?

Partly, it's what both men inherited. New York's prison population peaked at 71,000 inmates in 1999 but has dropped by 8,000 since. Major explanations: dropping crime levels (especially in New York City) and increased efforts to find alternative treatment for nonviolent offenders.

California's prison population, meanwhile, has continued to surge. It's now at 173,000 inmates, an $8 billion yearly bill. Overcrowding and threats of riots are so serious that a senior prison official last year warned of "an imminent and substantial threat to the public.''

One ironic twist: Thirty years ago California's prison system was hailed as America's best, providing education and psychotherapy for offenders. New York, meanwhile, endured the tumultuous Attica prison riot of 1971 and enacted Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's infamous drug laws - widely copied in other states - that swelled prison populations by setting sentences up to life for possessing or selling even minuscule amounts of narcotics.

So why the switch? In 1977, responding to a crime surge, California Gov. Jerry Brown did away with the "indeterminate'' sentencing that gave both judges and parole boards flexibility in deciding when it was safe to release an offender. Rehabilitation and treatment were largely written out of the state prison code; punishment became the sole goal. California's Legislature passed more than 1,000 mandatory prison-sentence measures, topped by the 1994 enactment of the state's famed "three strikes law'' decreeing 25-year-to-life terms for most two-time prior offenders.

New York in recent years has been trying reform. Indeed, as some of the more ferociously severe drug-offense penalties were repealed in 2004, then-Gov. George Pataki could proclaim: "The Rockefeller drug laws will be no more.''

That's not to say that any reform is easy after decades of "lock-em-up'' politics and a "war'' on drugs that's helped drive America's incarceration rates to the highest in the world.

Plus, any governor faces formidable political obstacles trying to pare back America's vast prison-industrial complex. In California, it's the Correctional Peace Officers Association, an astounding 31,000 members strong. Commanding a multimillion-dollar campaign war chest, the union is a major factor in gubernatorial and legislative campaigns. The three-strikes law is its full-employment act.

Former Gov. Gray Davis, whom Schwarzenegger ousted in the 2003 recall election, appeased the union unabashedly. It has more than 2,000 members earning over $100,000 a year; its contract-guaranteed pension benefits are today superior to those of the state university system.

On entering office, Schwarzenegger seemed intent on an independent course, championing rehabilitation and appointing a reform prison director. But when he began secret dealings with the union, his director quit in protest. Schwarzenegger still talks of measures to help prisoners straighten out their lives (mental-health counseling and life-skills training, for example). But his latest budget cuts a voter-mandated drug-treatment program that studies have shown to be highly cost-effective. And his big emphasis now is on bricks and mortar to confine more prisoners - $11 billion for added state prison, county jail and juvenile beds.

In New York, Spitzer also confronts a politically powerful prison guard union, and more - local politicians defending a network of upstate prisons built in recent decades to help offset heavy manufacturing job losses. An example: State Sen. Elizabeth Little, whose Adirondacks district includes 12 prisons and prison camps. "There are over 5,000 corrections officers living in my district,'' she told The New York Times. "In most of these communities, the prisons are the biggest employer.''

Left unsaid in Little's frank assessment: a society in which overwhelmingly white upstate New York communities rely economically on massive incarceration of a heavily black and Hispanic prison population.

Will Spitzer, like Schwarzenegger, eventually retreat from his lofty reform goals? New York state government cries out for systemic reform, and his massive (69 percent) election mandate provides a once-in-a-generation leadership opportunity. On ethics standards and issues like prisons, he's showing a willingness to face down legislators, even fellow Democrats.

It's a bold maneuver, all the more dramatic because Spitzer is specifically including a critical look at today's vast prison establishment and culture - the issue most American politicos fear to even discuss.

Eventually, Spitzer will be obliged to make some compromises on legislation. Yet there's a parallel to Theodore Roosevelt. As William Cunningham, a veteran of two earlier New York administrations, told the Times:

"Roosevelt came in saying he was going to be a reform governor. He immediately got into a fight with Senator Platt, the head of the Republicans, a powerful political boss in the state. History remembers Teddy Roosevelt. You have to be a knucklehead like me to remember Boss Platt.''

Neal Peirce's email address is nrp@citistates.com

Posted by lois at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

CORI Should Not Be A Life Sentence

[ Originally published on: Saturday, February 17, 2007 ]
To the editor:
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA
I fully support Gov. Deval Patrick's first step in remedying a major barrier to building a life after incarceration. That is the excessively punitive and counterproductive CORI system. CORI laws and practices create almost insurmountable obstacles to obtain work and access housing for people who were incarcerated, usually the poor and especially African American and Latino men and women. There are now over 10,000 businesses, organizations and agencies that have access to CORI, compared to 2,000 in 1993. These 10,000 are in addition to the thousands of schools, hospitals and child care centers mandated to check CORIs.

On Feb. 14, both your editorial and another related story appeared on the front page of The New York Times. Their article detailed that 8,129 waivers were given by the Army to people with serious misdemeanors and felony convictions - almost double the number from 2003. Because almost all other doors are closed to people with CORIs, the armed services have become an employer of last resort. The Army has recognized that the CORI-type systems provide a recruiting opportunity for them as they struggle to enlist men and women unwilling to be sent to Iraq possibly to die or be seriously wounded. Is this the only option that should be available to people who were charged and perhaps convicted of a crime 10 or 15 years ago?

If the U.S. Army believes that people with felony and misdemeanors convictions are fit to serve, hopefully employers will follow their lead and support the modest reform that Governor Patrick is recommending. If passed, this would mean that only information about past arrests and convictions relevant to the position the person is seeking be given to prospective employers. As Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said: "CORI should not be a life sentence."

Lois Ahrens
Northampton

Posted by lois at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

Prisoners of the Census Bureau: How and where the U.S. counts inmates has huge, and unsettling, consequences.

February 19, 2007 Monday, Los Angeles Times
Editorial Pages Desk; Part A; Pg. 19

Prisoners of the Census Bureau: How and where the U.S. counts inmates has huge, and unsettling, consequences.

Marie Gottschalk, MARIE GOTTSCHALK, an associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote "The Prison and the
Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America."

TODAY, MORE THAN 2 million people, or nearly one out of every 100 adults, is sitting in a jail or prison in the United States -- an incarceration rate unprecedented in U.S. history.

The total number of prisoners is not in dispute. But how to tabulate them is emerging as perhaps the most vexing issue of the 2010 census.

The U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners as residents of the towns and counties where they are incarcerated, even though most inmates have no ties to those communities and almost always return to their home neighborhoods upon release.

This has enormous and unsettling political and economic consequences, especially for California. The state banishes many of its urban offenders to prisons clustered in rural areas and intends to send at least 5,000 of its inmates out of state to cope with the prison overcrowding crisis.

In California and 47 other states, imprisoned felons are barred from voting. Yet these disenfranchised prisoners are included in the population tallies used to draw legislative and congressional districts.

This practice dilutes the votes of urban areas such as Los Angeles. Nearly one-third of the 172,000 inmates in California's state prisons come from Los Angeles County, but only about 3% are incarcerated in the county.

The evidence of political inequities in redistricting because of how the Census Bureau counts prisoners is "compelling," according to a recent National Research Council report.

A provocative analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative estimates that if prisoners held in upstate New York were counted in their home neighborhoods, at least four state Senate seats -- all Republican -- would be in jeopardy after redistricting. Last May, a federal appeals court suggested that counting the thousands of black and Latino prisoners from New York City as upstate residents may be a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Nearly 200 counties nationwide, including seven in California, have at least 5% of their "residents" in prison. Lassen County, home to two large state prisons and one federal penitentiary, has a whopping 25% of its residents behind bars. Those prisoners also distort demographic data. Lassen County is 87% white, but only 82% if you count the 10,000 prisoners. Indeed, more than 90% of blacks in the county are incarcerated.

Such data make rural prison communities appear, on paper, more ethnically diverse and less affluent. Prisoners' negligible pay artificially depresses the per-capita income of prison towns, which ironically then become more eligible for social programs for the poor.

Federal and state governments and nonprofit organizations use census data to allocate tens of billions of dollars for education, transportation, job training, public health and other social services. Cook County, Ill., is losing nearly $10 million a year in federal benefits because 26,000 Chicago-area residents are counted in prison communities elsewhere in the state.

Last year, in a report to Congress, the Census Bureau recoiled from counting prisoners in their home communities. The bureau cited prohibitive costs as well as security concerns, because inmates might have to be individually interviewed by census personnel. But these objections are unconvincing. In many ways, prisoners are cheaper, easier and safer to count than other populations, such as migrant workers or the homeless.

The 2010 census is rapidly approaching, and it may be too late to force a stubborn Census Bureau to change its ways for this go-round. But states can do some things on their own. California legislators could require the state to collect the home addresses of inmates and to adjust the census data before redistricting accordingly. Or the state could subtract its prisoners from the census data before redistricting.

At least a dozen counties in upstate New York already do this before drawing their county legislative districts. State legislators in California and elsewhere also should demand that the Census Bureau conduct a major test in the 2010 census of alternative ways to tally inmates -- as was recommended by the National Research Council.

States that send offenders to out-of-state prisons already have been pushing for a change in the rules, as have legislators from urban areas. As Michigan state Rep. LaMar Lemmons (D-Detroit), a proponent of census reform,
said: " Prison is not a residence; it is a condition."

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

February 18, 2007

NY: Panel to Review Criminal Justice

What’s next for the system?
Panel explores future of criminal justice under Gov. Spitzer

by Amy Zimmer / metro new york

FEB 16, 2007

THE NEW SCHOOL. There are currently 63,500 inmates in New York’s state prison. While that’s down 8,100 from the peak in 1999, criminal justice advocates believe changes to the system could lower that number even further, and they’re hopeful Gov. Eliot Spitzer will take the state in that direction.

Spitzer’s proposals to re-examine the state’s $3 billion criminal justice system include setting up commissions to study possible prison closures — a similar task force recently recommended several hospital closures — and to re-examine prison sentences.

“The sentencing commission is going to look at every law on the book, including the Rockefeller Drug Laws,” said Brian Fischer, acting commissioner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services, at a panel discussion held here yesterday co-sponsored by the Correctional Association of New York. The administration also plans to focus on better preparing inmates for re-entry into society. The panel hopes they also focus on eliminating waste, inhumanity and racism from the system.

Last year 26,000 inmates were released. Roughly 38 percent, however, end up back in prison within three years, mostly because of parole violations and the difficulty they have finding employment, housing, staying off drugs and “the lack of support they get when returning to communities,” Fischer said.

“When they look for a job or a house or a license many are being denied because of our own public policies,” he acknowledged.

He called for strengthening the relationship between the prisons, parole and community agencies to help former prisoners.

“You can imagine, instead of sending 8,000 [prisoners] back a year, if we sent 4,000 or 2,000 — these are real budget savings that translate into empty prison beds,” said Michael Jacobson, director of the Vera Institute of Justice. “If fewer people come back, we’ll take a piece of that and reinvest in community programs or in-prison programs that can lower prison populations in the future.”

Jacobson acknowledged it would be a tough sell for the public.

“People say, ‘I’m a taxpaying citizen. You want my taxpayer dollars to pay for someone in prison to get an education?,’” Jacobson said. “The answer is ‘Yes, it’s in your self-interest.’”

Who's inside

- 36,212 are there for violent crimes; average prison time is a little more than six years.

- 13,928 for drug-related offenses; average prison time is a little less than three years.

- More than 8,000 have mental health problems.

- 48 percent are African American; 26 percent are Hispanic; 24 percent are white.

http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Whats_next_for_the_system/7024.html

Posted by lois at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Governor includes funds in budget for improved treatment of people who are mentally ill and incarcerated

Times Union
Albany, NY
Hope behind bars
Gov. Spitzer includes funds in his budget for improved treatment of mentally ill inmates
First published: Saturday, February 17, 2007

In some of the bleakest and unforgiving quarters imaginable in all of New York, there's suddenly reason for hope. For the people for whom times passes so excruciatingly slowly -- if, that is, they can fully comprehend even that much -- more humane treatment appears to be on the way.

Governor Spitzer's proposed state budget would increase the amount of money spent on mentally ill prison inmates by $60 million over three years. The governor wants to spend $9 million a year by 2009 so prisoners can be screened and better treated for mental illness. He's also seeking an additional $50 million in capital funds so prisons can be designed with more spaces appropriate for mentally ill inmates.

Compare that with the old ways, when, for example, then-Governor Pataki last year vetoed a bill that would have spared mentally inmates from the trauma and indignities of the solitary confinement known as The Box. Here's what he said at the time:

"While we work to ensure that prison inmates receive appropriate mental health services, we must do so in a way that is consistent with our obligation to ensure the continued preservation of the safety, security and order of the state's correctional facilities."

It sounded then and it still sounds now like political cover far more than any sense of either compassion or candor. The truth is that mental health services haven't been adequate in New York's prisons for the more than 8,000 people -- that's about 12 percent of the total inmate population -- who require them. The result is that these inmates are three times more likely to purposely injure themselves or commit suicide than other inmates.

Mr. Pataki's veto message rejecting a ban on putting these inmates in The Box suggested that a new, $380 million facility would be needed as a result, with an operating cost of $130 million a year. That alone, even if it were the case, isn't such a convincing reason to stop confining the most vulnerable of inmates under such circumstances. But what's especially telling now is that a new governor's budget does seek some of the funds necessary to house mentally ill inmates in a more appropriate manner.

The particulars of Mr. Spitzer's proposed budget for prisons have to be negotiated with the Legislature, of course, a traditionally cumbersome process. Freeing mentally ill inmates from The Box, however, is a much simpler matter. The Legislature merely needs to pass the same bill it did last year. It's hard to envision this governor vetoing such a bill on the grounds that security and order demand it.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=564124&category=OPINI
ON&newsdate=2/17/2007

Posted by lois at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)

CO: Some prison funds turned to treatment

Denver Post
Prison funds turned to treatment

Gov. Bill Ritter submits an amended budget plan calling for an $8 million increase in rehabilitation programs and a cut in spending on prison beds.

By Mark P. Couch
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 02/16/2007

Gov. Bill Ritter is emphasizing treatment programs over prison beds - agive-'em-another- chance philosophy that differs from the previous administration's lock-'em-up stance.

An amended budget plan submitted by Ritter last week calls for an $8 million increase in spending next year with the aim of decreasing future prison construction and operating costs by $14.2 million or more.

To cover some of the costs of the programs, Ritter would reduce prison-bed spending by $3.2 million in the 2007-08 budget. Owens' budget called for $12.9 million to cover the costs of additional prison beds.

"I think this is a good first step," said Ari Zavaras, executive director of the Department of Corrections.

Under the Ritter plan, the state would spend more on drug- and alcohol-treatment centers, provide 60 more beds for mental-health patients and add 75 beds to residential centers to keep offenders out of prison.

The total program is a stark contrast from the stern warnings issued by Owens in November.

"The cost of not incarcerating is very directly felt by the citizens," he said, noting the costs to crime victims, insurance companies, county jail systems and local district attorneys' offices.

In his budget, Owens highlighted increased funding for more prison beds and the hiring of corrections and parole officers.

Zavaras said the programs getting funding in the Ritter plan are intended to reduce crime rates and save money by reducing the number of repeat offenders.

"Our main mission is public safety, and we're not going to do anything to jeopardize that," he said.

Ritter's experience as Denver's district attorney shapes his approach, but budget realities are a driving force of the plan.

On the campaign trail, Ritter described his commitment to reducing the state's prison costs as a "moral obligation."

The cost of building and running prisons is squeezing the state budget and taking money away from schools, he said.

Twenty years ago, the state spent $63 million from the general fund budget to run prisons. In 2006-07, the cost was $585 million from the general fund.

Advocates for criminal-justice reform said they were encouraged by Ritter's shift in priorities but want him to do more.

Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, which represents 104 organizations and faith-based groups, said they want the state to put even more money into programs because putting sick people behind bars doesn't solve the problems.

"Incarceration doesn't cure mental illness," she said. "Incarceration doesn't cure substance abuse."

Ritter proposed other changes to Owens' budget, including a plan to open two driver's license offices in metro Denver, funds for construction on college campuses, more financial aid and money to reopen civil-rights offices in Pueblo and Grand Junction.

Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposal highlights

Highlights of Gov. Ritter's "Recidivism Reduction and Offender Diversion" package.

Colorado Unified Supervision Treatment Program - $3.1 millionThe program calls for funding to create supervision and treatment options for offenders with mental health and substance abuse problems.

Also, money would be used to create treatment programs for methamphetamine abusers in metro Denver, the south metro area, the north metro area and the Western Slope.

Short-term Intensive Residential Remediation Treatment - $892,115

A program that provides two-week residential stays and after-care treatment for drug- and alcohol-abusers who have been unsuccessful in other treatment programs.

Sites:

Rifle - new center treating 130 women and 260 men with ongoing care for 220 offenders for eight months.

Fort Collins - new center for 260 men with ongoing care to 150 male offenders for eight months.

Arapahoe County - expanded center for 300 men with ongoing care for eight months.

Pueblo - expanded center for 130 adults for eight months.

Restore funding to youth corrections treatment programs cut during the recession - $1.9 million

In 1991, lawmakers passed a law that funded shelter care, temporary holding placements and other programs.

When the program was fully funded, 25 percent of the money went into programs that targeted youths prior to commitment or to reduce their time in commitment.

During the economic downturn earlier this decade, funding for the treatment programs was cut. The remaining money in the program was used for detention services.

Transitional Mental Health Beds - $858,438

Adds 60 beds - 40 for men and 20 for women - to provide mental-health treatment.

Community Corrections Bed Increases - $1.1 million

Adds 75 beds to residential-diversion programs. Ritter says the cost of sending offenders sent to a bed in a community-corrections center is about half the price of prison bed.

Ritter also says that offenders placed in a community-corrections center is half as likely to commit a crime in the two years after being discharged.

Specialized Community Corrections Beds - $248,863

Covers the cost of sending 40 offenders with severe mental illness and substance-abuse problems into community-corrections centers rather than to prison.

Community Corrections Sanctions and Incentives Model - $83,123

Looks for ways to reward community corrections centers that have lower rates of repeat offenders.

Office of Research and Statistics Program Evaluations - $506,347

The program would evaluate the performance of programs designed to reduce offenses by discharged prisoners.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5237457q

Posted by lois at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

PA: New Prisons Proposed for Dallas PA

02/15/2007
Supervisors say new prison may be bigger burden than benefit
BY ROBERT KALINOWSKI
STAFF WRITER

Another state prison in Jackson Township would put added stress on the roads, sewers and emergency services with little benefit for the township, a pair of supervisors worry.

“To me, the residents of Jackson Township pay the taxes and receive no benefit for added expenses caused by the prison,” supervisor Allen Fox said Tuesday.

Gov. Ed Rendell proposes a $189 million, 2,300-bed prison in his 2007 capital budget request. The medium-security facility would be constructed adjacent to the State Correctional Institution at Dallas, although the prisons would operate independently.

It is one of three new prison’s included in the governor’s “wish list” in the budget.

Township supervisors worry a new prison could adversely impact the quality of life for residents in the Back Mountain even though it could generate as many as 600 new jobs.

Besides the $52 job tax levied on employees, the current 2,000-bed prison generates no revenue for the township since it holds tax-exempt status. However, the jail relies on vital services paid for by local tax dollars such as roads, fire protection, and ambulance calls, supervisors say.

Fox and supervisor John J. Wilkes Jr. also have other concerns they hope could be alleviated if the state legislature approves funding for Rendell’s proposal.

Doubling the amount of inmates and workers on the prison site would increase traffic on rural roads leading to the jail — from vehicles hauling food in to trucks taking garbage away — and also on state Route 309, they said. They wonder how the water supply will be affected, and if there would be an adequate sewer system in place.

There are likely other things that will pop up if the plans proceed and residents have a say, Wilkes said. “I can’t even speculate about other concerns that might come up,” he said.

Wilkes hopes the state keeps the board of supervisors and residents informed during the process. He predicts “more hearings and studies than we could ever imagine” will be conducted — a process that would slowly shed light on the proposed project and give residents answers.

Both supervisors say if things are done right, they don’t see another jail being an inconvenience for residents.

“If it’s handled properly, and there is no real detriment to existing property owners, I don’t see a problem,” Fox said. “The (current) prison has been here for 40 years.”

Added Wilkes: “To be honest, the current facility has been a great neighbor.”

Plans for a new prison are in the preliminary stages. Funding needs the state legislature’s approval. If approved, it could be several years before construction would start.

The proposed Jackson Township facility would be one of three new prisons built to accommodate a surge of 8,000 new inmates expected to enter the state correctional system by 2011, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton said.

http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17853543&BRD=2259&PAG=461&

Posted by lois at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans

February 18, 2007, NY Times Page 1
Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans
By MICHAEL MOSS and SOUAD MEKHENNET

DAMASCUS, Syria — In the early hours of Jan. 6, Laith al-Ani stood in a jail near the Baghdad airport waiting to be released by the American military after two years and three months in captivity.

He struggled to quell his hope. Other prisoners had gotten as far as the gate only to be brought back inside, he said, and he feared that would happen to him as punishment for letting his family discuss his case with a reporter.

But as the morning light grew, the American guards moved Mr. Ani, a 31-year-old father of two young children, methodically toward freedom. They swapped his yellow prison suit for street clothes, he said. They snipped off his white plastic identification bracelet. They scanned his irises into their database.

Then, shortly before 9 a.m., Mr. Ani said, he was brought to a table for one last step. He was handed a form and asked to place a check mark next to the sentence that best described how he had been treated:

“I didn’t go through any abuse during detention,” read the first option, in Arabic.

“I have gone through abuse during detention,” read the second.

In the room, he said, stood three American guards carrying the type of electric stun devices that Mr. Ani and other detainees said had been used on them for infractions as minor as speaking out of turn.

“Even the translator told me to sign the first answer,” said Mr. Ani, who gave a copy of his form to The New York Times. “I asked him what happens if I sign the second one, and he raised his hands,” as if to say, Who knows?

“I thought if I don’t sign the first one I am not going to get out of this place.”

Shoving the memories of his detention aside, he checked the first box and minutes later was running through a cold rain to his waiting parents. “My heart was beating so hard,” he said. “You can’t believe how I cried.”

His mother, Intisar al-Ani, raised her arms in the air, palms up, praising God. “It was like my soul going out, from my happiness,” she recalled. “I hugged him hard, afraid the Americans would take him away again.”

Just three weeks earlier, his last letter home — with its poetic yearnings and a sketch of a caged pink heart — appeared in The Times in one of a series of articles on Iraq’s troubled detention and justice system.

After his release from the American-run jail, Camp Bucca, Mr. Ani and other former detainees described the sprawling complex of barracks in the southern desert near Kuwait as a bleak place where guards casually used their stun guns and exposed prisoners to long periods of extreme heat and cold; where prisoners fought among themselves and extremist elements tried to radicalize others; and where detainees often responded to the harsh conditions with hunger strikes and, at times, violent protests.

Through it all, Mr. Ani was never actually charged with a crime; he said he was questioned only once during his more than two years at the camp.

American detention officials acknowledged that guards used electric devices called Tasers to control detainees, but they said they did so rarely and only when the guards were physically threatened. The officials said that detainees had several ways to report abuse without repercussions, and that all claims were investigated.

Officials declined to give specific details about why they had detained Mr. Ani or why they had freed him.

“He was released because the board that reviewed his case didn’t believe he any longer posed a threat,” said First Lt. Lea Ann Fracasso, a spokeswoman for detention operations, in a written answer to questions. “He was originally detained as a security threat. I don’t have anything more.”

The Detention System

The American detention camps in Iraq now hold 15,500 prisoners, more than at any time since the war began. The camps are filled with people like Mr. Ani who are being held without charge and without access to tribunals where their cases are reviewed, the Times examination published last December found.

Mr. Ani, a women’s clothing merchant, said he was detained in 2004 after American soldiers who were searching for weapons in his six-family apartment building found an Iraqi military uniform in the basement. His joy upon being released in January was short-lived. Days later, he said, a Shiite militia ransacked his home in Baghdad, looking to kill him. He hid, going from house to house, until he could move his family out of Iraq.

Now he is among the estimated 1.5 million Iraqis who have taken refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan, where sectarian rifts are springing up.

In one area of Damascus, Shiite refugees from Iraq have established a mini version of Sadr City, the Baghdad neighborhood. Sunni refugees, in turn, are forming their own enclaves. In interviews, former detainees seethed with rage at the United States.

One, a 43-year-old man from Samarra, Iraq, said he was released last year despite having fought American troops.

“I wish to go back to Iraq and fight against the Americans, God willing,” vowed the man, who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his nom de guerre, Abu Abdulla, for fear of reprisal.

Mr. Ani has other priorities, still exhausted from his detention and preoccupied with finding a permanent home. But he regularly turns his television to a new station called Al Zawra, transfixed by its running montage of videotaped attacks on American troops.

The station is owned by a Sunni, Meshaan al-Juburi, a former Iraqi politician who was indicted last year on charges of embezzling millions of American dollars; he denied the charges and returned to Syria, where he lived before the war. The station has become an information center for the Sunni insurgency and in the process has exasperated American and Iraqi forces. In an interview at his office here, Mr. Juburi said that he opposed Al Qaeda’s use of suicide bombers to kill Iraqi civilians but was soliciting support for Iraqis intent on killing American troops. When the image of a roadside bomb blowing up an American Humvee appears on the large flat screen on his office wall, his eyebrows rise and he urges his visitors to watch, “This is a good one.”

A Nightmare Begins

Mr. Ani’s ordeal began on Oct. 14, 2004, when soldiers brought him in for what he described as desultory questioning.

“ ‘Are you married? How many children? Sunni or Shiite? Which mosque do you pray in?’ ” Mr. Ani said he was asked. “I said I didn’t pray, and they said, ‘Are you not Muslim,’ and I said, ‘Yes, but I’m not praying and going to mosques.’ ”

“They never asked me about terrorism,” he said. “I’m a normal person, just a usual man, and don’t have anything to do with anyone who was fighting against the Americans.”

Mr. Ani spent a total of 44 days at two other American facilities before being sent to Camp Bucca. In all, he said, he was questioned just once at each site.

Mr. Ani said the electric prods were first used on him on the way to Camp Bucca. “I was talking to someone next to me and they used it,” he said, describing the device as black plastic with a yellow tip and two iron prongs. He said the prods were commonly used on him and other detainees as punishment.

“The whole body starts to shake and hurt,” he said. “And you lose consciousness for a couple of seconds. One time they used it on my tongue. One guard held me from the left and another on my back and another used it against my tongue and for four or five days I couldn’t eat.”

In a separate interview, the insurgent from Samarra said such a device had been used on him for speaking out of turn. Ahmed Majid al-Ghanem, 50, a former Baath Party official who was also freed from Camp Bucca and is now living in Syria, said in a separate interview that he witnessed the electric prods being used as punishment on other detainees.

The Times interviewed Mr. Ani at his apartment in Damascus, the Syrian capital, where he sat on a couch with his parents, wife and children. When he demonstrated how he had been held for the electric prod, his 4-year-old daughter, Al Budur, mimicked his actions.

Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry, a detention system spokesman, said: “Every use of less than lethal force, to include use of Tasers, is formally reported by facility leadership, ensuring soldiers are in accordance with proper use. Touching a Taser to someone’s tongue is not one of the approved uses.”

Mr. Ani said guards treated him kindly when he arrived at the jail on Nov. 20, 2004. He recalls being given soap, and, when his hands cracked from the cold, a soldier bringing him lotion and socks.

But soon new guards came “who had had special thoughts,” he said. “They were not allowing us to talk. They cut off the salt, gave us food that was not fit for dogs. One guard named David sometimes brought us outside to stay in the sun, or when it was cold. He also didn’t respect our faith, telling us not to pray here, and when we moved not to pray there.”

The detainees also began fighting among themselves. Those who spoke to the American guards were ostracized. Long toilet lines further raised tensions.

