The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »

September 28, 2007

Children's Defense Fund: Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Fact sheets for every state: poverty, education, early childhood education, child welfare, education, juvenile justice and incarceration and community violence.

Children's Defense Fund

http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=c2pp_factsheets

Posted by lois at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)

College Dwellers Outnumber the Imprisoned

September 27, 2007
College Dwellers Outnumber the Imprisoned
By SAM ROBERTS

The number of inmates in adult correctional facilities in the United States has topped two million for the first time, the Census Bureau said yesterday. But in a reversal from 2000, more Americans over all now live in college dormitories than in prisons.

In a detailed look at people living in what the bureau calls group quarters, the census counted 2.3 million Americans in college and university dormitories, 2.1 million in adult correctional institutions and 1.8 million in nursing homes.

The number of state and federal prisoners in 2006 was more than double the prison population in 1990 and up slightly from nearly 2 million in 2000. Women accounted for 10 percent of the inmates in 2006, compared with 8 percent in 1990.

In 2000, the last year that the census measured people in group quarters, inmates in adult and juvenile correctional institutions slightly outnumbered dormitory dwellers at colleges and universities.

According to government figures, more than twice as many young black men are now attending college than are imprisoned.

A number of studies, including one by the Justice Policy Institute, which advocates alternatives to incarceration, have pointed out that over all, more black men are in prison than are enrolled in colleges and universities.

But among 18- to 24-year-olds, while black male prisoners outnumber black men living in college dorms, more young black men are enrolled in college (and live either on campus or elsewhere) than are incarcerated.

In 2003, according to Justice Department figures, 193,000 black college-age men were in prison. While 132,000 black college-age men were living on campus, an additional 400,000 or so were attending college but living someplace else.

Among all 18- to 24-year-old men and women, according to an analysis by Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College of the City University of New York, 93 percent more whites, 40 percent more Hispanics and 29 percent more blacks were living in dormitories than in prisons.

The Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey found other wide disparities on the basis of race and ethnicity.

Among people living in group quarters, whites were almost twice as likely to be living in a dormitory than a prison, while Asians were nine times more likely to be in a college dorm than in prison.

But blacks and Hispanics were about three times as likely to be imprisoned than to be living in a dormitory.

Put another way, about 46 percent of the prison population constituted whites who are not Hispanic, 41 percent were black, comprising Hispanic and non-Hispanic, and 19 percent identified themselves as Hispanic. Since 2000, the proportion of the prison population made up of whites and blacks had declined slightly; the share of Hispanics increased.

Among immigrants living in group quarters, Europeans were more likely to be in nursing homes, Asians in dormitories and Latin Americans in correctional facilities.

In contrast to the prison population, residents of nursing homes were disproportionately women (nearly 70 percent, down slightly from 2000) and white (84 percent).

Blacks accounted for 13 percent, about their share of the total population. Almost three-quarters were 75 and older; their median age was 83.2.

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

The Justice that Jena Demands

Thursday, September 27, 2007
The Justice that Jena Demands

by Xochitl Bervera
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC)

I want to tell you about Emmanuelle Narcisse. He was a tall, slim, handsome young man who was killed by a guard at the Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth – a Louisiana juvenile prison – in 2003. Apparently, he was "fussing" in line, talking back to a guard. The guard punched him in the face, one blow, and Emmanuelle went down backwards, slamming his head on the concrete. He took his last breath there behind the barbed wire of that state run facility. The guard was suspended with pay during the investigation. No indictment was ever filed against him.

There is also Tobias Kingsley,[1] sentenced when he was 15 to two years in juvenile prison for sneaking into a hotel swimming pool (his first offense). Tobias endured physical and sexual abuse inside the prison. He said that guards traded sex with kids for drugs and cigarettes, and sometimes set kids up to fight one another, making cash bets on the winner. His mama said he was never the same after he came home. She said the nightmares, the violence, the paranoia persisted years after the private lawyers helped him come home early. His battles with addiction and depression are not yet over.

And there is Shareef Cousin, who was tried as an adult and sent to death row in the state of Louisiana for a murder that he didn't commit. Shareef spent from age 16 to age 26 behind bars, the majority of those years isolated in Angola's Death Row, because an over zealous prosecutor didn't care that the evidence didn't really add up. After all, it was only a young Black man's life on the line.

These are young Black men who have encountered Louisiana's criminal justice system who I know because their mothers have become proud members of Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), the organization I have worked for over the last 7 years. These stories are about young men who have experienced incredible injustice, not unlike the Jena 6, only the national spotlight has never shined on them.

There are hundreds more. Thousands. Every day in the state of Louisiana (and in most states in this nation), injustices of epic proportions are taking place in our criminal and juvenile justice systems. We, those of us who live here, fight here, and organize here, know hundreds of families and young people – often our own - who've endured almost inconceivable levels of violence, abuse, neglect. And despite efforts to get someone, anyone to care and to act, these young people most often end up statistics in somebody's dismal report, or an anecdote in an article just like this. Because people don't care. Because these young people are not just poor, they are not just Black, they are criminals.

Hallelujah, someone noticed!

So, Hallelujah! Almost overnight it seems, the nation is looking deep into the heart of Louisiana's criminal justice system and seeing what we've been shouting about all these years! The racism, the blatant and unaccountable abuse of power masquerading as "justice." The slavery-like, Jim Crow-like, Bush-era prejudice and exploitation that has been the bedrock of white supremacy here and all over the Deep South for decades. Young people of color and mothers across the country are rising up saying "We wont take it anymore! We demand justice!" The myth that the goal of the criminal justice system is protecting public safety is slowly unraveling as youth in Philadelphia, DC, Oakland and mothers in Chicago, Jackson, and Birmingham make that most important of realizations, "that could have been me," "that could have been my child."

Many are asking, "why now?" Why, of all the horrific incidents we've seen and exposed, is this the one that set off this fire of hope? Our young people have been shot and killed by police in every city in this nation, left to die of dehydration in local jails, railroaded by white juries and judges into serving 20, 30, 40 years in the prison plantations we call Angola, Parchment, and Sing Sing...

Let me tell you what my heart tells me. What really matters is not why, but what we plan to do with this moment now that it has arrived. What will the leaders, the youth, the elders of our movement do now?

Demanding Justice for Us All

Of course we must relentlessly and persistently demand justice for the Jena 6. But we must demand justice, not only in the form of dropping the charges against these specific youth, but in the systematic and thorough rooting out of racism from all wings of the criminal justice systems across the United States of America.

Justice in Jena requires justice for all the others as well – for all those who have suffered (and some who have died) silently behind bars and for their families who have fought without benefit of TV cameras and news reporters. It requires understanding that we will not, we can not achieve racial justice in this country if we do not fight against the criminal justice system, not just in individual instances, but in its institutionalized, systemic form. If we do not understand this – and understand it deeply – then this newly discovered energy, this tidal wave of outrage, this beautiful, intergenerational protesting isn't going to mean a damn thing past next week's news.

Justice in Jena requires all of us across the country to rise up against the racism and exploitation of the criminal justice system in all the places where we've come to see it and grown to accept it whether that's allowing for an abysmal public defender office in your county or turning away when you see a police officer trample the rights, and perhaps the body, of a fellow citizen. We must cast off once and for all, the fundamental lie that the system has anything to do with criminals or justice or public safety. We must not back down, as so many movements have, when we are "crime-baited," accused of defending rapists and murderers, accused of defending crime itself. We must not make excuses for some parts of the system while protesting others. Similar to opposing the war, the whole war, and not simply certain battles or certain strategies, we must oppose the system in its entirety. We must dismiss, once and for all, the urge to discuss what's wrong with the system – what's broken and needs to be fixed.

There is nothing broken in this system. In fact, usually (when it is not disrupted by 50,000 protestors), it is quite efficient at doing precisely what it was created to do. In the Deep South, the criminal justice system as we know it was built after the abolition of slavery, as part of the terror machine which destroyed the briefly federally protected Reconstruction era. Without nuance or subtlety, the system was created by wealthy, land owning whites to keep Blacks "in line," on the plantation, and working for next to nothing. Thanks to the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery "except as a punishment for crime," laws and codes were invented that criminalized the very existence of Black people, police were hired to "enforce" those laws, and courts were mandated to send these newly created "criminals" to jail, or better yet, to be leased out to the very plantation owners they had been "freed" from just months before. The "justice" that was once meted out by slave owners who were "masters" of their property, was now taken care of by the law. The word "slave" was replaced by the word "criminal."

"Its not about race, it's about crime"

And yet, even with this history known, the stigma of criminality has remained so strong that our own movements have turned their backs on this issue over the years. Too many of our movements today want to dismiss, minimize, or overlook the necessity for a racial justice movement to prioritize organizing around criminal justice. Too often, our members meet others – even those who should be allies – who hold the entrenched belief that if a child is in prison, he must be "bad," he must have done something wrong. Even in progressive circles, organizations prefer to focus on the school children who need an education, the families who want affordable housing, the victims of street violence and drive-by shootings. These people are portrayed as "innocent" and deserving while currently and formerly incarcerated people are "guilty" - of something.

Of course, it's a false dichotomy. Everyone knows that the same communities, the same people, who are most impacted by violence, the lack of health care, education, and housing are those most brutally impacted by policing and prisons. But the idea of the dichotomy has been essential to maintaining the stigma which justifies the system. And it's been a handy and effective tool to explain away a great deal of racial injustice in this country.

In Jena, when asked about the incident which led to the arrests of the Jena 6, a white librarian confidently explained to the NPR reporter, "It's not about race. It's about crime." Crime -- the ultimate proxy for race, the ultimate justification for racism.

What the future holds

I believe that this moment in history can be a pivotal one if we make it so. Up to 50,000 people marched in the streets of Jena yesterday – the majority of them Black, many were from the South. All were outraged by the blatant racism evidenced by the criminal justice system. This could be the beginning of the end for a system that should have been dismantled years ago.

But what we fight for and how we fight will make all the difference. The most obvious principle is that we cannot fight for the system to expand – in any way. Asking for the white kids who hung the nooses to be charged, calling for Hate Crime Legislation -- these "solutions" just strengthen the system and give the same players – the DA, the judge, the jury – more powers and more validation. If we understand that the system, at its core, is not designed to promote justice, then why would we ask for anything that expands its reach or powers? At the very least, we must only call for things which shrink the system – closing prisons, freeing prisoners, cutting correction budgets, eliminating the death penalty and Life Without Parole, prohibiting juvenile transfers, and implementing sentencing reform.

We can also call for accountability from our elected officials. DAs and judges who perpetuate injustice, state representatives who are in bed with the corrections department and private prison companies – these people should not be allowed to hold office. They should be ousted whether by recall, regular elections, or public pressure to step down.

But we can – and should - also call for the redirection of funds into a real public safety system. We must make it clear that the issue of public safety is fundamentally distinct from the issue of the criminal justice system. The only thing they have in common is rhetoric. Developing a public safety system which is prevention orientated, based on principles of restorative or transformative justice, prioritizes making the victim and community whole, and creatively resolving conflict is a powerful and noble goal and our communities should know more about these models and fight for them. A public safety system includes community based programs, quality education and the elimination of racism.

