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September 30, 2009

NAACP's president returns to Maine for voter drive in prisons

NAACP's president returns to Maine for voter drive in prisons
BY TREVOR MAXWELL Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/30/2009

Less than a year after he came to Maine to lobby for prison reform and ensure that inmates have an opportunity to vote, the president of the NAACP led a voter registration drive on Tuesday at five of the state's seven correctional facilities for adults.

Benjamin Jealous, president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, said more than 100 inmates registered to vote at the Maine State Prison in Warren, and he was waiting for a tally on the other four facilities.

The effort, he said, was the first system-wide voter registration project in the history of America's prisons.

"It was a great day," Jealous said after leaving Warren on Tuesday afternoon. "How you teach someone to live on the inside is more than likely how they are going to live on the outside. This is about helping people to get on a path, to be more productive and involved members of society.

"As somebody with Maine roots, I have always believed this is a place where big problems can be solved," said Jealous, whose father was raised in Maine and graduated from Deering High School in Portland.

Maine and Vermont are the only two states that allow felons to vote while they are incarcerated.

The first voter registration drive at the Maine State Prison was held in May 2008, but the organizing inmates and leaders of the Portland chapter of the NAACP said there were no guarantees at the time that future drives would be allowed.

The inmates also were frustrated that it took more than two years to get permission for the project.

Jealous came to Maine in December of 2008, at the request of Portland chapter President Rachel Talbot Ross, and met with prison officials and outgoing state Attorney General Steven Rowe.

Coming out of those talks, the Department of Corrections announced that the NAACP could hold annual voter registration drives at every prison in Maine.

Coinciding with the voting drives, the NAACP conducts membership drives.

"This is fulfilling the commitment that was made," Talbot Ross said on Tuesday. "It has been a great success."

Because of scheduling conflicts at the Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport and the Central Maine Pre-Release Center in Hallowell, organizers were not able to register voters there on Tuesday.

Ross said she will visit inmates there in the coming weeks, before the Nov. 3 general elections. In 48 states, incarcerated felons are not allowed to vote.

And in Virginia and Kentucky, a felony conviction prohibits an individual from ever voting again.

"Maine is a leader in placing no restrictions on the right to vote," said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union.

The group has supported the efforts of the NAACP in the prisons.

Bellows said a study done in 1996 in Minnesota, as well as other studies, show that offenders who vote are less likely to reoffend.

"Voting rights encourage offenders to become productive members of society," Bellows said. "It enhances their ties to our democratic institutions and their ties to the community."

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

MT: Still more strange goings on in Hardin with "American Police Force"

Reports: Mysterious, unregistered security firm policing Montana town
The Raw Story

A mysterious, reportedly unregistered and almost entirely unknown private security firm by the name "American Police Force" is causing a stir in a small Montana town for apparently impersonating local police.

According to a local media report, APF representatives were recently seen in the tiny town of Hardin, Montana, driving black SUV's with a peculiar logo and, inexplicably, "City of Hardin Police Department" stamped on the door.

However, Hardin does not have a police force.

The town instead contracts with the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department for patrols, according to KULR 8 in Billings, Montana.

According to the news agency, APF was never given permission to assume policing duties. Instead, the firm -- which the Associated Press reported to be unregistered in government databases -- gained its contract with the town on the promise of bringing inmates to an unpopulated prison complex.

An image on KULR's Web site shows the insignia on the APF vehicles, which has caused some concern on the Internet as being of conspiratorial origin.

APF's coat of arms, a clearer version of which appeared on the group's Web site (which had been taken down at time of this writing but is viewable here), shows a double-headed eagle with a red shield and white cross borne on its breast.

The coat appears very similar to the insignia attributed to one Prince Aleksandar Karageorgevich, based on RAW STORY's analysis of images hosted by Burke's Peerage & Gentry International Register of Arms. The site notes the coat as hailing from the Royal crown of Serbia.

However, the significance or implied nationality of the insignia's crown could not immediately be identified.

The double-headed eagle itself has been used repeatedly throughout history by many cultures as a symbol of empire, dominance and power.

Hardin, home to about 3,400 people, is in the state’s poorest county. Its unoccupied, 460-bed prison cost $27 million to construct. The town made national headlines earlier this year when local officials pleaded to have Guantanamo Bay inmates sent to the jail.

Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus and other Republican lawmakers have stood in the way of moving Guantanamo inmates stateside, claiming they would present an increased security risk. The political calculation has led the White House to caution that its promise to close the controversial facility in January may not materialize on schedule.

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/mysterious-unregistered-security-firm-policing-montana-town/

Posted by lois at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2009

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners By James Ridgeway

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners
By James Ridgeway
Monday, September 28th, 2009 9:47 pm

SPECIAL REPORT

In the 1970s, an antiwar demonstrator found himself at New York City’s Rikers Island jail facility for a couple of months on a disorderly conduct charge. The demonstrator, who happened to be a friend of mine, met a handful of young men from the Bronx in his unit who were deaf.

They were having trouble communicating with anyone but themselves. My friend knew a little sign language and, after a few conversations, discovered they were illiterate. With the idea of helping them improve their communication skills, he asked prison authorities for permission to order books on sign language from the publisher. The wardens refused, saying that they did not want anyone in that prison using a “language” they could not understand.

Things may have changed a little for the better since then. But not by much.

I first wrote about the deaf in the late 1960s in the New Republic and so I know something of the background which is what really informs this article. I am engaged in a project for Mother Jones on solitary confinement at Angola prison, and in doing research came upon an article in the July issue of Prison Legal News about widespread violations against deaf prisoners. Remembering the people and culture I had caught a glimpse of in the 60s, I got in touch with the article’s author, McCay Vernon. Luckily he remember my earlier writing, and promptly agreed to help me.

The letters quoted below are from deaf prisoners to different people in he “free world,” who are seeking to help them, to advocate their cause. I have disguised the advocates, prisoners and prisons to keep the inmates from getting reprisals—reprisals which they fear on a daily basis. You have to remember a deaf person can’t hear the chatter among other inmates, can’t hear the person sneaking up behind,is unintelligible in his cries for help during a rape.

The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal justice system. They live in a world apart to begin with; but in prison they are thrown into a dread new environment where they literally can’t understand the language of either their jailers or the other prisoners. When people who have never heard a spoken word try to speak, the sounds come out jumbled and weird—leading ill-informed jailers to think they are obstreperous or crazy. As a consequence, some deaf prisoners can end up in solitary.

I discovered numerous examples of abuses and violations of the rights of deaf prisoners as part of an ongoing investigative reporting project. But the most troubling discovery I made was how little has been done about the problem in the criminal justice system—and how little is known about it outside prison walls.

No one knows exactly how many deaf prisoners there are in the U.S. Efforts by psychologists and other experts to find out have been largely unsuccessful. With few exceptions—the state of Texas apparently being one—no one counts the deaf or hard of hearing in the prison population.

But according to two researchers, as many as one-third of the entire U.S. prison population of 1.7 million have difficulty hearing—with some of them being profoundly deaf. The researchers, Prof. Katrina Miller of Emporia State University in Kansas, herself a former corrections officer, and McCay Vernon, a psychologist whose late wife was deaf and who has worked within the prison community for years, believe it is long past time to seek help for this ignored segment of prisoners. Almost two-thirds of deaf prisoners, according to some studies, are in jail for violent and often sexual offenses committed against children.

A person is hard of hearing if he/she has a 50 percent loss of hearing in one ear. Prisoners who are illiterate as well as deaf are especially deprived when they find themselves in the criminal justice system. They seldom have been educated beyond second grade and, as a consequence, have trouble reading and writing. Because they are deaf and without competent interpreters, they can’t go to AA meetings or drug counseling or make it through educational programs.

The abuses begin as soon as a deaf prisoner enters the criminal justice system and faces accusers in court. Often the hard of hearing and deaf can’t hear the charges against them, don’t know what the trial is all about, don’t know why the guards are screaming at them, can’t hear bells or commands from others. If they are close enough to the judge and look hard at him, they can read his lips. But, as McCay Vernon points out, only 50 percent of spoken sounds can be translated into sign language.

On occasion, deaf persons will be given a court interpreter who knows sign language. But this can be a doubly frustrating experience: sign language can’t convey the special, often arcane lingo used by defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges. Most deaf people don’t read lips. The idea they can hear normally, or at least hear enough to act as if they can hear normally, is a myth of the hearing world, Vernon points out.

Sign language is enriched by mime, hand-spelling, and cued speech (which is a combination of signs and lip movement). In prisons and jails around the country, there are few interpreters who are trained well enough in this form of communication. Often other deaf or hard-of-hearing prisoners are recruited to help, but just as often deaf prisoners are left with few resources when they are confronted with pitfalls and crises that are tragically common in today’s prison system.

One deaf prisoner wrote, for example, that when he sought help after a prison rape, the guards laughed at him. A hard-of-hearing inmate who requested a pair of headphones to listen to the radio was turned down by the warden, who said he had not filled out the papers correctly. A request for a vibrating alarm clock got a similar rejection.

When deaf inmates want to make a phone call using TTD—a method of typing out messages—the prison insists two guards must be in the room. To make matters worse, the deaf are restricted to the same amount of phone time as hearing prisoners, though it takes twice the time to type out the messages.

Such anecdotes illustrate that deaf prisoners are faced daily with violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates equal treatment for deaf and other disabled persons. There is even a provision under the Act to pay attorneys additional sums to bring cases to correct inequities suffered by deaf inmates—a provision which, like other parts of the act, is honored mostly in the breach.

A twitter for these people isn’t just a vehicle for social networking, but a lifesaving device to communicate with the hearing world.

Complicating this situation, is the fact that the deaf community in general rarely goes to bat for peers who are in prison. As the mother of one deaf son, told me, “it makes them look bad.” Thus deaf prisoners are subject to a double isolation—from the prison community and from the larger community of their peers.

In a letter to a friend,one deaf prisoner wrote the following: ”I have been lowered to nothing more than a beggar in order to stand up for something. I believe the deaf have a right too. But I tell you this…there is no help for us here…I am almost at the end of my rope and believe that before I submit this body to any form of sexual act in order to get legal work done, I will take my own life. There is no help for us here…Many nights I have stayed awake contemplating the end and only my fear in the Lord Jesus in not accepting me in heaven has kept me from that act.”

Rape is a major fear, he went on. “Many many times deaf people raped and beat and no help from the officers. Hearing people steal our things…when we try to talk to officers, they just laugh. So hard for us. Many, many times I just want to die but have Jesus in [my] heart…Now one day at a time. Pray every day to help other deaf.”

This letter is signed with the drawing of a small, round smiling face and the words, “Deaf and proud.”

James Ridgeway is senior Washington correspondent for Mother Jones.

NOTE: The names of prisoners and the correctional institutions mentioned in this article have been omitted because of the inmates’s fears of retaliation.
http://thecrimereport.org/2009/09/28/the-secret-world-of-deaf-prisoners/

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

September 28, 2009

Interview with Young Women's Empowerment Project on their research "Girls Do What they Do In Order to Survive"

An interview with the Young Women's Empowerment Project on their research study of girls involved in the sex trade.
Participatory Action Research emphasizes the involvement of those being studied in the actual research process. It’s a technique the Young Women's Empowerment Project has used to fill in the gaps of previous research on the sex trade and street economy. YWEP assists young women ages 12-23 who are either currently working in the sex trade and street economy, or have in the past. The group is also entirely run by peers with experience in the sex trade and street economy. Today, YWEP releases their findings in a new report entitled, “Girls do what they have to do to survive: Illuminating Methods used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal.” Alison Cuddy sat down with the study’s research coordinator Jazeera Iman, and Shira Hassan, co-director for the Young Women’s Empowerment Project.
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=37026

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

Supreme Court to consider life without parole for juveniles sentenced for non-murder convictions?

Supreme Court to consider juvenile 'lifers'
Does life without parole for minors who didn't kill constitute cruel and unusual punishment?
By David G. Savage
September 28, 2009

Reporting from Washington - Joe Sullivan was 13 years old when he and two older boys broke into a home, where they robbed and raped an elderly woman. After a one-day trial in 1989, Sullivan was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole.

Terrance Graham was 16 when he and two others robbed a restaurant. When he was arrested again a year later for a home break-in, a Florida judge said he was incorrigible. In 2005, Graham received a life term with no parole.

The two young convicts represent an American phenomenon, one the Supreme Court is set to reconsider in the fall term that opens Oct. 5. At issue is whether it is cruel and unusual punishment to imprison a minor until he or she dies when the crime does not involve murder.

According to Amnesty International, "The United States is the only country in the world that does not comply with the norm against imposing life-without-parole sentences on juveniles."

Nearly all of the estimated 2,500 U.S. prisoners serving life terms for juvenile crimes, the group said, were guilty either of murder or of participating in a crime that led to a homicide. But 109 inmates are serving life sentences for other crimes committed when they were younger than 18.

Sullivan's and Graham's lawyers do not claim the young men deserve to go free.

"We are not asking for Mr. Graham to be released any time soon," attorney Bryan Gowdy said. "We are asking the court to declare unconstitutional a sentence of life without parole for these crimes. It would be entirely different if Mr. Graham had a meaningful opportunity for parole."

The question will be an early test of whether Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, will align herself with the court's tough-on-crime conservatives or join with its liberals to strike down prison policies perceived as going too far.

Sullivan’s and Graham’s cases will be heard in November. Many lawyers and prosecutors said that until the Supreme Court agreed this year to take up the issue, they were unaware of juveniles receiving such sentences.

Sullivan, now 33, has been in prison for 20 years. The Florida appeals court and the state Supreme Court refused to review his sentence. When his case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, Florida Atty. Gen. Bill McCollum said the appeal should be dismissed on the grounds that it was too late to raise the issue of cruel and unusual punishment.

A lawyer for Graham has called his client's life sentence freakish and unfair. A second youth who participated in the restaurant robbery hit an employee with a club. He was later arrested for robbing a gas station and sentenced to three years in prison. He has since been released.

Florida leads the nation in sending teenagers to prison for life with no possible parole for crimes such as burglary, assault or rape. It has at least 77 such inmates. California and six other states also have at least one.

"This is a hidden group. They don't get a lot of attention because there was no homicide," said Paolo Annino, a law professor at Florida State University who has compiled national data on these prisoners.

California officials said they were unaware of having four such inmates until they checked their database at Annino's request. Two years ago, California joined many other states in prohibiting the sentencing of young offenders to life in prison.

But that measure did not affect inmates who had already been sentenced.

Annino and others point to two trends in the 1980s that led to juveniles serving life terms. First was the national move to abolish parole, reflecting fears that violent criminals could not be safely released. Second was the increased prosecution of young criminals as adults.

In defense of its life-in-prison policy, Florida's lawyers have pointed to several deadly attacks on European visitors carried out by young criminals.

These violent incidents were "threatening the state's bedrock tourism industry," Florida's lawyers said in the opening paragraph of their brief to the Supreme Court in the Graham case.

Pie chart on states imprisoning juveniles for crimes other than murder:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-preview28-2009sep28,0,1454652.story

Posted by lois at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2009

Cuts Ravage California Domestic Abuse Program

Cuts Ravage California Domestic Abuse Program
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: September 25, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — The Riley Center does not advertise its location, in a three-story Victorian in San Francisco’s core. The center’s address is confidential to protect its tenants: dozens of women and children fleeing abusive relationships.

A room in a shelter for victims of domestic violence that was able to reopen recently because of a contribution from a donor.

While those who live at the Riley Center are often desperate for help, so is the center itself and dozens like it across California.

Because of cuts in state financing, several domestic violence shelters in California have closed in recent months, with layoffs or fewer full-time staff members at many others. Legal services — like help obtaining restraining orders — have been curtailed, as has counseling.

The Riley Center has eliminated six beds and combined its emergency services with its longer-term transitional program.

Shelters have also dropped 24-hour services, cut overnight staff at emergency centers and eliminated more comprehensive services like safe visitation centers, where staff members are posted when children are dropped off or picked up as part of custody agreements.

“Our members are struggling to keep their doors open,” said Tara Shabazz, the executive director of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, which represents the state’s nonprofit shelters.

In July, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated the remaining financing for the state’s Domestic Violence Program — some $16 million — in the face of a lingering budget gap of nearly $500 million. Legislators had closed most, but not all, of a $24 billion deficit.

Mr. Schwarzenegger has said he regretted the decision but had no choice. “The governor understands how difficult these cuts are,” said Aaron McLear, a spokesman. “But he can’t promise money we don’t have.”

Other states, including New Jersey and Illinois, have struggled to find ways to keep domestic violence centers open, but national advocacy groups say no state has gone as far as California in “zeroing out” domestic violence money.

“California is by far the most extreme and shocking example,” said Sue Else, the president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, a group in Washington. “We’re appalled that this is the way that the governor would seek to balance the budget.”

The cuts to the program, which is part of the State Department of Public Health, means that the 94 nonprofit agencies charged with running the state’s domestic violence shelters have lost about $200,000 each. For most, that amounts to more than 40 percent of their anticipated annual financing, although agencies have received money for other shelter services from the federal stimulus package and the state’s emergency management agency.

Erik Sternad, the executive director of Interface Children Family Services in Ventura County, near Los Angeles, said his organization had initially believed that it would lose all five of its transitional shelters — usually multibedroom homes in suburban areas — where about three dozen women and children could live for up to 18 months. In the end, one was sold, one was transformed into youth services, and the final three were eventually saved by private donations. But of those, two have money assured only through June 30, the end of the fiscal year.

“We know that this money is going to run out about nine months from now,” Mr. Sternad said.

The pain has been most acute in remote areas. The Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalition in Grass Valley, northeast of Sacramento, is the only such facility in that area. The coalition closed its 12-bed shelter, leaving five families in the lurch.

Niko Johnson, the coalition’s executive director, said her staff managed to find places for those families to stay, but has since had to turn away 14 women with 8 children.

“We had to give a voucher for a motel,” she said. “When women get to that point and are ready to make a change, it’s hard to say we can give you three nights in a motel. They ask, ‘What next?’ ”

At the same time, Ms. Else, of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said the impact of a sour economy, including job losses and foreclosures, added to the need for services.

“I don’t know that it causes or creates domestic violence,” she said of the recession. “But what happens is that if there is domestic violence happening at home, it exacerbates it.”

The cutbacks come as the movement to fight domestic violence marked the 15th anniversary of passage of both the federal Violence Against Women Act, which established programs and penalties in cases of abuse against women, and California’s Battered Women Protection Act, which established financing for the state’s shelter system. There have been some signs of help. In August, shortly after the California cuts were announced, the Department of Justice awarded about $2.9 million to six transitional housing programs in California, primarily in rural counties. In the meantime, many shelters are finding ways to cope.

Mari Alaniz, director the Riley Center, which is run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, said that combining the center’s emergency services and longer-term transitional program in one building has meant less privacy, with as many as six beds to a room. Still, she said, “better to have six in a room than not to have a shelter.”

That sentiment is echoed by a 41-year-old woman who was there for months last year when her ex-husband threatened to hurt her two younger children.

“When he was doing stuff to me, I could take it,” said the woman, whose name is being withheld to avoid disclosing her location. “But when I saw it was happening to them, I reacted like a lion. And eventually I was a lion, and I left the situation.”

The woman has since moved into her own home with two of her children.

She said she had lived in fear of beatings and other kinds of abuse from her ex-husband for more than two decades, but had noticed a change in herself of late.

“Now that I have my own home, it might sound dumb, but I can get up when I want and do what I want, and I think the kids feel the same way,” she said. “I ain’t scared no more.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/us/26domestic.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=us

Posted by lois at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Editorial: Time to get real on prison crowding

Editorial: Time to get real on prison crowding

Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 | Page 16A
Sacramento Bee

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team continue to suffer from multiple-policy disorder on prison overcrowding.

On one side, the governor declares a state of emergency and says it is absolutely possible to reduce prison population without harming public safety.

On the other side, his administration presents a plan to a three-judge federal court panel that says population reductions "cannot be accomplished without unacceptably compromising public safety."

This latest proposal, turned into the court last Friday, is make-believe and won't fool anyone. The aim is supposed to be to get California's 33 prisons – designed for 80,000 prisoners – down to 137.5 percent of capacity over two years. That requires going from 150,000 today to 110,000 inmates by July 2011.

Yet the Schwarzenegger administration presented a largely "build it and they will come" strategy, instead of a population reduction strategy. The plan relies heavily on construction – 764 beds the first year, 2,364 the second year, 3,904 the third year, 12,500 the fourth year, 16,150 the fifth year and 18,650 in the sixth year. Yeah, right.

The judges already have expressed deep skepticism about this in their August opinion, calling construction a merely "theoretical remedy" when everyone knows that construction remains "years away." They question whether construction of new prison space is "an actual, feasible, sufficiently timely remedy."

Second, the Schwarzenegger plan relies on sending more inmates to out-of-state prisons (1,250 the first year, 2,200 the second and 2,500 each year after). It also relies on turning foreign prisoners with deportation orders over to the federal government (300 in the first year and 600 each year after). Yet these options make hardly a dent in the prison population.

Only a couple of elements in the plan mark real reductions in California's state prison population: Expanding "good time" credits for inmates who follow prison rules and participate in education or work programs, and diverting technical parole violators to community correctional systems rather than incarcerating them in state prison for a few months.

And one element is totally missing from the Schwarzenegger package that the court should consider: The need to enforce the state's existing law on early medical release.

Assembly Bill 1539 by Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank, signed into law by Schwarzenegger in 2007, established a process to release inmates who are unable to perform activities of basic daily living inside a prison and who pose no threat to public safety.

Yet fewer than a dozen prisoners a year are released. State prisons are not supposed to be long-term health care providers for elderly, ill prisoners who pose no threat to society.

The Schwarzenegger administration's perfunctory plan shows that it will not go the extra mile to reduce prison population.

It does show, however, that he intends to go the extra mile to appeal the overcrowding case to the U.S. Supreme Court. His priorities are exactly backward.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2207887.html

Posted by lois at 06:48 PM | Comments (0)

Prison report: Who are the bad people? and Canadian Conservatives try to model a system based on the U.S.

Prison report: Who are the bad people?
By Just A Guy
Editors note: Just A Guy is an inmate in a California state prison. His dispatches appear twice a week.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner was recently quoted in the Sacramento Bee saying: “You have to be a really bad person to get into state prison. So I’m opposed to releasing people who are dangerous, absolutely opposed. That’ s no way to balance the budget.”

I’m curious to know what Poizner thinks everyone is in prison for. Does he even realize that at least 18 percent of the population is in prison for drug crimes? If so, then is he saying that all people in prison for drugs are “really bad people?”

As if the stigma of being an addict and in prison isn’t enough.

I wonder if Poizner thinks alcoholics are “really bad people” -- or just people who need a 12-step program.

What is a “really bad person” anyway? Are the many of you who have done some stupid things in your past but just didn’t get caught “really bad people” too? Or does the stereotype apply only to people in prison?

I’m opposed to the early releases of people who are dangerous, also. But how does one determine who’s dangerous? Is the 80-year-old infirm man in a wheelchair a danger? Let’s be honest -- who doesn’t have the capacity to be dangerous? Prisoner or not?

Poizner says this is no way to balance the budget. But what about the consequences of cutting even more money from other services? (See my most recent blog here.
Has he considered that the industrialization of prisons in California with the three strikes, archaic laws and sentencing, is no way to create jobs?

The other Republican gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, said “the most important role government has is public safety. It’s very important to be consistent.” She’s also opposed to early releases and prison reform. Odd that the former CEO of Ebay is so short sighted about the long-term effects of the current budget and prison situation. Isn’t this a women who had to please stockholders and a board of directors and had to have insightful long-term visions planning Ebay strategy -- which she did quite successfully? I guess your strategy changes drastically when you’re selling a service as opposed to selling fear.

The only things consistent about California prison policy are lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key strategies. Most politicians are also consistently spouting tough-on-crime policy against their better judgment because they are consistently afraid of the Willie Horton syndrome.

A couple of gubernatorial candidates from the Democratic side are, amazingly, looking at prison reform as a way to alleviate some of California’s budget problems.

The biggest threat to public safety is not the people in prison or their releases (most of them are going to get out anyway). It’s consistently cutting money for health care, education, welfare and myriad other programs that help to create a brighter future for Californians. Public safety also means maintaining roads and bridges, supplying water, educating citizens etc. The best way to have public safety is to have an environment that creates hope, not antipathy.

Finally, the Canadian government is considering creating a prison system similar to California’s -- and a rather scathing indictment came out from opponents who say doing so is a bad idea.

The majority of first world countries see California and its prison policies as insane -- why can’t we see that for ourselves? It’s like we have “prison addiction.”

I wonder if people with prison addiction should be consistently labeled “really bad people.” The rest of the world seems to think so.
http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/09/prison_report_who_are_the_bad.html

Here's an article about the Canadian proposal referred to in the article above...

Tory plans for U.S.-style prisons slammed in report
Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009
CBC News

The Conservative government plans to bring in an American-style prison system that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars and do little to improve public safety, according to a report released Thursday in Ottawa.

"It tramples human rights and human dignity," University of British Columbia law professor Michael Jackson, co-author of the 235-page report, titled A Flawed Compass, told reporters.

Moreover, there is "a near total absence of evidence" in the government plan that its measures will "return people to the community better able to live law-abiding lives," said co-author Graham Stewart, who recently retired after decades as head of the John Howard Society of Canada.

Their report provides a scathing review of a government blueprint for corrections called A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety. A panel led by Rob Sampson, a former corrections minister in Ontario ex-premier Mike Harris's Tory government, drafted the plan, which is being implemented by the Correctional Service.

In addition to constructing super prisons and implementing work programs, the program will eliminate gradual release and deny inmates rights that are now entrenched in the Constitution.

However, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said the plan is not based on a U.S.-style prison system at all. "I don't know where that suggestion comes from," he told CBC News in an interview.

"We don't have a capital program for creating and building new prisons right now, so attacking the government is a little odd."

Rather, "the changes we're proposing [are] to improve our system, protect society more and make sure offenders get the help they need," particularly mental illness treatment, Van Loan said.

The government wants to create an incentive system for prisoners to participate in rehabilitation programs, "because that's important for not just the safety of society, which is … the most important principle, but also for the prisoner to integrate into the community ultimately," he said.

The current practice of statutory release is the "wrong approach," he added.

"That means somebody has a nine-year sentence; at six years, even if they're not participating in their programs, they're automatically … released into society."

But Jackson said the plan undermines public safety by making prisons more dangerous places and constricting inmates' reintegration into society.

By keeping prisoners locked up longer, the plan places an enormous financial burden on taxpayers, he added.

Perhaps worst of all, Jackson said, it "will intensify what the Supreme Court has characterized as the already staggering injustice of the overrepresentation of aboriginal people in the prisons of Canada."
A recipe for prison violence: Jackson

By stressing punishment rather than rehabilitation, the plan ignores lessons of the past, which led to the prison riots and killings that dominated Canadian news in the early 1970s, Jackson said.

"My greatest fear is with this road map's agenda and its underlying philosophy, we will enter a new period of turmoil and violence in Canadian prisons," he said.

"I do fear that prisons will become more abusive, prisoners will become more frustrated and that we could go back to a time not only when the rule of law was absent but a culture of violence is the dominant way in which prisoners express their frustrations."

Stewart called the blueprint "an ideological rant, which flies in the face of the Correctional Service's own research of what works to rehabilitate prisoners and ensure community safety."

"The fact is that you cannot hurt a person and make them into a good citizen at the same time," Stewart said.

The government has already allocated hundreds of millions to the plan, even though it has had no input from either Parliament or the public, according to the report.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/09/24/conservative-prison-plan024.html

Posted by lois at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2009

NY Times Editorial: Prisoners' Rights ---"Prisoner lawsuits are a way of reining in the worst abuses, which contribute to prison riots and other violence."

September 24, 2009
Editorial :Prisoners’ Rights
NY Times

In 1996, Congress passed a law that made it much harder for inmates to challenge abusive treatment. It has contributed significantly to the bad conditions — including the desperate overcrowding — that prevail today. The law must be fixed.

In the name of clamping down on frivolous lawsuits, the Prison Reform Litigation Act barred prisoners from suing prisons and jails unless they could show that they had suffered a physical injury. Prison officials have used this requirement to block lawsuits challenging all sorts of horrific conditions, including sexual abuse.

The law also requires inmates to present their claims to prison officials before filing a suit. The prisons set the rules for those grievance procedures, notes Stephen Bright, the president of the Southern Center for Human Rights, and they have an incentive to make the rules as complicated as possible, so prisoners will not be able to sue. “That has become the main purpose of many grievance systems,” Mr. Bright told Congress last year.

In the last Congress, Representative Robert Scott, Democrat of Virginia, sponsored the Prison Abuse Remedies Act. It would have eliminated the physical injury requirement and made it harder for prison officials to get suits dismissed for failure to exhaust grievance procedures. It would have exempted juveniles, who are especially vulnerable to abuse, from the law’s restrictions.

The bill’s supporters need to try again this year. Conditions in the nation’s overcrowded prisons are becoming increasingly dangerous; recently, there have been major riots in California and Kentucky. Prisoner lawsuits are a way of reining in the worst abuses, which contribute to prison riots and other violence.

The main reason to pass the new law, though, is human decency. The only way to ensure that inmates are not mistreated is to guarantee them a fair opportunity to bring their legitimate complaints to court.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/opinion/24thu4.html?_r=1

Posted by lois at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)

FL: Pinellas County Jail drops $8 co-pay for prisoners doctor visits

Pinellas County Jail drops $8 co-pay for inmates' doctor visits
By Drew Harwell, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, September 20, 2009

LARGO — The Pinellas County Jail will no longer charge an $8 co-payment to inmates seeking medical care, forfeiting an estimated $50,000 in annual revenue from a policy that jail officials said created more problems than profit.

The jail used co-pays to help offset millions of dollars in medical bills and discourage requests for unnecessary treatments or bogus ailments. Most medical insurance does the same thing.

In 1995, when the co-pays began, jail officials told the Times that the charges had cut demand for care in half, an early sign that they were clearing waiting rooms of all but those with real medical need.

