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February 29, 2008

TN: ACLU Sues Tennessee's Felon Disenfranchisement Law As Modern Day Poll Tax

ACLU Sues Over Tennessee’s Felon Disenfranchisement Law
2/25/2008
Group Says Payment Provision Is A Modern Day ‘Poll Tax’

NASHVILLE – The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Tennessee filed a lawsuit today in federal court challenging the state’s 2006 law that made the restoration of voting rights for people convicted of crimes contingent on the payment of all outstanding legal financial obligations (LFOs), namely restitution and child support fees. According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, requiring some individuals to bear an undue financial burden before voting is tantamount to a poll tax in violation of the constitutional right to vote and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.

“Reports show that, nationally, over 50 percent of criminal defendants are indigent at the time of sentencing. Therefore, requiring a person with a criminal conviction to pay a fee before restoring their right to vote is nothing more than a modern day poll tax,” said Nancy Abudu, staff counsel with the ACLU Voting Rights Project. “This law locks citizens out of the democratic process when it comes to issues of great concern to them. The result is that the political power of poor people is further diminished and the collateral consequences of poverty multiply.”

Today’s legal action, filed against state and county officials, challenges a 2006 law that changed the process by which individuals with criminal convictions may seek the restoration of their voting rights. According to the law, “a person shall not be eligible to apply for a voter registration card and have the right of suffrage restored unless such person has paid all restitution to the victim or victims of the offense ordered by the court as part of the sentence... [and] unless such person is current in all child support obligations.”

The ACLU brought its lawsuit on behalf of three individuals – Terence Johnson, Jim Harris and Alexander Friedman – who have completed their terms of imprisonment, parole, and probation for their offenses. Johnson and Harris are ineligible to vote because they owe child support for children they currently have custody of. Friedman applied for restoration of his voting rights in 2006, but Tennessee denied his application, claiming he owes over 1,000 dollars in restitution.

“My dream is to have the opportunity to become a fully productive citizen again, regardless of my economic status. And I have the right to participate in the electoral process to bring about change to the issues that concern me most in my community,” said Terence Johnson, a plaintiff in this case. “I’ve served my time, I am a taxpaying citizen and I have custody of my daughter. It is wrong for the state to punish me and other people while we get our lives back on track.”

Until recently, Tennessee’s voting rights restoration law – a patchwork of rules, restrictions, and procedures – was the most confusing and complicated in the country. Although a former felon no longer needs to go before a judge to have his or her right to vote restored, the law still requires several procedural steps before restoration is complete. The ACLU is committed to securing additional reforms to make Tennessee’s voting laws more user-friendly and to ensure that all people who have been incarcerated can regain their full voting rights.

“The ability to vote should not be based on one’s financial status,” said Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “Penalizing low-income parents by charging them a fee to exercise their constitutional right to vote is shameful. This law has no place in a functioning democracy.”

In addition to the equal protection claim, the ACLU’s lawsuit charges the Tennessee law violates the 24th Amendment’s voting rights provision and the due process protections in the federal and state constitutions.

Attorneys on the case are Abudu, Laughlin McDonald and Neil Bradley of the national ACLU Voting Rights Project, Tricia Herzfeld of the ACLU of Tennessee, and attorney Charles Grant of the law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC.
URL: http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen/34201prs20080225.html
A copy of today’s legal complaint is available at:
www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen/34203lgl20080225.html

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

PA Legislature asked to fund 3 more prisons

PA Legislature asked to fund 3 more prisons
Friday, February 29, 2008

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG -- Jeffrey A. Beard is a state official who runs a steadily growing empire, one that will oversee hundreds more people this year than last and will cost $1.7 billion, or almost $67 million more than last year.

But unlike many governmental officials whose budgets and responsibilities are expanding, he's not happy about it.

Mr. Beard is the secretary of corrections, responsible for running the state's 27 prisons, which now hold 46,000 inmates, or 4,400 over capacity, with more checking in weekly.

As a result, he asked the state Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday to authorize construction of two or three additional prisons immediately at a cost of about $200 million each.

Because of tough, mandatory sentencing laws passed over the last 25 years and what he described as a "lock 'em up, throw away the key" attitude among many legislators, judges and constituents, the state correctional system has steadily expanded from the early 1980s, when there were only eight prisons with 8,000 inmates and a departmental budget of $94 million.

Mr. Beard told the committee that just since 2001, the prison population has grown by 21 percent, from 38,000 to 46,000.

"This growth is expected to continue at an average rate of 4 percent each year through the end of 2012, reaching 57,000 state prisoners," he said.

"Without authorization for further capacity and [without] legislation to mitigate the population growth, our state prison system may run out of bed space as soon as 2010."

He said his department is trying to ease the crowding with early release for non-violent prisoners, those convicted of lesser crimes and those who show good behavior while in prison. Such inmates, who aren't considered a danger to the community, are sent to half-way houses, where they still receive supervision, once they've served their minimum sentence. But the prison population keeps growing anyway.

The system can, to some degree, "double cell," meaning put two inmates in a cell designed for just one. That is already being done in many prisons but is not feasible in all areas of all prisons, either for security or medical reasons.

The cost of feeding and clothing prisoners, providing medical treatment and programs to help them overcome addictions to drugs and alcohol keeps rising, and now averages $32,000 per year per inmate. Two of the state's prisons house female inmates, and the rest are for men.

Mr. Beard said the state needs to build at least two new prisons, and preferably three, each costing about $200 million. There are eight sites in the running for the new prison buildings. The department recommended adding new buildings at existing prisons at Rockview in Centre County, Huntingdon in Huntingdon County and Graterford in Montgomery County near Philadelphia.

Mr. Beard said it takes two to three years to complete a new prison, so the state should get started soon for at least one of the new prisons to be ready by 2010.

Mr. Beard asked legislators to include $600 million in the next state capital budget, which will be voted on in late June or early July, at the same time the Legislature adopts a new operating budget of about $28.3 billion.

Capital projects totaling $11 billion are being requested by various state officials and legislators. Far less than that will actually be spent on capital projects, which are funded by massive borrowing that the state must repay.

Before a project can move ahead, the Legislature must approve it and then Gov. Ed Rendell must release the money.

Mr. Beard also gave the committee a short rundown on State Correctional Institution Pittsburgh, which was closed several years ago but now has been reopened due to the prison crowding crisis. It's being used for prisoners with drug and alcohol problems who are from the western part of the state. There are currently 932 inmates, with capacity for 1,500.

He wasn't sure how long it would remain open, saying much depends on how fast the new prisons are built and whether the growth in inmates slows down.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08060/861420-85.stm

Posted by lois at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)

MS: Senate OKs Bill for 3000 more cages

Senate OKs bill for more prisons
By Leah Rupp •\ February 28, 2008
Clarion-Ledger
Ten more counties could eventually see regional prisons go up within their boundaries under a bill that cleared the Senate this afternoon.

Senate Bill 2642 would create 3,000 new beds if all of the counties opened up jails with 300 beds a piece for state inmates.

Corrections Committee Chairman Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, said planning for the future is essential with projected state prisoner numbers at about 28,000.
But several critics spoke out against the bill on the floor, saying more money for jails means less for other essential issues such as education and health care.

The bill passed by a vote of 37 in favor and 14 against.

"With all of the enhanced penalties we are passing, we are going to need these beds," said Simmons, adding that even if lawmakers approve the counties to build one of the jails, the commissioner of the Corrections Department would still have to sign off.

The Senate bill passed Thursday would approve Attala, Claiborne, Yalobusha, Tishomingo, Hancock, Lawrence, Copiah, DeSoto, Benton and Noxubee counties to also build new facilities.

But Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said there are already enough people incarcerated in the state.

"What sort of people are we? Where are our priorities?" said Bryan, pointing to education and health care as areas money should be directed to instead of more jails.

Prisons should not be economic development pieces, he continued.

"Shame on us. We are trying to make money by incarcerating our fellow humans."

Regional jails have to be built using local and private funds, but the state would have to pay a per diem for any of Mississippi's prisoners that end up being housed there.

The state pays nearly $30 per inmate per day plus medical expenses at the Medicaid rate to house prisoners at regional jails. Usually, the money at first is used by local governments to pay off the construction debt.

By April 2009, 1,500 additional beds will open in new regional jails in counties that have already gotten approval from the Legislature in previous sessions.

Five facilities and one extension costing more than $55 million are in the works, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps told The Clarion-Ledger in the recent past.

In all, with the new facilities that have already been approved, there will be about 4,600 beds in 16 regional facilities in Mississippi.

Other Corrections Committee bills passed this afternoon include:

- Senate Bill 2908, which would authorize the Corrections Department to contract with officials from Smith County for a maximum security regional correctional facility.

- Senate Bill 2136, which would allow some first-time drug offenders eligible for parole. A similar bill passed across the Capitol this week - House Bill

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080228/NEWS010504/
80228039

Posted by lois at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

CT: Education Falls Below Prisons In State Budget

Education Falls Below Prisons In State Budget
By Julie Wernau, The Day
Published on 2/29/2008
Connecticut is one of four states in the nation spending more money on its prison system than on higher education, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study released Thursday.

The study, “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008,” gets its name from the number of adult Americans currently incarcerated.

In Connecticut, taxpayers pay $1.03 toward prisons for every $1 spent on higher education. In the Northeast as a whole, from 1987 until the present, inflation-adjusted spending on higher education dropped 5.5 percent while prison spending rose 61 percent, according to the Pew findings.

“We didn't just wake up this morning and find ourselves here,” said Adam Gelb, project director for Pew's Public Safety Performance project. “This is a milestone that the nation has been approaching for a long time. Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers.”

The nationwide prison count has tripled since 1987, and the cost of imprisonment — about $86 per inmate per day in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Correction — has the potential to crowd out other pressing needs, said Susan Urahn, managing director for Pew Center on the States.

“States will need to make choices,” Urahn said. “Not necessarily between corrections and higher education, but between corrections and something.”

The Pew study found that public-safety initiatives like three-strikes laws, harsher sentencing laws and mandatory prison time for those who violate parole and probation, in addition to an aging prison population, have contributed to more Americans being incarcerated than at any other time in history.

“It's obviously troubling that our state is spending more locking people up than it is providing them with education,” said state Rep. Andrew M. Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the legislature's Education Committee.

Fleischmann believes that if more people had access to higher education, fewer of them would be in prison.

In Georgia — a state that spends 50 cents on its prisons for every $1 spent on higher education — a scholarship program called HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) provides free tuition and money for books to students with at least a 3.0 grade point average who are seeking a college degree from a Department of Technical and Adult Education or University System of Georgia institutions.

Fleischmann says that while Connecticut has an excellent university and community college system, the state needs to step up to make that education accessible.

The other three states spending more on prison than higher education are Vermont, Michigan and Oregon.

Nationwide, according to Pew, young black men are entering prison at an alarming rate. Approximately one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 is incarcerated, compared to one in 106 white men.

“I would be concerned if there were someone who was not disturbed by those numbers,” said Fleischmann.

Brian Garnett, spokesman for the state Department of Correction, pointed out that while Connecticut's prison-to-higher-education spending ratio was cited in the study, overall Connecticut was average in terms of its prison population growth and the percentage of state money spent on its prisons.

Garnett said since Commissioner Theresa Lantz took the helm in 2003, she has made re-entry programming a priority for Connecticut's prisons, doubling the number of halfway-house beds.

“Because they work,” Garnett said, pointing to a 24 percent recidivism rate for offenders who re-enter society through halfway houses, as opposed to a 47 percent rate for those who simply re-enter straight out of prison.

In Texas, the state decided that it would rather put the money needed to build eight new prisons into community programming for released inmates, according to the Pew study, and its prison population has now stabilized.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has said she has a similar outlook on prisons.

“Community release programs that are conducted under strict guidelines and conditions enhance public safety because offenders who re-enter society under parole supervision are far less likely to reoffend than those who are released without the benefit of a supervised release,” Rell said in a press release last month.

Fleischmann said the legislature is moving in the right direction toward spending more money on education and less on prisons.
http://www.theday.com/re_print.aspx?re=24da50f5-b377-4c4b-bafe-34f89da09542

Posted by lois at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2008

1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, Pew Study Says

February 28, 2008
1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says
By ADAM LIPTAK, NY Times

For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

The report, from the Pew Center on the States, also found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 are behind bars but that one in 100 black women are.

The report’s methodology differed from that used by the Justice Department, which calculates the incarceration rate by using the total population rather than the adult population as the denominator. Using the department’s methodology, about one in 130 Americans is behind bars.

Either way, said Susan Urahn, the center’s managing director, “we aren’t really getting the return in public safety from this level of incarceration.”

But Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah and a former federal judge, said the Pew report considered only half of the cost-benefit equation and overlooked the “very tangible benefits — lower crime rates.”

In the past 20 years, according the Federal Bureau of Investigation, violent crime rates fell by 25 percent, to 464 for every 100,000 people in 2007 from 612.5 in 1987.

“While we certainly want to be smart about who we put into prisons,” Professor Cassell said, “it would be a mistake to think that we can release any significant number of prisoners without increasing crime rates. One out of every 100 adults is behind bars because one out of every 100 adults has committed a serious criminal offense.”

Ms. Urahn said the nation cannot afford the incarceration rate documented in the report. “We tend to be a country in which incarceration is an easy response to crime,” she said. “Being tough on crime is an easy position to take, particularly if you have the money. And we did have the money in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

Now, with fewer resources available, the report said, “prison costs are blowing a hole in state budgets.” On average, states spend almost 7 percent on their budgets on corrections, trailing only healthcare, education and transportation.

In 2007, according to the National Association of State Budgeting Officers, states spent $44 billion in tax dollars on corrections. That is up from $10.6 billion in 1987, a 127 increase once adjusted for inflation. With money from bonds and the federal government included, total state spending on corrections last year was $49 billion. By 2011, the report said, states are on track to spend an additional $25 billion.

It cost an average of $23,876 dollars to imprison someone in 2005, the most recent year for which data were available. But state spending varies widely, from $45,000 a year in Rhode Island to $13,000 in Louisiana.

The cost of medical care is growing by 10 percent annually, the report said, and will accelerate as the prison population ages.

About one in nine state government employees works in corrections, and some states are finding it hard to fill those jobs. California spent more than $500 million on overtime alone in 2006.

The number of prisoners in California dropped by 4,000 last year, making Texas’s prison system the nation’s largest, at about 172,000. But the Texas legislature last year approved broad changes to the corrections system there, including expansions of drug treatment programs and drug courts and revisions to parole practices.

“Our violent offenders, we lock them up for a very long time — rapists, murderers, child molestors,” said John Whitmire, a Democratic state senator from Houston and the chairman of the state senate’s criminal justice committee. “The problem was that we weren’t smart about nonviolent offenders. The legislature finally caught up with the public.”

He gave an example.

“We have 5,500 D.W.I offenders in prison,” he said, including people caught driving under the influence who had not been in an accident. “They’re in the general population. As serious as drinking and driving is, we should segregate them and give them treatment.”

The Pew report recommended diverting nonviolent offenders away from prison and using punishments short of reincarceration for minor or technical violations of probation or parole. It also urged states to consider earlier release of some prisoners.

Before the recent changes in Texas, Mr. Whitmire said, “we were recycling nonviolent offenders.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28cnd-prison.html U.S. map at this URL
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf PDF of the Pew Report at this URL

Posted by lois at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

NY: Overhaul Prisons to Cut Costs

Overhaul prisons to cut costs
By ELIZABETH LYNAM
[ Elizabeth Lynam is deputy research director of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan nonprofit civic organization, http://www. cbcny.org.]

First published: Wednesday, February 27, 2008

With the economy slowing and increasingly uncertain, New York needs to find ways to reduce expenses without harming essential public services. The state already faces closing a projected budget gap of $5.1 billion in the coming fiscal year, and that gap has been adjusted upward once just since January.

One place where the state can extract such savings is in its prison system. New York simply does not need all 69 of its correctional facilities. Some of those facilities are now more than half-empty, particularly at the medium- and minimum-security level. Two new maximum-security facilities -- Upstate in Malone and Five Points in Romulus -- have eased demand for beds at that level. Once-overcrowded facilities are simply not anymore.

Overall, the state's inmate population has gone down by 9,000 since the peak in 1999, primarily because drug-related incarceration, which used to account for 35 percent of the incoming prisoners, now accounts for only 21 percent.

FACTS: All of this means that the way New York manages its correctional facilities can change. Unneeded facilities should be closed used for other purposes. The number of correctional officers can be reduced, too. State leaders have been exceedingly slow to respond to the trend. They have resisted closing even one facility, and, as a result, the number of correctional officers employed by the state has dropped by only 500, or less than 2 percent, while the prison population has dropped by 13 percent. Camp Pharsalia, a minimum-security work camp in South Plymouth in Chenango County, is a good example. Efforts by then-Gov. George Pataki to redirect the facility, which had been operating at partial capacity and is still only half-full, for another state purpose were beaten back by a combination of local and legislative resistance. The opposition stemmed in part from the fact that local employment at the facility would lapse for six months while it was overhauled for an alternative use.

The case exemplifies how intertwined the issues of prison closure and economic development have become in many communities in upstate New York. But the prison system should be built around correctional needs, not local employment.

Otherwise, unnecessarily high tax rates will continue to discourage the very employment that so many upstate communities need. New York state already has the highest combined state and local tax rate in the nation, and excessive state spending is part of the problem.

Running prisons is expensive, and, while underutilized facilities are kept open, funding for other needs goes unmet. The annual cost of keeping someone in the custody of the prison system including debt service and fringe benefits for employees is about $57,000 -- more than the cost of tuition, room and board at Cornell (now $48,200 for the College of Arts and Sciences). The annual operating cost of the whole prison system is $3.6 billion.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has courageously decided to take another run at the issue and with more than one facility. He has given the one-year closure notice for Hudson, Camp McGregor, Camp Pharsalia, and Camp Gabriels, and plans to shrink the system over several years by 1,316 beds. The operating savings from these closures when fully annualized in the financial plan are estimated to reach $34 million. Another $30 million of savings in capital costs will be generated in fiscal year 2010.

These plans are a good start, but even more can and should be done to better use the facilities. The Citizens Budget Commission estimates that New York can save nearly $300 million a year by fitting the size of the prison infrastructure to the population it serves. An additional $100 million a year could be had from developing more effective and appropriate alternatives to incarceration for drug offenders. What constituent groups around the state must realize, as they are lining up to protest the governor's proposals, is that as long as these jobs are being supported by the state in underused facilities, there is no ability to invest as much in other important areas including schools and real economic development -- the kind that brings private capital and jobs.

The governor has the right and the responsibility to run a prison system that meets the state's needs to safely provide for the inmates in custody with the appropriate number of correctional officers. The Legislature and the public need to support this concept, so that the real needs of these communities can be identified and addressed.

Elizabeth Lynam is deputy research director of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan nonprofit civic organization, http://www. cbcny.org.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=667147&category=OPINI
ON&newsdate=2/27/2008

Posted by lois at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2008

Californians United For A Responsible Budget -Brief Filed in Prison Overcrowding Lawsuit on Measures to Save Millions

February 27, 2008

Coalition Proposes Reductions in Prison Population
That Will Save the State Millions of Dollars

Brief Filed in Prison Overcrowding Lawsuit Advocates Measures
to Save Millions Without Affecting Public Safety

SAN FRANCISCO- Today Californians United For A Responsible Budget (CURB), a coalition of more than forty community organizations, filed an amicus brief in the prison overcrowding lawsuit being heard by a panel of three federal judges. In its brief CURB, whose constituent organizations represent those individuals and communities most directly impacted by public safety policies, asked the court to alleviate overcrowding by substantially reducing the number of people in State prisons.

"CURB opposes the State's response to overcrowding, its $15 billion prison construction program, AB900, because it simply expands a failed system without addressing the root causes of overcrowding, incurring huge costs with no demonstrable improvement in public safety," says Bob Lane of Critical Resistance, one of the CURB Member Organizations.

The Secretary of Corrections himself, James Tilton, admits the prisons are already "too big to manage." In addition to the enormous capital costs, the program irresponsibly commits the State to funding future staffing for additional prisons at a cost of more than $1.6 billion per year. "This massive program will continue the pattern of recent years by siphoning money from education, health care, and vital social services into prisons," continues Lane. To prevent the futile diversion of resources by AB 900, CURB asks the court to bar its implementation. Only then can the overcrowding crisis be genuinely addressed by pursuing a different approach.

Echoing a string of reports by State commissions and recommendations by State-appointed and funded experts -- reports and recommendations which the State has consistently ignored -- CURB advocates alleviating overcrowding by reducing the numbers of people in prison. Relying on these recommendations CURB asks the court to order the State to change its parole and sentencing policy, to fully fund Proposition 36's program of drug treatment instead of imprisonment, to release elderly persons from prison, and to provide housing and job assistance and health care to support those returning home from prison. These measures will bring with them significant cost savings, calculated by the experts to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

"Overcrowding violates the rights of those in prison while unnecessarily depriving their families and communities of their presence, all without making those communities safer," says Hamdiya Cooks of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, another member of the CURB coalition. "CURB's proposals give voice to those who have the most direct interest in changing the direction of the State's corrections policy. Without implementing the measures CURB proposes the State cannot adequately address prison overcrowding."

"The Governor's recent proposals for early release and changes in parole policy are steps in the right direction, but they do not go far enough to have a significant long term impact on the growing population of those in prison or on the burgeoning corrections budget," says Heidi Strupp of CURB member Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. "Overcrowding can only be alleviated by reducing the number of people in prison, coupled with the changes that CURB proposes, which will not only reduce the population but remove the pressures for future overcrowding."

Posted by lois at 07:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2008

Immigrants far less likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes

February 26, 2008
National Briefing | West
California: Study of Immigrants and Crime
By JULIA PRESTON, NY Times

Immigrants in the state, about 35 percent of adults, are far less likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes, according to a study by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group. Among men ages 18 to 40, the group most likely to commit crimes, native-born Americans were 10 times more likely than immigrants to be incarcerated for crimes in California prisons and jails. The study included both legal and illegal immigrants, without focusing separately on illegal immigrants. But it found that native-born American men ages 18 to 40 were at least eight times more likely to be imprisoned for crimes than Mexican immigrants in that age range who were not naturalized citizens — a group likely to have a high percentage of illegal immigrants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/us/26brfs-STUDYOFIMMIG_BRF.html?sq=California%20Crime%20and%20Immigration&st=nyt&scp=1&pagewanted=print

Posted by lois at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

Mrs. Johnnie Carr, 97, Is Dead. Civil Rights Leader

“Look back, but march forward,” Mrs. Carr urged the huge crowd of young people.

February 26, 2008
Johnnie Carr, 97, Is Dead; Was Active in Bus Boycott
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Johnnie Carr, an early civil rights activist who joined a childhood friend, Rosa Parks, in the historic Montgomery bus boycott and stayed involved in the movement up to her final days, died here on Friday. She was 97.

Her death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for Baptist Medical Center South, where she had been hospitalized after a stroke on Feb. 11.

Mrs. Carr succeeded the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1967, a post she held at her death. It was that group that led the boycott of city buses in 1955 after Mrs. Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to whites on a crowded bus.

A year later, the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation on public transportation.

Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, praised Mrs. Carr’s commitment to the civil rights cause. “I think ultimately, when the final history books are written,” Mr. Dees said, “she’ll be one of the few people remembered for that terrific movement.”

As the civic group’s president, Mrs. Carr helped lead several initiatives to improve race relations and conditions for blacks. She was involved in a lawsuit to desegregate Montgomery schools, with her son, Arlam Jr., then 13, the named plaintiff.

In addition to her son, Arlam, Mrs. Carr is survived by two daughters, Annie Bell Beasley and Alma Lee Smith, The Montgomery Advertiser reported.

Mrs. Carr played a prominent role in 2005 on the 50th anniversary of Mrs. Parks’s refusal to give up her bus seat, speaking to thousands of schoolchildren who marched to the Alabama Capitol.

“Look back, but march forward,” Mrs. Carr urged the huge crowd of young people.

She also traveled to memorial services in Washington, where her eulogy for Mrs. Parks was “really the most dynamic” moment, recalled Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Just days before her stroke, Mrs. Carr participated in King Day ceremonies in Montgomery, speaking after a parade. Admirers marveled at her energy and commitment into her 90s.

In recent decades, civil rights landmarks, including the site where Mrs. Parks, who died in 2005, was arrested, have become historic points of interest for tourists.

“When we first started, we weren’t thinking about history,” Mrs. Carr told The Associated Press in an interview in 2003. “We were thinking about the conditions and the discrimination.”

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

February 25, 2008

NYPD in the Subways. An interactive map of racial profiling

NYPD in the Subways. An interactive map. Check out the racial breakdown of people stopped and charged while riding the subways in NYC

http://www.nydailynews.com/features/maps/subways_nypd/

Posted by lois at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2008

TN: CCA to Build 8th Private Prison

Tenn.: New Private Prison Opening
CCA to Add 8th Private Prison in Tennessee
February 22, 2008: 12:40 PM EST
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Corrections Corporation of America on Friday announced plans to build its eighth private prison facility in Tennessee.
The Nashville-based company said the $143 million facility will hold more than 2,000 prisoners and create 350 new jobs.
The company said it is still in "final negotiations" with Trousdale County, but plans to begin construction this summer on the 108-acre site in Hartsville, about 40 miles northeast of Nashville.
The Trousdale Correctional Center is then expected to be completed within 18 months.
While no main customer for the prison has been finalized, the company plans to offer to hold prisoners from Tennessee, the federal government or other states with prison space shortages.
Company and state officials touted the new prison as an economic development opportunity.
"With this new endeavor, CCA brings enhanced economic vitality to northern Middle Tennessee through purposeful careers and millions of dollars in salaries, benefits and tax revenue," John Ferguson, the company's president and chief executive, said in a release.
The company currently employs nearly 2,000 people in Tennessee.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/afbf6a02373ce7eabbf72886
f786d145.htm

Posted by lois at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2008

Minors in the Big House

Minors in the Big House
Te-Ping Chen
The Nation
January 28, 2008

First, she felt shock. When Oluwaseun Animashaun, of Providence, Rhode Island, learned that her state was planning to try 17-year-olds as adults, she couldn't believe it.

She thought of her younger brother, struggling to get an education in a city where, according to The Washington Post, less than half of students ever graduate high school. She thought of people she knew at school, people growing up in neighborhoods where over a third of families live below the poverty line.

She felt incredulity--and then anger. And now they want to throw us in jail?

Though geographically, Rhode Island is a tiny fragment of a state tucked just under Massachusetts' sleeve, the state--and particularly its capital, Providence--is a microcosm for many of the issues facing the rest of the United States. Rising levels of child poverty. Deepening inequalities. Manufacturing jobs that have disappeared, leaving a vacuum of opportunities for those with little education.

And, increasingly, the mounting challenge of supporting a prison population that continues to expand with alarming speed. Since 1976, with the rise of a "get-tough" stance on crime, Rhode Island's prison population has ballooned by 457 percent.

This summer, with a $300-million budget deficit forcing Rhode Island to cut state spending, lawmakers trained their sights squarely on one group: arrested youth. It costs $98,000 per year to detain a youth at the state's juvenile detention center, which provides counseling, education and rehabilitative services. By contrast, it costs $39,000 a year to lock someone up at Rhode Island's adult prison. To lawmakers, sweeping 17-year-olds into state prison seemed an easy way to shave off dollars from the state budget.

They hadn't reckoned, however, on youth like Animashaun. Or on how misguided the policy would ultimately prove to be.

Locking Up the Future

The nationwide movement to try youth as adults took off in the wake of the 1989 Central Park jogger case, a grisly incident in which five teens raped a 29-year-old woman and left her for dead. "People started fearing the onslaught of a new generation of 'superpredators'," says Liz Ryan, who directs the Campaign for Youth Justice. Particularly with the teen arrest rate for murder on the rise at the time, the case scattered panic: between 1992 and 1995 alone, 40 states passed laws making it easier to try juveniles as adults.

In fact, the predicted surge in youth violence never materialized. Amid economic growth from 1994-2005, violent youth crime actually dropped by 46 percent, according to a National Juvenile Justice Network report (PDF). And while the topic of juvenile crime continues to conjure up lurid images of youth violence or sensational accounts of gangs, in places like Connecticut fully 96 percent of youth are arrested on nonviolent charges (e.g., drugs, theft).

Nevertheless, trying youth in adult criminal court remains more common than ever. Ten states automatically transfer 17-year-olds into the adult system for all criminal offenses, three others do the same for 16-year-olds, and a Campaign For Youth Justice report (PDF) reveals that in 40 states, children as young as 14 are considered competent enough to stand adult trial. Every year, an estimated 200,000 youth enter the adult criminal justice system under state laws that automatically define them as adults, either because of their age or offense.

Meanwhile, every day roughly 7,500 youth are incarcerated in adult prison, sometimes for the most minor of offenses. Take, for example, the Wisconsin case of one 17-year-old girl sentenced to over two months in adult jail for stealing a neighbor's bicycle. Or the Florida case of a 17-year-old boy, likewise incarcerated in an adult facility after stealing a classmate's gym clothes.

Jail is a "terrible, terrible" place, says Ryan. And this is especially true if you are only 16 or 17 years old: incarcerated youths are among the most vulnerable of inmates, both physically and psychologically. In 2005, though youth accounted for only 1 percent of inmates, they made up 21 percent of all inmate-on-inmate sexual assault cases. And youth locked in adult prisons are a staggering 36 times more likely to commit suicide than those incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities.

While some facilities--for example, in Washington, D.C.--try to protect youth by locking them in secluded cells for up to over 23 hours a day, such isolation can prove traumatizing, particularly for youth with mental or emotional problems. According to one mother whose child was transferred to solitary confinement, such a life eventually drove her son, Kirk, to kill himself. "[We] did our best to support Kirk," she told the Campaign for Youth Justice in a recent interview. "Together we never missed a phone call or visit." But shortly after Christmas in 2005, Kirk was found dead--hanging by a blanket from the cell's smoke detector.

Psychological Costs

Even for youth who manage to escape a prison sentence, says Jametta Alston, Rhode Island's Child Advocate, being tried as an adult has "horrible repercussions." A conviction in adult court leads to a permanent record, one that can bar youth from employment for years to come. "Unfortunately under these laws for youth, a little mistake can become a big one," says Alston.

Meanwhile, well over a decade after states first began trying youth as adults, today, a significant body of evidence suggests that sending youth to adult prison may actually encourage youth to commit more crimes--making them far more apt to re-offend upon release.

As Brown University's Director of Child Psychology Gregory Fritz notes, adolescents are not only more impulsive and aggressive than their adult counterparts, but their brains are also more "malleable." So while proponents of harsher youth penalties argue they will deter future criminals, in fact, says Fritz, locking up easily influenced youth alongside adults may be more like "enrolling them in a graduate course in criminality."

The research appears to substantiate such fears. A recent report convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that laws supporting the incarceration of youth in adult prisons encourage higher rates of recidivism among youth, particularly violent recidivism.

By contrast, ACLU studies (PDF) estimate successfully rehabilitating youth can save lives and state dollars--up to $1,470 per youth.

While laws need to "hold people accountable," says Shay Bilchik, the head of Georgetown University's Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, they also need to recognize that youth are still developing. "At the time we were passing the laws, no one had a crystal ball," says Bilchik, a former Florida prosecutor and previous proponent of harsher youth penalties. "Knowing what we do now, says Bilchik, it's time for reform."

These days, voters are overwhelmingly endorsing a similar view. A December 2007 poll found 80 percent of Americans support redirecting funds spent on incarceration to programs aimed at supporting youth development.

Meanwhile across the nation, states are reconsidering and revising the harsh laws that continue to leave thousands of youth behind bars. In 2006, Colorado eliminated the state's juvenile life-without-parole sentence. The New York Times reported that last year Connecticut, which previously tried all 17-year-olds as adults, revised its law upward to age 18. Similar moves are being explored in California, Michigan and Illinois, among other states. Advocates are additionally pushing for tighter federal protections of youth in the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, currently up for renewal in Congress.

Change is Possible

Yet this year, even as states across the nation were turning away from harsher youth sentencing laws, Rhode Island was moving to embrace them. Not to punish youth, but to cut costs. Legislators speculated sending 17-year-olds into adult prison (which provides less rehabilitative services than juvenile detention facilities) would save $3.6 million for the state.

