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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.

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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's criminal justice system is plagued by an archaic computer system that prevents the myriad agencies from communicating directly with each other.

Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, known for being mild-mannered, spoke passionately about the need for a new system that would allow police departments around the state to send reports to prosecutors by computer. His descriptions seemed to surprise legislators.

"I wouldn't even say we have a woeful information technology system," Kane told the legislature's judiciary committee. "It's practically nonexistent. ... This is silly in this day and age. It's absolutely silly. It sounds astounding, but come around some time at the offices" around the state.

While many police officers file reports electronically and often have laptops in their patrol cars, those departments are not connected with the prosecutors, Kane said.

State Rep. Robert Godfrey, a deputy House speaker, said the prosecutors and the Department of Correction should not be hiring consultants to resolve their computer needs. Instead, he said, they should use the expertise of the state's Department of Information Technology.

"We're almost using parchment paper and quill pens," said Godfrey, D-Danbury, considered one of the more technologically sophisticated legislators.

State Sen. Andrew McDonald, the committee's co-chairman, said he was recently involved in his law practice in a case that involved 5 million documents that were shared among attorneys electronically. An updated computer system that connected the criminal justice network, he said, would be relatively inexpensive when compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to build new prisons and hundreds of millions more for operating costs.

"This is a source of great frustration for me," McDonald, D-Stamford, said. "I don't see the vision" on the part of state agencies to solve the problem.

Kane pointed to fixing the computers as the one improvement in the entire system that could help prevent tragedies like Cheshire.

Theresa Lantz, the commissioner who oversees the state's sprawling prison system and its 20,000 inmates, agreed that information-sharing among prosecutors, parole officers and the prisons is a priority.

The afternoon-long hearing featured four top state officials, and three nationally known authorities in criminal justice. 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.

The speakers were brought together following the July 23 slayings of the three family members in a horrific home invasion that included homicide, rape and arson. Two career criminals, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, were caught by police as they fled the Petit home, and they face the death penalty in what some are calling one of the worst crimes in Connecticut in decades.

Both men had been released on parole earlier this year. The Board of Pardons and Paroles never received a sentencing transcript in which a judge described Komisarjevsky as a calculating, "cold-blooded predator" who specialized in nighttime burglaries of homes that were occupied.

Komisarjevsky's crimes have prompted legislators to consider changing the law so that the burglary of an occupied home would be considered a violent felony. Republicans and Democrats seem to agree regarding burglaries, but they have not reached a consensus on how to change the state's existing "three strikes" law, which would send criminals to life in prison for three violent felonies.

Republicans have called upon Democrats to enact get-tough laws within the next 45 days, but the Democrats, who control the legislature, said they want to avoid rushing to change the state's laws. Some Democrats have dismissed the "three strikes" law as simplistic, and some say it would not have stopped the Cheshire tragedy.

"Neither one of these guys would be eligible for anybody's `three strikes' law," said Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, the other co-chairman of the judiciary committee.

But Republican State Chairman Christopher Healy said Lawlor and other Democrats have been soft on the death penalty and other crime-fighting initiatives.

"The record over the last 20 years shows that Mike Lawlor and his allies in the General Assembly wanted fewer cons sent back to jail for parole violations," said Healy, who briefly attended the hearing. "The majority Democrats have built a flawed system of punishing criminals, and now they must account for it."

The next step in the process is for legislators to bring their ideas to the judiciary committee's co-chairmen, and then bills will be drafted.

House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, one of the original sponsors of the state's current version of the "three strikes" law, said a special session is possible this fall.

As the legislature heads toward an election year in 2008, Republicans and Democrats have been at odds over the best way to prevent crime.

"The politics has got to stop," Amann said. "Let's remember the [Petit] family - not what's going to sound tough in a brochure."

Contact Christopher Keating at ckeating@courant.com.
courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-cheshire0912.artsep12,0,2806832.story?coll=hc_tab01_layout
Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant

Posted by lois at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

VA: Study confirms prison's problems. Despite contraband within private facility, it gets good marks

Study confirms prison's problems
Despite contraband within private facility, it gets good marks

Wednesday, Sep 12, 2007 - 12:09 AM Updated: 12:31 AM

By FRANK GREEN
Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

LAWRENCEVILLE -- An independent study released yesterday found the state's only private prison has problems with drugs, cell phones and high staff turnover.

It was not possible, however, to compare the extent to which drugs are getting into the Lawrenceville Correctional Center with prisons run by the Virginia Department of Corrections because the testing at Lawrenceville was not conducted according to state requirements.

The Virginia State Crime Commission met inside the prison yesterday for a briefing on a report written by MGT of America Inc. for the Department of Corrections.

The report found that Lawrenceville, despite its contraband problems, overall was a well-run, clean and safe facility and noted that any prison can have serious security breaches. "In this case those breaches resulted in the high incidence of drugs and cell phones being introduced inside the prison," the report said.

In March, The Times-Dispatch, using state figures, reported that more than twice as many inmates were caught with drugs at Lawrenceville as in all other Virginia prisons combined, and that one in five cell phones confiscated in prisons in Virginia were seized there.

Later, however, the Department of Corrections said those figures were incomplete and gave a misleading picture of the contraband problem at Lawrenceville.

This year, two former Lawrenceville officers caught with 14.6 grams of cocaine pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to deliver drugs to inmates, and a former lieutenant is facing a bribery charge for allegedly taking $2,000 from an inmate there.

Lawrenceville is operated by GEO Group Inc. under a five-year, $95 million state contract. The medium-security prison holds more than 1,576 male inmates.

Yesterday, Kenneth McGinnis of MGT told the crime commission that the number of inmates testing positive for drugs at Lawrenceville could not be properly compared with figures from state prisons.

That is because until December, Lawrenceville had been targeting inmates suspected of using drugs for testing to a larger extent than in state prisons, where there is more of an emphasis on random testing.

MGT found that in 2006, Lawrenceville inmates tested positive for drugs more than 19 percent of the time, four times the highest rate in six nearby state-run prisons and more than 20 times higher than at the state's Brunswick Correctional Center next door.

Also, Lawrenceville had not been conducting as many tests as required under its contract. It should have been randomly testing 5 percent of the inmate population each month, but in 2006, it tested an average of 2.9 percent.

State Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach and vice chairman of the commission, said adequate random testing is needed to determine the extent of a prison's contraband problem.

John M. Hurley, a GEO vice president, agreed and conceded that "we let our guard down. . . . We weren't complying."

Officials said that in March, after more extensive random testing began, of 107 inmates tested, just two were positive.

No figures on cell-phone seizures at Lawrenceville or state prisons were available in the 34-page report. However, the report said prison investigators said that some inmates who got cell phones inside the prison rented them to other inmates.

The report offered 50 recommendations for improving security. MGT also said there were staffing problems at the private prison, where the employees are paid less than their state counterparts.

In 2006, 112 staff members at Lawrenceville resigned or were fired out of 341 positions. At the time of the study, the security staff had a 15 percent vacancy rate and nearly 30 percent of the security staff had less than a year of experience.

"Given the present problems of contraband within the institution, the present number of vacancies with the security staff . . . contributes to the present security problem," said the MGT report.

The most frequently cited reasons former employees gave for leaving Lawrenceville included the pay and benefits. It was noted that the Geo Group Inc. authorized a $1 an hour pay increase for security staff in Lawrenceville in April.

Hurley said there are now no staff vacancies; a drug-detecting dog has been acquired and two more are on the way; 10 percent of the inmate population is being randomly tested for drugs each month; and other improvements are under way.

There are a lot of ways to get contraband into prisons, Hurley said. Just recently, a search turned up a suspicious softball in an outside recreation yard. Inside was a cell phone.
Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or fgreen@timesdispatch.com.
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.PrintView.-content-articles-RTD-2007-09-12-0124.html

Posted by lois at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2007

CA: Mandatory Minimums and One Vet, Sargent Binkley

Sargent Binkley--California's Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws
Under California's strict mandatory minimum sentencing laws, US Army Captain Sargent Binkley is facing at least 12 years in state prison.
Sargent Binkley committed two robberies in 2006. These crimes were desperate attempts to obtain the painkillers he became addicted to after sustaining injuries while serving abroad. These injuries were repeatedly misdiagnosed and mistreated by the military medical system, resulting in Sargent’s downward spiral of addiction. He harmed no-one, took no money, and turned himself in. Under California’s minimum sentencing law, no judge can commute his sentence to one more in proportion to his crime. Sargent has been in jail for over a year and a half and potentially faces final sentencing on September 20th, 2007, in Santa Clara County.
http://supportsarge.org

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

September 10, 2007

OH: Nearly half the youth who leave juvenile prisons return within 3 years

Monday, September 10, 2007

Half of juvenile cons return in three years
Associated Press
COLUMBUS - Nearly half the youths who leave Ohio's juvenile prisons return within three years, even though state taxpayers spend nearly $80,000 a year on each inmate, nearly three times what is spent on offenders in adult prisons, according to newspaper reports.

About 1,800 young people are housed in Ohio's eight juvenile prisons on a given day for treatment and reform in a system that experts say fails too often, according to an investigation by the Columbus Dispatch published Sunday.

Some youths leave prison, find mentors and jobs, and go on to lead productive lives, but records showed about half of all juvenile offenders returned within three years, substantially higher than the adult three-year recidivism rate of 38 percent.

The Children's Law Center, a nonprofit group based in Covington, Ky., says conditions are so poor at Ohio's juvenile prisons that it's filed three class-action lawsuits since 2004 against the Department of Youth Services. One lawsuit prompted the Ohio Department of Youth Services to hire consultants for $843,840 to spend a year evaluating the entire system.

The juvenile prison system is trying to help youths get the treatment they need, said Tom Stickrath, director of the Department of Youth Services.

"I know we have room for improvement - unequivocally," he said. "Every day we ask ourselves, 'What can we do better?'"

The juvenile system's budget was nearly $260 million last year, including parole and community corrections programs and money that goes to the county juvenile courts. Officials say that isn't nearly enough to maintain order, provide the necessary educational and mental health services and keep some offenders from slipping through the cracks.

About 70 percent of the state's juvenile inmates have been ordered to undergo treatment for mental illness while they're incarcerated, but the juvenile prison system only employs 31 psychologists and assistants to provide those services.

Many juvenile offenders are skipping their required high school classes within the prisons, the investigation found. At the Scioto Juvenile Correction Facility in Delaware County, 25 percent of the boys and 15 percent of the girls had unexcused absences from classes from July to December 2006.

Gov. Ted Strickland suggested lapses in education and treatment would be difficult to address without exploring ways to reduce violence at the facilities.

"If we can't provide that sense of safety, I think there's little else we can do in terms of education or treatment or anything," he said.

The juvenile prison system's records are incomplete and lack a standardized system for reporting assaults, gang fights and guards' use of force, the newspaper's analysis found. However, the records revealed an upswing in violence at the state's juvenile prisons.

Reported assaults in the prisons, both among inmates and between inmates and guards, nearly doubled last year to 2,520 from 1,305 in 2005, an increase Stickrath said was due to better reporting rather than increased violence. Prison employees attribute much of the violence to too few guards and a thriving gang population.

The system has cracked down on guards who use excessive force and emphasizes nonviolent approaches to resolving fights, Stickrath said.

Officials should make reducing youth prison violence a priority, said Strickland, a former prison psychologist.

"You take a group of young people of various ages," he said, "and you put them in a situation where they don't feel the environment is predictable or controlled ... and you've got a recipe for chaos."

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070910/NEWS01/709100367

Posted by lois at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries

September 10, 2007, NY Times
Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.

The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.

Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The bureau, an agency of the Justice Department, defended its effort, which it calls the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as a way of barring access to materials that could, in its words, “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.”

Ms. Billingsley said, “We really wanted consistently available information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts.”

But prison chaplains, and groups that minister to prisoners, say that an administration that put stock in religion-based approaches to social problems has effectively blocked prisoners’ access to religious and spiritual materials — all in the name of preventing terrorism.

“It’s swatting a fly with a sledgehammer,” said Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, a Christian group. “There’s no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism.”

The Bureau of Prisons said it relied on experts to produce lists of up to 150 book titles and 150 multimedia resources for each of 20 religions or religious categories — everything from Bahaism to Yoruba. The lists will be expanded in October, and there will be occasional updates, Ms. Billingsley said. Prayer books and other worship materials are not affected by this process.

The lists are broad, but reveal eccentricities and omissions. There are nine titles by C. S. Lewis, for example, and none from the theologians Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth and Cardinal Avery Dulles, and the influential pastor Robert H. Schuller.

The identities of the bureau’s experts have not been made public, Ms. Billingsley said, but they include chaplains and scholars in seminaries and at the American Academy of Religion. Academy staff members said their organization had met with prison chaplains in the past but was not consulted on this effort, though it is possible that scholars who are academy members were involved.

The bureau has not provided additional money to prisons to buy the books on the lists, so in some prisons, after the shelves were cleared of books not on the lists, few remained.

A chaplain who has worked more than 15 years in the prison system, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is a bureau employee, said: “At some of the penitentiaries, guys have been studying and reading for 20 years, and now they are told that this material doesn’t meet some kind of criteria. It doesn’t make sense to them. They’re asking, ‘Why are our tapes being taken, why our books being taken?’ ”

Of the lists, he said, “Many of the chaplains I’ve spoken to say these are not the things they would have picked.”

