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August 30, 2008

NV: Judge: No typewriters for prisoners

Judge: No typewriters for prisoners
By BRENDAN RILEY Associated Press Writer
08/28/2008

CARSON CITY, Nev.—A ban on personal typewriters for Nevada prison inmates, who have used them for decades to prepare appeals of their sentences, has been upheld by a federal court judge.

U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks of Reno ruled that the state Department of Corrections ban on typewriters for inmates was constitutional and didn't block inmates from access to the courts.

"The ban on typewriters occurred because prison officials determined that possession of typewriters aid the ability of inmates to breach safety and security," Hicks said in his ruling Wednesday, adding, "It cannot be disputed that the state has a legitimate interest in maintaining security and order in its prisons."

Prison officials confiscated hundreds of portable typewriters, starting at the maximum-security Ely State Prison in March 2007 and then extending the ban to other state prisons. They cited two incidents of violence in changing the policy—one when an inmate died and another when a guard was threatened.

Inmates filed numerous lawsuits protesting the new rule, saying officials were using the security argument as an excuse to try to slow their legal complaints about overcrowded prisons and difficult living conditions.

The inmates were supported by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which said typewriters are vital for convicts who represent themselves in appealing their sentences.

The state attorney general's office asked the federal court to make clear the department was within its legal rights in confiscating typewriters that can be taken apart to make weapons that can be used to stab or club people.

Hicks' ruling was praised Thursday by Deputy Attorney General Alicia Lerud, who said the judge concluded "safety and security are of primary importance" in Nevada prisons. Lerud has said more than a dozen actions had been filed by inmates in federal and state courts over the typewriter issue.

Incidents that triggered the typewriter ban included the December 2006 death of inmate Anthony Beltran, hit by another inmate with a roller pin taken from a typewriter; and a March 2007 attempt by an inmate to stab a guard with a part from another typewriter.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10327231

Posted by lois at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

Calif. prisons prepare for gay weddings

Calif. prisons prepare for gay weddings
By LISA LEFF Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 08/28/2008 03:22:55 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO—Now that same-sex couples can get married in California, state prison officials are trying to figure out what that means for gay inmates.

No prisoners so far have sought to arrange weddings with same-sex partners since the state Supreme Court granted same-sex couples the right to wed as of mid-June, according to Michele Kane, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Nonetheless, department lawyers are drafting guidelines to bring the state's 33 adult prisons into compliance with the court's ruling that same-sex couples must be treated the same as opposite-sex couples under the California Constitution, Kane said.

What they have determined so far is that would mean allowing gay inmates to marry someone on the outside, but not a fellow prisoner—the same rules that apply to straight inmates, according to Kane.

"They will have the same marriage rights as other inmates—they will be able to marry non-inmates, but barred from marrying other inmates in prison," she said.

Prison officials were concerned that allowing two men or two women in the same prison to get married would pose novel safety and security concerns, according to Kane.

"For instance, suppose a prisoner finds out another prisoner has money or other assets. They might find themselves coerced into a marriage with a more powerful inmate who might try to lay claim to half their assets," she said.

Department lawyers also are recommending that prison chaplains relinquish the job of performing weddings for inmates once the proposed policies take effect, Kane said. Turning over the rituals to outside officiants would not put chaplains who may oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds in the position of presiding over some ceremonies and not others, she said.

If approved by the division that oversees adult prisons, the rule prohibiting two inmates from marrying would mirror the prison policy in Massachusetts, the only other U.S. state where same-sex marriage is legal.

Last year, California became the first state to allow conjugal visits and overnight stays for inmates with same-sex partners in the civilian population, Kane said. The department does not keep a tally of how many prisoners have taken advantage of the spousal bonus since then.

The department also does not have a recent count of how many of the 125,000 adults in its custody get married each year. Anecdotally, an average of two weddings each month take place at the medium security prison in Solano that houses just over 6,047 inmates, according to Kane.

Donald Specter, director of the nonprofit Prison Law Office, which monitors the rights of California inmates, said he did not agree that allowing two prisoners of the same sex to marry created special security concerns.

But as long as the guidelines corrections officials develop apply to all inmates regardless of their sexual orientation, they will be hard to argue with, Specter said.

"The law requires they treat people the same, so that's a good principle to have in mind when they are drafting regulations," he said.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10327420?nclick_check=1

Posted by lois at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2008

Tennessee: Pregnant Inmates at Jail Will No Longer Be Restrained

August 29, 2008
National Briefing | South
Tennessee: Pregnant Inmates at Jail Will No Longer Be Restrained
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pregnant inmates at Nashville’s jail will no longer be restrained, according to a policy change after an illegal immigrant said she was shackled during labor. Sheriff Daron Hall of Davidson County announced the changes this week, but he said pregnant inmates would still be restrained during trips to the hospital or to court if they presented a danger. Last month, a Mexican immigrant, Juana Villegas, was arrested on charges of careless driving and was held at the jail. Ms. Villegas said she went into labor July 5 and was taken to the hospital, where she was handcuffed to the bed by her right wrist and left ankle until shortly before the birth. The sheriff said her treatment followed the jail’s old policies, but he also said that in his opinion the old policy was “a little more than may have been necessary in every case.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/29brfs-PREGNANTINMA_BRF.html?_r=1&sq=Tennessee&st=cse&oref=slogin&scp=2&pagewanted=print

Posted by lois at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

Two Million on the Wrong Side of the Digital Divide Accessibility, Digital Divide, Prison Libraries, Interface

Two Million on the Wrong Side of the Digital Divide Accessibility, Digital Divide, Prison Libraries, Interface
Volume 30, Number 1, Spring 2008

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two Million on the Wrong Side of the Digital Divide
Brenda Vogel
Retired Library Coordinator, Maryland Correctional Education Libraries

As ASCLA librarians our close association with digitally disadvantaged library patrons gives us an insight into their information needs and a responsibility to stand up for them.

The digital world is alien to the vast majority of men and women who have been serving time in U.S. prisons from before the eras of the PC and the coming of the Digital Age.

Over two million people are incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails, of which sixty percent are minorities. Ninety-five percent of these people will be released at some time during their lives and become part of the migration of more than 600,000 ex-offenders returning from prisons and jails to American communities each year.

T

Because an inmate occasionally hacking into a correctional staff computer for nefarious Internet use makes the headline; not one correctional librarian in the U.S. is allowed to permit a patron to access the Internet. 1

Why should we care if criminals who have been removed from society as punishment do not have Internet access?

Setting digitally dysfunctional people (information outsiders) back into a culture revolutionized by the Digital Age lowers the expectation of a successful life for them, their children, and our community.
Without the practical skill-sets of information-literate people, most prisoners cannot conceptualize an information need, seek reliable sources, or internalize and apply their findings.
The ex-offender, unable to cope with computerization, is devoid of the cultural capital that drives behavior and decision-making. Upon release this person will likely be shut out from the technology-driven marketplace.

By refusing to allow correctional librarians to assist their patrons in understanding Internet information-seeking strategies, correctional practice has created a greater obstacle to the assimilation of ex-offenders into the outside world. This is the legacy from twentieth-century corrections.

Current public policy in the form of the correctional transition program is based on the realization that more than half a million former incarcerees are headed for their old neighborhood or home town. The goal of transitioning is to ready an inmate for entry into the labor market as a law abiding, self-sufficient citizen. This effort fails to recognize the vital digital connection that an ex-offender must have in order to at least participate, if not compete, in twenty-first century America.

Today there are hardware and software solutions to the legitimate correctional security concerns regarding Internet mischief and malice. Librarian and information technology expertise can identify secure hardware and software systems that address these concerns and support the introduction of digital literacy programs for inmates.

Correctional librarians alone cannot stand against this digital denial tyranny; they seek the support and the voice of all information providers.

For more information, contact Brenda Vogel. A revised edition of Vogel's book, Down for the Count: A Prison Library Handbook, is forthcoming (Scarecrow Pr., 2008).

Note: 1. The federal Bureau of Prisons and several state and local correctional agencies are now piloting local area network (LAN) e-mail systems for inmates so they can communicate without fees with families and attorneys. Many prisons and jails do have stand-alone computers in libraries and offer vocational programs in computer use and repair.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sara Laughlin, Interface Editor
E-mail: laughlin@bluemarble.net

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

August 28, 2008

PA: Felon voting signs removed from Obama office

08/22/2008
Felon voting signs removed from Obama office
By Michael Hays
Pottstown, PA

POTTSTOWN — A simple sign in the window of the local Barack Obama campaign headquarters has reignited a conversation about convicted felons' right to vote in this country.

The poster board welcomed all passersby to register to vote and included the statement: "Felons can vote." The sign, which was visible at the office opening a week ago, has since been removed.

A lifesize cardboard printout of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president has replaced the sign. A spokesman from the Philadelphia campaign office said this decision was made at the local level.

"They just realized maybe it was sending the wrong message and took it down themselves," Sean Smith said.

In this case, the individual probably wanted to educate people on who is eligible to vote, he added, explaining why the sign was posted in the front window of the High and Penn streets office.

Smith said individual field coordinators do have a significant amount of autonomy. They are encouraged to use good judgment and integrate themselves into the communities they work in.

"They are to act in accordance with norms and be our ambassadors to those communities," he said.

The Pottstown office coordinator — like many in similar positions — is not authorized to speak to the media at this time.

Michael Slater, spokesman for Project Vote, did not see anything wrong with placing such a sign in the campaign's window.

"That should be applauded, not repudiated or criticized," Slater said.

He said denying people the right to vote after they have served their sentence is "punitive not rehabilitative."

An unscientific poll conducted by The Mercury asked Web site visitors: "What do you think of the 'Felons can vote' signs in the Obama campaign office window?"

With nearly 200 votes tabulated, 48.7 percent responded, "They are informative, nothing else."

Twenty-two percent selected, "Why is he courting felons?"

Twelve percent responded, "Who cares?"

Nine percent didn't know felons had the right to vote, while 7.6 responded to, "I find it offensive. Pottstown isn't composed of felons."

Nationwide, a patchwork of laws concerning felons' right to vote differ from state-to-state.

A Pennsylvania court ruled in 2000 that the state law prohibiting convicted felons from registering to vote for five years after their release from prison is unconstitutional, according to the Montgomery County Web site.

Today, convicted felons who have been released from prison have the right to cast a ballot in Pennsylvania. Applicants completing an older version of the voter registration form are instructed to cross out the felony conviction line.

Project Vote is an organization based in Washington, D.C. that advocates for full participation in the election process. They say the United States is the only country that allows states to choose permanent disenfranchisement of felons, even after completion of their sentences.
http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1674&dept_id=18041&newsid=20086662

Posted by lois at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)

Why Did Darryl Die?

August 28, 2008
New York Times Editorial
Why Did Darryl Die?

Two years after a child died there, the Justice Department is conducting a much-needed investigation of New York’s Tryon Boys Residential Center, a juvenile facility in upstate Fulton County. The investigation could take a year or more to complete. But it has already shined a klieg light on disastrous juvenile justice policies, not just in New York, but all across the country.

All too often, juvenile justice facilities are operated by workers who have not been trained to handle the mentally ill children who make up much of the caseload. Facilities also overuse dangerous restraint and disciplinary practices in which children are handcuffed, hog tied, bound to chairs or wrestled to the floor and held down.

According to grand jury testimony, staff members at the Tryon Boys facility used the so-called prone restraint strategy against Darryl Thompson, an emotionally disturbed 15-year-old. He is said by the medical examiner to have died of arrhythmia.

The two large-framed men who forced Darryl onto the floor and held him there with their bodies say that they had no choice because the child was agitated and flailing about. There is no excuse for their failure to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation immediately after Darryl’s heart stopped. According to state officials, all three staff members who were present had been trained in C.P.R. and were required to administer it. None did.

The medical examiner labeled the death a homicide, but the grand jury declined to indict the two workers.

The Justice Department will not say why it is now investigating Tryon, but the problems there clearly have not ended. This summer, according to state officials, a staff member was caught on videotape punching a handcuffed child in the face.

Gladys Carrión, the reform-minded commissioner of New York’s Office of Children and Family Services, took office soon after Darryl’s death. She has been struggling ever since to move New York away from a prison-style juvenile justice system that relies mainly on force toward one that focuses on rehabilitation. Like reformers elsewhere, she is encountering stiff resistance from the unions that represent the facilities’ staff.

To remake the system, New York State will need to downsize some facilities. It will need to hire more mental health professionals and retrain current staff members, some of whom have been doing business the bad-old way for 25 years or more. The state needs to help cities and towns develop community-based treatment programs. New York City is sensibly moving in that direction. New York and all states have a responsibility to protect children, including those who have committed crimes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/opinion/28thu2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Posted by lois at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

Rachel King, 45, anti-death penalty activist

Rachel King, 45, anti-death penalty activist
By Daily Hampshire Gazette
Created 08/27/2008 - 09:23

Rachel Carol King, 45, of Washington, D.C., formerly of Northampton, died Monday, Aug. 25, surrounded by family and friends at her summer home in Wayne, Maine. She had lived fully while coping with breast cancer and its treatment for the last five years.

The daughter of Jill Howes and Charles H. King, Rachel was born July 2, 1963, in Enid, Okla. Her family moved to Wayne, Maine, shortly after her birth.

She graduated from Smith College in 1985, after which she worked in Northampton, Mass., at the Girl Scouts of America for several years. During that time she was a political activist and was involved in the Sanctuary Movement and many other peace and social justice causes, including as a volunteer and intern with the American Friends Service Committee.

She graduated from the Northeastern University School of Law in 1990 and later earned a master's of law degree from Temple University. When she died, she was enrolled in a master's degree program in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University.

Rachel had a long and distinguished legal career. After law school, she worked for the Alaska Public Defender's office as an assistant public defender, and she helped found and was the first executive director of Alaskans Against the Death Penalty, successfully keeping Alaska death-penalty free. She served as executive director of the Alaska Civil Liberties Union and was active in the Green Party in Alaska and in other human rights causes.

For many years she worked as a legislative counsel and lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C., during which time she fought tirelessly in support of civil liberties and was instrumental in limiting the scope of the USA Patriot Act. She was also an instructor of legal writing and research at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Most recently Rachel worked as legal counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and homeland security.

Rachel was a longtime Quaker, and was a dedicated and passionate opponent of the death penalty. She served as chairwoman of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) , and authored two books on the subject: "Don't Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak out Against the Death Penalty," and "Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories." In July Rachel was notified that she was to be honored with a lifetime achievement award from the NCADP, given to people who have devoted their lives to abolition of the death penalty.

She was an avid photographer and long-distance runner, competing in more than a dozen marathons. She was a founding member of the Takoma Village Co-housing Community in Washington, D.C., which opened in 2000, where she lived at the time of her death. She is the author of the novel, "Tales of the District," about life in a co-housing community.

In addition to her mother and father, she leaves her husband, Richard G. McAlee, whom she married in 2005, and his three daughters, Lauren, Julia, and Livia; two brothers, Charles K. King and Paul A. King; her stepfather, David Rogers; her niece Katy, and Katy's mother Kim; two nephews, one aunt, and many cousins.

A service celebrating Rachel's life will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31, at the Wayne Community Church. An additional service will be held in Washington, D.C. on a date to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Rachel's name to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, www.ncadp.org [1], and in support of breast cancer research to "Dr. Leisha Emens at Johns Hopkins Hospital," 1650 Orleans St., Room 409, Baltimore, MD 21231-1000.
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2008 All rights reserved
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2008/08/27/rachel-king-45-anti-death-penalty-activist

Posted by lois at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

Del Martin (1921 - 2008)

Del Martin
August 27, 2008

Associated Press, by LISA LEFF:

Del Martin, a pioneering lesbian rights activist who with her lifelong partner became a symbol for the movement to legalize gay marriage, died Wednesday morning. (August 27, 2008) She was 87.

Martin died at a San Francisco hospital two weeks after a broken arm exacerbated her existing health problems, according to Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Her partner of more than 55 years and wife of just over two months, Phyllis Lyon, was with her.

"Ever since I met Del 55 years ago, I could never imagine a day would come when she wouldn't be by my side," Lyon, 83, said in a statement Wednesday.

"I also never imagined there would be a day that we would actually be able to get married," she added. "I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed."

Martin and Lyon exchanged vows at San Francisco City Hall on June 16, the first day same-sex couples could legally wed in California, after being together for more than half a century.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, who officiated the wedding, singled them out to be the first gay couple to be declared "spouses for life" in the city in recognition of their long relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement.

"The greatest way we can honor the life work of Del Martin, is to continue to fight and never give up, until we have achieved equality for all," Newsom said Wednesday.

The couple, who in 1955 co-founded the nation's first outspoken advocacy group for lesbians, Daughters of Bilitis, similarly served as the public faces of the marriage debate four years earlier, when Newsom in 2004 challenged California's one man-one woman marriage laws by directing city officials to issue licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Their marriage, along with those of almost 4,000 other couples, were invalidated later by the California Supreme Court.

The action laid the groundwork for a series of lawsuits that ultimately led a 4-3 majority of the same court on May 15 to strike down the state's gay marriage ban. Martin and Lyon were two of the original plaintiffs.

"We would not have marriage equality in California if it weren't for Del and Phyllis. They fought and triumphed in many battles," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. "Through it all, their love and commitment to each other was an inspiration to all who knew them."

An imposing and uncompromising figure, Martin in 1970 wrote an influential article for the Advocate magazine that criticized what she saw as the gay rights movement's persistent chauvinism. The schism, which mirrored the increasing cultural influence of the women's movement, eventually prompted Lyon and Martin to adopt feminism and racism among their causes.

Trained as journalists, they together wrote "Lesbian/Woman," a landmark 1972 book in which they tried to make the point that lesbians should be seen for more than their sexuality and simultaneously offered a frank, no-nonsense account of lesbian relationships.

A year later, Martin became the first out lesbian to serve on the board of directors of the National Organization for Women, a position she won despite opposition within the feminist organization. Critics in the group feared the impact of having a leader that many in the mainstream still viewed as socially deviant.

Born as Dorothy Taliaferro on May 5, 1921, in San Francisco, Martin acquired the surname she would use the rest of her life from her four-year marriage to her college sweetheart, James Martin. They had a daughter, Kendra, before they divorced.

In "Lesbian/Woman," Martin recounted that the growing realization that she was attracted to women initially sparked thoughts of suicide. She eventually worked through her feelings despite the discrimination and threat of arrest gay people faced during the conservative 1950s.

When she started working for a construction trade publication in Seattle, she carried a briefcase without worrying whether it made her appear manly. The briefcase was the first thing Lyon noticed about her future spouse, she always recounted in stories about how the two met.

"Ultimately, it gets down to self-acceptance. If you accept yourself, you don't give a damn what anyone else thinks," Martin said in "No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon," Joan Biren's 2003 documentary about the couple.

Martin is survived by Lyon; her daughter, Kendra Mon, a son-in-law, two grandchildren and her sister-in-law.

In Martin's honor, Newsom ordered the American flags at City Hall and the rainbow flag in the Castro District, the heart of the city's gay and lesbian community, to be flown at half-staff until sundown Thursday. Plans for a public memorial are pending.

August 28, 2008
Del Martin, Lesbian Activist, Dies at 87
By WILLIAM GRIMES-NY Times

Del Martin, who married her partner of 55 years, Phyllis Lyon, on June 16 in the first legal gay union in California and who helped found the pioneering lesbian-rights group the Daughters of Bilitis, died Wednesday in San Francisco. She was 87.

The cause was a broken arm that exacerbated her existing health problems, Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, told The Associated Press.

The June wedding was not the couple’s first effort at legalizing their union. In February 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco challenged California’s marriage laws by announcing that the city would issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples who requested them. Of the more than 4,000 couples who married before the California Supreme Court intervened a month later, Ms. Martin and Ms. Lyon may have been the oldest, and were certainly first and the most celebrated.

That summer, though, the California Supreme Court invalidated all licenses for same-sex marriages, arguing that the mayor had exceeded his legal authority. Ms. Martin and Ms. Lyon were among the original plaintiffs in a series of lawsuits that led to the court’s declaring same-sex marriages legal this year.

Mr. Newsom invited the couple to be the first couple to marry under the new ruling. This they did, in San Francisco’s City Hall, after living together as a couple for more than half a century.

On Wednesday, Ms. Lyon, 83, said in a statement, “I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed.”

Ms. Martin was born Dorothy L. Taliaferro on May 5, 1921, in San Francisco. She studied journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State College. At 19 she married James Martin, but the marriage ended in divorce four years later. Their daughter, Kendra Mon, survives, as do two grandchildren and Ms. Lyon.

While working for a construction trade journal in Seattle, Ms. Martin met Ms. Lyon, an employee at the same firm, and the two became romantically involved and entered into a permanent relationship in 1953. In 1955, having moved to San Francisco, they joined with six other women to found the Daughters of Bilitis, the first social and political organization for lesbians in the United States, which soon established branches around the country. The name was taken from “Songs of Bilitis,” a collection of lesbian love poems by Pierre Louys.

Ms. Martin was the organization’s first president, and from 1960 to 1962 she edited its newsletter, The Ladder, which Ms. Lyon had edited from its inception in 1956. The organization disbanded in 1970 as more radical lesbian groups came to the fore.

In 1964 Ms. Martin helped found the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, which lobbied city government to end police harassment of gay men and lesbians and change discriminatory laws.

Ms. Martin is believed to have been the first openly gay woman to be elected to the board of directors of the National Organization for Women, where she agitated to put lesbian issues on the table. She was also an active member of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, which was founded in 1972 to support gay candidates in San Francisco.

In her later years, she was a member of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. In 1987 she earned a degree from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

She wrote a book, “Battered Wives” (1976), and two others with Ms. Lyon, “Lesbian/Woman” (1972) and “Lesbian Love and Liberation” (1973).

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

August 27, 2008

Symposium: NYC "Slave Routes: Resistance, Abolition & Creative Progress"

SLAVE ROUTES: RESISTANCE, ABOLITION & CREATIVE PROGRESS
An International Symposium in New York City
OCTOBER 9 - OCTOBER 11, 2008

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by the United States of America, New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and Africana Studies Program is hosting an international symposium entitled Slave Routes: Resistance, Abolition and Creative Progress. This symposium, supported by UNESCO's Slave Routes Project, will be co-sponsored by NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge, the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, Inc. and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, with additional support provided by the African Diaspora Slave Routes Organizing Committee. The symposium will be held at New York University and other sites in the New York metropolitan area October 9 - 11, 2008.

Distinguished scholars, writers, musicians, visual artists, and organizers from the international community will
convene at NYU to discuss slavery, the slave trade and its consequences, in plenary, panels, conversations,
performances and film/video screenings including:

Opening Plenary on Thursday, October 9th with Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Mary Frances Berry, Ali Mazrui and others

Aime Cesaire Tribute on Friday, October 10th with Maryse Condé, George Lamming, Jayne Cortez and others

Drums, Horns, Strings Concert on Saturday, October 11th with Randy Weston, Muhal Richard Abrams, Fred Ho, Aniyikaye (Yoruba drum & voice ensemble), Denardo Coleman and the Firespitter Band, The Bill Cole Ensemble, and pianist Nat Dove

Partial List of Participants:
Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Ali Mazrui, Michael Gomez, Mary Frances Berry, Howard Dodson, Craig Calhoun, Christiane Taubira-Delannon, Manthia Diawara, Rutha M. Harris, Jayne Cortez, Ana Edwards,
Sylviane A. Diouf, Graham Russell Hodges, Edward Spriggs, Jennifer Morgan, Herman Bennett, Gloria Browne-Marshall, Robert Chrisman, G. G. Darah, Coleman Jordan, Alison Moses, Ana Lucia Araujo, Saidiya
Hartman, Simone A. James Alexander, Renee Larrier, Simon Deng, Alusine Hassan Kamara, Bakary Tandia, Lisa Aubrey, Kalamu ya Salaam, Randy Weston, Omayemi Agbayegbe, Linda Heywood, John Thornton,
Elombe Brath, Ali Hussein, Nicole C. Lee, J. Michael Dash, Debra Boyd, Maryse Condé, Clayton Eshleman, Abiola Irele, George Lamming, Ronnie Scharfman, Seret Scott, Nat Dove, Sterling Plumpp, Eugene
Redmomd, Ibrahima Seck, Howard Mandel, Guthrie Ramsey, Camille Ann Brewer, C. Daniel Dawson, Melvin Edwards, Abdoulaye Ndoye, Lawrence Guyot, Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, Quincy Troupe and
others.

CONTACT:
The Institute of African American Affairs
212 998-IAAA (4222)
41 East 11th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003
Free & Open to the Public, except for the concert
REGISTER at: http://africanastudies.as.nyu.edu/object/slaveroutes08

Posted by lois at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2008

An Estimated 809,800 Inmates in the Nation's Prisons Were Parents to 1,706,600 Minor Children at Midyear 2007

Last update: 4:56 p.m. EDT Aug. 26, 2008
WASHINGTON, Aug 26, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- An estimated 809,800 prisoners of the 1,518,535 held in the nation's prison at midyear 2007 were parents of minor children, according to a report by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Parents in prison - 52 percent of state inmates and 63 percent of federal inmates - reported having an estimated 1,706,600 minor children. Among state inmates, the percent of parents in prison decreased from 55 percent in 1997 but has remained stable for federal inmates.

About 2.3 percent of the 74 million children in the U.S. resident population who were under the age of 18 on July 1, 2007, had a parent in prison. Black and Hispanic children were about eight and three times, respectively, more likely than white children to have a parent in prison. Among minor children in the U.S. resident population, 6.7 percent of black children, 2.4 percent of Hispanic children, and 0.9 percent of white children had a parent in prison. State inmates who were parents reported that nearly a quarter of their children were age four or younger and reported having two children on average.
Among fathers in state and federal prisons, more than four in 10 were black, about three in 10 were white, and about two in 10 were Hispanic. Among mothers, 48 percent were white, 28 percent were black, and 17 percent were Hispanic.
State inmates age 25 to 34 (64 percent) were most likely to report being a parent, those age 55 or older (13 percent) were the least likely. Hispanic (57 percent) and black (54 percent) state inmates were more likely to report being a parent than white (46 percent) inmates. Findings were similar among men held in state prison, while the likelihood of being a parent did not vary by race among women.
Among male state inmates, public-order (60 percent) and drug (59 percent) offenders were more likely than violent (47 percent) and property (48 percent) offenders to be fathers. In state prison, inmates with a criminal history (53 percent) were more likely to report being a parent than those without a criminal history (48 percent).
About two-thirds (64 percent) of mothers held in state prison and nearly half (47 percent) of fathers reported living with their minor children either in the month before arrest or just prior to incarceration. Among state inmates, mothers (42 percent) were two and a half times more likely than fathers (17 percent) to report living in a single-parent household in the month before their arrest.
Among parents living with their minor children prior to incarceration, more than three-quarters (77 percent) of mothers compared to just over a quarter (26 percent) of fathers reported providing most of the daily care of their children. More than half of mothers (52 percent) and fathers (54 percent) held in state prison reported providing primary financial support to their minor children.
Eighty-five percent of mothers and 78 percent of fathers in state prison reported having contact with a child (minor or adult) since admission to prison. About half (47 percent) of parents who expected to be released within six months reported at least weekly contact compared to 39 percent with 12 to 59 months, and 32 percent with 60 or more months.
Among parents in state prison, nine percent reported homelessness in the year before arrest, 20 percent had a history of physical or sexual abuse, 41 percent had a current medical problem, 57 percent had a mental health problem, and 67 percent met the criteria for substance dependence or abuse. Seven in ten parents in state prison who met the criteria for substance dependence or abuse reported ever being in a program or receiving treatment for alcohol or drug abuse; more than four in 10 received treatment since admission. Forty-six percent of parents who had a mental health problem reported ever having treatment; 31 percent had received treatment since admission.
Among parents held in state prison, over half (57 percent) had attended self-help or improvement classes since admission. Mothers (27 percent) were about two and a half times more likely than fathers (11 percent) to attend parenting or child-rearing classes.
The majority (52 percent) of parents in state prison reported that they had served 12 to 59 months. Mothers (38 percent) were more likely than fathers (21 percent) to report having served fewer than 12 months. More than six in 10 mothers held in state prison expected to be released in less than 12 months; compared to four in 10 fathers.
The report, Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children (NCJ 222984), was written by BJS statisticians Lauren E. Glaze and Laura M. Maruschak. Following publication, the report can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/pptmc.htm.
For additional information about the Bureau of Justice Statistics' statistical reports and programs, please visit the BJS Web site at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs.
The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, provides federal leadership in developing the nation's capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims. OJP has five component bureaus: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office for Victims of Crime. Additionally, OJP has two program offices: the Community Capacity Development Office, which incorporates the Weed and Seed strategy, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). More information can be found at http://www.ojp.gov.
SOURCE Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs

http://www.ojp.gov

Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved End of Story
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/estimated-809800-inmates-nations-prisons/story.aspx?guid=%7B742746E2-B799-49FE-A2A6-59B43E858A4F%7D&dist=hppr

Posted by lois at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2008

Wash. state welcomes back private jobs in prisons

August 25, 2008
Wash. state welcomes back private jobs in prisons
Seattle Post Intelligencer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TACOMA, Wash. -- More than four years after the state Supreme Court ruled that private companies could not operate out of state prisons, businesses are being to asked to give it a go again.