One day the guards searched a makeshift prayer area, Mr. Ani said, “and they started to step on the Korans, which fell down.”

“A fight started,” he continued. “There was a huge demonstration. The prisoners started to throw their shoes at the guards, and we started to beat them with empty plastic bottles. The guards shot at us with rubber bullets, but then prisoners were killed and others were injured.”

A Pentagon statement at the time described such an incident in January 2005, saying that four detainees were killed when guards were compelled to use deadly force to quell the riot and that it was set off by a search for contraband. Colonel Curry said an investigation concluded that a detainee leader had fabricated the Koran allegations to instigate violence.

Mr. Ani and other former detainees said there were frequent demonstrations to protest various grievances. Mr. Ghanem said he was released in late 2003 after hunger strikes forced camp officials to review his case and those of others.

Detention officials said they were also fighting radicalization at the camps and were trying to identify and isolate extremists. Former detainees said in interviews that the influence of Islamic extremists was still growing. At Camp Bucca, they said, hundreds of men formed a group called the Brothers. Members shaved their beards and otherwise masked their ideology so they would be placed with other detainees.

Mr. Ani generally slept in a wooden barrackslike structure, with a mattress on the ground and a nail on the wall for hanging clothes. Once, when the guards found an improvised needle that he said was used to repair clothes, he was taken to an isolated cell, where he was kept for 24 days.

“You cannot see the difference between day and night,” he said. “There was no opening, not even in the door.”

Colonel Curry said it was standard to discipline detainees when they did not follow procedure.

Mr. Ani despaired of ever being released. His letter that was printed in The Times ended with, “I hope I can be dust in the storms of Bucca so that I can reach you.”

Dangers Beyond Jail

“I didn’t see any kind of solution for me,” Mr. Ani said after his release. “The only solution was to die,” he said, his eyes welling with tears. “I was hoping to die.”

In releasing Mr. Ani, the American military transferred him to Camp Cropper in Baghdad and gave him $25, which he and his parents used to hire a taxi. Along the way home, they had to dodge Shiite-controlled checkpoints, and just days later, he said, he narrowly escaped capture by a Shiite militia. Mr. Ani and other Iraqis say they believe these militias have found a way to learn when Sunni men are released from jail and then hunt and kill them.

Maj. Gen. John D. Gardner, commander of American detainee operations, said that he had heard such concerns and that he was trying to alter the process of releasing detainees to improve their safety.

Mr. Ani said that for him there was only one way to stay alive: flee Iraq.

He said he was scared and puzzled about his next step. He said he felt that he could not stay in Syria, if only because work was scarce. But he must compete with other refugees for the attention of another host country.

“Until now, I can’t sleep, really,” he said. “Whenever I hear something noisy I stand up. I’m in a very bad psychological situation. I can’t stop thinking of what we should do. I don’t have a future here. How should we live?”

When his uncle put on Al Zawra, the satellite television station, Mr. Ani turned to look at the scenes of Sunni children who had been killed and the attacks on American soldiers.

“I am an Iraqi,” he said. “I love my country. Of course, everyone who is an Iraqi at the moment, we are thinking how can we support our country.”

“The United States through its actions made people hate the Americans much more than before.”

Posted by lois at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2007

NE Journal of Medicine: Sex, Drugs, Prison and HIV

The New England Journal of Medicine
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/356/2/105?query=TOC
Volume 356:105-108 January 11, 2007 Number 2
Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV
Susan Okie, M.D.

One recent morning at a medium-security compound at Rhode Island's state prison, Mr. M, a middle-aged black inmate, described some of the high-risk behavior he has witnessed while serving time. "I've seen it all," he said, smiling and rolling his eyes. "We have a lot of risky sexual activities. . . . Almost every second or minute, somebody's sneaking and doing something." Some participants are homosexual, he added; others are "curious, bisexual, bored, lonely, and . . . experimenting." As in all U.S. prisons, sex is illegal at the facility; as in nearly all, condoms are prohibited. Some inmates try to take precautions, fashioning makeshift condoms from latex gloves or sandwich bags. Most, however, "are so frustrated that they are not thinking of the consequences except for later," said Mr. M.

Drugs, and sometimes needles and syringes, find their way inside the walls. "I've seen the lifers that just don't care," Mr. M said. "They share needles and don't take a minute to rinse them." In the 1990s, he said, "needles were coming in by the handful," but prison officials have since stopped that traffic, and inmates who take illicit drugs usually snort or swallow them. Tattooing, although also prohibited, has been popular at times. "A lot of people I've known caught hepatitis from tattooing," Mr. M said. "They use staples, a nail . . . anything with a point."

Mr. M had just undergone a checkup performed by Dr. Josiah D. Rich, a professor of medicine at Brown University Medical School, who provides him with medical care as part of a long-standing arrangement between Brown and the Adult Correctional Institute in Cranston. Two years ago, Mr. M was hospitalized with pneumonia and meningitis. "I was scared and in denial," he said. Now, thanks to treatment with antiretroviral drugs, "I'm doing great, and I feel good," he reported. "I am HIV-positive and still healthy and still look fabulous."

U.S. public health experts consider the Rhode Island prison's human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) counseling and testing practices, medical care, and prerelease services to be among the best in thcountry. Yet according to international guidelines for reducing the risk of HIV transmission inside prisons, all U.S. prison systems fall short. Recognizing that sex occurs in prison despite prohibitions, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have recommended for more than a decade that condoms be made available to prisoners. They also recommend that prisoners have access to bleach for cleaning injecting equipment, that drug-dependence treatment and methadone maintenance programs be offered in prisons if they are provided in the community, and that needle-exchange programs be considered.

Prisons in several Western European countries and in Australia, Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Moldova, Indonesia, and Iran have adopted some or all of these approaches to "harm reduction," with largely favorable results. For example, programs providing sterile needles and syringes have been established in some 50 prisons in eight countries; evaluations of such programs in Switzerland, Spain, and Germany found no increase in drug use, a dramatic decrease in needle sharing, no new cases of infection with HIV or hepatitis B or C, and no reported instances of needles being used as weapons.1 Nevertheless, in the United States, condoms are currently provided on a limited basis in only two state prison systems (Vermont and Mississippi) and five county jail systems (New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC). Methadone maintenance programs are rarer still, and no U.S. prison has piloted a needle-exchange program.

The U.S. prison population has reached record numbers — at the end of 2005, more than 2.2 million American adults were incarcerated, according to the Justice Department. And drug-related offenses are a major reason for the population growth, accounting for 49% of the increase between 1995 and 2003. Moreover, in 2005, more than half of all inmates had a mental health problem, and doctors who treat prisoners say that many have used illicit drugs as self-medication for untreated mental disorders.

In the United States in 2004 (see table), 1.8% of prison inmates were HIV-positive, more than four times the estimated rate in the general population; the rate of confirmed AIDS cases is also substantially higher (see graph).2 Some behaviors that increase the risk of contracting HIV and other bloodborne or sexually transmitted infections can also lead to incarceration, and the burden of infectious diseases in prisons is high. It has been estimated that each year, about 25% of all HIV-infected persons in the United States spend time in a correctional facility, as do 33% of persons with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and 40% of those with active tuberculosis.3
Critics in the public health community have been urging U.S. prison officials to do more to prevent HIV transmission, to improve diagnosis and treatment in prisons, and to expand programs for reducing high-risk behavior after release. The debate over such preventive strategies as providing condoms and needles reflects philosophical differences, as well as uncertainty about the frequency of HIV transmission inside prisons. The UNAIDS and WHO recommendations assume that sexual activity and injection of drugs by inmates cannot be entirely eliminated and aim to protect both prisoners and the public from HIV, HCV, and other diseases.

But many U.S. prison officials contend that providing needles or condoms would send a mixed message. By distributing condoms, "you're saying sex, whether consensual or not, is OK," said Lieutenant Gerald Ducharme, a guard at the Rhode Island prison. "It's a detriment to what we're trying to enforce." U.S. prison populations have higher rates of mental illness and violence than their European counterparts, which, some researchers argue, might make providing needles more dangerous. And some believe that whereas European prison officials tend to be pragmatic, many U.S. officials adopt a "just deserts" philosophy, viewing infections as the consequences of breaking prison rules.

Studies involving state-prison inmates suggest that the frequency of HIV transmission is low but not negligible. For example, between 1988 — when the Georgia Department of Corrections began mandatory HIV testing of all inmates on entry to prison and voluntary testing thereafter — and 2005, HIV seroconversion occurred in 88 male inmates in Georgia state prisons. HIV transmission in prison was associated with men having sex with other men or receiving a tattoo.4 In another study in a southeastern state, Christopher Krebs of RTI International documented that 33 of 5265 male prison inmates (0.63%) contracted HIV while in prison.5 But Krebs points out that "when you have a large prison population, as our country does . . . you do start thinking about large numbers of people contracting HIV."

Studies of high-risk behavior in prisons yield widely varying frequency estimates: for example, estimates of the proportion of male inmates who have sex with other men range from 2 to 65%, and estimates of the proportion who are sexually assaulted range from 0 to 40%.5 Such variations may reflect differences in research methods, inmate populations, and prison conditions that affect privacy and opportunity. Researchers emphasize that classifying prison sex as either consensual or forced is often overly simplistic: an inmate may provide sexual favors to another in return for protection or for other reasons. Better information on sexual transmission of HIV in prisons may eventually become available as a result of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, which requires the Justice Department to collect statistics on prison rape and to provide funds for educating prison staff and inmates about the subject.

Theodore M. Hammett of the Domestic Health, Health Policy, and Clinical Research Division of Abt Associates, a Massachusetts-based policy research and consulting firm, acknowledged that for political reasons U.S. prisons are unlikely to accept needle-exchange programs, but he said adoption of other HIV-prevention measures is long overdue. "Condoms ought to be widely available in prisons," he said. "From a public health standpoint, I think there's little question that that should be done. Methadone, also — all kinds of drug [abuse] treatment should be much more widely available in correctional settings." Methadone maintenance programs for inmates have been established in a few jails and prisons, including those in New York City, Albuquerque, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Brown University's Rich is currently conducting a randomized, controlled trial at the Rhode Island facility, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, to determine whether starting methadone maintenance in heroin-addicted inmates a month before their release will lead to better health outcomes and reduced recidivism, as compared with providing either usual care or referral to community methadone programs at the time of release.

At the Rhode Island prison, the medical program focuses on identifying HIV-infected inmates, treating them, teaching them how to avoid transmitting the virus, addressing drug dependence, and when they're released, referring them to a program that arranges for HIV care and other assistance, including methadone maintenance treatment if needed. The prison offers routine HIV testing, and 90% of inmates accept it. One third of the state's HIV cases have been diagnosed at the prison. "These people are a target population and a captive one," noted Rich. "We should use this time" for health care and prevention. Nationally, 73% of state inmates and 77% of federal inmates surveyed in 2004 said they had been tested for HIV in prison. State policies vary, with 20 states reportedly testing all inmates and the rest offering tests for high-risk groups, at inmates' request, or in specific situations. Researchers said inmate acceptance rates also vary widely, depending on how the test is presented. Drugs for treating HIV-infected prisoners are not covered by federal programs, and prison budgets often contain inadequate funding for health services. "You can see how, in some cases, there could be a disincentive for really pushing testing," Hammett said.

Critics of U.S. penal policies contend that incarceration has exacerbated the HIV epidemic among blacks, who are disproportionately represented in the prison population, accounting for 40% of inmates. A new report by the National Minority AIDS Council calls for routine, voluntary HIV testing in prisons and on release, making condoms available, and expanding reentry programs that address HIV prevention, substance abuse, mental health, and housing needs as prisoners return to the community. "Any reservoir of infection that is as large as a prison would warrant, by simple public health logic, that we do our best . . . to reduce the risk of transmission" both inside and outside the walls, said Robert E. Fullilove of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, who wrote the report. "The issue has never been, Do we understand what has to happen to reduce the risks? . . . It's always been, Do we have the political will necessary to put what we know is effective into operation?"

Source Information

Dr. Okie is a contributing editor of the Journal.

An interview with Theodore Hammett can be heard at www.nejm.org.

References

Dolan K, Rutter S, Wodak AD. Prison-based syringe exchange programmes: a review of international research and development. Addiction 2003;98:153-158. [CrossRef][ISI][Medline]
Maruschak LM. HIV in prisons, 2004. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2006.
Hammett TM, Harmon MP, Rhodes W. The burden of infectious disease among inmates of and releasees from US correctional facilities, 1997. Am J Public Health 2002;92:1789-1794. [Free Full Text]
HIV transmission among male inmates in a state prison system -- Georgia, 1992-2005. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2006;55:421-426. [Medline]
Krebs CP. Inmate factors associated with HIV transmission in prison. Criminology Public Policy 2006;5:113-36.

Posted by lois at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

Death Rate is Lower for African Americans in Prison

Clearly not proof of good prison health care but a reflection on how bad health care is in the "free world."

Published: 01.22.2007

U.S.: Death rate lower for blacks in prison
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — State prison inmates, particularly blacks, are living longer on average than people on the outside, the government said Sunday.
Inmates in state prisons are dying at an average yearly rate of 250 per 100,000, according to the latest figures reported to the Justice Department by state prison officials. By comparison, the overall population of people between ages 15 and 64 is dying at a rate of 308 a year.
For black inmates, the rate was 57 percent lower than among the overall black population — 206 versus 484. But white and Hispanic prisoners both had death rates slightly above their counterparts in the overall population.

The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said 12,129 state prisoners died from 2001 through 2004.
Eight percent were murdered or killed themselves, 2 percent died of alcohol, drugs or accidental injuries and 1 percent of the deaths could not be explained, the report said.
The rest of the deaths — 89 percent — were due to medical reasons. Of those, two-thirds of inmates had the medical problem before they were sent to prison.
Medical problems that were most common among both men and women in state prisons were heart disease, lung and liver cancer, liver diseases and AIDS-related causes.
But the death rate among men was 72 percent higher than among women. Nearly one-quarter of the women who died had breast, ovarian, cervical or uterine cancer.
Four percent of the men who died had prostate or testicular cancer.
More than half the inmates 65 or older who died in state prisons were at least 55 when they were admitted to prison.
State prison officials reported that 94 percent of their inmates who died from an illness had been evaluated by a medical professional for that illness, and 93 percent got medication for it.
Eighty-nine percent had gotten X-rays, MRI exams, blood tests and other diagnostic work, state prison officials told the bureau.

Posted by lois at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2007

Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America’s Prison Population 2007-2011

Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America’s Prison Population 2007-2011. Prepared for the Pew Charitable Trusts by the JFA Institute. February 2007.

http://www.pewtrusts.com/pdf/PSPP_prison_projections_0207.pdf

By 2011 one in every 178 U.S. residents will live in prison. America will have more than 1.7 million men and women in prison, an increase of more than 192,000 from 2006. That increase could cost taxpayers as much as $27.5 billion over the next five years beyond what they currently spend on prisons.

Among the report’s projections for 2011:

Without policy changes by the states, the nation’s incarceration rate will reach 562 per 100,000, or one of every 178 Americans.
The new inmates will cost states an additional $15 billion for prison operations over the five-year period. Construction of new prison beds will cost as much as $12.5 billion.
Unless Montana, Arizona, Alaska, Idaho and Vermont change their sentencing or release practices, they can expect to see their prison systems grow by one third or more. Similarly, barring reforms, Colorado, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and South Dakota can expect their inmate populations to grow by about 25 percent.
Connecticut, Delaware and New York are projected to see no change in their prison populations. Maryland will see a 1 percent increase in prison population.
The number of women prisoners is projected to grow by 16 percent, while the male population will increase 12 percent.
Though the Northeast boasts the lowest incarceration rates, it has the highest costs per prisoner, led by Rhode Island ($44,860 per prisoner). Louisiana spends the least per prisoner ($13,009).
State by state projections of the number of men and women incarcerated, crime rates, costs.

Posted by lois at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Helping to Clear A Path From Prison to Work

City Limits WEEKLY, New York
Week of: January 29, 2007
Number: 572

HELPING CLEAR A PATH
FROM PRISON TO WORK
Let's make it worth employers' financial while to hire formerly incarcerated people, says a member of City Council. > By Ray Hainer

Today in New York City, more than 25,000 men and women are on parole from state prison. Roughly half of them are unemployed. Nearly a quarter of parolees statewide will return to prison within two years of their release, if recent history is any predictor. Those figures don't even include the tens of thousands released from city jails each year.

The low employment rate is partly explained by the fact that an ex-convict is less likely to have a high school diploma, and more likely to have a history of substance abuse and mental health problems, than someone in the general population. But it also reflects the widespread reluctance of employers - for reasons ranging from liability issues, to concern about backsliding, to simple prejudice - to hire people with criminal records.

In an effort to chip away at that reluctance, City Councilmember Letitia James, a member of the Working Families party from Brooklyn, will introduce a resolution to Council at its Feb. 1 meeting that proposes granting tax credits to businesses that hire "qualified ex-offenders."

The resolution calls for the state legislature, which has considerable authority over the city's taxes, to adopt legislation that would allow the city council to amend local tax laws to include the credits. State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, both Democrats who represent districts in Brooklyn that overlap with James', have said they will introduce the necessary legislation at the state level. Also pledging logistical support is a group of community organizations that includes the Fifth Avenue Committee, the Crown Heights Mediation Center and the Doe Fund, an organization providing job training and placement services for ex-offenders.

A tax credit program that aims to expand the job market for ex-offenders would represent a "monumental step towards reducing the correlation between poverty, high unemployment, incarceration and crime," James said at a Jan. 18 press conference at City Hall, surrounded by some 30 supporters, including a dozen Doe Fund trainees in matching bright-blue pants and jackets. "For all of us, it's a challenge. But either we pay now or we pay later."

The resolution is short on details and doesn't specify a dollar amount, but James has said that her proposal is modeled closely on a tax credit passed by the Philadelphia City Council last October that provides $5,000 for each new job a business creates for an ex-offender. It was brought to James' attention by her pastor, Rev. Anthony Trufant at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn. Trufant, who has long been concerned with integrating ex-offenders into the community-"There isn't a church in the borough that is not dealing with this," he says-happens to be the brother-in-law of W. Wilson Goode, Jr., the Philadelphia city councilmember who spearheaded the tax credit program there.

Although Trufant says that helping ex-offenders rejoin the workforce and the community is part of the church's "moral imperative," he holds up the public safety implications as an equally important consideration. In many cases, Trufant suggests, the lack of services for ex-offenders-a population that includes those on probation as well as former prisoners-causes many ex-offenders to become re-offenders, committing crimes in their neighborhoods out of financial desperation or "angst" stemming to some degree from their inability to find housing and work.

"It's not simply a moral issue," says Trufant, referring to the tax credit proposal. "It really is a practical strategy. The truth is, people are coming back home to these neighborhoods in record-breaking numbers, and the only question becomes: Will they find adequate opportunity when they return? I'm not suggesting that they necessarily merit an opportunity. I'm stating unequivocally and emphatically that they need an opportunity. Otherwise, they will be returning [to prison or jail]. And before they return they will wreak havoc."

"Recidivism is caused by economic frustration," says James, explaining the rationale for her plan. "The vast majority of these individuals are non-violent, but they will resort to fast money, which includes drug-dealing. And that brings with it a host of social costs."

It's an open question whether a $5,000 tax credit is enough to get ex-offenders hired more and returning to jail less. Philadelphia's program is not yet underway, and beyond that there is little precedent for James's proposal.

There's also no conclusive evidence that tax incentives increase employment among ex-offenders. In fact, re-entry experts say, the available evidence suggests that tax credits may not be enough to override employers' concerns
- about liability, or the cumbersome paperwork required (a deterrent for small businesses especially).

Most notably, an existing federal tax credit known as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), which provides up to $2,400 for hiring ex-offenders, appears to be underutilized. Though the WOTC is far broader than the credit proposed by James - in addition to ex-felons, the program targets the mentally and physically disabled, among other groups - fewer than 800 WOTC credits have been issued in New York City over the past two years, and to just 120 employers.

"When you talk to employment programs that work with people with criminal records, what they tell you about Work Opportunity Tax Credits [and other financial incentives] is that it's often the icing on the cake," says Debbie Mukamal, the director of the Prisoner Re-entry Institute at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "It's the deal closer. It's not going to be what changes an employer's primary decision whether or not to hire."

Glenn Martin, the co-director of the National H.I.R.E Network, a re-entry policy organization based in Manhattan, agrees that tax credits are a useful deal-sweetener for job-placement organizations to have at their disposal.

But, he adds, the consensus in the re-entry community is that employers seem more attracted to wage subsidies, in which an agency or organization pays a portion of an ex-offender's salary, than tax credits. Wage subsidies are to tax credits what a discount at the register is to a mail-in rebate.

Still, Martin notes that the tax credit that James would like to implement in New York more than doubles the WOTC. "Five thousand dollars is a different story," he says. "If New York came out of the gate with $5,000, you may get the same effect as with subsidies."

Heeding the advice of Martin and other experts, James is pursuing a parallel wage-subsidy initiative at the city level, alongside her tax credit resolution. Although the specifics have yet to be decided, James says she is planning to meet with the mayor's office soon to discuss the initiative.

In the meantime, Jeffries and Montgomery have begun to rally support in Albany for the tax credit proposal. Re-entry experts think it might help that the social consequences of incarceration and recidivism are receiving more national attention - for example, in his 2004 State of the Union address, President Bush proposed a $300 million initiative for job training and transitional housing for former prisoners. Martin says that "made it okay for Republicans to talk about re-entry." The new governor should help their chances, too, they say.

James, who served as an assistant attorney general under then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, agrees. "I think the Spitzer administration will be more responsive than the former administration," she said.

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3260

Posted by lois at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

Employers of Last Resort---Army Giving More Waivers in Recruiting

February 14, 2007
NY Times Page 1
Army Giving More Waivers in Recruiting
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent in the last three years, increasing to 8,129 in 2006 from 4,918 in 2003, Department of Defense records show.

During that time, the Army has employed a variety of tactics to expand its diminishing pool of recruits. It has offered larger enlistment cash bonuses, allowed more high school dropouts and applicants with low scores on its aptitude test to join, and loosened weight and age restrictions.

It has also increased the number of so-called “moral waivers” to recruits with criminal pasts, even as the total number of recruits dropped slightly. The sharpest increase was in waivers for serious misdemeanors, which make up the bulk of all the Army’s moral waivers. These include aggravated assault, burglary, robbery and vehicular homicide.

The number of waivers for felony convictions also increased, to 11 percent of the 8,129 moral waivers granted in 2006, from 8 percent.

Waivers for less serious crimes like traffic offenses and drug use have dropped or remained stable.

The Army enlisted 69,395 men and women last year.

While soldiers with criminal histories made up only 11.7 percent of the Army recruits in 2006, the spike in waivers raises concerns about whether the military is making too many exceptions to try to meet its recruitment demands in a time of war. Most felons, for example, are not permitted to carry firearms, and many criminals have at some point exhibited serious lapses in discipline and judgment, traits that are far from ideal on the battlefield.

The military automatically excludes people who have committed certain crimes. They include drug traffickers, recruits who have more than one felony on their record or people who have committed sexually violent crimes. A felony is defined as a crime that carries a sentence of a year or more in prison.

Bill Carr, the under secretary of military personnel policy, said the military granted waivers selectively and scrutinized a recruit’s full record, the nature of the crime, when it was committed, the degree of rehabilitation and references from teachers, employers, coaches and clergy members.

In many cases, Mr. Carr said, the applicant may have committed the crime at a young age and then stayed out of trouble. To his knowledge, he said, recruits who are issued moral waivers are not tracked once inside the military.

“If the community backs them, we are willing to take a hard look,” Mr. Carr said, referring to the waiver process, which includes checks of local, state and federal records.

The majority of moral waivers are for serious misdemeanors, most often committed by juveniles. As Douglas Smith, the public information officer for the Army’s recruiting command, said, “We understand that people make mistakes in their lives and they can overcome those mistakes.”

Fewer than 3 in 10 people ages 17 to 24 are fully qualified to join the Army. That means they have a high school diploma, have met aptitude test score requirements and fitness levels, and would not be barred for medical reasons, their sexual orientation or their criminal histories.

The Defense Department has also expanded its applicant pool by accepting soldiers with criminal backgrounds and medical problems like asthma, high blood pressure and attention deficit disorder, situations that require waivers. Medical waivers have increased 4 percent, totaling 12,313 in 2006. Without waivers, the soldiers would have been barred from service.

In the last three years, the percentage of moral waivers for all new enlistments in the four services combined has fallen 3 percent, with spikes in the Army and Air Force. In all, 125,525 such waivers have been issued since 2003. The Marine Corps issues far more moral waivers than the Army — 20,750 in 2006 — but only because it has a stricter policy on drug use. It requires waivers for one-time marijuana use while the other services do not. Rules on waivers vary by service.

“The data is crystal clear; our armed forces are under incredible strain, and the only way that they can fill their recruiting quotas is by lowering their standards,” said Representative Martin T. Meehan, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. He has requested more detailed data from the Defense Department on the use of waivers.

“By lowering standards, we are endangering the rest of our armed forces and sending the wrong message to potential recruits across the country,” Mr. Meehan said. “Our men and women in uniform represent the best and brightest in America, and we need to keep it that way.”

Aaron Belkin, director of the Michael D. Palm Center, a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, that focuses on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding homosexuality, obtained the most recent data from the Department of Defense.

Mr. Belkin said the increases in moral waivers in the Army posed a problem only to the extent that the military failed to track these recruits or provide special integration training for them.

Since more than 125,000 service members with criminal histories have joined the military in the last three years, Mr. Belkin said, “you have a sizeable population that has been incarcerated and is not used to the same cultural norms as everybody else.”

“The chance that one of those individuals is going to commit an atrocity or disobey an order is higher,” he said. “Many of those individuals can be good soldiers, but in some cases they have special needs. The military should address those needs rather than pretending they don’t exist.”

Recruiters ask potential recruits to reveal whether they have been arrested or convicted of crimes. City, county and state records are checked, as are federal fingerprint databases. The military searches for convictions but also looks at cases that were dismissed, dropped or settled in some way. If someone is found not guilty, depending on the crime, extenuating circumstances are explored, said Maj. Stewart Upton, a Defense Department spokesman.

The system is far from foolproof, though. Juvenile records can get tricky because of privacy laws; not every state will release sealed information. And if someone has moved to a different state, the criminal history may not always show up.

Decisions on the most serious crimes rise up the chain of command, Mr. Smith said. He said the military invested a lot of money training soldiers and tried to screen its recruits to maximize success.

A General Accounting Office report that looked at attrition from 1990 to 1993 found that service members who were granted moral waivers were more likely to be discharged from the Air Force because of misconduct. But most who were granted moral waivers succeed in completing their term and were more likely to re-enlist.

It is not uncommon for young criminal offenders to turn to the military, hoping for a waiver, experts say, because their records typically narrow their job opportunities.

Beth Asch, a senior economist for the RAND Corporation, said the increase in waivers bore monitoring but was not atypical of what had happened to the military during past recruitment crunches. The moral waivers, Ms. Asch said, particularly for felons, still constitute a relatively small proportion of all enlistments.

“It is something that should be tracked with concern,” she said. “It shouldn’t increase without monitoring but, so far, it is within historic norms.”

John D. Hutson, dean and president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire and former judge advocate general of the Navy, said the military must tread carefully in deciding which criminals to accept. There is a reason, he said, why allowing people with criminal histories into the military has long been the exception rather than the rule.

“If you are recruiting somebody who has demonstrated some sort of antisocial behavior and then you are a putting a gun in their hands, you have to be awfully careful about what you are doing,” Mr. Hutson said. “You are not putting a hammer in their hands, or asking them to sell used cars. You are potentially asking them to kill people.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/us/14military.html?hp&ex=1171515600&en=d763ab40cba3657d&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Includes graphs.