But in the years since, said Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats, the co-pays have bred hostility among inmates and bogged down staff with paperwork, making the tens of thousands in lost cash "not even worth it."

"The administrative reviewing and tracking of all that cost us more than we make," said Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Bob Gualtieri. "The bang wasn't worth the buck."

Where Pinellas jail officials see a barrier to streamlining, other correctional institutions have found an opportunity for profit. From county jails near Tampa Bay to federal penitentiaries across the country, every facility charges a co-pay, returning tens of thousands of dollars annually to general funds.

Jails in Hillsborough, Hernando, Pasco and Polk charge between $5 to $15 for medical visits, higher than the Federal Bureau of Prisons' rate of $2. In 2005, when the co-pay system was instituted at all federal facilities, the bureau wrote it would encourage inmates "to be more responsible for their own health care."

A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections says the state feels the same way. Florida prisons earned $640,000 last year off a $4 co-pay, and in July state legislators increased the rate by a dollar.

"The money obviously is a big part … but the other side of it is there are some inmates who would go to the doctor every day," said department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger. "And if they have a medical need, they need to go, we want them to go. But this minimizes inmates who might be trying to game the system."

None of the county, jail or federal officials interviewed said they knew of plans to change their co-pay system, adding that the benefits of the charges made the collection process worth the trouble.

Not so in Pinellas, Gualtieri said. Jail employees, including more than 100 floor nurses and doctors working in the jail's $35 million health care building, said they felt weighed down by the often futile search for co-pays.

The inmates didn't like it either, filing more than 1,100 grievances complaining of medical care access, quality and cost last year. Inmate Eugene Betts, convicted of attempted murder, filed three lawsuits against the jail and two employees, claiming they charged him for treatment he didn't request after he was beaten by other inmates. In each case, he asks for his $8 co-pay, $2 in interest and hundreds of dollars in court fees.

For a jail population that saw more than 350,000 medical visits last year, the invoices and complaints added up. With the co-pay policy gone, officials said, medical staff will be freed to deal with more hands-on care.

"The nurses should be seeing inmates and treating them," said Lt. Sean McGillen, "not filling out paperwork for co-pays."

Still, the decision to abolish the co-pays comes at a tough financial time for the Sheriff's Office, which runs one of the state's most populated jails. In the past 18 months, the office's budget has been reduced by a quarter, meaning a loss of more than $67 million and 363 positions.

Coats said the Pinellas jail will continue to accrue revenue from other sources, like a recently increased $20 booking fee, to help pay for what amounted to $19 million in medical operation costs last year.

The money inmates once spent on co-pays, taken out of commissary funds filled by donations from friends and family, will stay in the accounts allowing them to buy items like cookies and deodorant.

Inmates at booking will no longer be informed of the co-pay, which was levied on inmates who requested treatment unrelated to mental health, pregnancy, infectious diseases or emergency care. During the co-pay period, inmates without money in their accounts were not denied medical attention, officials said.

Dr. Allen Beck, a Kansas City criminal justice planner who studied the Pinellas jail, said co-pays have grown popular because of the expensive costs of health care. Considering that the ratio of health problems like drug and alcohol abuse is higher among inmates, prison medical costs "chew up a budget in a hurry."

He added that there are valid arguments against collecting co-pays, including the amount of additional effort they demand.

"It just doesn't make good business sense," Coats said. "You can only squeeze so much juice from an onion. Sometimes it gets to the point where it's counterproductive."

fast facts

Co-payments for inmate medical requests

Pinellas: Free (was $8 per visit)

Hillsborough: $12 per doctor visit; $5 per pharmacy visit; $10 per X-ray; $20 per dental visit

Hernando: $5 per nurse visit; $7 per doctor visit; $3 per pharmacy visit; $10 per X-ray; $4 per laboratory blood work

Pasco: $5 per nurse visit; $7 per doctor visit; $5 per pharmacy visit; $10 per dentist visit; $4 per laboratory blood work

Polk County: $10 per nurse visit; $15 per doctor visit; $10 per pharmacy visit

State prison: $5 per visit

Federal prison: $2 per visit

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/pinellas-county-jail-drops-8-co-pay-for-inmates-doctor-visits/1037401

Posted by lois at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2009

"Restoring the Rights of Persons with Felony Convictions" by Lillie Branch-Kennedy, RIHD, VA

The Virginia Defender July - September 2009

Restoring the Rights of Persons with Felony Convictions
http://defendersfje.tripod.com/id3.html

By Lillie Branch-Kennedy
In 2008, we Americans headed to the polls in record numbers to vote for our president. Nationally, this included many first-time voters with prior felony convictions.

On Nov. 3, 2009, Virginians will head to the polls to vote for governor and many statewide legislators. How far has Virginia come in restoring the rights of persons with felony convictions to enable them to vote this year?

Will you be able to vote and make a difference come November? Will a record number of Virginians with a prior felony participate in the process, or will they continue to be denied and disenfranchised?

Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, proclaims that, prior to the Civil War, African- Americans were almost totally disenfranchised. Even after enactment of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees the right to vote, many states continued to use various methods to prevent African-Americans from voting, including literacy tests, poll taxes, the disenfranchisement of former inmates, intimidation,
threats and even violence!

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a new beginning for African-American citizens. For the first time, the federal government required states to comply with the 15th Amendment. However, lifetime disenfranchisement of former felons continues today in two states: Virginia and Kentucky!

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, “The United States is the only democracy in which some people who have served their sentences can still lose their right to vote. Approximately 4.7 million people in the U.S. cannot vote because of a felony conviction.” Of these 4.7 million people, the Commonwealth of Virginia accounts for 350,000. These convicted felons, most
of whom were convicted of nonviolent offenses, are productive citizens, assets to society, are in our communities, have paid their debts to society, earned a second chance in almost all aspects of their life, yet remain disenfranchised for life. Virginians should be outraged! Currently in Virginia, all persons convicted of a felony, regardless if the felony was a nonviolent or violent offense and received five, or even 40 years ago, must apply through
a lengthy process directly to the governor, who has the sole discretion whether to restore their rights. If the application is denied, the applicant must wait two years to reapply.

Many civil rights organizations and faith based advocacy groups continue to work, both legislatively and through the governor, to remove barriers to voting in Virginia faced by people with felony convictions. During the 2009 General Assembly session, several bills were proposed for the automatic restoration of voting rights.
Unfortunately, all “FAILED.”

Action Call by Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged (RIHD)
and Prisoners and Families for Equal Rights and Justice (PAFERJ)

Contact your state legislators today in support of automatic restoration of civil rights for persons with a felony. Article One, Section Six of the Constitution of Virginia provides that “all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and
attachment to, the community, have the right to suffrage ….” Therefore, we ask that you contact the governor in support of doing away with the expensive bureaucracy of past administrations
and increase the likelihood of successful reintegration for our returning neighbors by simply restoring the voting rights of felons upon their release from prison.

RIHD & PAFERJ provide filing assistance with the Restoration Voting and Civil Rights application every Tuesday and Thursday from 4-7 p.m. Other organizations such as the Virginia Organizing Project, Re-entry Initiative and others provide similar services, both in
Richmond and throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. If you or anyone you know continues to be disenfranchised of their civil rights, please contact us20for assistance and/or for service
location in your area. For additional information and how you can help, call or e-mail Lillie (Ms. K) Branch-Kennedy (RIHD) at (804) 562-2123 or rihd23075@aol.com.

Lillie Branch-Kennedy is the founder and executive director of RIHD and a prisoner rights representative on the Continuations Committee of the Virginia People’s Assembly.

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

VA: Lorton prison turned into an arts center

‘We really are just beginning’
By Janet Rems

The Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton has already accomplished so much that people think this vibrant, rapidly growing arts community has been around longer than one year.

“We really are just beginning,” said Sharon Mason of Springfield, the Workhouse’s executive director, during a recent conversation at the former 30-building prison on 55 acres off Ox Road.

Officially opened on Sept. 19 of last year on the site of the readapted D.C. Workhouse & Reformatory, the Workhouse houses 100 professional artists, selected in a juried competition. There is also a healthy waiting list of artists who have also completed the jurying process, according to Mason.

In their lease agreements, all Workhouse artists commit to a minimum of 100 hours per month of studio time so that the public can observe them directly at work. The artists are housed in 10 of the prison’s original brick buildings, which along with the other prison buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Readapted with state-of-the-art studios and separate retail spaces, each is dedicated to a particular medium, such as the visual, ceramic, glass and fiber arts. And students who begin at the institution can eventually become artists there, as four beginners who started learning at the Workhouse Arts Center are now working in “emerging-artist” space given to them for a year.

“We’re getting known throughout the country. That was the goal for this year,” said Rick Sherbert, 52, of Herndon. Sherbert is a blown-glass artist and director of the Workhouse’s Glassworks, whose eight artists occupy building 7, and said the goal for next year will be “refining” the operation and bringing in more people to teach. This year, the center housed world-famous glass artist Milon Townsend, who recently visited and taught a master class on his flame-working technique.

“Were getting on the radar of people who are well-known, people like Milon Townsend, who’s psyched about what we’re doing here,” Sherbert added.

In the far future, Sherbert said he would like to build a “hot shop” where artists blow and shape objects from molten glass. If he could work it out, he would fuel it by piping in methane gas from the landfill next door.

Springfield resident Dale Marhanka, 44, director of Workhouse ceramics in building 8, remains thrilled by what he regards as his “once-in-a lifetime opportunity.”

The mix of professional and emerging artists that work alongside him, as well as newer students and visiting public, have generated a wonderfully “interactive, highly dynamic environment,” he said.

Marhanka, who as an artist does mostly sculptural vessels, said other priorities for the institution include expanding infrastructure, such as finishing the studio’s kiln yard; growing the student body; and reaching out to area schools, such as nearby South County Secondary School.

But the consistently positive responses of visitors show that the center is on the right path, he said.

Giving a recent example, he related that his five resident ceramic artists and students made 350 ceramic bowls for use at an ice cream social in July on the Workhouse quad. They sold out in just an hour. More than 1,000 people came through the ceramics building during that event, Marhanka estimated.

Working in clay, like sharing food, brings people together and “provides a foundation for dialogue,” he said.

To keep its pool of artists “fresh,” the artists go through the jurying process when their leases expire in the next three to five years, Mason said.

In addition to studios, space also has been dedicated for rental by the public and rotating exhibitions of works by local and national artists and performers. The arts center already receives about three or four inquiries a day about renting space, Speer said.

By the end of 2010, more than 53 exhibitions will have been mounted, noted Lorton resident Camela Speer, 40, the Workhouse’s public relations and special events specialist.

Shows in the Main Gallery, featuring four different visual artists each time, change monthly.

In addition, studio space has been created in “one of the more unique buildings” for classes in pilates, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, martial arts, balletone and even hula dancing, Speer said.

Also recently opened in building 9 is a small museum dedicated to the site’s history, including the prison’s most famous inmates: Suffragettes who were incarcerated there after protests in Washington, D.C. in 1917.

Though Mason, 62, joked about the stamina it takes to keep up with the Workhouse’s rapid and demanding growth, she is obviously pleased and energized by it, too.

One of the past year’s surprises, Mason said, was the immediate and overwhelming demand for classes. Beginning last October, 130 classes and workshops were offered to the public — and filled rapidly, she said.

“To our amazement, 70 percent of the classes were booked, and they continue to grow,” Mason added.

A film series, started in March at the request of a benefactor, also has been a resounding success.

Lake Ridge resident Joey Wallen, 40, director of the Workhouse Institute, oversees the Workhouse Film Institute and its 13-person staff as one of his multiple duties.

Coming up on Oct. 10 is a short films competition open to everyone, and a festival of Indian Bollywood films follows on Nov. 7 and 8. Bollywood dance workshops also will be held prior to the screenings, and Wallen hopes the event will be the start of an annual “Cinematic Tourists” program that could involve embassies and restaurants, too. He also hopes to hold “something domestic” in the near future, too, such as a film event on Alaska.

“Lots of fun stuff,” Wallen promised.

A $50,000 grant from the Claude Moore Foundation was invested in industry-level film editing equipment and software so the Workhouse could offer classes in this art form, as well.

Because of a temporary space crunch, a hallway was adapted as space for the new editing lab. However, more space will become available as the buildings are renovated in phases.

Julie Booth, 42, a Kingstowne resident and the Workhouse’s community relations manager, has spent a good deal of the past year working with schools, as an “Art for Change” grant allows the Workhouse to bring its resident artists into local school. Art teachers also bring their students to the site for tours.

“They want us to talk about making careers out of art,” she said.

And children’s interest in the center has grown far faster than expected. For instance, its six-week summer camp programs were fully enrolled, Booth noted, and enrollment for next summer begins in February. Demand for year-round children’s programs also is rising.

On the horizon to accommodate this growth is the conversion of a building into an 8,000-square-foot “Kids Zone” with classroom space and a small theater.

Besides the Kids Zone, Phase 2 plans include the readaptation of two more of the site’s 30 buildings. One would become a 9,000-square foot performing arts building with a theater, and the other a 34,000-square-foot special events center. Outdoor event facilities also would be developed at the site of a future Music Barn.

This past summer, performing arts events were housed in a special tent —underwritten by a benefactor — set up on the Workhouse’s central “quad.”

The only new construction so far planned for the site will be 40 units of “live-work” space, or apartments with artist studios that are modeled on a similar art district in Paduca, Ky.

Tentatively scheduled to break ground in March 2010, this housing will be restricted to people associated with the Workhouse. Once a year, the artists residing there will be required to open their studios to the public.

Four units will be set aside for a residency program for artists who would teach at both the Workhouse and Northern Virginia Community College.

Phase 3, expected to begin about 2015, would consist of a state-of-the-art performing arts complex, including the Music Barn, constructed by combining and renovating several other Workhouse buildings, located directly behind the proposed events center. Dance venues, performing arts education and other musical performing arts activities will be the focus of this project.

When completed, the Workhouse Arts Center will occupy approximately 294,000 square feet of arts facilities and approximately 40 acres of open space.

“We’re fully engaged in negotiating with the county and construction companies,” Mason said. “We want to see more people on site more often.”

Helping to make that happen with “all kinds of events to drive awareness” is Andrea Sims, a public relations and special events executive who has been “bringing Hollywood to the Potomac” since moving from Los Angeles.

Known for her celebrity-packed Rolodex, Sims, 58, a nearby Lake Ridge resident, recently began lending her expertise to bringing some sparkle to the Workhouse.

“If you don’t have a celeb, you don’t have a party,” Sims told Forbes when the magazine named her one of the top events planners for “The World's Hottest Parties" in 2006.

And the celebrities have been appearing — most recently, Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock classics “The Birds” and “Marnie,” visited the Workhouse for a special discussion and screening of “The Birds.” Actress Tina Louise, best known for her role as the glamorous Ginger on the TV sitcom “Gilligan's Island” and a personal friend of Sims, read from her new children’s book “When I Grow Up” at another special event.

In the music realm, Betty Buckley — known to television fans for “Eight Is Enough” and to Broadway devotees as the original “Grizabella” in the musical “Cats,” where she sang “Memories”—will headline the Workhouse’s first Art, Wine and All That Jazz Festival on Oct. 3. Deanna Bogart, blues and boogie pianist, saxophonist, singer and the winner of 20 Washington Music Awards, performs Oct. 4.

These stars are just the beginning, Sims said — people should expect “really fun, eclectic stuff to happen” in the next few months.

“We’re going down a lot of different tracks,” she said.
Times Community © 2007 | Fairfax Times
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/news/2009/sep/22/we-really-are-just-beginning/print/

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

AZ: 2 articlles on the horrible cruel death of Marcia Powell. Prison guards punished in Marcia Powell's Death: 3 fired, two leave, 10 receive suspensions ranging form 40 to 80 hours, one demoted

Details emerge in inmate's heat-related death
Report describes miscommunications, policy violations
by Casey Newton - Sept. 24, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Disturbing new details emerged Wednesday in the death of Marcia Powell, an Arizona state prison inmate who died of heat-related causes after being left in an outdoor cage for hours.

The Arizona Department of Corrections' internal investigation of Powell's death on May 20 runs about 3,000 pages. The department announced this week that it has disciplined 16 people in connection with the incident, with five employees fired or forced to resign. A criminal investigation is ongoing.

Interviews with prison staff members, inmates and medical personnel illustrate how a series of policy violations and miscommunications led to Powell's collapse at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville in Good- year. She later died at West Valley Hospital.

Among the report's findings:

• Powell passed out in her cell on the morning of May 19. A few minutes before, she had announced she was suicidal. She was taken to an outdoor cage to await transfer to a psychiatric unit. But the sergeant who saw Powell lose consciousness never reported the incident to supervisors, despite the fact that Powell said she was having trouble breathing.

• At least 20 inmates told investigators that Powell was denied water for most or all of the time she was in her cage, despite regular requests. Corrections officers said Powell was given water.

• Powell was taking psychotropic medications that made her particularly sensitive to the heat, but medical personnel did not convey that fact to corrections officers.

• After more than two hours in the sun, Powell requested to be taken back to her indoor cell. Her request was denied.

• Powell was apparently denied a request to use the restroom and defecated in the cage. A corrections officer discovered that Powell had soiled herself but left her where she was. Medical personnel would later discover feces underneath her fingernails and all over her back.

• The psychiatric unit to which Powell was awaiting transport should have accepted her hours before she died, the report found, but a series of miscommunications prevented her from being taken in.

Powell, who was serving a sentence for prostitution, said she felt suicidal at 11 a.m. on May 19 and was escorted to the outdoor cage to await transportation for psychiatric care at the prison complex detention unit.

Officers seeking to move Powell to the unit were first told that it did not have available beds. Later, another inmate in the unit refused to put handcuffs on to be taken back to her cell, causing the staff to trigger its incident command system. The incident took more than 90 minutes to resolve, during which time no other inmates were brought into the unit.

Officers monitoring Powell were wary of asking psychiatric-unit staffers to accept another inmate during the standoff, even though three beds had become available. But investigators said it would have been possible to transfer Powell, since the uncooperative inmate was locked in a secure cell.

Prison policy calls for inmates to be kept in outdoor cells for a maximum of two hours. The cells had no shade, and on the day Powell died, temperatures hit 107.5 degrees.

Officers did not properly log Powell's time in the outdoor cell or when they checked on her. When she collapsed, no one could say for certain how long she had been there.

Doctors on the scene said Powell's body temperature was at least 108 degrees but may have been higher, since their thermometers topped out at 108.

Charles Ryan, corrections department director, called Powell's death "unconscionable" and "an absolute failure."

The most bitterly disputed aspect of the case concerns whether Powell was denied water.

Nearly all of the inmates interviewed by investigators reported that Powell screamed out for water regularly but was repeatedly denied. Others said she was granted water only once or twice in nearly four hours.

"I need some water - just a drop," one inmate overheard Powell tell a corrections officer, who reportedly ignored her.

Another inmate reported that a corrections officer mockingly repeated Powell's requests for water back to her, without giving her any.

All of the corrections officers interviewed for the report said Powell had been given water throughout her outdoor confinement.

Both inmates and staff members said Powell's history of mental illness and frequent erratic behavior meant that some of her requests were not taken seriously. She did not get the staff's undivided attention until she collapsed at 2:40 p.m.

Timothy Johnson, a physician's assistant who attempted to revive Powell, swore repeatedly at investigators when asked about Powell's death.

"This should not have happened," he said.

Workers Punished In Inmate's Death
Marcia Powell Left In Outdoor Holding Cell For 4 Hours In Triple-Digit Heat
September 22, 2009

PHOENIX -- Sixteen Arizona prison workers have been disciplined or fired for the death of an inmate left in an outdoor cage.
Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down in place of being fired, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two others will be disciplined after they return from medical leave.

Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced the moves Tuesday, calling the death "the most significant example of abuse" of an inmate that he's aware of within the department.
"That is an absolute failure," Ryan said Tuesday. "The inmate should not have been left in the enclosure that length of time."

Ryan declined to provide the names of the corrections employees who were disciplined, saying it would be inappropriate considering they have the right to appeal their punishments.

Marcia Powell, 48, died last May, about 10 hours after she collapsed in an outdoor, unshaded holding cell at the Perryville prison in Goodyear.

Her body's core temperature had risen to 108 degrees, according to the autopsy report.

The autopsy revealed Powell had first and second-degree burns on her face, chest and arms.

The report also turned up traces of medication in Powell’s blood for treating Parkinson’s disease and depression.

Ryan said at the time Powell was left in the cell nearly twice as long as she should have under department policy.

Ryan said Powell's cell was 20 yards from a staffed control room from where corrections officers should have been watching her.

Donna Hamm, director of Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform, said the employees' punishment helps show other prison workers that they will be held accountable for their actions.

"There was an established policy, and had it been followed, Marcia Powell would be alive today," Hamm said.

She said County Attorney Andrew Thomas should charge the employees involved in Powell's death.

"If that happens, the message is crystal clear to department employees about their responsibilities and the consequences of not following their own policy," Hamm said.

Powell arrived at the Perryville prison in August 2008.

Powell was placed alone in the cell while being moved to an onsite detention unit after seeing a prison psychologist. Ryan said a disturbance at the detention unit prompted Powell's placement in the holding cell. He would not elaborate on the nature of the disturbance.

Ryan said officers gave Powell bottled water, as required under prison policy.

Officers did not remove her after two hours as they should have done under department policy, according to Ryan.

"It is intended to be temporary," Ryan said. "It is not intended to be a place where they are held for an inordinate amount of time."

Powell had been in and out of state prisons and had a long history of mental illness, Ryan said.
http://www.kpho.com/news/21071761/detail.html

-----------------
AZ corrections workers disciplined in inmate death
By AMANDA LEE MYERS (AP) – 9-22-09

PHOENIX — Sixteen Arizona corrections employees have been fired, suspended or otherwise disciplined for their roles in the death of an inmate left in an outdoor holding cell for four hours in triple-digit heat and for a "wait-them-out" practice at the prison where she died.

Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down in place of being fired, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two others will be disciplined after they return from medical leave.

Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan announced the moves Tuesday, calling the death the "most significant example of abuse" of an inmate that he's aware of within the department.

Marcia Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, died from heat-related complications hours after she collapsed May 19 in an uncovered outdoor cell at the Perryville prison in the west Phoenix suburb of Goodyear. She had been in the cell for nearly four hours, despite a policy that set a two-hour limit.

Powell, 48, was being held in the outdoor cell while being transferred from one section of the prison to an observation ward after seeing a psychologist. An autopsy report showed she had first- and second-degree burns on her face and body and a core body temperature of 108 degrees.

"That is an absolute failure," Ryan said Tuesday. "The inmate should not have been left in the enclosure that length of time."

The autopsy also found that Powell's death was an accident and that she had anti-psychotic drugs in her system. Such drugs are known to make people more susceptible to heat-related illnesses.

Ryan declined to provide the names of the corrections employees who were disciplined, saying it would be inappropriate considering they have the right to appeal their punishments. Those disciplined included a deputy warden, a prison psychologist, a chief of security and various officers.

A call to the union that represents Arizona corrections workers was not immediately returned Tuesday evening.

During the administrative investigation of Powell's death, Ryan said investigators with the Office of the Inspector General uncovered a so-called "wait-them-out" practice at the Perryville prison that went on for about a year. Inmates were placed in outdoor and indoor holdings cells for hours at a time as an alternative to using force, he said.

While Powell was not in a holding cell under that practice, Ryan said, an inmate was left in an outdoor cell for 20 hours three days before Powell's death; she did not require medical treatment. He said no one died under the "wait-them-out" practice.

The state prisons system ended its use of outdoor prison cells weeks after Powell's death. Arizona's 10 prisons had 233 outdoor cells for temporarily holding inmates awaiting transfer to punishment wards, medical units, other prisons or work assignments.

Ryan said the cells at Perryville are now used as exercise or short-term waiting areas. They are now shaded, and have misters and benches.

The criminal investigation into Powell's death is finished and at the Maricopa County attorney's office, which will decide if any corrections employees will be charged.

Donna Hamm, director of Tempe-based Middle Ground Prison Reform, said the employees' punishment helps show other prison workers that they will be held accountable for their actions.

"There was an established policy, and had it been followed, Marcia Powell would be alive today," Hamm said.

She said County Attorney Andrew Thomas should charge the employees involved in Powell's death.

"If that happens, the message is crystal clear to department employees about their responsibilities and the consequences of not following their own policy," Hamm said.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsV8vjqxQYd1axkrcnJIPHOyKSFAD9ASOBFG3

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

September 22, 2009

NY State Commission of Correction files a lawsuit against Erie Co Sheriff compelling him to operate jail in a safe & humane manner

Posted: Tuesday, 22 September 2009
State Sues Sheriff Howard
(It is hard to understand who is speaking in this...but the report is from a radio station).
Steve Cichon Reporting
scichon@entercom.com

Albany, NY (Commission of Correction/WBEN)- Today, the New York State Commission of Correction filed a lawsuit against Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard to compel the county to operate its jail in a safe, stable and humane manner, as required by law. The filing of this lawsuit is an unfortunate but necessary action.

Over the past several years, the Commission of Correction has made repeated efforts to help Erie County comply with regulations designed to ensure the safety and security of the Erie County Holding Center, and ultimately the public safety. We have issued operational variances to provide the county with a measure of carefully monitored leeway. We have repeatedly advised the county of its myriad delinquencies – which range from failing to provide inmates with reasonable access to a toilet and a bar of soap to troubling denials of due process in disciplinary matters – and offered to work with local officials to address deficiencies which we believe undermine the safety and security of the facility and needlessly expose the county to civil rights actions.

We have made our staff available at all times to assist the county. Despite our repeated efforts to assist, Erie County has persistently violated regulations and neglected or refused to take necessary remedial action. We are, unfortunately, left with no choice but to seek judicial intervention.

I wish to stress that we are asking only that Erie County comply with the same set of minimal standards routinely followed by the vast majority of correctional facilities across the state. We are not seeking to force the county to undertake costly reforms. We are asking only that Erie County manage its jail in a responsible manner.

As a former sheriff who operated a large urban jail for 14 years, I fully understand the economic and logistical difficulties that the maintenance of a correctional facility imposes on a local government. Regardless, Erie County has an obligation to its citizens to operate their jail in a safe and secure manner, and the Commission of Correction has an obligation to enforce state regulations. When a county refuses to abide by those regulations and abdicates its responsibility to local taxpayers, as Erie County has, the Commission is obligated to pursue a legal remedy.

The Commission’s specific complaints are described in detail in the petition and exhibits that were filed today with the Supreme Court in Erie County. Now that this matter is before the court, I will refrain from any further comment while the action is pending.

http://www.wben.com/State-Sues-Sheriff-Howard/527367

Posted by lois at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

Adelanto CA: GEO plans to build private prison for 2,200 immigrants

Private company plans illegal-immigrant prison in Adelanto
2,200-bed facility hinges on winning federal contract
September 21, 2009
NATASHA LINDSTROM Staff Writer

ADELANTO • A private prison operator has plans to build a 2,200-bed detention center that holds illegal immigrants on 51 acres near two other local prisons.

City Council will decide on Wednesday whether to approve the GEO Group Inc.’s development plan and conditional use permit to construct a new correctional facility on the northeast corner of Raccoon Avenue and Rancho Road.

But the proposed facility also hinges on GEO Group winning a federal contract from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Adelanto City Manager Jim Hart.

Earlier this year the Department of Homeland Security posted a notice saying it would be looking for contractors to construct a possible detention center that can hold up to 2,200 illegal immigrants and others suspected of violating immigration laws. The notice said the center should be located within 120 miles of downtown Los Angeles and privately owned and operated.

However the official request for proposals for the new ICE center has not yet been issued, according to ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice, while the agency undergoes a comprehensive overhaul of its detention system.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/adelanto-14600-prison-private.html

Posted by lois at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)

Connecticut's Budget Requires Correction Department Cuts, But No One Seems To Know Where To Make Them

CORRECTIONS
Connecticut's Budget Requires Correction Department Cuts, But No One Seems To Know Where To Make Them
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING
The Hartford Courant
September 21, 2009

Just save the money.

That's what the state's prisons are being told by the legislature. All state agencies have been saving money during the deep economic downturn, but the Department of Correction is being told to find $63.4 million in savings over two years under the new state budget.

Prison officials are complaining that they have not been told which programs to cut, and the explanation from the legislature's nonpartisan fiscal office says only that the cuts will "reflect the implementation of various correctional policies to achieve savings in the correctional system."

From Gov. M. Jodi Rell's budget office to the prison guards' union, no one seems to know how the cuts will be made.

"We think that the legislature's budget for the corrections department represents an overly optimistic estimate of savings with no credible basis in fact," said Jeffrey Beckham, a spokesman for Rell's budget office. "It is just one example of many where the legislature has deliberately underestimated basic expenses of government so that they could shift money to areas where they just wanted to spend more. Frankly, this has been a recurring problem, which is why we have seen deficiencies in the Department of Correction budget over the last several years."

But Derek Slap, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, said that Rell had been pushing for cuts for months and publicly complained that the Democratic-controlled legislature had not reduced spending enough.

"The governor said there were no real cuts," Slap said. "Now that there are cuts, they say, 'How do we do it?' Families across the state are doing this belt-tightening. The Rell administration and her bureaucracy is going to have to do the same. People want substantial cuts in spending."

With an annual budget of more than $700 million, the Department of Correction will need to cut $63.4 million from a two-year total of more than $1.4 billion. That represents less than 5 percent of the total department budget over two years.

In addition, Slap noted that Rell herself wanted to cut the prisons' budget by $56 million — a total not far from the Democrats' figure.

Larry Dorman, a spokesman for the union representing correction officers, said that closing any prisons would be a mistake. There are currently no provisions in the budget to shutter any facilities.

"We don't know where any of these alleged savings would come from or how they will be achieved," Dorman said. "If these cuts come at the expense of … safety inside or out [of prisons], then nothing good will be accomplished. If you close prisons, they will be opened up later. Crime doesn't stop."