The effort is unnecessary, the chaplain said, because chaplains routinely reject any materials that incite violence or disparage, and donated materials already had to be approved by prison officials. Prisoners can buy religious books, he added, but few have much money to spend.

Religious groups that work with prisoners have privately been writing letters about their concerns to bureau officials. Would it not be simpler, they asked the bureau, to produce a list of forbidden titles? But the bureau did that last year, when it instructed the prisons to remove all materials by nine publishers — some Muslim, some Christian.

The plan to standardize the libraries first became public in May when several inmates, including a Muslim convert, at the Federal Prison Camp in Otisville, N.Y., about 75 miles northwest of Manhattan, filed a lawsuit acting as their own lawyers. Later, lawyers at the New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison took on the case pro bono. They refiled it on Aug. 21 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“Otisville had a very extensive library of Jewish religious books, many of them donated,” said David Zwiebel, executive vice president for government and public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish group. “It was decimated. Three-quarters of the Jewish books were taken off the shelves.”

Mr. Zwiebel asked, “Since when does the government, even with the assistance of chaplains, decide which are the most basic books in terms of religious study and practice?”

The lawsuit raises serious First Amendment concerns, said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, but he added that it was not a slam-dunk case.

“Government does have a legitimate interest to screen out things that tend to incite violence in prisons,” Mr. Laycock said. “But once they say, ‘We’re going to pick 150 good books for your religion, and that’s all you get,’ the criteria has become more than just inciting violence. They’re picking out what is accessible religious teaching for prisoners, and the government can’t do that without a compelling justification. Here the justification is, the government is too busy to look at all the books, so they’re going to make their own preferred list to save a little time, a little money.”

The lists have not been made public by the bureau, but were made available to The Times by a critic of the bureau’s project. In some cases, the lists indicate their authors’ preferences. For example, more than 80 of the 120 titles on the list for Judaism are from the same Orthodox publishing house. A Catholic scholar and an evangelical Christian scholar who looked over some of the lists were baffled at the selections.

Timothy Larsen, who holds the Carolyn and Fred McManis Chair of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, an evangelical school, looked over lists for “Other Christian” and “General Spirituality.”

“There are some well-chosen things in here,” Professor Larsen said. “I’m particularly glad that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is there. If I was in prison I would want to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” But he continued, “There’s a lot about it that’s weird.” The lists “show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,” he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.

The Rev. Richard P. McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame (who edited “The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism,” which did make the list), said the Catholic list had some glaring omissions, few spiritual classics and many authors he had never heard of.

“I would be completely sympathetic with Catholic chaplains in federal prisons if they’re complaining that this list is inhibiting,” he said, “because I know they have useful books that are not on this list.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/us/10prison.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Posted by lois at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)

MO: Women offenders suing over pregnancy loss;Inmates' pleas for medical care were ignored, they allege.

Women offenders suing over pregnancy loss; Inmates' pleas for medical care were ignored, they allege.
By Benita Y. Williams

Credit: The Kansas City Star
Monday, February 5, 2007
Edition: METROPOLITAN, Section: NATIONAL/WORLD, Page A1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Female offenders aren't so rare anymore. Yet once they're suspected of a crime, offenders who are pregnant confront a justice system designed years ago with men in mind.

And the outcome isn't always good.

Recently, Sofia Salva sued Kansas City and its police department over the premature birth and death of her son. Salva alleged that arresting officers and the city jail staff ignored her repeated requests for medical attention after she told them she was pregnant and bleeding.

Across the state line, former Johnson County inmate Michelle Hauck said authorities were told that she was carrying twins and that her doctor had recommended bed rest for a condition potentially fatal to a fetus. Instead, Hauck said, she was made to mop behind bars. The next day she was rushed to a hospital, shackled at the ankle, and later gave birth prematurely. Both newborns died.

Salva's attorney said he has an obstetrician's opinion that prompt attention would have prevented the miscarriage. It cannot be determined whether incarceration hastened the end of Hauck's pregnancy.

Neither case is unique.

In Wichita, a pregnant woman stunned by a Taser when arrested alleges that the shocks -- and a lack of jail care -- led to her miscarriage.

In Tampa, Fla., Kimberly Grey is suing over the death of her son, who was born over a jail cell toilet and died en route to the hospital. Grey said she told officials of her labor pains for 12 hours before the birth.

Former inmate Shawanna Nelson sued the Arkansas prison system for shackling her during 12 hours of labor and delivery. Her attorney said Nelson suffered a hip separation possibly caused by shackling.

On Thursday, Kansas City Police Chief James Corwin said the behavior of the officers on a video of Salva's arrest is "inconsistent with the values and policies of this department" and with their training. The officers are on paid leave pending an internal investigation.

In interviews or court records, the other jurisdictions have denied that their staffs violated policy or were negligent.

Amnesty International considers leg shackles on pregnant women "cruel, inhuman and degrading," but only Illinois and California have laws regulating the practice during labor and delivery. Some other corrections departments have internal policies on restraining pregnant inmates.

Although men make up the majority of the nation's inmates, the nation's female prison population increased at a faster rate, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And at least 5 percent of women entering prison and 6 percent entering local jails are pregnant.

"There should be policies and procedures in place for handling pregnant women," said Dori Dinsmore, with Amnesty's regional office.

The Kansas City Police Department policy says anyone under arrest "may be priority released" from jail when medical care is requested or required.

But that didn't happen quickly enough for Salva, according to her lawsuit.

The Sudanese native was stopped about 10:45 p.m. Feb. 5, 2006, near Ninth Street and Brooklyn Avenue for driving with a fake temporary license tag. A police car videotape shows her telling arresting officers at least 20 times that she was pregnant and bleeding and wanted to go to the hospital.

Instead, she was arrested on the license tag charge and on outstanding city warrants for mistreatment of children, trespassing, driving while suspended and other traffic violations. Salva said she continued to request help at the jail until the next morning, when she allegedly passed a large blood clot. She was taken to Truman Medical Center, where she gave birth to a premature baby boy who lived one minute, according to the lawsuit.

It is not uncommon for police officers to encounter people who lie, even about being ill, to avoid arrest, said Van Muschler, who heads the Metropolitan Community College's Blue River Public Safety Institute in Independence.

He could not speak specifically to the Salva case. But when it comes to determining the truth of medical claims, Muschler said, his school trains officers to err on the side of caution and call an ambulance.

"They are the professionals and can assess that individual," Muschler said. "Peace officers are not trained to make that determination."

Johnson County justice officials thought jailing Hauck was the best way to protect her unborn twins.

The 31-year-old Edgerton woman had a history of drug use and had smoked marijuana while on probation. And Johnson County has no secure drug treatment centers designed for pregnant probationers.

"That's (incarceration) the only way to ensure the safety of the children," probation officer Trisha Daniels said at a Sept. 25 probation hearing.

Judge Peter Ruddick agreed and sent Hauck to the county jail in Olathe. She was 21 weeks pregnant.

Hauck's medical records were not presented at the probation hearing, the transcript shows, but her attorney, Mark Lewis, argued that her pregnancy was "high-risk" and that Hauck should stay out of jail and see her own doctors.

"They seemed unmoved," Lewis said. "It was just a horrible tragedy that I think everyone regrets."

In jail, Hauck's already fragile condition worsened.

"I mopped, and then the next day my water broke," said Hauck, who added that she had stopped using drugs upon learning she was pregnant.

Hauck was taken from the jail to the University of Kansas Hospital on Oct. 1. Five days later at 8:15 p.m., she gave birth to Tristan Dennis Schmitt. His heart beat for two hours. At 9 p.m., Leland Ryan Schmitt was born and whisked to intensive care. He died about 24 hours later.

"The punishment she was getting did not fit the crime," said James Schmitt, 34, Hauck's husband. "This is a life sentence for all of us."

Johnson County officials deny any mistreatment or policy violations in Hauck's case. Pregnancy alone is not considered a medical risk, but the Johnson County Sheriff's Office said a pregnant inmate experiencing complications would be restricted from cleaning jobs.

No such restrictions were placed on Hauck, Deputy Tom Erickson said.

Because some jail records are closed, it's impossible to assess what jailers knew about Hauck's medical condition. The jail doesn't record which duties inmates perform.

Corrections overseers said health care for female inmates has improved.

"Fifteen or 20 years ago ... I would have said jails needed to change, but now so many women are incarcerated, most jails are used to providing health care for women," said Edward Harrison, president of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, an accreditation agency that certifies Johnson County's jail.

In Johnson County, Capt. Michael Raunig said that nurses are on duty around the clock and that the jail contracts for doctors to make regular visits. The cost of inmate medical care in Johnson County has climbed steadily from nearly $2.2 million in 2002 to about $3.4 million in 2005.

"I wish the pregnant inmates were our biggest concern," Raunig said. "Not to downplay that, but we deal with a lot of medical issues. Inmates get sicker and sicker all the time."

Brett Shirk, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri, said jails and prisons are obliged to offer proper medical care.

"It doesn't matter if you're not Mother Teresa," Shirk said. "When the state takes away your freedom, they have to guarantee your personal safety."

To reach Benita Y. Williams, call (816) 234-7714 or send e-mail to bwilliams@kcstar.com.

Posted by lois at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2007

MA: Prison master plan key to fixing ailing system

MA: Prison master plan key to fixing ailing system

By Laura Crimaldi | Sunday, September 9, 2007
Boston Herald
Retrofitting cells at MCI-Cedar Junction to stop inmates from carving up the metal furniture and infrastructure would be an expensive task and one that rises near the top of the priority list for the state Department of Correction. In fact, the facility’s days as a maximum security penitentiary may be numbered as the DOC looks for beds to place 500 medium security inmates who are jailed at facilities deemed inappropriate for their security needs. “Is it a problem? Yes. Is it the No. 1 need for the DOC? Absolutely not,” said Mary Beth Heffernan, undersecretary of criminal justice at the Executive Office of Public Safety, which oversees prisons. Among the problems the DOC is hoping a yearlong facilities master planning effort will address: • Cell upgrades that meet “suicide resistant” standards as put forth in the 2007 Hayes Report about suicide prevention.
• Chronic overcrowding, particularly at MCI-Framingham, the state’s major women’s prison.
• A lack of medium security beds that could end in a portion of MCI-Cedar Junction being converted to lower security purposes.
• Retrofitting 9 Block at MCI-Cedar Junction to create a behavioral management unit for the severely mentally ill. This is part of a $1.4 million request that includes more mental health day treatment systemwide for women and men and a residential treatment unit set to go online this fall at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.
• Installing solid doors at a cost of $750,000 in 10 Block, a segregation unit at MCI-Cedar Junction that holds the dubious distinction of being the only such unit in the state still equipped with bars.
Acting Commissioner James R. Bender said he has no cost estimates for retrofitting furniture. “I think this master plan is going to be a solution. All the principals are looking at all types of different areas, sentencing guidelines, the prison classification piece and what is the possibility of adding new beds,” he said. Leslie Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, which provides legal aid to inmates, said the Walpole prison is in such bad shape that it should be shuttered. “It’s awful,” she said. “They should just close the place.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1030276

Posted by lois at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2007

Parole for VA Prisoners

Dear Supporters:

Do you have or know of an incarcerated person that is eligible for parole per the Sentencing Statue? Has been denied Continuously and Solely Due to the Serious Nature of the Crime and who has served an abundance of their sentence. (i.e. Conviction of 30 years, parole eligible/pre-1995 Sentencing, has served over 10-15 years, for the past 90% of the time served has maintained an exemplary conduct annual review/charged free, yet has been denied continuously and solely due to the serious nature of the crime).

Listed below are a few things you can do to assist with parole board reform:

1. Write, fax, email, call Governor Kaine and all the Senators that reside on the Senate Committee for Social Service and Rehabilitation requesting the establishment of a Parole Board Oversight Committee and why you believe there is a need (i.e., parole board administrative record of denying parole continuously and solely due to the serious nature of the crime). In your letters, we at RIHD suggest that you give a brief summary of the prisoner whom you believe has atoned, repented and shown rehabilitation and is NOT a threat to society. Feel free to enclose supportive documentation's and copies of all denials. Please make package as brief and too the point as possible. We ask that though you may be requesting on your incarcerated loved one, that you speak on behalf of the 9,000 mass of Virginia Prisoners.
Reminder: This is the State Election Year. Whether you have an incarcerated love one or not, whether they are parole eligible or not. Understand you, Joe and Latoya Public who are REGISTERED voters have the power to bring about Change, Resolution, Healing that goes towards Saving Lives and Communities. Make no mistake, RIHD does not endorse a blanket release of parole eligible, only those who have served, rehabilitated, are no longer a threat to our community, with a responsible reentry plan, in accordance to the sentencing and parole board guidelines without prejudice (i.e. warehousing of human beings in prisons for economic gain for the rich and powerful and for justifying the waste of taxpayer dollars for unnecessary new prisons).
Suggestion: When contacting any/all elected officials, let it be known that you are a "registered voter"; you support "smart" legisative laws that goes towards reducing crime and reducing recidivism. (i.e. The Prisoner Good Conduct, Mandatory Literacy Bill Patron Henry L. Marsh; Parole Board Guidline Patron Delegate M. BaCote; Senator Yvonne Miller)

It's been said many times "Todays Prisoner is Tomorrow's Neighbors," do unto others as we would want others to do unto us. Haven't we all made mistakes, maybe a crime for which we didn't get caught? For those who did and has paid their debt, who have "earned" a second chance, let's afford them the opportunity. Contact the Governor today, for tomorrow, he too may look for our support as President.