Posted by lois at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2007

MA: Gov. Devel Patrick seeks to limit background checks

Patrick seeks to limit background checks
Criminal records proposal in works

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | February 12, 2007

Governor Deval Patrick, returning to one of the more contentiouissues of his campaign, has begun quietly putting together a plan to limit employers' access to the criminal records of potential employees.

Aides have been meeting with lawmakers and advocates working to limit the scope of the Criminal Offender Record Information law, which gives many employers broad access to criminal records. Activists argue that many applicants are rejected for jobs based on minor criminal convictions, crimes unrelated to the post, or records that contain errors.

Patrick has not yet settled on specific legislation, an aide said, but wants to give employers access only to criminal information that is relevant to the job being sought. Under current law, employers approved by the state's Criminal History Records Board can review an applicant's entire record.

"He believes employers must have access to information for positions where the safety of employees, customers, clients, or the public is a concern," said his spokesman Kyle Sullivan. He added that Patrick "supports law enforcement having broad and unlimited access to CORI."

Patrick's support of CORI changes became a heated issue in the gubernatorial campaign, seized on by Democratic rival Thomas F. Reilly and Republican Kerry Healey to paint him as soft on crime.

During a televised debate, Reilly accused Patrick of backing a sweeping CORI bill that would have made it easier for offenders to have their records sealed and allowed drug dealers to cut time off their sentences.

For five months, Patrick was listed as a supporter of that bill on the website of one of the groups pushing the legislation, the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI. After Reilly's comments, a leader of the group removed Patrick's name, saying it was a mistake.

Patrick said at the time that he did not support that legislation, but he never specified what changes he would embrace. He said only that he wants to revise the law so that people with records can make a fresh start and "CORI doesn't defeat their every second chance."

Buoyed by Patrick's victory and the interest shown by his administration in its early days, supporters of limiting access to CORI say they are optimistic that an overhaul will pass this year.

"It's not a question of if, it's a question of when," said Horace Small, of the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI. He said he is meeting next week with Patrick's undersecretary of public safety, Mary Beth Heffernan.

CORI proposals have come up in the Democrat-controlled Legislature year after year, with little success. But advocates like Mayor Thomas M. Menino say that with an advocate in the governor's office, a bill's chances for passage have greatly improved.

"The governor is trying to get a policy in place so that CORI is not a life sentence," said Menino, who has implemented a "second chance" policy that dispenses with criminal background checks for many city job applicants. "We need someone at the helm who is supportive. I believe we will make headway this legislative session."

But any effort to change the law will run into strong opposition from district attorneys and other elected officials who believe CORI information should be more widely available, not less. The state's district attorneys have aggressively fought any move to weaken the law. Patrick's public safety secretary, Kevin Burke, was a longtime district attorney in Essex.

"Employers need to have information on people they're going to hire and potentially put out as their face to the public," said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz, a Republican. "Would it have been important for Burger King to CORI Paul Leahy before he could murder Alexandra Zapp?" he said, referring to a 30-year-old woman who was stabbed to death at a rest stop in 2002 by a convicted rapist who was working there as a restaurant cook .

Representative Michael Festa, who has participated in discussions with administration officials, is the chief sponsor of a far-reaching package of bills that he says would reduce crime by helping offenders "re enter society and become productive citizens."

Under the bills, the CORI system would exclude information about cases that did not result in convictions and include only information that is "relevant and sensible for the employer to know."

"There's no doubt in my mind that when an employer gets a CORI record and sees a list of things that got this person in court -- regardless of whether the case was dismissed or continued -- it has an impact," Festa said.

Currently, 10,000 organizations have access to criminal records, and 1.5 million CORI reports were distributed last year, according Barry LaCroix, executive director of the Criminal History Systems Board.

This kind of information is critical, Cruz said, for employers to make informed decisions.

"There is a lot of talk about how this affects people's ability to enter back into society," said Cruz. "There should be reentry programs. But why should we change someone's history to get them a job?"

Employers who agree to hire applicants with criminal backgrounds should be rewarded, he said, perhaps with tax breaks, but "I don't think that giving employers limited information helps anybody, and I think it's dangerous."

In Boston last week, the Globe reported that a public works employee who was suspended after allegedly running down a 64-year-old woman with a city snowplow had a long history of drug violations and driving infractions when the city hired him.

The city did not check the record of the worker, Joseph M. MacDonald, because of Menino's new employment policy.

Asked whether he was rethinking the policy in light of the revelations, Menino said: "It hasn't changed my mind."

Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/02/12/patrick_seeks_to_limit_background_checks/

Posted by lois at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

Valentine's Day- "Unhealthy Flowers"

Unhealthy Flowers: Why Buying Organic Should Not End With Your Food
By Jason Mark, AlterNet
Posted on February 13, 2007, Printed on February 13, 2007

In recent years conscious consumers have enjoyed a spike in the availability of socially and environmentally responsible products. Worried about sweatshop shoes? Try on a pair of Adbusters' Blackspot sneakers. Concerned that your clothes were made in a dismal factory where the workers are paid starvation wages? Go with an American Apparel T-shirt or a No Sweat hoodie. If pesticide residues on your vegetables and hormone-laced meat are your worry, then head for the organic section at the supermarket. Your morning coffee can easily be fair trade-certified, as can the bananas that you put on your cereal.

But what about the flowers on the coffee table, or the bouquet you were going to buy for Valentine's Day? Where were those stems grown, by whom and under what conditions? What are the sustainable and socially responsible options when buying flowers?

Until now, there haven't been encouraging answers to those questions. Conventionally grown cut flowers are most often raised in chemical-intensive systems that expose workers to toxins that can make them sick -- sweatshops in the greenhouses, you could say. Responsible alternatives have been difficult, if not impossible, to find.

That's about to change. This Valentine's season marks the first time that environmental- and worker-friendly flowers will be widely available to consumers in the United States. A new certification system called Veriflora has been set up to guarantee that your flowers weren't grown under abusive conditions. Most Veriflora-certified producers use organic methods; the rest are expected to provide a plan for how they are reducing chemical use and converting to organic. All must show that they are protecting the safety of their workers. Later this year, TransFairUSA -- the nonprofit agency that certifies fair trade coffee, chocolate and bananas -- is expected to release a fair trade seal for flowers.

But there is a huge obstacle facing these well-meaning efforts: Indifference. Here in the United States, there is not much public awareness of the dangers associated with cut flowers. Consequently, demand for sustainable flowers is almost nonexistent. Flower growers, retailers and activists agree that the desire for organically grown flowers is going to have to increase for the budding organic flower industry to succeed.

"There's a real gap out there in terms of thinking -- people think we should buy organic only if we are eating the product," Josh Dautoff, a sustainable flower grower in Watsonville, Calif., said. His company, Dautoff Exotics, used to be a chemically reliant operation when it was run by his parents. Now Josh, 31 years old, is converting his fields and greenhouses to organic. "It's ironic that people will pay more money for organic food for their dinner plate because they are afraid of chemicals. But then they will buy conventionally grown flowers that are covered in chemicals for the centerpiece of their dinner table. ... And those chemicals will catch up with people. Maybe not through their mouths, but through the water and air."

Greenhouse sweatshops

Cut flowers are big business. The U.S. floral market is a $20 billion-a-year industry that supplies all of our Mother's Day bouquets, condolence baskets and Valentine's roses. The vast majority of the 4 billion flower stems sold in the United States every year come from Latin America, countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, whose flowers have entered the United States duty-free since the 1980s.

Eliminating import taxes on South American flowers was intended as a way to encourage farmers in those countries to grow something other than coca leaf. An unintended byproduct of the off-shoring of the flower industry has been an increase in the use of chemicals. All flowers that enter the United States are closely inspected for pests and diseases. Because growers fear the high costs of having their flowers fail inspection -- and because consumers expect for their flowers to look immaculate -- they pour on the fungicides and pesticides.

The consequences are frightening, according to research by the International Labor Rights Fund and US LEAP. For example, a survey of workers on flower plantations near Bogotá found that employees were exposed to 127 different pesticides, three of which are considered extremely toxic. One-fifth of the chemicals used in flower production in South America -- products such as DDT and methyl-bromide -- are restricted or banned in the United States and Europe. Since environmental laws in South America are either lax or not enforced, chemical runoff into waterways is common, contributing to species decline.

Workers are often sickened after applying herbicides, fungicides and pesticides without proper protection. Two-thirds of Colombian flower laborers suffer from impaired vision, respiratory and neurological problems; still births and babies born with congenital malformations are disproportionately high among women who have worked in floriculture. When workers try to organize unions to defend their interests, their efforts are typically met with harassment.

"Over the years there have been many thorough studies, which I cite in the book, looking at abuses in the flower industry," Amy Stewart, author of the new book Flower Confidential , told AlterNet. "The flower industry's response has been, 'Oh things aren't that bad. That wasn't a typical farm.' What one of the labor organizers told me is that there are good farms and bad farms, but they all need to produce the same flower."

For U.S. consumers concerned about exploitation in the flower industry, there have been few options but to boycott cut flowers altogether. But in solidarity circles, boycotts are often a controversial tactic since they are likely to harm the very people they are intended to help -- the nursery workers whose livelihoods depend on robust flower sales.

To meet flowers lovers' desire for beautiful blooms, and to do so in a way that doesn't harm people or wreck the planet, a small group of environmentally minded entrepreneurs is trying to come up with ways to sell the American public on the idea of organic flowers.

Red, white -- and green

Organic Bouquet is one of the companies leading the move toward more sustainable flower production. Launched in 2001 by Gerald Prolman, a California businessman who previously ran a successful organic food business, Organic Bouquet set out to establish a niche market for organic flowers. It was a daunting task. Prolman lacked capital, a base of suppliers and even consumer demand. Essentially, he had to create not just a business, but an entire industry, from scratch.

"We began with a series of monumental challenges," Prolman wrote in a recent email interview. "The goal was to establish the market for organic flowers where commercial supply at that time was nonexistent and consumer awareness was minimal. ... Although we were able to start up with a few local growers, we did not have sufficient supplies or the breadth of product line to adequately build the company and supply customers year-round with their floral needs."

A key problem has been convincing flower wholesalers and retails florists that if they did start offering organic flowers, consumers would purchase them. Flower grower Dautoff says making this case has not been easy.

"We've found very limited interest from wholesalers to sell our flowers as certified organic," Dautoff said. "Last summer I grew thousands of bunches of chemical-free sunflowers. And the wholesaler wouldn't even label them as such. They told me that the reason why is that people don't care."

Recent visits to floral shops in the politically progressive San Francisco Bay Area confirm this. Not a single florist said there was customer interest in organic flowers. Why? Because, all the florists agreed, people don't eat flowers.

This apparent indifference on the part of consumers represents the biggest challenge for the nascent industry: Will people buy it? If you build the supply, will the demand eventually come?

Prolman is optimistic it will.

"No market? This is exactly what traditional retailers said 17 years ago about organic produce," Prolman wrote in his email. "Natural-product shoppers today are making purchasing decisions based on concerns about personal health, social justice and environmental sustainability. ... The reality is that the demand is inherent, and I base this theory on the notion of the basic goodness of humankind."

Global or local?

Beyond the question of conventional vs. organic lies another issue for consumers to navigate -- global vs. local. For even if a Colombian flower is grown under organic conditions, is it truly sustainable if it needs to be shipped thousands of miles wrapped in gobs of packaging? Some industry observers say that the globalized flower market, dependent as it is on plastic and petroleum, contributes to larger problems such as climate change. To compound the dilemma, there is very little local or regional flower production left in the United States; after WWII, most flower growing moved to California, and, as noted earlier, in the last 20 years has been transferred overseas.

"Try to find something that's locally produced," Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), said. (As part of its Valentine's Day shopping guide, the OCA is encouraging people to shop with Organic Bouquet.) "It's really not sustainable the way the market is set up now."

John Nevado -- a young Swedish businessman whose South American organic farms, Nevado Roses, are among the primary suppliers for Organic Bouquet -- says that he doesn't believe global flower production is necessarily unsustainable. He points out that most of the flowers are shipped in the bottom of the cargo holds of planes that are making the trip anyway. And he says his company uses recycled materials in the packaging for its flowers.

"As always, you are caught between providing the customer a well-packaged, sensitive luxury product and reducing packaging to the minimum," Nevado wrote in a recent email interview. "We are still trying to find balance here. ... We try our best and work hard to run our business in the most sustainable manner."

So what's a concerned shopper to do? Whenever possible, buy organically grown flowers. And, says author Amy Stewart, make sure to clearly communicate to the florist why organic is important to you. "People should ask where flowers were grown and how they were grown," Stewart said. "Florists are under the impression that these issues don't matter."

Even better, says Ronnie Cummins, go a step further and seek out flowers grown close to your home. "Buy organic, buy fair trade, and if at all possible, buy local and buy regional."

Either way, the key is send signals to the marketplace that reflect your broader values.

"If retailers get this message from enough consumers, they will eventually make changes and demand eco-flowers from their vendors," Prolman wrote. "The product is available today, and there is no justifiable reason for them to not do it. They just need to hear it from enough people, and when they act, millions [fewer] pounds of toxic chemicals will be used in floral production."

And if your neighborhood florist is not ready to listen? Well, then there's always organic, fair trade chocolate to give your sweetie this Valentine's Day.

Jason Mark is working on his second book, "Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots," to be published fall 2007 by Polipoint Press. He co-manages Alemany Farm in San Francisco.
© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/47847/

Posted by lois at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2007

NY Times Editorial: A Battle Over Prisons

New York Times
February 12, 2007
Editorial
A Battle Over Prisons
Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York took on one of the state’s most powerful special-interest groups when he proposed a commission to determine which of the state’s expensive and underused prisons should be closed. He is in for a tough battle, but it is well worth fighting.

Even a modest closings program like the one proposed by Gov. George Pataki could have saved the state nearly $75 million in the first three years, freeing up money for schools, health care and mass transit. But Mr. Pataki was blocked by the powerful correction officers’ union and by state lawmakers who reap campaign contributions from the union and eagerly do its bidding.

While New York’s prison population has declined sharply since the late 1990s, too many legislators in upstate New York see the prisons as a state-financed jobs program. Some lawmakers are also worried about protecting their own jobs. Some hold office only because their lightly populated districts were deliberately drawn to include prisons that inflate the head count — with nonvoting residents.

Mr. Spitzer will have to press the Legislature to amend the 2005 correction workers protection bill. The law makes it difficult — and expensive — for the state to close a prison whether or not it is still needed. It requires the state to undertake a complex series of studies and consultation and to essentially take financial responsibility for any losses communities may suffer — either from a staff cutback or a prison closing.

The leader of the state correction officers’ union, Lawrence Flanagan Jr., is so sure of his political power that he sounded like some kind of potentate last week, when he told The Times’s Nicholas Confessore that “We’re not open to any closures at this point.” Less crime and fewer inmates should equal a smaller corrections budget — and a larger investment in other vital state services. Mr. Spitzer should press ahead with a plan to close unneeded prisons and the State Legislature should back him, rather than fight him.

Posted by lois at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2007

AL: Proposal to Build a New Prison for 1,600 Women

State DOC officials tell lawmakers prison system needs more funding

By Karen Middleton
Athens News Courier- Feb. 8, 2007

— It takes $375 million a year to incarcerate 28,000 state prison inmates, and still that’s not enough.
Meanwhile, the Department of Corrections is proposing to build a new women’s 1,600-bed prison sometime in the 2008-2009 timeframe, according Prison Commissioner Richard Allen.
In a prison population increase driven by drug offenses, an average of 119 new inmates are coming into the system every month. “It’s a relentless situation,” Allen said Thursday.

Allen headed a panel of prison officials who were invited to Limestone Correctional Facility by District 25 Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Huntsville, to explain system needs to local legislators leading into state budget hearings.
Allen said the Department of Corrections is particularly under-funded for capital improvements and personnel. A prison the size of Limestone Correctional Facility—the largest both physically and by population of the 14 higher- and medium-security facilities in the state—needs 72 more correctional officers than allocated.
Currently, the 1,200-acre Limestone prison houses 2,115 inmates in a facility designed for 1,628.
By mid-summer Limestone is scheduled to increase its capacity by 300 to 500 with the conversion of a former onsite-industrial warehouse to a dorm. Lt. Richard Frazier said it would take about $250,000 to convert the warehouse because the heating and cooling system has to be replaced.
Allen emphasized that if judges and district attorneys would employ new sentencing guidelines, “prison growth should level off or drop.”
“From 200 to 300 a month could be directed to community-correction programs,” he said. “Thirty-eight counties now have community corrections. “
Allen said if the pardon and paroles office had a “technical violations center” in which parolees failing urine drug screenings or those who miss appointments could be held, another 80 a month would be held out from returning to prison.
“We need help from the Legislature on pay differentials,” said Allen. The state raised trooper salaries and Allen said that is attracting officers away from the prison system. “A 10-percent pay raise could make the system more competitive.”
Allen said when Gov. Bob Riley appointed him as commissioner in February 2006, “nearly every facet of the prison system was broke.” He said the four major problems are: overcrowding; aging facilities—with the oldest, Draper, built in 1939; health-care costs that have gone from $44 million to $80 million in the last three years; and personnel shortage. Alabama has an inmate-to-officer ratio of 10-to- 1. Surrounding states have a 6-1 ratio.
After the meeting, DOC spokesman Brian Corbett said the new women’s prison is one of the proposals that the system will make in its presentation to the Legislature. “No site has been selected,” he said.
http://www.enewscourier.com/homepage/local_story_039220421.html?keyword=lead
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

Posted by lois at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

AL: Prison Health Services Receives Extension of $56 million Contract

Committee approves extension of prisons health care contract
By BOB JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Published: February 9, 2007

The Alabama Department of Corrections was given approval Friday to pay $56 million to extend a contract with a Tennessee company to provide medical care to state inmates, a contract that raised questions when first awarded.

The Legislature's Contract Review Committee approved a one-year extension of the contract with Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn., to provide care for more than 24,000 inmates through October. The original contract for $143 million for three years was awarded in 2003 amid concerns by some legislators that the contract was not subjected to the state's competitive bid process.

Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen said the $56 million is more than the per-year cost of the original contract because of the rising cost of health care and because the original contract did not include inmates in work release centers.

Several committee members questioned why the prison system used an emergency contract to extend the contract last October instead of taking the extension before the committee, which reviews state contracts. The committee cannot stop a contract, but can delay one for 45 days before it goes to the governor for his signature.

Allen apologized to committee members, saying the contract was running out and that the extension was not ready in time to submit to the committee's Nov. 2 meeting.

"We were just trying to get health care for the inmates," Allen said.

Allen said the prison system will request proposals from health care providers and plans to enter into a new contract for health care for prisoners late this year.

The committee also approved an almost $50 million two-year extension of a contract with a South Carolina company, Health Management Resources-Governmental Services Inc., to provide health care at the state's three veterans nursing homes in Bay Minette, Alexander City and Huntsville.

Friday's meeting was the first for the committee since the Nov. 7 elections and committee members urged agency heads to bid contracts whenever possible. The committee considers contracts that have not been through the process of seeking formal sealed bids, although many have gone through a more informal process where agencies seek proposals.

On Friday the committee considered more than 160 contracts worth more than $170 million.

"All of these are no-bid contracts and any of these could have been bid," said committee vice chairman Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville.

Committee chairman, Rep. Neal Morrison, D-Cullman, said the committee hopes to cut down over the next four years on the number of contracts that have not been bid.

Morrison also told agency officials at Friday's meeting not to justify contracts by saying the work is being paid for with federal dollars.

"You and I pay federal taxes every paycheck. If the taxpayers are footing the bill, someone is going to be accountable to us," Morrison said.
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070209/APN/702093158&cachetime=5

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

Pot Prisoners Cost Americans $1 Billion a Year

Pot Prisoners Cost Americans $1 Billion a Year
By Paul Armentano, AlterNet.
Posted February 10, 2007

The latest numbers are out: nearly 800,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges in 2005. When will the insanity stop?

American taxpayers are now spending more than a billion dollars per year to incarcerate its citizens for pot. That's according to statistics recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

According to the new BJS report, "Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004," 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses. Combining these percentages with separate U.S. Department of Justice statistics on the total number of state and federal drug prisoners suggests that there are now about 33,655 state inmates and 10,785 federal inmates behind bars for marijuana offenses. The report failed to include estimates on the percentage of inmates incarcerated in county and/or local jails for pot-related offenses.

Multiplying these totals by U.S. DOJ prison expenditure data reveals that taxpayers are spending more than $1 billion annually to imprison pot offenders.

The new report is noteworthy because it undermines the common claim from law enforcement officers and bureaucrats, specifically White House drug czar John Walters, that few, if any, Americans are incarcerated for marijuana-related offenses. In reality, nearly 1 out of 8 U.S. drug prisoners are locked up for pot.

Of course, several hundred thousand more Americans are arrested each year for violating marijuana laws, costing taxpayers another $8 billion dollars annually in criminal justice costs.

According to the most recent figures available from the FBI, police arrested an estimated 786,545 people on marijuana charges in 2005 -- more than twice the number of Americans arrested just 12 years ago. Among those arrested, about 88 percent -- some 696,074 Americans -- were charged with possession only. The remaining 90,471 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses, even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use.

These totals are the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and make up 42.6 percent of all drug arrests in the United States. Nevertheless, self-reported pot use by adults, as well as the ready availability of marijuana on the black market, remains virtually unchanged.

Marijuana isn't a harmless substance, and those who argue for a change in the drug's legal status do not claim it to be. However, pot's relative risks to the user and society are arguably fewer than those of alcohol and tobacco, and they do not warrant the expenses associated with targeting, arresting and prosecuting hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.

According to federal statistics, about 94 million Americans -- that's 40 percent of the U.S. population age 12 or older -- self-identify as having used cannabis at some point in their lives, and relatively few acknowledge having suffered significant deleterious health effects due to their use. America's public policies should reflect this reality, not deny it. It makes no sense to continue to treat nearly half of all Americans as criminals.

This article originally appeared in the Washington Examiner.

Paul Armentano is the senior policy analyst for the NORML Foundation in Washington, DC. (norml.org, 888-67-NORML).
http://www.alternet.org/rights/47815/

Posted by lois at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Spitzer plan aids mentally ill inmates

"Spitzer's budget includes $2.3 million this year in Office of Mental Health funding to screen all prisoners for mental illness and enhance treatment. He proposed increasing that allocation to $6 million next year and $9 million in 2009. In addition, Spitzer is seeking $50 million in capital funds in the Department of Correctional Services budget to overhaul prison design to create more therapeutic spaces to house mentally ill inmates. It would also improve training for correction officers and pay for additional services, such as help in preparing mentally ill inmates for the transition to life after incarceration."

Times Union- Albany, NY

Spitzer plan aids mentally ill inmates
Governor proposes adding $60 million for improved, more humane services

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, February 10, 2007

ALBANY -- In response to long-standing calls for better treatment for the most vulnerable segment of the prison population, Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposes to increase state spending by $60 million over three years on services for mentally ill inmates.

The proposal was praised by advocacy groups that say it signals a heightened commitment toward humane care of prisoners with severe psychiatric needs.

"This is a long-awaited, very encouraging initiative," said Harvey Rosenthal, who heads the New York Association for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.

"It's very refreshing for the governor to take such a clear position on behalf of inmates with serious mental illness," said Bob Corliss, associate director of NAMI-New York, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Spitzer's budget includes $2.3 million this year in Office of Mental Health funding to screen all prisoners for mental illness and enhance treatment. He proposed increasing that allocation to $6 million next year and $9 million in 2009.

In addition, Spitzer is seeking $50 million in capital funds in the Department of Correctional Services budget to overhaul prison design to create more therapeutic spaces to house mentally ill inmates. It would also improve training for correction officers and pay for additional services, such as help in preparing mentally ill inmates for the transition to life after incarceration.

Linda Foglia, a DOCS spokeswoman, declined to comment on Spitzer's budget proposal.

About 8,000 of the state's 63,000 inmates have been diagnosed with serious mental illness, according to studies by the Correctional Association of New York, a watchdog group.

Such inmates are often confined for acting out to special housing units, known as "The Box," sometimes for months or years. Once in The Box, they purposely injure themselves and commit suicide at a rate three times higher than other prisoners in solitary, data has shown.

Mentally ill inmates also face exceptionally high rates of recidivism because they commonly are released straight from the solitary confinement of The Box into the community with little preparation.

"The additional funding the governor proposed is certainly a very welcome first step," said Bob Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York.

Gangi and other advocates called on Spitzer to support a bill that passed both houses of the state Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. George Pataki. That landmark legislation would prohibit placing mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement for any reason.

The advocacy groups have joined an ongoing lawsuit in federal court to ban the practice in New York.

"We are still pushing for that bill to pass both houses again and to be signed this time by the governor in order to provide the proper structure to carry out needed reforms," Corliss said.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=562100&category=STATE&BCC
ode=&newsdate=2/11/2007

Posted by lois at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)

MI: Governor Wants Release of Prisoners

February 9, 2007
Granholm wants prisoner release
Governor proposes to reduce jail population 10 percent to save the state about $122 million.

Charlie Cain And Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- The state would throw open the prison doors for as many as 5,500 sick, elderly and nonviolent inmates under a plan proposed Thursday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

That would reduce the state's 51,000 inmate count 10 percent and save the state $122 million.

About $30 million of that savings would be used to beef up probation and parole staff and community reentry programs.

"We need to decide who we're afraid of and who we're mad at," said Corrections director Patricia Caruso. "We need to be sure the people we're afraid of are locked up. Are we mad enough to spend an average of $33,000 a year to lock them up until they die or finish every last day of their sentence."

The plan calls for the release starting Oct. 1 of 3,400 prisoners who are serving time for such crimes as drug offenses, larceny, bad checks, home invasion and car theft. They would be placed in halfway houses and supervised with electronic tethers.

An additional 1,600 inmates would be paroled by expanding a pilot re-entry initiative and another 500 convicted felons could see their sentences commuted. These are elderly and medically fragile inmates or foreign nationals who could be deported to their native countries.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the state should approach this early release with caution.

"Even if they're old and sick, if they're career criminals, then they literally have nothing to lose," Bouchard said. "If you're releasing prisoners for budget reasons that flies in the face of justice."

State corrections officials say Michigan locks up more felons than neighboring states and sees no appreciable difference in crime rates. Of the 6,500 inmates who came into Michigan prisons last year, 55 percent were convicted of nonviolent offenses.

The governor also proposed spending $14 million to put more police officers on the streets. The state has lost 1,600 police officers in the last six years largely due to budget cutbacks.

Royal Oak has trimmed its police department by 15 percent in the last five years, cutting back on its undercover drug enforcement unit and juvenile crimes bureau.

"It sounds very good, we're going to keep our eye on it," said City Manager Thomas Hoover of Granholm's proposal. "We want to make sure Royal Oak is getting its fair share from the state."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070209/METRO/702090368/1

Posted by lois at 09:37 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2007

Justice Reinvestment Project chooses AZ as a project site

"The Justice Reinvestment project, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the U.S. Department of Justice, plans to release a detailed report on crime and prison trends and policy options for Arizona next month. The hope is that the report could help state officials find ways to address the root cause of crime and invest money in the most fruitful ways. "There should be a discussion on what does the data show that will have the biggest impact on crime in the state," said James Austin, of the JFA Institute, a researcher for the project. "That's something that Republicans and Democrats agree we need to do before just doing more of the same."

Ariz. part of prison, crime study Council seeking ways to curb inmate influx
Amanda J. Crawford
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 7, 2007

Facing burgeoning prison growth that will cost taxpayers billions over the next decade, Arizona has been selected to take part in a multimillion-dollar research project examining crime and prison trends and developing possible policy solutions.

The Council of State Governments' Justice Center announced Tuesday that Arizona was one of five states selected as part of the new initiative that will look for ways to curb prison population growth projected to be as high as 50 percent over the next decade. A new analysis unveiled to launch the research project shows that left unchecked, growth could cost taxpayers and additional $3 billion over the next decade. That's on top of a corrections budget that is approaching nearly $1 billion per year.