The families of the Jena 6 are ahead of the crowd in the list of demands they have made public: 1. Drop (or fairly reduce) All Charges; 2. Reinstate School Credits; 3. No Juvenile Records; 4. Investigate "Noose" Incident of September 1, 2006; 5. Remove Reed Walters from the District Attorney's Office; 6.Conduct Undoing Racism Workshops for Staff, Faculty, Administrators, Students, Parents and Community Members.

These are good demands for Jena. What will you demand in your hometown or city?

FFLIC is a membership based organization consisting primarily of mothers and grandmothers. These mothers and grandmothers have seen all sides of the farce known as the criminal justice system. They have been victims of sexual and physical violence who have either kept quiet or endured the humiliation and neglect of the DA's office and the so-called victim's advocates. They have been forced to call the police on their children when mental illness or addiction has made them violent and no other services exist. They have visited their children in prison and seen boot marks on their faces. They have walked home alone through dark streets in poor neighborhoods where there are no programs, no services, no activities to keep young men busy and hopeful. They have seen their children beat by police officers, by prison guards, sometimes even by judges and district attorneys.

Standing on both sides of the system, these mothers will tell you that justice exists nowhere in the vicinity. It may sound radical, but its time we start listening to those who have been through it all and tear down the disgrace that is the U.S. criminal justice system.
--------------------------------------------------

Note:
[1] Name has been changed for purposes of confidentiality.
http://organizethesouth.blogspot.com/2007/09/justice-that-jena-demands.html

Posted by lois at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

Jena Six - Another Lesson in the Role of Race and the School to Prison Pipeline

September 20, 2007

Jena Six - Another Lesson in the Role of Race and the School to Prison Pipeline

by Ted Shaw

By now, most people in this country have heard of the Jena Six - the black male high school students in the town of Jena, LA, who were charged as adults with crimes ranging from aggravated battery to attempted murder for their involvement in a schoolyard fight.

And most have probably heard horror stories about the events leading up to the fight: a racially hostile environment for black students at Jena High School, attacks by white students and adults upon black teenagers, and threats from the district attorney against black students who protested the hanging of nooses from the "white tree" at the school and other forms of racial harassment.

In this tense racial environment, Jena high school student Mychal Bell, who was initially charged with attempted murder, was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy by an all-white jury, and at one point faced a possible sentence of more than 22 years. Yet, the white students responsible for harassing and attacking black students escaped relatively unscathed. And, although a Louisiana appeals court reversed Mychal Bell's convictions, finding that the criminal court lacked jurisdiction to try him as an adult, he has been in jail since December of last year, unable to post a $90,000 bail.

The Jena Six situation has once again exposed the sinister, yet complicated phenomenon we have come to call the School to Prison Pipeline and highlights the role that race plays in denying educational opportunity.

In the last decade, the punitive and overzealous approaches of law enforcement and the criminal justice system have seeped into schools. Remember Ja'eisha Scott, a five-year-old kindergartener in St. Petersburg, Florida, who was handcuffed and hauled off in a police car from her elementary school for a temper tantrum? Increasingly, school districts are removing children from educational environments and funneling many onto a one-way path toward prison. Throughout the United States, children are being suspended, expelled and even arrested on school grounds at alarming rates for minor misconduct.

While the Pipeline harms children of all races, in many school districts black and brown students are affected in overwhelming numbers. Black male students in particular, often demonized as predators, have felt the brunt of the School to Prison Pipeline. As the Jena Six example demonstrates, both intentional and unconscious racism contribute to the phenomenon at every stage.

We must remember that Jena is not an anomaly. Following decades of segregation and unequal resources, the School to Prison Pipeline is just the latest means through which the black community has been denied quality education.

Although they have only been accused, and not yet tried or convicted, most of the Jena Six young men have missed a significant amount of classroom time after their arrest and expulsion from school. On the verge of receiving diplomas, some of them are still locked out of opportunity today, including Mychal Bell, who has been behind bars for nine months.

In order to change these kinds of outcomes, we must begin to dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline. And we can start by demanding fairer school discipline practices and an end to ongoing racial discrimination in education. So, as people flock to Jena, Louisiana to protest the prosecution of the Jena Six, remember that we must demand justice not only in the courts, but also in the schools.

http://naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=1208

Posted by lois at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2007

OH: "Re-entry" center would house both women and people convicted of sex offences

Here’s another example of total lunacy….
1. “The plan for the site is to house 75 offenders total, with about 10 to 12 of those beds housing sex offenders. About 20 to 25 beds will house female offenders, said Alicia Handwerk, chief of the Bureau of Community Sanctions.”
And
2. Now that people convicted of sex offences cannot live anywhere…..
“The center could help alleviate a problem as many sex offenders don't have homes to go to when they are released and have difficulty complying with registration laws. The center would provide a place for them to live and get acclimated.”

State seeking to build new facility near prison site
'Re-entry center' would house local inmates from other areas

Chillicothe OH- The Gazette Staff

In response to what local and state officials call a growing need in the area, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction wants to build a 75-bed "re-entry center" in the area near Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

The building, which could cost about $3.5 million to $4 million to construct, would house inmates who live in Ross and contiguous counties who return to the area from prisons around the state, according to Teri Minney, parole service regional supervisor for the Adult Parole Authority in Chillicothe.

"We're looking at this as more than a 'halfway house,' but rather a center that serves the community by treating all of the offender's needs," said Minney.

"There is already a need for substance abuse counseling, for career counseling and for many other things that offenders need as they come out of prison. This facility will meet those needs."

The halfway house would be located close to CCI's fence, but not inside the prison's current grounds. The land already is owned by the state and would be off Gateway Drive and the Gateway Industrial Park, north of Chillicothe and just off Ohio 104.

The plan for the site is to house 75 offenders total, with about 10 to 12 of those beds housing sex offenders. About 20 to 25 beds will house female offenders, said Alicia Handwerk, chief of the Bureau of Community Sanctions.

Construction could begin within a year and the first offenders would start moving in 2009. The center will be fenced in, but not part of the current prison.

Handwerk and Minney said the state has talked with the Union-Scioto school system, the Chillicothe-Ross Chamber of Commerce and local law enforcement. They've also reached out to other businesses and impacted communities in the area and will continue to do so, according to Minney.

"We're talking with them and listening to their concerns and needs," said Handwerk. "We want to have discussions that will help answer questions."

For example, state officials admitted that housing sex offenders would likely create concern for local residents. Handwerk and Minney said they plan to have sex offenders wear Global Positioning Satellite leg bands to help monitor them and are discussing other restrictions.

The center could help alleviate a problem as many sex offenders don't have homes to go to when they are released and have difficulty complying with registration laws. The center would provide a place for them to live and get acclimated.

"We're not talking about 75 sex offenders or a bunch of sex offenders from other parts of the state," said Handwerk.

Ross County Common Pleas Judge Wm. Jhan Corzine is a believer in the center.

"It gives me another tool in my belt," he said. "There's a very clear need in this community to give the offenders a more rounded treatment approach."

Minney said about 85 percent of all inmates released from prison plan to go home.

"We need a good plan to help reintegrate them to be productive citizens

The center would create about 20 to 25 new jobs in the area and could create an opportunity for internships for criminal justice students from Ohio University-Chillicothe and other colleges.

"There's also a great opportunity for partnerships in the community," said Minney. "We want to work with faith-based groups for mentoring and other services and other community organizations to help give the offenders the help they need."

The state would not only assume the construction costs, but also supply the operating costs after the center opens.

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070926/NEWS01/709260301/1002>

Posted by lois at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)

Hearing on Costs of Mass Incarceration Called by VA Sen. Webb in Light of 500 Percent Increase in Prison Populations In Last 30 Years

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE TO EXAMINE ECONOMIC COSTS OF SURGE IN U.S. PRISON POPULATION AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Hearing on Costs of Mass Incarceration Called by VA Sen. Webb in Light of 500 Percent Increase in Prison Populations In Last 30 Years

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) will hold a Joint Economic Committee (JEC) hearing to explore the economic consequences and causes of and solutions to the steep increase of the U.S. prison population. The hearing entitled, "Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?" is scheduled for Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 10:00am in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building. The United States has 25 percent of the world's prisoners, despite having only 5 percent of the world's population. The JEC will examine why the United States has such a disproportionate share of the world's prison population, as well as ways to address this issue that responsibly balance public safety and the high social and economic costs of imprisonment.

Expert witnesses have been asked to discuss the costs of maintaining a large prison system; the long-term labor market and social consequences of mass incarceration; whether the increase in the prison population correlates with decreases in crime; and what alternative sentencing strategies and post-prison re-entry programs have been most successful at reducing incarceration rates in states and local communities.

WHAT: Joint Economic Committee Hearing:

"Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?"

WHEN: Thursday, October 4, 2007 – 10:00am

WHERE: 216 Hart Senate Office Building
Witnesses (as of September 27):

Dr. Glenn Loury, Economics and Social Sciences Professor, Brown University
Dr. Bruce Western, Director Inequality and Social Policy Program, Harvard University
Alphonso Albert, Executive Director, Second Chances
Michael Jacobson, Executive Director, Vera Institute for Justice

Posted by lois at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)

Op-ed by Marc Mauer: The selective and unfair penalty for crack

Posted on Thu, Sep. 27, 2007
Commentary, Philadelphia Inquirer
The selective and unfair penalty for crack
It's time to reconsider the unbalanced, counterproductive and unjustified harshness of the mandatory sentences for possessing crack cocaine.

By Marc Mauer

As the World Series approaches, many baseball fans may recall the accomplishments of former Kansas City Royals star Willie Mays Aikens. In the 1980 World Series, Aikens became the first player to chalk up a pair of two home-run games.

While millions of Americans will tune in to the series at home this year, Aikens will have to watch from a federal prison cell, where he is in the 12th year of a 20-year sentence for selling crack cocaine. Tragically, a drug problem led to Aikens' leaving baseball and subsequently selling drugs to support his addiction. Ultimately, a sale to an undercover officer led to his mandatory prison term.

P
Aikens is but one of more than 50,000 people sentenced for crack cocaine offenses under mandatory-sentencing laws Congress adopted in the 1980s. Those penalties treated crack cocaine offenses far more harshly than powder-cocaine crimes, even though the two drugs are pharmacologically identical. People convicted of selling 500 grams of powder cocaine receive a five-year prison term, but only 5 grams of crack are required to produce that same mandatory sentence. Since these laws were enacted, extensive research has documented their ineffectiveness and the injustices that have resulted.

Until this year, these mandatory-sentencing laws seemed impervious to change. Congress soundly defeated a reform recommendation from the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 1995, and reform legislation introduced in 2001 did not go far. But growing support for change from a broad spectrum of legal groups and civil rights leaders is finally signaling a real prospect for progress.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the crack laws in Kimbrough v. United States. Derrick Kimbrough was convicted of selling crack in Norfolk, Va., in 2005, and under federal sentencing guidelines faced a prison term of 19 to 22 years. But after reviewing the Sentencing Commission's policy arguments for change in the law, the judge concluded that such a term was too harsh. He reduced the sentence to 15 years - still quite severe by most standards. The question before the court: To what extent should federal judges have discretion to consider such policy recommendations when imposing sentences in crack cocaine cases?

The crack issue is receiving high-level attention on Capitol Hill, as well. In the Senate, three reform proposals have been introduced, with hearings anticipated this fall. Legislation introduced by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.) would eliminate the disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine, while a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass.), and Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) would reduce the disparity significantly.