2. RIHD has endorsed a prewritten Parole Board Reform Letter/Petition addressed to the Governor. Those who wish to obtain a copy can do so by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to the below address, or pick up a copy at any/all upcoming RIHD meetings and events. This letter is powerful, written by the prisoner for public awareness and support.
RIHD - Parole
PO Box 55
Highland Springs, Virginia 23075

3. Be in attendance and give support during the October 20th Prisoner Awareness & Feed the Homeless Day at Monroe Park in Richmond, Virginia. If you wish to be a guest speaker or speak on behalf of a VA prisoner, please contact Sean: vaprisonjustice@riseup.net Deadline: October 1, 2007


RIHD
PO Box 55
Highland Springs, Virginia 23075
(804) 562-2123
www.rihd.org

Posted by lois at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)

CA: Sex offender is free -- and reduced to a riverbed

Note that the 17 month long search for legal housing took place before Jessica's Law passed, increasing the size of buffer zones and putting even more river beds out of bounds.

From the Los Angeles Times
Sex offender is free -- and reduced to a riverbed
By Catherine Saillant
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 8, 2007

Habitual sex offender Ross Wollschlager has bounced from one Ventura County hotel to another in the weeks since his release from a state mental hospital, getting ejected each time the owner learned of his identity.

Publicity about his release has made it impossible for the 44-year-old convicted rapist to find a rural landlord willing to give him a place to live.

After seven evictions, Liberty Healthcare Corp., a San Diego company hired by the state to help Wollschlager get resettled, gave him a tent and he began living in the Ventura River bottom. He is overseen by a taxpayer-funded security guard who stays in a vehicle nearby.

Wollschlager's predicament has reignited debate on whether strict new laws governing sex offenders are making it harder to monitor them.

Jessica's Law, passed overwhelmingly by voters last fall, bars Wollschlager from living within 2,000 feet -- about half a mile -- of any school, park or beach. He wears two monitoring devices on his ankle and shuttles between his campsite and a friend's home in Oxnard each day.

"It's harder to protect the public when he is homeless," said Margaret Coyle, a county prosecutor who opposed Wollschlager's release. "Were he in a condo or an apartment, we could supervise him more effectively."

But Will Smith, chief of staff for state Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster), who sponsored Jessica's Law, said he believes it is effective in protecting residents.

"We've never made any argument that it wouldn't be harder to find housing, but we've always argued that it would be safer," Smith said. "We think the safety of residents in California outweighs any inconvenience on [Wollschlager's] part."

Liberty Healthcare is continuing to look for a more permanent placement for Wollschlager, a search that began 17 months ago, said Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health. It's not the first time a sex offender has become homeless upon release, Kincaid said.

Last summer, before Jessica's Law was approved, child molester Timothy Boggs was "chased from hotel to hotel" in Sacramento until a bail bondsman stepped forward to offer him a place to stay in his office, she said.

In San Luis Obispo County, felon Frederick Hoffman is scheduled to live in a trailer near military training grounds after his release.

On Friday, the state Department of Corrections announced that it had notified 2,741 sex offenders, who were paroled after Nov. 8, 2006, that they were in violation of housing restrictions mandated by Jessica's Law. The parolees now have less than 45 days to comply with the law.

The problem is only going to get bigger, Kincaid said. More than 650 convicts are being treated as repeat sex offenders, and at least 11 of them could be released within a year. Meanwhile, Jessica's Law expanded the definition of who should be treated for sex offenses, and referrals to the state-run sexually violent predator treatment program have grown from 50 a month to more than 700, Kincaid said.

"How on Earth do we do what the voters asked for -- that is, how do we track these people? I really don't know," she said.

A 146-page report titled "No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the United States," scheduled for release next week by the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch, is expected to be critical of such laws and policies and to urge state and federal reforms, including the elimination of residency restrictions.

Wollschlager said he understands why society feels the way it does about sex offenders. He was convicted of two rapes in the 1980s, and later, of molesting a 10-year-old girl as she slept.

"I hated myself for a lot of years for what I did. But I've made a lot of changes in my life," he said. "I know a lot of people don't care about that. I hope my actions will speak louder than words."

Wollschlager's attorneys say his case demonstrates how a tangle of sex offender laws, court orders and public fear can produce unintended consequences.

At age 19, he was convicted of the rapes, in which he entered his female victims' homes in the middle of the night. He was paroled after serving half of his eight-year sentence. Two years later, after a day of drinking and drug use, Wollschlager again sneaked into a stranger's home one night.

He recounted how he entered a bedroom where a 10-year-old girl was sleeping. He lay next to her, Wollschlager said, fondling her and asking if she wanted to be his girlfriend. He fled when the girl's mother snapped on a light, he said, eventually turning himself in to police.

Wollschlager, who grew up in Ventura County and committed his crimes there, said his actions were prompted by rampant alcoholism, drug abuse and "deviant thoughts and fantasies." Psychological treatment over the last decade has helped him to understand and control his vices, he said.

"I know I can't repair the damage I did to that family, and to that child," he said. "I make every effort today to make sure I never do something like that again."

He was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and was sent back to prison for 13 years. In 1996, when he was up for release, Wollschlager was instead transferred to Atascadero State Hospital to participate in a then-new program for habitual sex offenders.

Designated a "sexually violent predator," he was barred from leaving the hospital for 11 more years while he underwent treatment. Last year, Ventura County Judge Rebecca Riley ordered him released after hearing testimony on his progress from state experts, including a psychiatrist.

But he remained in Atascadero 17 months longer as Liberty Healthcare tried without success to find him a Ventura County home. On Aug. 8, an appellate court ruled that he must be released immediately even if a placement could not be found. Ventura County prosecutors and the Department of Mental Health opposed the decision, noting that Wollschlager had completed only half of a five-phase program while in Atascadero. Sheriff Bob Brooks said he was against his release for the same reason.

"It's a minimum standard, and not completing it demonstrates a lack of desire to change," Brooks said. He added, however, that Jessica's Law should be modified to make it workable. "The 2,000-foot distance makes it so hard to find housing," the sheriff said.

Todd Howeth, Wollschlager's county-provided lawyer, said his client is committed to turning his life around. He wears a global positioning anklet and an alcohol monitoring device, attends counseling sessions almost daily, and consults with layers of security and bureaucrats before making a move.

The public defender's office recently filed a petition challenging the restrictions, arguing that Jessica's Law went into effect months after Riley ordered Wollschlager's release from Atascadero. Howeth said his client has received death threats and is being treated like a leper.

"Government should provide some kind of facility for these men to transition into," he said. "Wollschlager has paid his price to society, and if you have this system, they should have housing to go to."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-offender8sep08,0,4562274.story?coll=la-home-center
catherine.saillant@latimes.com

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

Posted by lois at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

September 07, 2007

Western MA: First Shot: Thanks, But No Thanks. A women's jail is set to open? But do we really need it?

First Shot: Thanks, But No Thanks
A women's jail is set to open? But do we really need it?
By Maureen Turner
Valley Advocate, September 6, 2007

After five years and more than $26 million-and despite countless protests and petition signatures-the new women's jail in Chicopee officially opens for business this month.

The minimum- and medium-security facility will house more than 200 women from the four western counties who've received sentences of less than 2 1/2 years.

Supporters applaud the fact that the jail will have the space and staff for programs-from parenting classes to addiction treatment and mental health services-that were hard to offer when women were housed in the already crammed men's prison in Ludlow.

Certainly, those kinds of services, if done right, could be a great benefit to the targeted women-but do they really need to be locked up before they get that support?

As Jo Comerford, formerly of the Western Massachusetts American Friends Service Committee, which has fought the creation of the jail, has put it, "A woman shouldn't have to get locked up to get healthcare, to get her addiction looked at, to get a GED. ... What I'm interested in is the root cause of what brought her to jail."

The majority of incarcerated women are there for non-violent offenses, namely, prostitution and drugs. Local prison officials acknowledge that about 85 percent of the women now at Ludlow have some kind of addiction problem. It's hard to believe that the social, economic and health problems behind their crimes couldn't be solved in a way that's healthier for the women and society, less damaging to their families and their post-incarceration lives, and less costly to taxpayers.

And when women are locked up, there's another group of people who are adversely affected: their kids. Across the country, there are 1.3 million kids whose mothers are under some form of "correctional supervision," according to journalist Christina Rathbone, author of A World Apart: Women, Prison, and Life Behind Bars.

A 2003 study by UMass Boston found that there are 7,000 mothers, with a combined 16,000 children, incarcerated in Massachusetts. Often the children will be sent to stay with already overburdened family members or put into foster homes.

Of course, the building of the new jail profits some, including the contractors who took part in the pricey construction and the city of Chicopee, which sold the land for the jail for more than $1 million and receives another $100,000 for each bed at the site-meaning some sectors, at least, have plenty of motivation to back Hampden County Sheriff Mike Ashe's call to add another 56 beds to the jail. (For more on the true costs of prison projects, see www.realcostofprisons.org).

Ashe's bid to add more cells to the jail means the fight's not over for activists like the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition, or ShaRC (www.massdecarcerate.org), who've fought the facility. They're rallying behind proposed legislation, cosponsored by state Rep. Peter Kocot (D-Northampton), that would create a five-year moratorium on new jail and prison construction.

Instead, the bill calls for the creation of a special commission to study the "system of incarceration," looking at the unfair treatment of poor people and people of color, overcrowding, drug sentencing policies and the effect prison and jail spending has on anti-poverty and health programs. Ultimately, the commission would consider whether there are more effective and cost-efficient ways to deal with those who are now locked up, while also protecting public safety.

"What we need is drug treatment, childhood sexual abuse prevention, quality education and job training," Lois Ahrens, director of the Real Cost of Prisons Project, offered as testimony in support of the bill at a Statehouse hearing last spring. "These are long-term solutions; however, right now, we can alleviate jail overcrowding and the need for more and bigger jails though bail reform and pre-trial diversion programs and the diversion of resources from jails and prisons to drug treatment and meaningful job training."

-mturner@valleyadvocate.com http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=2875

Posted by lois at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

MI: Editorial Detroit Free Press: The politics of fear vs. sentencing reform

Free Press
Detroit, MI
Editorial

IN OUR OPINION
The politics of fear vs. sentencing reform
September 6, 2007

After Lansing police arrested state prison parolee Matthew Macon last week as a suspect in the murders of five women, state Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, promptly pronounced overdue sentencing reforms dead.

Like most Republicans, however, Cropsey had already opposed sentencing reforms that would save the state a much needed $100 million by diverting some minor offenders from prison to community corrections programs. So Cropsey's remarks were as predictable as they were off point. He joins a long line of politicians who have used fear instead of reason to exploit a handful of high-profile cases to justify Michigan's unreasonably high incarceration rates.

The result has been enormous increases in prison populations and costs, with little or no effect on public safety. In Michigan today, one in three state civil service employees works for the Department of Corrections; in 1980, one in 20 did. Michigan spends nearly $2 billion a year on Corrections -- more than it spends on higher education. It incarcerates at a rate of 40% higher than other Great Lake states, which have lower crime rates.

Making matters worse, Michigan already faces a $1.8-billion projected deficit next year. Before state legislators throw out sentencing reforms and go on another costly and futile prison-building binge, they ought to consider a few facts.

First, sentencing and parole policies are separate issues. Parole policies affect offenders after they've served their minimum sentence; the proposed changes in sentencing guidelines would affect them before they come to prison.

Second, it's too early to say what Macon did, or who else is responsible for his actions. Until tried and convicted, he's entitled to a presumption of innocence. On the other hand, there are reports that Macon confessed to the 2005 killing of a Lansing Community College professor. If he committed the 2005 murder, then police and prosecutors convicted the wrong man in that killing and let the guilty man go, enabling Macon to kill again. If so, they are more responsible than the state Parole Board for the five recent murders.

Third, there was nothing in Macon's prior record, either in prison or out, that would suggest a serial killer. He failed twice before on parole, mainly for violating the rules of his parole by not showing up for therapy sessions. There is no evidence that the Parole Board, given the information it had, acted improperly.

No one can predict human behavior with 100% accuracy. Roughly 11,000 people a year are paroled from Michigan's prisons. Another 2,000 get out because they have served their maximum sentence. Inevitably, some will commit more crimes. More than 95% of inmates will eventually get out of prison, whether or not they're paroled. The state would have had to release Macon, for example, in less than three years, when he would have completed his maximum sentence.

Abolishing parole, while politically expedient, is no answer. Nor is locking up all offenders until their maximum release date. There is no evidence that keeping prisoners until they "max out" deters crimes -- in fact, just the opposite. When prisoners serve their maximum sentence, they are released with no supervision or assistance. MDOC's experience with its recent Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative shows that help and assistance significantly reduce recidivism, but that can happen only when prisoners are paroled.

State Rep. Paul Condino, D-Southfield, said he will begin introducing a package of bills this week on sentencing reforms. "Fair play and justice demand that I be steadfast in putting Michigan on the right track," Condino said.