The Justice Reinvestment project, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the U.S. Department of Justice, plans to release a detailed report on crime and prison trends and policy options for Arizona next month. The hope is that the report could help state officials find ways to address the root cause of crime and invest money in the most fruitful ways. "There should be a discussion on what does the data show that will have the biggest impact on crime in the state," said James Austin, of the JFA Institute, a researcher for the project. "That's something that Republicans and Democrats agree we need to do before just doing more of the same."

Arizona's prison system grew by more than 50 percent over the past decade, and corrections spending has doubled from $409 million in fiscal 1997 to $817 million in fiscal 2007. The prison population, now around 35,000 could grow to nearly 57,000 if current trends continue, the group estimates. That would be a huge strain on the state budget, prison capacity and manpower.

The state prison system is already understaffed. It is underfunded by more than 4,000 beds. And corrections officials are asking for more money to place nearly 2,000 inmates in temporary private prison cells elsewhere, while planning to squeeze about 1,300 inmates into existing facilities by double-bunking or using tents, Corrections Director Dora Schriro said.

Some legislators involved in the project said they hope to find ways to target state resources to reduce crime and address prison growth. The suggestions from the experts could range from sentencing reforms to changes in incarceration practices to community-intervention strategies.

Sen. John Huppenthal, a Chandler Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said researchers are developing maps that show which neighborhoods spawn the most criminals. That could allow policymakers to target state dollars for intervention programs and encourage more community outreach in those areas. He also looks forward to learning from experts involved in programs in other states, like New York, where violent crime has fallen.

"I think it is an incredible opportunity to bring the best research to Arizona on how we can reduce violent crime," said Huppenthal, who also serves on the Justice Center's board of directors. But he was quick to point out that he's not "soft" on crime and is not as interested in recommendations that could address Arizona's sentencing policies, which are among the toughest in the nation.

Austin points out that Arizona is unique in the nation by having long sentences and no parole for many non-violent offenses.

In Texas, where the Justice Reinvestment project released its findings last week, legislators have been holding hearings to discuss policy suggestions from the group. Among the recommendations in Texas: more drug and alcohol treatment and releasing non-violent substance abusers from prison earlier into halfway houses.

Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, said he hopes the group's work in Arizona gets the public thinking more about tough-on-crime policies that have grown prison numbers but may not be reducing crime. Konopnicki led a legislative work group whose lengthy report in 2005 recommending alternatives to prison and sentence reductions for non-violent offenders went nowhere.

"It's easy to say on TV, 'Lock them up let them do the time,' " said Konopnicki, who believes the state needs more balanced approach, including electronic monitoring to allow for more intensive probation. "Our report was objective, but people said the people that did it were soft on crime. This is going to have facts and numbers and compare us to other states. . . .
This is huge."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0207prisons0207.html

Posted by lois at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

Critics call detainees facility ‘harmful’ for immigrant families

Critics call detainees facility ‘harmful’ for immigrant families

LISA FALKENBERG

Feb. 7, 2007, 4:42PM http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4532392.html

TAYLOR — A few hours after Mustafa Elmi slipped undetected across
the Rio Grande in June, he was arrested by Border Patrol officers for
entering the country illegally.

Within two weeks, he was transported to a Central Texas facility
wrapped in a high, razor-wire fence and overseen by an arm of the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Somali Muslim was
fingerprinted, photographed and issued a uniform.
Surveillance cameras eyed him. Guards timed his meals on
wristwatches. He was counted, along with the others, three times a
day. And if he stepped out of line, his mother was there to shush him
into submission.

Mustafa is 3 years old.

For seven months, he was one of an estimated 200 children, mostly
from countries other than Mexico, being held with their parents at a
correctional center turned into a detention facility for immigrant
families facing deportation.

The facility in Taylor, overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and run by for-profit Corrections Corporation of America,
is one of only two in the nation that detain families. The other, a
former nursing home, is in Pennsylvania.

ICE officials say the “state of the art” facility, which opened in
May, is a humane alternative to severing immigrant families while
parents wade through a swamp of bureaucracy, awaiting either asylum
or deportation. The agency abandoned the old “catch and release”
method after 9/11 because most immigrants weren’t showing up for
their hearings.

“I do understand that when you approach the facility, it does look
like a detention facility, but once inside, I think we’ve done a
very good job of softening things to make it as family-friendly as we
can,” Gary Mead, assistant director for detention and removal
operations in Washington, said Tuesday.

But if humane treatment is the goal, human rights activists and other
critics say the Taylor facility has failed.

“It is wrong for the United States to be detaining immigrant
families with young children in a prisonlike environment when they
have alternatives,” said Rebecca Bernhardt, of the American Civil
Rights League of Texas. “I don’t think most Americans are aware
that we’re doing this. If they knew what the conditions were like,
if they could see the families, they would find this pretty
outrageous.”

Resolution filed

Bernhardt and other members of Texans United for Families are holding
a news conference today in Austin to discuss a resolution filed by
state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin.

“Children who have had no decisive role in their migration or flight
should not be exposed to avoidable trauma,” reads the resolution,
which asks the Homeland Security Department to reconsider all
alternatives to detaining asylum-seeking families.

The resolution echoes orders a congressional committee made in 2005,
advising children be detained only as a last resort, and only in
“nonpenal, homelike environments.”

“Homelike” is not the scene depicted by former detainees, family
members, attorneys and refugee advocates interviewed by the Houston
Chronicle over the past month. They say that although the sign out
front reads the T. Don Hutto “Residential” Center, it remains a
prisonlike environment.

Detainees say that families sleep in cold prison cells, with the
slamming of jail gates and a siren of wailing children ringing in the
halls. During the day, they share couches in a common area, reading
or watching TV for hours on end.

Parents say their children have gone weeks, even months, without
feeling the sun on their faces. They’re not allowed to run, jump or
laugh too loudly indoors. They get an hour a day to play in a spare gym.

While many of the guards are said to be warm and friendly with the
children, presenting them with stickers and turns at the PlayStation,
others are said to yell at misbehaving youngsters and even threaten
to separate them from their mothers if they don’t comply.

“They don’t treat people like humans, only animals,” said one
former detainee, who is seeking asylum from gang violence and
corruption in Guatemala. He asked that his name not be used for fear
it would hurt his asylum case. “The baby was crying a lot because he
didn’t see the sun. I thought prisons were for murderers. What did
the baby do wrong?”

For several months, Hutto children got one hour of school, but ICE
officials say they recently increased that to four.

Some detainees complain of rashes and sores, which they believe could
be caused by dirty uniforms, detergent allergies or depression and
stress. Some children reportedly suffer vomiting bouts from the food
or weight loss from refusing to eat.

Mustafa’s mother, Bahjo Hosen, said her toddler won the hearts of
many guards. But he soon became sick with diarrhea, fever and
dizziness, she said. He would often vomit after meals and lost
several pounds after he refused to eat the food and drank only milk.

“I asked many times, ‘My son doesn’t eat, can you please give
him vitamins?’ They said they weren’t allowed,” said Bahjo.

During lunch, Bahjo said guards would set their watches for 20
minutes or so as mothers and fathers urged their children to eat
“rapido, rapido.” Those at the end of the line often had only a
few minutes and wouldn’t finish, Bahjo said.

But her son learned to stay still when he had to, especially during
count three times a day, which could take hours.

Detainees’ allegations

Detainees and their family members also told the Chronicle they were
frequently denied contact visits with family, prompt medical
attention, dietary accommodations and affordable phone access without
cutoffs. If true, the allegations would all be violations of ICE’s
own detention standards.

ICE officials at Hutto have not yet accommodated a request by the
Chronicle to tour the facility, but they have promised an in-depth
interview soon.

An ICE fact sheet says the facility “operates in accordance with
applicable ICE detention standards,” meals are approved by certified
dieticians and classes are taught by state-certified teachers.

ICE officials in Washington defend the agency’s use of the Hutto
facility, saying it’s the best way to protect and keep track of
immigrant families and deter smugglers from using children to cross
the border.

Mead said he hadn’t heard reports of children vomiting, but that, of
the nearly 2,000 people who have passed through Hutto, there have
been only 27 grievances. All involved food except six, which involved
medical issues, clothing and laundry, and were resolved.

Mead said ICE has added paint, carpet, toys and a playground. He also
said the so-called uniforms are same-colored sweatpants and
sweatshirts. “I absolutely reject the idea that they’re in prison
garb because they’re not,” he said.

Believed in the system

Mustafa and his mother, Bahjo, were released from Hutto last week.

They arrived last June after fleeing death threats in their homeland.
Bahjo said her brother had been murdered and the killers were afraid
she’d turn them in. Fearing for her life, she left her husband and 7-
year-old son in Mogadishu and boarded a flight to Mexico.

She crossed the border in Mission and wandered lost for a few hours
before she found a woman who gave her and Mustafa, then 2, some
water. Bahjo asked the woman to call immigration authorities. The
woman at first refused and told her to run, but Bahjo insisted she
wanted to turn herself in to formally request asylum.

She believed in the American system.

“I used to think this was the best country in the world, that it
would take care of kids, respect kids,” she said. “I never thought
I would be seven months inside Hutto.”

She was arrested and separated from her son for about two weeks while
authorities kept her in bedless holding stations and asked her
repeatedly if she was a terrorist.

At Hutto, she lost herself in books. One day, her son caught her
crying after a guard barged in on her in the restroom.

Bahjo got pro bono legal aid from Political Asylum Project of Austin
and her bail was set in August, hers at $2,000, her toddler’s at
$1,500. But she couldn’t pay it, so they stayed in Hutto for five
more months.

When the judge granted her asylum last week, she said only three
words: “Thank you, judge.”

Now at a home in Austin for refugee women and children, Mustafa plays
with toys. His mother is thinking about her future, getting a job,
getting the rest of her family here. And she’s reflecting about
Hutto: She doesn’t blame the guards; they were doing their job, she
says.

But she’s glad to see another side of the U.S.

“Outside, I think the people are still the way I used to think about
them. They are good people,” she said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4532392.html

Posted by lois at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)

Prisoners from CA may be sent to Mississippi

MS may house Calif. inmates
Private facility in Tutwiler already houses 800 convicts from Hawaii

By Jimmie E. Gates, jgates@clarionledger.com
February 7, 2007

A private prison in Tallahatchie County could become home to several hundred California maximum-security prisoners in July.

California officials have said that as many as 5,000 convicts will be transferred out of state to ease a crowding crisis. Mississippi is one of three states that possibly could house the prisoners.

"It's premature, but there is a possibility (of some California inmates coming to Mississippi)," said Louise Grant, a vice president with Correctional Corporation of America, which operates three private prisons in Mississippi.

In December, a federal judge in California warned that he would start releasing inmates early or prohibit convicts from being sent to state prisons from county jails unless the state acted immediately to ease crowding, according to published reports.

Grant said if California inmates are transferred to Mississippi, they would be housed at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler.

Tutwiler Mayor Robert L. Grayson said he would have no problem with California inmates being housed in Tallahatchie.

"I worked in the system for 31 years, and, from my standpoint, one convict is just like every other convict," Grayson said.

The facility houses 1,100 inmates, with 800 of them from Hawaii, Grant said.

Grant said a groundbreaking will take place next week at the Tallahatchie facility to add 360 beds by the end of 2007.

"California was on our original list to house up to 1,000 of their inmates," Grant said.

Grant said the plan is to move the 800 Hawaii inmates to a new facility in Arizona. That process is scheduled to begin in July.

Once the Hawaii inmates are moved, Grant said some California inmates could be transferred to Mississippi.

Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said nothing has been approved on transferring California inmates to Mississippi.

"I would have to look at public safety," Epps said.

The state contracts with Nashville-based CCA to operate the Tallahatchie facility.

Grant said there wouldn't be a problem since inmates from out of state already are housed at the private prison.

"We have a very strong working relationship with the Mississippi Department of Corrections," Grant said.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070207/NEWS/702070359/1001/NEWS

Posted by lois at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)

DHS agency to scour jails for illegal immigrants

DHS agency to scour jails for illegal immigrants
By Jonathan Marino
February 6, 2007

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is preparing to bring hundreds of investigators on board to combat illegal immigration, its chief told employees Tuesday.

In a memorandum provided to Government Executive, Julie Myers, the head of ICE, said that President Bush's fiscal 2008 budget request, should it succeed in Congress, would allow the agency to hire 220 investigators who will scour jails and prisons for illegal immigrants. ICE's Criminal Alien Program tracks these aliens, and Myers predicted that with the increase in staff, as many as 66,000 illegal aliens might be captured via the program.

"The increase provides for the deployment of 22 additional 10-person CAP teams," Myers wrote in the memo, distributed by e-mail Tuesday. "An estimated 600 interviews, resulting in 300 apprehensions, will be made by each CAP officer."

The budget would not provide ICE with as big an increase as the Customs and Border Protection agency, also within the Homeland Security Department. According to DHS documents, the fiscal 2008 budget would grant ICE about $4.8 billion, an increase of 7.6 percent over the amount enacted in fiscal 2007. CBP's funding under the president's proposed budget would be about $8.8 billion, marking an increase of about 35.4 percent over the amount it received in 2007.

But in the memo, Myers said the president's funding request "reflects ... confidence" in ICE.

Myers also said that about $26.4 million of ICE's 2008 budget would go toward training 250 state and local law enforcement officers in a program that allows for voluntary participation in the Homeland Security Department's efforts to curtail illegal immigration.

"Participation is voluntary, and delegation is granted only after extensive training from ICE," Myers wrote in the e-mail.

In addition, the budget would allow ICE to establish a 37-person Improved Integrity Oversight office within its Office of Professional Responsibility. Myers said the new office would "conduct criminal and serious misconduct investigations involving the activities of ICE and CBP employees deployed domestically and overseas."

The announcement of additional oversight comes on the heels of an inspector general report detailing mistreatment of detainees at several ICE detention facilities, and a contractor's firing over an alleged rape at an agency jail. No charges were filed in the case.

Despite the increased targeting of illegal immigrants in the workplace and elsewhere, the president's budget allows for just 950 more beds to be set up via contracts with detention facilities. Immigration agency sources were critical of what they said would create burdensome jams of illegal aliens in jails. However, the agency has been processing illegal immigrants for deportation at a faster pace than ever before, now that it has done away with the catch-and-release policy of releasing apprehended illegal immigrants and expecting them to return for deportation hearings.

"It's ridiculous," one ICE source said of the increase in bed space, which would bring the nationwide total of detention beds to 28,450. "Why even bother?"
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=36067&dcn=e_gvet

Posted by lois at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)

Texas to expand faith-based prisons

Texas to expand faith-based prisons
Four new centers will be set up within penal system
By Mike Ward, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, February 07, 2007

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/02/08/8prisons.html

Portions of four state prisons will soon be converted into faith-based rehabilitation centers as part of an expansion that will double the size of those programs, officials confirmed today.

When complete, Texas' state-run lockups will have what is likely one of the largest faith-based program in the nation, according to prison officials.

Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said a total of 334 beds — 198 at the 3,332-bed Beto unit in Tennessee Colony, 56 at the 1,570-bed Terrell Unit in Rosharon, 50 beds at the 1,900-bed Hutchins State Jail outside Dallas and 30 beds at the 1,800-bed Darrington Unit in Rosharon — will be set aside during the next two months for religious programming.

Negotiations are underway to convert another 600-plus beds at several other prisons, she said.

"All inmates who are in these programs volunteer for them. No one is assigned," Lyons said. "These programs have been successful. . . . For that reason, we're expanding them."

The new faith-based program will operate at no cost to the state inside existing prisons, in housing units or dorms that will be separated from other prisoners, officials said. Prison officials provide the space, food and security and outside contractors provide the programs and operations staff.

Faith-based rehabilitation programs were introduced into the Texas prison system in 1997, while George W. Bush was governor, when a trial program was opened at the Vance Unit outside Richmond. Top Bush aides approved the trial program in what quickly led to similar initiatives in foster care, drug counseling and other social-services programs.

Initial criticism of the prison program centered on whether it was an unconstitutional promotion of religion, whether non-Christian convicts were afforded the same pre-release opportunities and whether the state could even let such programs operate in a state facility, even if they were free.

Despite the questions, the Vance program has been considered a success in the years since, because its recidivism rates are much lower than other prisons. It now houses 365 convicts who are nearing their release from prison, officials said.

In recent years, smaller faith-based programs have been opened at seven other prisons to bring the total number of participants (before the expansion) to 1,044, Lyons said. Texas has about 152,000 prisoners.

The Travis State Jail in far East Austin has 56 beds designated for faith-based programming, officials said.

All of the prisoners in the faith-based programs are within two years of release, Lyons said.

First word of the latest expansion came in a brief mention in Gov. Rick Perry's proposed state budget for 2008-09, even though prison officials said there is no additional cost to taxpayers. The earlier program expansions h were done without fanfare, as well.

"Were taking an existing prison and turning it into a faith-based program," said Deirdre Delisi, Perry's chief of staff. "We regard it as an effective way to help prisoners improve their lives."

Lyons said contract ministry organizations provide counseling and job-training services that are designed to help convicts succeed once they are released. As part of that, they provide mentoring, job placement assistance, housing assistance and other services for recently released prisoners.

Most regular convicts get none of that when they are released. At least 40 percent soon return to prison, statistics show.

Texas' Faith-Based Prison Programs: At a glance

Unit Location Convicts

Vance Prison Richmond 365 men

Dawson State Jail Dallas 270 men and women

Beto Prison Tennessee Colony 198 men*

Plane State Jail Dayton 117 men

Eastham Prison Madisonville 76 men

Ney State Jail Hondo 64 men

Travis State Jail Austin 56 men

Terrell Prison Rosharon 56 men *

Hutchins State Jail Hutchins 50 men *

Keegans State Jail Houston 48 men

Allred Prison Iowa Park 48 men

Darrington Prison Rosharon 30 men *

Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice

* New program soon to open

Posted by lois at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

TX:Lawmakers look to revamp criminal justice system

Lawmakers look to revamp criminal justice system
Rehab, treatment programs could expand

By Mike Ward, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, February 08, 2007
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/02/09/9reforms.html

Billed as the biggest shift for Texas corrections policy in years, proposals to greatly expand rehabilitation and treatment for convicts have made headlines for months as legislative leaders grapple for a way to avoid building expensive new prisons.

A month into the legislative session, the massive reform bills have yet to be filed. And they probably won't be either, say lawmakers pushing the changes.

"Most of the changes we want are already allowed in current law," explains House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, a Plano Republican. "We're going to do most of (the reforms) this time through (the) Appropriations (Committee)."

For the first time in decades, a drastic cultural change in the way Texas deals with its nonviolent lawbreakers could soon come about, not as a result of inches-thick legislation or boisterous public policy hearings, but in quiet, behind-the-scenes budget discussions.

Reform by decimal point, some lawmakers are calling it.

Madden and his Senate counterpart, Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, said a few reform bills that might soon emerge will address such topics as expanded drug-court procedures, progressive punishment levels, even tweaks to the current parole rules. The more substanitive changes will be made when Appropriations Committee members start to allocate state dollars.

In recent days, the focus of legislative attention on the reforms has shifted from the House and Senate committees that oversee corrections policy to the Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee, where the budget decisions are made. Senate and House leaders agree the attention will mostly stay there throughout the legislative session that ends in May.

Whitmire said, "We need to change the way we're operating our criminal justice system . . .You don't need to write a lot of new laws to fix that."

In their reform blueprint, Whitmire and Madden want to expand:

•In-prison therapeutic drug programs by 1,500 beds;
•Transitional-treatment centers by 1,400;
•Parole counseling by 1,800;
•Specialized drug-treatment programs by 1,800; and
•halfway houses by 900.

All are existing programs, all allowed by current law. The total cost will be $149.5 million.

By contrast, prison officials in their budget request last summer asked for $440.6 million for three new prisons, $173.9 million to lease bunks in county jails and private lockups and another $284.8 million for additional operations and for construction projects. They also sought additional funding for treatment programs, with fewer additional beds.

Total cost for the construction and leased beds alone: An additional $889 million.

In recent weeks, as Senate and Housel leaders appeared to support the Whitmire-Madden plan, prison officials have seemed open to implementing many of the changes, sooner rather than later.

On Wednesday, they confirmed plans to double the amount of faith-based rehabilitation programs in the prison system in coming months, the latest of several signals that the prison system once known for its tough-on-criminals punishment reputation — chain gangs, no air conditioning, solitary confinement, scant programs — was beginning to soften to embrace therapy and counseling, job training, addiction treatment, even after-care programs to help convicts adjust to civilian life once they get out.

Even Gov. Rick Perry, who two years ago vetoed probation reforms that were designed to accomplish much of what the current reforms will do, seemed open to the policy shift. In his State of the State speech to the Legislature on Tuesday, Perry, sounding much kinder and gentler than before, suggested a new "approach to crime that is both tough and smart."

"There are thousands of nonviolent offenders in the system whose future we cannot ignore," Perry said. "Let's focus more resources on rehabilitating those offenders so we can ultimately spend less money locking them up again."

In his proposed budget, Perry proposed spending $125.8 million for two new medium-security lockups to add 1,000 beds, and converting a Texas Youth Commission lockup to a prison for adults to add 600 more. Whitmire and Madden earlier proposed much the same, using all those beds for treatment programs.

Perry also proposed $14 million in additional spending for rehabilitation and parole placement programs — which help ex-cons get jobs and housing — for as many as 5,000 prisoners during the next two years. Ditto from Madden and Whitmire, essentially.

For his part, Whitmire, who spearheaded an overhaul of Texas' criminal code in 1993 and has chaired the criminal justice committee for a decade, insists the reforms are not about overhauling the system as much as fine-tuning it.

"It's about how we spend our money, where we spend our money," he said. "We can't continue building new prisons and expect to ever solve the problems we're facing.

"This is about spending our money more wisely."

mward@statesman.com

Posted by lois at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2007

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, 2007

Harm Reduction Coalition Statement:
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, 2007

The HIV/AIDS crisis among African Americans demands increased commitment, innovative strategies, and coordinated action by government, community-based organizations, civic and religious groups, and the African American community. African Americans make up nearly half of all AIDS cases in the United States, and over half of new HIV diagnoses. The majority of women and infants living with HIV are African American.

The most striking feature of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among African Americans is the role of structural factors that drive high HIV prevalence. A range of studies indicate that African Americans across various categories - adult and adolescent heterosexuals, men who have sex with men, injection drug users - do not have higher rates of sexual and drug-related risks than whites. African Americans are just as, if not more, likely as whites to use condoms, limit numbers of sexual partners, avoid sharing syringes, and test for HIV. Higher rates of HIV among African Americans do not reflect higher levels of risk: the narrow focus in HIV prevention on individual behavior change has failed African Americans by ignoring the structural context of poverty and homelessness, disparities in education and health care, and high rates of incarceration among blacks. The cumulative and reinforcing impact of these social and political forces create a vortex of vulnerability directly responsible for the current HIV crisis among African Americans.

Solutions to the African American HIV/AIDS epidemic must ultimately recognize and redress the lethal effect of these structural disparities. Such efforts demand courage and commitment; the recommendations below require significant investments matched with political will and leadership. Yet failure to act has already exacted too high a price. We cannot afford delay.

Changing the Course of the African American HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Ways Forward

Reduce the high rate of incarceration among black males. Research and experience demonstrate clear links between HIV prevalence and high rates of incarceration among African Americans. Incarceration results in disruption of families and communities, social exclusion and diminished life opportunities, and pervasive despair and fatalism - an ideal environment for HIV to flourish. Draconian drug laws and law enforcement practices targeting African Americans lead to astronomical numbers of black men caught up in the criminal justice system, with catastrophic results for public health, civil rights, and social justice. We must reverse this tide by challenging mandatory minimum sentencing that removes judicial discretion, disparities in sentencing laws between crack and cocaine, and racial profiling in marijuana arrests. We must broaden alternatives to incarceration for non-violent drug-related offenses, including drug courts and diversion to treatment.

Combat stigma, promote HIV testing, and reduce disparities in HIV care and treatment. Interlocking forms of stigma surrounding HIV, drug use, and sex and sexuality perpetuate a climate of silence, fear, and self-hatred that deters HIV testing and disclosure. Disparities in health care access and quality and the scarcity of non-judgmental, culturally competent HIV clinicians result in poor HIV care and greater mortality among African Americans, further reinforcing stigma and hopelessness. We must simultaneously address the cultural and systemic barriers to HIV testing, care and treatment among African Americans.

Increase knowledge, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. Research indicates that sexually transmitted infections facilitate HIV transmission, and that rates of these infections are higher in African Americans. Efforts to address sexually transmitted infections include education on symptom recognition, screening in community settings, and expedited partner therapy (where patients deliver treatment to their partners).

Increase availability of syringe exchange programs. Syringe exchange is highly effective at preventing HIV without increasing drug use. Greater access to sterile syringes among African Americans requires new and expanded syringe exchange programs and improved access to addiction treatment. The African American community and leadership has largely set aside historical debates and divisions around syringe exchange. Now, the federal government must act to lift the federal ban on syringe exchange funding; and criminal laws against possession of syringes and drug paraphernalia must be rescinded as inconsistent with public health.

Address structural determinants of risk that fuel the epidemic. We cannot successfully implement HIV interventions in the black community without first addressing the structural, social and economic factors that perpetuate marginalization and risk. We must eradicate poverty by promoting economic stability and reducing income inequalities, providing quality education and job creation, ensuring universal health care, and creating affordable housing. These efforts must be grounded in a broad political mandate to address racism, gender inequality, homophobia and classism in the United States.

Harm Reduction Coalition, February 2007
Our postal address is
22 West 27th Street, 5th Floor
New York, New York 10001
United States

Posted by lois at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Will community prisons help or hurt women?

"There's money to build the facilities, but is there actually money to do anything in them?" said Craig Gilmore, who works with the group Citizens United for a Responsible Budget (CURB). Schwarzenegger has promised more than $50 million for rehabilitative programs for prisoners this year, but Gilmore said he only has to look at past budgets to see the trend in servicecuts: "If there are any budget cuts, what gets cut? Not [prison]guard salaries. Programs get cut."

Welcome to the neighborhood
Will community prisons help or hurt women?
San Diego City Beat Feb 7, 2007
by Kelly Davis

Since 1978, the number of women in California prisons has increased 900 percent, outpacing the jump in male incarcerations and helping make California's prison population one of the largest in the nation-at 173,000 inmates, that's 73,000 more than what the state's existing detention facilities can hold.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for more prisons to accommodate even more inmates-the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has said it will need an additional 51,069 beds during the next 15 years to house its male prisoners. As for California's nearly 12,000 female prisoners, roughly one-third-women considered low-risk who've been charged with nonviolent crimes-would be moved to so-called female rehabilitative community correctional centers, or FRCCCs. These facilities would, according to the state, hold no more than 200 women at a time and would be located in or within 25 miles of an urban center, with the first several expected to open in April 2008. One of them would be sited in San Diego County, though the exact location is unknown.

The idea for these smaller women's prisons is part of an overall paradigm shift in how the prison system meets, or doesn't meet, the needs of female inmates. California incarcerates women within a system that's designed to handle its primary client base, men. Two years ago, the Department of Corrections organized the Gender Responsive Strategies Commission, an advisory group established to address issues affecting women in prison. According to a report released in August by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, "While the number of prison beds has multiplied, other responses to women's crime have not." More than half of women prisoners, the report says, suffered abuse at some point in their lives, as compared to 16 percent of male prisoners. They tend to be less-educated than their male counterparts, and 64 percent of women prisoners in California have at least one child younger than 18.

The point of FRCCCs is to move short-timers back to their communities so they can be closer to their families. Such a setting, experts say, cuts down on recidivism and makes the transition from prison to parole easier.

As they've been pitched by the state, FRCCCs would include "wraparound" services, like drug and alcohol treatment, educational and vocational training, counseling and medical care.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, a Democrat from Silicon Valley, authored the legislation creating the FRCCCs. Women at these community correctional centers, she told CityBeat, "can access family visitation and also be able to take advantage of services that are in the community. We see that the prisons that are closer to an urban area have a lot of volunteers coming in and have a lot of communication with the community overall. [Compared to] the very remote women's prisons, there is much more of a tie-in between the institution and the community."