Why has momentum for reform on crack cocaine surfaced so visibly this year? In part, it reflects the growing recognition that the drug war's focus on harsh punishments has come at the expense of needed investments in prevention and treatment. Incarcerating a low-level crack offender for a mandatory five-year prison term costs taxpayers about $125,000, money sorely needed by many publicly run treatment agencies. Further, lawmakers are increasingly concerned about the distortions in prosecution produced by the crack laws.

Mandating the five-year prison term for possession of just 5 grams of crack - the weight of two sugar packets - creates an inevitable trend toward using scarce prison space for low-level offenders. Sentencing Commission data confirm that 60 percent of crack-cocaine defendants serve as street sellers and "mules" of the drug trade.

Finally, the racial distortions produced by the crack policies are unconscionable for a justice system whose premise is fairness and equality. With 80 percent of crack sentences imposed on black defendants - a far higher proportion than the African American share of crack users - these laws have severely skewed already disturbing racial disparities in the justice system.

There is no question that crack cocaine is a dangerous drug that has harmed many families and communities. So, too, have powder cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other substances. The challenge for public policy is to develop proven remedies, not just sound-bite political slogans.

"Getting tough" on drug users may sound catchy, but providing high-quality treatment does much more to reduce substance abuse than warehousing people in prisons.

Marc Mauer (mauer@sentencingproject.org) is the executive director of the Sentencing Project and author of "Race to Incarcerate."
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20070927_The_selective_and_unfair_penalty_for_crack.html

Posted by lois at 02:58 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2007

BOP to Restore Purged Religious Books

September 26, 2007
Prisons to Restore Purged Religious Books
By NEELA BANERJEE, NY Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 — Facing pressure from religious groups, civil libertarians and members of Congress, the federal Bureau of Prisons has decided to return religious materials that had been purged from prison chapel libraries because they were not on the bureau's lists of approved resources.

The bureau had said it was prompted to remove the materials after a 2004 Department of Justice report mentioned that religious books that incite violence could infiltrate chapel libraries.

After the details of the removal became widely known earlier this month, Republican lawmakers, liberal Christians and evangelical talk shows all criticized the government for creating a list of acceptable religious books.

The bureau has not abandoned the idea of creating such lists, Judi Simon Garrett, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. But rather than packing away everything while those lists were compiled, the religious materials would remain on the shelves, Ms. Garrett explained.

In an e-mail today, the bureau said: "In response to concerns expressed by members of several religious communities, the Bureau of Prisons has decided to alter its planned course of action with respect to the Chapel Library Project.

"The bureau will begin immediately to return to chapel libraries materials that were removed in June 2007, with the exception of any publications that have been found to be inappropriate, such as material that could be radicalizing or incite violence. The review of all materials in chapel libraries will be completed by the end of January 2008."

Only a week ago the bureau said it was not reconsidering the library policy. But critics of the bureau's program said it appeared that the bureau had bowed to widespread outrage.

"Certainly putting the books back on the shelves is a major victory, and it shows the outcry from all over the country was heard," said Moses Silverman, a lawyer for three prisoners who are suing the bureau over the program. "But regarding what they do after they put them back, I'm concerned."

The bureau originally set out to take an inventory of all materials in its chapel libraries in an effort to weed about books that might incite violence. But the list grew to the tens of thousands, and the bureau decided instead to compile lists of acceptable materials in a plan called the Standardized Chapel Library Project. The plan identifies about 150 items for each of 20 religions or religious categories.

In the spring, prison chaplains were told to remove all materials not on the lists and put them in storage. The bureau said it planned to issue additions to the lists once a year. In some cases, chaplains packed up libraries with thousands of books collected over decades. Unidentified religious experts helped the bureau shape the lists of acceptable materials, which independent scholars said omitted many important religious texts.

Ms. Garrett declined to elaborate on how the re-stocking of the prison libraries is progressing. She said the effort "is beginning immediately," but she would not say when it would be completed, which titles are being kept off the shelves and the specific criteria being used in such decisions.

Bob Moore, director of prison policy oversight at Aleph, an advocacy group for Jews in prison, said the lack of detail and transparency about how the lists are determined continued to trouble him.

"This is a positive step: it means they are not throwing the baby out with the bath water," he said of keeping books on the shelves for now. "But our position is there should not be a list of what should be on the shelves, but what shouldn't be."

Mr. Silverman said he had not yet spoken to the bureau, and the bureau has not posted its change in any public forum. The return of the books would "go a long way," he said, to resolving the lawsuit. But he added, "I remain concerned that the criteria for returning the books will be constitutional and lawful." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/us/27cnd-prisons.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Posted by lois at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)

Will Drug Lord Do Less Time Than the Average American Nonviolent Drug Offender? by Tony Papa

September 25, 2007
Will Drug Lord Do Less Time Than the Average American Nonviolent Drug Offender?
Perverted Justice
By ANTHONY PAPA
The U.S. government recently praised the arrest of Colombia's top drug lord Diego Montoya when he was captured earlier this month. Law enforcement and military officials say it was a powerful blow to Colombia's most powerful drug cartel, comparing it to the capture of Al Capone during Prohibition. Montoya, who had been on the FBI's top ten most wanted list, is said to be responsible for providing as much as 70% of all the cocaine in the United States. In 1999, a $5 million bounty for his capture and extradition was offered after he was indicted in a federal court in Miami.

There is much talk about how this capture will affect the drug trade and the flow of drugs into the U.S. But the question on my mind is how much time will he serve when he is brought to the United States to stand trial for the death and destruction he has caused? I would be willing to bet that he will get less time than many Americans who are now serving extraordinarily long sentences, many for low-level, nonviolent drug law violations under the notorious mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Some would ask how would I come to this conclusion. If you look at the recently completed federal sentence of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriaga who served a 17-year federal sentence for drug trafficking, it might give you a hint what is in store for Montoya. In Noriaga's case the U.S. attorney negotiated deals with 26 high level drug dealers, including drug lord Carlos Lehder. They in turn received a package of perks that included leniency, cash payments, and were allowed to keep their drug earnings in return for testimony against the infamous general who was once a strong United States ally before he fell from grace in 1989 when the U.S. invaded Panama.

There are many Americans in prison that are serving sentences of more than 17 years in prison for simple drug crimes. These are marginalized offenders that don't have the bargaining chips to establish deals. For example, Elaine Bartlett, a mother of four, served a 20-to-life sentence under the Rockefeller Drug Laws for seven ounces of cocaine. Her husband, Nathan Brooks, was sentenced to 25-years-to-life. The list goes on and on. There are an estimated 500,000 Americans locked up because of the drug war. Many of them are serving lengthy sentences because of a 30-year government campaign to demonize illicit drug use and implement mandatory minimum sentencing.

In 1986, mandatory minimum sentencing laws were enacted by Congress, which compelled judges to deliver fixed sentences to individuals convicted of certain crime, regardless of mitigating factors or culpability. Federal mandatory drug sentences are determined based on three factors: the type of drug, weight of the drug mixture (or alleged weight in conspiracy cases), and the number of prior convictions. Judges are unable to consider other important factors such as the offender's role, motivation and the likelihood of recidivism.

The push to incarcerate drug offenders has been further exacerbated through the current federal sentencing law that punishes crack cocaine offenders much more severely than offenders possessing other types of drugs, for example, powder cocaine. Distributing just five grams of crack carries a minimum five-year federal prison sentence while distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. This 100:1 sentencing disparity has been almost universally criticized for its racially discriminatory impact by a wide variety of criminal justice and civil rights groups, and in Congress. Although whites and Hispanics form the majority of crack users, the vast majority of those convicted for crack cocaine offenses are African Americans.

Because of the war on drugs, which mandates mandatory minimum sentencing, average drug offenders are routinely elevated to kingpin status and condemned to serve out long prison sentences that should be reserved only for actual drug kingpins, not individuals that are fabricated to that level. It's time to end these draconian laws and implement a sentencing structure that promotes fairness and justice.

Anthony Papa is the author of 15 Years to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom and Communications Specialist for Drug Policy Alliance. He can be reached at: anthonypapa123@yahoo.com
Papa's artwork can be viewed at: www.15yearstolife.com/art1.htm

http://www.counterpunch.org/papa09252007.html

Posted by lois at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)

Immigrant Detention Center Proposed in Va.

Immigrant Detention Center Proposed in Va.
Facility Would House Illegal Residents Arrested for Crimes Until Deportation By Tim Craig

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; B01

RICHMOND, Sept. 25 -- Virginia officials said Tuesday that they are considering a proposal to build a 1,000-bed detention center where illegal immigrants arrested for certain crimes could be held until federal officials deport them.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said Tuesday night that such a center would be the country's first state-run facility built to hold only illegal immigrants accused of crimes. Currently, illegal immigrants who are arrested are held in local jails, federal facilities and private prisons.

Under the proposal, announced at a meeting of the State Crime Commission, Virginia would finance construction of the center through bond sales and use it to detain illegal immigrants charged with crimes that usually do not trigger long prison terms.

State officials are not sure where the center would be located, how much it would cost or how long it would take to build.

"What we are trying to do here is have enough bed space so every sheriff knows if they arrest an illegal immigrant on some of these charges, there is space for them until someone can pick them up," said Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle (R-Virginia Beach), chairman of the crime commission, which is developing the proposal. The legislative commission studies and makes recommendations on public safety.

Before the detention center could be built, the state would have to reach an agreement with ICE on who would be detained there. ICE officials declined to comment Tuesday, saying they had not seen Virginia's proposal.

The federal agency also would have to agree to pay the state a daily fee for illegal immigrants housed in the center until they are deported. The state would use that money to operate the center and pay off the bonds.

Mukit Hossain, a founder of Project Hope and Harmony, a nonprofit group that established a day-laborer hiring center in Herndon that recently closed, called the detention center a "very, very scary proposal."

"If they need more detention centers, then by all means build more detention centers. But to categorically set aside something which is going to be a detention center for ICE and immigrants, it opens up a very problematic notion, including possibilities of human rights violations. And it will create fear in all immigrant communities," Hossain said.

In 2006, police and sheriff's departments in Virginia notified ICE of about 12,000 illegal immigrants in their jails, but ICE picked up only 690, Stolle said. ICE officials could not independently confirm the numbers.

"It is not ICE's fault. They are dealing with the resources they have," Stolle said. "But if Virginia wants ICE to be effective, we've got to find creative ways for them to be effective."

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) said through a spokeswoman that he plans to study the idea, which would need formal approval by the crime commission as well as the General Assembly and ICE. On past issues involving ICE, Kaine has adopted a go-slow approach. Despite political pressure, he has been hesitant to sign an agreement with the agency empowering state police to enforce federal immigration laws.

Stolle stressed that the center would not be used to house immigrants whose only crime is being in the country illegally, nor would it house those convicted of serious crimes such as homicide.

Instead, it would house illegal immigrants arrested and charged with less serious offenses -- such as driving under the influence -- who state officials and ICE agree should be forced to leave the United States.

The crime commission plans to formally take up the proposal at a public hearing in two weeks. Several local governments in Virginia are also moving forward with proposals to address illegal immigration.

Kaine, in a radio interview Tuesday, warned of "all kinds of unintended consequences" of having a "patchwork of cities and towns" with different policies related to illegal immigration.