A recruiter has been hired by the state Department of Corrections to contact chambers of commerce seeking interest for the Class I Correctional Industries program.

A similar program was shut down after the state's high court ruled in May 2004 that the use of inmates by some companies violated the state constitution. At the time, the program involved about 300 inmates.

Last November voters approved a constitutional amendment to allow contracting with private companies willing to hire inmates at some of Washington's 17 prisons.

State Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, said it was difficult to persuade fellow legislators to support putting the measure on the ballot because many were concerned that prison job programs would pose unfair competition to businesses.

"We made it really clear that when we recruit new industry, we make sure we're not recruiting someone who will be a challenge for other businesses," said Regala, one of four legislators who sit on the Correctional Industries board of directors. "We will have to do an analysis of the business plan to make sure nothing poses an unfair advantage over private-sector companies."

The prison system has other job programs, including a Class II operation in which inmates build furniture and other products for state use.

Class I jobs would offer pay ranging from the state minimum wage, currently $8.07 an hour, to as high as $12 an hour, money that inmates could use to pay for the cost of their incarceration or to cover their obligations to a victim's compensation fund. The jobs could also provide training for inmates before they are released.

Regala said she is confident the state can reconnect with companies that had prison operations four years ago.

"We're not relying simply on those folks who were there before," Regala said, "but I'm confident we know how to get a hold of them. Some of them have stayed in touch with us."

Danielle Wiles, policy and performance manager for Correctional Industries, said the state hopes companies will begin returning to the prisons by early next year.

"We're just making initial contact with a few companies that have shown some interest," Wiles said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_prison_jobs.html

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

August 24, 2008

Goal: Keep mentally ill out of prison

Sunday, Aug 24, 2008
Goal: Keep mentally ill out of prison
BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle
These links at this URL: ://www.kansas.com/213/story/504459.html
# The book “Criminalization of Mental Illness” by Risdon N. Slate and W. Wesley Johnson (Carolina Academic Press)
# A 2003 study by Human Rights Watch says mentally ill prisoners are mistreated in the U.S.
# Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act
# How crisis intervention by law enforcement worked in Memphis
# Read more about the mentally ill and effects of isolation cells in a report by Eva Nilsen of Boston University School of Law

Eyes peered through the narrow window in the cell door.

"I'm getting out tomorrow," said the man, little more than a disembodied voice shouting over the screams of neighboring inmates at the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility.

He didn't mean out of prison -- just out of the cell where he spends 23 hours a day. Officially known as "administrative segregation," inmates call isolation units such as these "the hole."

The 27-year-old has been in isolation since 2002 -- a confinement prison officials say is necessary for security but which research shows can worsen mental illness.

Increasingly, it's the mentally ill who end up behind bars. In Kansas and nationwide, prisons have become this country's largest mental health institutions.

Many inmates come out in worse shape than when they went in, experts say -- a greater threat to public safety and a drain on public resources.

For the first time, the county's mental health providers and law enforcement are coming together to steer the mentally ill away from locked cells and into treatment, combating a complicated problem that's been building for decades.

This week, Wichita police and Sedgwick County sheriff's deputies and jail detention officers will learn how to identify the mentally ill and provide alternatives to arresting them. The approach is based on a model that has succeeded in Memphis, Las Vegas and other cities.

In Kansas, nearly 9 in 10 inmates in state prisons -- 7,690 -- suffer from mental illnesses, according to the Department of Corrections.

"I'm not sure we ought to be the primary source of residential mental health services in the state," said Kansas Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz. "That's certainly not our mission."

In Sedgwick County, every convict coming out of prison and into the county's re-entry program needs mental health services, according to a report from the University of Kansas.

"It's like coming back from a war zone," said re-entry program director Sally Frey.

Prisons were meant to harbor criminals, not treat persistent mental illnesses or behavior disorders.

But nationally, the number of mentally ill inmates in state prisons has tripled in the past decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. In 1998, the bureau counted 179,200 mentally ill state prison inmates. By 2005, there were 705,600.

"It's not like they had a straight path to prison," said Richard Cagen, Kansas director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "They didn't have other resources.... And once you're in the criminal justice system, it's difficult to get out."

In prison, many mentally ill people find:

• Shelter, where before they were homeless

• The best medications for their illnesses, which insurance or social services won't pay for on the outside

• Respite from drugs and alcohol they have abused to stop the pain inside their heads

But prison isn't the alternative mental health care that professionals imagined when state hospitals began closing in the 1960s in favor of community-based care.

The money for that treatment didn't materialize, Risdon Slate and Wesley Johnson write in their book "Criminalization of Mental Illness."

Instead, states paid to build more prisons.

Life on lockdown

Checkerboard tiles cover some units at the Larned prison, where Kansas sends inmates with the most serious mental and behavior problems.

But only bare concrete covers the floor in administrative segregation.

Inmates there spend 23 hours a day in an 8-by-13-foot cell. When officers open the door for the 24th hour, they often receive an unpleasant greeting.

"The inmates have thrown urine out there until they have soaked tile right up off the floor," said warden Karen Rohling. "We just could not get tile to stick to the floor there."

The 27-year-old inmate who thought he would be getting out of isolation the next day came to Larned from solitary lockdown at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.

"I've been working on my behavior and now they're going to let me back out into population," he said in a voice full of hope.

Larned wasn't intended to provide long-term care when it opened in 1992. But it does.

"Over time, because of changes at the state hospital and other places, we find we're keeping them longer and longer," Rohling said.

Inside the cells

Inmates in the hole can earn a television or radio for good behavior. For one hour a day, they are led in shackles outdoors, where they can walk in an 8-by-33 ½-foot chain-link area inmates call "the dog run."

"You can walk back and forth in your cell two or three hours a day," said Morris Whittaker, 46, an inmate who lived in isolation at El Dorado and Larned prisons. "All the time you're trying to keep your calm and cool so you can do better things."

John Hawley, 46, who has served 27 years on convictions of rape and aggravated sodomy, has been at Larned since 1992. He's haunted by the memory of his wife, who died in surgery.

"I blame myself for that," he said. "I wasn't there for her."

Hawley still sees and hears his wife as part of his psychosis.

He briefly went to Larned's mental health hospital, which inmates call "the hill," but came back to the prison after an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.

He's now a porter, cleaning the F3 unit. That's where inmates move to transition from the hole. In F3, inmates may leave their cells for two hours and are trying to reach a point where they can join the general population.

Elston Taylor, 29, hears voices and responds by slitting his wrists. Taylor went to prison in 2002 for burglary in Sedgwick County. He served time in Hutchinson and Lansing before Larned.

At Lansing, he said his behavior landed him in the so-called "crisis cell."

"They take you over to the clinic and put you in a strip cell where you just get your boxers, a mattress and a security blanket," Taylor said.

When sentences end

Most of these inmates will get out and move back into communities across Kansas -- some after years in isolation.

"You can conceivably make their mental illness worse by isolating them too much," said Werholtz, the secretary of corrections.

Larned's goal is to get inmates out of isolation within six months. But some come from other prisons having lived that way for years.

Such was the case for Larned inmate Whittaker, who earned parole in 1983, 2005 and 2006. He returned to prison each time for violating his parole, not for committing a new crime.

He said it's because he drinks too much. Most mentally ill prisoners have drug and alcohol addictions.

Rohling, the warden, has heard this scenario many times:

In Larned, an inmate gets the newest drugs for his mental illness. But outside they're not covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

"He may have little choice but to go off his medication," she said.

The meds available outside often fetch more money being sold on the street than a person receives for rent or food. Parole officers say the mentally ill who can't work typically live off $241 a month in state financial assistance.

For extra money, they sell their pills, turning to alcohol or illegal drugs, such as methamphetamine and ecstasy -- drugs that "do awful things to the mentally ill," Rohling said.

They return to prison and get treatment, "but we almost never get them back to the same level of functioning that they were on that first release," she said.

Werholtz added that the biggest challenge the prison system faces is what to do when sentences run out.

"We struggle with making sure that the men and women who are leaving our facility get a smooth transition and continuity of care, particularly medication maintenance, once they're released."

Out on the streets

Outside prison, former inmates face problems compounded by mental illness, said parole officer Dawn Shepler, who works with the mentally ill.

Few have family support, and most need a place to live, she said. But landlords hesitate to rent to ex-cons. Some people go from prison to a homeless shelter.

It takes 30 to 90 days to get financial assistance from the state. It can take up to two years to receive permanent federal disability, which they lose each time they go to prison.

When someone has a psychotic episode or other crisis, it's usually the police who respond.

"Sometimes, they take them to jail because they don't know where else to take them," Shepler said.

This week's training will teach officers alternatives.

The goal is to forge law enforcement and mental health providers into a crisis intervention team, a program supported by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

Jason Scheck, director of crisis intervention for Comcare, the county's mental health agency, saw a similar program at work in Memphis.

"They will approach consumers (of mental health) not in an adversarial role, but in a way which says they want to help them get the treatment they need," Scheck said.

Memphis began its program in 1988 after police shot and killed a 27-year-old mentally ill man. The police now say the program helped eliminate the stigma officers had against the mentally ill and helped the mentally ill trust police.

The best part for taxpayers, Shepler said: It doesn't cost anything. The approach centers more on changing the way police do their job than on adding new resources.

But authors Slate and Johnson say such alternatives work only if there are adequate community programs in place.

As governments and private insurance cut reimbursement for mental health, for-profit hospitals closed their units, and others went out of business.

There used to be eight units in Wichita to identify people who need mental health care. Now there is one -- at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Joseph Campus.

Lois Clendening, director of Via Christi Behavioral Health Good Shepherd Campus, said the St. Joseph center sees 500 people a month.

In the past two years, Congress has allocated $5 million a year for programs that divert the mentally ill away from jails and prisons. But the money is enough to pay for only about 11 percent of program requests.

In 2006, the County Commission funded the Sedgwick County Offender Assessment Program as an alternative for mentally ill people arrested for minor, nonviolent crimes. It will serve the new crisis intervention program.

Still isolated

The 27-year-old inmate who spoke so excitedly about getting out of isolation made those statements on April 17.

On June 26, he was still in the hole.

On Aug. 7, he returned to El Dorado, where he remained in that prison's isolation unit.

He's set to get out of prison in seven years.

By then, Sedgwick County hopes to have trained 20 percent of its law enforcement in crisis intervention.

"We know Band-Aids won't work," Shepler said. "We need better housing. We need more mental health beds. You can't solve this by building a bigger jail."

© 2007 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.com

Posted by lois at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

Judges Vetted by White House More Likely to Reject Asylum Bids

August 24, 2008
Vetted Judges More Likely to Reject Asylum Bids
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
NY Times

WASHINGTON — Immigrants seeking asylum in the United States have been disproportionately rejected by judges whom the Bush administration chose using a conservative political litmus test, according to an analysis of Justice Department data.

The analysis suggests that the effects of a patronage-style selection process for immigration judges — used for three years before it was abandoned as illegal — are still being felt by scores of immigrants whose fates are determined by the judges installed in that period.

The data focuses on 16 judges who were vetted for political affiliation before being hired and have since ruled on at least 100 cases each.

Comparison of their records to others in the same cities shows that as a group they ruled against asylum-seekers significantly more often than colleagues who were appointed, as the law requires, under politically neutral rules.

Critics of the politicization of the immigration bench say it is not enough that in 2007 the department stopped using illegal hiring procedures. The fact that many of the politically selected judges remain in power, they say, continues to undermine the perceived fairness of hearings for immigrants fighting deportation.

The immigration court “is now the seat of individuals who were appointed illegally, and that means that in the minds of many people the court symbolizes illegality,” said Bruce Einhorn, a Pepperdine University law professor who was an immigration judge from 1990 until he retired last year.

Peter A. Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, wrote in an e-mailed response to questions, “The fact that the process was flawed does not mean that the immigration judges selected through that process are unfit to serve.”

The Bush administration has been accused by Democrats and other critics of improperly bringing politics into the business of federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration and, most notably, the Justice Department, which has been reeling under accusations that officials sought to politicize the apparatus of law enforcement.

This summer, the department’s inspector general released two scathing reports confirming that for several years administration officials illegally took political affiliation into account when hiring recent law school graduates, summer associates, some assistant prosecutors and immigration judges.

The report covering the selection of immigration judges primarily blamed Kyle Sampson, a former top aide to the attorney general, and two former White House liaisons to the department, Monica M. Goodling and Jan Williams, for the practice.

When vetting applicants, for example, Ms. Goodling asked them questions about their political beliefs and researched their campaign contributions. She also conducted Internet searches of their names and words like “asylum,” “immigrant” and “border,” as well as partisan terms, like abortion, Iraq, gay and the names of political figures, to determine their views, the report said. But it presented no evidence that her efforts were connected to any official policy goal of restricting asylum.

The White House has said it never ordered political hiring of civil servants.

The Justice Department employs more than 200 immigration judges in more than 50 courts around the country. They conduct hearings for noncitizens asking not to be deported, including asylum-seekers who say they fear religious or political persecution.

Although called “judges,” the hearing examiners are not confirmed by the Senate for life; they are covered by federal civil-service laws, which stipulate that they must be hired on the basis of merit under politically neutral criteria. But in early 2004, political appointees took control of hiring the judges away from career professionals and essentially began treating the positions — which carry salaries of $104,300 to $158,500 — as patronage jobs. They screened out liberals and Democrats, while steering openings to White House-vetted “Bush loyalists” and other job-seekers vouched for by Republican political appointees.

Among the judges selected were a member of the 2000 Bush-Cheney Florida recount team, people who worked for Republican lawmakers and a former Republican state official in Illinois backed by Karl Rove, at the time the White House political adviser.

In 2007, after the Civil Division questioned the legality of the process, the administration changed back to a nonpolitical selection method handled by career professionals.

But in the interim 31 immigration judges had been appointed by the flawed process. The Justice Department did not challenge a list of those judges submitted by The New York Times.

Of that group, 28 remain judges, two left during a probationary period, and one was recently promoted by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the panel that hears appeals of rulings.

The inspector general’s report did not evaluate how the politically selected judges have used their power. The additional data comes from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group at Syracuse University that has analyzed Justice Department records from the 2002 fiscal year to 2007 and profiled immigration judges.

Of the 31 politically selected judges, 16 compiled enough of a record to allow statistical analysis. Nine rejected applicants at a significantly higher rate than other local colleagues, while three were more lenient. Four others decided cases in line with the local averages, an analysis by The Times showed.

And when asylum denial rates of all judges across the nation were ranked in comparison to their local peers, 8 of the 16 scored above the 70th percentile — meaning they have been among the judges least likely to grant asylum.

Together, these 16 judges handled 5,031 cases and had a combined denial rate of 66.3 percent — 6.6 percentage points greater than their collective peers. This translates into an extra 157 asylum cases that resulted in denial.

In Houston, for example, Judge Chris Brisack denied asylum in 90.7 percent of his cases, while other judges in that city averaged a 79.1 percent denial rate. Judge Brisack, a former Republican county chairman who also works in the oil business, did not return a call.

Garry Malphrus, the judge later elevated to the Board of Immigration Appeals, denied asylum 66.9 percent of the time, compared with an average denial rate of 58.3 percent among other judges at his court in Arlington, Va. Judge Malphrus, a former associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, did not return a call.

The highest gap belonged to Judge Earle Wilson. He worked first in Miami, where he denied 88.1 percent of asylum requests — 9.8 percentage points higher than the local average. He then moved to Orlando, where his denial rate was 80.3 percent — 29.2 percentage points higher than peers.

Judge Wilson, who previously worked in the Office of Immigration Litigation at the Justice Department, said he was not allowed to give interviews.

Still, there were exceptions. Three of the politically selected judges granted asylum significantly more frequently than peers. Most notably, Judge Glen Bower of Chicago denied only 16 percent of asylum requests — 47 percentage points lower than the city average. Judge Bower, the applicant backed by Mr. Rove, did not return a call.

The analysis excluded judges for whom insufficient data was available to produce meaningful results.

Charles H. Kuck, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said all the judges, regardless of their qualifications, should reapply for their jobs alongside other applicants.

“Any judge who was appointed through a process that was not impartial should step down and go through the process again to make sure they should be reappointed,” Mr. Kuck said.

But Glenn Fine, the Justice Department inspector general, said at a July 30 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his investigation that “it would be difficult if not impossible” to decide whether a sitting judge was qualified.

Mr. Fine also noted that the judges could not be fired because they were now protected by civil-service statutes — the same laws violated when they were selected.

At that hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, expressed frustration about the lack of remedies.

“The so-called ‘loyal Bushies’ that they stuffed into these positions will also have gotten away with it and will be there essentially indefinitely, protected by civil-service protections that they don’t deserve,” Mr. Whitehouse said.

Stephen H. Legomsky, an immigration law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the attorney general should reassign the judges to nonadjudicatory positions at the same pay, which would not violate civil-service rules.

Dana Marks, an immigration judge in San Francisco and the president of the judges’ union, said her organization opposed reassigning its new members.

“We are confident that many of the people hired under this process are excellent judges,” said Judge Marks, who was appointed in 1987, “and should not be penalized for having been hired under a process that they had no control over at the time, that some of them may not even have known was irregular or inappropriate.”

Temporarily reducing the number of judges might exacerbate an already crushing caseload.

Already, several immigration lawyers said they were considering invoking constitutional due-process rights to ask for new hearings for clients turned down by the politically selected judges, although people who have already been deported would most likely be ineligible for that.

Several law professors said they doubted such a potentially disruptive request would prevail. But regardless, they said, the recent disclosures have further tarnished the image of the immigration courts.

Last year, an academic study of 140,000 decisions over four years found sharp differences in the outcome of cases involving immigrants of the same nationality, even among judges in the same city.

The authors of the study, called “Refugee Roulette,” concluded that the facts of a case may be less important in determining whether someone is deported than which judge hears the case.

Nina Bernstein and Robert Gebeloff contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/washington/24judges.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Posted by lois at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

OH: Bill would free more deadbeat parents. Kids, state would all be winners, legislator says.

Bill would free more deadbeat parents. Kids, state would all be winners, legislator says
Friday, August 22, 2008 3:10 AM
By Jim Siegel
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Hoping to see more deadbeat parents placed in community-corrections programs instead of costly, crowded prisons, a state legislator from Franklin County proposed yesterday expanding a pilot sentencing program.

The bill would take a program that started in 2007 in Franklin, Delaware and five other counties and spread it statewide. State prison officials estimate that keeping those who fail to pay child support out of their penitentiaries would save an estimated $13,000 a year per offender and increase support payments by 71 percent.

"The state can save money on the cost of keeping them in prison, and (offenders) can earn money to pay back the child support," said Rep. Ted Celeste, D-Grandview Heights, who introduced the bill. "To me, it seems like a no-brainer."

Punishing deadbeat parents has long been an uncomfortable balancing act for the judicial system, as it weighs the desire to punish those who ignore court orders against the fact that an inmate can't earn money to make support payments.

Those who end up in prison are usually the repeat offenders, after judges decide they've had enough, said Linda Janes, a 17-year veteran of the state prison system and deputy director of the Division of Parole and Community Services.

Of the record 50,633 inmates in Ohio prisons this week, nearly 800 are locked up for failure to pay child support, Janes said. Based on the pilot program, which has diverted 650 people who could have be sent to prison, she estimated that 1,800 to 2,000 could be kept out of prison each year if the program went statewide.

Nonsupport offenders generally serve six- to eight-month prison sentences.

"We certainly can punish these people and rehabilitate these people in the community without spending the vast dollars it takes to incarcerate somebody," Janes said.

Celeste said he thinks the bill can be passed in the lame-duck session after the November election, possibly as an amendment to House Bill 130, which is designed to help prisoners re-enter society. The House has passed that bill.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/08/22/DeadbeatBill.ART_ART_08-22-08_B4_5VB3RJA.html?print=yes&sid=101

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

August 22, 2008

Former UNICOR worker and prisoners claim exposure to toxic material

Former prison worker claims exposure to toxic material
By Lance Griffin
Dothan Eagle
August 21, 2008

MARIANNA, Fla. — Freda Cobb’s three-ring binder is filled with more than 200 pages, most of them detailing 11 years of ailments, doctor visits and prescription information.

She has suffered from digestive problems, acute respiratory symptoms, short-term memory loss, muscle pain, kidney and liver problems, heart problems, internal bleeding and skin lesions.

Her health forced her to retire as a security officer from the Federal Correctional Institution in Marianna, Fla., in September of 2004.

Over the next two years, Cobb said she learned that several other prison workers and inmates who participated in a computer recycling program adjacent to the prison were experiencing many of the same problems.

Now, her binder also has several pages dealing with lead poisoning, exposure to cadmium and other elements.

“I never even realized,” said Cobb, who lives with her husband Eugene in Marianna. “We never put it together.”

Cobb believes she and many others were exposed to dangerous levels of toxic material, resulting from their participation in a computer recycling operation adjacent to the prison.

Overall, 26 current and former inmates and prison employees are suing the U.S. Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Prisons and UNICOR — the government-owned company that runs the recycling business, claiming they did not do enough to protect workers from being exposed to harmful chemicals and elements. Three individuals in supervisory positions with UNICOR are also named.

UNICOR began a computer recycling operation — the first of its kind — near the Marianna prison in 1994. The operation used female inmates from the nearby female prison camp to remove truckloads of obsolete computers each day, break them down and retrieve parts that can be reused or resold, including central processing units and cathode ray tubes.

Cobb — who began working at the prison in 1991 — said it was common for inmates and workers to unload several semi-trailer loads of old computers per day. Often, inmates would need to break the computers and monitors with hammers to retrieve the salvageable parts, causing a thick dust to engulf the area.

“It looked just like pollen,” Cobb said. “At the end of the day, when we would go to our cars, we would sort of laugh because we could write letters on our hood and on the back.”

Cobb said, and the complaint alleges, that inmates and workers were not provided with masks, coveralls or any protective equipment other than steel-toed shoes.

She said some inmates and workers raised questions to supervisors.

“They told us not to worry about it,” she said. “Nobody wanted to hear us.”

Cobb worked at the nearby food service building and said female inmates would come from the recycling facility into the building and shake off their dust-laden clothes, causing dust to coat the floor and eating utensils. She would also be asked to pat down the inmates because male officers did not want to pat down the female inmates. Cobb said she was further exposed to the potentially-toxic materials when she worked overtime in the UNICOR warehouse where the recycling operation took place.

The complaint alleges others were possibly exposed when allowed to visit the recycling facility to purchase refurbished computers at a discount price.

“Defendants knew or should have known about the dangers associated with the recycling facilities. For example, it is common knowledge that CRT monitors are hazardous waste because of the amounts of lead and other toxic substances contained in them,” states the complaint, filed by Tallahassee, Fla., attorneys Richard Bisbee, Bill Reeves, and Patrick Frank.

“The continued safety of inmates and staff is our top priority and we are committed to insuring our continued compliance with all applicable health and safety regulations,” said Traci Billingsley, spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

One plaintiff, 36-year-old Tanya Smith, died Aug. 1 at her home in Cottondale, Fla. The complaint alleges others exposed to the dust have died as well.

“Based on information and belief, at least 12 persons who are know(n) to various plaintiffs have been exposed to the dust or powder resulting from the UNICOR recycling operation at Marianna and have suffered from symptoms consistent with exposure to heavy metals and other toxic substances found in computer monitors have died,” the complaint states.

Since the computer recycling operation started in Marianna in 1994, it has expanded to include seven facilities. Late last year, a report written by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and ordered by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General indicates staff and inmates were exposed to lead and cadmium beyond permissible levels at UNICOR’s computer recycling operation in Elkton, Ohio. Similar studies are being done at recycling facilities at prisons in Texas and California.

The Ohio facility is equipped with air filters. The report states that a surface wipe of the filter located in the glass breakage area of the warehouse tested positive for levels 450 times the permissible limit for cadmium and 50 times the permissible limit for lead.

Cobb said the Marianna facility did not have filters or any type of ventilation for several years.

The defendants have until next month to respond to the complaint.
http://www.dothaneagle.com/dea/news/local/article/former_prison_worker_claims_exposure_to_toxic_material/32883/

Posted by lois at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

Dennis Skillicorn's execution is postponed for 30 days

08/21/2008 | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The quality of mercy

Late Wednesday afternoon the Missouri Supreme Court postponed for at least 30 days the state's plans to administer the death penalty for the first time in almost three years. It was the correct decision.

We say that not only because this editorial page long has opposed capital punishment in all circumstances, believing that it has no place in a civilized society. And in this particular case, the arguments against the ultimate punishment are particularly strong.

Dennis J. Skillicorn, 49, was to have been executed at 12:01 a.m. next
Wednesday even though he did not kill Richard Drummond, the crime for which he was convicted in Lafayette County in 1996. Skillicorn was half a mile away when his buddy, Allen Nicklasson, shot Mr. Drummond, 47, of Excelsior Springs.

The jury knew that when it convicted Skillicorn as an accessory to capital murder. But the prosecutor in the case had painted Skillicorn as the ringleader among the three men convicted in Mr. Drummond's death. The trio had traveled from Kansas City to St. Louis to buy drugs, and the men were returning to Kansas City on Aug. 23, 1994, when their car broke down on Interstate 70, 22 miles east of Kingdom City. Mr. Drummond, a telephone company technician, stopped to help them.

The third member of the group, Tim DeGraffenreid, 17 at the time of the crime, was convicted of second-degree murder. Skillicorn and Nicklasson both were sentenced to death. But Nicklasson, last month swore in an affadavit that "I have maintained from the day of my arrest, October 5, 1994, that Dennis had absolutely no knowledge that I would murder Mr. Richard Drummond."

Just as important - and perhaps more so - is that since he's been in prison, Skillicorn has been an exemplary citizen, a rare moderating influence in a place - as one inmate put it - "full of vampires."

If the fact Skillicorn had very little to do with the actual murder isn't enough to convince Gov. Blunt to commute his sentence, perhaps his record as a model prisoner will. The Supreme Court's action should help him consider that record more completely. Skillicorn's lawyers had been denied access to prison staff and inmates as part of their efforts to draw up a clemency petition. On Wednesday, the court said this amounted to "obstruction of clemency advocacy."

Skillicorn's lawyers now have one month to do conduct interviews on a
voluntary basis with the people who know Skillicorn best. It's in the best interest of the Department of Corrections to cooperate.

As Neal Turnbrough, a former guard at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, put it: "You'd like to have a whole prison of Dennises; it makes the job easier."

Skillicorn is a leader in several Christian prison ministries. He helped create a hospice program to care for inmates who are sick and dying. He is the editor of "Compassion," a bi-monthly newsletter for death row inmates nationwide, the mission of which is "promoting restorative justice and reconciliation."

Among the letters sent to Gov. Blunt on behalf of Skillicorn's petition for clemency is one from a fellow death row inmate who wrote, "You got a lot of love in you, my brother. And as I sit here knocking on heaven's door, I will go forth and take with me your strength and honor and total compassion, whether I go forth in this life or the next."

The letter was written by Marlin Gray, executed by the state of Missouri on Oct. 26, 2005. The death chamber at the prison in Bonne Terre has since gone unused as Missouri and the nation again have wrestled with issues related to capital punishment.