To be sure, reforms in Michigan's sentencing polices ought to be subject to tough questions, but exploiting a tragedy to silence a very necessary debate will bankrupt the state while doing nothing to further public safety.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070906/OPINION01/709060364
/1069

Posted by lois at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)

CT: Cheshire Prison and Others Listed for Expansion

"Needham said she understands public concern about what kind of people are being paroled from the state's prisons in light of the July slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley and Michaela in a neighborhood not far from the prison. Two parolees are charged in the case. "But why take advantage of Cheshire? Why not build prison in every community where there are people who want tougher laws?" Needham said. "Cheshire is already overwhelmed with inmates and it's unfair to put any more here. Let me put it this way: since this (the Petit killings) happened, nobody has called me and said that Cheshire should advocate for housing more inmates."

New Haven Register

Cheshire prison listed for possible expansion
Luther Turmelle, North Bureau Chief
09/07/2007

-CHESHIRE ‹ The mothballed North Block of the Cheshire Correctional
Institution is listed on a Department of Correction memo to the state's Office of Legislative Research as one of three prisons in the state that could be expanded if lawmaker decided to tighten parole eligibility and toughen sentencing

But a Department of Correction spokesman said Thursday the Aug. 31 memo is not an indication that an expansion of the Cheshire prison is imminent.

"At this point, there are no plans to do it," said Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the department. "All we were trying to indicate is that if the prison population were to expand at some point in the future, these were the facilities that could be expanded."

The prisons listed in the memo from Lena Ferguson, a legislative liaison with the corrections department, to Chris Reinhart of the state Office of Legislative Research are: the Cheshire Correctional Institution's North Block, which could accommodate 504 beds; the J.B. Gates Correctional Institution in the Niantic section of East Lyme, which could accommodate 26 additional beds; and the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield, which could accommodate 228 more beds.

Of the three prisons named in the memo, only the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution has improvements currently under way. Work to refurbish two sections of the prison started in June, with one 114-bed section scheduled to be occupied by Sept. 15 and the second section scheduled to opened by late October or early November.

The Cheshire prison North Block was closed in the early 1990s amid security concerns after several inmates escaped that section of the facility, which was originally built as a boys reformatory in 1910. Corrections officials closed the North Block after it was determined it would be too costly to update it.

The Cheshire Correctional Institution houses about 1,300 inmates. With two other correctional facilities in town, Manson Youth Institution and Webster Correctional Institution, Cheshire is home to almost 3,000 inmates, said Kathy Needham, chairwoman of the town's Prison Advisory Committee.

The Maloney Center for Training and Staff Development also is here, but no prisoners are housed there.

Having that many inmates places a heavy burden on the town, especially its wastewater treatment facilities and its roads when prisoners' friends and relatives visit, Town Manager Michael Milone said. For that reason, town officials are renegotiating the town's host agreement with the Department of Correction.

Milone said corrections officials have not contacted the town about any near term plans to house more inmates at Cheshire Correctional Institution. "Adding any more inmates would just put more stress on what is already a stressful situation," Milone said.

"I would hope that if there is a plan to create more space for prisoners that it would be fully vetted by the legislature and that the town would have ability to give some input. It shouldn't be something that the town hears about after it's done and is a fait accompli."

Needham said she understands public concern about what kind of people are being paroled from the state's prisons in light of the July slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley and Michaela in a neighborhood not far from the prison. Two parolees are charged in the case.

"But why take advantage of Cheshire? Why not build prison in every community where there are people who want tougher laws?" Needham said. "Cheshire is already overwhelmed with inmates and it's unfair to put any more here. Let me put it this way: since this (the Petit killings) happened, nobody has called me and said that Cheshire should advocate for housing more inmates."

The Cheshire prison North Block has already undergone renovations so some prisoners could be housed there in an emergency, Needham said. At least that's the way the Correction Department has characterized the move to her group.

"Can they break their word?" Needham said of the prospect of permanent use of the North Block. "Thats a real concern."

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18793162&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dep
t_id=31007&rfi=6

Posted by lois at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)

Amherst MA: Talib Sadiq has already paid his debt to society

Friday, September 07, 2007

Talib Sadiq has already paid his debt to society
Letter Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA

To the editor:

First, on the front page, was this summer's slanderous coverage regarding the Wildwood Elementary School's current principal, Mark Prince. A professional, smart, successful educator, committed to the children, parents and teachers he represents, leads, advises and, I am quite sure, learns from on a daily basis, he is also an African-American man. As both a parent of a Wildwood first-grader and a reader of our local papers for my entire life, I was left wondering where exactly the credible "news" was.

Similarly, of more recent front page "news," I am appalled at the malicious coverage that the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Amherst Bulletin have offered regarding Talib Sadiq. Not only is he a former Amherst Regional High School student and graduate, but also a war veteran, a father, a husband and teacher, among many other things.

Last I knew, students and graduates were allowed to make mistakes, as well as fathers, husbands, teachers and veterans. Justice was served - he paid his debt to society for his past, albeit errant, behavior. In addition, it is clear that he scrutinized his past negative behaviors and set entirely different goals for his future. He furthered his education and emerged from this process an experienced, educated, principled man committed to education. The middle school needs an experienced, educated and principled guidance counselor, especially one to fill the shoes of the exemplary, beloved Barry Brooks.

It would be much appreciated if our local papers were to take a different spin on this story. The public tarring and feathering of another black man serves absolutely no positive nor constructive purpose but to perpetuate the criminal, archaic myths of white supremacy that fill our burgeoning jails with young black men.

Shavahn Best
Amherst

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=57437&CSAuthResp=1189201637448653%3A0qcBKYxHyRS3Hw%3D%3D%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Asuccess%3AcR7ugqqwWZGnB4AzFfp00A%3D%3D&CSUserId=&CSGroupId=

Posted by lois at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)

Jena 6: Judge Throws Out Consipiracy Charge

Judge Tosses 1 Count in Jena Race Fight
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/05/AR2007090501082_pf.html

The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 5, 2007; 12:36 PM

JENA, La. -- A judge threw out a teenager's conspiracy conviction in the alleged beating of a white student by a group of black schoolmates, but the teen's battery conviction still stands.

The ruling Tuesday means Mychal Bell, 17, will face at most 15 years in prison rather than 22 1/2 when he is sentenced later this month.

The case drew protests after five of the six teens, dubbed the "Jena Six," were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, carrying sentences of up to 80 years in prison. The sixth was charged in juvenile court.

The beating victim, Justin Barker, 18, was treated for injuries at a hospital and released the same day, and a motive for the alleged Dec. 4 attack at Jena High School was never established.

Bell was the first of six teens to go to trial. The attempted murder charges were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, and Bell was convicted. However, Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. threw out the conspiracy conviction Tuesday, saying juveniles could not be charged with conspiracy in adult court.

Both sides said they would appeal. Bell's attorneys want the battery charge throw out, as well, and the case returned to juvenile court.

The charges against two of the other teens, Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw, were also reduced Tuesday from attempted second-degree murder to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. Robert Bailey Jr. and Bryant Purvis, still face attempted murder charges, and the unidentified juvenile has yet to go to trial.

The beating came amid tense race relations in Jena, a mostly white town of 3,000 in north-central Louisiana. After a black student sat under a tree on the school campus where white students traditionally congregated, three nooses were hung in the tree. Students accused of placing the nooses were suspended from school for a short period.

Posted by lois at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)

FL: Tents and Leg Irons for Men Incarcerated for Non-Violent Offences

"State law requires the state to house and pay for inmates who have been sentenced to 366 days or more. State prison officials claim that county judges have increased sentences for nonviolent offenders to a year and a day to relieve overcrowding in county jails. McDonough's solution: Put those sentenced to 366 days "in tented and secured compounds" and have them "perform manual labor" to save the state money. "The inmates, wearing leg irons (individually, not linked to each other) and dressed in distinguishing uniforms (i.e., stripes), would remain visible to the public while performing work assignments," McDonough wrote in a memo sent Thursday to Sen. Crist and Gov. Charlie Crist, who are not related. The parenthetical phrases are McDonough's. Correctional officers on horseback armed with shotguns would guard the work crews, McDonough suggested."

Tents urged for some inmates
By DARA KAM
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau

Friday, September 07, 2007

TALLAHASSEE ‹ Florida's prison chief has come up with a new way to save the state millions of dollars: Move certain low-security inmates into tents, manacle them and put them to work building roads.

Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough on Thursday offered his recommendations, which also included cutting his salary by 10 percent and shutting down the Martin Correctional Institution, in response to a request from Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, chairman of the Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee.

McDonough originally suggested cutting his department's budget by releasing prisoners nearing the end of their sentences early and expanding work-release programs for others. But lawmakers quickly rejected the idea of releasing prisoners early.

Now, McDonough believes he can save about $43 million by tackling the problem of "year-and-a-day" inmates who he says are clogging the state prison system.

State law requires the state to house and pay for inmates who have been sentenced to 366 days or more. State prison officials claim that county judges have increased sentences for nonviolent offenders to a year and a day to relieve overcrowding in county jails.

McDonough's solution: Put those sentenced to 366 days "in tented and secured compounds" and have them "perform manual labor" to save the state money.

"The inmates, wearing leg irons (individually, not linked to each other) and dressed in distinguishing uniforms (i.e., stripes), would remain visible to the public while performing work assignments," McDonough wrote in a memo sent Thursday to Sen. Crist and Gov. Charlie Crist, who are not related. The parenthetical phrases are McDonough's.

Correctional officers on horseback armed with shotguns would guard the work crews, McDonough suggested.

McDonough, a retired Army colonel, proposed erecting the tents at two Panhandle facilities: Washington Correctional Institution in Chipley and Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in nearby Milton.

Each compound would house 500 inmates.

In addition, McDonough wants to postpone building a new prison in Suwannee County for at least two years and use money promised for that prison to instead raise tents there, too.

Potential tent-dwelling inmates would be screened to ensure they posed a low risk for escape and were not a threat to public safety, McDonough wrote.

McDonough also offered to take a salary cut of 10 percent, or $11,346, over the next nine months because it would "indicate the sincerity of our effort to make sacrifices in the public interest."

He also suggested a 4 percent budget cut for private contractors, including those that provide inmate food and health services, and a 4 percent budget cut for private prisons.

It wouldn't be the first time the state has tried to ease prison overcrowding by setting up tents.

But officials abandoned the tents and canvas barracks two decades ago after a federal judge overseeing state prisons ruled they could not be used as permanent housing.

McDonough, however, appears to believe the state could use them temporarily.

In his memo, he noted that state law allows the corrections system to "divert from expensive institutional commitment" certain prisoners who "can be placed in less costly and more effective environments."

Closing the Martin Correctional Institution, which employs about 300 workers and houses about 1,300 inmates, would save the state about $7 million a year, McDonough said.

Department officials want to shut down the prison because of its inadequate water supply and the difficulty in recruiting and keeping employees, said McDonough's spokesman, Robby Cunningham.

The Martin Work Camp would remain, and prisoners would be transferred to the work camp or other nearby institutions.

The Martin prison could be reopened if the water supply deficiencies can be corrected.

Using tents as provisional housing for prisoners is "something worth looking at," Gov. Crist said Thursday. He once earned the moniker "Chain Gang Charlie" while serving in the state Senate for his tough-on-crime stance, highlighted by a proposal that prisoners be shackled, dressed in stripes and put to work cleaning roadside debris.

Although none of McDonough's cost-cutting measures was included in Gov. Crist's budget reduction proposal released Thursday, Cunningham said corrections officials stand by their recommendations.

"The legislature's ultimately going to make the decision" on the budget cuts, he said. "At that point we stand ready to adopt either, both or a combination of whatever the final decision is."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2007/09/07/m1a_DOC_0907.html

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

September 06, 2007

A Message from an Organizer to the Left and Progressive Forces inside the USA. A Farewell Letter on the Second Anniversary of Katrina by Curtis Muhammad

ZNet | Activism

A Farewell Letter on the Second Anniversary of Katrina
A Message from an Organizer to the Left and Progressive Forces inside the USA
by Curtis Muhammad; People's Organizing Committee ; August 31, 2007

With this second anniversary of Katrina upon us, there are a few words I wish to speak. This letter is written to the progressive, left movement for justice in the USA. In the last two years, every left organization has been in New Orleans, but despite that there is still no sign of a mass movement. There is still no sign that most activists are willing to put their knowledge and resources at the service of the grass roots and take their leadership from the bottom. I have found myself wondering, have poor black people been so vilified and criminalized that they are completely off the radar even of the so-called left? When Katrina happened, I hoped and expected that this would be the trigger to once again set off a true mass movement against racism and for justice in the US, led by those most affected: poor, black working people. When it became abundantly clear that this was not happening, I found myself at the crossroads of hope and hopelessness, and began to wonder how to spend the last years of my life in the service of my people.

The thing that I remind myself when I'm contemplating hopelessness is the beauty of humanity and the fact that people have always fought for what was right even when they knew they couldn't win. They tried because they loved each other; I think it's because it's built into human beings for people to look out for each other. There is a drive in humanity to be just, to live in a society that is just, equal and respectful. I believe that ultimately people will achieve a just society; I believe humanity came out of a just society and will create it again.

