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April 30, 2007

MA: Challenges for Prisons Chief

WBUR Newsroom
Challenges for Prisons Chief
By Monica Brady-Myerov
BOSTON, Mass. - May 01, 2007 - On Beacon Hill today, a joint oversight committee will look into the alarming rate of suicides in prison. Over the past year, the suicide rate in Massachusetts prisons has risen to four times the national average.

The mental health of prisoners is just one of many challenges facing a yet-to-be-named new commissioner for the state's Department of Correction.

WBUR's Monica Brady-Myerov reports.

The audio for this story will be available on WBUR's web site after 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

TEXT OF STORY

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Outgoing Correction Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy says the new commissioner should have a strong stomach to attack the many problems facing the department.

KATHLEEN DENNEHY: Do they have the intestinal fortitude to dig in their heel and stay the course. I've learned over the past three years it's very easy to set a course to chart a course the challenge is in staying the course.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: The commissioner serves at the will of the governor. The first obstacle will be agreeing on a contract with the correction officers union, which is now under negotiation. This is the same union that Dennehy claimed slashed her tires and followed her with a giant inflatable rat to undermine her. Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger says the union is an obstacle to any commissioner.

SCOTT HARSHBARGER: I mean the fact is you have a labor management contract that over the years have taken away the managerial rights of the commissioner.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Harshbarger chaired a commission that reviewed the correction system after defrocked priest John Geoghan was murdered in prison.

SCOTT HARSHBARGER: You have a system where 73% of budget is allocated for personnel and in which just this one example is not at all to criticize correctional officers they do difficult and dangerous job but they have 65 paid leave days.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: The union did not return calls for comment. Another hurdle for the new head is the prison classification system says Leslie Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services. Walker says the DOC is still over classifying prisoners, that is putting mid-level offenders in high security prisons.

LESLIE WALKER: Massachusetts has twice the number recommended in the maximum security prisons and half the number in the minimum security prisons. If we had more people in the mediums and minimums like the rest of the country, we could reduce costs by having less officers.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: The state spends more on corrections than it does on higher education. It costs about $44,000 a year per prisoner. Scott Harshbarger says another systemic problem is the care of mentally ill prisoners.

SCOTT HARSHBARGER: we're running probably the largest mental health system in the state is being run in the depar4tment of corrections. Until you either have the budget increase for the doc to deal with that, or these agencies led by the executive office of public safety step up and work on that there are going to barriers for the new commissioner as well.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: The result of poor mental health care is a high rate of suicides in prison, says Senator Jarred Barrios, who co-chairs the hearing today on prisoners' mental health.

JARRED BARRIOS: Looking at it over time over the last ten years we've been at about 2x the suicide rate when compared to the national average. We are at about 4x that rate over the last year.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: A correction department study of prison conditions released in February found that prison practices and policies were partly to blame for the high rate of suicides.

The non-profit Disability Law Center is suing the DOC in federal court saying isolating mentally ill inmates at high security prisons, violates federal laws. Leslie Walker of the Mass Correctional Legal Services hopes the new commissioner will address this problem.

LESLIE WALKER: the commissioner can do what the current administration has not done which is listen to the people that it contracts for with mental health services. Listen to outside experts on panel it appoints. Since 1989 either commissions appointed by the governor or the department or correction and the mental health staff have recommended residential treatment units at high security, specialized mental health units.

MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: Currently James Bender, a 30-year employee is acting as Correction Commissioner. On paper, the job sounds alluring... a CEO level position with half a billion dollar budget, five thousand staff members and about eleven thousand people in your care. But in reality, Senator Barrios calls it the biggest no win position in government.

For WBUR I'm Monica Brady-Myerov.
http://www.wbur.org/news/2007/66791_20070501.asp

Posted by lois at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2007

LA Times Editorial: California's prison cop-out

"It's almost as if Sacramento wants to punt the issue to the courts."
Opinion : Editorials
EDITORIALS, LA Times
California's prison cop-out
The Legislature's 'reform' package looks more like a dodge than a practical solution to the crisis.

April 27, 2007

POLITICIANS CALL THEIR craft the art of the possible, but the deal on state prisons that the Legislature approved Thursday was more like the art of the dodge. With disgruntled federal courts threatening a takeover of the broken corrections system beginning as soon as next month, lawmakers presented a plan that looks designed to fail.

California's dire prison overcrowding has two main causes. The simplest is that an ever-expanding state population means more people behind bars. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans convinced Democrats to address that problem by adding 53,000 more beds, mostly to existing state prisons and county jails, and by building "reentry" centers ‹ sort of like high-security halfway houses for inmates near the end of their sentences. But there is a more complicated, policy-driven cause. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation neither corrects nor rehabilitates. The state has a recidivism rate of 70%, the nation's highest, signaling a breakdown of the rehabilitation process. Harsh sentencing and strict parole rules mean prisons are clogged with substance abusers, who are best treated elsewhere, and nonviolent parolees who have technically violated the conditions of their release. Schwarzenegger had a worthy plan to create a sentencing commission that would address these root causes of overpopulation, but it was jettisoned by the Legislature on the appalling grounds that it was too sensitive politically.

The ray of light in Thursday's agreement is that Democrats and Republicans alike demonstrated a healthy embrace of rehabilitation, a notion that has been all but forgotten after generations of tough-on-crime legislation and initiatives. But it's nowhere near enough. The proposed reentry centers, slated to house 16,000 inmates, could help prepare prisoners for a safe and successful return to society ‹ or they could just end up being new prisons.

California's prisons and jails contain 172,000 inmates in a system designed for 100,000. Three federal judges have warned that unless these conditions are convincingly reversed, they will issue their own draconian fixes, including dumping felons onto the streets. Yet the legislators' main response is to build more prison space years from now and to try to ship 8,000 prisoners out of state, if legal challenges fail. It's almost as if Sacramento wants to punt the issue to the courts.

If legislators truly seek to avoid a federal takeover, Thursday's deal should be followed by Friday courage to tackle the reforms they once again put off. But if this is the best they've got, Sacramento needs a new generation of leaders who take more seriously the responsibility of governance.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-prison27apr27,0,418899.
story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials

Posted by lois at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

Tuscon Citizen: It's only fair: AZ inmates should be in AZ prisons

Our Opinion: It's only fair: Az inmates should be in Az prisons
Published: 04.28.2007
There's a lesson to be learned from Tuesday's riot by Arizona convicts transferred to a privately run Indiana prison:
Don't house convicts in prisons across the country from their loved ones. It is bad corrections policy.
The inmates were sent to the Indiana prison by the Arizona Department of Corrections - but that agency isn't at fault.
The state DOC is responsible only for incarcerating inmates sent to it in facilities provided by legislative appropriations.
Quite simply, there are too many inmates and not enough cells.
Over the past year, the number of inmates in Arizona prisons has grown by about 162 per month. That exacerbated a bed shortage that already was severe.

At the beginning of the current fiscal year, Arizona had 30,500 beds for almost 35,000 inmates.
It doesn't take a prison expert to see that's going to be a problem.
The Legislature's solution was to stage a bid competition between the Department of Corrections and private companies to see who could build and operate 3,000 more prison beds for less money.
The bids were accepted in March, but all were rejected. So there is no plan for building more space for Arizona inmates. By the end of 2007, there probably will be 37,000 inmates in a system with 31,500 beds.
The DOC did the only thing it could do: It looked for prisons anywhere that were willing to house Arizona inmates for a price.
It found takers in several states - including Indiana.
It's important to know that the more than 600 Arizona inmates who have been sent to the medium-security corrections facility in New Castle, Ind., since March were selected for transfer because they had no record of disciplinary problems or violence.
But in the view of the inmates, their good behavior is being punished rather than rewarded, according to Donna Leone Hamm, a prison rights advocate.
"The higher-custody inmates, the ones that caused trouble inside the prison system, are not the ones that are being moved," she told The Associated Press.
It's unlikely that a family member from Arizona is going to make a weekly visit to Indiana. The move deprives prisoners of their only support system.
Indiana House Speaker Patrick Bauer told The AP: "These prisoners also have friends and families (back in Arizona). I think it was inevitable. I think it was a bad idea from . . . a social point of view."
He's right. It was a terrible idea.
The blame falls squarely on legislators who like to pass tough laws and mandatory sentences, then refuse to pay for space to house the men and women sent to prison as a result.
Arizona has a moral responsibility to house Arizona inmates in Arizona prisons - not to ship them around the nation. The riot in a prison more than 1,500 miles from Arizona was the predictable result.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/altss/printstory/opinion/49820

Posted by lois at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

CA: San Jose Mercury News Editorial: Spending more cash on California prisons not enough

Editorial: Spending more cash on California prisons not enough
LAWMAKERS IGNORING FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS
Mercury News Editorial
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:04/27/2007 01:32:48 AM PDT

Bipartisan majorities in the Legislature have dealt with the state's prison-crowding crisis the only way they seem to know how: building cells and spending billions.

On Thursday, they rushed through a deal without a public hearing or thoughtful debate. They offered no assurance that the atrociously managed prison system can cope with the new drug and rehabilitation programs and thousands more inmates they are piling on. Decades of waste and ineffectiveness leave little cause for optimism.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators are truly in a bind: Judges in three courts have given them a June deadline to reduce crowding. If they don't, the courts will take over the prisons and put a cap on the prison population.

The state's response is the largest prison expansion in state history: $7.4 billion in construction, not counting billions more in interest on the bonds, and 53,000 more beds.

This does nothing to end the policies of failure, and it may not mollify the courts. It will take years to add cells. The judges want immediate results. The state's answer - shipping 8,000 inmates out of state right away - will be challenged in court and may be unconstitutional.

The deal ignores the primary cause of prison crowding: California has the nation's highest recidivism rate. Nearly 70 percent of convicts return to prison within three years because of new crimes or parole violations, often minor.

The Little Hoover Commission and corrections experts for years have been calling for fundamental change, including a review of parole policies and community-based sentences for non-violent offenders. They suggest naming a commission to make sense of the morass of contradictory and counterproductive sentencing laws. Making sure prisons hold only people who belong there would alleviate crowding.

But Republicans, whose votes were needed to pass the deal, opposed a sentencing commission. They raised the specter that, failing a deal, a judge would set thousands of dangerous felons loose in the community. Democrats caved, although their leaders are promising to consider more reforms later.

There's no question that more prison beds are needed, starting with 8,000 for inmates needing medical and mental health care. And the approach to adding beds is more sensible than in the past. Rather than just expanding in existing prisons, more than half of the 53,000 new beds would be added to local jails or built as transitional units for inmates at the end of their sentences. This could mark an important shift toward treatment and rehabilitation - but the deal includes little money to set up what will be expensive programs, and no money to operate them.

In a sharply worded letter to Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez demanded assurances that staff could be hired and trained, programs could be delivered, and managers would stay long enough to oversee reforms.

"A quick fix without fundamental changes and effective reform is simply `running in place,'" they wrote. "Yet the Department (of Corrections and Rehabilitation) repeatedly demonstrates it is flatly unable to deliver on its promises. ... At this time, the department is not prepared to manage the proposals now before the Legislature."

Even as they were urging legislators to fork over $7.4 billion, top Democrats were wondering whether the money would be wasted.