In April, the United States Supreme Court ruled, 7-2, that the lethal
injection procedure used to administer the death penalty in Kentucky was not "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment. Because 37 of the 38 states that permit capital punishment using a three-drug process similar to Kentucky's, the death penalty had been on hold while the Kentucky case worked its way to a decision by the high court.

A similar challenge to the constitutionality of lethal injection had been brought in Missouri. The state, it turned out, did not have a formal written execution protocol. Dr. Alan Doerhoff, a Jefferson City surgeon who had supervised most of the executions in Missouri, admitted that he was dyslexic and that he sometimes had made mistakes while administering doses of the execution drugs.

A Post-Dispatch investigation revealed that Dr. Doerhoff also had been sued for medical malpractice some 20 times and that David Pinkley, a nurse who had worked with Dr. Doerhoff, was on probation for legal problems unrelated to his profession.

Larry Crawford, director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, says those problems have been corrected. Yet how tragic that a model prisoner who never actually pulled a trigger might become the test case for the new procedures and staff.

The state has a neatly-typed, five-page execution protocol that is a public document, setting forth in precise language the procedures to be followed; the dosages of each drug to be administered and in what order; the veins in which IV lines are to be inserted (primary and secondary); the position of the gurney and the timing of the procedure.

A key change, Mr. Crawford said, is that the execution team now is supposed to wait three minutes after the injection of the first drug: 5 grams of thiopental. During that waiting period, medical personnel are supposed to enter the death chamber and check to ensure that the drug, a heavy barbiturate, has taken effect and has rendered the inmate unconscious. Only then may the second drug, a paralyzing agent, and the third drug, which stops the heart, be administered.

"I've talked to a lot of medical people in recent months," Mr. Crawford said, "and they all tell me that if you had to pick a way to die, this is the way to go."

Another key change: The process is to be overseen by a board-certified
anesthesiologist who is assisted by a licensed practical nurse. A licensed pharmacist will prepare the drugs. Mr. Crawford said these arrangements exceed court-ordered standards, which permit a nurse or an emergency medical technician to supervise executions.

A recently enacted state law makes the identities of medical personnel
involved in state executions a secret, along with the identity of the
corrections department employee assigned to start the flow of the drugs.

This confidentiality may be important to the anesthesiologist hired by the state. The ethical guidelines of the American Medical Association and the American Society of Anesthesiologists forbid physicians from participating directly or indirectly in executions.

Dennis Skillicorn's best hope for avoiding these people lies with his request for clemency from Gov. Blunt. That's why it's important that corrections officers and inmates be encouraged to talk about the Dennis Skillicorn they have come to know in the last 12 years.

If the death penalty must be imposed, it must be reserved for the worst of theworse, not for someone who may have had no idea what his partner was planning. As punishment for his participation, Skillicorn deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison, a sentence that would have the added benefit of letting him continue the good works to which he has devoted his life since being sent to Potosi. Religious groups from around the state have appealed for clemency,noting the tremendously positive influence Skillicorn has on other inmates.

Skillicorn's lawyers, led by Jennifer A. Merrigan of the Public Interest Litigation Center in Kansas City, also are challenging the way the state developed its execution protocol: adopting it without presenting it for public comment or review by the Legislature's Joint Committee on Corrections.

In St. Louis on Wednesday, Mr. Blunt was asked about Skillicorn's petition for clemency. His reply was non-commital, saying only that "I spend a great deal of time going over the information with my staff. It's the most serious thing we do within our criminal justice system, and it's a responsibility that I take very seriously."

We hope Mr. Blunt will encourage Mr. Crawford and his staff to speak openly about Skillicorn's record. A full and open review would be a courageous step for the governor and for Missouri. In Shakespeare's words:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. . . .

/ / / / /

Posted by lois at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

THE MEANING OF "LIFE": LONG PRISON SENTENCES IN CONTEXT LIFERS IN PRISON

THE MEANING OF "LIFE": LONG PRISON SENTENCES IN CONTEXT LIFERS IN PRISON
This is from the Sentencing Project from 2002/2003
The number of persons serving life sentences has grown along with the
increase in the overall prison population of recent decades. Our national survey obtained data on lifers in prison from state and federal corrections systems as of 2002/2003.

Data were obtained either from the website or direct contact with the
departments of corrections. There are now a record 127,677 persons serving a life sentence in state or federal prison.

Overall, one of every eleven (9.4%) inmates is now serving a life term.In recent years policy changes have also increased the number of persons serving a sentence of life without parole.

Our survey finds that one of every four lifers – 33,633 persons – is now serving a sentence of life without parole.

Imprisonment of lifers has grown nationwide, but is particularly
significant in a number of states:•In 12 states more than 10% of the prison population is serving a life term; in California and New York the proportions are approaching one of every five inmates.

•The use of life without parole statutes is dramatic as well. In Louisiana and Pennsylvania one of every ten prisoners is serving a life sentence, all of which are sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

•In four other states -- Illinois, Iowa, Maine, and South Dakota -- and the federal system, all life sentences are life without parole. While mechanisms for release exist in each of these states, the presumptive sentence is that offenders will never be released.

There are also significant variations in the degree to which states employ both life sentences and life without parole. New York, for example,maintains the highest proportion (19.4%) of lifers
in its prison population, yet uses sentences of life without parole very sparingly (0.1%).

Overall,the lifer proportion of the prison population varies from 0.9% in Indiana to 19.4% in New York.

And in terms of the use of life without parole, four states – Alaska,Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas – have no such inmates, while Louisiana leads the nation with 10.6%.

(Note, though, that Texas holds the second largest number of people on death row in the nation.)

**=36 of the 45 persons serving a life sentence in Maine are serving life without parole. The remaining nine persons were sentenced to life prior to a law that mandates that all life sentences be imposed without parole.

____________________________________________

Posted by lois at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2008

CO: 1,361 priosn employees live in Pueblo Co.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Pueblo attracts majority of prison workers
Department of Corrections records show that 1,361 employees live in Pueblo County, while 1,252 reside in Fremont County.
By DENNIS DARROW
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
August 20, 2008 03:10 am
Of the 6,183 state Department of Corrections employees in Colorado, nearly half make their homes in Pueblo and Fremont counties, according to state personnel records.

Pueblo County ranks No. 1 in the state with 1,361 DOC workers, based on a ZIP code search of the correction department's employee home addresses, provided by the agency at the request of The Pueblo Chieftain.

Fremont County ranks No. 2 with 1,252 workers.

The heavy concentration of DOC workers in the two counties is by far the largest in the state.

El Paso County, site of the state DOC headquarters, ranks third with 610 workers. The headquarters office accounts for about 240 jobs.

Logan County in the state's northeast corner, site of the Sterling Correctional Facility, is home to 600 workers.

The Chieftain requested the ZIP code search as part of its work on a future series of stories examining the economic impact of prisons on Southern Colorado communities.

DOC does not maintain any summary reports on the cities and counties where its employees reside, a spokesman said, and a ZIP code search was considered the best way to compile such information.

The newspaper decided to publish the information now given the growing interest in the state's plans to open a new DOC headquarters, possibly in a new city.

Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Fremont County have submitted bids to host the headquarters. The ZIP code information relates only to DOC employees.

It does not include employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons prison complex, located near Florence, or the state's private prisons. Several private prisons also operate in Southeastern Colorado.

The number of DOC workers who live in Pueblo and Fremont counties will take another jump in 2010 with the opening of Colorado State Penitentiary II now under construction east of Canon City.

Pueblo state Sen. Abel Tapia, told of the results of the DOC search, said the numbers help illustrate that DOC workers "are a vital, critical part of the economy."

Beyond the large numbers of workers in the area, Tapia noted the relatively high salaries paid to DOC employees. Salaries range from $45,000 to $100,000, he said.

DOC workers also are less transient than workers in some other industries, helping them become integral members of a community, he said.

"They live in the community and they contribute to the community. They are very valuable," Tapia said.

Fremont County is home to eight DOC-run prisons that operate mostly between Canon City and Pueblo West. The city of Pueblo is home to three DOC-run prisons.

A DOC review of the bids for a new headquarters site is ongoing.

WHERE THEY LIVE

Here are the counties where employees of the state's Department of Corrections reside:

Top counties:

1. Pueblo 1,361

2. Fremont 1,252

3. El Paso 610

4. Logan 600

5. Chaffee 314

6. Arapahoe 213

7. Otero 194

8. Adams 185

9. Denver 174

10. Jefferson 160

Top cities by ZIP code:

1. Canon City (81212) 888

2. Pueblo West (81007) 530

3. Sterling (80751) 508

4. Pueblo South Side (81005) 279

5. Buena Vista (81211) 205

6. Florence (81226) 164

7. Pueblo Belmont/East (81001) 152

8. Penrose (81240) 120

9. Limon (80828) 115

10. Pueblo Minnequa (81004) 108

Other areas in Pueblo

North Side (81008) 104

St. Charles Mesa (81006) 92

Central (81003) 60

Avondale (81002) 15

Colorado City (81019) 9

Boone (81025) 7

Beulah (81023) 3

Rye (81069) 2

Other counties:

Bent County 104

Las Animas County 86

Crowley County 68

Saguache County 28

Huerfano County 24

Prowers County 18

Alamosa County 3

Kiowa County 3

Rio Grande County 1

Total employees statewide: 6,183

Source: State Department of Corrections/Chieftain research

Posted by lois at 08:17 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2008

Cancer-Stricken 34-Year-Old Chinese Computer Engineer Dies After Being Denied Care in Private US Immigration Prison

Cancer-Stricken 34-Year-Old Chinese Computer Engineer Dies After Being Denied Care in Private US Immigration Prison

Democracy Now 8-19-08. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript at this URL.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/19/35_year_old_immigrant_detainee_dies
Earlier this month, a thirty-four-year-old Chinese computer engineer, Hiu Lui Ng, who overstayed his visa, died in a Rhode Island immigration detention center. He had cancer in his liver, lung and bones, and a fractured spine. Despite repeated complaints of severe pain, Mr. Ng was refused independent medical evaluation by immigration officials. Before Mr. Ng died on August 6th, he told his sister that the nurses at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island had told him to “stop faking” his illness. We speak to immigration attorney Joshua Bardavid, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Renee Feltz, co-creator of the site BusinessOfDetention.com.

Democracy Now 8-19-08. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript at this URL.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/19/35_year_old_immigrant_detainee_dies
Earlier this month, a thirty-four-year-old Chinese computer engineer, Hiu Lui Ng, who overstayed his visa, died in a Rhode Island immigration detention center. He had cancer in his liver, lung and bones, and a fractured spine. Despite repeated complaints of severe pain, Mr. Ng was refused independent medical evaluation by immigration officials. Before Mr. Ng died on August 6th, he told his sister that the nurses at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island had told him to “stop faking” his illness. We speak to immigration attorney Joshua Bardavid, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Renee Feltz, co-creator of the site BusinessOfDetention.com.

Guests:
Joshua Bardavid, immigration attorney in New York. He is representing Hiu Lui Ng’s family.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Democratic Congress member from California. She serves as Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law.
Renee Feltz, investigative journalist based in New York City and creator with Stokely Baksh of the award-winning multimedia investigative project BusinessOfDetention.com. Part of this project featured on MotherJones.com, and another part will be featured in an upcoming issue of NACLA.

http://www.businessofdetention.com/
The nation's largest private prison company has partnered with the federal government to detain close to
1 million undocumented people in the past 5 years until they are deported. In the process, Corrections Corporation of America has made record profits. Critics suggest the CCA cuts corners on its detention contracts in order to increase its revenue at expense of humane conditions. Thanks to political connections and lobby spending, it dominates the industry of immigrant detention. CCA now has close to 10,000 new beds under development in anticipation of continued demand.

Posted by lois at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)

What Do Prisoners Make for Victoria's Secret?

What Do Prisoners Make for Victoria's Secret?
From Starbucks to Microsoft: a sampling of what US inmates make, and for whom"
Mother Jones
Caroline Winter
July 21, 2008

Tens of thousands of US inmates are paid from pennies to minimum wage—minus fines and victim compensation—for everything from grunt work to firefighting to specialized labor. Here's a sampling of what they make, and for whom.

Eating in: Each month, California inmates process more than 680,000 pounds of beef, 400,000 pounds of chicken products, 450,000 gallons of milk, 280,000 loaves of bread, and 2.9 million eggs (from 160,000 inmate-raised hens). Starbucks subcontractor Signature Packaging Solutions has hired Washington prisoners to package holiday coffees (as well as Nintendo Game Boys). Confronted by a reporter in 2001, a Starbucks rep called the setup "entirely consistent with our mission statement."

Around the Big House: Texas inmates produce brooms and brushes, bedding and mattresses, toilets, sinks, showers, and bullwhips. Bullwhips?

Windows dressing: In the mid-1990s, Washington prisoners shrink-wrapped software and up to 20,000 Microsoft mouses for subcontractor Exmark (other reported clients: Costco and JanSport). "We don't see this as a negative," a Microsoft spokesman said at the time. Dell used federal prisoners for PC recycling in 2003, but stopped after a watchdog group warned that it might expose inmates to toxins.

Back to school: Texas and California inmates make dorm furniture and lockers, diploma covers, binders, logbooks, library book carts, locker room benches, and juice boxes.

Patriotic duties: Federal Prison Industries, a.k.a. Unicor, says that in addition to soldiers' uniforms, bedding, shoes, helmets, and flak vests, inmates have "produced missile cables (including those used on the Patriot missiles during the Gulf War)" and "wiring harnesses for jets and tanks." In 1997, according to Prison Legal News, Boeing subcontractor MicroJet had prisoners cutting airplane components, paying $7 an hour for work that paid union wages of $30 on the outside.

The law won: In Texas, prisoners make officers' duty belts, handcuff cases, and prison-cell accessories. California convicts make gun containers, creepers (to peek under vehicles), and human-silhouette targets.

A stitch in time: California inmates sew their own garb. In the 1990s, subcontractor Third Generation hired 35 female South Carolina inmates to sew lingerie and leisure wear for Victoria's Secret and JCPenney. In 1997, a California prison put two men in solitary for telling journalists they were ordered to replace "Made in Honduras" labels on garments with "Made in the usa."

Open wide: At California's prison dental laboratory, inmates produce a complete prosthesis selection, including custom trays, try-ins, bite blocks, and dentures.

Constructive criticism: Prisoners in for burglary, battery, drug and gun charges, and escape helped build a Wal-Mart distribution center in Wisconsin in 2005, until community uproar halted the program. (Company policy says, "Forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart.")

On call: Its inmate call centers are the "best kept secret in outsourcing," Unicor boasts. In 1994, a contractor for gop congressional hopeful Jack Metcalf hired Washington state prisoners to call and remind voters he was pro-death penalty. Metcalf, who prevailed, said he never knew.

Caroline Winter is an editorial intern at Mother Jones.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This article has been made possible by the Foundation for National Progress, the Investigative Fund of Mother Jones, and gifts from generous readers like you.

© 2008" /> The Foundation for National Progress
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/slammed-lingerie-and-bullwhip.html

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

Where Does $49,000 for Each Prisoner Go?

Where Does $49,000 for Each Inmate Go?
California spends four times as much per prisoner as Mississippi. Where does the money go?"

July 21, 2008"
The $49,000 Question
California spends around $49,000 annually per adult inmate, nearly 4 times Mississippi, which spends $13,300. Where does the money go? A partial breakdown:

Security $20,429
Medical services $7,669
Parole operations $4,436
Facility operations $3,938
Administration $2,871
Psychiatric services $1,403
Food $1,377
Education $687
Records $513
Vocational education $289
Inmate welfare fund $282
Clothing $152
Religion $53
Activities $23
Library $23
Transportation $15

Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics; California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; National Association of State Budget Officers

This article has been made possible by the Foundation for National Progress, the Investigative Fund of Mother Jones, and gifts from generous readers like you.
© 2008" /> The Foundation for National Progress
www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/slammed-the-49000-question.html

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

August 18, 2008

36 states offer release to ill or dying inmates

Here is the list of states from USA Today. There is a big divide between what state DOCs say they do and what they do.
Lois
"States with SOME (caps mine) form of medical release program for
terminally ill or infirm inmates:"
AL*,AK, AS, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, ID, IN, IA, KY, LA, MD, MI, MS, MT, NH,
NY, NC*, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, UT, VT, VA, WV, WI*, WY.
*=passed this year.

36 states offer release to ill or dying inmates
Programs help cut costs of health care, officials say

By Marty Roney
USA TODAY
August 14, 2008

North Carolina and Alabama have joined a growing number of states establishing programs that allow the release of dying or infirm prisoners to cut prison system health care costs.

Alabama's law goes into effect Sept. 1. It will allow inmates who are permanently incapacitated or terminally ill to be furloughed. It will also allow for the release of inmates 55 or older who have life-threatening illnesses. About 125 of the state's 25,000 inmates will be eligible, Alabama Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen said.

(

Inmates considered for parole will be "the frailest of the frail and sickest of the sick," Allen said.

North Carolina's legislation took effect June 10. Authorities are still assessing policies and procedures, state prisons system spokesman Keith Acree said.

In both states, inmates convicted of capital offenses and most sex crimes aren't eligible, Allen and Acree said.

A USA TODAY review of state departments of corrections' policies found 36 states have some program allowing for the early release of dying or infirm prisoners. Before Alabama and North Carolina, Wisconsin was the most recent to add such a program in March. Michigan and Montana added programs in 2007.

Known in some states as medical furlough, humanitarian parole or compassionate release, states with the programs rely on their boards of pardons and paroles to follow up on inmates released for medical reasons, a phone and e-mail survey of states' departments of corrections showed.

The driving force behind medical release of inmates is the rising cost of medical treatment for prison systems, said Ron McCuan, a public health analyst with the National Institute of Corrections, an agency of the Justice Department.

Alabama figures show terminally ill or infirm inmates cost the system about $60,000-$65,000 per year per inmate, Allen said. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, said that by releasing ill or infirm inmates, the costs of their care will be shifted to Medicare, which is funded by the federal government, or Medicaid, which is funded by the state and federal governments.

Allen said inmates would go to stay with relatives or be placed in hospice care or admitted to hospitals depending on their condition and level of care needed.

"Early release of terminal or infirm inmates without a doubt saves tremendous amounts of tax dollars," McCuan said. "The taxpayer simply can't afford to pay exploding end-of-life health care costs."

Victims rights' advocates say furlough programs shift, rather than end, the taxpayer's burden for health care costs.

The Alabama program doesn't make sense financially or from a public safety standpoint, said Miriam Shehane, of Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL), a victims rights' group.

Shehane is a driving force in the victims rights' movement in Alabama. Her daughter Quenette, a student at Birmingham-Southern College, was abducted from a convenience store parking lot, then raped and murdered in Birmingham in 1976. Three men were convicted.

No money is really saved, Shehane maintains, because inmate care moves to other government programs.

"This bill is so vague and broad, it's scary," Shehane said. "The release of the inmates is in the sole power of the prisons commissioner. There's no telling who we will have heading the prison system 10 or 15 years down the road. There needs to be more controls in place."

Mary Lou Leary, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, says the procedures followed for the release of terminally ill prisoners should mirror those followed for anyone released.

"It's particularly important that victims be notified that the offender has been released so victims are aware of the release and can take feasible steps to protect themselves."

Riley has insisted victims be included in the process, said his press secretary, Tara Hutchison.

Among states with furlough programs:

•Wyoming's law, passed in March, went into effect July 1, said Melinda Brazzale, spokeswoman for the prison system. For a terminally ill inmate to be considered for release, she said, they must have a life expectancy of 12 months or less.

•Ohio prison system officials are looking to change the requirement that terminally ill inmates must have a life expectancy of six months or less before being considered, said Sara Andrews, superintendent of the Adult Parole Authority. A bill pending in the state Legislature would broaden that time frame to one year, she said.

•Oklahoma's prison system began medical parole in 2000. Since then about 135 inmates have been released, said Bob Mann, coordinator of clinical social work for the state's prison system.

There have only been "one or two inmates" returned to the prisons who were granted medical parole, Mann said. "Those were offenders of lesser crimes. If I recall, they got involved in drugs once they were released," he said. "Most of the inmates are sent home to die."
Page 4A
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080814/a_furloughs14.art.htm
This and other news about mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Posted by lois at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)

States launch new war on poverty

States launch new war on poverty
By Daily Hampshire Gazette
08/18/2008
Neal Peirce

In a rare burst of positive news for America's hard-put poor families, 15 states have set up bipartisan commissions to see how to narrow the yawning income gaps that leave so many Americans in destitution.

The advent of the commissions and serious studies - ordered up in states from Maine to Washington, Alabama to Colorado -- is good news. It's true, legislatures have struggled with welfare and Medicaid issues for years. But not gladly.

In the meantime, the nationwide poverty rate has stalled around 11 percent or 12 percent for years - and that's for a family of four with income under the federally set line, now $21,200 a year. (Try living on that - a reasonable minimum for food, shelter and clothing needs would be closer to $30,000.)

Poverty places a huge drag on the economic output and productivity of states and communities. Poor health, substandard housing, mental stress, employment crises, teenage pregnancy, low literacy and the added likelihood of arrest and imprisonment all appear to be part of a misery package that hits poor populations far more heavily than the rest of us.

The results for children are especially alarming. A recent study shows that those who spend their first five years in poverty will (compared to a middle-class child) face daunting odds - first lagging school performance and then, as adults, less income, poorer health and higher psychological stress. Girls growing up poor are five times more likely to be a teen parent; boys are more than twice as likely, after reaching adulthood, to be arrested.

Small wonder that by some estimates, childhood poverty is draining a massive $500 billion a year out of the U.S. economy. State and local governments can hardly not care: They're then saddled with vastly increased welfare, health, social services, criminal justice costs - plus incredible amounts of lost income.

So what's to be done? What should the 15 state commissions (and how about the other 35) recommend?

First and most obvious, get more money into the pockets of the poor. Even with full-time minimum wage employment, many of our poor subsist "on the edge." Often, rent costs more than half their income. A single illness, an unexpected car repair or rent increase can throw them into full-scale crisis.

Tax relief for the poor is crucial. Nearly half the 42 states that levy income taxes have thresholds set below the federal poverty level. Sales taxes take a much bigger and more painful bite out of poor people's budgets. Alabama even has a sales tax on food. Any significant taxes hitting the poor are a bad idea - arguably counterproductive for states' long-term budgets.

Instead, states should supplement the federal earned-income tax credit for low-income working families with a parallel state credit. Twenty-two states are doing that, so why aren't the other 28 states?

Next, curb the exploitive debt cycle for poor families by cracking down on such abusive practices as payday lending, predatory mortgages and excessive fees for cashing paychecks. North Carolina and Illinois are among the few states so far willing to buck the loan-sharking lobbies to enact reforms. And banks (which have often fled low-income neighborhoods) can help by returning with special local outlets that offer check-cashing, money orders and savings accounts.

There's no shortage of other steps the new state commissions on poverty reduction can recommend - from financial literacy counseling to better schools to expanded work-force training, increased housing subsidies to local health clinics.

But there's a critical measure missing from most of the state commission agendas - reforming the state criminal justice policies that have turned the United States into the world's biggest incarcerator. A child's life can be torn apart by a parent - especially a mother - going to prison. Some children even land in foster care, making parental incarceration, some reformers assert, a "death sentence" for families.

But even as 400,000 parents a year get released from prison or jail sentences, laws and customs make it terribly hard for them to re-create normal family life. Many employers shun ex-convicts. Without income, finding stable housing can be terribly difficult. Cumulatively, the consequences of having a criminal record can be devastating and continue for years, with children among the most-wounded victims.

We can do better by our poor families and the children growing up in them. The state commissions are a good start. But eventually it will take vision, and political courage, by governors and legislators to make real change happen.
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2008 All rights reserved
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2008/08/18/states-launch-new-war-poverty

Posted by lois at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

Wondering how McCain did so well at the Saddleback Church?

August 18, 2008
Despite Assurances, McCain Wasn’t in a ‘Cone of Silence’
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

ORLANDO, Fla. — Senator John McCain was not in a “cone of silence” on Saturday night while his rival, Senator Barack Obama, was being interviewed at the Saddleback Church in California.

Members of the McCain campaign staff, who flew here Sunday from California, said Mr. McCain was in his motorcade on the way to the church as Mr. Obama was being interviewed by the Rev. Rick Warren, the author of the best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life.”

The matter is of interest because Mr. McCain, who followed Mr. Obama’s hourlong appearance in the forum, was asked virtually the same questions as Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain’s performance was well received, raising speculation among some viewers, especially supporters of Mr. Obama, that he was not as isolated during the Obama interview as Mr. Warren implied.

Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions.

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.

Before an audience of more than 2,000 people at the church, the candidates answered questions about policy and social issues.

Mr. Warren, the pastor of Saddleback, had assured the audience while he was interviewing Mr. Obama that “we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence” and that he could not hear the questions.

After Mr. Obama’s interview, he was joined briefly by Mr. McCain, and the candidates shook hands and embraced.

Mr. Warren started by asking Mr. McCain, “Now, my first question: Was the cone of silence comfortable that you were in just now?”

Mr. McCain deadpanned, “I was trying to hear through the wall.”

Interviewed Sunday on CNN, Mr. Warren seemed surprised to learn that Mr. McCain was not in the building during the Obama interview.

Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting.

Posted by lois at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

Cutting dropout rates for the poor

Cutting dropout rates for the poor
by Hans G. Despain
By Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA
8-18-08

Our children will be returning to school at the end of the month. In nine high schools in the Pioneer Valley, students are returning to "dropout factories." Across the nation one in 10 high schools are dubbed "dropout factories." In Springfield and Holyoke it is 100 percent of public/charter high schools.

High school dropouts, much like teen pregnancy, are a serious social problem. Dropouts increase our unemployment numbers and poverty rates, especially in urban areas such as Holyoke and Springfield. Dropouts lower human capital skills, and hence diminish our economic competitiveness.

Dropouts are more likely to participate in drug distribution, crime, and violence. If principals and teachers, superintendents and schools boards would solve the Pioneer Valley dropout problem, this would go a long way toward solving the economic and social problems of our local communities.

Of course we all know this. The problem is that the logic is backwards - cause and effect have been inverted. Dropouts don't cause poverty, unemployment and crime. To believe otherwise is a failure to understand the depth of the dropout problem, and its place in a larger political and economic context. Dropouts are not merely an educational problem. Principals, teachers, superintendents and school boards can contribute very little toward a solution. This is not to suggest good teachers and administrators are incidental. Indeed, they matter greatly.

However, Holyoke and Springfield already have good teachers and administrators. If we already have good teachers and administrators in our "dropout factories," then viewing the solution of dropouts as merely an educational phenomenon is not only mistaken, but in fact contributing to the problem.

The greatest contribution to the problem has been the narrowing of curriculum in an attempt to increase test scores in math and reading. Less time and effort are geared to history, social studies, art, music, physical education, social interaction, character development, and selfhood awareness. These neglects have been most pronounced in low-income areas such as Holyoke and Springfield where a broader curriculum is most needed.

The response to low-test scores has been a narrowing of curriculum, while the real problem is the socio-economics of poverty. Children from low-income families receive worse medical and dental care, increasing the likelihood of school absences. Low-income children are more prone to asthma and have lower birth weights. They are more likely to suffer lead poisoning and poor nutrition, lowering their cognitive development and ability.

Low-income families move more often, leading to incongruity of instruction. Jobs of low-income parents are less stable, increasing family stress. Low-income parents also have less benefits and typically lack caregiving leave, decreasing involvement with their children's education.

Low-income children often have single-parent households, decreasing their interaction with adults. They are read to less often, travel to fewer places, exposed to fewer words, less likely to visit museums, and have diminished participation in art, dance, music and sports. Consequently low-income high school students tend to have a diminished cultural, political, and selfhood awareness.

Too often low-income or poverty-enduring child will tend to view educational institutions as lacking relevance to their and their family's hardships. Partly this is due to a lack cultural, political and selfhood context. Partly it is good sense - a type of tacit or existential socio-economic sense.

Income distribution in this country has been radically skewed toward the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans for 35 years. Incomes for the bottom 70 percent of American households have not increased when adjusted for inflation, while national income has increased over 300 percent. According to 2006 census data, 42 percent of full-time American jobs pay $25,000 per year or less for all workers over the age of 25. That is 82 million full-time jobs performed by adult Americans that pay $25,000 or less. The vast majority of these jobs are held by high school graduates.