According to mother and sentencing reform organizer Sheila Wilhelm, of Providence, whose 29-year-old son was recently released from prison, such a move wasn't surprising. When push comes to budget crunch, says Wilhelm, "it's easy for lawmakers to mistreat the most vulnerable people: the children and the poor."

Like most places nationwide, in Rhode Island, youth of color disproportionately suffer from harsher youth penalties. Blacks and Hispanics make up only 17 percent of Rhode Island's population, but constitute fully 81 percent of all arrested youth. (Nationwide, while black youth represent 64 percent of all juveniles arrested for felony drug offenses, they make up 76 percent of all such cases transferred to adult court.)

"It's up to the point I can't stand it anymore," says Animashaun, the 17-year-old daughter of Nigerian immigrants. "The government should be giving us tools to develop our lives, not lock us up. Why are we defining youth's lives with dollar signs?"

This June, Animashaun and other Providence youth began protesting the law with the backing of groups such as Youth in Action, Youth Pride, Inc., Providence Student Youth Movement (PRYSM), RI Kids Count, the ACLU, the Family Life Center, and Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE). They hosted a youth lobby day, a city forum, and turned out en masse for a series of press conferences and rallies.

Sympathetic legislators, including Rep. David Segal (D-Providence), joined the outcry. "Children can't vote, but we can throw them into jail?" says Segal. "It's an absurdity."

Advocates won their victory this November after, in the heat of reexamining the law, legislators discovered that trying all 17-year-olds as adults would actually end up costing the state dollars. While legislators had assumed it would cost $39,000 a year to incarcerate a youth in state prison--the average cost for a state inmate--because Rhode Island's prison protects youth by housing them in maximum security, the per-youth cost is actually $100,000 a year. Chagrined, lawmakers repealed the law (though 500 youth's cases are still being heard in adult court, pending settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Rhode Island Office of the Public Defender).

Looking back, says Animashaun, the campaign wasn't always easy. "Our education is not the best," says Animashaun. "We're not exposed to systems or government, so many of us just didn't know how to voice our anger."

But for the youth who became involved, it was transformative. "Before, I would say I never really believed in change," says Jasmin Woodbury, a 17-year-old member of DARE active in the campaign. "But once you set your mind to it, and set a goal and strategy, it can really happen."

"So many times when issues happen we don't find out until way after there's nothing we can do," says Woodbury. "We wanted to show that youth are there to stand up for themselves."

Originally from Oakland, California, Te-Ping Chen is a December 2007 graduate from Brown University. She currently lives in Washington, D.C.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080218/minors
Links to the organizations and papers mentioned in this article can be found by the URL above.

Posted by lois at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

CT: Training School Reversal

he most glaring hole in the juvenile detention system is the lack of facilities for girls. Long Lane has been closed for five years, and there has been little progress in helping female offenders under DCF care. Many are sent to York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic for lack of a more appropriate setting. Others are sent to states as far away as Utah and Iowa, where they are isolated from their families. This is a tacit admission that the state is giving up on girls at a critical time in their development. Girls can't wait years for the DCF to fulfill plans for a new facility.

Training School Reversal
February 15, 2008
Hartford Courant
No doubt about it, the Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown is a prison. No school that we know of has high-security fencing, fortress-like windows and unwelcoming steel doors.

For those who may have forgotten its genesis, the $57 million building that replaced the Long Lane School was supposed to help rehabilitate troubled boys. Instead it became a symbol of the corruption in the Rowland administration and an icon of poor planning by the state Department of Children and Families, which is responsible for young offenders. Its operation has been the subject of repeated investigations and scathing criticism by the state's attorney general and child advocate.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell was so fed up with worsening conditions there that she vowed to close the place in favor of smaller, community-based facilities where children would get counseling, schooling and other needs closer to home. Now, equally fed up with the lack of progress on alternatives, she wants to retool the facility and double the number of beds there to its capacity of 220.

The governor's catalyst is a pending surge in juvenile offenders that will result from a new law passed in June. As of 2010, the state will no longer treat 16- and 17-year-old offenders as adults unless they have committed certain violent crimes, such as murder or rape.

She's right that the state must plan now to accommodate the change, which is a good one. She complains that the legislative leadership has failed to act in favor of smaller treatment centers. Until it does, the Connecticut Juvenile Training School will have to do.

Certainly, creating smaller communities inside the training school and separating older from younger offenders is preferable to sending young people to adult prisons, where they have a greater chance of becoming hardened criminals. Perhaps the governor's request for $8 million to make room for more juveniles in the Connecticut Juvenile Training School would be acceptable with the right programs in place.

The most glaring hole in the juvenile detention system is the lack of facilities for girls. Long Lane has been closed for five years, and there has been little progress in helping female offenders under DCF care. Many are sent to York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic for lack of a more appropriate setting. Others are sent to states as far away as Utah and Iowa, where they are isolated from their families. This is a tacit admission that the state is giving up on girls at a critical time in their development. Girls can't wait years for the DCF to fulfill plans for a new facility.

Weaving older offenders into the current system requires planning. The goal is to help teenagers headed in the wrong direction get a second chance. So far, the state is not succeeding all that well. Up to half the youths released from the school eventually return.

While the state works out a better strategy, the Juvenile Training School will have to take in more children. But this isn't ideal.

Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant
courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-juvyschool.artfeb15,0,2886369.story
Courant.com

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

February 22, 2008

VA: Senate Agrees to Re-entry Bill & Bill Moves to the House

“How much more do you need to know to move to say that housing, employment and medical care assistance is needed for those who re-enter society?” Branch-Kennedy said.

Senate OKs Inmate Rehabilitation Bill
By Alexander Harris
February 4, 2008

RICHMOND – The Senate on Monday unanimously approved a bill that mandates the creation of a plan to help every Virginia prison inmate re-enter society.

Senate Bill 200 directs the Virginia Department of Corrections to develop a society re-entry plan for every new inmate as soon as possible from the date of incarceration.

The plan would allow inmates to complete drug rehabilitation programs, vocational training and college courses in preparation for their productive return to society, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Linda “Toddy” Puller, R-Mount Vernon.

“They need to start some sort of program on every prisoner and get them ready for what they do when they get out, so they do not commit more crimes,” Puller said.

Senators passed SB 200 on a 40-0 vote. It now goes to the House for consideration.

Puller said the bill is the product of a joint legal commission to study prisoner re-entry that she has chaired for the last three years.

“The goal of the commission is to do certain things to make people able to get out and not do the actions that would have them come back to jail,” Puller said.

The bill is also part of the legislative package supported by Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell.

J. Tucker Martin, McDonnell’s communications director, said the goal is to keep people from returning to prison after being released. According to data from the Department of Corrections, nearly one-third of released inmates return to prison within three years of their release.

“I think that we’ve seen a need for a structured re-entry into society for prisoners,” Martin said. “Too often we find inmates leave prison with no plan and no hope, so they return to crime.”

One former inmate, who calls himself Universal L.I.F.E. Allah, said most prisoners are not properly prepared to re-enter society.

“From what I’ve seen from the time I was incarcerated … there is no true rehabilitation taking place,” Universal said.

Universal served 12 years in various correctional facilities; he was released last summer from Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells. While in prison, Universal received job training in residential electrical wiring and took correspondence courses. Now that he has been released, Universal plans to finish his business degree at Virginia Commonwealth University and enter an electrical apprenticeship.

“Those who want rehabilitation have to take the initiative and apply themselves to those programs,” Universal said.

A local advocacy group, Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged, assists prisoners who want to take the initiative to find educational courses and receive vocational training. The group also provides inmates with information on how to apply for benefits they may be entitled to, and where to find legal help.
The director of RIHD, Lillie Branch-Kennedy, also said that re-entry planning is the key to reducing recidivism.

“Today’s prisoners are tomorrow’s neighbors, and we need to get to them from the beginning … when they bring them down there and have them locked down 23 hours with little to no education or rehabilitation,” Branch-Kennedy said.

Under the current laws, the Department of Corrections does not begin re-entry planning for most inmates until 90 days prior to their release.

“I said that I wanted to better myself, period. I knew one day that I would be released; if I didn’t do it, no one would do it for me,” Universal said.

Both Universal and Branch-Kennedy agree that inmates are not made aware of and encouraged to enter programs enough. They said many inmates come out of prison homeless and unemployed.

“How much more do you need to know to move to say that housing, employment and medical care assistance is needed for those who re-enter society?” Branch-Kennedy said.

The bill does not address the issues of housing, employment and medical care of released inmates, but it does include a provision for mentor pairing when possible. It directs the Department of Correction to coordinate with private organizations and government agencies to set up programs.

Posted by lois at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2008

CCA VP nominated by Bush Adm. to be Federal Trial Court Judge

Gus Puryear is the General Counsel & Executive VP of CCA nominated by Bush Administration to be federal trial court judge

Meet Bush's Prison Nominee
News: Tennessee's next trial court judge might be a prison company
executive who has less courtroom experience than most inmates.

By Stephanie Mencimer
February 20, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/02/jailhouse-
justice.html

In October 2000, Dick Cheney faced off for a debate with Connecticut
Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The 60-year-old Cheney appeared comfortable
discussing the ins and outs of policy and made good-natured jokes
about Lieberman's singing abilities, or lack thereof. Cheney's smooth
performance reflected his many years in public service. But the
aspiring vice president also had a strong debate-preparation team
made up of longtime friends and GOP loyalists. Among them was
Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV, a legislative director for Tennessee
senator Bill Frist, who was on contract with the Bush/Cheney
campaign. Puryear apparently did such a good job prepping Cheney that
he was called in again in 2004 to help him gear up for his debate
with Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards.

Puryear's efforts on behalf of the Bush administration paid off last
June when the president nominated him to be a federal trial court
judge for the Middle District of Tennessee. Puryear certainly isn't
the first judicial nominee selected primarily for his political
service, but still, his resume is remarkably thin on the practice of
law, a basic prerequisite even for the best-connected political hacks.

Puryear got his start in politics in the mid-1990s working as counsel
to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, then chaired by Fred
Thompson, as it investigated the Clinton fundraising scandals. From
there he went to work for Frist. Beyond a brief stint in private
practice for a corporate law firm when he was fresh out of law
school, Puryear has spent more time inside an executive suite than a
courtroom. And it's that corporate work that makes him an especially
questionable candidate for the federal bench.

Puryear was in Washington last week for his confirmation hearing
before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Senators Arlen Specter
(D.-Pa,) and Dianne Feinstein (D.-Ca.) both put his resume under a
microscope, noting his conspicuous lack of trial experience. At one
point Specter asked him point blank, "How many cases have you
actually tried?" To which Puryear answered: Two. Indeed, according to
his written questionnaire for the committee, of the two cases he has
tried in the entirety of his legal career, he was lead counsel on one
of them. The last time he litigated a case in federal court was more
than a decade ago.

Puryear has spent the bulk of his legal career at the Tennessee-based
Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest private
prison company. As its general counsel since 2001, Puryear has made
millions of dollars working for a company that profits from the
country's incarceration boom, particularly through his recent sale of
more than $3 million worth of the company's stock. (His financial
disclosure form shows a net worth of more than $13 million.) His
employer creates enormous conflicts for Puryear as a potential
federal judge, as the CCA gets sued all the time, often in the very
district where he hopes to preside as judge. Since 2000, roughly 260
cases have been filed in that court against the CCA, its officers,
and subsidiaries.

In addition, Puryear's current job involves overseeing the CCA's
defense against inmate litigation, a prison staple that he has
publicly dismissed as a nuisance, even though such litigation has led
to significant verdicts and settlements against the company. For
instance, in 2000, a South Carolina jury hit the CCA with a $3
million verdict for abusing juveniles. Other successful suits have
alleged that the company's employees abused inmates and provided
negligent medical care. Yet in a quote he no doubt now regrets, in
2004 Puryear said that, "Litigation is an outlet for inmates. It's
something they can do in their spare time." Inmate lawsuits typically
account for more than 10 percent of the docket in Tennessee's Middle
District, meaning that Puryear will see his share of them if he gets
confirmed.

During his confirmation hearing last week, Puryear told the committee
that he would recuse himself from any cases involving the CCA—at
least, he said, for some time after he's divested all of his stock in
the company. He dismissed concerns about his conflict of interest by
noting that the CCA cases make up a small part of the court's
workload and that his recusals would not create problems for the
other judges. But his promises to recuse still don't get to the heart
of a fundamental conflict: To the CCA, inmates are a revenue stream
warehoused at the cheapest price. This not exactly the view of the
criminal justice system you want from a judge if you are a defendant.

A trial court judge in Tennessee's Middle District can expect to
handle more than 60 criminal cases a year. Every person Puryear sends
to prison is a potential money-maker for his former employer, which
contracts with the federal government to manage 15 detention
facilities, and also holds federal prisoners in other CCA
institutions that house state and local prisoners when the need
arises, according to Steve Owen, the company's director of marketing
and communications. The number of inmates coming from Tennessee may
be relatively small, but still, it seems fair to ask whether
Puryear's conflict of interest runs so deep that he might have to
recuse himself from criminal cases entirely.

Thus far, Puryear has largely escaped media scrutiny, as the activist
groups that monitor the federal courts tend to focus mostly on
appellate courts and the occasional Supreme Court battle rather than
on trial court nominees. Puryear's CV also doesn't signal fights on
many of the hot-button social issues that usually set off a
confirmation battle. He doesn't sound—or look—like Robert Bork. He's
young, patrician, a model member of the exclusive Belle Meade Country
Club, and director of the Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville. But
for his deep voice he could be Niles on "Frasier." Nonetheless,
Puryear might be in for an unexpected fight, due in part to his
decision to publicly dis jailhouse lawyers.

Alex Friedmann was one of those jailhouse lawyers. He spent six years
inside one of the CCA's prisons in Tennessee for attempted murder and
armed robbery. Friedmann actually sued the CCA while incarcerated for
retaliating against him for his comments to a reporter for The
Nation. Representing himself, he took another case all the way to a
jury trial, where he mostly lost, though he won a default judgment
against a former unit manager. He also appealed a different case
against the state, over censorship, that went all the way to the
Sixth Circuit court of appeals where he won. "In that regard, I'm
more qualified than [Puryear] is," he observes, noting that Puryear
isn't even admitted to practice in the Sixth Circuit.

Now out of prison nine years, Friedmann is an editor for Prison Legal
News, which is how he first learned about Puryear's nomination. After
doing a little checking on him, Friedmann ran across Puryear's quote
about inmate litigation, which didn't sit too well with him, and he
set out to torpedo Puryear's nomination. As a former CCA inmate and a
board member of a Florida nonprofit group that opposes prison
privatization, Friedmann readily admits that he's not a disinterested
party in the nomination battle. Nonetheless, his political instincts
are sound. He is cobbling together a coalition to oppose Puryear's
nomination, including the American Federal State and Municipal
Employees Union, which opposes private prisons for their anti-labor
positions. Friedmann's currently at work trying to enlist the real
powerhouse of liberal judicial activists to join the coalition:
women's groups.

Friedmann has compiled stats from the federal court docket on the
CCA's lawsuit history in order to highlight the potential conflicts
of interest Puryear might face, and he picked apart Puryear's resume
and his responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee's questions last
week. For instance, when pressed on his view of criminal defendants
and prison inmates, Puryear pointed to his service as a commissioner
on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. Skeptical,
Friedmann checked out Puryear's attendance record with the
commission. He says the commission held eight public hearings between
2005 and 2007—and Puryear missed at least four of them. "If the
gentleman does have a genuine concern about inmates, why did he miss
half the meetings?" he asks.

Friedmann is also raising significant questions about Puryear's
response to questions about the death of a female inmate at the CCA's
facility in Nashville. The medical examiner ruled that 34-year-old
Estelle Richardson was beaten to death while in the company's
custody. She suffered a skull fracture, broken ribs, and liver
damage. Prosecutors indicted four CCA guards in 2005, but later
dropped the charges after being unable to determine the time of
death. So far, no one has been held responsible for Richardson's
death, although the CCA settled a private lawsuit filed by her family.

When Sen. Feinstein asked Puryear about the case, Puryear disputed
the medical examiner's findings and claimed that Richardson's death
might not have been a homicide at all. He suggested that the broken
ribs and liver injury may have been caused by CPR. It's "common" for
people to suffer such injuries from CPR, Puryear said, to which a
dumbfounded Feinstein exclaimed, "Common?" Apparently not satisfied
with Puryear's answers, Feinstein asked him to provide the committee
with further written information about the case.

Meanwhile, after the hearing, Friedmann called the Tennessee medical
examiner who worked the case, who he says reaffirmed the original
finding that Robinson's death was a homicide and that there was
nothing to suggest her injuries were caused by resuscitation efforts.
Friedmann also spoke with the lawyers who represented Richardson's
family and he says that they told him that the CCA never raised CPR
injuries as a defense in the litigation. Puryear's comments to the
committee, says Freidmann, are "not supported by the medical record,"
which makes him skeptical about Puryear's judgment as a lawyer—and
his credibility.

Friedmann seems to recognize that prison inmates are not the stuff of
judicial confirmation fights, so he has also homed in on another
issue that might provide more traction, not to mention the interest
of powerful women's groups: Puryear's country club.

The tony Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville is so exclusive that
you have to be a member just to access its website. It didn’t admit a
single black member until 1994, a racist history so potent that even
Puryear's mentor, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, quit the
club in 1993 when he first ran for office. While Belle Meade admits
women, Friedmann has heard that it still won't give "lady members"
voting rights. (Troy Cunningham, the controller of the club for the
past 17 years, wouldn’t respond to questions about women's voting
rights, saying that "all questions flow through the members," meaning
that someone will have to put the question to Puryear himself.) But
if Friedmann can stir up controversy over Puryear's country club
membership, he might actually have a shot at scuttling his nomination.

Stephanie Mencimer is a reporter in Mother Jones' Washington, D.C.,
bureau and the author of Blocking the Courthouse Door: How the
Republican Party and Its Corporate Allies Are Taking Away Your Right
to Sue (Free Press, 2006).

Ex-Inmate Crusades Against Judge Nominee

By TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press
Feb. 21, 2008, 2:33AM http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5558158.html

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A private prison company executive nominated to
become a federal judge has run into a determined opponent _ a former
inmate.

President Bush in June nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, chief lawyer
with Corrections Corporation of America, to become a U.S. district
judge in Nashville.

That led Alex Friedmann, who spent six years at the company's prison
in Clifton, Tenn., to investigate Puryear's qualifications. He looked
up every case where Puryear was listed on the docket as counsel.

The prisoner-turned-inmate advocate found only five instances where
Puryear was the attorney of record. By his count and Puryear's, the
judicial nominee has been involved in only two federal court trials
during his career.

That's just one more case than Friedmann himself has handled in
federal court.

Convinced that the well-connected Puryear was unqualified to be a
federal judge and might face a conflict of interest overseeing
litigation involving his former employer, Friedmann began a public
relations campaign against the nomination that led all the way to the
Senate.

He formed the group Tennesseans Against Puryear and enlisted the help
of the liberal Washington-based Alliance for Justice and the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, both of which
sent letters opposing the appointment.

Puryear, a 1993 graduate of the University of North Carolina law
school, didn't respond to several phone and e-mail requests left at
his home and office for an interview with The Associated Press.

At a Feb. 12 hearing of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Diane
Feinstein, D-Calif., questioned Puryear about several issues
originally raised by Friedmann and the nonprofit Private Corrections
Institute, a group opposing private prisons that Friedmann helps run.

Puryear told the Senate committee he already was selling off his
stock in the company, according to reports in The Tennessean
newspaper. He owned CCA shares valued at just under $1.3 million as
of Feb. 1, according to Lionshares.com, an online database of stock
ownership. He also pledged to recuse himself from cases involving CCA
even after he no longer holds a financial interest.

The committee also questioned Puryear about whether the volume of
lawsuits against Nashville-based CCA _ the nation's largest for-
profit private prison company _ would burden other judges who would
have to hear the cases when Puryear recused himself. Puryear said it
would not be a significant burden.

Friedmann's campaign against Puryear continues. He plans to send a
letter to the Committee on the Judiciary pointing out what he
contends are inaccuracies in Puryear's answers.

The two men have never met. Although Friedmann learned of the
nomination because he keeps tabs on CCA, he insists his crusade is
based on Puryear's lack of qualification and not because he's a CCA
executive.

Friedmann sued CCA and several employees in 1996 while incarcerated
for six years for armed robbery. Serving as his own lawyer, Friedmann
eventually won a $6,000 judgment against a former prison unit manager
for a civil rights violation.

Puryear's legal resume includes significant political work _ serving
as counsel to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and junior
counsel during the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
investigation of campaign finance abuse led by former Sen. Fred
Thompson. He also was a debate adviser for Dick Cheney in 2000.

Stefanie Lindquist, an associate professor of political science and
law at Vanderbilt University, said courtroom experience is good but
not essential for federal judge nominees.

She sees more significance in the American Bar Association rating of
Puryear as "qualified," instead of "well qualified" to be a judge. "A
`qualified' rating is relatively weak. That's going to hurt him,"
Lindquist said.

Lindquist said Friedmann's efforts are unusual for even temporarily
disrupting what should be a routine confirmation. There are about 180
Bush nominations pending as the administration and Democratic-
controlled Senate tangle over some sharply contested nominees.

Of the Puryear nomination, Lindquist said: "If there are other, more
controversial nominees, this might slide through as a compromise."

On the Net:

Tennesseans Against Gus Puryear: http://www.againstpuryear.org

Posted by lois at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

MA: Shift in crack sentencing rules begins to free prisoners

US shift may free up to 30 inmates
Judges here trim prison time for crack convictions

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | February 21, 2008

Federal judges in Massachusetts have begun ordering the release of prisoners convicted of crack cocaine offenses, responding to a government decision to retroactively reduce the harsh penalties for using and selling that particular form of the drug. Up to 30 could be affected.

Since Feb. 6, judges have reduced by 15 to 33 months the sentences of at least three Massachusetts inmates imprisoned for crack offenses. As a result, two who have already exceeded the shortened sentences will be freed March 3, the first day prisoners are eligible for lightened punishments for crack-related crimes. A third is expected to be released in June.

In one case, US District Judge William G. Young criticized the US Sentencing Commission for failing to implement the new sentencing structure right away when it voted on Dec. 11 to make the lessened penalties retroactive for some 19,500 federal prisoners nationwide.

"The failure of the Commission immediately to implement its solution to the 'fundamental unfairness' in the way crack cocaine offenders were treated under the previous version of the guidelines . . . virtually guarantees that some defendants . . . will spend more time in prison than they should have," Young wrote Tuesday.

Young said one convicted crack dealer, Carlos Gagot, would be finished with his sentence as a result of a 33-month reduction at the request of the defense and government. But the judge said he was pow erless to free Gagot immediately. Still, Gagot "ought not spend one more day in prison than necessary" and should be freed March 3, Young wrote.

Miriam Conrad - head of the federal public defender agency in Boston, which represented the three defendants whose releases have been ordered - said her office has come up with a list of at least 27 other inmates who may be eligible for sentence reductions.

"I'm getting letters from prisoners on a daily basis," she said.

An analysis by the US Sentencing Commission, which voted unanimously Dec. 11 to lighten punishments retroactively for some crack offenses, said 91 prisoners convicted in federal courts in Massachusetts will be eligible through 2012 to seek reductions of sentences imposed for selling or possessing crack. But Conrad said she believes the number could be much higher than 91.

Christina DiIorio-Sterling - a spokeswoman for US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, whose office agreed to all three sentence reductions - said many factors will determine how prosecutors treat such applications.

"In general, there will be some offenders for whom early release may be appropriate, given the reduction in sentencing as mandated by the changes in the guidelines," she said.

Advocates for such offenders were buoyed by the first reductions in sentences to take place as a result of the government's effort to reduce the stark disparity between punishments for crimes involving crack cocaine and those involving cocaine powder.

"Everyone knew for years that the crack guidelines were just obscenely inflated, compared to powder cocaine," said Page Kelley, the federal defender who represented Gagot, "so this is a very belated and meager correction of those guidelines."

US District Judge Nancy Gertner, who ordered yesterday that Fernando Morales be released March 3 for the time he has served on a crack-dealing conviction, said in an interview that federal judges across the country have long decried the disparity between penalties for crack cocaine and powder cocaine.

"It was right to change it, and it should be changed even further," she said.

The third prisoner whose release has been ordered is Deborah Woodard. Young reduced her sentence from 135 to 120 months, making her eligible for release in June.

A bill pushed through Congress in the national frenzy following the 1986 death of Len Bias, a first-round National Basketball Association draft pick for the Celtics whose death was initially linked to crack cocaine, imposed extreme mandatory penalties for crack.

Under the law, someone caught with 1 gram of crack received the same sentence as someone with 100 grams of powder cocaine. It also imposed a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison for dealing 5 grams of crack and 10 years in prison for dealing 50 grams of crack.

Advocates of the two-tier penalty system said crack was cheaper and more addictive than powder cocaine and was more frequently linked to violent crime. But critics said that those differences were overstated and that blacks bore the brunt of the inequity, because they account for at least 80 percent of federal crack defendants.

The Sentencing Commission reduced the sentencing range for crack cocaine offenses by two levels last year, lowering the maximum recommended sentence for selling 5 grams of cocaine from 78 months to 63 months.

Nonetheless, prison terms for crack cocaine are still longer than those for powder cocaine, because only Congress can change the 100-to-1 ratio and mandatory minimum sentences.

Mary Price of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, an advocacy group, said she has heard of judges in other states issuing orders similar to those in Massachusetts.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.

Posted by lois at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2008

New Orleans: Demoliton begins on jail destroyed during Hurricane Katrina

"The Justice Facilities Master Plan released last September called for the Sheriff's Office to get back to its pre-Katrina size of more than 6,000 beds by 2015. One part of the plan envisioned as many as 8,000 beds, up considerably from the current 2,600 beds. But Gusman said that is not his intention. "We don't want to have a bigger jail," Gusman said. The Sheriff's Office currently plans to mothball the much-criticized House of Detention, which holds more than 800 inmates in sometimes cramped quarters, once the new jail building is finished, said Renee Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for the agency. That plan is conditioned on the city finishing work at Old Parish Prison, a jail building right behind Criminal District Court, she said. The planning for the new jail still has some work, Lapeyrolerie said. It is expected to be completed by 2011."

Demolition on prison buildings under way
by Valerie Faciane, The Times-Picayune
Monday February 18, 2008, 8:03 AM

Demolition began Monday on three jail buildings damaged by Hurricane Katrina, making way for a new facility that Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman said will provide services and programs to help inmates.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will foot the bill for the $52.3 million project. The first step involves knocking down Templeman III and IV, two jail buildings built in 1995 and 1996 that the federal agency determined sustained significant damage during the storm, in part because of structural deficiencies. A gymnasium building also will be demolished.

After the wrecking balls have cleared the property, the Sheriff's Office will erect a new building with the capacity to house 1,438 inmates, as many inmates as were held in the two Templeman jails.

But Gusman said that he envisions a different kind of jail, one that will have the space to adequately house all the inmates, while also providing programs where they can learn skills before they are released. Since Katrina, all of the inmates housed in Orleans Parish jails are awaiting trial.

"Since I first took office in 2004, I have been committed to rehabilitating our inmates as a key component in reducing crime in our city," Gusman said.

Jim Stark, acting associate deputy administrator for FEMA's Gulf Coast Recovery Office, said the jail renovations are part of the overarching Justice Facilities Master Plan developed by various criminal justice agencies last fall in a process financed by FEMA.

But federal money will provide less than 25 percent of the almost $1 billion needed to build all of the projects in the ambitious master plan, which would include a new headquarters for the New Orleans Police Department and Orleans Parish district attorney, as well as a combined court building for criminal and civil courts.

Stark said the city will have to come up with other sources of money, such as bond issues or state financing, to complete all of the projects in the plan.

After a press conference in front of the buildings set to be demolished, Gusman and Stark headed over to a backhoe equipped with a jackhammer attachment. Both took a turn behind the controls of the backhoe, with the help of a professional construction worker, driving the hammer into the tile facade of Templeman III.

The Justice Facilities Master Plan released last September called for the Sheriff's Office to get back to its pre-Katrina size of more than 6,000 beds by 2015. One part of the plan envisioned as many as 8,000 beds, up considerably from the current 2,600 beds.

But Gusman said that is not his intention. "We don't want to have a bigger jail," Gusman said.

The Sheriff's Office currently plans to mothball the much-criticized House of Detention, which holds more than 800 inmates in sometimes cramped quarters, once the new jail building is finished, said Renee Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for the agency. That plan is conditioned on the city finishing work at Old Parish Prison, a jail building right behind Criminal District Court, she said.

The planning for the new jail still has some work, Lapeyrolerie said. It is expected to be completed by 2011.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/gusman_will_announce_jail_demo.ht
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Posted by lois at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

Cash cruch boosts private prison profits

Cash crunch boosts government service firms
By Helen Chernikoff, Reuters
Wednesday February 20 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7324401

NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The weakening U.S. economy has unleashed
layoffs, reduced profits and sucked value from the stock market, but
some companies, such as those that run prisons and consult for
government, can benefit from harsh economic times.

When state and local budgets see shortfalls, cash-strapped
governments hire companies like management consultant Maximus Inc,
social services provider Providence Service Corp and prison company
Corrections Corp of America, according to analysts.

Government belt-tightening could be a boon for a range of mid- and
small-cap names whose share prices have in many cases fallen as far
as more cyclical companies that really do suffer in a downturn. And,
analysts say, that could present some stock market opportunities.

The housing slump has hurt public budgets, as depressed property
values and lowered homeowners' equity cut proceeds from real estate
and sales taxes.

In 2009, 25 states are facing shortfalls, according to the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities. That pain trickles down to local
governments, which increasingly look to privatize services they
traditionally have performed.

By outsourcing a prison, states can save as much as a quarter of its
cost, Avondale Partners analyst Kevin Campbell said, which is why
private prison companies boosted their market share to 7.2 percent in
2006 from 6.5 percent in 2001-2003.

States might begin a new wave of prison privatization sooner than in
the 2001 recession because the United States is still suffering from
prison overcrowding as a result of that last downturn, Campbell said.

SHARES DOWN

Yet shares of Corrections Corp, the United States' largest prison
company, are down about 20 percent from their 52-week high of $33.25.

The story is similar with other prison companies. The Geo Group is
down about 19.7 percent from its 12-month high of $32.89 and Cornell
Companies is off about 24 percent from a high of $27.76.

"You would expect them to outperform given their defensive nature,"
Campbell said.
Corrections Corp and Geo's share prices are "compelling" in part
because they will reap business from California's prison bed
shortage, estimated at 60,000 beds or more, Lehman Brothers analyst
Jeffrey Kessler said.

California's projected 2009 budget shortfall, at $14.5 billion, is by
far the country's biggest, according to the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities.

Kessler anticipates strong 2009 earnings for both Corrections Corp
and Geo.

A recession could also cause a spike in crime, resulting in a further
increase in demand for prison beds, Kessler said. "This would put
further wind at the back of the private prison companies."

Companies such as Tyler Technologies Inc, a provider of software to
local government, resist recessions well, said Eric Marshall, who
follows government services for the Hodges Small Cap Fund.

Tyler's stock is down about 14 percent for the year, but has
outperformed the Russell 2000 .RUT>, down about 18 percent for the year.

RECESSION-RESISTANT

The company is recession-resistant because it is "tied to the need to
process parking tickets and utility bills and those things are going
to happen no matter what," Marshall said.
Of course, downturns make local governments even hungrier to collect
that revenue efficiently.

The same dynamic supports Maximus Inc, a management consultant to
government, whose shares are down about 23 percent from their year
high of $48.33, partly because of a failed attempt to sell itself,
said Jeffries & Company analyst Matthew McKay.

Maximus has grown revenue in every downturn and expects a repeat
performance because the company's emphasis on efficiency appeals in
tight times, Chief Executive Richard Montoni said during a recent
conference call.

Maximus is set for a surprisingly strong showing in 2008, said McKay,
who has a "buy" rating on the stock and a one-year price target of $55.

Likewise, Medicaid administrator Providence Service Corp is trading
at $28.57, but Sidoti & Co. analyst Greg Williams' 12-month price
target for the shares is $37. He said he rates them a buy in part
because they're a "counter-cyclical play."