That's hardly a vote of confidence.
http://origin.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_5762810?nclick_check=1

Posted by lois at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2007

For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail

For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, NY Times

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 25 — Anyone convicted of a crime knows a debt to society often must be paid in jail. But a slice of Californians willing to supplement that debt with cash (no personal checks, please) are finding that the time can be almost bearable.

For offenders whose crimes are usually relatively minor (carjackers should not bother) and whose bank accounts remain lofty, a dozen or so city jails across the state offer pay-to-stay upgrades. Theirs are a clean, quiet, if not exactly recherché alternative to the standard county jails, where the walls are bars, the fellow inmates are hardened and privileges are few.

Many of the self-pay jails operate like the secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world. You have to be in the know to even apply for entry, and even if the court approves your sentence there, jail administrators can operate like bouncers, rejecting anyone they wish.

“I am aware that this is considered to be a five-star Hilton,” said Nicole Brockett, 22, who was recently booked into one of the jails, here in Orange County about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and paid $82 a day to complete a 21-day sentence for a drunken driving conviction.

Ms. Brockett, who in her oversized orange T-shirt and flip-flops looked more like a contestant on “The Real World” than inmate, shopped around for the best accommodations, travel-ocity.com-style.

“It’s clean here,” she said, perched in a jail day room on the sort of couch found in a hospital emergency room. “It’s safe and everyone here is really nice. I haven’t had a problem with any of the other girls. They give me shampoo.”

For roughly $75 to $127 a day, these convicts — who are known in the self-pay parlance as “clients” — get a small cell behind a regular door, distance of some amplitude from violent offenders and, in some cases, the right to bring an iPod or computer on which to compose a novel, or perhaps a song.

Many of the overnighters are granted work furlough, enabling them to do most of their time on the job, returning to the jail simply to go to bed (often following a strip search, which granted is not so five-star).

The clients usually share a cell, but otherwise mix little with the ordinary nonpaying inmates, who tend to be people arrested and awaiting arraignment, or federal prisoners on trial or awaiting deportation and simply passing through.

The pay-to-stay programs have existed for years, but recently attracted some attention when prosecutors balked at a jail in Fullerton that they said would offer computer and cellphone use to George Jaramillo, a former Orange County assistant sheriff who pleaded no contest to perjury and misuse of public funds, including the unauthorized use of a county helicopter. Mr. Jaramillo was booked into the self-pay program in Montebello, near Los Angeles, instead.

“We certainly didn’t envision a jail with cellphone and laptop capabilities where his family could bring him three hot meals,” said Susan Kang Schroeder, the public affairs counsel for the Orange County district attorney. “We felt that the use of the computer was part of the instrumentality of his crime, and that is another reason we objected to that.”

A spokesman for the Fullerton jail said cellphones but not laptops were allowed.

While jails in other states may offer pay-to-stay programs, numerous jail experts said they did not know of any.

“I have never run into this,” said Ken Kerle, managing editor of the publication American Jail Association and author of two books on jails. “But the rest of the country doesn’t have Hollywood either. Most of the people who go to jail are economically disadvantaged, often mentally ill, with alcohol and drug problems and are functionally illiterate. They don’t have $80 a day for jail.”

The California prison system, severely overcrowded, teeming with violence and infectious diseases and so dysfunctional that much of it is under court supervision, is one that anyone with the slightest means would most likely pay to avoid.

“The benefits are that you are isolated and you don’t have to expose yourself to the traditional county system,” said Christine Parker, a spokeswoman for CSI, a national provider of jails that runs three in Orange County with pay-to-stay programs. “You can avoid gang issues. You are restricted in terms of the number of people you are encountering and they are a similar persuasion such as you.”

Most of the programs — which offer 10 to 30 beds — stay full enough that marketing is not necessary, though that was not always the case. The Pasadena jail, for instance, tried to create a little buzz for its program when it was started in the early 1990s.

“Our sales pitch at the time was, ‘Bad things happen to good people,’ ” said Janet Givens, a spokeswoman for the Pasadena Police Department. Jail representatives used Rotary Clubs and other such venues as their potential marketplace for “fee-paying inmate workers” who are charged $127 a day (payment upfront required).

“People might have brothers, sisters, cousins, etc., who might have had a lapse in judgment and do not want to go to county jail,” Ms. Givens said.

The typical pay-to-stay client, jail representatives agreed, is a man in his late 30s who has been convicted of driving while intoxicated and sentenced to a month or two in jail.

But there are single-night guests, and those who linger well over a year.

“One individual wanted to do four years here,” said Christina Holland, a correctional manager of the Santa Ana jail.

Inmates in Santa Ana who have been approved for pay to stay by the courts and have coughed up a hefty deposit for their stay, enter the jail through a lobby and not the driveway reserved for the arrival of other prisoners. They are strip searched when they return from work each day because the biggest problem they pose is the smuggling of contraband, generally cigarettes, for nonpaying inmates.

Most of the jailers require the inmates to do chores around the jails, even if they work elsewhere during the day.

“I try real hard to keep them in custody for 12 hours,” Ms. Holland said. “Because I think that’s fair.”

Critics argue that the systems create inherent injustices, offering cleaner, safer alternatives to those who can pay.

“It seems to be to be a little unfair,” said Mike Jackson, the training manager of the National Sheriff’s Association. “Two people come in, have the same offense, and the guy who has money gets to pay to stay and the other doesn’t. The system is supposed to be equitable.”

But cities argue that the paying inmates generate cash, often hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — enabling them to better afford their other taxpayer-financed operations — and are generally easy to deal with.

“We never had a problem with self pay,” said Steve Lechuga, the operations manager for CSI. “I haven’t seen any fights in years. We had a really good success rate with them.”

Stanley Goldman, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, has recommended the program to former clients.

“The prisoners who are charged with nonviolent crimes and typically have no record are not in the best position to handle themselves in the general county facility,” Professor Goldman said.

Still, no doubt about it, the self-pay jails are not to be confused with Canyon Ranch.

The cells at Santa Ana are roughly the size of a custodial closet, and share its smell and ambience. Most have little more than a pink bottle of jail-issue moisturizer and a book borrowed from the day room. Lockdown can occur for hours at a time, and just feet away other prisoners sit with their faces pressed against cell windows, looking menacing.

Ms. Brockett, who normally works as a bartender in Los Angeles, said the experience was one she never cared to repeat.

“It does look decent,” she said, “but you still feel exactly where you are.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/us/29jail.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp
Chart at this URL lists the jails, locations, costs and services.

Posted by lois at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2007

California to Address Prison Overcrowding With Giant Building Program

April 27, 2007
California to Address Prison Overcrowding With Giant Building Program
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, NY Times

LOS ANGELES, April 26 — In a move to ease chronic overcrowding, California lawmakers on Thursday approved the largest single prison construction program in the nation’s history and agreed to send 8,000 convicts to other states.

The plan, which would cost $8.3 billion and add 53,000 beds, has the strong backing of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who is eager to avert a federal takeover of the state’s prison system, one of the most dysfunctional in the nation.

California prisons are so overcrowded — 16,000 inmates are assigned cots in hallways and gyms — that the governor recently took the highly unusual step of declaring a state of emergency in the system. The state’s prisons house 173,000 inmates — far ahead of Texas, which has the next largest state prison system with 152,500 inmates — and has an $8 billion budget.

The California prisons are the subject of several lawsuits, their medical program is in federal receivership, and various other components of the system are under court monitoring. The courts had given the state until this spring to come up with an overpopulation plan or face possible receivership.

Under the plan that narrowly passed both houses of the Democratic-controlled State Legislature, the state will move prisoners out of 17,000 temporary beds in places like gymnasiums and day rooms, either through transfers to prisons in other states or to older, unused jails in California that need repairs to be brought up to building and safety codes.

The plan, aimed primarily at easing the prison population, would also free space for rehabilitative programs for inmates, lawmakers said.

Further, the state will add the 53,000 beds over the next five years by building additions to existing prisons and through construction of so-called re-entry centers, or smaller buildings where prisoners would spend the last few months of their sentences in the towns and cities where they would eventually be paroled.

The plan calls for two phases of construction, with the financing of the second phase contingent on benchmarks like the start of rehabilitation and mental health programs. The plan would be paid for over two phases with $7.1 billion in state bonds and $1.2 million in local money.

Missing from the plan were a proposed sentencing commission and a program to reduce the number of parolees who re-enter the system, components that had been embraced by Democratic lawmakers and prison reform advocates, and, this year, by the governor. Seven of 10 inmates released from California prisons return, one of the highest recidivism rates in the country.

But Mr. Schwarzenegger, made anxious by the watchful eyes of judges around the state, backed off the contentious proposals to change the parole structure and to examine sentencing practices, handing a victory to Republicans in the Legislature who would abide neither.

“The things we didn’t want to have in this bill are not in it,” said Senator George Runner, chairman of the Republican caucus in the Senate. “We need a program that keeps people incarcerated and tries to rehabilitate them. But if they can’t be rehabilitated, then we need enough beds to bring them back.”

The Democrats who ultimately voted for the plan despite its perceived shortcomings appeared to calculate that they would avoid looking soft on crime while leaving any legal fallout at the governor’s door.

The state had until the middle of May to convince the courts that it had a plan to relieve some of the overcrowding or face a takeover and the potential imposition of caps on the size of the prison population.

It was unclear on Thursday whether the bill would pass muster with the courts. For instance, recent moves by the state to send prisoners to other jurisdictions around the nation was ruled unconstitutional by a state judge; lawmakers said language in the new bill would address the judge’s concerns.

The plan also does little to change the structural problems that have led to overcrowding, like the unusual parole system, which sends former inmates with minor infractions back to prison. Further, the state’s sentencing structure is blind to the problem of prison population, meaning new inmates keep arriving regardless of the ability to accommodate them.

Don Specter, the director of the Prison Law Office, which has filed a class-action lawsuit against the state over prison conditions, said the plan did not address many of the most serious concerns raised in the courts.

“It won’t do anything to provide short-term relief on the overcrowding,” Mr. Specter said.

Like many other states, California has had large prison building programs over the years, but few come close to the size or speed of this program. For example, since 1987 when Texas began to use general obligation bonds to build prisons, the state has used $2.3 billion in such bonds to do that.

Some California lawmakers who voted against the plan expressed outrage on Thursday.

“This is not a plan,” said the Senate majority leader, Gloria Romero, Democrat of Los Angeles. “This is a classic Hollywood prop that the governor wants to have when he walks into court on May 15. All we have done is dig ourselves into a deeper hole. This plan is not workable, and I fully expect a constitutional challenge.”

For his part, Mr. Schwarzenegger seemed ebullient.

“For the first time in a decade, we can add prison beds in California,” he said in a statement. “And that does not just include traditional beds. We will add beds with programs, education, drug and mental health treatment so that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can truly live up to the rehabilitation part of its name.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27prisons.html

Posted by lois at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Spitzer must lead drug law reform

Times Union
Albany, NY
OP ED, Albany Times Union
Spitzer must lead drug law reform
By GABRIEL SAYEGH
First published: Thursday, April 26, 2007

Last week, the state Assembly passed important legislation to reform the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Queens, increases drug treatment alternatives to incarceration, expands judicial discretion to restore fairness in our courts and, critically, allows for people currently serving harsh prison terms for low-level drug offenses to seek much-needed relief.

The Assembly should be commended for passing smart reforms. But where are the governor and the state Senate on drug law reform?