The effects of low-income and poverty make academic success extremely difficult. The dynamics of the American economy and the lack of wage protections and labor rights mean that education does not necessarily lead to a livable wage, let alone a good income.

The dropout problem and educational "crisis" is a socio-economic problem. More testing and measure, the creation of charter schools, school choice, and magnet schools, the reorganization and re-staffing of schools with low-test scores is to only move around furniture on the Titanic. It is not addressing socio-economic causes. It will not change dropout rates, or adequately increase test scores in low-income areas such as Holyoke and Springfield.

No Child Left Behind legislation of 2002 created a lack of seriousness toward the dropout problem in particular and the educational "crisis" more generally. The commitment to increased testing and measure does nothing to address the effects on academic attainment for children in households and communities characterized by low-income and poverty. It also does nothing to address the sorry condition of the American job markets, and the country's mal-distribution of wealth. The real cause of school dropouts are family unfriendly jobs and the anti-community distribution of wealth.

Hans G. Despain, a resident of Holyoke, is a professor in the Department of Economics at Nichols College.
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2008 All rights reserved
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2008/08/18/cutting-dropout-rates-poor

Posted by lois at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2008

How will prisons handle TV switch?

How will prisons handle TV switch?
The end of analog broadcasts in February raises issues for Ohio prison officials, 50,000 inmates.

By Tom Beyerlein
Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Dayton Daily News

TV or not TV? That may be the question facing thousands of Ohio prison inmates as America converts to digital television in February.

Starting Feb. 17, analog TV broadcasts will cease and Americans will need cable or satellite service, a digital TV or a special converter box for analog TVs. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is studying how to make the switch work for the state's 50,000 inmates.

"Everyday citizens can just get a box and attach it to a TV. We have to think about costs and how we can get access to appropriate stations for the inmates," said department spokeswoman Andrea Carson.

When it comes to TV viewing, the cons are the pros: Convicts average six hours a day bathed in the unearthly glow of the cathode ray tube, about two hours more than the typical American. Carson said the toughest inmates, who spend more time in their cells, average eight hours. Inmates are allowed to watch TV except during work and school hours, mealtimes and recreation periods.

"There are some things on television that are educational," Carson said, and "it adds to their social adjustment. It keeps them in tune with current events. There's more going on in their world than what's going on in the prison environment."

TV viewing also is a "management tool" that prevents prisoners from being idle, she said.

Nobody knows how many TVs are in Ohio's 32 prisons, but officials estimate that only 30 percent to 50 percent of them are digital-ready. Inmates can buy 13-inch digital TVs from prison commissaries for $177, but many longer-term inmates have analog-only sets. TVs can't be sent in from outside.

In most newer Ohio prisons, including the two in Dayton, a central feeder system provides local stations but "no premium channels," Carson said. Older prisons, including Lebanon Correctional Institution, have no central systems.

Prison officials are studying whether they can use a single device to convert an entire prison's feeder system to digital. If not, inmates with analog TVs may have to buy converter boxes at commissaries. Carson said the prison system also may pay for converters using proceeds from prison vendors and commissary sales, not taxpayer money.

Dayton Correctional Institution Warden Lawrence Mack said he's still awaiting competitive bids that will determine how much the boxes will cost here. In the outside world, boxes cost about $60, but through an act of Congress each household can get up to two government-sponsored coupons for $40 off each box.

Prisoners don't qualify for the coupons because they don't live in a "household," said Bart Forbes, spokesman for the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Forbes' agency encourages people to give one of their coupons to their relatives behind bars. "What you can't do is sell them — that's illegal. But you can give them away."

Carson said Ohio prison officials, who tightly control what items can be sent into prison, would have to adopt a policy before such gifts would be permitted.

"This is still a work in progress," she said.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/08/17/ddn081708prison.html

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

TX: Smith County Commissioners Call November Jail Bond Election

Aug 15, 2008
Smith County Commissioners Call November Jail Bond Election
Tyler TX Morning Telegraph

By ROY MAYNARD
Staff Writer
Smith County commissioners on Thursday called a November election for a proposed $59.6 million jail bond proposal, but an opposition group filed its paperwork with the county clerk, asking 'What part of no don't you understand?"If approved by voters, the bonds would build 694 new beds in a jail tower adjacent to the existing downtown jail.

Administrative offices would be built next to the new tower. The plan calls for keeping 708 existing jail beds.Voters rejected two bond propositions in 2006 and another in 2007."What people need to know is that we listened," said Commissioner Bill McGinnis. "This is the very best plan we could come up with, and the least expensive that will still get the job done."Smith County is under a remedial order from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for jail overcrowding.

Tyler attorney Jeff Weinstein attended Thursday's meeting of the Commissioners Court and announced the formation of the opposition group."The public has said over and over again that they do not want to build a jail," Weinstein said. "We have seen that alternatives to incarceration can be extremely effective in reducing our local jail population. The Alternative Incarceration Program which the Smith County Judges initiated in 2006 has reduced our jail population by more than 200 every day and has saved Smith County million of dollars every year."His group has a Web site, www.whatpartofno.com.

County Judge Joel Baker says the group's formation is "unfortunate, but not unexpected.""You're going to have opposition in a bond election," Baker said. "But what we've tried to do is bring together the leaders of the 'vote no' and 'vote yes' groups from last time (2007). And in fact, the leaders of those groups are in support of this project."Baker says he's optimistic about the prospects for the jail project."I haven't heard one negative comment," he said. "On the contrary, I heard positive comments in the community and at church."Interviewed after Thursday's meeting, Weinstein took issue with how the project was developed -- in closed-door meetings mediated by state Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler."They met in secret," Weinstein said. "As I understand it, that was a violation of the Open Meetings laws."Commissioners argue that no laws were violated, saying that no quorum of the Commissioners Court was ever present at any of the meetings.Asked who else is part of the opposition committee, Weinstein declined to reveal any names."It's a loose-knit group," he said.

Weinstein said he would ask other members if he could disclose their names.If approved by voters, the bonds would be paid for through an increase in the county's property tax rate. According to figures from the First Southwest Company, the bond package would add 2.375 cents to the county's current tax rate of 28.8940 cents per $100 in property valuation. That's an increase of about 8.2 percent.The average home in Smith County is valued at $131,899. The tax bill for such a home would increase by $31.33 per year, from $381.11 to $412.44.The bond election will take place on Nov. 4. Early voting will last from Oct. 20 through Oct. 31. The last day to register to vote in order to take part in the election is Oct. 6.
http://www.tylerpaper.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080815/NEWS08/808150317&template=printart
What Part of No website http://www.whatpartofno.com.

Posted by lois at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2008

Letters from federal prisoners going electronic

Letters from federal prisoners going electronic

MIAMI (AP) — When Melvin Garcia was sent to prison almost a decade ago for racketeering, he had never used a computer. Now he sends 50 e-mails a month from a federal prison in West Virginia, punctuating notes with emoticons.

Garcia, 38, is among thousands of prisoners at more than 20 federal facilities where inmates now have in boxes. By the spring of 2011, all 114 U.S. prisons are expected to have e-mail available for inmates.

The program, started several years ago, has reduced the amount of old-fashioned paper mail that can sometimes hide drugs and other contraband. Just as important, officials say, e-mail helps prisoners connect regularly with their families and build skills they can use when they return to the community.

For Garcia, that means learning the computer.

"LET'S JUST SAY THAT MY PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT DIDN'T REQUIRE IT :o)," he joked in a recent e-mail.

The system inmates use isn't like programs used in most offices and homes. Inmates aren't given Internet access, and all messages are sent in plain text, with no attachments allowed. Potential contacts get an e-mail saying a federal prisoner wants to add them to their contact list and must click a link to receive e-mail, similar to accepting a collect call from a lockup.

Once approved, prisoners can only send messages to those contacts — they can't just type in any address and hit send. And contacts can change their mind at any time and take their name off the prisoner's list.

Scott Middlebrooks, the warden at Coleman federal prison northwest of Orlando, said his inmates sent more than 3,200 messages and received some 2,800 a day last month through the system, which is called TRULINCS and run by Iowa-based Advanced Technologies Group Inc.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says the system pays for itself with some of the proceeds from prison commissaries. Inmates also pay 5 cents per minute while composing or reading e-mails.

Security, of course, is a concern. That's why the messages can be screened for keywords that suggest an inmate may be involved in a crime, or read by a corrections officer, just like paper letters. That can create some lag time between when messages are sent and received.

Without analyzing the program specifically, it would be impossible to tell whether inmates could abuse their e-mail privileges, said Bruce Schneier of the security firm BT Counterpane. Coded messages could be sent over e-mail, but that could happen just as easily over the phone, he said.

Despite possible delays for security screens, prisoners and their families say e-mail is still far faster than paper mail. In the past it sometimes took Garcia two days to get urgent news from his fiancee, Rita Torres. Her express mail letters letting him know that a friend had been in a car accident and that a relative had had a miscarriage were delayed.

Now, she said, she e-mails him three times a day and gets about as many e-mails back, making it feel as though they are "living in the same house" even though she is five hours away in New Jersey.

The e-mails don't replace phone calls, but those are limited to five hours a month. And Torres still sends letters, some sprayed with perfume.

What e-mail does, however, is provide another link to the outside for Garcia and other inmates.

"Receiving an e-mail is like receiving a letter," William Nerlich, a federal prisoner in Georgia who has another six years to serve on a weapons charge, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "It makes you happy to be thought of."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2008-08-16-prison-email_N.htm

Posted by lois at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2008

In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority

August 14, 2008
In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority
By SAM ROBERTS
NY Times

Ethnic and racial minorities will comprise a majority of the nation’s population in a little more than a generation, according to new Census Bureau projections, a transformation that is occurring faster than anticipated just a few years ago.

The census calculates that by 2042, Americans who identify themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander will together outnumber non-Hispanic whites. Four years ago, officials had projected the shift would come in 2050.

The main reason for the accelerating change is significantly higher birthrates among immigrants. Another factor is the influx of foreigners, rising from about 1.3 million annually today to more than 2 million a year by midcentury, according to projections based on current immigration policies.

“No other country has experienced such rapid racial and ethnic change,” said Mark Mather, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a research organization in Washington.

The latest figures, which are being released on Thursday, are predicated on current and historical trends, which can be thrown awry by several variables, including prospective overhauls of immigration policies and sudden increases in refugees.

A decade ago, census demographers estimated that the nation’s population, which topped 300 million in 2006, would not surpass 400 million until sometime after midcentury. Now, they are projecting that the population will top 400 million in 2039 and reach 439 million in 2050.

So-called minorities, the Census Bureau projects, will constitute a majority of the nation’s children under 18 by 2023 and of working-age Americans by 2039.

For the first time, both the number and the proportion of non-Hispanic whites, who now account for 66 percent of the population, will decline, starting around 2030. By 2050, their share will dip to 46 percent.

Higher mortality rates among older native-born white Americans and higher birthrates rates among immigrants and their children are already driving ethnic and racial disparities.

“A momentum is built into this as a result of past immigration,” said Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. “In the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, there were more Hispanic immigrants than births. This decade, there are more births than immigrants. Almost regardless of what you assume about future immigration, the country will be more Hispanic and Asian.”

With the Census Bureau forecasting even more immigrants, other demographers estimate that the proportion of foreign-born Americans, now about 12 percent, could surpass the 1910 historic high of nearly 15 percent by about 2025 and may approach 20 percent in 2050.

According to the new forecast, by 2050, the number of Hispanic people will nearly triple, to 133 million from 47 million, to account for 30 percent of Americans, compared with 15 percent today.

People who say they are Asian, with their ranks soaring to 41 million from 16 million, will make up more than 9 percent of the population, up from 5 percent.

More than three times as many people are expected to identify themselves as multiracial — 16 million, accounting for nearly 4 percent of the population.

The population of people who define themselves a black is projected to rise to 66 million from 41 million, but increase its overall share by barely two percentage points, to 15 percent.

“What’s happening now in terms of increasing diversity probably is unprecedented,” said Campbell Gibson, a retired census demographer.

Several states, including California and Texas, have already reached the point where members of minorities are in the majority.

“Within the conventional definition of race, of white, black, Asian, minority vs. non-minority, this is a big change,” said David G. Waddington, chief of the Census Bureau’s population projections branch.

All the projections are subject to changing cultural definitions. The share of Americans who identify themselves as white, regardless of their ethnicity, will remain largely unchanged, declining from less than 80 percent in 2010 to about 76 percent when the majority-minority benchmark is reached in 2042.

“The way people report race 20 or 30 years from now may be very different,” Dr. Waddington pointed out.

The Census Bureau’s projections are likely to fuel debates over immigration policy, overpopulation and the changing electorate, and recall earlier eras when the Irish, the Italians and Eastern European Jews were not universally considered as whites. As recently as the 1960s, Hispanic people were not counted separately by the census and Asian Indians were classified as white.

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said that by the 2028 presidential election, racial and ethnic minorities will constitute a majority of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 for the first time.

Two years later, when all the baby boomers will have turned 65, nearly 20 percent of Americans, compared with fewer than 13 percent today, will be over 65. By 2050, about 89 million Americans will be in that group, more than double the number today.

“In 2020, the burdens of seniors to the white working-aged population become larger than the burdens of children,” Dr. Frey said.

The changes projected by the census point toward a nation in which the older population will be whiter (deaths will outnumber births among whites, beginning in the 2020s) and where black Americans will still have slightly higher rates of infant mortality and lower life expectancy.

Steven A. Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors limits on immigration, expressed concern about congestion and other issues related to population growth driven by the foreign-born.

Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute, argued that while “assimilation became a dirty word in the 1960s and ’70s,” America has always been evolving and becoming enriched by new cultures, whether from Europe or from South America and Asia.

Indeed, Dr. Gibson, the retired census demographer, once estimated that in 1492 about 96 percent of the inhabitants of what is now the United States were American Indian and the rest of Polynesian origin. Well before the English landed in Jamestown, the Spanish became America’s first minority.

When the first census was conducted in 1790, about 64 percent of the people counted were white, a bit more than half of whom were of English origin. By 1900, about 9 in 10 Americans were non-Hispanic white, mostly of European ancestry.

The share of Americans who can trace their roots to immigrants directly from Europe has been shrinking. The federal Office of Management and Budget now defines whites as descendants of “the original peoples of Europe, North Africa or the Middle East.” Hispanic or Latino people, according to the same government agency, are of “Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture.”

“We may be using the same words 50 years from now,” said Mr. Passel, of the Pew Center, “but I feel confident in saying they’ll mean something different.”

Posted by lois at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

TX: First ever prison phone system approved. 26 cents a minute for in-state calls

"Over its seven-year run, the contract could generate as much as $600 million in gross revenues, officials estimated."

PRISON PHONES
First-ever state prison pay phone system approved
Inmates will pay 26 cents a minute for in-state calls

By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, August 14, 2008

A technology partnership today was selected to install a multimillion-dollar pay phone system in Texas prisons to allow convicts to routinely make calls for the first time in state history.

Texas is the last state prison system in the nation to allow inmate phones. And the contract has been viewed nationally by vendors as a big prize.

Meeting at an Austin hotel, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice unanimously approved a seven-year contract with Embarq/Securus Technologies to install the phones that will digitally record all calls for investigators to monitor.

Two other firms — Global Tel Link and Unisys — unsuccessfully bid for the project. Prison officials said while Global Tel Link offered a lower per-minute phone than the winning bid, the Embarq bid offered better, more secure technology.

"It will be the finest (inmate) phone system in the United States," said Board Chairman Oliver Bell, an Austin businessman. "We are the last state to do this. But we have learned from the other states what works and what doesn't, and our system includes all the best features."

Under the deal, roughly two thirds of Texas' convicts will be able to make calls for a per-minute fee — up to 15 minutes a call, for up to 120 minutes a month.

By some estimates, the state could earn more than $30 million annually in commissions from convicts' calls — 40 percent of the profits from the collect calls. The state Crime Victim's Compensation will receive the first $10 million and half of any additional profit. The rest will go to the state's General Fund.

Over its seven-year run, the contract could generate as much as $600 million in gross revenues, officials estimated.

Embarq officials said they plan to install around 4,000 pay phones in Texas' 106 prisons, each of which will require a voice-ID and PIN number to ensure only authorized convicts can make calls.

Pre-paid calls will cost about 23 cents a minute in-state and about 39 cents out of state. Collect calls will be 26 cents and 43 cents, respectively. Calls to cell phones will be blocked.

Prison officials said keeping the cost per-minute was a key consideration in reviewing the bids and, while Embarq had a higher fee, it offered better safeguards against misuse.

"The schedule calls for the system to be installed within seven and half months," said former state Rep. Ray Allen, an Embarq consultant. "We'll install about $28 million worth of infrastructure that the state will eventually own . . . This a great deal for the system and for the state."

The Overland Park, Kan.-based Embarq operates prison phone systems in 22 states, and hundreds of county jails — including about half of those in Texas. Securus Technologies, one of the largest independent providers of calling services to correctional facilities in the country, will provide the secure technology, officials said.

Thursday's vote reversed an historical no-phones policy in Texas prisons. In recent years, only occasional collect calls from state phones have been allowed — usually from wardens' offices, as a reward for good behavior.

In other action today, the board unanimously approved a $6 billion budget request to the Legislature that includes $453 million for pay raises for correctional officers and parole officers — the largest such hike in decades.

Next stop for the package is the Legislature, which convenes next January.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/15/0815phones.html

Posted by lois at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)

Illinois state prisoners artwork is on display at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of an exhibit, 'Light from Inside.'

Illinois state prisoners artwork is on display at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of an exhibit, 'Light from Inside.'
watch the video....
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6325660

"I paint because it's an avenue that lets people know that people know that I'm more than just a number. I'm a person that have heart, soul, and I believe a person can change no matter where you at," said William Jones, prisoner at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Ill.

"Sometimes we get an idea that these are just horrible people, they should all be locked up, they should never get out of prison, and at the same time they have wonderful talents, they're very intelligent," said Cynthia Kobel, board member at the John Howard Association of Illinois, a watchdog group for Illinois prison.

For more information about the exhibit:
* http://lightsfrominside.blogspot.com
* www.john-howard.org

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

CCA's Puryear's In Jeopardy Due to Former Prisoner's Organizing

Ex-inmate helps make Bush nominee 'controversial'
By TRAVIS LOLLER – 7 hours ago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Had this been like most nominations for federal judgeships, the chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America might have been packing up his office and heading for the courthouse by now.

But a determined opponent — a former prisoner at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Clifton, Tenn. — has worked tirelessly to see that would not happen.

And he may have succeeded.

More than a year after President Bush nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville, the 40-year-old's appointment appears to be in serious trouble, thanks in no small part to Alex Friedmann, a convicted armed robber turned inmate advocate.

Friedmann, 39, contends Puryear is unqualified because he lacks experience in federal courts — he's been involved in only two federal trials — and might have a potential conflict of interest in hearing cases that involve CCA.

On his Web site, http://www.againstpuryear.org, Friedmann also has detailed Puryear's ties to powerful Republicans like Dick Cheney, whom he helped prep for a 2000 debate, and portrayed Puryear as someone who got the nomination because of his connections rather than his qualifications.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Puryear's nomination in February but has yet to vote on whether to send his name to the full Senate. Erica Chabot, the press secretary for committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, said Puryear is one of only three people who have been nominated for district judgeships since January 2007 and have had hearings before the committee but have not had their nominations voted on.

Leahy, D-Vt., has said the panel will not consider any more nominees this session without the consent of leaders from both parties.

"I understand they have put Puryear in the 'controversial' category," said Brian Fitzpatrick, who once worked for Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas defending Bush's Supreme Court nominees and is now an assistant law professor at Vanderbilt University. "It's very rare for a district court nominee to become controversial. Usually they just fly through."

The Senate typically defers heavily to the senators from the nominee's home state, and Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee solidly support Puryear.

But the opposition has been unusually committed.

Multiple organizations, including the left-leaning Alliance for Justice and the National Lawyer's Guild, have challenged Puryear's nomination, all of them using research that originated with Friedmann, occasionally quoting it verbatim.

Friedmann says he learned of the nomination because he keeps track of Nashville-based CCA, which manages 66 facilities around the country. He looked through dockets and court cases, contacted former co-workers and made Freedom of Information Act requests.

To get the word out, he relied on the nonprofit Private Corrections Institute, for which he serves as vice president, and a group he formed called Tennesseans Against Puryear.

Puryear did not return calls from The Associated Press for this story.

White House spokesman Blair Jones said the White House suggests that nominees not speak to the media, prior to confirmation, out of respect for the deliberative process of the Senate.

"Groups can attack a nominee, but you'll never see (the nominee) respond to anything except at hearings," said Puryear's friend Ed Haden, an attorney in Birmingham, Ala.

Haden said the obstacles to Puryear's nomination are political, and don't mean he is not qualified for the job.

"As far as his qualifications go, he was at the top of his class in law school, he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals, he has legislative experience in the U.S. Senate, he manages litigation for a big Fortune 500 company, and the ABA (American Bar Association) rated him as qualified," Haden said.

"Gus realizes this is a lame duck year in politics," he added. "It's true for all nominees — whether you're in the deal or not is beyond your control."

Puryear's nomination remains active until Congress adjourns, and he could still be confirmed. The most likely scenario for that would be a deal struck between senators.

"At the end of the session, it's, 'Who wants a bridge in Vermont?'" said Haden, who has worked with two U.S. senators on judicial nominations.

Meanwhile, Friedmann is continuing his opposition campaign in the hopes of making a last-minute deal less likely.

"I'm glad the Judiciary Committee is taking a closer look at Mr. Puryear as a candidate because the issues we raised are legitimate issues," he said.

"But," he added, "I'm definitely not claiming victory."

On the Net:
Tennesseans Against Puryear: http://www.againstpuryear.org
Tennesseans for Gus Puryear: http://tnforpuryear.blogspot.com
Corrections Corporation of America: http://www.correctionscorp.com
Hosted by Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
--

Posted by lois at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)

For Those Once Behind Bars, A Nudge to the Voting Booth

For Those Once Behind Bars, A Nudge to the Voting Booth

By Krissah Williams Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 11, 2008; A01

TALLAHASSEE -- Herbert Pompey had gone through rehab, stayed sober, held a job, married and started a landscaping business in the two years since he walked out of Taylor Correctional Institution. But what Pompey hadn't done -- and what he assumed a string of felony drug and DUI convictions would keep him from ever doing again -- was vote.

So his pulse quickened when civil rights lawyer Reggie Mitchell called to tell him that his rights had been restored.

"You're eligible to vote now, Mr. Pompey," Mitchell said, calmly relaying the news. "Can I bring you a voter-registration card?"

Pompey whispered, "Lord, you was listening."

Mitchell smiled -- he had gotten another felon back on the rolls.

Mitchell is a leader of a disparate group of grass-roots Democrats and civil rights activists who are trying to register tens of thousands of newly eligible felons. They have taken up the cause on their own, motivated by the belief that former offenders have been unfairly disenfranchised for decades. Despite massive registration efforts, the presidential campaigns of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have not designated anyone to go after the group.

In Alabama, Al Sharpton's younger brother, the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, will take his "Prodigal Son" ministry into state prisons with voter-registration cards for the first time. The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed suit there and in Tennessee to make it possible for an even larger class of felons to register. In Ohio, the NAACP will hold a voter-registration day at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland this month to register "people caught up in the criminal justice system," a local official said. In California, a team will stand in front of jails on Aug. 16 to register people visiting prisoners and encourage them to take registration cards to their incarcerated friends or family members, some of whom can legally vote.

"This is a voting block that has never been open before, and it has opened up at such a time as this," said Glasgow, who was a felon himself.

In Florida, a law change last year made more than 115,000 felons eligible to vote, according to the state Parole Commission. In other states, civil rights and criminal justice groups estimate there are similar numbers who have not registered.

All but two states -- Maine and Vermont -- limit voting rights for people with felony convictions. Some felons are banned from voting until they have completed parole and paid restitution, others for life. Kentucky and Virginia have the most restrictive laws, denying all felons the right to vote, though Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) has encouraged nonviolent offenders to apply to have their rights restored.

Generally, though restoring voting rights has hit resistance from all directions. Not wanting to appear soft on crime, Democratic and Republican leaders have not aggressively pursued the issue. In Florida, black state legislators led the fight for a decade before populist Republican Gov. Charlie Crist pushed through the change shortly after being elected in 2006. The legislation permits many nonviolent felons to vote as long as they have no charges pending, have paid restitution and have completed probation.

But getting the ex-offenders registered has been a slow process.

Mitchell, 43, a Democrat and Obama backer, is leading the effort in Tallahassee and has created an "Ex-Felon Targets" database to search for potential voters. He calls getting voter-registration cards to them a "passionate hobby."

"The majority of people to get their rights restored are Democrats, and if we get them registered, [we] might overtake the state," he said.

The Obama campaign isn't so sure. Mark Bubriski, the candidate's spokesman in Florida, said the felon vote "could certainly swing an election, but there are millions and millions of voters." Bubriski added that finding ex-offenders can be hard to do, and that "there's also the perception, for some reason, that they are all black and all Democrats, and that's certainly not the case."

For Mitchell, his effort to sign up felons is political and personal. Florida's ban was written into the state constitution after the Civil War, and regaining the right was nearly impossible for decades. Hundreds of thousands of clemency applicants were rejected, leaving nearly 1 million Floridians unable to vote in the 2004 presidential election, according to the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy group.

The majority of felons in the state are white, and there are no studies on ex-offenders' party affiliation. Yet black men are disproportionately incarcerated and disproportionately disenfranchised, which Mitchell sees as a civil rights issue. Before the law changed, nearly a third of the state's black men were banned from voting, according to the Florida chapter of the ACLU.

"It kind of offended my notion of justice. You can serve your time and still have your rights taken away," said Mitchell, who is black. "I studied the history of black disenfranchisement in the state. We had the grandfather laws and the tissue-paper ballots. When a black man came to vote, they gave him a tissue-paper ballot that was later thrown out. There were lynchings and riots. We've got a long history of depriving people of the right to vote in Florida."

Mitchell left a personal-injury practice in 2004 to become Florida legal director for the nonprofit People for the American Way Foundation. Leading the liberal advocacy group's state voting rights project, he sent out news releases, lobbied politicians and, in 2006, marched to the statehouse with the ACLU and others, demanding that ex-offenders be allowed to vote.

Since the law was changed, the ACLU and People for the American Way have been reaching out to ex-offenders through Web sites that help people figure out whether the state has acted on their cases. Mitchell oversaw the project that helped build the foundation's Restore My Vote site ( http://www.restoremyvote.org).

Elizabeth Rhoden, 57, went to the site late last year, punched in her name and sat in her office crying with her dog Lopsy when she read that she had been cleared to vote. Rhoden, who is white, lost her right to vote when she was convicted of a drug charge in 1979.

The things she did when she was "young and stupid" have hung like a cloud over her life, she said, and for years she has been the lone Democrat in her family, complaining about the Bush administrations that have run the country and her state. In 2000, she volunteered for Al Gore's presidential campaign. In 2004, she worked on a committee to draft Gen. Wesley K. Clark. This year, she cast the first vote of her life -- for Obama in the Democratic primary.

"This has been a major, major thing in my heart," she said.

But visits to the Web sites have been inconsistent, and Mitchell thinks too much of the onus for getting the vote back has been on the felons. He feels called to help.

One hot Thursday, he folded his 6-foot-3 frame into his black Dodge Durango with the white Obama 'o8 bumper sticker. He had his salt-and-pepper goatee trimmed and wore a suit and leather shoes, as he does every day even though he is unemployed after losing his job in a downsizing at the end of June.

Mitchell was on his way to meet with Ion Sancho, election supervisor in Leon County, which includes Tallahassee. Sancho, who starred in an HBO documentary that questioned the reliability of electronic voting machines, is something of a local celebrity. Mitchell considers him an ally and told him about a St. Petersburg Times finding that only 8,200 ex-offenders have registered since the policy was changed, less than 10 percent of the number eligible.

"The information is not filtering to the people who need it," said Sancho, who worries that the governor's rule change has been stymied by a slow-moving, underfunded bureaucracy.