In 2008, California accounts for almost 18 percent of Providence's
$310 million Medicaid administration business, a direct result of the
state's budget woes, Chief Executive Fletcher Jay McCusker told Reuters.

"A recession drives clients to our business," said McCusker, adding
that Providence picked up new business in Florida, Virginia, Maine,
Illinois and Nevada during the 2001 recession. "We anticipate no
decrease in business even though state budgets may be flattening.

Posted by lois at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)

A Home Remedy: Alternative Sentencing Program for Youth

February 20, 2008
A Home Remedy for Juvenile Offenders
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
NY Times

When Jacob Rivera, 15, was resentenced in May on an assault conviction, he felt he had received a “blessing.”

Only months earlier he had been sentenced to a year in state custody, and he had already spent weeks bouncing between a juvenile detention center in the Bronx and a residential treatment campus upstate. Two of his older siblings had spent time in those facilities and, he said, had “come out a mess.” He could see his future.

But the court gave him a second chance because his case had not been properly reviewed for inclusion in a new alternative sentencing program, which the city started in February 2007. The program, called the Juvenile Justice Initiative, sends medium-risk offenders back to their families and provides intensive therapy.

The city says that in just a year, it has seen significant success for the juveniles enrolled, as well as cost savings from the reduced use of residential treatment centers.

Under the program, Jacob went back home on probation, and he and his family were assigned a counselor, Eddy Lee, who visited the two-bedroom Bronx apartment that the teenager shares with his mother, Michelle Rivera, her husband, a younger brother and other relatives.

Within weeks, the situation improved as Mr. Lee provided intensive counseling to the family, with the aim of defusing what had become an increasingly angry relationship between Jacob and his mother. Instead of screaming at Jacob when he refused to comply with her curfew, Ms. Rivera called Mr. Lee. Over time, Mr. Lee persuaded her to agree to be less strict if her son would agree to be more forthcoming about his whereabouts, and more responsible.

Soon Jacob started meeting curfew and began passing his court-ordered drug tests and staying in school. If he continues on this course, he will end his probation in July, Mr. Lee said.

By the standards of juvenile justice, Jacob is a resounding success. And he is not alone. The city said that in the year since the program began, fewer than 35 percent of the 275 youths who have been through it have been rearrested or violated probation.

State studies found that more than 80 percent of male juvenile offenders who had served time in correctional facilities were rearrested within three years of their release, usually on more serious charges.

While in-home services mean that hundreds of teenagers with criminal records are returned to their communities, city officials say it is a trade they are willing to make. “It’s an uphill battle,” says Ronald E. Richter, the city’s family services coordinator. “These young people and their families present complex challenges.”

But whether the children go to residential correctional facilities or not, they come back to the community eventually anyway, Mr. Richter said, and the program “helps parents learn how to supervise and manage their adolescents so that they act responsibly instead of engaging in dangerous behaviors.”

Every year, hundreds of children in the city under 16 are found guilty of crimes ranging from graffiti to assault. They are tried and sentenced in the family courts; more serious crimes like murder are usually sent to the criminal courts.

Until the Juvenile Justice Initiative, family court judges had few options for dealing with youngsters convicted of less-serious crimes. They could place them on probation and hope for the best, or send them to upstate residential centers. The decision would typically depend as much on the gravity of the crime as on the stability of the child’s family. Judges are more likely to send a child into state custody if the home situation is complicated or unsafe.

“We were locking up way too many children, ” said Leslie Abbey, who runs the program for the city’s Administration for Children’s Services. “It was relied on too heavily, and it wasn’t working.”

The problem with incarceration, as juvenile justice reformers saw it, was that it could make behavior worse by introducing teenagers to even more hardened youths.

Some states and other counties in New York, including Westchester, have been experimenting for years with intensive in-home and in-community therapy for children who have significant criminal records but are not psychopathic.

The basic idea is to reach and help borderline youths at a moment of crisis, and turn them away from a more serious criminal path. By treating them in the context of their families and environments rather than in isolation, officials found that recidivism was usually less than half that of residential correction programs. The city says that it hopes its program will be as successful, but that it will take many years before it can be sure.

Still, at roughly $17,000 per child, such in-home therapy programs cost a fraction of the annual expense of keeping a child in secure detention, which can be $140,000 to $200,000.

In fact, the financial incentive is such that both the city and state are rapidly moving away from residential detention. Gladys Carrión, the commissioner of the state’s Office of Children and Family Services, recently announced that she would close six nonsecure facilities, a cut that will save the state $16 million a year.

The elimination of detention beds puts more pressure on the city to succeed.

It is a tough order, but Qadriyyah Razzaaq, for one, is a believer.

Ms. Razzaaq has been caring for John Whittington, 15, the son of a cousin, since he was 5. But last year, Ms. Razzaaq, a home health aide with her own children to care for and a job that often requires her to work 12 hours a day, was ready to give up on John, who was getting into ever more serious trouble.

First, on a dare, he set a fire in a school toilet, she said. Then he began running with gangs, and his graffiti appeared in hallways in his apartment building. Finally, she said, he robbed someone of an iPod.

When he was arrested for the iPod theft, she didn’t even go to detention to get him. “I was so angry,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘I am going to leave him there and teach him a lesson.’ ”

When Ms. Razzaaq heard about the Juvenile Justice Initiative, she was not optimistic. “He had already been in counseling,” she said, “I didn’t believe it would help.”

But to her amazement, the therapy at home made a difference. The counselors told her that John had been keeping secrets from her because he was afraid she would abandon him, the way his mother had. She spent more time with him alone, something he seemed to crave.

His behavior improved. John will still fail the seventh grade for a third time at the end of the school year, but so far he has not violated probation.

At home, Ms. Razzaaq has a new level of trust. “We have little problems, but we speak about it first,” she said. “He doesn’t wait to be caught.

“I know his future is so much better than it would have been if he had gone upstate.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/nyregion/20juvenile.html

Posted by lois at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)

CA: 6,900 "beds" cut in prison plan. Lawmakers critical of $222,000 cost for each new bunk.

6,900 beds cut in prison plan
Lawmakers critical of $222,000 cost for each new bunk.
By Andy Furillo - afurillo@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, February 20, 2008

California's $7.9 billion prison construction and rehabilitation plan will provide at least 6,900 fewer beds than previously promised and take longer to complete, according to testimony at a legislative hearing Tuesday and interviews with corrections officials.

An expansion plan slated for existing prisons has been downsized from 16,000 to 13,000 beds, officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told lawmakers at a state Senate Public Safety Committee hearing. The expansion beds will now cost $222,000 each, or 48 percent more than originally estimated, and won't come on line until December 2009 - 11 months later than originally scheduled.

The construction plans became law last year under Assembly Bill 900, which promised a total of 53,000 new beds. The reconfigured plans may require millions more in funds that have yet to be allocated.

Senate Public Safety Committee Chair Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, said in an interview the figures reaffirm her position that AB 900 "was the wrong policy for the wrong reason."

"You can't get past the $222,000 per bed figure," she said. "There is black and there is white, and $222,000 per bed, I don't care how you divide it, that is a staggering, overwhelming cost to the taxpayers."

Republican committee member Sen. Dave Cogdill of Modesto said AB 900 backers proffered the plan last year as a way to keep the state from releasing inmates early. He expressed frustration that it is getting delayed and downsized at the same time the administration is trying to release 22,000 prisoners early.

"We moved ahead quickly last year on approving one of the largest bond issues in the history of the state in order to deal with our overcrowding crisis," Cogdill said during Tuesday's 2 1/2 hour hearing. "Instead, what we've got is a plan that moves it off by 20 months ... and the only solution we've been offered is to let people out of jail. That's not acceptable, not only to the Legislature but to the people of California."

At Tuesday's hearing, corrections construction chief Deborah Hysen laid out the reasons for the added costs, smaller size and lengthier timeline on the program. Among them: revised plans calling for more cells instead of dorms, a failure in the initial planning to include enough space for rehabilitation programs and health care [editorial insert: Some of you might remember that AB900 was and still is touted as the prison expansion that will allow the CDCR to really implement Rehabilitation, yet somehow the CDCR planners neglected to include programming space in the new cellblocks], and infrastructure problems that prevented expansion at some of the prisons.

The Legislature, she said, added to the delays because it failed to allow private contractors to design as well as build the new projects, instead using state employees for design jobs.

Costs are expected to increase, Hysen said, due to contractors charging "what the market will bear."

AB 900's provision to help the counties build 13,000 more jail beds is in line for a bigger reduction than the bed program. C. Scott Harris, executive director of the Corrections Standards Authority, estimated that AB 900 will pay for only 60 percent to 70 percent of the beds envisioned, or 3,900 to 5,200 fewer.

"Things are much more expensive around the state," Harris said.

Meanwhile, the $1.14 billion AB 900 allocated for hospital beds won't be enough to build the 8,000 originally thought, according to J. Clark Kelso, the prison system's federal medical care receiver.

"My understanding is that all the players understood, you're not going to be able to build facilities for that many patient/inmates at that cost," Kelso said.

Kelso said he is now revising the hospital bed plan, but not to downsize it: He thinks he might need as many as 10,000 beds.

Officials also will downsize the "re-entry" program that initially called for 16,000 beds in 32 mini-prisons around the state, Hysen said. Corrections officials had touted the program as crucial to a long-term prison fix because of its emphasis on rehabilitation programming designed to cut California's worst-in-the nation 70 percent recidivism rate.

Copyright © The Sacramento Bee

********

Plan to ease prison crowding falls short
DELAYS HAMPER PROGRESS; FEWER BEDS EXPECTED
By Edwin Garcia
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 02/20/2008 01:35:19 AM PST

SACRAMENTO - Prison officials acknowledged Tuesday that implementing the state's historic law to ease overcrowding will result in fewer beds than promised and take longer than anticipated.

The law, last year's AB 900, was supposed to provide 53,000 new beds over the next several years. But Deborah Hysen, the top official who oversees prison construction for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the Senate Public Safety Committee hearing that they now expect only 50,000 new beds.

She and her boss, Secretary James Tilton, blamed faulty assumptions for the discrepancy. Hysen said her division was taking steps to produce better estimates in the future.

Committee members repeatedly expressed frustration with what they characterized as a lack of progress in building prison space, implementing educational programs and other reforms that the department has promised will relieve overcrowding.

"I think we're going to hear for some time, 'We're going to do, we're going to do, we're going to do,' " Committee Chair Gloria Romero said, "but it seems that we never really get to the 'we have done.' "

AB 900, which was passed by the Legislature without a public hearing, then signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was implemented at a time when federal judges were hinting that they could take over the prison system if the state didn't do something drastic to tackle the population crisis.

About 171,000 inmates are housed in 33 prisons built to hold about 100,000.

The law authorizes $7.4 billion in bond funding to create 53,000 beds for inmates in state prisons, county jails and re-entry facilities, and authorizes the transfer of up to 8,000 prisoners to cells outside California.

Ten months later, the beds are still in the planning stages, fewer than 3,000 inmates have been transferred and the court continues to seriously consider whether to take over the system.

Construction of the first beds, officials said, has been delayed and won't be available for another 20 months.

Tilton, who acknowledged "some bad schedules and bad estimates," tried nonetheless to keep the outlook positive by noting that one of the areas of most concern - the male adult prison population - has about 5,000 fewer inmates than in October 2006, which means fewer prisoners are being housed in gyms.

Tilton also said more parolees are being diverted into rehabilitation programs, instead of prison, when they test positive for drugs, which is helping to reduce the high rate of recidivism.

As a result of the recent, slight population dip, Tilton said, more inmates will be able to enroll in training and counseling programs behind bars.

"I'm excited about the fact that I'm not here, like I thought I'd be two years ago," Tilton said, "to say I'm out of beds."

Committee Vice Chairman Dave Cogdill, R-Fresno, said he was concerned that the delay, coupled with a reduction in the number of beds, and Schwarzenegger's proposal to release up to 28,000 low-risk inmates could have a detrimental effect on the public's safety.

"That's not acceptable," he said, "to not only the Legislature but to the people of the state of California."

The hearing was considered informational; the committee took no action.

Posted by lois at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)

OR: Bad Bills: more prison time, more prisoners, more money

Lawmakers talk minimum prison time
Alternative to ballot initiative heads to full House, Senate for votes

PETER WONG
Statesman Journal
February 20, 2008

Lawmakers moved ahead Tuesday with a less costly alternative to a more expensive ballot initiative that would set minimum prison sentences for first-time property and drug offenders.

The ballot initiative is sponsored by former state Rep. Kevin Mannix of Salem, who already has submitted about 150,000 signatures, 83,000 of which are required to qualify it for the Nov. 4 ballot.

The alternative, which the Legislature's budget panel cleared unanimously, would focus on longer prison sentences for large-quantity drug dealers and repeat property offenders. It also would require treatment for many offenders. If approved by both chambers, voters also would decide its fate Nov. 4.

It also has a hefty price, according to a report from the Legislature's budget analysts.

In the 2009-11 budget cycle, the measure would add 1,400 inmates and $62 million to Department of Corrections spending, plus $40 million in grants for treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. In 2011-13, the measure would add 1,700 inmates and $106 million, plus money for treatment grants.

According to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, Mannix's initiative would add 4,000 to 6,000 inmates to the state system, which now tops 13,000, and require spending $256 million to $400 million more in the next two-year budget.

A second bill that advanced Tuesday night would add restrictions to a 2003 alternative incarceration program, which allows some inmates early release from prison if they complete drug treatment and community leave under the Department of Corrections.

Inmates ineligible for the program are those convicted of violent crimes under Measure 11, aggravated murder and sex crimes. Under the bill, ineligible defendants would be expanded to those convicted of criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault if there was serious physical injury, and failure of a driver to aid a seriously injured crash victim.

The price tag for House Bill 3638 is estimated at $4.1 million in 2009-11.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080220/STATE/80
2200414

Posted by lois at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2008

NY Times Op Ed: Bob Herbert: Cruel and Gratuitous

February 16, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Cruel and Gratuitous
By BOB HERBERT, NY Times

It happened last spring.

The police commissioner’s office and a New York City police captain tried to convince the public that a marauding band of kids had gotten out of control and terrified residents, motorists and pedestrians on a street in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

The cops were wrong. And they must have known that they were wrong, that the picture they were creating of youngsters climbing on top of cars and blocking vehicular and pedestrian traffic was completely false.

The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, carried the canard further. That had to have been deliberate, too. He went on the Brian Lehrer radio program on WNYC and said that his office had investigated the matter — had conducted what he described as an “independent inquiry.”

“We had many, many interviews with local store owners and people who live in the neighborhood who are, frankly, scared to death of these kids,” he said. “And they were not just walking on one car; they were trampling on all sorts of cars. It was almost as if they were inviting their arrest.”

Thirty-two people were arrested on that Bushwick street last May 21, including young women and children. They had been walking along a quiet, tree-lined block of Putnam Avenue on their way to a subway station where they had hoped to catch a train to attend a wake for a friend who had been murdered. The police, who have said that the friend was a gang leader, surrounded the group and closed in.

The youngest person arrested was 13. All of the kids were handcuffed, cursed at and humiliated, and several spent 30 hours or more in jail.

To date, there has been no evidence produced — no witnesses, no photographs or videotapes, no dented vehicles or broken mirrors, nothing whatsoever — to indicate that any of the youngsters had done anything at all that was wrong.

How is it that you can have a rampage in broad daylight on a street in New York City and not be able to show in any way that the rampage occurred?

At least 22 of the 32 people arrested have had their charges dismissed or were never formally charged at all. No one has been convicted of anything.

The case against 18-year-old Zezza Anderson was dropped last month after his lawyer, Ron Kuby, filed a motion demanding that Mr. Hynes’s office produce documentary evidence of the youngsters misbehaving. No evidence was produced. Instead, an assistant district attorney moved to have the charges against Mr. Anderson dismissed, acknowledging that the case against the defendant could not be proved.

I’d like to know why, after the better part of a year, the authorities are still tormenting some of these kids. Why are charges still hanging over 10 of them? Why should it take more than nine months to resolve charges of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct?

A number of the kids have missed days at school to show up for court dates at which nothing of consequence happens. Asher Callender, a senior at Bushwick Community High School, had to go to court on Friday, only to have his case postponed again until March 3.

These are not gangsters. These are not drug dealers. These are kids who were trying to go to a wake for a friend. It was not the kids who were out of control, it was the criminal justice system, which can’t seem to tell the difference between right and wrong, between the truth and deliberate lies, or between justice on the one hand and gratuitously cruel behavior by public officials on the other.

All the charges in this case should be dropped and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who apparently wants to be mayor of this city, and District Attorney Hynes should offer the kids a public apology.

The authorities have become accustomed to treating disadvantaged young people in New York City like dirt and getting away with it. In this case, local school officials, community residents and the civic group Make the Road New York rallied to the youngsters’ cause.

Neither the police nor the district attorney expected to be confronted in any kind of sustained way over their treatment of these kids. Mr. Hynes said on the radio program: “None of these kids are going to be prosecuted. They’re not going to go to jail ... We are going to offer every one of them community service.”

What he meant was that he expected the kids to go quietly, to plead guilty and passively accept the blot on their records and what he thought of as mild punishment.

But the kids had a surprise for him. They refused to plead guilty to something they hadn’t done. Ten of them are still paying the price for standing up for themselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/opinion/16herbert.html?scp=3&sq=Bob+Herbert&st=nyt

Posted by lois at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2008

TX: Pretrial detention, unnecessary incarceration driving Texas jail overcrowding

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/02/pretrial-detention-unnecessary
.html

Friday, February 08, 2008

Pretrial detention, unnecessary incarceration driving Texas jail overcrowding

The topic of the panel I presented on at yesterday's jail overcrowding symposium in San Antonio was "Who are in county jails and why?," and a significant part of my own presentation focused on excessive pretrial detention. I'm in the process of expanding this research into a longer, footnoted paper, but for now here are some excerpts on the subject:

The biggest single reason for jail overcrowding: Put simply, more Texans are incarcerated pending trial, i.e., before they're convicted, than at any time in history.

An analysis by Grits of data from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards found that despite declining crime over the same period, county jail populations increased 27% between 1995 and 2005. Almost all of that increase stemmed from more frequent detention of defendants before trial. In other words, there are many more defendants who can't make bail these days in county lockups. Particularly for misdemeanants, just a decade ago many of those defendants would have been released on personal bond so taxpayers wouldn't pay to house them.

These trends represent harsher decisions by judges about when defendants should be released on bond -- another case where being tough on crime amounts to being tough on taxpayers, with little identifiable public safety benefit. A decade ago, pretrial defendants made up 30.3% of the statewide Texas jail population. Today the number is more than half, at 53%.

What does that mean to the average defendant? Judges are more likely to require them to put up bail than ten years ago, when more low-level offenders would have been released on 'personal bond,' or a 3% bail fee and a promise to appear. Now if they can't pay, more defendants just sit in jail awaiting trial.

With so many jurisdictions operating local lockups that are bursting at the seams, it makes little sense to continue the trend (unless, perhaps, you're a bail bondsman). Here are the incarceration rates for pretrial detainees at Texas' largest county jails:

What percentage of Texas county jail inmates are awaiting trial? In 1995, just 30% of Texas county jail inmates statewide were incarcerated awaiting trial. As of January 1, 2008 that figure had risen to 53%. In many counties the figure is much higher: County

Total percentage pretrial defendants

Misdemeanor and state jail felony pretrial defendants

Statewide

53%

10%

Bexar

58%

21%

Dallas

67%

15%

Harris

56%

12%

Tarrant

61%

18%

Travis

65%

24%

The same pattern repeats itself around the state in jails big and small. Pretrial detention decisions by judges drive most local jail overcrowding problems.

There are few substantive barriers to solving the problem, only ideological ones. One year ago Nacogdoches County had to ship prisoners to other jurisdictions because of overcrowding, but has eliminated its problem entirely by reducing pretrial detention. County commissioners invited USDOJ consultants to assess their situation, and DOJ ³told commissioners the jail was being 'over-used,' and that more innovative programs could be implemented so that non-violent offenders 'never occupy a bed in the jail.'"

In response, over the past year Nacogdoches has been doing just that. As of the most recent monthly jail population report, their 292-bed jail was less than 2/3 full. In December 2006, a whopping 68% of the Nacogdoches County Jail population was made up of pretrial offenders; by January 1, 2008, that number had declined to just 34.5% of the jail population.

(I had a chance to speak briefly with Nacogdoches County Judge Joe English at the event who confirmed that their once full jail now had more than 100 empty beds! He said that public meetings where the DOJ consultants focused on pretrial incarceration decisions by judges caused the local judiciary to rethink its bonding policies. I'll be following up to get more detail about exactly what they did there and how they went about it - that's a real success story)

That same jail overcrowding solution will work for nearly every jurisdiction in Texas with full jails. If Bexar County, for example, could lower its percentage of pretrial detainees to 34.5% from the current 58%, it would reduce the jail population by 935 inmates, eliminating the short-term crisis entirely.

A county sheriff pulled me aside later to agree with me, and said he believed that too many judges these days were improperly using bail as punishment, which I thought was a good point. There must be some motive that explains these numbers, and that fits as well as any.

Tyler District Judge Cynthia Kent reacted negatively to my comments in the following panel, claiming that when she'd tried to use more personal bonds in her own court, 70% of defendants didn't show back up! However, I've reason to think that figure is inaccurate or skewed. Another conference participant leaned over to me at that point and declared that he previously ran a federal pretrial services division where use of personal bonds is much more widespread. He told me his division experienced around a 5% no-show rate (making me think I need to learn more about the federal pretrial system to see what can be adapted for local use). In Harris County, those deemed lowest risk by pretrial services have about a 3% no-show rate.

Speaking to Judge Kent later, it turns out that their local District Attorney stridently opposes creating a Pretrial Services division in Smith County, which means that there's literally no infrastructure there to support the use of personal bonds. Even so, county officials still want to build a bigger jail! If it were me, I'd invest in a new pretrial services division long before I spent money on bricks and mortar. (UPDATE: A commenter tells me Smith County DOES have a pretrial services division, it's just unpopular with judges and other local officials.)

The other big focus of my talk was the large number of mentally ill people filling up local jails, but the truth is solutions to that problem are more difficult to come by and likely will arrive much farther in the future. Reducing pretrial detention is a solution that can work today, immediately. For county officials looking to solve a short-term jail overcrowding crisis, there's little doubt this is the quickest, least painful solution. The question really is not can they solve the problem, but are local judges and county officials willing to do so? ______________________

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/02/fabelo-texas-jail-growth-outst
ripping.html

Friday, February 08, 2008

Fabelo: Texas jail growth outstripping prisons

Dr. Tony Fabelo, Texas' premier criminal justice statistician, has been a busy man lately, including serving yesterday as the featured speaker at the Bexar County jail overcrowding symposium. He's put a copy of his presentation online, entitled Managing Jail Population Growth in Texas: The State and Local Challenges.

A few highlights:

Between 2000 and 2007, Texas rate of incarceration in prisons actually declined by 9.4%, while the rate of people incarcerated in county jails rose by 4.3%. (Slide 19) This was a period of major population growth and declining crime, so for jails' rate to continue to rise over that period is pretty significant.

Incarceration rates in the largest counties over the same period varied widely, indicating that the actions of local decisionmakers accounted for much of the variation in outcomes. Here are the changes in jail incarceration rates between 2000-2007 for Texas' five largest counties (Slide 20):

Harris: 15.72%
Dallas: -13.46%
Tarrant: -6.02%
Bexar: 7.54%
Travis: -15.08%

Fabelo corroborated my assessment earlier in the day that pretrial detention is driving county jail growth. While overall jail population increased 18.6% between 2000-2007, he said, the number of pretrial detainees increased 49.2% over the same period. (Slide 21)

He pointed out that more than 13,000 jail beds are either currently planned or under construction, but said he didn't see the need for them based on crime patterns. (Slide 27)

See his whole presentation, the first part of which included a summary of legislative actions in 2007 that affected jail crowding. Also check out more of Fabelo's Texas' related research at the Justice Center website of the Council of State Governments.

Posted by lois at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)

VT: Retired teachers lauded for prison schools

Retired teachers lauded for prison school

By Barbara Leitenberg
Burlington (VT) Free Press
February 18, 2008
Once a teacher, always a teacher. The Vermont Retired Teachers Association received a national award in September for the establishment of the Community High School of Vermont, an independent, accredited high school for young people in the state's prisons and other correctional programs. When these teachers retired, they did not put away their professional skills.

"We would not have the current Community High School were it not for Vermont's retired teachers," says Bob Lucenti, superintendent of schools for the state's Department of Corrections. "They lobbied for the funds, provided expertise on curriculum, established classrooms, helped to hire qualified paid staff, volunteered as tutors, insisted on high standards, inspected the schools in person, and encouraged the teachers. Most of all, they cared about the students."

Retired teachers Blanche Kelley of Rutland and Dorothy Buttura of Essex Junction accepted the national RTA's Innovative Program Award in Boston for, in Kelley's words "a program unique among all states with education programs for incarcerated youth -- a real school with real teachers, granting a real diploma."

The Community High School of Vermont serves 3,000 students in seventeen sites -- nine behind walls in the state's prisons and eight in transitional communities with 50 certified and paid teachers. Last year 143 individuals received high school diplomas, 107 received trade certificates, and 29 earned their GEDs, passing a series of tests for a certificate of General Educational Development. About 20 per cent of the students go on to higher education.

Last year the Community High School was accredited by the New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, putting it in a class with other independent schools like the St. Johnsbury Academy.

Twenty years ago, Vermont had no coordinated educational system for youth in the custody of Corrections. Six part-time staff members in six prisons helped inmates prepare for the GED. At that time, local school districts were responsible for the education of the young people in their area's jail. This system did not work. Teachers avoided coming into the prisons. Parents were suing the school districts because their children were not getting an education. In 1987, the Legislature decided to shift the burden from the school districts to the Department of Corrections and set up a separate school. Enter Bob Lucenti, who went to the Retired Teachers Association for help. The retired teachers not only came forward, he says. Some of them are still there after 20 years. They visit the prisons, check attendance, support teachers, and run local school advisory boards.

"What was most important was promoting an accredited high school diploma," says Don Messier, retired superintendent of schools in Winooski and a long-term member of the Community High School state board and the advisory board for the Chittenden County Correctional Center. "A diploma opens doors." The retired teachers do not mind going into the prisons, Messier says, having the doors locked behind them. "They understand troubled kids," he says. "It's so fulfilling to see these kids get a diploma that can change their lives."

"When retired teachers visit a prison, many of the officers stand tall," says Lucenti. If they are from Rutland, for example, they remember Blanche Kelley from their own school days. "They know not to mess with her."

How does a high school with seventeen campuses work? It starts with the individual student. When young people enter the correctional system, a teacher visits them with their high school records, gives them a student handbook, checks for special education needs, and signs them up for the first class they need in order to finish the requirements for a diploma. The classes are small. If the inmate is transferred to another prison, his or her school records follow; and he continues the needed classes in a statewide curriculum. In the same way, records are forwarded to an outside school when an inmate leaves the prison system. "The kids are often surprised that we have our act together," Lucenti says.

In Vermont, youngsters must attend school until they are sixteen years old. In the Community High School, attendance is required until age 23, a standard lobbied for by the retired teachers.

Retired teacher Esther Doran of Burlington, who taught all grades in a rural school and mathematics in both public and parochial schools, was an early volunteer with the Community High School. She remembers that in the beginning, classes were offered only to men. Only later were women allowed to participate. She helped set up a special program for women whose children visited them in jail, showing them how to play and read to their children.

"So many of these young people give up," she says. "I like to see them go as far as they can."

Besides working with the Community High School, many retired teachers volunteer in the prisons in non-academic ways. Some teach crochet to inmates who in turn donate their crafts to nursing homes. Others help with gardens and teach in wood shops.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080218/LIVING/802180316/1004/NEWS05

Posted by lois at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2008

CT: Population soaring in state prisons. Population soaring in state prisons.

"Schissler believes the disparity between whites and minorities is "all about poverty." "Many of these people were raised in financially stricken, security stricken, parentally stricken and educationally stricken environments," he said. But he said if the national media -- which spent months probing and anticipating the results of the Iowa presidential caucus
-- looked at prison conditions in that state, it would find enormous numbers of young whites in jail after turning to crystal meth and crime. "These are children of generations of farmers who are losing their farms," Schissler said. "These kids are seeing the complete obliteration of everything they've known. These are white kids behaving like inner-city groups, turning to drugs and crime because of poverty."
The News Times
Population soaring in state prisons
Number of inmates quadruples since '85

By Michael P. Mayko STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 02/17/2008
The numbers astound lawyers Frederic Ury and Michael Fitzpatrick.

From 1985 to Feb. 15, 2008, Connecticut's prison population has soared from 5,422 to 19,690.

If the trend continues, the prison population could surpass 25,000 in the next four years.

"If those represented the numbers of people attending our institutions of higher learning, I would say that's fantastic," said Fitzpatrick, a past president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

"Unfortunately," he added, "those are the extraordinary numbers of people in our prisons."

Along with the increased numbers, the average daily cost of keeping an inmate incarcerated has also soared -- from $58.68 per day in fiscal year 1989-90 to $86.08 last fiscal year.

"It's crazy," concedes state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven. "We are spending more money to run our prisons than run our colleges."

"Think about it," said Ury, a former president of the Connecticut Bar Association. "In just a 20-year period, we have quadrupled the number of people in our prisons and no one seems to be concerned about it."

But the increase doesn't surprise Lawlor or Henry Schissler, an associate professor of sociology at Housatonic Community College. Nor is it a surprise to Sally Joughin, a co-founder of People Against Injustice, a New Haven-based prisoner rights advocacy group, or Thomas Tracy Jr., who at age 42 admits he has been in and out of jail 26 times.

The Jan. 1 figure of 19,438 inmates included 15,001 sentenced prisoners and 4,437 pre-trial detainees. There were 18,144 male inmates and 1,294 female; 8,360 blacks, 5,199 Hispanics, 5,750 whites and 129 designated as "others." (Since Jan. 1, the state has added at least another 252 inmates to the prison system.)

Schissler believes the disparity between whites and minorities is "all about poverty."

"Many of these people were raised in financially stricken, security stricken, parentally stricken and educationally stricken environments," he said.

But he said if the national media -- which spent months probing and anticipating the results of the Iowa presidential caucus -- looked at prison conditions in that state, it would find enormous numbers of young whites in jail after turning to crystal meth and crime.

"These are children of generations of farmers who are losing their farms," Schissler said. "These kids are seeing the complete obliteration of everything they've known. These are white kids behaving like inner-city groups, turning to drugs and crime because of poverty."

Unfortunately, the sociologist said, society finds "it's easier to damn the person and throw them in jail" than "look at the big picture and work to create opportunities."

But the war on drugs, which intensified in the 1980s, is not the only reason for Connecticut's growing prison population.

Off the top of his head, Lawlor, co-chair of the state Legislature's powerful Judiciary Committee, can cite almost a dozen reasons.

One is that drug violence and crack sales led the Legislature to impose longer penalties: 2,824 of Connecticut's sentenced inmates on Jan. 1 were in the system for possession or sale of narcotics, another 1,035 for robbery, and 667 for third-degree burglary.

An outcry over recidivism led to the "truth-in-sentencing" laws of 1993 and 1994, which also brought longer terms in prison.

"That required violent criminals to serve 85 percent of their sentence and everyone else to do at least 50 percent of their term," Lawlor said. "Before the truth-in-sentencing laws, inmates were only serving 10 to 20 percent of their terms. We also took away good-time credit and the ability to be free on supervised home release."

"That's a big difference," said Bridgeport State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict. "I don't think this office is seeking greater sentences for the same crime than we did when I started 30 years ago. But inmates are serving more time on their sentences than they were 30 years ago."

Furthermore, Benedict said, drug dealers are treated more leniently than they were in the 1980s.

"Back then a cocaine dealer arrested for the first time would get three to five years in prison," he said. "Today, the first time dealer, as long as an exorbitant amount (of drugs) isn't involved, gets a suspended sentence and probation. Sometimes its multiple offenses before they go to jail."

Lawlor also said the "mainstreaming" of mentally ill patients into the community without proper supervision resulted in many being sent to prison.

"The hospitals wouldn't take them, and the police couldn't deal with them," he said. "So it was easier to place them in jail."