More than two-thirds of women prisoners are considered "low-risk" on the prison security-threat scale and, as Lieber pointed out to the Associated Press recently, shouldn't require costly security measures: "The overwhelming majority of women in prison are in for low-level crimes that do not require the sort of expensive, high-security setting we're providing them."

Though the FRCCCs would be privately run, security staff would be employed by the Department of Corrections-an odd public/private relationship that some prison-reform advocates chalk up to the power of the prison guards union, which generally opposes privatization.

As progressive as they might seem, a lot about these small women's prisons has struck a bad chord with opponents who argue that increasing the number of prison beds is too easy an answer to the thorny political issue of prison overcrowding.

"The idea of more prisons is certainly not the solution, especially prisons disguised as community-based programs," said Douglas Oden, head of the San Diego chapter of the NAACP, at a community meeting last month attended by prisoner-rights' activists, drug-treatment specialists and members of other groups with a stake in prison issues.

Opponents of FRCCCs, both here and statewide, argue that:

. There's nothing in the legislation that creates the FRCCCs to guarantee funding for the services these facilities are supposed to provide. "There's money to build the facilities, but is there actually money to do anything in them?" said Craig Gilmore, who works with the group Citizens United for a Responsible Budget (CURB). Schwarzenegger has promised more than $50 million for rehabilitative programs for prisoners this year, but Gilmore said he only has to look at past budgets to see the trend in service cuts: "If there are any budget cuts, what gets cut? Not [prison] guard salaries. Programs get cut."

. FRCCCs mask the real issue: The need for sentencing reform and less-punitive means of dealing with drug offenders, the population that will likely fill these facilities. (The increase in the prison population is widely attributed to mandatory-sentencing requirements for drug offenses.) "When my wife says to me, 'Your closet's too crowded,' I don't say, 'Let's build another closet,'" Gilmore noted.

. These facilities will decentralize a system that's been criticized for its lack of oversight and, most recently, had control of its healthcare system handed over to a federal-court-appointed receiver.

"When a system's in deep crisis, is that the best time to give it more money, more discretion and make it bigger and build more prisons?" said Heidi Strupp, who works for the nonprofit Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

Strupp also participates in the Department of Corrections' Gender Responsive Strategies Commission, and while she gives the state credit for establishing such a group, she remains wary about proposed reforms. The Department of Corrections' "track record of providing constitutionally adequate treatment, let alone services, is woefully inadequate," she said. "I have a lot of concerns that the state agency responsible for punishing people is the best equipped to provide healing rehabilitative services to women."

Opposition to the FRCCCs is well organized despite the scant publicity the issue's received. Civil-rights leaders like Angela Davis and Delores Huerta, journalist Barbara Ehrenreich (author of the acclaimed book Nickel andDimed) and columnist Katha Pollit, among others, have signed on to a petition that includes signatures from 1,300 women prisoners. Former Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg, who was termed out at the end of 2006, initially co-sponsored an earlier version of the bill that would create the FRCCCs, along with Lieber. But, after hearing from opponents, Goldberg pulled her name from the bill in June, calling it "a fraud. filled with problems." CityBeat was unable to contact Goldberg by press time But there seem to be some misconceptions about FRCCCs. For instance, opponents say the new prisons will allow less visiting time than mainstream prisons. In fact, FRCCCs have expanded visiting hours-all day Saturday and Sunday and 7 to 9 p.m. on weekdays.

Lieber emphasized that she's open and willing to meet with opponents of the legislation to hear their concerns. "We anticipate a lot of discussion and give and take of ideas on all sides," she said. http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=5357

02-07-07

C 2007 Southland Publishing, All Rights Reserved

Posted by lois at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2007

Elizabeth Tashjian, 94, an Expert on Nuts, Dies

February 4, 2007, NY Times
Elizabeth Tashjian, 94, an Expert on Nuts, Dies
By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Elizabeth Tashjian, who debated whether she was a nut culturist or a nut artist, but was indisputably, well, nuts enough about nuts to win fame (but not fortune) as matriarch of the Nut Museum in Old Lyme, Conn., died last Sunday in Old Saybrook, Conn. She was 94.

Ms. Tashjian hated being called “the Nut Lady” and died without fulfilling her dream of opening a nut theme park certain to surpass Disneyland. (Her reasoning: Squirrels are cuter than a certain mouse.)

Her death was confirmed by Christopher B. Steiner, a professor of art history and museum studies at Connecticut College, who in 2002 rescued Ms. Tashjian’s nuts, nut art, nut jewelry and a Nativity scene made completely of nuts from being thrown away.

That collection, the Nut Museum, had filled a room of Ms. Tashjian’s 17-room Gothic Revival mansion. The objects have since been in museum and library exhibitions.

“She became a visionary avant-garde artist,” said Dr. Steiner, who is dedicated to preserving, interpreting and communicating Ms. Tashjian’s legacy.

Dr. Steiner said that Ms. Tashjian began as an academic painter who liked nuts as a subject and started her museum in 1972 as a “cabinet of curiosity.” These “cabinets,” which emerged during the Renaissance, were rooms stuffed with intriguing objects about which people told stories.

Or sang songs, in the case of Ms. Tashjian. She performed her composition “Nuts Are Beautiful,” the nut anthem, for visitors, to whom she also gave free cider and coffeecake. She told stories about a bearded dwarf dwelling within every peanut embryo. (Admission at first was one nut, later rising to $3 and one nut.)

Her museum fits comfortably within an American tradition of enthrallment with odd collections, including museums of vacuum cleaners, toilet seats, mustard, postcards, potted meat, Antarctic dogs and dirt. But it aspired to be an art museum.

It contained mainly artworks by Ms. Tashjian, including her “Mask of the Unknown Nut” sculpture. The many varieties of nuts, including the 35-pound Coco de mer, which resembles buttocks, from the Seychelles, were gifts from patrons. So were many of the artifacts, like toys derived from nuts.

Ms. Tashjian’s second act in life was as a public personality on television and radio. She appeared on the shows of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Howard Stern and Chevy Chase, who kissed her hand twice and won her heart. She often took along her huge, disturbingly suggestive Coco de mer nut.

Mr. Steiner said it was arguable whether she was exploited by the news media, exploited it or played it to a draw.

His suspicion that she was the joker, not the joke, is reflected in the title of his forthcoming book, “Performing the Nut Museum: Elizabeth Tashjian and the Art of the Double Entendre.”

In her twilight years as a gaunt, four-foot-tall woman with a sing-song voice, she became a symbol of defiance, as she vainly fought to keep her home-cum-museum. A court declared her incompetent, and named guardians who sold it to pay her bills.

In 2005 the filmmaker Don Bernier made a documentary, “In a Nutshell: A Portrait of Elizabeth Tashjian.” Marian Masone of the Film Society of Lincoln Center wrote, “Bernier’s lovely, touching film asks the question, was she really nuts?”

Elizabeth Yegsa Tashjian was born in 1912 in Manhattan, the daughter of Armenian immigrants. Her father was a prosperous rug trader, and her mother came from an aristocratic family with a castle. They divorced when she was 7.

She studied at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the National Academy of Design, where, The New York Times reported in 1929, she won a prize. She was also a gifted violinist.

“The art and the music galloped together,” she said in an interview with The Hartford Courant in 2005.

As a child, she played with nuts, then painted them. As an art student, she submitted a painting of a nutcracker chasing Brazil nuts to a juried art competition.

She and her mother moved to the Old Lyme mansion in 1950, and her mother died in 1959. Until she fell ill in 2002, Ms. Tashjian lived there alone. She never married, held a regular job or learned to drive. She left no immediate survivors.

She claimed not to know the word “nut” meant crazy until a patron shocked her by offering his wife for the “nut” portion of her admission fee. She resolved to end this pejorative use of her favorite word, in the process becoming, she said, a nutty philosopher.

In an interview with The Washington Post in 1999, she shared an insight: “To reveal its inner self,” she said, “the nut needs the nutcracker.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Posted by lois at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

MI; Granholm to propose release of elderly, infirm inmates to reduce prison spending

Granholm to propose release of elderly, infirm inmates to reduce prison spending

Sunday, February 04, 2007
By Peter Luke

Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- A Michigan prison system housing a record 50,000-plus prisoners at a cost approaching $2 billion will have to be reined in through reductions in the prison population, Gov. Jennifer Granholm will announce Tuesday in her fifth State of the State address.

Granholm is expected to tell lawmakers she intends to begin commuting sentences of inmates who pose no safety threat to the public; among them will be aged and medically fragile criminals. Granholm also intends to look seriously at releasing, with Michigan Parole Board approval, non-violent drug offenders serving a long string of short minimum sentences.

But Granholm will need legislative approval to significantly reduce a prison population 20-percent larger than either the a national and Midwest averages.

If those averages were applied to Michigan, says the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, the prison population would be around 40,000 and the prison budget some $500 million less.

Compared with other states, "we are out of whack," Patricia Caruso, director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, said Friday.

"The goal of the department is to protect the public," she said, adding, however, that it makes sense "to release those who can be safely released."

She said Granholm's "expectation" is that the department will begin reducing its spending relative to the rest of the state's general fund for discretionary spending. At $1.86 billion, prison spending is about 20 percent of that general fund budget. Ten years ago, it was 15 percent.

A commutation policy designed to reduce prison population would be a big departure for a governor -- and former attorney general -- who has been stingy about releasing inmates.

In a little more than four years as governor, Granholm has commuted the sentences of just nine inmates, all for medical reasons. The most public case for commutation before her administration currently involves Dr. Jack Kevorkian, imprisoned for assisting in a suicide and suffering from a range of maladies, according to his attorney.

"The governor has the power to commute sentences," said Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, who oversees prison spending. "I'd be very interested to know which old folks we're talking about letting out of prison, if we're talking about people who committed first-degree murder."

Cropsey said he is willing to consider Granholm's call to more clearly define which felons should be imprisoned and which ones instead should be sentenced to local jails, residential centers or home confinement.

He said the state can't rapidly reduce its prison population by 10,000 without compromising public safety, but he supports Granholm's efforts to expand programs designed to improve the success of prisoner re-entry into society.

Among the medically fragile inmates who could be considered for release, are some of the 12,500 inmates who have some history of mental illness, Caruso said. Cropsey said it's critical that paroles who received medication behind bars continue to take it upon release.

Caruso said the effort to cut population would be long term and require greater investment in local support services. Granholm will release her proposed 2008 state budget on Thursday. Caruso provided no detail of what the projected costs or savings from the policy changes Granholm is proposing.

Barbara Levine, director of the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending, said there are some 16,000 inmates who could be released if the state returned to incarceration policies in place as recently as a decade ago.

Levine said inmates on good behavior who have served 85 percent of their minimum sentences should be considered for parole. Parole violators returned to prison for non-criminal, administrative offenses, should have their time back in prison capped at six months to a year.

Only 53 percent of parole-eligible inmates considered to be low risk to the public were released from prison in the first nine months of 2006, said Levine, citing department data. That compares with an 81-percent parole rate in 1996. Returning to that rate of release would free up 4,600 prison beds and save $114 million, she said.

"If they're really going to take the size of the population down, they have to tackle these broader policy questions," Levine said.

Granholm can't run for re-election, but asking lawmakers who can run to consider releasing felons could be tricky given the 2006, election-year killing spree by an inmate named Patrick Selepak, who was mistakenly released by the department.

The prison changes, administration officials say, are part of a broader program of government reform designed to produce savings in a budget in chronic imbalance for nearly six years.

In her State of the State address, Granholm will call on local governments and school districts to consolidate the delivery of services. Schools in fiscal 2008 would receive state aid bonuses for using administrative services provided by intermediate school districts. In 2009 they would be financially penalized if they don't.

Granholm intends to show voters that spending can be restrained, because on Thursday she's expected to call for higher taxes in part to avert a $377 million cut in K-12 funding yet this school year. Administration aides won't say what taxes are on the table and say she won't outline that part of her 2007 agenda on Tuesday.

Granholm Friday accepted and praised a report by a 12-member bipartisan budget panel she appointed that asserts that the state can't balance its budget without a tax increase. The panel, co-chaired by former Govs. William Milliken and James Blanchard, buttressed Granholm's view that continued steep cuts in state spending on education and health care would harm the state's quality of life.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, reiterated Friday that "tax increases on Michigan citizens is not the best long-term solution to our economic troubles."

http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1170538803212200.
xml&coll=1

Posted by lois at 09:17 PM | Comments (0)

AZ: Your bill for state prisons - $100,000/hour and article: report says AZ will need $3 billion for prisons in the next decade

Our Opinion: Your bill for state prisons - $100,000/hour
Tucson Citizen
Published: 02.06.2007
The shopworn philosophy of fighting crime by locking 'em up and throwing away the key is swamping Arizona taxpayers in red ink. This fiscal year, the Department of Corrections will spend more than $817 million running state prisons. In her budget request for fiscal 2007, which begins July 1, Gov. Janet Napolitano is seeking 12 percent more for prisons - $913.6 million. That's more than $100,000 for every hour of the year. If this keeps up, in fiscal 2008 we'll spend more than $1 billion to lock up people. In a couple of years, we'll spend more for prisons than for the state's universities. There are 35,779 men and women locked up in Arizona prisons. Together, they could populate a city among the state's 20 largest. Putting people in prison isn't making us safer. Arizona ranks ninth for its incarceration rate, yet we rank 16th among states for our violent crime rate. Clearly, something must be done. The state cannot continue locking up people and pouring millions of dollars a day into running prisons. There must be a better way. One is being considered by the state Legislature - though it is getting a frosty reception from one hard-headed county attorney who refuses to consider reasonable alternatives to prison. State Rep. Bill Konopnicki, a Safford Republican, is sponsoring a bill that would moderately expand early-release programs. It would allow inmates who are classified as low or medium risks to have their sentences shortened by up to six months. There are safeguards. Anyone convicted of a violent offense against a person would not be eligible. The early release would be limited to inmates who committed nonviolent crimes. And the victims would have to agree to the early release. Andrew Thomas, the Maricopa County attorney, already has said he is opposed to anything that lets any inmate out of prison early. He called the bill "a dangerous scheme designed to help the state avoid the cost of paying to lock up career criminals." But Thomas fails to understand that "the state" is we the people. If we can substantially reduce prison costs without causing more risk, it's worth exploring. Ninety-seven percent of the people now in prison will be released at some point. We need to plan for their release and their reintroduction to society. And we need to find a way to bring rapidly spiraling prison costs under control. The money we spend to keep men and women behind bars can be spent in far more productive ways. In education, for example, which would be a way of providing early prevention that keeps people out of criminal trouble. http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/40948.php

"The state's spending on the prison system increased by 100 percent in the past 10 years, from $409 million in 1997 to $817 million in the current fiscal year, with $3 billion of additional spending required in the next decade to build and operate prisons, the report said."

$3 http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6047808

Surge in prison population seen as research puts spotlight on AZ

PHOENIX -- Arizona already faces a shortfall of thousands of prison beds to house its inmate population, and a new report projects that population will grow by more than half again its current size over the next 10 years.

The draft report by the Council of State Governments' Justice Center is the first phase of a new multistate research project backed by Arizona legislators, who say they want to reduce violent crime to protect the public and hold down prison costs to save taxpayers' dollars.

The Justice Center's report was produced by consultants, with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice and a private foundation. The center has similar studies under way in several other states, including Texas and Kansas.

The draft of the initial report said the current inmate population of approximately 35,000 could rise to levels between 43,576 and 56,660 by 2017, depending on prison admission rates and population growth among young adult males who comprise the bulk of new prisoners.

The state's spending on the prison system increased by 100 percent in the past 10 years, from $409 million in 1997 to $817 million in the current fiscal year, with $3 billion of additional spending required in the next decade to build and operate prisons, the report said.

Lawmakers supporting the project said Tuesday they hope it will help Arizona identify possible improvements, drawing from tactics and strategies already working successfully in New York and other states.

"I want to just lay down a really solid foundation of the best research to guide policy in Arizona," said Sen. John Huppenthal, R-Chandler.

Huppenthal and Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, said one promising approach seems to be mapping where the prison population comes from so services, programs and law enforcement can be tailored to combat violent crime, reduce recidivism and other prison-related problems.

In Arizona, Maricopa County is home to approximately three of every five Arizonans and accounts for roughly that share of the state prison population.

However, low-income areas of south and west Phoenix account for disproportionately large shares of the state's overall prison population, according to Council of State Government data.

One of Phoenix's 15 neighborhoods, South Mountain, has an incarceration rate of 12.3 per 1,000 adults, compared with a rate of 1.1 in the adjacent but affluent Ahwatukee neighborhood on the other side of South Mountain Park.

Another Justice Center report due in March is expected to include discussion of possible options, but Huppenthal said he didn't think the research will be far enough along to have an immediate impact during the current legislative session.

But in the future, the research can provide standards to use as measuring sticks to gauge the value of proposals on sentencing laws and other issues, he said.

Konopnicki, a past proponent of changes in sentencing laws, said he hasn't made any commitments regarding what the state should do "other than to look at the data."

"However, I'm very optimistic that something will come from this," he Konopnicki.

Arizona's prison system will be short 4,057 beds as of June, according to legislative budget projections.

The Department of Corrections plans to add 1,386 temporary beds, including 900 in tents, at nine existing state prisons to help reduce the bed shortfall.

But lawmakers and Gov. Janet Napolitano's administration still face decisions on whether the state should permanently expand its own prison system or increase its use of private facilities.

Konopnicki acknowledged that criminal justice issues related to prisons can be a political hot potato.

Last week, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas denounced a bill sponsored by Konopnicki and two other Republican legislators as an attack on public safety.

The bill, which has not been heard by a legislative committee, would shorten some inmates' sentences if they complete Department of Corrections programs for transition back into society.

___

On the Net:

Justice Center of Council of State Governments: http://www.justicecenter.csg.org

Arizona Legislature: http://www.azleg.state.az.us

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Posted by lois at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)

Community Builds Momentum Against Prison Expansion in San Diego

Community Builds Momentum Against Prison Expansion in San Diego Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Drug Policy Alliance

About 100 San Diegans came together on January 24 to learn more about proposals to expand the state prison system, including plans for a new women's facility in San Diego. The participants voiced their desire for more community education and for action, both to stop the expansion and to support effective re-entry programs and alternatives to incarceration.

Governor Schwarzenegger's $10 billion proposal would create 78,000 new prison beds across the state, and Assembly Member Sally Lieber's bill, AB 76, would build up to 15, 200-bed prison facilities for women, including at least one in San Diego.

Nonviolent female offenders, the majority of whom are incarcerated for drug offenses, are the fastest growing segment of the California prison population.

According to AB 76, the new facilities would be staffed by prison guards and would have fewer visiting days than California's existing women's prisons. Altogether, they would increase the state¹s capacity for female inmates by 25%.

Proponents of the bill claim that these facilities will support female prisoners' transition back into the community, but those working on prisoner re-entry in San Diego disagree.

"If you can't leave the facility, and no one can visit you, how does that help you reconnect? You might as well be on the moon," said Rev. Dennis Malone, co-founder of the San Diego chapter of All of Us or None, an organization of and for formerly incarcerated people dedicated to ending discrimination against those with a criminal history.

Rev. Malone and other community members discussed the variety of tools‹-from prevention programs to diversion to re-entry services-‹San Diego already has to safely reduce the number of people behind bars and to help people coming out to stay out.

"We don¹t have to invent anything here; we just need to invest in what works," the reverend continued. "We need to spend on real, result-driven re-entry solutions, not just throw good money after bad."

Gretchen Burns Bergman, co-founder and executive director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing), echoed the concern that, while San Diego is facing the possibility of a new prison, community-based programs that work--like Prop. 36‹-are not being fully utilized.

"Prop. 36 has made state money available for drug treatment in San Diego County, and we have a great need for treatment," she said. "But, for some inexplicable reason, our county is not spending all of the allotted funding, putting individuals at risk of not receiving life-saving treatment."

Oliver Hamilton, founder of the Prop. 36 Alumni Association, an organization of graduates of the state's landmark, treatment-instead-of-incarceration
program, praised Prop. 36 for being one of these evidence-based programs and for giving him and the program¹s other 60,000 graduates a chance to get their lives back on track.

"I am proof that Prop. 36 works not only to keep people out of the criminal justice system but also to help get them engaged in the community," Hamilton said. "Thanks to the voters who passed Prop. 36 in 2000, I am back in control of my life and it¹s never been better. Now I share the gift of recovery every day."

The January 24 event was organized by the Drug Policy Alliance, and co-sponsored by A New PATH, ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, All of Us or None, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, California Prison Project, Prop. 36 Alumni Association, San Diego FACTS and the San Diego NAACP.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/020607sd.cfm

Posted by lois at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)

FY 08 Federal Budget "Highlights"- Homeland Security, BOP, Policing, "Justice"

FY 08 Federal Budget "Highlights"

HOMELAND SECURITY

Prioritizing comprehensive immigration reform: The Administration is dedicated to comprehensive reform of America's immigration laws by increasing border security and interior enforcement, and working with Congress to establishing a Temporary Worker Program without animosity and without amnesty.

The 2008 Budget makes good on the President's commitment to tighten security at our borders:

. Hiring 3,000 new Border Patrol agents: $3.6 billion, an increase of 27 percent over 2007 Budget to continue the President's efforts to double the size of the Border Patrol.

. Secure Border Initiative (SBI): One billion dollars to secure our borders and reduce illegal immigration through comprehensive upgrading of technology and infrastructure used in controlling our border.

. Maintaining the end of "Catch and Release": $2.2 billion to detain and remove those apprehended while in the United States illegally.

. Partnering with state and local law enforcement:

o $78 million, a $26 million increase for the 287 (g) program, will provide funding to train state and local law enforcement officials to assist in immigration enforcement.

o $179 million, a $29 million increase, for the Criminal Alien Program for identifying criminal aliens in Federal, State and local prisons and removing them from the country.

. Basic Pilot Program: $30 million to support and expand the voluntary web-based program that helps U.S. employers verify the employment eligibility of employees and avoid hiring an unauthorized worker.

. Better screening techniques:

o U.S.-VISIT: $462 million to enhance the Federal Government's screening abilities by expediting the entry and exit of legal travelers, while focusing on identifying travelers who seek to harm the United States. Includes $228 million to identify visitors and to assist with law enforcement investigations by collecting 10 fingerprints at the Nation's ports of entry and to begin the implement a biometric exit program.

JUSTICE & LAW ENFORCEMENT

Strengthening critical counterterrorism, intelligence and other national security programs: Supports key initiatives at the FBI and the National Security Division to improve the Department's ability to prevent, investigate and prosecute acts of terrorism and other threats to our national security. These initiatives include:

. $52 million for 150 new counterterrorism and counterintelligence agents and 50 surveillance personnel.

. $91 million for an expansion of the FBI's data collection and exploitation programs.

. $22 million for the continued development of human intelligence management and source validation programs.

. $7 million for the National Security Division for the prevention and prosecution of terrorism.

Assisting States and local communities by more effectively meeting their needs for law enforcement grants and assistance:

. $1.2 billion in discretionary funding for law enforcement assistance, including a proposal to consolidate more than 70 distinct
and fragmented programs into four flexible and competitive grants.

. All funds to be allocated based on a competitive, need-based process. More than 1300 earmarks totaling $544 million in the last
Justice appropriations bill will be eliminated.

. Violent Crime Reduction Partnership Initiative: $200 million to help States and communities form partnerships with Federal law
enforcement agencies to address spikes in violent crime.

. Byrne Public Safety and Protection Program: $350 million for methamphetamine cleanup and enforcement, drug courts, firearms crime prosecution assistance, efforts to combat domestic trafficking, and other priorities based on local needs.

. Violence Against Women Program: $370 million to curb domestic violence and related crimes against women.

. Child Safety and Juvenile Justice Program: $280 million to help communities address child predators, school safety, and juvenile
justice needs.

. $625 million in mandatory funding is provided for crime victims' assistance programs.

The President's 2008 Budget will enhance anti-terrorism, intelligence, and law enforcement efforts and promote greater public
safety by:

. Strengthening critical counterterrorism, intelligence and other national security programs;

. Assisting States and local communities by more effectively meeting their needs for law enforcement grants and assistance;

. Enhancing efforts to protect our children from abuse and exploitation;

. Including funding to reduce violent crime and combat the spread of illegal drugs; and

. Providing funding for additional prison capacity to reduce overcrowding and ensure that dangerous and violent criminals can be
appropriately incarcerated upon conviction.

Protecting our children from abuse and exploitation:

. $12 million in enhancements for the Project Safe Childhood Initiative to protect our children from exploitation on the internet.

. $13 million in enhancements to implement the Adam Walsh Act , including apprehending sexual predators and better managing sexual offenders in the Federal prisoner population.

Reducing violent crime and combating the spread of illegal drugs:

. $39 million to help the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stem the flow of illegal drugs by targeting the production, distribution and sale of methamphetamine and other precursor drugs and help stop illegal drugs from entering the US through the US Southwest border. Additional funding also will increase DEA's ability to share intelligence information.

. $19 million to help the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATFE) combat violent crime by reducing illegal firearms trafficking and gang and gun-related violence in our nation's most at- risk communities.

Enhancing Federal incarceration and detention:

. $142 million for two additional prisons to help meet population growth and reduce overcrowding at the BOP's most critical security levels. Two additional prisons, in Pollock, LA and Mendota, CA, will add a total of 2,432 beds and will begin receiving inmates in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

. $27 million to expand BOP's use of State, local and private prison space to accommodate lower security prisoners. The 2008 Budget increases the number of contract prison beds by 1,100.

Posted by lois at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2007

This Alien Life: Privatized Prisons for Immigrants

This Alien Life: Privatized Prisons for Immigrants
by Deepa Fernandes, Special to CorpWatch
February 5th, 2007

cartoon by Khalil Bendib (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14333)

The small town of Florence, Arizona, sits at an epicenter of a new boom in private prisons for immigrants. The one-lane highway from Tucson to this desert prison town runs through cacti, red rock, and occasional mountains. Then out of nowhere, a roadside sign breaks the spell: “State Prison: Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers.”

Florence hosts Arizona’s state prison, two privately run prison complexes, and one Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration jail.

Florence “has a prison economy and a prison consciousness,” says Victoria López, an attorney who runs the town’s only pro bono legal center that helps immigrant detainees fight their cases. “Florence is another world. Here most locals are people whose families have for generations worked in the prison system. Life revolves around the prisons.”

As the government invokes national security to sweep up and jail an unprecedented number of immigrants, the private-prison industry is booming. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on New York, immigrants have become the fastest growing segment of the prison population in the U.S. today. In fiscal year 2005, more than 350,000 immigrants went through the courts. "A growing share of them committed no crimes while in the United States - 53 percent this year, up from 37 percent in 2001 - even though Bush administration officials repeatedly have said their priority is deporting criminals," the Denver Post reported.

From Mining to Prisons

Many locals have family roots in the mining industry that was the lifeblood of rough and tumble town until the silver boom petered out. Around the turn of the 20th century, the territorial prison moved to town. But the town really came back to life after Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) one of the nation's biggest prison companies, built two prisons in Florence, and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) began renting bed space, and then built its own prison out of a town's old World War II prisoner-of-war camp. The influx of immigrant prisoners created jobs that drove the economy and sparked construction of new housing complexes on the outskirts of town, followed by big retailers such as Wal-Mart.

In 2000, the industry was carrying more than $1 billion in debt and was violating its existing credit agreements. CCA saw its stock plummet 93 percent and Business Week noted that the correction “industry’s heyday may already be history.”

At the time, the American Prospect, a national magazine, explained the
decline:

“The private-prison industry is in trouble. For close to a decade, its business boomed and its stock prices soared because state legislators across the country thought they could look both tough on crime and fiscally conservative if they contracted with private companies to handle the growing multitudes being sent to prison under the new, more severe sentencing laws. But then reality set in: accumulating press reports about gross deficiencies and abuses at private prisons; lawsuits; million-dollar fines. By last year, not a single state was soliciting new private-prison contracts. Many existing contracts were rolled back or even rescinded. The companies’ stock prices went through the floor.”