While running for governor, Eliot Spitzer campaigned on a promise: "Day One, Everything Changes." Spitzer made campaign statements in support of real reform of the laws. Lt. Gov. David Paterson was a long-time reform champion while Senate minority leader. Families and advocates working for repeal of the failed Rockefeller Drug Laws were cautiously optimistic about Spitzer's promise. It seemed entirely possible that on Day One, the Rockefeller laws, after nearly 34 long, terrible years, might finally be repealed.

But in the first hundred days of the new administration, drug law reform went missing in action. Spitzer took on a variety of important issues, but the Rockefeller Drug Laws didn't even make his priority list for the end of the legislative session.

Why is it so hard to win real reform, when everyone knows these laws are racist, ineffective, wasteful and unjust? So asks longtime advocate Cheri O'Donoghue, whose son, Ashley, is serving seven to 21 years for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. Ashley is one of more than 14,000 people incarcerated under these harsh laws.

The answer to Cheri's question is downright sinister, but it's no secret. The reason the Rockefeller Drug Laws haven't been done away with is because of a despicable trinity of racism, cash cows and the U.S. census, not to mention the people who rely on this trinity for their political survival. From 1817 to 1981, New York built 33 prisons. But from 1982 to 2000, New York built 38 more prisons -- all of them upstate. The unprecedented prison boom was largely an economic development plan meant to ameliorate the job loss upstate. Rural, white communities were clamoring to build and staff prisons. The Rockefeller Drug Laws delivered the bodies with harsh mandatory-minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses.

The RAND Corp. and other think tanks have shown that drug use and abuse is roughly equal across all racial groups. But the Rockefeller Drug Laws always have been marked by severe racial bias. Today, 91 percent of the people incarcerated under these laws are black and Latino. It's a scenario we'd expect to find in an apartheid state, not a democracy.

Once elected, Spitzer proposed the possibility of closing half-empty prisons in upstate New York, saving millions of dollars. Many groups applauded Spitzer, because New York's prison population has dropped in recent years and its archaic prison industrial complex needs an overhaul. The leading voices against studying closing prisons, though, were politically very powerful. The correction officers union and upstate politicians have parlayed the politics of imprisonment into lucrative businesses and political careers. The prospects for reform have at least dimmed, if they haven't died altogether.

The plot thickens, though. More than 76 percent of the state's prison inmates come from New York City. The U.S. Census Bureau counts them as residents of the upstate prisons in which they're incarcerated, not as residents of the communities from which they came.

Why does this matter? According to the Prison Policy Initiative, if prisoners were not counted as "residents," seven upstate Senate districts would be 5 percent short of their required population size, and thus have to be redrawn. This means that senators in those districts -- all of them Republicans -- would lose their seats, causing Republicans to lose their slim Senate majority. Unsurprisingly, Senate Republicans remain staunch opponents of repealing the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Two vocal reform opponents -- Sen. Dale Volker of suburban Buffalo and Sen. Michael Nozzolio of the Finger Lakes -- have more than 17 percent of the state's prisoners in their districts. Is it any wonder why they oppose reform?

Spitzer was elected on his record as a crusader against waste and corruption, no matter what powerful interests stood in his way. Advocates for drug law reform hoped the new governor would stand up to the corruption and racism blocking real reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. He now has that chance, with the legislation passed by the Assembly and sent to the Senate. But the Senate, under Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, will block those reforms unless the governor gets more directly involved.

For the sake of justice, and families like the O'Donoghues, let's demand that the governor makes a priority of drug law reform.

Because if nothing changes, nothing changes.

Gabriel Sayegh is a project director at the Drug Policy Alliance in New York City, http://www.drugpolicy.org.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=584144

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

Amherst MA: Reading and Talk: Prisons & Punishment: Reconsidering Global Penality

Prisons & Punishment: Reconsidering Global Penality
Contributors to new volume on international incarceration trends visit

Food for Thought Books, Amherst, MA

Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 7pm

Editors Seth N. Asumah and Mechthild Nagel, along with contributors Jill Soffiyah Elijah and Diane Antonio will discuss their new book Prisons & Punishment: Reconsidering Global Penality at Food for Thought Books, 106 North Pleasant Street, Amherst. The authors will be joined by Lois Ahrens, of the Real Cost of Prisons Project, who will present an essay by Tiyo Attallah Salah-El, a scholar and activist incarcerated in a Pennsylvania prison. A booksigning and reception will follow the talk.

Prisons & Punishment is an important new contribution to the fields of criminal justice, prison studies, philosophy, law, and political science, published by Africa World Press. The book will also prove useful to activists seeking to change or abolish the punishment industry. Prisons & Punishment collects in one volume African, European, and North American scholars, prisoners, activists, and legal practitioners who offer their various perspectives and visions.

About the Authors

Seth N. Asumah is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of African American Studies at State University of New York, College at Cortland. His most recent books are Diversity, Multiculturalism and Social Justice (co-authored with Ibipo Johnston-Anumonwo, 2002), The Africana Human Conditions and Global Dimension (co-edited with Johnston-Anumonwo and John Marah, 2002), Educating the Black Child in the Black Independent School (co-authored with Valencia Perkins, 2001) and Issues in Africa and the African Diaspora in the 21st Century (co-edited with Ibipo Johnston-Anumonwo, 2001). He is a 1999 winner of the Rozanne Brooks Award for Dedication and Teaching Excellence and a 2002 recipient of "Excellence in Teaching" Award, State University of New York, College at Cortland.

Mechthild Nagel is Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Cortland and is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for African Development, Cornell University. She is author of Masking the Abject: A Genealogy of Play (Lexington, 2002) and co-editor of Race, Class, and Community Identity (Humanities, 2000). Nagel is editor-in-chief of Wagadu: A Transnational Journal of Gender and Women's Studies. She has taught college courses in maximum security prisons for men. Her current research is on African prison intellectuals and African approaches to restorative justice.

Diane Antonio is the Communications Director of the Queensboro Hill Neighborhood Assoc., work with the homeless in my community, and she ran for District Leader in the 22nd A.D. Queens. Her published work includes: "Of Wolves and Women" (Animals and Women, 1995), "The Flesh of All That Is: Merleau-Ponty, Irigaray, and Julian's 'Showings'," (SOPHIA, 2001), and "Virgin Queen, Iron Lady, Queen of Hearts: The Embodiment of Feminine Power in a Male Social Imaginary" (Politicos, 2003).

Jill Soffiyah Elijah serves as Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice Institute (CJI) at Harvard Law School (HLS). Ms. Elijah practiced law through various avenues before transitioning into the clinical practice of academia. She was a Supervising Attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS), where she defended indigent members of the Harlem, New York community. Prof. Elijah has authored several articles and publications based on her research of the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems.

Tiyo Attallah Salah-El was born and raised in southeastern Pennsylvania. He is an accomplished tenor saxophone player and a composer of jazz music. He has spent over thirty years in a medium security facility in Pennsylvania and during that time has tirelessly educated himself, with the help of dedicated teachers such as Howard Zinn. Tiyo has earned Bachelor's and Masters degrees, studying political science and African American history. His essay, "A Call for the Abolition of Prisons," has appeared in several edited volumes.

Lois Ahrens is the Founder and Project Director of Real Cost of Prisons Project. Lois has been an organizer, fundraiser and creator of progressive organizations and programs for more than thirty-five years. She has developed and directed numerous organizations many of which continue to thrive. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

food for thought books
106 n. pleasant st.
amherst, ma 01002
413.253.5432
www.foodforthoughtbooks.com

Posted by lois at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

VT: Overhalm of Prison System Could Include More People Sent Out of State

Editorial: Prisons plan seeks path to lower costs

Published: Thursday, April 26, 2007

Sen. Richard Sears has put forward an approach too rarely broached by lawmakers this session with his proposal to save the state money with a sweeping overhaul of Vermont's prison system.

The boldness of the senator's plan floated before the Senate Appropriations Committee has to do with his willingness to look at ways to reduce the amount of money the state spends to meets its obligations instead of taking the much-traveled route of seeking -- usually through taxes -- additional money to cover rising costs.

Sears, a Democrat from Bennington, proposes closing the state's most expensive prison -- Dale Correctional Facility for women in Waterbury -- converting another women's prison into a low-security jail for men, and consolidating the female inmate population at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. The state would also send more prisoners out of state, where inmates are held for less than half of what it costs in Vermont prisons.

All these changes could save the state as much as $4 million, according to Sears. Vermont is spending $128 million on corrections, up 16.4 percent from the $110 million in 2006, and more than the state spends on higher education, as the popular comparison goes.

The state's prison population, already straining the corrections system, is expected to grow by 33 percent by 2011, an increase driven by more and longer prison sentences, and the increasing chance of former inmates' being incarcerated again for probation or parole violations. Lawmakers have called the growth in the prison population, and the rising costs that go with it, unsustainable.

The senator's plan is far from perfect. Chittenden County might not be the best site for the women's prison, given that South Burlington handles 40 percent of inmates in the corrections system, according to Darryl Graham, a steward for the state employees union at the prison. Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility also plays host to as many as 1,500 people a year who are brought there drunk and kept until they sober up.

Practical consideration might mean that some other prison would be better suited as the state's sole facility for female inmates, but it's not the details that matter here. The significant thing about Sears' plan is that he proposes shuffling the deck of existing resources and options to come up with a hand that costs less than what the state has now.

Too often, lawmakers seek more money as the first option, an option that usually leaves Vermonters with the bill. Sen. Sears is looking for a solution as if taxpayers matter.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070426/OPINI
ON/704260316/1006

Posted by lois at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2007

CA:: $7.4 Billion Prison & Construction Bill Passes Legislature and Goes to Gov.

April 26, 2007.
Prison Bill Passes Legislature and Goes to Governor
By Frank D. Russo

The California Assembly passed AB 900, the $7.4 billion prison and jail construction measure this morning, with a minimum of debate on a 69-0 vote. Only four Members of the Assembly spoke on the measure, all in favor.

Shortly before the vote, the bill that had been AB 900 dealing with the California Transportation Committee was "gutted and amended," and the amendments that now constitute the bill, were inserted. Even the author of the bill changed from Speaker Nunez to one authored by Jose Solorio, the Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

The California Senate debate was much more spirited and there was substantial opposition to the bill on procedural, financial, and substantive grounds. The first vote fell well short with 11 opposed. As a two-thirds vote bill, 27 of the 40 Senators in the affirmative were needed for it to pass. A "call" was placed on the vote so that Senator Machado, the presenter of the bill in the Senate, could secure the votes necessary for it to pass. A number of other bills and resolutions were taken up by the Senate. Senator Perata asked several times if Machado wanted to "lift the call" and allow the voting to proceed again, but he declined. After almost an hour had passed, the Republican Senators went into a private caucus, leaving Democrats milling about the floor.
The bill passed shortly after Noon with exactly the votes needed, 27-10, when after the roll was called several times, Senator Negrete McLeod changed her vote from "no" to "aye." The bill received 18 Democratic votes and 9 Republican votes in the Senate. 4 Republicans and 6 Democrats opposed the bill. Two Republicans and one Democrat did not vote on it.