The prison guards' union was concerned about the budget cuts even before the state's "super-max" prison was locked down over the weekend after three attacks Friday on guards by four inmates. One of the guards was beaten unconscious at the Northern Correctional Institution, which houses some of the state's toughest inmates and includes prisoners on death row. Top prison officials will meet today to determine whether the lockdown will be extended.

State Rep. Douglas McCrory, who serves as a subcommittee co-chairman overseeing prisons, said that lawmakers purposely avoided tying the hands of the correction commissioner during budget talks earlier this year. Instead, they wanted department officials to make the decisions about where to cut.

The state's prison population has been dropping since a peak that came after the triple killings in Cheshire in July 2007, which prompted a freeze in the state's parole system. The all-time high population in the prisons was 19,894 inmates on Feb. 1, 2008, according to the correction department. Today, that number has dropped by about 1,000.

With the cost of incarcerating the average inmate at about $40,000 per year, the state can save money this year by moving nonviolent criminals to halfway houses and group homes, McCrory said.

"Our prison population has declined over the last year and a half," McCrory said.

Along with the University of Connecticut Health Center, the correction department is one of the large state agencies that has failed to meet its budget projections in recent years. As such, the legislature often passes a "deficiency" bill, which means that the deficit is covered by savings in other agencies during the robust years or simply adds to the overall state deficit in the lean years.

Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the correction department, offered no specific examples of cuts in a large agency that oversees 18,800 inmates in 18 facilities.

"We continue to review that document," Garnett said of the two-year, $37.6 billion state budget. "We continue to take a look at those numbers and how we will implement them."

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-prisons-0921.artsep21,0,484344.story

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

Illinois DOC Press Release Outlining Plan for Reforms Including Tamms Prison Review

Illinois Department of Corrections Director Outlines New Vision for State Prisons, Completes Tamms Prison Review, Announces Reforms
Released September 21, 2009

Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) Director Michael P. Randle today outlined his plan for reforming the state’s prison system. Randle’s vision to move the department forward includes implementing the Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009 and a 10-Point Plan for the supermax prison in Southern Illinois.

“There are a number of criminal justice reforms on the horizon in which IDOC will play a significant role. One in particular is the implementation of the Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009, which will fundamentally reshape the criminal justice system in this state,” Director Randle said. “I applaud Governor Pat Quinn for signing this into law and Senator Kwame Raoul and Representative William Burns for their hard work in getting this legislation passed. I will use this new law as a blueprint to move the department forward.”

The Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009 will reduce the number of commitments to IDOC in part by creating a new program to help divert adults from prison.

Funding for the Adult Redeploy program will be given to those counties who use community-based diversion programs to help those who would have otherwise received a short-term prison sentence. Reducing the prison population will save the department money, stimulate the economy and help reduce recidivism.

The Act also calls for the implementation of an automated integrated system to link courts, probation, prison and parole. Such a link will help formulate an offender’s reentry plan and reduce recidivism.

It will identify resources and services needed, such as substance abuse programming and job placement, as well as other factors, including education level, skills, attitude and relationships that can affect the outcomes related to the reentry process.

In addition to the Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009, IDOC will implement reforms at the Tamms Closed Maximum Security Unit (CMAX). After appointing Randle as IDOC director in May, Governor Quinn requested that Randle thoroughly review the operations at the Tamms facility.

“There is ample evidence that shows significant decreases in staff and inmate assaults and gang activity since the opening and operation of Tamms. While the need for such a facility exists, there are several operational reforms that are being recommended,” Director Randle explained.

Tamms CMAX, which opened in March 1998, is designated to house IDOC’s most disruptive, violent and problematic inmates. Inmates approved for placement at Tamms CMAX have demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to conform to the requirements of a general population prison.

After conducting a thorough review of the operations at Tamms CMAX, Director Randle made the following recommendations in his Tamms 10-Point Plan:

* Point 1: Allow each inmate placed at Tamms CMAX to have a Transfer Review Hearing.
o Specific timelines to conduct Transfer Review Hearings are being designated.
o Inmates will be given an opportunity to refute and offer information that may impact their transfer to Tamms CMAX. Inmates will also be given an opportunity to appeal their placement at Tamms CMAX.
o An audio recording of all Tamms CMAX placement hearings will be maintained.
* Point 2: Inform each inmate of an estimated length of stay and how privileges can be earned to provide for eventual transfer from Tamms CMAX.
o Based on the offense the inmate committed, staff will use professional correctional judgment to inform the inmate of a range of time he should expect to serve at Tamms CMAX.
* Point 3: Promote the medical and mental health evaluation process conducted prior to and after placement for each inmate sent to Tamms CMAX.
o Each inmate placed at Tamms CMAX will receive a full mental health evaluation within 30 days of placement.
o Mental health staff will make weekly rounds in all housing units to identify any inmate who is decompensating as a result of transfer to the facility.
* Point 4: Increase inmate privileges throughout the Behavioral Level System to incentivize positive behavior at Tamms CMAX.
o Dependent on behavioral adjustment, the amount of out-of-cell recreation time and commissary will be increased.
o Telephone privileges will be added to the Behavioral Level System at the facility.
* Point 5: Begin offering General Educational Development (GED) testing at Tamms CMAX.
* Point 6: Implement congregate religious services for inmates at Tamms CMAX.
* Point 7: Rescind some of the printed materials restrictions for inmates at Tamms CMAX.
* Point 8: Develop a plan for a Reassignment Unit at Tamms CMAX similar to those operated at other step-down units.
o The Reassignment Unit will be an intermediate step for inmates who present the most risk if transferred from Tamms CMAX, but have demonstrated appropriate adjustment behavior.
* Point 9: Plan a media, legislative and public outreach strategy that includes a visit to Tamms Correctional Center.
* Point 10: Reexamine the population of inmates having served extensive time at Tamms CMAX for transfer eligibility.
o A review of the inmates held at Tamms CMAX from 1998 through 2004 was conducted to determine which inmates were appropriate for eventual transfer out of the facility. Of the cases reviewed, 45 were deemed eligible for transfer.

“The John Howard Association of Illinois has championed many of these reforms since Tamms opened in 1998. We are deeply grateful that Director Randle has made so much progress in such a short time, and we enthusiastically endorse his Ten-Point Plan.

These reforms will improve the conditions of confinement, better address mental health needs, afford inmates greater access to fair and humane treatment and offer them the promise of education and other programming. Inmates who have demonstrated years of good behavior also now have a chance to earn their way out of Tamms and back into prisons with less harsh conditions.

As advocates, we know that reform is a process, and we will keep a close eye on monitoring the implementation of these welcomed reforms,” said Hanke Gratteau, executive director, John Howard Association of Illinois.

Director Randle is looking forward to implementing the Tamms 10-Point Plan and will continue to monitor and evaluate the reforms to ensure their effectiveness.

The full report on Tamms CMAX is posted on IDOC’s Web site: idoc.state.il.us.
http://chicagopressrelease.com/press-releases/illinois-department-of-corrections-director-outlines-new-vision-for-state-prisons-completes-tamms-prison-review-announces-reforms

Posted by lois at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2009

MT: Empty Hardin Prison Pins Its Hopes on Mystery Security Company-American Private Police Force Organization

Hardin still pins hopes on private jail, mystery security company
By BECKY SHAY of the Billings Gazette | September 20, 2009

HARDIN - Al Peterson won't say the name of the company that wants to fill the empty jail in Hardin.

He says he's seen documents that prove the company is legitimate, but he won't discuss the contents or nature of those documents either.

And, he's been to California to meet personally with company officials and to haggle over a 10-year contract he says will bring in hundreds of prisoners, scores of jobs and thousands of dollars to his beleaguered community.

Peterson is vice president of the Two Rivers Authority, Hardin's economic development agency and owner of the 464-bed jail that has been empty since it was finished in 2007.

Despite all the mystery, Peterson insists that everyone will be believers in the next few weeks when American Private Police Force Organization, a newly organized subsidiary of the unnamed California company, begins hiring local staff for the prison.

"I've seen their documents. I've seen their credentials," Peterson said. "I believe them."

While there are some skeptics among Hardin officials, all seem to agree the city has to take a chance on APF. Two Rivers has gone into default on its bond payments for the empty jail and the agency is nearly out of money. The jail has also caused a rift between county and state officials, prompting a lawsuit.

Besides, Hardin has nothing to lose. The money being risked with the contract is APF's, said Peterson, who is Hardin's superintendent of schools.

From cheaters to kidnappers

APF officials will only say their parent corporation is a private security company that has been operating detention centers internationally since being incorporated in 1984. This would be the company's first domestic jail.

APF's Web site opens with images of armed masked men in combat gear, military-style weapons and helicopters, all accompanied by the refrains of Ravel's "Bolero."

Among APF's "international operations" listed on the Web site are special forces training, kidnapping and ransom situations, convoy security in war zones and fugitive recovery. The company also offers investigations into unsolved murders, cheating spouses, fraud and missing persons.

Presumably, some of APF's employees and clients would be trained for those services in a 104,000-square-foot facility with housing for 248 and high-tech labs that would be built adjacent to the jail.

APF plans to soon hold a job fair for local candidates. On top of that, the company has vowed to allow residents to use the CT scanner in its crime lab. It also would help the city organize and staff a municipal police department and donate food from the jail's kitchen to the needy.

Troubled authority

Two Rivers arranged private bond funding to build the $27 million jail as an economic boost to the hard-luck county.

When the assumed agreements with Montana officials to house state prisoners didn't work out, that left the authority hunting all over the country for prisoners.

With no contracts in sight, Two Rivers missed its May 2008 bond payment and went into default. Until then, it had been making its twice yearly $2.5 million payments from a reserve fund built into the revenue bond purchase.

Two Rivers made global headlines earlier this spring when it made a desperate offer to house terrorism suspects from the closing Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an idea that was quickly crushed by Montana's congressional delegation.

Then, just two days after announcing its contract with APF, Two Rivers put its executive director Greg Smith on paid administrative leave. Neither Smith nor Two Rivers' Peterson will say why.

With so many unanswered questions about the prison's new use, speculation has been rampant. County residents have suggested the new facility would be used for everything from torturing international terrorists to housing Obama administration dissenters.

Peterson insists the contract allows only low- to medium-risk prisoners from the United States, and that Two Rivers retains final approval of any prison contract.

APF commits big money

As part of its contract, APF will take over the bond payments for the prison, which will remain the authority's property, said Michael Hilton, a spokesman for the company. In addition, APF will invest about $23 million in its planned training facility and pay $10 per person to TRA for those using the training center, Hilton said. The training facility that APF intends to build will have a dormitory for participants, but they'll still be visiting - and spending - in Hardin, Hilton said.

"Those people from overseas have money to spend," he said.

Peterson told Associated Press on Friday that the contract calls for APF to pay $220,000 a month - $2.6 million a year - for 10 years.

Two Rivers would also be paid a fee of $5 per day per inmate, which is a new revenue stream, Peterson said. During a packed meeting of the Hardin City Council last week, Peterson said that even at half full, the fees would add up to more than $365,000 a year.

"Holy crap. Right now we're on a shoe string," he said.

Due diligence

Earlier this month, Peterson, Smith and Two Rivers attorney Becky Convery, flew to California at the authority's expense to meet with APF officials.

Among the people they met were Hilton and Mazair Mafi, APF's director of legal affairs.

Peterson called it a "whirlwind trip" in which they arrived in Los Angeles around noon on Sept. 3 and negotiated until well into the evening. They reached consensus the next day and by the following day the contract was signed, he said.

Before the California meeting, Hilton said APF officials had spent about 10 months checking out Hardin and meeting with officials in the city.

Both APF and Two Rivers officials remain tight-lipped about the parent company backing the venture. The company is remaining unnamed for security and proprietary reasons, they say.

Flying under the radar is just the way many private security companies do business, Hilton said. He did say that APF has at least 160 contractors around the world plus independent contractors. And the parent company has more than 20 "virtual offices" around the world, he said, including addresses in Washington, D.C., and Santa Ana, Calif.

"Every security company does this. The U.S. government does this," Hilton said. "We have enemies, worldwide - not in the U.S., but you never know - so it's for security purposes."

When The Gazette contacted a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C., building the company claims to use, she said AFP never completed its application to use the address. Reporters for The Gazette and Associated Press have also been unable to locate APF in any of the databases listing federal contracts.

To all the doubters, Mafi urges patience.

"Just wait a couple weeks, and the city is going to begin to see hard cash," he said. "We'll be hiring people and training people."

Skeptical but supportive

At least two Hardin City Council members are split in their opinions of APF. But, both Bill Hert and Carla Colstad agree the city must city take a chance.

Hert, who described himself as a former cop who doesn't trust many people, sees it as a "good deal if it turns out." He wants more information from APF.

"I would like to meet some of them in person," Hert said. "If they would come here and meet with us and explain what they are going to do in person, rather than just have a contract to read."

Colstad, a third-generation Hardin council member, said she trusts Two Rivers.

"In this economy and in this recession, hallelujah, they have actually found someone who is not only willing to work here in the community but has the money," she said. "They've got the money behind the talk. This is all we've hoped for all this time."

Jumpstarting the jail

APF's contract requires the company to "make its best efforts to hire and train local personnel" and report on hiring each quarter.

The jail could start holding inmates as early as January and contracts are being sought to have all 464 beds full by March, Hilton said.

"You have to have a facility first to negotiate," he said. "We are waiting to sign a contract."

APF's contract with Two Rivers includes a provision to house for free up to 60 inmates from Hardin, Lodge Grass and Big Horn County. Those inmates will be kept separate from APF detainees.

Hilton said APF won't make money on the jail. The jail is a "stepping stone" to the company's goal of opening a security training center for mostly international clients from "U.S.-friendly countries."

Hardin police force

The Hardin City Council has a public hearing "on law enforcement" scheduled for Thursday. That hearing, like several that have been held around the county, is to gauge public opinion on the city breaking from the county for law enforcement services. The city and county have been at odds for years about the law enforcement presence provided by the Sheriff's Office.

Hilton said APF has proposed that, if Hardin creates a police department, the company would provide the initial officers and hire a local chief of police. APF has already purchased Mercedes vehicles that are being outfitted and will be available for patrol cars, Hilton said.

The training center also could provide some officers to support the city, he said.

Hilton said that during a trip to Hardin to check out the jail facility, he was shocked to see people selling and using drugs, so he wants to have two narcotics agents in Hardin, too.

After Tuesday's council meeting, resident Virginia Pitsche said she welcomes anyone who can help clean up Hardin.

"We need protection in this town," Pitsche said.

Pitsche's sister, Vinetta Hollis, agreed that a better police presence is needed, but was firm that she wants to know more about the company, which she said could be a shill for President Barack Obama to create a federal police force.

"They were formed by who?" Hollis said. "Read up on it. This is a federal police force of Obama's."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_bdcb2e16-a601-11de-ac10-001cc4c002e0.html

Posted by lois at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

NV: Pahrump: fight continues against detention center

"At the time, there was no group like Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community, no anti-prison privatization consultants like Frank Smith of the Private Corrections Institute, and only a couple residents who attended the relevant meetings and spoke up."

Proposed distance from 'prison' was redlined by staff
By MARK WAITE and MARK SMITH
PVT
Sep. 18, 2009
It all began a long time ago.

Jan. 24, 2007 -- more than two and a half years ago -- the PVT printed on its front page a story titled "Town has no lock on fed prison plan."

And so what has become a major issue regarding development, revenue, jobs and political viability, got under way.

Over the intervening months, the PVT has been riddled with stories about the detention center, many on the front page and for which it won a number of Nevada Press Association awards in 2008.

But one issue has persisted as a burr under the saddle -- the reduction in the minimum distance between a prison, as many insist the detention center is, and the nearest residences.

Nye County commissioners long ago, on April 18, 2007, passed what remains a controversial motion to change the county zoning code and eliminate the minimum distance requirement of 50,000 feet between a correctional institution and residences.

At the time, there was no group like Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community, no anti-prison privatization consultants like Frank Smith of the Private Corrections Institute, and only a couple residents who attended the relevant meetings and spoke up.

Despite ongoing publicity about the detention center, it was a year later, during the summer of 2008, before the code change began to attract significant public attention.

The idea of revising the zoning to allow a correctional facility first came up during a March 9, 2007, county commission meeting held via a conference call, when then County Manager Ron Williams told commissioners a provision in the county code would have to be changed.

At the time, Nye County Code allowed only for a lockup for people already convicted, he said. Williams said the code also required such facilities be at least 50,000 feet, about 9.5 miles, from the nearest residence.

That minimum distance in the county code was enacted after the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission in the late 1990s decided it didn't want a correctional facility in Pahrump.

At that time, there had been talk of building a prison somewhere in Southern Nevada, Williams told commissioners. Pahrump Valley was sufficiently expansive to include areas where a correctional facility could be built 10 miles from homes, he said.

Williams said if the ordinance wasn't changed, Nye County could catch flack from some of the companies spending money on surveying land for possible detention center sites.

Commissioner Butch Borasky expressed concerns over the increasing size of the privately-built, federal detention center, which was originally going to be 350 beds, but at the time, there was talk of boosting it to 1,000 beds.

Former Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos and Borasky both talked about trying to situate the facility as far away from town as possible.

The county commission had just backed off from a suggestion to submit Nye County's own bid to build a federal detention center, after former Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver raised concerns over liability.

Williams added Nye County didn't have the experience to compete with private contractors already established in the industry. It also wouldn't be a good idea to revise the solicitation for bids by the U.S. Department of Justice to include beds for the county's own inmates, he said.

On March 23, 2007, county commissioners voted to set an April 18 hearing date for what had become bill 2007-07 that would establish a new community facilities zone that would allow a federal detention center in the zoning code.

It would also dump the minimum distance requirement.

County commissioners were being urged to take action as contractors were required to submit phase one environmental surveys on proposed locations for the detention center by April 30, 2007.

Former Pahrump Town Board Chairman Laurayne Murray talked about the tremendous financial impact from a detention center requiring 200 to 250 jobs, an annual payroll of $9 million and tax payments of $800,000 per year.

She urged commissioners to move quickly in light of competition from other communities for the project. There were 11 original sites proposed.

The Pahrump Regional Planning Commission recommended approval of the bill April 11, 2007.

At the April 18, 2007, public hearing by the Nye County Commission, Borasky suggested a minimum distance remain between correctional facilities and residences.

"I would really like to see some distance between residential housing and that type of facility -- a mile and a half -- and also be on a paved road as well," Borasky said.

The proposed bill, 2007-07, had five special conditions at the end, one of which was a requirement that "the facility must be located at least five miles from any established residential use."

Those special conditions, however, were deleted sometime between March 23, 2007, when the bill was first scheduled for a hearing, and the RPC April 11 meeting with a red line through them. No one objected to the red line deletion -- no one took credit for the deletions at the time, and who actually redlined them is unclear even today -- but Williams told commissioners the county was supposed to be removing the 50,000-foot setback.

"Again, I'll make the same statement: Are we going to add a mileage requirement or not?" Borasky asked.

"The way we're drafting this ordinance, there is no distance or mileage requirement from the residents to the facility," Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman said.

Borasky, in a front page April 25, 2007, PVT story titled "Released detainees concern town board member," said he felt satisfied the county would have enough control over where the detention center was to be located when it came to approving the conditional use permit.

The story specified that the minimum distance had been removed from the special conditions.

But when it came to the rezoning of the Mesquite Avenue property in July 2007, Williams said the county would vote on a development agreement instead of a conditional use permit.

"Would planning approve a correctional facility within a residential neighborhood?" Commissioner Gary Hollis asked at the April 2007 hearing.

"Well, not without a general plan amendment," said Lohman, "and it would be up to you folks to decide where to put it."

Hollis, then the county commission chairman, mistakenly called for the vote on the bill before the public comment period.

When public comment was reopened, however, only a couple of people spoke up.

Pahrump resident John Koenig, a regular attendee at county commission meetings, said, if the county set a minimum distance from residences, "it will make it a lot easier at decision time to say that's a good site."

Pahrump Town Board member John McDonald had concerns over detainees being released onto the streets of Pahrump.

Attorney Tony Celeste, representing the Geo Group, one of the two contractors bidding on a detention center project, said, placing a minimum separation distance would preclude the county commission from evaluating a potentially viable site for consideration.

Liakopoulos made the motion to approve bill 2007-07. It passed on a 4-1 vote. Carver cast the sole vote in opposition without explaining her objection.

There was an attempt shortly afterward to build a separate Nye County detention facility.

In May 2007, county commissioners voted 3-1 to negotiate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a 500-bed detention facility to be built and operated by the county.

Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said he met with Mike Webb, a supervisory agent for ICE, about the proposal, which would allow the county to house its own prisoners and lease bed space to other agencies.

Somehow that plan became mingled in the minds of some with the federal detention center.

On July 11, 2007, the RPC voted to recommend a site farther north on Parque Avenue, almost into Johnnie, for the detention center, while reviewing five zoning applications.

A week later, the county commission passed a motion by Borasky to approve a non-conforming zoning change for 160 acres at the 2250 E. Mesquite Ave., detention center site from open use-general commercial to a community facilities zone, overruling the RPC denial of that site.

County planner Rick Osborne said the nearest residence was 600 feet away.

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2009/Sep-18-Fri-2009/news/31275071.html

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

OK: Prisons can inflate districts' influence

Prisons can inflate districts' influence
by: MICHAEL OVERALL World Staff Writer
Sunday, September 20, 2009
For maps to to: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20090920_
11_A1_Onamap449564

On a map of county commissioner districts in Osage County, the border of District 1 zig-zags along rather predictably until it passes north of a state prison near Hominy.

Suddenly, the line veers south to throw a hook around the Dick Conner Correctional Center, capturing the inmate population as "residents" for the district.

For the past nine years, Massachusetts-based researcher Peter Wagner has been trying to prove that many states, including Oklahoma, use prisons for "gerrymandering."

Padding their populations with people who can't vote in local elections, the districts are artificially inflating their own political clout, Wagner says.

"I knew somewhere there had to be a smoking gun, a case so blatant that nobody could deny it," he says. "I found it in Osage County."

'Who cares?'
On Monday, Wagner and a fellow researcher at the Prison Policy Initiative will release a report called "Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Oklahoma."

In an advanced copy obtained by the Tulsa World, Wagner singles out seven state House districts and 16 county commissioner districts for allegedly gerrymandering around prisons.

In other words, if inmates weren't counted as "residents," the districts would be too small to satisfy federal standards for "one person, one vote," Wagner says.

Federal law, along with U.S. Supreme Court precedents, requires districts to be essentially equal in population — deviating no more than 5 percent above or below average.

"The question is always, 'who cares?' " says Wagner, who is the executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative, which describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. "This isn't a problem that's easy to get people excited over.

"But this is about the basic democratic principle of equal representation."

In Alfalfa County, for example, each county commissioner is supposed to represent roughly 2,000 people.

District 3, however, would barely include half that many people without the inmates at the Crabtree Correctional Center, who can't vote.

Wagner concludes that every 54 voters in District 3 have the same political weight as 100 voters in other districts.

"Look at it this way," he says: "If you don't live in a district with a prison, your vote simply doesn't count as much."

'Quickest solution'
Congressional and state Senate districts are too large for prison populations to make much difference, so Wagner confines his analysis to state House and county commission seats.

Even then, prison populations used to seem negligible. The 1980 Census, for example, counted only 4,595 prison inmates in Oklahoma, according to Wagner's report.

By 2000, the Census counted five times that many inmates in Oklahoma — and suddenly, a single prison could boost the population of a state House district by several percentage points.

The prison population now includes more than 24,000 inmates.

"That's why nobody was talking about this problem until recently," Wagner says. "Because, until recently, it wasn't a problem."

For the 2010 Census, Wagner recommends that Oklahoma — and other states — simply ignore prison populations when drawing district maps.

"Basically, pretend they don't exist," he says. "That's the easiest, quickest solution for now."

He might be surprised to know that Osage County Commissioner Clarence Brantley, from the "smoking gun" District 1, agrees with him. At least in principle.

"They don't get to vote in my district," he says, "so prisoners shouldn't be counted as residents."

Unfortunately, Brantley says, it's not that simple.

'On the radar'
Most of Osage County's population is clustered in the southeast corner of District 2, on the outskirts of metropolitan Tulsa.

To encompass an equal population, District 1 sprawls across the entire northern half of the county. As a result, Brantley's district maintains nearly 1,000 miles of county roads, compared to roughly 250 miles of roads in a smaller district.

"Is that fair?" he asks. "The truth is, some of these rural districts are too big to manage."

Stop counting inmates, and they'll have to grow even bigger, he says.

"Frankly," he admits, "I haven't been able to think of a good solution."

State House District 13 faces a similar dilemma with the Jess Dunn Correctional Center and several other prisons.

Without counting inmates, the district would be too small. But even with the inmates, to reach enough people the district stretches from part of Broken Arrow to Warner, 70 miles southeast.

Living so far apart, the constituents often have little in common with each other, says District 13 Rep. Jerry McPeak.

"At one point," McPeak says, "my district is only two miles wide. The shape is ridiculous."

The Legislature will have to redraw district maps after the 2010 Census.

"And let's hope we can bring some logic to the process," McPeak says. But he stops short of saying whether inmates should count or not.

"Honestly," he says, "I haven't thought about it before because it's not an issue that's even been on the radar."

With this week's report, Wagner hopes to change that. He's focusing on Oklahoma partly because the state is usually one of the first to redistrict after each Census, so what happens here could start a trend nationwide.

"I'm trying to spark a conversation," Wagner says. "It's going to be up to the people of Oklahoma to decide where that conversation takes us."

House districts with prisoners
Seven state House districts meet federal minimum population requirements only because they include prisoners as local residents:

HD 13 (parts of Muskogee and Wagoner counties): census population of 3 , 59 includes 1,829 prisoners

HD 18 (parts of Pittsburgh and Mcintosh counties): census population of 3 ,389 includes 2,111 prisoners

HD 22 (Murray county and parts of Garvin, Pontotoc, Mcclain and cleveland counties): census population of 3 ,099 includes 2,569 prisoners

HD 55 (Washita county and parts of Kiowa, caddo and canadian counties): census population of 3 , 72 includes 2,59 prisoners

HD 63 (Tillman county and parts of comanche county): census population of 3 , 8 includes 2,081 prisoners

HD 88 (part of Oklahoma county): census population of 3 ,153 includes 2, 27 prisoners

HD 90 (part of Oklahoma county): census population of 3 ,205 includes 1,753 prisoners

Source: prisonersofthecensus.com

Posted by lois at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2009

Schwarzenegger's prison reduction plan falls short of court order

Schwarzenegger's prison reduction plan falls short of court order
By Howard Mintz and Denis C. Theriault
Mercury News
Posted: 09/18/2009

Facing a midnight deadline, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and top prison officials Friday released a plan that falls far short of a federal court order to relieve prison overcrowding.

A three-judge federal panel has called for California to decide how to slash more than 40,000 inmates from the rolls in the next two years. Instead, the governor's plan offers modest reductions while insisting on more time to wring further reforms from legislators afraid of being labeled soft on crime.

The response sets up a confrontation that will likely be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. At issue: how much power the federal judges have to essentially take over the state's prisons.

Matthew Cate, director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, called the 21-page filing "a good-faith effort to do everything we can." The two-pronged plan, submitted to the panel that issued the overcrowding order, calls for lowering the inmate population by no more than 20,000 over the next three years, half of what the judges sought in their Aug. 4 order.

The state also will urge the Legislature to reconsider a package of Schwarzenegger-backed reforms that failed to win approval late last month. Those reforms — a blend of supervised-release programs, sentencing changes and other measures — would come close to meeting the court order but still would take at least five years, Cate said.

It was unclear late Friday when — or whether —lawmakers might make another run at those proposed reforms. Aides said work on them may have to wait until as late as January, when the Legislature reconvenes.

Meanwhile, the state's prison crisis is likely to remain unresolved for months while the three federal judges consider the details of the governor's plan.

The court already has blasted California political leaders for years of inaction on prison overcrowding. It demanded that the state bring its prison inmate level down from about 190 percent of capacity to 137.5 percent within two years.

The plan submitted Friday evening calls for that level to be cut to about 155 percent of capacity in three years and 148 percent over six years. Even with new prison construction to accommodate 20,000 inmates, that would still leave the state's facilities overcrowded.

The additional reforms sought from the Legislature could cut the number down to 132 percent of capacity, prison officials said.

Proposals similar

The governor, in a prepared statement, called the submission to the court a "comprehensive public safety plan that cuts corrections operating budgets, builds more cells, reduces recidivism and meets court-mandated inmate health care."

Lawyers for the inmates immediately signaled they would urge the judges to reject the plan.

"There is an order to reduce the population by so much after two years," said Steve Fama, an attorney with the nonprofit Prison Law Office. "They've got to do that."

For now, the governor is offering up a proposal that largely mirrors the Legislature's recent plan to cut the prison population only by about 16,000 inmates, with some additional provisions. Beyond constructing more space to house prisoners, the state will look to commute sentences for thousands of undocumented immigrants who would then be turned over for federal authorities for deportation proceedings. The plan also calls for reforming the parole system and diverting low-level offenders serving time for parole violations to locations other than prisons.

The provision to add new prison beds may not sit well with the three-judge panel. In their August order, the judges warned that construction was not a "meaningful and timely remedy" for the overcrowding.

Reaction to the proposal Friday by legislative leaders was mixed. A spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, urged lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to come up with "responsible solutions to prevent the wholesale release of prisoners by federal judges."

Ready to gamble

But Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, warned Republicans would oppose "any further attempts to undermine public safety." He added, "We are confident that upon review of the facts, it will be clear the three-judge panel overstepped their authority, and their reckless rulings will be overturned."

Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, meanwhile, expressed frustration that the more-sweeping reforms the Senate agreed to during a just-adjourned special session weren't approved by the Assembly.

"The Senate made the difficult, though unpopular, choices it had to," she said.

If the panel of three federal judges — San Francisco U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, Sacramento U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt — balks, the Schwarzenegger administration appears ready to gamble that the Supreme Court will spare the state from the full force of the panel's ruling.

State officials say they will press a Supreme Court appeal in November if necessary.

Such a showdown would be a closely watched clash between a federal court's powers to ensure a state prison system meets constitutional standards and a state's right to run its prison system.