Then came the September 11th attacks on New York in 2001. The government began to target non-citizens with mass arrests during sweeps through immigrant communities, increased prosecutions of undocumented border crossers, and the use of immigration law to hold people while looking for criminal or terrorist charges against them. The INS was subsumed into a new agency named the Department of Homeland Security.

The government claims that locking up people without legal status is the only way to ensure that they do not disappear into the country. A December 2004 DHS report from the Office of the Inspector General concluded that all the evidence proved the “importance of detention in relation to the eventual removal of an alien. Hence effective management of detention bed space can substantially contribute to immigration enforcement efforts.”

The speed and scope of the Bush administration round up and jailing of non-citizens created a dramatically increased need for immigrant detention space. And saved the flailing corrections industry.

The DHS-run Special Processing Center is a massive one-stop-shop, where immigrants can be jailed, tried in an immigration court, appealed before an immigration judge, and ordered deported—all without leaving the self-contained complex. While DHS does not refer to its facilities as jails, the Special Processing Center in Florence is ringed by concertina wire, surrounded by chain-link fences, with inmates locked into cells. They face zealous prosecution and in many cases are left to languish for weeks and months without trial or sentencing.

The complex in Florence is part of a 300-facility-strong network of immigrant incarceration facilities. The average time an immigrant is detained is 42.5 days from arrest to deportation. At $85 a day per detainee, that adds up to $3,612.50 per person. In 2003, DHS was holding 231,500 detainees, and the budget to cover this was $1.3 billion. Since 2001, the DHS budget for detention bed space has increased each fiscal year as has the number of beds. In 2003 there was more than $50 million slated for the construction of immigrant jails.

Corrections Corporation of America

Contracts for these new jails flowed to the private prison industry despite the previous history of mismanagement and scandal. Yet the problems have not been solved – today detainee advocates still decry the treatment of immigrant inmates. They accuse prison companies of cutting corners in training guards and in providing basic services. The government has done little to regulate prison administration, but has sanctioned exploitive labor practices and rip-off telephone costs for inmates.

Philippe Louis-Jean, a veteran who saw combat in Iraq detailed some of abuse. A Haitian immigrant who had lived in the U.S. since he was five, the Marine had advanced quickly though the ranks. On return from Iraq, when he attempted to have his battlefield promotions honored, his superiors looked into his past and found an old military conviction for which he was served 37 days. The government used that record to begin deportation proceedings and threw Louis-Jean into CCA-run San Diego Correctional Facility (SDCF). He was appalled by conditions and treatment.

“The guards would scream and shout at us as if we were little kids. If we would ask them to stop, they would threaten to lock us down for a few days, which would happen constantly. Three people being locked in a two-man cell, in a 12 x 7 room. This happened a lot; sometimes as punishment for the actions of one or two inmates, the other 105–115 detainees would suffer.”

“Other times, it seemed ‘just because.’ A lot of the detainees would be missing money on their accounts, which I was recently told by a detainee who keeps in contact with me was being stolen by the staff, according to [an] OIG investigation. We would get underserved during meal times. When we complained to the unit manager she would say that we were given the right amounts, which in my opinion is the appropriate portion for a ten or eleven year old. Some of the guards and staff would curse at us. They would purposely lower the televisions so we couldn’t hear them, just to mess with us. During our free time they would take their time turning on the phones so we wouldn’t be able to call our families. Just to be cruel.”

One of his guards, an ex-marine, told Louis Jean "he was taught to not really pay attention to our complaining and to treat us like second-class citizens ... since we will be deported anyway.

A 2003 report by the DHS Inspector General forcefully condemned the treatment of immigrants inside various jails in it report, “The September 11
Detainees: A Review of the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration Charges in Connection with the Investigation of the September 11 Attacks.” Infractions included routine abuse of basic prisoner rights, mental and physical abuse, denial of health care and medical treatment, prison overcrowding, and a lack of working showers, and toilets.

Despite a long record of problems, CCA continues to promote privatization and win contracts. "The private prison industry, to increase the demand for its services, exerts whatever pressure it can to encourage state legislators to privatize state prisons," wrote Sharon Dolovich in the Duke University Law Journal. "[T]he industry is adept at lobbying legislators and targeting campaign contributions to promote its privatization agenda."

Indeed, some critics charge that the company's success is related to its deep rooted ties to elected officials. In addition to CCA's record of campaign contributions to the Republican Party since 1997, there are significant connections between executives and government officials. J. Michael Quinlan, former head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, has been an executive at CCA for the past decade. CCA’s chief lobbyist in the state of Tennessee is married to the speaker of the house. And CCA is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that writes and pushes bills on policy such as sentencing guidelines.

For the second quarter of 2005, CCA announced that its revenue had increased three percent over last year, for a total of almost $300 million. CCA calculates that it expenditure of $28.89 per inmate, per day allows it to make a daily profit of $50.26 per inmate. Meanwhile, on July 1, 2005, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded CCA contracts to continue running the 300-bed Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey and the 1,216-bed San Diego Correctional Facility. Both of these contracts are for three years with five three-year renewal options. In 2005 CCA also secured new prison contracts with the Kentucky Department of Corrections, the state of Kansas, and the Florida Department of Management Services.

Business is good for CCA and the more people it stuffs into its prisons the better it becomes. "As you know, the first 100 inmates into a facility, we lose money, and the last 100 inmates into a facility we make a lot of money " CCA Chief Financial Officer Irving Lingo said on a 2006 company conference call.

Wackenhut

Florida-based Wackenhut, a major private security company, has also received a great boost in the years since the September 11th attacks on New York. Its poor record has not undermined its ability to reap lucrative government contracts. Before 2001, Wackenhut, like CCA, had been at the center of all manner of inmate-abuse scandals: Guards were caught having sex with underage inmates, there were routine reports of extreme mistreatment of inmates, and there was even a disproportionately high level of deaths in their facilities.

Wackenhut CEO George Zoley has been flippant about the cases of abuse. After a CBS Television report exposed the repeated rape of a 14-year-old girl at a Wackenhut juvenile jail and two guards were found guilty, Zoley said, “It’s a tough business. The people in prison are not Sunday-school children.” Still more worrying was Wackenhut’s record with inmate-on-inmate killings, which, contrary to public perception, are not very common in America’s prisons. In 1998–99 alone, Wackenhut’s New Mexico facilities had a death rate of one murder for every 400 prisoners. For the same period in all U.S. prisons, the rate was about one in 22,000.

Wackenhut's most visible response was to change its name. Now as the GEO Group, it is still headed by George Zoley, and it continues to run the Wackenhut facilities and get new contracts. In 2005 the State of California Department of Corrections gave GEO the contract for the housing of minimum security adult male inmates at the 224-bed McFarland Community Correctional Facility estimated to generate $4.1 million in annual revenues. On August 8, 2002, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarded GEO a contract for the company's Broward Transitional Center in Miami. The contract has been extended through September 2008.

Under a 2005 ICE contract GEO also manages the Queens Private Correctional Facility, where it expects to reap $10.5 million in annual revenues. The Mississippi Department of Corrections also renewed GEO's contract for the continued management and operation of the 1,000-bed Marshall County Correctional Facility. Meanwhile, also in 2005, GEO announced a merger with Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) that will add approximately $100 million in revenue to GEO’s coffers. GEO is especially excited about the earning potential from CSC’s 1,000-bed expansion of its State Prison in Florence, Arizona.

GEO executives are overjoyed about the boom in business. In 1999, the feds farmed out less than 3 percent of beds; but seven years later, the number had reached almost one in five. "That's a remarkable turnaround," GEO Group CEO George Zoley told his fellow executives."And it's continuing to lead in that direction, that for minimum-security beds by the BOP (Bureau of
Prisons) to house criminal aliens and illegal aliens by either the U.S. Marshal Service or the BOP or immigration service, they are turning to private companies.”

“I think we're in a new era that I could never predicted, really, this scale of acceptance by the federal government. We talked about it for many, many years, but we're finally on the verge of it... ." added Zoley.

Cost Savings

The corrections industry has routinely argued that privatizing prisons dramatically lowers costs. A 1996 U.S. General Accounting Office report concluded, however, that there was no clear evidence supporting this contention.

Prison companies do have clear advantages over other corporations: They are able to save large amounts of money on labor practices that would illegal under any other circumstances. Inmate jobs in all prisons pay a pittance, but immigrant prisons are even worse. Because DHS guidelines mandate that non-citizen prisoners cannot earn more than $1 per day, the company gets janitors, maintenance workers, cleaners, launderers, kitchen staff, sewers and grounds keepers at almost no cost.

With the increase in prison beds for immigrants comes the pressure to fill
them-- a scenario that has immigrant advocates extremely worried. Isabel García, attorney and human rights activist in Tucson, sees the drive to jail immigrants as fueling the same prison-industrial complex that first flourished with the war on drugs.

“The war on drugs has conveniently become a war on immigrants,” says García, “and there is a lot of money to be made in detaining immigrants.” The grown industry of incarcerating immigrants is facilitated by the tight connections between the private-prison industry and the federal government and the extent of the industry's powerful and well-funded lobby. García worries that the profit motive behind detaining immigrants will promote the criminalization of immigrants.

In the name of national security, the Department of Homeland Security has let industry lead the way in implementing systems and procedures that purport to protect America from future terrorist attack. However, in many cases it is immigrants and non-citizens with no connections to terrorism who get tangled in the net. Immigration Prisons by the Numbers

“A record 26,500 undocumented aliens are held across the United States by federal authorities. The number will rise to 32,000 by year's end

“A $65 million tent city in Texas holds 2,000 immigrants in windowless tents where they are locked down 23 hours a day, often with insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to telephones.

“ Some 1.6 million undocumented immigrants are being held in some stage of immigration proceedings. "ICE holds more inmates a night than Clarion hotels have guests, operates nearly as many vehicles as Greyhound has buses and flies more people each day than do many small U.S. airlines."

“An estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants live in the US.

“80 percent of ICE's beds are rented at 300 local and state jails nationwide, concentrated in the South and Southwest.

“The Border Patrol made 1.1 million arrests last year. The majority were Mexicans who immediately sent back the border. A half million more entered legally and overstayed visas.

“An additional 630,000 are at large, ignoring deportation orders, and 300,000 more who entered state and local prisons for committing crimes are to be deported but will probably slip through the cracks after completing their sentences."

Source: Washington Post, February 2, 2007
Adapted from Targeted, by Deepa Fernandes (Seven Stories Press, 2007) Additional research by Terry Allen.

Posted by lois at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

MS: Op-Ed by Marc Mauer- "A balanced policy needed"

A balanced policy needed
By Marc Mauer and Ron Welch
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

A recent analysis from the U.S. Department of Justice reports that Mississippi now ranks third in the nation, behind only Louisiana and Texas, in its rate of incarceration.

This status takes on particular significance given that the United States is now the world leader in its use of imprisonment. With over 21,000 people in prison - a 166 percent increase from the 8,000 offenders in 1990 - the state of Mississippi is spending $292 million a year to operate this vastly expanded penal system.

While prisons clearly represent one aspect of the state's approach to public safety, there is much reason to believe that the state could adopt policies to slow the growth of the prison system while also enhancing crime control. Two factors stand out in particular.

First, while prison space should be used primarily for serious and violent offenders, this is not the case in Mississippi. Fully two-thirds of the state's prison population consists of people convicted of non-violent drug and property crimes. Drug offenders alone constitute a third (35 percent) of the population, far higher than the one-fifth (20 percent) figure nationally.

These figures are the result of policy changes that are increasingly problematic for an effective use of public safety resources. Sentencing policies, and particularly drug law enforcement, have swollen the inmate population with thousands of low-level drug offenders who by and large are not the "kingpins" of the drug trade.

National studies have documented that more than half of all drug offenders in prison have no history of violence or engagement in high-level drug operations. There is no reason to believe that these dynamics are any different in Mississippi.

Second, an increasing source of admissions to prison is for probation violations, which now constitute nearly a third of new admissions in the state. These may be for commission of a new crime or for a technical violation, such as drug or alcohol use.

This trend indicates that we are not doing enough to ensure success for offenders placed under community supervision.

High rates of substance abuse, low educational attainment, and limited work histories all point to the need to provide services to help offenders become engaged with constructive institutions in the community.

In recent years, Mississippi policymakers have begun to reconsider some of these issues. The development of drug courts in the past decade has given state judges an option to divert appropriate offenders into treatment rather than incarceration when it is clear that substance abuse is the underlying contributor to crime. But the availability of quality treatment slots in the state only represents a fraction of the need.

Similarly, Mississippi's requirement that all offenders serve 85 percent of their maximum sentence has been scaled back in recent years.

This "one size fits all" policy was very costly to the state and prohibited corrections officials from making decisions about parole release based on individualized risk assessments.

But in far too many cases, offenders who pose little threat to the community are still kept in prison for too long.

Not only does this contribute to the rising prison population, but it further weakens the bonds between prisoners and their families and communities.

Mississippi legislators might do well to follow the example of Alabama, which last year established a state commission to review its sentencing policies.

The growing cost of incarceration not only represents a burden to state taxpayers, but diverts resources from other vital state services. Over the past decade alone, corrections costs have increased by well over $100 million a year.

These are funds that are consequently not available for education, health care, or drug treatment. Not only would such investments strengthen our families and communities, but they would also yield dividends in public safety.

In addition to high fiscal costs, the changing political climate on crime policy suggests that there are now prospects for moving public policy in a constructive direction.

At the national level there is a growing bipartisan consensus around the development of evidence-based crime control programs.

In Congress, for example, the Second Chance Act which would provide funding for reentry services for prisoners returning to the community is being sponsored in the House by liberal U.S. Reps. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and Bobby Scott, D-Va., and in the Senate by leading conservative U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

And from the White House, President Bush noted in his 2004 State of the Union address that when prisoners come home "if they can't find work, or a home, or help, they are much more likely to commit crime and return to prison."

For far too long, we have relied on crime policies that sounded "tough," but didn't deliver.

It's now time to get smart on crime by investing in programs and policies that improve outcomes for both victims and offenders. By doing so, we will be using prison space - and tax dollars - in a much wiser manner.
Marc Mauer is the executive director of The Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., and the author of Race to Incarcerate. Ron Welch is a Jackson attorney who represents Mississippi prisoners in a variety of class action federal court cases concerning conditions of confinement.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007702040326

Posted by lois at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Gov. Seeks Panel to Study Prison Closings

February 5, 2007
Spitzer Seeks Panel to Study Prison Closings
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

ALBANY, Feb. 2 — Moving to reverse decades of expansion, Gov. Eliot Spitzer is proposing a commission to study closing some of New York State’s dozens of prisons.

The effort would try to duplicate for the prison system the recent commission that studied closing hospitals around the state and issued a final report late last year. That report recommended shutting down at least 20 hospitals across New York and shrinking or merging dozens of others.

If the new commission is approved by the Legislature, New York may join the growing number of states that have sought to rein in high prison costs through closings or consolidations.

Behind Mr. Spitzer’s proposal lies a recognition that New York’s prison population, which peaked in 1999 at more than 71,000 inmates, has rapidly declined since.

Thanks to falling crime rates in New York City, fewer felony arrests and efforts by prison officials to move nonviolent offenders out of the system, the prison population has fallen by roughly 8,000 inmates since the peak, though it rose slightly last year.

Assistants to the governor said he would also create, through an executive order, a second commission to study changes to sentencing laws. Such measures have helped shrink inmate ranks in other states and could in New York, too.

But any effort to close state prisons will face formidable political obstacles. New York’s sprawling network of prisons has created thousands of jobs upstate, where manufacturing jobs have been slowly disappearing.

Much like New York’s vast array of state-supported hospitals — some of which lie more than half-empty for lack of demand — the $2.7 billion-a-year state prison system has become, in effect, an economic development program.

Mr. Spitzer hopes to replace the state-subsidized employment on which upstate New York depends with private-sector jobs and investment that could secure its future down the road.

But a powerful alliance of upstate lawmakers and correction officers’ unions guard their constituents’ and members’ state-financed jobs and are likely to resist any effort to downsize the system.

A similar — and even more influential — alliance exists between health care unions, hospitals and Republican and Democratic lawmakers, some of them representing districts in which health care facilities, empty or not, are the largest employers.

Both the prison and health care coalitions have demonstrated their political potency in the past, mustering millions of dollars for campaign contributions and political ads to advance their agendas and punish politicians who have crossed them.

State corrections union officials say that they will make their views clear in the coming debate, too.

“We’re not open to any closures at this point,” said Lawrence Flanagan Jr., the president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, which has donated at least $1.8 million to state politicians in recent years.

He added: “If anything, the prison population has increased. It went up 500 this last year.”

Likewise, many Republican state senators say they are dismayed at the possibility of sacrificing constituents’ livelihoods in the short term to Mr. Spitzer’s agenda, regardless of the long-term benefits he anticipates.

“I’m very concerned about the commission,” said Senator Elizabeth O’C. Little, a Republican whose Adirondacks district includes 12 prisons and prison camps. Five of them are in Franklin County, which has roughly one inmate for every 10 residents, according to census figures, the highest concentration in the state.

“They have a tremendous economic impact,” Ms. Little said. “There are over 5,000 corrections officers living in my district. In most of these communities, the prisons are the biggest employer. It’s not just corrections officers, but secretaries and other staff, too.”

Indeed, between 1990 and 2006, according to research by the Public Policy Institute of New York State, two-thirds of the net new jobs upstate were paid for by taxpayers. That includes jobs in prisons, other government positions and some jobs in health care and social assistance.

“Up in the north country, you used to just think of hanging out a sign that says ‘Prisons-R-Us,’ ” said Kent Gardner, president of the Center for Governmental Research, based in Rochester. “Pretty much every rural town in the state was angling for these facilities.”

Little surprise, then, that some past efforts to close prisons have failed. Governor George E. Pataki tried repeatedly to include such closings in the state budget, only to have the Legislature reject those plans.

Mr. Flanagan of the corrections union said that his group had been “very, very forward and aggressive last year and in the year prior to that.”

Lawmakers have acted, too, approving several measures in recent years to protect the prison system against rapid shrinkage. Under current law, before the state can close a prison it must give a year’s notice to employees, and officials are required to explore options for converting prisons to other uses, such as low-cost housing.

“In response to lobbying from the local upstate towns and the correction officers’ union, the Legislature has made it much more difficult for the executive to close prisons, even after a time of significant decline in the population,” said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, an advocacy group for inmates.

To end the stalemate on hospital closings, lawmakers eventually consented to put those decisions in the hands of a commission. Headed by the financier Stephen Berger, the hospital commission held a number of hearings and listened to hours of testimony from hospital officials and local leaders.

But the commission’s final recommendations nevertheless set off a political firestorm, including at least one lawsuit. Now some lawmakers say they are reluctant to go down the same road with prison closings.

“I’m a little wary of the governor’s proposal,” said Senator George H. Winner Jr., a Republican whose district in the Southern Tier includes maximum-security prisons in Elmira and Southport. “Just coming off of a rather arduous Berger Commission experience, I think the Legislature will look a little skeptically at whether or not this is the way to go.”

In an interview, Laura Anglin, the governor’s first deputy budget director, said a commission was the best way to reach a compromise on prisons with maximum public involvement.

“It’s always difficult to look at things like this,” she said. “That is why we thought we would go the commission route, so that there would be public involvement, it would require public hearings and that way get the issues out in the open instead of forcing something.”

Both Mr. Spitzer and his staff have also stressed that no closings are imminent and that the creation of the commission itself, which would be wrapped into the state budget, must still past muster with the Legislature.

“We don’t have any closures listed yet; we’ve only been here 31 days,” the governor said last week in his budget address. “I don’t want to suggest that it’s happening soon.”

The question is whether it will happen at all. Although Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the Senate, has said he is open to a prison commission, other Republicans suggested that closings might not be their first concern.

“We see that there is a growing need for more maximum-security cell space,” said Senator Michael F. Nozzolio, chairman of the Senate committee that has jurisdiction over prisons. Though there are fewer nonviolent offenders in prisons, he said, too many dangerous inmates are still being housed in inadequate facilities.

“We also believe that there needs to be a more planned approach to this entire correctional system,” Mr. Nozzolio said. “We’ve requested and demanded and have yet to see, really, a real plan for full utilization.”

Mr. Nozzolio also said that he planned to use upcoming confirmation hearings for Mr. Spitzer’s criminal-justice appointees “to gauge the administration’s positions on these issues.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/nyregion/05prison.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&re
f=nyregion&pagewanted=all

Posted by lois at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2007

U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling

February 5, 2007
U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling
By JULIA PRESTON, NY Times

The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected.

The new forensic DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little-noticed amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of sexual crimes. The amendment permits DNA collecting from anyone under criminal arrest by federal authorities, and also from illegal immigrants detained by federal agents.

Over the last year, the Justice Department has been conducting an internal review and consulting with other agencies to prepare regulations to carry out the law.

The goal, justice officials said, is to make the practice of DNA sampling as routine as fingerprinting for anyone detained by federal agents, including illegal immigrants. Until now, federal authorities have taken DNA samples only from convicted felons.

The law has strong support from crime victims’ organizations and some women’s groups, who say it will help law enforcement identify sexual predators and also detect dangerous criminals among illegal immigrants.

“Obviously, the bigger the DNA database, the better,” said Lynn Parrish, the spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, based in Washington. “If this had been implemented years ago, it could have prevented many crimes. Rapists are generalists. They don’t just rape, they also murder.”

Peter Neufeld, a lawyer who is a co-director of the Innocence Project, which has exonerated dozens of prison inmates using DNA evidence, said the government was overreaching by seeking to apply DNA sampling as universally as fingerprinting.

“Whereas fingerprints merely identify the person who left them,” Mr. Neufeld said, “DNA profiles have the potential to reveal our physical diseases and mental disorders. It becomes intrusive when the government begins to mine our most intimate matters.”

Immigration lawyers said they did not learn of the measure when it passed last year and were dismayed by its sweeping scope.

“This has taken us by storm,” said Deborah Notkin, a lawyer who was president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association last year. “It’s so broad, it’s scary. It is a terrible thing to do because people are sometimes detained erroneously in the immigration system.”

Immigration lawyers noted that most immigration violations, including those committed when people enter the country illegally, are civil, not criminal, offenses. They warned that the new law would make it difficult for immigrants to remove their DNA profiles from the federal database, even if they were never found to have committed any serious violation or crime.

Under the new law, DNA samples would be taken from any illegal immigrants who are detained and would normally be fingerprinted, justice officials said. Last year federal customs, Border Patrol and immigration agents detained more than 1.2 million immigrants, the majority of them at the border with Mexico. About 238,000 of those immigrants were detained in immigration enforcement investigations. A great majority of all immigration detainees were fingerprinted, immigration officials said. About 102,000 people were arrested on federal charges not related to immigration in 2005.

While the proposed rules have not been finished, justice officials said they were certain to bring a huge new workload for the F.B.I. laboratory that logs, analyzes and stores federal DNA samples. Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said they anticipated an increase ranging from 250,000 to as many as 1 million samples a year.

The laboratory currently receives about 96,000 samples a year, said Robert Fram, chief of the agency’s Scientific Analysis Section.

DNA would not be taken from legal immigrants who are stopped briefly by the authorities, justice officials said, or from legal residents who are detained on noncriminal immigration violations.

“What this does is move the DNA collection to the arrest stage,” said Erik Ablin, a Justice Department spokesman. “The general approach,” he said, “is to bring the collection of DNA samples into alignment with current federal fingerprint collection practices.” He said the department was “moving forward aggressively” to issue proposed regulations.

The 2006 amendment was sponsored by two border state Republicans, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona and Senator John Cornyn of Texas. In an interview, Mr. Kyl said the measure was broadly drawn to encompass illegal immigrants as well as Americans arrested for federal crimes. He said that 13 percent of illegal immigrants detained in Arizona last year had criminal records.

“Some of these are very bad people,” Mr. Kyl said. “The number of sexual assaults committed by illegal immigrants is astonishing. Right now there is a fingerprint system in use, but it is not as thorough as it could be.”

Ms. Parrish, of the rape victims’ organization, pointed to the case of Angel Resendiz, a Mexican immigrant who was known as the Railroad Killer. Starting in 1997, Mr. Resendiz committed at least 15 murders and numerous rapes in the United States. Over the years of his rampage, Mr. Resendiz was deported 17 times. He was executed in Texas in June.

“That was 17 missed opportunities to collect his DNA,” Ms. Parrish said. “If he had been identified as the perpetrator of the first rapes, it would have prevented later ones.”

Immigration lawyers said the DNA sampling could tar illegal immigrants with a criminal stigma, even though most of them have never committed any criminal offense.

“To equate somebody with a possible immigration violation in the same category as a suspected sex offender is an outrage,” said David Leopold, an immigration lawyer who practices in Cleveland.

Forensic DNA is culled either from a tiny blood sample taken from a fingertip (the F.B.I.’s preferred method) or from a swab of the inside of the mouth. Federal samples are logged into the F.B.I.’s laboratory, analyzed and transformed into profiles that can be read by computer. The profiles are loaded into a database called the National DNA Index System.

The F.B.I. also loads DNA profiles from local and state police into the federal database and runs searches. Only seven states now collect DNA from suspects when they are arrested; of those, only two states are authorized by their laws to send those samples to the federal database.

Mr. Neufeld, of the Innocence Project, said his group supported broad DNA collection from convicted criminals. But, he said, “There is no demonstrable nexus between being detained for an immigration matter and the likelihood you are going to commit some serious violent crime.”

The DNA amendment has divided women’s groups that are usually unified supporters of the Violence Against Women Act, which was adopted in 1994.

“We were stunned by the extraordinary, broad sweep of this amendment,” said Lisalyn Jacobs, vice president for government relations at Legal Momentum, a law group founded by the National Organization for Women. Ms. Jacobs recalled that the amendment had been adopted by a voice vote with little debate. She said many lawmakers eager to renew the act, which enjoys solid bipartisan support, appeared unaware of the scope of the DNA amendment.

“The pervasive problems of profiling in the United States will only be exacerbated by such a system,” Ms. Jacobs said, because Latino and other immigrants will be greatly over-represented in the database. She noted that the law required a court order to remove a profile from the system.

Many groups warned that the measure would compound already severe backlogs in the F.B.I.’s DNA processing. Mr. Fram of the F.B.I. said there had been an enormous increase in the samples coming to the databank since it started to operate in 1998, but no new resources for the bureau’s laboratory. Currently about 150,000 DNA samples from convicted criminals are waiting to be processed and loaded into the national database, Mr. Fram said.

He said the laboratory had added robot technology to speed the processing. But in the “worst case scenario,” where the laboratory receives one million new samples a year, Mr. Fram said, “there is going to be a bottleneck.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/washington/05dna.html?ei=5094&en=a2a71de54d113c56&hp=&ex=1170651600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1170649505-WwGAk++Bg73fc0pXqDS7Vw
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Posted by lois at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)

State's costs skyrocket as correctional system struggles to comply with court orders in eight inmate rights cases

Prisons' legal strain
State's costs skyrocket as correctional system struggles to comply with court orders in eight inmate rights cases
By Andy Furillo - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, February 4, 2007
Piece by piece, judges over the past 12 years have taken control of vast segments of California's prison system, ordering fixes for past failures that have already cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and will cost nearly $8 billion more over the next five years.

The gradual takeover has come in eight class-action cases filed and won by inmates rights lawyers. The cases are monitored by four special masters and a receiver who, along with the plaintiffs' attorneys, have generated fees and costs totaling another $77.9 million in state expenditures.

P
Twelve years after U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson ruled that correctional officials were operating Pelican Bay State Prison in a cruel and unusual fashion, the courts have since found that constitutional violations are rampant in the way California has been locking up its criminals.