Senator Tom McClintock, a conservative Republican led off the debate on the bill after Senator Machado delivered his opening statement in presenting it. McClintock was principled and raised questions about the lack of any "cost savers" in the bill, citing the $42,000 per inmate per year involved in incarceration, a cost he said had astronomically increased in recent years, mostly under Governor Schwarzenegger. He also compared the six figure costs of construction of prison cells and bed per inmate with that of other states. His preferred solution--contracting out the custody of prisoners to private companies who can do so at much reduced costs.

McClintock also argued against the use of revenue bonds to finance the construction, which he argued, deprived the voters of their constitutional right to "vote on taxpayer supported debt." He spoke of the unprecedented borrowing in the bill.

Another issue raised by Republican Senators Aanestad and Cogdill involved the process of passing the bill was one of process and the lack of a public hearing and the bill being in print for all to see. Aanestad said of the Assembly's vote right after the amendments were maide "I'll wager you that of the 69 decision makers, that 65 never read the bill." He then said to his fellow Senators, "I'll bet very few of you have read the bill." He brought up the size of the bill, $15 billion by the time interest on the bonds was included and concluded "I'm pushing for a policy hearing."

Senator Perata vacated the Chair of the Senate and minced no words in his floor speech, which was powerful in support of the bill. He acknowledged its faults and predicted that actual implementation by the Governor will be fraught with difficulty. He started out: "There's not a Democrat here who likes this bill. Those who vote for it do so with reservations." As to the process, he said "If anyone believes this is a new issue, yuou have been sleeping through class all year," citing the multiple hearings of Senator Machado's committee on prisons.

Perata told those concerned about costs that if they thought they were writing big checks now, to wait for a Federal Court judge tells you to write even bigger ones.

Perata blistered the management of the state prisons, doubting that they can get the job done, saying "The one thing they tried to build, a death chamber, they couldn't build." This was an explicit reference to the recent fiasco where there was an attempt to hide costs to keep the construction under the $400,000 threshold which triggers a requirement the legislature be notified. He mentioned the fact that the Director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said he didn't even know that construction was going on, and Perata said this did not build confidence in the Department.

He also spoke of the many times that legislators failed to ask when voting to increase sentences about the cost and criticized reaching to the ballot box to ratchet up sentences. He said that elected officials had fallen in love with "a most undocumented myth," that lengthy incarceration makes us safer and said Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger were each as much as fault for the problem of today as each other. In the end he said there was no better choice and the problem would only get worse if there was a failure to act immediately.

In the end, without a vote to spare, that is what has happened. Perata called it "a lousy vote" and that's a good characterization. He spoke from his heart today and gave a speech that should be watched or listened to as it becomes available.

I know that there will be many who will be disappointed about this bill, which was the product of intense negotiations. It will most probably be contested in court. Implementation will be the key and will require vigilance and perseverance so that the promise of rehabilitation will be part of what is reaped from this bill. There is much to do on sentencing, parole, and probation reform that the legislature and Governor need to work on and that are not part of this bill.

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/04/prison_bill_pas.html

Posted by lois at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Legislator responds as to why she voted against "gender responsive" prisons

The SF Chronicle blasted those who opposed AB76, which would build a few thousand new gender-responsive prison beds for women. Below is the response from one of the Democrats on Public Safety who voted against the bill...

Fiona Ma responds

Editor -- Your April 24 editorial about prison reform missed the mark on AB76. While well-intentioned, I couldn't support the original measure because it created 4,500 new beds for female inmates run by for-profit prisons. As the saying goes, "when you're in a hole, stop digging.''

I agree with The Chronicle that the state has completely failed in prison reform, and my experience is that county officials are best prepared to handle the state's nonviolent offenders. I supported AB1655, which will keep kids out of the California Youth Authority and bring them closer to home. In their home counties, networks of support can help turn their lives around. AB76 provides none of the same guarantees.

While The Chronicle indicated it knew of no one in Sacramento proposing to backfill beds, this isn't a secret discussion. Corrections Secretary James Tilton proposed increasing the number of women's beds in a July 2006 report, "Inmate Population, Rehabilitation and Housing Management Plan,'' stating that "Activation of 4,500 Female Rehabilitative Community Correctional Center (FRCCC) beds will provide additional female capacity through April 2020."

In a report in the Los Angeles Times, the governor's press secretary indicated his office would attempt to add these beds through negotiations with legislative leaders, regardless of the outcome of AB76.

California's taxpayers deserve better than giving this administration a blank check for costly prison expansion. With Corrections engaged in new prison construction at San Quentin without legislative approval, now is not the time to keep digging.

FIONA MA
Assembly Majority Whip
Sacramento

Posted by lois at 05:40 PM | Comments (0)

VA: PROTEST CALLED TO DENOUNCE RICHMOND "URBAN WARFARE EXERCISES"

This is almost unbelievable but is in fact true.

ACTION ALERT from The Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 l Ph: 804.644.5834 l E-mail:
DefendersFJE@hotmail.com l www.DefendersFJE.org

PROTEST CALLED TO DENOUNCE RICHMOND "URBAN WARFARE EXERCISES"

Four Richmond organizations have joined forces to denounce the "Urban Warfare Exercises" now being conducted in the city by the U.S. Marine Corps and the FBI.

The Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, Richmond Peace Education Center, Virginia Anti-War Network and VCU Anti-War Network will hold a protest vigil in the 900 block of East Broad Street outside Richmond City Hall from 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. Sunday, April 29.

"In light of the horrific shootings this month at Virginia Tech, it is totally inappropriate for the government to subject the residents of Richmond to the sights and sounds of simulated urban warfare," said Ana Edwards, spokesperson for the Defenders, the Richmond-based community organization that initiated the protest. The Defenders earlier called on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder to appeal to the Marine Corps and FBI to cancel the exercises. Neither official has responded to that request.

The 11-day urban warfare exercises were scheduled to begin April 19 "two days after the Virginia Tech tragedy "and culminate with a ground exercise on the evening of April 29.

According to a press release issued by the office of Mayor L. Douglas Wilder on April 17, the day after the Virginia Tech shootings, "Citizens may see and hear low-flying helicopters during the time period and may hear simulated sounds of combat, including gunfire with blank ammunition, particularly on April 29."

Edwards noted that the time period mentioned includes April 20, the day designated as a national day of mourning for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings.

"This exercise is inappropriate on so many levels," Edwards said. "First, the sound of gunfire will be deeply disturbing to many city residents, particularly children, already upset by the tragic events at Virginia Tech. Second, it perpetuates the atmosphere of conflict that can create a context for such senseless acts of violence. And third, it implies official local support for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

According to Capt. Clark Carpenter, spokesperson for the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, the Marines involved in the exercise "will be deployed soon and this training is critical."

The mayor's release also points to one more disturbing aspect of the exercises: the cooperation of the FBI -- a domestic investigative and law enforcement agency -- with the military.

"We are pleased to support the Marine Corps in its efforts to better prepare our soldiers for potential combat in urban areas abroad as well as right here on home soil, if ever needed," Mayor Wilder states in the release.

For more information, please call (804) 644-5834 or e-mail DefendersFJE@hotmail.com.

The following 37 organizations and individuals have called for the cancellation of the "Urban Warfare Exercises"

Forrest Akers, Richmond community activist -- Black Campus Progressives, Hampton University -- Breanne Armbrust, VP, Communications Workers of America Local 2201, Richmond * -- Janet Armstead, Block Captain Coordinator, 7 Eyes of Jackson Ward Neighborhood Watch, Richmond -- Margaret Breslau, Steering Committee, Virginia Anti-War Network, Blacksburg -- Rain Burroughs, A28.org Richmond impeachment event -- Charlottesville Center for Peace & Justice -- Duron Chavis, Happily Natural Day, Get Conscious Think Collective, Richmond -- Elena Day, Charlottesville -- Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, Richmond -- John Gallini, Pax Christi Richmond -- Hampton Roads Peace & Justice Coalition -- Lois Jones, Richmond Women in Black * -- Lillie Kennedy, R. I. H. D., Inc., nonprofit volunteer group -- Kathleen Kenney, former director, Richmond Catholic Diocese Office of Peace and Justice * -- Malachy Kilbride, member, D.C. Anti-War Network; bd. member, Washington Peace Center; national coordinating committee member, Declaration of Peace * -- Michelle R. Kirby, Co-founder, Richmond Women in Black * -- Allen Layman, President, United Electrical Workers Local 160, Staunton -- Jamilah LeCruise, student, University of Richmond * -- Little Flower Catholic Worker, Louisa County -- Rev. Dr. Paul S. Martin, Change Of Heart Ventures Evangelistic Ministries, Richmond -- Luna Negra, Norfolk peace activist -- Tom Palumbo, member, Veterans For Peace, Norfolk * -- Pax Christi Richmond -- The People United, Shannon Farms -- Robin Edward Poulton, President, V-Peace, Virginia Institute for Peace and Islamic Studies, Richmond -- Prosser-Truth Division #456, UNIA-ACL, Richmond -- The Richmond Defender newspaper -- Richmond Green Party -- Richmond Peace Education Center -- Tanja Softic, Associate Professor, University of Richmond * -- David Swanson, D.C. Director, Democrats.com; co-founder, AfterDowningStreet.org; bd. member, Progressive Democrats of America * -- United Parents Against Lead United, Inc., Richmond -- VCU Anti-War Network -- Virginia Anti-War Network (VAWN) -- Woodbridge Workers Committee -- Cathy Woodson, Board Chair, Richmond Peace Education Center

* Organization listed for identification purposes only

Posted by lois at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2007

Urban Institute Study: Former prisoners struggle with new lives

Former prisoners struggle with new lives, study says
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 3:23 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A new study confirms some things prison officials have long known: The deck is stacked against former inmates, and the communities where they return suffer along with them.

One Year Out, a study by the Urban Institute Justice Policy Center based on interviews with nearly 300 Ohio prisoners who returned to the Cleveland area, found they faced significant problems that often drove them back to prison. The Urban Institute is a Washington-based, nonpartisan, nonprofit education and research organization.

"One year after release, the men in the study had little stability in their lives and desperately needed community services to help them succeed," said Christy A Visher, principal researcher and the study's co-author. "Most were living in temporary housing, were not working full-time and had health problems that required medical attention."

The Cleveland study was part of a three-year project examining the experiences of inmates returning home to Ohio, Illinois, Maryland and Texas.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is expected to release up to 30,000 prisoners this year. After three years, 38 percent will be back behind bars, according to the study's figures.

"We can't solve this problem by ourselves," prisons chief Terry Collins said. "Regardless of what anybody does, we all deserve a second chance to do the right thing."

He said several state and community agencies plus faith-based organizations are working cooperatively to help ease re-entry problems.

Collins said he's had "long talks" with Gov. Ted Strickland, a former prison psychologist. Strickland asked Collins to come up with creative solutions to ease prison overcrowding and reduce recidivism.

In the Urban Institute study, researchers interviewed 294 of 424 initial participants one year after they were released. By then, 56 were back in jail or prison.

They found that just one in three had full-time jobs, about half were living in the same neighborhood as before they went to prison and 40 percent had been arrested at least once in the preceding year.

Many said they lived in areas where drugs are a big problem, and most reported using alcohol and drugs.

The study showed overall that community services are stretched to the breaking point by the demands of 650,000 prisoners released annually in the U.S.

Visher said that the findings "point to important policy opportunities for change -- both in prison and in the community -- that would reduce recidivism, reduce illegal drug use, and increase public safety in Cleveland's neighborhoods. Many of these policy changes are not expensive."