I do believe that there was a time that the lovers of life, the lovers of humanity, the lovers of justice dominated the world. Some say this was so during the hunter-gatherer days, when though there were evil people they could never gain dominance. Their numbers were always small, less than 1%; people ran their lives collectively, and therefore the greedy could not dominate. Well then, I say what happened, there is only that same 1% who dominates the world now.

This thinking, this logic has been the motivating factor in my life of movement work: the belief that there is a basic humanity that is inside the soul of most people. That this humanity can be harvested and organized into a movement for justice to free our people from slavery, bondage, oppression and exploitation. That the 80% of the world who live on an average of $2 a day can and will overcome the 1% and return us to a collective life organized around love, justice and equality.

Most of you who know me also know I'm a storyteller and believe story to be a universal language that can be a vehicle for voice, the voice of all regardless of status, class, cast, race, gender. Story is an egalitarian language. So I wish to share with you my story, an abbreviated story of my organizing work from SNCC in Mississippi through the ghettoes of the US to the villages and jungles of Africa, to CLU, PHRF, NOSC, POC and finally the International School for Bottom-up Organizing. My story is meant to clarify why I now choose to live, work, teach and write outside the US and away from the grip of a drastically de-energized and often opportunistic and reactionary left in the USA.

* * *

I grew up in a community that, of necessity, had to take care of its own. In rural Mississippi in the 40s, 50s and 60s, mothers and fathers, grandparents, uncles and cousins protected the children from the hostile, racist world and collectively helped each other meet their needs. Nonetheless, when I was a child traveling to church on Sundays, I had to pass the tree from whose branches my cousin was lynched. The community of my birth gave me both my strength -- my faith in the people, my dedication to egalitarianism, and my undying hatred of racism and the oppressive few that control the world.

When SNCC came to town, I found my direction. It was both a community of love and a set of organizers devoted, at the risk of their lives, to the folk on the bottom: the poorest black folk in Mississippi, those who had nothing, not even the knowledge of how to read. SNCC introduced me to the struggles of my brothers and sisters around the world, and particularly in Africa. I became an internationalist and a revolutionary. The lessons of Ella Baker and SNCC have stayed with me throughout my life; I labored to make them a reality from Mississippi to the ghettoes of our major cities, from my time in the revolutionary movement in Africa to my work as a labor organizer, and I have done my utmost to apply them in post-Katrina New Orleans.

In 1998, I helped to organize Community Labor United (CLU), a coalition that was founded with a commitment to bottom-up organizing. (CLU principles included "ending the exploitation of oppressed peoples everywhere; educating, organizing and mobilizing the masses within our organizations and communities from the bottom up.") After eight years of organizing in some of the poorest areas of New Orleans, it became the "first responder" after Katrina, and led the formation of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF).

As a founding member of PHRF and an organizer and New Orleans resident, I was back in the city within 8 days of the flood, struggling with overwhelming pain and anger. I felt that Katrina represented an historic moment. Never before had all levels of government united to attempt genocide of 100,000 black people at the same time. Even in the 60s in Mississippi, they were murdering us in ones, twos and threes. I threw myself into the attempt to put the knowledge and resources of the left and nationalist organizations and "movement" people under the direction of the bottom: the poor and working class black folk who had been left to die in New Orleans. PHRF became a coalition that committed itself on paper to that goal.

What followed was a dramatic learning experience for me and for all those whose commitment is truly to the people and not to their own particular grouping. Within months, mainly as a result of a speaking tour I went on for PHRF, we had raised about a million dollars from folk across the country who were deeply moved by the attempted genocide of over a hundred thousand black folk. And by December, there was already conflict over who controlled that money and how it was to be used.

The New Orleans Survivor Council was organized by PHRF with the understanding that it was to become the leadership of the organization and the movement, and should control all resources. By April of 2006, when the NOSC began to sound like it wanted oversight of the funds, the interim leadership of PHRF took the money and ran, firing its own organizers for daring to tell the poor black residents in NOSC that they had the right to control the resources raised in their names. Undaunted, the young organizers continued working for the survivors and formed a new group called People's Organizing Committee (POC).

This event was a turning point for me. I realized that the words of those who I had considered my comrades were empty, that their so-called commitment to bottom- up was a fiction; that their real commitments were to various organizations and their own egos. Our attempt to institutionalize bottom-up had led instead to a coalition of opportunists.

When I had spoken to mass audiences about Katrina in the fall of 2005, I had spoken of my discovery of the depth of the fear and hatred America has for poor, black people. The images on the media of those left to die could have been taken in sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean: those people were very poor and very black. With the desertion of PHRF, I was confronted by the knowledge that this hatred of poor black people extended into and throughout the progressive movement, even within exclusively black organizations. I felt very lonely in my continued commitment to lift up precisely that segment of oppressed Americans to lead the movement.

But POC plunged ahead, still dedicated to that vision. Thousands of volunteers came in the spring and summer, and many continue to come to this day. The hearts of so many people are in the right place. The New Orleans Survivor Council and its member group Residents of Public Housing continue to work to put bottom-up leadership on the map and fight for the right of our community to return and control its own destiny. But the past year has also revealed further weakness and lack of vision in our movement.

From the days immediately following the flood, we recognized that immigrants, brown people, some of the poorest and most desperate of our brothers and sisters from countries to the south, were being brought into our city. They were put to the dirtiest, most dangerous clean-up tasks, and later to replace the forcibly dispersed black labor force, for slave wages and in slave conditions. From the start, we called for organizing this new part of the New Orleans community in unity with and under the leadership of the black folk on the bottom.

This call was part of my message in the speeches I made in the fall of 2005, and several immigrant organizers heeded the call and came to work with us. However, despite many serious attempts to develop unity between black survivors and immigrants, it has become clear that those organizers refuse to unite with and take leadership from black folk. They have organized immigrant slaves into separate groupings with no contact with the NOSC, despite their initial commitment to unity. They are essentially, wittingly or unwittingly, following the government's agenda, which is to build a racist, assimilationist immigrant "movement" that will serve the needs of a war economy and patriotism.

And so we come to the second anniversary of Katrina. Bottom-up organizing is still embryonic, though hanging on to life and with a small, dedicated band of survivors, organizers and volunteers. But the rest of the movement is in shambles, or under direct or indirect influence of our enemies.

Through the experience of the last two years, I have also come to the conclusion that the infiltration of and direct attacks on the movement that started (in my lifetime as an activist) in the late 60s and early 70s with Cointelpro have never stopped. Our movement has been successfully divided into thousands of groupings, non-profits and NGOs, and the left has been rendered ineffectual. It is not an accident that, for forty years now, the movement has been so totally reformist, or that those who want to be revolutionaries are so isolated as to be irrelevant. The government and its agencies have a stranglehold on the people, the culture and even the left. I do not think it is possible in the U.S. at this time, for me, to develop and train organizers with a real understanding and commitment to the folk on the bottom.

And thus, I find myself at the crossroads of hope and hopelessness. I find myself possibly in the position of writing not mainly to the current readers of these words, but to those future revolutionaries who will learn from our impasse. I find myself deciding to work toward creating an international organizing school as a vehicle to discover, recruit and train radical organizers. I want to continue my investigation of the movements in Mexico and South America among very poor -- members of the informal economy, workers, campesinos and landless people -- learn more about how class and hue interact to shape oppression, take inspiration from the fact that the struggle continues, un-abandoned, worldwide, and share my own knowledge and experience with the rebels of today and tomorrow.

I have lived 64 years and have struggled intentionally for justice for about forty-six of those years. I am thankful and appreciative to all those who have traveled some of that distance with me: those who helped nurture my children, who stood with me when I was imprisoned and tortured, those who have always supported my work and stood by me when all seemed to stand against me. To these worthy friends, comrades and loved ones, I will always honor you, be there for you, and know you are there for me.

Still, I have arrived at a place in my life where I wish to share everything I have and know with the "sufferers." My principle continues to be the struggle to engage the poor, oppressed, voiceless, and those who have the least and suffer the most. The only struggle that matters to me now is finding justice for those who have never had it.

This is me, where I am, trying to figure out how to organize our folk in a way that we always look at need as the principle of justice. If you are looking for me, look among the youth, the poor, and the struggling masses trapped in slave-like conditions throughout the world, for I am no longer available to an opportunistic and racist left. I NOW SEEK REFUGE AMONG THE POOR.

This is my struggle.

Wish me well,

Curtis

-- People's Organizing Committee www.peoplesorganizing.org
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=13666§ionID=1

To read or listen or watch to Curtis Muhammad’s interview on Democracy Now on Tuesday September 4th go to:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/04/145214

Posted by lois at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)

TX: Law could send more youths to adult prisons

Law could send more youths to adult prisons
By JOHN MORITZ
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

AUSTIN -- The new law designed to rid the Texas Youth Commission of conditions that led to the widespread abuse of young lawbreakers in state custody is likely to result in more juvenile offenders ending up in jails and prisons where hardened adult criminals are housed, some prosecutors and law enforcement officials say.

At issue is a provision in Senate Bill 103, passed this year after a sex-abuse scandal that sparked a top-to-bottom housecleaning of the state agency. The provision forbids the youth commission from keeping offenders in custody past their 19th birthday.

Critics of the new law say prosecutors around the state will push to have more youths certified to stand trial as adults if the crimes they are accused of committing would make them too serious a risk to have back on the street after only a year or two behind bars.

"The Legislature really tied our hands on this one," said Riley Shaw, a juvenile crimes prosecutor for the Tarrant County district attorney's office. "We are going to be looking at seeking [adult] certification in a greater number of cases than we had been under the old system."

Shaw's concerns were echoed by a representative of the Texas County and District Attorneys Association, by an urban county jail administrator and by a criminal justice advocacy group that had championed the overhaul of the youth commission on grounds that young offenders in state custody needed stronger measures on the books to safeguard their rights.

Dangerous kids

But a lawmaker who helped craft the measure urged critics to withhold judgment until all of the provisions have been tested in real-world conditions. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said the measure contains provisions to keep dangerous youths confined or under community supervision and allocates money to local authorities to operate community detention centers and halfway houses for troubled youngsters.

"They're trying to make the new statute a booger bear that it's not," said Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "I think it would be a whole lot better if all the parties involved just worked together to make sure the statute is implemented the way it was supposed to be."

Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the county and district attorneys association, said the new law effectively undermines how young offenders are sentenced to confinement in a Texas Youth Commission facility. Under the old system, an offender could be sentenced to a certain number of years in custody. The offender would remain with the youth commission until he or she turned 21, and if time remained on the sentence would be transferred to an adult prison.

But now, if a 15- or 16-year-old commits a felony, he or she can be confined to a TYC facility only until age 19. After that, the options are supervised release or transfer to an adult prison.

"The mission of TYC is to rehabilitate these young offenders, and one year or two is just not enough time for a rehabilitation program to take hold," Edmonds said. "A lot of prosecutors are saying they don't want to risk having these offenders back in the community before they are rehabilitated, so the only way to ensure they remained confined is to opt for adult certification, which means they go to adult prison."

Unintended consequence

That might be the best answer for the community, but not for the young offender, said Isela Gutierrez, who handles juvenile issues for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.

"We think that was an unintended consequence of Senate Bill 103 that will have to be addressed," said Gutierrez, whose organization supported the legislation. "Being back in the community [too soon] isn't the right place for a lot of these kids, but neither is adult prison."

Edmonds and Shaw said it's too soon to judge how many young offenders might be tried as adults because of the new law. But the jail administrator for the Bexar County Sheriff's Department said his agency is expecting as many as 100 such cases over the next year.

Deputy Chief Dennis McKnight said that he's been advised by local prosecutors to prepare to house up to 100 young offenders in the Bexar County lockup while they await trial in adult courtrooms. It won't be an easy task, he said.

"You can't just put these kids in any bed you find," McKnight said. "They've got to be segregated from the adult population. A lot of them are going to be gang members who'll have to be segregated from each other. There's going to be mental illness issues, substance abuse, you name it. And then, you're going to have to have education programs for them. An adult confinement facility is not designed for all that.

"Last year, I had four juveniles in my jail," he added. "And I had a read hard time dealing with that many."

Posted by lois at 06:12 PM | Comments (0)

ICE’s Deadly Care: Persistent Neglect and Lack of Accountability in Treatment of Detained Immigrants

ICE’s Deadly Care
Persistent Neglect and Lack of Accountability in Treatment of Detained Immigrants

New America Media, Commentary, Andrea Black and Paromita Shah,
Posted: Sep 06, 2007
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=434918b383a011fd5b649dc930718ddb

Editor’s Note: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one of the largest jailers, second only to the Bureau of Prisons, but acts without independent oversight or enforceable standards. Andrea Black is coordinator of Detention Watch Network and Paromita Shah is the associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, which is part of the Detention Watch Network. IMMIGRATION MATTERS regularly features the views of the nation's leading immigrant rights advocates.




Within the last six weeks in immigration detention, three people, including a pregnant woman, died. Hundreds suffered food poisoning in the Northwest Detention Center in Washington, and spoiled food with maggots was served to detainees in Willacy County Detention Center, Texas.