Instead of enacting new local laws, Kaine said, the state should step up the pressure on the federal government.

"It's not the border between West Virginia and Virginia that is the problem," Kaine said. "It is outrageous this issue keeps getting pushed off to the cities and counties and states."

In another immigration matter Tuesday, Kaine administration officials and moderate Senate Republicans teamed to select a chairman for the new Virginia Commission on Immigration. The commission will advise Kaine and the General Assembly on what, if any, state policies should be adopted to address illegal immigration.

The 20-member panel was established this year through legislation sponsored by Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William). Because he sponsored the bill, Marshall said he should head the committee. But because Marshall has a reputation for being conservative and combative, Kaine administration officials and Senate GOP leaders persuaded Sen. John C. Watkins
(R-Chesterfield) to challenge Marshall for the chairman's position.

Watkins, a moderate who owns a nursery that employs legal migrant workers, won on a 16 to 3 vote. Marshall accused Kaine of trying to "manipulate" the commission's work.

Delacey Skinner, Kaine's communication director, responded: "The important thing is we have an illegal immigration commission that should make recommendations that will hope
fully give the governor and General Assembly some guidance."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/25/AR2007092502
190_pf.html

Posted by lois at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2007

The Women Behind the Men: Daisy Bates had to march with the wives.

Op-Ed Columnist
The Women Behind the Men

By GAIL COLLINS
Published: September 22, 2007
Daisy Bates had to march with the wives.

When the nation observes the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock school desegregation on Monday, there will undoubtedly be a great deal said about Bates, who was head of the city¹s N.A.A.C.P. chapter. She helped recruit nine black teenagers and escorted them through irate mobs of white adults and into their first classes. As a result, she and her husband, Lucius, lost their business. She was jailed, threatened and the Ku Klux Klan burned an 8-foot cross on her lawn.

Bates was invited, of course, to the famous March on Washington in 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ³I Have a Dream² speech. Rosa Parks was invited, too, and Pauli Murray, the lawyer and feminist who had staged the first sit-in at a Washington restaurant during World War II.

When they got there, they were all assigned to walk with the wives of the male civil rights leaders, far away from the cameras. ³Not a single woman was invited to make one of the major speeches or be part of the delegation of leaders who went to the White House. The omission was deliberate,² Murray said later.

Dorothy Height, the head of the National Council of Negro Women, and others begged that at least one woman be included among the speakers. They nominated Diane Nash, the student leader who had been perhaps the one person most responsible for the success of the Freedom Riders in the South. No dice.

³Nothing that women said or did broke the impasse blocking their participation. I¹ve never seen a more unmovable force,² Height wrote. The men kept telling her that women already had participation ‹ both Marian Anderson and Mahalia Jackson were going to sing. In the end, A. Philip Randolph delivered a ³Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom² while the female civil rights legends sat on the stage.

We¹ve learned, with some pain, to celebrate all our national heroes through clear eyes, as people whose great hearts and minds still did not take the dream of freedom and equality past their own immediate cause. The Declaration of Independence is our noblest piece of prose even though Thomas Jefferson kept slaves. Susan B. Anthony is my favorite Founding Mother, but I know she broke her old friend Frederick Douglass¹s heart when she lashed out at a government that would give the vote to ³Sambo² and ignore well-educated, middle-class white women. Dr. King and the other male leaders and martyrs of the civil rights movement are always going to be a beacon in the center of our history. But they generally believed women¹s place was in the home, and most were privately looking forward to the moment when they would all go back there.

The women of the civil rights movement who are most celebrated tend to be the brave victims, like Rosa Parks, who dutifully played the simple seamstress too tired to give up her seat on the bus, even though she had in fact been an activist for longer than almost any of the men. Still, in her autobiography she remembered that March on Washington and noted that these days ³women wouldn¹t stand for being kept so much in the background.²

The women who men were less enthusiastic about were the ones who led. Martin Luther King Jr.¹s first triumph as the public face of the Montgomery bus boycott was possible because a group of middle-class black women led by a college teacher, Jo Ann Robinson, had organized it. They had been preparing for the opportunity so long that when Rosa Parks went to jail, they had 35,000 fliers ready the next morning, to deliver to black households through their children at school. Yet now they have practically vanished from our history.

You do not have to dismiss the men to believe that Ella Baker was the greatest organizer the civil rights movement ever knew. When she was passed over for the directorate of King¹s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which she helped found and ran as acting director, she attributed the rejection to the fact that ³I was female; I was old. I didn¹t have a Ph.D.² Then she went right on organizing, guiding the black college students into forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which she would direct throughout its glory years as adviser and unpaid spiritual leader.

Baker also got it ‹ the moment of recognition that all the previous movements for American social justice had not quite grasped. ³Remember,² she told the young people, ³we are not fighting for the freedom of the Negro alone, but for the freedom of the human spirit, a larger freedom that encompasses all mankind.²

You watch the reports from Jena this week and you wonder where women like Bates and Baker and Robinson would be if they were alive today. Wherever it was, it would be at the front of the parade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/opinion/22collins.html?ref=opinion

Posted by lois at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

CT: Temorary Moratorium for Parole for People Convicted of Violent Offenses

3 articles below
_______________________

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-biggs.artsep25,0,5068582.s
tory

Wise Moratorium On Paroles
September 25, 2007

Editorial

Hartford Courant

Wise Moratorium On Paroles
September 25, 2007

The governor's temporary ban on parole for violent offenders is a smart move that gives the state breathing space to consider the troubled parole system over the next month.

The ban was ordered by Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Friday, the same day a Connecticut parolee was arrested for allegedly threatening New York police with a knife and stealing a car at knifepoint in Hartford.

Releasing James Biggs, also known as Jimmy Lee Biggs III, was a gamble the parole board should not have taken at this time of intense scrutiny into its workings. True, he had served 15 years of his 20-year sentence. But he was obviously a high risk: His criminal history included sexual assault, kidnapping and parole violations.

Nevertheless, he was paroled on Aug. 30 - a month after the parole board, prosecutors and others came under enormous criticism for paroling two criminals soon charged in the horrific slayings of a Cheshire mother and her two daughters.

The Department of Correction also erred in failing to outfit Mr. Biggs with a global tracking device - although the governor had ordered such devices for all paroled burglars. Mr. Biggs' 1992 conviction included, among many other things, two counts of first-degree burglary.

Clearly the parole system is overwhelmed if someone of Mr. Biggs' ilk can slip through. Halting parole for violent criminals is the responsible thing to do while the General Assembly and governor work out solutions. __________________

http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-25013709.apds.m0652.bc-ct--no
pasep25,0,788575.story

Lawmakers want to know Rell's plans in wake of parole ban Associated Press September 25, 2007

HARTFORD, Conn. - State lawmakers want to know more about the governor's plans for handling Connecticut's growing prison population, especially since she banned parole for violent offenders.

Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, said he supports Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's decision, but predicted it will add inmates to already crowded prisons.

"Whatever the new policy is going to be, we want to make sure we have the resources to do what we need to do," said Lawlor, who fears more crowding in the state's prisons could prompt the federal courts to get involved and possibly order a mass release.

"When you overwhelm the system, that's exactly what starts to happen," he said, adding that Connecticut prisons were designed to handle 17,000 inmates but now hold about 19,000.

But Rell on Monday turned down an invitation from the Democrat-controlled Judiciary Committee to speak to lawmakers on Oct. 1 about the steps the Department of Correction and the Board of Pardons and Paroles are taking to suspend future parole for violent offenders and return current parolees with violent crimes to prison if they break the rules.

"She's already made her plans clear," said Rell spokesman Rich Harris. "This is an executive branch agency. She's the governor. She's directing the agency to take these steps."

Rell took lawmakers by surprise on Friday afternoon when she issued a news release announcing the ban on parole for violent offenders. The decision came after New York City police shot and wounded Connecticut parolee James Biggs, 45, in the Bronx when they say he threatened them with a kitchen knife. Police say the car he was in was taken in a carjacking in Hartford on Thursday. Biggs was paroled less than a month ago.

That incident followed the July 23 killings of a Cheshire mother and her two daughters. Two parolees with burglary convictions have been arrested. Prosecutors said they will pursue the death penalty.

Robert Farr, chairman of the parole board, said he agrees with Rell's decision.

"I believe that the intent of that is to say that we're going to be sure that we lock up violent offenders for a longer period of time," Farr said. "Now we still need some re-entry provisions, but we can certainly lock up violent offenders for a longer period of time than we do now."

Since the Cheshire murders, the state's prison population has grown by 280 inmates. Lawlor said that's because judges are setting higher bail amounts for burglars, plea deals have substantially increased and the parole board has gotten more conservative in doling out parole approvals.

Lawlor said he expects that trend will continue. And he said the numbers will increase if violent parolees are kept in prison. Currently, there are about 2,500 people on parole.

"These numbers pile up very quick," he said.

Rell, in a news release, said there are no current or expected plans to expand the state's prisons, beyond current efforts to reopen some beds at Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield.

There are also no plans to seek additional funding from the legislature to cover the cost of halting parole for violent offenders.

"The expectation right now is it can be done without additional appropriations," Harris said. He said the governor believes space will be freed up in prisons by reviewing the files of about 1,200 lower-level, nonviolent offenders and releasing some of them to halfway houses or other alternative forms of supervision.

Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, ranking Senate Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said additional prison beds may ultimately be the answer. But in the meantime, Kissel said, the state might reconsider sending inmates out of state to free up beds.

Kissel, whose district includes Carl Robinson, said residents with prisons in their neighborhoods do not want those facilities expanding. And he said it could take the state years to build a new prison.

"I think for the short-term, out-of-state transfer of prisoners, to me, is the only viable alternative we have at this time," he said. ________________

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-rellparole0925.artsep25,0,5646
776.story?coll=hc_tab01_layout

A Prison Population Shift
Some Inmates May Get Out Early To Make Way For Violent Offenders In Parole Freeze

By MARK PAZNIOKAS | Courant Staff Writer
September 25, 2007

As many as 1,200 inmates serving time for nonviolent crimes will be considered for early release to make room for violent offenders ineligible for parole under new policies ordered by Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

Rell, who indefinitely suspended new paroles for violent offenders Friday, said Monday that the early releases will allow the state Department of Correction to manage any population increase caused by the parole suspension.

"We will ensure that violent offenders who pose a risk to society stay behind bars while continuing to help nonviolent offenders make the most effective transition possible back to society," Rell said.

The governor tightened the rules for parole Friday in response to the arrest of James Biggs, a career criminal paroled Aug. 30 for the third time in two years. He was released without the electronic monitoring that Rell had ordered for violent offenders after two parolees were charged in the slayings of three members of a Cheshire family in July.

Biggs was shot and wounded by New York police early Friday as he exited a car that police say he had stolen at knife-point Thursday from a 65-year-old man in Hartford.

In addition to barring violent offenders from parole, Rell ordered correction officials to examine the records of 1,590 current parolees to see if there are grounds to reincarcerate any of the 600 to 800 parolees with convictions for violent crimes.

Rell also ordered parole officials to delay the release of between 400 and 600 inmates who have been approved for parole until she is assured that all records were reviewed in their cases. The suspects in the Cheshire killings were released without such a review.

The governor's office said that correction officials had returned to temporary custody a half-dozen parolees who should have been fitted with electronic monitoring.