Among the recommendations were providing housing assistance immediately after release, coupled with employment assistance and substance-abuse treatment. The study also suggested involving families more closely in prisoners' re-entry, allowing more liberal partner visitation during incarceration and offering marriage-support services after release.

ajohnson@dispatch.com
Life after prison

Key findings one year after release:

• Housing: 46 percent were living with a parent or sibling, 33 percent with a spouse or intimate partner.

• Employment: Fewer than half had a job; 37 percent were working full-time, 11 percent part-time.

• Relationships: 27 percent said family support was the most important factor keeping them out of prison.

• Health: 59 percent reported a physical illness 12 months after release; 33 percent were receiving treatment.

• Substance use: 35 percent reported drug or alcohol use; 18 percent used more than once a week.

• Parole violations and recidivism: 15 percent returned to prison, most for a new crime, the rest for parole violations; 29 percent reported committing at least one crime since release; 40 percent reported having been arrested.

Source: Urban Institute Justice Policy Center http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/04/24/REENTRY.ART_ART_04-24-07_D5_KQ6FNMF.html
This and other news about obstacles to returning home after prison can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Posted by lois at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)

Prison Legal News Settles First Amendment Suit with CA

Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Last modified Friday, April 13, 2007

California settles First Amendment lawsuit with Prison Legal News

By: Associated Press -

SACRAMENTO -- California prison officials have agreed to provide a nonprofit legal newsletter to state inmates to settle a First Amendment lawsuit filed this week in federal court.

The lawsuit by Seattle-based Prison Legal News alleges that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated inmates' free speech and due process rights by blocking inmates from receiving their paid subscriptions to the monthly publication. The newsletter covers legal news like court decisions and gives legal self-help advice to inmates.

The department agreed in December to pay the publisher $65,100, most of which will go for five-year subscriptions of the newsletter for each of the 157 prison legal libraries at its 33 adult prisons. The department also agreed to update its mail policy to eliminate several restrictions it had placed on publications.

The publication's attorneys filed the suit Thursday in federal court in Oakland to ensure the settlement is legally binding, said Amy Whelan, an attorney for the newsletter.

Prison Legal News has about 5,000 subscribers, 80 percent of whom are in jail or prison. About 1,000 subscribers are in California prisons. The company also publishes more than 40 books, some of which have been blocked from reaching inmates who ordered them, the suit alleges.

"This is an important vindication of significant constitutional rights," Paul Wright, the newsletter's editor and publisher, said in a statement.

Corrections spokesman Seth Unger said the publications were blocked under policies that required publishers to be on an "approved vendors list," that prohibited hardcover books for security reasons, restricted the weight of mail inmates could receive, and limited the amount of written material an inmate could have at one time.

"It was not an attempt at censorship," Unger said.

However, the department is changing all those policies under the settlement.

Prison Legal News has won similar lawsuits or settlements in Alabama, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04/14/news/state/21_57_444_13_07.prt

Posted by lois at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)

Dallas Morning News (!) Editorial- "Death No More" -Tx should abandon death penalty

Death no more
Dallas Morning News
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Ernest Ray Willis set a fire that killed two women in Pecos County. So said Texas prosecutors who obtained a conviction in 1987 and sent Mr. Willis to death row. But it wasn't true.

Seventeen years later, a federal judge overturned the conviction, finding that prosecutors had drugged Mr. Willis with powerful anti-psychotic medication during his trial and then used his glazed appearance to characterize him as "cold-hearted." They also suppressed evidence and introduced neither physical proof nor eyewitnesses in the trial – and his court-appointed lawyers mounted a lousy defense. Besides, another death-row inmate confessed to the killings.

The state dropped all charges. Ernest Ray Willis emerged from prison a pauper. But he was lucky: He had his life. Not so Carlos De Luna, who was executed in 1989 for the stabbing death of a single mother who worked at a gas station. For years, another man with a history of violent crimes bragged that he had committed the crime. The case against Mr. De Luna, in many eyes, does not stand up to closer examination.

There are signs he was innocent. We don't know for sure, but we do know that if the state made a mistake, nothing can rectify it.

And that uncomfortable truth has led this editorial board to re-examine its century-old stance on the death penalty. This board has lost confidence that the state of Texas can guarantee that every inmate it executes is truly guilty of murder. We do not believe that any legal system devised by inherently flawed human beings can determine with moral certainty the guilt of every defendant convicted of murder.
Also Online

That is why we believe the state of Texas should abandon the death penalty – because we cannot reconcile the fact that it is both imperfect and irreversible.

Flaws in the capital criminal justice system have troubled us for some timeyears. We have editorialized in favor of clearer instructions to juries, better counsel for defendants, the overhaul of forensic labs and restrictions on the execution of certain classes of defendant. We have urged lawmakers to at least put in place a moratorium, as other states have, to closely examine the system.

And yet, despite tightening judicial restrictions and growing concern, the exonerations keep coming, and the doubts keep piling up without any reaction from Austin.

From our vantage point in Dallas County, the possibility of tragic, fatal error in the death chamber appears undeniable. We have seen a parade of 13 men walk out of the prison system after years – even decades – of imprisonment for crimes they didn't commit. Though not death penalty cases, these examples – including an exoneration just last week – reveal how shaky investigative techniques and reliance on eyewitnesses can derail the lives of the innocent.

The Tulia and the fake-drug scandals have also eroded public confidence in the justice system. These travesties illustrate how greed and bigotry can poison the process.

It's hard to believe that such pervasive human failings have never resulted in the death of an innocent man.

In 2001, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said, "If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed."

Some death penalty supporters acknowledge that innocents may have been and may yet be executed, but they argue that serving the greater good is worth risking that unfortunate outcome. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argues that the Byzantine appeals process effectively sifts innocent convicts from the great mass of guilty, and killing the small number who fall through is a risk he's willing to live with. According to polls, most Texans are, too. But this editorial board is not.

Justice Scalia calls these innocents "an insignificant minimum." But that minimum is not insignificant to the unjustly convicted death-row inmate. It is not insignificant to his or her family. This marks a transgression against the Western moral tradition, which establishes both the value of the individual and the wrongness of making an innocent suffer for the supposed good of the whole. Shedding innocent blood has been a scandal since Cain slew Abel – a crime for which, the Bible says, God spared the murderer, who remained under harsh judgment.

This newspaper's death penalty position is based not on sympathy for vile murderers – who, most agree, deserve to die for their crimes – but rather in the conviction that not even the just dispatch of 10, 100, or 1,000 of these wretches can remove the stain of innocent blood from our common moral fabric.

This is especially true given that our society can be adequately guarded from killers using bloodless means. In 2005, the Legislature gave juries the option of sentencing killers to life without parole.

The state holds in its hands the power of life and death. It is an awesome power, one that citizens of a democracy must approach in fear and trembling, and in full knowledge that the state's justice system, like everything humanity touches, is fated to fall short of perfection. If we are doomed to err in matters of life and death, it is far better to err on the side of caution. It is far better to err on the side of life. The state cannot impose death – an irrevocable sentence – with absolute certainty in all cases. Therefore the state should not impose it at all.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-toy_01edi.ART.State.Edition1.43b925d.html#

Posted by lois at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)

Mississippi: Prison opponents fail to get enough signatures to force vote

Prison opponents fail to get enough signatures to force vote

By Joan Gandy, The Natchez democrat
April 24, 2007

NATCHEZ — A 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline passed without the filing of a petition to request a vote on a new federal prison in Adams County.

Charles Wheat issued a written statement on behalf of the Concerned Citizens of Adams County late Tuesday saying the group failed to get the 1,500 signatures necessary to request the vote.

Two companies are interested in building a federal prison on the outskirts of town, one on county airport property and the other on U.S. 84.

Chancery Clerk Tommy O’Beirne, also secretary to the Adams County Board of Supervisors, said he will report to the board at an 8 a.m. meeting today that no petitions were filed.

“In the absence of the filing, the board will meet and there will be a resolution adopted by the board that no one filed,” O’Beirne said.

“We’ll make notice of that so that the people can go forward with the correctional facility,” he said.

Darryl Grennell, president of the Board of Supervisors, reacted with enthusiasm as he walked up the steps to the chancery clerk’s office shortly after 5 p.m.

“This is good news for Adams County,” Grennell said. “It seems to me the people of Adams County have spoken. It says to me that we have made the right decision.”

One of the prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America, wants to take advantage of Katrina-related GO-Zone legislation that would offer the company financial breaks if they build soon.

Because the company would like to have the facility built before the federal contract is awarded, construction probably would need to begin by July, an economic development official has said.

Wheat and Robert Palmer spearheaded the petition drive, iterating that their purpose was not to prevent the building of a prison but to give voters an opportunity to choose.

“The voting public in Adams County has spoken,” their written statement says. They declined to comment directly on the issue Tuesday.

“Not signing a petition to take the prison issue to an election sent a very clear message.

“Whatever the reasons that many of you felt the need not to exercise your right to vote on such an important issue, the fact remains now that less than five elected individuals will be allowed to make a decisions that affects everyone in the county.”

Tim Trottier, president and CEO of Natchez Community Hospital, and Jack Sours, vice president and general manager of the Isle of Capri Casino and Hotel, accompanied Grennell to the clerk’s office at the end of the day Tuesday.

“Jack and I represent privately owned businesses that are two of the biggest employers in the county,” Trottier said.

“We think it’s so important our elected officials get our support for this important opportunity.”

Sours agreed. “We’re very excited about this. As part of the business community, we know this will be good for the economy of the area.”

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/articles/2007/04/24/news/news229.txt

Posted by lois at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)

MS: Church leaders see opportunity in proposed prison facility

Church leaders see opportunity in proposed prison facility
By Joan Gandy, The Natchez democrat
April 24, 2007

NATCHEZ — Church leaders polled Tuesday agree that a federal prison in Natchez brings benefits to the community.

The Rev. David O’Connor, pastor at St. Mary Basilica and Assumption Catholic Church, said prisons are a part of society and must be accepted as such.

It’s an amazing opportunity for ministry, as well,” O’Connor said. “I’ve been to Woodville many, many times. Those people need ministry in a big way. We can help them find direction with their lives.”

O’Connor referred to the federal prison built in Wilkinson County near Woodville, where several Natchez churches have regular ministries among the inmates.

The Wilkinson County facility is a Corrections Corporation of America prison. CCA is seeking a site to build a prison in Natchez, estimating that it will house 1,500 mostly nonviolent inmates.

The prison is estimated to be a $90 million construction project. When completed, it would employ about 300 people.

O’Connor said the jobs are important. “If a prison brings jobs to the community, I’m in favor of that,” he said.



The Rev. Steve Pearson, pastor at Community Chapel Church of God, agreed.



“I’m for the prison for several reasons — first of all, for all the job opportunities,” he said. “The economic opportunity is tremendous, and it’s long term.”

Pearson also believes a community that has a prison has a chance to offer special ministries within the prison.



“I’d love to have the opportunity for that kind of ministry,” he said.



“Third, I think having the prison here would be a way to give back to our country,” Pearson said.



“Prisons often are looked at as negative, but I think they’re important and make a contribution to our nation.

”Prison ministries already exist at First Assembly of God, the church where the Rev. Doug Wright is pastor.

Wright said a prison in Natchez “would be a wonderful opportunity for the churches to reach out and share Christ’s gospel with the inmates.”