In the past decade the legislature approved mandatory minimum sentences, enhanced terms for persistent felony offenders, and new laws to deal with drunken drivers, domestic violence offenders and sexual predators.

Benedict said legislators are faced with a strange contradiction.

"On one hand they have to control and reduce the prison population, but on the other there's a lot of pressure to keep people in," the prosecutor said.

Following the July break-in, rape and triple murder of a doctor's family in Cheshire, allegedly by parolees, parole in the state was halted until recently. Bonds increased and sentences got longer.

"I have several clients who expected to be released on parole," Fitzpatrick said. "They now believe they have a better shot at winning the lottery."

Gov. M. Jodi Rell is also pushing a "three strikes" law that would impose life terms on those convicted of three serious felonies.

But Tracy, the convicted felon, believes that's the most dangerous law the legislature could impose.

"You tell someone they're going away for life if they get caught -- well, they're not going down easy," he said. "They're going to bring danger to themselves, the people around them, and the people who come to get them. That's a high price to pay."

With the state's prisons bursting beyond their 18,000-plus capacity, Lawlor sees only three options. The most obvious, he said, is to build more prisons.

Last November it was estimated that building another prison would cost at least $260 million. Already Gov. M. Jodi Rell is calling on the legislature to fund another 125 corrections officers.

"Prison has become a big business," said Joughin, of People Against Injustice. "It creates jobs. It makes money for the suppliers and the telephone companies who charge extra for the collect calls inmates make."

Another option to reduce the population is by releasing more non-violent inmates, Lawlor said. In the past the state has cut the prison population as much as 10 percent this way.

"That's always the quick fix," Fitzpatrick said. "Cherry-pick the less violent for release."

Finally, Lawlor said, "We can do nothing and face being sued in federal court. Then we'll get a federal judge running our prisons."

Fitzpatrick would rather see long-term steps taken, like doing away with mandatory minimum sentences.

"Let the judges and not the legislators pass judgment," he said. "In my 21 years of practicing criminal law, I've always felt the judiciary is capable of setting appropriate and fair sentences taking into account the crime and the defendant."

Fitpatrick, like Schissler and Stephen Cox, chairman of Central Connecticut State University's criminology department, believes the best approach is to attack the reasons for crime.

"No one wants to hear about the factors that cause people to commit crimes
-- substance abuse, joblessness, homelessness," Fitzpatrick said. "They just want them locked up and out of sight."

"We can start by making bigger investments in our inner cities," added Cox.

"We need politicians who will stop playing the sound-bite game," said Schissler. "We know the pieces that need to be fixed -- better education, substance-abuse treatment programs, jobs with living wages -- so why are we choosing not to fix them?"

In the meantime, Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the state Corrections Department, said his agency has been able to deal with the increased prison population.

But what about programs for inmates?

Fitzpatrick said several of his clients are unable to get into programs inside prison.

"We don't have the ability to put everyone in school or a substance-abuse program at the same time," Garnett explained, so there are waiting lists at some institutions and official prioritize who goes into which program.

"Anyone under 21 without a high school diploma or a GED gets first call," he said. "Last year we graduated 1,000 inmates."

The same is true for a substance-abuse program.

"Those closest to going out the door get in," Garnett said. "We feel the treatment will be fresh in their minds and have the greatest effect."

He said the department creates a plan for each inmate by identifying his deficiencies and attempting to get him into programs that will address his issues.

"We have invested heavily into working to prepare the inmate for a successful re-integration into society," he said.

A study done by Central Connecticut State University determined if the Corrections Department offered an inmate no help, roughly 50 percent would go back to jail.

However, the same study found using a halfway house to transition an inmate from prison to society reduced recidivism to about 24 percent.

"So we've doubled the number of halfway house beds from 600 in 2003 to 1,200 today," Garnett said.

http://www.newstimes.com/ci_8289068

Posted by lois at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)

NH: House approves keeping prison open indefinitely

House approves keeping prison open indefinitely
By Warren D. Huse
Article Date: Saturday, February 16, 2008

LACONIA ‹ At Concord, Feb. 12, 1998, as the long-running battle over the Laconia prison facility continued, the House approved keeping the Lakes Region Correctional Facility "open indefinitely," The Citizen reported, 10 years ago this week.

"The bill, meant to address overcrowding throughout the prison system, would also lift the population cap of 300 inmates at Laconia and would allow the Department of Corrections to establish two new halfway houses."

The bill also ordered state departments "to prepare documents in order to build a new 500-bed medium security prison that is likely to be in Berlin."

The bill would now go "to the House Finance committee for review before coming back for final action. The house version of the bill is substantially different from the one being considered by the Senate. That bill appropriates $31 million to build a 500-bed medium security prison in Berlin."

Also, a proposal developed by a task force appointed by Gov. Jeanne Shaheen "is adopted in the Senate bill. The task force recommended the land the prison sits on be sold and the money used to replicate the Laconia programs elsewhere."
http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080216/GJCOMMUNITY02/118
407736/-1/CITNEWS

Posted by lois at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

California keeps its prisoners too long.Times investigation shows that good behavior isn't properly counted; errors could cost $44 million in this fiscal year.

California keeps its prisoners too long
Times investigation shows that good behavior isn't properly counted; errors could cost $44 million in this fiscal year.
By Michael Rothfeld
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

6:37 PM PST, February 16, 2008

SACRAMENTO - The counselor at Salinas Valley State Prison paid a surprise visit to Nicholas Shearin's cell with good news: He would go home in two days, after a decade behind bars.

She did not mention that he should have been freed eight months earlier.

Shearin was among as many as 33,000 state inmates whose sentences may have been wrong because they were not given all the time off they earned for good behavior and for working in prison.

Records obtained by The Times show that in August, the state sampled some inmate cases and discovered that in more than half -- 354 of 679 -- the offenders were set to remain in prison a combined 104 years too long. Fifty-nine of those prisoners, including Shearin, had already overstayed and were subsequently released after serving a total of 20 years too many, an average of four months each.

Shearin, 38, who is living with his parents in Hawthorne and looking for a job, went to prison for armed robbery. He received less than a third of the good-behavior credit he was due on a second crime, assaulting another inmate.

Shearin said he had told the corrections staff that he was entitled to more time off his sentence.

"I argued that point," he said. "I put in all the paperwork."

But "they did what they wanted to do at the Department of Corrections," said Shearin, who learned from a reporter that he had stayed in prison too long. "They just told me no."

The errors could cost the state $44 million through the end of this fiscal year if not corrected and more than $80 million through mid-2010. But California's overburdened prison agency waited more than two years to change its method of awarding credit for good behavior after three court rulings, one as early as May 2005, found it to be illegal.

Officials were giving some inmates 15% good behavior time instead of the 50% to which they were entitled. The state fixed release dates for only those inmates who requested it, according to a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who said there was no evidence in Shearin's file that he complained.

Aside from the survey in August, the department did not change its methods for all prisoners until last month, when it began reviewing release dates. Officials said that with too little staff, antiquated computers, too many inmates and a web of arcane sentencing formulas, the job was unmanageable.

State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the Senate's public safety committee, said inmates have a fundamental right to a timely release. She criticized the prison agency's "arrogance in the face of the law to simply say that these people's lives don't matter, but they can just lock them away and essentially throw away the key."

Scott Kernan, the corrections department's chief deputy secretary for adult operations, defended the department. "Our staff struggle every day and do a wonderful job in calculating these cases and prioritizing the workload and getting these guys out," he said. "We're doing as much as we possibly can with the existing resources we have."

Five hundred workers, called case records analysts, compute sentences for 417,000 prisoners who enter or are transferred within the state prison system every year. In December, officials in the Service Employees International Union sued the state on behalf of the analysts, who are responsible for calculating the terms of 500 to 600 inmates each and who fear they can be held accountable for late releases.

The union has been warning prison administrators for 15 or 20 years that analysts were seriously understaffed, said Karen DeVoll, 47, an analyst at Sierra Conservation Center, a prison in Jamestown in the Sierra foothills east of Stockton.

From 2000 until 2004, the state paid $468,280 in legal settlements to prisoners who weren't released on time, according to a 2006 report published by Cal State Sacramento.

The cost of housing prisoners who should not be incarcerated is far higher. The state projected that for the 354 inmate cases reviewed in August, it would have saved $2.3 million if all had been released on time. Overall, failing to correct the errors could cost the state more than $110 million more over the next 15 years. But that figure does not include inflation, and union officials say it would be significantly higher.

DeVoll, who earns the maximum of $53,000 a year after two decades in her job, has decades-old computer systems that cannot calculate current sentencing formulas. She and her colleagues do most of their work, called audits, with pen, paper, calculators and file folders jammed with inmates' papers.

Prison administrators keep track of analysts' mistakes while also pressuring them to work quickly, DeVoll said.

"We get written up because we don't meet the expectation of how many audits we can do," she said. "They can get pretty complex. . . . You have to apply what case law he falls under, if he's . . . a violent offender, if he had two violent offenses, if he's getting DNA done. You have to make sure you do tracking for sex offenders."

Kernan said that despite the state budget crisis, the prisons plan to add 85 new analysts so that all questionable release dates can be corrected by September. But analysts will also have to review tens of thousands of additional prisoner records if legislators approve Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to release some prisoners early to help close a $14.5-billion budget gap, and that could mean new delays.

Meanwhile, Shearin, who earned a degree from a long-distance program while in prison, hopes to find a job as a medical technicianat a hospital. He said he might already be employed had he not been kept in prison so long.

"I could have possibly got a job in a hospital easier," he said. "It was pretty bad and violent up there. . . . That was the most violent prison yard in California. . . . They didn't want to give nobody a break."

Some inmates who were released late said they were told they were being let out early. When Dale Hamblin, 35, an accountant, was sent home unexpectedly in August, a prison counselor told him he had "hit the lottery."

In fact, Hamblin had stayed nine months too long, as he learned from a reporter. He had been scheduled for release Jan. 12, 2008, until the state's revised calculations showed he should have been let out Nov. 26, 2006.

Hamblin went to prison for driving under the influence of alcohol in connection with a 2003 accident near his Shasta County home. He served time in the Shasta County jail, High Desert State Prison and the California Correctional Center at Susanville.

Since going home, he has returned to the family accounting business where he earned a living before prison. But because of his late release, he spent most of last year earning 19 cents an hour at a low-security prison fire camp in Mendocino County, ordering food and processing payroll for inmates.

Hamblin said he didn't ask any questions when he was told to go home. State officials said they found no evidence in his file that he had complained about his release date. But Hamblin said he had suspected he was due more good-behavior time, and his petition to receive it had been turned down.

"I did something wrong and I hurt two people and you have to pay your penalties for that," Hamblin said. "But if I'm being responsible and following the rules, that includes everybody else, too. . . . Obviously the [Department of Corrections] kind of ignored that."
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times

Posted by lois at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2008

CA: Prison beds, rehab delayed. No construction yet in $7.9 billion program

Prison beds, rehab delayed
No construction yet in $7.9 billion program
By Andy Furillo -
Saturday, February 16, 2008

The state corrections agency still hasn't broken ground on new prison bed space, and its plan to redirect the lives of its inmates has come under criticism.

Lawmakers say they are frustrated by the delays and wonder if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the federal courts, instead of him, to grant early releases to tens of thousands of inmates to relieve prison overcrowding.

At issue is the rollout of Assembly Bill 900, the state's $7.9 billion plan enacted last May to repair California's faltering prison system. Corrections officials say the plan to add 53,000 beds to the system and tie most of them to new rehabilitation programs is running late, but still working.

Lawmakers disagree.

"AB 900 is snake oil," said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, whose Senate Public Safety Committee will hold a hearing on prison overcrowding Tuesday. "AB 900 was intended to provide a fig leaf to a governor who was standing naked and an agency that was naked in their ability to correct the (corrections) problem."

Romero's ideological opposite in the Legislature, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, said the Schwarzenegger administration has "completely backed away" from AB 900.

Spitzer, a strong supporter of the bill when it was passed, cited Schwarzenegger's budget proposal to release 22,000 inmates before their terms expire. Rather than take the political heat for the releases, Spitzer suggested, the administration now may want to let the federal courts do the dirty work. A federal three-judge panel already is considering imposing a prison population cap, as sought by plaintiffs' lawyers who argue that prison overcrowding is keeping the state from providing constitutional medical and mental health care.

"I think they believe that early release is the path of least resistance to deal with overcrowding," Spitzer said. "I think they feel that politically, the way they get out is … (through) the three-judge panel, so they can say, 'Oh my goodness, it was the three-judge panel.'"

Schwarzenegger spokesman Bill Maile disputed Romero and Spitzer, saying "there are many examples of progress" with AB 900 and that "there are no active settlement negotiations in the three-judge panel proceeding."

"AB 900 together with parole reform is our road map to deal with the prison overcrowding crisis," Maile said.

AB 900 contained $7.4 billion in bond money to add 53,000 beds to the state and local prison and jail systems, with 32,000 of them tied to new rehab programs.

The construction plans were supposed to provide relief in a system that as of Feb. 6 housed 170,746 inmates, with the state's 33 prisons stuffed to 199.8 percent of their designed capacity.

Jose Solorio, the Democratic assemblyman from Santa Ana who carried the bill, said he is "frustrated by the delays" in the construction program. The bill's rollout suffered "significant complications," Solorio said, as a result of Schwarzenegger's budget plans to release 22,000 lower-risk inmates in the final 20 months of their terms. Solorio said the proposal runs counter to the AB 900 component that wants to put shorter-term inmates into community-based "re-entry" prisons.

"Those two approaches were in complete contradiction," Solorio said.

Maile responded that "AB 900 represents comprehensive long-term solutions" to the state's prison quagmire "while the budget proposal is an emergency measure to deal with the state's ($14.5 billion) budget deficit."

Schwarzenegger's corrections officials initially estimated they would begin construction last July. Seven months later, they have not gone to the State Public Works Board to get the money released.

Moreover, they've downsized their first pitch to the board, from 7,484 beds at 10 prisons to 1,000 beds at just one institution.

Deborah Hysen, the new prison construction chief appointed to the job after the passage of AB 900, said the corrections agency plans to go to the board either later this month or in March at the latest. She said the funding request also will include plans for a 500-bed re-entry facility at the site of the old Stockton women's prison.

No other re-entry sites have been established.

"Why am I not surprised?" said Donald Specter, the directing attorney of the Prison Law Office in San Rafael, who is seeking the population cap from the federal courts. He called the construction delays "another manifestation of a dysfunctional system."

A panel has returned a decidedly mixed review on the legislation created to assess the prisons' progress on rehabilitation programs.

In a Jan. 15 report, the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board credited the corrections agency for "working toward implementing an effective rehabilitative model." The report also raised what it described as "red flags" that, if not addressed "in the near future … will ultimately threaten the Department's chances of future success."

The report cited no "comprehensive and integrated plan," a lack of progress in assessing more inmates for their risks and needs when they enter prison and an inability to get the re-entry prisons sited.

Corrections officials say they've addressed many of the concerns.

"We're on path, we're on target, and the organization as a whole is working toward these things," said Kathy Jett, the corrections agency's undersecretary in charge of programs.

Board chairman Matthew Cate, the independent inspector general who oversees the corrections agency, said in a statement Friday that his panel "has high expectations" that the department this year will "produce a detailed and comprehensive plan for inmate programming" and that it will "demonstrate progress toward implementation."
http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/716906.html

Posted by lois at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

MA: SJC: Sex offender registration needs to account for homeless

SJC: Sex offender registration needs to account for homeless
By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press
02/15/2008
Daily Hampshire Gazette

BOSTON - The state's highest court said Thursday that the Sex Offender Registry Board needs to change its registration form so sex offenders can clearly identify themselves as homeless.

In its ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court said the current registration form is ambiguous and makes it difficult for homeless sex offenders to fulfill stringent registration requirements created by the state Legislature to help authorities track them.

"The current sex offender registration form fails to effectuate the Legislature's express intent because the form does not designate a place where homeless sex offenders may clearly identify themselves so that they can, without penalty, list a homeless shelter as their residence," Justice Roderick Ireland wrote for the court in the 7-0 ruling.

Charles McDonald, a spokesman for the board, said it would comply with the SJC's suggestion to amend the registration form.

The court's ruling came in the case of Angelo Rosado, a Level 3 sex offender who pleaded guilty in 1991 to raping a child under the age of 16.

When Rosado registered at the Boston Police Department in August 2005, he listed his residence as the address of the Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter. Rosado stayed at the shelter sporadically over the next 90 days.

After the Sex Offender Registry Board mailed him a document at that address and it came back as undeliverable, the board found Rosado had violated his obligation to notify the board at least 10 days before any change in address. He was convicted of violating the registration law for sex offenders.

The SJC overturned that conviction Thursday, disagreeing with state prosecutors who said he had provided false information to the board and failed to report a change of address.

The court noted that the Pine Street Inn uses a lottery system to choose people who can have a bed on any given night and said Rosado's absence from the shelter may have been due to his inability to secure a bed rather than a deliberate choice.

"Because homeless sex offenders, by the very nature of their situation, lack a permanent residence, they have little control over where they live. Here, because the defendant is relying on a lottery system to secure a bed it would be almost impossible to provide ten days' notice," the court said.

The court said it was not, however, asserting that all homeless sex offenders are exempt from complying with the 10-day notice requirement.

Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, said no decision has been made on whether prosecutors would retry Rosado on the registration violation charge.

But Wark said prosecutors would welcome a revised registration form.

"Our primary concern is one of public safety. It may well be a revised form is in order to eliminate any ambiguity," Wark said.

Rosado's lawyer, Andrew Crouch, said Rosado had complied with the strict registration requirements for homeless offenders by initially reporting to the police station every 90 days, and later every 45 days, after the law was made tougher in 2006.

Crouch said he was pleased the court recognized the difficulties faced by homeless offenders who don't know where they will be living from day to day.

"For most individuals who have leases or mortgages, (the 10-day notice of a change of address) is not an arduous process, but for homeless people, it just defies the reality of their situation," Crouch said.
http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storytmp.cfm?id_no=80639&CSAuthResp=1203088360132315%3ALr8jCLITZwHtHw%3D%3D%3ACSUserId%7CCSGroupId%3Asuccess%3Aa6VKBqfNWjsJ91MTOALGog%3D%3D&CSUserId=8254&CSGroupId=5

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

MA: Two articles on teen birth rates. Springfield and Holyoke hightest in state.

Report outlines teen birth rates
Thursday, February 14, 2008, Springfield Republican
By STEPHANIE BARRY
sbarry@repub.com

New statewide birth statistics brought an unwelcome refrain for two Western Massachusetts cities, and revealed an all-time high in Caesarean sections.

Holyoke and Springfield ranked first and second for teen births, according to 2006 statistics released yesterday by the state Department of Public Health.

Holyoke's teen birth rate was 95 per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 and Springfield's was 81. By contrast, the statewide average was about 21 per thousand. Lawrence ranked third with 80 per thousand.

Holyoke and Springfield have garnered two of the top four spots in that category for several years running, public health officials noted yesterday, with no prospects of marked improvement in sight.

"In the western region of the state there's isn't any targeted state funding for programs to decrease pregnancy among teens," said Helen Caulton-Harris, director of the Springfield's Office of Health and Human Services. "People are really working in silos as far as the work of prevention is concerned. We're not really working together in any measurable way."

Those numbers are particularly jarring when compared to statewide teen pregnancy rates, which are 49 percent lower than the national average, according to the report. The state's preterm delivery rate also was lower than the national average by 30 percent, the numbers show.

Holding with past trends, black and Hispanic teens in this area give birth at a higher rate than do white teens.

In Springfield, of the women ages 15 to 19 who gave birth in 2005, 10 percent are white; 24 percent are black; and 65 percent are Hispanic. In Holyoke, those numbers are broken out for whites and Hispanics: 14 percent versus nearly 85 percent.

Showing a sliver of a silver lining in the numbers, the teen birth rate in Holyoke declined by almost 27 percent between 1996 and 2006, the report states.

However, a birthing physician in Holyoke yesterday said she does not anticipate further significant decreases in the near future.

"I don't see it," Dr. Gretchen E. Loebel, medical director of Midwifery Care of Holyoke.

"It's a cultural issue. In the Puerto Rican community they tend to start their parenting very young. The Hispanic community in general tends to put a high value on parenting," she said.

Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, said communities laden with high rates of young women giving birth must focus on sexual education, contraception for teens who are sexually active and opportunities for teens.

"Look at the drop-out rates. It's a pretty close correlation," Quinn said. "The same cities and towns with high drop-out rates also have high teen pregnancy rates."

Other significant findings of the report centered around birth weight, infant mortality, prenatal care and rising numbers of Caesarean-section births and incidents of gestational diabetes.

Caesarean sections have hit an all-time high at just over 33 per thousand, the report shows.

Loebel said that many times, physicians are driven to do more Caesareans by patient demands and the fear of getting sued for not doing the surgery fast enough if complications arise.

She said that Holyoke Medical Center's Caesarean rates are the among the lowest in the state, and her practice resists planned surgeries. One such surgery often results in subsequent surgeries, which increases risk to the mother, Loebel said.

At Baystate Medical Center, where Caesareans are performed at a higher rate, Dr. Heather Z. Sankey said the surgeries have fluctuated with cultural attitudes about what's best for mother and baby.

"In the late 80s, there was a big push. In the 90s, we would track rates and tell someone if they were performing too many," said Sankey, director of the General Obstetrics and Gynecology Division at Baystate.

Now, she believes doctors are making more concessions for elective Caesareans.

"If we can't tell you (a vaginal birth) is not safer for the baby and if you're willing to take that risk, is it fair for us to say no?" she asked.
http://www.masslive.com/republican/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1202977365225050.xml&coll=1

Pregnancy derails Hispanic teens
Friday, February 15, 2008

New state health statistics showing that the cities of Springfield and Holyoke have failed to make a dent in rising teen pregnancies, especially among Hispanics, is discouraging news - not only for the ill-equipped young mothers, but for the economic well-being of the entire region.

In Springfield, 65 percent of teen births in 2005 were to Hispanics, while Holyoke saw a greater number - 85 percent. Even more discouraging than the increase in teen pregnancies, however, is the sense that little can be done to change what some say is a "cultural" phenomenon among Hispanics.

Dr. Gretchen E. Loebel, medical director of Midwifery Care of Holyoke, said she does not anticipate significant decreases in the teenage pregnancy rate among young Hispanics. "I don't see it," she said. "It's a cultural issue. ... The Hispanic community in general tends to put a high value on parenting."

It seems, then, that the challenge for society is to help teenagers understand that postponing pregnancy until they've finished their education - and are financially able to provide for a child - enhances their chances of being good parents.

Cities with high rates of teen births must focus on sexual education, contraception for teens who are sexually active - and opportunities for teens that give them a wider sense of their possibilities. It's a message that must be delivered often and early - at least as early as middle school, perhaps even earlier. Hispanic parents - many of them only 15 or 16 years older than their teenagers - must be involved in the process as well. Because of often deeply held religious beliefs, abortions are rare among Hispanics. Perhaps, then, churches can play a role in encouraging teens to put off parenthood.

Clearly the focus must be prevention. Current state funding is sadly inadequate, and efforts to reach teens are fragmented, according to Helen Caulton-Harris, director of Springfield's Office of Health and Human Services.

If the teen pregnancy epidemic continues, so will poverty - and the cost of dealing with poor mothers and their children will strain the economy of the two cities - and the whole region. The crisis demands that we redouble our efforts to find programs that work.
http://www.masslive.com/republican/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1203063777269040.xml&coll=1

Posted by lois at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

Dream Reborn Conference. Green for All in Memphis Apirl 4-6, 2008

The Dream Reborn (www.dreamreborn.org), a conference Green for All is producing in Memphis at the Cook Convention Center on April 4th-6th. We are holding this gathering of over 1000 people from across the nation to commemorate Dr. King Jr. on the 40th anniversary of his assassination, and to hear positive solutions from today's generation of visionary leaders. The Dream Reborn will be a forum for learning about the new green economy and the opportunity it provides to fulfill Dr. King's dream of racial and economic equality and justice.

The conference will bring together the practitioners of the new green economy, to strengthen our work for ecological solutions that can heal the Earth while bringing jobs, justice, wealth and health to people most in need. Together, we will build a movement for a green economy that is healthy, sustainable, and strong enough to lift people out of poverty.

We will hear from Van Jones (Ella Baker Center/Green For All), Majora Carter (Sustainable South Bronx), LaDonna Redmond (Institute for Community Resource Development), Mary Ann Hitt (Appalachian Voices), Reverend Yearwood (Hip Hop Caucus), Adrienne Maree Brown (Ruckus Society), Tony Anderson (Morehouse College President), Ian Kim (Oakland Green Jobs Corps), Rinku Sen (Applied Research Center), and many more.

Attendees will include:

entrepreneurs of color promoting natural products
food justice growers and sellers
job training program coordinators
city officials implementing green policies

educators in community colleges working on green jobs curricula
policymakers advancing green jobs
youth of color working for climate justice

We are seeking to engage those in the prison reform and abolition movement, and hope The Real Cost of Prisons Project will join us at the conference. We also hope you'll reach out to those in your community who may be interested in the Dream Reborn. To ensure that the event brings together effected communities and empowers people and organizations of color to spark the green jobs wave, we are focusing our outreach on these communities. While all people are welcome at this event, we especially want allies and friends from communities of color to attend.

Register: www.dreamreborn.org/register

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE! Green For All is committed to making low income and communities of color the center of this movement, and are doing our best to provide financial support to get members of these communities to Memphis. We do not want financial barriers to prevent anyone from attending, and are waiving the cost of registration to those that need it. We understand that travel and rooming costs will also be substantial, but unfortunately as a new nonprofit, cannot fully cover these costs. We are calling on schools, community groups, and other partner organizations to work with us to help pay for travel and the cost of accommodations. We are working to provide partial or full stipends as our budget permits, but will rely on the support of our ally organizations to make sure that the people that need financial support can make it to Memphis.

Green for All is also suggesting a few ways our allies who cannot make the conference can be of tremendous help to the movement:

Organize events in conjunction with the national day of action that will take place in the months after Memphis.
Outreach to your friends and acquaintances in organizations that represent communities of color.
Support a young person or someone from a low-income neighborhood, send them to The Dream Reborn with your contribution: Donate: www.dreamreborn.org/donate
Thank you for your invaluable work to build a brighter world. Please contact me with questions. I hope to see you in Memphis!
--
Ada McMahon
The Dream Reborn Outreach Team
www.dreamreborn.org

Posted by lois at 05:58 PM | Comments (0)

KS: Leavonworth: Proposed federal prison would boost area economy

Proposed prison could boost area economy
By Mark Fagan
February 14, 2008

LEAVENWORTH — Anticipated construction of a new medium-security federal prison in Leavenworth would be welcome news for the area as the economy continues to slow.

“We’re talking millions and millions of dollars in expenditures, in construction,” said Charlie Gregor, executive vice president for the Leavenworth-Lansing Area Chamber of Commerce. “This would be for several years, tying up almost all the local contractors with various contracts: concrete, carpenters, wood framing.

“There’s so much that goes into this thing. It’s not like building a big apartment house.”

The project would operate alongside the existing U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, the place built in the early 1900s and that for years operated as a maximum-security prison, holding the likes of George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Robert Stroud, who later would become known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.” Today, it’s being used for medium-security inmates.

Project in budget

Planning for the approximately $300 million new prison already is getting a boost. In his proposed federal budget for the 2009 fiscal year, President Bush has included $1.4 million for construction planning, such as conducting research and field tests to ensure that a site near the existing prison would work. The entire process — from planning to completion — could take up to six years, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Plans call for a new prison big enough for more than 1,100 male inmates, plus 250 employees. Building in Leavenworth — where the Bureau of Prisons has about 1,500 acres of land — would allow the bureau to share costs between two prisons.

Even better, Gregor said, it would give the Leavenworth area more federal employees, which would boost security for families, contractors and businesses who have come to rely on the steadfast economic underpinnings of operations backed by the federal government.

Federal corrections officers earned a starting salary of $28,862 last year.

“These are jobs that are good-paying, solid jobs that have all the best benefits and retirement and all that,” Gregor said. “We have over 400 of those now with the federal prison, and we like those.”

The U.S. military already is building a new disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, which will bring another 400 military personnel to town, who will be likely candidates to stay in the area upon leaving the service, Gregor said.

Widespread benefits

A new federal prison would give the Leavenworth economy and, to a lesser extent, surrounding communities a major infusion of federal funds and the spending they would spur, said Dan Rowe, a principal who leads the justice group for Lawrence-based Treanor Architects. The firm has designed jails in the region, including the Douglas County Jail in southeast Lawrence and a new $60 million addition to an adult detention center in Johnson County.

The anticipated project cost for Leavenworth — $274 million to $298 million, according to the Bureau of Prisons — doesn’t include all the spending by contractors who would come to town to eat lunch, stay in hotels, buy materials and complete other transactions that would make a major project even better for the community’s bottom line.

“We’ve seen orders of magnitude two to three times the size of the construction budget,” said Rowe, who confirmed that Treanor would be interested in seeking design work on the project. “It wouldn’t be unusual for this to have a major impact on the area.”

— Lansing Current editor John Taylor contributed information for this story.

Originally published at: http://www2.desotoexplorer.com/news/2008/feb/14/proposed_prison_could_boost_area_economy/

Posted by lois at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2008

poeta revolutionario raúlrsalinas.

Saludos desde Resistencia Bookstore, Casa de Red Salmon Arts,

It is with great sadness we inform all of our community supporters, comrades, familia and colegas about the passing of our elder, teacher, father, chicanindio, and poeta revolutionario raúlrsalinas.

As you may know, for the past couple of years, raúl has been struggling with his health. We understand that it's difficult for us to let him go, but since the beginning of the year his health continued to be a major challenge. Unfortunately, his body just could not take the strain and was deteriorating at a rapid pace. Even though he has left this realm and it's a great loss para nuestro pueblo, his spirit is strong and lives on in all of us.

As his family provides more information, we will share it with everyone. For now this is just a notification of the passing of our brother. We will notify you about where you can send condolences, flowers, and cards as we get more information. An altar has been created in front of the bookstore on South First St. in Austin, Texas for now. We thank everyone for their good energy and support and prayers in this time of loss and mourning.

CON RESPECTO Y EN LUCHA,
Rene Valdez
February 13, 2008

Posted by lois at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2008

Finding 11-Day Sentence Not Too Little but Too Late

February 12, 2008
Sidebar, NY Times
Finding 11-Day Sentence Not Too Little but Too Late
By ADAM LIPTAK

Matthew Sinor was in his second year of law school at Ohio State a couple of years ago when he heard that an Army buddy had gotten into trouble with the law. Mr. Sinor rescheduled two exams and flew to Mobile, Ala., to make sure nothing went awry at his friend’s sentencing hearing.

The defendant, Sgt. Patrick Lett, had served 17 years in the Army, including two tours in Iraq, and he had pleaded guilty in federal court to selling cocaine. It was up to Judge William H. Steele, a former marine, to decide how to punish him.

“I don’t normally see people standing before me in uniform,” Judge Steele said.

Sergeant Lett’s commanding officer, Capt. Michael Iannuccilli, testified that the man he knew was “a patriot, father and a good man.”

“I would gladly deploy to Iraq with him and entrust my life to him,” Captain Iannuccilli said. “I’d trust my soldiers’ lives to him. He’s been nothing but an exemplary soldier.”

But Sergeant Lett had not had an easy adjustment to civilian life when he returned home to Alabama in 2004. His fiancée left him. His father was dying. He struggled to support his three daughters. He drank. He remembered.

“I’ve seen a lot of things in two wars,” he said at the hearing, in April 2006. “But this war, I saw some very, very strange things that happened. I lost some friends, several friends, and I seen several comrades get killed.”

For five weeks in the spring of 2004, Sergeant Lett, who had no criminal record, went astray. A cousin who dealt in crack cocaine offered to fix Sergeant Lett’s car in exchange for some deliveries. There were seven of them, with a total street value, Sergeant Lett said, of $2,100. They represented, Judge Steele said, “aberrant behavior” from “a model soldier.”

Sergeant Lett re-enlisted in October 2004. He was about to deploy to Iraq again when he was arrested. It turned out he had sold cocaine to an undercover federal agent.

Judge Steele made plain that he wanted to give Sergeant Lett the briefest possible sentence. But Congress had set a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, Judge Steele said, and that is the sentence he reluctantly imposed.