The increased use of electronic monitoring since the Cheshire slayings has caused a shortage of the equipment, Rell's office said.

Rell said she has no plans to transfer inmates out of state or to seek emergency steps to expand prison capacity.

The co-chairmen of the legislature's judiciary committee invited Rell to testify at a public hearing next week about how her administration intends to manage the parole suspension, but Rell declined, saying that the statement she released Monday about her parole policy spoke for itself.

Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the judiciary committee, said the committee still might invite correction officials to testify about how they would screen the nonviolent offenders for early release.

State law requires nonviolent offenders to serve at least half their sentences, and inmates who committed violent crimes must serve at least 85 percent, he said.

Lawlor and his co-chairman, Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, said they agree with Rell's decision to suspend parole for violent offenders until the program is reviewed.

But Lawlor said one likely outcome - greater electronic monitoring, including the use of sophisticated global positioning satellites to track parolees - will require additional funding.

"All these options come with a price tag," he said.

One new parole officer will be needed to monitor every 30 inmates placed on GPS tracking, Lawlor said.

Lawlor also said he believed the tighter scrutiny for parole will lead to a larger inmate population.

The state's prison system was designed for 17,000 inmates and now has 19,000.

The population has increased by 280 since the Cheshire slayings, he said.

Without new capacity, a higher inmate population will pose dangers for staff and provoke the intervention of the federal courts, Lawlor said.

Robert Farr, chairman of the board of paroles and pardons, said he supports the moratorium ordered by Rell, but that eventually the parole of violent offenders will resume as a matter of public safety.

With proper monitoring, parole remains a valuable tool, he said.

Studies show that inmates who are released to parole or other supervised programs are less likely to commit new crimes than those who are freed without supervision after completing their sentence.

Contact Mark Pazniokas at mpazniokas@courant.com.

Posted by lois at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

FL: Jackson County Celebrates Prison Opening

"Mayor Charles Holman and state Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said the county and city tried for 13 years to get a big prison. They credited former state Rep. Jamey Westbrook, D-Bascom, and Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, along with former House Speaker Allen Bense, R-Panama City, and the late Rep. David Coley, the current lawmaker's husband, for promoting the prison industry in the region."

Originally published September 18, 2007

Jackson County celebrates prison opening

By Bill Cotterell

FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU POLITICAL EDITOR

GRACEVILLE - Jackson County officials celebrated the opening of a huge privately run prison Monday, declaring victory in a 13-year campaign to make corrections a reliable and growing source of jobs in the area.

''It's been slow and sluggish and a struggle up in the northwest corner of Jackson County. This is going to change that,'' said Art Kimbrough, president of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. ''When you look at this as sustainable jobs that will be here over lifetimes, it's a foundation of economic strength that will allow the economy to stabilize, begin to grow and thrive again.''

Kimbrough said various lock-ups already account for 1,650 direct jobs in Marianna, Sneads and other communities, with hundreds more in businesses depending on the prisons. The new 1,500-bed Graceville Correctional Facility will add 314 jobs immediately, including 199 for guards, with 384 more cell spaces planned - making it the largest of six for-profit prisons in the state.

The prison is operated by the GEO Group of Boca Raton, which runs two other prisons in Florida. GEO's three-year, $61 million contract calls for a basic daily rate of $42.74 per inmate, up to 90-percent capacity, and $8 per man after that. That's $9.33 a day cheaper, on average, than the Department of Corrections per-inmate cost.

David Murrell, executive director of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, said in Tallahassee that privatized prisons are an economic boon for small, rural counties - but that state-run institutions give a bigger bang. The PBA, which represents officers in state-run institutions, calculates that employees it represents make about 10 percent more than those in private prisons, which are required by law to operate 7 percent cheaper than DOC prisons.

''The pay is a great deal better in state institutions and the jobs are more stable,'' said Murrell.

Warden Bill Willingham said GEO starts guards at $12.10 an hour, plus $1,450 in training costs for them to become certified correctional officers. He said the company pays $30,630 a year for certified officers, to start.

He said about 99 percent of the prison's jobs are filled. Prisoners are scheduled to start arriving next week.

John Hurley, GEO's vice president for North American operations, said his prison will meet DOC standards of rehabilitation programs as well as security for a wide range of offenders. He said it will be a safe and humane institution.

''We have an obligation to provide a very safe, secure and orderly facility,'' he said at ceremonies following a ribbon-cutting. ''We have a responsibility to see that the inmates committed to our custody come here as punishment, not for punishment.''

Mayor Charles Holman and state Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said the county and city tried for 13 years to get a big prison. They credited former state Rep. Jamey Westbrook, D-Bascom, and Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, along with former House Speaker Allen Bense, R-Panama City, and the late Rep. David Coley, the current lawmaker's husband, for promoting the prison industry in the region.

Holman said the sprawling GEO facility is bigger than all previous corrections installations in the town's industrial park.

''We're not on the Interstate; we don't have the tourist attractions; there are no military installations,'' he said. ''This is good, clean industry. We want 'em.''

''It's certainly unfortunate that we need prisons,'' Coley said. ''But as long as we have individuals who won't obey the law, prisons will be built. So we might as well have them right here in Jackson County.''
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/NEWS01/709180
341/1010/NEWS01

Posted by lois at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

MS: State Wants 500 more super-max cages

"House Corrections Committee Chairman Bennett Malone, D-Carthage, said he wants a 500-bed super-maximum security prison with the latest technology to house the most hardened criminals from Unit 32."

"More than 50,000 people are in prison or on parole and under Epps' supervision. His staff predicts a 4.5 percent prison population increase over the next year. More than 22,000 people were behind bars Sept. 1. "It's safe to say corrections is just as big as junior colleges and is about to catch up to Institutions of Higher Learning, which is kind of sad," he said."

September 18, 2007

State needs new sentencing rules, MDOC chief Epps says

Mississippi legislators begin hearings Monday to discuss budget woes

By Laura Hipp
lhipp@clarionledger.com

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Monday that Mississippi will not see fewer inmates without significant changes to criminal sentencing rules.

More nonviolent inmates should be on house arrest or eligible for parole to cut rising costs, the top prison official told legislators.

Epps requested a $20 million increase to bring his budget to $348 million in the fiscal year that begins next July.

"We've got a lot of people coming to prison," Epps said.

Little was said of the troubles in super-maximum security Unit 32 at the State Penitentiary at Parchman. Three inmates have been killed there since June.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee, composed of representatives and senators, began two weeks of hearings Monday to receive budget requests from dozens of state agencies.

This is the first step in crafting a more than $5 billion general fund budget to provide services ranging from police protection to health care. The 2008 Legislature should finalize spending by spring.

"We haven't seen all the numbers yet," said Sen. Terry Burton, R-Newton. "We'll certainly have a lot of requests and a little bit of money."

Epps' reasons for rising costs are the same as in years past: medical care, fuel and more criminals to watch.

More than 50,000 people are in prison or on parole and under Epps' supervision.

His staff predicts a 4.5 percent prison population increase over the next year. More than 22,000 people were behind bars Sept. 1.

"It's safe to say corrections is just as big as junior colleges and is about to catch up to Institutions of Higher Learning, which is kind of sad," he said.

"The Parole Board only has 1,800 people to see from now until 2011, so that's a concern of mine," he said.

Epps said he wants statewide drug courts that focus on rehabilitation and are cheaper to run.

"We've got to decide who we're afraid of and who we're mad with," Epps said.

A person who attempts to run over a highway patrolman will end up in Parchman, he said.

"The guy we all see in that orange Chevrolet, the 27-inch rims on, and may have a roach in his car? Let me try the drug court," he said.

He expects costs to grow by $30 million in two years if prison population growth does not subside.

Though Unit 32 was not mentioned, it was not far from legislators' minds.

Burton said questions surrounding the Parchman facility will come when the Legislature meets in January.

"Today, it's all about the money part of it, not the problems," he said.

Lawmakers must consider guard pay and retaining experienced workers to improve conditions, he said.

House Corrections Committee Chairman Bennett Malone, D-Carthage, said he wants a 500-bed super-maximum security prison with the latest technology to house the most hardened criminals from Unit 32.

He said he is working on the cost.

"It's got to be located in a place different than Parchman, Miss., because we don't have the work force to pull from," said Malone, who is not on the budget committee but watched Epps' presentation.

"Camp 32, it can start counting its days now because they're numbered," Malone said.

After the meeting, Epps said he wants to increase guard pay by 20 percent in the unit. Some of the money would come from savings in other areas of the budget.

The privately run Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler stopped taking Mississippi prisoners because the state pays too little, Epps told lawmakers. Instead, the facility is full of prisoners from California and Hawaii, two states that pay higher rates.

Money used for that contract could boost pay at Parchman, he said.

To comment on this story, call Laura Hipp at (601) 961-7077.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/NEWS/709180
366/1001

Posted by lois at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)

MA: State House march demands CORI reform

Boston Bulletin:
State House march demands CORI reform
September 20, 2007
Connease Warren

Supporters came from as far away as Texas — and as near as Dorchester and Roxbury — to speak on behalf of CORI reform on Beacon Hill Tuesday.

"We're hear to tell our stories," Zakiya Alake, from Boston's Union of Minority Neighborhood's and Sisters United, said.

But many supporters of House Bill 1416 believed they were shut out of an opportunity to testify and stand in support of the bill that would change a law which they say shuts them out of life.

Hearings on the Public Safety Act of 2007-2008 (PSA 07-08) were preceded by a rally and press conference attended by about 200 people gathered in front of the State House. Colorful signs reading, "Believe in a second chance" and "CORI Reform= Safer Streets," were held by members of organizations including Neighbor to Neighbor, the Boston Workers Alliance.

The proposed legislation seeks to modify Massachusetts's Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Law, which gives access to criminal records to employers and other institutions. Whether, and how, the law should be reformed became an issue in Massachusetts' race for governor last year.

The bill proposes to update the process for sealing CORIs, update the CORI database within the Criminal History Systems Board, implement anti-discrimination protections, update process for the distribution of CORIs, update the Juvenile CORI system, expand participation in re-entry programs by offenders serving mandatory minimum sentences, develop a certificate of commitment to rehabilitation.

Speakers addressed the crowd, including the bill's lead sponsor State Rep. Michael E. Festa, who introduced a member of the Texas legislature, Jerry Madden, who traveled to Boston to speak on behalf of the bill.

Standing in front of a row of elected officials, who lined the steps of the State House in support, Festa said, "In Texas, they're doing it better than we are here."

Alake and others directly affected by the current CORI law also spoke at the rally. She told of her son's struggles to find and maintain employment because of his CORI and the impact it has had on the rest of her family.

Arguing that her son has paid his debt to society and now just wants to work, "This is not supposed to be like Hester Prynne with a scarlet letter."

A crowd buoyed by the, sometimes, emotional speeches walked to the hearing room, B1, which quickly filled to capacity.

And when the House Chairman of the Joint Judiciary committee, the Honorable Eugene L. O'Flaherty opened the hearing, some loudly voiced complaints.

"Move to a bigger room," someone inside B1 shouted from the back. The request was punctuated by some applause from the standing room only crowd.

O'Flaherty, who presided over the hearing along with Honorable Robert S. Creedon, Jr. Senate Chairman of the Joint Judiciary Committee, advised the crowd not to ask questions and proceeded to call on the elected officials who would be granted the right to speak first.