The panel found that California's prisons are so overcrowded they violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Essentially, they ruled, there are so many inmates — the state crams 150,000 inmates into crumbling prisons meant to hold half that amount — that prison officials cannot provide adequate medical and mental health care.

The judges are not restricted by the Legislature's refusal to adopt all of Schwarzenegger's measures to reduce overcrowding. A 1996 federal law allows a court to force prison officials to take steps to fix constitutional violations, even if those steps violate state law.

Legal experts say they expect the panel's final order will ultimately set the stage for a Supreme Court battle.

"If I read the state correctly," said Kara Dansky, director of Stanford University's Criminal Justice Center, "that's the state's next step."
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_13369278?nclick_check=1

Posted by lois at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2009

IL: DOC head visits Tamms and unveils some reforms

Illinois"Members of Tamms Year Ten, an activist group, praised parts of Randle's plan, but said it doesn't go far enough, particularly when it comes to mentally ill inmates.
"It sounds like the Illinois Department of Corrections is really moving into a new direction at Tamms," said Laurie Jo Reynolds, a spokeswoman for Tamms Year Ten. "But ... there must be some mental health oversight, independently, to prevent well-documented abuse and neglect of mentally ill prisoners."

Ill. Corrections head unveils reforms for Tamms
By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press Writer
September 17, 2009
CHICAGO - The head of the Illinois Department of Corrections unveiled a reform plan Thursday for the state's lone supermax prison, including increased mental health evaluations, more incentives for good prisoner behavior and the transfer of dozens of inmates.

Department of Corrections Director Michael Randle, who was charged with reviewing the debated Tamms Correctional Center when he was appointed in June, said his 10-point plan came after a visit to the far southern Illinois facility.

"We must take a holistic look at the entire institution," he said Thursday at a luncheon for the John Howard Association of Illinois, a prison reform group. "It's imperative to take systematic reforms."

Randle said he spent about 10 hours of his second day on the job at Tamms, which houses about 250 of the state's worst offenders. He said he interviewed staff, walked every cell block and observed routines.

He said a review was conducted of inmates held at Tamms from 1998 to 2004 and that 45 would be eligible for an eventual transfer to lower security facilities. He also vowed that every inmate at Tamms would receive a full mental health evaluation within 30 days of arriving and mental health staff would conduct weekly checks on inmates.

The reforms come as Tamms, where prisoners spend most of their days in solitary confinement, faces heavy scrutiny and numerous lawsuits for allegations of inhumane treatment of prisoners.

Amnesty International has urged Gov. Pat Quinn to end indefinite solitary confinement at Tamms and to prohibit transferring seriously mentally ill prisoners to the facility. Other advocates have even pushed for closing the 11-year-old facility.

Randle said Thursday that closing Tamms never was considered. He said he did not know the details of Amnesty's call for change at Tamms, but he does not support independent reviewers coming into the facility.

He declined to discuss specific details on allegations of abuse.

"Any allegation is looked into," he said.

Members of Tamms Year Ten, an activist group, praised parts of Randle's plan, but said it doesn't go far enough, particularly when it comes to mentally ill inmates.

"It sounds like the Illinois Department of Corrections is really moving into a new direction at Tamms," said Laurie Jo Reynolds, a spokeswoman for Tamms Year Ten. "But ... there must be some mental health oversight, independently, to prevent well-documented abuse and neglect of mentally ill prisoners."

Randle, a former deputy director of Ohio's prison system, devoted most of his speech, entitled "Charting a New Course for Illinois Prisons," to touting his Tamms plan.

He said the reforms also include informing all prisoners on their approximate length of stay, giving each prisoner a transfer review hearing, allowing Tamms prisoners to take the GED and increased incentives for good behavior, like telephone or out-of-cell privileges.

Quinn, who appointed Randle, has signed off on the reforms.

Tamms warden Yolande Johnson told The Associated Press the plan "is very doable" but some points will be more difficult to implement than others, like installing a telephone system for inmates.

She declined to comment on abuse allegations, saying prison staff follow the state's mission of treating prisoners humanely. She disagreed with some activists' recent comparisons of alleged abuse at Tamms to abuse allegations at Guantanamo Bay.

"We don't torture inmates," she told the AP.

During the speech, Randle said his other goals for all the state's prisons is to reduce the recidivism rate, which is about 51 percent, and the number of prisoners overall.

Illinois has about 46,000 inmates and about 33,000 parolees.

Randle said it would be better for lower level offenders to be punished through community programs, instead of jail, particularly as his agency faces budget cuts and staff reductions.

"We are reviewing every facet of IDOC," Randle said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-illinois-correcti,0,5700735.story

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

September 17, 2009

VA: Prison Officials Reverse Ban on Book Program

VIRGINIA
Prison Officials Reverse Ban on Book Program
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 17, 2009

Virginia inmates will once again be able to receive free Bibles, dictionaries and other books from a nonprofit group, after state prison officials reversed a recent decision to ban the popular Books Behind Bars program.

The 20-year-old effort, run by the Quest Institute in Charlottesville, was halted last month after prison officials said that security risks were too great and that the influx of books created too much work for busy corrections officers.

But after protests from supporters, Corrections Department Director Gene M. Johnson said he will allow Books Behind Bars -- which has put as many as 1 million books in prison cells statewide -- to resume. In a Sept. 15 letter to Kay Allison, the program's founder, Johnson said each inmate could request up to three books a month.

"At this time it is my intention to restore the opportunity for inmates to request three free books per month through the Quest Institute while strengthening our procedures for the introduction of materials into [Corrections Department] facilities," Johnson wrote.

Community members, lawmakers and others came forward to support the program, Allison said.

"I'm ecstatic," she said. "This is a victory for the inmates."

Prison officials decided to stop the program after contraband made its way into prisons in books provided by Quest. State officials would not provide details, citing security issues. But they said they worried that someone trying to smuggle an item to an inmate could use Books Behind Bars to do it.

Allison said volunteers who help sort and search books before they are sent to inmates overlooked a paper clip and a CD packaged in a textbook. She said that both items were found by corrections officers and that neither made it into the hands of an inmate.

In the letter, Johnson wrote that "introduction of contraband of any kind into any correctional setting is a very serious matter."

"I trust there will be no problem with such an occurrence happening again regarding materials distributed by the Quest Institute," he wrote.

Allison said volunteers will take extra care to inspect each book.

Inmates write to Quest, asking for specific titles or topics. Dictionaries, Bibles and the Koran are the most frequent requests. African American literature, self-help books and novels are also popular.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/16/AR2009091601168.html

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

CO: Officials in 3 counties ask Gov not to close 3 CCA prisoners to protect jobs in communities

Prison Cutbacks Face Opposition
Bent, Crowley and Huerfano officials ask governor to reconsider early release program.
By ANTHONY A. MESTAS
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
September 17, 2009
Officials in three Southern Colorado counties said Wednesday that Gov. Bill Ritter's decision to release more than 6,000 inmates from state Department of Corrections custody will be devastating to small communities that house private prisons.

Commissioners in Bent, Crowley and Huerfano counties all have private prisons owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America.

Ritter announced the Accelerated Transition Pilot program in August. By June 30, an estimated 2,720 inmates out of 3,400 eligible for parole will be on the streets, saving the state $19 million in prison housing costs. The next year, another 3,000-plus inmates could be released.

But Bent County Commissioner Bill Long said that the lion's share of the proposed reduction would come from the private prisons in Crowley, Bent and Huerfano counties.

Long said the proposed releases will impact the private facilities which were built at the request of the state. "If they do what they have been talking about in the last few days, which is 5,000 to 6,000 inmates possibly being up for parole, that will empty virtually every private prison in Colorado that has Colorado inmates," Long said.

"I guarantee that this will be an absolute disaster for Bent County and Crowley County. No question about it."

The Crowley County Correctional Facility in Olney Springs and the Bent County Correctional Facility in Las Animas are key parts of their local economies with more than 200 employees at each facility, Long said.

"We receive property tax, telephone revenue and other benefits from the

facilities," Long said.

Long explained that the Huerfano County Correctional Facility in Walsenburg and the Kit Carson Correctional Facility in Burlington also will be hurt if the reduction occurs.

Currently the Huerfano facility is full of inmates from Arizona, but Long said that when Arizona gets its inmate situation straightened out, the inmates will be taken back to that state.

"That would be another facility that was built primarily for Colorado inmates that would also be emptied," Long said.
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/09/17/news/local/doc4ab1c8c6919a55390
31796.txt

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

September 16, 2009

PETA Suggests Renting Prison For Chicken Empathy Museum

PETA Suggests Renting Prison For Chicken Empathy Museum

http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=99621
Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009

(Roanoke, VA) -- PETA's executive vice president sent a letter to
Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine on Monday offering to rent a state
prison facility and turn it into America's first chicken empathy museum.

Tracy Reiman wrote on behalf of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organization, suggesting the Botetourt Correctional Center in Troutville would be a perfect location for the museum when the prison closes.

Governor Kaine has order Botetourt and two other prisons closed to help reduce a one-point-three-five-billion-dollar state shortfall.

PETA's plan would feature educational displays and a restaurant that
would serve faux-chicken drumsticks and vegetarian foods.

Visitors to the museum could also wear a weighed backpack to simulate
how the upper bodies of chickens grow in proportion to their legs.

In the letter, Reiman writes that another benefit would be the jobs the museum would provide local residents.

Reiman added, quote, "the museum would convert a building that was built for the purpose of incarceration into a tribute to liberation."

(Copyright 2009 by VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions)

Posted by lois at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

IL: Allegations of Human Rights Abuses at Tamms super max during Senate hearing on mental health in prisons

“Mental illness has been criminalized in our country over the last 30 years,” Durbin said. “By allowing our prisons and jails to become a primary provider of mental health services, we have taken a step backward in the effort to protect the human rights of people with mental illness.”

Tamms super max discussed during Senate hearing on mental health in prisons
BY CALEB HALE, The Southern

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Allegations of human rights violations at the super maximum security Tamms Correctional Center in Alexander County were part of a hearing in the U.S. Senate Tuesday.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law heard from Illinois Department of Corrections Director Michael Randle and others in its first-ever hearing related to a domestic human rights issue – mental health in U.S. prisons. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, set the hearing after learning about alleged problems with the treatment of mentally ill patients at the Tamms super max prison.

Tamms Year Ten Committee, a group based in Chicago, as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have urged action on reports of prisoners being held too long in solitary confinement without any mental health treatment, despite displaying problems.

Randle is investigating how Tamms and other state prisons address mental health issues, a directive from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.

“Mental illness has been criminalized in our country over the last 30 years,” Durbin said. “By allowing our prisons and jails to become a primary provider of mental health services, we have taken a step backward in the effort to protect the human rights of people with mental illness.”

More than 2.3 million people are imprisoned in the U.S. and half of all inmates have a mental health problem, according to a 2006 study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice. Mentally ill prisoners have little or no access to services and their conditions often deteriorate, as was alleged in multiple cases at Tamms.

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2009/09/15/breaking_news/doc4aafd563d71b0862786042.txt
This and other news about control units and supermax prisons can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

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

September 15, 2009

VA: Issues That Matter to You: Prison Jobs and Funding

Issues That Matter to You: Prison Jobs and Funding

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 13, 2009

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's decision last week to shutter two state prisons and a juvenile detention center to help close a $1.5 billion budget shortfall marked a dramatic reversal of a 15-year explosion in prison space.

Kaine was able to do it because recent growth in the prison population has not matched projections. For the first time that anyone can recall, Virginia's prison population declined in the past year, and no one knows why.

But the decision eliminates nearly 300 jobs -- almost half of the layoffs Kaine announced that day. It also reduces the number of prison beds by 1,200.

Would the state's two nominees for governor have made the same choice? Republican Robert F. McDonnell and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds lamented the layoff of 288 correctional workers, particularly in rural parts of the state hard hit by the economic downtown. McDonnell also said public safety programs must be protected in times of economic distress.

"In tough economic times when there is a potential for an increase in crime, we should not enact any cuts to law enforcement," McDonnell said.

"It is a bitter pill to swallow," Deeds said. "The governor was faced with difficult choices, but I'm very sorry that was a choice he made."

At the same time, both candidates applauded Kaine (D) for making difficult decisions in a challenging budget cycle. And neither offered alternatives to replace the $36 million that the prison cuts will save, much of it expected from the sale of one of the prisons for $25 million to local governments in need of a regional jail.

Last week marked the fourth time since the state's two-year budget cycle began in July 2008 that Kaine has announced cuts to bring state spending in line with ever-shrinking projections for tax receipts. This time, Kaine limited the impact on K-12 education and local government, but he cut as much as 15 percent in aid to colleges and universities, trimmed aid to police and sheriff's departments, and ordered a one-day furlough in May for most of the state's 102,000 employees.

As the state's largest agency, the Corrections Department employs 12,900 workers and operates 40 facilities, many of them in far-flung areas where unemployment is high and where a prison is as much a jobs center for the local workforce as it is an arm of the state's public safety apparatus.

As a result, making deep cuts in state spending without touching corrections is difficult. Yet cutting corrections is painful for rural communities that are suffering economically.

"Obviously, there's going to be some dislocation, some discomfort with a lot of the people in those parts of the state where they're closing those prisons," said House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), who, like McDonnell, applauded Kaine for not raising taxes. "And you've probably got high unemployment to begin with."

The two prisons to be closed are in Brunswick County, in Southside Virginia along the North Carolina border, and in Botetourt County to the southwest. The juvenile center is in Rockbridge County, also to the southwest.

Kaine's announcement marks the end of a building spree during which Virginia's prison population jumped from below 30,000 to nearly 39,000. Fueled in part by the abolition of parole in the mid-1990s, by tougher sentences for violent crimes and by the economic benefit, state lawmakers authorized the construction of 15 facilities, about one a year.

Because prison population growth has waned -- even reversing in the past year -- one of those new facilities is ready to open but not needed. Another has opened only partially, with an entire wing remaining mothballed for now.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091202
502.html

Posted by lois at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

Crime Report Shows Violent Crime Fell in 2008 as Incarceration Rates Continue to Decrease

Crime Report Shows Violent Crime Fell in 2008 as Incarceration Rates Continue to Decrease
Justice Policy Institute
September 15, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Violent crime in the United States fell by 1.9 percent and property crimes by 0.8 percent in 2008, according to an analysis released today by the Justice Policy Institute. The analysis, which was based on the full 2008 FBI Uniform Crime Report, which was released this week, also found that this drop in crime coincided with a drop in incarceration from previous years. The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. based think tank, hailed the news, saying it bolsters the case for a connection between effective alternatives to incarceration and public safety.

"Reducing incarceration rates is not only fiscally responsible, it is also the humane thing to do," said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute. "This week's report shows that we can preserve public safety while expanding the use of community supervision and improving the systems that help people be successful, including treatment, housing, and job services."

According to the analysis, the number of violent crimes fell in three of the four regions of the country. The number of property crimes fell in two of the four regions of the country; both the Northeastern and Southern regions experienced an increase of less than 3 percent in the number of property crimes.

While jails and prison populations continue to grow, the growth rate slowed in 2008, coinciding with the drop in crime. From 2007-2008, violent crime fell 1.9 percent while the growth rates of prisons and jails slowed, suggesting that lowering the number of people incarcerated can be an effective way to increase public safety.

From 2005-2006, violent crime had increased slightly (1.9 percent), while prison and jail populations also grew (by 2 and 2.5 percent, respectively). However, as the growth rate of prisons and jails has slowed, the violent crime rate declined as well, down 1.4 percent from 2006 to 2007.

"This data also confirms that increasing incarceration does not necessarily mean improvements in public safety. We should not starve our education and human service budgets to grow jails and prisons," Velázquez added. "Focusing on increasing investments in people and communities is what will ensure that these crime numbers continue to drop."

The Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a Washington, D.C.-based policy group that promotes fair and rational justice policies, cautions that no single factor can explain changes in crime across the nation, or within a jurisdiction. We have assembled key findings from these new crime and prison surveys to put the new figures in their appropriate context.
http://www.justicepolicy.org/

Posted by lois at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

Medical Inattention in New York Prisons

Editorial
Medical Inattention in New York Prisons
NY Times
Published: September 15, 2009

Prison inmates are the sickest people in society, with infection rates for blood-borne viruses like H.I.V. and hepatitis C far higher than the general population. Failing to test, counsel and treat these inmates makes it more likely that they will spread infection once they are released and suffer catastrophic illnesses that shorten their lives and drive up public health costs.

The New York State Legislature had this problem in mind when it passed a bill that requires the State Department of Health to ensure that prison H.I.V. and hepatitis programs are operating effectively and meet prevailing medical standards. Corrections officials, who tend to rebel against oversight of just about any kind, want Gov. David Paterson to veto this bill. He should ignore them and sign it.

The state correctional system has unquestionably improved medical care over the last several years. But a recent report by the Correctional Association of New York, which is authorized by the Legislature to monitor the prisons, found troubling inconsistencies in care in the state prison system, which is said to house 20 percent of the H.I.V.-infected inmates in the United States.

The report, based on state records, estimates that the state has identified through testing fewer than half of the H.I.V.-positive inmates and only about 70 percent of those with hepatitis C. The report finds that the number of people receiving treatment varies significantly from place to place, which is suspicious given that the population is fairly homogenous. The variation raises questions about the consistency and effectiveness of medical policies from prison to prison.

Prison medical officials argue that the treatment regime is fine and that oversight is unnecessary. But critics in the Legislature rightly point out that the prison health system is the only one in the state not overseen by the Health Department. The prison system, with about 4,000 infected inmates, is the largest provider of treatment for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, in the state.

Other critics argue than the Health Department’s initiative would cost money at time when the state can’t afford it. But better diagnoses and treatment in prison would save more money than it would cost by preventing further infections and keeping many patients from moving on to costly, catastrophic illnesses.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 15, 2009, on page A32 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/opinion/15tue2.html?_r=1

Posted by lois at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2009

MA: Supreme Judicial Court Rules All Prison/Jail Calls are Not Private

“Under today’s decision, prosecutors, for the first time, can listen to every telephone conversation a prisoner has with all family members, doctors, social workers, or priests,’’ Garin said. “This allows prosecutors to get any of those recordings for any reason and no reason.’’
The Boston Globe
Jailhouse calls are not private, SJC rules
Conversations can be subpoenaed
By Shelley Murphy
Globe Staff / September 12, 2009

In a 4-to-3 decision that could have a sweeping impact on grand jury investigations and prisoner privacy, the state’s highest court ruled yesterday that prosecutors may subpoena recordings of telephone calls made from jail by inmates and people who are being held while awaiting trial.

Rejecting contentions that the subpoenas violate prisoners’ privacy rights, the Supreme Judicial Court found that both inmates and pretrial detainees have no reasonable expectation of privacy because they are clearly warned that all telephone calls are subject to monitoring and recording.

“Here, where all parties to the recorded telephone calls had notice that their conversations were not private, and where the detainee or inmate had no objectively reasonable expectation of privacy, any privacy interest in those conversations must be given little, if any weight,’’ Justice Roderick L. Ireland wrote in the majority opinion.

The court found that prison officials have a right to record conversations because of security concerns and that prosecutors are entitled to subpoena tapes of those calls while gathering evidence to present to grand juries.

Currently, all prisoner calls are subject to monitoring or recording, except those between prisoners and their lawyers. Under the ruling, prisoners’ conversations with their lawyers would remain protected by the attorney-client privilege and would not be recorded or subject to subpoenas.

In her dissent, Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall wrote that “the implications of this are profound’’ because prison officials and prosecutors are no longer constrained by privacy rights guaranteed by the Constitution from any use they may make of private phone conversations of all inmates, even those of detainees who have not been convicted.

She raised concerns about whether prosecutors were seeking to subpoena telephone calls between inmates and their pastors, therapists, or spouses, and those between juvenile detainees and their parents.

“Although institutional security concerns may outweigh a detainee’s privacy rights and permit monitoring of a detainee’s telephone calls by the sheriff, it does not follow that a detainee can have no subjective expectation of privacy with regard to other government officials,’’ Marshall wrote.

In the majority opinion, the court upheld a lower court judge who ruled that Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea J. Cabral was required to comply with a grand jury subpoena from Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office seeking all of the recorded telephone calls of a prisoner.

Citing the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, Conley’s office declined to identify the prisoner.

A spokesman for Cabral said she had asked the high court to rule on the constitutionality of the subpoenas after a judge in an unrelated case found last year that such subpoenas violated privacy rights.

Yesterday, Conley hailed the Supreme Judicial Court decision as a victory for prosecutors, noting that his office used recordings of jailhouse telephone calls to win convictions for murder, witness intimidation, perjury, and other violent crimes.

“Barring the use of jail calls could have resulted not just in acquittals, but in retaliation against witnesses,’’ Conley said. “Defendants make mistakes and that sometimes is what provides the crucial break. That allows you to hold them accountable for their actions.’’

But the decision drew swift condemnation from defense lawyers.

William J. Leahy, chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, called the decision “profoundly wrong’’ and said lawyers will explore legislation that would restrict the ability of prosecutors to subpoena jailhouse calls.

“It’s one thing to say that because you are locked up and the institution needs to be secure that the calls need to be recorded; it’s another thing to say that everything in every conversation can be in every prosecutor’s file at the beck and call of the prosecutor,’’ Leahy said. “It’s just so sweeping that it really requires correction by a higher court or by the state Legislature.’’

It is unclear whether the decision means that Middlesex prosecutors will be able to use jailhouse calls between teenage murder suspect John Odgren and his parents at his upcoming trial for the 2007 stabbing death of fellow student James Alenson at Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School.

The Supreme Judicial Court has yet to rule on an appeal from Middlesex prosecutors, who argued that a judge erred when he blocked them from using 30 hours of Odgren’s conversations taped at the Plymouth County jail.

The lower court judge found that the subpoena for Odgren’s conversations was too broad and violated requirements that such requests be linked to a court hearing.

Boston attorney Patricia Garin, who is one of Odgren’s lawyers, called yesterday’s ruling “a terrible decision’’ that will affect incarcerated children, yet fails to address issues that are unique to them. In some facilities, all of their conversations with their parents are recorded and could now be subpoenaed, she said.

“Under today’s decision, prosecutors, for the first time, can listen to every telephone conversation a prisoner has with all family members, doctors, social workers, or priests,’’ Garin said. “This allows prosecutors to get any of those recordings for any reason and no reason.’’

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/12/jailhouse_calls_are_not_private_sjc_rules/

Posted by lois at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

Prison Comix by Jim Ridgeway

Prison Comix
September 5, 2009

With more and more older people going to prison there is a growing demand for educational materials to keep their minds alive and well amid the deadening atmosphere of the American correctional system—created in large part by government and supervised and informed by the judiciary. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of young and middle-aged people whose “rehabilitation” has been cut short by the cruel sentencing laws.

There are all sorts of projects afoot in this area, but one is of special interest. It is called the Real Cost of Prisons, and is run by Lois Ahrens of Northampton, Mass., on a shoestring. You can get a feel for her work by obtaining the Real Cost of Prisons Comix book which includes three comics: Prison Town about the financing and placement of prisons and their effect on rural communities; Prisoners of the war on Drugs, a history of the war on drugs; and Prisoners of a hard Life,which includes stories of women trapped by mandatory sentencing. To me, this last book is the most telling. PM Press publishes the book at $12.95 a copy.

Ahrens got the idea of doing comic books,partly because she wanted to find a way of communicating with prisoners in a simple,direct way providing them especially up to date information and new research. She hit on the idea,in part from years of going to Mexico, and watching women engrossed in photo novellas while tending market stalls or sitting on park benches. Then trade unionists from South Africa gave her publications chock full of graphics, pictures and text that they were using to educate people in their campaign to stop privatization and in the fight against globalization. She also got ideas from “A Field Guide to the US Economy” by James Heintz and Nancy Foibre which also uses graphs, cartoons and ordinary language to explain the economy.

Because prisoners can’t ordinarily take advantage of the information that currently proliferates on the internet, comic books which speak to their lives and needs, are available and free, she says.

Comic books have been received by prisoners in every state prison system,every federal prison and numerous jails. Thousands more have been sent to prisoners through 13 Books through Bars organizations. We know that comic books are passed hand to hand by prisoners,since as soon as a set is sent to one prisoner,not a week passes before we begin receiving requests from other prisoners at that prison..One prisoner wrotethat he found one on a pew in the prison

Ahrens web site is an up to date resource on prison news.

http://unsilentgeneration.com/category/prisons-criminal-justice/

Posted by lois at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2009

Pippin Ross, former reporter at WFCR talks about her years at Framingham Prison

Former reporter released from MCI-Framingham
By Dan McDonald/Daily News staff
Posted Sep 06, 2009
FRAMINGHAM —

Doing time in MCI-Framingham may have landed Pippin Ross, who once ran a public radio station in western Massachusetts before she was jailed for multiple drunken driving charges, the biggest scoop of her career: revealing what she refers to as the "beast of the correction system."

In July 2006, after facing at least four drunken driving counts, Ross was sentenced to serve 2 to 4 years in the state women's prison in Framingham.

During her stint inside, Ross, then Inmate # 80554, did what came naturally: She culled stories, taking copious notes, documenting everything from the green Jell-O and mystery soup at chow time to the Zen of mopping and sweeping in the morning.

She observed.

Ross took note of the large number of inmates given psychotropic drug prescriptions , whether they needed them or not.

"Women get put on the drugs right away," she said. "It's what I call chemical restraint."

At least 60 percent of MCI-Framingham's inmates have open mental health cases, according to the Department of Correction. Ross suggests the number is actually much higher.

In a typed response to Ross' statements, DOC spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said licensed psychiatrists, psychologists and clinicians are solely responsible for making clinical decisions.

Ross, the inmate, dug for news.

The DOC's drug vendor is based out of state, says Ross. That is something Ross' husband, Phil Austin, says many people in the state don't know, and it's something that "should make the average taxpayer livid."

Wiffin says its medical vendor uses the State Office of Pharmacy Services for all medication, as is statewide policy for all agencies.

While behind bars, Ross ruffled feathers, filing a complaint about access to the law library and holding an interview with The Boston Globe. That move, she says, partially contributed to prison officials unfairly scrutinizing her.

She says her cell was often searched and some notes confiscated.

The Department of Correction declined to comment on those assertions, saying it would need a CORI waiver to get into specifics about Ross' assertions of retaliatory solitary confinement and room searches.

Ross says legal services for the inmates are hard to come by in MCI-Framingham.

In the correction system, Ross notes there is "an ongoing philosophical civil war between those who are compassionate and those who say 'Let them break rocks."'

Wiffin, in response to that statement, says the DOC is committed to re-entry into society as sound public policy which promotes public safety.

When Ross emerged from the Loring Drive prison in March with a deflated ego, the 53-year-old whose resume includes writing for the Boston Herald and Boston Globe, she knew she had a story to tell.

Ross now lives in a sober house in Malden and is writing a book with Austin, 56, of Nantucket, about her experience in prison and in the judicial system.

It's an experience she labels "exhausting, demoralizing, and scary."

Having just finished a cup of chai tea in a Somerville cafe Friday, Ross speaks matter-of-factly about her time inside. She does not break eye contact. She does not get emotional.

She calls prison the "epicenter of post-traumatic stress syndrome" and says nearly every woman she encountered in prison had been sexually abused at some point in their lives.

"Many, many women in prison are there because of a horrible experience that drove them to the edge. All of a sudden ... the controls get lifted," she said.

Prison is almost always the result of a twisted assortment of factors, says Ross, who originally hails from Fitchburg.

"Terrible public education, no affordable housing, and no access to help," she said.

But Ross appears to buck such a criteria.

Educated at Dana Hall School in Wellesley before attending UMass-Amherst to study broadcast journalism, Ross was the news director for the National Public Radio affiliate in Amherst WFCR from 1986 to 1996.

She continued to be linked to NPR in some form until 2004.

Her decade-plus course in hard knocks began years earlier.

While alcoholism "was always there lurking," things really fell apart, she says, when she was sexually-assaulted while she was working on an investigative story in the late 1990s.

Ross racked up four charges of driving under the influence of alcohol in a 2-year span, ending in the earlier half of the decade.

In 2004 she was sent to McLean Hospital in Belmont to get sober. Her stint was short-lived. Five days into her stay she shared a vodka nip with a fellow patient and was asked to leave. That development was probably a moot point. She says she couldn't afford the $450 per day cost her insurance did not cover. Not paying for the stay meant a probation violation and she was sent back to court.

In February 2005, she was sentenced to a year in jail and ultimately landed in the Western Massachusetts Correctional Center on Howard Street in Springfield.

"It was my ashram. My on-the-taxpayer's Betty Ford clinic ," said Ross.

Three days before she was scheduled to be released, however, she was indicted for altering a court document by changing the number of drunken driving charges she had on a court document.

Ross says the count would not have affected her jail sentence and that it was a paperwork snafu; she said she had simply tried to make a minor correction to court documents.

The court thought she was trying to fudge documents to get out early.

Her attorney had a blunt assessment of the situation: "You're smoked," he told her.

She fought the charge of "before the fact aiding an attempted escape," for nine months before succumbing to her attorney's pressure, pleading out in July 2006. She was sent east, to Framingham where she was imprisoned until March.

She married Austin, a novelist with four published books under his belt, last April, two weeks after she was released from prison. The two, who first met as part of a theater production 27 years ago, corresponded while she was in jail starting in January 2007.

Ross, who has a 20-year-old son, is on both parole and probation. She is scheduled to get out of the sober house in December, but might be released sooner.

She has one article due to come out in the September issue of Shambhala Sun Magazine, an upscale meditation magazine, about teaching yoga in prison. She said she also is working on other freelance assignments.

The book project is nearly done and the couple is shopping the manuscript, which has a tentative title of "Crash Test Dummies."

Reflecting on her prison stint, Ross tries to pull something positive out of her story.

She said, "It showed me how astronomically precious life is."
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x736937634/Former-reporter-released-from-MCI-Framingham

Posted by lois at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)

Dallas PA: State to investigate allegations about Dallas prison guards

Friday, September 11, 2009 10:27 am
State to investigate allegations about Dallas prison guards
Fed Up! says prisoners claim guards facilitated suicide of convicted murderer Matthew Bullock.
By Steve Mocarsky – Times Leader Staff Writer

The state Department of Corrections will investigate prisoner allegations that guards at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas facilitated and encouraged the suicide of convicted murderer Matthew Bullock on Aug. 24.