These incidents are not aberrations. They are evidence of systemic deficiencies within the U.S. immigration detention system, in which thousands of detained immigrants are routinely denied necessary medical care, humane treatment and the ability to navigate the legal system with adequate access to such basic things as visitation, legal materials, and functioning telephones.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is one of the largest jailers in the world - second only to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) – yet it acts like a local lawless sheriff. Despite recurring and persistent problems over the last 15 years, ICE has repeatedly opposed attempts to legally enforce safe, secure and humane treatment of the 283,000 immigrants detained yearly within its custody. Unlike the BOP which implemented regulations in the 1970s in response to alarmingly similar systemic deficiencies, ICE uses detention “standards” which are neither enforceable nor universally applied. As a result, compliance varies greatly among the 400-plus detention centers, local jails and private prisons used by ICE to house detained immigrants. With no independent oversight mechanism available, the onus is on individuals to bring complaints through a frustrating and bureaucratic process which rarely results in improvement.

While ICE maintains that detention standard compliance is an agency priority, experience has taught that the lack of proper enforcement mechanisms seriously undermines its effectiveness. In addition to the recent horrors of the past month, there are regular and recurring stories of detainee mistreatment including the abusive treatment of children within their family detention centers, undercooked food, no access to outdoor recreation, serious overcrowding, and medical care mismanagement which contributed to the injury or deaths of hundreds. With a tripling of detention beds planned in the next few years, the problems are only going to get worse.

Despite mounting calls for information and accountability, ICE leadership hems and haws, gives the runaround to desperate family members and advocates, and outright refuses to provide critical information about its practices and policies–all the while maintaining that it is doing the “right” thing. For example, the mere task of finding someone in detention is notoriously difficult, but ICE refuses to put together a national phone number that will provide the location of a detainee. Also, lawyers cannot, with complete certainty, obtain from ICE the number people who have died in detention. Even ICE’s strategic plan for deporting all noncitizens, posted for years on its website, has mysteriously disappeared. This exasperating lack of transparency has had deadly consequences.

Improved and enforceable standards implemented with greater transparency and a strong, independent system of oversight are long overdue. Promulgating enforceable regulations is a critical first step and not only has benefits for immigrants, but for ICE and our government.

Regulations, unlike non-binding standards, would ensure uniformity and consistency in detention conditions, enabling ICE to better monitor and assure quality control in the range of facilities it uses and negotiate more effectively with private prison suppliers who do not perform in accordance with the contract. Regulations would also reduce ICE’s exposure to legal liability and adverse publicity. Already, several lawsuits have been filed against ICE, most recently in the San Diego Correctional Facility (run by Corrections Corporation of America) for persistent standards violations.

Finally, ensuring humane treatment for the foreign-born is good foreign policy. ICE’s failure to promulgate regulations throughout the country’s detention centers contributes to the United States’ negative standing in the international community as a country that does not provide due process to the foreign-born and disrespects international human rights covenants. Regulations in immigration detention would bring us closer to international human rights norms and provide the United States with an opportunity to re-shape its image abroad and domestically as a supporter of due process and human rights.

We need enforceable standards that establish clear lines of accountability. By issuing detention regulations that carry the force of law, the government will be better able to ensure humane and uniform treatment of detained immigrants and prevent future violations.

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

MA: State hears appeal on counselor's credential

State hears appeal on counselor's credential
By MARY CAREY Staff Writer
Daily Hampshire Gazette, September 6, 2007
Page B1

AMHERST - State Rep. Ellen Story and other supporters of Amherst Regional Middle School guidance counselor Talib Sadiq vouched for his character before a state Department of Education appeals board Wednesday.

'They kept us for about two hours and we felt listened to,' Story said after the meeting.

Sadiq and his supporters were told the board would make a recommendation to the commissioner of education on whether to reconsider his application for licensure.

Jeffrey Nellhaus, the acting commissioner, who succeeded David Driscoll, the former longtime commissioner, on Sept. 1, is charged with making the decision.

Story said Sadiq was told it could take two weeks for a decision to come.

The DOE rejected Sadiq's application for the license that teachers, teacher specialists, professional support personnel and administrators are required to have. The department would not disclose the reason, citing confidentiality guidelines.

Story, who said she has known Sadiq since he was in the seventh grade, said his academic credentials were not in question.

An Amherst native, Sadiq converted to Islam and changed his name from Vincent Bias after serving jail time for armed robbery after he held up a bank in Springfield with a loaded 9 mm handgun in 1993.

He has since completed college, gotten a master's degree, married and started a family. He served a one-year internship as a guidance counselor at the middle school with now-retired counselor Barry Brooks.

Amherst Superintendent Jere Hochman has said repeatedly he would exhaust every opportunity to retain Sadiq, selected from a pool of about 20 candidates. Heidi Guarino, spokeswoman for the DOE, said the department does not comment on appeals, except to say, 'This is sort of the final step. The appeal is not negotiable.'

'If his reconsideration is denied,' Hochman said by email, 'I will continue to explore all options.'

Story said last week she contacted Hochman to say she would like to help. There were about 10 of Sadiq's supporters at the hearing Wednesday, including some from the University of Massachusetts, where he is doing post-graduate work, the Amherst school system and from the community, she said.

About a dozen educators wrote a letter to the DOE in support of Sadiq. Parents wanting to demonstrate their support for him filled the seats at a recent Regional School Committee meeting, according to its chairwoman, Elaine Brighty.

Andrew Hafner, a middle school parent who grew up with Sadiq and has seen him interact with children, maintains that Sadiq is a good choice for the position. Hafner always found him to be a calming presence, the kind of boy who would break up a fight rather than be in one. Today, he is a strong role model, Hafner said.

'People who don't know him, all they see is the issues,' he said. But Sadiq has invested himself completely in his community, Hafner said. 'If you can't get the benefit of the doubt in your own community, it's disheartening.'

Malou Hafner, Hafner's wife, sees Sadiq often, because their children attend the same preschool, and is another supporter.

'He's very gentle and I think he would be a good counselor,' she said. 'I've seen him react when his kids act up and he's good, because he processes things with the kid as opposed to reacting to the bad behavior by being angry.'

Some parents, meanwhile, remain skeptical about his appointment.

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=57159&CSAuthResp=1189087131522505%3AB6I041qHfw7EIQ%3D%3D%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Asuccess%3AkyHq7C4apxzBnQMFtvrlQA%3D%3D&CSUserId=&CSGroupId=

Posted by lois at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2007

Amherst, MA: Rep. Story to Step Up for Sadiq: Legislator to Stand by Counselor at Hearing

Story to step up for Sadiq: Legislator to stand by counselor at hearing
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Page 1
Northampton, MA September 5, 2007
BY MARY CAREY STAFF WRITER

AMHERST - State Rep. Ellen Story will go to Malden today to vouch for the character of middle school guidance counselor Talib Sadiq when he asks the Department of Education to reconsider his application for licensure.

The DOE rejected Sadiq's application for the license that teachers, teacher specialists, professional support personnel and administrators are required to have, but would not disclose the reason, citing confidentiality guidelines.

Story, D-Amherst, who said she has known Sadiq since he was in the seventh grade, said his academic credentials are not in question. 'So I assume this is about his moral character, which I'm happy to speak to,' she said.

An Amherst native, Sadiq converted to Islam and changed his name from Vincent Bias after serving jail time for armed robbery. He was convicted of holding up a bank in Springfield with a loaded 9 mm handgun in 1993 following a stint in the military.

He has since completed college, received a master's degree, married and started a family before serving a one-year internship with now-retired counselor Barry Brooks as a guidance counselor at the middle school.

Amherst Regional Schools Superintendent Jere Hochman has said repeatedly that he would exhaust every opportunity to retain Sadiq, who was selected from a pool of about 20 candidates, in the position.

Story said she contacted Hochman to say she would like to help and has been in touch with Sadiq, who scheduled Wednesday's hearing. Hochman will also attend.

About a dozen area educators also have written a letter to the DOE in support of Sadiq.

Some parents, meanwhile, remain skeptical about his appointment. TracyLee Boutilier, one of them, met with Sadiq on Tuesday, to tell him why. It is not that she doesn't believe a person can be rehabilitated, she told the Gazette. She questions why the school system kept guarded the fact that he had a criminal record. All the time that Sadiq interned at the middle school last year, parents were not informed about his past, Boutilier said.

The decision not to give parents that information compromised their ability to make decisions about what is in their children's best interests, Boutilier said. It has undermined her confidence in the school system.

'I came out of there feeling like I did most of the talking,' she said of her meeting with Sadiq.

Sadiq asked her to focus on how he acts with the children and how he does from this point forward, Boutilier said.

Administrators who have come forward to defend Sadiq's hiring and to point out that he has turned his life around have missed the point she and some other parents have been trying to make, Boutilier said.

'I feel as a parent I have a right to know who is around my children.'

As a black woman, Boutilier said, she also finds problematic assertions that Sadiq's race - he is also black - is a factor.

'It's not about race. It's not about him as a person, whether he's a good husband or good father. It's not because he's a veteran or not a veteran. The fact that he's a veteran has nothing to do with it. If anything, that, to me, should have told him not to do what he did,' Boutilier said.

Boutilier said she puts some stock in the DOE's decision not to grant Sadiq a license. But if it turns out he does obtain one and stays on the job, she will give him the benefit of the doubt. 'I'm willing to take his actions from this point forward,' she said.

According to the DOE's Criminal Offender Record Information policy, a criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant for a license.

Boutilier does question whether Story should get involved, as it could set a precedent and anyone who is denied a license from here on in would feel entitled to a defense from her.

Longtime acquaintance

Story and Sadiq go back a long way, though. She met him when he played football and baseball with her son Tim. 'He was a very nice seventh-grader,' Story said. She recalled he didn't try to act 'cool' like some of the other boys did, and that he was thoughtful whenever she talked to him.

'Then I lost touch with him for a while and when I heard he had gone to jail for armed robbery, I was very distressed,' she said.

Story ran into him again at a potluck dinner to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Pomeroy Lane Cooperative, a mixed community of low-and middle-income people, some of whom are mentally or physically disabled, where her son Christopher lives.

'I talked to him and he was just so gentle. The times I was around him, he was always very calm. There was just a really nice sense about him.'

Her husband, Ronald Story, an assistant football coach when Sadiq was on the team in junior high school, also felt that way about him, Story said.

When she read in the paper that he was going to be a guidance counselor, Story said she was delighted.

'Oh, what an excellent choice. He's an extraordinary young man and he always stood out to me.'

The uproar that has ensued since his criminal record was publicized has been 'outrageous,' Story said.

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=57061&CSAuthResp=1189023662222320%3AJFd90QpbnZ96oQ%3D%3D%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Asuccess%3AKdIql7go%2BEHWcqytOZsdnA%3D%3D&CSUserId=&CSGroupId=

Posted by lois at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)

Valuable Labor: Inmates Could Turn The Tide On Imports

This is so horrendous, published on Labor Day, that I can't figure out if it is some kind of sick parody or meant to be serious.
Lois

Valuable Labor: Inmates Could Turn The Tide On Imports
JOSEPH H. COOPER
September 3, 2007

Here's a thought for manufacturers of toys, toothpaste, tires: Take a meeting - with the state Department of Correction.

You want cheap labor - cheap labor that's very carefully monitored, with actual, literal, oversight? Well, start thinking stateside about a genuinely captive labor force.

Inmates at the pre-release institution where I teach community college courses earn as little as 75 cents a day for their work in the prison kitchen and shower rooms. At that rate, doesn't it make sense for manufacturers that have been exploiting cheap labor abroad to begin exploiting opportunities at home, with manufacturing facilities set up in cooperation with the corrections department?

Following several weeks of news about made-in-China mishaps, a particularly well-read, well-informed inmate (who can speak knowledgeably about balance of payments, trade deficits and the flow of capital and wages) offered this very personal microeconomic perspective:

"For me, in prison, I would gladly devote hours and hours of time (of which I have plenty) in exchange for the dignity of productive work; work that I can put on a resume, and maybe display in a portfolio.

"I dropped out of school in ninth grade. But in prison, I have taught myself
C++ and Visual Basic. I set up networks and repaired computers, and
C++ saved
the state thousands. I could be of use to any business that would set up a manufacturing operation here.

"While in `Big Cheshire,' I did graphic design work for nonprofits. I designed mugs and T-shirts and banners for Op Sail. I scanned sketches, tweaked the images for composition and contrast, adjusted colors. The people in New London were very pleased, I was told.

"I made plaques that were presented to awards recipients. I was trusted with a metal cutter and a laser engraver. I'm not claiming an award plaque for myself. But I have time, not a lot of distractions, and I have some talent that somebody could profit from."

The best dividend is dignity.

Another inmate was a bit skeptical about the hypothetical arrangement between a for-profit manufacturer and corrections. This inmate faithfully attends every class offered at prison, and has taken every in-prison opportunity to prepare himself for a life of community service on the outside. He would want a commitment, by the hypothetical manufacturer and the state, to use a portion of the enterprise's revenues to fund more inmate education programs.

While there was skepticism aplenty, there was no disagreement about whether the manufacturing could be done well.

As to labor politics, the solution would be to "recall" laid-off U. S. workers whose 20 and 30 years of experience could be re-employed at correctional facilities to train inmates. This job training might speed the recall of defective imported goods such as toothpaste tainted with diethylene glycol, toy trains decorated with lead paint and vehicle tires whose treads and steel belts are prone to separation.

Wouldn't everybody win?