For the next two hours, a bevy of officials from state and local government including Mayor Thomas M. Menino, members of Governor Deval Patrick's cabinet, Boston City Council Representative Chuck Turner, State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and others testified before the committee.

Most officials spoke in favor of the principles surrounding CORI reform though many did not endorse HB 1416 in its entirety.

Mayor Menino said the issue of reform "has long been a concern of mine" and spoke in support of bills 1430 which addresses re-entry programs and 1431 that proposes mandatory post release supervision.

Then he asked, "Anyone in this room who hasn't made a mistake raise their hands?"

Senator Wilkerson also posed a question, "Do we want to have a growing number of people who are unemployable?"

Her testimony also included opposition to statements made by the delegation from Governor Patrick's office led by Suzanne Bump, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In earlier testimony, Bump said the issue of CORI reform is a priority for the Patrick and Murray administration. She said they are calling for the establishment of a commission on CORI reform that would "study the issues, have clear goals and a concrete time table".

Wilkerson disagreed.

"I don't agree with the administration that we need to start from scratch to study the impactm" she said. " We know the impact."

Speaking of the current CORI law, "It is out of control," she said.

At least twice during testimony, Creedon acknowledged that, at least, some aspect of the system is broken. He referenced an incident where a former police chief was denied a hunting license because of a 1959 arrest when he was a juvenile that he was told would not appear on his record.

"Those things should not appear. It's crazy," Creedon said.

Others spoke in opposition to portions of the bill. Attorneys from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), criticized language in the bill saying, "terms are undefined in the anti-discrimination portion of the bill and much litigation will result."

During over two hours of testimony, repeated remarks were made about the size of the room which remained filled to capacity for most of the five hour hearing.

At one point Representative O'Flaherty cautioned "someone will remove you" as one person in the crowd ignored the chairman's warnings not to ask questions during the hearing.

Outside the hearing room witnesses waited outside creating a din that was audible through the closed doors and at times made testimony difficult to hear.

At around four o'clock, many who had been waiting all day to testify got their chance.

Cathy White testified, "I am haunted and judged by my past everyday."

Maggie Brown said, "I just want to work."

Stanley Porter of the Boston Workers Alliance said, "In my community people are hurting. They are hurting real bad."

Jalelle Cosgrob, a 16 year old with a CORI asked, "What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?"

But by this time, many who came to testify had already left the building.

Steven O'Neill, executive director of Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing. for Community Advancement (EPOCA) talked about his organization's efforts tohelp ex-offenders. Then he addressed the elephant that had sat in the room all day.

"I have to struggle every day to convince our members there is hope...many of them felt that the message that was sent today was that the legislation doesn't care. 600 people came and most of them left because they couldn't get in. Meanwhile Garner auditorium that holds 600 is empty," O'Neill said.

O'Neill's comments were followed by cheers in the room that was, by then, half empty. O'Flaherty and State Sen. Creedon addressed the concerns saying when he scheduled the hearing the auditorium was booked.

"I thought it was important to hold the hearing quickly and get the testimony," he said.

"That is correct. The world is filled with erroneous conclusions. We hope you can dispel that one," Creedonadded.

The Bulletin Newspapers

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

CA: Uncaging the Valley: Women and Children in Prison Alley

Sponsoring organizations include but not limited to, California Prison Moratorium Project
Coalition of Women Prisoners, Center for Non Violence, Peace Fresno, National Network in Action, Families against Three Strikes,
All of Us or None, A New Way of Life, Grandmothers of the Light, Central California Environmental Network, Escuelas Si, Pintas No, Critical Resistance, Californians United for Responsible Budget, Comité’ No Nos Vamos, and more

Uncaging the Valley: Women and Children in Prison Alley

Why are we cutting funds for youth services?
And buying new police cars
Why are we spending less on education?
And funding Peeping Tom cameras in our communities
Why are we seeing fewer family services?
And seeing more police in our streets
Why are we expanding the Youth Jail?
To incarcerate kids whose parents aren't born yet?
Why are we expanding Fresno County’s brand new jail?
And not implementing night court or less costly alternatives for non violent violators?

Nowhere in the state is the move away from funding social services to pay for more prisons, jails, police, cameras, helicopters, special suppression teams, and ICE more dramatic than here in Prison Alley.
The costs and burdens of prison and jail expansion are being pushed
Primarily onto the Valley's women and children, attacking the family core
Come learn about what's happening: 53,000 new prison and jail beds. More ICE raids.
More youth expelled from school. And learn about what you can do about it. Meet activists and other concerned residents.
Let's stop planning a future of more kids in cages. Imagine a Valley without Prison Alley.
Cuts to education, mental health programs, job training, affordable housing, environmental justice to pay for more police, more prisons, more jails is everybody's problem.

Uncaging the Valley will feature topics in workshops on:
Know Your Rights
Immigrant Rights, Detention and Deportation
Youth Justice
Racial Profiling
Gang Violence
3 Strikes
Women & Children Left Behind
Prison Expansion
Prison / Sentencing Reform
Mental Illness and Incarceration
Environmental Racism

Saturday, Nov. 10th, 2007
9 am - 4 pm
Edison High School Cafeteria
540 E. California Ave., Fresno, CA 93706

Tabling opportunities available
For More Information, call 559-266-5901 or email pmpvalle@sbcglobal.net.

Public Transportation Info: Fresno Area Transit Route Information 559-621-RIDE / 559-228-6280(TTY)
Bus Fare $1.00 /Token .85 / children under 6 free/ seniors .35
FAX system map http://www.fresno.gov/NR/rdonlyres/DEF98FAE-E9B3-46CA-B67C-A75EAA7C640C/0/SYS_MAP.pdf

Posted by lois at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)

Critics Right and Left Protest Book Removals

September 21, 2007
Critics Right and Left Protest Book Removals
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

The federal Bureau of Prisons is under pressure from members of Congress and religious groups to reverse its decision to purge the shelves of prison chapel libraries of all religious books and materials that are not on the bureau’s lists of approved resources.

Outrage over the bureau’s decision has come from both conservatives and liberals, who say it is inappropriate to limit inmates to a religious reading list determined by the government.

The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of some of the most conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives, sent a letter on Wednesday to the bureau’s director, Harley G. Lappin, saying, “We must ensure that in America the federal government is not the undue arbiter of what may or may not be read by our citizens.”

Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said in an interview, “Anything that impinges upon the religious liberties of American citizens, be they incarcerated or not, is something that’s going to cause House conservatives great concern.”

The bureau, the target of a class-action lawsuit by prisoners because of the book purge, is hearing criticism from a broad array of religious groups and leaders. Sojourners, a liberal evangelical group based in Washington, sent an alert to its members, who within 48 hours sent the bureau more than 15,000 e-mail messages urging it to scrap the policy. The issue is also a hot topic on conservative Christian talk radio shows.

Spokesmen for the Bureau of Prisons said it was not reconsidering its policy. The bureau said it was prompted to act by a report in 2004 from the inspector general of the Department of Justice, which mentioned that since most prisons did not catalog their library materials, radical books that incite violence and hatred could infiltrate the shelves.

Initially, the bureau set out to take an inventory of every book and item in its chapel libraries. When the list grew to the tens of thousands, the bureau decided instead to generate lists of acceptable books and materials — about 150 items for each of 20 religions or religious categories. It calls that plan the Standardized Chapel Library Project.

Prison chaplains were instructed in the spring to remove everything not on the lists, and put it in storage. The bureau said it planned to issue additions to the lists once a year.

Douglas Kelly, a Muslim inmate at the minimum security Federal Prison Camp in Otisville, N.Y., said his chaplain showed up in the chapel library with garbage bags one day last spring and removed “hundreds and hundreds” of volumes. The only thing left on the sole shelf devoted to Islam was a Koran and a few volumes of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.

“It’s very important to have as much material as possible,” said Mr. Kelly, a recent convert who said he learned about Islam from a book another prisoner gave him. “What I know of Islam, and what I’ve been able to practice so far, has been as a result of the literature and the books I’ve been able to get ahold of. Unfortunately this purge has curtailed our short supply.

“I’ve seen the list of approved books, and 99 percent of them, we never had to begin with,” said Mr. Kelly, 40, who pleaded guilty to using a false identity. He said that prisoners were permitted to keep only five books of their own.

Mr. Kelly is an original plaintiff in the lawsuit against the bureau, and expects to sign on as a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, which was refiled in late August. The other named plaintiffs are a Christian and a Jew.

Mr. Kelly and the Christian plaintiff, John Okon, agreed to a telephone interview, but Mr. Okon decided not to participate when officials at the Otisville prison insisted on sitting in the room during the interview. (The Jewish plaintiff has already been released to a halfway house and declined an interview).

Some organizations that advocate for inmates’ religious rights say they have privately been trying to persuade federal authorities to rethink the policy.

Leaders of the Aleph Institute, a Jewish group, and Prison Fellowship, a Christian group, say they met last week with the director of the Bureau of Prisons and Acting Deputy Attorney General Craig S. Morford.

Rabbi Aaron Lipskar, executive director of the Aleph Institute, a group founded by the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher movement, said that the government officials tried to reassure them that a book could be restored to the library if a prisoner requested it, the chaplain vetted it from start to finish, the chaplain sent a certification form to the bureau in Washington and the book made the updated approval list.

“I find it almost impossible that they can expect a prison chaplaincy department, which is already so strained, to take the time to review all these materials,” Rabbi Lipskar said. “No matter to what extent they try to fix this policy, it will never come out right.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/us/21prison.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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

Life Sentence

Life sentence

It's a government program whose impact rivals the New Deal. It pushes whole communities out of society's mainstream. It costs tens of billions of dollars a year. Scholars are just beginning to understand how prison is reshaping the country.

By Christopher Shea, Boston Globe | September 23, 2007

WHAT if America launched a new New Deal and no one noticed? And what if, instead of lifting the unemployed out of poverty, this multibillion-dollar project steadily drove poor communities further and further out of the American mainstream?

That's how America should think about its growing prison system, some leading social scientists are saying, in research that suggests prisons have a far deeper impact on the nation than simply punishing criminals.

Fueled by the war on drugs, "three-strike" laws, and mandatory minimum sentences, America's prisons and jails now house some 2.2 million inmates - roughly seven times the figure of the early 1970s. And Americans are investing vast resources to keep the system running: The cost to maintain American correctional institutions is some $60 billion a year.

For years sociologists saw prisons - with their disproportionately poor, black, and uneducated populations - partly as mirrors of the social and economic disparities that cleave American life. Now, however, a new crop of books and articles are looking at the penal system not just as a reflection of society, but a force that shapes it.

In this view, the system takes men with limited education and job skills and stigmatizes them in a way that makes it hard for them to find jobs, slashes their wages when they do find them, and brands them as bad future spouses. The effects of imprisonment ripple out from prisoners, breaking up families and further impoverishing neighborhoods, creating the conditions for more crime down the road. Prisons have grown into potent "engines of inequality," in the words of sociologist Bruce Western; the penal system, he and other scholars suggest, actively widens the gap between the poor - especially poor black men - and everyone else.

"This is a historic transformation of the character of American society," says Glenn Loury, a Brown University economist who has begun to write on this topic, most recently in the Boston Review. "We are managing the losers by confinement."