His church has ministries at the Wilkinson County prison as well as at some prisons in Louisiana, Wright said.



“Many of the inmates realize their need to get right with God,” Wright said. “They can be transformed and rehabilitated and, when they are released, they can become productive members of society.”


The Rev. Dennis Flach, pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church, said he has seen advertisements on cable TV stations that put the construction of a prison in positive light.



The ad centers on “who goes to prison,” referring to the several hundred employees there, he said. “It’s a very positive and sound message about the real opportunity for Natchez and Adams County,” Flach said.

Prisoners will prompt a need for ministry, Flach said. “We’ll have a need to respond to prisoners to let them know their situations are not hopeless.”

O’Connor said his time spent in the Wilkinson County prison convinced him that such new prisons are totally safe for a community.

“There is just no way for inmates to get out of these new prisons. You’d have to be a miracle worker,” he said.

O’Connor has seen the transformation that can take place through prison ministry.

“There is great ministry to be done there,” he said. “They are very vulnerable. I would like to see prisons with major rehabilitation programs. My heart would be comfortable with that.”

O’Connor believes the Natchez Ministerial Alliance will take an active part in ministering to prisoners if the CCA facility or another one is built in Natchez.

The Rev. Dr. John Larson, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, said the most immediate impact on the community would be the construction of the facility.

He noted the sadness of the need to continue building more prisons.

“I don’t think prisons are a threat, but I do think it’s sad that we don’t have enough prisons and have to keep building them,” Larson said.

CCA is one of two prison companies vying for the federal contract to build a federal prison in the area. Pike County voters have rejected their county as a site. Walthall County is a possible alternate site.

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/articles/2007/04/24/news/news230.txt

Posted by lois at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

IN: 6 Articles on Prison Riot in New Castle including background on prison transfers, GEO and New Castle

Critics say prisons-for-pay lead to problems
By KEITH ROYSDON, kroysdon@muncie.gannett.com
April 25, 2007

MUNCIE -- More than $37 billion is spent on incarcerating inmates in the country's jails and prisons each year, and critics of the private prison industry said Tuesday that riots like the one at the New Castle Correctional Facility are often sparked by cost-cutting measures.

"You get what you pay for," said Kent Kopczynski, director of the Private Corrections Institute, a group critical of the private prison industry and the privatization of prisons.

Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative agreed.
"As a general matter, private prisons cut corners," Wagner said. "Private prisons cost as much as public prisons, so the only way they can make a profit is to cut corners."

Inmates at the New Castle facility rioted Tuesday, causing injuries to two guards and damage to the facility. The prison is run by the GEO Group. Under the name Wackenhut, the company considered locating a facility in Delaware County in the late 1990s.

When guards call in sick, services or recreation programs can be cut, Wagner noted, causing unrest among inmates.

Officials on Tuesday cited the role of inmates from Arizona in the riot. More than 600 Arizona inmates -- housed at New Castle after an arrangement among the two states and GEO Group, which operates the privatized state facility -- were housed at the facility this week. As many as 1,260 Arizona inmates were to have been housed in the prison, which has a capacity of 2,400 beds.

The prison also housed 1,050 Indiana inmates as of Tuesday.

Kopczynski said importing inmates from another state -- such as the Arizona inmates at the New Castle prison -- can also increase the possibility of disturbances.

"It's run like a hotel," he said. "They've got to fill the beds. If they can't fill the beds with Indiana natives, they've got to bring them in from elsewhere. You bring in inmates from out of state, and you have a blow-up between inmates."

The prison industry in the United States is a big one. CNNMoney reported in March that $37 billion is spent on corrections each year in an effort to keep more than 2 million inmates incarcerated.

Kopczynski said the problem of "understaffed and underpaid employees" was common in private prisons.

"In a public facility, the staff is reasonably paid, you have health insurance, retirement," he said. "The privateers don't have that. At one GEO facility when the company was still Wackenhut, less than 10 percent of employees participated in the retirement plan because the company paid so much less than they did."
http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/NEWS01/704250337/1002

New Castle mayor still supports Arizona prison pact

By JOY LEIKER, jleiker@muncie.gannett.com
April 25, 2007
http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/NEWS01/704250335/1002

NEW CASTLE -- The city of New Castle has no written plan on how to respond to an emergency at the New Castle Correctional Facility.

Mayor Tom Nipp, who previously has heralded the addition of jobs and inmates at the prison, didn't back down from that support Tuesday night, hours after Indiana and Arizona inmates had rioted inside the prison located on the city's north side.

The addition of inmates, including those from Arizona in the past six weeks, has resulted in more jobs at the prison. The mayor said that's what is important to the people of New Castle.

"Every emergency has to be dealt with individually," the mayor said, noting that the city's emergency operations plan doesn't have a specific chapter on the prison.

When an emergency occurs, Nipp said responders don't have time to review a thick book of procedures. They must do what they did Tuesday -- act. He said he was proud of how quickly his department heads and emergency officials had responded.

"An emergency plan has to be rather brief," he said as he thumbed through a copy inside his office. It's contained inside a single three-ring binder.

Nipp said off-duty personnel were called into work to be on standby at the city's fire stations and ambulance bays so they could respond to other non-prison-related calls that might come in. The city's police department was also operating with extra officers.

"My number one priority had to be to take care of my citizens," the mayor said. "We felt really comfortable that our citizens were secure."

The business is incarceration, and business is good
New Castle prison's private operator likely can weather riots like one in Indiana, analyst says

By Erika D. Smith, erika.smith@indystar.com
April 25, 2007
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/BUSINESS/704250485/-1/ZONES04

GEO Group, the Florida-based company that runs New Castle Correctional Facility, is one of the oldest private prison operators in North America.

Led by industry veteran George C. Zoley, considered by some to be a "grandfather" in the industry, the publicly traded company has operations around the world in industries that include prison management, health care and government services.

"They have a very strong track record of working with a number of states and other countries," said Geoff Segal, a prison-privatization expert and director of government reform for the Libertarian think tank The Reason Foundation.

In the United States alone, GEO Group runs or owns about 50 prisons, mostly in the South. The company said Monday it signed a contract to open a 1,500-bed facility in Laredo, Texas.

GEO Group is growing fast -- just like the industry.

The company, which is second only to Corrections Corp. of America in the number of prisons and prisoners it oversees, had an average two-year net revenue growth of about 22 percent.

Business is so good, in fact, that prison riots don't necessarily hurt a company financially, analysts say. Not in the long run, anyway.

"It's not the case that if you have a riot, you're going to lose a contract," said Anton Hie, an analyst with Jefferies.

GEO Group's stock price did take a hit Tuesday, though. It fell $1.12, or 2.2 percent, to close at $48.78.

Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, said little about the New Castle riot, saying employees hadn't assessed the situation.

"We have policies and procedures in place," he said. "At this point, the focus is to bring the situation under control."

Privately run prisons account for about 6 percent of the U. S. prison population -- and that population is expected to grow over the next decade.

The industry is highly consolidated, and its reach is growing.

At the same time, the federal government has stopped building prisons, and states such as Arizona are discovering it's cheaper to ship their prisoners elsewhere than to build prisons of their own.

Also, states such as Indiana are starting to see private prisons as a moneymaker because demand is so high and the supply of beds is not, said Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the watchdog Private Corrections Institute.

"The market is so tight that there's a bidding war going on," he said.

GEO Group has started building more of its own facilities, in addition to managing them, as it does in New Castle.

"You can't be evicted from your own facility," Hie said.

However, Kopczynski said GEO Group faces the same problems as the rest of the industry. Turnover at private prison companies is about 50 percent, compared with about 15 percent at public prisons, he said.

"They answer to the shareholders," he said, "so they make cuts whenever possible."

Inmate imports suspended by New Castle riot

By TOM MURPHY
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 12:47 AM CDT http://nwitimes.com/articles/2007/04/25/ap-state-in/d8oneik80.txt

NEW CASTLE, Ind. - Indiana officials suspended plans to accept
hundreds of more inmates from Arizona following a two-hour riot at a
state prison run by a private company.

Authorities were investigating whether the two-hour fracas that
involved about 500 inmates started Tuesday afternoon because some of
the newly arrived prisoners from Arizona were upset about their
treatment at the medium-security men's prison.

The riot, during which two staff members and seven prisoners suffered
minor injuries, involved inmates from both states, and none escaped
from the New Castle Correctional Facility, officials said.

Prison guard Larry Savage said he, two other guards and three
maintenance workers barricaded themselves in a room as dozens of
inmates tried to break in before a prison response team arrived about
15 minutes later.

"They were wrapped up in masks, with sticks, knives, shanks," Savage
said of the inmates. "They were just flexing their muscles and they
wanted to show that they could take the prison over at any time, and
that's what they did."

Inmates set mattresses and paper afire in the courtyard and destroyed
furniture, broke windows as some armed themselves with clubs before
the prison was secured, officials said.

Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue said
the riot began after a group of inmates from Arizona took off their
shirts in the prison's recreation area to show staff they wouldn't
comply with orders. They had been told to keep the shirts on.

Some troubles continued hours after order was restored, as at one
point the staff set off several percussion grenades inside the prison
after some inmates became unruly, Donahue said.

The disturbance occurred six weeks after the first of some 600
Arizona inmates began joining 1,050 Indiana prisoners at the facility
about 45 miles east of Indianapolis.

Donahue said he has delayed the transfer of 600 more inmates from
Arizona until authorities can reassess the condition of the prison.

"This system is different than what they are accustomed to," Donahue
said.

Indiana House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, criticized the
Daniels administration's decision to take in inmates from Arizona.

"You are bringing outside elements into a prison situation and also
bringing their gangs and their culture," Bauer said. "These prisoners
also have friends and families (back in Arizona). I think it was
inevitable. ... I think it was a bad idea from a financial standpoint
of view and a social point of view."

Some of the newly arrived inmates had complained about a lack of
recreation and other programs, said Trina Randall, a spokeswoman for
GEO Group Inc., the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that in January
2006 took over the prison's management.

The injured staff members suffered cuts and scrapes, while the
injuries to inmates involved tear gas exposure and minor cuts. All
seven inmates were treated at the prison, Randall said.

Arizona Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katie Decker said at
least some of the transferred inmates had complained about being
moved, which was prompted by the state's shortage of prison space.
She said the inmates sent to New Castle were "carefully picked"
before being transferred and could have "no predisposition to violence."

Gov. Mitch Daniels praised the response by prison staff and police
agencies to the disturbance.

"Corrections is a high-risk business managing high-risk offenders,"
Daniels said in a statement. "These events always remind us of the
unseen bravery and service of those who protect us by guarding those
who have harmed society in the past."

Indiana's agreement with Arizona came nearly three months after a
plan fell through under which California was to send 1,260 of its
inmates to the prison. That plan was scrapped because of a lawsuit
against California over the possible transfer and a lack of inmates
willing to volunteer to make the cross-country move.

Savage, the prison guard, credited the prison's emergency team with
saving his life.

"Our weapons team kept them down," he said. "Because of them I get to
go home tonight and see my three kids and my wife."

Associated Press writers Charles Wilson in New Castle, Ken Kusmer and
Mike Smith in Indianapolis and Bob Christie in Phoenix contributed to
this story.

