The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Lawmakers agree almost unilaterally that electronic communication among all criminal justice agencies needs a major upgrade to allow for instant access to police reports, pre-sentence investigations, sentencing transcripts and prison, parole and probation files.

Had a pre-sentencing report reached the parole board in a timely fashion, as already required by law, one suspect in the killings might not have been released.

Among other proposals that deserve to pass easily are using global positioning technology to track parolees; an online listing of current parolees, probationers and probation violation warrants; and hiring a staff psychologist to help the Board of Pardons and Parole identify potentially violent offenders.

Legislators are further urged to approve a provision that elevates home invasion — first- and second-degree burglary — to a violent felony carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a minimum mandatory sentence of five years.

The more difficult provisions in the bill relate to adjusting the flow of prisoners into and out of the correction system so that truly dangerous criminals are not released prematurely.

They include reconciling six different proposals to toughen the state's "three strikes" law (which puts third-time violent felony offenders away for life) without overcrowding the prisons.

Other sensitive issues to be debated are the dimensions, cost and potential sites for two proposed new prisons, one of which would be reserved for inmates with mental health problems, and the degree to which nonviolent offenders can be released.

Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, who is co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee with Sen. Andrew J. McDonald, D-Stamford, says that what will emerge when the full legislature takes up the crime package in January is a more punitive criminal justice system that will exceed the spending cap.

We trust that lawmakers will strike a reasonable balance among punishment, fairness and public safety.
Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant
Protest against parole ban

by Chief Capitol Correspondent Mark Davis
Posted Nov. 26, 2007
5:55 PM
New Haven (WTNH) _ The state's prison population has ballooned since Governor Rell banned parole for violent offenders and tonight the families of those who have been denied parole protested outside the New Haven Correctional Center.
The governor's parole ban was a response to the deadly home invasion in Cheshire, allegedly committed by two, non-violent career criminals.
"Hundreds, maybe thousands are being punished for the actions of a few people. Just two people," said Shelton Tucker of New Haven.
In addition to the family members of inmates, activists like Barbara Fair from the group Coalition Against the Ban, protesting outside the Whalley Avenue prison.
"The message is end the parole ban and look into these conditions that are in these prisons," Fair said.
Governor Rell says the severe overcrowded conditions will be relieved as soon as the state starts paroling non-violent offenders. The problem is that many of those individuals also need other forms of community services, like help with a drug problem or a mental illness. Because the state also lacks space in halfway houses, letting out non-violent offenders may pose a problem as well.
"We need to step up to the plate, fight back against this growing prison problem and do something about the parole ban because we already have a problem with prison overcrowding. This parole ban just exemplifies this problem," Fair said.
State lawmakers will be discussing a plan tomorrow to build two new prisons, a halfway house and community treatment facilities. The price tag for the new facilities is an estimated half a billion dollars.
Crowded jails, ban on parole protested
Community members urge overturning of Rell’s parole suspension
Lea Yu
Staff Reporter, Yale Daily News
Published Tuesday, November 27, 2007
As the light of street lamps illuminated a swirl of mist and drizzle, more than 65 protestors rallied Monday evening in front of the Whalley Avenue jail, demanding that the state provide its citizens with “books, not bars.”
Community members and activist groups, joining together in protest of state legislation that would spend $260 million for two new prisons, called on Governor M. Jodi Rell to rescind her temporary ban on parole for violent offenders. Critics have charged that since being implemented in September, the ban has led to a swell in prison populations in Connecticut, which has exacerbated overcrowding and resulted in unsanitary conditions and increased violence among inmates.
But state Department of Corrections officers interviewed said state jails provide clean and adequate resources and have not witnessed increased violence in the wake of the ban.
Legislators on the state Judiciary Committee have said they will debate 15 bills relating to parole and prison reform at the state capitol today. A special session will convene in January to pass the legislation.
Rell enacted the ban after the July murder of a woman and her two daughters in Cheshire at the hands of two criminals who were out on parole. Rell will lift the ban once the legislature reforms the parole process, state Department of Corrections external affairs director Brian Garnett said.
But ralliers said the proposed new-prison legislation — which would classify home invasion as a persistent dangerous felony and strengthen the state’s “three strikes” law — is inadequate and detrimental to public safety. The ban should be lifted immediately, rather than in January when legislation passes, so that inmates who would otherwise be free on parole are not detained unjustly, they said.
“I’m concerned that a tiny fraction of the bill is dedicated toward rehabilitating people when they’re coming out of prison in comparison to the amount of money that’s going to be spent on building two new prisons,” said Megan Fountain ’07, an organizer with Unidad Latina en Acción, which is a nonprofit in Fair Haven. “Prisons are overcrowded, and what we need are solutions to integrate people into society, not create more beds.”
According to a Nov. 16 article in the New Haven Independent, inmates at the Whalley jailhouse have recently reported finding maggots in the showerheads and being forced to walk around in dirty, stained linen.
Garnett said the DOC is cognizant of the state’s overcrowded jails, but the increased inmate populations have not resulted in a decline in sanitation and safety.
Contrary to what was reported in the Independent, he said, Whalley jailhouse inmates have access to laundry machines, and those sleeping on cots in the gym do not fight over one bathroom but have access to 16 urinals and toilets.
Although Garnett said the DOC does not keep a record of prison capacities because state jails cannot deny criminals who are sent to them, state Rep. State Rep. Mike Lawlor said Connecticut prisons can hold about 17,500 prisoners.
As of yesterday, Garnett counted 19,630 inmates in Connecticut jails — over 1,000 of whom were added since Rell announced the ban, Lawlor said.
“Despite the fact the system is crowded, our performance measures — and we define those as assaults on staff, inmates, use of force by our staff — those measures all remain at historically low levels,” he said. “No one is sleeping in dirty linen, and no one’s fighting over toilets.”
Lawlor, who co-sponsored prison reform legislation with his judiciary committee co-chair State Sen. Andrew McDonald, said the committee today will openly debate numerous alternatives to new jail facilities, such as the expansion of existing jailhouses and shorter incarceration penalties for nonviolent offenders.
A permanent elimination of parole would lead to massive and dangerous overcrowding, he said, but the temporary parole ban is necessary for the sake of comprehensively reforming the parole process.
Connecticut’s jails are already crowded to the point of posing a safety hazard, Lawlor said, but until the state builds more facilities, the rehabilitative programs that critics have been calling for will be nonexistent, since Corrections officers must first deal with inmates who are sleeping on the floors of counseling rooms and school rooms.
“I don’t want [more jails] either, but it’s not a question of what people want — it’s a question of what people need, and what you need is enough facilities for the inmates you have,” Lawlor said.
Among the 15 initiatives the legislature will consider Tuesday are six different “three strikes” proposals, the creation of an electronic criminal-justice database, the enhancement of nurse training and recruitment and the application of GPS technology to the monitoring of criminals on parole.
The Coalition Against the Parole Ban organized Monday’s event, which was endorsed by People Against Injustice, Youth Rights Media, Unidad Latina en Accion, A.N.S.W.E.R. CT, Connecticut Center for a New Economy and Yale’s Undergraduate Organizing Committee.