"It's catch as catch can as people learn about it," said Mitchell, who attended the historically black Florida A&M University on the city's south side. "If this country lawyer could figure this out, you mean the government couldn't do it?"

Next month, he and his Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers will use his "Ex-Felon Targets" list to go door to door as part of its "a voteless people is a hopeless people campaign."

Until then, he is on his own. It was on his sixth call of a recent morning that Pompey picked up the phone.

Pompey drank and drugged for long stretches and cannot remember the last ballot he cast, but he and his wife, Carolyn, are Democrats and admirers of Obama's campaign because of its historic nature. Several months ago she told him, "We've got to get you registered to vote."

Even so, Pompey procrastinated after he received a letter from the state this summer telling him he now had his "rights restored."

"Not knowing what to do makes people not want to go do it," said Pompey, who is taking night classes at a community college and dreams of opening a Christian halfway house for ex-offenders. "You don't realize how far behind you are until you get back in the mainstream. Maybe fear, maybe procrastination just kind of paralyzed me, and I just didn't go forward with it."

Pompey came by Mitchell's nondescript office straight from work wearing mud-covered boots. He silently filled out the registration form, printing each word with care. Done, he said he felt free.

"Sometimes society has a way of wanting to continue to punish you," Pompey told Mitchell. "For me, [voting] is about coming full circle. For me, it's big."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081002511_pf.html

Posted by lois at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Court asked to order state to pay $8 billion for inmate health care

Court asked to order state to pay $8 billion for inmate health care
By Andy Furillo - afurillo@sacbee.com
Published 10:14 am PDT Wednesday, August 13, 2008

California prison medical care receiver J. Clark Kelso filed a legal motion today to force the state to come up with $8 billion over the next five years to fund his plan to build seven long-term care facilities and provide other improvements for inmate patients.

The action filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco also seeks contempt of court citations against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang.

Kelso said he is still talking with the governor's and controller's offices and other officials to resolve the dispute over funding of his medical plan but that he will ask that both Schwarzenegger and Chiang be present at a scheduled Sept. 22 hearing in San Francisco if the issue is not resolved.

"We have fully explored and exhausted every avenue for securing this funding in a manner that least affects California's budget and immediate cash needs," Kelso said at a press conference at his downtown Sacramento headquarters. "But the state's leaders have failed to act. Therefore, it is with great reluctance and yet a sense of firm conviction that today I seek the federal court's intervention to secure this funding."

Kelso said he wants $3.1 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year. The request would increase the projected $15.2 billion spending shortfall for the year by another 20 percent.

He said Schwarzenegger and Chiang "have repeatedly refused to provide timely construction funding to the receiver," which Kelso said "stands in stark contrast to their recent public assertions of extraordinary powers to control state spending regarding state employee salaries and other obligations."

Amid the budget crunch, the governor has sought to cut salaries on tens of thousands of state workers to the federal minimum wage. The controller has said he will refuse to cut the workers' pay and that he will continue to cut them checks at their regular wages.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear issued a statement today that the administration "will continue to work cooperatively with the receiver and the Legislature to move forward in a fiscally responsible way to provide the necessary funding for the Receiver's efforts."

Chiang, in a prepared statement, said he needs legislative approval or a court order to compel him to make any payments. He said the state will have to pay for the receiver's medical plan "one way or another" and that lease revenue bonds would be the most "fiscally appropriate."

Kelso blasted the Legislature for failing so far in its current session to provide bond funding for his project. He singled out the state Senate's Republican caucus for holding up the bonds because of its concern that last year's prison construction bond plan hasn't taken hold.

A spokeswoman for Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto did not have an immediate comment on the receiver's motion.

Kelso flashed anger in answering a question on why he is taking his legal action now, with the Legislature wrangling with an overdue budget and in the final weeks of the 2007-08 legislative session.

"I indicated to the Legislature that I did not want to be drawn into the budget vortex where late-night deals are made, without public consideration, and without time for thoughtful consideration," he said. "I don't want to be drawn into that. They've had plenty of time since (the failure of the bond bill) to act on this. I've waited really as long as I can wait. I do have a serious cash flow issue I need to get resolved."

He said he needs an immediate $360 million to keep the construction planning process moving forward.

Kelso's medical plan for the prisons includes upgrades to health care facilities at all 33 state prisons as well as the seven new facilities he hopes to build in Folsom, Stockton, Ventura, Chino, Solano County, Whittier and San Diego. He also has since been charged by the courts to oversee judicially-mandated improvements to dental and mental health facilities in the prison system.

The receiver is operating under a federal court order, never challenged by the Schwarzenegger administration, that gives him power over state prison medical operations that now cost $2 billion a year, not counting the capital construction programs.
His office was created after U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson in San Francisco found that an inmate a week was dying due to medical neglect and ruled that prison medical care in California violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Posted by lois at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)

U.S. Department of Justice Report Concludes that Transfer Laws Substantially Increase Recidivism

U.S. Department of Justice Report Concludes that Transfer Laws
Substantially Increase Recidivism
August 13, 2008

Today, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), at the U.S. Department of Justice, released a bulletin on transfer laws and concluded that they have little or no deterrent effect on juvenile crime. The report, Juvenile Transfer Laws: An Effective Deterrent to Delinquency?", also mentions that recidivism rates have increased, because of the transfer laws.

"Too many youth are being prosecuted as adults, with harmful results," said Liz Ryan, President and CEO of the Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ). "We are calling on federal and state policy makers to reverse these punitive laws in light of this new research."

Key findings from OJJDP report:

Laws to make it easier to transfer youth to the adult criminal court system have little or no general deterrent effect, meaning they do not prevent youth from engaging in criminal behavior;

Youth transferred to the adult system are more likely to be rearrested and to reoffend than youth who committed similar crimes, but were retained in the juvenile justice system;

Higher recidivism rates are due to a number of factors including the youth's:

-- Stigmatization/negative labeling effects of being labeled as a convicted felon;

-- Sense of resentment and injustice about being tried as an adult;

-- Learning of criminal mores and behavior while incarcerated with adults;

-- Decreased access to rehabilitation and family support in the adult system;

-- Decreased employment and community integration opportunities due to a felony conviction.

The full report can be accessed at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/220595.pdf

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

CCA Sued in Death of Prisoner FL

Fla. prison accused in inmate's staph death

By BILL KACZOR
(Published August 13, 2008)
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/255187.html

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The family of an inmate who died from a drug-resistant staph infection claims she contracted it because she had been deprived of water for bathing and toilet use at a privately operated state prison.

A lawyer representing the estate of Emma Nobles, who died of MRSA Dec. 15, 2005, at a Tallahassee hospital, made that allegation in letters to two state agencies. The letters are a preliminary step for a possible wrongful death lawsuit.

Water was turned off for days at a time at the prison for women in nearby Gretna, apparently as a cost-cutting measure, the attorney, Patrick R. Frank, said in an interview Wednesday.

The estate also sued Corrections Corporation of America, the Nashville, Tenn.-based company that operates the prison. A federal judge dismissed the complaint last month, ruling the company took reasonable steps to turn Nobles over to a doctor. That decision has been appealed.

Louise Grant, a spokeswoman for the company, said it does not comment on pending litigation.

The company has a contract with the state Management Services Department. Spokeswoman Linda McDonald said the department's inspector general is investigating the death but it also cannot comment on a pending case.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said her agency has a limited role but added: "Allegations of wrongdoing are investigated and if substantiated, the department works to make certain those responsible are held accountable."

Inmates, including others who contracted MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - went without water in restrooms and bathing facilities possibly up to a week at a time, Frank said in the letters.

"Investigation has shown the inmates were compelled to defecate in plastic bags in lieu of using toilets and the bags were collected in barrels kept in each of the prison dormitories," Frank wrote.

Nobles, 51, of Wewahitchka, was 60 days short of completing a drug possession sentence of just over a year when she died, Frank said.

University of South Florida pathogenic microbiologist Lindsey Shaw, who has studied MRSA for the past 10 years, said Wednesday that there's little risk of contracting the ailment from being deprived of toilet use but going without washing or bathing is a possible factor.

"Bathing, yes. Bathing's a big deal," Shaw said. "Poor hygiene is a big problem."

The best way to prevent MRSA is frequent hand washing, he said.

MRSA often occurs in cramped quarters such as prisons, said Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, a medical epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Florida law requires people who have claims against the state to notify the appropriate agency within three years after the cause of the claim. The claim must be denied before they can sue.

Private Prisons Update
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
http://www.wprbnews.com/2008/08/private-prisons-update.html

Earlier, I posted the story of Emma Jean Nobles and Staphanie Rhaney, inmates who died during a stay at a Florida facility run by Tennessee-based private prison behemoth Corrections Corporation of America.

Now, the Associated Press has picked up an additional angle on the story dealing with water, or the lack of water, at the same facility:

"Water was turned off for days at a time at the prison for women in nearby Gretna, apparently as a cost-cutting measure, the attorney, Patrick R. Frank, said in an interview Wednesday."

The entire story can be found here and is well worth a read. It also notes that the Nobles case discussed in the article posted today has been dismissed by the presiding judge and is now on appeal.

Also, I can now confirm that the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA), the same agency that produced damning reports on Florida private prisons during the 1990s, is currently working on what should be a blockbuster report that will address CCA's conduct in the state.

If you'd like a primer on the private prison industry, be sure to give this 1998 article by Eric Schlosser in the Atlantic Monthly a read. Schlosser, a former Princetonian himself, is an excellent journalist and writer and, ten years on, this article seems incredibly prescient.

We'll continue to follow this and other related stories here at WPRB, so stay tuned.

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

Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands

August 13, 2008
Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands
By NINA BERNSTEIN
NY Times

He was 17 when he came to New York from Hong Kong in 1992 with his parents and younger sister, eyeing the skyline like any newcomer. Fifteen years later, Hiu Lui Ng was a New Yorker: a computer engineer with a job in the Empire State Building, a house in Queens, a wife who is a United States citizen and two American-born sons.

But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and detention centers in three New England states.

In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.

On Tuesday, with an autopsy by the Rhode Island medical examiner under way, his lawyers demanded a criminal investigation in a letter to federal and state prosecutors in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, and the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the detention system.

Mr. Ng’s death follows a succession of cases that have drawn Congressional scrutiny to complaints of inadequate medical care, human rights violations and a lack of oversight in immigration detention, a rapidly growing network of publicly and privately run jails where the government held more than 300,000 people in the last year while deciding whether to deport them.

In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng’s lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation.

Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation.

“For this desperately sick, vulnerable person, this was torture,” said Theodore N. Cox, one of Mr. Ng’s lawyers, adding that they want to see a videotape of the transport made by guards.

Immigration and detention officials would not discuss the case, saying the matter was under internal investigation. But in response to a relative of Mr. Ng’s who had begged that he be checked for a spinal injury or fractures, the Wyatt detention center’s director of nursing, Ben Candelaria, replied in a July 16 e-mail message that Mr. Ng was receiving appropriate care for “chronic back pain.” He added, “We treat each and every detainee in our custody with the same high level of quality, professional care possible.”

Officials have given no explanation why they took Mr. Ng to Hartford and back on the same day. But the lawyers say the grueling July 30 trip appeared to be an effort to prove that Mr. Ng was faking illness, and possibly to thwart the habeas corpus petition they had filed in Rhode Island the day before, seeking his release for medical treatment.

The federal judge who heard that petition on July 31 did not make a ruling, but in an unusual move insisted that Mr. Ng get the care he needed. On Aug. 1, Mr. Ng was taken to a hospital, where doctors found he had terminal cancer and a fractured spine. He died five days later.

The accounts of Mr. Ng’s treatment echo other cases that have prompted legislation, now before the House Judiciary Committee, to set mandatory standards for care in immigration detention.

In March, the federal government admitted medical negligence in the death of Francisco Castaneda, 36, a Salvadoran whose cancer went undiagnosed in a California detention center as he was repeatedly denied a biopsy on a painful penile lesion. In May, The New York Times chronicled the death of Boubacar Bah, 52, a Guinean tailor who suffered a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages in the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey; records show he was left in an isolation cell without treatment for more than 13 hours.

When Mr. Ng died last week, he had spent half his life in the United States, his sister, Wendy Zhao, said in a tearful interview.

Born in China, he entered the United States legally on a tourist visa. Mr. Ng stayed on after it expired and applied for political asylum. He was granted a work permit while his application was pending, and though asylum was eventually denied, immigration authorities did not seek his deportation for many years.

Meanwhile, his sister said, Mr. Ng (pronounced Eng), who was known as Jason, graduated from high school in Long Island City, Queens, worked his way through community technical college, passed Microsoft training courses and won a contract to provide computer services to a company with offices in the Empire State Building.

In 2001, a notice ordering him to appear in immigration court was mistakenly sent to a nonexistent address, records show. When Mr. Ng did not show up at the hearing, the judge ordered him deported. By then, however, he was getting married, and on a separate track, his wife petitioned Citizenship and Immigration Services for a green card for him — a process that took more than five years. Heeding bad legal advice, the couple showed up for his green card interview on July 19, 2007, only to find enforcement agents waiting to arrest Mr. Ng on the old deportation order.

Over the next year, while his family struggled to pay for new lawyers to wage a complicated and expensive legal battle, Mr. Ng was held in jails under contract to the federal immigration authorities: Wyatt; the House of Correction in Greenfield, Mass.; and the Franklin County Jail in St. Albans, Vt.

Mr. Ng seemed healthy until April, his sister said, when he began to complain of severe back pain and skin so itchy he could not sleep. He was then in the Vermont jail, a 20-bed detention center with no medical staff run by the county sheriff’s office. Seeking care, he asked to be transferred back to Wyatt, a 700-bed center with its own medical staff, owned and operated by a municipal corporation.

In a letter to his sister, Mr. Ng recounted arriving there on July 3, spending the first three days in pain in a dark isolation cell. Later he was assigned an upper bunk and required to climb up and down at least three times a day for head counts, causing terrible pain. His brother-in-law B. Zhao appealed for help in e-mail messages to the warden, Wayne Salisbury, on July 11 and 16.

“I was really heartbroken when I first saw him,” Mr. Zhao wrote Mr. Salisbury after a visit. “After almost two weeks of suffering with unbearable back pain and unable to get any sleep, he was so weak and looked horrible.”

The nursing director replied that Mr. Ng had been granted a bottom bunk and was receiving painkillers and muscle relaxants prescribed by a detention center doctor.

But his condition continued to deteriorate. Once a robust man who stood nearly six feet and weighed 200 pounds, his relatives said, Mr. Ng looked like a shrunken and jaundiced 80-year-old.

“He said, ‘I told the nursing department, I’m in pain, but they don’t believe me,’ ” his sister recalled. “ ‘They tell me, stop faking.’ ”

Soon, according to court papers, he had to rely on other detainees to help him reach the toilet, bring him food and call his family; he no longer received painkillers, because he could not stand in line to collect them. On July 26, Andy Wong, a lawyer associated with Mr. Cox, came to see the detainee, but had to leave without talking to him, he said, because Mr. Ng was too weak to walk to the visiting area, and a wheelchair was denied.

On July 30, according to an affidavit by Mr. Wong, he was contacted by Larry Smith, a deportation officer in Hartford, who told him on a speakerphone, with Mr. Ng present, that he wanted to resolve the case, either by deporting Mr. Ng, or “releasing him to the streets.” Officer Smith said that no exam by an outside doctor would be allowed, and that Mr. Ng would not be given a wheelchair.

Mr. Ng told his lawyer he was ready to give up, the affidavit said, “because he could no longer withstand the suffering inside the facility,” but Officer Smith insisted that Mr. Ng would first have to withdraw all his appeals.

The account of his treatment clearly disturbed the federal judge, William E. Smith of United States District Court in Providence, who instructed the government’s lawyer the next day to have the warden get Mr. Ng to the hospital for an M.R.I.

The results were grim: cancer in his liver, lungs and bones, and a fractured spine. “ ‘I don’t have much time to live,’ ” his sister said he told her in a call from Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

She said the doctor warned that if the family came to visit, immigration authorities might transfer her brother. Three days passed before the warden approved a family visit, she said, after demanding their Social Security numbers. Late in the afternoon of Aug. 5, as Mr. Ng lay on a gurney, hours away from death and still under guard, she and his wife held up his sons, 3 and 1.

“Brother, don’t worry, don’t be afraid,” Ms. Zhao said, repeating her last words to him. “They are not going to send you back to the facility again. Brother, you are free now.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13detain.html?sq=Franklin%20County&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1218726056-09uyeANA+wSJ8gjazxhbGw

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

August 13, 2008

Efforts at reforming financial aid for students is stripped from Higher Education Act Refrom Bill

From Students for A Sensible Drug Policy
August 13, 2008

Despite all of our efforts we were not able to secure full repeal of, or even provide judicial discretion for, the aid elimination penalty for drug offenses in the HEA reauthorization bill.

Even though Congressional leadership made a pledge to us at the
beginning of 2006 that they would tackle the aid penalty in the
reauthorization bill, they were not able to muster enough votes,
support, wherewithal (or whatever else you want to call it) to
actually make it happen.

Anyway, despite that Congress failed to adequately address the
concerns of our hundreds of prominent organizations that called for
repeal of the penalty, there was a little bit of good language in the
HEA reauthorization bill.

The bill contains a provision that makes it slightly easier for
students to get their aid back early once they've lost it. Under
current law, students must either wait the specified period of time to
regain eligibility or they can get aid back early by having the
conviction expunged or by completing an approved drug rehab program
that includes two unannounced drug tests. The new HEA bill adds a new
option that allows students to get aid back early by just passing two
unannounced drug tests administered by an approved rehab program (they
don't necessarily have to complete a full, expensive program anymore,
which should make it a lot easier for a lot of students to get back in
school).

The bill also requires institutions of higher education to notify
their students, upon enrollment, that the penalty exists and to notify
those students who lose their aid how they can go about getting it
back.

Finally, the bill requires the Department of Education to do a much
better job tracking who is impacted by the penalty (instead of just
giving us raw total numbers of people who lose their aid). Hopefully,
we'll soon be getting victim numbers broken down by zip code, state,
income level, military status, etc. Those numbers should help us make
an even better case for repeal in the future.

-- Tom Angell, Government Relations Director Students for Sensible Drug Policy http://www.ssdp.org

Posted by lois at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)

Rhode Island Passes Reform to End Debtor's Prisons

Rhode Island Passes Reform to End Debtor's Prisons
August 13, 20008
With a $400 million dollar deficit in the budget this year, the state of Rhode Island was forced to confront the spiraling $186 million dollar prison budget. One major reform was the passage of legislation to reform the process of collecting court fines. Advocates contended that the state was losing money by locking up people for owing debts to the court system for court fines and fees. As of this July, Rhode Island passed legislation to end this wasteful process.
The law, which is perhaps the first in the country of its kind, was sponsored by Senator Metts of Providence and Representative O'Neil of Pawtucket. It instructs the court system to take the defendant's ability to pay into account and also limit the amount of time people are incarcerated for court debt. According to a report issued by the Rhode Island Family Life Center, Court Debt and Incarceration in Rhode Island, over 2,500 people were incarcerated every year for court debt, sometimes for several weeks. The new law mandates that individuals receive an ability to pay hearing within 48 hours of incarceration. It also states that indigent defendants can have some or all of their outstanding debt waived, and provides guidelines for determining indigency, such as being on food stamps. Sol Rodriguez, the Director of the Family Life Center, said, "This legislation will hopefully end a system that was tantamount to a modern day debtor's prison." The report estimated the law will save the state a quarter of a million dollars.
The importance of the issue was emphasized throughout the year by the testimony of people who had been affected by the law. Harold Brooks, who testified in front of the General Assembly about his experience being incarcerated for ten days for court debt, stated, "I felt the law before was unjust and it felt great to be able to advocate and contribute to this."

go to reinvestinjustice.org to read the report, find the legislation, and see video of people affected by the law.

Posted by lois at 05:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2008

AL: Nightmare' complaints spur action on uncertified faith-based drug treatment programs

Nightmare' complaints spur action on uncertified drug treatment programs
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
DAVE PARKS
News staff writer

Mental health officials are strengthening oversight of Alabama's uncertified drug treatment programs after hearing "nightmare" stories about predatory practices and medical incompetence occurring in faith-based facilities housing thousands of drug-court defendants and prison parolees.

"We're not taking this lightly," said John Ziegler, a spokesman for the state Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. "It's critical."

Ziegler said the department plans to inspect more than 100 halfway houses, many of them operating under ministries that are accepting referrals from courts and prisons while claiming to provide drug treatment services.

Most of the facilities appear to lack certification for drug treatment, something that is required by law, Ziegler said. He said the state is willing to help programs achieve certification, but is unwilling to let them operate indefinitely without certification, which requires providing residents with medically accepted treatment services, not just prayer services.

The subject is expected to be discussed at a meeting Wednesday of state officials, drug treatment providers and consumer advocates.

Scores of addiction treatment programs have sprung up in Alabama in recent years to handle referrals from drug courts and parolees being released from crowded jails and prisons. Many of these people have mental illnesses accompanied by drug dependency, and are ordered to complete addiction treatment programs in lieu of criminal conviction or incarceration.

Couple that with Gov. Bob Riley's call for faith-based action in dealing with community problems, and the result has been a proliferation of ministries aimed at addiction recovery for people in trouble with the law.

"It's a nightmare ... and that's a kind way of putting it," said T. Michael McLemore, who heads a north Alabama chapter of Alabama Voices for Recovery, a consumer advocacy group. "These people are being ordered into treatment, and none is being offered."

'They're not qualified'

Complaints about faith-based, uncertified drug treatment centers pour into his Eva office daily, he said. His organization has counted 112 uncertified drug treatment programs operating in Alabama, housing about 5,000 residents. He reported the problem to the state Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, but the situation is complicated because so many other government agencies are feeding residents into these uncertified programs.

"It's being condoned by the Department of Corrections; it's being condoned by Pardons and Paroles; it's being condoned by community corrections," he said. "It's being condoned by everybody."

McLemore said it is certainly appropriate for ministries to get involved in community affairs, but government officials should not give them tacit approval to operate medical programs without certification or credentials.

"I'm not saying their intent is not good, but they're not qualified to treat dependency issues," he said.

The system is open to abuse because there are no standards for what constitutes a "faith-based" drug program. Anybody can call himself a minister, create his own method of addiction treatment and hold the power to send people back to prison or to face criminal charges.

Some use that power to shake down residents and their families, McLemore said. "It's a money-making machine."

Recently, he took a group of families and consumers to tell their stories to officials at the state Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. Afterward, officials decided to act on the problem, according to minutes from a July 9 meeting of the state's Substance Abuse Coordinating Subcommittee.

One parent's story

One of the consumers making the trip was Glenda Lockhart of Falkville, whose 22-year-old son, Patrick Holloway, has had numerous run-ins with the law for breaking and entering, theft and drug violations.

Lockhart said her son has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder accompanied by schizophrenia. He has been in and out of four halfway houses offering uncertified drug treatment.

None of the programs had qualified medical personnel or counselors to handle her son's problems, but the last program, one called The Bridge Inc. in Double Springs, was the worst, Lockhart said. The Double Springs halfway house is not affiliated with a well-known, respected and certified drug treatment program by the same name in Gadsden.

In March, shortly after her son was ordered into The Bridge in Double Springs by a court officer in Guntersville, Lockhart got a call from the facility asking her to come in for a talk.

Lockhart said she was told that her son had violated a rule by smoking after hours, and he would be discharged and sent to jail unless she paid a hefty fine. "So I wrote a $500 check," she said.

Then, Lockhart said, she got a similar call a week later, and this time the fine jumped to $1,000. "Then it was $1,500," she said. "The next time was $2,000."

In all, she paid The Bridge more than $18,000 over three months, and her son ended up getting expelled after she refused to pay any more money, she said. "They kicked him out for being late to chapel."

Lockhart provided copies of eight checks made out to The Bridge between March 7 and May 28, totaling $11,700. Two of the checks had "donation" written as a memo. She also provided copies of two checks, each written for $2,000 in cash, during the same period of time. She said that money was paid to The Bridge, too.

Lockhart said she got to know other residents at The Bridge, and learned that many were recruited from jails and prisons under the condition that they would have to get a job and turn over portions of checks to cover living expenses and drug treatment, a common practice in halfway houses.

After they arrived, the halfway house controlled where they worked and how much they were allowed to keep from their checks, Lockhart said. They had to abide by whatever rules The Bridge set, or end up back in prison or before a judge.

"They were using these guys as slave labor, here in the great state of Alabama," Lockhart said.

While at The Bridge, she said, her son was taken off his psychiatric medications and was told God would heal him. He went wild and got into more trouble with the law, she said.

"This needs to be stopped," Lockhart said.

In addition to losing thousands of dollars, her son has never received the treatment that he desperately needs, she said.

"I could have cared less about the money," she said. "My job was to try to save Patrick's life."

Defending The Bridge

Jeremy Turner, office manager at The Bridge, denied any wrongdoing.

"Anybody who would try to accuse us of anything like that is wrong," he said. "We do charge people money, because that's really the only way we can keep our doors open. We've had to let our program director go recently because of lack of funds."

Turner acknowledged there have been problems. "Our program is going through a lot of drastic changes lately," he said.

The executive director recently resigned, and other workers either quit or had to be let go. There were two licensed counselors, but now there are none, he said.

The halfway house can hold 50 residents, but there are about 30 remaining. They attend chapel services and listen to Christian speakers who come in to talk about recovery, Turner said.

Chris Lee, program director at The Bridge, said he was aware of Lockhart's complaints. "Lovely lady as far as I know, but her opinion is not exactly our opinion," he said. "I don't think I can legally respond. I'm just learning about some of these things myself. This comes from a previous regime."
http://www.al.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/1218528929249610.xml&coll=2

Posted by lois at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

SC: BlueCross BlueSheild subsidary gets $7.3 million contract to process health claims from BOP

S.C. company nabs $7.3M federal prisons contract
Associated Press 08.11.08

A South Carolina company plans to create several dozen jobs in the state after winning a multimillion-dollar contract with the federal prisons system.

PGBA LLC, says it has been awarded a $7.3 million contract from the Bureau of Prisons to process health care claims for federal inmates throughout the United States.

The claims will come from health care service providers who care for inmates transported outside prisons for care. The Bureau of Prisons had been processing its own claims.

The office for the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina subsidiary will be in Surfside Beach and will eventually employ more than two dozen staffers.

PGBA processes about half of the nation's claims for TRICARE, a Defense Department health care benefit program.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/08/11/ap5310338.html

Posted by lois at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)

StopMax: The Fight Against Supermax Prisons Heats Up

StopMax: The Fight Against Supermax Prisons Heats Up
By Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet
Posted on August 11, 2008, Printed on August 11, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/94257/

"When I left Angola," says Robert King Wilkerson, who spent 29 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana's notorious Angola State Penitentiary for a crime he was later found innocent of, "I said, 'I may be free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me.'" Since his release seven years ago, the vow has taken him to rallies, churches and talk shows across the globe. Earlier this summer, it brought him to Philadelphia for the first-ever StopMax Conference, where he told stories, analyzed the state of the American prison system and collaborated with a throng of like-minded activists determined to "end the use of solitary confinement and related forms of torture in U.S. prisons."

Wilkerson is a former member of the Black Panther Party and one of the Angola Three. He spent more than 30 years in prison for the killing of a prison guard, along with two other former Black Panthers -- Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace -- before being exonerated by the state of Louisiana in February 2001. Woodfox and Wallace still languish in prison. They are the longest-held prisoners in solitary isolation to date in the United States.

On a Friday early this summer, Wilkerson addressed a crowd composed of both supporters and curious passers-by outside Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, which opened its doors in 1829 as the first institutionalized experiment in long-term solitary confinement. Over the past 40 years, with modern advances enabling an unprecedented level of isolation and control, the practice has been systematized, standardized and forced upon thousands of people across the country, from murderers to drug addicts and petty thieves.

Wilkerson was one of many modern-day solitary survivors who brought focus and momentum to the StopMax Conference, organized by the American Friends Service Committee. Bonnie Kerness, Prison Watch coordinator for the AFSC, said that over the past two decades, the organization has received an "astounding" number of letters from people in solitary confinement describing the abuse that occurs in their desolate cells. She told AlterNet that "they describe in excruciating detail," among other things, "the uses of devices of torture -- forced medication, restraint beds, restraint chairs …"

"And now we're also starting to hear from juveniles," she says, "so it's almost at a point where, how could we not respond?"