Doubts smolder in day of mayhem
Hundreds riot at New Castle prison

By Tim Evans, Karen Eschbacher and Vic Ryckaert, tim.evans@indystar.com
April 25, 2007
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/LOCAL1803/704250424/0/ZONES04

NEW CASTLE, Ind. -- A riot Tuesday by Arizona inmates at the New Castle Correctional Facility is the latest in a string of uprisings by prisoners shipped to other states and has renewed debate over the practice in Indiana.

Department of Correction officials said nine people -- two prison workers and seven inmates -- suffered minor injuries in separate disturbances involving a total of about 500 Arizona and Indiana prisoners during a two-hour period Tuesday afternoon.

State officials have temporaryily halted the transfer of any additional out-of-state prisoners to New Castle as they investigate the incident.

Commissioner J. David Donahue said the Arizona prisoners may have been upset because Indiana prisons have different rules, including a ban on smoking and limits on personal items inmates can have in their cells.

The Arizona prisoners are kept separate from Indiana inmates at the facility 50 miles east of Indianapolis.

The riot prompted a legislative leader to call for the state to cancel the Arizona deal.

"The idea of bringing in people from another state who bring along their gangs, allegiances and different alliances immediately was a mixture that was bound to bring trouble," said House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend.

But even before Tuesday's riot, Arizona officials had decided to temporarily stop sending inmates to the New Castle prison because a recent visit raised "serious security concerns."

Dora Schriro, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, visited the New Castle Correctional Facility on Thursday and found insufficient staffing for her state's 630 inmates, said Katie Decker, a spokeswoman with the department. Schriro also was concerned about where officers were stationed.

Arizona is paying Indiana $6.1 million to house its inmates. Gov. Mitch Daniels and others supported the deal in part because the prison was only about half-full.

The New Castle prison is state-owned, but Indiana contracts with GEO Group of Florida to operate it. The first 104 prisoners from Arizona arrived March 12.

Decker, the Arizona corrections spokeswoman, said Arizona would prefer to keep its prisoners in-state but can't accommodate the growing inmate population. Arizona also sends some inmates to a prison in Oklahoma.

Tuesday's disturbance is the latest example of riots led by prisoners shipped to other states for incarceration. There have been at least five similar riots since 2000, including two in the past four years involving Arizona inmates.

The incident has also raised concerns about the state's contract with a private firm managing the New Castle facility.

The state signed a contract with GEO Group in September 2005 to run the prison for four years with an option for three two-year extensions. Officials with the company declined to comment Tuesday on the riot.

Daniels, a Republican, said the fact that the prison is privately managed did not have anything to do with the riot, and his office released a history of disturbances at government-managed Indiana correctional facilities to help support his point.

"In fact, the management there responded beautifully, as did the public authorities," said Daniels, who has sought to privatize parts of state government.

But Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker disagreed and said privatization of the prison likely contributed.

"What happened today is a tragedy. I think it all ties back to the fact that (the governor) has privatized essential government services," Parker said.

House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, cautioned people not to rush to judgment.

"I think we need to find out exactly what happened, who is responsible and how prison officials reacted," he said. "This is not the first prison riot in national history, nor is it the last."

Tuesday's trouble began about 2 p.m. as a group of Arizona inmates became defiant as they were being moved from a dining hall to their cellblocks, said Donahue, the DOC commissioner.

Donahue said many of the inmates began removing their shirts, apparently in a show of solidarity for the "noncompliance," and one guard was either knocked or pushed to the ground.

A group of Indiana inmates -- who are separated from the Arizona prisoners by fences -- became aware of the disturbance, and about 500 of the prison's 1,668 inmates became involved, he said.

Donahue said some rioters were armed with pool cues, mop handles and broomsticks. Some threw billiard balls. Rioters broke scores of windows and set several outdoor fires before guards used a chemical agent to quell the disturbance.

Guards first isolated the areas of disruption, giving inmates time to settle down, Donahue said. The guards are employees of GEO.

"We don't want to put additional folks at risk, he said.

It's not unusual for flare-ups at privately run prisons with out-of-state inmates, said Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the watchdog Private Corrections Institute.

For one, prisoners often end up far away from their relatives and friends, making visits difficult.

"How do you expect the family to stay in touch," he said, "when they're in Arizona and they have to fly all the way to Indiana?"

In addition, companies such as GEO Group have different rules, based on the contracts they have with different states. For example, prisoners from one state might be allowed to have food more times per day or better medical care than prisoners from another state.

Guards did keep the prison populations apart, as all management companies are required to do, but that rarely stops the flow of information, Kopczynski said.

Once one group learns the guards are treating another group better, prisoners can become resentful, angry and violent. That kind of unequal treatment doesn't usually happen in public prisons, because the prisoners are from the same state.

But transferring prisoners out of state is becoming more common as states run out of beds and seek cheaper alternatives to building new prisons.

Donna Leone Hamm, director of Middle Ground Prison Reform, an Arizona-based nonprofit inmate advocacy group, said Tuesday's riot didn't surprise her.

She said her organization has been contacted by inmates and their relatives who said prisoners were shipped off to Indiana against their will and with little notice.

Because Arizona transports its least troublesome prisoners, well-behaved inmates felt they were being punished for playing by the rules, Hamm said. In addition, some couldn't bring along personal property, including televisions, she said.

Katherine Farabaugh's fiance, Mikel Gibson, was transferred to Indiana more than a month ago.

"I had talked to him the day before, and I got a call the next morning saying, 'I'm in Indiana,' " the Arizona woman said. "They took him with nothing but the clothes on his back and shipped him on a plane like cattle."

Gibson has less than seven months to go on a three-year sentence for burglary.

Star reporters Erika Smith, Kevin O'Neal, Mary Beth Schneider, Theodore Kim and Bill Ruthhart and the Arizona Republic contributed to this story.

IMPORTING INMATES

The state signed an agreement last month to house Arizona prisoners at the privately managed prison in New Castle. The first 104 prisoners arrived March 12; 1,200 were expected altogether. About 600 have arrived so far.

• Indiana's end of the deal: Indiana is to receive an average of $64 per prisoner per day from Arizona. The one-year contract is supposed to generate $6.1 million in revenue for Indiana and can be terminated at any time if Indiana needs the space for in-state offenders. Gov. Mitch Daniels said the agreement would create 230 jobs at the facility.

• Arizona's end: The state has about 36,000 people incarcerated, roughly 5,000 more than the system is designed to hold, according to Katie Decker, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Corrections. The state's prison population could grow by more than a third by the end of 2011, according to a report released this year by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.

• Other details: Arizona prisoners were to be kept separate from Indiana inmates. Only medium- to minimum-security adult inmates were to be sent to Indiana -- those who had committed crimes such as burglary, robbery and aggravated assault. Not to be transferred: inmates classified as high-risk offenders, sex offenders or those with escape histories or recent history of prison disciplinary action.

ABOUT NEW CASTLE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

• Established: 2002.
• Security level: Medium.
• Capacity: 2,416.
• Inmates: A total of 1,668 inmates, including the Arizona inmates, live at the prison.
• Housing: Dormitories.
• Management: It's state-owned but privately managed by The GEO Group, a Florida-based company. It is the only prison in the state that is privately managed.

OTHER RIOTS INVOLVING OUT-OF-STATE INMATES

The riot Tuesday at the New Castle Correctional Facility is the latest uprising involving prisoners moved from one state to another.

Since 2000, at least five similar riots have taken place in other states:

• September 2004: Inmates at the Lee Adjustment Center, a private prison in Beattyville, Ky., burned the facility's administration building and caused extensive damage to a dorm during a riot. Twenty-six inmates -- 15 from Vermont and 11 from Kentucky -- faced charges. The riot occurred after several hundred Vermont inmates were added to the prison.

• July 2004: A riot occurred at the $47 million Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado shortly after the arrival of new inmates from Washington state. Thirteen inmates needed treatment, including one with a severe stab wound, but no one was killed.

• May 2004: More than 500 Arizona inmates rioted at the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Okla., a private prison where more than 1,200 Arizona inmates were being housed because of crowding at state facilities. The riot lasted several hours, and dozens of inmates were injured.

•January 2003: An uprising by 82 Arizona inmates at a private prison in Texas caused $15,000 in damage. Inmates flooded dorms, tore up mattresses, destroyed TV sets and broke windows at the Newton County Correctional Center.

• September 2000: As many as 20 inmates from Hawaii smashed windows, computers and TV sets at an Arizona prison after an inmate complained about the way his rice was cooked. Three people were injured, including a guard, who was captured and assaulted.

Source: Nexis news archives

New Castle site only recently a prison

By RODNEY RICHEY, rodney.richey@heraldbulletin.com
April 24, 2007
http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_114212248.html

The private firm that assumed control of the New Castle Correctional Facility in 2006 — The Geo Group Inc., formerly Wackenhut — signed the agreement at the end of September 2005. The contract covered an initial term of four years, with three two-year extensions.

The 2,416-bed, medium-security facility was taken over by GEO in January 2006. For many years, the site itself had been occupied by the New Castle State Developmental Center. In its history, that facility had also been known as New Castle State Hospital and the Indiana Village for Epileptics.

The $123 million medium-security prison, which opened in 2002, was designed to house more than 1,800 inmates and employ about 750 state workers.

Florida-based GEO Group describes itself as “a world leader in the delivery of correctional, detention and residential treatment services to federal, state and local government agencies around the globe. GEO offers a turnkey approach that includes design, construction, financing and operations.”

The corporation also reportedly serves governments in Australia, South Africa, Canada and Great Britain, operating 63 correctional and residential treatment facilities in North America.

GEO changed its name from Wackenhut — a company that had been the target of some criticism for its stern procedures in operating prisons, including a scathing 2002 report on CBS’ “60 Minutes II” — in November 2003. Wackenhut reportedly still operates security guard services in many states, but is no longer connected with GEO.

(Information supplied by the Indiana Department of Correction Web site, the GEO Group Web site and the CBS News Web site, as well as other Internet sources.)

Posted by lois at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2007

Western MA: Opening for New Jail for Women Delayed. Sheriff to Seek 56 Additinal Cells.

" Lajoie said the sheriff's department continues to work with legislators to obtain additional bonding to build a 56-cell unit onto the new jail. He estimates that that project could cost between $7 million to $10 million."

Center Street jail opening delayed
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
By HOLLY ANGELO
hangelo@repub.com

CHICOPEE - The opening of the $26.1 million women's regional jail on Center Street, originally planned for this spring, will be delayed until late September.

"We have a delay in the delivery and installation of the electronic security system," said Lawrence V. Lajoie, assistant superintendent for the Hampden County Sheriff's Department, yesterday. "It is a big deal. This delay is very disappointing to us."

WFI of Delaware is the company in charge of the security system. Lajoie said he and others with the sheriff's department will meet with the company on Thursday to find out the reason for the delay.

The jail was scheduled to open in early June, Lajoie said. Construction on the 210-bed facility is finished and the permitting process for plumbing, elevators and other building operations is currently taking place, he said.

"If it was carpeting, we could live without it," said Patricia A. Murphy, the superintendent of the new facility. "Without the security system in place, we can't operate."

The doors, locks and cameras are among the operations controlled by the electronic security system.

"It's very specific," Lajoie said. "Every facility operates differently. It's a unique system."

Murphy said a transition team has been in place for the past year writing policy and procedures, scheduling training, ordering equipment and hiring staff.

"We had a plan in place for training staff and a moving plan. We'll still use that plan, but at a later date," Murphy said.