Bret Grote, an investigator with the chapter, said credible prisoners who were confined in cells near Bullock contacted the organization claiming that Bullock, though a known suicide risk, was moved from a video-equipped cell to one without monitoring capabilities.

And on the morning of the suicide, two guards at the Jackson Township facility had been kicking on Bullock’s cell door, saying, “Kill yourself, you little p****,” according to one prisoner report, Grote said.
Prisoners also reported to Fed Up! that prison staff failed to place Bullock on suicide monitoring watch after Bullock stated his intention to kill himself. Hours later, Bullock was found by guards on the next shift hanging dead from his cell door, Grote said.
“No one, much less the mentally ill, should be held in Dallas’ (restricted housing unit). It’s a torture chamber, and for Matthew Bullock, it was a death sentence,” he said.

A Luzerne County jury found Bullock guilty of third-degree murder but mentally ill in the strangulation death of 33-year-old Lisa Hargrave in the couple’s Wilkes-Barre apartment on Jan. 1, 2003.

Hargrave was 22 weeks pregnant. The jury also found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter but mentally ill for the fetus’ death.
Grote noted that Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph Augello in November 2003 ordered Bullock to serve 20 to 60 years at a secure mental-health facility, and on July 15 “for reasons not yet known to the public, (Bullock) was moved from a state mental health facility at SCI Waymart to SCI Dallas, which is not a mental health facility and is not equipped to provide substantial mental health care.”

Grote said he planned soon to forward this information to various state officials, including Gov. Ed Rendell and officials at SCI Dallas and the Department of Corrections.
Bullock’s father, Robert Bullock, of Dallas, said he and his wife, Phyllis, needed more time to digest the information and declined to comment on Thursday.

PSP found no wrongdoing
Sue Bensinger, deputy press secretary for the state Department of Corrections, said Bullock “exhibited no indications of suicidal behavior prior to his committing suicide.”
Bensinger said Bullock had been discharged from the mental health unit at SCI Waymart because he had been exhibiting no signs of suicidal tendencies there, and, after arriving at SCI Dallas, he wasn’t on suicide watch because he still exhibited no signs of suicidal behavior.

According to Times Leader archives, prosecutors at Bullock’s sentencing hearing said he would be placed in a “hospital within a prison” setting and, if his condition improved, he could be transferred to a state prison with a judge’s permission.

Bensinger noted state police investigated Bullock’s death, as they do for any death that occurs in a prison, and found no wrong doing.A trooper at state police Troop P in Wyoming confirmed Thursday that there is no ongoing investigation into Bullock’s death.
Still, Bensinger said the information would be forwarded to the department’s Office of Professional Review.“We take all these kinds of allegations very seriously,” she said.

Bullock reportedly distraught

Grote also said the restricted housing unit in which Bullock was being held “employs the practice of solitary confinement, in which people are isolated for 23 or more hours a day in cells the size of a small bathroom, often under extremely harsh conditions.
“Solitary confinement is known to exacerbate mental illness and the practice of holding people in isolation – particularly the mentally ill – has been condemned by human rights groups and the United Nations,” Grote said.
He said Bullock was reportedly distraught over “constant harassment and intimidation” from guards, and about conditions in the SCI Dallas restricted housing unit, such as 24-hour lighting, extreme heat and poor ventilation in the cells.

“These conditions and extensive abuse by guards, have been the focus of an investigation by the Human Rights Coalition, who over the past three months have been compiling dozens of reports of human rights abuses at SCI Dallas, including encouragement of prisoner-on-prisoner violence, guards arriving to work drunk, prisoners being called racist slurs and retaliation – including death threats – against anybody who dares exercise their constitutional rights to file inmate grievances or civil suits regarding conditions of confinement,” Grote said.

DOC’s Bensinger said she didn’t have the size of solitary confinement cells immediately available, but she confirmed there is 24-hour “very dim lighting” during sleeping hours, “which ensures officers can, indeed, see into cells.”
http://www.timesleader.com/news/State_to_investigate_allegations_about_Dallas_prison_guards_09-11-2009.html

Posted by lois at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

Bridgewater: The men in Mass. who need our help

The focus of this is Bridgewater but doesn't mention the suicide and suicide attempts at Framingham.

The men in Mass. who need our help
By Mark S. Coven
The Boston Globe
September 10, 2009

THE THREE men sat in court, each in custody and handcuffed. The first was on probation for driving while under the influence of liquor. At 22, he struggles with alcoholism. After he was rushed to the hospital with an extremely high blood alcohol level, his parents petitioned the court to have him civilly committed to receive treatment. While the law authorizes judges to civilly commit a person to certain programs for up to 30 days, the Massachusetts Alcohol Substance Abuse Center at Bridgewater had discharged the probationer back to the court in less than one week.

The second man stared at me with vacant eyes. He was arrested for his third trespassing charge in less than 60 days. His lawyer said he suffers from both mental illness and alcohol abuse and has been homeless. He was given a no-trespassing order from a local homeless shelter after causing a disruption. The court psychologist said that she hadn’t been able to locate a program that would accept him for treatment of his dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse.

The third young man, a heroin addict, was back in court to be supervised on probation. He had just successfully completed 27 days of sobriety at the Men’s Addiction Center, funded by the Department of Public Health, and needed the referral to continue treatment.

I was taught as a child that when you squeeze a balloon, it simply causes a bulge in another part of that balloon. These three individuals are symptomatic of the hundreds of people who live each day with mental illness or substance abuse or homelessness. These problems do not simply disappear if not addressed. They manifest themselves in our prisons or on our streets.

A 2004 report from the Massachusetts Governors Commission on Corrections Reform indicates that one of every five inmates has mental health issues. The majority also have extensive histories of alcohol or other substance abuse problems. Yet recent public attention has been primarily focused on the estimated $562 million in new revenue from the increase in the sales tax rather than the $2.2 billion in spending cuts enacted by the Legislature and the governor.

This year’s budget cut 6 percent from the Department of Mental Health, which already had $36 million cut in the last fiscal year. The governor’s additional cuts will eliminate $500,000 from adult residential and day services, and $600,000 from funding hospitals and community mental health centers. These cuts may result in the closing of the 16 inpatient beds at Quincy Mental Health Center, beds that are utilized to help prevent mentally ill individuals from being admitted to state hospitals and to transition them to programs in the community.

This year’s budget cuts may also mean the closure of the Massachusetts Alcohol Substance Abuse Center in Bridgewater, 200 beds operated by the Department of Correction to provide substance abuse treatment for men. In 2008, there were over 1,500 admissions to the center. It is true that the Department of Correction requires these beds to be used to avoid overcrowding in state correctional facilities, and it may be equally true that the Department of Correction is not the most appropriate agency to provide substance abuse treatment for persons civilly committed. Even so, the end result is that there will be fewer beds for those who need treatment.

These types of budget cuts will not simply result in a loss of services to those in need; it will force those costs onto other portions of state or local budgets. Those people who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse issues who do not receive services or can not be supervised adequately by the court’s probation department will continue to offend, resulting in incarceration. The average cost to house an inmate in a state correctional facility is $47,679. That same person could be treated in the community and supervised by probation for approximately one-third of that cost.

The Legislature must address these critical items vetoed by the governor. And the governor must address the sudden loss of the 200 beds that will occur if the Massachusetts Alcohol Substance Abuse Center is closed.

As a child I also learned if you squeeze a balloon too hard it does not simply bulge, it bursts.

Mark S. Coven is the First Justice of the Quincy District Court.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/09/10/the_men_in_mass_who_need_our_help/
This and other news about financing and mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Posted by lois at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

MA: Possible closing of 4 prisons....although reality of it very doubtful

The Boston Globe
Prisons facing $100m in cuts :Fiscal scenario may prompt closings, layoffs
By Jonathan Saltzman and Peter Schworm
Globe Staff / September 11, 2009

Under increasing financial pressure, the state’s prison system is weighing close to $100 million in budget cuts that could force widescale layoffs and the closure of several facilites at a time of growing fears over inmate overcrowding.

Harold W. Clarke, commissioner of the Department of Correction, outlined the bleak fiscal scenario, and its potentially drastic consequences, at a monthly meeting yesterday between top prison managers and union leaders, according to Steve Kenneway, president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union. Clarke told union officials the state is considering closing as many as four prisons and laying off 300 employees, Kenneway said.

“Obviously, we’re stunned that the fiscal situation is so egregious that we may be looking at the closure of several facilities in Massachusetts,’’ Kenneway said. “We believe that public safety is a core mission for Massachusetts government. Period. We can’t let bad people out on the street.’’

The Patrick administration expects to make preliminary decisions on closings and layoffs next month, he said.

The prospect of multiple prison closings alarmed critics who say the system is already dangerously overburdened.

“You have prisoners locked in a cell together for 19 hours a day, with a resultant increase in violence,’’ said Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, which provides legal services to inmates. “It’s a mistake that could prove tragic.’’

Clarke’s spokesman, Terrel Harris, said Clarke was speaking broadly about the potential scope of budget cuts, and the department has no current plans to close prisons or lay off correctional workers. It is too early to make firm budget plans, he said.

But if projections hold true, the system would lose nearly $100 million in funding over the next two years, a shortfall that would require drastic spending cuts.

“If the forecasts are as bad as they look, we’d lose about what it costs to run four prisons,’’ Harris said. “We’re not looking at anything specific. We are looking at every possibility we can to try and keep everything going.’’

The state’s 17 prisons are well over capacity, with their population more than tripling over the past two decades to over 11,000.

In July, a riot at the Middlesex Jail, a county facility in Cambridge at more than double its capacity, shone a harsh light on the problem, and has intensified lobbying for relaxed minimum sentences, accelerated parole reviews, and more liberal use of home confinements.

With the state no longer able to afford to build facilities, such measures will be vital to curbing the prison population, supporters said.

In the face of a worsening financial crisis, the prison system also plans to cancel in-service training for correction officers and shelve training for 150 recruits this fall.

In November, it will also close a Bridgewater substance abuse center that treats more than 1,500 men each year who have been civilly committed by the courts.

The men will be transferred to facilities run by the Department of Public Health, said Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.

State Senator Jennifer L. Flanagan and state Representative Liz Malia, cochairwomen of the Legislature’s joint committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, said they were “deeply disappointed’’ by the closure.

“Facilities such as [the center] are vital because individuals are given the opportunity to begin their road to recovery, instead of becoming a part of the criminal justice system, which only increases the cost to our state’s taxpayers,’’ the lawmakers said in a statement. “Those who do not receive services that they desperately need are far more likely to criminally offend and never begin their recovery, and we find that unacceptable.’’

Many other states are grappling with overcrowded prisons. Last week, California officials asked the US Supreme Court to block a lower court order to come up with a plan to remove some 40,000 inmates from the prisons.

The lower court ruled that the state’s prisons are so crowded they can no longer provide inmates with adequate medical care.

According to Kenneway, the Massachusetts prison system expects to lose $35 million from its budget this fiscal year and as much as $63 million more next year, although those estimates are subject to change.

The union has strongly opposed previous steps Clarke has taken to deal with the rising prison population, including double-bunking inmates at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley earlier this year.

If four prisons closed, he said, that would result in more double-bunking or the release of inmates onto the streets.

“There’s no place left to put inmates,’’ he said. “They’re going to force-feed a reentry program that clearly wasn’t supposed to be a reentry program.’’
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/11/massachusetts_prisons_face_nearly_100m_in_budget_cuts/

Posted by lois at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2009

Dora Schriro to leave ICE to run NY Dept of Correction

Immigration Official to Run New York’s Jails

By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: September 8, 2009

The corrections expert appointed just a month ago to direct an overhaul of the nation’s troubled immigration detention system is leaving the Obama administration to be commissioner of correction for New York City, Department of Homeland Security officials said on Tuesday.

The expert, Dora B. Schriro, did not return calls for comment, and the Homeland Security officials who confirmed her departure were not authorized to speak for attribution. But an administration official who discussed the decision with Dr. Schriro said her main reason was the needs of a sick family member in New York, not any policy disagreements with the administration.

Immigrant advocates who learned of her imminent departure from a reporter expressed dismay and concern that the ambitious overhaul announced by the Obama administration last month would be delayed, if not derailed, by her loss.

But in a statement sent by e-mail to The New York Times, the department vowed to conduct an immediate national search to replace Dr. Schriro as director of the new Office of Detention Policy and Planning, a position in which she was to reinvent the patchwork of private prisons and county jails where hundreds of thousands of people accused of being immigration violators are held each year while Immigration and Customs Enforcement tries to deport them.

Dr. Schriro, 59, was appointed to the post in August, and was expected to bring to bear the findings she made during a six-month review of the detention system as a special adviser to Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security.

“The Department of Homeland Security is grateful for Dr. Schriro’s service over the past six months in improving the ICE detention system, prioritizing health and safety while ensuring security, efficiency and fiscal responsibility,” the department’s statement said. “Prior to departing, Dr. Schriro will meet with Secretary Napolitano and ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton to deliver her completed review of the system and make recommendations for comprehensive, long-term reform.”

The Bloomberg administration would neither confirm nor deny the appointment of Dr. Schriro to head the city’s Department of Correction, where she was an assistant commissioner 20 years ago. But Homeland Security officials said the announcement was expected Wednesday afternoon.

“It will be a huge gain for them,” said Dr. Homer D. Venters, an expert in detention health care and one of many advocates with whom Dr. Schriro met around the country as she reviewed the detention system. “There’s a very short supply of people who are operationally experienced but also are committed to improving the plight of people within these systems.”

The city’s jail complex, much of it on Rikers Island, has been plagued by recent scandals, including the fatal beating of a prisoner, accusations that correction officers had turned discipline over to gang members, and the revelation that a city chaplain had arranged a lavish bar mitzvah party in jail for the son of a prisoner. The commissioner, Martin F. Horn, retired on July 31.

For a veteran correction director like Dr. Schriro, who led corrections in Missouri before tackling the Arizona prisons when Ms. Napolitano was governor there, fixing Rikers may be less challenging than refocusing immigration detention.

Detention centers have increasingly come under fire for mistreatment of detainees and substandard, sometimes fatal medical care. The Obama administration announced that it would change the much-criticized penal detention system over a three- to five-year period into one that was “truly civil.”

“I think this is a significant loss,” Mary Meg McCarthy, director of Heartland Alliance Immigrant Justice Center, based in Chicago, said of Dr. Schriro’s departure. “She really seemed to have the energy and the passion to address the reform that was so desperately needed — and the creativity that I think was going to be required to do this.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/nyregion/09detain.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=homeland%20security&st=cse

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

UK:

A fair day's prison work?
By Eric Allison -Wednesday 9 September 2009
The Guardian UK
When work - however lousy - is preferable to staying in a cell, prisoners can easily be exploited, writes Eric Allison

When a radical prisoner support group and a mainstream charity both use the word slavery to describe contemporary prison labour, the premise is worth close examination. If forced labour is akin to slavery, then both the Campaign Against Prison Slavery (Caps) and the Howard League for Penal Reform are far from wide of the mark.

Courts can no longer sentence criminals to forced or hard labour, but the 1952 Prison Act allowed ministers to make prison rules without parliamentary approval. Under those rules, it is an offence to refuse to work, or indeed work hard. Prisoners who fail to work properly or refuse work will be punished.

The sanctions include cellular confinement and the 'awarding' of extra day's imprisonment. So prisoners can be further imprisoned for refusing to pack plastic spoons for Sainsburys, or untangle and repack in-flight headphones for Virgin Airways, for a weekly rate slightly above the legal hourly minimum wage. Sounds like forced labour to me.

Caps, which pickets high street stores selling prison-made goods, and the Howard League are not alone in condemning prison labour practices. The Prison Reform Trust, prisons ombudsman and the chief inspector regularly criticise the low-paid, repetitive labour that does little to train prisoners for the competitive external labour market.

The prison service enjoys a cosy – and largely secretive – relationship with the employers who provide the 'contract services' to prisons. Clearly, private contractors sending their work into prisons expect to make a profit, but how much does the prison service gain financially? The nearest you will get to an answer is an admission that the service works with the private sector to "make a contribution to offset the high cost of imprisonment". It speaks of having "robust" contracts with private and public sector partners. Presumably, these contracts robustly stipulate that prisoners will work for pocket money.

The exploitation does not end with measly pay. In the classic country song Sixteen Tons, a miner begs St Peter not to call him. He says he cannot go because "I owe my soul to the company store".

Prisoners cannot get credit from their penal company store; but the private companies that run them exploit their customers every bit as much as those paying their wages. Until recently, the contract for these prison shops was held by American food giant Aramark, but it lost out when the new contract was handed to Booker/DHL. The contract brings an annual turnover of £40m to the supplier, which decides what range of goods will be on offer and fixes the prices.

Prisoners are also exploited on their phone calls. These cost around five times the price of those made from a public phone box. The prison service receive a 7% commission from BT's profits from the calls.

Surveys consistently show that prisoners pay more for their shopping than the general public. Some items, toothpaste for example, were 20% dearer in prison than in supermarkets. Prisoners' wages have not increased since 1995, when the incentives and earned privilleges scheme was launched. Since then, the RPI has increased by some 43%.

Not all contract service work is mind-numbingly boring (and some companies pay better than others) but the irony is even prisoners with the worst of jobs, with the lousiest pay, actually prefer to be employed, rather than remain in their cells. The prison service knows this and exploits it. We know that prisoners have offended. But how can we hope to rehabilitate them within a regime that is systematically screwing them?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2009/sep/09/prison-work-exploitation

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

Dee Hubbard: Fighter Against Corruption and Private Prisons

One for the little people

By Krestia DeGeorge
Anchorage Press
September 2, 2009

According to the story, written by Rich Mauer, Hubbard bears no small responsibility for the start of what would eventually become the federal government’s investigation into government corruption in Alaska.

Mrs. Hubbard once worked in government, and had brushes with it as an engaged citizen—the piece describes a fight that went to the assembly to save a Muldoon neighborhood library. But Hubbard’s moment came late in life, when she and her husband learned of a group that was working on building a private prison in the state.

As Mauer recounts: “She and her husband began following the money, from halfway house contracts that [Bill] Weimar held with the state Corrections Department to political contributions by [Bill] Allen, whose company, Veco, would have built the prison.”

Weimar and Allen, of course, eventually pleaded guilty to corruption, once a small federal probe into the private prison issue turned into a large federal probe into corruption surrounding oil tax legislation. That investigation, as everyone knows, eventually snared a handful of powerful Alaskans, ranging from Vic Kohring to Ted Stevens.

In the process, it changed the face of Alaska politics.

Without the corruption probe, Democrats might not have won enough seats to wield any power in the legislature, leading to one-party rule. Without the probe, Sarah Palin might not have found a strong enough anti-corruption backlash into which she could successfully tap during her Republican primary challenge to Frank Murkowski three years ago. Without the probe Ted Stevens might still be stalking the halls of the Senate in his Hulk tie, and national Democrats, without a filibuster-proof majority in the upper house, might be talking about something less controversial than the nation’s broken health care system.

Without Dee Hubbard, there might not have been a corruption probe.

Okay, maybe that last one is a stretch. Something as big as the corruption investigation we’ve seen here in the last several years is generally too large to rest on the shoulders of just one individual. And if Hubbard hadn’t pursued her curiosity and sense of civic outrage, somebody else—eventually, inevitably—would have.

But as Senator Mark Begich told Mauer, Hubbard wasn’t the type to wait for somebody else: “When she thought something was unjust, she was not going to sit around and wait for someone to do something—she felt she was the someone.”

This is an old story in politics. A woman I once interviewed for a political profile got started because she was upset by a poorly planned development in her neighborhood. She didn’t stop the development, but she didn’t stop being involved either. Fast-forward a few decades and the same woman was about to take the reins of one of the most powerful committees in the U.S. House of Representatives.

But with Hubbard this story comes with a twist. She may’ve followed her civic instincts, but she didn’t follow them into a public office, or even into the limelight. She was content to work hard in the public’s interest, but to stay out of the public’s eye. Contrast that kind of humility with the brazen self-promotion of some who filed fistfuls of ethics complaints against then-Governor Sarah Palin, then rushed to congratulate themselves for having done so on blogs and in other sympathetic outlets.

Such pervasive selflessness—giving one’s time and effort for the greater good while spurning all compensation, whether in the form of pay or notoriety, except the satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing—seems valuable and rare.

Maybe it’s just me, but this seems like a season of uncommon ambition in Alaska, especially when it comes to politics.

Perhaps that’s because of the power vacuum created by the power structures the federal corruption investigation dismantled. Perhaps it’s that we’ve become accustomed to the national media spotlight that’s been trained on Alaska in the past 12 months, following Sarah Palin’s rise and fall from political prominence. Perhaps it’s always there bubbling under the surface, emerging when conditions are right.

There’s nothing wrong with ambition, of course, and many of our most ambitious would-be leaders have impressive resumes and thoughtful policies. We’ll be spending a lot of time soon covering a gubernatorial race and a race for the state’s lone seat in the House of Representatives. And that’s as it should be.

But this is a good moment to take a break from that, to honor Hubbard—and those like her who discharge their civic duties beyond glow of the spotlights cast on the public stage.

Hubbard died on Saturday of kidney and liver failure at the age of 62.

She’ll probably go down as little more than a proverbial footnote in Alaska history. But the events she helped set in motion—that cataclysmic shift in who holds power in Alaska and how—and their aftermath, will likely prove to be a central part of this young state’s history for decades to come.

Let’s hope that the next Dee Hubbard is already out there, anonymously tracking the footprints left by those in power.
http://www.anchoragepress.com/articles/2009/09/02/news/doc4a9effdbb708d338753963.txt

Posted by lois at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

VA Ban on Prison Book Program Prompts Protests

A Title Wave of Controversy
Va. Ban on Prison Book Program Prompts Protests

By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 10, 2009

A Virginia inmate studying for his GED asked for a dictionary, explaining that "there's a lot of words I just don't know." A criminal serving his 18th year wanted Christian fiction and Stephen King books. And a 61-year-old woman behind bars requested a how-to book on crocheting and a book of Bible commentary.

The three inmates are among thousands who have received books from the Quest Institute, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit group that has filled such requests for two decades.

But the group's popular Books Behind Bars program might have become a victim of its success.

Virginia prison officials banned the program last month, saying that the security risks are too great and that it creates too much work for busy corrections officers.

The sudden halt has prompted protests from prisoner advocates who say Books Behind Bars -- which has put as many as a million books in cells statewide -- is a relatively low-cost way to help inmates who want to learn.

"All these people would be sitting in their cells doing nothing," said Kay Allison, 78, the program's director and owner of Quest Bookshop in downtown Charlottesville. Officials, she said, "are not looking long term."

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Corrections Department, said the decision was made after a banned item or items made their way into prison in books provided by Quest. He would not provide details, saying it is a security issue. But he said officials worry that someone trying to smuggle an item to an inmate could use Books Behind Bars to do it.

"Because Quest sent books directly to offenders and utilized volunteers to send these books, there was nothing in place to stop someone from attempting to introduce contraband to an offender by secreting it in a book," Traylor wrote in an e-mail.

Allison said volunteers, who search the books before they are shipped, overlooked two items this spring -- a compact disc packaged in a textbook and a paper clip. She said both were found by corrections workers, who examine each package that enters the prison, before they made it into an inmate's hands. Those two mistakes should not justify killing the program, she said.
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Prison officials said Quest can provide books for prison libraries. And inmates who have money can buy books from approved vendors.

But Books Behind Bars supporters said inmates benefit from owning the most frequently requested books: dictionaries, thesauruses, Bibles and Korans. They said that prison libraries have limited collections and that Quest allows inmates with no money to seek specific titles. African American literature and self-help books top the list of sought-after volumes.

Deborah E. McDowell, a University of Virginia literary studies professor and an advocate of the program, said owning a book can encourage inmates to become better educated. McDowell, who has three relatives in Virginia prisons, said that benefits society.

A Title Wave of Controversy

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"To me, this makes no sense whatsoever," McDowell said of the state's decision. "I can think of no better use of one's time in that position than to elevate and expand the mind. Reading does that."

Books Behind Bars traces its history back two decades, when Quest Bookshop received a letter from a convicted killer asking to buy a book on Taoism. Allison wrote back, adding a few fliers about lectures the shop held on Buddhism, self-help and other topics. The inmate responded with a list of questions. He and Allison became pen pals.

Allison, who eventually visited the man in prison, said she met someone "who made a stupid mistake one evening of drinking and shot someone." During his years in prison, Allison said, the man had become spiritual and wanted to learn. She wanted to help, and Books Behind Bars was born.

Books Behind Bars gets about 500 letters each month from inmates. Churches and other groups donate books and money. John Grisham has given hundreds of copies of his books.

The program's popularity has contributed to the decision to halt it. Virginia inmates are allowed only 13 books in their cells. Traylor said the steady supply of free books from Quest "led to more staff-intensive efforts of controlling the number of books that an offender had."

Over the years, several state officials have applauded the program. In a July 1994 letter, then-Gov. George Allen (R) said Quest's work "benefited incarcerated offenders, corrections staff and Virginia taxpayers." In a July 2005 letter to wardens, Corrections Department Director Gene Johnson wrote that "it is the belief of both the Department and of Quest Institute that if an inmate is reading, s/he is productively employing his or her time while incarcerated."

One inmate who had gotten a Books Behind Bars shipment sent a letter to Allison to say he had become the first in his family to receive a general equivalency diploma.

"The free books you send me are a blessing," he wrote. "I read everyone of them from front to back." He asked her to send Shakespeare and Ernest Hemingway.

Allison, who is appealing the program's cancellation to the state, said she would limit the number of books sent to each inmate at one time or make other changes. But she is hopeful that the program can continue.

"I can't imagine sitting in a cell without any books," she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR2009090901808.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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

September 09, 2009

The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans

The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet
Posted on August 12, 2009, Printed on September 9, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140828/

Wayne McMahon was busted on gun charges six months after he got out of the Marines.

He was jumped by a gang of kids in his hometown of Albany, N.Y. , and he went for the assault rifle he kept in the back of his SUV.

He's serving "three flat, with two years of post-release" at Groveland Prison in upstate New York.

Maybe it's tempting to write McMahon off as just a screwed-up person who made the kinds of mistakes that should have landed him in jail, but maybe that's because his injuries don't show on the outside.

Unlike physical injuries, psychiatric injuries are invisible; the burden of proof lands on the soldier (or sailor or Marine), and such injuries are easy for the public to deny.

The diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder include a preoccupation with danger.

According to Jonathan Shay, a Veterans Administration psychiatrist and author of Achilles in Vietnam, hypervigilance in soldiers and veterans is expressed as the persistent mobilization of both body and mind to protect against lethal danger -- they act as though they were still in combat, even when the danger is no longer present.

That preoccupation leads to a cluster of symptoms, including sleeplessness, exaggerated startle responses, violent outbursts and a reliance on combat skills that are inappropriate, and very often illegal, in the civilian world.

When I asked McMahon what he was doing with an assault rifle in his car, he told me that since he got back from Afghanistan, he didn't feel safe without guns around.

"There was almost always a gun," he said. "In the apartment, there was guns everywhere.

"I was just over in combat, and you guys gave me an M-16 and a 9mm and let me walk around for eight months straight. And now I get back, and I get jumped by a bunch of people, and I can't have a gun?"

McMahon sits across from me in his prison greens, elbows on his knees, leaning into his story about the kid he was and the man he is hoping to become. His eagerness and optimism make it clear that he believes his mistakes are behind him.

His parents were teenagers when he was born, and they separated shortly after. He bounced around on the streets of Albany, and, like so many other young Americans with dreams of escaping dysfunctional families and lousy neighborhoods, he saw the military as a get-out-of-jail-free card.

He enlisted in the Marines right out of high school.

For the first time in his life, McMahon found himself in a meritocracy. He was promoted regularly and quickly, making sergeant by the time he got to Afghanistan.

Then two days before his five-year contract was up, he was caught drinking on the job, busted down to lance corporal and administratively discharged. He lost all his benefits.

McMahon was in the Marine Corps from 2001 until 2006. He spent his last year working as an aircraft mechanic on a flight line in Afghanistan that was under near-constant attack. It was also a transshipment point for injured American soldiers who were being evacuated to Germany.

For eight months, his days and nights were spent up close and personal with the visceral evidence of what the rockets, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades do to human bodies.

"We had a lot of explosions. Almost every day. And I seen guys coming out from convoy missions where their Humvees would have exploded," he told me matter-of-factly. "The first two months were pretty terrible. "

After that, even though "a lot of other people found it hard to deal with, it wasn't really too rough for me." A bit of Marine bravado, perhaps, but reinforced with a bit of liquid courage:

"We Marines, we're smart," he explained. "There was no alcohol provided, but I was making my own from fruit juice I got from the chow hall and yeast they gave us at the pizza shop. It was horrible, really horrible -- but two little 20-ounce water bottles, and you were good for the night. " It was the only way he got any sleep.

Jonathan Shay also notes the almost-universal reliance on alcohol or drugs by psychically injured veterans. They afford some temporary relief from intolerable memories and from the emotional and physical exhaustion of maintaining a constant state of vigilance.

McMahon came home from Afghanistan with a serious drinking problem, a hair-trigger temper and conditioned to rely on his combat skills for survival.

Both his marriage and his military career quickly unraveled, and then he was arrested. Nobody diagnosed his PTSD until he got to Groveland.

McMahon's obsession with safety and guns, and his compulsive drinking are both typical of a post-traumatic stress injury, but instead of diagnosis and treatment, he was left to his own compromised resources and promptly landed in jail.

In terms of the bottom line, it's a trifecta for the military when that happens. A damaged soldier is disappeared, the cost of treatment avoided and the evidence that would prove how often veterans find it impossible to readjust when they come home is erased.