Mr. Sinor, the law student sitting in the courtroom, had studied sentencing law with Douglas A. Berman, an Ohio State law professor and one of the nation’s leading experts on the subject. Judge Steele had, Mr. Sinor believed, overlooked a five-part statutory “safety valve” that permits shorter sentences for defendants with unblemished backgrounds who played minor roles in crimes that did not involve violence and who had told the truth about what happened. Few defendants qualify. Sergeant Lett did.

So Mr. Sinor wrote to Judge Steele, with copies to the lawyers, explaining the point they had all missed. Judge Steele agreed, and he revised Sergeant Lett’s sentence to time served — 11 days.

The next day, the judge invited Sergeant Lett to his chambers for a chat. “You should thank God for a friend like Matt,” Judge Steele said, as Sergeant Lett recalled. “I want you to go back in the military to do some good for your country. I know I will never see you again in my courtroom.”

Later, Judge Steele amended the conditions of Sergeant Lett’s probation to allow him to carry a weapon, a necessity in his line of work.

Sergeant Lett’s defense lawyer, who had been paid $10,000, did not appreciate Mr. Sinor’s intercession, which he called “insulting.”

“If you think five years was a bad job on my part, then you wanted a magician and not a lawyer,” the lawyer, Glenn G. Cortello, wrote to Mr. Sinor in an e-mail message. “When you get out of law school and have practiced criminal law for over 20 years, I’ll discuss it with you.”

On the phone Monday, Mr. Cortello said Sergeant Lett “got lucky” with his five-year sentence. “They would have been justified in giving him 20 years,” Mr. Cortello said.

In April, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta reversed Judge Steele. The decision was frank in its admiration for a fine soldier and mechanical in its application of the law.

The appeals court did not discuss whether Judge Steele had been right to apply the “safety valve,” saying “reasonable arguments can be made on both sides.” Instead, the panel said that the law simply did not allow Judge Steele to revise the sentence once he had imposed it.

True, there is a rule of criminal procedure that allows judges to “correct a sentence that resulted from arithmetical, technical or other clear error,” so long as they do it within seven days. Math can be fixed. But since Judge Steele’s mistake was in his understanding of his own power to do justice, the panel said, Sergeant Lett must serve five years.

Put another way, Judge Steele could have sentenced Sergeant Lett to time served at the sentencing hearing. By the next day, though, it was too late.

Professor Berman and Douglas R. Cole, of Jones Day in Columbus, Ohio, plan to file a petition to the Supreme Court on behalf of Sergeant Lett on Tuesday. They are working without pay.

“This is a person who causes those who know him to go to extraordinary lengths to help him,” Mr. Cole, a former Ohio solicitor general, said of his client.

These days, Patrick Lett, 39, installs fiber-optic lines in Pascagoula, Miss., and he waits for word from the courts. He said he misses the Army, which granted him a general discharge in January 2007. “I’d leave right now if they’d have me,” he said.

At his discharge hearing, two of Sergeant Lett’s comrades testified by telephone from Iraq.

“Put him on a plane right now,” First Sgt. Daniel Sheward said. “I’ll meet him at the airport.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/us/12bar.html?sq=crack&st=nyt&scp=4&pagewanted=print

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

Senate Dems Support New Crack Sentences

February 12, 2008
Senate Dems Support New Crack Sentences
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:52 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on Tuesday rejected Attorney General Michael Mukasey's request to change new sentencing guidelines that would enable thousands of federal inmates to seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences.

In testimony last week, Mukasey asked Congress to pass legislation by March 3 that would block or alter the U.S. Sentencing Commission's directive to apply the possibility for reduced sentences retroactively to people already convicted of crimes involving crack cocaine. The retroactivity could flood courts with applications for early release of thousands of violent criminals, the Justice Department says.

But Democrats and others have long sought ways to correct the fact that the law comes down on crack offenders 100 times harder than those convicted of crimes involving powdered cocaine, and blacks are disproportionately affected by the disparity.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., accused Mukasey of falsely suggesting that the new policy would automatically set free 1,600 violent offenders ''to prey on hapless communities.''

''As the attorney general, himself a former federal judge, should have known ... no one can be released without a hearing before a federal judge who is obligated to evaluate each case and to consider factors such as the criminal history and violence,'' Leahy said in a statement.

''We can't let such scare tactics by the administration deter us from our goal of achieving fairness and legitimacy in the criminal justice system,'' said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Last week, Mukasey told the House Judiciary Committee that he would agree to new sentencing guidelines that reduce federal prison time for crack cocaine convicts -- but only for first-time, nonviolent offenders.

Testifying for the Justice Department, Gretchen C.F. Shappert, a federal prosecutor for the Western District of North Carolina, told the Senate panel Tuesday that the new sentencing rules of retroactivity would be too burdensome on the federal court system. Further, the flood would hit certain court districts disproportionately, she said.

Fifteen federal court districts would bear 43 percent of the estimated eligible offenders, she said, and more than half of the cases would have to be handled by courts between Texas, Atlanta and Richmond.

''I am deeply concerned that the success we are experiencing in some of our most fragile, formerly crack-ravaged communities will be seriously interrupted if these communities are forced to absorb a disproportionate number of convicted felons,'' she said.
Crack, because it is smoked and gets into the bloodstream faster than snorted cocaine, produces a more intense high and is generally considered more addictive than the powdered form of the drug.

But experts say that difference does not warrant the 100-to-1 disparity that was written into a 1986 law that set a mandatory minimum prison term of five years for trafficking in 5 grams of crack, or less than the amount in two packets of sugar. It would take 100 times as much cocaine to get the same sentence.

Four out of every five crack defendants are black, while most powdered-cocaine defendants are white.

Criminologists, doctors and other experts say the differences between the two forms of the drug were largely exaggerated and do not justify the disparity.

A push to shrink the gap in punishments got a boost late last year when reduced federal sentencing guidelines went into effect for crack offenses. In December, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines for federal cases, voted to make the reductions retroactive, allowing some 19,500 inmates, mostly black, to seek reductions in their crack sentences.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/APCongressSentencing.html?_r=1&sq=crack%20cocaine&st=nyt&oref=slogin&scp=1&pagewanted=print

Posted by lois at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)

Committee OKs measure to fund inmates' postsecondary education

The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 02/12/2008

The Senate Education Committee on Monday approved a bill that would fund postsecondary education for 479 prison inmates currently enrolled in college classes.
Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, sponsor of HB86, told colleagues his bill does not expand educational opportunities for Utah's inmates. Rather, the $1.5 million it appropriates would help stabilize existing postsecondary educational programs for inmates. Inmates must pay between 40 and 90 cents per dollar of their tuition based on their pay rate while working in prison, he said.
Educating inmates saves taxpayers' money in the long run by reducing recidivism to as much as 16 percent, Draxler said.
- Ben Fulton
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_8237563

Posted by lois at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

CQ: Crack Sentencing Scrum Moves to Senate as March 3 Rules Change Nears

CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION – LEGAL AFFAIRS
Feb. 11, 2008 – 8:14 p.m.
Crack Sentencing Scrum Moves to Senate as March 3 Rules Change Nears
By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

A Tuesday hearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee is just the latest front in a widening battle between Democrats and administration officials over federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses.

What’s up next? One possibility is legislation designed to block recent action by the U.S. Sentencing Commission — action that effectively reduces sentences for crack cocaine offenses. That legislation may not go very far. But the escalating torrent of incendiary rhetoric designed to maximize political gain could have more far-reaching effects — especially in an election year.

The issue goes back to the late 1980s, when Congress passed mandatory minimum sentences that set the trigger for a five-year prison term at five grams of crack; it takes 500 grams of powdered cocaine to trigger a sentence of equal length. The Sentencing Commission establishes the guidelines judges use to set prison terms; the mandatory minimum sentences set by Congress act as a floor for the guidelines.
Mukasey Request

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey turned a new spotlight on the issue last week by asking lawmakers to send President Bush a bill by March 3 that would roll back the Sentencing Commission’s December decision, which would make the reduction in crack cocaine sentences retroactive. The commission’s decision takes effect on the March date. In return, the Justice Department said it would be willing to discuss the crack/powder disparity.

In a Feb. 7 appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Mukasey raised the specter of hundreds or thousands of drug offenders being precipitously released across the country.

“Many of these offenders are among the most serious and violent offenders in the federal system, and their early release, without the benefit of appropriate re-entry programs, at a time when violent crime had increased in some communities, will produce tragic but predictable results,” Mukasey said.

Democrats quickly and angrily rejected Mukasey’s request, pointing out that every prisoner’s case will be reviewed by a judge, and that violent, dangerous prisoners are not going to be released early.

The Sentencing Commission estimated that some crack cocaine offenders would be slowly released over a period of 30 years, and the decision to apply the change retroactively represented “a partial step in mitigating the unwarranted sentencing disparity” between offenders dealing in crack and those dealing in powdered cocaine.

“Nobody’s taking the key, unlocking the jails and say[ing], ‘Everybody’s out,’ ” said Maxine Waters , D-Calif., at the Feb. 7 hearing. “That does not happen.”

Tuesday’s hearing of the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee will feature Sentencing Commission Chairman Ricardo H. Hinojosa and, representing the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert of the Western District of North Carolina.

So far, the administration has not unveiled a detailed legislative proposal.

A Justice Department official said the administration might seek to change legislation (HR 4842) introduced in December by Lamar Smith of Texas, which would roll back the Sentencing Commission’s decision to make its guidelines retroactive so that the decision would apply only to non-violent, first-time offenders.

Mukasey “knows good and well that a Democratic Congress is not going to bring a bill forward,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton , D-D.C., said of Mukasey’s proposal. “He must be trying to affect the next election.”

Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, previewed a potential GOP counteroffensive at the Feb. 7 hearing, asking Mukasey whether the department could furnish lawmakers with a report “as to what additional crimes those individuals have committed” after they are released.
Senate Bill

The Senate subcommittee chairman, Joseph R. Biden Jr. , D-Del., introduced a bill last June (S 1711) that would eliminate the crack/powder disparity.

The measure also would eliminate the mandatory five-year minimum sentence for crack possession. Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is one of three Democratic cosponsors of the bill.

Some Republicans are interested as well: Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah has introduced a bipartisan bill (S 1865) that would narrow the disparity, as has Jeff Sessions of Alabama (S 1383). Similar legislation is pending in the House.

A coalition of sentencing reform and civil rights groups is planning a day of concerted lobbying Feb. 26 in an effort to draw wider attention to the disparity issue.

Posted by lois at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2008

KY: State juvenile justice changing directions. Rehabilitation, not jail, part of change

2/10/08
State juvenile justice changing directions
Rehabilitation, not jail, part of change

By Deborah Yetter

The Courier-Journal

Kentucky's juvenile justice system is undergoing a major shift in philosophy
-- dropping what critics said had been an emphasis on incarceration and punishment in favor of the treatment and rehabilitation required by law.

"I don't want to hear the word incarceration used in conjunction with juveniles," said J. Michael Brown, the new secretary of justice and public safety. "Our mission is to treat the juveniles, the children that are entrusted to our care."

Ron Haws, 64, a six-year veteran of the Juvenile Justice Department, recently was named acting commissioner by Brown and agrees the department has strayed from its mission.

As a result, it is holding too many youths who may not have committed serious crimes for too long at residential centers sometimes hundreds of miles from their homes, said Haws, who became commissioner Feb. 1.

"We should not have a youth anywhere in the commonwealth in placement any longer than he needs to be there," Haws said.

Policy changes in recent years have filled to capacity the state's 12 residential centers, which now hold 455 youths, Haws said. And the youths tend to serve longer terms at the centers because the department had standardized programs in apparent contradiction of juvenile law that requires individual plans based on the offender's needs.

"What I hope, at the end of my tour of duty, is that we get back to the treatment of youth," Haws said.

Changes welcomed

That attitude is refreshing to some lawmakers, judges and advocates who had become increasingly critical of practices at the department under the previous commissioner, Bridget Skaggs Brown, who left the job in December to become chairwoman of the state Parole Board.

"This is good news," said Christian County District Judge James G. Adams, a former juvenile prosecutor who helped write the 1987 update of the state's juvenile law. "It's like going from the dark into the light."

Sen. Gerald Neal, a Louisville Democrat who helped sponsor legislation creating a separate Juvenile Justice Department in 1996, said he welcomes the proposed changes.

"I consider it a breath of fresh air and a return to rationality," Neal said.

Haws said he wants youths treated and supervised at home or close to home, when possible. If they need to be held in a residential center, he wants to get them out as soon as possible -- except for the most serious offenders who generally are held until they turn 18 and are then re-sentenced as adults.

To help meet that objective, he has restored authority to local juvenile justice workers to make sentencing recommendations to judges. Previously, officials made recommendations from Frankfort, using a scoring system they devised.

Under Haws' system, workers will be able to offer judges extra information, such as a child's family history, emotional status and problems at home or school. Brown said he viewed the previous practice as "micromanaging" and ordered it stopped.

Dropped appeal of order

Haws said he also is working to try to end ongoing legal battles between the juvenile justice department and state public defenders, who represent youths.

His department has dropped its appeal of a judge's order that it stop housing youths who commit minor sex offenses, such as fondling, in long-term residential sex-offender programs. That places them alongside youths who commit more serious crimes, such as sodomy or rape.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, ruling in favor of public defenders, found that practice violated state juvenile law and ordered the department to stop.

In addition to dropping the appeal, Haws said the department has removed all youths who were inappropriately placed in programs with serious sex offenders. Most minor sex offenders should be treated elsewhere -- at home, in group homes or in foster placements, he said.

Haws also directed his department to drop litigation trying to force public defenders to pay 10 cents a page for copies of information they receive from his department, describing that battle as "silly."

New classifying system

Now, Haws said his department is working with the public defenders in the Department of Public Advocacy to resolve a broader dispute over juvenile justice's system of classifying and housing youths.

Public defenders had filed a lawsuit saying the system is too broad and doesn't take into account individual circumstances of children, such as maturity, family support, emotional problems or learning disabilities.

Haws said his staff is trying to work with public defenders to develop a better system and agreed with complaints that the juvenile justice department had adopted a "one size fits all" approach to assessing and placing youths.

Some critics believed Bridget Brown, a former Louisville deputy police chief, brought too much of a law enforcement philosophy to the department, appointing former police officials to top jobs.

"You can't allow law enforcement to trump juvenile justice," said Pete Schuler, chief juvenile public defender in Louisville

Bridget Brown did not respond to a request for comment.

Haws, a former school teacher, has a masters' degree in guidance and counseling and worked in juvenile services in Illinois before coming to work for Kentucky's juvenile justice department in 2002, most recently as the regional administrator in Western Kentucky.

His deputy commissioner is Ann-Lynn Ellerkamp, a former head teacher at one of the department's residential centers in Louisville.

Haws said he's interested in the job permanently.

Michael Brown said Haws will be considered but was named an acting commissioner to get someone on the job right away who shared Brown's views about juvenile justice.

"I wanted somebody to steady the ship," he said.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080210/NEWS01/80
2100481/1008/ARCHIVES

Posted by lois at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

Where candidates stand on crime, death penalty

"The two differ on crime-related issues that have a lower profile but affect many thousands of prisoners, most of them minorities - the disparity between sentences for offenses involving crack and powder cocaine, and the merits of federal mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. On both, Clinton lines up with the prosecution, Obama with the defense."

Where candidates stand on crime, death penalty
Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, February 10, 2008

When Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her campaign for the Senate in 2000, she declared - emphatically, according to an interviewer - that she supported the death penalty.

When Barack Obama first ran for the Illinois state Senate in 1996, he said in a campaign questionnaire that he opposed capital punishment.

Their positions seemed to reflect their political roots - Clinton, the moderate "New Democrat," a term she has used to describe herself; Obama, the insurgent who got his start as a community organizer.

But times change, and so do candidates, particularly on issues that loom as potential minefields for Democrats with presidential ambitions. It's a less delicate topic for Republicans, whose leading candidates - with the exception of maverick Rep. Ron Paul - espouse time-tested, nearly identical law-and-order platforms.

With the Democratic nomination still up in the air after the Super Tuesday primaries, the evolving stances of Clinton and Obama on crime and punishment offer a point of comparison for voters in upcoming primaries, including Tuesday's votes in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Although Clinton and Obama, both lawyers, have some important differences, their positions on two of the most politically sensitive crime issues - the death penalty and gun control - have converged.

By the time Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, he was not advocating abolition of the death penalty, but was saying the system of investigating and prosecuting capital crimes was so flawed that the nation should declare a moratorium on executions, like the one imposed in Illinois by Republican Gov. George Ryan. Obama has abandoned that position as a senator, accepts the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, and calls for reforms like those he championed in Illinois to guard against wrongful convictions, such as the tape-recording of all police interrogations.

Clinton hasn't abandoned her support of capital punishment. But her campaign prefers to emphasize her work on the Innocence Protection Act, a 2004 law that set guidelines for federal prisoners' access to DNA evidence and provided funding for state DNA testing.

On gun control, Obama answered the same 1996 Illinois questionnaire by endorsing a statewide ban on handguns. He soon disavowed that position, claiming that a staffer had filled out the survey in error, but he was still calling for a national ban on carrying handguns as a U.S. Senate candidate in 2004, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

In the Senate, however, Obama has taken a measured position similar to Clinton's, advocating what he calls common-sense restrictions on guns, including a restoration of the federal ban on assault weapons, while promising to protect hunters and crack down on illegal dealers.

Both candidates acknowledged the clout of the gun lobby at a debate in Nevada last month, when Clinton backed away from a 2000 campaign pledge to support a national registry of all handgun sales, and Obama agreed that the proposal would be politically impossible.

The two differ on crime-related issues that have a lower profile but affect many thousands of prisoners, most of them minorities - the disparity between sentences for offenses involving crack and powder cocaine, and the merits of federal mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. On both, Clinton lines up with the prosecution, Obama with the defense.

Such disagreements scarcely exist on the Republican side. John McCain, Mitt Romney (who dropped out of the race Thursday) and Mike Huckabee are equally fervent in their support of the death penalty, opposition to gun control, allegiance to the war on drugs and abhorrence of liberal judges, while occasionally accusing one another of backsliding.

One note of dissent comes from Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, who opposes three-strikes sentencing laws, saying they have "created a system that is overrun with people, and the cost is choking us." But the real dissident in the Republican race is Paul, the Texas libertarian, who opposes the death penalty, favors drug decriminalization and thinks the federal government has far too big a presence in law enforcement.

"All issues of life and violence and crime and murder are dealt with at the local level," Paul says on his campaign Web site. He joins other Republicans in condemning gun control and cites it as a reason to support his resolution to end U.S. membership in the United Nations, "protecting us from their efforts to tax our guns or disarm us entirely."

It's true that most crime is prosecuted locally. But any president can exert a powerful influence on crime policies by backing or blocking legislation on wiretapping, guns, corporate wrongdoing or defendants' rights; by appointing judges, the attorney general, U.S. attorneys, and members of agencies like the U.S. Sentencing Commission; and by deciding whether federal prosecutors should chiefly target gangs, drugs, pornography or securities fraud.

Crime is seldom a prominent issue in presidential primaries, largely because the front-runners in each party typically take similar positions. But the subject can explode on Democrats in a November election.

The prime example was in 1988, when Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who had led Republican Vice President George Bush in early opinion polls, came under withering attack for his support of a furlough program that allowed a convicted murderer named William Horton - dubbed "Willie" in campaign ads - to leave prison in 1986 and rape a Maryland woman.

Dukakis was also the last major-party nominee to oppose the death penalty. He was hurt politically when he responded without apparent emotion to a debate question about whether he would favor execution for someone who raped and murdered his wife.

Bill Clinton, by contrast, interrupted his 1992 presidential campaign and flew back to Arkansas for the execution of a brain-damaged killer named Rickey Ray Rector. As president, Clinton signed a 1994 crime bill that included a major expansion of the federal death penalty; according to the New York Times, first lady Hillary Clinton lobbied fellow Democrats for that provision. Bill Clinton also signed a 1996 law restricting state prisoners' ability to appeal their convictions and sentences in federal court.

The Democratic Party followed his lead, supporting the death penalty in its 1992 and 1996 platforms under Clinton and in 2000 under Al Gore before removing the plank in 2004 at the request of nominee John Kerry, according to published reports. What position the 2008 platform will take is uncertain, but of the remaining Democratic candidates, only former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel opposes capital punishment.

President Clinton also sided with law enforcement on drug policies and attacked California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative, winning a suit to shut an Oakland cannabis dispensary in a case that reached the Supreme Court.

Hillary Clinton and Obama appear to have a different perspective and have both condemned federal raids on California patients and suppliers, though they have not endorsed legalization of medical marijuana or federal immunity for patients in California and states with similar laws. The Republican candidates, except for Paul, support the federal raids.

The Democrats' clearest differences involve sentencing for drug crimes, including the disparity between terms for crack cocaine offenses, which affect mostly black prisoners, and terms for powder cocaine, which affect mostly whites.

When the Sentencing Commission voted in November to lower sentencing guidelines for crack-related crimes, and bring them closer to sentences for powder cocaine, Obama favored applying the new terms retroactively to current prisoners, while Clinton opposed it, saying the change should affect only future cases. The commission voted for retroactivity in December, allowing 19,500 federal inmates to ask judges for sentence reductions, about two years in most cases.

Clinton has also questioned Obama's proposal to scrap some of the more than 170 federal mandatory-minimum laws, which require judges to impose specified prison sentences, most commonly for drug crimes.

Noting that the laws mostly affect minorities and have had many critics, including the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Obama has attacked them as unfair to defendants and unduly restrictive on judges, but he has stopped short of calling for a wholesale repeal. Instead, he promises to review all mandatory minimums and try to eliminate those he considers too harsh.

Beyond specific issues, the two differ somewhat in their approaches, said Jesselyn McCurdy, an attorney on national legislation for the American Civil Liberties Union, which lobbies lawmakers but does not endorse candidates.

"Clinton is more in the moderate column on these crime issues than Obama," McCurdy said. She said Clinton often seems torn between her awareness of injustice and her sense that crime issues are dangerous for Democrats, while Obama, "because of his background as a community organizer, I think, is even more sensitive to concerns" about the justice system.

But the variations within each party are minor on the most important crime-related issue for a president - the judges he or she is likely to appoint - said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the prosecution-oriented Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento.

On that subject, he observed, "the difference between the parties is huge."

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/10/INU0UTBQK.DTL

This article appeared on page E - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by lois at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2008

NY: “Should We Be Sentencing for Dollars: Rethinking the Proposed Drug Tax”

“Should We Be Sentencing for Dollars: Rethinking the Proposed Drug Tax” by Patricia Warth and Alan Rosenthal. Center for Community Alternatives www.communityalternatives.org
The 2008-2009 New York Governor's budget proposes a tax on illegal drug activity that will be imposed on people convicted of drug-related crimes. The Governor estimates that this "Drug Tax" will add $13-$17 million per year to New York's general fund. While the Governor's desire to close New York's budget deficit is understandable, the proposed Drug Tax will not help to achieve this goal. Instead, it will adversely affect reintegration and public safety, producing financial and human costs that will dwarf any revenues the tax generates.
http://www.communityalternatives.org/pdfs/drug%20tax.pdf (report at this url)

Posted by lois at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2008

OR: Lottery money proposed as use for more cages for peole convicted of first time offences

"Mannix's proposed initiative does not come with funding attached, though he has sponsored a different initiative to earmark 15 percent of lottery proceeds for public safety, on top of other voter-approved earmarks for an education reserve fund and parks and watersheds. No specific source of money is identified for the lesser alternative, but the pending bill would tie in drug treatment programs with the increased penalties. "If you enhance sanctions and provide treatment beds, then the governor believes you will see a change in people who are cycling through the system and repeating
(crime) at a higher rate," said Joseph O'Leary, Gov. Ted Kulongoski's senior adviser on public safety."
Statesman Journal
Initiative to increase prison terms
Alternative, more cost-effective bill also considered

PETER WONG
Statesman Journal
February 8, 2008

A alternative measure to increase prison time for some property and drug crimes may pass this session of the Oregon Legislature, although the measure does not go as far as the minimum sentences for first-time offenders that are proposed by former legislator Kevin Mannix of Salem.

Mannix said there is no deal yet concerning a compromise bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee took up for the first time on Thursday. He already has submitted about 150,000 signatures, about 83,000 of which are required to qualify his initiative for the Nov. 4 statewide ballot.

"They're almost asking me to negotiate against myself," Mannix said later. "It's not like we're adding anything to this package in exchange for reductions, just to do less here and there. It's not over, but there is no comprehensive deal that's been agreed to."

District attorneys and legislators are negotiating a less-costly alternative, which would be incorporated into Senate Bill 1087, that would focus increased penalties on repeat offenders.

"Our preferred approach here is an enactment during the session," said John Foote, the Clackamas County district attorney.

"We understand it is a complicated path, and we will seek an alternative if that's not possible. But that's how we would like to see this end this session, and move forward with a solution that helps the problem. We are close on many principles."

It is uncertain whether Mannix can withdraw his measure once signatures are filed. The proposed alternative does contain a referral to voters Nov. 4.

The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission has estimated that Mannix's measure would add 4,000 to 6,000 inmates to the state system, which now tops 13,000, and require spending $256 million to $400 million more in the two-year prison budget. The alternative's price tag is estimated at $55 million per year.

Majority Democrats said Mannix's measure will cost too much.

Mannix was the chief sponsor of a 1994 initiative, known as Measure 11, that set mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes.

Raul Ramirez, the now-retired Marion County sheriff, said police still want tougher sentences for property and drug crimes.

"Our arrests have continued to increase, not decrease," Ramirez said.

Mannix's proposed initiative does not come with funding attached, though he has sponsored a different initiative to earmark 15 percent of lottery proceeds for public safety, on top of other voter-approved earmarks for an education reserve fund and parks and watersheds.

No specific source of money is identified for the lesser alternative, but the pending bill would tie in drug treatment programs with the increased penalties.

"If you enhance sanctions and provide treatment beds, then the governor believes you will see a change in people who are cycling through the system and repeating (crime) at a higher rate," said Joseph O'Leary, Gov. Ted Kulongoski's senior adviser on public safety.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080208/STATE/80
2080334

Posted by lois at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)

NY Times Edititorial: Toward Drug Case Justice

February 9, 2008
Editorial, NY Times
Toward Drug Case Justice

Attorney General Michael Mukasey tried to scare the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday into blocking a responsible plan by the United States Sentencing Commission to address the gross disparity in penalties for possession or sale of crack cocaine and those for powder cocaine offenses. His alarm is unwarranted.

Under current federal law, people convicted of selling 5 grams of crack — most often used in impoverished, minority areas — face the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as offenders caught selling 500 grams of the powdered cocaine popular with more upscale users. This 100-to-1 rule is a legacy of the 1980s, when it was erroneously believed that crack was much more dangerous than the chemically identical powder. Congress made crack cocaine the only drug that carries a mandatory minimum sentence for possession — even for first-time offenders.

For more than a decade, the sentencing commission, which is the bipartisan body that sets guidelines for federal prison sentences, has been urging Congress to address the sentencing disparity. Using its own authority, the commission last year adopted new guidelines aimed at giving crack cocaine offenders a shot at marginally reducing their time in prison. The Bush administration objects to the commission’s recent decision to make those changes retroactive.

Mr. Mukasey warned that unless Congress acts quickly to severely narrow eligibility, “1,600 convicted crack dealers, many of them violent gang members, will be eligible for immediate release into communities nationwide.” That is a distortion.

Under the new guidelines, each petition for early release is to be evaluated by a federal judge in consultation with the authorities. Not all crack offenders are eligible, and judges are specifically directed to weigh public safety concerns. Nothing prevents judges from releasing inmates to a halfway facility, where appropriate, to ease the transition back to society and reduce the chance of recidivism. All offenders would still have to serve their mandatory minimum sentence. On average, the commission estimates, lengthy crack sentences stand to be shortened by less than three years.

The commission issued its plan just a day after the Supreme Court upheld the discretion of judges to dispense lighter sentences for crack cocaine defendants than those recommended by federal sentencing guidelines. Next week, a Senate judiciary subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on reducing the giant chasm of injustice created by the current sentencing scheme.

Instead of brandishing overblown fears to try to defeat a limited reform, Mr. Mukasey should be working with Congress to finally end the damaging 100-to-1 rule.

Posted by lois at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)

Bush's 2009 Budget Cust $198 million from SAMSHA and other Substance Abuse Programs

“Drug-prevention advocates and others are raising the alarm over President Bush's FY2009 budget plan, which slashed $198 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and calls for elimination of the Recovery Community Support Programs and the STOP Underage Drinking program.”

Bush's 2009 Budget Cuts $198 Million from SAMHSA
February 8, 2008

Drug-prevention advocates and others are raising the alarm over President Bush's FY2009 budget plan, which slashed $198 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and calls for elimination of the Recovery Community Support Programs and the STOP Underage Drinking program.

The budget also calls for spending $10 million less on the Drug Free Communities program, a major funding source for many community anti-drug coalitions. "The majority of programs that our field advocates for were recommended for severe cuts," noted Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America in an action alert calling for supporters to contact lawmakers to oppose the cuts. "Only a very small handful of programs were recommended for increases."

Overall, the budget plans calls for increasing defense spending by at least $32 billion, foreign operations by $5.4 billion, and law enforcement and prosecution efforts by $497 million. "The budget invests substantial and needed resources to maintain high levels of military readiness and to continue the transformation of our military to meet the new threats of the 21st Century," Bush said in his budget message to Congress.

But Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, charged Bush with "robbing Peter to pay Paul -- taking critical funds from essential domestic programs to fund the president's pet projects and the president's disastrous war and nation-building adventure in Iraq."

$2.2 Billion Reduction in Discretionary Spending at HHS

Discretionary spending at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would be reduced $2.2 billion under the president's plan, even as the overall budget rises $29 billion due to Medicare, Medicaid, and other mandatory spending. "There are those who will be unhappy with this budget, but given the Medicare system we have, putting off solving the problem is no longer acceptable," said HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt.

In its budget summary, HHS justifies the $198-million decrease in SAMHSA funding by stating, "The budget makes targeted reductions in areas where grantees have not demonstrated improved health outcomes, grant periods are ending, activities can be supported through other funding streams, or efficiencies can be realized."

Major SAMHSA programs slated for cuts or elimination under the president's FY09 budget plan for HHS include its Programs of Regional and National Significance: cut by $250 million, to $639 million. The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment's budget would fall by $63 million, while the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention would have $36 million less to spend next year if Bush's plan were approved. The Center for Mental Health Services would be slashed by $126 million.

On the other hand, Bush is calling for level funding of $98 million for his Access to Recovery program, which allows faith-based groups to compete with traditional treatment providers for voucher-driven funding for treatment services; a $40-million increase for treatment drug courts; and $27 million more for screening and brief interventions.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) would receive $1.002 billion, just $1 million more than in FY 2008, while the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) would receive $436.68 million, up $0.4 million relative to FY08. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would face a $412 million budget cut, including the elimination of the $97 million Preventive Health and Human Services Block Grant.

"PART" of the Problem

In many instances, the administration justified its cuts by pointing to its Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), used to rate the effectiveness of federal programs. In the budget message for HHS, the administration singled out the Recovery Community Support Program for criticism, saying the program was being eliminated "because services provided, such as manicures and other nontraditional therapies, are not based on evidence-based practices for recovery and grantees have not consistently met all performance measures."

Major programs tabbed as "not performing" by PART also are on Bush's chopping block, including the Social Services Block Grant (a proposed $500 million cut) and the Community Services Block Grant ($1 billion in proposed reductions). However, Bush is calling for a modest $20 million increase in the $1.8 billion Substance Abuse Block Prevention and Treatment Grant, even tough PART called the program "ineffective" because of a lack of independent evaluation and a failure to match formula-based funding to substance-abuse prevalence.

The Legal Action Center reported that the $20 million increase would be used to support "supplemental performance awards" for Block Grant recipients that "demonstrate superior performance in preventing and treatment substance abuse." The National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors noted, "The proposed increase for the SAPT Block Grant can be considered unique in an otherwise very difficult budget year."

As with the block grant, the Office of National Drug Control Policy's Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign was blacklisted by PART, noting that "an independent, long-term evaluation found no connection between the campaign advertisements and youth drug use behavior." Yet the administration is calling for $100 million in funding for the program, up from the $60 million appropriated for the ad campaign in 2008.