According to Kerness, alongside the piles of letters from prisoners, the AFSC has seen a corresponding rise in phone calls it receives from people around the country wanting to know more about the issue of solitary confinement and looking for ways to help friends and family in isolation stay mentally strong and combat the abuse. The conference, then, she says, was "a natural way to move forward."

The crowd that assembled at Philadelphia's Temple University for the StopMax Conference included a motley crew of about 400 people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Members of the United Church of Christ dined alongside dreadlocked media activists. Traditional Aztec dancers rubbed shoulders with psychologists and doctors. Native American religious leaders joked around with young college students and black-clad anarchists. An older, soft-spoken lawyer and community activist co-facilitated a workshop on the New Jersey Department of Corrections gang unit program with a prominent leader in the Almighty Latin Kings and Queens Nation.

All of these people and hundreds more spent three days strategizing, comparing notes and working toward a common goal: to end the use of solitary confinement running rampant, and largely unchecked, in the U.S. prison system.

Prison Nation

The United States has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world, at 2.2 million people as of 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. At any given time, an estimated 10 percent of those prisoners are being held in isolation, according to a new analysis of prison data compiled by Dr. Terry Kupers, a mental health adviser to prison facilities and a leading expert on the effects of solitary confinement. That translates into roughly 220,000 local, state and federal prisoners held in solitary confinement at any given moment.

Although U.S. prisons have always used isolation as a form of punishment, it wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s that a new kind of penitentiary -- the "supermax" -- began imposing it wholesale as a long-term population management strategy. The skyrocketing prison population, ushered in by the "war on drugs," made isolation an attractive option for prison officials eager to control their inmates, legislators eager to appear "tough on crime," and prison industry executives eager to build more technologically sophisticated, and thus lucrative, institutions.

Sometimes referred to as "secured housing units," "special management units" or "control units," supermax facilities are considered by critics to be modern dungeons, where inmates are locked away for 23 to 24 hours a day, fed through small slits in their cell door, and often monitored by cameras in lieu of prison guards. Prisoners have little to no outdoor activity, and temperatures inside their cells can fluctuate between freezing cold and unbearable heat, depending on the season. While many prisoners endure these conditions for a year or two, others remain, uncertain of how to earn their way out, for 10, 15 or, in Wilkerson's case, 29 years. With no meaningful educational opportunities to stimulate the mind or rehabilitative programs geared toward easing re-entry, the system has been repeatedly denounced by international bodies, including the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, who in 1996 called the system "cruel, inhuman and degrading."

Nonetheless, according to the AFSC, 44 states as well as the federal system continue to operate supermax facilities to this day.

Although the supermax is billed as a maximum-security facility for the "worst of the worst," it is too often the troublemakers and rabble-rousers who land there, at the pleasure of the prison officials who transfer them out of general-population facilities. Over-represented among supermax inmates are "jailhouse lawyers" -- those who file lawsuits, advocate on behalf of themselves and other prisoners, or otherwise irritate prison guards. Tamms Correctional Center in southern Illinois openly admits this on its Web site, stating that the Tamms control unit houses "some of the most litigious inmates in the department's custody."

Since people are sent to supermax facilities because of their behavior inside prison walls, rather than offenses committed on the outside, many of the prisoners in supermax prisons are thus serving time for relatively small crimes, such as possession of drugs or burglary. For example, David Tracy, a 20-year-old prisoner who hung himself in a Virginia supermax in 2000, was serving a two-and-a-half year sentence for selling drugs at the time of his death.

Tracy's case, sadly, is not unique. The suicide rate in supermax facilities is often twice that of general population facilities. Despite the fact that only about 10 percent of the prison and jail population is held in isolation at any given time, according to the Correctional Association of New York, more than 40 percent of completed suicides occur in segregation. In part this is due to the fact that, within the prison population, the most over-represented group in isolation is prisoners who are mentally ill. At some institutions, such as Indiana's Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, officials have admitted that the mentally ill comprise "over half" of their supermax population. According to David Fathi, director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch, this has much to do with the dismantling and underfunding of numerous social services -- most notably large, public mental health institutions -- that coincided with the rise of the supermax prison. People with mental illnesses, particularly those with impulse control problems, tend to be among the most bothersome in a normal prison setting, and guards, usually ill-equipped to deal with mental illness, have a penchant for sending them to supermaxes, which Fathi calls an "asylum of last resort." (For more on the mental health effects of supermax prisons, see "Torture in Our Own Backyards.")

Resistance on the Outside

The rise of supermax prisons has long been accompanied by a growing movement to shut them down.

The use of long-term solitary confinement was systematized in October 1983, when the murder of a guard at the Marion Federal Penitentiary in Illinois led prison officials there to "lock down" the entire facility, keeping prisoners in their cells 23 hours a day and severely limiting their movement and communication with each other and the outside world. Resistance to those policies sprung up almost immediately -- both behind prison walls and on the outside, through a group called the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown. Two years later, the AFSC published a pamphlet highlighting and denouncing what was happening inside Marion. It did not realize at the time that what was occurring marked the beginning of a trend in prison management. As "The Lessons of Marion" was distributed across the country, the AFSC effectively became a polestar for prisoners trapped in extreme isolation, as well as for loved ones on the outside who wanted to understand what was happening and advocate for them.

As "control units" were constructed in different areas around the country, local organizations sprouted up organically to denounce their existence as inhumane and destructive. Among them was California Prison Focus, started in 1990 by lone activist and physician Corey Weinstein, who set about to document and denounce the conditions at the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California. Today, the organization is going strong, with a combined volunteer and paid staff of more than a dozen. With a strong presence at the StopMax Conference, California Prison Focus continues to be a vocal advocate for prisoners' rights.

As local initiatives grew, a national push began to form. In 1994, the AFSC spearheaded the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons, bringing together pockets of resistance from Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Three years later, with the help of dozens of letters sent back and forth from prisoners who were successfully withstanding life in solitary confinement, the campaign produced a "survivor's manual," which, according to Kerness, is still requested thousands of times each year.

Former Prisoners and Family Members at the Forefront of the Movement

Resistance to long-term solitary confinement, fueled by a string of recent victories and driven by former inmates and their family members, has been heating up for years. At the StopMax Conference in Philadelphia, it came to a rolling boil. Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, a former member of the Black Liberation Army who was imprisoned in Marion and released in 1985, has been speaking out against solitary confinement and the prison industry ever since. He told AlterNet in Philadelphia, "Our prospects for victory are better, because if we do this correctly, we could possibly bring hundreds, thousands, even millions of people into the struggle." In truth, the rising rates of incarceration have drawn more and more families and loved ones to the cause, and thanks to the Internet and other advancements in communication technology, activists are able to educate one another and further disseminate the message.

But still, the effects of supermax prisons are felt far beyond the organizations that were represented in Philadelphia. The majority of family members continue to feel disempowered and disenfranchised -- creating an additional challenge for activists. "We're going to have to go into the communities and educate people as well," Komboa says. "Our consciousness is not the same as people in the 'hood. … We've got to let them know what's happening, get agitation and activation out of that."

The Chicano Mexicano Prison Project has been working on that front in San Diego since 1993, through publication of a quarterly newsletter, Las Calles y La Torcida, and dozens of workshops and teach-ins aimed at exploring the impact of the prison industrial complex on Raza communities.

"Most prisoners don't know why they are in prison, and most parents think their kids deserve to be there," Ernesto Bustillo, educator and member of the CMPP, told attendees at the group's conference workshop. Part of the CMPP's mission, then, is to "raise political and social consciousness of Raza prisoners, educate the Raza community as to the realities of the prison system."

Friends and Families of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children, which also held a workshop at the StopMax Conference, is working on the same front in Louisiana, reaching out to and educating parents in low-income communities on how to advocate for their children and understand the dynamics of the prison system, with the goal of shutting off the "school-to-prison pipeline."

Meanwhile, groups like the Friends and Families of Prisoners' Emergency Response Network, led by a proactive community of family and friends of prisoners in Pennsylvania, is working to document the experiences of people inside the prison system while building a network of people ready to make noise whenever any one of their loved ones behind bars is suffering a legal or medical emergency.

One of the crucial strengths of these organizations is that for many, the driving forces behind their work are current and former prisoners and their family members. Gale Muhammad, the StopMax Campaign family organizer and a key driving force behind the conference, is one of them. She says she became active in the cause in 1997 while advocating for her late husband, Tarik Mohammed, who fell ill in isolation and died that year. She says she is driven by a desire to not let Tarik's death be in vain, and by her determination not to let their son, who is currently incarcerated, meet a similar fate. "I'm still here," she yelled to the crowd at the conference's opening celebration. "I'm here because we have got to save our children."

Creating Change

Chicago organizer Laurie Jo Reynolds, of the Tamms Year Ten Campaign, came with an agenda: to learn about places where activists have had success in achieving humane conditions in supermax facilities and apply those lessons to her fight to do the same at Tamms Correctional Center's closed maximum-security facility (CMAX). Tamms Year Ten persuaded the Illinois General Assembly Prison Reform Committee to hold a public hearing on April 28. That hearing led lawmakers to introduce a bill on May 24 that would put an end to indefinite sentences at Tamms CMAX, remove people with mental illness from isolation and establish clear criteria, and time limits, for assignment in the facility.

Similar legislation was passed in New York in January of this year after a six-year battle led by Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement, a coalition of more than 60 organizations in the New York area. The new law bans solitary confinement for people with psychological disabilities. However, at the urging of the New York State Correctional Officers Union, discretion is allowed "if an inmate is going to hurt himself or others."

"This is a victory -- and we have to celebrate our victories," Alexandra Smith, a New York organizer, said during a panel titled "Counter-Abuse Campaigns and Resistance Strategies." "But it is a partial victory, and so we have to remain vigilant."

Other localities face more resistance to reform. AFSC's Prison Justice Program Coordinator Matthew Lowen, in Tucson, says there is little hope for winning the support of state lawmakers, who "tend to be cowboys," so he and his colleagues have instead entered into a round of discussions directly with the Arizona Department of Corrections. The Tucson AFSC office compiled and released an in-depth study on the overuse of solitary confinement in the state, which gave the group some bargaining power with state corrections officials, which Lowen hopes to leverage for meaningful reforms from within.

Meanwhile, other groups have taken their battles to the legal front.

In 2007, a lawsuit brought forth by the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Holland & Knight against the Mississippi Department of Corrections succeeded in overhauling an overzealous system that, at the time the lawsuit was filed, was holding more than 1,000 prisoners in long-term isolation at the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm, in Parchman, Miss. Through what attorney Steve Hanlon of Holland & Knight called "beat(ing) them up successfully in the courts, and then bring(ing) them to the table to negotiate," the legal advocates were able to slash that number to 130, with more prisoners still being weeded out and transferred.

The victory was born of a strategy that brought together an array of experts across various fields, including James Austin of the JFA Institute, a D.C.-based justice and corrections research and consulting firm. Austin, who has a long history in prison work, examined Parchman's placement system, or lack thereof, and developed a precise set of entry and exit criteria that everyone -- wardens and advocates alike -- could agree on. He then applied those criteria to the prison population. According to Austin, the new system included clear definitions of what constitutes good behavior and incentives (such as recreational time or access to a television) for conforming to those guidelines. The Parchman experiment, then, significantly reduced the supermax population simply by creating a centralized, defined, prison-wide assignment process to replace the process lacking in accountability that prevails at most supermax facilities and simply leaves placement up to the guards, with little or no opportunity to challenge that placement or identify its basis.

In Philadelphia, Austin spoke at a workshop on "The Successful Overhaul of Mississippi's Supermax Prison," saying that all he did was help Mississippi prison officials "understand that when you give incentives to prisoners in a normal, humane way, it makes for a safer place." "That's not advocacy," he said, "that's science." Austin was also one among a team of experts who similarly restructured the supermax system in Ohio in 2003, and, he says, "they have not had one prisoner come back."

The Fight Against Supermax Prisons Continues

Strategies like the ones described at the StopMax Conference have led to a successful reduction in the number of supermax prisoners and have helped remove mentally ill prisoners from their ranks. But they still fall short of the campaign's ultimate goal: abolishing solitary confinement. Multiple legal challenges claiming that prolonged isolation is "cruel and unusual punishment," and thus a violation of the Eighth Amendment, have failed. For example, in Madrid v. Gomez, a 1995 case filed on behalf of more than 3,000 prisoners at California's Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit, federal district court Judge Thelton Henderson ruled that "while the conditions in the SHU may press the outer bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate," they were not "cruel and unusual." However, in his decision, Henderson did rule that mentally ill prisoners should not be placed in isolation. Since that case, every federal court to weigh in on the issue has followed suit and has found solitary confinement unconstitutional in the case of the severely mentally ill, while deferring the ultimate decision about the isolation of mentally sound prisoners to the states.

However, one high-profile case revisiting the question of whether extended isolation qualifies as "cruel and unusual punishment" was recently determined to have "merit to proceed" by the United States Supreme Court. In a pending civil case, the Angola Three are challenging the conditions of their confinement as well as what they call the "sham" review process that allowed them to be held in isolation for so many years. Wilkerson, Woodfox and Wallace v. the State of Louisiana et al is still pending and could have far-reaching consequences.

"At one time I thought that which was legal was ultimately moral," Wilkerson told conference attendees in Philadelphia. "But my years -- my 29 years in solitary confinement and my 31 years serving time for a crime that the state knew I hadn't committed -- has taught me a lesson: that legality and morality are not friends. Legality does not equal morality."

Wilkerson pointed out to the crowd at the StopMax Conference that slavery and other abhorrent practices of racism, classism and sexism have also been legal at certain periods in history, but that, through the hard work of those who believe in equality and justice, they, too, were abolished.

"Abraham Lincoln gets credit, and other politicians get credit, for abolishing slavery," he continued, "but it really wasn't Lincoln. You know, Lincoln only did the will of the people. It was the abolitionists, people who looked at slavery and saw it as being something that was terrible."

"That is why it is so important that the struggle continues."

Jessica Pupovac is an adult educator and independent journalist living in Chicago.
© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/94257/

Posted by lois at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2008

Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Manhattan and Queens host joint press conference to support

(New York City, NY) - The Black Star Project in partnership with the NYC Coalition of Organizers is sponsoring the Million Father March 2008 on the first day of school across New York City on September 2, 2008. In preparation for this great march, the NYC Coalition of Organizers is holding a press conference to raise awareness and to involve as many fathers as possible in this movement. This event will be held on Friday, August 15, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. at The Adam Clayton Powell, Harlem State Office Building , 163 West 125th, 2nd floor Art Gallery. Confirmed speakers include: Assemblyman Scarborough, Chair of the Office of Children Family Services Committee; representatives from faith-based, community-based and educational institutions throughout the city; as well as state and city agencies representing children and families.

This year, an estimated 600,000 men from 400 cities are expected to participate. The Million Father March also provides an escort of safety, support, and encouragement to children of all ages on their first day of school. "This is an outstanding event and an opportunity for the men of our city and state to show that they are caring fathers to their children and are prepared to accept their responsibilities as role models," says Assemblyman William Scarborough of the 29th Assembly District of NYS located in Queens.

Research shows that children whose fathers take an active role in their educational lives earn better grades, get better test scores, enjoy school more and are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. Additionally, children have fewer behavior problems when fathers listen to and talk with them regularly and are active in their lives. A good father is part of a good parent team and is critical to creating a strong family structure. Strong family structures produce children who are more academically proficient, socially developed and self-assured. Such children become adults who are valuable assets to their communities. "Strong families include strong fathers who in turn produce academically, proficient and socially developed children who are a valuable asset to their communities," says Rodney Pride, LCSW, Director of NYC Regional office of NYS Office of Children and Family Services.

The 2008 Million Father March is managed by The Black Star Project, U.S.A., sponsored by The Schott Foundation for Public Education and in partnership with the National PTA, the National Association of Black Social Workers and the National Fatherhood Initiative. Please visit the Black Star Project website at www.blackstarproject.org for more information about this national initiative. For local NYC information for all five boroughs, contact either Pastor Deb Jenkins, Senior Pastor of Faith @ Work Church at 718-644-0951 or by email at fatwcc@aol.com; or Melvin Alston of NYC Children Services at 718-488-5347 or by email at Melvin.Alston@dfa.state.ny.us.

NYC Coalition for Million Father March 2008

Bronx Representative

Faith @ Work Christian Church
Full Circle Health
Brooklyn Representative
Total Living Comfort

Manhattan Representative:
Harlem Men Stand Up!
Queens Representative:
St. Alban's Congregational Church

Staten Island:
Celebrating Real Family Life
First Central Baptist Church
Girl Scouts of America
Stapleton UME Church
NAACP
United Federation of Teachers
PS 14

Special Organizers:
New York State Office of Children and Family Services

Honorary Sponsor:
Assemblyman William Scarborough of Assembly District 29, Queens

For more information about the New York City March, please contact:
Tammy Greer Brown
President/CEO
Celebrating Real Family Life
P.O. Box 140974
Staten Island, New York 10314
Phone: 718-595-2116
Fax: 718-701-1197
Email: celebratingrealfamilylife@yahoo.com
Website: www.crfl.org

For your city to join the Million Father March 2008 please call 773.285.9600 or email blackstar1000@ameritech.net.

National Association of Black Social Workers Partners with The Black Star Project's Million Father March

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

MO: Mother works to keep teens out of adult prisons

Columbia Missourian
Mother works to keep teens out of adult prisons
By RUDI KELLER and BRIDGET DICOSMO
August 9, 2008 | 10:08 p.m. CDT

CAPE GIRARDEAU — Tracy McClard has signed on with an effort to keep teen offenders out of adult prisons, a crusade that is getting a political test as the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee works on a bill reauthorizing federal juvenile justice programs.

McClard is the mother of Jonathan McClard, a Jackson teen who committed suicide while in the first months of a 30-year sentence for shooting another teenager at a Jackson car wash. Jonathan McClard had just turned 17. He was charged as an adult and sent to the Eastern Missouri Reception and Diagnostic Center, the regular intake prison for adult inmates in the eastern areas of the state.

Tracy McClard has become a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Youth Justice, an advocacy group for young offenders that supports rehabilitation efforts in youth-only settings over incarceration with adults.

The campaign is supporting a bill sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Herb Kohl, D-Wis. The measure would use federal policies to discourage the placement of juveniles in adult jails while they await trial and encourage the use of alternatives to detention with adults following conviction.

The measure also gives states greater authority to keep young offenders in juvenile facilities after they reach the age of majority, which differs from state to state. In Missouri, an offender is automatically considered an adult if they are 17 at the time of their crime.

"I never thought Jonathan shouldn't be punished, and I never thought he'd get to come home right away," McClard said. "Some kids may never be rehabilitated, but the juvenile mind is so pliable."

According to research cited by the Campaign for Youth Justice, there are an average of 7,500 juvenile offenders in adult jails or prisons on any given day. From the U.S. Department of Justice, the group cited studies showing that in 2005, 21 percent of the victims of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence in adult jails were younger than 18. Juveniles in adult facilities are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than juveniles sent to juvenile facilities and 20 times more likely than youths in the general population.

McClard said she was "flabbergasted" by the research. "There's so much information to get out there that the public doesn't understand," McClard said. Jonathan was assaulted while still in the Mississippi County Jail in Charleston, Mo., she said.

The campaign would like more states to adopt a juvenile justice system that resembles Missouri's, said Eric Solomon, media relations director for the campaign. Missouri's Division of Youth Services operates on a model that emphasizes rehabilitation, education and crime prevention.

"A lot of people are hung up with ‘you do the crime, you do the time,"' he said. "That only harms youth, who need a homelike, community alternative to incarceration and a better re-entry program. They need education, and they need rehab. They don't need to be locked up."

Parents like McClard help the campaign put a face to the statistics, Solomon said.

"Without parents, without former incarcerated youth, without organizations across the country, we couldn't move ahead as we do today," Solomon said.

"Tracy experienced it, she went through it, and legislators across the country, whether it is state or federal, are going to listen to someone who has experienced the pain or agony. That is more effective than an advocacy campaign."

In a statement accompanying the introduction of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2008, Leahy emphasized that juvenile offenders should be handled with policies designed to steer them into being useful members of society.

"After years of pressure to try more and more young people as adults and to send them to adult prisons, it is time to seriously consider the strong evidence that this policy is not working," Leahy said.

The campaign is working to defeat an amendment from Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., that would put federal prosecutors in control of deciding whether youthful offenders who commit federal crimes will be tried as adults or juveniles. Federal judges currently have that power.

"That derails the entire JJDPA bill that has been put forward," Solomon said.

McClard said she has received a large volume of letters, including notes from Jonathan's teachers at Jackson High School and supervisor at the prison expressing their grief. She said she is working on a book about her son.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/08/09/mother-works-keep-teens-out-adult-prisons/

Posted by lois at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)

The News (Pakistan) More than 50 per cent of all women in American prisons have been sexually abused

More than 50 per cent of all women in American prisons have been sexually abused
Monday, August 11, 2008
By Kaleem Omar, The News (Pakistan)

The United States government never tires of lecturing countries around the world on their human rights record, which is what President George W. Bush chose to do in the case of China en route to Beijing on August 8 to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Yet the US government often turns a blind eye to gross human rights violations in its own country. A case in point is the government’s apathy towards the sexual abuse of women in US prisons, which has been rampant for years.

According to current estimates, more than 50 per cent of all female prisoners in the United States have experienced some form of sexual abuse. The number of women incarcerated in the United States is ten times more than in Western Europe, whose female population is equal to that of the United States. African-American women are eight times more likely to be incarcerated than white women; Hispanic women are four times more likely. Seventy per cent of guards in the 170 state prison facilities for women across the United States are men. In Canadian women’s prisons, 91 per cent of the guards are female.

An Amnesty International report says, “Sexual abuse is virtually a fact of life for incarcerated women in the US.” The report’s findings are reinforced by a study conducted by the US-based Human Rights Watch, which says that “being a woman prisoner in American prisons can be a terrifying experience.”

It can be examined in terms of powerlessness, humiliation, retaliation and fear. If a woman is sexually abused, she cannot escape from her abuser. Grievances or investigatory procedures, where they do exist, are often ineffectual, and correctional employees continue to engage in abuse because they believe they will rarely be held accountable, administratively or criminally.

According to Amnesty International, female prisoners often experience sexual abuse during routine searches. This includes rape, sexual extortion and groping. There are often male correctional officers watching women undressing and showering. The women are often afraid to report such incidences. Not only do the guards frequently threaten to take away visitation rights to keep them quiet, they also have complete access to each inmate’s file, which includes any reports against the guards. If a guard is reported and punished, the punishment usually only consists of his transfer to another facility.

As well as rampant sexual abuse, medical neglect is common for women in US prisons. Amnesty International lists a number of issues involving medical neglect. One such example is the failure to treat seriously ill inmates. This includes treatment for diseases ranging from diabetes to AIDS. Another example is the lack of qualified medical personnel in the prisons. This means that frequently non-medical staff is used in medical situations.

The United States has the dubious distinction of incarcerating the largest known number of prisoners of any country in the world (well over two million), of which a steadily increasing number are women. Since 1980, the number of women entering US prisons has risen by almost 400 per cent, roughly double the incarceration rate increase of males. According to Human Rights Watch, 52 per cent of these prisoners are African-American women, though African-American women constitute only 14 per cent of the US’s total female population.

The custodial sexual misconduct documented in the Human Rights Watch report takes many forms. The study found that male correctional employees have vaginally, anally and orally raped female prisoners and sexually assaulted and abused them. The study found that in the course of committing such gross misconduct, male officers have not only used actual or threatened physical force, but have also used their near total authority to provide or deny goods and privileges to female prisoners to compel them to have sex or, in other cases, to reward them for having done so.

In other cases, male officers have violated their most basic professional duty and engaged in sexual contact with female prisoners. According to Human Rights Watch, male correctional officers and staff have also engaged in regular verbal degradation and harassment of female prisoners, thus contributing to a custodial environment in the state prisons for women, which is often highly sexualised and excessively hostile.

The report says that no one group of prisoners appears to suffer sexual misconduct more than any other, although those in prison for the first time and young or mentally ill prisoners are particularly vulnerable to abuse. Lesbian and transgenedered prisoners have also been singled out for sexual misconduct by officers, as have prisoners who have in some way challenged an officer, either by informing on him for inappropriate conduct or for refusing to submit to demands for sexual relations.

In some instances, women have been impregnated as a result of sexual misconduct, and some of these prisoners have faced additional abuse in the form of inappropriate segregation, denial of adequate health care, and/or pressure to seek an abortion, says the Human Rights Watch report.

One of the clear contributing factors to sexual misconduct in US prisons for women is that the United States, despite authoritative international rules to the contrary, allows male correctional employees to hold contact positions over prisoners, that is, positions in which they serve in constant physical proximity to the prisoners of the opposite sex.

Under the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Standard Minimum Rules), which constitute an authoritative guide to international law regarding the treatment of prisoners, male officers are precluded from holding such contact positions. However, since the passage of the US Civil Rights Act of 1964, US employers have been prohibited from denying a person a job solely on the basis of gender unless the person’s gender was reasonably necessary to the performance of the specific job.

In the absence of unusual circumstances, US federal courts have been unwilling to recognise a person’s gender as meeting this standard with respect to correctional employment. As a result, most restrictions on male officers working in women’s prisons that predated the Civil Rights Act have been removed and, by some estimates, male officers working in women’s prisons now outnumber their female counterparts by two and in some facilities, three to one.

Human Rights Watch says its investigation revealed that where state departments of correction have employed male staff or officers to guard female prisoners, they have often done so without clear prohibitions on all forms of custodial sexual misconduct and without either training officers or educating prisoners about such prohibitions.

Female officers have also sexually abused female prisoners and should, without exception, receive such training. However, in the state prisons for women that Human Rights Watch investigated, instances of same-sex misconduct were relatively rare.

Under both international and US national law, states are clearly required to prevent and punish custodial sexual misconduct. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Punishment (Torture Convention), both of which the United States has ratified, require state parties to prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and to ensure that such abuse is investigated and punished.

The ICCPR further guarantees prisoners a basic right to privacy, which has been interpreted to preclude strip searches by officers of the opposite sex. These rights are further enumerated in the Standard Minimum Rules, which call on governments to prohibit custodial sexual abuse, provide prisoners with an effective right to complain of such misconduct, ensure appropriate punishment, and guarantee that these obligations are met in part through the proper training of correctional officers.

In addition, the United States Constitution expressly protects prisoners from cruel and inhuman punishments and has been interpreted to accord prisoners limited privacy rights as well as to guarantee them access to the courts.

The United States is thus clearly bound under its own Constitution to prevent and punish custodial sexual misconduct. It is equally bound by international human rights law to take these steps, although in ratifying the ICCPR and the Torture Convention, the United States attempted to limit its treaty obligations in ways that were particularly adverse to the elimination of custodial sexual misconduct.

These efforts by the United States to shirk its full international human rights obligations are legally indefensible, as well as being morally reprehensible.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129273

Posted by lois at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

"Real Cost of Prisons Comix' book events in the SF Bay Area September 24th through September 29th, 2008

Wednesday September 24th - Lois Ahrens, editor of the ‘Real Cost Of Prisons Comix’ at The Green Arcade 7pm.
Book launch for the ‘Real Cost Of Prisons Comix’, edited by Lois Ahrens and published by PM Press.
“One out of every hundred adults in the U.S. is in prison. This book provides a crash course in what drives mass incarceration, the human and community costs, and how to stop the numbers from going even higher.”
Through the comics, and associated campaigning, hundreds of thousands of prisoners, their allies, and activists, have had the grisly facts and consequences of mass incarceration and its devastating effects on communities, families and the poor, made accessible. Each comic includes alternatives to the costly and inhumane system we have now. More than 30 organizers in and out of prison write about how they use the comix in their work. Long-time activist and organizer, Lois Ahrens discusses The Real Cost of Prisons Project and introductory essay by Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore frames the comix within a political context.