Traumatized soldiers are not a military asset. They are unreliable, and can be dangerous to their fellow soldiers and to themselves. Their care can take years and be quite expensive. But because the macho culture of the military stigmatizes mental health issues, most soldiers won't ask for the help they need.

When they try to manage on their own and fail, when the entirely predictable symptoms of their injuries get them into trouble, their behavior is used to justify kicking them out of the service.

They lose all their health and disability benefits, and in the absence of treatment and support, the same behaviors that got them kicked out of the military land them in jail.

Once they enter the criminal justice system, their military service is irrelevant. Soldiers and veterans with psychiatric injuries who, like McMahon, end up in jail, are handed -- and in fact often accept -- the full burden of responsibility for their actions. And when that happens, the system gets off free.

That's what happened to McMahon, and though it's still too soon for meaningful statistics about incarceration rates among this new generation of veterans, the anecdotal evidence suggesting a predictive relationship between military experience, PTSD and trouble with the criminal justice system continues to mount .

And this is not a new phenomenon. The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, published in 1990, found that more than a decade after the Vietnam conflict ended, 15 percent of male veterans still suffered from PTSD, and half of them had been arrested or in jail at least once.

Most Vietnam War veterans deployed for exactly one year. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced longer and repeated deployments, and top military psychiatrists acknowledge that veterans of these new wars may have an even harder time coming home.

And instead of improving, the situation is getting worse. In 2008, the Rand Corp. estimated that 300,000 soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from post-traumatic stress issues, and 320,000 others will suffer traumatic brain injuries that express many of the same symptoms as PTSD.

And although most of them will not seek treatment, even when they try the VA has made such care extremely difficult to access.

For years, the Pentagon has chosen to ignore congressional directives to screen soldiers both pre- and post-deployment.

In May, the Hartford Courant reported that such screenings are still being administered in haphazard fashion. Only 1 percent of at-risk soldiers were referred to a mental health professional prior to deployment, and post-deployment screenings continue to be a laughably inadequate box to be checked on a form.

The Courant noted that the situation has remained unchanged since the paper reported on the issue in 2007.

And for veterans, the VA's claims backlog in May was approaching 1 million, a 14 percent rise since January.

By now, the anecdotal evidence associating combat-related PTSD with crime and incarceration ought to be part of the conventional wisdom. Its accumulation over the past century should have engendered enough concern to provoke some serious attention and study.

But the reality is that nobody knows the precise number of veterans who have ended up behind bars in the aftermath of America's wars.

There are more than a few reasons why military and government officials might want those numbers to remain hidden, but certainly among the most compelling is cost.

Large numbers of veterans in prison suggest a pattern, perhaps even a causal relationship between military service and behaviors that lead to incarceration, lending support to those who argue that such behaviors should be seen as possible symptoms of a service-connected injury deserving of treatment and support rather than punishment.

When the patterns are hidden -- the numbers unavailable -- it is easier for the military to pretend that the problem is with a given individual and not systemic.

In January 2008, when the New York Times reported that it had identified 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan had been charged with murder, the Pentagon declined to comment because it could not duplicate the newspaper's research.

A year later, the Army finally admitted that there might in fact be a connection between the violent behaviors of some returning service members and their combat experience. Pete Geren, Secretary of the Army, announced that in response to a spate of homicides at the Fort Carson Army base, he was “considering” conducting an Army-wide review of all soldiers involved in violent crimes since returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The report, which was finally published last week, does in fact “suggest a possible association between increasing levels of combat exposure and risk for negative behavioral outcomes."

And though it accuses the Army of denying necessary care to soldiers, and specifically blames commanders for proscribing access, Eric Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general, calls it “preliminary,” and insists that no causality can be inferred from the findings.

Without causality, there is of course limited accountability.

Shoomaker pointed out that soldiers themselves should bear some responsibility for failing to seek help, ignoring the fact that half of the surveyed soldiers accused of violent behaviors had been sent back to Iraq “early,” and that many of them had documented suicide issues. Schoomaker also stressed that though many soldiers claimed to have witnessed war crimes, an Army probe did not substantiate those claims.

The results of this report might have been an invaluable contribution to the public conversation about what war does to soldiers and who should be responsible for their readjustment into society. Instead, once again, soldiers are blamed for violent behaviors that are clearly symptomatic of their injuries. When individuals take the rap, there is no interrogation of the pattern. Officials remain free to dismiss and deny how many ex-service members are ending up in jail. And as long as the bodies remain hidden, they get away with it.

Vets Demonized; the System Gets Off the Hook

Ed Hart has a hard time accepting official denial of a connection that to him seems more than obvious.

Hart is an 87-year-old Marine, a veteran of World War II. He is also a former president of Veterans for Peace, a retired attorney and a deeply concerned citizen.

"People like me are upset about what they did to us -- and what they continue to do to the fuzzy-faced kids they haul off to boot camp," Hart said. "Too many of those kids never made it back into reality; they were found guilty of terrible crimes and sent off to spend years in prison -- maybe all the years left to them -- and we can't figure out what happened to them?"

Hart did in fact try to figure out what was happening in the late ‘80s, when Vietnam veterans began showing up in large numbers in the criminal justice system. Along with his pro bono legal work, he began interviewing large numbers of vets in prison.

What he discovered has been corroborated by every Bureau of Justice Statistics survey since: incarcerated veterans are better educated than their non-veteran counterparts; they are more likely to have been employed at the time of their arrest; and they are more likely to be in jail for a first offense -- all of which should be factors in their favor at sentencing.

But instead, they are more likely to get longer sentences than non-veterans -- on average, more than two years longer -- for the same crime.

Guy Gambill, director of research and policy at the Veterans Initiatives Center and Research Institute (VICTRI), attributes this to a "know better" syndrome.

"Judges and juries, ironically, place veterans in a higher category, one with heavy moral undertones. The thinking goes that they should know better and therefore should be held to a higher standard of conduct," he said.

Hart also recognized that moral judgment, but in his days as a practicing attorney, he saw an element of demonization in the dynamic as well.

"I've seen prosecuting attorneys in their final statements point to the bewildered man at the defense table and tell the jury, ‘Look at him! He's a trained killer! We need to get him off the streets and make them safe for our women and children.' "

Mike Thomas has experienced that prejudice firsthand. Thomas did three tours in Vietnam, was wounded twice, and earned all kinds of medals, but he's doing 25-to-life at Mule Creek Prison in Ione, Calif., for spewing some racist bile at an Asian man over the phone.

The day he got home from Vietnam, he beat up an Asian man in a bar, and he did it again the day they let him out of jail. He was sent to a military hospital for two years with a diagnosis of Adult Situational Reaction, a diagnostic precursor to PTSD.

The military declared him "fully recovered." For 25 years, he held down a job as a sales manager.

Then, one morning, in the midst of a flashback, Thomas lost his balance. Aside from hypervigilance, the symptoms of PTSD also include flashbacks. Flashbacks can be so convincingly real that the sufferer behaves as though he or she were actually in the remembered moment.

"Everybody who's lived at the brink of terror for some time has stored that place in his memory," Hart explains with empathy. "There's always the possibility that something will take him back sometime, give him that little push that will take his balance away.

"But there ain't much more you can do to a guy on the phone worse than yell at him."

Nonetheless, the prosecutor, noting Thomas's two priors, decided to interpret his phone rant as a terrorist threat -- hence the draconian sentence.

Some might argue that Thomas's antagonism towards Asians made him an accident waiting to happen, and they're not wrong. But dehumanization of the enemy is central to how military training enables soldiers to overcome their inherent resistance to killing other human beings.

Author Jonathan Shay describes how images of the enemy were drilled into his Vietnam-era patients as a "demonized adversary … evil, loathsome, deserving to be killed as the enemy of God, and as God-hated vermin, so inhuman as not really to care if he lives or dies."

It seems a distortion of justice to send a man to prison for life because in the course of his military training a switch got flipped, making him temporarily more useful to his government.

The practice continues. Bob Herbert, writing in the New York Times, described "the growing rage among coalition troops against all Iraqis (known derisively as 'hajis,' just as the Vietnamese were known as 'gooks')."

He quotes Sgt. Camilo Mejía, an Iraq war veteran, who explained, "You just sort of try to block out the fact that they are human beings and see them as enemies. You call them hajis, you know? You do all the things that make it easier to deal with killing them and mistreating them."

"The sacrifice that citizens make when they serve in their country's military," Shay reminds us, "is not simply the risk of death, dismemberment, disfigurement and paralysis -- as terrible as these realities are. They risk their peace of mind."

"When I went to boot camp," Thomas said, "I was a good Catholic boy who'd never shot so much as a squirrel. But I turned 20, 21 and 22 in Vietnam, and that became my identity. I tried to filter life through that prism of horror, pain and loss. Not good. A recipe for disaster."

Thomas once tried suicide to escape "the despair, grief, survivor guilt, nightmares, depression, the pain of hearing my mother say she wished I had died in Vietnam so her memories wouldn't be tainted."

More recently, he asked Veterans for Peace -- by mail -- to sponsor a nationwide program for incarcerated vets. His proposal was accepted and in May, VFP Incarcerated Chapter 001 was officially incorporated at Mule Creek Prison.

Wayne McMahon was luckier in that New York state still maintains residential therapeutic programs for veterans at three of its prisons. (In 1999, there were 19, boasting a recidivism rate of 9 percent after five years compared to 52 percent for non-veterans. Unfortunately for taxpayers, those programs were consolidated for the sake of "efficiency and effectiveness.") He has taken advantage of courses in anger and aggression management, interpersonal dynamics, and substance abuse, and he has completed his training as a group facilitator.

McMahon has a job waiting for him when he gets out; he wants to go back to school; and he is going to try for a discharge upgrade from the military based on his PTSD diagnosis.

The Hidden Numbers

Since its first study of the issue in 1979, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has been the best source of information on the number of vets who have ended up behind bars.

According to the bureau's most recent survey, in 2004, there were 140,000 veterans in the nation's prisons -- or about 10 percent of the total prison population. By 2007, that number had risen to156,100, but the prison population overall had increased, so the relative share of vets in the population remained unchanged.

But as Baruch College's Aaron Levenstein once said, "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. "

For example, the numbers above don't include veterans held in the nation's jails, or those on probation or parole. When those groups are included, according to BJS estimates, the number of veterans who were under correctional supervision in 2007 jumps to 703,000. In addition, just under 1.2 million vets were arrested in 2007.

At least some of those on parole or probation at a given point will be arrested later in the year, skewing the estimated total. But Christopher Mumola, author of the last two BJS surveys of incarcerated veterans, said "if 703,000 veterans are supervised in some fashion on a given day, and 1,159,500 arrests in 2007 involved veterans as well, that gives you a rough approximation of the maximum number of vets who are touched by the criminal justice system in a year of about 1.8 million to 1.9 million veterans."

Still, in all probability, that number under-represents the number of veterans behind bars for several reasons.

For one, Mumola points out, an inmate's military history is irrelevant to prison administrators. "(They) measure the things they operationally use or are bureaucratically accountable for. Whether someone is a veteran or not doesn't change how that inmate is handled, the privileges they have or anything like that." So prison administrators don't ask. And, Mumola added, "the federal government doesn't require them to keep those statistics."

Frank Dawson, a patient advocate at the Boston VA, has long been frustrated and dismayed by the lack of reliable numbers. Dawson says he believes veterans need support before their lives spin out of control, and, "as a national service provider, the VA can't target services unless it knows where its population is."

But Dawson, like everyone else, has been stymied in his efforts. "I keep on my desk a stack of 6,000 address labels that I got from the Department of Justice," he said. "Six thousand institutions, 6,000 egos, 6,000 systems, 6,000 sets of protocol. There is no standard intake anywhere. I keep that stack on my desk to remind me how complicated they have made it. "

In the absence of federal, state or local legislation requiring penal institutions to use standard intake procedures that include verification of an inmate's military history, veterans' advocates across the country are pressuring the courts to at least inquire about veteran status during the bail-screening process.

But Taylor Halloran, who recently retired as the VA's liaison to veterans in New York's downstate prisons and jails, said there are more than a few reasons why veterans might refuse to divulge their military background.

Halloran emphasizes that many veterans offer fake Social Security numbers or aliases at intake, or they fail to report their arrests to VA because they fear the loss of benefits -- which is at least partially true. Health care benefits are suspended for the term of an inmate's incarceration and, after 60 days, disability benefits are reduced by about half, but those too should be reinstated when a veteran is released.

Lots of veterans don't know or understand the VA's policies, many have families that depend on those checks, and the VA has a reputation for taking its time reinstating benefits after an inmate is released.

So it's sort of a devil's bargain: identify themselves and lose half of their disability benefits, or take a chance they won't get caught. But if they do, they are royally screwed.

They have to pay the government back with interest and fines, but the far more serious consequence is that they lose all future benefits, including health care, disability and education.

To many, the risk seems worth taking. A 1999 Inspector General's report sharply criticized the VA's failure to "implement a systematic approach to identify incarcerated veterans and dependents, resulting in additional past and future overpayments exceeding $170 million dollars."

A 2004 VA Performance and Accountability Report found $5.7 million in benefit overpayments in a 20 percent sample of cases, and the report noted that "tracking 100 percent of these cases would not be cost beneficial."

Halloran said he had to work to get his potential clients to come forward voluntarily. And even then, he "couldn't touch the guys the VA doesn't consider veterans -- anyone with a dishonorable or bad-conduct discharge." One in six incarcerated veterans has been dishonorably discharged.

New Wars, Old Problems

Although the data are imperfect, one thing the BJS surveys do well is identify trends and patterns. For example, its last survey showed that at about 40 percent, Vietnam-era veterans still constitute the vast majority of vets in state and federal prisons.

The Gulf War involved far fewer soldiers and lasted for only six months, but at 15 percent of the veteran population in state and federal prisons, they constitute the newest wave. Veterans of the Gulf War are almost twice as likely to be incarcerated as demographically comparable non-veterans.

At 4 percent of the incarcerated veteran population, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were only just beginning to show up in the 2004 BJS survey.

"It takes quite a while for these folks to show up in the criminal justice system," Chris Mumola explained. "They are out there in these conflicts, having these experiences, coming back, getting into trouble with the criminal justice system, being fully adjudicated, winding up in prison, and only then are they available to be interviewed in these surveys. It may take years and years to marinate before it really manifests itself. "

Unfortunately, the next BJS survey is not scheduled until 2012.

However difficult those populations might be to track, it would seem that if ever there was a population that should be easy to count, it's prisoners. Every one has a number. Files are kept. There are forms -- and now computerized records -- from which patterns might be gleaned.

And prisons aren't the only black holes into which our nation's damaged warriors are disappearing. They also end up in hospitals and mental institutions. They vanish beyond the margins of society when their lives, their marriages, their careers fall apart. They end up in boxes on the street, vilified, forsaken, and self-medicating. Far too many die too soon of disease, accidents, overdoses or suicide.

An honest accounting of their numbers would be ammunition for those who believe that soldiers and veterans are still not receiving the care and support they need.

It would help challenge the myth of the romantic warrior by better educating our children to the real dangers of military service. It would also contribute to a public better informed about the hidden costs of our military ventures, including the ongoing damage to our citizens and our treasury, and to our national character as well.

Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her book Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War was released on Memorial Day 2006. Her Web site is Flashback.
© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/140828/
And....
Think Vietnam Vets Were Screwed? Wait Until You See How Many Veterans of Bush's Wars End up in Jail
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet
Posted on September 9, 2009, Printed on September 9, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/142258/

As all the other justifications for the U.S. invasion of Iraq have fallen by the wayside, it is ironic that the one that remains is "freedom," because in the name of someone else's freedom, we train our own soldiers to behave in ways that may very well cost them their own.

Gordy Lane is a retired Syracuse police detective who served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. As a cop, it was his job to put lawbreakers behind bars, but as a veteran, he understands that when you go to war, "you come back a little different than when you went over there."

"Listen," he says, "you pop up out of a foxhole, and you blow a guy's head open like a watermelon. The other two guys in the foxhole start patting you on the back and saying, 'Good job!' because you just did the worst thing that you can do to another person. How do you translate that into civilian life?"

For far too many soldiers, the simple answer is, you don't.

But with them behind bars and out of sight, most of the rest of us are free to ignore the human evidence of what our military ventures really cost. Even putting issues of compassion and justice aside, any number of alternatives to prison have been shown to save taxpayer money.

For example, the average annual cost of incarceration in New York state in 2008 was $44,000 a year. But a 2009 report by the Legal Action Committee found that for every individual diverted from prison into community-based treatment programs, the state would save between $62,492 and $88,892 a year.

The LAC calculated those savings by subtracting the average cost of treatment (for addiction or mental-health issues) from the cost of incarceration. It turns out to be cheaper, both in the long and the short run, even considering expenditures such as program administration and court supervision, if projected savings in health care, public assistance and future criminal justice involvement is also considered.

With that in mind, as these new wars drag on, and as more and more service members find themselves entangled in the criminal justice system, it seems worth asking, in whose interest is the status quo maintained? Especially when there are more humane and even more rational solutions available.

Jim Strollo, who directs the veterans program at Groveland Prison in New York, has "a group of veterans that meets on Thursday nights that addresses PTSD, among other things.

"But I'm not a trained counselor. We have the Office of Mental Health, but they are not equipped to do a lot of counseling because crisis intervention keeps them so busy. Veteran inmates rely in the counseling of their peers. They do the best they can."

Even 10 years ago, veterans at Groveland and other New York prisons had more support and treatment options than they have today.

Don Little, who coordinated the NYS Department of Correctional Services' Veterans Programs from 1986 until December 2004, when he retired, told me sadly, "We had good results. We made the department look good, and we weren't even spending the state's money. I just don't understand."

Reintegrating Vets into Civilian Life

After the war in Vietnam, when veterans began showing up in the nation's prisons in large numbers, Vietnam Veterans of America was the first organization to respond with rehabilitation programs specifically designed to help returning troops reintegrate into civilian life.

NYDOCS adopted VVA's design and did perhaps the best job of implementing the program.

"We even had the VA involved, " Little says proudly. "They provided trained substance-abuse and PTSD counselors, and the NYS Division of Parole and Department of Labor had signed on as well."

By 1993, NYSDOCS could boast a recidivism rate (five years after release) of 8.9 percent for veterans who had completed the program, compared with 51.6 percent for non-veterans.

In 1999, 19 facilities in NYSDOCS offered veterans programs. Then, for the sake of "efficiency and effectiveness," those programs were consolidated. There are now three. And since the consolidation, program participation no longer counts toward certificates of "earned eligibility," which make an early parole more likely.

"Our program was undermined at the highest levels of the department," Little recalls with bitterness. "They said vets were getting preferential treatment. But I believe they just didn't want it to succeed. Vindictive, that's what it seemed to me."

What happened to those demonstrably successful programs makes no sense in human or even in fiscal terms. But even while various agencies of government appear content to keep veterans behind bars and out of sight, an array of creative and compassionate -- not to mention economically rational -- solutions continue to emerge, put forward by concerned individuals.

The Syracuse police force, for example, like police departments in communities across the country, includes a lot of Reservists and Guard members. In the past, they went right back to work when they came home. But Gordy Lane came up with a program designed to help the department and its officers with the entirely predictable re-entry issues they face following a deployment.

To that end, Lane has involved local professionals, including representatives from the police department, the mayor's office, the district attorney's office, the Vet Center and the VA, in a plan to make sure they are not sending a liability out onto the street.

"After all, this guy's got life and death strapped to his hip."

Now when these veterans/cops come home, the department gives them two weeks paid leave, during which time they are walked over to the VA to make sure they understand the services and benefits to which they are entitled, and then on to the Vet Center, where they must sign up for one-on-one counseling with a PTSD expert.

The PTSD expert decides when the cop/veteran is ready to go out on the street. And when he or she does get the green light to go out, he or she is paired with an Iraq or Afghanistan vet, who determines when/if he or she is ready to carry a gun.

Lane calls it a "commonsense approach" and, he adds, "It's free."

Programs like Lane's are cropping up across the country, but helping veterans/officers with re-entry issues only takes pressure off one side of the equation.

There is still the issue of what happens when symptomatic behaviors bring other veterans into contact with police.

"A vet won't back down," says Lane, "and neither will law enforcement. They are like two rams. What we have to do is help law enforcement understand these guys."

Training to Recognize Signs of PTSD Vets

Last year, Steve Darman, a Vietnam-era vet and an adjunct professor of sociology at State University of New York Institute of Technology in Utica, did a countywide study of prisoner re-entry issues that convinced him that health care, human services and crisis-intervention workers, as well as law enforcement, need to be trained to recognize the characteristic behaviors and needs of traumatized veterans.

"These new vets, just like the vets from Vietnam, they do perimeter checks at night so they can feel safe. And sometimes they do it with weapons. They don't sleep at night like most people, so they are out there walking around their property at 2, 3 in the morning, and local law enforcement can roll up and misunderstand. The cops need to learn to think twice."

Darman says he imagines "front-line responders all over the country are having similar problems with vets in crisis," and adds that he "would also guess that the outcomes for our vets are not good."

The accumulation of tragic stories in Oneida County alone -- stories like the Utica police officer who was fired last year for severely beating a verbally abusive Vietnam vet with a PTSD diagnosis while the vet was handcuffed to a gurney in a hospital psychiatric ward -- those kinds of stories impelled Darman to develop a one-day training workshop for local law enforcement, which he hopes will help keep similar future confrontations from escalating into prison sentences -- or worse.

But he fears that a crisis is looming, that the numbers will be daunting. The problem "goes way beyond the cost of incarceration," he warns. "PTSD, addiction and homelessness reinforce each other, producing a downward spiral that is almost always accompanied by incarceration. When we try to 'manage' veterans without helping them heal, there are costs attached everywhere."

Guy Gambill, director of research and policy at the Veterans Initiatives Center and Research Institute, predicts that the number of veterans of today's conflicts who will have run-ins with the criminal justice system "will exceed those of the Vietnam generation by a long shot."

To support that claim, Gambill points to a whole slew of "emendations and additions to our criminal codes since the Reagan administration. Laws requiring mandatory minimum sentencing and three-strike laws enhance sentences for a panoply of lower-level offenses and will bring unprecedented numbers" into the justice system.

Furthermore, large numbers of service members have "volunteered" for economic reasons. They come from the working class, and according to Gambill, "the well-documented inequities in our legal system make it far more likely that when this generation of soldiers transgress, they will do time."

And he notes that the "signature" wound of today's war, traumatic brain injury (TBI), which "in those cases where there is co-morbidity for substance abuse and/or where PTSD is present, there is an apparent link to violent behavior. That psychological component is often misinterpreted by law enforcement."

Gambill has been instrumental in getting a version of California's alternative-sentencing law -- which gives judges the option to take military service into consideration at sentencing -- passed in Minnesota this year, and he is working on getting a federal version passed.

Alternative "Veteran Court" Model

Another optimistic response has come from Buffalo (N.Y.) City Court Judge Robert Russell, who parlayed his experience with the successful drug- and mental-health-court concept into the first "veteran court."

Instead of prison, a veteran who has gotten himself or herself into trouble with the law is introduced to a court-supervised support community tailored to address the many readjustment issues specific to veterans -- from simple life-maintenance issues, to addictions, mental-health issues, housing and legal problems. The approach is holistic, the staff are largely veterans, and the focus is on recovery, not punishment.

More than 100 veterans have been admitted to the court in the past year. Their retention rate is 91 percent, and they predict a recidivism rate on a par with the mental-health court's, somewhere around 4 percent. Those numbers are particularly impressive when compared to the 60-70 percent national average.

Greg McClure, who is the project director at the new veterans court in Rochester, N.Y., sounds optimistic: "It's easy to spend money to punish, more of a challenge to find programs that work. This works. Our recidivism rates in the drug courts are way below the national average, and the veterans court is a little lower than that.

"I think it will be very difficult for anyone to say this isn't a good idea. It's taking care of people who have taken care of us."

Brock Hunter, a Minnesota criminal defense lawyer who worked with Gambill to draft the state's alternative-sentencing legislation, is less sanguine.

"We have like 2 million folks who have served now in the current conflicts, and well over half of them are still in the military. These are the folks who have done four or five or six combat tours. When they finally get out, that's when the shit is really going to hit the fan."

Although Gambill and Hunter are quick to point out that they have nothing but the deepest respect for Russell and his court, they fear that such courts can only handle a relatively small number of cases. And they are further limited, at least as currently conceived, because they are proscribed from handling anything but "nonviolent" crimes. That language, Gambill says, is "simply too vague to be reasonable."

"In lots of states, Minnesota for example, any offense involving a controlled substance is considered violent. Add disorderly conduct, driving intoxicated, illegal gun possession, and we've ruled out a large percentage of the guys we are talking about. If what we are trying to do is not send as many veterans to jail as we did post-Vietnam, that's a colossal stupidity."

Hunter adds: "It is exactly the cases involving violent crimes that are the ones we should focus on. These are they guys who need help the most. They are likely going to be the veterans who are suffering from the more severe cases of PTSD, and if they go untreated, they are going to pose a greater danger to society when they get out than when they went in."

What Hunter has found to be a useful legal strategy is what in Minnesota is called "a stay of adjudication." Hunter says this is when a veteran enters a guilty plea that the judge does not accept. The process in effect puts the veteran on probation. The judge can then order him to seek treatment from the VA, or even to serve a few days in jail, if he thinks he needs to get the guy's attention.

Still, the justice system retains some leverage, some insurance that this troubled veteran is going to get the help he needs to get his life back in order. And if he complies, the charges are dismissed, and he has a clean record.

Like the veterans court, Hunter's solution requires that the mechanism be worked out on a case-by-case basis. That can only succeed if an adequately funded legal system has access to an adequately funded support network, including accessible VA treatment, housing, education and employment support.

Any solution that is going to work will be expensive and will require a very different set of priorities from those responsible for the policies that are now in place.

But, Gambill warns, "The way we are doing things now will ensure one thing: We will end up with the same numbers of veterans who 'fell through the cracks' as after Vietnam ... they may get there via different routes, but get there they will."

Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam War veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day 2006. Her Web site is Flashback.
© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/142258/

Posted by lois at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)

VA: Plan to close 3 prisons

Va. to Cut 929 Jobs To Ease Shortfall
Kaine Plan Includes Trims in College Aid, Closure of 3 Prisons

By Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 9, 2009

RICHMOND, Sept. 8 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Tuesday that he will eliminate 929 jobs, including 593 through layoffs, close three correctional facilities and cut as much as 15 percent in aid to colleges and universities to make up for a $1.5 billion budget shortfall.

Kaine (D) did not propose raising taxes, and limited cuts to K-12 education and local government, but he did trim aid to police and sheriff's departments by 5 to 7 percent.

Most of the state's 102,000 employees will be required to take a one-day furlough in May, and its contribution to their retirement plans will be reduced in the final quarter of the year to save more than $104 million.

The announcement marks the fourth time since the two-year budget began in July 2008 that Kaine has scaled back the state's forecast for tax and fee revenue as Virginia suffers from the worst economic downtown since the 1930s.

"Like all citizens and all businesses, we are having to tighten our belt," Kaine said at an afternoon news conference filled with reporters and lobbyists on Capitol Square.

Kaine will make many of the changes immediately, including increasing fees, such as those to make a state park reservation by telephone or file campaign finance disclosure reports by paper. But he must seek legislative approval to borrow $280 million from the state's rainy-day fund.

All savings must be made by the end of the fiscal year in June.

"We knew there was going to be blood everywhere, but this seems to be a reasonable plan," said Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax), a member of her chamber's Finance Committee and a budget negotiator, after she was briefed by Kaine on the cuts.

Kaine's proposal includes cuts to almost all state agencies, although higher education and corrections will suffer the brunt of them.

Colleges and universities will be cut 13 to 15 percent, but Kaine said he will ask the federal government for permission to use stimulus money to restore some of the trims, resulting in a decrease of 7.7 percent. The schools might consider layoffs or tuition increases to make up for the loss.

Two prisons, in Brunswick and Botetourt counties, and a juvenile correctional center in Natural Bridge Station will shut down. Inmates will be transferred to other prisons or kept in local jails.

Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, said local police and sheriff's departments and the Virginia State Police will lose a combined $56 million this year, in addition to taking more inmates into crowded local jails.

"This hurts," she said.

Schrad said that large departments might be able to absorb the cuts but that the others will suffer. Some small departments might be forced to close altogether, she said.

Virginia's announcement comes as other governments in the region continue to wrestle with the recession's effects.

Late last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced a second round of budget cuts to cope with a $700 million shortfall that emerged just weeks into the new fiscal year. The cuts included 205 layoffs, furloughs of up to 10 days and more than $200 million in state transportation aid and other assistance for local governments.

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has eliminated about 1,900 jobs and supported increases in parking meter rates and sales, cigarette and gas taxes to close a $666 million shortfall over the next three years.

In Virginia, state revenue projections have been lowered by $7 billion since July 2008, resulting in deep cuts in education, law enforcement and health care and the elimination of hundreds of jobs. An infusion of federal stimulus money helped the state avoid deeper trims.

This shortfall reflects $1.2 billion from this fiscal year, combined with $300 million carried over from the previous fiscal year. Lawmakers put aside $160 million last year for future economic problems, which will be used this year.

Kaine spent weeks reviewing recommended trims of as much as 15 percent from each state agency. He said one of his top priorities was to cut as little as possible from public schools, most of which opened for the year Tuesday.

Robley S. Jones, director of government affairs for the Virginia Education Association, said funding will be reduced by about $171 million. "He did as much as he could to spare K-12," Jones said.

State revenue collections fell 9.2 percent last year -- the most significant drop in modern history -- because of dramatic reductions in individual and corporate income tax collections and a decrease in recordation taxes, sales taxes and lottery money.

State revenue collections are projected to fall 1.6 percent this year. It is the first time revenue has been projected to decline for two straight years.

Many legislators have long accused Kaine of being overly optimistic when it comes to the state's finances. No one said that Tuesday.

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) called the cuts "a first and essential step" in addressing the budget shortfall and praised Kaine for not proposing a tax increase.

"In the midst of this economic recession, increasing the financial burden already being borne by Virginia families and businesses through higher taxes would only serve to prolong an economic turnaround and weaken any recovery," Howell said.