Medical, mental health and dental care, juvenile incarceration practices, access and treatment of physically and developmentally disabled inmates, due-process rights for parolees -- it's all a wreck, the courts have found, and now the bill is coming due.

Compliance costs for this fiscal year have nearly quadrupled from 2005-06, to $376 million. Another $325.7 million in court-ordered costs are on tap for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget for next year, leaving at least one lawmaker fuming about the state's loss of control over prison operations.

"I think it is wrong to have the federal government come into California and write blank checks on prison issues," said Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines of Clovis. "Frankly, it's offensive, when we're trying to have a debate about hard-working Californians who can't make ends meet and are trying to get the bare minimum of health insurance. It seems insane to me."

Supporters of the courts' piecemeal takeover of the prison system counter that the state has nobody to blame but itself for decades of neglect while the inmate population boomed and the correctional infrastructure crumbled.

"The common denominator is the mismanagement of the entire correctional system," said Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice in Oakland. "The utter incompetence that has dominated correctional management in the last 20 to 30 years, that's what created the conditions for this stuff to happen."

More than two decades of the state's natural population growth, a slew of tougher sentencing laws and voters' reluctance to approve new prison construction have resulted in an eightfold increase in the number of prisoners and left the state with about half the space it needs to properly accommodate the 172,000 inmates in its custody.

As a result, the state is left with a judicially monitored prison system where one key cost statistic tells the story above all others: With more than a fourth of the state's Division of Juvenile Justice budget now driven by court- ordered remedial costs, the annual bill for housing each of the correctional system's youngest wards has elevated to $185,000 a year -- more than four times the cost of sending a student to Harvard.

"Absolutely, there's no control," said Robin Dezember, principal consultant to the Corrections Independent Review Panel, which studied the state youth and adult prison system three years ago. "I think (the state) lost that some time ago."

Every dollar the courts order into increased prison clinician salaries or remedial programs is a dollar that has to come out of discretionary budget items such as health insurance for poor children or cost-of-living raises for the blind, disabled or elderly.

Robert Sillen, the prison health care receiver who is demanding billions of dollars in fixes, says he is sensitive to the budgetary tradeoffs. But he also says the Constitution holds the trump card. Judicial findings that the state has violated Eighth Amendment guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment have afforded protections to inmates that are not available to free society, he said.

"The professed or insufficient amount of funds that the state may say they have is not a viable reason to violate the Constitution of the United States of America, and that's a well-established, real fact," Sillen said.

How did California find itself in this predicament?

Dezember lays a chunk of responsibility at the feet of the plaintiffs' lawyers who "continue to make demands beyond the litigation itself." Dezember was referring to the nonprofit Prison Law Office in San Rafael and the private San Francisco firm of Rosen, Bien & Galvan, which have been at the forefront of all eight cases and have cost the state about $40 million in fees between them over the past dozen years.

Former correctional officers' union President Don Novey mentions "two activist judges" -- Henderson and U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton -- as behind the predicament.

Henderson, the judge in the Pelican Bay and medical care suits, is a former civil rights attorney from the 1960s who said in a September interview with The Bee that the prisons are "probably No. 1" among civil rights issues of the modern era.

Karlton, who has openly threatened from the bench to attach state funds and throw state officials in jail, presides over the mental health and parolee rights' matters.

Bob Denninger, at one time the state's second-ranking prison official, blames California's slipping control over prisons to what he said was the acquiescence of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration to the inmates' rights attorneys and its disinterest in appealing orders of the federal judges.

As an example, Denninger cited the administration's decision on its first day in power to give up the fight against the plaintiffs in the parolee due-process case. In addition, it stood by while Henderson -- at the urging of special master John Hagar -- expanded the scope of the Pelican Bay case, and it also refused to appeal the creation of the medical care receiver.

Meanwhile, the growth of California's prison system led to managerial deficiencies that opened the door to the successful class-action litigation that the inmates rights lawyers filed on behalf of prisoners.

"We are only trying to bring the system up to a constitutional standard because the state won't do it themselves," said Prison Law Office directing attorney Don Specter.

The Schwarzenegger administration, unlike its three immediate predecessors, conceded that there are massive problems in the prisons. Instead of fighting lawyers like Specter, Schwarzenegger's office unapologetically has sought accommodations with them.

"What I've seen in this administration is a recognition that when we're confronted with illegal, unconstitutional conditions, we do what needs to be done to try and fix them," said Bruce Slavin, the chief counsel for the corrections agency who has been litigating the cases against the prison system for more than 20 years. "And when you're under the gun of a lawsuit, and the facts are out there demonstrating you're not doing what the law requires, it seems to be not just a waste of taxpayers' resources to fight it, but irresponsible."

Almost every time he speaks about prisons, Schwarzenegger says that he "inherited" the problem, and even his opponents acknowledge that the correctional maladies had been building for years.

Pete Wilson was governor when Pelican Bay and mental health care were deemed out of control. And Gray Davis was in charge when the medical care case was filed and settled and when neglect of mental health treatment led the court monitors to expand their role.

Schwarzenegger, at least, "has been willing to acknowledge that there are problems," said Macallair, the prison critic from Oakland.

As for Karlton and Henderson, "I think it takes a courageous judge to take this stuff on," Macallair said. "These have been courageous judges, and this is not a field that generates a lot of courageousness."

The eight cases have combined to saddle the state with more than a billion dollars in court-ordered costs -- virtually all of them ongoing, to be carried forward into future spending -- with more on the way, according to the Department of Finance.

The costliest items are looming just ahead. Bowing to the demands of the court monitors, the Schwarzenegger administration is asking the Legislature to approve $1 billion in bond funding to pay for 10,000 medical and mental health care beds in as many as six new prison hospitals.

Then there is the new medical center that prison medical care receiver Sillen wants built at San Quentin, for which there is no price tag yet. Same with the 1,200 correctional treatment center beds he wants to spread throughout the system. It's also still unknown how much it's going to cost for other items on Sillen's agenda, such as the expansion and modernization of dental and health facilities at each of the state's 33 adult prisons and the 5,000 more medical beds beyond the 10,000 Schwarzenegger is willing to pay for now.

In its fiscal outlook for 2006-07, the Legislative Analyst's Office reports that through the 2011-12 fiscal year, "we estimate that the construction and other project costs for such facilities could total about $4.6 billion." The LAO projects another $3.2 billion in added operational costs related to just three of the court cases over the same time period.

Sillen, the 62-year-old former director of the Santa Clara County public medical care system, has signaled in testimony before the Little Hoover Commission and elsewhere that no state law, no budgetary dilemma, no union contract and no bureaucratic finagling will stop him from bringing the state to what he considers a constitutional level of prison health care.

He's already aired his threat to seek contempt citations against anybody in state government who gets in his way.

"Absolutely," Sillen said in an interview. "We're new. People need to get used to us. And we need to get used to people and agencies. But if we are thwarted in our efforts by continual blockage, by continual insistence on a waiver by the federal courts for items that the state could do, then I think I'm going to have to think long and hard, and certainly it's a distinct possibility."

In settling the Plata medical care case in 2002, attorneys for the state said the stipulation required California "to provide only the minimum level of medical care required under the Eighth Amendment."

Sillen said he's not yet prepared to say exactly what that will mean.

"I think to try and tie me down to what the level is is, (a) going to be unsuccessful, and (b), is not a primary concern of mine at this time because we're years away from engaging in any reasonable debate that we are beyond what is a constitutional level of care," Sillen said.

Villines, the GOP leader in the Assembly, thinks it's an appropriate time to begin the discussion about where Sillen is going and how much it's going to cost.

"States' rights matters," Villines said. "The Constitution talks about it, and the judiciary cannot appropriate. Those are constitutional issues, and somebody's got to challenge those."

Sillen bristles about the money talk. He says there's been too much focus on how much his office is costing the state and not enough on how much it is saving. He said his prescriptions are likely to save the state tens of millions of dollars over time.

"It is well documented in medical administration and medical literature that good care costs far less than bad care," Sillen said. "In a political environment, everybody gets excited about money being spent. I get excited about money being wasted at the present time, and I mean utterly wasted."

Still, prison health care for 2006-07 is projected to cost $1.9 billion out of a $10 billion corrections budget. The figure represents a near doubling over the $968 million California spent on prison health care as recently as 2003-04.

Next year's prison medical budget is expected to continue its exponential growth. It will be the first produced exclusively by Sillen and his staff, and it won't be the last, either.

Sillen, who started his job in April, foresees the court receivership -- which cost the state $5.7 million in staff salaries and other expenses in its first six months of existence -- lasting anywhere from five to seven years.

In the other cases with court-created monitors, Michael Keating, the special master in the 12-year-old Ralph Coleman mental health care case, said he expects he'll be needed through 2011.

"It takes a long time to face problems and make resources available, and I think that's beginning to happen now," Keating said.

Keating's monitoring efforts, supplemented by a team of 10 experts who report to him, have cost more than $20 million.

Chase Riveland, the special master appointed at the state's request in 2005 in the parolee due-process case, can't say when his job will be finished, either. But he doesn't see the state complying any time soon.

"We're talking years rather than months," said Riveland. He charged the state $500,000 in his first year of work.

Neither Donna Brorby nor John Hagar, the special masters on the juvenile incarceration and Pelican Bay cases, agreed to be interviewed on the record. Monitoring costs on those cases have amounted to $226,209 and $6 million, respectively.

Posted by lois at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)

Worse than jail? Sprawl: With Pa. officials considering a change of venue for Graterford,

Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania)
February 3, 2007 Saturday
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS
HEADLINE: Worse than jail? Sprawl: With Pa. officials considering a change of venue for Graterford, officials and residents fear the tract could generate traffic and other problems

BYLINE: Diane Mastrull, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Feb. 3--Graterford Prison, home to some of Pennsylvania's most dangerous criminals, could be on its way out of Skippack Township, ending a stay that has spanned eight decades.

Yet as word spread yesterday, officials and residents of the Montgomery County community voiced their fear that something worse could move in: condos.

State officials confirmed to The Inquirer that they were looking for alternate sites for the outdated, overcrowded facility, home to nearly 3,000 inmates. Its prime 1,780 acres, they said, might wind up in the hands of private developers.

The news was immediate heartburn for Kathleen Ludwig, a township resident since 1996.

"The last thing we need in this area is more housing," she said. "We can't handle the traffic that is here now."

With nearly 1,200 homes built just since the 2000 Census, Skippack is suffering the same growing pains as neighboring municipalities in the county's prosperous center. The idea of the Graterford tract going condo or commercial brought a groan from Township Manager Theodore R. Locker Jr.

"I'd like to digest that one," he said when learning of the state's still-vague plans from a reporter yesterday morning.

In Harrisburg, officials cautioned that it was too early for anyone to get worked up.

"We're looking at our options," said Ed Myslewicz, spokesman for the Department of General Services, which handles all state real estate matters. "There's nothing set in stone."

Susan McNaughton, a state Corrections Department spokeswoman, said that "if anything were to occur, it would be six, seven years down the road." It would also require legislative approval, she added.

So far, the state has solicited only "expressions of interest" from developers to build two 2,000-bed replacement prisons -- one maximum-security, one medium- -- with the possibility of a third.

According to McNaughton, no sites have been chosen. The only stipulation is that they be within 50 miles of the current prison. Given the scarcity of sizable tracts of undeveloped land in Philadelphia and the four surrounding counties, the most likely locations would be in Berks, Lancaster or Schuylkill Counties, said Mike Stokes, a Montgomery County planner.

Graterford sits amid some of the highest-priced land in Pennsylvania. State officials say they have not decided whether they would sell the site or swap it in a deal with a developer.

They said it also was possible that the state would decide to keep Graterford where it is and renovate it. State Sen. John Rafferty, a Republican who represents parts of Berks, Chester and Montgomery Counties, including Graterford, said the necessary upgrades could cost as much as $80 million.

Built in 1929, Graterford has some additions dating from the 1950s. Its utilities are old and its accommodations packed beyond capacity. Yesterday's head count was 2,986. Its ideal capacity is 2,744, McNaughton said.

The state's prisons are bursting with 44,365 inmates, at 114.9 percent of capacity. For temporary relief, the state prison in Pittsburgh, built in 1882 and mothballed in 2003, will be reopened by July 1 and remain in use for up to five years.

The cost to build a new prison is about $130 million, McNaughton said.

This unprecedented search by Pennsylvania's corrections department for a development partner reflects the Rendell administration's commitment to "continually [look] for ways to save taxpayers money," said Myslewicz, of General Services. The department posted the request for proposals on its Web site about two weeks ago and set March 5 as the deadline for responses. As of yesterday, it had received none.

Count Stokes, the county planner, among those who hope it stays that way.

Noting that the Graterford tract comprises about 20 percent of Skippack's 14 square miles, Stokes said developing the site residentially would be "a huge burden," particularly on the Perkiomen School District.

Like so many institutions, including hospitals and schools, Graterford has been largely overlooked in the region's long-range planning, Stokes said.

"All the decisions about infrastructure and land-use planning are made ignoring these large institutions," he said, adding that the assumption is that they are "always going to be there."

Stokes found solace yesterday in the Graterford site's zoning, which allows only correctional facilities, farming or open space. Locker, the township manager, called that "somewhat of a saving grace."

"Oh, my God," was Crystal Gilchrist's reaction to the thought of that tract -- its undulating landscape and farm fields -- giving way to any development other than a replacement prison or two.

Noting that the site drains into the Perkiomen Creek, Gilchrist, director of the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, said: "If there is some way that the state could work with the county to preserve vast portions of that, that would be absolutely exceptional."

Copyright (c) 2007, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

Posted by lois at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Re-entry or re-Imprisonment? Plan to bring new, smaller women's prisons to San Diego and state is poor investment in rehabilitation

Sunday, February 4, 2007
North Country Times (CA)
Re-entry or re-Imprisonment? Plan to bring new, smaller women's prisons to San Diego and state is poor investment in rehabilitation
By: GRETCHEN BURNS BERGMAN - Perspective
California's prison system is in total crisis; the prison health care system is in federal receivership; the Little Hoover Commission has issued a scathing report on the Legislature for promoting punitive incarceration. The state's prison population has grown to more than 172,000 and the overcrowded conditions are scandalous. There is little doubt that the core problem can be attributed to our "tough-on-crime" sentencing laws, which too often target nonviolent drug offenders.

Given this obvious disastrous state of affairs, it is inconceivable that the governor is proposing building 78,000 new prison, jail and juvenile detention beds at a cost of $10.9 billion. At the same time, he has recommended slashing funding for Proposition 36, the landmark treatment-instead-of-incarceration prison reform law that has successfully helped more than 140,000 Californians to enter treatment and has saved the state an estimated $1.3 billion in the past five years.
A part of the plan is to build so-called "re-entry" prisons. In December, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced legislation (Assembly Bill 76) for 15 new 200-bed women's prisons, including at least one in San Diego. Although "re-entry" is a nice word, so is "rehabilitation," and so far, by adding the word "rehabilitation" to the California Department of Corrections (and Rehabilitation), the only change we have witnessed is a change of letterhead. The idea is that these facilities would house "nonviolent, non-serious female offenders" who, according to the Department of Corrections, don't need to be incarcerated. OK, that sounds therapeutic, so what is the problem with the plan?

The "re-entry" plan uses the language of prison reform to disguise prison expansion. These facilities would actually mean reduced services and less family visitation. They would be staffed by prison guards, rather than health care professionals, and rather than sending the women home to their communities, they will be sent to new, smaller prisons. Proponents of the bill claim that these facilities will support female prisoners' transition back into the community, but those working on prisoner re-entry in San Diego disagree.

According to the Rev. Dennis Malone, co-founder of the San Diego chapter of All of Us or None, an organization of and for formerly incarcerated people dedicated to ending discrimination against those with a criminal history: "If you can't leave the facility, and no one can visit you, how does that help you reconnect? You might as well be on the moon."

On Jan. 25 about 100 San Diegans came together to learn more about Sacramento's proposals to expand the state prison system, and to voice their desire for more community education and effective re-entry programs, and for action to stop the expansion. The consensus of the many groups that were represented, including the Drug Policy Alliance, A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing), FACTS (Families to Amend California's Three Strikes), the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, California Prison Project and the San Diego National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is "that if they build them, they will fill them." AB 76 would expand California's prison capacity for women (the fasted growing prison population in the state) by 25 percent.

It is counterintuitive that the governor would underfund a program that is clearly working ---- Prop. 36 ---- but instead throw good money at bad policy. Locally, why build a new prison in San Diego when community-based programs that work, like Prop. 36, aren't being fully utilized? For some inexplicable reason, our county is not spending all of the allotted Prop. 36 funding, although we certainly have individuals who qualify and need this life-saving treatment. As Oliver Hamilton, founder of the Prop. 36 Alumni Association, says: "I am proof that Prop. 36 works not only to keep people out of the criminal justice system, but also to help get them engaged in the community. Now I share the gift of recovery every day."

It can be crippling to families to deal with the devastation of addiction and the destruction of incarceration. I have witnessed firsthand the ravages of the disease to my own son. Addictive illness is puzzling even for health care professionals to understand and treat. So, how on earth do we expect prison guards with a punishment mentality to deal with this issue in a therapeutic and helpful way?

Rehabilitation, re-entry, restorative justice: These are positive evidence-based approaches to improving a system that severely abuses human rights. They are not mere words to toss around and ignore, or use to get the public off the scent of what is really going on: "prison expansion"!

Rancho Santa Fe resident Gretchen Burns Bergman is the co-founder and executive director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing).

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/04/perspective/15_30_462_3_07.txt

Posted by lois at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2007

Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York

February 3, 2007
Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York
By AL BAKER and EMILY VASQUEZ

The New York Police Department released new information yesterday showing that police officers stopped 508,540 individuals on New York City streets last year — an average of 1,393 stops per day — often searching them for illegal weapons. The number was up from 97,296 in 2002, the last time the department divulged 12 months’ worth of data.

After inquiries by the City Council and civil rights advocates, the department delivered four bound volumes of statistics to the Council in midafternoon. The raw data showed that more than half of those stopped last year were black: an average of 67,000 per quarter.

At the same time, the average number of people arrested per quarter as a result of such stops almost doubled to 5,317 last year, from 2,819 in 2002, and summonses nearly quintupled, to a quarterly average of 7,292 last year from 1,461 in 2002.

Until yesterday, the most recent information released by the Police Department about how and why it stops people to search them, sometimes looking for illegal guns, was from 2003, according to city officials and city and court records. Some officials have said that lag put the department at odds with a pair of legal requirements that sprang from public outrage at the 1999 fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black street peddler.

The department, which rejects such assertions, has not released numbers from 2004 and 2005, or from the last three months of 2003.

Those who review the data are now grappling with dual issues: determining why the Police Department waited so long to release any new figures, and why it is stopping more people and searching them.

The issue of these police-public encounters — called “stop and frisks” — became an emotional flashpoint after the shooting of Mr. Diallo, whose death in a barrage of 41 police bullets led to weeks of protests and scores of arrests outside 1 Police Plaza, in Lower Manhattan.

Many of the protesters contended that there was a pattern of racial profiling in stop-and-frisks. A state study later in 1999 confirmed racial disparities in such stops.

The guidelines to monitor stop-and-frisks in detail were set forth in a city law signed in 2001, and in a federal court case settled by the Bloomberg administration in 2004. Both called for the Police Department to release to the City Council, four times a year, basic data about the people who are stopped and questioned by officers, and the reasons for such encounters.

But until yesterday, it had been a year since the department reported its stop-and-frisk activity, and those numbers dated from a three-month period ending in September 2003.

In the meantime, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent city agency that investigates charges of police misconduct, found that complaints involving stops and searches have more than doubled in recent years, increasing to 2,556 last year from 1,128 in 2003. Complaints involving police stops now account for 33 percent of all complaints, up from 20 percent in 2003.

At a City Council hearing on Jan. 24, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly assured council members that his officers were not practicing racial profiling in street stops.

“Officers are stopping those they reasonably suspect of committing a crime, based on descriptions and circumstances,” Mr. Kelly said, “and not on personal bias.”

Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman, said later that the department’s analysis of the numbers showed that while 55.2 percent of the stop encounters last year involved blacks, 68.5 percent of crimes involved suspects described as black by their victims (or by witnesses, in the case of homicides). Hispanics, he said, made up 30.5 percent of those stopped and 24.5 percent of suspected offenders. For whites, he said, the numbers were 11.1 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.

Mr. Browne said that aggressive street enforcement was partly responsible for the increase in stop-and-frisks. Also, he said, “careful accounting” of such encounters by the department in recent years made the increase seem greater. “Part of it is taking guns off the street and responding to complaints where we use stop-and-frisk,” he said.

It was unclear last night how much of the increase in stops was due to suspected gun possession or how many led to gun arrests. Mr. Browne could not confirm a direct line between gun arrests and increases in stops, and said officers’ efforts to take guns off the streets were just one facet of the crime suppression the stop-and-frisk forms reflected.

The 2006 figures, delivered yesterday by two officers in plain clothes, were contained in four books of about 250 pages each. Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Council’s public safety committee, said his staff was unable to interpret the numbers immediately.

The department’s lag in releasing the numbers came to light after the fatal shooting in November of another unarmed black man, Sean Bell, and has been seized on by civil rights advocates, academics and current and former government officials. Mr. Bell’s death was not related to a stop-and-frisk operation, but it has become a valve for frustrations over relations between the police and minority residents. But members of the City Council said they had been requesting the material even before the Bell shooting.

Jeffrey Fagan, a professor of law and public health at Columbia University who studied the issue in 1999 for Eliot Spitzer, then the attorney general, said he was not surprised that the number of stop-and-frisks went up “during a period of no accountability.”

But, he added, “it is an astonishing fact that stop rates went up by 500 percent when crime rates were flat.” Police officials and a city lawyer said there were several reasons the department had fallen behind in releasing the numbers. Compiling the reports, they said, has been hampered by antiquated technology, especially since the numbers have risen. The department has been working to modernize its reporting system, officials said, and has not been withholding the data deliberately.

Some observers questioned whether producing data on street stops remained on the department’s front burner during the age of terrorism.

“I just don’t think it’s a priority,” Dr. Fagan said of the data collection.

The total number of stops includes cases in which the officers acted to prevent what could have been terrorist activity, the police said. But those stops are relatively rare, they said, and there is no separate category for keeping track of them. Searches of subway riders’ bags are not considered stop-and-frisk encounters because people willing to forgo entry to the subway can decline them.

Joel Berger, who monitored matters of police conduct as an executive in the city’s Law Department from 1988 to 1996, said: “It is particularly frightening that the Police Department is not following the statute that requires reporting on stop, question and frisks. It is the thing that happens most often and most troubles people, and the failure to report the numbers is, effectively, very alarming.”

Mr. Spitzer first dug into the issue of street stops after the Diallo shooting and found that Hispanics and blacks were being disproportionately targeted. After adjusting for varying crime rates among racial groups, his analysis found that blacks were stopped 23 percent more often than whites. Hispanics were stopped 39 percent more often than whites.

In the wake of those findings, the city signed a law allowing the Council to collect the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk data on a quarterly basis. Separately, the federal class-action lawsuit, Daniels v. City of New York, alleged that the police habitually used racial profiling in stop-and-frisk situations. When the city’s corporation counsel settled the case in January 2004, the agreement required the police to disclose data on such encounters through 2007.

The idea was that increased transparency about police stops would not only foster analysis of one of the department’s most crucial tactics for reducing crime, but also would help restore the public’s trust.

Mr. Spitzer’s study reviewed police records known as UF-250s. Officers must fill them out after making forcible stops, including those in which a person is frisked or searched. His report noted that officers did not always fill them out. The form shows the race of the person stopped as well as the reason.

Under a system begun in the spring of 1999, police officials said, forms completed at individual precincts were taken to 1 Police Plaza, where their 50 points of data were gathered. Envisioning a daunting backlog, Mr. Kelly in 2005 directed that the process be decentralized so that the raw data could be recorded quickly, at the precinct level.

Mr. Kelly told officials at the Jan. 24 hearing that the data for the remainder of 2003, and for all of 2004 and 2005, would take longer to provide. That is “because it must be compiled manually, rather than in a technologically advanced way,” according to a letter sent Thursday from the Law Department to a plaintiff in the federal case.

“We’ve been patiently waiting for years now,” Councilman Vallone, told Mr. Kelly at the hearing. “We would again request that you give us that information.”

For a time, the police gave the data to the City Council with some regularity. But the frequency of the reports slowed, and in February 2006, the department released data for the third quarter of 2003.

Then, the flow of data stopped. Until yesterday.

But city leaders came under criticism as well for failing to more forcefully demand the data. “The City Council has failed to ensure that the Police Department is producing the reports, as required by the statute,” said Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “As a result, it has not been doing any monitoring of stop-and-frisk activity, which was the very point of the statute.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Posted by lois at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2007

Springfield MA: Families need three times minimum wage to get by

Thursday, February 01, 2007
Springfield Republican
Families need three times minimum wage to get by
By MARCIA BLOMBERG
SPRINGFIELD - A single parent living in Greater Springfield with a pre-schooler and a school-age child would have to make three times the state minimum wage of $7.50 an hour in order to get by without grants, subsidies or other assistance, a report issued today said.

The Crittenton Women's Union, a Boston-based non-profit organization dedicated to helping women succeed, said in its Self-Sufficiency Standard study that at $46,573 annually - $22.50 per hour - such a wage-earning parent would be making about three times the federal poverty level of $16,600.

According to the study, the median income for single mothers with children in Massachusetts was $33,097 last year, far short of the $46,573 needed in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area.

Kathleen A. Treglia, vice president of the YMCA of Greater Springfield, said many clients of the organization's programs are single parents, and they "make significantly less than that.

"They have subsidies for housing, food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants and Children nutrition program). That's probably how they're getting by," she said.

"But they'll never be able to get out of subsidized housing, because they don't make $22 an hour. That's a $45,000-a-year salary. That's substantial," Treglia said.

"Even at $45,000, you're just paying your bills: Money in, money out. You're not going to Disney, none of that," Treglia said.

While the study has been done several times since 1998, Elisabeth D. Babcock, president and chief executive officer of the Crittenton Women's Union, said she was surprised by some of the changes since the last study in 2003.

"What shocked me was the very high escalation of child care costs," especially since it seemed the hot real estate market of recent years would likely boost housing costs most dramatically, she said.

The cost of child care in Greater Springfield went up 28 percent, to $1,207 for two children, she noted.

"It was a bit of a silent crisis for young families trying to pay for child care," Babcock said.

The cost of child care was calculated from the market rate for Greater Springfield tabulated by the state Office of Child Care, and then ratcheted back. Researchers with the Women's Union focused on developing a conservative budget, with no frills, no savings and no vacations.

A parent paying full freight at the YMCA of Greater Springfield's child care program for pre-schooler would pay about $680 a month, while the study came up with an average figure of $698 for a pre-schooler in Greater Springfield.

Treglia said the YMCA, which cares for about 1,000 children a day, covers the cost of child care for most children through vouchers and scholarships.

At its facility in Wilbraham, there are some parents who pay the full rate, but "even though people think of Wilbraham as an affluent community, there are still a lot of struggling parents," Treglia said.

The monthly cost of health insurance spiked more than 50 percent, from $209 in 2003 to $321 last year. The study presumes that the parent's employer pays 74 percent of a family insurance plan.

The study pointed out that even a single adult with no children in Springfield could not afford to live without subsidies while working at a minimum wage job.

A single adult would need to earn at least $9.64 an hour to make ends meet.

Posted by lois at 11:28 PM | Comments (0)

Schwarzenegger Orders Involuntary Prison Transfers

Schwarzenegger Orders Involuntary Prison Transfers

After moving less than 400 California inmates to out-of-state lockups, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered hundreds more to be transfered involuntarily to states that have room in their prisons, the administration has announced. The governor had hoped to transfer 5,000 to relieve overcrowding.