Join the editor speaking about the book, and the wider project, together with the following activists who will talk on how they’ve used the comic books, and their work:
Marlon Altan is a social studies teacher with 5 Keys Charter School. 5 Keys charter school is a high school that works out of the San Francisco County Jail.
Amie Dowling is an Assistant Professor in the Performing Arts Dept at the University of San Francisco and through Community Works leads theater/writing workshops in the San Francisco jails.
Debbie Reyes, OSI Fellow, Central Valley Coordinator California Prison Moratorium Project, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, Fresno, California.
Karen Shain is Co-Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, a San Francisco-based 30-year-old prisoners' rights organization that advocates for the rights of incarcerated women, their families and communities.
Mara Taub from Santa Fe, NM, is the coordinator/editor ‘Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter’. Since 1976, the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights has worked to gather and disseminate information and analysis for those imprisoned, formerly imprisoned and their allies. Their short, free, monthly ‘Newsletter’ features news from/for prisoners nationwide; offers a variety of resource lists; and emphasizes analysis of the U.S. punishment system.
Part of the ‘Great Rehearsal’ Week of ’68 Events.
The Green Arcade
1680 Market Street (at Gough.)
San Francisco CA 94102
www.thegreenarcade.com
info@thegreenarcade.com

Thursday September 25th – ‘Incarceration, Resistance, Costs And Consequences: A Discussion with Authors, Activists And Former Political Prisoners’. At the First Congregational Church in Oakland 7pm. $10 (no-one turned away).
Co-sponsored with KPFA. A benefit for the Angola 3 Defense Fund.
A lively discussion on the rising costs, and consequences of incarceration. And of those that are resisting the Prison Industrial Complex.
Panelists include:
Robert Hillary King, author of the new autobiography ‘From The Bottom Of The Heap: The Autobiography Of Black Panther Robert Hillary King’ (PM Press). Robert Hillary King is better known as one of the Angola 3, who served over 31 years in Louisiana’s ‘slave plantation’ at Angola, 29 of them in solitary confinement. He, together with his Angola 3 comrades, Herman Bell and Albert Woodfox, organized within the prison the first (and only) Black Panther chapter behind the walls. The state reacted (unsurprisingly) accordingly.
Lois Ahrens, editor of the ‘Real Cost Of Prisons Comix’ (PM Press). Through the comics, and associated campaigning, hundreds of thousands of prisoners, their allies, and activists, have had the grisly facts and consequences of mass incarceration and its devastating effects on communities, families and the poor, made accessible. Each comic includes alternatives to the costly and inhumane system we have now.
Victoria Law, author of ‘Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women’ (PM Press), and longtime prison activist. About the forthcoming book: In 1974, women imprisoned at New York's maximum-security prison at Bedford Hills staged what is known as the August Rebellion. Protesting the brutal beating of a fellow prisoner, the women fought off guards, holding seven of them hostage, and took over sections of the prison. While many have heard of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, the August Rebellion remains relatively unknown even in activist circles. ‘Resistance Behind Bars’ is determined to challenge and change such oversights. As it examines daily struggles against appalling prison conditions and injustices, ‘Resistance’ documents both collective organizing and individual resistance among women incarcerated in the U.S. Emphasizing women's agency in resisting the conditions of their confinement through forming peer education groups, clandestinely arranging ways for children to visit mothers in distant prisons and raising public awareness about their lives, ‘Resistance’ seeks to spark further discussion and research into the lives of incarcerated women and galvanize much-needed outside support for their struggles.
Matt Meyer, editor of the monumental (all 912 pages!) ‘Let Freedom Ring’ (PM Press/Kersplebedeb), and activist with Resistance In Brooklyn:
‘Let Freedom Ring’ presents a two-decade sweep of essays, analyses, histories, interviews, resolutions, People’s Tribunals verdicts and poems by and about the scores of U.S. political prisoners and the campaigns to safeguard their rights and to secure their freedom. Represented here are the radical movements that have most challenged the U.S. empire from within: Black Panthers and other Black liberation fighters (several still held after 30+ years), Puerto Rican independentistas, Indigenous sovereignty activists, Chicano/Mexicano freedom strugglers, white anti-imperialists, environmental and animal rights militants, and others. This invaluable resource guide details the diabolical methods--from isolation to sensory deprivation to parole denial--used to suppress these freedom fighters, as well as the creative--and sometimes winning--strategies to bring them home.
Ashanti Alston, former Black Panther, Black Liberation Army political prisoner, and longtime activist, and a contributor to ‘Let Freedom Ring.’
Rita ‘Bo’ Brown, former member of the George Jackson Brigade, political prisoner, and longtime prisoner and queer activist, and a contributor to ‘Let Freedom Ring’
Moderated by KPFA host to be announced.
First Congregational Church of Oakland
www.firstoakland.org
2501 Harrison St
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-8511

Friday 26th September thru Sunday 28th September is the Critical Resistance 10th Anniversary Conference in Oakland.
Vikki Law and Matt Meyer are doing workshops. Robert Hillary King and Lois Ahrens will be in attendance. The PM films ‘The Angola 3’, ‘Jena 6’ and ‘Black & Gold’ are all being shown during the conference as part of the Critical Resistance Film Festival
www.criticalresistance.org

Monday 29th September - Book launch for ‘Real Cost Of Prisons Comix’ and ‘Let Freedom Ring’ anthology, at Modern Times 7pm.
Last of the month long series of events as part of PM Press as ‘Publisher Of The Month’ at Modern Times. Featuring ‘Real Cost Of Prisons Comix’, editor and activist and organizer Lois Ahrens:
“One out of every hundred adults in the U.S. is in prison. This book provides a crash course in what drives mass incarceration, the human and community costs, and how to stop the numbers from going even higher.”
Through the comics, and associated campaigning, hundreds of thousands of prisoners, their allies, and activists, have had the grisly facts and consequences of mass incarceration and its devastating effects on communities, families and the poor, made accessible. Each comic includes alternatives to the costly and inhumane system we have now. More than 30 organizers in and out of prison write about how they use the comix in their work. Long-time activist and organizer, Lois Ahrens discusses The Real Cost of Prisons Project and introductory essay by Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore frames the comix within a political context.
‘Let Freedom Ring’ editor Matt Meyer:
Let Freedom Ring’ presents a two-decade sweep of essays, analyses, histories, interviews, resolutions, People’s Tribunals verdicts and poems by and about the scores of U.S. political prisoners and the campaigns to safeguard their rights and to secure their freedom. Represented here are the radical movements that have most challenged the U.S. empire from within: Black Panthers and other Black liberation fighters (several still held after 30+ years), Puerto Rican independentistas, Indigenous sovereignty activists, Chicano/Mexicano freedom strugglers, white anti-imperialists, environmental and animal rights militants, and others. This invaluable resource guide details the diabolical methods--from isolation to sensory deprivation to parole denial--used to suppress these freedom fighters, as well as the creative--and sometimes winning--strategies to bring them home.
Ashanti Alston, former Black Panther, Black Liberation Army political prisoner, longtime activist, and a contributor to ‘Let Freedom Ring’.
Rita ‘Bo’ Brown, former member of the George Jackson Brigade, political prisoner, longtime prisoner and queer activist, and a contributor to ‘Let Freedom Ring’.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of ‘Golden Gulag’ and co-author (with Craig Gilmore) of a new introduction to the ‘Real Cost Of Prisons Comix’.
Modern Times
www.mtbs.com
888 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 282-9246

Posted by lois at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)

Racism and The Race

It is the graphic in this article that is most disheartening but not surprising.
To view it go to:
ttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/opinion/09blow.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22Blow%22&st=cse&oref=slogin
and then the graphic, Whites, Race and the Election
August 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Racism and the Race
By CHARLES M. BLOW

This is supposed to be the Democrats’ year of destiny. Bush is hobbling out of office, the economy is in the toilet, voters are sick of the war and the party’s wunderkind candidate is raking in money hand over fist.

So why is the presidential race a statistical dead heat? The pundits have offered a host of reasons, but one in particular deserves more exploration: racism.

Barack Obama’s candidacy has shed some light on the extremes of racism in America — how much has dissipated (especially among younger people) and how much remains.

According to a July New York Times/CBS News poll, when whites were asked whether they would be willing to vote for a black candidate, 5 percent confessed that they would not. That’s not so bad, right? But wait. The pollsters then rephrased the question to get a more accurate portrait of the sentiment. They asked the same whites if most of the people they knew would vote for a black candidate. Nineteen percent said that those they knew would not. Depending on how many people they know and how well they know them, this universe of voters could be substantial. That’s bad.

Welcome to the murky world of modern racism, where most of the open animus has been replaced by a shadowy bias that is difficult to measure. As Obama gently put it in his race speech, today’s racial “resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company.” However, they can be — and possibly will be — expressed in the privacy of the voting booth.

If the percentage of white voters who cannot bring themselves to vote for a black candidate were only 15 percent, that would be more than all black voters combined. (Coincidentally, it also would be more than all voters under 24 years old.) That amounts to a racial advantage for John McCain.

And this sentiment stretched across ideological lines. Just as many white independents as Republicans said that most of the people they knew would not vote for a black candidate, and white Democrats were not far behind. Also, remember that during the Democratic primaries, up to 20 percent of white voters in some states said that the race of the candidate was important to them. Few of those people voted for the black guy.

Some might say that turnabout is fair play, citing the fact that 89 percent of blacks say they plan to vote for Obama. That level of support represents a racial advantage for him, too, right? Not necessarily. Blacks overwhelmingly vote Democratic in the general election anyway. According to CNN exit polls John Kerry got 88 percent of the black vote in 2004.

Think racism isn’t a major factor in this election? Think again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/opinion/09blow.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22Blow%22&st=cse&oref=slogin

Posted by lois at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

Missing men: America's fight against poverty has a growing hole. Some say it's time to pay attention to the people falling through it: men.

Missing men
America's fight against poverty has a growing hole. Some say it's time to pay attention to the people falling through it: men.
Boston Globe
By Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow | August 10, 2008

IN KEEPING WITH the work ethic of their Puritan forebears, Americans have always preferred to direct their generosity to the "deserving" poor: the have-nots who, through no fault of their own, are unable to support themselves. Since the New Deal, the first large-scale federal initiative to aid the needy, the US government has focused its antipoverty efforts on the vulnerable, such as the disabled, the elderly, widows, and children. In the 1930s, President Roosevelt launched programs to support these groups and to assist the unemployed during economic downturns - all populations affected by circumstances beyond their control.

The next major wave of antipoverty legislation, President Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s, offered cushions and a hand up to the "forgotten fifth" of society. Many of these programs - Medicare, Head Start, expanded welfare rolls - were conceived with the same constituencies in mind.

The icon of the "undeserving poor," by contrast, has always been the able-bodied man. Although some programs in the New Deal and the War on Poverty provided them with jobs and training, social welfare policy has otherwise largely ignored men. One practical reason is that as a rule, aid to children - the paragons of vulnerability - has been channeled through mothers. Equally potent, though, is the longstanding cultural belief that men, barring economic disasters, should be able to take care of themselves. Today, especially, low-income men have an image problem. Many are convicts and "deadbeat dads," widely seen as deserving blame, not bailouts.

But according to a new wave of thinking, the next front in the fight against poverty should consist of policies aimed at these very individuals. Experts say that poor men, caught in profound economic and social changes, now number among society's most vulnerable members. The economy has shifted its weight to the service sector, shedding the manufacturing jobs that once offered low-skilled men the promise of good wages to support their families. Alarming percentages of poor men - disproportionately African-Americans - pass through the criminal justice system, further undercutting their employability. And child support laws have driven them deep into debt.

"In a lot of different ways, I think there's been an awakening perception," says Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown and coauthor of the book "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men." "The men have to be in the equation."

In recent books, papers, and conferences, specialists from across the political spectrum are urging a comprehensive array of new antipoverty policies targeted at men. The proposals include wage subsidies, forgiveness of child support debt, reentry programs for ex-offenders, and even a scheme that would force men to work under threat of prison.

No antipoverty plan will ultimately succeed, these thinkers say, without bold steps to end male indigence - and its pernicious ripple effects. Low-income men are more likely to turn to crime than their female counterparts. While having a poor parent of either gender is hard on children, having an uninvolved, and often incarcerated, parent is worse. These men find themselves mired in seemingly intractable difficulties, and their offspring - frequently deprived of one parent's worth of emotional and financial support - start life that much closer to the same traps.

This new thinking is gaining traction throughout the country. Several bills in Congress, including one cosponsored by Senator Barack Obama, would provide a wage subsidy for men, among other measures. Some states, including Massachusetts, are reexamining their child support policies, seeking compromises with fathers who are unable to pay their debt. The University of Wisconsin's Institute for Research on Poverty has a program called Families Forward that experiments with ways to reduce child support debt. A number of cities, including Newark and New York, have begun aggressive efforts to reintegrate ex-offenders into society. And New York State has instituted a wage subsidy for fathers who keep up with their child support orders. (The laws are not technically gender-specific, but "ex-offenders" and "noncustodial parents" are overwhelmingly male.)

In certain quarters, these ideas have generated controversy. Conservative critics oppose the expenditures, while others, especially feminists, fear that limited antipoverty funding could be diverted from poor women, who are by and large still struggling to raise the kids. From this perspective, the question is, why should men who have shirked their obligations be rewarded with assistance?

"If men were taking responsibility for their children, they would be receiving benefits," says Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women.

These objections underscore one of the central challenges of any strategy designed to benefit poor men. Although policy analysts describe them as among the most vulnerable citizens in contemporary America, they are commonly viewed as more menacing than helpless. Many of them have broken laws and are severely alienated from mainstream society. The new proposals raise the question: How can you justify devoting scarce resources to helping people who most Americans see as culpable for many of their own - and society's - problems?

After World War II, the US economy flourished, and earnings rose across the economic spectrum. By 1973, the real earnings of blue-collar workers were more than 60 percent higher than in 1947. "The whole country was on an up escalator," says Gordon Berlin, president of MDRC, a policy research organization based in New York.

After 1973, however, this escalator came to a "grinding halt," says Berlin. Well-paying manufacturing jobs began to vanish. Immigration of low-skilled workers created competition for the low-paying jobs that remained. The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage fell, as the importance of higher education rose.

Between 1975 and 2002, the real earnings of men with a college degree or more shot up by 62 percent, according to research by Sheldon Danziger, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. But over the same period, the earnings of males with only a high school diploma declined by 13 percent. For high school dropouts, they dropped 23 percent. Many men who would have been able to support families a few decades ago are in a very different position today.

The opportunities and incentive to enter the labor market have dwindled, especially for black men. In 2005, about 28 percent of working-age black men reported no employment. This level of joblessness means the inability to help support families, or reliance on illicit sources of income such as the drug trade - in either case, ravaging the fabric of poverty-stricken communities.

But along with economic shifts, analysts say that social policy has also left poor men behind. Reforms in the 1990s ushered millions of women off the welfare rolls and into the labor force. In addition to the "sticks" of welfare reform, there were less widely discussed "carrots," notably a greatly expanded earned income tax credit (EITC) for custodial parents (read: mothers). Families with two or more children can now receive a maximum credit of $4,400, while those with one child qualify for up to $2,662. For single adults with no dependents, however, the maximum is only $399. While there is a clear logic to these disparities - caring for dependents requires money - the reality is that many low-skill jobs don't pay a living wage, especially considering the child support obligations of many low-income men.

What's more, in some cases the current policies actually penalize marriage. If a mother is single, she will be eligible for an array of benefits that will disappear or diminish once she files jointly with a husband.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if we don't get married, we'll get a bigger check," says Steven Raphael, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley.

Some thinkers advocate a wage subsidy that would "make work pay" equally for everyone. Gordon Berlin, in a recent paper, argued for a substantially increased EITC that would be available to single workers, whether or not they had children. In order to reduce the marriage penalty, he advocates exempting the supplement from joint income tax filing requirements. In Berlin's view, the calculus is simple: "If work paid enough, you'd get a lot more work."

In Berlin's view, this subsidy could also make the men more marriageable. Poor women say they are more inclined to marry potential contributors to household finances, and studies have shown that male earnings correlate with marriage rates.

Another piece of the male poverty puzzle, thinkers say, is the evolution of the child support system. Aggressive efforts to track down "deadbeat dads," forcing them to pay up with automatic deductions from their paychecks, have become an unavoidable fact of life for many men over the last several decades.

The reforms have helped plenty of struggling mothers and children who would have otherwise had no recourse. But critics say that the majority of poor fathers today can't pay, and that the erosion of their paychecks translates into a further disincentive to take legal work.

"They are being saddled with growing debt that drives them underground to somewhere no one wants them," says Ronald Mincy, a professor of social policy at Columbia and editor of the 2006 anthology "Black Males Left Behind."

Meanwhile, high rates of incarceration exacerbate the child support debt trap. About 70 percent of inmates are noncustodial parents, according to a common estimate. "If they're in prison, the child support clock keeps ticking," notes Holzer. And after their release, they stumble on multiple barriers to employment: the stigma of a criminal record, time away from the labor market, and in some states, laws banning ex-offenders from working in certain settings, such as hospitals and nursing homes.

A number of analysts endorse compromise arrangements with poor fathers. This could mean forgiving child support arrears, in part or in full, for men who keep up with current payments. Or it could involve recognition of the hurdles to paying while incarcerated. Over the past five years or so, almost half of the states, including Massachusetts, have begun to work out various agreements with fathers. The idea is that these policies will be fairer to men with low earning capacity and begin to lure them back into the labor force.

The discussion of helping poor men has also turned to the "culture of poverty" - a touchy subject because it is often associated with race. After the 1960s, there was widespread discontent with the growth of the welfare rolls. Conservatives, especially, charged that instead of curing poverty, welfare discouraged work and perpetuated a dependent underclass. These criticisms culminated in the 1990s bipartisan effort to "end welfare as we know it," in the words of President Clinton.

Under welfare reform, millions of women left the rolls and entered the workforce. Although it by no means eradicated female poverty, most observers agree that it successfully promoted a culture of work. In a partial inversion of the traditional gender roles, poor women are the ones bringing home the bacon, albeit in meager strips. A widespread hope today is that public policy can induce similar changes in male work patterns.

At the same time, a consensus has emerged that breadwinning isn't the only crucial role for fathers to play. Research has shown that children from two-parent households are less likely to smoke, repeat grades, and engage in violent behavior, among other worrisome tendencies. While causation is hard to prove, many experts agree that involved fathers exert a positive influence - and that active fatherhood can transfigure the men themselves, giving them purpose and the motivation to become responsible earners, citizens, and family members.

"Social welfare policy should be changed so that the man is recognized as an asset," says Joseph Jones, an ex-offender and founder of the Center for Urban Families in Baltimore. "That would change some of the dynamic in our communities that is so dysfunctional."

Lawrence Mead, a professor of politics at NYU who shares these concerns, has taken a different tack from most of his colleagues, putting forward a controversial proposal to mandate work. He argues that due to social disorder in their communities, low-income men, especially black men, have lost internal discipline, and that government must therefore impose it on them. Under his plan, men on parole or in child support debt would be required to work. Their efforts to find work and their employment would be closely supervised by case managers. If they failed to land private jobs, they would be assigned to government-funded "work crews." Those who still failed to work, with no valid excuse, would be imprisoned. (Men may already be sent to jail for nonpayment of child support.)

"The idea is to make it real that this obligation matters," says Mead.

Most other analysts favor less, not more, reliance on incarceration. Criminal records and time in prison, after all, contribute to men's initial employment challenges. But Mead believes that sticks - in combination with incentives such as wage subsidies - will be needed to shake men out of ingrained habits.

Divergent strategies notwithstanding, the members of this growing movement believe that more effective policy can nudge poor men into jobs and mainstream society. They hope this will foster more stable families, and ultimately greater support and opportunities for a new generation of children, who have always been at the forefront of the nation's antipoverty agenda.

"It's the same kid you're looking out for," says Mindy Tarlow, executive director of the Center for Employment Opportunities, a New York-based nonprofit. "People are starting to say, 'Hey wait a minute, that kid has a father.' "
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/08/10/missing_men?mode=PF

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

August 08, 2008

Former Officer Suing Unicor for Alleged Toxic Dust Exposure on the Job Dies

Family: Prison Worker's Death was Caused by Toxic Dust
Former Officer Suing Unicor for Alleged Toxic Dust Exposure on the Job Dies
By KRISTIN JONES

August 8, 2008—

A former Florida correctional officer suing the Federal Prison Industries for allegedly exposing her to toxic dust on the job died last week.

Tanya Smith, 36, passed away at her home in Cottondale, Fla. on Aug. 1. The precise cause of death has not yet been determined, but her mother said that her heart failed.

"We surely believe that federal prisons started all of this," said Smith's mother, Doris Baker, who lived with her. "We all believe that. Won't nobody admit it."

F
For years, Smith has been suffering from a series of heart and lung problems she believed she developed working at the prison.

Just four months before her death, Smith joined 25 other workers, inmates and visitors to the correction facility in Marianna, Fla., who claim that the Federal Prison Industries (known as Unicor) recklessly endangered them by exposing them to harmful metals from electronics recycling operations without proper safety gear.

Her death is not the first lawyers claim was a result of the toxic exposure. The lawsuit lists 12 other deaths from the Florida facility.

ABC News reported last month that prisoners and inmates working in Unicor's nationwide electronics recycling program were likely exposed to harmful amounts of lead and cadmium, according to a preliminary finding in a Justice Department internal investigation. Unicor runs recycling facilities at eight institutions nationwide, including the one in Marianna.

The ongoing two-year probe found that operations in at least one Unicor recycling facility lacked proper medical surveillance, respiratory protection or industrial hygiene monitoring as recently as 2003. That facility, in Elkton, Ohio, was closed indefinitely in June.

Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Traci Billingsley said that the safety of staff and inmates was a top priority.

"We are committed to ensuring continued compliance with all applicable health and safety regulations," she said.

Smith, who went to high school in the city of Marianna, first began working at the federal prison there in 1999. She swept the area where prisoners dismantled computers for the recycling program run by Unicor.

Computer recycling is known to be hazardous to workers if performed without adequate safeguards, occupational health experts say. Operations to take apart electronic equipment can release huge amounts of dust containing dangerous elements like lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic.

But Smith said in an interview with ABC News in June that prison officials never told her of any safety hazards or gave her any protective gear.

So Smith said she was puzzled when, after starting at the plant, she began getting headaches and had difficulty breathing. In 2004, she collapsed at work and was hospitalized in a coma. It was then that Smith said she learned she had a pulmonary embolism, a blockage in the lung that can be fatal. The following years spiraled downward with diagnoses of lupus, kidney disease, blood clots, and heart and respiratory disease, according to the lawsuit. Despite open-heart surgery and multiple blood transfusions, Smith remained in a wheelchair.

Her only answer was that she had been exposed to harmful chemicals on the job. Prison officials have not admitted the program caused any health problems and Billingsley noted that operations to break cathode ray tubes -- which experts consider the most dangerous part of the job -- did not begin until after Smith left the prison in 2006.

Smith joined the lawsuit because she believed that her former employer had a responsibility to protect the inmates and workers, she said.

"I'm not angry," Smith said in June. "But I think they could let people know you need to wear a mask before coming into the area, and keep the gate locked, so the dust can't just get through there."

Kristin Jones is a Fellow at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=5540890

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

Texas Youth Commission still staggering toward reform

EDITORIAL
Texas Youth Commission still staggering toward reform
Youth Commission efforts to expand facilities makes some sense but falls short
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Austin American-Statesman

The Texas Youth Commission is still struggling to right itself after last year's eruption of a scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse of minors by several employees, including some in supervisory positions, and the failure of the agency's senior administrators to act — even, it appeared, to ignore or cover up the wrongdoing below.

An angry Legislature demanded change, forcing Gov. Rick Perry to put the agency into conservatorship, dismissing its six-member commission and replacing much of its top leadership. The number of youths in custody was reduced.

The problems at the Youth Commission grew for years, so perhaps it's not surprising that even after 18 months of reform, serious problems remain. The agency has gone through several executive directors and conservators and even now the conservator, Richard Nedelkoff, doesn't seem to have won the confidence of key lawmakers.

This week, the agency released a proposed "regionalization" plan that would shrink, but not close, several units, while opening new lockups and halfway houses. The plan includes a major facility, costing as much as $25 million, to be built in the Houston area and to house 150 youths.

As Nedelkoff reasonably points out, "A significant number of youth and their families live in or near large urban areas. However, TYC facilities are rarely located within reasonable traveling distance from those urban areas."

Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, criticized the plan with a pointed remark: "Twenty-two percent of their beds are vacant right now, and they're proposing to build a bunch of new units run by the state? That's crazy."

The commission, Whitmire said, should have recommended closing some units in "remote, rundown rural areas" and put more emphasis on developing community-based programs rather than locking up youths.

It's going to take legislators, though, to take on the job of actually closing Youth Commission units in rural areas. They are there because some lawmakers over the years pushed to get them to provide at least some state job opportunities for constituents in high unemployment areas.

Nedelkoff is right to want youths whose offenses are serious enough to lock them up kept closer to home — even if society is quite willing to ship them to the wilds of West Texas. It's one thing to give up on a 35-year-old lifelong criminal. We shouldn't quit on a 15-year-old yet.

Still, the agency and the Legislature remain too much at odds. The worst abuses done to offenders may have been stopped, but reform is a long way from complete.
http://www.statesman.com/hp/content/editorial/stories/08/07/0807tyc_edit.html

Posted by lois at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)

OR: If passed, new law would cost at least $2 billion in new prisons

Mannix prison measure would cost at least $2 billion, committee estimates
August 07, 2008
The Oregonian

A drug and property crimes sentencing measure on the Nov. 4 ballot would cost taxpayers at least $2 billion, according to analysis released by the secretary of state's office this week.

That figure includes borrowing at least $1.1 billion to build new prisons to house more offenders, for longer.

The five-person committee also estimates $709 million over the next 25 years to finance the construction. Operating costs would ramp up, hitting between $161 million and $274 million a year after four years.

Kevin Mannix, the two-time Republican gubernatorial candidate behind Measure 61, calls the numbers "a fantasy" because they overestimate how many people will actually be locked up.

He also notes that projected fiscal costs were higher for Measure 11 and yet, an overwhelming number of voters voted for it.

"The ordinary voter is going to say, OK, do I want someone breaking into my car or stealing my car or stealing my identity? No I don't and I want government to put these predators behind bars and pull them off the streets."

An alternative sentencing proposal -- No. 57 -- put on the ballot by legislators this year would cost way less, but the state still would need to borrow $314 to build new prison space and pay $203 million in interest. Operating costs would hit $143 million a year.

The five-member Financial Estimate Committee, made up of the secretary of state, treasurer, directors of DAS and Revenue departments, and a local government representative, also released statements for seven other citizen ballot measures.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2008/08/mannix_prison_measure_w
ould_co.html

Posted by lois at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)

MO: Prison Finished Ahead of Schedule

Hold on if you read this.....

“What a wonderful day in the city of Chillicothe,” said Chillicothe Mayor Chuck Haney. “We will cherish this moment for a long, long time.”

Constitution-Tribune
Thu Aug 07, 2008
Chillicothe, Mo. -

In January 2004, Missouri Gov. Bob Holden announced plans to close Chillicothe Correctional Center, an institution dating back to the 1800s and employing more than 200 people.

Just yesterday (Wednesday), less than five years after that announcement, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt was in Chillicothe to cut the ceremonial ribbon signifying completion of a $120 million brand new state-of-the-art Chillicothe Correctional Center.

'This facility will not only retain those 200-plus once-threatened jobs, but will bring an additional 300 new jobs to the community.

“Never did I imagine in 2005 that I’d be standing here in this facility,” said DOC director Larry Crawford, who moderated Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony held in the gymnasium of the central services building at the correctional center.“Not only will this meet our needs, but it will have the ability to handle future growth,” he said.

The path to the project’s completion was dotted with obstacles along the way and even led the state through unchartered territory with its design-build plan to reduce overall project cost and accelerate its completion.

“This is a great example of what partnerships with the city, state, contractors... can accomplish,” Gov. Blunt said about the project, which was envisioned and secured under his leadership.

As part of the partnership, the city of Chillicothe offered the state enough land on which to build a new correctional center and agreed to assume ownership of the old prison facility on Third Street.