About 450 state employees have been laid off since October, and hundreds of others have been transferred or demoted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090801456.html

Posted by lois at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Audit Faults CDC with Huge Systemic Problems Including the Cost of 3 Strikes

"Aside from the questions of inefficiency and fattened paychecks, the auditor noted that California's "three strikes" sentencing law adds billions to the state's corrections costs.
Because that law imposes longer-than-usual sentences on inmates who commit a third felony after two serious or violent prior offenses, the state must house and care for those inmates for years longer than would otherwise be the case.
Currently, a quarter of California's 150,000 inmates are serving "three strikes" sentences. The auditor found that if those inmates did not serve the longer-than-usual sentence, the state would save some $19.2 billion in future years."

Audit faults California prison system for failing to develop system to track rising costs
By Denis C. Theriault

09/08/2009
San Jose Mercury News
SACRAMENTO — As the debate grinds on in the Legislature about how best to slice $1.2 billion from California's crowded prison system, a scathing new audit faults the Corrections Department for its skyrocketing costs and for not doing enough to track the money it spends.

According to the report, released Tuesday, spending by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation jumped by nearly 32 percent from 2005 through 2008 — to almost $10 billion, a tenth of the state's operating fund — even though the inmate population actually decreased by several hundred inmates during that span.

"Corrections fails to track, maintain and use data that would allow it to more effectively monitor and manage its operations," State Auditor Elaine Howle wrote to lawmakers and the governor's office. She said that "lack of information" has prevented officials from keeping some costs in check.

It was unclear Tuesday how the report would affect the Legislature's ongoing efforts to trim the prisons budget. Cutting the budget, largely by releasing thousands of inmates, was a key piece of the weeks-long discussions that closed the state's $24 billion deficit this summer.

Efforts to send a reform package to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk have languished amid a dispute between the Senate and the Assembly over how many inmates to release. Neither side commented Tuesday on the auditor's findings.

In examining the cost increases, prison officials point to several factors, from sharp increases in pay and benefits for corrections officers to court-mandated spending on inmate health care.

But the report found several figures that were particularly eye-popping.

In 2007-08 alone, the department spent $431 million on overtime costs — which was still a cheaper alternative than hiring and training additional corrections officers to reduce the need for overtime.

Moreover, the report blasts the department for failing to employ a computer system that collects and tracks how factors like overtime and health care costs individually contribute to rising costs.

The report also found that the department was unable to track the $208 million it spent last year on job-skills and academic programs designed to keep inmates from returning to prison after their sentences are complete.

Aside from the questions of inefficiency and fattened paychecks, the auditor noted that California's "three strikes" sentencing law adds billions to the state's corrections costs.

Because that law imposes longer-than-usual sentences on inmates who commit a third felony after two serious or violent prior offenses, the state must house and care for those inmates for years longer than would otherwise be the case.

Currently, a quarter of California's 150,000 inmates are serving "three strikes" sentences. The auditor found that if those inmates did not serve the longer-than-usual sentence, the state would save some $19.2 billion in future years.

Corrections officials said they took the auditor's remarks "very seriously" and that two new computer systems are due to go online at all 33 of the department's prisons, camps and institutions over the next two years.

But officials also said that some of the costs — related to benefits for corrections officers and "three strikes" sentencing — are outside the department's control.

Voters have resisted efforts to soften the three- strikes law since it was enacted in 1994. And much of the increase in benefits stems from a labor agreement that then-Gov?. Gray Davis signed with the politically powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association in 2001.

"We're not just sitting still," said David Lewis, the department's deputy director of fiscal services. Noting efforts to bring the department's computer systems "into the 21st century," he said, "these are things we've been working on for a long time."

Schwarzenegger's office on Tuesday praised the department's efforts to "address the inefficiencies pointed out in this audit, and we support their efforts to streamline functions and be more cost-effective."

The Senate last month approved an ambitious plan, backed by Schwarzenegger, that would have released 27,000 inmates this year, in part by offering home monitoring for inmates with less than a year to serve and providing for the supervised release of medically incapacitated inmates.

But the Assembly last week narrowly approved a scaled-back version of the plan that would release only 17,000 inmates next year.

Senate and Assembly leaders have been discussing how to bridge those differences before the current legislative session ends Friday, although the effort has taken a back seat to other issues.

That legislative dispute comes amid the backdrop of a federal court ruling last month that ordered the state to remove 40,000 inmates from its rolls because of chronic overcrowding and concerns about the quality of inmates' health care.

The Schwarzenegger administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay that ruling. But if that bid fails, the state has only until the end of next week to submit a plan that outlines the cuts.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_13294963

Posted by lois at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

KY: KY: Bill would cancel Aramark Contract Where as Many as 300 Prisoners Became Ill and Might Have Provoked "Riot"

"State corrections officials say the contract with Aramark saves $5 million each year and allowed them to give corrections officers a nearly 7 percent raise in 2008."

Bill would cancel prison food contract

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears

Complaints about the quality and quantity of food that a private company provides to Kentucky state prisons has led a state lawmaker to file a bill that would cancel the $12 million annual contract.

Northpoint Training Center, where there was a riot last month, is one of several state prisons where inmates and corrections officers have complained about the food provided by Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services, said state Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville.

Yonts said he also is concerned that the illness of as many as 300 inmates at a Western Kentucky prison might have been caused by food.

"There's no reason for people to be treated inhumanely," Yonts said. "I don't think the system is recognizing the problem with Aramark. I'm hoping the administration will ... cancel the contract."

If the bill is passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2010, food service to inmates at state prisons could be provided only by state employees, inmates or volunteers. That was the case until January 2005, when the state contracted with Aramark. The contract was renewed in January 2009 and expires in 2011.

Yonts said he received many complaints from across the state about food quality, shortages and even "crawling creatures in the food" in the past year.

Inmates at Boyle County's Northpoint staged a sit-in in 2007 over the quality of food and prices of snacks in the prison canteen, according to the American Correctional Association.

In a riot at Northpoint on Aug. 21, inmates burned and damaged buildings, several of which were a total loss. Eight guards and eight inmates suffered minor injuries.

Yonts said that he sent a questionnaire about the food to corrections officers. The replies said that food problems have caused "control" problems with inmates.

Sarah Jarvis, a spokeswoman for Aramark, said Tuesday that the company "has an excellent track record" and has received many accolades.

"We reduce the costs to taxpayers of feeding inmates, while providing nutritious meals in close consultation with dietitians and nutritionists," she said.

In January, Aramark stopped serving meals at Florida prisons, citing rapid rises in food costs and a poor working relationship with the state. In 2008 alone, the company was fined $241,499 by Florida for problems with the food and service, according to news reports.

Saving millions

State corrections officials say the contract with Aramark saves $5 million each year and allowed them to give corrections officers a nearly 7 percent raise in 2008.

Northpoint inmates and family members have told the Herald-Leader that the quality and price of food and canteen items continues to be a source of unrest at the prison and might have figured in the August riots.

Jarvis said there is no evidence that the riots "were the result of anything other than gang-related activity and yard restrictions. Some of the facts in this story seem to be based on anecdotes, half-truths and suspicious complaints by inmates and others who ... ignore official reports and contradictory facts."

Incidents that led to the riot and fire are under investigation by the state Department of Corrections and State Police.

Source of illnesses unknown

At the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex at Fredonia, James Tolley, the public health director at Pennyrile District Health Department, said his staff has investigated three cases in 2009 in which inmates had gastrointestinal distress.

In one instance in the spring, Tolley said, as many as 300 inmates fell ill there.

State Corrections Department spokeswoman Cheryl Million said a foodborne illness was suspected, but it could not be verified in lab tests. Tolley said that even though lab results did not confirm that food was the problem, his staff advised food service employees on safe food handling.

Yonts said he is looking into those cases.

"Inmates do complain about Aramark," Million said. However, she said, there were similar complaints before Aramark took over food service. The Department of Corrections receives, on average, 21 food grievances among 13 institutions each month, she said.

The state pays Aramark $2.63 for each inmate each day, Million said.

Yonts said he also has received complaints about the food at Blackburn Correctional Complex in Fayette County.

Yonts' legislation barring private companies would not apply to canteens where inmates at state prisons can buy food, to local jails or to food provided to inmates being transferred from one prison to another.
http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/story/927104.html

Posted by lois at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

PA: Tyrone Werts and William Fultz First to Go Before Board of Parole After Federal Judge Ruling But Now Must Wait Again

This was sent to me Gale Muhammad of Women Who Never Give Up!.
Please send letters in support of Werts and Fultz can be sent to the Pennsylvania Board of pardons 333 Market St. 15th floor, Harrisburg PA 17126-0333. Below is the story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. A bio for Tyrone Werts is attached.
Thank you.

Lifers' commutation bids stalled Two Graterford inmates must wait until an appeal of a June ruling is decided.

By Michael Rubinkam
September 5, 2009
Associated Press
HARRISBURG - Two Graterford Prison inmates who have won plaudits for their decades-long efforts to reduce prison violence and counsel troubled youths will have to wait to hear whether their life sentences will be commuted.

The inmates, convicted Philadelphia murderers Tyrone Werts and William Fultz, were the first lifers to go before the state Board of Pardons since a federal judge decided that thousands of Pennsylvania inmates sentenced to life should have an easier path toward clemency.

U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo issued the ruling June 11 in a lawsuit seeking to overturn a 1997 state constitutional amendment that toughened commutation standards for lifers. The pardons board has appealed the ruling, leading to yesterday's vote to delay a clemency decision for Werts and Fultz until the appeal is decided.

The inmates' supporters, who had anticipated that the board would vote to recommend commutation to the governor, said they were stunned and disappointed.

"This is heartbreaking. This is rough. I can't believe it," said the Rev. Paul Werts, who presented his brother's case.

The 1997 amendment requires that inmates sentenced to life must receive a unanimous vote of the five-member pardons board before the governor may consider their commutation request. Before then, only a majority vote was needed.

Caputo ruled that the pardons board may not apply the tougher 1997 standard to inmates who committed their crimes before 1997. The decision - the latest ruling in the Pennsylvania Prison Society's 12-year-old lawsuit - could affect more than 3,000 of the state's 4,868 lifers.

The pardons board has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to overturn the lower court ruling. The board asked Caputo to stay his decision while the appeal is heard, but Caputo did not act on the request in time for the hearing.

Lt. Gov. Joe Scarnati, the pardon board's chairman, said yesterday that the board had little choice but to delay decisions on Werts and Fultz.

"We're not clear if we need three votes or a unanimous vote in order to pardon these two lifers. And to take a vote that may conflict with a court ruling weeks down the road, I think, would be inappropriate," he said.

Supporters of the amendment say the murderers who make up Pennsylvania's lifer population should face a high hurdle to freedom. Michael Piecuch, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said clemency is "not a right. It's not an entitlement."

Werts, 57, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1975 for his role in a slaying during a robbery at a speakeasy. Fultz, also 57, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1975 in the fatal shooting of a teenager. Neither was the triggerman, and both rejected plea deals that would have gotten them out of prison decades ago.

Werts and Fultz are considered model inmates at Graterford, where they have counseled at-risk teenagers and led efforts to reduce recidivism rates. Werts once prevented the rape of a prison teacher, while Fultz risked his life to deliver medicine to a prison staffer during a 1981 hostage crisis at Graterford.

Calling Werts and Fultz "two remarkable men," board member Russell A. Walsh nevertheless recommended that the board postpone its decision.

The vote was unanimous.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/57182477.html

Posted by lois at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

Study Finds Only Half of All Federal and State Prisons offer Methadone and Buprenorphine and Only In Very Limited Circumstances

Study finds US prison system falls short in treating drug addiction

PROVIDENCE, RI – Almost a quarter of a million individuals addicted to heroin are incarcerated in the United States each year. However, many prison systems across the country still do not offer medical treatment for heroin and opiate addiction, despite the demonstrated social, medical and economic benefits of opiate replacement therapy (ORT).

According to new research from The Miriam Hospital, Brown University and their affiliated Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, just half of all federal and state prison systems offer ORT with the medications methadone and buprenorphine, and only in very limited circumstances. Similarly, only twenty-three states provide referrals for some inmates to treatment upon release from prison. These policies are counter to guidelines issued by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which say prisoners should be offered ORT for treatment of opiate dependence.

The study's findings are published online by Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

"Pharmacological treatment of opiate dependence is a proven intervention, is cost-effective and reduces drug-related disease and reincarceration rates, yet it remains underutilized in U.S. prison systems," said Amy Nunn, ScD, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of medicine (research) at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "Improving correctional policies for addiction treatment could dramatically improve prisoner and community health as well as reduce both taxpayer burden and reincarceration rates."

"Opiate addiction, like all forms of addiction, causes long-term changes to the structure and functioning of the brain, which is why it is classified as a disease. Addiction requires treatment just as other chronic diseases, like diabetes and cancer, do. Unfortunately, there is a large gap between the number of prisoners who require addiction treatment and those who actually receive it," added senior author Josiah Rich, MD, MPH, co-director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at The Miriam Hospital and Alpert Medical School.

The U.S. has the world's highest incarceration rate, with approximately 10 million individuals incarcerated each year. More than half of inmates have a history of substance use and more than 200,000 people with heroin addiction are incarcerated annually. Inmates face disproportionately higher burdens of mental illness, substance use and infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Meanwhile, their transition back to their communities is often associated with increased sexual health and drug-related risks, and more than half will relapse within one month of their release.

For the past four decades, methadone has been the treatment of choice for opiate dependence. It prevents withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings, blocks the euphoric effects of other opiates, and reduces the risk of relapse, infectious disease transmission and overdose death. The drug buprenorphine is a newer treatment for opiate replacement that has less likelihood of overdose and is associated with less social stigma. Like methadone, it prevents withdrawal symptoms when an individual stops taking opioid drugs by producing similar effects. Both methadone and buprenorphine are included in WHO's "Essential Medicines" list of drugs that should be made available at all times by health systems to patients.

The Miriam/Brown research team surveyed the medical directors at the 50 state departments of corrections, along with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the District of Columbia prison, about their facilities' ORT prescribing policies and referral programs for inmates leaving prison. They received a total of 51 of 52 responses.

Although it appears methadone is offered more frequently that buprenorphine, only 28 facilities (55 percent) offer it under any circumstances, although more than half of these provide it only to pregnant women or for chronic pain management. Approximately 45 percent of facilities provided some community linkage to methadone treatment post-release. Meanwhile, only seven prison systems (14 percent) offer buprenorphine in some circumstances, while 15 facilities (29 percent) offer referrals for some inmates to community buprenorphine providers upon release.

When asked why these treatments are not available in their prison system, the majority of facilities indicated they prefer drug-free detoxification over ORT. A number of prison systems also cited security concerns about providing methadone and buprenorphine to inmates. Interestingly, 27 percent of medical directors said they did not know how beneficial methadone is for treating inmates with opiate addiction, while half were unaware of the benefits of buprenorphine.

A major barrier to providing ORT after incarceration appears to be the lack of partnerships with community ORT providers. Many providers also cited their focus on inmate health during incarceration, rather than upon release, as another reason for not linking inmates to ORT after they've been released.

"In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrating that pharmacological treatment for addiction has greater health and social benefits than abstinence-only policies, many prison directors are philosophically opposed to treating substance use. Most prisons also do not provide referrals for substance use treatment for prisoners upon release," said Nunn. "These trends contribute to high reincarceration rates and have detrimental impacts on community health. Our interviews with prison medical directors suggest that changing these policies may require an enormous cultural shift within correctional systems."

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The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA/NIH) and Center for AIDS Research (CFAR); and the Tufts Nutrition Collaborative. In addition to Nunn and Rich, co-authors include Nickolas Zeller and Ank Nijhawan from both The Miriam Hospital and Alpert Medical School; Samuel Dickman from Brown University; and Catherine Trimbur from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The Miriam Hospital, established in 1926 in Providence, RI, is a private, not-for-profit hospital affiliated with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a founding member of the Lifespan health system. For more information about The Miriam Hospital, please visit www.miriamhospital.org

The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University is Rhode Island's only school of medicine. Since granting its first MD degrees in 1975, Alpert Medical School has become a national leader in medical education and biomedical research.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/l-sfu090809.php

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

September 08, 2009

PA to build four new prisons

Pa. grapples with growing prison needs

By Mario F. Cattabiani
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania is preparing to embark on a major prison-construction blitz that will cost more than $800 million.

But the four new prisons can't be completed fast enough to meet the need for new cells - a situation that has forced corrections officials to find alternate ways to allay overcrowding concerns.

At existing state correctional institutions, they have retrofitted free space such as dayrooms into makeshift cells and have trucked in portable, trailer-like dormitories for added capacity.

In June, they began sending some inmates to county prisons and are now considering shipping others to out-of-state lockups.

"We want to continue to run secure, safe, and humane prisons," said state Corrections Secretary Jeffrey A. Beard. "And it is fast approaching the point that we cannot do that and we have to look at alternatives."

Yet one leading inmate-advocacy group believes the state is taking a wrong approach when it comes to overcrowding and should instead focus on revamping sentencing rules.

Pennsylvania has 50,957 inmates, while its system of 27 prisons has an official capacity of 43,200.

The state is expected to break ground, perhaps as soon as next year, on four 2,000-bed prisons - one each in Fayette and Centre Counties and two on the grounds of Graterford Prison in Montgomery County, which is scheduled to be closed.

But officials do not expect any of them to be completed until late 2012.

While the state's inmate population has been on the rise for decades, overcrowding concerns were compounded last year when Pennsylvania instituted stiffer parole practices after a parolee killed a Philadelphia police officer.

As a result, Pennsylvania began sending low-level inmates to county prisons. So far, 234 of them have been housed in local jails, and Beard said he envisioned that number to more than triple, to 900, by next year.

And officials are now considering sending some even farther away.

With fiscal budget crunches and excess capacity at their prisons, at least five states, including Michigan and Virginia, are opening their cells to inmates from other states.

Beard said Pennsylvania has never shipped its inmates across borders, with the exception of a period in 1989 when some were relocated to federal penitentiaries after the Camp Hill prison riots.

Even so, now might be the time.

"We are heading in that direction," said Beard, adding that state officials likely would decide within two or three months.

The state is exhausting other temporary options.

It has already maxed out the usefulness of portable units, similar to double-wide trailers, that have been parked inside the walls of seven existing prisons.

Beard described them as "ugly beds" - OK for now, but not a long-term solution.

That's why officials are examining another option, one they are tentatively calling "reentry centers." They are smaller, less costly sites to house low-security inmates who have fewer than two years left before they are released.

Corrections officials are considering a former state prison as the first of what Beard has nicknamed "mini prisons."

In 2005, the state closed and sold a correctional facility in Waynesburg, Greene County. At the time, officials mistakenly believed there wasn't a need for the building because population trends were flattening out.

A private company converted the 117-acre property into a drug- and alcohol-treatment center. It closed about three years ago, and corrections officials are now in talks with the owner to lease the site for 500 inmates.

Taken as a whole, Pennsylvania's efforts at dealing with overcrowding are among the most resourceful of any state in the nation, said George Camp, a national prison expert.

"They have been very creative in anticipating the future needs to avoid a real crisis," said Camp, a principal at the Criminal Justice Institute, an independent consulting group. "Someone has been doing their homework."

Few other states are building prisons in such a down economy.

Just last week, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, in an effort to raise needed revenue, signed legislation allowing the state to sell the rights to operate some of its prisons to for-profit companies.

Funding for the new Pennsylvania prisons was authorized several years ago. They will be financed through bonds and not the state's annual general-fund operating budget, which is now overdue by nine weeks.

William DiMascio, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said he understands that corrections officials are limited in how they can cope with overcrowding as they wait for the new prisons.

Temporary and makeshift cells are not ideal, he said, but they are better than "triple-celling" inmates.

But he called "awful" the prospect of sending inmates out of the state.

"If you move people farther away from their homes, they lose contact with the people close to them," he said. "And it hurts their chances for successful reentry into society when they do get out."

DiMascio and other inmate advocates also argue that the state, rather than focusing on building more cells, should embrace alternatives to incarceration, such as residential drug-treatment facilities for certain offenders. Such policy shifts have allowed other states to reduce their prison populations.

But historically, the Pennsylvania legislature has been reluctant to approve more lenient sentencing rules for fear of looking soft on crime.

Without those changes, come 2013 when the ribbons are cut on the new prisons, the state will already have exceeded the new capacity, according to current projections.

Then, DiMascio said, "you are going to need four new prisons because the four you just built are going to be full."

Prison Growth

Pennsylvania's state prison population:

1960 7,802

1970 6,289

1980 8,243

1990 22,325

2000 36,810

August 2009 50,957

SOURCE: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090907_Pa__grapples_with_growing_prison_needs.html?page=1&c=y

Posted by lois at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2009

"The Recession Behind Bars"

Op-Ed Contributor
The Recession Behind Bars

By KENNETH E. HARTMAN
Published: September 5, 2009
New York Times
Lancaster, Calif.

EVERY weekday morning the prison’s not on lockdown, the yard holds its collective breath waiting for the pale-orange package cart to appear through multiple layers of chain-link and razor-wire fences. For most prisoners, this lumbering vessel is their only tangible, physical connection back to the free world. The last couple of years the cart has arrived less often and with visibly lighter loads.

We get broadcast television, so the state of the economy outside is no secret. Our families and friends tend to come from the segments of society that are the worst off in the best of times, and worse off still in times like these. Our mothers and fathers, wives and children, those to whom the ties that bind haven’t been unbound by the course of our lives, tell us how hard it is out there.

The first inkling of financial difficulties in here surfaced in the chow hall. All of a sudden prison officials became concerned about our overeating. In the last couple of years, our brown plastic trays have started to look and feel a lot emptier. Even the old staples, beans and rice, shrank into bite-sized portions. Luxury items like frosted cake and meat cut from the carcass of a once-living thing vanished. The new menus, chock full of potatoes and meat substitutes, seem right out of a Spartan’s cookbook.

Prison is a world reflected in a looking glass, however. The past 25 years were generally prosperous for California; the economy boomed and fortunes were made in the sunny San Fernando Valley. But during this time, the lives of prisoners became much drearier. We were forced into demeaning uniforms, with neon orange letters spelling out “prisoner,” and lost most of the positive programs like conjugal visits and college education that we had had since the ’70s. Money was flowing outside the prison walls, but new “get tough” policies against criminals were causing our population, and our costs, to soar.

It is a quirk of California politics that it is among the bluest of states but has some of the reddest of laws. No politician here ever lost an election for being too tough on crime or prisoners. Consequently, all through the ’80s and ’90s billions of dollars were poured into a historic prison-building boom. Private airplane pilots tell me it’s easy to navigate at night from San Diego to Los Angeles and on up the Central Valley to Sacramento by simply following the prisons’ glowing lights. Good times in the free world meant, in here, ever-longer sentences, meaner regulations and ever-decreasing interest in rehabilitation. “Costs be damned; lock ’em up and be done with it” became the unofficial motto of the Department of Corrections.

The last time I received a visit from my family, in early July, the air-conditioning in the visiting room had been broken for more than a month. This matters because my prison is in the high desert north of Los Angeles. Temperatures here in the summer commonly rise above 100 dusty, windy degrees. Pack 150 people into an airless room and you’ve got the makings for human meltdown. Two industrial-sized fans only made a hot situation noisy, too.

The next day I asked one of the administrators what could be done to get the air-conditioning fixed, and he told me an amazing story. The free-world contractor who services the prison’s air-conditioning systems had refused to come out to replace the part that was broken, because the state owed the company tens of thousands of dollars in back fees and could pay only in i.o.u.’s. There would be no cool air until the state’s budget negotiations were concluded.

Now that the economy is suffering, there is talk of reforming the prisons, of reviving the discredited concept of rehabilitation, of letting some prisoners out early. Some people have even mentioned doing away with the death penalty because of the exorbitant cost to the state of guaranteed appeals. For those of us who have endured a generation of policies intended explicitly to inflict pain, this has a surreal quality to it. After all, it was only a year ago that the state authorities were planning the next phase of prison expansion. Obviously, all the passionate arguments that have been made about the moral wrongs of mass incarceration, of disproportionately affected communities, of abysmal treatment and civil rights violations were just so much hot air. Only when society ran out of ready cash did prison reform become worthy of serious consideration. What this says about the free world is unclear to me, but it doesn’t feel like a good thing.

The talk in here contains an element of schadenfreude. When the TV shows legislators complaining about how deep in the hole the state budget is, laughter fills the day room. Our captor turns out to be simply inept.

From the four-inch-wide window in the back of my cell, I watched, for seven years, the construction of a housing tract across the street — a subdivision we call Prison View Estates. We marvel at the hubris of building chockablock stucco mini-mansions within shouting distance of a maximum-security prison. Today, a year after the gaudy balloons from the grand opening deflated, the row of houses directly across from my window looks to be unoccupied.

From my cell I can also observe the inner roadway on which prison vehicles pass. A fleet of new, shining-white super-security transportation vans still drives by daily. Leviathan hasn’t quite adjusted to the Golden State’s diminished firmament.

Kenneth E. Hartman, the author of the forthcoming “Mother California: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars,” was sentenced in 1980 to life without parole for murder.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06hartman.html?_r=1

Posted by lois at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2009

VA: Some prisoners elibible for parole held longer than guidelines suggest

Some inmates eligible for parole held longer than guidelines suggest
By Frank Green
September 3, 2009
Richmond Times Dispatch

Some 706 parole-eligible inmates are being been held longer in Virginia prisons, at $24,332 each per year, than recommended under the current no-parole sentencing guidelines.

In a report to the General Assembly on Tuesday, the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission also found that as of the end of last year, there were 575 prison inmates eligible for geriatric release.

However, the report also found that of the parole-eligible inmates still in prison, 88 percent were convicted of violent crimes and nearly 80 percent have not yet served longer than stipulated under the sentencing guidelines.

Inmates who committed crimes before Jan. 1, 1995, are eligible for parole. Those who committed crimes on or after that date are not -- they are sentenced under guidelines based, in part, on the terms actually served by inmates under the old parole system.

Inmates and advocates have complained that because of low parole grant rates, many parole-eligible inmates are being held in prison longer than if they had been sentenced under what are widely perceived to be the tougher, nonparole guidelines.

Jean Auldridge, president of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants-Virginia, said the report "gives us hard data that shows a significant number of prisoners have served longer than the recommendations in the sentencing guidelines."

She said her group had suspected as much and had been urging such a study.

But Helen Fahey, the parole board chairwoman, assisted in the study and said the findings were not surprising.

She said judges sentence within the guidelines in 80 percent of all cases, but when judges impose sentences tougher than recommended by the guidelines, the reasons they give are similar to the concerns of the parole board when it considers releases, she said.

State Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, a lawyer, said that when an attorney reached a plea deal with prosecutors under the old parole law, everyone had an idea of how long someone actually would serve for a given sentence. Ten years might really mean three, he said.

But, he added, when parole ended for new crimes and the parole board's grant rate remained low, there was some concern some of the "old law" inmates "were serving a lot more time than anybody ever intended."

"What the study was looking at was how many people were serving more had they pled under the sentencing guidelines," said Albo, vice chairman of the Virginia State Crime Commission.

State Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax and co-chair of the Virginia State Crime Commission, said a primary reason for seeking the study is "to save every dime we can, consistent with public safety." The state's budget crisis has had officials consider, among other things, the early release of some nonviolent offenders.

Howell said yesterday that she only has skimmed the report and said it will be studied closely by lawmakers.

The study found 3,735 inmates among the state's roughly 38,000 prisoners who are serving time only for parole-eligible crimes (some are in prison under both oldand new-law sentences). The commission was able to assign sentencing-guideline scores to 3,341 of them.

However, the commission report said that not all of the relevant factors could be taken into account. "For offenders serving an unusually long period of time in prison, there may be one or more aggravating circumstances not addressed by the guidelines," the report says.

For example, of the 80 parole-eligible drug offenders serving longer terms than would be required now, three out of four already had been revoked from parole at least once, and one-third had two or more parole revocations.

Other factors that could not be considered in the study included inmate behavior behind bars, victim input, or other crimes for which there are no sentencing guidelines.

Of the 706 parole-eligible inmates held longer than recommended under current guidelines, 58 were given life sentences; seven had two or more life sentences; 10 were sentenced to at least 100 years; and 10 have not reached their earliest parole eligibility date and so cannot yet be considered for parole.

Almost 300 of the 706 had served less than five years longer than guideline-recommended sentences; 246 had served five to 10 years; 125 more than 10 years; and 12 more than 20 years.

The geriatric-release provision was enacted as part of the 1994 reforms that included the end of parole and the creation of the guidelines. An inmate convicted of a noncapital felony who is at least 60 and has served 10 years; or 65, having served five years; is eligible.

However, Fahey said, "they are almost all violent criminals -- they're predominantly murderers and sex offenders. . . . They're not in there for stealing cars or writing bad checks."
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/article/PARO03_20090902-215805/290305/

Posted by lois at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2009

NJ Professor asks: Why were books banned at state prisons?

Millburn professor asks : Why were books banned at state prisons?
by Patricia C. Kelley/Independent Press

Monday August 24, 2009, 6:25 PM

(Editor of "Inside Out: Voices from New Jersey State Prison" Kal Wagenheim wants to know where his self-published books are, and why they were taken from the book's authors.)

MILLBURN, N.J. -- Kal Wagenheim wants to know where his books are, and why they were taken from the 43 New Jersey State Prison inmates who wrote the poems and essays contained in the volume.

Wagenheim -- a semi-retired journalist, author, professor and translator -- earlier this year published "Inside Out: Voices from New Jersey State Prison," a compilation of the creative works of prison inmates at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton who were his students at a creative writing course he began teaching at the prison in 2001.

Wagenheim said he's not looking for any controversy. He just wants the books back.

Wagenheim became a prison volunteer in 2001 around the same time his wife Olga, now a retired Rutgers professor, volunteered to teach a course on Latin American and Caribbean history at the prison.

He offered to teach a creative writing course much like the one he taught at Columbia University. The inmates would write poems, short stories and essays, mail them to Wagenheim's Millburn home and he would take them back to the prison once a month where the inmates would read them aloud and critique each other's work.