The state could point to a worthwhile correctional/rehabilitation/job training program, which wouldn't cost the state money. The manufacturer would get low-cost labor without exporting the work, and would save on some transport and red-tape expenses.

The consumer - rightly concerned about quality control and product safety - would get made-in-the-USA goods at an acceptable price, with more quality control than we've experienced from factories in China.

Inmates would be acquiring employable skills - manufacturing skills, production-line supervision experience and perhaps some supply-chain management opportunities. There'd be pride in competing with operations abroad and besting them in output and quality. And, there would be on-the-job training, which would yield job recommendations for post-incarceration life and livelihood.

And, there was one inmate who allowed that, with a good job performance record to begin to offset a criminal record, there might be even more of a bargain to be made:

"I would gladly pay for my prison room and board - maybe a better room and better food - by working real jobs in the house. Pay me minimum wage, and I'll pay taxes and Social Security."

And, there would be a poignant import to the "exporting" he imagines:

"I would like to make things that my family and old my neighbors can use - and would want to buy from me." ________________________________

Joseph H. Cooper was editorial counsel at The New Yorker from 1976 to 1996. In addition to his work for community colleges, he teaches media law and ethics at Quinnipiac University.

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-cooper0903.artsep03,0,4331410.s
tory>

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

September 04, 2007

NY Times Editorial: The Wrong Answer in CT

September 4, 2007
Editorial, NY Times
The Wrong Answer in Connecticut

Three members of a prominent Cheshire, Conn., family were slain in their home in July after being held hostage for hours. The gruesome murders, and the arrests of two career criminals out on parole for the crime, have left Connecticut residents justifiably outraged. More than 42,000 people have signed an online petition advocating that their state pass a “three strikes and you’re out” law to force judges to impose lengthy sentences on criminals convicted of three felonies. That is the wrong solution, for Connecticut or any state.

There’s no question that what befell Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and her two daughters Hayley and Michaela, was horrific. The state’s mishandling of the two parolees accused of the crime only compounds the horror.

Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes have long criminal records. Mr. Komisarjevsky has 21 felony convictions, and Mr. Hayes has 17. The Board of Pardons and Parole released Mr. Komisarjevsky despite having woefully incomplete information. That happens routinely in Connecticut, where for 10 years absurd fights over which department should pay photocopying costs kept criminal records from being shared. Had board members read the judge’s characterization of Mr. Komisarjevsky’s actions as “predatory” they might never have released him.

The appeal of a “three strikes and you’re out” law is understandable, but these laws have proven to be blunt instruments that cause more injustice than they prevent. In California, which has a particularly draconian law, a man who shoplifted $153.54 worth of videotapes was sent to jail for 50 years. These laws are not only overly harsh. They are enormously expensive, because of all of the prison cells that are needed to warehouse minor criminals who pose little threat to society, many of whom are elderly by the end of their sentence.

What Connecticut should focus on is improving the workings of its criminal justice system, including its handling of parolees. Spurred by the public’s outcry, the State Legislature has announced that it will hold public hearings on Sept. 11. Clearly, there is a serious need for better communication, openness and accountability. But adopting a one-size-fits-all sentencing system makes no more sense than releasing criminals without adequate information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/opinion/04tues3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Posted by lois at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)

Interview with Curtis Muhammad: Katrina and the history and current state of organizing in the U.S.

Please listen to this interview with Curtis Muhammad

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/04/145214

We turn to a conversation with Curtis Muhammad from the People's Organizing Committee. Muhammad is a native of New Orleans and a longtime activist. During the sixties, he was an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, and co-founded Community Labor United. After the Hurricane hit, he hit the road tracking the New Orleans refugees into shelters from city to city. He first spoke to him in Jackson Mississippi a few days after the flood. On the second anniversary of Katrina, Curtis Muhammad wrote a farewell letter to the left and progressive forces in the United States. He is leaving the country and heading south. Amy Goodman visited him on his front porch in New Orleans and to ask why.

Posted by lois at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

VIRGINIA PRISONER SUING OVER RACIALLY CHARGED ATTACK BY GUARDS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIRGINIA PRISONER SUING OVER RACIALLY CHARGED ATTACK BY GUARDS

Jo’nathan Talbert, an inmate at Red Onion State Prison in Pound, Virginia, will be entering district court on September 27, 2007 for a trial by jury of his civil suit against correctional officers at Wallens Ridge State Prison. He is suing them on a number of counts after allegedly being severely beaten by these officers on September 18, 2005.

Talbert claims that while serving time at the Wallens Ridge prison nearly two years ago he heard a group of agitated guards planning to beat him and falsely claim it was in response to the prisoner’s resistance. These guards then beat him while he was on his knees, shackled, and with his hands cuffed behind his back. As a result, he says, he suffered internal bleeding, blurred vision, lacerations that required stitches, and a number of other injuries. Prior to, during, and after the attack, the officers allegedly yelled racial slurs at Talbert, a black man, and ridiculed his Muslim beliefs. Talbert claims they told him that Islam was no longer a religion since the attacks of September 11, 2001, along with other offensive remarks. Talbert says that following the assault, offending officers had prison nurses strike them to leave marks, fabricating ‘evidence’ that Talbert provoked the beating.

Talbert claims to have medical files, eye witnesses, photographs of his injuries, a videotape showing the unprovoked attack, records showing a history of abuse by the accused guards and in the facility in general, and other evidence to corroborate his case. He is accusing the defendants of: conspiracy, assault and battery, racial discrimination, and violating his freedom of religion, among other offenses.

The Human Rights Coalition – FedUp! chapter was founded in 2005 in response to reports of abuse at the high level security prisons in Virginia’s western district. The group continues to support people in prison who have survived physical abuse and medical neglect, and has expanded its services to Pennsylvania.

Talbert’s case will come before a jury on September 27 and 28, 2007 in the United States District Court, for the Western District of VA, 322 E. Wood Ave., Big Stone Gap, VA 24219. The case is cited as: Talbert v. W. Smith et al, civil action no: 7:05-cv-00736.

Please consider going if you have the means and are in that region or encourage folks that you know in the area to attend and report back.

# # #

To contact Mr. Talbert, write to: Superior Talbert #346496
Red Onion State Prison P.O. Box 1900 Pound, VA 24279

Organization: FedUp! / The Human Rights Coalition
Email: Fedup@riseup.net
Address: 5125 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
412-802-8575

Posted by lois at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2007

Jena 6 Needs Our Financial Support

"On Sept. 20, several national organizations will rally in Jena. That's the date Bell is scheduled to be sentenced. Unfortunately, as noted by George Tucker -- the attorney representing another "Jena 6" defendant -- there's been a "top-heavy effort to encourage" the defendants, but an "empty effort" to support them financially."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/538124,CST-NWS-mitch02.article

Chicago Sun Times

Moral support OK, but Jena 6 need money
Black teens could get prison while whites got suspensions

September 2, 2007

BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist

Mychal Bell, the first teen to be convicted in the "Jena 6" case in Jena, La., will have a hearing on Tuesday.

At that time, his lawyers will either prevail on motions to set aside the verdict, or Bell will be sentenced on charges of second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy in connection with a high school fight.

In that event, the 17-year-old faces up to 22 years in prison.

Bell is one of a group of defendants who have come to be known as the "Jena 6." All of the defendants are black high school students accused of beating up a white classmate after a series of racial incidents at a high school in the small Louisiana town.

The trouble started when black students exercised their right to sit under a shade tree traditionally used by white students. In response, white students hung three "nooses" from the tree. That act -- a throwback to the days when blacks were lynched for exercising their civil rights -- was portrayed by school officials as a "silly prank," and the white students got in-school suspensions.

But, while the misconduct by white students was handled as a prank, and an attack against a black student at a private party resulted in one of the attackers being charged with a misdemeanor, school officials and the LaSalle Parish District Attorney have brought out a hammer against the black students involved in the school fight.

'We need to raise money'

Obviously, violence in school is a serious infraction and should be dealt with harshly. But the huge disparity in punishments makes this a textbook example of America's biased justice system.

On Sept. 20, several national organizations will rally in Jena. That's the date Bell is scheduled to be sentenced. Unfortunately, as noted by George Tucker -- the attorney representing another "Jena 6" defendant -- there's been a "top-heavy effort to encourage" the defendants, but an "empty effort" to support them financially.

"These people are still indigent," Tucker said. "We need to raise money in a very bad way."

It will take more than marches, prayers and speeches to keep these young men out of prison on trumped-up charges. Lawyers are going to have to hire investigators, researchers and other experts to prepare the kind of defense that could ultimately serve as a blueprint to attack other prosecutions that appear to be racially motivated.

"With all these racially charged prosecutions, the punishment has been excessive. But here you have the kind of numbers -- six kids rather than one
-- to capture the nation's attention," Tucker said.

"This is not a new phenomenon. This is another day at the shop in small town America."

So it is going to take money -- lots of it.

The "Jena 6" families had to put up their properties and borrow from friends and relatives just to get their sons out of jail. Then they had to retain seasoned lawyers to fight charges that could put these teens behind bars for decades.

"This is not a crime and punishment issue," Tucker pointed out. "This is a civil rights issue, and there are a lot of things involved. One, this happened in school. What was the role the school administration was supposed to have played? That needs to be answered while it still means something to these kids."

Make sure donation counts

If you Google "Jena 6 Defense Fund" many Web sites pop up, but it is difficult to determine what groups are legitimate, or to determine how much money actually ends up going to these defendants. "A lot of people are running illegal Web sites, and the kids are not getting the benefit of the money," said Marcus Jones, the father of Mychal Bell, during a telephone interview on Friday.

"We started a Web site the first week in July, and before we knew anything, all of the other organizations posted Web sites and made money from it."

I'm not suggesting that any of the organizations that have supported this effort are involved in fraud. One way to ensure that money goes directly to help with these teens' defense is to identify the lawyer representing a defendant and send your check directly to him or her.

Or as Jones has requested, send your donation to a fund set up by the parents of the "Jena 6" defendants. That address is: Jena 6 Defense Fund, P.O. Box 2798, Jena, La. 71342.

Posted by lois at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

NC: New Prison Chief Arrives with a "Gift"

"Nobody works inmates better than I do," Maynard said, adding that he had promised Commissioners President John Barr that he would be glad to provide inmate labor for needed projects.

"All he has to do is tell me where the dirtiest, ugliest place in this community is and we'll clean it up for free - once," Maynard said.

Sunday September 2, 2007
New prison chief arrives with a gift

By BOB MAGINNIS

Could it really be that simple?

That's the question I asked myself Wednesday morning after Gary Maynard, Maryland's new Public Safety secretary, announced his department had initiated a policy to discourage inmates released from the local state prison complex from remaining in this area.

This issue has been batted around since March 1998 and the only progress up until now has been a Division of Correction agreement to give inmates who are released a bus ticket back home.

But they didn't have to use that ticket. Indeed, some cashed them in, walked across the street from the Sharpsburg Pike bus station and bought liquor with the money.

"The way we were doing it didn't make sense," Maynard said. "I saw a flaw in it early on."

In a policy that took effect Aug. 27, inmates who've finished their time here will be driven by DOC to the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center in Baltimore, then released from there.

Maynard, who took over from Mary Ann Saar, has experience in the prison systems of Oklahoma, South Carolina and Iowa. He said the new prisoner-release policy here is modeled on one used in an Oklahoma work-release system more than 30 years ago.

Based on what Maynard said, it will not be the only change. Maynard said he would seek to increase inmate work details, expand the skill training in the local prisons and remove disruptive inmates from the general population as quickly as possible.

"Nobody works inmates better than I do," Maynard said, adding that he had promised Commissioners President John Barr that he would be glad to provide inmate labor for needed projects.

"All he has to do is tell me where the dirtiest, ugliest place in this community is and we'll clean it up for free - once," Maynard said.

More jobs for inmates are needed inside the prisons, Maynard said, because an inmate who learns a marketable skill is less likely to return to the institution.

That training has been cut over the years, Maynard said, and the trend needs to be reversed. A $9 million profit made by what used to be called the State-Use Industries has been appropriated for other prison-related programs, Maynard said. It needs to be returned, he said, so the system can create more factories and more inmate jobs.

It is not coddling inmates to teach them a skill, Maynard said, because that makes it less likely they will create more crime victims after their release.

To deal with gang problems and inmates who assault staff, Maynard said that even before the decrepit House of Correction was closed, DOC agreed that infractions would be dealt with immediately by causing the inmate to "disappear."

Offenders are told to put their goods in a cardboard box, then immediately transferred to another facility, Maynard said. As a result, assaults on staff have dropped, Maynard said.

Maynard spoke at a breakfast meeting of the Hagerstown-Washington Chamber of Commerce. He answered questions on some of the following topics:

• Closing the House of Correction did affect the local prison complex because transfers took up some of the beds normally kept in reserve, Maynard said. The situation should be relieved somewhat when two more units open at the state prison in Cumberland.

• A prison's progress with an inmate is judged successful if he or she does not re-offend within three years, Maynard said.

The rate at which inmates re-offend during that three years is called recidivism. The national rate is 50 percent, in Iowa (Maynard's last post) it was 35 percent and in Maryland, it's 55 percent.

Maynard said that Iowa's success is due to the fact that it has a community correctional system that helps inmates transition back into society, something he hopes to duplicate here.