Elsewhere beyond HHS, the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities state grants program was once again targeted for reduction, with Bush calling for cutting the school-based prevention program from $295 million in 2008 to $100 million in 2009. "The structure of the program is flawed," according to PART. "It spreads funding too broadly to support quality interventions and fails to target schools and communities in greatest need of assistance."

Bush's budget plan also targets the Department of Education's $32 million Alcohol Abuse Reduction grants program for elimination. SDFSC's national programs budget would increase from $137.7 million in 2008 to $282 million in FY09 under the plan, including $10 million for research-based drug prevention or school safety programs, $77.8 million for grants to school districts for comprehensive, community-wide "Safe Schools/Healthy Students" drug and violence prevention projects, $30 million for school emergency preparedness initiatives, $5 million for initiatives in emergency preparedness for institutions of higher education (IHEs), $11.8 million for school-based drug testing for students, $23.8 million for character education programs in elementary and secondary schools, and $5 million to provide emergency response services to LEAs and IHEs under Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence).

At the Justice Department, funding at the Office of Justice Programs -- which supports Weed & Seed projects as well as some addiction treatment and prevention services -- would be cut steeply, with the Bush budget calling for a 65 percent reduction in state and local criminal-justice programs.

http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2008/bushs-2009-budget-cuts-198.html?log-event=sp2f-view-item&nid=35836088

Posted by lois at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2008

AL: All votes count, even prisoners'

Today, there are more than 250,000 people in Alabama who have been disfranchised because of a felony conviction, but nearly 75,000 of these people were convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and have never legally lost their voting rights. Yet nowhere in our state can one find a system in place that distinguishes, for voting purposes, between those convicted of crimes of moral turpitude and those not. Everyone with a felony conviction is barred from voting, contrary to the law.

All votes count, even inmates'
Sunday, February 03, 2008

As Alabama prepares for the presidential primaries Tuesday, my organization, The Ordinary People Society, has been busy registering people to vote. Our work takes us all over the state, including into many jails and prisons. My staff and I have gone to jails in Dothan, Montgomery, Enterprise, Birmingham and Huntsville to register people to vote. Our goal is simple: to ensure those persons who have the right to vote are able to do so, wherever they are.

Most Alabamians don't know there are thousands of people in our jails and prisons who are legally eligible voters. Alabama's constitution takes away the right to vote from those convicted of crimes of "moral turpitude." This controversial practice is called disfranchisement. But many crimes, including nonviolent drug offenses, do not qualify as crimes of moral turpitude and, thus, persons convicted of these crimes never lose their right to vote. Recently, rulings by the state Supreme Court and findings by state Attorney General Troy King have reaffirmed this.

Today, there are more than 250,000 people in Alabama who have been disfranchised because of a felony conviction, but nearly 75,000 of these people were convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and have never legally lost their voting rights. Yet nowhere in our state can one find a system in place that distinguishes, for voting purposes, between those convicted of crimes of moral turpitude and those not. Everyone with a felony conviction is barred from voting, contrary to the law.

The overwhelming majority of the people affected by this illegal practice are black. While blacks make up only 26 percent of our state population, we comprise fully 62 percent of the prison population. Our overcrowded prisons now hold nearly 30,000 people - nearly a third of which are incarcerated on low-level drug charges, mostly simple marijuana possession. These individuals are eligible voters under our constitution.

After visiting jails and prisons throughout the state and registering thousands of voters, I can tell you these people are not being notified of their voting rights, nor is there a system in place that allows them to exercise those rights.

The struggle for equality under the law - especially for voting rights - is a part of our state's history. But as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. emphasized, this struggle is a long one, and it's not yet complete in Alabama.

My organization wants to ensure that everyone's basic voting rights are protected. Voting is the basic foundation of a functioning democracy. With Super Tuesday coming up, registering voters is an important task. In Alabama jails and prisons, there are men and women entitled to vote but never given the opportunity. These votes can change elections; just think of the falsely disfranchised black voters in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

Equality suffers when constitutional rights aren't made equally available. It tarnishes our image as a state and nation when we so blatantly disregard essential, sovereign rights. To make our democracy credible, we have to fairly enforce our laws and ensure that everyone has his rights protected. Otherwise, how far will we have really progressed toward equality?

On King's birthday this year, I registered voters in the Houston County jail. I believe it is what King would have wanted from us - to work for justice. If we are to have equality in our great nation, we must protect the vote for all those who are legally entitled to it, even if they happen to be incarcerated.

I say, let my people vote. From the back of the bus, to the front of the prison, the struggle continues.
The Rev. Kenneth Glasgow is executive director of The Ordinary People Society in Dothan. E-mail: topssociety@yahoo.com.

© 2008 The Birmingham News

Posted by lois at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

Amy Goodman : Denying felons a vote has substantial impact

Published: 02.07.2008

My opinion Amy Goodman : Denying felons a vote has substantial impact

As I raced into our TV studio for our Super Tuesday morning-after show, I was excited. Across the country, initial reports indicated there was unprecedented voter participation, at least in the Democratic primaries, several times higher than in previous elections. For years I have covered countries like Haiti, where people risk death to vote, while the United States has the lowest participation rates in the industrialized world. Could it be this year would be different?
Then I bumped into a friend and asked if he had voted. "I can't vote," he said, "because I did time in prison." I asked him if he would have voted. "Sure I would have. Because then I'm not just talking junk, I'm doing something about it."

Felony disenfranchisement is the practice by state governments of barring anyone convicted of a felony from voting, even after they've served their time. In Virginia and Kentucky, people convicted of any felony can never vote again (this would include "Scooter" Libby, even though he never went to jail, unless he is pardoned).
Eight other states have permanent felony disenfranchisement laws, with some conditions that allow people to rejoin the voter rolls: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Wyoming.
Disenfranchisement — people being denied their right to vote — takes many forms, and has a major impact on electoral politics. In Ohio in 2004, stories abounded of inoperative voting machines, too few ballots or too few voting machines. Then there was Florida in 2000. While many continue to accuse Ralph Nader of throwing the election to George Bush, Nader got about 97,000 votes in Florida. Ten times that number of Floridians are prevented from voting at all. Why? More than 1.1 million Floridians have been convicted of a felony, and thus aren't allowed to vote.
We can't know for sure how they would have voted, but as scholar, lawyer and activist Angela Davis said recently in a speech honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Mobile, Ala., "If we had not had the felony disenfranchisement that we have, there would be no way that George Bush would be in the White House."
Since felony disenfranchisement disproportionately affects African-American and Latino men in the United States, and since these groups overwhelmingly vote Democratic, the laws bolster the position of the Republican Party. The statistics are shocking. Ryan King, policy analyst with The Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., summarized the latest:
● 5.3 million U.S. citizens are ineligible to vote due to felony disenfranchisement; 2 million of them are African-American. Of these, 1.4 million are African-American men, which translates into an incredible 13 percent of that population, a rate seven times higher than in the overall population.
● Forty-eight states have some version of felony disenfranchisement on the books. All bar voting from prison, then go on to bar participation while on parole or probation. Two states, Maine and Vermont, allow prisoners to vote from behind the walls, as does Canada and a number of other countries.
The politicians and pundits are all abuzz with the massive turnouts at the primaries and caucuses. There are increasing percentages of women participating, and initial reports point to more young people. The youth vote is particularly important, as they have less invested in the status quo and can look with fresh eyes at long-standing injustices that disenfranchise so many.
In this context, one of The Sentencing Project's predictions bears repeating here: "Given current rates of incarceration, 3 in 10 of the next generation of black men can expect to be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime. In states that disenfranchise ex-offenders, as many as 40 percent of black men may permanently lose their right to vote."
The Sentencing Project's King said: "We are constantly pushing for legislative change around the country. But public education is absolutely key. There are so many different laws that people simply don't know when their right to vote has been restored. That includes the personnel who work in state governments giving out the wrong information."
I called my friend to tell him he was misinformed. He hadn't been on probation or parole for years. "You can vote," I told him. "You just have to register." I could hear him smile through the phone.
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now," which airs in Tucson on radio station KXCI (91.3-FM) and Access Tucson. For broadcast times and to e-mail Goodman, go to Web site www.democracynow.org
http://www.azstarnet.com/opinion/223938

Posted by lois at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Robert Gangi Op-Ed in NY Newsday: Repeal Rockefeller drug laws, cut prison costs

Newsday.com
Repeal Rockefeller drug laws, cut prison costs

BY ROBERT GANGI

Robert Gangi is the executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a nonprofit prison-monitoring and criminal justice policy organization.

February 8, 2008

New York's elected officials face two critical challenges in the 2008 legislative session: how to close the $4.4-billion deficit confronting the state, and how to break political stalemates and enact significant policy advances. One way they can both save money and show they can govern is to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws.

Enacted in 1973, when Nelson Rockefeller was governor, the laws require harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs. The penalties apply without regard to the circumstances of the offense or the individual's character or background. Whether the person is a first-time or repeat offender, for instance, is irrelevant.

The modifications Albany approved in 2004 and '05 did not amount to real reform. While reducing prison terms slightly, the amendments left intact the statutes' harshest provisions and didn't address the serious problems they cause.

As of Jan. 1, there were more than 13,400 drug offenders in New York State prisons, the vast majority of whom had no history of dangerous behavior. It cost the state about $1.5 billion to construct the prisons to house drug offenders. And the operating expense for confining them comes to about $500 million per year.

Major traffickers usually escape the sanctions of the laws, because the Rockefeller statutes place the main criterion for culpability on the weight of the drugs in a person's possession when he or she is apprehended, not on the actual role played in the narcotics transaction. Aware of the law's emphasis, drug kingpins rarely carry narcotics. Teenagers employed as couriers by those kingpins are more likely to be picked up on the street and charged with a serious felony for possessing a relatively small amount of drugs.

As a principal weapon of the so-called war against drugs, this statute results directly in law enforcement agencies focusing on minor offenders who are the most easily arrested, prosecuted and penalized, rather than on the drug trade's true profiteers.

The drug laws, moreover, have a harsh and disproportionate impact on communities of color. The majority of people who use and sell drugs in New York State and the nation are white. Yet, 90 percent of the people doing time in New York State prisons for a drug offense are African-American or Latino. As of the beginning of this year, African-Americans comprised 58.5 percent of the drug offenders in state prison; Latinos, 31.5 percent; whites, 8.9 percent.

Remedies are available to address these problems. Many studies have demonstrated that drug treatment programs are, on the whole, more successful than imprisonment in reducing drug abuse and crime rates and in increasing drug offenders' ability to find and hold jobs. The cost of keeping an inmate in a New York State prison for one year is $36,835. In comparison, the cost of most drug-free outpatient care runs between $2,700-$4,500 per person per year, and the cost of residential drug treatment is $17,000-$21,000.

Although alternative programs are more effective and less expensive than imprisonment, mandatory-sentencing laws limit the court's ability to use them. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice's new drug diversion program is a step in the right direction, except that judges and not prosecutors should decide which offenders take part in such alternatives.

As long as the Rockefeller drug laws remain on the books, a governor and legislature of more than three decades ago will have more to say about the outcomes of today's narcotics cases than the judges who sit on the bench today and hear all the evidence presented.

The state's current leaders can reverse the terrible mistake of their long-ago predecessors by removing the stain of these laws from New York's penal code. If they are wary of political liabilities, they can seek insulation and take courage from the widespread support that the public has shown for reforming the Rockefeller drug laws.

This past June, the United States Conference of Mayors, which represents the mayors of large cities, unanimously approved a resolution stating that the war on drugs has failed.

The resolution also condemned mandatory minimum sentences and the incarceration of drug offenders, and called for more funding for treatment programs.

By adopting the Rockefeller repeal, the governor and legislative leaders will achieve substantial government savings - more than $200 million annually, according to a Correctional Association analysis - demonstrating to a skeptical press and public that Albany can govern in sensible and strategic ways to deal with its serious fiscal problems. They would also advance a constructive policy reform that will result in the reduction of drug-trade-related crime and the restoration of fairness to the administration of justice.

Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opgan085568385feb08,0,2213203.story

Posted by lois at 04:49 PM | Comments (0)

Mukasey Warns of Drug Case Releases

February 8, 2008
Mukasey Warns of Drug Case Releases
By NEIL A. LEWIS
NY Times

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey warned Congress on Thursday that unless it enacted legislation quickly, hundreds of people in jail for cocaine offenses, “many of them violent gang members, will be eligible for immediate release into the community nationwide.”

But as Mr. Mukasey delivered the message to the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing, he found himself upbraided and criticized by members who said he was vastly overstating the situation.

Democrats noted that no one would be released from jail without a hearing before a federal judge who would be obliged to evaluate each case in consultation with the authorities.

Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, said Mr. Mukasey was squandering his credibility by raising the fear that many violent offenders would soon be released.

Ms. Waters said his statement was misleading and added that the last attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, was forced to resign over a lack of credibility.

Mr. Mukasey, a former federal judge in New York who succeeded Mr. Gonzales, did not dispute that there was a process in place that relied on federal judges to decide who could be released.

At issue is a ruling by the United States Sentencing Commission that, beginning March 3, defendants convicted of crack cocaine offenses be sentenced under new guidelines with lesser penalties. The commission also said that the new guidelines would be applied retroactively. Those actions were part of the continuing debate over how to narrow differences in sentences for crack and powder cocaine.

The commission issued its plan immediately after the Supreme Court ruled in December that federal judges may hand down lighter sentences for crack cocaine defendants than those recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.

Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the committee’s ranking Republican, has introduced legislation that would eliminate the commission’s plan to make the new guidelines for crack cocaine sentences retroactive. Both Democrats and Republicans said there was no expectation that the legislation would be enacted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/washington/08mukasey.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Crack+Cocaine&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Posted by lois at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

AZ: Our Opinion: Keeping prisons in line. Lawmakers need to pass watchdog legislation over burgeoning private industry

Our Opinion: Keeping prisons in line
Lawmakers need to pass watchdog legislation over burgeoning private industry
Tucson Citizen

Another year, another attempt by the Arizona Legislature to exercise oversight over one of the state's true growth industries: private prisons.
A bill introduced in the Legislature two years ago went nowhere, and a bill offered in 2007 by Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-Tucson, never escaped from committee.
We hope this year's version does not suffer a similar fate.
Keeping the public safe is the government's responsibility, and watching over for-profit penitentiaries is an important part of that job.
It's a big job. More than 4,000 Arizona inmates are housed in the 11 private prisons in the state, along with more than 9,000 out-of-state and federal inmates.

The bill does not place onerous restrictions on our private prisons. It merely keeps Arizona apace with other states. As both Department of Corrections chief Doris Schriro and Attorney General Terry Goddard have pointed out, Arizona's private facilities are far less regulated than their counterparts elsewhere.
The bill would prohibit private prisons from housing out-of-state convicts whose offenses equate to Class 1 or Class 2 felonies in Arizona (such as murderers), repeat escapees or persons infected with communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis or hepatitis.
It would force the prisons to quickly tell the Department of Corrections about disturbances and allow DOC to investigate. The bill also gives the state the ability to fine private prisons for violations.
The 2008 bill has a few things going for it. For one, the legislation has bipartisan provenance. It was crafted by Gov. Janet Napolitano's office and was introduced by Sen. Robert Blendu, a Litchfield Park Republican.
Blendu has been a supporter of private prisons who bluntly summarized one rationale for passing the bill: "We cannot become the private-prison attraction for the child molesters of our country," referring to a provision that would ban the housing of sex offenders.
Another reason for optimism: The private prison industry last year made headlines that demonstrated it could use a little regulation.
• In September, two convicted murderers escaped from a private facility in Florence. One was caught within hours; the other roamed free for months.
• In April, Arizona inmates rioted at a private prison in Indiana. They were protesting their transfer to a facility thousands of miles from their loved ones. That's a common practice in the industry, though it hinders rehabilitation.
Not surprisingly, the people who run private prisons aren't happy with the regulation effort.
"If you change the rules of the game midstream, we are going to resist it because we invested based on current rules," a senior vice president for Corrections Corp. of America, which runs five prisons in the state, told The Arizona Republic.
That statement substantiates one of the prime criticisms of private prisons: That they're more interested in protecting what they have "invested" in than they are in the public good.
The state has cast its lot with private prisons because they supposedly can do the job more efficiently than can government.
Arizonans should have the right, through the passage of SB 1142, to ensure that this is the case and that their tax dollars are being spent wisely and to ensure their safety.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/76351.php

Posted by lois at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2008

CO: Joint Budget Cmte Chief Urges Prison Expansions

The Pueblo Chieftain
2/7/08
JBC chief urges prison expansions
By CHARLES ASHBY
CHIEFTAIN DENVER BUREAU

DENVER - Colorado should begin serious talks about expanding some of its state-owned prisons, the head of the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee said Tuesday.

Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, is upset that private prison companies operating in the state incarcerate about 20 percent of all state inmates. He says with one company running four of the five private prisons here, they have too great a negotiating position and can dictate terms to the Legislature.

One such company, Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, is requesting a 5 percent hike in the per diem rate the state pays it or it will bar Colorado inmates from being housed in one of its facilities.

Because of that, and years of emphasis on private prisons under former GOP Gov. Bill Owens in general, Buescher advised the Legislature's Capital Development Committee to give serious thought to funding some expansion proposals for state facilities that previously were rated low on its priority list. And that includes Trinidad Correctional Facilities and a slew of others in Southern Colorado.

"This would force the state of Colorado to accelerate the construction of prison capacity," Buescher told the six-member CDC, which prioritizes construction projects for the Legislature. "On your list laid out as No. 61 (Trinidad), that could be a project that we have to accelerate in order to deal with this problem."

The CDC currently has only enough money to fund the first 25 items on its list, which is still being developed.

Late last year, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter's appointee to the Colorado Department of Prisons, Ari Zavaras, proposed nearly $500 million in new prison construction, projects that are low on the CDC's list of projects to consider.

Leading those projects is expanding the 484-bed Trinidad facility to a 2,541-bed multi-custody "mega facility" similar to one the state already has in Sterling.

That expansion was the original intent of the Trinidad facility before Owens stopped it shortly after taking office in 1999, in favor of contracting with private prisons.

"We find ourselves in a very difficult situation," Buescher said.

The CDC also is considering expansion projects at San Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo (250 new beds), Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Canon City (1,007 beds) and Fort Lyons Correctional Facility near Denver (250 beds).

The state already is expecting 948 more beds to become available next year when the Colorado State Penitentiary II project in Canon City is completed.

Other options to increase the number of state-owned prison beds include double-bunking existing facilities, lowering the state's recidivism rate and using county jails, Buescher said.

The talk about expanding new prisons, however, could put the CDC's annual prioritization into disarray.

Currently, the panel is considering how to prioritize about $652 million in construction requests, but it has only about $233 million to spend.

Sen. Ken Kester, R-Las Animas, and Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West and a CDC member, agree that expanding Trinidad should be done regardless of any problem with CCA.

But one CDC member, Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, isn't so sure.

"That's something that I want to talk to the JBC about," Penry said. "I want to get a better sense of what's going on. We do need to make sure, going forward, we have some greater leverage."

AREA PROJECTS

Here's a listing of Southern Colorado construction projects the Legislature's Capital Development Committee is considering in order of the six-member panel's current priority. The committee has received $650 million in requests, but has only about $232 million to spend.

- Suicide Risk Prevention program at Colorado Mental Health Institute-Pueblo and Fort Lyons, $3.3 million.

- McCandless State Veterans Nursing Home in Florence, $2.2 million.

- Equipment and furnishings at Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, $4 million.

- Pueblo Community College academic building, $3 million.

- Colorado State Patrol troop office in Alamosa, $1.2 million.

- Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad track upgrade, $1.5 million.

- Adams State College Richard Hall expansion, $12.6 million.

- Colorado State University-Pueblo academic resource center, $11.1 million.

- Adams State College computer and security plan upgrades, $1.7 million.

- San Carlos Correctional Center expansion in Pueblo, $59.6 million.

- Trinidad Correctional Center expansion, $12.1 million.

- Colorado Women's Correctional Facility expansion in Canon City, $4.6 million.

- Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility expansion in Crowley, $5.4 million.

- CSU's San Luis Valley Research Center improvements, $4.4 million.

- Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad locomotive, passenger cars and Antonito shop renovations, $800,000.

- Sol Vista Youth Services Center expansion, $843,000.

- Otero Junior College wellness center construction and wireless network, $800,000.

- PCC technology facility improvements, $1.6 million.
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1202370358/4

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

In New York, a fight brews between renewable energy and jails

February 7, 2008
In New York, a fight brews between renewable energy and jails
Posted by Michael Kanellos

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.--Jails or jobs. Those are the terms of a battle over a plot of land in the South Bronx, according to activist Majora Carter.

The Sustainable South Bronx, a community group focused on cleaning up poor communities, is trying to build a green industrial park on a 25-acre piece of land in a blighted section of the Bronx slated for redevelopment. The idea is to draw in companies that will make solar panels from solar cells and/or "green roofs" (lawns that are put on top of apartment buildings). The development will create jobs in the area, she said, as well as allow the land to be used in a relatively safe, nonpolluting way.

The city of New York, however, has unfurled plans to build a 2,000-bed jail on the site.

"I find it hard to believe that they would consider these 2,000 beds part of an affordable housing scheme," she said during a presentation at the Clean Tech Investor Summit, taking place here this week.

I have not had a chance to speak to officials from the city to get their view.

Carter spoke at the conference to argue that a connection exists between the growing green industry and some of the problems impacting the inner city. Life in the poor sections of urban America, she said, is awful. In the South Bronx, unemployment has climbed to 25 percent and the percentage of people living in poverty is around 40 percent. The median income is $20,000 a year.

Many of these problems, she argued, can be traced to environmental degradation. A disproportionate percentage of New York's waste disposal facilities and power plants are located in the South Bronx. That has created health problems--one in four kids has asthma, she said. Learning disabilities occur at a higher rate in areas associated with higher air pollution in several studies, she noted.

The area also has little in the way of greenbelts, which leads to the need for more wastewater facilities (greenbelts suck up water runoff), which leads to more power plants and more pollution.

A large portion of South Bronx residents end up in jail or prison, she added, which can follow a lack of job opportunities or learning disabilities. In turn, that requires more tax dollars for prisons. Prisons, in fact, are one of the growth industries in several counties in New York. In short, a despoiled environment can lead to unemployment and crime and more taxes, she said.

Conversely, green initiatives can help. The organization started a job program a few years ago that trained people in jobs such as retrofitting buildings to make them more green. Eighty-five percent of the participants got jobs.

"It is the kind of multiplier effect that cities need to see," she said.
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9866607-54.html

Posted by lois at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2008

Mukasey to urge Congress to stop release of inmates convicted on crack cocaine charges

Mukasey to urge Congress to stop release of inmates convicted on crack cocaine charges
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/
February 6th, 2008
Mukasey to urge Congress to stop release of inmates convicted on crack cocaine charges

WASHINGTON (CNN) ‹ Attorney General Michael Mukasey plans to ask Congress to urgently pass a law to restrict the number of potentially violent federal prisoners who may be released as early as next month because of reduced sentences for crack cocaine-related convictions.

Justice Department officials Wednesday said that when Mukasey appears before a House Committee Thursday he will urge lawmakers to ensure that only non-violent, first-time offenders would be considered for release under guidelines set by the U.S. Sentencing Commission two months ago.

By acknowledging that a small category of inmates should be considered for release, the proposal appears to represent a grudging partial compromise plan from a Justice Department that has been staunchly opposed to cocaine sentencing guidelines that pave the way for any early releases.

Posted by lois at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

CT: Prisons In Crisis Mode. Some Want To Open 504-Bed Wing In Cheshire

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctcheshire0206.artfeb06,0,6780283.story

Prisons In Crisis Mode. Some Want To Open 504-Bed Wing In Cheshire
By KATIE MELONE | Courant Staff Writer
February 6, 2008

As legislators have debated how to control the state's spiking prison population, the state has quietly plowed ahead on a multimillion-dollar renovation of a 504-bed wing of the Cheshire prison ‹ space it plans to keep vacant.

Over the years, correction officers and their union have made no secret that they object to reserving the prison's north block for emergencies instead of opening it to ease overcrowding at other prisons.

But now, they say, the long-simmering debate over its use has reached a boiling point.

The state's total prison population recently reached an all-time high of 19,875, and correction officers say that constitutes the very type of emergency the north block is supposed to address.

If north block were opened "we wouldn't have 500 inmates sleeping in crowded conditions and nontraditional bedding in the state of Connecticut, we would take inmates off gymnasium floors and put them in security," said David Testa, president of the AFSCME Local 387. "It would be better for the staff, the inmates and the public. If something occurs inside and there's a big problem, it affects everybody outside also."

The state has spent $12.4 million renovating Cheshire's brick north block, the oldest part of a prison built by a chain gang in the early 1900s. Work continues for the sole purpose of getting it in shape for an emergency that would require a mass evacuation of another prison.

And, despite the system's ever-increasing population ‹ an expert recently predicted it may increase another 25 percent to 25,000 in four years ‹ the DOC insists it still has no plans to open it to inmates.

The location of the facility ‹ less than 4 miles from the house where two parolees allegedly killed a mother and her two daughters in July ‹ adds another layer to controversy surrounding the north block. "We have made very clear that some of our facilities are crowded," said Brian Garnett, spokesman for the Department of Correction. "We do have inmates in nontraditional housing areas. That said, the facilities remain safe, secure and humane."

As of last Thursday, there were 427 more inmates than there were appropriate beds in the 18-facility system.

State Sen. Sam Caligiuri, a tough-on-crime Republican whose district includes Cheshire, said he supports using the north block only as a last resort, and only after public comment.

Caligiuri said that he's confident Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz has met her duty to keep the prisons in working order and functioning properly, and that three-strikes-and-you're out legislation he has supported would not increase the prison population enough to exacerbate overcrowding.

But Rep. Mike Lawlor, a Democrat and co-chairman of the judiciary committee, said the state may have no choice but to open the north block if the governor and legislature don't address overcrowding by either building more prisons or lowering the prison population.

The governor's lifting of a temporary ban on parole should help to an extent. But parole hearings for violent offenders aren't scheduled to begin until March, and the board of pardons and parole is waiting for thousands of police and court documents before it can make decisions on hundreds of inmates.

"Something's going to give here," said Lawlor. "The simplest and quickest thing is to open the 400 or 500 cells at Cheshire. It's not a great idea because we need to have a place to reserve if there's a fire.

"On the other hand you're going to have a riot or a fire" if you don't open up the north block, he said. "Until the prison population starts coming down, we're going to be in this crisis mode. We're about to crack 20,000 inmates, which would've been unthinkable."

Complicating matters, the town of Cheshire and at least one of its state representatives are opposed to opening the north block to inmates. The prison, which emits roughly 450,000 gallons of wastewater each day ‹ 100,000 more than in its contract ‹ eats up capacity at Cheshire's water treatment facility. If inmates were added to the north block, the prison will further cut into that capacity, which the town would rather be using to accommodate development of some kind, says Michael Milone, the Cheshire town manager. Furthermore, added inmates would bring the town no added tax revenue, whereas development would.

"For the people who live up there what happens is naturally there's an additional concern about public safety," said Milone. "I have to say the prison has been a very good neighbor. We're lucky that there have been minimal incidents in the last 10 years."

But, he said, "naturally we're concerned about the people who live around the prison and what does it mean to have added population," Milone said. "A lot of this occurred in reaction to a tragedy that happened in this town, and we have to pay for the fallout from it and the state's reaction to it.

"It's like we've gotten it at both ends," he added. "It's a lingering concern that we all have because that facility is there and it's not occupied."

Posted by lois at 06:07 PM | Comments (0)

NY Times Editorial on Juvenile Lifers: "A Shameful Record"

February 6, 2008
Editorial, NY Times
A Shameful Record

The United States leads the world in a shameful category: the number of people it has locked up for life without parole for crimes committed by juveniles. Juvenile crime should not be taken lightly, but young people should not be completely written off.

According to Human Rights Watch, 2,380 people in this country are serving life sentences for crimes they committed before they turned 18. That makes the United States an extreme global outlier. Sentencing juveniles to life without parole is at odds with international law; the vast majority of the world’s countries ban the practice.

Some juvenile criminals commit horrible crimes, and the justice system should punish them accordingly. Juveniles, though, are not adults. Even their brain development is different, making them less able than older people to resist impulses. Consideration should also be given to the nature of the crime. In some cases, juveniles have been imprisoned for life for acting as accessories or lookouts for adults. Putting a 16-year-old who played such a role in jail for perhaps 65 years is an extraordinarily harsh, and expensive, societal response.

There are ongoing efforts in several states to impose sorely needed balance to the law. In California, the Legislature recently failed to act on a bill that would have allowed the more than 225 inmates serving life sentences there for crimes committed as minors the right to appear before a parole board after serving 25 years in prison. The bill deserves to be reintroduced, and to pass.

California is hardly the only state that needs to rethink its approach. As many as 38 states sentence minors to life without the chance of parole, including Pennsylvania, the worst offender, where hundreds of inmates — estimates range from 360 to 433 — have no hope of ever being released because of crimes they committed between the ages of 13 and 18.

There are now more than 2 million people behind bars in the United States. Locking up juveniles for life without parole is unfair and a poor use of criminal justice resources. California, and the other states, should rethink this misguided policy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/opinion/06wed5.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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CA: CCA demands 5% rate increase & threatens to move prisoners out of state

Wednesday February 06, 2008
Private prisons demand 5 percent rate increase
By CHARLES ASHBY
CHIEFTAIN DENVER BUREAU

DENVER - A private prison company is threatening to move all Colorado inmates out of one of its facilities if it doesn't get an increase in what the state pays to house them.

Corrections Corporation of America, which operates four of the state's five private prisons, including three in Southern Colorado, is demanding that the Colorado Legislature give it a 5 percent hike in the per diem it receives to house about 4,000 state inmates, Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, said Tuesday.

Buescher, chairman of the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee, said the Tennessee-based company is using its weight to try to force more money out of the state.

"We've got a negotiating disadvantage," he said. "The choice we've got to make is to give them a provider rate increase that is three times what we're giving to all other providers, or to build hundreds of millions of dollars in additional prisons. We don't have that hundreds of millions of dollars, and they know it. The decisions that have been made over the last 12 years (in using private prisons) have put us in a very difficult negotiating position."

Steve Owen, spokesman for the Nashville company, said CCA is simply trying to do what's best for its business. He said the company agreed to a lower per diem rate in 2001 when the state was suffering from a major budget shortfall.

Since then, however, the state hasn't made up the difference.

"We were basically asked to help with the burden of trying to ease some of those (budget) constraints, which we did," Owen said. "So, there's nothing Draconian at work here in terms at what has been presented to the state. We're just honestly trying to put options out there to help preserve this partnership with Colorado so we can continue to provide the services to the state and keep our folks employed out there."

In 2001, the state had been paying CCA a $53.33 per diem. That amount was lowered to less than $50 and has since risen to $52.69, still far less than what it would be receiving after seven years of inflation and cost increases.

Now the company is asking for $55.32 per inmate a day.

"We've actually had a real dollar decrease," Owen said. "That's compounded with another issue that the state has underutilized beds that we've made available. Between those two things, it makes for a difficult situation on a financially viable business operation."

Currently, the company - which operates private prisons in Bent, Huerfano, Crowley and Kit Carson counties - has about 460 open beds, and that doesn't count the 1,440 more that are expected to become available later this year because of expansions of the Bent and Kit Carson facilities, Owen said.

Owen said that if the state can't pony up more money, his company would consider consolidating all Colorado prisoners in three of its facilities. The fourth facility, which has not been determined, would be used for inmates from the federal prison system or other states, some of which pay anywhere from $10 to $15 a day more than Colorado.
Still, some lawmakers said they didn't like the idea of the company demanding a 5 percent hike at a time when the state can only afford to give other private providers, from health care to human services, less than 1 percent.

Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West and a longtime critic of private prisons, said the state should call CCA's bluff and give them no increase.

"I don't like doing business when we're being held hostage, and that's exactly what this is," McFadyen said. "We saw it coming. We had a past governor (Bill Owens) who brought us private prisons without a bid process, now we're dealing with it. If they don't want to work with us, we don't have to play ball with them."