The jail will hold female prisoners from Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin counties who are sentenced to terms of 2½ years or less. There will be special programs designed to help the female inmates deal with issues of addiction, domestic relationships, mental health and trauma, parenting and economics.

"It will allow us to deliver more treatment and programming. Having the space allows us to function as a full facility for women," Murphy said.

Lajoie said the sheriff's department continues to work with legislators to obtain additional bonding to build a 56-cell unit onto the new jail. He estimates that that project could cost between $7 million to $10 million.

http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/117740677691960.xml&coll=1

Posted by lois at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

New Castle, IN: "Full Scale Riot" at GEO Prison

April 24, 2007
‘Full Scale Riot’ at Indiana Prison, Mayor Says
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:07 p.m. ET, NY Times

NEW CASTLE, Ind. (AP) -- Inmates staged a two-hour riot at a medium-security men's prison Tuesday, injuring two staff members and setting fires in a courtyard.

Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman Java Ahmed said more than one cell house was involved in the disturbance at the New Castle Correctional Facility, about 43 miles east of Indianapolis.

Corrections officials sent emergency squads and county and state police to the prison. New Castle Mayor Tom Nipp said the entire city police force was also activated.

Helicopter pictures showed officers in riot gear standing outside the prison fence and at least two fires burning in the courtyard.

Authorities later secured the prison perimeter and confirmed that no inmates escaped, although some were still out of their cells, Indiana State Police Sgt. Rod Russell said.

Authorities had also accounted for all staff members.

The prison is managed by the GEO Group Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla., according to the Indiana Department of Corrections Web site.

The prison, built in 2002, can house about 2,200 inmates. It currently has about 1,000 prisoners from Indiana and 630 from Arizona.

In March, Arizona and Indiana reached an agreement on housing up to 1,260 Arizona inmates.

Arizona Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katie Decker said at least some of the transferred inmates had complained about being moved, a step that was necessary because of the state's shortage of prison space.

''They're obviously resentful because they had to leave the state,'' she said, adding that it was too early to say whether the transfers played any role in the riot.

Decker said the inmates sent to New Castle were ''carefully picked'' before being transferred and could have ''no predisposition to violence.''

The prison housed an average daily population of 450 in 2005, according to the DOC web site. It also has a psychiatric facility that treats inmates who are bused in from other prisons.

GEO Group last year contracted with the Indiana Department of Correction to assume management of the prison. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Prison-Riot.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Posted by lois at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)

MA: Boston Globe Editorial: Hard Time for State Prisons

Boston GLOBE EDITORIAL
Hard time for state prisons
April 24, 2007

OUTGOING Correction commissioner Kathleen Dennehy confronted a culture of secrecy, tolerance of inmate abuse, and rigidity when she took control of the state prison system in 2003 after the ouster of her predecessor by then-Governor Romney. But now it is the reform-minded Dennehy who is under a cloud, and who has been asked to leave her post by Governor Patrick, raising questions about what kind of leader is needed next at the Department of Correction.

The job of overseeing 11,000 inmates and a hard-shelled correction officer union is among the toughest in state government. But it has been tougher than it needs to be due to the absence of any independent oversight of the troubled department. Bills to establish both an inspector general office to review charges of staff misconduct and an external oversight board to review general policies and practices languish in the Legislature. And courting the Legislature was not one of Dennehy's strengths, as noted by the failure of the House to back Patrick's proposal to increase the department's budget by $30 million.

The Correction department needs an outsider at the helm. The department now strains under a suit in federal court seeking to modify the use of long-term solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners. Nine inmates have taken their own lives since the beginning of 2006. This week, the Globe Spotlight Team uncovered a trail of errors that led to the wrongful confinement of 14 prisoners, including one man who was held for more than four years after his release date. These injustices stem not only from flawed technical systems, but from a departmental culture that accepts a high level of risk for inmates. What Dennehy calls "a quagmire of sentencing structures" was at the root of the wrongful confinements. But deeper still is the problem of some of her staffers who didn't care enough to get it right.

On paper, Dennehy seemed the right person to lead the department. She is a strong public manager who can point to significant accomplishments, including no-nonsense discipline of assaultive correction officers, better staff training, higher quality substance abuse programs, and reductions in sick time. But the 31-year employee of the department could never fully make a clean break from the Correction culture in which she rose. She speaks convincingly of the need for transparency and accountability. But murkiness still remains, including in the important area of prisoner classification.

Numerous studies since 2005 point to the reforms needed in the Correction department. The job doesn't require a visionary. Instead, it calls for a first-rate manager with broad correction experience, a strong mandate from the Patrick administration, and no ties to the current system.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/04/24/hard_time_for_state_prisons

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

April 23, 2007

New Pages on the RCPP website-Comix from Inside and Writing from Prison

The Real Cost of Prisons Project has added two new categories to our website: Comix from Inside and Writing from Prison.
New materials are posted continuously so be sure to check and check back.
Materials can be downloaded and used in flyers, publications, etc.
Go to www.realcostofprisons.org and then to the new pages.

Posted by lois at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

NY Times Editorial:Prison Horrors for the Mentally Ill

April 23, 2007
Editorial, NY Times
Prison Horrors for the Mentally Ill
The State of New York took a step toward basic human decency when it agreed to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of mentally ill prisoners, who often endure horrific neglect and mistreatment. The settlement, which must be approved by the courts, provides for a range of welcome changes, including better care and monitoring for the severely ill people being held in solitary confinement or disciplinary lockdown, typically for 23 hours a day.
It still falls far short of what’s needed and is not a substitute for the sweeping reforms vetoed by former Gov. George Pataki last year. The Legislature should pass that bill again and Gov. Eliot Spitzer should promptly sign it. Maltreatment of mentally ill prisoners is a national shame. People who suffer from delusions and hallucinations are far more likely than non-disabled prisoners to break rules. When they are confined in their cells, their symptoms worsen. All too often they harm themselves.
A 2003 study found that nearly a quarter of the inmates in lockdown were mentally ill. Of those, nearly 45 percent reported that they had tried suicide and nearly a third reported self-mutilation. The settlement provides slightly better treatment and better suicide prevention in lockdown. But the basic problem is that severely ill inmates should not be held in lockdown at all. The mental health bill would ban disciplinary confinement for the seriously mentally ill. It would also require the prison system to expand treatment programs and give mental health professionals more influence in deciding treatment options. The measure would more than pay for itself by reducing danger and disorder behind bars, shortening prison stays for the mentally ill and increasing the likelihood that they would manage to stay out once they are released. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/opinion/23mon3.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials

Posted by lois at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Revolving Door for Addicts Adds to Medicaid Cost

NY Times article and letters to the editor follow.
April 17, 2007
Revolving Door for Addicts Adds to Medicaid Cost
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

With grim humor, some doctors in New York call them “frequent fliers” — addicts who check into hospital detoxification units so often that dozens of them spend more than 100 nights a year in those wards.

Through its Medicaid program, New York spends far more than other states on drug and alcohol treatment, including more than $300 million a year paid to hospitals for more than 30,000 detox patients. One reason for the high cost is that $50 million is spent just on the 500 most expensive patients, at a cost of about $100,000 a person. These patients check in and out of detox wards, on average, more than a dozen times a year — a practice that experts say would not be tolerated in most states.

In the state’s 2004 fiscal year, one patient was admitted to such units 26 times at 17 different hospitals around New York City, spending a total of 204 nights, Medicaid records show. In fiscal year 2005, there was one patient who spent 279 nights in detox wards, at a cost of about $300,000.

New York State spends more than enough money to provide all the needed treatment, but “the dollars are being spent in the wrong settings,” said Deborah S. Bachrach, the state’s Medicaid director. In Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s campaign to overhaul Medicaid, she said, “this is very high on our agenda.”

George Epps, 59, was a heavy user of alcohol, cocaine and heroin and says he went through detox programs around New York City 20 to 25 times over several years. “I would come out of detox and rent a room, squander my money on drugs and women, be homeless again for a while, and check back into detox,” said Mr. Epps, who added that he had been clean for more than six years.

He was far from being one of the most extreme examples, but he says he understands the thinking of the repeat patient.

“I would tell myself I was just a brother who needed a rest, not somebody who had a problem,” he said. “I could mimic what they said with such grace and conviction, they would swear I was cured.”

Among state officials, doctors who treat addiction, service groups dedicated to helping the homeless and mentally ill, even the addicts themselves, there is remarkable agreement on why the treatment system in New York is overpriced and inefficient.

In other states, most addicts who go through detox programs do so on an outpatient basis, while in New York the vast majority are inpatients. Medicaid rules in New York also encourage hospitals to provide the most expensive kind of inpatient detoxification, though it is often not medically necessary, while many other states favor a less expensive form of inpatient treatment.

And in New York, when patients are discharged — typically after about five days — the needed transition to an outpatient treatment program often never occurs. That is one reason many patients do not fully recover from their addictions and return to detox wards, experts say.

The system suits the most frequent patients — most of them homeless, mentally ill, or both — who see the programs as a source of shelter and food. And the most expensive treatment, which usually involves some sedation, can reduce the discomfort of withdrawal better than other methods.

Some drug users, especially those on opiates, also set out to clean their systems so they can reduce the dose needed to get high, according to addicts and those who treat them. For a homeless addict, the cost of each dose is a major concern.

But at its core, experts say, the overuse of costly inpatient programs is connected to the lack of housing for homeless people. People are less likely to admit themselves to hospitals, and more likely to adhere to treatment programs, when they are not living on the streets. For more than a decade, the city and state have invested in such housing, including some that accept residents who are not yet drug-free, but demand for housing still far exceeds supply.

“For this small group of what are basically professional inpatient detoxification users, it’s really a whole series of linked problems, and none of the parts of the system work very well,” said Dr. Richard N. Rosenthal, an addiction specialist and chairman of psychiatry at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan. “There’s been some progress on each element, but not enough.”

The most intensive form of treatment, “medically managed” withdrawal takes place in a hospital, usually involves some sedation, and requires a great deal of care by doctors and nurses. The next level, “medically supervised withdrawal,” can be done in a hospital, or sometimes on an outpatient basis, and requires less medical intervention and less staff.

In New York, Medicaid pays an average of more than $100 a day for outpatient medically supervised withdrawal, and close to $400 a day for the inpatient version.

But it pays more than $1,300 a day for medically managed detox — and state officials estimate that more than 40 percent of that is profit for the hospitals. Hospital executives say the margin is not that high, but they concede that the most expensive form of detoxification is a significant money-maker.

As a result, many hospitals offer that program, but not the cheaper ones. By law, hospitals cannot turn away emergency patients, and drug or alcohol withdrawal is considered an emergency. So about 80 percent of the detox patients handled by hospitals in New York are treated at the most expensive level — often because it is the only one available.

Federal officials say they do not keep state-by-state Medicaid records, but experts and state officials say it is clear that New York spends far more on drug treatment than any other state, because other states mostly provide outpatient treatment. Figures compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services support that claim, showing that New York has more hospital admissions for drug or alcohol abuse — whether paid by Medicaid or someone else — than California, Texas and Florida combined.

Of the patients in medically managed detox in New York, “about 80 percent of them are uncomplicated and could be provided with a lower service,” said Karen M. Carpenter-Palumbo, commissioner of the state’s Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.

Spitzer administration offic