All went well for about four-and-a-half years, Wagenheim said, until sometime in 2006 when all the prison volunteer programs were shut down. According to Wagenheim, prison officials put an end to the programs over concerns that cell phones were somehow being smuggled into the maximum security prison.

"There was no way you could smuggle a cell phone into that prison," Wagenheim said, adding that he was only allowed to bring in his car keys and the papers needed for the course. He also had to pass through a metal detector.

"The whole thing was shut down. I felt very sad and so did the guys," Wagenheim said.

So, in March of this year Wagenheim selected some of the writings, published them at his own expense and sent them back to the author-inmates so they could see their work in print.

"I mainly did it so these guys could get the thrill of seeing their work in print," Wagenheim said.

Following prison rules which state that books can only be mailed to inmates from the publisher and not a friend or family member, Wagenheim had his publisher mail copies of the books to the 43 inmates whose writings were included. About 35 of the original inmates were still at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton while some of the others had been transferred to South Woods and Rahway prisons, Wagenheim said.

"Now none of the inmates have the books," Wagenheim said.

According to Wagenheim, the books that were mailed to the Trenton facility were confiscated and kept in the mail room. The books that were mailed to the other two institutions were initially delivered but later the guards went into the cells and confiscated them from the inmates due to their content, he said.

Although the book makes references to illegal activities which the men committed, "There's nothing there promoting criminal behavior," Wagenheim said. Instead, most of the writings express regret at all the terrible things the men did that led to their incarceration.

Two months ago Wagenheim was contacted by two special investigators for the prison system who wanted to speak with him. The trio met at the Millburn Diner. When Wagenheim asked why the books were banned the investigators said they were there to talk to him about smuggled cell phones instead.

Investigators later contacted one of the author inmates at Rahway State Prison to ask how much profit he made from the book.

Frustrated by his futile attempts to get the books back, Wagenheim on Aug. 14 wrote a letter to George W. Hayman, Commissioner of the NJ State Corrections Department, asking for the books back and informing him that neither he nor the prisoners made any profit on the books.

According to Wagenheim, it cost him $1,671 of his own money to publish the book. He has made $270 in profit from book sales and still has a deficit of $1,410. If he ever does make a profit he said he will donate the money to non-profit organizations that support prisoner rehabilitation.

Wagenheim is still waiting for a response from the commissioner. Meanwhile he has enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union to try and retrieve the books and is considering a lawsuit.

A message left with Department of Corrections' ombudsperson Dan DiBenedetti was not immediately returned.
http://www.nj.com/independentpress/index.ssf/2009/08/millburn_professor_asks_why_we.html

A sample of the work can be found at the Real Cost of Prisons website www.realcostofprisons.org and then to the page Writing from Prison.

Inside Out: Voices from New Jersey State Prison
Poems, stories, memoirs, and commentaries by forty-three inmates. This is a 20-page sampler assembled by Kal Wagenheim, who for 5 years directed a creative writing workshop at the NJ State Prison in Trenton NJ. It is a small part of a 70,000 word book with inmates' poems, stories, essays. Some of the poems are also available online at http://www.jerseyworks.com/trentonstate.html.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/voices-trenton.doc

Inside Out: Voices from New Jersey State Prison
Poems, stories, memoirs, and commentaries by forty-three inmates. This is a 20-page sampler assembled by Kal Wagenheim, who for 5 years directed a creative writing workshop at the NJ State Prison in Trenton NJ. It is a small part of a 70,000 word book with inmates' poems, stories, essays. Some of the poems are also available online at http://www.jerseyworks.com/trentonstate.html.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/voices-trenton.doc

Posted by lois at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)

AZ: Prison Legal News, ACLU of AZ Sue CCA Over Sensorship of Books Sent to Prisoners

SOURCE: PRISON LEGAL NEWS, ACLU OF ARIZONA
Publisher Sues Corrections Corporation of America Over Censorship of Books Sent to Prisoners
September 2, 2009

Phoenix, AZ – Prison Legal News (PLN), a non-profit monthly publication that reports on criminal justice-related issues, filed suit today in U.S. District Court against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison firm. PLN contends that CCA violated its rights under the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution by censoring books sent to prisoners at the company’s Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona.

“Publishers have a well-established First Amendment right to send their publications and books to prisoners,” said PLN editor Paul Wright, “and CCA, which has been in the prison business for more than 25 years, should have been well aware of that right.”

According to PLN’s complaint, the Saguaro prison, which holds prisoners from Hawai’i and Washington state, maintains a policy that prohibits the receipt of books from PLN. PLN sells approximately 40 book titles, which include self-help books, educational books and books on criminal justice topics. In 2008 and 2009, at least six Saguaro prisoners were prohibited from receiving books from PLN or informed they could not order from PLN.

“Prison officials do not have the right to censor books and magazines simply because they dislike the publisher,” said lead counsel Sanford Jay Rosen, of the San Francisco-based law firm of Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP. “The actions of the CCA officials are not only unconstitutional, but make it more difficult for publishers and the media to gain access to prisoners and for prisoners to receive information that can assist them in making a successful transition to society after prison.”

As justification for such censorship, CCA employees stated that PLN was an “unapproved vendor” and claimed that books ordered from PLN constituted “a serious danger to the security of the facility.” Additionally, CCA failed to notify PLN that its books were being censored, in violation of PLN’s right to due process.

“The actions by CCA continue longstanding patterns of arbitrary decisions by prison administrators based on their convenience, without regard to the rights and needs of prisoners and publishers alike,” added ACLU of Arizona Legal Director Dan Pochoda, who is serving as co-counsel on this case.

The Saguaro facility reportedly has a policy that requires prisoners to order books from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com. CCA also has a policy that prohibits prisoners’ family members from purchasing books and publications on their behalf. In addition to naming CCA as a defendant in the suit, the complaint also names Daren Swenson, CCA’s regional manager in Arizona; Todd Thomas, the warden at Saguaro; and Saguaro’s assistant warden and chief of security.

The case is Prison Legal News v. Corrections Corp. of America, U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, Case No. 2:09-CV-01831-ROS. In addition to Rosen and Pochoda, PLN also is represented by Blake Thompson of Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP and PLN General Counsel Dan E. Manville in Ferndale, Michigan.

Prison Legal News (PLN), founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human rights in U.S. detention facilities. PLN publishes a monthly magazine that includes reports, reviews and analysis of court rulings and news related to prisoners' rights and criminal justice issues.

The complaint is available on-line at: www.acluaz.org and at https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/plnmap.aspx?state=Arizona

Posted by lois at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

ColorLines Review: The Real Cost of Prisons Comix: Vivid comics show the impacts of mass incarceration on communities of color

Issue #52, Sept/Oct 2009
The Real Cost of Prisons Comix
By Jenna M. Lloyd
Vivid comics show the impacts of mass incarceration on communities of color.

September 2, 2009

Locking 2.3 million people behind bars is a vast social project. It takes work to hide the equivalent of a large US city in plain sight. The explanations served up on the nightly news and by tough-on-crime politicians graphically focus on violent crime, despite its decline. More prisons, they say, will create safe and drug free communities.

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix (PM Press), winner of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s PASS Award, asks whether the billions of dollars invested annually in mass incarceration delivers on these promises.

Hidden behind these fear-provoking images, the book documents the steep human costs exacted on individual health and freedom, family unity, and community well being. What else could be done with the social wealth and creativity now trapped into cycles of cage-building and neighborhood abandonment?

Through powerful graphics and a wealth of grim statistics The Real Cost of Prisons Comix depicts how the past 30 years of unprecedented prison growth have reshaped the landscape of our urban and rural communities. By showing the concrete work that goes into building and maintaining the prison-industrial complex—from the peddlers of fear to the parole officer—the book serves as a smart, accessible primer on the politics and economics driving prison expansion. Prisons are filled with people who have dreams, raise children, and belong to communities most will rejoin.

The RCPC shows visceral narratives of their lives and the collision of racism, poverty, sexism to trace the systematic ways in which mass incarceration builds on and exacerbates these powerful inequities. Most importantly, it suggests concrete alternatives that can help rebuild safe, healthy communities.

Shrinking the system becomes as important a harm reduction strategy as needle exchange and drug treatment.

Three accomplished comic artists collaborate with long time activists and draw on the work of dozens of researchers imprisoned people, and advocates, to examine one dimension of mass incarceration. Kevin Pyle’s "Prison Town: Paying the Price" shows how millions of dollars poured into moving people hours away from their homes fails to generate promised economic growth for struggling rural communities.

In "Prisoners and the War on Drugs," Sabrina Jones takes on racial disparities in drug laws and policing practices that result in African American and Latino people comprising 93% of those incarcerated in New York, and that lock up more drug users than dealers.

Susan Willmarth’s "Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and Their Children" examines how women are the fastest growing group of people being imprisoned. Most women are imprisoned for non-violent crimes, half of them drug offenses. But lifetime bans on welfare, public housing, and student loans for felony drug convictions only exacerbate already serious problems of poverty, racism, abuse, and drugs women face in their daily lives.

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix grew out of a popular education project Lois Ahrens began in 2000. Since the first printing in 2005, over 115,000 copies have been distributed free of charge, and project’s website receives over 30,000 page views each month. One of the great things about this book as an organizing tool is that it includes letters from readers of the comic books—imprisoned people, political organizers, policy makers, teachers, social service providers—which give us a sense of how resonant these comics have been, and all of the ways they have been put to work on the ground.


The economic depression and fiscal crises facing so many states make the alternatives to mass incarceration the book outlines all the more timely. But it’s also a time when the government is pouring even more money into locking up immigrants. Doing away with prisons isn’t just an issue of pure economics, but will also require confronting the racism, economic inequalities, and sexism that work to fuel the futureless future that they represent.

Larson, a man who is imprisoned in Sing Sing, reminds us: “Anyone planning a prison they’re not going to build for ten or fifteen years is planning for a child, planning prison for somebody who’s a child right now.” What dreams are never realized when billions go to jails and prisons instead of to rebuilding our decimated cities? The Real Cost of Prisons Comix gives us a solid place to begin building the healthy, safe, and free futures we want.

Jenna M. Loyd is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. She is also co-editing a collection, Beyond Walls and Cages, that analyzes the connections between US migration policy and mass incarceration, and activist efforts to the brutalities of both systems. She can be reached at jloyd@gc.cuny.edu.
http://colorlines.com/article.php?ID=598

Posted by lois at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

SILENT TORTURE: Dog Days Turn Deadly in America’s Prisons

SILENT TORTURE: Dog Days Turn Deadly in America’s Prisons
by James Ridgeway
First published in his blog Unsilent Generation on 1 September 2009
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2009/090109Ridgeway.shtml

The U.S. government made a point of building new air-conditioned facilities for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. However, many of our equally hot southern states do not share that concern for human decency, and many deaths have and are occurring as the result.

The summer of 2009 had barely begun when Marcia Powell, a 48-year old inmate at Arizona’s Perryville Prison, was baked to death. Powell, whom court records show had a history of schizophrenia, substance abuse, and mild mental retardation, was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution. At about 11 a.m. on May 19, a day when the Arizona sun had driven the temperature to 108 degrees, she was parked outdoors in an unroofed, wire-fenced holding cell while awaiting transfer to another part of the prison. A deputy warden and two guards had been stationed in a control center 20 yards away, but nearly four hours had passed when she was found collapsed on the floor of the human cage. Doctors at a local hospital pronounced Powell comatose from heat stroke, and she died later that night after being taken off life support. Two local churches stepped in to provide a proper funeral and burial.

Arizona Department of Corrections director Charles Ryan said the guards had been suspended pending a criminal investigation, and expressed “condolences to Ms. Powell’s family and loved ones”–a strange statement, considering Ryan had made the decision to quickly pull the plug on his comatose prisoner because, he said, no next of kin could be found. In fact, as Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times has reported, Powell was judged an “incapacitated adult” and placed under public guardianship–but her guardians were not consulted before the ADC elected to let her die. Lemons also noted some unsavory chapters in Ryan’s recent career:

Ryan’s own bio on the ADC Web site touts that he was “assistant program manager for the Department of Justice overseeing the Iraqi Prison System for almost four years.” Ryan was contracted by the DOJ to help rebuild Iraqi prisons, one of those being the notorious Abu Ghraib.

Following Powell’s death, Ryan banned most uses of unshaded outdoor holding cells in Arizona, except in “extraordinary circumstances.” Most Southern states already restrict their use. But baking in the sun is only one of many ways to die in America’s prisons in the summertime. Recent years have seen scattered reports of heat-related prison deaths in California and Texas, among others. The prevalence of mental illness among the victims may be linked to anti-psychotic drugs, which raise the body temperature and cause dehydration, and at the same time have a tranquilizing effect that may mask thirst.

In 2006, 21-year-old Timothy Souders, another mentally ill prisoner, died of heat exhaustion and dehydration at a Jackson, Michigan prison during an August heat wave. For the four days prior to his death, Souders had been shackled to a cement slab in solitary confinement because he had been acting up. That entire period was captured on surveillance videotapes, which according to news reports clearly showed his mental and physical deterioration.

The vast majority of U.S. civilian prisons and jails are not air conditioned. (In contrast, the U.S. made a point of building new air-conditioned facilities for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and phasing out the older structures.) In Texas, only 19 of 112 prisons have air-conditioning. Earlier this summer, the chair of Texas State Senate’s Judiciary Committee, John Whitmire (D-Houston), told the Houston Chronicle that enduring the heat is “part of the reality of going to prison. There are a lot of inconveniences to serving time. There’s no question it’s hot.” He said he thought few Texans would be sympathetic to the prisoners’ suffering.

Apparently anticipating a similar lack of sympathy, the Florida Department of Corrections proudly advertises the absence of air-conditioning in most of its prisons. On a web page that debunks a host of “misconceptions” that might indicate soft treatment of Florida’s prisoners, it assures readers that the majority of inmates live without air-conditioning or cable television.

In a 2002 report on the risks of heat-related illness at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, compiled for the ACLU, a physician who reviewed conditions on Death Row wrote the following:

An individual free to respond to the stress created by a hot environment would normally take steps to cool his body. If no air conditioning were available, he would at least respond by seeking a cooler location, blocking out radiant heat from the sun by positioning himself in the shade or screening himself from the sun, maximizing evaporation by wetting his body and clothes with water and using fans to create cross-ventilation, and moving away from physical structures which absorb and radiate heat.

None of these natural survival responses to excessive heat are available to the Death Row prisoners. The prisoners’ cells, especially Willie Russell’s Plexiglas covered cell, are stifling hot yet prisoners have to close their windows and cover their bodies at night despite intense heat in order to protect themselves from mosquitoes and other insects. Many of the prisoners have no access to fans, either because they are too poor to buy fans or because their fans have been confiscated as punishment. They have infrequent access to cooling showers, and sometimes, even access to water is extremely limited. The prisoners are not allowed to shade their windows from direct sunlight. They have extremely limited access to the outdoor exercise-pens and in any event those pens provide no relief from the heat because they are not shaded....

It is my opinion, based on my observations during my visit to Unit 32-C, Death Row and on my training, experience, and familiarity with the extensive body of medical literature on the subject of thermoregulation, that all of the inmates on Death Row are at high risk of heat stroke and heat-related illness.

A first-hand account of enduring the summer heat at the nation’s largest maximum-security prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, was provided by Kenny “Zulu” Whitmore. Whitmore, who has served more than 30 years of a life sentence, much of it in solitary confinement, kept a journal during a 2007 August heat wave:

August: It was so hot in here last night...I looked for the open flame in the cell. During the day you expect it to be 100 degrees, but not at night. More is yet to come.

9 August: The fire inspector came on the tier today doing the same fake B/S, but he was soaking wet b/c it is so hot in here. He was RED RED in the face like he was going to pass out. He was looking at us like Lord, give me their endurance.

12 August: I could not sleep last night. It had to be at least 98 degrees in here. I passed out around 2.20 am and got up at 5.14...I have not stopped sweating since yesterday....

31 August: The last day of hell month. This had to be the hottest for August in 200 years.

More recently, in letters to a friend, Whitmore described this past summer at “the Gola”:

June 11, 2009: Heat is on in the Gola, 93 degrees. I would have replied yesterday, but man it was so hot in here and I sweated all day. So I am writing before it gets too hot. And it’s just June. It was 76 degrees that morning at 5.30 am and 94 degrees after twelve noon. It should get that hot today too....

June 27, 2009: Hot n Humid Gola 99 degrees. If you heard that it’s getting hot in Angola, you heard wrong, because it have been steaming hot in Angola for the whole month of June but I know H will be alright, even at his age he can stand the heat. Plus: he knows what to do to cool down some: put some water on the floor and lay in it or put a wet sweat shirt on to stay cool....

July 12, 2009: The sweatbox Louisiana. With temperature 98 degrees everybody is on the floor. All you need is to wet it or your clothes. It’s all about survival in this man made hell....

August 10, 2009: I ran like a wild horse in that 96 degree heat today. I sweated all my body liquids so I had to replace it by drinking water the whole of the day. Only the strong survive.

Born in 1936, James Ridgeway has been reporting on politics for more than 45 years. He is currently Senior Washington Correspondent for Mother Jones, and recently wrote a blog on the 2008 presidential election for the Guardian online. He previously served as Washington Correspondent for the Village Voice; wrote for Ramparts and The New Republic; and founded and edited two independent newsletters, Hard Times and The Elements.

Ridgeway is the author of 16 books, including The Five Unanswered Questions About 9/11, It’s All for Sale: The Control of Global Resources, and Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture. He co-directed a companion film to Blood in the Face and a second documentary film, Feed, and has co-produced web videos for Guardian Films.

Additional information and samples of James Ridgeway’s work can be found on his web site, http://jamesridgeway.net.

Posted by lois at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)

MA: Time to Pass a Law in MA Banning the Use of Shackles for Women in Labor, Delivery and Post-Partum

Published in the September 2, 2009 Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA

To the editor:

Unlike New York ("6th State will curb shackling - N.Y. set to ban use on pregnant women"), Massachusetts has no law banning the shackling of women prisoners who are in labor.

A Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) policy allows the routine use of shackles on pregnant women although during the second and third trimester women prisoners are to be handcuffed only. According to DOC policy, full restraints are to be used when returning a woman to jail or prison after birth. Waist shackles cannot be used.

Despite the DOC directive, the experience of many women in Massachusetts is that they are shackled unless a medical practitioner attending the birth directly intervenes. Routinely, women are shackled to the bed by one foot within two hours after giving birth.

For this to begin to change (H.1490) "An Act Relative to Pregnant and Postpartum Inmates" introduced by Rep. Kay Khan needs to pass. Massachusetts would then have a law explicitly stating no shackling of women traveling to or from a hospital and no shackling during delivery. Attention can then be given to the woman and the newborn's health and the burden no longer fall on the doctor or nurse midwife, who now must convince a guard that a woman in labor poses no security or flight risk.

Lois Ahrens
Real Cost of Prisons Project
Northampton
http://www.gazettenet.com/2009/09/02/time-ban-shackles-pregnant-prisoners?CSAuthResp=%3Asession%3ACSUserId|CSGroupId%3Asuccess%3A3DzZJYI058Zt7AD7D49Jgg%3D%3D&CSUserId=8254&CSGroupId=5

Posted by lois at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2009

Dee Hubbard: Organizer, Researcher, Activist Against Private Prison Movement

From Frank Smith, Organizer, Private Corrections Institute on Dee Hubbard:

It hasn't ever been publicized, but Dee and I were largely responsible for initiating and "following the money" that resulted in the successful prosecution of a dozen Alaska legislators, lobbyists and executives. She and I uncovered a great deal of incriminating evidence of corruption starting back when we began working together against Alaska for-profit proposals in 2000. I had recruited her to the issue, but it wasn't much of a chore as she was already incredibly knowledgeable about state politics and immediately devoted her boundless energy to the task.

We even were responsible, though it also never has been publicized, for stopping the "Bridge To Nowhere." Gravina Island had been proposed as the site of a Cornell prison in 2001, with the feds expected to pick up the quarter billion dollar cost of the bridge and an electrical intertie. We stopped it with a grand total of five supporters in Ketchikan and the state capitol.

While most of the work that I did on it was over by 2004, and the investigation didn't become public until three years ago this week, Dee literally spent three years tracking the labyrinthine for-profit money trail full-time as a volunteer until the first public search warrants were executed.

That work, ironically, produced the Democrats "60th vote" in the U.S. Senate, as a then-convicted Ted Stevens lost his seat a few weeks after the conclusion of his D.C. corruption trial last October. Mark Begich, an old Hubbard family friend, won by 3,953 votes.

She and I were able to help dozens of communities within and without Alaska to successfully resist the siting of private prisons. Local activists in half a dozen other states, including Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota and especially, Colorado, have cherished memories of her and the assistance she gave them.

Dee was a master at "virtual" organizing and could count upcoming legislative committee votes better than anyone I've ever met.

She and I spent hours, most weeks, on the phone, collaborating on strategy and research, and exchanged literally tens of thousands of e-mails over the past nine years.

Long before she came to join us in the prison struggles, she was well known statewide as an immensely effective education activist. She served on many boards and commissions and was our Private Corrections Institute President from its inception until her death.

Her work is a testament and legacy to her effectiveness and spirit.

She will be greatly missed.

Frank Smith
Field Organizer
Private Corrections Institute

From the Anchorage Daily News
Low-key anti-corruption campaigner is dead at 62
By RICHARD MAUER
September 1st, 2009 11:08 AM

Dee Hubbard, a behind-the-scenes campaigner who took on private prison interests in Alaska and then expanded that fight as an anti-corruption, volunteer citizen ally of the FBI, died Saturday in Anchorage. She was 62.

While Hubbard is hardly a household name, she was well known to the legislators, FBI agents and reporters who were trying to unravel the complicated syndicate that moved from one Alaska community to another, seeking a willing locale and beneficial financing to build a private prison.

Two members of that group, Bill Allen and Bill Weimar, would eventually plead guilty to corruption charges. Though the federal corruption investigation in Alaska is famous as a probe of bribery associated with oil taxes, it started life in 2003 or 2004 as "Operation Polar Pen" -- a private prison investigation.

"Dee Hubbard played a very low-key role in educating the federal folks into what was going on behind the scenes in the state of Alaska, good and bad," said State Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage. "She played a part in helping to clean up the state."

Her husband, Charlie Hubbard, said she died early Saturday morning.

Dee Hubbard was diagnosed with liver and kidney failure in March and spent much of the summer going to dialysis sessions as her health declined precipitously.

Hubbard, an only child, grew up in Spokane. Her dad, George Derr, was a first lieutenant in the elite Alamo Scouts, an Army special forces unit that operated behind Japanese lines during the World War II campaign in the Pacific. In his civilian life, Derr chose teaching over a professional football career, but he taught the game -- and toughness -- to his daughter. As a young high school teacher in Spokane, Hubbard was also the football coach, her husband said.

Hubbard had a master's degree in political science and got involved in insider politics in Olympia, going to work for the Washington legislature there. Someone suggested she do the same in Juneau, and she moved to Alaska in 1977 and was hired by the state Senate. From there, she got a job administering grants at the now-defunct state Department of Community and Regional Affairs.

Charlie Hubbard, an Alaska Native, got a job as administrator for the village of Cantwell. When he started, a $40,000 state grant had been pending for five years and it was his job to figure out why it was never paid. As a new employee at C&RA, Dee Derr was handed the problem grants, including Cantwell's.

"That's how I met Dee," Charlie said.

When he realized the relationship was probably going to be more than just a grantor-grantee one, Charlie said he asked to be removed as local administrator of the grant to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. He said Dee's boss was surprised by the extraordinary request.

They two were married in 1979 and have two sons, Frank and David.

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich said he got to know Dee and Charlie in 1988 when he served on the Anchorage Assembly and they were living in the Muldoon area and trying to save the neighborhood library.

"It didn't matter if it was setting up a card table to get signatures to save it, or just being a voice out there for northeast Anchorage," Begich said in a telephone interview. "She was a pretty strong-willed person. When she thought something was unjust, she was not going to sit around and wait for someone to do something -- she felt she was the someone."

In 2002, when Charlie retired as a pump station worker on the trans-Alaska pipeline, the couple moved to Sterling. It was there that Dee Hubbard first heard about plans to build a private prison -- from her husband, Charlie.

"There goes our state again," Charlie remembers telling her.

"What are you talking about?" she said.

"They're going to build a private prison, guarantee this prison that it'll have a contract for years, and after so many years, they're going to give the prison to them. I need to go Juneau," Charlie said.

"Why do you need to go to Juneau?"

"Because I want to build a store, and I want the state to guarantee me a contract that they'll buy from me for so many years, I'll run the store, and then the state can just give me the store."

"Let me look into this," Dee said.

She and her husband began following the money, from halfway house contracts that Weimar held with the state Corrections Department to political contributions by Allen, whose company, Veco, would have built the prison.

That's also when Dee met Frank Smith, who once ran prison counseling programs under contract with the state but who by then was fighting the private prison effort. He had already helped stop the consortium in South Anchorage and Delta Junction, and with Dee, they followed the developers around, from Kenai to Whittier and elsewhere.

"The two of us worked closely together on prison after prison after prison," he said. "It was like we were in the same office together, even though we were miles away and we weren't working for an organization."

"We stopped them everywhere," he said.

Starting in 2003, Hubbard began working with the FBI agent who was leading the early stages of the investigation into corruption in the Alaska Legislature, Mary Beth Kepner.

"They would talk on the phone, Mary Beth and Dee," Charlie said. "Dee started sharing this information -- what politicians are connected to who." She took an oath administered by the FBI that she wouldn't improperly disclose investigative details, which was fine with her, Charlie said.

"She was never a witness and didn't want to be," he said. "Alaska's too small." She was afraid her sons would be blackballed in the early stages of their careers, he said.

Kepner declined to comment.

Begich had an idea she played an important role in the corruption investigation, but she always held her cards close.

"She never told the full story, but she would tell you enough to make you aware that she was working on something that sooner or later you'd read in the paper," he said.

A visitation for Dee Hubbard is scheduled Thursday at 3 p.m. and a memorial service at 4 p.m. at Witzleben Funeral Home, 1707 Bragaw St. Burial will be Saturday in Cantwell.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/918555.html

Posted by lois at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

Op-Ed: Bob Herbert- "Innocent But Dead"

Op-Ed Columnist
Innocent but Dead
By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 31, 2009

There is a long and remarkable article in the current New Yorker about a man who was executed in Texas in 2004 for deliberately setting a fire that killed his three small children. Rigorous scientific analysis has since shown that there was no evidence that the fire in a one-story, wood frame house in Corsicana was the result of arson, as the authorities had alleged.

In other words, it was an accident. No crime had occurred.

Cameron Todd Willingham, who refused to accept a guilty plea that would have spared his life, and who insisted until his last painful breath that he was innocent, had in fact been telling the truth all along.

It was inevitable that some case in which a clearly innocent person had been put to death would come to light. It was far from inevitable that this case would be the one. “I was extremely skeptical in the beginning,” said the New Yorker reporter, David Grann, who began investigating the case last December.

The fire broke out on the morning of Dec. 23, 1991. Willingham was awakened by the cries of his 2-year-old daughter, Amber. Also in the house were his year-old twin girls, Karmon and Kameron. The family was poor, and Willingham’s wife, Stacy, had gone out to pick up a Christmas present for the children from the Salvation Army.

Willingham said he tried to rescue the kids but was driven back by smoke and flames. At one point his hair caught fire. As the heat intensified, the windows of the children’s room exploded and flames leapt out. Willingham, who was 23 at the time, had to be restrained and eventually handcuffed as he tried again to get into the room.

There was no reason to believe at first that the fire was anything other than a horrible accident. But fire investigators, moving slowly through the ruined house, began seeing things (not unlike someone viewing a Rorschach pattern) that they interpreted as evidence of arson.

They noticed deep charring at the base of some of the walls and patterns of soot that made them suspicious. They noticed what they felt were ominous fracture patterns in pieces of broken window glass. They had no motive, but they were convinced the fire had been set. And if it had been set, who else but Willingham would have set it?

With no real motive in sight, the local district attorney, Pat Batchelor, was quoted as saying, “The children were interfering with his beer drinking and dart throwing.”

Willingham was arrested and charged with capital murder.

When official suspicion fell on Willingham, eyewitness testimony began to change. Whereas initially he was described by neighbors as screaming and hysterical — “My babies are burning up!” — and desperate to have the children saved, he now was described as behaving oddly, and not having made enough of an effort to get to the girls.

And you could almost have guaranteed that a jailhouse snitch would emerge. They almost always do. This time his name was Johnny Webb, a jumpy individual with a lengthy arrest record who would later admit to being “mentally impaired” and on medication, and who had started taking illegal drugs at the age of 9.

The jury took barely an hour to return a guilty verdict, and Willingham was sentenced to death.

He remained on death row for 12 years, but it was only in the weeks leading up to his execution that convincing scientific evidence of his innocence began to emerge. A renowned scientist and arson investigator, Gerald Hurst, educated at Cambridge and widely recognized as a brilliant chemist, reviewed the evidence in the Willingham case and began systematically knocking down every indication of arson.

The authorities were unmoved. Willingham was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 17, 2004.

Now comes a report on the case from another noted scientist, Craig Beyler, who was hired by a special commission, established by the state of Texas to investigate errors and misconduct in the handling of forensic evidence.

The report is devastating, the kind of disclosure that should send a tremor through one’s conscience. There was absolutely no scientific basis for determining that the fire was arson, said Beyler. No basis at all. He added that the state fire marshal who investigated the case and testified against Willingham “seems to be wholly without any realistic understanding of fires.” He said the marshal’s approach seemed to lack “rational reasoning” and he likened it to the practices “of mystics or psychics.”

Grann told me on Monday that when he recently informed the jailhouse snitch, Johnny Webb, that new scientific evidence would show that the fire wasn’t arson and that an innocent man had been killed, Webb seemed taken aback. “Nothing can save me now,” he said.
A version of this article appeared in print on September 1, 2009, on page A29 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/opinion/01herbert.html?_r=1&em

Posted by lois at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)