Sen. Ken Kester, however, said lawmakers shouldn't fly off the handle.

He said the situation isn't that bad, and the Legislature should acknowledge that the company did the state a favor when it accepted a pay cut during the recession.

"We've got 1,500 beds coming on line by CCA. They're stepping up to the plate doing what we feel Colorado needs to have done, and I admire them for doing that. It's saving up like $100 million in construction monies. I surely believe we can work something out to where they will not shut down Huerfano County (prison) or any other one."
©1996-2008The Pueblo Chieftain Online
http://www.chieftain.com/print.php?article=/metro/1202287522/4

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February 05, 2008

Kansas prisons see drop in recidivism

Feb. 04, 2008
Kansas prisons see drop in recidivism
By JIM SULLINGER
The Star’s Topeka correspondent

TOPEKA | The percentage of Kansas inmates who commit new crimes while on supervised release has dropped significantly over five years.

The rate, which was a little more than 5 percent in 2002, fell to 2.2 percent last year, Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz told lawmakers Monday.

He attributed the reduction to increased legislative funding for programs that supervise inmates after they leave prison, and more dollars for alcohol and drug treatment.

Werholtz said that with fewer offenders returning to prison, the number of inmates in Kansas prisons has decreased from 9,153 in 2004 to 8,854 in mid-2007.

“There is sufficient (prison) capacity to meet our needs for the next 10 years,” Werholtz told the House Appropriations Committee.

However, he said that prediction assumed that the Legislature would not pass new sentencing laws that would put more offenders in prison.

“During the last week of January, the prison population fell below 8,700, which was the first time that had been done since July, 2002,” he said.

Werholtz praised the passage last year of SB 14, which enacted a grant program to encourage community corrections programs to reduce revocation rates at least 20 percent.

The law also reduced sentences by 60 days for offenders who complete job training and drug abuse programs in prison.

Rep. Pat Colloton, the Leawood Republican who sponsored the House legislation, said the goal was to save money and rehabilitate criminals by preventing return trips to prison.

Werholtz said two bills now being considered could increase the ranks of prisoners.

One bill would require prison time for anyone convicted of multiple drunken-driving charges. The other would require a prison sentence for several felony crimes.

The possibility of their passage prompted the Corrections Department to get approval last year to issue $39 million in bonds for future prison construction.

If needed, the first project would be two new cell houses at the state prison at El Dorado that would house 512 inmates, Werholtz said.

Some committee members expressed concern about taking on additional debt, but Werholtz assured them, “I don’t plan to build capacity we don’t need.”

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/475592.html

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MI: Jury awards women $15.4 million for sexual abuse in prison

Jury awards women $15.4 million for sexual abuse in prison
2-2-08

By Tina Lam, Detroit Free Press
Ten current and former prisoners at the state's Scott Women's Correctional Facility held hands and sobbed as a Washtenaw County jury awarded them $15.4 million in damages today for rapes, invasions of privacy and sexual harassment at the hands of corrections officers.

The 10 jurors took the unusual step of reading a formal apology to the tearful women on behalf of the citizens of Michigan for what they had suffered.

"We would like to express our extreme regret and apologies," one juror read to the women standing, heads mostly bowed, before them. Washtenaw Circuit Court Judge Timothy Connors gave the plaintiffs a chance to speak to the jury.

J
"I'm heading back to prison today," one of the women said, facing the jury. "I feel strong today because of you. I thank you for believing in us."

The verdicts ranged from $335,000 to $3.6 million. The jurors found there was a sexually hostile atmosphere at the prison and the state did not act to protect the prisoners. Today's verdict came after a three-week trial.

The state expects to appeal the case, said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

Seven of the women are still prisoners at Scott and three have been released.

"I was shocked," said one of the plaintiffs, whose name the Free Press is not disclosing because of the nature of the acts. She has been released from prison and lives in Saginaw with her children. "We've had so many doors closed along the way."

The prisoners testified in court about sexual advances, rapes, and officers they said groped them several times a day. One was 16 when she testified to being raped by a officer in his 50s, another teen testified she was raped repeatedly by the same officer and another was forced to perform oral sex and raped at different times by three different officers. The women said the officers made sexual comments and would at times pull aside shower curtains to watch them showering.

"We showed there was a pervasive, sexually abusive atmosphere at Scott Regional Correctional Facility," said plaintiff's attorney Deborah LaBelle. The women are part of a group of 400 current and former prisoners in the class action lawsuit which covers the state's three women's prisons. Another trial involving female inmates who claim sexual abuse is scheduled later this month in the same courtroom. The large number of potential victims raises the stakes for the state.

Beginning about seven years ago, the state started removing male officers from the housing of female inmates.

The case was first filed in 1996 but only came to trial this year after years of appeals and stays over issues such as whether prisoners are covered under the state's civil rights law. A federal judge ruled last year that they are covered.

LaBelle said the plaintiffs have tried for 12 years to get the state to recognize there's a problem.

"The state says it's consensual, or that it doesn't believe what the women say," she said.

Earlier this week, a Huron Valley Women's Correctional Center correctional officer was sentenced to three years in prison by a Washtenaw Circuit Court jury for raping a female prisoner. "It goes on and on," LaBelle said. More trials are scheduled this year.

The state has argued that many of the assaults were not reported, and that when they were reported, it disciplined the officers involved, including one arrest of an officer at the prison.

Contributing: Staff writer Dawson Bell contributed to this report.
http://usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-02-prison-abuse_N.htm?imw=Y

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VA: Measure to reduce cost of prison system dies in subcommittee

"Del. Todd Gilbert of Wood stock disregarded the 13,000-plus signature petitions presented by Lillie Branch Kennedy of RIHD – Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged. Del. Gilbert stated that the petition signatures didn’t hold much weight for him because he felt that there was already enough incentive for prisoners to do better...."

Measure to reduce cost of prison system dies in subcommittee

Op-Ed by Keith William DeBlasio

In a time when the fiscal crunch is always the topic and House Republicans claim to be fiscally responsible, a House subcommittee consisting of just four delegates refused to advance a bill that reduce the cost of corrections.
Del. Dwight C. Jones of Richmond offered legislation, HB 906, that would have afforded Virginia prisoners 2.5 extra good conduct days each month. The fiscal-impact statement indicated that this legislation might save the Commonwealth hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years.

According to the fiscal impact statement, “The proposed legislation could, however, significantly alter the need for new prisons. Based on the current inmate population forecast, it is anticipated that the state will need to open a new 1,500-2,000 bed prison in 2011 and at least a 1,000-bed facility in 2013. The current estimated construction costs of these facilities range from $110-125 million each and the annual operating costs would be approximately $25 million each. The proposed legislation could result in delaying the need for a new prison until 2013, thereby eliminating the need for one in FY 2011.”

Much testimony was given to the fact that too many of those incarcerated are nonviolent offenders who pose no true public-safety risk and do not need to be incarcerated.

In previous discussions, a representative from the Virginia Departments of Corrections stated that “we should remember four numbers - 6, 6, 100 million, and 225 million.” He stated that, at the current rate, we needed six new prisons over the course of the next six years at a cost to build of $100 million dollars a piece and a cost of $225 million dollars a year to operate. But the dollars and sense meant nothing to three of the four delegates who voted on Friday to pass the bill by indefinitely, effectively killing it for the year.

Del. Todd Gilbert of Wood stock disregarded the 13,000-plus signature petitions presented by Lillie Branch Kennedy of RIHD – Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged. Del. Gilbert stated that the petition signatures didn’t hold much weight for him because he felt that there was already enough incentive for prisoners to do better, and he later joined delegates Cline and Poindexter in putting the bill to bed.

The only legislator on the subcommittee who seemed to pay attention to the room full of supporters was Del. James Shuler of Blacksburg, who moved the committee to at least consider a trial run of the legislation and implored the committee allow this important cost-savings legislation to go to the floor where the full House could vote on the vital measure. However, Del. Shuler’s motion died for the lack of a second. Del. Shuler is the only Democrat on the subcommittee.

Do Virginians truly realize how much of the state budget is eaten by corrections? Do Virginians actually realize how many nonviolent, non-risk individuals are incarcerated? Do Virginians realize how many services are neglected in order to support the growing corrections budget? Well, perhaps it doesn’t really matter, since just three legislators can keep ignoring the pleas of citizens and stop legislation from getting any further than their small subcommittee.

Keith Wm. DeBlasio is the executive director of AdvoCare Inc.
http://thenewdominion.com/?p=1992#comment-21703

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Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

On not winning the Nobel Prize

I am standing in a doorway looking through clouds of blowing dust to where I am told there is still uncut forest. Yesterday I drove through miles of stumps, and charred remains of fires where, in '56, there was the most wonderful forest I have ever seen, all now destroyed. People have to eat. They have to get fuel for fires.

This is north-west Zimbabwe in the early eighties, and I am visiting a friend who was a teacher in a school in London. He is here "to help Africa," as we put it. He is a gently idealistic soul and what he found in this school shocked him into a depression, from which it was hard to recover. This school is like every other built after Independence. It consists of four large brick rooms side by side, put straight into the dust, one two three four, with a half room at one end, which is the library. In these classrooms are blackboards, but my friend keeps the chalks in his pocket, as otherwise they would be stolen. There is no atlas or globe in the school, no textbooks, no exercise books, or biros. In the library there are no books of the kind the pupils would like to read, but only tomes from American universities, hard even to lift, rejects from white libraries, or novels with titles like Weekend in Paris and Felicity Finds Love.

There is a goat trying to find sustenance in some aged grass. The headmaster has embezzled the school funds and is suspended, arousing the question familiar to all of us but usually in more august contexts: How is it these people behave like this when they must know everyone is watching them?

My friend doesn't have any money because everyone, pupils and teachers, borrow from him when he is paid and will probably never pay him back. The pupils range from six to twenty-six, because some who did not get schooling as children are here to make it up. Some pupils walk many miles every morning, rain or shine and across rivers. They cannot do homework because there is no electricity in the villages, and you can't study easily by the light of a burning log. The girls have to fetch water and cook before they set off for school and when they get back.

As I sit with my friend in his room, people drop in shyly, and everyone begs for books. "Please send us books when you get back to London," one man says. "They taught us to read but we have no books." Everybody I met, everyone, begged for books.

I was there some days. The dust blew. The pumps had broken and the women were having to fetch water from the river. Another idealistic teacher from England was rather ill after seeing what this "school" was like.

On the last day they slaughtered the goat. They cut it into bits and cooked it in a great tin. This was the much anticipated end-of-term feast: boiled goat and porridge. I drove away while it was still going on, back through the charred remains and stumps of the forest.

I do not think many of the pupils of this school will get prizes.

The next day I am to give a talk at a school in North London, a very good school, whose name we all know. It is a school for boys, with beautiful buildings and gardens.

These children here have a visit from some well known person every week, and it is in the nature of things that these may be fathers, relatives, even mothers of the pupils. A visit from a celebrity is not unusual for them.

As I talk to them, the school in the blowing dust of north-west Zimbabwe is in my mind, and I look at the mildly expectant English faces in front of me and try to tell them about what I have seen in the last week. Classrooms without books, without textbooks, or an atlas, or even a map pinned to a wall. A school where the teachers beg to be sent books to tell them how to teach, they being only eighteen or nineteen themselves. I tell these English boys how everybody begs for books: "Please send us books." I am sure that anyone who has ever given a speech will know that moment when the faces you are looking at are blank. Your listeners cannot hear what you are saying, there are no images in their minds to match what you are telling them in this case the story of a school standing in dust clouds, where water is short, and where the end of term treat is a just-killed goat cooked in a great pot.

Is it really so impossible for these privileged students to imagine such bare poverty?

I do my best. They are polite.

I'm sure that some of them will one day win prizes.

Then, the talk is over. Afterwards I ask the teachers how the library is, and if the pupils read. In this privileged school, I hear what I always hear when I go to such schools and even universities.

"You know how it is," one of the teacher's says. "A lot of the boys have never read at all, and the library is only half used."

Yes, indeed we do know how it is. All of us.

We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers.

What has happened to us is an amazing invention -- computers and the internet and TV. It is a revolution. This is not the first revolution the human race has dealt with. The printing revolution, which did not take place in a matter of a few decades, but took much longer, transformed our minds and ways of thinking. A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked, What is going to happen to us now, with this invention of print? In the same way, we never thought to ask, How will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by this internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging etc.

Very recently, anyone even mildly educated would respect learning, education, and our great store of literature. Of course, we all know that when this happy state was with us, people would pretend to read, would pretend respect for learning. But it is on record that working men and women longed for books, and this is evidenced by the founding of working men's libraries and institutes, the colleges of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Reading, books, used to be part of a general education.

Older people, talking to young ones, must understand just how much of an education reading was, because the young ones know so much less. And if children cannot read, it is because they have not read.

We all know this sad story.

But we do not know the end of it.

We think of the old adage, "Reading maketh a full man" - and forgetting about jokes to do with over-eating - reading makes a woman and a man full of information, of history, of all kinds of knowledge.

But we in the West are not the only people in the world. Not long ago a friend who had been in Zimbabwe told me about a village where people had not eaten for three days, but they were still talking about books and how to get them, about education.

I belong to an organisation which started out with the intention of getting books into the villages. There was a group of people who in another connection had travelled Zimbabwe at its grass roots. They told me that the villages, unlike what is reported, are full of intelligent people, teachers retired, teachers on leave, children on holidays, old people. I myself paid for a little survey to discover what people in Zimbabwe want to read, and found the results were the same as those of a Swedish survey I had not known about. People want to read the same kinds of books that we in

Europe want to read - novels of all kinds, science fiction, poetry, detective stories, plays, and do-it-yourself books, like how to open a bank account. All of Shakespeare too. A problem with finding books for villagers is that they don't know what is available, so a set book, like the Mayor ofCasterbridge, becomes popular simply because it just happens to be there. Animal Farm, for obvious reasons, is the most popular of all novels.

Our organisation was helped from the very start by Norway, and then by Sweden. Without this kind of support our supplies of books would have dried up. We got books from wherever we could. Remember, a good paperback from England costs a month's wages in Zimbabwe: that was before Mugabe's reign of terror. Now with inflation, it would cost several years' wages. But having taken a box of books out to a village - and remember there is a terrible shortage of petrol - I can tell you that the box was greeted with tears. The library may be a plank on bricks under a tree. And within a week there will be literacy classes - people who can read teaching those who can't, citizenship classes - and in one remote village, since there were no novels written in the language Tonga, a couple of lads sat down to write novels in Tonga. There are six or so main languages in Zimbabwe and there are novels in all of them: violent, incestuous, full of crime and murder.

It is said that a people gets the government it deserves, but I do not think it is true of Zimbabwe. And we must remember that this respect and hunger for books comes, not from Mugabe's regime, but from the one before it, the whites. It is an astonishing phenomenon, this hunger for books, and it can be seen everywhere from Kenya down to the Cape of Good Hope.

This links improbably with a fact: I was brought up in what was virtually a mud hut, thatched. This kind of house has been built always, everywhere there are reeds or grass, suitable mud, poles for walls. Saxon England for example. The one I was brought up in had four rooms, one beside another, and it was full of books. Not only did my parents take books from England to Africa, but my mother ordered books by post from England for her children. Books arrived in great brown paper parcels, and they were the joy of my young life. A mud hut, but full of books.

Even today I get letters from people living in a village that might not have electricity or running water, just like our family in our elongated mud hut. "I shall be a writer too," they say, "because I've the same kind of house you lived in."

But here is the difficulty, no?

Writing, writers, do not come out of houses without books.

There is the gap. There is the difficulty.

I have been looking at the speeches by some of your recent prizewinners. Take the magnificent Pamuk. He said his father had 500 books. His talent did not come out of the air, he was connected with the great tradition.

Take V.S. Naipaul. He mentions that the Indian Vedas were close behind the memory of his family. His father encouraged him to write, and when he got to England he would visit the British Library. So he was close to the great tradition.

Let us take John Coetzee. He was not only close to the great tradition, he was the tradition: he taught literature in Cape Town. And how sorry I am that I was never in one of his classes, taught by that wonderfully brave, bold mind.

In order to write, in order to make literature, there must be a close connection with libraries, books, with the Tradition.

I have a friend from Zimbabwe, a Black writer. He taught himself to read from the labels on jam jars, the labels on preserved fruit cans. He was brought up in an area I have driven through, an area for rural blacks. The earth is grit and gravel, there are low sparse bushes. The huts are poor, nothing like the well cared-for huts of the better off. A school - but like one I have described. He found a discarded children's encyclopaedia on a rubbish heap and taught himself from that.

On Independence in 1980 there was a group of good writers in Zimbabwe, truly a nest of singing birds. They were bred in old Southern Rhodesia, under the whites - the mission schools, the better schools. Writers are not made in Zimbabwe. Not easily, not under Mugabe.

All the writers travelled a difficult road to literacy, let alone to becoming writers. I would say learning to read from the printed labels on jam jars and discarded encyclopaedias was not uncommon. And we are talking about people hungering for standards of education beyond them, living in huts with many children - an overworked mother, a fight for food and clothing.

Yet despite these difficulties, writers came into being. And we should also remember that this was Zimbabwe, conquered less than a hundred years before. The grandparents of these people might have been storytellers working in the oral tradition. In one or two generations there was the transition from stories remembered and passed on, to print, to books. What an achievement.

Books, literally wrested from rubbish heaps and the detritus of the white man's world. But a sheaf of paper is one thing, a published book quite another. I have had several accounts sent to me of the publishing scene in Africa. Even in more privileged places like North Africa, with its different tradition, to talk of a publishing scene is a dream of possibilities.

Here I am talking about books never written, writers that could not make it because the publishers are not there. Voices unheard. It is not possible to estimate this great waste of talent, of potential. But even before that stage of a book's creation which demands a publisher, an advance, encouragement, there is something else lacking.

Writers are often asked, How do you write? With a wordprocessor? an electric typewriter? a quill? longhand? But the essential question is, "Have you found a space, that empty space, which should surround you when you write?" Into that space, which is like a form of listening, of attention, will come the words, the words your characters will speak, ideas - inspiration.

If a writer cannot find this space, then poems and stories may be stillborn.

When writers talk to each other, what they discuss is always to do with this imaginative space, this other time. "Have you found it? Are you holding it fast?"

Let us now jump to an apparently very different scene. We are in London, one of the big cities. There is a new writer. We cynically enquire, Is she good-looking? If this is a man, charismatic? Handsome? We joke but it is not a joke.

This new find is acclaimed, possibly given a lot of money. The buzzing of paparazzi begins in their poor ears. They are feted, lauded, whisked about the world. Us old ones, who have seen it all, are sorry for this neophyte, who has no idea of what is really happening.

He, she, is flattered, pleased.

But ask in a year's time what he or she is thinking I've heard them: "This is the worst thing that could have happened to me," they say.

Some much publicised new writers haven't written again, or haven't written what they wanted to, meant to.

And we, the old ones, want to whisper into those innocent ears. "Have you still got your space? Your soul, your own and necessary place where your own voices may speak to you, you alone, where you may dream. Oh, hold onto it, don't let it go."

My mind is full of splendid memories of Africa which I can revive and look at whenever I want. How about those sunsets, gold and purple and orange, spreading across the sky at evening. How about butterflies and moths and bees on the aromatic bushes of the Kalahari? Or, sitting on the pale grassy banks of the Zambesi, the water dark and glossy, with all the birds of Africa darting about. Yes, elephants, giraffes, lions and the rest, there were plenty of those, but how about the sky at night, still unpolluted, black and wonderful, full of restless stars.

There are other memories too. A young African man, eighteen perhaps, in tears, standing in what he hopes will be his "library." A visiting American seeing that his library had no books, had sent a crate of them. The young man had taken each one out, reverently, and wrapped them in plastic. "But," we say, "these books were sent to be read, surely?" "No," he replies, "they will get dirty, and where will I get any more?"

This young man wants us to send him books from England to use as teaching guides.

"I only did four years in senior school," he says, "but they never taught me to teach."

I have seen a teacher in a school where there were no textbooks, not even a chalk for the blackboard. He taught his class of six to eighteen year olds by moving stones in the dust, chanting "Two times two is ..." and so on. I have seen a girl, perhaps not more than twenty, also lacking textbooks, exercise books, biros, seen her teach the A B C by scratching the letters in the dirt with a stick, while the sun beat down and the dust swirled.

We are witnessing here that great hunger for education in Africa, anywhere in the Third World, or whatever we call parts of the world where parents long to get an education for their children which will take them out of poverty.

I would like you to imagine yourselves somewhere in Southern Africa, standing in an Indian store, in a poor area, in a time of bad drought. There is a line of people, mostly women, with every kind of container for water. This store gets a bowser of precious water every afternoon from the town, and here the people wait.

The Indian is standing with the heels of his hands pressed down on the counter, and he is watching a black woman, who is bending over a wadge of paper that looks as if it has been torn from a book. She is reading Anna Karenin.

She is reading slowly, mouthing the words. It looks a difficult book. This is a young woman with two little children clutching at her legs. She is pregnant. The Indian is distressed, because the young woman's headscarf, which should be white, is yellow with dust. Dust lies between her breasts and on her arms. This man is distressed because of the lines of people, all thirsty. He doesn't have enough water for them. He is angry because he knows there are people dying out there, beyond the dust clouds. His older brother had been here holding the fort, but he had said he needed a break, had gone into town, really rather ill, because of the drought.

This man is curious. He says to the young woman, "What are you reading?"

"It is about Russia," says the girl.

"Do you know where Russia is?" He hardly knows himself.

The young woman looks straight at him, full of dignity, though her eyes are red from dust, "I was best in the class. My teacher said I was best."

The young woman resumes her reading. She wants to get to the end of the paragraph.

The Indian looks at the two little children and reaches for some Fanta, but the mother says, "Fanta makes them thirstier."

The Indian knows he shouldn't do this but he reaches down to a great plastic container beside him, behind the counter, and pours out two mugs of water, which he hands to the children. He watches while the girl looks at her children drinking, her mouth moving. He gives her a mug of water. It hurts him to see her drinking it, so painfully thirsty is she.

Now she hands him her own plastic water container, which he fills. The young woman and the children watch him closely so that he doesn't spill any.

She is bending again over the book. She reads slowly. The paragraph fascinates her and she reads it again.

"Varenka, with her white kerchief over her black hair, surrounded by the children and gaily and good-humouredly busy with them, and at the same visibly excited at the possibility of an offer of marriage from a man she cared for, looked very attractive. Koznyshev walked by her side and kept casting admiring glances at her. Looking at her, he recalled all the delightful things he had heard from her lips, all the good he knew about her, and became more and more conscious that the feeling he had for her was something rare, something he had felt but once before, long, long ago, in his early youth. The joy of being near her increased step by step, and at last reached such a point that, as he put a huge birch mushroom with a slender stalk and up-curling top into her basket, he looked into her eyes and, noting the flush of glad and frightened agitation that suffused her face, he was confused himself, and in silence gave her a smile that said too much."

This lump of print is lying on the counter, together with some old copies of magazines, some pages of newspapers with pictures of girls in bikinis.

It is time for the woman to leave the haven of the Indian store, and set off back along the four miles to her village. Outside, the lines of waiting women clamour and complain. But still the Indian lingers. He knows what it will cost this girl - going back home, with the two clinging children. He would give her the piece of prose that so fascinates her, but he cannot really believe this splinter of a girl with her great belly can really understand it.

Why is perhaps a third of Anna Karenin here on this counter in a remote Indian store? It is like this.

A certain high official, from the United Nations as it happens, bought a copy of this novel in a bookshop before he set out on his journey to cross several oceans and seas. On the plane, settled in his business class seat, he tore the book into three parts. He looked around his fellow passengers as he did this, knowing he would see looks of shock, curiosity, but some of amusement. When he was settled, his seat belt tight, he said aloud to whomever could hear, "I always do this when I've a long trip. You don't want to have to hold up some heavy great book." The novel was a paperback, but, true, it is a long book. This man is well used to people listening when he spoke. "I always do this, travelling," he confided. "Travelling at all these days, is hard enough." And as soon as people were settling down, he opened his part of Anna Karenin, and read. When people looked his way, curiously or not, he confided in them. "No, it really is the only way to travel." He knew the novel, liked it, and this original mode of reading did add spice to what was after all a well known book.

When he reached the end of a section of the book, he called the air hostess, and sent the chapters back to his secretary, travelling in the cheaper seats. This caused much interest, condemnation, certainly curiosity, every time a section of the great Russian novel arrived, mutilated but readable, in the back part of the plane. Altogether, this clever way of reading Anna Karenin makes an impression, and probably no one there would forget it.

Meanwhile, in the Indian store, the young woman is holding on to the counter, her little children clinging to her skirts. She wears jeans, since she is a modern woman, but over them she has put on the heavy woollen skirt, part of the traditional dress of her people: her children can easily cling onto its thick folds.

She sends a thankful look to the Indian, whom she knew liked her and was sorry for her, and she steps out into the blowing clouds.

The children are past crying, and their throats are full of dust.

This was hard, oh yes, it was hard, this stepping, one foot after another, through the dust that lay in soft deceiving mounds under her feet. Hard, but she was used to hardship, was she not? Her mind was on the story she had been reading. She was thinking, She is just like me, in her white headscarf, and she is looking after children, too. I could be her, that Russian girl. And the man there, he loves her and will ask her to marry him. She had not finished more than that one paragraph. Yes, she thinks, a man will come for me, and take me away from all this, take me and the children, yes, he will love me and look after me.

She steps on. The can of water is heavy on her shoulders. On she goes. The children can hear the water slopping about. Half way she stops, sets down the can.

Her children are whimpering and touching it. She thinks that she cannot open it, because dust would blow in. There is no way she can open the can until she gets home.

"Wait," she tells her children, "wait."

She has to pull herself together and go on.

She thinks, My teacher said there is a library, bigger than the supermarket, a big building and it is full of books. The young woman is smiling as she moves on, the dust blowing in her face. I am clever, she thinks. Teacher said I am clever. The cleverest in the school - she said I was. My children will be clever, like me. I will take them to the library, the place full of books, and they will go to school, and they will be teachers - my teacher told me I could be a teacher. My children will live far from here, earning money. They will live near the big library and enjoy a good life.

You may ask how that piece of the Russian novel ever ended up on that counter in the Indian store?

It would make a pretty story. Perhaps someone will tell it.

On goes that poor girl, held upright by thoughts of the water she will give her children once home, and drink a little of herself. On she goes, through the dreaded dusts of an African drought.

We are a jaded lot, we in our threatened world. We are good for irony and even cynicism. Some words and ideas we hardly use, so worn out have they become. But we may want to restore some words that have lost their potency.

We have a treasure-house of literature, going back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans. It is all there, this wealth of literature, to be discovered again and again by whoever is lucky enough to come upon it. A treasure. Suppose it did not exist. How impoverished, how empty we would be.

We own a legacy of languages, poems, histories, and it is not one that will ever be exhausted. It is there, always.

We have a bequest of stories, tales from the old storytellers, some of whose names we know, but some not. The storytellers go back and back, to a clearing in the forest where a great fire burns, and the old shamans dance and sing, for our heritage of stories began in fire, magic, the spirit world. And that is where it is held, today.

Ask any modern storyteller and they will say there is always a moment when they are touched with fire, with what we like to call inspiration, and this goes back and back to the beginning of our race, to the great winds that shaped us and our world.

The storyteller is deep inside every one of us. The story-maker is always with us. Let us suppose our world is ravaged by war, by the horrors that we all of us easily imagine. Let us suppose floods wash through our cities, the seas rise. But the storyteller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us -for good and for ill. It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, that represents us at our best, and at our most creative.

That poor girl trudging through the dust, dreaming of an education for her children, do we think that we are better than she is - we, stuffed full of food, our cupboards full of clothes, stifling in our superfluities?

I think it is that girl, and the women who were talking about books and an education when they had not eaten for three days, that may yet define us.

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

Iowa GOP Probe Location of New Prison

"At a news conference, Rep. Steve Lukan, R-New Vienna, Rep. Lance Horback, R-Tama, and Rep. Dave Tjepkes, R-Gowrie, said the state should ensure the location of a new prison is best for a variety of factors, including the cost of transporting inmates for health care, attracting professional staff, such as pharmacists and nutritionists, and providing access to inmates' families. The prison should be considered a tool for public safety, not a tool for economic development for the Fort Madison community, they argued."

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/02/04/ap4611752.html

Associated Press
Iowa GOP Probe Location of New Prison
By AMY LORENTZEN 02.04.08, 2:31 PM ET

DES MOINES, Iowa -
House Republicans on Monday called for state officials to rethink a plan to build a new prison in Fort Madison.

Gov. Chet Culver wants to replace the aging Iowa State Penitentiary with a new prison in Fort Madison, a southeastern Iowa community of about 11,500 people where the current prison employs more than 500 people.

Last fall, a bipartisan legislative panel supported a $240 million plan to build the new prison there and improve prisons in Newton and Mitchellville as well as boost community-level corrections.

But House Republicans encouraged legislators to study the matter further before zeroing in on Fort Madison.

At a news conference, Rep. Steve Lukan, R-New Vienna, Rep. Lance Horback, R-Tama, and Rep. Dave Tjepkes, R-Gowrie, said the state should ensure the location of a new prison is best for a variety of factors, including the cost of transporting inmates for health care, attracting professional staff, such as pharmacists and nutritionists, and providing access to inmates' families.

The prison should be considered a tool for public safety, not a tool for economic development for the Fort Madison community, they argued.

"If we're going to make a large building project and lay it on the expense of the taxpayers we think that the decision should be based on efficiency and effectiveness," said Tjepkes, a retired state trooper. "We do not think that that location should be determined on a political basis."

Horbach said while there are good employees in Fort Madison, nearly 400 of the 533 current employees would be of retirement age or older within a decade of a new prison's completion.

"Those are all things that we think we need to have a discussion about," he said.

GOP lawmakers also criticized Culver's plan to use bonds to finance a new prison. Instead, they called for a "pay as you go" system that requires no new bonds.

They also argued that the state should wait for a new classification system for inmates to sort out just how many minimum, medium and maximum security beds are needed.

Despite Republican objections, House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, said during a legislative forum last week that the new prison will almost certainly be in Fort Madison.

"To be honest with you, it's probably a done deal for several reasons. The first one is ... you have the infrastructure there, second, you have the staff that's trained," he said. _______________

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/02/04/news/metro/2ea3daec7094e82e862
573e4001443a9.txt

Monday, February 4, 2008 4:30 AM CST

Fill-some prison blues: Culver unveils massive corrections plan BY CHARLOTTE EBY, Courier Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES --- For a few days in November 2005, Iowa's prison system found itself in an unflattering spotlight after two inmates serving life prison sentences escaped from the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

A little more than two years later, leaders at the Statehouse are considering an infusion of cash to ease the overburdened system.

Gov. Chet Culver has called for a more than $250 million investment in Iowa's corrections system, including the construction of a new maximum security prison at Fort Madison.

The current prison, established in 1839 when Iowa was still a territory, houses the most serious offenders. Culver argues a new facility will provide more security for staff and inmates and minimize the chance of escapes.

"It needs to be replaced for the simple fact that there are more efficient ways of dealing with those offenders," said John Baldwin, director of the Iowa Department of Corrections.

The prison's security came under scrutiny after the escapes. The inmates, who had been working in the prison industries program, used upholstery webbing and plumbing supplies to fashion grappling hooks they used to scale the limestone prison wall.

A study conducted after the 2005 escapes suggested a number of changes Culver has embraced.

The governor wants to build a new $131 million prison at Fort Madison on one of the institution's outlying farms. It would open in 2014.

Culver also is calling for modernization of the prisons in Mitchellville, Mount Pleasant and Rockwell City.

Sen. Tom Hancock, D-Epworth, chairman of the Senate committee that oversees prison budgets, isn't predicting what lawmakers ultimately will approve.

"It's going to be a very serious discussion," Hancock said.

Culver wants to issue bonds to pay for a new facility in Fort Madison.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, said bonding historically has been used to pay for prison construction and makes financial sense.

He said Fort Madison needs to be rebuilt because it poses serious safety issues, and the Legislature is more likely than not to move forward with at least a portion of the proposed prison projects.

"You know it's a very tight budget year this year, and we're doing a lot of number-crunching, and this is a big deal to put this in motion," McCarthy said.