The shift isn't just academic. In national politics, concern about the people who actually go to prison has been drowned out by tough-on-crime rhetoric, but today the issue is getting a hearing from some politicians, and not just hard-left liberals. On Oct. 4, Congress's Joint Economic Committee will hear testimony from Western, Loury, and others on the economic and social costs of the prison boom. The session will be chaired by Jim Webb, the gruff, moderate Democratic Senator from Virginia. Cities including Boston and San Francisco are changing their hiring practices to destigmatize prisoners, and there is detectable momentum in Congress toward reducing the extraordinarily harsh minimum sentences for possession of crack cocaine, which disproportionately affect poor black Americans.

The issue has arrived on the public agenda in part because of the work done by a handful of leading sociologists. Western's 2006 book "Punishment and Inequality in America" is a key work in this new scholarly movement. Devah Pager, a Princeton sociologist, has been making headlines since her dissertation, completed in 2002 at the University of Wisconsin, demonstrated how a criminal record - even for nonviolent drug offenses - made it nearly impossible for black ex-convicts in Milwaukee to land a job. This month, a book based on that work, "Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration," appears in bookstores. And the sociologist Lawrence Bobo, who left Harvard for Stanford two years ago but is returning in January, has been investigating how the growing black prison population is eroding African-Americans' confidence in the rule of law.

For years, the penal system was a marginal topic among sociologists, catching the interest chiefly of professors with an interest in hard-core criminology. But in the past decade, discussion of incarceration has moved to the center of the field, in the work of respected scholars at top institutions who are interested in a broad understanding of American inequality.

"My sense of it is just that the sheer mass, the weight of the reality of what's happening, has sunk in," says Loury.

With black men in their early 30s more likely to have been in prison than to have graduated from college, and with 700,000 ex-prisoners reentering society each year, the trends cannot be ignored. The current US rate of some 750 prisoners per 100,000 citizens is several times higher than rates in Europe - higher, even, than the rates in formerly repressive states like Russia or South Africa.

In "Punishment and Inequality in America," Western documented the degree to which poor black communities across America live in a penitentiary shadow. Of black males born in the late 1960s who did not attend college, 30 percent have served time in prison, he pointed out. For high-school dropouts, the figure is a startling 59 percent. "I don't think the really deep penetration of the criminal justice system into poor and minority communities has been fully understood by people outside these communities," says Western.

Mass incarceration, Western argues, also renders invisible a substantial portion of American poverty. At the height of the tech boom in 2000, he points out, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts weren't working. Government statistics, however, said the unemployment level of this group was 33 percent, because government surveys exclude prisoners.

At the root of prison's broader social impact lies its lingering effect on individual lives. In an ideal penal system, prisoners might exit the system having paid their debt to society and be more or less restored to their previous status as free men and women. But Pager's book demonstrates just how detached from reality that view is. She had four college students, two black and two white, pose as applicants for low-level jobs in Milwaukee (excluding jobs where a criminal record would have disqualified them).

They used résumés that were nearly identical - high school degrees, steady progress from entry-level work to a supervisory position - except that in some cases the applicant had a drug conviction in his past (possession with intent to distribute) for which he served an 18-month sentence and then behaved perfectly on parole.

In surveys conducted by Pager, 62 percent of Milwaukee employers said they'd consider hiring an applicant with a nonviolent drug offense in his past. But in her field study, Pager found that her black applicants with criminal records got called for an interview - or to interview on the spot, as they applied in person - a mere 5 percent of the time. That compared with 14 percent for the black applicants without a criminal record. Meanwhile, the white applicants with a record were called back 17 percent of the time, compared with 34 percent for the white men lacking the blotch on their résumé. "Two strikes" - blackness and a record - "and you're out" is how Pager summarizes her findings. (Pager has replicated this study in New York City, with similar results.)

Job prospects for black ex-prisoners in Milwaukee may be even worse in the future, Pager argues in "Marked," because while the vast majority of job growth is in the suburbs, the gap between employers' receptiveness to black and white ex-convicts is even wider there.

Western explores the same set of post-prison issues on a broader statistical canvas. He found that whites, Hispanics, and blacks all face a hit in their wages of about a third, relative to their peers, when they emerge from prison, and also work fewer weeks per year. Their peers will see significant raises from ages 25 to 35, but the ex-prisoners won't, widening the gap. Former prisoners, too, are far less likely ever to marry, but no less likely to have kids, meaning that prisons contribute to the epidemic of female-headed, single-parent households. (Some 9 percent of all black children now have a father in jail.)

Sociologists and a few politicians are not the only ones aware of these trends, argues Lawrence Bobo. Black Americans interpret them as evidence of stark racism, according to surveys he's done. Seventy-nine percent of white Americans, for example, think drug laws are enforced fairly, compared with 34 percent of black Americans.

Black Americans' concerns about the justice system burst to the fore in Jena, La., last week when thousands protested prosecutors' tough treatment of six black teenagers after an assault on a white student. When Bobo looks broadly at black attitudes about the justice system, he doesn't find them irrational.

"We as a society," Bobo wrote last year, "have normalized and, for the time being, depoliticized a remarkable set of social conditions."

Policy makers are slowly beginning to reckon with some aspects of these developments. In 2004, President Bush, in his State of the Union address, acknowledged some of the challenges caused by mass incarceration, Pager points out, describing the hundreds of thousands exiting prisons annually as a "group of Americans in need of help." And this year liberals like Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and conservatives like Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) have cosponsored the so-called Second Chance Act. It would provide $192 million for drug counseling, family counseling, housing, and mentorship for ex-offenders to assist their reentry into their communities.

A handful of cities, including Boston, no longer ask applicants for city jobs whether they have a criminal record, although their backgrounds can still be checked later. A growing "Ban the Box" movement - referring to the check-off box on an application, signaling a conviction - is designed to reduce the kind of upfront discrimination Pager identifies. San Francisco and St. Paul have also signed off on the idea, while Los Angeles is pondering it.

To these ideas, Pager would add a policy modeled on how we treat debtors: After a certain amount of time, records of most convictions, especially for nonviolent offenses, would be expunged. Stigma would have a deadline.

Such proposals would do nothing to roll back prison populations, but bills introduced by Senators Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Biden to raise the amount of crack cocaine that triggers automatic five- and ten-year sentences might do so. (The possession of crack - typically a drug of the poor, and specifically the black poor - is penalized far more harshly than the powdered cocaine preferred by middle- and upper-class drug users.) Bruce Western advocates ending mandatory minimum sentences for drug conviction, and adds some further thoughts about reducing prison populations: "We could be spending money and social services to reduce the risks that make people likely to go to prison in the first place - on drug addiction, on mental-health services, on housing."

In a campaign year, the prison issue is a tough one - such arguments don't have the easy pull on voters that "tough on crime" policies do. Yet with Congress calling prison experts to testify about their research, and coverage in the mainstream media of the protests in Jena, "I do sense there is a public conversation beginning," Western says.

Christopher Shea's column appears regularly in Ideas. E-mail criticalfaculties@verizon.net.

Posted by lois at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)

MI: 2 articles on closing of 3 prisons

Free Press
Detroit, MI

$950-MILLION PLAN

Senate passes big cut
Move freezes school funding, closes 3 prisons

September 24, 2007
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF and KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

LANSING -- The Democratic House and Republican Senate moved closer in an extraordinary Sunday session to a deal for an income tax increase, but remained far apart on how much state government should be cut to erase a $1.75-billion deficit.

A conference committee of key members from both chambers could meet as early as today to try to hammer out the size of an income tax increase.

Time is running short for legislators and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to reach a budget deal to avoid a partial governmental shutdown Oct. 1.

Senate Republicans also used their majority strength Sunday to pass $950 million in spending cuts from state government and public schools. The House didn't act on the spending cuts, but Democrats made clear they wouldn't accept the depth of the cutbacks.

Still, House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, said progress was made and the House would agree to several hundred million in cuts.

Conference committee negotiators discussing an income tax increase will have this background: The Senate GOP had considered raising the 3.9% tax rate to 4.3%, and the House Democrats have tried several times to pass a 4.6% rate. The Senate fired the first volley Sunday: Two bills which would eliminate all but $560 million of a $1.75-billion deficit with spending cuts were assailed by Democrats as cruel gamesmanship which, if enacted, would harm the state's most vulnerable people.

More than 2,000 state employees would be laid off, Democrats said. School funding would be frozen, three prisons would close, social services would be slashed and State Police patrols would be drastically cut on secondary roads.

While it was likely the Democratic-controlled House will reject the depth of the spending cuts, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, said the plan was a sincere effort to cut the size of government. He also said Democrats have offered no alternative other than the tax increase.

Bishop said the cuts were difficult to vote for, adding, "We took a gigantic leap forward, we led with what we believe in."

Bishop said it's up to the House to decide on an income tax increase, or have the tax question sent to a conference committee. It was unclear whether the House, which has tried and come up short on the needed votes many times over the past 10 days, would take up the income tax question early today. Democrats said the GOP cuts go too far and that the plan was a political gambit by Republicans.

"These bills move us no closer to resolution," said Senate Minority Leader Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek.

Sen. Martha Scott, D-Highland Park, condemned the social services cuts. "Let's have a conscience on Sunday, on God's day," she said. "Are we going to do this to the people?"

The Senate passed two bills to cut the deficit. The first had $587 million in cuts to the state general fund and was approved on a near party-line vote, 20-18, with only Republican Valde Garcia of Howell breaking party ranks. A second bill to erase an estimated $364 million deficit for school aid passed on a straight party line vote, 21-17. Total state funding for schools would be $12.8 billion.

Of the total proposed reductions, $290 million would come from withholding a planned 2.5% increase in funding to public schools.

The 2007-08 fiscal year begins next Monday. A temporary budget extension would be possible, but Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said she would not sign a continuation budget without a significant tax increase.

The state House did take votes on more than a dozen bills that did everything from extend certain fees past their expiration dates later this year to shifting revenues from dedicated funds, such as the transportation fund to the general fund. There was no debate on any of the bills, most of which passed easily.

In a sign that a deal might be imminent, House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, who has previously said Republicans would hold fast against a tax increase, told reporters he was prepared to allow his members to vote their conscience when an income tax vote comes up on the floor.

Last week, several Republican members held off voting early Friday morning, waiting to see if more Democrats would vote for the tax hike.

"It's time for members of both caucuses to vote how they feel they should vote," he said.

Senate Republicans tied the shell income tax increase sent to the House to 18 long-term spending reforms, many affecting the health insurance and pension benefits of public employee and teachers unions.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070924/NEWS06/709240325/10
08
Contact CHRIS CHRISTOFF at 313-222-6609 or cchristoff@freepress.com.

Free Press
Detroit, MI

Editorial

JEFF GERRITT
Close state prisons the right way
September 25, 2007

A lot of wacko ideas have come out of the state budget mess, but Senate Republicans finally hit on one with promise. They've proposed closing three prisons as part of $950 million in spending cuts.

I say promise, because Michigan, with its crazy incarceration rates, must close prisons, but only if it also reduces its super-sized prison population. The State Parole Board and governor's office can do that, without legislative approval, through paroles and commutations. It's a power they need to use, selectively, safely, to help right-size the penal system.