In 2006, Blunt proposed issuing $120 million in revenue bonds for the new facility and this year secured more than $10 million to support ongoing operations. The new facility will replace the old 525-bed institution, which as been used as a youth facility or a prison for more than 100 years. The new prison will hold more than 1,600 offenders, increasing women’s bed capacity by 1,111 beds.

“The new Chillicothe Correctional Center is another step forward in our ongoing efforts to enhance public safety and protect Missouri families from crime,” Blunt said. “The new facility is also more environmentally-friendly, will save taxpayers money through energy efficiency and improve safety for the public and corrections officers, as well as the prisoners.”

The new facility will also alleviate overcrowding at the state’s only other women’s prison which is in Vandalia. Over the past 10 years, the state’s women’s prison population has grown at a much faster rate than the male population, increasing approximately 150 percent compared to a 50-percent increase in the male population. The Department of Corrections has kept the current facility fully occupied while utilizing as many as 600 saturation beds at the women’s prison in Vandalia.

Wednesday’s ceremony was conducted in the gymnasium of the enormous central services building, a 126,000 square-foot facility which also houses classrooms, religious areas, culinary arts, kitchen facilities, dining halls and laundry services.

Several state and local officials were on hand for the ceremony and highlighted the program with comments about the sequence of events leading up to Wednesday’s ceremony.

“What a wonderful day in the city of Chillicothe,” said Chillicothe Mayor Chuck Haney. “We will cherish this moment for a long, long time.”

Crawford, who had just come on board as DOC’s director in 2005, said he was “astounded” by what has been accomplished in a short period of time.

“This is a success story that should be told over and over,” he said.

He noted the experienced contractor chosen for the job.

“The quality shines through today,” he said.

Also on hand was Bill Dunn Jr., vice president of JE Dunn Construction Company which served as the general contractor and brought the project in ahead of schedule. Working through even the coldest of temperatures, construction continued through the use of elaborate ground heaters to warm the soil enough in order to pour concrete.

Construction began in September 2006 and Dunn credited the company’s “excellent teammates who helped in our success.”

Among those partners were designers DLR Group and KAI Design/Build, and consultants R&N System Design, HNTB civil engineering and Hockenbergs kitchen design.

Also speaking Wednesday was Larry Schepker, commissioner from the state office of administration. He complimented JE Dunn in working through one of the worst construction seasons yet getting the project substantially complete by the end of July, which was one month ahead of its 24-month schedule.

He congratulated the city on completion of the facility.

Rep. John Quinn (R-Chillicothe), who was serving as representative when former Gov. Bob Holden proposed closing the facility, told those gathered Wednesday that the day’s ribbon-cutting was the highlight of his public service and applauded the efforts of those who fought hard to keep the correctional center in Chillicothe.

“This is a testament of what hard work and commitment can accomplish,” Quinn said.

Sen. Brad Lager (R-Maryville) worked on efforts for new prison funding in the Senate and he, too, on Wednesday recognized the team effort in making the facility become a reality.

“The community came together like never before. I am honored to be standing here today,” Lager said. “Clearly, there were a lot of people involved in this project.”

The facility is expected to be turned over to the state soon and the state plans to begin transferring offenders to the new facility in October, Crawford said.

Chillicothe Correctional Center currently has more than 205 full-time department employees, with an annual payroll of $6.2 million. It already is one of the largest employers in Livingston County and with an expected increase of 300 more employees, the facility will be an even larger contributor to the local economy.

Chillicothe Correctional Center is located on a 55-acre site. It is a 1,636-bed correctional facility campus consisting of six single-story and eight two-story structures. The entire campus encompasses 432,057 square feet. JE  Dunn self-performed pre-cast erection, concrete, and mansonry scopes of work.

Amenities of the center include a beauty shop, religious center, library, bakery, cosmetology lab, gymnasium and greenhouse. There are 403 security cameras located throughout the campus and all public areas are capable of being monitored continuously.The governor said that the design of the new prison incorporates several energy saving technologies such as an improved boiler system, better HVAC controls, and more efficient lighting. The prison will operate at lower energy cost than any other prison in the state. The prison will also include safety features such as a perimeter road and 21st century design with adequate sight-lines for corrections officers to maintain a safe environment within the prison walls.Others participating in Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony included Jennifer Miller, warden of Chillicothe Correctional Center, who welcomed those in attendance. The Western Region Color Guard of the Missouri Department of Corrections presented the flags. Angela Poling, chief of mental health services for Chillicothe Correctional Center, sang the national anthem. The invocation was given by Douglas Worsham, supervisor of DOC’s religious/spiritual programming. Stan Saunders, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Chillicothe, gave the benediction.

A public open house is being planned for later September although a date has not yet been set.
http://www.chillicothenews.com/news/x593754690

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

August 07, 2008

Judge: CCA must produce records

Judge: Private prison company must produce records
Nashville judge rules private prison company must produce records covered by Tennessee law
July 29, 2008
CNN Money

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - A Nashville judge ruled Tuesday that private prison company Corrections Corp. of America is subject to Tennessee's open records law.

Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ordered CCA to provide information on settlements, judgments and complaints against the company to Alex Friedmann, who first requested the information in an April 2007 letter.

Joe Welborn, an attorney representing CCA, said the company will appeal.

Judge: Private prison company must produce records
Nashville judge rules private prison company must produce records covered by Tennessee law
July 29, 2008: 06:22 PM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - A Nashville judge ruled Tuesday that private prison company Corrections Corp. of America is subject to Tennessee's open records law.

Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ordered CCA to provide information on settlements, judgments and complaints against the company to Alex Friedmann, who first requested the information in an April 2007 letter.

Joe Welborn, an attorney representing CCA, said the company will appeal.

Bonnyman said the overriding issue was whether the company performs a government function.

"The court finds that CCA is the equivalent of a government agency based first and foremost on the fact that the Tennessee constitution makes the maintenance of prisons and keeping of prisoners a state function," she said.

The ruling only applies to records of Tennessee prisons, not to federal prisons the company runs, or prisons in other states.

Attorney Andy Clarke said he represented Friedmann pro bono because he felt the Nashville-based company was deliberately trying to keep damaging information from becoming public.

"Information is knowledge," he said. "They probably don't mind a $4,000 settlement for a broken back becoming public, but if someone gets killed, they probably do."

Friedmann, a Tennessee resident and associate editor at the monthly magazine Prison Legal News, sued CCA after the company denied his records request, claiming it was not subject to the state's open records law.

Among other things, he asked to see verdicts against the company and settlement agreements with prisoners.

The judge ruled that even confidential settlements were public records and had to be turned over as long as they had not been sealed by a court order.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/0e1a7504047733b97c970dc2
690e591d.htm

Posted by lois at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

NY: Shut the prison doors:Legislature should rethink four upstate facilities in these tough fiscal times

Shut the prison doors: Legislature should rethink four upstate facilities in these tough fiscal times
August 6, 2008
Newsday Editorial

There goes Albany again. State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) has made a list of programs he refuses to cut to balance the state budget. He has included prison closures, a clear sign that powerful political interests have gotten to him. The numbers alone argue for shuttering four underused facilities.

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer put the four prisons on the chopping block in his budget before he resigned, but the prisons survived the subsequent haggling over the current $121.6 billion budget. Now, Gov. David A. Paterson has asked the legislature to find savings to close a deficit, and the prisons are ripe for another look.

Because of a declining inmate population, the Department of Correctional Services says it no longer needs the Hudson Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Columbia County, or three minimum-security camps that are half empty - Mt. McGregor in Saratoga County, Gabriels in Franklin County and Pharsalia in Chenango County. Republican senators representing those districts are fighting to save prison guards' jobs. One of the most vocal is Skelos' new deputy, Sen. Tom Libous (R-Binghamton).

But closing them would save $43.9 million in the first two years, DCS estimates, plus $30 million in avoided repairs. Agency chief Brian Fischer has promised a job to every employee, within state corrections.

The upstate region needs jobs, but not make-work jobs. Why not fund public-works projects with some of the savings? New York should reap one of the benefits of falling crime rates and close these prisons.

Posted by lois at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2008

MA: CORI background checks should have been reformed

CORI background checks should have been reformed
Daily Hampshire Gazette
Created 08/05/2008 - 09:42
To the editor:

According to some, the last legislative session may have been a success, but in reality, the Legislature failed again to reform one of the worst aspects of criminal justice policy. This time legislators came closer than usual but when HB#5004 stalled in the Judiciary Committee, Senate President Therese Murray failed to bring the bill to the Senate floor.

If Senators had the opportunity to vote as their House colleagues affirmatively did, desperately needed CORI reform would have been under way. Now we must wait until January 2009 for the chance to bring some justice to an unjust system.

Criminal record checks are an important part of the hiring process for many jobs: however, they should not create an insurmountable barrier to employment. The Boston Workers Alliance, a key player in the reform effort stated: "CORI reform is about second chances. Many people with CORIs have never been convicted of any crime. Those who have been convicted, and then rehabilitated, should be able to both repay their debt to society and to have a second chance to become productive citizens."

With HB#5004, employers could still ask about a candidate's criminal record, as long as it was not the very first question a candidate is asked. CORI reform would let all candidates get in the door and have their work experience and skills evaluated, allowing employers to perform criminal background checks on qualified candidates.

HB #5004 contained many other positive and necessary reforms, such as sealing misdemeanor convictions in less time, 5 years instead of 10, and felony convictions in 10 years instead of 15. Had it been voted into law, the lives of thousands of residents of Hampshire County could have changed for the better. It is unfortunate that the Gazette did not find this important story was worth covering.

Lois Ahrens
Northampton
Daily HampshireGazette © 2008 All rights reserved
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2008/08/05/cori-background-checks-should-have-been-reformed

Posted by lois at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

WI Department of Corrections Bans WI Prisoners From Receiving Books from WI Books to Prisoners Group

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners/Rainbow Books
426 W. Gilman St., Madison, WI 53703
Contact: Camy Matthay August 4, 2008
Email: maha@chorus.net

ARE WISCONSIN PRISONERS LOSING THE RIGHT TO READ?

WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS BANS WISCONSIN BOOKS TO PRISONERS FROM SENDING BOOKS TO ALL PRISONERS IN WISCONSIN

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners (WBTP), an all-volunteer group established in 2006 by Rainbow Bookstore staff, volunteers, and other concerned citizens received a letter on May 13, 2008 from John Bett, Administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections Division of Adult Institutions (WI-DOC-DAI) stating “effective immediately, the WI-DOC Division of Adult Institutions will no longer allow books or publications from Rainbow Bookstores in any DOC facility.”

Mr. Bett’s letter stated that DAI policy required books and other publications to be new, shipped to the facility directly from the vendor, and claimed that Rainbow Bookstore was not a vendor.

Rainbow Bookstore, however has been incorporated in WI since 1989, and has operated a retail bookstore at 426 W. Gilman St. in Madison ever since. WBTP sent this information to Mr. Bett on June 6th, who then responded on July 2nd informing Rainbow Bookstore that the DOC-DAI requires all approved inmate property items to be “received new and from an approved vendor.”

The DOC Administrative Code, however, distinguishes between inmate property and publications in specific listings of the code. Although the code for inmate property indicates that property must come from “approved retail outlets,” this language does not appear in the code for receipt of publications, nor does the code specify that books and publication must be new. The code in fact says: “The department shall facilitate inmate reading of publications, including books, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets” -a policy that should be applauded given that a wide variety of studies indicate that in-prison education reduces rates of recidivism. The policy also states that inmates may receive publications directly from commercial sources.

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners has asked Mr. Bett to supply information about how to apply for approved vendor status. The DOC has not responded.

Since their inception, Wisconsin Books to Prisoners has sent over 4000 packages of books nationwide. Wisconsin is the only state in the U.S. that is banning books to prisoners.

Posted by lois at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2008

France: Incarceration Nation. French prisons are becoming an embarrassment.

Incarceration Nation

French prisons are becoming an embarrassment.
Tracy McNicoll
Aug 2, 2008

It's an especially hot summer in French jails. In July, the number of detainees hit 64,250 people—the highest number since World War II, when jails were crowded with accused Nazi collaborators. Worse: the prisons are operating at 126 percent of capacity—far higher than the European average—with some French jails housing twice as many inmates as there is room for. Seven in 10 prisoners are living in overcrowded conditions, according to France's International Prisons Observatory (OIP), with much of the overcrowding concentrated in maisons d'arrêt—jails that house both the accused awaiting trial as well as convicts serving relatively short terms. "Not a day goes by without one or more facilities calling to let us know about an attack," says Claude Tournel, assistant secretary-general of the UFAP, a prison personnel union.

Prisons have long been an embarrassment for France, the self-proclaimed "homeland of human rights." Since 1992 the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly rapped Paris for "inhumane and degrading" treatment of prisoners. In 2005, during a 16-day visit to France, then Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles said of a section of Paris's La Santé prison, "In my whole life, apart from perhaps Moldova, I have never seen a center worse than that one." But the overcrowding has worsened since former Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy ascended to the president's office in May 2007, and brought his tough, law-and-order approach with him.

Forgiveness is not his style. Until last summer, Bastille Day (which commemorates the July 14, 1789 prison raid) featured the bizarre 19th-century ritual of collective presidential pardons, in which thousands of prisoners would see their sentences shortened by fiat every year. Over time, the prison system became dependent on these pardons to thin out populations during the summer, when heat can aggravate tensions. Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, scaled back the practice by eliminating the prospect of sentence reductions for a number of crimes, including drunken driving and spousal abuse. Then Sarkozy stopped it cold, declaring the practice "quasi-monarchical."

More controversially, Sarkozy got tough on repeat offenders, championing a new law that allows judges to lock up the most dangerous criminals for life even after their regular prison sentences have ended. He also imposed minimum prison sentences last August where judges previously had more discretion. The move was something of a carryover from his days as Interior minister, when he maintained a rocky relationship with the country's magistrates, showily and repeatedly questioning their judgment when a convict on conditional release re-offended. Judges have complained of such "penal populism." "He made his whole career as Interior minister on that," says Martine Herzog-Evans, a penal law specialist in Reims.

One potential problem with Sarkozy's approach, say criminal-law experts, is that sending people to jail for even a short time adds to overcrowding, which can increase recidivism. "Everything that promotes rehabilitation is weighed down by overpopulation," says Patrick Marest of the OIP. But reform is on the way. Last week, Justice Minister Rachida Dati presented a bill to cabinet that would eliminate overcrowding by broadening the use of electronic tracer bracelets and making probation available to more convicts. But magistrate and prison personnel unions and penal-law experts say the bill doesn't go nearly far enough. They say the 13,200 new prison spots that Dati has promised to supply by 2012 wouldn't even cover the current deficit, and they are skeptical the new bill's measures will be adequately financed. Hundreds of new personnel would be needed to properly support and monitor convicts serving their sentences outside prison walls. "The measures regarding detention pending trial and probation go in the right direction," says Marest, "but in an extremely timid and insufficient way."

Sarkozy's hard line means he will need to put more effort into burnishing France's human-rights reputation. In March, a French court awarded €€3,000 to a convicted sex offender who complained that he was imprisoned for five years with two other men in a cell made for one person, with open, unventilated toilets. This was the first time a French court had ever sided with a prisoner against prison authorities, and the news traveled far. At a recent press conference in Paris, Vladimir Putin responded to a query about Russia's poor human-rights record with a sharp question of his own: "What is the situation in French prisons?" Touché.
URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/150423

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

NY Times Editorial: "'The Jungle,' Again. A story from the upside-down world of immigraiton and labor."

August 1, 2008
Editorial, NY Times
‘The Jungle,’ Again

A story from the upside-down world of immigration and labor.

A slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, develops an ugly reputation for abusing animals and workers. Reports of dirty, dangerous conditions at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant accumulate for years, told by workers, union organizers, immigrant advocates and government investigators. A videotape by an animal-rights group shows workers pulling the windpipes out of living cows. A woman with a deformed hand tells a reporter of cutting meat for 12 hours a day, six days a week, for wages that labor experts call the lowest in the industry. This year, federal investigators amass evidence of rampant illegal hiring at the plant, which has been called “a kosher ‘Jungle.’ ”

The conditions at the Agriprocessors plant cry out for the cautious and deliberative application of justice.

In May, the government swoops in and arrests ... the workers, hundreds of them, for having false identity papers. The raid’s catch is so huge that the detainees are bused from little Postville to the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo. The defendants, mostly immigrants from Guatemala, are not charged with the usual administrative violations, but with “aggravated identity theft,” a serious crime.

They are offered a deal: They can admit their guilt to lesser charges, waive their rights, including the right to a hearing before an immigration judge, spend five months in prison, then be deported. Or, they can spend six months or more in jail without bail while awaiting a trial date, face a minimum two-year prison sentence and be deported anyway.

Nearly 300 people agree to the five months, after being hustled through mass hearings, with one lawyer for 17 people, each having about 30 minutes of consultation per client. The plea deal is a brutal legal vise, but the immigrants accept it as the quickest way back to their spouses and children, hundreds of whom are cowering in a Catholic church, afraid to leave and not knowing how they will survive. The workers are scattered to federal lockups around the country. Many families still do not know where they are. The plant’s owners walk freely.

This is enforcement run amok. As Julia Preston reported in The Times, the once-silent workers of Agriprocessors now tell of a host of abusive practices, of rampant injuries and of exhausted children as young as 13 wielding knives on the killing floor. A young man said in an affidavit that he started at 16, in 17-hour shifts, six days a week. “I was very sad, and I felt like I was a slave.”

Instead of receiving merciful treatment as defendants who also are victims, the workers have been branded as the kind of predator who steals identities to empty bank accounts. Accounts from Postville suggest that that’s not remotely what they were. “Most of the clients we interviewed did not even know what a Social Security number was or what purpose it served,” said Erik Camayd-Freixas, a Spanish-language interpreter for many of the workers. “This worker simply had the papers filled out for him at the plant, since he could not read or write Spanish, let alone English.”

The harsh prosecution at Postville is an odd and cruel shift for the Bush administration, which for years had voiced compassion for exploited workers and insisted that immigration had to be fixed comprehensively or not at all.

Now it has abandoned mercy and proportionality. It has devised new and harsher traps, as in Postville, to prosecute the weak and the poor. It has increased the fear and desperation of workers who are irresistible to bottom-feeding businesses precisely because they are fearful and desperate. By treating illegal low-wage workers as a de facto criminal class, the government is trying to inflate the menace they pose to a level that justifies its rabid efforts to capture and punish them. That is a fraudulent exercise, and a national disgrace.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/opinion/01fri1.html?scp=5&sq=Julia%20Preston&st=cse

Posted by lois at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

Running While Black

August 2, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Running While Black
By BOB HERBERT
NY Times

Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office — say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford — the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as “the American president Americans have been waiting for.”

There was nothing subtle about that attempt to position Senator Obama as the Other, a candidate who might technically be American but who remained in some sense foreign, not sufficiently patriotic and certainly not one of us — the “us” being the genuine red-white-and-blue Americans who the ad was aimed at.

Since then, Senator McCain has only upped the ante, smearing Mr. Obama every which way from sundown. On Wednesday, The Washington Post ran an extraordinary front-page article that began:

“For four days, Senator John McCain and his allies have accused Senator Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.”

Evidence? John McCain needs no evidence. His campaign is about trashing the opposition, Karl Rove-style. Not satisfied with calling his opponent’s patriotism into question, Mr. McCain added what amounted to a charge of treason, insisting that Senator Obama would actually prefer that the United States lose a war if that would mean that he — Senator Obama — would not have to lose an election.

Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.

The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, “Harold, call me.”

Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) Both were designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.

The racial fantasy factor in this presidential campaign is out of control. It was at work in that New Yorker cover that caused such a stir. (Mr. Obama in Muslim garb with the American flag burning in the fireplace.) It’s driving the idea that Barack Obama is somehow presumptuous, too arrogant, too big for his britches — a man who obviously does not know his place.

Mr. Obama has to endure these grotesque insults with a smile and heroic levels of equanimity. The reason he has to do this — the sole reason — is that he is black.

So there he was this week speaking evenly, and with a touch of humor, to a nearly all-white audience in Missouri. His goal was to reassure his listeners, to let them know he’s not some kind of unpatriotic ogre.

Mr. Obama told them: “What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky.”

The audience seemed to appreciate his comments. Mr. Obama was well-received.

But John McCain didn’t appreciate them. RACE CARD! RACE CARD! The McCain camp started bellowing, and it hasn’t stopped since. With great glee bursting through their feigned outrage, the campaign’s operatives and the candidate himself accused Senator Obama of introducing race into the campaign — playing the race card, as they put it, from the very bottom of the deck.

Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign. Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain’s motivation.

Nevertheless, it’s frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.

He’s obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.

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

MD: Mayor's dogs killed by SWAT after cops deliver pot

Mayor's dogs killed by SWAT after cops deliver pot
07/31/2008 @ 6:33 pm
Filed by Associated Press

BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. — A SWAT team raided the home of a Washington, D.C.-area mayor, killing his two black Labrador retrievers and seizing an unopened package of marijuana delivered there.

Prince George's County Police said Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo brought a 32-pound package of marijuana into his home that had been delivered by officers posing as delivery men. The Tuesday evening raid was conducted by county police narcotics officers and a sheriff's office SWAT Team.

The package was addressed to Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic. His mother-in-law had asked the supposed delivery men to leave the package outside. Calvo has not been charged, though police said he, his wife and his mother-in-law are "persons of interest" in an ongoing investigation.

"We never opened the box. We have nothing to do with this box," Calvo said.

Sheriff's office spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis says deputies "apparently felt threatened" when they shot the dogs.

Calvo said officers entered about 7:30 p.m., first shooting 7-year-old Payton. They then pursued 4-year-old Chase, who ran away and was shot by police from behind, he said.

Calvo said he doesn't have any idea how the package ended up at his house. He called the raid "the most traumatic experience" of his life.

Calvo, who called his town "Mayberry inside the Capital Beltway," gets a small stipend as mayor and works at the SEED Foundation, a nonprofit that runs public boarding schools for at-risk students. His wife works as a state finance officer.

"These were two beautiful black Labradors who were well-known in the community. We walked them twice a day; little kids knew their names and would come up to them and pet them," he said.
http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=11653

Drug War Chronicle - world’s leading drug policy newsletter
Editorial: Two Dogs Dead, a Family Traumatized, Another Day in the Drug War

David Borden, Executive Director
http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/borden12.jpg

This newsletter has reported or opined on the issue of paramilitarization in policing many times. This week that outrage struck in my own figurative backyard. At 7:00pm Wednesday, in the tiny DC suburb of Berwyn Heights, a SWAT team from the Prince Georges County, Maryland, police department, stormed a home, killed two dogs, then handcuffed one of the homeowners and his mother-in-law on the floor for hours as the dogs' blood drained around them.

That homeowner happened to be the mayor of the town, a fact which has drawn a lot of attention to the incident. Unfortunately, as reckless as this police squad's actions were, and as tragic the outcome, it is by no means unique. One study has estimated the number of SWAT raids nationwide at about 40,000 per year, and the killing of both dogs and people has occurred many times. One mother and child who lost their dog to a SWAT team spoke out in an interview with one of our supporters two years ago.

The rationale for the home invasion was that a package of marijuana -- 32 pounds of it -- had been delivered to the home. What was mentioned in the reporting, though, but not reflected on, is that the package had actually been brought to the home by the police! The sequence of events is both revealing and nauseating. A drug dog in Arizona smelled marijuana inside a package at the post office, addressed to the mayor's wife. Police brought the package to Maryland, and disguised as postal workers delivered it the house. The box sat outside all day. When Mayor Calvo came home, he brought the box inside, placed it near the door, and went upstairs. The SWAT team then stormed the house, killed the dogs, and locked the people up.

There are plausible ways in which the family can have had nothing to do with the package, despite it having been mailed to them, and Calvo and his wife seem unlikely lawbreakers. Police have yet to file any charges. Still, suppose that someone living in the home is guilty. Would that justify the actions of the police?

Absolutely not. The idea that a man returning to his home and moving a package from his porch to his hallway, should trigger a SWAT raid, by a team that had literally been waiting in hiding to see him move the package, is criminally insane. They didn't wait for the package to go inside because of any tactical purpose. They waited because they wanted to use the action of bringing the package inside as evidence. They had literally all day to figure out some way of being able to search the home without murdering their dogs! They didn't even have to bring the package to the house -- they already had the address with which it had been marked. They could have simply called the individuals in for questioning, or conducted an ordinary search or arrest warrant, waited for Mayor Calvo or his wife to walk up and approach them on the street, almost anything other than what they did.

And as evidence goes, moving the package inside the doorway is worthless anyway, or should be. Would you bring a package that arrived in your mail inside, maybe even open it to see what it contains? Doing so would prove nothing about your knowledge of the contents. So even that weak rationale falls to pieces.

The town's police chief, Patrick Murphy, who was not involved in the raid or informed of it, had wise words to say in the aftermath: "You can't tell me the chief of police of a municipality wouldn't have been able to knock on the door of the mayor of that municipality, gain his confidence and enter the residence," he told the Washington Post. "It would not have been a necessity to shoot and kill this man's dogs." He really wishes the narcs had contacted him about it first, and the tragedy thereby prevented.

But while the fact that this was the mayor's house makes the action even more deranged, it would be a mistake to regard that as the reason not to use a SWAT team. The truth is that entering a home in that fashion is unnecessary, and therefore wrongful, almost all of the time. SWAT teams are meant for emergency or other high-intensity situations -- hostage situations and the like -- not routine drug enforcement. But even if there had been 200 pounds of marijuana, or 2,000 pounds, there would still be no excuse. Invading a home in this manner endangers people and animals and property, for no good reason, if there is any other way of dealing with the situation.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/545/another_day_in_the_drug_war?print

Posted by lois at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)

MA: New Report on Drug-Free Zone Inequities Provides Opportunity for 'Smart On Crime' Sentencing Reforms in Massachusetts

Sadly, this legislation failed to come to a vote in the legislative session that just end.

HispanicBusiness.com

New Report on Drug-Free Zone Inequities Provides Opportunity for 'Smart On Crime' Sentencing Reforms in Massachusetts

BOSTON, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report shows that Massachusetts' drug-free zone laws fail to improve children's safety and are a driving force behind the increased incarceration of minorities and the poor. Authored by the Prison Policy Initiative, a Northampton-based nonpartisan think tank, "The Geography of Punishment" analyzed the impact of drug-free zone laws on urban and rural communities, using data from Hampden County. It found that drug-free zone laws do not accomplish their intended goal of improving children's safety and directly translate to greater rates of incarceration for black, Latino, urban and poor defendants because the zones blanket urban areas.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), a national, nonpartisan organization working for fair and proportional sentencing laws, says that Massachusetts is not alone in confronting problems caused by mandatory minimum drug and drug-free zone laws. "This report provides yet more evidence of the unintended -- yet very harmful -- consequences of well-meaning but counter-productive legislation. Massachusetts' joint Judiciary Committee understands the issue, as it recently filed House Bill 5004, which would reduce the size of school zones and eliminate the mandatory minimum sentence for first time offenders. We strongly support these Committee proposals, which would protect public safety while ensuring fair and proportionate sentences," said Barbara J. Dougan, director of the Massachusetts FAMM project. "Reform of drug and drug-free zone laws could save the state millions in corrections costs and reduce the human and fiscal waste of mandatory minimum drug sentences," said Dougan. "FAMM welcomes the opportunity to work with the Patrick Administration and legislators to this end."

Massachusetts' drug-free zone laws require a two-year mandatory minimum sentence for those convicted of distributing or possessing with intent to sell drugs within 1,000 feet of school property, or 100 feet of parks or playgrounds. The report shows that 1,000 foot zones are so large that most drug activity within them has nothing to do with children. When an entire urban area becomes a drug-free zone, the law has no deterrent effect. Instead, it punishes drug offenses occurring in urban areas more harshly than the same crimes committed in rural or suburban communities.

"The report illustrates the shameful racial disparities that result from drug-free zone laws. People of color are hit hardest. Urban residents are five times more likely to be subject to these laws. According to the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission, a staggering 81 percent of those convicted of zone violations were African-American or Latino," said Dougan.

FAMM's Massachusetts campaign was launched in 2007, in response to calls for an overhaul of the state's sentencing system from Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and other legislative leaders.

For more information, visit: http://www.famm.org/ FAMM Foundation
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/news_print.asp?id=122472

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