• Prisoners who come into the system are assessed for two things, Maynard said - the security threat they pose and the needs they have.

If an inmate doesn't have a GED, he or she needs to get one before leaving the system. If inmates have drug and alcohol issues, they need treatment for that, preferably close to their release date, Maynard said.

• The strategy needed to deal with gang violence will involve more than the prisons, Maynard said.

"It's a matter of getting the subject matter experts together and putting together a strategy to deal with the root problem of these issues," he said.

• Proper staffing of the prisons depends on good analysis, Maynard said. If a post must be staffed 24 hours a day, because of vacations, sick time and the like, there must be enough people assigned to that post to cover all the hours and then some, Maynard said.

After the House of Correction was closed, many officers were transferred to other prisons in the Jessup, Md. area, Maynard said. For the first time in their history, some of those institutions were fully staffed, he said.

• Inmates' "home plans" that use (for example) the Union Rescue Mission as their address will be closely scrutinized, Maynard said. But if they truly have family in the area, such as parents, allowing them to stay here would not necessarily be a bad thing.

Maynard said he doubted that the problem of non local inmates staying in this area was as serious as some believe. But he's smart enough to know that in many cases, perception is reality and he moved quickly to quell that concern. The talk sounded good, and if he can walk the walk, too, he'll deserve even more applause than he got on Wednesday.

http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=173763&format=html

Posted by lois at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2007

Are Your Jeans Sagging? Go Directly to Jail.

(Another way to fill up jails.)

August 30, 2007
Are Your Jeans Sagging? Go Directly to Jail.
By NIKO KOPPEL, NY Times

JAMARCUS MARSHALL, a 17-year-old high school sophomore in Mansfield, La., believes that no one should be able to tell him how low to wear his jeans. “It’s up to the person who’s wearing the pants,” he said.

Mr. Marshall’s sagging pants, a style popularized in the early 1990s by hip-hop artists, are becoming a criminal offense in a growing number of communities, including his own.

Starting in Louisiana, an intensifying push by lawmakers has determined pants worn low enough to expose underwear poses a threat to the public, and they have enacted indecency ordinances to stop it.

Since June 11, sagging pants have been against the law in Delcambre, La., a town of 2,231 that is 80 miles southwest of Baton Rouge. The style carries a fine of as much as $500 or up to a six-month sentence. “We used to wear long hair, but I don’t think our trends were ever as bad as sagging,” said Mayor Carol Broussard.

An ordinance in Mansfield, a town of 5,496 near Shreveport, subjects offenders to a fine (as much as $150 plus court costs) or jail time (up to 15 days). Police Chief Don English said the law, which takes effect Sept. 15, will set a good civic image.

Behind the indecency laws may be the real issue — the hip-hop style itself, which critics say is worn as a badge of delinquency, with its distinctive walk conveying thuggish swagger and a disrespect for authority. Also at work is the larger issue of freedom of expression and the questions raised when fashion moves from being merely objectionable to illegal.

Sagging began in prison, where oversized uniforms were issued without belts to prevent suicide and their use as weapons. The style spread through rappers and music videos, from the ghetto to the suburbs and around the world.

Efforts to outlaw sagging in Virginia and statewide in Louisiana in 2004, failed, usually when opponents invoked a right to self-expression. But the latest legislative efforts have taken a different tack, drawing on indecency laws, and their success is inspiring lawmakers in other states.

In the West Ward of Trenton, Councilwoman Annette Lartigue is drafting an ordinance to fine or enforce community service in response to what she sees as the problem of exposing private parts in public.

“It’s a fad like hot pants; however, I think it crosses the line when a person shows their backside,” Ms. Lartigue said. “You can’t legislate how people dress, but you can legislate when people begin to become indecent by exposing their body parts.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has been steadfast in its opposition to dress restrictions. Debbie Seagraves, the executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Georgia said, “I don’t see any way that something constitutional could be crafted when the intention is to single out and label one style of dress that originated with the black youth culture, as an unacceptable form of expression.”

School districts have become more aggressive in enforcing dress bans, as the courts have given them greater latitude. Restrictions have been devised for jeans, miniskirts, long hair, piercing, logos with drug references and gang-affiliated clothing including colors, hats and jewelry.

Dress codes are showing up in unexpected places. The National Basketball Association now stipulates that no sports apparel, sunglasses, headgear, exposed chains or medallions may be worn at league-sponsored events. After experiencing a brawl that spilled into the stands and generated publicity headaches, the league sought to enforce a business-casual dress code, saying that hip-hop clothing projected an image that alienated middle-class audiences.

According to Andrew Bolton, the curator at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fashions tend to be decried when they “challenge the conservative morality of a society.”

Not since the zoot suit has a style been greeted with such strong disapproval. The exaggerated boxy long coat and tight-cuffed pants, started in the 1930s, was the emblematic style of a subculture of young urban minorities. It was viewed as unpatriotic and flouted a fabric conservation order during World War II. The clothing was at the center of what were called Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles, racially motivated beatings of Hispanic youths by sailors. The youths were stripped of their garments, which were burned in the street.

Following a pattern of past fashion bans, the sagging prohibitions are seen by some as racially motivated because the wearers are young, predominantly African-American men.

Yet, this legislation has been proposed largely by African-American officials. It may speak to a generation gap. Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and the author of “Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip Hop,” said, “They’ve bought the myth that sagging pants represents an offensive lifestyle which leads to destructive behavior.”

Last week, Atlanta Councilman C. T. Martin sponsored an amendment to the city’s indecency laws to ban sagging, which he called an epidemic. “We are trying to craft a remedy,” said Mr. Martin, who sees the problem as “a prison mentality.”

But Larry Harris, Jr., 28, a musician from Miami, who stood in oversize gear outside a hip-hop show in Times Square, denied that prison style was his inspiration. “I think what you have here is people who don’t understand the language of hip-hop,” he said.

A dress code ordinance proposed in Stratford, Conn., by Councilman Alvin O’Neal was rejected at a Town Council meeting last Monday, drawing criticism that the law was unconstitutional and unjustly encouraged racial profiling. Many residents agreed that the town had more pressing issues.

Benjamin Chavis, the former executive director of the N.A.A.C.P., said, “I think to criminalize how a person wears their clothing is more offensive than what the remedy is trying to do.”

Dr. Chavis, who is often pictured in an impeccable suit and tie among the baggy outfits of the hip-hop elite, is a chairman of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, a coalition he founded with the music mogul Russell Simmons. He said that the coalition will challenge the ordinances in court.

“The focus should be on cleaning up the social conditions that the sagging pants comes out of,” he said. “That they wear their pants the way they do is a statement of the reality that they’re struggling with on a day-to-day basis.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/fashion/30baggy.html?_r=1&em&ex=1188792000&en=a&oref=slogin

Posted by lois at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

CA: Get a Jail in return for a "re-entry facility"

Support for reentry facility may help county get new jail Friday, August 31, 2007 By Judie Marks

In the hope of getting state aid to build a new Amador County Jail, the board of supervisors Tuesday voted unanimously to support development of a regional "reentry facility" in Stockton.

The reentry facility would provide a place to prepare inmates in the last year of their sentences for reintegration into society and to introduce them to their parole officers.

Assembly Bill 900, signed by the governor in May, authorizes $750 million to finance local jail facilities and requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to develop reentry facilities throughout the state for 16,000 inmates. The bill provides that each reentry facility house not more than 500 inmates and that they be sited only in cities or counties that request them.

AB 900 also encourages social and health care services, including job training, drug and alcohol counseling and mental health services be provided to inmates during their time in the reentry facility.

"It is my understanding that preferences for funds to build jails are going to go to counties that have stepped to the plate for these facilities," County Administrative Officer Terri Daly told the supervisors.

San Joaquin County has suggested a regional approach to the problem and has offered to use the empty Northern California Women's Facility in Stockton for the purpose.

"There would be no cost to our county," Daly said, and any expenses incurred by the county, such as social services, would be reimbursable by the state.

The proposal had already been approved by San Joaquin County supervisors and the Stockton City Council, she said, and was slated to be considered Tuesday by the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors.

Undersheriff Jim Wegner, in response to a question from District 2 Supervisor Richard Forster, said the reentry facility would not mean more inmates paroled to Amador County. "Only those who actually committed their offenses in Amador County or resided in Amador County would be paroled back to Amador County," Wegner said.

He admitted there were "some other mitigating circumstances" in which a parolee could be transferred from another county, but said that percentage is small.

"This reentry facility would be based in Stockton," he said. "Inmates who are about one year from parole would go there and start to get exposed to programs that prepare them for release."

Mule Creek State Prison Warden Richard Subia told the supervisors that inmates are now released with $200 in their pocket, minus the cost of a bus ticket.

The main benefits of the new reentry facility, Subia said, are that it would be in Stockton and that inmates returning to Amador County would be introduced in advance to their parole officers.

Forster reiterated his question about any possibility of "an influx of major offenders from other counties."

Subia said the only way for a non-local prisoner to be paroled here is if he or she requests a transfer and has reasonable grounds, such as a job offer or family living locally. In the past, he said, more parolees have requested to be transferred out of Amador County than have requested to be transferred in.

The reentry facility, the warden said, will not be a halfway house, but a secure place for inmates to serve the last year of their sentence.

At present, Subia said, an inmate can be walking around Pelican Bay State Prison in handcuffs one day and on parole in his home county the next, with no preparation or advance introduction to his parole officer.

"They hop off a bus and your local law enforcement officers never know he's here until he commits another offense," he said.

Wegner told supervisors that San Joaquin County's offer to include Amador County in the regional solution "really improves our position for getting those funds - but doesn't guarantee it."

Forster asked whether Amador County wouldn't get more inmates who'd been exposed to, and possibly joined, prison gangs. But Wegner insisted that all the inmates would already have been in the state prison system, where that exposure occurs.

Subia chimed in that if parolees are not cooperative after their release, they will be "put in a car and sent back to high security."

District 5 Supervisor Brian Oneto asked if there is any downside to the plan, and Subia replied that adverse effects may appear in the future. "It's something that has never been done before here," he said, adding that other states like Texas have tried the plan.

The reentry facilities will also be used to house parole violators, he said, instead of sending them back to prison for three or four months. In the reentry center, Subia said, programs needed by a parole violator, such as counseling for a drinking or drug problem, would be available again.

"That inmate is coming back to our community one way or the other?" Oneto asked.

"Correct," Wegner said. "And the theory is that they will come out better prepared to join the community."

Subia agreed, saying that state prison inmates "are not going away; they're not disappearing." Ninety percent of them, he said, return to the community they came from.

"This is the next step," he said. "It's never been done before. It's a step the educators say works. We have to do something to reduce the recidivism rate and to protect public safety."

On a motion by Oneto that was seconded by District 3 Supervisor Ted Novelli, the supervisors voted unanimously in favor of a resolution supporting conversion of the Northern California Women's Facility in Stockton into a reentry facility.

Jon Hopkins, General Services Administration director, then told the supervisors that a consulting group has been hired to do a jail needs assessment.

While state funding would provide 75 percent of the costs for construction of a new jail, Hopkins said, it would require 25 percent in matching funds from the county.

Each bed in a new jail facility, he said, costs $112,500. But if the county can find a way to reduce that cost, he said, they can petition the state to reduce the amount of matching funds needed.

Hopkins said he is being told that the county needs to own the jail site property free and clear in order to capture funding from AB 900.

The current site, he said, is not ideal for a new jail.

Novelli suggested the old Safeway site in Jackson, while Forster suggested that county-owned property in Carbondale might be better.

The board agreed, without a vote, to examine the options.

http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/newsview.asp?c=224247

Posted by lois at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

Talib Sadiq is a self-made, self-improved man

Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA: News and information for Saturday
September 01, 2007
Talib Sadiq is a self-made, self-improved man

To the editor:

Having been educators in the Amherst-Pelham schools for 30 years, we have been following reactions to the hiring of Talib Sadiq with more than a little interest. For once, the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District has, by its actions, reconciled its stated philosophy of inclusion with action. In the hiring of Talib, the district has shown that personal redemption is an attribute to be rewarded and included by example in the daily lives of the young men and women of ARMS. As his principal and teachers, we knew Talib when he was Vincent Bias. As a student in the high school, he possessed an air that suggested he had more to give to his community and much more he needed to give to himself.

It would be far too easy to blame Vincent's fall from positive citizenship on a military that spits out its soldiers, ill-prepared to re-enter civilian life. The statistics bear witness to the number of men and women who served and who are in emotional, legal, economic and psychological distress. The mark of Talib's character is that he did not blame this abandonment for his legal predicament. He, as they say, "manned up," did his time and went on to become a husband, a father, and an educator.

It certainly must have occurred to Talib as he sat in his classes that, unlike his classmates, the path to full redemption, gaining employment in his chosen field, would be difficult. Yet, he did not waver, and he did succeed. What better testament to the resiliency of the human spirit, and what better model of the self-made, self-improved man could one ask for?

Gaylord F. Saulsberry (former principal of Amherst High School) Janet Elias Saulsberry Amherst

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=56674&CSAuthResp=1188658795933858%3AMBsbk29zSEOkhw%3D%3D%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Asuccess%3ALSnIuMAHcw3TKW5M0RCH6A%3D%3D&CSUserId=&CSGroupId=

Posted by lois at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)