Republicans don't want that, but they can't control who gets paroles and commutations. They plan to save an estimated $111 million in Corrections costs, without lowering the number of inmates, by reopening the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia and jamming -- my word, not theirs -- the rest of the inmates into other institutions.

Problem is, Michigan's 42 prisons, holding 50,000 people, are already jammed. Thousands of minimum-security inmates live in eight-man pole barns built for five. The rest are double-bunked. Education and other programs aimed at giving inmates a shot at success are in short supply, with long waiting lists, despite requirements that inmates take them before getting paroled.

Shutting down three prisons by simply moving the 3,000 inmates in them to other institutions would lengthen those waiting lists and jeopardize the health and safety of inmates and employees. State prisons would turn into dangerous warehouses that spit out parolees unprepared for anything but a life of more crime.

But with little sweat, Michigan could safely parole another 3,000 inmates and do what Republicans have suggested: Close Southern Michigan Correctional Facility and Charles Egeler Reception Center in Jackson, as well as the Riverside Correctional Facility in Ionia. Nearly one-third of the state's inmates, or roughly 15,000, have already served their minimum sentences and are eligible for parole. Thousands of others are chronically ill or dying. Even with 3,000 fewer inmates in three fewer prisons Michigan would still own one of the nation's highest incarceration rates -- and the highest in the Midwest. If the state had lock-up rates similar to nearby states, it would save $400 million a year. Closing three prisons by reducing the inmate population would save about $100 million a year -- a good start. The state would invest some of the money saved into prisoner re-entry programs. Republicans, exploiting people's worst fears, have opposed modest efforts by the Department of Corrections to reduce the state's prison population, which now costs nearly $2 billion a year, almost 20% of the state's general purpose money. They have fought reforms in sentencing guidelines and paroles for nonviolent offenders.

Still, facing a budget crisis, Republicans have put prison closings on the state's to-do list more forcefully than have Democrats. Now it's time to do it -- the right way.

JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press editorial writer. Contact him at gerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070925/NEWS06/70925026

Closing of Jackson prison one step closer
September 25, 2007
By DAVID EGGERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LANSING ‹ The state¹s plan to close a 1,400-bed prison in Jackson took a big step closer to reality after a federal appeals court declined Monday to rule whether a proposal to move prisoners elsewhere is adequate.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati instead voted 3-0 to send various issues concerning the future of the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility back to U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids. Jonker earlier this month had approved a state Department of Corrections plan to transfer 700 remaining sick inmates to other facilities and effectively close the prison, pending appeal.

Monday¹s ruling means Jonker¹s order likely will take effect, allowing the prison to shut down within 45 days. Inmates¹ lawyers may appeal again, however.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm¹s administration wants to close the Jackson prison to save $35 million as part of the state¹s effort to balance its budget.

Inmates¹ lawyers who sued to block the prison¹s closure have said the state wants it closed to escape long-standing and costly federal oversight of the health care system at the Jackson prison complex.

³I can assure you we are going to raise every possible issue that will protect the health and safety of these prisoners,² said Patricia Streeter, an attorney for the inmates.

Jonker recently took over the class-action case after U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen in Kalamazoo asked that it be transferred. While Enslen had blocked the plan to close the prison and ordered the department to revise it, citing concerns over moving sick prisoners, Jonker said the transfer proposal was OK.

The Corrections Department has been under a federal consent decree in the case, known as Hadix, since 1985 to improve medical care and other conditions at the state prisons in Jackson.

The case has struck a nerve as lawmakers and Granholm continue grappling with major budget problems, including how to slow spending in the prison system that costs $2 billion a year to run.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070925/OPINION01/709250336
/1068/OPINION&GID=QN9ZAZZ5WM2gLUiBlABnCv1ejHHutIBn/GpsQKKErEg%3D

Posted by lois at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2007

Massachusetts: District Court Rules in Felony Disenfranchisement Case

Massachusetts: District Court Rules in Felony Disenfranchisement Case

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts has opened the way for a challenge to the state's disenfranchisement policy as a violation of the Voting Rights Act. On August 30, the Court issued a ruling in Simmons v. Galvin, a case challenging that state's disenfranchisement laws. The plaintiffs had argued that the state of Massachusetts incorrectly denied their right to vote in federal and state elections.

In its ruling, the Court denied the state's motion for a summary judgment on the plaintiff's claim that Massachusetts' disenfranchisement policy violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs had argued that the racially disproportionate impact of the state's felony disenfranchisement policy violated the Act. The Court ruled that "[i]t may be difficult for plaintiffs to prove that racial bias in the court system exists and has interacted with other cognizable factors to render" the Massachusetts policy unlawful, but they should be given the opportunity to make that case in court.

The Court rejected two additional arguments of the plaintiffs. First, the plaintiffs had contended that the change to the Massachusetts law in 2000 that denied the right to vote to persons who are currently incarcerated should not apply to them because they were incarcerated prior to the constitutional amendment that resulted in the policy change. They argued that to deny their right to vote was a violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the United States Constitution. The Court disagreed, ruling that the Ex Post Facto Clause does not apply to "civil, non- punitive measures" intended "for the regulation of the franchise." The Court held that the "amendment was intended to be primarily civil and regulatory, rather than punitive, in nature."

Secondly, the plaintiffs argued that Massachusetts' disenfranchisement policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In granting the state's motion for summary judgment, the Court pointed to the established ruling in Richardson v. Ramirez upholding the practice of felony disenfranchisement as clear evidence that the law in Massachusetts does not run afoul of the Constitution.

- - - - - -

Posted by lois at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)

Prison purge of religious books

Christian Science Monitor

from the September 13, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0913/p08s01-comv.html
Prison purge of religious books
The Bureau of Prisons has overreached by purging chapel libraries to guard against radical Muslims. Earlier this year, chaplains in federal prisons removed thousands of religious materials from federal prison libraries nationwide. Perhaps this government-ordered purge won't cause concern outside of prisons, because it affects only convicts, and because it's to fight terrorism. But it should.

It matters enough for two prisoners at the Federal Prison Camp in Otisville, N.Y., who sued the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) over its new screening policy for religious books, tapes, CDs, and videos. The inmates, an Orthodox Jew and a Protestant Christian, claim the policy violates their religious rights and legal access to information.
While the class-action suit will further help define prisoner religious rights, it may also test judicial commitment to religious liberty in the war on Islamic terror.
The issue is not whether prison literature is censored, but the degree to which it is. US law and the Constitution allow government to restrict religious freedom in prisons as long as it has a compelling interest and uses the "least restrictive means" to pursue its interest. Making sure prisons don't become recruiting grounds for terrorists certainly is a compelling interest.
But the BOP has overreached.
Before this summer, screening was done by BOP chaplains. They culled material sent to the libraries and pulled mostly hate literature – a lot of it white supremacist citing a Christian basis – that could endanger prison security.
The new policy instead uses religious experts to select a list of approved materials. The list is long, allowing up to 450 titles for each of 20 religions or religious groupings, and will be periodically updated. But many titles that the BOP admits "may be very worthwhile" aren't on the list and were removed from chapel libraries.
In the Otisville prison, according to the suit, hundreds of books were taken from shelves, including such "fundamental" works as Maimonides' Code of Jewish Law, as well as the Christian bestseller, "The Purpose-Driven Life." The Muslim collection, small to begin with, amounts to the Koran and two other titles.
The BOP's move stems from a 2004 Department of Justice inspector general review of religious services for Muslims in federal prisons. One recommendation was to take an inventory and rescreen chapel libraries. It also said the BOP should consider a central registry of appropriate titles to avoid duplicating review efforts.
But the BOP never conducted the inventory. A BOP spokeswoman says the list is the "most effective" way for selecting material that is "consistently available," provides "religiously reliable teachings," and does not discriminate or promote violence or radicalization.
This goes far beyond withholding obviously inappropriate materials for security reasons, as done by the chaplains, and instead defines what is religiously appropriate – a disturbing development, even in a prison context. As Gary Friedman, spokesman for the American Corectional Chaplains Association says: "Radicalization is in the mind of the beholder." Many Jews consider the New Testament hateful to them.
Religion plays a vital rehabilitative role for prisoners. The BOP has taken many other steps to better guard against Muslim violence, and could do more.
But it needn't take this one.

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

Reform Jewish Leader Calls On Bureau of Prisons to Explain Removal of Religious Books

URL: http://rac.org/PrintItem/index.cfm?id=1434&type=Articles
Reform Jewish Leader Calls On Bureau of Prisons to Explain Removal of Religious Books

Saperstein: I urge the Bureau of Prisons to publish the standards being used in the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as well as the names of those religious leaders with whom it is consulting

Contact: Sean Thibault or Jessica Weiser

202.387.2800 | news@rac.org

Washington DC: September 11, 2007- Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, today called on Harley G. Lapin, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, to “publish the standards being used in the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as well as the names of those religious leaders with whom it is consulting.” According to recent press reports, under the auspices of that project, hundreds of religious texts are being removed from federal prisons.

The full text of the letter follows:

Dear Director Lappin:

I write on behalf of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), encompassing over 900 congregations across North America, including 1.5 million ReformJews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), whose membership includes more than 1,800 Reform Rabbis to seek additional information concerning the Standardized Chapel Library Project.

Recent press reports, including a front page story in yesterday’s New York Times, raise a raft of complicated constitutional issues. We recognize, of course, that there may be more to the BOP’s actions than the press reports indicate, and are, therefore, writing to seek further information.

Although we certainly recognize the need to maintain order within our nation’s prisons, it appears from the press reports that in pursuit of that legitimate goal the Bureau has greatly, and unnecessarily, reduced prisoner’s access to religious texts. The inability of the prisoners to have access to their choice of religious literature may inhibit their ability to exercise their rights to freely practice their religions.

The restrictions and/or guidelines that have been dictating what religious literature is available to prisoners have been publicized, but do not seem to be published. I urge the Bureau of Prisons to publish the standards being used in the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as well as the names of those religious leaders with whom it is consulting. In a country that values discourse and democracy, rules with such a wide-spread impact should be subject to public scrutiny.

I encourage the Bureau to submit their restrictions and/or guidelines for public review before continuing to follow them and to contemplate whether or not continuing the Standardized Chapel Library Project truly respects the rights of federal prisoners.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Rabbi David Saperstein

###

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose more than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 1800 Reform rabbis

Posted by lois at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2007

CT: Issue of the Day: Crime

"A California prosecutor spoke by video link and explained details of his state's "three strikes" law. The session, on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, filled the largest hearing room in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford."

Issue Of The Day: Crime
Officials Complain About Computers

By CHRISTOPHER KEATING

Capitol Bureau Chief

September 12, 2007
Click here to find out more!

Like no other crime in recent memory, the triple slaying in Cheshire has galvanized the legislature and awakened Connecticut's entire criminal justice system to examine itself in advance of enacting immediate improvements.

The killings prompted a five-hour hearing Tuesday at the state Capitol complex in which legislators considered virtually all options - from building more prisons, including one for inmates with mental illness, to strengthening criminal laws, to sending inmates out of state because the prisons are now full.

Some of the ideas have been postponed in past years as too costly or controversial, but the high-profile nature of the July killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters has prompted Democrats and Republicans to consider improvements that previously have been ignored.

The point that seemed to frustrate the legislators the most during the hearing was that the state'