The women's prison in Mitchellville would be upgraded and expanded to a capacity of 700 to help house the fastest-growing segment of Iowa's prison population. That $68 million project would be paid for with part of Iowa's settlement with tobacco companies.

Not all convinced

Some Republicans in the Legislature are questioning the details of the plan, including how it would be financed.

State Rep. Lance Horbach, R-Tama, believes the state should use money in the infrastructure fund rather than bonding for prison construction. He likened bonding to putting the costs of a new prison on a credit card and making minimum payments.

The location of the prison is another factor for Horbach, who stresses a prison will last for the next 100 years or more.

When the Fort Madison prison was built, Horbach said, it was built near the "interstate" of its time, the Mississippi River.

"It is no longer the interstate, and it is no longer where we do business in this state," Horbach said.

He is frustrated some lawmakers don't seem willing to look at other locations that might make more sense.

Placing a new prison near an existing one could save transportation and staffing costs, Horbach argues. And he notes the difficulty of recruiting professionals needed to staff a prison in a more rural area. ?

Rep. David Tjepkes, R-Gowrie, agrees with Horbach that the location of Fort Madison in the southeastern corner of the state makes it difficult to bring in staff such as psychiatrists, psychologists and pharmacists.

"Logistically, Fort Madison is in a terrible location," Tjepkes said.

Others emphasize the staff already exists in Fort Madison and the prison should be kept there.

"If we put it somewhere else, those staff aren't going to move. We'd have to retrain them and start them and that would just (be) extremely expensive. We have an investment already," said Rep. Todd Taylor, D-Cedar Rapids, who chairs the House committee overseeing the corrections budget.

Community-based corrections

Many in the Legislature favor expanding community-based corrections facilities.

They provide less restrictive sanctions, including residential facilities where some offenders can serve out sentences or stay while they are on work release.

Supporters note it immediately could affect the prison population, because up to 400 inmates on any given day have been granted work release but are waiting for a bed to open up at a local facility.

The number on the waiting list could be cut in half by adding beds in areas with the longest waiting lists.

Horbach is on board with plans to expand community corrections.

"It gives the local judges an alternative to prison, and it gives a resolution that's close to home," Horbach said.

Karen Herkelman, director of the 1st Judicial District Department of Correctional Services based in Waterloo, is hopeful lawmakers add beds to the facility there.

Currently, getting offenders out of prison in a timely manner is difficult after they have been approved for work release by the state's parole board.

"Once they're ready to be moved back to the community, we want them to be able to come back as soon as possible," Herkelman said.

Additional beds also would be welcomed by corrections officials in the Sioux City area.

Linn Hall, director of the 3rd Judicial District Department of Correctional Services, said they have a close to six-month waiting list at the Sioux City facility. ????

He notes most offenders in the facility also are employed, helping to offset their cost to the state and letting them pay for other obligations such as child support. Many earn their GEDs or attend community colleges to upgrade their skills.

"Frankly, one of the theories behind community based corrections is the ability of us to be responsive to local needs," Hall said. ?

Rehabilitation efforts

Culver also is proposing new spending for rehabilitation programs.

He wants to spend $10 million to create community resource centers in Des Moines and Waterloo.

Those centers would provide services --- with the help of community groups and businesses --- to stop behaviors that could land offenders back in prison.

"We want to make sure the person gets a chance to stop working their way up the corrections continuum," Baldwin said.

One-stop "re-entry" and recovery programs also would be established in Black Hawk and Polk counties.

Those programs will help parolees just out of prison with issues of substance abuse, mental health, education and housing to try to ensure they don?t violate the terms of their parole.

Herkelman said officials are concerned about the high incarceration rate of African-Americans in Black Hawk County, and the resource center is meant to address their needs.

"It will have long-term, positive impact," she said. ??

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

AZ: Prison will double size in expansion

Prison will double size in expansion
Aaron Royster, Miner Staff Writer
2/4/2008

Management & Training Corporation announced Wednesday its intention
to more than double the inmate capacity at the Kingman prison.

The Utah-based company responded to a request for proposal from the
Arizona Department of Corrections by submitting a bid to expand the
Arizona State Prison capacity from 1,400 inmates to 3,400.

"MTC is very pleased with the opportunity the Arizona Department of
Corrections has given us to manage the Kingman facility at its
current inmate capacity," said Odie Washington, MTC senior
corrections vice president, in a news release.

MTC built an effective workforce by mainly hiring from the local
community, Washington said.

"They are successfully rehabilitating inmates and turning lives
around," he said. "We would welcome the opportunity to serve an even
larger offender population at the current site."

"It's a shame there is a need for any additional prison space in
Arizona." County Supervisor Buster Johnson said.

"But the sad reality is our state does have a need."

The site of the current facility provides the Arizona Department of
Corrections with room to expand, because the Industrial Park is
already zoned to allow correctional facilities.

The current location also has the critical water supply necessary to
accommodate such an expansion. According to Golden Valley Improvement
District Supervisor Zelda Wright, the GVID signed an extension with
MTC in 2006 that will provide sufficient water for the expansion.

A sign of growth

Increasing the capacity of the facility located on the industrial
corridor off of Interstate 40 would require $130 million to $150
million in new construction, according to MTC communication director
Carl Stuart.

Also, last year MTC provided $9.3 million in salaries and benefits to
employees at the Kingman prison. It also paid $295,289 in property
taxes. The expansion would also bring the prison's annual payroll to
more than $15 million.

"These salaries, benefits and tax payments will undoubtedly grow
substantially if the expansion bid is accepted," Stuart said.

The facility also makes annual restorative justice payments to the
community in excess of $300,000 through inmate community service
projects and corporate charitable donations.

"MTC is confident it has proven itself to the community," Stuart
said. "The company's operational track record clearly shows inmates
can be successfully rehabilitated at the Industrial Park, with no
negative impact to Mohave County."

Johnson also has a positive view on the past of MTC.

"The company has proven to be a quality corporate neighbor," he said.
"The prison operators do what they say they're going to do, support
community projects and charities, and manage the facility in a very
professional manner."
http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=18&ArticleID=14201

Posted by lois at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

Jailhouse lawyer convinces Supreme Court to hear client's case

Jailhouse lawyer convinces Supreme Court to hear client's case

Michael Ray earns 29 cents representing other inmates from his perch in the law library at the federal prison in Estill, S.C. But unlike most of the high-powered lawyers who charge thousands to file a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, the Associated Press says Ray has actually convinced the justices to hear oral arguments in his client's case.

Thanks to the convicted criminal's efforts, the nation's highest court will consider whether Keith Burgess should have received the mandatory minimum sentence in a drug case. "Conflicting court rulings have required 10-year sentences for people already convicted of misdemeanors, so a successful appeal could trim Burgess' sentence in half," AP says.

Jeff Fisher, the Stanford University law professor who will appear before the high court, tells the wire service that this could be the first time a jailhouse lawyer actually convinced the Supremes to hear a case. It's no longer a minor pleading. The latest filing was submitted by some legal heavyweights, including Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School.

Here are the legal questions that the court says this case presents:

1. Whether the term “felony drug offense” as used in federal statute requiring imposition of enhanced mandatory minimum 20 years’ imprisonment when drug offender has “prior conviction for a felony drug offense” must be read in pari materia with federal statutes defining both “felony” and “felony drug offense”, so as to require imposition of minimum 20—year sentence only if prior drug conviction is
both punishable by more than one year in prison and characterized as a felony by controlling law.

2. When the court finds that a criminal statute is ambiguous, must it then turn to rule of lenity to resolve ambiguity?
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/02/jailhouse-lawye.html

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

February 04, 2008

Crime in MA is dropping... a lot

"Randy S. Chapman, president of the Massachusetts Academy of Criminal Defense Lawyers, calls the school-zone statute the “most racist piece of legislation ever promulgated in this state.”"

Crime in Massachusetts is dropping
http://www.exhibitanews.com/article....true--by-a-lot
True or false? Crime in Massachusetts is dropping
Statistics indicate 'true' -- by a lot
POSTED: Friday, February 1, 2008
by David E. Frank

With stories of mounting murder rates, record numbers of teens firing guns and brazen courthouse attacks regularly dominating the headlines, news that crime in Massachusetts has skyrocketed in recent years doesn’t exactly stop the presses.
But this just might: Data collected annually by the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission shows that the number of individuals being convicted of criminal behavior in state courtrooms is down.

Way down.

Despite an 11 percent increase over the past seven years in the number of people spending time behind bars, Sentencing Commission statistics from fiscal year 2006 reveal that, in comparison to 1999, 14,000-plus fewer individuals were found to have broken the law.

“I know a lot of people may be surprised by the results, but I’m not because our data shows that there has been a fairly substantial reduction in the crime rate,” says Francis J. Carney Jr., executive director of the commission since its inception in 1994. “So it makes sense that conviction totals would go down as well. Between 1995 and 2000, the crime rate reduction was 30 percent in Massachusetts, [which] parallels the reduction in the number of convictions.”

While Carney and others are not suggesting that the downward spiral has eliminated the system’s pressing sentencing problems, particularly in the area of prison overcrowding, the data analyzed by Exhibit A backs up the notion that the number of individuals convicted — nearly 85 percent of whom were men at a median age of 32 — has fallen.

“When this report first came out, we were probably at just about the peak of the crime rate in Boston and in Massachusetts,” Carney notes. “In a way, we almost had nowhere to go but down.”

Down and out

In 2000, 63,541 defendants were convicted of crimes on the sentencing grid, which includes all offenses that carry the possibility of a jail sentence (with the exception of operating under the influence and mandatory firearm infractions, which are classified separately).
By 2006, that figure fell by nearly 8,900, with guilty findings entered in the cases of 54,652 defendants following a plea or trial.
That number was more than 36,000 less than the 91,511 who were convicted in 1994 when the commission was first created to help provide uniformity and consistency in state sentencing.
While the data collected by the Sentencing Commission shows that the overall totals are down, Carney says the decrease is far more noticeable in misdemeanor cases.
In 1994, according to Carney, there were 22,021 convictions for motor vehicle offenses. By 2006, that number fell to 10,210 — a 54-percent reduction.

But 9,000 beds short

Despite the crime rate reduction, a number of lawyers and judges say other portions of the Sentencing Commission report speak to new and growing state court troubles.
At a sentencing symposium last fall, Judge Robert A. Mulligan told the audience that Sentencing Commission data revealed that, as of Sept. 1, more than 25,000 people were incarcerated in Massachusetts — the highest total in state history.
He added that county jails were operating 160 percent over capacity, while the state prison system was at 130 percent.
When asked to explain the overcrowding problem, Mulligan and others at the symposium pointed to sentencing statistics that show a greater number of people, mostly minorities, doing time for mandatory drug crimes.
That increase, they said, means more and more cells are being occupied by drug offenders.
“We’re 9,000 beds short of what we need,” Mulligan said. “We have to be more intelligent about our use of those beds, and one way to do that is to do something about mandatory-minimum [sentences] on drug crimes.”While the mandatory-sentence numbers are up, defense attorney Michael J. Traft of Boston, a former prosecutor who currently sits on the Sentencing Commission, says the small number of offenders serving 15-year minimum sentences reveals a flaw in the state’s drug laws.
“The fact that there are a only a handful of people doing 15-year sentences would indicate that that we are either only arresting the mini-players and not getting any of the major drug dealers, or they are being plea-bargained down,” he says.

Several sources claim that of those serving such 15-year sentences, the majority has minimal records.
“The numbers indicate to me that the lower-level drug cases are the crimes that are being prosecuted more heavily and are causing a lot of the overcrowding of the institutions,” says Traft. “So, obviously, it’s a policy question as to whether that makes sense or not.”
But one assistant district attorney, requesting anonymity, says the problems cited in the commission’s data have no impact on his decision-making when it comes to resolving a drug case.
“What are they saying? That drug dealers shouldn’t be in prison? If the Legislature says what the minimum punishment on a conviction should be, my job is to follow [those terms] if someone is found guilty,” says the prosecutor, who regularly handles trafficking-level drug indictments. “If they change the law on Beacon Hill, that’s one thing. But until then, I’m not going to lose sleep about overcrowding and sentencing statistics.”

‘A tall task’

But Judge Mulligan, who testified in favor of sentencing reform at a hearing last November before the House Judiciary Committee, hopes change is on the horizon.
Mulligan has indicated, in particular, that school-zone infractions, which carry mandatory-minimum two-year sentences, should be done away with where they unfairly affect those living in urban areas and fail to punish high-end dealers.
Randy S. Chapman, president of the Massachusetts Academy of Criminal Defense Lawyers, calls the school-zone statute the “most racist piece of legislation ever promulgated in this state.”
The inmate population growth reflected by the Sentencing Commission data is startling, he adds.

“I have clients who are literally sleeping on the floors of gymnasiums where you have 30 people sharing one bathroom,” he says. “The data clearly shows that we’re over spending, and we’re over incarcerating people.” Calling the system flawed, Chapman says he recognizes the nearly insurmountable task ahead for those hoping to change drug-sentencing laws.
“Eliminating mandatory minimums is the legal equivalent of curing AIDS,” he says. “It’s a tall task undoubtedly because you have years and years of momentum that this sentencing philosophy has built up, and you need to somehow blunt that and realize that it isn’t working.”

Sen. Robert S. Creedon, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee, says public furor and political discomfort on Beacon Hill have caused similar initiatives in the past to fizzle before they were even debated.
“As soon as the discussion in the newspapers and elsewhere becomes one of being soft on crime, what we’ve seen is that initiatives like this go nowhere,” he says. “But the data is there, and it clearly shows we have a problem that needs fixing.”

What kills me about this is the line "the number of individuals being convicted of criminal behavior in state courtrooms is down. Way down." So the lower the number of convictions, the less crime there is, and I'm safer. Every one of those CWOFs, dismissed cases after paying court costs, and filed without a finding for criminal cases I read about in the court logs is making this state safer one step at a time.
To me this only re-enforces that saying that "laws define crime, not prevent it."
__________________
-GSG

Posted by lois at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2008

American Exception: Illegal Globally, Bail for Profit Remains in U.S.

January 29, 2008, NY Times
American Exception
Illegal Globally, Bail for Profit Remains in U.S.
By ADAM LIPTAK

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Wayne Spath is a bail bondsman, which means he is an insurance salesman, a social worker, a lightly regulated law enforcement agent, a real estate appraiser — and a for-profit wing of the American justice system.

What he does, which is posting bail for people accused of crimes in exchange for a fee, is all but unknown in the rest of the world. In England, Canada and other countries, agreeing to pay a defendant’s bond in exchange for money is a crime akin to witness tampering or bribing a juror — a form of obstruction of justice.

Mr. Spath, who is burly, gregarious and intense, owns Brandy Bail Bonds, and he sees his clients in a pleasant and sterile office building just down the street from the courthouse here. But for the handcuffs on the sign out front, it could be a dentist’s office.

“I’ve got to run, but I’ll never leave you in jail,” Mr. Spath said, greeting a frequent customer in his reception area one morning a couple of weeks ago. He turned to a second man and said, “Now, don’t you miss court on me.”

Other countries almost universally reject and condemn Mr. Spath’s trade, in which defendants who are presumed innocent but cannot make bail on their own pay an outsider a nonrefundable fee for their freedom.

“It’s a very American invention,” John Goldkamp, a professor of criminal justice at Temple University, said of the commercial bail bond system. “It’s really the only place in the criminal justice system where a liberty decision is governed by a profit-making businessman who will or will not take your business.”

Although the system is remarkably effective at what it does, four states — Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon and Wisconsin — have abolished commercial bail bonds, relying instead on systems that require deposits to courts instead of payments to private businesses, or that simply trust defendants to return for trial.

Most of the legal establishment, including the American Bar Association and the National District Attorneys Association, hates the bail bond business, saying it discriminates against poor and middle-class defendants, does nothing for public safety, and usurps decisions that ought to be made by the justice system.

Here as in many other areas of the law, the United States goes it alone. American law is, by international standards, a series of innovations and exceptions. From the central role played by juries in civil cases to the election of judges to punitive damages to the disproportionate number of people in prison, the United States has charted a distinctive and idiosyncratic legal path.

Bail is meant to make sure defendants show up for trial. It has ancient roots in English common law, which relied on sworn promises and on pledges of land or property from the defendants or their relatives to make sure they did not flee.

America’s open frontier and entrepreneurial spirit injected an innovation into the process: by the early 1800s, private businesses were allowed to post bail in exchange for payments from the defendants and the promise that they would hunt down the defendants and return them if they failed to appear.

Commercial bail bond companies dominate the pretrial release systems of only two nations, the United States and the Philippines.

The flaw in the system most often cited by critics is that defendants who have not been convicted of a crime and who turn up for every court appearance are nonetheless required to pay a nonrefundable fee to a private business, assuming they do not want to remain in jail.

“Life is not fair, and I probably would feel the same way if I were a defendant,” said Bill Kreins, a spokesman for the Professional Bail Agents of the United States, a trade group. “But the system is the best in world.”

The system costs taxpayers nothing, Mr. Kreins said, and it is exceptionally effective at ensuring that defendants appear for court.

Mr. Spath’s experience confirms that.

If Mr. Spath considers a potential client a good risk, he will post bail in exchange for a nonrefundable 10 percent fee. In a 35-month period ending in November, his records show, Mr. Spath posted about $37 million in bonds — 7,934 of them. That would suggest revenues of about $1.3 million a year, given his fee.

Mr. Spath, who is 62, has seven bail agents working for him, including his daughters Tia and Mia. “It probably costs me 50 grand a month to run this business,” he said.

Mr. Spath hounds his clients relentlessly to make sure they appear for court. If they do not, he must pay the court the full amount unless he can find them and bring them back in short order.

Only 434 of his clients failed to appear for a court date over that period, and Mr. Spath straightened out 338 of those cases within the 60 days allowed by Florida law. In the end, he had to pay up only 76 times.

That is a failure rate of less than 1 percent.

But he had just taken a $100,000 hit. “Everything I worked for this year, I lost because of that one guy,” he said. “If I write a bad bond, it takes me 17 to make it right.”

Mr. Spath had thought the defendant, accused of drug trafficking, was a good bet because he had been cooperating with the government. The defendant is in Brazil now, but Mr. Spath is very good at finding people, and he is not giving up. He is working travel records, phone companies and a former girlfriend, and he is getting closer.

He sometimes requires collateral in addition to his fee, and has accepted rugs, an airplane and a winning Rhode Island lottery ticket. But mostly he is interested in houses.

“In this business, you have to understand real estate,” Mr. Spath said. When the real estate market goes south, he said, bail bondsmen get hurt.

According to the Justice Department and academic studies, the clients of commercial bail bond agencies are more likely to appear for court in the first place and more likely to be captured if they flee than those released under other forms of supervision.

That may be because bail bond companies have financial incentives and choose their clients carefully. They also have more power. In many states, bond enforcement agents, sometimes called bounty hunters, may break into homes of defendants without a warrant, temporarily imprison them and move them across state lines without entering into the extradition process.

Still, critics say, efficiency and business considerations should not trump the evenhanded application of justice.

The experiences in states that have abolished commercial bail bonds, prosecutors say, have been mixed.

“The bail bond system is rife with corruption,” said Joshua Marquis, the district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore. Since bond companies do not compete on price, they have every incentive to collude with lawyers, the police, jail officials and even judges to make sure that bail is high and that attractive clients are funneled to them.

Mr. Kreins, the industry spokesman, acknowledged scandals in Illinois, where “basically all the agents were in collusion with the judges,” and in Louisiana, where sheriffs were also in the mix.

“We have acted responsibly every time an incident has occurred to seek stronger legislation,” Mr. Kreins said. Mr. Marquis, the Oregon prosecutor, said doing away with commercial bonds had affected the justice system in a negative way as well. “The fact of the matter is,” he said, “that in states like Oregon the failure-to-appear rate has skyrocketed.” Oregon uses a combination of court deposits, promises to appear and restrictions on where defendants can live and work.

The rest of the world considers the American system a warning of how not to set up a pretrial release system, F. E. Devine wrote in “Commercial Bail Bonding,” a 1991 book that remains the only comprehensive international survey of the subject.

He said that courts in Australia, India and South Africa had disciplined lawyers for professional misconduct for setting up commercial bail arrangements.

Other countries use a mix of methods to ensure that defendants appear for trial.

Some simply keep defendants in jail until trial. Others ask defendants to promise to turn up for trial. Some make failure to appear a separate crime. Some impose strict conditions on release, like reporting to the police frequently. Some make defendants liable for a given sum should they fail to appear but do not collect it up front. Others require a deposit in cash from the defendant, family members or friends, which is returned when the defendant appears.

But injecting money into the equation, even without the bond company’s fee, is the exception. “Even purged of commercialism, most countries avoid a bail system based chiefly on financial security deposits,” Mr. Devine wrote.

In the United States, the use of commercial bail bonds is rising, and they became the most popular form of pretrial release in 1998. More than 40 percent of felony defendants released before trial paid a bail bond company in 2004, up from 24 percent a decade earlier, according to the Justice Department.

Forty percent of people released on bail are eventually acquitted or have the charges against them dropped. Quite a few of them paid a substantial and nonrefundable fee to remain free in the meantime.

Kate Santana, a 20-year-old waitress, had spent eight days in jail when she found her way to Mr. Spath.

“Me and my husband got into a fight,” Ms. Santana explained, “and the cops were called and I was arrested because there was a bite mark on his shoulder.”

Mr. Spath took her $200 and posted her $2,000 bail. “I checked her criminal history out,” he said. “I found out she was a mother and really she shouldn’t be in jail.”

But when a friend of a man accused of identity theft and perjury turned up seeking a $16,000 bond, Mr. Spath took a different attitude. “You bet your fanny I’m going to take collateral,” he said. “I’ll take his firstborn.”

Mr. Spath is not much concerned with how the rest of the world views commercial bail bonds, but he was worked up about recent talk of a greater government role in pretrial release here in Broward County.

“Here’s what everybody forgets,” he said. “The taxpayers have to pay for these programs. Why should they pay for them? Why should they? When we can provide the same service for free. I’d rather see the money spent in parks, mental health issues, the homeless. Let the private sector do it. We do it better.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/us/29bail.html

Posted by lois at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline
By Booth Gunter and Jamie Kizzire, Southern Poverty Law Center
Posted on January 31, 2008, Printed on February 3, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/75533/

Darius was only nine when he was locked up. For two months, he languished in a juvenile facility -- alone, frightened. He missed his 10th birthday party. He missed Thanksgiving. He missed his stepfather's funeral.

His offense: He had threatened a teacher with a plastic utensil.

Unfortunately, Darius's early introduction to the juvenile justice system is not that uncommon.

Across America, countless school children -- particularly impoverished children of color -- are being pushed out of schools and into juvenile lockups for minor misconduct that in an earlier era would have warranted counseling or a trip to the principal's office rather than a court appearance.

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The problem is particularly acute in the Deep South, where one in four African-Americans lives in poverty.

The children and teens most at risk of entering this "school-to-prison pipeline" are those who, like Darius, have emotional troubles, educational disabilities or other mental health needs.

But rather than receiving the help they need in school, these vulnerable youths are being swept into a cold, uncaring maze of lawyers, courts, judges and detention facilities, where they are groomed for a brutal life in adult prisons.

"Our juvenile prisons and jails are overflowing with children who simply don't belong there," said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. "These are the children who desperately need a helping hand. Instead, we're traumatizing and brutalizing them -- increasing the risk that they'll end up in adult prisons. It's tragic for the children and bad for the rest of us, because it tears apart communities, wastes millions in taxpayer dollars and does nothing to reduce crime."

To attack this problem, the Southern Poverty Law Center has launched a multifaceted new initiative, called the School-to-Prison Reform Project. Based in New Orleans, the project is seeking systemic reforms through legal action, community activism and lobbying to ensure these students get the services -- both in school and in the juvenile justice system -- that can make the difference between incarceration and graduation.

Nationwide, almost 100,000 children and teens are in custody. Black youths are vastly overrepresented in this population; they are held in custody at four times the rate of white youths, according to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Students with disabilities that would qualify them for special education services are also grossly overrepresented. Some studies suggest that as many 70 percent of children in juvenile correctional facilities have significant mental health or learning disabilities.

"These are the children left behind," said Ron Lospennato, an SPLC lawyer who heads the new project. "They are paying a heavy price because of short-sighted policies based mainly on fear and myths. Someone must be there to catch them before they fall through the cracks."

The pipeline begins in the classroom, where black students are disproportionately affected. Nationally, black students in public schools are suspended or expelled at nearly three times the rate of white students, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis of U.S. Department of Education data.

The state with the worst disparity is New Jersey, where black students are almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled for serious infractions. Many other states also had striking gaps in discipline rates. In Alabama, a state where more than a third of all public school students are African-American, black students are expelled five times as often as whites.

Once a black student is pushed into the juvenile justice system, the pipeline takes another tragic turn. The proportion of black youths within the system grows at each stage -- from arrest through sentencing -- until this group, which represents only 16 percent of the nation's youth population, accounts for 58 percent of the youths admitted to state adult prisons.

"The vast majority of children caught up in the juvenile justice system have not committed violent crimes and do not deserve to be sent to prison," Lospennato said. "And what most people don't know is that thousands of nonviolent kids get locked up for months even before their cases are heard."

Students in special education are especially at risk of being pushed into the pipeline.

"Often these students are simply acting out of frustration, because they can't keep up with the others, and they're not getting the help they need in class," said Jim Comstock-Galagan, founder and executive director of the Southern Disability Law Center, which has partnered with the SPLC on the School-to-Prison Reform Project.

Poverty makes the situation worse, because a family may not have the resources needed to successfully demand the special school services that can prevent an outburst of misbehavior. It also means a detained child might find her fate in the hands of an overworked and underpaid public defender who has little or no training in the field of juvenile law.

Cohen noted the importance of basing the project in New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina exposed the country's racial and economic disparities.

"In opening the New Orleans office, we are sending a message, loud and clear, that the key to addressing these inequities is ensuring all children receive the education they deserve and are guaranteed under federal law," Cohen said.

The project grew out of the SPLC's legal work representing children with disabilities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and has already won key victories for many school children in Mississippi and Louisiana. Settlements reached with school systems in Louisiana's Jefferson, East Baton Rouge and Calcasieu parishes, for example, will ensure that quality special education services are provided to thousands of students. The settlements also have provisions that will enhance school experiences for all children, not just those with emotional or learning disabilities.

As for Darius, the SPLC won his release from juvenile detention and helped him receive mental health treatment near his home and special education services at school. A program to help strengthen family relationships was part of the treatment.

"There are thousands of children like Darius whose lives can be saved if we reform this broken system," Cohen said. "That's what this project is all about."

Editor's note: Darius' name has been changed to protect his identity.

Booth Gunter is public affairs director for the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has also been communications director for Public Citizen in Washington, D.C., and has worked as a reporter and editor at several newspapers, most recently the Tampa Tribune.

Jamie Kizzire is a public affairs writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has previously written for the Associated Press, the Birmingham Post-Herald and the Montgomery Advertiser.

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

NY State DOC Commissioner on Prison Closings

http://www.docs.state.ny.us/PrisonClosure.html

DOCS TESTIMONY OF BRIAN FISCHER, COMMISSIONER
NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

Before SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE ON CRIME VICTIMS, CRIME AND CORRECTION
JANUARY 30, 2008
Prison Closures
Introduction

The decision to close correctional facilities was not made lightly, and as expected, it has raised many questions. The most obvious ones are:

Why these facilities?
Could we not save money in other ways?
Can we maintain the community crews that provide labor to municipalities and not-for-profit organizations? What will happen to the facilities after they are closed? What can the local communities expect in terms of assistance?

Before I address these issues, allow me to put the situation into context.

I am responsible for approximately 95,000 employees and prisoners spread out over 70 facilities across the state, and the Department¹s budget has reached the $3 billion mark to the taxpayers of New York.

As the Commissioner, I must be concerned with the safety and security of everyone, while being a realistic fiscal manager. There are limits to our funding and limits to our staffing.

Given the decrease of more than 9,000 inmates in the past eight years, the continued decline projected for the future, and the budget needed to cover what is mandated of the Department, along with the reality of the fiscal problems facing the State, I made the decisions I know are necessary, understanding that I could not avoid the hardships those decisions would bring.

Realities Facing the Department:

a 13 percent overall decrease in the number of inmates since 1999. an 18 percent decrease in medium security inmates. a 47 percent decrease in minimum security inmates. an 18 percent increase in maximum security inmates. I should stress that while original projections for this Fiscal Year estimated that there would be about 62,800 inmates under custody by March 31, 2008, we are already at 62,250 today, 550 fewer than expected. Our projected census as of March 31, 2009, was set at 62,200 and it is clear even today that we will be significantly lower than that.

Shifting Priorities:
The Department has changed, both in the demographics of our inmates and in the responsibilities we must fulfill. We must:

provide 1,600 program slots for all 8,000+ mentally ill inmates, including highly structured and staff intensive units for mentally ill inmates who must be segregated from the general inmate population as required by a court settlement and the new SHU-Exclusion statute. provide 1,200 program slots to deliver services to the 6,000 sex offenders as required by the Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act of 2007. add new re-entry programs at facilities that can be tied into County Re-Entry Task Force Committees to deal better with the 28,000+ inmates that will be released in the coming year. add a new Parole re-entry program with the Division of Parole and the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services to keep Parolees in the community rather than returning them to long-term prison stays, thereby changing the pattern of recycling offenders through the judicial and correctional systems.

Why These Facilities:

We began the process by looking at which facilities could not be closed given their size, program elements and inmate population. We also looked at the reasons some facilities were previously identified for closure. In the end, we carefully considered the following factors:

Location

We looked for facilities in close proximity to other facilities to make transfers easier for staff, and enabling employees at the facilities slated for closure to transfer without having to relocate where possible.

We did not want to close more than one facility in any one geographical area.

Cost
Underutilized facilities are more costly in comparison to fully utilized ones.

Functionality

We need to maintain multi-disciplinary facilities, whereas facilities with limited functions were more suitable for closure. Key elements in our consideration relate to treatment and scope of services provided.

Capital Construction
We considered future capital improvement needs.

Agency Impact
We considered overall impact to agency operations.
We considered the ability to relocate inmates.
Two of the three correctional camps we selected were identified in past years for closure ­ Pharsalia and McGregor. We added the third camp, Gabriels, because the number of camp-eligible inmates has continued to decline and the decline is projected to continue.

We arrived at the choice of Hudson, understanding the impact its closing would have on the local community, comparing it with other small medium correctional facilities. Hudson's bed capacity (422) is lower than that of other medium security facilities, making the transfer of inmates easier from the agency's point of view. Hudson's need for capital improvements ­ nearly $21.8 million over the next five years - was also a major consideration, particularly in comparison to other facilities.

Alternatives to Saving Money:

The cost of the Department is driven by several factors: the number of inmates, the type of services that must be provided and the number of employees needed to program inmates and maintain safe and secure facilities. It is the decrease in the number of inmates in the system that allows for savings to be generated by closure and the redeployment of staff.

Over the years, the Department has saved money by "down sizing" the number of beds needed to handle the inmate population. As a result, there are many dormitories in minimum security facilities that are empty and not staffed. To move inmates into such unstaffed units would result in an increase in cost, not a savings. By closing the facilities we have selected, we will move inmates to dormitories where vacancies already exist in units already properly staffed.

Community Crews:

While some communities close to a correctional facility have enjoyed the work done by inmate community crews at no cost to the municipalities, there has been a cost to the taxpayers of New York. Community crews cost, on average, up to $60,000 per year. Those costs have continued to rise as staff salaries, equipment and gasoline costs have increased.

The work done by every community crew operating out of a facility designated for closure is being reviewed. Where possible, and keeping cost in mind, community crews will be relocated to neighboring facilities so some work can continue. We must keep in mind, however, that the community crews were never meant to replace work done by local communities, but merely to assist. While some communities have clearly profited by having community crews in their area, there are many more communities who have never been provided such assistance.

Re-Use of Facilities:

Key to the statute that details how the agency can close a facility is the requirement that alternative uses for each facility are to be considered. To that end, the Department will work closely with the State Department of Economic Development, as well as local representatives, to consider how the facilities might be used for purposes other than correctional facilities. One of the primary reasons for publicly announcing the closures a year in advance was to reach out to other agencies and local groups to begin the process of evaluating what the land and structures might be used for in the future.

Posted by lois at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)