Overcrowded The Republican governor said in a statement released this afternoon: "Our state has a prison overcrowding crisis. The safety of our correctional officers is threatened, we have the highest recidivism rate in the country because there is no room for rehabilitation, and we face the possibility of court ordered early release of felons. I am asking the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to begin the involuntary transfer of prisoners because it is in the interest of all Californians and our public safety."

In October, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in California's prison population and asked inmates to voluntarily transfer to out-of-state facilities. The administration even produced a video showing the delights of a Tennessee lockup. In his executive order, Schwarzenegger said 29 of the state's 33 prisons are so "overcrowded that the CDCR is required to house more than 15,000 inmates in conditions that pose substantial safety risks, namely, prison areas never designed or intended for inmate housing, including, but not limited to, common areas such as prison gymnasiums, dayrooms, and program rooms, with approximately 1,500 inmates sleeping in triple-bunks."

The California prison system estimated that 19,000 inmates had "expressed interest" in moving to another state. But so far, about 600 have volunteered as of last week, and 380 have been moved. The Times' Jenifer Warren uncovered the promotional video produced by California prison officials that extols the virtues of prisons in other states. Footage shows inmates lounging in roomy cells with views, playing basketball and chess, lining up for hot meals and chatting amiably with smiling officers. Inmates of different races mingle - something unheard of on a California prison yard - and one convict marvels that "we've already had dental exams," which are hard to come by behind bars in the Golden State.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/politicalmuscle/

Posted by lois at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

RI: Plan to decarcerate, reinvest, bail reform

Plan to reduce inmates sparks concern

Friday, February 2, 2007

By Amanda Milkovits

Providence RI Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — With an inmate population reaching all-time highs at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Governor Carcieri is proposing a solution to crowding and staffing costs — reduce the number of inmates by 500.

The proposal — which calls for putting people on probation or home confinement — would save $4 million and close several housing units at the ACI, the governor said Wednesday, though the state would use about $985,000 in those savings to pay for community corrections.

Ultimately, Carcieri is attempting to tackle a deeper social issue — keeping criminals from re-offending and help them reenter society. Rhode Island is one of four states working with the Council of State Governments on analyzing its corrections policies.

“This will be done with the utmost care and concern, so public safety is paramount,” Carcieri said Wednesday. “We’re not going to put any people out into the community where there is a risk.”

But there’s no extra money in the governor’s budget for substance-abuse rehabilitation, even though 70 percent of prisoners have problems with drugs or alcohol, according to records kept by the Department of Corrections.

Aside from saying the reductions wouldn’t happen all at once come July, the governor had no specifics on how the releases would be handled. And, it’s unclear whether the savings set aside would be enough to supervise all the newly released prisoners. Rhode Island’s probation officers are already carrying the highest caseloads in the nation.

Carcieri said he wants to focus on those who commit nonviolent misdemeanor crimes, such as shoplifting or prostitution. Another idea is to find a way to release inmates awaiting trial whose only reason for incarceration is lack of funds for bail.

Carcieri intends to hold a summit this spring with the judiciary and legislative leaders to discuss ways to change the criminal justice system and avoid high inmate populations. He said the idea has caught the interest of the leadership in the House and Senate, all who are lawyers, and he has broached it with Chief Justice Frank J. Williams.

House Speaker William Murphy, who is interested in the concept, wants to focus on drug addicts. “These people are begging for help,” said Murphy. “We’re looking at ways to get them into treatment programs, which will reduce the population, save the taxpayers money, and get them the help they need.”

The prison population is increasing because the police have been working hard to prevent a surge in crime and making more arrests, said corrections director A.T. Wall. But the state’s police chiefs weren’t consulted on the governor’s proposal.

Sending criminals back into society may balance the governor’s budget, but there’s a cost to society, said the new president of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association.

“As a police officer, I think there’s really good reasons the judges are putting those people in the ACI,” said Bristol Police Chief Russell Serpa. “To put them back out on the street, takes the burden off the state government, but it puts it back on the cities and towns.”

Richard Ferruccio, president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, said home confinement and probation were failing for lack of jobs or drug treatment for criminals outside of prison.

But his union was also left out of the discussion. “It’s all being driven for the budget. That’s what makes it dangerous,” Ferruccio said. “In fairness to the taxpayers, we should have been included.”

The high number of inmates and the tight state budget has created a storm that the state government can’t ignore. The prison is at 95-percent capacity. Other states in Rhode Island’s position are building new prisons, an expensive option.

“We know how to build prisons and run prisons, but they’re expensive. We can’t have it both ways,” Wall said.

The population outside the prison is also a concern. Some parolees are held because there are no vacant beds in substance-abuse rehab centers, Wall said. Of the 27,000 people on probation or parole, 25,000 of them are on the streets, he said. However, 13,000 of those are not actively supervised, mainly because they’re doing well, he said.

The remaining 12,000 are under active supervision, but the caseloads are high — about 245 cases for every probation officer, he said. Sex offenders and those convicted of domestic violence require more intense supervision, and those caseloads average between 75 to 78 cases per officer, Wall said. These high caseloads carry a risk for public safety, he said.

But if the state’s judges, legislators, and the governor can’t reach an agreement on overhauling the state’s criminal justice system, is there a Plan B for that $4-million budget cut?

“That’s a great question,” said assistant director Ellen Alexander. “The point is we can’t afford not to make Plan A work.”

Read the executive summary of the proposed budget
http://www.projo.com/news/content/budget_aci_02-02-07_F747IS6.18376f3.html#

Highlights on the budget plan

School leaders give the plan a passing grade

Read the governor's budget remarks

Posted by lois at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

Late for Court: Connecticut Case Draws Scrutiny

February 2, 2007
Late for Court: Connecticut Case Draws Scrutiny
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

NORWALK, Conn., Feb. 1 — Some call the “failure to appear” charge a prosecutor’s best friend because it is relatively easy to prove and can swiftly bring a defendant to the bargaining table. Others see the long-accepted but little-discussed practice of punishing late or absentee defendants as a crutch for overworked judges to maintain decorum and keep criminal cases from clogging their courtrooms.

Now such criminal charges are being challenged in Connecticut, where nearly 1 in 10 of the cases not involving motor vehicles that ended in convictions over the past five years included a conviction for failure to appear. Those found guilty of what could be a procedural misstep can face up to five years in prison.

Bringing the issue into the open is the case of Ayanna Khadijah, 34, who was convicted of the felony version of failure to appear after she failed to wake up from a nap and arrived 45 minutes late to court one day in August 2003. Her case is extraordinary because she fought back.

It was the only court date Ms. Khadijah missed among 45 sessions over three years defending herself against a set of drug charges that were eventually dismissed, in 2005. Ms. Khadijah, a single mother with a criminal history, received a suspended three-year sentence on the failure-to-appear charge.

She had spent the day before she was late for court at her job as a community organizer and then delivered newspapers from 1 to 8 a.m. Prosecutors argued that she should have known better than to work all night before a court appearance.

Connecticut’s appellate court overturned her conviction last fall after concluding that the inadvertent doze was not a willful shirking of responsibility. But the state is appealing to the State Supreme Court for fear the widely used tool could become harder to wield.

“We thought it set a bad example,” said John A. East III, a senior assistant state’s attorney, who argued in court papers that rather than rely on her boyfriend to rouse her, Ms. Khadijah should have set an alarm or perhaps brewed herself a strong cup of coffee.

But Gerald B. Lefcourt, a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the case “is really right out of Catch-22.” “There’s no way to win when you have a system that is so inflexible and so lacking in understanding,” he said.

At least 30 states treat failure to appear as a crime that stands alone, according to information in American Law Reports, with most tying the severity of the penalty to the seriousness of the underlying charge.

Statistics on how often such cases are filed or lead to convictions are hard to come by, because the Federal Bureau of Investigation lumps the information it collects into a catch-all bin it calls “other offenses.”

New York State’s Division of Criminal Justice Services said its records showed 444 convictions on bail-jumping last year and 465 the year before — a fraction of Connecticut’s 6,539 in 2006, and fewer even than the 596 in Norwalk (these numbers include those related to motor-vehicle charges).

Asked why New York’s figures were so much lower than those across the state line, a spokesman for the agency, Mark Bonacquist, said he was “not making any comment as to whether our statutes are similar to Connecticut.”

Here in Norwalk, some lawyers contend that prosecutors and judges are overusing the charge to solve all manner of other problems. Norwalk ranks sixth among Connecticut’s 35 courts — including many that are far larger and busier — for the total number of failure-to-appear cases disposed of last year, and had by far the highest rate of conviction on such cases, just shy of 55 percent, of the courts with the highest volumes.

“Failure to appear should be a last resort,” complained Jon L. Schoenhorn, a Hartford lawyer who is the president of the Connecticut’s Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. “You can only put so much pressure on parties to move cases along before the pressure is seen as an abuse of discretion.”

Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University, called the Connecticut situation “mind-boggling.”

“Showing up late for court is certainly inappropriate but to be convicted of it as a felony sounds so extreme,” he said. If a defendant is not there when called, he wondered of the courts, “Can’t they juggle their schedules a little bit?’”

Ms. Khadijah, who twice went to prison in the 1990s on drug and other charges, said she did not set out to take on the criminal justice system. Rather, she said, her focus over the last decade has been on supporting herself and her daughter, now 5, of whom she once lost custody.

“Because I’m a felon, it’s hard to get a job,” said Ms. Khadijah, a high school graduate who worked in a factory packing Nivea skin cream, delivered pizzas, and worked at a law firm. She has also been evicted for failure to pay rent, and sought bankruptcy protection in 2005 to cancel the $30,000 she owed her criminal lawyer, Sam Kretzmer.

The missed court date stemmed from a February 2002 police raid of the Round Tree Inn on Westport Road, where Ms. Khadijah was living. She was charged with possession of narcotics and risk of injury to a child, though she accused the police of entering her room without a warrant and claimed that the drugs they found were not hers. Court records show Ms. Khadijah kept 20 court dates over the next 18 months without a hitch.

She knows the drill cold. Dress respectfully, so court officials see that you understand the severity of the charges. Arrive early, leaving plenty of time to clear the metal detectors. Sit politely, even if you must wait all day to be called.

“We used to be there at 9 a.m. and leave at 5 p.m. every day, just like I worked there,” Ms. Khadijah said of herself and her boyfriend, Darri Woodhouse, a co-defendant in the drug case.

According to her testimony in the failure to appear case, Ms. Khadijah arrived home from her Norwalk Hour paper route at 8 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2003, the second day of jury selection for the drug trial. She sat on the couch and told Mr. Woodhouse to wake her if she dozed. He didn’t.

Instead she was roused by a telephone call from her lawyer about 11 a.m., 15 minutes after she had been instructed to arrive. Ms. Khadijah raced to the courthouse full of apologies, getting there at about 11:30 — minutes after Judge Susan Reynolds had dismissed jurors and ordered her charged with failure to appear in the first degree.

Ms. Kretzmer had assured the judge that her client was on her way and asked for five minutes’ grace. “This is not a cocktail party,” the judge replied. “This is the most important thing in her life, and she’s 45 minutes late.”

The judge offered to vacate the arrest if Ms. Khadijah entered a guilty plea instead of going to trial, an offer her lawyer rejected. The charges were dismissed five months later by a different judge, who agreed that the police had erred by entering without a warrant.

So prosecutors pressed on to trial in January 2004 on the lone remaining offense — failure to appear.

“It’s like hitting an ant with a hammer,” said Mary Anne Royle, a lawyer who has been helping Ms. Khadijah with her appeals. Mr. Schoenhorn, the leader of the state’s criminal defense bar, called the decision to continue the prosecution after the drug charges disappeared “a sour-grapes type of vindictive act.”

But Mr. East, the prosecutor, said “we have to be aggressive” in pursuing such cases.

“Failures to appear are a big problem in our courts,” he said. “They clog up the docket and cost the state a lot of money.”

Ms. Khadijah was convicted of failure to appear once before, 16 years ago, a misdemeanor that led to the first of her two stints at the York Correctional Institute in Niantic and that she said was a proper response by the system.

That conviction was used to cast doubt on her testimony in her recent failure-to-appear case.

As that case undergoes further review, both sides acknowledge that precedents on the subject are skimpy, since the issue rarely gets litigated. Both sides cite a 19-year-old Washington, D.C., case about a habitually late lawyer who overslept one day, called the court to say he would not be coming and went back to bed, according to the appellate panel’s summary.

Connecticut prosecutors note that the resulting contempt charge stood on appeal, while Ms. Khadijah’s lawyers use the case to highlight the contrast between the lawyer’s response and her efforts to race to court once awakened.

Other lawyers reached back 23 years to find a Connecticut case, Gionfrido v. Wharf Realty, in which a plaintiff’s lawyer left Middletown for Hartford on a lunch break to retrieve a file and was 26 minutes late returning to court because he “lost track of time” and hit traffic.

The Middletown judge dismissed the lawsuit moments after the lunch break ended when the plaintiff’s lawyer did not show up. The Connecticut Supreme Court called the dismissal “harsh” but ruled that the lower court had not abused its discretion in light of the need to process cases “in a timely and efficient manner.”

The treatment of tardy defendants is hardly uniform. On a recent morning here, some no-shows got a pass, in the form of a letter reminding them of their obligation to appear in court. Others had their bond increased. At least one was ordered rearrested.

Neatly dressed in a cowl-neck sweater, flowing skirt and brown wig to hide hair loss she said stems from stress, Ms. Khadijah arrived promptly for a 10 a.m. appearance on her most recent arrest, in December, in which she was accused of reckless driving and criminal mischief in a vacant lot. “Because I’ve been in trouble before, I’m an easy catch,” she said afterwards of her seeming inability to stay out of court.

After 73 other names and nearly three hours, Ms. Khadijah’s name was called. She stood.

The exchange took less than one minute.

“Are you Ayanna Khadijah?” Judge Reynolds asked, as if they were meeting for the first time.

“Yes,” said the defendant.

The judge instructed the prosecution to talk to other people involved in the December case. Ms. Khadijah was told to return in four weeks for another appearance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/nyregion/02appear.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1170448464-ZsdoyM/tvRJWs5p7yPQWIA&pagewanted=print

Posted by lois at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

LCS Corrections Services gets BOP contract for prison for people here illegally convicted of cirmes

LCS wins contract for prison
Addition to facility will house illegal aliens
2/2/07

A local private prison firm has been awarded a $200 million contract by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house up to 1,000 illegal aliens for the next 10 years in Evangeline Parish.

LCS Corrections Services Inc. was awarded the contract earlier this year to supply a minimum-security prison to the government to house illegal aliens who have committed crimes in the U.S., said Patrick LeBlanc, president of LCS.

Pine Prairie Mayor Terry Savant said he is not concerned about the new population of inmates that will be housed around his community.

The expansion of the prison will have to be approved by the zoning board and the Pine Prarie City Council, said Savant, who said there shouldn't be any problems with LCS obtaining the necessary permits.

"They did a fairly good job in the past with security," Savant said. "I can only assume they'll do as good a job this time."

LeBlanc said the expansion of the Pine Prairie jail will bring 50 new jobs to the Evangeline Parish area.

"This is like Evangeline Parish getting a factory," LeBlanc said. "This will bring jobs to our area."

Savant agreed.

"I think it'll be a good thing for Pine Prairie and also for the parish," he said. "It'll bring jobs to our town, maybe raise the salaries of current employees and help out our town."

The Pine Prairie prison is staffed by 125 people and has space for 690 inmates. With the addition to the prison, the prison's maximum occupancy will approach 1,700 inmates.

Construction of the new facility will cost $12 million and must be completed in nine months, LeBlanc said.

Aside from providing 400 beds for the inmates, the new facility will include classroom space and a medical bay, LeBlanc said.

"This is a very significant event not only for LCS, but for our entire state," he said. "This facility will add greatly to the health of our local economy."
http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/
BUSINESS/702020304/1046

Posted by lois at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

Tent City in Texas Among Immigrant Holding Sites Drawing Criticism

Border Policy's Success Strains Resources
Tent City in Texas Among Immigrant Holding Sites Drawing Criticism

By Spencer S. Hsu and Sylvia Moreno, Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, February 2, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020102238.html?sub=AR

RAYMONDVILLE, Tex. -- Ringed by barbed wire, a futuristic tent city rises from the Rio Grande Valley in the remote southern tip of Texas, the largest camp in a federal detention system rapidly gearing up to keep pace with Washington's increasing demand for stronger enforcement of immigration laws.

About 2,000 illegal immigrants, part of a record 26,500 held across the United States by federal authorities, will call the 10 giant tents home for weeks, months and perhaps years before they are removed from the United States and sent back to their home countries.

The $65 million tent city, built hastily last summer between a federal prison and a county jail, marks both the success and the limits of the government's new policy of holding captured non-Mexicans until they are sent home. Previously, most such detainees were released into the United States before hearings, and a majority simply disappeared.

The new policy has led to a dramatic decline in border crossings by non-Mexicans, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

But civil liberties and immigration law groups allege that out of sight, the system is bursting at the seams. In the Texas facility, they say, illegal immigrants are confined 23 hours a day in windowless tents made of a Kevlar-like material, often with insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to telephones. Many are transferred from the East Coast, 1,500 miles from relatives and lawyers, virtually cutting off access to counsel.

"I call it 'Ritmo' -- like Gitmo, but it's in Raymondville," said Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer from nearby Harlingen.

An inspector general's report last month on a sampling of five U.S. immigration detention facilities found inhumane and unsafe conditions, including inadequate health care, the presence of vermin, limited access to clean underwear and undercooked poultry. Although ICE standards require that immigrants have access to phones and pro bono law offices, investigators found phones missing, not working or connected to non-working numbers.

With roughly 1.6 million illegal immigrants in some stage of immigration proceedings, ICE holds more inmates a night than Clarion hotels have guests, operates nearly as many vehicles as Greyhound has buses and flies more people each day than do many small U.S. airlines.

Gary Mead, assistant director of ICE detention and removal operations, said the agency is proud of its record, calling Raymondville "a modern, clean facility" that meets federal standards -- "which we believe are among the highest you'll find anywhere." Mead added:
"We think the conditions of confinement there are both humane and consistent with all the rights they should be entitled to."

Despite its spartan conditions, the facility in Willacy County, 260 miles south of Austin, is a key to President Bush's drive to create a channel for temporary foreign workers and a path toward legalization for as many as 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

To do so, the government must convince skeptics that it can credibly enforce laws aimed at illegal immigrants and their employers, and can hold and deport those caught by the U.S. Border Patrol. At the same time, the administration and its allies argue that even additional detention beds will be overwhelmed without new channels for legal immigration.

Accordingly, the United States has embarked on a huge prison building and contracting campaign, increasing the number of illegal immigrants detained from 19,718 a day in 2005 to about 26,500 now, and a projected 32,000 this summer.

About 80 percent of ICE's beds are rented at 300 local and state jails nationwide, concentrated in the South and Southwest, or at eight sites run by contractors such as the Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group Inc., in places such as Houston, San Diego and Aurora, Colo.

ICE recently added a 1,524-bed facility in Stewart County, Ga., and a 512-bed center in Taylor, Tex., for immigrant families, both run by Corrections Corp.

With the new beds, the administration has imprisoned and deported virtually 100 percent of non-Mexicans caught since August, under faster proceedings that deny hearings to all but asylum seekers.

The administration says this has deterred many others. After quadrupling over four years, the number of non-Mexicans apprehended fell 35 percent in 2006, to 108,026.

But immigration experts and U.S. authorities say the impact of the prison boom will be hard to sustain and still is absorbing only a drop in the bucket of illegal immigration. The Border Patrol made 1.1 million apprehensions last year -- mostly Mexicans who were promptly returned across the border -- but estimates 500,000 people evaded capture or entered legally and then overstayed visas.

An additional 630,000 are at large, ignoring deportation orders, and 300,000 more who entered state and local prisons for committing crimes are to be deported but will probably slip through the cracks after completing their sentences.

U.S. authorities acknowledge that gains from the latest crackdown will be fleeting without the major changes the president wants.

"The short answer is, it is not sustainable," Mead said. "There comes a point where we can't detain any more people. Hopefully, prior to getting there, the deterrence factor will kick in."

The increased tempo of operations is a strain. ICE has no modern nationwide system to track its facilities' populations. It relies on an antiquated computer system created in 1984.

Every day since July, six officers have manually tracked and transferred detained immigrants among 24 regional offices, matching bodies to vacant beds and airplane seats in a Detention Operations Coordination Center, Mead said. "We have all of the information," he said. "It's a question of automation."

Legal advocates contend that some of the older facilities where immigrants are housed are in deplorable condition and that growing pains afflict even new facilities.

Under fire in Taylor, for example, ICE has expanded hours of daily schooling for children from one to seven hours to meet Texas guidelines.

In Willacy County, one of the country's poorest, ICE has set up 10 huge tents on concrete pads, surrounded by 14-foot-high chain-link fences looped with barbed wire. Each "sprung structure" holds about 200 men or women, divided into four "pods." Similar temporary buildings were used for troop recreational facilities in Iraq.

The center is part of a chain of facilities in South Texas with 6,700 new immigration detention beds. At a cost of $78 a night per bed (compared with an ICE average of $95 a bed), the Willacy facility is not only cheaper than any bricks-and-mortar prison but also faster to construct, move or dismantle, Mead said.

Detainees are subject to penal system practices, such as group punishment for disciplinary infractions. The tents are windowless and the walls are blank, and no partitions or doors separate the five toilets, five sinks, five shower heads and eating areas. Lacking utensils on some days, detainees eat with their hands.

Because lights are on around the clock, a visitor finds many occupants buried in their blankets throughout the day. The stillness and torpor of the pod's communal room, where 50 to 60 people dwell, are noticeable.

Goodwin described a group of women who huddled in a recreation yard on a recent 40-degree day with a 25-mph wind. "They had no blanket, no sweat shirt, no jacket," she said. "Officers were wearing earmuffs, and detainees were outside for an hour with short-sleeved polyester uniforms and shower shoes and not necessarily socks."

Perhaps more troubling, lawyers said, large numbers of immigrants have been transferred from Boston, New York, New Jersey and Florida, far from their families and lawyers. Because some immigration judges do not permit hearings by teleconference, detainees are essentially deprived of counsel.

Immigration violators in the United States are held on civil grounds and have no right to appointed lawyers. But federal guidelines call for providing them law libraries, telephones and phone numbers for legal aid.

Joining a lawsuit last week, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged that severe overcrowding at a Corrections Corp. facility in San Diego poses an unconstitutional risk to detainees' health and safety, arguing that as administrative detainees, illegal immigrants should be treated better than convicted criminals.

The National Lawyers Guild and five other groups petitioned the Department of Homeland Security last month to set binding regulations for detention sites, saying U.S. standards set in 2000 are not enforceable.

And the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee has announced a campaign to stop ICE's use of county jails.

"The standards are there," said David A. Martin, a former general counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, ICE's predecessor agency, who advocates concentrating detention centers in perhaps 10 cities to ensure access to lawyers and oversight. "But there are some real indicators federal standards are not well monitored or policed. We ought to do better."

About 2,000 illegal immigrants are being held in this detention facility in South Texas, awaiting deportation to their home countries. Some may wait months or years. (By Kirsten Luce For The Washington Post)

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February 01, 2007

Mandela leads tributes to Adelaide Tambo

Mandela leads tributes to Adelaide Tambo
Associated Press
Thursday February 1, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The former South African president Nelson Mandela today paid tribute to his friend and fellow anti-apartheid campaigner Adelaide Tambo, who died yesterday.

Ms Tambo, the widow of the African National Congress hero Oliver Tambo, died at her home in Johannesburg, an ANC statement said. She was 77.

Like her husband, Ms Tambo - who was affectionately known as Ma Tambo or Mama Adelaide - was a lifelong political activist.

Mr Mandela, who shared her birthday, said he mourned the "passing away of a close personal friend, a comrade and one of the great heroines of our nation".

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"She was a mother to the liberation movement in exile, and a nationally revered figure in our new nation," he said in a statement released by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. "We pay tribute to a life dedicated to freedom and service."

The foundation said Mr Mandela was in Mozambique but would return to Johannesburg to offer his condolences and support to the Tambo family.

As family and friends gathered at their home, prominent figures throughout South African life paid tribute.

The Anglican archbishop, Njongonkulu Ndungane, said Ms Tambo was a woman of great dignity and courage, the South African Press Association reported.

"I myself have sought her wise counsel many times," he added. "She always showed great concern for the poor and for the moral values of the nation."

The British high commissioner, Paul Boateng, said Ms Tambo had left a huge gap in the lives of many in South Africa, Africa and the UK. "Her place in history and all our hearts is assured and her memory will live on forever," he said.

Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, said Ms Tambo's death "amounts to a loss to the entire country and the international community".

In her later years, Ms Tambo was an impassioned advocate of rights for the elderly and the disabled. She remained active in the ANC, but watched in anguish as South Africa was blighted by violence and HIV.

"I am 77 years old. The majority of women in this country are my children. Why are you not fighting for me?" she said in a speech to mark the 50th anniversary of a landmark anti-apartheid march by women last August.

Born on July 18 1929, Ms Tambo became involved in politics at the age of 10 when her 82-year-old grandfather was arrested in a police raid following a riot in which an officer had been killed.

He collapsed and, as she waited for him to regain consciousness, she decided to devote her life to the fight against white racist rule.

Five years later, she began working for the ANC as a courier while still studying. She joined the ANC Youth League, and was almost immediately elected as its chair. She met her future husband at the launch of a new youth league branch, agreeing to marry him in 1956. Three weeks before their wedding, he was arrested and charged, along with 155 other ANC members, including Mr Mandela, with high treason.

The wedding went ahead four days after the suspects were released on bail. The trial lasted for more than three years, ending in the acquittal of all the accused.

The Tambos fled from South Africa to London in 1960, acting on the advice of other ANC activists. While living in the UK, Ms Tambo helped the families of other exiles, working working as a nurse to support her family.

She is survived by three children, Thembi, Dali and Tselane.

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Springfield MA: Sheriff Michael Ashe's Builidng Plan Spurs Protests

Building plan spurs protest
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
By MIKE PLAISANCE
Springfield, MA Republican
SPRINGFIELD - Nearly 100 people turned out last night to learn about and protest the Hampden County Sheriff Department's plan to take over part of a state-owned building now used by Northern Educational Service Inc.
But Sheriff Michael J. Ashe Jr. said before the meeting the department wants to share the State Street facility with Northern Educational Service, not displace the nonprofit human service organization.

Northern Educational Service has occupied the W.W. Johnson Family Life Center at 736 State St. rent-free since October 2002, Ashe said.
The organization pays only yearly utilities of about $40,000 for use of the 1,300 square feet. The sheriff's department is caretaker of the state building, Ashe said. The department needs space for its inmate re-entry program, Ashe said, in which those leaving prison get services such as counseling and job and housing referrals.
However, in addition to losing space, having a law enforcement presence at 736 State St. would undermine the mission of Northern Educational Service, an official said during the meeting held at the site.
Among the organization's programs are counseling and other help for hundreds of people weekly, including street-gang members and drug users. Such people might avoid the facility if sheriff's personnel and vehicles are there, said the Rev. Talbert W. Swan II, assistant executive director of Northern Educational Service.
Swan said the desire of some people to avoid such attention was illustrated when a television camera crew arrived. He announced to the gathering that anyone who wanted to skip being caught on TV could leave the room and about a dozen did so. "That's a very real concern, so what we want to do is maintain the integrity of the services we're providing," Swan said.
Richard M. Johnson, a case manager with Northern Educational Service, said depriving people of services they need harms not only them.
"This puts the larger community at risk, because it means they're not getting the services they need," Johnson said. Alex M. Gonzalez, of Springfield, a 25-year-old father of four, said the organization's help deflect him from crime and jail. "If they take this away from us, then NES can't help someone like me," Gonzalez said. Others said the state should know that W.W. Johnson Life Center opened in 1985 specifically to provide services to black people. Ashe said he is "open and willing to listen" about sharing the building, use of which he hopes to resolve by summer.
"I've been working with NES to try to come up with a suitable resolution on the use of the building, and I know we will," Ashe said.

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